Dive into sin, let's plug the synth: here comes an infinite subject for astonishment, one of the most outsider items dedicated to modular synths. It is beautiful. The woman is happy. The sounds are brilliant. Ravel would have been proud.
The complete identity of credited composer Fred Miller never got revealed.
Tracklist:
Raoûl Duguay - Alllô
Aut'chose - Le freak de Montréal
Michel Madore - Bâli
Bernard Bonnier - Métaphores pour un nouveau monde
Claude Péloquin - Mama Vagina
Le vieux show son sale - Le tango des concaves
Pollen - Vieux corps de vie d'ange
Caramel mou - Caramel mou (stéréologue)
Aut'chose - Pousse pas ta luck ok bébé
Claude Péloquin - Il y a juste assez de monde
Intended to celebrate and draw our french's audience attention on the quebecan freak wave from the 70's, this highly subjective podcast purposefully skips many of the progressive classics (Les champignons or L'infonie) as well as the earlier garage / freak / funk ones that were already reissued to focus more on songs that appear sometimes to be more suprising interludes or UFO side-dishes. Excerpts from albums that are not necessarely fantastic all way long, they often drown poetry into lsd, blending cheesy aspects with wild electroacoustic and studio experimentation.
I couldn't resist in including the classic Mama Vagina that quite started it all since the canadian label Mucho Gusto digitally reissued it. Second track by Claude Peloquin comes from the less celebrated l'Ouverture du Paradis, while the one by Michel Madore (taken from le Komuso à cordes) is actually also a product from Jean Sauvageau's studio.
On the more classic chanson side, le Tango des concaves is taken from the cult Le vieux show son sale, written and sang by Plume Latraverse, while the two track by the band Aut'chose (leaded by the poet Lucien Francoeur playing with various session musicians) are from Prends une chance avec moé.
And last but not least, take a bit of your time to visit the reference blog Psyquebelique, from whom I borrowed the fantastic track of Bernard Bonnier.
As this post wouldn't be complete without putting a face on these voices, here comes a selection of the national treasures at their best. Specialists will notice that Raoûl Duguay's glorious appearance at la Nuit de la Poésie was part of an edit in french tv program l'Oeil du cyclone ("Poésie mon amie"): one of the many reasons why I allow myself to conclude on a warm tribute to Claude Gauvreau.
There was a high range of probability for obscure composer Dominique Laurent to be somewhere responsible for some kind of unheeded masterpiece. Following our first detailed post dedicated to this vein of french records "for the physical expression", here comes the missing item, yet the most striking and diversified: blending electronics, organ, bossa or collage elements, it is rich enough so you can even hear a drumtrick that would be popularised 10 years after by something named ... "jungle" ?
Initially created as a soundtrack for the show Abracadabracula by french
Mimes Pinok & Matho, this release from 1983 strangely echoes the recent wave of
interest for some of the Jean Rollin's most psychedelic soundtracks: playing with old-time fantasy clichés, it remains sometimes in a very close way genuinely mentally disturbed.
Partly mellowed with time passing by, Dominique Laurent is still active as a composer and interpreter for various theater, ballet and commercial works. Apart
from the Plume d'Elan 80's TV anthem previously mentionned (also check on your way Les Viratatoums), a few extra infos that appeared online recently lead us to discover how he actually also
composed children song for the holy Garcimore.
Amongst the shelves of the praised Nakano bookstore Taco che, there was no way to miss such a striking artwork, blending the best of karaoke computer graphics with a unique Friday 13th aesthetics applied to kayokyoku. But it took time to put a name on the enthusiasming music, and to decode the various infos provided by the garrulous yet obscure liner notes: something that was made possible thanks to the help of Tadao Takeuchi, from the band Tartine, who actually attended a Kawanishi Kyô concert during an Oz disc festival in 1993, and taught me most of what I know now about the man.
As written on the cover, here comes "the first work sang in the language of the universe": a statement that perfectly explains the highly specific use of onomatopoeia in the two excerpts provided here. In the booklet of his self-produced item, this japanese citizen, whose lyrics are for some reasons often historically obsessed by the situation of Korean people, is credited with more than 1000 songs written between 1988 and 2007. Something partly confirmed both by the "Volume 1" label, and by a few promo videos lost somewhere deep down youtube.
It would be hard to render the unique syntax by translating song titles such as "spaceship of the maruberu break". With an opening song directly refering to the Andromeda galaxy, it is almost impossible not to think he might have a astral match with another highly specific character, the lovely andromeda hime Aoki Ai. Direcly connected to the universe, he's also a bashful perfectionnist, who couldn't help apologising in his booklet for the recording quality. God knows how many other jewels are still somewhere on the shelves ...
Comparing to the big names who got recently rediscovered by westerners interested in japanese new wave titillating archives (think Uchôten, P-model, Plastics, or Hikashu), Jinseiremains so far outrageously confidential outside of its own country.
Also spelled Zin-say or 人生, this former project involving future members of techno unit Denki Groove started circa 1985 while its protagonists were still young male students. Thanks to its wild homemade first recordings, it quickly caught the attention of Uchôten leader Kera and his label Nagomu. A catalytic connexion, propeling the band who managed to build a substential aura with its blend of sonic insanity, cracked up electronics, gross stage costumes and occasionally poetical lyrics like "there is something rotten in the asshole".
Each one of these fellow bands from the 80's experienced a different destiny: some like Uchôten ended up signing on major labels, others like, Picky Picnic, managed to release some of their records in Europe ... Despite a reissue as part of the Nagomu collection, a decent thread on Mutant Sounds, and the efforts of a few hardcore fans like femaletrouble, Zin-say's mutation into Denki Groove might partly explain why its cult got less maintained outside of Japan than others. Like Karate Bakabon, its irrecoverable amount of oddness maybe did hold off the most conservative listeners. Scared pussies ...
From 1985 and still fresh as a watermelon, a discreet yet cheerful EP from the mysterious Lula on Zero records . Moreover, a good opportunity to talk a bit about this label which catalogue seemed to contain all the roots of a music tree that would later become fundamental in the field of japanese independant music. While many of the musicians who happened to release their early recordings on Zero are still active, they furthermore developped a decisive influence through the years on a younger generation, wether you consider the now classic Shonen Knife or the less highlighted Luna Park Ensemble (which member Hiro Nakazaki now belongs to Maher Shalal Hash Baz), among many others.
This label's releases, now belonging to the tough world of collectors, start to resurface from time to time on various blogs: check Stalking Duppi for the highly recommended Kumiko Suyama's haunted vocals layered on filtered noises, or Mutant Sounds for the delicately detuned works of Che Shizu:
The rich Aura Music compilation, featuring various artists from the team, also offers an interesting panorama, including incursions into more synth oddities with such a kind of electronic tune:
It's not a surprise to learn that this label happened to release the japanese edition of After dinner's Paradise of replicaand Souvenir Cassette (compilating live recordings from european and japanese tours): its whole catalogue seems to be cemented with a deep coherence, a (sub?)conscious trademark that will allow you to find connexions between many of the artists, projects and specific musical aspects they developped.
Let's simply forward the historical yet always too confidential announcement: Goodiepal is speading the word about a free download new album release under the alias Sygnok here:
Those who might have fail in tracking down his recent numerous activities, now either slightly more scarce or dematerialized than the well-covered 2003 Nag Nag Bacon release, might refer to the impressively complete biography here detailing his projects through the years. Including the mechanical bird construction, the bunch of Mort aux vaches music objects distribution plan, as well as the various kinds of lectures he gave completed by the Radical computer musicbook, it constantly highlights the striking and singular care of an anti-authority craftsman for both concepts and objects.
Such a detailed wikipedia overview, as well as his talkative nature and specific taste for classy theory quickly pull the rug from under our feet in these fanbase attempts to add a few words to the character depiction: both intellectual and wild, possibly fluxus if not terrorist in a V/Vm way, he's modestly in charge of an ambitious anti-ideology danish gentleman's life project that encompasses way more than the music shapes produced, and should not be simply reduced to it.
This is why we highly recommend that you, the most attentive of you readers, take a bit of time to refer directly to the Radical computer music theory elements avalaible in english here or there, waiting for the day when some french institution might luckily find the balls to invite him for one of those smart lectures with the appropriate hi-tech translation system he deserves.
Latest release on the very nutty parisian record label Le Vilain Chien (a bit late). New project comprised of Maïa "ROGER" (Le Club Des Chats) & Solène "ROBERT" (Dudu Geva, Nouvelles Impressions D'Afrique).
En Francais: R.R. qui sera en concert ce Dimanche 27 Février au Bouillon Belge, nouveau spot de l'équipe du Tunnel (RIP) aux côtés de Charlene Darling, Massicots....
> Infos Pratiques Bouillon Belge 6 rue Planchat Paris 20éme Métro Buzenval / Avron
PAF: 5€
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Maïa ROGER toujours, dont vous pouvez voir les images et installations en ce moment à La Gallerie Du Jour Agnes B. dans le cadre de l'expo collective "Musique Plastique" (28 janvier / 02 avril), avec également Julien Langendorff, Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Daniel Johnston, blablabla...
As far as I can remember, I came across E.E. music nearly 3/4 years ago. At that time there was a myspace account linked with the whole Dick El Demasiado, Sonido Martines or Los Siquicos Litoraleños. "I wanted to believe" but also find out who was hiding behind El Entraterrestre. I tried to get in touch & had for only answer: "thanks for the hospitality" !!??!!
Some music artefacts are small by the size, but may concentrate in 7 inches so many elements, that they can easily turn into an iconic crossroads for those who care.
Related in many ways to the world of Tenjosajiki / Terayama Shuji, this EP was reissued in 2004 as a bonus cd to the Baramon LP edition: Baramon, "The Pink Portal", or a provocative gender-troubling poisoned sonic storm run by a group of gay and transgender comedians, with compositions by J.A.Seazer or Kawachi Kuni.
Yamashita Takeo, mighty figure renowed especially for some anime soundtracks such as Lupin III, or Sabu to ichi torimono hikae, scored this Togo Ken EP, built all around the crude yet sensible lyrics and striking singing of this long-time activist in the gay and queer scene: famous for relentlessly challenging the elections and experiencing various troubles with the censorship, it is not a surprise that Togosan crossed the way of Terayama's group, which was a nest at the time for many wild children as much a source of worries and investigation for the police regarding the high degree of social critic generated by its activities, movies, happenings and theater experiences.
I'd like to recommend the lecture of Togo Ken's detailed portrait avalaible for readers here.
Also, take this post as a first opportunity to modestly introduce here the wide world of Tenjosajiki related records: these precious testimonies for adventurous and sincere times you sometimes feel lost are avalaible thanks to the efforts of White Noise records and Belle Antique. Check the haunting Hatsukoi Jigoku Hen, or the collaged Shintokumaru, alongside the countlesses contributions of composer J.A. Seazer to other artists' records such as Carmen Maki: must-have items, burning gems.
From minimal synth to italo-disco, with avant-garde elements and a specific taste for drum machines, Maurizio Marsico, the man behind Monofonic Orchestra, brilliantly crossed the tumultuous ocean of italian underground through the years, although he remained quite confidential outside of the italo-german axis.
Involved with Luca Majer and Al Aprile between 1979 and 1981 into experimental 'Lectric Art trio, Marsico also was in the neighborhood of the italian avant-garde collective Frigidaire (an extension of the Cannibale crew) alongside Liberatore, Tamburini, or Massimo Mattioli, who published here the stories of Frisk the Frog: a character who became also the protagonist of an early 7" hip hop single produced my Marsico. "I was a DJ with a sound system, a Korg analog synthesizer and various vocal effects. It was in 1981 and I wanted to improvise a bit of vocal rap. We did many damages both to us and other people."
Still active as a contemporary composer, his last album includes contributions from Robert Wyatt et Derek Bailey, while early works have been reissued recently on cd by Alga Marghen. Be sure I pray for more posts on Marzico in the future, if lucky enough to find a copy of the Funk Sumatra now rare italo bomb.
Years before he discovers the emboladores from brazilian Nordeste (a discovery that partly leaded to the project he's mainly well-known for: the fabulous trobadores), Claude sicre was part of a band circa 1977 whose LP (on the Revolum label) contained all the germs of the unique reflexion on folklore he built through the years.
Cleaning the folklore appelation from its dusty crusts, especially through his book Vive l'Américke, he relentlessly questionned its inner meaning: a community music, related to daily social functions and interactions (games, nursery rhymes, weddings, feasts of all kinds, strikes, ...), whose characteristics are determined by an adaptability to circumstances and an ability to englobe the whole community beyond ages or origins. And made the diagnostic that many french problems are, for historical reasons, directly related to the lack of a decent folkloric entry in the cultural building, comparing to other countries (latin american, indian or african ones especially).
This reflexion is not pure theory, but is the reason why Riga Raga sounds unique comparing to any other folk attempt from that time: with Luc Charles-Dominique, Olivier Laurent et Renat Jurié, Sicre collaborated for a unique junction between the occitan roots and an unpredictable freak, hallucinated and comic horizon. Rough and brilliant, music gets rid of almost every classic folk instrument, and is often made of simple ones on purpose (pignato, sounarel, wood pieces, self-made whistles...), with a fundamental place given to voice, never relying on virtuosity, and revisiting popular dances (Rigaudon, Goignade...) or shepherds dialogs. Moreover, consciously far away from any binarism between popular culture and a wise one, this record knows that by digging its obsessions, it ends up sounding completely challenging for adventurous music lovers . A personal way of thinking music that we have still a lot to learn from.
For french readers, a very complete interview by Jacme Gaudàs is highly recommended here. Whole album, with detailed liner notes, avalaible thanks to the amazing Continuo's blog, while few copies are still avalaible here.
Underevaluated figure of the french free jazz scene, Jacques Thollot is mainly recognized among these networks for being the guy who played drums with various legendary figures such as Barney Willen, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, but also occasionally with Bud Powell or Chet Baker, when they sometimes were having a night in Paris.
A fascinating documentary on the very official Mezzo tv testifies of a golden french age made of hip appealing clubs, neverending musical emancipated stream, and the more or less legal substances gently powdered on it... You could even accidentally get stuck on the way discovering french variété singer Claude François' connexions with the free music world.
Some other people heard of Thollot through a very different entry, as one of the protagonists of Jac Berrocal's 1991 album La Nuit est au Courant, and more generally as part of the Berrocal fellowship.
But appart from this drummer identity, he's also a fantastic composer who released two especially fascinating albums in the 70s that settled the basis of a strong personnailty with a blend of electronic experimentations interspersed between drum tracks and sophisticated melodies.
Extract from Quand le son devient aigu, jetez la girafe à la mer, this 1971 tune crazily contains all the manipulations and structure work, derivated from the concrete approach, that you will hear again more than 20 years later through the plugins of so many laptopers.
Watch devil go, released slightly later and enlightened by flute and synth player Francois Jeanneau, contains on its side various haunting themes set along pure analog synth layers and drum elements.
A fascinating very complete interview here, and complete albums may be caught as often on the Holy Grails France Musik and Mutant Sounds.
Story is, just after releasing the Ptose's tape material compilation, Loic from the Chocomix team came after me & submitted the idea for a whole record entirely dedicated to the Napoleon XIV song, asking contomporean artists to pay tribute. Due to complications (lack of organisation, gigs to come, others projects etc) the idea went away...
Around 2005 and a bit earlier, I, can remember for a WFMU post compiling the 21 versions of the song, I'm not able to give you any link as it seems to be broken. Consider those two following posts as some kind of re up!
Also spending crazy time digging for music from around the globe I've been long fantasming on arabic, cumbia related or soukous maybe etc "Take Me Away" covers. Has anybody heard for such exercise ?
In 1966 Teddy & Darrel released a whole album (These Are the Hits, You Silly Savage!!!!) of limp-voiced, gay satiric novelties starring "Strangers In The Night" "These Boots Are Made For" & "They Are Coming To Take Me Away" music covers".
> The entirety of Teddy & Darrel music was rerelased some time ago on the "Here's Queer To The Core!" comp (Quick Nuts Rds) > Some more Teddy & Parrel Music can be found on the "Queer Noises" compilation (Trikont record label)
This is it: best "Take Me Away" cover ever ! Best apocalyptic party song ever too !
Jello Biaffra plus Ministry's members (including its brainchild Al Jourgensen) team up for insane & devastating music action.
> As taken from Lard's second record (The Last Tempatation of Reid) and released on Jello's very own label Alternative Tentacles (yes the one which gave us Wesley Willis)
The most thrilling thing regarding Hong Kong's mighty Xper Xr, could be to discover along interviews how much his intensive practice of musical dumbness may actually challenge all the Deuleuze, Derrida, and Heidegger quotations he's sprinkling on a crust of Prince's Purple Rain.
Let's consider his own instructive post-situ views for the classy french magazine Revue et corrigée in 2001:
"Once upon a time, in an obscure county of this obscure world, there was a kid playing obscure guitar to become a rockstar. It happend that after four years practicing electric guitar, and a little bit of drums, something was reveald to him: what he was calling music then could actually be summarized in few words: basic melodies, sterling virtuosity and pretty face (and maybe our hero actually didn't have any of this in his possession. But nevermind)."
"Nowadays artists don't have the mind configuration to criticize the commercial system's holy trinity: Music - Lifestyle - Image, and these mechanics working nights and days to produce what we don't want, but always end up buying." (...) I wasn't conscious that my music could contain any irony, but if it is the case, it's only to justify and appropriate the critic I'm criticizing, the copies I'm copying."
"The ultimate goal of our civilisation is to turn everything into something popular. Everything that can be named must be labelised under the banner of fashion: fashion doesn't follow any principle, fashion is what is to become something else. We can then hear techno music, or indie pop that incorporated noise without being disturbed at all. Is it sonic pollution, or the ultimate form of fascim in times of peace?"
Aside from these fascinating considerations set aside the glamorous skills of a guy able to cover such thing as Maximum Overdrive, Xper Xr is also mythically known for another very specific activity: driving dragsters. Wow.
The well titled " ... .. . .... .." in entirely made of billboard hits transcriptions for a chinese traditionnal orchestra. However, it strongly looks like people were recorded separatly, unable to hear each other, and almost discovering the scores for the first time, everything being afterwards edited alltogether to get the expected result.
Indeed, record finally contains some of the all-time best versions of songs such as Right on Time, S'Express, and other fundamental classics.
Lün Hsiao Shuai, earlier piece in his discography, is a more solo, pleasantly junk and stimulatingly chaotic album also containing live elements recorded on radio Aligre.
While some connexions might occasionally be found with Negativland, V/Vm, or some of the things produced by Yoshihide Otomo / Yamantaka Eye, the result remains hugely haunted by personal obsessions, as proven by this Santana guitar karaoke unique overdub.
Although "Bikers Movies" are now a bit outdated, there was a few ones before Easy Rider(1969), and a lot after. "Bikers" do not frighten anybody anymore, it is very sad.
I haven't seen them yet, but there are two incredible movies you shouldn't miss: have a look at the "Cinémathèque" program titled CINEMA BIS.
For those who caught this stunning Cd-r among the Bimbo Tower's recommendations, the huge shock lead to an understandable thirst for more informations related to this hungarian oddity.
Dolly Rambo, also well-known as Madam X-Otic, looks like a very strange character surounded by a team of fellow activists supporting her management on the way to fame. An enthusiasming fan club is open, and you can also find various videos cumulating a surprisingly consequent amount of visits, maybe due to various exciting TV appearances in Hungary.
First time I saw the guns of André Robillard was probably more than 20 years ago at Musée de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, something I kept a strong memory of through the years, although I was only a child then.
It was a huge surprise in 2002 to discover that the man didn't only produce objects, but also a crude, guttural and highly personal music.
Will I be the only one to feel a specific moving drama behind these recordings ? In one hand, it sounds highly infused in the roots of some french folklore, which is usually directly related to a collective function, a community entertainment purpose. But on the other hand, the appropriation by Robillard of these codes is so personal that it turns into an ode to singularity, a brilliant missed attempt to make the neighbors dance. Hopefully, the story teaches us that it finally managed to touch many people's hearts in other jubilant contexts or circumstances.
Released by the french discreet yet often extremely accurate label Inpolysons, jointly with publisher Le Dernier Cri, this item is now sold out, but support Inpolysons and have a look at the rest of the catalogue, including David Fenech, Juicy Panic, Klimperei & many more...
Last but not least, a strongly japanese curiosity to complete this post celebrating those who do it their way. Informations on this record were very hard to collect for a non-japanese speaker like me though. It was sold as being from Hamada Toshikazu, who was described as a a japanese vagrant from Tokyo, but I suspect this could be somehow just a myth or misundestanding.
This untitled album released on OZ discs looks like being his first and only, made of blended recordings, guitar or noise live elements, and what sounds like being kayokyoku karaoke sessions, everything collected by friends in the last years of a fight against cancer. While making researches on it, I had the surprise to discover the name of the amazing Himitsu Hakase credited. Small world... I imagine he was involved in the artwork as often, but probably also somehow on a more deeper level.
I'll actually try to complete this post in coming days if I manage to find more informations. Hard to find item in Europe, but still avalaible through Enban and Bridge Inc. shops for those living in Japan
West coast "Techno Hop" influential collective which included notorious members in its line up (Joe Cooley, The Unknown DJ, Ice T etc). Check the band's bio at West Coast Pionneer. It looks like rapping about zodiac signs was somehow quite common in the early 80's. U.J.A's track is maybe the best exemple around, but i can remember for other early hip hop mc's having delirious rap with astrology elements (Vericheri's "Cancer Sign" for exemple).
A gear freaks' favourite, Marcello Giombini is quite unknown to italian ost diggers. An entire post will come soon dedicated to the man. Ahead of his time, Cinecitta's composer anticipates the Detroit techno sound, long before its birth (think Carl Craig's Landcruising LP).
Weird record from Belgian astrologue Paul Cardinal. Reminds me in some ways for Dominique Webb's "Hypnose" 7 inch... I believe more singles were recorded (Jupiter Collection), but wasn't able to found some more concrete infos. Anybody ?
At last comes the hit ! Exhumed last year on the "Chansons De Films", this one was supposed to be on the "Astralement Vôtre" single, but due to some complications finally never saw a propper release until Stephane Lerouge (Playtime's label owner and the man behind many fantastic compilations around french movie composers) refixed both vocals and the instrumental.
