The Driscolls – "Complete Recordings 1988-1991" (Jigsaw – PZL056) 2014

 Also on Tea-Time Records were The Driscolls, whose complete recordings have been so kindly reissued by an American Label, doing that American thing of looking after the UK's culture even if we don't do it ourselves.They owe us big-time anyway as The UK saved Rock'n'Roll for them to enjoy in perpetuity,just as they are saving some of the United Kingdom's Indie heritage....a decidedly untrendy concept in the modern British Isles.

If The Driscolls were transported back in time to The Cavern Club, and The Beatles didn't exist, rather like in that next in a long line of truly terrible Danny Boyle films called "Yesterday", we would know all the words to Driscolls songs nowadays,instead of "Love Me Do". Although they ain't as cute as the Fab Four,so maybe the girlies wouldn't have wet their pants so much when confronted with the wimpy looking Driscolls.....but The Beatles did exist, and The Driscolls are nothing more that a skid mark in history.

The Fab Three....enough to turn a young lady ON...to lesbianism.

What is laid bare the most when listening to these Indie Pop sub-classics, is the glaringly obvious worshiping at the alter of 60's UK Freakbeat and Psych,with a splash of the U.S. Paisley Underground.

Like the Postcard records lot all walked around in public carrying a Dostoevsky Novel for effect, this lot plainly had a trove of Bam- Caruso compilations under their arms at all times in the hostelry's of Bristol and the west country where all these groups seemed to emerge from.

This influence is far from hidden,in fact its flaunted,as their self-financed debut 7" testifies, a cover of The Fire's Psych Pop classic "My Father's Name Was Dad" from '68 rather than '88.....is included here as a vinyl rip.The master tapes long gone.

To cap it all there's a clear Status Quo matchstickable lead guitar riff going on here,alongside a valiant attempt at Beatlesque harmonies.....or maybe it was those bizarre harmonies that The Clash used to insert into their early tunes in between Strummer growling on about Riots and Cheating to win.Silly stuff,but quaint in its own way.

One has to say the dirty clean but chunky yet jangley Guitar sounds on these recordings are rather lovely...that Rickenbacker on the cover may explain this? Although I've yet to receive an explanation as to how groups like this managed to afford a Rickenbacker, or a Fender for that matter? Have you seen how much they are recently....for the disenfranchised kid on the dole they are not!?

PS:

Anyone interested in a movie i'm writing where Gary Numan didn't exist, and i get to come up with "Are Friends Electric"?....that drummer's haircut would have to go though.

Tracklisting:

Disc One:
1-01 Father's Name Is Dad 2:19
1-02 Girl I Want You Back 2:07
1-03 Groovy Little Town 2:15
1-04 Andrew 2:56
1-05 Julie Christie 2:18
1-06 I Heard A Rumour 2:43
1-07 Doctor Good And His Incredible Life Saving Soap 2:28
1-08 If Only 1:54
1-09 Mrs. Jones 2:17
1-10 You Must Be Mad 1:57
1-11 Something To Learn 2:01
1-12 Groovy Little Town (acoustically revisited) 2:18
1-13 This Is A Different Song 2:45
1-14 Bang Goes Another Cloud 1:22
1-15 Out Of My Head 2:58
1-16 How Does It Feel? 4:47
1-17 Superman 3:50
1-18 Sky High 3:53
1-19 The Return Of Lord Kitchener 2:11
1-20 Coloured Windows 3:54
1-21 Brittle Beautiful 3:27
1-22 Green Tambourine 4:01
1-23 Another Day (Little Pill) 4:41

Disc Two:
2-01 P.C. Roberts 1:58
2-02 Call Me Anything 2:13
2-03 Time For Change 2:30
2-04 It's Your Daughter 2:26
2-05 Circles 3:03
2-06 Here It Comes Again 2:53
2-07 These Things 2:59
2-08 Shame About The Rain 3:22
2-09 She Said She Said 3:27
2-10 Coloured Windows (alternate version) 3:51
2-11 X-Ray Eyes (live) 3:40
2-12 radio interview 4:05

DOWNLOAD a group of driscolls with not one driscoll in the line up HERE!

The Chrysanthemums – "Is That A Fish On Your Shoulder Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?" (Egg Plant Records – Two Eggs) 1987

The Chrysanthemums were Deep Freeze Mouse main man Alan Jenkins,whom I previously had decided sounded like Robyn Hitchcock on this one;with frequent collaborator Yukio Jung,also known as plain old Terry Burrows,best selling author on the subjects of Music History, Theory and Tuition.

Smart arses stick together it seems.

Yes this is the one thst sounds like The Soft Boys...only cleverer.The stuff that the lazy noun 'Art Rock' was invented for.

And this is what I was listening to as I wrote about The Deep Freeze Mice's 1989 album "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia",which I likened to ...er...The Soft Boys(?)....;when they actually don't.Whereas,The Chrysanthemums do.....geddit?...'cus I don't!

Suspected Zappa fans ,DFM ,are far more DIY neo-Psychedelic in their cleverness than the abstract Indie mud-skipper dragging itself out of the primeval soup left behind by the shiny boots of Punk Rock,that is The Chrysanthemums.

Yet again more great song titles on this one,that tend to be better than the songs which can be overlooked merely for the recorded use of a Bassoon alone;but the fact that DFM and their many derivatives provide Further proof that Leicestershire is certainly not an illusion.....it really is like that!.....unlike Gloucestershire.

Tracklist:

1.Gloucestershire Is Just An Illusion 3:09
2.Bullshit 3:28
3.Mouth Pain 4:35
4.Geraldine 2:09
5.Logical Fish 2:10
6.The Unpronounceable Finn 2:53
7.The Holocaust Parade 2:15
8.You Are A Serbian (And I Like You) 2:59
9.The Ten Foot High Trim-Phone 1:14
10.Another Sacred Day 3:50
11.The Lawn 2:52
12.Geraldine (Reprise) 1:23
13.I Wish Marvin Gaye's Father Had Shot Me Instead 5:16
14.Buzzing Unobtrusively 2:42

DOWNLOAD if you are just pleased to hear this HERE!

The Deep Freeze Mice – "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia" (Cordelia Records – ERICAT 027) 1989

I wrote this unintelligible blurb whilst unintentionally listening to
The Chrysanthemums' – "Is That A Fish On Your Shoulder Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?" LP from 1987;which i had earmarked for this slot,and confusing myself somewhat in the process that I was listening to a Deep Freeze Mice album, namely the one entitled above.

An easy mistake to make,as both bands shared certain members.

So,as I can't be fucking bothered to write it again, I will review The Chrysanthemums as I listen to "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia",following this utter bollox-up!

So keeping faith with the Bryon Gysin cut-up technique, and in the grand traditions of experimental literature,It remains as so,which keeps in fitting with the surrealism of yer average Deep Freeze Mice tchoon? Yes?

I know this maybe an insult, but there are times when The Deep Freeze Mice (The Chrysanthemums in fact!?) sound like The Soft Boys?

Apart from The Soft Boys being a better band name,of course  this is generally piffle Sidney ...oh no,they've got me at it now, all this surreal random sentence construction; for the sake of this blog...I like to think of it as YoOuR Blog, or in this epoch of gender re-assignment and pro nouns, maybe even Their blog?

I dunno how we got to posting more gentle mad-cap DFM madness,I was trying to indulge y'all in my new fascination with shoe gazing Twee-Pop,and its dreamy derivatives.

Well a couple of DFM members were in Ruth's Refrigerator,not literally IN her fridge,the band; which was quite Twee in places,but they're a Leicester band,and i don't need any excuses for a shaht aht for the old home town. I once wanted my mortal remains scattered onto the playing surface at Filbert street, but, like a lot of other iconic buildings ,pubs and places, It ain't there no more!!!The King Power ain't the same.....for a start its exactly the same design,\and just as soulless, as Southampton's St Mary's stadium, that replaced the very much missed,but eccentric 'Dell'.Bizarrely, that was my last match at Filbo (Filbert Street),at home to going places Southampton.....we lost 4-0,and i left early to a chorus of abuse from the home section expectorated in my general direction,when one irate young man shouted "Fuck Off Then, see you again when we're top of the fucking league.....Cunt!"

I was used to this kind of targeted heckling ,when i had the misfortune,or fortune, to pass my exam and get allocated a place in a Grammar school in those good old days of streaming and shameless elitism.Me being resident in the circle of scum that invariably forms around most cities,the ones left behind didn't take kindly to being labelled 2nd class,but didn't want anyone to leave ,or have any chance to"better themselves"...so i was frequently threatened with violence,and sometimes they even delivered on the threats, and referred to 'moi'as "That Fucking Posh Cunt"......to use a comedy catchphrase from the cult "Friday Night Dinner" comedy series..."SHIT ON IT". Hence the bitter prick I am today.

But....the Deep Freeze Mice is definitely the collective work of several persons who obviously passed their 11+ exams,and maybe a couple who didn't need to (Thinly veiled Trustafarian reference there), and boy do they want us to know it?

Yeah that singer does sound like Robyn Hitchcock don't he?...Only better,with better lyrics,better song titles and no future Eurovision song contest winners in their ranks.

Tracklist:

1 A (Dog Found A Stick In A Park With Such Magical Powers That A Bark Caused A Marvelous Pie To Drop Out Of The Sky And The Doggy Would Grin Like A Shark) 3:25
2 Ariadne Metal Cream Pie 3:43
3 The Postman's Dry 2:09
4 The Cake Of Conversation 3:26
5 Programme Controller Flowers 1:52
6 I Don't Have A Horse 2:53
7 Poodle Haddock: Part One 0:31
8 Poodle Haddock: Part Two 1:59
9 Conversation Gap Panic 2:32
10 Buzzing Unobtrusively 2:12
11 The Amphibious Nun 0:51
12 Love You More 1:54
13 Janis 3:10
14 Into The Valley Of Death Rode The Six Hundred Shouting "Dig It" 1:12
15 Don't Eat Aluminium 7:14
16 To Hell With It, Let Her Keep The Chicken (The Postman's Dryer) 2:09

Extra Tracks:

17 The Delicious Little Green Roosters Of Insomnia 29:00
18 Into The Valley Of Death (Demo Version) 1:09
19 The Grindy Track 6:30

DOWNLOAD mice and Chrysanthemums from the deep freeze HERE!

Skullflower – "Exquisite Fucking Boredom" (tUMULt – TM212) 2003

Any of you cool kids out there like a bit of boredom going on? 

As previously mentioned,in the Stanlow Crickets post, the Great Erasure is coming,like a huge electro magnet realigning your digital media into straight lines of zero's.Comedians and social commentators will be silenced, vetted and vetted again for controversial comments and opinions,Popular music will be obsessed with the easy get out clause of the Love Emotion,and how cruel un-chemically castrated males were before the new potential rapist law made sure that Toxic masculinity was neutralised by regular Brain scans and testosterone checks.I don't wanna offend nobody cats,but i reserve the right to be offended,and to offend ,and challenge tabboos.It is this that makes one "Free".

So here's the rather fantastic Drone Psych Noise Skullflower group,playing the same riff for 60 minutes;and it hasn't gone unnoticed that they have used my favourite Dr Rhythm DR110 drum machine for the dour four four beat that accentuates the exquisite fucking boredom very nicely indeed. Like that Joni Mitchell song says,one needs to look at life from both sides,or you really won't know life...at all?

Tracklist:

1 Celestial Highway I 12:39
2 Celestial Highway II 13:48
3 Celestial Highway III 14:35
4 Saturn 9:53
5 Return To Forever  9:18
6 Celestial Highway IV 12:33

DOWNLOAD inoffensively through your skull into what mind you have left HERE!

The Freshies – "The Freshies Sing The Girls From Banana Island Who's Stupid Ideas Never Caught On In The Western World As We Know It" (Razz Records – RAZZ CS 3) 1979

The subject of Paul McCartney regularly crops up in the work of Chris Sievy, of The Freshies', papier maché alter-ego Frank Sidebottom.

Which is interesting,as The output of the Freshies could easily be mistaken as Macca goes new wave. Or Paul and Linda's murder victim,Jimmy McCulloch's new updated version of Wings.That would explain the need to wear a papier maché head.Quite a lot of this rubbish exists as a conspiracy theory on the browner side of the internet.After all Paul had form, sporting bare feet on the cover of Abbey Road,signifying that he had clearly faked his death in 1969,and been replaced with a look-a-likey. I don't think anyone in The Freshies looked at all like Jimmy McCulloch or Paul McCartney...but they wouldn't would they?The haircuts were a dead give away however. He obviously had reconstructive surgery,to turn his back on fame, and form a new wave band with Jimmy.The evidently sociopathic Linda got ear of this and arranged McCulloch's inexplicable death;but not before he and Paul had laid down 50 or so Freshies numbers first.

Next up is the proven fact that John Lennon's Brain was abducted by Aliens and now controls the life support systems of a small exo-planet somewhere in the vacinity of Betelgeuse.....which,incidentally, is due to go super-nova at any moment.Ergo,"The Wedding Album" exists,yet doesn't,at the same time....unless,of course, you are looking at it, or even worse, playing it.

Schrödinger's John and Yoko Album; Quantum version.

Tracklist:

A1 Amoco Cadiz 5:36

A2 Children Of The World 2:55
A3 Babies Who Stole My Girl 3:04
A4 Photograph 2:06
A5 GoggleBubbleLand 2:47
A6 Nothing To Come 3:12
A7 Frapper Dehours 2:58
B1 If It's News 1:11
B2 Oh Girl 1:53
B3 Octopus 1:52
B4 The Girls From Banana Island 1:18
Other Different Mix's From The Sessions
B5 If It's News 3:46
B6 Oh Girl 2:18
B7 Octopus 1:52
B8 Children Of The World 2:48
B9 Amoco Cadiz 6:01

DOWNLOAD fresh off the bananas boat HERE!

The Freshies – "All Sleeps Secrets" (Razz Records – RAZZ CS1) 1978

Of course you do know that the singer songwriter lead guitarist and general busy body of this group, Chris Sievey, was also Frank Sidebottom.....or wazzit that Frank Sidebottom was also Chris Sievey? I dunno,i'm confused,mentally bruised, and live the life the way i choose.

Not too great a fan of The Freshies' flimsy new wave cycledelia with unhealthy pretensions towards chart action,one has to say;but it's inoffensive,and has its fair share of G.S.O.H,...gosh. Like fellow Manchester band, 10CC, too clever by half,but largely lacking tunes. Of course, 10CC had a handful of good,maybe,great songs,and so did The Freshies,though i'd be struggling to tell you which ones....."Yellow Spot" was not bad i think, although sadly not on this self-released cassette,that came out as Chris tried to be even more New Wavey later on.

Chris was never shy at self-promotion,being a veteran of a musical sit in at Apple Corps offices in '69.But none of the Beatles were in, and nobody said "Hey that's a great song maan I wanna sign you up".

This didn't discourage the young Sidebottom,and he/they proceeded to release stuff by his group on his own cassette label,in 1974, at the height of 10CC's fame incidentally ,and long before most UK DIYers were doing the same thing. Chris shows his age when the Psych-pop of his formative years becomes mixed with some very fashionable,for 1978, three minute new wave symphonies.

This guy should have been on the Telly.

Tracklist:

A1 Slip 3:13
A2 Baiser 2:35
A3 Two Of The Same Girl 1:53
A4 Ballrooms And Moon 2:55
A5 No. 1 Fear 5:03
A6 Bogey man 4:34
B1 Into The Wind 3:31
B2 Over The Sun 5:22
B3 18 Down To 24 fps 1:33
B4 David The Shepherd 2:25
B5 Big Top/I'm Falling 2:38
B6 Lovely Bars 8:27

DOWNLOAD the sleeping secrets of chris sievey HERE!

Bobb Trimble's Flying Spiders – "The Flying Spiders In Brooklyn" (Burger Records – BRGR446) 2013

 

One of the major pastimes of Generation Y ('Y' as in what's the point?) is digging up the corpses of lost record collector legends and forcing them back on the stage. This usually involves bands with only one member, either left alive, or desperate enough to recreate that album some grate digger unearthed in 2003. Of course there are endless numbers of thirty somethings who would sell their granny to appear on a new Homosexuals LP,or Tour with the last remaining member of the Androids Of Mu*.Famously, This Heat became 'This Is Not This Heat' of course.Fattened up by at least six This Heat fans, to bolster the remaining duo. Ok,Okaaay! I'm only jealous, I would certainly sell my granny's ashes to play Bass and Tapes in 'This Is Not This Heat'.My lauded judgementalism and bitterness only stretches so far.

The advantage of going to witness a reanimated solo artist is that you are certain to actually have 100% of the person in question on stage,unless he's lost a leg John Martyn style,or you accidentally stumbled into a tribute concert,which I wouldn't advise anyone to do.

I did go and see Bjorn Again once, and ended up in an argument with my possessive girl friend for looking at another girl's arse!!!...and i fucking hate ABBA!

Recorded on the fourth anniversary of the King Of pop and nonce, Wacko Jacko,Farrah Fawcett's, and,more importantly Sky Saxon late of The Seeds and Ya Ho Wha 13's collective deaths back on june 25th 2009! Fast forward to 25th June 2013 ,this live tape remains relatively faithful to the original tunes, except that the spoken intro's between the songs seem to suggest that Bobb has had some dental problems in his wilderness years.Expectorating outsider saliva over the front two rows of his adoring audience,and slurring his way through these outsider psych classics like a snow plow in a swimming pool of snot.

Jacko ,at least,is mentioned before the band launch into Galilaen Boy.Something Michael would have liked to have done when he was alive; in fact he would have liked to launch into any boy,especially anything involving a biblical reference as he saw himself in a,somewhat, messianic light.He had a squeaky voice like Bobb did too!? So let's listen to Bobb ,call a toast and raise a glass of Jesus Juice to to the very bad memory of the creepy king of alco-pop himself,and another to his numerous victims, both oral and aural.

Let's end with a joke?

Q."What's white and crawls down a toilet wall?"

A."Michael Jackson's latest release"

The author would like to explain that this joke was written before the untimely death of the pedophile formerly known as Wacko Jacko;but after the epoch of the politically correct free thought cosh wielding Brain police began.

*I can't confirm that the Androids Of Mu are actually 75% dead(or is it 80%?).I was struggling to think of a band who are mostly dead is all.I know The Ramones are 95% Dead,but they've never been rediscovered....and I had to include Marky or he'd find me,fists flying and still dressing up as a professional Ramone..(Richie Ramone allegedly is the proud owner of a Die Or DIY? T-shirt i am informed!?)..but a band with only one living member...difficult,unless it's something like a Gerry-less Pacemakers or even worse!!!

Fairport convention have Zero original members left in the band,but the absences are spread equally between resignation and death...Doctor Feelgood still tour without any original members even though 75% of them are still alive...just......anymore suggestions?

Tracklist:

1 Glass Menagerie Fantasies
2 When The Raven Calls
3 Armour Of The Shroud
4 Angel Eyes
5 The Camel Song
6 Galilean Boy
7 Take Me Home Vienna
8 Undercovers Man
9 Oh Baby
10 Another Lonely Angel

DOWNLOAD this fine tribute to Michael Jackson HERE!

Bobb Trimble – "Harvest Of Dreams" (Self-Released LP) 1982

There aren't enough candid Jandekian monochrome photo's as album covers going around I say!? I feel the same about Monoaural sound too,but unfortunately Bobb didn't go for that on this one.

This file isn't the original album,as I don't got a spare three and a half grand hanging around that I dunno what to do with,so the CD re-issue is just fine by me.The three grand i'll just spend on medium level prostitutes,drugs, and a reconditioned Austin Allegro van den plas....in metallic orange.......i'll just waste the rest.

OOOh LA LAAAAA! It's that magnificent triumph of British Leyland cutting edge design and engineering.The beast that is thee Austin Allegro,Van Den Plas....You know you want one?

The reissue even has a hi-quality colorized version of the album photo, which reveals, that Bobb looks disturbingly like UK kids TV presenter,and the criminal responsible for the gay romp that hit the charts in the early nineties "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"....none other than Timmy Mallet.(Who??? Says the non-British part of the globe)

I can forgive Bobb,with three 'B's, if he really was Timmy Mallet,as he released at least two excellent outsider Psych albums that paid little or scant attention to whatever the fashionable Hoi-polloi of the time was listening to....mainly Duran Duran and the Thompson Twins for want of better examples.

One characteristic, other than looks, that Bobb shared(shares...is he still alive?) with Timmy Mallet,was an enviable talent to not give a fuck about what anyone thought about him or his music,or even his girly voice.This wipes the floor with the shitty arse end of most identikit american sixties hippie folk.There's enough backwards tapes and flanging to please any acid casualty,and behold, a silent track to freak them out if they're on anything vaguely lysergic in nature.

 

Tracklist:

Dimension One - Trust

1 Premonitions – The Fantasy 6:03
2 If Words Were All I Had 4:26
3 The World I Left Behind 2:25
4 Armour Of The Shroud 7:39

5 Premonitions Boy – The Reality 6:21

Dimension Two - Harmony

6 Take Me Home Vienna 4:18
7 Selling Me Short While Stringing Me Long 4:15
8 Oh Baby 1:19
9 Paralyzed 6:16
10 Another Lonely Angel 5:08

BONUS Tracks:

11 Waves Of Confusion In Puzzled Times (Demo Version) 5:11
12 Galilean Boy (Demo Version) 3:07
13 Life Is Like A Circle (Demo Version) 4:44

DOWNLOAD and reap this special harvest HERE!

Bobb Trimble With The Violent Reactions – "Iron Curtain Innocence" (Vengeance Records – BT 8458) 1980

There are always some people.....if people is the word,...who could miss a bus even if they were camped down at a bus stop all day. Bob seems to have missed several waves before he finally got his self-financed album of psychedelic folk strangeness pressed up. What he intended to do with 500 copies of Neo-Psychedelic Folk in the post-punk hinterland of the pre-hardcore USA I dunno? Maybe pile them up to make a handy coffee table perhaps? Coasters for dinner parties? Who knows?

The album title and  bizarre cover shot would do little to appeal to any surviving long-haired friends of Jesus who should happen along with $3.99 in change to spend.

But, give it time, like a fine wine, music evolves with its future audience. Twenty years later, a world sick of music made by machines,fueled by noble quests to uncover the strangest of forgotten musics, made by the malfunctioning biological machines that was once called 'Mankind',to which one must now add a gender pronoun to it's name badge,and 'IT' is an adequate and reverential  pronoun to use for "Iron Curtain Innocence". 

Usually, those outsiders who plough a lonely furrow of ridicule and dismissal, make music, that is by all modern standards,uncomfortably beyond categorization,but exudes an undeniable charm that seems beamed from a rogue exo-planet roaming in interstellar space. pure but utter shite to the untrained ear,yet is undeniably funny,and unique.....but.....Bobb,with three 'B's',has made an undiscovered classic piece of psychedelic Folk that meets the modern standards of underground weirdness that today's normal people require. Ahead of his time, or thirty years too late,either one applies.

Tracklist:

This Side: Bobb Trimble With The Violent Reactions 1980

A1 Glass Menagerie Fantasies 5:48
A2 Night At The Asylum 4:50
A3 When The Raven Calls 6:25
A4 Your Little Pawn 3:50

That Side: Bobb Trimble Soliloquize 1978

B1 One Mile From Heaven (Short Version) 4:07
B2 Killed By The Hands Of An Unknown Rock Starr 5:29
B3 Through My Eyes (Hopeless As Hell D.O.A.) 4:57
B4 One Mile From Heaven (Long Version) 5:42

DOWNLOAD bobb the folkk godd HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Electronic Evocations A Tribute To The Silver Apples" (Enraptured ‎– RAPTCD02) 1996

This is the album that restarted it all. Simeon Coxe was flicking through the CD's in Tower records and came across this tribute to his former band in the various electronic section.Refreshingly not getting upset that someone was releasing versions of his tunes without asking him.He contacted Enraptured and congratulated them,and expressed a desire to get back into music again.
In fact, unknown to Coxe, a german label had been selling bootleg copies of the first two Silver Apples albums for years,helping grow the legend.No spiteful where's the money gone rants,just gratitude that someone had taken the time to spread the appreciation of the Apples work far and wide......some other 'Artists',and money driven bourgois reissue labels should show the same appreciative qualities when comes to the Music Blogs, who have done a Silver Apples for many a rediscovered musician,or buried record labels (eg Vanity records).
Here we have the cream of 1990's UK Indie neo-psych drone meisters,plus Windy and Carl,and Outrageous Cherry,whom i saw in New York and the female bass player was playing unplugged for at least two songs before someone else in the band noticed. Of note is that Scouts of Uzbekistan member, Mark Carolan, is drumming and programming for Alphastone's version of "You're Not Foolin' Me".
Ahaaa, Alphastone, as led by the 'other one' from Spaceman 3,I suppose, Spoaceman number 3, Pete Bassman,which had one of those extraneous members in the group, like Bez,or Chas Smash, who appeared to do nothing.They alway had to have a silly name too, and this one was called 'Digger'...he played some inaudible Conga's,but clearly thought he was Mozart.The only thing he had in common with Mozart however, was that he was an arsehole too. Naturally, constantly stoned off his face like he thought a proper musician should be, Digger had a problem with me and my entourage invading the backstage area to meet Simeon,and drink all the beer;Alphastone were supporting the Xian Hawkins era Apples,who weren't very good. Upon referring to their 'new' drummer, who had replaced the Scouts' Mark Carolan on the drum stool, as 'The New Drummer','Digger' insisted on saying 'Thee Drummer' with increasing aggression until everyone realised that he was indeed 'Superfluous', like the Paul Rutherford of UK neo-psych that he was.Couldn't hear his bongo's for love nor money,and i suspect he had a digeridoo stashed somewhere on his person too. The Silver Apples were better at their next Leicester gig a year later(where I posed as an Observer rock critic),with the original Dan Taylor on skins....now he was 'Thee Drummer', and thankfully, No Digger in sight.I think Windy and Carl supported this time...a vast improvement.
This compilation, However, is brilliant....maybe even better than the Silver Apples' records?...or is that blasphemy?


Tracklist:

1 –Windy & Carl- Program 4:24
2 –Scaredycat- You And I 5:08
3 –Third Eye Foundation- I Have Known Love 4:49
4 –Flowchart- Lovefingers 4:29
5 –Sabine- Dancing Gods 6:06
6 –Outrageous Cherry- Misty Mountain 2:34
7 –Alphastone- You're Not Foolin' Me 6:32
8 –Lorelei - Oscillations 4:08
9 –Monitor - A Pox On You 3:25
10–Amp - Seagreen Serenades 3:28
11–Tranquil - Ruby 4:36

DOWNLOAD evocativly HERE!

Silver Apples and Spectrum ‎– "A Lake Of Teardrops" (Space Age Recordings ‎– ORBIT 016CD) 1999

What a nice career junkie Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember was? Rescuing all these forgotten electronic heroes from the trash heap. Like Delia Derbyshire, respect due, Peter Zinovieff, and Simeon Coxe of the Silver Apples.
Recorded in Coventry(uk) no less,whose concrete brutalist vista's of fly-overs and piss soaked underpasses seem to suit electronic music far more than those horrible Ska-revival bands that the place is more famed for.
If this was the Apples fourth album,it may have rivaled 'Contact' as their best. A drug hazed electronic fog of bleeps,swirls and analogue sweeps that would have fit nicely tacked onto the end of an episode of Dr Who in 1963.

Tracklist:

1 Streams Of Sorrow 5:12
2 Sixth Sense 0:55
3 The Edge 4:17
4 Second Sight 0:31
5 Whirlwind 5:22
6 (I Don't Care If You) Never Come Back 2:36

DOWNLOAD from the lake of teardrops HERE!

Haunted House ‎– "Blue Ghost Blues" (Northern Spy ‎– NSCD 012) 2011

Ten years elapsed between Haunted Houses first and second albums, but nothing much changed,as didn't in the world of pop music in general,except that it probably got more lost in its own stasis.
Loren Connors' attempt at alt rock I suppose,but, as opposed to this very american genre, the emphasis is put on the 'alternative' rather than the 'Rock' bit.
Lets face it, a record recorded at any studio called "Seizures Palace" has to be, at least, good?

Tracklist:

1 Millie's Not Afraid 9:56
2 Blue Ghost Blues 12:29
3 Grip My Hand 3:42
4 Thomas Paine 9:13
5 Hard Roads 3:06

DOWNLOAD some good house music HERE!

Haunted House ‎– "Up In Flames" (Erstwhile Records ‎– erstwhile 002) 1999

Loren Mazzacane Connors wasn't always alone,or in a short lived duo with various scenesters,he was also,occasionally, in a group. Haunted House was the appropriate moniker for LMC's ghostly guitar apparitions, but this time enhanced by some slow motion Psychedelic whig outs. Its kinda like My Bloody Valentine or Loop played at 16 rpm,over the more sublime moments from that This Mortal Coil LP,but improvised.This could have been on Creation Records if they had a less nebulous singer,or a drummer, and the Label owner wasn't such a ginger twat.

DOWNLOAD these haunting tunes HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Color Supplement" (Color Disc ‎– colors 4) 1988

Its 1988, we're all E'd up, shaking maraccas, and white man-dancing like idiots;but there were small oasis's of sanity to be found.One of those places of solace was Color Tapes, and probably the most well known Color Disc/Tapes compilation is dis (sic).
It's got the usual array of Gary Ramon,Lives Of Angels collaborations, and the usual mix-up of Neo-Psych and minimal synth tracks. There are few tracks that i haven't already featured elsewhere on the Blog, but it makes a fine introdustion to one of the founding father labels of British Independent music culture.

Tracklisting:
A1 –Modern Art - Golden Legend
A2 –Modern Art - Forbidden Universe
A3 –Modern Art - Cutting Water
A4 –Mystery Plane - Snakebite
A5 –Mystery Plane - Burning Desire
A6 –Mystery Plane - Crazy Bombs
B1 –Lives Of Angels - Look Out Kid
B2 –Lives Of Angels - Red Suit
B3 –Lives Of Angels - After Dark (Intended Version)
B4 –WeR7 - Bread
B5 –WeR7 - Caped Crusader
B6 –WeR7 - Now Wash Your Hands

DOWNLOAD in full glossy color HERE!

Mystery Plane ‎– "Still Life" (Color Disc ‎– COLOR LP 04) 1981/2016

This record was originally a demo cassette made in 1981 that was hawked around record labels with a view for release. Color Tapes later released a 100 copies edition.......it says.

Mystery Plane was basically a Modern Art/ Lives Of Angels color Tapes sooper groop, plus a new singer who sounds not unlike an young English Stan Ridgeway at times,american inflections and all.

Singer aside, what we're served with is an electronic neo-psych indie pop musical tapas which trys, reasonably hard, to make foot tapping pop tunes for the disenfranchised student type.

Tracklisting:

A1 Telephone
A2 This Is Your Life
A3 Something To Prove
A4 Tightrope
A5 Someone Else
A6 Poor John
B1 Crying Again
B2 Death Sentence
B3 (Do The) Shah Of Iran (Twist)
B4 Still Life
B5 Silence After Midnight

DOWNLOAD if you're still alive HERE!

Lives Of Angels ‎– "Hole In The Sky" (Dark Entries ‎– DE-172) 2017

Lives of Angels ,after disappearing through a hole in the sky,have now qualified for a career spanning retrospective on Dark Entries. Including tunes from 1983 to 1989,and a few unreleased tracks thrown in for good measure.
Better quality versions of tracks from those Color Tapes compilations, and from their previous cassette albums can now be heard with almost crystal clarity. Now a new generation can thrill to the O'Connell's proto-indie sound of neo-psychedelic guitar jangle mixed with minimal synth pop analogness. Imagine Spacemen 3, Felt, 3rd album VU,and Depeche Mode in the same concrete mixer with added strawberry flavoured Angel Delight,resulting in a rather pleasent fluffy blancmange and you've got Lives of Angels.....or, Lives Of Angels Delight?

Notes:
Lives of Angels are Catherine O'Connell and Gerald O'Connell
All songs previously unreleased except:
A3,A6 originally released on ‘Elevator To Eden’ cassette by Color Disc, 1983
B2 originally released on ‘An Hour Of Color Vol. 2’ cassette by Color Disc, 1985
B5 originally released on ‘Color Pop Explosion’ cassette by Color Disc, 1989
Tracklisting:

A1 Call Moscow
A2 I Know About You
A3 Nothing Yet
A4 She Turns Aside
A5 Popular Violence
A6 Heartland
B1 Somebody Else
B2 Threatened
B3 Look Out Kid
B4 After Dark
B5 The Infinite Corridor

DOWNLOAD through a hole on the interweb HERE!

Lives Of Angels ‎– "Alternative Programming" (Color Disc ‎– Color 17) 1987

Lives of Angels,husband and wife duo Gerald and Caterine O'Connell, were responsible for the first release on Color Tapes, back in '83;...so they took the intervening four years to 1987 to do another one. That being this 60 minute cassette, also on Color Tapes, called "Alternative Programming".
Husband and Wife endeavours are seldom a good idea, but for these two it seems to work,as well as being a bit quaint.It's in a similar style to the debut,a hybrid of jangly Doug Yule-era Velvets indie-psych and minimal synth-pop which is very effective neo-psych-lite for the fringe wearing student. Its an experience akin to playing a Yazoo record at the same time as Felt's "Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty" album. The Dichotomy,however unlikely, seems to work as a softly psychedelic experience with lashings of naiveté dripped onto one tiny sugarlump.

Tracklisting:

A1 Expert System
A2 Heartland (remix)
A3 Green On Black
B1 Samba School 1
B2 Artificial Intelligence 3
B3 Samba School 2
B4 Ruby In The Dust

DOWNLOAD alternatively HERE!

Modern Art ‎– "Stereoland" (Color Disc ‎– Colors 3) 1987

Modern Art was basically Gary Ramon only on this platter from 1987.
A return to the Neo-Psychedelia of earlier cassette releases,reather than the cold wave synth pop that made up the majority of Modern Arts output up to 1985, when Midi and digital synths squeezed the humanity out of wave music. The only way to go was backwards to move forwards,and Ramon promptly formed The Sun Dial, to crank the Psychedelia up a notch or two.
This one is rammed,if ten tracks qualifies as such, with jangly indie-tinged psych pop with hints of Cleaners From Venus,but missing the expert melodiousness of said group.....only just however.
Scheesh!
I apologise,as my write-ups are becoming extremely boring of late.Kinda losing my mojo.Not sure I even like music anymore!? Which is basically dead anyway is it not? Whats the point of this tedious drooling nostalgia for a past thats long gone, in a world where music is disposable background toilet roll for charity adverts,and Joy Division are heard playing at the rear of a current affairs programme on TV....which is dead also.
Sorry again.....i think my world view has been stained by waking up at 4:30 am in a room full of smoke and my bed was on fire!...not joking. I had left my electric blanket on full and it had started smouldering,complete with glowing embers,scorching my lickle tootsies and my sheets and duvet!.....it still smells of acrid fumes in here! Another near death experience that should give me a renewed vigour for existence, but alas....not.Its just made me MORE pissed off....if thats possible?
Third apology....I am english after all.....well,in fact keep that quiet too.After watching several hours of UK TV with British Politicians arguing with each other about leaving a fucking free trade organisation.Not one mention was made of the effect this Brexit shite will have on the ordinary person....which may surprise you,but I include myself in the category of 'Ordinary'; and the difficulties that would arise for me and my family from the absurd Empire Nostalgia and pure bigotory that has arisen from the blocked toilets of the great unwasheds collective minds.
Fouth Apology....sorry if this narrative has affected your own happiness levels,but I had to liven up this post somehow.....anyway I enjoyed writing it.Call it therapy.

Tracklisting:

A1 Golden Legend 3:03
A2 The Great Exit 2:42
A3 Dynamite City 3:30
A4 Blue Stone 3:21
A5 Nowhere Parade 4:28
B1 The Crashing Sea 3:47
B2 Red Tornado 4:01
B3 Patterned Silence 3:52
B4 Martha In Stereo 1:59
B5 Peruvia 1:52

DOWNLOAD from stereo interleved mp3 land HERE!

Modern Art ‎– "Sonic Dimensions 1982-1985" (Vinyl-on-demand ‎– VOD112) 2013

Here's one of those DIY for rich men compilation/career overviews on Vinyl On Demand. This time on Color Tapes stalwarts Modern Art, who were basically Gary Ramon plus mates.
Mostly released on cassette, Modern Arts sound balanced between a neo-psych indie jangle and minimal synth driven cold wave.
A rather high quality but prolific output for such an ignored group.Rightfully given a chance to be heard in hi-fi quality.
\if you prefer the smoggy cassette versions of a few of these songs a couple of early tapes can be found earlier in this blogs tenure.

Tracklisting:

Previously-Released Tape Recordings 1982-1985
A1 (Trying To Find) The Hidden World 4:02
A2 Hello/Goodbye 6:45
A3 Landscape From A Dream 4:01
A4 Sad Delusion 3:46
A5 Confrontation 3:45
A6 Oriental Towers 4:56
B1 Dreaming Again 4:00
B2 Still Life 3:28
B3 Fatal Crash Immersed The Start 8:13
B4 Search For A Soul 7:53
B5 Beach On The Horizon 4:02
Publisher Demos 1985
C1 Forbidden Universe 4:45
C2 Hello/Goodbye 5:34
C3 Confrontation 5:04
C4 Red Tornado 5:46
C5 Breakdown 6:32
D1 (Trying To Find) The Hidden World 3:56
D2 Dreams To Live 3:38
D3 Age Of Lights 6:18
D4 Sight And Sound 6:44
D5 Early Warning 6:16
Previously-Released Tape Recordings 1983-1986
E1 Stars (Dreaming Again) (Instrumental Version) 3:58
E2 Clear Light 5:29
E3 Driftwood (Publisher Demo) 5:16
E4 Dimensions Of Noise Soundtrack (Part 4) 5:22
E5 Barriers 4:53
E6 Beach On The Horizon (Publisher Demo) 3:03
F1 Forbidden Universe 3:41
F2 Harmony In Red 3:04
F3 Figure Of Eight 3:22
F4 Black Into White 2:56
F5 Vertikal Parallel 3:30
F6 Passing Days 2:45
F7 Vision 3:15
F8 Dimension (Edit) 1:51
F9 Calico Shadows 3:23

DOWNLOAD  a sonic dimension HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "An Hour Of Color Vol. 3" (Color Disc ‎– Color 13) 1986

The incredibly high standard of stuff from Color Tapes continues with volume 3 of the 'An Hour Of Color' series of compilations.I've said it all before, you know what you're gonna get, so get on with it.....its good.

Tracklisting:

A1 –Space Brothers - Lost Civilisation
A2 –Modern Art - Monument Of Heaven
A3 –Lives Of Angels - Lives Of Angels
A4 –WeR7 - The Hearts Outstanding
A5 –Kata Kolbert - Poor Poor Thing
A6 –Cleaners From Venus - Ilya Kuryakin Looked At Me
A7 –Moisten Before Use - Where To Now
A8 –Bill Pritchard - Fact Or Fiction
B1 –Space Brothers - Purple Twilight
B2 –Modern Art - She Cannot Yet Be Seen
B3 –Lives Of Angels - Green On Black
B4 –Kata Kolbert - Marriage Of Inconvenience
B5 –Shadow Of Light - Play Your Joker
B6 –Cleaners From Venus - Follow The Plough
B7 –3D5 - Special Fx
B8 –Face In The Crowd - Somewhere, Sometimes
B9 –Mystery Plane - Madame Sin

DOWNLOAD the color from c86 HERE!