A Message

Hello readers of the blog!

I have been out of my country for a while so I wasn't able to post stuff, but don't worry. Archaic Inventions is nearing it's first year anniversary in three weeks and the visit-counter is almost nearing 10.000(!) which is amazing for me considering a relatively little amount of posts on the blog and perhaps little interest for this kind of music in general. Moreover, people have even been putting some of the songs up one youtube!
Do you guys think I should do something like that too and include it in the posts to give some idea of what to expect from the release? I might have to upgrade this archaic blog to something contemporary.

I started out this blog at the age of 22 with a kind of feeling of responsibilty towards the blogosphere, because Mutant Sounds and No Longer Forgotten Music stopped. It's like finishig a novel so amazing that you want to start and write the rest yourself to never let it end. Those blogs gave me so much and I was sad about the developments with blogs dying, people's sincere concerns about file sharing and more and more trouble with file-sharing websites. I knew I had great stuff to share that never got attention, but at the same I was kind of worried about the fact that I would never be able to share music in such enormous quantities of quality. Also I guess I might have been creating some kind of absolute construction of deviant music in my head which my blog should reflect, which might have been connected to my worldview in combination with my age.

By now, one year later, many things have happened and I view things a bit differently. Now I really don't care that much anymore what it reflects as long as I think that what I share has a certain value, in whatever sense that might be. Whatever style, deviance or not, a rarity or something else. Subcultures, even starting out with good intentions are suffocating me nowadays even with respect to things like minimal synth/wave which is actually one of my favorite musical genres. Anyway, I still don't have that many things to share and I will always stand for the fact that I won't copy existing links, share in-print music or post what you are basically already able to find on the web. I think the beauty of a music blog lies in the fact that people really uncover  music that had never been heard before. In other words: that they actually have something to share. And come on, everybody knows how difficult it's getting to find stuff with a high amount of quality that didn't exist on some blog yet. Music blogs have re-invented the history of music and because of this process of uncovering old music, so much has been reissued and given the proper attention at last.

What I'm thinking right now is that this blog will have a different kind of consistency concerning it's content, but I will keep sharing the same stuff as well, that's priority so to speak. Moreover, I'd really like to use this blog as a platform from which I could do different things. I'm working on some thematic radiosets which I'd like to do, although they might be kind of personal.

Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone for visiting this blog, spreading the music and supporting. Please share your opinions, ideas, comments or whatever if you feel like it. New posts are coming this week and they might be the best ones yet, so stay tuned!

Thanks again,

Bence - Archaic Inventions

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

Moonyana - Self-Titled -1991- (Cassette, FV Music, FV38), Slovenia

Moonyana was a free-jazz, impro outfit from Slovenia. This particular cassette is a recording of a concert in 1989 and released according to the label's website in 1991. I don't know whether this group existed for this occasion only, or if they had other releases or concerts. Since there is almost no info around on this group it's hard to tell. About some individuals in the group there is some information: Saxophone player Primož Schmidt is known for having made more releases as well as performing alongside Bosnian underground hero Marko Brecelj. Nino de Gleria is a quite renowned Slovenian bass player in the Slovenian jazz and RIO world.
This cassette came out on Slovenian underground label FV Založba / FV Music. From their website:

- As a label FV has been documenting with a pioneering spirit Slovenian alternative rock for fifteen years. It was the first to expose Laibach's music to the listeners. As a booking agent FV took two of the most exposed bands from its rooster Dicky B. Hardy and Hic Et Nunc to an American coast to coast tour in 1998. The tour marked the first occasion of Slovenian musicians having toured the States without the support of a multinational music label. As a promoter FV has been bringing challenging sounds from groups as different as Einsturzende Neubauten and Dead Moon to the audiences in Slovenia as well as in countries from ex-Yugoslavia. 

FV Music was established in 1985 by the musicians of the group Borghesia and a circle of music aficionados that had previously run Disco FV, the first punk club in Ljubljana. FV, for several years the only Yugoslavian independent label, was born out of necessity to satisfy the creative impulses of its founding members. Today FV is the nation's first in promoting and booking alternative r'n'r bands. It has a strong network of relationships with clubs and local promoters in Slovenia and other ex-Yougoslavian states. It has a number of long standing contacts with European and American agencies. And it has a rooster with some of the most exiting and popular r'n'r bands in Slovenia and Croatia - Dicky B. Hardy, Rhythm Thieves, KUD Idijoti, The Spoons and Bambi Molesters. These are the bands that on Slovenian and ex-Yougoslavian club circuit guarentee a good night out. In Slovenia of today FV is a synonym for rock & roll. -

The recording has quite some surface noise since it's a documentation of a concert transferred to cassette, transferred by me to the computer. Nevertheless, it's fine free jazz improvisation with some minor RIO hints.

Get it 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

 

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.

Raschenko - Import Export • Budapest Sofia Bilbao Rom -1984- (12 Inch), Denmark

        

So next stop is this quite rare and unknown 12 inch vinyl by the Danish band Raschenko. Actually, this is the same band as the amazing Ivor Axeglovitch which has been posted ages ago here on Mutant Sounds to which we mortal souls owe everything we have (unfortunately a lot of links are dead now). Unlike Ivor Axeglovitch their beafheartian art damaged first albums, Raschenko tends towards a more plain New Wave sound and is less elaborated in its mingling of wacky guitars and dada-esque collage. Still the old records also display a minimal synthy and new wave side, for example the song  "Moscow Beach Club" at first makes you think that you're up for some amazing interpretation of Cultural Amnesia's "Materialistic Man" ( I really wonder...).

Anyway, this Raschenko record has two nice songs. It resembles a kind of music Palais Schaumburg would play if they tried to copy New Order while being Danish art students. The "export" song could easily also be a song of the dutch band Niew Hip Stilen, which is still one of my all time favourite groups.

This has been uploaded before on youtube, but only watched 20 times, so I thought I'd do a rip and give it extra attention. Hopefully someone will reissue the whole discography of Ivor Axeglovitch on vinyl soon as the albums are impossible to get and issued in editions of 100 copies. This band is up there with the best ones from Denmark like Moral and Mind Pollution.

                                                                Get it HERE