For this year's Summer Solstice, here is the third cassette release from the organic/electronic ambient duo of Dan Carpenter (sax & clarinet) and Paul Chousmer (all other instruments & noises).
Not much more to say about AGW that I haven't covered on their previous posts HERE and HERE ,
except that if you like their very mellow style (and you like bird noise!), you certainly won't be disappointed by this tape.
Ripped as two side-long tracks @320kbps.
Kick off your shoes, feel the grass between your toes, and get out your butterfly net to trap a copy as it floats by...
Obviously taking their name from the 1940 film, is this a celebration of their upbringing within a certain ethnic group? A heartfelt cry for understanding?
Who knows, who cares...would they themselves even want to remember?
A 1987 transmission
Witnessed on several occasions performing at Club Dog when it was held at the Trade Union Centre in Wood Green, North London, this tape plumbs the very depths of obscurity & questionable taste, and consequently it is an honour to offer it up for your listening pleasure here.
Exhibit One
The tape appears to be named 'Hey Juden' - here's a possible track listing...
Side One: A Song From The Old Country/Cross Over Cross Out/Vot You Talkin-Tower Of Babel/Branson Side Two: Zionisme/Baseball Cap On/One Small Business/Your So In Your Out
To paraphrase Frank Zappa - 'this blog is not dead, it just smells funny...' Yep, been busy for a while.
Anyway, to celebrate the Winter Solstice of 2014 and the imminent return of the sun to the Northern Hemisphere, here we have a brace of live shows recorded at the mighty Club Dog during the years 1989-1990. All (except maybe Treatment) are audience recordings (taped using a stereo pair of PZM microphones onto a cassette deck) from the back of the main room at the Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, North London, so quite rough'n'ready but very listenable quality-wise.
I'm posting them all together as I don't have any artwork or images that relate to the tapes themselves, as they live in a wooden box with only simple scribbles to identify both them and their dates of origin (thanks very much for the lend, Michael!) No track details either, except for the Treatment tape which I think may have been issued as a cassette that was sold from the merch table at the Robey.
Here are the files - all ripped @320kbps and joined together (without a break where possible) into one file from the two sides of the tape.
All are archived using the 7z program which can be downloaded free from here - http://www.7-zip.org/
Happy Winter Solstice to all.
Here's one of the earliest tapes released by London-based Treatment, called 'Intensive' which dates from 1982. Things and stuff have been written about the band on previous posts so I'm just gonna go ahead and copy and paste some self-penned autobiography taken from their own (what looks like still-under-construction) website -
THE EARLY YEARS
* GORDON AND CLIVE; THE LEWCH BROTHERS.
We were just teenagers looking for something worth being. Our good friend Derek Holder taught us the basics of rock and blues, and together with him and Dave Catlin Birch on drums, we formed a crap band.
* CAPTAIN COMEDOWN AND THE BUM TRIPPERS.
The name was pinched from Phil Shutt of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come (a truly psychedelic outfit); the music was ripped off from all around. Although pretty naff, we were vaguely competent and entertaining, so some of our gigs weren't disasters, and we did have some followers. Over its three to four years the band had several line-ups, which included Graham Cronin on drums, guitarists Adam Blake and Simon Economides, Paul Hutchinson on vocals, and the (almost) always present Jonny Chubb as recordist, before it finally ran out of steam.
* GROWING UP?
This was all happening through the mid-seventies: Sorry... we didn't form a punk band; we were Grammar School boys, hippies/yobs/arties or whatever, smoking dope, drinking and taking acid, who didn't want to pretend otherwise. Nevertheless punk (not just the famous few, but the hordes of real nutters who emerged at the time) helped us escape all the dreadful pretensious star-rock and floydy mush of the time.
Meanwhile we'd left school and were in or out of duff jobs, except Gordon, who was at Essex University. Adam and then Clive joined the Cannibals (Mike Spenser's seemingly immortal [then R&B and latterly Trash] band, in which Clive is currently bassist yet again!). In 1979 Clive, Graham and Paul McWhinnie (another school mate, and pukka pianist to boot) decided we wanted a band whose music wasn't ruled by guitar patterns. Even so, we invited Gordon to join us - he knew better than most how to shut up as well as to play, and thus was born what became Treatment.
* EARLY DAZE
Through 1979 and 1980, free rehearsals and two gigs at The Basement youth club in Covent Garden (eternal thanks to them), and two appearances at the Covent Garden Community Festival established the band's identity. During this time Adam evolved from honoured guest to full member, and numbers such as Stamp Out Mutants, Nightmare, Blot Out, I Wanna Meet You, Nothinghead and Doncha Know all emerged.
Early in 1981 Graham left the band and was replaced by Paul 'Mr Rah' Ross, who had been up at Essex with Gordon (together in Psycho Hamster). Around this time, Bob (later to become the renowned Bob Dog) joined Jonny to form the offstage part of the band, responsible for mixing, effects, recording and merciless (and sometimes justified) criticism. We also took a squat in Chepstow Road, near to Portobello Road (well, most of us did), along with several friends including the late and lamented Small Paul, who became our roadie and confidant.
* ON DRUGS; ON THE DOLE...
Thank God (or the milk snatcher) for mass unemployment. We signed on with little hassle, cashed our Giros, lived in squats, bedsits or with sympathetic parents & friends, stayed up all night, got stoned, tripped out and whatever else, and could indulge ourselves to the degree necessary for our mission. It wasn't just us; there was a whole thing going: Here & Now, Nik Turner's Inner City Unit, Grant Showbiz, Kiff Kiff, The Androids of Mu, to name just a few.
We generally went down well at free festivals (Stonehenge 80 - 85, plus many more in the early 80s, such as Norwich and Torpedotown), squat venues and gigs run by ourselves and friends, but pub gigs were a bit more iffy; no drugs, security wankers, rip-off promoters, straight bands and uninterested audiences being the main drawbacks. One of the few venues which suited us was The Crypt Club, run by a couple of ex-coppers in the crypt of St Paul's Deptford.
* AND THEN...
Plenty more happened, but that isn't the early years, so there...
Ripped from an original cassette (no label artwork to see - just an anonymous-looking black thing) @320kbps as two side-long tracks. Tunes and info as listed on the artwork scans above.
After some years working as a music journalist and playing with Natacha Atlas and Cornershop, Adam Blake nows plays guitar with the wonderful Lunar Dunes with whom he has recorded two albums to date.
There's not too much info online about the KarmaKanix, certainly not much more than when I posted their three track cassette HEREso go there to pick up that particular selection and read about their history. Earlier in 2013 I had some news that their bassplayer Gary Subassa (Subs) is now playing with Steffe Sharpstrings and Steve Cassidy in 'Sentient', not sure whether this is still the case. Explore the links to hear some info/new music from these guys.
Here we have a gig recorded at Club Dog at The George Robey in Finsbury Park, London dated 6th October 1989, presumably taped from the back of the main room straight onto a cassette deck using two PZM microphones taped high on the wall above the audience. Tape used was a TDK SA90 and quality is very good in my opinion. Just short of an hour's worth of great psoundz for your amusement (tape cut/join at 47m 27secs to accomodate tape flip).
Ripped from the original cassette recording @320kbps.
A double dose of live Wooden Baby from Club Dog at the Sir George Robey pub in London - one set from late 1989 and one from early 1990. The two sets, although only a few months apart, show some differences in sound and attitude, with the first more of a live expression of their studio sound including vocals at that time and the second showing more of an influence of the burgeoning acid house/rave dance scene.
Wooden Baby of course would soon reshuffle their personnel, losing founder member/singer Charlie Daniel and adding the talents of Joie Hinton and on occasion Steve Everett, renaming themselves Eat Static to become one of the cutting-edge pioneers of the electronic dance and ambient scene of today. So this is a chance to hear them on the cusp of a tranceformation.
(Yep, it's that same flyer again...I don't have any pics of the band from this era.)
'In its later guise, Wooden Baby produced some of the most incredible music of the late 1980s, hinting at and fusing elements of goth, punk, techno, acid house, ambient, industrial and space rock. However, not only did they hint at these genres, they excelled at them. 'Exorcism of Anu' could easily be a Sisters of Mercy track; 'Impossible Maze' sounds like the Sex Pistols with an electronic backing track; Hawkwind would be proud of tracks like 'The Birds' and 'Execution', while 'Bath Scum' sounds like an improved version of 'Theme from S-Express', and is an early example of the dance music themes that Eat Static would explore in the 1990s.
Despite Pepler's prowess as a drummer, Wooden Baby employed a drum machine which immediately gave their sound the feel of electronic music rather than that of a conventional band set-up. Many of the tracks featured vocals, from either Pepler's goth-tinged singing or the at-times-crazed wailing and shouting of Daniel. The lyrical themes were often dark and ominous, lending an extra "edge" to what was already very darkly psychedelic music.' http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Wooden_Baby
Sets are audience recordings from the back of the Main Room at the Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, North London, using two PZM microphones onto chrome cassettes. Unfortunately they seem to be incomplete.
1) Friday 8th December 1989
2) Friday 16th February 1990
No track list or personnel info available but almost certainly Merv Pepler and Charlie Daniel were involved.
(CORRECTION - Charlie has let me know that he was not involved with these live recordings and the personnel for these sets was - Merv Pepler, Joie Hinton, Nick Timberlake & Clive Browne)
Happy Solstice to all.
Although this tape was recorded in a club one chilly December night, Third Ear Band's music might be at least as well experienced at an open air summer event, preferably one within a short distance from an array of standing stones, accompanied by a timeless flavour of earthy mystery.
'Third Ear Band originated from Canterbury (sic) and started out as a psychedelic band called The Giant Sun Trolley gaining residency in south-London clubs doing long and improvisations and eventually changing their names to The Hydrogen Jukebox, recording one live album. Having finished their concert recording they discovered all their equipment stolen. So by sheer coincidence and obvious necessity, they became an acoustic band taking the name Third Ear Band.
They are considered by many to be the first who invented the term "world" music. Published during the late 60s an album as "Alchemy" is seen as a landmark of ethnic fusion music, including many elements of improvisations and obvious eastern and medieval accents. They used a lot of "raga" instrumentations thanks to cyclical, dancing oboe patterns and "tabla" percussions. They often included jazzy rock parts next to India spiritual music. Stylistically this is a band who have brought to the fore a kind of "transcultural" music. Their impressive and cult first effort was followed by what we can consider to be the summit of their career. Their self titled album recorded in 1970 is an outstanding collection of ethereal, ethnic improvisations, totally floating, ecstatic, consequently directed to a high level of consciousness. A real travel through suggestive, imaginative dreamscapes. The music is executed with genius and always orientated in favour of various acoustic experimentations.
Originally released in 1972 for the Roman Polanski movie, their following "Macbeth" carries on this intense, trippy musical adventure but stresses the folk & medieval acoustic structures (including for the first time some vocals). Atmospheres are sometimes creepy & sinister admitting weird and melodic guitar lines. The music is less improvised and really turned to efficient, enchanting, moody and medieval ambiences. This one is recognised as their most popular effort. After a long break the band recorded in 1988 the album "Live Ghosts" with a new line up, continuing a similar musical experience, always making a fusion between a sensitive raga / ethnic style and powerful jazzy rock improvisations. Their following efforts "Magic Music" (1990) and "Brain Waves" (1993) include more evident electronic arrangements and a mystical jazz/ ethnic rock combinations.'http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1745
This tape was recorded at Club Dog @the Sir George Robey pub, Finsbury Park, London on 15th December 1989 (the very gig on the flyer above). There are seven (correction: eight) tunes included here, I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with the band to identify them.
(Recording notes - 2xPZM microphones above rear of audience>cassette deck>chrome cassette>>cassette deck>PC>sound editor>spliced@41m10secs>320kbps .mp3)
UPDATE
More info on this gig including track titles and personnel has kindly been supplied by the Ghetto Raga blogspot and can be found HERE
'Mandragora are a space-rock/world dance-music band from Brighton, England, whose formative output can be described as psychedelic rock with ethnic sounds and tribal rhythms. Formed in 1983, the band have released 5 albums of their own, and a collaborative album with Phil Thornton. They built up a loyal following on the free festival circuit of the 1980s and 1990s, and were signed to Delerium Records. In recent years Mandragora have evolved into a world music/electronic dance act featuring singers and musicians from all corners of the globe.' (Wikipedia)
Although nowadays Mandragora are, as mentioned above, a world dance music act, at the time of this recording they were more of an abstract space-rock outfit featuring the keyboards and synths of 'New Age synth guru' (gulp!) Phil Thorton and the guitar and vocals of founder member Simon Williams, and played many free festivals and gigs on the UK and European underground circuit.
This recording would have taken place in the period between the releases of their 'Over The Moon' and 'Head First' albums.
This is a first generation rip from a tape made by Michael Dog onto a chrome cassette using two PZM microphones fixed high up onto the wall at the back of the main room at Club Dog, then hosted on Friday nights at the Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, London. Quality is very good, with only one cut around the 47 minute mark to accomodate the tape flip.
Sides A & B are joined together as one.
- Tracklisting -
Talking To God
Pendulum & The Pit
Hold On To Our Dream
Raga
Rainbow Warrior
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Solstice Song / Yesterdays Tomorrow
Eleanor Rigby
Magic Musick
(Thanks to Pete for track ID)
Earthnicht was a short-lived side-project centred around musicians from bands who regularly played at Club Dog at the Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park, North London, and who would also play at various squat/free/benefit gigs in London and further afield. Earthnicht live consisted of (when available) five full kit drummers (Sean, Jonee, Nick, Tanya and Generator John), a sax player (the ubiquitous Danny) and a synth/keyboard player (Paul).
Kicking off the opening night of the 1989 autumn season at Club Dog...
With this line-up, naturally the music focused on driving syncopated rhythms topped with improvised sound. When the drummers gelled and synchronised, the audience was in for a thunderous, danceable treat.
This tape (Earth Heartbeat) was compiled from live shows in London and Milton Keynes
- tracks as above.
A recording from the audience of this short-lived band who played just a few gigs before breaking up and moving on to different projects. Lapwing were curiously named after the bird seen above ;-)
Somewhat of an underground 'supergroup', Lapwing on this occasion featured James Vane (Vane, Ring Of Roses, etc) on vocals, Dan Carpenter (Ring Of Roses, Webcore, Another Green World, Thunderdogs, etc) on saxophone, Gavin Griffiths (Ozric Tentacles, Ullulators, Thunderdogs, etc) on lead guitar, plus other bods whose names escape me - I simply don't remember...doh. A high energy upfront set with a psych/glam/goth tinged edge to the songs as the charismatic style of Jimmy Vane comes through.
Taped at the Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, London, on 6th May 1988 - I'm not sure whether this was a Club Dog night or not but after checking that this was on a Friday night, it's quite likely this was a canine event - woof.
No track titles available for the set, but knowledgeable types will recognise a great version of the psychedelic classic 'Kites', a 1967 hit for Simon Dupree and the Big Sound.
Ripped from a chrome cassette @320kbps and slightly edited to preserve quality.
How about a steaming hot cup of fish tea? So refreshing...
No? Just as well, 'cos it's pretty hard to digitize as a physible (heard of those yet? - 'A digital file containing instructions that enable a 3D printer to create a physical object'). Guess you'll have to listen to the sounds supplied by Julian Bream And His Freshwater Stream instead.
One or more of these men may admit to having had something to do with this tape one day...
Julian Bream (no relation to the eminent British classical guitarist and lutenist of the same name) was an outfit related in strange and interesting ways to the team who ran Club Dog in London during the 1980s/1990s and later Megadog, who spread their madness nationwide in the UK and even internationally in the following years. The band made rare appearances on the bill at (usually) their own events, and elsewhere when the main Dog was sleeping it off in his kennel.
A rare sighting in public
Playing an unimaginable racket a hard-to-describe style of mutant psychedelic jazz/blues/rock with probably several nods and hand gestures towards Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, they puzzled and offended more than a few punters with their barely concealed disdain for their audiences' safety or sanity (as evidenced by tracks like 'Are We Annoying You Yet?), modern life in general, and domestic cats.
I'm not sure if the band ever produced more than the one tape we have here - and maybe it was for the best...LOL (No, they're really good actually)
I'm not writing out all the track names here, just click on the artwork for larger versions that you can actually read.
Ripped @320kbps from an original cassette as two side-long tracks
Roots reggae/dub, and associated offshoot variations, styles & philosophies had a considerable influence on many bands of the UK underground scene covered on this blog, and even if that influence on the music of those bands was not that obviously evident, the values and consciousness expressed by reggae artists were very likely taken on board. Certainly the experimentation of dub techniques developed in Jamaica in the 1970s have had a huge impact on the way attitudes towards studio production and mixing have evolved since then, particularly in electronic dance music.
Here to fill a gap on the reggae front is a very tight live set from the West Country-based Rhythmites. Formed in the late 1980s and here captured playing at the Sir George Robey at Finsbury Park, London as guests of Club Dog, this is a very decent audience recording of this conscious roots band getting the crowd skanking to the max, the resulting tape being sold through the merchandising outlets of the Woofsters.
No track titles available for this set, but as usual ripped @320kbps and divided into two parts.
Live at the Frome Festival 1997 - not great quality but nice performance.
The Rhythmites are alive and well and playing today. After a break from 2000-2007 they reformed to play a few festivals. In May 2009 they started writing and recorded the album 'Stand Strong' released in May 2010.
A first outing on this blog for the fondly remembered Ullulators who brought their own brand of space-rock-reggae and general jamming madness to many free festivals and gigs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Formed by guitarist Gavin Griffiths after his departure from the original twin guitar line-up of Ozric Tentacles, and having decided that the energy of their early period would best be served by splitting that atom off into the creation of a separate second entity, the Ullulators came into being.
Joined by the ubiquitous Joie Hinton on keyboards, Roly Wynne on bass and drummer Nick van Gelder among others for early gigs and recordings, initial home studio efforts yielded the first of several tapes, 'Share A Clam With The Ullulators', a collection of instrumental rock, dub reggae, deep synth experiments, and excursions into headspaces flavoured as much by the inhaled ambience of travels to the East as by the vibe of life in London at that time.
Later Gavin and Joie were to be joined by Jane Bradfield, Generator John, Kay Springer, Chambers and Andy Ull as the band found itself a more stable gigging line-up.
Two other tapes followed until in 1989 the then current line-up of the band recorded an album at Dave Anderson's Foel Studios in Wales. Called 'Flaming Khaos' and released on vinyl through Anderson's Demi Monde label, this showed the band incorporating more overt influences from world music as well as numbers from the full-on live shows that their audience had been enjoying for some time.
The band was later put on extended hiatus in the early 1990s when Gavin worked with the Thunderdogs and Cirque Archaos until the eventual demise of that travelling show. More studio tapes were issued in the 1990s, but live appearances became more rare. Unfortunately bass player and singer Kay has since passed on. In remembrance...
Side One: Gunk Rock / Zuzklucky / Tango Mango / The Ruzbitud Shuffle / Mixy Noise / The Full Itself Remains / Fatty Dub / Stomach Speaker
Side Two: Hanuman Dub / Blue Aethyr / Narasimha / The Ostragoth / Elephants Have Gills / All You Need Is Hash / Eternal Now / More Tea Vicar?
Ripped from an original cassette as two side-long tracks @320kbps
Recently Gavin has announced his intention of remastering these early cassettes and releasing them digitally on CD, so this tape rip will act as a taster for those reissues.
With panpipes sounding and cloven hooves raking the turf, the Oroonies headed straight for rustic Arcadia to spawn their third and possibly most mysterious album 'Exalt The Horn', one which could certainly give Psychic TV and most other magickal musical ritualists a run for their money. Didgeridoos, horns, hand percussion, bells, flutes, and eldritch electronic collages combine with more traditional stringed instrumentation to conjure up aural descriptions of fecund pagan revelry in archaic woodland groves.
In anticipation of the Bacchanalian Feast, the words of Aleister Crowley come to mind - "To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, and be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, O man! Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.”
Once again the band did not disappoint with their choice of imaginative track titles -
Soide Oine : Exalt The Horn / Oinkoi / The Raising And The Subsequent Plunging Of The Lance Of The Fisher King (From The Film The Royal Martyr) / October 23rd / Nursery Thyme
Soide Twoi : Emperor Norton's Revenge / Eclipse Celipse / Guinea Fowl (Queen Eats Rat) / I Fondled The U Bend With A Rubber Glove / Inbetweenit / Shadwok / Dance Of The Deekshitars / Derraneanig
Ripped from an original cassette as two side-long tracks @320kbps
