Liza N. Eliaz - Sensecruise Instrumentals Et Maquettes -1989- (Cassette, Self-Recorded), Belgium/France

 

Since this is the third time that I write about Liza N. Eliaz on this blog I will re-use some of the older texts:

Liza Néliaz (1958 - 2001) was an electronic dance music producer and hardcore techno (terror) DJ originally from Oostende, Belgium. During the late 70's Néliaz started out as musician part of different Belgian avant-garde and new-wave bands. In the 80's Neliaz become more involved with the international home-taping network and contributed her tracks to cornerstone compilations on pivotal cassette labels like Insane Music (Belgium) and Exart (Netherlands).

By the late 80's, Neliaz started to play a self-invented style of proto-dance music that somehow connected the DIY spirit of 80's home-taping with new beat and the upcoming rave culture that would later evolve into established genres like techno, hardcore and acid house. She was a pioneer (one out of many ofcourse) in exploring these new musical styles in which perhaps the most important element was musical continuity. From the 90's onward Liza 'N' Eliaz established herself as an important hardcore techno DJ in the free party spheres which granted her the underground title of Queen of Terror. The name Liza was adopted because in those days it used to be a nickname given to Trans people in Flanders. She used her abilities as a musician for her DJ-sets that were uncompromising, lethal and full of energy. Neliaz lived a nomadic lifestyle dedicated to music until the end of her life. She sadly passed away in 2001.

The cassette that has surfaced here is an odd one. It was dubbed on a blank tape and specially given to Hessel Veldman and his family by Liza during the late 80's when she resided in Holland. First of all it contains the instrumental versions of the first Sensecruise release (not sure if there are any non-instrumental versions since I don't own the "official" Sensecruise part 1 cassette, so can't verify - let me know!). The interesting part is that the cassette continues with some loose tracks that I can partially recognize by checking out other releases, but there are also some tracks that are unknown to me.

Still the fact remains that this is a remarkable set of songs from that late 80's Neliaz sound palette. Quite a treasure, because we repeatedly have no idea whether more music by Liza might be out there. You never know what survived on cassettes of her friends or whether some music was given to befriended DJ's from the time. Her later DJ mixes are still alive on many platforms on the web and seem to inspire many people today and beyond.

Kindly donated by the Y Create Archive

Get it HERE

Angst - De Kreet -1982- (Cassette, Geef Appel Neem Chocolade/Kubus Kassettes), Belgium

 

Last year I wrote about Angst and Erik Vloeberghs in a way I can't perfect so I will let the blog-history repeat itself:

Angst was a project by Flemish writer, poet and musician Erik Vloeberghs. He also did projects such as The Firing-Squad, Kwajongens In Bloei and The Parts. Vloeberghs was closely related to the Antwerp based industrial and interdisciplinary art group Club Moral. Frequently he contributed to their art-zine/fanzine called Force Mental. His musical subjects mostly dealt with excess in all kind of forms adapted into musical concepts. The whole Club Moral sphere is known to have explored the extremes of human nature and deviant human behaviour within society, both in cathartic experience and conceptualization, a bit in a similar way to what industrial and power electronics groups like Whitehouse, Ramleh or Consumer Electronics did in England. Just somewhat less uniformic in sound (noise) with more influences from literary poetry and visual arts including performative aspects and multimedia elements. 

De Kreet (The Cry) is a cassette that was named after the famous Edvard Munch painting, also depicted on the cassette cover and was published both in Belgium and Holland in 1982. The recordings are a combination of dialogues, field-recordings, eerie noises and manipulated electronics. Vloeberghs manages to create sounds with certain tensions that invoke a feeling of possession. Gradually the music progresses and passes by the listener as if one was eavesdropping or perhaps only intercepting the sound. A feeling of discomfort, but at the same time causing high-demanding attention as if one needs to listen to catch something of importance. He realized these haunted worlds through music, but it rather feels like some sort of narrative or written text (a story) that comes alive through sound. A soundscape in its truest form.

Vloeberghs remains an obscure figure from the Flemish industrial home-taping era who deserves more attention for his works.

From the Y Create Archive

Get it HERE

Coomans, Vinck, Denhaene ‎- Eight Intimate Poses -1978- (LP, Stichting Vrijere Muziek 3), Belgium

 

Eight Intimate Poses was a free-jazz and free improvisation endeavour by a Flemish trio that consisted of Leo Coomans (reeds), Kris Vinck (trombones) and Marc Denhaene (guitars, accordeon). It was recorded at King Kong in Antwerp on December 11th and 12th, 1977. King Kong was an independent cultural centre for music, theatre and film, founded in the early seventies. It was situated on Keizerstraat 38 in Antwerp. Joy Division even played the King Kong venue in 1980.

The three musicians on Eight Intimate Poses were regularly part of other jazz and improvisation formations (WIM Fanfare, Madou etc.) in Belgium but also played with foreign jazz musicans. Furthermore there was an important exchange of recorded material with other free-jazz and impro labels. This copy of Eight Intimate Poses for example was distributed through the BVHaast label in Amsterdam which was one of the most important contemporary jazz labels in Holland founded by saxophonist and composer Willem Breuker.

Eight Intimate Poses is another interesting release of the Belgian independent impro scene. The music consists of free improvisation in some of its most minimalistic shapes with occassional hectic outburst. It reminds me a.o. of the intricate, delicate yet anarchic acoustic sounds by the American impro duo and NWW List residents LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams and their Trans Museq label. 

Belgian label Ultra Eczema also released a great archival album by Leo Coomans in 2009 that I highly recommend to check out.

Get it HERE

Liza N. Eliaz - Sensecruise Part 2 -19XX- (Cassette, Self-Released), Belgium

Liza Néliaz (1958 - 2001) was an electronic dance music producer and hardcore techno DJ from Oostende, Belgium. During the late 70's Néliaz was part of different Belgian avant-garde and new-wave bands. In the 80's Neliaz was strongly involved with the international home-taping network and contributed her tracks to cornerstone compilations on pivotal cassette labels like Insane Music (Belgium) and Exart (Netherlands).

By the late 80's, Neliaz started to play a self-invented style of proto-dance music that somehow connected the DIY spirit of 80's home-taping with new beat and the upcoming rave culture that would later evolve into established genres like techno, hardcore and acid house. She was a pioneer (one out of many ofcourse) in exploring these new musical styles in which perhaps the most important element was musical continuity. No breaks were taken in-between the tracks. Through her inventive hardware set-up she was able to play a variety of different tracks that were weaving in and out of each other continuously resulting in what we would call a "live-set" today. From the 90's onward Liza 'N' Eliaz established herself as an important hardcore techno DJ which granted her the underground title of Queen of Terror. The name Liza was adopted because in those days it used to be a nickname given to Trans people in Flanders. She used her abilities as a musician for her DJ-sets that were uncompromising, lethal and full of energy. Neliaz lived a nomadic lifestyle dedicated to music until the end of her life. She sadly passed away in 2001.

Sensecruise Part 2 is an early cassette by Liza Neliaz that was released around 1989 or 1990. It's the sequel to the Sensecruise Part 1 cassette which I've never heard. Unfortunately there is no cover for this tape, but who knows whether this was properly distributed at the time in the first place. Musicwise it embodies the sound of the transition of decades and the birth of a new sound of the 90's. Sensecruise Part 2 contains a pretty spot on home-made rave sound. I filed this release under "Belgium", but it clearly could have been recorded in France or England at the time. The music resembles the early work of 808 State or Orbital here and there, big acts (as we all know) that would soon succesfully spread similar sounds on a worldwide scale. However Liza Néliaz was never interested in the commercial aspects of dance music and couldn't identify with the course the culture took when free parties were starting to decline and certain DJ's were gaining so called star levels bringing competition and jealousy into a free music culture. Her DJ sets could sound relentless at times, yet humor, interaction and joy through the music were the main reasons behind Liza's musical practices.

Maybe it's the first time some kind of dance music comes to the blog, but also that is part of the underground music kaleidoscope of the past decades. Another piece of the Liza Neliaz puzzle at least. A special musician that deserves some proper attention from labels out there. Maybe someone has more early recordings?

Here's another article in French about Liza Néliaz that also provided some of the information above.

Kindly donated by Hessel Veldman (Y Create Archive)

Get it HERE

Unovidual - Parianoia -1985- (Cassette, Stichting Stopcontact), Belgium

I'm very happy to present another Flemish minimal synth gem by Unovidual aka Henk Wallays. I posted his other cassette Vetganzen In Jacquet three years ago on the blog and I notice that I wrote so much contextual information that it's hard to add something there. But let's try nevertheless.

Unovidual was a project by Henk Wallays who made electronic home-taping music during the 80's in the small Flemish town of Aalter. Under the Unovidual moniker quite some cassettes were released and he contributed to numerous international tape compilations. Wallays was also involved with the Micrart Group that included bands like Linear Movement and Autumn that have become iconic for the Belgian electronic wave sound of the 80's and far beyond. Aside from his solo work Wallays had an intensive and special music exchange with American home-taper Tara Cross with whom he recorded a couple of great songs.

Parianoia is another wonderful collection of minimal synth tracks by Unovidual and it's also one of his lesser known releases. It was distributed through the Amsterdam based Stichting Stopcontact label that was responsible for releasing some legendary tapes by bands like Five Times Of Dust, Tranquil Eyes and S.M. Nurse as well as the Contactdisc vinyl series. Parianoia reminds me a bit of a library music album in the sense that it collects many short tracks that each have their own mood or atmosphere. It also sounds like it could have been the soundtrack to a videogame at times. Some nice anolog electronic tracks of which some are more ambient, but most are comprised of experimental elements and some collages.

Some of these tracks seem to sound quite ahead of their time. I think this is another example of minimal synth home experimentation of the 80's that plays its part in the history of electronic music in general. A sound reminiscent of Ende Shneafliet, John Bender or Das Ding to name a few. Minimal synth galore!

Kindly donated by Orpheu The Wizard

Get it HERE / Mirror link

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

Angst - De Witte Villa -1980's- (Cassette, Geef Appel Neem Chocolade/Kubus Kassettes), Belgium

Angst was a project by Flemish writer, poet and musician Erik Vloeberghs (in this case in collaboration with Herbert Alkali). He also did projects such as The Firing-Squad, Kwajongens In Bloei and The Parts. Vloeberghs was closely related to the Antwerp based industrial and interdisciplinary art group Club Moral. Frequently he contributed to their art-zine/fanzine called Force Mental. His musical subjects mostly dealt with excess in all kind of forms adapted into musical concepts. The whole Club Moral sphere is known to have explored the extremes of human nature and deviant human behaviour within society, both in cathartic experience and conceptualization, a bit in a similar way to what industrial and power electronics groups like Whitehouse, Ramleh or Consumer Electronics did in England. Just somewhat less uniformic in sound (noise) with more influences from literary poetry and visual arts including performative aspects and multimedia elements.

De Witte Villa (The White Villa) is a cassette that came out both in Belgium and Holland,  respectively on the Belgian Geef Appel Neem Chocolade and Dutch Kubus Kassettes cassette labels. It takes a villa as its core reference, perhaps because the music was played at a villa during an intensive stayover (since the last field recorded track is called 'In The Kitchen of The White Villa'), perhaps because Vloeberghs used it as an aristocratic concept as another point of reference in the light of deviance and excess of society in let's say a Marquis De Sade type of setting. In any case, the music starts with Italian, maybe Napolitan song, mixed through distorted radio noise. Next up is a sort of minimal home-taping Marxist 'introduction to capitalism' explaining how human production powers lead to different classes in society and that capitalist fatalism causes tragedy in the face of nature as well as alienation of the self. The tape continuously thrives upon primitive field recordings with an industrial sound approach of eeriness and noise.

Some of the music is reminiscent of Italian industrial projects like the hyper-obscure work by Stefano Tamburini or the industrial group Tasaday. The field recording aspect of home-taping taking place as an integrated part of daily life also reminds me of music primitivists like the Gefährliche Klons I posted before on the blog. De Witte Villa is another rarity of the Belgian home-taping scene that didn't fear to sonically self-investigate and integrate darker subject matters into the recordings.

This tape was kindly donated by the Y Create archive

Get it HERE

Niala Effen - Kolory Też Potrafią Śpiewać -1993- (Tape, OBUH Records), Belgium/Poland

Niala Effen is an anagram of Alain Neffe (to make it sound more Polish) who is the founder of legendary Belgian home-taping label Insane Music and the musical brain behind minimal synth acts like Bene Gesserit, Human Flesh, Pseudo Code, Cortex, Subject and many more projects. Those acts have probably also been Belgium's most widespread home-taping sounds, being featured on countless compilations of the DIY cassette culture across the globe.

Kolory Też Potrafią Śpiewać is the Polish translation of "Les Couleurs Aussi Peuvent Chanter" (The Colours Can Also Sing) which was the title of a drawing exhibition by artist Nadine Bal (Alain Neffe's wife and collaborative member of Bene Gesserit and Human Flesh a.o.) that took place in Brussels from 11.11-30.11.1989. Neffe created the background music that was to be heard during this exhibition. The material got released on the Polish underground label OBUH Records, which is one of the important labels that was dedicated to Polish underground music already since the socialist times. They published great Polish bands like Za Siódmą Górą.

The tracks on Kolory Też Potrafią Śpiewać are all titled by different girl names and are tainted by a mantric musical nature. The electronic music consists of swirling timbres and loops of repetition creating different sound-colours that I can imagine are perfectly fitting the drawings of Nadine Bal, probably just like the one on the cover of this cassette. Deep, colourful and hypnotizing.

Highly recommended stuff!

Get it HERE

 

Various Artists - The Value Of Quality - A Concise History Of West-European Folk-Art -1982- (Tape, Aerosol P&P), Belgium

The Value Of Quality is a nice early 80's DIY compilation with mostly Belgian acts that was released on the Aerosol P&P label that was run by Guy de Bièvre who was also the person behind the home-taping act One Hundred Poems From The Japanese.

Like with most Belgian tape compilations this one too has many contributions by Insane Music For Insane People protagonist Alain Neffe. On the cassette we find different minimal synth tracks by his projects Bene Gesserit, Pseudo Code, Cortex and Human Flesh. His projects have seen many reissues on a variety of labels these last years. In the past his musical output on cassettes were probably Belgium's most wide-spread home-taping sounds. I am not sure whether the tracks on here also appeared on own releases, because there is simply too much material for me to verify.

Then present on this compilation is Flemish singer and artist Claude Perwez aka Kloot Per W. Also there is an industrial noise track contributed by Angst which was a project by Flemish writer, poet and musician Erik Vloeberghs. He also had projects such as The Firing-Squad, Kwajongens In Bloei and The Parts. He was closely related to the Antwerp based industrial and interdisciplinary art group Club Moral.

Furthermore present here are British home-taper Jack Marlow (possibly based in Germany back then) and the legendary French minimal-synth and artist collective La Fondation from Paris that consisted of many amazing music acts like Nini Raviolette, Hugo Weris and Lefdup & Lefdup.

Speaking about A Concise History Of West-European Folk-Art the only non-European contribution on here (I think) is the Canadian punk band Zyklon B, although it might be a Belgian punk band with the same name. The rest of the contributions are undoubtedly Belgian and unknown and perhaps own projects of Guy de Bièvre.

In any case this is another nicely varied cassette relic of the Belgian industrial, minimal synth and home-taping scene! The Value of Quality of the cassette recording is fluctuating from white noise backgrounds to cleaner production, but hey it's quality stuff in the end that has a value.

Get it HERE


Update: I see that this was uploaded a long time ago to the No Longer Forgotten Music Blog. Escaped my attention. Anyway worth it to give this some more attention and it was fun digitizing this. More stuff to come soon!

Unovidual & Friends - Vetganzen In Jacquet -1984- (Tape, Stichting Stopcontact), Belgium

Time for another Minimal Synth cassette Jewel(!): Unovidual is the moniker of Belgian (Flemish) electronic music hometaper Henk Wallays. He was (is) part of the Micrart Group (a.o. Linear Movement, Twilight Ritual) and hosted an underground radio show called 'Stalhwerksynfonie' (after Die Krupps) in the early eighties. Wallays soon created the cassette label 3rio with Sandy Nys of Magisch Theater and Dirk Ivens of Absolute Body Control. Also he played in the band Tangible Joy and worked together intensively with US hometaping artist Tara Cross (featured on Minimal Wave's The Lost Tapes etc).

Vetganzen In Jacquet (Penguins in morning-coat jacket) is a very rare cassette that was published on the Dutch Stichting Stopcontact label, which was run by Ruud Kluivers (Doxa Sinistra). The label had legendary releases such as the Contactdisc compilation series and the Tranquil Eyes tape Walks (1985). I did not know there were more cassettes out there on this label, like the one here. I found out the cassette is from 1984 because of this catalogue.

The A-Side of this tape displays quite some dark wonky and occasionally humorous Minimal Synth sounds. It even contains a few songs with Dutch vocals. I do not know whether the pseudonyms (instruments?) written on the cassette cover were actually the collaborating Friends or that those friends are of a conceptual nature (probably he did work together with people). The B-Side starts with a lengthy track called Kankende Doctrines and has much heavier dancefloor potential. The last two songs La Romantise and A Thoughtful End are two amazing Minimal Synth tracks reminding me of acts on the Dutch Trumpett label (André de Koning, Ende Shneafliet), Asmus Tietchens his Sky Records series, but also Enzo Kreft, 5ive Ximes Of Dust, 18:e Oktober and ofcourse Autumn.

Vetganzen In Jacquet is great synth driven wave stuff complete with 808 drums, buzzing synths, home-crafted weirdness, ambient insanity, darkwave moods and more. A pearl from the Belgian 80's Minimal Synth scene everybody seems to be crazy about. What more do you want?

Hopefully someone can help us find Unovidual's other hyperrare cassettes! (Reissue labels?!)

Highly Recommended!

Get it HERE

Various Artists - Une Autre Façon d'écouter la Musique -1986- (Tape, Igloo), Belgium

This is a promotional compilation tape of the Belgian label Igloo. Igloo was founded in 1978 by
Daniel Sotiaux and initially focused on contemporary composed, strange electronic and avant-garde music until the mid-eighties when it changed its profile to contemporary jazz music.

This cassette from 1986 is also pretty much jazz oriented and showcases a variety of bands and releases on the Igloo label. I'm quite sure almost all of these albums are to be found already, but let's say we can still use this compilation as a guide through the releases on Igloo of the mid-eighties. I wasn't too familiar with the label to be honest. Although some tracks on this compilation are pretty corny, it still shows the impro and jazz scene that was active in Belgium and Brussels in the Eighties. Igloo as a label is comparable to other Belgian labels like Disques du Crépuscule or Crammed Discs that always moved in-between impro, jazz, classical and RIO stuff.

This compilation shows the more safe side of a Belgian scene that had more adventurous bands like Aksak Maboul or Univers Zero operating in the same period. But there are some highlights on this compilation like Julverne and Real Live Orchestra. The coolest part of the compilation is that there are impro-jazz interludes with a girl telling us in English with a French accent which song we've just heard. It gives it a nice Bruxelles eighties chicness which is cool.

Get it HERE