Monday, January 26, 2009

Voice of America: I Will Tell 12"


Here's a bonus 12" since I haven't uploaded anything new for a little while. This is a mysterious and extremely rare 12" EP from a UK band called Voice of America. There is almost no information about these guys anywhere, aside from the fact that it was produced by Captain Sensible. This should have been a new wave classic, but instead only a few were pressed, and not too well distributed.

Voice of America: I Will Tell 12"
1986, An Ammunition Communication
A
I Will Tell
B1
Story Of Love
B2
V.O.A.

Download the record here!

Lung Overcoat: Climbing the Hill EP, 7", and more!

Lung overcoat is a band that will be forever linked to another similar band in my mind, Necropolis of Love. I found each band's 12" EP (Climbing the Hill from Lung Overcoat, provided here, and "The Hope" EP from Necropolis of Love, which can be found on this great post-punk blog here.) on the same day over a decade ago. Both bands were from the USA in the early to mid 80s, with a decidedly UK post punk/goth sound.
I found the two records about 12 years ago, back before music blogs were even a glimmer in the Internet's eye, and the both were extremely mysterious. There was no info on either band on the net back in those days, and I had to fill in the blanks myself. Did they release anything else? Did they go on to form other bands? Did anyone else in the entire world know of their existences? (answers: yes, no, and yes, although at the time it felt like I had discovered a band that was all my own).
Lung Overcoat now has a myspace page, but they are still criminally underrated. This is the kind of unknown band that post punk fans long to discover. While you may not feel that this band is your own hidden secret the way I did so many years ago, you can surely appreciate the great dark post punk sounds herein. I've included the band's entire output - a 7", a 12" EP, a song from the first "Doctor Death" compilation on C'est la Mort Records, and even a demo song. Enjoy...

Internal Silence 7", 1983, Scolex Records
A
Internal Silence
B
Past Lives


Climbing the Hill EP, 1986, Scolex Records
A1
Sickroom
A2
Voice In The Box
B1
Life In Holes
B2
When Dreams Drag On

Download everything here!

Gregory Jones & Roy Sablosky: No Imagination LP


Here is a rare LP from Roy Sablosky and the late Gregory Jones. Hailing from San Francisco, Gregory Jones was a producer and underground electronic music pioneer in the early 80s. He was the producer (and essentially the fourth member) of SF EBM/electro band Infant Bonds of Joy, whose sole LP I previously posted here. This LP is a collaboration of Jones and another musician named Roy Sablosky, about whom I know nothing. The music here is pure experimental electronic noise. It was released in 1980 on Vinyl Records (creative, no?); the only other release on that label that I know of was the Standard of Living mLP.

Gregory Jones & Roy Sablosky - No Imagination LP
1980, Vinyl Records
A1 No Moon No Mirror
A2 Intro (Summer Names)
B1 Diverted To Frankfurt (For Twelve Pulse Generators)
B2 Forced

Click here to download the record!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Where's Lisse?: Tutorial EP


What ever happened to Ascii art? Remember in the 80s, when making drawings of people and places with letters and punctuation seemed like the height of computer nerd-dom? Where's Lisse? must remember, since the cover of this EP is made entirely of these characters. This was the band's second and final release. The first, a 7", can be found on Systems of Romance here.
In a more fair world, the track "Tutorial" would have been a huge goth club hit. With load scratchy guitars, simple drumming, and gloomy, commanding vocals, this would have fit perfectly in any club between She's in Parties and I Walk the Line. Enough talk. You really need to get this.

Where's Lisse?: Tutorial EP
1982, Glass Records
1. Tutorial
2. I'll THink of Something
3. Red Light
4. Call It That! (You'll need to rename this... I realize I named it the same as track 2).

Click here to download this record!

Foreign Legion: Indefinites LP


If you're like me, you scour the blogs of obscure, undiscovered music in hopes of finding a new treasure to listen to or put on your wantlist. I don't know if this one will quite be your "new favorite", but it's certainly one of those undiscovered, hopelessly obscure minimal electronic records. Released in 1984 on "Aqua Records", this contains bass, noises, effects, sax, and a whole slew of electronics. The sax brings some of the songs into jazz territory, but the processed drums and synths and cold vocals should combine well enough to please fans of minimal wave. The closest thing I can think of to compare this to would be the "Hmm..." LP by Friz Be. There are several standout tracks for me: "Who's To Say" comes somewhat close to League of Nations-esque electronics, "Who Were They" combines lots of live and syntheized percussion with some excellent synth lines, and "Suddenly Know" combines analog synth noises with a truly bizarre but somehow catchy-as-hell big band/swing sax line. No joke. Just download and listen for yourself.

Foreign Legion: Indefinites LP
1984, Aqua Records
1. Who's To Say
2. What Do You Want?
3. Suddenly Know
4. No Pictures, No Regrets
5. Who Were They?
6. Why Don't You?
7. Whatever Happens
8. Everyone Who Loves You
9. Trains

Click here to download the LP!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Astaron: Das Grauen Aus Dem All tape


First of all, a HUGE thanks to Stephane who provided me with these tracks. Second of all, I have re-uploaded the Astaron LP and EP.
Get them both here.
Here is the extremely rare tape from Astaron called Das Grauen Aus Dem All (Aka, "The Horror From Outer Space". Unlike their tape "The Slurring", which is pretty much the exact same thing as their selftitled LP, this tape is full of exclusive songs. And this is pure and beautiful, raw, minimal, dark, dirgelike, synthy, gloomy, gothic perfection. I'm not even going to say much more. You're probably not reading this, are you? You probably saw that there's more Astaron stuff to be downloaded and you said "holy crap, screw what this guy is saying, I gots ta download me some o' that!" And you were right to do so. Because if you did read the above paragraph, you just wasted precious seconds you should have spent clicking the download link.
Oh, but if anyone has the song titles, that would be great. I kinda don't have them.

Astaron: Das Grauen Aus Dem All.
1985, self-released
16 tracks (Track 9 is skipped... oops)

Click here to download this cassette.

Juju and Astaron links fixed. Finally.

Yeah, I finally got arounf to re-uploading two of the most requested records I had ripped, both of which were lost by Zshare. Hopefully these last a good long while...

Download both Astaron records here!

Download the Juju EP here!

Ganslinger Buam mLP


Okay, I'm really not trying to mess with you when I post this record. It's not really what I would call a classic. It is, however, hopelessly obscure and strangely endearing. This is a mini-LP from a guy from Switzerland who went by the name "Ganslinger Buam". Each song fades in at the beginning and fades out at the end, sometimes almost mid-song, so that each song seems extra short and ephemeral. Most songs are in the 1-2 minute range, too. The styles range from synthpop to new wave and more... It's just a weird LP that's worth downloading, and you might just find couple cool little electronic sonogs you like here...

Ganslinger Buam mLP
198? RecRec Records
1. Down the Beach
2. Cruel man
3. Blues
4. Eat
5. You Spin Me Round
6. Release Release
7. Watch the Way
8. Credit Card
9. Disco Devil
10. Why Can't I Be Happy?

Download this mLP here!

Kindergarten: Interference EP & No. 3 EP


Here are the first and third EPs from Minneapolis minimal electronic/synthpop band Kindergarten. This is yet another one of those mysterious bands that appears on many wantlists, but whose discography and history is always a bit unclear. Well, they released three EPs: Interference in 1982, another one in 1985, and No. 3 (or "The Closet") in 1987. They aren't the same band who released the "World Turned Upside Down" 12". The music on the first EP is all over the place - from OMD-esque synthpop on God Only Knows to instrumental electornic on Interference to absolutely sinister electronic industrial on Auschwitz, it really is a classic record. The third EP is much more standard synthpop but it still has some good songs, especially "Terri Goes Walking". I have never heard their second EP, though... does anyone have it? Please?

Kindergarten: Interference EP
1982 Blind Beat Records
1. Interference
2. Auschwitz
3. God Only Knows

Kindergarten: No.3 (The CLoset) EP
1987 Impala Records.
1. Transportation
2. 10 Little Indians
3. Terri Goes Walking
4. Disco-X
5. Aquamarine

Get all THREE EPs here!