Croiners ‎– "The Relentless Rhythm Of Change" (Jim Tapes ‎– 007) 1988

"The Relentless Rhythm of Change" is, in this epoch of music making, an ironic appellation.But, this process still exists,albeit in recorded form, and is manifest in any Croiners tape; where the music/non-music is in a constant state of flux. Normally a staccato barrage of short, sample filled, blasts; Jim Levine stretches out a few tracks up to the 12 minute barrier of  a modern X-Boxer's attention span. All 'Untitled', all pretty wacky,and most of you will be relieved to hear that I have now run out of Croiners tapes to post. I'm almost euphoric......no more editing of hundreds of untitled sound bursts,heading off my repetitive strain injuries at the pass.
This tape showcases a more ambient minimal synth style, mixed in with the usual sample loops,and bizarre spoken word samples.Thank you Croiners, its been good.

Tracks:

1-18 Untitled
DOWNLOAD the relentless mp3's of change HERE!

Croiners ‎– "A Sample Of Croiners" (Jim Tapes ‎– 004) 1987

Croiners test the listeners attention spans by including compositions of 4 minutes length,and even push the eight minute barrier! Steady on there! Almost prog pretensions rearing their cape wearing heads there(Does one wear a cape on ones head?). Maybe secretly Mr Levine wears a splendid sparkling cloak style garment  for relaxation of an evening,and plays two samplers at the same time for fun? Is this his "Journey to the Centre of the Earth"?.........er......no.....mainly because of the lack of the London Symphony Orchestra,and naff storyline.That and the fact that there is no concept other than being as bizarre and non linear as possible......an Anti-Concept album if you will? Place this tape in the same room as Jeff Waynes "War of the Worlds" and it could cause total annihilation of all matter and a gravitational collapse of the history of Pop! Such sweet temptation?Maybe it would be a benevolent act  to press the 'Pop History eraser ' button,and start that exciting ride again, which ended around the silly time that Grunge appeared. It had already become very unexciting and desperate after 1984, coming to a grinding halt in the mid-nineties. Yes, Music is dead as a relevant portal for change, philosophy and innovation. In its current splintered form its lost all direction and meaning,to become,sadly, just "entertainment"(with a little 'e').....and pretty dull entertainment at that.
Would you, press the 'Pop History Eraser Button'?
I for one, don't know what I'm gonna do, because Jeff Wayne's classic cheese opera resides proudly on my iPod,and I wanna have this tape on there too (I don't, however, own a copy of Rick Wakeman's 'Journey To The Centre Of the Earth')! Will this result in my media mass storage device ceasing to exist? If there's any theoretical physicists,or theoretical musicians reading this (I doubt it very much), can you reassure me that this won't happen? But,then again........????

(PS, Deep Purple's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" anyone? (sigh!)If only there was a 'Deep Purple eraser button'! I think we'd all press that one!)

Tracks:

Untitled 1-17

DOWNLOAD a sample of samplerdelia from Croiners HERE!

Croiners ‎– "Midi Ditties" (Jim Tapes) 1987

41 more untitled musical mash-ups for people with short attention spans. Not too sure if this should have been edited,or left as two whole symphonies to channel surfing.Nevertheless,now you can speed up the surfing even more by exercising your skip button finger,and enhancing the whole experience.
I'll have to admit my attention span was tested severely when chopping this up into tracks....needless to say it took a long time,and I don't wanna repeat the experience. Contrary to popular opinion I do have a life....just.
The music is yer standard Croiners looped electronic mayhem,with lashings of disembodied out of context speech madness. The later tracks,however, tend to lean heavily on the horrible tech of the mid-eighties.Those god-awful digital drum machines,with their 'Real', lifeless, drum samples; recorded by Japanese technicians who seem to have never heard a rock/pop record.This approach worked when the drum sounds were analogue,but when they tried to make a drum machine not sound like a drum machine, it was an unmitigated disaster. Also, Jim Levine catches a case of the "N-n-n-n-n-Nineteen" syndrome,messing about with speech samples like we all did when we first took our Ensoniq Mirage out of its box for the first time. This makes the latter part of this tape sound a bit dated and of its time; but hey, why not?

Track Listing;

Tracks 1-41 - Untitled.

DOWNLOAD many mini midi ditties HERE!

Croiners ‎– "Introspective Retrospective Vol. 1" (Jim Tapes ‎– 003) 1987

Another 36(!) untitled fractured electronic ditties,that sound variously like;a microphone without a wind shield in a storm, a rusty oil tanker sliding down an enormous blackboard, and Gary Numan after being hit by a speeding train. All this, and ,of course, many bizarre,maybe even random, speech samples,contained in a hand painted rubber bag, with a photograph, and the negative of the photograph . What more could you desire to pass another boring afternoon in your prison cell?

Track Listing:

Tracks 1-36 - Untitled

DOWNLOAD retrospectively but introspectively HERE!

Croiners ‎– "Music To Listen To Other Tapes By" (Jim Tapes ‎– 005) 1987

Another whole hour of untitled ,looping, loopy samplerdelic nonsense from Jim Levine ,aka Croiners. Random speech samples battle it out with unhinged sound loops to recreate what the Earth must sound like to any alien radio telescope monitoring our microwave filled atmosphere. If they listen closely they will know the shear madness it would be for them to invade and steal our women. No doubt, any alien with any taste would thoroughly enjoy this hypnotic, and frequently very funny C60; yet heed a warning of the inherent madness of the most frightening species in the  Galaxy.

Track Listing:

Side A:

Untitled 1-7

Side B:

Untitled 8-16

DOWNLOAD music to download other tapes to HERE!

Croiners ‎– "Learning To Live With Croiners" (Sound Of Pig ‎– SOP 80) 1987

James Levine,aka Croiners,with contributions from Al Margolis ,aka  Deaf lions,deliver one hell of a fast paced trip through every TV channel on US cable in the 1980's. Chopped up into a confusing attack that should suit the minuscule attention spans of todays version of humanity. Frequently there's  a different channel playing in each ear;reminding me of my teenage years when I was regularly seen reading a book whilst listening to ear burstingly loud Punk Rock and watching TV at the same time!?Somehow, I'm sure I was taking all three mediums in on a multidimensional level of subconsciousness.
Mixed in with the manic looped channel hopping,are various record snippets,looped noise,and some squelchy synth noodling. One sublime moment is when a section of Dr Stanley Z. Daniels',toe curling cheese classic, "Sex Explained for Children", is played for a small audience.This was back in the days when nobody had heard these unbelievable, so bad they're good, bargain bin records.Pre-empting the Incredibly Strange Music fad of the 1990's, and Plunderphonics.

(I tried editing side one into its eleven tracks, but it was impossible to hear or see where one track started and the other ended! But I think it works fine as one sidelong track.....by all means have a go yourself!?)

Track Listing:

A1- Trks 1-11 (30.08)
B1- recorded at Jims Tapes (9.32)
B2- Another Excerpt from the Deaf lions/Croiners Mail Collaboration (20.53)

DOWNLOAD and learn to live with croiners HERE!

Minóy\Zannóy - "Mr. Chanes Deaf Mix For Jake Hobo" (ZH27 - 411) 1986

This is what those guys hear in their heads, y’know , the ones that cover the walls of their house in aluminium foil to stop their minds being probed? Certain persons have to take serious anti-psychotic medication to stop music like this occurring naturally, this is basically the world music for the 21^stcentury,or even Nu-Folk with telepathy in place of song. It conveys what it feels like to be alive in an increasingly impersonal environment,where ones relationships are formed in isolation via a plasma screen. This is the inescapable cancerous throb of microwaves chopping up your genetic code,and rearranging it as the next mutation in this planets evolution. Or is it the sound of mankind’s last scream before the planet saves itself by bringing forth another mass extinction, like a human immune system would remove a bacterial infection. Either way, the future looks black, and I’m gonna cover my walls with Aluminium foil. “Why won't the voices Sttttttoooooopppppp!!??”

 Maybe because I didn’t press the stop button!?

DOWNLOAD this music for the deaf HERE!