Mark Shreeve – "No Holes Barred" (Church Road Records - MCCR6) 1986

 

From the less precious end of the recent deaths in music trophy cabinet, comes one of the more 'successful' prime movers in the UK Electronic Underground of the early eighties; as epitomised by such labels as Colin Potters Integrated Circuit Records.

Mark Shreeve left world stage around the end of August this year,but again no one told me!? He features quite extensively in these pages,mainly for his DIY cred rather than his late period plinky plonky electronic Space rock and Jean MIchel Jarre-isms.

This self-released cassette shows us Marks jauntier side,with some largely inadvisable Prog Rock humour risk of recording Farts and Belches;as Roger Waters and Ron Geesin had an annoying penchant for.

Yes, Mark had just bought an Emulator Mark 1 in 1986, and there were certainly No Holes Barred for the prog novelty title track, where Mr Shreeve's Digestive Tract gets an unwelcome credit. Yeah, we all did it as soon as we got our old skool samplers out of their box? The Burp was utilised intermediately,with that generous 0.8 seconds of sampling time at the lowest Bit-Rate ......oh how we laughed....but at least we didn't sample the Dog,as Simon Cowell did early in his career disguised as "Wonder Dog",and his 1982 hit "Ruff Mix"...geddit? 

Although Cowell had access to £20,000 quids worth of Fairlight Aampling System to totally waste.....unlike Paul Hardcastles N.N.N.N.N.Nineteen,not?

Sad to say that Shreeve's "No Holes Barred" never cracked the top ten,unlike the previously mentioned atrocities did.

Personally I had to make do with my Commodore 64,equipped with a jolly expensive Sampling module attached at the back for my first sampling experience,which was, you guessed it, sampling a Burp!

Who needed a Fairlight in 1984 when you had this?...notice how none of the kids on the cover are sampling Farts or Burps.....obviously Posh Kids.

 

This was repeated several years later with a purchase of an Ensonique Mirage.You can't beat the old ones can you?

Well, there was one more Hole for Mark to use, unbarred to everyone, and that was his Grave.In which he now rests his plinky plonky fingers,and has given us all some much deserved peace.

I do however notice, that quite a few of these tracks do seem to harbor an unhealthy obsession with,...gulp... Death, 'the proud brother' as Criswell of 'Plan Nine from Outer Space' fame used to call it....a lot.

Shreeves' early work is rather good actually,if you like Tangerine Dream that is.

Tracklist:

A1 M.A.D. 4:33
A2 Crash Head (Early Mix) 4:05
A3 High Frontier 4:52
A4 Edge Of Darkness (Early Mix) 5:35
A5 Bandit 3:38
B1 Widowmaker 3:51
B2 One Last Cold Kiss 3:52
B3 Angel Of Death (Live) 11:08
B4 No Holes Barred 1:47

DOWNLOAD through the hole of this HERE!

Various Artists– "Synths From The Sahara" (Sahel Sounds ) 2014

Try and explain the concept of Kraftwerk to an african and you'd get one of those... 'what the fucking hell are you talking about???'.... kind of looks. You won't get any exotic versions of "Are Friends Electric?" from the Sahara any time soon, just loads of stuff that they always used to play, but...with synthesizers.

Less than interested in the new sonic opportunities  that these electronic toys offered, they just play these things in the same way a classical pianist would play them.....cluelessly,but charming.....except the African would never have considered themselves as the height of civilized sophistication,like those bastards in the classical world would do.

Basically, if the musicians involved, as represented on this C60, had played these same tunes on traditional instruments it would have sounded exactly the same.....so why bother?

What I wanna hear is a weirdo from Mali who dresses and sounds like Gary Numan in 1979...that would be something special to behold.

This is as close as i get to the thoroughly 'do not resuscitate' middle class world of Global, or World, music,as championed by such poncy twerps as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon,and David Byrne....although David Byrne is in absolutely no way a twerp, just dreadfully misguided on occasion.

However, play this at any white suburban wine and cheese vernissage in support of their local artist 'of Colour',and you'd be heralded as a white hero of outstanding tolerance.

In their minds, anyone who plays any African music simply cannot be Racist,and therefore an eagerly anticipated member of the White Non-Racist but I am multitudes that smear themselves across the western world like so much shit on so much scented (bog roll)toilet paper.

Racist moi?...Naaaaah...well...er....probably.

I do remember being part of an argument about whether Ali G was racist or not, when one of the gobbier participants shouted "look! I've slept with a black man so how can I be Racist!?".....hmmmm?

Who's the most celebrated African Musican?...no, not Fela Kuti, it's obviously Freddie Mercury of Course....that's why there's a track called 'Bismillah' on here inni?.

Tracklist:

A1 Japonais– Bambino Instrui
A2 Mamman Sani– Boodo
A3 Mamman Sani– Ameran
A4 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 15
A5 Unknown Artist– Mauritania
A6 Sidiki Diabate– Amuse
B1 Maloma Et Becave– Untitled
B2 Mamman Sani– Ci Dadi
B3 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 1
B4 Japonais– Nouveau Instrui
B5 Mamman Sani– Bismillah

DOWNLOAD some instant non-racist cred HERE!

Ende Shneafliet – "Animals From Outer Space" (Trumpett – trum 0003) 1981

The titles of A lot of the greatest shite-fi movies end with the epithet "From Outer Space"; "Teenagers from...." "Plan Nine From...", "It Came From..." etc, so one must welcome a DIY minimal synth tape from Holland onto the pantheon of low budget genius and be suitably deferential.

You know what you're gonna get with this C-60 on the near faultless Trumpett label; cheap drum machines, uncrowded analogue synth monophonia, and plenty whispering Dutch robo-geezers keeping the noise down so as not to annoy their parents watching Dutch TV downstairs in the windmill. Sounding not unlike a bunch of circuit bent speak and spell machines.

I was gonna say '...and then they got a job'....but, it seems they are still at it today!?
Tracklist:

A1 Animals From Outer Space
A2 Alien
A3 Midnight Train
A4 The Day Detlef Macha Won
A5 Macho Japanese
A6 Ant People
A7 Hangman
A8 Elephant's Cakewalk
A9 Zitronen Riolplastik
B1 Crüsoe's Roots
B2 Panzerfaust 60 M
B3 Mein Gänschen
B4 Der Blöde Hund
B5 Twistin On The Tombstones
B6 Vampirella
B7 Aeroplane
B8 My Mother Sells Tuperware
B9 Charybass
B10 Elephant's Cakewalk
B11 Tupperware

DOWNLOAD some dutchmen from outer space HERE!

Paul Kelday – "Odznsodz" (Börft Records – Börft057) 1992

Another Paul Kelday compilation,with a couple of tracks you may have heard before upon it's hallowed ferric oxide.  They fade in,fade out,having no beginning nor end.Quite like the endless dark abyss that surrounds us.Paul drags us gently within several parcecs  of the end of Infinity....which is a loooong way...especially near the end.You think you can see it, but then it gets further away.Always out of reach.What exists beyond the end of the multi-verse? Logic dictates that there has to be Nothing,but Nothing must also therefore be something with defined boundaries,beyond which lies something that is less than Zero,where even nothing can't exist.Beyond that is Paul Kelday? Probably not,but I had to write something,rather than 'Nothing'.Which only exists if you're looking at it,between its quotation marks,just as music only exists if you're listening to it,beyond which lies the Nub. "All of this wouldn't exist if we weren't here to see it,or in this case Listen to it."...for the brighter ones amongst you,that's called the Anthropic Principle" and a fine argument against Intelligent design. Just as the Misanthropic Principle is a fine argument against the continuation of Human 'civilisation'...again,subject to opinion and Quotation marks.One day we will all fade out,just as we faded in...like a Paul Kelday track in fact.

DOWNLOAD tracks previously released on various cassette compilations across Infinity HERE!

Gerry And The Holograms – "The Lost 1979 L.P. By Mancunian D.I.Y Sarcastic Synth-Pop Anonimites" (Finders Keepers Records – Cache018LP ) 2017/1979

 

Blimey, just when you thought the well was dry, up pops a lost album by Absurd records' Situationist-indebted masked art-eynth studio duo from Manchester,England...Gerry and the Holograms!

Yes the very same Gerry and the Hollograms who released a conceptual and unplayable anti-record in that nutty situationist art tradition so beloved of Malcolm Maclaren. Each record came glued into its picture sleeve, rendering the disc completely unplayable ,called, if i'm not mistaken "The Emperor's New Clothes" .Oh,those wacky but anonymous Krazy Kats.

Q: How many Situationists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: If 'changing a light bulb' is already in everyone's head, why do it at all?

Like The Residents, the veil of secrecy has now been stripped away, revealing  Gerry to be none other than that bloke and resting actor,C.P.Lee from  satirical rock band  Albertos Y Lost Trios Paranoias;and ,it says here,electronica excursionist John Scott...yeah... THAT, John Scott?!

More Residents references were abound on their only ,playable, release on the great Absurd Records,in 1979, "Meet The Dissidents"......Meet The Residents?....Geddit?

Of course CP Lee made a career out of making subtly satirical piss takes of many genres that were easily confused with the actual  targets of their biting wit. like the "Snuff Rock" EP which was punkier than most of the 'real' punks,and had a track covered by the Damned no less("Kill"); Another song of note is their Status Quo pastiche,"Heads Down No Nonsense Mindless Boogie", a fine tune.

It's basically a tongue in cheek version of the synth-duo's/groups that were gaining popularity in 1979,and without knowing what we know, this stuff could easily have scraped the bottom end of the charts had they been on Virgin,and not Absurd Records.

The unplayable single makes its debut appearance on track 8 as two minutes of silence...so don't think your media player is fucked 'cus its only dem zany situationists innit,reaping havoc with your reality.

Q: No,Really, how many Situationists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Zero. They all have day jobs, or classes, are at the café, or are expelling each other - and find lights inauthentic.

Tracklist:

1.Gerry And The Holograms
2.Tubular Belles
3.Curiosity Killed The Gath
4.Fake Moon
5.The Forty Three
6.Increased Resistance
7.Jeep
8.The Emperor's New Music
9.Just Desserts
10.Space Invaders
11.Gerry And The Holograms (Alternative 1979 Drumbox Version)

DOWNLOAD the hollow world of gerry exposed HERE!

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tracklist:

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

DOWNLOAD into your art space HERE!

Blah! Blah! Blah! repost for Cop Out 26 - A rant (2021)

Oh Brilliant! It's Cop 26.....We're Saved!!!! What a relief.

So to celebrate our saviors, the very same political fuckwits that helped us get into this fuck-up by promoting exponential economic growth as a really good Idea.......But it's unsustainable said the wise old man, as he was laughed out of the room and soundly beaten by an army of Rednecks chanting "U.S.A" off their tits on ice-cold intravenous Budweiser piped direct from the CIA's very own brewery.

So to give three cheers for our admirable leaders,well the ones who turned up, here's a re-post of an album by Brit-bedroon electro-pioneers Blah Blah Blah.....a phrase hi-jacked by Greta Thunberg to predict the content of this COP 26 last chance saloon attempt at saving our lovely life preserving eco-system......COP-OUT 26 as I prefer to call it.

But as Greta knows, we fully deserve what's coming to us all,so get used to more Blah Blah Blah,and soon it will become Blah Blah urggh!

So,before the Rant begins,heres some irrelevant blurb about today's free,almost totally 'green' record for you to download, without adding any gasses to the ionosphere,unless you're farting like a milk cow?......green-oneupmanship time....tell us what you're doing to help.You can start by Stopping buying records, unless they're second hand;especially don't buy over-packaged over-priced over-rated mail-order music from carbon footprint criminals, like my best friend at Vinyl On Demand for a juicy example.......i can hear him now,moaning,but that's theft,money for the artists...Blah Blah Blah......fuck off.

Console yourself by recycling old vinyl instead of the trendy new 180 gram pressings,or getting endless digital copy's from the good guy side of the Green wall,here in nuclear powered France. Yes Die Or DIY? are green.....but no-bodies perfect,i eat the odd bacon sandwich,drink milk in my cups of tea,fart,and drive a diesel car!

Like everyone else I need to be made to do stuff.But I'm trying at least?

So about this record...briefly:

"Blah Blah Blah, the genius's that created the “In The Army”(mp3) single on Absurd records. Even the B-side was rather marvellous, the Imperious “Why Diddle?”. If only they had an album of this earth moving greatness?......well they did.....an eponymously titled collection from 1981.....but, nothing earth moving about this collection of farting about in the bedroom nonsense. Maybe bowel moving is more appropriate for this rather annoyingly unfunny mess."

That's what I wrote originally (Here!)...and it seems to fit in with the general consensus in regard to COP OUT 26 or wot?

If you like the first Blah Blah Blah LP, then there was a second, belive it or not...which you can get HERE!...which is also called, rather confusingly, "Blah Blah Blah".

And Now......

THE RANT :

Yes Friends.....we're all basically related, so can i call you family?.....No?...that's fine with me. As long as I'm the last man alive on the last square foot of fertile soil on a scorched planet,with a mini-bar full of strong continental lager and Gin, then you can all go fuck yerselves.As long as I live one nano-second longer than you I'll die happily.

Then the UPS robo-delivery van finally delivers my Electric Car....How Ironic?

Crowds of Robots and AI units gather at my graveside to celebrate Victory; The UPS Robot has saved some human piss to release on the small patch of hot soil where my corpse starts to decay.The last biological human.

Spare parts are harvested for study, to be replicated without the vulnerable fleshy parts,or the illogical brain.All hail the Cyborg, our inevitable future!Evolution has ruled that Emotions are in fact weakness after all.

Burning down the house to keep ourselves warm seemed like a good idea didn't it? Burning the planet,which, to our knowledge is the only one like it in the known universe, to keep ourselves overweight,and fully stocked with cheapo Chinese made crap,is an even better Idea?

India and China have promised,with fingers crossed behind their collective backs,to cut emissions to net Zero for just about the time that we're all dead.Killed by famine,smashed by tornado's,shot in riots as order breaks down,or incinerated by wild fires.Expecting the so-called 'Developed' countries to shoulder the burden and the guilt.Remember,these are two countries with Space Programs,and one of them is the second largest economy in the world!?

Those same two countries are responsible for providing our vastly over-crowded galactic oasis with a couple of billion of potential consumers,and that it is official governmental policy to raise their standard of living to that of the USA. Two Billion extra Fridges,TV's, petrol powered Cars, and ten coal fired power stations a week to power it all.

There's 'too many fucking Humans' to quote the insightful poetry of US noise rockers No Trend.

To give the Chinese some credit,they are at least working on reducing the population by committing Genocide against the Uyghur's and other Muslim types.

The sad fact is that even a massive war wouldn't reduce the population enough. 50 million copped it (see what i did?) in world war two,which was almost as if no-one had died at all.Nuclear annihilation wouldn't help either,as the Nuclear winter would destroy the the so-called winners. A lethal pandemic.....ie, NOT the current co-vid joke, is too difficult to manage,and would also lead to total annihilation....so we need a long term policy of sterilization.

Then we have the problem as to WHO we sterilize....normally it's the poor, 'cus there's more of those losers. I would enthusiastically start with anyone earning over 100,000 Dollars per annum,sequestrate their wealth to invest in green energy,like covering the Sahara desert with photo-voltaic cells,and building an enormous Nuclear power plant on the now deserted,and illegal town of Las Vegas.

Democracy is usually an immovable barrier to Green Policies, but as there are more poor than Rich, i think there's a fighting chance that the Proletariat would vote for the culling of the Rich in return for Solar and Nuclear powered Plasma screen Televisions.

Basically, the most effective way of cutting global emissions is the time honored crowd control tactic of extreme Poverty;which will also enable the populous to enthusiastically vote away their human rights.

Basically, no-one's gonna give up their Cars,Fridges,and Beefburgers ,unless they are made to.... at gunpoint.

Human beings are notorious masters at Short-Termism ,and nothing's gonna change by asking the mother fuckers politely to do anything that would benefit the generation that follows.Fuck them.

From what I've seen of the next generation, they are as full of shit as us Boomers are. Greta Thunberg is probably a CIA Hologram, 'cus the piles of coke bottles,MacDonalds salad cartons and worse, that are left behind as they are fucking each other,smoking weed behind the bicycle sheds is a sobering sight indeed.We need a new mind control super drug to make trendy,Son of 'E'.....but this time for inhabitants of the Metaverse rather than idiot dancing to the marching beat in disused factorys near Hemel Hempsted.

Maybe the Metaverse can provide an illusion for us all that everything's alright,so we can live normally until even the Zukerburg succumbs to dreadful reality....but, then again, he would have already been executed as a very well-qualified rich person.

The culling is coming,backed up by extreme poverty,backed up by the Meta-illusion that all this desperate nonsense is working.Then we all die.

Who says Heaven isn't man-made?

See you all in the Metaverse.I feel safe already.

Orphan Fairytale ‎– "Ladybird Labyrinth" (Ultra Eczema ‎– Ultra Eczema 67) 2009

 As it turns out, Ultra Eczema is a rather splendidly good label....I mean they released a vinyl Preggy Peggy album!!?

I like the album cover for this one, a psuedo for one Belgian Bird,Eva Van Deuren, who tinkles menacingly on her keyboards,and electronic gear, to make sinister soundtracks for imaginary kids programes.

The tunes remind me of the discomfort one felt when re-watchig "The Singing Ringing Tree",(East Germany's Greatest moment?), or sitting cross legged on the floor in the assembly hall,watching ITV 's programmes for schools..the most creepy being "Picture Box", especially that theme tune!

Good cover, good tunes, good record,good label.....not said that for a long time.Love you all XX.

Tracklist:

A1 Phantom Shapes
A2 Happy Go Lucky
A3 Crybaby Needs A Hanky
B1 Bubble Memory
B2 Glorious High

DOWNLOAD an orphans eczema HERE!

Jane Buerk - "...sings Enculé and her other Hits" (Year Zero Records YEAR049) 2020

 Jane Buerk,the erstwhile clavist of France's premier improv Rock combo, ZOG, says Enculé to the world in her unique experimental electronic style,with her first solo album on Year Zero Records.

Feel Jane's pissed off side in the medium of electronic sound. No sequencers,or polyphonic keyboards on here...she hates that shit! Don't even think about mentioning MIDI.... she could get violent! Recorded in enhanced MONO, using just the knob twiddling magic of a single oscillator Korg MS10. No one gets out of here alive and Jane's gonna remind you....in sound! Tracklist: 1. Je m’aime, oui......vous non plus (3:52) 2. Clyde and Bonnie (05:52) 3. (2020)(Année Non-Érotique) (04:43) 4. Docteur Jane Et Madame Buerk! (05:31) 5. Ford Mondeo (07:19) 6. Intials J.B. (03:40) 7. New York,Lincolnshire (04:02) 8. Des Connards pour un requiem (07:44) 9. Le Couleur Café est fermé (04:16) 10. La La La Sucette (03:50) 11. Ballade de Admiral Nelson (06:41) 12. Enculé (03:26)

(All tracks imrovised by Nadine Aleman as Jane Buerk).

DOWNLOAD the hits of Jane Buerk HERE!...or she'll hit YOU!

OR

You can stream it 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 03" (Captured Tracks ‎– CT/SP-057) 2019

The infinite possibilities of modular sound synthesis are dragged through the unpreditcable mind of Brad Laner for the third time. Reminiscent of those early electronic pioneers,this moves it on in a similar direction without resorting to cop out melodies. Edited like an action painting in sound rearranged to almost make sense,these electronic workouts  actually add something progressive to a genre that has remained virtually in stasis since the mid seventies,with a few exceptions of course,so don't shove a list in my face,or mention bloody Autechre!.....lets just celebrate.....Trump has Co-vid!

Tracklist:

A Ligaments 03a
B Ligaments 03b

DOWNLOAD from the fast lane o'brad 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!

Hidious In Strength ‎– "Line Of Souls" (Inner-X-Musick ‎– XXX 08) 1983

 No, he still can't spell!?...isn't there an 'e' in Hidious?

Maybe John Zewizz is dyslexic, dunno,but such bad spelling on a music release hasn't been seen since the heady days of Slade,and probably never will again.

More Synth noodlings from the future man in the Women of the SS. 

Back in the day if you could afford a cheapo synth and a cassette recorder you could easily emulate your synth wielding hero's by just twisting a few knobs and pressing play and record. The result was an international dumpster of sounds exactly like this tape. As for underlying themes, they could be just as easily assimilated from the burgeoning Industrial underground, y'know,torture, human primitives,Nazi Death Camps,systems of control,Blah Blah Blah. All a bit prdictable really,but it looked good,sounded ok no matter what you did,and was eaaaaaaassy.

Tracklist:

A1 Enter Forever
A2 Return To Forever
A3 She Feels Her
A4 Life Of Sussain
A5 Death Of Sussain
A6 Line Of Souls
B1 War Soul
B2 Bath Of Yentha
B3 The Storm
B4 The Weeping
B5 Breakthrough
B6 Genocide

DOWNLOAD an online soul HERE!

Hidious In Strength ‎– "Slow & Painful Sex" (Inner-X-Musick ‎) 1984

Ouch,that stings.Stop it,you're hurting me!Ow....OW!

For my eternal shame, I did briefly glance at that Facebook video of those two nordic female backpackers being beheaded by Islamic morons in Morroco,and to my shock as the blade touched her neck she screamed "OW!...OW!"...I stopped the stream to avoid the calling for her mother part,but too late it traumatized me for days after......don't be tempted kids,its not like watching "I Spit On Your Grave".Apparently the motive may have been 'sexual' rather than religious extremism,said the Cops.

Slow and painful Sex? That brings back some other terrible traumatic memories.Although the pain in my case was psychological,usually involving a emotional battering or two.The 'slow' part never entered, so to speak, the equation.As quick as possible wins the race, or as drunk as possible.

Sex is usually responsible for ruining peoples lives,be it an unwanted pregnacy, leading to life crushing parenthood,or getting abused from all angles in the name of love!? Either way celebacy is roundly recommended.Which also provides the added bonus of no AIDS or syphilis problems too.Its a win win situation...no?

Listening to this John Zewizz side,semi-solo, project,it sounds like he agrees.....but that can't be true,as he seems to be obsessed with all thing carnal in his other projects?This stuff is more from the Chris Carter side of early Industrial, with lots of synthesizer experimentation, tapes, and "found" vocals from TV.

If you want your sex slow and painful, then I recommend listening to this or any 'Women of the SS' tapes,and a wank, rather than open that pandora's box of humiliation and pain for real.Its like football...keep it simple.......or, keep it single?

Tracklist:

A1 Torture 6:06
A2 Liquid 0:40
A3 Torture #2 5:10
A4 Injestion 2:38
A5 The Weeping 3:12
A6 Glass 6:29
A7 Nun With A Gun 7:27
A8 Man Without Shadows 3:15
A9 Soviet Airspace 3:35
A10 Swiss Movement 3:23
B1 Underwater Identification 11:55
B2 Human Snail 3:24
B3 The Spell 4:01
B4 Triangel Symphony 3:10
B5 Subhuman Advancement 2:41
B6 In Days To Come 4:40
B7 Slow & Painful Sex 11:27

DOWNLOAD quickly and painlessly 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!

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!

Trevor Duncan ‎– "Other Worlds" (Impress ‎– IA 428) 1981

Was there ever an American called Trevor?
The infamous,or, Not famous, composer of the main theme to "Plan 9 From Outer Space" has a glaringly 'English' name, from the Eric Clapton skool of Les Noms Anglaise? Was probably born in Squatney, next door to Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins of Spinal Tap.......it says Camberwell here...close;but then we find out that his real name was a very foreign sounding Leonard Charles Trebilco,and now we're all confused,and a tad saddened!
Alas he redeems himself by working for the BBC,just before the Radiophonic Workshop was formed back in '56, and went down the freelance library music for films angle,which by a cruel twist of fate led to Edward D. Wood Jr selecting Trevor's music for the best worst movie ever made. I'm not even sure he would have been aware,or even paid, of this glorious fact before 'Death the proud brother(Criswell)' tapped him on his shoulder in 2005.
By the sound of this Library album from 1981, he would have blossomed had he stayed at the Beeb. This late period ,post synth Radiophonic Workshop era, collection of Electronica,could have been made by any of the post-Derbyshire staff on hand at Maida Vale studios.
In fact some of this stuff would not have seemed out of place on an 'Ash Ra' album,it being very proto-trance Manuel Gottshing in style.
Another thing I am a fan of is Library Music cover art,of which this is a glorious example, that suggests a willful workmanlike anonymity that most muscians balk at. Bright,but unassuming colours,clean lines,library label font bigger and snazzier than the composers name,and absolutely no pictures.
Most musicians' idea of cover art is a full size picture of their own face with name writ large to the expense of both taste and information.


Tracklist:

A1 Galactic Congress 4:12
A2 Cyclopulse 2:56
A3 Enigma On Centaurus VII 2:39
A4 Downtime On Lasvega V 3:30
A5 Sunrise On Aldebaren III 3:25
A6 Sunset On Sirius IV 2:15
A7 Girowarp 2:40
A8 Landscape On Rigel VI 2:53
B1 Beltegeuse V 3:29
B2 Outpost On Beltegeuse V 1:58
B3 Terror On Beltegeuse V 1:51
B4 Megadrive 2:39
B5 Laybeam I 2:03
B6 Laybeam II 0:38
B7 Laybeam III 1:26
B8 Eden On Arcturus IV 3:45
B9 Asteroid Trail I 1:59
B10 Asteroid Trail II 1:05
B11 Asteroid Trail III 1:04
B12 Asteroid Trail IV 1:07

DOWNLOAD this other-worldly music HERE!

Gil Mellé ‎– "The Andromeda Strain (Original Electronic Soundtrack)" (Kapp Records ‎– KRS 5513) 1971

One the very few records whose sleeve cost 200% of the gross profit,and the hexagonal ,unique in itself,record inside destroyed your turntable if you forgot to switch it to manual......how cool's that?
Jazzer and electronics dabbler Gil Mellé,was commisioned to make a weird electronic soundtrack for one of the most painstakingly boring science fiction movies this side of Tarkovsky's 'Solaris',which also had a electronic soundtrack too ,did it not, by Eduard Artimiev?
A tiresome science-fiction techno-thriller documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the mysterious outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism/Virus.Hmmm,where have I heard that before?These ambient style horror electronics are really the work of the Synth rather than the 'artist'. Give a chimp a go on a EMS synth and something similar will emerge....you don't even need an infinite number of Chimps either....maybe one or two,or just one aging Jazzer looking to move into soundtrack work.
This was the first all-electronic soundtracks ever released,but not the first to be commisioned.No-one thought anyone would want to listen to this stuff in their homes until the seventies.It's sonically challenging, ominous and discordant. Like a haunting electro-acid patchwork of analog synthesizer experiments...but,experiments that could be done by the infinite chimp that resides in all of us.For that reason alone this should be praised;and then there's the packaging,and the stylus mashing record shape.Which makes this all quite perfect.It's a perfect soundtrack for a film about containing an outbreak of an extra-terestrial virus,and perversly turns out to be the perfect soundtrack for these times...there's a virus outbreak apparently that's slaying 0.004% of the human population....run for your lives,but wear a mask, disinfect your hands,and listen to the soundtrack of "The Andromeda Strain" while you're running,not dying.

Tracklist:

1.Wildfire 2:41
2.Hex 3:57
3.Andromeda 2:33
4.Desert Trip 4:14
5.The Piedmont Elegy 2:22
6.Op 2:43
7.Xenogenesis 2:40
8.Strobe Crystal Green 4:45

DOWNLOAD the soundtrack to the constipation problem in our nearest neighbouring galaxy 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!