Fetus Productions – Fetalmania [12''] (1983, Flying Nun Records)

Released in 1983 on Flying Nun Records, 'Fetalmania' by Fetus Productions remains one of the more unconventional releases associated with New Zealand's independent music explosion of the early 1980s. Although Flying Nun would later become closely linked with the shimmering guitars and introspective songwriting of the Dunedin Sound, its early catalogue was remarkably eclectic. Experimental electronics, post-punk, performance art influences and outsider creativity all found a home on the label, and Fetus Productions fitted perfectly within that open-minded environment. 

Fetus Productions was conceived as a conceptual project rather than a traditional group. The original line-up featured Jed Town, Sarah Fort and Mike Brookfield, each bringing different creative interests into the mix. Brookfield became known for his striking and often disturbing medical illustrations, imagery that complemented the project's fascination with the unsettling and the unconventional. Away from recording, he also ran Virus, an alternative clothing outlet that became part of New Zealand's underground culture from the mid-1980s through to 2001. Jed Town later moved to London, where he earned respect within electronic music circles as producer, composer and DJ Jed Eye before eventually returning to New Zealand to compose music for local television. 

'Fetalmania' captured a period when artistic experimentation was flourishing across independent scenes worldwide. Built around synthesizers, drum machines, stark rhythms and detached vocal performances, the record explored themes of anxiety, alienation and fractured identities. Its six tracks, including "I Am A Criminal", "Utter Frustration" and "Desert Lands", reflected an approach that drew as much from conceptual art and industrial textures as it did from post-punk. Recorded at Groovex with engineer Phil Punch, the release stood apart from many of its contemporaries while sharing the same adventurous spirit that defined the era. 

Flying Nun Records, founded by Roger Shepherd in Christchurch in 1981, played a crucial role in documenting and supporting local artists working outside the mainstream. The label's willingness to embrace originality allowed vastly different acts to coexist within its catalogue. While Flying Nun is often celebrated for launching influential guitar groups, records such as 'Fetalmania' demonstrate how broad its vision really was during those formative years. 

Today, 'Fetalmania' remains a fascinating example of the more experimental side of New Zealand's independent music history. Its combination of conceptual ambition, electronic experimentation and underground aesthetics offers a glimpse into a scene where creative freedom often mattered more than commercial considerations. For anyone exploring the deeper corners of the Flying Nun catalogue, this release reveals a different facet of the label's legacy and the restless imagination that shaped New Zealand's alternative culture during the early 1980s. 

 

Label: Flying Nun Records – F.PRO 999 

Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, EP 

Country: New Zealand 

Released: Mar 1983 

Style: Experimental, Post-Punk, Darkwave, Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 I Am A Criminal 

A2 Utter Frustration 

A3 Desert Lands 

B1 Fetus Productions 

B2 State To Be In 

B3 What's Going On 

 

Other versions: 

'Fetalmania' (12", 45 RPM, Mini-Album) - Normal [NORMAL 14] (Germany, 1985) 

 

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Exotic Birds – Exotic Birds [12''] (1984, Saturn Records)

 

Released in 1984 on Saturn Records, 'Exotic Birds' captured a fascinating moment in the evolution of American synthpop, arriving from a scene that wasn't usually associated with drum machines and shimmering keyboards. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, Exotic Birds had been formed just a couple of years earlier by percussion students Andy Kubiszewski, Tom Freer and Tim Adams while studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Their classical training gave them a strong sense of arrangement and rhythm, but they channelled those skills into sleek, dance-oriented new wave inspired by the British synth explosion of the early eighties. Rather than simply imitating their overseas influences, they developed a polished style that blended catchy pop melodies with a distinctly Midwestern energy.

 
The 12-inch mini-album 'Exotic Birds' remains the group's defining early statement. Issued under Saturn Records, it featured seven tracks, including "I'll Never Say Goodbye," "Waiting For You (Na Na)," "Fade Away," "Take Your Chances," and the standout "No Communication," which became one of the band's signature songs. Tim Adams contributed the track "Demon Dance," while most of the material showcased Andy Kubiszewski's growing confidence as a songwriter. The record highlighted the group's ability to move comfortably between melancholic synth ballads and club-friendly electronic pop, reflecting the broad appeal of the genre during that period.

 
Saturn Records played an important role in documenting regional talent during the era, giving independent artists a chance to release professionally produced material outside the major-label system. For a band like Exotic Birds, this kind of support was essential. Although they never achieved mainstream commercial success, they built a loyal following in Ohio and beyond, opening concerts for acts such as Culture Club and Eurythmics and becoming one of Cleveland's most visible new wave exports. Their growing reputation showed that innovative electronic music wasn't confined to New York, Los Angeles or London.

 
Looking back, the album also gained additional historical interest because of what happened next. Following Tim Adams' departure, Exotic Birds went through several line-up changes, eventually welcoming a young Trent Reznor into the group during the mid-eighties. Although Reznor joined after this release and wasn't involved in its recording, his later success with Nine Inch Nails drew renewed attention to the band's earlier catalogue. Still, Exotic Birds deserves recognition on its own merits. It stands as an engaging snapshot of American synthpop before industrial music reshaped the Cleveland scene, documenting three conservatory-trained musicians enthusiastically embracing sequencers, synthesizers and the possibilities of electronic pop at a time when the genre was still finding its identity in the United States. 

 

Label: Saturn Records – SR-MLP 1300, Saturn Records – SR-MLP 1300-698 

Format: Vinyl, 12", Mini-Album, 33 ⅓ RPM 

Country: US 

Released: 1984 

Style: New Wave, Synth-pop, New Romantic

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Never Say Goodbye 3:52 

A2 Waiting For You (I Say Na Na) 5:40 

A3 No Communication 3:38 

B1 Fade Away 5:40 

B2 Take Your Chances 5:03 

B3 Demon Dance 5:30 

B4 No Communication (TV Version) 3:53 

 

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Doof – Exist [10"] (1982, Namedrop Records)

The 10" 'Exist' by Doof landed in 1981–82 as one of those wonderfully baffling records that seemed to exist completely outside the normal music industry. Built around the partnership of Paul Platypus and Philip Johnson, the record came out on the tiny Namedrop Records imprint and immediately carved out a place in the strange corner where post-punk, cassette culture, dadaist humour and bedroom experimentation all collided. The music drifts between half-formed pop ideas, tape manipulation, spoken passages and lo-fi fragments that sound as though they were captured in a living room with whatever equipment happened to be available. That roughness is part of its appeal, giving Exist the feeling of a private document accidentally released to the public. 

 
Doof emerged from the fertile UK DIY underground of the early 1980s, a scene where homemade cassettes, self-published fanzines and tiny independent labels mattered far more than commercial success. Philip Johnson had already been active in cassette culture and experimental circles, while Paul Platypus was involved with several interconnected projects that floated around the anarcho-punk and DIY network. Together they created something that felt less like a conventional band and more like an ongoing art project, full of surreal ideas and deliberately skewed approaches to songwriting. Their work has often been described as dreamlike and disorienting, with tracks unfolding according to their own strange logic rather than any obvious structure. 

 
Namedrop Records was just as unconventional as the music it released. Run by Johnson and Platypus, the label became home to a small circle of like-minded artists including Doof, Philip Johnson's solo recordings, Cold War and later Twelve Cubic Feet. The catalogue was tiny, but it captured a particular moment in British underground culture when people were pressing records in small quantities simply because they felt compelled to document what they were doing. The label's releases shared a handmade quality and a willingness to ignore the boundaries separating punk, experimental music and outsider pop.

 
What makes 'Exist' so fascinating decades later is how completely it reflects that environment. It doesn't sound polished, fashionable or calculated. Instead, it captures a period when independent music could still be genuinely unpredictable, when a pair of friends could assemble a collection of odd sounds, package it with a booklet and put it out into the world with no concern for commercial expectations. Records like this became cult favourites precisely because they felt so personal and uncompromising. For collectors of early DIY post-punk and cassette-culture oddities, 'Exist' remains one of the more intriguing artifacts to emerge from that scene.

 

 

Label: Namedrop Records – NR1 

Format: Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM 

Country: UK 

Released: Feb 1982 

Style: New Wave, Punk, Experimental, Noise, Post-Punk, Sound Collage, Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am 3:45 

A2 Brighton, Pt. 1 2:45 

A3 Nine Years Old 6:30 

B1 Brighton, Pt. 2 2:27 

B2 On It In It 5:30 

B3 (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am 5:02 

 

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Comando Bruno & Avant-Dernières Pensées – Muestras Sin Valor [LP] (1986, Discos Esplendor Geometrico)

'Muestras Sin Valor' arrived in 1986 as a strange and fascinating collaboration between Rafael Flores operating as Comando Bruno and Avant-Dernières Pensées, landing right in the middle of Spain’s flourishing cassette and industrial underground. Released by Discos Esplendor Geométrico, the album felt perfectly at home among the label’s early catalog, which was already building a reputation for pushing abrasive electronics, tape manipulation, industrial collage and all kinds of sonic mischief far outside the boundaries of conventional rock or synth music. The label had been launched by members of Esplendor Geométrico during a period when Spain's independent experimental scene was growing through tiny pressings, mail-order networks and cassette exchanges that connected artists from Madrid, Barcelona and beyond with the wider European underground. 

The record itself moves like a collection of fractured transmissions coming from different rooms of the same abandoned building. There are bursts of harsh electronic noise, odd samples, mechanical rhythms and sudden interruptions that create a tense and unsettling atmosphere. Some sections seem deliberately provocative, almost testing the listener's patience with distorted sounds and chaotic collisions, while others drift into unexpectedly gentle territory. That contrast gives the album its peculiar character. Just when things feel overwhelming, a warmer passage appears, with drifting synthesizers and small melodic details that soften the edges before everything slips back into hypnotic ambient spaces and rough industrial textures.

 
Rafael Flores had already been developing a highly personal approach through Comando Bruno, blending field recordings, musique concrète techniques, surreal humor and experimental collage. His work never sat comfortably inside any single genre, and 'Muestras Sin Valor' captures that freedom perfectly. Rather than following a clear structure, the album unfolds as a sequence of sonic events, fragments and moods that constantly mutate. The presence of Avant-Dernières Pensées adds another layer of mystery, bringing an even more abstract and dreamlike quality to parts of the record.

 
Looking back, 'Muestras Sin Valor' feels like a snapshot of a particularly adventurous moment in Spanish underground culture. While many industrial releases of the era leaned heavily into aggression and machine rhythms, this LP wandered into stranger territory, mixing confrontation with moments of almost psychedelic calm. It never sounds polished or concerned with accessibility, which is exactly why it continues to attract listeners interested in the outer edges of experimental music. More than a straightforward industrial album, it comes across as an audio scrapbook filled with bizarre ideas, uneasy atmospheres and unexpected beauty hidden beneath layers of noise. 

 

Label: Discos Esplendor Geometrico – EG - 004, Discos Esplendor Geometrico – EG-004 

Format: Vinyl, LP 

Country: Spain 

Released: 1986 

Style: Experimental, Industrial, Musique Concrète

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Intro. La Verdad 

A2 Hermeneutica Dura 

A3 Landler 

A4 Helix (Febrer 1929) 

B1 Agresion Sensorial 

B2 Orpheu 2-Le Sang D'Un Poete 

B3 Pequeña Paz 

 

Other Versions: 

'Muestras Sin Valor' (Cassette, Album) Grand Mal Edicions (Spain, 1986). Mail-Audio project recorded in 1984–85. Andújar/Barcelona. It includes more tracks than the LP 

 

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The Brood – In Spite Of It All [LP] (1988, Skyclad Records, Get Hip recorgings)

When The Brood released 'In Spite Of It All' in 1988, the garage-rock revival scene was already bubbling away in basements, tiny clubs and independent record stores, but the record landed with a kind of ragged intensity that immediately separated it from a lot of its contemporaries. Coming out through Skyclad Records and distributed with help from Get Hip Recordings, the album captured everything that made The Brood such a word-of-mouth favorite: fuzzed-out guitars, Farfisa organ, sharp hooks and a raw attitude that felt more like a threat than a retro exercise. 

Formed in Portland, Maine in 1983, The Brood quickly became one of the most talked-about acts on the American garage underground. Led by guitarist and vocalist Chris Horne, alongside bassist Betsy Mitchell, drummer Crystal Light and organ player Allyson, they were often compared to West Coast revivalists like The Pandoras, but there was something rougher and more aggressive in their sound. Their reputation grew through relentless gigging, compilation appearances and a string of singles before they finally assembled the sixteen tracks that became 'In Spite Of It All'. 

The album is packed with short, punchy songs that rarely waste a second. Tracks like “I Need You There,” “You Lie,” “How Many Times?” and “I’ll Put You Down” hit with that classic combination of teenage frustration, sneering vocals and blown-out guitar tones that made garage rock such a durable language. Everything feels immediate, as though it was recorded with the amps cranked and nobody particularly concerned about polishing the edges. The record was sequenced and prepared during 1988 after months of recording sessions in Massachusetts, arriving at the end of a year that also saw the group touring with fellow garage revival heroes The Cynics. 

Skyclad was one of the key labels keeping underground garage rock alive during the 1980s, releasing records that major labels would never have touched, while Get Hip became one of the most important hubs for the revival scene through both its label activities and mail-order catalog. 'In Spite Of It All' fit perfectly into that network, reaching college radio stations across North America and helping push The Brood beyond New England. Contemporary press coverage praised the record's relentless energy and the way Chris Horne's songwriting distilled garage rock down to its essentials without sounding like a museum piece. 

Reactions from garage-rock fans over the years have only added to the album's reputation. One listener summed it up with the wonderfully understated line: “Not as exciting as 'Hitsville' but still a good album.” Others were a lot less restrained. One review called it a “Crazy, wild, teeth-baring record by a bunch of scary-ass babes that PUTS TO SHAME the wimp-rock that was floating about the ether 'round about '88. These girls are tough and raw and pull no punches. I did the gnawing on my hand thing more than a few times listening to these angry wild girls, because really, there's nothing better in the world than a girl, a guitar, and bangs that nearly hide the eyes. One of those records I was always aware of but can't believe I did without for so long. A snarling, gritty, garage masterpiece.” 

Another fan wrote: “Yo, picked this up by accident for a coupla bucks and its friggin great. The Brood were a all girl 4 piece from Portland ME, that had a slant on the 60's fuzzed out garage thing as good as The Cynics and better than better known mobs like The Miracle Workers or Chesterfield Kings. We all know that rock fans lean more towards the male of the species, but The Brood prove that women can rock as well and even better than their male contemporaries. Give em a go! It's cheap, it's sleazy and mostly great and its pumping out of the speakers at our joint right now - and its fucking loud!!!” 

Those reactions pretty much explain why the album has never completely disappeared. Original pressings became collector pieces, later reissues kept it circulating, and younger garage-rock fans kept discovering it long after the first wave of the revival had faded. More than three decades later, 'In Spite Of It All' still sounds like four people locked in a room with vintage gear, bad attitudes and absolutely no interest in toning things down. 

 

Label: Skyclad Records – NAKED 21, Get Hip Recordings – NAKED 21 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album 

Country: US 

Released: 1988 

Style: Garage Rock, Garage Punk, Punk Rock 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Satisfyin 2:21 

A2 Cry 2:25 

A3 Why Don't You Call Me? 2:24 

A4 See If I Care 2:27 

A5 I'm Not The One 1:55 

A6 Everybody's A Liar 2:08 

A7 Don't Look For Me 3:35 

A8 I Need You There 2:45 

B1 You Lie 2:25 

B2 You Turned Your Back On Me 2:15 

B3 How Many Times? 2:55 

B4 You'll See 2:20 

B5 Yer No Good 1:41 

B6 I'll Put You Down 2:20 

B7 Taste Of The Same 2:25 

B8 On Fire 2:45 

 

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Another Pretty Face – All The Boys Love Carrie [7''] (1979, New Pleasures)

 

Released in May 1979 on the tiny independent New Pleasures label, 'All The Boys Love Carrie' was the debut 7-inch by Another Pretty Face, an Edinburgh group led by Mike Scott a few years before he formed The Waterboys. At that point the group was still deeply rooted in the late-70s punk and new wave explosion, mixing sharp guitars, nervous energy and a huge sense of romantic urgency. The original pressing of the single was only around 1,000 copies, issued with a fold-out sleeve, which immediately gave it cult status among collectors and Scottish punk obsessives. 

 
The A-side, written by Scott, is one of those records that sounds both scrappy and completely alive, carrying echoes of power pop, punk and street-level rock’n’roll all at once. The B-side, “That’s Not Enough”, credited to Scott and guitarist John Caldwell, pushed further into the rough-edged new wave sound the group was developing at the time. John Peel picked up on the single quickly and gave it several spins on his BBC show during 1979, helping the band gain attention outside Scotland. 

 
Nobody saw it at the time, but Mike Scott had always proclaimed his love of Springsteen’s music and now, with the benefit of a quarter of a century’s hindsight, the first Another Pretty Face single is clearly a punked-up Bruce song. Mike Scott was to get more polished in The Waterboys, but at the expense of the kind of passion that spills out of "All the Boys Love Carrie". 

 
Another Pretty Face only lasted from 1979 to 1981, though they left behind a handful of terrific singles before briefly evolving into Funhouse. Looking back now, “All The Boys Love Carrie” feels like an early glimpse of Scott’s songwriting instincts before the grander sound and poetic ambition of The Waterboys took over. 

 

 

Label: New Pleasures – Z1 

Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Green Sleeve 

Country: UK 

Released: May 1979 

Style: New Wave, Power Pop, Jangle Pop 

 

Tracklist: 

A All The Boys Love Carrie 

B That's Not Enough 

 

Notes:  

Two editions: First pressing of 1000 copies with green poster sleeve. Second pressing of 5000 with red sleeve. 

 

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Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & His '68 Comeback – Someday My Prince Will Come [2x7"] (1996, Sympathy For The Record Industry)

The single 'Someday My Prince Will Come' by '68 Comeback landed in 1996 through Sympathy for the Record Industry as another wild little artifact from the American garage underground of the decade. The set spreads four songs across two 7-inch records: “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “The Darker the Berry,” “Sticks and Stones,” and “Bending Like a Willow Tree.” The lineup on the record pulls together a serious cast of underground heavyweights, with collaborations from Eric Friedl, Greg Cartwright, Jack Yarber, and Walter Daniels. 

What gives the record extra character is the way it bounces between originals and deeply rooted rhythm & blues material. “Sticks and Stones,” was first recorded by Ray Charles and His Orchestra in 1960, although this release incorrectly credits the song to H. Glover, echoing the old label credit found on “Sticks And Stones / Worried Life Blues.” “Bending Like a Willow Tree,” traces back to a 1978 recording by Lowell Fulson. That mix of obscure blues history, garage-trash energy, and half-forgotten label details is exactly the kind of thing that made records like this so appealing to underground rock fans. 

The ’68 Comeback project had already become known for reviving old blues, R&B, and rock’n’roll sounds without treating them like museum pieces. Evans started the group in Memphis in the early 1990s, and the recordings always carried that rough, late-night quality that tied together garage punk attitude with older Southern traditions. The musicians orbiting the project were all connected to a broader Memphis underground scene that was turning out some of the rawest records of the period. 

Sympathy for the Record Industry was the perfect home for this kind of release. Founded by Long Gone John in 1988, the label became legendary for putting out chaotic, fuzzed-out garage rock, punk, trash blues, and strange one-off singles on colored vinyl and limited pressings. By the mid-90s, Sympathy releases had become a world of their own, connecting scenes from Memphis, Detroit, Japan, and Scandinavia through stacks of 7-inch records that felt handmade and slightly unhinged in the best possible way. 

 

Label: Sympathy For The Record Industry – SFTRI 390 

Format: 2 x Vinyl, 7", Gatefold 

Country: US 

Released: 1996 

Style: Garage Rock 

 

Tracklist: 

A Someday My Prince Will Come 

B The Darker The Berry 

C Sticks And Stones 

D Bending Like A Willow Tree 

 

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E3 – E3 [12''] (1991, Peacefrog Records)

 

The 12" single 'E3' by Mark Tinley (released under the alias E3) landed in 1992 on Peacefrog Records. It’s one of those early-90s white-label style releases that feels like it was made for DJs first and everyone else later. Pressed as a 12" with multiple mixes, it leans heavily on squelchy 303 lines and that hypnotic, slightly rough-around-the-edges groove that defined a lot of underground UK techno and acid house at the time. 

The record itself is built around variations of the same core idea. On the A-side you get “E3” in different mixes, including the “Ian Key Mix” and the “E303 Mix,” both stretching past the five-minute mark and giving plenty of space for those acidic patterns to evolve. Flip it over and things get a bit looser with “E33” versions and the extra cut “Voodoo Groove (A Slight Return),” which adds a slightly funkier twist while staying firmly in that late-night warehouse zone.

 
Mark Tinley, the mind behind it, is one of those low-key but fascinating figures from the UK electronic scene. He worked under several aliases -Essybumpi, Polaris, Trashmaster T- and had a knack for blending experimental ideas with club-ready formats. His work often sat just off the mainstream radar, which is probably why records like this feel a bit like hidden artifacts from the era rather than big headline releases. 

The label, Peacefrog, was just getting started around this time and would go on to become a respected name in electronic music, especially through the ‘90s and early 2000s. Early catalog entries like this one capture a moment when the label was still rooted in raw techno and acid before branching out into deeper house and even leftfield electronica. 

Context-wise, 1992 was a wild moment for UK dance music. Acid house had already exploded, rave culture was in full swing, and producers were pushing hardware like the Roland TB-303 into new territory. Records like 'E3' sit right in that transition, less about the initial rave euphoria and more about locking into deeper, more hypnotic grooves that would shape techno and house going forward. 

 

Label: Peacefrog Records – PF004 

Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM 

Country: UK 

Released: 1991 

Style: Techno, Acid Techno, Acid House, Deep House 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 E3 (The Ian Key Mix) 

A2 E3 (The E303 Mix) 

B1 E33 (The Bow & Arrow Mix) 

B2 E33 (The Karaoke Mix) 

B3 Voodoo Groove (A Slight Return) 

 

Other Versions: 

'E3' (12", 33 ⅓ RPM) - Peacefrog Records [PF 005] (UK, 1992)

 

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Various – Darker Skratcher [LP] (1980, Los Angeles Free Music Society)

 

'Darker Skratcher' is one of those records that feels like a time capsule from a very particular underground moment in Los Angeles. Released in 1980, it captures the anything-goes spirit of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose network of artists and musicians active since the early 70s who treated sound as a playground rather than a craft to perfect. 

Rather than sounding like a carefully sequenced album, the record plays more like a window into a scattered, hyper-creative scene. It jumps between primitive electronics, fractured punk, tape experiments and offbeat spoken pieces. Tracks such as “Cleanliness and Order” by Boyd Rice and Daniel Miller lean into minimal synth territory, while contributions from Jad Fair, Human Hands or Airway drift between playful pop fragments and total abstraction. The flow is unpredictable, almost like tuning into a collage of parallel broadcasts. 

Many of the contributors came straight out of the LAFMS orbit, where projects like Le Forte Four, Foundation Boo or The Doo-Dooettes functioned as fluid identities rather than fixed bands. People moved freely between names and ideas, recording whatever they felt like without worrying about technical skill or genre boundaries. That openness gives the record its charm, moving from catchy lo-fi moments to completely unhinged experiments without warning. 

There are also a few connections to scenes that would become more visible later on. 45 Grave appear here in an early form that still leans toward punk, and Dennis Duck would later be part of the The Dream Syndicate. Monitor links the record to the broader art-punk and performance scene tied to zines and mail-art culture, where boundaries between music, visual art and concept pieces were pretty much nonexistent.

 
The LAFMS “label” operated far outside traditional industry structures. Releases were often pressed in small quantities, packaged in a DIY way and circulated through personal networks rather than formal distribution. It was less about building a catalog and more about documenting activity as it happened, even if that documentation felt rough or incomplete. That approach ended up influencing later underground movements, especially cassette culture and noise scenes.

 
What comes through strongest on 'Darker Skratcher' is that sense of a community creating its own rules in real time. It’s chaotic, uneven, occasionally funny, sometimes surprisingly catchy, and deeply rooted in a pre-digital era where experimentation thrived in small, self-made circles. 

 

Label: Los Angeles Free Music Society – LAFMS#12 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation 

Country: US 

Released: 1980 

Style: Industrial, Punk, Experimental, Art Punk, Post-Punk, Experimental Rock, Minimal Wave, Netherlands

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Boyd Rice & Daniel Miller – Cleanliness And Order 2:45 

A2 Jad Fair – XXOO 0:30 

A3 Vetza – Stale Puppy-Dog Tails 1:30 

A4 The Rick Potts Band – Platform Swimfins 3:00 

A5 Monitor – Guardian 2:05 

A6 Doodooettes – Pork Had Better Behave 2:05 

A7 45 Grave – Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood 2:37 

A8 NON – NON-Watusi 

B1 Foundation Boo – Nap 2:10 

B2 Airway – Perpendicular Thrust 3:45 

B3 Dennis Duck – Davey The Worm 3:00 

B4 Le Forte Four – The Lowest Form Of Music 3:08 

B5 Human Hands – I Got Mad 3:00 

B6 Bpeople – The Other Thing 2:38 

 

Other Versions: 

'Darker Skratcher' (LP, Compilation) - Frizz Bee (LAFMS #12) (Netherlands,1980)

 

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Alain Savouret – L'arbre Et Caetera [LP] (1978, INA-GRM)

There’s something quietly fascinating about 'L’arbre Et Caetera', by Alain Savouret. It’s one of those records that feels less like an “album” and more like a document from a very specific moment when sound itself was being rethought from the ground up. 

Savouret, born in 1942 in Le Mans, belongs to that generation of French composers who came up inside the orbit of experimental institutions rather than traditional bands or orchestras. He worked closely with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), a place where composition meant cutting tape, sculpting noise, and exploring how recorded sound could behave once freed from instruments. His work tends to sit somewhere between playful and analytical, often mixing structured forms with a kind of surreal sonic storytelling. 

This album, released in 1978 on INA-GRM, gathers pieces that were actually composed earlier in the 1970–72 period, which already tells you something: this wasn’t about chasing trends, but about archiving and circulating works created in the studio lab environment. The main piece, “L’arbre Et Caetera,” runs over 15 minutes and plays with a rondo-like structure, alternating recurring fragments with more freeform sections. What’s striking is how it uses layers of “concrete” sounds -recordings manipulated on tape-sometimes shifting between mono, stereo, and even early quadraphonic spatial ideas, which was pretty adventurous for the time. 

The label behind it deserves as much attention as the music. INA had absorbed the GRM in 1975, and soon after started putting out records under the INA-GRM imprint. These releases were never mainstream in the usual sense; they were more like dispatches from a research lab. The GRM itself goes back to the late 1940s, when Pierre Schaeffer began experimenting with recorded sound as raw material, essentially inventing musique concrète. By the time Savouret’s LP came out, the studios had evolved into a hub with custom gear, tape machines, and early electronic tools, attracting composers who treated sound like something to dissect and reassemble. 

So when you put on 'L’arbre Et Caetera', you’re not just hearing a composition, you’re hearing a slice of that whole ecosystem. The edits, the abrupt shifts, the almost tactile quality of the sounds all point back to hands-on tape work. It’s experimental, sure, but not in a cold or academic way. There’s a strange sense of humor in how fragments repeat and mutate, like objects being turned around to catch the light differently each time. 

 

Label: INA-GRM – AM 647.07 

Series: Collection GRM 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album 

Country: France 

Released: 1978 

Style: Musique Concrète, Contemporary, Experimental, Electroacoustic, Modern Classical, Tape Music

 

Tracklist: 

A1 L'arbre Et Caetera 15:42 

Selon 

A2 1er Tiers-Temps Variations 1 À 6 7:00 

B1 1er Tiers-Temps Variation 7 3:00 

B2 2ème Et 3ème Tiers-Temps 18:04 

 

Notes:  

"L'arbre Et Caetera" for tape realized at studio 52 of Groupe de recherches musicales de l'ORTF.

Premiered August 2, 1972 at Cloître des Célestins during the 26th Festival d'Avignon as a tetraphonic work. 

The version of "L'arbre Et Caetera" presented here is the stereophonic reduced version. 

 

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