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/
'Maybe Logic: The Lives & Ideas Of Robert Anton Wilson' (2003)
Guerrilla ontologist. Psychedelic magician. Outer head of the Illuminati. Quantum psychologist. Sit-down comic/philosopher. Discordian Pope. Whatever the label and rank, Robert Anton Wilson is undeniably one of the foundations of 21th Century Western counterculture. Maybe Logic - The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson is a cinematic alchemy that conjures it all together in a hilarious and mind-bending journey guaranteed to increase your brain size 2 - 3 inches!
From the water coolers and staff meetings of Playboy and the earth-shattering transmission of the Illuminatus! Trilogy, to fire-breathing senior citizen and Taoist sage, Robert Anton Wilson is a man who has passed through the trials of chapel perilous and found himself on wondrous ground where nothing is for certain, even the treasured companionship of a six-foot-tall white rabbit. Featuring RAW video spanning 25 years and the best of over 100 hours of footage thoroughly tweaked..
This feature-length documentary features Tom Robbins, RU Sirius, Ivan Stang, Paul Krassner, Valerie Corral and Douglas Rushkoff.
The soundtrack includes music from Boards of Canada, Animals On Wheels, Tarentel, Funki Porcini, The Supplicants, Pullman, Matt Elliott, The Cinematic Orchestra, Ognen Spiroski and Amon Tobin.'
'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.
