Bleak Bliss: October 2020

Randy Greif & Illusion Of Safety - In Our Little Bodies

The perfect accompaniment to the wait for the nuclear spring ...

CD released on Old Europa Cafe in 1994.

Little Bodies

Taint - Misogynist Lust

... and on a serious note ... let's face it, once Il Douce Bag has a lot more time on his hands, things are gonna get pretty messy back at home once he can start "practising his family values" again. He's gonna waste no time at all launching his LOGIC missile straight into the familial FACT hole. Just about as scary as Halloween gets!

This is the different CD version released on Freak Animal Records in 2004.

i want to get away from the pain that you drive into the arse of me

Oh, c'mon ... it's not like he doesn't have a history of violating cherished women!

Taint - Misogynist Lust

On a more serious note, we lost Keith Brewer late last year. I didn't want to mark it at the time but maybe he'd think that it's an appropriate time to raise a beer!

A C48 courtesy of Taint Entertainment that came in an edition of twenty eight in one nine nine eight.

fuck cancer

Static Effect - Axis Of Rotation

Y'know, I really wanted to distract from the palpable mental breakdown of our resident straightjacket escapee. And at the last minute, I realised that the title includes the word "Axis" ... so the extraneous noise will be him whipping his egg whites into a soft peak.

C60 released on Swinging Axe Productions in 1990.

showin' how funky and strong is your fight

OFF! - Learn To Obey

This is a very enjoyable outfit headed up by the former Black Flag / Circle Jerks front man. It's good to remember that the fire doesn't need to die out.

A 7" courtesy of Vice Records for Record Stores Day in 2014.

first they came for the socialists ... and Nexist did not speak out ... he just waited his turn like a good boy

OVMN - The Hateful Bloated Lies Of Donald Trump

There's not long left ...

Little did Joseph Roemer know when he started this Macronympha offshoot that Optimum Volume Maximum Noise would become a tactic that would steal democracy. Certainly not what he had in mind. Anyway, redemption is at hand, the taxman cometh and reality will bite down hard.

The first side is Joe on his own and the other is Joe alongside Leo Sabatto of Armenia and Bizarre Audio Arts fame.

C64 released on Mother Savage Noise Productions in 2019.

Old pirates, yes, they rob I

Static Effect - Siamese Twin Reflex

Ethnographic excerpts contorted into a melange of vaguely hallucinogenic memories.

A C90 courtesy of Swinging Axe Productions in 1990.

the reflex is a lonely child

PTA's - Tiger

The group's final document, a 7" released in 1986. This is better than the 10", trying for an anthem rather than a pop ballad. Twin vocals on the title track bring to mind the Au-Pairs, while the mersh b-side has some Tina Weymouth funk moves going on.

PTA's - Tiger

PTA's - Young Vernacular

The group's 1984 10" is a much more polished affair, clearly modulating their sound for new wave pop stardom that never arrived. Not as singular as the 7" posted earlier, but there's still has an aspirations-exceeding-ability charm to this record.

PTA's - Young Vernacular

Static Effect - Certain Random Firings

Colour your own pictures ... just remember to stray outside the lines.

And as an example of serendipity in action ... you definitely need this!

LP released on Swinging Axe Productions in 1990.

Certain Random Effects

PTA's - New Songs

1981 7" of scratchy and angular, minimalist post-punk by a band whose time to get rediscovered is now. PTA's were a Japanese answer to Delta 5, Kleenex or Raincoats. Simple songs, played with efficient amateurish vigor

PTA's - New Songs

Caroliner - Living Proof Of The 1800's

Remember those times when chaos was fun because it was created by intelligent people? Well, it's not too late to reclaim the frazzled synapses and vote Trump and his inbred parasitic unutterables out of office ... hhhmmm, I might need to work on that ... not sure it will pass muster in Florida ...

Anyway, Caroliner floated across to Japan and played to entusiatic incredulity and then those lovely Japanese insurrectionists released it as a VHS on Augen just as video tapes were becoming obselete.

Exactly as it should be.

reclaim the chaos

Static Effect - Dead Game In Any Weather

So carve your non-capitalist pumpkins to this and play it to your neighbours via their drainpipes. It's the sound of the monsters hiding under AFX's bed when he was a kid. Well not really ... it's Mikhail Bohonus and Randy Greif but it's still witchcraft I tell ye!

"These recordings were performed spontaneously and were unrehearsed. There are no song titles."

C94 released on Randy's Swinging Axe Productions in 1989.

by all weather necessary

Monostadt 3 - Experiment 7.3

Recorded live at Churchill's on "January 32nd, 1943". Huh? Released as a CD by Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers in 1998.

Monostadt 3 - Experiment 7.3

Monostadt 3 - Beyond the Rim

First album by Adris Hoyos (of Harry Pussy) with Priya Ray and Robert Price (of Kreamy 'Lectric Santa), all from Miami, Florida. Released as a tape by Union Pole in 1996.

Monostadt 3 - Beyond the Rim

Moon☥Mama - 幸せの可視

Again this is Higashi Mineko (aka Pika). It's a lovely and random thing that always makes me smile.

I was asked to post this. Yeah, not a problem. So I searched to see if it was available for sale ... and here it is. So the rip I was going to post wasn't mine but is the same as the list on discogs. The Riot Season I've pointed you towards has another almost hour of live material and it is really really good. I bought the physical copy last night that gives me the immediate download. So ... I didn't know about it and I've been on the Riot Season mailing list for years and buy from him regularly (mostly vinly preorders because ... yknow). I am even the proud owner of a Riot Season T-Shirt (hard to explain ... WWI soldier in a gas mask riding a bike with speakers hanging off the handlebars ... something like that). You know, sometimes I wonder if I didn't digress would I actually have anything to say. Luckily I quickly realise that I was never arsed in the first place and rapidly lose interest.

Anyway, I digress. The Riot Season release is down to single figures. There is no digital option and there won't be. I also won't be posting it ... ever ... if it matters to you then buy it now because when it is gone it's gone.

Oh yeah ... this is a CD released on Moonlight Records in 2007.

give the drummer some

va - Wanna Buy A Bridge? (A Rough Trade Compilation of Singles)

Another absolute classic compilation, this 1981 LP of Rough Trade post-punk singles needs to be in everyone's collection if it isn't there already. Spizz Energi, Stiff Little Fingers, Kleenex, Slits, Robert Wyatt, Delta 5, TV Personalities, Scritti Politti, Cabaret Voltaire, Young Marble Giants, Raincoats, Essential Logic, Swell Maps.

va - Wanna Buy A Bridge? (A Rough Trade Compilation of Singles)

Gender Sabotage - Mr. Trump As Filth Pig

So you know the off-shore concentration camp where people were kept illegally and tortured with "Enter Sandman" on a 24/7 basis to destroy their will?

Irresective of that, I have to admit that anything played by that vanity shitbox should be illegal anyway ... but, finally, here's the payback!

The world doesn't have too long left and we can't rely on nearly more than half of the people in a couple of places in (frankly) the middle of nowhere who can be arsed to vote in the first place determine all of our futures. Apparently it's a mature and sophisticated democracy ... etc etc ... but c'mon WTF, enough is enough!

So here's the plan ... if you are in the proximity of the White House or Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson or anybody who thinks that a global pandemic is a conspiracy ... then play this into their faces at maximum volume. Constantly. Then do it again. Soon everything will become slightly less shit than it is now and we can search thesauruses for heart-warming equivalents for "aspiration" and "hope". Then we can settle back and accept that there is no hope and aspiration is a capitalist illusion.

Of course, this is the work of Richard Ramirez. He is clearly well ahead of the work of the FBI and published the live action photos quite some time ago. This is an eight CDr boxset that he released on his own Room 2A label in 2014 and it came in an edition of 10. Richard still has one for sale and I asked him and he said I could post mine. That's because he is "just" a really nice human being.

Anyway ...

and the psychopath cried “pee pee pee!”

all the way to jail

Pika × 勝井祐二 × 大友良英 - Sun・Ra・New

Higashi Mineko, Yuji Katsui and Otomo Yoshihide. Yeah, three legends. No introduction needed and all of that. Utterly magnificent and describing it further is live action oxymoronism. You'll hear what I mean.

CD released on Telegraph Records in 2016.

Sun・Ra・New

va - Noise Kills Punk Dead

Strange compilation CD of short stupid noise scum tracks by unknown nobodies like Fallopian Tube Steaks w/ Beer, Urban Jungle Series, Dienstag, All Mouth No Trousers... and a few somebodies: MSBR, Government Alpha, The Brutum Fulmen, ST-37, Antimatter, Evolution Control Committee, Magmax. Released by a short-lived label called Opulence! in 1999.

va - Noise Kills Punk Dead

va - Garbage Sandwich

Absolute classic 1992 double cassette compilation from Beast 666 Tapes (later 777 Was 666) with cover art by Trevor Brown and tracks by Masonna, Incapacitants, Hijokaidan, Jojo Hiroshige, Masomania (that's Masonna + Solmania if you're too dim to have worked that out on your own), Grey Wolves, Smog (yes, Bill Callahan!), Con-Dom, Smegma, John Murphy, Schloss Tegal and lots of Yamatsuka Eye one-offs with funny names.

va - Garbage Sandwich

Joe Jones - Xylophone

Recording from 1976, released as a CD by ? Records in 2003.

Joe Jones - Xylophone

Oni - Sunwave Heart

This is a wonderful release from Takemasa Mayūmi. I almost don't want to post it because it feels like a private conversation that I am letting you listen to. Imagine Kristin Hersh's finest moments ... yes it really is that good and maybe better.

There is a CDr from a couple of years earlier that I want to hear before I die but ah well, never mind.

CD released on ハヤシライスレコード in 2010.

Sunwave Heart

Pikacyu★Makoto - Live In San Francisco

A match that makes complete sense ...

A self-released CDr from 2011 that briefly decorated a few mersh tables.

Live In San Francisco

Joe Jones - Solar Music

Recording from 1983 by the Fluxus giant Joe Jones, released as a CD by ? Records in 2000 and long OOP.

Joe Jones - Solar Music

Acid Mothers Afrirampo - We Are Acid Mothers Afrirampo

The core Mothers of Kawabata Makoto, Higashi Hiroshi and Tsuyama Atsushi alongside Higashi Mineko and Takemasa Mayūmi. It seems rude not to ...

An interstellar CD released on Acid Mothers Temple in 2005.

Acid Mothers Afrirampo

The Azusa Plane - America Is Dreaming Of Universal String Theory

This is the Azusa Plane album that gets the most play around here. It's a double CD of bleak, minimal guitar feedback and wavering tones. Not a lot happens, but it takes a long time to (not) do it. Released by Colorful Clouds for Acoustics in 1998. Fans of Xpressway non-fidelity not-rock, take notice!

The Azusa Plane - America Is Dreaming Of Universal String Theory

The Azusa Plane - Result Dies With The Worker

Azusa's live album is brutish & energetic rock-like noise, recorded on stage in Philadelphia, Washington DC, London, Baltimore, and Providence. Released as a CD by Colorful Clouds for Acoustics in 1999.

The Azusa Plane - Result Dies With The Worker

Asshole Blues Players - Teenage Power Mother Fucker Kick It !!!

Speaking of the f word ... overdriven fuzzed up garage rockers who occasionally get too melodic but largely stay on the right side of indecency.

CD EP released on タナカ•ヒロシ in 1998.

Kick Out The Marmalade Melon Farmers

Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko

I was planning a series of posts in a completely different direction ... and whilst doing so I was listening to this again (for the first time in quite a while) and I'd semi-forgotten how much fun this is.

Sorry for using the f word in these straitened times.

Double CD released on Supponpon Record and Disk Union in 2010.

It's not MP3. If that's an issue for you then let me know and I'll give you the email address of somebody who gives a shit.

No

Ko

The Azusa Plane - Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and the Full Consciousness of Hidden Harmony

The story of Jason DiEmilio is a tragedy. As The Azusa Plane, he recorded a handful of wonderful albums of guitar drone, noise and blistering free-rock. He also recorded several vinyl EPs and split singles with people like Lab Rat, Grimble Grumble, Ariel M, Fuxa, Loren MazzaCane Connors and more. His concerts were famously high-volume, as his live album "Result Dies With the Worker" makes plain. Then in 2000, he became stricken with hyperacusis, a condition that makes all sounds, even quiet ones, unbearably loud. The effect was that he was in excruciating agony that never abated. Through his years of visiting neurologists and other doctors who specialized in hearing, he learned that there was no known cause or cure for hyperacusis. In fact, most doctors couldn't find anything wrong with DiEmilio. He got rid of all of his gear, moved into a small apartment in New York by himself, and in 2006 at the age of 36, he committed suicide as a direct result of not be deal with the never-ending pain.

Luckily for us listeners, we can appreciate the excellent music he left behind. This is his first full CD album, released by Camera Obscura in 1997. For fans of Flying Saucer Attack, Charalambidies, RST, Sunroof!, Stars of the Lid, Roy Montgomery and stuff in the vein.

The Azusa Plane - Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and the Full Consciousness of Hidden Harmony

Off Mask 00 ‎– Sonic Cold Crazy Reaction / Extra Old Wave

I could have posted this a few days ago but I got a bit fascinated and have been listening to it on repeat in between bouts of tedious wage slavery. Anyway, this was originally an LP and a 12" released in 1986 and 1987 respectively. They were a truly astonishing collection of name your multiple sub-genres of punk imagination.

There are some releases after this that bear the same "band" name but share absolutely no relation to this ... more in the electro / tech club vein ... perfectly fine in it's way but it is not this!

A double CD reissue courtesy of Youth Inc. in 2013.

only joking ... masks on at all times

Foetus Under Glass - Spite Your Face

Another early single from 1981, more normal-ish and of-its-time than the singular magnificence he'd compose decades later (culminating with "Hide", easily his greatest album). But it's fun in a Gadgets sort of way. If he'd decided to make more music like this, Foetus would be merely an interesting footnote in post-punk history, rather than forging his own genre and making listeners follow him down dingy corridors of his own design.

Foetus Under Glass - Spite Your Face

You've Got Foetus On Your Breath - Wash It All Off

Debut 7" from 1981, certainly not as good as what Foetus would do in the decades after this, but it's a fun little tune (with irritating B-side) of historical interest.

You've Got Foetus On Your Breath - Wash It All Off

Evil Moisture - Gak

There are alledgedly 34 tracks on this chunk of vinyl. If this was my rip I would have sat there for months trying to split the tracks. Luckily for me, somebody else chose to drive themselves insane before settling on three chunks per side before screaming "Nurse, where's my medication?" just before he/she went full on Scanners.

Now wipe that tear from your eye ... he/she took one for the team. As it should be. So ... erm ... yeah.

I've been a lover of moist evil for ages but I'm currently obsessed and have been listening to very little else. The main driver for this is buying the physical edition of the nine disc collection of live what the fuck from yer man. Personnaly, I recommend you do the same because it is genuinely brilliant.

On a seperate note ... go to the comments in the recent post of the Supercharge tape. A lovely person has dropped a very time limited link to the fourth side of the Harbinger double LP version of the tape that is (as far as I am aware) exclusive to that release. Maybe we'll get the full vinyl version to post? But maybe not so act fast!

LP released on the suggestively named Quick Latin Handful in 1997.

Ack Ack Ack

Garage Monsters - Safari to Mumbooba!

Second and final release by this Foetus/The Pizz collaboration, released as a 10" in 1992.

Garage Monsters - Safari to Mumbooba!

Narita Munehiro - Ether: Solo Electric Guitar Works

If you know him then this is self-explanatory. If you don't, then fire-retardent helmets on and strap in.

CD released on the great aRCHIVE in 2006.

Gang Of One

Evil Moisture / Olympic Shit Man - Carnal Hostess Halitosis / Live Run In Storialpolis Greece

So ... it's a split (probably) but who knows who is on what track and where it is recorded and what was done to it after? Who cares?

CDr released on Dolor Del Estamago at some point in the past.

beware of Greeks bearing hostesses

Garage Monsters - Powerhouse!

Single-sided 7" from 1990 by a short-lived project by JG Thirlwell (Foetus) with visual artists The Pizz and Buttstain. One side music, other side etching. The song is, as you probably guessed, a cover of the Raymond Scott classic. It also appeared on a Steroid Maximus album, but I'm not sure whether it's the same version or if it was rerecorded.

Garage Monsters - Powerhouse!

Munehiro Narita - Psyche De Loid

Welcome to the weirdest karaoke bar in the world! Well, the weirdest I know about anyway. So you get the rhythm track from some classic 60's landmarks and then the legendary guitar shredder of Psychedelic Speed Freaks, Kyōaku no Intention and High Rise lays down the bass track and then lets rip on the old six string and pedals.

And the vocals ... Vocaloid (ボーカロイド, Bōkaroido), a singing voice synthesizer software product. Clearly there is some way to go ... it can't quite deal with "Kick Out The Jams Motherfucker!" and I swear I need to gatecrash a stoner's party and slip on the cover of Astronomy Domine so I can sit back and watch the brainmelt. It's atrocious and magnificent in equal measure and, as far as I am concerned, that makes it a masterpiece.

CD released on U-Rythmix Records in 2014.

Psyche De Loid

va - Patchouli and Echoes

Completely bonkers compilation released by those stalwarts against sanity Chocolate Monk and 777 Was 666 as a double CDr in 2004. Includes music by The Tower Recordings, Musica Transonic, Don Bolles, Sun City Girls, Paekong Mae, Universal Indians, Ashtray Navigations, Beast People, Space Machine, Mini-Systems, Climax Golden Twins and so many more that I'm not going to bother typing them all out. Grab this, open your blowhole wide and fill your third lung with this filthy cosmic dust.

disc 1
disc 2

Olympic Shit Man - Supercharge

The jointly excellent Andy Bolus (Evil Moisture etc, c'mon now pay attention) and Mark Durgan (aka Putrefier, Birthbiter and an occasional member of Nihilist Assault Group).

I posted this tape ages ago and have always found it a bell end of hope that even dickheads like me can compete. The reality is obviously different and it is the hope that kills ... slowly. Any whatever, Harbinger reissued this as a double LP in 2011 and guess what? I wasn't paying attention. The first three sides are this tape but Side D ia a pair of ten minute live performances that I have never heard ... so, erm, yeah ... you can finish the sentence off yourself.

C64 released on Mother Savage Noise Productions in 1995.

Supernaut

As a non-consolation prize here's a live recording that I don't think has been released: Live at Bar Sate, Brixton London 1991

Derek Bailey & Shoji Hano - Fish

Live drums/guitar sesh from 2000, released as a CD by PSF the following year.

Derek Bailey & Shoji Hano - Fish

va - Sonance Quarry

Compilation of Chicago improv from 1997, featuring Jeb Bishop, Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ben Vida, Matt Weston, Liz Payne, Josh Abrams and Kevin Drumm.

va - Sonance Quarry

LIKE MINDS

Crate Diggers

Search This Blog

TWITTERFACE

THE PAST