Bleak Bliss: October 2017

Various - Get The Punk: J Punk & New Wave 1972-1991

Granted, 1972 to 1991 is a very broad time-span for such collections and would normally hugely dilute the contents. This gets away with such things by just being very good throughout. Many will be familiar with Phew, Ultra Bide, Pablo Picasso, The Stalin, YBO² and (the now mainstream) Shonen Knife and The 5.6.7.8's. Maybe not so much Kenzi & The Trips, The Pogo and dozens of the others contributing their brief slice of history. In any case, it's a good excuse to hear Non Band's Duncan Dancin' again ...

Four CD box-set released in Japan on Imperial Records in 2003.

1

2

3

4

Various - Batofar Cherche Tokyo

Gorgeous screwed up techno flavoured compilation of Japanese artists in a well deserved nod to the Batofar club in Paris

CD released on Sonore in 2001.

Batofar Cherche Tokyo

Various - Bears Are Not Real

Quality compilation of people who have played at the legendary Namba Bears in Osaka. Some you will already know ... the rest may well become your new favourite things.

CD released on Japan Overseas in 1998.

Bears Are Not Real

Various - 電子雑音 Denzatsu

Two CDs that cane with Koji Tano's "Denzatsu (Magazine For Noiz Generation)", issue 2004.

Life's too short ... any doubts?

Noiz

Generation

va - Stanzas on Sexual Hygiene

Second compilation on Xper.Xr.'s Regelwidrig label, again with a terrific selection of machine noises and unhygienic goo. Music from some of the same characters that appeared on the previous tape, plus a few ugly new faces: Nocturnal Emissions, Viktimized Karkass, Contact With a Curve, Shock City, Grey Wolves, Illusion of Safety, Lagowski, Jouissance, Konstruktivists, Bourbonese Qualk, Due Process, Xper. Xr., blackhumour, and De Fabreik.

va - Stanzas on Sexual Hygiene

Various - Wakened By Silence

Big City Orchestra, Michael Gendreau, Crawling With Tarts, Allegory Chapel Ltd., The Haters, Trance, AMK, Master/Slave Relationship, Nux Vomica and more ...

Two C50s (...ish) released by Mason Jones' Charnel Music in 1991.

Wakened

Silence

va - A Person's Healthy Guide To Listening

Classic 1991 compilation cassette, released by the British label Regelwidrig, which I think was run by Hong Kong ex-pat Xper. Xr. Features industrial grey blorp by Nocturnal Emissions, Muslimgauze, Contact With a Curve (who I would love to hear more of... if you have their tapes, please share!), Illusion of Safety, Asmus Tietchens, Due Process, Konstruktivists, Jouissance, Bourbonese Qualk, Das Kunst, and Shock City.

va - A Person's Healthy Guide To Listening

va - Stuffing

Another Christmas gift? Oh, you shouldn't have! Really. You really should not have. But you did, and here it is: another too-long 7" single of deathwish-inspiring "cheer" from 1998, with lots of bands that are all probably V/Vm wearing false beards and soiled Santa hats. Ho ho oh my god no.

va - Stuffing

Various - Monumentally Retarded

It's always too early for Christmas. My least favourite shithole of the year. Fake bonhomie. Fake familial obligation. Fake "I'm really happy to see you once again since this time last year you offensive waste of skin". Anyway, this sums up the jollity perfectly. A whole heap of "WHAT THE FUCK?" followed by four minutes of live lovely by the brilliant Feederz ... just to try to convince us that it's all worth doing again next year ... will we ever learn?

CD released on Burping Turds Musick in 1998.

Monumentally Retarded

va - Turkey

It's too early for Christmas, but that's okay because this is a horrible holiday record. Seasonal favorites given rough treatment by V/Vm and friends, released on a 7" single by V/Vm Test Records in 1998.

va - Turkey

Various - Video Games Of The Twelfth Century

Ultra weird collection of established people like Faxed Head, Dave Phillips and Schimpfluch Gruppe, MSBR and The Tape-Beatles alongside random lo-fi turd burps ... genius in it's own special way.

CD released on Burping Turds Musick in 1999.

Video Games Of The Twelfth Century

Various - The Kingdoms Of Elgaland~Vargaland, 1992-2002

"This release marks the tenth anniversary of the moment when, at 12 noon on 27th of May, 1992, the State Of Elgaland-Vargaland was proclaimed by Leif Elggren, founder of Elgaland, and CM von Hausswolff, founder of Vargaland."

Here we have a plethora of plenipotentiaries performing their deferential duties: Sten Hanson, Mats Gustafsson, Gen Ken Montgomery, John Duncan, Jim O'Rourke, People Like Us, Oren Ambarchi, Fennesz, Mika Vainio, Henrik Rylander, BJNilsen and so on and so forth.

Wave your passports in the air like you just don't care!

Double CD released on Ash International in 2002.

Elgaland

Vargaland

va - Privileged Frames For Reference

From 1996, this compilation LP was the second ever release on V/Vm Test records, which would go on to produce some horrible examples of lazy "plunderphonics" by just slowing down and distorting music that wasn't any good to begin with. In the beginning, though, they showed promise, as this record makes clear. Underground DIY electronic tunes by Mild Man Jan, Alien Porno Midgets, Brioche Kretzaal, Jega, and other "bands" that were probably V/Vm under different names.

va - Privileged Frames For Reference

Sten Hanson - Canned Porridge

More majesty from Mr Hanson composed between 1970 and 2002 ...

Double CD released on Kent Tankred and Leif Elggren's Firework Edition Records in 2004.

Canned

Porridge

Sten Hanson - More Canned Porridge

All praise goes to Mrs Inside who finally made my inattentive brain understand the full glory of Sten Hanson. This is a series of compositions conceived between 1964 and 2004 that will absorb you once you ignore the outside world.

Double CD released on Firework Edition Records in 2004.

Canned

Porridge

Various - Text-Sound Compositions: A Stockholm Festival

Excellent compilation bringing together contributions to the International Text-Sound Compositions festivals held in Stockholm between 1967 and 1968. Sten Hanson, Svante Bodin, Bernard Heidsieck, Bengt Emil Johnson, Åke Hodell and so much more ...

Five CD compilation released on Fylkingen Records in 2006.

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Two

Three

Four

Five

Sheriff Lindo & The Hammer - Ten Dubs That Shook the World

A 2005 Japanese reissue of a heavy, obscure 1988 dub album from Australia.

Sheriff Lindo & The Hammer - Ten Dubs That Shook the World

Various - Hip Hop Shop Sweepers Vol.01

And the prize for misnomer of the week goes to ... this compilation that features people like Charles Balls & Crank Sturgeon, Robedoor, Smegma, Blood Stereo, Nautical Almanac, Id M Theft Able and Witcyst.

CDr released on 777 Was 666 in 2006.

Hip Hop Shop Sweepers Vol.01

We™ - As Is

The 1997 debut of "illbient" (aka instrumental hip-hop/dub/noise hybrid) trio, with guest appearance by violinist Eyvind Kang.

We™ - As Is

Various - Beginners Night At The Tape Loop Club

Quality compilation of people producing lovely looped drones including Sindre Bjerga and Jan-Morten Iversen, Stefan Kushima, Ian Najdzionek's Dream Safari, the wonderful Spoils & Relics, Terje Paulsen, and Joseph Martin.

CDr released on Sindre Bjerga's Gold Soundz in 2009.

Beginners Night At The Tape Loop Club

Various - Macro Dub Infection, Volume 2

I wouldn't have thought of posting this without Mrs Inside's earlier intervention. This is very typical of the industrial club dub techno vibe that was prevalent at the time. I was getting very heavily into English heavy techno and drum and bass round about then so well y'know ...

Macro

Dub

va - Macro Dub Infection Volume 1

Another double-disc set compiled by Kevin Martin, featuring music from Omni Trio (formerly known as Robert Haigh/Sema), Automaton (heavy industrial dub by Bill Laswell), Mad Professor, Coil, Tortoise, 4 Hero, Spring Heel Jack, Wagon Christ, Ice, Iration Steppas and more.

disc 1
disc 2

Various - Rewired Burglar Alarms

Spectacular reworkings of the New Sounds For Burglar Alarms CDr courtesy of Pål Asle Pettersen, Robert Horton, Sten Ove Toft, Per Gisle Galåen, Steffan De Turck, Andy Jarvis and Mikarla Jarvis (from the Stoke/Leeds collectives that unanimously bring joy to the world), Kurt Bolianatz, Jan-Morten Iversen, Charles Balls (aka Andrew Zukerman) and Anders Gjerde. Very very very good!

CDr released on Sindre Bjerga's Gold Soundz in 2006.

Rewired Burglar Alarms

va - Ambient 4: Isolationism

The fourth volume of Virgin Records' series of ambient compilations is the only one I listen to with any frequency. Compiled by Kevin Martin (of GOD, Ice, The Bug and Techno Animal), it features music by Ice, Techno Animal, O'Rang (aka Mick Harris), Scorn and Lull (both Harris again), Final, Main, KK Null, Jim O'Rourke, Labradford, Disco Inferno, James Plotkin, KK Null, Sufi (aka a member of 4AD's A.R. Kane & M/A/R/R/S), Zoviet France, Nijiumu (aka Keiji Haino), Total, Thomas Koner, AMM, Experimental Audio Research, Aphex Twin, Seefeel, Paul Schutze, Raoul Bjorkenheim, David Toop & Max Eastley. I suppose "isolationism" was intended to be a marketing-friendly term for dark drone music, but the diversity of this compilation implies that it never meant much. Still, it's a great album and has held up longer than the word "isolationism" (or illbient, glitch, lowercase, IDM and so on) ever did.

disc 1
disc 2

Sindre Bjerga - New Sounds For Burglar Alarms!

Norwegian legend produces 2 minutes of blinding noise followed by a 15 minute intro to a Sunn O))) song that they wished they'd written.

3" CDr released on DOKURO in 2009.

New Sounds For Burglar Alarms!

ABH - Drag

The first side is full of groaning metal infiltrated by material from The New Blockaders' seminal "Changez Les Blockeurs". The second side is the sound of Nobuo Yamada battling with quantum physics.

C30 released on the excellent Vitrine in 2016.

Drag

Artbreakhotel - Crazy Lotta

This is probably as close to Harsh Noise as Nobuo Yamada gets ... and it's (obviously) wonderful.

C40 released on Tordon Ljud in 2014.

Crazy Lotta

Artbreakhotel - Tut / Nix

Ever wanted to put random metal objects into a tumble dryer and turn it on to see what it sounds like? I have ...

Excellent C10 jointly released in Japan on VLZ Produkt and HISSterik Tapes in 2010.

Tut / Nix

ARTBREAKHOTEL - Contemporary Metal Vibes

When you sit down and listen to Nobuo Yamada you start to think that you recognise parts of his field recordings and that engenders a degree of superficial familiarity. But there is no such thing in any of his works. Everything is new. Everything is different. Frankly, the man's a genius.

CDr released on ABH in 2008.

Contemporary Metal Vibes

ARTBREAKHOTEL - Circulation Of Dive

Operatic fury and soaring metal noise clangour followed by it's inverse deconstruction. Or something like that. Or rearrange the words in any particular order. Or just listen because it really is great.

CDr released on ABH in 2007.

Circulation Of Dive

Artbreakhotel / Graham Moore - Split

Nobuo Yamada (possibly) using the same source material that he used in Empty Can Street Orchestra but taking it into a completely different (noise) direction. Graham Moore is the founder of Blossoming Noise and played in a host of other outfits. He contributes a wealth of cut up glitch that sounds like an unholy alliance between Crank Sturgeon, AFX and Id M Theft Able. Strange but true!

CD released on Blossoming Noise in 2005.

Artbreakhotel / Graham Moore

Nobuo Yamada - Cheap, Metal, Motion

More junk metal and household objects explored and exploited with the final track, involving a musical box, pointing directly to the noise recordings that would follow under a different name.

CDr released on his own ABH label in 2002.

Cheap, Metal, Motion

Nobuo Yamada - Tape Recorder's Mad Joy

Riotous cut-up glitch and clipped noise loops ...

CDr released on ABH in 2003.

Tape Recorder's Mad Joy

Nobuo Yamada - Vase Echoes

Recording devices placed inside ordinary vases and the vases placed in diverse locations. An astonishingly wonderful example of what you can create with the potential sounds that lie around you. I'm assuming that it helps if you are a genius.

CDr released on ABH in 2004.

Vase Echoes

Nobuo Yamada - Empty Can Street Orchestra

Field recordings of tin cans being dragged through a mine and a tunnel before being turned into electronic compositions. Why? Because it's a great idea ...

CDr released in Japan on his own ABH label in 2008.

Empty Can Street Orchestra

Matsuo Ohno - Play On Animals

Frankly bizarre collection of processed animal sounds forced into the shape of traditional songs from around the world. Why? Not a clue ...

Originally released as a flexi disc in 1970, this is the vinyl 7" reissue on EM Records from 2011.

Play On Animals

Divination - Distill

I don't understand how Bill Laswell names things. Divination has been the "band" name he's used for a drone/dub project that's been just him by himself and, at other times, collaborations with people from his usual stable (Buckethead, Nicky Skopelitis, Robert Musso, etc) and with entirely different bands (including Jah Wobble, DXT, Mick Harris and many others). For this double album, though, Divination appears to be listed on the cover as the band name, though the content is a compilation. I don't get it, and maybe I don't need to. It could be that Divination only refers to the mood... something that in the 1990s was called "isolationist", a dark electronic drone with nods toward languid cough-syrup dub. On "Distill", you get long solo yawns by Bill Laswell, his regular collaborator Anton Fier, FAX Records staples Pete Namlook and Testu Inoue, Thomas Koner (Async Sense), Haruomi Hosono (of Yellow Magic Orchestra), Paul Schutze, and Mick Harris.

disc 1
disc 2

Matsuo Ohno - Astro Boy / Yamatoji / Yuragi / And The Others

I'm testing my memory now ... originally Astro Boy was called The Mighty Atom but, when the manga was translated into an American cartoon, the nuclear reference was made more acceptable ... hey kids, if only trumpy was around then!

The first part is Matsuo Ohno announcing, for instance, "Astro Boy’s Telescopic Neck" followed by the sound effect. From there, you drift away into the longer form compositions ...

CD released on King Records in 2005.

Astro Boy ... And The Others

Matsuo Ohno - I Saw The Outer Limits / The War In Space

Sterling electronic compositions that were used as part of the soundtracks for the two titular films that were released in 1978 and 1977 respectively.

CD released on King Records in 2005.

I Saw The War In Space

Matsuo Ohno - Memory In The Beginning

Matsuo Ohno is a legendary composer using electronics to create beautiful soundscapes that have been used as soundtracks and effects used in what would appear (from an occidental perspective) in the most unlikely places. Run yourself a bath and drink this in.

CD released on King Records in 2005.

Memory In The Beginning

Ice - Bad Blood

Like Techno Animal's excellent "The Brotherhood of the Bomb", Ice attempted a major label industrial hip-hop album and it's just as good. El-P (of Run the Jewels) appears on one song and Blixa Bargeld (who I assume you know) appears on three songs.

Ice - Bad Blood

Stretchheads - Five Fingers, Four Thingers, A Thumb, A Facelift, And A New Identity

Brilliant debut LP that is closer to the grind vibe than their later releases ... short, sweet and full on!

P6 is still very much "at it". You should take a trip to the cheekily titled Naloxone Sounds to peruse his wares and if you scroll down, there is some of the great Stretchheads' Oregano Accumulator set for name your own price download.

... and here's the bit that usually gets ignored ... I think the "Bros Are Pish" 7" might be a promo for this LP but I've never heard it to make a judgement ... any chance out there?

LP released on Moksha Recordings in 1988.

Five Fingers

Ice - Under the Skin

More slow, noisy dub by Kevin Martin of GOD, The Bug and Techno-Animal. Released in 1993 on Pathological Records.

Ice - Under the Skin

The Stretchheads - Three Steps To Heaven

For fellow trainspotters out there, until 1989, Richie Dempsey (who was later in Dawson) was the Stretchheads' drummer. This is an early appearance of tracks that would later appear on their debut LP.

The cover features Robert Budd Dwyer, the State Treasurer of Pennsylvania who was facing a 55 year sentence for bribery. On January the 22nd 1987, he gave an impassioned press conference stating his track record on repealing the death penalty and pleading his innocence. He then handed out letters to three of his trusted colleagues, pulled a revolver from a padded envelope in his briefcase, put it in his mouth and killed himself on live TV. The chief witness for the prosecution later admitted that he had lied on oath to receive a lighter sentence ...

Single-sided C24 released on K7 in 1987.

Three Steps To Heaven

Stretchheads - Pish In Your Sleazebag

Housewife Up Yer Fuckin Arse Music and other warped delights courtesy of my favourite Scottish head the balls.

CD version that includes the earlier 23 Skinner 12" and the Eyeball Origami Aftermath Wit Vegetarian Leg 7" as bonus tracks. Released on Blast First in 1991.

Pish In Your Sleazebag

Various - Untitled

Kilgore Trout with an awful Depeche/OMD styled toe-tapping travesty, P6 and Snkhngvr eating crisps, The Sad Dragons fucking about (P6 again?) and Stretchheads with a live cover of Manic Depression.

Single-sided flexi 7" that came with the excellent Leeds-based (with a bit of Manchester thrown in for good measure) fanzine Ablaze! I've got the mag somewhere but can't put my hands on it ... I'm pretty sure that this was from Issue 7 in 1990. If you care about such things (and you really should) or ever went to The Duchess Of York, you need to read Karren's book The City is Ablaze!.

Ablaze!

Whilst I'm here ... this is the Stretchheads Peel session from July 1991. The Peel Session website says there are only four tracks but this scavenged item also comes with covers of the theme songs for The Sweeney and The New Avengers. There's also a four minute interview from Dutch radio where the host really tries to do it seriously. Poor bugger never stood a chance!

peel slowly and see

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