PATRIK FITZGERALD "Pillow Tension" (UK, Lazy Dog,1995)

Patrik Fitzgerald is an important figure of the punk generation. The distinctive way he sings his poetic lyrics along with the minimal rattling of an acoustic guitar is enough for him to develop the full core dynamics of the genre. Instead of meaningless slogans, epidemicaly spread nihilistic cliches and an emptiness hidden behide electric noise, Patrik opposes against the sense for no future an ability to turn sad findings & bitter feelings into penetrating words. Beside ironic, sarcastic social criticism, he wants to understand deeper what causes him pain and where it comes from. He is a romantic, a lyrical. The intellectual and the lover of punk phenomenon ("...i ve got a safety pin stuck in my heart for you..."). Whenever words "punk" & "poetry", comes together, it is him, instinctly, they recall.

PILLOW TENSION is the 1995 Patrik`s album that released (exclusively, i think) from greek label LAZY DOG. Patrik`s constantly sharp sensibility has reached here a non innovative, though mature, settled down, essential pop songform played by a group (guitar, keyboards, sax, drums, bass). Lyrics develop a melancholic anatomy of life`s situations which make "breathing so painful"

.

 Pillow Tension (75mb)

PROOF OF UTAH "Happy to be here" (US,No Man`s Land,1988)

A cross between avant jazz/prog and Camper Van Beethoven would sound strange and probably would cause embarrassment both sides of fans. On the other hand stuff amusing, accessible and with a positive character is enough to make weirdness afficionados stay away. This could be some explanation why Ohio`s PROOF OF UTAH, have been one of the most unjustly ignored bands of the second 80`s half. Mainly a duo - MIKE BROSKO (voice, guitars,bass, keyboards) & LOUIE SIMON (voice, drums, percussion), with addition of sax, flute, mandolin, harmonica, clarinet and other instruments players - PROOF OF UTAH created, beyond those influences, an innovative style of their own, and it is no surprising at all, that legendary german label NO MAN`S LAND (much admired for its fine avant jazz, R.I.O., postprog, alt-exp, releases) gave home to their 3rd album.

POU`s cartoonish attitude about songwriting unfolds a funny, sharp, critical, ironic, metaphorical and rich to references language. It brings an observative, provincial life experience close to a mentality brought up with literature, retro, jazz and postpunk spirited alternativism. POU describe life`s little oddities by embracing several sides of their (american) culture. And if their subversity has nothing dark nor despaired, this is because they are HAPPY TO BE HERE.

Vinyl rip

Happy to click here (54mb)

More about PROOF OF UTAH at :

http://www.proofofutah.com/

Check out comments for infos & latest PROOF OF UTAH news by MIKE BROSKO himself !

PASCAL COMELADE " Zumzum.ka" (spain/france, 1998)

Zumzum... an onomatopoeia..., the humming of crowd..., the swarmed noises in distance..., the buzzing - the voice of insect wings....

And Ka... an antithesis to onomatopoeia..., the mythical for modern literature letter K..., the walking letter... the letter as a shape of man..., the body of a dancer..., the potenciality of motion & stillness into the air...

 ZUMZUM.KA (60mb)

KIP HANRAHAN "A thousand nights and a night (1.Red night) " (US, American Clave, 1996)

...the infinite night, the fragmented night, the multiplying night, the one red night...

Less than what we commonly call a composer (even an avant one) and more like a director, a mastermind of a "different" approach to music art, KIP HANRAHAN sets in motion a new sense of musical geography, making us feeling citizens of a wide art universe where nothing seems to be located where we thought it had been before. Songs, musicians, genres, traditions, novelties, global memories, poems, silences come floating into a new sensibility`s space, where join together to establish eclectic relations, to cause nocturnal behaviours, to express a fleshly inspired, cosmopolitan intellectualism.

From the many nights the Hanrahian one night arrives and the same way the many americas unify the avant-NY-latin-afro-cuban-jazz-funk-soul-music-literature in one world art.

What if the Orient seems to be superficially absent. It returns at dawn, when the dayrise delays the one thousand and one nights` ultimate breath.

LISTEN (95mb)

TINY LIGHTS " Milky Juicy " (US, 1994)

Θα αδικούσε ίσως κανείς τα όψιμα άλμπουμς των TINY LIGHTS ( ανάμεσα τους το "Milky Juicy", πέμπτο LP) αν τα έβλεπε μόνο υπο το πρίσμα των 60`s αναφορών τους ή λογάριαζε πόση εντέλει απόσταση σε σχέση με το σημαδιακό π.χ. ντεμπούτο "Prayer for the Halcyon Fear" (1985) έχει πλέον διανυθεί. Αφενός γιατί το πλαίσιο εντος του οποίου κινούνται δεν απηχούσε ποτέ την πιο ρηξικέλευθη, νεωτεριστική, απρόβλεπτη ή εκτροχιασμένη πλευρά της σύγχρονης ηλεκτρικής φόρμας, και αφετέρου γιατί διαθέτουν τη "φλέβα" της τραγουδοποιίας που μ`όλες τις παραπομπές στην παράδοση, είναι ικανή να οδηγεί καθε φορά έξω απο τα τετριμένα, όντας ανήσυχη, εξερευνητική. Από την αύρα μιας αδέσμευτης πρακτικής διαπνέονται οι TINY LIGHTS και την ομορφιά, ως συνάντηση του έρωτα για την ύλη με έναν εμπειρούμενο εκλεκτισμό την εννοούν. Εξ ου και το "άπλωμα" του ήχου τους στο χώρο του έντεχνου, ακουστικού αλλά και ηλεκτρικού, ανένταχτου, φόλκ ποπ, εως και σόουλ-τζαζ ψυχεδελισμού. Τι κι αν, λόγω μάλλον μιας αίσθησης επανάληψης (ή συνοχικής χαλαρότητας), μοιάζει η φλόγα χλωμότερη κι η φωτιά που καίει πιο χαμηλή; To "Milky Juicy" είναι απ'τα άλμπουμς που δε χάνουν πολλά με το πέρασμα του χρόνου, και που  ωθούν τον ψυχεδελικό ταξιδιώτη να καταφύγει μέσα τους, επειδή ίσως σιγά-σιγά δεν θυμίζουν καμμιά συγκεκριμένη εποχή.

MILKY JUICY 

ESKIMO " The Further Adventures of Der Shrimpkin " (US,1995)

The memory map ESKIMO unroll before listener`s imagination is full of various complicated details and references located on a long and wide past. This San Francisco avant jazz/post prog quintet, mainly influenced by Zappa, Residents, R.I.O., and the experimental sound of labels like No Man`s Land, Recommended, Ralph, Review a.o., is one of the most refresing, amusing, imaginative, yet humoristic bands that continued and extended in 90`s the kind of music that is related with the names mentioned above. Beyond influences, their sound is clearly their own, created with inspiration taken from many different areas. Mainly they like to put contradicted elements to argue each other and they do so, at times spontaneously, at times provokingly, trusting their subversive instinct in any case. Vibraphone lounge comforts are invaded by furious rock decisions, the coolness of jazz horns clashes with horror parodies, funny lyrics are overtaken by drunkards choirs, marches & melodies come from somewhere before the war, art & hardcore go hand in hand... A paranoid mosaic of mind and soul oddities that mean, before evaporated, to be registered as facts into a world chewy and elastic like the cartoons`.

ESKIMO

ERIC BONERZ -drums

DAVID COOPER - marimba, vibes, vocals

MARK LANDSMAN - bass, vocals

JOHN SHIURBA - guitar, vocals

TOM YONDER - trombone

ESKIMO - kill the great raven

Check out our ESKIMO collection...

RED CRAYOLA " Soldier Talk " ( US, Radarscope records,1979)

Παρόλα τα ίχνη της σημαδιακής "πρώτης" ψυχεδελικής εμπειρίας (`66-`68) που έκτοτε φέρει πάνω της η "Κόκκινη Κρεολή", το διαχρονικό αυτό σχήμα του Τεξανού MAYO THOMPSON δεν ανήκει ουσιαστικά σε κάποια συγκεκριμένη κατηγορία , τάση ή εποχή.

Με ήχο κυρίως αντισυμβατικό, χωρις ιδιαίτερες καινοτομίες, ή σε νέα ήθη αναπροσαρμογές, ενδιαφερόμενος για την καταγραφή και έκφραση αυτου που αντιλαμβάνεται ως πραγματικότητα, ο MAYO ξένος εξαρχής σε καθε έννοια "κανονικού", τακτικού, ευυπόληπτου καλλιτέχνη, παραπέμπει σε μια (γραφική ή ριζοσπαστική) στάση διηνεκούς δημιουργικής αθωότητας. Μοιαζει με κάποιον που εισέρχεται, όποτε εκείνος το επιλέγει απο την έξοδο κινδύνου της κάθε εποχής, για να παρέμβει, να επηρεάσει, να σχολιάσει -μουσικά & κοινωνικά - , να αποδομήσει τα στερεότυπα, να δοκιμάσει τις αντοχές ακόμα και underground ορίων, αλλά και να μεταφέρει τον εν δυνάμει καλλιτέχνη ακροατή στις απαρχές της προσωπικής τέχνης υπενθυμιζοντας οτι στη ριζα καθε τέτοιας εκρηξης βρισκεται ένας (όπως και στη δική του περίπτωση) στοιχειακός άδολος αυθορμητισμός.

Το 1979, και ενω έχει προηγηθεί αλλά και συνεχίζεται η συνεργασία του με την καλλιτεχνική κολλεκτίβα ART & LANGUAGE, ο MAYO όντας ήδη μέλος των PERE UBU, αναμειγνύεται με την βρετανική υπόγεια new wave & post punk σκηνή, (LORA LOGIC, RAINCOATS) και κυκλοφορεί στην Radarscope Records τo "SOLDIER-TALK", ενα LP που απο μια άποψη αποτελεί κριτική σύνοψη της ματιάς του MAYO στα avant/underground/DIY πεπραγμένα εκείνης της περιόδου, ενώ απο μια άλλη φαντάζει σαν "πανκ που προσπαθει να φέρει άτεχνα το πειραματικό πνευμα των `70 στα δικά του νερά". Χωρίς να είναι άλμπουμ που θα ελιωνε κανείς στα παιξίματα το "SOLDIER TALK" εκφράζει απόλυτα την ασυμβίβαστη αυτοσχέδια αισθητική του συνθέτη του. Αποτελεί ένα έργο σύμπραξης επιδραστικών προσωπικοτήτων και εκθέτει ξεκάθαρα ζυμώσεις και συνάφειες που επενέργησαν καταλυτικά για τη διαμόρφωση ιδεών, στάσεων και εφαρμογών, στο δημιουργικό ξεσπασμα (των αρχών τουλάχιστον ) της δεκαετίας που ακολούθησε.

After first exp/psych trips in Texas (1966-68), Mayo Thompson, the only of the original members left, continued sailing with the RED CRAYOLA. From time to time he changes crew, but RED CRAYOLA crosses decades remaining more or less the same thing. An uncommon music vehicle that appears at the right or wrong time of each era with critical & effective intentions, deconstructing the popular music cliches, refreshing the unconventional spirit which rock`n`roll should be inspired from... RED CRAYOLA, above all, gives priority to the free-anarcho-DIY side of expression, being a living example of innocent creativity and spontaneity that lies at the origins of any personal art. "SOLDIER-TALK" released in 1979 from RADARSCOPE. It is an encounter of art/punk/exp/ new wave personalities that were going to be very influential for the avant post punk noise of 80`s. Imagine two dissonant spirits like DAVID THOMAS & MAYO THOMPSON (the others: LORA LOGIC, JESSE CHAMBERLAIN, CHRISTINE THOMPSON, and the rest PERE UBU ) joining forces under the ideas and practices we mentioned above.

SOLDIER TALK (vinyl rip)

MECANO " Robespierre`s Re-Marx / History Landmarked " (NED, 7``single,1983)

FACE 1 ROBESPIERRE`S REMARX:

Intellectual abuse at the epoch`s open end /made sure that/ aristocrats knit rebelesque hands/ in their Arm..., despite some sane`s alarm/

So the marriage between bourgeoisie and revolutionary/made one uniformed, unisexual beast/ that hoisted at least..., fringe in top/

And the victory fused/ laid round the pole of next era/ got lit while aeshteticism and suicide copulate/ as part of ...romance -sans-sense /

According to , aforesaid /finally two births took place,/ resulted in one race:/ The agitator par excellence shaped in torso.

FACE 2 HISTORY LANDMARKED

The cortege of nobility and clergy/ sets in motion slowly/on the way to the scaffold./Their final eye is fixed on the sky/ under which they lived superior/ to the rabble turned rebel/ that ordered them to die./ Guillotine`s knife reflects grimly / the shine of a rising sun / that predicts rivers of red /heads pierced as trophy/it`s a shame to be among the dead. /

The Reign of terror makes them bleed/ cause the rabble need to be fed/

But the masses and the classes mix up/ so the pointed massacre turns at random./Even leaders of the revolt are dragged into their / own ostracism, kill each other cause of pursuit/ personal phantom./

But as a collective, they already consumed/the feudal web, started liberation with grandeur/ at revolution`s first unstable step.

 LISTEN HERE 

SHOCK HEADED PETERS "Several Headed Enemy" (UK,1992)

Difficult to trap in one description what finally KARL BLAKE represents for the british underground territory of the last thirty years. At least he is uncompromised and unpredictable. His involving in music goes through numerous bands, collaborations, projects, solo works... From avant-punk to neofolk, from psych to experimental, from industrial to eccentric pop sensibility, from romantism to 70`s hard /prog influences... Some of his most important works are with LEMON KITTENS (with DANIELLE DAX ) and SHOCK HEADED PETERS (with DAVID KNIGHT).

"Several Headed Enemy" (compositions recorded `90-`91) is the third SHP`s album. Funkier & fuzzier than the landmarks "Not born beautiful"(1985) and "Tendercide" (1996), it uses many of KARL`s "heavy" obsessions, along with electronic rhythms, to create a babylonian sound scenery where massive, threatening constructions, doomed atmospheres, electric mess, noir narrations, are crossed by a pale lighted but insisting, dream-lyricism.

I would buy their albums even only for their heterogeneity that absorbs you towards an unexplained nostalgia without end.

LISTEN HERE (85mb)

*see also our previous post about SHOCK HEADED PETERS "Tendercide"*

ASIAN JOURNAL -VASCONCELOS,GORN,RICHMOND,ROY- (world of music, 1988)

border crossings made of notes

MIKE RICHMOND (acoustic, electric basses) & BADAL ROY (tabla, indian percussion) are from India, STEVE GORN (bansuri bamboo flute, sopr. sax) is an american expert in indian bansuri bamboo flute performing, NANA VASCONCELOS (berimbau, talking drum, vocal percussion, shakers ) is the famous brazilian percussionist, ISMET SIRAL (sopr. sax) & MURAT VERDI(percusssion) are turkish.... They all carry strong, different traditions, and although they keep the individuality of their ethnic backgrounds, they don`t blend cultures but they meet in the common ground of jazz. Having worked extensively with each other before the recording sessions they fuse "naturally", as if the border-crossing roads are made of notes.

According to the album sleeve informations: "Mangooli" refers to a trad. west african tale about a young boy. "Prayer for Piece" conjures up the image of RICHMOND`s father as he prayed in temple with his congregation. "Sadhu" melody dues inspiration to a song a holy wandering man (a sadhu) used to sing passing from GORN`s neighborhood in Calcutta, asking for some food, perhaps a little rice." Asian Journal", the title track, is inspired by the image of a caravan of travellers heading from Turkey to India...and this, in some way sums up the music experience of the whole album.

"ASIAN JOURNAL" recorded in NY & NJ in 1981, released in 1988 from Music of the World ltd.

LISTEN HERE CD version with extra tracks (56mb)

ROBERT FORSTER " Warm Nights " (AUS, 1996)

Despite of no commenting on our previous RF post, we feel there is a lot of love and interest in THE GO BETWEENS, and ROBERT FORSTER albums, so ... we post here one more of his solo works.

Recorded in London January/February 1996 (with EDWYN COLLINS as producer & session musician) "WARM NIGHTS" reflects not much of a winter longing for warmth; it is more a sentimental journey, full of images of the endless australian landscape that comes out in mind , under the hot oceanic sky, around or after dusk. Music, lyrics, & album artwork refer to country life daily drama and lonely wandering. Behind town scenes, heavy warm clouded skies, motels, neon lighted signs, highways, luna parks, old cars crashed or parked in the middle of nowhere,... ROBERT misses the TGB days ("Rock-N-Roll friend") ... while accompanying instruments (cello, tuba, sax, trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn) adds to the indie/ country/folk/pop/b-road movie atmosphere some more artistic romance.

LISTEN HERE (59mb)

DIOTIMA (ΔΙΟΤΙΜΑ) " S / T " (GRE, 1996)

This self titled debut album, released from Salonika`s ANO KATO records, in 1996. DIOTIMA was a greek acoustic, instrumental trio who played wooden winds and various percussions. Their sound was based on traditional greek folk & art folk, recalling a long past rooted at the ancient times. One can also detects influences from contemporary era, european composers, jazz modes, oriental, minimal, ambient forms. From moonlit Mediterranean coasts to the far east tranquility...the earth traveller chooses a slower pace, discreet, meditative, esoteric, ceremonial. Between self concentration and initiation into the importance of some details, the music...flows.

Costas Hanis: marimba, vibraphone, drums, xylophone, clay pots, toubeleki, bendir,tiny percussions, voice

Lefteris Agouridakis: santuri, vibraphone with bow, bendir, african drum, toubeleki

Costas Papapostolou: nei, flute, shepherd`s flute, pan pipes

LISTEN HERE (75mb)

HASIDIC NEW WAVE "Kabalogy" (US, Knitting Factory, 1999)

Few months ago we posted HNW`s third album, "KABALOGY", at club amigos del .rar y ALF. Here it is just a new link to it. HNW, as a trully alternative thinking and acting band expands klezmer jazz to a wide range of sound references. Check also our post of HNW excellent 2nd LP "PSYCHO SEMETIC".

Kabalogy (78mb)

ROBERT FORSTER "Calling from a country phone" (AUS, 1993)

After THE GO BETWEENS disbanded,(1989), members GRANT McLENNAN & ROBERT FORSTER went solo for a few years. Rejoined circa 2000, released 3 more albums and became history when GRANT passed away in his sleep at home in Brisbane, in 2006,... while recently, (2008), ROBERT released "THE EVANGELIST", a work with high emotional importance for all those followed the band or members history through the last 30 years.

"CALLING FROM A COUNTRY PHONE", recorded at his native Brisbane in 1993, is second ROBERT`s solo album. After the quest of the indie pop perfectness with TGB, ROBERT pursues a new refreshed contact with the music language of the australian landscape. Following "DANGER IN THE PAST"(1990) - a work with indirect references to the historical/philosophical thoughts of WALTER BENJAMIN(!) - CALLING FROM A COUNTRY PHONE is an LP of that particular electric/acoustic blues-country-folk blended flavour that we recognize as idiosyncratic australian rock and roll.

Autumn sun

pale,weak,

dissatisfaction for those

that want a burning sun

an ever present sun

a guardian sun

a tyrrant.

the Autumn sun

lights beauty, and in natural

corners shadows decay,

the giving and taking that many say

is the way to live.

R.FORSTER (from the inner sleeve notes)

LISTEN HERE

EDWARD KA-SPEL "Eyes! China Doll" (UK/HOL,1985)

D`Archangel rises
One more lonely room and a key with a number, and the guy behind the desk said, "Understand that the first night`s free but then you have to pay!". He nodded thanks. He wondered if he`d travelled all his life... Was he just a number on a hundred scraps of paper, thrown away ? He `d never had a wife, and he `d never had a lover. He turned the key. He smelt the dumb. He dived between the covers...teardrops in his eyes turned to ice. And he tried to think of better times but the pictures never formed. And just one thought remained that maybe from the day he was born, he `d stayed dead inside. After all...

(II)

And in another town the clock chimed 13 times, the traveller was home. He had a lady by his side, they were driving through the snow. Pure. Like the bridal gown she wore. Like the sound she made when she would stroke his hand and say " you`ll never be alone again - just believe it`s not a dream. It`s not a dream! "

(III)

They tried to break the door down. They found him face down. He was grinning like a clown. They called his name - he never heard. They felt his pulse but nothing stirred... A coal black hearse appeared and hauled the corpse away. Another customer who paid at Hotel Blanc...("Hotel Blanc" lyrics)

EDWARD KA-SPEL: voice, keyboards, electronics, percussion, glox

HERO WOUTERS: keyboards, electronics, production...

NEEL HOLST: sax on track a3

MATTHIEU KEIZER: marimba on b1

LADY SUNSHINE: lady voice

THE ANGELS: angelic insertions

Riped from a "play it again sam" vinyl

SING WHILE YOU MAY! 

MOMUS "Slender Sherbet" (UK , 1995)

under the constellation of chameleon...

As requested, here it is "Slender Sherbet", a collection of alter versions of early Momus songs, recorded in Paris, in 1995. Tracks from " Circus Maximus" , "Poison Boyfriend", "Tender Pervert", " Don`t stop the night" LPs etc., revisited (or perhaps revised) by Momus himself, in search of a more fashionable, poisonous, provocative, (experimental sometime) musical form. Stranger than any remix practice, yet equally modern as the middlenineties pop status, Nick covers Nick, knowing well that there is no such thing as a definite composition.

"...if you really love me, you must love my insecurity/ if you really love me, take lovers/if you really love me you must really love my jealousy/ if you really love me, love the others."

from "A complete History of Sexual Jealousy..."

LISTEN HERE (98mb)

PRIMA MATERIA "Peace on Earth (music of John Coltrane)" (US,1994)

a KNITTING FACTORY release

Top NY free-impro-exp-jazz musicians leading by COLTRANE`s drummer RASHIED ALI visit some of His greatest compositions originated from the free, trippy, spiritual period...and it is a difficult bet the one they win. They revitalize loyally the original sound, putting, at the same time, under the surface of these masterpieces their own strong, attitude. The project contains two saxophones, two basses, JOHN ZORN (on two tracks), and of course Ali`s drums. The free spirit blooms worthily of its creator, the wide horizons of compositions allow - if not demand - both the respectful and daring treatment...PRIMA MATERIA approach with adventurous & wild playing the shivering lamentation of John`s art. In their occasion, knowlegde, love, energy, living memory, time continuity...is all one.

tracks:

Spiritual - 17:21

Peace on Earth - 16:07

Brazilia - 16:42

India - 18:52

Alabama - 8:23

RASHIED ALI - drums

LOUIE BELOGENIS - tenor sax

ALLAN CHASE - sopr & alto sax

JOE GALLANT - bass

WILLIAM PARKER - bass

&

JOHN ZORN - alto sax (0n tracks 1 & 3)

listen here

PASCAL COMELADE " Un Samedi sur la Terre" (FRA, 1996)

music from a DIANE BERTRAND film

Some older Pascal`s compositions joined few new themes and variations for the soundtrack of "UN SAMEDI SUR LA TERRE" [A Saturday on Earth].The demands of film score force probably Pascal to present here a concept less heterogeneous, emotionally tenacious, focused on some central ideas, played basically in piano while the well balanced addition of other instruments like accordion, violin, mandolin, guitar,winds, toys, acoustic percussions emphasizes discreetly the dreamy melancholic nostalgic atmosphere. Most Saturdays on earth go blooming with expectations and obviously end when Sunday has long begun. This one leaves behind the open path of ... le bleu du ciel
.

UN SAMEDI SUR LA TERRE (52mb)

A Les Disques du Soleil et de l`Acier release

ZAZOU/BIKAYE/CY1 "Noir et Blanc" (BEL,CRAMMED DISC,1983)

In a way, this album is, along with AFRICAN HEAD CHARGE`s "my life in a hole in the ground" a sort of european answer to the amazing ENO - BYRNE collaboration. This westworld-african hybrid born in Brussels in 1983 when avant analog electronics by musicians called CY1 (?), fused with Zairean singer BONY BIKAYE under inspiration / supervision / direction of great HECTOR ZAZOU. Trully, only a director with Zazou`s vision & skills could hold control of such a "boiling" encounter between different worlds. The result shows up the several origins and inclinations without being a cultural pastiche.On the contrary (except few easy ethno-dance moments) it points towards new, unusual, avantgardish yet "legible", world-futuristic forms... The eclectic group of musicians who also involved to this record (Vincent Kenis, Fred Frith, Marc Hollander,Gilles Martin a.o.), along with the pure kindness of african soul explain by themselves the undiminished interest of "NOIR et BLANC", long after its avant art lessons became common ground for modern music.

LISTEN HERE (75mb)

DEEP FREEZE MICE "Teenage Head In My Refrigerator" (1981) + "The Gates of Lunch" (1982)

Second and very possibly the best DFM album. British post punk art at its most innocent, surrealistic, paranoid, experimental.Intellectual references filtered through the common or uncommon young people daily life and dreaming. Raw recordings, simple ways to express a sense of tragic, irresistible melodies, diy practice, sci- fi, dub parody, sudden sadness alternated or confused with funny scenes...Hundreds fragments of past come strangely together and change meaning into DFM world.The quintessence of a free pop culture.

Riped from 1991 Madagascar label cd version which was edited by Alan Jenkins himself & includes bonus material (tracks 13 - 17).

Third LP from Leicester`s psych pop , postpunk, diy, crazy intellectuals. No less lunatic than its predecessors, it continues exposing the surrealistic, paranoid world of ALAN JENKINS and co.

A trip through innocence, pop simplicity, mistakeness, parody, cartoonish imagination, half-abandoned ideas... Polanski`s dog, Hegel guitars, Hitler`s knees, beasts in love with ashtrays,... a green egg that  explodes on Tuesday.

Alan Jenkins - voice, clarinet, percussion, guitar, Hegel guitar

Sherree Lawrence - organ, piano, synth

Michael Bunnage - bass

Graham Summers - drums, percussion, scrabble etc.

Gate Of Lunch exhumed and revitalised by Alan Jenkins. Released on cd in  1991 with bonus tracks.(not included here)..

Teenage Head In My Refrigerator

The Gates of Lunch
 

More Deep Freeze Mice lovely stuff available at  http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk

17 PYGMIES "Missyfish" (US,1991)

17 Pygmies started as a side project of Savage Republic but after SR disbandment, they followed an orbit of their own. Original main members Philip Drucker & Robert Loveless became trio with the addition of the poet Louise Bialik and completed band`s first phase with " Missyfish", a Nate Starkman & son LP consisting (side a) of the re-released 12`` "Hativka" (1983) and (side b) "missyfish" recordings from 1988/89.

17 Pygmies reflect the psych pop side of SR. Dreamy/haunted new wave style, atmospheric guitars, female vocals,various avant & eclectic small ideas.

Recently, after more than 16years silence, Phillip Drucker & Louise Bialik reactivated the band.

Riped from vinyl. MISSYFISH(54mb)
(link updated Jan 2014)

MOOSEHEART FAITH STELLAR GROOVE BAND "The magic square of the sun" (US,1991)

"Just get rid of that small mind that is called "self", and there is nothing in universe that can harm or hinder you" MFSGB

With a philosophy & sound so loyal to the archetypes of the 60`s psych era, the Los Angeles based MOOSEHEART FAITH couldn`t have been the best nor the most original space-jazz-folk-psych band, especially at the beginning of 90`s , nearly 25 years after the explosion of the genre. Todd Homer (voc, bass, autoharp, banjo, synth, percussion, analog sequencer, saw...) & Larry Robinson (voc, guitar,banjo, drums, percussion, synth, clarinet, toys), though, as genuine cosmic workers have been more a part of the timeless psych existance & continuity, and less one more revival thing.

The Magic Square of the Sun, (2nd album, recorded 89-90 at LA, with help of various other musicians and released through local Stellar Records) has, similarly with the rest of their works, moments worth placing next to Love, Spirit, Pearls Before Swine, and the others 60`s monsters. It's an album that pleases easily the dedicated follower of genuine 60`s psych sounds.

magic square ... (98mb)

DAVID SHEA "an eastern western collected works" (US, Sub Rosa, 1999)

David Shea is an american avant garde composer known for collaborations with Scanner, Jim O`Rourke, Charles Hayward a.o....and for solo works like "the tower of mirrors", "satyricon", " shock corridor"."An Eastern Western Collected Works" comes from late 1997, a very busy period for the composer who was performing, rewritting older works, preparing new performances, and earlier that year composed "Satyricon".

David Shea creates music based on synths, samplers and various electronically treated sound sources. His sonar landscapes range from post classical and contemporary composition to experimental ambient, soundtracks, avant jazz, improvisation...

According to himself "An Eastern Western..." is a more physical and personal approach to the sampler combined with connections to acoustic classical traditions both eastern & western.

The opening track " dangerous ground " for example contains loops from Hermann, Scelsi, Schubert, Satoh, and Mancini, while other tracks are takes or recompositions of some of his previous works. Tibetan liturgies, meditative fields, enigmatic atmospheres, jaw harps, trumpet improvisations, film inspired elegies... are some other pieces of this amazing puzzle...

DAVID SHEA - sampler, piano, jaw harps, voices, synthesizers

DAVE DOUGLAS - trumpet

JIM PUGLIESE - percussion, tympani, vibraphone

LISTEN HERE (83mb)

MOMUS "the poison boyfriend" (UK,1987)

could have been your consciousness, but i guess that never works, so treat me like an equal till it hurts (from VIOLETS)

MOMUS is the mythological Greek god of mockery and laughter and also the pseudonym behind of which you find the "tender pervert" Scotchman, Nicholas Currie, a like no other, provocative intellectual in the heart of modern music industry. Momus, like a chameleon, changes personas from album to album and from song to song, presenting for more than 20 years now an extraordinary gamut of "others", among which the less famous (as ironically has been said) is himshelf. His musical style, similarly,varies from acoustic ballads, to electropop, acid house, techno, sophisticated lounge, electronic cabaret, a.o. Any kind of fashionable music style can be good enough to "serve" his mocking plans. Although he has the instinct of gifted, simple, catchy melody, the core of his art is more like an author`s, a bitter philosopher`s and a comedian`s, - an ideal combination for controversial acceptance. Nicholas,as one of the most post modern figures in recent music, mixes sociology,anthropology, psycho-sexuality, clear political attitudes, black humour, romantism, cynism, misanthropy and a deep knowledge of literature, confusing the roles of delight and cultural critisism.

THE POISON BOYFRIEND, his second album, first for Creation records, (fortunately has not much to do with the boring sound of this label) is quite influenced by the spirit of poetic european intellectualism. Nick doesn`t hide his love for J.Brel & S.Gainsbourg, while the acoustic style of his fine debut "CIRCUS MAXIMUS" goes parallel with the slow development of an electronic pallete that would master his following works.

The vinyl version, we post here, consists of 8 songs, while another version of the album has additionally: "11 executioners", "what will death be like", and "murderers, the hope of women".These 3 extra songs can be found in "MONSTERS OF LOVE" singles collection (an album we might post in future). Instead of those, our post includes as bonus tracks the 1995 revisited versions of "the gatecrasher" & "closer to you" (from album "SLENDER SHERBET").

Riped from original vinyl. (75mb)
listen here

For lyrics ,discography,etc go to:

www.phespirit.info/momus

also visit Nicholas blog:

http://imomus.livejournal.com/

SALARYMAN salaryman (US, 1996)

Imagine SAVAGE REPUBLIC early instrumentals or 17 PYGMIES cover on "Lawrence of Arabia" falling in post rock hands. Imagine that intense, exotic, drums-organ driven sound. Replace, though, the earthy, third world passion and the monotone guitars with electronic pulses, samples, strange transmissions, tv conversations, theremin voices, and interferences from resurrected old technology home devices... Add a diabolic skill to hold the covered by industrial/space fog landscape, melodiously and rhythmically clear ...and you have SALARYMAN`s self titled debut album - a no destination wandering...

Salaryman(50mb)

TRINOVOX "incanto" (ITA, 1994)

into the mouths of sound...

TRINO for triple, VOX for voice, and NOVO for new. This word roots exploring behind the name TRINOVOX is quite eloquent about this italian ensemble - a trio from Florence made up exclusively of voices. Bound by their common desire to search and experiment new ways in the use of voice,and knowing that voice & body are inseparably related, TRINOVOX study deeply the technique and practice of mime and acting. As Latins, they begin from the ancient cultural heritage of the Mediterranea but their eclectic vocal tour goes globally, ranging from the classical to the new, from traditional to contemporary. TRINOVOX compositions are complicated combinations of famous poetry, singing, instruments miming, and mouth created noises, all arranged imaginatively, leadind finally to an art form of their own.

INCANTO (it means "incantation", use of magical words for enchantment, but also, in latin, it means "inside singing" ) was the debut work of TRINOVOX, the result of 3 years exploration and reseach about the nature and possibilities of "vocal sound". It`s very remarkable that there are no double trackings here. TRINOVOX recorded exactly only what were able to perform live, so the final result captures the adventurous also side of this exceptional effort.

INCANTO released from JARO - a german label specialized in "difficult" avant-ethnic-world works - and includes a booklet with all the literature/poetry text used here.

tracklist

01.L`Albatros (Ch.Baudelaire)

02.Shir Hashirim (King Solomon)

03.Cancion de Jinete (F.G.Lorca)

04.Furu Ike Ya -into the old mirror- (japanese poets)

05.The waning Moon (P.B.Shelley)

06.Nei to grandi oci (Giacomo Noventa)

07.Addio, Monti (Alessandro Manzoni)

08.A Lyric (T.S.Eliot)

09.Vivamus Mea Lesbia (Gaius Valerius Catullus)

10.-22.Inferno (Dante Alighieri)

INCANTO (73mb)

DICTAPHONE "m.=addiction" (GER, 2002)

Somewhere between the low urban lights and the after hours lounge noir scenery you find the Berlin based duo of DICTAPHONE to construct slowly, their own abstract electronic world. Sounds and microsounds from a discontinuous memory form the indefinite border of an open to anything night, while jazz methods fill the cold empty spaces with the acoustic warmth of a lone voice, a saxophone, a clarinette, an accordion... And as if you never stop drifting into a cyclical city, the ever changing environment lies around like a random factor, ready to reinforce or ruin the illusional escaping you have felt...

LISTEN HERE (54mb)

DICTAPHONE is Oliver Doerell (electronics, various instruments) & Roger Doering (sax, clarinette), and "m.=addiction" is their debut effort. They have also released a second album "Vertigo II", and the "nacht" EP through City Centre Offices label.

HECTOR ZAZOU "geographies " (FRA,1982/1989)

Hector Zazou is a french-algerian post modern composer. His art knows no limits among forms, genres. Melting unpredictably the most contradicted elements, sometimes in the same song, he creates music much superior than any sum of avant, electronics, pop, french folk, ethnic, ambient, soundtrack, post classical, vocal music you can imagine. The sounds in Zazou works loose their usual meaning and are refracted towards new directions through always modern view prisms.

Geographies is one of Zazou`s best works; my favourite together with "Reivax au Bongo" (1984). Released from Crammed Disc (Made to Measure as vol. 5). Consists of two parts: "geographies" & "13 proverbes africains" (for vocal quartet). Highly experimental and contemporary - a map of secular sonic pleasures that sometimes reach the heights of a metaphysical chill.

GEOGRAPHIES (64mb)