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
This is another post where I have very little info on the band, but I suspect they came from the South West of the UK.
After trawling the infowebs the only 'official' release that I can find is 'The Mudskipper EP' which came out on Planet Dog Records in 1995. This EP's main claim to fame (in addition to the excellent original tunes) is that it contains a couple of remixes engineered by Portishead and Eat Static, thereby becoming something of a completist/collector's item. The EP was also recorded by, and engineered at, Ed (Ozric) Wynne's studio at The Mill in Somerset - a note on the artwork supplied with this cassette shows that some of this tape was recorded at The Mill as well, no doubt by Ed and possibly during the same sessions.
The music is funky and danceable with some vocals over the (organic) bass and beats, and is going to appeal to a more groove orientated listener, though it is spacey in its own way, with a great dub track included. Think modern-day funky Gong and the more world music-based Ozrics tracks and you won't go far wrong.
Tracklisting is:
Side One: Spirit Zone / Elyz / Beta Base
Side Two: BA-11 / Mudskippaz / Yamm7(?)
Ripped and digitized as two side-long tracks @320kbps
Back with the excellent Timeshard again. (Go HERE if they're new to you.)
The title is self-explanatory - a 1996 collection of recordings of this eclectic psychedelic electronic 3-piece outfit on stage, possibly at Megadog or at their own events, not sure.
Not giving away too much on the tape...
Side One:
Cosmic Carrot/25th Century/Reality Helmet/Zero (version 1)/Zero (version 2)
Side Two:
Psionic Lattice/Photon/God Sez No To Tomorrow/X-Ray Ears/Voodoo Chronometer
Round about 80 minutes' worth of music...ripped @320kbps as two side-long tracks
(My scans of the cover do not do justice to the full-on pinky-orange
day-glo of the original, but it seems that colours that vibrant don't
scan very well!)
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/
'Unlike the other acts on the Planet Dog roster, Children Of The Bong were never a part of the festival scene. Instead they met at Harrow college, where they found refuge in a 16-track studio. Discovering acid house in the late 80's made them put down the guitar. However, they were never fans of handbag house and its rigid 4/4 rhythm, they took their influences mainly from hip-hop and dub, to give their music a more human feel.
"We heard this Tibetan music and it had a track on it called 'Children Of The Bong'. We thought why not call ourselves this. But the meaning came afterwards. It's about a more open way of thinking. Music for music's sake".' Discogs
These Children have appeared on this blog before with some introductory blurb, so I won't repeat myself with any more of that apart from posting the above text.
This particular item seems to be another demo tape that must have been recorded before their album 'Sirius Sounds' was released, and indeed it features some work-in-progress versions of some of the tunes featured on that album, along with others which as far as I know (?) have never been available before.
Recommended to folks who like electro, dub and ambient sounds...
Tracklisting -
Side One: Symbol-I/Underwater Dub/Inflight Trance/Cosmic Flash/Breathe
Side Two: Life On Planet Earth/U.V.F. (Ultra Violet Frequencies)/Symbiotic/Interface Reality/Ambient Suicide (Half An Ounce Later)
As per usual, ripped @320kbps as two side-long tracks
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.
It's that time of the year (at least in the UK) when weird funguses are blooming across the land and inspiring folks to walk fields, parks, golf courses, hillsides etc (best to try where cattle have been kept, but not necessarily) in search of these little helpers and guides which open the Doors of Perception and lead the intrepid traveller a merry internal dance beyond the veil...
The Magic Mushroom Band were originally founded in 1982 in Bracknell, UK as a "psychedelic space pop" band by Gary Masters (Gary Moonboot, guitar), Kim Russell (Kim Oz, vocals) and guitarist Gary Twining. Wayne Buaku (bass) and Jim Lacey (drums) completed the band.
Later they formed their own label Fungus Records and started working together with the Magick Eye Records as well. Kim Russell married Garry to became Kim Masters.
Soon after Marc Hunt (AKA Swordfish) replaced drummer Jim Lacey in 1989, they began to explore the Ambient-Dub (and eventually Goa/Trance/House) territory with their side-project Astralasia. While the members still considered themselves mainly as being the Magic Mushroom Band, Astralasia was a huge success from the start, and they soon spent more time on the side project than on the original formation.
After the founding members Gary Moonboot and Kim Oz left, the band has been "on hold" since 1995. The side-project Astralasia is still alive and active. (Discogs page on the band)
This tape is 'Live 1989' and was ripped @320kbps as two side-long tracks
Songs are as above on the artwork. As you can see there are a few cover versions included...and the set features an appearance from the ubiquitous Joie Ozric on keyboards.
Feeling lazy today so I'm gonna let Wikipedia introduce this band to you, as if you don't know who they are already -
'Back To The Planet (BTTP) formed while squatting together in Peckham, London in 1989, and attracted a following throughout the early 1990s. They played four consecutive Glastonbury Festivals and played many free festivals, including the Deptford Urban Free Festival and the Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992. BTTP were vociferous in their resistance to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Their music blended elements of ska, dub, punk, and dance music.
Their first album, 'Warning the Public', was released on their own record label, Arthur Mix Records, based in Hither Green. In 1993, the band signed to Parallel Records, and released a chain of singles. BTTP split not long after the release of 'Messages After The Bleep' in 1995, to pursue personal music projects.
BTTP performed a reunion gig at the Red Star Bar in Camberwell on 10 December 2006. They also played at the Endorse It In Dorset Festival on 12 August 2007, and the main stage at the 2007 Beautiful Days festival, but to a smaller than expected crowd owing to them clashing with Bill Bailey. BTTP played the Paradise Gardens free festival, London on 25 May 2008, and at the Endorse It In Dorset, SolFest and Shambala festivals in summer 2008.
Back to the Planet appeared at Glastonbury, and EnDorset in Dorset during the summer of 2009. Back to the Planet played the Wickerman festival in 2010. They played the Levelling the Land Part II tour, along with The Levellers and Dreadzone, in December 2011, headlined Rogues Picnic in May 2012, and played Bearded Theory festival in May 2012.
Back to the Planet made a late-night appearance at The Bimble Inn at Beautiful Days Festival on Friday 17 August 2012 and are confirmed to play Alchemy Festival 20-22 September 2013.'
Side One: Teenage Turtles / London City / You're The Judge / Starved By Ignorance
Just gonna add a personal reminiscence which in the light of later projects by a couple of members of the band seems somewhat ironic - I think it was from the band stage at Castlemorton Festival in May 1992 that I heard singer Fil slagging off the new-to-the-festival-scene 'cheesy-quavers/ravers' (probably more because of their lack of outdoor toilet etiquette than anything else - 'if you shit in the woods take a shovel mate') - keyboard player Guy McAffer went on to become Guy 'The Geezer', a well-known acid techno producer, and drummer Henry Cullen went on to become 'D.A.V.E the Drummer', a techno producer and DJ. Hohoho...
(Couldn't resist posting this...click on it for a larger view)
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)
Spirit People was a project formed by Cyrung (Australian Craig Miller), perhaps better known later on as the didge-playing and singing frontman of Tribal Drift, and who was around the time of this tape's release briefly a member of Lights In A Fat City.
This particular recording features 9 didge players with percussion who 'weave a jungly journey' and seems to have been recorded in New South Wales in 1989. Excellent atmospheric sounds.
'Comments:
I also was loaned a 'copy of a copy' of a tape a friend of mine picked
up years ago at a fair or street market sort of thing in Australia. The
only words on it are : 'Spirit People'. It is very nice. Sounds like
two, perhaps three didge players with various drums and click sticks.
That's all, no nature sounds. Just good rhythms and didj playing.
Reviewer: Ed Drury
There are two tapes of Spirit People. The first was described in Ed
Drury's abstract. It actually features 9 didge players and was recorded
in NS Wales around 1989. One of those players goes by the name of
Cyrung. For a short time in 1990, he was a part of Lights in a Fat
City. As far as I know, he now lives in London. His credits include
playing on a CD by the group COIL.
Reviewer: Stephen Kent
Nine didjeridus and natural percussion produce the varying sounds and rhythm of the natural world.
Reviewer: The Australian Cultural Experience
A collectors piece, 9 didgeridoos and percussion weave a jungly journey. Four tracks, each 10 minutes.
Reviewer: Cyrung' - More info -
Side One : 1. One 2. Love / Side Two : 1. Jungle 2. Life
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
Here's an act that doesn't really need an introduction, but here's a brief one from Wikipedia anyway -
'Banco de Gaia is an electronic music band from England, formed in 1989 by Toby Marks (born 1964, South London).
The music of Banco de Gaia is best categorized as ambient dub, but Marks works to cross genres, often using Arabic and Middle Eastern samples against a bass heavy reggae, rock, or trance rhythm to produce deeply textured tracks that progress layer upon layer.'
'Freeform Flutes & Fading Tibetans' is the second of BdG's cassette-only releases in 1992 (although I believe the album got a limited release on CD-R from the BdG website in 2003).
It has never had a proper commercial issue on CD or vinyl because some of the samples used have never got clearance for copyright, but the sound on tape is pretty good and there shouldn't be too many complaints about the overall quality.
Some tracks here will already be familiar to fans since versions of them also appeared on releases such as 1993's 'Desert Wind' EP, the 'Ambient Dub' compilations on Beyond Records and BdG's 1994 debut full-length album 'Maya'.
Side One: Desert Wind / Lai Lah / Soufie / Alpha (Waves All In My Brain)
Side Two: Therapy / Terra Om / Theta / Darkside / Eternal Recurrence
