Udder Milk Decay – "Take A Teat" (Self Released Teat-001) 1981

It has been brought to my attention that this LP had the signature of Jim Whelton of The Homosexuals, Amos and Sara etc written all over it..'tis hard to say without hearing Amos's trademark pisstake singing style.,but the artwork,and prankster style use of repurposed northern NWOBHM gods, Saxon, record labels,tended to suggest that maybe this rumour was correct?

Turns out that ,(thanks to the tireless research of PJ...you know who you are), that this speculation was utter bollox,or bullocks, as one of the culprits has been located.

'Twas one Jim Hunkin, rather than Jim Whelton,, with his brother Tim Hunkin, not Tim Whelton, buggering about at Brighton Art College with various sound generators what done it..

Listening to it with this new enlightenment, it's obviously nothing to do with Amos and Crew at all, despite the aesthetic parallels.

It sounds more like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with a spoonful of Perrey and Kingsley during their "In sound from way out" days. Could easily be a lost soundtrack to a wiped Dr. Who episode from 1965.

Which therefore makes this a supremely collectible piece of post modern  proto-electronica musique concréte which won'y get you much more than a Donkey's change out of a Monkey.

Although I sincerely hope they aren't taking the Piss out of Saxon?....my NWOBHM band of preference,the kings of the the one note bassline.

er......happy new fucking year you bunch o'cunts.

Tracklist:

TOP:

1-4 untitled

BOTTOM:

5-7 Untitled

DOWNLOAD this decaying milk HERE!

 

Seesselberg – "Synthetik 1" (Seesselberg Self-released)

 Oh Christ!.....this is on the Nurse With Wound List...Groan! It's one of those self-released German Electronic avant-garde albums,but this time without structure.This has more in common with the Early electronics of the fifties and sixties than Tangerine Dream or any of the tuneful Kosmiche Kraut musiks of the 1970's. Yeah that's right it gets on your tits....but don't show it or your 'I'm weird I am' cred will lose half a star. 

We're always being judged these days,whether its as a Host on Air B'n'B,or a struggling craftsman on Etsy, (like moi!),or, be it by your Weird mates, who obsess over the ultimate in binaural trainspotting, The fucking Nurse With Wound List. If you don't dig this then you're out of the klub.

This could have easily been the soundtrack to "The Andromeda Strain 2" when Sylvester Stallone, as Rambo, napalms the shit out of that mother fucking virus from outer space, annihilating at the same time half of China and Russia...the new, but old, communism. Goddam Atheists!

This album is of that ilk where the creatures higher up the evolutionary ladder,humans, try to sound like a couple of chimps let lose on a bunch of synthesizers,and is recorded,packaged and sold back to the higher apes who think they are intellectually superior to most everyone.....even chimps. Humans are rather arrogant creatures,who think that they have been chosen by an even higher being to receive eternal life!? The lower apes would never waste their time on such a concept.The answer to life is have a good time....allll the time (Viv Savage, Spinal Tap). So does this mean that the highest form of music is actually Hair Metal, and not random oscillator manipulation that considers itself from a loftier perch on the art chart than Motley Crue? Surely not?

Chimps show little or no interest in either medium.

Does that make me a chimp, or did anyone spot my thinly disguised overtures to Nurse With Wounds fans? Please let me join your Klub!

Did that sound suitably desperate?

Tracklist:

A1 Ouvertüre - "Jeder Ist Heutzutage Glücklich" - If Someone Survives, We Will Have A Return - Match. (Konditionsmusik - 1972) 3:41
A2 Eintrachtkreis-Paranoia (Die 200jahrfeier Findet Nicht Statt - Kondominatsmusik - 1973) 1:02
A3 Verhütungsfreudenwalzer (Kontinenzmusik Für Eine Akademie 1973) 1:27
A4 Speedy Achmed (Verhaltensanweisung 1973) 3:46
A5 Studentenzucker - "Tue Gern, Was Du Tun Mußt!" (Konfektionsmusik 1973) 0:36
A6 "Die Menschen Sind Glücklich, Sie Kriegen, Was Sie Begehren, Und Begehren Nichts, Was Sie Nicht Kriegen Können - Laubsägebastler, Briefmarkensammler Und Brieftaubenzüchter Bilden Das Rückgrat Der Menschheit" (Kondolenzmusik 1973) 10:42
B1 Phönix - 1972 (Filmmusik Zum Film "Phönix" von W.-J. Seesselberg) 10:14
B2 "Was Dir Heute Freude Macht, Das Verschieb Nicht Über Nacht!" (Kondensmusik Aus Einem Konzert Im Gallery-House London - 1973) 4:16
B3 Auszug Aus Einem Konzert In Der Düsseldorfer Kunsthalle 1971

DOWNLOAD synthetikally HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 05" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-059) 2019

 The fifth and final...for now...volume of Brad Laner's (Y'know, that guy from Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies?) epic voyage into the wirey world of modular synthesis. A suitably 'Out There' rearrangement of the synth exploration norms,genuinely pushing boundaries were there shouldn't be any.The possibilities are endless with these lovely objects,and few people actually move into the inter-galactic regions of electronica....as with all his other projects,Brad has no fear of spacewalking ,untethered,in the gaping void of convention that suffocates innovation.These sounds help to fill that vacuum somewhat.

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 05a
B Ligaments 05b

DOWNLOAD and understand the difference between ligaments and tendons HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 02" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-056) 2019

Another rewiring of the ligaments in the ligature of a genre that could be, 'Modular Synthesis".

Personally the sight of wires gives me a migraine,and the cost of this new generation of Modular synths makes me wince. But, at least we have Brad Laner to do it for us.A better candidate to make sense out of this rich retiree's 21st century version of collecting butterfly's I cannot think of.

This second tape is at least far better,and nuttier, than tape one,which was in turn far better than most indulgers in this questionable pastime........and yes, the covers do look like those Industrial Records cassettes.....a tribute within a tribute?

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 02a
B Ligaments 02b

DOWNLOAD some new ligaments HERE!

Brad Laner ‎– "Ligaments 01" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-055) 2019

 Brad Laner, the step-grandaddy of Synth Punk, among many other OUT-there musical projects too numerous to mention, is,of course, still offending the musical sensibilities of the normals to this day.

More recently Laner has taken the inevitable dive into the ever-expanding universe of modular synthesis, taking many months to record dozens of hours of live improvisations and editing them together. “Ligaments” is the result and is intended to be an ongoing series.

Sure we've all now got a room dedicated to our modular synth collections,but few people on this crumbling rock have Laner's naturally abstract insight into what makes something challenging.

You can either end up sounding like Jean Michel Jarre, or like a disintegrating alien machine.I like my Modular synth workouts to be adequately fried and burnt on at least one side.This is what these things were intended to do.Except this cassette is fried on both sides.

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 01a
B Ligaments 01b

DOWNLOAD this analog madness digitally HERE!

Edgard Varèse ‎– "Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1" (EMS Recordings ‎– EMS401) 1950/1962

Edgard Varèse has been credited as the "Father of Electronic Music",probably by himself. There's a clear behavioural pattern among artists,especially classical composers, to control events with zero wriggle room. They either long to be either dictators or composers.They are the large pulsating brain in the centre of the orchestra.If they could not do this they would regularly crop up in the extreme ends of the Political spectrum,the number one destination for the failed artist.As they cannot legally control people any other way than they could a triangle player in a symphony Orchestra,sadistically allowing him just one note,then woe betide you if you got it a nanosecond out of place. I'm sure that if Artists weren't given their medium to ejaculate their need for control they would vent their anger in the form of some attempt at doing Genocide properly,and this time 'no more mr Nice Guy!

"I Long for instruments(read instruments as people) obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, which will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm." Varèse said in June 1917,obviously his mind was with the millions of young men being slaughtered on a small strip of land in north-eastern France at the time?

As for the 'Father of Electronics' title, i would suggest there are far more worthy and earlier pretenders to the throne than Varèse,but all those Frank Zappa fans grasping over every word their hero said,won't have it any other way....Frank liked Edgard,that's all you need to know.

Ed had been hoping for using some electrical devices in his music since the twenties,composing a piece for two Theremins and voice.Then, with electronic music at last a real possibility owing to the development of the tape recorder, Varèse produced Déserts for wind, percussion and tape (1954) and Poème Électronique (1957-8), devised to be diffused,very influentially, in the Philips pavilion at the Brussels Exposition of 1958.

His non-electronic pieces, have a tendancy to sound like a bucking mule in an empty kitchen...with police siren of course.....I told you he was wacky? There are other pieces that sound not unlike the Car Horn factory that Laurel and Hardy worked in in "Saps At Sea".....horns....HORNS.....HOOOOORRRRRNNNNNSSSSS!.....after hearing this you too will need rest and plenty of sea air just like Oliver Norville Hardy was recommended by his physician.

The more trad avant-garde works on this album were recorded in New York City in 1950,taken from the original mono master tapes, except 'Interpolations' which are in stereo,and recorded in 1954.'Interpolations' are 'organized sound' compositions on magnetic tape, realized in the studios of the highfalutin Groupe de Musique Concrète,Paris.This is was that french roman nose was evolved for,to look down on 'us' along.

The original album didn't have the more Musique Concrete/electronic numbers on it, so I took the liberty of adding them, in their original, done by Edgard himself versions......so all you Zappa fans can rest easy.

Tracklist:

1 Ionisation 5:27
2 Density 21.5 3:57

Interpolations (From Déserts) (9:22)
3 Interpolation I 3:00
4 Interpolation II 2:12
5 Interpolation III 4:10

6 Octandre 7:34
7 Intégrales 10:33

8 Poème Électronique

DOWNLOAD a little electronics and a whole lotta HORNS HERE"

Various ‎Artists – "Electronic Panorama: Paris, Tokyo, Utrecht, Warszawa" (Philips ‎– 6740 001) 1970

This is the 'NOW that's what I call music" for Musique Concrete,or "NOW That's what I don't call Musique" for most people. Looking at the pictures of the artists on insert cover, it seems that to make music like this you needed to wear National Health Service spectacles,wear a suit, have a side-parting even if you were balding, and be male! The being 'male' part was not an essential ingredient,as emphasized on this blog, by the lengthy 'Women in Electronics' thread wot I dun a few weeks back. And there's me thinking that Holland was a progressively liberal state.
More likely is that women,sensible creatures that they are, just don't wanna make silly directionless sonic nonsense, or Nonsense Sonique, like this;putting their undeniable talents into such popular male ghetto's as Football,getting blind drunk and mindless violence.

The intention of this four disc compilation was to show us nay-sayers that Musique Concrete was a worlwide phenomenon,and we do get some early noise pioneers from Japan,which is where the best disc in this quadruple album draws its tracks from.Was this the start of the japanoise obsession with how to damage ears without touching them....an extention of their interest in torture and disembowelling themselves at the drop of a hat.
The French disc, naturally has all the legends of Concréte, Schaeffer,Henry, Ferrari, Parmegiani, in fact anyone without a French surname.
After listening to the entire three hours and twenty minutes of this album, you will be willingly joining your Japanese chums with a celebratory disembowelling.After raiding this for a bunch of rather marvellous samples of course.


Tracklist:

Disc 1: Groupe De Recherches Musicales De L'O.R.T.F.
1–Ivo Malec- Spot 1:35
2–Luc Ferrari- Visage V 10:34
3–Guy Reibel- 2 Variations En Étoile 6:49
4–Bernard Parmegiani- Ponomatopées 6:33
5–Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
6–Pierre Schaeffer- / Pierre Henry- Bidule En Ut 2:30
7–Ivo Malec- Dahovi II 7:20
8–Pierre Schaeffer- Étude Aux Allures 3:30
9–François Bayle Solitioude 6:30
Disc 2: Studio Voor Elektronische Muziek Utrecht
10–Jaap Vink- Screen 7:30
11–Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
12–Frits Weiland- Textuur 6:50
13–Jacob Cats- Lux 6:55
14–Alireza Maschayeki- Shur 6:40
15–Luctor Ponse- Radiophone 6:01
16–Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00
17–Gottfried Michael Koenig- Funktion Blau 6:00
Disc 3: Studio Of Radio NHK, Tokyo
18–Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
19–Maki Ishii- Kyoō 13:15
20–Minao Shibata- Improvisation 9:32
21–Makoto Moroi- Shōsanke 13:20
Disc 4:Studio Eksperymentalne Polskie Radio
22–Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
23–Andrzej Dobrowolski- Musique Pour Bande Magnétique Et Hautbois Solo 9:00
24–Arne Nordheim- Solitaire 11:00
25–Włodzimierz Kotoński- Microstructures 5:20
26–Bogusław Schaeffer- Symphonie 17:40

DOWNLOAD music to disembowell yourself to HERE!

Tod Dockstader ‎– "Eight Electronic Pieces" (Self-Released) 1961

Thanks Tod, I knew I was the real talent behind all these musique concrete records.....as the man himself explains:

"Electronic music is recorded music -it exists only in a recording. The cuts on this record are not performances that have been recorded - they ARE the performances; you perform the piece when you play it on the phonograph."

Hmmmmmmm?

Tod was a sound effects engineer for animated cartoons in 1950's Hollywood,when he must have heard a few of his contemporaries getting acclaim for making so-called 'Avant-Garde'records that sounded like the sound effects he was making for kids cartoons.

Smartly realising that he could do this 'Musique Concrete' stuff,he began making 'Electronic' pieces from 1958 onwards.

Not so smartly,he would soon realise that there's bugger all money in Avant-Garde composition, but it can lead to a string of easily impressed stalkers,similar to those who think Artists are 'special', and that Poets aren't just lazy short story writers.

Musique Concrete has many similarities with Poetry,and Abstract Painting,as its the easier route to making product.Just as Poets don't have the staying power to even write a pamphlet of their dreary prose,if they write anything at all,-the pose is the prose-,and Abstract painters don't even have to paint something recognisable,Avant Garde Electronics relieve the composer of the hassle of writing a melody...its too bloody difficult for starters.The only brain power needed is to dream up some confusing explanation to justify the general inactivity surrounding these finished works of Art.No-one can say you're not working when you're primarily a "Thinker".

The basic needs of the male can be met simply by covering his lack of actual talent with a thick layer of bullshit.This will bring him credulous young women,fame, to appeal to ladies he's never met,and rave reviews by equally pretentious and talentless art critics,to boost his ego.Yes 'Artists' of all kinds are generally lazy talentless bastards looking for a life livin' on easy street.

Whether Tod Dockstader fits into this category, I don't know;but he did manage to create this without going to a music school,and self-release his own album...all this in 1961. How many he actually sold isn't revealed, but Folkways Records later re-released it,eager to get on that darn Avant-Garde bandwagon that was gaining momentum by 1961.

Well I enjoyed it anyway...me being a pretentious feckless arsehole looking for an easy earner.Or,simply that i like funny noises....Don't we all?

Tracklist:

1 Piece #1 2:01
2 Piece #2 3:06
3 Piece #3 4:12
4 Piece #4 2:31
5 Piece #5 4:32
6 Piece #6 3:09
7 Piece #7 8:01
8 Piece #8 9:08

DOWNLOAD and perform HERE!

Josef Anton Riedl ‎– "Klangregionen 1951- 2007" (Edition RZ ‎– Ed. RZ 1020-21) 2009

Another pioneer of concrete and Early electronic music composition, Riedl co-founded and became music director of Siemens Studio für elektronische Musik in the nazi homeland of Munich (1956-66)...good to hear that Siemens' massive war profits from slave labour were invested in something worthwhile?

The 'music' on this retrospective has the same problem as most of the Musique Concrete lot,an inate inability to repeat any of the sequences to suggest at least, some, musicality,rather than just piling one noise after another so it becomes more like a sound effects record rather than an articulate piece of modern composition. The dark ambient pieces apart, the stream of funny noises does tend to get on one's proverbial tits somewhat....an accusation that admittedly doesn't just fall at the feet of Herr Riedl.There are many other guilty parties in the early Electronics gang.

Nonetheless there are many atmospheric and interesting works among these 24 tracks worthy of admission into the Electronic Hall Of Fame.

I'd better end it there before I start ranting on about Nazi's ,who's a Nazi, and who isn't a Nazi,again....I'm beginning to sound like an Industrial tape in flesh,but without the tape echo effects!?

However,this doesn't change the fact that without Nazi's there'd be nothing worth watching on TV, and next to nothing to accuse each other of, which would make for a very boring life. 'Nazi-Fatigue is as real a thing as 'Holocaust Fatigue';don't let it get cha!

Tracklist:

1 Paper Music I 4:28
2 Studie 59 I 2:39
3 Zeichnen - Klatschen / Zeichnen - Zeichnen 4:00
4 Aus Landschaftsbeschreibung I 4:58
5 Mix Fontana Mix 4:58
6 Silphium 4:08
7 Lautgedichtfolge G) 4:52
8 Ausfluss, Niederschlag, Spur, Nachhall I 4:17
9 Douce-amère 3:06
10 Komposition Nr. 2 10:15
11 Polygonum 1:25
12 Leonce Und Lena 1:44
13 Vielleicht - Duo 3:16
14 Musique Concrète - Studie II 2:27
15 Musique Concrète - Studie I 2:53
16 Leonce Und Lena B 3:38
17 Folge Von 4 Studien: Studie 62 I 2:07
18 Folge Von 4 Studien: Studie 62 II 5:46
19 Klangsynchronie I Studie 59 6:16
20 Studie 61 I 2:08
21 Komposition Nr. 3 6:49
22 Ideir Notna Fesoj 51:02
23 Elektronische Musik - Studie II 2:17
24 Elektronische Musik - Studie I 5:46

DOWNLOAD some german electronics with very few nazi references HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Electronic 2000 (Philips ‎– 6585 007) 1971

While everyone in the British Isles were inexplicably making music everyone wanted to listen to and pay enormous amounts of money to its creators for the privilege, the also-ran nations were releasing compilations of serious minded weirdness  by even more serious looking librarian types and university lecturers. The Netherlands being one of the main culprits;making music no-one wanted to listen to, never mind pay for. This compilation,one of thousands from the same epoch with the word 'Electronic' in its title, is a case in point,bringing together Librarians from all over the world to appear on an evocation of what we would all be dancing to in the RollerDisco by the year 2000......which was, and still is the Future, where good taste in Electronica resides.
Back in 1980,which I also mistakenly thought was 'the Future', the year 2000 seemed unimaginably far away,and one could only wonder at what magic awaited us in the ensuing 21st century........i think you know where this is going?........indeed what treasures have we been spoilt with in the first two decades of the Two Thousand's......Twerking, free internet porn for the starving,Kanye West, instant information on what Kim CarKrashian is doing in any given second, Cars that all look the same,but still use the internal combustion engine and rubber tyres, trains that can get you anywhere you want to be late in, as quickly as possible.......I could go on,but basically fuck-all has changed fundementally since 1980.Except, easier acces to the kind of prescription medication that you can see in blurry form on the cover of this aural prediction on plastic.......a recorded medium that we thought would never survive the Millenium,but twenty years hence is now the fastest growing seller in this shrinking market. One advancement is that super-rich pop stars are now endangered species,'cus we can get all their rip-off product for freeeeee, just like those poor little starving kids in africa can now all access freee pornography.
One prediction that has certainly gone wrong, is that we'll all be listening to Penderecki by 2012, and dancing to Luctor Ponse in the skool disko by 2008-ish.
Almost true......male record collectors now chew their arms off to get hold of a vinyl copy of this album,and others like it, to impress ....er....other male record collectors.

What??.....the record?.....oh yes.....its dead good.
Track 1 is your typical Japanese groaning woman intersperced with Hitler speeches over an electronic morass....you know the one Beyoncé wanted to do a cover version of.And the type of record that many an Industrial Artist ripped off and made their own,whilst at the same time moaning that illegal downloading was costing them money???
The rest is quite simply,just as good,especially the rampant use of a short wave radio on track 4, and could clear a room of K-Pop fans in nano-seconds.
It is therefore highly recommended to download this for Freeeee,and deprive these musique concréte masters of the same one quarter of one percent of the profits that you are denying Feargal Sharkey of everytime you illegally download 'Teenage Kicks'.


Tracklist:

A1 –Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
A2 –Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
A3 –François Bayle- Solitioude 6:30
B1 –Luctor Ponse- Radiophonie I 6:01
B2 –Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
B3 –Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
B4 –Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00

DOWNLOAD via your trendy vintage 1999 AOL dial-up conection 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!

Zoltán Jeney ‎– "Om" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12708) 1986

John Coltrane's "Om", or anti-Om, as made on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum,by some cat called Zoltan!?....so that's either Zoltan, Cat of Dracula, or John Zoltrane?
Zoltrane, uses a french...yes French!!!?...synth called a 'Rsf Kobol',which if made to French manufacturing standards in 1986 would break down or fall apart as soon as you glanced in its general direction. I've never seen another artist use one of these who wasn't French....they like to buy French product do the French, no matter how crap it is. Then we have it hooked up to a computer designed by the idiot who produced the Sinclar C5 electric "I'm A Twat" sign on wheels.
I'm surprised the ZX Spectrum could handle the minimal repetetive sequence that plays continuously for fifty minutes.It must have used at least one whole kilobyte of the massive 128 Kilobyte memory that comfortably enabled kids to play Donkey Kong for hundreds of brain numbing hours.It obviously numbed the Brain of 'Sir' Clive Sinclair.....yes, this dick was knighted!?.....as he ruined his company with that ridculous plastic death chariot that he thought would revolutionise road transport.
The Commodore C64 was usually the home computer to go for concerning Electronic Mooozik production.Why' I've even used it myself,as my first sampler,and it had a built in synth called the 'SID Chip', which made unique lo-fi squelchy synth sounds. The ZX had nothing like that, so I'm at a loss as to why Zoltrane opted for this lo-tech device. Probably an importing beyond the Iron Cutain problem.Hungary only got Stockhausen LP's and ZX Spectrum's smuggled into it's musicians grasps.
They are likely all absolute whizzes at 'Donkey Kong' I wager.
Then came the Atari ST, with MIDI!?...just in time for the Acid House debacle.
Thanks to the Chernobyl disater,1986 was a good year for high background radiation levels,which made all Geiger Counters sing like a Nightingale on Crystal Meth. So ,maybe, that noise was Zoltrane's inspiration for this nursery rhyme from the reactor core of communist computer music.
I guess this could be referred to as a sequenced hypnotic drone,which it is,but I won't repeat it again; and it's certainly an easy way to fill up two sides of a vinyl LP.Kinda like an Avant-Garde Rock'n'Roll swindle,but,it being from a communist country,no money will have exchanged hands in the process.What is missing, is a robot chanting "Oooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm".....now that would have said something worthwhile?At least about the human tendancy to follow hive minded religions robotically.


Tracklist:

A-Om 1 (26:20)
B-Om 2 (26:12)

DOWNLOAD ominously for the eastern bloc HERE!

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

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


Tracklist:

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

DOWNLOAD and be an independant electronic poser HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "From Czech Electronic Music Studios" (Supraphon ‎– 1 11 1423) 1974

If ever there was a soundtrack to life in a police state then this is it. On State Label Supraphon, with cover art from some twisted nightmarish detention centre inmate after a long spell of sleep deprivation, this musique concréte escapade emits all the joylessness of a lifetime spent under curfew.
Largely involving tape manipulation,and thankfully lacking access to the Soviet Union's state-owned EMS synthi 100 in Moscow, the edited and varispeeded recorded sounds have all the characteristics of a fully furnished subterranean dungeon in Prague.
Each new track is like an interrogator saying "Let's Go back to the Beginning",as it seems we've been here before but still aren't any wiser as to what you did last summer,especially as every day feels like winter.Music that'll make you admit to anything to avoid the 'Bath of Shit' part of the afternoon.Nothing's worth that illegally imported pair of jeans you purchased from that under-cover policeman last July.
Most of Czechoslavakia's prog rock fraternity were locked up in the same interrogation centre that this stuff evokes,but you could get away with it if you achieved the status of of 'Official Musician'. Without the nod from the State you weren't allowed to play music to a paying audience,if at all.Anything 'western' or subversive was an arrestable offence; as the Zappa-esque Plastic People Of The Universe found out. 
The composers of these creepy early electronic cattle prod-a-gogo instruments of aural torture,were,of course, possessors of pieces of paper that allowed them the distinction of being official 'State Composers', so they were safe in their state provided accomodation.....undoubtedly bugged,but its a rent controlled roof over one's head, where subversive thoughts could be encrypted into indecipherable weird noises and passed off as 'Avant-Garde'.


Tracklist:

1 –Zbyněk Vostřák - Scales Of Light (1967) 13:55
2 –Miloslav Ištvan - Isle Of Toys (1968) 9:25

Two Parts From The Kinetic Ballet (1968)

3 –Václav Kučera - The Labyrinth 14:00
4 –Václav Kučera - The Spiral 7:35

DOWNLOAD the sudetenland of electronics HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Magyar Elektronikus Zene: Hungarian Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 11851) 1979

Oh Those Hungarians and their weird Iron curtain ways,and their kerazzzzy christian names like.....er.....Peter!!!?.....two Peters in fact.Theres a Peter Winkler on here,surely no relation to Fonz legend Henry I trust? Anything's possible in the world of avant garde Electronic music,even a 'Happy Days' connection.Despite the music summoning enough power through discomfort to rename this shit TV series as "Unhappy Days"
I'm relieved to say that the other names are far more in the malevolent dictator realm,like Ivan, and the previously discussed Zoltan......wasn't that the hound of Dracula's name?
The...er.....'music', is suitably castle dungeon in it's homeliness.
The odd appearance of The Soup Dragon from the Clangers,in Zoltan's work,place the evil one head and shoulders above his compatriots,although its all jolly sinister.Evoking empty space,lonliness and fear amongst the moist cloisters of a vampire's mountain top chateau.A Hungarian 'Trump Tower',but with taste.

Tracklist:

A1 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Mariphonia(1972) 8:07
A2 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Egy Cisz-Dur Akkord Története (1975) 5:48
A3 –Peter Eötvös - Mese: Rövidített Változat (1968) 12:18
B1 –Iván Patachich - Magánhangzók: Ta Fonaenta (1976) 8:06
B2 –Iván Patachich - Hangzó Függvények (1975) 10:37
B3 –Máté Victor & Péter Winkler - Viscositas (1975) 5:12

DOWNLOAD if you're hungry enough HERE!

László Dubrovay ‎– "A² "/ "Oscillations Nos. 1-3" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12030) 1979

Any cover with close ups of an EMS synth is always iminently purchasable,and doubly so if it comes from behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war times.
For some reason communist Hungarians had a Stockhausen fixation, and enthusiastically made silly electronic noises and drew charts with the same efficiency as they helped Eichmann deport a million jewish citizens to the Auschwitz labour camp (notice how i called it 'a labour camp' to avoid know all anti-zion conspiracists telling me how many really died and how.....yeah we got holocaust fatigue as well as conspiracy fatique.....look I Don't Care understand!?...and yeah yeah yeah, I'm a Fascist,which is different to a Nazi by the way...well done you keyboard finger pointers....well done).
I figure that the only western records they could smuggle through customs were by Stockhausen,which would explain the number of serious electronic composers in Magyar land.....But that does not explain their numerous ,badly dressed prog bands, like the dreadful 'Omega',which i did feature on the blog, but ,true communists that they were/are, they made a DCMA complaint against me and the download had to be withdrawn(but you can check it here in the post on the terrible hungaro-rock album "Bum".
Its funny how former commies now make for the very worst capitalists.Humans do have a natural tendancy to burn down their houses to keep themselves warm,capitaist or communist.That's why, neither dogma works.
These electronic pieces are from the 'I've got a Synth and I'm gonna Use It school of 'Because I Can'.
A series of very pointless sound effects rechristened as music. Its great background music to a slow moving science fiction epic, or a wacky off-kilter fondue evening, but taking it seriously as a modern composition is strictly for the pseudo-intellectual in your cell.
Maybe this was an easy way to get a more favourable appartment in the brutalist tower block that László was allocated before he became an 'Artist', I dunno.Basically, he had access to an astronomically expensive EMS synth and his fellow brothers and sisters did not.....that's equality for you.
Good cover though.


Tracklist:

A1 "A²" (16:38)
A2 Oscillations No. 3 (9:45)
B1 Oscillations No. 1 (18:00)
B2 Oscillations No. 2 (11:50)

DOWNLOAD László the oscillating Hungarian HERE!

Gil Mellé ‎– "Tome VI" (Verve Records ‎– V6-8744) 1968

Yes, it's 'Jazz'.....impressed?...nah,me niether.
But it's more than that, It's Jazz with an Early Electronics flavor......Now you're 'Hip',all the way from the original hipster to the modern hipster all in one package with free beard grooming kit.
Gil made the "Andromeda Strain" Soundtrack, which featured rather more Electronics as played by a bunch of chimps at Twycross Zoo.The same Zoo which had a chimp who could gob a ball of rancid saliva at a chump,this chump,doing monkey impressions over 50 metres away,effortlessy. A bit like a Jazz Trumpeter.
It has been mentioned on the wonderful interweb that yours truly has no idea how difficult it is to make free-form electronic soundscapes,especially in the early 70's. Well, I have a lot of idea how difficult it is to make electronic sounscapes with fuck all money,in fact I'd say it would be nigh-on impossible.An accusation made by someone who makes electronic soundscapes about someone who doesn't because everyone does nowadays is rather irrelevant anyhow. Yes, a bunch of chimps with a VCS3 could make a wonderful noise,but, like me, they have bugger-all money to buy one,even the budget Behringer version.
Here we find our Gil making glorious Free Jazz improv with ...yes,Electronics, to show how hard it is to make improvised Jazz music...and the key word here is 'Music'. Basically any discerning pond dweller can make a complete racket,but at the expense of the music.....that's the hard bit. Make all the soundscapes and funny noises you want, but makin' melodies ain't easy, buying a synthesizer and switching it on, is.
This album is great, and as a bonus you can impress everyone  as to how intellectual you are at the same time.Jazz is, Jazz was,chacachacaaaaah!


Tracklist:

1.Blue Quasar 15:15
2.Elgin Marble 4:15
3.Man With The Flashlight 11:40
4.Jog Falls Spinning Song 6:15

DOWNLOAD music chimps can't play HERE!

Raymond Scott ‎– "Manhattan Research Inc." (Basta ‎– 30-9078-2) 2000

Whereas one ,rather more famous, Manhatten Project became the Destroyer of Worlds.
There was another that became the Creator Of Worlds,in fact the creator of the synth.This one was run by Raymond Scott,who spent his time stretching the limits of modern 1950's science to make something positive for the future of mankind,rather than its destruction.Although some of the music his research and innovation went on to enable its existence by,would make any sane man choose nuclear annihilation rather than have this torture inflicted upon them.
From around 1949 onwards,former Big Band Jazzer Raymond, spent most all of his time inventing early synth's like the "Electronium", and the "Clavinox",which was a keyboard controlled Theremin,and the "Karloff",an early sampler. Naturally he used all this gear in his wacky music,which can be heard in most decent american cartoons up to and including ,in my opinion, The best TV series ever made, "The Ren and Stimpy Show".
This posthumous release of unreleased works discovered at his home, showcases Scott's pioneering electronics from the 1950s and 1960s with his futuristic electronic compositions mainly used in television and radio commercials and for the burgeoning market for novelty records of electronic music.He was highly prolific in all areas of early electronic music it seems.

So that's why he was forgotten?
Tracklist:

1-01 Manhattan Research, Inc. Copyright 0:11
1-02 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Instrumental, Take 4) 1:14
1-03 Bendix 1: "The Tomorrow People" 1:06
1-04 Lightworks 1:52
1-05 The Bass-Line Generator 3:10
1-06 "Don't Beat Your Wife Every Night!" 1:44
1-07 "B.C. 1675" (The "Gillette" Conga Drum Jingle) 3:16
1-08 Vim 0:59
1-09 Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful (Instrumental) 0:47
1-10 Sprite "Melonball Bounce" (Instrumental) 1:01
1-11 Sprite "Melonball Bounce" 0:59
1-12 "Wheels That Go" 0:50
1-13 "Limbo: The Organized Mind" 4:33
1-14 "Portofino" 1 2:13
1-15 County Fair 1:01
1-16 Lady Gaylord 1:02
1-17 Good Air (Take 7) 0:38
1-18 IBM MT/ST: "The Paperwork Explosion" 4:31
1-19 Domino 0:33
1-20 Super Cheer 0:34
1-21 Cheer: Revision 3 (New Backgrounds) 0:39
1-22 "Twilight In Turkey" 1:32
1-23a Raymond Scott Quote 0:55
1-23b Vicks: Medicated Cough Drops 0:41
1-24 Vicks: Formula 44 0:46
1-25 Auto-Lite: Spark Plugs 1:00
1-26 Nescafé 1:06
1-27 Awake 0:35
1-28 "Backwards Overload" 6:04
1-29 Bufferin: "Memories" (Original) 0:59
1-30 Bandito The Bongo Artist 1:30
1-31 Night And Day 1:45
1-32 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. ("395") 1:07
1-33 K2r 0:19
1-34 IBM Probe 1:56
1-35 GMGM 1A 1:49
1-36 The Rhythm Modulator 3:37
2-01 Ohio Plus 0:17
2-02 "In The Hall Of The Mountain Queen" 0:49
2-03 General Motors: Futurama 1:04
2-04 "Portofino" 2 2:14
2-05 "The Wild Piece" (a.k.a. "String Piece") 4:07
2-06 "Take Me To Your Violin Teacher" 1:40
2-07 "Ripples" (Original Soundtrack) 0:59
2-08 Cyclic Bit 1:04
2-09 "Ripples" (Montage) 4:06
2-10 The Wing Thing 1:00
2-11 County Fair (Instrumental) 1:00
2-12 "Cindy Electronium" 1:59
2-13 "Don't Beat Your Wife Every Night!" (Instrumental) 1:45
2-14 Hostess: Twinkies 0:32
2-15 Hostess: Twinkies (Instrumental) 0:32
2-16 Ohio Bell: Thermo Fax 0:24
2-17 "The Pygmy Taxi Corporation" 7:11
2-18 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Announce Copy, Take 1) 0:29
2-19 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. 0:44
2-20 Lightworks (Slow) 1:40
2-21 "The Paperwork Explosion" (Instrumental) 3:39
2-22 Auto-Lite: Ford Family 1:03
2-23 Auto-Lite: Ford Family (Instrumental) 0:54
2-24a Raymond Scott Quote 0:27
2-24b Auto-Lite: "Wheels" 1:23
2-25 Bufferin: "Memories" (Demo) 0:40
2-26 "Space Mystery" (Montage) 5:11
2-27 "The Toy Trumpet" 2:15
2-28 "Backward Beeps" 1:05
2-29a Raymond Scott Quote 0:35
2-29b Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful 1:01
2-30 Lightworks (Instrumental) 1:29
2-31 "When Will It End?" 3:14
2-32 Bendix 2: "The Tomorrow People" 1:03
2-33 Electronic Audio Logos, Inc. 5:23

DOWNLOAD the only manhatten research project worth remembering HERE!

Perrey & Kingsley ‎– "The In Sound From Way Out!" ( Vanguard ‎– VSD-79222) 1966

From the 'Stereolab' (now where have we heard that before?) of  Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey....fine american names both.....we bring you "The In Sound From Way Out!";probably one of the top ten album titles of alllll time. It even got used twice when The Beastie Boys brought out an album with the same name,same cover, but far far shitter music inside.
Using all those avant garde Musique Concréte techniques made famous by lofty com-poseurs like Pierre Schaeffer nigh-on twenty years previously.Perrey and Kingsley did the american thing and made the silliest music possible with kilometres of magnetic tape and a razor blade.I say 'silly', but if some French bloke fresh out of the Conservatoire de Musique made this in 1952,it would still be hailed as a ground breaking work of art-sonique to this day.
Instead it's filed in the Novelty section as a rediscovered piece of cheese to break the ice at your soirée...in fact exactly what it was created for in 1966.Forget History and we're doomed to repeat it.....oh shit,was that my right wing ignorance and a reference to Statue toppeling again??? In which case I don't apologize.


Tracklist:

1.Unidentified Flying Object 1:55
2.The Little Man From Mars 2:25
3.Cosmic Ballad 3:24
4.Swan's Splashdown 2:15
5.Countdown At 6 2:49
6.Barnyard In Orbit 2:24
7.Spooks In Space 2:00
8.Girl From Venus 2:21
9.Electronic Can-Can 2:00
10.Jungle Blues From Jupiter 2:55
11.Computer In Love 2:03
12.Visa To The Stars 2:13

DOWNLOAD the out sound from way inside HERE!

Tom Dissevelt ‎– "Tom Dissevelt ‎– Fantasy in Orbit. Round the world with electronic music by Tom Dissevelt" ( Philips ‎– 633 302 BY) 1963

This could have been the Dr Who soundtrack that never was....in fact it never was a Dr Who soundtrack. Tom Dissevelt isn't as re-discovered as Delia Derbyshire, or as cute,or as tragic,so he's already struggling in the pathos stakes,as well as being compleatly forgotten until the early part of this century. that said, there isn't anything here to rival the 'Dr Who Theme' of the same year,so maybe he deserves to be in Delia's shadow.
There are, however,many similarities between the electronic concréte sound of Dissevelt and Derbyshire,which is unsurprising as they had virtually the same equipment.Although with the funding from Phillips for the Nat Lab, I guess Tom would have had the superior kit compared to what the BBC were likely to have provided the lovely Delia and chums at BBC Maida Vale.
Is this where Bowie nabbed his Major Tom character from?He was known to be a fan,and Tom was indeed the first Dutchman in space, albeit in sound only.


Tracklist:

1. Ignition
2. Atlantic
3. Spearheads
4. Zanzi
5. Anchor Chains
6. Tropicolours
7. Gamelan
8. Woomerangs
9. Waltzing Matilda
10. Pacific Dawn
11. Gold And Lead
12. Mexican Mirror
13. Seconds To Eternity
14. Re-entry

DOWNLOAD the first dutchman in space HERE!