Bleak Bliss: January 2019

va - God Bless America

Ridiculous triple-LP boxset from RRRecords in the year of our Lord 1985, containing American music by American artists. Three American records in an American box with silk-screened American art inside and a God-lovin' American flag wrapping the whole thing up on the outside. Music by such outstanding Americans as Dimthings, Tom Recchion, Smersh, Un-Film, Psyclones, Master/Slave Relationship, Data-Bank-A, PGR, Viscera, Walls of Genius, Blackhouse, Screaming Dukduks, Controlled Bleeding, Sleep Chamber, F/i, Jonathan Briley, Art Simon and more.

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Various - The Tone Of The Universe (= The Tone Of The Earth)

Here's a few names to throw at your ears: 1/3 Octave Band, A.M. and Uton, Anla Courtis, Birchville Cat Motel, CJA, Keijo, My Cat Is An Alien, Neil Campbell, Seht, The Blithe Sons, The Skaters and Vibracathedral Orchestra. There are other people involved that you may be less familiar with. Get on with it.

Double CD released on Anthony Milton's wonderful PseudoArcana in 2005.

Tones

Various - A Thousand Colors Blaze

No-brainer compilation featuring the likes of Failing Lights, Hair Police, Prurient, Burning Star Core, Spine Scavenger, Birth Refusal and more.

A six tape set released on Gods Of Tundra in 2007.

1001

1002

va - Bark

A sampler of bands on the Sweatbox label from 1988: Meat Beat Manifesto, In the Nursery, Circus x3, A Primary Industry, The Anti-Group, and Perennial Divide.

va - Bark

Institut Für Feinmotorik - Abgegriffen

Easily the most complex and diverse of the Institut releases that I have and is more akin to a "traditional" "noise" recording. If I had started with this as the first post it would have seemed implausible that this was made using only turntables and mixing equipment. Even though I know that to be the case, it still seems unlikely. It really is superb.

LP released on Marriage Records in 2011.

Abgegriffen

va - Vhutemas Archetypi

A strange and beautiful compilation, first released as an LP in 1986 on the Side Effects label and then reissued on CD in 1990 by The Grey Area of Mute Records. Songs by SPK, Hunting Lodge, Laibach and Geregteigkeits Liga.

va - Vhutemas Archetypi

Institut Für Feinmotorik - Negemergenz

You may have made your mind up on these already ... but that would be a mistake. Tech-glitch through drone to full-on noise collage ... and then you consider the ingredients? Spectacular.

LP released on Fusetron in 1999.

Negemergenz

va - The Tyranny Of The Beat (Original Soundtracks From The Grey Area)

A compilation intended as an introduction to The Grey Area, a sub label of Mute Records, that reissued some stone cold classic (and largely unavailable) industrial, experimental and post punk albums by artists like Can, Dome, Swell Maps, Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Monte Cazzaza, Chris Carter, The Boys Next Door, and more.

va - The Tyranny Of The Beat (Original Soundtracks From The Grey Area)

Institut Fuer Feinmotorik - Akoasma

Disturbingly funky shit.

7" released on Synchron in 2004.

Akoasma

va - What's That Noise? Another Xpressway Compilation

Two German labels (What's That Noise and Raffmond) team up with the legendary Xpressway label for a compilation 7" of underground New Zealand noise rock. Tracks by The Terminals, The Dead C., Peter Jefferies/Shayne Carter/Kathy Bull, and Alastair Galbraith.

va - What's That Noise? Another Xpressway Compilation

Institut für Feinmotorik - Archivmaterial

The Institute for Precision Motoricity are legendary no-input signal no vinyl turntablists that create masterpieces of technoise (?). The concept is ably demonstrated thus:

No vinyl was hurt in the creation of this LP self-released into the wild in 1997.

Archivmaterial

Pink Buffalo - Made In The Shade

Looped found sound and synth notes on this C50 released on Taped Sounds in 2009.

Made In The Shade

Pink Buffalo - Meridian

Swirling interstitial synth fluid to bathe your weary brains.

C44 released on Scumbag Relations in 2009.

Meridian

A Chud Convention - Sorrow

This is a silly record. No getting around that. Skinny Puppy and a;GRUMH... went on tour together in 1988, booked some studio time, and goofed around for awhile. They moaned into microphones, tried (and failed) to sound serious. Someone had a cold and coughed through one side. Must have been a fun recording session, but for us it's just a curious novelty.

A Chud Convention - Sorrow

Pink Buffalo - Bearded Tooth

As far as I know, Pink Buffalo was the work of Eric Fry. This a really entertaining melting pot of distorted temple synth notes and reversed warped noise burble.

Double C20 released on Housecraft Recordings ‎in 2009.

Bearded Tooth

Perennial Divide - Leathernecks

The final Perennial Divide 12" never actually came out. It was supposed to come out on Wax Trax! in 1988. The label made test pressings, but for some reason never produced the record commercially. It sounds great to me, a swirl of sound effects, Adrian-Sherwood-esque heavy dub, stuttering machines and angular post-punk slash. Some parts of this record were recycled for the singer's other band, Meat Beat Manifesto.

Perennial Divide - Leathernecks

Isaac Willow - Sanctimonious Rhythm And Rouge

The final radio signals left behind by humanity following the heat death of the solar system ... and, of course, Isaac Willow is actually Jeff Astin.

C30 released on Housecraft Recordings ‎in 2009.

Sanctimonious Rhythm And Rouge

Perennial Divide - Bee Head

Second 12" single, released by Sweatbox in 1987 and produced by Swindon's own Andy Partridge!

Perennial Divide - Bee Head

Isaac Willow - Ingestion Of Flavor Shack

Giant cicadas as attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

C20 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2009.

Ingestion Of Flavor Shack

Perennial Divide - Burn Down

12" EP released by Sweatbox in 1986.

Perennial Divide - Burn Down

Kane Pour - Cat On A Paisley Shawl

Ecclesiastical accompaniment for church services in the year 3000.

C32 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2009.

Cat On A Paisley Shawl

Kane Pour - Wand In The Beak Of The Yellow Bird

Kane Pour with interstellar incense sticks set to stun.

C20 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2009.

Wand In The Beak Of The Yellow Bird

Perennial Divide - Purge

Pretty damn awesome debut LP by a sorely underrated band from Swindon, the same English city that was home to XTC. Perennial Divide (look that up) had some sonic sympathy with other post-punk/industrial bands from the mid-80s, like The Box, Hula, the Pop Group and Clock DVA; aggressive dub cut-ups and desperate yelping vocals over a bed of noise. Released on Sweatbox in 1986. It was reissued on CD in 2007 in a far inferior version that had the vocals removed. The singer, John Corrigan, would later make a goofy record under the name Meat Beat Manifesto, which became so successful that it eclipsed his other band and continues to this day.

Perennial Divide - Purge

Tricorn and Queue - Tapestry Head Ban

Loping clatter and lifting drones on this C40 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2008.

Tapestry Head Ban

Tricorn and Queue - Ragged Bright Degrees

Jeff Astin and Kane Pour producing meditative structures overlaid with found sound and tape hiss.

C18 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2009.

Ragged Bright Degrees

Seziki Tetrasheaf - Furnishings Of Former Lives

And now you're infirmly established ...

Double tape set released on Rotifer Cassettes in 2010.

Furnishings Of Former Lives

Seziki Tetrasheaf - Confluence Of All Conglomorations

It's that man Jeff Astin again, this time alongside David Toro (who, I think, also ran Rotifer Cassettes). It's all wonderfully warped hallucinogenic nightmare / film / everyday living music.

C68 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2010.

Confluence Of All Conglomorations

Terror Against Terror - Psychological Warfare Technology Systems

Lustmord and Lagowski get together in 1992 to make... a Wax Trax!-style industrial disco album? Yeah, this happened. Movie samples, police sirens, un-funky drumbox beats interminably going thud-thud-thud-thud. It's not quite a debacle on a "Machine Age Voodoo" scale, but it's not objectively good either. I find it hard to believe that the same people who made "Paradise Disowned" listened back to this and thought, "Yeah sure, this is an album that ought to come out." Perhaps they saw their peers raking in the goth-club dancefloor bucks and couldn't resist taking a slice of pie for themselves. Hope they spent the royalty dough on a real nice dinner. Maybe you'll be entertained.

Terror Against Terror - Psychological Warfare Technology Systems

Hairmaiden Of The Totem Robe - Fallen Totem

Warped loops and kung fu cut-up.

3" CDr released on Housecraft Recordings in 2008.

Fallen Totem

va - A Selection Of Drones Past (Singles 1993-2000)

The title pretty much tells you what to expect. Tracks from German 7" label Drone Records' output between the years of 1993 and 2000. Music from Francisco Lopez, Kallabris, Alio Die, Aube, Toy Bizarre, Maeror Tri, Reynols, Tarkatak, Spear, Vir, Droneament, Yen Pox, Delphium, Inade, Vance Orchestra, Osso Exotico, Die Feinen Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, Dual, Klood. Released by Tumult Records in 2006

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Hairmaiden Of The Totem Robe - Boomerang From The Eastern Room Of Rebirth

Endlessly engaging work the covers all ground from the prosaic to the profound: rattling around in your shed or uncovering the inner secrets of the cosmos? Or both? Probably neither.

C40 released on Housecraft Recordings in 2008.

Boomerang From The Eastern Room Of Rebirth

Hairmaiden Of The Totem Robe - Breaking The Head

A relatively (and tragically) short collaboration between Jeff Astin and the person who was Royallen. Fundamentally, these are home-made sounds that are warped into the unaccepted truth that the Mayan civilisation was abducted by altruistic aliens.

Double tape set released on Housecraft Recordings ‎in 2009.

Breaking The Head

Do Tell - Sewn To The Current

This may have found it's way into a New Age (gag) category but it's much too sophisticated for that. The interspersed early 4AD inspired bass and guitar lines plus a few left turns saves it from being bracketed alongside Josh Burke.

Double tape set released on Housecraft Recordings ‎in 2008.

Sewn To The Current

Digital Natives - Three Shits To The Wind

Jeff Astin's unhinged Digital Natives. Like gatecrashing a series of parties, realising that they are all happening in reverse and not being able to find your way out.

Three C60s released on Housecraft Recordings in 2014 in an edition of 50.

Three

Shits

Stephen Mallinder - Pow Wow Plus

Incredible album of skeletal robot dub from 1982 by Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder, reissued on CD with contemporaneous extra tracks by a short-lived sub-label of Mute called The Grey Area. If "Red Mecca" and "The Voice of America" are your fave CV era, this album will check all the right boxes.

Stephen Mallinder - Pow Wow Plus

va - Arcana Cœlestia (Nexus One - An International Musical Explorer)

A fitting compilation album for winter afternoons, full of dour, vaguely "world-music"-scented ambience for chilly yoga studios. Terry Burrows, Controlled Bleeding, Asmus Tietchens, O Yuki Conjugate, Robert Rich, Jeff Grienke, Twice a Man, Peter Frohmader, Peter Bryngelsson. Released by Multimood in 1989 and very much a showcase for the sort of thing that label tended to put out.

va - Arcana Cœlestia (Nexus One - An International Musical Explorer)

Xiphiidae - Sewn Within A Circle

More godhead organic electronics ...

Double C60 released on his own Housecraft Recordings in 2009.

Sewn Within A Circle

Xiphiidae - Crystal Marvelous Fruit

It's that man Jeff Astin again with more exemplary electronic psychedelia.

A pair of C60s released on the extraordinary Excite Bike in 2009 in a huge edition of 100.

Crystal Marvelous Fruit

Various - Good Wheel Tea Carpentry

Do yourself a favour. Turn your phone off. Send the other humans away on a pointless errand. If somebody interrupts your listening then you might just hate them forever. Don't take the chance.

Royallen, Cyquoia, Tricorn and Queue, Tuluum Shimmering, Do Tell, 1994, Peat Raamur and Xiphiidae.

Quadruple C30 box courtesy of the utterly gorgeous Housecraft Recordings in 2010.

Good Wheel Tea Carpentry

S.T.A.B. Electronics / Chloroform Rapist / Unclean / Concrete Mascara - Art Of Deviance

This does what it says on the tin.

Double C60(ish) released on Corrosive Art Records in 2012.

Art Of Deviance

va - Harmony Of The Spheres

Huge and just about perfect compilation of psychedelic drone and space rock, first released as a box set of 3 LPs and later thankfully reissued as a more affordable double CD by Drunken Fish. Songs by Bardo Pond (one of my favorite things they've recorded, a loping mantra of fuzz and green smoke), Flying Saucer Attack at the height of their powers, an extended Berlin-School-informed zonk by Jessamine, typically lovely washed-out solo guitar reveries by Roy Montgomery (of The Pin Group) and Loren MazzaCane Connors (who probably influenced everyone on this album), and a big finish from the incomparable Charalambides. Loud guitars, stoned bliss.

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Concrete Mascara - Excess Takes Its Toll

Impressively atmospheric and effective American shouty noise. I believe that da yoot describe this as powered electronics. It might just catch on you know.

C50 released on Wohrt Records in 2012.

Excess Takes Its Toll

Weak Sisters - My Girl

Quality. Quality. Quality.

C20 released on Heavy Psych in 2009.

My Girl

Weak Sisters - Dream Region

Fire-breathing noise from the bloke who was also (it appears) Other Peoples Children.

CDr released on the magnificent Turgid Animal in 2007.

Dream Region

Smegma Squad / Filthy Turd - Split

I don't know much about Smegma Squad other than it's "Torso & Rotula in "Anal is for Manual Studios." This recording was made while they were using a lot of alcohol, cigars, tranquilizers and T.H.C.". The flip is Darren doing what he does best ... Turding around quite splendidly.

C60 released on No Lyrics Records in 2006.

Smegma Squad / Filthy Turd

Kylie Minoise / Filthy Turd - Untitled

Four live arse-kickings courtesy of Lea Cummings followed by Darren Wyngarde "Riding Wild Women Through An Acre Of Piss" for half an hour.

CDr released on Voltagestress*r ‎in 2006.

Kylie Minoise / Filthy Turd

Coptic Nausea / Failing Lights / Three Legged Race - Choke On Your Elders

Trevor Tremaine ( who was in the likes of Hair Police, Burning Star Core and a load of great outfits), Mike Connelly and Robert Beatty sharing six sides of analogue plastic.

Great triple tape set released on Rampart Tapes in 2008. Is this really over ten years old? Wow, aren't the Policemen looking young these days? You know when I was a lad, people had standards ... used to be able to leave your back door wide open ...

Choke On Your Elders

Various - Tapeworms Eat Bookworms

D Yellow Swans, Wives and The Cherry Point, Robedoor and Impregnable will mislead you into thinking this is a straight ahead release. The label will tell you this is some warped shit.

Double C60 released on Not Not Fun Records in 2004.

Tapeworms Eat Bookworms

Various - All This Has Happened Before And It Will All Happen Again

Wolf. Eyes. Aaron. Dilloway. Hive. Mind. Emeralds. Recorded. Live. No. Brainer.

Double C30 released on AA Records in 2009.

It Will All Happen Again

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