The Dave - Lois / Poof!

 

Label : Self-Released

Year : 1984/85

Country : US

Format : C45

Here are two tape rips sent to me by the great Tony Coulter. A long time coming, these. I have posted this group on here in the past, probably half a decade ago on one of the Outward Inward comps, but here they are in full swing. Bizarro indie with improvisational folk inclinations. A good comparison would be the vastly underrated Flying Nun outfit Marie & the Atom, of which I'm hoping to see a reissue campaign come to light sometime soon.

These two rips were split by myself, going by whatever the submitter at Discogs thought the track listings were. It's all so weirdly structured that you cannot be too sure of where one song ends and another interlude begins and vice versa. In any case, these are buried gems in the junkyard (in a good way!) of the 80s cassette underground.

Here

Iceplants - Done By The Iceplants

Label : Small Tools Tradition - B Town 01

Year : 1986

Country : US

Format : LP

I have unearthed a holy grail. Well, bought one at least. This group has been on my mind for quite a while after hearing their Happytime At The Wow Club shortplayer first posted on the legendary Mutant Sounds blog. On my mind, but out of reach (financially). Specifically this "long"player. I was just about ready to take a road trip down to DC to have a listen to the Library of Congress' copy before deciding to just bite the bullet and let the collectors win just this once.

Taking a chance with it, I'd say it was worth it. The seller was a treat to deal with, too! Anyway, to the music. Its sound is caught between the drunken piano cabarets of the aforementioned Wow Club and the industrial postpunk of their other rarity which I posted some time ago. The bite is certainly there, lyrics wise. Anti-Soviet ballads are not something often to be found in the exp. underground of the time, sort of continuing on the theme of atypical political lieds after "Hanoi Jane"... Among other topics, like nuclear destruction and short ditties about roadkill.

Read em or weep, maybe both at the same time.

Aside from all that "musical" stuff, there's a letter left from the band leader (I assume) to the former owner of the record. 

Always seems kind of weird, I won't say voyeuristic, to have these in your collection. Maybe it's just me. It's still cool though, in terms of extra goodies that you may find in a random given record. It could be worse, could be whatever came with the first edition of TG's D.o.A.

 

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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.

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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.

XX Century Zorro - La Volpe Du XX Siècle

Label : Old Europa Cafe - OECD 140

Country : Italy

Year : 2011 (1983 orig)

Format : CD

Not to blaspheme the blasphemers, but in the face of the revolutionary MonSter sound system I have shirked the original intentions by doubling the tracks on each channel into one for every song. In its original form, the album has different tracks going on at the same time in the stereo space, perfect for equalizers... But I intend to give it a bit more accessibility if at all.

Warped cabaret tunes and postpunk industrialism in a collage of madness.

here

Die Welttraumforscher - Drittes Bewusstsein

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP058

Year : 2012

Country : Switzerland

Format : LP

As of now the last entry in WTF catalogue, and a fine entry at that. Even folkier than usual, with the expected blurry synthpop coalescing with the whimsical arrangements and playful vocalizations.

Third Consciousness is about right. An astral spectral spectacle. What more is there to say other than to leave it all to the waveforms found in this el-p? Pretty-pretty.

Here

Die Welttraumforscher - Ohm Olunde

Label : Zauberhaus (Das Moniflabel) - PP052

Country : Switzerland

Year : 2005

Format : LP

Old dawn fades, new dusk rises. The cosmic deep field of Welttraumforscher expands, the stars are coming undone and it's a beautiful thing. Really, it is. I love the little world he has made, even though I can only see it through a small window.

Not much has changed in terms of sound, that is the sound which I have described several times over in various euphemistic phrases. You know, folky synth-tunes from a cosmic forest, etc, etc. Not to say it's derivative, not at all really, or even a complacent difficult 32nd album, nor is it par for the course. Something different this way comes, I say.

Here

Though in the process of ripping this for your pleasure I am reminded of the frustrations that entails the vinyl format for what I do, it was all worth the effort.

Circadian Rhythm - 新鮮なかおり

Label : Air Records - AIR-3008

Country : Japan

Year : 1986

Format : 7 inch

Some Eastern hospitality in the form of a cute little 7 inche package. The music is quite comfortable, too. A languid Lacrymosa side project, with pop sensibilities between the avant bursts. It's odd, I quite enjoy the B side and do like the chintzy little melodies of the A-side, but this doesn't grab me as much as I would have anticipated... It has all the niceties of the Japanese new wave in all its [musical description/cliche] and weirdo sensibilities (or zolo, whatever that is). Sort of like a lot of technopop I hear, I would prefer to hear kraftverk or O. My. Dee.

Of course, I could just let it settle. Let it grow on me, yes, grow on me like a, er, mushroom. Yes, yes, yes, yes,  Psilocybin hallucination or insomnia? I'll go with the latter, my circadian clock's only right a couple times per day.

I neglected to scan the back side of this one, wouldn't you believe it? Lucky enough, someone was gracious enough to facilitate the missing spaces to Discogs, making my job halfway obsolete. Oh, if you would like to hear more from this rather obscure outfit I recommend checking out Tony Coulter's show on WFMU. If you bug him enough he might just queue em up.

Here

Die Welttraumforscher - Gold Vom Tiefen Himmel

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP031

Year : 1993

Country : Switzerland

Format : CD

Naive art, the true solitary reveries of an outsider*. Is this naive? Only an appearance? If even, it's impossible to be cynical about such beautiful music and warm sleeve art. Made right in the wheelhouse t'where I first entered Pfluger's dreamlife, this is a nice journey into a mysterious bois.
Drink it in.

Empty spaces are to be filled with imagination, or somesuch.

I recall quotes pertaining to a similar notion.

I figured I'd try a taste of what's over my paygrade.

Here

*wrong Rousseau

City Wildlife - City Wildlife

Label : Edition Unibeirrt - L

Country : Switzerland

Year : 1987

Format : C30

Swiss not Scheiße. Neutral bias, maybe? Another one from the conspicuous corner of New Wave obscurity; Residential, yes. Dash of early Ween I feel. To avoid rehashing my RYM review, I'll actually talk about the music in English rather than buzzwords and halfhearted platitudes.

Yes, a mini-album as described by the experts at Discogs dot com. As can be seen from the tracklisting on the J-card you can get a glimpse of the brevity of most tracks on the album. Sketches more like, as I do like to describe. The music is a strange minimal treat for minimal ears. Synth experiments mix with vocal experiments and guitar experiments. Or maybe it sounds like one big (small) experiment. A demo album, perhaps? Maybe that's how I got it from Recrec just a week or few days ago.

Here

The next reupload roundup comes nearer and nearer, just need to polish some stuff up; Stayed tune, mon  lecteur.

Olliwor - To Many Heroes

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP015

Year : 1988

Country : Switzerland

Format : C60

Or is it "OILiwoЯ"? Think Chris Knox further augmented by the Residents and label honcho 

Die Welttraumforscher, and at times antecedent to the utterly unique Svede mrperfect.

Another treat from the welt of Loon:

a previous mystery to me in the Moniflabel catalog, I had only so much information provided to me about the who's and what's of this project; Olliwor Fried is the token.

On this tape, the singularly named Olliwor

plays the browns as it were, a focus on

lowfi pop and the odd interlude

of dreamtime.

My comparisons above were rather immediate connections.

     Very Tall Dwarfs, in an affected English that is. The best parts of this exercise is the bent melodies mixed with

       the discordant synths and fuzzed out geetars. It is rather different from the usual Forscher affair but also very much hereditary, especially based on what I have heard from the early days of the label.

I'm going to continuously seek out as much as I can from Das Moniflabel 

With that, enjoie.

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Schwarzwurz / Harald "Sack" Ziegler - Zugabäh! / Helau?

Label : Senseless Gebollah - SG ! #14

Country : Germany

Year : 1993

Format : C60

Back to our regularly scheduled programme, as abnormally placated it is. I got this tape from the honcho of the immortal Ebus tape conglomerate on Discogs recently, and it certainly is a strange beast. The A-side is composed of live performances from a band/duo/project/experiment called Schwarzwurz. Prior to this I had no exposure to them and on first glance, they are pretty damn wild. Noise-industrial improv, "Fuck You" kind of music.

Now the B-side is from a figure that I have a much greater familiarity with. Harald "Sack" Ziegler has been putting out warped pop for years, and with a live backing it becomes even rougher.

Just the two sides ripped, pristine and without any bells and whistles in the post-processing and splitting processes. Since the tracks are quite hard to discern from one another due to the quality and nature of live performance and my ignorance of most of the content, I hope it's acceptable.

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