Lister - Innlysende Samtaler Og Forutbestemte Avtaler -1984- (Tape, Self-Released), Norway

Originally from Oslo, Stein Inge Larsen, better known as André Lister, moved to Trondheim in the mid-70's with the intention of becoming a primary school teacher. However, once in contact with the city's music-driven scene he became a central part of it.

The lack of music press in Norway at that time instigated the creation of the first fanzines, that actually originated in Trondheim due to its vibrant punk and hard rock community. The first one to appear was Asfaltfilla, an anarchist fanzine which shared a lot of the common elements that could be found in similar counter-cultural publications at the time. André Lister was one of the heads behind it and an avid rejector of punk's intellectualization. Asfaltfilla would eventually result in the creation of the punk music fanzine Rockefilla.

André Lister had been part of many bands such as Sjolord, but ultimately distanced himself from punk and started to lean towards sonic experimentation and the use of synthesizers and drum machines, as it became apparent in some of his solo projects as Lister, while also forming Norwegian experimental cult rock band Det Elektriske Kjøkken. As a result, and as way to publish their albums, the band decided to start the label Oh Yeah! and its sub-label Oh No!

Innlysende Samtaler Og Forutbestemte Avtaler (Obvious Calls And Predefined Agreements) is one of Lister's first solo projects in which he pursues further the electronic domain combining long swirling synthesizer sounds with prog-like bass and guitar riffs as well as the occasional use of rhythm machines without losing its home-made DIY feel. You can expect a soothing psychedelic trip with some recording imperfections all along the tape (the first track suffers from a technical default that turns mono at some point), enjoy! 

André Lister died in 2016 in Tanger at the age of 63 where he decided to live the rest of his days. 

- Juan Vacas

* The information made available above is an adaptation from the information retrieved from his obituary in a Norwegian newspaper and the book "Sid's Norwegian romance: Sex Pistols exiled in Trondheim 1977" (2012).

Get it HERE

Roy G. Biv - Yellow -1980- (Tape, Self-Released), Netherlands

Roy G. Biv (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet) was the home-taping project and sound & color improvisation band of Dutch musician and visual artist Robin Deirkauf who sadly passed away last year. I think the first tapes were solo-projects and later the project was joined by Edward Vunderink (guitars, voice) and Frans Evers (keyboards). Yellow is one of the first three tapes by Roy G. Biv from 1980 and just like some of Conrad Schnitzler's work it was dedicated to a specific color. The band also did a red and a blue cassette (I have never seen or heard the blue one). Here's a brief and interesting biography I found on Deirkauf's personal website:

"In his early childhood Deirkauf grew up in the Caribbean, where his father was an antiques dealer, mainly specialized in African and Asiatic art. The exotic colorful underwater world at that time and the antiques has had a profound influence on his later drawings and paintings.

Sign, symbol and script are recurring elements in his sometimes eclectic work, it is characterized by ancient, primordial pictoral power, mixed with modern constructivist elements and bright colors. After this period he turned to a more formal and conceptual way of analizing the image, resulting in the development of a matrix used to create a pictographic alphabet consisting of primary colors and forms.

During the late 70's and early 80's Deirkauf founded the experimental sound and color improvisation group  Roy G. Biv for the realization of the multimedia art project phase III with Edward Vunderink and Frans Evers, what resulted in 10 music albums."

Roy G. Biv's Yellow tape is a great improvised jam-session like endeavour of cosmic electronic soundscapes reminding me of Krautrock groups from the 70's like Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel and other Manuel Göttsching works. It's also highly influenced by minimal music and because of the color themes, the Conrad Schnitzler analogy remains a given ofcourse. Not too often do the early home-taping cassettes from The Netherlands lean more towards the psychedelic and cosmic electronic side of the musical spectrum instead of the more commonly found industrial or minimal synth tapes from those times.

It's nice to find out about the existence of different and more cosmic music from Amsterdam from a time when half of the city was filled with squats with punks and new wave had already arrived both in fashion and music. I suppose Roy G. Biv shows the musical transition from the 70's with its psychedelic sounds to the DIY sound approach of the 80's and carries both decades in its spirit. Maybe that approach is also interwoven into the story of the Dutch wave and ultra band Mekanik Kommando that later turned into the psychedelic group The Use of Ashes.

Most of the Roy G. Biv albums were uploaded on No Longer Forgotten Music some time ago. Wonderful stuff. And ofcourse rest in peace Robin Deirkauf. Maybe some reissues have to be done in his memory.

The red tape will also be uploaded to the blog one day.

Get it HERE

Circles - Same -1983- (LP, Einhorn Music), Germany

So we're some days into the new year and I don't have a clue what to post, I've got so much amazing stuff at the moment, don't have much time and I'm trying to only post two releases every month to give this blog some time to exist into this future. Anyway, here is one of many posts around German cult-group Circles which was donated to me by a friend of the blog (Thank you!). This is something I'd never tought I would hear and happy to share.

Circles were a band from Germany that started out in the early eighties and consisted of the duo of Dierk Leitert and Mike Bohrmann. They created a mixture between old psychedelic krautrock grooves, wave-y guitar textures, electronic kosmische sounds, NDW and rock 'n roll. They are a perfect example of the particular period of Germany's early eighties when the influential Krautrock period started to merge with the fresh Neue Deutsche Welle music. Circles released three albums on their own label Einhorn Music and also had side projects like D.O.C. (Das Organisierte Chaos) which was more electronic oriented.

This first album is quite daring and rough in its approach, just like what you'd expect from a debut record. It's an energetic and dense trip full of electronic sounds, weird vocals, psychedelic guitar stuff and much more. Similar things that come to mind are german bands like 39 Clocks, Harmonia, Teflon Fonfara's album Inge In Venedig and American Milwaukee based band F/i. Actually this type of music is also what influences myself the most I guess, a mixture between the hippie-ish psychedelic krautrock music and eighties synth, noise, ambient, industrial type of stuff.

I have red that allegedly there is a reissue of this record coming out on Ultima Thule Records soon. If this happens I will kindly take this link down and link to the website (I hope so, this stuff is incredible!). More Circles and related projects to follow soon on the blog.

Highly Recommended!

UPDATE! Links removed due to the reissue on Mental Experience, a sub-division of Guerssen records.The first and second album of Circles have been reissued on CD and LP. Get them HERE!

Donated by SonicA

Angel Rada - Solar Concert For Bhagavan -1985- (LP, Uraniun Records), Venezuela

Angel Rada is a mythical Venezuelan master of electronics. He is one of the only people from his country to create electronic music since the seventies. He even played in some of the best psychedelic groups from the sixties in Venezuela like (The) Gas Light (great name for a Venezuelan group). As a sonology student he went to study in Germany where he got acquainted with the Kosmische Krautrock legends from that time like Ash Ra and Klaus Schulze. Shortly after he produced the legendary first album Upadesa (please listen to that masterpiece).

This was Angel Rada's third album and as the title tells us it's a concert for Bhagavan. This is very much overlooked and put in the realms of New Age electronical music. The cover doesn't uncover the musical beauty that is hidden on this vinyl. Sure it could be viewed as an early example of New Age music but it totally exceeds that genre. What's present here is a tropical electronic masterpiece.

The music is based upon analog synthesizers and even energetic drum computers. It sounds like Sun Ra jamming along on one of the more cosmic songs of NDW legends Stratis/39 Eyes while the studio engineer was Innovative Communications' Clara Mondshine all set in the Caribbean. But ofcourse, Angel Rada is one of a kind and doesn't sound like any other artist. He has found a way to blend the Venezuelan feeling into beautiful pieces of electronic music in which a lot of emotions are invoked. The first two tracks are combined into a cosmic piece in which cosmic melodies suddenly start to interact with an analog drumbeat elevating the song into cosmic dance music. The song Pegasus (Night Flight Over Tokyo) is an example of pure emotion through cold analog machines.In the third song called I Ching the poem I King by Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges is recited in Spanish over cosmic synthesizer music accompanied by a vocoder. This is an overlooked South American masterpiece.

¡Señor Rada! ¡Usted es grande! ¡Muchisimas Gracias!

Highly Recommended

HERE