Commercial Music: Volume 4

 Six years. I never would have thought when I started this thing way back in 2007 that I'd still be updating it after a half-dozen years! A lot has happened in the interim - I've even moved across the country from SF to New York - but my love of music has not diminished at all. I still love to share music with others, and as my collection grows, so too does my resources of records and songs to post on this blog. Today, for a sixth anniversary, it seems like a good idea to post another homemade compilation.
This one certainly has a lot of odds and ends within it. There's Hungarian synthpop (KFT and GM49, the latter of whom has reissued most of their catalog on MP3 and is rather enjoyable, if cheesy). There's a rare song from the unreleased second Autumn Cathedral LP. It's the best of the 3 songs I've heard from that album, and it makes me really want to hear the rest of them. There's a cover of Voice Farm's "Modern Things", done by the guitarist from Japanese synthpop band The Plastics, found on a scarce picture disc. There's cheesy synthpop from a band called Press, whose album "The Low Hum of Machines" is not as promising as it sounds, but still has one great track.
Post punk/DIY fans will like the Louder Animal Group song, taken from a one-sided flexi. There's a track from the second Bluenose B 12". Unfortunately the other songs aren't nearly as good as their debut. There's weird dark avant-folk-synth from a guy called Breikreutz, a synthpop smash from Shades of Grey, and a practically unheard-of minimal synth demo from the singer of B-Movie, which sounds similar to early Eyeless In Gaza.
Hopefully there's something that everyone will like. Unless you only like twerk-wave, in which case what are you doing reading this?

PS. I promise that will be the only time I ever mention "twerk", unless twerk-wave becomes a genre.

Click here to twerk listen!

The Show: Enjoy Sensations 12"

I'm back on U.S. soil after traipsing around Europe with my girlfriend for the majority of September. Naturally, we visited many, many record stores, and some gambles with cheap unknown records certainly paid off, I'll be sharing some of those in the coming months, starting with this post punk/darkwave obscurity by The Show.
The Show were a German band who released their sole 12"/7" on a small Spanish label, Pasarela (a label whose only legacy that I knew of was the release of the extremely rare "Untitled" compilation) . The Show's use of synths, great dark guitar hooks, and drum machines
(especially on the excellent track My Sensation) puts them in good company, reminding me of dark post-punk bands like Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and BFG. I'm a bit surprised this record has flown under the radar for so long (although the title track has at least found its way to youtube), as it's a pretty great little piece of post-punk.

The Show: Enjoy Sensations 12"
1988, Pasarela Records

A1 My Sensation
A2 Daily Market
B1 Mankind

Click here to listen!

Sinking Ships: Dream 7"

Here is the rare second 7" from Lincoln, England's Sinking Ships. The band released only a handful of recordings in their brief existence - two 7"s and a couple compilation tracks - so their songwriting never really had a chance to evolve. It's a shame, because each song touches upon a different style. Their first 7", Cinema Clock - which can be found over at Systems of Romance with a brand new, high-quality rip - featured a Wire-esque post punk banger and a more anthemic pub-punk song.

This record features a questionable choice for a B-side: a long live dirge that changes little over its six minutes and could have benefitted from a studio recording and could have been shortened by a few minutes. It renders the B-side rather low in sound quality since it's spread so thin - and it's already a rather cheap pressing.  The A side, Dream, is my favorite song of theirs along with Cinema Clock. It takes the arty atmospherics of early MOdern English, throws in sax a la Psychedelic Furs (perhaps a result of having opened for the Furs on their early tours); the result is a brief, dark DIY post-punk song that could have been a classic.

Sinking Ships: Dream 7"
1980, Recession Records
A: Dream
B: After the Rain (live)

Click here to listen!

Famous Rays: Ending Beginning LP

The first time I saw this LP, I knew it had to be by a New York band. Anyone who has been to NYC can be easily confused by the similarly-named-but-not-at-all related pizza places called "Famous Ray's" "Original Ray's", "Famous Original Ray's", or (as Kramer discovered), simply "Ray's Pizza". As it turns out, the band was from the UK originally, but moved to NYC in the late 80s to seek better opportunities.
Famous Rays released this record in 1990, and from what I can find, this is the only thing they ever released.
By most standards, 1990 is a rather late year for a DIY post punk album to be released. You probably know the kind of record I mean - the kind that combines relentless experimentation, amateurishness, and variety of non-punk instruments (synths and sax being especially common). Bands as diverse as 48 Chairs, Beyond the Impload, Vice Versa, Androids of Mu, Desperate Bicycles, and countless thousands others all fell into this "genre". Well, Famous Rays can be counted as a VERY late addition to that DIY group (and indeed, an earlier incarnation of the band, Romford Stompers, was part of the fertile UK DIY scene). Famous Rays carried the lo-fi, avant-garde, synthpop-meets-post-punk-meets-jazzy-noise-meets-goth of their forebears into the neon years of the early 90s.
As with pretty much all of these records, there's a combination of strong and weak tracks. After a brief spoken-word intro the songs start off with the lyrics "I am looking through a synthesizer" on Hard Times. With a somewhat bouncy beat, it's a nice 100% minimal synth track that sounds 10 years too late. The next couple songs on the syn-drums and throw a wall of cascading, noisy guitars into the mix. Then there's a slow dark ambient synth interlude before delving into No Recognition, probably the most poppy song on the album. The song is musically similar to early Cure, but with the keyboards and arty weirdness of early Modern English (it's not as good as either of those bands, of course, but had it been released in 1980 I can guarantee it would have been on many "UK DIY Top Ten" lists.)
The following songs range from sax-and-synth skronk (Deception Island) to dark synth noise with spoken word (Wealthy Not Healthy) to almost deathrock sounding (Move By Dance), which combines syn-drums, heavy and noisy guitars, and sax similar to Ipso Facto. Overall, it's a highly unique album that (at the moment) is readily available very cheaply online. Perhaps others will like what they hear here and decide to pick up a copy. Or perhaps the late release date of this record will turn off people and the album will toil in the cheap bargain bins of obscurity, relegated to a few crackly mp3s that forever float in the aether of the Internet.

Famous Rays: Ending Beginning LP
1990, Blue Dot Records

1 The Sky Belongs To The Sun
2 Hard Times
3 Agents Of Change
4 Absolute Zero
5 Uphill
6 No Recognition
7 Deception Island
8 Black Dress
9 Wealthy Not Healthy
10 Release - For Bitten
11 Blue World
12 Move By Dance
13 The Great Discovery

Note: Many of these songs are only a few seconds long, or blend indistinguishably into one another, so I've combined several songs together in the rip.

Click here to listen!

Crashblack Big Orange: Naked Man LP

     Sometimes you have to redefine your idea of a “prime” era of good music in order to find music you love. For the longest time I was extremely wary of records from the late 80s and early 90s. There was so much CRAP issued around that time, as hair metal extended its Aqua Net-doused tentacles and electronic music traded in its experimentalism for digitalized rhythms and its vocals for the sound of a thousand  ravers sucking on pacifiers in an ecstacy-induced fury.

     But I have been occasionally finding records from this forsaken era. It was, after all, a great time for shoegaze. And the French coldwave/touching pop bands of the time were quite good.. The Juju mini LP from 1989 is a masterpiece, and both records by Intelligence Unit from 1989 and 1991 are excellent and unique. Well, Chicago band (and Intelligence Unit labelmates) Crashblack Big Orange can certainly be added to the category of great post-punk from this time. In fact, I'd say they were one of the best dark post-punk bands of not just their era, but ANY era. Here's a sample:

 
     Crashblack Big Orange (don’t worry, their name literally does not mean anything) was a husband and wife duo that rose from the ashes of a couple other bands, The Hail Marys and Unknown Pleasures. I found an interview in which they cited Killing Joke and Xmal Deutschland as their biggest influences and, well, it shows (and that alone should get you to download this post haste). I’d also add Skeletal Family to that list; Crashblack’s guitars are often quite remisncent of them. Both members share drum program duties, and both sing as well. He sounds a bit like an early UK goth-punk singer (think Twisted Nerve or UK Decay) and she sounds a bit Siouxsie-ish. The combination of male and female vocals (both of whom are actually good) is one of the things that sets this band apart from so many others. And the extended guitar intros, outros, bridges, and solos could sound a bit jammy if they didn’t completely kick ass, weren’t chock-full of distortion, or did not have that perfect darkwave tone to them. Even the basslines are memorable (and is it just me, or does the bassline of the lead track “Trust” sound like the bass from Secession’s classic “Betrayal”?) Here's another song of theirs:

 
   The band released at least 3 demo tapes before this LP. Most of those songs were released on this LP, although I would love to hear them if they’re demo versions. And at least one Iain Burgess –produced tape has some exclusive songs on it. The band later shortened their name to Crashblack, although I have not heard anything from that incarnation. If anyone out there has anything else from them – or demo tapes from  Unknown Pleasures or The Hail Marys, I’d be interested in hearing them!

Crashblack Big Orange

Naked Man LP

1990, Cold Grey Matter Records

Listen here!

New Law Nightmare: S/T EP

New Law Nightmare was a project from the late 80s fronted by a guy named Rik Savering. The act is probably most notable for having two great darkwave songs on a couple of the excellent Grindstone Compilations (um... re-upload to come soon, I suppose). There is almost no mention whatsoever of this 1988 EP, aside from some store that has a copy for sale on a couple online sites. This has completely escaped notice from pretty much everyone. Now, we can’t let that continue, can we? 

                When I found this in a local store recently, I was immediately grabbed by the somber dark “touching pop” style of the first song, Witch Trial. With some truly remarkable synth lines and perfectly emotive vocals, it’s a wonderful song. Other songs mix a bit more guitar into the sound – in some cases I’d prefer the songs without it. “Upper ten”, for example, is a great dark synthpop song, but the short guitar solos stand out a bit too much, especially since they are so loud in the mix. Even so, the guitar-heavy songs aren’t bad… it’s just that the instrument is more prominent than necessary and stands in sharp contrast to the melancholic synthpop with which it’s paired.

Fortunately, the formula does work wonders on the final song, “Only As”, with an unstoppable beat and synth line, and whose shrieks and wails of guitar actually work to enhance the track. Overall, this is a good EP with a couple excellent tracks, and several valiant attempts that just didn’t quite get the right balance of sounds. I’d be interested to hear if he released anything else under this moniker – hopefully more songs on the caliber of Witch Trial are waiting to be discovered.

New Law Nightmare: S/T EP

1988, Vuv Records

A1 Witch Trial

A2 Upper Ten

A3 Say

B1 Déjà vu

B2 Fifteen Shadows

B3 Only As

Click here to listen!

The Gallery: S/T LP

The Gallery were a Belgian band whose generic name has rendered them pretty much impossible to search for on the web. I don’t believe this has been shared or blogged about before, but who knows… I have found out that, quite confusingly, the band’s guitarist/keyboardist /producer Stephan Kraemer was in another unrelated band called Gallery in the early 80s. However, he is probably best known for his work as the guitarist/drummer of Zwischenfall. That group’s style of dark synthpop focused more on noisy but danceable electronics; The Gallery balance their synth use with more guitars. In this five-piece darkwave group, Kraemer worked with vocalist Iben Larssen and bassist Thomas Kuersten , both of whom worked with him on a few Zwischenfall songs (Iben Larssen provided the vocals to the 1984 English version of Flucht and Sandy Eyes), as well as contributing to tracks by Snowy Red and A Split Second. Keyboardist Nicolas Mansy later went to record with the short-lived alt/synth group Wasteland .
With such bona fides, the band has a lot to live up to and while the LP is a bit uneven at times, for the most part they do not disappoint. The vocals are usually haunting, with plenty of reverb and atmosphere. They suffer a bit on a few early songs when the band treads into more alt-rock territory replete with strained, yelled lyrics. Fortunately not too many songs take this stylistic deviation, and the best songs are reserved for the second side. The closing song, Nuthouse, is a midtempo track whose gloomy, beautiful chorus almost comes as a surprise. Crime Time is a full-force darkwave track that would sound perfect in any goth club set between Skeletal Family and The Veil. My favorite track on the album is the slow, stark “The Warning”, a vaguely Cocteau Twins affair which starts with sparse bass and drums before they’re followed up with cold synth chimes that sound like they’re channeling The Exorcist.

 The Gallery, S/T LP
1989, 150 BPM Records
 Divine
Bleed
Your Skin
 Better Days
Ballad of a Suburban Night
Fade Away
 The Warning
Crime Time
 Nuthouse

  Click here to listen!

The Intelligence Unit

This week I’m quite happy to share a couple very underrated records from a Chicago band called Intelligence Unit. They were around in the late 80s and early 90s and featured a wildly original and diverse array of sounds. There is certainly a lot to absorb here – there are elements of goth, synthpop, post punk, experimental, and gypsy folk music. This is one band who cannot be accused of lacking creativity or originality.

The group was a quartet made up of multi-instrumentalists who played guitars, bass, percussion, synths, e-bow, keyboards, and more. They featured an extremely unique singer – he escapes the trappings of emulating vocalists of more established bands and lets his distinguished voice carry many of the songs. Nowhere is this more evident than on the killer darkwave masterpiece Havens Amoung Wastelands, the first song on their debut EP. It starts with an ambient soundscape before the guitars, synths, and punishing drum fills kick in, followed by his forceful vocals pushed up front and center, full of dragged vowels and occasional over-pronunciation. It took me a few listens before I began to really appreciate this style, and now I cannot imagine it sung any other way. I posted it to youtube as well... check it out here: 

Their debut EP continues with more gems – Perimeter sounds somewhat influenced by the Chameleons; The Visionary is instrumental darkwave at its finest, and Venice is basically romantic Venetian gondola music with synths. The only misstep is Cinecila, which sounds a bit like a warmup session by a coffee shop jazz band.

The band’s full length, Foundation, is an even more diverse affair. It starts with a great midtempo darkwave song, Lilith, which reminds me of late 80s/early 90s kindred spirits like Mute Angst Envy or Autumn cathedral or any number of the bands on the Lively Art label. The next song is another generic jazz retread (why?!) but it’s the only misstep on an otherwise solid and original album. Other gems include the slow, somber “Distance”, on which synths and sax kick in during the chorus for a wholly melancholy soundtrack to a midnight drive; “The Black Death” is a surprising melodic turn, with a more focused pop sensibility; “The Prison Ship” is a dark, unstoppable dirge, full of reverb and synths and guitars that fade in and out amoung any number of unknown and mysterious sounds; Reinette and Mirabel in Paris is a complete winner, sounding like a Parisian folk-waltz with layers of synths, twinkling gypsy guitars, and accordions.

I don’t know if the band ever released anything after Foundation. I’ve gleaned that they may have written some songs after the album, so if anyone has anything else from them I would certainly love to hear it. In the meantime, satiate yourselves on these two wonderful releases!

Click here to listen to both of their records!

Prophet O’Haphazard: Cabaret Nostalgia EP

Here is the obscure second release from the somber German singer Prophet O’Haphazard, called Cabaret Nostalgia.I originally thought O'Haphazard was a girl, but it was actually the pseudonym of one  Oliver Gerling). His debut EP  - which is a must-have for underground synth fans - can be found on Capa Nostra Syndicate,  and is highly recommended.. The record’s album title gives a hint of what is in store on this record – gothic cabaret music mixes seamlessly with electronics and effected guitars and O’Haphazard’s wonderfully sullen, deadpan voice. At times his forceful but somewhat feminine voice recalls early efforts by contemporary artists like Molly Nilsson and Zola Jesus, but he’s less poppy than the former and more dynamic than the latter.

You and Me Covered in Silence plods along like gyspsy funeral parlor music, while Sum Up To Suicide is a beautiful mesh of aching synth strings, stabs of guitars and sparse drumming that sums up to one of the most bleak songs ever. Side B kicks off with Prophet O’Haphazard proving his bona fides with an excellent cover of Thomas Leer and Robert Rental’s Monochrome Days. Magic Mushroom Kingdom starts off aimlessly before it turns into perhaps the first gothic minimal synth-psych song, sort of like Astaron mashed up with Red Temple Spirits. Sadly, despite being about a Mushroom Kingdom, it does not mention Mario or Luigi at all.
Finally the album ends with a reprise of a song from her debut EP, Till I Hate You. Fittingly, this song is called Till I Hate You 2. You know, in case you weren’t sure he hated you the first time he sang it… well, he still does. Interestingly, while the title implies that it will be a bitter tirade against a lover who wronged him, it’s actually a slow, melancholy track with lyrics that drip with thoughts of heartache while the music retains an almost sweet hopelessness.

Prophet O’Haphazard: Cabaret Nostalgia EP

1989, Minstrel Records

A1                           Moon Over A Town And A Yellow Flowerfield Behind

A2                           You And Me Covered In Silence              

A3                           Sum Up To Suicid

B1                           Monochrome Days

B2                           Magic Mushroom Meadow       

B3                           ´Till I Hate You ´2

Click here to get it!

Human Trapped Rhythms mLP

Here’s a release from 1985 that’s so far out in left-field that it has pretty much left the ballpark. Combining industrial noise with minimal electronics, mantra-like chants and primal screams, utterly unrefined singing and creepy tape loops - all of which come together in the most barebones of musical structures - this record is less a collection of “songs” than an amateurly sinister (or sinisterly amateur?) foray into avant garde atmospherics.

Many of the tracks here are little more than synth lines over which male or female vocals sing, talk, shriek, or all of the above. Some sound a bit ridiculous and cross the terrain into simple pretension, but there are some tracks that are both stark and beautiful. “No Words” is about two or three notes played on the low end of a synthesizer, with the female vocalist slowly reciting poetic lyrics. “The Message” is the closest this record comes to an actual song, with thudding sparse industrial percussion, hints of an ominous rhythm in the background, and male vocals repeating the words “roll back… and die”. “Blood Run” is nothing more than white noise and chimes, as a cacophonic chorus of ghosts tunes their vocals.

The title track is particularly odd and interesting, awash in sampled noise and echoing laughter, child’s-toy instruments, and vocals that vaguely recall traditional British folk music. It’s a pretty strange and slightly creepy track. It kind of sounds like those brief 5-10 seconds of hushed music played at the end of horror movie trailers. You know those trailers that begin with a narrator whose vocal tone implies profundity, but whose words are cliché, bordering on inane? They start with “In a world… where there is no line… between life and death”, and then there’s a minute of action and suspense scenes. Then the trailer cuts the sound to a minimum, and a quiet, spooky song (a song quite similar to the title track on this record) is the only sound in the theater, played at a low volume to build suspense, as the camera zooms in on a lone figure in an austere room illuminated by a moonlit window, and maybe the eerie music is accompanied by vocals of a little girl with a British accent, whose otherwise innocent and sweet singing sounds vaguely evil as the shadows of dying trees dance in the moonlight, playing across the mystery figure’s visibly trembling silhouette, and the camera moves slowly but steadily closer to them, and you wonder if the figure is perhaps the singing girl, or a monster, or a figment of someone’s imagination and then the figure slowly turns, and they're revealed to be a girl in her late teens, her vacant sheet-white face glowing a ghostly blue in the moonlight and the vocals fade and all music fades aside from a lone suspenseful shimmering note and then out of nowhere BAM!!!!! a sparkling vampire grabs the figure you realize it’s a trailer for a new Twilight movie. Goddamn it.

Listen to the mLP here.

The Black Box: Fetish#1 7”

Out of Australia comes this obscure and rare 7” by a band called The Black Box. Their influences are quite obvious – very Birthday Party and somewhat deathrock sounding stuff here. It’s grinding, screeching, noisy guitar rock, with vocals that seem primed for attack, drums occasionally pounded so hard you feel sorry for them, and short sax interludes. It’s actually the band’s perfect use of the sax that sets this release above so many similar “me-too” bands. The instrument goes from short aggressive bleats to tuneful melodies in the space of a few seconds. It makes both songs much more dynamic and interesting.

The record was self released in 1989 on Claude Records. There is not too much information to be found about this band – it seems they released only this 7” (although I’d certainly like to hear more if it exists) and then toiled in obscurity. It’s time to rediscover them now. This record is a bit scratchy, so excuse the static and clicks that are mainly at the beginning of each song.

Black Box: Fetish#1 7”

1989, Claude Records

Fetish#1

Poison Shadows

Click here to listen!

The Stars That Wouldn't Shine: Selftitled mLP

Occasionally an unknown record grabs you, even though the ingredients that it consists of sound a bit ridiculous. New York band The Stars That Wouldn't Shine are a perfect example of that phenomenon. First of all, take a look at the cover. Their style is a mishmash of goth, punk, greaser, and Clockwork Orange. Who wouldn't buy this record base on the cover photo alone? Fittingly, their music is a complete conundrum as well - it's a mix of heavily synthed-out gloomy post punk, Madness-style ska, gothic surf rock, jokey deathrock, and completely deadpan, monotone and British-sounding vocals with lyrics about murder, death, Nazis, and mice. This sounds like a completley inconceivable combination, but oh, how wonderfully it works on this 8-track mini LP. If the Addams Family were a band on 4AD Records, they would probably sound like this.

There are no credits on the record aside from a photo credit and the songwriter "SARJ". Mysterious and intriguing! Right off the bat, the band slams into two fast-paced gothic ska-ish songs, full of synths, random cymbal crashes, and polyrhythmic percussion a la Adam and the Ants. The third track, Tchiakovsky, really shows the band hitting their stride. Again, it begins abruptly. No fade-in, no intro, no full measure before the vocals.... just, BAM! you're hit with a wall of heavy synths and repetitive surf guitars. The vocals are perfectly monotone, almost spoken-word, with no attempt to even try rhyming. The final song on the first side, Mister Klaus, is a "live" song that, rather than sounding like a live performance recording, sounds more like a studio recording with crowd noises thrown on top for its entire duration. It also inexplicably contains an entire album's worth of "Oi" chants, all in a row, all stated in a completely monotone voice ("oi. oi. oi. oi. oi. oi."). It is also probably the best gothic party anthem about a Nazi war ciminal (presumably Klaus Barbie) that I've ever heard.

Side 2 starts with their best gothic ska-cum-darkwave track on the album. It's fast paced and reverbed, with two or three repetitive guitar notes that sound more like they are quickly fading in and out rather than being strummed, and refrains with great organ-sounding synths. The next two tracks sound quite similar to each other, except "Four Days" has a bit of a bright feel to it and is probably the only relative dud on the album, and the subsequent "Don't Stop Now" is darker both musically and lyrically, with a break in which the singer matter-of-factly states "And so I kill you". It would be a bit creepy, if it wasn't so charming. The closing song on the album, "The Mouse Song", is on probably my favorte - a complete deathrock gem full of heavy haunted-house synths, tinny, jagged guitars, and lyrics about... um, being a mouse.

I've listened to this album half a dozen times in the past few days, and it continues to grow on me. It somehow achieves the rare mark of simultaneously sounding completely campy and utterly unironic. The ingredients of this album simply should not work anywhere near as well as they do. Maybe I am the only person who loves this record this much, but I have the sneaking suspicion that there will be a few people who'll be adding this to their wantlists and seeking it out.

The Stars That Wouldn't Shine: Selftitled mLP

1983, ADI Records

A1 Lying On The Floor

A2 You Don't Love Me

A3 Tchiakovsky

A4 Mister Klause

B1 Anything #3

B2 Four Days

B3 Don't Stop Now

B4 The Mouse Song

Click here to listen!

Circle Seven: Suburban Hope EP

Now it’s time for some good crowd-pleasing post-punk. This is the sole release from Montana-based Circle Seven. It was released on the venerable Ruthless Records back in 1981. It was one of the very first releases on the label. The band is often filed under or mentioned as a punk band on the web, and while they definitely had a punk edge to them, their music was more dynamic than that label implies. Their songs were generally pretty fast-paced but their guitar sounds ditched the guitar noise of many of their contemporaries for a surprisingly refined tunefulness. The vocals are especially strong – emphatic and pretty powerful, bordering on goth on a few songs on the second side. It somehow sounds as if he is yelling in a hushed voice.

The record starts out with a midtempo burst of punk energy on the titular “Suburban Hope”. The second side certainly has the strongest songs. “Cover Up” is a trackthat drives forward without losing momentum. It doesn’t even contain a chorus, it just keeps a steady pace until the last 40 seconds or so when the it ends in repeated chants of “cover up cover up cover up…”. “Say One Thing” is another unrelenting track that barely pauses for air in its 1:45 length. It also contains some pretty great drum fills that are basically substituted in place of any sort of vocal chorus. The record closes with “Look What You Got”, on which the singer sounds more angst-ridden than on any preceding track. He progressively sounds more aggravated as the song barrels on.

This is a pretty solid EP, and will certainly appeal to fans of no-frills guitar-driven post punk. The songs are quite well-written and the record is surprisingly refined, which is probably why it tends to be on quite a few wantlists. It’s a record that sounds good upon first listen, but slowly grows in potency over repeated spins.

Circle Seven: Suburban Hope EP

1981 Ruthless Records

A1 Suburban Hope

A2 I Woke Up

A3 Distant

B1 Cover Up

B2 Say One Thing

B3 Look What You Got

Click here to listen!

Basic Scream: Tales of Intoxication LP

Here’s a pretty obscure LP from the Netherlands. It’s a self-released and self-produced record from a band called Basic Scream. It’s a bit surprising that this is so unknown, since it really is the type of record that goth and deathrock fans (myself included) would enjoy. It combines noisy Swans-ish guitars with deranged Lydia Lunch-style vocals. The band used guitars that almost sound like basses, and in turn their bass guitars are so low they sound like the ominous rumblings of angry monsters. The low-end-focused sound of the music lends a heaviness to the songs that perfectly couples with the creeped-out vocals and lyrics.

There are certainly some weak points on the album. Some of the songs sound a bit too similar to each other. And although the lyrics are certainly written with an avant garde poetic approach, they can tend to be goth-for-the-sake-of-goth. The song “Springtime” starts out with a plaintive wail that exclaims “Springtime / the season of decay”, and the song “Hunt” fades out with her chanting “Life is a place / that’s forbidden to live”, while the song “An Insane Queen” is entirely about the psychotic musings of its titular subject.

Still, I cannot fault the record too much. As a whole, it works very well. Standout songs like “Hunt”, with its machine-gun tribal drumming and washes and stabs of guitars, and “An Insane Queen”, with its absolutely delirious ambiance as the song builds into a tsunami of guitar effects and pure cacophony, certainly keep the album fresh. All of the songs flow from one to the next perfectly. The music will deviate from simple, repetitive guitar lines to full-on deathrock in the space of a minute, and that variety ensures that the album is listenable throughout its duration.

Basic Scream – Tales of Intoxication LP

1986, Basic Records

A1 A Dance Of Fire

A2 On The Edge II

A3 Rites

A4 Sixty-Seven Men And Women

A5 An Insane Queen

B1 The Shadow Of Man

B2 Springtime

B3 The Hunt

B4 Requiem

Click here to listen

Real Macabre: Emotion 12”

Here is a mysterious record from 1985, from a UK band called Real Macabre. There are absolutely no credits or band members listed. The cover is just a white textured sleeve with a sticker on the front that says “This is Emotion”. The band seemed to go out of their way to NOT attract any attention.

It’s unfortunate, because this could easily have been a big club hit in the 80s Surely this band’s noisy-yet-tuneful brand of dark (but quite poppy) goth rock has widespread appeal. Fans of Look Back in Anger, Asmodi Bizaar, and Siouxsie and the Banshees will certainly enjoy both mixes of Emotion. While the tracks on this 12” may not be terribly original, they are well-written. With slightly sassy vocals and buzzsaw guitars, the extended mix of Emotion is a pretty great "lost" single, and is guaranteed to have you tapping your feet by the time the chorus arrives and the song kicks into overdrive.

Sadly, fate has found this band receiving little or no recognition. I’m sure the record was simply not distributed well enough for it to gain a wide audience. At least the age of mp3s can rectify this. I have no idea if this band ever released anything else (or, as mentioned earler, WHO the band members were). If anyone out there has any information, share it!

Real Macabre: Emotion 12”

1985, Push Records

A1 Emotion (extended)

B1 Emotion

B2 The Dance

Click here to listen!

Various Artists: Commercial Music Vol. 2

I have not been posting as much as I’d like to, having been busy with work and exploring my new home city, but here is a compilation I have been working on with various odds and ends and rarities. Most of these songs and artists are underappreciated or virtually unknown, and many have never been widely shared. I consciously made this compilation an exercise in “wave around the world”. Included are artists from the US, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, the UK, and more. Most are from the 80s, but a handful are from the 90s and 2000s. Enjoy!

The first track is Verdun by Addie Brik (UK, 1984). It’s a downtempo and slightly synthy Siouxsie-esque song. While it doesn’t develop as much as I would like, it has good atmospheric and is a good intro to the comp.

Proxies (Greece, 1982) released an amazing debut LP that recalled Cold War Night Life era Rational Youth. They followed it with a stylistic change toward a more pop-oriented direction on their second LP. This song, the awkwardly-titled Don't Throw Babies (To The Spartans At Kaiadas),is from that second LP, and while it is quite cheesy (admittedly a characteristic of their debut as well), it’s a pretty good synthpop track.

Soviet (NYC, 2000) were unfairly lumped with all the NY electroclash bands during the brief few months that genre was legitimate, but they really were a pure, earnest synthpop band. If they came out now, they would probably be classified as a minimal synth band. They released a couple CDs; this song is a very minimalistic demo version of their song Marbleyzed.

Nohumaneye (UK, 1981) self released one 7” and have been pretty much completely unknown for the past 30 years or so. I happened to find this in a tiny record store in Istanbul, of all places. This song, The Owners Lose A Package, is good lo-fi and synth-heavy new wave that borders on punk with its slightly off-key and shout-y vocals.

Strafe Fur Rebellion (Germany, 1983) has been shared before, but this song off their debut 7”,Mosche Bildt Njet, is a bit hard to find, and is completely unlike their abstract instrumental NDW that they’re more known for. Instead, this song basically sounds like DAF if they were a four-piece band with no electronics. It’s highly rhythmic, repetitive, with tinny jagged stabs of guitars and almost militaristic chanting.

The next song is a completely unknown track by a band called Dancing Bears (Scotland, 1987). The band was from the UK and self-released this 7”, and that may be their only recorded output. This song, Got to Get Out of Here, is a real gem - especially for those of us who love early 80s Scottish post punk. This is a very Josef K-sounding burst of energy

I shared Pinkie Maclure’s previous LP a while back. This track, Garden Of Delights, is taken from her Favourite LP (1995, UK). It finds her still using loads of electronics, but equips her with a new percussive backbone that recalls Krautrock bands like Can or Neu!. Her vocals are a bit more ethereal on this song, which recalls many of the trip-hop and electronic bands at the time (most notably Portishead and Laika).

Akira S + Charlie C (Brazil, 1989) follow with a song called Tokei, a short, synthy dark pop track. Akira S was huge in the underground Brazilian post punk and synthpop scene, and was behind many of the bands on the excellent Nao Wave and Sexual Life of the Savages compilations from a few years ago.

Scatterbrains (Netherlands, 1983) released an ridiculously sought-after mini-LP and disappeared. I have only heard a few songs on the mLP, and this is probably my favorite. Totally amateur and raw analogue synthpop – if anyone has a rip of their full record I’d love to hear it…

Trans Millenia Consort (San Francisco, 1984) is sometimes cited as the first-ever dark ambient band. While that claim may be disputable, there is no arguing this ominously-titled song’s (Blood Celebrants) absolutely haunting atmosphere that recalls a long foggy drive to a haunted house teetering atop a precarious precipice. Oh yeah, and the SF-based woman behind this band was completely BLIND.

Dequina + Zaba (Brazil, 1991) provide a wonderful downtempo (almost ambient) electronic song called Preposicoes, with nearly indecipherable hushed female vocals and layers of restrained percussion and effects.

48 Chairs (UK, 1982) were one of the many UK DIY bands that have been comped on the Messthetics and Homework series. Relentless is taken from their sole (and exceedingly rare) LP, is full of whirling electronics, tinny metronomic drum machines, blasts of sax, and repetitive vocals.

Navastrau (Chicago, 1980) follow up with a totally art-damaged and dark-as-hell post punk song from their self-released 7”, called Looking from an Airplane. A tinny rhythm box holds the beat for layers of synths, out-of-tune guitars, and almost electronic-sounding saxes. The female vocalist sounds simultaneously blasé and paranoid.

MaGita (Germany, 1984) follow with a burst of visceral German post punk. Originally the vocalist and violinist for Abwarts, she released a 12” from which this song, Jones, is culled. This track is replete with blazing guitars, shouted vocals, and a rhythm section that sounds like it’s in a state of repeated collapse

The Aeffect (Florida, 2002) may have been part of the “hipster synthpop” underground scene of the late 90s and early aughts, but like the best bands and albums of that genre – Antarctica, “Danse Macabre” by The Faint – they actually were legitimately good. This song, Burning in the Bed on Fire, is a fast-paced song with intense but simplistic synthesizer lines that recall early OMD or the “Some Bizarre” version of Depeche Mode’s Photographic.

Bedtime for Bonzo (Belgium, 1984) played jokey post punk and dark electro. Some people may be familiar with this controversial track, but it still remains a bit unknown so I figured I’d share it again. It’s called The Bloody Violation of Mickey Mouse’s Virginity on 59^th Street. …and that is LITERALLY what this song is about.

Braizen Boiz (US, 1983) had a pretty dumb name (you’d expect them to sound like a hip hop version of Menudo or something), but they did leave their mark on the synthpop underground with this track, Beware. They only released one 12” which featured 3 mixes of the song (this is my favorite, the Space Version). Most copies were destroyed in a flood (isn’t that always the case?) so it’s hard to come across these days.

Maxx Mann (NYC, 1981) self-released one 12” that was an earnest combination of bathhouse disco and synthpop. This song, Like a Killer (True Love Is Always True) is loaded with tinny electronics and disco basslines, with Maxx Mann’s expressive vocals. Of all the people on this comp, he probably went on to the most fame, becoming a broadway actor of some reknown, as well as the singer of the hugely popular Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Kim Ki O (Istanbul, 2008) could be your new favorite synth band. This Turkish girl duo makes some gorgeous synth music that fits right along such contemporaries as Sixth June and Kindest Lines. They have an EP that was recently released on Enfant Terrible; this song I Don’t Relate, is found on one of their earlier self-released demo cd-rs.

Courage of Lassie (Canada, 1986) released several neofolk albums in the 80s and 90s. I’m not a huge fan of most of their work, but this track, Hiroshima, is full of glistening synths and wistful keyboard lines. It’s almost nostalgic-sounding, and I figure it’s a decent way to round out the comp…

Click here to listen...

Printed At Bismarck's Death – Via Lacrimosa LP

I never really realized how gothic the Christian Bible is until I heard this LP, the first full length from German darkwave/goth band Printed At Bismarck’s Death. These guys approached their music without any sense of irony, which is probably why the Bible has never seemed so bleak. They are not actually a Christian band (at least not that I know of), but they base almost every song on a Christian parable or traditional folk song (such as House of the Rising Sun), sing and chant in German and English, and wrap most songs in a thick blanket of electronics and atmosphere, traditional instruments and full orchestral sweeps, guitar effects and tribal drumming.

While not every song is a winner (the aforementioned House of the

Rising Sun does sound a bit silly, especially since most of us are more familiar with the Animals’ version of it; and a couple songs on side B veer into avant-jazz meanderings) most tracks are about as true to the gothic aesthetic as possible – earnest and layered with impenetrable darkness. And don’t be put off by the late release date - songs like the largely orchestra “Drapa”, the symphonic and experimental “Meet Moshe Dayan In A Russian Bunker”, and the simplistic but effective dark dance of “Pseudo Philon” make this an LP to seek out.

Printed At Bismarck's Death – Via Lacrimosa LP

1991, T 42 Records

A1 Prélude Morbide

A2 Premières Communions

A3 Meet Moshe Dayan In A Russian Bunker

A4 House Of The Rising Sun

A5 Le Juif Errant

A6 Pseudo-Philon

B1 Drapa

B2 The Cold Earth

B3 Three Victims Of Bloody March

B4 Jesus Goes Golgotha

B5 Embryo

B6 Tutuguri (Rite Of The Black Sun)

Click here to listen

Caesarian Section : Incision 12”

My friend and I were in Athens on the last day of a recent vacation to Turkey and Greece and we decided to visit one last record store. That store turned out to be a goldmine compared to anywhere else we had visited – we each walked out with stacks of records after spending over 100 Euros apiece. My friend found this record and put it on the store’s turntable. The crackly intro fed into crashes of industrial percussion and a noisy mess of guitars and echoing, repetitive vocals.

“Whoa… this sounds like a fucked-up version of Danse Society”, exclaimed my friend.

He was right. It was slightly more industrial sounding, and noisier, as if Danse Society had a marathon listening session of Swans and Einsturzende Neubauten albums before recording.

New Rosary, the leading song on the EP, is a definite strong point. Voodoo Jazz repeats the formula on the previous track, but obscures the vocals, adds shrieks and yelps, and ups the ante on the psychotic percussion.

The B side is a bit less noisy, and slower-paced, but still quite good. Barb Wire Teddy is almost shoegaze in a Jesus and Mary Chain sort of noisy, effected way (but with more emphasis on atmosphere and percussion than on guitars). The final song, Fact Not Fiction, is virtually formless, with tinny percussion pushed to one side and occasional clangs of metal piercing the din of effects and delays and echoing vocals. It’s a great way to end the record, in a cocoon of completely unrefined noise. This is currently dirt cheap on discogs at the moment... I wonder if it will remain that way?

Caesarian Section: Incision 12”

1987, Incision Records

A1: New Rosary

A2: Voodoo Jazz

B1: Barb Wire Teddy

B2: Fact Not Fiction

Click here to listen!

The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

Well, after a brief hiatus during which I travelled through Turkey and Greece (buying records along the way, of course) I still have a few records to share. I bought this gem in Greece and while I realized after ripping it that it has already been shared, it was only shared on a Greek music blog and deserves as much recognition as possible.
The Drops were from the port town of Piraeus, a little to the south of Athens. They formed in 1990 and released this in 1995. Their style of darkwave was very stripped down and minimal, sounding like In Trance 95 playing Cure songs. The B side, A Beautiful Night, is a particularly amazing midtempo track with an emphasis on a simple but solid drumbeat. I played it at the Weird party in New York a week ago and several people asked who it was – always a great way to gauge if a song is a keeper in one’s DJ arsenal. It’s amazing that a record this earnestly and authentically post-punk sounding came from 1995. Perhaps the 90s are the last vestige of unknown and blogworthy darkwave music?

The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

1995, Wipe Out! Records

A1 Fatal Fall

B1 A Beautiful Night

Click here to listen to this record

Various Artists: Untitled LP

Courtesy of Riegler, the beautiful and discerning San Francisco minimal synth/post punk/darkwave DJ-at-large, comes this virtually unknown compilation that she was kind enough to mail to me to rip and play at a party or two. I've shared a couple of Club de Rome records, and here is a compilation that has an exclusive song from them, during their formative coldwave years.

This compilation was released in 1986 on the tiny Post Tenebras label out of Switzerland. Aside from probably being pressed in a small run of a few hundred copies or so, this record is completely untitled, making searching for it (or even referring to it by name) a futile exercise. The record features eight tracks from four Swiss bands. Club de Rome have two songs here, one of which was the B-side to the Hypnotised 7" I shared a couple weeks ago, the other of which is exclusive. The exclusive song, Murder, finds the band veering close to deathrock territory, with sheets of metallic guitars, a solid bassline backbone, and lyrics at the end that, oddly enough, they would rerecord later ("Why don't you recognize/That my life/is not a dream" would later become the refrain of A L'Est & A L'Ouest Du Crépuscule).

Smirnov, whose EP was shared a while ago on the Capa Nostra Syndicate blog was a coldwave band in the tradition of Norma Loy, Charles de Goal, Asylum Party, and others; both their songs are extremely solid and may be my two favorites on this album.

Smog (not to be confused with the current indie band) was a female-fronted deathrock/dark punk band in the vein of early Christian Death, The Sears, and Blitz. Their song Dream of sand is a particularly excellent track, with aggressive vocals and guitars tuned to attack.

Nova Express are the synth band on this record - both their songs make heavy use of programmed drums, electronics, and cold vocals. Their song on the A side, La Fille Aux Yeux Telescopiques, may be one of the weaker songs on the album, but they more than make up for it on the second side with A 2000 a l'Heure, a definite coldwave gem.

Overall, this comp is quite excellent, and really is more than deserving of a name. Perhaps not giving the record a title helps the record label remain neutral in true Swiss tradition.

Various Artists: Untitled LP

1986, Post Tenebras Records

A1 Club De Rome: Occhio Blu

A2 Smirnov: Cliches

A3 Smog: Dream of Sand

A4 Nova Express: La Fille Aux Yeux Telescopiques

B1 Nova Express: A 2000 a l'Heure

B2 Smog: Better Than I Do

B3 Smirnov: Save

B4 Club De Rome: Murder

Click here to download the record!