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.

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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.

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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.

Human Bone Bicycle - Human Bone Bicycle

Label : n/a (Death Factory Institution?) - 0003

Year : 1997

Country : US

Format : C90

Let me start this by saying that I've been taken a bit by the audio format opus, so I am experimenting a bit here. A 128kbps rip is usually lamented, but in this format it still achieves clarity in the abyss. I dunno. It's a cassette rip, there's not much expected other than to provide it.

On to the music of which the container holds: it's half-and-half. Noiseheads will appreciate the A-side more than I do (I think), a live performance producing sounds that remind me of a trainyard (not dissimilar to the Kakophonia tape, though I feel that one has more punch to it). The B-side I really like, a whole 40 minutes of xylophones and vibraphones being improvised upon. The tinkly quality levels out the more aggressive aspect of its doppelganger power electronik on the other side of the strip.

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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.

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Circadian Rhythm - 新鮮なかおり

Label : Air Records - AIR-3008

Country : Japan

Year : 1986

Format : 7 inch

Some Eastern hospitality in the form of a cute little 7 inche package. The music is quite comfortable, too. A languid Lacrymosa side project, with pop sensibilities between the avant bursts. It's odd, I quite enjoy the B side and do like the chintzy little melodies of the A-side, but this doesn't grab me as much as I would have anticipated... It has all the niceties of the Japanese new wave in all its [musical description/cliche] and weirdo sensibilities (or zolo, whatever that is). Sort of like a lot of technopop I hear, I would prefer to hear kraftverk or O. My. Dee.

Of course, I could just let it settle. Let it grow on me, yes, grow on me like a, er, mushroom. Yes, yes, yes, yes,  Psilocybin hallucination or insomnia? I'll go with the latter, my circadian clock's only right a couple times per day.

I neglected to scan the back side of this one, wouldn't you believe it? Lucky enough, someone was gracious enough to facilitate the missing spaces to Discogs, making my job halfway obsolete. Oh, if you would like to hear more from this rather obscure outfit I recommend checking out Tony Coulter's show on WFMU. If you bug him enough he might just queue em up.

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Somesax - Flapper

Label : Pingo Records - PINGOLP 001

Country : Denmark

Year : 1990

Format : LP

Ripped by Scramoutcha

Danish RIO, who know? My biggest connection to the country is LEGO. Though I'm not sure if the abbreviated form of Rockin' Position is pronounced as one would say river in one or few of the romance languages. Carrying on, this was an old wish of mine. That is, to hear. No big deal, but it's nice to finally be able to hear through the obscurity. And yew, toe.

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Kakophonia Nr.1 - P (0) 0 (X K0 (0) 0

Label : n/a

Year : 1993

Country : Germany

Format : C60

An unknown shriek across sound spectra. "Unknown" meaning I have no clue who was behind this. Although it it befitting that this tape be from an obscure source, given its cacophonic (hah) terror. If I were to dredge up a cliche used by every internet reviewer since the mediums emergence, almost eldritch.

But what do I know? I can't even read, let alone Love. Craft of another form in the field of noise and collage and industrial and the fusion herein. This cassette just never stops from the word go, only ceding when it chokes the medium to its limits.

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Tuned Out - (The Epics) Apart From The Contamination

Label : n/a

Country : US

Year : 1999

Format : C60

I admit, I bought this because it was one of the few tapes filed under Experimental on eBay that wasn't Zooropa or whatever. Another factor was that it's cheap, and that I have no idea what it is. Well, what it is is noizy hardcore punx. Of course, a large factor of the noise can be attributed to recording quality, but noise is noise. Experiment!

A bit of a hail mary, but I'm sure if all else is equal these guys were/are from Allentown. And at least one of them went on to play in the Atown Sluts. Do with that what you will. To digress, I was originally thinking I'd either put this on my varied detritus blog or send a little birdie mail to Terminal Escape since this seems more their bag... Yet here we are.

Do keep in mind that this is a C60 in name only:

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Legacy Of Sorrow - Discovery

Label : Endemic Music

Country : US

Year : 1988

Format : C70

Back from the grave, just in time for Halloween. Also back from the grave is this, which I thought was lost in the purgatory of shipping and handling. But now it's here and I need to deal with that, and you have a chance to get some listening in.

 If you look in the liner notes, you'll find some familiar names in Bob Drake, Mark Fuller, and Eric Jacabsen. Yes, all three of these men were in Thinking Plague, plus trumpeteur Ron Miles. Musically, it is rather similar to the Plague's signature sound, but without the apathetic beauty of Susanne Lewis' pipes it reminds me a lot of Het. Lots of air in these instruments, and lots of little twists and turns too being a live recording; some familiar and unfamiliar melodies may catch your ears.

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Die Welttraumforscher - Gold Vom Tiefen Himmel

Label : Das Moniflabel - PP031

Year : 1993

Country : Switzerland

Format : CD

Naive art, the true solitary reveries of an outsider*. Is this naive? Only an appearance? If even, it's impossible to be cynical about such beautiful music and warm sleeve art. Made right in the wheelhouse t'where I first entered Pfluger's dreamlife, this is a nice journey into a mysterious bois.
Drink it in.

Empty spaces are to be filled with imagination, or somesuch.

I recall quotes pertaining to a similar notion.

I figured I'd try a taste of what's over my paygrade.

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*wrong Rousseau

Various - Le Train Fântome (Ghost Train)

Label : Éditions Suicide Commercial

Country : France

Year : 1999

Format : CD

Look upon this ghastly apparition, and despair--the first internet collaboration, apparently. While I do doubt that claim, it seems a natural successor to the old mailing list carousel days of yore, where guys exchanged tapes from all over the world and overdubbed their own freakish imperations. A lotta obscure actors in this, and about 10 different variations of Lt. Caramel, guy never gets lonely. A brief
glimpse of blog favorite itoken, too.

Concerning the packaging: I'm not sure what it has to do with a spectral automotive, but it certainly is translucent. The CD I ordered didn't come with the cardboard sleeve it was purported to have contained the spirits, so it's all out here.

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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.

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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 - Audio Alchemy NLOK6

Label : Cassette Mythos

Year : 1987

Country : US

Format : C90

A xerox expose, is what it is. That ill-fated interview album so occasionally sprung about the 80s and scarcely seen since... Interviews of who? A who's who of cassette culture, that's who. Many-a timid artist gives little snippets of info inquiring minds need to know. Brought to your ears by the formidable dAS, if you couldn't guess by the J-card. Beyond the audio content itself, I can't glean much else as to what this was made for and if there were more in a similar vein. Obviously it was an Audio Alchemy initiative, but I don't even know what NLOK6 stands for? Is this ham radio speak? 

Paging the Weatherman.

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