31/07/2021
Pierre Vervloesem - Predator Vs. Actiris
Guitarist Pierre Vervloesem has been described as "Belgium's Frank Zappa," although it might be more appropriate for Vervloesem to share that title with his frequent musical partner Peter Vermeersch; together, the two musicians cover Zappa's stylistic breadth more fully than Vervloesem alone. During the 1990s, the guitarist was a manic presence in an already manic band, Vermeersch's X-Legged Sally, which blasted through a high-energy blend of influences, combining elements of Zappa, the New York downtown scene, and Belgian avant-prog music as practiced by groups like Univers Zero and Present (although largely minus the dark and ominous moods). Vervloesem appeared on all of X-Legged Sally's recordings, including Slow-Up (1991), Killed by Charity (1994), Eggs and Ashes (1995), and The Land of the Giant Dwarfs and the live swan song Fired (both 1996). After X-Legged Sally broke up, Vervloesem continued to perform -- this time on bass -- in Vermeersch's next ensemble, the more pop-oriented A Group, which released two CDs, the oddly sequenced Volume 1 (recorded in 1997) and Volume 3 (2000), the latter of which included the first recorded appearance of Vermeersch's experimental big band, the Flat Earth Society.
While partnering with Vermeersch, Vervloesem also began stepping out with his own projects, revealing himself to be a technically proficient and sometimes zany musician with feet in both the avant-prog and heavy metal-influenced guitar shredder camps. His solo outings include Home Made (1994), Fi as co (1996), Chef-d'Oeuvre (1999), Plays John Barry (2002), Grosso Modo (2002), and Rude (2005). Fi as co, Grosso Modo, and Rude (2005) can be purchased through the Belgium-based Carbon 7 label's website at www.carbon-7.com, and are worth the effort to locate for fans of electric guitarists across a range including Nick Didkovsky, Fred Frith, Zappa, Nels Cline, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai.
Aka moon aka truth 1992
Fabrizio Cassol, Michel Hatzigeorgiou and Stéphane Galland are the founding members of the core trio. All three were already active musicians playing in various bands. Aka Moon is a natural repository of this state of being, and took up this invisble thread during a journey to the Aka Pygmies in the Central African Republic. Since then, their work has developed into a network of continuous exchange not only between musicians from the four corners of the globe, but also between all these musicians and all the people who share their musical adventure as music-lovers and people of the world. Aka Moon juggles with polyrhythms and polyphonies like mad DJs, they slide from one phrase into another, opening up new harmonic and rhythmic paths, just like those whose soul they met in the African forests, in the infinite beauty of Indian music, or in the drums of west Africa, and bring us back in subtle ways to our own culture. Their music is diversity itself and there is something for everybody contemporary, jazz, rock, or even for those who are looking to trance in techno or jungle. With Aka Moon, you just have to open up your soul and your body, and let the music do the rest.
Le groupe a été fondé au début des années 9O. Les musiciens d'Aka Moon sont reconnus pour pratiquer une musique riche, influencée par leurs voyages autour du monde. Leur musique est très influencée par celle de Steve Coleman, notamment en ce qui concerne la polyrythmie. De nombreuses collaborations « exotiques », notamment avec les pygmées d’Afrique centrale (d’où le groupe tire d’ailleurs son nom), ou des percussionnistes indiens, sont présentes dans leur discographie.
30/07/2021
28/07/2021
The Pop Group - Blood Money (Slow Thief) (Official Video)
An experimental film for The Pop Group’s 1978 track 'Blood Money (Slow Thief)' by Mark Stewart, Peter Harris & Llyr Williams
'Blood Money (Slow Thief)' is taken from 'Alien Blood', an additional album of unheard material included in the deluxe limited edition box sets released in November 2019 as part of the 40th anniversary reissue of The Pop Group's debut album 'Y'.
Peter Harris on making the video: 'The starting point for this animated film was Mark Stewart’s interest in Austrian avant-garde film-maker Kurt Kren. Stewart sent Harris a series of images including an old advert for novelty rubber masks. Harris used these to create a collection of nightmarish scenarios, evoked by collaged fragments assembled before the camera in extreme close-up. The light flickers like old nitrate film passing through a projector – at any point the whole thing might explode. The macro view distorts what we are looking at beyond all recognition – or almost all. The something that remains is visceral, violent, rotting. Like the distortions evoked in the eye by a Rorschach blot, what we see is a macabre reflection of the dark underbelly of our own psyche. These scenes from a charnel house might be battlefield body parts, the tangled limbs of concentration camp victims, JFK’s shot brains – or something else entirely. There is mystery as well as beauty in these tantalising, blown-up forms – the way they tumble, ooze and knot – the super-detail that gives its all but refuses to identify itself.
It is wilting and pathetic, dystopian views, coloured or discoloured are amplified by all-seeing ¬eyes. The jet-black humour of Samuel Beckett is evoked – the terror and banality of existence (waiting for fast food). A recurring theme in Harris’ work, food is something to be rammed unthinkingly down the throat – soggy mounds of the stuff – in a desperate wager against time. What else is there?
But visceral as all this is, there is humour here too. This is a film as playful as it is inventive. Harris is kind to his materials in a way that can be strangely moving. The slimy iceberg lettuce appears to lie butchered on the harsh concrete ground of a council estate; it’s as poignant an image as the shot of the dingy kitchen that follows, littered with empty beer cans – the crushed cans of hope. Another salad Harris describes as ‘idealised’ (each element of salad is colour enhanced until the saturation becomes nauseating). Tomatoes are blood red; bilious sweetcorn yellower than the sun; a vibrant, unreal sky hallucinogenic above condemned flats. The film culminates in the ultimate money shot: a creamy dressing is ejaculated over everything from ‘somewhere’ high above.
Interspersed throughout are images of The Pop Group taken from rare archival sources. Stewart’s haunting, desperate vocal accompanies all – part primordial scream, part apocalyptic howl. ‘How does it feel to kill a man?’ he asks as this heap of broken images plays out, the burnt shell of Grenfell looming in all our minds.'
Peter Harris is an artist, film-maker and musician. His longest running and most well-known collaboration is with Jamaican music legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Since 2003 they have been working on a series of drawings, paintings and films as well as music projects. He is currently working with On-U Sound/Mute Records on the video and artwork for Perry’s Rainford album and its forthcoming dub companion Heavy Rain.
In 2018 he began working with Trashmouth Records and released his first solo album Adverts which included guest performances by Lee Perry and Vic Godard. Each album contained an ‘art advert’ in the form of a one-off painted collage.
He is currently working with Zsa Zsa Sapien from the South London band Meatraffle on a collaborative music project under the name ‘The Hi Fi Twins’.
Animator Llyr Williams has been working with Harris since 2003. His projects include film, television and music videos as well as collaborations with visual artists on installations. He animated the visuals for the Higher Powers live event and exhibition with Lee Scratch Perry, Adrian Sherwood and Peter Harris at The Tabernacle, London.
25/07/2021
24/07/2021
Ulan Bator: "Evra Kedebra"
From the LP ABRACADABRA,
Ulan Bator is a French experimental post-rock band founded in 1993 by Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion. They got their name from Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia.
“I didn’t want to provoke but rather to suggest.”
Your latest project is called “I Feel Like A Bombed Cathedral”. It’s quite a provocative name, don’t you think? What’s the concept behind this project?
Amaury Cambuzat: The words “Bomb” and “Cathedral” sound strong, I know. Violence and religion being apparently opposed in the minds of many. I didn’t want to provoke but rather to suggest. It expresses a moment in my life when I felt the need to find a metaphor to define my state of mind in a society where everyone has to be strong, winning, pleasant and able to define themselves in one word, I deliberately wanted to take a long and uncomfortable name that perfectly reflected what I wanted to express. A scream, certainly vain but, a cry of distress in the face of our declining society. You will notice that, in the Selfies Era, I started this project by hiding my face under a djellaba’s hood. This is my way of manifesting in the face of this self-celebration that surrounds us daily. We live in an apparently free society but in which many taboos still remain.
By choosing this name, I was blocked on IG from the start. That did not surprise me. Their algorithm being extremely puritanical. Finally, there is also a poetic or romantic (?) connotation for me because this name sounds like a work by Claude Debussy that I love: La Cathédrale Engloutie.
The project is fairly new but you already have three releases available. Would you like to discuss what can we hear on these releases and what are the differences between them?
I started working on this project in May 2019. I was indeed immediately motivated and therefore very productive and I have released three albums on three different labels in a very short period of time. The common denominator between these three records and the fact that they are instrumental improvisations but they are all different. The first ‘AmOrtH’ released on the English label Dirter Promotions is very atmospheric. It opens with a piece lasting 43 minutes.
You’re also part of post-2004 Faust with Jean-Hervé Peron and Werner ‘Zappi’ Diermaier. How did you first got in touch with their music? Were they influential to Ulan Bator?
It was their ‘Rien’ LP (1994) produced by Jim O’Rourke that started it all. We (Ulan Bator) started collaborating with them in 1996 after the release of our second album Ulan Bator ‘2°’. We were initially called Collectif Metz because our first live collaboration took place in the French city of Metz. This collective was composed of Jean-Hervé Peron & Zappi Diermaier (Faust) + Olivier Manchion and myself (Ulan Bator). Then, before the recording of our LP “‘Végétale’, we gave a proper tour in France: Ulan Bator (trio) with Faust. These concerts were divided into two parts. The first was a 40-minute concert of Ulan Bator and the second part, a concert of Faust which included us (Ulan Bator) as musicians of Faust. Here is an excerpt from one of these concerts from this tour where French artist Pascal Comelade
22/07/2021
19/07/2021
18/07/2021
Ritual - Mind Disease
This one really crosses the thin line between punk and goth as it delivers dark madness, driven by tribal-like drums and a deep pumping bass. Singer Errol Blyth fights the demons as he screams since he’s obviously losing. The band released one album, Songs For A Dead King, in 1981 before they vanished into the darkness.
The Associates - The Affectionate Punch
One of Scotland’s answers to England’s post-punk hype was this band around charismatic lead singer Billy Mackenzie. They ended up heaving one Top 10 album and two Top 20 singles in the UK. Fun fact: The Affectionate Punch features backing vocals by Robert Smith.
THE CRAVATS- I Hate The Universe
THE CRAVATS, IN TOYTOWN (1980)
The Cravats were an underrated art-punk group who were involved with Small Wonder, a label that put out early releases from Crass, the Zeros, Angelic Upstarts, Bauhaus and the Cure, among others. Crass Records also released the Cravats' 1982 single "Rub Me Out," which is another great record and further proof that the Crass lineup was quite diverse. In Toytown is a bizarre and creeping mixture of post-punk, anarcho-punk and driving ska that isn't so much "ahead of its time" as it is "in a time of its own.
Psi Com - Human Condition
Psi Com was an American gothic rock band of the mid-1980s. Prominent in the underground Los Angeles music scene, the group is noted for being the first band of the acclaimed vocalist Perry Farrell who went on to achieve greater fame in the band Jane's Addiction .
PSI COM, PSI COM (1985)
Plenty of '90s alt-rockers got their start playing in legitimate underground punk and goth rock groups before breaking into the mainstream and cashing in. (Ian Astbury, for example, began with Southern Death Cult / Death Cult before hitting it big with the Cult.) One lesser-known group is Psi Com, the Bauhaus-worshipping band fronted by Perry Farrell, who would later go on to form Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros. Psi Com had only a few EPs before disbanding so that Farrell could move on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things
ASYLUM PARTY - sweetness...of pain
ASYLUM PARTY, BORDERLINE (1989)
Really more of a cold wave album, Asylum Party's Borderline is less synth-reliant than the majority of their French contemporaries, and perhaps what makes it all the more impressive is the fact that it is essentially a guitar-driven album. This is possibly one of the warmest-sounding cold wave albums out there, and it benefits tremendously from the production, which takes this record almost into dream-pop territory. Unlike Martin Dupont or Trisomie 21, Asylum Party excelled not in their ability to sound automated, but rather in their Wall of Sound approach to gothic post-punk
DIAT - Nausea
DIÄT, POSITIVE ENERGY (2015)
The only modern album here. Diät have honed in on a very specific mix of post-punk and death-rock that was perfected (and possibly invented) by Crisis, and has hitherto never seen its equal. It may be true that Warsaw laid the groundwork for this sound, but Crisis carved their own niche by injecting peace-punk with dark, minimalistic goth and post-punk riffs. A few others have tried to recreate this satisfying concoction in recent years, but only Diät (and Total Control) have succeeded in sounding this genuine in their efforts. The tones, pacing and vocals on Positive Energy are just perfect, occasionally summoning early Christian Death during the more driving moments. It's undeniable that Diät's influences were painstakingly researched, but for once, it paid off.
Helios Creed - Monster Lust
HELIOS CREED, SUPERIOR CATHOLIC FINGER (1989)
Helios Creed is known for his distinctive guitar sound, which he created while "listening to Black Sabbath on LSD on headphones when he was a teenager." The acid-punk outsider was a prominent member of the prolific San Francisco band Chrome, a group that infused their brand of alien post-punk with industrial, psychedelic rock and krautrock influences. Superior Catholic Finger was released in 1989 as Helios Creed's second solo album, and saw the mad genius following up on the stripped-down acid-punk style of his brilliant debut, X-Rated Fairy Tales, with a sound that is heavily indebted to the Residents and visionary weirdo Geza X.
BLITZ, SECOND EMPIRE JUSTICE (1983) - White Man
BLITZ, SECOND EMPIRE JUSTICE (1983)
Blitz were a legendary Oi / UK 82 band whose 1982 album, Voice of a Generation, is heralded as a pinnacle of the genre, so it's not surprising that the release of Second Empire Justice — an album that saw Blitz trade in their Oi anthems for gloomy post-punk — incited a negative reaction. The band was labeled "sellouts" by fans, who were only able to see the progression as an attempt to jump on the Factory Records bandwagon. Though the sudden shift to New Wave may have been polarizing — and despite overt influences and possibly direct plagiarism of Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division — Second Empire Justice is ultimately Blitz's best material.
Read More: Tragic Figures: 15 Post-Punk Obscurities You Need to Hear | https://clrvynt.com/15-unsung-post-punk-albums/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Jah Wobble - Betrayal
JAH WOBBLE, THE LEGEND LIVES ON ... JAH WOBBLE IN "BETRAYAL" (1980)
"Betrayal" is an apropos title for Jah Wobble's debut album; the infamous dub bassist "borrowed" several of the tracks from Public Image Ltd's Metal Box album for his solo project, a betrayal that allegedly caused a rift between him and John Lydon, resulting in Wobble's departure from the group. In his defense, Jah Wobble both played and wrote the basslines, and arguably laid the foundation for PIL's early sound, along with Keith Levene. But alas, the circle of betrayal brought things back around when Flipper stole the bassline of "Today Is The First Day..." for their classic "Sex Bomb" one year later.
17/07/2021
Phosphenes - Waiting band by Stan Demeski The Feelies, Luna, Speed The Plough, The Trypes and The Phosphenes
Stan Demeski is a legend, whether you know it or not. He’s also a very kind and funny man with a great/subtle sense of humor and he’s one hell of a record collector. Most importantly, he’s one of the finest drummers of our generation. Most known for having been the driving force behind The Feelies for the last 30-plus years, he’s played in other terrific and diverse bands, such as Luna, Speed The Plough, The Trypes and The Phosphenes (who were before his stint with The Feelies and whose one E.P. I have and still love).
I had the good fortune of getting into a Q & A-styled conversation with Mr. Demeski recently and here are the fruits of our chat. Thanks go to Howard Wuelfing and to Stan Demeski for being gracious and patient with his time and thoughts.
You’ve been with The Feelies since 1986. Over thirty years.
Actually I started playing with Glenn, Bill, Dave and Keith in 1981.
How does it feel, when you have all these other musical projects that you participate in, to come back to The Feelies after a certain amount of time apart?
It’s been great. When the band stopped playing in 1991, it was not under good circumstances. Nothing real bad, but I felt a lot of effort had been wasted. So this go round has made up for some of that.
Understandably, people change, grow and evolve so how do you maintain the joy to still play and perform together?
This band is one of my favorite groups of people to play with and it’s real drum/percussion orientated music. When I first went down to play with them, I was a percussion/music ed major in college. Many of the things we were doing in percussion ensemble at school were being done by the band in a rock music context. It was really exciting. I felt I had found “my people”. In many ways, it’s still like that.
Talk about some of the other bands you’ve played with over the years – The Phosphenes (who I loved)…
I grew up mostly in Lyndhurst, NJ. 3 of The Phosphenes were from Lyndhurst (including the original drummer that I replaced) and the singer was from Kearney. They sounded like Red-era King Crimson who couldn’t play their instruments quite as well and with more of a punk edge. The original drummer quit and I was called in to record the E.P. It was the 2nd release on Coyote. The guitar player played on the 1st Swans EP around the same time and was getting some well deserved attention, but after a while he realized it was not what he wanted to do. We threw away what I thought was a pretty big opportunity and stopped playing live. But we did continue to play in the basement, jamming and recording for a few more years. It was great and we’re all still friends. The bass played is married to Steve Fallon’s youngest sister and I recently met up with Tim, the singer after many years.
Luna?
After The Feelies went on hiatus, Dean contacted me to do some playing. I was ready to leave music and was reluctant to to play with another band, but he offered to pay me. I needed a job and I agreed to play on part of the 1st L.P. Somehow, the gentleman who was the live drummer and was supposed to play on (at least) part of the L.P. lost his position. The Feelies were officially dropped by A&M around that time and I continued with the band, mostly in a project by project situation. We did become “a band” after awhile, of course. But it was really Dean and Justin’s band and when I started refusing to do certain shows/tours, I was let go. Looking back, getting let go was one of the best things to happen to me. It was time to stop touring and I didn’t have a lot in common with the other members except music. Luna was great in that it was very much unlike The Feelies, so it was a nice change for awhile. I wish we would have had more success.
The Trypes, Speed The Plough…
These 2 bands are pretty much the same band and we even were called Sunburst or awhile. It’s mostly John and Toni’s (my in laws) band. Or bands. Dave was the drummer for The Trypes, but he became a bit unreliable for a short time and I was kind of pressured into taking his place. I really didn’t want to, but I did.
What was it like playing in different bands – did it allow you the freedom to build on being an even more powerful and diverse drummer?
I did it mostly to get experience and to try to make something happen as far as a career in music goes. Most of the bands were in a similar vein. I think the music I practice and play by myself helps with the diversity part.
You are, after all, a very musical drummer, which often gets overlooked – you know where and when to fill the holes and when to hang back. Do you look at that element of your playing as being the most joyful part of holding it all together?
Thanks, I don’t think I overplay, if that’s what you mean. I try to support the song and since I’m not a real outgoing person or an attention hog, that’s easy to do. Many times, I’m playing what my favorite drummers played in similar situations. Usually the exact fills or beats and feels.
With The Feelies, what is the process in arranging and putting the songs together? Are they done in a manner of “you’re the drummer, you figure out what goes here” or “you’re the bass player, you play what you think works” or are the songs presented in a pre-arranged format?
Glenn sometimes has demos with drum machines, but these days more likely, a basic drum set or percussion parts, he plays himself. They’re pretty simple, but what I end up playing is, too. I usually change the drum parts he comes up with a little to fit the rhythm guitar more. With Bill’s songs, it’s usually just a guitar demo. If they don’t have drum parts, I try to come up with basic working parts they can change or modify when we play together. Neither of them write out drum charts or anything like that, although I can read pretty well and I’d be okay with that. Sometimes, we just jam or run through new songs to learn them, but that happens less these days, due to logistics. While I don’t exactly feel they “write” the exact drum parts, they do have final say over them. It’s never a case of them wanting me to play something I don’t want to or wouldn’t play. I think I play the parts the way they want to hear the drums played and they fine tune it from there.
11/07/2021
Arthur Russell - "Instrumentals" Volume 2 (Part 1)
“No style is higher or lower, hermetic or impermeable”
David Toop/The Wire
Before Disco, and before the transcendent echoes, Arthur Russell wanted to be a composer. His journey began in 1972, leaving Iowa to study Indian classical composition with Ali Akbar Khan in Northern California and ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. In that brief period Arthur met and worked with several musicians and poets that would guide his work throughout the remainder of the decade: Allen Ginsburg, Christian Wolff, Jackson MacLow, Rhys Chatham, Philip Glass, Elodie Lauten, and Ernie Brooks.
FIRST THOUGHT BEST THOUGHT collects Arthur Russell’s out of print instrumental and orchestral compositions along with over 45 minutes of previously unreleased material on 2 CD’s.
Initially intended to be performed in one 48-hour cycle, “Instrumentals” was in fact only performed briefly in excerpts as a work in progress. The legendary performances captured live in New York at The Kitchen and Franklin St. Arts Center include the cream of that eras downtown new music scene including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Garrett List, Andy Paley, Dave Van Tiegham, and Peter Zummo. Included here is the previously unreleased “Instrumentals” Vol. 1 along with “Instrumentals” Vol. 2 that has been out of print for over twenty years. Originally released in 1984, sections of “Instrumentals” Vol. 2 were incorrectly mastered at half speed, and have been corrected for this compilation.
Reach One is one of Arthur’s earliest compositions dating back to 1973. The hypnotic soundscape was written and performed for two Fender Rhodes pianos.
One of the holy grails in Arthur’s discography, Tower Of Meaning is a beautiful and stunningly moving orchestral work. Conducted by the late Julius Eastman, Tower Of Meaning was originally released in a limited private edition of only 320 copies.
Inspired by his work with friend and composer Arnold Dreyblatt, Sketch For The Face Of Helen was recorded with an electronic tone generator, keyboard and ambient recordings of a rumbling tugboat from the Hudson River.
FIRST THOUGHT BEST THOUGHT is an essential collection of the lost instrumental treasures from Arthur Russell’s vast archive and brings the genius of his legacy closer into focus. Packaged with a 16 page color booklet + O-card of archival images and essays by former Modern Lover Ernie Brooks and Audika’s Steve Knutson.
10/07/2021
05/07/2021
Xmal Deutschland - Incubus Succubus II
Sounding like howling witches burning at the stake, the ghoulish shrieks of Xmal Deutschland's 1982 debut single "Incubus Succubus" immediately won the approval of goth rock connoisseurs. The German band wasn't able to maintain its black-clad sound, selling out to pop before the inevitable breakup, but Xmal Deutschland competed with Siouxsie & the Banshees for goth royalty. Xmal Deutschland was formed in Hamburg, Germany, in 1980 by Anja Huwe (vocals), Manuela Rickers (guitar), Rita Simon (bass), Fiona Sangster (keyboards), and Caro May (drums). Originally an all-girl lineup, Xmal Deutschland added a male when Simon was replaced by bassist Wolfgang Ellerbrock.
04/07/2021
Waxahatchee - Dixie Cups and Jars (Official Audio)
As Waxahatchee, Philadelphia songwriter Katie Crutchfield's work is born of a punk aesthetic but drawn from a place so personal and inward that even the most tossed-off lines feel confessional. After releasing the 2011 Waxahatchee debut, American Weekend, as a more homespun solo acoustic outing, Cerulean Salt finds Crutchfield joined by some supporting musicians, amping up the production values, but, above all, finding a far deeper voice for her songs.
I'm not a whipper in the wind
Or solace laying at the bottom of a bottle
Or your thick skin
Escape yells both our names out loud
We run like hell, I'll write a tragic epilogue and you'll act it out
I watched your dad give you away
I watched him drink the bitter taste in his exertion away
Make-up sits on your face like tar
The champagne flutes poorly engineered
Employ dixie cups and jars
Like minds let go of doubt
I watched it blow right out and
We danced on gaffs and graves
You'll remain, I will find a way to leave gracefully or I'll escape
I do not fall to losing face
I dream I dive into something greater
Something to take my grief away
Dead leaves crunch, I will not be missed
I fill my jar up to the brim
I am an arid abyss
I'm an arid abyss
03/07/2021
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