Breather - Loves And Disloves

Label : Sonic Incision Records - SI 001

Country : US

Year : 1984

Format : LP

You might be familiar with this one, a rip of it has come to pass a couple times throughout the blogosphere. I bought it for a bargain while on vacation, so I figured I'd post it. I seem to remember the existing rip being rather unsatisfying... Though I am not a very good arbiter for such a thing. I think the tracks were combined and was only encoded at 256kbps, so I'll do it a couple things better. Properly ripped and post-processed (to a certain extent, I'm too cheap to buy click repair), in clear FLAC.

The album itself is prime Bay Area weirdowave, a Goth facsimile with a guise of sparse avantrock. Good stuff.

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

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

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

Marica - 海Jellyfish月

Label : Invitation - CDR-1465

Country : Japan

Year : 1987

Format : CD

Crossarmed and pangless.
Truth be told, I was juggling the notion of whether I should post this here or on my "sister blog", given that this is a bit too poppy for the content here and not quite the "Avant-garde Jazz, Leftfield, Post-Punk" posited by Discogs; truly the treachery of labels there.

Truth be told a second time, this isn't an avantpop romp, but a solid slice of 80s Japanese new-wave. We in the industry (note: not industrial) throw these kinda releases under the nebulous umbrella of "Art Pop". Not quite Kate Bush, but I never listened to her anyway.

So, why wait? Immerse yourself in synthpop goodness... the kids on-line are always impressed by obscure Japanese albums.

Here

Die Welttraumforscher - Ein Sommer In Der Wirklichkeit

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP026

Country : Switzerland

Year : 1991

Format : LP

Ripped by Scramoutcha

Friends are becoming easier to come by, another guest rip. Via the slsk chat service I have been in correspondence with this fine fellow for the past few weeks, and we have reciprocated gifts with each other ever since. I've mentioned Die Welttraumforscher before in a post from the side gig called "Loon", where I briefly laid out my various admirations for the protjection.

Released in the early 90s on his own imprint, Christian (Pfluger) lays out rumsey in the feeling that lingers, to butcher a Bodycocktail tape title. Whimsical, great word. A cheatcode in description, a word which can describe (as descriptions ought) a myriad of ecstatic feeling without giving too much in the way of actual thought. Anyway, it is whimsical. On a whim, I can imagine, 'ol Weltschmerz cut this piece of plastic in a matter of a few afternoons. The synth melodies are pretty as ever, the minimalisms of which compound and impress upon the remote listener an appropriately dreamlike quality.

My supplier compared it to the latter nineties group Broadcast--"Tender Buttons" in specification--which I can definitely hear though very much stripped down and lowfidelity. Yes, yes, yes; less Romandie Stereolab and more... Well Swiss Die Welttraumforscher. Not much like it, doesn't take a world of dream researchers to find that out.

 Here

Comes with both the original rip and the declicked version, use either or both at your convenience.

(also, it's FLAC)

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

Failing Lights - True Form

Here

Carlos Alonso - Fragil Ironia

Label : La Sonrisa de Luz / Ediciones Efímeras - Cass. 0010

Year : 1997

Country : Argentina

Format : C30

 Spasmodic & sporadic. Carlos Alonso is a true Patagonian muzikal treasure, having helmed the obscuro experimental group Uno X Uno which may as well have been credited here. Some of the more adventurous reading may be familiar with his escapades via the classic 433rpm blog, where I'm almost halfheartedly certain a tape of their's was presented back in the day.

The music, as I had mentioned, is similar to what I've heard from double Uno. Minimal industrial beatz flirting with free improv and avantrock insanity/inanity. The rip seems a bit fuzzy, I'm not sure if that's the tape itself or the deck, but I'm leaning more towards the source because I'm lazy.

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

El-Ron - Are Dangdut Kings

Label : Records - R 3

Country : US

Year : 1997

Country : US

I don't know what Dangdut is or what royalty that pertains to, or whether or not the band's name is a pastiche of some SF author, but this is good stuff. On my RYM review I compared to the sound presented here to Liquorball, Monoshock, Crawlspace, Fuzzhead, so on and so forth. So, if you like psych noise jam with a dash of krautsploitation, have at this. 

What do I mean by "Krautsploitation"? Well, it's a takeoff from the first track off a LP by a sideproject of some of the above bands called Sternklang. I like the feel of it, and describes this pretty well: taking after der Fatherland's ancestral motorik klangs. Though this a bit more noisier than usual.

Here

Only A Mother - Dusty Nuggets

Label : Apparèmment Des Notes

Year : 2014

Country : Italy

Format : CDr

I think that if I had the connections and the savoir faire required of musicmaking Only A Mother would be a sound I would aspire to. Herkyjerky jazz spasms interspersed with country folkisms led to a lot of great music from Pahl and co. Along with his solo career, Frank makes some darned good musics.

Now what we have here is a collection of unreleased recordings. As musicians are wont to do after awhile, releasing archival tidbits from here or there into a neat little package. How it got all the way to Italy is anyone's guess. As the man hisself described in the modicum of a liner sheet, it could have been a box set or something of that nature due to the surprising amount of outtakes. I wouldn't hesitate to throw my dollars down on that.

Here

Michael Vlatkovich & Charles Britt - Transvalue Book I

Label : Thankyou Records - MV-004

Year : 1985

Country : US

Format : LP

Eventful night. The wind was howling and the moon looked right evil, full and peering thru the cloud cover. I was going to wrap up scanning this elpee when I was interjected by the clamors of my domains detritae cluttering about our road. So, I went out and collected as best as I can. To tell the truth, it was a joy. I felt so exuberant; the whole situation felt like an event. The aforementioned lune and the hard blows of the elements only added to it. To peer inside my brain, I was inspired to create. I always keep ideas running in my imagination, compositing what I hold dear to my neurotics. It may come to a surprise, but I would love to make a game. I have so many things in mind, and that's what I meant as an "event", like a scripted one or some emergent thing of those vestiges. It's lovely, in my youth I do feel like it. 

In a brief "review", if one can call it so, I wrote "I'd like to think this is what would result if Zoogz [Rift] went full on gonzo jazz with some decadent poetry of the beat persuasion.". I stand by that short as it may be. Though to expand I'd also like to mention the many moving parts at play here. Tons of interesting ideas in this collaboration recurrent through the christened "transvalue" moniker. At points it takes a third stream approach, another a more rockjazz undercurrent, and a healthy helping of exp. bigband to really draw me in.

Here