Tuesday 31 December 2019

Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy ‎– "Nova'Billy" (Locust Music ‎– LOCUST101) 1975



Flynt has had his brushes with the rock world, he took guitar lessons from Lou Reed and sat in on violin for John Cale with the Velvet Underground for four nights in 1966, during the Exploding Plastic Inevitable period. “I enjoyed the experience, but I was kind of out of place. We would get into long chaotic pieces, but Reed stopped me because my sound started getting too hillbilly. He actually punched me to get me to stop.”
Through the late sixties, he pursued an electric guitar driven, political rock format, while in January 1975, he formed Nova'Billy, a rock’n’roll band, who performed spirited versions of the Communist Internationale along with their own songs – a bizarre fusion of rockabilly riffing, free jazz and hillbilly fiddling. He recalls trying to get gigs at the downtown New York punk mecca CBGB, whose initials stand for Country, Blue Grass and Blues. 

“I thought that if anybody had a right to play there I did, I mean those initials describe exactly what I do!” But the club thought otherwise and blew him off. Six months later, punk hit town and his musicians jumped ship, leaving him with a lasting suspicion of a “punk value system” which he considers pervasive.
Flynt correctly dismisses the so-called “alternative culture” as the "mystique of self-disintegration, hollowness and dishonesty, coming forth from this incoherant rage at the so-called establishment. And this self-disintegration, in most cases is also a hoax, since most of these people, like Marilyn Manson or Smashing Pumpkins, are well organized hustlers. It’s very rare that someone like GG Allin or Cobain lives out the myth by actually destroying themselves. You do have the occasional suicide or overdose, but what is more normal is for them to become enormously wealthy, like Eminem! It’s the youth rebellion industry. This mystique of bottomless emptiness is clearly not real. I mean someone who actually was all those things would just melt in their tracks if they were infinitely hollow, alienated. It's as if they want to keep falling through the rotten floors of illusion forever. They affirm that as a state!”

Well I think Henry boy is spot on...Rock and Punk,or the same thing, wrapped up in a nutshell. Not saying that Flynt is the real thang,but he talks a more 'honest' talk,and at least tries to overcome his background to walk some kind of walk that doesn't reek too much of the hypocrisy of someone like Johnny Rotten,who's formally rotten teeth are now perfect and white.
Its easy to see why CBGB's rejected Flynt but accepted The Ramones?....It was a business decision.A choice between someone who wanted to be a Hill Billy or some kids who wanted to be the Bay City Rollers.There was even a poundland David Bowie waiting by the bar in the form of Richard Hell,or whatever his real name was;another who preached the Rock lie yet lives on in the system he derided,writing poetry and waiting for his royalties from the few weeks work he did in 1976.
Henry was certainly closer in effect and ideology to the 'No Wave' groups than the 'new wave' groups.....and didn't Talking Heads steal his image? 
The Nova imploded rather than exploded,and unlike the super-nova that formed our solar system,provided little useable elements for new musical life-forms at all,except maybe The Cramps,and Glenn Branca?....from which sickly malnourished oak trees grew.

Monday 30 December 2019

Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 4: Ascent To The Sun" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 021) 2004



The final release in the New American Ethnic Music series is "Ascent to the Sun", an earwax rattling hillbilly raga in the family of 'You Are My Everlovin' with a double violin approach featuring our Henry playing against,or with, himself,or his-selves.Late period Flynt, from 2004,It sounds as if he wasn't listening to the other recorded tracks of his own fiddle playing as he added the overdubs,and it works just fine.Freeing himself from the strait-jacket of time structure and syncopation....this ain't no disco;but it is, some kinda twisted hoedown that needs dancing to......maybe we should give Jimmy Pursey a call?
"For me, innovation does not consist in composing European and academic music with inserted folk references. It consists in appropriating academic or technical devices and subordinating them to my purposes as a folk creature."...so says our Henry.

Tracklist:

1. Ascent To The Sun (recorded 2004)(41:21)

Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 007) 2003


The third volume in Henry Flynt's New Americam Ethnic Music series, following: 'You Are My Everlovin' & 'Spindizzy'. 
Featuring recordings from 1971 to 1978, this focuses on shorter tracks ranging from wild avant-bluegrass to steady-state drones that explore the third-ear mania of looped violin post-minimalism. The nihilist father of concept art and inventor of electronic Hillbilly music is at his string stroking rasping saw tooth wave best on this one.But watch out!...don't call him an artist...he just hates that stuff.
Tracklist:

1.Violin Strobe (1978)
2.Guitar Rebop (1971)
3.Telsat Tune (1971)
4.Full Telsat (1971)
5.Jumping Wired (1976/2001)
6.Leather High In A (1978)
7.Leather High In E (1978)
8.S & M Delerium (1978)


Henry Flynt ‎– "New American Ethnic Music Volume 2: Spindizzy" (Recorded ‎– Recorded 006) 2003


Not sure who was first in the minimal drone violinist stakes, but Tony Conrad's one note tirades makes Henry Flynt look like Paganini.Although both of them run Nigel Kennedy Close in the geekiest made kool violinist stakes.But niether of them managed to get off with Mark E. Smiths missus,as,incredibly, Nigel Kennedy did!?.....just being sober-ish and mildly famous was probably enough actually!
Volume One,of the 'New American Ethnic Music' series was "You are my everlovin'/celestial power",which was previously released on cassette in West Germany;so i won't post that again?
This second CD has Henry Flynt showing us that he's a quality Bluegrass fiddle playing American primitive as well as an avant-garde thinker and composer;not something Tony Conrad was either proficient ,or, interested in.
So,if you're expectin' some long scraping drone works, you're gonna be disappointed.This is too authentic an anthropological throwback to allow such flights of fancy.
There are of course a couple of lengthy ethopological lock groove style pieces,that would have gotten Flynt lynched if he actually played them to a real drunken Hillbilly mob,rather than catering for the New York downtown intelligentsia.
All that's missing is an inbred relic from the post mayflower generation to whine some lyrics about killin' and hangin' and I reckon ol' Henry had achieved his quest to return to when life was simple,and the people, they were people I am told,were even simpler.
The only other Yankee,albeit an orange one with tiny hands, these charming simpletons would spare a lynchin' for is Donald Trump.The peasants are indeed revolting.

Tracklist:

1.Hoedown (1968)
2.Solo Spindizzy (1971)
3.Banjo Country (1976)
4.White Lightning (1983)
5.Solo Virginia Trance (1975)
6.Double Spindizzy (1975)
7.Rockabilly Boogie (1982)
8.Jumping (1976)
9.Hillbilly Jive (1977)
10.Jive Deceleration (1976)


DOWNLOAD the hoedownload HERE!

Sunday 29 December 2019

Henry Flynt ‎– "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 1 & 2" ( Locust Music ‎– LOCUST 16 / 14) 2002


Avant-hillbilly Anti-Art fiddler Henry Flynt scuffles and scrapes his way through a most peculiar set of electrified and acoustic bumpkin fiddle howls and screeches recorded around the early to mid 1960s.Extended modal country jams hint at the repetitious drone epics of the New York avant garde New York-isms,self masturbatory schisms and jisms that were so...er...seminal for the bedroom genius's that have since released enough drone music to fill meteor crater several times over. Henry is clever enough, and i'm certain he thinks he's clever enough, to mix up the drone with some lock grooved hillbilly stompers that raise this above the status of just another smart arse from early sixties east village ,showing us dumb fucks how to be edgy. We naturally cognitively nihilistic types, are something Henry would have traded his fiddlers elbow for back in his more studious lecturing days.
Length is a big part of the Flynt gestalt, since the ultimate goal is an escape from the song form that so totally dominates old-timey and country music. Instead, elements of these genres -- boogie riffs, familiar chord progressions, fiddle riffs -- become parts of repeating patterns like a needle stuck in a groove, akin to a hillbilly version of Boyd Rices''Non';although there's no Nazi element as is with Boyd Rice, there exists an unavoidable stench of the KKK with any bluegrass and country connotation.

Tracklist:

Volume 1:

1.The Snake 3:40
2.Sky Turned Red 2:35
3.Acoustic Hillbilly Jive 12:01
4.Blue Sky, Highway And Tyme 15:53
Volume 2:
1.Echo Rock 5:30
2.Informal Hillbilly Jive 13:01
3.White Lightening 5:45
4.Jamboree 10:18

Saturday 28 December 2019

Henry Flynt & The Insurrections ‎– "I Don't Wanna" (Bo'Weavil Recordings ‎– Weavil 02) 1966/2004


In his quest to rediscover the original white american primitive inside himself, Henry Flynt moved from making forward looking drone music, back to the hillbilly version of folk from the Appalachian mountains. Just as English folkies of the 50's  and 60's rediscovered thousands of untouched ancient English folk songs still doing the rounds in the forgotten parts of north america,like visiting a folk music museum, so Flynt rediscovered the earliest forms of American music, which,like everything else in the USA,had formed from the folk musics brought over by the emigrants to the new world.
Sporting a nifty Buddy Holly with a Phd look, a decade before David Byrne and Elvis Costello, Henry turned his back on the Intellectual experimentation in the east village, to try and reset the american culture back to Year Zero, before bluegrass and Rock'n'Roll. The Pol Pot of Pop.The result were these recordings from 1963-66 for Henry's conceptual Electric Bluegrass band,The Insurrections, that seemed to have been stored cryogenically,waiting for the end of the world.
This attitude had many similarities within the Punk Rock movement, who instead of erasing Stockhausen from the musical History books, the'Punks' (for want of a better word) wanted to erase Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and start again. Sham 69 also had a song called "I Don't Wanna" for example; a similar kind of modern English folk song assembled from the more basic elements of imported american culture, which was akin to Henry's version.Except Sham actually managed to encapsulate Flynts dream of 'Cognitive Nihilism' without even trying. Henry Flynt was obviously,and inescapably a middle class intellectual,who was trying to think himself out of existence, whereas Jimmy Pursey was just doing it because he had to....brain wot brain!.....(that is until he was got at and did that avant-garde dance piece on BBC2......if you want a jolly old chuckle click here!). Evil psuedo-intellectualism gets us all in the end.
So far I can't recall Henry Flynt doing any hillbilly or contemporary dance in his career so far?
This Hillbilly rock stuff has indeed captured the creepiness of middle america very nicely.It sends a shiver down ones spine,its the sound of 'Stupid' resurrected, rather than insurrected ,by someone who escaped it to become part of the Marxist Intelligentsia,and then felt a need to go back again.It displays a dissonance, both musically and cognitively.He's managed to subscribe to and then reject almost everything in his lifetime so far.He just can't seem to make up his mind can he?
I think they have a candy bar in the US called this?....."Oh Henry!"

Tracklist:

A1 Uncle Sam Do 2:52
A2 Good By Wall St. 2:59
A3 Go Down 2:55
A4 Corona Del Mar 3:00
A5 Missionary Stew 4:30
B1 Jumping 3:03
B2 Sky Turned Red 2:33
B3 I Don't Wanna 3:18
B4 Dreams Away 7:29


Friday 27 December 2019

Henry Flynt ‎– "You Are My Everlovin / Celestial Power" (Edition Hundertmark ‎– 109. Karton) 1986


'Philosopher' and year zero of minimalism violinist, Henry Flynt, is a fine example of someone who had too much to think. Even in his quest to return to the roots of american music he thought about it too much rather than just 'doing it' like those documented on "Harry Smiths Anthology Of American Folk".
Yes, this is the man who came up with the concept of "Concept Art", which as a person who has spent most of his life in 'Conceptual Rock Bands', i'm a big fan of. He also came up with “cognitive nihilism”, which I also like the sound of.
As with the New Blockaders in the 1980's, he inhabited that awkward area of 'Anti-Art',which is very difficult to justify when you are actually still creating something?But maybe its about the way one creates things that counts....I rather think so.
He was prominent in the 1963 campaign against the cultural institutions and the art world. Already in the periphery of extreme marxist politics, he got his idea of a public campaign from them. He picketed two museums and Lincoln Center with Tony Conrad and Jack Smith.Flynt began to give lectures assailing art to avant-garde artists, Art was to be replaced with “general acognitive culture,” By which point, Flynt had convinced himself that he did not need his own “acognitive compositions,” and he destroyed most of them;In hindsight, he considers this a mistake....so....incidently do we.Silly boy.
So sadly very little exists of Flynt's Drone Violin epics,but we do have a couple of pieces from 1980/81 that escaped Henry's puritanical over-thinking.
He's also yet another lost member of the Velvet Underground,for whom he played about four gigs in 1966,filling in for Cale.
He spent most of the recording time he didn't destroy,from 1963, in his quest for american ethnic music, like early rock'n'roll,or primitive country and western stompers,with his band ,The Insurrections.Pure music, I guess, which is not too disimilar from musical eugenics,or racial purity.
If Flynt had his way in any cultural utopia of his choosing, music would resemble just a few notches above that allowed in Cambodia under Pol Pot, force fed bluegrass and hillbilly music until we were throttled to death by our own ears.
The ultimate minimalism is ,of course, SILENCE!

Tracklist:

A You Are My Everlovin (44:12)
B Celestial Power (44:24)


Thursday 26 December 2019

John Cale - "Sun Blindness Music" (Audio ArtKive ‎– Audio ArtKive 03) 2001

There's snow blindness like sun blindness.
Three more Tony Conrad recordings of John Cale's new york Drone experiments.This stuff was genuinely decades ahead of its time, and the best thing that Cale was ever involved in,unless he was on that Portsmouth Symphonia Record.....the sad thing is, i could easily check,but really whats the point in finding anything out anymore when there's no need to remember it because if I need to know it I can just go on the internet and it will remember it for me.The real danger is trusting technology to remember the facts as they truly were,and not how persons,or machines, unknown want them to be remembered.
Isn't there a Philip K. Dick story on this subject?.....no, don't look that up either.Use your own memory banks.This is whats killing debate in Pubs,as we sit gazing into our beer in relative silence.
Well, i'm gonna go out on a limb and state that Cale was indeed part of Gavin Bryers Portsmouth Symphonia project,so if anyone wants to argue that he wasn't go ahead,but without fucking googling it!
It doesn't matter if he was or if he wasn't,but at least we tried?
"We can remember it for you"!?

Tracklist:

1 Sun Blindness Music
Organ [Vox Continental] – John Cale 42:42
2 Summer Heat
Guitar – John Cale 11:06
3 The Second Fortress
Sounds [Electronic Sounds] – John Cale 10:36


1 - October 28, 1967
2 - August 1965
3 - Late 1967/Early 1968
DOWNLOADS for the sunblind HERE!

Wednesday 25 December 2019

Various Artists ‎– "The American Song-Poem Christmas: Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? (Bar/None Records ‎– BRN-CD-147) 2003


Ho! Ho! fucking Ho!
Indeedy, Americans sure know what Christmas is all about.
Without Christmas we wouldn't have these prime nuggets of  pure awfulness that manage to make the yuletide festivities even worse.
These tunes aren't as bad as a christmas song by someone like Meat Loaf, accompanied by a video with our loud fat friend dressed up as Santa. As Santa is an anagram of Satan, there has to be a special corner of Hell where this Meat Loaf xmas exists on an eternal loop......but as Hell is only, vaguely, mentioned twice in the whole bible, I'm confident that we are safe from that......for want of a better word....Nonsense!
These tunes from the MSR Song-Poem company, are unbelievably bad, but the right kind of 'Bad', that is....er...Good!?
If you didn't know, MSR were a bunch of musicians who advertised in the US press classified section, offering to put your poems to music.The lucky punter would then receive a vinyl single of their atrocious poem ,indeed, put to music.Quality control was obviously a secondary matter,as they had to arrange a few standard riffs and fit these terrible lyrics into some kind of melody,then record it,in little more time than it took to play the finished single.I shall be returning to the vast MSR archives in the near future,but this jolly Yuletide jamboree of shite will more than wet your appetite for more,jaw dropping badness in 2020!
So gather around your christmas table and sing-a-long to "Randy, The Li'l Elf" or the inexblicable "Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile", and bin off Crosby for another year.

Tracklist:

1 –Heather Noel - Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile 2:44
2 –Bobby Boyle With The Singers - Santa Claus Goes Modern 2:17
3 –Norris The Troubador,Seaboard Coastliners - Christmas Time Philosophy 2:33
4 –Dick Kent With The Lancelots - A New Year's Dawning 3:47
5 –The Sisterhood - The Rocking Disco Santa Claus 2:16
6 –Stan Beard - & The Swinging Strings - Snowbows 2:18
7 –Bobbie Boyle With The MSR Singers - Randy, The Li'l Elf 1:40
8 –Rodd Rogers - Maury, The Christmas Mouse 3:19
9 –Randall Reed With The Forerunners - The Peppermint Stick Man 2:23
10 –The Sisterhood - Christmas Treat, Peppermint 2:26
11 –Kay Brown - Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? 3:06
12 –Rodd & The Librettos - How Do They Spend Christmas In Heaven 3:24
13 –The Sisterhood - Ole Year Christmas 2:28
14 –Gene Marshall - Evelyn Christmas 2:50
15 –Rodd & Nita - Jolly, Jolly Santa Claus 3:20
16 –Sonny Cash - Merry Christmas Polka 2:24
17 –Rodd & Judy - Santa Fix My Toys For Christmas 2:54
18 –The Sisterhood - Baby, It's A Cold Night In December 2:10
19 –Rodd Rogers - & The Librettos - Santa Claus Goes Modern 2:23
20 –Cara Stewart With Lee Hudson Orchestra - The New Year Song 3:17
21 –Teri Summers & The Librettos - Season's Greetings 2:03


Tuesday 24 December 2019

John Cale ‎– "Stainless Gamelan: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume III" (

They call it 'inside the Dream Syndicate', but its the Welshman's name in large capitals on the cover!?
Ahh, but this has a picture of 'sexy' era John Cale,when he realized that 'art' ain't worth  a fuck, but a fuck is worth selling out for.
The music is from before he sold out to very minor fame, but there's a particularly amusing ending when someone,a neighbour, or the New York Fire Dept, enters Conrad's apartment and tells them to shut up or else......surprisingly they do!?...not very Rock'n'Roll is that eager compliance.

Tracklist:
1 Stainless Steel Gamelan
Harpsichord [Cembalet], Guitar [Fretless] – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 10:30
2 At About This Time Mozart Was Dead And Joseph Conrad Was Sailing The Seven Seas Learning English
Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale Viola, Guitar – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 26:27
3 Terry's Cha-Cha
Drums [Hand], Tambourine – Angus Maclise Soprano Saxophone – Terry Jennings Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale 8:20
4 After The Locust
Electric Piano – John Cale; Performer [Thunder Machine] – Tony Conrad 4:18
5 Big Apple Express
Viola, Tape – John Cale;Vocals – New York Fire Department 5:45


1 - Mid 1960s. 
2 - May 1967. 
3 - May 1967.
4 - Circa 1968.
5 - Early/mid 1960s

John Cale ‎– "Dream Interpretation: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume II" ( Audio ArtKive ‎– Audio ArtKive 04) 2001

John Cales' name sits proudly atop these archive releases from his days with La Monte Youngs 'Theatre Of Eternal Music"; renamed "The Dreeam Syndicate" by Cale and Conrad.
'Cale' rhymes with 'sale', so as the most saleable member of the 'Dream Syndicate' he gets his name on the top of the list of players,in large capital letters.
This is the Second of three 'Dream Syndicate' discs reproduced from archival recordings by Tony Conrad, of Cale and verious members of La Monte Youngs crew, namely MacLise, Conrad and everyones favourite ex-Velvet Underground member.
Here they mess around with La Monte Young's basic drone concept,which would later turn up in Cale's work with VU.On the opening track,his Viola is like a chainsaw gnawing at your inner ear;and maybe even your inner-soul,if you have one.Which you almost certainly don't......and equally as certain, neither do I, if you were wondering?
John seems to take full credit for all this ground breaking mid-60's experimentation, and one must say, it hasn't dated.Unlike Cales' seventies Rock albums, which are pretty awful trad rock,but caused a slight stir back in the day, and today sound rather dull.....unlike these drone experiments.One Would have preferred the lyrics to 'Fear' sung over these unsettling pieces of music, rather than the flaccid adult orientated rock of his early seventies output.Thats inevitably the result of discovering that girls now found him attractive,after donning sunglasses and growing his hair for minor pop stardom in the Velvet Underground.Its difficult to go back to pure experimentation once this has happened to yer average male with low self-esteem.Lou Reed, never really struggling with low self-esteem, managed to do 'Metal Machine music', but I suspect that was merely a 'Fuck You' concept album, as opposed to rediscovering the artist within;but that was a full ten years after these Cale and Conrad experiments.
Alas 'Metal Machine Music' does stand up as one of Reeds best albums,and is neck and neck with Public Image Limited's 'First Issue' in the race to be crowned 'Thee Badest Bad Attitude Album' of allllll time.


Tracklist:

1 Dream Interpretation
Viola – John Cale ;Violin – Tony Conrad 20:33
2 Ex-Cathedra
Organ [Vox Continental] – John Cale 5:03
3 [Untitled] For Piano
Piano – John Cale 12:28
4 Carousel
Sounds [Electronic Sounds] – John Cale 2:32
5 A Midnight Rain Of Green Wrens At The World's Tallest Building
Viola – John Cale;Violin – Tony Conrad 3:19
6 Hot Scoria
Cimbalom – Angus MacLise;Guitar – John Cale 9:21

1 - February 6, 1969.
2 - Late 1967/Early 1968.
3 - Early/mid 1960s. 
4 - Late 1967/Early 1968.
5 - February 8, 1968. 
6 - March 2, 1964 or 1965.

Monday 23 December 2019

Theatre Of Eternal Music :featuring John Cale / Tony Conrad / Angus MacLise / La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela ‎– "Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume I: Day Of Niagara(1965)" ( Table Of The Elements ‎– 74 W) (1965 / 2000)


Grandaddy of the minialist drone epic, La Monte focused his attention on pieces of extended duration, with minimal, often microtonal, change,since,i am told, the fifties???? For this reason, he is known as thee initiator of the minimal music "movement". All originators need to surround themselves with like-minded individuals at some stage,and the list on the cover of this album reads as a who's who of early minimalism.
More or less a Minimalist Super Group, 'The Theatre Of Eternal Music',later known,by Cale and Conrad, as The Dream Syndicate, was formed by La Monte Young, to focus on experimental drone music. Again, no-one thought of recording this stuff in a studio, because they likely thought that no-one would want to listen to it for more than 30 seconds. This rare live recording of the Theatre in action in 1965, lasts for a standard tape reel length of thirty minutes......not until the CD age would we get to hear the full five hours of "The Well Tuned Piano", and now, even that can be edited together to run continously on a computer without changing discs.
Young was born in a log cabin in the american wilderness, and somehow graduated to playing his Indian influenced drones at Yoko Ono's loft after he relocated to the Big Apple in the early sixties. Some people are just born into it, it seems? Most of us have to work at it, but some, like La Monte, just effortlessly go where nobody else has dared to tread.......then get ignored. He's still far less known than Cale, Conrad, and Terry Riley, but maybe thats a good thing......the public will only ruin him...maybe get him to do an album with Faust, or join a pop group like Cale did.

Tracklist:

1. Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume I: Day Of Niagara (1965) 30:54


Saturday 21 December 2019

Jack Smith ‎– "Silent Shadows On Cinemaroc Island - 56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964 Volume II" ( Audio ArtKive Ag 47) 1997


More camp shenanigans from Jack Smiths apartment on Ludlow Street,as recorded,one assumes by mr minimalism,Tony Conrad,who also appears.
It manages to be both weird and hilarious at the same time,a feat only achieved by such luminaries as The Residents.
I would write more,but I had a heavy night down the pub yesterday evening.Never again!

Tracklist:

1 Carnival Of Ecstacy
Performer – Tony Conrad 3:19
2 The First Memoirs Of Maria Montez
Finger Cymbals – Jack Smith Performer – David G., Mario Montez, Tony Conrad 22:12
3 Buffalo Song
Performer – Mario Montez Violin – Tony Conrad Vocals – Jack Smith 2:10
4 Mario And The Flickering Jewel
Voice – Jack Smith, Tony Conrad 3:51
5 Contadina Tomato Paste 3:03
6 Silent Shadows On Cinemaroc Island
Performer – John Cale, Tony Conrad 8:45
7 The Horrors Of Agony 10:50
8 Jack, Mario, And Tony
Voice – Mario Montez 6:00


Friday 20 December 2019

Jack Smith ‎– "Les Evening Gowns Damnees - 56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964, Volume I" (Audio ArtKive ‎– Audio ArtKive 01) 1997


If fucking around with your mates and recording it is Art, then so be it. Hell, we've all done it ain't we?...if not ,then you should have.
Jack Smith, who virtually invented 'Camp Art' and zero budget trash cinema, seemed to have a great time at 56 Ludlow Street with his artsy chums, which included most of the nascent Velvet Underground.
It all sounds great fun to these ears.
This is where Lou Reed stole his lyrics from and Warhol stole the ideas for his movies.
Jack Smith is another one of those ignored and forgotten counter culture heroes who accidently inspired others with greater ambitions to achieve imortality.Without Smith there would have been no John Waters,or Laurie Anderson;but Smith did all of this for no other reason than to entertain himself,because there was nothing out there like his films or his living artwork,himself, existed pre-Smith.
He certainly had his fifteen minutes,but thats all he wanted,and all he got.Others,like Lou Reed, outlived their quarter of an hour,and how we wished they hadn't.
In the future everyone will be as obscure as Jack Smith for Fifteen Minutes.

Tracklist:

1 Earthquake Orgy
Voice [Screams] – Arnold Rockwood, Jack Smith, Kate Heliczer, Mario Montez, Piero Heliczer 3:53
2 Love Is Strange
Featuring – Frances Francine, Tony Conrad 17:51
3 Jack Smith Reads From "The Great Moldy Triumph" On His 31st Birthday
Engineer – Robert Adler*Voice, Effects – Frances Francine, Ron Rice 6:35
4 Cold Starry Nights
Featuring [Sarinda] – John CaleStrings [Bowed Cembalom] – Tony Conrad 2:19
5 Jack Smith Tells Tales Of Francine 8:08
6 The Second Dance Of The Harem Mongos (Excerpt)
Cymbal [Finger], Drums – Jack SmithFeaturing [Mandola] – Tony Conrad 4:00
7 Jack Smith Reads "Les E. G.'s Damneés"
Guitar [Lute] – Tony ConradStrings [Bowed Mandola] – Angus MacLise 16:13


Thursday 19 December 2019

Tony Conrad ‎– "Four Violins (1964)" (Table Of The Elements ‎– 17 Cl) 1996


A happy accident is that I have posted this early minimalist masterpiece on the 55th anniversary of its recording, and as myself and 'Four Violins' are roughly the same age I can testify to its long reaching influence on the modern musical world by the smorgasbord of weirdo music that has infected my soul over the ensuing half century.This being one of thee groundbreaking moments that christened that particular ship and launched it down the slipway to its date with the iceberg of humanity.
Why say something with a thousand notes when you only need say it with one? Conrad,as the mathematician (which apparently he was qualified as!?),would prefer to bring everything down to its lowest common denominator,or the lowest prime number......'One'. 
One's beautiful simplicity speaks to us all, for we are only one,trapped within ourselves. One speaks to everyone,but not all understands its impotance as a foundation stone. In fact, it can cause many different emotions,including anger. Most musicians and public alike can find this unacceptable.Expecting the flurry of notes of a Mozart Symphony,rather than the constant hum of a wing of cold war bombers flying to wipe out human culture,and start again if we survive.
Like all of the minimalists' recordings,it took the planet thirty years to catch up,and none were released until the mid nineties.The few exceptions had to be paired up with a rock group to see the light of day, like 'The Velvet Underground and Nico', Cales' 'Church of Anthrax',and most widely known, "Outside The dream Syndicate" with Tony himself and Faust. A bargain bin hit on Virgin's budget price label,that provided the backdrop to many a hippy pot-party in the early seventies.No-one knew who Tony Conrad was though,but Faust were trendy with the 'Heads',so it got bought,and filed under 'F' in their album racks.
If you like the sound of a microtonal violin drone that lasts for the entire side of a 1964 reel-to-reel tape spool, then this should satisfy your need. As for those who think that this isn't music, don't get angry...again....there is never any need for violence, but there is still a need "Four Violins".

Tracklisting:

1. Untitled (32:30)

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Wednesday 18 December 2019

Angus MacLise & Tony Conrad ‎– "Dreamweapon III" (Boo-Hooray ‎– SMRGS-2) 2011



Nowadays, everyone's got a bloody 'Drone Project' on the go;but back in 1963 it could get your head kicked in. As with,so-called,' Harsh Noise' ,Drones turn up in the most unlikely places,like  in the capital of the Hive Mind, Ibiza, fucking Hip-Hop, Radiohead records......fuck me!
So, don't go making that Drone triple album and think that you're cutting edge and weird, when you patently ain't.....same goes for Harsh Noise' by the way.
55 years ago, in Beatles (who also used drones in '66) crazed america, yes, you would have been on the 'cusp',and qualified for the 'Weird' label.Even back then, the Drone was borrowed/inspired from Traditional Indian music,and various other similar ethnic musics designed for meditation and meeting god when coupled with certain fungi based substances. 
The biggest Drone of all, are the fuckers who drone on about drones......so this Drone will end ....er......NOW!

Tracklist:

A Untitled (October 18 1968 At Tony Conrad's Apartment) 15:27
B1 Short Drum And Viola Part 1 & 2 (Ca. 1969) 4:49
B2 Druid's Leafy Nest (Undated) 7:26
B3 Early Jams (Undated) 6:46


Tuesday 17 December 2019

Angus & Hetty MacLise ‎– "Dreamweapon II" (Boo-Hooray ‎– SMRGS-3) 2011


With a name like Angus,its almost certain that MacLise was the beneficiary of either a privileged or a Bohemian background. Which is probably what attracted spoilt brat indie legends 'Spacemen 3' to steal the "Dreamweapon" moniker from that Angus MacLise bootleg they bought with their trust fund allowance.......apologies to Pete Bassman who i am assured was absolutely NOT, from a privileged background at all....but the other two fuckers certainly were.
Is there no area of working class cultture that hasn't been misappropriated by the middle to upper classes? They've got our Football, they've cornered the acting market,even playing characters from the underclass to rub it in some more; and for a long time now, the fuckers have priced us out of Rock'n'Roll!There is no hope of escape beyond unattainable media planted aspirations. The aspirational economy has even turned 'working class made good' success stories (the jury's out on what constitutes 'Success' by the way!), into Nouveau Riche class traitors.Bribed by tax incentives and a status that allows them to distance themselves from societies losers.....ie 'Us'.
One just has to observe who votes for Trump and Johnson in these alternative reality TV elections to find who these conditioned intellectual minnows support. The poorest of the population want what Trumps got,and anything is a price worth paying. So-called solidly Labour areas in the north of England voted for Johnson......even in Manchester!?...blaming their alienation on the so-called 'Metropolitan Elite'!????.....didn't that used to be the Conservatives? It reeks of Book Burning and Lenin accusing the Intelligentsia of undermining the revolution. Now the Conservative Party has rebranded itself, Trump style' as 'The Peoples Party'!?.....seems i'm no longer part of the 'People' anymore,the less than great unwashed. The metroplotitan elite will welcome us book readers with open arms;but don't wear that smug,one eybrow raised Intelligentsia look on the street, or you're liable to be set upon by 'The People' screaming 'Remainer!",or "Socialist", like in the 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with Donald Sutherland......or in the case of the so-called 'Brexit-Election', 'The Invasion of the Dream-Snatchers',especially when it comes to escaping that septic Isle ,the new DDR...GBR.
Alas, the 'Posh' are allowed to dabble in such stuff as fine art, or the 'Avant-Garde", so Angus is free to do whatever kind of mystical drone music he desires,and along with wife Hetty, he does a pretty fine job of making a type of western music never heard before.
Although some of it does sound not unlike something the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would churn out effortlessly for a 1959 Radio Drama;but Angus did it on a stream of south american drug cocktails,so its different. The BBC lot,mostly Oxbridge graduates, just stuck to 20 cigarettes a day,washed back with limited supplies of wine and coffee.Thats why they all dies young....like Angus did too, sadly.

Tracklist:

A1 Bash Bish, Berkshires Group - Ca. 1968-1969 1:42
A2 November 1965
Bells – Angus Organ – Hetty 16:26
A3 Untitled
Cymbal, Drums – Angus 2:40
B Organ Expo 1969 18:58


Monday 16 December 2019

Angus MacLise / Tony Conrad / Jack Smith ‎– Dreamweapon I (Boo-Hooray ‎– BH-001) 2011



Aloha indeed, from the world of 'Socialistic Art'.....it gets better.....Jack Smith is acclaimed as a founding father of American performance art. And everyone LOVES performance artists don't they?
Whereas Angus MacLise is beatnik daddio numero deux after Jack Kerouac,and founding father of Hippy. Conrad gets off almost scott free,as he's renouned as the grandaddio of 'The Drone', in fact he spent the majority of his creative life playing one note. Now, that is what I call a Musician......the anti-Mozart.
These Live recordings of Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad, and Jack Smith come from from the vast MacLise tape archives, as donated by his wife Hetty.
Track one is a long spoken word piece, by the godfather of Drag, Jack Smith,playing the role of an imbecile as far as I can make out.
It's most entertaining.
Side B, is a ghostly,echo-laden ethnic drone piece with haunting Indian instrumentation.This could have been made yesterday,but no,it existed in the year of my birth,at the height of Beatlemania.And indeed could well have been a liminal influence for the Fab Four's watershed moment, "Tomorrow Never Knows"....so at least, it seems that Yesterday did know....and probably still does if you look in the right places.
Certainly an archive recording that will impress your intellectual friends from the near mythical 'Metropolitan Elite' that are being blamed for alienating the honest working man of nothern England, who then voted for the 'Poundland Trump', Boris Johnson in that joke of a General Election in the UK. Almost makes one actually wanna be part of the Metropolitan Elite......the politician and his traitorous supporters that is....not the music.
This music exists outside of Politics,outside of Intellect,and outside of this crumbling dimension,or,our crumbling Dementia?

Tracklist:

A Les Evening Gowns Damnées (December 20 1964) 16:48
B S.O.S. (Ca. 1968)


Angus MacLise ‎– "Tapes" (Pleasure Editions ‎) 2015


OK,so now the challenge is to try and post something that's the polar opposite to Soviet Bloc Prog?

How about some middle class american avant-garde minimalism,with a splash of ethnological forgery?
American percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and calligrapher (it says here!),Angus MacLise;otherwise known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground,fits the bill nicely.
He appeared to not be bothered that his music was basically ignored outside of that Warholian clique,and seemed to play only for his own benefit,and that of the like-minded individuals that he hung out with.MacLise was a member of La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, with Tony Conrad and John Cale, who described MacLise as "living on the Angus calendar", showing up to performances hours or even days after the band had finished.Mainly because he was drugged out of his 'avant-garde' brane!
During an Exploding Plastic Inevitable performance in 1966, MacLise showed up half an hour late and carried on drumming for half an hour after the set had finished to compensate for his late arrival;or rather thats what he said.the real money is on the possiblity that he was so stoned he didn't know the performance had finished.
Another doomed Aliester Crowley obsessive,his music has a tribal feel to it,abeit a tribe fucked up on peyote induced spirituality.
No official albums existed during his lifetime,and I doubt he even cared.Ambition is,after-all, the rocky cycle path to a creative cliff edge.This is a very posthumous 3-cassette compilation of unheard music from MacLise’s vast and wide-ranging reel-to-reel back catalogue. These recordings, produced between the mid-'60s and the late-'70s, consist of tribal trance workouts, spoken word, poetry, Brion Gysin-like tape cut-ups,minimalist droning and wacked out electronics—all animated by the remarkable spirits of MacLise and his beatniky cohorts.
He ,somehow, managed to die of malnutrition in Kathmandu in 1979!? Now that's certainly one of the more original Rock'n'Roll deaths.None of your cliched 'Choked on Vomit' nonsense when it came to Angus MacLise;it may not have been someone elses vomit, 
but it was definitely his own malnutrition,and,unfortunately, his own fault.

Tracklist:


Tape I

A SR8041
B1 DS8067
B2 SR8041
Tape II
A1 Trance
A2 SR8041-B
A3 DS8043
A4 Summer 1978
A5 DS8093
B1 DS8068-B
B2 TC8028
Tape III
A TC8017
B DS8045


Saturday 14 December 2019

Various Artists ‎– "Ende Vom Lied: East German Underground Sound 1979 - 1990" (Play Loud! Productions ‎– pl-67) 2016



What can I say except that i like a nice pair of knockers on my record covers,especially painted ones.

So all i'm motivated to do is cut'n'paste the liner notes,and come to the conclusion that the DDR produced ,by far, the best and most adventurous music in the whole soviet bloc.So as the title suggests,this can mark the end of our fabulous tour of the communist bloc.....not necessarily never to return.There's reems of DDR Punk,but,between you and me...its largely awful 1983 generic rubbish.You can't win 'em all!?

....and i quote:....

"ENDE VOM LIED" is a genre-spanning collection of punk, post-punk and avant-garde bands from the former East Germany, chronicling the work of free spirits pitted against government restraints and implied genre limitations. The underground scene in the GDR was a hydra, a noisy mix of musicians, poets, pain¬ters, photographers, filmmakers, punks and freaks. In the immediate aftermath of the primal scream that was punk, music often bred with poetry or painting in short-lived liaisons or enduring collaborations to produce a new generation of genre bastards. With the lines blurring between forms, a search for new shapes began. In the German Democratic Republic, this search constituted a tightrope walk, a dance for expression between subculture and a dictatorship.

*In German, ENDE VOM LIED literally translates to “The end of the song”, but is more commonly understood as a saying roughly meaning “The upshot”, “The end of the story” or simply “The end”.

TRACKLIST:

01 Ornament & Verbrechen : When I am I am not (1988)
02 Grabnoct : Töten und Fressen (1987)
03 L‘Attentat : linke Ecke, rechte Ecke (1984)
04 Der Schwarze Kanal : spiel mit (1979)
05 3tot : Hintere Gedanken (1989)
06 Der Demokratische Konsum : Sturm im Gepäck (1985)
07 T42 : Dreamer (1985)
08 Happy Straps : Live in Paradise (1985)
09 Planlos : Smog und Ruß (1981)
10 Sendeschluß : Deine Liebe (1982)
11 Zwitschermaschine : geh übern fluß (1983)
12 Aufruhr zur Liebe : mit’m bock auf nichts (1984)
13 Andreas Auslauf : Zivilisation (1985)
14 Rosa Extra : was mir deine schleuder ist dir meine waschmaschine (1982)
15 AG Geige : Fingerwalze (1989)
16 The Local Moon : Kingdom comes (1987)
17 fett : rifflied (1988)
18 Herbst in Peking : Parade (1989)
19 Magdalene Keibel Combo : Stahl Daab (1988)
20 Ornament & Verbrechen : keilter schwaß (1989)
21 BAADER : ceaucescu meiner seele! (1988)
22 Klick & Aus : Systeme rasten ein, ich raste aus! (1984)
23 Der Expander des Fortschritts : Fremdgehen durchs Land (1990)
24 Pffft... : Prenzelking (1985)


Friday 13 December 2019

MCH Band ‎– "Jsme Zdrávi A Daří Se Nám Dobře" (Fist Records) 1983


The MCH band couldn't get on groovy state label Supraphon,so they had to do the same as the UK bands who couldn't get on EMI, and make their own cassettes.
This is their second on Fist records.
More excellent proggy post-punk from darkest Czechoslovakia.

Tracklist:

A1 Prasinec
A2 Procházka Kolem Pivovaru
A3 Maškara Na Větvi
B1 Prej Hoří Národní Divadlo
B2 Viselci
B3 Truppen Marschieren Bei Nacht
B4 Kdo Ví


Thursday 12 December 2019

MCH /post Extempore/ Band ‎– "Krokodlak" (Fist Records) 1982


The MCH band, named after band leader Mikoláš Chadima, bless him,was a more forward looking Czech Prog band that exuded elements of Post-Punk experimentalism, with a Rock In Opposition vibe, and the much needed influence of punk rock's immeadiacy. That means theres not much singing,no over long tracks, trimmed beards, and shorter shoulder length hair.They could even be the best thing to come out of Czechoslavakia since The Plastic People of the Universe....who were obviously a major influence.
This was their first cassette underground release, when they had just changed their name from The unrecorded, Extempore Band (Better name), to the initials of the lovely Mikoláš.

Tracklist:

A1 Pydlisyn
A2 Peklo
A3 Krokodlak / Vènováno V.T./
B1 Hobit / Zpěv Skřetů/
B2 Jak Šlo Vejce Na Van Dr
B3 Král Hromady


Wednesday 11 December 2019

Bohemia ‎– "Zrnko Písku" (Panton ‎– 11 0699) 1978


Oh Alright then!
Here's the sole album of progressive Jazz Rock Fusion.from Czech-Prog super group, Bohemia.
Made up of Jan Kubík (ex-Flamengo), Lešek Semelka (ex-Blue Effect), Michal Pavlíček (ex-Expanze), Vladimír Guma Kulhánek (ex-Flamengo), Jan Hála and Pavel Trnavský (ex-Expanze)......so i'm told.
The music is standard Jazz Rock in the tradition of, dunno?...Return To Forever? Etc.
The tracks get rather funky at some point, but the singer.....the singer!
Thats the trouble with these eastern european records, their language doesn't suit rock and soul music whatsoever.
I've said this before, to some amusement I may add, that the Lingua Franca of 20th century popular music is, undeniably, English.As for Opera its Italian. 
Instrumentally this album is rather good, but rather spoiled by those harsh sounding words and those harsher, rasping vocals.


Tracklist:

1.Chór Minulých Nohou V Průchodu „Pasáž” 7:16
2.Zátiší Peronních Lístků 6:32
3.Sen O Snu 5:56
4.Horké Letní Stmívání 9:14
5.Milenci Před Pollockovým Obrazem 7:24

Tuesday 10 December 2019

Combo FH ‎– "Věci / Things" (Panton ‎– 8113 0184) 1981



Amother I got from the bargain bin in the Ultima Thule progressive record shop in Leicester back in the nineties;I think this was one pound.
More Czech, brass heavy prog, with a distinct Zappa influence.
Apparently there is a Frank Zappa statue in Prague somewhere. The Zappa family did originate,rather fittingly, from bohemia before they wisely emigrated to California.I did have a friend from the same area, who ultimately drove into a tree and died, but he did look like Zappa, a grungier version of Zappa, but nonetheless he had that Bohemia look.(especially after the accident!)
There was also a Czech prog fusion band actually Called 'Bohemia', which i considered posting, but its a bit too jazzy for me....as well as being a bit Shit....but is considered a Czech prog classic...and why not?
Combo Fh could have easily fitted into the UK post-punk prog scene if they had been let out to hang at Rough Trade in London...but,alas, they would have needed a major make over, a shave at least, to make it alongside Pigbag or Blurt.

Tracklist:

1.Guma-Gu / Rubber Blubber 4:13
2.Sedli A Jedli / They Sat And Ate 3:13
3.Ouklejí Slalom / Dace Race 4:26
4.Juta Targo 1:49
5.Řezník Zítra Nepřijede / The Butcher Won't Come Tomorrow 1:59
6.Sen Sušené Jahody / Dried Strawberry's Dream 3:46
7.Laserová Pouť / Laser Pilgrimage 2:49
8.Koko A Bučka / Koko And Bottage 1:35
9.Je Za Deset Minut, Pardále / It's Ten To, Bully Boy 2:55
10.Přilož Ucho / Give Your Ear 3:01
11.Druhá Nejlepší Pastička Na Myši / Second Best Mousetrap 2:29
12.Zelený Muž / Green Man 1:48
13.Tam Na Horách V Rákosí / On The Hilltops In The Rushes 1:35
14.Asi To Zabalíme, I Josef Už To Zavinul / Weather Report For 15.Tonight, Let's Call It A Day 2:29


Monday 9 December 2019

Progres 2 ‎– "Dialog S Vesmírem" (Panton ‎– 8113 0130) 1980



Typically for the eastern bloc, Progres 2 were formed over a decade before they had their debut album put out by the state.Around about the time of the 'Prague Spring' uprising.
No room for teenage troublemakers over the other side of the wall....not on the state labels at least.Especially after the Soviet Tanks rolled in around 1968.
If you couldn't grow a bushy moustache they didn't wanna know.Back to the chemical plant and those adorably slack health and safety regulations. Teenagers with green hair in the soviet bloc were not generally adolescent rebels with a handy bottle of hair dye as a rule.Their verdant locks came courtesy of chemical poisoning at work, or they lived within 50 kilometers of a state industrial plant. So most musicians who lived on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain were often near death by the time the debut album got out.
At least Progres 2 seem to have survived their pre-fame era intact, as this complex and symphonic Czech-prog classic attests.

Tracklist:

1.V Zajetí Počítačů 3:07
2.Země 2555 4:07
3.Píseň O Jablku 9:34
4.Odlet 5:42
5.Planeta Hieronyma Bosche I 4:38
6.Planeta Hieronyma Bosche II 6:20
7.Tisíce Mých Očí 4:53
8.Hymna Robotů 4:37