Bleak Bliss: April 2017

Deadly Verity - 136 Trax Of Deadly Verity

... and I'm definitely not going to try to split this.

C40 released on Cat Move in 1994.

136 Trax Of Deadly Verity

Deadly Verity - The World Of Junk

Deadly Verity was the work of Jing Heng-Tian and Deadly Machine (aka Dr. Machine). Sort of. Jing Heng-Tian is actually a pseudonym of Kei Yokota (before he settled into the more familiar Outermost identity). Dr. Deadly Machine is his drum machine. Gutted that I don't know the make and model because that would make it look like I actually know what I'm talking about. Pisser!

How do you describe Deadly Verity? I don't know that either so I guess that my floundering cover is finally blown. Gloriously deranged is the best attempt that I'm prepared to make. If I tried harder then I'd run out of words and I need some of them for later on today. There are apparently 28 tracks on the tape and I made several valiant attempts to split it before deciding that it was a complete waste of time.

C50 released on Cat Move in 1995.

The World Of Junk

Fat Elvis - Song For Gentleman

Take this one with a healthy dollop of skepticism.

I've had this in the vaults for ages but haven't found any real information out there. To be honest, it probably originated from a blog that was dead before I realised that it was there. That post carries the jpeg of the Volume Test tape which adds to the confusion. If the date is right then it is the (missing from Discogs) eighth release on Cat Move.

Anyway, prepare a large dose of the condiment of your choice and get ready for a strange mix of stuttering bouncy doom noise and synth-industrial early-mid Ministry.

C10 that was probably released on Cat Move in 1995.

Song For Gentleman

Fat Elvis - Volume Test

Fat Elvis was an apparently short-lived sideline for Kei Yokota (aka Outermost) on bass and throat, "Elvis" on drums and "Zizi" on another bass. Think muffled Swans and distorted Godflesh and you're nearly there ...

C10 released on Kei's Cat Move in 1996.

Volume Test

Outermost - Untitled

And now ... the end is near ...

Self-released C30 from 1997.

Whilst we're on the subject, I've re-upped the Doku no Hana tape, the Beware Of This And That 3"cdr, the split tape with Grunt and the double CDr split with Thirdorgan.

Untitled

Outermost - Piston Rod

Short and sweet ...

C18 released on Cat Move in 1994.

Piston Rod

Outermost / Flatline Construct - Split

Kei Yakota sharing a tape with Ryan Bloomer! You'll know Ryan from his work in his own name plus as Piss Horn, with Sam McKinley (as Black To Comm and Zenta Sustained) and as roughly 20% of The Endless Blockade. It's really good. Who'd a thunk it?

"No label" C54 released in late 1999 / early 2000.

Outermost / Flatline Construct

Dachise / Outermost - ''Sweet & Bitter'' Split

Dachise is Paul Daniel Knowles who you might know better these days as The Digitariat. A great tape full of synth-wash overload and blistering noise.

C30 released on Kei Yokota's Cat Move in 1996.

Sweet & Bitter

Gen Ken Montgomery & Chop Shop - Fragment 4

Another issue of ND magazine with a split cassette inside. This one features two artists from New York: Chop Shop, who builds industrial-looking metal "speaker constructions" to blast his noise through, and the legendary Gen Ken Montgomery whose work is too diverse to sum up easily. Released in 1992.

Gen Ken Montgomery & Chop Shop - Fragment 4

Hermit / Outermost - Split

Eric Boros and Kei Yokota sharing a C20 jointly released on Cat Move and Pulp Mill Records in 1995.

Hermit / Outermost

Agog & Zan Hoffman - Fragment 2

ND was a zine about experimental music, published in Texas in the 1990s. Some issues included a cassette tape, like this one from 1990 featuring two American artists who were active in the tape noise underground at the time. The zine featured interviews with each of them and the cassette was split with one artist per side.

Agog & Zan Hoffman - Fragment 2

Bastard Noise / Outermost - Cauldron Of Fire

John Wiese, Eric Wood and Kei Yakota collaborating on a 7" piece of vinyl released on Eric's DP label in 2000.

Cauldron Of Fire

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Ebola/Swedish Dreamers

Two tracks by the artist/authors behind "Experiments With Dreams" and other absurd provocations, released as a 7" single on Firework Editions in 1996.

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Ebola/Swedish Dreamers

Outermost / Pocajontas - Iron Concrete / Red Cat

One side of Kei Yokota's stop start crackle and blast and the otherwise unknown (to me) Pocajontas who start with a bit of easy listening lurve before driving a blowtorch laboratory through the bedroom.

C34 released on Spain's Shit Attack Records in 1996.

Iron Concrete / Red Cat

Ptôse - Night of the Reptiles

More Residents-ish homemade electronic bloop by this band of French oddballs, released as a cassette in 1983.

Ptôse - Night of the Reptiles

Napalmed / Outermost - ''Mental Block'' Split

Radek Kopel and Pavel Petržíla sharing a tape with Kei Yokota's brilliant Outermost project. Funnily enough, it's feckin' great.

C36 released on Kei Yokota's Cat Move in 1995.

Mental Block

Ptôse - Hand-Made Electronics

More industrial/unclassifiable French strangeness, this time by the mysterious Ptôse, who were most active in the cassette scene of the early 1980s. This cassette contains some of their first recordings, released first in 1980 and then again in 1983 with additional material.

Ptôse - Hand-Made Electronics

Napalmed - Live Performance - 21.5.1994

A very brief look at Napalmed's grind-noise-core roots .....

Single-sided C20 self-released in 1994.

Live Performance - 21.5.1994

Un Département - Au Menu

Released as a limited edition in 2004, "Au Menu" collects two cassettes recorded in 1983 and 1984.

Un Département - Au Menu

Napalmed - Contrary Collaboration

More unique living room noise. I'm not sure how contrary the collaboration is given that it is Radek Kopel and Martin Holý who were both in Napalmed. Given that the material is from 1998, it might have been before the relationship was formalised.

"Equipments, sound sources & other stuff: pedal effects, microphones, tape deck, video recorder, mix-board, tumblers, crockery, metals, plastics, wooden sticks, paper pipe, green split peas, water, breath, voice, hands, foots and ?"

C60 released on Smell The Stench in 2005.

Contrary Collaboration

Un Département - Les III Vinyles

Just in case your French is rusty, the title "Les III Vinyles" means "The Three Records". Maybe you figured that out on your own. This album collects Un Département's self-released 12" and 7" and their full LP, released by Illusion Production, all of which originally appeared between 1981 and 1985. The CD here was released by Infrasition in 2008.

Un Département - Les III Vinyles

Napalmed / Recalcitrant / All Scars Orchestra - 3 Way Split

Radek Kopel as Napalmed, Maarten Kleywegt's Recalcitrant and Italy's All Scars Orchestra collective bringing the crunk to your Wednesday morning ...

3 Way Split

Un Département - La Cassette

Debut album by theatrical French weirdos Un Département, released in 1984 by like-minded theatrical French weirdos DDAA on their Illusion Production label. Fans of the Residents, Der Plan, Ptôse or Bene Gessirit will like this one.

Un Département - La Cassette

Napalmed - Misch Masch Miksasch

Reverse metal junk from Radek Kopel.

"No PC, keyboards, sampler, mix-board or any musical instruments! Recorded, mixed, manipulated at living room on TASCAM 234, SONY MT-R30, SONY MDS-JE520. Live metallic rhythms were performed and recorded 13.07.01 live at factory."

CDr released on Napalmed in 2001.

Misch Masch Miksasch

Napalmed - Never Mind The MSBR, Here's The Napalmed

In this incarnation, Napalmed were Franta Pačan, Martin Beraxa, Miroslav Vlček and Radek Kopel proving that more is indeed more. The first track is good but the second track is where it's at ... clocking in at nearly 57 minutes of stealth noise, the rewards keep on coming.

CD released on the Napalmed label in 2002.

Never Mind The MSBR, Here's The Napalmed

Napalmed - Up To The Ears In Tinnitus

This pretty much does what it says on the tin! Originally released as an LP on Epidemie Records in 1999, this expands the material to bursting point. A roaring squealing beast of a record.

CD released on Stand Against Vivisection Records in 2006.

Up To The Ears In Tinnitus

Guerre Froide, Gegenacht, Pour L'Exemple - Cryopack - Cryogénisation Report

This is the entire output of the French industrial/new wave/post-punk label Cryogénisation Report, four cassette albums released between 1980 and 1986, remastered and reissued as four CDs by Infrastition in 2011 with additional material. The band Guerre Froide appears twice, plus two tapes by bands featuring their members. The set came in a manilla envelope, with each disc housed in its own little folder.

disc 1 Guerre Froide - Cicatrice 1980
disc 2 Gegenacht - At Home! 1984 & Live for Death
disc 3 Guerre Froide - Archives
disc 4 Pour l'Exemple - Untitled 1986, Untitled 1988, E Pericoloso

Napalmed / Merzbow - Crash Of The Titans

Your favourite Czech noisecore outfit alongside your favourite human.

CD jointly released on Merciless Core Records and Napalmed in 2001.

Crash Of The Titans

Leif Elggren, Brent Gutzeit, Kuwayama Kiyoharu - International Art Exhibition

A 3-way split EP with multiple prints by each artist, released in 2002 by Box Media as a 3"CDR in an edition of just 50 copies, intended to accompany an art exhibition at Heaven Gallery in Chicago, USA.

Leif Elggren, Brent Gutzeit, Kuwayama Kiyoharu - International Art Exhibition

Government Alpha / Napalmed - Sludge / Untitled

7" jointly released on the Xerxes and Napalmed labels ... simple as ...

Sludge / Untitled

Mika Vainio

1963-2017

genius

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Two Thin Eating One Fat

Live performance recordings 1994 to 1999, released by Firework Edition in 2000.

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Two Thin Eating One Fat

Napalmed / Echo System - Послушайте "Песенку" / Untitled

Takashi Koyamaguchi sharing vinyl destruction with Miroslav Vlček and Radek Kopel ...

7" self-released by both parties in 2000.

Послушайте "Песенку" / Untitled

Echo System - Insect

Takashi Koyamaguchi (who also recorded as Ordinateur and was a member of Longdreamdead) giving us two sides of brooding harsh-ish noise and contact mic fuckery.

C20 released on his own Brainchaos in 1998.

Insect

Chaos Of The Night - Live At KFJC

Mayuko Hino, Mason Jones, Monte Cazazza and Elden M. (aka Allegory Chapel Ltd.) ... although not all together at the same time on all three tracks. As you might expect, it's genius, just grab it.

CD released on Endorphine Factory in 1995.

Live At KFJC

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - 9.11 (Desperation is the Mother of Laughter)

While Zzz... was intended to bring listeners inside the dream state, Swedish conceptual art lunatics Elggren and Liljenberg claim that 9.11 is "as close as you can get to us". The logical conclusion to their "Experiment With Dreams" project, this is one of my very favorite albums of any sort. I don't want to spoil it for you, so I'll say no more. However, this is truly the album you play in mixed company, when family comes over for the holidays, or when it's gray and rainy outside. What happens after you send surreal and vaguely hostile letters to Elton John, Pope John Paul II, Paul McCartney, and Bill Clinton? This! Released on CD by Firework Edition in 1999.

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - 9.11 (Desperation is the Mother of Laughter)

Mne-Mic - Gulf Stream

Mayuko Hino (former member of C.C.C.C. and participant in the legendary Senssurround Orchestra) dealing with the electronics with Ranko Onishi dealing with the strange front of house manipulations. I think that this was all that they wrote. Always leave on a high people (... or get high and then leave ... never quite found the balance with that one ... ).

CD released on Alchemy Records in 1999.

Gulf Stream

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Zzz....

Continuing the absurd path of their book "Experiment With Dreams", Elggren and Liljenberg bring you as close as possible to the dream state. A great album to play at parties, but an even better one is coming up. Released in 1996 by Firework Edition.

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - Zzz....

C.C.C.C. ‎- Cosmic Coincidence Control Center

Hiroshi Hasegawa, Mayuko Hino, Ryuichi Nagakubo and Fumio Kosakai.

The only other thing that you need to know is that this is a CD released on Endorphine Factory in 1992.

Cosmic Coincidence Control Center

Pain Jerk - Savage Extreme

... and a C40 released on AMP in 1997 ...

Savage Extreme

Pain Jerk - Gravity The Existence

Rare C44 released on the man's own AMP label in 1998 ...

Gravity The Existence

Pain Jerk / Masoquista Industrial - Split

Gorgeous Pain Jerk track (and I mean gorgeous) accompanied by Javier F. Riera Navas' Masoquista Industrial (aka Industria Masoquista).

Javier is an Ecuadorean gentleman who also ran the wonderful Rape Art Productions label. To share a tape with Kohei Gomi in his prime is a brave thing to do if you view it through your 20 years later prism ... don't compare, just listen. It's great.

For me, works by the Masoquista project are virtually impossible to find ... so step up people!

C46 released on Charito Records in 1997.

Pain Jerk / Masoquista Industrial

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - The Codfish Suit

The work of Swedish artists Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg is difficult to sum up succinctly, but I'm going to try anyway. Both are multi-disciplinary conceptual artists who have produced sound, text, performance, and visual art who are concerned with issues of politics, government, and dreams (among other obsessions). You may know Elggren as one of the co-monarchs (?!) of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, a state that has annexed all borderlands (physical and mental) as its territory. You can actually write to the kings to order a passport, declare yourself a Minister, and set up a (temporary) embassy. Obviously, these guys have a dry, biting sense of humor. Possibly my favorite of their projects began as a book titled "Experiment With Dreams", in which they wrote letters to celebrities and politicians accusing them of stealing ideas from their dreams and demanding financial restitution. This CD, "The Codfish Suit", consists of the authors reading from their book. It was published in 1997 by Elggren's magnificent label Firework Editions.

Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg - The Codfish Suit

Strict / Pain Jerk - Collaboration

Kohei Gomi with Jeremy Kart.

Jeremy only recorded a handful of (infrequent) releases but everything that I've heard is great ... sometimes less really is more.

7'' released on Art Konkret in 1993.

Collaboration

A Mouse Orchestra - A Lump in Your Throat

Christoph Heemann + David Jackman = A Mouse Orchestra. The only artifact this duo produced was this 7" single, released by Robot Records in 1994.

A Mouse Orchestra - A Lump in Your Throat

Pain Jerk - O))slo

You are about to enter into Sweet Baby Jesus territory.

This is Kohei Gomi reworking the last 20 minutes of a live set at Blå, Oslo from 2007. The louder the volume, the more hypnotic it gets. It goes silent at around 20 minutes .... for a while ... then you get a "hidden track" of (erm...) high-pitched burping and farting noise birdsong (sort of ...).

Caligari, if you drop a "not bad" on this, I'm coming around to your house to kick you up the arse :)

CDr released on his own AMP label in 2010. This is another one of the resurrection releases that came out in Japan in a really small edition with only a reported five copies making it out to my half of the world.

O))slo

Pain Jerk & Dogliveroil - The Snake Charmer's Beautiful Daughter

Simply genius.

Dogliveroil multiple-handedly saved Stoke-On-Trent (and large swathes of the disUnited Kingdom). The literature, such as it is, suggests that if it wasn't for the Americans, the rest of us poor bastards would still be listening to Black Lace (... insert your national equivalent here). Me arse mate!

Released on Phil Todd's legendary Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers in 1997.

The Snake Charmer's Beautiful Daughter

Pain Jerk & Skin Crime - Gadget Bondage / Aural Stimulation

The good news is that this is a split 7". The bad news is that whilst this was "independently" released as a single, it was originally accompanied by a C48 with these lovely people undoubtedly ripping the arse out of the fabric of space and time. I've spent a very long time waiting to hear that tape but it's just not going to happen. Anyway, did I mention that this is a split 7" between Pain Jerk and Skin Crime? Whoohoo!

Released on Patrick O'Neil's legendary Self Abuse Records in 1997.

Gadget Bondage / Aural Stimulation

Bad Kharma - Karisma

Swedish artist Ronnie Sundin has been active (under his own name or as Bad Kharma, solo or with frequent collaborator Lasse Marhaug) for more than 25 years, yet is consistently underrated. It's not hard to understand why; the music he makes has always been difficult to crack. Though he draws comics, his music is mostly devoid of (sonic or visual) imagery. Even when he made "noise", it was not aggressive or emotive, but more otherworldly. His later work could be barely audible, filled with intentionally unsatisfying non-sounds like ambient air and irritating high frequencies, or else made with an odd sense of pacing that never lets a listener get too comfortable. I find it all fascinating, but then I also like The Hafler Trio, Francisco Lopez and Artificial Memory Trace. Your mileage may vary. Just don't expect immediate gratification when you listen to Sundin's music. Live with it awhile, then form a judgement later.

This rare album was released on Sundin's Bonbon label as a set of three CDRs in a numbered edition of 100 copies back in 1998.

Karisma disc 1 - Kali

Karisma disc 2 - Klone

Karisma disc 3 - Kundalini

Pain Jerk & John Wiese - Terrazzo

... and this is even better.

There is no better US/JP collaboration out there.

If there is, I'll eat my own anus and put it on youtube (again).

Terrazzo

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