Södra Bergens Balalaikor – "Södra Bergens Balalaikor" (MNW – MNW 19 P) 1971

Apart from austere joyless classical music, Dictators like their peasant classes to entertain themselves by doing traditional dances to horrific localized folk like this .Woe betide any smart alek liberal who whips out an electric organ or a new fangled digital accordian to sing songs in any foreign tongue,that doesn't exude love of country or praise the family unit. Out would be wheeled the portable guillotine so beloved of the Nazi's, for public execution parties.....complete with doomy classical and creepy Folk orchestra's in a jolly up as the offenders severed head is placed on the 'peoples' spike at the entrance of the city.

Although this scenario doesn't generally happen in peace lovin' Sweden...yet....this creepy,but menacingly funny balalaika band was a pinko non profit orchestra that boasted up to 30 balaikas and a choir in it's line-up,probably with it's own Swedish communist party lyicist. You may not be surprised to know that this started as a music school project,hence the deliberately emphasised 'bum' notes,which I guess indicates a pretension towards humor.

You may also be surprised to know that Södra Bergens Balalaikor was part of the Swedish 'Progg Movement' as discussed on the last post. This explains those grubby socialist jibes that your's truly aimed in the orchestra's general direction. That being the politics of choice for the 'Progg' movement...and why not? It worked for Amon Duul...forward slash...Baader-Meinhof's Red Army Faction....fun fun fun? Being cajoled into these movements,must be like being shut in a Japanese prison sweat box with an insurance salesman.

Don't It just make you wanna kick seven shades of shite out of the nearest self-righteous soap boxing aspiring political activist ? Leave us alone you cunts....please?

If Vladimir 'The impailer' Putin ever got anywhere near your home town you better start paying attention to your local folk volunteers and get yerself a Balalaika.....acoustic of course; as well as genning up on austere classical music.A guaranteed ticket away from having electrodes attached to your genitalia,before being waterboarded in a bath of human shit. 

This was the kind of stuff one could find in the 'Bargain Bin' section of the famed Ultima Thule shop of Leicester....which I'm sure I've mentioned before? It might have been cheap(it isn't now) but this stuff could empty a room almost as quickly as an Amon Duul I LP.

There are certainly shades of the Portsmouth Sinfonia going on here, and maybe even The 3 Mustaphas 3 from the 70's and 80's respectively. However i'm not sure how serious SBB or these other similar projects were,which is also a pointer towards sophisticated comedy,as it is with the aforementioned examples in this paragraph.They could be the Swedish Incredible String Band for all I know.

Having heard quite a few of the other Swedish 'Progg' groups,I can now warn you,in a polite way, that they aren't very good at all.So don't go thinking that there's an Italian Prog type gold mine of wonderful progressive rock just waiting like low hanging fruit fro yourselves to gorge on until you're sick.....dunno about you but I'm sick already.I'm also quite pleased to say that this has nothing to do with Rock In Opposition,except maybe 60's student politics, which is supposedly what the recent train of thought was supposed to be about.

Tracklist:

A1 Under Äppelträdet 3:10
A2 Zhaleika 2:17
A3 Dnjepr 2:30
A4 Kärleksvisa 2:30
A5 Månen Lyser 3:56
A6 Timon 3:11
B1 Poljanka 3:30
B2 Azamat 1:35
B3 Den Lille Gåskarlen 2:15
B4 Under Eken 1:33
B5 Vallåt Från Ryssland 2:00
B6 Gogov, Gogov 1:40
B7 Kamarinskaja 3:47

DOWNLOAD some volk musik HERE!

Various Artists – "Voice Of The Wolf" (Gump – GUMP 7) 1975

As mentioned by fountain of all knowledge prog, Ian......sorry, no other form of identification is available or needed.,as if in a biblical tense therein.

It has been rightly pointed out,in the comments section that the Swedish groups that tagged along with the Rock In Opposition lot were actually part of their own scene.Manifesting itself around the time that ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest; called "The Movement" or the much more specific "Progg" ,with two gee's.

The "Progg" "Movement" encompassed many different musical genres from Sound Poetry to Avant Prog
The political progg movement,mainly self-righteous communism with music, culminated around the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Stockholm after ABBAs victory in Brighton the year before. It was expressed that "music can't be a contest",everyone is equal kinds stuff, and an "alternative festival",rather like the Rock In opposition festival a couple of years later, was held in protest.

In theory 'Samla Mammas Manna' might well be the only group to have played both?.Due to this debate,and part 2 of the eurovision trivia trail, Sweden did not participate in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest,rather surprisingly....leaving the door open for The Brotherhood of Man to claim the top prize with the dreadful "Save Your Kisses For Me",and that little dance they did while we screamed in unfathomable pain!

It was as if these awful townie torturers were dancing at the impending death throes of the Progg movement that they, and many others,including myself,never knew existed.But, by the time Abba were divorcing each other,Progg killed itself in a sea of pinko posturing and the Swedish predilection towards hard rock and punk rock,being one of the few places that the Pistols actually played in.

The book of Ian, also mentioned an impossibly rare Swedish human called Carsten Regild....who had an impossibly rare single released on Gump Records i am told;but, No i don't have it, but this funny fella Carsten Regilid appears a couple of times on this Progg compilation from the year of ABBA's arrival...there is no suggestion that any member of ABBA was in a Progg band,as far as I an aware.

Carsten's contributions err more on the side of Sound Poetry,with an ironic early Rock leaning.This guy is Kerrrazzzy!

Most of my knowledge of Sweden during this mixed up epoch is of the Tone Poem, Sound Poetry,tape collage scene which was, and still is firmly sellotaped to their cultural identity. The Great Sten Hansen is the sound engineer on this to the mysterious Carsten Regilid's role as Producer.....as well as being valuable contributors.

So don't expect any lost Gentle Giant copyist numbers on here...these guys are really nutz!...but that's how we like it innit?

(*wolfie Smith : much loved joke commie character on UK Tv in the 1970's)

Tracklist:

1 Bengt Nordström– Natural Music 2:36
2 Pugh Rogefeldt– I En Annan Värld 2:26
3 Åke Hodell– Ur Mr. Smith In Rhodesia 3:29
4 Happy Cousins, Rolf Börjlind And Carsten Regild– Nya Tider - Nya Änglar 2:00
5 Sten Hanson– How Are You 1:59
6 Sergeant Honolulu Dubble Fucking Five, Hans Tiberg, Rolf Börjlind, Rolf Heyman, Lars Göran Reijner– Juanita 0:48
7 Leo Nilson– Päls 0:23
8 Carsten Regild– Home To My Baby 1:33
9 Joakim Skogsberg– Offer-Rota 1:26
10 Carsten Regild– Typografi 2:25
11 Sten Bergman– Sorti 2:27
12 J.O. Mallander– Extended Play 2:15
13.Hans Anton Knall– Merde 23:35

DOWNLOAD the voice of wolfie smith* HERE!

The Astronauts – "Soon" (All The Madmen Records – MAD 11) 1986

"Who d'you fink you are?.....Lol Coxhill?" once did say Johnny Moped as Xerxes whipped out a saxophone. One of the many great quotes from the as yet unwritten Bible of Rock'n'roll.

"Who do you think you are?....Lol Coxhill??" (note the better spoken style text).....once did Mark Astronaut sayeth,not!

"Er...Yes",spake Lol Coxhill,who actually did appear on the first half of an Astronauts album. 

The 21st century version of his name, a contraction of Lawrence, now translates as "Laugh Out Loud',but nobodies laughing anymore. What this versatile master of the UK improvisation scene,and erstwhile member of the London Musicians Collective is doing on an album by semi-legendary anarcho hippy folk punk UK DIY band from Welwyn Garden City, otherwise known as The Astronauts, is anybodies guess;but check the record,check the guys track record;he put himself about a bit.....he is most definitely NOT appreciated.(Note the clever Fall references).....as is not Mark Astronaut himself.

Personally, i'd remove most of the sax wailing from the mix if I had the chance.

This is one of those records that you'd like to remix.....this'll be fun.......such as......I'd turn up the phasing on "Strictly Personal",remove the string sections from Bryter Layter, re-record the drums on "Loveless" and replace those sampler tone wheel guitar things with the real thing. I'd also erase "Bat Out Of Hell completely,and that sodding Gun'n'Roses LP too,no lips shall speak its name.....not so much a remix in those cases, more like retribution for past evil unleashed....not yer proper Evil either,a special shit kind of Evil.Erase them from history please Satan for devaluing your kind legacy,or give us the power O lord and master,and we shall skip joyfully into the flames.

In fact, if ever there were two albums that Lol Coxhill could have guested on it should have been those two atrocities.

Only when something's gone does one truly appreciate it's previous existence. And i'm not talking about Bat Out of Hell and that other one...oh yeah Bat Out Of Hell 2 ...I'm talking about The Astronauts ain't I? Since the noble DIY hippy-punk himself Mark Astronaut bought a one way ticket into infinity a couple of weeks ago.

So forgive me if you wanted more Rock In Opposition obscurities ,this is a much delayed tribute to the Bard of Welwyn garden City.

I do have the enviable quality of being a fickle and shallow hypocrite,son't you wish you were like me?

Said with no pretense of pride,I admit to being a bit hard on The Astronauts in the past,in fact most of the Anarcho-Punk scene.Over the past 13 years of this blog,I have slowly shifted my attitude to that trustafarian army......it's all grown on me hasn't it!? The Mob and Rudimentary Peni,were always a subject of my fickle admiration. Don't misunderstand me, the soapboxey nature of the sickening self-righteousness still makes me wanna vomit,but I have projected it all in a pissy yellowlight of charm for oneself. I now find myself thinking "Awww bless 'em" whenever Flux Of Pink Indians tells me of the horrors of a nuclear death....again!Even Crass...."AWWWWW Bless their little black cotton socks".

The Astronauts have been elevated over the years into the Mob/Rudimentary Peni division,having won on penalties in the play-offs......The Subhumans lost again,joining Zounds pressing for promotion from the 2nd tier again next year.

Now I listen joyfully to The Astronauts as a great lost Pop Band,in the same way as i was slowly converted to thoroughly enjoy REM.(!Guilt wot Guilt?) Funnily enough both groups have a certain Folky quality that i find rather appealing.

The Astronauts have gigs booked until October I notice.....sadly these will have to be fulfilled on the Astral Plain,as Mark succumbed to his own debated mortality......yet Bono lives!

NB:

This album consisted of some new material (A1-B1) and re-release of old tracks (B2-B5) taken from the original singles (literally, as the masters had gone missing).
New material recorded Dec. '85.
Old tracks 1979 - 1980.

Tracklist:

A1 Friends 5:53
A2 Books 3:12
A3 Blues For A Sceptic 7:13
A4 The Birds 9:04
B1 Following Orders 5:05
B2 Survivors 5:45
B3 All Night Party 2:40
B4 Young Man's World 4:19
B5 We Were Talking 4:28

DOWNLOAD as soon as possible HERE!

Henry Cow – "A Cow Cabinet Of Curiosities" (ReR Megacorp – HC1000) 2009

All you lot already have all the Henry Cow albums right?...bit of a shit band name really innit?

Never liked portrayals of socks either.

Just the name 'enry cow invokes within me the whiff of patchouli oil joss sticks and ethnic art objects;not because 'Enry were a bunch of smelly hippies,quite the opposite...almost.....the basement shop that i first encountered album sleeves with unpleasant reimaginings of socks aboard was situated underneath the most unashamedly Hippie apothecary in post-punk Leicester....the "Very Bazaar"...geddit?....Underneath the whiffy smokey atmosphere of street level Very Bazaar,lay the only place in Leicester you could buy Whitehouse records,Recommended Records, Half Japanese, reggae Dub 10 inchers,The Residents  ,and Henry Cow!?.... When i got my first Dole Giro, to the value of 32 quid...I cashed it in, got on my Bike and went to the subterranean Very Bazaar record shop,with its matt black painted brick decor and homemade record racks.(the upstairs bit still exists!?)A bit as i imagine a gift shop run by Crass would have looked. The record bit was ran by an amiable mustachioed chap called Steve,and Lydon's mate ,Jock MacDonald's brother Martin,who loved Lynard Skynard previously, before he encountered johnny Rotten in the Pub next door to the shop (the Globe),then suddenly he became a Punk Rocker overnight.The record shop also became a one room Bollock Brothers tribute ,as brother Jock was a member.Last i heard of Martin he was wanted in Greece for drug offences,and was running away to hideout in Ireland.

Anyway, I digress;on giro(my benefits cheque) day,I came away with, the Cravats In Toytown, This Heat's Deceit, Metabolist "Hansten Klork","Whitehouse's Dedicated to Peter Kurten in yellow vinyl, and Henry Cow's "In Praise Of Learning". I think there may have been a Pink Military 12inch in there too.....ah blood and lipstick.And i still had two quid left for a lemon split bun and an ice cream soda,how punk rock is that(?) from Brucciani's....RIP!

So,as you lot have already got everything by 'Enry, here's that limited edition bonus disc from the 50th anniversary box set thingy, which you've already got of course. If you haven't i might upload the box set with an iTunes style bit rate of 192k,'cus it's massive and i'm running out of storage space.

Here's a 1972 style review of the album to finish:

"Track one sounds like Soft Machine,but the rest doesn't."

Notes:

Tracks 1 & 2: recorded in our rehearsal place probably in 1972
Tracks 3, 4, 5 & 6: extracted from a forgotten tape I gave to Steve Feigenbaum in 1978. The original recordings were presumably made on cassettes run from the mixing desk.
Track 7: out-take from "In Praise Of Learning" mixed by Tim Hodgkinson at Cold Storage in 1984.
Tracks 8, 9 & 10: recorded at a public concert for NDR Jazz Workshop, Hamburg on 26th March, 1976
Track 11: recorded at a public concert at the Sendesaal, Studio F, Radio Bremen, on 22nd of March, 1978, for New Jazz Live.
Track 12: extract from an Unrest out-take mixed by Tim Hodgkinson at Cold Storage in 1984.

Tracklist:

1 Pre Virgin Demo 1 3:55
2 Pre Virgin Demo 2 1:02
3 Unidentified Improvisation 1 1:30
4 Unidentified Improvisation 2 5:37
5 Unidentified Late Composition 2:04
6 Exploded Amygdala / Teen Introduction 3:37
7 Lovers Of Gold 6:29
8 Hamburg 6 5:33
9 Ruins Extract 8:24
10 Hamburg 7 9:44
11 Half The Sky 5:03
12 Extract From The Glove 2:19

DOWNLOAD and hear this crazy moozic straight from the cow's mouth HERE!

Univers Zero – "Univers Zéro" (Eric Faes – EF 1313) 1977

Another tenuous Rock In Opposition moment beckons:

Never one to stoop to revealing the bleeding obvious, my hand has been forced to introduce everyone to the band they've always known about....yep...It's Univers Zero....but have you listened to them all the way to the end of side B? If you have then you're either pretentious or narcissistic loner...luckily i'm both,and i've listened to this and the 2nd album all the way through,and felt like an emptied bowel afterwards. 

They're kinda an Electric Light Orchestra for failed music students who wish they were in a Doom Metal band....which apart from Black Sabbath,didn't exist until the late 80's.

When a bunch of angry young doom-mongers find each other in the Conservatoire during lunch hour, and one, if not more, toys with the idea of merging Stravinsky with Czechoslovakian folk and.....the PROG word.Some unaccredited wag you wouldn't want to be in the same town as said this...."Like Sorabji's symphonies gone wrong"(I bet he's a barrel of Laughs)....for fucks sake, does anyone know who Sorabji was/is...please don't answer that, I can google too,but prefer not.

Don't you just love it when some bright spark thinks a progressive idea is to merge lots of different genres and hopefully come up with something 'new'? So unadmirably eclectic isn't it? 

Genre-wise they managed it, and no mention of Peter Gabriel or David Byrne in earshot..."Chamber Rock" some idiot called it.....not much rocking here though, it's all a bit Jive Bunny plays Bartok with Bill Bruford on drums instead of a TR909. When someone whips out an Oboe or a Basson, you know you're in trouble, they're either showing off or desperate.

Of course I'm being willfully facetious here ,that's the role of this character i have reinvented myself as innit?

This record festers on your turntable like a portal into the dark European soul that us anglo-saxons are so distrustful of...the sound of Putin's mind. It's almost that frightening.

This was Chamber Rock's "Smell The Glove" moment, a black cover that you could see yourself reflected in both sides. Human kind's black heart as released in the Punk Rock breakthrough year of 1977.....only in Belgium would....could, this happen. They would have been arrested in most Iron Curtain countries for spreading fake news about the human soul, or lack thereof on planet Earth in 1977. And the anglo-american rock fraternity just pointed and laughed.

Like that other Oboe brandishing 'rock' group , Roxy Music, they inadvisedly reformed after splitting up for a decade.Losing the magic as did Roxy,slideing down the alippery slope in Armani suits and white tuxedo's as if in a Glam Rock "Jeux Sans Frontiers"*....Somehow I'd quite like to see Univers Zero performing in White Tuxedo's on "It's a Knockout".(Only on this blog can you see references to 'Its a Knockout*,Stravinsky and Sorabji on the same page).Now, that's Irony?In some ways British TV could effortlessly churn out endless amounts of surreal TV art in the 1970's,that was probably even weirder than Univers Zero could ever hope for.....who needs Salvador Dali when you have convicted Pedophile Stuart Hall ably assisted by Eddie "it's an Up and Under" Waring in Ely 1973? (in Syd Barratt Country)

There was an equally sour listening experience awaiting in the second album.....party music this ain't,unless you're a contemporary dancer?...Which is the only form of Prog Comedy that i can really laugh at! Who says these crazy Belgians take themselves too seriously?...everyone.

PS..this was later called "1313",which was the catalog number, to avoid any confusion.....but didn't Lydia Lunch have an album called that too?......oooh i dunno, everything's been done innit? At least twice in these over-exposed days has it not?

* kind of an early version of the European Union...if it stayed like this there would have been no Brexit.

Tracklist:

1.Ronde 14:45
2.Carabosse 3:40
3.Docteur Petiot 7:25
4.Malaise 7:42
5.Complainte 3:18

DOWNLOAD to feel down HERE!

Samla Mammas Manna - "Måltid" (Silence – SRS 4621) 1973

In a glaring attempt to pick something not Obvious from the groups who performed at the genre defining original Rock In Opposition Featival back in yee olde days of 1978. I give you a Swedish band who ,(A), aren't Abba, (B) contain no future ABBA collaborators or Members, and thirdly, (C), are certainly NOT Swedish Punk,or on a Killed by death compilation. All this blatant non-alignment with Swedish musical cliché,without even mentioning IKEA or Volvo, suggests a record of great promise.

As it turns out ,they are basically Canterbury Prog emulators with some rather annoying vocal bits that suggest a.....sharp intake of breath!.....sense of humour!? Prog Humour is never something to boast about,and is even more frown defining than even Psychedelic Humour. Comedy music is seldom recommended,99% of which ends in disaster and polite embarrassed applause. Especially if you're making serious music,and add a spot of  funny stuff to show that you don't take yourselves seriously,when you most obviously do.

I spotted this cover from afar,and thought it was a unhalfbricking style photograph of a pair of elderly types having a Gravelax sandwich....disappointingly it turns out to be a semi-photorealist painting,that, again may suggest prog humour!?

I'll tell you what definitely is NOT funny about this record,is that god-awful high-pitched, falsetto i think they call it, vocalizing.

You know that feeling you get when you trip over a crack in the paving,or are passed by an over revving Moped in first gear; that you momentarily wanna kill some fucker!?....that's how i feel when these Swedes from Canterbury make their silly hi-pitched noises.

Other than that it's okay.

It would be five years before the inauguration of Rock In Opppostion,so maybe they sacked off the vocals by 1978?

I've never been brave enough to try and find out.

I understand that the Turkish objections to Sweden joining NATO were based around having heard this record. Now NATO are considering using it to counteract all that state approved prog on the old Soviet official record label that Putin has been secretly hoarding alongside the Novichok;.. Melodija(its spelt several different ways smartarses!).

Tracklisting:

1 Dundrets Fröjder 10:43
2 Oförutsedd Förlossning 3:10
3 Den Återupplivade Låten 5:53
4 Folkvisa I Morse 2:07
5 Syster System 2:27
6 Tärningen 3:33
7 Svackorpoängen 3:11
8 Minareten 8:21
9 Værelseds Tilbud 2:26
10 Minareten II 4:40
11 Circus Apparatha 6:02
12 Probably The Probably 3:54

DOWNLOAD some flatpack canterbury prog via sweden HERE!

Etron Fou Leloublan – "Les Poumons Gonflés" (Turbo Music S.A. – TMSA 3301) 1982

Okay, it had to happen,the french drummer bloke who was in Les Batteries,Guigou Chenevier, gained his fame from playing les batteries in the Rock In Opposition monsters, Etron Fou Leloublan......rolls off the tongue doesn't it?

Rock In opposition,or RIO, is really a more marketable title for Prog Rock of the more Avant variety,which became yet another category after Henry Cow's original RIO festival during those crazy punky rock years of 1978 upwards.So an obvious Punky influence was absorbed into these Avant-proggers repertoire.Shorter,opinionated and angrier versions of the progressive type. Quite a few of those post-punk chaps would have fitted in quite well methinks,but the clothes were bad,so they kept away.

Weird time signatures, played by a drummer sight reading music from a lectern positioned visibly by the Hi-Hat to show the dangerously hippified audience that 'we ain't just making this up y'know!'

Etron Fou Leloublan do all this stuff,ticking all the RIO boxes,but bare in mind that these groovy garcons are indeed French, so you should expect some of that 'orrible screechy shouting that their pallets tend to enunciate from time to time through no fault of their own.I blame the parents....who were probably Artists and as a consequence of this delusion,also bastards.

Anyway I chose this album, because it has a song called Nicolas on it, which is my real world given name,and having spent a week in a French hospital once with a collapsed lung,"Les Poumons Gonflés"(the inflated lungs) has a special ring to it.

 

Tracklisting:

1.Nicolas 4:06
2.Mimi 2:58
3.Exposition Universelle 1:41

4.Nicole 5:42
5.La Musique 3:05
6.Christine 6:46
7.Those Distant Waters 3:24
8.Upsalla 2:05
9.Io Prefero 4:29
10.Pas L'sou 3:11

DOWNLOAD without opposition HERE!

Les Batteries – "Noisy Champs" (AYAA – DT 0486) 1986

This Heat's influence,or,connections with the French underground seems to be somewhat larger then expected,as here we find The Heats erstwhile drummer and singer, Mr Charles Hayward, hooking up with another couple of  other drummer boys,....namely French 'rock in opposition' bloke Guigou Chenevier, and some geezer called Rick Brown.....yes THEE Rick Brown.......nah! I haven't heard of him either! But Rick probably hasn't heard of us too so we're quits!?

Three Drummers Drumming,as it doesn't say in the famed Christmas carol, but three,yes,THREE,drummers does indeed apply here! Can you imagine the creative arguments in a band with three drummers? As Gary Glitter and Adam Ant can testify, two drummers max in a band, or there's gonna be trouble. In fact it was Drummer trouble that ended Adam and The Ants and burdened the world with Adam's much maligned Solo career. With Glitter, the obvious problem was,funnily enough, actually Glitter himself(a fine example of a singer that hangs out with musicians).

Drummers are famously the guys who do hang around with musicians.The guys who die mysteriously,choke 'ON' vomit,aren't needed outside of touring, and are forever trying to impose their daft ideas on the rest of the group; like John Bonham's 'Moby Dick', or Rat Scabies' "Stab yor Back", as if trying,accidentally of course, to move that hilarious joke well into the realms of observational comedy.

Y'see, Drummers actually do think they are musicians,and like the stupid son of the family, are always trying to make the audience look at them and see what they're doing.This usually involves hitting the drums as loud as possible,and taking copious amounts of drugs....as in, more than you....look maw I'm Dancin' !

However much the average drummer harbors sparkling  thoughts of their own genius within their considerable ego's ;one has to concede that all this drummer hate certainly does NOT apply to the great Charles Haywood, or his vocal sound-a-like Bobby Wyatt,who are indeed the granddaddies of the Rock In Opposition fad of the late seventies, otherwise known as Prog Rock under any other name.

So, what we expect are three drummers busting their balls trying to Out-paradiddle each other,and to impress each other with their rudimentary talents on 'other' instruments.

It's kinda Punk without the Punk, and This Heat without the Heat, which leaves us with.... 'This'?

Haywoods vocals are as vulnerable and Wyatt-esque as This Heat and Camberwell Now, which adds much needed identity to the dreary Drum-Off. So when Haywood didn't turn up for the follow up albums,they just ended up sounding like Camberwell Now but without the tunes.

An obvious, but bold Idea, balancing precariously on the round shoulders of the limited tonal range of a well tuned drum kit.

Tracklist:

1.Noisy Champs
2.Sunday And Dimanche
3.Identity Parade
4.Polar
5.Post-Polar
6.Dernier Solo Avant L'Autoroute
7.White Elegance
8.The Letter
9.Dernier Rendez-Vous Au Gord
10.Flintstone
11.Maksymenko
12.3 Hommes Et Un Mouchoir

TELECHARGE this assault on les batteries ICI!

Fall Of Saigon – "Fall Of Saigon 1981-1984" (Gazul Records – GA8851) 2011

No its not a North Vietnamese Fall tribute band!

It's frenchy Minimalist composer Pascal Comelade,moonlighting with his minimalist pop trio named after a This Heat tune. 

Harboring a knowing glance in the direction of Young Marble Giants,and maybe even..... Weekend? 

Pascal is not shy of wearing his influences on his sleeve....that's him on the right there,with influenced sleeves rolled up,trendily, to the elbows.I remember when the Style Council used to do self-consciously french things like that,such as wearing,(or rather NOT wearing) a cardigan tossed stylishly over the shoulders and tying the sleeves into a loose knot atop a Breton inspired polo shirt.You can take the boy out of Woking,but you can't take the Woking out of the boy.....but you do have to leave Woking if you wanna wear a Breton top....fact!

There also a version of my funeral theme tune on here, The TV Personalities' classic "Part-Time Punks",further emphasizing Pascal's fondness for "les Rostbif pop",especially it seems Kevin Ayers too....which i think stems largely from the fact that posh Boy Kevin had a handy grasp of French thanks to the British Public school system. And as we all know,if you slot anything French or in French into an English pop tune you have a career for life..... in France!...just ask Sting.

However, similarly, the Brit's love to hear a French bird singing in Engleesh, which surprisingly didn't lead to Indie success in grey old foggy Albion.They could have stuck to it a bit longer, but i think Pascal had other things in mind for himself,embarking on a prolific solo career that continues to this day.

The other French musical commandment that has been observed here on this compilation,is the obligatory Doors homage.Every household in France has a Doors Album, or Zer Doorsss as they call them.They all think Morrison was a poet....in fact Morrison thought he was a poet too,maybe even a great poet?So as he died and was buried in Paris,this means that their hero is now French,so Zer Doorsss are forever enshrined in marble and stone among the elect of French art and culture......Would i be out of order to suggest that they can flaming well have him...slash...them? Plenty more where he came from.

Nonetheless, this version of "The End" is actually rather good?

The End!

Track Listing:

1.Visions 2:21

2.Blue Eyes 2:08

3.She Leaves Me All Alone 4:22

4.So Long 2:28

5.On The Beach At Fontana 3:22

6.The Swimmer 2:15

7.The Model 3:21

8.Part Time Punks3:12

9.The End 9:43

10.Andalucia 2:02

11.I'll Never Be Back 4:54

12.Sha La La La 2:58

13.Let It Go 2:41

DOWNLOAD the rise of hoh chi minh city HERE!

Pascal Comelade – "Slow Musics" (Eurock – EDC06) 1981

Pascal Comelade likes his piano's upright,recorded ambiently by two mikes in a room,and accompanied by an array of toy instruments

,something that Steve Beresford was well known for at the time,and probably someone Pascal would have come into contact with through his association with David Cunningham,and the London Musician's Collective. Mix that with an obvious Erik Satie influence,and splashes of This Heat's quieter moments and you've got Slow Music.

Pascal has an obvious talent for a minimal melancholic tune,which also reminds one of those Daniel Johnston tapes,but without the awful whining. Lots of recognisable influences indeed,but blended together Comelade has created a distinctive style that verges on the sad but beautiful side of 'tings.

This didn't go unnoticed in This Heat HQ, as Gareth Williams' solo album sounds unerringly similar to that of Pascal Comelade's early work.

A lot of these tunes have that 'previously heard before' quality such is the direct simplicity of them.Why I could star at an empty wall for hours listening to these,dare I say 'Sad'(?)mini sonata's.The music of introspective loneliness.  

Tracklist:

Face A:
1. Le vérolé de Babel - 2’50
2. Ritmos del fedayin - 4’23
3. Harley-Davidson - 2’16
4. Music for sanatorium - 1’46
5. Gary Cooper, always here - 1’38
6. Distorsion molle (to K. Leimer) - 1’37
7. John Cage descendant un escalier - 1’50
8. Morena fatal (mambo) - 2’54
Face B : 

1. Fragmentes della Kairos - 2’00
2. Les partisans - 2’27
3. Justine - 2’00
4. Souvenir from diagonal - 2’25
5. La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques ? - 2’46
6. Nicaragua arumbaya - 2’31

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Pascal Comelade / David Cunningham – "Précis De Décomposition Bruitiste" (Parasite – PAR 006) 1983

Somehow we've found ourselves back in France thanks to David Cunningham's association with minimalist composer Pascal Comelade, and this cassette of decomposing noise. I don't know if this was decomposed at the Cold Storage Studio,but there is definitely a This Heat factor floating around here. Comelade did in fact have a minimal pop band named after a this Heat track as further evidence,"Fall Of Saigon",although how much they were actually an influence is up for debate. Comelade did go on to develop a very attractive minimal Satie-like method of tune writing,which reminds me of former This Heater Gareth Williams' fantastic solo album "Flaming Tunes" from 1985.....so one suspects the influence was indeed a two way street.

Comelade had a predilection for deconstructing pop tunes,sometimes slowing them down to a crawl,or reducing them to the barest of bones or, as in this case with ? and The Mysterians' garage classic "96 Tears",a slow decent into a fuzzy fog ,which i think was a consequence of another of Pascal's major influences 'Suicide' rather than Question Mark himself.

Coincidentally, it's apparently Pascal's 67th birthday tomorrow, how's about that for synchronicity?

Tracklist:

Face A: 1980/1981

Face B:
A Perfect Crime/96 Tears

DOWNLOAD another reason to forgive france for Johnny Hallyday HERE!

David Cunningham – "Grey Scale" (Piano – Piano 001) 1977

 

The first Piano release,made by cold storage recording studio main man, David 'Flying Lizard' Cunningham, was this minimal systems music offering in praise of the 'Error'. Without which nothing any good would have emerged from the primordial soup of music,slash, entertainment,slash everything.

Without error we would all still be banging drums in a cave in the south of France. Some people still are,mostly Hippies hiding away from having to get a job before the trust fund matures..

Without 'Error', mother nature would only have ever produced a rock,or a gas, or a Piers Morgan. There is an inherent need to mutate. Musical notes boast more than just a passing resemblance to the genetic code, so any note or gene in the wrong place can lead to the most horrific or exciting developments.Like evolution, if there's a need for this mutation, it will be used, but the mechanics remain in the background,....on the Grey Scale.

I'll let  David explain the Error System to you daft lot:

"Error System
The players play a repeating phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no account should 'mistakes' be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short - sustain your errors.
The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality in the machinery used."

I found myself watching the hideous spectacle of Glastonbury 2022,last evening,with its endless reams of error-less meaning-less, middle class party music,absolute drivel.

I found myself weirdly enjoying Robert Plant and Alison Krause's rather splendid Folk renditions.....at the wrong festival i may suggest. While waiting for 'idles',whom i had priorly thought were 'not bad'.They bust a bloodvessel living up to the 'punk' band on the bill role they were assigned,and kept wheeling out a neo-hipster on a very expensive looking baritone sax,playing the same Free-Jazz squeal during the really 'Crazy' bits. I suspect the sax-hipster couldn't actually play his couple of grand's worth of brass,or understand what he had pretensions towards...for it was, was it not,Ornette Coleman who championed the erroneous note, as prioritizing the 'right wrong notes' over the 'wrong wrong notes'? This Idles guy got all the wrong wrong notes, but no-one had a single clue about what was wrong wrong or right right;one may as well play nothing nothing I thought.They formally stuck to the 'right' stuff that the massive sea of Billy Eilish fans from Surrey wanted to relay their 'Punk moment' and tell their children of the near-future about again and again....see, Mummy and Daddy really are the boring fucks you thought they were.Poor little sods, bored to sleep with endless tales of obscenely expensive festival exploits between the ages of 18 and 21,before they got their job in the city.As for the fuckers who are my age and their tiresome renditions of having an uncle who saw Quintessence and Bowie'a mime act back  in '71.....on mushrooms ('Drugs' they giggle!)...who cares? Its preposterous how these bland also-rans boast about paying to see some vaguely famed group play in the past,and seem to think that somehow this makes them 'cool' as if they were actually in these silly fucking groups? Yeah I was in Quintessence because i paid to see 'em.They'd even bring their own flute just in case the groups fluty man collapsed,and they asked the audience if anyone plays the flute,Keith Moon in Boston style.They hold up their hand ,"Me sir please sir!" in their moist pop star wet dream.Not a dry pair of Y-Fronts in the house. Yeah I saw Kajagoogoo play in Barnsley Railway station bogs back in '59.....hold on?...I'm genuinely envious of that one!!

Idles wouldn't have been allowed at any genuinely edgy 'punk' festival...if such a thing ever existed?.....hahaha those guys are sooo crazy,one of them wore a dress! hahahaha!

Prior to this shocking exposure, i had never heard of,or seen even a still of Billie Eilish. This is as dark as those kids are gonna get i thought.She led them in breathing exercises, started a reverse Mexican wave and shared her three commandments of concert-going: "Don't be an asshole, no judgment and have fun bitch!".Scything down 70 years of rock'n'roll history in one swooping scrape of Nero's fiddle like it had all never happened.

I felt a generation gap opening up immediately,mainly because I AM an Asshole,I judge everything and everyone, and i willfully avoid so-called,'Fun'...especially if i'm told to have it! 

I did ,however, join in on the breathing exercises,and the mexican wave in my friendless TV lounge, and consoled myself with a bout of sneering before i went to bed...alone...a choice not an obligation! 

Watching this crud was a very grave error on my part.....but maybe we can evolve from this?....I Doubt it very much.

Music is very fucking DEAD...well, at least very very fucking boring.

Tracklist:

1.Error System (BAGFGAB)
2.Error System (C Pulse Solo Recording)
3.Error System (C Pulse Group Recording)
4.Error System (E Based Group Recording)
5.Error System (EFGA)
6.Ecuador
7.Water Systemised
8.Venezuela 1
9.Guitar Systemised
10.Venezuela 2
11.Bolivia

DOWNLOAD an error message HERE!

UT – "Ut" (Out Records – OUT R 01) 1984

Another early UT,again recorded at Cold Storage, ably assisted by Charles Bullen...he of This Heat....under the auspices of John Loder, who produced or provided technical expertise to a plethora of Punky Rocky types,most notably, from my point of view, Rudimentary Peni ;can't get better than that...so no surprise that he died before he turned 60.

Luckily I've never achieved anything as perfect as Rudi P or i'd only have 2 years to live!

Charles and John had a brave stab at recording UT,the result of which is this EP,and showcases UT's classic improvised No wave tunage. Discordant struming,a fine sounding muddy Bass,and a drum kit reduced to tribal toms without the Funk,no flim-flams or paradiddles here,just things being hit with sticks.

Tracklist:

1 Sham Shack
2 This Bliss
3 New Colour
4 Exilee Goes Out

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

UT – "Conviction" (Out Records – OUT R 03) 1985

UT recorded at This Heat's / David Cunningham's Cold Storage facility shocker! Recorded/produced by Henry Cow chap Tim Hodgkinson,who contributes his nefarious saxophonal abilities,as well as some dodgy drumming.....all assisted by all round 'decent chap' Charles Bullen,late of This Heat. You may even notice,Tim's ugly fizzog displayed on the cover surrounded by pretty avant-garde rock chicks looking moody and existential;or is that Antonin Artaud?...also looking moody and existential...he was an Ac-tor you know.I also suspect that our fun chum Antonin is the fellow in an unfortunate postion on the cover too. 

It seems,even experimental avant-rock No wave music never fails to cash in on having a pretty lady on the cover at the slightest opportunity.

At the risk of being brought to tears by a mob of livid and shouty vegan lezzers I must approve of this brazen use of female imagery as bait for the casual male music nerd to chance an arm on....or at least a wrist?

As jolly good UT are.....i think they are still going sporadically?....they seem unappreciated in their native lands,never gaining a release there from a US based label. Brits always like a less successful in america american looming on the local scene don't they? And dismissing them as Avant-Wank fodder is a trifle disingenuous of me....but funny.However, this debut Lp doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of their later work .....don't get me wrong,it's still jolly good,it's just that there was better to come....oh alright I fancy them too.....they have pulses don't they?

Tracklist:

1.Confidential
2.Sick
3.Phoenix
4.Absent Farmer
5.Stain
6.Prehistory
7.Bedouin
8.Kcahsmahs (Spare Coconut)
9.Mouse Sleep

DOWNLOAD out of cold storage HERE!

UT – "Ut Live Nov 1981" (Out Tapes – OUT 001) 1982

A tangle with the DCMA(Copyright protection shit) has left me upset and directionless.It seems that some corporate entity has Steve Beresfords back, so this leaves me no choice but to act on a recent suggestion as to "Why No UT?".....also 'Cut Hands' was put forward...but that's William Bennett,and the same reason exists as to why there is no longer any Whitehouse on this blog......although William was very polite about it,so I complied like the pop stars bitch I am.

I am sensing another crackdown like that last seen in 2012,so it seems that every decade we get some shit....I have it all backed up ready.

I suppose UT are No wave are they not? I am told that the tunes,or No Tunes, are improvised behind the words,which are not???? Why?

Apparently, not having actually seen UT live, they were well known for long..."Artistic"....discussions between pieces,as to who plays what and what goes where. I suspect a reluctance for rehearsal time here.

The sound quality is very good.Obviously taken from the sound-desk,and,as proudly displayed on the cassette itself...."No Dolby".....I am tempted to do some Spinal Tapisms here,but will refrain...but its true innit...You don't do heavy metal in Dolby!

I don't really know if UT were posh girls from wherever Posh Girls come from in the USA,but i suspect it is so. I am reassured by my reluctance to Google to see if they were actors, like Mars were,which is a real turn off.Do these people know real pain? The music suggests they do if you listen with your mind.The juries out,and the verdict hasn't been corrupted by exposure to media sources,mainstream or alternative.The pop'n'rock world is littered with fake news,which is all part of the myth that makes it all so much more enjoyable.The right wrong facts make it all so much more ....well...y'know? Somethings are best left unsaid....They're Posh alright! Not quite at Marianne Faithful levels but enough to ooze art schooling paid for by rich parents.If that qualifies at all as Posh?

The politics of Envy are big on these shores,but i don't envy being dismissed as Posh....which of course I have been back in the fertile seed beds of my distant youth,where the weeds grew woody and bitter,and no-one is allowed an escape route by the fellow inmates.

So i think that all means that UT are good.

DOWNLOAD without dolby HERE!

Steve Beresford /Jon Rose / John Russell / Tony Wren – "Luton - Center Of The Universe" (Fringe Benefit Records – FBR 33) 1981

 

Having proved that there is a super-massive Black Hole at the center of our galaxy;Top scientists are yet to prove that Luton is at the center of anything,let alone the universe.As one of the most drab and uninspiring of London satellite towns,and home to one of thee worst football grounds ,possibly in the entire universe,the place would be greatly improved by being swallowed by a black hole and compacted to infinite density.

Although ,Luton was indeed close to the center of the improvising universe for at least two evenings early in 1981,when Steve Beresford and chums hit town,witnessed by what sounded like,going on the sparse applause,approximately 8 and a half punters,but no dog.....he didn't turn up! Or, better still a room full of paying customers,including one dog, who sat in silence,or left,during the performance,leaving the eight and a half strong Luton intelligentsia to applaud wildly in a largely empty room. This C-60 being the only evidence that this actually happened.....or did it?

These free improvisations have all those essential monkey's tea party qualities that would normally empty any size room of consenting adults within minutes and provoke many a ruddy faced jingoist into enraged foot stamping threats of violence.In which case I could't recommend it more. 

Tracklist:
A January 20, 1981 31:03
B February 6, 1981 25:38

DOWNLOAD from the center of the universe HERE!

Steve Beresford /Tristan Honsinger/ Toshinori Kondo / David Toop – "Imitation Of Life" (Y Records – Y 13) 1982

Having been seen doing the donkey-work for the Slits it was inevitable that Steve Beresford would get some product on trendy Pop group connected label, 'Y Records' ,as owned by Pop Group/Slits manager Dick O'Dell. So, Steve and his weird London chums got to do a couple of Lp's of their spontaneous scraping toy instrument and Tuba madness to sit alongside the funky fayre of the Bristolian Illuminati. Unlike label mates Maximum Joy*,Poop Groop, and other suspected Trustfund surfers,there is not one ounce of 'Funk' on Steve's record ,which hardly even has a time signature.It does have however,four very unfashionable people living in four different but related worlds,playing different tunes at the same time.

NB...Maximum Joy threw a mardy*......

*Mardy Arse :(noun) INFORMAL•NORTHERN ENGLISH
a sulky, petulant, or grumpy person.

......about being featured on Die or DIY?,and demanded...yes...demanded(?)  that their work.....did they say 'Work'?,apparently ,yes?...be withdrawn.....so you can't find these suspected suburban  middle  class George Clintons haunting these pages no more.;...but you can,ironically, on YouTube,work that one out......or as Steve Beresford calls it, YouTuba! (ha ha ha)....i suspect it was Dick 0'Dell (who produced this funnily enuff!) wot done it,not the groop.Groops don't do shit like that,unless you're the remaining members of Throbbing Gristle,Cabaret Voltaire,Whitehouse,or Zoviet France?...There seems to be a theme there.....only Industrial Bands are wankers it seems.

Anyway fuck the fuckers and their honkyfied white mans funk, And how dare they share the same label as Sun Ra....yeah I'm a trendy too?Didn't you know?...how Dicky dingleberry O'Dell wangled that I dunno?

Well, at least Y Records have an ex-XTC member (barry) on their rostrum;...yeah,post-punk super group Shriekback's entire fun-filled oeuvre appears there.......not listened much to it however,,only that first single about a spine being a bassline or sum'ting equally cool,as in cool with a capital 'I'...don't care. Nah!

But, Beresford can't do anything wrong to this proudly closed mind,I just don't like Trendy's who'll reveal their under arm portable jazz collection before you can say Thelonius Monk;arranged in chronological order of course;the More Jazz than You Nerd off......yeah yeah I know.....I'm "Pure Scum" etc etc....! for stealing the royalties from these hard working bands blah blah......I wish I could get royalties from work I did 40 years ago, or sell copies of the same work again and again...and incredibly, no-one complains???

Tracklist:

A Whoosshh 21:16
B Please - Thanks That's Alright 17:34

DOWNLOAD the x,y,and z of how and why not to be a funky honky HERE!

Three & Four Pullovers - "Three & Four Pullovers (1975-8)" - (Emanem – 4038) 2000

What were you doing in 1975? 

I was enduring the transition from primary education to take my place in the final year that Grammer Schools existed in the UK.Soon to be phased out because the Labour Government thought it 'Elitest', Unlike the government? Shirley Williams was the Secretary of Education,who had the non-elitest luck to have been evacuated to California in World war 2, along with her mate Elisabeth Taylor.They both tried out for the lead role in National Velvet.....and guess who won? That's right, Not Shirley Williams,who channeled this bitterness to fuck up intelligent kid's education prospects with her 'socialist' values,which, as far as i could see, were designed to keep the working class in their place,as factory and family fodder.

So in between being beaten up at school by the older kids,....us being the last years intake....we would never get the chance to beat up the younger kids,so we were doomed to be the youngest kids for the entire 5 years.

Then, carrying the stigma of being a Grammar school kid on a council estate, I was beaten up on my home turf too.For some reason being classed as intelligent means that you are 'Posh' according to my peers,who named me "Posh Cunt" before the kicks tained in....that's elitism for you alright.Pablo Picasso never got called an Asshole...but we did. 

In between kickings, I spent my time listening to such unadulterated rubbish as Queen, Status Quo,Dr Feelgood,Thin Lizzy, The Sweet,The Glitter Band....etc....you get the picture? With pretensions towards Prog.

Meanwhile Steve Beresford and his London Music Collective chums Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith were making ,such crazed improvised tomfoolery as "Three Pullovers".....(later expanded to "Four Pullovers" whenever Terry Day bothered to turn up).

What would have been rather splendid,was if Thin Lizzy played a version of "The Sea Of Mice" by Three Pullovers as an encore at one of their proto-NWOBHM gigs,even though Sweet were far more metal than them.The mid-size college arena would have emptied in record time...well, either that or a Riot.

 The Glitter Band are excused,as their Guitar sound was probably the most avant garde statement in the whole Glam scene. Dr Feelgood were living art however, but The Quo could have at least finished their 'Blue For You' album with some Free Improv to totally piss off their denim clad,and 100% male audience.....this could have been lauded as another one of those, sadly stupid "Punk before Punk" moments. The fantasy of the late Rick Parfitt whipping out the toy glockenspiel would have made for a most tantalizing prospect.

Its the Toys that make the Noise.

 DOWNLOAD and pullover HERE!

Steve Beresford – "The Bath Of Surprise" (Piano – Piano 003) 1980

Remember all those Slits Gigs you went to in 1980?There was always a geeky bespectacled bloke in the background who made the whole thing stick together.That was Steve Beresford. (see if you can spot him in this Clip,like a post-punk version of 'Where's wally'.).

Apart from making The Slits a slightly more musical offering, there's a vast array of projects that can boast the presence of one of the London Musician's Collective most prolific members.If it made a noise Steve would play it.And he'd do it for countless groups from The Frank Chickens,49 Americans,Flying Lizards,and The Portsmouth Symphonia,to the Hard core of the UK Improvising scene,Derek Bailey,Han Benninck,and Evan Parker.He was in at the deep end,and still is.

This was Steven's debut solo album,as produced and released by DIY Avant-gardist David Cunningham,who was better known as the Flying Lizards,and the man who released and produced This Heat's early records.A seemingly perfect track record?

What are you gonna get on this record? Well,you don't know do you,it's improvised.....the unexpected...I expect?...BUT...having played it to see whats on it, i can tell you everything from toys to tuba's to scraping noises are there...which i suppose is to be expected.... if, you know your free improvisation.If you don't, cleanse yourself in the bath of surprise.

Tracklist:

1 Punctuation
2 Lieutenant Dub
3 Cat Picture
4 What Is A Thing
5 The Bath Of Surprise
6 Concealed Entrance
7 My Old Piano
8 Burning Problems
9 Schlussakord
10 Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You
11 A Cup Of Tea And A Bun
12 Mr & Mrs. Wu
13 Spring Clips
14 A Continuous Supply Of History

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