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

Various Artists - Passions Organiques Vol.3 - Instrumentaux -1987- (Cassette, Organic Tapes), France

  

The Passions Organiques volumes were a series of international home-taping compilations created by the French Organic Tapes label from Grenoble during the 80's. For the most part the compilations contain electronic, industrial and minimalistic ambient sounds with a slight emphasis on French acts. However the Organic label also published many international musicians and created special releases around certain countries like the great Polish Road cassettes that I posted some time ago. The less fortunate dimension of the releases by Organic Tapes is the poor sound quality. There is a lot of hiss on these tapes and the sound volume changes each track. Nevertheless these compilations were assembled with a lot of care and there are some true pearls to be heard that don't appear on any other release.

Passions Organiques Vol.3 - Instrumentaux is a nice electronic home-taping journey gathering some household names of the international cassette network like Los Paranos (FR), Marzidovsek (YU), In Aeternam Vale (FR), The Dead Goldfish Ensemble (UK) and Pacific 231 (FR) but it also gives attention to even lesser known acts. The cassette came out together with Volume 4 of the series in a large VHS case, but I decided to post both cassettes seperately, so the other volume will come to the blog somewhere in the future.

As said, not really desirable sound quality, but nevertheless some nice minimal synth, industrial and ambient electronic tracks. You can find Volume 1 of the series over at Tape Attack. 

Kindly donated by the Y Create Archive

Get it HERE

Art Moulu Tréfin - Self-Titled -1985- (Cassette), France

Art Moulu Tréfin were a Rock In Opposition band from France that consisted of Jean-François Welter, Jo Thirion, Maurice Ott, Olivier Masson and Richard Antez. Their sound obviously has something akin to Magma, which is basically the start for most French bands with complex intrumental structures in their composition, but they also remind me of the French band Komintern from the 70's. Ofcourse Art Moulu Tréfin is a product of the 80's and had an own signature to their music with strange lyrics, humor and zig-zagging compositional manoeuvres. The band was also compiled on one of the Recommended Records quarterly series.

The music on this self-released cassette EP from 1985 was recorded on a Fostex 8-track recorder thus sometimes a bit lo-fi in quality. Nevertheless, it consists of some top-notch humoristic RIO complexity that fits a similar musical realm as the French Rock In Opposition band of the first hour Etron Fou Leloublan, the Swiss group Debile Menthol or the Estonian outfit Ne Zhdali.

Finally we can hear Art Moulu's music from the early times after Mutant Sounds published their equally great live album from 1990 over a decade ago. Another essential piece of French RIO history.

This cassette is not on Discogs.

Get it HERE

Various Artists - Music From The White House Vol. 4: France -1984- (Tape, Exart 032), France/Netherlands

Music From The White House was a series of compilations on the cult home-taping label Exart from The Netherlands that was created by Hessel Veldman aka Y Create (also in Gorgonzola Legs) and his wife Nick Nicole. The compilations were made around different countries: Holland, England, France and the United States.

On Music From The White House Vol. 4: France only home-taping acts are compiled from the French 80's underground. Amongst others present is the experimental noise of Brume, the Artaud and De Sade inspired sounds of vulgarity by Suckdog affiliate Costes and the improvisation of Klimperei and La Sonorité Jaune. Furthermore there are some French lo-fi synth-punk tracks by the Dirty Husbands, Cripure S.A. and Hermaphrodisiak which all remind me of Kas Product. Lastly there is a minimal synth track by DZ Lectric and Anton Shield and some miscellaneous home-taping tracks throughout the whole compilation.

Another nice compilation from the 80's containing some better and some worse tracks that display the uncompromising home-taping spirit of the time in the context of transnational music exchange. The Exart label on which this was published functioned as one of the key cassette labels of The Netherlands in terms of home-taping distribution. Soon I will upload the Music From The White House: USA cassette as well.

This cassette was kindly donated to the blog by Hessel Veldman/Y Create.

Get it HERE



Message:
Crazy enough, I've got Archaic Inventions mapped out for at least a whole year: if not longer. The amount of never heard material and new content is vast, mind-blowing and extends into many different musical genres. Also I am working hard on establishing the upcoming record label simultaneously with various sound-art and podcast projects. Furthermore I'm developing a live-set of my own music that will see the light this summer.

The digitization process demands time and I have to balance all these different projects. I'll try to do the best I can to keep up the consistency of the blog, but there will be moments which will demand prioritizing my attention to one of these directions. Thanks to all supporting the blog (some of you since many years)! Lots of stuff still to come! - Bence AI

Dustbreeders - Le Procès Cannibale -1999- (Single-Sided LP, Élevage De Poussière), France

Dustbreeders is an abstract noise trio from Metz that consists of Yves Botz, Michel Henritzi and Thierry Delles. The outfit exists since the early nineties and is known for their noise-induced deconstructive cavemen wall-of-sound cacaphony. In that sense they belong to the less industrial side of the French noise scene known for bruitistes like Vivenza or Le Syndicat.

Dustbreeders frequently collaborate with Japanese Hijokaidan vocalist Junko. The members have also played together with a large spectrum of noise and impro musicians ranging from Jac Berrocal to The Nihilist Spasm Band and are furthermore involved in too many ofshoot projects and releases to count. Dustbreeders live performances are intense and memorable, look at this to get an idea. Le Procès Cannibale was recorded in 1998 and was Dustbreeders' first release on a 12 inch format. From the liner notes:

The Cannibal Trial
Our music, more than any other, and most of all with so much more cruelty than any other, feeds itself with music, thus, its own kind. Eating other people's music, isn't that terribly inhuman? What can be heard in it, if not the scraps from a cruel banquet? And the atrocious agony of our fellow creatures? 

Our Instrumentation, materially as well as methodically, is a complete alimentary canal, from one hole to another. There is obviously some litigation in our comprehension of culture, regarding every school ever, and, just as obviously, this is a court as well as a trial. A curiously fair trial, notwithstanding the torturing noise that's going on. 

Which music triumphs in this cannibal trial, the one that is both judge and hangman, or the victim that's been digested but so well defended by the music-loving memory of the listener and the genius of its begetter?

Dustbreeders still exist today and their latest record can be bought over at 213 Records.

Get it HERE

Édouard Magrin-Sofreson - Essai Sonore Sur L'Érotisme -19XX- (10 Inch, Private Pressing), France

This is a French 10 inch record based on the theme eroticism. It came out in limited quantities in a gatefold red linnen cover. I suspect this record to come out of the early sixties, although it hints towards the fifties too with its sleeve, also the music could have been made much earlier. I can't find any additional information about the artist Édouard Magrin-Sofreson nor about the release date.

On this Musical Essay on Eroticism Magrin-Sofreson wants to cover sounds associated with eroticism and human nature in a very ritualistic manner. The music is a sexual evocative trip of two long pieces comprised of primitive drumming, sounds of birds and nature, gentle electronic sounds, Brazilian carnaval rhythm and ofcourse some stirring female heavy breathing. I guess you could call this a library record, but I think that this is much more a concept album than just some sounds one could use for generic applied purposes. Actually the whole intention and sound reminds me a lot of ritualistic industrial groups of the eighties that had a large emphasis on sexual magick, like Sleep Chamber, Psychic TV or Coil. Maybe this can be seen as some sort of predecessor of such musical intentions.

On the inner part of the sleeve Magrin-Sofreson points out that a lot of (French) artists, poets, philosophers, authors etc. have always been fascinated and engaged with the theme of love and eroticism throughout history. From the work of Marquis de Sade, to the work of poets like Guillaume Apollinaire to the philosophy of Georges Bataille (who wrote specifically about eroticsm), almost all of these expressions had enormous influences on popular and non-popular culture. They sought attention for the understanding of human nature and its relation so sex, love or eroticism and their transcendental qualities for human beings.

Get it HERE

Roland Topor - Panic The Golden Years -1975- (LP, Stedelijk Museum), France/Netherlands

Roland Topor (1938 - 1997) was a French illustrator, painter, writer, filmmaker and actor who generally made surrealistic and absurd works. He is known for the novel The Tenant which was later adapted to a movie by famous director Roman Polanski and for being one of the creators and illustrators for the magical psychedelic French/Czech animation movie  La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) from 1973.

In 1962 he created the Panic Movement (named after the god Pan) together with Spanish screenwriter, pataphysicist and poet Fernando Arrabal and Chilean director and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky. They did numerous performances and theatre works to oppose surrealism becoming mainstream. You can see a performance here. Topor also wrote songs for French/Japanese singer Megumi Satsu who was friends with French sociologist Jean Baudrillard. So all pieces of the puzzle of life and deviancy are here.

This record of Roland Topor came out in 1975 for an exhibition of his work at the Stedelijk Museum (museum of modern art) in Amsterdam in an edition of 500 copies. It's a truly crazy record in which Topor speaks French and Dutch in an insane avant-garde slapstick manner. It's a humorous yet gripping recording that shows the genius and insanity a unique artist of the 20th century.

Get it HERE

Donated by Kim

Entre Vifs - Promotional Copy -198X- (Tape), France

So what we have here is a some sort of promotional cassette by Entre Vifs, a side project of the French bruitiste and power electronics masters Le Syndicat. This might be one of the first releases of this project as the cover says "Our new noisecraft ensemble is called.. Entre Vifs". This ensemble has a couple of releases from the second half of the eighties onwards, you can find some here, here and here. I don't know whether these songs have been published on another cassette or cd compilation already, but I figured that this tape has its own special value as it had a promotional purpose. Get ready for some harsh noise stuff that you should only play loud! More information here on the official website plus a nice tribute video here.

                                                          High volume required!

As for this blog:

I intended to be posting a mixture of all kinds of things and not to fill in too much gaps of the rest of the blogosphere. However, a lot of music I wanted to post is available somehow somewhere which keeps me from posting it and strongly reduces my material. On the other hand this blog could grow out to be something very big within some months ( I've got some incredible opportunities), allthough I have to wait and see. As for some real oddities that are not really in the vein of this blog, I might start another blog next to this one with another kind of character. Anyway, keep returning because new posts will keep coming.