Mittens Ins Ohr - Original Kosmiche Collection on OHR

Whilst thumbing the vinyl racks at home I stumbled across this great double vinyl compilation of Kosmische, Folk Rock, Avante Garde and Experimental Music released on the OHR label as a sampler for it's artist catalogue in 1971
It's very much in the vein of the recent(ish) Deutsche Electronische Music Compilations put out on Soul Jazz Records. Also shares a list of similar artists, many the usual suspects (Amon Duul, Ash Ra Temple, Tangerine Dream, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh et al) but it has a nice flow to each of the four sides.

Well worth a Listen

On The Surface, Two Unrelated Releases.

I was lucky to enter my teens during the heyday of post punk and new wave, an time when just about anything seemed possible, and new musical genre's and styles seemed to come thick and fast, year on year.
These two records seem to exemplify the 'anything goes' ethic adopted at the time and taken right through much of the 80's underground and the various scenes.

Anyhow, here are two albums which on the surface seem unrelated, but if you give them a spin, you'll see, sonically speaking, they both plough a similar furrow and are enhanced with a little studio trickery to boot.

Gary Clail's Tackhead Tape Time.

First up is a firm fav' pulled from the vinyl racks.
Gary Clail's Tackhead Tape Time was first released in the UK in 1987 and is an album that came to fruition during the birth of sampling. The record is a soundclash of harsh, almost industrial flavoured hip hop and beats onto which are projected an assortment of political samples and and Clail's sung/spoken lyrics. The Wimbush, LeBlanc, McDonald funk machine are perhaps at their sparsest here, but the On-U-Sound vibes of Adrian Sherwood gel it all together with spectacular results.

Tackhead's website has a press release from the time which gives a hint of what this records about...
"Tackhead is both a group and a sound system. Tackhead are Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald and Adrian Sherwood, while the 'Sound System' is operated by deranged MC Gary Clail. Keith, Doug and Skip are responsible for some of the best funk rhythms to have come out of the U.S.A. in the last decade having played as the Sugarhill Gang rhythm section and for Tommy Boy (notably Keith's Malcolm X, Beatmaster, etc.) and for countless other producers and labels in New York and New Jersey.
Adrian Sherwood has run his own On-U Sound label for seven years, having issued records with Mark Stewart & Maffia, Prince Far I, African Head Charge, Dub Syndicate, Singers & Players, Lee Perry and many others. He has worked for Depeche Mode, Einst?rzende Neubauten, Simply Red, etc. doing select and original mixes.
Tackhead have collectively recorded and co-produced several exceptional 12" singles and one LP - a masterpiece Major Malfunction, credited to drummer Keith LeBlanc. New album by Tackhead, Friendly as a Hand Grenade is due for release in early 1988.

So, who and what you may ask is Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System?

The Tackhead Sound System has been operating for just over two years, first appearing with its namesake Tackhead and Mark Stewart & Maffia during their awesome live shows. More than simply adding 'support', the sound system and M.C./operator Gary Clail provide a non-stop assault of unreleased tracks, re-mixes and out-takes of studio recordings made by the Tackhead crew. These tracks are twisted and dubbed live through the P.A. mixing desk while maybe three rhythms, sound effects and chants play simultaneously. During all of this Gary endevours to 'express' himself, usually on a megaphone through the microphone and all done from the P.A. desk in the middle of a club, hall or wherever the show may be.

Some people have called Gary a rapper. Gary is in fact an ex-scaffolder and second-hand Cortina salesman from Bristol, England, and sees his new role as chanter extraordinaire as his true vocation. "

If you think this may be your thang, listen Here.

Clail went on to some critical/popular acclaim and a minor chart success in 1991 with his second solo album 'The Emotional Hooligan'and single 'Beef'. It's dub inflected beats and strong social message, are as apt in today consumer driven society as it was 20 years ago, when we survived in a similar economic climate.

XTC - Explode Together - The Dub Experiments (78-80)

 
On the surface, you'd expect an XTC record to have nothing to do with the above Tackhead release.
Better known laterly for their  Beatle-eque songwriting vibes and originally for their 'new wave' singalongs 'Making Plans For Nigel' and 'Sgt Rock' and their English 'folk' of 'Senses Working Overtime',  Explode Together...' is an extraordinary release for the band. Comprising elements of Three Ep's, The first part being a freebie 12" 'GO+' given away with initial copies of the 1978 album 'Go2'. All tracks are dub-versions of tracks from Go 2, respectively: "Meccanik Dancing", "Jumping in Gomorrah", "Battery Brides", "I Am the Audience", and "The Rhythm.

The second and third parts, 'Takeaway' and 'The Lure Of The Savage' are the result of singer Andy Partridge' (Mr Partridge) 1980 solo album 'The Lure Of The Savage'. Again using studio trickery and dub elements, he crafts an interesting, if not always comfortable listen. Both sessions were apparently recorded during studio downtime during the first few XTC releases.

Have a listen Here.

Liars - B- Sides and Compilations Compiled

It's no secret I'm a massive fan of U.S. noise hipsters Liars. Of the glut of 'altern/ underground' bands that arose in the early 2000's, Liars are perhaps the ones that still sail closest to the wind in being not afraid to try something new. Whilst there are a few overlaps sound-wise with their five studio albums, each does have it's own distinctive 'vibe' and sound.
The first LP released in 2001/2 - 'They Threw Us In A trench And Put A Monument On Top was a wonderfully tense and angular affair, with careening post punk scratch guitar against a fervent Gang of Four style wired funk bass and drums, and a 'running round the block' vocal urgency that was infective. It was love at first spin, and became one of my albums of the year (nay decade).

This was followed by a total change of direction in 2004 release ' They Were Wrong So We Drowned' Haunted 'Halloween' tribalism was the order of the day. With a big nod to the forbidding 1985  Sonic Youth album 'Bad Moon Rising', easy listening it certainly was not (hear a live recording of this tour from an earlier post here) but it succeeded in bucking the 'punk funk' audience that seemed to have coalesced around the band. Rumour has it that they totally scrapped the follow up to 'They Threw Us In A Trench...' in order to follow their twisted occult leanings out in darkest mid state New York. Worried that the original follow up was to much like the debut, they threw the baby out with the bath water and totally re-realised their vision in 'They Were Wrong'.

2005 album 'Drums Not Dead' was upon initial listens, a bit of a disappointment for me I must admit. Whilst on the surface it appeared to follow a similar vein to 'They Were Wrong...', albeit with a more electronic sheen, it did take a while for it to reveal it's layers, and I spent quite a lot of time worrying that they had shot their bolt musically speaking. In  the years since it's release, it's a record I've warmed to immnesley, and if not quite as out there as 'They Were Wrong...' or as Insistent as their debut, it's still a mighty fine record.  There is a concept at work, with Mt Heart Attack turning up as a theme on several tracks. All that said, It's worth the entry fee for the heartbreaking beauty of 'The Other Side Of Mount Heart Attack' alone

The next album came two years later in the eponymously titled 'Liars'. An altogether more electro psyche affair, it has more than it's fair share of alt. 'rockers' but for me has a certain 'downer' feel to it as well. Sweeping from Jesus and Mary-Chain style 'Spectorisms' to almost dream pop moments, it's a real return to form music wise.

'2010 release Sisterworld was for me, the pinnacle of their experimentation, in the same way that Bowie's 'Scary Monsters and Super Creeps' seemed to take a little of what went before and mixed it all up, Liars did the same with Sisterworld. Encompassing great Kraut grooves (Proud Evolution) alongside slightly sinister ditties to suicide (Scissor) and ode's to the goof off lifestyle (The Overachievers), for me, this is their 'Tour de force' musically.

Which brings me to the point of the post...the bits between the bits, the uncollected debris of their career, compiled for your delectation into two neat discs worth of oddities and out-thereness.

Liars - B-Sides Compiled goes something like this...

Part 1......

1. Pillars Were Hollow And Filled With Candy So We Tore Them Down
2. Everyday Is A Child With Teeth

3. Rose And Licorice
4. All In All A Careful Party
5. Dorothy Taps The Toe Of The Tinman

6. We Got Cold, Coughed And Forgot Things
7. You Know I Hate Stupid Phones
8. Every Two Hours With A Ducks Fan

9. Leaving For Dubbo In A Panda-Bear

10. Skull and Crossbrooms
11 Broom

12  Sex Boy
13 The Fountain And Its Monologue

14 The Frozen Glacier Of Mastadon Blood
15 Bingo! Count Draculuck

16 Do As The Birds, Eat The Remains

 And Part 2....

17 Sunset Rodeo

18  Mimic The Hurricano
19 Volcano Police

20 Panic Button

21 Leopard On My Right
22 Dear

23 Red Dirt
24 Dear God




25 Cycle Time
26 HouseClouds
27 Pure Unevil
28 Plaster Casts of Everything




Tracks 1-2 taken from the 'Fins To Make Us More Like Fish' EP
Tracks 3-5 taken from the split LP with Oneida 'Atheists Reconsider'
Tracks 6-8 taken from the 'We No Longer Knew Who We Were' EP
Track 9 from Split 7" with Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Tracks 10-11 taken from the single 'There's Always Room On A Broom'
Tracks 12-13 taken from the EP 'We Fenced The Gardens With The Bones Of Our Own'
Track 14-15 taken from the single 'It Fit When I Was A Kid'
Track 16 from the 'Other Side Of Mt. Heart Attack' single
Tracks 17 'Sunset Rodeo' free web download
Tracks 18-19 taken from 'Plaster Casts Of Everything' single
Track 20 from the 'Worried Noodles' compilation album
Tracks 21-22 from 'Leopard On My Right' single
Tracks 23-24 from the 'Houseclouds' single
The rest are a few A-Sides

If you fancy a listen - get it Here....

Triclops Live Levenshume Manchester

Great bit of live video of Manchester experimental noisters Triclops (not to be confused with US guitar wranglers Triclops!).
If your looking for comparisons in sound, think Coil, TG, Cyclobe etc.. great stuff.
From about 16 mins in there's a cover version of T.G.'s 'Persuasion'.


Triclops Live Burst Couch#30 - Part One from Gareth Bibby on Vimeo.