Absolute Body Control ‎– "Tapes 81-89" (Sleepless Records Berlin ‎– SRB AWAKE 005)

Well, after Plastic Betrand, lets have something genuinely good from Belgium.
I've posted Absolute Body Controls early tapes before, but these are in CD quality rather than cassette, and includes some bonus tracks and unreleased stuff. Personally I prefer the cassette quality, but I know there are people out there who like the harsh reality of CD fidelity, so heres the CD reissues from 2010.
Classic Belgian minimal synth sound from one of the originators of New Beat/EBM.The weakest CD being the instrumental second tape,"Numbers"(1982), but most all of the rest is almost peerless.

Tracklisting:

Untitled 1981
1-1 Waving Hands 3:28
1-2 Touch Your Skin 3:38
1-3 Baby's On Fire 3:20
1-4 So Obvious 5:01
1-5 Total Control 2:55
1-6 A Broken Dream 3:24
1-7 Do You Feel It Inside? 2:56
1-8 Game For A Laugh 2:02
1-9 Shake 3:15
Bonustracks
1-10 Intro 1:29
1-11 A Better Way 2:51
1-12 Turning Around 3:21
Numbers 1982
2-1 1 3:27
2-2 2 3:34
2-3 3 2:01
2-4 4 3:58
2-5 5 2:35
2-6 6 3:16
2-7 7 4:39
2-8 8 1:04
2-9 9 4:37
2-10 10 3:18
2-11 11 4:48
2-12 12 3:38
2-13 13 3:59
2-14 14 6:08
2-15 15 8:15
2-16 16 5:24
Figures 1983
3-1 The Man I Wanna Be 3:51
3-2 Automatic 1 2:27
3-3 Love At First Sight 2:59
3-4 Melting Away 2:46
3-5 5 Minutes 3:46
3-6 Figures 3:58
3-7 Give Me Your Hands 2:37
3-8 Terminus 3:39
3-9 Automatic 2 4:02
Bonustracks
3-10 Cheree 3:28
3-11 Cover Of A Magazine 2:38
3-12 Did You Do It? 3:29
Live 1984
4-1 So Obvious / Sister Ray 6:00
4-2 Is There An Exit? 4:39
4-3 Radiation 2:58
4-4 I Wasn't There 5:04
4-5 Dance Dance 3:47
4-6 Pictures On The Wall 3:19
4-7 Touch Your Skin 2:46
4-8 Burning Inside 6:18
4-9 So Hard 4:37
4-10 Move Up 4:48
4-11 Wait And See (It Is Just) 3:01
4-12 Dirt 3:41
4-13 Back To Nature 5:37
Tracks 1989
5-1 Slow Action 1:01
5-2 Final Report 2:33
5-3 Faceless 2:46
5-4 Film 1 1:07
5-5 Tanzmusik 1:26
5-6 Lonely This Night 4:00
5-7 Car Fever 3:02
5-8 Film 3 1:14
5-9 B6 1:03
5-10 Do You Feel It Inside? (Remake) 3:46
5-11 Me And My Desire 4:31
5-12 Suffer In Silence 6:11
Bonustracks
5-13 Nightclubbing 3:00
5-14 Switch On 4:18

DOWNLOAD

CD1 HERE!

CD2 HERE!

CD3 HERE!

CD4 HERE!

CD5 HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Climax Productions Presents...." (Climax Productions ‎– CB 101) 1986

The inevitable vinyl follow up to the original "Climax Productions" cassette, starts off brilliantly with four classic examples of proto Belgian Electronic Body Music. Then it gets a bit 'Experimental',and then sails uncomfortably close to the kind of naff euro-disco that we anglo-saxons tend to laugh at.
However, this is still a fine minimal synth compilation from the pre-Acid House era.The bad euro-pop only serves to make the good stuff sound better.In this iTunes generation ,bad tunes too often get removed from the running order on your iPhones.Thats like deleting ying and leaving us with only Yang, or editing History to make dictators look like fine upstanding do-gooders.We need the 'bad' to know what 'good' is....then we still probably woudn't know!
Todays challenge is : to Define 'Evil' in ten words of three sylables or less....then Define musical 'Evil' in two. Nouns ARE accepted. (I'll accept Red-Hot Chilli Peppers as two words...there are exceptions to every rule after all?).

Tracklisting:

A1 –White House White - Jungle Emotions
A2 –Absolute Body Control - Car Fever
A3 –Vita Noctis - She Likes Me
A4 –Schicksal - Body Beat
A5 –Nightmare Reality - The Cage
B1 –Somnambulist - The Seaman's Imagined Fish
B2 –Private Image - The Game
B3 –The French Park - The Turn Of A Card
B4 –Cross Arc - Take This Day Away
B5 –Deliens Roger - Falling Rain
B6 –Private Image - This Belongs To Your Show

DOWNLOAD this anti-climax HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Flanders' Tape-Ology - A Compilation Of Home-Tapes" (The Cassette Factory ‎– TCF 001) 1983

A virtual manual as to how to do it yourself for the home tapers of the Benelux countries,the spiritual homeland of Minimal Synth duo's. So, predictably there are plenty of Minimal electronic tunes on board,mixed in with bizarre post-punk derivatives.Some of the vocals are delivered with such perfect English accents that it could have been made in any small town in the UK.....I may be wrong,they might even be imported Brits,but I doubt it.
Included with the cassette was a booklet with instructions on how to make your own tape....Tape-ology.A Desperate Bicycles/Scritti pollitti style call to arms for the cassette underground in Flanders,and beyond.

Tracklist:

A1	–The Misz	Only Lunies Fall	4:12
A2	–Single Handed	The Morning Carrousel	4:25
A3	–The Int	Be Loose, Be Strained	2:33
A4	–King Koen	In A Funky Saloon	2:44
A5	–Mastic	The Judgement	3:19
A6	–J.R. Smets	Untitled	2:08
A7	–Fred Veranda And His Inferior Orchestra	The Idealist	3:31
A8	–Magthea	Song For The Rosenbergs	3:45
A9	–O.B. Minimax	The Peeping Tom	2:58
B1	–J. Blond	My Baby Took Her Pictures Back Home	3:03
B2	–O Veux	Beneath Shallow Graves	5:35
B3	–Experto Credo Roberto	Houden Van...	3:50
B4	–Folle Coche	Mr Brown	1:48
B5	–Absolute Body Control	Live At Sfinx	4:29
B6	–Maniacs	He Hates To	4:59
B7	–Autonoom Leger	I Walsje	5:46

DOWNLOAD flanders download-ology HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Cabbage Part 1" (Cauchy Productions) 1985

Rather marvellous Belgian mid-eighties compilation of mostly minimal electronica,with splashes of industrial,and the odd punk rock number. I have nothing to add on the subject of Cabbages,except maybe that they are a good source of roughage to keep one regular.(when did we start referring to roughage as 'Fibre'? And why?......another cynical marketing ploy to get the population to buy nutrition free cereals I wager!).

Tracklist

A1	–Mark Hanley	Rain Song
A2	–Vita Noctis	On A Day Like This
A3	–X-Ray Pop	Mama
A4	–Palais Des Bauzards	Going Under
A5	–Unovidual	Wardance Dub
A6	–Matthew Sommerville	3000 Welds
A7	–S.O.D.	Tank Realistiskt
A8	–Absolute Body Control	Me And My Desire
A9	–Zanoisect	Exploded Cabbage Brain
B1	–No Unauthorized	Brain Cabbage Surgery
B2	–Pascal Massun	Silent Thoughts
B3	–The Misz	Het Is Geen Werk
B4	–Vita Noctis	Execution
B5	–Magthea & Unovidual	Cold Shadows
B6	–Inflammable Liquid	Teenage Wildlife
B7	–De Fabriek	Chibomptrompia
B8	–Narzisse	But That's For Later

DOWNLOAD this healthy vegetable HERE!

Absolute Body Control - "Live" (Body Tapes 004) 1984

Here they are again, our favourite Belgians, this time showing us what a Minimal Synth band can do live! This was back in the days when seeing an electronic band live was not too different from seeing a punk rock band,exciting and unpredictable, and played more or less live. No computers in sight, just the odd sequencer that had to be activated by hand, and re-loaded in front of the audience.
ABC sounded pretty good live too, especially with Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, and Suicide covers; this is real entertainment.

Track Listing:

A1 - So Obvious / Sister Ray
A2 - Is There An Exit?
A3 - Radiation
A4 - I Wasn´t There
A5 - Dance Dance
A6 - Pictures On the Wall
A7 - Touch Your Skin
B1 - Burning Inside
B2 - So Hard
B3 - Move Up
B4 - Wait And See
B5 - Dirt
B6 - Back To Nature

 
DOWNLOAD some live belgians HERE!
 or
DOWNLOAD live body control HERE!

Absolute Body Control - "Figures" (Body Tapes 003) 1983

This is the third cassette release by ABC, and is probably their best album.A welcome return to form after the instrumental "Numbers" album(which I’ll post next).Another selection of minimal analogue sine wave smoothness, and warmth. Really is a great advert for leaving things out rather than putting things in. This wouldn't be so easy to do once the evil spectre of MIDI loomed in 1984, tempting all decent electronic groups/duo's to pile as much sound into three minutes as possible.......bloody awful musical claustrophobia.
Another argument for restricting access to too much equipment for the sake of creativity. One synth,one drum machine, one voice = Perfection, like a rock power trio. Raw ,simple power.

Track Listing:

A1		The Man I Wanna Be
A2		Automatic I
A3		Love At First Sight
A4		Melting Away
A5		5 Minutes
B1		Figures
B2		Give Me Your Hands
B3		Terminus
B4		Automatic II

DOWNLOAD some figures HERE!

DOWNLOAD other figures HERE!

Absolute Body Control - "Numbers" (Body tapes 002) 1982

The second cassette release from those electronic Belgians Absolute Body Control, is a curious untitled instrumental only affair, rather like that Human League "Dignity of Labour" ep. It just sounds like a collection of backing tracks that they couldn't be bothered to put any words to.
Having said that, its still a joy to listen to all those gorgeous analogue synths going through their motions.
Not the place to start for the ABC beginner. I would recommend "Figures", or their eponymous debut.

Track Listing:

Side A :
Untitled 1-8

Side B :
Untitled 8-16

DOWNLOAD some numbers HERE!

Absolute Body Control - "S/T" (Body Tapes 001) 1981

As one is on an Electronic vibe, one feels it obligatory to post all the Absolute Body Control cassettes, starting with the self-titled debut from 1981. This is the template for the Belgian style minimal electronics that later was ridiculously called Electronic Body Music, whatever that means.
Wonderfully harsh, stark, analogue fatness, from those wonderful vintage synthesisers; hanging in space,hovering above a TR808 hammering through the center of every tune. The lyrics lean towards the minimal also, with shake, for example, consisting mainly of only the title being chanted throughout.
Everything you want in an electronic record exists here.

DOWNLOAD absolute body control HERE!
or
Alternative Google Drive control HERE!