Bleak Bliss: December 2018

va - The Answering Machine Solution

The future? I ask you what's the point? They invent phones and then people phone you up and disturb your privacy. What the fuck is that all about? That's not what I wanted when they made me go into the future. Where's a revolution when you need one? That's the future for you ... nowhere near as good as the past. We used to have revolutions all the time. Well, at least twice a week. I guess now we have to resort to this.

Mind you, look on the bright side ... if you're a raging shit pump, track 28 was made just for you, but you know that already don't you?

Happy New Year!

Solutions

Omnid - Thermo

Early CDR from 2003 by Albert Casais, who would later make some fine duo albums with Jeph Jerman (aka Hands To, Animist Orchestra, Blowhole) and Greg Davis. He would also record harsh noise under the King Wheat banner.

Omnid - Thermo

Agencement - Early Works 1983-1986

Compilation that includes the first LP and three tracks of (prior to this) ultra-minimally available work.

Released on Edition Omega Point in 2010.

Early Works 1983-1986

Simon Wickham-Smith - Rapt

Released as a CD on the short-lived Disposable Thumb label in 2004, a typically terrific album of sharp-elbowed minimalism by Simon Wickham-Smith.

Simon Wickham-Smith - Rapt

Merzbow · Tea Culture - Whizzerbait

Just like any right thinking person, I love people who leave Stoke ... especially the likes of Joincey and Mr Todd. Other than the odd compilation this is the only Tea Culture that I own and basically the only stuff I'd heard. Imagine the mountain of merriment when I realised that Mrs Inside was going to post two releases (not one but two)! If anyone out there can send us any more just to push me right over the ecstasy edge then please do!

They eat each other's source material. It's a 7" jointly released on Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and Oska in 1995.

Whizzerbait

Vibracathedral String Quartet - Play The Lost Musick Of The English Primevalists - Reconstructed From Stone-Age Texts - Authentic Prelapsarian Mind

A smaller offshoot of the Orchestra, this String Quartet does not merely defy gravity, they refuse to believe that gravity exists. Two cellos, guitar and mandolin recorded live in Leeds back in February 1999, released as a no-label CDR the same year.

Vibracathedral String Quartet - Play The Lost Musick Of The English Primevalists - Reconstructed From Stone-Age Texts - Authentic Prelapsarian Mind

Taint / Smell & Quim / Con-Dom - Perversion At All Costs

The Taint and Con-Dom discs are the post-xmas hangover cures that you would expect and need. The Smell & Quim disc includes collaborations with Richard Ramirez, Kapotte Muziek, Expose Your Eyes and Tea Culture. The prescient stand-out is the track "Matthew Bower's Shit Pump" which is either about his actual shit pump or his cliched non-educated consciousness-wanking opinion of the future of his own polity aka "I've got a future I'm happy with and the rest of you can burn". Probably literally.

Triple CD released on Red Stream in 1996.

Perversion At All Costs

Tea Culture - "Weird" Music

Weird is in the ear of the beholder. To me, it just sounds like a party. Released as a tape by Oska in 1994.

Tea Culture - "Weird" Music

V/Vm - Up-link Data Transmissions

In 1996, before V/Vm became a dumb joke with no punch line that went on for too long, they were a competent Warp-style techno band. They didn't really want to help Aphex Twin, but they sure sounded like him. This was their first record, a normal but well-made album in the vein of such IDM also-rans as Bola, Cylob, Jega...

V/Vm - Up-link Data Transmissions

White Hospital - We Wish You Are Merry X'mas

Another holiday classic from the wayback machine! This Japanese Christmas miracle first touched hearts in 1984. May it warm your cockles too, all you good boys and girls.

White Hospital - We Wish You Are Merry X'mas

Various - AuralOffalWaffleTenPintsOfBitterAndABagOfPorkScratchings

Utterly implausibly, the launch off point for this head fuck is Lieutenant Pigeon's "Mouldy Old Dough". It then drives it through Bernard Mannings' Embassy Club and farts it out through a loosened noise sphincter via The Wheel Tappers And Shunters' Club. Not necessarily in that order. Northern lads ... what can you do?

You thought that the party was over?

It is now!

Double CD released on V/Vm Test Records in 1999.

Aural Offal

va - Whine and Missingtoe

Some may say that V/Vm's music was lazy, obnoxious and redundant. They may argue that after a few intriguing albums and singles, they just ran horrible songs through Audio Mulch and released too many albums of the same unfunny joke. I've heard it said. Perhaps you have, too. Merry Christmas. Here's some coal in your stocking.

va - Whine and Missingtoe

Various - The V/VM Christmas Pudding

Well boys and girls ... have you been good this year? Yes? Well that was a waste of time wasn't it? You're going to get this to add to the pile of things you could have lived without anyway ... and you all fuckin' deserve it. Sing up now!

CD compilation inflicted upon the world in 2000 by V/Vm Test Records.

The V/VM Christmas Pudding

Tea Culture - Tesco's Shopping in Sainsbury's Bags

Mid-90's (?) album of weirdo collage nonsense by Phil Todd (aka the psychedelic superhero responsible for Ashtray Navigations, Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers, Anna Planeta, and many more) and Joincey (aka Wagstaff, Coits, many other sub-sub-underground noise/wtf "groups" related to Mr. Todd), released as a CDR on a label called Arsybackwardzsod!, which seems to only have existed to foist some Tea Culture upon an uncaring world. All titles were named with little pictures, just like on "Hairway to Steven".

Tea Culture - Tesco's Shopping in Sainsbury's Bags

Zone - Born of Fire

Sophomore album of "ritual" ambient music, released by Luciano Dari's Musica Maxima Magnetica label in 1991. I've always enjoyed this one. Maybe it's a little pretentious, but ça m'est égal. Sounds nice on a chilly, dark winter day.

Zone - Born of Fire

Agencement - Viosphere+ Selected Works 1984 - 1991

... or maybe I could have mentioned that Hideaki Shimada is the person responsible for the superb violin/electronics improvisations of Agencement?

1991's Viosphere plus three previously unreleased tracks courtesy of this CD released on the impeccable Art Into Life in 2013.

Viosphere+

Tetuzi Akiyama, Junji Hirose, Hideo Ikegami, Ko Ishikawa, Kazushige Kinoshita, Toshihiro Koike, Madoka Kouno, Maresuke, Kenichi Matsumoto, Hideaki Shimada, Manabu Suzuki, Daysuke Takaoka - Septet//2013

Double CD released on Pico in 2014 and recorded live at Ftarri, Suidobashi-Tokyo, on May 11, 2013 and on October 12, 2013.

Surely there is nothing else that you need to know?

Septet//2013

Ester Brinkmann - Totes Rennen

Repetition in the music and he's never gonna lose it! This is a somewhat more action-packed album by Thomas Brinkmann, here recording under his sister's name. German language samples and looping rhythms that you can almost groove to.

Ester Brinkmann - Totes Rennen

Computer Soup - Computer Soup

Jazz beats surrounded by alien electronica.

CD released on Soup-Disk in 1997.

Computer Soup

Computer Soup - Toizarasi

Free jazz and funky fragments surfacing sporadically from the bit and byte dialogue.

CD released on Sun Out Recordings in 1999.

Toizarasi

Sick Llama & Ladderwoe - Untitled

Untitled split double tape by Sick Llama and a band called Ladderwoe who is a mystery to me. Ugly zero-velocity noise released in 2006 in an ugly handmade envelope thing. No label, no information, no music, no.

Sick Llama & Ladderwoe - Untitled

Computer Soup ‎- Dream Mons

Computer Soup is a most appropriate name for the fine young gentlemen. This is kind of like my favourite fever dream where Psychic TV's "Dreams Less Sweet" mashes with David Holmes' "Lets Get Killed". I just said "mashes". Sorry. I'm old enough to know better than that. I apologise on behalf of my mother.

CD released on Ze-Koo in 2000.

Dream Mons

Manchester Mourns ....

Today my friends, Manchester mourns. We mourn the loss of one of the finest comedians that this City has ever seen. That really is a statement when you consider the hilarity that Trafford Borough has given to the conurbation and, indeed, the world. At this difficult time, my only consolation is that there will be another joker coming along soon!

R.I.P. Maureen.

Sick Hour - Untitled

Two-thirds of Hair Police (or, if you prefer, Three-Legged Race + Attempt) bloop on synthesizers for awhile. Released in 2006 as a cassette on Animal Disguise.

Sick Hour - Untitled

BusRatch - 時計日記

The B-Side here has 99 locked grooves and nobody is brave enough to rip that. So, as a consolation, here's both tracks on the first side ripped in 33 and 45rpm ... and why not. You could always go and buy an admirably priced copy from our father who art in Lowell, RRRon be thy name for the looped groove odyssey ... or just to hear the inherent quality of the vinyl recording.

LP released on RRRecords in 2010.

Tokei Nikki

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.

What do i get ...?

Crap day at work yesterday. Had me tea and went to bed early to read me book (an oral history of Swans, I recommend it). Fell asleep at some point and then woke up. Put the radio on and Pete Shelley's dead. Chances are that you're not from Manchester and probably weren't in the middle of the idea wars. Whatever. So what.

The absolute spearhead of Northern DIY (me mate has already doffed his cap). From song to band to label and still remained a really nice bloke. The closest I got was probably at Maxwell Hall at Salford University in ?1987ish when The Fall were headlining. John Cooper Clarke opened and then Pete got up on his jack with an acoustic guitar and sang the "greatest hits" in the greatest and most self-deprecating way you could imagine. Simply one of the most perceptive and incisive songwriters of my generation and Manchester is emptier without him.

Nautical Kites - Herculoids

Nautical Almanac + Kites = Nautical Kites. But I'll bet you already figured that out, smartypants.

Nautical Kites - Herculoids

Eric Ostrowski - Magnificent Forest

Well, half a Noggin is better than none. Now how far do you think you can push improvised violin noise? Let's find out ...

CD released on End Sound in 2007. It came with a ten track dvd but that rip appears to have gone walkabout. Sorry about that.

Magnificent Forest

Nautical Almanac - Nnnnnautical Aaaalmanac

Aggressive chaotic nonsense by a bunch of Baltimore nutzos. Two live sets from 2002, released as a tape that same year on the band's Heresee label.

Nautical Almanac - Nnnnnautical Aaaalmanac

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