Bleak Bliss: July 2018

Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase ‎– El Sabor Rojo / The Spirt Of Rock

Debut 7" single of Bananafish-flavored bedroom noise by Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase ("angry rabbit pepper nose", taken from a line to a German nursery rhyme), aka Chris Cooper, who would go one to be a member of Caroliner, Deerhoof, The BSC, Commode Minstrels in Bullface, and the extraordinary Fat Worm of Error.

Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase ‎– El Sabor Rojo / The Spirt Of Rock

Various - String Of Artifacts

This is one of those compilations that makes you realise that you are not as weird as people told you and finally gives you something to aspire to!

From the majesty of Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, Caroliner Rainbow, Pod Blotz, Spider Compass Good Crime Band and a surely imaginary meeting between Smegma and Wild Man Fischer through to the relatively normal Wolf Eyes, At Jennie Richie, Fat Worm Of Error, Nautical Almanac, Stilluppsteypa and Sun City Girls.

Roll up, roll up ... it's all here!

Double CD jointly released on Fish Pies and Resipiscent in 2005.

String Of Artifacts

Various - California

The Cherry Point, Moth Drakula, Yellow Swans, Amps For Christ, Oscillating Innards, Spastic Colon, Open City, John Wiese, Tralphaz, Xome, Damion Romero, Joe Colley, Rubber O Cement, GX Jupitter-Larsen, The Skaters, Solid Eye, R.H.Y. Yau, Gerritt, Control and SIXES.

Ten LP set jointly released on Troniks, Ground Fault Recordings and RRRecords in 2006.

California

Knows How To Party

Various - c/psi/p

We bend the knee at the majesty of Campbell Kneale's work and clearly Celebrate Psi Phenomenon is one of the finest labels ever. Full. Stop. I dread to think how many combined years we have spent tracking down the physical releases (all of it time well spent). Even if you are not new to the man or the label, this is a cracking compilation.

From the "well known" Birchville Cat Motel, Witcyst, Seht, Pumice, Armpit, 1/3 Octave Band, Dr. Gretchen's Musical Weightlifting Program and Eso Steel to the more esoteric No Logic Noise Farm, Atari Super Predator, Hataitai Bowling Club, Small Blue Torch, Airport and Cowcatcher. It's all here ...

Triple CDr set released on Last Visible Dog in 2001.

Celebrate PSI Phenomenon

Onna - Untitled

The final (as far as I know) Onna release was a compilation from 2009, put out by the American psych/noise label Holy Mountain. It collects that first 7" from 1983 again, a couple of out-takes from "Katawa", and some live tracks.

Onna - Untitled

various - lowercase-sound 2002

These are only a few reasons why you should make your own mind up: Dale Lloyd, Matt Shoemaker, Yannick Dauby, Reynols, Jeph Jerman, Animist Orchestra, John Hudak, Radu Malfatti, Stephan Mathieu, Kim Cascone, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetsu Inoue and Francisco López. Also, there is a track called Civyiu Kkliu attributed to Ludmilla Faulk. hhhhmmm.

Sorry, did I say a few? There is so much more. Just relax and absorb.

Double CD released on Bremsstrahlung in 2002. The second in the series but it didn't come in a metal box. And yes, it came with an extra copy of both discs so you could share them with friends. The circle continues.

Lowercase-Sound 2002

Onna - Katawa

The only studio album by Onna came out on the only label it could have come out on: PSF, which was also home to Fushitsusha, High Rise, Kousokuya, Kan Mikami, Che-Shizu... fitting company for Onna's dark, psychedelic strangeness.

Onna - Katawa

toy.bizarre / Dale Lloyd - Untitled

Toy Bizarre is obviously Cédric Peyronnet. Luckily, Dale Lloyd is Dale Lloyd. Don't wait to be told. Listen. Make your own mind up.

Double CD released on Bremsstrahlung in 2006. This is the third in the metal box series.

toy.bizarre / Dale Lloyd

Civyiu Kkliu - 111

"A sound utility. It is not to be "listened to" as music. It operates to bring about, in a space, effects comparable to light and heat.

this is a utility. it functions as do light and heat, ill-arbitrarily. this is to be turned on and thus differs from music which is to be played. this is not to be experienced nor followed, it is antithetical to: for sitting before, for facing, for listening to. increasing and decreasing the level of volume is not increasing and decreasing efficacy; standards will vary with and within temperaments. this utility has a duration and requires re-engagement according to need for persistency of conditions effected."

Yeah, me neither.

CDr released on Bake Records in 2001.

111

Scott Smallwood, Sawako, Seth Cluett, Ben Owen And Civyiu Kkliu - Phonography Meeting 070823

Five sets of field recordings / sound art played consecutively and mixed together to create a 47 minute epic of its kind.

CD released on Winds Measure Recordings in 2011.

Phonography Meeting 070823

Radu Malfatti & Ilya Monosov - Split

The fourth double-disc album in Bremsstrahlung's metal box series, this contains music by Radu Malfatti and Ilya Monosov. Edition of 250 copies, released in 2003.

disc 1
disc 2

Civyiu Kkliu + Ilya Monosov - Cartolina Postale

I've got to admit that I also know nothing about who/what/why Civyiu Kkliu is or was (and only slightly more about Ilya). However, in a world that just won't SHUT THE FUCK UP, there is something that's quite seditionary about creating work that is so intentionally incidental. Or is it?

So, you can handle a half hour accordion solo. Are you hardcore enough to be patient?

CDr released on Winds Measure Recordings in 2008.

Cartolina Postale

Toshiya Tsunoda & Civyiu Kkliu - Split

The short-lived label called Bremsstrahlung (named after a type of electromagnetic radiation, apparently) put out quiet electro-acoustic music, as was the (minimal) rage in the early 00's. Following two mission-statement compilations both titled "Lowercase Sound", Bremsstrahlung issued three split albums in metal tins. They were supposed to be the first three in a ten-part series, but I suppose the final seven were so minimal they didn't even come out. The first of these was a double CD containing short pieces by Toshiya Tsunoda (known for his field recordings as part of the WrK group of sound and installation artists) and someone called Civyiu Kkliu who is unknown to me. Limited edition of 250 copies.

disc 1
disc 2

Onna - Barae

There's plenty strange about "Barae", a double-CDR released by the band themselves in 2007. Both this album and "Katawa" (an album of actual songs, released on the notably-empathetic-to-outsider-weirdos label PSF) came out at around the same time, more than two decades after their 1983 single.

"Barae" is entirely instrumental, but lest you assume that makes it easy to listen to, well... one disc begins with a thirty-minute accordion solo. Oh, that's right. You think you're hard because you listen to multi-disc Vomir box sets? You enjoy late-period Kaoru Abe's harmonica workouts? You're lying. I dare you to sit still for this accordion solo. It's HALF AN HOUR LONG. The challenging opener is followed by a dismal guitar and violin break and then more accordion... because, why the hell not? The other disc contains equally hopeless instrumental violin and guitar skeletons. This is utterly cheerless music. You won't enjoy any of it. Good luck.

disc 1
disc 2

Fushitsusha - 光となづけよう

This is the first. Warped transcendence in action ... beyond excellent.

CD released on Heartfast in 2012.

Hikari to Nazukeyō

Onna - Eros

Two CDs of archival live Onna from 1983, just lonesome guitar and voice. Both discs begin with skeletal dirges, but grow more unhinged as they go on. Released by Bloody Butterfly (a label known mainly for hardcore, metal, and harsh noise) in 2001.

disc 1
disc 2

Fushitsusha - まぶしいいたずらな祈り

Spiritual and angular and the tone of the bass is stunning. This is the second.

CD released on Heartfast in 2012.

Mabushii Itazura na Inori

Onna - Maila

Onna was (or maybe still is? I'm not sure) a band led by "erotic manga" artist Keizo Miyanashi since the early 1980s. The band's first songs were very much of their time: barebones drumbox thump thumping along, angular cheap-sounding guitars kicking up clouds of brain-hugging fuzzballs, and Miyanashi's voice... yeah, that voice might be a deal breaker for you. It's never really clear which notes his Takashi Mizutani-esque yowl n' moan are aspiring to hit, but it doesn't seem as if he cares very much. Some people can deal with it, others will have a harder time.

Onna existed within the same weird noise/folk/psych/improv world as monumental outsiders like Keiji Haino, Tori Kudo, Jutok Kaneko, or Magical Power Mako... and yet, despite the band's longevity, Onna hardly released any music. There was a single that apparently was an indie hit in Japan when it came out in 1983. The next proper album came out on PSF (of course!), but not until 2007. Aside from those two releases, there were a couple of compilations of archival live material and a very odd self-released double-CDR. "Maila" came out on CD in 1999, and was a reissue of both sides of Onna's 1983 single plus one extra track of woozily demented psychedelia. After these songs, Miyanashi's music would get more abstract and odd. Stay tuned!

Onna - Maila

Fushitsusha - 名前をつけないでほしい名前を　つけて　しまうと　全てで　なくなってしまうから

More tortured noise-rock (that occasionally verges towards the grind) before relaxing and stretching out. This is the third.

CD released on Heartfast in 2013.

Namaewo Tsukenaide Hoshii Namaewo Tsukete Shimauto Subetede Nakunatte Shimaukara

Fushitsusha - まだ　温かいうちの　この今に　すべての謎を　注ぎ込こもう

Ryosuke Kiyasu on drums, Chiyo Kamekawa on bass and Keiji Haino on guitar and vocals (obviously). For me, the four Fushitsusha CDs released on Heartfast are right up there with the best they've ever recorded. This is the fourth.

CD released on Heartfast in 2013.

Mada Atatakai Uchi no Kono Ima ni Subete no Nazo wo Tsugikonde Shimaou

Knut Remond - Cowmeditation, Cosmics Vol. 2

A 1996 solo album by erstwhile Voice Crack drummer Knut Remond. Fun fact: there never was a volume 1.

Knut Remond - Cowmeditation, Cosmics Vol. 2

Tenouti Yome-Zo - Gimme A Break Taka

Tenouti Yomezou began as Motako Ishii's solo project which swiftly turned into a band in it's own right running alongside Oshiri Pen Penz. Expect great garage-psyche yob-punk insanity.

CD released on WORD IS OUT! in 2011.

ギミアぶれいく鷹

Oshiripenpenz - Micro de Ikou

Cowhole butt music.

CD released on Macaroni Records in 2008.

ミクロで行こう

va - Voice Crack Remixes

Entirely unnecessary compilation of remixes of Voice Crack sounds. Did this really need to exist? Most probably not, but exist it does and so here it is for you. Two of the remixes are by Aphasic and Toby Reynolds (aka DJ Scud), the two gents who compiled and released this on their own Ambush label in 2002. I'm not even sure whether these tracks can rightly be called "remixes"; more accurately, they're original tracks that use Voice Crack as a source sound. Other remixers include Hrvatski (aka Keith Fullerton Whitman), Jim O'Rourke, Matmos, Russell Haswell & Florian Hecker, and... Norbert Moslang!

va - Voice Crack Remixes

Oshiri Penpenz - Oshiri Penpenz

Yusuke Mukae on drums, Kirara Nakabayashi on guitar and Motako Ishii on lungs. Buttholian cowboy music!

This is a self-released CDr from 2006. This was a "show your workings out" experiment that would turn into Micro de Ikou (ミクロで行こう) two years later or this time tomorrow depending on your reference points.

Oshiri Penpenz

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Sound_Shifting

This is the CD that came inside a 90-page book documenting Voice Crack's contribution to the 49th Venice Biennal exhibition in 2001.

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Sound_Shifting

Oshiri Pen Penz - Black Album

Trumans Water are forced to live in South Park and spend their lives covering Shockabilly covers using rubber instruments. Yeah. Warped genius!

Self-released CDr EP from 2003.

黒アルバム

Voice Crack - Shock_Late

Did somebody mention Shock_Late?

LP released on Entenpfuhl ‎in 2000.

Shock_Late

Voice Crack - Ballchannel

Coming out the same year as Voice Crack's "Shock_Late" LP, this little 7" single was released on a wonderful label called Meeuw Muzak.

Voice Crack - Ballchannel

Oshiripenpenz - Live ブートレグ

Imagine an implied love of The Stooges mixed with the best of the Amphetamine Reptile artists, add a hint of Discharge and all of the respect for the audience of Hanatarash. Ladies and gentlemen ... Oshiripenpenz recorded live at Namba Bears in their native Osaka during 2001.

CDr released on Frying Start Records in 2001.

Live Bootleg

Voice Crack - Infra_Red

Continuing where "Below Beyond Above" left off, 1999's "Infra_Red" is the sound of your tinnitus nightmares coming true.

Voice Crack - Infra_Red

Hovlakin - ほぶらきん・コンプリートBox

Hovlakin (or Hoburakin) were another of those great Japanese chaos-punk groups that re-imagined Western punk, exploded and disappeared. They released a few singles and flexis in the very early 80s and disappeared from view (at least on my side of the planet ... where, frankly, they were invisible in the first place). Almost inevitably, it's thanks to Jojo Hiroshige and his wonderful Alchemy Records that they began to appear at all ... and then this ... the Complete Box! It came with a DVD which I don't have ... so it's the Incomplete Box and life just keeps on proving that you can't have everything.

Six CDs courtesy of Youth Inc. in 2013.

Complete

Box

Morisada Michihiro & Motoki Yoshinori - Tsurusen Kamesen

Morisada Michihiro on contrabass and Motoki Yoshinori on S.M. flute (whatever that is) creating the kind of free-form music that would take a room in 200 Motels.

LP released on Motoki Records in 1981.

Tsurusen Kamesen

Voice Crack - Taken and Changed

Several artists on the Austrian label Mego were influenced by Voice Crack's misuse of electronics and their aesthetic of intentional technological failure (particularly Florian Hecker, Pita, and Farmers Manual). It seemed natural that Mego and Voice Crack would cross paths eventually, and so they did with this 1999 album. "Taken and Changed" was only released online by an mp3-only Mego sub-label called Fals.ch. Nothing from Fals.ch seems to be available online anymore, so here this is now.

Voice Crack - Taken and Changed

Chie Mukai, Yoshinori Motoki - 10 Minutes Free Improvisation Festival

Collaborations recorded between 1982 and 1983 using what sound like traditional instruments ....

C44 released on Cacoon in 1983.

Free Improvisation Festival

Voice Crack - Below Beyond Above

Discogs nerds might notice that eight years pass between "Earflash" and its follow-up, "Below Beyond Above". What happened in all that time? Voice Crack went from being a self-contained unit to one element of other, larger, groups. They released two more collaborative albums with Borbetomagus (both exceedingly good examples of what it might sound like to get Peter Brotzmann's beard wet and stick him face-first into an electrical socket) and one with Gunter Mueller (another Swiss artist leaving jazz behind and embracing abstract electronics). They also shed occasional drummer Knut Remond, leaving Moslang and Guhl's cracked electronics free to wander the stratosphere unencumbered by anything resembling terrestrial instrumentation or logic. Back on their own, they created an album that scales back the assault and aims for more Tudor-esque abstraction. Recorded in 1997, released as a CD by Uhlang in 1998.

Voice Crack - Below Beyond Above

Chie Mukai - Kokyu Improvisation

There are three distinct pieces within this single track that opens up a fascinating window (well, I think it is...) into the early solo work of Chie Mukai. All recorded live at planB in Tokyo in 1984 with prerecorded tape work and live scraped and manipulated metal objects ...

CD released on P.S.F. Records in 1990.

Kokyu Improvisation

Voice Crack - Earflash

By 1990, several key events happened in the lives of our heroes Moslang & Guhl. They acquired a 3rd member in percussionist Knut Remond, who you might know from the Swiss industrial rock band 16-17. With director Peter Liechti, they made a fantastically entertaining film, "Kick That Habit" (reissued as a DVD by Drag City and readily available), which showcased their "cracked everyday-electronics". They toured extensively, and made fruitful allies with like-minded American jazz/noise trio Borbetomagus (with whom they would record several collaborative albums). And of course, they took the name of their 1986 LP as their own band name. 1990 saw them at the height of their most aggressive phase, creating blinding masses of short-circuit bouyed by Remond's remorseless bass drum. A brilliant album, and one of the true classics of harsh noise.

Voice Crack - Earflash

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Kick That Habit

And here we are, a Voice Crack album in all but name! This LP was recorded live in (of all places) Birmingham, Alabama, back in 1986, then released by Uhlang (which is pointedly not the same label as Uhlklang) later the same year.

(note: I've re-upped the previous post of this album here)

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Kick That Habit

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - January 14th 1989 Kyoto / Maher Goes To Gothic Country.

"Recorded live on January 1, 1989 at Kodomo Bunka Kaikan small hall, Kyoto at the "Nashikuzushi no kyowakoku" concert."

LP released on Org Records in 1991 in an edition of only 100 copies.

January 14th 1989 Kyoto

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Knack On

Several years after "Deep Voices", and the proto-Voice Crack boys have shed their jazz roots, replacing saxophones and basses with distressed toasters, clock radios, egg timers, flashlights and all manner of "cracked everyday-electronics" (a term they coined to describe their particular brand of warranty-negating found-object-wreckage). First released as an LP on Uhlklang (a division of FMP) in 1983, reissued on CD in 2001 by Atavistic.

(note: I've re-upped the previous post of this album here)

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Knack On

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Deep Voices

Way back in 1978, two Swiss multi-instrumentalists recorded a little LP for well-respected jazz/improv label FMP. In 1995, a short-lived label called Urthona (run by the guy behind Quiet Artworks, Hajsch, and PFN) reissued it on CD. This post is taken from the CD version. Taken on their own terms, these duos for reeds, strings, percussion and electronics are quite good. However, what makes "Deep Voices" particularly noteworthy is that it's the debut album by the band who would soon begin to wreck domestic electronics and create sheets of white-hot din under the name Voice Crack. And if you're reading this and thinking, "gee, I wonder whether a skipload of Voice Crack albums are about to show up on this blog", then that means you've been paying attention.

Norbert Möslang & Andy Guhl - Deep Voices

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - L'Autre Cap [他の岬]

Originally released as an LP and CD (with the CD having an extra track) on K in 2006, this was then released on 7 e.p. in Japan with an additional disc where the set is recorded live at Shinjuku Jam, Tokyo on July the 4th, 2006 (Jim O'Rourke is playing as part of the group here as well). Discogs gives the first disc with the same track list as the vinyl version ... it isn't, it's the same as the CD version. This is the Japanese release btw.

他の岬

John Hudak - Old Moon

Two little 3"CDrs wrapped in a paper band, released by Kissy Records in 2003.

John Hudak - Old Moon

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - C'est La Dernière Chanson

177 of Tori Kudo's improvisational collective's predominantly blink and you miss them recordings were released as a double CD on K in 2009. In the same year, in Japan, it came with an additional disc of outtakes.

Triple CD released on 7 e.p. in 2009.

C'est La Dernière Chanson

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Return Visit To Rock Mass

... but I suppose you can decide for yourselves.

Triple CD released on Org Records in 1996.

Compact

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Return Visit To Rock Mass

From memory, there were only three hundred copies of this, which plays a large part in explaining the rapid price speculation. Apparently, around two thirds of this are different takes and mixes than those on the CD version. Whether that is true or a blatant tactic by the speculators to increase it's scarcity value is somebody else's guess!

Triple LP released on Org Records in 1996.

Vinyl

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - From A Summer To Another Summer (An Egypt To Another Egypt)

This contains the three people in the previous Ché-SHIZU post as well as a multitude of other people. It's probably possible to describe the extraordinary diversity within the sound of Maher Shalal Hash Baz but I'm not that brave ... lover not a fighter and all that.

CD released on Geographic in 2000. It also came in a double vinyl edition with three additional tracks ... unfortunately, I don't have that.

From A Summer To Another Summer

va - Asian Flashback - Underground Music From Asia

Anyone reading this blog is surely familiar with PSF's required-listening-for-everybody compilation series, Tokyo Flashback. In 2007, the premier psych/rock/jazz/folk/noise label unleashed a flashback with artists from Japan, South Korea and China and it's just as solid as anything else on PSF, which is to say that it's a jaw-dropping collection of both known and little-known Asian artists. Includes Li Jianhong (both with his fierce noise-rock duo D!O!D!O!D! and in a trio with Shoji Hano and Narita Munehiro), Soonie, Mustangs, Amature Amplifier, Kim Young Jin, and many others.

va - Asian Flashback - Underground Music From Asia

Ché-SHIZU - I Can't Promise

Takuya Nishimura, Tori Kudo, Tsukasa Takahashi and Chei Mukai with the latter three later becoming members of the free-form ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz although not always at the same time.

Originally an LP released on Zero Records in 1984. This is the Alchemy Records CD reissue from 2001 that had two additional tracks.

I Can't Promise

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