Max & Malcolm ‎– "Max & Malcolm" (Dangerous Rhythms ‎– DANGER 1) 1982

Yeah,that's all great, but what happened to the members of Metabolist ?
No-one really knows, except for this solitary Cold Wave tinged minimal electronic LP from 1982,featuring Malcolm Lane,main protagonist of said post-prog starlets.
Who's this 'Max' geezer then?
Pseudonymously labeled 'Max Headroom' he bears an unfortunate resemblance to 'Twat of the year 2005', Pete Doherty(If you don't know who he was, don't find out!),or maybe even Twat of the Seventies and beyond, Sir Paul MaCartney. Other than that there seems to be no consequent trace of Mr Headroom; unlike messers Doherty and MaCartney.
That's how we like it way down here; do what needs to be done then fuck Off back under your rock.Again,unlike Messers Doherty and MaCartney!
Malcolm did some other obscure stuff,but i'm damned if I can remember what they were!?
This venture into the murky world of guitar and drum ethnically  enhanced minimal electronica is really very good indeed.
It maintains the darkness of Metabolist's studio work,but stripped down even further to the bare bones,enhancing the misery and loneliness a notch.Music for anonymous urban bedsit dwelling.

Tracklist:
Are The Trumpets Ready
Slow Dancing 

Why Do Tigers Wander Thru My Mind?
Palest Of Places
Their Ghosts Do Shimmer
Inside
High Adventure
Into Space
Lost People
Warning
Wild Beast

DOWNLOAD to the max HERE!

Metabolist - "Live at Actionspace, London, 20/07/1978" (Bootleg)

As fate would have it, a group who were contempories of and trod on similar territory as This Heat, were also recorded at Actionspace in 1978.
Metabolist were unashamedly influenced by Krautrock,and Zeuhl ,but absorbed just enough 'Punk' not to be dismissed as a prog-hangover......although nothing wrong with that in my book.
Although labelled as "A Poor Mans This Heat" by some sections of the UK music press,their album "Hansten Klork" is now widely regarded as a post-punk classic;which indeed it certainly is.

More Metabolist HERE!

Tracklist:

1. Curly Wall
2. Pinstripe
3. Rainy Day Sunshine Girl
4. Slaves
5. (I Can't) Identify (part 1)
6. (I Can't) Identify (part 2)
7. Unknown
8. Eulam's Beat
9. I Don't Want To
10. The Big One.

DOWNLOAD at a high metabolic rate HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By Morgan-Fisher)" (Pipe ‎– PIPE 2) 1980

"From the sleevenotes:
In 1979: Morgan-Fisher heard "The Goofing Off Suite"(by Pete Seeger), and got an idea...
In 1980: Invitations were sent out to a highly personal selection of creative artists, asking them to contribute
pieces of not more than one minute's duration, to what has turned out to be this extraordinarily eclectic album. "

This is sort of an 'Avant garde' kind of a compilation. Its full of strange bedfellows, like Kevin Coyne and Steve Miller;Half Japanese, and Michael Nyman;Pete Seeger and Ron Geesin? All squeezed together in several small boxes until they all become One. A conceptualised microcosm of the modern globalised world on one LP; except that 'Minatures' works and globalisation is killing the very thing that it is supposed to be 'helping'; eradicating culture, and creating an homogeneous cash grasping bland out, to benefit the Hyper-Rich uber class that will eventually wipe 'us' out and claim this rock for themselves.....if there's anything left of it?

The concept is that a diaspora of various muso's,from the full rainbow of musiciandom, and beyond. Through the visible spectrum,the infra red and Ultraviolet,into the microwave background. Provide a short tune, or composition, of around a minute in length. Then the compiler edits them together in chunks of approximately five minutes.Making a maxiture from the miniture.Then after the expansion from the minuscule, we get the contraction, after a short spell of silence, of the whole universe into a one minute summary of the whole record.

Any record that starts with a track called “Bum Love” simply has to be great? That ,and appearences from many luminaries of the DIY culture of 1980; David Cuningham,MarkPerry, Metabolist,Half Japanese. Rubbing Shoulders with serious muso's like Gavin Bryers, Nyman, Lol Coxhill,and Fred Frith.George Melly does a Dada sound poem(he was always a pretentious old cunt!),its got the great Andy Partridge on it, and isn't that Martin Chambers,the drummer from The Vacants? All this plus TheResidents,never ones to turn down a healthy concept, playing the best cover version of a Ramones tune ever!This was, after all, a less disciplined version of The Resident's “Commercial Album”,where every song finished at exactly 1.00 minutes on the dot.

Tracklist: 

		Band-1
A1	–Ollie Halsall & John Halsey	Bum Love
A2	–the Residents	We're A Happy Family / Bali Ha'i
A3	–Roger McGough	The Wreck Of The Hesperus
A4	–Morgan-Fisher	Green And Pleasant
A5	–John Otway	Mine Tonight
		Band-2
A6	–Pete Challis & Phil Diplock	My Way
A7	–Robert Wyatt	Rangers In The Night
A8	–Stinky Winkles	Opus
A9	–Mary Longford	Body Language
A10	–Andy Newman	Andy The Dentist
A11	–David Bedford	Wagner's Ring In One Minute
		Band-3
A12	–Fred Frith	The Entire Works Of Henry Cow
A13	–Maggie Nicols	Look Beneath The Surface
A14	–Joseph Racaille	Week-End
A15	–The Work	With Wings Pressed Back
A16	–Neil Innes & Son	Cum On Feel The Noize
		Band-4
A17	–Herbert Distel	Toscany In Blue (Last Minute)
A18	–Lol Coxhill	An End To The Matter
A19	–Ken Ellis	One Minute In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
A20	–Steve Miller	Alice
		Band-5
A21	–Norman Lovett	John Peel Sings The Blues Badly
A22	–Patrick Portella	Serrons Nous Les Coudes
A23	–George Melly	Sounds That Saved My Life (Homage To K.S.)
A24	–Robert Fripp	Miniature
A25	–Andy Partridge	The History Of Rock 'N' Roll
A26	–Phantom Captain	Breather
		-
		Band-1
B1	–Ron Geesin	Enterbrain Exit
B2	–Alejandro Viñao	An Imaginary Orchestrina
B3	–Quentin Crisp	Stop The Music For A Minute
B4	–Simon Desorgher	Tetrad
B5	–Ralph Steadman	Sweetest Love (Lament After A Broken Sashcord On A Theme Of John Donne)
B6	–R.D. Laing & Son	Tipperary
		Band-2
B7	–Trevor Wishart	Beach Double
B8	–John White	Scene De Ballet
B9	–Ivor Cutler	Brooch Boat
B10	–Hector Zazou	Do Tell Us
B11	–Michael Bass & Ellen Tenenbaum	A Miniaturisation Of Bartok's Sonata For 2 Pianos & Percussion (3rd Movement)
		Band-3
B12	–Martin Chambers	A Swift One
B13	–Bob Cobbing & Henri Chopin	Refreshment Break
B14	–Dave Vanian	Night Touch
B15	–Metabolist	Raging Poodles
		Band-4
B16	–Gavin Bryars	After Mendelssohn (137 Years)
B17	–1/2 Japanese	Paint It Black
B18	–Simon Jeffes	Arthur's Treat
B19	–Mark Perry	Talking World War III Blues
B20	–Michael Nyman	89-90-91-92
		Band-5
B21	–David Cunningham	Index Of Ends
B22	–Kevin Coyne	James, Mark & Me (In The Manner Of Tom Waits)
B23	–Etron Fou Leloublan	Hep!
B24	–Neil Oram & Ken Campbell  & Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool	The Minute Warp
B25	–Pete Seeger	Chorale From Beethoven's 9th Symphony

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Metabolist – “Stagmanaut” (Cassette King CK2) 1981

The criminally overlooked Metabolist existed at the end of the seventies, occupying the harsh hinterland between prog and punk. A no-mans land where only the very bravest groups/ non-musicians had the courage to inhabit.

The exhumed ghost of French Zeuhl proggers Magma haunts this cassette; but the clinical intellectual sterility of Christian Vander’s outfit is replaced with a non-musicality and an earthy honesty or soul. This is brain music that is channelled from the realms of natural law. Their nearest peers can only be This Heat or Pere Ubu, and that is by far no insult, but a compliment of the highest order.

I assume that they sing, not in an invented language, a la their Zeuhl influence, but in an incomprehensible nonsense that had to be improvised, not thought about, a stream of consciousness that makes sense only to those open minded enough to accept it; which of course there were very few in 1979 where Sham 69 ruled the realm of the lumpen masses, with an iron major chord. (For the record I love Sham 69....that too is another form of soul music).

“Stagmanaut” is their début cassette release on the Dromm label, and opens with the repetitive industrial grind of “Cranes/Ymuzgo”. A bleak industrial electronic intro has one thinking Throbbing Gristle’s “2^nd Annual Report” (I presume that’s the “Cranes” of the piece?!); which is then transformed into a space echoed Indian rain dance on lsd25, with accompanying cheapo synth and Clanging percussion.

“Pigface” follows with more extra-terrestrial Red Indian style chanting, guitar played by someone with claws, and somebody else beating relentlessly on a floor tom. I didn’t hear a chorus, or a middle eight, and No chords!.....so much for the “Here’s three chords, now go and start a band” quote from some punkzine in 1977. Real punkers should say “There’s NO chords, now make a record ”.

Basically, this cassette carries on in this very unique and strange way, nodding only once towards vague rock riffage on track 4, Glory, where a Drum Kit and some pop pastiche lyrics make an appearance. There’s even a hint of a stilted guitar solo!

Track Listing:

Cranes

Ymuzgo

Pigface

Johnny Loves You

Glory mp3 (click her for sample track)

Quack Backwards

DOWNLOAD Stagmanaut HERE!

Metabolist - "Goatmanaut" (Drömm Records Cassette ) 1979

Sort of a mini-album/cassette filled with the trademark Metabolised Zeuhl Industrial Prog that Metabolist isn’t famous for. But given time, lots of it, they will be........won’t they?
I'm pleased to say that once upon a time Malcolm Lane, the main man in Metabolist, was once so kind as to praise my group, Scouts of Uzbekistan('s), track "Je M'en Fou", with this flattering critique: "I think I just Shit myself!". High praise indeed!?

Tracklist:

A1	Zordan Returns	11:00
B1	Chained	7:18
B2	Thru The Black Hole	6:00

DOWNLOAD goatmanaut and shit yourself HERE!

Metabolist ‎– "Identify" (Drömm Records ‎– drö-03) 1980

Excellently abrasive post-punk  krautrock groove from the magisterial Metabolist. Very like Tago-Mago era Can forced through a fine filter of Punk Rock,with an alien singing in a language from another galaxy; fine use of a harsh slapback echo on these unintelligible lyrics make for a great single,that wouldn't make the charts even on the planet where this language is spoken!
The B-side is one of those foggy distorted ambient pieces you got on This Heat's first LP. Yes, its that good.

Tracklist:

A	Identify
B	Tiz Hoz Nam

DOWNLOAD and identify HERE!

Metabolist - "Hansten Klork" (Drömm Records Drö 2) 1980

This is Metabolist’s “tubular bells” side 2 as produced by conny plank. Almost has accessible moments, with “Curly Wall”(click here for mp3 sample) being the ‘greatest hit’ in its sort of No Wave Krautrock funk kind of a way. And “Alien on Sunday” is a Neu-esque motorik sub-anthem for disaffected youth.

“Quack” is a sparse, Magma meets This Heat’s Horizontal Hold, repetitive ‘tour de force’, that ends too quickly; mainly due to the restrictions of vinyl in the pre-CD age. (Should have released this on cassette.....they are longer and they sound better).

A buried classic of what was basically nu-prog, which was labelled post-punk by the muzak media. A progressive music that was enriched by the lack of the public school/future leaders influence (Peter Hammill is excused from this harsh bracket and Joe Strummer is most definitely IN-cluded). Punk Rock made this all possible, problem was it made Duran Duran possible too, but you can’t win them all, a bird in the hand etc.....blah blah blah! Ah Fuck off!

DOWNLOAD tubular HANSTEN KLORK bells HERE!