Minóy\Zannóy - "Monochrome Melodrama" (ZH27 - 294) 1987

Another tumble dryer of found sound and radio shack effects units, fused together like trees from the shores of pre-cambrian oceans to form what they now call diamonds, and we unpopular sound lovers call, a Minoy/Zannoy cassette.

This Monochrome Melodrama of life starts off with a crescendo of vacuum tube vacuousness spiralling in a vortex of effects units and black noise. Which, in a back to front kind of way, tails off into a flock of electronic Starlings gliding home to roost in the electricity pylons carrying the output of an outmoded Nuclear power plant.

There’s something strictly Ante-deluvian about the work of these two characters(Minoy and Hoffman), an ever present feeling of impending doom; like there’s something shadowy just beyond your peripheral vision.......waiting.

Waiting for what, is up to the interpretation of the listener; but as long as you are in a reasonably sound psychological state, one can reach a momentary plateau when all paranoia is cleansed,and life is normal again.But don’t let that fool ya, the Government IS lying to you!

DOWNLOAD this monochrome melodrama HERE!

Minoy - "Celebration of the Sunrise" (Minoy Cassetteworks 1987)

Apparently Minoy did all his recording after midnight. Therfore one assumes that the title of this C-90 alludes to the end of his recording session one evening/night, and witnessing a sunrise. Obviously a cause for celebration after hours of making 'Downer' drone soundscapes like these!
The throbbing underwater gong scraping of Side 2 being the lonely 'Nightride' of the reclusive artist, and the semi-tuned short wave radio noise-fest of Side one is the sound of a dysfunctional planet waking up to another day of meaningless endevours,that ultimately ends in doom!

Seems a happy go lucky type of chap, don't he?
Think a happy thought and it'll all go away; or listen to the cathartic experience that is......Minoy.(Check out a tribute to the late great man here!

DOWNLOAD a Celebration of the Sunrise HERE!

Minoy - "Firebird" - (Minoy Cassetteworks 1987)

If you like sitting at the end of three miles of steel piping that has its business end in an engineering plant, and maybe even dance to it(?), then side one of this tape is for you.
The title track side, 'Firebird' is much more entertaining,and more industrialesque, than the ambient drone fest on side one.
Firebird has more than a hint of the doomed shipyard about it. Bizarrely,rather than sounding like something that flys in flames, it suggests more of the  sinking and scraping of steel hulls on random icebergs variety.
I suggest that this could be an alternative soundtrack to the Winslett and De Caprio 'Tour de Force(skin)' that was/is, Camerons 'Titanic'; (which would also be a good nickname for Great Britain incidently!)
Lots of steel scraping, rivit popping, and steam horns sinking beneath the icy water, going on here. And don't we all love a good ship sinking, especially if its recorded from below the unforgiving horror of that cruel mistress,- The Sea!
I can just imagine Minoy playing on the deck of one of those hideous super cruisers in the Med as the ship goes down after striking a hidden reef of petrified sewage. The Titanic got 'Nearer my God to Thee', and this fantasy ship gets 'Firebird', Side B. That should get 'em panicing!

DOWNLOAD this icy firebird HERE!

Minoy - "Ejaculations,Paris 1919" (Sound of Pig SOP 213) 1986

The prolific world of Minoy brings us, inevitably, to the Random Classical music with Industrial Noise in a concrete mixer album.We've all got one of these in us somewhere, and this is his take on that endearingly unpopular sub-genre. This is how I like my classical music, chopped up with various vegetables, and lashings of harsh Industrial sauce........mmmmmmm.....spiceeeeeeeeehhhhhh!
The 'Night in Berlin' side, is a tad more on the 3a.m. in the U-Bahn side of things.
One note organ solo's, as heard along one thousand metres of steel tube, accompanied by the scraping of steel wheels on steel rails and the arcing of elctrodes after midnight.
Minoy never did a crap tape; this is why he is totally forgotten in a world that never appreciates true boundary scretching until the protagonist is long dead,or good looking. And lets face it, good looking people don't do shit in this darwinian existence of ours! That's Natural Law!

DOWNLOAD minoy's ejaculations HERE!

Minoy - "The Art Of Egyptian Bathing" (Sound of Pig SOP 212) 1986

Minoy feeds north african music through ring modulator, then really messes it up; this is the art of egyptian bathing, or the art of making challenging music.
Side B is more along the traditional droning repetition template.Good for blocking out harmfull thought patterns. What it really needed was some of Minoy's unhinged poetry performed over the top, as last heard in the Minoy and Prescott releases, as seen earlier in this blog.

DOWNLOAD the art of egyptian droning HERE!

Minoy - "In Search of Tarkovsky" (Minoy Cassetteworks 1986)

Ok, yeah, we geddit, Minoy likes Tarkovsky, and why not? Apart fromthe fact that liking obscure Soviet era sci-fi films is as sad, narcissistic and low self esteem disguising as liking obscure ....er......mu....sic????!!!!............;;;;oh christ, thats me!!!!!
 Like all of us ego boosting elitists, who looooove it when some Henry Normal says he hasn't heard of Milk From Cheltenham, I suspect Minoy revelled in discussing the finer points of Tarkovsky's works with anyone who'd express ignorance.
I am, of course, exaggerating ; I never discuss,or even mention, this music with anyone, unless I am asked by a genuinely interested party.Then its reluctantly, because it invariably makes one look like an obscurist arsehole. Which I probably am; and more to the point, Minoy probably wasn't either, but you gotta write about something ain't ya?
The music/non music on this C-60, is more Drone-fest electronica surrounded by a myriad of cassette to cassette overdubbed warblings.
And yes, it sounds like a Tarkovsky movie for the blind.

DOWNLOAD and find Tarkovsky HERE!

Minoy - "Landscape With Serpent" (Minoy Cassetteworks 1987)

Ahhh, Tarkovsky;they don't make films like Solaris anymore, unless its got George Clooney in it! Thats like making a remake of "The Wicker Man" with Nicholas Cage in it.......Shit! They did this didn't they!?.....and some bastards made a remake of "Get Carter" with, oh their (not my) fucking god, Sly Stallone as Carter!
I reckon some non american should fuck up a version of some american cinema classic as retaliation!?
Maybe "Mean Streets" starring Hugh Grant and Sir Kenny Branagh, or "The Searchers" set in Stockport (a hideous town near manchester UK, for our american friends).
I digress,the point I was making was that 'they', don't make films like "Solaris" orr "Stalker" anymore, and they definetly don't make cassettes like this anymore!.......well, 'they' do, but on CD's or various downloadable media formats; but definately NOT on cassettes, and definately not by Minoy 'cus he's dead!
One has to say Side A, "Stalker" sounds not unlike a sonic equivalent of a Tarkovsky movie, long and thought provoking,unsettling, with well placed quiet moments, all done on a minuscule budget.
Side B,'Landscape with Serpents', is similar stuff, evoking images of.......well......a Landscape/soundscape with......er.......Serpents.
'Nuff said!

DOWNLOAD this serpent ridden soundscape HERE!

Minoy - "Pretty Young Negro Man" (Sound of Pig Music SOP62) 1986

Mmmmm, Pretty Young Negro Man, great bigot baiting title,and rather uncomfortable for those who are unsure about their questionable sexuality!
Solo Minoy from 1986; which equates to ,obscure loner makes daring DIY avant gardening cassette, just as the state of music slowly recovers from the all time low of 1985. Side A is the tape loops in a rusty bladed blender time,- you know you want this; while side B is the sound of a radio dial being turned randomly by an detuned violin.Though sadly, Minoy does none of his excellent poetry narration, which is greatly missed.
This sounds rather good when one plays both sides simultaneously.
I have done this,and I think it may even be better than as the artist intended!

DOWNLOAD a pretty negro man HERE!

Prescott and Minoy - "Spaceshot" (Self-relased Cassette 1987)

Another excellent outing for deep underground mail-art legend Minoy (aka the late Stanley Keith Bowsza, RIP).
Sort of an american version of Kluster; with bizarre narrations set to a clanging, droning electronic backdrop. The kind of non-music that can attract a dustbin full of complaints from your drongo neighbours, and even stupider friends. Your girlfriend, who pretended to be interested in your record collection at first, now throws a tantrum after hearing this 'Rubbish', and aquintances think you're wierd.
That's how good this is!!!!!

DOWNLOAD this spaceshot HERE!

Prescott and Minoy - "The Dying Man (An Opera)" (Self Release Cassette 1987)

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I said Prescott and minoy, NOT Fripp and Eno, or rather , the Anti-Fripp and Eno; who chose the Oblique Strategy card which said ‘Burn the Oblique Strategy cards’. And why not?......A/ Because I can, so I won’t! The art of contrary logic follows each piece of plunderphonia, and atonal noise assemblage in this sound concrete classic. Thinking too much can ruin the finest works, and this sounds like a fine example of improv collage, more instinct than intellect, a technique used by many a free jazzer to great effect. These boys are the Albert Aylers of tape composition.

Top that with some great Bryon Gysin style poetry,and we have a bona fide lost classic of cassette culture. We’ll be dancing to stuff like this after the fast approaching consciousness shift, war will be a distant memory, and love will engulf the human race like a nuclear wind.

On a closing topical note, could President Putain (French sweary word in place of Putin), please Fuck Off and Die. And or release Pussy Riot from your corrupt penal system? Or can we exchange them for U2?

DOWNLOAD the dying man HERE!

Philip Johnson - "Radio City" (self released cassette) 1983

An unjustly forgotten figure of the early uk DIY cassette scene was one Philip Johnson.Who released and unreleased many of his fantastically spooky collages of sound on an unimpressed public; which is always a grand recommendation for anything.
One of the earliest participants in the British independent cassette scene he released his first cassette (54 Minutes of P. Johnson) in 1979.
Between 1979 and 1981 he released about 20 cassettes, until 1981 when Johnson became a partner in Namedrop, a short-lived independent record label (which also released Johnson full-fledge Lp ‘1982 – Youth the Morning’). When Namedrop collapsed Johnson went back to releasing cassettes and providing tracks for compilations, mostly cassette compilations, such as 'Deleted Funtime',on Deleted Records, and the 'We couldn't agree on a title' comp on ICR . In 1981 Johnson released material also under various pseudonyms such as Ancient Regime, the Barringtons, Flower Perverts.
He also contributed to the magnificent Doof ep, 'Exist'; for which he has kindly provided a new re-mastered version!!!!....Click Here to hear this classic in crystal clarity!
What the legendary Philip has also provided this blog with, is a couple of unreleased cassettes from 1983 and 1986(see next post)!

"Radio City" (1983)

A fantastic cut up of various current affairs radio broadcasts, with the classic AM radio sound quality, made good by that cosily depressing ferric oxide degradation technique.A hopelessly obscurre classic that deserves to be discovered after nearly thirty years in the Johnson archives!
The man himself explains further:
"I never did any artwork for the 1983 Radio City – I recorded it and then left it aside. I’m afraid the tape isn’t a very interesting object either, because for a long time I never put any tracklists or sometimes even any identifying marks on tapes I made for myself. I could remember what was on a tape from just looking at it. However I’ve taken some pictures, and included a couple of my other tapes to liven it up a bit. You’ll see that I digitised it from a cassette copy, the original master reel is still there so I could do an improved remaster some time."
(And to check out what our Philip is doing now, click here! )

Radio City Track Listing:

1 Radio City
2 My Friends
3 American Intelligence
4 Parliament 1
5 At The Old Bailey
6 Parliament 2
7 Parliament 3
8 Parliament 4
9 Habit
10 Nothing
11 Holiday Train
12 Thats all for now
13 Debate
14 Afternoon
15 Game
16 Warning

DOWNLOAD Radio City HERE!

Danny and the Dressmakers - "The complete collection" 1979-80

By far the best band that ever picked up a violin was not The Electric Light Orchestra!!!!!.......it was obviously the immortal Danny and the Dressmakers!
So, as the twats at Mediafuckingfire have tried to supress this information by deleting allllll of my files; this gives one a superb opportunity to re-up and re-post the entire DATD's back catalogue in one fat megapost.
This stuff was far more important to the 15 year old 'moi' than the Pistols ever were.
The Dressmakers really showed us youths weened on progressive rock that we could really do it too, and have a laugh doing it!
But, the main contribution that they gave to DIY music was the performance aspect that was soooo lacking in most of the bedroom bound DIYers.
What would you rather be?.....in Danny and the Dressmakers or be the Mauthausen Orchestra? Thats a complete no-brainer.
Anyone sorry loner with a tape deck could make an 'industrial' tape, and thousands did; but where was the performance? The Dannymakers gave us this essentila of showbiz, and art. They were the Mothers of Invention for the DIY generation, and near sub-genius's to boot.
(200 cancellations was obviously an anti-matter version of Zappa's 200 Motels, was it not?)
So, Download the bands epic four and a half hour long anti-rock opera, "200 Cancellations" below. Released on three C-90 cassettes on Fuck Off records in 1979. Its fucking brilliant!

DOWNLOAD 200 cancellations part 1,2, and 3 HERE!

The Dressmakers "Go Mental", which includes such classics as 'Miss Ellie's Mastectomy' and 'Where's me Fucking Giro?', can be downloaded below:

Track Listing:

Side Uno
He Slaps Goats
Lets Go Down The Golden Nugget
EBB + Flo In A Concrete Jungle
Lucille Ballshow
Gerry Anderson
The Rustle Of Spring (inst)
Listen You Dumbfuck
The Life Divine
A Chocolate Supreme
I Crashed Out Man
The Dutch Drink Bowls of Spit
1092 Meals A Year

Duexieme Side
Young Musician Of The Year
Charles Bronson
Ballet Rambert
Be Cool Be Calm
I Want My Baby Back
Another Baby
Henry Spencer
Whers Me Fuckin GIRO?
Miss Ellie's - Mastectomy
Finale

DOWNLOAD and go mental HERE!

Lets not forget DATD's greatest hits album "39 Golden Grates", probably their best, and most accessable work.......;cum on baby, lite my shite!

01 - eggs on legs
02 - space oddity
03 - he's washing the posts
04 - danny and the dressmakers going down the road
05 - dynamite
06 - lennons supermarket tango
07 - song chocolate
08 - jesus christ you're so anaemic
09 - ernie bishops dead body
10 - whats your blood group and how does a dog digest its food
11 - rubber plants
12 - night fever
13 - alfie winbush
14 - what the world needs now
15 - whats a girl like you doing in a...
16 - drying out my rained on rizlas
17 - buddha the crab
18 - we're crossing the pelican crossing
19 - you're gonna get a rollockin'
20 - don't put your bernard pokery on stage mrs eric clapton
21 dont make another bass guitar mt rickenbacker
22 - rolf harris stylophones
23 - tree
24 - rubber plants and i left my gall bladder in moss side
25 - fuckin' bleedin' einstein
26 - edward exposes her mammary glands
27 - tv boredom on the dole
28 - drop dead
29 - iron lung funk
30 - 69
31 - lapsang do da tea
32 - test card girls
33 - going down the sperm bank four quid a wank
34 - donna summer
35 - you're no doctor
36 - god puts a stop to the silver paper eating three legged monster
37 - how hot is a match
38 - hey ho hey ho my cholesterol level is low
39 - cathy and claire
40 - talking clock
41 - legalise vimto
42 - can't you make your mind up
43 - 2001 c'est un odesy de space
44 - come on baby lite my shite
45 - if the kids are united they'd throw bricks at jimmy pursey
46 - los endos

DOWNLOAD and lite your own shite HERE! 

Sample an example of classic Dressmakers Live, recorded mostly at the Deeply Dale Festival in 1979, and Manchester Polytechnic.The whole of the back to sing again for free cassette, on Fuck Off Records, can be downloaded below, along with a couple of superflous tracks from elsewhere, eg the Eggs on Legs version from that messthetics cd-r thingy.ENJOY!

DOWNLOAD some extraeneous dressmakers HERE!