Malice In Wonderland - Violence & Passion -1984- (Tape, Wonderland Cassettes W.002), Netherlands

Malice In Wonderland was a classic underground new wave band from The Netherlands (we call that style Nederwave) consisting of Ronald Israëls (bass), Job Goedhart (guitar), Simone Koch (singer), Peter Jansen (keyboards, voice) and Michel Didier (drums). Their music has a distinct bat-cave type new wave style with punk influences that also reminds me of other Dutch groups like Qua Dance (posted before on the blog), WAT or maybe even Soviet Sex.

All tracks on Violence & Passion were recorded live at various Dutch venues that were mostly dedicated to the underground of the 80's in those days. Because of the female vocals, quite elaborated song-writing and the evident use of keyboards it even has something B-52's like to it, maybe something of X-Mal Deutschland too. It's a great relic from the prime of new wave in The Netherlands in its purest form when youth centre's were inhabited by Siouxsie haircuts, extravagant make-up and vleermuis fashion.

Violence & Passion was released on cassette in 1984 and came with an extensive booklet showing information on the different tracks, nice pictures and no-future poetry. Quite surprising that Malice In Wonderland hasn't been covered too much, even though so much new wave music has been given attention the last years. I couldn't find it on Discogs.

The cassette shows quite some white-noise since me and my friend found this tape in a quite dusty and old state, probably in the record store since 1984. Still quite some nice wave pop-songs on it!

Get it HERE

Josef Novotny & Max Nagl - AMen # -1989- (CD, EX 96), Austria

Austrian free-jazz and improvisation knows a long tradition that traces back to acts like the pioneering Reform Art Unit that started out by the late sixties. In these musical themes there are distinct Austrian and European sound traditions that are sometimes combined with other musical influences like the eastern and Indian musical traditions, always in an improvisational and free way.

This album created by pianist and keyboardist Josef Novotny and saxophone player Max Nagl directly tries to incorporate the Austrian musical traditions and showcases a complex avant-gardist mixture of free-jazz, church organ and synthesized computer programs. In a way it resembles the German-Dutch album Free Music & Orgel that was posted on the blog a long time ago. On that album the church organ is also used as a free instrument in combination with improvised theme's. AMen # was released as a CD only in 1989.

From the liner notes of AMen #:

The music is a confession to the European, and more specific Austrian tradition, naturally influenced by many cultural currents with which we are confronted. It ranges from traditional church songs to the tonal shape of the Vienna school right up to Jazz Avant-Garde. The pieces are largely improvisations based on fixiated computer-programs and prefabricated sound combinations each of which determine the form and the process.

Get it HERE