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]
Lori and the Chameleons are just so incredibly frustrating. A band with a wonderfully distinct and full blooded sound but whose entire output consist of a microscopic 4 songs. All of them very good, mind, but they're still just four songs.
This most shortlived of bands was comprised by Lori, who apparently dropped off the map after releasing a couple of singles, the notorious Bill Drummond, later of The KLF and dozens of other head-scratching projects most will likely already be acquainted with and David Balfe, soon to become the keyboardist for The Teardrop Explodes and Julian Cope's close friend/nemesis.
Drummond and Balfe dubbed themselves the Chameleons and, inviting Lori along, wrote these exotic, widescreen travelogues in song format. Their debut single went head over heels for Japan, the outstanding B-side to this one goes to Peru.
It bears repeating how much of a travesty it was that a band like this was only a blip in the radar for a milisecond, an experience abandoned as quickly as it was picked up, still, they gave us 'The Lonely Spy', as musically rich, evocative, mysterious and intoxicating as new wave could ever hope to become. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]
Label: Korova – KOW 5
Format:
Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Stereo
Country: UK
Released: 1980
Style: Synth-pop, New Wave, Dream Pop, Art Pop, Neo-Psychedelia
