Bleak Bliss: January 2014

The Dead C. - Runway

The Dead C.'s very early album "Runway" features the band at their most blown-out, blurry, and anti-musical. Recorded from 1987 to 1989 and released as a cassette on Michael Morley's Precious Metal imprint, none of "Runway" has since been reissued in any form, probably for good reason. This is as raw and feral as the band ever sounded. Of particular note is the nihilistic gray mud that gets the whole party started. This noise hardly resembles the cathartic rush of what was happening in Japan at the same time. Sonic Youth may have been an influence and reference point for these kiwis, but The Dead C. took the fidelity down several pegs, removed most of the "rock" (not counting bits of a skipping Slayer CD, a few bars of "Pictures of Matchstick Men", and other baffling red herrings), added heaps of grimy sadness, and smeared the remainder in layers of overdriven yuck. There happen to be some actual songs in here, or nearly so.... fans will recognize a catatonic run through the classic "Scarey Nest" (later polished up, relatively speaking, for the Eusa Kills LP) that sounds as if it was recorded directly onto pure opium instead of magnetic tape. Later on, some distracted strums nod toward song-ish forms, but they're not putting a lot of effort into it. There's even (gasp!) a drum machine on a few tracks. Those looking for the pre-history of a band that changed music in New Zealand forever and had a lasting impact on out-rock/noise around the world will find lots of oil here in which to deep-fry what's left of their brains.

The Dead C. - Runway

Various‎ - Svenska Dokument

Quite spectacular three tape boxset released on Viktor Ottosson's Järtecknet label in 2012.

Enklav is the work of Dan Johansson (aka Sewer Election), Klaus Høyer Hansen (aka Ashley C and Pisswhip) and Viktor Ottosson. Krökta Rum is Viktor with Jesper Canell (who has recorded with Viktor and Dan Johansson as Ättestupa). Orquere is Viktor again (and you might also know his work as Blodvite and / or Street Drinkers).

I don't know who is behind the remaining three artists but given that Viktor was formally part of the Utmarken collective I would not be at all surprised if it is not some or all of the above!

Svenska Dokument

va - Bonner Rache

Steiv A. strikes again! This time, it's a compilation cassette from 1981, later reissued as a CDR in a run of 50 copies, which probably covers the potential audience worldwide with a few left over. Very raw homemade synth blurt with punk energy to spare.

va - Bonner Rache

Anlieger Frei & Haushaltswaren - Einwegplatte Kein Pfand Keine Rückgabe

Weird, spiky synth/punk/noise mess from 1980 by Stiev A. with two different collaborators, hence two different band names. This burst of electro-enthusiasm was first issued on an LP in 1981 then as a CDR in 2001. If you're a fan of the teenage Felix Kubin, this stuff is even more raw.

Anlieger Frei & Haushaltswaren - Einwegplatte Kein Pfand Keine Rückgabe

Merzbow‎ - Gman // HJYUGTF2

It's Masami Akita.

This C30 was released in 2012 on Midnight Sea Records in an edition of 100. The label seems to have disappeared shortly after this dropped.

This comes across more like the live experiences where he plays with other artists as "a band". So there are drums and guitar destruction amongst the noise. However, the j-card says that all music was made by the man himself.

Of course you need this!

Gman // HJYUGTF2

Massimo Toniutti - Cava XI.XI.86 Impianti Luoghi e Impalcature

One of the very few albums ever released by Massimo Toniutti, this self-released 1987 cassette includes music recorded in 1986 and 1987.

Massimo Toniutti - Cava XI.XI.86 Impianti Luoghi e Impalcature

Gelsomina‎ - Waste Oil Recycled Vol. 2

CDr released on Sick Art Products in 2005.

Pekka PT also records as Clay Figure, Sick Seed and SSRI as well as running the great Untergeschoss label.

The three "Waste Oil Recycled" releases use the first Gelsomina album, "Waste Oil Bath", as source material. Unfortunately, I've never heard Volume 1 or Waste Oil Bath.

Waste Oil Recycled Vol. 2

Gelsomina‎ - Waste Oil Recycled Vol. 3

C44 released on Abisko in 2005.

Waste Oil Recycled Vol. 3

Gelsomina / Filthy Turd‎ - Untitled

Pekka PT and Darren Wyngarde on a split CDr released on Symbolic Prod in 2006.

Gelsomina / Filthy Turd‎

Various‎ - Conception: The Dark Evolution Of Electronics Vol.1

Do you like Deutsch Nepal, Merbow, Sshe Retina Stimulants, Taint, Atrax Morgue, Contagious Orgasm, Aube and a lot of other great people? Course you do!

Comp released on AVA/ES1 in 1997. The label used to be run by John Dixon who recorded as Baal. As far as I know, there was never a Dark Evolution Volume 2 ...

Conception

Various - Noise And Junk Omnibus

Ridiculously good compilation.

Released by the definitive international gateway drug that is Ron Lessard on his RRRecords label in 1991.

Noise And Junk

Various‎ - Stinky Horse Fuckers

Quality compilation featuring the likes of Kapotte Muziek, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck und Schimpfluch Gruppe, Smell & Quim, Merzbow, The Haters, De Fabriek and Genocide Organ.

Released on Smell & Quim's truly marvellous Stinky Horse Fuck label in 1993.

Stinky Horse Fuckers

Wolf Eyes‎ - Tin Coffin 2

John Olson, Mike Connelly and Nate Young at their fucked up best.

This is a double CDr and single C30 tape in a metal reel tin kind of thing. Discogs has the discs listed in the opposite order ... there's nowt on the discs to suggest that one comes before the other. I've ripped and tagged it ... so blah

I advise you to play this as loud as you can but you may want to consult a structural engineer first to see if your dwelling can withstand this.

Released on John's American Tapes (AM560 btw) in 2006.

a disc

another disc

a tape

Speck Nussek & Die Legendären Fettboys ‎– Däncemusic Für Dicke Bäcker

If this one-sided 1984 cassette sounds like a band you've heard before, that's because it's actually Hirsche Nichts auf Sofa in disguise!

Speck Nussek & Die Legendären Fettboys ‎– Däncemusic Für Dicke Bäcker

Duka Bass Band ‎– Fräulein Casanova

"Fräulein Casanova" was an album by another sneakily pseudonymous HNAS alter ego, released as a cassette in 1986 and then as a CDR of doubtful provinence in 2003.

Duka Bass Band ‎– Fräulein Casanova

NP vs. Thirdorgan - Ver. 1

If full-bore late-1990's Japanese noise is what you're after, here you go. Full-on sugar-rush blast by NP (Fumiyoshi Suzuki, ex-Zeni Geva and The Gerogerigegege) on one side and noise hero Thirdorgan (Akihiro Shimuzu) on the other. The tape came out in 1998 in a nifty metal package with a painted green band across it, a numbered edition of 100 copies on Thirdorgan's own eponymous label.

There's a suggestion printed in the liner notes for NP's side: "This track is designed for wide-range speakers. You may consciously listen to those bass sounds." That's right, noise fan: do not put this tape on after you've gone to sleep. Unconscious listening will make the bass sound like crap.

NP vs. Thirdorgan - Ver. 1

The Mossy Throats - Microelectronix

Three C46 tapes from Daniel Dlugosielski's Mossy Throats released on his deeply missed Excite Bike label.

An edition of 18 copies from 2008.

Tape 1

Tape 2

Tape 3

Logoplasm - La Musica Che Finisce Per Sempre

One of the earliest self-released albums by Logoplasm, a duo from Italy comprised of Paolo Ippoliti and Laura Lovreglio. The couple created spacious and welcoming improv/ambient noise and ran the wonderful S'agita Recordings label. There was no cover for this album, just unique line drawings on the face of the CDR.

Logoplasm - La Musica Che Finisce Per Sempre

aal - 13

Delicate electro-acoustic ambience by Davide Valecchi, who records as aal (almost automatic landscapes). This was the first release on a fine, if short-lived, Italian CDR label called S'agita Recordings. Check out Davide's Bandcamp page for a whole bunch of free/pay-what-you'd-like albums!

aal - 13

666 Volt Battery Noise - Family Annihilator

C42 released on Marco Corbelli's (aka Atrax Morgue's) Slaughter Productions in 1996.

The quality of the labels shows exactly the direction David's work goes in ...

Family Annihilator

666 Volt Battery Noise - Blunt Objects vs. Sharp Things

C60 released on Macronympha's Mother Savage Noise Productions in 1996.

Blunt Objects vs. Sharp Things

666 Volt Battery Noise - Audio Super-Predator

CD released in 1997 on Pure which was a sublabel of Ron Lessard's RRRecords.

Audio Super-Predator

666 Volt Battery Noise / Kadef‎ - Split

C60 featuring David Brownstead's 666 Volt Battery Noise project and Kalojan Witanski as Kadef.

Released in 1997 on Ecuador's Bizarre Audio Arts.

666 / Kadef‎

Mlehst - Living Without Feeling

Released in Greece by the Absurd label in 1998 in a numbered edition of 150 copies.

Mlehst - Living Without Feeling

Mlehst - Another Cross to Bear

1997 cassette on the Vigilant label.

Mlehst - Another Cross to Bear

Mlehst - The Difficulty in Crossing a Field

Released on Mlehst's own Bandaged Hand Produce label in 1998, edition of 100 copies.

Mlehst - The Difficulty in Crossing a Field

Mlehst - Jack of Bulbs

Noise from 1998, remixed and released in 2001 by The Locus of Assemblage in an edition of 100 copies.

Mlehst - Jack of Bulbs

Mlehst - This Pain Does Not Belong to Me

Music recorded in 1996 & 1997, released in 2001 by Self Abuse Records as a CDR in a run of 200 copies.

Mlehst - This Pain Does Not Belong to Me

Juke/19 - 1978-1982

The complete work of Shinro Ohtake's influential band Juke/19, all of their Time Bomb Records reissues collected into one handy, blink-and-you-missed-it edition-of-500-copies box set. These guys were far ahead of their time. It makes sense that they had an impact on a young Yamatanka Eye, whose Boredoms learned a few moves from the Juke songbook for sure. Eye would even go on to collaborate with Ohtake as Puzzle Punks.

1978-1982

Takehisa Kosugi, Michael Ranta, Toshi Ichiyanagi - Improvisation Sep. 1975

One of the heaviest, and to these ears most exciting, post-Taj Mahal Travelers/Group Ongaku recordings by the legendary Takehisa Kosugi, the equally heavy composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, and percussionist Michael Ranta. This slab unquestionably sounds like the era in which it was created, but who cares. It's the Platonic ideal of mid-70's psychedelic bliss/drone/improv. Beautiful in every way.

Takehisa Kosugi, Michael Ranta, Toshi Ichiyanagi - Improvisation Sep. 1975

Birchville Cat Motel - Vespertine

Utterly lovely and densely opiate 45-ish minutes that feel like several days in a sensory deprivation tank. That vacuum cleaner hum sucks you right in, then pulls all the dirt from your cerebellum until you drift off into a new dimension. Released as as a CDR by Last Visible Dog in 2002.

Birchville Cat Motel - Vespertine

Birchville Cat Motel - Live at Casa Gameboy

A live recording of the great Birchville Cat Motel from his 2005 US tour.

Birchville Cat Motel - Live at Casa Gameboy

Hvide Sejl‎ - Dignity

Hvide Sejl‎ is an alias of Loke Rahbek who also records as LR and plays in a plethora of Posh affiliates such as Caucasian Colony, Croatian Amor, Lust For Youth, Sexdrome and War.

C16 released on Posh Isolation in 2010.

Dignity

Hvide Sejl‎ - Nothing Good Ever Came From Waiting

C18 released on Posh Isolation in 2010.

Nothing Good Ever Came From Waiting

Hvide Sejl‎ - The Nude

C20 released on Posh Isolation in 2012.

The Nude

Bachir Gemayel‎ - St. Charbel

Mackenzie Chami, who also records as Crown Of Cerberus, Insurgent, Koufar and Waddiah Rabiah Chami. He is also a member of Winters In Osaka.

Four C70 tape boxset released on Masonry Records in 2010 in an edition of 15.

Tape 1

Tape 2

Tape 3

Tape 4

Aube & LOSD - Pulmoplexus / Organic One

Adorable little split 3"CD from 1995 by the late great Aube (aka Akifumi Nakajima) and Amsterdam duo Laboratory of Sonic Discovery.

Aube & LOSD - Pulmoplexus / Organic One

Keiji Haino - 魂の純愛 (Soul's True Love)

Massive 4xCD boxset of early howl by Keiji Haino, released on his own Purple Trap label in 1995. Disc 1 is the complete recording of his band Lost Aaraaf's infamously confrontational performance that ended the Genya Festival. The festival, which took place during a Shinto holiday in August 1971, featured psych, free jazz and folk bands all protesting the expansion of a nearby airport, which would have impacted the farmers who lived and worked nearby. Locals were invited to come do traditional dances and take part in the protest, as the concert was heavily guarded by nervous police expecting violence (this was a time of worldwide social unrest, after all). Masayuki Takayanagi's New Direction Unit, Brain Police, Blues Creation and other heavy hitters of the day all took the stage without incident... until the final act, Lost Aaraaf. The band's singer, a 19-year-old kid in black shades named Keiji Haino, told the crowd that he wanted to kill them all and then screamed obscenities at the hippies while his band roared away. The cops were unamused. Naturally, this incident did not help the band score subsequent festival gigs. An official album documenting the Genya Festival (which I might post someday, if any is curious) included just a small excerpt of the notorious set, but this box begins with the entire, unedited nihilistic mess. Imagine a lunatic screeching his lungs raw while cavemen bash on drums and a piano, and... well, that's exactly what this is.

The 2nd disc collects some of Haino's solo home recordings from 1969 to 1971, in which we learn that he must have emerged from the womb with long black hair and wearing dark sunglasses, and has not changed a bit in the years since. Proof? Tell me if these titles, ostensibly written by a teenage Haino, are not archetypal Haino song titles that might have been written just yesterday: Are You The One? The One Who Can Console Skepticism Stained This Deep... The Remnants Of A Tribe Called "Tenderness Overflowed"... Dimming, The Time And Scent Where Once You Were. See what I mean? Haino has always been Haino.

Disc 3 is the soundtrack to a dance piece, recorded solo in 1973. Finally, disc 4 is a monstrous untitled black hole by Fushitsusha.

1 - Lost Aaraaff - Concert from the Genyasai Festival 1971

2 - Keiji Haino - Suite Reverberation: The Third Heart 1969-1971

3 - Keiji Haino - Suite Reverberation: Forest of Spirits 1973

4 - Fushitsusha -Untitled

Fumio Kosakai's "Earth Calling" on Vinyl !!!

In June 2012, I posted two vanishingly rare Fumio Kosakai solo tapes.

Six months later, Phil Todd (Astray Navigations / Memoirs Of Aesthete and all that glorious stuff) told me that he had been in touch with Fumio Kosakai with the idea of repressing them on vinyl. Phil was given the masters of those recordings and has worked on them ever since.

Happy days people! The first LP has arrived ...

There are a maximum of 249 of these beauties available (it was 250 but I've just bought one of them).

You need to go here as quickly as you can! This is momentous and they will not be around for long.

[p.s. Don't forget the AshNav Bandcamp page.]

The Rita / Medea - Fra Diavolo

3" CDr split with Sam McKinlay and Angela Flemming released on Titus Records in 2005.

Angela was also a member of Damno Te at one point. There is also a pretty sweet Damno Te Bandcamp page out there as well.

[Ahhh ... just realised that this is availalble as a free download from the Damno Te bandcamp page in any format you wish. There's a major recommendation for my research abilities!]

~~Fra Diavolo~~

Link removed because I am a dick!

The Rita / Goat‎ - Macha Magall / The Night I Crushed Your Face

Split CDr released on Richard Ramirez's Deadline Recordings in 2007.

You know that Goat is the work of Andy O'Sullivan. Just in case you don't know about his work with Henrik Nordvargr Björkk (and check Henrik's Bandcamp page) as Goatvargr you should check that out as well! There are a couple of releases on Cold Spring. The first might be OOP but will have to check before I post it!

Macha Magall / The Night I Crushed Your Face

The Rita / Taskmaster‎ - The Rita & Taskmaster

C72 released on the genius Enterruption label in 2008. The label used to be run by wm.Rage (who is, of course, Nervous Corps and a member of the mighty Blue Sabbath Black Cheer. BSBC also has a Bandcamp page that you should check out!). This was probably one of the final tapes that was put out before Monsieur Rage moved on to other things.

This was part of Enterruption's Hermetic Archival Series. I can't tell you how much I miss that label ... the tapes were always spot on and the artwork for the Archival series was beautiful!

Anyway, if you don't know who The Rita is, take yourself out into the street and invite passers-by to spank you to death. Taskmaster is Taskmaster!

The A side has a track from each whilst the B side is a 36 minute collaboration.

The Rita & Taskmaster

1/3 Octave Band‎ - Piscean Tragedies

Do you love having Mrs Inside. on board as much as I do?

I absolutley adore 1/3 Octave Band‎ and she reminded me that I have this:

This is a three disc 8" lathe cut set released on Crawlspace in 2003. It's half an hour spread across six sides of rough cut vinyl. It sounds like it should be a single piece ... I might join it all up one day but probably won't.

It is absolutely wonderful!

Piscean Tragedies

Ben Spiers & Bill Wood - Dark Field

Bill Wood, 1/2 of 1/3 Octave Band (which makes him... um, 1/6 Octave Band?) pairs up with multi-instrumentalist Ben Spiers for a session of loose suburban clatter for Campbell Kneale's stellar, genre-defining C/psi/P label.

Ben Spiers & Bill Wood - Dark Field

The Nether Dawn & 1/3 Octave Band - Live at Sound & Fury 04.09.2005

Two top-notch live sets by NZ heavyweights Antony Milton (here flying his Nether Dawn flag) and 1/3 Octave Band at Australia's Sound & Fury. Like the other live Sound & Fury CDRs, this title was issued in an edition of 100 copies, and came in an envelope sealed with wax.

The Nether Dawn & 1/3 Octave Band - Live at Sound & Fury 04.09.2005

Zac Davis, Kim Gordon, Ben Chasny, Thurston Moore, Elisa Ambrogio, Bill Nace, Gown, Dredd Foole, Matt Krefting And Jessi Leigh Swenson - Kumpiny Night

Ages ago, J started this blog and either the best thing or worst thing I have ever done was to start talking to him and then join in on this blogging lark.

On January the 4th 2010 I chose my first post. A large Lambsbread drop. In all of the world of music, I chose them (feel the love and all that). Then we had a filehost issue and I had to delete the post. At the time nobody was really seeing the blog and nobody was downloading. Seemed to be a sensible decision at the time but have always regretted it ... mind you, I never thought for one second that I would still be here doing this!

I thought about posting those Lambsbread today (but there was a lot of them and I need to pretend that I actually have some kind of life). Instead, how about this?

This is a CDr released on Maim & Disfigure in 2007. It is a recording of a live thing and basically at the start it is announced that the people there will be drawn out of a hat and have 5 minutes to improv something or other.

There's a lot of waiting around until you get something you actually want to hear.

You might say that this sums the blog up but I've said it myself to save you the effort!

Kumpiny Night

Die Form - 2 / Virgin Flavour Total Remix

In 1986, Die Form reissued their third cassette, "2 / Virgin Flavor", in an updated "Total Remix" version.

Die Form - 2 / Virgin Flavour Total Remix

Die Form - 2 / Total Flavour

The third cassette by French synth/industrial band Die Form, issued on their own Bain Total label.

Die Form - 2 / Total Flavour

Die Form - Messe Basse

One-sided cassette by Die Form, from 1984.

Die Form - Messe Basse

Eso Steel‎ - Technology Of Sleep

The wonderful Richard Francis. LP released on 20city on 2001.

Technology Of Sleep

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