Big City Orchestra ‎– "Substance Abuse" (The Subelectrick Institute) 1988

This one is more or less a Haters/BCO anti-supergroup,or poopergroup if you'd rather.Featuring noise cyclops G.X. Jupitter Larsen(the Haters),and occasional buddy AMX (Sometimes Hater).
They take us on a journey from that same old Freezer Centre again on track one, full of  humming and whirring refrigeration systems. Sending you sleeping to track two,to spend a night inside  the storage compartment of a vast empty oil tanker.
The third track finds the repairs team shoring up the tanker walls after it's ran aground,ironically leaking in the polluted dead waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
We end with the foundering tanker sinking slowly beneath the scummy ocean surface to rest on a barren sea bed covered with human detritus.
Its definitely BCO in subtle doom mode,and,in my opinion, one of their better C-60's.

Tracklist:

A1	Wait Til Autumn
A2	Work A Little Harder
B1	A Soft Answer
B2	Work Harder Reprise

DOWNLOAD some blatant copyright abuse HERE!

Big City Orchestra ‎– "Mile After Mile" (Sound Of Pig ‎– SOP 118) 1987

How to categorise this?......mmmmm?......okay okay, i'll used the vague epithet otherwise know as "Experimental". A broad bracket that could include anyone from John cage to Beyoncé, but Big City Orchestra are in there...... somewhere. I suppose on first listen one would drift towards the Little Johnny Cage end of the swimming pool, i.e. 'the deep end',rather than the Shallow end occupied by those bizarre 'R&B' pop acts of the day. But personally, I find this tape in particular, rather listenable, a kind of avant-easy;the lounge musik for the casual  abstract hobbyist. The peculiar sounds that come at you from all directions could even be called 'Novelty music'.Not unlike those weird tape cut-up records from the fifties, that one used to impress the ladies with your state of the art hi-fi equipment in your space-age bachelor pad. Are they the Esquivel or BBC Radiophonic Workshop of (US)cassette culture? Probably not.....they're not as WEIRD as Esquivel or as innovative as the BBC backroom staff,and I don't think this will impress any ladies,at least not the ones you want to get in the sack.
Better get that Beyoncé CD out?

DOWNLOAD file after file HERE!

Big City Orchestra ‎– "In The Near Future" (Freedom In A Vacuum) 1988

Mmmm,what shall i do today? I think i'll make a dozen 30 minute  drone epics in real time. Thats an easy way to make a 'Weird' back catalogue with the minimum possible effort.
These two sides are rather like spending a night in a freezer centre,with the freezer units humming a monotonous lullaby,and the local dysfunctional Buddhist group are meeting next door.
Everyone and their granny has got a drone project festering away inside them,and  hearing more than one can,amazingly enough, lead to boredom. I'm sure its fine for a spot of transcendental sport in your flotation chamber, in fact its a great soundtrack for any self-indulgent hobby.....including making drone music.
This tape's strengths lie in its subtlety and space, something other drone epics struggle to hold on to.They have a danger akin to a painter mixing all his/her paints together.......you end up with a brown mess.Although, this one is somewhere between a light Ochre and a dark Sienna.

Tracklist:

1. Cooperate With Integrity
2. Handle Either Or Both

DOWNLOAD in the very near future HERE!

Big City Orchestra ‎– "Planet Of Giants" (Self-Released C-60) 1988

Prolific abstract non-music collective, BCO, are more often than not stuck in the Drone rut. Thankfully this doesn't happen on "Planet Of Giants".....well not much anyway.
Two live sides from 1986-88, side one being a cut up monologue based on the theme of water,complete with recordings of  various water scenario's,and some american chap droning on about 'warder',which is american for water.
Side two starts off with a repetitive hammering sound not unlike House music and its derivatives, stripped down to its most basic brainwashing form, overlaid with twisting electronics and mangled porno soundtracks.
The last track is a kind of fairground organ drone track. A haunting calliope mocking the listener from a lost childhood. Guaranteed to make you feel old and depressed.....what fun.
To sum up a rather excellent C-60 that deserves a wider audience.

Tracklist:

A1	Water Rituals
B1	Victor And Victim
B2	An Unearthly Child

BEAM IT DOWN from the planet of giants HERE!

Controlled Bleeding ‎– "Shitslipper" (Inner-X-Musick ‎– XXX-17) 1985

One of Controlled Bleeding's better outings.It's a noisy one, with tracks like fingernails scraping down the side of the rusting hulk of the Titanic; Eraserhead as set in an Arabic cattle market, and slow-motion field recordings from inside the the Twin Towers during their last moments.

Tracklist:

1. Art
2. Sheep
3. Pool
4. Strewn
5. Ducts
6. Blood

DOWNLOAD a controlled bleed of ones and zero's HERE!

Controlled Bleeding - "Head Chalk"- (Cause And Effect) 1985

Hmmmm American Industrial......not a fan on the whole.....but Controlled Bleeding did do a couple of decent tapes. I wouldn't put this in the 'Decent' category as it sounds for the most part like a movie soundtrack for some shit FX movie, like "Transformers: the movie of the cartoon of the movie of the Kiddies Toy". There are moments of relaxing scraping noise in between the Jean Michel Jarre without fingers moments. Was this supposed to be an attempt to be musical or something,'cus it don't work;but don't let me put you off,decide for yourself......you might like it?

Tracklist:

A1	Hidden In The Deep Woods
A2	Break (Remix)
A3	The Cameroons Revisited
A4	Scalp
A5	Blank Steps
B1	Intro (Space Stool)
B2	Laura's Song Fop
B3	Thirst Bag / Fat Trade
B4	After Rain (Remix)
B5	Hosedown
B6	Untitled

DOWNLOAD chalky's head HERE!

Body Without Organs ‎– "Isis And Thoth" (Audiofile Tapes ‎– aT 5) 1985

Keeping on the uber-trendy theme of Terrorist attack overkill, we have the unfortunately named "Isis and Thoth"; although I have never heard of the terror group called "Thoth".Maybe it was formed for the discerning freedom fighter with a lisp? Spreading fear of terrorism is almost as boring as waiting for the first mention of the so-called 'Holocaust' on an Industrial album, which takes about two minutes on this very tape.
Thoth, in fact was the man credited with the invention of writing in Ancient Egypt,which is now used to write reams of speculative nonsense like about the Russian Jet that came down in...er....Egypt; so it comes around like a fleet of buses with no space for anymore passengers.
'Daesh' is another name for 'ISIS', which is an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria....at least it was last week?
These stone age throwbacks will be more than displeased to know that the original Isis was a female Goddess in Ancient Egypt,who helped and protected people! These thick idiots would probably behead and crucify anyone who mentioned this fact,especially if they wrote it as Thoth would have it!
Basically, I have a more appropriate title for their organisation which comes from ancient English..."TWATS!"
Body Without Organs get the holocaust in quick, then satanism, then death, then some surrealist kabalah nonsense;which they mention on the cover as being a hit single,in a lame attempt at humour a la Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk greats".
If you ignore the Egyptian mythological nazi Death in Hell themes (Yawn!), this is a very listenable bit of mild industrial in the US style.Lots of speech samples, electronics, and swathes of Echo.
Nice background music to that Terrorist fancy dress fondue soirée you were gonna have the day after the Paris attacks.

Tracklist

A1	She - Women Of The SS
A2	Vanishing Pentagram
A3	I Am In Hell
A4	Dada Kabalah
B1	Alchemy I
B2	Alchemy II
B3	Osiris Rises
B4	The Market

DOWNLOAD another god that doesn't exist and father of scribbling HERE!

Muslimgauze ‎– "Jazirat-Ul-Arab" (Limited Editions ‎– LIMITED 5) 1987

Its that Dead Muslimgauze bloke again, banging on about the middle east like a musical OCD, or ,more appropriately, an IED.
Lots of repetitive over-programmed drum samples  battle out with ambient drones,and middle eastern 'found sounds.
Would make fine background music while you read the propaganda in your national newspaper justifying the illegal bombing of Syria,and how your government is rushing through more 'snoopers charters' for your own security.The French Government is now considering making 'Conspiracy Theories' illegal!?

Tracklist

A1	Arms Of The Koran
A2	The Divine Cause
A3	Sabra
B1	Bourj-El-Barajneh
B2	Mäiaź
B3	Chatila

DOWNLOAD a soundtrack for an air attack HERE! 

Muslimgauze ‎– "Hajj" (Limited Editions ‎– LIMITED 4) 1986

From a similar place, musically,one can loosely connect Muslimgauze to Zoviet France via the dark tribal ethnological ambiance angle.
To call the 'late' Bryn Jones prolific is somewhat an understatement,there being around 200 albums and counting to date;over half of them posthumous. However, variety,is not a word one could apply to the vast majority of his canon.Heavily percussive blends of found sounds from middle eastern cultures,mixed in with ambient drones and electronica, make for a doomy antediluvian experience. Then there's the obsession with middle eastern politics,especially the PLO; to the leader of whom, the equally 'late' Yasser Arafat,this LP is dedicated.
As much as any normal person can sympathise with the plight of the Palestinian, and the 'Nazi-style' ghettoisation and ethnic cleansing of the westbank and Gaza by Israel; it does get a tad boring to be confronted with the same theme for over two hundred albums!?.....OK!We get it!
That said,after the recent Terror attacks in Paris, this work has a continuing relevance.

Tracklist

A1	Charnel
A2	Under Black Light
A3	Somnambulists
B	X Ajza Of Martyrdome

DOWNLOAD some relevant political ambiance from beyond the grave HERE!

$oviet France - "Untitled (aka the Hessian Album)" (Red Rhino Records ‎– RED 12) 1982

This 1982 12"er finds the Zoviets when they were still the $oviets, finding their identity.the opening track, "Ritual", is a virtual sonic manifesto, laying out everything they were to become over the forthcoming records that followed. It has the dark ambient dubby sections, the tribal drum loops, the noise, and the desperate screams of the modern primitive. "Mudbast boys" is a dark muffled dub based on a random voice tape loop echoing into vast amounts of foggy space.
"Sem Boys" treads uncomfortably on the ethnological forgery footprints that Muslimgauze would exploit to death....even after death!?.
Weirdly, we then have the Zoviets using silly voices like a Residents out-take, for "Bring Hessa"....did I hear Laughter?????
"Mounw" starts as a nascent dark ambient piece,then segues into a post punk funk pastiche.
It ends in more familiar territory with "Ji Boys", a throbbing overloaded percussion workout.

There you go, i never do a running commentary of all the tracks!....I must be uninspired this evening.
Basically this is Proto-Zoviet,but it has its good if not great moments.One of the great moments being the Hessian bag it was released in. this is why its also know as the Hessian Album.If only the Beatles had thought of that?

Tracklist:

A1 Ritual
A2 Mudbast Boys
B1 Sem Boys
B2 Bring Hessa
B3 Mounw
B4 Ji Boys 

DOWNLOAD and bag some binary hessian HERE!

:zoviet-france: ‎– "Mohnomishe" (Red Rhino Records ‎– REDLP 40) 1983

As previously mentioned,when buying a copy of "Norsch" back in the day; some kind/incompetent record shop employee,slipped this double album in the sleeve as well. Unfortunately, without the screen printed heavy cardboard and string masterpiece that was the cover to the "Mohmonische" 2LP set that I had accidentally acquired.
I now know that this album is Zoviet France's greatest work.Heavy on the repetitive tribal drum loops,and dense, dark ambient soundscapes.
I could listen to the variations of drum loop featured on track A3 all day. Sounding like ten thousand analogue electronic Zulu's approaching Rourke's Drift, as seen on a badly tuned cathode ray tube.
There's something about the trial and error inaccuracy of hand spliced tape loops that preserve that much mourned human factor. The real 'X' factor that has been lost in the post sampler,computer era. Each loop in the modern era can be tweaked and tidied until it becomes something akin to a musical plastic chair. In the old method,once that razor blade and splicing tape are applied,your loop is carved in stone; a child with a life of its own, born without genetic modifications. Digital music is the equivalent of musical eugenics,where everyone and everything is 'Beautiful', as dictated by the incumbent  'taste-makers' incarnate.
This album is ugliness redefined as Beauty......the true meaning of beauty in fact.

Track Listing:

A1
A2
A3
B1
B2
C1
C2
D1

DOWNLOAD this beautiful ugliness HERE!

:zoviet-france: ‎– "Norsch" (Red Rhino Records ‎– RED23) 1983

When I bought this,I was attracted by its shiny silver foil cover, glistening from the Industrial section in, the now defunct, Rhythm Records in Camden Lock around 1985.Like a music magpie I pounced,unaware of its identity. And what joy unfolded, as when I arrived home the sleeve included two 33rpm LP's and a 45rpm 12 incher.
I thought that was the actual official contents until quite recently. The two LP's were in fact the Zoviet France double album "Mohmonische", which must have been inserted in error by confused record shop staff;and the 45rpm 12" was "Norsch". 

"Norsch" has that trademark tribal feel, like some kind of secular ritual disco for a nuclear winter. Which manifests impressions of abandoned cities,with gatherings of disfigured survivors performing a ritual sacrifice in a burnt out supermarket.
Whip this out after Daesh(ISIS) has nuked your home town.....but then again there would be no electricity would there(?) so don't bother.

(ps...you can download the "Eostre" album HERE!...for which i received a DCMA complaint for from one  of the dick'eads in the band)

Tracklisting:

1. Tauss
2. Baelmaen
3. Virang
4. Imirsch
5. Vorvah

DOWNLOAD for your bunker HERE!

:$oviet:France: - "Garista" (self released cassette) 1982

Zoviet France make a kind of post-apocalyptic urban folk, as if they were doomsday survivors making ritual music for the new age from the remnants of the old.
This begs the question of "Who would you allow into your Nuclear Bunker?"
'Dave Cameron' knocks on your door with his carpenter mate,who do you allow in? There's limited space.
Answer is obviously Mucky Mick the carpenter,and 'Dave' can fuck right off. In fact if Cameron turned up with Hitler,it'd be a difficult choice. As tempting as it is to choose Adolf for his organisational skills and charisma, Dave may get the vote so you could have someone to beat up,and he speaks English.
If Zoviet France rang the bunkers door bell alongside Mumford and sons,you would relish the chance to send the Mumfords to burn in the coming Nuclear wind.Although ZF would beat most music acts for a ticket to the post apocalyptic Earth; unless Danny and the Dressmakers turned up,they'd be safe-ish.
They were to get far more ambient than this early effort, but somehow I prefer their earlier dark tribal ambient Industrial sound. The random joy of the analogue tape loop is evident, among the bursts of electronic noise,and tape echo laden percussion. A sound sculpted from the crumbling edifices of post-industrial Britain.

Tracklist:
A1 Scrama Mdags
A2 Mosbas
A3 Mama Piss
A4 Nruknesh
A5 Caarcuraz
B1 M1 M1 M1
B2 Rangmabasm
DOWNLOAD some geordie style communist bon vie HERE!

Lustmord - "Lustmørd" (Sterile Records-SR3) 1981

The step-daddy of Dark Ambient's debut release on Nigel Ayer's Sterile Records,back when Dark Ambient was still called Industrial. Now its a fully formed sub-genre,drowning in a sea of thousands of other lonely sub-genres.
This is a classic dark muddy collage full of field recordings of children playing over some sub-bass throbbing, and deadened drums. The obligatory crude electronic noise and liberal use of effects is of course present, with the expected voice samples (recordings) rising and falling beneath the surface.There are some heavily processed vocals,which at several stages sound like 'The Soup dragon' as featured in cult kiddies TV programme, "The Clangers";but here,as recorded falling into a Black Hole.(click here to see the episode where the young impressionable Zchivago learned about reproduction....its never been explained any better.)  
Naturally Brian's still going strong today,probably helped by not using his real name on his earlier releases. Which miserable Industrial fan would have been attracted to the sinister ambient soundscapes of Brian Williams, or,alternatively, the same by some creepy bloke called Lustmord, with an "ø"? Even this stuff was all about marketing.......right now, I'd choose the Brian version.

Track Listing:

1.  (intro) The Valley of Death
2.  At Thee Mountains Of Madness
3.  Untitled
4.  Headplate
5.  Sibling
6.  Untitled
7.  Murderwreker
8.  Slabstone
9.  Arise
10. Kredo/Nemo
11. Beast Of Burden Beast Of Prey

DOWNLOAD the dark broody world of Brian HERE!

Iphar Clinic ‎– "Torture Music" (Iphar ‎– 005) 1983

An early Philip Best(Consumer Electronics,Whitehouse etc) single sided C-60 from his Iphar Clinic side project.
A lovely noise indeed, like listening to fingernails being scraped down a close miked blackboard for twenty minutes, harmonising with a choir of dentists drills and steel chairs screeching across the deck of a sinking container ship.
One talent Mr Best seems to certainly possess ,is the ability not to stay around for too long.Quite often staying within the crucial 30 minute barrier so as not to overstay his welcome. A Talent a lot of these noise artists seem to lack. Noise fatigue is a danger for the casual Power Electronics explorer.

Tracklist:

1-7 - Untitled

DOWNLOAD some digital torture HERE!

Consumer Electronics ‎– "Crowd Pleaser" (45rpm 12" vinyl - Hand To Mouth 1) 2009

Well, might as well have something from the reactivated version of Consumer Electronics.
This is from 2009,on limited edition vinyl.Its very short but rather ferocious.Philip Best busts several bloodvessels in an attempt to fill the hole left by  an absent Whitehouse.
The fuuuuuming Mr Best is LIVID. Ranting over the usual minimal electronic noise, spitting out words with venomous bitterness and ruthless sarcasm. Edited together like a a machine gun firing out digital spittle in your direction. Like a BNP(British working class nazi's) member confronting an asylum seeker.
Crowd pleaser this probably isn't, except for the small gatherings who loyally turn up for this abuse.The vast majority of the population would run a mile from this onslaught.That is why they are now found touring with Sleaford Mods, who are a more poetic,tuneful, and danceable version of Consumer Electronics basically;but they guarantee a crowd to please, or otherwise. 

Tracklist:

A1	Hand To Mouth
A2	Cockpit
A3	Crowd Pleaser
A4	Parking Lot
B1	Oily Possibilities

DOWNLOAD this shower of digital spittle HERE!

Consumer Electronics ‎– "Leathersex" (Iphar ‎– Iphar 004) 1982

From Total Sex to Leathersex , featuring future Whitehouse member,Philip Best, as his Consumer Electronics project. Still going strong today,frequently seen across europe playing live with the excellent Sleaford Mods!?
This early C-90 is a raw collection of airwave pollution,courtesy of some maltuned Shortwave radio's, producing a kind of fucked up electronic dance music for those employed in the realms of espionage.
Indeed, contained within these collages are hidden,what we now know to be transmissions for, and from, various spying organisations in the Cold war era. Track 14,for example, has a repeated phrase from Strauss's "Blue Danube" played simply, probably by a member of the Stasi,  on some East German electric guitar. This would have been a call sign for some dodgy operative on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. This cleverly,or accidentally, segues into a drifting transmission of John Lennon's "Mind Games",floating on a sea of morse code and frequency distortion.
(Check out the earlier post of the "Conet Project:recordings of Numbers Stations" for more similar weirdness from the Cold war era)
I used to listen to the strange music of the  short wave radio for hours, and even used it,as we all did in 1980, for the basis of my own early recordings without access to any conventional instruments. The underclass couldn't afford such luxuries as the Gibson guitars and drum kits one saw in the hands of the local 'Punk' band,who were allegedly 'on the Dole'? The real victims of Britain's decaying social structure and economy could only make do with a cassette recorder and a radio to express themselves.
Here we have a fine example of what one could do outside of the middle class rock ghetto.
(Also check out Philip Johnson's "Radio City" for a similar experiment in radio collage).

Tracklist:

A1	Untitled	18:11
A2	Untitled	2:53
A3	Untitled	1:48
A4	Untitled	2:29
A5	Untitled	0:39
A6	Untitled	3:56
A7	Untitled	1:33
A8	Untitled	11:47
B1	Untitled	4:12
B2	Untitled	14:33
B3	Untitled	7:13
B4	Untitled	8:12
B5	Untitled

DOWNLOAD without having to wear a gimp mask HERE!