Gri Gri - I'm Not A Performing Monkey -198X- (Cassette, Self-Released), Netherlands

Here's another cassette from the Dutch home-taping circuit of the 80's of which I don't know anything. So far it's a mystery who was behind the Gri Gri project. The only information provided on the cassette is that it came from the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven. During the 80's, the city of Eindhoven and its surrounding areas were home to different post-punk, industrial and home-taping acts like Nasmak, De 6de Kolonne or Jacques van Erven, but the Gri Gri cassette seems to have been an isolated effort. 

I'm Not A Performing Monkey displays some nice Casio sounds, NDW influenced madness, weird pop-songs, acoustic improvisation and repetitive minimalist soundscapes. It has a primitive approach that at times almost feels ritualistic, yet also maintaining playfulness. Quite unclassifiable music: some sort of combination of absurd home-taping experimentation and the furthest deconstructed fringes of Rock In Opposition somewhere lost between Achwghâ Ney Wodei, Hora Est, Gefährliche Klons and the previously mentioned Dutch multi-instrumentalist Jacques van Erven.

No tracklist. Unindexed.

From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE if you're not a performing monkey!

It Is Not A... - Self-Titled -198X- (Cassette, Self-Released), Netherlands

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.

 Get it HERE

The Final Curtain - Self-Titled -1986- (Cassette, Self-Released), Netherlands

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.

From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get The Final Curtain HERE