Destroy All Monsters, 74 76

Father Yod/Ecstatic Peace!, 1994; reissued by Compound Annex; available but limited

Three discs, each with its own title. Disc 1 ("Gospel Crusade"): 25 tracks, 71:19; disc 2 ("Crying In Bed"): 27 tracks, 69:11; disc 3 ("To The Throne Of Chaos Where The Thin Flutes Pipe Mindlessly"): 24 tracks, 66:54

When mentioned at all, Destroy All Monsters are generally considered a post-Stooges Ron Asheton project. With all respect due to the late Mr. Asheton, DAM were actually past their innovative prime by the time he joined! The original quartet of Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Niagara, and Jim Shaw assembled in winter of '74 with the intent of deconstructing rock music. Inspired in equal parts by European experimentation, proto-punk a la Stooges and MC5, and the outer realms of jazz, they created a truly unique sound that can't readily be assigned to a specific era. That being said, ths box does indeed cover the years 1974 to 1976; there's no indication as to whether the material is presented chronologically, but that's okay. Sure, there's a few fairly straightforward proto-punkers featuring Niagara's sultry vocals like "Vampire", "T.H. Queen" and "You Can't Kill Kill"; also, the apparently live version of "Shakin' All Over" is surprisingly faithful to the original. Don't be fooled, though; these concessions to accessibility are few and far between. The majority of these tracks are pure experiments in sound, whether it's the nightmarish tape manipulations of "Mom's and Dad's Pussy" or the self-explanatory "Drone" and "Crunch Drone". There's also room for dubby sound explorations and primitive drum machine exercises, along with nearly every other experimental style you can think of. It's almost impossible to pick standouts, since there is a LOT of material to pick through and even the lesser tracks are impressive with enough repeat listens. Keeping in mind that this predated punk and industrial as genres (to say nothing of later developments such as no wave), this is incredibly ahead of its time, and it's even more amazing to think none of this got released until 1994! About the only comparable contemporaries were Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle; there are definite similarities, but honestly all three were highly original outfits that started around the same time and were unaware of the others until later. In DAM's case, hardly anyone outside of the group itself was aware of their innovations until years later. Needless to say this comes highly recommended. While the reissue isn't as fancy as the original box, the music is all intact and it IS available again, and shouldn't that matter the most? Around '76 most of the members left except for Niagara, who continued Destroy All Monsters with new members (most notably Asheton and ex-MC5 bassist Michael Davis). This period of DAM is enjoyable, but don't expect it to sound a jot like the box. The original lineup has basically reformed and tours/records semi-regularly in their original proto-noise style.

Read the liner notes for this set (written by Mike Kelley himself) here: http://www.mikekelley.com/DAMthrone.html . http://www.mikekelley.com/compound.html has 74 76 for sale along with other DAM/Kelley-related products.

Yoko Ono, UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2: LIFE WITH THE LIONS and PLASTIC ONO BAND

Zapple, 1969; reissued by Ryko with bonus tracks; available

Ryko: 7 tracks, 61:32



Apple, 1970; reissued by Ryko with bonus tracks; available

Ryko: 9 tracks, 65:36

I'm pretty sure you know who Yoko Ono is if you're here, so let's go straight to the reviews!

First up is the second of her three experimental albums with John Lennon. Coming at a time when Ono was a pariah, LIFE WITH THE LIONS didn't help her public image one bit. This album has the honor of being one of the most genuinely unlistenable albums I own, while also being one of the most conceptually interesting. "Cambridge 1969" is a bold opener: twenty-six and a half minutes of Ono freely vocalising over feedback, with slight sax and percussion by Johns Tchicai and Stevens towards the end. It also occupied all of side one. Side two is no more accessible. The sweet acoustic "No Bed For Beatle John" is up next to the self-explanatory "Baby's Heartbeat" and "Two Minutes Silence"; all were recorded in the hospital during Ono's troubled pregnancy. It's rather touching and sad to know that the baby didn't make it, which gives both the heartbeat and the silence that much more impact. The LP proper ends with "Radio Play", which is Lennon and Ono conversing while changing radio stations, even flipping around with "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" at one point. Bonus tracks "Song For John" and "Mulberry" are returns to the sweetness of "No Bed For Beatle John". It's not something you put on every day, but as a work of art, this album merits investigation.

PLASTIC ONO BAND (not to be confused with Lennon's identically named album) is much more enjoyable overall. Five of the tracks feature a lineup of Lennon, bassist Klaus Voormann, and Ringo Starr; the other, "AOS", is a rehearsal recording from '68 featuring Ornette Coleman's quartet. "AOS" is the most out-there track here, with Coleman's trumpet coaxing Ono into a frenzy. Bassists Charlie Haden and David Izenzon team up with drummer Eddie Blackwell to maintain the wild feeling. The rest of the tracks are very ahead of their time, predicting all manner of post-punk mutations down the line. Starr and Lennon sound like they're having the time of their lives NOT sounding a jot like the Beatles! Lennon skronks and skrees to his heart's content while still finding time for trancier modes of expression, while Starr surprises with consistently innovative drumming, be it fast-paced rock pounding or motorik-esque pulsing. "Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over The City" and "Paper Shoes" both feature Ono's use of processed vocals over nearly krautrock soundscapes, while "Touch Me" and "Why" rival ANY '90s noise rock act for ferocity. The long "Why Not" is about equally divided between these extremes. Ryko put three bonus tracks on here. "Open Your Box" is a funky little number, originally intended for a single. "Something More Abstract" is a short snippet, and "The South Wind" finds Lennon and Ono improvising with acoustic guitar and vocals. This is the truly essential Ono purchase.

Check back for a review of UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 1: TWO VIRGINS soon. This little gem is a collage piece that, while savaged at the time, is the better of the two UNFINISHED MUSIC albums. There's also THE WEDDING ALBUM, which didn't impress me very much, and the wild live albums LIVE PEACE IN TORONTO 1969 and SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY*. Anything else credited to Ono and Lennon (though not necessarily to Ono solo) is FAR more mainstream. Ono's massive FLY deserves special attention as well.

*This double LP features a side of Lennon/Ono/Mothers of Invention jams!

Arthur Doyle Plus 4, ALABAMA FEELING

AK-BA, 1978; reissued many times; out of print on CD, available on vinyl from Rank And File

6 tracks, 37:52

Oh MAN, is this some intense jazz! Let's cover the "Plus Four" first. Arthur Doyle's brave sidemen for this outing are drummer Bruce Moore, electric bassist Richard Williams, trombonist Charles Stephens, and drummer Rashied Sinan. All of these players truly shine on their instruments, with percussionists Sinan and Moore doing especially well supplying inventive fills and improvisations. Stephens and Williams also shine on their instruments, with interesting non-linear basslines and surprisingly interesting horn support. Doyle, however, is the true demonic genius of this quintet! Credited as playing "tenor voice-o-phone, bass voice-o-net", and flute, his playing is truly not quite like anything else. The "voice-o" terminology refers to his style of speak-playing, using the tenor sax and the bass clarinet in an almost hindewhu* way. Knowing this makes you wonder just what the hell he's saying, because his playing is always at full blast, with the skronk-o-meter (to coin a term myself; I think?) at eleven. This particular set was recorded in 1977 at the Brook in New York. Being the height of the no wave period, this had to go over well with that scene; in fact, Rudolph Grey of Red Transistor was at this show and was impressed enough to recruit Doyle for the Blue Humans**. While there are titles and rough cuts at the end of each track, this is really best experienced the way it was recorded: all in one go at maximum volume. "November 8th or 9th - I Can't Remember When" opens the set with a particularly scorching performance by Doyle, and the supporting quartet surprisingly manage to match his energy. Other highlights include the multi-part "Development", which almost approaches AMM territory with its flute run and raging percussion, as well as the mostly solo sax piece "Something For Caserlo, Larry & Irma". The latter piece isn't exactly restrained, but compared to the other tracks it comes across as a bizarre moment of tranqulity. The recording isn't as great as it could have been, but it could have been a LOT worse. Good luck finding this, but free jazz fans can't say they know the genre until they do. Fans of free improv and no wave will find some common ground here; others might want to approach this with caution, but as with most albums reviewed here, it'll be worth the effort. Other Doyle albums are out there; some find him experimenting with his "Electro-Acoustic Ensemble", and some are very raw home recordings that border on outsider music. All of it is worth investigating. Harder to find but easily ALABAMA FEELING's equals are Noah Howard's THE BLACK ARK and Milford Graves' BABI MUSIC, which find Doyle laying down incredible performances as a sideman himself.*** Check the comments for a great link to an interview with Doyle (thanks, Roy!).
*From Wikipedia (credit totally being given!): "Hindewhu is a style of singing/whistle-playing of the BaBenzélé pygmies of the Central African Republic. The word is an onomatopoeia for the sound of a performer alternately singing pitched syllables and blowing into a single-pitch papaya-stem whistle." Which is a better definition than I could ever give! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindewhu

**The excellent (and unfortunately VERY rare) LIVE 1980 documents the trio of Doyle, Grey, and the incredible free jazz drummer Beaver Harris. Very much worth checking out, and good luck!

***ALSO worth investigating is Charles Tyler, founder of AK-BA. His albums for ESP-Disk' (CHARLES TYLER ENSEMBLE and EASTERN MAN ALONE) find him in ferocious and psychedelic modes, respectively.

The Red Krayola, THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND, GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT, COCONUT HOTEL, and LIVE 1967

Originally released on International Artists in 1967 and 1968 respectively; PARABLE had 13 tracks, GOD BLESS had 20. My copy is a Charly reissue, which omits one of the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks for a total of 32 tracks, 77:10



Drag City, 1995; available

44 tracks, 33:23



Drag City, 1998; available

2 discs. Disc 1: 3 tracks, 43:56. Disc 2: 3 tracks, 64:50.

Texas was quite a strange place back in the Sixties. No band proved this point more than Houston's infamous Red Krayola. At this point consisting of Mayo Thompson, Rick Barthelme, and Steve Cunningham, the Red Krayola (Crayola on the first album before being changed for legal reasons) concocted a strange mix of current psychedelia and ahead-of-its-time experimentation. This mix is most rooted in psychedelia on THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND. Tracks like "Hurricane Fighter Plane", "Pink Stainless Tail", and "Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" could get radio play then and now, even if the musicianship is sometimes a little clumsy and Thompson's words are abstract at best. However, the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks between the songs push this into stranger territory. These are full-on slabs of cacophony featuring the "Familiar Ugly", an assortment of friends of the band including Roky Erickson from 13th Floor Elevators* on organ. Featuring everything from feedback to blown bottles to matchsticks rubbed together, these tracks are actually fascinating experiments which creatively flow into the proper songs; they are also the only recorded appearance of the Familiar Ugly. There is also the instrumental title track, which is built around what appears to be a percussive loop and is completely devoid of structure otherwise; this track almost seems like a blueprint for COCONUT HOTEL. As a whole, THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND is still a solid listen; it's also part of my personal Holy Trinity of Sixties Freak-Out Albums, along with Friendsound's JOYRIDE and Cromagnon's ORGASM/CAVE ROCK. The compilation EPITAPH FOR A LEGEND has some far more restrained (and folky!) demo versions of tracks from this album along with several other treasures of Texas-style rock and psych.

THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND was the Red Krayola's true freak-out album, but it did have identifiable ties to rock. COCONUT HOTEL was a complete rejection of rock norms, venturing further into free improvisation. This gem of an album was recorded in 1967, but International Artists rejected it for being too strange. Nothing on here is nearly as noisy as the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks , but they aren't very musical either! With simplistic titles such as "Organ Buildup", "Free Guitar", and "Piano", most tracks deliver improvisations performed on the track's title instrument, though "Vocal" features some interesting effects and ambiance alongside "headphone vocals" by Frank Davis. The more abstractly named "One-Minute Imposition", "Boards", and "Water Pour" have more varied instrumentation but are no less adventurous in their search for pure sound. Then there are the "One-Second Pieces". Yes, these are exactly what you'd expect them to be: one-second bursts of noise, mostly performed on some sort of horn, piano, and drums. Some of the tracks feature more than one of these pieces, while most are just the blast of sound and then a few seconds of silence. Believe it or not, these are pretty entertaining, and they almost form a micro-suite after a few listens. More adventurous listeners (and fans of free improv in general) should find plenty to like on this disc.

LIVE 1967 is more intimidating. At two discs, these noisefests can be difficult to take in one sitting; it's best to tackle it one disc at a time. Disc one features their performance at the Angry Arts Festival on June 29, as well as two acoustics-and-voice recordings made in the band's hotel room that evening. Disc two finds them performing (believe it or not) at the Berkeley Folk Music Festival, July 2 through July 4. The first disc has its moments, mostly during the live show. The hotel recordings can be a little annoying when the vocals get carried away; while interesting the first time around, these attempts at abstract chanting overstay their welcome quick. These minor flaws are completely made up for with the second disc. Not only are the three performances excellent, but one has a guest performance by John Fahey**! The July 4 concert is especially amusing since it was from a radio broadcast. The announcer talks for quite a bit over the band, assuming they're warming/tuning up! All of the performances (except the hotel recordings) feature heavy use of feedback, one-second pieces, drones, improvisation, and other avant-garde elements. It was a bold move to perform such avant-garde material for festival crowds. The audiences, however, seem to love it, and the applause at the end of each performance is surprisingly quite enthusiastic. The recording quality is amazingly good consdering the age and circumstances of the recordings. One or two tracks have bits of audience chatter during the performance, but it doesn't interfere too much with the music. This is definitely an acquired taste, but fans of this sort of thing will absolutely love it.

After the preceding albums, Rick Barthelme left the band. Tommy Smith replaced him for GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT. Thompson and company come across as much more restrained here, but it's still as quirky as ever. None of the tracks are over three minutes, and eleven of them are less than two minutes. Most of these tracks have strange structures and rhythms, sounding very much like a product of the post-punk years rather than the psychedelic years. Strangely enough, one of the tracks is even called "Coconut Hotel"! Echoes of that album show up on two tracks: the self-explanatory "Free Piece", and "Listen To This", which is a one-second piece with an introduction. Another intriguing oddity is the EXTREMELY lo-fi "The Shirt", which has Thompson's voice and guitar accompanied by a Ferrari-esque "slice of life" recording. It's a solid album and a great listen, but it's also the least adventurous effort from this period. Then again, the least adventurous Krayola outings still make most other bands look tame and reserved! Fans of Beefheart, Zappa, et al may want to begin investigating Thompson's world here.

Mayo Thompson has kept the Red Krayola going over the years, working with everyone from Pere Ubu, the Rough Trade Roster, and several members of Chicago's post-rock elite. All of his work is worth checking out, but these four albums represent the genesis (some would say the apex as well) of his twisted musical vision. Start with THE PARABLE... and GOD BLESS... and go from there.

*The 13th Floor Elevators were the Red Krayola's only real competition; truth be told, while they are a great band, they're not really as out there as reviews would make you think.

**There is a legendary lost studio album recorded around this time featuring Fahey and the Red Krayola. Lelan Rogers (head of International Artists and Kenny Rogers' brother) refused to hand over the tapes, and their location and state of preservation are unknown. If this ever gets located and issued, you'll certainly find a review of it here!

Friendsound, JOYRIDE

RCA Victor, 1969; reissued on grey-area vinyl a few times; availability uncertain

6 tracks, 34:43

It's hard to believe this was a Paul Revere & the Raiders side project. There's no real credits on the album, but yes indeed, this is Raiders members using the studio as an instrument. It sounds about as far removed from their main project as possible. What more can you expect, when "Brotherhood" is listed as producer?!?!?!? What few liner notes describe the recording of this album as "a musical free-for-all", which is as good a description as any! Beginning with the slow and druggy rock jam "Joyride", Friendsound soon leave any semblance of pop or rock behind. "Childhood's End" combines a mechanical rhythm (as in actual industrial machinery, not drum machine) and the chant "send me a dream" in a way that sounds a lot like what Cromagnon was doing; in fact, JOYRIDE as a whole has a lot of similarities to Cromagnon's only album (pop stars freaking out, chants and other non-traditional vocals, use of primitive sampling in doses). "Love Sketch" is an almost new agey instrumental, not too remarkable but not truly bad, and it goes right into "Childsong". This is a bizarre track made up of the sounds of a playground, chimes, flute or mellotron (it's hard to tell), and a LOT of tape manipulation. The kids' voices are subtly twisted, and the music grows louder while still exuding a calm beauty. This is a highlight of the album, and it ends side one on a great note. Side two consists of two tracks, and boy, are these weird! Both are about nine and a half minutes, and they're two different sides of the coin. "Lost Angel Proper St." has a bluesy organ, spoken effected vocals that get frequently eaten by the music, crazy electric guitar freakouts, and long stretches where the music changes completely, while still coming back to the original theme in a way. Last and definitely not least is "The Empire Of Light", which ends the album on its highest note; given the quality of the other tracks, this is saying a lot! Piano is the main instrument here, surrounded by all manner of sound effects. Everything from spooky organ to weird synthy squelches to unidentifiable tape manipulations comes into play, all with the meandering yet quite beautiful piano underneath. It's a truly amazing track, sounding remarkably like Moolah or Kluster. Far overdue for a reissue, JOYRIDE was a bold album that still sounds remarkably innovative. It's a shame they never recorded another album as Friendsound; they sure did continue on as the Raiders, but that's a little outside the scope of this blog. Perhaps that is for the best; this sort of thing is hard to capture twice. Consider this album a part of the 60s freakout holy trinity along with Cromagnon's CAVE ROCK/ORGASM and the Red Krayola's PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND, and until there's a proper CD reissue, try to hear it any way you can.

Chillum, CHILLUM... PLUS

Mushroom, 1971; reissued with bonus tracks as CHILLUM...PLUS by See For Miles; availability uncertain

CHILLUM...PLUS: 11 tracks, 66:27

This band has a slightly convoluted history. Keyboardist and vocalist Ken Elliott and drummer Kieran O'Connor were originally in the insanely creative Second Hand, a group that definitely remained psychedelic while also predicting prog rock. After two superb albums (REALITY and DEATH MAY BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS), Second Hand had lost their guitarist. Bassist George Hart, who joined on DEATH MAY BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS, still was in the group, so they auditioned new guitarists. Tony McGill clicked perfectly with the band, so perfectly that his audition evolved into an incredible twenty-plus minute piece of improvised rock, and apparently forced a renaming from Second Hand to Chillum. Coming close to some of the most out-there krautrock jams (Guru Guru and Amon Duul II come to mind), Elliott's pummelling organ and Hart's fluid bass combine with O'COnnor's fierce percussives and McGill's incredibly detailed improvisations. Given the name "Brain Strain" this originally occupied side one of the original CHILLUM LP; on CHILLUM PLUS, which contains the entire sessions, it is in an extended form. The first track on ...PLUS is a miniature bit of laughing contributed by two doctors who frequented the pub next door to the studio; only those present know if the laughter was their genuine response or a skit. Chillum continue on their weird path, at times using O'Connor's snoring as a percussion line (on "Land Of A Thousand Dreams") or giving him four minutes to show off his drumming chops ("Too Many Bananas"). "Yes! We Have No Pajamas" is another extended improv, firing off with no mercy until its ten and a half minutes have come to a stop. Suddenly, "Promenade Des Anglais" pops up, and you wonder if someone's recorded the wrong track. This little number sounds disturbingly somehwere between smooth jazz and muzak, but it is followed by a goofy voice saying "'ere, I thought that was RATHER GOOD! Oh super! What's next?". This nicely gives away the joke, and makes for an impressive end to the original album. The bonus tracks on ...PLUS are fairly good. "Fairy Tale' has interesting music, but is hampered by out-of-place vocals. "Celebration" sounds the most like the album proper, being a fiery improv, while "This Is Not Romance" consists solely of piano and wounded vocals, making for a nice contrast. "Incubator", two takes of which are included, was actually created by the engineer using an oscillator and a rotating speaker; they're interesting little tracks, but nothing more. Chillum essentially imploded during these sessions; O'Connor and Elliott continued on for two albums as the less interesting Seventh Wave and then disappeared. CHILLUM...PLUS, as well as all related projects, would mostly appeal to adventurous progheads and krautrock fans, and it comes highly recommended to them. Adventurous rock fans will probably find a lot to like here as well, but be aware this IS every bit as druggy and spaced out as the band's name implies (a chillum being a device for smoking hashish).

UPDATE: As of 2010, this has been reissued by Sunbeam. This edition restores the original cover and has four bonus tracks: "Celebration" and "This Is Not Romance" reappear, as do the previously unissued "Three Blind Mice" and "The Lone Commuter". I haven't heard them, but hooray to Sunbeam for making this more readily available!

Albrecht/d. and Throbbing Gristle, a bunch of tapes

Titles are 12 AND 18 JULY 1976, 23 JULY 1976, and 30 JULY 1976 (at least two are also known as MUSIC FROM THE DEATH FACTORY). All are cassette-only releases, and each is approximattely an hour long.

So where to begin with these cassettes? Well, if you're here, you're probably already familiar with Throbbing Gristle. If not, know that they coined the term "industrial music", and that the members all went on to various other endeavors after their brief but influential existence (Coil, Psychic TV, Chris and Cosey, CTI, etc.). Albrecht/d. was (still is to the best of my knowledge) an artist and musician associated with the Fluxus movement. Everything from tribal percussion trances to electronic drones has appeared under his name; both ENDLESS MUSIC and the live album with Joseph Beuys come very highly recommended.

As for the Gristle collaborative tapes, they're about what you'd expect. Each one has approximately 30 minutes of music per side, and each side sounds like an extended jam session. This is NOT a problem at all! Synth whines are accompanied by ethnic-sounding percussion, and deep bass drones are pierced by shrill violin runs. It's a very trance-inducing experience, and it's not nearly as painful as Throbbing Gristle's SECOND ANNUAL REPORT or D.O.A. can be. I'm not 100% sure what the circumstances surrounding these recordings were, but two of the tapes are supposedly live recordings, and it's been claimed that Albrecht/d. only recorded MUSIC FROM THE DEATH FACTORY without contributing any musical input (it's also claimed he did indeed contribute drumming). All three tapes are allegedly still available through Reflection Press (http://wikihost.org/wikis/sturclub//wiki/contact for info and address), and all three are essential parts of the Throbbing Gristle story, as well as being important evidence of the influence that Fluxus, Dada, and similar movements had on early industrial.

Jacques Berrocal, MUSIQ MUSIK

Futura, 1973; reissued by Fractal; out of print

4 tracks, 30:03

This album possibly holds the record for amount of instruments used being in disproportion to the amount of musicians (or it at least ties with a few). The trio of Berrocal (who later shortened his first name to Jac), Dominique Coster, and Roger Ferlet play no less than twenty separate instruments, ranging from common ones such as flutes and drums to the exotic shenai and "horn of Ramadan", all the way to balloons, ropes and explosives! The sounds contained on this short-but-perfect album are divided into composed pieces and improvised ones. Good luck differentiating between the two! The shorter pieces are the most intense, with screaming horns and furious percussion. Occasional human voices come in, always wordless. The explosives can be clearly heard, as can the balloons. It's free improv of a very high octane sort, with all players set on "stun". Then there's album closer "Cryptea", a ten-minute comedown after the preceding intensity. It's still not easy listening, but it's much calmer than what came before it. Not a single of these thirty minutes is wasted, and repeat listens only deepen the mysteries contained within. Any serious fan of improvisational and experimental music needs this in their collection. Unfortunately the reissue is already out of print and extremely hard to find, but make the effort anyway.

Moolah, WOE YE DEMONS POSSESSED

Druidstone, 1974; reissued (grey-area) by several labels; several dubious versions available, official reissue possible

6 tracks, 37:25

Moolah, the mysterious recording alias of Walter Burns and Maurice Roberson, has always been an enigma. Released on the duo's incredibly-named Druidstone in 1974, WOE YE DEMONS POSSESSED (also referenced as WOE YE DEMON POSSESSED, and with or without a comma after the WOE)is quite simply not something that should have been coming out of mid-70s New York. Just looking at the cover should tell you this is going to be an amazing listen! This absolute mindblower was allegedly recorded in a basement. While exact instrumentation isn't clear, the arsenal appears to be similar to Kluster's: keyboards (sounds like mostly organs and electric pianos), tape decks, effects, and other noisemakers, plus the addition of a rather loud drum kit. The drums aren't in every song, but on tracks like the opening "Crystal Waters", they offer a nice crashing backbeat to some cosmic keyboards and psychedelic trickery. "Mirror's" seems to be built upon a strange backwards tape loop, with some forward-playing organ improvised on top. Various guitar strums are also heard, but it's not clear if these are real-time or reversed, so dense is the production. "Terror Is Real" features some insane ramblings, proving the American origins and adding to the general ambience. All six tracks offer diverse joys, and the whole album ends much sooner than you wish. An amazing American take on krautrock, this does beg the question: Were Walter and Maurice aware of Kluster et al, or was this coincidentally similar to what was going on in Germany? Whatever the case may be, Moolah is a true treasure. Hopefully the official reissue will happen; a message made the rounds saying the reissue was in the works, bonus tracks and all, but the bootleggers affected that. I say reissue it, because I want to hear the bonus material!

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that Walter and Maurice released a second album in 1983. It was credited to Burns & Roberson  or possibly Burns & Roberson Cosmic Music, but it's not clear from the cover if this is part of their name or the album's name. It seems to be called ALBUM II: SYNTHI-ACOUSTIC. I have seen a copy of this on cassette on ebay, but there is literally NO other information available on it. Any leads would be appreciated!

Pataphonie, PATAPHONIE

Pôle, 1975; out of print

2 tracks, 41:12

Pôle Records, in addition to the excellent LPs by Pôle the collective, released several intriguingly unique albums. The debut LP by Pataphonie is one of the best known, as well as being one of the best releases on Pôle. Technically consisting of live recordings from 1972 to 1975 (some sources say 1976, but since the album was released in 1975, this is HIGHLY doubtful), the two side-long pieces come across more as sound collages than a concert. Guitarist André Viaud, percussionist Gilles Rousseau, bassist Pierre Demouron, and keyboardist Bernard Audureau were essentially a prog-rock outfit, and that certainly does show in the music. But these live bits of sound are given a Can treatment, seamlessly meshed into long dronescapes and improvisational-sounding maelstroms. Long keyboard drones give way to percussive storms or distorted guitar freakouts. At times reminiscent of TAGO MAGO's "Aumgn" or Flying Saucer Attack's drastic Tele:Funken remix/remake, Pataphonie's debut works more as an avant-garde album than a prog one. The band probably wasn't too thrilled with the results, considering that their LE MATIN BLANC album sounds not a jot like this, but the self-titled debut is the better of the two due to its experimental nature.
Note: It may just be me, but this cover is extraordinarily similar to the covers of both Ivan T. Sanderson's "THINGS" (an excellent book, by the way!) and AMP's ASTRALMOONBEAMPROJECTIONS. While I'm sure the Sanderson comparison is coincidental, despite it coming out ten years before PATAPHONIE, could the AMP art be a sly nod?

Maschine Nr. 9, HEADMOVIE

Phillips, 1973-1974 (sources vary, but these dates are the most common); out of print

Technically 2 tracks, 55:10

This is definitely one of the top five Holy Grails of the Nurse With Wound list. While technically a krautrock album, this goes far beyond anything ever labelled as such. HEADMOVIE is exactly what its title says. The only real comparison is like a cross between Miereanu's LUNA CINESE and some of the avant-theatre troupes on the list like Brühwarm or La Grand Magic Circus. Maschine Nr. 9 was a very loose collaboration. The main players were Wolf Wondratschek, Bernd Brummbär and Georg Deuter. Guests included Renate Knaup (of krautrock legends Amon Düül II) and about a dozen others. Knaup and Deuter were probably the best known contributors, with Deuter having a prolific solo career. HEADMOVIE begins with strange metallic echoes and clanging noises. After about two minutes, a narrator starts speaking in German (the predominant language on this album). The music that accompanies this audio movie includes gorgeous ambient synths, strange pulsating minimalism, repetitive folk motifs, fuzz guitar freakouts, and much MUCH more. The instrumentation seems to be mostly synth-based, but that's not entirely clear. None of the music plays for very long, being more a soundtrack to the words than anything else. Different speakers come up at different points, and some very cleverly *ahem* borrowed bits of such previous experimental efforts as "Revolution No. 9" are dropped in to spice up the weirdness. Curiously, at one point samples of the Beatles' "Good Night" are repeated; why this reasonably normal song received such attention is anyone's guess. I do wish I spoke German so I could understand the story more, but I'm fairly sure it's science fiction, most likely with a surrealist twist. "Maschine Nr. 9" is very clearly spoken several times during the record, so who knows? Perhaps that was the name of the "head movie". This is an incredibly difficult listening experience, but it is extraordinarily rewarding. An absolute treasure of the avant-garde; where is the reissue????

Pete Shelley's Groovy Records: Sally Smmit's HANGAHAR, Free Agents' £3.33, and Shelley's SKY YEN

Groovy, 1980; out of print

Technically 2 tracks, 34:33



Groovy, 1980; out of print

2 tracks, 41:07

No picture available for Free Agents; trust me, I looked!

Groovy, 1980; out of print

Details uncertain; see below

Pete Shelley's Groovy Records was one of the shorter-lived labels. These three records were its only output. All three feature Shelley, which isn't surprising. What IS surprising is how much none of these records sound like the Buzzcocks. Other musicians include Sally Smmit (later to use her given name of Sally Timms in the Mekons), Eric Random (also with the Tiller Boys), Francis Cookson (also with the Tiller Boys), and Barry Adamson.

SKY YEN is Shelley's solo outing. Recorded back in 1974 (pre-Buzzcocks!) using only a "purpose-built oscillator", it's two whole sides of arty electronic sounds. Not quite high-pitched enough to be annoying, but not sedate enough to be ambient, this is pure head music. It's remarkably similar to much later ambient noise,and even reminiscent at times of early academic synth artists like Subotnick. The oscillator sounds less primitive than it should, and is far removed from similar constructs such as the Simeon. Out of the three Groovy Records releases, SKY YEN is possibly the most accessible, which IS saying a lot!

Sally Smmit and her Musicians are Smmit, Cookson, Shelley, Gerard Cookson, and Lindsey Lee. HANGAHAR (also listed as SOUNDTRACK TO HANGAHAR) is two whole sides of pure krautrock/kosmische worship. Smmit channels Damo Suzuki via Yoko Ono, and while it's never clear what's being played, the sounds all blend together into the ultimate krautrock tribute. Minimalist drumming, buzzing synths, and twisted guitar are the order of the day here. It feels like one solid piece, since side two picks up basically where side one left off. A far cry from her days in the Mekons, this is Timms at her absolute most unhinged and glorious. This would be an absolute joy to fans of far-out improv rock, as well as krautrock.

As odd as HANGAHAR is, the Free Agents' £3.33 (also referenced as simply FREE AGENTS) trumps it. At least the parts I've heard. It turns out the copy I was given was probably missing at least two tracks. Therefore, the review has been removed. However, what I HAVE heard is amazing in a Faust-meets-Rev. Dwight Frizzell kind of way. The lineup consisted of Shelley, Random, Cookson, and Adamson.

Overall, these three records were incredibly radical releases, and every one of them deserves a reissue. In a more perfect world, there would be a 2-disc set with all three! The Groovy label was a bold move, and it's a shame that more people will probably never hear its output. Luckily, Eric Random had a fairly prolific solo career. SUBLIMINAL 1980-1982 collects his weird dubby rock experiments and makes for a satisfying listen (one of these days it will be reviewed here).

Kluster, ZWEI-OSTEREI

Schwann, 1971; reissued by Hypnotic and Captain Trip, each with a different bonus track; Hypnotic version out of print, Captain Trip version available but pricey

2 tracks, 44:52 (Hypnotic reissue: 3 tracks, 60:11)

Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius are names familiar to most every student of ambient and krautrock. As Cluster, they pursued a deep space electronic path, approaching proto-new age and proto-ambient frequently. However, their earliest work as Kluster (a trio including Conrad Schnitzler as well) basically invented dark ambient and ambient industrial. This highly bizarre record was their second; KLOPFZEICHEN, the first, will also get reviewed here, but it is slightly more difficult to find. Schnitzler, Roedelius and Moebius didn't use synthesizers, instead relying on organs, electric guitars (normal and slide), loads of effects, and any manner of noisemaker they could find. Strangely enough, KLOPFZEICHEN and ZWEI-OSTEREI ("two - Easter egg" in English) were funded by a church! That said, there's not a whole lot in common with other church music beyond the use of organs. Track one (which was also side one) begins with a humming drone and a repeating metallic sound. This goes on for a while, and eventually guest vocalist Manfred Paethe enters the mix. His stern-sounding vocals are reciting religious text (which allegedly was one of the conditions for church funding), and while the performance gets progressively more intense, a German-speaking friend verified that the words are absolutely ridiculous. Not speaking the language is definitely a plus in THIS case! That being said, side one is an intense piece of uneasy ambience, never fully exploding into dread but constantly threatening it, and all the more impressive for that. Side two is very similar, but more free-form. Listening to this puts early industrial in its proper perspective; you could easily pass off either side as early Throbbing Gristle. Best listened to as a whole, ZWEI-OSTEREI was very much ahead of its time, and some of the ideas present wouldn't really be explored further until much later. After this album and a collaboration album with Eruption (more on them later), the band would splinter, Schnitzler going on to a solo career and Moebius and Roedelius continuting as Cluster (as well as working with Brian Eno and forming the supergroup Harmonia with Michael Rother of Neu!). Any output associated with the original trio is very much worth investigating. The two CD reissues each have different bonus tracks.The Hypnotic release features a fifteen-minute snippet(!) of a live Cluster performance from 1980. This sees the duo of Moebius and Roedelius teamed up with Joshi Farnbauer. It's a much more space rock oriented track, but it's a very nice comedown after the intensity of ZWEI-OSTEREI. I haven't heard the Captain Trip reissue, but the bonus track there is a live piece by Schnitzler's later band Eruption, which was very similar to Kluster. The Captain Trip version is pretty expensive, but you can usually find a good second-hand copy of the Hypnotic release for under $15. It comes very highly recommended no matter what.
NOTE: There is also now a three-disc box set on Water called KLUSTER 1969-1971. While it has no bonus tracks, it does have all three Kluster albums (KLOPFZEICHEN, ZWEI-OSTEREI, and ERUPTION) for a low price (around $20-$30). Needless to say, this is the Kluster set to look for. There are also some interesting archival Kluster releases from when the band was just Schnitzler and associates, Moebius and Roedelius having gone off to form Cluster(!). Entitled VULCANO and ADMIRA, these are on Important Records and are definitely worth investigating.

Pôle, KOTRILL and INSIDE THE DREAM

Pôle, 1975; out of print

3 tracks, 41:15



Pôle, 1975; out of print

3 tracks, 44:06

Out of the many obscurities to be found in the Nurse With Wound list, Pôle is one of the most obscure-yet-legendary. A label as well as a musical project, Pôle was established by Paul Putti in mid-70s France. The records were originally sold door to door, which is quite puzzling considering how experimental the sounds within typically were. Pôle's other signings included Mahogany Brain, Pataphonie, and other avant-garde and free improv acts. Howver, Pôle the group was perhaps the most bizarre of all the label's acts. "Group" isn't really the right word; Pôle was more of a loose collective than anything else. KOTRILL, for example, is credited to Pôle, yet Putti and Thierry Aubrun perform two tracks, while the remaining track is solely performed by Daniel Bodon! Bodon's "Osiris" is also very much the shortest track here, being a brief three and a half minutes. It's also the most accessible track, which is saying a lot, since it consists mostly of high-pitched rising-and-falling sine tones and deep bass gongs, with an occasional buzzing sound alternating between stereo channels. "Kotrill" itself is an incredible piece of avant-garde excess. Its seventeen minutes begins with the sound of tapes being wound backwards and eerie synths, evolving into a wondrous mess of musique concrete textures and backward vocals. It continues evolving and decomposing, ending on a highly percussive note surprisingly reminiscent of the end of Can's "Aumgn". This track alone explains what Nurse With Wound liked about Pôle; one could even say some of NWW's work sounds an awful lot like this piece. With "Kotrill" as the opening salvo and "Osiris" the transition, that leaves the twenty-plus minutes of "Villin-Gen" on side two. It's a very nice extended ambient piece that slowly mutates over its vast length from pure drone to more erratic expressions, while a vague rhythm is barely heard in the background. This makes for a completely engaging listen before the final beats of the rhythm fade out. This provides a nice French take on krautrock, and it even manages to blow quite a few contemporary experimentalists away!

Pôle's second album, INSIDE THE DREAM, finds Putti with a new group of collaborators and a slightly altered sound. Putti, guitarist Marc Azad, bassist Eric Dervieu, and vocalist Christian Rouch perform on the title track, which occupies all of side one. After the intensity of KOTRILL, "Inside The Dream" is surprisingly sedate. A gentle acoustic guitar is accompanied by a burbling synth-ish guitar (it really does sound more like an electronic instrument than an electric guitar) and subtle bass, with Rouch's gentle vocals evoking a pastoral image. As the song progresses, the acoustic strums remain, but more dissonant guitar starts to float above it. Towards the end, the acoustics disappear, and the freakish guitar soloing explodes, accompanied by simplistic but driving drumming. This track points forward at much later psych-folk, and even sounds a bit like Flying Saucer Attack. "Outside The Nightmare" opens side two, and is a complete departure from side one. Performed solely by Jean-Louis Rizet, "Outside The Nightmare" is fifteen minutes of analog synth space rock. The synths used are ARPs, renowned for their unique sounds, and it's anyone's guess as to how many are at work here. It sounds like stars slowly dying, which is not a bad thing at all. Also drawing comparisons to a darker take on Klaus Schulze, this track provides a nice counterpoint to "Inside The Dream"'s fairly organic sound. The album closes with "In The Maelstrom", performed by Putti, Rizet, and Pierre Chavigny. All three take up ARPs for this track, and its four and a half minutes provide a perfect end to the album. A bouncing bass pulse anchors the song, with classic retro synth stabs providing color. The whole album is another work of absolute genius.

Pôle only recorded these two albums, and the label was also sadly short-lived. All of the label's releases come highly recommended; a few have been reissued on CD, but sadly KOTRILL and INSIDE THE DREAM have yet to receive this treatment. Fans of Faust, Can, Rev. Dwight Frizzell, Nurse With Wound, et al should find these at all costs.

Hampton Grease Band, MUSIC TO EAT

Columbia. 1971; reissued by Columbia/Shotput; out of print

Disc 1: 4 tracks, 57:17. Disc 2: 3 tracks, 31:24.

Oh man. If there was ever an album I simultaneously want to recommend whole-heartedly and warn people away from, this would be it. Usually (and slightly unfairly) viewed as Atlanta's equivalent to Zappa and Beefheart, the Hampton Grease Band were a completely bewildering entity. Named for singer Bruce Hampton, many believed he was the musical genius of the band. In reality that honor goes to Harold Kelling, whose guitar playing is definitely from the Zappa/Allman/Grateful Dead school while still sounding like nothing else being made at the time. However, Hampton's unique vocals certainly helped the band gain its notoriety. Somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Daniel Johnston, Hampton comes across as the sort of eccentric you'd love to hang out with. Rounded out with bassist Mike Holbrook, guitarist Glenn Phillips and percussionist Jerry Fields, this band of Southern surrealists gained a following based on their insane live shows. Even today, with many a shock rocker having come and gone, the idea of playing this intense music while standing on pizzas, covering friends in mayo, delivering flying kicks to bandmates' chests and taping yourself to the microphone is slightly jarring. The band intended its first album to consist of only three very long tracks. Columbia balked, and when the band returned with four other tracks, the flustered label released the whole shebang as a double LP. Lack of promotion (not to mention nobody knowing what to do with such a weird band) saw the album end up in the comedy section, of all places. While the music contained on these two discs has a high element of humor, it isn't comedy. Long jams such as "Halifax" (with lyrics read out of a travel guide), "Hendon" (Hampton reads the warning label on a spray paint can in his inimitable style), and "Six" have multiple parts, never sticking to one theme for too long and avoiding becoming boring. In fact, only two of the seven tracks are under seven minutes: the five and a half minute Spanish pastiche/joke song "Maria" (the only track on here that could honestly be considered comedic) and the just-over-three minute blues rocker "Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song", which is the closest thing to filler on here. "Lawton" clocks in at a relatively concise just-under-eight minutes, and is a bizarre improvised track that wouldn't sound out of place on one of Amon Duul's albums. The other relatively short track is the two-part jam "Evans", which is still not single material at 12:28. Essentially, the jams all incorporate so many different parts that an accurate description is hopeless, but for the prog/Zappa/psychedelically-minded listener this should pose no problem. While a great attention span is needed to make it through the entire two discs, MUSIC TO EAT remains an unfairly overlooked treasure, and certainly better deserving of attention than its infamy as Columbia's second worse selling album would indicate. That having been said, there IS a reason for it being so obscure, and the average pop/rock fan wouldn't last more than a few minutes into "Halifax". Essential, but with caveats.

Dedicated to the memory of Harold Kelling

Frank Zappa, LUMPY GRAVY

1967, Verve; reissued by Ryko; available

2 tracks, 31:40

Even back in 1967, Zappa's first solo album (which DOES feature other members of the Mothers Of Invention) must have sounded weird. Whereas avant-garde elements were frequent on Mothers albums, here was a solid two sides of vinyl devoted to a single work. Random conversations are spliced up and mixed in; Zappa recorded the vocals by having his friends speak into an amplified grand piano, adding a strange sound. The musical bits range from spy/surf instrumentals to light jazzy romps to dark chamber music. Some of the bits would reappear in different form later in Zappa's career ("King Kong", "Take Your Clothes Off..."). It's oddly and wonderfully coherent despite the randomness, and listening all the way through works in its favor. Strangely enough, Zappa isn't credited with any instrument; instead, he is the conductor, composer, and producer, and the patchwork style of LUMPY GRAVY is unmistakably his own. Instrumental duties are handled by a huge ensemble known as the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Actual instruments range from guitars, strings, bass, and horns to gongs, electric harpsichord, bells, timpani, and "assorted insanity". While far from Zappa's most accessible release, this is truly the one to own for Zappa the composer. Its possibly the closest he ever came to sounding like his heroes Varèse and Stockhausen, while maintaining that uniquely Zappa touch. Absolutely recommended.

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, PRODUKT DER

Ata Tak, 1979; reissued by Mute, 2000; available

22 tracks, 30:05

For my debut review on this blog, I decided to do another noteworthy debut. Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft began life less as a pioneer of EBM and more like a German take on no wave. Consisting of twenty-two songs in barely over thirty minutes, this bite-size chunk of strangeness comes, goes, and leaves you scratching your head wondering what exactly just happened. Founding member/vocalist Gabi Delgado-Lopez had temporarily left DAF before the recording of PRODUKT DER, allegedly to pursue a love affair. This left Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke, Michael Kemmer, Wolfgang Spelmanns, and Robert Görl (the only other constant through DAF's career besides Delgado-Lopez) to create an album for Dahlke's Ata Tak label (which was originally called Warning and then Artattack, but the reissue gives the copyright to Ata Tak). Throughout its brief length, PRODUKT DER explores variations on the drums/synth/guitar/bass set-up in ways that still amaze. Showing absolutely no signs of the later dance-oriented DAF ("Der Mussolini" et al), here the band creates a densely recorded and meticulously edited collage meant more for at-home listening than club play. An instrumental Residents/Chrome hybrid or fellow German weirdos Der Plan are the closest comparisons; indeed, Dahlke and Görl were both involved with Der Plan at different points, Görl being on their debut single and Pyrolator joining them for a long run. PRODUKT DER was edited from a jam session, and it sounds it; tracks end abruptly or run into the next song, sometimes simply fading out. Highlights are difficult to point out, given that none of the songs have titles, and the whole thing is best digested as a whole. Highly recommended to adventurous listeners; fans of krautrock, no wave, and early industrial should especially check this out.