Here's another relic from behind the iron curtain on the great Polish cassette label Anti-Musik Der Landsh that was founded by Mariusz Blachowicz in the small town of Łańcut . The label is another prime example of the hidden counter cultural expressions that were going on in the underground during the socialist times in Eastern Europe in the last century. In a nutshell, first there was state…
Dear music friends, it has been a while! Had to adjust to some new life developments, couldn't come up with the right connecting piece (it's all in my mind obviously) and even thought to maybe quit this blog after more than ten years. I could go into everything that is going on out there in the world and fabricate some narrative about where we are standing in these common music fields, but…
It has been a while (for several reasons) but here it goes again. Vol Sec (originally Voluntary Sector) was a post-punk outfit from Brighton that emerged from the band The Parrots in late 1979 or early 1980. The band consisted of Les Phillips (drums), Brenda Robinson (vocals), Rick Blair (guitar, vocals, synth), Colin Murray (bass), Jay Derrick (keyboards, synth, vocals), Nick Wells (guitar) and…
Here's another Musicworks cassette compilation. Musicworks was a journal that focused on Canadian avant-garde music as well as music recorded during music meetings in Canada by foreign musicians. It was founded by Andrew Timar and John Oswald in Toronto. Numerous cassettes were released and accompanied by background information and different articles on music. This volume includes: France based…
So I never thought another cassette by Error would surface after stumbling upon their earlier Show Off Your Mutants tape, but I was wrong. Here it is! Error was an electronic music group from the small sea town of Corpus Christi in Texas. On this release it says that the music was made by Geronimo (voice/instruments) and Big Chief (instruments), however it might as well be a solo project, who…
Let's start the new year with another special cassette by the Dutch anarchist, free-form home-taping group Dust And The Minds. The band hailed from the surroundings of the small village of Egmond-Binnen and was created by the brothers Fred and John Valkering who were accompanied by a lot of different other musicians. The Valkering brothers established their cassette label Egmondse Klank Opsessie (…
Merry Christmas to all friends and followers of the blog! Is that an image of the Brooklyn Bridge with the Twin Towers in New York? Can't really figure out the angle of the photo though. Ofcourse those towers were already there decades before they got used to scam us into the new millennium. But whether this image is a correct depiction of the skyline is quite unclear. Actually it doesn't really…
Viktimized Karcass was an experimental underground band from Memphis, Tennessee that was strongly embedded in the cassette culture of the 80's. The band consisted of Chris Phinney (founder of the Harsh Reality cassette label), Michael Thomas Jackson, Richard Martin, Robert Henson and Roger Moneymaker. The music consists of psychedelic jams, electronic experimentation, tape-loops and other…
The Katharos Foundatio n was a collective of audio-visual artists and musicians from Tilburg , The Netherlands, established in February 1986. They used performative, conceptual and multi-media aspects in their work which incorporated transgressive elements. There were different musical guises of which a notable one was the industrial Sluagh Ghairm. That band would later turn into the tribal techno…
Naomi N'Uru was a project by Caroline Frerichs and Rasmi Nithokar from the Northern German town of Bremerhaven . They released a couple of cassettes as well as this record and a CD. They also recorded under the name Cosmic Dance Society which I highly recommend to check out. The music on Wurm consists of late EBM style music with lots of cut-ups, sampling and strange transitions. Occasionally it…
Regicide Bureau was a home-taping project and label from Overland, Saint Louis, Missouri created by Thomas Sutter . By himself and together with other befriended musicians Sutter released numerous cassettes throughout the 80's and 90's. The majority of those cassettes were never for sale and could only be obtained by exchanging cassettes. The Regicide Bureau was an important force and institution…
OCCII Amsterdam 30th Anniversary celebration post! OCCII (Onafhankelijk Cultureel Centrum In It) is one of Amsterdam 's last standing autonomous cultural venues that revolves around the elements of inclusivity, DIY action and a wide variety of live music as well as political and social activities. Besides local indie bands, jazz or world music it's also a home for free improvisation, psychedelic…
Originally from Austin, Texas, Seemen is the collaborative effort of Kal Spelletich and some forty odd art drop outs and extreme technology inventors who enjoy building extreme machines and robots that they allow their audience to operate. Since the late 80's and 90's Spelletich has been doing performances with Seemen and the notorious Survival Research Laboratories . Through the extremes of…
Here's an odd but great one. It took me some time to decipher this cassette since the cover kind of confused me at first. In any case it seems to be a split tape between Scottish home-taper Dion Trevarthen (also known as Square Sun) and Royal Flush, a home-taping act that was released by the Black Death tape label from the small town of Zoetermeer , The Netherlands. Black Death was created by…
Here we have yet another compilation on Epitapes that was established by Mike Tetrault from Belchertown, Massachusetts . Throughout the 80's dozens of these compilations were created. Each compilation was based around a certain theme and assembled accordingly by Mike Tetrault. Some of the tracks were taken from existing releases while others were sent specially for these tapes. You can read an…
The Gefährliche Klons (The Dangerous Clones) were a NDW band formed in the city of Marburg during the late 70's by the core duo of Uwe Linke and Exo Neutrino . They had many different Clone disguises and started to do their own music experiments inspired by Der Plan and the Geri Reig principle combining primitive electronic sounds with demented acoustic tunes and melodies while also using toys and…
Bicycle Repair Man was a one-man home-taping project from the Southern Dutch city of Venray . I think it was a self-released project that was eventually distributed by the Red Rat Recordings cassette label from Utrecht that was created by Otto Grunbauer. The label had quite an extensive catalogue during its run, releasing many compilations as well as music by Merzbow, F/i and many others. However…
Here we have another cassette that was released by the Canadian magazine Musicworks that focused on Canadian avant-garde music since the late 70's. Musicworks was founded by Andrew Timar and John Oswald in Toronto. They released dozens of cassettes that accompanied the Musicworks magazine that published on the relation between science, technology, ecology, sonic environments and music. Music As…
So I've posted something before that was on the mysterious Slang Tapes label, a US cassette label that was dedicated to strange humorous free-jazz and improvisation. That live improvisation cassette fell a little flat amidst all the home-taping music on this blog, but it was strange enough to share. I actually try to redefine that eternal crescendo of music posts of which one thing should be…
Since this is the third time that I write about Liza N. Eliaz on this blog I will re-use some of the older texts: Liza Néliaz (1958 - 2001) was an electronic dance music producer and hardcore techno (terror) DJ originally from Oostende , Belgium. During the late 70's Néliaz started out as musician part of different Belgian avant-garde and new-wave bands . In the 80's Neliaz become more involved…
Vermooste Vløten were a Berlin based female duo that consisted of Hannie Bluum and Libójah Shnukki that was active during the 90's. During the first decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall a new spirit reconnected the divided German capital giving birth to dozens of open spaces, buildings and (temporary) venues. Squats were still around as true city institutes, rent was relatively cheap, techno…
Despite the recent ongoing tragic events that are taking place in an already dystopian world, the difficulty of finding the right answers and figuring out what to do I finally decided to keep posting music here anyway. Whether as a distraction, as medicine, as fuel to power up or to let off steam and anger. Some strange sounds might help to cope with a strange world. In any case, I wish everyone…
Error was an electronic music group from the small sea town (for American standards) of Corpus Christi in Texas. The group consisted of Geronimo (voice, keyboards, effects and programming), P. Poly (drums, percussion, programming) and Mr. Q-Pons (guitar). I suppose they were a home-taping group, but I don't think they were heavily involved in the more established cassette culture. Also since this…
According to the review on the cover of this cassette The Unwillings were a duo comprised of the German born Steve and Pete who were working at Audi-Motors in the German town of Ingolstadt . Whether any of that is true remains unknown, however it really doesn't matter. The Unwillings were a Velvet Underground influenced band that released only one cassette on the Servil label that was created by…
Merry Christmas and an Archaic New Year to all Friends and Followers of the blog! So here it goes, the last post of this year: Boxghosts is a project I don't know much about. It seems to have been a one person home-taping project that was created in the Dutch town of Venlo in the southern province of Limburg. During the 80's Venlo was home to a small but lively squatting scene around the recording…