Boards Of Canada – "Old Tunes Vol. 2" (Music70 – CANCAS003) 1996

Wow!? this Duo must have invented everything chill room infesting and bedroom festering one could care to imagine, it says 1985 to '96 here!? Not that it sounds like it was recorded on one of those cassette four track portastudios which I assume they must have used, with a noise reduction system that can only have been left behind by fleeing Aliens.

Just listening to this stuff makes me smug enough to lie about how many O-Levels i got in 1983,or is that a Dostoevsky in your pocket or do you like Intelligent Dance Music?

What these Scottish chum bums were doing making music like this in the mid-eighties has ones middle finger resting firmly on the 'dubious' button and another finger up each others arses.

As Pre-post-Club as this may seem, fill in the blank space,(_______).It is this partially inflated,dryly punchline shy, self-indulgent and occasionally clever-clever, attempt to be the Pet shop boys without any Pet Shop boys, does massage ones own 'I was there first' Dorsal vein enough to claim to have been listening to 'Intelligent Dance Music' before Aphex Twin was even born.

I used to say these things about The Fall,but have now cut it down to just preferring the 'Early Stuff'? Which is no doubt what Autechre fans say about Boards Of Canada.

Track List:

A1		We've Started Up	5:39
A2		Jimbo Rehearsing	0:35
A3		Staircase Whip	2:14
A4		Statue Of Liberty	1:52
A5		Dave (I'm A Real Traditionalist)	1:50
A6		Peace/Tony/Devil	0:18
A7		To The Wind	2:30
A8		Iraq Says	0:38
A9		Nine-Rubber Wisdom	1:20
A10		On A Rolling Sea	1:34
A11		Iced Cooly Beatnik	0:36
A12		David Came To Mahana'im	4:39
A13		Sir Prancelot Brainfire	2:51
A14		North Sea Arbeit	1:12
A15		Mushyz	0:35
A16		Heysanna Hosanna	0:59
A17		Fly In The Pool	0:51
A18		Mukinabaht	5:05
A19		It's A Whole 'Nother Year	2:00
B1		Kiteracer 2	2:29
B2		BMX Track	5:05
B3		Hiscores	3:38
B4		Geometric Piss	0:51
B5		Zander Two	3:59
B6		Magic Teens	3:00
B7		Apparatus	0:33
B8		Music For Pylons	1:12
B9		Alpha Rainbow	1:12
B10		Northern Plastics	1:55
B11		Buckie High	5:16
B12		I Love My New Shears	3:11
B13		Solarium	0:22
B14		Breaking Nehushtan	2:41
B15		Orange Hexagon Sun	2:22
B16		Lick	2:39
B17		Powerline Misfortune	1:15

DOWNLOAD bored in scotland HERE!

Boards Of Canada – "A Few Old Tunes" (Music70) 1996

 

Hands Up anyone who thought Boards of Canada were from Canada?

Ah......only me it seems!?

Two smart-arsed Scottish brothers....no not Black Scottish, they were actually proper brothers,as in genetically brothers from the same mother.

Well that's as Funky as it gets i'm afraid, as we are gently lulled to sleep by a myriad of rejected downtempo leftfield LP fillers recorded from 1991 to 1995. If you made it through this without going into a coma, then I shall hold back on the Bored of Canada quips.

Nah, i'm just being rude, its the perfect background accompaniment for a bored game such as Dungeons and Dragons,which boasts a twenty sided dice,while side two has a two sided cassette of fifteen tracks a side.

And like D&D, it is played and listened to by home dwelling geeks nerds and further education technophiles, who have an undiagnosed need to be thought of as Intelligent.Hence this disdainful post club glitch-fest and its even more Disdainful genre, laughably monikered IDM, or, Intelligent Dance Music......not that Geeks and Nerds, or anybody, actually Dances to this awkward Electronica,by Bored of Scotland.

The stoopider sections of society can in fact dance to anything,aided by the stoopid person's super-power.....a total lack of self-awareness, or get off yer Tits on drugs.

However, good to see those Aphex-a-like kids still embracing the freedom of DIY to put out yer own material on cassette,and photocoping up a hand scribbled insert,without the need of no record company man.

Tracklist:

A1		Spectrum	2:19
A2		Light, Clear Hair	0:41
A3		P.C.	0:48
A4		Trapped	3:52
A5		Rodox Video	1:19
A6		Happy Cycling	1:49
A7		House Of Abin'adab	1:55
A8		Finity	5:00
A9		Forest Moon	6:35
A10		Skimming Stones	2:12
A11		Carcan	1:50
A12		Devil	0:14
A13		Mansel	5:36
A14		She Is P	1:42
A15		Davie Addison	1:15
B1		Sac	1:23
B2		Blockbusters	0:40
B3		I Will Get It Tattooed	1:37
B4		The Way You Show	2:56
B5		I Love U	1:41
B6		King Of Carnival	4:18
B7		M9	3:32
B8		Original Nlogax	1:11
B9		Sequoia	4:49
B10		Boqurant	1:43
B11		5.9.78	4:14
B12		Wendy Miller	0:32
B13		Paul Russell's Piece	0:53
B14		Up The March Bank	3:24
B15		Nova Scotia Robots	1:47

DOWNLOAD almost intelligently HERE!

Mark Shreeve – "No Holes Barred" (Church Road Records - MCCR6) 1986

 

From the less precious end of the recent deaths in music trophy cabinet, comes one of the more 'successful' prime movers in the UK Electronic Underground of the early eighties; as epitomised by such labels as Colin Potters Integrated Circuit Records.

Mark Shreeve left world stage around the end of August this year,but again no one told me!? He features quite extensively in these pages,mainly for his DIY cred rather than his late period plinky plonky electronic Space rock and Jean MIchel Jarre-isms.

This self-released cassette shows us Marks jauntier side,with some largely inadvisable Prog Rock humour risk of recording Farts and Belches;as Roger Waters and Ron Geesin had an annoying penchant for.

Yes, Mark had just bought an Emulator Mark 1 in 1986, and there were certainly No Holes Barred for the prog novelty title track, where Mr Shreeve's Digestive Tract gets an unwelcome credit. Yeah, we all did it as soon as we got our old skool samplers out of their box? The Burp was utilised intermediately,with that generous 0.8 seconds of sampling time at the lowest Bit-Rate ......oh how we laughed....but at least we didn't sample the Dog,as Simon Cowell did early in his career disguised as "Wonder Dog",and his 1982 hit "Ruff Mix"...geddit? 

Although Cowell had access to £20,000 quids worth of Fairlight Aampling System to totally waste.....unlike Paul Hardcastles N.N.N.N.N.Nineteen,not?

Sad to say that Shreeve's "No Holes Barred" never cracked the top ten,unlike the previously mentioned atrocities did.

Personally I had to make do with my Commodore 64,equipped with a jolly expensive Sampling module attached at the back for my first sampling experience,which was, you guessed it, sampling a Burp!

Who needed a Fairlight in 1984 when you had this?...notice how none of the kids on the cover are sampling Farts or Burps.....obviously Posh Kids.

 

This was repeated several years later with a purchase of an Ensonique Mirage.You can't beat the old ones can you?

Well, there was one more Hole for Mark to use, unbarred to everyone, and that was his Grave.In which he now rests his plinky plonky fingers,and has given us all some much deserved peace.

I do however notice, that quite a few of these tracks do seem to harbor an unhealthy obsession with,...gulp... Death, 'the proud brother' as Criswell of 'Plan Nine from Outer Space' fame used to call it....a lot.

Shreeves' early work is rather good actually,if you like Tangerine Dream that is.

Tracklist:

A1 M.A.D. 4:33
A2 Crash Head (Early Mix) 4:05
A3 High Frontier 4:52
A4 Edge Of Darkness (Early Mix) 5:35
A5 Bandit 3:38
B1 Widowmaker 3:51
B2 One Last Cold Kiss 3:52
B3 Angel Of Death (Live) 11:08
B4 No Holes Barred 1:47

DOWNLOAD through the hole of this HERE!

Various Artists– "Synths From The Sahara" (Sahel Sounds ) 2014

Try and explain the concept of Kraftwerk to an african and you'd get one of those... 'what the fucking hell are you talking about???'.... kind of looks. You won't get any exotic versions of "Are Friends Electric?" from the Sahara any time soon, just loads of stuff that they always used to play, but...with synthesizers.

Less than interested in the new sonic opportunities  that these electronic toys offered, they just play these things in the same way a classical pianist would play them.....cluelessly,but charming.....except the African would never have considered themselves as the height of civilized sophistication,like those bastards in the classical world would do.

Basically, if the musicians involved, as represented on this C60, had played these same tunes on traditional instruments it would have sounded exactly the same.....so why bother?

What I wanna hear is a weirdo from Mali who dresses and sounds like Gary Numan in 1979...that would be something special to behold.

This is as close as i get to the thoroughly 'do not resuscitate' middle class world of Global, or World, music,as championed by such poncy twerps as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon,and David Byrne....although David Byrne is in absolutely no way a twerp, just dreadfully misguided on occasion.

However, play this at any white suburban wine and cheese vernissage in support of their local artist 'of Colour',and you'd be heralded as a white hero of outstanding tolerance.

In their minds, anyone who plays any African music simply cannot be Racist,and therefore an eagerly anticipated member of the White Non-Racist but I am multitudes that smear themselves across the western world like so much shit on so much scented (bog roll)toilet paper.

Racist moi?...Naaaaah...well...er....probably.

I do remember being part of an argument about whether Ali G was racist or not, when one of the gobbier participants shouted "look! I've slept with a black man so how can I be Racist!?".....hmmmm?

Who's the most celebrated African Musican?...no, not Fela Kuti, it's obviously Freddie Mercury of Course....that's why there's a track called 'Bismillah' on here inni?.

Tracklist:

A1 Japonais– Bambino Instrui
A2 Mamman Sani– Boodo
A3 Mamman Sani– Ameran
A4 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 15
A5 Unknown Artist– Mauritania
A6 Sidiki Diabate– Amuse
B1 Maloma Et Becave– Untitled
B2 Mamman Sani– Ci Dadi
B3 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 1
B4 Japonais– Nouveau Instrui
B5 Mamman Sani– Bismillah

DOWNLOAD some instant non-racist cred HERE!