Egg – "BBC Sessions And More (1968-1972)"

Eggs are an essential part of the modern Diet, and so are Prog Royalty Egg,served gloomy side up ,raw ,for your full English Breakfast.....No Black Pudding here however, as this stuff is as White as you can get.

The following statement of fact will make yer average Q-Anon cowboy twat vomit up his early morning Grits,but ,and once again, thank fuck for the BBC and the much maligned "Deep state" (who of course own the Beeb....not).Y'know WOT...they,yes 'They' can have it (da world).Which do you prefer? Living under the yoke of some fantastic secret world government running everything, or Egg?....I know which one i'd prefer....pssst,it begins with an 'E'.

 Despite having wiped a few medium sized warehouses of classic TV shows and Radio Sessions from a famously myopic period in popular culture before 68',they came good and preserved most of what was then becoming clear as a Golden age, even a  new Renaissance of the Arts.

Egg were one of those bands that one had heard of yet never bought their records. Obviously very talented musicians,they could play in any dodgy time signature one could care to mention....13/12 anyone?

Of course, this kinda talk is a real turn off for the ladies,or anyone non-binary,which seems to be everyone these days,so there's no great prospect of Egg making a comeback.Not that they'd want to,as the prospect of endless touring playing for static spotty longhairs,earning fuck all money, and never getting laid is a great reason for Punk Rock. However, as has now been well documented, most of the first wave of UK Punx were all into Egg,and in fact anything Prog as it turned out. The second wave were somewhat different,and stupider,so we get Sham 69, UK Subs and The Exploited.

EGG - extolling the benefits of a woolly sweater,and putting a brave face on not getting any (Adult) lady action  

You may have noticed the droning voice of a late Paedo-DJ introducing "Long Piece part 3" ,no not Jimmy Savile,the other one that got away with it by dying,whom is somewhat idolised by sad trainspotters comme moi,everywhere.He manages not to mention School Girls on this appearance,in reverence to Egg;but any proof you want can be found in his Biography,and on the cover of the Ruts "The Crack" LP; but like Glitter,one must separate the wheat from the chaff,and the man from the music. I hear the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury has now been re-named....don't wanna upset anyone who's middle-class now would we?

The last three tracks are in fact the pre and post Egg band Uriel/Arzachel, with Canterbury chum, Steve Hillage.A project put on Ice while Hillage was on University duty.The first 11 tracks are actually EGG,and markedly superior, no offence to Steven intended.

Would love to imagine a collaboration between Egg and Egg,Eggs,or even those Lovely Eggs? There being a small 50 year musical gap between the suggested incumbents. Noticing the terrible attempts at humour,on tracks 4 and 9,these more 'modern' type bands could certainly help out in that department. That's another thing the ladies,binary ones, or non-Binary ones,require in a sexual partner which,in lonely hearts app speak,a GSOH!

This acronym does however get trumped by a.... Ferrari of course.Sorry to be cynical (again!) but its a set in stone fact.

Notes for the very sad:

Tracks 1-3 recorded for BBC 'Sound Of The Seventies' on 22nd February 1972.
Track 4 recorded for BBC 'Sound Of The Seventies' on 13th March 1972.
Tracks 5 & 7 recorded live for BBC 'In Concert' on 4th February 1971.
Tracks 9-10 recorded for BBC 'Top Gear' on 5th September 1969.
Track 11 recorded live at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London, 22nd February 1971.
Tracks 12-14 recorded at Studio 19, London in November 1968 as Uriel(otherwise known as Arzachel when Steve Hillage was around).

Tracklist:

1 Germ Patrol 5:30
2 Enneagram 8:45
3 Wring Out The Ground (Loosely Now) 7:57
4 There's No Business Like Show Business 3:12
5 A Visit To Newport Hospital 7:52

6 An Announcement by John Peel 0:31
7 Long Piece No. 3 (Parts 2, 3, 4) 16:38
8 While Growing My Hair 3:43
9 Seven Is A Jolly Good Time 3:05
10 McGillicuddle The Pusillanimous 4:56
11 Saturn 6:22
12 Swooping Bill 3:25
13 Ego Man 4:08
14 The Salesman Song 2:57

DOWNLOAD the egg that came before the chicken HERE!

Crushed Butler – "Uncrushed (1969-1971)" (Radio Heartbeat – RHB-110) 2015

Even before the members of the Ramones or Dead Boys were born,'We invented Punk' candidates ,Crushed Butler, were having their photo taken amongst scenes of devastating Urban decay ,and bombsites left over from the Blitz. 

Including Brit rock's most rockinest under 25 equivalent of Iggy poop, Jesse Hector, Crushed Butler were making balls to the wall basic proto-punk when three quarters of the UK Subs were still in nappies.Recorded in glorious Mono,these demo's obviously never saw the light of day until the search for the Holy Grail of embryonic Punk began in the 21st century.

Of course, anyone old enough to have gone to see Bovva Rock leg-ends Slade, Mott The Hoople,or even the punk metal myth made flesh  Atomic Rooster, will remember that brutal trio who opened the evening on many such occasions in 1971. Equally, anyone who remember those sweaty weeknight pub rock extravaganza's at the Hope and Anchor in 1974, or the Punk Rock nights at the same venues in 1976, will have noticed that the two blokes in Crushed Butler with the funny haircuts and lambchop sideburns were those geezers in historic Pub /Punk crossover trio The Hammersmith Gorillas; whose top tune "It's My Life" was first unleashed by the Crushed Butlers in 1969....included here.

Crushed Butler pictured as children during the Blitz, 1941.

They were around slightly before Third World War,and The Pink Fairies , and other worthy 'we invented (UK) Punk' candidates; but after the Deviants and Edgar Broughton, although musically,and visually, they tick more boxes probably,than a few of their bluesy rivals.....retrospectively of course;back then they would have been called Hard Rock,or what we sad 21st century bastards have labelled 'Bovva Rock' ,exclusive to the Uk,conjuring up images of the boots and braces football following Bovva Boys of the early 70's. Something that carried over into Punk Rock exemplified by those Mick Ronson devotees of Pistols in Manchester support act fame...Slaughter and the Dogs, who even wore football scarves at gigs!?

Football fans still sing Gary Glitter's anthemic bovva boy stomps at matches to this day....who cares of he's a paedo,he was one of the boys back in '72! The golden era of the boot boy and footy fandom;before they made us sit down and put us in cages....sometimes electrified (Chelsea did that!)

If ever anyone wanted to sing a Gary Glitter song in a dense electrified atmosphere of pure malevolence and Hatred, other than standing naked in a queue for the showers in a Nazi extermination camp.Then going to a football match in the 70,s and 80's was the place for you.There was lots of space for pure hatred to fester on the terraces,as no-one 'normal' ever went.

This is what the UK media thought going to a Punk gig was like in 1977......not far off actually.

It's complicated innit?

PS....was it a pub myth that at a certain football match in the blue side of Manchester,around 1980,some clever chap started a chant, directed at travelling supporters,which went something along the lines of..."You're going 'ome in a Crispy Ambulance"?

Or was that a Half-man Half Biscuit song?

Probably post-fact Mandela syndrome stuff, but fun all the same.

Tracklist:

1. It's My Life

2. Factory Grime
3. My Son´s Alive
4. High School Dropout
5. Love Is All Around Me
6. Love Fighter
7. High School Dropout Ver. 2

DOWNLOAD the crushing reality of who invented punk rock HERE!

Pip Proud – "A Bird In The Engine" (International Polydor Production – LPHM-109) 1969

When the land mass of Australia broke away from Pangaea a billion years ago, the isolation led directly to the evolution of the marsupial . Then in the sixties,the cultural isolation directly led to the evolution of Pip Proud. A self-described singer-songwriter, poet, novelist and dramatist....when in fact he was shite at all of these vocations.....it's another way of saying I'm a lazy fucker and I ain't gonna work.No one can prove that a poet isn't working on his next 'poem',even when it looks like lying down. Not that this lisping tone deaf myopic missing Shaggs member was employable in any way.The fool who signed him to Polydor could not have even met Pip,or heard him in action until it was too late. To think that he could have been Australia's answer to Donovan,was a miscalculation of decca-esque proportions!? Whoever it was must have been sacked.Its the opposite to the prat who rejected the Beatles for Decca......having said that I would have done the same if i'd heard Love Me Do....but certainly signed Pip Proud,looking from a twenty first century perspective therein.

Pip's output, is often compared with Syd Barratt's solo work,of which Philip denied all knowledge;but this stuff makes Syd sound like more like Wagner rather than the acid casualty we know he was.Worse news for Pip is that Syd Obviously had a talent for songwriting,something no-one could say about Pip. 

Pip's song's are constructed along the same lines as The Shaggs first album,as if he had been locked away from any music in a cupboard for 18 years,then let out to make his impression of what music should like to someone who has never heard any.It's no coincidence that he even looks like the mythical fourth Shagg.There are no verses or chorus's as such,with the droning guitar chord sequences strummed in a barely conscious stream of hazy unconsciousness kind of way. His pronounced lisp is not only charming,but adds that seed of a doubt whether this is all just another of those 21st century fake band Jokes,recorded by a comedian taking the piss out of Sixties Folkies, and record collecting saddo's.....it's hilarious either way....especially if it turns out that pip Proud was actually Real!?

Something he does actually share with Syd Barratt, is his wavering time keeping,exacerbated by his glaring tone deafness.

Of course there are those who hail this work as the product of undiscovered genius,and take it deadly seriously.....Maybe I'm the idiot who got it wrong? I sincerely doubt it, but whatever is the truth of the matter, this record is fucking hilarious.

Pip does actually sound uncannily like Candice-Marie from BBC drama classic "Nuts In May" by Mike Leigh (1976)

Check out Candice's protest song(click the embedded video) that plays over the end credits. If you haven't seen it,you have never lived...you can right this dreadful wrong by watching the whole thing by clicking HERE!

Tracklist:

A1 Marie
A2 Hey Sue
A3 A Fraying Space
A4 She Says To Me
A5 She Dwindles Her Fingers
A6 A Bird In The Engine
B1 Eagle-Wise
B2 French Girls
B3 Vida
B4 There Is No Rest
B5 Nancy
B6 Lover, Lover

DOWNLOAD a cuckoo flying over the engine HERE!

John Cameron – "Kes - OST" (Trunk Records – JBH077LP) 2019/1969

A few of my favourite movies by coincidence have folk inspired soundtracks.One being Ken Loach's film version of Barry Hines' "A Kestral For A Knave", "Kes".

Yes,Kes, the Film, was better than Kes, the book. Mainly because of the casting of Mark E Smith look-a-likey,the then unknown David Bradley as Billy (soon after to regain his unknown status rather swiftly), and the late,great,Brian Glover as sadistic gym teacher Mr Sugden. This film was a silver screen version of my early life, especially the school parts.It was not so much 'Silver' in colour but Grey, like Billy Caspers' clothes.And my version of Mr Sugden was a complete Cunt called Jim Kedie (now dead) who liked to grab your genitals in the rugby scrum,and give you a sound beating for looking at him in the wrong way. On the Facebook site of old boys....yes my grammar school was 'Boys only'!!? I know some people find this fact incredulous?....but on this sad Gateway Old Boys Facebook group,they seem to see this monster as some kind of Hero,...a great bloke? Undoubtedly denying some dark events like a delayed kind of Stockholm syndrome to avoid the trauma that happened long ago.They probably all got shagged by this twat.....as my reaction is normal,I don't think i got shagged by him....but certainly remember rolling with his punches. Anything I say on this rose tinted window into a past that never existed gets deleted faster than you could say Project Yew Tree (the police investigation following the Jimmy Saville affair).....Anyway, that scene on the football pitch was exactly as Kedie was, minus the funny bits.

One of the key themes of the film is the education system of the time, where smart kids were streamed to the Grammar Schools, like me ironically, and the rest dumped in the less academic, Grimmer rather than Grammar, Secondary Modern cesspits. This dour social criticism and bleak portrayal of working class life was typical of Loach's films.The man himself is on record as saying:
"It [the film] should be dedicated to all the lads who had failed their 11-plus (wot your scribe obviously didn't Tee-Hee). There's a colossal waste of people and talent, often through schools where full potential is not brought out.".....I'm living proof that this also happened in the Grammer Schools too?

In a 2013 interview, director Ken Loach said that, upon its release, United Artists organised a screening of the film for some American executives and they said that they could understand Hungarian better than the dialect in the film. Americans couldn't understand proper English back then,unlike today, thanks to the phenomenon of 'Anglo-creep' seeping in UK slang by the backdoor of various popular media formats.Yes, now Americans say stuff like "Cheers","Wanker" and "Twat",enjoy sarcasm, and can watch British films without sub-titles.This is advancement?

I have a disturbing recollection that either this or "The Leather Boys" is Morrisey's favourite movie?....but don't let that put you off, they are both brilliant,although Kes wins out for its poignant soundtrack and emotional pay off.

Tracklist:

A1 Front Titles
A2 Billy's Paper Round
A3 Dawn - Billy Sees Kes In The Tower
A4 Stealing The Book
A5 Midnight - Billy Climbs And Captures Kes
A6 Training Kes
A7 Kes First Flight
A8 Jud Walks To The Mine
A9 Kes Flies Free
A10 Kes Flies Higher
A11 Billy Asleep In The Boiler Room
A12 Foreboding
A13 Looking For Kes
A14 Realisation
A15 Burying Kes

DOWNLOAD the joylessness of the real past HERE!

Sandy Denny – "Studio Outtakes - Home Demos - Unheard Songs" (2010)

These are the "Studio Outtakes ,Home Demos ,and Unheard Songs" section of that massive 19CD box set of everything Sandy recorded ever!?..which would set you back quite a few hundred quid,mostly for stuff you already have...but not these 127 intimate versions of her future studio work,plus songs that were never heard beyond Sandy's various living rooms.Everything from Fairport to Fotheringay,from the Folk Club years to the record company compliant Adult Orientated rock of 'Rendezvous',is here in a superior, stripped down form with Sandy's perfect Voice whispering in your ears.Its like she's in the room singing you to sleep......i'm welling up now!.....just don't tell me mates!

Early Home Demos:
12-1 Sandy Denny– Blues Run The Game (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-2 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-3 Sandy Denny– Soho (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-4 Sandy Denny– It Ain't Me Babe (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-5 Sandy Denny– East Virginia (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-6 Sandy Denny– Geordie (Home Demo)
12-7 Sandy Denny– In Memory (The Tender Years) (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-8 Sandy Denny– I Love My True Love (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-9 Sandy Denny– Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-10 Sandy Denny– Ethusel (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-11 Sandy Denny– Carnival (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-12 Sandy Denny– Setting Of The Sun (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-13 Sandy Denny– Boxful Of Treasures (Home Demo)
12-14 Sandy Denny– They Don't Seem To Know You (Home Demo)
12-15 Sandy Denny– Gerrard Street (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-16 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-17 Sandy Denny– She Moves Through The Fair (Home Demo)
12-18 Sandy Denny– The Time Has Come (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-19 Sandy Denny– Seven Virgins (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-20 Sandy Denny– A Little Bit Of Rain (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-21 Sandy Denny– Go Your Own Way My Love (Home Demo)
12-22 Sandy Denny– Cradle Song (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-23 Sandy Denny– Blue Tattoo (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-24 Sandy Denny– The Quiet Land Of Erin (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-25 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)

Sandy Denny Solo And Fairport Convention:
13-1 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-2 Sandy Denny– Motherless Children (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-3 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-4 Sandy Denny– Been On The Road So Long
13-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Land Of Erin
13-6 Sandy Denny– Autopsy (Demo)
13-7 Sandy Denny– Now And Then (Demo)
13-8 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Version)
13-9 Sandy Denny– She Moved Through The Fair (Unreleased Version)
13-10 Fairport Convention– Mr. Lacey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-11 Fairport Convention– Throwaway Street Puzzle
13-12 Fairport Convention– Ballad Of Easy Rider (Outtake)
13-13 Fairport Convention– Dear Landlord (Outtake)
13-14 Fairport Convention– A Sailors Life (Alternative Version)
13-15 Fairport Convention– Sir Patrick Spens (Outtake)
13-16 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 1)
13-17 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 4)

Fotheringay:
14-1 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-2 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-3 Fotheringay– The Pond And The Stream (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-4 Fotheringay– The Way I Feel (Unreleased Alternative Take)
14-5 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-6 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-7 Fotheringay– Silver Threads And Golden Needles (Outtake)
14-8 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased)
14-9 Fotheringay– Two Weeks Last Summer
14-10 Fotheringay– Nothing More
14-11 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile
14-12 Fotheringay– Memphis Tennessee
14-13 Fotheringay– Trouble In Mind (Unreleased)
14-14 Fotheringay– Bruton Town (Unreleasedl)

Sandy Denny: The North Star Grassman And The Ravens:
15-1 Sandy Denny– The Sea Captain (Unreleased Demo)
15-2 Sandy Denny– Next Time Around (Unreleased Demo)
15-3 Sandy Denny– The Optimist (Unreleased Demo)
15-4 Sandy Denny– Wretched Wilbur (Unreleased Demo)
15-5 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased Demo)
15-6 Sandy Denny– Lord Bateman (Unreleased Demo)
15-7 Sandy Denny With Richard Thompson– Walking The Floor Over You (Unreleased)
15-8 Sandy Denny– Losing Game (Outtake)
15-9 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens (Unreleased)
15-10 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased)
15-11 Sandy Denny– Late November
15-12 Sandy Denny With Ian Matthews– If You Saw Thru My Eyes
15-13 Sandy Denny With The London Symphony Orchestra– It's A Boy (From 'Tommy')
15-14 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens
15-15 Sandy Denny– The 12th Of Never (Unreleased Studio Demo)
15-16 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
15-17 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Demo)
15-18 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Demo)

Sandy Denny: Sandy And Like An Old Fashioned Waltz:
16-1 Sandy Denny– It'll Take A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-2 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
16-3 Sandy Denny– For Nobody To Hear (Unreleased Demo)
16-4 Sandy Denny– Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Unreleased Demo)
16-6 Sandy Denny– Listen, Listen (Unreleased Demo)
16-7 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Unreleased Demo)
16-8 Sandy Denny– Bushes And Briars (Unreleased Demo)
16-9 Sandy Denny– It Suits Me Well (Unreleased Demo)
16-10 Sandy Denny– The Music Weaver (Demo)
16-11 Sandy Denny– No End (Unreleased Alternate Take)
16-12 Sandy Denny– Whispering Grass (Unreleased Demo)
16-13 Sandy Denny– Until The Real Thing Comes Along (Unreleased Demo)
16-14 Sandy Denny– Walking The Floor Over You (Alternative Version)
16-15 Sandy Denny– No End (Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny - Rendezvous:
18-1 Sandy Denny– Blackwaterside (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-2 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-3 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Unreleased Acoustic Demo)
18-4 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Unreleased Acoustic Version)
18-5 Sandy Denny With Jess Roden– Losing Game
18-6 Sandy Denny– Easy To Slip (Outtake)
18-7 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-8 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-9 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Live In The Studio)
18-10 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Unreleased Choral Version)
18-11 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-12 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-13 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-14 Sandy Denny– Candle In The Wind (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-15 Sandy Denny– Moments (Outtake)
18-16 Sandy Denny– I Wish I Was A Fool For You (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-17 Sandy Denny– Gold Dust (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-18 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-19 Sandy Denny– Moments (Unreleased Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny: Home Demos 1974-1977:
19-1 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Demo)
19-2 Sandy Denny– Rising For The Moon (Demo)
19-3 Sandy Denny– One More Chance (Demo)
19-4 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Unreleased Demo)
19-5 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Unreleased Demo)
19-6 Sandy Denny– What Is True? (Demo)
19-7 Sandy Denny– Stranger To Himself (Demo)
19-8 Sandy Denny– Take Away The Load (Demo)
19-9 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
19-10 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Demo)
19-11 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Demo)
19-12 Sandy Denny– Take Me Away (Demo)
19-13 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Demo)
19-14 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Demo)
19-15 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Demo)
19-16 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Demo)
19-17 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Demo)
19-18 Sandy Denny– Full Moon 2(Unreleased Demo)
19-19 Sandy Denny– Makes Me Think Of You (Unreleased Demo)

DOWNLOAD to hear the unheard here Folkies!

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!

Bridget St. John – "BBC Radio 1968-1976" (Hux Records – HUX114) 2010

Like I said in the "Ask Me No Questions" review,Peel made sure Bridget would get plenty sessions and radio appearances he having a glad eye for the ladies. So here's the small matter of 40 -odd 'odd' tunes as preserved by the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation;and it's not gone beyond my notice that the final track has a reference to Peel and Wife (the Pig).There's also an amusing anecdote spewed forth by the laconic Peel about how they 'slept' together once.

What strikes me most about these tunes, and especially her spoken explanations of her songs, that is uncannily like Sandy Denny.If i didn't know better, her speaking voice is almost exactly that of the late Alexandra Denny,although her earlier excursions have that splash of Nico's lower register about them that would haunt any review in the music press.She was a better guitar player than Denny (That Bert Jansch influence?),and far less depressing than Nico,but her songwriting has that same seldom used diminished 5th chord so favored by Sandy Denny in her more unpopular songs for it's distinctive dark timbre,as well as that vibrato free folkie singing style that was the ex-Fairport chanteuse's trademark;although obviously not copyrighted.

And, yes, Kevin Ayers makes a guest appearance on a few tracks too.Also interesting to note that Ms St.John is the only one of these names to remain alive,and gigging, to this day.

Tracklist:

1-1 I Don't Know If I Can Take It
1-2 Some Kind Of Beautiful
1-3 Jumblequeen
1-4 Fly High
1-5 Sparrowpit
1-6 Want To Be With You
1-7 Curious And Woolly
1-8 Head And Heart
1-9 Long Long Time
1-10 Come Up And See Me Sometime
1-11 Catch A Falling Star
1-12 Love Lie Easy
1-13 The River
1-14 Song To Keep You Company
1-15 Night In The City
1-16 Lazarus
1-17 Curl Your Toes
1-18 Thank You For...
2-1 Sparrowpit
2-2 Nancy Alice
2-3 Plain And Pearl
2-4 Make Me Whole
2-5 She Used To Play Harmonium
2-6 Crazy, Have You Eton
2-7 Peel 'sleeping Anecdote'
2-8 Bumper To Bumper
2-9 Leaves Of Lime
2-10 City Crazy
2-11 The Pebble And The Man
2-12 Back To Stay
2-13 Song For The Laird Of Connaught Hall - Part 2
2-14 Jolie Madame
2-15 The Spider And The Fly
2-16 The Oyster And The Flying Fish
2-17 To B Without A Hitch
2-18 Ask Me No Questions
2-19 Many Happy Returns
2-20 Hello Again (of Course)
2-21 Rochefort
2-22 Lizard Long Tongue Boy
2-23 The Present Song/Pig & Peel

CD1 1-9 Radio 1 In Concert 1st August 1974; CD1 10-12 Top Gear Session 6th January 1976 CD1 13-16 John Peel Presents Top Gear 1969; CD1 17 Peter Sarstedt Session 1969; CD1 18 Bob Harris Session 22nd March 1972; CD2 1-8 Radio 1 In Concert 3rd May 1975; CD2 9-16 Radio 1 In Concert 31st January 1971; CD2 17-22 Night Ride Session 21st August 1968; CD2 23 Top Gear Session 12th August 1974

DOWNLOAD the bastard offspring of Sandy and Nico HERE!

Bridget St. John – "Ask Me No Questions" (Dandelion Records – S 63750) 1969

She sounded like an upbeat Nico with an upper middle class British accent,but unlike Dave and Toni Arthur, this posh but dark chanteuse actually got to do a few Peel Sessions;mainly because she wasn't sewn to the hip of a husband,rather attractive, and Peel fancied his chances of getting her in the sack. This sexual bribery continued with Peel actually signing her to his label,Dandelion, and even producing her debut album!? The birdsong and church bells collage towards the end of the title track was all his work apparently.He wasn't just a pretty face after all...in fact he wasn't a pretty face at all,but did well here.Peel was also savvy enough not to employ one of those awful string sections so beloved by Joe Boyd in ruining Nick Drake,leaving just Bridget with a few bongo's and guest guitarist John Martyn to flesh it out a tad.

Obviously Bridget had an eye on the US singer songwriter market,but, like most things British and European,ended up being too dark for those sensitive yanks. The Brits never quite got that thing right....thank christ.....even Elton John was far from those sensitive self-analysing bores,with their earnest tunes and ,yes, string sections. Judee Sill,who wrote her own baroque string arrangements very excepted, and the odd Neil Young solo LP or Leonard Cohen record,who were both Canadian anyway,as are most famous Americans.

The Title track remains to this day a droning classic of depressed melancholia with that Peel provided birdsong section for you to slash your wrists,or reaffirm life to at the end.

Tracklist:

A1 To B Without A Hitch
A2 Autumn Lullaby
A3 Curl Your Toes
A4 Like Never Before
A5 The Curious Crystals Of Unusual Purity
A6 Barefeet And Hot Pavements
B1 I Like To Be With You In The Sun
B2 Lizard-Long-Tongue Boy
B3 Hello Again (Of Course)
B4 Many Happy Returns
B5 Broken Faith
B6 Ask Me No Questions

DOWNLOAD no questions asked HERE!

Dave & Toni Arthur – "The Lark In The Morning" (Topic Records – 12T190) 1969

 

Oh No! Not more of this hippy folk shit!? I hear you exclaim!? We want to hear some Punk Rock!

Well, for one, this has got Toni Arthur from Playschool on it, and two, Punk Rock is one of thee Folk musics of the twentieth century,with lashings of 'Hippie' hidden within its crumbling veneers. Rotten has long come out as a Folkie since the demise of his reputation.The fact that Johnny has also come out as a bit of a twat does nothing to alter this inalienable truth.

You can't get more noncommercial than this,despite the fleeting fashionable edge to it all between the years of 1969 to '71. Unaccompanied singing of yee olde tchoons from the 17th century was about as far away from Led Zeppelin as you could get....to the point that Plant and Page were envious of the Folkies' street cred...or rather, field cred.This is why the lovely Sandy Denny was press ganged into singing....for FREE by the way....on Led Zep 4,duet ting with screeching Bobby Plant for some silly track called "The Battle Of Evermoor"  apparently.I still haven't heard it to this day,and long may it remain so.

This is Dave and Toni's sole release on the Rough Trade of Folk, Topic Records,in glorious Mono. Where else could you hear about Six jolly little dancing Miners,and a horse called Creeping Jane? This stuff is weird,and No-one knows who wrote it!Like illegal Downloads on the internet...ahem!....this stuff was made for sharing....no royalties,except the Royals mentioned in the songs,and no money exchanging hands.This is how it always was, so stop moaning Pop Stars,the getting rich on a couple of days work era has ended,and we gone back to the traditional ways of enjoying music.....for FREE!

Tracklist:

A1 All Frolicking I'll Give Over
A2 The Death Of Queen Jane
A3 Creeping Jane
A4 The Merchant's Daughter Of Bristol
A5 The Bold Dragoon
A6 Cold Blows The Winter's Wind
A7 The Lark In The Morning
B1 Poor Old Horse
B2 Hey John Barleycorn
B3 Bedlam
B4 Admiral Benbow
B5 Father, Father Build Me A Boat
B6 The Press Gang
B7 Six Jolly Miners

DOWNLOAD for free HERE! and I'd offer up every Led Zep album for FREE too if they weren't so shite!

Sunny Murray – "Sunshine" (BYG Records – 529.348) 1969

Ex -Ayler skins technician , Sunny, not Sonny, Murray, gathers some of his highfalutin Jazz chums for an album of madness,while he continuously bashes his Ride cymbol for forty minutes and gets the top billing.

The opener suggests that we're in for another respectful spacey  hommage to Africa, but the "Trane" word is used, so we get a slowly evolving hommage to the "Trane"...instead....again!

It's side B where the action gets serious, with some grade A sax abuse howling in your delicate shellikes  via a triangulation of  automatic sax playing from Arthur Jones, Archie Shepp,and Kenneth Terroade,backed up by Lester Bowie on a rather angry trumpet.Alan Silva's back on Bass and Dave Burrell is drowning on a rather submerged Piano.All done in an afternoon's work on August 15th, in Paris 1969. Now where the fuck did I put that damn Time Machine?

Tracklist:

A1 Flower Trane 13:44
B1 Real 8:44
B2 Red Cross 7:50

DOWNLOAD some black sunshine HERE!

Alan Silva And His Celestrial Communication Orchestra – "Luna Surface" (BYG Records – 529.312) 1969

Ahhh the joy of rediscovering your musical innocence......on the Moon.

We all crave that epiphanal moment when ,as a child, we first discover something magical.....Alan Silva spent an entire career recreating that moment;but to do that you have to unlearn everything you've been taught and start all over again. These orchestral free improvised work-outs is that process in action,and it can clear a large auditorium of sensible adults in five minutes.

A deeply guarded secret at NASA is that this is the actuel sound of the Lunar Surface.The secret government of the Earth and beyond don't want us to know this fact.....it could lead to the breakdown of society are we don't want to know it anymore thanks.

As you know my bestest favourite Parlor game is 'Free Jazz Look-a-likey's', and the Shape-shifting Bass player Beb Guérin is usually the main target,although there is a suggestion of poncified French footballing legend David Ginola in his profile here.....however, another Bernard,one Benard Vitet,the wildman of the French Horn, seems to be a doppelganger for Kevin Godley of 10CC and co-inventor of the Gizmotron as featured on Godley and Creme's "Consequences triple album. Would have liked to have heard Benard having a go on the 'Gizmo' as part of his celestial communicating.

Alan Silva, is primarily a Bass player,but,as we know, Bass Players are never satisfied to be just a 'Bass Player'.Usually they are humored and ignored when they have ambitions of getting on the writing credits.This time Silva the orchestra leader, has forced his ideas onto a whole crazed free jazz orchestra....including Archie Shepp as one of his sidekicks...takes some doing that. Also there is another of the handful of appearances by Kenneth Terroade.

This is what musical instruments were invented,or discovered, to do.

Now we know the mind of God?.....yep...he's a nutter!

Tracklist:

A From The Luna Surface Part 1 14:00
B From The Luna Surface Part 2 14:09

DOWNLOAD this celestrial communication terrestrially HERE!

Clifford Thornton – "Ketchaoua" (BYG Records – 529.323) 1969

Cliff Thorton and friends featuring Gregory Peck on Bass.

"Music has no colour",said the French Jazzer...I'm certain Archie Shepp would disagree,as he plays Soprano for his buddy Cliff Thornton on this afro-centric polyptych of free jazz. Both he and Thornton were trying their level best to remove as much whiteness as possible from this french released miesterwerk. Africans may not have invented the wheel, as some enlightened bigot pointed out alongside our advocate of 'colourless music'in the comments section, but they certainly gave us honkies virtually all our modern musical forms.For which they are rarely acknowledged,but after-all it belongs to all of us innit.....sorry Archie?

Shepp's presence gives this platter a distinctive Archie Shepp flavour with his instantly recognisable style,augmented by Thronton's very capable horn blowing.

Would you believe it?...there's Béb Guérin once again on the Bass, and this time the photo of him reveals the distinctive look of Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in "Moby Dick", as the White Whale In the Room.

Tracklist:

A1 Ketchaoua 12:35
A2 Pan African Festival 7:50
B1 Brotherhood 10:40
B2 Speak With Your Echo (And Call This Dialogue) 9:15

DOWNLOAD the tomato ketchaoua of slavery HERE!

Clifford Thornton's New Art Ensemble – "Freedom & Unity" (Goody – GY 30001) 1969

This one was actually recorded in New York 1967 rather than France,which I guess Cliff didn't relocate to until his Draft number came up for Vietnam in '69. He wasn't rich enough to pay a doctor to help him dodge the draft, like Donald Trump was,so,logically,he avoided the madness by being an American Free Jazzer in France...why not, everyone else was over there at the time.

This outing seems more dated than his output post 1969,a tad more jazzier than Cliff's 1970's stuff,but jolly fine nonetheless.

Tracklist:

1 Free Huey 13:09
2 15th Floor 8:51
3 Miss Oula 4:48
4 Kevin (The Theme) 0:22
5 Exosphere 10:07
6 Uhuru 8:31
7 O.C.T. 4:38
8 The Wake 14:18

DOWNLOAD using the rapidly diminishing freedom of the internet HERE!

Sonny Sharrock ‎– "Black Woman" (Vortex Records ‎– 2014) 1969

A rare breed in the sixties was the "Free Jazz Guitarist".Apart from Sharrock, Bailey, and maybe Keith Rowe, one would be struggling to name any. Nevertheless, Sonny boy was there more or less at the beginning as one of the bright sparks who thought that they could do an Ornette Coleman on the six strings that drew blood. If your fingers don't start bleeding upon hearing this ,like jazz stigmata,then the sound of his wailing missus will do the same to your delicates ,such as ears,wedding tackle and central nervous system. So beware yee uinitiated and start off with Django Rienhart before venturing further.

Not blessed with the same smouldering good looks as Derek Bailey, Sonny was evidently so delighted that he could pull a half-decent bird like Linda,that he put her in the band (normally a disastrous Idea). Husbands usually do this to keep an eye on the wife or girlfriend while they're on tour. Although, in the case of Paul McCartney, I can't believe that his Linda would have been shagging around behind his back somehow,but the demure ones usually turn out to be the most randy,so good oblique thinking there Paul,but not so great on the lack of any musical ability front;can't win 'em all I suppose?

Now, Sonny's Linda fancied herself as a wacky Free Jazz Vocalist,which ,along with standard Jazz Guitar,are the two most horrible sounds known to man; apart from the sound,and i'm probably risking my life by saying this, of Donald Trump having sex one may suggest somewhat warily?

You know that wailing bit in "Dark Side Of The Moon" ......yeah?......well she does that all the way through the album to the point where you just wanna scream SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!

Luckily, the smoulderingly good looking Sonny makes up for this with some inventive guitar abuse which distracts somewhat from reverb drenched Linda's vocal machinations.......ooooya buggar!

There are plenty of pictures of Sonny with a controlling arm around his wife,and putting her in the group gave him feelings of security which were in vain as she left him a few years later......Women huh?

Of course you know Sonny Sharrock was in Last Exit,so one can forgive him his human weaknesses;but he does wear his guitar far too high,like that slap bass fool in Level 42....a trait I cannot abide,no matter how easier it makes chord formation.......who needs chords anyway? Unless its a nice comfy corduroy jacket and matching pantalons.I was once the proud owner of a beige corduroy Levi's Safari suit in the nineties(with a handy boot flare).Very popular at disco's.That's the only chord I know of ,except the cord you plug into the amplifier of course.

Tracklist:

A1 Black Woman 5:11
A2 Peanut 9:14
B1 Bialero 4:49
B2 Blind Willy 3:18
B3 Portrait Of Linda In Three Colors, All Black 9:06

DOWNLOAD the paul and linda of free jazz HERE!

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela ‎– "31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta" (Edition X ‎– 1079) 1969

 Another record you wouldn't wanna ask for in a record store due to its unmemorisable title and its wilful obscurity. The heads of a few vinyl grazing punters turn disapprovingly in your general direction, the sales assistant looks almost angry with a sneer of distaste on his lips (yes, they are all male).

He,with a barely consealed ounce of pure unadulterated glee utters a monosylabic"What?",and you have to say it again, coinciding with an audible titter from the chubby nerd in the Jazz Section.

"Ahhhhhh, you mean...."31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta",says the record man,who had obviously been learning all these difficult album titles my heart,for just these occasions. 

"Yes thats it", one says, to be replied with a succinct, "Why didn't you just say "The Black Album?" ,he retorted with a smirk,then added a terse "No....Its Sold out.....in 1969".

I dunno why Music attracts the biggest bunch of twats out of all the art forms,but it does. 

Although Record Shops are nowhere near as bad as Music gear stores,which are full of angry failed pop stars,and they want you to know that they are better at music than you,and they know more about music gear than you,and you're gonna wait until they are ready to scoff and sneer at your requests.

Invariably there will be one of them playing something complex on a keyboard while you stand there watching.

"Be with you in a minute",they would interject.

After the completion of Rick Wakeman's entire "Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth",it's your turn.

"Nah you don't want that, its a piece of shit",they advise.

"I know its a piece of shit that's why I want it"......they wouldn't understand.

Luckily the Internet has done for these fuckers...I may never have to meet a musician again, Hurrah!

So......, I digressed somewhat......as I forgot to include La Monte Young's Missus,Marian Zazeela, in my females in electronics/minimalism section some months ago;Here's her collaboration with  Hubby, La Monte.Resonant Tuvan style vocals from our favourite minimalist spouces,mixed with bowed gongs,electronic drones, and more room emptying harmonics.

Here's a description from the sleeve info to further confuse you all:

Side A: This work was recorded at the date and time indicated in the title, at Galerie Heiner Friedrich, München 31 VII 69 10:26-10:49 PM - is a section of the longer work: Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery. Play this side at 33 1/3 rpm only.

Side B: We recorded this gong duet in our studio in New York City on the date and time indicated in the title. It is a section of a larger work: Studies In The Bowed Disc begun in September 1968. To listen to the live performance, playback at 33 1/3 rpm. However, this side may be played back at any slower constant speed down to 8 1/3 rpm, i.e., 16 2/3 rpm which is available on some turntables.

My record player only has 45 and 33rpm....!...so i can't add the 16RPM version of side B.....sorry.
Those crazy avant garde muso's huh?

Tracklist:

A 31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM 23:00
B 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta 20:15

DOWNLOAD the donny and marie of minimalism HERE!

Fred Van Hove / Wolfgang Dauner ‎– "Requiem For Che Guevara " (MPS Records ‎– 15205 ST) 1969

Where's the tribute to Lee Harvey Oswald for starting the whole conspiracy caper,that's what I wanna know? Although in cool terrorist Ché's case, it was more a conspiracy of T-Shirt manufacturers than the secret rulers of the planet. Some say that T-Shirt manufacturers ARE the secret rulers of the planet, but I have my doubts. However ripe with suspicion is the ironic act of naked evil that would see a Crass t-shirt adorning the crass hologram that is David Beckham, or K-Pop boybands resplendant in Ramones memorabilia, one suspects that the secret rulers of the known world are none other than ourselves.....shocking,but all the evidence points towards that sad conclusion. I'd like nothing more than some shadey oligarchy of plutocrats to be meeting in a secret bunker beneath the Pyramids deciding how to make it seem they're not there when they are.That's a full-time job!

Naturally, the most often used noun for our ghostly leaders is "They",it's never 'Us' is it; the more paranoid section of society would never be able to cope with the post-post-truth fact that we might be doing this to ourselves?

This takes me back to the conclusion of the psychedelic thriller TV series "The Prisoner",when number 6 finally gets to unmask Number 1,only to find that its none other than himself. This caused nationwide outrage in the UK.They wanted it to be some kind of 'Hitler' figure,but it turned out to be our hero,Number Six himself....hero's always turn out this way in the real world,bastards! What made them...."The public".....so angry was this brief moment of reality staring them....."The public"....in the face. The only person or persons keeping you all in this permanent state of slavery, in this prison without walls, is,......you guessed it, or maybe not?......YOURSELVES!

A similar encounter with reality is German Free Jazz, so here's Brotzmann's piano abuser,Fred Van Hove, and Wolfgang Dauner sharing an album in tribute to famous assasinees of the mid twentieth century.This is as close to freedom as you're gonna get this side of a Peter Brotzmann LP.

Tracklist:

1. –Wolfgang Dauner - Psalmus Spei For Choir And Jazz Group 13:07
2. –Fred Van Hove - Requiem For Che Guevara, Martin Luther King,John Fitzgerald And Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X

DOWNLOAD to pay tribute to the icons of assasination HERE!

The Peter Brötzmann Sextet / Quartet ‎– "Nipples" (Calig ‎– CAL 30 604) 1969

See, I told you that Brötzmann did an album called "Nipples",but that's the only thing that's changed. Pete does his usual short but manic bursts of moving his fingers on a Saxophone and blowing hard enough to bust a gusset. There is, I assume, a degree of imteraction between the players in this type of non-music,but as far as I can see they could be in different rooms with no means of monitoring the other members of either 'The Sextet' or the 'Quartet'......but that's not the point is it? Personally I like the idea of four or six seperate entities doing their thing independently but ending up on the same record.....not that this was the concept of course. This is about freedom of self-expression and the rejection of rules, the straight jacket of 'notes' rather than the liberty to roam with the tone. Its subversive in it's rejection of what is normal, the taboo's of abstract art. This is basically a room clearer that divides the human population selectively along the lines of followers and free spirits, trump supporters and hope. The small percentage (2/3%) who understand this music...and it IS music ....already see the futility in voting for the fools who would run for Office, including even the clueless Kanye West, bi-polar or not.So what is the point?..... The point is, this wild ecstatic noise delivers hope that the Human race isn't doomed to be eaten by itself. Maybe the co-vid Virus is a natural cleanser,freeing 'us' from the prison created by the immoral majority, the 98% who are frightened of being handed the key......what key? What career? What life? Freedom comes from within....if you have a 'within' of course. Suck on these 'Nipples' for nourishment, or don't, it really is up to you.


Tracklist:

1. Nipples (17:54)
2. Tell A Green Man (15:32)

DOWNLOAD a breast full of improvised cream HERE!

Edward M. Zajda ‎– "Independent Electronic Music Composer" (Ars Nova Ars Antiqua Recordings ‎– AN-1006) 1969

Lets take a break from the Iron Curtain,and look into the do it yourself electronic world of an ordinary American....albeit with a Polish name. 
Inspired by Cage, Zajda decided to build himself an electronic studio around 1962.The first in Chicago, and proceeded to record a massive output of one album,and this is it.
Nothing innovative here,the usual bleeps and farts, but ,as ever in the USA, it has a more listenable ,slightly more commercial edge;and even more american is that no-one bought it and we never heard of Edward M. Zajda ever again.Probably had to sell his studio at an incredible loss to pay off his debts for producing the album. This is why there's so much Early Electronica springing from socialist environments;you wouldn't lose your appartment in Hungary if your record bombs.


Tracklist:

A1 Study No. 10
A2 In March For Ann
A3 Points
B1 Magnificent Desolation
B2 Study No. 3

DOWNLOAD and be an independant electronic poser 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!

Joe Byrd And The Field Hippies ‎– "The American Metaphysical Circus" (Columbia Masterworks ‎– MS 7317) 1969

After the fine 'United States Of America' project bombed,probably dropped over Cambodia by their bastard of a record company,and kept all the royalties to themselves President of The United States...the band...Joe Byrd, made a similar record,using lots of effects,and a smattering of electronics, named after a USA track,"The American Metaphysical Circus". As political as ever, Byrd unwittingly predicted the Trump years, and their impending end, in the "Four Dreams For A Departing President" section.After Trump could only attract 6224 Morons to a rally in Tulsa,capacity 19000,after he had boasted there were a million applications for tickets only last week on twitter....titter titter.
This bunch of studio bound 'Field Hippies',manage to have made a kind of off broadway Hippie Musical,in the terrible tradition of Godspell,and similar,but blended with the 'United States Of America' album part two.
When i tell you that Joe Byrd received Stanford University's Sollnit Fellowship for graduate study in composition. But chose to 'split' for New York, where he worked as conductor, arranger, teacher, Associate Producer for a record company!???...then that'll go someway to explain why this sounds like a bunch of young 'talented' kids who passed an audition to get in the band.It's an academic's idea of what's cool.It sounds so composed,that it could easily be mistaken for one of those terrible age of aquarius musicals that eventually gave us Andrew Lloyd Webber,and the age of Musical Theatre that has compleatly taken over the worlds' theatres.
Again, there's some of those 'ragtime' moments that Psychedelic America found utterly hilarious,but makes any european wanna smash their record players.
After this I guess Byrd went back to his day job arranging pop hits to sound like James Last.....Phil Ochs accepted....yeah I read the comments section......The Byrd had flown.

Tracklist:

The Sub-Sylvian Litanies
Kalyani 3:50
You Can't Ever Come Down 2:58
Moonsong: Pelog 3:47
American Bedmusic I - Four Dreams For A Departing President
Patriot's Lullabye 2:44
Nightmare Train 3:23
Invisible Man 3:31
Mister 4th Of July 1:46
Gospel Music For Abraham Ruddell Byrd III
Gospel Music 4:28
The Southwestern Geriatrics Arts And Crafts Festival
The Sing-Along Song 4:00
The Elephant At The Door 5:10
Leisure World 1:33
The Sing-Along Song (Reprise) 0:44

DOWNLOAD for a departing president HERE!