Bleak Bliss: March 2016

Various - Microinjection Master Tape

C60 released on Hiroshi Hashimoto's SSSM label in 1992. As you would expect, Contagious Orgasm is here and as well as a 14 minute track from Taint you get So Nakatomo's Less Expect, Colin Wales' Platzangst, Everett Perdue's Die Schammade and F. Miura's (?) Black Elegance.

Microinjection Master Tape

va - Fuck Your Head With An Iron Fist

Nasty harsh noise CDR compilation released by Pekka PT (Gelsomina) on his Musically Incorrect Records label in 2006. Tracks by Bizarre Uproar, A Machine Called Orgasm, World Downfall, Squamata, Moke Grotton, Cloama, Halthan, noisecore by Tuho, Slovenian noise band Sist En 343, Gelsomina, Barrikad & MK9 (the artist formerly known as Death Squad), Rulla (aka Tommi Keränen of Testicle Hazard in a rare solo appearance), Halthan, Funeral Mongoloids (aka Pekka PT again), and Watchdog.

va - Fuck Your Head With an Iron Fist

Various - Does It Float?

Originally, this was a triple 8" lathe box set deal full of previously unreleased New Zealand based delights. Luckily, for us, Trinder Music also released a CD version in 1994.

Does It Float?

va - Killing Capitalism With Kindness

More pop/rock than the previous compilations I posted, but just as much an essential piece of the 1980s New Zealand underground. Artists include Kathy Bull, Trash, A Handful of Dust, Sandra Bell, This Kind of Punishment, and lots more.

va - Killing Capitalism With Kindness

va - Xpressway Pile=Up

More low-fi blur, first released as a cassette on Bruce Russell's galvanizing Xpressway label in 1988 and then reissued on LP and CD a handful of times.

va - Xpressway Pile=Up

va - Making Losers Happy - Xpressway NZ Singles 1988-91

Badgerstump and I just want you to be happy. This album should do it. These are the songs that kickstarted what we know today as the New Zealand noise/rock underground, featuring nothing but classics by The Dead C. (the entire "Sun Stabbed" EP, in fact), The Terminals, Plagal Grind, Peter and Graeme Jefferies, Alastair Galbraith, David Mitchell, Robbie Muir and Denise Roughan... some would make friendlier (but still wonderful) music for the Flying Nun label, others remain underground heroes to this day.

va - Making Losers Happy - Xpressway NZ Singles 1988-91

Various - America The Beautiful

Ridiculously good double CD set released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RRRon's RRRecords. Who would have thought that 22 years later we would still be saying thank you to the great man?

Car Chase

Stun Gun

va - God Bless America

One of the all-time classic compilations of US underground industrial noise and home-taper weirdness, this triple LP boxset from came out in 1985 on RRRecords, with 100 copies wrapped in an American flag. It features tracks by Borbetomagus, Controlled Bleeding, Dimthings, Smersh, Tom Recchion (of LAFMS), Un-Film, Psyclones, Data-Bank-A, Maybe Mental, Sleep Chamber, Master/Slave Relationship, PGR, Architects Office, Smegma, Blackhouse, F/i, Randy Grief/Screaming Dukduks, Eugene Chadbourne, Walls of Genius and more.

LP1
LP2
LP3

Crank Sturgeon - Crattleer Bingh!

More fast-paced noise from guitar and amplified doodads from Crank Sturgeon, self-released in an absurd taped-together trash package in 2001.

Crank Sturgeon - Crattleer Bingh!

Crank Sturgeon - Plentifold Gape & Lando

I want Matt Anderson to have my babies!

Another Huso Solutions masterpiece ... from 2011.

Plentifold Gape & Lando

Crank Sturgeon - Hair On The Frozen 'Nial

More savant blurp released on Huso Solution. This time it's 2012.

Hair On The Frozen 'Nial

Crank Sturgeon - A Latter-Day Ain't For Tomorrow-Land's Burlap Megaphone (Tactics On Smudge Recording & Cardboard Shrines)

Exorcism Matt Anderson stylee.

Self-released CDr full of fucked up genius on Huso Solutions from 2013.

I seriously love Matt Anderson!

show it give it do it

Crank Sturgeon - De-Buttes

Action-packed noise, recorded live over college radio by Crank Sturgeon in 1997 and self-released as a cassette in a trash package. Supposedly features sound contributions from Macronympha and someone called Southern Man, whoever that is. Lots of relentlessly manic energy and contact-mic foolishness.

Crank Sturgeon - De-Buttes

Various - Spiral Organ Of Corti

This compilation really shouldn't work. Con-Dom alongside Crank Sturgeon? You also get Contagious Orgasm, Thirdorgan, Deutsch Nepal, raison d'être and Salt alongside the otherwise unknown Kings Of High Frequency. Rest assured, it works.

Double C60 released on Hiroshi Hashimoto's (aka Contagious Orgasm's) SSSM in 1995.

Spiral

Organ

Various - The End Of The Fear Of God

On here, we start with good intentions and real plans. Then one of us drafts a post and it blows it all out of the water and we're off in another direction. It's all a bit When Harry Met Sally meets Thelma And Louise. So, if you don't like this then A: what are you doing here? and B: It's all her fault!

69 artists across 70 minutes on this CD released on the glorious Tochnit Aleph in 2004.

The End Of The Fear Of God

va - Ohren Des Kaiser Hirohito

A fantastic 2xCD international compilation that came out on DOM in 1992, featuring great music from HNAS, Vox Populi!, Empirical Sleeping Consort, Maat, Illusion of Safety, Hajsch, Jack or Jive, Anemonengurt, Markus Schmickler, Jocelyn Robert, Monika Westphal and so many more it will make your head spin. Unlike most 2xCD compilations, this one is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, even though it has the Legendary Pink Dots on it.

disc 1
disc 2

Gate - The Lavender Head 1.1.1.2-2.1.2.2

Originally, this was an impossible to find lathe cut double LP released on Precious Metal in 1998 in a tiny edition of 30. Luckily for the rest of the world, this was re-released as a vinyl double album on Hell's Half Halo the same year in more accessible quantities.

The Lavender Head 1.1.1.2-2.1.2.2

Gate - The Lavender Head v3

Michael Morley on a CD, recorded live and released on Precious Metal in 2001.

The Lavender Head v3

Gate - 3M

The single that wasn't on the Golden compilation. Not surprising given that it came out five years later ...

7" released on Tonschacht in 2001.

3M

Michael Morley - CNDYSYS / STPHNSYS

A couple of years ago, Even More Important Records released a series of lathes in tiny quantities. Of course, they sold out very quickly. In what is the greatest middle finger to the digital format, they put them for download at the meagre cost of $1,000 each. Makes me smile every time I think about it.

7" lathe released on Even More Important Records in an edition of 20 in 2014.

CNDYSYS / STPHNSYS

Bruce Russell - Icestorm (Just Another Pleasant Valley Sunday) / Birdling (Waharoa)

7" lathe released on Even More Important Records in an edition of 20 in 2014.

Icestorm / Birdling

Robbie Yeats - Levitation / Stole Your Car

7" lathe released on Even More Important Records in an edition of 20 in 2014.

Levitation / Stole Your Car

Brown Velvet Couch - Once In A Very Blue Moon

Robbie Yeats with Bruce Blucher on guitar, Paul Cahill on bass and Viv Crowe on guitar and vocals. As far as I know, this is the only thing that they released.

Dream pop with a Kiwi twist on this 7" released on Roof Bolt in 1993.

Once In A Very Blue Moon

Trash - Not Gate

Bruce Blucher and Paul Cahill on guitars and one if not both on vocals with the lovely Robbie Yeats (yeah, drummer with the Dead C ...) on drums. Brilliant awkward rock that is only possible if you are from New Zealand.

CD released on New World Of Sound in 1994.

~~Not Gate~~

Gate - Golden

A compilation of some early Gate (aka Michael Morley of The Dead C., Tanaka-Nixon Meeting, and Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos) singles. Includes the "Julian Dashper Gate Experience" double lathe-cut 7" (released on Precious Metal in 1993), "Prophet/Rebel" 7" (Siltbreeze, 1992), "Sunshine/Ives" 7" (Twisted Village, 1992) and more. This CD came out on the New Zealand label IMD in 1996.

Gate - Golden

The Dead C - The Sun Stabbed EP

This is the 7" released on Xpressway in 1988.

In 2008, Ba Da Bing! and Jagjaguwar jointly reissued the DR503 LP and this EP as a double LP job. As far as we can tell, there are additional tracks on there that don't appear anywhere else.

I've finally had to admit that I'm a complete crackhead when it comes to buying music so I daren't dip my toe back into the water ... guess I'll never hear them.

The Sun Stabbed EP

Dead C. - DR503

Originally, this was an LP released on Flying Nun Records way back in 1988. This is the CD release on Feel Good All Over from 1992 that includes the bonus track "Max Harris 2". Discogs claims this is from the Perform Max Harris tape ... so that would be Side B's "Beyond Help From Max Harris" then. Granted, it's a similar construction but I think that this is a different recording ... so it must be true ... obviously.

DR503

Dead C. - Perform DR503b

The Dead C at their early frazzled finest. C60 released on Bruce's Xpressway in 1989.

Perform DR503b

Dead C - Hell Is Now Love / Bone

7" released on Siltbreeze in 1991.

Hell Is Now Love / Bone

The Dead C - Mighty / Power / Peace

7" released on Forced Exposure in 1991.

Mighty / Power / Peace

The Dead C - World Peace Hope et al.

And who could argue with that? This is a compilation of rarities and outtakes that also manages to briefly weft Nico, John Cale and Patti Smith soundgrabs into the warped proceedings.

Released on former-Skullflower member Stefan Jaworzyn's Shock in 1994.

World Peace Hope et al.

The Dead C - Metalheart

7" released on Siltbreeze in 1994.

Metalheart

The Dead C. - The Live Dead See

A collection of mostly audience recordings made throughout 1987, released as a cassette on the legendary Xpressway label (run by the band's own Bruce Russell) in 1988.

The Dead C. - The Live Dead See

The Dead C. - 43 Sketch For a Poster

Another very early cassette by The Dead C., recorded in 1987 and released by Diabolical Root in the same year.

The Dead C. - 43 Sketch For a Poster

The Dead C - Stealth / The Factory

7" released on Sub Pop in 2000.

Stealth / The Factory

The Dead C. - Relax Fallujah - Hell Has Come

7" released on Ba Da Bing!in 2006.

Relax Fallujah - Hell Has Come

The Dead C. - Perform Max Harris

Their first cassette by NZ legends The Dead C., released on Diabolical Root in 1987.

The Dead C. - Perform Max Harris

Otomo Yoshihide & Yuki Saga - See You In A Dream

Ridiculously sublime release that starts with surf guitar J-pop and covers every kind of territory from Dusty Springfield elegance, Stereolab syncopation, full-on rock out and Otomo channel interference. As wonderful as it is unexpected.

Double CD released on F.M.N. Sound Factory in 2005.

Tune In, Turn On

Dream Out

Otomo Yoshihide - Sound Factory (1997)

Full-on noise extravaganza juxtaposed with disorientating cut-up technique.

Released on LP and CD by Gentle Giant Records in 1997.

Sound Factory (1997)

Itaru Oki / Otomo Yoshihide - Encounter

The free-jazz horn blower, Itaru Oki, this time takes up the rubber hose and the flugelhorn to accompany Otomo Yoshihide's guitar on a one hour live improvisation recorded in New York in 2005.

Released on Fudebushow Kikaku in 2007.

Encounter

Otomo Yoshihide - Heart, Beating In The Dark [Original Soundtrack]

This is the soundtrack for the Shunichi Nagasaki film of the same name. Whilst coming in at under 14 minutes, it punches well above its weight and achieves everything that it needs to before leaving even when you take into account the incongruous Walkman Dance. Gorgeous.

CD released in conjunction with a booklet of interviews (which i don't have) on Office Shirous in 2006.

Heart, Beating In The Dark

Otomo Yoshihide - Memory Defacement

This is a double LP (with the second disc being single-sided) jointly released on Japan Overseas and F.M.N. Sound Factory in 1997.

The first disc is the sounds dragged from broken vinyl. There are large amounts of space left with only the reassuring clicks and pops of the vinyl to inform you that there is still something going on. Side C is the live realisation of those same ideas and it is astonishing! Recorded in Kobe at the Xebec Hall on June the 14th 1997, Otomo Yoshihide is joined by Sachiko M on samplers. Haco is credited as a producer but it certainly sounds like her voice is in there as well. A revelatory 23 minutes.

Memory Defacement

Massimo Toniutti - Km. Piccolo Cardine

Side A could well be the sound of an Amazonian nightmare unfolding in front of you whilst Side B leads to the inevitable destruction of our intrepid explorers. The fact that these sounds were created in one man's mind and articulated within a studio makes it all the more astonishing.

C30 that was self-released on Massimo Toniutti Editore in 1987.

Km. Piccolo Cardine

Massimo Toniutti - Il Museo Selvatico

Orchestral kitchenware and hidden retreats from the legendary Italian sound designer. Shangri-La as never before conceived. LP released on Idanna in 1991.

Il Museo Selvatico

Various - Prisoners Of Sex

Roman Torment, Climax Denial, Prurient and Emaciator on a double C12 set released on Callow God in 2007.

Prisoners Of Sex

Various - Power Electronics

I don't really get the distinction between Power Electronics and Noise. I probably could but can't quite be bothered. These days PE seems to encompass people who do noise and then shout a bit. In 1986, it apparently included the likes of Merzbow, If, Bwana, Maybe Mental, Architects Office, Controlled Bleeding, Le Syndicat and, erm, Rhys Chatham.

C60 released on Tellus in 1986. Most of the Tellus compilations are available for streaming but seeing as I have this one ... etc.

Power Electronics

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