It has been a while (for several reasons) but here it goes again. Vol Sec (originally Voluntary Sector) was a post-punk outfit from Brighton that emerged from the band The Parrots in late 1979 or early 1980. The band consisted of Les Phillips (drums), Brenda Robinson (vocals), Rick Blair (guitar, vocals, synth), Colin Murray (bass), Jay Derrick (keyboards, synth, vocals), Nick Wells (guitar) and Tom White (trumpet). Rick Blair was simultaneously running Attrix Records (which also was a record store).
Vol Sec was embedded in a larger local scene of punk, post-punk and new
wave groups. The main underground venue for this music scene in Brighton was The Vault. Other venues where punk gigs took place were the
Alhambra and the Buccaneer. Vol Sec's song Love (Sic) was used as the
signature tune for Radio Brighton's weekly programme featuring Brighton
bands, which went out during 1980-1981. The Vol Sec sound is a nice mixture of post-punk and new-wave funk.
More information on the entire scene in Brighton at the time is to be found here.
Next up on the blog is this quite mysterious project from the 90's called The PamelA Mind B.and which was created by Mark Reeve. I'm guessing that he hailed from Wales because one of the tracks was recorded live at the "Bell In" in Gwynedd. The music is quite noisy and consists of long improvised electronic soundscapes and radio cut-ups combined with other distorted sounds generated through various pedals and machines. The music is being introduced at the start of the tape as a sonic search for a so called "third shadow side" of the cassette through the exploration of its sounds, hence the title 3rd Side Experiments.
Even though a lot has been done in this particular field of music it does have a dreamlike and surrealist touch to it. It reminds me somewhat of the Canadian act Dust That Collects that was posted on the blog some time ago. The PamelA Mind B.and was featured on a tape compilation during the 90's but I'm not sure whether more material was released.
In any case another fine DIY cassette with some nice plunderphonics-bruitist-table-full-of-equipment-noise-music from the last decade of the last century.
On the treshold of the end of this 16th of October I thought it's nice to share this Clock DVA live rarity that was recorded in Holland on the 16th of October of 1983.
Clock DVA is ofcourse the brainchild of Adi Newton, a subversive band from Sheffield named after the Russian gang-slang influences in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. A band that was very impactful and influential in the shaping of the English (industrial?) sound of the 80's. They started off by releasing home experiments on cassettes in 1978 and gradually evolved into a proper band with members that had played with Cabaret Voltaire, members that later joined Heaven 17 as well as The Box to name a few bands. Throughout various periods in the 80's Clock DVA played dance powered new wave and post-punk music guided by feedback, dark vocals, tapeloops, a complex rhythm section as well as treated trumpet sounds and other experimenation. From 1983 Newton founded a new band called The Anti-Group (T.A.G.C.) that was even more about sonic experiments, audiovisual elements, clustering self created industrial jazz sounds, electronic extremes, technological research, psychology, human nature and different unusual cosmologies with each other. By the late 80's and even the last decades of this century Clock DVA returned with mostly EBM and electro sounds accompanied by various hypnotic audiovisual live experiences.
During the so called "band-phase" Clock DVA played many concerts throughout Europe. In The Netherlands they found quite some following and played many gigs including the first edition of the legendary Pandora's Music Box Festival in Rotterdam. Apparently the same year they played a concert at the venue De Gigant in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn, which was nicely recorded and unofficially, yet beautifully, released on a self-designed and hand-painted limited cassette that came with different unique photographs of the gig.
On this occassion the band consisted of Adi Newton (Voice and Trumpet), John Valentine Carruthers (Guitar), Paul Browse, (Saxophone, Keys), Dean Dennis (Bass) and Nick Sanderson (Drums). The recording vividly captures the pre-show ambience of the night, the live concert and a vibrant audience. A nice relic and another rarity that might be of interest to Clock DVA fans of all sorts.
As
some of you might know the important English record producer and
recording engineer Ken Thomas has sadly passed away a couple of days ago.
After some reflections on his legacy and talking with a blog friend we
decided to give attention to an obscure solo album that he released in 1980. It
wasn't really to be found somewhere and after a bit of searching
somebody was kind enough to provide the album.
Ken Thomas had an important role working as a recording engineer for a wide range of influential bands from the 80's onwards. He was involved with bands like Psychic TV (Force The Hand Of Chance, Dreams Less Sweet - which he recorded Holophonically), 23 Skidoo, Clock DVA, The Cocteau Twins, The Sugarcubes, Sigur Ros and many many more. Some of the early music he worked on was released through the British Fetish Records. A music label that started out by re-releasing Throbbing Gristle's The Second Annual Report and later publishing iconic tribal industrial and post-punk bands from England.
The
fact that Thomas created an album of his own in 1980 is somewhat lesser
known, specially in the light of all the music productions he was
involved with. Beat The Light is a collection of minimalist
electronic and experimental tracks that he recorded between
1973 and 1979. It's another example of the early industrial, electronic
experimental sound from England. The music is reminsicent of a.o. primitive Cabaret Voltaire, the experiments of Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, early Clock DVA or even some of the cassette works by Colin Potter. A nice obscurity of British DIY music.
Earth's Epitaph were an anarcho new wave and post-punk group from the surroundings of the city of Cwmbran in the South of Wales created by Chris, Ray and Jayne. Earth's Epitaph recorded two
'official' demo's of which "Release" is their first one. They also
contributed some songs to a couple of compilations during the
mid-eighties. You can find their second release in a previous blogpost.
The music of Earth's Epitaph seems to have a rather conventional new-wave sound at first, but
is definitely rooted in the same political UK anarcho punk spirit of
bands like Crass, The Apostles or Omega Tribe.
The songs are dealing with environmentalism, animal rights, anti-fascism and anti-militarism. The music sounds a bit like
the Young Marble Giants if they would have incorporated the political spirit of an anarcho-punk band like Poison Girls
Since the music of Earth's Epitaph was released as a demo cassette it has quite some strong white noise on the surface of the recording. Nevertheless the combination of inventive minimalist rhythm box driven song-writing, simple casio keyboard melodies and socially engaged lyrics created a little pearl of Welsh post-punk music from the 80's that has its lo-fi charm. Innocent anarcho-wave music with a serious combatant message. The sweet sound of resistance.
The following information has been
extracted from the Alternative Toronto website and the BlackDotMuseum blog and
partially recombined:
The C.I.A. Tape was recorded live at
the Fallout Shelter and Ildiko's, and features poetry and musical performances
by Dick Lucas (of Subhumans), Mecca Normal, Nick Toczek, Rhythm Activism
and Mourning Sickness.
The Fallout Shelter recordings are the Toronto postscript to the Black
Wedge tour on September 5, 1987.
The Fallout Shelter was a "nuclear free" performance space and coffee
house run by the peace organization A.C.T. for Disarmament on Harbord Street.
The Black Wedge was a tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean
Smith of the band Mecca Normal, which set out to "spread the word of how
to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it.” As Smith
comments about the Black Wedge tour in his essay "Take Something You Care
About and Make It Your Life":
“One step easier than punk! The Black Wedge is out to spread the word of how to
combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it. Hardcore poems
and shredding guitars, radical voices crushing sexism, militarism, poverty and
conformity. The Black Wedge wants to set wild hearts and imaginations free, to
release a riot of emotion–opening up a new arena for activist resistance
culture.”
At the beginning of 1986, Mecca Normal released their first LP on their own
label, Smarten Up! Records. Soon thereafter, they flew to Montreal and hooked
up with Rhythm Activism; another music duo dealing with social
issues with a strong anti-authoritarian perspective. While the four stood around in
the basement of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building waiting to go live on air from coast to coast, they listened in on the segment prior to their timeslot–England’s Red Wedge was being featured. The Red Wedge was formed in the late 80's to support
the Labour Party, they presented political ideas within a musical
context and showcased musicians that encouraged people to vote Labour. The Black
Wedge however, that came into existence that same night, would encourage people to reclaim
their voices, to speak out against oppression rather than rely on electoral
politics as a means to solve social problems. Answers were looked for elsewhere than existing politics and against the establishment.
During the Black Wedge tour, through their lyrics or in between songs, the bands covered topics like sexism, disenfranchised citizens, poverty as well as other social issues which can be heard throughout the various songs of The C.I.A. Tape. A song like “Are you hungry
Joe?” for example, includes a dialogue between Joe and someone that stands between him
and the bag of groceries at a food bank, forcing Joe to argue why he needs food...
All tracks on The C.I.A. Tape were recorded live in Toronto. The tape was eventually published
by Bluurg Tapes with the editing done in June '88 at T.A.S.C. Master Studios,
Trinity & All Saint's College, in Leeds England.
"This tape is dedicated to all exceptionally oppressed people, but
particularly to those whose entire lifestyle is being destroyed... Romany,
Amerindian, Aborigine, and all other proud tribal people whose culture won't
readily bow down before the all-consuming gods of western 'civilization,'
social 'progress' and cash-culture.”
The original information for both Jean Smith’s essay and The C.I.A. Tape information
can be retrieved from: https://www.alternativetoronto.ca/archive/items/show/500 https://blackdotmuseum.wordpress.com/the-black-wedge-1986/
- Juan Vacas
This blogpost is a collaborative effort. Many thanks to: Juan Vacas (curation and assembling of text),Jon "Dietsociety" Kruithof and acab_in_1985 (SLSK) (providing rips and doing archival work). Editor: Bence.
Industrial Asylum is a punk and post-punk compilation that was released in The Netherlands in 1983. It mostly (if not only) contains obscure English bands. I actually doubt that there is a Dutch band on here. It displays one of those characteristics of punk compilations which is to focus on a particular country, region or city and gather the various punk forces from that one place. Here some obscure groups from England were gathered to be heard by a Dutch punk audience. But aside from this cassette being released in Holland, I think most of these tracks are (and were) also quite hard to find and to hear in Britain so the release has an importance in itself.
The compilation gathers some nice post-punk and power-pop tunes, some anarcho-punk poetry, but also experimental sounds. The poems of Andy T moniker of punk poet Andrew Thorley are a returning theme on the cassette, he also released a great EP on Crass Records which he recorded in collaboration with Penny Rimbaud during the early 80's. The Manchester band Outer Edge kicks off this compilation with an energetic tune. They were also compiled on the legendary Manchester post-punk compilation Unzipping The Abstract from 1980, but aside from that I never heard other material by them. Wigan based band The System seems to be an anarcho punk group that's a bit more known. They were resurrected in the past years. The band Sons Of Earth play a weird cover of The Doors' Hello I Love You entitled 'The End'. For the rest I don't know much about the bands on here.
Some of the interesting tunes are played by bands like Untermensch, Giraffe In Flames and Oracle. Maybe someone has more information on these bands or has more recorded material. In any case this is another rare compilation of English punk and post-punk bands and is transmitting some strong musical energy here and there. The recordings are somewhat lo-fi in quality, but I think that only strengthens the punk nature.
Earth's Epitaph were an anarcho new wave and post-punk group from the surroundings of the city of Cwmbran in the South of Wales created by Chris, Ray and Jayne. The band was formed inspired by bands like Crass and Siouxsie And The Banshees to which the members had been listening for years before starting their own band. Earth's Epitaph recorded two 'official' demo's of which Child's Play is their second one. They also contributed some songs to a couple of compilations during the mid-eighties.
The music of Earth's Epitaph has a more conventional new-wave sound, but is definitely rooted in the same political UK anarcho punk spirit of bands like Crass, The Apostles or Omega Tribe. Songs are criticizing the English government, injustices of society and politics driven by themes of environmentalism, animal rights, anti-apartheid and anti-fascism. The songs are somewhat reminiscent of the Young Marble Giants or of Dutch new wave band Qua Dance I posted a long time ago.
Child's Play was issued with a DIY fanzine on their music, political standpoints, vegetarian and vegan cooking recipes and interviews with other Welsh wave and post-punk bands from in and around the scene like The Enid, The Housemartins and Balaam And The Angel. Ofcourse I included scans of the fanzine to the file below.
Earth's Epitaph is another band that cared to involve their malcontentedness with social inequality, capitalism and environment in their music, based on the basic punk principle that starting a band doesn't take much. I might upload their first demo cassette in the future.
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.
So apparently some really rare cassettes are being handled with museum prices. Sometimes it makes you think that they must be the most interesting ever or contain that secret gem which would wipe out anyone's music collection. I know maybe ten copies of them exist... but we stick to the DIY ethics through which it was created and no, we don't drive these prices through the roof.
Software were an excellent UK experimental minimal synth group belonging to the UK DIY cassette culture. They released this one album on the Bugle Records label which a.o. published the music of The Astronauts. It was one of the many iconic labels pushing the authentic post-punk sound from early eighties Britain. I could name numerous UK post-punk or minimal synth labels from the time, but we all know where to place this music. This is some great stuff. Men Without Clothes showcases great inventiveness of synthesizer manoeuvres sometimes reminding me of Vice Versa, The Gadgets or more primitive Legendary Pink Dots. The typical cynical empty yet humoristic post-punk is combined with more synthetic dance tracks and primitive DIY guitar usage. A truly authentic example of the English synth underground in its prime in 1981. Does this need a reissue? Yes.
Finally some more very rare Minimal Synth music from oblivion! Get it HERE
This here is the third and last cassette by the great UK experimental electronic DIY home-taping duo Storm Bugs. Storm Bugs was formed in 1978 in London, by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball. Between 1978-81 Storm Bugs released 3cassettes on the Snatch Tapes label and two 7-inch records: the Table Matters EP and the Metamorphose single. Storm Bugs created music comparable to bands like Throbbing Gristle or early Cabaret Voltaire. Snatch Tapes is a prime example of the British DIY sound of the late seventies and early eighties and gained a legendary status among fans of the experimental home-taping culture. It also released the first David Jackman (aka Organum) cassettes. You should read this piece written on UK cassette culture by Philip Anderson himself.
Although most of the Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes material has been reissued, this cassette contains unrereleased tracks. With that being said I strongly recommend you to support Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes related music by purchasing it at their bandcamp or at VOD. More Snatch Tapes stuff here and here. Enjoy!
So I'm a huge fan of library records, specially if it involves electronic music. My main problem is that I always have trouble knowing which ones are the pearls (any suggestions are welcome!). Usually I go for the ones that do not contain eighty songs of twenty seconds, but have got proper songs on there. Still, a lot of library records can be quite cheesy. But not this one!
Unit Eight consisted of two people: F. McDonald and C. Rae. They had at least four releases on Rouge and this one comes from 1981. Rouge was a sub-label of the legendary British library records distribution label De Wolfe. The music on this record is described as Modern group sounds featuring electronic keyboards played by Unit Eight. You can find many library records over at this excellent blog.
This is an absolute cosmic disco, minimal synth classic. It has some cheesy library music touches to it, but nevertheless it's a record with almost only A-sides. Every melody seems like it has always existed and all the songs get stuck in the head. It's the missing link between stuff like Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Space (magic fly) and library minimal synth. It also reminds me of Latvian electronic space disco group Zodiac and the Philippe Laboudigue songs on this record. So it has a lot of dancefloor value because of the great combination of electronics with some more commercial melodies.
