Bleak Bliss: March 2019

Karera Musication - Koroshiya Ichi Original Soundtrack

In 2001, I watched Audition. It blew my head clean off. The slow psychological crawl towards the inevitable horror left me breathless and scared shitless. As a child of the video nasties, I was certainly not immune ... but Audition? Unlike anything. This film opened my eyes to the world of Asian horror cinema and I've never looked back (other than in moments of paranoia thinking that I'd watched a cursed video tape a week earlier).

From that moment on, Takashi Miike became an endless fascination. Recently, he made his 100th film ... the excellent Blade Of The Immortal. In such a vast canon, not everything is great but then he will come out with such culture bending films as Audition, Visitor Q and The Happiness of the Katakuris ... and Ichi the Killer. It's psychotic sadomasochistic violence is astonishing and beautiful but how on earth do you soundtrack it? Well, lets give it to Hira, Kazuya Nishimura, Seiichi Yamamoto and Yoshimi of Boredoms. Yep, that'll do it!

CD released on Cinema Monsoon in 2001.

Koroshiya Ichi

Chu Ishikawa - Ductile (Shinya Tsukamoto's Film Music)

A collection of soundtrack work from some of Tsukamoto's films: there are three from the Tetsuo films plus work from Tokyo Fist, Bullet Ballet and Sôseiji (aka Gemini). For kicks, there are another three tracks from Tetsuo I and II that don't appear on the released soundtracks ... two new and a different version of Megatron.

CD released in Japan on Volcano in 2000.

Ductile

Chu Ishikawa - A Snake Of June (Original Soundtrack)

The plot of the film would make me sound like I'm into Jess Franco films and other such exploitative crap. If you know what that means then you have seen the film. It's dark, sadism at a distance is deeply unsettling with water (be it the rain or the shower) circumscribing the tension whilst being framed by beautiful blue/white cinematography. A fine addition to the canon of one of my favourite directors, Shinya Tsukamoto. As always, Chu Ishikawa nails the soundtrack. You may not be interested but so what?

A Snake Of June

Chu Ishikawa - Tetsuo Complete Box

Triple CD of Chu Ishikawa's industrial noise soundtracks for Shinya Tsukamoto's ground-breaking series of body horror classics.

Tetsuo Complete Box

OVMN - Visions Of Autoerotic Excess And Electromagnetic Life-Force Procedure

Optimum Volume Maximum Noise. It really does what it says on that particular tin. Joseph Roemer and Tim Oliveira ripping the arse end out of your ear spectrum whilst implicating Kazuhiro Matsuyama (aka Cracksteel), Alister Brentnall (aka Mlehst), Macronympha (aka Macronympha) and Rodger Stella (aka Rodger Stella).

It's a CD reissuing the Hard Driven Resonance tape on Mother Savage Noise Productions from 1996 (plus an additional couple of tracks) via Armed & Loaded Recordings two years later.

Electromagnetic Excess

Big Black - Talk About "Fucking"

... and yes, I bought it at the time. But why wouldn't you? Big Black chatting shit for half an hour to some (probably German) bloke who's first language isn't English who's reading out random questions. A fine piss-take that still entertains the shit out of me.

12" released on Blast First in 1987.

fucking talking

Big Black - Peel Session

It's the 5th of June 1987 and John Peel plays the well-signposted Big Black session. Obviously, I wet myself (sorry about that but it did warm my thighs for a minute or so). The song that really blew my mind was Newman Generator, I'd never heard it before and thought that it was pretty much the greatest thing I'd wrapped my ears around. My taped radio show was soon replaced by this really good bootleg. It took me ages to find out that Newman was Joseph Westley Newman who claimed to have created a revolutionary energy machine. In spite of his best fraudulent efforts, nobody believed him ... BECAUSE NOWADAYS WE HAVE SCIENCE AND EVIDENCE.

He was clearly a man ahead of his time, if he had shown this to Trump it would already have been in production. Apart from it being a great session, Newman Generator really makes me wonder. It wasn't on an official release and doesn't appear to have been played live much. It's this one track that makes me wonder if this was the next direction for Big Black if they hadn't have folded when they did. I'll never know.

Bootleg 7" on the entirely appropriate King Dick Records in 1988 or thereabouts.

Laws that are stupid and make no sense.

Big Black - Live In Heaven 1986

Superior soundboard recording from a gig at Paard Van Troje, Den Haag, Netherlands on the 25th of November 1986.

CD courtesy of Oblivion Records who did a fine run of bootlegs from this venue.

Live In Heaven 1986

Phlegm - Mr Hoo-Ha Visits The Non-Stop Pissing Circus

Wild debut album by a trio of young Australian weirdos whose parents call them Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim and Nik Kamvissis. If those names sound familiar, it's because all three went on to "respectable" "fame" and "fortune" as solo artists and with such bands as Menstruation Sisters, Nazorani, AFG and Splinter Orchestra with releases on Tzadik, Editions Mego, Room 40, Grob, Bo'Weavil and so on. But in the beginning, there was Phlegm. It's a good time. Released on CD by Dr. Jim's Records in 1994.

Phlegm - Mr Hoo-Ha Visits The Non-Stop Pissing Circus

Big Black - Death Wish

Although billed as "Recorded Live in Europe 1987" (which at least for now is technically true) it's part of the farewell UK tour. After the release of Songs About Fucking they announced three final gigs at Bradford, Manchester and London. This is the middle one at the Boardwalk on Little Peter Street (just round the corner from the Hacienda) on the 25th of July 1987. Without doubt the most over-crowded and sweatiest gig I've ever been at (or was that Bongwater at The Duchess Of York in Leeds ... nah, it was this one).

Bootleg CD courtesy of Big Music in 1993.

Death Wish

Big Black - (Sound Of Impact.)

When I was a much younger badgerstump, my weekly ritual was to trawl down to Piccadilly Records (when it was in the grandiosely titled Piccadilly Plaza). Once you got past the toxic fog created by the revving bus engines, paradise awaited. Row upon row of the latest Homestead, Dischord, Touch And Go, SST, Taang, Shimmy Disc and more. This was at the time when the American underground labels finally got themselves European distribution deals and rabid scrotums like me didn't have to rely on crushingly expensive imports ... or worse ... not being able to hear the things you were reading about at all.

So, it's 1987. I'm reading the vastly superior Sounds music paper. Songs About Fucking is about to be released and Mr Albini is announcing their break-up "before they start sucking dick" and neglecting to mention that Santiago Durango going back to law school had something to with it (he ended up representing Cynthia Plastercaster and helping her to retrieve her bronze casts of rock star's penises ... and if that isn't Big Black through and through then I don't know what is).

So. I'm straight off to town to get me a copy of said Fucking ... and up on the wall behind the counter is (Sound Of Impact.). What the fuck is that I inquire of my mentor (never asked his name but he was an impeccable barometer ... Sex Mad by Nomeansno ... an approving nod for a fine choice ... Steel Construction by The Leather Nun? You've let me down and your family down, do better next time ... and let's face it he was right). This had never been in stock before and I wasn't going to risk not seeing it again. So I went home with this beast instead and returned for Songs the week after.

The title comes from the back sleeve that has 12 transcripts of flight box recordings where the airliners inevitably end with (Sound Of Impact.). Let's face it, if you are into Big Black then you at least have a rip of this already. Who knows, maybe you are the only one here that doesn't know it. This finishes off with a track called Bumbandit (great name for a track) but it's actually Rema Rema. How was I supposed to know?

Anyway, first edition, number 0648. You'll never see it for sale in my lifetime.

"Semi-official bootleg" LP on Not (the bootlegging arm of Blast First) in 1987. Discogs has this as a 1986 release, it isn't. It's 1987. How on earth do they get away with such subjective chronology?

Oh Manchester, so much to answer for ...

Emil Beaulieau - Plan A: Destruction of Output

Beaulieau destroys Tochnit Aleph records! Released as a 7" single by Tochnit Aleph, which seems appropriate.

Emil Beaulieau - Plan A: Destruction of Output

Emil Beaulieau - That Velvet Touch

Classic 7" single from The Greatest Living Noise Artist (or so he's claimed), Emil Beaulieau, aka RRRecords' own Ron Lessard destroying other people's records on his multi-armed turntable.

Emil Beaulieau - That Velvet Touch

Onnyk, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Ken'ich Takeda - To Whom It May Concern - Dedicated To Kunio Nakamura (1944-1992)

Two 1985 quartets of sax legend Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy, guitarist Onnyk (known for his work with Fifth Column, the cassette label and loose grouping of improvising noise artists that included Geso, Hide from Ultra-Bide, Jojo Hiroshige from Hijokaidan and more), and percussionist Ken'ich Takeda, followed by a Parker/Onnyk duo set from 1982. Recorded live to cassette by Onnyk and released as a CD in 1994, dedicated to the man who ran the Jazz & Now label and was a well-known critic and producer.

Onnyk, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Ken'ich Takeda - To Whom It May Concern - Dedicated To Kunio Nakamura (1944-1992)

Big Black - Rema Rema

I'm not going to pretend. Until I bought this in the early 90's (my memory can't do better than that) I'd never heard of Rema-Rema and it took me a while to find out ... don't forget peeps, it was nearly 30 years ago. This was originally a single-sided give away courtesy of Forced Exposure but the boot gives it a B Side.

And with most things in life, if it's good enough for Steve Albini then it's good enough for me!

Oh, and just to confirm my ignorance at the time. I bought the still astonishing "It'll End In Tears" by This Mortal Coil when it was released and still didn't realise ...

... because I don't have a wife to beat, I have Big Black

Rema-Rema - Wheel In The Roses

Finally (for now?) this is a really good rip of the original 12".

4AD have also just released the Fond Reflections compilation that you really need ... the double CD version even has an extended version of Wheel as a huge bonus.

Speaking of bonuses ... here's Rema-Rema Live at Acklam Hall in London in April, 1979 and somewhere else in London in the same year.

Wheel In The Roses

Rema-Rema - International Scale / Short Stories

More "where did that come from?" archive on this 7" courtesy of Inflammable Material in 2014.

International Scale / Short Stories

Rema-Rema - Entry / Exit

This comes from the session on the 13th of November 1979 that gave birth to Side A of Wheel In The Roses ... that didn't appear for 37 years? Really? Why the hell did it take that long ... ?

There is also a great 24-bit flac rip over on Needle Time if you haven't grabbed it already.

12" released on Inflammable Material in 2015.

Entry / Exit

Rema-Rema - What You Could Not Visualise

I was a massive fan of Renegade Soundwave before I knew about Rema-Rema so imagine my cherubic smiling face when out of seemingly nowhere this 12" turned up (no, I'm serious ... imagine it ... see feels better now doesn't it). A Renegade Soundmachine (Gary Asquith with Renault Schubert) remix of the eponymous track (the B side is the instrumental and I'm always a bit ho hum about such things). Anyway, it's feckin' great.

12" released on Le Coq Musique in 2015.

What You Could Not Visualise

Rema-Rema - Wheel In The Roses

Rema-Rema are without doubt (in my eyes) the greatest short-lived outfit the world has ever seen. They consisted of Gary Asquith on guitar and vocals, Marco Pirroni on guitar, Mick Allen on bass and vocals, Mark Cox on keyboards and Dorothy Max Prior on drums. This is the only official release in their lifetime and what a brilliant thing it is. A half studio / half live 12" originally released on 4AD in 1980. Just as revolutionary greatness beckoned, they split up.

Marco joined Adam And The Ants (of all bands), Gary, Mick and Mark formed the short-lived Mass with Danny Briottet before Gary (and Danny) became two-thirds of Renegade Soundwave, while Mick and Mark became two-thirds of The Wolfgang Press. Dorothy formed El Trains (with Jay Strongman) and worked with Genesis P Orridge and recorded as a solo artist on Industrial Records before briefly joining Psychic TV on a full time basis and later joined The Monochrome Set.

This is the CD reissue on 4AD from 2003.

Wheel In The Roses

And...here's the best thing ever uploaded to Youtube: Dominique Vanheusden combining The Feedback Song and Rema-Rema with Sergei Parajanov's "Sayat Nova" (aka The Colour of Pomegranates) and Soul Train. And at the end, you even get a section where Mrs Inside busts some moves!

You literally can't just watch it once ...

Gert Wilden & Orchestra - Schulmädchen Report

If you are not familiar with the work of James Last then you are very lucky. If you are, then think of Gert as a very sleazy Mr Last who composed soundtracks for a very dodgy theme within a certain brand of cinema that portrays adult women as "sexually adventurous" barely-pubescent girls. If you are able to blank out it's reason for existing, the music itself is cult schwing cheese.

Another Crippled Dick Hot Wax! ‎from 1996.

Schulmädchen Report

Various - Shake Sauvage: French Soundtracks 1968-1973

In spite of the cover, in relative terms, this is quite sophisticated.

CD released on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in 2000.

Shake Sauvage

UK 403

I posted this briefly yesterday but then the issue appeared to have been resolved ... and now it's not again ...wtf?

It looks as though there is a server configuration issue with Zippy that is affecting UK viewers (well, as far as I can tell it is only us fine god-fearing folk). It's an issue with Zippy and nothing more sinister than that. The govt can't organise a piss-up in a brewery so no fears there then.

However ... cut and paste the URL on the 403 Forbidden page into this (just don't use London as the server) and you can carry on as normal until Zippy get the front of house sorted.

Various - Beretta 70

"Roaring Themes From Thrilling Italian Police Films 1971-80". The only name that means much to me is Goblin who (seemingly ubiquitously) provided soundtracks for Dario Argento's finest work.

CD released on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in 1998.

Beretta 70

Various - Beat At Cinecittà: Volume 1

And here's another sensual homage ...

CD released on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in 1996.

Volume 1

Various - Beat At Cinecittà: Volume 2

"A sensual homage to the most raunchy, erotic film music from the vaults of Italian 60s & 70s cinema." Apparently.

CD released on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in 1997.

Volume 2

Various - Beat At Cinecittà: Volume 3

This label is one of my guilty secrets, although to be honest I don't feel at all guilty about it ... and I've just told you, so it's not a secret either. Ah well! Anyway, they do a fine line in releases that compile glimpses of soundtracks from 60s and 70s European beat, underground and exploitation cinema with a fine balance of excellence and cheesy excellence.

CD released on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in 1999.

Volume 3

The Psycheground Group - Psychedelic And Underground Music

This is the same people as before, but sleazier ... and therefore better!

Originally released in 1971, this is the CD reissue on AMS and Vinyl Magic from 2009.

Psycheground

The Underground Set - The Underground Set

Mini-skirts and floaty hands at the ready boys and girls! These are the same people who were behind the more proggy Nuova Idea. They wanted to have a more psychedelic sound so changed there name for a couple of albums to avoid licensing complications. At their best, they actually pull of some great Hammond psych-a-gogo wah wah. At their lest than best, you've finally found a use for that spray cheese.

Originally released in 1970, this is the "unofficial" CD on Flawed Gems from 2012 that has the bonus of including a couple of the Radio Records 7"s from 1970.

The Underground Set

Continental Fruit - Gently Carved Into Sound

This gorgeous music represents seven years of work by the Norwegian artist Jon Øyvind Lærum, pieces recorded between 1995 and 2002. It was first released as a CDR on the brilliant Humbug label, then was available as a download from Twilight Luggage, though that seems to be out of commission now. Which is a shame, because it is absolutely lovely and warm nocturnal drone music.

Continental Fruit - Gently Carved Into Sound

Sandro Brugnolini - Overground

Again, this is all about the drums of Enzo Restuccia. It's a psychedelic Gerry Anderson loungecore classic.

Originally released in 1970, this is the AMS CD reissue from 2009 that has a couple of extra tracks.

Overground

Nzetwork Down ‎– 1/1996/1997

1/1996/1997 is the only release by Miki Naohiko/Nzetwork Down and the only release on the Hasikamke label that I'm aware of. There is scant information printed within the package and nothing online that I've found so far. I present this CD to you with exactly as much background as I had when I first bought it. Total unknown, ultra-obscure Japanese weirdness.

Nzetwork Down ‎– 1/1996/1997

The Feed-Back - The Feed-Back

And then ... you get this?

To cut a long story short, this is still Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza ... but Holy Shit!?

They turn into an absolute monster of an avant-psych funk machine. There is so much to love here. You all know Ennio Morricone from his soundtrack work, but the way he rips the arse out of his trumpet? I'd never before considered that a trumpet could be violated in such a way. But, the drums of Vincenzo Restuccia? Oh my word! Recorded up front and central and if you haven't heard this before (and you are not dead inside) then he will push all of your buttons.

Given the time of it's recording, socially, politically and culturally, you can place this into a broader context but this could only ever be Italian.

Originally released on vinyl in 1970, this is the remastered CD version courtesy of Schema from 2014.

The Feed-Back

Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Musica Su Schemi

This one has a completely different feel to the previous Gruppo posts ... positively subterranean. Avant-garde cave diving!

LP released on Cramps Records in 1976.

Musica Su Schemi

Gruppo d'Improvvisazione - Nuova Consonanza

Quite beautiful ... nothing else to say.

Originally released on vinyl on Cinevox in 1975, this is the CD reissue on Bella Casa from 2007.

Nuova Consonanza

Frog - 2

As you've no doubt guessed, this is the 2nd Frog album by Christian Renou. Released on LP in 2013 by Rotorelief.

Frog - 2

Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza

Make a concrète jazz noise here.

LP released on General Music in 1973.

Nuova Consonanza

Frog - Untitled

First of two albums from Christian Renou, better known as Brume, released under the Frog alias. This one came out in 2010 as a CD in a run of just under 150 copies on the excellent Russian label Waystyx, which was known for their elaborate and well-designed packaging.

Frog - Untitled

Gruppe Nuova Consonanza - Improvisationen

Metal smacking free jazz concrète noise musique.

LP released on Deutsche Grammophon in 1969 and I don't think that it has been reissued since.

Improvisationen

Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Gruppo di Improvvisazione "Nuova Consonanza"

Formed by Italian composer Franco Evangelisti in 1964, Il Gruppo were an avant-garde free-improv group considered the first experimental composers collective and dedicated to the development of new music by improvisation, electronic noise and anti-musical systems whilst dismantling classical music structure.

This is the first outing, originally released on vinyl on RCA Italiana in 1966 and not reissued until 50 years later.

''Nuova Consonanza''

Jack Smith - Les Evening Gowns Damnees - 56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964, Volume I

... so, obviously, this one is next. Jack Smith, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise and John Cale are amongst the cast creating home-recorded art experiments.

CD jointly released on Table Of The Elements and Audio ArtKive in 1997.

56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964 Volume I

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