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

Max Goldt - L'Église Des Crocodiles

Label : Gagarin Records - GR2024

Year : 1983 (2011 RE)

Country : Germany

Format : LP

Ramblings that go in and out of chipmunk speak, with some strange minimal backing for good measure. Real kitchen sink of an instrumentation which breathes some organic air for a field sometimes so lacking in it.

A favorite DIY artist of mine.

 

Here

Gary Panter - Pray For Smurph

Label : Overheat Records - OVE-0102

Year : 1983 (RE 2008)

Country : Japan

Format : CD

Here's something I didn't know existed 'til a few months ago. The CD issue of this, that is. I had once heard an old vinyl rip of this album, weirdowave avant-country by the comic artist Panter. An apocryphal Ralph Records curiosity if you will.

Now a local comic book store came upon a batch of these, cutting the price down by magnitudes going by Discogs. It was really serendipitous, I opened a social media app one night (turning morning) and came upon it and gave it an order. The rest is history. 

Now given that this is by an artist of Panter's cache you would expect to find some sweet prints in the booklet. If you have been paying attention to the scans, you would know yourself to be correct. It also came with this sick flag, which I have hanging proudly in my closet at the minute.

This is a definitive "zolo" release, although I see that more as a pure aesthetic than an actual musical genre. If you haven't heard it before and my aforementioned description of the music doesn't register, think of it like the music he designed covers for in the past: Snakefinger, Residents (and Renaldo/the Loaf), Oingo Boingo, the good doctor Eugene Chadbourne, etc.... The herk and the jerk of a twang in a mode of new wave.

Don't be afraid to click the CD!

Harpy - Hot Drive

Label : Self-Released - HP-006

Country : Japan

Year : 1998

Format : CD

Before I start, let me recommend this live performance being offered on Bandcamp by the great itoken. With that giving me a good conscious to share this to you for free, here is a set of tracks recorded in the late 90s by one of my favorite toy/avant/prog groups, a mix of live and studio tracks. 

A zip of this has been floating about the internet for a long while, but only in measly 192 kbps mp3. Today I give to you, in fresh 4K quality, a 96 kbps opus rip!!!!

(FLAC version can be found on slsk if need be)

Here

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

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

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.

Iceplants - Cravenous

Label : Small Tools Tradition

Year : 1992

Country : US

Format : CD

Ooooo this is a pleasant surprise! (Apologies to the other variety of surprise)

Actually, maybe it is unpleasant. Iceplants were never a pastoral group, totally negative type music. Jaunty self-murder ballads, things of that nurture. They sounded British to me at first, but they were actually germinated from the pistols and stamens that populated the burgeoning fleurs du mal of the 80s Colorado subunderground scene. Dismal, really. This is quite a bit different from the other material (paltry amount of which) I've heard from this old and exciting project. Less "dark" cabaret and more Industrial-ambient postpunk. Still, it's worth getting your ears on.

My search for the rest of the material of this band is almost nearing completion... Unless they have even more stuff I don't know about. My next step in this journey might find me at the Library of Congress. I just have to thank my good digital friend Tony Coulter and whoever gave this to him for making the trek abit lighter.

Here

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.

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

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.

Here

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