Coventry Indie band Furious Apples based around the enigmatic Greg Crabb, mainstay of the Coventry Music Scene in the mid 80’s (he also ran the Pilgrim Club disco). Along with his brother Michael, they were heavy giggers and knew how to promote themselves. Members came and went. In Spring 1983, The Furious Apples vocalist Greg Crabb recruited Robin Hill (Pink Umbrellas) on drums, John Westacott (ex-Urge) on bass and Raphael Moore on guitar, along with Mike Crabb, and Abbe Collins on keyboards to record a 7″ vinyl single -'Engineering b/w Belladonna'-, released in October 1983 recorded at 8 track Cabin Studio in Coventry. This was the second release on the Sonar record label and Paul Sampson engineered and produced both songs. [SOURCE: SONAR RECORDS]
Label: Sonar Records – SON 2
Format:
Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1983
Style: New Wave, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Post-Punk
Equal Local was a post-punk instrumental ensemble, drawing on jazz and electronic influences, formed by Dean Richards (electric guitar) and Philip Jackson (synthesizer, drum programming) after their departure from Whirlywirld in 1979. Other members of the band were Bryce Perrin(acoustic bass -and later in Hot Half Hour),
Ian Cox (sax, and later in band such → ↑ →, Essendon Airport, Hot Half Hour and one of the original members of I'm Talking), Mick Hauser (sax, also in Hot Half Hour) and Melissa Webb (synthesizer, piano, and later in David Chesworth Ensemble). The record was produced by Chris Wyatt and Equal Local. They released this 12'', the cassette 'How Did We Miss These?' in 1982 in the Rash (Decisions) label, and the 'Madagascar' 12" EP in the Missing Link label in 1981.
Label: Powderworks – POWT 0067, Missing Link – POWT 0067
Format:
Vinyl, 12"
Country: Australia
Released: 1982
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop, Minimal, Avantgarde, Zolo
Die Form is the primary project of the French electronic musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began his own record label, Bain Total, in 1977 and began recording a number of experimental cassette releases as Die Form, starting with 'Die Form 1' in 1977, with the first Die Form vinyl release ('Die Puppe') appearing in 1982. Whilst the project was still in its infancy, the underlying concepts were still evident -a combination of esoteric electronic experiments with an underlying theme of erotism, death and other 'taboo' subjects, apparent in both the music and the album artwork, which Philippe also produces.
Active since the mid-'60s, synthesizer experimentalist and musique concrète producer Asmus Tietchens has been a major influence on several generations of avant-garde electronic musicians and sound artists. Heavily inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen, he has pursued "absolute music" through rigid formal exercises. His music is often harsh, alien, and abstract, but he's also recorded several albums of strangely playful material, including a handful of early-'80s Sky Records releases as well as later works as Hematic Sunsets. In addition to releasing over 100 recordings (including collaborations with Merzbow, Vidna Obmana, and Thomas Köner), Tietchens has taught acoustics at Hamburg universities since 1990, and he has written liner notes for dozens of albums released by the Bureau B label, particularly reissues of Cluster-related albums.
In this 'Face To Face Vol. 1' Die Form's piece is an erratic, yet nicely structured piece of experimental electronic. Tietchens offers up a reliably industrial, ambient piece worthy of his better output. The album was released in 1988 in Odd Size, a French label specialising in experimental and industrial music, run by Laurent Perrier from his Paris Record shop from 1987 to 1997. [SOURCES: WIKIPEDIA - ALLMUSIC - RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Odd Size – OS 04
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition
Country: France
Released: 1988
Style: Electro, Ambient, Industrial, Dark Ambient
Tracklist:
Animal Instinct (Total Version)
A1 Die Form – Untitled
A2 Die Form – Untitled
A3 Die Form – Untitled
A4 Die Form – Untitled
Mysterien Des Hafens
B1 Asmus Tietchens – Bubendey Notturno
B2 Asmus Tietchens – Ritual Auf Der Halde
Notes:
Die Form: Recorded at B.T.D.F. Studio. Direct recording to master from samplers and micro composers.
Le morceau intégral a été exécuté par l'action F/29, au Rex Club à Paris, sur le film Animal Instinct, qui depuis a été coupé et remonté en plusieurs unités.
Asmus Tietchens: Aufgenommen in den Audiplex Studios, Hamburg.
Limited
One of the original forefathers in the industrial boom of the 1980s, Chrome's amalgam of distorted guitars and vocals, samples from TV, and a raw punk aesthetic (inspired by The Stooges) became much more popular in the early '90s than it ever was while the band was around in the '70s and '80s. Although active for only six years, Chrome left behind a huge discography, including nine full LPs (several of which were released posthumously) and numerous EPs and singles.
Chrome were formed in San Francisco around 1977 by vocalist/drummer Damon Edge, vocalist/guitarist Mike Low, guitarist John Lambdin, and bassist Garry Spain; each played other instruments as well, including tape machines, electric violin, and Moog. Chrome's sound wasn't quite fully formed by the time of their first album, 'The Visitation'; it's surprisingly poppy with few hints of what was to come, though an obsession with science fiction made its debut. Second album 'Alien Soundtracks' was the true genesis for Chrome, thanks in part to new member Helios Creed, who joined after the departure of Low.
Helios Creed began a successful solo career in 1985, while Damon Edge continued the Chrome name sporadically over the next ten years, until he died in 1995. This 10" marked the return of Helios Creed under the Chrome-banner, effectively in control after Damon Edge's death. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Label: Man's Ruin Records – mr-035, Man's Ruin Records – MR-035-CHROME
Bogshed formed in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England in 1985, initially as The Amazing Roy North Penis Band, and comprised Phil Hartley (vocals), Mike Bryson (bass), Mark McQuaid (guitar) and Tristan King (drums).
The Membranes' John Robb signed them up to his Vinyl Drip label, releasing the classic debut EP 'Let Them Eat Bogshed', before they moved on to Shelfish Records.
Championed by John Peel, they recorded 5 sessions for his radio show between 1985 and 1987, and gained regular airplay. The uncompromising mix of angular guitar-led tunes and Hartley's energetic vocals (his stated aim was to sing like Doris Day!) meant that Peel's listeners either loved Bogshed or found them unpalatable. After two superb LPs and a string of great singles, Bogshed called it a day, the last single ('Stop Revolving') never making it out of the warehouse.
Hartley popped up late in 1988 with a solo Peel Session, but no releases were forthcoming. King went on to play with Jackdaw With Crowbar and later A Witness, while Mike Bryson, who was responsible for the sleeve artwork is now cartoonist/illustrator.
Abrupt bass lines and rhythmic tunes, nervous and emotional vocals -that’s the definite sound of 'Brutal'. What one may expect from the title “Old Dog New Dance”? In fact it’s a rock ‘n’ roll made in derisive post-punk style. Or what about “No To Lemon Mash”? It sounds as some jocularly culinary rebellion. 'Brutal' is quite an impressive collection of punk rock in its latter day variety. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Alexander Von Borsig is Alexander Hacke, active since he was 13 years old. Former member of P1/E, Blässe, Sentimentale Jugend, Mekanik Destruektiw Komandoe, Sprung Aus Den Wolken and Lustige Geräusche, Borsig was one of the early members of Einstürzende Neubauten. Essentially, this 'S.J.' is what the earliest Tuxedomoon material would have sounded like if there wasn't as much craft and idiosyncrasy put into it. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Das Cassetten Combinat – 810111, Das Cassetten Combinat – 0111, Das Cassetten Combinat – 81021
Format:
Cassette, C20
Country: Germany
Released: 1981
Style: New Wave, Minimal, Minimal Synth, Industrial, Post-Punk, Synth-pop
Tracklist:
A1 Tote Kammer 1:42
A2 Maschinen 2:42
A3 10.5. 1:37
A4 Hiroshima 2:03
B1 Pour Mon Bibi 2:34
B2 Angst 1:53
B3 Ghetto 1:56
B4 Tu Mir Weh 1:40
B5 Kleine Nachtmusik 0:55
Notes:
This release also lists "Sentimentale Jugend" on the spine, which is supposedly the title of this cassette. It is ONLY referred to as "Borsig Werke" in the catalog of the label. The catalog also lists the logical catalog numer 81021 for this release. This catalog number is not found on the cassette itself.
The first print run included a little booklet insert with drawings and text which was packaged in a plastic bag and cassette has green/yellow or white labels. Later run has no booklet and no label on cassette.
The tracks B4 and B5 are not listed on the cover, but in the booklet.
On cold autumn evenings of Milan in 1981 met for the first time Nino La Loggia and Giacomo Spazio. Both were regulars of the Bar Concordia, one of the few meeting places for the post punk generation. Nino with Mark Philopat had given birth to the HCN, one of the pioneering punk bands of the peninsula. Giacomo instead was a performance artist, interested in graphics and was looking for a new form of painting that was innovative and provocative. When the two met sparked. The two had the same passion for music: Kraftwerk, Joy Division, DAF and the whole new scene of proto-electronic wave and together they decided to start the musical project called 2+2=5, a tribute to Orwellian dystopia. Shortly after entered the band Cha Cha Hagiwara, already a keyboard player in Jeunesse d'Ivoire, enriching the band's raw sound with sonority which we can now define analog. The slouching combination of coldwave and dream-pop of 2+2=5 may sound derivative and outdated, their music duplicating 'Faith'-era Cure ("Haiku"), The Wake's anemic romanticism ("So 11"), and Sad Lovers & Giants's somber dreaminess ("Rayographie"). [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Materiali Sonori – none, U.T. Comunicazioni – UT 01
The Manchester Musicians' Collective Of West Didsbury were responsible for this album of 1980 bands, all detailed in the Fanzine styled enclosed booklet printed by the Moss Side Community Press.
This is where we enter the territory of the Unknown, the Rare and Precious, something pretty untouchable and unreachable.
It's a glimpse of the past in a moment gone forever, when all these bands clutched at the Brass Ring and all of them were unable to hold on to it though Dislocation Dance made the Indie chart a year later and The Enigma were called the "best band in Manchester".
"Available as an 8 track 12 inch" read an advert for The Hoax, "as soon as we've enough money available" or "performance are going to go places and in a big way".
It's a time capsule of what could have been because some of this stuff is as good as what was going down in the South. It was,after all, issued at a time when the Joy Division were about to metamorphosise into New Order, when Mick Hucknall was a Frantic Elevator and before The Smiths took hold. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: MMC Records – MMC 1
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: UK
Released: 1980
Style: New Wave, Power Pop, Punk, Minimal, Post-Punk
Weimar Gesang is an Italian darkwave/minimal synth band.
The band consisted of four members:
Donato Santarcangeli, Fabio Magistrali, Giuseppe Tonolini, and Paolo Mauri,
a few of which went on to play in various other Italian bands over the years.
Recommended heavily for fans of first The Cure / New Order and Victrola.
This forgotten album from 1983 started with "Master/Slave", a vibrant and delightful art-punk-funk-jazz exercise that had one foot in the work of the Art Bears, and the other in the work of Captain Beefheart, and without forgetting no-wavers such as Blurt. Ditto for the minimal spastic discordance of "Feet First", which also maintained a degree of elegance. Then, the rhythmic chaos of "New Condition" veered even more into no-wave, into the kind of perverse groove that Teenage Jesus & The Jerks or DNA manage to get across. In the meantime, tracks such as "Pollyanna" and "Mysteries Of The Organism" returned to a kind of disjointed but measured elegance, whereas the amateurish sabotage of "Placebo #1" and "Fast-Acting Placebo" revisited the spirit of early Half Japanese. Side two followed along these lines, with highlights such as "Boyce Life" and "They Can't Get It" approaching an ever more severe sound. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Rift – RIFT 6
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1983
Style: Free Jazz, No Wave, Avantgarde, Avant-Prog, Zolo
Tracklist:
A1 Master / Slave
A2 Battle Of Algiers
A3 Feet First
A4 New Condition
A5 Placebo #1
A6 Alley Oops
A7 Pollyanna
A8 Mysteries Of The Organism
A9 Fast-Acting Placebo
B1 Lavaplatos
B2 A Tree Grows In Managua
B3 Boyce Life
B4 Wheat
B5 New Song (Old Story)
B6 Must Go
B7 They Can't Get It
B8 Placebo #3
Notes:
Tracks A1, A2, A6, A7, B3 & B4 recorded at OAO Studio, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Tracks A3, A8, B1, B2, B5 & B7 recorded at Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg, Switzerland.
Tracks A4, A5, A8, B6 & B8 recorded live in New York, West Germany, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia.
Un Département was a French Minimal Wave and Experimental Rock trio formed in 1980 in Orléans and disbanded in 1985. Members were Marcel Kanche (saxophone, vocals), Phil Gaz (bass, drums, guitar, and keyboards) and Bruno Tollard. They released one 7” and one 12” 1981, one tape in 1984 and one LP in 1985 (‘Le Album’). After Un Département disbanded Marcel Kanche was in various punk bands that allowed him share stage with, among others, Les Rita Mitsouko, Pere Ubu, Alan Vega or The Cure.
Trigger B is a project of Duisburg-based Thomas Bosselmann. The basis of his sound is typical austere minimal synth of the time (early 1980's). However, he uses voice only sporadically, mostly in the form of unintelligible rants and wailings. In spite of the irritating voice, his atmospheric pieces are nice stuff, based on cosmic analog synths and even classical influences. [SOURCE: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
After 45 Grave's breakup, Rob Ritter and Don Bolles joined Kim Komet's reformed Silver Chalice, who'd been absent for a number of years and last released the terrific 1979 single 'Wasted / Hot Tears'.
With Ritter and Bolles now in tow, Silver Chalice have newly adopted a deathrock influence, but not without completely abandoning their glam punk roots.
Opener "(I Wanna Hear Some) Lies" picks up right where "Wasted" left off six years earlier -energetic, melodic glam punk. Kim Komet's ace vocals are still very much on the mark, as if no time passed between recordings.
The title track and "The Edge" showcase the moody deathrock side of the band and man, are they wicked songs. They're both fairly mid-paced and are more interested in creating a nuanced atmosphere; the former -tranquil and gorgeous- whereas the latter is a bit darker and more sinister.
"Outlawed" brings us back to some zippy glam punk (complete with hand claps!), before transitioning into the creepy "Interlude" and finally, to close out the EP, another great slice of deathrock in the form of "Suicide".
Verdict: wonderful little EP by this sadly forgotten L.A. band. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: XES Records – F-505
Format:
Vinyl, 12"
Country: US
Released: 1985
Style: Goth Rock, Punk, Glam, Deathrock, Post-Punk, Glam Punk
Rafael Flores, spanish composer, sound and video artist active since the early 1980s.
His whole work is milestone of experimental music and sound exploration, producing audio/videoworks in a very much personal way too hard to define. Rafael Flores build a solid personal universe with an intelligent use of natural recordings and the methods of musique concrete, collages and plenty of other avantgarde approaches, mixed with a particular sense of humour next to spirit of Dada and Surrealism.
One of the most active sound artists in the industrial music scene (international cassette network, experimental video, radio and mail art), he has influenced new generations of experimental sound artists. His most notorious feature is the intimate poetical touch in the soundworks, quite unusual for the industrial music scene. From 1991 to 2001, Rafael Flores reduced his musical activity, and was involved with videoart, releasing just a very limited soundworks as "friends only" private editions.
After a long pause, he returns to editorial activity in 2002.
Rafael Flores has published numerous works under his own name and also as Comando Bruno. He was a founder member of Diseño Corbusier and The International Mail Music Group. Many collaboration works followed with like-minded musicians, GX Juppiter-Larsen, Francisco López, Neo Zelanda, Victor Nubla, Francisco Felipe, Esplendor Geométrico, Zan Hoffman or Anton Ignorant, to name a few.
His music was released all over the world by such labels as Monochrome Vision, Banned Production, Discos Esplendor Geometrico, Korm Plastics, Zeromoon, Graf Haufen, Tonspur, and by his own labels Laboratorios No and ECDM. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
Label: STI – A.S.01
Format:
Cassette, Limited Edition, C90
Country: Spain
Released: 1987
Style: Industrial, Experimental, Sound Collage, Minimal Synth, Musique Concréte, Power Noise
Permutative Distorsion formed in December 1980, in Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
Members were
Ralf Wehowsky (guitar, synthesizer) and Joachim Stender (vocals, synthesizer, percussion), co-founder of the
group P.D. and label Wahrnehmungen with Ralf Wehowsky. In January 1982,
he left Wahrnehmungen and started his own new label Tödliches Schweigen.
Other members were Thomas Memmler (violin) and Joachim Pense [aka LLL]
Ralf Wehowsky wasborn in 1959 in Mainz, Germany. In the '70s, his musical interests ranged from hard rock (The Stooges, Black Sabbath) to prog rock (Henry Cow, Faust), and free jazz (Ornette Coleman, Peter Brötzmann) to new music (Stockhausen, Pierre Henry). He became disillusioned with rock because it stopped being challenging and was too much entertainment, but shared a brief interest with punk because of its revolt against mainstream art. His earliest recorded work was with Permutative Distortion (later called P.D. and finally recording as P16.D4), and in 1981, Wehowsky and his colleagues formed the collective Selektion, whose members worked in both acoustic and optical arenas.
Label: Not On Label (Permutatitve Distorsion Self-released) – RP 17.128
Aufgenommen am 18. und 19. Juli 1981 mit zwei Revox B 77.
[Recorded July 18th & 19th onto 2 Revox B 77.]
'Brückenkopf Im Niemandsland' ist such als Cassette (C 40) auf dem Wahrnehmungen - Label erschienen (andere Versionen + weitere Stücke)
[These tracks were as well released on a C40 tape with different versions and additional tracks]
Orange Disaster was the first incarnation of The Perfect Disaster, with Phil Parfitt joined by Ken Renny (bass), and Alison Pate (guitar). This line-up released a seven-inch EP called 'Something's Got To Give' on Neuter Records, Catalogue Number OD 01. After this they changed their name to The Architects of Disaster. Parfitt and Pate were then joined by Tony Pettitt (bass), Nod Wright (drums) and Paul Wright (guitar). This line-up disbanded, having released one single. Nod Wright and Tony Pettit then left to form Fields of the Nephilim with Parfitt recruiting Grant Davidson (bass) and later John Saltwell (bass), Dan Cross (guitar), and Malcolm Catto (drums). They returned in 1984 as The Perfect Disaster. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Nervous Gender is an American punk rock electronic band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa. Their use of heavily distorted keyboards and synthesizers made them, along with The Screamers, one of the original innovators of what is today called "electropunk", although they could equally be considered an early industrial group.
The group was confrontational and experimental. Phranc's androgynous appearance was the embodiment of the group's name, garnered the band much press in zines such as Slash and, later, proving inspirational to founders of the Queercore movement. Despite their somewhat high profile, the groups' habit of provoking the audience, obscene material and harsh erotics guaranteed they would never gain commercial acceptance.
In 1979, Don Bolles of the Germs joined as drummer. The next year Phranc left the band and Paul Roessler of the Screamers joined. In 1981 they released their LP 'Music From Hell', which included guest vocalist Alice Bag from Bags singing on "Alice's Song". Nervous Gender did not record in the studio again. After the LP came out, Paul Roessler moved to New York City to play with the Nina Hagen Band and was replaced by Bill Cline, and Don Bolles left the band to play with 45 Grave. During their career Nervous Gender was called by one critic, "...the thorn in the side of the L.A. music scene...". [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Label: Party Sound Tapes – P.S. 17
Format:
Cassette, Compilation, C90
Country: US
Released: 1983
Style: Experimental, Synth Punk
Tracklist:
A1 Praise The Lord
A2 Dyphteria
A3 Castration
A4 Green Tile Floor
A5 Cardinal Newman
A6 Slave
A7 Why/All Day Long (I Felt Like Smashing My Face Through A Clear Glass Window)
A8 I Don´t Scat Anymore
A9 Bathroom Sluts
A10 Pretty Vacant
A11 Lying Braggard
A12 Bible Stories
A13 Fat Cow
A14 Miscarriage
A15 Waterpiss
B1 She Works For Safety....
B2 Ron & Edward
B3 O Of Scat
B4 Berlin Red Head
B5 Poets
B6 What Can I Do?
B7 Scandinavian Dilemma
B8 Misscarriage
B9 Slave
B10 My Mommy´s Chest
B11 Dog Boy
B12 Monsters
B13 Fat Cow
B14 Cardinal Newman
B15 Regress For You
B16 Music From Hell (Tape Collage By Gerardo)
Notes:
C-90 tape and 17 double side printed A4 in a fold out (over sized) A4 sleeve. Numbered "unlimited edition".
"Everything you ever wanted to hear by Nervous Gender, but were afraid to listen to!"
Minoy
(real name
Stanley Keith Bowsza, October 30, 1951 – March 19, 2010) was a 1980's home-taping and mail-art legend from Torrance, California. The name officially has an accent like Joan Miro's name, over the letter "o". Minoy largely ceased activites in the early 1990's but before then collaborated with a wide range of American home-taping artist including If, Bwana (Bwannoy), Agog (No Mail On Sundays), PBK (Disco Splendor), Zan Hoffman (Minóy\Zannóy), David Prescott (PM), Not 1/2 (El Angel Exterminador), and many others.
This album is a pleasant experience to listen to. Minoy's experimental album combines drone, ambient, richly textured sound collages which are very much accessible to the ear. Minoy though has provided some more darker moments on the album, with the addition of some screeching industrial aesthetic sounds/noise. It's richly satisfying at some moments when all genre sounds mesh together perfectly (especially on "A Night in Berlin (1931)"), but unfortunately the album does drag a bit from time to time as the album only features two long tracks with an average length of 30 minutes. Even with such pleasant sounds, it does get tedious, with only little variety during certain times on these two track. Though Minoy's 'Ejaculations (Paris, 1919)' is still a great album if you can get pass the flaws. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
