Voice Crack – "Earflash" (Uhlang Produktion – UP 07) 1990

Switzerland? Famous for Toblerone's,Nazi Gold, at least a dozen Mona-Lisa's locked away in some vaults in Geneva, all that plus a preponderance for driving below the speed limit!?
One has to question how this noisy duo ever managed to get out of a sensible career in corrupt neutral banking to make electroacoustic nightmares such as these seven overtly digital tracks which define themselves as "Earflash".
Like the Swiss, i'm neutral on most aspects of mass genocide,art theft,and questionable sources of Gold, as long as it makes a quick crypto-profit.
However,this stuff certainly makes for a good soundtrack to melting down extracted gold teeth to fit the numbers on forged documentation. This explains why these bland bankers are responsible for the highest Bunker and firearm ownership outside of Syria and Waco Texas.
You don't hear the word 'Free' very often in this mountainous region,but Voice Crack started off as Free Jazzers back in '72, until they changed to doing a bit of yer grinding electroacoutic Noise,often collaborating with crazy Free improv nutters
Borbetomagus, from the good 'ol US of Eh?
Voice Cracks' sound is not unlike the Alpine vistas strewn with glacial lakes and impending Avalanche thunder that make up 95% of this rather lovely country.It's enough to forgive them their genetic need to appear neutral until they take the side of the winners.....which unfortunately went titz-up when the Third Reich ended up being battered to fuck.
I hear that they may have learned a small lesson from WW2,as now they appear to be less than neutral on the subject of Ukraine; that is, unless Russia end up steamrollering Europe, and the Swiss traders are wrong AGAIN!?
At least they gave us Kleenex...the band....and ,er....Voice Crack?
Well,maybe just Kleenex / liliput.
Weren't The Young Gods swiss too?...yeah?....well, maybe them as well then?

Tracklist:

A1 Horned Aerial Bull 7:06
A2 Blow Up That Jetsam 7:58
A3 Earflash 2:39
A4 Fluffy Dog 2:41
B1 X-Ray Rally 10:06
B2 Turn Table Wax 4:12
B3 Decoy The Switch 6:32

DOWNLOAD these cracked actors HERE!

St. Christopher – "Bacharach" (Sarah Records – SARAH 403) 1990

I've made this joke before, but i like a good ten incher in my hands,so here's another Sarah Mini album which fulfills the current Twee Dreampop remit,yet also manages to pay Tribute to the recently departed genius of one Mr Burt Bacharach. 'Genius' is a word I try and avoid, but i'm afraid there is no other adjective than can describe Burt's lengthy back catalogue of sheer blinding brilliance-ness. Not many achieve genius status,and i'd be challenging myself to name but a few....i'll take a chance.....Dylan(?).....they must always be referred to by family name only....so for Dylan that must be Zimmerman.....or was that Hitlers real name????.....ah...Shciklegruber wasn't it. That's a jolly fine name for a band of gay twee pop playing skin'eads innit?

Ok, reluctantly, I'm adding McCartney to the list,despite the last 40 dreadful years of his work, he did enough by 1971 to warrant a mention. Ray Davies???.....nah...not good enough, and no-one uses just his surname in reference to the great man,so is automatically rejected to the second tier. Maybe Mozart?....sorry, only limited to 20th century and onward genius's (Collective noun alert!)......he used too many notes anyway.

Not particularly a 'fan' of any of these nominations, but one has to be objective doesn't one?

And NO, Jandek is NOT a Genius!

I've used the rear of this Mini-Album by yee olde York in yorkshire based twee pop combo St. Christopher, because the cover is too garish and offensive to the eye to feature here...the rear is acceptable,so I'll use that.

This jangly bunch of earnest young men get the Digital reverb setting stuck on Large Hall,close to saturation levels as the singer croons in a Pete Wylie-esque fashion,fighting for space with the drums,while the sparkly guitars cut through the fog to restore some focus for us cloth eared bastards at the other end of the XLR cables.

They also use the obligatory reference to the Autumn and Winter winter months that Sarah bands seem obsessed with.

Awww they sad.

TrackList:

A1 A Prayer For The Sea 1:56
A2 The Thrill Of The New 3:14
A3 And I Wonder 2:42
A4 Almost December 2:46
B1 She Can Wait Forever 3:41
B2 Who's Next On Cupid's Hit-List ? 2:34
B3 The Love Of A Sister 2:44
B4 Gabriel 3:01

DOWNLOAD 10 inches of bacharach HERE!

The Driscolls – "Complete Recordings 1988-1991" (Jigsaw – PZL056) 2014

 Also on Tea-Time Records were The Driscolls, whose complete recordings have been so kindly reissued by an American Label, doing that American thing of looking after the UK's culture even if we don't do it ourselves.They owe us big-time anyway as The UK saved Rock'n'Roll for them to enjoy in perpetuity,just as they are saving some of the United Kingdom's Indie heritage....a decidedly untrendy concept in the modern British Isles.

If The Driscolls were transported back in time to The Cavern Club, and The Beatles didn't exist, rather like in that next in a long line of truly terrible Danny Boyle films called "Yesterday", we would know all the words to Driscolls songs nowadays,instead of "Love Me Do". Although they ain't as cute as the Fab Four,so maybe the girlies wouldn't have wet their pants so much when confronted with the wimpy looking Driscolls.....but The Beatles did exist, and The Driscolls are nothing more that a skid mark in history.

The Fab Three....enough to turn a young lady ON...to lesbianism.

What is laid bare the most when listening to these Indie Pop sub-classics, is the glaringly obvious worshiping at the alter of 60's UK Freakbeat and Psych,with a splash of the U.S. Paisley Underground.

Like the Postcard records lot all walked around in public carrying a Dostoevsky Novel for effect, this lot plainly had a trove of Bam- Caruso compilations under their arms at all times in the hostelry's of Bristol and the west country where all these groups seemed to emerge from.

This influence is far from hidden,in fact its flaunted,as their self-financed debut 7" testifies, a cover of The Fire's Psych Pop classic "My Father's Name Was Dad" from '68 rather than '88.....is included here as a vinyl rip.The master tapes long gone.

To cap it all there's a clear Status Quo matchstickable lead guitar riff going on here,alongside a valiant attempt at Beatlesque harmonies.....or maybe it was those bizarre harmonies that The Clash used to insert into their early tunes in between Strummer growling on about Riots and Cheating to win.Silly stuff,but quaint in its own way.

One has to say the dirty clean but chunky yet jangley Guitar sounds on these recordings are rather lovely...that Rickenbacker on the cover may explain this? Although I've yet to receive an explanation as to how groups like this managed to afford a Rickenbacker, or a Fender for that matter? Have you seen how much they are recently....for the disenfranchised kid on the dole they are not!?

PS:

Anyone interested in a movie i'm writing where Gary Numan didn't exist, and i get to come up with "Are Friends Electric"?....that drummer's haircut would have to go though.

Tracklisting:

Disc One:
1-01 Father's Name Is Dad 2:19
1-02 Girl I Want You Back 2:07
1-03 Groovy Little Town 2:15
1-04 Andrew 2:56
1-05 Julie Christie 2:18
1-06 I Heard A Rumour 2:43
1-07 Doctor Good And His Incredible Life Saving Soap 2:28
1-08 If Only 1:54
1-09 Mrs. Jones 2:17
1-10 You Must Be Mad 1:57
1-11 Something To Learn 2:01
1-12 Groovy Little Town (acoustically revisited) 2:18
1-13 This Is A Different Song 2:45
1-14 Bang Goes Another Cloud 1:22
1-15 Out Of My Head 2:58
1-16 How Does It Feel? 4:47
1-17 Superman 3:50
1-18 Sky High 3:53
1-19 The Return Of Lord Kitchener 2:11
1-20 Coloured Windows 3:54
1-21 Brittle Beautiful 3:27
1-22 Green Tambourine 4:01
1-23 Another Day (Little Pill) 4:41

Disc Two:
2-01 P.C. Roberts 1:58
2-02 Call Me Anything 2:13
2-03 Time For Change 2:30
2-04 It's Your Daughter 2:26
2-05 Circles 3:03
2-06 Here It Comes Again 2:53
2-07 These Things 2:59
2-08 Shame About The Rain 3:22
2-09 She Said She Said 3:27
2-10 Coloured Windows (alternate version) 3:51
2-11 X-Ray Eyes (live) 3:40
2-12 radio interview 4:05

DOWNLOAD a group of driscolls with not one driscoll in the line up HERE!

Jody And The Creams – "A Big Dog.n" (Cordelia Records Ericat 028) 1990

 

That's NOT Dennis Nilsen bottom right by the way!

Yet another LP with ever widening Deep Freeze Mice connectivity, featuring Ruth (Po!) without her refrigerator on singy duties, another appearance of Blodwyn P. Teabag, (She's the one who looks like Green in his squatting days but as a Lady) and a debut for Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie; the latter two wrote nearly all the tchoons.

Don't be afraid, the Dennis Nilsen-a-like is the prolific Alan Jenkins(Deep Freeze Mouse number one) himself, if you've never seen him before? Here pictured in the Producer's role.I suppose this was intended as a 'Girl Group' project?

It all starts off with a bang,with the best anti-monarchy song I've probably ever heard.It alone, is the best reason why the Monarchy should remain exactly as it is or we would have one less thing to moan about,and no more anti-monarchy songs as clever as this.....Monarchy for the UK.

There are a few more charmingly witty indie pop numbers,or to paraphrase blodwyn or Ariadne.... 'lo-fi vintage english agit-pop'.There's also a side long sound collage like a more listenable but twee-er version of the side of Tago Mago no-one plays called "N.",or 'Lumpy Gravy', and there's another inevitable Frank Zappa homage with a couple of Suzy Creamcheese moments as if the GTO's came from an English suburb.....in Shropshire(?).

"Margery is Dead" reveals a possible Joe Meek obsession by someone in the room, like the theme to an unmade Gerry Anderson pilot from 1961.....can't go wrong there methinks.

Absolutely one of the better releases on Cordelia Records by a yard or two, in Imperial measurements.Don't ask me what that is in Metric!

That's something you can thank the Royals for,that and Lsd ?!.....For those born after decimalisation,that stands for Pounds Shillings and Pence,the single most absurd money system ever thought up by one of God's relatives on Earth.

Tracklisting:

1 The Queen #1 1:34
2 Margery Is Dead 1:27
3 Moulted Fur From A Labrador 2:27
4 Tree Rings 4:38
5 Appleseed Alley
Written-By – Ruth* 3:07
6 Hi Felicity 1:40
7 Shropshire 4:18
8 N. 31:35
9 The Queen #2 1:41
10 Blue Moon 2:04

DOWNLOAD some vintage creamcheese HERE!

Ruth's Refrigerator – "Suddenly A Disfigured Head Parachuted" (Cordelia Records – CD072) 1990

Ruth and her Refigerator...note the standard indie bowl-cuts extreme left and right.

Escaping the the Twee-Dream pop minority of Leeds to the civilised end of the M1 motorway;leaving behind the last vestiges of the "North", lies the naturally Twee city of Leicester.....which,as if you didn't know, is my home town.Akin to an empty rugby players bath,it has nothing in the center ans a ring of scum around the outside.

No, it wasn't quite that empty in the center,it wasn't Coventry after all;but i did grow up amongst the ring of scum,of which i am proudly one.One has very hazy memories of seeing lots of these Twee Dream pop Shoegazer groups at the various venues on offer, a case of if you remember the earl 90's you weren't there,unlike Britpop,which if you remember that you definitely were there and trying to forget it.

of course, the leicster had our own Twee Pop combo's,the most celebrated of which being peel fav, Yeah Yeah Noh!

A Sense of humour certainly required The rather zany Ruth's Refrigerator,being a fine example.

Including various members DIY legends Deep Freeze Mice and, Po! and other indie hangers-on.

The lyrics are of the too clever by 'arf variety as preferred by such tiresome smart arses as Morrissy and Cocker, but as i have mellowed in the past decade i'll say, what's wrong with that? I fact they are pretty funny.Like the opening couplet of Dear Prudence re-write "Red Queen" for example:

"There Was A Girl,

She Was a Raving Psychopathic Killer.......in my eyes."

Of course you had to be there,but you get the gist.

As top Deep Freeze Mouse Alan Jenkins is in the group, you're gonna get mad cap song titles and surreal university life sentence humour in droves,all backed up with jangly twee indie psych Wimsey.

I have been less than kind to the voice of Me Jenkins during my angry years;bracketing him with such of the likes of Steve Solomar of Spherical Objects......i now know this to be plain wrong,as do I the Deep Freeze Mice, whom I have reassessed as rather good,and i even like Alan's voice too now.....but not as much as Ruth's.

So my previous reviews of DFM albums are but a window of time in which i was obviously very pissed off.....Ruth-less....haha..see what i did? (Smart arse!) 

Tracklist:

1 She Lies In State 2:16
2 Your Dog Is Rich And Your Cat Is Good Looking 2:40
3 Alan's Refrigerator 2:12
4 He Needs A Dog 2:19
5 Picasso's Problem 1:56
6 The Red Queen 2:49
7 Mind The Paprica, Joe
8 Gro Harlem Brundtland Wants Some Fish 1:57
9 On A Western Shore 2:58
10 Innocent Boy 2:26
11 Hello Anne Of Green Poplars 3:47
12 Examine The Insects And Hit Them 1:02
13 Hi Felicity 1:42
14 Fish In The Air / Birds In The Sea 7:31
15 Spot The Bear Theme 1:01
16 Hello Anne (With A Better Guitar Solo) 3:13
17 The Red Queen (With Robyn Singing) 3:12
18 I Am Big Chief Radio Luxembourg 5:15
19 She's Not There 2:02

DOWNLOAD from the deep freeze to the fridge HERE!

Edward Barton – "Here Is My Spoon" (Wooden Records – WOOD 10) 1990

 

Edward Barton looks and sounds like an artist,he may even be an Actor,for he once resembled a Drama student,or a member of Furniture (UK arty one hit wonders)...but we'll settle for 'poet'!?

Young Edward, first came to our attention attacking his acoustic guitar while writhing on the floor and screaming about his Mini on the exceedingly awful and sickeningly Hip early evening pop magazine programe ,"The Tube".The vile creature that spawned Jools Holland in his mission to make music as bland and pointless as yer Aunties cakes.A raison d'etre that this boogie woogie terrorist embraced with all the efficiency of a death camp Kommandant and the spiteful enthusiasm of his uncaged wife.

Inexplicably,YouTube has no footage of Barton's first appearance, but luckily there is a performance of his debut single,"I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs".

Edward embraced this fifteen minutes of fame eagerly,and made it last about twelve minutes before spending the next thirty years in artsy obscurity.

His other three minutes of fame belong to the unaccompanied vocal Hit single Edward penned,With girlfriend, Jane, "It's a Fine Day", which was one of those rare 'Good' singles that hit the top ten in several countries.Other versions exist,including one by bloody Orbital!?

His songs,"It's a Fine day" excepted, have all the requisites that make Jandek's works so provocative,except I rather suspect that our Edward has the sense of Humour that The Corwood representative so patently lacks....which of course, makes it Funny.

Eddie's songs are funny too,but he actually intends this....so,he is an Artist after all, yes?

Alas, as a lifelong Mini owner,I thoroughly approve of Edward Barton. 

Tracklist:

1 Listen To Edward
2 Knob Gob
3 Sorry Dog
4 What Shall We Do Today?
5 Everyday I Try To Find The Man Who Killed My Brother
6 Barber Barber
7 Violence
8 In Dreams I Drive
9 King Of A Flat Country
10 Dear Dad
11 I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs
12 Shover
13 Thin And Pale
14 I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs
15 I Am A Mother
16 Two Cows
17 Me and my Mini (Bonus Track)

DOWNLOAD seventeen songs to go with your wooden chairs HERE!

EyeHateGod – "In The Name Of Suffering"(Intellectual Convulsion – SPASM 3) 1990

With artwork like it was plucked out of a British Medical Journal from the fifties, 'Misanthropic' is a popular adjective used once confronted with the works of surly sludge metal protagonists 'Eyehategod'.

Of course, with a band name such as this they had little chance of releasing an LP with the American Taliban in town.So their debut album had to be unleashed in a free,more secular state.....i was tempted to say Iran,but....In this case it's that much maligned paragon of freedom....France? Where some dumbass teacher caught displaying a crucifix on a chain can risk being booted out of the building and sacked on the spot.Way to go France!

The land(USA) that generously gave the world Rock and Roll.....nooo it wasn't God,Argent(!).....had to wait three years before this wholesome bi-product of that great land was easily available for the intelligent 19% to annoy their indoctrinated fellow citizens,or, the 81% of Americans who still believe stone-age superstitions in the 21st century.

Naturally, some Charlie Manson soundbites inevitably crop up, who seems to be some kind of God to sludge metalers everywhere, or,in the words of the creepy hippie himself...the Son of Man.

The music is Sloooooow,brutal, and refreshingly lacking in Metal cliché with more emphasis on the Doom rather than Satan worship. Although the very word Eyehategod tends to suggest a belief in the hereafter.Presumably If you can 'Hate a God', that means there's probably a devil character too,or maybe they represent the same entity?

There's little mention of a Devil in the Bible (File under Fiction),but what there is of their God is beyond Horrific,maybe even Evil? This could be why Christian Metal is so frightening....or is that because it's just frighteningly CRAP!

Tracklist:

1 Depress
2 Man Is Too Ignorant To Exist
3 Shinobi
4 Pigs
5 Run It Into The Ground
6 Godsong
7 Children Of God
8 Left To Starve
9 Hostility Dose
10 Hit A Girl

DOWNLOAD in the name of suffering HERE!

Shit Scum – "Manson Is Jesus" (Ecocentric Records – E.R. #111) 1990

Seems like Napalm Death imports had even hit Newton, Massachusetts by 1989,and had entered the GG Allin obsessed, Seth Putnam's, delicate shell-likes, leaving a dreadful impression on this sensitive young man.

The formula was simple,replace UK Grindcore's lyrics about multinational corporations, nuclear destruction,and schoolboy politics,with about how Gays,Jews and Blacks suck,and you've got a nascent version of Anal Cunt called ,rather charmingly, "Shit Scum".

Upon hearing Napalm Death back in '87,I thought they could not be serious!?They were taking the piss surely?....turns out they weren't! 

Shit scum leave a similar taste in the mouth,and even manage to take it all down a peg or two,into the sewer.

Of course Seth's next Group would take it even lower,exposing the bedrock of awful taste below through which it is not possible,or advisable, to go........there's a challenge in there somewhere?

Young Master Putnam must have been ignored as a child,and now he's dead,ignored as a corpse.

However his vast canon of work lives beyond the grave,leaving an irremovable skidmark down the rear gusset of the human race's Y-fronts.

This 33rpm ep does, however contain the best ever cover of possibly thee worst ever pop group, Guns 'n' Roses' truly mind erasing "Sweet Child Of Mine";fittingly re-titled for our benefit,"You Fucking Cunt".

"Fag Bash" is a sludge metal classic;and i'm sure the bass-line to "Brady Bunch Massacre" is cleverly adapted from "Wrong Place Right Time" from The Fall's "I am Kurious Oranj" long player?

As for Manson being Jesus?He's got just as much  a case to make this claim as anyone. Trouble is that anyone who does is usually a blood craving nut job, a chief executive officer,or a high ranking banker.

One thing that Putnam definitely  has in common with both Chuck and Jesus (as in Jesus Allin),the other ,son of god Jesus,and Seth Putnam too;is that they were all ignored as a child. This explains a lot.

This goes out as advice to all those casual breeders out there......don't ignore your kids if you're gonna have them please;or just wear a condom! Going in bareback You could have just spawned the next Anal Cunt, or worse....a new religion!?.....or even worse than that.....a new Guns'n'Roses!!!!?

Not only can our latex friends protect us from HIV,syphilis and Monkey Pox,these magical prosthetic sheaths could have saved the world from Gun'n'Roses too.....and maybe even Charles Manson?! 

If these facts were made clear in the 1980's AIDS would have now been but a distant memory.....instead we got the only plastic ever released by Shit Scum.

Tracklist:

A1 Manson Is Jesus
A2 Brady Bunch Massacre
A3 Dog Sacrifice
A4 Shit Scum
B1 Fag Bash
B2 Beating On A Pacifist
B3 You Fucking Cunt

DOWNLOAD it here you fucking cunt!

Frank Sidebottom – "Radio Timperley C-60 Volume 1" (11:37 – ets18) 1990

Apart from the obvious delights of two episodes of Frank's Radio Timperley show on radio Piccadilly,the real treat is the short extract from Frank's appearance at the 1989 Reading festival ,in front of a crowd of 4800 drunken revelers squeezed into the 2000 capacity Mean Fiddler tent.

The roar of the crowd for Frank's appearance must have been the loudest of the whole festival,and the call and response crowd participation  version of "Guess Who's Been On Match Of The Day".....to which the crowd replied "Yoooou Have, In Yer Big Shorts".,was beyond impressive....almost as ear-bleedingly loud as the Kop at Altrincham FC in full voice (singular).

The response was such as to suggest that Mrs Sidebottom's only son would have been a far superior headline act than The fucking Mission??...wot??...or the bloody Pogues,and especially New sodding Order!..who were the official top acts at Reading 1989.

Quite refreshing to see a lack of Rap acts in the line up,with a sprinkling of  what I would concede to be half decent acts lower down the pecking order.

And I thought the Reading Festival was something to do with books?

In this particular cul de sac of France, my local festival is a Poetry Festival,where I witnessed,and I kid you not, a French lady interpreting the Poetry via the medium of dance.Almost as bad and pretentious as the Michael Clarke Dancers interpreting the music of The Fall. That was my lowest ebb as a Fall appreciator,especially after there was an American and MES's missus (same person incidentally) in the group;..then MES started wearing trendy suits !?.....on top of that,but worse, becoming part of the South Bank Glitterati.No wonder Smith upped the alcohol intake.

Frank Sidebottom could never be pretentious if he tried......now as for Little Frank, I can't guarantee that he wouldn't be tempted.

Never trust a Short-Arse,even one made out of cardboard.

Tracklist:

A1 Mr Gallagher's Zoo 28:35
B1 Frank's Removal Company 25:42
B2 Live At Reading 2:53

DOWNLOAD direct from planet timperley HERE!

XAAL – "XAAL" (Xaal Self-released – Xaal 01) 1990

More lo-fi cassette culture Zeuhl in classically fuzzy chrom-dioxide quality,enhanced by a lo-bitrate to make it an even better smothering experience.

XAAL sound very 1990's......there's damming evidence of Fretless bass use,probably with seven strings and a lovingly looked after varnished wooden body.I strongly suspect that all of XAAL's instruments are shiny and well looked after. It's a phenomenon that began in the 90's,shiny chrome mike stands, tidy amplifiers,as new guitars, and tasteless natural wood bass guitar bodies.

One thing I noticed during the recent co-vid hysteria was that the number two item to be seen in the background of Zoom calls,after full bookshelves, is an brand name electric guitar sitting on a stand in the corner .All shiny and new,in barely used condition,to show that the caller is literate, but, cool.

Every fucker has an electric guitar and vast digital multi-tracking facilities these days....even those despicable Politician bastards.All that shite started with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair thinking,mistakenly, that liking Pop music would magically transform them from the awful grinning fools that we know they are, into something cool for Generation X to take seriously.Fool not Cool! Why would anyone want to know that David Cameron's favourite band is Radiohead for fucks sake? Dick'ead would be more appropriate one should suggest,especially as he is officially the second worst British prime minister of alll time,just behind his Eton educated chum/rival Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.....who to my knowledge doesn't own any musical instruments,but cringingly expresses a liking for The Clash,led.of course, by fellow posh boy,but in this case a dead one,Joe Mellor.....Boris obviously was not listening when he heard their punk socialism by numbers recordings.

Just as refusing to have a Tattoo or any piercings,was an almost subversive stance a few years back,now is the time to throw all those home studio's and guitars onto a large bonfire in the Rock'n'Roll hall of shame. Silence is the new route to self-expression through self censorship...stop repeating this mantra of terminal boredom.  Turns out that the great unwashed took this DIY thang far too seriously. There's too much fucking music now,made by people who don't know any better.STOP IT!.....I crave the return of untouchable rock stars, exclusivity and cliques .The moment the moronic majority like the same things as you ,you know that the games up and its time to give it up.An If they're 'Punk' I definitely fucking ain't!...kinda thing.

XAAL are one of those groups who not only have sparkling equipment, but have that deadly disability of just playing the notes,and forgetting the rest.Like an exercise in theoretical music.

But i'm sure there'll be plenty out there who will delight in their shifting time signatures, and accurate playing.....i know I do.

But that don't mean it's Gud bud.

 

DOWNLOAD boris johnson's new favourite band HERE!

Leicester City & Supporters - "Filbert Street Blues" (Cherry Red Records) 1990

             

Well, i've just about recovered enough now from the revelries of yesterday's F.A. Cup final victory for my beloved Foxes.So as my hangover fades I will inflict this collection of Leicester City themed aural atrocities.

These 19 tracks are from a time when supporting the foxes was a kind of masochistic torture. There were brief moments of joy, but it was largely pain,frustration and disappointment. A lot of these songs ,seemed, at the time to be overoptimistic and unrealistic;but nowadays,the lyrics of all these tunes seem to have come true.

Suddenly those ill-advised tuesday evening round trips to Middlesbrough to watch our footy team lose seem worthwhile.

What a fucking goal!!!!!(click to relive the magic HERE!)

I could spend the rest of this post slagging off the so-called big boys,but frankly they ain't worth it;just listen to Chelsea fans moaning about handballs, offsides, and how we were lucky....as in they didn't win so the other lot must have been lucky...pathetic.

Leicester are the peoples team,rather than a Russian Oligarchs plaything. Moan all you like and wish your millions could buy a goal like that screamer.....

We also have players who are brave enough to show support for Palestine as they collected their medals

Leicester lad Hamza Choudhury risking being accused of Anti-Semetism for exercising his freedom of speech.

This also gives me a chance to plug my much praised compilation in Tribute to Leicester City for winning the Premier League in 2016. This one has lots of local groups,rather than a bunch of dodgy fans.

And a much more in depth analysis of what it means to support an 'unfashionable',read as 'Not Rich', football club in England: Click this......

"Dilly Ding Dilly Dong: No-one Listened To Our Songs (a Die or DIY tribute to Leicester City FC) " - (a DIE or DIY? mixtape No.9)

Here's the tracklist for Filbert Street Blues,including a tune that's on both of these tribute albums,the prophetically named "This is the Season For Leicester", the the 1974 squad....produced by Trevor Horn of Buggles fame nonetheless!?

Tracklisting:

1 This Is The Season For Us
by Leicester City F.C. 1974 1:37

2 The Tank
by Leicester City F.C. 1974 2:45

3 Champions
by The Leicester Lads 3:33

4 Post Horn Gallop
by The Band Of the Royal Marines 1:53

5 Yes We're Back
by The Back Five 4:42

6 Oh Leicester City (Calypso)
by The Back Five 3:07

7 Follow The Foxes
by The Back Four 2:23

8 The Glory Boys In Blue
by The Back Four 3:46

9 Blue Army Blues
by The Bangers 3:39

10 Wembley Roar
by Kev Price and the City Strikers 3:49

11 The FNF Rap
by Filbert Fox Songs 4:05

12 The Filbert Fox Song
by Filbert Fox Songs 3:32

13 We're Going Up
by Blue Army 3:35

14 This Is The Season For Us
by Phil Bert & The Foxes 1:37

15 Flowing Tears (Wembley 1993)
by Kev Price and the City Strikers 2:54

16 Come And Join Us
by Steve Tilbury and the Blue Team 2:58

17 Frank Worthington
by The Joe Jordanaires 2:22

18 Leicester Boys
by Kev Price and the City Strikers 2:42

19 We're Back Where We Belong
by Ray Nardfox 3:23

DOWNLOAD from the home of the blues HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Musical Offering / Музыкальное Приношение" (Мелодия ‎– С60 30721 000) 1990

The Soviets insisted that anything the capitalists could do,they could at least match it,usually making these things on a budget of close to zero,held together with straw and snot, like their version of Concorde,the supersonic passenger jet,Concordski,which crashed at the Paris airshow in 1973. As soon as the "more Equal Than Thou" members of the Polit Bureau heard of the EMS synth,they wanted their own 'Socialist' version, that their great and glorious electronic composers could all use.......this was called, the 'ANS' synthesizer;notice any similarities there?
One of the first synthesizers in the world (aka in The USSR), it was created by the Russian engineer E. Murzin over a period of twenty years from 1937, and it created music using light, rather than electrical variations, unlike all other synthesizers,except Daphne Oram's Oramics machine of course.This replaced the soviet version of the synth which involved high voltage cables attached to the genetils of 88 Oboe playing dissidents,and a series of levers that, when thrown in a sequence, would apply the adequate voltage to make the dissedent play his allocated note on the Oboe stapled to his mouth. This was fully polyphonic,but had its drawbacks, like the oboe player dying, and it emitted an awful smell of burning ball-bag hairs.Now that's what i call 'Electronic Music'!?
For Murzin's light synth,he,or the KGB, invited,or ordered, young,but qualified, composers to come and work on some new electronic pieces....this time without electrodes or any pointing guns,and the resulting works are showcased on this post Berlin wall collapse album released by crumbling state label Melodia.

Recorded between 1964 and 1971,these bizarre dark electronic excursions didn't see the light of day until 1990,as the communist bloc was collapsing;but the rest of the recordings that never made it onto the album were rediscovered and are now included here as bonus tracks.Whoppeeeee.......now, where did I put those electrodes,and where are those cheap economic migrants I bought?

Tracklist:

1 –Oleg Buloshkin- Sacrament 3:34
2 –Sofia Gubaidulina - Vivente-Non Vivente (Alive & Dead) 10:44
3 –Edward Artemiev - Mosaic 4:00
4 –Edward Artemiev - 12 Looks At The World Of Sound 12:52
5 –Edison Denisov - Birds' Singing 5:05
6 –Alfred Schnittke - Steam 5:50
7 –Alexander Nemtin - Tears 4:41
8 –Alexander Nemtin - I. S. Bach: Choral Prelude C-dur 2:30
9 –Schandor Kallosh - Northern Tale 5:38
10 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Voices Of The West 2:00
11 –Edward Artemiev Music From The Motion Picture "Cosmos" 12:15
12 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Intermezzo 2:00

DOWNLOAD or you may accidently fall off a balcony HERE!

Ivor Cutler and Phylis king - "King Cutler" (BBC Radio series) 1990

Ivor Cutler and his regular sparring partner Phylis King present six episodes of offbeat humorous songs, stories and poems. With Glen Baxter. From January 1990.

I'm copying and pasting here from Irkthepurists blog:

11/1/90 – 15/2/90 (6x30m)
Radio 3, Thur; various times around 9:30pm
(Repeated by BBC7, 17/1/08 – 21/2/08 and 20/9/09 – 25/10/09, although individual episodes were first included on Comedy Winners, broadcast 11/8/07, and Tom Robinson’s shift as Comedy Controller, 22/9/07)
Note: Programmes originally given numbered billing as ‘King Cutler I, King Cutler II’ etc.

Thats about it for Ivor Cutler.....one can only write and listen to so much of any paricular artist, no matter how brilliant.....
There's another Radio series from 1997 too, called 'A Wet Handle' which you can also download HERE!....its as good as all the others. I've just had enough of posting Ivor Cutler's much missed melodious tones for the time being.

Tracklist:

Episode 1-6.

DOWNLOAD the king and queen of absurdist rubbish HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Ende Vom Lied: East German Underground Sound 1979 - 1990" (Play Loud! Productions ‎– pl-67) 2016

What can I say except that i like a nice pair of knockers on my record covers,especially painted ones.

So all i'm motivated to do is cut'n'paste the liner notes,and come to the conclusion that the DDR produced ,by far, the best and most adventurous music in the whole soviet bloc.So as the title suggests,this can mark the end of our fabulous tour of the communist bloc.....not necessarily never to return.There's reems of DDR Punk,but,between you and me...its largely awful 1983 generic rubbish.You can't win 'em all!?

....and i quote:....

"ENDE VOM LIED" is a genre-spanning collection of punk, post-punk and avant-garde bands from the former East Germany, chronicling the work of free spirits pitted against government restraints and implied genre limitations. The underground scene in the GDR was a hydra, a noisy mix of musicians, poets, pain¬ters, photographers, filmmakers, punks and freaks. In the immediate aftermath of the primal scream that was punk, music often bred with poetry or painting in short-lived liaisons or enduring collaborations to produce a new generation of genre bastards. With the lines blurring between forms, a search for new shapes began. In the German Democratic Republic, this search constituted a tightrope walk, a dance for expression between subculture and a dictatorship.

*In German, ENDE VOM LIED literally translates to “The end of the song”, but is more commonly understood as a saying roughly meaning “The upshot”, “The end of the story” or simply “The end”.

TRACKLIST:

01 Ornament & Verbrechen : When I am I am not (1988)
02 Grabnoct : Töten und Fressen (1987)
03 L‘Attentat : linke Ecke, rechte Ecke (1984)
04 Der Schwarze Kanal : spiel mit (1979)
05 3tot : Hintere Gedanken (1989)
06 Der Demokratische Konsum : Sturm im Gepäck (1985)
07 T42 : Dreamer (1985)
08 Happy Straps : Live in Paradise (1985)
09 Planlos : Smog und Ruß (1981)
10 Sendeschluß : Deine Liebe (1982)
11 Zwitschermaschine : geh übern fluß (1983)
12 Aufruhr zur Liebe : mit’m bock auf nichts (1984)
13 Andreas Auslauf : Zivilisation (1985)
14 Rosa Extra : was mir deine schleuder ist dir meine waschmaschine (1982)
15 AG Geige : Fingerwalze (1989)
16 The Local Moon : Kingdom comes (1987)
17 fett : rifflied (1988)
18 Herbst in Peking : Parade (1989)
19 Magdalene Keibel Combo : Stahl Daab (1988)
20 Ornament & Verbrechen : keilter schwaß (1989)
21 BAADER : ceaucescu meiner seele! (1988)
22 Klick & Aus : Systeme rasten ein, ich raste aus! (1984)
23 Der Expander des Fortschritts : Fremdgehen durchs Land (1990)
24 Pffft... : Prenzelking (1985)

DOWNLOAD ende vom lied HERE!

Shoko Asahara - "Lord Death's Counting Song" (Aum Shinrikyo Records) 1990

Theres not many artists featured on this blog that have been executed,but here's one,if 'artist' is the right word for a mentally ill cult leader who thought he was Jesus?

Founder and leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, Shoko Asahara was sentenced to die by hanging,for his role in the Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks in 1995 and was finally executed by hanging on July 6, 2018, at the Tokyo Detention House 23 years later.But,not before he treated the surviving members ofthe human race to some of his child-like songwriting skills.

He also wrote a book called "Declaring Myself the Christ",a bit shocking that, as I thought I was the Christ,not some Japanese nutjob! Ah well,I'll have to get used to being mortal again I guess!?

The music is basically as shit as his paranoid ,anti-semitic, conspracy riddled philosophy.

His purported mission was to take others' sins upon himself, and he claimed he could transfer spiritual power to his followers. He saw dark conspiracies everywhere, promulgated by the Jews, the Freemasons, the Dutch, the British Royal Family, and rival Japanese religions.Good to see he chose some different targets for a change,and also added the obvious suspects to the mix.....The Dutch!!!?

Shoko outlined a doomsday prophecy, which included a third World War, and described a final conflict culminating in a nuclear "Armageddon",Asahara often preached the necessity of Armageddon for "human relief". He eventually declared, "Put tantra Vajrayana into practice in accordance with the doctrines of Mahamudra," and he then initiated a series of terrorist attacks,culminating in the nerve gas attack in Tokyo.

Luckily his defence team didn't play his music in court or he would have been executed immediatly.

Tracklisting:

A Lord Death's Counting Song
B Shonshi's March

DOWNLOAD before doomsday HERE!

Peter Jefferies ‎– "The Last Great Challenge In A Dull World" (Xpressway ‎– X/WAY 16) 1990

The prolific Peter Jefferies was in nearly every group on Xpressway, which is expected as it was partly his own label.So a solo album was not a surprise. 
It contains all the experimental Pop trademarks as displayed on the 'This Kind Of Punishment' albums. Lots of upright piano bashing, circuit fried guitars,and funny fuzzy noises, with Peters New Zealand accented crooning sitting atop, like a glacé cherry on a spontaneously combusting cake.

Tracklist :

Chain Or Reaction 3:20
Domestica 2:18
On An Unknown Beach 4:34
Guided Tour Of A Well Known Street 2:37
The House Of Weariness 3:53
Cold View 2:08
Likewise 2:40
The Last Great Challenge In A Dull World 3:16
While I've Been Waiting 2:52
Neither Do I 2:15
The Other Side Of Reason 5:59
Listening In 3:10

DOWNLOAD as your last great challenge HERE!

The Fall ‎– "The Complete Peel Sessions 1978 - 2004" (Castle Music ‎– CMXBX982) 2005

Mark E. Smith : "A Tribute?"

Those of you who are sick of the recent barrage of Italian Post-Industrial Noise have been rescued,momentarily by the untimely death of the Bard of Prestwich, Mark Edward Smith.Yea,he of The Fall.
I once thought that 'The Fall' was a good name for a group,until I realised it was American for 'Autumn'!?.....very proto-gothic I thought.
This Band.....oh sorry.....'Group', as Mark E. always insisted they were, fitted very nicely into the exclusive ,canon of 'groups' such as Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, as 'groups' one could NOT get into on the first encounter. As with Beefheart, the first time I heard 'The Fall' I was immediately enamored and wanted more, like Oliver Twist approaching the Mr Bumble of accepted Rock'n'Roll myths for more Gruel. If there was a food equivalent for The Fall, it could only be a grubby bowl of tepid Gruel. Marks corresponding Dickensian character would have had to have been Fagin, and the endless supply of Group members would have been his gang of child pick-pockets,but with worse clothes. 
I first heard The Fall (mark 1),aged 14, predictably on the John Peel show back in '78. "Stepping Out" from the 'Live at the Electric Circus' blue ten incher on ,incredibly, Virgin Records, was the track. I found this short discordant tune was to this date the weirdest thing i'd ever heard, even alongside the moment my record player needle hit the grooves of "Frownland", the opener to 'Trout Mask replica'.
That saturday I asked my Mother to pop into the record shop to get me a copy.
'Twas a thing of great beauty in its opaque electric blue vinyl, made even better as it introduced me to Joy Division as well. But it was the two tracks by The Fall that were by far the most intriguing.Both tracks ('Stepping Out, and Last Orders') would have been very relevant for Mark's funeral service in my opinion, predictably followed by 'Bill Is Dead' and ' New face In Hell' from the post-Bramah period.
Then i was privileged to hear the first Peel session from 1978, which included the best ever Fall song in my opinion, "Industrial estate".....I Know Mark will be spinning in his Urn, but its a fact.
Then I spotted "Bingo-Masters Breakout" stuck on the wall of Revolver Records in Leicester, opposite Gary Linekers' family vegatable stall in the market.
Wow!..."Psycho Mafia" , and "Repetition",which set out The Fall's musical manifesto in three letters, The three 'R's....Repetition, Repetition, Repetition!...Perfect.
All the tunes on the first singles and "Live at the Witch Trials" were indeed......Perfect in their imperfection........then, as happens with everything 'good', the human ego takes hold and  ruins everything. Mark wanted the 'Group' to be his backing 'Band', and he was to be the poet in the spotlight. So Martin Bramah, the musicial brains behind the early Fall, left (returning for the last great ,despite the inclusion of a DJ(?) in the line-up?,Fall Album, "Extricate" in 1990).
I again sent my long suffering Mother downtown to Revolver to get "Dragnet", the second album, and the first Mark E. Smith and backing band record. The magic had gone for me, and it was only 1979! If it wasn't for the Vocals and lyrical content,it would have been not much different to any Spherical Objects album from the same town and era. It had the lo-fi clautrophobic atmosphere, and a greyness about it,but it just sounded like a 'Band' of also-rans, following orders to these ears. Some good singles followed and a few more decent albums, but it never again recreated the spark the early records achieved for me.
But......as a Poet and  Word E. Smith , he was probably second to none. Of course he had to have a backing 'Band', or no-one would have had the pleasure of his written script. No matter how slurred his delivery became in the last twenty years of the 'Groups' existence, the lyrical content was always interesting and worthy of study in English Literature classes of the near-future.
Then during the eighties, in the period when Mark E. was seen dancing in video's, wearing eye-liner and Armani suits, a bizarre mental illness reared its ugly head....."The Fall Fan" became common place.
Mostly post-teenage male professionals with thinning male pattern baldness, they delighted in telling anyone who would listen who their Favourite Group was, with an 'Ain't I weird' smirk. Willing the person on the receiving end of this announcement to have an aptly confused expression on their face.
Bank managers were regularly seen replacing the Jazz cd's on their coffee table with a copy of "Hex Enduction Hour".As much as Mark hated being accidentally,but on purpose, 'Cool', his 'Group' were now inevitably accessories for the Yuppie classes and trainspotters everywhere to appear 'Cool'.
Yes, a Fall Gig was a depressing experience.
But we still have the records, and The Complete Peel Sessions is arguably the best one, even if it goes downhill musically from the third session onwards....."Australians In Europe" excepted.
The words however will live on in infamy ,....infamy,infamy they all had it infa-him!
He should be interred in Poets Corner in Westminster abbey, but the great man,contrary as always would have viewed that as a failure. So an unmarked grave in hallowed ground in Prestwich will have to suffice methinks? He was, remarkably, a Christian after-all!?

Mark E. Smith as the man at C&A!?

PS...Oh, and by the way, yes he sacked a lot of group members and was permanently Drunk for at least 20 years, but he was one of the grand dukes of DIY philosophy,so he' earned this mealy mouthed tribute well.Hopefully he won't just be remembered only for being the drunk megalomaniac he's so often portrayed as? RIP MES.

Tracklist:

One
1-1 Futures And Pasts 2:35
1-2 Mother-Sister! 3:07
1-3 Rebellious Jukebox 2:59
1-4 Industrial Estate 1:44
Two
1-5 Put Away 3:33
1-6 Mess Of My 3:13
1-7 No Xmas For John Quays 4:12
1-8 Like To Blow 1:46
Three
1-9 Container Drivers 3:38
1-10 Jawbone And The Air-Rifle 3:22
1-11 New Puritan 7:13
1-12 New Face In Hell 5:02
Four
1-13 Middlemass 3:53
1-14 Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul 2:41
1-15 Hip Priest 9:23
1-16 C'n'C / Hassle Schmuck 4:13
Five
2-1 Deer Park 4:26
2-2 Look, Know 5:05
2-3 Winter 8:03
2-4 Who Makes The Nazis? 2:54
Six
2-5 Smile 5:10
2-6 Garden 10:00
2-7 Hexen Definitive / Strife Knot 9:07
2-8 Eat Y'self Fitter 7:01
Seven
2-9 Pat Trip Dispenser 4:08
2-10 2x4 4:15
2-11 Words Of Expectation 9:14
2-12 C.R.E.E.P. 2:36
Eight
3-1 Cruiser's Creek 5:49
3-2 Couldn't Get Ahead 2:33
3-3 Spoilt Victorian Child 4:55
3-4 Gut Of The Quantifier 4:42
Nine
3-5 L.A. 4:34
3-6 The Man Whose Head Expanded 5:13
3-7 What You Need 5:52
3-8 Faust Banana 5:06
Ten
3-9 Hot Aftershave Bop 3:10
3-10 R.O.D. 4:26
3-11 Gross Chapel / GB Grenadiers 6:21
3-12 US 80's-90's 4:53
Eleven
3-13 Athlete Cured 4:45
3-14 Australians In Europe 5:42
3-15 Twister 4:16
3-16 Guest Informant 4:09
Twelve
4-1 Deadbeat Descendant 2:17
4-2 Cab It Up 4:40
4-3 Squid Lord 3:48
4-4 Kurious Oranj 5:57
Thirteen
4-5 Chicago Now 5:33
4-6 Black Monk Theme 4:05
4-7 Hilary 2:22
4-8 Whizz Bang 2:59
Fourteen
4-9 The War Against Intelligence 3:02
4-10 Idiot Joy Showland 3:46
4-11 A Lot Of Wind 5:25
4-12 The Mixer 4:32
Fifteen
4-13 Free Range 4:05
4-14 Kimble 3:53
4-15 Immortality 4:27
4-16 Return 4:11
Sixteen
5-1 Ladybird (Green Grass) 4:04
5-2 Strychnine 2:54
5-3 Service 3:35
5-4 Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room 4:17
Seventeen
5-5 M5 3:08
5-6 Behind The Counter 4:03
5-7 Reckoning 3:40
5-8 Hey! Student 4:09
Eighteen
5-9 Glam Racket / Star 3:20
5-10 Jingle Bell Rock 1:08
5-11 Hark The Herald Angels Sing 3:09
5-12 Numb At The Lodge 3:00
Nineteen
5-13 He Pep! 4:15
5-14 Oleano 3:08
5-15 Chilinist 5:20
5-16 The City Never Sleeps 2:55
Twenty
5-17 D.I.Y. Meat 2:32
5-18 Spinetrak 2:39
5-19 Spencer 3:34
5-20 Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones 3:40
Twenty One
6-1 Calendar 3:00
6-2 Touch Sensitive 3:35
6-3 Masquerade 6:33
6-4 Jungle Rock6:21
Twenty Two
6-5 Bound Soul One 3:50
6-6 Antidotes 4:57
6-7 Shake-Off 1:43
6-8 This Perfect Day 2:15
Twenty Three
6-9 Theme From Sparta F.C. 3:53
6-10 Contraflow 4:05
6-11 Groovin' With Mr. Bloe 6:06
6-12 Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. 3:17
Twenty Four
6-13 Clasp Hands 4:41
6-14 Blindness 6:28
6-15 What About Us? 5:52
6-16 Wrong Place, Right Time 7:00
Bonus Track
6-17 Job Search 4:20
DOWNLOAD the downfall of MES RIP HERE!

New Blockaders With Ferial Confine ‎– "The Final Recordings" (Dom Bartwuchs ‎– DOM BW 02) 1990

These are indeed the 'Final Recordings' of Andrew Chalk's 'Ferial Confine' project, but The New Blockaders would carry on to this very day.
Andrew Chalk would go on to make increasingly disappearing and quieter music as himself in the Dark Ambient arena; whereas The New Blockaders would carry on making the same old noise for the next quarter of a century.
As much as I love a nice paint stripping noise track or two, they do tend to chafe somewhat at the boredom threshold. Like Van Morrison has made the same LP every year for fifty years, the leading lights of the Noise/Drone scene are doing the very same, pointless exercise. Having said that, Pointlessness is the entire point of The New Blockaders raison d'etre, so I can't criticize them for sticking to their dogma like limpets,as I usually criticize artists for not doing this.......they just can't win can they?
I heartily advise making just one record then stopping.Then one cannot be criticized for anything of the sort,except for being a quitter.

Tracklist:

A Untitled 17:06
B Untitled 18:21

DOWNLOAD the final downloads HERE!