Sunday 29 March 2020

13 - 11 - Temporization -1988- (Cassette, TN/N 001), Poland


13 - 11 were a one-off improvisational outfit from Warsaw that consisted of Monika Szczecińska (Percussion), Bolek Błaszczyk (Cello and Keyboards), Michał Rollinger (Saxophone), Sernik (Tape, Guitar) and Jarek Siwiński (Keyboards). The group was named after the date on which they played this live-opus in Warsaw on the 11th of November 1988 at the Riviera-Remont Klub. Simultaneously, the 11th of November is the Polish National Independence Day on which Poland gained autonomy from the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires in 1918. Whether that plays a role on this cassette is unclear.

When looking at the members of this group the name of Bolek Błaszczyk provides the most context for me. Błaszczyk is a cellist that played in several important Polish underground groups like Legendarne Ząbki. He also played together with the magical Rock In Opposition outfit Cukor, Bila Smert' (Цукор Бiла Смерть) from the Kiev underground scene (Ukraine). You can hear their collaboration on their beautiful album called Selo from 1993.

13 - 11 is a project that can be placed in the light of the Polish experimental underground of the 80's, the extensive Polish jazz and improvisation history and in the larger context of the Eastern European Rock In Opposition tradition. Even though the sound fidelity of this obscure tape is not very high the band displays a wonderful interplay of improvisational jazz, ambient electronics and cinematographic sound collage all subtly based on the city of Warsaw and the temporality of different places and their atmospheres. It's almost a soundtrack to a non-existing film at times. The music was recorded live as a continuous opus of which the compositions flow into each other. Because of that it was not easy to index this tape, so I left some tracks to transition into the following track. The music reminds me of their peer-band Kirkut-Koncept that also played in a similar style. Somehow the 90's project Kaddish by Towering Inferno also comes to mind, maybe because of its thematic approach.

A lo-fi sound quality cassette from behind the iron curtain again, but this truly is another masterpiece of the Polish underground of the 80's.

This tape was limited to 40 copies.

Highly recommended!

Kindly donated by the Y Create Archive

Get it HERE

Tuesday 24 March 2020

Dust And The Minds - Obsessioneel En Non-Stop -198X- (Cassette, Egmondse Klank Opsessie E.K.O. 11), Netherlands


Dust And The Minds were a free form-rock and improvisation home-taping outfit from the small village of Egmond aan den Hoef in The Netherlands. The main members were the brothers Fred and John Valkering, but they were always accompanied by lots of other musicians. The Valkering brothers established their cassette label Egmondse Klank Opsessie to release their different musical disguises like Dust And The Minds, Comrades Creating, Hafre as well as solo works. The music on the E.K.O. label consists mostly of punk, free improvisation, dub and post-punk.

Obsessioneel En Non-Stop is an album by Dust And The Minds that consists of two side-long pieces of improvisational jams. It's quite special that this small community of people from a village in Holland had such an extensive output of releases. I've got more material of this label coming to the blog and most of the releases are real pieces of DIY-art containing posters, self-created boxes, cut-ups, drawings and even books. I find it curious how so much great music was released on E.K.O. yet I never really heard this label being mentioned by people when it comes to the Dutch home-taping underground

Enjoy this first lo-fi tape of home-made jams by Dust And The Minds, their other releases are upcoming and there's already a lot to be found on No Longer Forgotten Music, but I don't know if the links are still working after all those years.

Kindly donated by the Y Create archive

Get it HERE

Sunday 22 March 2020

Buckle Mutants - Time Walk -199X- (Single-Sided Tape, Self-Released), US


Here's a tape I know nothing about. Apparently Buckle Mutants were a band from New Castle, Pennsylvania that consisted of C.B. Book, Savdyabitamitalo and Squiz McFiz, but something tells me that this was mainly a one-man project. From what I can make up from the cover it was sent as some sort of demo to Ducktooth Tapes of which I've never heard either.

In any case it's a DIY product of home recordings and probably not many of these tapes were made. The music of Buckle Mutants is based on experimental guitar noises that are colliding with some deranged metal tunes all non-carefully packaged with a punk attitude. Probably it's a product of the 90's, but no year is stated on the cover. Anyhow, here are some more tunes from the far out fringes of American indie music that thrived on a damaged sound production and DIY expression without compromise. Maybe someone knows more about this project.

Some different tunes than usual. In some unusual times. Buckle up mutants! I will post more frequently the coming weeks.

Get it HERE

Thursday 19 March 2020

Liza Neliaz - 3 Absolute Items -1988- (Cassette, Self-Released), Belgium


Liza Néliaz (1958 - 2001) was a Belgian electronic dance music producer and hardcore techno DJ from Ostend. Coming from a musical family s/he started out making music in the early 80's as part of different Belgian new-wave groups with which s/he also toured around often. During this decade Neliaz was involved with the home-taping circuit making lots of music ranging from industrial to experimental proto-dance styles. S/he also contributed tracks to international cassette compilations. An example is the compilation Music From The White House: France that came out on the great Exart label that was ran by Dutch home-taper Hessel Veldman (he and his wife Nicole also established a close friendship with Liza later).

During her lifetime Liza Neliaz lived everywhere and nowhere and had a nomadic approach to a life that was fully dedicated to music. For years s/he lived in France, but s/he also resided in London as well as spending many years in Holland. By the end of the 80's and the early 90's Neliaz was one of the key people who immaculately envisioned the connection between the electronic wave sound of the 80's and the newly risen dance music genres and rave culture. Her home-made dance music work can be seen as an evolutionary missing link of the techno and house revolution. Neliaz used a live set-up of hardware that could play entire live sets producing many different sounding tracks that would follow each other up in a sequence without leaving breaks in-between. S/he took the skills s/he developed as a home-taper and developed it into this trance inducing live-set formula that would later become prevalent in dance music. Some of that amazing early dance music will come to the blog later on this year.

During the 90's Neliaz would give up live music to become an important hardcore techno and gabber DJ, producer and a household name of the underground rave culture. S/he passed away too early in 2001. Until this day Liza Neliaz is still praised for her work and her DJ mixes and is refered to as an inspiration in hardcore techno circles.

On this short self-released tape we can hear a sound that still leans more towards the 80's, but is already rather dancefloor oriented with funk influences. One of the tracks is dedicated to the Slovenian industrial group Laibach. On this tape we can already hear how tracks merge into each other: it's that (live-set) approach that makes this so ahead of its time.

In loving memory of Liza 'N Eliaz.

Kindly donated by the Y Create archive

Get it HERE

Saturday 7 March 2020

Korai Öröm - Live -199X- (Cassette, Self-Released), Hungary


Korai Öröm are a psychedelic and tribal band from Hungary that started out in the early 90's in the wake of the fall of the iron curtain and the end of the socialist system. At that time the gates of Eastern Europe were flooded with new sounds that came into the newly liberated countries and the neo-psychedelic 90's hit harder than anyone would have imagined. Tribal gatherings, free festivals and dance music styles changed the musical landscape and pirate radio stations (in the case of Hungary Tilos Radio meaning Forbidden Radio) started to transmit the music of the new underground and the neo-psychedelic revolution.

Korai Öröm was a band with many members that played free-flow jams that were a mix of psychedelic rock, tribal rhythms, electronics, downtempo and experimental sounds. The tradition of Hungarian jam music and the channeling of a free form stream of music can be traced back to the Shamanic rock group Vágtázó Halottkémek that can be seen as the originator of the genre within the Hungarian underground.

During the 90's Korai Öröm became increasingly more known playing many festivals as well as concerts outside of Hungary. They created some iconic albums during their first decade capturing the 90's underground mentality in a re-opened democratic Hungary that was searching to realize its new potential. It was the moment in which music was here. Music was now. Music was liberating. This rare tape is a collection of obscure unknown live recordings by the band from the mid 90's capturing the communal aspect of the Hungarian underground at the time through some lo-fi psychedelic jams. It reminds me somewhat of the Serbian psychedelic band Igra Staklenih Perli from Belgrade.

Get it HERE

Sunday 1 March 2020

Various Artists - Canada - Italy / Italia - Canada -1987- (LP, 3ViTrePAIR)


This is an interesting sound-poetry record I found in Italy not too long ago. It came out on the wonderful 3ViTrePAIR label that was founded by Enzo Minarelli, an Italian artist and sound-poet that played a protagonist role in gathering sound-poetry artists on different compilations and hosting poetry festivals during the 80's. He created compilation series around his concept of Polipoesia, that was based upon a manifest on poetry he created. The series were each dedicated to the poetry exchange between different countries. Here we have the compilation that focused on sound poetry from Canada and Italy.

The Canadian poets on the compilation are all from Quebec so the main language used here is French, hence the references to Antonin Artaud the French dramatist and subversive theatre director who also did strange recordings on radio that could be seen as sound poetry to a certain extent. In the liner notes written by Minarelli references are also made to French poets like Henri Chopin and Bernard Heidsieck. The Canadian representatives on this compilation are Pierre-André Arcand, Jean-Claude Gagnon, Alain-Martin Richard, Richard Martel and Gilles Arteau. The poets from Italy are aside from Minarelli himself Gian Paolo Roffi, Corrado Cicciarelli, Massimo Mori and Luigi Pasotelli. Sound poetry has always been important in Italy and this series is another strong example.

The music ranges from sound experiments to casiotone rhythm minimalism to the use of mouth harps, voice manipulation and more. It gives a mail-art music feeling from back in those days that can be experienced on compilation series like the VEC Audio Exchange for example. Here are some contextual words from the liner notes:

It seems, today, after a great deal of sound poetry is touching the limits of the extremest noise, denying value to the word, almost atomized, if not disapeared because it has been reduced to non-significant sound, the thread of the word is taken up again, proposing it in its natural shape. [sic.] Such a return to and into the word can also be explained as a return to a more immediate communication, to a listening pleasure, keeping in the right side the needs of the audience in a theatre or in front of a TV. The authors herewith included prove and point out how the sound experimentation is no longer synonym of ambiguity of communication, but is still possible practising sound experimentation with intelligent grace and refined, oral taste. In a word, more harmony, less disharmony. So, sound poetry is, or can be for those who want to understand, the next step of certain written poetry, at least the right entry door to continue into the oral a process of invention that in the written field it's no longer original and it is still into the most stagnant impasse. - Enzo Minarelli

Get it HERE / Mirror Link