Various Artists – "Voice Of The Wolf" (Gump – GUMP 7) 1975

As mentioned by fountain of all knowledge prog, Ian......sorry, no other form of identification is available or needed.,as if in a biblical tense therein.

It has been rightly pointed out,in the comments section that the Swedish groups that tagged along with the Rock In Opposition lot were actually part of their own scene.Manifesting itself around the time that ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest; called "The Movement" or the much more specific "Progg" ,with two gee's.

The "Progg" "Movement" encompassed many different musical genres from Sound Poetry to Avant Prog
The political progg movement,mainly self-righteous communism with music, culminated around the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Stockholm after ABBAs victory in Brighton the year before. It was expressed that "music can't be a contest",everyone is equal kinds stuff, and an "alternative festival",rather like the Rock In opposition festival a couple of years later, was held in protest.

In theory 'Samla Mammas Manna' might well be the only group to have played both?.Due to this debate,and part 2 of the eurovision trivia trail, Sweden did not participate in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest,rather surprisingly....leaving the door open for The Brotherhood of Man to claim the top prize with the dreadful "Save Your Kisses For Me",and that little dance they did while we screamed in unfathomable pain!

It was as if these awful townie torturers were dancing at the impending death throes of the Progg movement that they, and many others,including myself,never knew existed.But, by the time Abba were divorcing each other,Progg killed itself in a sea of pinko posturing and the Swedish predilection towards hard rock and punk rock,being one of the few places that the Pistols actually played in.

The book of Ian, also mentioned an impossibly rare Swedish human called Carsten Regild....who had an impossibly rare single released on Gump Records i am told;but, No i don't have it, but this funny fella Carsten Regilid appears a couple of times on this Progg compilation from the year of ABBA's arrival...there is no suggestion that any member of ABBA was in a Progg band,as far as I an aware.

Carsten's contributions err more on the side of Sound Poetry,with an ironic early Rock leaning.This guy is Kerrrazzzy!

Most of my knowledge of Sweden during this mixed up epoch is of the Tone Poem, Sound Poetry,tape collage scene which was, and still is firmly sellotaped to their cultural identity. The Great Sten Hansen is the sound engineer on this to the mysterious Carsten Regilid's role as Producer.....as well as being valuable contributors.

So don't expect any lost Gentle Giant copyist numbers on here...these guys are really nutz!...but that's how we like it innit?

(*wolfie Smith : much loved joke commie character on UK Tv in the 1970's)

Tracklist:

1 Bengt Nordström– Natural Music 2:36
2 Pugh Rogefeldt– I En Annan Värld 2:26
3 Åke Hodell– Ur Mr. Smith In Rhodesia 3:29
4 Happy Cousins, Rolf Börjlind And Carsten Regild– Nya Tider - Nya Änglar 2:00
5 Sten Hanson– How Are You 1:59
6 Sergeant Honolulu Dubble Fucking Five, Hans Tiberg, Rolf Börjlind, Rolf Heyman, Lars Göran Reijner– Juanita 0:48
7 Leo Nilson– Päls 0:23
8 Carsten Regild– Home To My Baby 1:33
9 Joakim Skogsberg– Offer-Rota 1:26
10 Carsten Regild– Typografi 2:25
11 Sten Bergman– Sorti 2:27
12 J.O. Mallander– Extended Play 2:15
13.Hans Anton Knall– Merde 23:35

DOWNLOAD the voice of wolfie smith* HERE!

Sten Hanson ‎– "Text-Sounds Gems & Trinkets" (Firework Edition Records ‎– FER 1037)

Sorry, just gotta have a bitch about something first!
If I had something on Vinyl-On-Demand to post I would, as Its founder seems to be claiming some moral High-ground over us with the 'Fucked Up Morals', for using photographs of someone else's cassette inserts,for which apparently gives the photographer ownership rights(if you don't want it copied don't put it on the internet!?); and for selling luxury products to Bourgeois record collectors,then complaing that listening to some lo-fi MP3's is robbing him of his thirty pieces of gold.Its an advert sonny-jim, and owning these astronomically expensive re-issues (not new stuff)is about the object/product/ and its posession not sharing poor copies of the music. Its like slagging off the John Peel Show for playing records of unknown musicians.Most of which, as is the case with this blog,are grateful that they aren't forgotten.In some cases it has revived their creativity, if not their career!If the public don't wanna pay for your products its because they don't think its value for money....its called market forces.If it don't sell its because no-one wants it.
I'm not supporting the artist apparently too!?
Simply by featuring the artist on a very popular blog one is supporting the artist, as most 99% of the  artists who have contacted me, have shown appreciation for this, i think that says something....the other 1% are in it for some other reason rather than the music. Slagging me off is like slagging robin hood and praising the Sheriff of Nottingham.....or even worse supporting Nottingham Forest instead of Leicester City.
I also apprently block criticism,which if you read the comments section you will find is a sad lie.I have never received so much as a whisper from this person,or if i did, it was published.

Sorry for disrespecting the memory of Sten Hansen,but i resent being condecended to by a jumped up record snob capitalist.
In their world, sharing is theft!?.....especially in these times,Property is theft.and copyright is Left.

I've washed my hands again, so i'll begin....Sten Hanson is Sweden's answer to England's Bob Cobbing and France's Henri Chopin. A sound poet -- or text-sound composer as the Swedish like to call this art form....The Suedes, in fact all Scandinavians always seem to get everything right. But they have one advantage over us mongrels...they have the Genetics to allow everything to work.Where the rest of the world panics, they remain stoic. One prime example is how to cope with Corna Virus, by carrying on almost as normal.
As highlighted here on "La Destruction de Votre Code Génétique par Drogues, Toxines et Irradiation" ("The Destruction of Your Genetic Code by Drugs, Toxins and Irradiation"): a robotic-like Hanson runs through the alphabetic sequence of human DNA, but the cut-and-paste sequence becomes gradually corrupted. 
Even when their famed laid back DNA is under attack, they don't get carried away.

Keeping in mind that some of this stuff dates back to the dawn of recording technology, this is a highly interesting work of voice and electronics. At times simple tapeloops and other tape-technology which is now lost knowledge in the world of computers, but also at times synthesizers and other such apparatus. 
So,here we have a compilation spanning nearly 40 years of sten hanson’s text-sound oeuvres,from the modern home of Text-sound,and common sense, Scandinavia.

Tracklist:

1. Dance Figure (for EP) (1´55´´). 
2. Coucher et souffler (3´21´´). 
3. Che (1´20´´). 
4. La destruction de votre code génétique par drogues, toxins et irradiation (3´33´´). 
5. How are you (2´21´´). 
6. Don´t hesitate do it, do it right now (2´56´´). 
7. Railroad Poem or Kaffe i Hackås (2´41´´). 
8. Revolution (3´38´´). 
9. Tête à tête (5´04´´). 
10. Au 197.0 (4´57´´). 
11. Subface (4´10´´). 
12. Hermetic Back Poem (2´47´´). 
13. For Fylax with Love (1´21´´). 
14. The New York Lament (3´56´´). 
15. Bestiary (2´06´´). 
16. Am strengsten verboten (2´40´´). 
17. After John (1´15´´). 
18. Skärp dig för fan (2´59´´). 
19. That Jackson is my favourite poet (2´28´´). 
20. Variations on a Theme by Laaban (2´07´´). 
21. Pronto, pronto (2´18´´). 
22. Snake Jerroth (4´57´´). 
23. Oscar idkar (2´02´´). 
24. O Altitudo (1´56´´). 
25. Finale (2´38´´). 

DOWNLOAD these gems and trinkets HERE!

Four Horsemen ‎– "Canadada" (Griffin House ‎– IPS 1004) 1974

What is it that when you see an unkempt beard with long hair wearing hippie clothing doing performance poetry, one automatically thinks...'Smartarse'!?
Here we have four Hippie Smartarse's enthusiastically showing us how smart they are.
This includes Steve McCaffery, who went on to do some less showy-offy sound poetry that bordered on minimalism.
This sounds like a bunch of university graduates who thought they were the only persons on the planet to have discovered Hugo Ball's Dada manifesto......hence the Cana-dada title.
Just to rub it in there is a 'dedication to the memory of....' printed on the sleeve.
This is a bad case of Borderline Performance Art Disorder, or B.P.A.D.,as a music Psychologist would abbreviate it.Its up there with 'Contemporary Expressive Dance Syndrome' (C.E.D.S), as the ultimate cringe. After a few years, performance art got its act together and dumped the well-read hippies,and smartened up their approach,dumping the really annoying show-off stuff, and making it into something less about themselves and more about the art......nah!They still exist,but there's certainly less of them.
At least The Four Horsemen were trying something different,and rejected guitars and drums.It was just the approach to it that needed honing somewhat.Like a spot of de-hippification for starters.


Tracklist:

A1 From Beast
A2 Matthew's Line
A3 Allegro 108
A4 Seasons
B1 Coffee Break
B2 Theme
B3 Monotony
B4 Michael Drayton
B5 In The Middle Of A Blue Balloon

DOWNLOAD dada data from canadada HERE!

Steve McCaffery ‎– "Wot We Wukkers Want/ One Step To The Next" (Underwhich Audiographic Series ‎– No. 2) 1979

Steve translates the basic principles of Marxism into the dialect of the west riding of South Yorkshire, from whence he came originally.
I would love to have seen the reaction of the kind of Yorkshireman he's parodying in "Wot We Wukkers Want" when confronted by his standard Abstract Sound Poetry. Performing this stuff in one of those northern workers club,he would have been lucky to escape with his life. Rather like the Sex Pistols playing in those redneck towns on that ill-fated US Tour.
Of course most of Urban Yorkshire used to be reliable socialists,so the translation of Das Kapital wouldn't have been too controversial.It could in fact be seen as a comedy turn. Yorksire was also, strangely enough,the motherland of Industrial music, with Cabaret Voltaire,and Clock DVA in Sheffield, and Throbbing Gristle coming from Hull. The 'Holy City' of Leeds was a Goth Hotspot with The Sisters Of Mercy and The March Violets, not to mention commie agit-poppers Gang Of Four.
But, despite the general population of 'Gods Own Country', as they call it, having the reputation of racially intolerant simple folk, it was a hotbed of left-field creativity,where men first wore make-up to go out;this included the Steel-workers too.
Of course, all this has gone now, including the Steelworks, and is a microcosm of little-englander Brexit and Tory voting nationalists. They could do with listening to "Wot We Wukkers Want", because I don't think they know anymore!


Tracklist:

Wot We Wukkers Want
A1 Wot We Wukkers Want
A2 Midnight Peace
A3 A Hundred And One Zero S One Ng

One Step To The Next
B1 One Step To The Next
Performer
B2 Emes
DOWNLOAD whenever you workers want HERE!

Steve McCaffery ‎– "Research On The Mouth" (Underwhich Audiographic Series ‎– No. 1) 1978

No this is not a guide on how to kiss a young lady,or even a young man,or both, depending on your gender preference.Or any other use of the mouth in a sexual context.
I know I've already lost half of you already. Thats what made the Internet such a raging sucess, or suck cess......not acess to all information, be it inaccurate or otherwise, but easy access to porn.
The two things that have driven human advancement,if that's what you wanna call it, are War and shagging. So anything that makes these two thing more possible is gonna be a big hit with the sex crazed human animal, predominantly the sex-crazed, MALE, human animal.So if they don't get these basic male requirements they're gonna get violent and take it.Dangerous bastard is the Human male.
This is not a criticism but an observation of the bleeding obvious. I like a bit of the old in-out every now and again,the odd spot of War too. To live in this increasingly feminized world I am drawn to violent music as a portal for this natural predisposition towards violence,Catharsis is necessary to keep the illusion that we are a step or two above the other apes, going. Another more positive route is the male's sex driven need to create.So 'Art' is another important distraction from the need to destroy ones rivals for the mating rights. The basic needs for the human Female to create Art are completely different,and just as basic. to be loved and appreciated, to gain status as the woman most likely to bare the healthiest cubs.To be 'Noticed' by the Alpha-male artist. Most Artists are dictators in their own world, and most dictators think are artists.They need to be in control, and control the hareem.No scenario captures this animalistic behavoural trait better than the legions of young ladies screaming at the Pop Star at a concert during breeding season, who enjoys the choice of any female from the 'pride' to mate with. No matter how aware of this inate drive to carry the Alpha-males baby, its quite out of the womans control. The genetics say you must keep your eyes on the prize,and sacrifice your sisters to get there.Ruthless.
So for those of us males who don't have simperingly good looks and a hit record in the charts, they, I don't refer to me of course...I'm gorgeous......'They', turn to more introspective pastimes, like Abstract Impressionism, or making Sound Poetry,like Steve McCaffery. Not blessed with the looks of Brad Pitt, our Steve, a displaced South Yorkshireman in Canada, channelled his natural male violence and sexual need into research on the topography of the sounds that the human mouth can make. A far more admirable direction than plaster casting the erections of Rock stars.The plaster casters wouldn't have bothered making a cast of a sound poets erection.They only sought out the Alpha male,not the interesting 'Beta' variety. But as I said, this is a completely natural behavioural pattern that wouldn't be out of place in a group of Chimpanzees.
As a Beta male myself, i can heartily recommend this fantastic tape....but it won't get you laid. So you can forget that idea right now!.....unless you've got a hit in the charts or, a Ferrari?


Tracklist:


A1 S.I.S.M.A. (Movements 1 & 2)
A2 Portraits 1 - 34
A3 S1Z2Z1E1R2Z3
A4 Names For Cricket
A5 Structure Of Incident: A Little Valentine / Pleasant Ode For Vincent Trasov / S.I.S.M.A. (Movement 3)

B1 Aupe Relationships
B2 Black Aleph 1 & 2
DOWNLOAD from the mouth HERE!

Larry Wendt - "New And Slightly Used Text-Sound Compositions" (1977)

Would you buy a used Text-Sound Composition from this man?
Well,yes, but you don't have to,because in this new,and very brief caring economy that we find ourselves in due to the virus pandemic, it's free to health workers......in fact everyone,and not just for doing your job either!
Don't wanna piss on anyone's bonfire....well in fact yes I do.....but the sheer hypocrisy and condecending nature of this applauding of the state employees,and other care workers for doing what they are employed to do.Instead of actually paying them what they are worth is,...well... sickening.
Then there's that 99 year old WW2 vet who has raised 20 million quid, so far, for the NHS staff in the UK by walking round his garden 100 times.....shouldn't the Government be doing that? Then we have Kevin Bacon appearing on an advertisment for the mobile phone company for whom he is the 'face of'.....can't think of a prettier face to front your product brand can you?.....playing 'sincere Bacon',as he informs us that this very company that rips us off every week is providing FREE unlimited internet access and calls for Health Workers. Don't it just make your heart swell with pride at how wonderful us humans are when our lives are...allegedly ....in danger.At least the Heaklth Workers have a job....there are millions unemployed who can'y afford to eat!How about raising money for them? Meanwhile Charities are going out of business.
Nothing like this support for the people we rely on to survive happened before the Virus miraculously popped into existence, and it'll be straight back to normal after this nebulous 'vaccine' appears in ten years time or so.
So, health workers, in fact everyone, in this new 'sharing' society that doesn't exist outside a crisis(Thatcher was right again!)...here's my bit....download some Larry Wendt for FREE, and play track 5,"The Secrets of Life and Death", over and over again until the Virus infects itself with our simpering,self-congratulatory fakery and disappears up its own arse.If it has an arse,which is debatable because no-one is really sure if they are classifiable as 'Alive'.They don't grow, or have cells,and are simply made up of a set of genes bundled within a protective protein shell. They can't reproduce without a host cell,don't respond to stimuli,and can't make its own energy,but can adapt to their environment. The juries out,but the best that science can come up with is that they are 'Not Dead'.
"The secrets of the Dead and the Not-Dead"
Maybe its just that we humans are the real,and most lethal Virus, and as smaller viruses can in fact infect larger Viruses, this is just Mother Nature attempting to redress the balance and remove the part of the ecosystem that is endangering the existence of the whole? What more noble a gesture would it be if we sacrificed ourselves for the planet. I'm gonna start raising funds now by walking up and down my staircase for the noble nature saving cause of mass de-population...I got Bill Gates onside anyway.
But,you can't actually Kill a Virus,as it's barely 'alive'.One can only stop it from replicating....so maybe that's the answer to this human infection.....mass sterilization,or a more deadly Virus...Covid20.We are "Lost Among Dead Viruses"
Start donating now!
I'm not hearing any applause!!!???

Tracklist:

A1 Annabelle's Song
A2 Adaba
A3 How to Cook A Duck
A4 Lost Among Dead Giants
A5 The Secrets of Life and Death
B1 I'm Back
B2 Spiral
B3 In The Beginning Was The Whale
B4 The Spring
B5 There

Link Removed at the request of the Artist....buy it here if you're rich

Larry Wendt ‎– "Mythologiques" (Ocean Records/Composer Cassettes ‎– Vol.4) 1975

All I've got to say about this early Larry Wendt cassette has been said in my post on the later Wendt work "Sound Poems For An Era Of Reduced Expectations"

So, as this came with a pamphlet in the words of Larry himself, you can read about it in the great man's own blurb below. Even though I don't approve of artists explaining themselves, it saves me from straining my brane trying to think of something amusing to say.....suely I'm entitled to a day off....this tape is ridiculously good by the way,lots of spooky whispering,which is always the trade mark of the shy artist working alone in a room with family members near-by or arsehole neighbours ready with threats of phone calls to the authorities...or worse ....take it away Lazza.......

Tracklist:
A1 Annabelle’s Song
A2 Lost Among Dead Giants
A3 Pandora
A4 Berlin Adonis
A5 Sparten From The Start
A6 Log π Sutra

Link removed at the request of the Artist.....Buy it HERE!....if the myth that record collecting is a poor mans game is true?

Larry Wendt ‎– "Sound Poems For An Era Of Reduced Expectations" (Underwhich Editions ‎– Underwhich Audiographic Series – No. 5) 1979

You know what? I could listen to stuff like this all day long.Its got it all, abstract repetitive tape loops, disintegrating ambience, glitching 1970's computers,urban field recordings, lo-fi sound processing, drones, concréte poetry, a bloke with a beard sitting in room fiddling around with cassettes,a good pessimistic title, and tape hiss.Who needs instruments, in fact bin the instruments off,if I hear another guitar line, or 'phat' synth bass notes, I'll go as nuts as Larry Wendt obviously is.
The use of the adjective 'Sound-Poems' for this is rather tenuous, stretching the poetry part to an extreme.It has far more in common with Musique Concréte and old skool Industrial than Hugo Ball or even Jaap Blonk.Its basically the music I grew up with after glam and punk had burnt out and left me with UK DIY.There were legions of kids who would churn out tapes like this every week in 1979/80, mainly the wide ranging influence of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire rather than Larry Wendt, or even Hugo Ball.....although there is certainly a thread of distinct Dada influence by proxy that worked its way down from world war one era Germany into the bedrooms of Britains Youth......not that they were aware of this at all;but there were clearly many references in the works of The Instant Automatons and their various offshoots, like the Alien Brains, 391,and ,of course,Merz,which was a thinly veiled reference to Kurt Schwitters if ever there was one?
I'm figuring that the Dada influence on the North American continent was from a more intellectual angle,rather than fashion driven, as is mostly always the case in the UK,which exists as a mass consciousness as opposed to the individualism that US/Canadian culture is based on....its the vast distances involved in these north American countries that kills universal consciousness dead.
This is no longer the case however, as before the Internet the only way of meeting strangers from the other side of the continent was by snail mail,or telephone calls.Like communicating with an alien race,a conversation was impossible outside of your own town or star system,and that's where it stayed. In the UK anything good or bad, would invariably spread to the whole country within a month,generally stopping at the English Channel,and importing itself into the United States.The classic example being how American kids discovered UK Punk before they had even heard of the New York proto-punk groups from their own country.
Larry Wendt would not have heard of the UK Industrial Bands,but he was doing something very similar in Isolation.Naturally he wouldn't have stood a chance in Britain because he didn't 'look good'.You can't have one without the other 'inna inglan',as our jamaican sub-state would say,just like Americans would have never heard Reggae without it passing by 'Inglan' for the thumbs up first. Weird innit?
Welcome to a world of expanded expectations which expanded so much that it has destroyed entirely the thrill of the new.


Tracklist:

A1 Actaeon
A2 Zoo
A3 Gasoline
B1 Bugs, Crashes, And The Trash-80
B2 My Computer's First Words
B3 Rooster Music
B4 Next Door

Link removed at the request of the Artist.....buy it HERE if you're from a family of great expectations

Owen Sound ‎– "Sign Language" (Underwhich Editions ‎– No. 22) 1984

It proudly proclaims a liberal use of the Dolby Noise Reduction system on the insert!?
David St. Hubbins wife told us that "(Sound Poetry) should never be recorded in Dobly"....which is probably true. 
Is Tape Hiss part of the performance? Is it as important as the other 'sounds'?
There have been at least two or three cassettes that comprised entirely of Tape Hiss.One tape of pretentious Tape Hiss that particularly stands out in my mind, was by 'Anti-Art' Artists, The New Blockaders' " Epater Les Bourgeois " . Although what happens to that concept when you switch the Noise reduction ,on, is another matter entirely.The Dobly, or Dolby,to be accurate,noise reduction system was always pretty shit anyway.Not only did it suppress the tape hiss on the cassettes,it also suppressed the frequencies of the music.You lost most of the high-end when that button was pressed,and everything had a muffled quality,no matter which version you used, 'A,B,C or professional'.So embrace the Hiss,and swith the Dobly,and the Dolby,OFF!.
Hiss aside, this tape features Richard Truhlar in his group of Canadian Sound Poets, Owen Sound.Captured live from 1976-78 in places like the "Cabaret Voltaire" Art Gallery,mmmmm fancy(?),in Toronto.Which is a nod towards the Dada-esque origins of this kind of vocal sound manipulation.And before the more well know Cabaret Voltaire had released a record.
I can reveal,however, that the over-riding and essential ingredient of Dada is indeed present here;which is ,'a sense of humour'.The audience seems to find it amusing anyway,which suggests a dirth of Art Luvvies to spoil it all for everyone.
So the moral of this text is, dump the Dolby and bin off the luvvies....for the greater good of everybody.

DOWNLOAD some sound powentry HERE!

Richard Truhlar ‎– "Kali's Alphabet" (Underwhich Audiographic Series – No. 14) 1982

This is the kind of Sound Poetry that I appreciate.
None of that facial gurning,throat straining, and spittle expectorating phonetics and lip vibrating nonsense. This is more in the found sounds with text form of the genre. 
Its all processed through various modulators,synths and tape echo's,so much so it reminds one of early industrial music rather than Sound Poetry. A lot of this wouldn't have been out of place on any of the official Throbbing Gristle albums.
Calling this Sound Poetry automatically lumbers it with the 'Pretentious tag', which isn't entirely unfair.Especially as there's a quote from French intellectual Roland Barthes,of whom normal people would never have heard of without a 5G internet connection; and the young lady who provided the looped voice for the opening track is credited as 'Poet' ,Sharon Theson,rather than just Sharon Theson. Poets have a disquieting tendancy to add this epithet to their normal names.The only reason for this I can think of is a attempt for they to elevate themselves above the herd. You'll never find the ordinary blue collar operative entitling herself 'Welder' Marjory Dawes for example.....(I consciously tried to be non-gender in my role assaignment there.....won't happen again!).....In France this can be a nightmare.Once they find out that one has 'Artist' written as one's profession on one's tax statement, they virtually fall at your feet proclaiming you as a great 'createur' for all to praise. This sickening grovelling to even the worst Artist or Artisan,of which France is brimming over with, is so deeply embedded in French Culture that there really is no escaping it.Personally I dislike 'Artists' as much as I do Musicians, except non-artists,Dilettantes and non-musicians of course,to whom this blog is dedicated.

DOWNLOAD in alphabetical order HERE!

Richard Truhlar ‎– "Growling In The Roofbeams" (Underwhich Audiographic Series – No. 10) 1984

Canadian Sound Poet and electro acoustic composer Richard Truhlar, made quite a few cassttes during the 80's and 90's, of which this is one of the more Sound Poety ones,although with a slightly industrial edge,which helps to stop one's mind from wandering. Loops of phonetic mouth noises are repeateded in a very Boyd Rice kind of fashion.This makes this a far more interesting direction to listen to as opposed to the unaccompanied voice which can be rather cringeworthy,and makes one whince at its awkwardness...as in whincing for the performer rather than oneself.I'm very comfortable at not being a sound poet thank you.
The cover looks like a still from "The Exorcist" and some of the music could easily be mistaken for the voices of the demon's one conjoured up during those winter nights during the power cuts of 1973 with a Waddington's Ouija Board.


Tracklist:

A1 Berlin Abstract
A2 Glaucoma Sonata
A3 King of Hell
A4 Thousandyear Eve
A5 London Trilogy
A6 Vasarely's Nightmare
A7 Gitr
B1 Ai
B2 Accident In America
B3 Raskolnikov
B4 Asthma
B5 Variations On A Word From James Joyce's "Ulysses"

DOWNLOAD cus satan wants you for a roofbeam HERE!

Reverof Zrem (Jaap Blonk) ‎– "Ursonate" (Jaap Blonk Self-released) 1999

Apart from Hugo Ball's seminal work with language invention and vocal sounds,the other Dadaist of note in Jaap the sound poet's life was Kurt Schwitters,Though initially associated with German Dada, he later started his own one-man movement Merz, and published a magazine of that name. Like Ball before him, he made a smart move and left Germany before world war two,via oslo,then settled in that hell-hole of English country living, Ambleside, in the gloriously lovely Lake District of England.Life was hard as a sound artist.
The earlier version of "Ursonate" that Jaap did in 1986, was prohibited by Schwitters' son Ernst. He wouldn’t allow any other versions of the work except his fathers' one. The pressing was officially destroyed and unofficially went underground.So,as you can guess, we don't have it here,except this live version from 1998,live in Norway,which seems to be the modern home for sound poetry.
The house that Kurt had created in a Dada style from 1923-37 in Hannover, the Merzbau, was responsible for the naming of Merzbow,the prolific japanoise artist,rather than Jaap-a-noise. The original Merzbau was destroyed by the RAF in 1943,very likely by a bomb dropped by my fathers plane.A more Dadaist ending to this story I cannot imagine;but why it wasn't destroyed by the Nazi's before that I find incredible! Classsic Degenerate Art by any Nazi standards.


Tracklist:

1 Erster Teil
2 Largo
3 Scherzo À La Zrem
4 Presto

DOWNLOAD ursonation from jaap's eye HERE!

Jaap Blonk + Damon Smith ‎– "Hugo Ball: Sechs Laut-Und Klanggedichte, 1916 [Six Sound Poems, 1916]" (2014)

Arch Dutch dadaist sound poet, Jaap Blonk...real name.....has made a career out of these six Hugo Ball penned 'sound Poems' .He actually earns money doing this, so how stupid are we?
Apparently, according to his biog on Wikipedia, he went through a lot of employment failures and sackings before trying his hand at being a musician,which he was also a bit crap at.This left his voice as his last chance for gainful employment without the boredom and toil of 'real work', and it...er... worked!The one thing you can say about a poet,is that you can never say he isn't working.Even when laying down he can always claim that he's thinking about his next poem. Perfect.
As sound poetry has been around for longer than 100 years, one cannot claim that this is something startlingly 'Neu',but it is an-neu-ing,and it will still have Mr and Mrs Henry Normal running in fear from this challenge to their world.That is a testament to the sheer originality and subversion of the original work.....yes that word again....of Hugo Ball.
This recording uses the improvisational skills of double bassist Damon Smith....real name....that give it,debatably, a more listenable edge.Jaap's grunting and raspberry blowing is a bit more paletable when backed up by scraping discordant contrabasse strings.
I would like to see a Jandek and Jaap Blonk collaboration on day....Jaap and Jan.

Tracklist:

1 Prelude 7:33
2 Wolken (Clouds) 6:08
3 Katzen Und Pfauen (Cats And Peacocks) 4:38
4 Karawane (Caravan) 5:57
5 Interlude 7:34
6 Gadji Beri Bimba 5:57
7 Totenklage (Dirge) 7:03
8 Seepferdchen Und Flugfische (Seahorses And Flying Fish) 5:20
9 Postlude 7:56

DOWNLOAD from jaaps huge-o balls of bollocks HERE!

Hugo Ball - " Six Sound Poems " - (1916)

The kraut responsible for all this sound poetry malarky,....it had to be a German didn't it!?...Was the father of the DaDa art movement,as well as inventing sound poetry,and starting the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, was Hugo Ball......that's him in his work clothes on the artwork.
These are  his complete recorded works captured on wax cylinder in 1916,and as you may hear,nothing much has changed over the ensuing century in modern sound poetry today.
Most men aged less than forty were at the time being butchered on battlefields all over the planet during that notorious conspiracy to cull the working class, called 'the Great War'; but not Hugo,no.He was too busy saying stuff like "Blago Bung,Bosso fatake, ba-omf!" in a surrealist pub in neutral Switzerland.

"What did you do in the war daddy?"
"Well Son, I dodged the draught,ran off to a neutral country, dressed up like a prat and made up silly words"
"Thank god for that daddy,you're not as stupid as you look-ed"

Germany is responsible for some of the most shameful variety of interests,hobbies, and pastimes that have ever shaken the foundations of civilisation. We've had...i think you know whats coming here.....Jew-Hating, guillotining students, expressionism, playing at being Nietzsche, Nazi glee clubs, wearing kinky boots, inventing and imbibing morphine replacements,Markism, Wagner,Neue Deutsche Welle,sausage munching,and, last but not least...the Dada movement. Without which we'd still be cooing at Constable's "The Haywain",and listening to Elgar.....many people still do amazingly!?


Tracklist:
1.Seepferdchen Und Flugfische (Seahorses And Flying Fishes) (0:41)

2.Karawane (Caravane)(1:24)

3.Wolken (Clouds) (1:04)
4.Katzen Und Pfauen (Cats And Peacocks) (0:52)5.Totenklage (Dirge)(1:48)

6.Gadji Beri Bimba (1:48)

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Bob Cobbing, Keith Musgrove, Steven Smith ‎– "Various Throats Volume One" (Underwhich Audiographic Series – No. 11) 1982

This must be what it sounds like in one of those Covid 19 temporary hospitals. Lots of coughing ,throat clearing and straining sounds. Either that or a lunatic asylum.
The oldest instrument  a human posesses is 'The Voice',or throat.Followed closely by the drum.
In fact Bob Cobbing and his canadian mates sound  like they are communicating in some ancient language. Either that or they have discovered the rosetta stone  for the language that 'Bill and Ben The Flowerpot' men spake on the BBC's watch with mother series back in the fifties.
Yet again Bob clears a room with ease.This is comfortably in the top ten of room clearing recordings, as well as  for throat clearing.
And we wonder why volume two never appeared?....or did it?


Tracklist:

A1 Prelude: Clearing
A2 White Sound Cycle No. 5
A3 Fugitive Poem
A4 The Dream As Real
A5 Quatz
A6 Ouph/Voicings No. 5
B1 Duplicator Print
B2 Cranes Of Different Heights
B3 So Long (Geronimo)
B4 Coda: Re-Clearing

DOWNLOAD three varied throats HERE!

Peter Finch & Bob Cobbing ‎– "The Italian Job" (Klinker Zoundz ‎– KZ8802C) 1988

I bought this tape because I though it had "The Self-Preservation Society" song from the hit movie starring Michael Caine and Noel Coward on it......of course, NOT the crass American remake,the original one......naturally I jest, but you can't rule out the possibility that someone did? Mistaking it for the Quincy Jones penned,classic soundtrack,on cassette.
Now the scene is set, we can sit back and imagine the purchaser slipping this cassette into his Sanyo music centre and making himself comfortable ready to sing-a-long to those embarassing cocknwy-isms crowbared in by the American producers.
What he...its always a'he' isn't it?....what he, gets instead, is Bob Cobbing and Peter Finch whinnying,grunting and croaking through a bank of voice processors for half an hour,and NO singalong to be seen,or heard.Not only could this empty a room, it could empty a full football stadium, in orderly queues,by the start of side two.
This of course is a desirable quality in any music with any meat on the bones.And,to be topical yet again,a very good tool for 'Social Distancing'.Play this over a network of speaker systems and everyone is guaranteed to remain behind locked doors for the duration.
When I say everyone, I mean 'Normal' people, not 'Us'.Ah bless 'em, they haven't been exposed to music, or otherwise, as much as ...er...'Us'? So, they don't understand, bless 'em again.This is where the 'Pop' of the future comes from.The Stormzy's of the 22nd century will be doing stuff like this, and it'll be number one.Mainly because the Virus will have wiped out 90% of humanity by then.Leaving the 10% who didn't run away from a Bob Cobbings tape,but listened intently to remain socially distant.In turn causing those with the virus,and those with simplistic musical taste, to stay away and enhance the 10%'s chance of surviving.They do say a symptom of Covid19 is, coincidently, 'A Loss Of Taste'.
Then ,post-pandemic,all that are left to raid abandoned supermarkets and hunt human flesh will be Bob Cobbing fans.
This is Evolution in action.
All together now....
"We are the Self-Preservation Society,
We are the Self-Preservation Society.
Gotta get a bloomin' move on...tra la la la la la laaaaa la etc"

DOWNLOAD the bob cobbing preservation society HERE!

Various Artists - "Experiments In Disintegrating Language" (Arts Council of Great Britain ‎– AC 1971) 1971

I can just imagine Bob Cobbing standing up in the middle of that Bus from the previous post...."Spoke- New Scottish Voices", and doing one of his sound poems. He would have received a pretty comprehensive kicking.....and maybe worse from the one called 'Chick',who would have probably slashed him and then claimed authorship of the poem that caused all this aggro in the first place.
Y'see, the deliberatly uneducated,or the conditioned factory/family fodder, don't like to be made aware of their lack of education,and the educated classes are prone to rub their faces in it from time to time.Result...violence.
If poetry like this has to be performed it must be done in a sealed room,with like-minded people, or receive the wrath of the underclass who really wish it was them doing it; but, as they are on the sharp end of the big stick of repression wielded by both their own species,and the ruling elite,this really isn't an option,except for the very brave.
I, not proudly I may add, came from one of these working class ghetto's, and if anyone strayed from the accepted path,like going to University,or passing exams, the naked envy was painful....sometimes lierally.Like smokers who resent any of their demographic group actually giving up something that gives you cancer.They will persist in offering the ex-smoker in their social group a Carcinogenic product to which they are hopelessly addicted. The underclass are also hopelessly addicted to hopelessness,and hate anyone who 'gets out',and they hate anyone who's different to them,as much as the elite hate anyone to get above their station when they were earmarked for factory fodder, or breeding factory fodder. The trouble is,robots can do all this, so what's gonna happen to the 'underclass'?...I know, an epidemic.The necessary humans will have been vaccinated.......at least that will rid us of those ridiculous 'anti-vaxxers' I pray?
As we are living through an experiment in disintigrating civilisation at the moment.It only seems fitting that this British Arts Council funded album, featuring Bob Cobbing and cohorts,and the only appearence of Bob's group, 'Konkrete Canticle', experimenting with abstractions of the spoken word is ushered forth to represent those missing citizens in the form of the missing letters in these sentences.The silences between the letters can be regarded as a space where a human being one stood.The victims of this avoidable pandemic. 
I'm not usually one for pathos,but the empty applause that is ringing in the streets of the UK and elsewhere, to patronize our underpaid health workers, when before this crisis the government continuously failed to support them (and will do so again in the future), is a cheap veneer over the horrific facts that are already seeping through the cracks. The gaps, the silences, represent individuals reduced to nothing more than a statistic, a mass grave of numbers.
But as uncle Joe Stalin said, "When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is merely a statistic."
Indeed I do apologise for the uncharateristic humanity of my writing in this case.I know you expect me to say something like, "well that's a few thousand pensioners who were gonna die anyway off the planet";but I don't wanna sound like a stuck groove do I?....nonetheless, this pandemic shit does offer an opportunity for a new way forward.A few necessary lessons from Communism perhaps? A world wide decision to sequestrate the vast wealth of individuals,and redistribute it....this doesn't mean the end of capitalism of course,just a fairer, dare I say, greener, capitalism..for all!?...even for our chums in the Underclass.They can be re-educated....in camps.....far away from me!
Nah!...it'll never work.....we're well and truly,in the disintegrating words of Charles Verey, 'f ck d'!!!

Tracklist:

A1 –Charles Verey - Blood Rumba
A2 –Charles Verey - Morning Was
A3 –Neil Mills - Seven Number Poems
A4 –Thomas A. Clark - Spell For Sarah
A5 –Charles Verey - Some Very Idle Diamonds Reset For John Ruskin
A6 –Neil Mills - Gong Poem
A7 –Neil Mills - Squalinda
A8 –Thomas A. Clark - Some Flowers
A9 –Charles Verey - r t e p gr a
A10 –Charles Verey - n annu eve
A11 –Charles Verey - f yo o t Ne toKi
A12 –Charles Verey - ip og it u
A13 –Charles Verey - Cry Jim Sped
A14 –Charles Verey - whi  ing & wou ing  tend her
A15 –Neil & Elaine Mills Number Poem For Two Voices (Two Sections)
A16 –Thomas A. Clark Mantra
B1 –Konkrete Canticle - Breeze
B2 –Konkrete Canticle - Ga(il s)o(ng)
B3 –Konkrete Canticle - Coacervate Poem
B4 –Konkrete Canticle - Energygalaxy
B5 -Konkrete Canticle - Suesequence
B6 –Konkrete Canticle - Astound
B7 –Konkrete Canticle - A Sandwich Poem
B8 –Konkrete Canticle - Hymn To The Sacred Mushroom

DO NLO D th se di  nte ra i g fi es H RE!