On any post, if the link is no longer good, leave a comment if you want the music re-uploaded. As long as I still have the file, or the record, cd, or cassette to re-rip, I will gladly accommodate in a timely manner all such requests.

Slinging tuneage like some fried or otherwise soused short-order cook. Embiggening the earholes

Showing posts with label Planet Dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planet Dog. Show all posts

04 August 2025

Got Time for a Shard?

TimeShard were comprised of Steve Angstrom, Psy, & Gobber
 

The three got together to experiment sonically in 1988, sharing a common interest in creating a new kind of "shamanic trance music" with tapes loops & synthetic noises, an audio collage of found sounds from radio or film, edited sounds over burbling distorted rhythms, creating a new kind of mythic music concrete. TimeShard wanted to explore the untapped potential in creating a new kind of psychedelic state. At the time technology was considered "cold & impersonal", far from magical. TimeShard saw that the crystals which drove much of this equipment could have a deep power to inspire & to conjure something new, something weirdly powerful. TimeShard experimented with tape, borrowed multitracks, cheap downtime in local recording studios, borrowed synthesizers.

At first they performed some very strange dub inflected trance music for confused listeners. Their early music was a synthesis of dub with the pulsating sounds of Kraftwerk or the slower influence of Brian Eno. Their signature sound was analogue synthesizers, sequencers, & drum machines overlaid with glissando guitars along with an electric sitar. During their first five years Gobber, Psi, & Angstrom became known as one of the UK's first live acid house acts. During this time they developed a sound which later became known as Psychedelic trance although at the time they were often described as producing Ambient or Shamanic Trance music.

Liverpool dance music shop / record label 3Beat offered the Shardies a chance to record an album. The three hairy weirdos along with their friends & their manager travelled down to London to record in a state of the art recording studio. Though 3Beat had paid for the recording of Timeshard's Crystal Oscillations album, the fit was just not right. 3beat was a more traditional dance label favouring charty dance hits.

Lucky for everyone, Gobber's time running Sound Systems had put him in touch with the members of Eat Static & their friends at MegaDog right at the perfect time.  DJ Michael Dog had decided to start a label to release the sounds of that unique festival-influenced scene. Michael met with the TimeShard crew at the London headquarters of Planet Dog/Ultimate records. A few joints & a handshake later  everything was ironed out. An agreement was reached to release the psychedelic electronic Crystal Oscillations. It was a perfect fit with the Planet Dog / Megadog family.
 
 
Timeshard - Crystal Oscillations, Planet Dog BARKCD004, 1994.
decryption codes in comments

Voodoo Chronometer    
25th Century    
Psionic Lattice    
Metamind    
Oracle    
Cosmic Carrot    
Crystal Oscillations    
Human Error    
Secret Song of the Sea    
The Others
 
 
 
 

This CD single came out the following year... 
Timeshard - Zero (Ouroboros), Planet Dog BARK008CDS, 1995.

Photon (Wave)
Photon (Particle)
Zero
X-Ray Ears
 
 
 

Who let the dogs out,

02 August 2025

Let's Get Sirius...An Entire Planet of Dog

While the rest of the Planet Dog roster was made up of bands that were a vital part of the UK festival scene at the time, Children of the Bong were more of a studio act (although they gave many live performances - their first gig being at Rainbow Farm).



Daniel sez:
       "We supported Banco De Gaia in Birmingham. After the gig, Toby Marks (BDG) asked us to support him on his UK tour, which having just turned 18 was a bit of a coup for us!  On this tour we met Michael Dog, head man at Planet Dog Records, who said he was interested in signing us. This was great, however, we also had interest from China records and Andy Weatherall (who weirdly, wanted us to change our name). We considered the options and although China had offered a big advance and Weatherall could do no wrong,  I don't think Children of the Bong would have been at home anywhere but Planet Dog!"


Made up of Daniel Goganian & Rob Henry, who had met at Harrow College, Rob had a new-age tape of music from the Andes that had a song called "Children of the Bong". He decided that was a perfect name for their band. Children of the Bong created Dub, hip-hop, & ambient music in the privacy of Rob's bedroom musical studio, working through the nights experimenting, developing the Bong style: weird sounds; crazy beats; languid melodies; lunar soundscapes; all with "a dollop of cheek!"

 

Children of the Bong - Sirius Sounds 2xLP + 10". Planet Dog BARKLP012S, 1995.
decryption codes in comments

Side one -
This side -
Polyphase
Ionospheric State
Other side -
Interface Reality
The Veil...

Side three -
This side -
Underwater Dub
Life on Planet Earth
Other side -
Squigglasonica
Visitor

10" -
This side -
Underwater Dub (Full on, Drums & Bass All Hands on Deck Roots mix...!)
Other side -
Underwater Dub (Analogical Roots mix)
 
 


Well, everybody, the Children are back better than ever, bringing back the high holy days of 90s ambient dub/techno/hybridtronica. Everything you expect from CotB: heavy heavy basslines; fat Moog/synth vibrations; & immersive rhythms. Welcome to the 21st Century, Dog...
 
Children of the Bong - (Not Sirius), Disco Gecko GKOCD041, 2023.

Eleven Dimension Super Gravity    
Babylon 3    
Dubber FX
Feedback Returns
U.V.F. (Ultraviolet Frequencies)    
Cosmic Flash    
Elefunk    
Babylon 4    
In Flight Trance    
Breathe
 
 
 

Enjoy the chill,