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Liquid Visions - Endless Plasmatic Childhood Overdose (2000)


Psychedelic/space rock band Liquid Visions was founded in Berlin at the turn of the year 1994/95 by Hans-Peter Ringholz (guitar, vocals), Dave Schmidt (aka Sula Bassana) on bass, Robert Terkhany (guitar, vocals) and drummer Markus Rometsch. Over the years the band saw a bunch of line-up changes and developed the sound which basically is a blend of garage/fuzz rock and spacey trips in combination with a lightshow concept when playing live.

The band soon started playing gigs. In 1996 besides the remaining Ringholz, Terkhany and Schmidt the crew also featured Alex Bulgrin on vocals, Mike Ostrich (organ) and drummer Wolfgang Seidel. The eponymous debut album came out another two years later, released on Nasoni Records. The live album 'Endless Plasmatic Childhood Overdose' offering three extended tracks followed in 2000 and shortly Katja Wolf joined playing organ, theremin and celebrating a blacklight dance-performance with her flourescent painted body to the swirling sounds of the band.


The next album 'Hypnotized' (2002) also features Kiryk Drewinski (vocals, guitar) and new drummer Chris Schwartzkinsky. This line-up remained stable until January 2004 when Dave Schmidt left to concentrate on other tasks. He was substituted by Eric Haegert. The same year saw the release of another album called 'From The Cube'. Liquid Visions went into hibernation though, played the last concert so far on New Year's Eve 2004. (progarchives)
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Prima Materia - The Tail of The Tiger (2005)


Die Schachtel, na co nazwa nie wskazuje, to ulokowana w Mediolanie wytwórnia, która od trzech lat przybliża dokonania mniej lub bardziej znanych włoskich twórców z kręgu muzyki elektronicznej, konkretnej oraz sound-poetry. Ambicją twórców Die Schachtel (jednak nazwa związana jest w Italią, bowiem jest tytułem pochodzącej z 1969 r. kompozycji autorstwa Franco Evangelisti) jest nie tylko publikowanie płyt z nieosiągalnymi dotychczas nagraniami z lat 60-80, lecz wydawanie niezwykłych wydawnictw, które łączą interesującą muzykę z niezwykłą i korespondującą z nią oprawą graficzną. Nic zatem dziwnego, że posiadające niewielkie nakłady winyle oraz kompakty dość szybko stają się pozycjami niedostępnymi. Na koniec tego wstępu warto jeszcze wspomnieć, że Die Schachtel to również rodzaj galerii, w której regularnie goszczą instalacje dźwiękowe, wystawy oraz inne wydarzenia związane z muzyką elektroniczną. Godną rozpropagowania inicjatywą tandemu Bruno Stucchi-Fabio Carboni jest SoundOhm - strona internetowa, mająca być swoistym kompendium wiedzy na temat muzyki awangardowej z lat 60-80 minionego stulecia. Ponieważ jest to nieustanny "work in progress", twórcy zwracają się o pomoc do wszystkich osób posiadających wiadomości, które umożliwią rozbudowę archiwum.

"The Tail of the Tiger" to reedycja jedynej płyty nagranej przez Prima Materia. Materiał pochodzący z wydanego w 1977 r. przez niewielką wytwórnię Ananda, której właścicielami byli Roberto Laneri, Alvin Curran i Giacinto Scelsi, albumu w wersji AD 2005 poszerzony został o dwa nagrania koncertowe z Berlina (październik 1974) oraz Rzymu (styczeń 1976). Jednak niewielkie różnice dotyczące czasu oraz miejsca powstania tychże w żaden sposób nie wpłynęły na muzykę zespołu - zdawać się może, że czas i jego upływ niewiele mają z nią wspólnego. Twórczość włoskiej formacji, porównywanej przez Terry Rileya, klasyka minimal music, a zarazem jednego z komentatorów reedycji, do Theater of Eternal Music, Harmonic Choir oraz Deep Listening Band, w jakiś przedziwny sposób wymyka się analizie umysłu.

Roberto Laneri, główna postać Prima Materia, rozpoczął pracę nad nietypowymi technikami wokalnymi w 1972 roku podczas studiów na Uniwersytecie Kalifornijskim (zajmował się tam m.in.: dźwiękiem jako nośnikiem odmiennych stanów świadomości), zespół powstał rok później w San Diego. Od samego początku współpracowała z nim Suzanne Hendricks, a po przenosinach do Włoch, skąd Laneri pochodził, do grona ścisłych współpracowników dołączyli Gianni Nebbiosi oraz Claudio Ricciardi. Prima Materia istniała do roku 1980, w tym czasie przez jej skład przewinęło się wiele osób, m.in.: Alvin Curran, Michiko Hirayama i Maria Monti, regularnie koncertując i propagując śpiew harmoniczny. Niestety nagrań pozostawiła niewiele - zdaje się, że istnieje tylko ten jeden album. Określenia: "minimalism, drones, overtone singing" wyczerpująco przedstawiają charakter zawartej na nim muzyki. Niezwykłym jest to, że choć do stworzenia muzyki użyto wyłącznie ludzkich głosów, to rezultat wydaje się nie posiadać cech ludzkich - tutaj brzmienia i posiadają aurę "elektroniczną". I choć przyzwyczailiśmy się już do technik śpiewaków Tuwiańskich czy Tybetańskich, to wciąż jakże trudno jest uwierzyć, że ludzkie ciało jest w stanie wydać takie dźwięki. Wygląda na to, że jest głos ducha, a nie ciała, a te trzy nagrania zawarte na nowej edycji "The Tail of the Tiger" zaświadczają , że podróż w głąb duszy przynosi niezwykłe rezultaty. Gorąco tę płytę rekomenduję. (vivo)


In 1977 an obscure Italian private label issued a record that sounded like it came from outer space. A long and dense trance-inducing drone of sustained notes, rich with overtones and harmonic embellishments, coming from a space so vast and unexplored that seemed almost of non-human, even electronic nature. Paradoxically, each and any molecule of that sound was produced using only the most original and archaic instrument, the human voice. The name of the group was Prima Materia (First Matter), a project that took shape in 1973 in San Diego, and the record – “The Tail of the Tiger” – was issued by the Ananda label, owned by Roberto Laneri, Alvin Curran and Giacinto Scelsi. The record soon disappeared and over the became almost a legend among collectors and experimental music lovers.

The musicians of the group Prima Materia individually researched and developed unusual vocal techniques (originally used in Tantric rituals in North India, Mongolia and Tibet), based upon the use of overtones coupled with a special state of inner concentration, which was the essential condition for both the emission and control of long-sustained and complex vocal sounds. Their capacity to sustain a note for what seems an eternity, and then continue to provide endless variations generates a continuous and sustained drone of sound, in which the overtones are clearly perceived. (dieschachtel)
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Von Lmo - Future Language (1981)


Von Lmo (pronounced Von Elmo by terrestrial lips) is dedicated to punk/metal rock from outer space. Born in the black light dimension, Von Lmo has a fondness for enlightening the denizens of the Earth to the potential of the galaxy. When he's not solving ecological crises on his adopted planet Strazar, Von Lmo is subjecting Earthlings to his interstellar message: "Advance yourself."

Entrenched in a secret compound in New York's Coney Island, Von Lmo reaches out via secret radio transmissions to communicate the need for mankind to ready themselves for galactic citizenship. These communications take the form of intensely passionate rock music, full of visceral edginess with a demonstrative space punk presence, crafted to enlighten and expand all minds to their full potential.

For Von Lmo, Earth is only a way station, part of a vast network of habitable points scattered throughout the galaxy. Music, raw and intense, is the portal through which the listener can transport themselves to these alien worlds.


Originally recorded in 1981, this 46 minute release has been reissued on CD for the edification of all modern cultures on this planet.

The genre may be heavy metal, but the music fuses other elements to achieve its sound. Passionate saxophone belts out a steady flow of extraterrestrial flair, lending the tuneage space age crazy jazz qualities. Hyperreal drumming generates a solid foundation for the searing feedback guitar and thunderous bass. The vocals are hoarse and commanding, delivering urgent lyrics that cry of tomorrow's cultural promise crashing into today's lifestyle.

The music is raw but hardly crude, hard-edged rock tuneage that grinds your teeth with primal sentiments as it expands your mind. Outer space is the main topic, clearly an obsession for Von Lmo. Possessing touches of spacey electronic effects, the focus is straight-on rock though, a blend of frenzied traditional R&B and punkified metal.

As with such music, you can expect critical guitar solos that blaze their way through the mix, burning riffs into your cerebellum with severe energy and relentless result. There are just as many sax outbursts too, as the horns scream for dominance amid the guitar, bass and drums tapestry. Do not expect the sax to sedate the music, for the sax has monstrous intentions, scheming with wild notes and surging passages to upset the balance of sonic power that seethes here.

Overall, the cumulative effect of this cacophony is invigorating. These dynamic songs are consecrated in galaxies in collision, flaring with interstellar fury and searching to impact with the listeners with explosive resolve. The music is devoted to merging the average man-in-the-street with their unrealized cosmic identity, priming all for a galactic union of purpose.

This release shares some of the same songs as "Cosmic Interception", although presented in alternate performances. (soniccuriosity)
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Edward Artemiev Electronic Music Experiment Studio Ensemble ‎– Solaris (1972)


Edward Artemiev is a composer whose name for many people is associated with electronic music. With unusual soundings, easily discernible in the present-day sound environment by their abundance of nuances and unaccountable acoustic comfort. With a peculiar world of imagery, sense of space so striking for the mind.

A wide variety of views on Artemiev's music is pronounced, dealing with its different aspects such as technical - "it's impossible to understand the way it's done", esthetical - "it's infinitely beautiful", and spiritual sides - "an encounter with the truth".

Artemiev accomplished his academic musical education at the Moscow Conservatoire in Yuri Shaporin's class of composition. His meeting with engineer Eugene Murzin - one of the first in the world to invent a synthesiser - sealed his fate: "Incredible prospects for creativity were opened up by electronic music. That was a real "terra incognita". omposers had never set foot on it in their practical activities". It happened in 1960. And in 1968 the Italian press reported after Moscow is the venue of one of the leading centres of electronic avant-garde" ("La Stampa", June 4th 1968).

Nowadays Artemiev is an acknowledged leader of Russian electronic music. Many of his experiments and discoveries have been realised in the sphere of electronic synthesis, where he is a researcher of authority and a highly poetical master.

The cultural trends of his time have been originally interpreted in the composer's creative evolution, with different facets of his individuality revealed in an alternation of stylistic orientations.

His compositions written in the 60s-the early 70s belong to the aesthetics of avant-garde. Thank to electronics, which enabled 'to enter a qualitatively different acoustical world, sound colour and timbre became the field where a search for new musical laws and relationship could be undertaken. "Sound is a palette with most subtle and lavish nuances of colours. Electronics lends some new qualities to it: peculiar acoustical sounding, unlimited duration, abundance of timbres". It is in electronics that Artemiev finds what most appeals to his gift. For him the synthesiser is a possibility to compose" sound, timbre, to sculpt it, to lend form, "colour", energy, duration. A most fascinating task for the musician with a creator's imagination, a colourist's talent and an inventor's intuition!


His findings in the sphere of colouring have expanded the limits of timbre perception. In the composition "Mosaic" (1967) "sonors" - timbres become independent means to express the motion of sounds in space. "Mosaic" won recognition at the festivals in Florence, Venice, Cologne, Bourges.

"The possibility of penetrating into the microcosm of timbre, of searching in the field of controlled-spaces creation" has been realised by Artemiev in his composition "Twelve Glimpses on the World of Sound" (1969). Here the unique technical conception - the creation of a series of acoustic "variations on one timbre" - symbolises the idea of the unity of micro- and macrocosm. Artemiev compares "the space of timbre" with perspective: "Such variations can be continued for as much time as one would like, for the given amount of overtones (as the one present in the timbre of temirkomuz - M.K.) can be combined indefinitely". "Mosaic" and "Twelve Glimpses" were included into LP record "Musical Offerings" (1990) & also were published on CD "Electroshock Presents: Electroacoustic Music. Vol. IV. Archive Tapes. Synthesiser ANS 1964- 971"on "Electroshock Records" label in 1999.

Kindred to the aesthetics of avant-garde is his incidental music for films of Andrei Tarkovsky. The unordinary tasks set by the director required similar creative efforts on the part of the composer. Writing the music to "Solaris", "The Mirror", "Stalker" resulted in serious experiments in electronics and the specific sphere of audio-video contact.

From the mid-70s Artemiev's style underwent a change in the direction of "new simplicity". The dialogue between the academic tradition and rock-aesthetics tended to meet other, "more global tasks: to assimilate the styles, genres . Resonant with those tasks was also his desire to try his hand at an openly emotional, intuitive self-expression. "Polychromaticism of timbre" still preserved its significance for the composer, however, the traditional elements of writing were more actively introduced, accompanied with a new sense of melody, rhythm, harmony.

Those creative aspirations of his were embodied, though differently, in a number of compositions. Declaratively, in his cantata "Ode to Herald of Good" to the text of Pierre de Coubertin, written for the Olympic Games in Moscow decided to take the road not of a synthesis, but of a "symbiosis" of all expressive means at my disposal, and to write each movement of the cantata in a special technique and in different genres, with electronics' expressive possibilities as a unifving pivot"(the author's annotation to the phonograph record of "Ode" ("Ritual").

In a variety of proportions and combinations the synthesis of "musics" was realised in his quasi-symphonies "The Seven Gates into the World of Satori" and "Peregrini", in the poems to Lithuanian texts "White Dove", "Summer", "Vision", in the music for the films "Sibiriada", "Fox Hunting", "The End of Eternity", "Moon Rainbow", in the cantata "The Warmth of the Earth", in the opera "Crime and Punishment" based on F. Dostoyevsky's novel.

There is a new quality perceptible in the works written in the late 80s: a blending of the democratic aspirations inherited from the aesthetics of the 70s with the ideas of avant-garde, of the rational with the intuitive. Here first mention should be made of his nostalgic cycle based on the music of Tarkovsky's films "Solaris", "The Mirror", "Stalker" (1989).


An international response has been gained by another work of the composer - "Three Glimpses on the Revolution" written for the Bicentennial of the French Revolution and commissioned from the organisers of the Electronic Music Festival in Bourges (1989). The review in the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Lisboa" ran: "... the work "Three Glimpses on the Revolution" by Russian composer Edward Artemiev has become a real discovery: his powerful music built with great skill is remarkable for outstanding accomplishment. This is a work of typically Russian composer brought up in the traditions of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich… This is a music of great epical might and undoubted expression" (from Jorge Peixinho's article "Synthesis" and "the French Revolution", October 27th 1989).

A good deal of interesting music has been created by Artemiev for the cinema. He is one of the most acknowledged masters of film music. Film directors are hopeful of success if Artemiev is involved in the film. The composer's name on the poster or advertising announcement is a lure attracting cinema-goers. It is not a surprise that phonograph records containing his film music, in particular, the disc "Mood-Pictures" with fragments from several of his film scores & double CD "Music to Films of Nikita Mikhalkov" enjoy such popularity. Abroad there is a growing interest in Artemiev's film music. In France a record had been issued with his music to Andrei Konchalovsky's serial "Sibiriada". A compact disc has been released in the Netherlands containing his voluminous electronic cycle based on his music to Andrei Tarkovsky's films and also including the composition "Ocean" written in memory of the late film director (1989). This particular CD was re- issued by "Electroshock Records" in 1999.

Over 140 "scores for sound" created by him for the cinema impress with a diversity of themes, plots, genres and heterogeneity of artistic tasks, no matter whether they are solved by means of electronics or symphony orchestra. If necessary, the composer makes use of samplers, or acoustical instruments, or orchestra.

In creative communion much depends upon Artemiev's individuality as a composer. That was the way he collaborated with Nikita Mikhalkov when working on all the films and the stage production of "An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano" at Teatro di Roma: "When I first heard his music", recollected N. Mikhalkov, "the thing that most appealed to me was its wonderful melodiousness,.. At the same time the composer has a staggering sense of style".

"Artemiev has a wonderful sense of the screen", notes Vadim Abdrashitov. "He never writes illustrative music. His music is a counterpoint to the image, adding to and revealing the inner meaning of the sequence. He can cope with any most sophisticated task. I'm sure that his potentialities have not been fully realised so far". His music for the film "Fox Hunting" has been included into the first cycle of "Mood-Pictures".

"You ask why I invited Artemiev to work at the film "Homer and Eddie", reflected Andrei Konchalovsky. "Of course, first of all because he is a gifted man and I feel easy with him". The collaboration, which originated in the film "Sibiriada", in the opera "Crime and Punishment" (its stage conception belonging to Konchalovsky), has been going on at the stage of Theatre de l'Odeon in Paris in A. Chekhov's "Seagull", in the Hollywood studios, in the films "Duet for One", where "Credo" from Artemiev's electronic Requiem is sounding, and "Homer and Eddie" (1988).

Artemiev's music appealed to Andrei Tarkovsky with its audiovisuality, spatiality, with his ability to conceive intricate associative turns, to create generalised symbols-images. Artemiev contributed to three films of Tarkovsky, as well as to the stage production of "Hamlet" undertaken by Tarkovsky in Moscow in the 70s.

Feeling of ensemble is a valuable quality in a composer working in the cinema. Artemiev is fond of and knows how to create ensemble. His subtle understanding of the director's cinematographic language, manner and style is both his experience and his special gift. "The sequence on the screen has a miraculous effect on me. I'm always patiently waiting for whatever will be shown me by the director, and then his style, language, his imagery of thinking will evoke a response in me".

Following his path in the cinema, the composer encounters different historical styles. The traditions of 19th-century dramatic-lyrical symphonies may be discerned in this music for the film "Gobseck", while the lofty spiritualness of baroque has been achieved in the "old-style" music for Stradivari instruments ("A Visit to Minotaur"). A charmingly sensitive interpretation in retro style has been found for the film "The Love Slave". A European tune of the 15th century, arranged in the manner and sounding typical of Dzen Buddhists meditations, signifies the sophisticated interlacement of the cultures of the Orient and the West ("Stalker").

Usually it is the collaboration of the composer and the engineer that yields serious achievements in electronic and computer music. As for Artemiev, his amazing "technological versatility" makes it possible to combine them in a single person. He is the author of the composition and a programmer and also the man to find a technical realisation for his musical ideas. In addition, he is a performing artist and a sound producer.

Long periods of reclusion at his studio where Artemiev creates his compositions alternate with trips to electronic music festivals - to Baltimore to attend "Res musica" International Electroacoustic Music Festival, to Bourges to take part in "Synthese" Festival International de Musique Experimentale de Bourges, to recording companies or film studios, as well as to take part in the activities of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (ICEM), UNESCO. Russian Association for Electroacoustic Music of which Edward Artemiev is President is comprised as a national section into this International infrastruction. (Margarita Katunyan)
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Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings - Propellers in Love (1986-1988)


[PL]

Arnold Dreyblatt, amerykański kompozytor studiował u P. Olivieros, La Monte Young i Alvina Luciera. Od 1979 prowadzi ORCHESTRA EXCITED STRINGS. Utwory budowane są na gitarowej intonacji. Z udziałem basu, skrzypiec, cymbał, perkusji i blach, swą dynamiką i kolorem tworzą zadziwiające brzmieniowo akustyczne efekty.

[ENG]

Among the second generation of New York minimal composers, Arnold Dreyblatt has developed a unique and original approach to composition and performance. He has invented a set of new and original instruments, performance techniques, and a system of tuning. Working closely with various ensembles and in theatrical and installation projects, he creates a music with exciting rhythms and rich textures, an exploration of the potential inherent in the natural overtone series. The musicians who have performed with Dreyblatt generally come from vastly varied musical backgrounds and interests - in common, however, is a sensitivity for an approach to music making, sonority and hearing which Dreyblatt has been developing together with musicians over the last twenty-five years. In his former Orchestra, all the members contribute to this music with their own ideas and performance techniques, gradually forming an individual musical role within the ensemble dynamic. Just as this music essentially exists only in performance, the combined acoustic effect results from a sum which is greater than its parts. Arnold Dreyblatt's compostions involve a re-thinking of sound making tools; modified and newly created acoustic instruments are utilized for specific timbral effect and perform in an unusual tuning system. Traditional and non-traditional percussion instruments accentuate the rhythmic character of the music.

Arnold Dreyblatt was born in New York City in 1953. He has been based in Europe since 1984 and is presently living in Berlin. Dreyblatt studied Film and Video Art at the State University of New York at Buffalo (M.A. from the Institute for Media Studies) with Woody and Steina Vasulka and later Music Composition with Pauline Oliveros (1974), La Monte Young (1974-76) and with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University where he received an M.A. in Music Composition in 1982.



From 1979-1997 he was director and composer for his music ensemble, The Orchestra of Excited Strings. The ensemble performed extensively in the United States from 1979-83 and recorded an LP for India Navigation Records in 1982 entitled, Nodal Excitation (IN 3024). In 1984, Dreyblatt moved his base of operations to Berlin where he formed a new ensemble while composer-in-residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. This ensemble has performed throughout eastern and western Europe as well as in the States at numerous festivals, museums, galleries and other music venues. An LP entitled "Propellers in Love" was issued by Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 1985. This recording was reissued by Hat Art Records in 1986 on compact disc along with newly recorded material. In composing a performance opera entitled "Who's Who in Central & East Europe 1933," Dreyblatt formed a new ensemble in 1991. The ensemble also recorded a number of pieces in New York with clarinetist Andy Statman which appeared on A Haymish Groove, issued by Extra Platte, Vienna, 1992. In 1995, recordings by the ensemble were released by Zaddik Records (produced by John Zorn) under the title Animal Magnetism.

In 1998, his first recording, "Nodal Excitation," was re-mastered by Jim O'Rourke and was released by his Dexter's Cigar label. Also in 1998, Table of the Elements Records released a compilation of Solo and Ensemble pieces entitled "The Sound of One-String." In 2000, the Bang On A Can All-Stars recorded a version of Dreyblatt's "Escalator" for Cantaloupe Records. A complete CD entitled The Adding Machine, also involving musicians from the Bang On A Can All-Stars, was issued by Cantaloupe in 2002.

In 1991, Dreyblatt composed "Who's Who in Central & East Europe 1933" as a co-production between Inventionen '91/DAAD, Berlin and Wiener Fest Wochen, Vienna. He has received commissions from among others: "Ars Electronica", Linz (1988), Oeyvaer Desk, Den Haag (1989), Prime Foundation, Groningen (1989), DAAD- Inventionen '91, Berlin (1990), Werkstaat Berlin, 1991, Podewil/US Arts Festival, Berlin (1993), Bang in A Can All-stars Ensemble, New York (1996), Saarlandischer Rundfunk (2002) and Academy of Art, Berlin (2003), Crash Ensemble Dublin (2005); Austin New Music Coop (2007).

He has been a guest composer at The Music Gallery, Toronto; STEIM, Amsterdam; Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven; K?nstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and has received numerous Grants and Stipendiums including: Creative Artist Public Service Program, New York (1979-80); Overbrook Foundation, New York (1983-85); Luftbrückendank Stiftung, Berlin (1985); Philip Morris Art Prize (1991); Kunstfonds e.V., Bonn (1992), Kulturfonds e.V., Berlin (1995), Foundation for Creative Performance Arts, N.Y.C. (1998) and Förderpreis, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin (2000).In recent years, Dreyblatt has been increasingly involved in integrating archival and biographical texts with his sound work in performance and installation. In 1997, he disbanded The Orchestra of Excited Strings, which had been performing continuously in New York and then in Europe since 1979. He began a period of commissioned compositions on the one hand, and occasional solo and smaller group projects. He has worked with the Bang On A Can All-Stars in New York and founded a new Orchestra in 2000 with the assistance of Evan Ziporyn and David Weinstein which resulted in the Cantaloupe CD: "The Adding Machine." Recent Commissions include a String Quartet ("Music for 16 Strings") for the Pellegrini Quartet in Freiburg (2003); "Resonant Relations" for the Crash Ensemble Dublin (2005); and "Kinship Collapse" for the Austin New Music Coop (2007). He has recently been touring with a new solo performance version of Nodal Excitation (1979) and continues to lead composition and performance workshops, such as at the "Music Gallery", Toronto, 2007. (source)
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Pogodno - Sejtenik Miuzik & Romantik Loff (2001)



"Sejtenik miuzik & romantik loff" to płyta przede wszystkim ważna, a dopiero później dobra. Rzecz w tym, że muzykom udało się na jednym materiale połączyć w zwartą całość, dwie kompletnie różne wrażliwości muzyczne: esencjonalnie rockową i hipnotycznie transową. I nie jest to tego rodzaju połączenie jakie już trzydzieści lat temu odkrył dla świata Velvet Underground, a rozwinęli kraut i space rockowcy. Muzyka Pogodno to raczej pierwotny, gitarowy hałas - on jest punktem wyjścia, a zapewne również celem zespołu. Muzycy grają tak, jakby chcieli za wszelką cenę przekrzyczeć i zagłuszyć wszystko, co pojawiło się na scenie rockowego czadu od The Stooges do Atari Teenage Riot. Służą temu rozjechane na wszystkie strony riffy, nieformene melodie i karkołomne improwizacje. Tak jakby ekspresja wykonania, a nie konkretna forma utworów była w tym całym zamieszaniu najważniejsza. Ale Pogodno to również chłonni i otwarci muzycy, którzy chowali się już w estetyce przesiąkniętych nową elektroniką lat 90.. Chcąc po prostu grać na gitarach, grają na nich w nowy, właśnie przesiąknięty transowo-narkotyczną aurą kultury techno sposob. Wspomniana na wstępie waga płyty, tkwi właśnie w tym, że Pogodno nie zmieniając typowych dla rocka środków wyrazu, zmieniło sposób myślenia o rocku. Nawet zapędzając się niekiedy w trochę jazzujące, a trochę hard rockowe improwizacje, muzycy sięgają po rytmikę drum'n'bassu, wcale przy tym nie burząc jej stricte rockowego charakteru.Zespół, który nie eksperymentował i nie szukał, a znalazł - myślę, że to jedna z polskich płyt dziesięciolecia. Również pod względem tekstowym. (źródło)


Pogodno was settled in Szczecin in 1996 and played its concerts first in Germany. First it was formed of 3 guys but in the course of last years Pogodno has grown to a kind of a big band with singing girl and a little brass. Now the band is 4 guys and is one of the best alternative Polish bands. Some people say Pogodno is the best Polish music live act and their last album was even called the best Polish music LP of 2004 in some magazines. For the last 4 years Pogodno was nominated to the most prestigious Polish music award in category “Alternative music”. The band has just recorded the music for the rock opera they performed in March. Some members are recording their own projects. If You’d like to see how we look like, to watch our videoclips and get some more information, feel free to visit our website. (last.fm)
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Ulan Bator (1995)


Ulan Bator is a French experimental post-rock band founded in 1993 by Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion. They got their name from Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia. They create lengthy instrumental music with influence from industrial and krautrock bands like Can, Neu! and Faust.

Amaury Cambuzat (vocals, guitar) and Olivier Manchion (bass) began to play together in 1987. While in Paris in 1993, they formed Ulan Bator with drummer Franck Lantignac. They built a recording studio in an unused chalk mine and recorded their first three albums there: "Ulan Bator", "2 Degrees", and "Vegetale". In 1996 they began a long relationship with krautrock band Faust during a French tour. The first meeting of Zappi W. Diermaier and Jean-Hervé Péron (of Faust) and Olivier Manchion and Amaury Cambuzat (of Ulan Bator) was recently released as Collectif Metz/Faust. Ulan Bator performed in prestigious festivals such as Les Transmusicales de Rennes, Roskilde. Their albums "Polaire"and "Vegetale" plus multiple live recordings were released in Italy by CPI. Afterwards, they signed to Sonica. In 1999, Ulan Bator recorded its Ego:Echo (Young God Records), produced by Michael Gira (Swans, The Angels of Light) together with drummer Matteo Dainese. Later in 2002 they released "OK:KO" from the Ego:Echo tours and demo sessions.


In late 2001, Olivier Manchion left and would not return until the summer 2005. In the meantime, he founded Permanent Fatal Error and released "Law Speed" in 2004. During that period Ulan Bator under the name Amaury Cambuzat (with Matteo Dainese on drums, Manuel Fabbro on bass and Egle Sommacal on guitar) recorded "Nouvel Air" and then (without Sommacal) "Rodeo Massacre" (January 2005), both released by Jestrai. During this time they performed around 200 shows in Italy and France.

After a 4 years without speaking, Olivier and Amaury met by "pure chance" at a show in which Lantignac was performing and started to perform again together in June 2005 as members of Faust. They decided to invite Franck Lantignac for a special Ulan Bator reunion featuring the original line-up for the Avant Garde Festival. In Fall 2005, Amaury and Olivier joined Faust for a UK tour, recordings of which were released as ... In Autumn, a 3 CD + DVD box set by Dirter. From there the trio went on a "D-Struction" tour in January and February 2006 in parts of Italy and Slovenia. Then in late Spring 2006 Cambuzat and Manchion toured as Cargo Culte, also known as the Ulan Bator Duo. Alessio Gioffredi (drums) replaced Franck Lantignac and the new trio toured until June 2007, when Manchion left too, being replaced on stage by Adriano Modica (bass). Few weeks before was released Ulaanbaatar, a compilation of unreleased songs based on the first years of the band (1993–1998). (wikipedia)
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The Ruts - Ruts Rules



Segs Jennings - bass
Dave Ruffy - drums
Paul Fox - guitar
Gary Barnacle - sax
Malcolm Owen - vocal
Mitt - vocal, harmonica

Mam przyjemność przedstawić jeden z moich ulubionych zespołów - The Ruts.

Utworzony na początku 1978 w Londynie przez wokalistę Malcolma Owena, gitarzystę Paula Foxa, basistę Johna Jenningsa i perkusistę Dave'a Ruffy'ego. Po śmierci Owena w lipcu 1980 pozostali muzycy zmienili nazwę zespołu na Ruts D.C. i kontynuowali wspólną działalność do 1983.

Zespół zadebiutował na scenie 25 stycznia 1978 w High Wycombe Town Hall jako support Wayne (później znana jako Jayne County) & The Electric Chairs. 25 kwietnia tego samego roku nagrał w Fair Deal Studio swój pierwszy singel "In a Rut", który ukazał się miesiąc później.

Nagrania zwróciły uwagę radiowego dziennikarza i DJ–a Johna Peela, który jeszcze w tym samym miesiącu zaprosił muzyków na sesję nagraniową dla BBC. Jesienią 1978 muzycy wzięli udział w koncercie organizowanym przez Anti–Nazi League występując u boku m.in. The Clash, Buzzcocks i Sham 69. Pod koniec stycznia 1979 The Ruts pojawili się po raz drugi na nagraniach w BBC tym razem na zaproszenie DJ–a Davida Jensena – później była jeszcze druga sesja dla Peela, która miała miejsce w maju. W tym czasie zespół zagrał trasę po Wielkiej Brytanii u boku The Damned.

W czerwcu firma Virgin Records wydała drugiego singla "Babylon's Burning", który dostał sie do pierwszej dziesiątki brytyjskiej listy (UK Top 10) zajmując 7 pozycję, a zespół został zaproszony do progamu BBC Top of the Pops. W sierpniu ukazał się kolejny singel "Something That I Said", który doszedł do 29 miejsca na brytyjskiej liście.

29 września na rynku pojawił się debiutancki album The Ruts The Crack nagrany pod producenckim okiem Micka Glossopa, który zajął 16 pozycję na brytyjskiej liście najlepiej sprzedających się albumów (UK Albums Chart). Singlowe piosenki "Babylon's Burning" i "Something That I Said" zostały włączone do płyty. Pod koniec października światło dzienne ujrzał czwarty singel "Jah War" utrzymany w stylistyce reggae. 18 lutego 1980 zespół w studiu BBC podczas trzeciej sesji nagraniowej dla Peela zarejestrował utwory: "Demolotion Dancing" i "Secret Solders", które później pojawiły się na albumie Grin & Bear It.

27 marca The Ruts wydali swój piąty singel "Staring at the Rude Boys", który dotarł do 22 miejsca na brytyjskiej liście najlepiej sprzedających sie singli (UK Singles Chart). W tym czasie muzycy, którzy od początku 1980 przygotowywali materiał na swoją drugą płytę, a także planowali trasę po USA zostali zmuszeni do odwołania brytyjskich koncertów z powodu Owena, który w tym czasie był uzależniony od heroiny. Po zakończeniu pracy nad kolejnym singlem "West One (Shine On Me)" wokalista został wyrzucony z zespołu. Niewiele później po pertraktacjach z pozostałymi muzykami został przyjęty z powrotem, lecz wkrótce dalszą współpracę z The Ruts przerwała jego śmierć. 14 lipca 1980 został znaleziony martwy w łazience w domu swoich rodziców w Hayes. Malcolm Owen zmarł mając 25 lat w wyniku przedawkowania narkotyków.

Ostatni singel The Ruts "West One (Shine On Me)" pojawił się na rynku 22 sierpnia docierając do 43 miejsca w UK Singles Charts. W grudniu 1980 wytwórnia Virgin wydała drugi album zespołu Grin & Bear It, który stanowi kompilację złożoną z utworów singlowych, koncertowych (ze stycznia 1980) oraz kilku wczesnych nagrań demo.

Po śmierci Owena Fox, Jennings i Ruffy, kontynuowali działalność zmieniając nazwę z The Ruts na Ruts D.C. (D.C. – łac. Da Capo – "powrót do korzeni") a także nawiązali krótką współpracę z Kevinem Coynem w trakcie jego prac nad albumem Sanity Stomp. W kolejnych latach wydali dwa albumy prezentujące różne style muzyczne: Animal Now (maj 1981) i Rhythm Collision (lipiec 1982), po czym w 1983 zespół rozpadł się.

W 1987 firma Strange Fruit należąca do BBC wydała album The Peel Sessions, który zawiera wszystkie nagrania jakich zespół dokonał dla Johna Peela w latach 1979–1980. W 2005 ukazał się album Babylon's Burning: Reconstructed, który zawiera szesnaście różnych remiksów utworu "Babylon's Burning" dokonanych przez różnych wykonawców tj. członków Die Toten Hosen, Apollo 440, Dona Lettsa czy Dreadzone.

21 października 2007 w wieku 56 lat zmarł na raka płuc Paul Fox.



The Ruts were a reggae-influenced British punk rock band, notable for the 1979 Top 10 hit "Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single "In a Rut", which was not a hit but was much played and highly regarded by the UK BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel.

After meeting at the Deeply Vale Free Festival, The Ruts were formed on 18 August 1977, the band consisted of Malcolm Owen (vocals), Paul Fox (guitar), John "Segs" (sometimes "Seggs") Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums). As part of Misty in Roots People Unite collective based in Southall in west London, the band were active in anti-racist causes and played a number of benefits for Rock Against Racism.

Schoolboy friends Fox and Owen shared a mutual interest in music. In the early 1970s they lived together in a commune on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where they performed their own musical compositions with Paul Mattocks, who played flute, guitar and keyboards. Mattocks later became The Ruts' first drummer.

Post Office telephone engineer Jennings met record shop manager Ruffy in 1976 and became interested in punk after discussing the latter's Ramones' T-shirt. Meanwhile, Owen's interest in punk was piqued when he saw the Sex Pistols playing live. At the time, Fox was playing with Ruffy in a funk band, Hit and Run, which included sixteen year-old saxophone player Gary Barnacle, who later played on several Ruts songs. Hit & Run were a covers band who released one single, a version of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' 1965 hit "Wooly Bully". The Ruts initial history is described in an audio interview with Jennings, conducted by Alan Parker, which appears on the album Bustin' Out.

On 16 September 1977, The Ruts made their live debut, playing three songs in a break during a set by Mr Softy (another Fox band) at The Target in Hayes, Middlesex. Early Ruts songs recorded at Free Range Studio Sessions - also in Hayes - on 1 October 1977 were "Stepping Bondage" (formerly ""Go Go Go"), "Rich Bitch", "Out of Order", "I Ain't Sofisticated" and "Lobotomy" and were Oi! in style. The group began to evolve and become more musically adventurous, incorporating reggae and dub elements into their repertoire. Dave Ruffy returned to the drums, and a new bassist, 'Segs' Jennings was recruited. The new Ruts line-up debuted supporting Wayne (later Jayne County); The Electric Chairs at High Wycombe Town Hall on 25 January 1978.



The Ruts' first single, "In a Rut" was finally released on People Unite in January 1979, having been recorded back on 24 April 1978 at the aforementioned Free Range 8-track studios. It was backed up with anti-heroin tirade "H-Eyes" on the B-side ("You're so young, you take smack for fun/It's gonna screw your head, you're gonna wind up dead"). DJ John Peel expressed his admiration for the group on air (as can be heard on a retrospective 1978 radio show clip on the In a Rut album) and a session for the BBC swiftly followed the same month. DJ David Jensen also showcased the band in a further session recorded for the BBC in February 1979. A second Peel session was in May 1979.

In 1979, after a chance meeting with The Damned drummer Rat Scabies, the band toured the UK in supporting the band at venues such as Manchester's The Factory at the Russell Club.A bootleg of their 3 November slot at Strathclyde University includes a rendition of The Damned's "Love Song" as well as a cover version of the rock and roll standard "Blue Suede Shoes". The Damned also played live covers of "In a Rut" during this period as evidenced on the Noise: The Best of The Damned Live album.

In June, their debut single for Richard Branson's Virgin Records, "Babylon's Burning" became a UK Top 10 hit, reaching number 7 in the UK Singles Chart, and prompting an appearance on BBC Television's Top of the Pops. The second Virgin single, "Something That I Said", followed in August 1979 and garnered a second Top of the Pops spot. The B-side was a reggae track "Give Youth a Chance" (also known as "Blackman's Pinch") originally recorded for the band's John Peel session in May.

Debut album The Crack was produced by Mick Glossop and released in September 1979, reaching number 16 in the UK Albums Chart. Singles "Babylon's Burning" and "Something That I Said" were re-recorded for the album.Taken from The Crack album, the band's third single for Virgin at the end of October 1979 was the dub reggae song "Jah War", about the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group's violence in Southall disturbances in April 1979.

On 11 February 1980, the band returned to a BBC studio for their third Peel session, two tracks of which - "Demolition Dancing" and "Secret Soldiers" - later appeared on Virgin's posthumous Grin & Bear It album. On 27 March 1980, The Ruts released their fifth single, "Staring at the Rude Boys", a comment on the rapidly rising Two Tone scene. It was backed by another reggae song "Love In Vein". The single reached the #22 spot on the UK Singles Chart. "Staring At The Rude Boys" was covered by the US hardcore band Dag Nasty in 1987, and by the British hardcore punk band, Gallows, in 2007.

The Ruts backed Laurel Aitken who was then signed to Secret Affair's record label, I-Spy Records on a Peel session for BBC Radio 1, in April 1980, and also backed Aitken on his support tour to Secret Affair. The line-up was Aitken, Fox, Jennings, Ruffy, Owen and Barnacle. The band also played for Aitken on his single, "Rudi Got Married".

With their latest British tour sold out in advance and an American tour lined up, the band were beginning work on their second album in early 1980. Having been forced to cancel a number of UK tour dates the other three band members fired their frontman over his drug addiction, shortly after completing work on their next single, "West One (Shine on Me)". After negotiations, Owen briefly rejoined the band.

Malcolm Owen was found dead in the bathroom of his parents' house in Hayes, from a heroin overdose on 14 July 1980 at the age of 26. Prophetically, the B-side "H-eyes" of "In a Rut" was a song against heroin use, and two other songs, "Dope for Guns" from the album The Crack, plus reggae lament "Love in Vein" ("don't want you in my arms no more") were also anti-drug songs. A year later, The Damned wrote a song, "The Limit Club", about their deceased friend which mentions the "velvet claws" that Fox talked about with reference to Owen's heroin addiction.

On 22 August 1980, the band's sixth and final single was released, "West One (Shine On Me)". Co-produced by the band themselves as they were "starting to get pissed off with the music business" (according to Jennings in an audio interview on "Bustin' Out"), the song featured brass and segued into a dub remix. The B-side was "The Crack" a lighthearted mini-pastiche of their debut album, recorded in a number of musical styles. It peaked at #43 in the UK Singles Chart.

Virgin issued a second album later in 1980, a compilation of singles, demos and live tracks entitled Grin & Bear It. The three live tracks - "S.U.S.", "Babylon's Burning" and "Society" had been recorded for Chorus, a French TV show, in January of that year. When this was later reissued on CD, early tracks "Stepping Bondage", "Lobotomy" and "Rich Bitch" were added.1980 also saw the collaboration of the remaining band members with Kevin Coyne on one half of his double album, Sanity Stomp.

The band continued as Ruts D.C. (D.C. standing for the Latin term Da Capo, meaning 'back to the beginning') in a different musical vein. They released two albums, Animal Now (May 1981 on Virgin) and Rhythm Collision (July 1982 on Bohemian Records. Ruts D.C. split in 1983. In 1987, BBC label Strange Fruit collected together the group's three Radio One sessions for The Peel Session Album: The Ruts. Live albums soon followed, including BBC Radio One in Concert (Windsong) recorded at London's Paris Theatre on 7 July 1979, The Ruts Live (Dojo) and Live and Loud.

Virgin released The Ruts vs. The Skids EP, in 1992 to promote their Three Minute Heroes compilation album. "In a Rut" and "Babylon's Burning" were lined up against The Skids' "Into the Valley" and "Working for the Yankee Dollar". Demolition Dancing (1994) was an album of live tracks recorded in 1979, two of which - "Shakin' All Over" and "In A Rut" - featured members of The Damned. Also in 1994, the German record label Vince Lombardy Highschool Records released Rules which featured sixteen tracks by The Ruts and Ruts D.C., including "Last Exit", a previously unreleased song. 1995 brought Something That I Said - The Best of The Ruts album (re-released in March 2003 and on EMI Gold in 2005).



Ruts: In a Can (2000) was an album of demos from three sessions in the period before they signed to Virgin, released in a metal tin. Fox, Jennings and Ruffy compiled and remastered this release, and also supplied liner notes. The sessions date from 25 April 1978 (8-track Fairdeal Sessions), 20 February 1979 (Underhill Studio) and Mystery Studio Sessions (early 1979).In 2001, Virgin released Bustin' Out - The Essential Ruts Collection on CD. It included "Denial", a previously unreleased instrumental track. "Bustin' Out" was rounded out with a twenty minute interview with Jennings. The same year, the 2-disc CD Criminal Minds appeared on Snapper in the UK. The second disc was a reissue of Live and Loud! from 1987. Anagram Records came up with a collection of unreleased tracks and alternate versions for their sixteen track CD, In a Rut in 2002 (reissued 2008). The compilation included a snippet of John Peel praising "In a Rut", and offering to help listeners obtain a copy if it is not available in their local record shop.Babylon's Burning Reconstructed (2005) was an album long tribute to the band's most famous song, remixed sixteen different times by Die Toten Hosen, Don Letts, Dreadzone and the Groove Corporation. The wide range of remixes included beatbox, drum and bass and ambient reworkings.

Fox came out of semi-retirement to play Ruts songs as Foxy's Ruts with his son, Lawrence, on drums. Foxy's Ruts supported Bad Manners on their Christmas tour of the UK in December 2006.

Two retrospective live albums appeared in 2006. Get Out of It!! featured eighteen songs including a sexually-themed early number by the band, "Gotta Little Number" (also titled "Stepping Bondage") from a London Marquee show on 19 July 1979 (these recordings have also surfaced as "Marquee 1979" and "Ruts 1979 - Marquee Club"). Live at Deeply Vale, featured thirteen songs from a July 1978 performance recorded at the free Deeply Vale festival that was held annually near Bury, Greater Manchester.

On 16 July 2007 the band reformed for the first time in 27 years, and played a special benefit gig for Fox, following his diagnosis with lung cancer. Henry Rollins stood in for Owen. They were supported by Tom Robinson, The Damned, Misty in Roots, U.K. Subs, Splodge (Splodgenessabounds), John Otway; and the Peafish House Band which featured Lee Harris, (The Blockheads), Tony Barber (Buzzcocks) and Rowland Rivron, plus Edward Tudor-Pole and T. V. Smith.

Fox died on 21 October of the same year, at the age of 56.

On 25 January 2008, Henry Rollins presented, The Gig, a short film about the 2007 benefit gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. The event, in support of Macmillan Cancer Support, was accompanied by live performances from Alabama 3, T. V. Smith, members of The Members, The Damned's Captain Sensible, and Beki Bondage. In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two disc set included demos, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D.C.
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Tarbaby - February (1973)



Tarbaby was a local band from the Tallahassee area consisting of Patrick Muth (guitar, vocals), Brewster Banks (bass, piano, vocals) and Wally Knoelke (drums, trumpet). Their single “ Gotta Find Me A Woman” got into the Top 20 in Panama City and in the Top 5 in Tallahassee. This album “ February” dates from 1973 and was originally released on the New South label.  Supporting the Raspberries in Panama City was one of the highlights for the band. Tarbaby disbanded in 1975 after which Muth turned up in bands like “ Crybaby” and the “ Cove Hotel Band”. Banks released eight solo albums in total. The sound on this CD is dual. On one hand Tarbaby played blues, a modal sort of blues.The opener “ Have You Seen My Baby” is a jazzy blues shuffle, easy on the ear but not spectacular.The same goes for  the lazy, funky babbling “ Swing” and “ New Song” which reminded me of the old Fleetwood Mac a bit. Tarbaby sounded better in the heavy psychedelic rock songs. Their cover of the Wilson Pickett hit “ Mustang Sally” sounds like the better Steppenwolf tracks with raw grooving guitar and a jazzy break.“ I Need Your Love” is a psychedelic ballad with great harmony vocals with a sound similar to Love. The single “ Gotta Find Me A Woman” is a raw garage rocker with slight “ What’d I Say” influences and their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “ Bootleg” again sounds like a steaming Steppenwolf track.The piano ballad “ So Long” has great floating harmony vocals and is a ballad of which Eric Carmen would be proud! (source)
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Bo Diddley - Is A Gunslinger (1961)


[PL]

Bo Diddley to właściwie jeden z ojców muzyki rozrywkowej. Trudno sobie wyobrazić jej ewolucję bez riffów gitarowych, które obmyślił sobie Bo. Nikt, kto uważa się za gitarzystę nie może powiedzieć, że nie zna jego charakterystycznej techniki gry.

Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, znany jako Bo Diddley (ur. 30 grudnia 1928 w McComb) – afroamerykański muzyk, śpiewak, skrzypek i gitarzysta związany z takimi gatunkami jak elektryczny blues, rock and roll i rhythm and blues. Bo Diddley ma na swoim koncie zaledwie kilka przebojów, jednakże jego wkład w rozwój rock-and-rolla jest nie do przecenienia. Był tym, który zdefiniował rolę sekcji rytmicznej. Od niego wywodzi się większość schematów rytmicznych używanych w rocku do dziś. Także i jego technika gitarowa wyprzedziła swoją epokę. Używał produkowanych na zamówienie gitar, o prostokątnym pudle rezonansowym. Dźwięk gitary wzmacniany, przez mocno przesterowane wzmacniacze, przypominał brzmienia o dziesięć lat późniejszego Jimi Hendrixa. W 1987 Bo Diddley został wprowadzony do Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[ENG]

The most flamboyantly packaged and distinctively themed of Bo Diddley's original albums, this record has always had unusual appeal, freely mixing truly wild R&B originals and distinctive covers (Bo even cops a legitimate arranging credit on "Sixteen Tons"). In this remastered edition, his and Peggy Jones' guitars have a resonant, bell-like clarity on top of their patented crunchiness, and the voices are up-front and in your face (check out the remastered "Do What I Say" for the combined virtues). Additionally, the record has been expanded over the original CD release with eight minutes of outtakes from the same January-February 1960 sessions -- the soulful "Prisoner of Love," showing off Bo's singing on a subtle, sultry level that he wasn't often given a chance to display; the doo wop-influenced "Googlia Moo," which shows how effective Bo's sound works in a slow, loping beat; and "Better Watch Yourself," a Chicago-style blues piece that shows Bo striding across Muddy Waters' territory, not far from (and not much less interesting than) "I'm a Man." (Bruce Eder)
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Nova Express - Space Khmer (1987)


Mannheim Germany, is hometown of Nova Express, an explosive psychedelic punk band that have been recording sporadically since the mid 80s. On their recordings, power-house drumming, overloaded guitars an vocals midway between Captain Beefheart and the Butthole Surfers, combine to devastating effect; but sadly, both their previous record companies went bust, making their records somewhat illusive and difficult to find. (delerium)
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Baikal (2007)


Baikal to kolejny poboczny projekt muzyków zespołu Bardo Pond, tym razem w składzie: John i Michael Gibbons, Clint Takeda oraz Jason Kourkonis. Pod szyldem tym wydali tylko jeden album w starym dobrym stylu, mamy tu jak zwykle konkretną, ciężką psychodeliczną improwizację zawartą na jedynie dwóch długich utworach. 


The Bardo Pond brothers, John and Michael Gibbons, team with bandmembers Clint Takeda and Jason Kourkonis for this two-track, 69-minute loopy, expansive, free-form foray into acid-drenched psychedelia called Baikal. The sticker on the package refers to Last Exit, but this is about as far as it gets from that dense space, no matter how outside it gets. One can think more in terms of the improvisational aspects of the Bevis Frond or a more guitar-centric Grails for this puppy. The Gibson brothers have learned to play some very inventive guitar that references the blues, the snakier, elongated Jimi Hendrix, and the drip, drip, drip of Eddie Hazel at his slowest, though they might also couch themselves in Randy California and Uli Jon Roth, too. It hardly matters because this is jamming in the best sense of the word -- setting up the instruments to see what happens -- on these two cuts, no matter how spacy, the groove -- bottom-heavy, belly shaking yet solid, courtesy of Clint Takeda -- is the thing. He never leaves that profane world of bottom-slinking excellence no matter how far drummer Kourkonis or the Gibson brothers go afield. "Hanafuda," the briefer cut at just under half-an-hour also features some wildly spacious synth courtesy of Aaron Ingler (who has been listening to his early Hawkwind records a lot, and yeah, that's a great thing) and percussionist Jeremiah Misfeldt. It's the faster cut of the two, but still wanders through all sorts of visceral and dreamy territory with sound and guitar clashes weaving all through the center toward the edges creating a Möbius strip-like effect. Baikal is some seriously enlightening, dangerous vision music and absolutely essential for anyone interested in psychedelic guitar groove old or new. (Thom Jurek)
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Cathy Young - A Spoonful Of Cathy Young (1969)


Cathy Young -Vocal, Guitar
Eric Weissberg - Banjo, Guitar
Don Payne - Bass
Buddy Saltzman - Drums
Ronnie Zito - Drums
Michael Joseph Abene - Piano, Organ
Patrick Rebillot - Piano, Organ

A Spoonful of Cathy Young was a strange late-'60s obscurity, not firmly in the singer/songwriter or folk-rock camps, though it owed something to those styles. Like many a woman singer of the time, she had a high, trilling voice, stopping short of being overdone to annoyance, but not that short. There's a slightly pained and strained quality to her vocals. Her songs, too, are unusually constructed, sometimes shifting as though they're combinations of different compositions. That all might sound promising, and indicative of darker territory than that explored by the usual late-'60s singer/songwriter, but a test of artists with such qualities is their ability to relay their complex volatility in a compelling matter. This album doesn't do so, the songs sounding jumbled in their mixtures of singer/songwriter rock with some blues and occasional carnivalesque ominousness. The pedestrian shot of straight blues that leads off the LP, "Spoonful," isn't really indicative of her sensibilities, which lean much more toward opaque, slightly troubled-sounding, sprawling works. Lyrically it's enigmatic but not cogent, occasionally bringing to mind a less focused Laura Nyro or Melanie at her moodiest, though any similarities aren't overwhelming. (Richie Unterberger)
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Lumerians - Transmalinnia (2011)


Combining mind-blowing visuals with a murky, chilled-out sound, it’s clear that the Bay Area quintet Lumerians is out to blow minds. Based out of Oakland, CA, the garage-psych outfit, consisting of Tyler Green, Luis Vasquez, Christopher Musgrave, Marc Melzer, and Jason Miller, layer their rhythm-heavy sound with deep bass, synthesizers, and drifting guitars, creating music that’s highly exploratory while maintaining enough of a groove to get people’s feet moving. The band made their debut in 2008 with a self-titled, self-released EP. After hooking up with Knitting Factory Records, the band released the first full-length, Transmalinnia, in 2011. 


Whether it’s to another culture, planet, or plane of existence, psychedelic music is all about the journey. There are unknown musical destinations out there just waiting to be discovered, laying in wait for some bold musical explorers to come and plant their flag in them. On their full-length debut, Transmalinnia, Bay Area psych outfit Lumerians take up this role without hesitation. Finding a nice spot between the low-end murk of Broadcast and the garage grooves of Clinic, the band dabbles in a style that seeks to be simultaneously mind-bending and danceable. While Lumerians keep it tight and funky on songs like “Black Tusk” and “Melting Space,” they also understand the importance of letting their sound breath a little. On the languid “Atlanta Brook,” the band slowly allows the song to open up, carefully adding layers as the song wanders to its conclusion in no particular hurry. Things get really out there on the sprawling “Longwave,” which attempts to enthrall you with its hypnotic drone, slowly drawing you in with its low-end buzz over the course of nine minutes. Normally, a band trying to cover such a wide spectrum would end up falling into the “jack of all trades, master of none” category, spreading itself too thin to really make an impact with any of its experiments. Lumerians, however, artfully dodge this trap with a style that allows them to change gears with only subtle changes, giving their sound a purity and sense of vision that makes Transmalinnia an impressive and promising debut. (allmusic)
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Trans-Syberia - 1/h (2011)



Miłośnikom trudniejszych brzmień polecam serdecznie płytę Trans-Syberia "1/h" - muzyczny projekt Krzysztofa Wrońskiego i Joanny Kucharskiej udzielających się w grupie Marla Cinger. To solidna, "mózgojebna" dawka dronu, rozwalająca przesterowanymi gitarami i syntezatorami. Płyta, której trzeba słuchać w skupieniu, bo mimo iż brzmienia są potężne to przenoszą w zupełnie inną czasoprzestrzeń. Płyta dostępna na nasiono.net Polecam !!!
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Andy Votel - Music to Watch Girls Cry (2003)



Andy Votel to w wąskich kręgach człowiek-legenda. angielski producent muzyczny, grafik, dj, kolekcjoner płyt, autor serii rewelacyjnych mixów, muzyczna encyklopedia, a przede wszystkim właściciel szalonej wytwórni finders keepers, specjalizującej się w wydawaniu nieznanej nikomu muzyki z lat 60 i 70tych. (źródło)

[ENG]

Andrew Shallcross, known by his stage name Andy Votel, is an electronic musician, DJ and record producer, co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records. He is also a founder member of the B-Music collective alongside David Holmes, Bob Stanley, Belle And Sebastian, Cherrystones and Gerald Short.

Votel has been the curator of a number of events including the 2006 event at the Barbican Centre celebrating the music of Jean-Claude Vannier and Serge Gainsbourg. This event reunited musicians who played on the albums Histoire de Melody Nelson and L’enfant Assassin des Mouches. It also featured a number of contemporary artists as guest vocalists including Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy, Brigitte Fontaine, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey and the lead singer from Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys.

Votel is also a remixer of compilation CDs, including Music To Watch Girls Cry and Vertigo Mixed, a compilation of rare tracks from the Vertigo Records catalogue. He is from Marple Bridge in Stockport. His image features on the cover art of Have You Fed the Fish? by singer-songwriter Badly Drawn Boy. Votel is also a graphic designer. (wikipedia)

Strange title, strange concept, with the Twisted Nerve main man and DJ from Manchester, England, corrupting Andy Williams' nomenclature for this compilation -- and corrupting the listener with a mix that makes like a selector with Tourette's syndrome in its race through no less than 76 tracks in as many minutes. Surely a record-breaker in terms of volume in itself, though Votel somehow matches this unprecedented quantity with an equally impressive quality. Culled from his contributions to Fat City's Counter Culture radio show, the selection sweeps through some truly obscure and often bizarre recordings. Zappa and Beefheart are about as commercial as the content gets, with the track listing less a reflection of the new than a veritable master class in crate-dug obscurity. Think of an aural world where garage rock cuddles up to Kraftwerk, Gainsbourg shakes his booty to Can, and a band named Copper Plated Integrated Circuit penned "Hey Jude." Quite possibly the finest compilation in the world. (Kingsley Marshall)
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Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis / Pithoprakta / Eonta (1965)


Iannis Xenakis (Ioannis Xenakis), właśc. Jannis Ksenakis lub Joannis Ksenakis (ur. 29 maja 1922 w Braile w Rumunii, zm. 4 lutego 2001 w Paryżu), grecki kompozytor muzyki współczesnej, teoretyk i architekt. Jest uznawany za jednego z najważniejszych kompozytorów powojennych na świecie.

Studiował architekturę i inżynierię na Uniwersytecie w Atenach. Brał udział w greckim ruchu oporu podczas II wojny światowej, a następnie w greckiej wojnie domowej. Otrzymał kilka ran w walkach, w wyniku jednej z nich stracił wzrok w jednym oku. W 1947 roku wyjechał nielegalnie do Paryża, w Grecji zostając zaocznie skazanym na karę śmierci.

Większość swojego życia spędził we Francji, studiując kompozycję u A. Honeggera, D. Milhauda i O. Messiaena i współpracując z architektem Le Corbusierem. Xenakis łączył proces komponowania z modelowaniem matematycznym, procesami stochastycznymi i teorią gier. Miał również duży wpływ na rozwój muzyki elektronicznej. Kompozytorami powołującymi się na związki ze stylem kompozytorskim Xenakisa są m.in. Krzysztof Penderecki, Zbigniew Karkowski, Elliot Goldenthal i Toru Takemitsu. Xenakis wielokrotnie gościł w Polsce, często uczestnicząc w prawykonaniach swoich dzieł na festiwalu Warszawska Jesień. (wikipedia)


Iannis Xenakis was a composer of Greek heritage and Romanian birth, known for his revolutionary ideas regarding the systematic, mathematical organization of music and its structural parallels with architecture, and for his pioneering work in electronic music. Xenakis' initial exposure to music came in the first ten years of his life, when he was surrounded by the folk music of the Romanian countryside and the liturgy of the Byzantine Orthodox Church. In 1942, when his family moved to Greece, he was exposed to the music of Beethoven and Brahms for the first time.

His life grew turbulent when he entered Athens Polytechnic with the intent of becoming an engineer. When Greece was invaded during the World War II, Xenakis became passionately involved with resistance and liberation groups, first protesting against Nazi rule and, later, opposing the British, who, in 1944, drove out the Germans but sided with right-wing politicians against the Greek National Liberation Front. Xenakis was seriously wounded, his face disfigured, when he was hit by a British shell; he also lost vision in one eye. As a member of the resistance, he was eventually arrested and sentenced to death. He escaped in 1947, hoping to reach the United States. He ended up settling in Paris, however, and taking French nationality. In Paris, Xenakis made numerous important contacts, befriending Messiaen, Honegger, Mihaud, and the celebrated architect Le Corbusier, who were all impressed by his innovative and brilliantly intellectual approach to music. Working with Le Corbusier, Xenakis was highly involved with civil planning and architecture, designing some landmark sites throughout the world. For him, architecture was musical, and music was architectural. He frequently used one to inspire the other, basing pieces on computer programs and complex mathematical equations. This approach resulted in highly theoretical, systematic music characterized by intricately calculated rhythms, dense and often explosive textural fields, extended timbral effects, and "clouds" of sound that contain countless "particles." Some of his most important works include the orchestral Metastasis (1954), Pithoprakta (1956), Nomos Alpha for solo cello, and groundbreaking electronic works such as Bohor I, and Concret P-H. Xenakis was the founder of the EMAMu in Paris and its American counterpart, the Center for Musical Mathematics and Automation in Bloomington, Indiana. (Graham Olson)
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The Joint - Freak Street (1967)


The Joint were created in July 1967 out of the Folkestone based band The Lonely Ones, who had included in their earlier line ups Noeal Redding, who of course went on to fame and fortune with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Jim Leverton, who played with The Yardbirds. During European dates in 1967 the band met up with the film writer David Llewelyn and director/composer George Moorse and went on to record soundtrack material for a series Munich underground movies in Germany, including "Jet Generation" and "Der Griller".

These recordings made during 1968 & early 1969 included the following personnel:
  • John "Andy" Andrews - lead vocals
  • Trevor Williams - guitar, voc
  • Rick Davies - keyboards, voc
  • Keith Bailey - drums
  • Martin Vinson / Steve Brass - bass
  • Tony Catchpoloe - guitar
Most of the recordings of "The Joint" were long presumed lost, this release has been taken direct from a recently rediscovered 1/4 inch demo tape. The Tape had degenerated over time and the sound quality suffers in some places as a consequence, but to bring thus great lost band to light again after years we feel sure will agree is worth it. (Cyclone)
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The Guilty Hearts (2005)


Leon Zalez - vocals, guitar, harmonica
Edgar Rodriguez - fuzz guitar, vocals
Hermann Senac - drums

The Guilty Hearts are a primitive, lo-fi combo made up of 3 generations of native Angelinos from the Hispanic quarter of LA, steeped in the city's culture, angst, and excess, playing a mix of trashy bluesy rocknroll. Hermann Senac, the group's elder statesmen, is L.A. punk rock royalty, having co-founded cow-punk innovators Blood on the Saddle. Hermann's primitive pounding can also be heard on records by Crowbar Salvation/Marty Nation and Ace Farren Ford (Child Molesters), Loafin' Hyenas (w/ Rob Ritter of 45 Grave fame & Tex Edwards, Click Morte) & more.

Edgar Rodriguez, the fucked up fuzz guitarist, spent his most recent years laying down bass with The Rippers. The Rippers were a short lived Los Angeles band that appeared on the L.A. Shakedown compilation, but served to unite Edgar and Leon as a strong songwriting duo.Leon "Catfish" Zalez, the youngest member of the Guilty Hearts, also did time in The Rippers. He brings to the table his wild guitar, his tortured words and his screaming harp.
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Sonic's Rendezvous Band - City Slang (1999)


Proszę chwilę odczekać po zakończeniu pierwszej części utworu
(please wait after the first part of the recording)

Fred "Sonic" Smith - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Scott Morgan - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Gary Rassmussen - bass, backing vocals
Scott "Rock Action" Asheton - drums

In the Midwest during the 1970s, you would be hard-pressed to find a rock group with a more impressive pedigree than Sonic's Rendezvous Band, which brought together members of four key bands from the fabled Detroit/Ann Arbor rock scene of the late '60s -- Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5, Scott Morgan of the Rationals, Gary Rasmussen of the Up, and Scott Asheton of the Stooges. Among fans of high-energy Michigan rock, Sonic's Rendezvous Band would -- with the passage of time -- become nearly as legendary as their forebears, but it would be years before listeners outside of the Midwest had much of a chance to hear their music; fate seemed to conspire against them while they were together, and one of the most talented and powerful acts of its day ended up releasing only a one-song single during its six-year lifespan.

The Sonic's Rendezvous Band story began after the MC5 broke up following a disastrous final show on New Year's Eve 1972. It wasn't long before Fred "Sonic" Smith began blocking out plans for a new band; Smith initially attempted to reunite with the MC5 rhythm section of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson for a project called Ascension, but the new act didn't last more than two or three shows before stalling out. Meanwhile, singer and guitarist Scott Morgan was also eager to start making music again following the collapse of the Rationals, and through MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer he was introduced to Smith. Smith and Morgan struck up a friendship, and after Smith contributed lead guitar to Morgan's first solo single, they decided to form a group. They teamed up with Davis on bass and ex-Rationals Bill Figg and Terry Trabandt on drums and guitar; after a single gig, this lineup splintered following Davis' arrest on drug charges, as Trabandt moved over to bass while Jeff Vail was recruited to play drums. Following one show under the name the Orchids (sparsely attended thanks to a blizzard), the group officially became Sonic's Rendezvous Band after the arrival of new bassist Ron Cooke, formerly with Mitch Ryder's Detroit. Several drummers came and went before Scott Asheton was invited to join when he returned to Michigan after several years in California in the wake of the Stooges' final burnout. Cooke's enthusiasm for motorcycles became as issue when he pawned his bass to buy a new bike several days before a gig; Cooke was fired, and Gary Rasmussen came aboard, completing the definitive SRB lineup.


In 1975, Sonic's Rendezvous Band began playing around Michigan, with both Smith and Morgan writing outstanding original songs for the group and trading off on lead vocals. While SRB's history may have helped them draw an audience in Michigan, they declined to trade on their past, refusing to play any material by their former acts. The band steadily built a following, playing clubs and roadhouses around the state, but the major music industry was playing little attention to Michigan in the mid-'70s, and given the drug-fueled chaos of the MC5 and Stooges' final days, major record labels were not especially interested in signing an act featuring members of both groups. And though no one questioned Smith's talent, by many accounts the band's de facto leader wasn't always easy to work with; he was a man of few words and not strongly motivated to a heavy performing schedule, though he always delivered the goods once he hit the stage and was writing some of the best songs of his career.

Despite the group's troubles, by 1978 things began looking up for SRB. They were regularly packing clubs in Detroit and Ann Arbor and opening for national touring acts, and had recorded two songs for a self-released single they hoped would attract label interest. However, due to growing tensions between Smith and Morgan, Morgan's song "Electrophonic Tonic" was pulled from the B-side, and instead the 45 featured stereo and mono mixes of Smith's masterpiece, "City Slang." Shortly before the record was to be released, the group accepted an invitation to tour Europe as Iggy Pop's backing band, but without Morgan; Morgan recorded some solo demos with friends while the band was away, and when Smith found out, it widened the gap between them. And in 1976 Smith had met punk poetess Patti Smith and they became romantically involved; once they moved in together in 1978, Fred gradually lost interest in touring, and SRB's momentum flagged. Following a series of benefit shows for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (which Morgan sat out), the band quietly came to a halt in 1980, the same year Patti and Fred were married. Fred's next major project didn't arrive until 1986; he collaborated with Patti on her album Dream of Life as a songwriter, guitarist, and producer. It proved to be one of Fred's last recordings; he died due to heart failure on November 4, 1994. Since SRB's breakup, Morgan has recorded and toured as a solo artist as well as with the bands Powertrane, Dodge Main, and the Hydromatics; Rasmussen remains busy with session work and live shows with his group GRR; and Asheton tours the world with the reunited version of the Stooges. SRB reunited for a one-off show in 1999 as the Rendezvous Band, with Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman sitting in for Smith; the concert was released on CD in 2000 as Gettin' There Is Half the Fun.


As the rise of punk rock spawned a new interest in the Detroit rock scene of the '60s that did so much to inspire the raucous new music, Sonic's Rendezvous Band began developing an international reputation among forward-thinking rock fans who refused to fade away with the breakup of the group. In the '80s, several bootlegs of SRB demos and live concerts surfaced, as did a pirate re-pressing of the "City Slang" single. In 1998, an independent label in Detroit, Mack Aborn Rhythmic Arts, released the first authorized Sonic's Rendezvous Band album, Sweet Nothing, drawn from a soundboard tape of a 1978 Ann Arbor concert. A second album from Mack Aborn, City Slang followed in 1999, which paired the rare 1978 single with a collection of live tracks. In 2006, the U.K. label Easy Action issued an ambitious six-disc box set that gathered a sampling of demos, rehearsal recordings, and studio material along with four full SRB concerts, pushing interest in the group to an all-time high. A series of archival live recordings, some drawn from the box set, followed over the next several years.~ Mark Deming, all media guide



During the late '70s, various members of the MC5, the Stooges, and other influential rock groups from the southeastern Michigan area teamed up to form a number of short-lived but legendary bands. The best known of these would be Sonic's Rendezvous formed by MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith. The group also included singer/guitarist Scott Morgan, formerly of the Rationals, drummer Scott "Rock Action" Asheton of the Stooges, and former Up bassist Gary Rasmussen. Sadly they only released one single, 1978's "City Slang," before breaking up the following year. Twenty-one years later, Detroit label Mack Aborn Rhythmic Arts released a CD of the same name, containing two mixes of the single as well as a number of songs recorded at shows all over Michigan. Many of these songs have only been previously available on badly recorded bootlegs that don't do the songs the justice that City Slang delivers. Tracks like "Heaven" and "Gone With the Dogs come off as raw and as intense as they originally sounded when they were first delivered with the deafeningly explosive power that Sonic's Rendezvous was known for. Their combined experience and talents were gracefully demonstrated by their ability to write simply and honestly without having to resort to clichés. City Slang is the proof that they had the ability to create some of the most raw and uncompromising Rock & Roll that the Motor City has ever hosted.~ John Griffin, all media guide
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