The last compilation seemed to go down well, so I thought I'd put another one together for your delectation.This one is definitely more 'Emusic/ Kosmische' in flavour, less beats, more drift, tone loops and arpeggio's.
Hell I even cobbled a quick cover for it too using Gimp.
Kosmische Two Cover
This is a mixtape rather than individual tracks, I could compile them into a couple of large files if there is a request/demand for it, but some of the un-mixed tracks are nearly 20 minutes long, so file size may be prohibitive factor in my bandwidth usage.
Leave a comment if you'd prefer individual tracks as a compilation and I'll see what I can do. If not, hope you enjoy it!
Tracklisting is as follows...
1. Intro - Capt. Locheed. (0.55) Taken From the Robert Calvert LP 'Capt. Locheed & The Starfighters'
2. Void & Devotion - Barn Owl. (2.15) Taken from 2011 LP on Thrill Jockey 'Shadowland'
3. Mind Bokeh - Bibio. (1.21) Taken from 2011 Warp LP 'Mind Bokeh'
4. So Ney - Cluster. (2.58) Taken from 2010 LP 'Qua'
5. Raaaaaaa! - Bear Bones Lay Low. (1.50) Taken From The 2009 KraaaK LP 'Valee De Dith'
6. Friends Of Friends - Fur. (2.13) Taken from the 2010 Fur with Alan Palomo LP 'Witches'
7. Germany - White Rainbow. (3.56) Taken from the 2005 LP 'Zome'
8. NGC 891 - Edgar Froese. (5.41) Taken from 1974 LP 'Aqua'
9. Erosion Of Time - The Advisory Circle. (3.13) Taken from 2008 Ghostbox LP 'Other Channels'
10. Sledgehammer - Weird Ribs (2.39) Taken from free web release 2009, more info 'Here'.
11. Stereolab - Blue Milk [edit] (5.13) Taken from 1999 Duophonic LP '...Cobra and Phases...'
12. Lord Emenenance - Jonas Reinhardt. (3.28) Taken from the 2011 LP 'Music From The Tactile Dome'
13. They Sounded - Ausgang. (2.29) Taken from the 1999 Compilation LP 'Electric Arc'
14. Summon The Sound - S.C.U.M. (3.08) Taken from 2011 'record day' Mute Compilation 'Vorwarts'.
15. Heart Chakra (mix) - Timothy Leary. (3.44) Available on the 1966 OST 'Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out'.
16. Planet Unknown - Christine 23 Onna. (3.04) Taken from 2002 LP 'Acid Eater'
17. White Summer Of Love - Acid Mothers Temple. (1.55) Taken from LP 'Pataphysical Freakout Mu'
18. Haram Dei Raram Dei - Popol Vuh. (1.12) Taken from 1974 LP 'Letzte Tag, Letzte Nachte'.
19. Melodica - Mountain. (3.16) Taken from 2009 Thrill Jockey LP 'Choral'
20. Outro - Genesis P Orridge. (0.10) Taken from the 1968 LP 'Early Worm'
Back in the early 2000's, there was quite a buzz over on the Julian Cope website Head Heritage.
The Arch Drude was busy turning anyone who would listen onto the delights of the new Japanese Psychedelic Underground. Bands we'd never heard of such as Acid Mothers Temple, Les Railles Denudes, Speed Glue and Shinky, Boredoms and Far East Family Band started peppering the reviews section. The 'Unsung' forum, where many of us music freaks hung out was awash with the names of these new and undiscovered sonic adventurers, and many of the 'heads' who posted picked up the thread and started their own voyage of discovery too. A great little network of CDr sharing sprung up among regular posters to swap these rare, expensive and often severely limited slabs of plastic. For me, many of these bands had their moments but two really stuck out, Boredoms and Christine 23 Onna.
'Christine 23 Onna' particularly caught my attention, as they seemed to recreate the authentic fuzz and space noises of many the 60's U.S. garage and psychedelic bands I loved, whilst adding an extra weird 'acid lounge' twist to the mix. The band consisting of just two members Yamazaki Maso (keyboards) and Toda Fusao (Guitar) a husband and wife combo who referred to themselves as a ' Space Mondo Psychedelic Group'. Most of the music is instrumental, with the occasional vocal interlude. I'd recommend listening in one go, as the album seems to be more of an 'immersive' experience that way, but be forewarned, it's no easy listening chillfest.
Other than the records, I couldn't really glean much information about the band other than they had those 60's looks to match the sound.
Toda Fusao and Yamazaki Maso
The one thing about these Japanese bands I love is that they seem to go that little bit further in being 'authentic'. They take a great deal of pride in using the right equipment and looking the right way to create whatever fantastical world they'd like to live in. Sadly this amazing chunk of space psychedelia appears to be out of print, so if you think 'Acid Eater' might be your thang, take a Trip.
Christine '23' Onna - Acid Eater (2002)
I now know that Yamazaki had a whole other career creating crazy 'space soundscapes' performing under the name 'Massona'.
Massona
Acid Eater
On April 21st 2005, 'Christine 23 Onna' became 'Acid Eater' after adding two further members Miyaka Kinsaki (Organ) and Akiba (Drums). There latest album 'Black Fuzz On Wheels' ups the 'Garage Punk' ante massively, sounding more like 'Guitar Wolf' or 'Teengenerate', with sadly, less 'spaceyness', but, despite this.
S'all Good though, s'all gooood.
I stumbled across this book on Amazon whilst looking or a gift for my Dad for Father's Day.
Written by two 'poets' Paul Farley and Michael Symmonds Roberts who we are told are of the much mystified 'lyrical' tradition, but don't let that put you off.
The bumf from the back cover sounded like something I might be interested in. Describing an exploration of the interzone between town and country, the ever shifting limnal (I love that word) boundaries between town and countryside. Those unloved tracts of scrubland scattered with the ugly and unwanted detritus of our modern world that encompassed much of the play areas of my youth. The buried green lane, the industrial estate, the breakers yard, the sewerage works, abandoned ruinous hospitals/schools/housing estates and bottle dumps, the ghost railways, the unfinished motorway and the overgrown green spaces that linked them.
Sounded good, but four chapters in, I must admit it isn't all I'd wished for.
The book is set out as 23 short essays covering a range of subject matter such as 'canal's', 'mines', 'cars' , 'ruins', 'hotels', 'paths' and 'dens'. Whilst there are some interesting insights and asides, all to often it becomes a eulogy to these alleged 'forgotten' places, and the authors 'lost' place in time. Concentrating mostly on the north of Britain, with brief forays into the Midlands and the South, they attempt to instill an 'eldritch wyrdness' to these frankly banal industrial landscapes that doesn't always work. They may have seemed exotic places of escape as children, but as adults it's obvious why we steer clear of them. Still, it's early days, maybe it will pick up, but for my money, Iain Sinclair does this kind of thing better, and they seem to draw heavily on the influence of an old Richard Maybe book 'The Unofficial Countryside'.
The authors grew up about the same time as myself, the 1970's. For many of us of that generation, we see it as the last gleaming of the golden age of childhood. Where you could leave the house in the morning, with enough money for a bag of chips and a can of pop, not to return home before the last gloaming of twighlight. Parents never asking what you'd been up to, and to be honest, even if they did, you wouldn't have told them.
I recognise many of the landscapes described in the 'prose' and to some degree have fond memories of them, but I'm not sure that the book ever really rises to the 'psycho-geographic' heights the authors may have imagined for it, many of the observations, though cleverly worded, remain ultimately mundane.
I guess if your childhood was spent watching TV, or glaring at a computer screen it may seem 'edgy' (sorry, no pun intended), but to those of us who explored these places, it's a nice trip down memory lane.
Time to bring a bit of the mainstream back to the blog methinks.
Grandaddy were a band I initially hated, they stood for all I disliked about 'indie' music. They seemed twee, and 'quirky', the singer sang in a high falsetto voice, kinda like the Beach Boys, but without the harmonies and they seemed far to fond of prog rock style keyboard overtures. To cut to the chase, I thought they stank. But despite this, somehow, they got under my skin. There was some freebie cover mount CD with the awful dad-rock magazine Uncut, and among the usual flavour of the month detritus I just kept returning to the Grandaddy track 'Miner at the Dial A View'. I couldn't really say why, maybe it was the lush reverbed guitar sound, the odd vocal sample or those ever present prog sounds, maybe it's the plaintive lyric about wanting to go home, anyhow it just drew me in to their weird sci-fi world.
I picked up the early singles collection 'The Broken Down Comforter Collection' and found to my surprise that I kinda liked most of the tracks. They were not just twee songs, but some had a punkier edge, whilst others were heart-breakingly beautiful, but they all had a lo-fi, DIY, made at home feel that I kind of admired. It seemed they were making music on their own terms, for themselves. The texture of songs would often be at odds, but they made it work. Americana would rub shoulders with lush orchestral arrangements, lo-fi and punky against futurist tones, proggy keyboards against lush gutair with 'nature' sounds mixed in, they had great compositional skills and interesting lyrics. Now I'm not saying they were out-there, as they were in many ways just a rock band. Most of their tunes are eminently hummable, as all good pop should be in my opinion, but, I liked (like) the fact that they went a, little further than say Coldplay to try and make things interesting.
To cut a long story short, I started buying up just about anything I could lay my hands on by the band, and, up until 'The Sophtware Slump' they were just dandy. With this bejeweled gem of a record they hit pay dirt, and stadiums of the world beckoned, well sort of. I'm not sure what happened on the 'fame trail', but in a very short time they'd become kinda MTV (which isn't a compliment) and for me, lost their way a little.
Pretty much everything after Sophtware Slump sucked big logs. Maybe with the exception of the Todd Zilla EP, which was OK. They continued on for two more albums and some patchy singles before the cracks emerged and they politely bowed out, still friends, but not band mates.
I gotta say in their defence, that all through their career they were one of the best B-Side bands around. Never afraid of putting out something odd, challenging or at times bewildering. They didn't always pull it off, but you can't accuse em' of not trying. When I get a moment, I'll compile a B-side compilation and you can hear what I'm on about. It may be a large file though, as they were always generous with those extra tracks.
For me, The Windfall Varietal is a relic from that early 'golden age. Sold as a tour only CD in 2000 to make more of their music available cheaply to the fans. Many of the tracks have become rarities (if there is such a thing in the digital age) and are only available if you require the actual artifact on this release. A few songs turned up later as B-sides or extra tracks on releases, though not many. Unfortunately for us fans, someone, somewhere took umbridge to the final comical track 'Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland' and the whole thing was quickly pulled with only a couple of thousand copies of the CD sold.
Windfall Varietal Tracklisting
So,if your inclined, have a Listen , but be fore warned, like Marmite, you'll either love the band or hate them.
Finally, if you do find you've a taste for Grandaddy's quirky (there I've said it) charm, for my money, they never made a better album than 'Under The Western Freeway'. Forty odd minutes of perfection, I wouldn't change a thing.
Thought I'd post a compilation of new and new-ish music I've had as a playlist on my Walkman for a while.
It's a daydreamers, er, dream, as much of the content is a little ethereal, though some does develop into nice phrases, phases, micro beats and patterns.
There's some pretty cool stuff, even if I say so myself, and at around 67 minutes, it doesn't go on forever.
Kosmische doesn't really cover the full breadth of music here, some would qualify as good old fashioned ambient house, while other stuff is a bit free form and improv' in nature, and there's even a little drone here and there. Many tracks are what you might call 'builders', they take a while to develop, but they do get there in the end, honest!
Have a listen if your Tempted. Or HERE is the same mix as a smaller file. Not much shorter than the individual tracks, just cuts out the quieter end bits. s'up to you dear reader.
Track listing is as follows:-
1.Stellar Om Source - 'How Many Voyages' (2.11).
Taken from the limited 2009 Black Dirt LP 'Rise In Planes'.
This is one that you could definitely class as 'Kosmiche'. It's quite a short track for Stellar Om Source, usually they are great 20 minute drifting synthscapes with a similar feel to Tangerine Dreams 'Phaedra' or any number of Tim Blake releases.
She's quite a prolific little hermit too, releasing a number of 'self released' CDr's in the last few years, most strictly limited in number.
If you feel like checking out her goods, the website is Here.
And here is a short clip of Stellar in action.
2. Jonas Reinhardt - 'Eos, The Dawn' (5.32).
Taken from the Not Not Fun 2011 release - 'Music For The Tactile Dome' .
I don't know a whole lot about Jonas Reinhardt other than the above record is lush, and is a real 'headphone music' treat. Recorded in Berlin and mixed San Fransisco, you could say the sound is representative of both cities musical heritage.
'Eon...' is a lovely builder of a track, though if I'm honest, it's not totally representative of much off '...Tactile Dome', which is mostly beat driven, it's one of my faves from the release'
This live clip is probably more representative if his sound.
3. Subway - 'Xam' (7.43).
Taken from the 2009 Soul Jazz records album 'Subway II'.
Dusty Groove America said this about this wonderful album, and I can't disagree.
"Cosmic synth grooves from the duo of Michael Kirkman and Alan James, aka Subway – home recorded electronic soundscapes working in hypnotic from of the 70s Krautrock innovators, and the more effervescent sounds of avant garde dance music of 80s Detroit and the European scene in almost equal measure! The vibes are bit too spacey for the dancefloor, though, it's more about a hypnotic, meditative groove – and it works well! Titles include "Persuation", "Lowlife", "Simplex", "Harmonia","Delta II", "Monochrome", "Horizons", "Jupiter" and "Xam".
4. Cologne Tape - 'Render 4' (9.36).
Taken from the 2010 Magazine label 5 track EP - 'Render'.
This is a real builder of a track. It starts with a beautiful ringing arpeggio before building into a 'Kraut - Tronic' stormer, takes a while to get there, but it's worth the trip.
Here's a short but to the point clip of the wonderful 'Cologne Tape' live. Hope they come to the UK on the strength of this.
5. Music For Headphones - 'Wait' (6.35).
Taken from 2010 Bandcamp free EP 'Only Angry Lies'.
Again, I don't know a whole bunch about Music For Headphones, they appear to be a 'web only' band. Their Bandcamp page is Here. You can download the above EP for free, and the album 'Life In Mono' for what you want to pay. Trust me, they are both superb.
Musicwise, they remind me of the UK band 'Appliance', though some of the tracks from 'Life In Mono' do resemble 'Wooden Shjips' to some degree (see video for the wonderful 'Drive Motorik' below for an example).
6. Follakzoid - 'IV, III, II, I' (9.54).
Taken from 2011 2 track EP on Sacred Bones 'Föllakzoid'
These precociously young whipper snappers from Chile apparently started off playing noise/ punk before morphing into the realms of Kosmiche/Krautrock/E-Music and Improv'. Their MySpace is Here.
The track 'IV,III.II.I' is a pure Neu! motorik rip off, but for me, thats a GOOD thing.
This one morphs from Neu!, through Can's 'Mother Sky' via Loops 'Collision'.
Here's another side to them. heavy psych on You Tube
7. Suuns - 'Arena' [EP Version] (5.25).
Taken from the free download 6 track EP 'Zeroes EP' 2011
On first hearing Suuns, I thought it was Liverpool band Clinic. But there's much more to them than that. One minute Clinic, the Next 'Holy Fuck', the next.... who knows? I love em', and you can pick up the above EP free from the Suuns label Secretly Canadian Here
You'll see what I mean about those Clinic Comparisons below.
8. Peking Lights - 'All The Sun That Shines' (6.54).
Taken from the 2011 Not Not Fun album '936'.
There's not much I could add that Dustedmagazine haven't said already about the wonderful album '936'.
So here's a lovely 'live' performance.
9. Datashock - 'Die Pyramiden Von Gießen' (5.18)
Taken from the 2011 Dekorder album 'Pyramiden Von Gießen'
Datashock at first glance appear to be one of those 9 piece 'inprov' bands it's usually prudent to steer clear of like Sunburned Hand Of Man or Jackie 'O' Motherfucker. Y'know the kind, the ones that get up on stage with tinkling bells and no idea what they're going to do, and do lot's of it, ad nauseum, for a very long time. Well let me confound your expectations with Datashock, who are an improv' band from Germany, which means unlike our American chin strokers, and like all our other Krautrock lovelies from yesteryear, they DO have a purpose, and DO go somewhere, though often it takes a little time. But hey, were always told the joy IS in the journey right!, and with these babies it is, and some. As ever with this type of ensemble, they are prolific. Releasing numerous self published tapes and records, usually limited, and seem to be having a blast doing it. Click Here to find out more.
Promo Video for album below.
10. Roj & Wolfram Wire - 'The Salt Path' [Fursaxa Remix] (4.02)
Taken from free Ghostbox mail-list download 2010.
Roj Stevens was a member of Broadcast MKI back in the day, but left after 'The Noise Made By People' never to be replaced. Since then I'm informed he's become a lecturer in 'Electronic Music' at Nottingham Uni (How cool is That!). Anyhow, his debut release from Ghostbox records called 'The Transactional Dhama Of Roj' was released a year or two ago to not much acclaim. I like it a lot, though I do have to be in the right mood to dabble. This track (and a few others) are freebies if you sign up to the Ghostbox mailing list.
I must admit, I cheated with this one, I added a bit of the Fursaxa track 'Tragedy' from her 'Lepidoptera' album, just to pad out the sound. Great German vocal from Wolfram Wire though. It has a very evocative 'reedy' recorder sound which I feel belongs in a scary 1970's kids programme, probably something to do with an empty house and dusty corridors. Anyhow, bugger you, I LIKE IT. Plus, Ghostbox have the most amazing covers and best 'brand' identity for a record label I've seen in a while.
Here's a track from Roj's debut.
11. FNS - 'I Think She's Asleep' (5.03).
Taken from 2010 self titled Miasmah records album.
I'm not too sure who or what FNS are, but I do love the ethereal guitar sounds and general droned out but slightly malign bliss of the record. It does kinda remind me of the awesome Acid Mother's Temple song 'Bon Voyage Au LSD', but never mind about all that, it's great in it's own right. You can read more about the band and this release Here.
