Friday 27 April 2012

From the Top Drawer XXXVII - Karmakanix


Here's a short 3 track tape (more like an EP) dating from 1989 by the Karmakanix, who I remember seeing play and enjoying very much at the Stonehenge Festival in 1984
'The Karmakanix, famous for their all night psychedelic concerts around England during the early eighties, was a conglomeration of musicians from the free festival Bands of the late 70’s - Steve, Rob & Sub’s from Thandoy, Twink from Here & Now And Maz from Zorch. They formed during the summer of 81 playing in the TUMT’s (Tibetan Ukranian Mountain Troupe) Blue and White marquee at Stonehenge and at the numerous festivals across the country until Rougham Tree Fair 1984.
 Stonehenge 1984
After Rougham the band took a much-needed break. They got back together in '87 and continued to record and gig until '93. The band has many live recordings of the festivals and although the tapes usually ran out just as the music was taking off, it was the way it was meant to be, recorded in the ether and in the memories of those who were there, yet not there.

(Guitarist) Steve Higgins has teamed up with bass man Mike Howlett (Gong) and drummer Steve Cassidy (Here & Now) as The House Of Thandoy.'


@ Club Dog (pic taken from http://www.myspace.com/39orbits)


Only three tracks appear on the cassette - both sides of the tape play the same. One melodic track with a beautiful vocal, one with funky space riffing, and one rhythmic jam that meanders pleasantly - someone's obviously into their motorsports, hence the name of the band (?) Good stuff, but we need more...
Ripped as one unit @320kbps
 get a copy HERE


Karmakanix CD 'Krypton Tunes' is available from http://www.planetgong.co.uk/bazaar/cd/karmakanix_krypton.shtml

As far as I can tell there's no footage of Karmakanix online, so here's some of House Of Thandoy enjoying a jam.


6 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, been a while since I heard Karmakanix. There is a great quality bootleg from a free festival in Norwich 1983ish floating around the Net if anyone is interested. The same site also has live Here & Now amongst others. Actually, I must try to find it again.

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  2. Hi dlz and thanks for the comment.
    If you ever come across the link for that Norwich KK gig please come back and post it here, cheers.

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  3. Ok, try this link and enjoy!
    http://www.nr23.net/alternative/free_festy/pgf.html

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    1. Thanks dlz, unfortunately the link you've given didn't work for me (404), but after some hunting around the directory of the site, I got there in the end! Great find.

      http://www.nr23.net/alternative/gigs/sound.php

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  4. Hello fellow KarmaKanix people. Subs (kk bass) has teamed up with Steve Cassidy and Steffe Sharpstrings in a band called Sentient: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz9UPdskDo4 (bad audio but they played LOUD!) And here is some info on subs: http://www.zyarts.com/subsound/bassplayer.html
    Be seeing you. x

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    1. Cheers anon and thanks for keeping us in the loop.

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