Magazine - The Complete John Peel Sessions




The switch between one month and the next really shouldn't have any major significance when you apply rational thought. I'm not feeling particularly rational, I'm feeling strangely optimistic. Tomorrow will be the start of my new year.

I've been walking around my gaff singing "The Shite Pours Out Of Me" to the tune of the song by these exemplary Mancunians. So why not? These are the four Peel Sessions that they recorded between February 1978 and January 1980.

Happy New Year Everyone!

John Peel Sessions

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va - Killed By Bass

"Killed By Bass" (is the title supposed to be a riff on the "Killed By Death" punk comps?) is a Japanese collection of speaker-busting absurdity, issued in 1997 by P-Vine. Take the title seriously; this CD is designed to test the limits of your sub-woofer and shake the pictures off your neighbors' walls. It includes tracks by Sonic Plate alumnus Kucknake (as himself, and also under the pseudonyms Da Bass Psyclonez and Subdisco), experimental turntablist L?K?O, and other names that are new to me: Smurf Otoko Gumi, Moodman, and Afro Hard Core.

va - Killed By Bass

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Swimming Behaviour Of The Human Infant - Swimming Behaviour Of The Human Infant




Groundbreaking LP released on Selektion in 1985 (and re-released as a CD on Klanggalerie in 2010).

Swimming Behaviour Of The Human Infant

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P16.D4 & Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant - Nichts Niemand Nirgends Nie!




Achim Wollscheid's S.B.O.T.H.I. and Ralf Wehowsky and co's P16.D4 on a double LP released on Ralf and Achim's Selektion label in 1986. I posted this nearly three years ago and Mrs Inside's post sparked requests for a re-up. Given that there will be more Human Infantry on the way, it will be nice to have them all sitting together...

Nichts Niemand Nirgends Nie!

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John Bradbury




John Bradbury was the drummer with Coventry's Two Tone legends The Specials. I've just found out that we lost John yesterday as well.

Yesterday was an extremely bad day.



Special

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Ian Fraser Kilmister




On the 26th of December, Lemmy was told that he had cancer. Yesterday, he died. To be honest, I'm fucking devastated. The world without Lemmy doesn't compute ... Lemmy doesn't die ... Lemmy is just Lemmy ... he just "is". Complete legend and a proper hardcore rock god ... and a good man who had the chance to live his life to the full. I haven't got any words to describe how much he means to me. Anyway, I've got a bottle of Jack Daniels and I'm gonna blast out the first four LPs until I manage to smile again.

First Phil and now Ian. Sleep well fellas!





Motörhead

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RLW & Aube - Organized

A classic mail-art collaborative process, demonstrated beautifully by two professionals! In 1997, Ralf Wehowsky/RLW mailed organ sounds to Akifumi Nakajima/Aube in Japan, and Nakajima mailed organ sounds to Wehowsky in Germany. Each used the others' sounds to compose a new piece of music. The Dutch label Meeuw Muzak put it out as a gorgeous red-vinyl 10" EP in a run of 300 copies. By the way, I encourage any readers to go purchase physical copies of anything on Meeuw Muzak; the scans give you an idea of what this record looks like, but they don't do the superb design justice.

RLW & Aube - Organized

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SBOTHI - The Change Can Sound

Third solo LP (following some cassettes, two LPs for the Selektion label and a collaborative 2LP with the like-minded P16.D4) of shockingly austere anti-music by Achim Wollscheid, also known as Swimming Behavior of the Human Infant/SBOTHI. This stuff is so stark and harsh that I can understand if it takes even a seasoned noise pro awhile to get into it. The music seems to actively resist likability. However, if modern patience-taxers such as Hecker, Nerve Net Noise, Sukora, G*Park or Evol float your strange boat, then climb aboard. The record came out in 1989 in an edition of just 100 copies on the Japanese label Vis a Vis Audio Arts, which was run by the notorious Juntaro Yamanouchi/The Gerogerigegege. No information at all was provided; no information, no credits, not even the band name. It was a white sleeve with the title printed two different ways on the front and back.

SBOTHI - The Change Can Sound

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Skartrack - Freiheitsgeschmack ‎

A flexi-disc released in 1980 by Wahrnehmungen by a band that, as far as I can tell, only existed for this one release. The members of Skartrack, however, should sound familiar to readers of this blog: Ralf Wehowsky, Joachim Stender and Joachim Pense, all of whom were also members of PD/Permutative Distorsion. After PD's demise, Wehowsky (better known as RLW) formed P16.D4 (all of whose recordings are available on the fantastic "Passagen" box set on Monotype Records) and re-named the label Selektion.

Skartrack - Freiheitsgeschmack

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Otomo Yoshihide - Plays The Music Of Takeo Yamashita




Let's not dwell on it too much, but we all need a palate cleanser after the weird uncle (especially those of you who fell asleep with your mouths open) ...

As far as I can figure out, Takeo Yamashita created soundtracks for scores of Japanese TV series and movies during his 75 years on this planet. With a no doubt deferential nod of the head a series of Otomo Yoshihide related projects are brought together on this wonderful CD released on P-Vine Records in 1999.

Plays The Music Of Takeo Yamashita

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The Gerogerigegege - Singles 1985-1993




The day after Christmas Day is always that awkward family occasion where the weird uncle turns up. What better way to celebrate that thought provoking occasion than with Juntaro Yamanouchi, the King Of All Onanists™?

Clearly there is none ... and he evens brings his own Christmas song ... god bless you all!

CD released on Work In Progress in 1994.

Merry Christmas To Wankers Everywhere!

The link has been removed. I didn't spot that this is available on the Irrational Arts Bandcamp page ... so go there instead!

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We Wish You An Irie Ismas ...




This is a three disc set released on Trojan Records in 2003. It is packed full of Jamaican legends but it comes with more than a word of warning: it is so unremittingly cheerful that it must be possessed by Babylon and if you listen to all of this then it may well drive you to homicide.

Depending upon the company you keep at this time of year this may be a bad thing. However, it may not be. If you end up in jail it's not my fault you bomboclaat!

Ding

Dong

Merrily

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Various - The X-Mas-Compilation




Double C60 packed with such famous names as Richard Youngs, Telepherique and The Dead Goldfish Ensemble (well, maybe not the last one...). To be honest, nearly all of the people on here are pretty obscure even by our standards but it hits the note with such Christmas classics as "Fuckin' Xmas", "Jingle Garbage", "No-Hell", "Bah Humbug" and "The Government Is Coming To Town" and to be honest, everybody should go to bed with Dee Jay Emm's perky Steinski-inspired "Christmas Break" irritating the inside of their cranium as they drift off to sleep ...

Released on Ebus Music in 1992.

Jingle

Balls

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People Like Us - Live at Christian Marclay's Sounds of Christmas




Between the 10th and 22nd of December 2004, Christian Marclay curated a two-week installation at the Tate Modern in London where a host of turntablists created remixes from their selection of Marclay's Christmas records. This is Vicki Bennett on the 18th of December.

What better way could you have to prepare for the fateful day?

Deck The Halls And Run To The Hills

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Frieder Butzmann Und Laurence Nagana - Bunte Flügel

Bracingly strange cassette first released in 1980 by Eisengrau, a West Berlin clothing shop/record label run by Blixa Bargeld and members of Mania D that documented the early days of that influential punk/noise/industrial scene. In 1999, the tape was reissued as a vinyl LP by Weltklasse, though I cannot tell how "official" that version is. You probably know Butzmann from the first (and best) lineup of Din a Testbild and from the other albums of electronic insanity he's foisted upon unworthy ears over the years, or even from that "Asperado a-Go-Go" compilation LP I posted last week. But even if you only know his recent, stellar LP on PAN, this album will demonstrate that Butzmann was also that bizarre 35 years ago. As far as I can tell, this is the only appearance of Mr. Nagana, so I can't tell you anything more about him.

Frieder Butzmann Und Laurence Nagana - Bunte Flügel

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Deep Jew - War




Spectacular single-sided 7" delivered unto the masses by Troniks in 2006.

War

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Deep Jew - Harem




Originally a rare C10 released on Callow God in 2006 that was given a 7" vinyl makeover by Static Aktion in 2007.

Harem

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Deep Jew - Find A Way




Screaming C14 released on Callow God in 2007.

Find A Way

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Deep Jew - Punishment Feast: Live Recordings




How do you describe Deep Jew?

Erm ... get a bunch of noise heads in the back of a van, get them to plug in their instruments and beat the living shit out of them, press record and then drive the van off a cliff at 100mph. Erm ... yeah, that'll do it.

Single-sided LP released Troniks in 2007.

Punishment Feast

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Deep Jew - Ugliest Man / Dog Blood




Jeff Witscher and Matthew Sullivan with Alex Twomey (Mirror To Mirror, Persimmons Pomegranate), Cole Miller (Toxic Loincloth) and Roy Tatum (Changeling). Originally, this was a self-released tape from 2007 before getting a vinyl LP re-release on Troniks ‎and Jugular Forest in 2008.

Ugliest Man / Dog Blood

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Privy Seals - Hollow Hopes




C60 that was the first release on Matthew's own Ekhein label in 2007.

Hollow Hopes

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Privy Seals - Shroud




This gets you towards wall noise but is more nuanced than the more static influenced purveyors. C30 released on Thorax Harsh Cassettes in 2007.

Shroud

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Privy Seals - Impotence And Gratitude




Let's face it, the best that men of a certain age can expect is impotence and gratitude. However, Matthew Sullivan also gives you collapsing metal junk, arc-welding and rocket boosters. I prefer the latter to the former, but let's not intrude into private disappointment.

Impotence And Gratitude

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Boris + Endon - EROS




Whoohoo, it's Boris! Gotta admit, I don't know much about Endon. But, whoohoo anyway!

C30 sold this year on their Japanese tour and ostensibly released on Fangs Anal Satan and G.G.R.R..

EROS

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Marble Sky & Earn - Waiting On Trial




Jeff and Matthew Sullivan (who also recorded as Privy Seals and was in the mental Deep Jew alongside Jeff and other like minds) sharing a C20 released on Pathetic Legends in 2008.

Waiting On Trial

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Marble Sky - Low God / Lady




A C30 and C10 set released on Callow God in 2008 in an edition of 40 copies.

Low God / Lady

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Marble Sky - No Matter How Close




Another C20, this time it's a tour tape released on Callow God in an edition of 30 copies in 2009.

No Matter How Close

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Marble Sky - Some Laughing Afterwards




C20 released on Agents Of Chaos (a sub-label of Jeff's own Callow God) in 2009 in an edition of 20 copies.

Some Laughing Afterwards

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Marble Sky - The Sad Return




Marble Sky is the work of the excellent Jeff Witscher who you probably know better as Impregnable, Rene Hell or Secret Abuse. Marble Sky sit at the shimmering synth drone end of his spectrum.

Initially, this was a titular C30 released on Callow God in 2007 but two years later Students Of Decay re-released this on CD with an additional two tracks. The first 100 copies came with a 13 minute CDr that is otherwise unreleased. This is that.

The Sad Return

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va - Asperando A Gogo - 20 Golden Krautzuck Hits

This magnificent bootleg LP from 1997 is a well-selected collection of raw obscurities from below the Neue Deutche Welle/industrial/no wave DIY unterirdisch of late 1970's to early 1980's Germany. Most tracks were lifted from 7" singles and every one is a brain-scratching winner.  These are not the new wave anthems of ZickZack or anything as polished as arena-filling DAF, Fehlfarben, or Einsturzende Neubauten. This is the sound of real punk noise by heroes such as Boss & Beusi (Boss Peter Braatz would rename himself Harry Rag and both members would go on to form the mighty SYPH), Luxus (featuring Christine Hahn, also of Malaria! and Glenn Branca's band The Static), Freider Butzmann (still quite active today, with a recent LP on PAN), Permutative Distortion (aka P.D., later to start the Selektion label and rename themselves P16.D4), Phonophobia (Very Good Records would release a very good LP collecting their music of this era), and unknowns Notorische Reflexe, Saab, Katastrophentheorie and Mron Euen. If you liked the "I Hate the Pop Group" LP, which kinda served the same purpose for the British no-fans scene of the same era, then this is exactly the kind of dirt you want to rub all over your ears.

va - Asperando A Gogo - 20 Golden Krautzuck Hits 

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Glands Of External Secretion - Reverse Atheism




It shouldn't be a big secret that I adore Glands Of External Secretion.

The central combination of Barbara Manning and Seymour Glass make gorgeous music that willfully switches from the most beautiful emotion provoking songs to the delightfully fucked up acid fried David Lynch meets William Seward Burroughs II "what the hell am I doing here and how do I get out"?

Every single thing they do is essential ... but just to ramp it up a bit, here you also get contributions from the likes of Bruce Russell, Patricia de Rowland and Alastair Galbraith.

This is a double LP (there is a track-list but there is absolutely no point in splitting it into tracks, each side of vinyl is a flowing entity in its own right) and the initial 100 came with the Expanding Universe CDr. The vinyl was released on Butte County Free Music Society in 2011 but the CDr was only available when you bought the first copies from Tedium House.

I listen to this several times a week and have done so for a long time ... so should you. I'm already nauseated by the approaching capitalist bullshit and as Christ Mass and 2016 relentlessly tries to involve me, I'll be listening to this!

Reverse Atheism

This Expanding Universe (Reverse Atheism Penalty Tracks)

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Jason Crumer - Hum Of An Imagined Environment




The title and the cover hint at what's inside but doesn't adequately convey its brutal beauty.

CD released on Ignivomous in 2006.

Hum Of An Imagined Environment

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Jason Crumer - Hoss




Soaring drone tones that take you to dark places.

CDr released on Audiobot in 2006.

Hoss

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Jason Crumer - What Is Love




14 minutes of recommended collapsing wall junk released on Hospital Productions in 2007.

What Is Love

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Jason Crumer - Burning In Hell




A full on roaring beast of an LP jointly released on Harsh Head Rituals ‎and PAS-83 Productions in 2008.

Burning In Hell

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Jason Crumer - A Personal Hell




Somebody emailed me a month or two ago saying "Post some Crumer". That was it. I'm still not sure whether it was a request or an order. Anyway, it made me think "How the hell haven't we posted any of Jason Crumer's work?". Baffling. I suppose you can put it down to the butterfly mind syndrome. We get a bit over enthusiastic sometimes ... yeah, like children full of E numbers. We start off with good ideas and a plan and before you know it "look at the shiny thing!" and we're off in a different direction.

Anyway (again) guess what? I've posted some Jason Crumer. He makes top quality noise recordings under his own name as well as being in such outfits as American Band and Aluminum Noise (yeah, I know, it's Aluminium but you know what the Americans are like for ignoring the English language and talking all American and that).

This is a 7" vinyl and CDr combo released on Small Doses in 2009. The 7" is ripped at 33rpm and 45rpm just because both sound great.

Extract the two parts together to hear why it's so ridiculous that it has taken so long ...

Part One

Part Two

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Mauve Sideshow - s/t

A disc that collects tracks from the first two LPs ("Dark Flowers" and "Stray Apparitions", from 1990 and 1991 respectively) by the band formerly known as Kangaroo Kourt. It was first self-released on Refraction Sound in 1991, then reissued in 1993 on the band's Ventricle label.

Mauve Sideshow - s/t

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Chris Corsano, Thurston Moore, Mats Gustafsson, Bill Nace - Mother / Groundhog




This really needs no preamble (but, the many tentacled majesty of Mr Corsano really is jaw dropping on this one). LP released on Thurston's Ecstatic Peace! ‎and Bill's Open Mouth in 2010 and was largely (if not exclusively) sold on their tour as Northampton Wools in December of that year.

Mother / Groundhog

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Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore - Play Some Fucking Stooges




22 minutes of a live recording from their US tour in 2009. You just wish it was longer ... or that you were there ... or both. Single sided LP jointly released on Quasi Pop and Dumpster Diving Lab in 2012.

Play Some Fucking Stooges

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à;GRUMH... - By the Phone

First cassette by Belgian electro-industrial-synth weirdoes  à;GRUMH..., self-released on the band's own Titicaca Records in 1982. This is an artifact of the no-one's-listening-so-let's-do-whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like hometaper spirit of the early 1980's. The name of their label should be a red flag for the level of sophistication the duo was capable of. After this oddity (also an LP called "Rebearth" and a couple of more abstract fake-TG affairs recorded under other nonsensically punctuated names), they grew to resemble a sillier, snottier, far less ambitious Front 242... or like A Split Second as party band with somewhat less embarrassing lyrics. This tape, though, is the most inscrutable of the lot. Side A features four songs of meandering goof replete with tuneless/artless trumpet and recorder (!) warble and a drumbox preset you've no doubt heard on a billion better albums than this one. Side B includes three of the same songs recorded (you guessed it) over a telephone line. I can hear you ask... why on Earth would anyone do that? My answer to you is... who the hell knows? It must have seemed like a good idea to them at the time. In any case,  à;GRUMH... didn't take themselves too seriously and neither should you. Maybe the boneheaded ugliness of this thing would appeal to fans of The Door and the Window... maybe... ?

 à;GRUMH... - By the Phone

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Astro - Darkness Dynamics

Analog sci-fi synthesizer noise by Hiroshi Hasegawa (CCCC, Mortal Vision), recorded in 2006 and released by Trust Lost in 2008 as an LP in an edition of only 100 copies.

Astro - Darkness Dynamics

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:zoviet*france: and Fossil Aerosol Mining Project - Flexible Pooling




Zoviet France and Fossil Aerosol Mining Project combined to release this 7" flexi on alt.vinyl and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art earlier this year to coincide with the Baltic 39 exhibition "The Curves of the Needle". Those who are familiar with trying to get a decent sound from thin floppy plastic will be glad to know that it came with a download code which included a bonus 18 minute track "Aperture Apparent". There was even a companion track for free download on the Zoviet Soundcloud page that I have included as well.

Flexible Pooling

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Zoviet France‎ - 7.10.12




"Devoid of any pictorial imagery or narrative text, this is a set of three label-less heavy weight translucent records – a 7-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch – housed (suspended and separated) in a custom made heavy textured card archive clam shell lined box along with traces of the area's unfathomable prehistory: a blind rubbing – a paper impression – taken from one of the neolithic cup and ring carved stones that pepper the region and a vial containing dried hawthorn berries, a tree with imbued with much pre-Christian metaphysical meaning."

I've really wanted to post this magnificent thing for ages! It was originally released on alt.vinyl in 2012 and sold out very quickly. It's so good that it got a second (black vinyl) edition in 2013 which has now also sold out.

You really should keep track of alt.vinyl. They release wonderful things and the aesthetic and presentaion is just as important as the music. A very important label!

Nothing can be opened unless it has first been closed

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Mixed Band Philanthropist - The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman For His Muse And Acted Accordingly




There was a request to post the MBP "The Impossible Humane" LP as a counterpoint to the brilliant Kangaroo Kourt posts. However, it was reissued on Staubgold last year and is still available. The reissue also contains this 7" but I think it's fair enough to post this to show you what they were about.

This was released on Paul Coates' Hypnagogia in 2003.

Paul is a top bloke. I bought both vinyl volumes of The New Blockaders' "Viva Negativa" from him and he went out of his way to hand deliver them because he wanted to make sure they arrived in mint condition. That's when he told me that he is also a member of TNB ... didn't recognise him without his mask on. One of those lovely moments where you shut your front door and think "did that just really happen?"

The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman...

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Kangaroo Kourt - Atmospheric Distortions From The Kangaroo Kourt

Final Kangaroo Kourt LP, issued in 1992. One side is junk tape cut-up, the other is more dark ambience that hints at where the band would go when they renamed themselves Mauve Sideshow.

Kangaroo Kourt - Atmospheric Distortions From The Kangaroo Kourt

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Kangaroo Kourt - Messages In Ether From The Kangaroo Kourt

Third Kangaroo Kourt LP, released in 1990. The weakest of the lot, but still better than whatever you were listening to before you downloaded this.

Kangaroo Kourt - Messages In Ether From The Kangaroo Kourt

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Various - Outnumbered By Sheep




There are many many reasons to love New Zealand. One of those reasons is Flying Nun Records. Try to imagine my excitement when they created a European distribution arm in the mid-late 80's so I was able to hoover up The Bats, The Chills, Tall Dwarfs, The Gordons and Bailter Space at a convenient local delight emporium rather than have my man servant travel to the other side of the world to acquire them for me. In the early '90s it appeared to go all a bit tits up in the wake of the Seattle "inspired" corporate interest in the "hey let's get down with the kids ... we can make a fucking fortune" ethos. There were takeovers and I sort of drifted away ...

Which is my way of saying that this LP from 1986 is a beautiful glimpse of the astonishing enthusiasm and quality control of those early bands and label owners before the sharks began to circle.

Outnumbered By Sheep

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Various - The Neckparty




Another classy tape of mid-Eighties electronics featuring (amongst others) De Fabriek, Kapotte Muziek, Maybe Mental, Arvid Tuba, If, Bwana, Experiment Incest and Odal.

This C68 was released in 1986 without the aid of a label but the man behind this is Markus Arvidson (aka Arvid Tuba).

The Neckparty

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Gasenata - ちらかしっぱなし: ガセネタ In The Box




For me, Gasenata were a complete enigma for many years. Of course, PSF released the "Sooner Or Later" CD in 1991 and then Asahito Nanjo released the High Rise "Play Gaseneta" tape on La Musica in 1996. But, who the hell were they? Information was impossible to find, they made Les Rallizes Denudes look positively mainstream. Finally, I gave up on the prospect of hearing any more about them. That is until Disk Union released the "In The Box" 10 disc box set in 2011. There was an 11th disc if you bought the release from the Disk Union stores in Japan ... this is what you have here. There was even a booklet which told you all that you needed to know about the mystery quartet. I won't prattle on too much ... you can read the information yourselves.

This rough and ready set of live materials, demos and outtakes (I would assume) literally represents the final word!

01 雨上がりのバラード 1 (Ameagari No Ballad 1)

02 雨上がりのバラード 2 (Ameagari No Ballad 2)

03 父ちゃんのポーが聞こえる 1 (Touchan No Poh Ga Kikoeru 1)

04 父ちゃんのポーが聞こえる 2 (Touchan No Poh Ga Kikoeru 2)

05 宇宙人の春・社会復帰 (Uchujin No Haru, Shakaifukki)

06 アウトテイク (Outtakes)

07 初期セッション (Early Sessions)

08 ガセ・ガセネタ (Gase-Gaseneta)

09 ハイライズーガセネタ (High Rise - Gaseneta)

10 ノン・ストップ・ミックス (Non-Stop Mix)

11 「こたつで吠えろ!」 ガセネタ初期セッション番外編

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