Brian Ruryk - Smeared Gravity And Guitars Lippin' Off




Have you ever lacked the motivation to smash up your kitchen and break a few guitar strings? Have no fear, we are here for you! Now go and do it ... you know you want to ...

Released on Beniffer Editions in 2004.

Smeared Gravity And Guitars Lippin' Off

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Brian Ruryk - Piece Of Shit Guitar




Imagine Eugene Chadbourne creating the soundtrack for Tom & Jerry. I mean that as a compliment.

CDr released on Cast Exotic (and Yeay! Cassettes) in 2005.

Piece Of Shit Guitar

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Brian Ruryk - Guitar Stuck In Blades Of Fan




Hhhmm ... that kind of explains it ...

3" CDr released on Ultra Eczema in 2005.

Guitar Stuck In Blades Of Fan

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Brian Ruryk / Gastric Female Reflex - Split




Brian with Gastric Female Reflex who are Andrew Zukerman (who also records as Charles Balls ... I only have a couple of those and wish I had them all) and Jacob Horwood (who runs Bennifer Editions). For me, at any rate, this fits into the Schimpflux world of Crank Sturgeon, Id M Theft Able and Kommissar Hjuler but (Mama) bear in mind that I have just made that up!

LP released on Beniffer Editions in 2006.

Brian Ruryk / Gastric Female Reflex

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Smersh - Slackers and Underachievers

The duo of Chris Shepard and Mike Mangino were very prolific, releasing around 50 albums of rough industrial pop and feedback-laced machine noise as Smersh, Gestaltung, and Neon Noodle from 1981 until the early 2000's. Most of their albums came out as self-released cassettes on their Atlas King label. They also, along with like-minded underground travelers DDAA and Bene Gessirit, seemed to have a song on just about every weirdo cassette compilation released in the 80's and 90's. Because Smersh's catalog is so vast, there have been a few attempts at wrangling their songs into "greatest hits" compilations. A few CDRs appeared and then went out of print, a couple releases given over to Free Music Archive, and most recently the Dark Entries label issued a wonderful double-LP compilation called "Cassette Pets", which is very much available direct from the label and affordably from iTunes, Bleep, all the usual sources.

Inevitably for a band with a discography so deep, lots of music continues to languish on normal bias cassette tapes that will eventually fade into iron oxide dust. This album is one of my favorites. "Slackers and Underachievers" leans heavily on more awkward noise and spacey dub. A few songs seem to include a drummer, in place of Smersh's usual Roland TR-606 thump.

Smersh - Slackers and Underachievers

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Smersh - You've Got More Than Wheels

Here's a glorious industrial stomper from New Jersey's greatest band (sorry, Bon Jovi), released as a cassette (what else?) by Atlas King in 1987. Includes the hit, "Jack Your Metal Number 2"!

Smersh - You've Got More Than Wheels

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Acid Eater - Black Fuzz On Wheels




The key word is FUZZ making JSBX come across like one of those ultra polished superstar outfits [fill in your own name here ...] that we all know and love.

Released on Time Bomb Records in 2010.

Black Fuzz On Wheels

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Acid Eater‎ - Dirty EP




Great single that also features a suitably transformed cover of The Kinks "I Gotta Move" which was originally the B Side of "All Day And All The Night" in 1964.

7" released on Hello From The Gutter in 2008.

Dirty EP

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Acid Eater - Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D.




This does exactly what it says on the tin! The addition of Kensaku Miyaji and Shinichiro Akiba turned the outfit into a completely different beast. The electronics are dropped allowing Maso to take on the vocal duties and give us full scale garage psych rocking out ...

Released on CD and LP by Time Bomb Records in 2007.

Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D.

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Christine 23 Onna - Acid Eater




Although this is only credited to Fusao Toda and Maso Yamazaki, surely this also contains Kensaku Miyaji on keyboards and Shinichiro Akiba on drums. Given that the latter pair officially joined Christine 23 Onna in 2005 to turn them into the four piece Acid Eater it kind of makes sense (or obviously it does depending on how much of a detective you think I am).

Classy. Classic. That's it.

Released on Midi Creative in 2002.

Acid Eater

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Christine 23 Onna - Shiny Crystal Planet




Here we get a variety of synthesizers and effects but Fusao Toda opens up a full range of pedals (Wah-wah, Phase Shifter, Fuzz Master and Echoplex) to get a real space garage groove on.

Released on Alchemy Records in 2000.

Shiny Crystal Planet

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Christine 23 Onna - Space Age Batchelor Pad Psychedelic Music




Christine 23 Onna were Fusao Toda (guitarist with Angel'in Heavy Syrup) and Maso Yamazaki (aka Masonna). Whilst Christine later dove into the world of psych garage and the title of the album is a nod to Stereolab, this is an entirely different affair. Space Age Psychedelia all the way down!

LP released on Insignificant in 1996.

Space Age Batchelor Pad Psychedelic Music

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Wash Your Brains ‎- Krähen Röhren / Röhren Krähen




LP and C20 from Rudolf Eb.er's short-lived Wash Your Brains project. The track on the previous compilation is called Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck and I assume that signaled the change in identity which appeared the following year. All of the Schimpfluch aesthetic is clearly laid out so you know what to expect.

The first release on Schimpfluch from way back in 1988.

Krähen Röhren - Röhren Krähen

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Various ‎- Zerstückelte Denkkurbeln




Compilation LP featuring G*Park, P16.D4, Wash Your Brains (aka Rudolf Eb.er), 4 Schizoide Musikanten (aka Rudolf Eb.er and Rafl) and a range of artists that generally only appear here. I suspect the guiding hand of Mr Eb.er ...

The second release on Schimpfluch from way back in 1988.

Zerstückelte Denkkurbeln

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G*Park - 1983-1988+

Crucial 6xCDR box set compiling the first five cassettes by one of the lowest-profile artists in the Schimpfluch camp, Marc Zeier aka Gorki Park aka G*Park. The last disc contains an otherwise unreleased recording of Zeier performing live with Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock. The box came out on Tochnit-Aleph in a limited edition of 77 copies, with a book of art and information and a used tea bag. Maybe that was intended to impart aroma to the box? I scanned the book, but not the tea bag.

G*Park's music defies easy description, which is a good thing indeed. It's at once tactile and organic and mysteriously inhuman, though these early tapes are not nearly as refined as Zeier would get on later albums like "Geopod" and the recent "Sub" 2xCD on 23five (available from the label and from iTunes, so go get it!). Some of these non-referential textures remind me of Hands To, Small Cruel Party, tac, Kapotte Muziek, or Yeast Culture, to give you a very general idea of the soundworld G*Park inhabits.

disc 1 - G*Park 1
disc 2 - G*Park 2
disc 3 - Ko-Nü
disc 4 - Anasthesie
disc 5 - Zwei Freunde
disc 6 - R&G*Park Improvisation
art


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Various ‎- Angelic Tecnology 1




This is a good old fashioned double C45 boxset released on Hironari Iwata's Angakok label in 1988. This starts with flamenco and takes you on a strange journey...

There are a lot of names that I don't recognise, but the ones that are familiar are: Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, Asmus Tietchens, Haiginsha (aka Hironari Iwata), Conrad Schnitzler, Toukaseibunshi (aka Hironari Iwata again), Human Flesh (aka Alain Neffe), Bene Gesserit, P16.D4, Swimming Behaviour Of The Human Infant (aka Achim Wollscheid), The Haters, Defict Des Annee Anterieures and a young upstart called Merzbow.

Angelic Tecnology 1

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Dead Comet Alive - People Hating Trees




For me, there are four words that always denote quality: John; Olson; American; and Tapes.

This is a c62 released on American Tapes in an edition of 8 copies in 2001. Yeah. It's John Olson.

It's AM180 btw.

People Hating Trees

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Dead Comet Alive - Fever Swarms




A C64 of gorgeously warped electronics from John Olson released on American Tapes in an edition of 15 in 2003.

It's AM291 btw.

Fever Swarms

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Dead Comet Alive ‎- PCM




John Olson on a CDr released on American Tapes in an extremely modest edition of 7 copies in 2005.

It's AM418 btw.

PCM

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Dead Comet Alive - Universe For One




John Olson on a single sided LP released on American Tapes in 2008 in a positively rampant edition of 100 copies.

It's AM745 btw.

Universe For One

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Controlled Bleeding - Scourge Songs Volume 2 (Compilation Tracks 1985/1992)

Our public service continues with the second album-sized chronological round-up of Controlled Bleeding compilation tracks.

Controlled Bleeding - Scourge Songs Volume 2 (Compilation Tracks 1985/1992)

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Naturalismo - Interno




Gabriele de Seta on his lonesome giving us some of the best circuit bending fried electronics I've heard for a long time. It's so good, I'm going resort to profanity. Absolutely FUCKING massive!

You (and yes, I mean you) really really need to hear this.

CDr released on Lips Infection in 2013 in an edition of 25.

Interno

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大小 + Naturalismo + Sin:Ned - Disgiunzione #4




Gabriele de Seta with Hong Kong's Sin:Ned and Dà Xiǎo who is an experimental musician / video artist from Shanghai. The latter is also in TMISM with Xu Cheng and Huang Lei and is the founder of Ganzfeld Lab. This is a live improvised set that starts with a beautiful hovering guitar sound before evolving into chiming and rumbling noise. This is the best 21 minutes you will spend in a long time!

CDr released on Monstres Par Excès in 2013.

Disgiunzione #4

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Naturalismo + Sherman - Disgiunzione #5




Naturalismo is the work of Gabriele de Seta (who you will also know as the driving force behind Caligine whilst also running the Monstres Par Excès label). Gabriele has been a resident of Hong Kong for quite a while now and here is joined by the indigenous experimental guitar of Sherman (you can also pick up three of his releases here, here and here). Contemplative and ear-shredding in turns...

CDr released on Monstres Par Excès in April of this year.

Disgiunzione #5

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Controlled Bleeding - Scourge Songs Volume 1 (Compilation Tracks 1984/1985)

Here at Bleak Bliss, we tend to only post music that is out of print, hard to find, and/or impossibly obscure. Today I'm going to try something different: I am posting an album that does not exist. "Scourge Songs Volume 1" begins what will be a multi-volume collection of rare tracks by one of my all-time favorite bands, Controlled Bleeding. The New York group has been led by Paul Lemos since the early 1980's, though they have been duos and trios at different times in their career. They have recorded harsh noise, industrial disco, medieval-ish chamber music, ambient drones, progressive rock, free improvisation, metal, dub, and probably more kinds of music than that and other music that doesn't fit neatly under a label. Essentially, CB haven't given a good hoot about what listeners might expect of them, so they've done any and everything they've felt like doing. I have so much respect for this band.

Controlled Bleeding began amid the explosion of international cassette culture. At that time, every weirdo who started a tape label were obligated to put out a comp that included tracks by Minoy, DDAA, Bene Gessirit, Smersh, Big City Orchestra, The Haters, and of course Controlled Bleeding. Because of their ubiquity, a vast amount of CB's songs are now scattered on at least 100 different compilation tapes, LPs, and CDs. Have you ever tried to keep up with this prolific band? Harder than a diamond-encrusted concrete dildo, isn't it? Well, here is some good news. Many (though certainly not all) of their disparate sonic orphans have finally been brought together in convenient album-length chunks for the good of humanity by me, Mrs. Inside. You are welcome, humanity. This first volume collects material from the earliest days of the band, 1984 and 1985. More volumes are on the way.

Controlled Bleeding - Scourge Songs Volume 1 (Compilation Tracks 1984/1985)

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Mental Anguish & John Hudak - Multiple Morning Green

An hour of uncomfortable tape loops (including a guy counting in the wrong order) by two legends of US 80's/90's cassette culture, building a din that reminds me of the fuzz-brained dawn after a sleepless night. Issued on Harsh Reality in late 1980's.

Mental Anguish & John Hudak - Multiple Morning Green

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Chris Phinney & John Hudak - Spot the Uses

John Hudak is a name well-known to readers of this blog. You might know Chris Phinney by his superhero name, Mental Anguish. He is also the guy who ran the Harsh Reality label in Memphis TN and made this fine slab of tape hiss and toasted circuits available to the public in 1991.

Chris Phinney & John Hudak - Spot the Uses

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Der Pilz - Der Kosmos Natur Führer

Bizarre, super low-fi trash noise from Lutz Pruditsch, who would later smooth over his rough edges and make a sound more readily identifiable as "music" under the name Tarkatak. This album first appeared in the mid-1980's as a cassette on the Trummer Kassetten label, then an American edition appeared (to sate popular demand, I suppose) on Harsh Reality. This is exactly the sort of artless nonsense that cassette labels were made to enable.

 Der Pilz - Der Kosmos Natur Führer

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v/a - January 8th, 2008


Solid harsh-noise compilation CDR sold at a concert in Chicago headlined by The Rita, with local opening acts Is, Shattered Hymen, Mykel Boyd (who put this out in an edition of 100 copies on Power Silence, an imprint of his Somnimage label), Raperies (Like Draperies), Body Collector, and Augment. Everyone on the bill contributed one track to this album. 

v/a - January 8th, 2008

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va - Batofar Cherche... Tokyo (7-16 Decembre 2001, Paris)

Compilation CD made to promote the "Batofar Cherche... Tokyo" festival, which occurred in December 2001 in Paris to present experimental and electronic music by artists from Tokyo. In a commendable curatorial decision, the concerts (and this disc) did not feature the usual musicians who tend to populate events of this kind. Instead, the festival organizers dug deep into the underground and brought over Take Rodruigez and His Arkestra, Com.a, Kozo Inada, L?K?O, Phenopen Model (who are not exactly unknowns in Japan, but remain obscure to listeners in other countries), Nerve Net Noise, Tujiko Noriko, Monster DVD, Kishino You-Ichi, and others.

va - Batofar Cherche... Tokyo (7-16 Decembre 2001, Paris)

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The Thin Ensemble - Music Dropped In The Secret East Lansing Caves




A really quite lovely C90 courtesy of John Olson and Randy Sutherland. Saxophones in full effect. Released on American Tapes in 1997 in an edition of ten.

It's AM25 btw.

Secret

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The D.L. Savings TX - Plays The Music Of Erich Zaan




Twisted electronics from Mr Olson. A C110 and C90 set released on American Tapes in 1997.

It's AM37 btw.

Erich

Zaan

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Spykes On Mountains - Furs As Lies




An early brooding Spykes outing. John Olson on a C60 released on American Tapes in 2000 in an edition of eleven.

It's AM156 btw.

Furs As Lies

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Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Baer - No! Nurse Etiquette




The world of Kommissar Hjuler und Mama Baer is a very strange world indeed! Spasmodic accordion, rumbling noise that will break your house, farting pots and pans ... I don't even no where to start or end.

This is a two tape set released on Khristopher Reinshagen's (aka Body Collector and Scorpio & Glass) Nostilevo in 2001 in an edition of 44.

First Tape

Second Tape

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Hijokaidan starring Miku Hatsune - Hatsune-Kaidan




Miku Hatsune only exists on a literally technical basis. She is one of Crypton's characters in their Vocaloid voice synthesizer program. J-Pop Noise Hijokaidan stlye? It really shouldn't work but it does! Well, frankly, Hijokaidan can do what the hell they like!

This was released on U-Rythmix Records in 2013. The label is the sister of Tsukasa Takahashi's ("shit, why don't I have an indefinite amount of money so I can buy everything that they release") Youth Inc.

Hatsune Kaidan are now a "real" project with at least three releases under that name.

Hatsune-Kaidan

This is what I assume is a bootleg recording. It features two Hatsune Kaidan events and Hijo/Akira laying waste to all around them with live versions of tracks from the Made In Studio album.

Live at Akihabara Goodman, February 2nd 2013

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Jazz Hijokaidan ‎- Made In Japan - Live At Shinjuku Pit Inn, 9th April 2012




Jojo Hiroshige, Fumio Kosakai, Toshiji Mikawa, Sabu Toyozumi and Junko with Akira Sakata and it's live! Ridiculously great and to quote a track from the magnificent Hijokaidan 35th Anniversary Album released this year: "Noise Is Jazz, Jazz Is Noise".

... and I've got to admit, I love the riff on the old Deep Purple cover on this and the previous post ... the fact that they are a doff of the cap to Jon Lord makes these even more special ...

If you bought both of them on mail order and were one of the first 300 then you also got this! In my financially straightened times, I wasn't one of them ... anybody out there have it?

Does anybody really need any convincing?



Made In Japan

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Hijokaidan featuring Akira Sakata - Made In Studio




Jojo Hiroshige, Okano Futoshi, Fumio Kosakai, Toshiji Mikawa and Junko with Akira Sakata handling the horns. It's true!

Released on Doubtmusic in 2012.

Made In Studio

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Zerfallt - Decomposing Towers

Hiss-slathered synth drama by Lee Tindall, who was 1/3 of Astronaut (alongside Daniel Lopatin/Oneohtrix Point Never) and is currently floating in space-age bliss as Belarisk. Self-released in 2008 as a cassette in an edition of 30 copies.

Zerfallt - Decomposing Towers

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Akira Sakata, Jim O'Rourke ‎- およばれ [Tetrodotoxin]




Same line up as the previous post. Released on PJL in 2005. Less "immediate" but equally great.

およばれ

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Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke ‎- ExpLosion




Recorded live at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo on the 22nd of April 2005 and released on PJL in 2006. This also features the legendary Darin Gray on bass, Manabu Sakata handling percussion and electronics and the ridiculously amazing Chris Corsano on drums. Thank whatever deity you like that they recorded and released this. Stunning!

ExpLosion

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Jim O'Rourke, Akira Sakata, Yoshimio - ハ行 [Hagyou]




Recorded live at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo in 2006 and released on B.J.L. in 2008.

ハ行

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Pope Joanna - Seperate Wounds (Sermon, Eulogy, Two Prayers)

Harsh noise by Clarisse Ducasse/Pope Joanna, issued as a CDR in a numbered edition of 28 copies by Ignivomous in 2004.

Pope Joanna - Seperate Wounds (Sermon, Eulogy, Two Prayers)

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