Various Artists - Swamptape Compilation 2 - Swamp-To-Tape -1990- (Cassette, Hahamandad), Netherlands/International

Despite the recent ongoing tragic events that are taking place in an already dystopian world, the difficulty of finding the right answers and figuring out what to do I finally decided to keep posting music here anyway. Whether as a distraction, as medicine, as fuel to power up or to let off steam and anger. Some strange sounds might help to cope with a strange world. In any case, I wish everyone lots of strength and courage out there. -

The Swamptape Compilation 2 (Swamp-To-Tape) was assembled during 1988/89 and released by Hahamandad in 1990 with a magazine called 'Vision'. Hahamandad is a foundation and a label from the Southern Dutch city of Axel (in the province of Zeeland) that was founded by Messy and Amanda Man (Leo van de Velde) in 1984. The Hahamandad foundation also organized numerous festivals around alternative culture, art and played an important role in bringing together different international underground and home-taping musicians. They released dozens of cassettes of both their own music projects and international compilations.

The Swamptape Compilation 2 is a nice and varied release with some known and lesser known artists of the international cassette culture. There are some home-made minimal synth songs by Messy, Kees Beukelaar and Nostalgie Eternelle, some dark industrial pieces by Big City Orchestra, Clemp Yod as well as some dazzling hypnotic tracks by Ambulatorio Segreto, From Nursery To Misery and Mystery Hearsay. Also: much(!) more.

 

Get your tunes from the swamp HERE

Kindly donated by The Y Create Archive

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

Malice In Wonderland - Violence & Passion -1984- (Tape, Wonderland Cassettes W.002), Netherlands

Malice In Wonderland was a classic underground new wave band from The Netherlands (we call that style Nederwave) consisting of Ronald Israëls (bass), Job Goedhart (guitar), Simone Koch (singer), Peter Jansen (keyboards, voice) and Michel Didier (drums). Their music has a distinct bat-cave type new wave style with punk influences that also reminds me of other Dutch groups like Qua Dance (posted before on the blog), WAT or maybe even Soviet Sex.

All tracks on Violence & Passion were recorded live at various Dutch venues that were mostly dedicated to the underground of the 80's in those days. Because of the female vocals, quite elaborated song-writing and the evident use of keyboards it even has something B-52's like to it, maybe something of X-Mal Deutschland too. It's a great relic from the prime of new wave in The Netherlands in its purest form when youth centre's were inhabited by Siouxsie haircuts, extravagant make-up and vleermuis fashion.

Violence & Passion was released on cassette in 1984 and came with an extensive booklet showing information on the different tracks, nice pictures and no-future poetry. Quite surprising that Malice In Wonderland hasn't been covered too much, even though so much new wave music has been given attention the last years. I couldn't find it on Discogs.

The cassette shows quite some white-noise since me and my friend found this tape in a quite dusty and old state, probably in the record store since 1984. Still quite some nice wave pop-songs on it!

Get it HERE

Minafra, Reijseger, Bennink - Noci...Strani Frutti - Live at Europa Festival Jazz -1991- (CD, Leo Records), Italy/Netherlands

This is a rare CD-only release of a live concert of Italian jazz trumpeter Pino Minafra with Dutch Cellist Ernst Reijseger and Dutch drummer Han Bennink. It took place at Europa Jazz Festival di Noci somewhere in Puglia on the 14th of July, 1990. Because a lot of information is already in the booklet (click on it) I keep it short:

Minafra is an important figure in the Italian free-jazz and avant-garde improvisation scene. In 1990 he founded the Italian Instable Orchestra (IIO) to bring Italian jazz musicians closer together since many of them never played together because of the big distances between the northern and southern part of Italy. Minafra and the IIO can be compared to the Dutch Willem Breuker Kollektief (only less of a constant entity) and were a.o. indeed influenced by the Dutch improvisation and free-jazz scene. Hence this great collaboration with Ernst Reijseger (of whom I have posted other albums on the blog) and legendary impro-drummer, Fluxus artist and ICP Orchestra founder Han Bennink.

A nice slab of European free-jazz! Specially the voice parts.

Get it HERE

Pierre Courbois, Edgar M. Böhlke, Oskar Gottlieb Blarr - Free Music & Orgel -1969- (LP, Schwann AMS Studio), Germany/Holland

This record is linked to many other posts on the blog. Free Music & Orgel was a freeform endeavour to combine Christian church music with avant-garde, free-jazz and 'beat' music. The main composer behind it was the Dutch Pierre Courbois (to be found on the blog). Together with German organist Oskar Gottlieb Blarr, German narrator Edgar M. Böhlke, Dutch trumpetist Boy Raaymakers, Dutch sax player Peter van de Locht and Ferdi Rikkers on double bass a spontaneous project was recorded on October 13th and 14th, 1968 at Melanchthon-Kirche Düsseldorf and at Grote Kerk Arnhem.

This album showcases how the church tried to find new ways of connecting to the youth that was more and more being submerged in hippieness in the late sixties. An important figure in this German wave of the Christian krautrock-beat-mass genre was Nicaraguan priest-poet Ernesto Cardenal. His poems were also used on this album. Cardenal related things like the cosmic unity of the universe to Christ to use the hippie discourse for a Christian message, although politics are also important in this case.

The Christian Schwann label was quite adventurous with its releases. It also published the first two legendary Kluster albums. Somehow redemption was thought to be found in the experience of the free and abstract. But also in the popular culture, like Cardenals poem tells on this album: praise the lord of the milky ways and space between the milky ways with violins, with flutes and saxophone, praise him with blues and jazz, praise him with record players etc.

Musically I find this an amazing album where a sound reminiscent of Italian library music in the vein of Il Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza meets jazz, poetry and dark psychedelic sounds. It also comes close to the Risonanze series which I published before. It is almost a Christian take on the Dutch hyperrare cult psychedelic beat poetry album Woorden. I actually find the balance between the church organ and the church bells with the other instruments really impressive. Much more could be said about this album because it has so many implications and so many different musicians, but I'll keep the rest to you.

Highly Recommended!

Get it HERE

P.E. De Oskars - Geen Strijdbijlen Maar Trommels -1984- (Cassette), Netherlands

 

The general worldwide consensus is that the Dutch language is quite an ugly one. I wouldn't disagree with that as someone who speaks Dutch. Even for native Dutch speakers (either in Holland or Flanders) music in which they sing Dutch is often hard to stomach. Luckily there are some exceptions in our world of the odd. For example: Belgian wave band Aroma di Amore, the third album of Dutch Ultra-band Minny Pops, Mecano-member Ton Lebbink and a list of stuff from the sixties etc. 

P.E. De Oskars is a highly obscure group that fits in perfectly with all the aforementioned bands. I can't find any information on them other than that they were from Rotterdam. I don't know if they ever made more music other than this. This cassette, which translates to "No poleaxes, but drums", is a cool and exceptional EP from Holland in which new wave, rock in opposition and some crypto-ska come together. Actually the saxophone and organ really make this music a treat. The lyrics are often political and poetical in the right squatting-mentality manner of Holland in the eighties. It also reminds me of The Schismatics, The Black Sheep and more bands that were based in Rotterdam and connected to the legendary artist squats of the Quarantaineweg in the eighties. Good stuff.

Get it HERE

Theo Loevendie Consort - Chess! -1972- (LP, BASF), Netherlands

This record is most likely the first real jazz album I've put on the blog so far, but it's a real classic in its genre. Theo Loevendie is a Dutch jazz clarinetist and composer and has been one of the key figures in Dutch jazz and improvisation since the sixties. In the early seventies Loevendie created two albums under the name Theo Loevendie Consort: Chess and Mandela (both have been reissued on a CD which is also out of print).

The Theo Loevendie Consort is basically a Dutch supergroup of jazz and impro musicians. The group consisted of trombonist Willem van Manen, icon of Dutch jazz: saxophonist Hans Dulfer, bass clarinet wizard Harry Sparnaay (to be found on this blog), pianist Leo Cuypers, bass player Arjen Gorter, saxophonist Leo van Oostrom and drummer Martin van Duynhoven (who was also in Group 1850, one of the best psychedelic Dutch bands from the sixties and seventies). You can find all these musicians on countless albums over at Inconstant Sol, as well as more Loevendie stuff.

Chess! is an important album in the Dutch (free)jazz realm, but to my personal taste not the best effort you'd expect from a supergroup like this. I suppose it was hard for them to find the right balance between their melody foundations and free jazz outburst and the space everyone had within that division. But then again maybe that's exactly what they tried to do according to the liner notes, namely:  "Anthitheses, depicting a fight between worn-out traditions and the modern improvisation approach". For example the first piece chess is a nice combination of a simple happy melody and free jazz. The piece brasilia combines a Brazilian-like melody with chaotic saxophone bursts. All in all the whole is a cool example of Dutch free jazz and does grasp the groovy spirit of that particular time in Holland. Maybe it's just that one has too high expectations being confronted with a supergroup of this degree.

Get it HERE

Harry Sparnaay - Bass Clarinet Identity II -1982- (LP, Composers' Voice), Netherlands

After the first Bass Clarinet Identity I posted a while ago, we finally get to hear the second one by Dutch Bass Clarinet virtuoso Harry Sparnaay. The same circle of composers and musicians are on here creating three pieces in which the Bass Clarinet (obviously) plays the main role.

On this particular record the electronic pieces are no longer present, but are replaced by choirs and more acoustic contemporary classical composed ones. Therefore this record might be the closest to classical music on this blog. Fortunately this does not mean that the music is dull. The A-side consists of a 30 minute piece called Soirée Musicale composed by Spanish composer Enrique Raxach and invokes unexpected sound-bursts of entangled string and wind-instruments in a landscape of haunted spheres. The other pieces by Dutch composers are more minimalistic in which Sparnaay's Bass Clarinet gets more freedom to explore its possibilities. The whole is actually a bit more conventional musically, but still creates something eerie and unexpected. It's a nice continuation of the Harry Sparnaay universe on this blog.

Get it HERE

Donated by Kim

New incredible posts will be up shortly. You will love it. Stay tuned.

Ton de Leeuw - Litany Of Our Time / Clair Obscur -1986- (LP, Composers' Voice), Netherlands

Ton de Leeuw (1926 - 1996) was a Dutch composer who had studied ethnomusicology under Dutch composer Jaap Kunst (known for his studies of traditional Indonesian music in the aftermath of Dutch colonialism). De Leeuw is considered one of the most renowned modern composers of the twentieth century from Holland. He also studied in Paris under Olivier Messiaen and mystical Gurdjieff pianist Thomas de Hartmann. De Leeuw pioneered as one of the first Dutch composers to experiment with electronic sounds. This record came out for the occasion of De Leeuw's sixtieth birthday.

It contains two pieces, the first one Litany of Our Time (1969-70) is a modern composed collage of sounds and words spoken in Dutch and English. It's an interesting diverse piece sung in a sometimes very Rock In Opposition-like way. Reminding me of Sally Potter´s or Maggie Nichols' voice. The lyrics are quite cynical. From the liner notes:

"Litany is unusual among my oeuvre in that it was inspired directly by a personal experience. The subject matter of the eight tableaux chiefly derives from the 4 november 1969 issue of "The Times", purchased on that day at London Heathrow Airport to while away the time prior to departure. The backdrop against which the different scenario's unfold then, is this: the airport, a crossroads of communication, yet a place where people pass each other by like so many disembodied entities. Offsetting this we have the newspaper: the immediate source of information from the outside world and mouthpiece of reports whose reality the consciousness can scarcely grasp. 

This quality of dislocation has its counterpart in the structure of the piece. Images loom towards us, fragmented as though through a mist; texts often indistinguishably blurred; music voicing the existential isolation of modern man and the mumblings of his litany. These evocations should not, however, be interpreted in the light of an artistically slated form of reportage, a dramatisation of reality or a piece of social criticism. What "Litany" records is not so much particular events in themselves but the manner in which our minds absorb them; minds divorced from a capacity for true fellowship with the outside world and a meaningful communication with fellow humanity at large. The instrumental component is not designed for background effect, but represents a voice in its own right."

The second piece is an electronic one which title refers to a characteristic of the work of Dutch painter Rembrandt.

Get it HERE

Donated by Kim 

Formatory Apparatus - Archive (2014, Polytechnic Youth)

Sorry for the hiatus on this blog, I have been very busy lately, but I still have new posts coming up soon so keep looking out for them. Furthermore I'd like to announce the release of my first ever record that comes out tomorrow 1st of october on Polytechnic Youth. This first archive album is supposed to be a warm up for the real release later on Deep Distance, sublabel of The Great Pop Supplement. Please check out these labels if you want to discover some contemporary off the radar bands that are absolutely amazing.

Formatory Apparatus - Archive consists of jamssessions and early bedroom experiments I did between 2011 and 2013 more or less (can't exactly remember). It has a fully analog minimal synth, electronic-kraut motorik style sound fueled by teenage angst and was previously recorded on a bunch of cassettes. No computers or midi-control was used in the making of the songs.

The "Archive" vinyl will be strictly limited to a 100 copies so grab it while you can over at Polytechnic Youth.

LAST COPIES AVAILABLE HERE:

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/150097-formatory-apparatus-archive- 

-SOLD OUT-

Thanks for staying tuned in to the blog!

Bence

https://soundcloud.com/the-formatory-apparatus

Variëté Royal - Same -198X- (Tape, Kino-Tone), Netherlands

I guess it can't get any more obscure than this. I've got no clue who contributed to this or was behind this cassette. I'm not even sure about the name, but it has Variëté Royal written on the insert. The only thing I know is that it comes from the city Maastricht in the complete south of the Netherlands. Kino-Tone was a label that was affiliated to Friet Records, a small independent label which published some punk and post-punk cassettes and singles in the early and mid-eighties. You can find some of those releases over here.

This cassette might have some connection with the VEC-exchange which also hailed from Maastricht, but I'm not sure. You could only obtain those cassettes by means of exchanging your own music on tape for one of the volumes. Then they would put some of your music on the next tape so the cycle would keep going. There is an excellent article over here about that project and you can get them all over here on the official website.

The music on this Kino-Tone tape ranges from processed Casio VL-1 sounds to some proper jamsession song-stuff and electro-acoustic experiments all drenched in a nice portion of surface noise. It's a classic home-taping recording which has some really nice highlights. My personal one is this excerpt below which sounds very close to some total wacky Ptôse like jam. I did not separate the tracks as I felt it was intended as a whole.

Enjoy!

Rasta Robert - 60 x '90 -19XX- (Tape), Holland

First of all: This is not Reggae... Nor even Dub. Rasta Robert is an obscure figure, part of the dutch home-taping culture. One of his releases from 1986 can be found here. The first song on that cassette is called "Almelo Klerestad" which means something like "Almelo Shit-City": he must be from there. It's a weird example of how neo-hippie-ism with some rastafari flirtation can be intermingled with a DIY and punk attitude. Rasta Robert was also featured on the Dutch compilation Transistors & Chips / E-Lok 1111 alongside other acts like Dier, Absolute Body Control, Doc Wör Mirran and Kapotte Muziek.

But I guess Rasta Robert never really felt at place amongst the Dutch DIY noise/industrial tapers. This release that we have here really shows a complete other type of sound. I don't know when it was released, but I assume it was during the early or mid-nineties. Rasta Robert also had his own website at the beginning of the 00's adressing things from snare theory to Albert Hofmann, which is a quite good illustration of trying to understand the figure of Rasta Robert. Also he seems somewhat related to the Dutch hippie village Ruigoord near Amsterdam that was squatted in the seventies.I don't know how many copies of this cassette were made, but I guess just a couple.

The music is weird electronics combined with early nineties new age and ethno influences (complete with didgeridoo pieces, bird sounds and such). It's really crazy actually and pretty good, a sort of neue-dada-ethno-welle if you like. Other comparable acts that come to mind soundwise are If, Bwana and Rimarimba, although they are far better known and from their context probably not really comparable. It also sounds a bit like of some of the releases on Dutch home-taping label Zimbo. The most accurate description that I can give in respect to the sound is this: imagine you're at a small local neo-psychedelic hippie-festival where during the night you would have psytrance dance parties. You'd probably look for a place with something more decent to experience. Suddenly you'd walk in somewhere where a guy with minimalistic equipment would actually do something interesting live and you'd be gladdened to have found this. As for the rest: you'd probably wouldn't want to know the act's name.

Get the tape HERE

Tox Modell - Groote Keyser 21-3-81 -1981- (Lebel Period 313, One-Sided Cassette), Holland

Tox Modell is one the most important, if not most known Dutch bands, from the so called Ultra movement or period that existed from 1980 until 1981. They existed alongside groups like Minny Pops, Nexda and The Young Lions. Tox Modell was founded at the beginning of 1980 in Amsterdam by Andre Bach, Arjen Schrama, Mark Tegefoss and Bob Pieck later replaced by Xavier Martin. They played without drums, so the music would be entirely based on a burst of cacaphonic energy.

This cassette contains a live show they played at the notorious Squat "Groote Keyser" in Amsterdam which back then functioned somewhat like the headquarters for the Amsterdam squat scene. Good thing is that the show was recorded and partially to be seen here. 

This recording contains pretty much the same songs as some of their other live releases to be found here and here. Andre Bach and Mark Tegefoss later started a project called Det Wiehl which you can find here. Nowadays they still have a great project called Deneuve and have made some releases that are really nice and still in print.

Get the tape HERE

Vovokai - No Title (1st Cassette) -198X-, Holland

Six years ago, No Longer Forgotten Music started uncovering all obscurities from the Dutch DIY cassette underground. Among them releases from the city of Eindhoven in the south of The Netherlands. Vovokai was a band from Eindhoven too, consisting of Paul Verwilligen and Edwin van Eck. Although nothing visually proves that this silver spray-painted cassette is Vovokai, you'll have to believe my words. Moreover, it's the first untitled one mentioned by Frans de Waard's Nederlandse Cassette Catalogus (Dutch cassette catalogue) and quite rare since probably only a hundful have survived.

This Vovokai release must be from the early eighties, but about exact dates I don't have a clue. The band was closely related and intermingled with Eindhoven's guerilla artists association 6de Kolonne and belonged to the same scene as Baader Pop Gruppe, MTVS, Zwoek and others. Most of them are to be found here and here. The 6de Kolonne still exists today as an artists collective. Edwin van Eck later moved on with a solo project called Zombies Under Stress.

As for the music: It's a typically DIY impro noise thing, but has certain elements which makes it a real treat. Drenched in guitar primitivism, repetitiveness and electronic manupulations, Vovokai seems to create sounds that are reminiscent of other groups from the Dutch cassette culture underground like Solenoid (to be found on this blog), but also bands like Campingsex and occasionally hinting at something that could as well be a very early Sonic Youth demo. I have tried to seperate some tracks, but I'm not sure how it's intended to be. I have a strong feeling that the B Side was intended to be one whole piece. But then again, what is the B side? Anyway, listen to it yourself!

Highly Recommended!

Get it HERE

 

Solenoid - Norey Games -1982- (Tape, Private Release), Holland

I'm very happy to announce this post. Peer Saer, one of the members of Solenoid has been so kind to tell the story of the band and reveal a somewhat forgotten history within the field of dutch hometaping and DIY-underground:

Solenoid was an experimental pop group from Harderwijk, the Netherlands. Expressing their amplified waves through music and disturbed sounds. They were active as a band in 1981 - 1982. Starting as a trio with guitar, bass, voice, organ, rhytm box. More terrestials became involved in their works. Expanded with drums, crackle box, toy instruments, trumpet, saxophone  and manipulated tapes. They were a live band, and involved in cassette culture. Rooted in psychedelic freaked-out pothead pixies underworld. Taking inspiration from those-were-the days-styles such as no wave, industrial music, the experimental expressions of Deutsche Welle, as well as early futurist art. The core members were closely connected with De Fabriek. The first Solenoid tape was in fact a collaboration with De Fabriek.

Occasional airplay on Dutch FM radio was given by VPRO's RadioNome. The Radiola Salon was also a FM radio outlet for Solenoid. Amazing free radio shows organized and presented by Willem de Ridder.

Solenoid received some exposure in Vinyl magazine: ... The music mostly comes about through improvisations and recorded on tape without overdubs.Before playing they agree on a key, but the final results are based on coincidence. Music means feelings to them. Something you don't figure out in advance ... Their first performance in the Effenaar as supporting act for Nasmak aroused mixed reactions ...

The band performed in Octopus with Doxa Sinistra during one of the [forgotten] Ultra nights in 1982. Other performances took place in Walhalla - Deventer, and in their squated homebase Het Moeras - Harderwijk. Their last concert was in Gallery Het Langhuis - Zwolle during the Elettrico Tempo exhibition along with De Fabriek, ERA_ORA, Nexda, Wolf P. Rillings, and others at the end of 1982.  

                                                        Het Moeras - Harderwijk

Discography:

De Fabriek - Solenoid goes Fabriek: 1981 De Fabriek Records & Tapes Fabprod 3 (Here)

Solenoid - Silex Hippopola: 1982 New Bulwark Records & Tapes (Here)

Solenoid - Norey Games: 1982 private release

Audio Exchange Compilation: 1983 Soft Joke Prod Tapes & Records

Solenoid Superfar: circa 1986 De Fabriek Records & Tapes (Here)

Norey Games is a tape that has never been shared before in any way on the net! It was distributed only among invitees during a private release party in the summer of 1982. The tracks are mostly compiled from their live performances and alternated with tape experiments.

Get it HERE 

A forgotten cassette of Peer Saer's project Insecticide might follow shortly. Stay tuned!

The Formatory Apparatus - Gentle Crisis -2013- (Tape)

I'm very happy to announce my first cassette release called Gentle Crisis.

The artwork is made by Kim David Bots.

Edition of 20 with small handmade booklet. 

If you want to order one either write me a message or contact Kim here.

Price: 8,- (Euro) - postage not included

https://soundcloud.com/the-formatory-apparatus

-SOLD OUT-