Killdozer – "For Ladies Only" (Touch And Go – T&GLP#39) 1989

As one has already outed "For Ladies Only" by Killdozer......the American Killdozer,and not the not bad actually French Killdozer;....as the greatest covers album of all time earlier in this thread. I thought that maybe I should post it for the less enlightened among us? Yes?

Michael Gerald, or "Mr Romance" for this project, and the Hobson Brothers "Bill" and "The Thinker" respectively,show us how to do a proper cover version. Just the correct amount of irreverence ,with a sprinkling of Irony,played as straight as their own mini-symphonies is a potent recipe for cover version heaven. Killdozer are no strangers to cover versions as most of their fantastic albums regularly had a left field track to cover by such horrible artists as Neil Diamond, Neil Young ,Creedence Clearwater re-drivel,and EMF....unbelieveable!.....I did,however, have a great night out at a Leicester Polytchnic gig by EMF back in 1992,the floor was so drenched in sweat and other slimy substances that i could do a great moonwalk for the kids. (The Killdozer gig was a more reverential experience down the M1 in Northampton a couple of years earlier...with Head Of David...GR8)

Killdozer are,of course, subtly  taking the piss out of these artists, but at the same time they may also be quietly playing tribute to some guilty pleasures going on here.Sophisticated chaps that they certainly are.

If there's one track that desperately needed the Killdozer treatment, it would have to be the terminally awful "American Pie" by the one hit wonder of one hit wonders Don McLean; who to this day still lives off the back of this cheesy monster....a special kind of  Baroque Country, only equaled by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra,and Glen Campbell in his Jimmy Webb years.

Other terrible acts that get the treatment are Bad Company,and the bloody awful Steve Miller Band!?

A point of disinterest is that the producers of both 'hit' Nirvana albums had something to do with this project. Butch Vig(Never Mind) produced it, and Steve Albini (In Utero) wrote the sleeve notes.

Killdozer had a lucky escape by the looks of it. The Grunge explosion was just around the corner,and all those bands existed shoulder to shoulder at the same time as Killdozer.They all got famous while Killdozer drifted into obscurity,and Michael Gerald became a big shot Lawyer....I guessed he was a clever sod....perhaps too clever? 

NB-there's a lot of thoroughly entertaining links on this one.

PS-one more link,I don't ask for much so sign this please(more info here),she ain't no serial killer,and she's been fitted up,done like a kipper, and thrown under the Bus: CLICK HERE and sign

Tracklisting:

1.Hush (Deep Purple/Billy Joe Royal)
2.Good Lovin' Gone Bad (Bad Company)
3.Burnin' Love (Arthur Alexander)
4.You've Never Been This Far Before (Conway Twitty)

5.One Tin Soldier - The Legend Of Billy Jack (The Original Caste)?
6.Take The Money And Run (Steve Miller Band)
7.American Pie (Don MacLean)
8.Funk #49 (James Gang)

9.Mr Soul (Buffalo Springfield)

DOWNLOAD for your old lady HERE!

The Driscolls – "Complete Recordings 1988-1991" (Jigsaw – PZL056) 2014

 Also on Tea-Time Records were The Driscolls, whose complete recordings have been so kindly reissued by an American Label, doing that American thing of looking after the UK's culture even if we don't do it ourselves.They owe us big-time anyway as The UK saved Rock'n'Roll for them to enjoy in perpetuity,just as they are saving some of the United Kingdom's Indie heritage....a decidedly untrendy concept in the modern British Isles.

If The Driscolls were transported back in time to The Cavern Club, and The Beatles didn't exist, rather like in that next in a long line of truly terrible Danny Boyle films called "Yesterday", we would know all the words to Driscolls songs nowadays,instead of "Love Me Do". Although they ain't as cute as the Fab Four,so maybe the girlies wouldn't have wet their pants so much when confronted with the wimpy looking Driscolls.....but The Beatles did exist, and The Driscolls are nothing more that a skid mark in history.

The Fab Three....enough to turn a young lady ON...to lesbianism.

What is laid bare the most when listening to these Indie Pop sub-classics, is the glaringly obvious worshiping at the alter of 60's UK Freakbeat and Psych,with a splash of the U.S. Paisley Underground.

Like the Postcard records lot all walked around in public carrying a Dostoevsky Novel for effect, this lot plainly had a trove of Bam- Caruso compilations under their arms at all times in the hostelry's of Bristol and the west country where all these groups seemed to emerge from.

This influence is far from hidden,in fact its flaunted,as their self-financed debut 7" testifies, a cover of The Fire's Psych Pop classic "My Father's Name Was Dad" from '68 rather than '88.....is included here as a vinyl rip.The master tapes long gone.

To cap it all there's a clear Status Quo matchstickable lead guitar riff going on here,alongside a valiant attempt at Beatlesque harmonies.....or maybe it was those bizarre harmonies that The Clash used to insert into their early tunes in between Strummer growling on about Riots and Cheating to win.Silly stuff,but quaint in its own way.

One has to say the dirty clean but chunky yet jangley Guitar sounds on these recordings are rather lovely...that Rickenbacker on the cover may explain this? Although I've yet to receive an explanation as to how groups like this managed to afford a Rickenbacker, or a Fender for that matter? Have you seen how much they are recently....for the disenfranchised kid on the dole they are not!?

PS:

Anyone interested in a movie i'm writing where Gary Numan didn't exist, and i get to come up with "Are Friends Electric"?....that drummer's haircut would have to go though.

Tracklisting:

Disc One:
1-01 Father's Name Is Dad 2:19
1-02 Girl I Want You Back 2:07
1-03 Groovy Little Town 2:15
1-04 Andrew 2:56
1-05 Julie Christie 2:18
1-06 I Heard A Rumour 2:43
1-07 Doctor Good And His Incredible Life Saving Soap 2:28
1-08 If Only 1:54
1-09 Mrs. Jones 2:17
1-10 You Must Be Mad 1:57
1-11 Something To Learn 2:01
1-12 Groovy Little Town (acoustically revisited) 2:18
1-13 This Is A Different Song 2:45
1-14 Bang Goes Another Cloud 1:22
1-15 Out Of My Head 2:58
1-16 How Does It Feel? 4:47
1-17 Superman 3:50
1-18 Sky High 3:53
1-19 The Return Of Lord Kitchener 2:11
1-20 Coloured Windows 3:54
1-21 Brittle Beautiful 3:27
1-22 Green Tambourine 4:01
1-23 Another Day (Little Pill) 4:41

Disc Two:
2-01 P.C. Roberts 1:58
2-02 Call Me Anything 2:13
2-03 Time For Change 2:30
2-04 It's Your Daughter 2:26
2-05 Circles 3:03
2-06 Here It Comes Again 2:53
2-07 These Things 2:59
2-08 Shame About The Rain 3:22
2-09 She Said She Said 3:27
2-10 Coloured Windows (alternate version) 3:51
2-11 X-Ray Eyes (live) 3:40
2-12 radio interview 4:05

DOWNLOAD a group of driscolls with not one driscoll in the line up HERE!

Mousefolk – "Mousefolk" (Tea Time Records – tea time tape 1) 1989

The mouse seems to be the rodent of choice for many an indie Lo-Fi twee shoegaze group.Firstly we had The Field Mice,but this time it's the turn of "Mousefolk" ,a Bristolian quintet on the obscure Shoegaze orientated label,the very quaint Tea Time Records(hear a radio interview here!);also from Bristol I wager?

A compilation of older recordings,released on Cassette in 1989.

They seem to have nurtured the analogue fuzz very nicely,drowning out the vocals adequately enough to invoke images of these pale young boys surfing on waves of cotton wool with the pre-axelrod Electric Prunes in the fog of the Bristol channel.

This is how music sounds when you're off yer titz on Scrumpy.

Scrumpadelic?

Tracklist:

A1 Sleepwalk
A2 Just Can't Stay
A3 Cut Me Down To Size
A4 Fire Engine
A5 Greatest Thing
A6 Acid-Trip-Out!
A7 Will Anyone Ever Remember You?
A8 Fly (live - 19/11/87)
A9 Don't Let Me Slip Away
A10 Spinning Round
B1 Pictures Of You (live - 28/2/88)
B2 Autumn (live - 28/2/88)
B3 Grannies Cake Crisis
B4 I Don't Love You
B5 Tonight
B6 End Of The World
B7 Wishing The Summer Away
B8 Motorcycle Boy
B9 Joyce McKinney's Boyfriend

DOWNLOAD in time for tea HERE!

The Field Mice – "Snowball 10" + Singles" (Sarah Records – SARAH 402) 1989

The original Snowflakes and Twee giants The Field Mice,could have been The Stone Roses if they came from some northern ghetto and walked like a bunch of monkey's.

Of course The Stone Roses were obviously Twee shoegazing wannabe's on drugs,rather than sensitive young men and ladie(s) from the stockbroker belt running light on mental issues.

You all know I like a nice mauve ten incher in my hand every now and again,and this one is a classic of the Twee genre,with the occasional rocker tucked in there for good measure.

Even better than this mini-album would have to be the 5 or so singles that came out around the same time,including the rather groovy "Sensitive",which i guess is their signature tune Stone Roses album ender on 45.

Blissfully oblivious of the Madchester nonsense that would eventually kill The Field Mice and shoegaze off,of which,there was a lot about in '89 ,unfortunately;these nice young snowflakes, stuck stubbornly to their post C-86 indie pop and made a bucket full of sweet tunes for us,from a much better time to be alive.....No Internet full of nutjobs,True Patriots,Critical Race Theorists, or impending Facist takeovers or failed coup's back then. Maybe send a copy of this to mark the first anniversary of the Ukraine WAR,(packed with explosives?), to Mad Vlad....he really does need to relax a bit and calm the fuck down!? I'm really worried about the Cunts mental health....Honest.

"Snowball 10"er):

1.Let's Kiss And Make Up 6:12

2.You're Kidding Aren't You? 2:30

3.End Of The Affair 4:14

4.Couldn't Feel Safer 3:47

5.This Love Is Not Wrong 3:21

6.Everything About You 2:30

7.White 4:48

8.Letting Go 6:33

Singles:

9.Sensitive 5:04

10.When Morning Comes To Town 5:14

11.Emma's House 3:37

12.When You Sleep 3:32

13.Fabulous Friend 2:53

14..The Last Letter 2:46

15.I Can See Myself Alone Forever 5:20

16.Everything About You 2:21

17.That's All This Is 3:16

DOWNLOAD and bring the mice inside for the winter HERE!

Po! – "Bedroom Tapes vol.1" - (self-released) 1989

Ruth, last seen as the 'Ruth' from Ruth's Refrigerator , otherwise known as Ruth Miller of Indie Twee Pop Leicester legends PO! Had her own label called Rutland Records. Named after the disputed part of Leicestershire that regained its independence sometime in the naughties I think , and better known as the fictional home of The Rutles,but absolutely NOT The Ruts. 

One never ,wittingly saw PO!...the more mischievous amongst us would misspell it as POO!... live,who seemed to be in the Leicester Mercury  entertainment section every friday night during 1989 and beyond. Oh No,I thought, not more of that bloody student indie-pop nonsense. Not brutal or aggressive enough for me at the time...of course. I now know better don't I?

There are lots of PO! albums on Bandcamp, but this is a bunch of demo's recorded in Ruth's Bedroom I guess?There are three more volumes i am assured.

Its a kind of poundshop Tracy Thorn's "A Distant Shore";she being the Godmother's second cousin twice removed's best friends sister of "Twee".

Ruth is sufficiently Twee enough on these intimate recordings to qualify as The Indie Oberleutnant for a good part of the East Midlands.

PO! weren't eccentric enough to adequately fill the void left by the demise of Yeah Yeah Noh! in the local scene,but Ruth was indeed a prolific writer of charming pop tunes,of which we have a few examples on this cassette.

Ruth in fact turned up in the Guardian last week,promoting her Older Womens Punk Collective called the Unglamorous Music project. I suppose another Ruth's Refrigerator LP is out of the question? 

Tracklist:

1 Danny's Girl
2 Fay
3 These Days
4 The Ice Cream Dream (Tina)
5 She Lies In State
6 Every Night
7 Look For The Holes
8 Sunday Never Comes Around

DOWNLOAD like shit off a sheet HERE!

The Deep Freeze Mice – "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia" (Cordelia Records – ERICAT 027) 1989

I wrote this unintelligible blurb whilst unintentionally listening to
The Chrysanthemums' – "Is That A Fish On Your Shoulder Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?" LP from 1987;which i had earmarked for this slot,and confusing myself somewhat in the process that I was listening to a Deep Freeze Mice album, namely the one entitled above.

An easy mistake to make,as both bands shared certain members.

So,as I can't be fucking bothered to write it again, I will review The Chrysanthemums as I listen to "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia",following this utter bollox-up!

So keeping faith with the Bryon Gysin cut-up technique, and in the grand traditions of experimental literature,It remains as so,which keeps in fitting with the surrealism of yer average Deep Freeze Mice tchoon? Yes?

I know this maybe an insult, but there are times when The Deep Freeze Mice (The Chrysanthemums in fact!?) sound like The Soft Boys?

Apart from The Soft Boys being a better band name,of course  this is generally piffle Sidney ...oh no,they've got me at it now, all this surreal random sentence construction; for the sake of this blog...I like to think of it as YoOuR Blog, or in this epoch of gender re-assignment and pro nouns, maybe even Their blog?

I dunno how we got to posting more gentle mad-cap DFM madness,I was trying to indulge y'all in my new fascination with shoe gazing Twee-Pop,and its dreamy derivatives.

Well a couple of DFM members were in Ruth's Refrigerator,not literally IN her fridge,the band; which was quite Twee in places,but they're a Leicester band,and i don't need any excuses for a shaht aht for the old home town. I once wanted my mortal remains scattered onto the playing surface at Filbert street, but, like a lot of other iconic buildings ,pubs and places, It ain't there no more!!!The King Power ain't the same.....for a start its exactly the same design,\and just as soulless, as Southampton's St Mary's stadium, that replaced the very much missed,but eccentric 'Dell'.Bizarrely, that was my last match at Filbo (Filbert Street),at home to going places Southampton.....we lost 4-0,and i left early to a chorus of abuse from the home section expectorated in my general direction,when one irate young man shouted "Fuck Off Then, see you again when we're top of the fucking league.....Cunt!"

I was used to this kind of targeted heckling ,when i had the misfortune,or fortune, to pass my exam and get allocated a place in a Grammar school in those good old days of streaming and shameless elitism.Me being resident in the circle of scum that invariably forms around most cities,the ones left behind didn't take kindly to being labelled 2nd class,but didn't want anyone to leave ,or have any chance to"better themselves"...so i was frequently threatened with violence,and sometimes they even delivered on the threats, and referred to 'moi'as "That Fucking Posh Cunt"......to use a comedy catchphrase from the cult "Friday Night Dinner" comedy series..."SHIT ON IT". Hence the bitter prick I am today.

But....the Deep Freeze Mice is definitely the collective work of several persons who obviously passed their 11+ exams,and maybe a couple who didn't need to (Thinly veiled Trustafarian reference there), and boy do they want us to know it?

Yeah that singer does sound like Robyn Hitchcock don't he?...Only better,with better lyrics,better song titles and no future Eurovision song contest winners in their ranks.

Tracklist:

1 A (Dog Found A Stick In A Park With Such Magical Powers That A Bark Caused A Marvelous Pie To Drop Out Of The Sky And The Doggy Would Grin Like A Shark) 3:25
2 Ariadne Metal Cream Pie 3:43
3 The Postman's Dry 2:09
4 The Cake Of Conversation 3:26
5 Programme Controller Flowers 1:52
6 I Don't Have A Horse 2:53
7 Poodle Haddock: Part One 0:31
8 Poodle Haddock: Part Two 1:59
9 Conversation Gap Panic 2:32
10 Buzzing Unobtrusively 2:12
11 The Amphibious Nun 0:51
12 Love You More 1:54
13 Janis 3:10
14 Into The Valley Of Death Rode The Six Hundred Shouting "Dig It" 1:12
15 Don't Eat Aluminium 7:14
16 To Hell With It, Let Her Keep The Chicken (The Postman's Dryer) 2:09

Extra Tracks:

17 The Delicious Little Green Roosters Of Insomnia 29:00
18 Into The Valley Of Death (Demo Version) 1:09
19 The Grindy Track 6:30

DOWNLOAD mice and Chrysanthemums from the deep freeze HERE!

Silverfish – "T.F.A. E.P." (Wiiija Records – WIJ5) 1989

I thought this lot were american,but they weren't as well drilled.....geddit?...as american Noise Rock groups were,so I smelled a rat. They looked as if they met in a Pub,which is a dead give away,sure they're British,and that american twang in the lead screechers voice is because she's Scottish.....which gave me a reason to post this rather good EP,as I seem to be posting noisy groups from beyond Hadrian's Wall during the Grunge sickness of 1991 this week.

All band members have Dole Snooper avoiding names,like back in the halcyon days of Punk Rock, and that shouty female singer is listed as L.F.Rankine,Lesley to her new (in 1989) English friends.

While waiting for the next in a lengthening line of losing referendums which Scots Nationalists live in hope that one of them will eventually deliver the result that they dream of (be careful or it may just come true!). The Scottish are never slow in slagging off the English,and watching Braveheart over and over again(not bad for a film about a loser,a Scots tradition still adhered to faithfully today);but they can't seem to wait to escape to England at the first opportunity,and Lesley did just this,and ended up in one of the few bands in Britain not to have a funky drummer beat and an extraneous dancin' fool at the side of the stage in 1989.

Yep, you guessed it....Madchester was happening,or Shitchester as I prefer to call it.

Tracklist:

1.Total Fucking Asshole
2.Die
3.Driller

4.One Silver Dollar

DOWNLOAD it HERE! you total fucking arsehole!

Dog Faced Hermans – "Everyday Timebomb" ( Vinyl Drip International – SUK 007) 1989

Sorry to mention John Robb again, but here's another Ron Johnson band wot got away,yet ended up with a release on Vinyl Drip late in the day;but at least Rob Johnson can put another of his products in one of his books,and make sure The Membranes are mentioned as the Trad Rock Traditionalist they wanted to be.

Being guilty of crimes against post-punk fashion,as in his 40 year long erect collars digression,it was a match made in Indie-rock Hell that Johnny,to his credit, could see past the frankly horrible Anarcho-Punk chic of the Dog Faced Hermans.They were, Scottish, after all.

Musically, The Hermans slotted in reasonably well with the pre-madchester Indie scene epitomised by Ron Johnson Records,which was fine ,as long as you did't see 'em. The liberal use of brass instruments give's one unpleasant images of previous and future scotch proto and post-indie evil,such as Pale Fountains and,OUCH!, Belle and Sebastian,that suggests music lessons as a child.....another Anarcho-Punk symptom displayed by the discerning Trustafarian in his angry years.

There's also an egregious,and downright unpleasant suggestion of an inclination towards some ginger dreadlocked Anarcho-Folk,weaponized in the 90's by the Levellers......thumb harps, junkyard percussion, didgeridoos, horrible,horrible,horrible.

Apart from all that...it's not bad.

Tracklist:

A1 New Shoots
A2 Scottish Block
A3 Binding System
A4 John Henry
B1 Beautiful
B2 Frock
B3 Live Action

DOWNLOAD why you should never give your child trumpet lessons HERE!

Death By Milkfloat – "Uninformation" (Vinyl Drip International – SUK006) 1989

 

I'm knackered today, so i'm gonna have to stoop to that much over-used,and low, tactic of mild personal abuse because I just want to be liked really. Like John Robb of Ron Johnson wanna be's,or even Rob Johnson's, The Membranes,and the erect collared individual behind Vinyl Drip Records. Now, John likes, everything basically.You name it, he'll put a positive spin on it,very much like how everyone, including John, now love ABBA and ,of course, they are...Genius's(not). I made the mistake of clicking the 'like' button on Facebook,for his sycophantic music e-publication, 'Louder Than War' I think its called,or was that a Smiths odds and sods compilation for the Morrissey completist . Regularly i would receive articles about how fucking fantastic U2 are really, and how respect is due to a legion of geniuses who we all used to know were the enemy. Yeah, everything's great.....er...no it isn't. He did defend himself once by protesting to me that he was a 'Music Fan'...we all have our guilty secrets I suppose? ...yeah I like Flock Of Seagulls and Thin Lizzy, and one bets John Does too,itching to hit us with the 'Genius' bomb.The difference is that I know that Flock Of Seagulls are certainly NOT genius's...or was that obvious.

Then there are the endless brown-nosed celebrity interviews on YouTube that block up the pop u-bend,The John Robb interview,and the endless appearances on the Lorraine Show on morning TV when ever a pop star dies.....yeah,Ok....i'm jealous.....I've always wanted to meet Lorraine Kelly.

Gone are the days when the crowd at The Vortex club cheered when Danny Baker announced the Death of Elvis.

Normally I would suggest that one should not trust any male who wears his shirt collars upright,like Eric Cantona,although Eric did Kung-Fu kick a Crystal Palace supporter once,maybe aided in flight by those turned up Collars?...but generally it's not a good look,especially for a 60 year old.

The Membranes were/are pretty rubbish,never quite achieving cult status,despite busting a bloodvessel to be like their non-Trad Rock peers,such as Bogshed.....who also appears on Vinyl Drip,when they should have been on Ron Johnson,like Milkfloat should have been too.

One last gripe before i down my my Red Bull has to be thee most ill-advised pattern of Record Label  behavior,or even career self-destruction on record has to be Changing your band name mid race.Whosoever suggested that Death By Milkfloat should contract their moniker to just the incomprehensible two syllables of Milkfloat should be forced to read everything that John Robb has ever written about pop'n'roll,.... without remission.
Tracklist:

A1 Take Advice
A2 50 Second Sculpture
A3 Vagrancy
B1 Breakbone
B2 Too Much Feel

DOWNLOAD to be uniformed HERE!

Steve Reich - Kronos Quartet / Pat Metheny ‎– "Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint" (Elektra Nonesuch ‎– 9 79176-2) 1989

I notice that these minimalist posts have caused controversy and stimulated conversations,then lets see if we can up the ante as This is my Third (steve)Reich post........just one badly constructed sentence in and i've done it...a Nazi reference!...And why not? The main theme of 'Different Trains' is Shoah related,comparing the role of the railways in the holocaust to their more positive peacetime job.
One of the most insideous roles of the railway in modern times would be taking one to a Pat Methany concert. Such a pospect would have me munching down  Zyklon B by the tin and filling my lungs with the sweet relief of cyanide fumes. I've never really listened to the Methany side of this album,but side one is one of Reich's greatest hits. Recreating the relentless journey to the death factory, as played by the Kronos Quartet, interspersed with dialogue samples from Holocaust Survivors. Not that there were many Survivors from Treblinka for example....67 out of approx 900,000......as we are told.The actual figures have been in a state of flux ever since the liberation of Auchwitz, in order to get that magical six Million number as prophesized in Jewish folklore which would precipitate the creation of the Jewish homeland. Auchwitz was rounded down by a couple of million,Majdanek's victims were altered from one million to 78,000 today. Many unanswered questions remain about Treblinka. How did they asphyxiate so many people with just one captured Soviet tank diesel engine.Its notoriously hard to gas even one person with Diesel fumes(which contains quite a lot of deadly...Oxygen!?) nevermind upwards of 3/4 of a million people......no Zyklon B,not even for delousing, at Treblinka.
Oh Christ!Before i'm labelled a poundshop David Irving,No i'm not denying that the so-called Holocaust happened (bla-bla blah!).There's plenty of evidence that it most certainly did. Its just the massaging of the figures and facts of the 'Extermination' camps that one has issues with.Most of it was for post-war anti-nazification reasons,and some was to build pressure for the creation of Israel.....History needs to be revised.....Bla-Bla-Blahhhh!...i'll shut up now.I'm starting to bore myself even more than if I was at a Pat Methany concert at the edge of Hell.Holocaust fatique is also a real problem.
I dunno why the Nazi's bothered with poison gas at all.All they had to do was play Methany's back catalogue and all the camp inmates would have thrown themselves alive into the cremation pits to escape the suffering.
Well you gotta write about something haven't you?
Apart from the sheer joy of liberal baiting,I haven't been called a Nazi for a long time now, so its about time the anti-anti semite mob turned their attention away from Jeremy Corbyn and organised a boycott of this blog. I have also yet to see any evidence of any Anti-Semitism in The UK Labour Party either.There's plenty of anti-semitism in the Israeli government, as Palestinians,you know the ones on the other side of that massive wall,the ones whose kids get bombed, are actually 'semites' too, believe it or not!? And their lives are the exact same value as that of their semetic cousins on the other side of the wall.Wait and see if Steve does a composition about that human tragedy in the near future....i think not.No-one gives a shit, because they're arabs,and you won't get the funding.

And to think this is the redacted version?I removed the part about how hard it is to burn a corpse.....i could write a minimalist opera about that one.

Tracklist:

Different Trains
1 –Kronos Quartet America – Before The War 8:59
2 –Kronos Quartet Europe – During The War 7:31
3 –Kronos Quartet After The War 10:20
Electric Counterpoint
4 –Pat Metheny Fast 6:51
5 –Pat Metheny Slow 3:21
6 –Pat Metheny Fast 4:29

DOWNLOAD from the midnight train to treblinka HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Ende Vom Lied: East German Underground Sound 1979 - 1990" (Play Loud! Productions ‎– pl-67) 2016

What can I say except that i like a nice pair of knockers on my record covers,especially painted ones.

So all i'm motivated to do is cut'n'paste the liner notes,and come to the conclusion that the DDR produced ,by far, the best and most adventurous music in the whole soviet bloc.So as the title suggests,this can mark the end of our fabulous tour of the communist bloc.....not necessarily never to return.There's reems of DDR Punk,but,between you and me...its largely awful 1983 generic rubbish.You can't win 'em all!?

....and i quote:....

"ENDE VOM LIED" is a genre-spanning collection of punk, post-punk and avant-garde bands from the former East Germany, chronicling the work of free spirits pitted against government restraints and implied genre limitations. The underground scene in the GDR was a hydra, a noisy mix of musicians, poets, pain¬ters, photographers, filmmakers, punks and freaks. In the immediate aftermath of the primal scream that was punk, music often bred with poetry or painting in short-lived liaisons or enduring collaborations to produce a new generation of genre bastards. With the lines blurring between forms, a search for new shapes began. In the German Democratic Republic, this search constituted a tightrope walk, a dance for expression between subculture and a dictatorship.

*In German, ENDE VOM LIED literally translates to “The end of the song”, but is more commonly understood as a saying roughly meaning “The upshot”, “The end of the story” or simply “The end”.

TRACKLIST:

01 Ornament & Verbrechen : When I am I am not (1988)
02 Grabnoct : Töten und Fressen (1987)
03 L‘Attentat : linke Ecke, rechte Ecke (1984)
04 Der Schwarze Kanal : spiel mit (1979)
05 3tot : Hintere Gedanken (1989)
06 Der Demokratische Konsum : Sturm im Gepäck (1985)
07 T42 : Dreamer (1985)
08 Happy Straps : Live in Paradise (1985)
09 Planlos : Smog und Ruß (1981)
10 Sendeschluß : Deine Liebe (1982)
11 Zwitschermaschine : geh übern fluß (1983)
12 Aufruhr zur Liebe : mit’m bock auf nichts (1984)
13 Andreas Auslauf : Zivilisation (1985)
14 Rosa Extra : was mir deine schleuder ist dir meine waschmaschine (1982)
15 AG Geige : Fingerwalze (1989)
16 The Local Moon : Kingdom comes (1987)
17 fett : rifflied (1988)
18 Herbst in Peking : Parade (1989)
19 Magdalene Keibel Combo : Stahl Daab (1988)
20 Ornament & Verbrechen : keilter schwaß (1989)
21 BAADER : ceaucescu meiner seele! (1988)
22 Klick & Aus : Systeme rasten ein, ich raste aus! (1984)
23 Der Expander des Fortschritts : Fremdgehen durchs Land (1990)
24 Pffft... : Prenzelking (1985)

DOWNLOAD ende vom lied HERE!

Perestroika Combo ‎– "Himmlischer Frieden" (Self-Release ‎– XVIII) 1989

Back in the good ol' DDR,The marvellously named Perestroika Combo,appeared on cassette tape around the time the East German regime was in its death throes.Hence they wore their politics on their sleeve,naming themselves after the Soviet policy of Perestroika,or Restructuring,which was official state policy;so in a way they were colluding with an oppresive state,which is another way of looking at it?

So,as the members of the group came face to face with 'Freedom', which meant unemployment,poverty,and prejudice for yer average East German, they revelled in their new status as legal musicians and entrepreneurs;I assume they sold their cassettes?

So,we have, Voda Tudor on keyboards; Andree Krause on guitar & vocals; Steffanie Lingsminat on bass vocals; Frank Neubert on drum & Holgar Kaack on guitar/vocals.Considerably more members than are pictured on the photocopied insert.

I wonder if any of them suffered the common maladie of most former-East German citizens;that of 'Trabant Nostalgia Syndrome'....I just made that up....but, the Trabant,the peoples car of the DDR, became a symbol of a weird kind of nostalgia for the old country and its institutions.Like some kind of mass Stockholm Syndrome,where one misses the security of your oppressors,and the familiarity with the benefits of the nanny State.Many wanted to climb over the wall and go back in.Most were happy just to visit relatives and shop in the supermarkets with the 100 marks welcome gift provided by the West German government, then go back to their gauranteed Job,subsidised housing transport,and the freedom 'from' choice that a communist state provides. Who in their right mind wants to choose from hundreds of different types of shampoo when you only need one?

The music of the Perestroika Combo would not have gone down well with the authorities however.Dischordant and unmusicianly as it is.Obviously influenced by the music broadcst on late night Western Radio,but with that dark edge that came very naturally to those in the East.Full of Glasnost,but the opposite of Perestroika;more to do with de-structuring rather than re-structuring.Which is how we like it, isn't it kiddies?

Tracklist:

A1 Komplikation 3 4:22
A2 Himmlischer Frieden 7:34
A3 Mournful Cry 5:30
A4 Do It 5:12
A5 Langer Weg 6:31
B1 Aufbruch Part 1 17:07
B2 Aufbruch Part 2 (Incl. Happy Future) 6:36

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Кола Бельды / Kola Beldy ‎– "Белый Остров / White Island" (Мелодия ‎– С60 27841 007) 1989

Never really been a big fan of ethnic,slash,'world' music......I blame Peter Gabriel for that, and all those  middle class Womad festival fans, whose very existence seems to remove any point in making,writing about, or listening to music at all. The very thought of millionaire urban folkies exploiting the impoverished musicians of a third world country to win a 'Grammy' for their theft, makes me wanna bash my own brains in. Specifically, I'm thinking Paul Simon here.....what a bastard he was/is!?
High in the 'Bastard' stakes, along with Simon, is Coca-Cola, but replace the 'C' with a 'K' and we get super-bizarre Nanai tribe member and trad folk singer Kola Beldy.
In 1986 he was awarded the title of 'Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR' (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist republic!?);we've all got one of those.....haven't we???He had a number of Soviet-era permfrost themed hits, most famously with the top ten smash,  "I will take you to the tundra", hmmmm yes please???......you don't get hits with titles like that in the UK.....well....I suppose we did have "Snooker Loopy",which you sure as hell wouldn't find in the Soviet Charts of the time.You wouldn't think that Chas,of Chas'n'Dave, was in Gene Vincent's backing band in the early sixties now would you?
The awards kept coming for Kola,winning "Award no.2"(that's the name of the award NOT his second award!) at the 'Sopot International Song Festival' in 1973....what "Award no.1" was, and who won it,remains a closely gaurded state secret to this day.
This album, has any number of bizarre sounds augmenting Kola's ethno-operatic fusion,which adds greatly to its score on the 'weird' scale.Certainly one for the coveted 'Other' section in the record shop.
Luckily, politics and common sense stopped Paul Simon from making a 'collaboration' with Mr Beldy, and just good luck saved him from Peter Gabriel's insidious clutches.The Iron Curtain had its uses after all?

Tracklist:

1 White Island (Saami Song)
2 Master Of Forest (Mansi Song)
3 A Seagull (Dolgan Song)
4 Return Home (Chukchi Song)
5 To The Ocean (Yukagir Song)
6 A Hunter (Evenki Song)
7 Fisher-woman (Evenki Song)
8 Holiday (Eskimo Song)
9 By Dog Sledge (Hanti Song)
10 My Darling (Hanti Song)
11 Greeting (Ulchi Song)
12 Strange Girls (Nanai Song)
13 Kmali Chinekh (Itelmen Song)
14 Emaron Island (Nanai Song)
15 Toasting Song (Yakutian Song)
16 Snowy Tundra (Saami Song)
17 My Little Reindeer (Evenki Song)
18 Fisher's Song (Nanai Song)

DOWNLOAD a refreshing taste of Kola HERE!

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Vol. 3" (2019)

Having lived my young adulthood throughout the 1980's, and am now listening to the pain that my compatriots in the Soviet Union had to endure behind that silly ol' Iron Curtain thingy, I can now fully appreciate how fucking WEIRD pop music was between 1983 and 1989.
Of course at the time I hated all this shit,and could look down on it all because I liked Coil,Einsturzende Neubauten and The Birthday Party,....what a twat was I?
Secretly to myself, I thought that a Flock of Seagulls, Classix Nouveaux, Japan, Simple Minds and the like were rather marvellous. All this stuff sounded even more ridiculous in the 90's when 'real' drummers made a come back,and guitars were played properly again......how fucking boring was that shit? Especially that ridiculous Brit-Pop torture.
Well, you know how kids start listening to music via their parents record collections?.....it was jaw dropping to hear teenagers playing 80's Futurist pop in the early 2000's. It all goes round in circles they say....well they're correct....whoever 'they' are,but 'they' are apparently genius's.,or geni?
Like Punk never happened 'They' said, but this stuff was a direct result of the 'Punk' ethic.....in other words it was 'Punk',but weirder.
Amid the massive gated snares, Simmons electronic kits, digital synthesis,cavernous reverbs,warbley vocals and fretless basses lay something beyond normal comprehension,something genuinely weird....how did it come to this.How did Kajagoogoo happen?
Luckily for any English speaker,listening to this Soviet Wave stuff,the truly terrible lyrics that came with the package are incomprehensible.Something that made the Western Futurists harder to listen to or take seriously.
Simon Le Bon being the new romantic laureat of terrible poetry......"You're just about as easy as a Nuclear War" said the Bard of Brum.
Its no coincidence that Duran Duran were formed not too far from the birthplace of William Shakespeare, the worlds most famous West Midlander,followed by the next most famous West midlanders,Duran Duran;just pipping Black Sabbath,Slade,and half of Led Zeppelin for second place.
Yep,prepare yourself, Duran's debut album was a truly great record!?

Tracklisting:

01.Rock-September "Discorobot"(1982)
02.The Time Machine "He was one of the first"(1983)
03.The doctor "The moon in the sky..." (1985)
04.The airport "To stay children"(1984)
05.Activity zone "I fly like a fireball" (1986)
06.The Model "Again 25"(1987)
07.Edward Artemiev "Picture No. 7"(1978)
08.Ubermannequin "Nightporter"(1987)
09.Michail Muromov "The Earth will return in May"(1985)
10.Dynamic "The light of your windows"(1984)
11.Rondo "Ring off"(1986)
12.Igor Talkov "Lifebelt"(1989)
13.The class "Great!" (1989)
14.Boris Deart "Ecology" (1991)

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AG. Geige ‎– "Trickbeat" (klangFarBe ‎– 008.) 1989

AG Geige's second cassette (get first here!) was actually,eventually, released on the DDR state label for such low brow popular musics such as this, Amiga. The signs were that the state was losing control with all this Glasnost and Perestroika nonsense.
There were several versions of this album,so the first 16 tracks come from the CD version released in 1990, and all the bonus tracks come from the original cassette release on KlangFarBe.
I dunno if the Stasi were keeping notes,so maybe the files at Stasi HQ could help with the track listing.
A fine album, or double album this is. An avant-abstract electronic rock post-punk collage of the highest proportions that should,in an ideal world, find its way into many a good boy or girls christmas stocking this yuletide. After all, Santa Claus is nothing more than a glorified member of the supernatural Stasi,with his sinister elves spying on our kids,taking notes as to who's been naughty and who's been nice.
Christmas was,after all invented in Germany,alongside Industrial Genocide,Methadone,Crystal Meth,National Socialism,protestant Christianity and,yes Indeed, the perfect Police State in the form of the DDR.They should be prooooouuuuuddddd!

Tracklist:

1 Das Möbiusband / Zeychen Und Wunder 2:04
2 Triebwerk 1:16
3 Felix 1:34
4 Kosmonauten 2:42
5 Fingerwalze 2:58
6 So Sollte Es Nicht Sein! 2:30
7 Küchenlied 5:53
8 Das Scheusal 3:29
9 Déjà Vu (Snap Mix #2) 2:51
10 Hasensong 1:35
11 Schöner Leben 3:43
12 Rohleder's 2:10
13 Maximale Gier 3:13
14 Nach Hause (Instr.) 1:35
15 Gesichter 3:02
16 Stadt-Fisch 1:46

Bonus Tracks:(not necessarily in this order)

Paß Gut Auf! 3:01
Wir Lebenden 1:08
Teufel-Trompke 1:23
Kuechenlied 5:58
Das Scheusal 3:33
Dirigent 2:15
Perfekte Welt 3:24
Untitled 1,2,3,4,&5
Nasenwalzer 2:23
Echo-Strand 2:32
Dicker Junge 1:35
Déjà Vu 2:51
Hasensong 1:30
Fischleim 2:09
Mammut 2:14
Nachts Unterwegs 5:04
Astronauten 2:05

Mondauge 2:34

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The Karl Marx Stadt Studio Big Band - "Schlimmer Finger" (Self-Release) 1989

Wow! What a band name!?
A big rival to  the Friedrich Engels Political Myth Orchestra no doubt(I made that one up). The Karl Marx Stadt Studio Big Band were the closest the DDR got to a UK DIY equivalent.Sounding not too dissimilar to The Instant Automatons,or Danny and the Dressmakers, the KMSSBB,comprised of nearly all of the participants in the Karl-Marx-Stadt underground,yes even Claus Loser was in it!.
Don't you just wish you were in a band called 'The Karl Marx Stadt Studio Big Band'?...I know I do....in fact i'm thinking of stealing 'Schlimmer Finger' for my next conceptual music project.Dunno what it means but i think it may be rather rude?
In 1989,the wall was coming down and the authorities were losing control,so Punk Rock could finally come out from under the floorboards,and the true oppresion of freedom was to take over.
A lot of former East Germans struggled with the tyranny of choice when they crossed check-point Charlie only to return a few days later, traumatized by the capitalist jungle.
It ain't easy in the west y'know.Every man for himself stuff.No nice man in a uniform to tell where you're living and working.No guarantees of a Job or a home.A dog eat dog nightmare which makes communism seem like the loving arms of a Nanny in comparison.Sometimes you get what you ask for......like Donald Trump.
Tracklist:

A1 Sambalita 2:20
A2 Aussenposten 4:20
A3 Stülpnertraum 3:20
A4 Highway Song 2:55
A5 Hutzenjagd 2:55
A6 Karlsberg Elegie 6:20
A7 Katerle Im Wunderland 2:25
A8 Downtown Boogie 2:40
B1 Übergang 8:30
B2 Damals War's 3:00
B3 Ich Bin Blues 5:30
B4 Ausbrand 4:30
B5 Bataille Gewidmet 2:55
B6 Selterknall 3:25
B7 Für Die Geschichte 1:00

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VSP Projekt ‎– "VSP Projekt" (Мелодия ‎– C60 28195 004) 1989

Another proggy projekt featuring Sven Grunberg was Estonian prog rock super group VSP Projekt,which also featured members of other proggy bands from the Soviet Baltic states, such as In Spe, Radar,Ultima Thule,and Ruja.
I hear the unfortunate sound of a fretless bass on here, so you know that they are serious in their objective of making a smoothly conceptualised Jazz Rock Fusion masterpiece.One that Erkki Sven Tüür of 'In Spe' describes as 'Rock music with a sense of distance and even alienation'......thanks for that Sven. I like a bit of alienation,and the six string fretless bass certainly alienated me.
It does have that bleakness that only scandinavian bands,including the Baltic States, can really understand,and it looms large in most of the music that emanates from this suicide rich region.
So join us as '...that lonely spectator of an empty metropolis ,in an endless field of snow',.....I paraphrase mr Tüür once more....he's good isn't he?

Tracklist:

Mees Sarvega 4:58
Oktoober, Oktoober 5:17
Tuulepealne 7:03
Mälumäng 5:03
Hilineja 8:41
Kuulaps 2:25

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Hans Reichel & Tom Cora ‎– "Angel Carver ("Live" In Milwaukee And Chicago)" (FMP ‎– FMP CD 15) 1989

Herr Reichel,as with all of these 'experimental' guitar weilders, like a nice live collaboration,and who better to do that with than nutty cellist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Cora, who I'm sad to say is no longer with us. He's up there in improvisers valhalla, carving angels no doubt?
On these two perfomances he sticks mainly to scraping the Cello, while Hans does his usual incomphrehensible guitar tinkling and banging.
Certainly more musical than most of these free improvisations,which I think is essential to distinguish humans with instruments from chimps with instruments.Sometimes chimps with instruments do it better,but as most listeners are largly human,a human element is welcome;as is a little bit of melody amidst the funny noises. 

Tracklist:

1 Rest Up, Premonitions 19:39
2 Miracles, To Boot 18:38
3 New Neighbors 13:01
4 Invitations To Dance 8:59

DOWNLOAD some hans on cello abuse HERE!

Lives Of Angels ‎– "Hole In The Sky" (Dark Entries ‎– DE-172) 2017

Lives of Angels ,after disappearing through a hole in the sky,have now qualified for a career spanning retrospective on Dark Entries. Including tunes from 1983 to 1989,and a few unreleased tracks thrown in for good measure.
Better quality versions of tracks from those Color Tapes compilations, and from their previous cassette albums can now be heard with almost crystal clarity. Now a new generation can thrill to the O'Connell's proto-indie sound of neo-psychedelic guitar jangle mixed with minimal synth pop analogness. Imagine Spacemen 3, Felt, 3rd album VU,and Depeche Mode in the same concrete mixer with added strawberry flavoured Angel Delight,resulting in a rather pleasent fluffy blancmange and you've got Lives of Angels.....or, Lives Of Angels Delight?

Notes:
Lives of Angels are Catherine O'Connell and Gerald O'Connell
All songs previously unreleased except:
A3,A6 originally released on ‘Elevator To Eden’ cassette by Color Disc, 1983
B2 originally released on ‘An Hour Of Color Vol. 2’ cassette by Color Disc, 1985
B5 originally released on ‘Color Pop Explosion’ cassette by Color Disc, 1989
Tracklisting:

A1 Call Moscow
A2 I Know About You
A3 Nothing Yet
A4 She Turns Aside
A5 Popular Violence
A6 Heartland
B1 Somebody Else
B2 Threatened
B3 Look Out Kid
B4 After Dark
B5 The Infinite Corridor

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Absolute Body Control ‎– "Tapes 81-89" (Sleepless Records Berlin ‎– SRB AWAKE 005)

Well, after Plastic Betrand, lets have something genuinely good from Belgium.
I've posted Absolute Body Controls early tapes before, but these are in CD quality rather than cassette, and includes some bonus tracks and unreleased stuff. Personally I prefer the cassette quality, but I know there are people out there who like the harsh reality of CD fidelity, so heres the CD reissues from 2010.
Classic Belgian minimal synth sound from one of the originators of New Beat/EBM.The weakest CD being the instrumental second tape,"Numbers"(1982), but most all of the rest is almost peerless.

Tracklisting:

Untitled 1981
1-1 Waving Hands 3:28
1-2 Touch Your Skin 3:38
1-3 Baby's On Fire 3:20
1-4 So Obvious 5:01
1-5 Total Control 2:55
1-6 A Broken Dream 3:24
1-7 Do You Feel It Inside? 2:56
1-8 Game For A Laugh 2:02
1-9 Shake 3:15
Bonustracks
1-10 Intro 1:29
1-11 A Better Way 2:51
1-12 Turning Around 3:21
Numbers 1982
2-1 1 3:27
2-2 2 3:34
2-3 3 2:01
2-4 4 3:58
2-5 5 2:35
2-6 6 3:16
2-7 7 4:39
2-8 8 1:04
2-9 9 4:37
2-10 10 3:18
2-11 11 4:48
2-12 12 3:38
2-13 13 3:59
2-14 14 6:08
2-15 15 8:15
2-16 16 5:24
Figures 1983
3-1 The Man I Wanna Be 3:51
3-2 Automatic 1 2:27
3-3 Love At First Sight 2:59
3-4 Melting Away 2:46
3-5 5 Minutes 3:46
3-6 Figures 3:58
3-7 Give Me Your Hands 2:37
3-8 Terminus 3:39
3-9 Automatic 2 4:02
Bonustracks
3-10 Cheree 3:28
3-11 Cover Of A Magazine 2:38
3-12 Did You Do It? 3:29
Live 1984
4-1 So Obvious / Sister Ray 6:00
4-2 Is There An Exit? 4:39
4-3 Radiation 2:58
4-4 I Wasn't There 5:04
4-5 Dance Dance 3:47
4-6 Pictures On The Wall 3:19
4-7 Touch Your Skin 2:46
4-8 Burning Inside 6:18
4-9 So Hard 4:37
4-10 Move Up 4:48
4-11 Wait And See (It Is Just) 3:01
4-12 Dirt 3:41
4-13 Back To Nature 5:37
Tracks 1989
5-1 Slow Action 1:01
5-2 Final Report 2:33
5-3 Faceless 2:46
5-4 Film 1 1:07
5-5 Tanzmusik 1:26
5-6 Lonely This Night 4:00
5-7 Car Fever 3:02
5-8 Film 3 1:14
5-9 B6 1:03
5-10 Do You Feel It Inside? (Remake) 3:46
5-11 Me And My Desire 4:31
5-12 Suffer In Silence 6:11
Bonustracks
5-13 Nightclubbing 3:00
5-14 Switch On 4:18

DOWNLOAD

CD1 HERE!

CD2 HERE!

CD3 HERE!

CD4 HERE!

CD5 HERE!