Bleak Bliss

WHAT'S THE POINT?

The intention is to promote people who make beautiful music.

The intention is to introduce you to the people who have been carving their own path...with no care for what anybody thinks.

We try not to post things that are still for sale but sometimes post things that are not easily available. If you like what you hear, then find these people and tell them how great they are.

Better still, tell them and then seek out their new releases and buy them. We add links, when they are reliable and active, so that you can keep track if you so wish.

Always go straight to the artist or the label where possible. That way, the money goes straight to the people responsible for this art. These people rely on our support to keep going and make more quality releases!

Please feel free to leave comments as you go along...at least then we know you appreciate this stuff (or otherwise) and you're not just a bunch of freeloading file collectors.

If you made this music and we have pissed you off by posting any of this, please leave a comment in the post and the offending articles will be removed.

va - F.I.R.E

Compilation of obscure Icelandic experimental strangeness from 1993.

va - F.I.R.E

Hijyokaidan, BusRatch - Split Series #01

By this time, BusRatch are the duo of Katsura Mouri and Takahiro Yamamoto. It always blows my mind that it is possible to have Fumio Kosakai and Toshiji Mikawa (aka Incapacitants ... obviously) within the ranks of Hijokaidan. Surely such a holy alliance would signal the end of the universe. Maybe it has and this is what the end of days sounds like. I hope it does ...

CD released on Monotype in 2003.

Split Series #01

BusRatch & Otomo Yoshihide - Time Magic City

Katsura Mouri, Yamamoto Takahiro and Otomo Yoshihide all on turntables in a collaboration satisfyingly known as BusTomo.

Deckwreckin' head wrecking noise genius!

Originally recorded in 2003 but not finalised and released until this CD on PARA disc in 2006.

Time Magic City

Thomas Brinkmann - Studio 1 Variationen

Aggressively minimal, nearly eventless techno (I guess?) that I don't think you could dance to if you tried. Nearly nothing changes across any of these songs. This music is like cilantro: either you'll love it or you'll be thoroughly repulsed. You'll be captivated by the austere repetition or else every minute will fill you with rage. The husband hates this album passionately. I can understand why, but it sounds pretty good to me right now.

Thomas Brinkmann - Studio 1 Variationen

Keiji Haino, Mitsuru Nasuno, Tatsuya Yoshida + Bus Ratch - Live At Cafe Independants Friday 23.January.2004

You know everyone here and you know it makes sense.

CD released on Cafe Independants in 2004.

Live At Cafe Independants

Olivia Block / Seth Nehil / BusRatch - Untitled

Makio Tokiwa is missing from the previous quartet and the addition of the two American artists gives this more of a Swiss feel. Maybe they are equidistant.

CDr released on PARA disc in 2001.

Olivia Block / Seth Nehil / BusRatch

Akira Yamamichi - Pulse Beats

Tinnitus-inducing, ear-piercing sine wave beeps, released as a 3"CD on Fire Inc in 2001.

Akira Yamamichi - Pulse Beats

BusRatch vs. Computer Soup - Untitled

Katsura Mouri, Makio Tokiwa, Masamitsu Kawai and Takahiro Yamamoto versus Kei Ikeda, Osamu Okubo, Shusaku Hariya and Satoru Hori. Everybody wins!

CDr released on PARA disc in 2000.

BusRatch vs. Computer Soup

Bus Ratch - Memorium

The folks behind PARA Disc and Parallax Records release their first pressed CD, but this time Bus Ratch is a duo with no noticeable difference in density. Scratching records and surface noise fireballs. Released in 2002.

Bus Ratch - Memorium

Various - Pick A Winner

Neon Hunk, Lightning Bolt, Wolf Eyes, White Mice, Matt Brinkman, Forcefield, Pink And Brown and more ...

Crazed CD / DVD collection on Load Records in 2004. I've misplaced / lost my rip of the DVD. I'm annoyed.

Pick A Winner

Akira Toyonaga - Cold and Clean and No People

Another CDR on PARA Disc, this is the only solo album by guitarist Akira Toyonaga. His other album is a duo with Charles Hayward of This Heat. Released in 2001.

Akira Toyonaga - Cold and Clean and No People

My Name Is Rar Rar - "Lost" Album

"My Name Is RAR-RAR was a spastic Chicago no-wave band that emerged in late 2000, formed by guitarist Chuck Falzone and bassist Jonathan Hischke. Both had served time in The Flying Luttenbachers and they brought that dissonance and speed to My Name is Rar-Rar, where Falzone's odd guitar timbre snaked between Hischke's ridiculous synth-bass lines and collided with the playful tribal thump of Chrissy Rossettie.

When original singer Camilla Ha left the band, Greg Peters took over on vocals, bringing his trademark bark from his previous band Xerobot. His whoops, coughs and delusional ramblings transformed the band into a speeding circus caravan that misses a turn and tumbles over a cliff, time and time again. Peters' on-stage antics were always something to behold as he flailed about, cupping the mic to his mouth and gripping the side of his leg. The band released a split 7" with Neon Hunk, a comp track on White Denim Records and a mini-EP on an obscure Italian label. They recorded their first record in 2003 but broke up before mixing it."

This is that unmixed and unreleased record ... it has finally seen the light of day in a completely different version courtesy of Skin Graft Records.

Lost and Found

Neon Hunk / My Name Is Rar Rar - Split

Chipmonk chiptune rock goddery backed with warped angular juvenilia. Winner.

7" jointly released on Liquid Death Records and Hello Pussy Records in 2002.

Neon Hunk / My Name Is Rar Rar

Neon Hunk - Abra Cadaver

Genius little piece of vinyl that comes off like a helium fuelled Boredoms at 10x speed.

7" jointly released on Liquid Death Records and Hello Pussy Records in 2001.

Abra Cadaver

Curtain of Cards - Blank Exhibition

No information on this one. "Blank Exhibition" is the only album by Shuichi Ohori, aka Curtain of Cards. He contributed tracks to a few compilations in the early 00's, but then the trail of documentary evidence goes cold. Released by PARA Disc as a CDR in 2001.

Curtain of Cards - Blank Exhibition

Bus Ratch - Untitled

If you like the sound of needles being dragged across records, have I got the album for you! The debut release on PARA Disc, a label that grew out of the Kyoto record shop Parallax Records, is a twitching mass of turntable abuse. There were four members of the group in 2000, when they recorded this self-titled (or untitled?) CDR, all of them simultaneously wrecking wax in a post-Otomo/Marclay/Tetreault sort of way.

Bus Ratch - Untitled

Neon Hunk - Secrets Of The Hunk V:3

More primitive sounding electronic/drum blurt on this self-released CDr from 2002.

Secrets Of The Hunk V:3

Neon Hunk - Smarmymob

You can also add bands like White Mice, Lightning Bolt, Forcefield and all of that Providence crew. Very excellent.

CD released on Load Records in 2003.

Smarmymob

Neon Hunk - Neyan Honkies

Neon Hunk were a truly strange noise-rock band, somewhat in the mould of Wolf Eyes, Taiwan Deth, Hair Police or Fat Worm of Error. Messy and abrasive electronics and drums, intentionally difficult psychedelic assault. Neon Hunk were not particularly prolific while they were around, so this tape is one of the few extant documents of what they did. Released on Nautical Almanac's Heresee label in 2002.

Neon Hunk - Neyan Honkies

Noggin / Eric Boros / Crank Sturgeon and Id M Theft Able - Untitled

Three untitled Noggin improvs, 19 minutes of live Eric Boros diced and spliced from a Japanese tour ... and ... drum-roll please ... Matt Anderson and Skot Able! Some crazy fucker (aka genius) let them loose in a studio to broadcast live on the radio. Hurrah! It's utterly brilliant and the image of some meth-head / truck driver / soccer mom accidentally tuning in just makes it even better.

If you ever thought Crank Sturgeon, Kommissar Hjuler, Rudolf Eb.er, Id M Theft Able, Joke and dp were isolated lunatics then stand corrected. Hand your children over, the revolution started years ago and the war was won whilst you were sleeping. Resistance is so yesterday. Accept your destiny ...

... and then jump all over this and this.

CD released on Manufracture in 2006.

HELLO ... it's Crank Sturgeon and Id M Theft Able. Yeah, in the same room. Yeah, live. Oh, for fuck's sake just get on with it.

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