Merry Christmas to all friends and followers of the blog!
Is that an image of the Brooklyn Bridge with the Twin Towers in New York? Can't really figure out the angle of the photo though. Ofcourse those towers were already there decades before they got used to scam us into the new millennium. But whether this image is a correct depiction of the skyline is quite unclear. Actually it doesn't really matter. All we care for is that those UFO's high up there in the sky were real! The rest is basically constructed around them. Skyscrapers, UFO's, modern metropoles: some key signs of the future in one depiction. Needless to say that within such a vision Thomas Girke from West-Berlin created a wonderful and futuristic soundtrack.
Elektronik Musik is a piece of Berlin School analog electronics on the synth-pop and minimal synth side of the spectrum. Analog arpeggiators, keyboard melodies, electronic syncopations and drum computer rhythms take us on a neon-light disco journey across the elektronik sky by way of China Town into synthetic dreams in time and space.
Quick get on board of the UFO! I heard those aliens have a space dancefloor and they are spinning some Italo disco records. Might have heard some Patrick Cowley and Stratis up there in the sky. Is that Magic Fly by Space now?! Abandon earth!
Bicycle Repair Man was a one-man home-taping project from the Southern Dutch city of Venray. I think it was a self-released project that was eventually distributed by the Red Rat Recordings cassette label from Utrecht that was created by Otto Grunbauer. The label had quite an extensive catalogue during its run, releasing many compilations as well as music by Merzbow, F/i and many others. However I'm not entirely sure how this cassette ended up on the label.
I assume the name Bicycle Repair Man was taken from a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, but who knows. The music consists of primitive analog electronics, Casio VL-Tone sounds, field recordings, cut-ups, radio fragments and other lost and found sounds in the the true home-taping spirit of the time. The opening piece Life In Berlin starts with John F. Kennedy's iconic speech from 1963 over some paranoid synth-patterns. Eventually the track alters into a cover of the Minny Pops' song R.U. 21?Minny Pops were a Dutch, Amsterdam based post-punk group and cornerstone act of the so called Ultra-scene. They were the only band in Dutch history that was signed to Factory Records during the 80's. The fact that songs by them were covered by home-tapers is another testimony to their influential music.
On the last track of this cassette by Bicycle Repair Man we learn that he also sent music to the Radiola Improvisatie Salon radio program
which played a hugely important role for the home-taping scene in The
Netherlands at the time. It was created by Dutch media wizard, fluxus artist and underground cult-figure Willem de Ridder. The idea of Radiola was that every tape that was sent to the radio
show would be played without being heard in advance. A very unorthodox
and adventurous approach that sometimes led to the discovery of unknown
musicians and which simultaneously gave people who were playing music in their bedroom the
feeling that their music was of importance because they were being played on national radio.
Bicycle Repair Man is another highly obscure project from the Dutch cassette culture of the 80's. It reminds me a bit of the electronic experiments by Arthur Berkhoff.
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.
Here we have another obscurity from the vast Dutch home-taping realm of the 80's. It Is Not A... is a totally unknown project that doesn't give any information other than that it was played by AF + Adulaar. The dark cover artwork that is hidden inside the uniformic beige cassette case only adds to the mysterious nature of this release. There is no year of publication given, nor any indication given about the place where this was made and there's no tracklist.
The minimalist nature of the artwork is also reflected in the music of It Is Not A... Basically the tracks revolve around the drum sounds of the Roland TR-606 in combination with simple basslines that are accompanied by analog synthesizers, voice and tape collage. Another example of a minimal synth bedroom production that stresses simplicity as a protagonist artistic means. It also reflects the cold signature sound approach of the 80's. A total mystery from the Drumatix shadow world...
We advice to play this cassette with loudness, it will give an uncomfortable but paradisiac nerve-shaking ambience to the sound.
I figured that we're not going to end this month without some heavier hitting tunes for your living room/bedroom dancefloor (the only one that matters anyway). The Final Curtain is a project I have no information about, nor does the cassette reveal anything else than a plastic inlay displaying an abstract drawing with strange symbols or initials. It's a super obscurity from the Dutch home-taping era that only gives us a title and a year of release on the outer cassette case.
The fragile tape contains two great synth-wave tracks belonging to that outer space alien dancefloor realm where twinkling stars far above us prove us there must be more than this... An analog electronic sound shared by a few other Dutch acts from those days like Ende Shneafliet or No Honey From These. Perhaps some of these forces also forecasted the Dutch electro sound that would arise many years later through labels like Bunker or Viewlexx.
More lost minimal synth melancholia from the electric 80's cradle.
Here's another highly obscure cassette release from the American underground. Out of a mixture of lagging electronics, dark vocals, minimal synth experimentation and flashy guitarwork arises the world of Eulipian. By the end of the cassette we learn that the name Eulipian was taken from a Rahsaan Roland Kirk suite called Theme For The Eulipions. In any case, the music of Eulipian definitely belongs to that American underground feeling of the 80's where the nightlife soundtrack consists of a cocktail of no-wave, disco, punk, Detroit techno, industrial experimentation,funk etc.
Somewhere in that underground we meet Eulipian who slowly turns us into Eulipians with an intimate and hypnotic mix of tracks that comprises of fatalistic underground punky-junkie beatnik mumbling over dark and sleazy synthesized dream-realms with lots of weird electronics, experiments and collaged sounds. It all grows into each other and the entire cassette can be seen as one long trip. The Eulipian one man project kind of resembles Foetus, but is musically closer to an American home-taper like John Lafia.
I have no idea whether the title of this is Heetseeker or Leisure Fear, but let's use them both. I also don't know who was behind the Eulipian moniker or to which part of America this belongs. I left the one-sided cassette unindexed as I felt that the continuity of the music was intentional.
It would be nice to know if more Eulipian music exists. Mysterious, strange and atmospheric. Probably also the good stuff when listening under the influence.
Here is another totally obscure compilation of cassette-culture from The Netherlands on Truuktape (Trick Tapes). It compiles Dutch and Belgian home-taping artists of which some are known and others have sank into obscurity. Present on the compilation are: Unovidual (Flemish home-taper Henk Wallays who played great minimal synth), Totallos, Zyklon B, Oefening Kunstbaardt (mythical Rotterdam project that released one of the most sought after 7 inches of the Dutch minimal synth underground), Johan Schaaphok, Bert vd Kerk, Jan vd Einden and Lorraine.Tru.
It's a great compilation that really displays the Dutch underground zeitgeist of the period. Half of it is electronic minimal synth experimentation and the other half is collage and experimental tunes with subversive poetry and such. On the B-Side there is a moment that we hear the Dutch former queen Beatrix speak to the parliament about the greatness of the country. Within the Dutch squatting scene and punk circles it was very common to ridicule the monarchy. During her inaugaration in 1980 a war broke out on the streets of Amsterdam between squatters and the state. The riots were known as Geen Woning, Geen Kroning, meaning No House, No Coronation. Even the Dutch army had to intervene at a certain point. It was a time when alternative lifestyles and anti-authoritarianism were peaking in Holland, the legendary Staaltape shop (dedicated to DIY cassettes) was right around the corner of the Royal Palace on the Dam Square of Amsterdam and half of the city was squatted and inhabited by underage punks and junkies. A moment of a no-future mentality, nearly no employment for the youth plus the threat of nuclear warfare between the big East and West powers.
Truuktapes apparently hailed from Amsterdam and did this great compilation combining the forces of the musical DIY-attitude from those days and capturing a certain mentality just by using the right political and poetic sound bits and pieces. A way of undermining control, sharing a certain mentality with the listener and displaying the little means you need to be creative. This truly shows the power of the home-taping scene and the cassette as medium. You start playing the cassette and you get surprised by a collage of musical madness of empowering nature that you can tap into immediately and contribute to the same day. It's not made to be the greatest music, it's a message.
I left this cassette unindexed in its A and B side because there is no tracklist available and I don't know which band is which. Also in its statement as a collage of many sounds and tracks I present this here in its purest cassette form. As a compilation. Without knowing what to expect. It reminds me a bit of the pirate radio squat tape I uploaded a long time ago.
"I plant a knife in the ribcage of conscience, in the twist of thought of the executive power of the constitution, let's tolerate the fellow man like we were once cherished by the motherboard of desire. Let's cut the throat of the damage that always disposes us. Let's humiliate ourselves by self-destruction and torments of our souls. Let's become crazy and give ourselves to institutions or to the Russians near the Maas River. Give me a gun and I'll kill the queen and hurt morals.... etc".
The shock effect in writing is the impotence of poetry.
Betty Arden is an Amsterdam based musician and home-taper who released a couple of cassettes during the 80's. As a skilled multi-instrumentalist her musical output has been a combination of folk, new wave, minimal synth, ambient soundscapes and gloomy pop. I'm not sure whether Movements was her first release but I do know that some other cassettes came out later than this one, like her album Music for Films. In 1986 she also contributed a track to one of the mythical Oscar's X-Mas Carols compilations, which were created and compiled by Dutch music journalist and cassette expert Oscar Smit. During the 80's he wrote informative reviews about newly released cassettes for the Dutch music magazine Vinyl.
On Movements we hear great inventive and gloomy compositions (she plays all instruments by herself) quite reminiscent of the ethereal sound of groups on the 4AD label (Dead Can Dance etc.). That sound is comprised a.o. of electronic atmospheric elements, melodic acoustic guitar structures in combination with melancholic songwriting and other folk elements. It's a certain new wave sound of the 80's that was more composed in its musical approach, but also found different interesting ways of merging the atmospheric pieces with songs and composition all together on one album.
In that light Betty Arden's music also incorporates those elements, but she also shows she can be playful with her melodies and the usage of minimal synth sounds. Her compositions remind me somewhat of The Durutti Column or Deux Filles, but also of the Dutch new wave group Qua Dance I posted years ago. But ofcourse there are many examples in that musical realm.
It's always good to shed light on a female home-taper of whom we didn't hear much so far! I had to take a picture of the inner cover from a certain angle to reveal the information, because I couldn't get a right scan of that peculiar golden cover.
I'd like to take the opportunity to inform you about a few developments related to music, the blog and my own activities.
First:
Next month on May the 22nd a stunning vinyl compilation is being released by the Belgian StroomTV label that focuses on the musical output of Dutch home-taper Hessel Veldman (Y Create). I'm honored that I was asked by both the Label and Hessel Veldman to write the liner notes for this particular release. Hessel Veldman is also of great help to this blog and someone I consider as a musical mentor so I hope some of you will keep an eye on that release. Pre-orders are here: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/eigen-boezem
Second:
Next month on May the 25th another vinyl reissue will be released by the new and highly promising Futura Resistenza label. It's the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques van Erven's Tunes & Scenery (Hard To Whistle). Van Erven is a Dutch multi-instrumentalist and artist who made this unclassifiable and incredible cassette in the 80's. Also in this case I am very honored to have written the liner notes. Definitely keep an eye on the future releases of this label too. You can pre-order your copy here: https://futuraresistenza.bandcamp.com/album/jacques-van-erven-tunes-scenery-hard-to-whistle-lp
Third:
My long time friends Oscar Olias and Matas Labašauskas from Berlin and Vilnius (creators of the Empty Brain Resort, Sucked Orange Gallery, Braille Satellite Festival and what not) have started a new label called Bigbandalone. They just released a marvelous double vinyl by the German home-taping duo Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide (Dieter Mauson and Siegmar Fricke) that existed during the late 80's and early 90's. These recordings show another missing link of music that was bridging the gap between the home-taping culture and the psychedelic dance-trance infusion that was rapidly seeking its way into the nervous system of the 90's. The vinyl compiles 28 tracks selected from 14 tapes. Find it here: https://www.bigbandalone.com/
Last:
Lately, by the kind grace of others, but also because of years of doing this blog I got a great opportunity to share yet more material with all of you. But because most of this material is Dutch, the overall consistency of the blog will perhaps be less varied. Ofcourse I will do the best I can to keep Archaic Inventions as international as possible in terms of content, but don't be surprised to see more Dutch tapes passing by here: I don't think it will underwhelm.
But enough with the talks. Enjoy the music! Stay safe and sane out there! - Bence AI
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!
Here's another obscurity from the Polish home-taping circuit from behind the Iron Curtain. This time it's a split-cassette between the American act Detachment created by Craig Coe from Dayton, Ohio recorded between '86 and '88 and McMarian one of Poland's great industrial home-taping acts created by Marcin Bednarski and Piotr Kalinowski from the city Kraków.
It's an interesting fact that this isn't just a Polish cassette and that the members of McMarian were somehow able to share and receive music material over the borders of the socialist state, even if the political system was in its very last stage before the collapse. The Polish home-taping scene had been created by necessity since these type of bands were unable to release their music officially, nevertheless one can see that they did have ties with the international cassette culture. Cienie, meaning shadows, is a vivid example of this mechanism, that through its "secret" distribution had much more meaning than just having a taste for particular music. It's part of an unclassifiable almost non-existing area where art opened up a place for individuals who could gain some autonomy through their marginalized practices to counter the political and cultural programming of the totalitarian regime.
I can't find much info on the Detachment project from the US, but it somehow reminds me of the minimal synth sounds of Patrick Gibson from Australia. A very nice combination of experimental sounds and rhythmic industrial minimal synth. The tracks by McMarian have an even stronger foundation in rhythmic industrial music creating loops of manipulated rhythms in combination with samples. Specially the last tracks on the tape remind me of the primitive era of Esplendor Geométrico from Spain or the early Australian industrial act Mesh.
Actually the music is quite nice, unfortunately it's buried under a thick layer of white noise. I tried to digitize this several times to get a better sound (dolby, no dolby, equalizing etc.), until I found out it will just turn out to be like this. With renaming files and cutting I've spent four hours on this tape. The opening track by Detachment also starts low in volume and then starts to peak later on. Anyway, that's one of the things with those obscure tapes from Eastern Europe from the 80's, the quality is not that high. But because of its background and totally different cultural and technical circumstances the music should be appreciated in its lo-fi nature as a testament of the underground. It actually sounds better directly from cassette, as if the music has become one with its medium.
About a year ago a couple of hundred of tapes from an old collection came into my hands. Most of them were self-recorded copies of existing albums, mostly vinyl, that someone had been copying throughout the 80's. The majority of the music on these cassettes did consist of weird new wave, experimental and industrial music. I started to devide the tapes into different sections, the exact recorded copies of albums I put away in one box and the unknown cassettes without any written information on them I stored away in another box to examine. I also threw away dozens of tapes that were poor in quality and had nothing to do with underground music in general. Even now I still have some bags left with the unknown cassettes. I still have to listen to them and figure out what is on there.
In-between all of this stuff there was a self-made series that consisted of overdubs of rare NDW cassettes all with typewriter style titles and tracklisting. Because of that information I could luckily connect this one here to its original: a release I had been looking for over at least a decade. Thus, the digitization of this is somewhat less sharp sounding because I had to use a copy as source. Nevertheless we should be very happy that someone copied this rarity in 1981 for us to hear today! It doesn't seem likely this will surface any time soon in any sound quality (also with regard to the collectors who do seem to have this).
The Westhafen Plassette (Platte und Kassette) is a true relic and highly important item of the West-Berlin underground music scene of the early 80's. Released in a scarse edition of only 200 copies this three-way split release, that consisted of a 7 inch vinyl and a cassette, compiled three underground groups hailing from Berlin: Bodenpersonal, Tumorbeus (Read: Tumorboys), and Siedlerheim. It came out on the obscure cult label Kompakt Produkte from Berlin. The music consists of some of the purest experimental minimal synth and DIY new-wave music in the tradition of the grey and wall-divided Berlin music underground of the time:
Bodenpersonal with their Zufallsprodukt Eines Langweiligen Wochenendes (Chance product of a boring weekend) was recorded in a factory in Berlin in 1980 and consists of great minimal synth and DIY-music improvisation.
Tumorbeus create such abstract synthesizer driven atmospheres that the
music almost becomes techno-like, mindblowingly ahead of its time to say
the least. I really wonder whether they did more music in those days.
They also remind me a bit of the Studio 12 bands from Haarlem, The Netherlands from the early 80's with bands like Nexda and Cargo Cultus.
Siedlerheim seems to be the more traditional NDW group, but also ventures into electronic experimentation. They have more structured tracks with vocals and even incorporate the occassional saxophone burst. Maybe their sound is actually the most representative West-Berliner sound of the time. An energy that was also captured strongly in the Berlin Super 80 film, that gathered underground music and performance video's recorded on Super 8 Film by different artists from Berlin during the 80's (I will add that video below. Update: the video has been removed). Both Bodenpersonal and Siedlerheim have been re-released more than a
decade ago by the great WSDP label specialized in rare NDW cassettes.
Some of the tracks that are on the Westhafen Plassette were also compiled by WSDP, just not
everything. The Westhafen Plassette is partially a musical time-document but it also displayed its avant-garde vision of futuristic musical possibilities beyond the political barriers of the bleak urban landscape and society of Berlin at that time. It stands closely next to many other important underground bands from Berlin of the time like Kompakt Produkte peerband Thorax Wach, Notorische Reflexe, Die Tödliche Doris, Sentimentale Jugend, Malaria!, Einstürzende Neubauten, An Die Schwarze Kunst, Sprung Aus Den Wolken and many more. Both in instrumentation and energy very strong. Those analog machines in combination with this urgency to experiment really resulted in some of the greatest music in general it seems.
It's nice to post this on the blog since 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. If you would like to dig deeper into the theme of the underground music history of Berlin I really recommend the book Berlin Calling, A story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin by Paul Hockenos (2017).
A long story this time, anyway... could have saved this one for Christmas, but I have so much more to share on the blog... Enjoy! Sturm und Turm!
Here we have another (and also last) of the Exart compilations that had a country as their theme. Exart was the tape-label by Hessel Veldman aka Y Create. He used to be one of the key figures in the home-taping network of the 80's releasing and collaborating with numerous musicians. Besides the Y Create project he was in the band Gorgonzola Legs and did many collaborations with his wife Nick Nicole, Cora and fluxus artist and Dutch underground cult-figure Willem de Ridder.
De Ridder also had his Radiola Improvisatie Salon radio program which played a hugely important role for the home-taping scene in The Netherlands. The idea was that every tape that was sent to the radio show would be played without being heard in advance. A very unorthodox and adventurous approach that sometimes led to the discovery of jaw-dropping musical pearls of unknown musicians. Music From The White House Volume 2: It's A British Treat consists of different English artists (as well as an Irish one) who were mainly active in the home-taping circuit. Most of the cassette comprises of projects by Steve Hartwell who played music under many different guises like The Dead Goldfish Ensemble and The High Tech Pagoda's. Then there is Dave Arnold (a multimedia artist from Essex who used to run the Dead Happy Records label during the 80's) under his project The Starkman as well as a track of his post-punk group Turn Blue. Also Rob Baylis is present under his disguise The Detective and many other artists.
Like many of the Exart compilations the A-side shows more poppy home-taping tracks and the B-Side more sonic experiments. Other Music From the White House volumes are here and here.
Here we have a great lo-fi 80's synth-pop cassette by the strange outfit Tenkh Ric Snach. The group appeared marginally on less than a handful of home-taping compilations during the 80's, but I have never seen a full cassette by them until now. I couldn't decipher where they are from, on the one hand they sound very much like many home-taping and wave groups from the United States. Those often had a slightly more commercial approach to their DIY electronic sound in combination with utterly demented vocals and maddening compositions. On the other hand Tenkh Ric Snach finishes of this cassette with a track called In Österreich, which could also mean they were from Austria (probably they were because the voice and accent are very Austrian). Besides this I don't know the year of the release. I will need the help from all of you to find all the correct information.
The cassette is a bit fragile and recorded in a very lo-fi manner, the volume didn't even have a real punch. The presented sound quality here is as good as it gets. It will probably appeal more to the real lo-fi music lovers, but beneath the sound quality are cleverly created minimal synth songs that are very poppy (also lyrics-wise) a little absurd and furthermore nice to hear. In line with what I wrote before it could musically either be close to US bands like Tone Set or Los Microwaves but it can also be closer to some of the German language territory resembling a group like The Dancing Chromosomes. I don't think many of these tapes were made. Not on Discogs.
Amusing lo-fi minimal synth-pop songs nicely matured on cassette for many years. A minimal synth mystery!
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.
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
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.
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!
Even though 'low-key' this was already digitized I figured to rip this anyway to shed some more light on this band since the music is really good, sometimes even better stuff than some of the wave reissues that came out throughout the years.
Sukursaal were a Dutch wave band (Nederwave) consisting of Marc de Reus, Maarten de Reus, Marijke Bruggink and other collaborators. They made this one cassette that came out on the Pion Tapes label from Delft (a small picturesque city in between The Hague and Rotterdam where for example famous Dutch painter Johnannes Vermeer was born). Pion Tapes also released the new wave band La Peste that was posted on No Longer Forgotten Music ages ago.
Sukursaal played interesting poppy new wave music that displayed a classic Dutch wave sound, synthetic minimal synth tracks, but also used funky basslines and a jazzy impro sound. The Dutchness is emphasized in tracks like 'Dikes (Protect Me)' where the lyrics are: "Dikes protect me from being washed under", yep most of Holland is still under sea level and we really need those dikes.
The music reminds me a lot of the Rotterdam band Dojoji, of electro-jazz outfit Niew Hip Stilen, but also of Malice In Wonderland (just a lot less batcave style of new wave). The tracks are quite distinct from each other and also quite clean because of the studio recording production. The highlights are the tracks with female vocals and the electronic ones.
Many many more Dutch tapes from the home-taping era still to come to the blog this year!
Broken Paws was a solo project of one Richard Reynols from Calgary, Canada. On this only self-titled cassette he plays a variety of different instruments in combination with electronic drum computers and synthesizers, creating over an hour long cassette full of minimal synth and experimental home-taping tracks.
I guess in a way some tracks carry a similar zeitgeist of other minimal synth artists from Canada in the eighties like Ohama, Ceramic Hello, or Lou Champagne System. Still I think that Broken Paws has a much stronger experimental DIY approach to it, not afraid to move far away from the common sounds of the overly known corporate analog gear doing a new wave pop-song (although some tracks come close).
There is a lot more insane manipulation, cinematic sound improvisation and the creative blend of instruments in the form of analog synthesizers with a clarinet or a music box. In a way atmospherically it stands much closer to the tape-album of Canadian artist Edie Steiner but it also has a feeling of stuff like Unovidual, Á Suivre or Brobat Enema.
Anyway, it's still quite a good and varied release with some nice minimal synth, new wave and home-taping experiments. Also it has a lovely art work. The cassette has been digitized before as part of the Noise-Arch Archive, but the first ten minutes of that particular tape were damaged and absent, so hereby I can present it in its entirety!
