Dust-To-Digital are known for their excellent reissue work, unearthing and preserving music from scratchy old shellac 78 rpm recordings and the like. Bringing us vintage blues, gospel, Tuvan throat singing, and more, all with elaborate packaging and incredible attention to detail. They've been responsible for a host of fine cds, boxsets, and books, among 'em Victrola Favorites, Opika Pende, Steve Roden's I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces, and Goodbye, Babylon.
But THIS handsome book + cd set may be their most remarkable release yet, at least in terms of radical sound-conservation technique. It's certainly their most unusual. For example: one of the tracks here is an excerpt of an after-dinner speech given by late-19th century American orator and politician Chauncy M. Depew. You can listen to it on the cd, and distinctly make out the speaker's words, voice, and phrasing, amid a thick patina of hiss, hum, and distortion. Sounds like a poorly-preserved old gramophone disc. But, that sound isn't coming from the disc itself being played (and re-recorded for release on the cd). It's actually derived from a PICTURE of that disc, reduced by 2/3rds original size, that appeared in a 1898 magazine advertisement. The spiraling grooves on the record were pictured clearly enough that with creative use of off-the-shelf computer software, author Patrick Feaster was able to "play" a fairly accurate semblance of the sounds originally encoded on the gramophone record being advertised!!! Ok, that's pretty cool! Talk about DUST-to-Digital. And it's but one example of the MANY different, quite intriguing excercises and investigations in "playing back" sound from such antique and/or unusual "recordings" that Feaster and his colleagues at the First Sounds initiative have come up with, presented in fascinating detail in this fancy (gold gilt edges!), hardback 144-page book and accompanying 28-track compact disc.
Of course, one can argue, just what IS a "sound recording" anyway? In large part, that's what this is about; in fact, Feaster's introduction is devoted to that very question, which turns out to be both a philosophical one, as well as a technical one. Even in Feaster's expansive notion of the term, the idea that "sound recordings" exist from as far back as the year 980AD is perhaps a fanciful one, as he will admit, but still fruitful to consider.
Because, what this book is also about, more generally, is how human beings have sought to understand sound phenomena (from nature, voice, and music), through the ages, how sound has been "captured" and put on paper in graphical form to be perceived and studied visually. These visual representations of sound, are essentially all in the form of graphs of frequency, or amplitude, over time: sound spectrograms, sound oscillograms, phonoautograms, melographic inscriptions, manometric flame sketches, and many more. Various techniques, applied to various subjects. Found in these chapters and tracks, there's FBI voice-recognition studies from the '70s, phonophotographs of Negro spirituals from the '20s, and examples of Athansius Kircher's "Magia Phonotatica" circa 1650 (works which bring to mind Conlon Nancarrow's Studies For Player Piano), among others.
So, this is all very historically & scientifically interesting. Also, completely compelling just for the beauty of these images alone, which may or may not directly reflect the beauty of the sounds they represent - this is a lavishly illustrated book, with full-color reproductions of these various "sound recordings" to accompany the insightful text explaining it all. And the magic really happens, when you experience the book and cd in tandem, as each track on the cd, even the briefest, has an entire several-page chapter in the book devoted to it, and it really helps to read about and look at the visual sound source, while listening. Some tracks sound like antique recordings we're used to from wax cylinders and 78s, complete with the surface static we love so much; others like strange field recordings or ghostly experimental drones or balloons being rubbed together; still others like music boxes or similar devices�
This is the sort of unusual sound document to file with such aQ faves as the mysterious Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, the VLF recordings of Stephen McGreevy, or even the famed Conet Project (soon to be available again, with a bonus 5th disc!). In fact, one of the exhibits here, an 1890 phonoautogram by Emile Berliner, kind of reminds us of a Conet "numbers station" track, being a spoken series of numbers and letters recorded at varying speeds.
All in all, an astonishing, thought-provoking, and simply gorgeous book and cd, recommended to anyone interested in sound, science, OR art; meaning, probably everybody reading this!
Anyone who scours thriftshops regularly for records will surely be familiar with the names Ferrante and Teicher. World-renowned pop-classicists and dueling pianists from the fifties to the seventies, they're often squarely associated with the Lawrence Welk and Liberace markets our grandparents dallied in. While their recorded output easily tripled the most prolific artist you can imagine, their legacy has pretty much resulted in stacks and stacks of the kind of unwanted records that make crate digging an oft-frustrating chore.
But not everything they did was so square. In the early fifties at the dawn of the hi-fi age, they were among the first composers to take John Cage's prepared piano experiments (a method of altering piano tones by wedging various objects between the strings and hammers) and apply them toward orchestrated melodies. By doing so, and then running the sounds through state-of-the-art, multi-channeled stereophonic recording equipment of the time they were able to create an illusion of multiple instrument sounds such as tympanis, marimbas, xylophones, glockenspiels, and various percussion instruments, all from playing pianos. This reissue of Soundproof and its follow-up Soundblast is the result of such experiments. While this is hardly what we think of as experimental music, it sure does sound amazing. The kind of music you can imagine with Tex Avery cartoons on the moon, or in some space lounge on Venus. Some songs sound like the far-out Afro-Cuban rhythms of Esquivel, other songs have a more impressionistic underwater quality, while others have a more Joe Meek sci-fi surfy vibe. Some tracks experiment with reverse piano and early echo effects. In fact, to create the echo effect, in a time without easy echo electronics, they wired the sound from the piano down to a tiled bathroom a floor below, and placed microphones looped to a delay outside the bathroom door. Out of the two records, Soundproof is more experimental and playful while Soundblast relies on more Latin compositional formulas albeit ones you might hear in danceclubs on Mars. If you come across these Ferrante and Teicher albums in your crate digging adventures, don't dismiss.
Uh... two films by Mr. Ferraro. One short one, where he delivers a guided tour of LA, focusing heavily on OJ Simpson related sites. This one is bemusingly funny, and we're assuming its a clever put-on. The other one, is an endless editing together of scenes from B-grade '80s sci-fi VHS tapes, with Dutch subtitles for some reason. Some cool stuff on there too, but it went on and on and we didn't finish watching it, sorry. Hmm.
A Finnish black metal band, all of whose music is about trolls. Hence the name! This is their sophomore release, their first disc was a concept album apparently about the war between the trolls and the Christians (!) and it was a big favorite of both of AQ's
The first disc from these Finnish troll-metallers... Black metal polka at its best. Yup, polka. So great. This album tells the story of the (hitherto obscure) war between the Christians and the trolls.
This completely absurd yet amazingly fun Finnish band, whose members pretend they're TROLLS and play a mixture of black metal and the Finnish folk music called "humpa" (which sounds a heckuva lot like polka music) is back. And we have no choice but to raise a flagon of mead and join in another trollish hoe-down with them. Somewhat surprisingly, Finntroll's last three albums have all been minor hits here at Aquarius, not just among the usual staff suspects (Andee and Allan) but with our customers as well. We get mail-orders for Jaktens Tid and Visor Om Slutet on a fairly regular basis! And this new one, Nattfodd, will make a fine addition to anyone's collection of trollish music. Or maybe we should say your trollish music collection ain't complete without it. If you haven't heard 'em yet, imagine growling, grunting, tough sounding 'trolls' doing the vocals in a style not unlike many other black metal bands. Their music is quite heavy and metal as well but simultaneously gets so extremely jaunty and folky and keyboard-happy in the humpa-style that it's impossible not to be swept away. Maybe a good title for a future Finntroll disc would be Anthems To The Lawrence Welkin At Dusk? Listening to this, you'll soon be doing your own approximation of a trollish jig. And there's a few interludes of forest sound effects and indecipherable (to us) troll-talk to further set the scene. It's like Za Frumi meets Uz Jsme Doma meets Falconer meets Satyricon. Crazy Finns!
As their name suggests, this is music by, or at least for, Finnish trolls. They should tour with Za Frumi, the Swedish orc band. Their self-described brand of black metal polka (or "humpa", as the Finns call it) has made 'em a fave here at Aquarius where anything less ridiculous gets barely a listen, after all.
This third album from Finntroll sports a sticker on the front reading "Special Price Acoustic Album". Well, the price isn't any more special than their others, and it's also not an acoustic album, so we're not sure what's going on there. It is, however, pretty special! Starting off with ominous forest noises, this soon builds into a doleful (is that an oboe?) square dance for monsters, stomping and growling. That's followed by some rather more lively jigs, that sound a bit like Czech maniacs Uz Jsme Doma, if they had a chorus of grim-voiced trolls backing them up. Other numbers are on the bombastic side, symphonic in scope even, very medieval and fantastical of course.
I guess the deep-woods hoedown aspect is what prompted Spikefarm to label this "acoustic" even when there's obviously lots of non-acoustic instruments (keyboards, electric guitars!) being used along with traditional Finnish/trollish instruments like jaw harps and handclaps... and it certainly is Finntroll's least "metal" album. Finntroll goes in the direction of early In Extremo, cool.
MPEG Download: "Asfagelns Dod" [/audio/finntrollasfagelns.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Asfagelns Dod" [/audio/finntrollasfagelns.m3u]
Barrelhouse piano, some delightfully cheesy drum machines and uptempo rhythms highlight the truly amazing Astrology Songs album. (For those who bought it when it was on Amarillo Records, note that this version has added back up vocals). There's one song for each sign, and I'll bet a dollar you will find yourself skipping ahead to your own sign within a minute of putting the record on... only to find that Harvey Sid has got you totally pegged. Each song is sung in the first person, and are as varied as moody lovesongs (like "Moonchild" -- so titled because Harvey Sid didn't want to use the word Cancer), and playful uptempo show tunes ("Talkin' 'bout the Taurus / talking 'bout the bully-bull-bull! / wooly bully / You be good I'll love you till the end / and you will have a lover you can count on as a friend / I like being rich and I like being well fed / I'm good in the kitchen and I'm good in bed"), and western-style epic ("Lib-Lib-a-Libra Lib-Lib-a-Libra / I'll flirt and conquer then withdraw / Lib-Lib-a-Libra Lib-Lib-a-Libra / then maybe might come back for more / In love with all of my heart / the act of love is more of an art / Irrational passion some will say / But uh-uh I'm no glutton more a love gourmet"). Listen to the soundclips below for the full Harvey Sid experience!
Local customers might want your first Harvey Sid Fisher experience to be with the Astrology Songs *video*, which simply has to be seen to be believed. A tuxedoed Harvey sings while a modern dancer in leotards acts out the lyrics of each song. Un-fucking-believable. We have this video available for rent. Mailorder customers -- we can order this for you ($17.98).
The Battle of the Sexes disc reminds us of the 60s-style folk-rock duets Lee Hazelwood performed with Ann Margaret, Suzy Jane Hokum, etc. Subtitled "Duets with couples fighting -- Putting the 'fun' back into dysfunctional". With subjects like money, communication, affairs, and sex, they are so so so funny. Here's some lyrics from "I Want Sex":
Man: "I want sex / I want sex / You got me climbing up the wall"
Woman: "You talk like I'm not giving you enough"
M: "You ain't giving me any at all"
W: "You know I've been busy / lots of work to do"
M: "Oh please please please I work as hard as you"
W: "You know I would if I could"
M: "But you don't when you should!"
W: "Well the fact of the matter is you're not that good!"
First thing you gotta do to truly enjoy Flight Of The Conchords, is to pretend you've never heard or seen Tenacious D, and if for some crazy reason you -haven't- seen Tenacious D, and we're talking about the HBO show not the movie, then for chrissakes go get it now. You will not see a funnier, more totally wacked show, or hear more amazing metal tinged acoustic rock songs EVER. So once you've seen, and enjoyed Tenacious D, and then immediately begun to pretend that you haven't, then it's okay to dig into Flight Of The Conchords, a similarly damaged acoustic comedy duo.
But FOTC are a lot more feel good than Tenacious D. The D had a serious sinister edge, with songs rooted in HEAVY METAL, swearing and screaming,� blood and chaos and mayhem, where as the Conchords are more friendly, more deadpan, like the TV show, a more sort of Napoleon Dynamite vibe, long pauses, non sequiturs, a sort of rumpled discomfort instead of the D's in your face full frontal comedic pummel. And while we love the D, there is definitely a place for the Conchords. And while they don't seem as inspired as the D, the show is pretty dang funny, and some of their songs are awesome, "Robots" being the most obvious, a tale of the distant future, the year 2000, complete with a kick ass 'binary solo', the band rapidly reciting ones and zeros over madly strummed guitars. "Business Time" is pretty funny too, sexy and silly, and more of that deadpan style.
The live tracks are the best, mostly cuz the duo have killer chemistry, and are able to riff endlessly on the stupidest and most minute things, but the upshot is it leaves you wanting to see a whole set of their stand up, or at least the show (which is peppered with homemade videos for all of their songs), but for now, until you get a chance to see them live, or finally get HBO, this little chunk of goofy toonage should hold you over nicely.
We were pretty skeptical when we first hear about Flight Of The Conchords. Who in their right mind would dare try follow in the footsteps of Tenacious D? And we're talking just the original six HBO episodes. Never has a shitty open mic, dual acoustic guitar band been so metal, so funny, and so fucking genius as Tenacious D.
So when we first checked out New Zealand's Flight Of The Conchords, our reaction was that these guys were just ripping off the D. But the more we watched, the more they demonstrated that they were definitely their own thing. The duo, Bret and Jemaine (NOT Jermiane) are super charming, and super hilarious in a weirdly deadpan way. If you haven't seen the show, definitely check it out. Their manager Murray steals the show, as does their only fan Mel, and their dirtbag only friend, the guy who runs the pawn shop. And the songs are pretty funny too, loosely tied into whatever happens to be going on in that episode, and occasionally the whole show is tied instead into the concept of the song, which results in much more tweaked and whatthefuck goings on.
So yeah, love the show, and love the music, which might pose the only problem. As with Tenacious D, we love the songs EXACTLY as they are on the show, the same instrumentation, the same arrangement, the same production, THOSE are the songs we want to hear. So it's frustrating to hear them re-recorded as they are here, the vibe is definitely more polished and less loose, but thankfully still can't take way from the charm of these songs.
Fans of the show might feel the same, taking a while to warm up to these alternate versions, but a lot of this stuff wasn't really focused on in the show, or maybe not in the show at all, and the ones that were, you've probably been dying to hear again. And for fans, all the hits are here: "The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)", "Business Time", the amazing rap track "Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenocerous (Featuring Rhymenocerous And The Hiphopapoatumus)", the dancehall jam of "Boom", and of course the awesome 'binary solo' in "Robots". Not only are the lyrics funny, but the songs are catchy as hell. Not sure how this would play to someone who hadn't seen the show, but if you haven't, what the heck is wrong with you anyway? Buy it, or rent it, and you might as well buy this too, you're gonna want to hear these songs over and over, since after one viewing they stick in your head like crazy. And if you're not interested in the show, but dig clever goofy silly novelty folk, then this will definitely hit the spot.
The packaging is pretty excellent too, a six panel digipak with a cool pop up of Bret and Jemaine, behind which is the cd and a massive poster.
Oh man. If you are a faithful Aquarius list reader and lover of musical oddities, just stop right here, and push the buy button because you need this record. Judson Fountain was born in 1952 and was obsessed with radio dramas since he was old enough to talk. In fact as soon as he was able to talk he began doing impressions of cackling hags, wicked witches and all sorts of animals. All of which would come to play a big part in these radio dramas right here. Recorded between the ages of 17 and 22, these eight dramas are only a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of radio plays Judson wrote and performed. All of them primitive and simple, but amazingly creative and entertaining, and all featuring Judson's unique vocalisations along with his partner/foil Sandor Weisberger. But there's no way to describe them, you just have to hear them. Judson has a crazy East Coast accent, and he talks like a hyper school boy who thinks faster than he can get the words out, which you can hear in a handful of interviews preceding some of the radio dramas. Using crude sound effects and sometimes painfully deliberate plot exposition, these dramas all rely on Judson and Sandor's crazy array of voices, from Irish Brogue, to old Thai man, to teenage gangster to tuneless singing grandma, to British detective to various witches and demonic women, all with distinctly hysterical and completely bizarre cackles. The plots are all very simple, good vs. Evil, haunted houses and witches and stuff. But they are all done so sort-of-professionally and so earnestly that they're just completely irresistable. Listen to "Garbage Can From Thailand" and you'll immediately know what we mean. Judson is just so cute. And so is Sandor who introduces each drama (which he pronounces drahmmer) and also reads the credits afterwards. I've had a Judson Fountain cassette for years now thanks to AQ pal Jay Lesser so you can imagine how excited we were that some of this stuff was actually finally getting released. Our only complaint is why did Innova make it a cd-r??! It's got a professionally printed booklet and everything, so how hard would it have been to press up real cds?! It costs as much as a real cd after all. Cd-r or not, this is so good, and so funny, and so cute, and so weirdly brilliant, that it definitely needs to be in your collection!
Holy cow!!! A whole second collection of radio dramas from the amazing Judson Fountain and his faithful sidekick and loyal announcer Sandor Weisberger. The aQ faithful will no doubt remember Completely In The Dark, a mind blowing compilation of funny, goofy, clever, way over the top dramas, performed by the two men, each taking on various characters, voicing men and women, even monsters, stealing the various incidental sounds and background noises from old sound effects records. Totally lo-fi and DIY and so so so genius. Not sure we could describe Judson and his oeuvre any better than we did in that first review, so for those who missed that first Judson Fountain collection (if you did, you NEED that one too!) or just need a refresher, here it is:
Judson Fountain was born in 1952 and was obsessed with radio dramas since he was old enough to talk. In fact as soon as he was able to talk he began doing impressions of cackling hags, wicked witches and all sorts of animals. All of which would come to play a big part in these radio dramas right here. Recorded between the ages of 17 and 22, these dramas are only a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of radio plays Judson wrote and performed. All of them primitive and simple, but amazingly creative and entertaining, and all featuring Judson's unique vocalizations along with his partner/foil Sandor Weisberger. But there's no way to describe them, you just have to hear them. Judson has a crazy East Coast accent, and he talks like a hyper schoolboy who thinks faster than he can get the words out. Using crude sound effects and sometimes painfully deliberate plot exposition, these dramas all rely on Judson and Sandor's crazy array of voices, from Irish Brogue, to old 'foreign' man, to various witches and demonic women, all with distinctly hysterical and completely bizarre cackles. The plots are all very simple, good vs. Evil, haunted houses and witches and demons and stuff. But they are all done so sort-of-professionally and so earnestly that they're just completely irresistible. Judson is just so cute. And so is Sandor who introduces each drama (which he pronounces drahmmer) and also reads the credits afterwards.
Sold yet, you should be, as every single one of these drahmmers, as well as the ones collected on the first compilation are a total hoot. The scary ones are only barely frightening, instead, they're fun and funny and kitschy, there's always a moral, the bad guys usually get their comeuppance, the good guys prevail, or if they don't it's because they foolishly failed to heed repeated warnings and sage advice. All of these radio plays are from the early seventies, and are GENIUS!!! But there is a bonus track as well, a radio play called "The Nasty Roomer!" written in the style of Judson Fountain, by one of Judson's biggest fans, and performed by Judson and Sandor, reunited in 1995 and broadcast live on WFMU! The crazy thing is, the two of them sound exactly the same, and sound like they're having a blast, often slipping into giggles, performing the play after only having seen it for the first time a few minutes earlier. So fantastic and fun and joyous and still so goofy and silly and practically perfect.
Unlike the first collection, this one is an actual cd (not a cd-r) and comes with a huge booklet packed with photos, and the transcript of an interview that took place at the same time as the performance of "The Nasty Roomer!", and there's even a mention of a possible volume THREE! Bring it on!!!
We bet Japan's Christine 23 Onna digs this album! Only in the '60s... a far out, indulgent artifact of the era, an album of instrumental oh-so-psychedelic groovers with titles like "Chewing Gum Delirium" and "Cosmos Rhythms", full of wild organ jamming, funky chicken scratch guitar, and a whole lotta primitive analog synth bubbling burbling bleeping, culminating in the 14:52 tour de force of "F.P.E.T. No.1". It's a lot like the music from one of those cool "Instro-hipsters" comps, overrun with an absurd excess of electronic experimentation, that approach Hawkwindy levels of whooshing and swooshing, swirling FX. Originally released in 1969, it was a one-off project, "a new exciting experience" as it says on the cover, that today while not so new is still quite an experience.
Imagine freaked out electronics amidst go-go dancing grooves that would have both Pierre Henry and Austin Powers saying yeah baby! Or if Comets On Fire were a funky '60s soul group... which is what the core of this band is, Portuguese brothers Jess and James, who were joined by a free jazz drummer from NYC, a Latin percussionist, and most crucially a Moog madman from Belgium, the fellow responsible for all the crazy "free pop" electronics, one Arsene Souffriau. Yes, if you like Christine 23 Onna, Staff Carpenborg, or Les Maledictus Sound, check this out!
We call a lot of things "psychedelic" these days... Comets On Fire, Boris, Silvester Anfang, Circle, Joanna Newsom, Residual Echoes, Acid Mothers Temple, Raccoo-oo-oon, Grey Daturas, Dark Fog, Devy B... all sorts of stuff. Psych this, psychedelic that. Loose use of the term for sure, though it gets the idea across, y'all know what we mean (right?). But once in a while it's worth remembering that "psychedelia" originally, once had a more specific, commercial, sometimes exploitative meaning in the pop culture, in re: a certain time and place. You bet your sweet bippy, that back in 1967, "psychedelic" was something like this album (now reissued on cd): Friar Tuck & His Psychedelic Guitar, featuring a cover photo of a bearded guy in a brown robe, with a Beatles haircut under his hood, crouched on a chair in front of a "trippy" colorful abstract painting. A product of the sunny LA pop scene, Friar Tuck was a gimmicky project mixing sumptuous orchestration with stinging guitar blurt, the distortion on composer/producer (and noted LA session cat, also a member of the Ceyleib People) Mike Deasy's axe being the closest thing here to the state of "psych" as currently understood. (Others from the backup band were also known as Goldenrod, an instro-grunt combo responsible for one fairly ahead of its time "heavy" album.) '60s buffs should also note that this album's lovely vocal harmonies were all arranged by none other than Curt "Millenium" Boettcher.
Side one had covers, sorta novelty songs including a version of frat-rock classic "Louie Louie" (here, "Louis Louis"), and Tommy Roe's goofy "Sweet Pea", both with vocals delivered in a laidback drawl, which weirdly enough kinda reminds us of the Black Monk Time Monks... hey what's with the '60s and monks anyway? But then on side two, it's all Deasy originals, equally orchestrated but a lot trippier and spaced-out, a flowers-and-beads rave-up in a style long gone. The whole thing exudes vintage charm, right down to the deep thoughts of the beat poetry included in the liner notes. This cd reish also includes four bonus tracks from singles by another Deasy band in a similar style, The Flower Pot.
***Outsider music alert!!!****
There's nothing quite like the innocent wonder and unfettered creativity of children, which is on full display here, a delightful weirdness in the shape of a kid in his bedroom, pressing play/record on a tape recorder, way back in 1995. This kid, named Alex Rinehart (aka Macho Alex) managed to escape the boredom of everyday life by recording himself singing on top of warped bits of music and rambling/singing about everything from dentists to Dracula to McDonalds and monsters.
Totally endearing and utterly bizarre, this immediately brought to mind the very early Daniel Johnston recordings, but only 12 years old when this as recorded, it's a sure bet Alex had no clue that anyone else was making similarly idiosyncratic recordings, or for that matter that years later oddball-music obsessives would be freaking out about HIS music. Songs about Randy Savage, rabies and cabbage and beyond... Thanks to his old middle school pal Matt Baldwin (a longtime aQ fave), these recording are finally seeing wider exposure (albeit in this very limited release) via Baldwin's label Psychic Arts. File next to Wesley Willis, the aforementioned Daniel Johnston and yes this is for sure pure incredibly strange music!
Both the tape & cd-r come with a digital download and a sticker.
The sixth Gainsbourg album, originally released by Philips in 1964. A return to Alain Goraguer�s orchestration and the wonderful sounds produced on his second LP. Extremely lively and playful, this record definitely lives up to its title, as drums and percussion are the driving force behind the music here. Taking the Mambo influence of No2 and bringing forth other worldly
Despite the over saturation of lounge and exotica reissues (especially the glut that surfaced a few years back), we never tire of those stereophonic space age bachelor pad sounds, especially of course when they are all about outer space: Frank Comstock's Music From Outer Space, Ferrante and Teicher's Sound Blast!, John Hill's 6 Moons of Jupiter, Esquivel's Other Worlds, Other Sounds, and now added to the list is Russ Garcia's 1958 sci-fi epic, Fantastica: Music From Outer Space. First time reissued on cd, the music takes on a fantastic rocket journey and imagines what the planets as well as their inhabitants would sound like through tracks such as "The Lost Souls of Saturn", "The Monsters of Jupiter", and "Water Creatures of Astra". Using a full orchestra with some specially designed electronic effects, the most amazing sounds come from the experimental analog recording techniques and mundane objects used as instruments: a vibrating knife blade off the edge of a table, blowing a straw into gelatin water, moving a microphone around a gong etc., and then speeding up, reversing or slowing down those recorded sounds, so they sound like rippling lava, magnetic fields, or an army of blobular menacing creatures! Why this wasn't reissued during the lounge exotica resurgence is a mystery because it's totally amazing and beautiful and at times dark and mysterious. A masterpiece of the genre that is well worth the trip!
Mort Garson is probably best know for playing on records by folks like the Sandpipers, Glen Campbell, Mel Torme, Doris Day and others, which is to say, probably not very well known at all. He even composed and played the music accompanying a short film of past space missions to fill in the spaces when not much was going on during the 1969 moon landing.
He was however, one of the earliest proponents of the Moog synthesizer, and for the crate diggers out there is probably most famous for two records, a disc of Moog music based on the signs of the zodiac, and a record credited to Lucifer, called Black Mass, another freaked out Moog holy grail. But until those get reissued we'll have to make do with this tripped out drug addled re-envisioning of The Wizard Of Oz. And tripped out and drug addled it is!
Narrated with some freaky beat poetry (a voice uncannily like Jello Biafra at times), the story peppered with all manner of sound effects, blown out fuzz, warbly melodies, fuzzy static percussion, blurpy basslines, swirling space-y FX, and then there are the songs. Almost Gary Numan-ish sounding synths, laced with operatic female vocals, growling menacing monster like male vocals, some more abstract beat poetry, all woven into a head spinning retro exotica mishmash.
Some of the tracks are definitely reminiscent of Perry and Kingsley, some of the tracks slip into almost groovy porno style seventies psych jams, some are manic, with the Moog spitting out super percussive sputter and hiss, others are dreamy and trippy and almost Beatles-esque (if the Beatles only played Moogs), and some tracks, like our favorite on the disc, "Killing Of The Witch" are downright freaky and sound like primitive lo-fi Goblin jams.
The narration is really weird and funny and goofy but can be incredibly distracting, and it's probably the one thing that might limit the re-playability of this disc, strip away the random dialogue, and this would have been a pretty awesome fucked up synth freakout, but since the narration is here to stay, it ends up being exactly what it was meant to be, a truly over the top exotica oddity, that might not get played all the time, but it's exactly the sort of record that will probably end up on plenty of mixtapes, and will get pulled out at parties, and will most definitely feature heavily in wild whatthefuck DJ sets.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Uri Geller, known for his telekinetic prowess that started to wreak havoc on the world's cutlery in the 1970s, may not be so well known for his musical output. And for good reason. He has created fervent admiration (Prince Charles, the Pope, President Clinton, Dustin Donaldson of I Am Spoonbender, Michael Jackson and George Harrison are all friends) with his charming persona and baffling mental abilities. Working with Del Newman (arranger for Paul Simon, Elton John, Paul McCartney) who composed half of the tracks and arranged, Geller's musical outing is nothing more than New Age poetry over sacharine 70s pop which recalls the Carpeters more than anything else. With Jim O'Rourke recent aesthetic mistake of "rediscovering" the 70s and the aural telekinesis of I Am Spoonbender, this may actually be more timely than you may think.
Rev-Ola brings us the sweet summer breeze early this year by reissuing this pop-jazz gem from Astrud Gilberto. Famous for her refreshingly lackadaisical vocal debut on Stan Getz's "The Girl from Ipanema", September 17, 1969 marks her last recording date with the Verve label (released in America as "Let Go", with a different song order), as the Bossa Nova craze that had invaded America since the mid-sixties was waning. Filled with more contemporary covers than Brazilian standards, including songs by the Bee Gees, The Beatles, The Doors and Harry Nilsson, the album's standout track is the eight minute opener, a cover of Chicago's "Beginnings", a beat-heavy groover that fans of Wax Poetics will drool over. But the Brazilian cuts are still strong with "Let Go (Canto de Ossanha)" popularized by Elis Regina, being a return to the soft samba vibe that made Gilberto famous. It'll be easy to cringe at some of the more obvious pop interpretations like "Light My Fire", but most of the time her choices work. It's better to think of it like this: without Astrud Gilberto, there would be no Nouvelle Vague!
Wow, this is ballsy! Mining ultra-familiar pop from the late '70s to last weeks number one hit, Girl Talk has fashioned an infectious dance record completely out of supposedly unauthorized samples. The inside booklet gives a shout out to the plundered artists who include Elton John, XTC, The Yin Yang Twins, Madonna, Amerie, Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, among hundreds of others. While this is neither a conceptual Plunderphonic cluster fuck nor merely just an illegal mix of mash-ups, Girl Talk fashions cleverly dance-y compositions using the flotsam and jetsam of pop music's collective unconscious. By the time you get to recognition, new sample juxtapositions occur just in time to throw your head into a tailspin. This is definitely a good party-starter, Girl Talk being very aware that it is the girls who get the dance party started, but usually only if something familiar and fun is playing. And there is enough of that incredible stuff on this album to guarantee a nasty but well worth it hang over. Crafty!
Woah, it's like the day before the day before Christmas, so if we're ever gonna list this we'd better do it now, eh?! Although, this specially-priced, hour-long disc from ex-Comets On Fire/Gargantula/Exploding Crustaceans member Chris Gonzalez, despite its rather over the top Xmas theme, could be enjoyed at other times of the year as well. We suppose. It's funny ha-ha and also funny weird too. Probably playing it in July would make it more of the latter. Basically, Chris, seemingly intoxicated with the Yuletide spirit, has decided to have his way with a bunch of traditional holiday songs (including "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "Winter Wonderland", "Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Boy"... indeed all but one of of the twelve tracks are traditional Christmas tunes, see if you can guess which one isn't). However, several are barely recognizable when he's through with 'em! He tackles each song differently, but you've gonna hear a lot of chaotic, distorted, deranged lo-fi lounge and hard rock stylings, recorded on a four-track, with various "guests"... some of it in front of a (fake) live audience, complete with heckling. It's all about as ridiculous as can be. Christmas comedy doesn't get much more silly and surreal -- or noisy. The hip-hopped version of "Jingle Bells" that morphs into a Slayer song might be the low point...and the high point too. Or maybe that would be the "all star celebrity jam" version of "Simple Having A Wonderful Christmastime" that allegedly features Lars Ulrich, Eddie Vedder, Jah Rule, and Donald Duck, among others! Will Santa think Chris has been naughty or nice with this lil' cd? Well it's hard to judge. He's probably just asking "why?" But for a mere six bucks this might be a fine last-minute novelty stocking-stuffer for the wacky music fan on your list.
For the past couple of years, we've really been digging the recent unearthing of little known private press new age music whether it be Collie Ryan, William Eaton or Iasos. Lately we've been especially excited about this reissue from Universal Sound, of Edward Larry Gordon's 1978 debut. Gordon, or Laraaji, as he is otherwise known, creates long-form trance-inducing compositions using electronically enhanced zithers, auto-harps, kalimbas and other acoustic instruments that shimmer and radiate in beautifully meditative pulses. This record comprised of two thirty minute tracks, "All Pervading" and "Bethelehem" gained little notice upon its initial release, but thankfully it caught the attention of Brian Eno who subsequently produced his follow-up Days of Radiance for the EG Editions Ambient series in 1980 to wider acclaim. You can tell that Gordon was much inspired by earlier progenitors of cosmic music from Sun Ra to John and Alice Coltrane. You can especially hear the harp-like shimmer of Alice Coltrane in his treatments of the open tuned zither that he plays while in a complete meditative state. Really gorgeous stuff!
If you were ever curious to hear how Moondog might have sounded had he been recorded by Joe Meek, then here is your chance! Trunk records rescues this exquisite rarity from complete obscurity that displays the early influence of The Viking of 6th St. on a group of Britain's finest jazz players. Recorded in 1956, and engineered by a young Joe Meek, the underrated alto saxophonist Kenny Graham assembled a band of amazing session players, including Stan Tracey, Phil Seamen, Danny Moss, and Ivor Slaney (who recorded the horror soundtracks Terror and Prey we reviewed awhile back, though he is here in less horrific mode), as well as the evocative vocals of singer Yolanda to record this two part tribute. The first part, The Moondog Suite, covers ten of Moondog's early compositions, five short percussive pieces and five longer songs including "Utsu, "Chant", "Fog On The Hudson" and Lullaby". The six pieces in the "Suncat Suite" (Suncat, get it?) are all originals inspired by Moondog's pieces. These range from short eastern influenced numbers to more complex compositions of mesmerizing exotica, sometimes swinging, and at other times more moody. The production for both is sharp. The percussion zings, the vibes crisply resonate and the horns and woodwinds sound impeccable. Trunk scores again with this amazing reissue.
Probably best known for scoring such television classics as Space: 1999, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, and loads more, Barry Gray also had a career in advertising, applying his same quirky compositional style to whatever product needed his special attention be it tobacco, milk, banks, gin, spaghetti, washing powder, ice cream, shampoo, tea, you name it. And Gray's sound was pretty crazy, classic and classical one second, symphonic the next, poppy the next, but also experimental and far out, tape loops, electronics, effects, reverb, echo, a little Joe Meek, a little BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a dizzying barrage of sounds and themes, different jumbled genres, goofy, fun, silly, brilliant, and CRAZY catchy. Anyone into industrial music (as in commercial and advertising music) will go nuts for this stuff. Imagine a commercial for a washing machine with a soundtrack that sounds like it could be for Plan 9 From Outerspace, or a supermarket commercial that sounds like some sort of experimental electronica, or what sounds like a Perrey & Kingsley Moog workout, which is in fact an ad for something (or someone) called Poor Pablo, then imagine those interspersed with all manner of playful sonic silliness, super catchy miniature pop songs, insanely catchy jingles, many with Gray often taking up the mic and singing his little ditties himself. So good!
Another fantastic, and fantastically far out, collection from Trunk Records. Includes a massive booklet with tons of liner notes, including notes about Grey, his music, and most interestingly, blurbs on all the various products advertised in the various commercials!
Lying somewhere betwixt Esquivel and Spike Jones is Bernie Green. Guitarist and arranger Green is one of the original madmen of "easy listening" music. Like Esquivel, much of his magic lies not only in the outlandish orchestral arrangements, but in the
Lying somewhere betwixt Esquivel and Spike Jones is Bernie Green. Guitarist and arranger Green is one of the original madmen of "easy listening" music. Like Esquivel, much of his magic lies not only in the outlandish orchestral arrangements, but in the
Newly reissued on deluxe vinyl (at a steep import price unfortunately), only one album can be called the first psychedelic OUT-country record, and if it's not Peter Grudzien's The Unicorn, we can think of no other album in the universe that would accurately fit that description (well, ok The Legendary Stardust Cowboy would come close, but that's a different animal entirely). For the emphasis on "out" here refers to all connotations of that term: far out, outsider and homosexual. Handling all the recording, arranging and playing of the instruments over a period of 14 years from 1960-1974 , The Unicorn is a strange and beautiful metaphysical concept record of love and salvation. Featuring a vast array of characters including hillbilly tricks, blue-eyed queens, monkey people and of course unicorns, Grudzien's off-kilter twang is augmented by slide guitar, banjo and otherworldly tape loops of ghostly choirs, backwards effects and warm reverb. An odd and lovely record!
You've seen the TV special... you need the soundtrack! Originally released in 1965, an all-time classic from pianist/composer Guaraldi. For all Peanuts fans and Christmas lovers.
NOW ON VINYL!!
You've seen the TV special... you need the soundtrack! Originally released in 1965, an all-time classic from pianist/composer Guaraldi. For all Peanuts fans and Christmas lovers.
This is the previously unreleased 1979 sequel to Bruce Haack's 1970 "Electric Lucifer" LP, perhaps the most awesomely bizarre psychedelic pre-Kraftwerk electronica album ever to be released on a major label (Columbia) or elsewhere. The robotic voices and
If you're like us, you can never get enough Bruce Haack. Pretty much everything he touched was amazing, as well as way ahead of its time from a technical standpoint. Haack's genius, however, is that at the core of his strange electronic music is real emotional depth.
The most obvious comparison for Bruce Haack's sound would be Kraftwerk, and surely both parties were taking electronic music into unprecedented new territories. It's a bit of a lazy comparison though, as Haack's pioneering work actually predated Kraftwerk as most people know them, and it overlooks how unique Haack's approach to songwriting was. Haack is most famous for the Electric Lucifer album, definitely his strongest and most conceptually realized statement, but he also made children's music, as well as some more, shall we say "adult-themed" compositions. There was even an Electric Lucifer Book 2 and a number of perfect pop singles. Farad (the name of the homemade vocoder he used extensively, named in honor of famed British scientist Michael Farraday but also sounding a bit like "far out") collects prime cuts from 1970 to 1982, showing an artist who remained true to his initial vision while continuing to break boundaries. Haack was a man who wanted to share his songs with the world, as evidenced by a quote in this album, and accordingly, his music is very fun to listen to. Songs like "Rita" are really beyond any sort of reference point, just weird and beautiful and insanely poppy gems that even today sound beyond anything else. Other numbers like "Man Kind" from the Haackula album are spacey sci-fi romps filled with all kinds of great analog atmosphere and evocative vocoded lyrics that flow like bizarre little nursery rhymes. Then you get some racier stuff from the 80s like "Snow Job" and "Program Me", the latter of which resurrects a song from the Electric Lucifer and re-envisions it in a colder, more robotic way for some great results. Haack even proves with 1982's "Party Machine" that he was fully ready to embrace the progression of electronic dance music while still sounding unlike anyone else. It's crazy to listen to the more playful material alongside the epic storytelling of the Electric Lucifer tracks, as you realize Haack grasped so many types of music with a wide range of emotions, and merged this with bold electronic innovation. As a compilation, Stones Throw have done a great job here, making this the obvious place to start for anyone unfamiliar with Haack's work while also being a great collection of some of his strongest songs. Awesome.
Wow. This is a real "believe it or not" release. We thought we knew all about eccentric electropop pioneer Bruce Haack (1931-1988). Omni's reissue of Haack's 1969 psychedelic synth classic The Electric Lucifer was an automatic Record Of The Week for us. But we'd never heard of Haackula before. However, it lives up to its billing as a "lost classic of outsider electronica" for sure. At first, we weren't sure what to expect, putting it on with some excitement and trepidation... rest assured, we now have big smiles on our faces. Haackula is playful and perverse, and perhaps more than a little bit paranoid. Imagine Perrey and Kingsley on some bad acid. Haack's electronically effected vocals here continue the wordplay that he delighted in on The Electric Lucifer but now, shockingly, some swear words have crept in, for instance he drops the f-bomb in the first song "Lie Back", wherein he also rhymes "schizoid" with "shitzoid"!
Bruce Haack unleashed his Moogs (and warped imagination) in his bedroom studio to create Haackula back in 1978, but it remained officially unreleased until now. Possibly 'cause a large portion of Haack's discography consists of records for children, we were really surprised by the R-rated content of Haackula. And the R isn't just for robotic. There's a song called "Blow Job" fer chrissakes. Perhaps this is why it never saw the light of day in Haack's lifetime...
Haack's homebuilt synths and rhythm machines bleep and bloop, shuffle and shudder, conjuring an alternate universe of electronic computer funk wackier and weirder and way more off-kilter than anything Kraftwerk was up to at the time. The musical sense of childlike innocence with which Haack was so adept is still happening here, these tracks are as tuneful and catchy as ever, but his mystical ideas are joined by sexual themes... where The Electric Lucifer was astrological, Haackula is scatological. Adult realities are confronting the outsider, making Haackula's haunted house electronics all the more eerie, while the bizzaro-factor (plus Haack's aforementioned songwriting skills) insure that it's all very entertaining, gleefully so.
And if Haackula itself wasn't cool enuff, there two equally mindblowing bonus tracks. First there's Bruce Haack's 1982 proto-hiphop collaboration with Def Jam's Russell Simmons, an 8 minute track entitled "Party Machine" that features funky Herbie Hancock "rockit" style grooves and deep distorted vocals laying down such science as "Haack attack is back... Bruce Haack... Anti-wack." Damn!
The other bonus track included is an epic 32:15 piece called "Icarus" that would have made a fine release all by itself. Commissioned in 1979 to accompany an avant-garde art exhibition in Guadalajara, it's a sensational soundscape of everything from mad scientist laboratory burbling to faux-classical fantasias, frightening noise and groovy beats...
Omni has done their usual nice job with this. It's remastered from the original master tapes, and includes a thick booklet. Extensive, informative liner notes tell the story of Haack's "lost years", about his psychological ups and downs, how his passion for music and technology (and the two together!) never flagged despite his lack of major label success after The Electric Lucifer failed to take the world by storm... we also learn how he hooked up with hiphop producer Simmons, though we're left wondering if any DJs back in the day ever got their hands on it. As well, the cd booklet includes vintage photos and lyrics to all the Haackula songs.
Like we said, believe it or not, it's true. Haackula lives!!
Working with Raymond Scott, Bruce Haack developed his own very bizarre, though very distinct brand of electronic composition using self-built machines. These recordings, from between 1969 and 1970, are simple songs ostensibly for children (includes a strange version of "This Old Man") in the tradition of Raymond Scott. But this is no bliss for babies--this is analogue, vocoder, acid weirdness. Several of the tracks are pulled from his legendary album The Electric Lucifer, an electronic opera of the battle between Heaven and Hell. So don't buy this for your children, buy it for your next trip.
Can you imagine if "Music To Moog By" maestro Gershon Kingsley had dropped acid, joined a commune, got religion, and jammed with the Silver Apples and Lothar And The Hand People? That might approximate what the unique, wondrous psych-pop "Mooglove" of 1970's The Electric Lucifer sounds like!
YES!!! It's about time. We've always wanted this album to come out on cd. This HAD to be our Record Of The Week. Heck, years and years ago, Allan (long before he worked at Aquarius) became a bit obsessed with this record. He'd found a beat-up old LP of it at a yard sale, bought it mainly 'cause of the title and the freaky colorful cover graphics, and then was blown away by the weird music within. It's what we've described as being "perhaps the most awesomely bizarre psychedelic pre-Kraftwerk electronica album ever to be released on a major label (Columbia) or elsewhere." Allan actually went so far as to try to track down Bruce Haack for an interview, but without any luck (turns out Haack had already passed away back in 1988, a couple years before Allan discovered the record). And Allan's not the only one here at AQ to have a longtime soft spot for this record... so we're all so happy that it's finally, FINALLY been given the cd reissue treatment. It's absurd, really, that this wasn't reissued sooner. The legend of eccentric electronica pioneer Bruce Haack has only grown in recent years. There's been several compilations of his work (Hush Little Robot was the best, since it featured a couple tantalizing cuts from this album), expensive imported Japanese reissues of several of his Moog music albums for kids, a posthumous Electric Lucifer sequel from the vaults, and even a documentary released on DVD, entitled Haack - The King Of Techno! But Haack's crowning glory, his masterpiece The Electric Lucifer, wasn't available at all. Until now. And The Omni Recording Corporation (a label new to us) have done it right, even down to the very welcome notion of including a 5-minute track of silence to separate the 13 tracks of the album proper from the over thirty minutes of additional bonus material that they've added on -- which consists of a 1970 Canadian radio interview with Haack on the subject of Electric Lucifer and an alternate take of "Electric To Me Turn". The packaging is top notch as well, reproducing the amazing artwork and Haack's trippy sleevenotes from the original LP (wherein he discusses his concept of "Powerlove"), plus cramming tons of additional stuff into the thick cd booklet. There's loving liner notes by several of Haack's friends and colleagues and lots of vintage photos and graphics. Nicely done.
How can we explain the utter charm of this album? Well it's about as psychedelic as you can get, a concept album that's futuristic and Biblically ancient at the same time. Haack used an electronic "computer voice" (long before it was cliche) that he named FARAD, as well as regular human vocals, to convey deep Age of Aquarius astrological/philosophical concepts, sometimes in the form of sinister liturgies, at others like playful rhyming lullabies. These Moogy, moody and groovy compositions feature churchy organ sounds, bleeps and bloops, and rhythmic percolations that wouldn't sound out of place in the Star Wars cantina. There's lugubrious droney passages, mechanical beats, switched-on classical flourishes, and musique concrete style sound collage. Very weird *and* oh-so-catchy. It's definitely every bit as wonderful and essential as the Silver Apples albums, which we know so many AQ patrons love dearly. Again, we're so happy this has been reissued. Highest recommendation. Listen to the love angel, people!
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
This sixties electronic kids' classic reissued on vinyl!! Here's our review from when we listed the (now out of print) import cd version way back in 2004:
There was a time not too long ago when Bruce Haack was simply an anomalous footnote in the history of electronic music. But thanks to the rise of (for the lack of a more specific term) experimental music and the good folks making it, the gospel was spread and steps were taken to lift Haack's dedicated life's work out of the doomed classification of 'incredibly strange music'. In the late '90s, a vinyl reissue of Haack's legendary Electric Lucifer album appeared. Then in 1999, the QDK and Emperor Norton labels issued separate compilations of tracks selected from Haack's massive oeuvre: Hush Little Robot and Listen Compute Rock Home, respectively. These compilations featured a huge chunk of material originally released on Haack's own Dimension 5 imprint (with Listen Compute Rock Home being tagged as a D5 'best-of'), and set off a new generation of record geeks and purveyors of oddly adventurous sounds on the lookout for the original small press lps.
Introduced in 1963, Dimension 5 was a project created by Haack to reach children, as he believed that music could be a powerfully communicative, and ultimately educational, tool. Along with a host of guest musicians and educators (most notably Miss Esther Nelson), D5 set out to create inspiring and imaginative recordings - both sonically and narratively - for children of all ages. Having issued eleven lps over a span of thirteen years, Dimension 5 is certainly a musical phenomenon worth investigating itself, in addition to the other works of Bruce Haack. So here's 1969's The Electronic Record For Children, which just might be the best of the bunch.
This album is credited to Bruce Haack, but also prominently features Miss Nelson. Like the title implies, there is an emphasis on the use of electronics, but the narrative certainly doesn't take a back seat here. There are songs that are indirectly of an educational nature: "First Lady" is a skit in the style of a television game show in which a young girl lists off the names of the US presidents in chronological order, set to a robotic rhythm. Simple enough, but when the host asks the girl to recite the names in reverse order, Haack flips the tape backward, splices and cranks it - a total mindfuck for kids! Other 'lessons' teach us about rhythmics ("Clapping With Katy"), the compositional use of call and response ("Echo") and the life and daily routines of arachnids ("Spiders"). Inspired by the classes that Miss Nelson and Bruce once taught is the activity song "Dance", a Raymond Scott-fueled rollercoaster ride with wacked out helium vocals. But what stands out most for me on this recording are the songs of an abstract nature. "Mara's Mood" tells the story of 'a boy who tried to grasp the moon' over a loop of fuzzed out psychedelic guitar and synth. "Upside Down" could easily be mistaken for late sixties era British psychedelia a la Twink or Floyd. Quintron fans just might toss out their Quintron records when they hear the completely insane organ and rhythm box track credited, incredibly, to the Planet Of Singing Mice's Greek Cathedral Childrens' Mouse Choir, "Saint Basil". Definitely one of the better of the Dimension 5 releases, though there's something for everyone throughout all of their wondrous recordings!
Ladies and gentlemen, may we direct your attention to the center stage for... The Petra Haden Singers! Well, not quite... make that singular not plural, but the classically trained lady's tackling a full chorus' worth of parts. This is Ms Haden's COMPLETELY acapella performance of the COMPLETE The Who Sell Out album. We've gotta give the gal props not only for her vocal arrangin' skills but also for the thoroughness of her savvy cover art replication job. Check out those photos! They're a total hoot! Nonetheless, we'd wager that whether or not this cd finds a permanent place in your library will ultimately depend not on your love for The Who, the original album, nor Ms Haden, but rather on your appreciation for acapella music. Each song is pretty much simple and straight up, somewhat generic female-sung acapella. Y'know the kinda bland but pleasantly out of the ordinary stuff they might have on some TV talk show to spice the afternoon up a little. So, although she's unarguably accomplished an impressive feat, unfortunately the end results make for much less remarkable listening than anticipated or hoped for.
OMG! Automatic Record Of The Week. Hands down. Such a nice surprise, that Ipecac has just reissued this all-time aQ fave on vinyl, originally released back in 1992. Great Phone Calls lives up to its title, it's one of the funniest prank call albums ever made, up there with Kathy McGinty and the best of Longmont Potion Castle. Heck, it's one of the funniest records we've EVER heard, period. Then again, maybe something is wrong with us. In any case, stuff from this album has entered our personal lexicon, catch phrases, you know, like they way people pick up on stuff from SNL.
When Great Phone Calls came out so many years ago (1992) it quietly marked the first appearance on record of the now-infamous Neil Hamburger, sad sack comic who has since gone on to great heights of "humor" (or perhaps the term is anti-humor) recording for the Drag City label.
The collection of calls here ranges from the aggro bass player who answers a musicians-wanted ad (and insists, "I'm in your band!"), to a fat guy who went to college at "Yaoo" (not Yale) trying to order a low-fat pizza, to a computer giving away tickets to a Bette Midler movie called Hijinx (and its sequel, Hijinx II: Sodom). Some of the calls are borderline offensive, and some jump right over that line, so be forewarned, but it's so worth it anyway. The Hamburger-as-Hamburger tracks are among his best stuff, 'cause unlike later recordings of his live paying-gig performances, here on Great Phone Calls he's trying so desperately just to get a gig, calling comedy clubs and harassing the bookers with his "jokes". The unique brand of comedy on display here really takes things to a demented, ridiculous level, Hamburger essentially delivering extemporaneous monologues to the poor saps on the phone more akin to performance art than anything else. The shaggy dog story of a joke Hamburger tells on the track "A Nationally-Known Comedian" goes on for, like, six minutes. Why his victims don't hang up sooner, we'll never know. He's brilliant, if you've ever doubted it, this is the proof.
Originally out on Amarillo, this was reissued on cd - and now on lp - by Mike Patton's Ipecac label, and he makes an uncredited sneak appearance on the record too.
Another Radioactive reissued rarity, and possibly one of the best yet. Oooh, we've got a weird one here. Seriously. But very cool we think. Didn't know what to expect from the whimsical band name and front cover artwork, but it wouldn't have been *this* anyway! The first track, "3-D, Free" starts things off pretty freaky with spacey vocal effects and a lethargic reggae beat, with heartfelt lyrics, singing lines like "I saw police shooting rats". It's reprised later at the end of the album in an even more wigged out "electronic" version. This is definitely psychedelic rock music, but also very futuristic for its time (circa 1977-1978), hinting at new wave/punk. With track two, "Positive People", things get even more Devo. And it doesn't get any more normal as it goes. Capt. Beefheart also seems to be at this party... weird weird weird. But these folks have a knack for melody amist the madness.
The Happy Dragon-Band was the work of one Tommy "The Happy Dragon" Court, who had previously released a now almost as obscure album on Capitol in 1974 as Phantom's Divine Comedy. Never heard it but we're told it's very Doors-ish and mysterious. Loading up on the synths (some very John Carpenter synths) and electronic effects and employing the services of multiple musicans and vocalists besides himself, Tommy's idea of a comeback a few years later was this quite odd band/album/project. Huh? Well, this just might have been a bit ahead of its time... or something. Ultimately, though, it's very original and, to us now, pretty darn cool.
What other precedents can we cite, or comparisons can we make? Zappa? Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come? a seriously dosed Andrew Lloyd Webber? Early Alice Cooper? Late Comus? Xolar-X? The Dreamies? Perrey-Kingsley? A back-from-the-future Ariel Pink?? With sizzling electronics, spacey effects, madhouse vocal choruses, definite hooks, serious psychological/cosmic moods, constant pitchshifting in the vocal dept, and song titles like "Astro Phunk", "Inside The Pyramid" and "Disco American", maybe there are no easy comparisons... All ten tracks have their unique charms. A chaotic, confusing, eccentric and yet (im)possibly brilliant and quite enjoyable piece of work!
Reissue of a rare 1972 album. (All right, we're listening, tell us more...) Free jazz improv. (Ok, we're interested, except for Jim who's not into jazz.) Funky grooves. (Still sounds good... except you've lost Andee, he doesn't dig the funk.) BAGPIPES! (Woah?! Really? Maybe Andee and Jim are back in the fold. Bagpipes?)
Yep, bagpipes. And a lot of groovy, jazzy funk laid down by organ, bass and drums. And, at one point, there's a baby crying. Ok, this IS still way too jazzy fusiony funky for Andee or Jim, but Allan's digging it. Just imagine a Scottish highlander trying to fit in with a jivey '70s urban nightclub jazz scene. It works. Rufus ain't blowin' the bagpipes continuously (he also grooves on electric soprano sax), but there are certainly way more BPs than you'd normally hear on a jazz/funk album! Understandable, then, the "legendary" status of this record, now reissued on cd with a 10 minute bonus track.
And oh yeah, dude's playing AMERICAN FLAG bagpipes in the picture on the front cover.
Crazy and manic big band styles!
We listed this a while back, but then discovered that it's now been officially re-released in a much more deluxe version by one of our new favorite labels, Japanese reissue label EM records (who also did the Moolah and the Symphony Of The Birds discs we reviewed recently). This is an absolute all time space-age bachelor pad music kitschy classic for sure. Count Down! -- originally released in 1959 -- is a rock and roll visit to outerspace. Take your standard 1950's boogie woogie, throw a ton of echo, reverb, theremin and other strange sounds at it and you have Jimmie Haskell. Pre-dating Joe Meek's I Hear A New World by just one year, it's hard to believe the two didn't have a late night brainstorming session together. The two share a similar production aesthetic -- double speed vocals, extreme EQ-ing & compression -- and an off-kilter melodic sensibility. Wacky and wonderful!
As with all EM releases, very nicely done with lots of liner notes (unfortunately almost all in Japanese, though) as well as photos, the original artwork, repros of both the front and back covers and loads more!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Managed to get a few more of these back in (random copies on "birdshit" colored vinyl (a sort of swirly grey)!!
It had to happen. And of course, the minute we heard that it actually had happened, we knew we had to have it. A death metal band... with a PARROT on lead vocals!!! How completely and stupidly brilliant! We love it! And so will you. The music is furious and blasting death metal, grinding riffs, pounding drums and crushing bass. Only, the usual cookie monster grunts are replaced by the evil squawks of Waldo the parrot. And Waldo does a pretty decent job, offering lots of unintelligable grunts and growls and other birdlike vocalisations. Our pal Brian at WFMU tried to get Hatebeak to perform on his show, but apparently Waldo can't really handle loud sounds (death metal included) and records his 'vocals' separately, so Hatebeak will sadly remain a studio only project. The artwork is pretty inspired as well. They appropriate Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance metallic bird cover, change Hatebreed's logo just a litle bit (and include a little bird-hatching-from-an-egg graphic) and title their side of the split Beak Of Putrefaction (a play on Carcass' Reek Of Putrefaction). Awesome! And there's a rumoured upcoming split with a band called Caninus fronted by a dog! We kid you not.
The other side of the split comes courtesy of AQ fave crank calling phenom Longmont Potion Castle, who instead of his usual phone prank schtick, offers up two "metal interludes", all instrumental blasts of blazing noodly metal! The perfect compliment to Hatebeak. And he's also sampled at the beginning of the Hatebeak side. Maybe the best split 7" of all time although the more recent Hatebeak / Caninus split might definitely give this a run for its money!
