Jandek – "Diverseworks" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0856) 2022

After a lengthy series of stuff about recently deceased musicians,I will risk my life by returning,briefly, to the possibly Dead Jandek,with another pseudo-classical improvisation from the seemingly infinite vaults of old recordings.Rarely do we hear anything from contemporary Jandek. I suspect there's enough in storage for Richard Representative to achieve musical imortality.We will all be long dead by the time the Rep and his helpers exhaust the well.....that is, unless he has expired and they are doing this already.

Here we have Outsider music turned inside out.This is as far as one can get from that creepy guy in his mum's cellar banging out deranged versions of the human condition on an old piano.

Jandek,once a ginger mist with an out of tune guitar that drifted around various suburban parts of Houston,howling like a slow wind across freshly laid barbed wire;alas he is now a trilby wearing version of Nosferatu,hanging around the toilets in the music department en campus somewhere in the Texas system for further education.

His purpose?...Recruiting insider studentia to help him make this very seriously experimental music.Rather like how Madonna and Bowie used to 'look for ideas'by stealing them off starstruck upwardly mobile producers and musicians.

I doubt any student of modern composition would be Starstruck by the appearance of Jandek in their campus toilets,more likely they would run away,unless they knew better.

The ones who did know better,saw this as an opportunity to get on an avant garde record with a guy would would pay for everything.

Jandek does virtually nothing on this record,except for twanging his detuned bass somewhat furtively .Leaving the recruits to make it sound like one of those spontaneous improvisation records he spotted in the 'Other' section of his local record store,thinking, 'Hey, I can do that'!...or rather, 'i can get someone else to do that and i'll credit myself' on the traditionally credit-less Corwood jewel case artwork.

It has now got to the point where Sterling the Corwood representative is no-longer listed as an Outsider Musician on Discogs, but has joined the much despised ranks of the "Free Improvisers".

So now any collective gathering of Avant Garde improvisers can be heard to scream:

"Lookout! It's Jandek...and he's looking for musicians!"

Whatever the collective noun for a gathering of Free Improvisers is....maybe a 'Scrape' of Improvisers perhaps?

Tracklist:

 Rehearsal:

1-1 Part One 16:01

1-2 Part Two 28:28 

Concert:

2-1 Part One1 9:05

2-2 Part Two2 6:22

2-3 Part Three 16:03

DOWNLOAD this diverse insider crossover moment HERE!

Pascal Comelade / David Cunningham – "Précis De Décomposition Bruitiste" (Parasite – PAR 006) 1983

Somehow we've found ourselves back in France thanks to David Cunningham's association with minimalist composer Pascal Comelade, and this cassette of decomposing noise. I don't know if this was decomposed at the Cold Storage Studio,but there is definitely a This Heat factor floating around here. Comelade did in fact have a minimal pop band named after a this Heat track as further evidence,"Fall Of Saigon",although how much they were actually an influence is up for debate. Comelade did go on to develop a very attractive minimal Satie-like method of tune writing,which reminds me of former This Heater Gareth Williams' fantastic solo album "Flaming Tunes" from 1985.....so one suspects the influence was indeed a two way street.

Comelade had a predilection for deconstructing pop tunes,sometimes slowing them down to a crawl,or reducing them to the barest of bones or, as in this case with ? and The Mysterians' garage classic "96 Tears",a slow decent into a fuzzy fog ,which i think was a consequence of another of Pascal's major influences 'Suicide' rather than Question Mark himself.

Coincidentally, it's apparently Pascal's 67th birthday tomorrow, how's about that for synchronicity?

Tracklist:

Face A: 1980/1981

Face B:
A Perfect Crime/96 Tears

DOWNLOAD another reason to forgive france for Johnny Hallyday HERE!

David Cunningham – "Grey Scale" (Piano – Piano 001) 1977

 

The first Piano release,made by cold storage recording studio main man, David 'Flying Lizard' Cunningham, was this minimal systems music offering in praise of the 'Error'. Without which nothing any good would have emerged from the primordial soup of music,slash, entertainment,slash everything.

Without error we would all still be banging drums in a cave in the south of France. Some people still are,mostly Hippies hiding away from having to get a job before the trust fund matures..

Without 'Error', mother nature would only have ever produced a rock,or a gas, or a Piers Morgan. There is an inherent need to mutate. Musical notes boast more than just a passing resemblance to the genetic code, so any note or gene in the wrong place can lead to the most horrific or exciting developments.Like evolution, if there's a need for this mutation, it will be used, but the mechanics remain in the background,....on the Grey Scale.

I'll let  David explain the Error System to you daft lot:

"Error System
The players play a repeating phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no account should 'mistakes' be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short - sustain your errors.
The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality in the machinery used."

I found myself watching the hideous spectacle of Glastonbury 2022,last evening,with its endless reams of error-less meaning-less, middle class party music,absolute drivel.

I found myself weirdly enjoying Robert Plant and Alison Krause's rather splendid Folk renditions.....at the wrong festival i may suggest. While waiting for 'idles',whom i had priorly thought were 'not bad'.They bust a bloodvessel living up to the 'punk' band on the bill role they were assigned,and kept wheeling out a neo-hipster on a very expensive looking baritone sax,playing the same Free-Jazz squeal during the really 'Crazy' bits. I suspect the sax-hipster couldn't actually play his couple of grand's worth of brass,or understand what he had pretensions towards...for it was, was it not,Ornette Coleman who championed the erroneous note, as prioritizing the 'right wrong notes' over the 'wrong wrong notes'? This Idles guy got all the wrong wrong notes, but no-one had a single clue about what was wrong wrong or right right;one may as well play nothing nothing I thought.They formally stuck to the 'right' stuff that the massive sea of Billy Eilish fans from Surrey wanted to relay their 'Punk moment' and tell their children of the near-future about again and again....see, Mummy and Daddy really are the boring fucks you thought they were.Poor little sods, bored to sleep with endless tales of obscenely expensive festival exploits between the ages of 18 and 21,before they got their job in the city.As for the fuckers who are my age and their tiresome renditions of having an uncle who saw Quintessence and Bowie'a mime act back  in '71.....on mushrooms ('Drugs' they giggle!)...who cares? Its preposterous how these bland also-rans boast about paying to see some vaguely famed group play in the past,and seem to think that somehow this makes them 'cool' as if they were actually in these silly fucking groups? Yeah I was in Quintessence because i paid to see 'em.They'd even bring their own flute just in case the groups fluty man collapsed,and they asked the audience if anyone plays the flute,Keith Moon in Boston style.They hold up their hand ,"Me sir please sir!" in their moist pop star wet dream.Not a dry pair of Y-Fronts in the house. Yeah I saw Kajagoogoo play in Barnsley Railway station bogs back in '59.....hold on?...I'm genuinely envious of that one!!

Idles wouldn't have been allowed at any genuinely edgy 'punk' festival...if such a thing ever existed?.....hahaha those guys are sooo crazy,one of them wore a dress! hahahaha!

Prior to this shocking exposure, i had never heard of,or seen even a still of Billie Eilish. This is as dark as those kids are gonna get i thought.She led them in breathing exercises, started a reverse Mexican wave and shared her three commandments of concert-going: "Don't be an asshole, no judgment and have fun bitch!".Scything down 70 years of rock'n'roll history in one swooping scrape of Nero's fiddle like it had all never happened.

I felt a generation gap opening up immediately,mainly because I AM an Asshole,I judge everything and everyone, and i willfully avoid so-called,'Fun'...especially if i'm told to have it! 

I did ,however, join in on the breathing exercises,and the mexican wave in my friendless TV lounge, and consoled myself with a bout of sneering before i went to bed...alone...a choice not an obligation! 

Watching this crud was a very grave error on my part.....but maybe we can evolve from this?....I Doubt it very much.

Music is very fucking DEAD...well, at least very very fucking boring.

Tracklist:

1.Error System (BAGFGAB)
2.Error System (C Pulse Solo Recording)
3.Error System (C Pulse Group Recording)
4.Error System (E Based Group Recording)
5.Error System (EFGA)
6.Ecuador
7.Water Systemised
8.Venezuela 1
9.Guitar Systemised
10.Venezuela 2
11.Bolivia

DOWNLOAD an error message HERE!

Three & Four Pullovers - "Three & Four Pullovers (1975-8)" - (Emanem – 4038) 2000

What were you doing in 1975? 

I was enduring the transition from primary education to take my place in the final year that Grammer Schools existed in the UK.Soon to be phased out because the Labour Government thought it 'Elitest', Unlike the government? Shirley Williams was the Secretary of Education,who had the non-elitest luck to have been evacuated to California in World war 2, along with her mate Elisabeth Taylor.They both tried out for the lead role in National Velvet.....and guess who won? That's right, Not Shirley Williams,who channeled this bitterness to fuck up intelligent kid's education prospects with her 'socialist' values,which, as far as i could see, were designed to keep the working class in their place,as factory and family fodder.

So in between being beaten up at school by the older kids,....us being the last years intake....we would never get the chance to beat up the younger kids,so we were doomed to be the youngest kids for the entire 5 years.

Then, carrying the stigma of being a Grammar school kid on a council estate, I was beaten up on my home turf too.For some reason being classed as intelligent means that you are 'Posh' according to my peers,who named me "Posh Cunt" before the kicks tained in....that's elitism for you alright.Pablo Picasso never got called an Asshole...but we did. 

In between kickings, I spent my time listening to such unadulterated rubbish as Queen, Status Quo,Dr Feelgood,Thin Lizzy, The Sweet,The Glitter Band....etc....you get the picture? With pretensions towards Prog.

Meanwhile Steve Beresford and his London Music Collective chums Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith were making ,such crazed improvised tomfoolery as "Three Pullovers".....(later expanded to "Four Pullovers" whenever Terry Day bothered to turn up).

What would have been rather splendid,was if Thin Lizzy played a version of "The Sea Of Mice" by Three Pullovers as an encore at one of their proto-NWOBHM gigs,even though Sweet were far more metal than them.The mid-size college arena would have emptied in record time...well, either that or a Riot.

 The Glitter Band are excused,as their Guitar sound was probably the most avant garde statement in the whole Glam scene. Dr Feelgood were living art however, but The Quo could have at least finished their 'Blue For You' album with some Free Improv to totally piss off their denim clad,and 100% male audience.....this could have been lauded as another one of those, sadly stupid "Punk before Punk" moments. The fantasy of the late Rick Parfitt whipping out the toy glockenspiel would have made for a most tantalizing prospect.

Its the Toys that make the Noise.

 DOWNLOAD and pullover HERE!

Steve Beresford – "The Bath Of Surprise" (Piano – Piano 003) 1980

Remember all those Slits Gigs you went to in 1980?There was always a geeky bespectacled bloke in the background who made the whole thing stick together.That was Steve Beresford. (see if you can spot him in this Clip,like a post-punk version of 'Where's wally'.).

Apart from making The Slits a slightly more musical offering, there's a vast array of projects that can boast the presence of one of the London Musician's Collective most prolific members.If it made a noise Steve would play it.And he'd do it for countless groups from The Frank Chickens,49 Americans,Flying Lizards,and The Portsmouth Symphonia,to the Hard core of the UK Improvising scene,Derek Bailey,Han Benninck,and Evan Parker.He was in at the deep end,and still is.

This was Steven's debut solo album,as produced and released by DIY Avant-gardist David Cunningham,who was better known as the Flying Lizards,and the man who released and produced This Heat's early records.A seemingly perfect track record?

What are you gonna get on this record? Well,you don't know do you,it's improvised.....the unexpected...I expect?...BUT...having played it to see whats on it, i can tell you everything from toys to tuba's to scraping noises are there...which i suppose is to be expected.... if, you know your free improvisation.If you don't, cleanse yourself in the bath of surprise.

Tracklist:

1 Punctuation
2 Lieutenant Dub
3 Cat Picture
4 What Is A Thing
5 The Bath Of Surprise
6 Concealed Entrance
7 My Old Piano
8 Burning Problems
9 Schlussakord
10 Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You
11 A Cup Of Tea And A Bun
12 Mr & Mrs. Wu
13 Spring Clips
14 A Continuous Supply Of History

DOWNLOAD these tales of the expected but unexpected HERE!

Amok – "Warm Leeches Dance" (ADN – ADN TAPES 17) 1985

There are two modern musical idioms that Italians seem to have taken a rosy view upon,Progressive Rock being the most obvious, and the other,being that which is loosely termed 'industrial'. A genre, that is in fact, Progressive Rock for persons who can't actually play any instruments,unless left field literature is an instrument?

Here we find Mr Amok ,Enrico Piva, giving us a lesson in overthinking,inspired by Freud's "Jenseits des Lustprinzip (Death Pulsion)", which we've all read haven't we?

Of course the word 'Death' has to make an appearance,but thankfully Enrico has mercifully left out any boringly obvious Nazi references......which makes me think that this isn't Industrial music at all...that's for arse-lickers. This is more like a sound installation,made for an audience of chin stroking sub-intellectual posers who really wish they were at a Van Der Graaf Generator gig...I know I do.

Genesis P. being Ironic..... Again!?
I bet you he'd read "Jenseits des Lustprinzip"....or maybe wishes he had?

Amok, however non-amok this tape is,is perfect background muzak for your Abstract Impressionism soirée held every other Tuesday at the community centre;but if you last ten minutes into side one I'll give you a candy bar,augmented by a nice squishy Leech or two. 

It was,however, recorded in a steel barge in Finland after all?

Tracklist:

A1 Warm Leeches Dance 29:42
B1 Warm Leeches Dance 29:43

DOWNLOAD some dance musick for bloodsuckers HERE!

New 7th Music – "In A Dream" (ADN – ADN TAPES 19) 1985

Paul Kelday sometimes appeared on the cassettes made by his brother Phil's improv group 'New 7th Music', which involved doing what you felt like doing and calling it music basically.So don't expect going on a ambient cosmic journey into the farther reaches of the infinite pulsating brain at the center of the universe.This is the kind of music,in the loosest sense of the word,that our hominid ancestors would have played as soon as they picked up a dead beast's jawbone and beat each other to death with it.

As spontaneous music combo's go, these chaps aren't quite of the Derek Bailey,Hans Bennink,Evan Parker ,Scratch Orchestra standard,and more like a club of weirdo's who meet every Tuesday evening at the community centre ,tape recorder in hand......;but that's what I like about it. Ain't no criticism;we exist here to celebrate the Geek,and reject the mundane.....although a lot of the time the mundane is as equally alienating for the vast magnolia coloured armies of pointlessness,as it is mundane.When done correctly the most abominable of species can be used satisfactorily against your brainwashed oppressors.

Just listening to this could well get you euthanised in the new Russian empire that suddenly awoke recently....much to the 'joy' of 84% of the Russian public according to a recent Russian Government Poll which required contact details and ID before receiving an answer,as three tooled-up thugs wait for a signal near-by. 

Tracklist:

A1 Live At The Richmond, Brighton
A2 In A Dream
A3 Violin Phase
B1 The Bitter Humours Of Fermenting Passion Flow
B2 The Circle Of Violence
B3 Life Began From Here
B4 Ritual

DOWNLOAD in your dreams HERE!

Lindsay Cooper – "The Small Screen, Music For Television" (Sync Pulse Records – 625) 1984

In an age where the television screen is no longer small, but the size of medium sized cinema screen,we are treated to a bunch of channel 4 commissioned films from the first year or so of  Britain's fourth channel.

Back in 1982 I excitedly rushed back from school to catch the start of a brand new channel which promised adventurous and challenging programming. I got home just in time to see the start at 5 o'clock,only to witness the naffest of quiz shows ever invented...'Countdown', the ultimate show for geeks and nerds everywhere!?....the first episode featuring celebrity farmer Ted Moult, who subsequently blew his brains out a few years after his character was stained by appearing on Countdown in the coveted role of Smart Arse.This death by boredom atrocity is still going today,although it has a sexier lady on the vowels, and consonants,the lovely Rachel Riley,and also an x-rated version presented by that potty mouthed tax evader Jimmy Carr.

The real tasty programmes started after the 9pm watershed,with the very wonderful "Five Go Mad In Dorset",featuring a wizard bunch of uncouth 'Alternative' comedian types,playing the roles of Enid "Nazi Sympathiser" Blyton's thoroughly racist,sexist and arrogant little twats, The Famous Five.

Then later still we got the type of experimental films that Lindsay Cooper and her ilk would have made soundtracks for, like the spiffing efforts featured on this rather splendid cassette.

She wasn't too bad for a girl!? Hurrah!

Notes:
Tracks A1 to A5:
Songs from five short films made by Lis Rhodes & Jo Davis (Four Corners for Channel 4).

Tracks A6 to A9:
Green Flutes, a film about a Republican flute band in Glasgow, directed by Nancy Schiesari for Channel 4.

Track A10:
Domestic Bliss a comedy/drama directed by Joy Chamberlain (Newsreel Collective for Channel 4).

Tracks B1 to B8:
With Our Children, a film about lesbian mothers directed by Melanie Chait (Lusia Films for Channel 4).

Tracklist:

A1 The Song Of The Goose & The Common
A2 Off The Fence
A3 Fair Exchange
A4 Windscale
A5 The Number 8 Bus
A6 Belfast
A7 Fanfare
A8 Flute Tune
A9 Priesthill
A10 End Credits
B1 Court Entry
B2 Lord Wilberforce
B3 Home Movie 1
B4 Open Letters
B5 Linda B.
B6 Home Movie 2
B7 Three Heads
B8 Julia/End Credits

DOWNLOAD via your small screen HERE!

Lindsay Cooper – "Outtakes For Other Occasions" ( No Man's Land – NML 8603 C) 1986

Well when I said that at least there were no feminist lyrics berating men for being men and not women, on The Feminist Improvising Group tape,yeah?...Well it seems that they....I used the word 'They' which in feminist newspeak usually means 'Men'...they,not 'they',saved that one for this tape of soundtracks for zero-budget plays and films that no-one got to see except a few chin stroking artphag's and the people who made them. 

"Score" from "Give Us A Smile",sung by improvising vocalist Maggie Nichols,with words by...wait for it....the Leeds Animation Workshop?... has all the paranoia and anti-male propaganda anyone could wish for......yeah of course everything is designed to keep women in their place,y'know, the kitchen and bed etc, blah blah blah.

It's enough to turn anyone into a misogynist inside three minutes.

'No Man's Land' is the label,but I notice Chris Cutler,and Fred Frith featuring prominently on the credits,dunno about you but the last time I checked they were officially 'Male'?

Otherwise, musically great,and reassuringly short. 

Tracklist:

From The Play "The Execution" 4:05
A1 Tsar's Band
A2 The Assassination
A3 The Evening Before
-
A4 Score (From The Film "Give Us A Smile") 3:00
B1 Washing Line (From The Film "Green Flutes")0:35
B2 Score (From The Film "Against The Current") 3:05
B3 Curtain Music From The Play "The Time Of Their Lives" 1:20
B4 Trih's Song 1:23

DOWNLOAD the occasional outtake HERE!

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - "The Theatre Of Eternal Music ‎– Dream House 78'17" ( Shandar ‎– 83 510) 1974

 You want more don't you?

Here we have the mongolian style drone singing of the La Monte Young husband and wife team,with John Hassell joining in the fun on what sounds uncannily like a Kazoo?But i'm reliably informed that it was a trumpet?.....yeah right? I'm not as stupid as I sound,it's a Kazoo!

So technology existed in 1974 that could cram 80 minutes of drone on two sides of one vinyl 12 incher,which makes it all sound even shitter quality,and is rather crackly;which adds to its charm and not only gets rid of the normals from your personal space, but the audiophiles too. Its a win/win situation.

Again we have instructions on how to play your record....thanks 'La':

"For the maximum fidelity on Side B, reduce the treble controls on your pre-amplifier to minimum. Since the sine waves have no harmonic content, and all are below 202.5 Hertz, this will reduce the surface noise which is normal on most discs. Note: Be sure to keep the treble controls normal on Side A."

I did all that and it still sounds shit,but being a fan of Shit-fi I mind not.

So now you know what you've been doing previously is WRONG!...which is not too much of a pity because the Audiophiles have now left the room.....FOR GOOD!

Now, if you haven't been patronized enough here's an explanation, from 'La' to you:

"Side A. 13 I 73 5:35 - 6:14:03 PM NYC is a sub-section of Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery, begun in 1966 as a section of the even longer work: The Tortoise, His Dreams And Journeys which was begun in 1964 with The Theatre Of Eternal Music. Performed 17 January 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

"Side B. Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27 - 10:06:41 PM NYC Three sine waves. Frequencies and voltages of the sine waves determined and tuned by La Monte Young using oscillators custom designed by Rober Adler to generate specific frequencies and voltages of great stability. Performed 14 July 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

Art-Club Rule number one....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!

Art-Club Rule number two....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!!

Tracklist:

A 13 I 73 5:35-6:14:03 PM NYC 39:03
B Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC 39:14

DOWNLOAD some avant garde seasonal crackling HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 05" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-059) 2019

 The fifth and final...for now...volume of Brad Laner's (Y'know, that guy from Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies?) epic voyage into the wirey world of modular synthesis. A suitably 'Out There' rearrangement of the synth exploration norms,genuinely pushing boundaries were there shouldn't be any.The possibilities are endless with these lovely objects,and few people actually move into the inter-galactic regions of electronica....as with all his other projects,Brad has no fear of spacewalking ,untethered,in the gaping void of convention that suffocates innovation.These sounds help to fill that vacuum somewhat.

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 05a
B Ligaments 05b

DOWNLOAD and understand the difference between ligaments and tendons HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 02" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-056) 2019

Another rewiring of the ligaments in the ligature of a genre that could be, 'Modular Synthesis".

Personally the sight of wires gives me a migraine,and the cost of this new generation of Modular synths makes me wince. But, at least we have Brad Laner to do it for us.A better candidate to make sense out of this rich retiree's 21st century version of collecting butterfly's I cannot think of.

This second tape is at least far better,and nuttier, than tape one,which was in turn far better than most indulgers in this questionable pastime........and yes, the covers do look like those Industrial Records cassettes.....a tribute within a tribute?

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 02a
B Ligaments 02b

DOWNLOAD some new ligaments HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 01" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-055) 2019

 Brad Laner, the step-grandaddy of Synth Punk, among many other OUT-there musical projects too numerous to mention, is,of course, still offending the musical sensibilities of the normals to this day.

More recently Laner has taken the inevitable dive into the ever-expanding universe of modular synthesis, taking many months to record dozens of hours of live improvisations and editing them together. “Ligaments” is the result and is intended to be an ongoing series.

Sure we've all now got a room dedicated to our modular synth collections,but few people on this crumbling rock have Laner's naturally abstract insight into what makes something challenging.

You can either end up sounding like Jean Michel Jarre, or like a disintegrating alien machine.I like my Modular synth workouts to be adequately fried and burnt on at least one side.This is what these things were intended to do.Except this cassette is fried on both sides.

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 01a
B Ligaments 01b

DOWNLOAD this analog madness digitally HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Musical Offering / Музыкальное Приношение" (Мелодия ‎– С60 30721 000) 1990

The Soviets insisted that anything the capitalists could do,they could at least match it,usually making these things on a budget of close to zero,held together with straw and snot, like their version of Concorde,the supersonic passenger jet,Concordski,which crashed at the Paris airshow in 1973. As soon as the "more Equal Than Thou" members of the Polit Bureau heard of the EMS synth,they wanted their own 'Socialist' version, that their great and glorious electronic composers could all use.......this was called, the 'ANS' synthesizer;notice any similarities there?
One of the first synthesizers in the world (aka in The USSR), it was created by the Russian engineer E. Murzin over a period of twenty years from 1937, and it created music using light, rather than electrical variations, unlike all other synthesizers,except Daphne Oram's Oramics machine of course.This replaced the soviet version of the synth which involved high voltage cables attached to the genetils of 88 Oboe playing dissidents,and a series of levers that, when thrown in a sequence, would apply the adequate voltage to make the dissedent play his allocated note on the Oboe stapled to his mouth. This was fully polyphonic,but had its drawbacks, like the oboe player dying, and it emitted an awful smell of burning ball-bag hairs.Now that's what i call 'Electronic Music'!?
For Murzin's light synth,he,or the KGB, invited,or ordered, young,but qualified, composers to come and work on some new electronic pieces....this time without electrodes or any pointing guns,and the resulting works are showcased on this post Berlin wall collapse album released by crumbling state label Melodia.

Recorded between 1964 and 1971,these bizarre dark electronic excursions didn't see the light of day until 1990,as the communist bloc was collapsing;but the rest of the recordings that never made it onto the album were rediscovered and are now included here as bonus tracks.Whoppeeeee.......now, where did I put those electrodes,and where are those cheap economic migrants I bought?

Tracklist:

1 –Oleg Buloshkin- Sacrament 3:34
2 –Sofia Gubaidulina - Vivente-Non Vivente (Alive & Dead) 10:44
3 –Edward Artemiev - Mosaic 4:00
4 –Edward Artemiev - 12 Looks At The World Of Sound 12:52
5 –Edison Denisov - Birds' Singing 5:05
6 –Alfred Schnittke - Steam 5:50
7 –Alexander Nemtin - Tears 4:41
8 –Alexander Nemtin - I. S. Bach: Choral Prelude C-dur 2:30
9 –Schandor Kallosh - Northern Tale 5:38
10 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Voices Of The West 2:00
11 –Edward Artemiev Music From The Motion Picture "Cosmos" 12:15
12 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Intermezzo 2:00

DOWNLOAD or you may accidently fall off a balcony HERE!

Iván Patachich ‎– "Musical Electro-Alchemy" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12369) 1982

As this blog was initially about how to turn musical Lead into musical Gold,or vice-versa, the 'electro-alchemy' of another very serious Hungarian seems out of place, when you compare it to anything on 'Fuck Off Records',but they do share the same determination to get their very unpopular works into the hearing appendages of a few hundred members of the public.Apart from that I've ran out of UK DIY stuff,so i gott write about something,no matter how tenuous the link.
This,one has to say, 'Fantastic' record melts haunting  neo classical choirs with Kluster style narration in a foreign language....unless you're Hungarian of course.....and ......here's the electro bit....minimal electronic noise.
This would have made a great soundtrack for "Solaris 2" if anyone had the guts, or stupidity to try making such a bold attempt at the only good movie with a "2" at the end of the title.
Failing that, get a bunch of contemporary dancers and leave them to it.The results should be hilarious.

Tracklist:

1 Antifonák(1977) 9:30
2 Hivó Jelek(1977) 10:05
3 Ballade(1976) 5:00
4 Ludus Syntheticus(1977) 8:00
5 Kínai Templom Visszhanggal(1979) 8:12
6 Hommage À L'Électronique(1978) 9:24

DOWNLOAD to turn lead into more lead HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Magyar Elektronikus Zene: Hungarian Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 11851) 1979

Oh Those Hungarians and their weird Iron curtain ways,and their kerazzzzy christian names like.....er.....Peter!!!?.....two Peters in fact.Theres a Peter Winkler on here,surely no relation to Fonz legend Henry I trust? Anything's possible in the world of avant garde Electronic music,even a 'Happy Days' connection.Despite the music summoning enough power through discomfort to rename this shit TV series as "Unhappy Days"
I'm relieved to say that the other names are far more in the malevolent dictator realm,like Ivan, and the previously discussed Zoltan......wasn't that the hound of Dracula's name?
The...er.....'music', is suitably castle dungeon in it's homeliness.
The odd appearance of The Soup Dragon from the Clangers,in Zoltan's work,place the evil one head and shoulders above his compatriots,although its all jolly sinister.Evoking empty space,lonliness and fear amongst the moist cloisters of a vampire's mountain top chateau.A Hungarian 'Trump Tower',but with taste.

Tracklist:

A1 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Mariphonia(1972) 8:07
A2 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Egy Cisz-Dur Akkord Története (1975) 5:48
A3 –Peter Eötvös - Mese: Rövidített Változat (1968) 12:18
B1 –Iván Patachich - Magánhangzók: Ta Fonaenta (1976) 8:06
B2 –Iván Patachich - Hangzó Függvények (1975) 10:37
B3 –Máté Victor & Péter Winkler - Viscositas (1975) 5:12

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Zoltán Pongrácz ‎– "144 Sounds: Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12433) 1982

Most Hungarians have names that are later used for the character of an Evil God in cheapo kids fantasy cartoon series'. Zoltan , the bringer of pestilence,with a few of those weird Hungarian Dogs straining on the end of some chain heavy leash. One day Zoltan hopes to compete at 'Crufts',but for now he'll make do with just doing evil.Keep it simple Zolt.
This Zoltan makes evil sounding neo-classical electronics,complete with the barking hounds of Zoltan. Not the type of Electronics anyone can do mind....there's some craft to Mr. Pongrácz's electronic compositions. Sound effects as music, this most certainly is not! There's dark and light shading, and lots of stagey Hungarian monologues,in the style of those early Kluster albums (get them here and here). Again, I dunno what the voice is going on about,and I don't wanna know, it invariably lessens the mystery. I avoided seeing pictures of Joy Division, and I avoid translations of dark foreign language solioquies, to maintain the enigma.Nothing beats the perfection of the human imagination.
There's choirs too, like some Magyar version of the Omen.
Chimps could not make this,not even the infinate chimp,unlike the chumps who make that random knob twisting "I've got an expensive synth and you haven't" electronica' waving their Karl Heinz Stockhausen correspondence course certificate in your face mockingly,chanting "you don't understaaaand, you don't understaaand, nah nah n-nah naaaah!"


Tracklist:

A1 Madrigál 10:03
A2 144 Hang 12:00
B1 A Balgaság Dícsérete 18:26
B2 Sesquiatera 7:22

DOWNLOAD the hounds of Zoltan HERE!

Various Artists ‎– Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 2 (1966-1977) (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7903) 1979

They have funny names, wear clogs, take drugs openly,ride bicycles,have childrens stories about putting fingers into Dykes...and if that wasn't enough to recommend that you move to Holland, then how's about all this early electronic music then?
They're so liberal over there that all of this was probably state-funded. If the government did that in the USA the Rednecks would start lynchin' people of colour again,if they ever stopped?
There's something about all this early electronica that is far more disturbing that it's younger,trendier, sibling Industrial Music,which tried far too hard to be unsettling.This is the same as the difference between those scary movies where you saw nothing except what your own mind imagined,and shit yourself.Industrial Music was more like a Slasher move where nothing was left to the imagination. The human mind is capable of indescribable horrors,and this musique concrete stuff gives the mind the space it needs to create the terror of real life,or rather reveal the terror of real life. 
Fucking Hell, we're all gonna die!?Why wasn't I TOLD!!!?


Tracklist:

1 –Jacob Cats - Cadence-1 6:10
2 –Tera De Marez Oyens - Safed 7:33
3 –Jos Kunst - Extérieur 9:39
4 –Gilius Van Bergeijk - D.E.S 7:46
5 –Frans Van Doorn - Minnuet 9:05
6 –Thomas Arras - A.B.C. 8:33
7 –Simeon Ten Holt - I Am Sylvia 15:30
8 –Victor Wentink - Discours 13:20
9 –Louis Andriessen - In Memoriam 5:06
10 –Peter Smith - Étude-1 8:58
11 –Tony Van Campen - Sintering 9:55

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Various Artists ‎– "Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 1 (1955-1966)" (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7803) 1978

On a purely Intellectual note to start off with......TeeHeeHeeeee......His name is Hans Kox...titter titter! Fnar Fnar Kyuk Kyuk!
Well, Hans off yer Kox now,and lets get serious.....Nah!
Like everywhere else,the Dutch think they invented Electronic music,and one has to say,they were pretty close to having a point.
The origin of Electronic music is almost as tiresome an argument as who invented Punk Rock.....but in Punk Rocks' case it was quite clearly England, Not Detroit,Not New York,Not Scotland...England,gottit?
As for coherent electronic composition, it seems,on the whole, to be a French thing, although it turns out that Daphne Oram of the BBC may have trumped Pierre Shaeffer,but it was kept traditionally  Hush Hush in that understated British way.We don't like show-offs over there  y'know?
One thing that the Dutch are world class at however, is Funny Names.

Hans Kox .....gaffaw gaffaw. laff laff!

Tracklist:

Studio Of The Netherlands Radio Union
A1 –Hans Kox - Three Pieces For Electronic Organ 3:48
A2 –Ton De Leeuw - Study 6:47
Studio Of Delft Technical University
A3 –Jan Boerman - Musique Concrète 3:04
A4 –Jaap Spek - Impulses 7:58
A5 –Rudolf Escher - The Long Christmas Dinner 6:15
Philips Studio
B1 –Henk Badings - Cain And Abel 8:57
B2 –Dick Raaijmakers - Piano-Forte 4:56
B3 –Ton De Leeuw - Antiphonie 15:17
Studio Of Utrecht University
C1 –Frits C. Weiland - Studie In Lagen En Impulsen 4:46
C2 –Hans Kox - Cyclophonie III 7:33
C3 –Tom Dissevelt - Fantasy In Orbit 3:05
C4 –Axel Meijer - Werkstuk-1964 2:32
C5 –Robbert Jan De Neeve - A.F. 1:17
C6 –Peter Schat - De Aleph 7:46
Studio Of Ton Bruynèl
D1 –Ton Bruynèl - Reflexen 4:34
CEM Studio, Bilthoven
D2 –Will Eisma - BTH. 3457 4:08
D3 –Klaus Gorter - K 45 5:40
D4 –Luctor Ponse - Etude-I 6:19
D5 –Berend Giltay - Polychromie-I 6:42

DOWNLOAD some early electronics with clogs on HERE!

Karel Appel ‎– "Musique Barbare" (WVB ‎– 99954 DL) 1963

On the theme of electronic Apples,where we heard 'Silver Apples of the Moon',then experienced the lost and found proto-electronic duo 'The Siver Apples';now we have a mad Dutch Painter called Karel Appel!?
Let's face it, artists are a bunch of self-aggrandizing attention seeking twats. And Dutch Abstract expressionist, forward slash, action painter,Karel Appel, was certainly one of them.
Lack of attention as a child leading to low self-esteem issues has a lot to answer for.....Hitler for one.....and Karel takes his anger out on, mostly, canvas;but,that's not enough for him is it?...Oh no...he has to enter the confusing world of Musique Concréte,applying his action painting techniques to magnetic tape.

Karel approach to tape splicing was,how do you say?...er...unique?

Looking like Captain Haddock on angel-dust, our wooly jumper wearing Art Nutter somehow managed to produce one of the most extreme and uncompromising sonic assaults the world has ever heard.No its not a colla-bore-ation with Merzbow from 2007, this was done at the same time those ground-breaking mop tops were singing nursery rhymes like 'Love Me Do' at the top of the UK hit parade.....in 1963?

Captain Haddock unleashed in the Dutch verion of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The opening piece.....artists call tracks, 'Pieces'by the way....sounds not unlike a Carl Stalling composed soundtrack to a Looney Toons cartoon,zipping and darting,spontaneously, in all random directions.Which, without the coreography of a Warner Brothers cartoon, could send a an unprepared mind insane . I'm guessing he approached the tape edit like an action painting,randomly sticking pieces together, and randomly attacking the studio piano. It would make a great backing track to an experimental eastern european cartoon.
But its when Karel starts to vocalize that it really gets certifiable. Section 8 stuff,probably used to get himself out of Dutch National Service after the war. Repeating the phrase "I Do Not Paint I Hate" over and over again,increasingly manically,accompanied by a prepared tape and wild phonetic drumming.
The final track...er...'piece',find our hero let loose on the drums again, whilst attacking a vox continental. This, The Beatles,it is NOT!

Appel doing his day job......artists call it working!?“I paint like a savage – because we live in savage times.” Said Karel, Another favourite quote of the formidable painter was “I merely muck about”...well,he said it not me!?

He never made another record.

Tracklist:

1.Paysage Électronique (11:41)
2.Poème Barbare (3:30)
3.Le Cavalier Blanc (12:42)

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