Infant Bonds of Joy - Selftitled LP

As requested by Elektro80s, here is the selftitled LP from San Francisco industrial/synth band Infant Bonds of Joy. This was a trio consisting of Ricki Sara Bennett, James Davis, and D. E. Kohls, who recorded the record with engineer/producer Greg Jones (RIP).
Anyway, this record was released in 1986 on the UK-based Public Records. It comes in a plain sleeve with glued-on artwork. The music is a mix of industrial/EBM, darkwave, and synthpop.

Apparently all the members have now contacted me, so it's great to see that everyone is doing fine! David Kohls filled me in on the history of the band:



"A (not so) brief Bio of IBOJ by David Kohls:


I came to SF from Lansing MI in 1982 drawn by the fantastic music coming out of the City in those days. Especially I liked bands recording on the Ralph Records label, and yes, I do know a member of the Residents, though I would only tell for money or food...

Boe came from Lansing 6 months later. We met up then got together with Billy Mitchell, another Lansing transplant. Billy was the drummer we'd worked with in our Lansing band "i-Tense". I seriously don't think any of us made any phone calls or anything in plans to emigrate to this great land, but here we were... I met Ricki through a Bay Guardian ad and along with a singer/girlfriend, the five of us launched Dinner Noise, a band basically built to perform a multimedia conceptual performance piece thing. We wrote a lot of music for that - a lot of it pretty good stuff.


Next, Boe and I formed the band Wimpy Savage. Very loud, unstructured, male, and in retrospect with a sound based on a Mattel drum machine which was a great sound that I don't think ANYONE else had. Boe and I have very fond memories and demo tapes of that era and our current film production company carries the same name.

Billy (and I, for a short time) did a stint with the Part Time Christians based out of Concord - kind of a bowling punk thing. Singer Dave B. is still in the area. PTC is definitely a band you freaks should clamber over if clambering is indeed what you do.

Unfortunately , Billy fell for that old diabolical call that has felled so many fine musicians. Too soon he was done and it's too bad cuz Billy was the finest drummer, maybe overall musician, I've ever worked with and he left us without a drummer.

Around this time (1985) Boe and I started writing a new set of songs. Ricki became involved and added her own (much different!) sensibilities to our sound and then we met reknown saxophonist Normal Salant who decided we'd be the perfect band for his first stroll in producer shoes. We rushed out a few more songs and made the record at Gregory Hale Jones' (RIP) recording studio. Greg was the engineer on the project and produced "WhyWhyWhy" and "Boo!". I think it's obvious to anyone who has heard the tracks that those 2 cuts sound much different than the bulk of the LP produced by Salant.

Overall the record has a lot of regrets as I suppose all records do. It is interesting though in that it caught an unusual sound in a twisty little musical time and especially it catches - showcases, actually - some of the blips of the technology of the time. Most prominently is the Roland 707 drum machine used throughout the record. There was no swing in this lock step monster and not terribly great samples either. I regret I didn't make better, more creative use of its limitations. Instead I got caught up in trying to make it sound like a drummer.

Also showcased is the wonderful Moog Prodigy synthesizer (not even Midi capable!) still highly valued for it's kick-ass bass capabilities. Most of the other keyboard sounds were produced on the Juno 120(?) a good midi-enabled synth. Did take advantage of some midi stuff, mostly triggers from the 707 and sequencing on Greg's Apple II computer! The recording was done on a 24 track board on 2 inch, mixed down to 1/2 inch and mastered at Fantasy in Berkeley."

Thanks a lot for the thorough background on the band!


Click here to download the album.

Track list:
1. Simple Anwers
2. Glorious Din
3. A Reaction
4. Why Why Why
5. Pointed Sticks
6. I Like Some Fun
7. Just Like Spoons
8. Boo!

(note: I accidentally called track 7 "Just Like Sticks" in the .zip file. Also, I didn't crop the cover images. D'oh!)

The Short Wave Mystery - Pilots 12"

Well, I figured that since a copy of this 12" recently fetched $910 on eBay, why not share the record so everyone could hear what the hype is all about? Some people are trying to sell bootleg copies of this for hundreds of dollars as well...
I have managed to track down two of the original members of the group, including Greg, the songwriter/singer.
Here is what he had to say about the group:

"We never again pressed anything else under the moniker Short-Wave Mystery but there are more songs that I have on tape, from that era.

Most of the tracks on that record were written and recorded by myself when I was attending Santa Barbara City College down in Isla Vista, CA around the 1985-1986 time frame. They were recorded in a bedroom using a 4 track Tascam 38 and some small Electro-Harmonix 2 second samplers and a Memorymoog Plus running a sequencer driving a Moog Source. I took some of the tracks into a bigger facility for mastering before releasing the record.

All of the memebers were essentially friends. Two of the members were brothers who I grew up with in Modesto, CA (Tom and Jason) while the tall, blonde fellow, Dave, was a roomate of ours from college in Santa Barbara, who played sax. The other guys in the band played instruments, but none actually played anything on the record, save for Jason, who laid a few percussive licks down. It was all written and sequenced by me. When we played live, I essentially hit the tape play button ala Depeche Mode and let it roll. Not much going on save for a lot of posing and gesturing..

We pressed about 1000 copies of the record and never and never went into repressing. I think we had a hard time getting the record to sell at all, and took a loss. None of us had much marketing or business savvy when it came to getting our product peddled. We just could not create a demand and spent most of our cash just trying to get the record made. I believe it was available through Rough Trade Distribtuion in SF when it was down on 6th street. After that, we grew up and went our separate ways. Tom still lives in the Bay area, Dave I haven't heard from in years, and Jason sells his art in Michigan...

...Anyway, I have all those tracks and many many more from that era still on 2" and 4" real to real tapes. I am going to take them into the studio and remaster them then post them and perhaps re-release them as an album if anyone might be interested. This will occur in the first quarter of 2009.

Jason and I did some stuff after that under the moniker Chapel Bell Chimes, which perhaps I should release as well. More digital sounding of course since I was using a lot of antiqated samplers at that particular time."

I consulted the other member, Jason, who once had over 500 copies of the record in his parents' barn.(!) They have unfortunately all been trashed... No more copies are available from either member. Boohoo.

So, as he mentioned, Greg still has all the original tapes, including many unreleased songs. Jason also has some old tapes, which may contain even more unreleased material! Greg is in the process of remastering them with modern equipment and is interested in eventually shopping the tracks around to various labels and rereleasing them. I've suggested a few labels to him, and helped pass along a message from one of them, so perhaps a reissue of this incredibly sought-after record can finally come about?!? Keep your fingers crossed...

PS. I am not selling this record. Please do not ask!

Short Wave Mystery - Pilots 12" EP
1985 Good Records
Songs:
1. Pilots
2. Nice Girl
3. Ecaterina Szabo
4. Szabo (Version)

Link removed by request... reissue coming soon!

Diseno Corbusier - Perfido Encanto LP

Here is the first record from Spanish avant-garde electronic band Diseno Corbusier, and the second band with the name "D____ Corbusier" that I have featured on this blog. There were only 500 copies pressed and released in 1985 on Auxilo De Cientos, the same label that released the Twilight Ritual LP and the Terra Incognita compilations. The only source for information that I have found about this boy/girl duo was on the Thing on the Doorstop blog post of their second LP, El Alma de La Estrella. To be honest, it took me a while to get into this record, but it slowly grew on me until one listen when it just clicked and I "got it". Tape loops, odd chanted and repeated vocal noises, and loads of electronics make this a dense, but very fulfilling listen.


Track list:

1. El Grito En Su Momento
2. F*P*2
3. Meta Metalic
4. Clonica
5. Internada
6. La Fabrica No Esta Cerca
7. Gli Scolari
8. El Eco de Oran
9. Non Sense

Click here to download it.

Various Artists: 5 Miles to Midnight

I promised Curious Guy at Phoenix Hairpins that I'd rip this for him a while back; well, I finally got around to it. Unfortunately this copy has a bit of surface noise sometimes. This is a great 5-song compilation called 5 Miles to Midnight, released in 1981 on Pax Records. It is most notable for containing two sings by John White's pre-UV Pop band The I Scream Brothers (both of which are also co-produced by Cabaret Voltaire). Also interesting is the fact that there is one track listed by a band called I Suggested Darkness that is not included due to technical problems during pressing. While the sleeve states that they would be featured on a future release, I don't think they ever released anything. Sad. Anyway, the five songs are great minimalist post punk and electronic fare. Download it and enjoy!

Tracks:

A1	Doormen, The	Choices
A2	Doormen, The	Alternatives
A3	Mortuary In Wax	The Face
B1	I Scream Brothers	Tree Growing Wrong
B2	I Scream Brothers	Avoid The Surgery

Download it here!

South of No North: Fell Frozen LP

I was a bit hesitant to share this album, because I think the album was reissued on CD. But I can find no official information on a rerelease, except that only 680 copies were pressed. I don't know if it's still available, or where, so if it is indeed still sold commercially I can take this post down. But anyway, on to the album:
This is one of the best darkwave records ever, hands down. The band was from Greece, and they released this album in 1985 on Creep Records. There isn't too much else that needs to be said.
This is yet another record I found in Vienna.
A note to anyone who will be visiting that fine city who wants to go record shopping: go to Teuchtler Schallplatten, found on Windmuhlgasse 10, (1060 or "6" section of town). Also check out the store right around the corner from it. Between the two, I found this, the Astaron LP, the Sing As We Go compilation, the first Bisca LP, the Desert Corbusier EP, and a load more, all for about 5-10 euro each.

Tracks:
1. She's Only a Song
2. Fell Frozen
3. Creeping
4. Annabelle Lee
5. Melancholy Bells
6. Behiund the Eternal Tree
7. Fairy Tale

Get the album here!