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Dreamies - Auralgraphic Entertainment (1973)


Bill Holt grew up obliviously happy in the 1950s in Springfield, Delaware County, a suburb of Philadelphia. As for many kids during the period, it seemed a time of wonderful affluence, characterized by innocent pop music, paper routes, frogs in jars, and Schwinn bicycles. In stark contrast was the emerging world of the Cold War and rock & roll, hot rods and young rebel movies. Despite his guileless upbringing, Holt came of age during the changing times of the early sixties, and his latent political and musical bugs began to stir inside. Still, in July of 1963 at the age of 19, before he could act on his musical whims, Holt instantaneously became a husband and a father, and was forced to enter the straight world of work and responsibility to support his new family. He bought an apartment with his wife, and spent nights and weekends watching the world change before his eyes on a black-and-white television set: the assassination of President Kennedy, the emergence of the Beatles, and Vietnam. By the late sixties, Holt also immersed himself in the ambitious pop music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan and read about experimental composers such as John Cage and about musical forms like musique concrete. By early 1972, at the age of 28 and after ten years wearing a suit and working for a Fortune 500 company, he had had enough of the American dream and realized his musical calling. The next year Holt quit his job, found the same sort of Ovation acoustic guitar that he had witnessed Glen Campbell playing on TV, and bought one of the original Moog synthesizers and a four-track reel-to-reel recorder. Approaching thirty years of age, Holt set out to reinvent himself as a musician and composer, despite the fact that he had no prior experience writing or playing, other than strumming guitar a bit in his past. He entrenched himself in his basement and set about creating the aural collages that became Dreamies. The end result of his transformation was a self-titled LP, Dreamies, released in 1973 by Stone Theater Productions. The album was a sensational extension of musique concrete and the Beatles' "Revolution Number 9" (off The Beatles, or White Album), a pair of sonic collages that expertly incorporated sampled dialogue, sound effects, psychedelia, political commentary, and wonderful bits of melodic invention. Unfortunately, the album failed to find a public, and it also placed Holt in financial difficulty, requiring him to return to the work world he had previously given up and, thus, bypass his music. At the beginning of 2000, Gear Fab reissued Dreamies on CD, and the new publicity was accompanied by rumors of a new collection of Dreamies collages from Holt, perhaps incorporated with video. (Stanton Swihart)


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Chêne Noir - Chant pour le Delta, la Lune et le Soleil (1976)


As one might guess from this band's full name, Théâtre du Chêne Noir d'Avignon, Chêne Noir was a troupe of musicians and actors from the city of Avignon in southeast France. Avignon in fact is famous for its numerous theater companies and the name refers to both the performance group and the ancient chapel where they are headquartered. Many similar groups -- such as Principal Edwards Magic Theater, Grand Magic Circus, and Floh de Cologne -- in the early '70s throughout Europe blended rock with theater, but Chêne Noir, more avant-garde than most, deserves special note for its blend of improvised jazz and rock, spoken word, dance, and theatrics. Musician and writer Gerard Gelas founded Chêne Noir in 1968 as a way to create ceremonies to release the full potential of humanity and push the performers physically and psychological to the limits. Though occasionally the troupe put on material by Molière, Alfred Jarry, and other more obscure French writers, their main focus was on original material by Gelas and the others in the group. In 1971, the legendary experimental jazz label Futura released the group's first album, Aurora, recorded from a May 1971 performance of a piece in their repertoire since September 1970. Whereas on this debut, Chêne Noir was a seven-piece and by the late '70s when they released a couple more albums, Chant pour le Delta la Lune et le Soleil and Orphee 2000, on their own label, they had filled out to ten members. Meanwhile, the physical theater itself provided a performance space to other acts over the years; in 1972, both Magma and Steve Lacy performed there and for Lacy, it was the very first of his many solo concerts. The Chêne Noir company has continued to perform throughout the last several decades into the new millennium, either at the chapel or on tour to other parts of France, Moscow, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Algeria, and even Canada. (allmusic)


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One Inch of Shadow - Birthday of Angels and Mannequins (2002)


Po wielu wypuszczonych własnym sumptem CDR-ach, singlu nagranym dla Nefryta i udziale (m.in. u boku Tony Wakeforda i Tora Lundvalla) na międzynarodowej składance "Songs for Landeric", wydanej przez francuski label Cynfeirdd, grupa One Inch of Shadow doczekała się swego pierwszego oficjalnego albumu.

"Birthday of Angels and Mannequines" wypełniony jest ulotnymi, neopsychodelicznymi, leniwymi piosenkami i subtelnie malowanymi ambientowymi pejzażami. Na wydawnictwie zawarte jest to wszystko, co fani zespołu znali do tej pory, ale w skondensowanej, doprowadzonej do perfekcji formie. Blisko godzina natchnionej, nierealnej muzyki z pogranicza jawy i snu. Głosy, syntezatory, gitara, trąbka, perkusja ...oraz olbrzymia przestrzeń i totalny klimat. Idealny, jesienny soundtrack do widoku opadających z drzew liści i kłębiących się nad głową deszczowych chmur. (serpent)


After many self-issued CD-R releases, 3" CD published by Polish label Nefryt and participation (next to Tony Wakeford and Tor Lundvall) on international compilation "Songs for Landeric", released by French label Cynfeirdd, Polish group One Inch of Shadow has finally waited through its first official album. "Birthday of Angels and Mannequines" is filled with volatile, neopsychedelic, lazy and subtle painted ambient landscapes and delicate ethereal songs. Release contains nearly an hour of spiritualized, unreal music dwelling on the border of reality and dream. Voices, piano, guitar, trumpet, percussion… closed in enormous ambience of sounds. Perfect, autumnal soundtrack. (serpent)


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Anvil Salute - All the Animals of the Forest (2007)




As it's been said by this Norman, Oklahoma-based band itself, “Genres and styles are meaningless, but, if you must, call us a loosely-structured, semi-improvized droning fractured folk, freakbeat, jazzy, country raga hullabaloo. Do we, in fact, sound anything like that? Sometimes. We're clap-happy. You should buy some of our stuff.” 

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The Bongolian - Bongos For Beatniks (2011)


'Bongos For Beatniks' sees the welcome return of The Bongolian, AKA multi-instrumentalist and Big Boss Man front man Nasser Bouzida. His fourth album under The Bongolian moniker continues the musical journey where 2007's Outer Bongolia left off, bringing us back down to Earth possibly via France circa 1967 via 2011, in a wildly eclectic rare groove fusion of Funk Soul Hammond Beat Jazz and a Sci-Fi Boogaloo. Dig it.

The first single to be taken to radio from the album 'The Riviera Affair' (Feburary 2011) was featured on BBC 6 Music Nemone's Lunchtime Loves where Nemone interviewed Nasser before the sell-out Blow Up HMV Next Big Thing concert that evening. Receiving other radio support from Gideon Coe and Craig Charles also at BBC 6 Music, and proving a strong favourite with club DJ's around the UK.  The track was also featured as a Sky Sports Soccer AM track of the week.  The second single 'Give It To Me (On The Left Side)' the furiously paced bongo-crazed Hammond happening also received good radio play ahead of the album release, both singles along with many album tracks are proving strong favourites on the Blow Up club dance floor.


Over a decade ago Nasser Bouzida disappeared into his studio and created a solo set of recordings which resulted in the birth of his alter ego The Bongolian. Drawing on his influences of Funk, Soul and Jazz, Nasser produced an inspired selection of recordings underpinned by grinding percussion and heavy Bongo rhythms.  The eponymous debut 'The Bongolian' was released early in 2002 to much critical acclaim, and was followed by the albums 'Blueprint' (2005)  and by 'Outer Bongolia' (2007) which also scored a licensing deal with KSR Records in Japan. The albums have become record box essentials for DJs, finding a wide appeal from Dance, Hip-Hop, rare groove and funk 45s fans.  Nasser has assembled a high calibre five piece live band to take The Bongolian on the road, where they have toured USA, UK and Europe. Whilst the recordings are still a solo affair still being created by himself in the studio.

In 2012, the debut album from Fay Hallam & The Bongolian 'Lost In Sound' was released on Blow Up Records. A collaboration between the two artists, with Nasser Recording,  performing and arranging alongside Fay Hallam who wrote the albums songs. (source)


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Riz Ortolani & Nino Oliviero - Mondo Cane (1962) [OST]


Film history isn’t a highlight reel of universally agreed-upon classics. It’s an epic story. But some chapters of the story draw more attention than others. Secret Cinema is a column dedicated to shining a light on compelling, little-noticed, overlooked, or faded-from-memory movies from years past. Let’s talk about the films nobody’s talking about.

Sometimes it seems like we develop a kind of cultural amnesia. In 1985, the world sent a song called “Rock Me Amadeus” to the top of the charts, but who alive then will now admit to liking it? In 1991, a company called Generra Sportswear couldn’t keep up with public demand for its Hypercolor line of shirts that changed color with the temperature, but who today will admit to ever thinking they were cool? Between 1962 and 1963, the documentary Mondo Cane became a tremendous box-office success, but when we think of the films of 1963, the year it played America, titles like The Birds, Dr. No, and Charade come more readily to mind. When I told our film editor, Scott Tobias, that I was planning to cover Mondo Cane, he looked at me blankly. I expect Scott to know a lot about film, but I wasn’t that surprised. In spite of its success, Mondo Cane has largely been written out of cinematic history, or at least confined to its disreputable back chapters.

It wasn’t always so. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther thought highly enough of the film to introduce his review with Hamlet’s “more things in heaven and earth” quote before calling it “an extraordinarily candid factual film” and describing it as “weird, paradoxical, bizarre and reflective of the range of man’s behavior.” A young Harvard Crimson writer named Hendrik Hertzberg (later to abandon film criticism in favor of more respectable pursuits) called it “probably one of the most fascinating films ever made.” The film even scored an Oscar nomination for “More,” a lovely theme by composers Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero, which has been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Judy Garland to Bobby Darin. I can’t think of another film featuring close-ups of cooks preparing dog meat that’s gained such mainstream acceptance.


Another name for the mondo genre better captures what the film sets out to do: “shockumentary.” Across 34 globe-spanning sequences, Mondo Cane shows viewers how weird and wild the world really is, or at least how weird and wild it looks when presented selectively and accompanied by misleading narration. The film’s title translates, roughly, as “It’s a dog’s world,” and it opens with a literal representation of that idea, with a scene of a dog being dragged into a kennel against its will as all the dogs around him bark furiously. “All the scenes you will see in this film are true and are taken only from life,” an opening title explains. (Meanwhile, the voiceover says almost, but not quite, the same thing.) “If often they are shocking, it is because there are many shocking things in this world. Besides, the duty of the chronicler is not to sweeten the truth, but to report it objectively.” This is the first of many lines of bullshit, some of them charming, others insulting and offensive, that the film attempts to feed viewers. As if to illustrate its bullshittitude, it’s punctuated with the sound of the dog yelping as it’s thrown in the cage, a sound that was obviously added in post-production.

Then again, that’s true of the entirety of Mondo Cane’s soundtrack, as per usual with Italian films of its era. But the disconnect between sound and image only reinforces how flimsy a claim the film has on the objective truth it says it values. So does an early, obviously staged sequence in which a clutch of American women, driven wild with lust, tear the clothes off Italian actor Rossano Brazzi, an incident so unexpected, Mondo Cane is only prepared to shoot it from three or four angles at once. Soon, the film illustrates another spontaneous outpouring of sexual mania, as a group of American sailors ogle some bikini-clad women who pass by their ship in a yacht, a moment the film covers from both vessels.

I’m hardly the first to question the film’s authenticity. Pauline Kael raged against it, and even Crowther’s review calls the Brazzi scene “clearly staged.” Others, however, bought into some of its more dubious scenes, like a trip to the Bikini Atoll, once home to American nuclear tests and, when Mondo Cane’s filmmakers visited, apparently home to animals whose natural instincts have been scrambled by atomic blasts. Birds that once took to the air now live underground. Fish leap into trees. Eggs refuse to hatch. And in one memorable sequence, a turtle accidentally heads inland rather than out to sea. The camera captures her flailing wildly, and that narration notes how she “in one last delusion, thinks she has finally returned to swim in the sea.” Shortly thereafter, it shows the turtle lying on her back, apparently dying, then a shot of a turtle skull. “After a panorama shot of the birds and a turtle,” Hertzberg’s review notes of his screening in the film with a Harvard audience, “people in the theatre wept audibly.” Did no one stop to wonder how the turtle ended up on its back in the first place?

That doesn’t make the viewers dumb, though, just human. The scene above appears about 45 minutes into the film, at which point Mondo Cane settles into a tone that’s alternately mocking and mournful in its attitude toward the strange sights we’ve been shown. Many of those sights remain fascinating; all of them appeal to our basest voyeuristic instincts, whether it’s the awful images of dogs being kept in a cage for use as food in Taiwan, or footage of a woman suckling a pig. (“This woman’s child has been killed. Now she must suckle a little pig whose mother has died.”) The footage comes from all over the world, but a mid-film sequence that does nothing but watch drunks stumble around Hamburg is as hypnotic as anything else in Mondo Cane.

Three directors receive credit for Mondo Cane: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, and Paolo Cavara. Prosperi and former journalist Jacopetti went on to make several more films together as a team, with Jacopetti, who died this past August, receiving much of the credit (and the blame). In David Gregory’s documentary The Godfathers Of Mondo, included in a 2003 box set of their films, Prosperi shrugs off that perception while reasserting his own importance. Mondo Cane speaks in a single voice, however, whoever’s responsible. Whether attempting to shock with scenes of a pig slaughter or trying to milk comedy from scenes from a village on the Bismarck Archipelago, where women are supposedly fattened up to please a tribal chieftain, the tone remains consistently, condescendingly bleak about everything. If there’s a message underlying Mondo Cane, it’s “Life… am I right?”

Jacopetti and Prosperi kept that message going with Mondo sequels and spin-offs that included Mondo Cane 2 (which contains the only scene they admit to faking, a re-creation of the self-immolation of Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc) and Africa Addio, whose onscreen executions led some to accuse Jacopetti of conspiring with mercenaries to arrange camera-friendly killings. Jacopetti and Prosperi parted ways after Goodbye Uncle Tom, which made no pretenses to reality and used Mondo Cane-like scenes to depict life in the antebellum American South. (Filmed in Duvalier-era Haiti, the excerpts featured in The Godfathers Of Mondo, with their images of roughly handled children and underage nudity, make it look as cruel and exploitative as any of the pair’s “documentaries.”)

The filmmakers’ influence fanned out from there. Other mondo films followed Mondo Cane in the 1960s and ’70s—Mondo Magic, Mondo Freudo, Mondo Daytona, Shocking Asia, The Killing Of America—before the genre reached its logical end with the Faces Of Death series. But Mondo Cane’s impact doesn’t stop with movies. In Mark Goodall’s book Sweet & Savage: The World Through The Shockumentary Film Lens, J.G. Ballard speaks admiringly of the Mondo Cane films as “an important key to what was going on in the media landscape of the 1960s, especially post the JFK assassination. Nothing was true, and nothing was untrue.” While mondo films as such petered out, the mondo aesthetic has continued to thrive, be it via shows like Fear Factor (whose infamous insect-eating can be traced back to a scene Mondo Cane set in an exclusive, and unnamed, American restaurant specializing in grotesque delicacies), real-or-not docs like Catfish, the dubious reality of reality television, and the many ways the Internet blends fact and fiction. We haven’t forgotten Mondo Cane. We’ve absorbed it. (Keith Phipps)



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GHQ - Crystal Healing (2007)




Recorded by Steve Gunn, Marcia Bassett and Pete Nolan in late 2006, Crystal Healing is GHQ's most accomplished recording to date. A collection of layered acoustic drones and ragas that mix and whirl throughout both sides. It will not take more than one spin for you to realize that this is one of "those" records. Great, great stuff.

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Warsaw Pakt - I'll See You In Court 1977 (1979)


Warsaw Pakt to zupełnie zapomniana grupa pierwszej fali brytyjskiego punk rocka. Powstali w Londynie wiosną 1977. Zespół koncertował w lokalnych klubach, m.in. z Siouxsie and the Banshees w barze w Exeter College (na Uniwersytecie Oksfordzkim).Pierwszy album zespołu, "Needle Time", powstał w ciągu jednej doby, nagrany między 26 listopada 1977 (godzina 22), a 27 listopada (godzina 19). W ciągu pierwszego tygodnia sprzedało się 5 tysięcy egzemplarzy, jednak pod koniec tygodnia wytwórnia Island Records zdecydowała o wstrzymaniu sprzedaży (z niejasnych dla zespołu powodów). Zespół rozwiązał się w marcu 1978, wydając jeszcze zbiór odrzutów z sesji nagraniowej, "See You In Court". Swoją drogą bardzo ciekawe są motywy jakim kierowała się Island Records - może grupa miała politycznie niewygodną nazwę?


Lucas Fox – drums
Jimmy Coull – vocal
Andy Colquhoun – guitar
John Walker – guitar
Chris Underhill – bass

Formed in Spring 1977 around Ladbroke Grove, London. Guitarist Andy Colquhoun had been in a London R & B band called The Rockets, which played support for The Clash a few times and poto punk band The Zips. Lucas Fox had previously been drummer in Motörhead’s first incarnation. The Pakt could obviously play a bit, unlike many overnight punk bands, but to the best of my knowledge they weren’t session men.

I saw Warsaw Pakt in late 1977 supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees at a very bizarre gig which took place in the Refectory of Exeter College, Oxford. Imagine, if you will, an ancient gothic university building right out of "Inspector Morse", steeped in tradition, its wainscotted hallways decked with the portraits of former Professors stretching back to Tudor times: suddenly invaded by upwards of 500 local underage punk rockers, of whom I was one.

Needless to say, the place got well and truly trashed. Warsaw Pakt were good, definitely out of the punky pogo-a-gogo mainstream. The gig was marred by flurries of violence, as the “security staff” (consisting of the college rugby team) tried vainly to keep a lid on the barbarians who’d invaded their sacred grove of academe. Andy Colquhoun’s abiding memory of the gig is having to dodge the stream of bottles hurled stagewards by the crowd; but, as he puts it, “it made a change from gobbing.”



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Le Jazzbeat! Jerk, Jazz & Psychobeat De France Vol. 1 & 2 (1999/2000)


Funky funky funky – and one of the best sound library collections we've heard in a long time! All these tracks are from funky France of the late 60s and early 70s, and they're a refreshing departure from some of the UK and Italian-based sound library grooves that have been floating around over the past few years. Much of the work is by Eddie Warner, and he's got a great talent for mixing hard drums, fuzzy guitar, and either keyboard or moog in a way that reminds us a bit of Dick Hyman or Pierre Henry! Titles include "Shut Up", "Brutas Drums", "Funky Kid", "Devil's Anvil", "Night Flight", "Electronic Track", "Black Power", "Organic", and "Hard Labour". Great stuff – and very fresh and funky! (source)




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Music from Czechoslovakia (1972) [vinyl rip]


Field Recordings By James McNeish, 1960, 1966 using a portable Nagra II. All artists are unknown.





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Alex Puddu - The Golden Age Of Danish Pornography 1970-1974 (2012)


The music on this record is inspired by and composed for The Golden Age of Danish Pornography - a collection of vintage hardcore short films from the early seventies, directed by Danish porn pioneer Freddy Weiss.

Alex Puddu  is one of the most direct and creative artists and composers of our days; a multi-instrumentalist with visions and skills.

He was born in Rome in 1967 and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in the summer of 1987. He began his music career as a drummer at the age of fifteen.

He is truly devoted to the Italian vintage sound of the giallo/poliziottesco and horror movies from the early seventies: Jazz/percussive, psych-groove. His work is inspired by soundtrack maestros such as Piccioni, Umiliani, Cipriani, Morricone, Ferrio, De Masi and Micalizzi.

Alex Puddu released his first solo album "Chasing The Scorpion's Tail" with his cinematic band Alex Puddu and the Butterfly Collectors on the Danish label April Records followed later by four other albums.

Over the past couple of years (2010/11), Alex has been very productive, working on new sounds and compositions for soundtracks - writing, arranging, and producing no less than four soundtracks: "Eastern Army", "Mosaic", "Hell is Other People" and the latest: "The Golden Age of Danish Pornography".




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The Dogs (Iowa) [1973-1977]


The Dogs were as far as I know the first punk band from Iowa and as strange as it may seem they were from the small quiet Iowa town of Decorah. Their sound would fall under the garage punk sound. Whether or not they were the first punk band, they did put out the first record of the 70s wave of punk. Including a single in 1977 and an LP that are rare and collectable.

"Jody Koenig of the Dogs still lives in Decorah where he works at a music store. He's still active in the music scene although most of his teeth are gone and he frightens the women and children. Jody was highly influenced by a Hep Cat named Chopper, AKA, Kirk Juffer who met Jody in 1970 over a mutual love of L.P.records. Jody's dad owned the local radio station "KDEC" which received a big box of promos records every week and Chopper and Jody would get together and spin the cool looking ones. One such day they spun a platter by some fellows from Detroit USA known as The Stooges. "She gotta TV eye on me, she gotta TV eye!" Whoa daddy! and it was easier to play than Hendrix. The Dogs took their name from "I wanna be your Dog" from the first Stooges album. The Dogs, at that point, consisted of Greg Knipe-Drums, Ole Torvik-Bass, Jody-Guitar and Chopper-guitar on some easy songs. The Dogs gigged steadily mostly for teen wing-dings. But international fame was a whispering in the wind so the Dogs moved to Colorado to find it. A crap load of other bands had heard the same whisper so the Dogs had to settle for a booking agent that specialized in strippers. They had a regular gig in downtown Colorado Springs at a place that advertised "The Warmest Beer, worst music and ugliest girls in town". The gig payed twenty bucks a night and mean drunks made the Dogs play ten minute versions of "Wipe Out" er else! Home to the Dogs at that point was a house in the hood that rented for 60 bucks a month. People in the neighborhood were so poor that they broke into the house and stole cans of food! Jody had a religious episode at that point in his life after eating a tainted burger at "Jack in the Box" and crawling through the isle of a Super Duper store. He renounced his guitar and vowed to live on a diet of mini-marshmallows but he soon went off that wagon to get back on his usual wagon. After a few month of watching rats in the walls watching them, the Dogs moved back to Decorah. Greg Knipe the drummer ...."

Ole Torvik - bass
Erik Berg - drums
Jody Koenig - guitar, vocals


"Greg Knipe quit the band shortly after and drummed with Conway Twitty as a one of the Twitty Birds and a new drummer joined The Dogs named Eric Berg who dang near spontaneously combusted many years later but we will get to that. The Dogs had steady gigs on the bar scene in Northeast Iowa playing punk, rock and roll, and some vanity tunes for the rotund, rotosound slapping bass player, Ole Torvik who thought he could maybe fetch some girls over with a YES inspired bass solo or two. The Dogs, as far as one can gather, never had a single female groupie by the way. Ole laid around during that period while Jody worked at his dad's radio station. Jody Koenig also took an electronics course through the mail and made a lot of fuzz boxes. At that point Chopper and Jody decided to go to Madison Wisconsin where Chopper would start a record store and Jody a recording studio. The went over to Madison and had to listen to Sweet Home Alabama which was on the radio to the point of puking. A storefront, which was formerly Madison's famous "Church Key", was rented and the boys began to set up shop. Then tragedy struck. Jody had ordered a fancy four track recorder through the mail and the bums went bankrupt. Jody was crushed not to mention broke as joke. Chopper however stayed motivated because he wanted to own every cool record on God's Golf Ball (ya he was a Beefheart fan too). The record business flourished but Jody couldn't get the giddy-up going so he basically lived on a mattress behind a counter in the back of the store and fixed stuff. People would go to the back of the store with their kaputnik stereo stuff and then yell up to the front, "There's no one back here" and then Chopper would say "Ya, just be patient" and slowly Jody would rise from his mattress with Rip Van Winkle hair and eyes and say, yeah? Ole lived over with Chopper and Jody in an apartment they later were evicted from. "(source)


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The D.R. Hooker Band - Armageddon (1974) [1979]


A heady bit of mid-70s psych from Connecticut – the second album from Dr Hooker Band – recorded in 1974, but not issued until many years later! The album's a true treasure that deserves wider recognition – at some level as heady as any of the best known indie psych sets from the late 60s, but at another coming across at points with a raw intensity that shows that Hooker's generation definitely had a dose of The Stooges in their blood too! Instrumentation gets a bit tripped-out at points  album featuring a different line-up then featured on Hooker's legendary debut:

D.R. Hooker - vocals, guitar
Carrol Yanni - guitar
Bert McDevitt - drums
Bob Reardon - keyboards
Steve Malkan - bass

The recordings you will hear are the result of the efforts of a group of talented and creative musicians. They are the finest of a two-hour live concert of completely original music.... This recording was not originally intended for public release.




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Various Artists - West Coast Love-In (1967)


This compilation released by Vault Records in 1967 includes tracks recorded by the Peanut Butter Conspiracy prior to their signing to Columbia. It also includes tracks by The Ashes who included a number of musicians who went on to form the Peanut Butter Conspiracy.

The album is rounded out by four songs by the Chambers Brothers, who also signed to Columbia after their stint on Vault. (Jack Dominilla)

The year 1967 was known as the "Summer of Love" as San Francisco was the breeding ground for many happenings. "Love In's" were staged everywhere and the air was teeming with the psychedelic sounds of groups like the Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. Another classic West Coast psychedelic act was the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, formed in Los Angeles in 1966 out of a folk-rock group, The Ashes, who included John Merrill (guitar/ vocals); Alan Brackett (bass/ vocals); Barbara "Sandi" Robison (vocals) future Jefferson Airplane member Spencer Dryden (drums) and Jim Cherniss (guitar/ vocals). Both groups released singles on the Los Angeles based Vault Records label in the mid 1960's as did the legendary soul meets psychedelic band, The Chambers Brothers. In 1967 Vault released the classic album "West Coast Love-In" featuring all three groups. Featured on the album was the Ashes' only single for Vault, "Is There Anything I Can Do," written by Jackie DeShannon. Finally available in the digital domain, all selections newly remastered. (amazon)


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Nik Raicevic - Head (1970)


Los Angeles based artist, Nik Raicevic is a sound creator and a keyboard player who recorded a handful of albums between 1971 and 1975. His music is at the intersection of radical psycho-electronic weirdness and kraut kosmische music (in particular the scifi-hypno-minimal modules of Conrad Schnitzler in Grun, Rot and Blau). It presents mega epic & tripped out electronic improvisations. This is an absolute must for collectors and fans of visceral, neurotic soundscapes. (progarchives)


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The Flashback - Ultimate Psychedelic Music Guide by Vernon Joynson


Amazing book about psychedelic music. From the 60's golden years to the glorious 80's. Psychedelia in the USA, Canadians Bands, British Psychedelia, Psychedelia in the 80's. An introductions to the bands and their albums. A handful of progressive, garage, punk, psychedelic and guitar bands.


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Pesymiści (The Pessimists) - Gwiazdy Polskiego Big Beatu (2014)


Zespół wokalno-instrumentalny Pesymiści powstał w październiku 1963 r. przy Dzielnicowym Domu Kultury na ul. Łowickiej w Warszawie z inicjatywy Michała Krasickiego (ur. 7.08.1945 r.) i Michała Morawskiego (ur. 16.11.1945 r., eks Chochoły). Pierwszy skład zespołu przedstawiał się następująco: M. Krasicki - pianino, śpiew, M. Morawski - gitara, Lucyna Lewandowska - kontrabas i Wiesław Pałyga - perkusja. W grudniu 1963 r. do zespołu dołączył wokalista Andrzej Miodek, znany później jako Andrzej Niemira. W styczniu 1964 r. L. Lewandowską zastąpił Janusz Bolesławski, grający początkowo na gitarze basowej, a później na gitarze akompaniującej, kiedy do zespołu doszedł gitarzysta basowy Michał  Zawiła.

W lutym 1964 r. Pesymiści wystąpili na Przeglądzie Zespołów Big Beatowych w Tczewie, zajmując wśród 30 zespołów 2 miejsce. Zespół występował wtedy w składzie: M. Krasicki - pianino, śpiew, A. Miodek - śpiew, M. Morawski - gitara, M. Zawiła - gitara basowa i Leszek Pieniążek - perkusja. Wiosną grupa zmieniła siedzibę, przechodząc do kluba studenckiego "Centon" Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego przy Krakowskim Przedmieściu. W czerwcu z zespołu odeszli A. Miodek i M. Morawski, którego na gitarze zastąpił Janusz Kruk. Z muzyków formacji W. Pałyga został gitarzystą w zespole Medicus, a M. Morawski związał się z grupą Malkontenci.

Wiosną 1965 r. formacja odbyła tournee po województwie olsztyńskim, a latem występowała w warszawskim "Non Stopie" - "Krąg Taneczny" na Płycie Czerniakowskiej. W sezonie artystycznym 1965-1966 do zespołu dołączyli gitarzyści - Marek Bliziński i Andrzej Turski, odszedł natomiast J. Kruk (tworząc Warszawskie Kuranty). Od września do grudnia 1965 r. formacja występowała w musicalu "Niedopasowani, czyli Wieloryb-Goliath" w Teatrze Ludowym na Pradze. W grudniu 1965 r. zespół zanotował debiut radiowy biorąc udział w Radiowej Giełdzie Piosenki w kawiarni "Nowy Świat".

W styczniu 1966 r. Pesymiści powrócili do klubu "Centon". Prezentowali tam swoistą mieszankę repertuarową - opracowania utworów The Rolling Stones, The Shadows oraz oryginalne kompozycje M. Krasickiego i M. Blizińskiego.

18 czerwca 1966 r. z Hubertem Rutkowskim, zastępującym chwilowo L. Pieniążka, zespół dokonał pierwszych nagrań opublikownych na płytach przez Polskie Nagrania. Obok własnych kompozycji zarejestrowano utwory z repertuaru The Zombies i Los Indios Tabajaras

Jesienią z grupy odeszli M. Bliziński i A. Turski. Nowym gitarzystą został Marek Ałaszewski, a perkusistą Andrzej Poniatowski. Z zespołem śpiewać zaczął wtedy, rozpoczynający karierę Andrzej Rosiewicz. W nowym składzie Pesymiści odbyli w grudniu 1966 r. tournee po Czechosłowacji, zakończone koncertem w sali praskiej "Lucerny".

W kwietniu 1967 r. zespół zajął 2 miejsce podczas III Ogólnopolskiego Przeglądu Wokalistów i Zespołów Muzyki Rozrywkowej w Gliwicach.

Przełomowym momentem dla Pesymistów okazał się październik, gdy ich macierzystym klubem stała się "Stodoła" przy ul. Nowowiejskiej w Warszawie, a do zespołu dołączyli: wokalista Daniel Kłosek i gitarzysta basowy Andrzej Wroński (eks-Kawalerowie). Z grupy odeszli A. Rosiewicz i M. Zawiła, a wokalistą na krótko został Tomasz Andrzejewski. W listopadzie 1967 r. na II Ogólnopolskim Festiwalu Muzyki Młodzieżowej w Częstochowie, Pesymiści zajęli 2 miejsce.

Na przełomie lat 1967-1968 M. Krasicki zorganizował, utworzony na bazie Pesymistów, studyjny zespół Aryston z którym nagrywali m. in. Karin Stanek, Stefan Zach i Daniel Kłosek.

W marcu 1968 r. zespół po raz pierwszy wystąpił w TV, biorąc udział w Telewizyjnej Giełdzie Piosenki. Wykonywany przez D. Kłoska utwór "Słowa, imiona" M. Krasickiego i Alicji Kozłowskiej zajął 2 miejsce. Wiosną zespół nagrał utwory dla Młodzieżowego Studia "Rytm".

W maju, po zerwaniu współpracy z Blackoutem, z grupą nagrywał jako solista Stanisław Guzek.

W sezonie 1968-1969 nastąpiła poważna reorganizacja w składzie Pesymistów. M. Ałaszewski i A. Poniatowski odeszli tworząc Klan. Nowymi członkami formacji zostali: gitarzysta Tomasz Szachowski (eks-Kwadraty), saksofonista tenorowy Jan Wiącek, gitarzysta basowy Wojciech Bruślik i perkusista Andrzej Dec (eks-Warszawskie Kuranty). W lutym 1969 r. grupa ponownie wystąpiła w Telewizyjnej Giełdzie Piosenki, gdzie wykonała utwór "Dobranoc, dobrze śpij". W maju 1969 r. - już bez T. Szachowskiego - zespół wziął udział w IV Festiwalu Kultury Studenckiej w Krakowie, gdzie zajął 2 miejsce za Dżamblami. W lipcu Pesymiści występowali w sopockim "Non Stopie". Na koncerty te zaangażowano gitarzystę Jerzego Szczęśniaka (eks-Kawalerowie). Z końcem roku z grupa zaczął śpiewać Piotr Miks (eks-Bardowie).

Jesienią 1970 r. w Pesymistach pojawili się nowi muzycy: gitarzysta Andrzej Glazer i gitarzysta basowy Paweł Brodowski. Wkrótce nowym gitarzystą basowym został Leszek Grzybowski, a wokalistą Marek Cieszewski. W tym czasie zespół stał się formacją soulową, powiększając instrumentarium o sekcję dętą. Grali w niej kolejno - trębacze: Roman Sylwestrzak, Jan Omiotek i Wojciech Kozłowski, puzonista Henryk Cieslak i saksofonista tenorowy Robert Świerszcz.

W sezonie artystycznym 1970-1971 Pesymiści grali w składzie: M. Krasicki - organy, pianino, śpiew, lider; A. Glazer - gitara; L. Grzybowski - gitara basowa; M. Cieszewski - śpiew; R. Świerszcz - saksofon tenorowy i A. Dec - perkusja, zmieniony później przez Tomasza Pilewskiego.

Ostatni koncert Pesymistów miał miejsce 31.08.1971 r. w Krynicy Morskiej. Grupę tworzyli wówczas: M. Krasicki - organy, pianino, śpiew, lider; Andrzej Pol-Zdziarski - śpiew; Zbigniew Grzybowski - gitara; L. Grzybowski - gitara basowa; T. Pilewski - perkusja. Z formacją związani byli też: akustyk - Janusz Dobrowolski (1963-1971) i kierownik techniczny Janusz Orłowski (1966-1971).

Po rozpadzie Pesymistów M. Krasicki współpracował m. in. z Magdą Umer. Piotr Miks związał się z grupą Pięciu, a potem utworzył zespół Dylemat. D. Kłosek i T. Szachowski utworzyli Klub Pickwicka. Daniel Kłosek w latach 70-tych występował jako Daniel. T. Szachowski został redaktorem Polskiego Radia.



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Spjärnsvallet (1975)


Spjärnsvallet was formed in the early seventies when Bengt Berger, who had studied music in India (and was on his way to Ghana), met Christer Bothén who had learned in Mali (and was on his way to Morocco) for a long collaboration with Don Cherry starting 1973 in New York where INNOCENCE is recorded. This was the starting point for the group with Nikke Ström and Kjell Westling. In 1975 we recorded the minor classic album Spjärnsvallet together. (countryandeastern)


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Amps for Christ - The People at Large (2004)


Jeszcze jeden samotny folkowy podróżnik. W tym przypadku mamy jednak do czynienia ze zjawiskiem, którego zignorować nie wypada i to nawet zważywszy niebywały wręcz rozkwit acid folku i neopsychodelii w ostatnich latach. Owszem, Barnes, to obok sir Richarda Bishopa, Bena Chasny, Jacka Rose'a czy Toma Cartera - kolejny kontynuator/innowator stricte amerykańskiej tradycji gitarowej, łączącej folklor Appalachów z tchnieniem indyjskiej ragi, tematy country i hillbilly z wiejskim bluesem i miejskim folkiem; tradycji zainicjowanej przez bezimiennych muzykantów z "głębokiej Ameryki", dokumentowanej niestrudzenie przez Harry'ego Smitha, zaś rozsławionej przez Johna Faheya i Robbiego Basho - bodaj największe autorytety muzyczne (i zdaje się, nie tylko muzyczne!) dla kolejnego już pokolenia amerykańskich gitarzystów. Barnes podróżuje w podobnym stylu, co Bishop, Chasny czy Rose - reinterpretując ludowe klasyki i komponując, na ich podobieństwo, własne tematy, stanowiące podstawę improwizacji. Nie zadowala się przy tym surowym brzmieniem akustycznej gitary, ale, podobnie jak i Chasny, wzbogaca brzmienie instrumentu amplifikacją oraz preparacjami. Sięga też, z równym powodzeniem, po gitary elektryczne, także i te własnego pomysłu, a na dodatek niezwykle umiejętnie inkrustuje swe utwory naiwnie prymitywną elektroniką, co nadaje części kompozycji posmak elektroarchaicznego folku, przybyłego do nas skądinąd. The People at Large to album zawierający przede wszystkim muzyczne miniatury (w tym także recytacje wierszy!), inspirowane amerykańskim folklorem, poddanym tu dość brutalnej, choć pełnej wdzięku oraz szacunku, de- i rekonstrukcji, a także wzbogaconym o echa indyjskie i celtyckie, które, paradoksalnie, stapiając się w amalgamat orientalnych skal i irlandzkiej melodyki, zdają się w nagłych rozbłyskach ujawniać archaiczny, indoeuropejski rdzeń tej muzyki. Choć może to tylko nadinterpretacja słuchającego. Tak czy inaczej - warto! (gaz-eta)


Amps For Christ began as a solo endeavor after Barnes left Man Is The Bastard as their guitar noise and prepared chord organ player, in early 96. Keeping a hardcore influence but mixing it with traditional British Isles/ Appalachian folk made for a thing referred to as "Folkcore". Since then the band has had from as few as one to as many as eight participants at any given time.

The next full-length album is going to be released by 5rc in early 2004. It is called "The People At Large" and there are many collaborators on it . To name a few, there`s Tara Tiki Tavi (Sodamn Inssein / Aye Aye Captain / Thundersnail), Connell ( Man Is The Bastard / Savage Republic / Lux Nova Umbra Est ) Ezra Buchla ( The Mae Shi ). The variation of styles is eclectic, going from traditional Scottish to hardcore to pure noise to beat poetry to spoken word. AFC loves to experiment and build strange looking and configured instruments, as well as big single-ended tube amps and " Caveman Electronics " to use live and for recordings at Newfort Studio in Claremont CA where most of their recording is done. Things like the ratio in pitch movement between a ghost- tone or beat-tone and the two or more tones that created it (maybe around 100 to 1!) are of great intrigue to the band.

This Band has a great love for DIY and like Man Is The Bastard, a political bent against capitalism run amok and the ruling media whores that wont stop killing the planet and the lies they believe like that alternative energy is "unviable"! AFC is for Christ but against the FAKE Christ for profit right wing elitist blind comfort loving destroy the Earth and bring on armageddon church! 

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ISM - I Think I Love You The Hits That Missed 1982-1989


Ism was formed in Bayside Queens, NYC in 1980.  The band was created as a concept by lead man Jism and manager/producer Bob Sallese.  The first single was recorded in the same year with Jism and an early line-up of the band.   The 45,  "Attack" b/w Queen J.A.P." was released on their S.I.N. Records label. It wasn't until late '81 & early '82 that it  began to get commercial airplay and reviews  but was banned shortly thereafter despite positive audience response. Management at several radio stations determined "Queen J.A.P." to be offensive.

Ism broke into full fledged commercial airplay in 1982 with "John Hinckley Jr. (What has Jodie Foster Done To You?)" & "Moon The Moonies" which was released by Sallese & Jism on "The Big Apple Rotten To The Core" compilation on S.I.N Records.  "John Hinckley Jr" became the first hardcore song to get commercial airplay in the NY metropolitan area and was nominated for WLIR's  "Screamer of the Week" award for two weeks straight.  The popularity of "The Big Apple" compilation prompted WLIR's Ben Manilla to do a weekly hour long punk & hardcore show which was the first of it's kind to be broadcast commercially in New York.


After a few initial changes in the line-up, the band became established as Jism, lead singer & keyboards, Mark Reres, guitars, Steve Scianablo, bass and Larry Ray, drums...all from Queens, NYC.

Their success was followed up with their hardcore punk rendition of the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" (1983) single backed with "A7" (a tribute to the notorious after hours punk club in NYC where Jism & Sallese hung out). The record became the #6 single in the country on CMJ's New Music composite. It too was nominated for WLIR's "Screamer of The Week" award in New York.  Ism's "A Diet For The Worms" LP, also released in 1983, shot to #65 on Progressive Radio's Top 100 Charts.   Both recordings were released on the S.I.N. Records label and produced by Jism and Sallese.   Both records were banned by major record outlets because of,  what was considered at the time to be, outrageous lyrics and album artwork.

In 1984, Broken Records released the   "Constantinople" EP with former Anthrax drummer Greg D'Angelo replacing Larry Ray.

In 1987  Raw Power Records released  2 songs  on "The Big Apple Rotten To The Core Vol. 2"  &  a "Nightmare At Noon" EP after which  Larry Ray rejoined the band.   Jism & Sallese produced Omer Travers (infamous for breaking into Yoko Ono's apt.) for the "The Big Apple" vol 2 and Jism was invited onto "The Howard Stern Show" to promote the album.

An unauthorized album, "I Think I Love You The Hits That Missed 1982-1989" was released in 1990.

In 1996, Ism, together with Tiny Tim,  recorded a never officially released music video of "TipToe Through The Tulips".  The song was also included on the  1996  release "Journey Down Your Drain" on No Label Recordings.   Dave Miranda of Six and Violence joined in on drums as Larry Ray had left the band again.   It was released in limited quantities and for promotional purposes only before the group disbanded due to personal issues. (source)




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Lothar & The Hand People - This Is It, Machines (1968-1969) [1986]


Lothar and the Hand People was a late-1960s psychedelic rock band known for its spacey music and pioneering use of the theremin and Moog modular synthesizer.

The band's unusual appellation refers to a theremin nicknamed "Lothar", with the "Hand People" being the musicians in the band, who included John Emelin (vocals), Paul Conly (keyboards, synthesizer), Rusty Ford (bass), Tom Flye (drums) and Kim King (guitar, synthesizer).

The band was notable for being "the first rockers to tour and record using synthesizers, thereby inspiring the generation of electronic music-makers who immediately followed them." Formed in Denver in 1965, Lothar and the Hand People relocated to New York in 1966. The band jammed with Jimi Hendrix and played gigs with groups such as The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, The Lovin' Spoonful and the Chambers Brothers. Lothar and the Hand People played music for Sam Shepard's play The Unseen Hand, and was the opening act at the Atlantic City Pop Festival.


After three initial singles, Capitol Records released two albums by this short-lived band: Presenting...Lothar and the Hand People (1968, produced by Robert Margouleff) and Space Hymn (1969, produced by Nick Venet). A Rolling Stone review described Lothar and the Hand People's music:
It is electronic country, a kind of good-time music played by mad dwarfs, and it is really good to listen to. There is no tension here, no jarring forces at war with each other. It may be strange that New York, the city which deifies speed and insanity, could produce this music, but it is as if Lothar and the Hand People have gone through this madness and come out on the other side, smiling.
The band's most popular recording was the title song "Space Hymn," which received significant FM radio play.

The first album featured a notable "robotic" cover of Manfred Mann's UK hit "Machines" (composed by Mort Shuman), which Capitol released as a single.

In 1997, The Chemical Brothers sampled the Lothar song "It Comes on Anyhow" in "It Doesn't Matter" on their album Dig Your Own Hole. A music video for "Space Hymn" screened in 2004 at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival and the ION International Animation, Games, and Short Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Lothar and the Hand People was the source for a Saturday Night Live skit called "Lothar of the Hill People" and a Boston-area theremin band named The Lothars. (wikipedia)


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Camizole (1999)


The French avant-rock Camizole were active for most of the '70s and toured often, and though they were associated with more well known groups like Etron Fou Leloublan and Lard Free, were never able to release an album. The CD consists of tracks recorded live at various dates in 1977, some of which were going to be released by Tapioca before that company folded. Camizole create an improvised form of rock that is very unstructured and free form, and often quite noisy. At times it sounds a bit like Jean Francois Pauvros and Gaby Bizien's No Man's Land, with similar blistering guitar and percussion freak-outs, while other times the group grooves out on rough-hewn rhythms that are no less freaky. Though closer to rock than jazz, the group, who on most tracks are a quartet, throws saxophone, tuba, and flute and some other odd instruments into the mix with the guitars, drums, and synths, and what they lack in chops they more than make up for with energy and creativity. The few vocals mostly consist of percussionist Jacky Dupety yelling off mic barely heard over the din, though "Charles de Gaulle," the only piece with a proper title, has some weird singing from Etron Fou sax player Chris Chanet. The 13th cut really stands out, as Camizole veer easily from melodic jazz to total percussion freak-out, to a humorous oompah bit while the crowd cheers ecstatically throughout. The other tracks are slightly less distinct, but certainly there's some amazing stuff here, and it's a very good thing this thing has now been released rather than to be lost in the vaults somewhere forgotten. (allmusic)


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Jacco Weener - Het Patriarchaat


Hello,

My name is Jacco Weener. This album is recorded in Rotterdam and The Hague. In a rose garden that was pointed to me in a dream. The songs are written on feeling and I tried to recreate a mood that I sometimes reach.


This album is mostly guitar-voice and sung in Dutch. Before this I was in noise-punk bands (this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KD2FyDklog)

A review from Richard Foster. Who is a journalist around here:

"It would be wrong to say that Jacco sings, or that his songs are songs. But Jacco's tales are effective. They document the sinister, the underbelly of this prim, pristine and provincial land. As such they aren't far away from some Teflon take on HP Lovecraft. The place where Tros 2 rules. The place where suspicion is placed on a doyly mat next to the Bible and the gin bottle. The place where the menfolk fix the bikes with infinite, bovine patience on a Sunday afternoon. The place where the women ensure all the shoes are placed next to each other in the hallway cupboard. Jacco documents these thoughts and never stops. In the infinite patience of all things, there is a place for Jacco. Be warned."


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Various Artist - Cracks In The Iron Curtain 3CD [bootleg]


This triple-feature is dedicated to the true heroes of the Beat-movement. Whereas in (nearly) all other parts of the globe, the major risk a member of a beat group would run in the 60s was getting his hair cut or getting beat up by some rednecks, behind the iron curtain, groups were often thrown in jail, their friends and families were heavily checked and oppressed by the Bureau of Investigation, records (if there was any) were sharply censored and banned from the radio, and their (mostly self built) equipment was confiscated and to get it back, the musicians had to pay high fines. Moreover, musicians were accused for high treason, illegal possession / import of Western products, and even for pornography (Marta Kubisova) All this may explain why many of our heroes (like Miki Volek, Karel Svoboda of Mefisto, and Petr Novak of George & the Beatovens, RIP) eventually couldn’t stand the oppression and committed suicide! Read more of their stories in the attached booklets. These new installments are kind of a companion to the outrageous Beat der Sozialisten-triple set, so there’s no overlaps to that series. Although most of the tracks were scanned from Youtube-clips, overall sound quality is surprisingly good (for a fine selection of videos by Beat and Psyche-groups from behind the Iron Curtain. I really hope you’ll enjoy the show, comments are much appreciated.





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François Baschet and Bernard Baschet ‎- Structures for Sound (1965)


The Baschet Brothers refers to two French brothers named François Baschet (born 30 March 1920, in Paris; died 11 February 2014) and Bernard Baschet (born 24 August 1917, Paris) who collaborated on creating sound sculptures and inventing musical instruments, such as the cristal Baschet. François Baschet was a sculptor and Bernard Baschet an engineer. The Baschet Brothers invented the inflatable guitar, the aluminum piano and many other experimental musical instruments. They created an "educational instrumentarium" for exposing young people to musical concepts.

Baschet‘s research started in the 1950′s artistic turmoil, soon turning the two brothers into the pioneers of sound sculpture, in addition to making them highly requested by musicians, composers, experimental directors. 

François had wanted to be an artist, but his father warned him against pursuing the unstable life of an artist. He decided to study business in college, but felt no passion for it. After World War II, which had interrupted his education, he decided to travel around the world. He brought with him on his trip a guitar to help him earn a living, but wanting something more portable he invented an inflatable guitar using a balloon and a collapsible wood neck. He continued to perform with this guitar upon his return to Paris. Soon he and his brother, who had studied engineering, began collaborating on sculptural musical instruments.


Beginning in 1952, the Baschets started research into all existing musical instruments and put this knowledge to work in creating dozens of structures sonores (i.e., 'sonorous sculptures'). Their visually striking instruments were crafted out of steel and aluminum and amplified by large curved conical sheets of metal, and are most often easy to play and accessible to people with any level of experience. One example of this is the Hemisfair Musical Fountain, which consists of an array of posts at the top of which are groups of conical sound diffusers, and above them circles of metal prongs. These are played by jets of water aimed by observers.

In 1954, the brothers met Jacques and Yvonne Lasry. Jacques was a pianist and composer and Yvonne was an organist. The four formed an association which they called "Lasry-Baschet Sound Structures." They held their first concerts in 1955. The group was successful and in 1960 were asked by Jean Cocteau to provide music for his film, Le Testament d'Orphée. The group toured, appearing on television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1966 they were invited to hold an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and director Alfred Barr purchased a sculpture for the museum's collection. Their tune Manege was also used as theme for the Granada TV program Picture Box, which ran in the United Kingdom from 1966 to 1990.

In the 1960s the Lasrys emigrated to Israel. In 1977 Bernard met Michel Deneuve, a musician, who joined them, starting a new association, and assisted in creating instruments. Deneuve was especially dedicated to working on their instrument called the "Cristal". (wikipedia)

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The American Dreamer OST (1971)


During the post-production of Dennis Hopper’s surreal and unjustly-forgotten South American anti-imperialist western, The Last Movie (which would prove disastrous for his career upon release, yet go on to become a cult classic and one of Hopper’s own proudest achievements), the actor and director was the subject of a sort of loose, biographical documentary, filmed around his Taos, New Mexico home as he wandered the desert, got wasted, and philosophized about life (see tag line: “I’d rather die fighting than die getting fat”). American Dreamer would share in the fate of The Last Movie and quickly disappear into obscurity, but among the film’s remains lays a beautiful acoustic soundtrack, featuring original compositions courtesy of Hopper’s personal acquaintances, such as John Buck Wilkin and Chris Sikelianos, as well as better-known performers such as Gene Clark and gonzo-mime-band The Hello People.

The album itself is relatively short, as are the individual tracks of which it is composed. Gene Clark’s contributions may be the crown jewels of this collection, though they only consist of two pieces, each less than two minutes in length. His “Outlaw Song” is particularly powerful, a stark anthem of personal revolution against the “rational lines that all men draw.” The following number, a hushed performance of the country blues standard “Easy Rider” by Chris Sikelianos, is majestic American folk music in the best Jack Elliott tradition. You can hear Hopper and others laughing and interacting with Sikelianos in the background, giving this one that grace of intimacy that is so hard to find in recorded music.


John Buck Wilkin was a friend of Kris Kristofferson’s who was introduced to Hopper just prior to the filming of The Last Movie, in which he would appear and perform. He scores three songs here, which are basically hit-and-miss. “Screaming Metaphysical Blues” recounts the Last Movie expedition, and while it has some topical charm, it suffers from a case of weak songwriting. The driving “Look at Me, Mama” is much better, accompanied by some righteous picking and boasting a solid chorus. The record closes with a reading of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side of This Life” by The Abbey Road Singers, which is not some long-haired religious choir as one might expect from the name, but rather a heavy acoustic rock-and-roll ensemble, with a singer who vaguely reminds me of John Kay, of Steppenwolf fame.

Like the film which birthed it, the soundtrack to American Dreamer has never been re-released on any modern format, but the record is definitely worth tracking down if you’re into Gene Clark or even just eccentric American folk music. If you’re lucky the vinyl also includes a pretty wild fold-out poster of Dennis Hopper toting a rifle and a joint that’s almost worth the price of the album itself. Like they say, peace and love, right? (source)


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Bear Bones, Lay Low ‎- Vallée de Dith (2009)




Ernesto González traded the Chavez regime for comfortable living in a dreary place called Waterloo, near Brussels. He picked up the guitar, practiced his Hendrix skills, got introduced to the world of scorching fuzz, demented kraut rock jams, drone lords and kosmik trance and decided he could as well do all that shit by himself.

After his debut on Gipsy Sphinx, Vallée de Dith is his second official solo outing, leaving the drone in second position and focussing heavily on kraut rock work-outs. This is the ultimate South-American take on Moolah, Ash Ra Temple and Neu!: excellent riffing, brain-melting space synth and far-out hippy meditation. Probably the best Venezuelan album since Angel Rada’s Upadesa. Phill Niblock hated it!

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Arszyn & Columbus Duo - Columbus Meets Arszyn (2009)


Okładka nie kłamie. Dwie mikroformacje polskiej sceny niezależnej znalazły się w tym samym miejscu o tej samej porze: doszło do prawdziwego muzycznego spotkania. Choć mieszkają ledwie parę kilometrów od siebie, spotkali się w Szubinie, w Electric Eye Studio braci Kapsów. COLUMBUS, czyli braterskie duo od kilkunastu lat eksplorujące różnorakie gitarowe obszary: jako THING grali jeden z pierwszych noise’ów w naszej ojczyźnie, jako COLUMBUS zahaczyli o jazz i minimal. ARSZYN, czyli Krzysztof Topolski: perkusista i artysta dźwiękowy znany z formacji Ludzie, ze współpracy z Emiterem, z solowych projektów oraz autorskich warsztatów. COLUMBUS meets ARSZYN to wszystkie te doświadczenia zebrane w jednym miejscu i jednym czasie: noise i kameralistyka, jazz i americana, awangarda i country, hałas i cisza.

Choć tytuły utworów brzmią niekiedy śpiewnie, choć to efemeryczne trio wspomógł wokalnie Paweł „Paulus” Mazur, choć muzycy grają nawet równo i mają za sobą wiele lat doświadczeń, płyta – wiadomo to już w dniu jej wydania – nie znajdzie się na szczytach list przebojów. Wspomniane doświadczenia to bowiem doświadczenia w sensie laboratoryjnym: próby, eksperymenty, nierzadko grożące poparzeniem, oślepieniem i – zwłaszcza – ogłuszeniem. Tym razem muzycy dawkują poszczególne składniki z wyjątkowym umiarem, namysłem i wyczuciem. Trafiają one do ucha wydestylowane, dokładnie odmierzone, by zaatakować je w konkretnym punkcie, w tym a nie innym ułamku sekundy. COLUMBUS meets ARSZYN to spotkanie nastawione na intensywność dźwiękowego przeżycia. I dowód, że muzyka nie stoi w miejscu. (serpent)


The cover does not lie. Two micro formations of the Polish independent scene were in the same place at the same time: there was a real musical meeting. While living barely a few kilometers from each other, they met in Szubin, in the Kapsa brothers’s Electric Eye Studio. COLUMBUS, i.e. Swoboda brothers’s duo, for many years exploring a variety of guitar areas: as THING they played one of the first noises in Poland, as COLUMBUS they penetrated jazz and minimal. ARSZYN, that is, Krzysztof Topolski: drummer and sound artist known as a member of Ludzie, also famous by his cooperation with Emiter, by his solo projects and workshops. COLUMBUS meets ARSZYN means all these experiences gathered in one place and one time: noise and chamber music, jazz and americana, country and avant-garde, noise and silence.

Although the titles of songs sometimes sound well, while the ephemeral trio was helped vocally by Paweł „Paulus” Mazur, even though the musicians play just in time and have a number of years of experience, the album – it is already known on the issue – will not be on the top of the charts. For this experience is the experience in terms of laboratory: tests, experiments, often potentially burns, dazzling, and – especially – stun. This time the musicians quantify individual components with the particular moderation, reflection and sensitivity. They go to your ear distilled, carefully measured, to attack it in a specific point, in a precise fraction of a second. COLUMBUS meets ARSZYN is the intensity of the sound experience. And the proof that music is not stagnant.

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Voyager 1 Golden Record


Voyager Golden Record – pozłacane dyski, które zostały umieszczone na dwóch sondach wystrzelonych przez NASA w 1977 w ramach programu Voyager. Zawierają dźwięki i obrazy mające ukazać różnorodność życia i kultur na Ziemi. Przeznaczone są dla pozaziemskich cywilizacji lub ludzi z przyszłości, którzy zdołaliby je odnaleźć. Pomysłodawcami dwugodzinnego nagrania byli Frank Drake i Carl Sagan.

Nie są to jedyne sondy z tego typu wiadomością. Poprzedzające Voyagery sondy Pioneer 10 i Pioneer 11 również posiadają płytki z informacjami o Ziemi i jej mieszkańcach.

Carl Sagan: „Te statki kosmiczne zostaną odszukane i znajdujące się na nich nagrania odtworzone tylko jeśli we wszechświecie żyją zaawansowane i podróżujące przez kosmos cywilizacje. Jednakże wrzucenie tych butelek z wiadomością do kosmicznego oceanu mówi coś optymistycznego o życiu na tej planecie.

Materiały, które miały znaleźć się na płytach zostały wybrane przez komitet pod przewodnictwem Carla Sagana. Razem ze współpracownikami wybrał 116 zdjęć, różnorodnych dźwięków wydawanych przez zwierzęta oraz odgłosów natury. Do tego dołączono muzykę pochodzącą z różnych kultur i epok oraz pozdrowienia w 56 językach (55 współczesnych i starożytnych językach oraz Esperanto). Załączono także wiadomość od prezydenta Stanów Zjednoczonych Jimmy'ego Cartera i sekretarza generalnego ONZ Kurta Waldheima.


Wśród obrazów znalazły się czarno-białe i kolorowe fotografie oraz diagramy. Zawierają dane naukowe dotyczące wartości fizycznych i matematycznych, Układu Słonecznego, jego planet, DNA, a także ludzkiej anatomii. Oprócz tego zamieszczono zdjęcia innych organizmów żywych zamieszkujących Ziemię i jej krajobrazów. Obrazy ludzi ukazują różnorodność kultur. Można na nich zobaczyć jedzenie, architekturę i czynności życia codziennego.

Wiele zdjęć zawiera informację na temat czasu, rozmiaru i wagi. Na niektórych ukazano skład chemiczny. Wszystkie jednostki miary użyte do opisu zdjęć są zdefiniowane na pierwszych obrazach przy użyciu wartości, które powinny być takie same w całym wszechświecie.

Nagrania muzyczne zawierają utwory artystów takich jak Beethoven, Guan Pinghu, Mozart, Strawiński, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry i Kesarbai Kerkar.

Pod wpływem krytyki jaką NASA otrzymała za umieszczenie wizerunków nagiej kobiety i mężczyzny na tabliczkach sond Pioneer, agencja nie zezwoliła Carlowi Saganowi i jego kolegom na dołączenie takiego zdjęcia do nagrania. Zamiast tego znajduje się na nim jedynie wizerunek sylwetki mężczyzny i kobiety.

Zdjęcie 14/122 (Chemical definitions) zawiera nieprawidłowo narysowany atom fosforu oznaczony tam jako p. Atom na ostatniej powłoce ma narysowane 6 elektronów, zaś powinien posiadać ich 5. Błąd może skutkować nieprawidłowym odczytaniem struktury DNA pokazanej na kolejnych zdjęciach.


Suma liczb reprezentujących skład atmosfery na zdjęciu 13/122 wynosi ponad 101/100.

Odwrotna strona płyty zawiera instrukcję odtworzenia informacji na niej zawartych przeznaczoną dla potencjalnych znalazców. Rysunek w prawym dolnym rogu z dwoma okręgami to symbol promieniującego atomu wodoru ustalający jednostki czasu używane w instrukcji. Jedna jednostka to czas przejścia wodoru z jednego stanu w drugi wynoszący 0,7 nanosekundy.

W lewy górnym rogu widać fonograf i igłę. Dookoła, w systemie dwójkowym wykorzystując jednostkę czasu zdefiniowaną przy rysunku atomu wodoru, podana jest prawidłowa prędkość odtwarzania. Wynosi ona 1 obrót w ciągu 3,6 sekundy. Na znajdującym się poniżej rysunku fonografu z boku zaznaczono, iż nagranie należy odtwarzać od zewnętrznej krawędzi płyty do środka.

Prawy górny róg zawiera instrukcję odtworzenia znajdujących się na płycie obrazów. Każdy z nich zakodowany jest jako seria 512 pionowych linii, podobnie jak analogowy sygnał telewizyjny. Instrukcja składa się z czterech części. Przedstawiono ogólny wyglądy sygnału. W systemie dwójkowym podano czas trwania jednej linii obrazu. Trzeci obrazek pokazuje jak należy zapisać linie, a czwarty to pierwsze zdjęcie z płyty (okrąg).

Na lewo od rysunku atomu wodoru znajduje się diagram przedstawiający położenie Układu Słonecznego względem 14 pulsarów. W systemie dwójkowym podano częstotliwość wysyłania przez nie impulsów. Identyczna mapa znajduje się na dwóch sondach serii Pioneer. (wikipedia)


The Voyager spacecraft has recently left the orbital limits of our solar system. It is now the furthest any made-made object has travelled from Earth. If you're not old enough to remember the launch, Voyager left carrying a golden record containing a sample of sounds and images from Earth.

So should any extraterrestrial life encounter Voyager in deep space, those beings should be able to listen and view the sounds of our civilisation.

If you go to the Golden Record web-site http://goldenrecord.org, you can see exactly what NASA placed on the golden record, "a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

According to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, "the contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle.


" You can see the contents of the disk in the four categories, which also encompass our scientific understanding from maths, physics, chemistry and biology - including our DNA and reproductive systems.

› Scenes from Earth
› Greetings from Earth
› Music from Earth
› Sounds from Earth

"Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analogue form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.

Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.

It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

This article is  guest post from Everything Express


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