Defuser - World Suicide And Freeze Please

Label : Landslide Records - LSD-502

Year : 1982

Country : US

Format : 7 inch

Here's a real classic, straight from the underground bunkers.

Chiefly the B-side, which is atypically featured in prominence compared to the headliner Freeze Please. You might have heard it before on various platforms and differing qualities, but I figured I would throw my hat in the ring and post my own personal rip. Fresh! 

Defuser were a very intriguing project in the new wave oeuvre: frenetic synths match up to the frenetic vocalisms, a combo which really works as expected. Though that's a little vague, I'd let this speak for itself at 45 revolutions per minute.

 Here

While Defuser hasn't gotten the VoD treatment or a sniff of a CD retrospective, you can make do while someone picks up the pieces by going to their website that's packed with info and good old MP3s.

The 1985 - Obscured By Pink Clouds

Label : Progeria Records - prg002 / Carbon Records - CR21

Country : US

Year : 1999

Format : CD

Before 1975, there was 1985.

Not having heard this in awhile and hard of total memory (wild year, that), I can only give vague past impressions. But I can also speak about the group itself, though I have little info on them despite being "from" the same place.

I suppose it is a rather alien document amongst the scuzzbucket-pigfukkit noize rockers, the standard abrasive punx interspersed with bizarre minimal-electro synth motifs (Recalling at least a tiny bit at points the brilliant Brainiac) make this a worthwhile get. But that's just me. The CD version added all that stuff after the fact for all I know.

The (rightful [if I cared about "sequencing"]) closer on the vinyl platter, "Shooting Blanks" is a noise rock masterpiece in every sense for all I care... Looking now, I made a mistake in the above blurb: what was tacked on was the nameless little snippets after the seminal ender. Although I still do like em fine, it does lessen the impact of hearing the cops raid the band's recording studio/garage.

Here

Selfs Without Shells - 5: The Number Of Communication

Label : EE Tapes - ET16

Country : Belgium

Year : 1993

Format : C60

Astute minds might notice something about today's post, that is the fact that it has been posted before. Well, apparently. Kinda. What the monumental tape-attack (which I'm glad was not shuttered after a few weeks without downloadability on the blog) posted was the IRRE iteration of this particular series of tapes. What we have here is not a failure to communication, but simply a small series of misunderstanding. numero cinq.

What's different? The tracklisting differs a little bit, though it shares the Birds of a Feather (apparently a separate group? I dunno, I wasn't there) side to a tee. The schism here, ironically, is the one that also shares a title with the other issue, that is 5: The Number of Communication side. Now, I don't know the significance of the number 5 and what it has to do with communication and magick and whatever but it seems to me that it comprises of various collaborations (probably via mail and elsewhere) between members of the Selfs with such incandescent figures as the Sack himself(s) and Del(eted) and autre un-unforgotten luminaries of the underground seen.

Here

I was not very confident in my ability to discern between different tracks on this one as I am usually, given the muffled aspects of it and my forgetful laziness. Seeing as the "Bofa Feather" side differs from mine on the Brains For Breakfast rip, only one of us can be wrong! Or both.

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

Smersh - AIP

Label : Albertine Records - ALB 1-12

Country : US

Year : 1989

Format : LP

The Piscataway legends return. Essential New Joisey indie-pain-dance, as you may know. Smersh has been steadily getting more coverage over the past few years it seems, though still not nearly enough. Such a great band with a monstrous sound unmatched by their distorted progenitors. This ee-pee is no slouch in regards to that voracious aesthetic.

This is another wreckord that I've held onto for awhile, mostly because it has been posted in the past on some faraway blog. Now with the links to it being apparently dead, I've decided to post it. This relative quickie parlays the familiar Smersh sound with its harsh, overgained vocals and incessant drumbeats and synthesizers. There's even a sax in the mix somewhere.

Anyway, it seemed worth mentioning I did some post-production on this number. The third track had a scratch near its end and was a bit annoying, so I applied some clickrepair to the wound. Now, instead of being a loud click, it just sounds like I'm lightly tapping the turntable cover.

Here

Various Artists - Tête De Bébé

Label : S-S Records - SS020

Country : US

Year : 2006

Format : LP

S-S is a fine label, with it releasing a ton of good stuff and repackaging just the same. And any-body who appreciates Monoshock is good in my book. This particular release, though, doesn't do much for me, toutefois. It's a foreign sequel to the early Ess Ess joint "Babyhead", composed mostly of synth heavy frog garage punx and occasional exp. spasms.

I've not found myself a fan of more straightforward punk musics, especially contemporary forms. I prefer a bit more of a looser structure I guess, though I can't call this uptight. Maybe my receptors are outta whack.

Here

Billy Synth - We Have Got To Make It On Our Own

Label : Mind Cure Records - MC-107

Country : US

Year : 2015

Format : LP

Not quite Pittsburgh, but close enough. This is some roaring Stooge infused synthgaragepunx from the city of Harriburg, mind the lack of h. I've never really been around that area of the state, but I never would have expected such cool synthetic punk to come outta there. Especially not from around 1978.

This is another release from a local record shop/label that has closed its physical doors and has set its sights towards shows and the wired... Still a cool place, though. The insert includes a positive overview by Michigan's own John Olson, so you know it's kwuite something.

This compilation includes his work with bands such as The Turn Ups and The Janitors, who I am sure are the same bands with different names as bands were wont to do back in those times and today.

Here

Barom One - Barom One tai Barom-san (Barom One vs Barom-San)

Label : 殺害塩化ビニール - MURDERCD-6767

Country : Japan

Year : 1998

Format : CD

Confession time, I uploaded this somewhere else before putting it all on display here. I put it on a very exclusive place of the net, with a name to the tune of J■op■u■i. Most kidding aside, this is a rather interesting and Japanese album.

(It came with an obi so you know it's legit)

This was actually my first foray into the world of import via proxy. Fun and notso fun stuff, and sometimes the only way to get items such as this, but it was worth it. I had been familiar with this peculiar grouping when I happened upon their split with Brezel Göring which contained some very choice tracks (one or two or three of which appear on here). Intrigued, I sook out more stuff by them and happened upon this on a Japanese auction site and the rest is a subfootnote of history.

 (Not a noise album without some collage. Colorful, too!)

The music, to my clouded understanding, is some bizarre mix of synthpunk, japanoise, jpop, and karaoke standards. Fun fer all the broken families of the werld.

Here

Fiendish Fib - Down In The Mine

Label : Treue Um Treue - TUT017

Year : 2011

Country : Germany

Format : LP

Since I am rather ripped and tired at the moment, I'll just leave a littla summary from another site I wrote:

Dedicated to a dead Yamaha PSS 360, presumably killed in action during the years of sessions presented here. Minimal synthetics from the era or so after the genre's retroactive creation. The slab of clear pink pseudomarble plastic runs an atypical gamut of synthpop and punk to experimental collage to minimalist experimentation, mostly in French.

Yeah, that about settles it. Anyway, I did a little double feature for this one. One download contains the original rip, and the other holds a treated copy with ClickRepair. I personally feel that CR messed with some of the synthtones, but what do I know, no? Also, they're both in FLAC, for the audiofiles out there.

Original

ClickRepaired 

Mox - Guldkorn

Label : Börft Records - Börft034

Year : 1990

Country : Sweden

Format : C90

Quite the place, Sweden is. As good a place as any for such musics to be produced for all t' hear. Börft, for the uninitiated, is a rather prolific and often excellent Swedish tape label, or just regular label seeing as they have released in quite a few formats. Digressing from the digression, this is great stuff, cut from the cloth of one of the most glorious groups to emerge from the musical prime-ordeal stew that is 80s cassette culture in its xerographic zeal: SMERSH.

 What I mean by this is that this is some hardhitting, minimal synth pop with a little flavor of industrial/punk chic. The synthlines and drum beats are nice. Recommended, if anyone has more of their stuff, I would love to take it from you, preferably without payment.

Here