Melvins – "A Tribute To Pop-O-Pies / Tales Of Terror" (Amphetamine Reptile Records – SCALE 139) 2013

With the honor of being the only American representatives on this series of Tribute records by Melvins;but What,or who, the fucking hell were Pop-O-Pies? Sounds a bit like the pies filled with abattoir floor scrapings,spines and eyeballs,that i ate at half-time during a football match in the 80's,'Pukka Pies'.So, I thought it must be some American kids TV show or something worse,with a resident teenage Punk group in tow from about 1984.Awesome Doood!?....definitely NOT! 

Y'know,the Punk Rock successor to "Josie and the Pussycats"

So, I suppose i'll have to do some research...although I'll probably prefer my estimation more than the hard facts.

The Los Angeles Times said "The Pop-O-Pies were called "absolutely the worst band in California", and having listened to this Melvins cover, I could  absolutely agree absolutely. One of those awful bratty Californian post 1980 skatecore type groops of 16 year olds,with ripped jeans and converses'. The roots of Blink 182 can be found here. Of course there will be Californians who disagree.

So, I hesitantly move on to side B, and the equally obscure Tales Of Terror (Sacramento 82-86) .

I Wikipedia'd it and saw a few keywords,"Nirvana and Grunge", that made me abandon my mission immediately.....I Quote: "Their only LP greatly influenced rock bands Green River/Mudhoney and Nirvana. Considered by many as innovators to not only the Skate Rock sound and aesthetic but as well as Grunge???.....crimes that should not go unpunished.

The only Tale of Terror I can imagine is actually being inflicted a proto-grunge gig or record upon oneself, featuring any bands like this. But at least it's not Brown Day,or No Fun 41,or Wank 182. Small mercies.

ps....sign this petition will ya?

Tracklist:

A- Timothy Leary Lives
        By – Pop-O-Pies

B- Romance

By – Tales Of Terror

DOWNLOAD these punky monkees HERE!

Melvins – "A Tribute To The Scientists" ( Amphetamine Reptile Records – Scale 135) 2013

I know nothing of the Scientists except that they were Australian. Never heard them;but I'm guessing they are one of those Aussie bands who tried to become the Stooges, like Radio Birdmen (named after a misheard lyric to "TV Eye"). The Saints ,however wanted to be the Raw Power era Stooges, and i'm guessing Scientists did something equally Stooges inspired.

The Saints are one of my bestest favourite groops,so this formula can't be all bad,fermented by Australia's isolation from the rest of western civilisation.

I'm guessing that Scientists are now forgotten because unlike every other Aussie band that ever existed,they didn't move to London?

Didn't The Birthday Party do a song called "Swampland?...was that a version of this? Don't fucking know,and don't really care. But evidently Buzz duzz.I'm sure he could wax lyrical about how great The Scientists were at some depth.....and i would be nodding but not listening,thinking of excuses to check on that chicken I left in the oven.

Tracklist:

A- Set It On Fire

B- Swampland

DOWNLOAD to drain the swamp HERE!

Melvins – "A Tribute To The Kinks" ( Amphetamine Reptile Records – SCALE 138)

Those infuriating Twats in America banned the Kinks from entering their charmless country because they were thought of as too violent????...Ironic coming from the most violent place that isn't actually at war on the planet,then, and now!? 

This led to the Kinky ones to be rather a cult item in the USA in the late sixties.So Buzz,being the type who eeks out anything subterranean,obviously homed in on the Kinks,and recognized that they had obviously invented 'Punk Rock'.......They didn't, because,as I've argued many a freakin' time, that there was no Punk Rock before it had a name,a look, and a manifesto. The argu-ee often came out with stuff like "Wot about Blue Cheer,Wot about MC5,Wot about the Stooges, Wot about The Dolls......well first The Dolls were american Glam,and The Stooges were American Glam, and Blue Fucking Cheer were a poor man's Led Zep.MC5 looked like the biker rock revivalist Hippies they were.All can be lumped in the proto Punk category, along with Kinks and The Troggs and The Who and many,many, mooorrrre yaaawwwn.

Change the question as to who were the earliest 'PROTO-Punk'band,now ya talkin', Yeah ,we got a toss up between The Kinks ,The Troggs and the Who?

I mean, how far do these fools want us to go back....Al Jolson, Mozart? Kunta Kinte?.....what a bunch of Kunta Kinte's!

The Melvins ,clearly understand this,being obviously conversant in rock'n'roll history, and so deliver these two Kinks classics as if they were done by the UK Subs in 1982. (they were always 2 or 3 years behind bless 'em.) 

Like all these Rocker conformist types always say about, (punk saying I can't stand number #1) "The Punk Thing"...scheech.....(punk saying I can't stand number #2)....."It's an Attitude"....OMFG.

It's all ,in fact, none of these things,especially The Punk Thing.

Once its defined by such bollocks as "It's an Attitude maaan",it dies and becomes embossed in the dictionary of Rock filed under 'P'.

And then we have "The Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame" to tell us allll about it.The most Rock'n'Roll thing that place could do is burn itself down...wherever the fuck it is? Anyone ever been there? And why?...answer the last question first.

Tracklist:

A -Atitude

B -Victoria

DOWNLOAD another attempt to define "the punk thing" and failing HERE!

Melvins – "A Tribute To Roxy Music" (Amphetamine Reptile Records – Scale 141) 2013

Jello Biafra joins in on the fun reinterpreting Roxy's classic "In Every Dream Home a Heartache",which is a love song to a sex doll from what I can make out.

Alas, Jello changes the transition hook from "She Blew My Mind" to,inexplicably, "I Blew Up Your Body"? Thus removing any irony from the picture.

However, Jello does a fine Brian Ferry impression for the first half, before the characteristic Biafra warble cuts in for the the rocking part.

A classic experimental glam tune that, again is safe in anyone's hands.

Seems that Buzzo had a perchant for British Glam,unlike most of America,save Davie Bowie.Roxy Music never broke through in the USA until the reformed 80's Armani suited version of the band,sans Eno.

Amusingly Brian Ferry came from the same town as Venom (Newcastle upon Tyne).....i'm guessing that Venom never went to Art School,like The Jam,but Brian certainly did,as did the majority of Roxy (I'm guessing NOT the drummer?).The phenomenon of Art Rock begins here,and was the group most name dropped by the ensuing UK Punk Rock initiators.

 

Tracklist:

A. In Every Dream Home a Heartache

DOWNLOAD to not pay the ferry man HERE!

Melvins – "A Tribute To Venom" (Amphetamine Reptile Records – Scale 143) 2013

One of the more predictable influences on The Melvins would have to be everyone's favourite Geordie Black Metal band,not that there were more than one in Newcastle (uk),Venom*. As with most American groups ,the Melvins are far better musicians than their British counter-parts.Although Venom's over-riding influence on the world of Metal cannot be understated,ironically aided by their poundshop Motorhead level of competence,aided and abetted by a fine line in ridiculous Satanic lyrics;something that Lemmy would avoid like the plague.

It sounds like The Melvins doing covers of Venom tracks amazingly enough!?

*Not Black Metal exactly, but from Newcastle,so maybe, Tygers Of Pan Tang counts?

Tracklist:

A Warhead

B In League With Satan

DOWNLOAD from hell HERE!

Guerilla Toss – "Gay Disco" (NNA Tapes – NNA069) 2013

 "Electronic, Rock, Funk / Soul" are the genre's Discogs struggles to classify the music presented here on "Gay Disco" by Guerilla Toss with.....bless their little on the spectrum Record Collector brains.

I've got it in for Record Collectors and Musicians alike,maybe because i'm those despicable things too,and I hate Myself?

It pretty obvious ,if you've read my blurb ,that i certainly don't hate myself, but am uncomfortable at referring to oneself in the first person,which is a definite sign that i'm not a Psycho-path ;but a psychopath would say that wouldn't he?.....whoops i've just switched to the third person? Maybe I am a Psychopath?

That's impossible because Psycho's aren't losers like me,or should I say, like him?

Objectively, i'm also not a loser,but a successfully smug bourgeois property owner....maxed out my credit cards(this is 20 years hence),stiffed some landlords,and moved to the cheapo real estate EU. 

Whence once one believed in the property is theft ideal, until i noticed that rent was more than twice what i would have to pay if I actually owned a house;I now pay zero rent or mortgage,and own my place of work too.

Theft is in fact theft,and Crass realised the same thing...yes Crass are bourgeois property thieves themselves...oh the irony!? One has new found respect of our cuddly Anarchist nemesis's.

Gay Disco, I once thought, was a good name for a band ,envious of the confrontational magic of the "Homosexuals" moniker as i/he was.

Again if you like Melt banana, this is for you.

Basically,It's abstract, noisy , mutant "Electronic, Rock, Funk / Soul"...maybe without the soul bit.Just chuck every genre that ever existed after WW2 into a concrete mixer, and the resulting concrete would sound a bit like this...if concrete was indeed music,which I solemnly believe that it is...HE hath spake.

To quote Crass again..."They'd almost paid their mortgage when the system dropped its Bomb"....now,if there was consciousness after death, that would seriously fuck me/him off!

Tracklist:

A1 Trash Bed 4:43
A2 Pink Elephant 4:41
A3 Operate 6:07
B4 Sugar Better 4:49
B5 Club Kids 5:10
B6 Gay Disco 3:58

DOWNLOAD and have a gay time HERE!

Guerilla Toss – "Gorilla Toss" (Tzadik – TZ 7807) 2013

I did say i'd put something that sounded like Melt-Banana by Guerilla Toss on here....so this is it.With executive producer credits appropriated by John Zorn.

Improv noise,kerazzzy time signatures and abstract song structures with a 'Punk Rock Ethic that verges on madness'....obviously not my words,and one has to Question the punk rock ethic of being as prog as fuck.

Extreme and absolutely essential for anyone interested in the outer edges of creativity....so says a Tzadik executive.

Yeah,basically 'it sounds like Melt-Banana' is what he's trying to say.....not that that's a bad thing.

Tracklist:

1 Cash Now 7:17
2 Scary Monster 4:32
3 Drip Decay 4:29
4 Judy Wants Sex On The News 5:30
5 Diluted Fetus Circuit Tycoon 7:28
6 Liz Tattoo 5:09

DOWNLOAD this face melting banana HERE!

Egg, Eggs – "The Cleansing Power Of Fruit" (Feeding Tube Records – FTR073) 2013

While we're on the Eggs theme,These Eggy guys and gals sound like they're on Drugs....not the kind of 'On Drugs' that totally dull tossers like The Grateful Dead subscribe to, but actually sounding like someone who is 'on Drugs' should sound like.No endless Guitar solo's, psychedelic poetry and crap like that,It's effortlessly unhinged and ineloquent, especially the padded cell vocals,with words like they were written during a lazy afternoon spent in a straitjacket. Was there ever a mass break out from the loony-bin in West Massachusetts and NOT Rhode Island (where I thought they were from...see comments) ever? If there was this is the soundtrack to it....wonderful. 

These guy's must be on Drug,Drugs? Which is why this incredibly unpopular record is probably one of ones few bestest records of the last decade or so.It seems to have separate tracks ,slash, songs,but they're merged together to make two sides of continuous crazed roll'n'rock, beamed directly from Nutsville,Mars.

If a bearded middle aged man repeatedly squealing "I will be the princess of the night" over a backing of overloaded and brutal free Rock as played in a cement mixer full of bricks is your kinda kick,then this should be 45 minutes of sheer bliss.If that sounds like an unlistenable waste of turntable time to you, then what the hell are you doing here!?

"Disco Dancing with the Albino Bigot"?....I doubt it.

That was a rhetorical question.

There are a few 'Woke' alerts such as the Albino and crippled little girl references on this disc;I wouldn't expect anything less for my 14 Dollars plus post and packaging....would you? It should get anyone who's trapped in the wrong body suitably outraged for at least a fortnight.I reserve my right to offend anybody....equally.

Tracklist:

1. Side A
2. Side B

DOWNLOAD and purge your musical bowels with the fruit of the Egg HERE!

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Let's end with a joke?

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

A."Michael Jackson's latest release"

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

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

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

Tracklist:

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

DOWNLOAD this fine tribute to Michael Jackson HERE!

ÜWAN - "Ü2" (Year Zero Records YEAR 023) 2013

Gawd Blimey, luv-a-duck, guvn'r, I forgot about this album i made back in the early 'teennies' for the magnificent Year Zero Records netlabel.(clears throat)

An improvised guitar drone fest on the subject of the abject U2.As the first Üwan album was called "Ü1",'twas only natural that the second outing would be monikered "Ü2".So the connotations were obvious,and a chance to slag off this terrible group with scything six string noise. 

Basically,it's another Shackleton in a Ü-boat style exploration into the eternal combination of Guitar, Drums, effects, and sound collage from our favourite free rock improv combo,Üwan.A kind of an subconscious abstract tribute to U2's unaltering longevity. This is what you'd get if one placed Bono's career minded stadium rockers' back catalogue into a food blender.I know i'd like to push a certain vertically challenged lead singer of an Irish stadium rock band's face into a blender anyway.

All the notes are there, but not necessarily in the right order, you'd be pleased to know.
What we have here is an improvised drone and feedback ballet score for people who hate ballet. An opera for the deaf,or a painting for the blind.But above all for people who hate U2's guts!

Don't forget, there's Ü3,and Ü4, too!

Dumbo - Drums
JZ (thats me!) - Guitar, Tapes, fx.

DOWNLOAD it HERE!

or

Stream it HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald - "Live in Bern, 18/01/2013" (Bootleg) 2013

Patrik treating a sparse Suiss,audience to a run through of some of the songs he isn't sick of yet.Plus a couple of unrecorded tune,"Captain Of The Championship Team"....at least I think its unrecorded,and "What Can I Do?"
Obviously he had been playing a lot of gigs on this tour to promote "Subliminal Alienation",as his voices sounds a bit hoarse,as it reverbarates in the room. The audience clearly came to listen,and submit some shy applause.
Who would want to be a solo musician,or stand up comedian? A thankless task.
I suppose that back in 1977 Fitzgerald was punks Ed Sheeran.....compare and contrast the two and you get an accurate analysis of the difference between the two epochs.The vacuous emptiness of the Ed Sheeran generation's work,and the honesty of the ,for want of a better word, the 'Punk' era.
At least the only ginger hair in punk rock was via the use of a bottle of dye. 

Tracklist:

01 Exist
02 Grey Echoes
03 One Little Soldier
04 The Serving Classes
05 Company Bus
06 All My Friends Are Dead Now
07 Smile
08 Gifts And Telegrams
09 Dance Music Late Night
10 Live Out My Stars
11 Inside Me There Is Nothing
12 Little Fishes
13 Down
14 Captain Of The Championship Team
15 What Can I Do
16 The Next Revolution

DOWNLOAD and feel the bern HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald ‎– "Subliminal Alienation" (Crispin Glover Records ‎– BEAG3CGRCD010) 2013

There comes a time in life when you wish you had an young actor to represent you at social gatherings,or, if you are a musician, at gigs.
All those re-formed bands, all squeezing their fatter bodies into black suits,all with male pattern baldness hidden under a black trilby, sweating profusely, busting a bloodvessel to recreate their glorious youth for a few thousand quid in front of a crowd of similarly shaven heads......who wants to watch that? The sad demise of a childhood hero, like a performing monkey who's lost his teeth. No thanks.
I've seen pictures of Patrik Fitzgerald performing in recent years, and he was wearing shorts for fucks sake!!!!..... and sandals,with long curly hair!!!?...at least he hasn't reformed,mainly because he really hasn't stopped,and hasn't resorted to the popular reformed punk band uniform of suit and trilby.
You may have noticed that that isn't our Pat on the front cover,but an actor playing the role of Fitzgerald as a street musician in what seems to be Norway?
This album may turn out to be his last.(although facebook friend Stephen Surreal,a chum of patriks,was supposed to be recording his farewell album a few years ago.....i dunno if that actually happened or not...but i hope it did,and it will appear someday soon?)
With a title like "Subliminal Alienation", this could have been a greatest misses compilation, but no, its, nearly, all new or unheard stuff. It could have been recorded in 1980 as far as i can hear.His voice is just as youthful as back in the day,and the guitar work uses the same barely tuned chords that he uses in all of his songs,usually with a droning E-string.....a technique that Lemmy from Motorhead made a career out of.
This album could be even bleaker than "Drifting Towards Violence" i'm not sure? There are a couple of tracks that appeared on his demo tape and a peel session back in 1977/78, but there are many new, unheard tracks that are classic Fitzgerald. 
"The Company Bus" tackled the uncomfortable theme of Racism with his traditional honesty.
"Routine Never Stops" revisits the mundane regime of dream crushing normality, a much explored theme in the works of our favourite 'Punk Poet'.
It gets bleaker...."Inside Me There Is Nothing"......i think the title tells it all?
"Pilgrimage" seems to sum up the Punk Nostalgia industry very nicely indeed.
"Teacher Teacher" is another exercise in the pointlessness of trying to better yourself....the message is 'Give Up'?
I won't go through all the songs one by one, like most modern music journalist do.....you know i hate that shit?I'm just treading water here!
Play them for yourself without me dribbling out my silly analyses'.

Tracklist:

Company Bus
Routine Never Stops
Junior Gangstas
Inside Me There Is Nothing
Knockabout
All The Splattered Children
No Cause For Concern
Teacher Teacher
Laughter Far Away
Amateur
The Serving Classes
Acid Wisdom
The Next Revolution
Pilgrimage

DOWNLOAD the sublime and the alienated HERE!

Clark Coolidge, Thurston Moore, Anne Waldman ‎– "Comes Through In The Call Hold" (Fast Speaking Music) 2013

Ah, Thurston Moore.Hanging out with his cool poet friends....but wait, No, Thurston's doing the poetry, Coolidge is a whizz with the brushes, and Walman only appears on one track,embroidering further her obsession with Plutonium..
He'll never lose the Indie Rock dweeb reputation.He sounds like he's using someone elses voice.
The funny thing is that it works.His abstract guitar improvisations erase all those decades of Sonic Youth busting a dorsel vein trying to 'Rock Out' in one scrape of the E-string, or banjo-string if i'm continuing to use obscure penis parts references.
Moore's poet voice is easily good enough to get some work as a part-time voice over artist for action movie publicity montages.He could have been in a nineties re-make of a Sam Spade whodunnit as the title character....not sure what he'd look like in an armani suit though,and the converse's would have to go straight in the trash.
The words to 'Free Jazz Costs Nothing' are slightly cringy in its avant-garde music name-dropping references,and he says "Cunt", which is always a low blow in any desperate attempt to gain attention,or to sound edgily on the cusp of 'art',but NO, you've rejected that 'cus you're an average Joe sharing your genius with the rest of us.
I'd probably walk out after ten minutes if I was at a concert of this, but, on record,its pretty good to play in full with the TV on and the sound down.Then civilisation starts to seem as ridiculous as it really is.People don't get paid to do this...but maybe they do if you were in Sonic Youth and there's an arts grant to be snaffled.


Tracklist:

1. Clear The Room
Drums – Coolidge/Vocals – Moore 0:44
2. Comes Through In The Call Hold
Guitar – Moore/Vocals – Coolidge 12:52
3. She's Crazy And So Am I
Drums – Coolidge/Vocals – Moore 0:54
4. Om Krim Kalyai Namah
Drums – Coolidge/Guitar – Moore/Vocals – Waldman 6:19
5. Free Jazz Costs Nothing
Drums – Coolidge/Vocals – Moore 6:00
6. History Will Decide
Drums – Coolidge/Guitar – Moore/Vocals – Waldman 11:22
7. Turn Left At The Dog
Drums – Coolidge/Guitar – Moore 28:50

DOWNLOAD on hold coming through HERE!

Kosmischer Läufer ‎– "The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83 - Volume One" (Unknown Capability Recordings ‎– UCKL001) 2013

The myth spoiling music Stasi have suggested that this is an elaborate hoax.The same bastards who unveiled the identity of the Residents, and that Captain Beefheart made nearly everything up.
This should be ignored, and I truly believe that this music was comissioned by the DDR government,and those drug fuelled monsters in the DDR olympic squad used this to train to.
As Hoaxes go, this one is impressivly watertight,which is reason enough to put that aside and enjoy the georgeous analogue beauty of the Kosmiche Musick trapped in these grooves, and imagine Heike Drechler downing gallons of performance enhancing substances to those classic warm synth sounds.
Here's an amusing interview with the, alleged, composer of these pieces, Martin Zeichnette:

An Interview with Martin Zeichnete. Berlin. February 2013:
Q: Hello Martin, we'll start at the beginning I suppose. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Pesterwitz, which is near Dresden, in 1951. Before the war my parents had been teachers. Afterwards my father worked for the FDGB and my mother sometimes gave music lessons.
Q: Where did you begin your music career?
My first job was as an apprentice sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), in the Trickfilme (Animation) department in Dresden. I learned techniques in tape editing and 'special effects' which I would put to good use later on in my 'invisible' career. Perhaps because we provided music for animated film we managed to sneak in some avant garde ideas that would not be tolerated elsewhere. Some of us saw it as a game. Between us and the state censors.
Q: Tell me about the music that inspired Kosmischer Läufer?
Although we were of course aware of popular Western music at the time, very little was available to us. Our primary source came from radio stations broadcasting from the West. Due to the geography of the area this proved difficult in Dresden! There was a station I could get from Düsseldorf that played Kosmische Musik , you know, Kraftwerk and Cluster and Neu! and so on. To me, sitting in the attic tuning the radio dial, searching for anything, hearing these beautiful new electronic sounds, it did seem like music from the cosmos. I would record it and pass tapes on to my friends. We did have people in the East doing electronic music, such as Paul-Heinz Dittrich, but I found their version of it all too studious. The music from the West was fun. It had energy.
Q: How did the idea come about?
I was a keen amateur runner and when out I would play these motorik, repetitive songs in my head. I thought somehow it could be used as a training aid for athletes. The electric pulse sort of thing. I thought it could benefit the athletes mind as well as body, the music would be hypnotic, it would bring focus. Then at work I was shown a prototype design of Andreas Pavel's 'Stereobelt' and I knew this could be possible.
Q: So how does it go from an idea to a reality?
It was not in a good way! I shared my ideas with colleagues at work but as was often the case in those times I perhaps spoke in front of the wrong person. One day at the studio two SED members arrived and took me away in an official car.
Q: What did you think was happening?
Well. I didn't know, you think of everything you have said, everyone you have said it to, but I think I knew it would be about the music. I feared I would lose my job, at the very least. It would be very bad for someone who worked on party films to be seen to be influenced by the enemy, you know, Western culture.
Q:Where were you taken?
We drove in silence to the outskirts of Berlin to what I later found out was an athletics camp. They knew all about me and my idea. They questioned me about the concept for hours then left me alone in the room. Later an official from the Nationales Olympisches Komitee came in and told me I would begin to work on the project immediately.
Q: Just like that! It seems very matter of fact?
Yes, I was stunned, but sometimes that is how things happened then. We know now that the athletic directors were trying anything to gain an advantage in those times. At least my idea did not harm the athletes. I was in a studio in Berlin the next day.
Q: Did you work alone or with other musicians?
To begin with it was just myself, the engineer and always a state official who would sit in the corner observing. The first things I tried were basically electronic metronomes at various paces with very little melody. These were tested but the athletes didn't respond very well so I began writing more 'musical' pieces. Sometimes I would be joined by a drummer and a guitarist. It was incredible, when I would explain to the musicians what we were going to do, you could tell immediately the ones who 'got' what the music was. We would be in the live room doing 20 minute space rock pieces while a government official sat bored on the other side of the glass. It was surreal.
Q: What equipment did you have access to?
It varied. We had some Western technology in effect units and such but the synthesizers were mostly Soviet in origin and could be very temperamental. The studio in Dresden had a Subharchord which I had used before on animation soundtracks, it was a great machine. I filled in many claim forms for equipment. Sometimes it came, sometimes it didn't. The Moog didn't. I do know that the athletes in the program were probably the first people in the East to have Walkmen as I saw the order for 300 units.
Q: Did you ever meet the athletes?
Not really at the time, always there was a minder there when I met with them and the coaches to discuss what they needed. It was a shame, they were my only audience. Years later, after reunification, one former Olympian I met confessed to me that he would try and swap the training cassettes supplied to him for Western music at international meets.
Q: How long did the project continue?
I would be summoned to Berlin generally in the winter to produce tracks for the upcoming athletics season. The last work I did was in 1983 doing pieces for the gymnastic team's floor performances. The project stopped as suddenly as it had started. I was given no explanation. I think it may have been due to the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics.
Q: How did you retain the music?
Well, I was not supposed to take the music from the studio as it was state property but I did manage to sneak a lot out. I thought the master tapes had been destroyed or lost in the chaos after the wall came down but one of the engineers, who 'got' it, had rescued a lot of them. We transferred them to digital in the early 90s.
Q: Why release this now?
I made this music for people to train to. Because of the time and place I did it only a select few got to use it. I would like for more people to finally use and enjoy it. It is as simple as that."

Liner Notes:
This program should allow the average runner to complete a 5 kilometre run at a reasonable pace. Included are 3 minute warmup and warm down pieces.
This program was used by the East German Olympians in the 1970s.
Tracklist:

1 Zeit Zum Laufen 156 2:56
2 Sandtrommel 6:26
3 Die Lange Gerade 13:07
4 Tonband Laufspur 6:32
5 Ein Merkwürdiger Anschlag 2:49

DOWNLOAD secretly HERE!

Bobby Beausoleil ‎– "Dancing Hearts Afire" (Sagittarius A-Star ‎– SAS #33) 2013

Another Bobby Beausoleil new age space rock epic in the style of a low budget Dave Gilmore on Mogadon.
One can't help but have images in ones mind of Bob, shut away in his prison cell surrounded by mail order electronics,gurning as he makes the strings on his lovingly polished electric guitar singalong to the impecably programmed digital backing track.
It does have all the hallmarks of a retired geezers anti-alzheimers hobby to keep his mind active in old age.A sort of a musical Sudoku.
The difference between this and the retired hippy spunking his pension on music tech, is that Bob knew Chuck Manson,and murdered someone, so people have enough passing interest to buy it,and maybe even listen to half of side A.....but, as mentioned previously, it breaks the ice at parties!?
The music does have a certain artificial sadness,like a soundtrack to a wasted life that had so much potential.Played as he waits to end his existence in Jail.
However, he seems to have led quite a full life as an inmate.Creating Film soundtracks, marrying at least twice, and fathering four children!???.....this ain't like no Jail I've ever heard of!? Only Manson himself has released more albums,although his official children have either commited suicide or are in hiding;and Manson's music is clearly an inferior beast altogether.

Tracklist:

A Dancing Hearts Afire part 1
B Dancing Hearts Afire part 2

DOWNLOAD from hearts mediafire HERE!

Jandek ‎– "Athens Saturday" (Corwood Industries ‎– Corwood 0812) 2013

What destroyed Nick Drakes first two albums?.....fucking string arrangements.I hate String arrangements, almost as much as I hate Brass sections, and backing singers! 
Jandek is yet to use the latter two abominations.
So when i saw Violin and Cello listed in Jandeks backing band for this double CD, I was nervous.
Wait, I thought.An inappropriate spark of positivity flashed across my frontal lobe briefly. This could be like a Nico's 'Marble Index' moment.One of the rare times when trad classical instrumentation actually married well with natural music.
Well....you know what i'm gonna say?....It does so right here.
Any work called "Waiting To Die" has to be good, right?
"How 'bout a round of Golf", our depressed representative whines as the Bass Clarinet kicks in.
"When is this Shit going to end?" is his retort to that woodwind interjection.
There will be a lot of pseudo composeurs (sic) saying the same phrase as their ears spontaeneously implode after the first few non-notes dance forth from their listening devices.
Jandek, narrating more than singing, on improv piano, is at his literal best with the words.It all makes sense for once.Christ on a Stick(!).....I even Identified with them!!!!????.......now i'm worried that I urgently need to see a shrink!!!
Even the classically trained parts of the backing musicians have that rare instinct among such creatures, namely an ability to improvise.They're usually lost without notation written down for them,like children waiting for instructions and an mad professor in a penguin suit waving a baton at them to keep time etc. Forget about metronomic time keeping in the world of Jandek.Its a place where time doesn't exist; except when it does rarely raise its ugly repressive head, it passes at crawling pace, like a slug slithering over a sheet of coarse grained sandpaper.
This hourand forty minutes long tune excretes possibly even more hopelessness and shameless nihilism than even 'The Marble Index' did?
Never thought I'd say this about latter day Jandek, but I wanna play this again!?

Tracklisting:

1.1 Waiting to die (part 1) (52:08)
2.1 Waiting to Die (part 2) (50:08)

DOWNLOAD without waiting too long HERE!

Jandek ‎– "Houston Saturday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0813) 2013

So you think you're alive do you? Listen to too much Jandek and you'll wish you weren't.
Although, this improvised avant-rock outing in his home town is one of his best later period Jandek recordings. The representative really gets into his vocals,bordering on the 'rocking-out'.He even sounds a bit drunk??? However, my personal fantasy Jandek has to be an abstainer from alcohol,so i'll imagine he's just venting his recluses angst.....yep that works for me.
As unconnected as the song titles seem to be with the music,just reading the words has you asking uncomfortable questions about life,the universe and everything.....'42', right?...thats as good an answer as anything.
How do you know you're alive? How do you know you're not gonna be switched off at any second by an alien's claw when the programme has terminated? Is it all just a lucid dream in the mind of an indeterminate entity that some of the dumber parts of the dream call 'God'?
But Jandek 'Knows', and in the midst of this nebulous reality, so do we.
The answer was fleshed out at the Free Press Summer Fest, Houston, Texas, June 1, 2013 by jandek and uncredited rhythm section.
The answer is that there IS NO ANSWER! In fact the actual question is a bit vague,so stop searching and get on with the delusion that you actually exist.

Tracklisting:

1. I Know I'm Alive (35:18)

DOWNLOAD if you think you're alive HERE!

Jandek ‎– "The Song Of Morgan" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 081) 2013

I warned you.....here's another eight and a half hours of the Corwood Representative banging out random notes like the infinate monkey of the keyboard trying to randomly rewrite Chopins' Nocturnes.Playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.
Just imagine an infinite number of Jandeks banging out the classics......its just that i think we may need more Jandeks than infinity allows for the master of the very wrong note to hammer out anything by Chopin......ah well, each to his own eh?
I'd like to see the psychological profile of someone who listens to all of this straight, in one go, and in sequence.
I did attempt to listen to the Stooges "Complete Funhouse Sessions" once in one go,but by the 12th take of 'Dirt' i was eating the walls.I nearly made it through Miles Davis' "On The Corner Sessions",mainly because it rarely repeated itself,rather like Jandeks Ivory tinkling? So it is possible,but I fear for your mind.

Tracklisting:
1-1 Nocturne One 55:22
2-1 Nocturne Two 58:39
3-1 Nocturne Three 60:42
4-1 Nocturne Four 60:33
5-1 Nocturne Five 58:20
6-1 Nocturne Six 58:54
7-1 Nocturne Seven 51:31
8-1 Nocturne Eight 59:16
9-1 Nocturne Nine 52:52

To Download just click the appropriate tracks listed above.

Jandek ‎– "Dublin Friday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0820) 2016

Its Jandek Monday, and this is "Dublin Friday", for the simple reason that someone asked for this because they were 'there'!
This is my equivalent of 'playing for the kids'. That brown nosed gesture a lot of performers do to please the crowd by playing their greatest hits or, as in this case, requests.
 As i write, Jandek in Dublin is playing, and he just exhaled the line, 'The Cacophony Of Gesture', which i think places brackets rather cosily around my sycophancy.
Something Jandek never does, but of late he does ,unintentionally ,occassionaly, gives them what they want.
Live at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin,  June 13, 2008, the representative gives the 'kids' classic old school Jandek; without any hanger-on avant garde musicians to ruin the beauty. Meandering detuned ascoutic guitar, and stream of consciousness vocals under the working title of "He Said Nothing";of which there are eight long parts.

'He's just making this up as he goes along', they say....well......yes, thats usually how the creative process occurs. For me, as well as our esteemed Corwood representative.

There's some polite applause, art gallery style, from the audience in between each part. One can only imagine the modest crowd sitting in silence for each 8 minute part, staring passively at the spectacle in front of them;some feigning an intellectual connection with the ginger one (Check out the keen applauder who clapped the longest after part eight!...Lol!). Mostly waiting patiently for,an end, thee end,any end. Trying not to check their wrist-watches,or be seen to leave early........a bit like life?......very Jandekian.

Tracklist:

He Said Nothing
1 Part One 8:47
2 Part Two 7:18
3 Part Three 8:36
4 Part Four 8:17
5 Part Five 8:10
6 Part Six 7:18
7 Part Seven 5:42
8 Part Eight 8:24

DOWNLOAD jandek in dub (lin) HERE!

Bendle / Dustdevil and Crow - "Discography" (2008-2013)

1. 
   jesus
2. 
   accidental music
   dustdevil & crow
3. 
   ...and chuang tzu dreamed that he was me
   dustdevil & crow
4. 
   while speaking softly you can hear the insects sing
   dustdevil & crow
5. 
   while walking slowly you can see the grasses grow
   dustdevil & crow
6. 
   tattered tongues 
   
   
7. Well,as we have been posting all thing Bendle related for the last week or so,its only fitting to remind y'all that the great man is still at it today,mainly with the Experimental ambient metal Neo-folk psych digital doo wop drone hybrid combo, Dustdevil and Crow.
8. So, pop along ,via the approved links above to the relevant Bandcamp page and download his complete oeuvre,for any price you care to volunteer,including nought pounds. I'm sure he's worth donating few quid to after all these years of hovering under the radar of the counter culture?
9. BENDLES BANDCAMP LINK  where you'll find even more stuff.