Toychestra - Toychestra

 

Label : Self-Released

Country : US

Year : 1999

Format : 7 inch

More toy-based avantpop for whoever still pops their head in here. Not much to really say that wouldn't involve the term "toy" being repeated incessantly, but it's more than worth a short listen. In contrast to the delightful music and artworks, the sleeve smells of old cigarettes. 

Funny what secondhand goods can get you.

The group runs a tight ship at bandcamp, so check that out if you want the rest of their discog.

Here

Scavenger Quartet - Whistling For Leftovers

Label : Phonetic Records - PR 0901 SQ / Snowdonia

Year : 2001

Country : US / EU

Format : CD

 

Some soundtracks for imaginary films. This rotating cast of a quartet is headed by the great Frank Pahl who uses his typical exploits (toys and whistling, mostly) to create wild if not incongruent compositions, though the latter could be attributed to this being something of a collection of commissions than a proper album.

An instrumental Only A Mother in some ways, their following album is much more focused. Maybe it will hit these almost dead hallways sometime soon? Breathe a little life into it.

(click the CD)

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

Iva Bittová & Pavel Fajt - Bittová & Fajt

Label : Bonton - 71 0535-2

Country : Czech Republic

Year : 1997 (1988 orig)

Format : CD

Is there a more dynamic duo in the field of avantgarde reimaginings of cultural folklore? I think not. Truly some beautiful and soulful music, much less of an academic look into this particular world than some takes from their contemporaries; A homely offering.

That isn't to say that the vaguely generalized label I attributed to their so-called "contemporaries" (whom I probably couldn't name in the moment despite being sure of myself) is meant to diminish them in comparison. Tons of great music came from this arena of the avant music scene circa 80s.

You might recall the mesmerizing "Morning Song" from Fred Frith's encapsulating "Step Across The Border" verite film... It's in here!

I apologize a bit for the lack of activity for the past month or so, I got more stuff to post in time.

Here

King Frog - Silver Gelatin

Label : Oblique - Oblique-001

Country : US

Year : 1997

Format : LP

"Suburban Gamelan", a phrase stuck to this particular project that then stuck into my head for awhile. An interesting concept, and I think it befits this just a little bit. The visuals and some of the sounds come to mind as a bleak cityscape.

I went out of my own usual way for this one--I heard a rip of this LP a year or so ago after being interested in the King after first reading about it in Blastitude. The 128kbps rip found on slsk was serviceable and I ended up really liking the sound, so I went and bought a copy to get a more "definitive" sound. I guess.

The whole album has a sound that I can cling to. A sort of unholy cacophony of almost early 20th century clamor. I liken some aspects to some choice 80s tracks from Band of Holy Joy and ZGA's excellent "Gloom". The art book that comes with is also a great companion piece in its sort of amateur expressionism. Also some of the tracks sound like Casio demos, which is quite charming.

Here

 

 

(Man, formatting on this site is annoying)

Electroscоpe - Where The Оscilloscope Meets The Magic Eye

Label : Boa Records - HISS 8

Country : UK

Year : 1996

Format : C60

From the rack, to the deck, to the jack, music blogging's happy lexicon. I've had this for about a year now (a lucky find at a somewhat local hXc-orientated wreckord shop) but hesitated to crack it open and leave it for all to see like I usually do. There's probably a reason for that hesitation, a reason I have either forgotten or repressed but it's all moot now.......

.........Grace it. Lo-fi organ ballads, of the dirge variety. Well, not that sad. Pretty warm, actually. Farfisa noodlings, disparate drum programming and the real thing, sometimes voice poke through the grey light. They run a unique ship here, not sure about a tight one, and it doesn't seem a ship: too abstract.

Here

Lucien Suel - In Hymnis Et Canticis

Label : Rare Produx - No. 25

Country : France

Year : 1991

Format : C90

Furniture music, as per French neo-tradition. French-Canadian, maybe? The original issue of this first appeared on my radar when it was transiently archived on the tentatively run Noise-Arch on-line compen-dium. It was one of the exclusive and elusive members of the [IYD] tapes page, a section of the website that probably only I, in my most humble manner of being, had the outside knowledge of. It eluded the various caches and ambitious archives which sends out their little arachnids to parse whatever they can find. Unfortunately, I do not have much of the faintest memory of what "IYD" means or even stands for. Some more ephemera for the lot.

Anywho, the main dish as presented is here (I'll try to pare down on food comparisons, it really is a plague these days). The reason I exposited upon this meaningless little historie is to give a bit of perspective as to why I went and bought this thing. I do recall enjoying the little mp3 provided by the site, though obviously I had only listened to a portion of it. It seemed the avant-poetic folkisms were the primary instead of the utter secondary, but the concrete musics in sounds of washing hands and various amplified materials really take center stage. Call it like the Bernstein bears or whatever, I just have shit memory.

Here

Ornament & Crime Arkhestra - Live At The III. ITIM Festival

Label : Amf-Music - amf 1035

Country : Germany

Year : 1994

Format : CD

Ripped by Scramoutcha

I don't think this has anything to do with Sun Ra, but it is apparently an Arkhestra. A point of departure of sorts from Alain Neffe, or maybe not. I associate their music with the kind that pulsates electronically through synthetic means, this is a bit more of a jazzy and organic palpitation. Very folk too, though avant in its intentions. Still peppered with industrial backings, so this alien muse is not too alien.

Here

X-Ray Eyes - X-Ray Eyes

Label : Megaphone Limited - 007

Country : US

Year : 1994

Format : CD

Ripped by Scramoutcha

Another bountiful feast from my friend over the information superhighway. This has been on my radar for a little while and I've finally got a blip. Those familiar with Megaphone Limited will have a good bit to like here, and some recognizables as well. Improvisational folk and pop melodies crash discordantly with its jazz and atonal origins. Jason Willett and Caroline Kraabel ring a bell? This album certainly is rrrringing hoooo!

"utterly individual (albeit gently so)" says the website

ひうがなつ [Hiuganatsu] - 日向夏

Label : Club Lunatica - CL-009

Country : Japan

Year : 2000

Format : CD

So this disc finally came in, after about 2 months worth of travelling over the open seas and across the new frontier I present it you. That's what I get for cheaping out with Surface shipping. See the cover there? That's what the album sounds like: a summer afternoon tinted yellow with the diffusion of sunbeams. The low hanging cloud localised inside the corridor also fits, somehow.

It feels as if this unique scene of Japanese music is always producing surprises, a lot of good stuff here. Accordion heavy, which is always good, and with an immature light. Based on that description alone I've heard this album dozens of times before, and yet it is unique. I am not so sure if this is a scene like I said offhand before or if it is just a coincidental mishmash of likeminded musicians operating at the same time and working with the same tuneful clay. Or maybe that's just what a scene actually is.

I appreciate that they were so kind as to include an English translation of the lyrics, just a nice little touch. Though this is certainly more Francophone than Anglo given the credence towards such musicians as France Gall and Klimperei.

                        Here