Various Artists– "Springtime In Belsen" - (Sadist Records – SIB 001) 1998

Like some time-warped anti-matter west-end Juke Box musical,this insults on every level.For example The Yodler Killers ,from Switzerland, has the one and only Dr Josef Mengele on drums.....this is a little known fact about the original 'Angel Of Death' himself.

Luckily I like my Punk Rock irreverent,beyond Stupid,and played by a bunch of musically incompetent politically incorrect continental European burks....;don't we all? 

This is the factor that made the Stranglers stand out from the otherwise 'woke' before their time punk throng.Mainly thanks to having a Franglais classical guitarist and karate black belt in their midst,arriving via Guildford.

Frankly, anything with a track by Italian retardo's 'Tampax' on it, has to be worth a quick track skipping listen.

I have reviewed... gulp...."Tampax(in the cunt)" before.......(OMG?)....I paraphrase myself...it's an ultimate example of the kind of retarded sexuality last mentioned in Spinal Tap. Giggling in the classroom, unthink rock by repressed catholic boys who've just heard that ladies have a menstrual cycle, and....giggle....they use tampons....giggle,titter.
This tune is very probably the zenith of Stupid as we understand it. Download it and appall your Woke friends, especially if you don't want them to be your friends anymore;........unless they're the kind of lowdown pond-dwelling fuckwits that Tampax are, then they'll want to be with you forever.

The K9's are the cred giving English Punk band here,even giving Tampax a serious challenge in the ignoramus stakes.

There's even a Noo Yawk 'punk' band too,who sound like an English Punk band????

What The Prats, from Scotland, are doing on here is almost insulting,them being one of the greatest groupz wot ever existed...right?

SEHR SCHNELL do a blatantly plagarised version of Wire's "Lowdown",probably lifted from an imported copy of the "Live at Roxy" Album?

The punk thievery stops not there, as Japanese punk by numbers band ,"The Stalin", do Blitzkreig Bop for us, just in case you've never heard it...which i think they secretly hope you haven't...but we have,so...?

I guess this is someone trying to do something like one of those Killed By Death compilations,which sell in their thousands, and the profits go to some hidden Finnish bank account.

However its fantastically stupid stuff, and full of the kind of things that may get you Cancelled.....a nobler cause I can not imagine.

It's Banned from being sold on Discogs...what more glowing a recommendation do ya need?

Altogether now....."Its Springtime for Belsen and Anarchieeeeee" 

Insert with notes included.

A1 taken from 'Rattenloch EP' 7" (Ratt Records, 1979)
A2 taken from '1990's Pop E.P.' 7" (Rough Trade, 1980)
A3 taken from 'Son Of Sam' 7" (Kapitalist Records, 1977)
A4 taken from 'Bunker' 7" (Another Swiss Label, 1979)
A5 taken from 'Life Of Rian' 7" (Sånn'ja Records, 1980)
A6 taken from 'Me Myytiin Itsemme' 7" (Poko Records, 1979)
A7 taken from 'スターリニズム' 7" (Political Records, 1981)
A8 taken from 'Silvias Unge / Hitlers Barn' 7" (Kloaak, 1978)
A9 taken from Hitler SS / Tampax split 7" (Compact Cassette Records, 1979)
B1 and B9 taken from 'Jacot Masturbette' 7" (Zaki Records, 1979)
B2 taken from 'The K9 Hassle' 7" (Dog Breath Records, 1979)
B3 taken from '3-Spor EP' 7" (Krakk, 1979)
B4 taken from 'Only Fools Pretend To Be Happy' 7" (Sweet Harmony, 1979)
B5 taken from '1980' LP (CBS, 1980)
B6 taken from 'Hot Love / Die Wüste Lebt!' 7" (Periphery Perfume, 1977)
B7 taken from 'EP' 7" (Savage Music, 1979)
B8 taken from 'Vaihda Vapaalle' 7" (Love Records, 1979)

Tracklisting:

A1 Dirt Shit– Discoscheisser

A2 Prats*– Disco Pope

A3 Chain Gang– Gary Gilmore In The Island Of Dr. Moreau

A4 Technicolor*– Bunker

A5 Norgez Bank– Springtime In Belsen

A6 Ypo-Viis– Me Myytiin Semme

A7 Stalin– Buta Ni Shinju

A8 Kriminella Gitarrer– Hitler's Barn

A9 Tampax– Tampax In The Cunt

B1 Yodler Killers– Jacotte Masturbette

B2 K9's– Sweeny Todd

B3 Oslo Bors– Smukke Folks Born

B4 Checkmate – Weekend

B5 Brats– Punk Fashion

B6 Nasal Boys– Die Wuste Lebt

B7 Young Identities– Positive Thinking

B8 Sehr Schnell– Vaihda Vapaalee

B9 Yodler - KillersSoussolrock

DOWNLOAD the four seasons of stupid HERE!

John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett – "Live At The Roundhouse" (Official Bootleg) 1977

Another who extolled the virtues of wood and its role in popular music,was one Wild Willy Barrett; whose work with the bard of Aylesbury ,John Otway,took unprofessionalism to new heights.

Wild Willy made his own guitars,and even made wooden sleeves for some of his solo releases.

Otway,as Willy called his rather eccentric partner,was one of those very British characters  on the peripheries of the pre-punk rock scene who seemed to exist as Stars in their own lunchtimes and in their own minds.Such as Johnny Moped,John The Postman,Chris Seivey,Wreckless Eric,and Sting,the Geordie Bono.

Like Sting, Otway,would literally do anything to achieve his dream of being a Star,but, unlike Sting,did it with an blatant sense of humour that suggested he also knew he would never make it.....surely not? But, briefly, he did. Mainly thanks to his more Punk than Punk performances on the Old Grey Whistle Test and Top Of The Pops with Wild Willy,which included Otway leaping on to Willy's amp, precariously perched on a chair,and subsequently falling off astride the amp crushing his family jewels,and disconnecting Barrett's guitar in the process,all on live national TV.

Catapulting "Really Free" to the lofty position of number 27 on the UK charts,and Polydor releasing their previously self-released eponymous LP,as financed by John's long suffering parents who re-mortgaged their home(?)in a desperate attempt to help their son to have a career....ANY career.

Of course the follow up singles flopped.Incredibly even the classic hymn to mindless violence "Headbutts", never broke the top 75!?

John then made sort of a career,post Wild Willy as a professional 'Failure',and his fans co-ordinated themselves to buy his "Bunsen Burner" single to get it into the top ten in 2002.

This pair were very representative of the generation of long hairs caught between Punk and Prog. Too young for Prog and too old for Punk,which really most of the Clash were too;but Otway and Barrett didn't have to pretend to be anything but themselves.Punk before Punk,and DIY before DIY.

This recording,headlining at the Roundhouse,was made at the height of Otway's micro stardom.Where our hero is supported by the marvelous  Fruit Eating Bears, Clayson and the Argonauts,and future hit makers,Squeeze...featuring the king of bland coffee table dad rock and boogie woogie criminal, Jools Holland...who,bizarrely, is the only one out of this lot who can still get on TV.

Tracklist:

1.Slewfoot
2.Only A Hobo
3.Really Free
4.Fire On A Mountain
5.Geneve
6.Beware Of The Flowers ('Cause I'm Sure They're Going To Get You Yeh)
7.Running From The Law
8.Cheryl's Going Home
9.Down The Road
10.Racing Cars (Jet Spotter Of The Track)

DOWNLOAD and Cor! baby, it's really free HERE!

Ashra – "New Age Of Earth" (Virgin – V 2080) 1977

 Now that everybody has posted "E2-E4 as a tribute to the recently dead Krautrock guitar hero Manuel Gottsching,and claimed it as the year zero of Trance....whatever the fuck Trance is? Sounds like House music to me; the genres of which I have no clue or indeed interest. The chess referenced record in question,apart from being rather boring,is just standard Berlin-School type kosmiche with the swirly bits taken out,to a hypnotic drum box beat......is it the drum box that they think started the madness that remains virtually unchanged for the preceding thirty years.This was what happened to nature after the pre-cambrian period,fast evolution then stasis.The dinosaurs remained unchanged for 10's of millions of years,just like House music variants; Gottschings ambient musings are the pre-cambrian oceans of electronics,but "E2-E4" is the dinosaur.

Most of Gottching's pre-cambrian guitar virtuosity is already available elsewhere on this blog,so as my tribute I have selected this shimmering ambient rock flotation tank muzak outing by Manuel as Ashra, dropping the Tempel part,and also dropping the band. Which is fitting as now all the original line-up of Ash Ra Tempel have now departed consciousness.

The cover looks unerringly like one of the world trade centers relocated to the outskirts of Auschwitz,beaming its truth like an enormous obelisk created by the alien god figure who began this experiment billions of years ago to discover the answer to the ultimate question. This rather disappointed 'God' has just begun to realise that it was all just a complete waste of telly-time. It was all predicted in the BBC comedy series "Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy".......of course it's 42, innit....its the best answer I've ever heard.......and this LP is just north of 42 minutes long! If that ain't proof i dunno what is...

Anyway Manuel knows the answer, or lack of one, by now,if consciousness exists post-mortem for long enough to know this....probably something really boring like eternal nothing ,ness,more nothing than the nothing we think nothing is right now...ness. And the only way this big Nothing gets to actually BE Nothing, is if creatures like Homo-erectus part four have evolved to actually see and measure the nothing-ness before they blow themselves up;

Nothingness does indeed need defining boundaries before it can be defined....but, does that make it a something?

In fact even referring to nothing as nothing makes it a something.Even thinking about it proves it exists,as quantum reactions only happen when no-one's looking.

So is the only answer mankind can ever offer be 'God',the nothing that pretends its something,but only in the minds of men....homo-erectus.

Tracklist:

1.Sunrain 7:26

2.Ocean Of Tenderness 12:36

3.Deep Distance 5:46

4.Nightdust 21:52

DOWNLOAD this new age of death HERE!

The Damned – "Music For Pleasure" (Stiff Records – SEEZ 5) 1977

 Now for number 2 in the terrible 2nd album by original wave UK Punk groups, the much maligned "Music For Pleasure".

The story has it that the zanier half of of the group wanted Syd Barrett to produce the follow up to their near perfect debut on Stiff, "Damned Damned Damned";but the nearest the management could get was the Floyd's drummer, Nick Mason, who seemed to not be interested in music at all,even as part of one of the biggest bands on the planet. This could also have been a reposte towards the Pistols' "I Hate Pink Floyd" DIY t-shirts, as an expression of Punk envy. The Damned were always thought of as the Other Punk group,in a poor third place to the Pistols and The Clash. Captain Sensible,did however beat Lydon to outing his own Prog Rock credentials , as a life long Soft Machine obsessive.He and his proggy mates used to stalk Mike Ratledge dressed as...... Mike Ratledge,including the hair. However , as Ray Burns, he was in the most proto-punk of all proto-punk bands The great Johnny Moped band,along with, of all people Chrissy Hynde......I notice that this wasn't mentioned in that rather daft TV series "Pistol",where apparently Chrissy was the very talented lover of the illiterate pistol,Steve Jones.When in fact she could hardly hold a chord down as a member of The Moors Murderers and the Johnny Moped band.

What the Damned expected Syd Barrett to do behind the controls when everyone knew he could hardly talk never mind leave his Flat I really don't know? I doubt he was even aware of what was happening to the UK music scene either.

Only slightly better,Nick Mason was at least 'normal',and had some clue about what Punk Rock was,which is obvious when listening to his production job on this album. He's opted for the raw rawk'n'roll angle,as if captured 'live', and to a certain extent he succeeded,as these songs sound like a very lifeless,medium slow set of Demo's.

The songs seem to be rejected leftovers from  Brian James's time in the London SS,with ambitions towards some kind of Yob Metal,supposedly why unnecessary 'fifth' member Lu Edmonds was added to the line-up,to add more meat to the riffs.He does seem to just play exactly the same chords sequences as Brian does.Good live but pointless in the studio,but at least it allowed James to do his short solo's without stopping the riffage.

The mix does sound as if Nick Mason was actually deaf,which was highly possible,with it's horrible mid-range dominant  EQ mud....a common problem shared by second album Adverts it seems.

I suspect that Mason had done his punk research by playing The Clash's debut,took notes then tried to impose his version,noting the basic production values....trouble was the group wanted to make a hard rock record like The Clash's crisply over-produced follow up was to be.So, probably some brownie points there for the Floyd drummer;even though he was likely dreaming of cars rather than concentrating on the job.

I played this uncomfortable record a lot back in the day,and never thought it was as awful as the revered British music press,and Stiff records thought it was. It was only £2.50 after all, which cushioned the disappointment, and my schoolboy income........the bank of mum.

In comparison to the debut album, this record pales in insignificance,but when compared to the albums they released in the eighties,its a punk rock masterpiece. (I suppose Machine Gun Etiquette could join it in joint second place I suppose?)

The ears do get some relief with the bonus tracks, notably "Sick Of Being Sick",the B-side to "Stretcher Case",which must have been recorded at Pathway studio's, with Nick Lowe (it says Shel Tamy on the label)It has that first album sound,which would have been better served as the A-side..It was certainly not Nick Mason anyhow.He'd long gone,speeding off in his classic British sports car back to his mansion in the countryside,to indulge his car obsession.

Tracklist:

1.Problem Child 2:12
2.Don't Cry Wolf 3:13
3.One Way Love 4:23
4.Politics 2:25
5.Stretcher Case 2:32
6.Idiot Box 5:39
7.You Take My Money 1:59
8.Alone 4:15
9.Your Eyes 3:30
10.Creep (You Can't Fool Me) 2:14
11.You Know 5:02

Bonus Tracks:

12.Help 1:46

13.Sick of being Sick 2:32

14.Singalongaacabies 0:59

DOWNLOAD for your pleasure HERE!

Van Der Graaf – "The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome" (Charisma – CAS 1131) 1977

It seemed in 1977, that older groups,such as The Broughtons(previous post)being tarnished with the skidmark left behind by Emerson Lake and Palmer,seemed to think that if they truncated their band moniker,they would be both recognised by their former audience,yet accepted as a new band by punters of the new wave.

What usually happened was they found themselves rejected by both,leaving a bargain bucket filler and having to pay back a massive record company investment.Charisma's confidence was fueled by John Lydon singing Van der Graaf Generators praises on Capital Radio.Which i hear he has recently back-tracked from after reading that certain Van Der Graaf personnel have lain claim for 'inventing Punk Rock'?? Er....No. Making supremely Dark Progressive Rock, yes,but Punk Rock,perhaps...er...Not! 

Despite Peter Hammill's noble attempts to look a bit new wavey,the rest of the band gave it away by looking unapologetically 'PROG'! Alongside the guy from String Driven Thing on violin,looking like Captain Ahab as re-imagined by the London Philharmonic,after backing Deep poop-ple and Prick Wankman (nah, hes a good bloke really),was not a help either.

Of course ,this album bombed,even in Italy where they are Gods.

Having not heard any VDGG before, I found this in a pop-up scond-hand record shop in the brutalist concete underpass near my dreadful school in 1982-ish. Quid-fifty(?),can't be that bad. Played it while doing an analytical synopsis on Gustavus Adolphous and the Swedish empire (yes they had an empire???) for my History A-level,which is the kind of stuff that most Prog Rock bohemoths sing about in their songs,that usually come in sections so that they can get more royaties by having more tracks on an LP....technically. This behaviour was ruthlessly frowned upon by the Punks,so no sections on this LP,just nine shortish,for VDGG, tracks.

But all things Gustavus could not obscure the fact that I hated this terrible album.Sounding like some horrible proggy musical,with lyrics written by a morose Tim Rice,who may or may not have been an old boy from one of Van Der Graafs public (or private if american)  schools.

The Public school problem in Prog would not have helped my opinion none,as we Grammar School types despise Posh kids,as well as working class kids....so That's Genesis fucked then? We poor streamed scummers grew up ostricised by our working class scum peers, and ignored by our upper class bastard superiors.

Talking'bout Royalties,I'm not really a republican, but watching the 10 mile long queue in London to view the Queen's coffin today,as saw on the BBC news live feed, I wondered where was the queue in the liberated parts of Ukraine for the newly exhumed mass graves?...which was on the brief 'other' news section after the overwhelming weight of the Royal Family in Mourning propaganda/advertisement that is dominating the airwaves of the world......the Russian Delegation have not been invited apparently,even after Putin sent his heartfelt condolences.A joke that definitely isn't funny anymore.

It took me a few years to force myself to get into VDGG,and when I did,that obsession gene that we on the autistic spectrum,took over.Couldn't listen to anything else for six months or so,loved it all,and Hammill's Solo work up to the Post-Punk Enter K,Black Box and PH7 etc era's.So deliciously dark and doom laden,and one of the few lyric writers to encapsulate my Depression in the medium of popular music...I wanted to say 'Dance (Dahnce)' because it's funnier......OMFG I have to embed that video of Jimmy Pursey expressing himself through the medium of Dahnce again....its worth it:

I may be depressed but i'm Happy,especially after that ,James?

However,still didn't garner much fondness for this punk-prog straddling abortion......bit harsh there but i liked the sound of it....yeah it's alright,just not very good 'tis all.

Haven't put you off have I?

Tracklist:

The Quiet Zone:
A1 Lizard Play 4:28
A2 The Habit Of The Broken Heart 4:34
A3 The Siren Song 6:01
A4 Last Frame 6:12

The Pleasure Dome:
B1 The Wave 3:12
B2 Cat's Eye / Yellow Fever (Running) 5:20
B3 The Sphinx In The Face 5:58
B4 Chemical World 6:10
B5 The Sphinx Returns 1:12

DOWNLOAD quietly for your pleasure HERE!

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

Another tenuous Rock In Opposition moment beckons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tracklist:

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

DOWNLOAD to feel down HERE!

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tracklist:

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

DOWNLOAD an error message HERE!

Archaïa – "Archaïa" (Choravox – CC 77.976) 1977

Unlike Punk Rock,which was at it's zenith when this Zeuhl homage was released. Zeuhl took its time to have any copycat groops following in Magma's footsteps.Whereas, there were legions of little Sex Pistols cropping up within 48 hours of the pistols first gig propah!...it took a good 5 or 6 years to get any little Magma's.

Incidentally John 'Lie'don of PiL (see what I did?) was a big Magma fan,and attended any London appearance of Christian Vander's outfit with his equally enlightened mate, John Wardle....aka Jah Wobble.

Also a big fan was Pierrick Le Bras and his mate Michel Munier,of Archaïa. Although a pair of Magma nuts ,they admirably tried to play something inspired by Magma's music but via a different path: using only percussion,no drums(great idea),guitar and keyboards.

The result is a less oppressive form of Zeuhl...if this is Zeuhl at all(?),,,or maybe its because they couldn't play their instruments,leaving,in my opinion, more space in the music,and less chance of smothering the listener. A bit like the difference between The Sex Pistols and PiL in fact;who also couldn't play, so they say.Daring to be minimal.leaving room to breath and grow,the art of subtlety free from the oppression of Vander's attempts to be Wagner's most favourite Rock band.Thankfully also absent are Vander's Brünnhilde substitutes,who do tend to get on one's fucking Titz!

Today I think that this is better than Magma, but tomorrow I may think the opposite,it depends on how pissed off I am.....or,for those superior purveyors of the noble mother tongue of ye olde Albion.....in English, how Pissed I am. That means 'Drunk' to those from the colony where we exported all our religious nutters to...sorry about that,but it had to be done.We,the English. also exported our criminals to Australia.which is probably why they always beat us at sport.That suggests a strange correlation between crime and sporting prowess? Hummmm? ...either that or Stupidity? So, as an tenuous attempt to provide some evidence,i can only point to the fact that my Aussie relatives are mostly stupid,and my american family are mostly MAGAphiles.....or worse....if that's possible?

Just one final topical observation from leftfield to close....PUTIN IS A TOTAL FUCKING CUNT OR WHAT?!...and any of you conspiracy twats who wanna argue the toss about how this prick is a dove of peace...please come forward!

Tracklisting:

A1 Soleil Noir 4:31
A2 L'arche Des Mutations 9:29
A3 Sur Les Traces Du Vieux Roy 5:00
B1 La Roue 2:31
B2 Le Festin Du Lion Vert 4:42
B3 Massa Confusa 3:18
B4 Le Grand Secret 4:18
B5 Vol Du Phenix 3:50

DOWNLOAD the alternative 1977 HERE!

Space Art – "Trip In The Center Head" (IF Records) 1977

The French have a nasty habit of electronic duo's who wear disguises ,suggesting that they all could possibly the same pair of mutherfukers doing all of 'em. Along with Space "Art", we had the similarly monikered  'Space', no art involved, who hit the top of the world charts with the catchy astro-instro "Magic Fly";also from the golden year of '77. One would suggest that Space Art had to add the 'ART' part when Magic Fly hit the charts just before they had an album out.......unless they were the same duo pretending to be two different entities. This could also explain the inexplicable phenomenon that is,and thankfully, now in the past tense, Was , the bloody awful, Daft Punk.

 

Not Daft Punk......possibly!?

As the Residents demonstrated,wear a mask and you become ageless.The residents will likely still be performing into the 22nd century,and I hear that Space Art are back too!I like the concept.Pub Rock Bands do the same thing, but without the masks,and without any original members.

Often described as cosmic synth-pop, The duo are considered pioneers of the electronic genre,by French people....and you know they might be right for once?The Froggies reckon they invented everything,and they do love their genre's,but get confused if any music they encounter doesn't fit snugly in a comfortable bracket.

"What music iz zis",they inquire,"Rock?Punk?Psychedelic?Chansons Francais?"......yes Punk is different to Rock in the very French world of the Frenchy,and all Americans are English,and Canadians are French....they're a bit weird.I blame the cheese.They should import more proper cheese from the world's biggest Cheese producer,the allegedly crap food experts, Les Anglais!

Cluster tried the same thing as Space Art, in trying to make some accessible cosmic synth pop with "Zuckerzeit" in 1974,but lacked the power of a real drummer,which Space Art had, and,more importantly, the catchy tunes,which Space Art also had.

Alas, now everyone owns a copy of Zuckerzeit,and Space Art are well and truly forgotten.

Who wants their album stuck on a alaphabetically filed record rack with a bunch of trendy Krautrock and Italian Prog anyway.Fuck that Shit!

Tracklist:

A1 Speedway 2:53
A2 Odyssey 4:00
A3 Eyes Shade 6:47
A4 Watch It 3:00
B1 L'Obsession D'Archibald 5:30
B2 Hollywood Flanger 3:50
B3 Psychosomatique 10:52

DOWNLOAD into your art space HERE!

J.P.M. And Co – "Phantasmes" (Crypto – ZAL 6420) 1977

Some people take all kinds of class A drugs to try and make music that is unfathomable and "Out There",but end up making such unquantifiable rubbish as "We Built This City On Rock'n'Roll" by Starship, featuring members of trippy hippy psychedelic purveyors of silliness,the Jefferson Starship. Drugs make shit art,fact, and coloured alcohol leads to cutting your ear off and posting it to a young lady who hates your fucking guts because you ain't rich.

Now Jean-Pierre and his crazy prog Disco mates, namely himself, don't need nothing but their twisted perceptions of what music in 1977 means,and that rarely used Class Z drug, imagination......oh and probably normal illegal substances too I guess.....nobody's perfect.

Not many musicians are alone in a ghetto of their own making, but Jean-Pierre Massiera has voluntarily imprisoned himself in a progressive Disco hinterland,rarely repeated elsewhere.

France is never slow to tell everyone how many types of cheese they have (in fact far less than the UK...check it out),but one French cheese that rarely gets mentioned is French music.This particular variety sounds not unlike a two side long love making scene from a James Bond movie,dubbed into French.

There are those who would say this recording is a bucket of Merde.Maybe so,but feel rest-assured that there isn't another record out there,or "Out There",that sounds like this one.....not even the United Kingdom can say that......but they do have shit loads more cheese types and varieties that the self-crowned kings of Cheese;and more types of quality pop music that the king of progressive cheese, Jean-Pierre Massiera, could ever possibly throw into the rock'n'roll fondue.

Tracklist:

A1 Baby Topless (Poupée Gonflable) 2:50
A2 Les Moulins De Mon Coeur 6:00
A3 Mama Ecoute 2:50
A4 Adieu L'ami 3:15
A5 Plus Jamais Ça 3:12
A6 Poet's-Poet's And C- 0:35
B1 C'est Show Bizz 3:25
B2 El Lidiador 3:50
B3 Ces Mots 2:43
B4 Dali Court 2:52
B5 Je Ne Pense Qu'à Ça 2:23
B6 J'habite 4:10

DOWNLOAD from a world of cheese HERE!

Cerrone – "Cerrone's Paradise" (Malligator – 773 802) 1977

 

I had a Fridge like that once.I made my girlfriend live on top of it until I decided what to do with her....I say girlfriend,but really I mean Hostage.

In-between massive Disco Hits,Cerrone developed a sideline providing handy cold storage facilities for the discerning serial killer,with enough room inside for dismembered body parts and beer for parties with his.....watch those Pro-nouns boys and girls....or, 'her'. fellow murderers and sex killers.Initial units came with a complimentary bone saw and head size Acid Bath.

He didn't sell too many,mainly because he must have been using them him...slash...her,self.I mean, what the fuck is that album cover about?

If he wasn't creepy enough before then he was certainly creepy enough after this records release......on his own label may I add,just in case you were questioning Marc's DIY credentials. I suppose most killers and Rapists are DIY aren't they.....there are cases where they manipulate some gullible idiot to do it for them,but that's quite rare.Unless we're including the 'Holocaust' in this discussion of course?...which we're aren't.

Not Cerrone's greatest album, but the Disco Cheese quotant is comfortably High grade Disco Roquefort.He likes anything with blue veins on it does our Marc.

Worth it for that nutty cover alone.If Cerrone wasn't at least a rapist, I'd be somewhat surprised.Or just a Pop star in the seventies which, basically, means the same thing.

Question: What's white and crawls down the inside of a fridge?

Answer: Cerrone's latest Release.

Tracklist:

A Cerrone's Paradise 16:30
B1 Take Me 6:07
B2 Time For Love 6:15
B3 Cerrone's Paradise 3:31

DOWNLOAD and do the funky murderer dance HERE!

Herman's Rocket – "Space Woman" (Disques Ibach – 60520) 1977

What did crazed French Progressive Space rocker Jean-Pierre Massiera do as soon as Punk Rock infiltrated the pop culture of every medium sized town in every medium sized country and medium sized brain in the western world around 1977? Why he immediately dumped his Space Rock past did the proper Punk thang to do and went Disco....but, this is NOT the Disco that we came to know and despise .Oh No!This was the Disco soundtrack to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest starring a lobotomised John Travolta wiggling his hips to a crowd of medicated victims of electric shock therapy,shuffling around the secure unit dancefloor.The BeeGee's have painted themselves Green,renamed themselves the BeeGreens and wore blonde afro wigs after being treated with experimental drugs gone very wrong.

Nowhere was Disco music made so as incredibly daft and weird as it was in La France,except maybe in the former Soviet Union?

Herman's Rocket......what a band name.....is the nuts.Come on kids,let's dance and get high on some liberal use of Electro Convulsive Therapy....with a Disco Beat..er...in Space!

Tracklist:

1 Space Woman 5:11
2 Golden Crystallen 2:48
3 Transport Mission Security 3:33
4 Spirit In The Wind 4:20
5 The Last Tournament 3:51
6 Space Rebel 3:16
7 Jupiter Flight N°9 4:08
8 Indian Planet 2:37
9 Hanged In Univers 3:22
10 Green Creature 4:10

DOWNLOAD like punk had never happened HERE!

Kosmose – "Kosmic Music From The Black Country" (Sub Rosa – SRV394) 1973-78/2015

Straight from the "Black Country" in the dark ages of the mid-seventies came Kosmose's kraut-a-like improvisations; but for us English, the Black Country means grim hell-holes such as Stoke-on-Trent,the home of D-Beat punk,like Discharge and GBH. If you were caught listening to some Belgian Kosmiche music anywhere in the black country of the UK, you'd have been beaten up and called a "PUFF!" in no uncertain terms.There was no sanctuary,and everyone usually bore an uncanny resemblance to Quasimodo's uglier brother,and that was just the women(I know i've used that joke before, but it's a good one!).Although that observation was based on a particularly grim section of Stoke City fans I have encountered on many an occasion,so I may be wrong....even though Robbie Williams grew up there,if grow up is the right word in relation to Mr Williams......he was a Port Vale fan,from the weirder side of town,so one never got to visit vale park too often as they rarely appeared in the higher divisions during my Hooligan career.

One therefore assumes that "The Black Country" in this incidence is none other than Belgium.The place that is the butt of the dumbest jokes in France,by the dumbest Frenchmen,where it is understood that Belgians are stupid,and the French are far superior. This misnomer is made even more ridiculous when one realises that it should be the other way around.....especially when it comes to Beer, Chocolate,and...music.Even the famous 'French' singers turn out to be actually Belgians in disguise, like Johnny Hallyday,Jacques Brel and Plastic Bertrand; or collaborating Nazi Whores like Edith Piaf. Quite like Canadians were in the USA,with such luminaries as Leonard Cohen,Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young to name but three...although I have it on the strictest confidence that Joni Mitchell was NOT,and indeed, NEVER WAS a Nazi Whore!

Of course Belgium's golden years were still to come half a decade after 1973.It was left to the French to make the prog,which preceded a steady decline into the laughing stock of western Europe they are now.Magma excluded.

However, these archive tapes of what must have been Belgium's premier Prog band,prove that kraut-style prog was alive and vibrant north of the Maginot line.

In a country as compact and bijou as Belgium,which was twice used as a short cut to get at the British Expeditionary Force, it was the synth and drum machine that propelled the local populous into the 'very good file' of early eighties pop music.Forming a solid buffer zone,for once, between Germany and France.A battle of the Belge that the Belge actually won. Helped vastly by the actions of one Alain Neffe,founder of DIY cassette culture label Insane Music.

Neffe was also indeed a founder member of Kosmose,and deserves some kind of medal (The Golden Cassette) for the excellent resurrection job he made of these dusty old tapes.

The music is a heady mix of kraut style kosmiche,free jazz,with hints of CAN and most other things Krauty.Absorbed through a semi-permeable membrane by the musical process of Kosmosis,which one assumes is what the gist of the band name is?

Tracklist:

The Second Untitled Track / B.93.1 6:40
The Third Untitled Track / B.30.4 9:30
The Fourth Untitled Track / B64 4:20
The Fifth Untitled Track / B.40.9 5:45
The Ninetieth Untitled Track / 10 Reverb 9:00
The Tenth Untitled Track / 30.2 9:10
The Eleventh Untitled Track / 31.1 8:40
The Sixth Untitled Track / B.80.3 13:30
The Seventh Untitled Track / B.101.2 22:40
The Twelfth Untitled Track / 102.3 28:00
The Eighth Untitled Track / KS 18:56

DOWNLOAD by kosmosis HERE!

Hydravion – "Hydravion" (Cobra – COB 37012) 1977

 

Let's start off with a review i saw of this on Discogs:

"Terrible dull, empty and meaningless album. No real melody, there's not a single musical moment. All is more like rudimentary experimentation in "progressive" style. No instrumental, nor "song" writing abilities are shown despite of being progressive music. Compared to any other similar spacey contemporaries (as to a similar empty Heldon) it's absolutely a wasting of time. Go and find houndreds better in the genre."

After reading that, you just know that this album has to be brilliant?

I like my music empty and meaningless, so what? After all doesn't that describe existence itself? There's a meaning to the meaninglessness....ness. More than there is to existence at least.

There's something of the 'La Dusseldorf' about this French Krautband. I thought La Dusseldorf were joking when I first heard them, and Hydravion most certainly are NOT joking.It also reminds one of those Soviet Union official disco bands that cropped up on state label Melodija from time to time....and I certainly know they weren't joking either.Joking could get you into serious trouble in the Communist Bloc.

Of course the French notoriously cannot laugh at themselves,they can laugh at disableds or Belgians,but NEVER, at themselves; so it figures that this electro-prog trio mean every dull swirling note and therefore is,predictably french,and more than a noggin pretentiously, 'ART'.

Yes, it's empty,there's no melody, no songs, but it's space rock made for surfing the event horizon of the super massive black hole in the centre of the music industry.

Wanna piss of that aging Punk with the Joy Division T-Shirt next door?....then play this at toe curling volume,followed by La Dusseldorf and then Argo's "Discophonia". Guaranteed to push the aging Punk neighbour over the edge, and totally fuck off the poor chap who wrote that dreadfully conservative review above.

I guess Hydravion is French for a Flying Boat,which,if there was to be another great flood sent down by our loving creator,then a flying Ark would be a great way to get around and rescue all the species left on the planet while we waited for the water to drain away.Luckily no need to save two of every fish,and controversially, no gays allowed! Even no Gay Chimps allowed,unless a third chimp is recruited as a surrogate chimp for future births to repopulate the devastated planet.I suppose the sea level would have to exceed the top of Mount Everest,so that would make the oceans at lease 29000 feet deeper than it was before we were all taught a lesson.I assume we would all starve to death after the water levels somehow drained away,so what was the point in creating us anyway....more meaningless...ness? No-one will be volunteering to be the new Noah either in the "Me Too" era, as he's usually biblically required to have sex with his daughters.....unless God hasn't kept up with the times....Again!?

That, essentially is what this album almost certainly Isn't about;but, as it's meaningless one can always insert any meaning you can feel comfortable with,and that takes imagination.A quality few human beings possess in these daft ol' days innit?

Tracklist

A1 Metropolitain 3:36
A2 Triste Fin 10:24
B1 L'Hydravion D'Argent 6:36
B2 Etude En Do 4:45
B3 J'ai Pas Le Temps 7:05

DOWNLOAD the flying boat of doom 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!

Ornette Coleman – "Dancing In Your Head" (Horizon – SP-722) 1977

Most dance music feels like having a herd of migrating Wildebeest dancing ON your head.The stuff inside is conveniently forgotten.

If you liked "Body Meta" then you'll like this one too,and so will your brain. A classic slice of free no-wave Ornette magic.

Tracklist:

A Theme From A Symphony (Variation One) 15:38
B1 Theme From A Symphony (Variation Two) 11:05
B2 Midnight Sunrise 4:28

DOWNLOAD to your head HERE!

Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars ‎– "Guitar Trio Is My Life!" (Radium ‎– TOE-CD-813) 2008

 As Branca apparently got his inspiration from C.C.Hennix and other minimalist also-rans,let's find out who he really nicked stuff from;namely  Rhys Chatham.

For New Years Day here's ten rendition's of Chatham's self-defining classic "Guitar Trio", as played on the 30th anniversary tour of the original recording in 2007.

Fusing the one note drones and harmonics of Tony Conrad and, with the minimal one chord rock of Punk,this 'composition'....its called a composition if is its done by a music graduate,....is as if a three second morsel of "Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" by that long-haired group from Queens, was looped for an indetermined number of minutes.One of the greatest serious Rock'n'Roll compositions of allllll time.

So, of course it should be played over and over again to further strengthen the concept to a level previously unheard. The Complete Funhouse Sessions by the Stooges did my head in to the point that I may never want to listen to "Funhouse" ever again!;but this I never get tired of.....I've even played a version of it it with my groop (Scouts Of Uzbekistan).If you don't wanna go down into the Guitar Trio Basment then you may as well stop breathing!It's as fundamental as that.......but don't forget "BORIS JOHNSON IS A FUCKING CUNT!"

Tracklist:

1-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Brooklyn 19:27
1-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Chicago 23:34
1-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Buffalo 21:15
2-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Toronto 19:20
2-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Montreal 22:24
2-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Cleveland 16:35
2-4 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Minneapolis (Excerpt) 6:45
3-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Milwaukee 19:04
3-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Chicago 30:23
3-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Brooklyn 16:27

DOWNLOAD from the basement of rock magic HERE!

Iván Patachich ‎– "Musical Electro-Alchemy" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12369) 1982

As this blog was initially about how to turn musical Lead into musical Gold,or vice-versa, the 'electro-alchemy' of another very serious Hungarian seems out of place, when you compare it to anything on 'Fuck Off Records',but they do share the same determination to get their very unpopular works into the hearing appendages of a few hundred members of the public.Apart from that I've ran out of UK DIY stuff,so i gott write about something,no matter how tenuous the link.
This,one has to say, 'Fantastic' record melts haunting  neo classical choirs with Kluster style narration in a foreign language....unless you're Hungarian of course.....and ......here's the electro bit....minimal electronic noise.
This would have made a great soundtrack for "Solaris 2" if anyone had the guts, or stupidity to try making such a bold attempt at the only good movie with a "2" at the end of the title.
Failing that, get a bunch of contemporary dancers and leave them to it.The results should be hilarious.

Tracklist:

1 Antifonák(1977) 9:30
2 Hivó Jelek(1977) 10:05
3 Ballade(1976) 5:00
4 Ludus Syntheticus(1977) 8:00
5 Kínai Templom Visszhanggal(1979) 8:12
6 Hommage À L'Électronique(1978) 9:24

DOWNLOAD to turn lead into more lead HERE!