Max Goldt - Ende Juli, Anfang August

Label : Hidden Records - Bulb No. 7

Year : 1994

Country : Germany

Format : LP

I was going to try and fit this in the month of October before it dozed off into that annual frenzy of orange and black, but working this platform on mobile is a bigger nightmare than any decoration one could place in their lawn. So, I'll compose this in the month of pent up sexual aggression. At least, that's what the internet has christened the month as.

I do believe this is my first time giving this artist a spotlight outside of the stray mention in a blurb concerning someone else. Though I may not always understand it, there is an enthralling nature to Goldt's music. The way the spoken and half-sung passages interact with the dissonant synth backing makes for a strangely intimate affair, like a hologram coming up from the grooves. Like the cover might suggest, an uneasy sort of chill relaxation.

Here

Die Welttraumforscher - Werkstatt Wasserstadt

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP040 / Ebus Music - EM056

Country : Switzerland

Year : 1999

Format : LP

To preface this I would like to make a few announcements: Die Welttraumforscher has a new album out on the very intriguing label New York Haunted, it's very nice and I recommend the purchase for all who may have been exposed to him from my blog. Still some copies left of the tape, of which I ordered, so try and go for that if you're into the physical paraphernalia. Cheap, too

The other announcement (...before I once again repeat myself about this wonderful artist for nth time) is that I have been in the process of re-ripping a bunch of records and cassettes previously found on here. I have (marginally) better equipment and instead of doing it from the jack of an old stereo I have come to my senses and started ripping directly from the output. Armed with a Scarlett 2i2 and iZotope, better days are sure to come. If you have slsk, you should have direct access to the FLAC rips (sometimes in 24 bit). I say this because I'm undecided if I should reupload all these one-by-one given the space constraints on Drive and Mega, even considering the efficiency of the opus file format. We will see, new rips will of course still be featured here.

This particular LP is a bit different than the previous ones found here. From my observation, this one is less "song" orientated and more ambient, like the Loon side-project. The singing is there, but the vox feel as if they will melt and meld into the surrealist backing track any second, and they will. Another peculiarity among his peculiar discography is the B-side, a side-long suite. I was tempted to try and split the tracks as they may but without notation I couldn't possibly bother. And why should I? It works perfect as a singular organism of a track.

Here

The above image is my best attempt at manually stitching together the scan of one side of the record sleeve. For understandable reasons, the program was unable to finish the job. This is because each "slice" was simply a mirror image. Although it's not a perfect match, I tried my best.

Hinton-Templar - Isn't That What You Wanted?

Label : The Subelecktrick Institute - SEI 8601

Country : US

Year : 1985

Format : C90

 Brook Hinton was one of many in the Big City Orchestra, and his solo stuff isn't too far of a departure from the varied sounds of the long-running project. Hinton-Templar is apparently a collaboration between he and... himself. I think. This cassette has been ripped before on an obscure corner of the Internet Archive, but not in clear hissy flac format. So there you are.

Here

Five Or Six - A Thriving And Happy Land

Label : Frizz Bee - Frizzbee 2

Country : Netherlands

Year : 1982

Format : LP

Like Durutti Column, except in place of pastoral melancholy there exists an aggressive undercurrent of urban spiral. Like a hellish construction site, but also a bit heavenly. I'm surprised these guys haven't gotten the full-on Cherry Red reissue treatment, having just a Greatest Hits (hm) CD to their name. That's all well and good in this thriving and happy land but it's missing some key tracks. Some of the implied tracks appear here, and on the early retrospective "Cántame Esa Canción Que Dice, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" that today still sit on their respective plastic platters. Five or six years from now, maybe.

Here

Pelthead International Conspiracy Theory - Pelthead International Conspiracy Theory

Label : La Bande Magnétique

Year : 1994

Country : Canada

Format : C60

 The second half as promised in the last post, just in time for the prelude to Christmas sunlight. As I mentioned before, this auction was somewhat of a crapshoot, an unknown. It was well worth the few 10s of dollars spent for both of em, two winners. At least I'd like to think so, without the fog of buyer's remorse and bargaining. But really, there is some interesting stuff going on here.

 Music for art installations, like the last one somewhat, but that doesn't take away the listenable aspects of this. Stray samples, strange synthsounds, and autre alliterations abound. The grand mystery revealed itself in a surprise of familiarity: one of the fellows involved in this project is a musician I know (not personally) from a few tapes from the noise-arch archive, Gerard Leckey. Here, under the alias Gabrel [sic] Angel with his partners in croime Patrick Harrop (who did the cover art here as well as the SLOD tape) and Paz Paisley (who has been putting some stuff from this group n perpendicular, including stuff from then and now), it is not too dissimilar to how I remember his own music sounding: collage, minimalism, and electronic overall.

The last tape had this nice little advertisement too but I felt it more appropriate to include it in the finale to the 2 episode miniseries.

Here

Secret Life Of Dali - Live

Label : La Bande Magnétique

Year : 1994

Country : Canada

Format : C60

 Christmas is in the air, and there's nothing more enchanting than that. Well, except for unknown tapes I picked up on eBay. You never know what to find in these plastic mystery boxes. Here is the first of these media incognita... Like many things, what appears to be totally obscured at first is eventually shone a light with a little scrutiny.
Like so, after previously having no luck finding any info on this at all, I soon found a Youtube channel (of which I was already subscribed) that contained both info and various tracks from this mysterious collective and adjacent.

This particular tape contains longform and lesser longform minimal elektronik pieces, not quite techno and not quite Vice Versa, Suicide, etc. Ambient and prog structure of an art gallery soundtrack.

Here

Hebephrenic - Ataraxia

Label : Tapehiss Recordings

Year : 1991

Country : US

Format : C90

We keep going further and further back in time in this particular artist's catalog, in this installment quite a bit of fade in and outs. Maybe more ambient and progressive in comparison, too, but still with a mutant-pop sensibility. Ethereal and ghostly but not too harrowing. Listeth.

Here

Various Artists - Cookie Wagon

Label : Dhyana Records - DHY 018

Year : 1999

Country : Allemagne

Format : C90

In a world of such far-flunged conclusions and twisted spiders' webs in terms of international Cosmic Coincidences, it can't be too far-fetched to come to the realization that all of these musical blogs found here on the Wired are just a part of a conspiracy seeded by M.Nomized to spread each and every one of his appearances on obscure cassette compilations. It's always the French, right?

For the first time in this post, I would like to speak seriously, if for a moment. No joke, there is some good stuff on display here. Contained within the (unscanned) brown envelope, a musical world is unleashed. Alright I wasn't being very serious there, but I digress as always. 

Dhyana are a weird case. Of course, it's not like I can't say that about every single label I've posted from here; but they are weird even in the context of this strange conception. This German outfit dabbles in a lot more forms of experimental EM than what is usual, which acts somewhat to the detriment of their comps in my damaged drums. You may like it, but some of the stuff here sounds dated to me. And I like quite a bit of stuff that could be put under such a nebulous label. I dunno, definitely a lot of interesting stuff going on here but man, some of that IDM and DnB kinda stuff didn't age well. Don't take it from me, though, take it from the Man!

Here

Die Welttraumforscher - Ein Sommer In Der Wirklichkeit

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP026

Country : Switzerland

Year : 1991

Format : LP

Ripped by Scramoutcha

Friends are becoming easier to come by, another guest rip. Via the slsk chat service I have been in correspondence with this fine fellow for the past few weeks, and we have reciprocated gifts with each other ever since. I've mentioned Die Welttraumforscher before in a post from the side gig called "Loon", where I briefly laid out my various admirations for the protjection.

Released in the early 90s on his own imprint, Christian (Pfluger) lays out rumsey in the feeling that lingers, to butcher a Bodycocktail tape title. Whimsical, great word. A cheatcode in description, a word which can describe (as descriptions ought) a myriad of ecstatic feeling without giving too much in the way of actual thought. Anyway, it is whimsical. On a whim, I can imagine, 'ol Weltschmerz cut this piece of plastic in a matter of a few afternoons. The synth melodies are pretty as ever, the minimalisms of which compound and impress upon the remote listener an appropriately dreamlike quality.

My supplier compared it to the latter nineties group Broadcast--"Tender Buttons" in specification--which I can definitely hear though very much stripped down and lowfidelity. Yes, yes, yes; less Romandie Stereolab and more... Well Swiss Die Welttraumforscher. Not much like it, doesn't take a world of dream researchers to find that out.

 Here

Comes with both the original rip and the declicked version, use either or both at your convenience.

(also, it's FLAC)

Various Artists - Seventh Sign

Label : Tapehiss Recordings / Greyslade Music

Year : 1999

Country : US

Format : C30

Apocalyptic hyponagogia
Hebephrenic and frens make some likeminded sounds; Cumulative synthpop with a psycho-delic flair, not unlike other releases from this particular tape label.
As I have mentioned fervently regarding this project before, the influence of the Legendary Pink Dots is very pervasive. It even comes with a bit naff vocals that somehow fit the swirling synthscapes surrounding them.

 If anyone has any other releases from this project, I would love to get my hands on them. By download or by purchase, I don't really mind either way. I just hope you guys enjoy it.

Here

Panda Haus - Exercises In Brevity

Label : Polyamory

Country : US

Year : 1999

Format : C44

Most of some of the time trawling the assorted obscurities of Discogs' database bears strange and rewarding fruits. This is one of those times. As soon as I saw that notification on the electronic mail, I as there. I first discovered this little dirtied gem of a tape when I, as I am wont to do, inputted some appealing filters with the sites rather limited Style system. I believe it was something to the chune of "1990s, Cassette, Avantgarde, Synth-Pop". A winning combination.

As can be seen from the image, this was likely sent for review to the subunderground zine Muckraker and addressed to its honcho Patrick Marley. Though I bought this from CMS Foundation's Chris Sienko, one of those things that get mixed up when buying a little something. When describing the music, I could say that it is along the thread of experimental pop with lofi production with little smatterings of noise here and there. The noise element, though very understated, is appropriate given the involvement of Tovah "Dead Machines" Olson. Personally, I have found more enjoyment in this sort of project, that is melodic yet chaotic and noisy pop rambling, than the more harsh and glitchy sounscapes that has found prominence over the last two decades or so.

Here

Hebephrenic - Hide

Label : Tapehiss Recordings

Year : 1999

Country : US

Format : C90

While I'm not wont to post rips from those other than me on the main page, rather regimenting them to the neglected and spider webbed stray links section, I've felt compelled to share this masterpiece of lofi EM. I've been praising this thing since discovering it by chance after reading of it in an old webzine review section and somehow finding it on slsk. It was uploaded by someone by the name of drij. I hope it doesn't bother them much. 

An intrepid reader may notice I've posted this author before, and they would be right. Back in the cruelest month, I posted an earlier tape by Hebephrenic, I personally think this tape is even better than that one. Enjoie.

Here

I'll probably post another Mafioso tape tonite or tomorrow if I get lazy about it. Peeled eyes get the prize, and other self-invented idioms.

Die Welttraumforscher - Die Singende Sternlaterne / Folklore Des Weltalls 1982

Label : A Tree In A Field Records - TREE046 / Planam - PLANAM WTF2

Country : Switzerland / Italy

Year : 2013

Format : LP

Here's a good'un. Someday, I will buy this entity's entire catalogue and share their genius ectoplasmic sonicforms with you all. In due time, of course. Or maybe one of those electro-boutique labels like VOD or Dark Entries or Blackest Ever Black etc. could do that... There's a whole realm of possibilities, though it betrays my own contrarian and pseudosolipsistic sense of "ownership" over it and the gratification of exposing it to the relative "masses". Doesn't matter when the music's this good!

This is both a rerelease and an archival release, the first side being a reissue of a 1983 tape and the flipside being an unreleased 1982 project now trapped in wax for our pleasure. This is all fine and dandy, but I wonder if the A side is an abridged version of said tape, as some tracks seem to fade a bit early and there seems to be a few tracks missing from the original. Even with that in mind, this is still an excellent document that I recommend very much so.

Here

Shep and Me - Nasturtium Inertia

Label : Dear Skull - DS-011

Country : US

Year : 2011

Format : LP

Here's another album for you guys, with the same folk flavor as the last. Truth being, this is free/avant folk in a more Charlie A. McAlister way than a Jackie-O Motherfucker tinge like the last one. Small scale and lowfi ambient pieces abound.

This is a remastered reissue of a 2009 tape. This rerelease is of the odd assortment: it is abridged and yet it is obliged. What I mean by that is that two tracks from the original tape release are redacted in favor of two new ones. Good tidings, a worthy reason to download this one if you happen to have the original. This records packaging is something interesting, too. The sleeve itself is encased in what I can only describe as faux-hardwood flooring texture, and that itself is covered by the album sleeve. Tough nut to crack.

Here

Paraquat - Mir

Label : Recycled Carbon Recordings - RCR 23

Country : US

Year : n/a

Format : LP

This was a hard one to track down, apparently there have been quite a few groups/projects/duos/trios/quintets to christen themselves/f as either Mir or Paraquat. It took some intrepid archive trawling to find that this is the solo project of a member of the (equally hard to find) band Churn, Bil (sic?) Hooper. According to the label attached to the sleeve and seen above for your convenience, this is a part of an ambitious series of records that I and most of the internet have never heard of. In fact, it's so obscure, that the sharpied in description on the dust  cover thought it was German due to the deutschemarks on the glued printerpaper on frontispiece.

Anyway, this is best boiled down to being some kind of post-rock experimentation in collage, field recording, and droning ambiance. Although, that just sounds like any other post-rock album from the late 90s and early oughts. Oh well.

Here

It should be noted that this is just a single sided record, so I just posted the .mp3.

Loon - Lamb

Label : Loon Records - LP033

Country : Switzerland

Year : 1997

Format : LP

Loon--or Christian Pfluger, or Die Welttraumforscher-- is a project involving synthesizers as it were. A nondescript packaging containing mellow scapes of newage and a sprinkle of minimal EM. I've fallen a bit in love with this guys musics over the past span of time since time memorial 2017, but the sum of those lovely parts aren't exactly present here. Gone are the infectious, jilted melodies and avant-popisms and in comes a more laid back feel.

Still enjoyable, though. The more stuff by this I have the merrier, so to speak. Been awhile since I have encountered an artist whose work I search out for with glee and inconspicuous fervence.

Here