The Bunk! - Scenes From Dreamland

Label : Cobbs Music

Year : 1999

Country : US

Format : C90

An eBay shot in the dark that hit the target. Based only on the faith given by the two Sun City Girls' covers featured as well as the homage in the title proper, I gave it a whirl. Not like I had to pay too much for it anyhow. What's contained in the oxide today is mostly cosmic psyche improvisations, like the Girls' jams at their most melodic and (somewhat) coherent.

Given their location, I wonder if they were buddies with Gravelvoice honcho Scott Colburn. He of Bishop and Gocher production infamy, but I didn't need to tell you that.

Here

Reportaż - Reportaż / Muzika

Label : Tonpress - SX-T 129

Year : 1988

Country : Poland

Format : LP

Back from the dead, to give you some stuff to listen to. 

Maybe, if you want.

Two to make up for my absence with excellent, excellent RIO from Poland. An avant-bordello soundtrack, even. You might have heard these releases somewhere else on the internet but you might just like my rips better.

Here

Label : ADN - 25

Country : Italy

Year : 1987

Format : C60

Here

Cool And The Clones - Wrong Time Of Month

Label : Ejaz - 2001

Year : 1985

Country : US

Format : LP

Here

Freed from the clutches of whoever, and free they are. Improvisational jazz interpolated with electronic treatments and experiments. Everything laid bare on the taped on insert. Live shenanigans. what more does an obscuro-avant fan need? Succinctness is key, the music itself paints an expressionist picture that I could only complete with filler text. Enjoy! 

Claus van Bebber - Akustische Werksübersicht 1977-1995

here

Here's something in the cards I've kept to my chest for awhile. Once again, I had been graciously provided a rip of a long awaited object by a certain online friend. Like a needle reaching the run-out groove, the time since this exchange has allowed me the chance to share with all of you.

Bebber is a very interesting in the Improv scene, a turntablist of sorts like the experimental likes of Marclay and Tétreault. Although I would say he is more in line with the latter than the former, but comparisons are comparisons. Surprisingly jazzy in the trifle and noisy, too! Originally encased in a wooden tomb for collectors of limited editions. I guess that is why it costs up to 100 euros to even hear it. Until today!

Looking back on this a bit, I've become very interested in hearing the rest of this boutique's catalog. Some names I never heard of with some delectable style tags.

Ripped by Scramoutcha
Format : CD
Year : 1996
Country : Germany
Label : Edition Vicchi Ravaglia Goch

Foreign World - Trying To Escape

Label : Foreign Records - F.R.001

Country : Canada

Year : 1984

Format : LP

Escapism, or at least an attempt. Less an excursion into a fictional world and more of a desperate following of uncertain paths out of it. Case in point:

A far cry from what I was given in elementary school. Anyway,

onto the music.

That's what has brought us together today.

I've been at this for so long, and I've never really stopped to think about my methods. No, not those methods. "Ripping" yes, but for plastic platters. I have taken a concerted effort of observing other intrepid givers in the community, be they on trackers or on their own blog, and what equipment they use. It seems obvious to me that my rips have been of a fairly lower quality, with noticeable hums, outdated tech, unnecessary parts of a chain, etc... This one isn't so bad given the "slightly warped" as described nature of the record and my lack of a Gritty Doctor 500 or whatever. I'll be lookin' at tomorrow (Welfare) 

Oh yeah, this is some interesting stuff. A sort of ambient electro-folk improvised. A friend pointed out that it reminded him of number stations broadcasts, an eerie unsettler. I like to think some of the vinyl scraping gives it a character all on its own.

here

King Frog - Silver Gelatin

Label : Oblique - Oblique-001

Country : US

Year : 1997

Format : LP

"Suburban Gamelan", a phrase stuck to this particular project that then stuck into my head for awhile. An interesting concept, and I think it befits this just a little bit. The visuals and some of the sounds come to mind as a bleak cityscape.

I went out of my own usual way for this one--I heard a rip of this LP a year or so ago after being interested in the King after first reading about it in Blastitude. The 128kbps rip found on slsk was serviceable and I ended up really liking the sound, so I went and bought a copy to get a more "definitive" sound. I guess.

The whole album has a sound that I can cling to. A sort of unholy cacophony of almost early 20th century clamor. I liken some aspects to some choice 80s tracks from Band of Holy Joy and ZGA's excellent "Gloom". The art book that comes with is also a great companion piece in its sort of amateur expressionism. Also some of the tracks sound like Casio demos, which is quite charming.

Here

 

 

(Man, formatting on this site is annoying)

Rеinhold Brunner - Klаnger 1996-2008

Label : Bad Alchemy - Nr 77 / Attenuation Circuit - ACRB 1001

Country : Germany

Year : 2013

Format : CDr

Certainly a collection of sounds. Concrete or midi, and field recording mixed high and low. A bit difficult.

This CD-recordable has a lot of air to breathe, its compositions (a decade's worth written and performed between) are experimental in nature and a bit of a skeleton at times. Some finished and some unfinished (feeling).

This is not Brunner's first go around on Bad Alchemy, having first released a 7 inch single with Thomas Hintner called "Spirograph" (or is that the duo's name?) with the 33rd issue in the ongoing series of zines. The Spirograph projekt continued so to speak with the netlabel release Spinnen.

Here

Various - No Idea Festival

Label : Spring Garden Music - 011 / Coincident Records - NI-001 / Ten Pounds To The Sound - 002
Country : US
Year : 2004
Format : CD

A thought popped in my head listening to this. Whether or not I can craft the right sequence of words to reflect this thought is anyone's guess. It goes like this, the best free improv/eai/etc. has a sound or timbre similar to that of the noises old rusty buildings or frameworks make.

Whether that was a fabrication can only be known to me, I never really consider releases like these to be especially memorable but that did stick in my head (not my craw) a bit. A compiling of various musical performances in Texas for the No Idea Festival in 2004, featuring my man Jack Wright and his various friends. One word I would use for Jack's brand of free jazz improvisation is vacuous, not in the sense that it is vapid or shallow but a timbral quality of his recordings. It just sounds empty, not in the sense of.... It sounds good, the saxophone is in its own little world in the space of the other noisemakers about around it. Stop and start.

Here

Human Bone Bicycle - Human Bone Bicycle

Label : n/a (Death Factory Institution?) - 0003

Year : 1997

Country : US

Format : C90

Let me start this by saying that I've been taken a bit by the audio format opus, so I am experimenting a bit here. A 128kbps rip is usually lamented, but in this format it still achieves clarity in the abyss. I dunno. It's a cassette rip, there's not much expected other than to provide it.

On to the music of which the container holds: it's half-and-half. Noiseheads will appreciate the A-side more than I do (I think), a live performance producing sounds that remind me of a trainyard (not dissimilar to the Kakophonia tape, though I feel that one has more punch to it). The B-side I really like, a whole 40 minutes of xylophones and vibraphones being improvised upon. The tinkly quality levels out the more aggressive aspect of its doppelganger power electronik on the other side of the strip.

Here

Ornament & Crime Arkhestra - Live At The III. ITIM Festival

Label : Amf-Music - amf 1035

Country : Germany

Year : 1994

Format : CD

Ripped by Scramoutcha

I don't think this has anything to do with Sun Ra, but it is apparently an Arkhestra. A point of departure of sorts from Alain Neffe, or maybe not. I associate their music with the kind that pulsates electronically through synthetic means, this is a bit more of a jazzy and organic palpitation. Very folk too, though avant in its intentions. Still peppered with industrial backings, so this alien muse is not too alien.

Here

X-Ray Eyes - X-Ray Eyes

Label : Megaphone Limited - 007

Country : US

Year : 1994

Format : CD

Ripped by Scramoutcha

Another bountiful feast from my friend over the information superhighway. This has been on my radar for a little while and I've finally got a blip. Those familiar with Megaphone Limited will have a good bit to like here, and some recognizables as well. Improvisational folk and pop melodies crash discordantly with its jazz and atonal origins. Jason Willett and Caroline Kraabel ring a bell? This album certainly is rrrringing hoooo!

"utterly individual (albeit gently so)" says the website