Circles - The Third Cycle -1987- (LP, Einhorn Music), Germany

This is the third and last privately released Circles album that came out during the eighties. Circles is a Frankfurt based late-cosmic- krautrock and NDW band that consists of the duo of Mike Bohrmann and Dierk Leitert. Also they had a side-project called Das Organisierte Chaos. I posted their first album some time ago, but I recommend you to get your own vinyl copy since it has been beautifully reissued lately.

The Third Cycle is the most ambient and cosmic album of Circles. It moves away from the sometimes wonky chaoticness of the first albums and travels to much subtler electronic spaces to drift into. Still the distinctive Circles ingredients are present: Ash Ra Tempel like guitars, kosmische electronics and dark eighties sounds expected from the DIY tape-culture. Actually I think this album is a real classic and we can only hope it gets reissued too. Recently German label Bureau B has also issued a semi-unreleased album by Circles called Structures. I think it stayed somewhat under the radar so I recommend you to check it out.

Highly Recommended!

Get it HERE

Donated by SonicA

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

Kabouter Chismus Release and Message

So after some years I can proudly announce that this blog generated its first reissue. Belgian cassette-label Sloowtapes has reissued the legendary Dutch acid-folk hippie singer songwriter project Kabouter Chismus (1970) on cassette. I posted it in 2014 on Archaic Conventions (my oddity blog which moved to the youtube channel), which also turned out to be the record surfacing in the best condition.

If you want to know more about the release or get a copy yourself go to the Sloowtapes blog. Strictly limited to 100 copies.


As for this blog: lately I have been quite busy. I just started some projects at the museum of modern art in Eindhoven and I try to graduate this summer. This means that posts might become more irregular for the time being. I will try the best I can though. This blog won't be over until I run out of material and even I don't know when that will happen yet.

Bence - AI

Jacques van Erven - Tunes & Scenery (Hard To Whistle) -1984- (Cassette, Eksakt 010), Netherlands

Jacques van Erven is a Dutch Artist and multi-intrumentalist from the city Eindhoven. He had some releases on the great impro-jazz and new wave fusion label Eksakt from the city Tilburg of which there are some compilations on the blog. Van Erven was also featured on this Christmas compilation and was a member of this obscure project.

Tunes & Scenery (Hard To Whistle) was his earliest solo effort and shows a geat combination of different moods and styles. It brings together synth sounds, cheap casio's, Jew's Harp, guitars, all types of drum sounds, improvisation and wave influences spread over fifteen songs. It reminds me of music somewhere in-between acts like Ptôse, Achwghâ Ney Wodei and Woo mixed with some new wave reminiscent of André de Saint-Obin. Very weird, very good and unclassifiable due to its variety of styles. Nice home-made Rock in Opposition with analogue synthesizers recorded on a four-track. A perfect release for Eksakt and pretty unique stuff from Holland I'd say.

It's not always May!

Update May 2020: Link removed due to reissue on Futura Resistenza Label

Various Artists - Opus '72 -1972- (LP, Radio Nederland), Netherlands

After Opus '70 and Opus '71 that I posted on the blog, here is Opus '72 introducing modern composers and compositions from the Netherlands in 1972. The Opus series were distributed to foreign radio stations to promote Dutch contemporary composed music. The series are essential for exploring Dutch avant-garde and contemporary composed classical music of the previous century.

The first programme consists of a long piece by Rob du Bois inspired by Romanian composer Alexander Hrisanide . The piece requires a pianist not only to play the piano but also an electronic organ, a toy-piano and a large tom-tom. It's an interesting musical piece in which strange piano sounds are the centre.

The second programme consists of pieces by Ton de Leeuw (which I posted before) and Tristan Keuris. De Leeuw's piece is inspired by Indian music and thought in which a flute, played by Abbie de Quant, plays the main role. De Leeuw who studied ethnomusicology was the teacher of Tristan Keuris. Keuris' piece is created for alto-saxophone and an intuitively responding orchestra.

Get it HERE
 

Various Artists - Une Autre Façon d'écouter la Musique -1986- (Tape, Igloo), Belgium

This is a promotional compilation tape of the Belgian label Igloo. Igloo was founded in 1978 by
Daniel Sotiaux and initially focused on contemporary composed, strange electronic and avant-garde music until the mid-eighties when it changed its profile to contemporary jazz music.

This cassette from 1986 is also pretty much jazz oriented and showcases a variety of bands and releases on the Igloo label. I'm quite sure almost all of these albums are to be found already, but let's say we can still use this compilation as a guide through the releases on Igloo of the mid-eighties. I wasn't too familiar with the label to be honest. Although some tracks on this compilation are pretty corny, it still shows the impro and jazz scene that was active in Belgium and Brussels in the Eighties. Igloo as a label is comparable to other Belgian labels like Disques du Crépuscule or Crammed Discs that always moved in-between impro, jazz, classical and RIO stuff.

This compilation shows the more safe side of a Belgian scene that had more adventurous bands like Aksak Maboul or Univers Zero operating in the same period. But there are some highlights on this compilation like Julverne and Real Live Orchestra. The coolest part of the compilation is that there are impro-jazz interludes with a girl telling us in English with a French accent which song we've just heard. It gives it a nice Bruxelles eighties chicness which is cool.

Get it HERE

De Afvalbanden - Same -1981- (Cassette), Netherlands

From the liner notes:

After owning an Akai 4000 for over a year, I have several reel tapes full of used, unusable and unused pieces of sound and music. The choice between buying new reel tapes or to erase them leads to a compromise: publishing them. With that 1 hour of experiment. Instrumental, vocal, neuropop and real cover versions, pieces of audiotape of a VHS and a slide-show, in short: the household waste of the home industry. May 1981.

Apparently Peter Mertens was behind De Afvalbanden, which means The Trash Tapes. He used to be a member of early Minny Pops and also of The Young Lions, which means he was part of the core of the so called Ultra movement in Holland. This cassette is another lost piece of the vast Dutch home-taping underground. De afvalbanden is a solo effort and DIY collage of buzzing primitive synthesizers, strange vocals, guitar plucking, tape manipulation, silly songs and unidentified sounds. All taking place in a netherworld inside of a garbage can (so it sounds).

The cover of the cassette is made up of a transparent piece of plastic with trash drawn on it. It is combined with a cut-out piece of trash bag highlighting the drawing in grey. The ultimate cover for The Garbage Tapes I'd say. It is very much a product of the early eighties home-taping culture due to its essence being rooted in the medium of the cassette. Listen to the mysterious trash tapes yourself!

Get it HERE