Square Sun (D. Trevarthen) / Royal Flush - Split Tape -1989- (Cassette, The Head Corporation/Black Death), Scotland/Netherlands

Here's an odd but great one. It took me some time to decipher this cassette since the cover kind of confused me at first. In any case it seems to be a split tape between Scottish home-taper Dion Trevarthen (also known as Square Sun) and Royal Flush, a home-taping act that was released by the Black Death tape label from the small town of Zoetermeer, The Netherlands. Black Death was created by Marcel Tuijenburg. A label which a.o. published compilations of the international home-taping community. The music on this cassette by Royal Flush seems to have been a solo effort by B. du Perron who creates a long dark ambient soundscape.

The other side of the tape consists of some dazzling hypnotic acid drenched electronic music by Dion Trevarthen. Hailing from the village of Aberlady, East Lothian, Trevarthen was part of a psychedelic space-rock group called Sponge along with his two brothers. He also released his own electronic music under the name Square Sun on various international tape labels. One of the most notable releases was the Tierversuche, Das Perfekte Konzept Der Selbstvernichtung tape on the German cassette label IRRE.

Fluorescent Tube Shadows is a mind-bending psychedelic piece of electronic home-taping music. There are many electronic textures, radio waves, rhythms and strange transitions going on. I recommend hearing this loud on some serious speakers and not just some screenspeakers. It has a very immersive deep sound that almost absorbs you. Within home-recordings it illustrates the transition of the 80's minimal synth sound into some of the new electronic music of the 90's, but somehow remains ungraspable. Some other acts that might be alike are Ras.Al.Ghul from Portugal or Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide from Germany. Or or or.

It would be great if some label would reissue some Square Sun music, but I guess it's wishful thinking.

Get Fluorescent Tube Shadows HERE

Kindly donated by the Y Create Archive

S·Core - Senile Decay -1987- (Cassette, De Koude Oorlog! I.U.04), Japan/Netherlands

Here we have one of the last tapes by S·Core that wasn't available so far to my knowledge. S·Core was the project by Japanese industrial musician Yutaka Tanaka. He released many cassettes during the 80's of which some were released on his own Afflict label. This cassette is an exception because it was released on the Dutch De Koude Oorlog! (The Cold War!) label, a small cassette label from Den Helder that was quite industrial oriented releasing artists like Dikyl Brobojo and Szarkov.

S·Core's music is a nice example of Japanese industrial music that isn't just pure noise. Tracks vary from rhythmic analog industrial sounds in an Esplendor Geométrico (Spain) or Mesh (Australia) way to dark ambient pieces. It somehow relates a bit to Zoviet-France, early Muslimgauze or music I can recall from the amazing Vanity Records label from Japan. S·Core is not musically active anymore, but he released material until the late 90's. I'm not sure how this material ended up on this Dutch cassette label, also not sure whether he was touring in The Netherlands. In any case this is another piece of the S·Core puzzle. Specially the rhythmic tracks are quite nice. Also a good title for the times we are facing I suppose... You can find most other S·Core tapes over here.

This tape was limited to 50 copies.

From the collection Allard pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Dust That Collects - Black Water Delirium -1991- (Tape, Self-Released), Canada

Dust That Collects was an explorative electronic sound project by Canadian artist Ron McFarlan. McFarlan had been involved in the home-taping culture of the 80's and started his project Dust That Collects around 1990 when opening for Illusion of Safety at the Music Gallery in Toronto. A brief autobiographical summary of McFarlan's musical history can be found over at Don Campau's Living Archive.

Black Water Delirium is a nice cassette bringing together four pieces of post-industrial soundscapes of noise, mechanical sound manipulation, field recordings and drone. You can hear almost ambient psycho-acoustic atmospheres that are indeed somewhat reminiscent of Illusion of Safety, or maybe even something of the Hafler Trio, Empirical Sleeping Consort or Zoviet France (many examples obviously exist). The last 22-minute track Black Water Delirium is a nice highlight where some sort of tenniscourt sounds are being manipulated into dark aquatic and swirling depths that ultimately culminate into their own sonic deconstruction.

The sound fidelity and certain parts of the tape are still very much rooted in the cassette medium and culture. Later this type of dark ambient soundscape music transitioned almost in its entirety to CD and became very inherently clean in production, even if the music was noise. This was the first self-released cassette by Dust That Collects, maybe some other tapes will surface with the time.

Get it HERE


PS:
We still have major issues with Zippyshare as an external file-hosting server since it is being blocked in many different countries. You can bypass it by using proxy servers though, which is what you should do. But still, where are we migrating to with the files? Any suggestions?

Various Artists - Tecnologie Del Movimento -1989- (LP, HAX 01), Italy

Tecnologie Del Movimento was a cornerstone compilation of the late Italian Industrial scene that showcased some of the first sounds that were later to be established into the ritual and dark ambient techno styles of the nineties. The Hax label was run by Marco Milanesio who is also the mastermind behind the group DsorDNE from Turin, a group also featured on this compilation.

Another Italian Industrial act on TDM is Officine Schwartz that started out in 1983 in a classic industrial style using unconventional instruments as well as scrap metal and such. Then there is Gerstein, moniker of Maurizio Pustianaz, who published many experimental music and noise cassettes since 1984 and even had a release on the British Harsh Noise label Broken Flag in 1987. Furthermore there are a few unknown acts compiled: Alberi Per Debra, Unga and La Deviation.

The successor Tecnologie Del Movimento II was released on CD in 1992 and already moved into more dark ambient techno realms, also containing more outdated tracks. This first compilation however, really showcases a fine collection of industrial sounds with nice analog electronic sequence loops, ambient collages and musical theme's that even resemble those of Coil at times.

Get it HERE