Bleak Bliss: July 2014

The Amazing Mr. Slug - Frog & Slug

While the name "Amazing Mr. Slug" is nowhere to be found on this self-released CDR, who else could it be? More bizarro hometaper insanity by Frog, former bassist for indie rockers Meringue (who lived somewhere in the vicinity of Polvo, Sun City Girls and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282). Fans of The Residents, R. Stevie Moore, Yximalloo, Witcyst, and anyone who loved Bananafish Magazine: this is for you.

The Amazing Mr. Slug - Frog & Slug

The Amazing Mr. Slug - Reasons From Three of Me

Why is The Amazing Mr. Slug not your favorite band? Probably because you've never heard of him. Totally outside the networks of other underground noise weirdos, Slug clearly did not give a fig what anyone else thought of his music, or even whether or not anyone heard it. He made a handful of tapes and CDRs in the 90's and then vanished. No website, no labels, no tours, no scene, nothing.

The Amazing Mr. Slug - Reasons From Three of Me

The Glands of External Secretion - Demonstrate Congo Bob's Epic Saliva Torture

This is a single sided 7" single that amply demonstrates that size doesn't matter! There are only two tracks. The first is a rendition of the John Lennon scripted "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away". Put simply, it is stunning. Depending on my mood it makes me either sing at the top of my voice or cry like a baby. The second track is a slanted and enchanted Pussy Galore vs Stooges affair and ordinarily I would love that too ... but nothing could sit next to the first track and survive!

The Glands were Barbara Manning (and, frankly, everything that she recorded is wonderful) alongside Seymour Glass (founder of the Bananafish magazine). This was released on the latter's Starlight Furniture Co. in 1992.

Congo Bob

The Glands of External Secretion - Northern Exposure Will Be Right Back

CD or LP released on Seymour's own Starlight Furniture Co. label in 1995.

Northern Exposure Will Be Right Back

Glands of External Secretion - Meat Receiving

The usual duo are joined by Tom Lax (founder of the excellent Siltbreeze label) in fine utensil mode on Spatula, Tongs and Knives!

LP released on Dennis Tyfus' always wonderful Ultra Eczema in 2009.

Meat Receiving

Dale Gordon - Sex in the Family

More immoral yuck from Finnish singer/songwriter Mikko Aspa, again using sleazy paperback art as a cover for paraphilic prurience. Aspa's name is nowhere on the tape, though. Instead, this is by "Dale Gordon, Ph.D" and it's not simply a c10 of rough aural abrasion, it's a "study". It must be science!

Dale Gordon - Sex in the Family

Dorchester Library - Summer Incest

Total sleaze from Mikko Aspa/Grunt, here hiding behind the cover of a nasty paperback novel with the innocuous title Dorchester Library. Because if it's from a library, how bad could it be? It's almost educational! Issued on the Institute for Paraphilia Studies imprint of Freak Animal Records in Finland.

Dorchester Library - Summer Incest

Various - Ftarri Collection

This is a mind-blowing seven disc box-set released on Meenna in individually made felt bags at the end of last year. It consists of a selection of live recordings at various Ftarri festivals in Kyoto and Tokyo in 2008 and 2010. There were 300 released with 80 of them going to the artists involved.

To be honest, I may as well pack up and leave. I can't imagine posting anything else that is as good as this!

01: Opera Southern Cross / John Butcher, Toshimaru Nakamura and Tetuzi Akiyama / Otomo Yoshihide, Toshimaru Nakamura and Ryu Hankil

02: Noid, Kai Fagaschinski, Axel Dörner and Taku Unami / Eddie Prévost and Sachiko M

03: Gnu / Ami Yoshida / Tim Olive, Anthony Guerra and Makoto Oshiro

04: Los Glissandinos / Bunsho Nishikawa, Tim Olive and Haco / Katsura Yamauchi, Ko Ishikawa and Tetsu Saitoh

05: Naoaki Miyamoto / Chie Mukai and Tetragrammaton

06: Chihei Hatakeyama and Kiyoshi Mizutani / Hello

07: Seiichi Yamamoto and Umeda Tetsuya / VOIMA / Tetuzi Akiyama, Utah Kawasaki and Katsura Yamauchi

va - Masters Of Japanese Electronic Music

Far East Experimental Sounds/Sonic Plate was a label somehow aligned with the similarly genre-defying Zero Gravity. Both labels published synthesizer music that straddled noise, techno, ambient, and that certain something that only ever existed when it was on a FEES/Sonic Plate or Zero Gravity album. This compilation is a necessary piece to that puzzle, bringing together disparate artists in what can best be understood as a statement of purpose. You get well-established noise acts like Hanatarash and Merzbow, improvising turntablist Otomo Yoshihide, producers Mom'n'Dad Productions, Kazunao Nagata, and Hado-Ho, one track by the magnificent Nerve Net Noise and one by novelist Manabu Yuasa (whose only other recording seems to be a collaboration with none other than Mr. Zero Gravity, Kazunao Nagata). The presentation sets the bar pretty high: not only does the CD come in a metal can, it also includes trading cards for each artist!

va - Masters of Japanese Electronic Music

Woodman - A Barbarian in Asia

From one of the most bizarre and obscure of Japanese experimental music labels, Far East Experimental Sounds/Sonic Plate, comes the first album by Woodman. Like most of the label's releases, it's a tough one to describe. This is a deep-space ambient/dub zoner, maybe a small nod in the direction of Bill Laswell's drone albums, but it's rougher and weirder than that. That the album was produced by Kazunao Nagata ought to give you a clue about it's other-ness. Sure, it's a big whoosh with occasional earthquake throb, but it all sounds a bit... wrong. And that's what I love about it. For those of you who love "Barbarian" and seek out later Woodman albums, be forewarned that they are much more normal than this one. Not bad, but not like this one.

Woodman - A Barbarian in Asia

You need a Weed Temple!

I'm not sure how long Jakub Adamek has been linked up with our blog. I do know that he has appeared on the left hand of our front page for a very long time. Having personally come very close to walking away and deleting this blog because of seemingly unbearable life events, we want you to support him.

"Dear Readers, the time has come when I have to suspend the activity of Weed Temple until further notice.

The last few months have been exceptionally difficult both in terms of personal life and managing Weed Temple. The months between April and June have created some sort of bad luck triumvirate, each of these events was bad of their own, but together they formed a sort of a tsunami wave that just drowned me relentlessly. First, I lost my job. Then, I lost my father (fuck you, cancer). Finally, I broke up with my fiancee with whom I’ve spent almost five years. I need some time to clear things up and get over it.

I’ll be selling (or trading) some tapes and CD’s in order to make ends meet. Most of them are in mint condition. Keep an eye out for a full list that will be published soon."

Even if there is nothing that you want to buy, pass on some positivity!

Women In Tragedy - Daughters Of Isolation

Women In Tragedy was the work of Bob McCully. I really miss that anticipation of getting my clammy hands on the next new thing. Picking up (particularly) a new Women In Tragedy was always a major event for me. The three that I have posted are all from 2006 and are typically varied output. This tape ranges from ambient flutter and drone to psych dungeon shamanism to pulse driven crumbling noise ... and that is only Side A.

C36 released on Long Long Chaney in (you guessed it) 2006.

Daughters Of Isolation

Women In Tragedy ‎- Tragic Life

Magnificent CDr released on Brise-Cul Records in 2006. You need to visit the label's bandcamp page!

Tragic Life

Women In Tragedy - I Wish I Were Numb

Elegiac and appropriately titled C30 released on Loveless Tapes in 2006.

I Wish I Were Numb

Thirdorgan & (ISOFC) - Neon, Garbage & Worms

Akihiro Shimizo/Thirdorgan trades volleys of debris with Abdul Squeeter/(In Spite of Flaming Creatures) on this collaborative tape from 1998. Originally put out by Spite in a numbered edition of 50 copies.

Thirdorgan & (ISOFC) - Neon, Garbage & Worms

Lasse Marhaug vs Dave Wright - The Rainbow Thief

More from Dave Wright/Not Breathing, this time in some sort of conflict ("vs"?) with the king of Trondheim, Lasse Marhaug. Lots of variety on this tape, put out by Labyrinth in 1999. Each artist uses the other's sounds to make something new. Side A is subtitled "Marhaug in Action", side B "The Wright Way".

Lasse Marhaug vs Dave Wright - The Rainbow Thief

D.Wright & Woe Is Me - Emergency Procedures: Live / Orca Y Choronzon

Split tape of live recordings from the dependably high-quality Spite label (RIP), a numbered edition of 50 copies from 1998. Dave Wright, (slightly) better known as Not Breathing, performs his side in Tucson, Arizona, using electronics, Tibetan singing bowls and bowed water phone. John Patterson/Woe Is Me, also of metal band Taste of Fear, roars live from New York on his side.

D.Wright & Woe Is Me - Emergency Procedures: Live / Orca Y Choronzon

Facialmess - Madcap Barely Smiles

Cracking C46 released on Spite in 1997.

Madcap Barely Smiles

Facialmess ‎- 3 New Songs

These were 3 New Songs when they were released by Solipsism in 2001.

3 New Songs

Facialmess ‎- Kick My Prog Rock

Back on steadier Japanese ground, here is Kenny Sanderson's Facialmess released on Harshnoise in 2003.

Kick My Prog Rock

The Teashop Madman & Odal - A Destroyed Sandwich

Another very early tape on Troniks (TRO-26), split between Quebec's Pierre-Marc Tremblay (better known today as Ames Sanglantes) and Dutch junk noise beast Peter Zincken/Odal. Numbered edition of 50 copies, published in 2000.

The Teashop Madman & Odal - A Destroyed Sandwich

Lather & Big Tex - Split

A very early release on Troniks, a label run by Phil Blankenship/The Cherry Point that would go on to become one of the most significant and prolific noise labels in America. This tape (catalog #TRO-44 for you trainspotters) came out in 2000 in a numbered edition of 100 copies and is split between two obscure bands. Lather is (was?) the nom de drone of an artist also (un)known as BRXTNLE, who ran the Noisegood label. Confusingly, Big Tex is from Sacramento CA, not Texas. His side is mono synth crunch, apparently recorded live at someone's birthday party.

Lather & Big Tex - Split

Sukora ‎- Tower

Firstly, on behalf of Bleak Bliss™ I'd like to apologise for the actions of Mrs Inside. I can only assume that she is the type of women that tells you that she loves you just to mess with your head!

We don't come here for SPROING! We come here for fast-living action! We come here for the type of music that makes Schimpfluch-Gruppe look like a lazy death metal tribute act! We want music that makes John Cage look like a crystal-meth addict! We come here for the sound of a man wearing only socks and shuffling vaguely past some electronics and then taking his socks off and leaving the room and then remembering that he has left his socks in the room with the electronics in it and going back to put his socks on and then leaving again. Stand firm good readers! Fear not! My finger is on the quality control button!

This is the work of Takayoshi Kitajima and it was released on Meme in 1998.

Sukora - Tower

Hirama Takahiro - Thr Eat Rhy Thm

You can't deal with this one. In fact, don't even waste your time downloading it, because it's not for you. Ah, but I can hear you mutter condescendingly to yourself, "What do you know, internet stranger? You're just a girl. I am so much badder and tougher than you are. You have no idea what I have in my record collection. I love extreme music. This is just another album by some Japanese noise guy. It's probably exactly like all the other extreme noise albums I listen to every day when I play internet poker." It's fine if you think those thoughts. Everyone is entitled to be wrong, even you. The truth, however, is that even Sukora and Nerve Net Noise don't adequately prepare you for this one. Imagine a sound like... sproing! Add some reverb. Got it? Now imagine a very patient and/or nearly catatonic guy making this sound every once in a while into a microphone. Forty minutes later, for no reason that I can figure out, he stops. Why did he stop when he did? A better question is, why did he start? I don't have the answers to those questions. In fact, I have no idea who this person is or what else, if anything, he's done. Maybe this album is everything he ever wanted to say. After making it, maybe he made a few copies, had an immense feeling of satisfaction, and thought: it is so perfect, I have nothing more to say. Like I said, you won't like it. But if you don't believe me, then go ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you. Soak up the warm goo of "The Eat Rhy Thm" and thank your lucky stars that you've never been trapped sitting next to Takahiro on a long bus ride. Sproing!

Hirama Takahiro - Thr Eat Rhy Thm

va - The Rain of Fish

Intense old noise compilation tape from 1998 on the short-lived Dutch label Split Eye Tapes, with tracks by Sadistic Lingam Cult, Odal, proof of the shooting..., Bob Marinelli, Howard Stelzer, Diagram A, Psychologische Abwehrfront, Kinderlager, V.B., J.J.C., D., E.T., I.T., Grunt, and The Amazing Mr. Slug.

va - The Rain of Fish

Circuit Wound - The Hunger of Insects in Dry Places

2005 tape on Swampland Noise.

Circuit Wound - The Hunger of Insects in Dry Places

Magical Power Mako - Hapmoniym 1972-1975

Box set containing five volumes of private recordings made by a teenage Makoto Kurita, aka psych outsider Magical Power Mako. There was once talk of a fifteen disc set of sound from Mako's earliest homemade experiments, but only these have appeared so far.

disc 1
disc 2
disc 3
disc 4
disc 5

Guitar Wolf / Lightning Bolt - Ultra Cross Vol. 1

CD released in Japan in 2006. Apparently the title translates as Ultra Cross Vol. 1. Was this an actual series? Were there any others?

Guitar Wolf and Lightning Bolt juxtaposed? The louder you play this the better it gets. Play this REALLY REALLY fucking loud!

ウルトラクロス Vol.1

I.S.O. - Gravity Clock

I.S.O. were Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M (both former members of Ground Zero who have created art and history elsewhere) and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (a former member of Seijaku, Nishinihon and Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO). A very special trio indeed!

This was released on Amoebic in 1998. The label "is comprised of the individual labels of two producers: Yoshihide Otomo and Sachiko M. Amoebic's principal policy is that the producers individually release whatever they choose to, via "amoebic" management". A bit like me and Mrs Inside but without the insight or talent really ...

Gravity Clock

I.S.O. ‎- Live

CD featuring live recordings in Japan and France during 1998 and released on Zero Gravity the same year.

Live

I.S.O. - I.S.O.

Recorded and mixed in one day with no editing or overdubs on June the 4th 1998 and released on Alcohol the following year.

I.S.O.

I.S.O. - I.S.O.

CD released on Sound Tectonics in 2003. Recorded live at Sesshu-tei Garden, Yamaguchi, Japan on December the 17th 2002.

I.S.O.

Various‎ - In, Demons In

Ten inches of lovely vinyl which sees The Heads, Plastic Crimewave Sound and Lillydamwhite take on Hawkwind, The Edgar Broughton Band and The Pink Fairies respectively. And everybody wins!

Released on the inimitable Rocket Recordings in 2005.

In, Demons In

Tommy Ramone

And then there were none ...

The last of the original members of The Ramones has died. He became the third of the band to succumb to cancer.

Tommy was the drummer on the first three studio albums and the It's Alive double LP. If you have never heard them, fix that situation immediately. They are all classics! The Ramones were the most influential band that have existed. Period!

Solmania‎ - Morphine Nocturne

This is (effectively) a C80 tape released on Vanilla Records in 1991.

Vanilla Records was run by Michio Teshima who recorded a tape as Yellow Cab on G.R.O.S.S. in 1995. I've never heard that tape but it has always simmered away in the back of my brain ... anybody out there have it?

Anyway. Each side of this tape reflects live performances in Osaka and Kyoto respectively. It's live where Solmania really comes into its own and every second of this delights me!

Morphine Nocturne

Solmania - Metamorphor Chorus

The Guitar Cries Mercy. CD released on Alchemy Records in 1991 that manages to mix guitar torture with the occasional moment of introspection and with good old (c)rumbling harsh electronics.

Metamorphor Chorus

Solmania - Psycledelic

Majestic guitar and electronics debauchery from Masahiko Ohno. Released on Alchemy Records in 1993.

Psycledelic

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ‎- En Concert À Paris

This is a reissue from 2000 of five previous volumes which show Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at the height of his powers.

1: 6th November 1985, Radio France, Studio 103.

2: 6th November 1985, Radio France, Studio 103.

3: March 20, 1988 at Théâtre de la ville in Paris

4: March 20, 1988 at Théâtre de la ville in Paris

5: March 20, 1988 at Théâtre de la ville in Paris

Hiroshi Higashi - Ikkan No Yoyo

The first solo outing from one of the mainstays of the Acid Mothers Temple family. Interplanetary blowout released on the AMT label as part of their private disc series in 2001.

Ikkan No Yoyo

Hiroshi Higashi - The Day Before: Psychochemistry

Synthesizer and Harmonica, again released as part of the private disc series in 2002.

The Day Before: Psychochemistry

Hiroshi Higashi - He No He No

Cosmic synth and guitar released on the Acid Mothers Temple label as part of their private disc series in 2002.

He No He No

Juniper Fuse ‎- Dark Riots I

Juniper Fuse is the work of Mike Connelly. You might know him as Failing Lights or Zombi or as a lot of other pseudonyms. You may also know him as a member of Hair Police or Birth Refusal and any number of side projects and (of course) Wolf Eyes.

Mike also ran the exemplary Gods Of Tundra label. In 2012, there was a huge burst of activity on the label which culminated in December of that year with a series of releases as Juniper Fuse. Although. Hair Police's "Mercurial Rites" LP came out a month or so later the Juniper Fuse releases appear to mark the bowing out! I don't want this to sound like an obituary ... people move on and get on with "real life". I sincerely hope Mike gets everything he wishes for. He certainly gave enough to us!

To my brain, Juniper Fuse seems like a perfect way to exit. Juniper Fuse does not represent what has gone before. They are exquisite dronescapes that occasionally swerve into an ambient void before building again. I tried separating the tracks but that only detracts from the work. The "tracks" flow and should be approached in that way.

This is a C90 released on Gods Of Tundra in 2012.

Dark Riots I

Juniper Fuse ‎- Dark Riots II

C90 released on Gods Of Tundra in 2012.

Dark Riots II

Juniper Fuse‎ - Dark Riots III

C90 released on Gods Of Tundra in 2012.

Dark Riots III

Juniper Fuse‎ - Dark Riots IV

C90 released on Gods Of Tundra in 2012.

Dark Riots IV

Juniper Fuse‎ - Gravity Well

C52 released on Gods Of Tundra in 2012.

Gravity Well

K2 / TNB ‎- Oozing Ruin

Kimihide Kusafuka reworking The New Blockaders material. It's dedicated to the victims of the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe. An unmitigated disaster that will blight lives for generations to come. Nuclear power in the hands of profit driven private companies anyone?

C30 released on Banned Production in 2012.

Oozing Ruin

Exhumanations - Organ Harvestings Vol 7

John Olson on a C56 released on American Tapes in 2004 in an edition of 12.

It's AM322 btw.

Organ Harvestings Vol 7

Exhumanations - Organ Harvestings Vol 13

John Olson on a C32 released on American Tapes in 2004 in an edition of 13.

It's AM331 btw.

Organ Harvestings Vol 13

Exhumanations - Organ Harvestings Vol 14

John Olson on a C32 released on American Tapes in 2004 in an edition of 13.

It's AM332 btw.

Organ Harvestings Vol 14

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