The Young Tradition – "The Young Tradition" (Transatlantic Records – TRA 142) 1966

Groovy Baby! Its the Waterson's if they lived on Carnaby Street. Note the moody cover photo hiding their Granny Takes a Trip finery.

There must have been some Record Company meddling going on here,crossing the Waterson's with The Mama's and Papa's,and coming up with a still birth. That name too!? It sounds like one of those all singing, all dancing, groups of 'Young' people who invaded our homes during the Des O'Connor Show;but looking at them, they would definitely not  have got a birth in 'Hills Angels' on the Benny Hill Show.....unaware of this dodgy dance troop? Then treat yourself to an offensive on all levels clip of Benny and the Angels in action HERE!....blacked up old men, scantily clad schoolgirls,and what takes the biscuit...its superbly unfunny even on a child's level. We need crap like this NOW!

However, The Young Tradition,were as straight faced about their art as I was watching the Benny Hill Show.They seem,however, to have been accepted by the infamously snobby UK Folk Revival scene,the Young,and very middle class snobby Folk Revival Scene. They sang largely unaccompanied, like the Waterson's, were probably older than the Waterson's, but had a clothing budget,although  one of them had sideburns,and a comb-over baldness hiding hairdo,likely by Vidal Sassoon's dumber brother.

The not so Young Tradition do psychedelia

You can forgive the moronic record companies trying to sell this Folk Fad to the Beatles bobby-soxers, they were in business after all,even if they were clueless about the stuff they were forcing upon us.The Beatles were, after all, a contemporary electric Folk group. But John ,Paul,George and Ringo's vocal harmonies were certainly sweeter sounding that the harsh Folk realism of Peter,Heather and Royston's abrasive traditional vocalisations. The subject matter of the songs were usually X-rated,unlike the Fab Four's 'will you go out with me' storylines, so it was unlikely they were gonna trouble the British Market Research Bureau, who compiled the charts,too much.They were also terminally lacking in the Good looks department,something that was/is as essential in Folk Music as it is in Politics....Fuck the Music,Fuck the policies, the only thing that interests the casual human being is can you imagine wanting to fuck them....in this case,probably not,especially the groovy kat with the comb-over.

Tracklist:

A1 Byker Hill
A2 The Bold Fisherman
A3 Betsy The Serving Maid
A4 Henry The Poacher
A5 The Lyke Wake Dirge
B1 The Banks Of Claudy
B2 The Innocent Hare
B3 Dives And Lazarus
B4 Derry Down Fair
B5 The Truth Sent From Above
B6 Pretty Nancy Of Yarmouth

DOWNLOAD these crazy kids' first album HERE!

The Watersons – "The Watersons" (Topic Records – 12T142) 1966

1966, a fine year indeed, England won the world cup with a dodgy goal that pissed the Krauts off double LOL!,and The Watersons released their second album on Topic.

No selling out for The Waterson family,still banging out the ,largely,unaccompanied traditional songs mostly from East Yorkshire and the lovely city of Hull,with a swarthy gypsy's religious Zeal.No Aryans allowed here thanks.

Their enviable,it says on the sleeve-notes, combination of dark good looks, ringing voices, abundant charm and immense vitality earned them a kind of star status within the UK folk song revival which was usually reserved for them silly pop singers. With unpretentious zestfulness for their craft they had little or no interest in the glamorous sewer of showbiz,and doubtless, showbiz had little interest in them? Unless they changed them into The Hollies or some 60's dross like that,and send the ladies to Mary Quant for a vast makeover.They luckily escaped this humiliation,unlike some of their fellow travellers,such as Sandy Denny who was made to go and get glammed up for David Bailey to take some of his shite photo's of her for that big push for stardom....which of course went very tits up indeed!

Tracklist:

A1 Dido Bendigo 2:53
A2 The North Country Maid 2:31
A3 Brave Wolfe 4:27
A4 The Jolly Waggoners 2:53
A5 I Am A Rover 4:59
B1 Fathom The Bowl 2:52
B2 The Thirty-Foot Trailer 3:30
B3 The Holmfirth Anthem 1:58
B4 Twanky-Dillo 3:38
B5 The White Hare Of Howden 1:59
B6 The Plains Of Mexico 1:49
B7 All For Me Grog 2:39

DOWNLOAD by the watersons HERE!

A. L. Lloyd, Anne Briggs, Frankie Armstrong with Alf Edwards and Dave Swarbrick – "The Bird In The Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs)" (Topic Records – 12T135) 1966

Phwooooaaaar, Fnar Fnar, Kyuk Kyuk,,Titter Titter, them rude Folk Singers Folks eh?

If you've ever wanted a semi-boner caused by a 17th century song full of sexual references as sung by a fusty old bloke called Bert,accompanied by another old duffer called Alf on the squeeze box, then this is the album for you.

Luckily, we also have the lovely,and apparently sober but sexually liberated goer, Anne Briggs , to achieve the same effect rather more easily;depending on your sexual orientation of course.Then again there's also Frankie Armstrong, who, as fate would have it,isn't a beered up old bloke,but turns out to be another fair folk maiden with at least a couple of admirable qualities.

Yes it's true, country folk from the olden days had a sex life,and what's more, they sang about it.Although I guess there weren't many songs about Homosexual love affairs.....but I wouldn't put it past 'em.Seems like the country folk were far ahead of those urban dwellers on most issues at the time.I guess it depends on the person singing,as is the tradition of Folk singing,that you can adapt the words to fit your own personal leanings?So if you were a Gay Shepard,you can adapt any of these tunes to be about that tempestuous affair you had with young Billy Biddlesthwaite round the back of the grain silo in the silage pit (Snigger!). Or, knowing some farmer boys, that troublesome evening in the hay with Susan the transvestite Ram treating him like the lady he wished he were.

We also have a pre-Fairport Dave Swarbrick on the fiddling...Fnar Fnaaar,Kyuk Kyuk!

Tracklist:

A1 A. L. Lloyd– The Two Magicians 4:41
A2 Frankie Armstrong– The Old Man From Over The Sea 2:49
A3 A. L. Lloyd– The Wanton Seed 1:30
A4 Anne Briggs– Gathering Rushes In The Month Of May 4:46
A5 A. L. Lloyd– The Bonny Black Hare 2:54
A6 Anne Briggs– The Whirly Whorl 1:12
A7 A. L. Lloyd– Pretty Polly 1:27
B1 A. L. Lloyd– The Old Bachelor 3:42
B2 Anne Briggs– The Stonecutter Boy 1:53
B3 A. L. Lloyd– The Mower 1:57
B4 Frankie Armstrong– The Bird In The Bush 2:55
B5 A. L. Lloyd– The Pegging Awl 2:46
B6 Anne Briggs– Martinmas Time 4:50
B7 A. L. Lloyd– The Widow Of Westmoreland's Daughter 2:15

DOWNLOAD into the birds bush HERE!Kyuk Kyuk!

Sandy Denny – "Live At The BBC (1966-1973)" (Island Records – 984 992-8)

Staying on the Folk singers at the Beeb kinda thing,here's a personal fav/obsession,the late,great, Sandy Denny.Of course Y'all have all her works i expect,so i'll restrict it to BBC appearances and the odd bootleg....you may be relieved to hear?

To use a maritime expression,something that Sandy often turned to in her lyrics,She sailed too close to the rocks of the Singer/Songwriter category on several occasions; but the lighthouse shone a dark light in her doomed direction, and she went under like most of the crews of the sea-faring vessels she wrote about.

The sheer nerve that Island Records have in releasing Sandy's BBC appearances after dropping her in '76,and after trying to get her to lighten up her material a bit is nothing short of despicable.They deserve all the illegal downloads we can muster.Of course they panicked because of Punk Rock,not only dropping some great acts,but ruining The Slits to boot!

"I'm Not Hearing A Single Here?", was often mentioned by the record executive twats,who were responsible for making her record a limp version of Reg's "Candle In The Wind" to release as a chart flop.Not to mention "Whispering Grass" and several terrible Rockers that spoilt all of her otherwise great albums.She should have kept those Dark and diminished chord structures. She herself thought she was gonna be a big star,and failed to realise that her material was an acquired taste,suitable for cult audiences only.That coupled with a drink problem,falling down stairs for fun, and having a boyfriend/Husband with a wildly roving eye...not that Randy Sandy was innocent of this too?...it all added up to the inevitable tragic ending that bewitched anyone that had anything to do with Joe Boyd,which reads like a list of Pop Star Do's and Don't's(Syd Barratt, Nick Drake, and the lovely Sandy). Failed fame's a killer kids,be content with anonymity and live a full life.

Tracklist:

In Session:
CD1-1 Fhir A' Bhata (BBC - Folk Song Cellar)
CD1-2 Green Grow the Laurels (BBC - Folk Song Cellar 2/12/66)
CD1-3 Hold On To Me Babe (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-4 Blues Run The Game (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-5 Late November (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-6 The Optimist (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-7 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-8 The Lowlands Of Holland (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-9 It Suits Me Well (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-10 The Music Weaver (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-11 Bushes And Briars (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-12 It'll Take A Long Time (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-13 Solo (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-14 Like An Old Fashioned Waltz (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-15 Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-16 Until The Real Thing Comes Along (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-17 Whispering Grass (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-18 Dark The Night (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-19 Solo (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)

In Concert:
CD2-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-2 Sweet Rosemary (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-3 The Lady (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-4 Bruton Town (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-5 Next Time Around (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-6 Blackwaterside (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-7 John The Gun (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-8 The Lady (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-9 Bushes And Briars (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-10 It Suits Me Well (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-11 Blackwaterside (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-12 The Music Weaver (BBc - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-13 The Sea Captain (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-14 John The Gun (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-15 Dialogue - Interview (Tomorrow's People BBC World Service Programme 1972)

DVD.....you can see these on you tube by clicking below:
DVD3-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-2 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-3 Late November (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)

"Off-Air" Recordings:
CD4-1 This Train (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-2 Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-3 The Last Thing On My Mind (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-4 You Never Wanted Me (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-5 Been On The Road So Long (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-6 The Quiet Land Of Erin (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-7 Sweet Nightingale (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-8 Blackwaterside (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-9 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - Sounds Of The 70s)

DOWNLOAD Sandy at the Beeb HERE!

Perrey & Kingsley ‎– "The In Sound From Way Out!" ( Vanguard ‎– VSD-79222) 1966

From the 'Stereolab' (now where have we heard that before?) of  Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey....fine american names both.....we bring you "The In Sound From Way Out!";probably one of the top ten album titles of alllll time. It even got used twice when The Beastie Boys brought out an album with the same name,same cover, but far far shitter music inside.
Using all those avant garde Musique Concréte techniques made famous by lofty com-poseurs like Pierre Schaeffer nigh-on twenty years previously.Perrey and Kingsley did the american thing and made the silliest music possible with kilometres of magnetic tape and a razor blade.I say 'silly', but if some French bloke fresh out of the Conservatoire de Musique made this in 1952,it would still be hailed as a ground breaking work of art-sonique to this day.
Instead it's filed in the Novelty section as a rediscovered piece of cheese to break the ice at your soirée...in fact exactly what it was created for in 1966.Forget History and we're doomed to repeat it.....oh shit,was that my right wing ignorance and a reference to Statue toppeling again??? In which case I don't apologize.


Tracklist:

1.Unidentified Flying Object 1:55
2.The Little Man From Mars 2:25
3.Cosmic Ballad 3:24
4.Swan's Splashdown 2:15
5.Countdown At 6 2:49
6.Barnyard In Orbit 2:24
7.Spooks In Space 2:00
8.Girl From Venus 2:21
9.Electronic Can-Can 2:00
10.Jungle Blues From Jupiter 2:55
11.Computer In Love 2:03
12.Visa To The Stars 2:13

DOWNLOAD the out sound from way inside HERE!

Various Artists ‎– Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 2 (1966-1977) (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7903) 1979

They have funny names, wear clogs, take drugs openly,ride bicycles,have childrens stories about putting fingers into Dykes...and if that wasn't enough to recommend that you move to Holland, then how's about all this early electronic music then?
They're so liberal over there that all of this was probably state-funded. If the government did that in the USA the Rednecks would start lynchin' people of colour again,if they ever stopped?
There's something about all this early electronica that is far more disturbing that it's younger,trendier, sibling Industrial Music,which tried far too hard to be unsettling.This is the same as the difference between those scary movies where you saw nothing except what your own mind imagined,and shit yourself.Industrial Music was more like a Slasher move where nothing was left to the imagination. The human mind is capable of indescribable horrors,and this musique concrete stuff gives the mind the space it needs to create the terror of real life,or rather reveal the terror of real life. 
Fucking Hell, we're all gonna die!?Why wasn't I TOLD!!!?


Tracklist:

1 –Jacob Cats - Cadence-1 6:10
2 –Tera De Marez Oyens - Safed 7:33
3 –Jos Kunst - Extérieur 9:39
4 –Gilius Van Bergeijk - D.E.S 7:46
5 –Frans Van Doorn - Minnuet 9:05
6 –Thomas Arras - A.B.C. 8:33
7 –Simeon Ten Holt - I Am Sylvia 15:30
8 –Victor Wentink - Discours 13:20
9 –Louis Andriessen - In Memoriam 5:06
10 –Peter Smith - Étude-1 8:58
11 –Tony Van Campen - Sintering 9:55

DOWNLOAD with lashings of chocolate sprinkles HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 1 (1955-1966)" (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7803) 1978

On a purely Intellectual note to start off with......TeeHeeHeeeee......His name is Hans Kox...titter titter! Fnar Fnar Kyuk Kyuk!
Well, Hans off yer Kox now,and lets get serious.....Nah!
Like everywhere else,the Dutch think they invented Electronic music,and one has to say,they were pretty close to having a point.
The origin of Electronic music is almost as tiresome an argument as who invented Punk Rock.....but in Punk Rocks' case it was quite clearly England, Not Detroit,Not New York,Not Scotland...England,gottit?
As for coherent electronic composition, it seems,on the whole, to be a French thing, although it turns out that Daphne Oram of the BBC may have trumped Pierre Shaeffer,but it was kept traditionally  Hush Hush in that understated British way.We don't like show-offs over there  y'know?
One thing that the Dutch are world class at however, is Funny Names.

Hans Kox .....gaffaw gaffaw. laff laff!

Tracklist:

Studio Of The Netherlands Radio Union
A1 –Hans Kox - Three Pieces For Electronic Organ 3:48
A2 –Ton De Leeuw - Study 6:47
Studio Of Delft Technical University
A3 –Jan Boerman - Musique Concrète 3:04
A4 –Jaap Spek - Impulses 7:58
A5 –Rudolf Escher - The Long Christmas Dinner 6:15
Philips Studio
B1 –Henk Badings - Cain And Abel 8:57
B2 –Dick Raaijmakers - Piano-Forte 4:56
B3 –Ton De Leeuw - Antiphonie 15:17
Studio Of Utrecht University
C1 –Frits C. Weiland - Studie In Lagen En Impulsen 4:46
C2 –Hans Kox - Cyclophonie III 7:33
C3 –Tom Dissevelt - Fantasy In Orbit 3:05
C4 –Axel Meijer - Werkstuk-1964 2:32
C5 –Robbert Jan De Neeve - A.F. 1:17
C6 –Peter Schat - De Aleph 7:46
Studio Of Ton Bruynèl
D1 –Ton Bruynèl - Reflexen 4:34
CEM Studio, Bilthoven
D2 –Will Eisma - BTH. 3457 4:08
D3 –Klaus Gorter - K 45 5:40
D4 –Luctor Ponse - Etude-I 6:19
D5 –Berend Giltay - Polychromie-I 6:42

DOWNLOAD some early electronics with clogs on HERE!

John Baker ‎– "The Vendetta Tapes" (Buried Treasure Records ‎– BUTR8) 1966 / 2015

A recently discovered stash of John Baker's jazzy soundtrack to BBC mafia themed crime series "Vendetta", first broadcast in the golden year of 1966 when England won the world cup. That will never happen again, and having inventive musicians such as those of the cabilibre of John Baker won't either. This was hands-on underpaid creativity at its most humble.
As usual, John wouldn't have got a credit for this .That honour always went to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop,and the collective responsibility rule. This is what caused the downfall of the communist block, the human need to be noticed,and given a reassuring pat on the back every now and then...like a pet dog.Some acknowledgment that one exists?
The human ego can be a terrible thing to taste,as does equally the iron boot of the committee.

Tracklist:

1 – The Sugar Man (Cue 2) 0:38
2 – The Sugar Man (Cue 3) 3:35
3 – The Sugar Man (Cue 5) 0:27
4 – The Sugar Man (Cue 7) 2:03
5 – The Sugar Man (Cue 9) 0:29
6 – The Sugar Man (Cue 15) 1:44
7 – The Sugar Man (Cue 17) 0:33
8 – The Dolly Man (Cue 1) 1:06
9 – The Dolly Man (Cue 2) 2:26
10 – The Dolly Man (Cue 3) 1:41
11 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 1) 0:38
12 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 7) 0:50
13 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 13) 0:14
14 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 15) 2:07
15 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 1A) 2:05
16 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 2A) 0:48
17 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 4A) 1:27
18 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 10A) 1:43
19 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 18A) 1:22
20 – The Widow Man (Cue 8) 0:28
21 – The Widow Man (Cue 9) 0:56
22 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ1 (Music) 1:10
23 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ9 (Music) 0:22
24 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ11 (Mono - Stop T/O) 0:36
25 – The Locusts: Plagues Of Man (Cue 9) 1:31
26 – Orbit 0:44
27 – The Lively Mind 0:21
28 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 3) 1:43
29 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 5) 0:58
30 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 8) 0:49
31 – COI Technology Pavilion 9:32
32 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 1) 1:11
33 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 2) 0:51
34 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 4) 0:21
35 – Computers In Business 0:50
36 – Man Alive: UFO 1:15

DOWNLOAD the bbc vendetta against john baker HERE!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "The John Baker Tapes Volume 2 (1963-75) (Trunk Records ‎– JBH029CD) 2008

I suppose the label this was released on should have been called 'drunk' not 'Trunk' records, as Radiophonic Workshop stalwart John Baker was probably drunk while he made the majority of these novel advert jingles and TV soundtracks.
Compared to his colleagues John was firmly on the musicianly side of composition,and also firmly in the Novelty music section of the workshop. Whereas Delia Derbyshire could make her doomy atmospheres, and Brian Hodgson could spent all his time making weird noises,John was lumbered with making funny tunes from varispeeded shampoo bottle pan pipes for a daytime childrens science programme. No wonder he turned to the evil drink.....but then again so did Delia. Although Delia couldn't keep up with Johns voracious appitite for consuming reams of cigarettes and therefore lived a few years longer.
Delia left in 1973 because the electronics were getting too easy and more conventional, but John Baker was sacked for being Drunk most of the time. The last recording he made before his descent into the dark realms of alcoholism was done at home on his piano in 1975(included here)...probably just before he sold it to buy more booze.He never made music again and died, age 60, in 1997.


Tracklist:

1 – Tempo Counter 0:04
2 – Get Happy 3:54
3 – Electro-Twist MQ LP1/1 1:23
4 – Electro-Suspense MQ LP1/2 1:27
5 – Electro-Rhythm MQ LP1/3 1:23
6 – Electro-Slow MQ LP1/4 1:33
7 – Boy On A Bicycle 4:03
8 – Brass Bandied MQ LP14/1 1:17
9 – Brass Widow MQ LP14/2 1:38
10 – Omo And Giro Adverts 1:20
11 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand Medley 2:33
12 – Electro-Auto MQ LP35/1 1:29
13 – Electro 5/4 MQ LP35/2 1:30
14 – Electro Waltz MQ LP35/3 1:28
15 – Johnny Johnson Jingles 1:25
16 – 1980s Feedback Loop 0:04
17 – Requioso - PIL 9011 2:21
18 – JB Dubs 1:13
19 – Out Of Nowhere 5:23
20 – Electro-Beat MQ LP19/1 1:30
21 – Electro-Weird MQ LP19/2 1:24
22 – Electro-Fugue MQ LP19/3 1:14
23 – Electro-Aggression MQ LP38/1 1:57
24 – Electro-Tension MQ LP38/2 2:27
25 – Jazz Advert 1:38
26 – Brylcreem 0:30
27 – John Baker Goon Advert 0:34
28 – Power Source MQ LP39 3:23
29 – 1980s Tape FX 0:42
30 – Pots 'N' Pans MQ LP48/1 3:24
31 – Banshee Boogie MQ LP48/2 1:45
32 – Feedback MQ LP48/3 2:58
33 – Space Workshop MQ LP48/4 3:12
34 – Piano Concrete MQ LP48/5 2:55
35 – JB Test Tone 0:08
36 – Piano Strokes 2:25
37 – JB At Home On The Piano 0:51
38 – Brief Lives - JB Obituary 1:47
39 – JB 78 RPM - All The Things You Are 2:26

DOWNLOAD some sober sounding novelty tunes HERE!

John Baker / BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "The John Baker Tapes Volume 1 - rare and unreleased recordings 1963-1974" (Trunk Records ‎– JBH028CD)

John Baker, was a scumbag who lived at the shitter end of my street when I was vilified for daring to win a place at Grammer skool.Being called intelligent was as good as wearing a sign saying 'please kick my head in' for us unfortunate members of the underclass from the oxygenated end of the gene pool. The 'Bakers' all had scoliosis, the word 'Shithouse' was written in dripping black gloss on their toilet door,the eldest male was nick-named 'Igor',and they had a predeliction towards violence and criminal behaviour in general.
The John Baker responsible for the music on this CD, however, didn't live on my street as a kid growing up, but he was an unnamed member of the household through his prolific production of TV Theme tunes and Radio jingles throughout the sixties, seventies and no further, after he got the sack in 1974.
A contemporary of the legend that is Delia Derbyshire, he brought musicianly technique into the Workshop, as well as forty fags a day...thats cigarettes to you americans. He filled the vacancies for the Jazz Musician of the group, as well as the chain smoker. I'm also sure he joined in on the heavy wine consumption that the workshop was also renowned for,especially as wine bottles with various levels of liquid in them were an essential sound source for the staff to record and manipulate.
Many of those bottles no doubt found their way onto many of these jolly little tunes.
John,like Delia,died early from heavy cigarette and Alcohol comsumption in a confined space for too long a period. 
After becoming an alcoholic, Baker recorded no further music after being sacked by the Radiophonic Workshop and later died in poverty.......a life summed up in one dismissive sentence!?
He deserves more than that,thats why we've have three John Baker retrospectives lined up to revive the forgotten man of the Radiophonic Workshop's tarnished reputation.
This John Baker died while the scummier John Baker with the bad posture probably still lives,just, on my childhood street,and 'Shithouse' is probably still written on the toilet door.The wrong one died young,there's still time for that to be put right,if it hasn't been already?But,Justice is something that is rarely doled out fairly in this cruel world.
PS...Igor still lived,by the way, because i saw him down the pub on the night Leicester City won the League Cup back in '97....he gave me a HUG(?).Ahhhh,Association Football....the great leveller!?

Tracklist:

1 Newstime BBC 1+2 0:23
2 Tros Y Gareg (Main Theme) 2:50
3 Tros Y Gareg (Idents) 0:20
4 20th Century Focus 2:22
5 Vendetta: The Ice Cream Man 1:18
6 Woman's Hour (Reading Your Letters) 1:47
7 Many A Slip 0:57
8 Look And Read 0:35
9 Building The Bomb 6:24
10 Au Printemps 2:27
11 Big Ben News Theme 0:33
12 Codename 1:03
13 Decimal Currency 0:20
14 Barnacle Bill 0:21
15 Dial M For Murder 2:25
16 Farm Management 0:30
17 Radio Sheffield (News Idents) 0:45
18 French Science And Technology 0:39
19 Good Morning Wales (Idents) 0:37
20 Heavy Plant Crossing 0:59
21 COI Technology Pavilion 9:30
22 John Baker Interview (Radio Nottingham) 2:33
23 Radio Nottingham Idents 0:34
24 Look North: Newstime 0:50
25 Man Alive: UFO 1:14
26 PM - Computers In Business 0:39
27 Submarines 1:59
28 Oranges And Lemons (Radio London) 2:36
29 Orbit 0:47
30 Places For People 0:47
31 Sling Your Hook 2:27
32 Suivez La Piste 0:49
33 Scene (Never Never) 1:40
34 Diary Of A Madman 3:54
35 The Two O'Clock Spot 0:58
36 Radio London: News Idents 0:25
37 The Caves Of Steel 3:11
38 The Locusts 0:45
39 Square Two 0:29
40 The Tape Recorder 1:11
41 Tom Tom (Theme) 0:42
42 Tom Tom (Idents) 0:15
43 Trial (Opening Theme) 0:35
44 Trial (Closing Theme) 1:22
45 Vendetta: The Sugar Man 2:01
46 Spin Off 0:21
47 Radiophonic FX C 0:10
48 Radiophonic FX A 0:54
49 Radiophonic FX B 0:35

DOWNLOAD the butcher the baker the candlestick maker of musique concréte HERE!

Delia Derbyshire & Anthony Newley ‎– "Moogies Bloogies" (Trunk Records ‎– TTT008) 2014/1966

Newley wanted electronics,Newley gets Electronics.
This was gonna be David Bowies vocal influence's 'new' direction,and someone recommended Delia Derbyshire to provide this new fangled electronic stuff. 
So this 'Perv Pop' novelty electronica was gonna be Delia's route to chart sucess.....but.....Newley ,although very enthusiatic about his little dirty raincoat song,went to hollywood to be a crooning star,and it never got released. Delia was initially ashamed of it,but allegedly grew to love it over the ensuing decades....and Newley?..., well he got to hang out at Roman Polanski and Sharon Tait's drug fuelled orgies,and the Moogies and Bloogies were never mentioned again. If he had hung out on the right night in Polanski's residence he could have been stabbed up by the Manson Family,and this would have been a big hit. Delia couldn't even rely on Charlie Manson to help provide those elusive royalties,just like those that the BBC kept for themselves.
"The late Anthony Newley told his label that he wanted to do something electronic. So they got on to me. So I produced this bloopy track and he loved it so much he double-tracked his voice and he used my little tune.
  The winking knees in the rain, and their mini-skirts. I'd done it as a lovely little innocent love song, because he said to me that the only songs are, "I love you, I love you" or songs saying "you've gone, you've gone."
  I'd written this beautiful little innocent tune, all sensitive love and innocence, and he made it into a dirty old raincoat song. But he was really chuffed! Joan and Jackie Collins dropped him off in a limousine at my lovely little flat above a flower shop, and he said "If you can write songs like this, I'll get you out of this place"! It was only a single-track demo tape. So he rang up his record company saying "We want to move to a multi-track studio". Unfortunately the boss of the record company was on holiday, and by the time he returned Anthony Newley had gone to America with Joan Collins, so it was never released." (Delia Derbyshire,1999)

Tracklist:

A1 Moogies Bloogies
B1 I Decoded You (Moogies Bloogies Part 2)

BONUS Errant Delia Stuff

"The Anger Of Achilles" (BBC Radio Play 1964)
DOWNLOAD the lost newley from derbyshire HERE!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "Doctor Who At The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Volume 1: The Early Years 1963-1969" ( BBC Music ‎– WMSF 6023-2)

Shit this is good!
Thrill to the sound of the BBC's 'wobbulator',the home-made 12 Oscillator sound generator, keys scraping down the guts of an old piano, loaded with analogue effects and 100 yard long tape loops.
This was naked innovation,going where no man or woman had gone before,and an argument against having too much equipment.
Then synthesizers came and ruined everything!

Brian Hodgson plays a tune on the Workshop's home-made keyboard, controlling 12 individual oscillators.The infamous  'Wobbulator is bottom right.

Probably the greatest sound ever made is the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising and materialisng, up there with Godzilla's screech......incidently both sounds were made in the same way,with varispeeded analogue tape and scraping strings. A close third place in the greatest sounds ever made league has to be the Bass sound from the original theme for Doctor Who. Not the sound of a disembodied  oscillator as I always thought, but a varispeeded plucked string;as simple as that!? A string, plucked ,of course, by the slender fingers of the sonic goddess that is Delia Derbyshire.

Delia with technology

She then proceeded to cut up the various,varispeeded  plucks, and laboriously make a splice edit for every single note.....incredible stuff. She wasn't,however, responsible for the TARDIS sound effect. That honour goes to her under-acknowledged partner in sonic crime, Brian Hodgson.

Brian Hodgson with dismembered piano, as used to create 'the Tardis sound' from the Doctor Who TV series.

Now you can experience the smooth, warm analogue beauty of actual electronics, lubricating your lugholes like being spoonfed tepid honey by your mother, or in this case Delia Derbyshire,not forgetting Brian Hodgson in charge of the saucepan.
As great as those eound effects are, the original themes for Doctor Who will go down in history, carved in rock, as the beginning of adult orientated Synth-pop.
Oooooooh I could listen to this all day.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop Team in 1963

Tracklist:

1 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Original Theme) 2:21
2 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Exterior Hum And Door (Original) 0:23
3 –Brian Hodgson- Entry Into The TARDIS 0:40
4 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS: Original Takeoff Sequence 1:47
5 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Original Titles Music) 2:09
6 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Takeoff 1:23
7 –Brian Hodgson- Skaro: Petrified Forest Atmosphere 1:46
8 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Computer 1:08
9 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek City Corridor 1:01
10 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek Control Room 0:26
11 –Brian Hodgson- Capsule Oscillation (Bomb Countdown) 0:19
12 –Brian Hodgson- Explosion, TARDIS Stops 1:10
13 –Brian Hodgson- Sleeping Machine 0:52
14 –Brian Hodgson- Sensorite Speech Background 1:10
15 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek Spaceship Lands 0:16
16 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Lands 0:11
17 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley (Constant Run) 0:27
18 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley At Rest 0:28
19 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Sends Message 0:07
20 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Dome (Rises/Falls/Rises/Falls) 0:19
21 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Dies 0:11
22 –Brian Hodgson- Activity On Dalek Ship Control Panel 0:46
23 –Brian Hodgson- Energy Escapes 0:22
24 –Brian Hodgson- Machinery In TARDIS Goes Wild(Regeneration) 1:03
25 –Brian Hodgson/Dick Mills- Regeneration Runs Down 0:09
26 –Brian Hodgson/Dick Mills- The Doctor's Transitional Trauma 0:52
27 –Brian Hodgson- The Fish People (Incidental Music) 0:37
28 –Brian Hodgson- Heartbeat Chase 1:57
29 –Delia Derbyshire- Chromophone Band 1:56
30 –Brian Hodgson- Controller Chimes 0:10
31 –John Baker- Muzak (From "Time In Advance") 3:19
32 –Brian Hodgson- Propaganda Sleep Machine 1:08
33 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (New Opening Theme, 1967) 0:51
34 –Brian Hodgson- Sting & Web 2:04
35 –Brian Hodgson- 4 Stings 0:18
36 –Brian Hodgson- Mr. Oak And Mr. Quill (Incidental Music) 0:39
37 –Brian Hodgson- Lead-In To Cyber Planner 0:14
38 –Brian Hodgson- Cyber Planner Background 0:37
39 –Brian Hodgson- Cyberman Stab & Music 1:32
40 –Brian Hodgson- Rocket Stab 0:08
41 –Brian Hodgson- Birth Of Cybermats 0:44
42 –Brian Hodgson- Cybermats Attracted To Wheel 0:39
43 –Brian Hodgson- Rocket In Space 1:49
44 –Brian Hodgson- Interior Rocket (Suspense Music) 1:55
45 –Brian Hodgson- Servo Robot Music 1:28
46 –Brian Hodgson- Wheel Stab 0:14
47 –Brian Hodgson- Cosmos Atmosphere 1:08
48 –Brian Hodgson- Alien Ship Music 1:00
49 –Brian Hodgson- Jarvis In A Dream State 0:47
50 –Brian Hodgson- Floating Through Space 1:14
51 –Brian Hodgson- 2 Stabs 0:11
52 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS (New Landing) 0:18
53 –Brian Hodgson- Galaxy Atmosphere 1:04
54 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (A) 0:45
55 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (C) 0:40
56 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (D) 1:06
57 –Brian Hodgson- Low Sting 0:10
58 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS: Extra Power Unit Plugged In 1:53
59 –Brian Hodgson- Zoe's Theme 1:19
60 –Brian Hodgson- White Void 1:16
61 –John Baker- Muzak (From "Time In Advance") 2:48
62 –Brian Hodgson- Cyberman Brought To Life 1:12
63 –Brian Hodgson- Cyber Invasion 2:11
64 –Brian Hodgson- The Learning Hall 2:40
65 –Brian Hodgson- Entry Into The Machine 1:33
66 –Brian Hodgson- Sting 0:19
67 –Brian Hodgson- Machine And City Theme 1:49
68 –Brian Hodgson- Kroton Theme 2:13
69 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Land 0:25
70 –Brian Hodgson- Alien Control Centre 0:27
71 –Brian Hodgson- Time Zone Atmosphere 0:40
72 –Brian Hodgson- Dimensional Control 0:49
73 –Brian Hodgson- War Lord Arrival 0:16
74 –Brian Hodgson- Silver Box (The Doctor Calls For Help) 1:02
75 –Brian Hodgson- Time Lord Court Atmosphere 1:18
76 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Closing Titles) 0:41

DOWNLOAD time and relative dimensions in sound HERE!

Delia Derbyshire - "Blue Veils and Golden Sands-The Unsung Heroine Of British Electronic Music" (BBC Transcription Services) 2002

Ten years before 'Autobahn' the British public were exposed to popular electronics by the government funded BBC Radiophonic Workshop,who pioneered the art of making electronics useable and coherent for the average working man.It all started with Delia Deryshires rendering of Ron Grainers 'Doctor Who Theme'.I dunno if that bass-line has ever been bettered? What makes this more intriguing is that in the semi-socialist state that was post-war Britain, this was all done without recognition or plaudits, in complete anonymity in the bowels of BBC Maida Vale studio's where 20th century music history was recorded from The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, to Joy Division and Frank Sidebottom. The BBC also had its own composers on the payroll although they categorically avoided this,as Ms Derbyshire explains......"The only way into the workshop was to be a trainee studio manager. This is because the workshop was purely a service department for drama. The BBC made it quite clear that they didn't employ composers and we weren't supposed to be doing music." One of these 'composers' was the one and only, Delia Derbyshire,who has posthumously risen inexorably towards 'Legendary' status as not only a pioneer of women in Electronic music,but as a pioneer of all Electronic music.
Using the notoriously non-existent BBC budget, Delia and her collegues, worked tirelessly with basic equipment to create other worldly music that wasn't being produced anywhere else in the early sixties outside of the Avant Garde arena,which was basically just using electronics to make funny noises.God knows what shite Stockhausen would have come up with for the Doctor Who Theme,and Morton Subotnik was still deciding whether to use Silver Apples or Oranges for his Moon.
The thing is, Delia did 'weird' as well.There is much of her work that would stand up effortlessly in the Avant Garde arena if it ever allowed someone from the BBC to be taken seriously.
The radio plays she did with Barry Bermange in 1964/65, "Inventions For Radio", are among some of the most bizarre pieces of Musique Concréte ever made.
They will be coming up; but as there is inexplicably NO(!?) Greatest hits of Delia Derbyshire,or of The Radiophonic Workshop, in existence?This file contains the BBC Play based on Delia's life (featuring Sonic Boom/Pete Kember of Spaceman 3),and 20 of her most popular pieces,including the one that started it all, "The Doctor Who Theme".
Here's a great quote by Delia about the Dr Who Theme,that shows the BBC's faultless socialist principles:"I did the Dr Who theme music mostly on the Jason valve oscillators. Ron Grainer brought me the score. He expected to hire a band to play it, but when he heard what I had done electronically, he'd never imagined it would be so good. He offered me half of the royalties, but the BBC wouldn't allow it. I was just on an assistant studio manager's salary and that was it... and we got a free Radio Times. The boss wouldn't let anybody have any sort of credit."
Personal favourite , "Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO", could have been taken from The Residents 'golden era',also ten years hence!Or as inspiration for The Mole Show, almost twenty years later! Delia was also far more anonymous than The Residents could ever be.Hardly any pictures exist of her,the same images cropping up endlessly.
She left the workshop, and music, in 1975 to do ordinary jobs,complaining that Synthesizers were killing electronic music,believing that it should be hand-made.She has a point.Music is made by machines more than ever in the 21st century.
'You will be Replaced' is a line you'd expect from an episode of Doctor Who.....now its becoming a reality.
However, Delia Derbyshire was never replaced.The synthesizers never cut the mustard.

Tracklisting:

The Unsung Heroine Of British Electronic Music(BBC Radio Play 2002) 
01 - Introduction
02 - There Is No Such Thing As Silence
03 - The Meaning Of Sound
04 - A Glass Or Two Of Wine
05 - My Real Living Room
06 - Doctor Who
07 - New Music And Open Minds
08 - The Effect Of The Soul On Sound
09 - Another Day At The BBC Radiophonic Sweatshop
10 - Some Recognition
11 - Remembering Without Trying
12 - Credits
The Music (1962-75):
13 - Doctor Who (Original Theme)
14 - Time On Our Hands
15 - Arabic Science And Industry
16 - Know Your Car
17 - Mattachin
18 - Pot Au Feu
19 - Happy Birthday
20 - Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO
21 - Towards Tomorrow
22 - Door To Door
23 - Air
24 - Science And Health
25 - Chromophone Band
26 - A New View Of Politics
27 - Environmental Studies
28 - Chronicle
29 - Great Zoos Of The World
30 - Dance from ''Noah''
31 - Blue Veils And Golden Sands
32 - The Delian Mode
33 - Time To Go
34 - Doctor Who (Closing Theme)

DOWNLOAD a fix of heroine HERE!

Pauline Oliveros ‎– "Alien Bog / Beautiful Soop" (Pogus Productions ‎– P21012-2) 1966/67

Musically cliched adjectives such as 'Seminal', 'Overlooked', and 'influenza'......shouldn't that be Influential?....I blame Covid syndrome,i simply can't talk about anything else.The government have done a job on us,and turned us into simpering rule takers who can't wait to download that government approved tracking app; singling out the undesirables like a remake of 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers'!?This virus has answered all of their problems at once.Crime falling like a brick shithouse in a decaying orbit,pollution emmisions evaporating,the workforce forced to quit their jobs,for 'safety reasons', leaving automation as the only answer for economic growth;the population openly embracing the chance to be imprisoned, immigration ended,borders closed,and thousands of dead pensioners,saving millions of quid a year.....it is,after all,"for your own safety?" 
...anyway, all those silly music reviewer clichés apply to Pauline Oliveros. If she was good-looking we wouldn't have heard of the Human League mark 2. That's 'if', she was around in the eighties,but luckily, she had that hispanic librarian chic look, that was popular in guitar music, but not in electronics, or avant-garde accordian music.
This collection of a couple of her early electronic noodlings suggest allowing a chimpanzee to run riot in a room with the original Buchla synthesizer within its limits,but covered with monkey chow.....Yes...I know chimps aren't monkeys!?.....i'm trying to make a very dull subject entertaining....CAPICHE?
Basically, i'm typing this while listening to King Crimson's "Larks Tongues In Aspic Session Reels", which is such a brutal exhibition of musicality and invention,that it makes these recordings seem like some child twiddling the knobs of a machine  that she doesn't understand.Yeah, its shit bascially, but most casual music fans, are frightened to say it for fear of appearing dumb. It's Avant-garde you dumbass!....eh?...oh yeah, good isn't it?......er...No it isn't. Something isn't 'good' because no fucker else were doing it....in fact they were,but as Pauline is dead,she's an overlooked electronic pioneer.
Usually, the 'Avant Garde' is an easy way for someone with zero musical talent to... 'get away with it'.Like the Abstract painter who has never painted a landscape or a still life.....if you forget the basics, its worthless. In this case, the music has been removed from the situation....so whats the point?
The worth of Pauline's doodlings, is that she was a woman doing it, more than the results,also she was a Hispanic Woman......I dunno if she was also a lesbian , to tick the third box or not, but two outta three ain't bad?
Her instrument of choice was the accordian,with which she made far more inventive use of,primarily drones, so obviously she couldn't really play that instrument either.
This ain't no "Larks Tongues In Aspic",which actually takes some effort, but it will make you seem 'Intelligent' if you leave it out on the coffee table.
"Fuck! Quentin's got an Oliveros!"....quick google her most critically acclaimed stuff or we is gonna look as thick as we actually are!....panic time!
Christ I hate myself!


Tracklist:

1 Alien Bog 33:15
2 Beautiful Soop 27:49

DOWNLOAD the knob twiddling genius that is pauline HERE!

Judy Garland ‎– "Judy Garland Speaks!" (Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God ‎– DEC-9) 1966

Fuck! If i hear another fucking Sound Poet i'm gonna get as drunk as Judy Garland/Ethel Gumm, is on this tape and start slagging off Vinyl-On -Demand again!...was gonna post some Henri Chopin.....but...nah...if you have a spare 200 euro's plus P&P,you can buy Chopin's entire works from HERE!(yep...VOD),and the meagre proceeds will go to Henri himself in sound poets valhalla....ahhh,but you haven't heard any have you?....i have one Cassette,called "Ouvres",but its on the box set!.....don't wanna upset this Frank Bull pocket Branson person anymore so,if you want to hear before you buy,e-mail me or use the comments section....and i promise not to use unauthorised photography or intellectual property !Nudge Nudge Wink wink;). 

So,Lets raise the bar with some home-taped DIY celebrity trash,from Friend of the Kray Twins and tragic child star Judy Garland.....yes, 'Dorothy' from one of thee most psychedelic movies ever made, "The Wizard Of Oz", and ,ironically, "A Star Is Born"....or, in this case, a Star is Burnt Out, or Dead. Its like an audio book version of Kenneth Anger's 'Hollywood Babylon',but read by the stars about themselves.....the ones who didn't commit suicide at least?

If you wanna know which direction in life the Red Brick road takes you instead of listening to the Munchkins and taking the Yellow option, then this recording makes it clear. The Red option is booze, prescription meds and bitterness,but, the yellow one is even worse, it takes you to Kansas!!!

By the time this bitter old soak made these drunken ramblings(Not Me!...Judy!?) , the only part she could get in the remake of the Wizard of Oz would be the wicked witch of the west...thats the one Auntie Em's house fell on.

This is what happens when dreams come true too early in life, the curse of early peaking,as many a poop star will testify to. Being crushed by Auntie Em's falling house of fame. A kind of post-traumatic stress disorder,but your flashbacks are captured on film,and in this case, audio tape.Recorded as an attempt to begin writing her autobiography in about 1966.She is obviously very drunk and very very Bitter, and it makes for both sad and entertaining listening. She only had three years to live after these recordings,which degrade in quality the drunker she gets.

Its full of gems like: 

"Living Legends don't go on rollercoasters, but I've been put on one,and its been a damn fast ride!".....yes she is referring to herself as a Living Legend.....now a dead one if you didn't know.

Then we get some grade 'A' self pity: 

"I tried my damnedest to believe in that Rainbow I tried to get over and couldn't.....lots of people don't....but so what, i'm not lots of people...i'm ME!...and I'm the one who's  had to live with ME!

I've sung, I've Entertained, I've pleased your children,I've pleased your wives, I've even pleased you ,you sons of Bitches!....now listen or get out of my GODDAMNED LIFE!" (You lot listening?)

Yes, we've all tried to get over that rainbow...in my case it was Ritchie Blackmore's horrible group called Rainbow...a scar that will never heal!...i'm gonna listen to Yes's "Fragile for the first time this afternoon....so if i never post anything again you had better inform the authorities of my suspected death.

We all like to see a star crumble,but they're human beingss too,like a few of us are, allegedly;there's also something very sad,and poignantly true about this insight into the torturous world of celebrity,and the human condition. Be careful what you dream of because it might just come true;even worse come true very early in life.

As little Billy Borroughs said, "The way to kill a man,woman or a nation, (or a child star) is to cut off (her) dreams".....here is the evidence.

Love from your own Loudmouthed Tosser who would definitely go on a rollercoaster......Hey, I just thought....I suppose those Judy Garland quotes could be applicable to me,or even Frank Wankie Woo of VOD?...."Now listen or get out of my GODDAMNED LIFE!"

Tracklist:

1 Obvious Nazi Machine 6:10
2 Plane Crash 5:12
3 Outraged (Long Rant) 35:22
4 Don't Make A Joke Of Me Anymore 5:52
5 In Love With People 2:25
6 Get The Hell Out Of My Life 6:51
7 Humor, Tears, Fun, Emotion, And Love 1:31
8 And Now, Ladies And Gentlemen 0:59
9 All I Want Is Money 8:57
10 They Must Pay 8:33
11 How Do You Feel? 4:33
12 Since I Lost My Man 3:42
13 Absolutely Outrageous 1:29

DOWNLOAD and catch a falling star HERE!

Steve Reich ‎– "Early Works" (Nonesuch ‎– 979 169-1) 1987

We all feel rather too clever by half when we add some recorded dialogue to our homemade experimental miesterwerks don't we? Well,it may automatically qualify you to call yourself 'Avant-Garde' but this tactic has been around for as long as pop-art itself. In 1965 the not-so-young Steve Reich discovered that if he played one tape slightly slower than an other tape playing the same thing,it would slowly become out of phase and we get a jumbled up confused mess abstracting the meaning of the original to the point of the nonsense that it is. So Steve could just set the tapes running and sit back to let the music,or non-music, write itself. Another idea that Eno nicked,but in his case he used tape loops which eventually came back into to phase momentarily before slipping back out of phase again.
Reich wasn't the first to mess around with recorded dialogue of course. As far as I can assess that honour goes to Brion Gysin, followed diligently by William S. Burroughs, who were a direct influence on such Industrial types as Cabaret Voltaire, and Throbbing Gristle,before it was dumbed down by the availability of the Fairlight Sampler.This started a separate thread leading to Paul 'N.n.n.n.n.n.n.Nineteen' Hardcastle, and a flood of "Ah Yeah's" on yer kiddie-pop hits like Timmy Mallets version of "Teensy Weensy Yellow Polka-dot Bikini"......follow that with samples of Colonel Kurtz mumbling "The Horror....The Horror!"
So the moral behind this ugly truth is that no matter how avant garde you think you are, there's always some intellectual minnow who are gonna show your genius up for the sad cliché it has become,as it becomes inclusive rather than exclusive. Timmy Mallet...the great leveller.
Naturally, Steve Reich was messing with dialogue well before it became an Industrial Cliché,but his main innovation was his out of phase compositions, as represented here by his "Piano Phase" piece for two piano's.The discipline involved for two pianists to play at slightly varying tempo's is a thing of awe for me. I often struggle to play constantly in 4/4 time,so when my tempo wavers its incompetence rather than skill. This is the piece from where the Steve Reich style sprung from,and which launched a thousand Philip Glass compositions. Terry Riley was an influence it is said, and also, allegedly, Moondog (coming up soon).
There you go, I managed to write about Steve Reich without a single reference to anything  Nazi.....i am now patting myself on the back.Just you wait for my take on "Different Trains"...I can't wait!

Tracklist:

A1 Come Out 12:54
A2 Piano Phase 20:26
B1 Clapping Music 4:39
B2 It’s Gonna Rain 17:31

DOWNLOAD the first reich HERE!

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

DOWNLOAD this cognitively dissonant candy bar HERE!

Chim Kothari - "Sound Of Sitar" (Deram SML 1002) 1966

As always Deram got there first with the Sitar-sploitation angle,almost as soon as George Harrison had put his Sitar down after recording 'Michelle',out came "Sound Of Sitar"(Without the 'The's').
They conjured up an 'Indian' bloke called Chim Kothari......a made up name for a white bloke if ever there was one.Although it does sound like he's never actually seen a sitar before,Chim is not as appalling as Rajput and the Sepoy Mutiny.But i'm sad to say that 'Yes', you can indeed have too much Sitar.
I guess they couldn't fit the 'The's' into the title? Surely it should be "The Sound Of The Sitar"? Or maybe its was a clumsey attempt to infer an Indian accent? "Jolly Good and gawd blimey sir,album called 'Sound Of Sitar' mem saab", said that 'blacked up' bloke from 'It Ain't 'arf Hot Mum'....another banned seventies British Sit-Com....'Oh dear, how sad, never mind'(Windsor Davies RIP)

Tracklist:

Strangers In The Night
Winchester Cathedral
The Carnival Is Over
Barsaat ''Rain''
Eleanor Rigby
La Playa
Downtown
Guantanamera
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo
Bhigmangon Ka Mela - ''Beggars' Festival''
The Sound Of Music
Looking Through The Eyes Of Love
Cast Your Fate To The Wind

DOWNLOAD of sitar HERE!

Gabor Szabo ‎– "Jazz Raga" (Impulse! ‎– AS-9128) 1966

Gabor Szabo, either escaped the Soviet invasion of 1956, or the communists threw him out for crimes against music?
Somehow he found his way to California,found Bob Thiele who signed him to Impulse records, and released around half a dozen Szabo albums in a couple of years......someone must have bought them,but I dunno who? He did in fact beat the other besuited Sitar exponent on the block,Mr Bill Plummer, to the punch by a year or so.Being a political refugee does tend to focus the mind somewhat,spotting potential new ways to integrate and avoid being sent back.Although this album should have been reason enough to reject his application for US Citizenship alone.
Only in 1966 could an balding asylum seeker from behind the Iron Curtain be seen whizzing around LA on a Vespa with a sitar strapped to the back of his tweed blazer, with an adoring,heavily made up Modette in tow. On top of this, someone was cool,or fool, enough to have him banging out albums.
Just slapping any image portraying Indian Instrumentation was enough to shift enough units to finance another record in 1966-68, so fittingly there is a capitalist motive at work here.
The Sitar, is most definitely NOT an instrument one can just pick up and play at a whim.In the hands of Gabor it sounds like a badly tuned guitar with buzzing frets,and regularly snapping strings.
When he overdubs his semi-acoustic guitar part with the Sitar, it really does just sound like he's snapping the strings.
The cover versions are shameless Psychsploitation at its worst and naffest.Despite being abley backed up by the legendary Bernard Purdie on the skins,just Gabors heavily Hungarian accented vocals are enough to cause ones jaw to drop in disbelief.I suppose the Jazz labels had to do this shit to survive the Rock'n'Roll fad,and thank goodness they did.They really are quite hilarious indeed.

Tracklist:

A1 Walking On Nails 2:46
A2 Mizrab 3:32
A3 Search For Nirvana 2:07
A4 Krishna 3:11
A5 Raga Doll 3:42
A6 Comin' Back 1:55
B1 Paint It Black 4:40
B2 Sophisticated Wheels 3:52
B3 Ravi 2:59
B4 Caravan 2:58
B5 Summertime 2:58

DOWNLOAD this digital raga HERE!