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Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - The Feed-Back (1970)


This is a guest post by writer and musician Dave Madden. Take it, Dave:

What lingers in the closets of the Brass Ring of recent film composers? James Horner scored Robert Conrad’s kinda-crappy cult classic The Lady in Red. James Newton Howard did session work for Ringo and arranged songs for Olivia Newton-John.  And then you have Ennio Morricone whose wardrobe contains enough oddity to match the awards on his mantle.

During the mid ‘60s, while Morricone was securing his role as the Spaghetti Western king via Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, he became a member of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a revolving collective of musicians dedicated to “anti-musical systems and noise techniques” (note: he was part of the band even throughout his days with Dario Argento and his first academy award nomination for the 1979 Days of Heaven).

GDIDNC loosely labeled their technique “Instant Composition”, as everything went direct to tape, not staff paper. They merged a collage of the previous 50 years – Webern-like serialistic pointillism, free jazz, spectralism, Musique concrète – with extra-musical philosophies and disciplines; not to be confused with aleatoricism, they crafted their works not by emptying their preconceptions to get to zero, but incorporating myriad ideas and exercises to guide themselves to zero. While that reads as par for the course for improvising musicians today, there are a few things that separate them from your average non-musician – and placed the crew in the flagship ranks of AMM and Musica Elettronica Viva, and turned them into idols for a young John Zorn (he wrote the liner notes to their 2006 box set, Azioni) .

First, each of the tenuous group was a fantastic musician, respected sound artist and/or scientist: a friend and collaborator of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono (who, together, established the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw), Gruppo founder and pianist Franco Evangelisti was involved with the Studio of Experimental Electroacoustics of UNESCO, focusing on the biophysics of brain impulses as sonic vibrations; Mario Bertoncini (percussion, piano) made his living as a music educator and, for decades, a concert pianist; Roland Kayn’s (Hammond organ, vibraphone, marimba) “monumental graphic scores” for orchestra were performed by Pierre Boulez, though he later devoted his life to “Cybernetic Music”, a sonic renewing process that became the focus of his ten-hour long Scanning. And so on with all eighteen-and-counting purported contributors.

More importantly, as former Down Beat editor Art Lange points out, they were all known for their compositional savvy:

The key words here, however, are “composers” and “organized.” Evangelisti insisted on a performing ensemble that consisted solely of composers in part because of the inherent (even if intuitive) sense of formal logic they would bring to the performance, but also to avoid any taint of instrumental virtuosity for its own sake.

Lastly, when they performed, the disparate personalities combined into a single, flailing behemoth that did not understand the concept of “lull” or “wandering” as it pursued its artistic objective. (source)


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Gamelan Son Of Lion ‎- The Complete Gamelan In The New World (2004)


Gamelan Son of Lion is a new music repertory ensemble based in downtown New York City specializing in contemporary pieces written for the instruments of the Javanese gamelan. There are about a hundred active gamelan ensembles in the United States at the current time. Gamelan Son of Lion now rates among the oldest of these, having performed continuously since 1976. It is also one of the few in this country which operate independently of institutions as a professional music ensemble.

The ensemble was begun by a core group of composers: Barbara Benary, Daniel Goode, and Philip Corner. Its repertoire centers on new compositions by these and other American composers, both ensemble members and commissioned guests. The repertoire represents a variety of contemporary music styles. The gamelan has also performed experimental works by Indonesian composers, a number of pieces involving gamelan with electronic music, and several theatre works involving opera, wayang kulit, multimedia and dance. More than a hundred pieces have been premiered by the ensemble since its inception.

Gamelan Son of Lion is organized as a not-for-profit corporation and has been supported in its presentations by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Arts International and several private foundations. The ensemble performed as guests of the Government of Indonesia at Expo 86 in Vancouver, Canada, and toured Java in 1996, participating in the Jogjakarta Gamelan Festival and the Borobudur Festival. More recent tours have been to New Zealand and Estonia.

Gamelan Son of Lion's instruments were built in village style by Barbara Benary using steel keys, cans for resonators, hubcaps for kempul, etc. They are tuned in a typical central Javanese non-diatonic slendro and pelog. The initial instrument designs were provided by Dennis Murphy, an ethnomusicologist, multi-cultural musician and experimental instrument builder from Vermont. 

The set was later supplemented by new iron gongs and bonang by Suhirdjan of Jogjakarta.


Son of Lion began its life as a gamelan composer’s collective in 1976, when the instruments were moved to New York City from Rutgers University, where Barbara Benary had originally built them to use in teaching. From the beginning, Son of Lion had a profound commitment to democracy in choosing pieces to be played. Benary and co-founders Philip Corner and Daniel Goode have firmly believed in and fiercelydefended this founding principle, which they credit with enabling the ensemble to endure the changes of time and personnel over 30 years. As Benary states, “It was part of our vision — me, Dan and Phil. A piece could work or not, whether it was by a student or an established artist. I also feel committed to work by people outside the collective, and try to get at least two people who are not in the group represented in programs each year.” Even with this broad-reaching policy, each of the founding composers brought a strong personal compositional perspective and ensemble aesthetic to the group.

Benary’s early work had been melodically centered, and was often for theater or opera. A violinist Benary became more involved with the music of India and Indonesia while completing graduate studies in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University where she studied Javanese gamelan music. As Son of Lion became more active, “naturally, gamelan became my instrument,” Benary explains. “So I write pieces that take into account what the instruments do, what the tuning does, what the tuning doesn’t do.” Benary drew on her traditional training as well as her theatrical interests to do several shadow puppet operas with gamelan. “In composing operatic music for gamelan my thinking has been much more western and I have pushed the instruments in that direction. My melodic thinking is actually very western, but you know, it goes both directions. The things I learned just became part of what I know, a total vocabulary. I know what a dominant chord is, I know what the Javanese form Sampak is. I don’t really think categorically.”


Goode, a clarinetist who had been composing since 1959, first got to know the gamelan instruments as a performer. His involvement with Son of Lion increased after the move to New York, when he also became familiar with the work of Benary, Corner and early collective members. “I was urged invited, cajoled and almost teased into writing my first gamelan piece,” Goode recalls. “I had already premiered a clarinet piece using circular breathing, which is continuous, with all the bells and whistles of minimalism, a totally committed minimalist piece.” Translating an existing piece to gamelan seemed a good first step, and Goode wasthrilled to find that “it worked technically and spiritually.” His compositions for gamelan continued to draw on contemporary developments inexperimental music. “I was interested in Cage, I was interested in all these new procedures, I was interested in numeric patterns, in random numbers. We were just a buzzing factory of new ideas then. I thought I could make a beautiful piece with random numbers, and up with three different three pieces using random numbers, one of which is on the first record.” [now re-issued by Locust Records as "The Complete Gamelan in the New World."] Goode also began to work with metal hubcaps as instruments, and these were to become one of Son of Lion’s trademark sounds.

When asked what gamelan has added to his life, Goode replied with warm intensity. “Lushness. It is a whole realm, a canvas in my mind. It is a living tradition, and sitting and playing and working with people year after year — we don’t have too many things like that. I still write western music with completely different points of view, models, and techniques, yet I am bi-cultural to the degree that I have adapted to thinking like a gamelan composer. It gave me a whole new way to be involved with this music; it made it real.”

Benary sums up the essential identity of Gamelan Son of Lion as a “composer’s collective and repertory ensemble.” She mentions occasionally thinking about ending her focus on gamelan, but, fortunately for us, she has always changed her mind! (gamelansonoflion)
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John Tilbury - For Tomasz Sikorski (2012)


John Tilbury – brytyjski pianista, improwizator. Jeden z najwybitniejszych żyjących muzyków. Jego zainteresowania muzyczne koncentrują się wokół muzyki współczesnej, eksperymentalnej i awangardowej. Jest związany z muzykami ze sceny improwizowanej. W 1980 roku został członkiem legendarnej formacji AMM. (...) Tilbury współpracował z wieloma współczesnymi kompozytorami takimi jak: Dave Smith, John White, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Terry Riley oraz Cornelius Cardew. Co ważne dzięki stypendium polskiego rządu studiował w Warszawie u Zbigniewa Drzewieckiego razem z Tomaszem Sikorskim. John Tilbury wspomina spotkanie z Sikorskim: „Tomka Sikorskiego spotkałem po raz pierwszy w 1961 roku. Obaj uczęszczaliśmy do klasy Zbigniewa Drzewieckiego w Konserwatorium Warszawskim. Tomek musiał mieć wtedy nieco ponad dwadzieścia lat. Pamiętam go jako osobę porywczą, swawolną i nieznoszącą głupoty. Jego wypowiedzi były bystre i precyzyjne, tak jak jego ruchy. „Szybko, szybko”, zwykł poganiać przyjaciół.” O przyjaźni dwóch artystów opowiada Tilbury: „Zostaliśmy przyjaciółmi. Nie było dnia, żebyśmy nie spotykali się gdzieś na mieście, często z innymi przyjaciółmi, aby rozmawiać, nie tylko o muzyce, oraz jeść i pić w Hotelu Bristol bądź w jednej z ulubionych kawiarni na Krakowskim Przedmieściu – Telimenie czy Ali Babie. Tomek był człowiekiem szczodrym, czasem trudnym, ale o złotym sercu.”

Tomasz Sikorski – kompozytor i pianista. Na początku swojej twórczości komponował utwory przede wszystkim na fortepian. Wkrótce w jego muzyce pojawiły się również cechy charakterystyczne dla minimalizmu: powtarzanie współbrzmień lub motywów i eksponowanie struktur rytmicznych. Uważany za pierwszego polskiego minimalistę. Sikorski stał się w latach dziewięćdziesiątych postacią nieomal kultową.

Wracając do płyty „For Tomasz Sikorski” – John Tilbury tak opisuje materiał: „Muzyka na tym albumie ukazuje doskonały słuch Sikorskiego w kwestii harmonii i rejestrów. „Minimalizm” jego utworów wynikał naturalnie, powtórzenia nigdy nie wydają się arbitralne. Ale przede wszystkim jest to par excellence muzyka fortepianowa. Końcowa  improwizacja na fortepian to mój skromny hołd, elegijny w swym charakterze, wypełniony echami oraz prywatnymi wspomnieniami o człowieku i jego muzyce.”

Ich znajomość, dodaje Tilbury, nie trwała zbyt długo: „Po moim powrocie do Anglii w 1965 roku straciliśmy kontakt. Prowadziliśmy zabiegane życie, a nasze ścieżki już nigdy się nie skrzyżowały. Ale pamięć pozostaje. Silna i przejrzysta. To były dobre czasy…” (nowamuzyka)


Tomasz Sikorski was a Polish pianist and composer (1939 - 1988): "At very beginning of his career as a composer, Sikorski clearly defined the path he would take and never departed from it. What he always found the most important was the sound itself - the acoustic object with its initial phase, its resonance, its vibration and its inner substance. His primary interest was always in the tonal gesture, the sounding phenomenon and pinned them to a piece of paper rather as some people pin butterflies." When he was student he was friends with John Tilbury, who also studied in Warsaw, but after Tilbury got back to England they lost touch. Now this pianist (of AMM fame) plays three of his pieces and a lengthier improvisation dedicated to his old friend. In that piece he shows us how Tilbury has developed over the years as extraordinary pianist with extended techniques above and beyond the piano. AMM fans - and I am one, although I haven't played many of their works in recent years - will surely recognize his style, ever so apparent on AMM albums. This is surely a different work than the three Sikorski pieces, which are all about playing the keys of the piano in a minimal way - sparse with notes, rather than repeating phrases. The tonal gesture I should think, as his music is very beautiful and poetic, along the lines, I should think (but I am no expert) of Erik Satie or Claude Debussy. Highly classical music, even by the 'modern'standard of the time when it composed. It makes a great CD however. (bocianrecords)
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Irwin Art Projekt ‎- Astraalne Veeretus (2012)


This guy has been self-recording and -releasing stuff since the mid 70s. He was Estonia's first punk artist and also made the most avant-garde music in 70s Estonia. The title of this song translates "There's shit around us" and the genre is "psychodelic indie-punk". (bonistik)

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Lód - reżyseria Konstantin Bogomołow


Widziałem "Lód" Konstantina Bogomołowa w Teatrze Narodowym. Fakt, że podejmuję się napisania tych kilku słów dowodzi, że sztuka zrobiła wrażenie. Nie uważam się za krytyka teatralnego, ale w miarę wyrobionego widza i muszę powiedzieć, że w życiu nie widziałem takiego gówna i nie boję się użyć tego słowa bowiem kloaczny charakter powinien w zamyśle reżysera być komplementem. Sztuką jest zrobić z gówna arcydzieło, ale na pewno sztuką nie jest z arcydzieła zrobić gówno."Lód" jest adaptacją powieści Władimira Sorokina pod tym samym tytułem. 

Spektakl na stronie teatru jest opisywany z ostrzeżeniem, że zawiera drastyczne sceny i słownictwo. Do ortodoksów się nie zaliczam, więc spokojna głowa. Myliłem się. Pierwsza godzina to praktycznie sam rynsztok - chuje, pizdy, wszechspływająca sperma i sraka, rżnięcie w dupę i walenie w żyłę itp. Wszystko to dziwnie i obco brzmi w ustach świetnych aktorów (polskich!). Jadąc autobusem czy po prostu spacerując ulicami słyszę taki sam język, ale te słowa wypowiadają mistrzowie mowy polskiej - aktorzy, którzy powinni służyć kulturze języka.  Druga godzina tej męki to jakiś oddech. Reżyser sugeruje, że jego sztuka ma głębszy sens - opowiada o istnieniu tajemniczej sekty nadistot - Świetlistych, która budzi się z uśpienia i wkracza między ludzi. Tytułowy lód służy im do walki z otaczającą ich ludzkością. Pojawiają się nawiązania do II wojny światowej, do czasów stalinizmu.

Mojej uwagi nie przykuła ani scenografia składająca się z kilkunastu leżanek oraz krzyża z trupią czachą, która ma niby nadać aurę tajemniczej symboliki; ani gra świateł (Jacqueline Sobiszewski - zdolna i z czujem reżyser światła); ani muzyka - reżyser uznał, że pewnie bardzo oryginalnym będzie cytat z muzyki György Ligeti'ego wykorzystany w fimie Kubricka "2001: Odyseja Kosmiczna" - niestety w sztuce wypada tragicznie, a nie kosmicznie; aktorzy snują się po scenie jakby sami nie bardzo wiedzieli co tam robią. Koszmaru dopełnia monotonne jak kroplówka plumkanie na fortepianie. Oglądając to przedstawienie ratowałem się spoglądaniem na zegarek oraz w kierunku wentylatorów na suficie sali Bogusławskiego.

Jedyne co mogę dodać na obronę tego pasztetu to udział znakomitych polskich aktorów (Danuta Stenka, Mariusz Bonaszewski, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Bożena Stachura, Karol Pocheć, Przemysław Stippa, Waldemar Kownacki, Wiktoria Gorodeckaja i inni), którzy na prawdę starają się wszystko to ratować, ale i tu reżyser zamknął ich w  bryle lodu nie dając za bardzo możliwości rozwinięcia skrzydeł. W bryle lodu zaklęta jest też chyba narodowa scena, bo przepraszam, ale wydawanie publicznych pieniędzy na wystawienie tego "czegoś" i jeszcze żądanie za bilet od 30zł do 70zł jest po prostu skandalem - ja dałbym może 2zł (tyle co za miejski szalet). Narodowy teatr nie jest teatrem elit, tylko zgodnie ze swoim przeznaczeniem służy dobru wspólnemu - kulturze. Przygnębiające jest to, że robiony wszech obecnie chłam za wielką kasę pretenduje do miana sztuki.

Niech Państwa nie przekonują recenzje krytyków, którzy pewnie będą bić towarzyską pianę, cmokać "ą-ę" - wszak wiadomo, że biorą pieniądze za nakręcanie rynku i za odpowiedni bankiecik gotowi napisać, że wszystko jest takie piękne i wspaniałe. "Lód" znajdzie na pewno swoich fascynatów - i wszystko w porządku - tylko nie jest to pozycja na największą narodową scenę. I tak mamy zimę i jest zimno - polecam więc Państwu herbatę z imbirem i nie wychodzenie na LÓD - można pomałać sobie nogi (Teatr Narodowy chyba sobie połamie). TAK - JA MAM SERCE !!! I nie jest to jedyne odkrycie jakiego dokonałem bez oglądania tej inscenizacji. Wiadomo jeszcze, że ....


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Please - 1968/69 (1998)


A fantastic collection of demos and acetates spanning several line- ups of the band including members of The Flies, T2, Bulldog Breed and The Gun. All of the tracks have been taken from original master tapes and restored acetates between the years of 1968 and 1969 and is the essential companion to the equally stunning Please - Seeing Stars release. An absolute must for serious collectors of U.K. psychedelia/prog from the very best era and an important missing piece of sixties musical history. (guerssen)

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John Cale ‎- Sun Blindness Music (2000)


The first of three projected volumes of Sun Blindness Music (the other two are Dream Interpretation and Stainless Steel Gamelan, respectively) comes from composer Tony Conrad's tape collection from the period of activity collected in the Table of the Elements ongoing series New York in the '60s. There are three works collected on this disc: the title track for Vox Continental organ, recorded while John Cale was in the Velvet Underground in October 1967; "Summer Heat," for electric guitar in August 1965; and "The Second Fortress," for electronic sounds recorded between late 1967 and early 1968. "Sun Blindness Music" is easily the most demanding and perhaps most rewarding piece on the disc. Over 43 minutes in length, it consists of a single chord played with varying dynamics and subtly shifting timbres according to the placement of an extra note or the tensions employed by Cale. There are times when the full-bodied chord is so complete and forceful in its presence it is nearly unbearable, and others when the tension goes slack and Cale takes the dynamic and shifts into low, then ultra-low gear, and as tension shifts and slides, so does volume. There are minutes of near total silence before the chord is reintroduced with ferocity and magnificence. Needless to say, the use of micro-harmonics is in full employ in the timbral exchanges produced by the deployment and abandonment of tensions. If the Velvet's Sister Ray had a root for its exploration of anarchy and order, this was it. "Summer Heat," an explosion of guitar chords and single note drones played out over 11 minutes, are as intimate as a rock & roll demo or "basement" tape. Recorded in Cale's apartment on Ludlow Street, this track predates a Velvet rehearsal by only a few weeks. The sound here is already in full blossom, self-contained in its own cracked, wide-open glory. The final ten-and-a-half minutes are Cale fooling with various electronic sounds and creating -- as he had in the two pieces preceding -- his own unique take on the place of the drone in sound. Overtonal composing had long been a large part of the raison d'etre of the Theatre of Eternal Music, aka Dream Syndicate (the group Cale was involved in that included La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela, and Angus MacLise). Cale's extrapolation of drone and dissonance to form a new architecture for whole tone studies is in full evidence here, and directly contradicts Young's assertion that only he of the original group was still using drone by this time. The subtle, shifting timbral specters are as present as either of the aforementioned tracks, looped through a tape recorder, and brought back to be layered upon another line as the previous one disappeared into the tape ether -- prefiguring "Frippertronics" by six years, and Brian Eno's ambient music by a decade. While it is true that Sun Blindness Music isn't for the casual Cale fan, it is a stunning document, offering not only a glimpse into the past of a particular place in time, but also a model for virtually all the popular and underground music that came after it: punk, no-wave, ambient, downtown NY improv, the drone experiments of EAR, later Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, and the prefiguring of turntablism. No, it's not a stretch. This is the best. Period. (allmusic)


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VA - Feel Lucky Punk ?!! (199?)



[...] The bootleg compilation Feel Lucky Punk? has already been mentioned at the end of chapter one. This record is a fine sampler of archetypal late seventies style American and Australian punk rock, which brings together many of the best tracks to be found on the various volumes of the Killed By Death series. As was the case with the individual who issued the Anarchy In The UK CD, this is another bootlegger who is utterly shameless, and can't really be bothered to hide his identity. The gentleman in question is well known in the record trade for having put together the absolutely best series of sixties American garage rock compilations. Both the sleeve-notes, and the choice of Gonzo Hate Binge Records as a 'cover' for this particular bootlegging operation are obvious clues to his identity. But as with our previous bootlegger, the owners of the copyright which is being infringed are unlikely to enjoy sufficient financial security to take legal action – and what's more, many of them have probably thanked him for reissuing their product!

Simply providing the track listing for Feel Lucky Punk? gives a good indication of the anti-social nature of sneering two-chord garage rock: Rocks – Hanging On; Queers – I Don't Wanna Work; Psycho Surgeons – Horizontal Action; Nervous Eaters – Just Head; News – Tell Me Why; Queers – I'm Useless; Violators – N. Y. Ripper; Hollywood Squares – Hillside Strangler; Lewd – Kill Yourself; Mad – Disgusting; Rocks – Damn You; Unnatural Axe – They Saved Hitler's Brain; Rocks – Kick Her Out; Queers – At The Mall; Nervous Eaters – Get Stuffed; Freestone – Bummer Bitch; Mad – I Hate Music; Nasal Boys – Hot Love; Queers – This Place Sucks; Leftovers – I Only Panic When There's Nothing To Do; Child Molesters – Hillside Strangler; Queers – Kicked Out Of The Webelos.

Yes, the principal concerns are sex, murder and other anti-social acts! In terms of lyrical content the Psycho Surgeons exhibit a typically Aussie PUNK facility for word play, rhyming as they do 'hospital traction' and 'horizontal action' in a speed freak hymn to lust. Likewise, the Nervous Eaters are distinctively American in their singer's up front statement of what's on his mind: 'Just head coz I'm in a rush / Just head that'll be enough.'

Although Feel Lucky Punk? is supposed to be a sampler of '77/'78 era PUNK ROCK, the Queers didn't issue their first record until 1982, and the four bootlegged tracks actually date from 1984, although they're wrongly attributed to 1983 on the sleeve of the Gonzo Hate Binge compilation. The bootlegger justifies the inclusion of the Queers on the grounds that their music hasn't been corrupted by 'shit hardcore' influences, and the band certainly don't appear out of place on the record. It was being bootlegged both here and on Killed By Death that transformed the Queers from complete unknowns into a cult among those who appreciate the joys of 'obscure' PUNK ROCK. This is a good example of bootlegging greatly benefiting the holders of an infringed copyright because in being bracketed with a clutch of collectable punk bands from an earlier period, the Queers were able to break through to an audience who liked their sound but was deeply suspicious of eighties exponents of the genre and related tendencies such as hardcore.

When the group's second album, Love Songs For The Retarded, appeared in 1993, every other record collector I encountered was asking, 'is that the same Queers who are on Killed By Death and Feel Lucky Punk?' There was a certain amount of confusion due to the band having parted company with the singer featured on their 1984 EP and the sound being somewhat smoother. Once it was confirmed that this was the same Queers, there was a steady demand for the group's deleted 1990 long player Grow Up, which was subsequently reissued. While all the band's output is energetic and tuneful, the more recent material lacks the hard-edged '77 style sound of early songs such as We'd Have A Riot Doing Heroin and I Spent The Rent. Like the previous two albums, the group's most recent release, Beat Off, features a Ramones influenced surf-punk sound, or put another way, it's perfect pop music for skateboarders and discerning record buyers of all ages.

The Child Molesters provide Feel Lucky Punk? with 'super-dumb sleaze-bag thud' in the shape of their first single, Hillside Strangler, which was both intentionally offensive and very badly recorded. Much of this cult group's output has appeared in recent years on the highly collectable Sympathy For The Record Industry label, some tracks being reissues while other work was previously unreleased. In a similar groove to Hillside Strangler is (I Wanna See Some) Wholesale Murder. However, the Child Molesters' greatest achievement was 13 Is My Lucky Number, a masterpiece of 'bad taste' in which the band detail their liking for young girls, while simultaneously managing to rhyme 'jailbait' with 'statutory rape'.

It is worth remarking here that PUNK transgressions of 'good taste' are an important element of its antagonistic relationship towards the dominant culture. As Pierre Bourdieu points out in his book Distinction: A Social Critique Of The Judgement Of Taste (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1984), the notion of 'good taste' is culturally loaded. The 'anti-social' theatrics of PUNK ROCK are in many ways an attack on a key concept in the ideological armoury of 'serious culture'. Unfortunately, PUNK ROCK contestations of bourgeois aesthetics (whose entangled methodology seeks to justify social stratification on the basis of 'taste') are rarely articulated in anything other than, at best, a semi-conscious way. As a consequence, PUNK attacks on elitism can end up reinforcing the hegemonic position of the dominant culture, which knows very well how to defend itself against populism. Poorly articulated criticism can very easily be turned back against those antagonistic towards the reigning ideology of judgement and used as a justification for their continuing exclusion from the various institutions that simultaneously propagate and defend 'serious culture'. Intransigent exponents of 'bad taste' such as the Child Molesters, whose musical development underwent an unfortunate evolution in the direction of jazz, were probably more consciously aware of this state of affairs than other, less 'arty' 'PUNK ROCK' acts. [...] --- Stewart Home
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Ut Gret - Recent Fossils (2006) feat. Henry Kaiser, Eugene Chadbourne


This impressively packaged triple album is the work of many artists under the umbrella of Ut Gret (pronounced oot-greet), an improvising free-jazz/world music ensemble formed by Joee Conroy and former members David Stilley and James Potter in Santa Cruz, California in 1981 but now based in Louisville, Kentucky. Don't expect to be enlightened too much by the CD booklet which mostly contains a tongue in cheek history of the "grets", an imaginary 350 million year old tribe of musicians. It does however contain a neat fifteen second description of the difference between composition and improvisation. ".. in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds while in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

Anyway, the 3 CDs contain different sets of recordings from different periods and different artists within the broad church that is Ut Gret. The band refer to their music as 'pan-idiomatic' and it does indeed span many approaches from all over the world and throughout the classical, jazz, traditional and rock idoms. The first disk, titled The Dig, is from around 2001 and contains the only original composed material, mainly by multi-instrumentalist Gregory Acker. It is based around the gentler Javanese style of Gamelan percussive orchestration. Metallophones and custom made instruments combine with Acker's saxes and other traditional instruments such as the Didgeridoo, harp and sitar. The tempo is predominantly slow with hypnotic moods and shifting patterns of sometimes dissonant sounds. The overall effect though is highly organic and enigmatic and has an easy relaxing effect accomplished despite the non-western musical structures employed. The guitar role is taken mainly by Joee Conroy on the composed material but there are guest appearances elsewhere on disk two from avant-garde/impro guitarists Davey Williams, Henry Kaiser and Eugene Chadbourne.

Turning to that disk we find a set of longer improvisations under the title "Time Laps" from 2002. The title track features time lapses sufficient to mix a psaltry with electronic samplers and traditional Japanese bamboo flutes! Ut Gret promotes the concept of learning through experimentation and discovery, transcending the limitations and paradigms of formal musical structure. This includes playing the inside of the piano (in the style of Keith Tippett and others) as well as exploring other free interactions between instruments. "Foreplay for a praying mantis" captures the insect's imperceptible movements as it sights on its prey very effectively through swaying bass and percussion and wandering sax. More upbeat fare can be found in the "Testosterone Fairy Games" with its driving rhythm, jittery sax and tortured guitar.

An atonal Stravinsky-like string improv is next up followed by Africa meets Europe and Australia in "Music to die By" which combines ethereal trombone sounds with didgeridoo and Mbira - another kind of metallophone instrument invented by the Shona peoples of Zimbabwe. The remaining tracks return to the brass and woodwind dominated instrumental mix but the sounds are as varied as ever from the "orchestra warming up" sounds of "Pneumo-thorax", through the chaotic but engaging "Appalachian Fall" to the downright foot-tapping "The enemy is dust" with its powerful bass motifs and menacingly advancing guitar and sax. The final piece even risks using a synthesiser in the eerie "Mercury Paw".

The synth is also used on the third disk ("In C") a recording by Ut Gret of work by fellow Californian and minimalist classical composer, Terry Riley. In C was a seminal work of minimalism originally composed in 1964 and released on the CBS label in 1968. Philip Glass' style undoubtedly owes something to this mesmeric piece of music with its insistent polymetric repetitions and slowly evolving architecture. Clarinet, flute and sax overlay the basic framework with an understated but ever present marimba striking the Cs in place of the original piano. A better technical description of Riley's work than I can give is taken from Wikpedia: "the piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in C. One performer beats a steady stream of Cs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on".

Not one really for the rock fan but for those wishing to listen to unlimited musical form without preconceptions, the land of Ut Gret is as good a place as any to start.
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Things To Come - I Want Out (1965-1967)



Steve Runolfsson - Vocals
Lynn Rominger - Guitar
Bryan Garofalo - Bass
Russ Kunkel - Drums

Steve Runolfsson may be the prime Stateside example of swiping the Mick Jagger/Keith Relf/Van Morrison ball and running like hell. If '60s punk rock was the pouty adenoidal emulation of the British Invasion by suburban American white kids, Runolfsson and the Things held their own with the best. This album is astounding Stones/Them influenced garage and dark psych, recorded 1965-'67. Our set includes the impossibly rare 45 of "Sweetgina" b/w "Speak Of The Devil" as well as other lost, unreleased masterpieces. From unearthed the original session tape masters, unseen photos and more. With liner notes written by historian Mark Prellberg, these are some primo deadly '60s punk/psych cuts. (source)
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Sweet Pants - Fat Peter Presents (1970)


The Pennsylvania quartet Sweet Pants on the U.S. Barclay label from 1970. The band’s sole album, it’s featured in Hans Pokora’s 1001 Record Collector Dreams (where it gets 2 out of 6 discs for rarity) as well as the Acid Archives book. The music is underground rock with some blues, garage and psych touches -- pretty freaky stuff that's slightly reminiscent of Mary Butterworth (though without the heavily-echoed drums).

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La Kabala (1967)



SUPERB PSYCH- FUNK - ROCK ALBUM FROM PERU VERY HARD TO GET.
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VA - Nuggets From The Golden State - The Scorpio Records Story 1965 - 1967


  • 1. The Golliwogs - Brown-Eyed Girl
  • 2. The Golliwogs - You Better Be Careful
  • 3. The Spokes - Boots  
  • 4. Group “B” - Stop Calling Me
  • 5. Group “B” - She’s Gone
  • 6. The Tokays - Time  
  • 7. The Tokays - Hole In The Wall
  • 8. The Shillings - It’s Up To You
  • 9. The Shillings - Made You Cry
  • 10. The Golliwogs - Fight Fire
  • 11. The Golliwogs - Fragile Child
  • 12. The Newcastle Five - Losin’ You
  • 13. The Newcastle Five - Yes I’m Cryin’
  • 14. Group “B” - I Know Your Name Girl
  • 15. Group “B” - I Never Really Knew
  • 16. William Penn & His Pals - Gotta Get Away
  • 17. William Penn & His Pals - Blow My Mind
  • 18. William Penn & His Pals - Far And Away
  • 19. The Golliwogs - Walking On The Water
  • 20. The Golliwogs - You Better Get It Before It Gets You
  • 21. The Tears - Weatherman
  • 22. The Tears - Read All About It
  • 23. The Squires - Anyhow Anywhere
  • 24. The Squires - It Must Be Love
  • 25. The Tears - Rat Race
  • 26. The Tears - People Through My Glasses
  • 27. The Golliwogs - Call It Pretending
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VA - Nuggets From The Golden State. Crystalize Your Mind 1965 - 1967


  • 1.The Living Children - Crystalize Your Mind 2:54
  • 2.The Living Children - Now It's Over 2:02
  • 3.The Poor Souls - I'll Be Around 2:36
  • 4.The Vejtables - Shadows 3:10
  • 5.The Vejtables - Feel the Music 2:50
  • 6.The Rear Exit - Excitation 2:42
  • 7.The Rear Exit - Miles Beyond 1:53
  • 8.The Transatlantic Train - The Train 2:53
  • 9.The Transatlantic Train - You're Bringing Me Down 2:51
  • 10.The Transatlantic Train - She Was a Lady 2:32
  • 11.The Flying Circus - I'm Going 2:38
  • 12.The Flying Circus - Midnight Highway 2:40
  • 13.The Flying Circus - Green Eyes Gren World 2:23
  • 14.The Love Exchange - Swallow the Sun (Dark on You Now)2:30
  • 15.The Mourning Rain - Light Switch 3:20
  • 16.The Mourning Rain - Light Switch (Take 2)
  • 17.The Mourning Rain - Cut Back 2:02
  • 18.The Maze - Kissy Face 3:01
  • 19.The Maze - Dejected Soul 2:32
  • 20.The Staff - Napoleon 2:28
  • 21.The Staff - Would You Take Me for a Ride 2:40
  • 22.The Afterglow - Morning 2:01
  • 23.The Afterglow - Susie's Gone 2:31
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The Crome Syrcus - Love Cycle (1968)


This psyhcedelic nugget wrapped within a lovely hippie album covers offers to an interested listener both conventional San Francisco psych pop rock, and also experimental material, proving that they were among the rock artists searching the boundaries of their art and style. The opening track might be a disappointment to a prog listener, but I enjoyed the more fragile following numbers. The keyboard driven sound with much vocals and emotional approach also remind the sound of the Vanilla Fudge, and I just love that soaring acid guitar giving the solos. The last song of the album is a 17-minutes long epic, containing some references to classical choral music, which then gets a sudden LSD-treatment. The composition is interesting, but not the most brilliant. However quite innovative among the 1960's American garage scene, focusing to more straightforward muscial elements than complex compositional arrangements in my own observation. I would suggest this album to fans of the history of early artistic psychedelic rock music and those deeply interested on hippie rock scene. (source)

- John Gaborit / guitar
- Lee Graham / vocals, bass, flute
- Rod Pilloud / drums
- Dick Powell / harmonica, keyboards
- Ted Shreffler / keyboards
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Sly & The Family Stone - Life (1968)


The most adventurous soul music of 1968 is being put out by two groups who really aren't part of the mainstream R&B scene at all. Both the Chambers Brothers and Sly and the Family Stone are primarily black, but both have white members. And both spend more time on the white rock circuit than in the black clubs and theaters.

The Family Stone emerges as the real revolutionary force on this, its third album. Sly's people have made a mighty progression since their first album just eight months ago. That album (A Whole New Thing) was a rather conventional program enlivened by two or three heavy flashes. Life is a flash from beginning to end. Easily the most radical soul album ever issued, it is an exhiliarating success in a time of disappointments.

Soul music, like blues, was born in an environment of noisy clubs and parties. R&B records are made for instant pleasure, not concentrated listening, and they have always thrived on simplicity. A single sonic texture usually suffices for a song, sometimes for a whole album. But not with Sly and the Family Stone. Rarely does Sly let any element sink in before he socks you with a change. The group has several capable lead singers in various voice ranges from bass to soprano, and they are forever trading off; some of the vocal arrangements almost sound like Lambert, Hendricks & Ross revisited. Same deal with the instruments — guitar, organ, bass, drums, horns appear in new combinations and voicings about every other bar. Like the Mothers, this group revels in the element of surprise. The contrast with the predictable fare you get on R&B stations is incredible.

Take for example the first cut, "Dynamite!" Opening with an unaccompanied blues guitar lick, turned up all the way, it goes into a heavy riff. With fuzz guitar out front, it's more a San Francisco riff than a Motown one. Then comes the vocal. The melodic line and progressions are fairly standard soul, but the words move into a new realm.

Even more radical is the way the vocal lead is split up between at least three different singers. Each new one is a flash, yet the continuity never gets lost. Next flash: the word "Dynamite" is repeated, three times, to the accompaniment of a building drum roll that amply suggests the impact of an explosion. Back to the top, and the verse is repeated in a slightly longer form, with heavier instrumentation. (Relatively standard soul procedure here.) The "Dynamite" climax is doubly strong. Then the opening blues guitar once again, but here it dissolves into some of the "bomp-bomp" vocalizing that has always been a Sly trademark, and we are suddenly in the presence of a very well-executed Beatle-style fade. Suddenly we think we hear one of the horns doing the familiar lick from "Dance to the Music." Only after that are our suspicions confirmed, as someone actually sings the title line of that memorable song. More quotes from "Dance" and the music dissolves into happy talk and laughter. The whole sequence, the whole track, is ecstatic listening in any situation.

So that's one cut, time 2:43. All the cuts on this album are single length (range 2:12 to 3:28), but each one goes through flashes equal to those on "Dynamite!" Some of the flashes are cute — as on "Chicken" where voices dissolve into clucking, and on "Harmony" where the voices go into a fancy jazz chord everytime the title comes up. (I'll let the rest of these be surprises — the good taste and naturalness holds throughout.) Other flashes are musically very strong, like the double-time jazz turn-around figure on "Into My Own Thing," and the Staple Singers counterpoint on "Chicken."

Still another flash technique is the use of quotes. "Dance to the Music," not itself on this album, becomes a sort of leitmotif, a wonderful device to tie the album together and emphasize the group's identity. It crops up in various guises on several different cuts. One whole cut, "Love City", is generated from the tune of "Dance"; note how the soprano sax line is a very interesting development from the one in "Dance." This may seem like self-plagiarism or lack of originality. I rather thank it's intentional. In any case, it's highly effective, just one more of the innumerable subtle things Sly thinks up to keep you glued to your stereo. "Eleanor Rigby" also comes in for a couple of masterful quotes.


Sly's words are still another radical factor. R&B lyrics have generally had more sociological than intrinsic interest; Sly's have plenty of both. He often deals with standard subjects, but his pithy, cliche-free language is quite a departure from the norm. Then again, Sly gets into some message and story things that are much closer to new rock than to soul, as in "Plastic Jim." "Jane Is A Groupee" is the most incisive song ever written about rock's camp-followers, not excluding Frank Zappa's several comments on this theme. "I'm an Animal" is perhaps the best of all — and I'd quote it, except that those words really have to be heard to be enjoyed. Some rather sensual sounds which I could only write as "ugh ugh" are an integral part of the message. The music, the words and the meaning are all one great experience.

In a very curious way, this album reminds one of the big swing bands of the 1930's in their prime. It's because everything depends on the arrangements, and the arrangements are constructed to spotlight many different solo elements, each very briefly, with the interest heightened by a constantly changing background. The frequent use of riffs is another thing Sly has in common with old Count Basie records. Early rock and roll, with its absolute simplicity to the point of intentional monotony, was a great rebellion against this very approach. Now here we are with Sly and the Family Stone. Such things make rock history interesting. Soul music up to this point has continued to pursue the simplicity approach, its year-to-year progress coming mainly out of the advancement of vocal techniques, electric bass and drum playing, and improved recording quality. Sly's vocalists and instrumentalists are all more than competent, but they are content to serve their purpose within the arrangements, which are the thing here.

Sly and the Family Stone are opening the door to a whole new era in soul music. With their emphasis on flash, on never-let-up entertainment of the senses rather than on the orderly telling of a story, they might well be the first McLuhanian soul group. But perhaps they haven't got the door all the way open yet; there are still a few bugs in the machine.

The biggest bug is a real paradox, not at all easy to describe but evident nonetheless. Despite the uniform quality of all the cuts, and despite all the variety of texture and all the flashes, Life is not the best album to hear all the way through at one sitting. This is partly because certain changes pop up in similar form in many cuts, the trade-off vocal parts especially. But a much more important reason is that there is very little variety in the tempos — fast straight time all the way. There is even less variety in the dynamics, which are of course loud all the way "I'm an Animal" has a fleeting few bars that are gently scored, with some really sensual soft singing. They are incredibly beautiful in this context, and I'm sure Sly could do a lot more with dynamic variation if he cared to. A change into shuffle or 3/4 time could also have been very effective.

This album contains of course the group's current single "Life." Despite a fine flash in which a 1900 brass band becomes a soul horn section, and some brilliant effects on organ, it's not quite the best cut. This itself signifies a welcome change from all those R&B albums that sink or swim with their hit singles.

The recording is superb technically. Incredibly enough, this group performs this material on stage in very much the form it appears here. But the record is really a greater experience, because the flashes and subtleties are much clearer and more dramatic in stereo. The only complaint one might have is that one can't hear the bottom very well. But I suspect it was intended that way; It's just one more element to set Life apart from ordinary soul albums. Also it helps the clarity. The drums, recorded up front and very percussive, preserve the motion unfailingly.--- Barret Hansen
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Al Simones - Corridor Of Dreams (1992)



Great acid drenched psych fuzzed out LP,with looping phased backwards guitar,with some folkish elements but mostly freaked out YaHoWa 13 style jamming.Released privately in just 500 copies and long deleted.

"oh man i live in the youngstown area of ohio so i am a privelaged shopper of purple phrogg records. Mr. Al Simones is the man. he knows all about music and is great jammer. PJ

Fantastic music, fantastic guitar playing, the best underground guitar psych today - I love the whole 70's "private pressing" feel - from the hand built covers to the home production recordings. Recommented! Nick - Greece"

About SIMONES his music...:
Taste his ULTRA PSYCHEDELIC guitar FREAKOUTS from beyond the beyond till the ACID comes splattering from your speakers!! A blistering trip to the STONEHENGE beyonds of our micro and macro cosmos!! Flowing guitar ERUPTIONS leading your mind in a state of TRANSPARENT CONSCIOUSNESS allowing you to glance at the extra-terrestrial, the extra-dimensional, the extra-cosmic, the inner mind, the inner force, the INNER LIGHT!! It makes you wanna leave this godforsaken planet!!"
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Edward Vesala ‎- Nan Madol (1974)


Born Martii Juhani Vesala, the percussionist changed his name early in his musical career. Vesala studied music theory and orchestral percussion at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1965-1967. He played with such musicians as Eero Koivistionen and Seppo Paakkunainen during the mid- to late '60s. In 1972 he recorded Triptykon for ECM with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Arild Andersen. It would be the first of many albums Vesala would make for the German label. His long association with ECM would help establish Vesala's reputation as a world-class free jazz percussionist. During the '70s Vesala played with such free jazz and experimentally inclined musicians as Peter Brötzmann, Charlie Mariano, and Terje Rypdal. Early-'70s collaborations with such Finnish musicians as Koivistionen, Juhani Aaltonen, and Pekka Sarmanto had a strong impact on the Finnish free jazz scene. Vesala's quartet with Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko recorded several times from 1974-1978, including most notably Nan Madol, his first album as a leader for ECM. In 1978, Vesala formed his own record label, Leo (not to be confused with the British label of the same name headed by Leo Feigin), which released albums by European free jazz musicians (including Stanko) and Americans like Frank Foster and Charlie Mariano. In 1980 Vesala and Stanko recorded Heavylife, which featured the American musicians Reggie Workman on bass, J.D. Parran on saxophone, and Bob Stewart on tuba. In the early '80s Vesala conducted music workshops called Sound & Fury. In 1984 he chose the best of his students and formed a group of the same name. Sound & Fury would record four albums for ECM. Vesala's 1990 album, Ode to the Death of Jazz, was a statement in opposition to the conservative forces that had come to dominate the music. He continued to perform with Sound & Fury during the '90s. He also composed for the Helsinki Philharmonic and other large ensembles. Vesala was probably the most famous of all Finnish jazz musicians. Yet by the end of his life, his music defied all categorization, fusing various ethnic idioms, classical elements, rock, microtonality, and Finnish folk music. Vesala died of heart failure in his home outside Helsinki in 1999. (allmusic)


If jazz was ever meant to be a religion, its prayers might sound something like Nan Madol. The title means “spaces between,” and no description of this music could be more apt. The album is an eclectic mandala of drones, eruptions of ecstatic liberation, and snatches of melody from both near and far. Influences range from Japanese folk melodies to Alpine herding calls, and all of them strung by a powerful understatement of continuity.

We open our eyes to find ourselves in a field at night in which a nearby forest looms with untold life. Soprano sax verses mingle with the shawm-like nagaswaram, dripping with the luscious slowness of honey from a broken hive as abstract solos bounce over a corroded surface of ever-so-slightly detuned harps. We proceed from meditation to incantation, calling upon the sounds of spirits rather than the spirits of sound. Melodies drag, are picked up, only to drag again: the final paroxysms of a dying organism laid bare for our imaginations. Motifs flit in and out of earshot like radio transmissions struggling to hang on. The instruments weep as if the entire album were nothing but a cathartic ritual. On the surface, the musicians seem unaware of each other, all the while reveling in their secret synergy far beyond the threshold of audibility. This is music on its own plane and we must approach it as we are. There is no middle ground, no meeting point to be had.

This may not be “fun” album to listen to, and certainly not an easy one to describe, but it is rewarding in more metaphysical ways. Far from a jazz album to tap one’s foot to, it is instead a free-form surrender to the possibilities of automatic music. Its mood is inward while its exposition is extroverted and full of exquisite contradictions. If nothing else, the stunning “Areous Vlor Ta” will leave you breathless and vulnerable to the grand Return that brings the listener full circle to where it all began. (ecmreviews)
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Kimla Taz (1968)


A psychedelic blues rock band from Cardiff. Kimla Taz was noticed as on of the best local band tipped by their home town heroes LOVE SCULPTURE. This 6 track Mini CD contains all their even recorded. 2 tracks recorded at the Decca studios in 1968, which were previously unreleased and taken from the one and only exciting acetate. Highly recommended to 60's PSYCH/POP/FREAKBEAT fans. Added here 4 furious blues rock covers (Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks, Them and Cream) they recorded live in 1976.

Titch Gwilym - lead guitar,vocals
Dave Watkins - drums
Lyn Phillips - vocals
Paul Chapman - guitar
John Morgan - bass, vocals (UFO)

Aditional members:
Steve Keeley - drums, vocals
Terry Lewis - organ
Colin Roberts - drums





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Crystal Syphon - Family Evil (1968)



Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest “lost” groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965. Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970.

Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it’s imbued throughout with a distinctive sound that arose from practicing up to six nights a week. The band entertained offers from various labels during their existence, but as they insisted on complete artistic control and ownership of their music, no deals were struck.


Now, some 44 years after its creation, Roaratorio is proud to make the music of Crystal Syphon available for the first time ever. Drawn from studio tracks, rehearsal tapes and a live recording from the Fillmore West, Family Evil is released in an edition of 500 copies, with cover art by Norman Orr and extensive historical liner notes in an old-style “tip-on” jacket. Digital download included.

8/10 : "...unlike many of the scene's almost-rans, Crystal Syphon had great songs on their side, borrowing the best moves from primitivist garage energy, adding the glass-spun guitars and the warp and weft harmonies of The Byrds, and then dosing further with just the right amount of psychedelics. Particularly staggering are several longer cuts, like "Fuzzy And Jose" and the live "Winter Is Cold," where the quintet stretch the songs with sinuous organ and needlepoint guitar solos that are period-piece perfect." - Jon Dale, Uncut
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Michael Gibbs (1970)


Born Michael Clement Irving Gibbs in Southern Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe). Gibbs moved to the US in 1959 when in his twenties. He studied music initially at the Boston Berklee College of Music before moving to the Boston Conservatory where he worked alongside Aaron Copeland, Lukas Foss, Stan Tracey & David Lindup. As a trombonist he was a member of several jazz big bands of the time including the Graham Collier, Tubby Hayes & John Dankworth orchestras.

He relocated to the UK in 1965 just as British jazz was undergoing a revolutionary change due to the popularity of rock music.

He quickly formed his own big band to facilitate his personal vision of jazz/rock fusion. His role was always principly as arranger and conductor rather than musician. His name and reputation by the time of his first album "Michael Gibbs" in 1970 was such that he was able to call on the services of some of the top musicians in the rock and jazz worlds including Jack Bruce, Chris Spedding members of Soft Machine and many others.

Several albums by his big bands followed. From the late 1970s his work moved into arranging and orchestration where his name appears on albums by many top artists including Peter Gabriel, Stanley Clarke, Elton John, Whitney Houston & even Uriah Heep. He relocated to the US where he now lives.

By the 1990s he had moved into film scores where he has written or arranged countless soundtracks.
  • Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar – Chris Spedding
  • Bass Guitar – Brian Odges, Jack Bruce
  • Cello – Alan Ford, Fred Alexander
  • Composed By – Michael Gibbs
  • Drums – John Marshall, Tony Oxley
  • Electric Guitar, Twelve-string Guitar – Ray Russell
  • Engineer – Bill Price, Dave Grinsted
  • French Horn – Alan Civil, Jim Buck Jr, Nicolas Busch, Valerie Smith
  • Keyboards [Assorted] – Mick Pyne, Bob Cornford
  • Percussion – Frank Ricotti
  • Producer – Peter Eden
  • Reeds – Alan Skidmore, Barbara Thompson, Duncan Lamont, John Surman, Mike Osborne, Ray Warleigh, Tony Roberts
  • Trombone – Bobby Lambe, Chris Pyne, Cliff Hardie, David Horler
  • Trombone [Bass] – Ken Goldy, Maurice Gee, Ray Premru
  • Trumpet [Piccolo] – John Wilbraham
  • Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Derek Watkins, Henry Lowther, Ian Hammer, Kenny Wheeler, Maurice Miller, Nigel Carter
  • Tuba – Dick Hart, Martin Fry

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Schizo (1972) 7"


Schizo was an experimental French Rock group formed by Richard Pinhas after his unrecorded stint as a founding member of the short-lived Blues Convention along with future Magma grunteur Klaus Blasquiz. Schizo’s first release, “Schizo (And The Little Girl)” / “Paraphrenia Praecox” would be the sole release on Pinhas’ own SFP (Société Française de Productions Phonographiques) label. Schizo’s second and final single followed months later on another Pinhas-established label, Disjuncta, which would consequently serve as the outlet for the first four albums by his new band, Heldon. Schizo predated Heldon by a year’s time (renamed by Pinhas after reading Norman Spinrad’s sci-fi novel “The Iron Dream”) and its personnel would be retained by Pinhas (synthesizer, guitar) as Pierrot Roussel (guitar, bass), George Grunblatt (VCS3 synthesizer), Patrick Gauthier (VCS3 synthesizer) and Coco Roussel (drums) all appeared on Heldon’s debut “Electronique Guerilla” LP. (Unlike vocalist Olivier Pamela, who would prove to be an unnecessary component for what was -- save the odd spoken recitation -- an exclusively instrumental group.)

For all this sharing of players, both bands were Pinhas’ vision and yet: Schizo was light years away from resembling Heldon in the least. For a start, absent are all characteristic trace elements of Fripp & Eno’s “(No Pussyfooting)” (along with the invariable synthesizer use), neither side is instrumental and it’s completely hard Rock idiom. In fact, Schizo sound more like the missing link between 1975-era Pere Ubu and (certain moments from) 1978-era Chrome except it was recorded in 1972 and like both those aforementioned space punk successors, owed at least a fraction of debt to Hawkwind’s “X In Search Of Space”: the grinding repetition of over-FX’d guitar, electronic overlays and the excessive use of wah-wah that precipitates the composition into a hard, post-psychedelic throb-a-thon that gnaws thru the silence.


Like air leaking out of the balloon of reality, “Schizo (And The Little Girl)” opens with electronic pulses interrupted by distorted drill signals and hairy, wah-wah guitar that part for a two-channel split into further churning wah-wah guitar and a heavily fuzzed second guitar against a systematic drum and bass pattern. Over this, gruff vocals emerge to bark out a string of perplexing non sequiturs from “rainbow of emotions” to “psychedelic clothes” and “undivided self.” Monomaniacal guitar wah-wah is the hallmark of this single, but here it’s amassed into an industrial strength grind that only parts for the supersnazz strut of the fuzz rhythm guitar break out during the chorus. But the super rubber-legged wah-wah’d guitar solo returns again and again to grind out forever until finally shuddering away in the fade out.

After issuing an agitating (and highly nonplussing) drum intro, “Paraphrenia Praecox” picks up where side one left off. A similar stubborn mid-tempo laden with grinding wah-wah guitar to the fore and steady rhythm backing to the aft of the same strained and sore-throated vocals of Olivier Pamela. The cumulative effect sounds like a warped 45 of “Last Train To Clarksville” played at 33 1/3 refracted through the pieces of a broken nightmare on heavy downers deep within an abandoned industrial park inhabiting the sort of mental state indicated by the group’s name and probably the obscure lyrics as well. The vocals are so scrabble-style and imperceptible it’s not even readily apparent at first that they’re sung entirely in English or French. Throughout the raising sonic temperature of pronounced electronics that soar in and out of dynamic range and glimmer in the darkness at random intervals are filtered layers of further screeching electronic signals that pin everything to a static yet rotating fever dream. The wah-wah use is just as extreme as side one and it causes the guitar to drag itself along at a speed barely exceeding that of a drunken slug oozing over a salt flat while dense keyboards and a second wah-wah’d guitar akin to 1970-era Funkadelic (specifically, the middle of “I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You?” and especially: Worrell’s high pitched and overdriven anchoring riffs) grind out the main warp and woof as slowly tweaked VCS3 swirls thread throughout as gleaming filaments.

A note on the title: ‘Paraphrenia’ is late-onset schizophrenia, characterized by systematic delusions and auditory hallucinations while ‘praecox’ means premature. So the title means something along the lines of ‘premature, late-onset schizophrenia’ -- a concept matched in twistedness to the dementia of this single. (source)
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Harlem Pop Trotters (1972)


I'm sure that you people allready know about the GREAT Harlem Pop Trotters on "les treteaux" a very hard to find rare groove lp ... this one is less known, this is a Library record from the beautifull label Musique Pour L'Image.

Don't expect the same style than the one you know, this is more folk/rock than funky ! Lot's of flutes and guitars, a bit like the productions of the great parisian label ECAP if you know what i mean ... plus some punchy drums !

My favorite track is definitly "La Baraka du Baraqué " ! Stupid tittle Hope you'll enjoy this hard to find and great Library !


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Crow Tongue - Ghost : Eye : Seeker (2008)


At the very least Crow Tongue’s debut album “Ghost Eye Seeker” is an eccentric listen. Hailing from Beating Heart, Pennsylvania this three piece drone/doom/experimental outfit has created a sound that I’ve never heard before. If you were to throw Neurosis, Earth, and Tabla Beat Science into a blender you would end up with Crow Tongue; As a result “Ghost Eye Seeker” is a homogenous mixture of genres that range from doom-metal, funk, electronica, psychedelic, and folk.

“Ghost Eye Seeker” is comprised of eight tracks, but is essentially broken down into two separate halves. The first five tracks on the album are all a part of the “ghost eye gaze” saga which is a constant build-up that lasts for twenty-five minutes. The album stars out Ghost Eye Gaze:Ghost Eye See which is five minutes of guitar buzzing backed by zany sitar sounds and a middle-eastern-esque beat. As the saga continues eerie keyboard landscapes are added as well as hypnotic sitar playing, glitchy electronics, and droning vocal chants. This piece is very repetitious yet it touches up on such a wide variety of genres because of all the odd instruments that it incorporates. By the end of this twenty-five piece epic Crow Tongue will have you in a trance; as a whole these five songs mesh together beautifully to create a truly spectral and bizarre atmosphere.


The second half of “Ghost Eye Seeker” continues the acid-folk/tribal-fusion madness that is present during the first five songs, and this could be seen as a flaw. Seeker: Seeker Chant contains the same deadbeat droning pace, only it incorporates a more minimal sound featuring dense drum beats and a slow, gluey synth progression. While this piece showcases a more dreary atmosphere and use of analog synthesizers the repetitive guitar reverb is still present.

While “Ghost Eye Seeker” isn’t something that I’ll put on to listen to very often it’s still an entertaining plunge into a diverse set of genres. The repetitious nature of the album may put a lot of people off at first, but after multiple listens the subtle changes that occur during each movement become more relevant and enhance the listening experience. It may not be very accessible, but it’s hard to deny the fact that “Ghost Eye Seeker” is a truly astounding and captivating listen. (Chris Jackson)
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VA - Punk 45: Kill the Hippies! Kill Yourself! The American Nation Destroys Its Young. Underground Punk in the United States of America, Vol. 1 (2013)


Released to coincide with a weighty new tome on punk cover art co-edited by Jon Savage, Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! is a compilation of (mostly) obscure US garage rock, proto-hardcore, art pop and no wave singles put together by the ever reliable Soul Jazz label. Covering the period 1973 to1980, it's a compelling overview of the underground sounds being made outside of the American major label music machine, driven by “a general despising of the omnipotent corporate rock that ruled the airwaves… matched to an equally numbing emptiness and alienation experienced by those brought up in the dysfunctional middle class suburban existence of their parents' generation”, as the excellent sleeve notes have it.

What it's quick to point out is the way in which the initial New York punk scene was quickly co-opted and made-over as the more consumer-friendly 'new wave' by those major labels, leaving local scenes outside of the metropolis isolated and under-exposed once the bandwagon had swiftly moved on. In fact, there's an almost indecent haste with which the likes of the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, Blondie etc allow themselves to be signed up, all the better to more quickly stake a claim on the trad rock canon/get into the charts/develop serious drug habits (delete as applicable).

Whereas the then influential music papers and incidents such as the Bill Grundy swearathon were able to kick-start and sustain a national punk scene in the UK (albeit one still based for the most part around the capital), the more conservative US media held its nose and waited for the next youth fad to come along. The States is a vast country, and without the unifying call to action that rang out across our small island, local bands were forced to create their own micro-scenes without any particular hope of (or indeed aspiration to) reaching a mass audience. Or as the sleeve notes eloquently put it, “this is the story of the fuckyous who stayed in their hometown to make a noise.”

So what's the music like? As with all Soul Jazz compilations, it's a smart, appealingly programmed album with a high hit rate and a smattering of real gems. A lot of the tracks are very much of their time, enjoyably cartoonish or anti-authoritarian without necessarily being socially conscious. But the best of the songs try to bypass the provincial vibe and create a new type of sound that genuinely challenges the sonic hegemony of 70s AOR.


This is borne out by the album's opening selection of songs: The Urinals' wilfully primitive 'I'm A Bug'; The Normals' Ramones homage 'Almost Ready'; The Hollywood Squares' great Dead Kennedys' soundalike 'Hillside Strangler'; Electric Eels' poisonous glam stomper 'Agitated'. And then we get to Pere Ubu's 'The Modern Dance', and we're in different territory altogether – they called it avant garage, but it'd actually sound like some kind of groovy Kraut-inflected prog if it weren't for David Thomas's extraordinary hectoring vocals.

Other highlights include The Bizarros' 'Ice Age', a cleverly arranged slice of operatic punk with the singer's mannered delivery reminiscent of Tom Verlaine or Howard DeVoto; the balls-out, maximum rock & roll of The Skunks' 'Earthquake Shake'; Pastiche's 'Flash of the Moment', which tempts fate by evoking both Mott the Hoople and The Only Ones; and the sinister riffage and angry anomie of The Controllers' 'Neutron Bomb'.

And then there's the weirder stuff, which shows that beyond just sticking it to the Man, there was a pioneering sensibility at work that might not always have produced amazing songs, but clearly informed a lot of alternative music to come. Tracks in this category include Tuxedomoon's 'Joeboy The Electronic Ghost', which sounds almost exactly like Here Come The Warm Jets-era Eno fronted by Poly Styrene; Theoretical Girls' 'U.S. Millie', a peculiar staccato march that seems to reference Steve Reich (but doesn't clue you in to the presence of Glenn Branca in their ranks); and oddest of all, Crash Course in Science's robotic 'Cakes in the Home', which stutters and trills like a broken Stepford Wife. Interestingly, these tracks are the only ones on the album to feature female performers.

However, for the most part, your enjoyment of this compilation will depend on your enthusiasm/tolerance for shouty blokes with scratchy guitars, knocking out a basic riff and seeing where it takes them. While punk might not have 'broke' in America until 1991 (at least according to Sonic Youth), this album is ample evidence that its spirit was alive and kicking long before then if only you knew where to look. (thequietus)
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Angus MacLise - Astral Collapse (2003)


"Astral Collapse" Angusa MacLise’a, kolejny odzyskany materiał z archiwów nowojorskiego ekscentryka, przynosi bardzo niewielką, zważywszy na instrumentalne preferencje tego artysty, dawkę bębnienia. Trudno pod tym właśnie względem porównać ów album z perkusyjnymi orgiami, jakie dominowały na "Brain Damage in Oklahoma City". "Astral..." oferuje w większości kompozycje przygotowane w oparciu o preparowanie taśm z nagraniami plenerowymi, wspomaganymi niekiedy przez organy, głos i, rzadziej, perkusjonalia. Tylko kilkuminutowy utwór "Beelzebub" wypełniają bez reszty Angusowe stukoty i łomoty. Otwierające płytę nagranie "Smothered Under Astral", przynosi antropologiczną refleksję MacLise’a na temat tybetańskich obrzędów religijnych, wygłoszoną przezeń na tle preparacji taśm z dźwiękami z buddyjskiej świątyni. Siedemnastominutowa kompozycja "6th Face of the Angel" to z kolei jeden, statyczny acz pulsujący, organowy dron, stanowiący z jednej strony pokłosie doświadczeń i wspólnych eksperymentów z La Monte Youngiem, z drugiej zaś rzucający zupełnie nowe światło na późniejsze o lat trzydzieści, "psychoaktywne" utwory Coil z płyt "Time Machines" i "Astral Disaster". Następnie zjawia się przerażający "Dracula", który w niepohamowanym sprzężeniu jakiegoś archaicznego syntezatora, w wizjonerskim olśnieniu zapowiada noise’owe szarże Merzbowa. Na koniec zaś wybrzmiewa "Dawn Chorus", oferujący nam próbę źródłowego ambientu, głosów otoczenia, wyjętych żywcem z jakiejś nepalskiej wioski, na tle których Angus recytuje jeden ze swych poematów. Mamy tu więc prawdziwe arcydzieło pionierskiej, nieokrzesanej psychodelii, w źródłowym znaczeniu tego słowa, które nawet jeśli nie "poszerza świadomości", to z całą pewnością "otwiera uszy". (vivo)


Astral Collapse is the most recent of a spate of releases documenting large portions of the music and sounds of Angus MacLise, known primarily for his work with Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young and the nascent Velvet Underground. Though he's generally associated with drumming of one sort or another, this disc includes more voice, organ and synthesizer as well as the use and manipulation of tapes. It's something, perhaps necessarily, of a grab-bag affair and the listener's reaction may well have much to do with the degree of prior affinity (or lack of same) to his music, but it's also worthy of the attention of newcomers. The first track finds MacLise intoning words from a Tibetan ritual poem over tapes of what also appear to be Tibetan sources (one can make out bells and low, growling horns). His delivery, however, is overbearing in that mystically earnest, white guy, 70s kind of way that tends to evoke an embarrassed grin.

"6th Face of the Angel", which follows, is the highlight of the disc. A lengthy, hypnotic piece for organ (played by MacLise's wife, Hatty) and tape delays, it generates a dense, churning mass of sound that rewards multiple listenings with ever-evolving levels of detail. Some of the loops take on eerily vocal characteristics, others quavering in and out of the mix like dopplered car engines; an impressive performance. "Beelzebub" features the only live percussion heard here: bongos. They are crudely, almost brutally recorded, reverberating over a prepared tape, the work taking on a malevolent aspect befitting its title, somewhat reminiscent of Sun Ra's percussion/electronics extravaganzas. That Blount-y aura extends to the following tracks, the first a freely undulating duo for multiple instruments including autoharp and cembalum [sic]. MacLise then unleashes a fairly wild and vampiric ARP synthesizer for "Dracula", once again evoking the sort of space organ explosions Ra created on, for instance, "Black Myth" from "It's Afterthe End of the World". MacLise holds up favorably in comparison though, with a sharply focused, unyielding attack that stands the test of time quite well. The disc closes with "Dawn Chorus", essentially a tape collage containing elements of Indian music, crowds and water sounds before MacLise's voice, rather unfortunately, intrudes, receding and reemerging between thunderstorms, massed sitars and waves of percussion. While "Astral Collapse" will certainly be a mandatory addition for MacLise's fans, it's also a reasonably varied sampler of his work and includes a gem or two making it worth anyone's while. (squidsear)

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