DIE or D.I.Y.?

Muslimgauze - " Opaques (cassette)" (Product Kinematograph PKR2) 1983

2012-02-24T10:58:00.001+01:00

So simple is this stuff! I'm sure all bedroom musicians made stuff like this whilst just messing around with their equipment (Phanaar Phanaar!). Its the simplest Ideas that work best, its not what you put in, it's what you leave out that matters......and several more boring clichés apply, but we'll leave them out rather than put 'em in.
Mmmm, i think i'll make a album or two today, said the young Bryn Jones. Set his tape player going with his vast collection of recorded dialogue. Fed it through some EQ and an echo machine, overlaid with some random sounding electronic percussion, and that's IT??
The majority of music makers out there would see a finished Muslimgauze masterpiece as merely a basic building block, but to mr Jones that was it! Finished! Get it on tape,or vinyl, and slap it out on mail order.......NEXT!
That said, there is something strangely Fourth World about these recordings, in a Jon Hassell kind of way. A low budget "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" if you will?
Someone mentioned the word 'Dysfunctional' in the comments for his earlier incarnation, 'E.g. Oblique Graph'. Dysfunctional Ethnological Forgery Music, as attempted by Can on the out-take collection, 'Unlimited Edition', some years earlier; but Can, like everyone else left all of that on the cutting room floor. Muslimgauze released it ALLLLLL....and it's still coming postmortem!

Track-listing:

A1	Milena Jesenska	5:40
A2	Cyst	4:22
A3	Anatomy	5:09
A4	Enfilade	4:54
A5	Afrikaner	1:08
B1	Taoist	18:57

DOWNLOAD opaques HERE!

Guru Guru - " UFO " (Ohr OM56.005) 1970

2012-02-21T12:19:00.001+01:00

I bring a welcome relief to the Muslimgauze posts, because my favourite German was killed tragically last week!So I bring you my favourite German Album from the year of his birth as a tribute.
It is fittingly `out there`, barely under control, and joyous; qualities that Ulrich had in spades.
The world seems an emptier place for his passing.
Please play it LOUD in his honour!

R.I.P. Uli Reiter, 06.06.1970 - 10.02.2012

Not strictly a DIY release, but in Germany you had to do it all yourself if you wanted to release music in an Anglo-American dominated world.If you were in a German group there was next to zero chance of getting anywhere in the rock and pop world.So in Germany they played for themselves, with no chance of getting an international hit they had the freedom of having no commercial restraints, and basically could do what they wanted. A bit like the UK between 1972 and 76, where there was a groundswell of disenfranchised musicians who wanted to play balls to the wall rock and roll. The Uk got Pub Rock and The jerries got Krautrock, two of the finest musical sub-genres ever to crawl out of the r'n'r toilet.

Tracklisting:

	Stone In	5:42
	Girl Call	6:15
	Next Time See You At The Dalai Lhama	6:10
	Ufo	10:15
	Der LSD-Marsch	8:25

DOWNLOAD a ufo HERE!

E.G. Oblique Graph - "Triptych" (Recloose Organisation LOOSE 002) 1982

2012-02-18T23:44:00.001+01:00

Bryn Jones's first foray onto vinyl, although I don't think that Recloose Org is his own label,but everything else is definitely done by the great man.
One islam reference, De Gaulle, referring to French (mis)behaviour in Algeria.But apart from that, a healthy concept EP based on Francis Bacon's studies of Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.
Although I don't know if any of this series of paintings were actually a Triptych!
Musically, its more of the same E.G.Oblique Graph style, minmal manipulated synths, plenty of tapes and plenty of echo. Classic Industrial minimalism.
Track Listing:

A1	Black Cloth Behind De Gaulle's Wax Head	5:17
A2	Triptych	6:43
B1	Study Of The Red Pope (Innocent X)	8:00
B2	Castro Regime	3:07

DOWNLOAD Triptych HERE!

E.g. Oblique Graph - "Inalt " (Kinematograph Tapes KT003) 1983

2012-02-17T23:16:00.000+01:00

Drum machine and EQ knob twiddling through roland space echo overlaid by obscure, but probably political tape recordings= Track one.
Single note synth sequence + more knob twiddling + more tapes + roland space echo = Track two.
Make good background music to a Tarkovski psychological space epic.
It isn't any wonder Bryn Jones made an album a day, this is probably the simplest music ever invented,simpler than even 'the drone'? But it is so effective. If only we had the forsight to record everything we doodled about with in the studio, instead of binning it.Then we'd all have a back catalogue of 200 albums.
This kind of single-mindedness is something I admire greatly.
Sopmething I don't admire greatly is banging on one political message for all eternity, for here we have the first real mention of things islamic.
One doesn't have to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut........... we get it! Some of us even get it the first time!
Just in case there's some infidel-o-phobe out there who thinks i am anti-muslim....1/ Shut Up!, 2/ I am anti-any religious group, 3/ I am against ethic cleansing in the West Bank,and.... 4/ against any Western interference in Islamic Countries, and vice versa.
Hope that clears up my political stance so we can concentrate on the ensuing career of the late Mr Bryn Jones.

Track Listing:

A1		Islamic Koran In Camera Dome	8:51
B1		Rapid White Flag On Snapshot Blur	9:56

DOWNLOAD inalt HERE!

E.g. Oblique Graph - "The Piano Room (cassette)" (Kinematograph Tapes KT002) 1982

2012-02-16T23:15:00.000+01:00

Bryn Jones/Muslimgauze's first album length release, is a further expansion of the minimal industrial synth style of his first cassette "Extended Play". The fully fledged Muslimgauze style is yet to raise its little head, as is the PLO plugging polemic of the future releases.
Man with synthesizer and tape recorder in bedroom seeks identity.

Track Listing:

A1	Scar	3:02
A2	Affirm / Deny	5:49
A3	Choir-Screen	3:39
A4	Human Rights	2:16
A5	After Commentary	2:44
A6	Off Chance	8:14
B1	The Piano Room	20:53

DOWNLOAD the piano room HERE!

E.G. Oblique Graph - " Extended Play (cassette)" (Kinematograph Tapes KT001) 1982

2012-02-15T22:54:00.000+01:00

The late Bryn Jones recorded as E.G. Oblique Graph before he became his more famed and prolific alter-ego, Muslimgauze.
The music is more synth industrial minimalism, and less percussive than his later work, more in line with the industrial standards of 1982. A more empty sounding version of Cabaret Voltaire.
The pro-islamist politics that plagued the back catalogue of Muslimgauze is less obvious here, except for the Algeria reference in the title of "Murders Linked To Gaullist Clique".
Not his best recording,but still interesting to fans of minimal wave industrialism.
Released in 1982 on Jones' own Kinematograph label.

Track Listing:

A1	Fall Into Glass	2:20
A2	Merge	4:52
B1	Murders Linked To Gaullist Clique	9:16

DOWNLOAD linked to gaullist clique HERE!

Anne Cessna and Essendon Airport - " Talking To Cleopatra " (Innocent Records 7" NON 3) 1980

2012-02-14T23:55:00.000+01:00

I noticed that Essendon Airport were on the Terse Tapes compilation , "One Stop Shopping", and this in turn reminded me of the classic one-off electrolurch single, with Anne Cessna. An absolute classic if ever there was one. Crackling circuit board bending outsider dance classic.Released in a Limited edition of 500.
"A hit single with no target to hit. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." according to official Australian Innocent label 1981 catalogue.
I like their attitude.

Track Listing:

A		Talking To Cleopatra
B		Lost In Madagascar

DOWNLOAD this Aussie Classic HERE!

Various Artists - " One Stop Shopping " (Terse Tapes TRS009) 1981

2012-02-13T23:12:00.009+01:00

This is Terse Tapes version of Monty Python's 'Instant Record Collection Idea', again only matched in shear scale and ambition by Danny and the Dressmakers massive conceptual rcok (sic) opera '200 Cancellations'.It also reminds me of the 'Deleted Funtime' compilation on ,yes, Deleted Records.......and if anyone has a copy of that tape could they please either sell it to me or donate some mp3's to this blog. My copy was taped over sometime in 1985....this happened then, it all seemed so disposable!?
This collection is worth it just for the bandnames (eg, The Somersaulting Coincidences,The Alan Bamford Musical experience, etc), which display that illusive wanton lack of ambition, which we at Die or DIY? prize very highly as the only honest way forward for human creativity.
As much as i admire artists who release hundreds of albums, all sounding pretty much the same; there's something attractively enigmatic about the acts that briefly exist for one single moment, buried away on an impossibly obscure comp like this. Like a sub-atomic particle sparking into life in the Hadron collider for a nano-second then disappearing back into the darkness as a mathematically proven entity.
And Yes, I wish I'd called my group The Jean Paul Satre Band !!!

You can get a more expanded version of these tapes at Mutant Sounds

This is the concise, split up version(61 tracks of the full 81). But,Complete with full booklet, Slug Fanzine, and newpaper articles in a convenient PDF file.

Credits: Compilation arranged by Tom Ellard 1980-1981
5 album equivalent.
In a Festival of Quasi-Normalcy.
Booklet by Terse Tapes - Slug Magazine

Released as two C90 cassettes, and one C60 cassette in March of 1981 wrapped in a photocopied catalogue made by John Laidler of Slugfuckers/Bleeding Arseholes/Rhythmyx Chymx fame. A three-cassette survey of the Australian post-punk, and experimental underground. Roughly 900 hand dubbed copies were made.

On the cover of the magazine there are some misspellings; Ernie Althoff is listed as Ernie Altoff, The Oroton Bags are listed as Ze Oroton Boys.

Track Listing/well....... band listing/you lot can work out the song titles from the booklet:

1 Agent Orange - Agent Orange 04:12
2Alan Bamford Musical Experience - Alan Bamford Musical Experience 02:17
3.Ernie Altoff - Ernie Altoff 02:01.
4 Art Throbs - Art Throbs 05:17
5.Bathroom Beansi - Bathroom Beansi 04:11
6.Bleeding Arseholes - Bleeding Arseholes 05:41
7.David Chesworth - David Chesworth 06:10
8.Graeme Davis - Graeme Davis 01:23
9.Disneyland - Disneyland 03:06
10.East End Butchers - East End Butchers 06:02
11.EST - EST 01:50
12.Essonden Airport - Essonden Airport 02:24
13.Graeme Gerrard - Graeme Gerrard 02:04
14.Holiday Funn - Holiday Funn 03:10
15.Incredibly Mixed Up Zombies - Incredibly Mixed Up Zombies 02:41
16.Institute of Dronal Anarchy - Institute of Dronal Anarchy 04:09
17.Invisible Boys - Invisible Boys 02:28
18.Invisible Music - Invisible Music 03:08
19.The 2 Johnnies - The 2 Johnnies 04:17
20.The JP Sartre Band - The JP Sartre Band 03:43
21.Junk Logic - Junk Logic 03:58
22.Klu - Klu 04:20
23.Laughing Hands - Laughing Hands 04:50
24.Lazlo Toth - Lazlo Toth 04:30
25.The Limp - The Limp 05:34
26.The Lunatic Fringe - The Lunatic Fringe 03:19
27.Mice Against God - Mice Against God 04:01
28.Mindless Delta Children - Mindless Delta Children 04:01
29.Multiplicative Inverse - Multiplicative Inverse 04:17
30.Music 4 - Music 4 04:02
31.Negative Reaction - Negative Reaction 03:55
32.The Painkillers - The Painkillers 02:07
33.Pastel Bats - Pastel Bats 03:45
34.The Persons Brothers - The Persons Brothers 03:08
35.Pissy Relay Switches - Pissy Relay Switches 05:56
36.Rythmyx Chmpx - Rythmyx Chmpx 05:21
37.Saxophone Caper - Saxophone Caper 02:17
38.Scattered Order - Scattered Order 03:10
39.Paul Schutze - Paul Schutze 05:01
40.Severed Heads 02:30
41.Shane Is Dead - Shane Is Dead 06:11
42.The Slugfuckers - The Slugfuckers 06:11
43.Somersaulting Coincidences - Somersaulting Coincidences 05:28
44.Stutgarters - Stutgarters 03:04
45.The Sunday Painters - The Sunday Painters 03:13
46.The Swinging Hogs - The Swinging Hogs 02:04
47.Sydney Quads - Sydney Quads 01:26
48.The Systematics - The Systematics 01:54
49.The Tame O'Mearas - The Tame O'Mearas 02:58
50.Teese & Tattersal - Teese & Tattersal 02:08
51.Peter Thin - Peter Thin 05:03
52.tktktk - tktktk 05:00
53.Paul Turner - Paul Turner 02:00
54.Use No Hooks - Use No Hooks 09:16
55.The Wet Taxis - The Wet Taxis 02:26
56.Wild West - Wild West 05:53
57.Mesh - Mesh 02:43
58.Oroton Bags - Oroton Bags 03:40
59.Zglutz - Zglutz 02:53
60.Nervous System - Nervous System 06:08
61.The n-lets - The n-lets 06:18

DOWNLOAD One Stop Shopping Part One HERE!

DOWNLOAD One Stop Shopping Part Two HERE!

DOWNLOAD One Stop Shopping Part Three HERE!

DOWNLOAD the full artwork/ booklet and Slug Fanzine HERE!

The Wet Taxis - " Taxidermy " (Terse Tapes TRS008) 1981

2012-02-12T23:36:00.002+01:00

The Wet Taxis are from Australia, although you'd never guess it. No hints of sporting prowess here, no beach culture, surfing or mention of Barbeques!
They sound like a sort of antipodean , but less funny, version of Danny and the Dressmakers, but more tooled up in the instrument department.
They later turned into a very competent garage rock combo......how boring.
But this tape is up there in the pantheon of chaotic bedroom rock recordings, competing with "200 Cancellations" as the most sprawling epic of DIY cassette rock.
The best tape I've heard from OZ.

Apparently this was Assembled from bits off 1,000 Cassettes! This makes the Homosexuals seem to have the production rate of Scott Walker!

Classic DIY Instrument List:
Compurhythm - Guitar + Effects - Bass + Effects - Vocals - Minipops - Noise? - Kazoo - Clarinet - TV Game - Wineglasses + Tapes - Piano - Utensils - Home Made Oscillators - Amp Hum

Track Listing:

A1		Dare You (Live)
A2		But Mono Never Dies
A3		Wind Up Toys
A4		Max And Peter Marmite Jar
A5		Felate Your Baby
A6		Miniamata
A7		FP219
A8		Theme For A Bitch
A9		The Worm Has Turned
A10		Untitled 1/2/3
B1		Vomit
B2		Nun Strike
B3		Cerebral Damage
B4		My Boy Lollipop
B5		Untitled (Live)
B6		Make Cake (Live)
B7		Boom (Live)
B8		Rhythm
B9		Doll Hospital
B10		Polio Baby
B11		Fingernail Biter
B12		Rubber Balunes
B13		I Must Have Drunk Too Much Rum

DOWNLOAD some taxidermy HERE!

Severed Heads - " Side 2 " (Terse Tapes TRS005) 1980

2012-02-11T23:52:00.001+01:00

This cassette is a variation of the intended second side of the first Severed Heads album "Ear Bitten". It is devised as free-form experimentation and loop based edited from live performances and studio tracks. Parts of this ended up on the compilation album Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In The Past in 1985.
It comprises of more 'everything but the kitchen sink' sampling/tape loops all slapped down in a garbled melange of found sound.Its great!
The highlight for me is the tape of a misogynistic hubby shouting, "Where's me dinnah!", hilarious.

Track Listing:

A1		With This
A2		Dou One Rom
A3		The Man Of My Dreams [Live]
A4		Arrangements Byrne [Live]
A5		Nazi Beach Party [Live]
A6		Fingerbowl Murray [Live]
A7		UOU [Live]
B1		Pretend Supermarket [Live]
B2		You Thought You Think
B3		Chip Carter [Live]
B4		Chanel 0
B5		34 Pin-Stripe-Bus
B6		Hello Donald, Merry Christmas

DOWNLOAD side 2 HERE!

Severed Heads - " Blubberknife " (Terse Tapes TRS822/ Ink Records IT00A) 1982

2012-02-10T23:23:00.001+01:00

Ahhh, the beautiful sunny land that is Australia.Full of blissfully happy athletes, well treated ethnic minorities (i'm joking here!), and one of the world's highest standards of living. The good life, barbeques, Castlemaine XXXX, Ayres rock, Sydney Opera House,not forgetting SPK, The Birthday Party and Severed Heads????......wait a minute, maybe the Aussies aren't that happy after all?
Whats gone wrong in this sub tropical paradise?
Australia is the last place you would expect to be home to great Punk bands like the Saints, and the Birthday Party (not Goth), and especially not any Industrial bands. But this happened?
Yeah, life ain't no bed of roses in the downtown districts of Sydney and other cities in Oz. Also you've got one of the most intense 'Jock' cultures on the planet, with the bleached mullet and vest brigade over compensating at every turn. This is no environment for the sensitive and artistic kid, which leads to a very productive and angry section of Oz society, and i don't blame 'em.I'm getting pissed off just writing this!
This garbled social comment goes someway to explaining away the existence of Severed Heads, and their contemporaries, SPK. Which usually concluded in a move to London, or Berlin!
Early Severed Heads music was characterised by the use of tape loops, noisy arrangements of synthesizers, and other dissonant sound sources. Everything is chucked into a dissonent blender, creating the dense mass of misanthropy that crowds the tape of this 1982 tape release.

Track Listing:

	Adolf A Carrot
	Rocket Summer [Live At Stranded 8th April 1982]
	Deano's Couch
	An American In Paris/Tarzan's Grip
	Umbrella
	Lower Than The Grave
	J. Edgar Hoover/CMID [Live]
	Ad Infinitum

DOWNLOAD a blubberknife HERE!

Stratis - " Exotic " (Self Release Cassette) 1982

2012-02-09T23:17:00.002+01:00

There have been many groups who have called themselves after the sir-name of one of its members. We've had Argent,Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac,Santana, and who can forget Stratis?
Is that Antonio Stratis singing? I shudder to think it is.......bless him.
This downbeat minimal synthpop classic was recorded at the Stratis Koln home in 1982, back in the days when musicians used to play stuff with their own hands.And its full of wonderful analogue sounds, a thing of great beauty, even with the dreadful singing.

Track Listing:

A1		Green Village
A2		Night Shelter
A3		Passage
A4		Flash Of Fire
B1		Departure
B2		Faces - A Big Mistake
B3		Yearning For Emotions

DOWNLOAD this exotic beast HERE!

Stratis - " Film Music " (Integrated Circuit Records) 1984

2012-02-08T23:03:00.000+01:00

More catchy tunes on classic analogue synth's from those groovy Krauts Albert Klein and Antonios Stratis (surely he's greek!) Not as good as "New Face"
but who's complaining, I love listening to those old synthesizers, especially on a Dolby 'B' encoded cassette.

Track Listing:

A1		Little Fishes
A2		Tropical Summer
A3		Dust
A4		Pictures On The Wall
A5		Zanzariera
B1		Red Roses For The Yellow Lady
B2		The Heat / After The Heat
B3		Passion
B4		Nightfly
B5		Visions

DOWNLOAD some film music HERE!

Rick Crane - " A Long Week In Houston " (Self Release Cassette) 1982

2012-02-07T22:34:00.000+01:00

A Superb analogue electronic bubble bath, full of warm transistor driven curves, captured on smooth ,hissy , chrom dioxide tape. You won't miss the harsh spikes and square edges of the binary hell of the digital medium, because this is what Kosmiche musick should sound like.You are highly recommended to check out Rick's work for Integrated circuit records posted earlier in this blog; "Kolyma" and "Fuji". Both works of equal magnitude from analogue heaven.

Track Listing:
Side A - Hals Blue Period - Nine Years Meditation
Side B - A long week In Houston

DOWNLOAD a long week in houston HERE!

George Garside - " Mind Over Matter " (Self Released Cassette GAR 03) 1987

2012-02-06T22:18:00.000+01:00

Another one for your Flotation Tank. Let's all walk towards the light source, dispel your ego, and meet some dead relatives.Discover the inner 'you' with George Garside and his dancing synthesizers.
All this and another magisterial sleeve from Peter Jolly.
Namaste.

Track Listing:

	Lemma
A1	Cerebellum Transfer	7:27
A2	The Mind Of Descartes	4:49
A3	Metaphysic 4	5:15
A4	Pulse To Ontology	5:59
A5	I Think, Therefore I Am	6:11
	Acumen
B1	Mind Over Matter	6:26
B2	Echoes In Parallax	3:55
B3	The Levitator	7:25
B4	Nirvana Star	6:02
B5	Zeitgeist	2:38

DOWNLOAD your mind over matter HERE!

George Garside - " New Land " (Self Released Cassette GAR 02) 1986

2012-02-05T22:00:00.001+01:00

Flotation tank music verging on the new age. A bit too defined melodically to be called ambient, but very pleasant on the ear. Music for bathing to, or accompanying a testcard.
Check out George's superior outing for Integrated Circuit records, "Oasis", earlier in this blog.
One item of note is that the cover was designed by the peerless Peter jolly, a major donator to Die or DIY?.....including this very tape! Many thanks Peter.

Track Listing:

A1	Xingu	5:01
A2	Tides	5:49
A3	Letting Go	5:30
A4	New Land	3:59
A5	Dawn	3:05
A6	Lizard Point	5:04
B1	There And Back	7:40
B2	Tranquil Dominion	6:26
B3	Amnesty	4:21
B4	Red Square	3:19
B5	Duplex	5:51

DOWNLOAD a new land HERE!

Cord Of Life - " Imaginary Journeys To sunset" (Mars 5) and "Winterland" (Mars 7) 1985/1986

2012-02-04T14:30:00.001+01:00

Plenty of meditative electronic navel gazing of the Vangelis variety rather than Kraftwerk-ism's on these two cassette releases from the mid-eighties. Even Kraftwerk were shite by then, but then again so was everything else.
I can imagine these chaps,David and Andy, playing two keyboards each at the same time. Rather like Viv Savage of Spinal Tap during 'Big Bottom'......."Hey,I got two hands here!"
Plenty of space references in the song titles, and lots of sustained chords, amongst the plinky plunk kosmische style melodies. Put your hands on the keyboards and move your fingers about and you pretty much end up with stuff like this.Tangerine Dream this is not. But if you like yer average bedroom Klaus Schulze wannabe's, then this is for you.

Track Listing:

Click on the insert pictures for the tracks, 'cus i can't be arsed to type them out!

DOWNLOAD the cords of life HERE!

Steve Austin - " Music From The Withered Orange Tree " (Bite Back BB013) 1985

2012-02-03T12:00:00.000+01:00

Noooooo, not that Steve Austin!!!!....this one. Definitely not a million dollars of anything involved here, except a couple of grand's worth of descent synthesizers,
Looking at his Picture on the insert above, this Steve Austin looks like one of those chaps who worked in the keyboard and technology department of your local music emporium. You know the ones too old to be in a gigging rock band, so had to make do with selling keyboards to untalented drongo's like me and you.
You'd enter the electronic section, and he'd be there tinkling away on the latest clavier,while you stand there waiting for assistance.
"I'll be with you in a minute mate", he says without casting a glance in you direction. Then after the end of a note perfect rendition of Rick Wakeman's 'Journey to the centre of the Earth', he receives your request with a sharp intake of breath, as though you don't know what you're talking about, and that you're keeping him away from composing that symphony he's been writing for the last two years......y'know.....'The Big One'!
That's what he looks like!
Be that as it is, this Steve Austin can be rightly proud of himself, as he has cobbled together a superbly melancholic electronic concept album, that the Wakeman himself would be proud of, but stripped of all the crap. In places it reminds me of some of the more touching pieces by Phillip Glass, a tubular bells for the bedroom brigade. Plenty of wistful melodies that kind of remind one of a lost childhood........does this Withered Orange Tree represent the aging process by any chance?
Love it!
Thanks PJ!

Track Listing:
Music From The Withered Orange Tree Parts 1 - 13

DOWNLOAD some withered oranges HERE!

Robert Lawrence and Mark Phillips - " The Dada Computer " (Quick Stab Productions - Prod 13) 1981

2012-02-01T21:20:00.004+01:00

This staggeringly otherworldly shadowy cousin to Kraftwerk's 'Computer world', is probably the best computer composed collection of music I have ever had enter my shell-likes.
Unlike Kraftwerk's magnum opus, this actually sounds like a computer, albeit one of those cheap 1980's family computers;- not everyone could afford an IBM in 1981. This is more like computer reality in 1981, and in 2012 it sounds like an alien broadcast.
There's even a claim to the invention of 'house' in the track 'Computer bank', beating Manuel Gottsching's "E2-E4" to the punch by three years........although Gottsching had recorded that in 1981! Although this is not something to be proud of, it was not then a crime, and not danced to by legions of lagered-up townies/trendies, swinging their white hand bags and stiletto's.
The voices that appear on this tape are convincingly cyborg-like, and provide the most entertaining moment when a slightly effeminate cyborg voice volunteers a fey sounding rendering of the song title to 'Computer Violence'; which repeats softly above a fuzzy rumble of a backing track; very strange indeed.

Thank you Peter Jolly.

Track Listing:

A1		Missile Logic T
A2		Automation
A3		Fear Of Programming
A4		Girl With A VDU
A5		Multinational
A6		Computer Bank
B1		Construct Z/45
B2		Module
B3		Punchcard Sex
B4		Production Line (No Human)
B5		The Dadacomputer
B6		Computer Violence

DOWNLOAD Dada to your Computer HERE!

Ampnoise - " Beyond The Spectacle" (Self Release C-45) 1983

2012-01-31T22:19:00.001+01:00

"Retro-futurism"....an oxymoron that describes this minimal wave underground classic very nicely. Obvious reference points can be used, such as Cabaret Voltaire and most of the Industrial records stable, but this has a charm of it's own, rather like a Sinclair spectrum computer; on the surface outdated crap, but dig deeper and you get something that exists out of time and the constraints of constantly advancing technology. Record this on a muddy sounding c-45 cassette and you have produced an object of great beauty.
There's no Moogs,Korgs, or Roland's on here, this is low budget and make do on the cheapest available equipment, and all the better for it. All popular brand names are a fast track to conformity....although i suspect i could hear a Boss Dr. Rythm DR55 in there somewhere....I had one of those once...bloody rubbish it was, highly recommended. Recorded on a Fostex x-15 multitrack cassette recorder, with its infamous Dolby -B sound muffler device, that was passed off as noise reduction, ending up being music reduction,sounded better with the tape hiss!
Although very little is known about the bedroom legends that produced this solid state marvel, but I am informed that Ampnoise comprised of two chaps called Robert Lawrence and Mark Phillips (the man behind the Quick Stab cassette label, who still make music today as something called Five times of dust?
Ampnoise also appeared on the ICR compilation " Integration" in 1983, providing the track "Floppy Disc Drive".

Track Listing:
01 It's Very Simple
02 Syphilis
03 The Small Assassin
04 I.R.A. Death
05 666-23
06 Industry
07 Return Of the Horizontal Man
08 You Arouse My Animal Passions
09 Poison River
10 Geisha Children
11 Hologram
12 Psychic Operations
13 Crash
14 Even Programmes Fall In Love
15 Beyond The Spectacle

DOWNLOAD this spectacle and beyond HERE!

Years On Earth - " Site " - (Calypso Now C-60 YOE2) 1982

2012-01-30T23:30:00.002+01:00

The information I have on this tape is even more minimal than the stark minimal electronica contained within it. Like a stripped down Cabaret Voltaire performing in the cold storage area of an abattoir, distant and eerie. Who were Years on Earth and why did they do this to us?
This should have been played to Phil Spector, then maybe we'd have been saved from those atrocious crimes against subtlety perpetrated in the 1960's and beyond;and could have even cleansed him of his unhealthy gun obsession?....maybe not!?
Yet another absolutely great minimal electronic tape from the early 1980's
Thanks again PJ!

Track Listing:

A1		Conjure
A2		And I Dream
A3		Saving Face
A4		Voice
A5		Lost Letters
A6		Opposition
A7		Golem
A8		Y. N.
A9		State
B1		I Could
B2		Memories
B3		As You're Told
B4		Jackal Zealots
B5		I Can't
B6		Nightmares
B7		Suspicion
B8		Dark Centuries

DOWNLOAD Years on earth HERE!

Irsol - " Half Life " - (Adventures In Reality ARR008) 1983

2012-01-28T21:15:00.001+01:00

This collection by Irsol is a much more meaty and hard hitting Industrial electronic record than their debut tape "First Contact".
The title alludes to the fact that side one is a studio recording and side two was recorded live; the live side being the more brutal of the two. Some excellently raw electronics become more harsh thanks to the 'sports hall' acoustics of the venue.
A classic tape of phat industrial electronica released on the excellent Adventures In Reality label.

Track Listing:

A1		Raw
A2		Granular Spacetime
A3		Drill
A4		Sporting With Ameryllis In The Shade
A5		Blue Mist
A6		Suppress
B1		Junkyard I
B2		Leafspring
B3		Junkyard II
B4		Track One
B5		Reesoning

DOWNLOAD a Half Life HERE!