From the Top Drawer LV - Wooden Baby

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)

Download HERE
 

From the Top Drawer LIV - Spirit People

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

Ripped as two side-long tracks @320kbps

Grab a copy HERE

 

Alternate artwork

Rick Simpson - Darkcity Phoenix Tears Rising

'Who is Rick Simpson?
Rick Simpson rediscovered a way of cannabis oils for the treatment of cancer. He has dedicated more than a decade of his life to informing the world of this incredible medicine.

More Informations:
http://phoenixtears.ca/

By making this campaign successful, you will be helping Rick Simpson to fulfil his dream of producing high quality, healing cannabis oil to give to those who need it and to supplying seeds worldwide in a NON-PROFIT environment without fear of legal retribution.

Campaign Goals
The aim of this Campaign is to finance Rick Simpson in creating a cannabis seed bank of medical cannabis strains recommended for the production of RSO and a cannabis association to allow rick to legally produce RSO and supply RSO treatment to those who need it most.

Why a Seedbank?
Rick Simpson wants to provide the correct medical cannabis seeds of selected strains to anyone who is looking to treat their severe medical ailments with RSO. He says the only way to know you're getting the best produce, is to make it yourself.

Why Spain?
Because Spain has quite a sensible approach to the medical cannabis issue in which it allows private non profit associations to provide its members with cannabis for medical or even recreational use.'

Stage 1 info & Donate - Phoenixtears Compassion Club

If you haven't seen Rick's film 'Run From The Cure' go HERE 

From the Top Drawer LIII - Third Ear Band

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

Download HERE

Third Ear Band Official Archive

The Oroonies are Undone

Just a little reminder between my own posts that the Oroonies are offering a free download of their latest offering 'Undone' in full quality .wav format from this page -
https://soundcloud.com/oroonies-undone

'After a 20 year snooze, The Oroonies emerge coughing and spluttering into the light of day. Use, reuse, abuse and confuse as you will. Track Listings: Legba, His Memory is Lost, Gone Beyond, Lets Do It Together, Bodies Disappear, You Must Learn Our Signs, Kalfou, Putti Putti, Parasamgate.'

The magic still lives on...O Mighty Ones!

From the Top Drawer LII - Banco de Gaia

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

Ripped @320kbps as two side-long tracks

Get it HERE

Banco de Gaia website

From the Top Drawer LI - Mandragora

 '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)

Date is 1st December 1989 as on the flyer.

Ripped as usual @320 kbps

Get a copy of it HERE

Live in Kharkov, Ukraine 1995

http://phil1.homecall.co.uk/mandragora.html
http://www.myspace.com/theoriginalmandragora