Nakasone - Orophocrinus

Label : EE Tapes - ET49

Country : Belgium

Year : 1997

Format : C60

Minimal ambient workouts. Hard to really split the tracks here as they all kinda meld together.

Here

Foreign World - Trying To Escape

Label : Foreign Records - F.R.001

Country : Canada

Year : 1984

Format : LP

Escapism, or at least an attempt. Less an excursion into a fictional world and more of a desperate following of uncertain paths out of it. Case in point:

A far cry from what I was given in elementary school. Anyway,

onto the music.

That's what has brought us together today.

I've been at this for so long, and I've never really stopped to think about my methods. No, not those methods. "Ripping" yes, but for plastic platters. I have taken a concerted effort of observing other intrepid givers in the community, be they on trackers or on their own blog, and what equipment they use. It seems obvious to me that my rips have been of a fairly lower quality, with noticeable hums, outdated tech, unnecessary parts of a chain, etc... This one isn't so bad given the "slightly warped" as described nature of the record and my lack of a Gritty Doctor 500 or whatever. I'll be lookin' at tomorrow (Welfare) 

Oh yeah, this is some interesting stuff. A sort of ambient electro-folk improvised. A friend pointed out that it reminded him of number stations broadcasts, an eerie unsettler. I like to think some of the vinyl scraping gives it a character all on its own.

here

Rеinhold Brunner - Klаnger 1996-2008

Label : Bad Alchemy - Nr 77 / Attenuation Circuit - ACRB 1001

Country : Germany

Year : 2013

Format : CDr

Certainly a collection of sounds. Concrete or midi, and field recording mixed high and low. A bit difficult.

This CD-recordable has a lot of air to breathe, its compositions (a decade's worth written and performed between) are experimental in nature and a bit of a skeleton at times. Some finished and some unfinished (feeling).

This is not Brunner's first go around on Bad Alchemy, having first released a 7 inch single with Thomas Hintner called "Spirograph" (or is that the duo's name?) with the 33rd issue in the ongoing series of zines. The Spirograph projekt continued so to speak with the netlabel release Spinnen.

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

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

Damarge - Les Box Set (Sur La Plat)

Label : Equation Records - E=mc04

Country : US

Year : 2004

Format : Lathe Cut

What do you know?
I've decided to drop this behemoth here. Even a passing familiarity doesn't quite scratch the surface. OK, maybe not that esoteric an artifact, but it surely is strange. Lemme preface with a previous review:

A very, very curious document of a rather obscure 80s synth band. On land and on sea, these tracks never rose to the surface til the early 2000s. Snowboy got his bearings here, and the other guy dwelled in miscellany. What makes this box set so odd is the way it is presented: numerous lathe cut records from the King Peter himself, labeled with various appropriated animu and second life-esque images (looks like someone scraped the page of an '03 era imageboard), a CD-Rom (which, to my surprise, has not rotted one bit), and a bunch of pleasantries such as fridge magnets and pins and, of course, stickers.

The music itself holds up pretty well, surprising that none of these appeared on any cassette compilations over the years. A whole case history for the band itself comes with the whole package, and the package itself can be enjoyed digitally:

http://www.chronoglide.com/damarge.html

I was in danger of repeating myself (h/t Fad Gadget), but I don't care anymore (Fad). Yes, yes, yes, yes a peculiar amalgamation of lowfi synth madness. I swiftly thank the makers of the dead for the included CD-rom, making my job just a bit easier. All you would want in visual and textual form is in this measly .zip:

ici

Toutefois, me being a muzak blogger of some integrity, no matter how faulty, I know that the intrepid listener may find the 2004 era 128kbps mp3s found on the compact disc insufficient.
Have no fear: panacea!

Here

You may note while listening, this is not especially superior to the audiophile repellent above. As noted in the blurb above that, this is the work of the high King. That be as it may, each disc and its grooves which house each song fall prey to the inherent flaws of the lathe cut alternative. Plus, a ground buzz in the background I never got around to fully remedying. O'well. 

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

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

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.

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

Hebephrenic - Brood / On The Side Of Time

Label : Tapehiss Recordings

Year : 1992

Country : US

Format : C90

A recent favorite of mine, Hebephrenic is a rather obscure American EM project that put out various tapes throughout the nineties. After reading about him in Ken B Miller's music review archive, I happened upon one of his tapes in "Hide". I really enjoyed his brand of psychedelic synthpop and ambient not unlike the brand of electronics championed by the Legendary Pink Dots in the 80s. This tape is no different. Just brilliant stuff, unjustly unknown and would make for a great reissue.

Happy Easter

Jaki Jakizawa - Can You Feel The Juices?

Label : Milvia Son Records - MS006

Country : US

Year : 2011

Format : LP

Gross, or a synonym thereof, is often used when describing this album. It's easy to see why, just look at the greasy mug on the cover and the title of the A-side. Or the goddamned title: it's a very unsettling question. Yes, this album is pretty gross, as in disgusting, grotesque, or any other sense of the word before the co-opting of the term by network dwelling sycophants. But the music itself is not as deplorable as the packaging makes it out to be. The top flip side "Period Blood" would bring to mind some goregrind style juvenilia, but it really is, as Music for Maniacs describes it, "like Giorgio Moroder goes free jazz". The bottom side of the slab is the kicker here: "Eros in Neon". A kraut-synth juggernaught, beautifully developing a simple line throughout it's ~16 minute runtime. Reminds me of lucid produce and such as that.

Here