Bleak Bliss: April 2019

Asmus Tietchens - Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus.

The party is over. Tietchens assembled this collage of voices and sounds recorded between 1962 and 1972. The album is part musique concrete, part scrap-book photo album. Released in 1993 by Barooni as a CD in a striking opaque black jewel case with the title etched onto the front.

Asmus Tietchens - Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus.

Pacific 231 + Lieutenant Caramel - Aunt Sally

All of Phillipe's tropes are present but the collaboration with Pierre Jolivet sends it into a completely different and harder edged world. Fascinates me. Sorry for the use of "trope" ... I'll have a word with meself.

CD released on Alone At Last in 2013.

Aunt Sally

Asmus Tietchens - Seuchengebiete 2

Another album from 1991, this one released as a CD on Syrenia, a short-lived sub-division of the Italian label Maxima Musica Magnetica.

Asmus Tietchens - Seuchengebiete 2

Lt. Caramel & Victor Nubla - Dos Hombres Verdes

Now that City are back where they belong ... have a browse through Victor Nubla's very generous BC page.

CD released on Waystyx in 2010.

Dos Hombres Verdes

Lieutenant Caramel - Et Sonner Les Coucous

I am, by no means, the barometer of what is normal or acceptable (or bearable) but if you really don't get the French Lieutenant (yeah, sorry about that) then this complete work of art hovers just close enough for you to be able to touch it. This is the party you would be at if you followed the fairies in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth all of the way home.

All courtesy of Sounds For Consciousness Rape in 1992.

Et Sonner Les Coucous

Lieutenant Caramel - The Pandora's Box

Warped fluxan genius.

CD released on Old Europa Cafe in 2000.

The Pandora's Box

Asmus Tietchens - Sinkende Schwimmer

It's hard to choose a favorite Asmus Tietchens album. So many of them are so very very good. But this 1991 album, released on CD by Barooni and never reissued (at least, not yet) is easily in the top three. Mysterious, powerful music by one of the underground's master composers.

Asmus Tietchens - Sinkende Schwimmer

va - Blunt Music

One side has noise and punk by Billboard Combat (aka Andrew Smith/Eunuchs of Industry), Process, Out Cold and Amaranthus. The other is the side to hear: Rock 'n'Roll with Emil Beaulieau! Released on Stomach Ache, a sort-of joke label co-run by a bunch of people who all pretended to be a guy in Mexico called Charlie Ward.

va - Blunt Music

Same bus, different driver?

Empty seats? Just saying.

Lt Caramel - J'ai 10 Doigts

I used to frequently think "what the fuck is going on?". Then Lieutenant Caramel found me and I realised that there's no point worrying about it. Now, I couldn't give a shiny shit.

CD released on Sounds For Consciousness Rape in 1996.

J'ai 10 Doigts

va - Woman Taken In Adultery

A terrific compilation with a dumb title and cheapo package, but don't let that deter you. Avant-rock noise and drones by some top-notch artists: Flies Inside the Sun and Lovely Midget from New Zealand, Noxagt from Norway, Loren Connors from the US, Random Reflections from Belgium, and Metatrella about whom I know nothing. A co-release by Carbon Records and Glasvocht from 2002.

va - Woman Taken In Adultery

Lt Caramel - La Méthode Du Discours

It's been a while since I took a stroll in the world of Philippe Blanchard. Don't know why I was wasting my time elsewhere. This would have made Sten Hanson smile in admiration.

3" CDr released on the entertainingly named Éditions Suicide Commercial in 1995.

La Méthode Du Discours

va - A Blind Man's Gallery of Mirrors (Freedom in a Vacuum Music Gallery Recordings Vol. 1)

There's some gold on this 1996 compilation from Freedom In a Vacuum, but there's also some forgettable "industrial" bullshit. The gold makes it worthwhile, though. Tracks by Sigillum S, Edward Ka-Spel, IAM Umbrella (who were so under-rated), Randy Grief, Violence and the Sacred, Plecid (who I'd like to hear more by someday), Illusion of Safety, Distraction Factory... and also Dive (yuck), Parade (ooof) and Mind Skelp-chur (gag!) which is one of the most bone-headed band names ever.

va - A Blind Man's Gallery of Mirrors (Freedom in a Vacuum Music Gallery Recordings Vol. 1)

Various - Gears=Sexone

Other than Doc Wör Mirran (one of them did all of the art for the series btw), Die Rache and Kopfschmerztablette, few (if any) seem to trouble the human consciousness any more. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

C60 released on Empty Records in 1988.

Sexone

Various - Gears=Sextwo

The highlight is Merzbow de/re-constructing The Mothers Of Invention's "Trouble Every Day". No point saying anything else, you're already downloading it.

C60 released on Empty Records in 1988.

Sextwo

Various - Gears=Sexthree

Die Rache, Minoy, Big City Orchestra, Esruk, Daniel Johnston, De Fabriek and so on ...

C60 released on Empty Records in 1988.

Sexthree

Various - Gears=Sexfour

Siegmar Fricke, Solanaceae Tau, M.Nomized, Harald Sack Ziegler, Die Rache, The Grey Wolves and so forth ...

C60 released on Empty Records in 1988.

Sexfour

Various - Gears=Sexfive

The (undeniably great) Haters, Doc Wör Mirran, Solanaceae Tau, Bestattungsinstitute, Nostalgie Eternelle and some other people.

C56 released on Empty Records in 1990.

Sexfive

va - Optional Ingredients From a Vile Recipe

1994 7" comp on Trackshun Industries with short tracks by Noggin, Pork Queen, Good Horsey, Bugskull, Paste and Roughage.

va - Optional Ingredients From a Vile Recipe

Various - Gears=Sexsix

M.Nomized, Solanaceae Tau, Die Rache, Chris Phinney's Mental Anguish, John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors Of America, Brent Lewis Ensemble, Siegmar Fricke's Bestattungsinstitute and the unknown Atrocity Exhibit.

C62 released on Empty Records in 1990.

Sexsix

va - Nature is Perverse

Sonic documentation of the three-day "Nature Is Perverse" festival, which took place in Stockholm in 1998, released by Fylkingen as a double CD in 2000. The set includes music by Dror Fieler, Kapotte Muziek, Voice Crack, Zbigniew Karkowski, Small Cruel Party, Mikael Stavostrand, Farmers Manual, Kent Tankred, Leif Elggren, Goem, Mats Lindstrom, Tetsuo Furudate, Soren Runolf, Thomas Liljenberg and Freundschaft.

disc 1
disc 2

Various - Gears=Sexseven

Big City Orchestra, Minoy, Kopfschmerztablette, Kapotte Muziek, De Fabriek et cetera et cetera.

C66 released on Empty Records in 1990.

Sexseven

Illusion of Safety - More Violence and Geography

One of IoS' early albums, first reissued on LP in 1988, then reissued as a cassette in the mid-90s and finally remastered and expanded in 2002 for this definitive edition on the German label Die Stadt.

Illusion of Safety - More Violence and Geography

Various - Gears=Sexeight

Ah, those historical halcyon days where artists had their postal addresses on their releases so you could write a letter (look it up kids) and wait for a month and more to see whether they actually gave a shit or not and Germany was so good that they named it twice: East and West (look it up kids).

Feast your sex=ears on Illusion Of Safety, Kopfschmerztablette, Minoy, Der Pliz, De Fabriek, Doc Wör Mirran, K.O.P. and more ...

C60 released on Empty Records in 1990.

Sexeight

Illusion of Safety - Fifteen & Finite Material Context

Two 1990 cassettes, reissued on a single CD in 1993. "Finite Material Context" does not appear in its entirety, sadly.

Illusion of Safety - Fifteen & Finite Material Context

Various - En/Of 001-030

En/Of were a sub-label of the excellent Bottrop-Boy that pushed out mostly (?) vinyl in editions of 100. The catalogue of people who were released on the label is astonishing. This is a triple CD set documenting artists from the first thirty of their releases and was released as part of a museum exhibition catalogue. Aspiration never undersold!

En

Of

Various - Money Will Ruin Everything

Sundays were made for things like this. Just listen. Have an even better day.

A double CD released on Rune Grammofon in 2003.

Money

Ruin

Various - Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition

If money ruins everything, please can I be a bit more ruined? All donations gratefully received.

This is a great compilation featuring some of Norway's finest people.

No churches were harmed in the creation of this release.

Unfortunately.

Double CD compilation released on Rune Grammofon in 2008.

Money

Everything

Various - Fjord Focus: A Norwegian Sampler

I usually wouldn't bother posting such things (especially given the dreadful pun) but it is rather good. People you already know and people you will know soon.

CD given away with issue 224 of The Wire in 2002.

Fjord Focus

Illusion of Safety - Inside Agitator

This 1992 CD by a five-man Illusion of Safety (Dan Burke plus Chris Block & Thymme Jones of Cheer-Accident, Mitch Enderle/Dead Tech and Mark Klein) is rather more industrial (in the sense of heavy electronic beats and samples) than the other titles I've posted. Released by Complacency, which I think was Burke's own label.

Illusion of Safety - Inside Agitator

Various - Until Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown

Supersilent, Deathprod, Alog, Spunk, Jazzkammer, Maja Ratkje, Arne Nordheim and a host of compatriots delivering a stellar compilation.

A five 10" box-set to celebrate Rune Grammofon's 250th release in 2006.

Until Human Voices

Wake Us And We Drown

Illusion of Safety - Rules of the Game

Dan Burke on his own for a 3"CD from 1994, released by the German label eM/Some Fine Legacy. The cover showcases Burke's awesome collage art.

Illusion of Safety - Rules of the Game

Spunk - Das Wohltemperierte Spunk

"At one minute past eight in the evening of the twentieth of January, 2001, the Norwegian quartet SPUNK began playing a drone in the key of B, inaugurating a project that would weave into their musical lives for the foreseeable future. Eleven years, eleven months and eleven minutes later, the same foursome struck up a G, embarking on the final leg of a journey that had taken them through the twelve notes of the equal tempered scale – one tone per year. The twelve concerts took place at a variety of unusual locations around Oslo, including the immense, almost pitch-black interior of the Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum, with its twenty-second reverberation time; the Nobel Institute; a cabin on a remote island in the Oslo fjord; in a tent on top of the slanting roof of the newly built Opera House; the Physics Department of Oslo University; a vibrant high street shopping mall called Oslo City; and a private domestic living room."

Supreme dedication to a wonderful idea courtesy of Hild Sofie Tafjord, Kristin Andersen, Lene Grenager and Maja S. K. Ratkje.

Six CD set released on Rune Grammofon in 2013 in a miserly edition of 500.

Spunk

Spunk

Illusion of Safety - Probe

Another harrowing Burke/O'Rourke production, this one was a CD released by Staalplaat in 1992. It came in one of those packages that must have seemed like a great idea but actually it just thrashed the CD is meant to cover. A balsa wood box with a coin stuck in the center and a slit where the disc and liner notes would slip inside. It's not possible to remove the disc without scratching it all to hell. Looks nice on a shelf, though, and of course it's a hell of an album.

Illusion of Safety - Probe

Biota / Mnemonists - Musique Actuelle 1990

"On 11 November 1990, Biota-Mnemonists performed a commissioned work in four movements live at Montréal Musiques Actuelles - New Music America. This was the first Mnemonists project since Gyromancy (1983). The performance integrated large-screen video imagery with the music. This recording represents the complete composition as commissioned. It was compiled from the live performance and the dry run immediately prior to the concert. All sounds were generated and processed from acoustical sources, with the exception of electric guitars and bass. No prerecorded samples/tapes, electronic synthesizers, nor sequencers were employed during the performance. Consistent with the intent to bring the studio process to a live setting, this recording was mixed by the group from stage."

CD released on Anomalous Records in 2004.

Musique Actuelle 1990

Illusion of Safety - Water Seeks Its Own Level

Talk about an under-rated band! When I first met the husband, we bonded over a shared love of this album. In fact, we once listened to it at top volume, start to finish, in a dark room and it was TERRIFYING. You can keep your Cold Meat Industries haunted house bullshit... "Water Seeks Its Own Level" is the most frightening album I know. IoS is, as you all know, the project of Chicago's own Dan Burke with a rotating assortment of collaborators that have included members of Cheer-Accident, Dead Tech, and Brise-Glase. This 1994 album was composed by a duo of Burke and an up-and-coming youngster called Jim O'Rourke, who went on to make a couple of other records. Released as a CD by Silent.

Illusion of Safety - Water Seeks Its Own Level

Biota - Cape Flyaway

More wonderful "I don't know and they won't tell me" obscurantism.

CD courtesy of ReR Megacorp in 2012.

Cape Flyaway

Dowser - Telecoma

Dowser are a very strange and intriguing band, but they're difficult to describe. Depending on which album you hear, they could be a noise band, an avant-rock band, an ambient synth band, or something else. The group is Hiroyuki Nagashima and Masateru Terai with graphic designer Takashi Miyagawa. "Telecoma" (which features Seiichi Yamamoto and Yoshimi of Boredoms on a few tracks) was the album of theirs that got the widest release. It came out in 1997 on quasi-major label Creativeman at around the same time that that label put out CDs by Pain Jerk and CCCC. Perhaps the experience wasn't a great one for Dowser, because after this, the group went silent for a number of years. Their next album didn't appear until 2001, on Overhang Party's Pataphysique label. After that, Hair Stylistics' Boid did an album for them. Recently, after a couple of self-released CDRs, they've taken to Bandcamp with a flood of 20 albums! I'm steadily listening to as many of these as I'm able to.

Dowser - Telecoma

Merzbow & Xerosx - Aerovivanda #1

Recorded in November 1983, released as a tape in 1984 by both Merzbow's ZSF label and a Dutch label called Red Rat. Xerosx was Yuzuru Syogase, aka Tattoo Junk. Discogs says that they recorded four collaborative albums together, but I only have this one.

Merzbow & Xerosx - Aerovivanda #1

Biota - Almost Never

Introductory words. Words intended to imply knowledge and insight.

Informative words.

...don't come easy to me...

Biota - Tumble

If Louisiana was in the desert and you wandered into a random town where everybody dressed the same and nobody looked at you ... this would pass as traditional music. Until you realised that it was all played by a twelve-armed David Lynch with a giant eyeball as a head (wearing a top hat at a jaunty angle obviously!).

CD released on ReR Megacorp in 1989. It's in flac, get over it.

Tumble

Biota - Awry

This is one of the things that would have happened if William Seward Burroughs II applied his literary style to music just as he was peaking and dismissing Paul Simon in person.

10" released on Bad Alchemy in 1988.

You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative

Biota - Bellowing Room / Tinct

How to mess with a broken mind.

Sweet Baby Jesus. Hold on tight but let your family and friends know that you might not be coming back.

These were an LP and 12" released Recommended Records in 1987 and 1988 respectively. This is the CD that brings the two together courtesy of ReR Megacorp in 1990.

Bellowing Tinct

Merzbow Null - Das

Live trios from 1984, Merzbow + Null + a different third member on each side. Released as a tape by both Masami's ZSF label and Null's Nux Organization label.

Merzbow Null - Das

Biota - Rackabones

The sound that your mind makes when you are asleep.

Double LP released on their own Dys label in 1985.

Rackabones

Merzbow, Null, Produktion - Untitled

A very early performance by Merzbow, Null, and Australian industrial band Produktion from two Tokyo concerts in 1984, released as a tape by Produktion's eponymous label in 1988. At this time, Merzbow & Null were prolific collaborators, but their sound was more free-rock clank than the primal scree they'd become known for in later years. Great stuff.

Merzbow, Null, Produktion - Untitled

Merzbow - Flare Gun

Stellar slab of prime Merzgunk from 1994, released as an LP by the short-lived Ten Bob Swerver label.

Merzbow - Flare Gun

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