CAMBRIC MILL - "Not For Cult Approval/The Rehearsal Tapes" (Pumf Records PUMF 812) 2020

 

Everyone likes a cult,especially the music of Cults.Of course I refer to the very Reverend and very dead, Jim Jones,Chuck Manson, and who can forget the great,and gratefully very dead,rockin' Jesus, David Koresh...among other manipulative sex abusers too numerous to mention.....ok I missed out the weirdest of the lot Sai Baba and I'm sorry.

In fact the main reason for joining a doomsday cult,or the new disciples of the latest incarnation of Jesus,is to make wacked out music with some genuine five star dysfunctional loony Toons. I'm sure that was at the top of the list for randy beatnik Father Yod,who used unhinged psychedelia to charm teenage ladies into their gods bed.......and i don't mean just to sleep either.The randy old cunt in a randy old cult is what he was, before crashing to the ground in a bizarre hang-gliding accident.He thought he was invincible and could fly....don't blame it on drugs pleeeeze,he was just a deluded twat with a Messiah complex is all.

No hang-gliders involved in the Cambric Mill story however,unless you can attribute the prefix 'bizarre' to over-indulgence in a cult member's Homebrew washed down with lashings of British pharmaceutical paracetamol. A very British mass suicide.......has anyone written a TV series called that? If not, then someone should. I guess the Homebrew was student strength British bitter ,and not the Jim Jones preferred communal brew of pure cyanide. I guess Jim didn't know that Paracetamol was so cheap at Wilko's, formerly Wilkinson's,and not anything to do with the actual god that is Wilko Johnson? You Europeans haven't lived until you visited Wilko's pharmaceutical section.....mix and match is recommended or they won't serve you at the tills.

Basically,as if you didn't know ,Cambric Mill are the Spinal Tap of Folky Industrial power Electronics with a hint of dr hook,and a smidgen of John Denver from just before his light aircraft crashed....apparently Not into a Rocky Mountain High after all it seems.A livid John Denver fan corrected me on that point...rather tersely I may add.....over liberal use of the word 'Cunt' ...Tut tut tut!The world's full of nutters innit?

Nearly every band I've been in have been conceptual bands,and self-mythologizing is part and parcel of such projects,alongside not being able ,or bothered to learn how to play an instrument properly....fuck that! That's for Americans and similar types.

None of these people, along with John Stumpy Pepys,Joe Mama Besser, Mick Shrimpton of Spinal Tap,are actually dead,nor even spontaneously combusted, they're just having a laugh and playing some nutty music,not unlike the stuff that came out of Father Yods gaff in Hawaii...except this comes from somewhere around gloomy old Blackpool......I am guessing that living members of The Ceramic Hobs could well be responsible for this lovely package on the prolific,and suitably cheap, Pumf Records.

The story/myth is that the band who spent so long rehearsing their new sound which they called 'Industrial Folk Power Electronics" - before tragically committing group suicide in a homebrew death cult ritual prior to even playing a gig!?....also sounds like all the bands I've been in too!?

For many years, there were rumors (pretends ones) circulating around that there were rehearsal tapes of a never heard group called Cambric Mill, and finally pStan Batcow of Pumf Records somehow got his hands on the original recordings,probably because he made them, and released it on CD.This is that CD....but I ain't allowed to share it 'cus it's for sale at Pumpf Records for the nominal transfer of a single lady Godiva into pStan's back bin. If it was on Vinyl On Demand or cash driven collector bastards like that,I would certainly share it....even in FLAC!....but, No, Pumf Records and their contributors are the real DIY thing,and get Zchivago's Seal of approval....I dunno where he is,probably off in the oceans chomping down some fish....the Seal not your author you berk! I call him 'Barky' by the way if you're interested.....

Now where's me Home Brew?

You can hear some handy samples to wet your kissers with a spitball of clarity by clicking HERE!

John Fahey ‎– "City Of Refuge" (Tim/Kerr Records ‎– 644 830 127-2) 1997

No, I don't mind all that plinky-plonky finger pickin' folk nonsense if its mixed up with some noise and dark ambient fuzz.In fact, this is how all that american primitive stuff should sound.Gimmie the tapes of "Blind Joe Death" and lemme remix it......in fact you don't need the tapes as there ain't no rubbish to back up the solo guitaring......I might give that a go during my autumn years.It would sound not unlike this album,but maybe a bit more harsh noise floating to the surface every five minutes or so.
So the 'Godfather of New Age" ,as some deaf person labelled him once upon a time, muat have scanned The Wire magazine after he was re-discovered by some desperate music journalista.For Around '95, 'The Glitch', was heavily lauded by those in the 'Know', so maybe John was just giving the kids what he thought they wanted? Trouble was,those who read the Wire were not young, and were primarily White,White Collar music bores,who slip on some Albert Ayler in the background whenever the phone rings. Or pretentious arty-wannbe cunts like me.Luckily as I dragged myself up from the gutter of council estate thatcherite Britain, I would never be accepted in either group. This 'Freedom' gives me the perspective needed to actually appreciate this fine record in its true light.
And as for the Godfather of New Age, he sums up his feelings nicely in the title and music of Track 7.
.....we'll forgive him for sampling Stereolab, who are firmly entrenched in the 'pretentious arty-wannbe cunt' category. 

Tracklist:

1 Fanfare 5:17
2 The Mill Pond 3:51
3 Chelsey Silver, Please Come Home 4:31
4 City Of Refuge I 20:37
5 City Of Refuge III 6:30
6 Hope Slumbers Eternal 5:04
7 On The Death And Disembowelment Of The New Age 19:27

DOWNLOAD and disembowel the new age HERE!

John Fahey ‎– "Womblife" (Table Of The Elements ‎– 37 Rb) 1997

You have to give him his due respect, John Fahey carried on regardless despite what opinionated gobshites like me say.
This fan-losing experimental late-life comeback album from the nineties,when the man was a name-droppers dream.
"Have you heard the latest Fahey album......NO!??......it's fantastic; but then again i've been a fan since the early eighties,.....wot????..... you've never heard of him?.....oh dear,you don't know what you've missed"....!
Well,we do know what we've missed thanks,and most of it we wish we had.....rather harsh,but the object of todays scything attack are Record Snobs,especially ones who get their tastes from tasty muso-zines like "The Wire", who, in the mid-nineties, were busy championing John Fahey.By 1997,i had binned off my subscription to this magazine, with its endless articles on the "Glitch" and members of Tortoise talking about really early jungle as a influence.
It was the start of music journalism becoming nothing more than a portal for uncritical star worship,no matter how underground or unstar-like were its victims.John Fahey was one of these poor unfortuate artistes whose canon were unduly elevated to godlike status,and now the public wanted MORE!?
To artists with a realistic world view,this can be a distasteful end to a long ignored career.Now you can put out any old crap and your new trendy fanbase will laud it.
So, Fahey scores plenty brownie points avec moi as he alienates his original fanbase with this distinctly un-folky ambient jandekian guitar driven erazerhead soundtrack experiment,that would also confuse his new 90's fanbase......neither of which included this gobshite, but I am a fan of John as the pain in the arse person I suspect he was.John 'the man'.
Its up there with "Metal Machine Music", OMD's "Dazzle Ships",Scott Walker's "Tilt" and PiL's first and third album's, as one of the best fanbase fuckers ever made?

Tracklist:

1 Sharks 9:20
2 Planaria 9:54
3 Eels 6:13
4 Coelacanths 7:28
5 Juana 12:34

DOWNLOAD or abort HERE!

John Fahey ‎– "Old Girlfriends And Other Horrible Memories" (Varrick Records ‎– C VR 031) 1992

As it says in the cover notes of this John Fahey release from the nineties, "I have a hard time putting my finger on what makes john's playing so mesmerising"? I do too,for different reasons,but at least he had a gift for releasing albums with amusing titles,such as this one, which most of us male stereotypes can identify with.
It also says in the notes that this music speaks of a spirit that is peculiarly American.This i agree with, although thats not something to boast about in these particularly peculiar times!
Good album title though? 
One day Donald Trump will also just be just a horrible memory,like those ex-girlfriends.Unless he brings about the end of history,which is looking increasingly likely at the time of publication!? (for future reference, if there is a future, The Trump administration has just assasinated a top Iranian General along with some dodgites from the Iraqi militia,and are threatening more!?)

DOWNLOAD before the end of time as we know it HERE!

John Fahey ‎– "Death Chants, Break Downs & Military Waltzes" (Takoma ‎– C 1003) 1964

As much as there weren't many albums called "Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes" in 1964, this stuff still sounds like the background music to a fishing programme on the idiot box, with the odd nod towards the  'Paris, Texas' soundtrack, from before Ry Cooder was even considered for one of the guitarists berths in the Magic Band.
John Fahey continues his immersion into his american primitive character of Blind Joe Death with another slow unit shifter on his own Takoma label.
Its certainly authentic sounding, so its understandable that even experts in the genre would have been both fooled,and excited by its discovery. I guess Fahey used the same tactics of slipping a few copies into thrift stores to lay the opportunity for some Harry Smith types to 'discover' Blind Joe,and include him on their compilations of Bluegrass and Country Blues from the early 20th century.
I've often thought of doing the same with some forged UK DIY band albums that I would make here in the 21st century.But,I can't really be bothered.

Tracklist:

1.Sunflower River Blues 2:33
2.When The Springtime Comes Again 3:50
3.Stomping Tonight On The Pennsylvania/Alabama Border 6:58
4.Some Summer Day 3:20
5.On The Beach At Waikiki 2:55
6.Spanish Dance 1:53
7.John Henry Variations 5:40
8.The Downfall Of The Adelphi Rolling Grist Mill 3:35
9.Take A Look At That Baby 1:25
10.Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIV Of 11.Spain 2:28
12.America 7:52
13.Episcopal Hymn 1:10

DOWNLOAD your next breakdown HERE!

John Fahey ‎– "Blind Joe Death" (Takoma ‎– C 1002) 1959

Henry Flynt was not the only minimalist on the block searching for the american primitive within. John Fahey made a consumatly ignored career out of it. Inventing a fictional alter-ego called Blind Joe Death,posing as a forgotten folk/blues musician from the twenties.After recording an album for his own imprint called Takoma Records after his home town,in 1959. He attempted to sell these albums himself. Some he gave away, some he sneaked into thrift stores and blues sections of local record shops, and some he sent to folk music scholars, a few of the dumber ones were even fooled into thinking that there really was a living old blues singer called Blind Joe Death.
In the fifties there was a record collecting trend towards old blues and country 78's from the twenties and thirties,so collectors were desperate to find undiscovered classics before their hip mates did.
John Fahey provided this convincing facimile for this burgeoning market,eventually selling out the first pressing of 100 discs three years later.So there would follow endless editions of Blind Joe albums troughout the sixties.....this is a CD version just in case you're wondering.
Fahey made several more albums under his alter-ego's name,and moved to San Francisco to check out the post-Beat, proto-hippie music scene, loathing in particular the awful Pete Seeger–inspired folk-music revivalists with which he found himself classed alongside. Fahey then moved south to Los Angeles to join UCLA's folklore master's program,incredibly,or, un-credibly, and received an M.A. in folklore in 1966,with a thesis on Charley Patton.Yep, he was qualified in Folk music!?...not sure if that's possible is it?
Before hitting the bottle, Dr.John M.A. made a few mildly avant-garde albums in the later part of the Sixties, including a lost album with the Red Krayola,that got binned by the record company....so that one must have been good?
After losing everything due to alcoholism, he was 'rediscovered' in the ninieties,making a few experimental avant-folk albums,and could often be seen adorning the cover of The Wire magazine.Hence new copies of 'Blind Joe Death' albums started appearing on white collor coffee tables all over the more comfortable parts of NATO subscribed countries and beyond.
Although his zeal and puritanism is admirable, i personally find these instrumentally forged folk/blues albums boring as fuck.
Yeah, great authentic finger pickin' technique, but i alway nod off when trying to get why he's so esteemed in such circles.I prefer Jandek myself.Fahey's qualifications are impeccable,but,i'm not sure Folk should be taught in Universities;its like an early version of that shameful Brits academy in London which churns out terrible production line pop stars,like Adele,who's been bangin' on about her boyfriend troubles for about a decade so far.
I'm thinking about doing a doctorate in Punk Rock too......Not!? Could certainly lecture on the subject if the money was right,but under my auspices, accepting money for such an anti-punk thing would be against the meaning of life the universe and punk rock!So such an idea would inevitably disappear up its own arse should it not?
Same goes for Folk, of which Punk Rock is a close relation.Discuss.

Tracklist:

Selections By Blind Joe Death

A1 On Doing An Evil Deed Blues
Written-By – Death*
A2 St. Louis Blues
Written-By – W. C. Handy
A3 I'm A Poor Boy A Long Ways From Home
Written-By – Barbecue Bob
A4 Uncloudy Day
Written-By – Traditional
A5 John Henry
Written-By [Spiritual] – Traditional
A6 In Christ There Is No East Or West
Written-By [Episcopal Church Hymn] – Traditional 

Selections By John Fahey

B1 The Transcendental Waterfall
Written-By – John Fahey
B2 Desperate Man Blues
Arranged By – John Fahey
B3 Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday Blues
Written-By – John Fahey
B4 Sligo River Blues
Written-By – John Fahey

DOWNLOAD the great folk'n'roll swindle of 1959 HERE!

Jandek ‎– "Los Angeles Friday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0829) 2018

The Corwood Representative goes 'Rap'!?
Recorded on August 5th, 2016 in the homeland of Tupac who would have probably killed himself if he had to listen to this without being drunk...Sixpac?
Well, its more 'Hip' without the 'Hop',Public 'Enema' rather than 'Enemy',but overlaid with bad psychoanalytical poetry delivered in a style outside the jail cell of the 4/4 beat. Recorded as if the 'rapper' (Jandek or Sheila) were falling from the top of the world trade centre on 9/11,free-stylin' during a slow motion two hour drop.Regularly being hit by faster falling debris.
As is documented I've fucking hated Hip Hop since i was a teen in 1979,with its stoic refusal to move on......and don't get me going about the clothes!The whole culture bores the living shite out of me.
Somehow its hard to imagine Jandek in a basball cap turned to the front ,nevermind to the side.
Is there such a thing as slo-core Hip Hop?.....if there isn't,there should be.I could be cajoled into enjoying that....a bit.
The drum programmer,Kyle Madson, even seems to have cleverly managed to make the drum box somehow sound off-beat at times, and brilliantly monotonous in other places.
One must say, that the Representative never fails to surprise,and long may it continue,even after death?.....like that Muslimgauze bloke?

Tracklist:

1.Rap It Like You Should 8:53
2.The Bus And The Apartment 16:25
3.A Good Day 8:03
4.Silver Lake 11:08
5.The Kids Are Outside 5:37
6.The American 8:54
7.The Limit 9:13
8.Animal 5:42
9.Map It Out In Blue 10:45
10.To Recover 8:25
11.Things That Never Change 21:00

DOWNLOAD jandeks public enema HERE!

Jandek ‎– "Gainesville Monday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0831) 2019

Another "Chair beside a window",like the classic Jandek album of the same name and home of his greatest Hit, "Nancy Sings", adorns this professional sounding improvised set from December the first ,2008,at the Hippodrome State Theatre in Gainesville,wherever that is?
If you think the Guitar work is far too good for Jandek to have been the guitarist, then you are right.He demoted himself to stroking the Bass quietly in the background, and concentrated on his stream of conciousness 'escaped lunatic' vocal style.
The drummer and guitarist,both uncredited, were obviously seasoned improvisers,who must have played together a lot.This sounds as if they were gonna do a gig and found a homeless drunk guy on the street outside the venue to do the vocals for them.Not unlike Can and Damo Suzuki.

Tracklist:

1.I Like It 16:10
2.It Seems Obvious 10:26
3.Here Now Today 10:19

4.The Picture 10:47
5.The Call Imaginary 8:17
6.If It Is 14:28
7.The Fathoms 12:52
8.I Take You 17:16

DOWNLOAD this window beside a chair HERE!

Jandek ‎– "The Ray" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0832) 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR????? HAPPY NEW JANDEK!!!!!!

Another new year brings forth usually three or four new Jandek albums, so as a new years treat here are last years Jandek albums to try and keep pace with the Ginger One.Including this new studio album!?
I think I have all of the Jandek releases,but not sure,so if anyone out there notices a gap in the collection,feel free to point out this unforgivable oversight.
Its a relief to know that Sterling, in his 75th year, hasn't given up on studio work,and its good to hear his meandering psychedelic outsider folk without that sparse applause at the end of each long track,and even worse the boistrous cheering as the Corwood Representative takes the stage.....yeah very good boys and girls.....mainly white boys it has to be said.....you have a shared secret in that you pretend to like Jandek, well done.One witnessed the same hive-minded behaviour at Sun Ra concerts,Residents shows and Fall gigs.Like a Nuremburg rally for geeks and nerds.
The Ray, the album and the Track, is a,you guessed it, meandering avant folk psychedelic foray into the unknown that clocks in at just over an hour in length. It comes with no information,but I suspect that Jandek plays all the instruments,with maybe Sheila Smith on drums? Could this be the start of a new era in the Corwood release schedule.....I hope so,as it is a rather fine room emptying piece of unsychopated outsider rock.
People like Henry Flynt,the works of whom we have been digesting over the preceeding days,have spent a career searching out the embodiment of the American Primitive.Well Henry, here he is.More profound than the unknown meaning of life,'it is because its like that'.There is no meaning,just as the American Primitive doesn't exist. Jandek's music is the closest thing to an answer I've come across.......just 'Be'.....and keep turning up......which, as it happens, is Woody Allen's mantra on how to be successful.

Tracklist:

1 The Ray 61:40

DOWNLOAD the first ray of the new year sun HERE"!

Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 4: Ascent To The Sun" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 021) 2004

The final release in the New American Ethnic Music series is "Ascent to the Sun", an earwax rattling hillbilly raga in the family of 'You Are My Everlovin' with a double violin approach featuring our Henry playing against,or with, himself,or his-selves.Late period Flynt, from 2004,It sounds as if he wasn't listening to the other recorded tracks of his own fiddle playing as he added the overdubs,and it works just fine.Freeing himself from the strait-jacket of time structure and syncopation....this ain't no disco;but it is, some kinda twisted hoedown that needs dancing to......maybe we should give Jimmy Pursey a call?

"For me, innovation does not consist in composing European and academic music with inserted folk references. It consists in appropriating academic or technical devices and subordinating them to my purposes as a folk creature."...so says our Henry.

Tracklist:

1. Ascent To The Sun (recorded 2004)(41:21)

DOWNLOAD to the earth HERE!

Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 007) 2003

The third volume in Henry Flynt's New Americam Ethnic Music series, following: 'You Are My Everlovin' & 'Spindizzy'. 

Featuring recordings from 1971 to 1978, this focuses on shorter tracks ranging from wild avant-bluegrass to steady-state drones that explore the third-ear mania of looped violin post-minimalism. The nihilist father of concept art and inventor of electronic Hillbilly music is at his string stroking rasping saw tooth wave best on this one.But watch out!...don't call him an artist...he just hates that stuff.
Tracklist:

1.Violin Strobe (1978)
2.Guitar Rebop (1971)
3.Telsat Tune (1971)
4.Full Telsat (1971)
5.Jumping Wired (1976/2001)
6.Leather High In A (1978)
7.Leather High In E (1978)
8.S & M Delerium (1978)

DOWNLOAD from them thar hills HERE!

Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 2: Spindizzy" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 006) 2003

Not sure who was first in the minimal drone violinist stakes, but Tony Conrad's one note tirades makes Henry Flynt look like Paganini.Although both of them run Nigel Kennedy Close in the geekiest made kool violinist stakes.But niether of them managed to get off with Mark E. Smiths missus,as,incredibly, Nigel Kennedy did!?.....just being sober-ish and mildly famous was probably enough actually!
Volume One,of the 'New American Ethnic Music' series was "You are my everlovin'/celestial power",which was previously released on cassette in West Germany;so i won't post that again?
This second CD has Henry Flynt showing us that he's a quality Bluegrass fiddle playing American primitive as well as an avant-garde thinker and composer;not something Tony Conrad was either proficient ,or, interested in.
So,if you're expectin' some long scraping drone works, you're gonna be disappointed.This is too authentic an anthropological throwback to allow such flights of fancy.
There are of course a couple of lengthy ethopological lock groove style pieces,that would have gotten Flynt lynched if he actually played them to a real drunken Hillbilly mob,rather than catering for the New York downtown intelligentsia.
All that's missing is an inbred relic from the post mayflower generation to whine some lyrics about killin' and hangin' and I reckon ol' Henry had achieved his quest to return to when life was simple,and the people, they were people I am told,were even simpler.
The only other Yankee,albeit an orange one with tiny hands, these charming simpletons would spare a lynchin' for is Donald Trump.The peasants are indeed revolting.

Tracklist:

1.Hoedown (1968)
2.Solo Spindizzy (1971)
3.Banjo Country (1976)
4.White Lightning (1983)
5.Solo Virginia Trance (1975)
6.Double Spindizzy (1975)
7.Rockabilly Boogie (1982)
8.Jumping (1976)
9.Hillbilly Jive (1977)
10.Jive Deceleration (1976)

DOWNLOAD the hoedownload HERE!

Henry Flynt ‎– "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 1 & 2" ( Locust Music ‎– LOCUST 16 / 14) 2002

Avant-hillbilly Anti-Art fiddler Henry Flynt scuffles and scrapes his way through a most peculiar set of electrified and acoustic bumpkin fiddle howls and screeches recorded around the early to mid 1960s.Extended modal country jams hint at the repetitious drone epics of the New York avant garde New York-isms,self masturbatory schisms and jisms that were so...er...seminal for the bedroom genius's that have since released enough drone music to fill meteor crater several times over. Henry is clever enough, and i'm certain he thinks he's clever enough, to mix up the drone with some lock grooved hillbilly stompers that raise this above the status of just another smart arse from early sixties east village ,showing us dumb fucks how to be edgy. We naturally cognitively nihilistic types, are something Henry would have traded his fiddlers elbow for back in his more studious lecturing days.

Length is a big part of the Flynt gestalt, since the ultimate goal is an escape from the song form that so totally dominates old-timey and country music. Instead, elements of these genres -- boogie riffs, familiar chord progressions, fiddle riffs -- become parts of repeating patterns like a needle stuck in a groove, akin to a hillbilly version of Boyd Rices''Non';although there's no Nazi element as is with Boyd Rice, there exists an unavoidable stench of the KKK with any bluegrass and country connotation.

Tracklist:

Volume 1:
1.The Snake 3:40
2.Sky Turned Red 2:35
3.Acoustic Hillbilly Jive 12:01
4.Blue Sky, Highway And Tyme 15:53

Volume 2:

1.Echo Rock 5:30
2.Informal Hillbilly Jive 13:01
3.White Lightening 5:45
4.Jamboree 10:18

DOWNLOAD this avant hillbilly jamboree HERE!

Henry Flynt & The Insurrections ‎– "I Don't Wanna" (Bo'Weavil Recordings ‎– Weavil 02) 1966/2004

In his quest to rediscover the original white american primitive inside himself, Henry Flynt moved from making forward looking drone music, back to the hillbilly version of folk from the Appalachian mountains. Just as English folkies of the 50's  and 60's rediscovered thousands of untouched ancient English folk songs still doing the rounds in the forgotten parts of north america,like visiting a folk music museum, so Flynt rediscovered the earliest forms of American music, which,like everything else in the USA,had formed from the folk musics brought over by the emigrants to the new world.
Sporting a nifty Buddy Holly with a Phd look, a decade before David Byrne and Elvis Costello, Henry turned his back on the Intellectual experimentation in the east village, to try and reset the american culture back to Year Zero, before bluegrass and Rock'n'Roll. The Pol Pot of Pop.The result were these recordings from 1963-66 for Henry's conceptual Electric Bluegrass band,The Insurrections, that seemed to have been stored cryogenically,waiting for the end of the world.
This attitude had many similarities within the Punk Rock movement, who instead of erasing Stockhausen from the musical History books, the'Punks' (for want of a better word) wanted to erase Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and start again. Sham 69 also had a song called "I Don't Wanna" for example; a similar kind of modern English folk song assembled from the more basic elements of imported american culture, which was akin to Henry's version.Except Sham actually managed to encapsulate Flynts dream of 'Cognitive Nihilism' without even trying. Henry Flynt was obviously,and inescapably a middle class intellectual,who was trying to think himself out of existence, whereas Jimmy Pursey was just doing it because he had to....brain wot brain!.....(that is until he was got at and did that avant-garde dance piece on BBC2......if you want a jolly old chuckle click here!). Evil psuedo-intellectualism gets us all in the end.
So far I can't recall Henry Flynt doing any hillbilly or contemporary dance in his career so far?
This Hillbilly rock stuff has indeed captured the creepiness of middle america very nicely.It sends a shiver down ones spine,its the sound of 'Stupid' resurrected, rather than insurrected ,by someone who escaped it to become part of the Marxist Intelligentsia,and then felt a need to go back again.It displays a dissonance, both musically and cognitively.He's managed to subscribe to and then reject almost everything in his lifetime so far.He just can't seem to make up his mind can he?
I think they have a candy bar in the US called this?....."Oh Henry!"

Tracklist:

A1 Uncle Sam Do 2:52
A2 Good By Wall St. 2:59
A3 Go Down 2:55
A4 Corona Del Mar 3:00
A5 Missionary Stew 4:30
B1 Jumping 3:03
B2 Sky Turned Red 2:33
B3 I Don't Wanna 3:18
B4 Dreams Away 7:29

DOWNLOAD this cognitively dissonant candy bar HERE!

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!

Jandek ‎– "Houston Saturday 2011" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0815) 2014

'Tis "Jandek Monday" again!
Here we find the Bard of tone deaf Whining,...er... whining, on home territory again from December 17th 2011.Thankfully without proper musicians making him sound like someone else.This the is raw and naked Jandek that we know and love, solo, with out of tune acoustic guitar.
We even get treated to a spoken word piece to open the set.
You lucky people.

Tracklisting:

1 The Door And The Red Tree 5:22
2 Johnny Dupree 8:42
3 Day Of The Afternoon 5:37
4 Down And Out 3:53
5 All About You 3:37
6 You Stole Me 3:38
7 I Die 4:10
8 The Present 4:00
9 My Home 5:06
10 How I Know You 5:20

DOWNLOAD the nightmare before christmas 2011 HERE!

Jandek ‎– "London Tuesday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0793) 2008

Jandek Monday from a Tuesday in the UK,13 years hence.

Recorded live at St. Giles in the Fields,London,October 18, 2005.A church in the southern part of Camden, where we get a proper solo performance from the Corwood Representative; naked and raw in the  evening,with acoustic guitar and no proper musicians to flesh it out.The song "Part Three" is of particular interest, as it makes a number of direct references to the characters and themes of "Naked in the Afternoon", the first song from "Ready for the House".
The cover features our man from Corwood standing against a backdrop of the city of Bath (UK),which to my rudimentary knowledge,isn't London?.

Tracklisting:

No Mind Was A Good Mind
1 Part One 9:25
2 Part Two 7:19
3 Part Three 6:59
4 Part Four 8:05
5 Part Five 7:25
6 Part Six 7:19
7 Part Seven 9:35
8 Part Eight 11:04

if you have a good mind to DOWNLOAD something, do it HERE!

Jandek ‎– "When I Took That Train" (Corwood Industries ‎– Corwood 0778) 2005

IT'S JANDEK MONDAY MOANDAY........☺

You should be on the stage......the next stage outta here!
Or, you could take the Train? But, as this cover photo is clearly from the mid 80s in a rainy London at christmas, i wouldn't bother; because it was still under the auspices of British Rail in the era when the 'wrong kind of snow' halted services, along with 'Leaves On the Line',among other excuses for inefficiency.......but we now want those good ol' days back.
The image of Jandek eating a British Rail sausage in economy class wearing his stetson makes me misty-eyed with awe.Obviously he didn't travel alone, or was this candid photo taken by a helpful passer-by? It seems unlikely.
Kurt Cobain once said,"Jandek's not pretentious, but only pretentious people like his music.".....our Kurt may have made some god-awful rock music, but I'll give him his due, he was a very astute music fan......but pretentious?..Moi et Toi?....that comment made me wanna send him more K-Mart Ammo for his shotgun.

Sure I'm pretentious, but at least i'm not pretending I'm NOT!?

Compared to Jandek ,Nirvana are Daniel O'Donnell....in fact Daniel O'Donnell would have been a far more left-field frontman than the cliché ridden corpse Nirvana became.

If Cobain had the guts to actually reveal his apparent 'Demons' in a Jandek Style he probably would be still alive.....so luckily he didn't.Mainly because he wouldn't sell anymore records and no longer be the pop-star he craved to be despite his whinging about corporate rock whores and so-on and so-on(he just needed a slap really).
I dunno what train Jandek took that day, but it must have been a terrible journey listening to the slow agony of the songs in this collection.Like being waterboarded by a gang of pinned-up junkies,in a dark alley, but without the fun.Jandeks third class railway journey through life's darker moments has almost reached its Terminus.......whats so pretentious about that?

Tracklist:
1 I Talked To You Today 4:07
2 When I See You Again 2:52
3 The Image Of You 3:27
4 Close To You 3:22
5 You Took Me For A Ride 4:13
6 What Else Is There 2:16
7 Wouldn't You Agree 3:22
8 You Made Me Know It 2:45
9 Angel Moves 3:43
10 Thing Called Me 5:43
11 My Escape 6:50

DOWNLOAD from lifes railway terminus HERE!

Jandek ‎– "Graven Image" (Corwood Industries ‎– Corwood 0761) 1994

"Remember Jandek Monday and keep it Holy", said the big bully in the sky.....he/it/she also said....

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image"!?

In other words this anthropomorphic sado-masochistic entity;...you know...the one who demands us to love 'it' by making us shit scared of 'it';the one who used his finger to carve these words on a tablet of stone,... is saying "Don't have any Idols",which is probably the best advice he/it/she ever gave. Unless 'God' was refering to a Jandek album, in which case its the stupidest advice ever given.

Fittingly there is no Graven Image of outsider number one on the cover.Just one of those photo's that never get put in a photo album,and is just left in a pile of rejects in a plastic bag at the bottom of a cupboard. Its the same house that appears on another religiously referenced Jandek LP from the nineties, "Twelfth Apostle",but this time from the backyard looking onto the street.

The same view is used on the next album too, "Glad To Get Away"(scheduled for next monday is that one).

The songs are shorter on this,his 23rd message in a bottle which was set adrift in 1994,and washed ashore, nowhere in particular,relatively recently in public terms(in fact this was Jandeks first CD release!?).There's even a light hearted novelty tune in "Janky". There's also an accordian solo,and some ear piercing harmonica.All this augments the usual intimate moaning,soul bearing and stubbornly anti-music guitar work.Jandek remains as enigmatic and mysterious as ever; seemingly oblivious to the outside world.

Tracklist:

1 Remain The Same 1:29
2 Helena 2:04
3 Ghost Town By The Sea 3:00
4 A Real Number 2:13
5 Be Going Down 2:07
6 Nothing You Lack 2:03
7 Chilocothe 2:35
8 For You And I 2:48
9 Janky 2:27
10 Lake Lagoon 2:36
11 Philip Was Mentioned 3:01
12 Closing 2:21
13 Fishing Blues 2:44
14 Going Away My Darling 5:10
15 Going Away 2:13

DOWNLOAD this graven cd HERE!

Jandek ‎– "New Town" (Corwood Industries ‎– Corwood 0765) 1998

'Monday Monday'.....the Mamas and Papas sang in the swinging sixties....well,swinging has different connotations in the 21st century, so here's an antidote to that flowery harmony group of incestuous Hippies.....Its Jandek Monday Monday.
The famous drum kit pictured on the sleeve does actually make an appearence on the tenth track, "Time Will Come", like its being played by a toddler with ADHD. The rest is just voice and ,largely, plucked guitar, as if played by the same toddler, but on a heavy dose of Mogadon.
You know those Sun Ra organ solo's, where it sounds like he was just moving his fingers on the keyboard, and it turned out that he had actually notated it all and written it down? Well, Jandek isn't doing the same on the Guitar. He really is making it up in real ,slow motion,time,and probably, really IS falling asleep into a sedative induced stupor.Barely in control of his limbs as his fingers bounce ofF the detuned strings. A kind of automatic music, channeling a long dead mental patients music therapy class from beyond the crematorium.We've heard of the 'Chemical Cosh', well, here we have a musical cosh to remove all reason for living.
Don't mess with the after life kids, or you could be meeting the wrong demons at the crossroads. For every Robert Johnson theres a thousand Jandeks receiving buggar-all from Lucifer in return for their souls........yeah yeah I know......there's loads of Robert Johnsons and only ONE Jandek.But, for every Jandek there's a million Eric Claptons....now that truly is a terrifying gift from hell, and another reason why we are almost certainly,already living in a Hell of our own making! Jandek is just reflecting that back at us......er thanks Jandek!??

Tracklist:

1 New Town 4:14
2 Steal Away Home 4:31
3 Street Walk 3:45
4 You Standing There 3:27
5 Desert Voice 4:36
6 Let Me Hear The Words You Say 3:24
7 The Real You 2:27
8 It Would Only Be Action 4:10
9 Look At It 3:36
10 Time Will Come 2:50
11 What You Are

DOWNLOAD new towns law of slow motion HERE!