The Fear Merchants – "Mental (remastered)" (Emotional Response) – ER84 1983/2019

Fear NOT!....I'm not going to mention "The Special Military Operation" that is saving us all from Nuke wielding Neo-Nazi's. The only Fear Merchants I wanna listen to today are the almost God-Like Amos and Sara under another of their many guises.Featuring Jim Welton,late of the almost God-like Homosexuals, and Sara Vaughan of Sara Vaughan fame.

Originally this was a cassette on the almost God-like "It's War Boys" DIY label, or should I say "It's a Special Military Operation Boys" label.....the original cassette rip of which can be found HERE!...if you like that sort of thing...which of course you do?

This rip is from the much awaited vinyl re-releases from 2019,or thereabouts.This also means that we now know what all the tracks are called.If anyone likes a good Larry Olivier Nazi Doctor pastiche then this is the record for you.

If you wanna read my original review splurge blurb write up then click HERE!...'cus i can't be arsed to do it again.

Meanwhile a parting message for any poor lickle Russians (ahhh bless 'em!) that are still able to read this.....I'm just going to MacDonalds for a burger and a coca-cola,but first i'll have to withdraw some cash from my open banks ATM machine,then maybe do a bit of shopping before settling down to watch some of the myriad of TV channels available to me.May even browse Facebook too?......and just think, at least you've got a fine permanent leader like Vladimir Putin and we have to cope with rubbishy old Democracy. I envy you.......altogether now..."WAR!...what is it good for? Absolutely nothing".....whoops you've just been arrested as a precursor to a sound beating!?...."Huh! say it agaaaaain"......not likely Edwin,it's fifteen years banged up in a Russian Prison if certain nationalities say it twice.

Ain't life great?

Tracklisting:

1. Act One
2. Un Choix Du Mal Song
3.Meanwhile.....back in the Doctors Surgery
4. U - Boat Captain
5.Enter Giant Whales Mouth​.​. Leaving Through Its Anus Back into Surgery of Doc
6. The Uzbeck Connection 9
7. The Irate Psychiatrist is Shaking His Head in Disbelief at the Patient's 'Stories'
8. Industrialist's Dirge
9.Reflections in Psychiatrist's Spectacles Theme
10 Act Two
11. Fiasco
12.Visibly Brighter the Psychiatrist Thinks He's Getting Somewhere at Last
13. Ya Habibi
14.She Runs off Across the Sands and Vanishes in the Ripples of Hot Air Rising Upwards
15. Aristocratic Hunchback Out-cast Song
16. Absolute Misery Theme
17. When She Weighs Eighty-Six Stones
18. Mental Theme

DOWNLOAD without fear HERE!

Amos & Lepke - "Modern shit will make you ill" (It's War Boys _ £21) 1984

As I recently acquired the sole missing piece of the "It's war Boys!" jigsaw, namely "Modern Shit Will Make you ill", aka, this tape......; and Amos (Jim Whelton) guested with The Work in Japan) and came from the same squatland scene as This Heat. I bring you this new chapter in the documentation of Amos/Its War Boys/Homosexuals recordings. Directly taken from the original Its War Boys catalog, here is one of the most obscure sonic works of the early 1980s, Modern Shit! First issued on tape (cat No. £21) this work circulated only privately among the close friends of the label and was never officially distributed. Actually, it represents one of the most intense and experimental outputs of this creative London squatland-garde period.
The idea was to create a contemporary 'Non-stop', vaguely in emulous contradiction to products by people like Cerrone and Biddulph (1970s disco queens- which in hindsight was probably even 'weirder' than this stuff?....it just lacked the sense of humour).
Lepke and Amos, the two minds behind this project (and 2/3 of the Milk from Cheltenham adventures), each constructed a half hour near-continuous non-stop collage using only the foulest materials.
In those days, they had their 8-track studio in a mouldy basement below Brixton Road, Sarf London and they happened to occasionally record some awful wannabe pop bands. It was a truly horrible experience for our heroes,but with a good side.
Almost as soon as the idiots left the studio, Lepke and Amos would start re-mixing their music, often stealing and sticking it (suitably mangled) onto new tracks, the basis material for "Modern Shit!"
Two pseudonymous British gentlemen lurk behind this Modern Shit. The first has used various vaguely absurd monikers over the years, including Amos, L. Voag, and Xentos “Fray” Bentos; the other has stuck with one improbable handle: Lepke Buchwater (no doubt meant to echo the name of legendary U.S. crime kingpin Lepke Buchalter). Currently, they comprise two-thirds of the excellent Die Trip Computer Die; in the late ’70s/early ’80s Amos was in the Homosexuals, the Just Measurers, Amos and Sara, and a host of other obscure bands, while Lepke was the brains behind the group Milk from Cheltenham.
Despite the fact that all these outfits produced wildly creative music, arguably some of the best from the post-punk era, chances are (with the possible the exception of the Homosexuals) you haven’t heard of any of them. In the case of most of these recordings, their low profile was due to a deliberate obscurantism stemming from a DIY/anti-capitalist rejection of the Music Business. As for the Modern Shit project, originally released in the early ’80s on Amos’s cassette label It’s War Boys, there was another reason for keeping things at an almost subterranean level. At the time, Amos and Lepke supported themselves by running a small recording studio, where they recorded all kinds of crappy local bands. As mentioned, after the bands had left, they would muck about with the session tapes—and a lot of that muckery/mockery found its way into this project.
Amos and Lepke’s plundered material got worked into two absurdist “mega-mixes” that were intended as a surrealistic parody of ’70s “non-stop” disco mixes produced by the likes of Cerrone (of Love in C Minor and Supernature fame). Each produced their own continuous half-hour mix, Amos’s appearing on the first side of the original cassette version (indexed as tracks 1 to 19), and Lepke’s on the flip (now tracks 20 to 37). 
Amos and Lepke worked with the same collection of resources, principally drum machines, keyboards, their own vocals, and all manner of “found” recordings—taken from records, TV, and the hapless local bands mentioned above (from whom they mostly lifted vocal tracks).
In terms of methodology, Amos’s mix bears less resemblance to an actual disco “non-stop” than Lepke’s, but it is nonetheless more impressive as a piece of music. In place of a disco’s steady rhythmic base, Amos uses recurring fragments or loops to create linkages between parts. (These bits and pieces can’t really be called “samples,” as it’s very unlikely either Amos or Lepke used samplers, which had barely been introduced at that point. Their dense collages were done the old-fashioned way, with tape manipulation, splicing, turntables, and loops.) Rhythmically, the last thing Amos lays down is a groove—rather, his rhythms are deliberately ridiculous and deranged. The mix’s wacked-out surrealism, however, is tempered by sections that are strangely beautiful, brooding, and mysterious. After a barrage of bizarrely collaged fragments, Amos’s side ends with a five-minute song that could almost seem normal if you weren’t really listening. A lifted vocal lead is rendered completely absurd through strange keyboard colourings and subtly off-kilter backing vocals.
Amos’s own lyrics (that is, when he himself is singing) are both comically ridiculous and somewhat menacing. They are also interrelated with the lyrics in Lepke’s mix: while nothing remotely like a coherent narrative emerges, both reference World War II, Nazis, and political repression.
Lepke’s mix is “funkier” than Amos’s—you can tap your foot to much of it, and an actual bona fide disco beat even crops up briefly. But it’s still a complete piss-take, and full of wildly demented humour.Hours of fun can be spent spotting the extracts form Holgar Czukay's 'Canaxis', and identifying snippets of Pierre Henri's musique concrete oeuvre.
The work these two produced,predates and will appeal to fans of the plunderphonic/cut-up work produced by Nurse with Wound, John Oswald, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, and People Like Us.But remember ,they got there first.

Tracklist:

(1-37) Modern Shit Will Make You Ill

DOWNLOAD this vintage shit HERE!

Narky Brillans - "Goes Into Orbo" (It's War Boys! Cassette, £13) 1981

It's the end of the year,so I'll do what every TV channel does and look back over the year at Die or DIY?
This time last year this blog has just been deleted by the (Ir)relevant authorities for some made up crimes against,among others, the Beatles; because one included a cover version of "I Love You" on a Stray Trolleys cassette!
The best part of a year was spent re-posting everything that was wiped,without consultation one may add, or with recourse to appeal. The inter-web my be relatively "free" but it ain't just, or secure from your own,and other countries' (USA) governments.

To celebrate(?) a year of mainly repeats,here's another repeat post,the imperious Narky Brillans 'goes into Orbo' (also known as Narki Brillans in some quarters;,but this time with a difference. Previously posted without full track editing, one has now been bothered to edit this masterpiece into its constituent tracks,and ripped it to high quality 320k mp3.
As usual with any It's War Boys release there appears to be inconsistencies with the track listing.There are seven tracks when only six are listed,so i am guessing as to which tracks are which. Checking with the vinyl re-release from a few years ago,which has eight tracks(?), i have identified one previously unlisted track,"Dave got a job in a Garage".

Here's the original review anyway:

"More looney tunes from the Homosexuals collective, this time by Narky Brillans, who created this unhinged sound collage back in 1981,again on cassette(£13 is the catalogue number not the price by the way). Brillans was a central member of that collective and this cracked 1981 side is the perfect distillation of the UK DIY aesthetic, with a series of songs, instrumentals and sound works that combine the subterranean rock style of Swell Maps with home-recorded rants, punk-pop instants, outer space drones and doomy synth. Don't know what the personnel was on this recording,but i can sense the presence of Jim Whelton, L Voag ,lurking somewhere in the background of this murky DIY concréte classic. Its very L.Voag in places, and has certain echos of the equally fantastic Gus Coma cassette(posted below,as this was also the victim of a DCMA claim,and had to be removed). These are the sound experiments that Stephen Stapleton allegedly heard to inspire his Nurse With Wound project."

Track Listing:(for Narky Brillans)

A1		Worship Worship U.S.A.
A2		On This Side Of The Tracks
A3		Dave got a job in a garage
A4		Fashist Tea Party
B1		ATom Making Bomb
B2		Falling Hole Into

B3    We Got U.S. Dollars

DOWNLOAD and Go into Orbo with Narky HERE!


GUS COMA - "Color Him Coma" (It's war Boys! £17) 1983 :

Gus Coma Tracklisting:

	Pro Walkabout Side
A1	Gut Morning
A2	Very Smart (it was)
A3	Are You Swede?
A4	Tourist
A5	Meet Our Employees
A6	The Cup Is Clean
A7	Televisions
A8	New Broom
A9	The Infiltrators
A10	Sonar Too Good
A11	The Boss's Terrible Handwritting
A12	Avril Shower
A13	Topic Of Cancer
A14	It's 09754
A15	Say Aaah
A16	Advice To The Elderly
A17	Bak Seat Driver
	Anti Walkman Side
B1	No More Shoes
B2	Shopping List
B3	Mr. West Today
B4	Stay At Home Housewife
B5	On 99 o o oh
B6	His Own 2 Feet
B7	Bethlehem
B8	Inteligent
B9	Directions
B10	Lemonade 'N' Beer
B11	His Master's Vox
B12	The Wrong Guy
B13	G'Bye For Now

Notes:

From the sleeve; "Gus Coma is 6 or 7 years old but with a brain and stomach ulcers of a 34yr old xcekutiv. Fanx to every one."

DOWNLOAD a colorful coma HERE!

The Homosexuals ‎– "The Homosexuals' Record" (Recommended Records ‎– RR 18) 1984

From the same fertile London Squats as This Heat, here's a band name to rival the Bathroom Renovations and Danny and the Dressmakers as 'best band name' ever. I wish i'd thought of it. The Homosexuals (and they were beaten up for it too), existed in London squatland from 1972, and recorded mostly to mono cassettes for themselves and friends. Hardly releasing anything in their lifetime, except a couple of singles and an e.p. between 1978 and 1982; this record collects the releases and selected highlights from the bucketload of cassettes they recorded. I prefer this collection to the 3cd astral Glamour set on Hyped2Death, as it cuts out the boring chaff and leaves the quality that this band were more than capable of, if they cared.Their angular guitars, complex melodies, and experimental leanings distanced them somewhat from the punk rock being created by their contemporaries, and has now cemented them as uk DIY legends. So much so that they(Bruno Wizard and backing band!) have now reformed and are touring.
Also the group members released various other records as various alias (which have be posted earlier on this blog), like L.Voag, Just Measurers , Amos and Sara, etc.
A reissue of the first single, 3 tracks from The Homosexuals EP, 6 songs* from the live-to-tape session at Surrey Sound that was one of the first things recorded there (You can tell which songs those are because of the awful distortion), 3 alternate mixes ** and Jim's wonderful "False Sentiments." Remastered by Bob Drake. Bruno's handsome mug appears on the cover courtesy of one of Suzy's videos... 
(Before any sad fucker mentions it, Yes, it's the CD version from 2003....yawn).

Track Listing:

1) My Night Out *
2) Technique Street *
3) Vociferous Slam (a different mix from the EP with some tape-wobble but many more effects) **
4) Soft South Africans "#1" (a previously-unreleased rough-mix) **
5) Neutron Lover *
6) A Million Keys *
7) Naming of Parts *
8) Kiss With Venom *
9) Divorce from Reality
10) Hearts in Exile (45 version)
11) All About Cheap
12) Soft South Africans (45 version)
13) False Sentiments
14) Mecho Madness (a radically different mix from the EP) **
15) Astral Glamour
16) The Birds Have Risen
17) Collapsible You (a longer, more dub-stye mix that turned up in Chris Cutler's unused tapes: the 3:45 original is on George Harrasment and AG)
18) Snapshots of Nairobi (instrumental: never released: there's also a live vocal version on Astral Glamour)
19) "Soft South Africans (raw)" Actually this is the original rough mix of "Hearts in Exile" with all the vocals and the three guitar-parts that Bruno faded out (in response to which Anton faded Bruno's vocals up-and-down, dub-style. This is the pre-mixing counterpart to the rough mix of "SSA" from the LP and it's an incredibly major "find" (It'll be on Astral Glamour, too, of course.)
20) Walk Before Imitate (from the Recommended 2LP sampler)
21) Still Living in My Car (from Venceremos)

DOWNLOAD the homosexuals' mp3 zip file HERE!

Die Trip Computer Die! - " Sibling Family Research." (Its War Boys? Cassette 1995-ish)

Various ex-homosexuals(the famous DIY band not those of a certain sexuality I might add) formed a trio called "Die Trip Computer Die!" in the mid-1990's,led by noise decomposer/ video artist Lepke Buchwater (Milk from Cheltenham) with Xentos 'Fray' Bentos (also known as Pete the Drummer, Dr. Shagnasty and 'Bubbles' in the Beyonce fan club) and Ted Barrow. inventor of various ur-instruments, most notably 'The Baxtertron' which was an electronic 'black box' constructed inside a recently vacated Ferrero Rocher box.
This was released well before any of their more famous cd's on the Alcahol label,and was apparently one of many,so I don't know much about it,except that it is beamed from outer space magnificence on a c-60.
The sound is a sectioned version of Plunderphonics, sampling snatches of elevator muzak,and layering it against dodgy glitches and curcuit bending. There definately lurks a sense of humour,inherent in all homosexuals related material, it even sounds ominously like mid period residents on some tracks ("Dat Wuz Da Beat Dat Bwoke Mah Heart")

Track Listing:
1. Mr Basin
2. Sibling Family Research
3. XXentos Peeps The Septick Veil
4. Russian Roulette Complaints Dept
5. Dat Wuz Da Beat Dat Bwoke Mah Heart.Mp3
6. Fragtime (circa 1908)
7.The Beguiled Bells Of St. Trinians
8. Techno Cop
9. Throught The Talking Ship
10.Assassin 9.
11.Skin, Still The Best Dressing
12.Those Crazy, Fazy, Basie Days Of Trad
13.The Haunted Dolly Bird Boutique
14.Frying Baby Newton's B..B..Brains

DOWNLOAD THIS OBSCURE CLASSIC HERE!

Nancy Sesay and the Melodaires - " C'est Fab " (It's War Boys £1) 1982

Bonjour mes aimless aimies, one assumes this must be the "It's War Boys" record label month on Die or DIY? And what more natural place to start than the first release (£1) on said imprint, none other than Nancy sesay and the Melodaires.
I get confused about the shady history behind this label and the artists/artist that appear there.
Basically its the vehicle for Jim Whelton/Amos/L Voag of the Homosexuals/Milk From Cheltenham ,and various buddies to let their creative juices run riot.
The first fruits of which is this outing, a non-metronomic sub-jazz , falling down funk syncopated art damaged masterpiece,that conforms for no-one.
Featuring the Treacle Singers,and executively produced by The Dandy Horses, I think you know what you've let yourselves in for.

Track listing:

A		C'Est Fab
B1		The Ballad OF Hong Kong
B2		National Honk

DOWNLOAD C'est Fab! HERE!
or
DOWNLOAD from mediafire HERE! 

The Just Measurers - " Flagellation " (Its War Boys, £5) 1983

Its those damn Homosexuals again! This is Jim Whelton, Lepke (Milk from Cheltenham), and Chris Grey (amos and sara). My favourite Homosexuals related release, its got that falling apart feeling that one loves so dearly, an almost endearing aimlessness. The very best in Avant punk strangness you can find. Released on jim's Its War Boys Label in 1983.

Track Listing:

		This Side
A1		The Perfect Life
A2		See You In Hell, Darling
A3		Dinner Party
A4		Infiltration
A5		The Best Thing I Did Was Give Up Smoking
A6		Immigrants
A7		Petit Guirlades
A8		Nioo Yiirk (The Big Time)
		Flip Side
B1		Go West (E.T.A.)
B2		Spies World
B3		Bank Owner Living On Borrowed Time
B4		Be Good To Your Leaders
B5		It's War Boys
B6		Issolation Booth
B7		Rooting Them Out
B8		Calling All Teenagers

DOWNLOAD some Flagellation HERE!

Vic Serf and the Villans - " Rock Y Roll " (Its War Boys, £6 ) 1980

The next classic from Its War Boys! is the hilariously strange, Vic Serf and the Villans cassette only release from 1980 (£6).
What happens when you put classic rock'n'roll into a blender, and strain the pure juice through a tea strainer, and flush the liquid down the bog, leaving only the crappy cruddy parts of rock N roll:
Elvis's pub singer vocals, laughable do-woppy harmonies, sub-moronic lyrics that are an insult to meaninglessness, twangy guitars, and skiffle-lite drumming......that'll give you most of the ingredients for Rock Y Roll, plus a barrell load of unhinged experimentalism.
But the most important ingredient is Jim 'Amos' Whelton and his nonband of squatters, to make this one of the best rock'n'roll parody/study's this side of the Residents 'Third Reich'n'Roll', or Zappa's 'Ruben and the Jets'.
You can just imagine Vic serf singing these tunes on Vic Reeves' Big Night Out in th 1990's.
A sense of humour is required,so if you don't have one then don't listen to it.

Track Listing:

A1		The Greks Bring Gifts
A2		Bone City
A3		Crumbo Crumbo Land
A4		The Environmental Secretary
A5		Another Cold Heaven
A6		Baby, I'm Turning Blue
A7		Export Figures For '97
A8		Terse Reply From Jodrell
A9		The New Faeces
A10		Onward To The Market, Lo
A11		Black Costumes
B1		What To Do Wiv' Burglars
B2		I'm No Pushover
B3		I'd Appreciate That That
B4		The Ranch Boys
B5		Shakey Space
B6		The Double Vision Of El Meas
B7		Yet More Tales Of The F.B.I.
B8		I.Q. Theory
B9		Yes, Psychoanalysis
B10		The Greks Sign Off

DOWNLOAD some Rock Y Roll HERE!

Sir Alick and the Phraser - " In Search Of The Perfect Baby " - ( Black Noise Records 7No5) 1980

To accompany the  'It's War Boys' back catalogue,(see previous posts s.v.p?), its only natural to listen to some Black Noise; the sister label to Jim Whelton's insane imprint.
Black Noise was more of a Bruno Wizard influenced label,for The Homosexuals and stuff like Sir Alick and the Phraser.
The "In Search of a Perfect Baby"single is a masterpiece of unsyncopated abstract pop; a cubist portrait of a hit.It sort of makes sense, like a jigsaw with several pieces forced into the wrong slots. It's wrongness is only rivalled in my world by Beefheart's "Frownland" from Trout Mask....high praise indeed.

Track Listing:

A		In Search Of The Perfect Baby
B		Nursery Chymes

DOWNLOAD this Perfect baby HERE!

Milk From Cheltenham - " Triptych Of Poisoners " (Its War Boys ,£3) 1983

The next Its War Boys release (£3),is a re-up,from Lepke Buchwater's Milk From Cheltenham;every inch a classic.Sounds very similar to any L.Voag releases.Something akin to a kind of a musical equivalent to channel hopping, lurching,chopping and changing, stream of consciousness editing, heavy use of the oblique strategies cards; all in the glorious lo-fidelity of 1979-81 cassette technology.The musique concréte of squatland.
There were three different editions of this release. Red, blue and black vinyl were pressed. Various inserts were also enclosed, although it was pot luck what ones you got. Each sleeve is unique, with a silk screened front cover and a back cover which comprises of a cut and paste design, again, each copy is different. The later pressing on black vinyl has a silk screened back cover and the pressing is far superior to the blue or red versions. There was a delay of 2 years in getting the LP out as the sleeves took so long to produce!
Give the sample track (08) a listen, then download this classic of the genre below:

01 The Man Who Cried 2:20
02 Where Is The Money To Come From? 0:56
03 Mr. Fridge 1:38
04 International Questionnaire 0:42
05 What About Air War 2:15
06 Do The Ready Can 2:07
07 Decisions 0:57
08 Snappy Fingers 2:44
09 The Plan Must Rule 1:12
10 El Toro Saldrà Cuando Suena El Clarin 6:40
11 Our Dictator 1:08
12 Invitation To Action 2:56
13 Das Elefantenkalb 4:01
14 Air - Sound - Light 1:36
15 Passport To Happiness! 1:56
16 Triptych Of Poisoners 2:18
17 Krazy Golf 2:10
18 Can A Vacuum Cleaner Really Work Quietly? 0:50
19 The Geek 3:39

Download this Triptych of Poisoners HERE!