Down With People - Down With People

Label : Circularphile Records / Nadirean Extensions - NE002

Country : US

Year : 1990

Format : LP

That isn't how the Lambchop song goes, but I digress. Here today is a hidden, er, thing from the NYC underground. Not quite the Shimmy-Disc gem, but it's serviceable and might just grow on you and me. Horticulture.

Down With People (or DWP, not sure if they are the same) are an elusive little band, I can hardly find a peep about them on the internet. Does that make me a pioneer? Sons of Pioneers?
I dunno.

Sonically, this reminds me of the Fibonaccis. That's high praise, I love the Fibonaccis. Fibonaccis interspersed into the Downtown music scene seems money to me; something is missing however, it's not a golden ratio. Some sort of "indie" inflection throws me for a loop a bit, might be bias. Avant aspects lacking, but that's me being pretentious. I prefer to be portentous, respectively.

Here

Vale And Year - Holy Music And Art / Field Recordings Vol. 1

Label : n/a

Year : 2004

Country : US

Format : CD(s)

A chance encounter I've found. Browsing the internet leads to strange discoveries at times, and on a fateful minute I found a post from the ancient days of 2013 talking about my blog. It had been posted by David Bernabo, a member of this odd little project. I had previously posted the first album served here back in those days, and I had not realized that I never reposted it after revitalizing this digital warehouse. So here we are.

I got both of these from a local library which supplied many a release from around these parts. Not a lot really sprung an interest from me, but these are exceptions. I want to say I first of this band from the Blastitude webzine, but apparently it was not where I had first encountered them. I think I might have first seen it be perchance on the fallen fakejazz superhighway xerox, though I never got much into that one so who knows. Anywho, this is an interesting admixture of noisy indie rawk with some experimental smatterings across the (maybe a bit unnecessary) 2 disc set. The other album is a collection of free improvs and maybe some field recordings. Maybe. I have not heard these in awhile and just now dug them up from the last remains of my old HDD. So enjoy. 

Here

Shrug - Nevil Wanless E.P.

Label : Our Mam's Records - MAM 00001
Country : UK
Year : 1988
Format : LP

I was feeling a bit giddy this weekend and have been making more rips as per usual, so I figured I'd do a special edition: Harmful little Armful. It originally was gonna be a metapost with multiple rips on one post but then a lightning bolt came through the skies and ripped into my head like a thought, "Nutz to that" I say, archaically. Without any further transgression, here's the first approved vinyl rip of the special, twice in a blogtime extra-vagenza.

I was quite fortunate to find this in a Omaha record shop, though not that surprising considering it was one of my favorite stores I have had the pleasure of plunging into. Although when I bought it lacked both a sleeve for the record cover and the record proper, and the cover had an accursed price tag stuck onto its bearings (my feeble attempt of fully removing said sticker without consequence is seen clearly in the top right corner of my scan. Also note the damp 50% isopropyl alcohol stain).

Going back to the music--and really, that's why we're here--I had mentioned I was fortunate to find this, the reason being that I really like these lads' musings. I made a comparison to the incredible Tall Dwarfs of that one island nation, difference being that this clourish originates from that other island nation, the one that once owned that one island nation on some velvet morning. "Shrug", as weathermen do, is an apt name for this kinda music. Totally confounding in an enchanting sense. The organ heavy punk rhythms win me all over.

Here

Expect some more rips later on today and tomorrow, I have some free time left in my body.

Various Artists - Industrial Folk Vol. 1

Label : Squealer - SQR 014

Year : 1995

Country : US

Format : 7 inch

Since I'm lazy, I'll just paste the review for this I made on Rateyourmusic:

An interesting little document of something of a sound of bygone days, described here as "Industrial Folk"--not Industrial folk as in the traditional music of the worker but of the "merger of folk roots with modern technology" sez the liner notes. Further on, these folkish roots "are modified by the alien technologies available to the modern artist; tape loops, feedback, and the static of everyday life". I feel like I'm padding an essay here, but it is a pretty interesting perspective especially in retrospect.

A number of these artists would not seem too unfamiliar to those who have gone through the underwaternow tape archive. In fact, I associate this time and place and sound and aesthetic with this particular website. A different flavor of cassette culture.

If you could gather any meaning from that melange of text, I mean to say it's a pretty cool EP. I was going to make a grandiose point on how appropriate that something christened "Industrial Folk" would emerge from the fallen follies of the rust belt, when I realized only a few of these groups would qualify as being from said wastelands. 

That's a cool thought, though. "Industrial Folk" as a genre, not Industrial Worker Folk music, which apparently is something that people have categorized, but a designation for the fin de millénaire incarnation of lofi folk found on some-a tape from labels like Shrimper or Bees Make Honey or, of course, Squealer. 

Here

Various Artists - LowLife 17

Label : RRR Records - RRR-L03

Year : 1993

Country: US

Format : LP

Hello, here's something I've had for a little while and never bothered to upload for whatever reason. This here is a companion to the LowLife zine which apparently existed and RRR pressed for a coupla times... Too much indeh rawk here for me, don't care for it. There is some good avant moments, however. Murray Reams and Paul Hoskin play together on 'ere, and the mostly unknown band called Cake inverts their more popular and similarly named contemporary with some exp. folk dirges. Tinnitus is cool, too, and befitting of its name. My memory isn't very good, so maybe I imagined what this whole record sounded like in lieu of listening to it again. Well...

Here

It also came with this booklet, presumably the zine in question. It's pretty cool, contains some reviews about now acclaimed cult klassics like Spiderland (a pretty ambivalent review for that one, all told). Some illustrations, too! Pretty... Didn't scan it, though.

Soul-Junk - 1946

Label : Sub Pop - SP 301

Country : US

Year : 1995

Format : 7 inch

Soul-Junk, the slightly less spastic and more theologically inclined Trumans Water, is a project I've heard about for a long while. Now that I've heard them, I'm casually intrigued to say the least. The most interesting part of this particular slab of waveforms are the free jazz sputterings of the interludes, before giving away to more conventional (and to my taste, too "alt rock") songforms. It's a quicky to be sure.

here

Various Artists - For Proper Stylus Care

Label : Jalopy Grotto - JG006

Country : US

Year : 1996

Format : LP

A little present before Christmas I suppose: a compilation of relatively obscure Portland bands. Just what you wanted under the ol' tree. This is a bit too conventional for my and this blogs taste, but there is some good stuff here. I especially like the tracks by Rollerball and Lords of Howling, both bands I've taken a liking to. There are also some pleasant surprises with the more obscure acts such as Matt Schulte and Stertorous. Another cool factor to this is the previously unreleased Chokebore track "Nylon", good 90s noise rawking. It's worth noting that the last track ends in a locked groove, I left it recording for awhile and just trimmed it. Can't leave it running forever! Another element to the package is the illustrations contained with the zine it came with (Starbage). I may scan those when I have time.

Here