Bleak Bliss: February 2019

La Monte Young - Draw A Straight Line And Follow It

Given the nature of the release it is difficult to be certain but I think that this covers four decades of La Monte Young's ideas. Clearly, this is not just the man himself but who else is here is lost to me. There are ragas and drones but not the fever dreams of the Theatre Of Eternal Music. That is certainly not a criticism ... this contains some of the most beautiful music I have heard. Dive in and draw your own lines.

A seven CDr unofficial release courtesy of Japan's Otherside Recordings.

Apparently, there is a second volume but I've never seen it ... if some kind soul could help me out I'd appreciate it!

Drawer

Flow

va - Rude Boxxx

Six cassette box set on Heath "Sick Llama" Moerland's Fag Tapes label, released in an edition of 30 copies in 2006. Included a reissue of the debut Fag Tapes release, Sick Llama "Thrown Down a Well", plus Connelly/Failing Lights "Time Layered" which first came out as a tape on Gods of Tundra in 2005. The rest of the set is otherwise unreleased Sick Llama, WM, Cygnus and Barf Thoth, which I believe are just Moerland under different monikers.

tape 1
tape 2
tape 3
tape 4
tape 5
tape 6

Faust - Edinburgh 1997

Excellent live recording from the Flux New Music Festival in 1997.

CD released on Klangbad in 1997.

Edinburgh 1997

Faust - The Land Of Ukko&Rauni

Clearly, between 1971 and 1973, Faust released some of the most essential music ever recorded and then they slipped from view. Normally, I am a huge fan of that kind of behaviour, say what you have to say and then go away before you spoil it. Then over ten years later they started to resurface and presented themselves as one of those most rare beasts: they were still brilliant and still had huge amounts to say. This is one such thing ... recorded live in Helsinki at Tavastia Club on the 20th of April, 2000.

Double CD released on Ektro Records in 2000.

The Land Of Ukko&Rauni

Angus MacLise - Dreamweapon II

This is the other version and I would argue it blows the vinyl away. Other than the (fundamentally) same tracks that appear on the LP, this also includes a gloriously ramshackle collaboration with Tony Conrad. As though this is not ample, there is also the majority of the film soundtrack of Ira Cohen's "The Invasion Of Thunderbolt Pagoda" by the Universal Mutant Repertory Company (who on this occasion are Angus MacLise, Henry Flynt, Jackson Mac Low, Loren Standlee, Raja Samyana, Tony Conrad and Ziska Baum).

CDr given away courtesy of Boo-Hooray in 2011.

Dreamweapon II

Faust - London 1-3

The first side is the brilliant and only BBC session that you will surely know from the BBC Sessions + CD from 2001. Other than predating that release by five years, this also includes "Kisses For Pythagoras" which I don't think appears anywhere else.

LP released on RéR Recommended in 1996 in an edition of 300.

London 1-3

Angus MacLise / Hetty MacLise - Dreamweapon II

This boasts extended versions of tracks that were on the CDr given away at the aforementioned exhibition. Welcome indeed, but is that the full story?

LP released on Boo-Hooray in 2011.

Dreamweapon II

Faust - San Francisco 1994

Recorded live at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco on May the 8th, 1994. This is Faust playing live with Keiji Haino. Yes, you read that correctly. If the apocalypse sounds this good, bring it on.

A self-released CDr for sale on the US tour in 2016 and there were only 48 of them.

San Francisco 1994

Angus MacLise / Tony Conrad - Dreamweapon III

This is one of a series of previously unreleased collaborations lifted from Angus' tape archives released to accompany a Belgian exhibition celebrating his life and work more than 30 years after his death.

LP courtesy of Boo-Hooray in 2011.

Dreamweapon III

Tony Conrad with Faust - Outside The Dream Syndicate - Alive

... and this is the escape recorded live at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on February the 17th, 1995. Jim O'Rourke is here on guitar as well ... he gets everywhere don'tcha know.

CD released on Table Of The Elements in 2005.

It's Alive

Tony Conrad with Faust - Outside The Dream Syndicate (30th Anniversary Edition)

I've always been tempted to think of this as his escape from the Theatre with Faust as his getaway drivers ...

Originally recorded in 1972, this is the double CD edition released on Table Of The Elements in 2002.

It's Outside

La Monte Young - Der Zweck Dieser Serie Is Nicht Unterhaltung Vol. 1

... and of course there is more. Whilst these are listed as La Monte Young releases (at times) they sit much more comfortably as Theatre Of Eternal Music recordings.

Another no label double CDr from 2003.

Der Zweck Dieser Serie Is Nicht Unterhaltung

La Monte Young - Der Zweck Dieser Serie Is Nicht Unterhaltung Vol. 2

More hypnagogic hallucinations that were originally broadcast on various radio stations before being converted to reel to reel bootlegs that were eventually digitised, reissued and then ripped and uploaded to a music blog. That's progress?

No label double CDr from 2003.

Der Zweck Dieser Serie Is Nicht Unterhaltung

va - 2:00 Matinee - RRRecords Live In-Store Performances Every Saturday Afternoon

What I wouldn't give to be at one of these shows! Apparently, the legendary RRRecords shop had free concerts every Saturday at 2:00 in the afternoon. Lots of bands played, but from the sound of this album not a lot of listeners showed up to hear them. There are some names you might recognize, others you won't: Crank Sturgeon, Idea Fire Company, Quarreling Xenophobic Waitresses, Save Yourself, Lance Gargoyle (this guy sounds like he brought in a crowd!), Commode Minstrels in Bullface, Foom, more.

va - 2:00 Matinee - RRRecords Live In-Store Performances Every Saturday Afternoon

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela / The Theatre Of Eternal Music - Dream House 78' 17"

This is the sound of that razor edge where the trip is about to turn bad and you are hanging on for grim reality. Academically terrifying but retrospectively exhilarating once the ride is survived. Well, there was this one Killing Joke gig when ... oh, yeah ... concentrate ...

The first track is as spectacularly unhinged and delirious as anything I've heard. The second is the sustained come-down drone. Don't forget kids, quarter of a tab first and don't re-dose until you are sure you're ready.

Originally released on Shandar in 1974 before being re-released on Aguirre Records in 2016.

Dream House 78' 17"

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - The Black Record

A side of suspenseful Sufi throat singing drones followed by "Sine Wave Drone" electronics that presage the future direction of music by a long way.

LP originally released on Edition X in 1969.

Untitled

EA80 - "25"

A 7" single on collector-bait reissue label Was Soll Das? Schallplatten, marking the 25th anniversary of EA80. Though it doesn't specify where the songs came from, it's believed that they were from the band's 1980 demo tape. The record was released in an edition of only 125 copies, so it sells for stupid money today. The record had a sticker over the center label, so you had to break a hole in it in order to play the thing. Or, you had to buy two copies. (full disclosure: between the husband and I, we bought five copies).

EA80 - "25"

The Theatre Of Eternal Music - The Theatre Of Eternal Music

... and this is exactly the same people. They appear to be collaborating.

A wonderful "no-label" LP from 2013.

The Theatre Of Eternal Music

Marino Zuccheri - Parete 1967 Per Emilio Vedova

Engineer at the Milan electronic music studio where luminaries like Luigi Nono, Henri Pousseur and Luciano Berio (among many others) recorded. This is a piece from 1967 (duh), reissued on wax by Die Schachtel in 2005. There was also a CD containing this piece, unsullied by having to flip the record halfway through, plus other music tacked on, but alas I do not have that one to share.

Marino Zuccheri - Parete 1967 Per Emilio Vedova

John Cale / Tony Conrad / Angus MacLise / La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume I: Day Of Niagara (1965)

As far as I know, this had done the rounds as an almost unseen bootleg tape and had never "officially" seen the light until this release. Given that these sounds were never meant to be recorded, and the source material, audio fidelity is patchy but still adds to the mystery and majesty. Unfortunately, it's eventual release saw some old wounds reopened. The people named as contributors constitute the core of the "Theatre Of Eternal Music" who were a wide ranging set of artists working with La Monte Young (and all of the Dream Syndicate compositions probably sit more comfortably within the "Theatre" context). However, La Monte Young took great exception to the presentation of this work as a collaborative composition and employed legal services to leave people in no doubt that he claimed sole authorship. The apparently long sustained bitterness does nothing to detract from the seminal importance of the work of these people at this point in history. Just enjoy it for what it is.

CD released on Table Of The Elements in 2000.

Day Of Niagara

Luciano Cilio - Dell'Universo Assente

A very lovely album from 1977, the only solo album to be released by Luciano Cilio before his suicide in 1983. Naturally, Die Schachtel sprang to the rescue in 2004 to remaster, reissue and expand this truly fantastic music. Warning: not for tough guys who only come here for Black Leather Jesus cassettes.

Luciano Cilio - Dell'Universo Assente

John Cale - New York In The 1960s

This splendid collection of tones and drones saw the light of day courtesy of the tape archives of Tony Conrad. When released, these were announced as the three volumes of "Inside The Dream Syndicate" and signaled all kinds of shit hitting the fan (more of which later). Anyway, for now, let's just say that the first disc "Sun Blindness Music" doesn't appear to have anything to do with the series. For Velvet Underground obsessives (so that's all of us then), other than John, you also get Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise.

This is the triple CD box-set reissue released on Table Of The Elements in 2006.

New York In The 1960s

Enore Zaffiri - Musica Reticolare

Electronic music recorded in Turin from 1965 to 1968, released by Die Schachtel in 2004.

Enore Zaffiri - Musica Reticolare

Tony Conrad - Slapping Pythagoras

Apart from the man himself, the guitar section is David Grubbs, Kevin Drumm, Dylan Posa, John Corbett, Thymme Jones and Jim O'Rourke. The latter produces it and Steve Albini records it. Y'all been way hap! Now crack on.

CD released on Table Of The Elements in 1995.

Slapping Pythagoras

Franca Sacchi - En

Previously unreleased work from 1969 to 1972, unearthed and reissued by (who else?) Die Schachtel in 2004.

Franca Sacchi - En

Tony Conrad - Early Minimalism Volume One

Without Tony Conrad would anything else exist?

Four CD set with a bit of cd-rom malarkey released on the exemplary Table Of The Elements in 1997.

sound

enhanced minimalism

Cornelius Cardew - The Great Learning

And to prove that a great idea doesn't die easily, in Poland a cast of 60 reclaim all seven paragraphs of the Great Learning 29 years after the great man's death.

Spectacularly immersive four disc set released on Bôłt in 2010.

Great

Learning

The Scratch Orchestra - London, 1969

A brief snatch of some of the first public performance by the Scratch Orchestra on the 1st of November 1969, at Hampstead Town Hall in London.

A welcome sight of the almost unrecorded collective on this 10" released on Die Stadt in 1999.

London, 1969

Blässe, EKG, Roter Stern Belgrade - Massa

The only vinyl outing on Rainer Rabowski's Klar! 80 label was this 1981 triple 12" featuring three rather different takes on German DIY post-punk. Blasse was a jazz/funk/no wave-influenced combo whose ranks included one Alexander von Borsig (aka Alex Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten, also of just-as-legendary-in-our-house P1/e, Sentimental Jugend, Sprung aus den Wolken and more), Xao Seffcheque, Eva-Maria Gößling (of Mania D. and Die Krupps), Bernward Malaka (of Male and Vorsprung). EKG would soon change their name to Strafe fur Rebellion. Finally, Roter Stern Belgrade was Rabowski's own group, which today might be called "minimal synth" but in 1981 was probably just called "weird".

Blässe, EKG, Roter Stern Belgrade - Massa

Cornelius Cardew & The Scratch Orchestra - The Great Learning

The Scratch Orchestra has it's roots buried deep in AMM, although that should probably be the other way around. There is Cornelius Cardew obviously but also Christopher Hobbs, Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury, Keith Rowe and Lou Gare. Other future luminaries include Michael Nyman, Brian Eno and David Jackman although who appears when and doing what is probably unknowable. The ranks of the orchestra created from scratch were greatly bolstered by legions of friends, family and students (often with no musical experience at all) all gathered together to perform the compositions of Mr Cardew.

Composed in 1969 and recorded in 1971, it was originally released as an LP on Deutsche Grammophon. This is the very welcome reissue from Cortical Foundation in 2000.

The Great Learning

Domenico Guaccero - Rot

Italian avant-garde music from 1973 (side 1) and 1981 (side 2), reissued by Die Schachtel on vinyl in 2004.

Domenico Guaccero - Rot

Insieme Musica Diversa - Untitled

Wild album of Italian hippie freaks originally released in 1980, then reissued in 2005 by Die Schachtel in a box with all sorts of posters and doo-dads.

Insieme Musica Diversa - Untitled

Various - The NYFA Collection: 25 Years Of New York New Music

New York ... is it all that?

erm ... yes.

Five disc collection released on Innova Recordings in 2010.

NY

FA

Girolamo De Simone - Shama

Released in 2008 by Die Schachtel as part of their Zeit Composers series.

Girolamo De Simone - Shama

Various - Sonderangebot

This begins with Vicki Bennett's People Like Us (which is always a good thing and improved upon because it's about farting which is always a good thing). It then takes a bit of a nosedive with some dated Muslimgauze and Bad Sector before rising to the challenge with the likes of Charlemagne Palestine, Étant Donnés, Deutsch Nepal, Jaap Blonk, Zbigniew Karkowski and Kapotte Muziek. Well worth a dalliance.

CD released on Staalplaat in 1996.

Sonderangebot

3/4HadBeenEliminated - Oblivion

2010 album by the spacebar-challenged quartet of Claudio Rocchetti, Valerio Tricoli, Stefano Pilia and Tony Arrabito. Their fifth full-length overall, but first for Milan's Die Schachtel label.

3/4HadBeenEliminated - Oblivion

Various - The Invisible Pyramid

My mother always said "if you don't ask, you don't get". So I kept asking for stuff and still got fuck all. I suppose that there is a life lesson in there somewhere. Anyway, here on Bleak Bliss we also introduce random chance for that added sense of frisson. Sometimes, we don't pay attention. Sometimes, we think "what a great idea" and then get distracted and head off in another direction (I know, I've not forgotten about Derek Bailey, honest). Sometimes, we just get on with it.

Whilst not to be confused with the wonderful Elegy Box released a couple of years later, this is the original Invisible Pyramid. An absolutely beautiful compilation that is gold all of the way down ...

To tempt the untemptable: Reynols, Bardo Pond, Flies Inside The Sun, Pelt, Charalambides, Avarus, Sandoz Lab Technicians, Omit, Miminokoto and a stunning track by Karma (it's Hiroko Tanaka and Makoto Kawabata and probably the only thing that they released). Oh, and every other track on here ...

Double CD released on Last Visible Dog in 2003.

The Invisible Pyramid

va - Witching Hour - A Compilation of Field Recordings of Night-Time

This album is on permanent rotation here at our house. Field recordings of night time. The title tells you precisely what you'll hear. Eight tracks, each one consisting of the sound of not very much happening. Crickets, wind, near-silence. It is wonderful. Released as a CDR on Tim Coster's CLaudia imprint in 2005 with tracks by Coster himself, Phoebe Westbourne, Phil Dadson (of the legendary From Scratch!), Felicity Ford, Un Ciego, Lau Nau (short for Laura Naukkarinen), Paintings of Windows (aka Antony Milton/AM) and Richard Francis (formerly known as Eso Steel).

va - Witching Hour - A Compilation of Field Recordings of Night-Time

Roter Stern - L'Afrique Revisited... Afars & Issas Et Les Pays Au-Delà

Homemade drumbox thump by the ultra-obscure trio of Rainer Rabowski, Axel Grube and Charly Morrow. They existed from 1980 to 1982, releasing a few tapes on the Klar! 80 label (you can find them at the Tape Attack blog, an indispensable resource for hopelessly rare German synth wave and punk cassettes). This LP record collects some songs from those tapes. It was released in a collector-bait edition of just 200 copies by Was Soll Das? Schallplatten in 2003 and promptly vanished onto the shelves of people you wouldn't want to get stuck next to at a party.

Roter Stern - L'Afrique Revisited... Afars & Issas Et Les Pays Au-Delà

Various - Crows Of The World Vol. 1

The Free Players, The North Sea, Northern Cross, Paper Wings (who are Antony Milton and Anthony Guerra), Sunken (who include Antony Milton and Stefan Neville), Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate and more.

CD released on Last Visible Dog in 2006.

Crows Of The World Vol. 1

Various - Crows Of The World Vol. 2

For me, this has one of the best Ashtray Navigations recordings. There is so much great stuff on this compilation but frankly (as most things are) it's all about Phil Todd.

CD released on Last Visible Dog in 2009.

Crows Of The World Vol. 2

Various - The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig (An Exercise In Futility)

The Broken Penis Orchestra, Anomali, IDX1274, Mixed Band Philanthropist and satellites orbiting the BSBC black hole.

CD released on Psychochrist Productions in 2004.

The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig

The Broken Penis Orchestra - Vienna Sausage

The never less than delightful Stan Reed with this tinned missive distributed during a live show in Vienna, Austria.

3" CDr released on his own PsychoChrist Productions in 2006.

Vienna Sausage

Various - Cascades Of The Absurd: A Pacific Northwest Compilation Of Out There Acts I-V And Sometimes Puppet Shows

Ten 2 minute artworks courtesy of irr. app. (ext.), Broken Penis Orchestra, At Jennie Richie, Pink Void, Red Squirrels and Extraordinary Pigeons.

C20 released on Dead Accents in 2013.

Cascades Of The Absurd

Various - Unicorn Love

Rale, God Willing, Kevin Shields and tik///tik.

Hurrah!

Four short haute couture cassettes released on Hate State in 2007.

Make Unicorns Great Again! Build That Horn!

va - America The Beautiful

American bands, singing the (ironic?) praises of America and Americanness. Released as a double CD by RRRecords in 1994, one of several USA-themed compilations they'd put out. This one features patriotic ditties by Chop Shop, Grae.Com, Small Cruel Party, Neil Hamburger, Lee Renaldo, Luxurious Bags, Idea Fire Company, Con Demek, Blowhole, Negativland, AMK, Vampire Rodents, Tom Dimuzio, John Wiggins, tac, Slughog, Nisi Period, Nicolas Collins, The Haters, Commode Minstrels in Bullface, Phil Milstein, Borbetomagus, Out of Band Experience, Crawling With Tarts, Mandible Chatter, Goosewind, Barry Dalive, Hands To, Randy Grief, ST37, Faxed Head, The Easy-Goings, Mono Pause, Kings of Feedback, Horse-Cow, more.

disc 1
disc 2

Various - United States Bestial Forces

For me, the term Power Electronics has been poisoned by those artists who use the "genre" to promulgate their racist views. "If I pretend that I am transgressive then i can try to promote hate crime". Well done dickheads! They have no dignity so why would I name them? You know who they are.

Instead, lets try Richard Ramirez, Deeper Wells, Gnawed, Deterge, Churner, RU-486, The Vomit Arsonist, Reptilian Sexual Predator, Josh Hydeman, Custodian, Sharpwaist, Striations, Mania and on and on and on .... this has quality and ideas all of the way down.

One of the things that cheers me up the most is that about seven years ago, I posted the Deeper Wells C20 on Waterpower (great tape and a great label). About a year later there was the promise/threat of a remastered version. Well fuck me, it's finally here ... and with a bit of luck we might have more time to spend with Waterpower.

Magnificent triple CD set released on the consistently great L. White Records in 2012.

United States Bestial Forces

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