Alien Brains ‎– "Menial Disorders" (Deleted Records ‎– DEC 005) 1980

The Alien Brains were on the recently featured "Fire On Boat" compilation, so here's a C-90 of theirs that I haven't posted yet, on legendary UK cassette label Deleted records.
Its a confused lo-fi mash-up of noisy messing about with crap electronics,tapes, and whatever items Nigel Jacklin and chums could find lying around their living room.
To add further confusion,the tape opens with a segment by L. Voag, aka Jim Whelton of The Homosexuals.Followed by a live performance by an unknown group called 'The Activity Toys',butchering a sixties classic in front of a rather hostile audience.....i'm sure I heard a section of the crowd calling out for Sham 69 near the start,then the unknown singer observes;"there's gonna be a Riot soon!"?......brave boys.
The rest is by Alien Brains, a collective based around Nigel Jacklin,which included most of the luminaries of the early UK DIY cassette scene, eg Bendle, The New Blockaders, Storm Bugs etc.
Then Mark Automatons '391' project donates a tape recording of some bloke asking what makes people behave violently?...what exactly differentiates a '391' track from an Alien Brains track I dunno?
Be prepared for a classically messy and fuzzy lo-fi experience from the depths of early DIY history.

DOWNLOAD in an orderly fashion HERE!

Die Trip Computer Die - "Flowerball" (Self- Released Cd-r) 2000

Yet another unreleased samplerdelic musique concrete underground classic from Whelton and the lads.Up to their usual standards of 'out-there-ness'.Its so obscure i'm not sure the band know of its existence. Therfore it qualifies under the famed N.Senada's (see 'Not Available' by The Residents) 'Theory of Obscurity' dogma as now releasable.

Tracklist:

01 System of the Tortured
02 Gestations
03 A Bad Idea
04 In Bed With 1000 Priests
05 Seductive Song of War
06 Messrs Smirkett & Bloat
07 Fink Drummer
08 Chief-Inspector Kickback
09 Contains Psychological
10 Goodbye Again
11 Every 'Why' Is A 'How'
12 The Naked Statue
13 Roll, Frankie Roll
14 A Short Film About Gas
15 Flowerball

DOWNLOAD a bouquet of freaky flowers HERE!

Die Trip Computer Die - "Angry Dan Presents: Stop Killing Jelly Trousers" ( Altered States Tapes ‎– AST023) 2011

This is ,arguably, my favourite record of the 'teenies', though how one argues with oneself is worth an argument in itself.......with oneself? 
As i'm high on Volterol's anti-inflammatory magic blended with a swiftly imbibed (the past participale of 'Imbibe') pint of guiness,I will push the boat out and say, "This is a perfect record". It ticks all the boxes in my sad internet fantasyland. It's very funny, innovative to the max, challenging,intellectually stimulating, did I say 'Funny'?......well...all that lot and more.
Yes, there's a lot of Plunderphonia about this cassette, but it's not pretentious like Oswalds' version of the genre, and its shitloads more amusing than Negativland, which is natural because 'Die Trip Computer Die' are English, and Negativland are far too 'clever' for their own goods American types.Amos, aka Xentos Fray Bentos of DTCD, did, again, arguably, invent the genre after all,as L Voag back in '79? No wonder that 'Angry Dan' is livid!
Die Trip Computer Die, are ,of course, Jim Whelton, late of the Homosexuals, Lepke Buchwater (Milk From Cheltenham), and Ted Barrow.....dunno much about him,but he sounds like someone who would have ran a market stall who sold out of print soul cd's.

Here's what it  says on the Altered States website:

"Altered States is proud to plop out this latest steaming opus by the now-defunct, absurdist trio, Die Trip Computer Die. Made up of men who were at one stage or another involved in UK post-punk unit The Homosexuals, DTCD utilise various instruments, circuit-bent equipment and plundered sample loops to achieve lift-off. Most importantly they use their (collective) MIND in order to crumble YOURS. Angry Dan Presents: Stop Killing Jelly Trousers was recorded live in Pontins, Nijmegan during a holiday in 2002 with the verbal verbosity of au pair, Angry Dan mastering ceremonies. However, this recording information may be merely another red herring left in your letterbox by the Trippers. ADP: SKJT is a twice a year listen, but when you do bring yourself to press play, it ll tie your laces and poach your eggs. 60 copies, pro tapes, cover + insert by Myjyerljcle Stevrdjnen Lesteechskinz."

Tracklist:

Side A - (19:48)

Side B - (18:54)

DOWNLOAD the aNGER OF dAN 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!

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! 

L Voag - " The Way Out " (no label no.9) 1979

Despite what a disgruntled Nurse With Wound fan said(see comments in Gus Coma post), L Voag was a direct influence on the NWW sound, and he WAS around in 1979, before "Chance Meeeting On a Dissecting Table" was recorded. Take note of the listing of L Voag on the nerd-worthy NWW list of influential artistes included with said LP.
Much more tape collage madness from Jim Whelton and cronies,following the true punk rock course of moving 90 degrees to the mainstream, challenging the accepted norm of what music is........its this LP in fact.
Very similar in places to the Gus Coma and Milk From Cheltenham records from around the same time; they were mostly released two or three years after they were recorded, so take no notice of the release year on the labels,they all began life in or before 1979....."Seminal", as they say in music journo skool.........all together now...."SEMINAL!"


Track Listing:

		House
X1		Front Door
X2		Hall
X3		Kitchen
X4		Toilet
X5		Living Room
X6		Bedroom
X7		The Way Out
		Chat
Y1		The Lengthy Pause
Y2		Franco's Prayer
Y3		The Raw End (Of The Tits, Bum & Challenge Deal)
Y4		Boxing and Sparring (With The Third Dimension)
Y5		The Goalkeepers Fear Of The Piss-Up
Y6		Planning - Budgeting - Shopping
Y7		Helping The Police With Their Enquiries
Y8		Your Own Hair - Your Own Chance
Y9		El Cada Dia Del Genté Comun
Y10		The Tuned Knife And Fork Toned Down To A Light Lunch
Y11		The Monumental

DOWNLOAD The Way Out HERE!

or BUY IT HERE forr seven quid!

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!