• Pete Namlook – Yesterday & Tomorrow label

Amidst all the prolific outpouring of trance or ambient discs that typified the early 1990s output of Pete Namlook’s Fax label, there was an oasis of calm, of classically-tinged meditation music, of… an almost religious hush. The Yesterday & Tomorrow sub-label only produced three titles, in a limited run of 500 copies each, never to be reissued.

But even now we find ourselves returning every so often, especially to the first disc with its Popol Vuh-esque approach to track titles, to bask in their deep, cello-driven ambience. Is it significant that Herr Kuhlmann uses his real name on these three discs? You would have to ask him, but these three are certainly very “serious” sounding records, and are well worth your attention.

“Passion” CD, Yesterday & Tomorrow, 1993

01. On the Way to the Garden of Destiny (9:09)
02. The Place of Final Consciousness (1:30)
03. I Shall Walk This Path Alone (1:21)
04. Fear: Beads of Sweat as Dark as Blood (8:14)
05. The Power Which Gives me Strength is from Another World (1:44)
06. I Submit Myself to my Destiny (0:43)
07. As Old as Mankind: Slander & Treason (8:47)
08. Alone, Even on the Last Path (9:35)
09. And the Earth was Desolate and Void. It was Dark (4:30)
10. Out of Nothing a New Hope was Born (8:05)
11. And the Lord Said: “Let There be Light – and Behold There was Light” (5:22)

Link | Discogs

…

“Wandering Soul”, CD, Yesterday & Tomorrow, 1994

01. Part I (5:00)
02. Part II (5:00)
03. Part III (4:59)
04. Part IV (10:00)
05. Part V (5:00)
06. Part VI (5:00)
07. Part VII (4:59)
08. Part VIII (4:59)
09. Part IX (4:59)
10. Part X (5:00)
11. Part XI (4:59)
12. Part XII (8:21)

Link | Discogs

…

“The Sunken Road” CD, Yesterday & Tomorrow, 1995

01. Part I (11:42)
02. Road II (4:09)
03. Road III (7:03)
04. Road IV (13:10)
05. Road V (1:11)
06. Road VI (14:36)
07. Road VII (5:13)

Link | Discogs

• Various – The Portable Altamont

CD, Shock, 1991

In 1989, Stefan Jaworczyn’s occasional splatter movie magazine Shock Xpress spawned Shock Records. The label’s first five releases were limited run singles (500 copies) by Coil, Current 93, Drunks With Guns, Nurse With Wound, and his own Skullflower. Then a year later, they stuck them all onto a single CD, with an extra track from each outfit. Nice – the friendly face of capitalism even then, eh, SJ? Also, some great Savage Pencil graphics too. Some of these have been compiled on rarities and “uncollected” compilations; others have not. We like Skullflower us but YMMV. Knock yourself out, kid.

01. Skullflower – I Live in the Bottomless Pit (4:15)
02. Skullflower – Bo Diddley’s Shitpump (5:38 )
03. Skullflower – A Guide to Canine Foreskin Retraction (5:06)
04. Coil – Wrong Eye (5:59)
05. Coil – Scope (6:36)
06. Coil – Meaning What Exactly? (3:45)
07. Current 93 – She is Dead and All Fall Down (5:11)
08. Current 93 – God Has Three Faces and Wood Has No Name (2:56)
09. Current 93 – The Blue Gates of Death (Before and Beyond Them) (8:31)
10. Nurse With Wound/Organum – Human Human Human (5:49)
11. Nurse With Wound – Psychedelic Underground (In Memory of Lüüd Noma) (8:39)
12. Nurse With Wound – Scapegoat (3:10)
13. Drunks With Guns – Drunks Theme (1:34)
14. Drunks With Guns – Punched in the Head (1:57)
15. Drunks With Guns – Cowboy (3:19)
16. Drunks With Guns – Fuck Off and Die You Worthless Little Faggot (2:01)

Link {see comments} | Discogs

• RJD2 – Your Face or Your Kneecaps

CD, Bustown Pride, 2001

Early mix CD from that man RJD2, alias Ramble Jon Krohn. Ramble? That’s Oregon for you, we suspect. Aaaaanyways, it’s very good stuff, in a funky breaks/mash-up style. Bootleg? Well, “for promotional purposes only”, to coin a phrase. Signs of genius? Yeah, some green shoots. And two further tracks from a rare RJD2 7″ to finish, you lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky…

01-27. Poorboy Lover Megamix (39:18 )
28. Rain (5:41)
29. Find You Out (5:02)

Link | Discogs

• Trevor Jackson – Playgroup Party Mix vol.1

CD, Playgroup (promo only), 2002

Any moment it will be the season to be, well, pissed out of your face, slumped queasily over the photocopier or pinned next to the stationery cupboard by that chubby lass/bloke from Purchasing, wondering why you haven’t actually got the nerve to chat up that seriously fit girl/boy from the graphics team who’s dancing wanly on her/his own in the corridor. Liven up your next Christmas party with a judicious application of this, the sound of Playgroup and the very mighty Trevor Jackson.

But don’t just listen in stunned amazement as he seamlessly cuts together close on 200 of his favourite dance tracks from the 1970s and 80s, from massive mainstream disco hits to indie classics like 23 Skidoo and The Slits. And don’t sneer, oh but surely mash-ups were so very 2002, yah. Just slip this hot cookie onto the overloaded music player, give it a few minutes and very soon you’ll be cutting a rug with the best of them. In other words, dance, you fuckers. And pretty soon, you’ll soon be able to sneer, “Tequila and absinthe slammers? Been there. We did those at that legendary office Christmas party… you know, the one where I met your mother/father.” [Delete as applicable.]

01. Playgroup Party Mix (57:30)

Link | Discogs

• When – Drowning but Learning

LP, Witchwood, 1987

Lars Pedersen was a member of Norway’s moderately well-known early industrial/rock band Holy Toy. On his solo releases, starting with 1987’s Drowning But Learning (yeah, this one), however, he’s pursued a cut’n'paste approach that’s quietly but confidently created some amazing music. His use of classical music and concrete elements has been particularly striking, but he’ll just as happily slip into a medieval folk song or some grinding post-punk indie rock. Years before samplers were affordable, he was lobbing everything into the mix. This debut was notable, too, for its neat packaging – sealed inside an oversized jiffy bag.

Note that tracks 3–6 on side two all run together. Meanwhile, others have been sharing When’s early releases recently as well, so if your web-fu is strong, young master, you can perhaps track down his second record, the mighty Death in the Blue Lake or the later Svartedauen – The Black Death.

SIDE ONE
1. Witchwood
2. War Fields
3. Those Grey Cats Invisible
4. Karius & Baktus
5. New Water

SIDE TWO
1. The Entrance
2. World in Strike
3. Drowning but Learning
4. The Heat
5. Accident
6. Veil and Mere
7. Beginning

Link | Discogs

• Rising High Special

Whatever happened to gathering at the gas station to hear which field in which county the rave is actually in tonight? Whatever happened to glowsticks and white gloves, face masks full of Vic, doves and mitsubishis? Bringing it all back — albeit if you can remember it you weren’t really on one, matey, were ya? — here’s a triple set of classic early 90s hardcore techno from the once-mighty Rising High label. The label founders, as The Hypnotist, provide some of the strongest and most straightforward dancefloor pounders, but for us it’s some of their labelmates who rule. Check Mixmaster Morris’s Irrestible Force sampling the fuck out of This Heat for “Underground”, or industrial heroes Greater Than One delivering some seriously abrasive acid workouts as Church of Extacy and Signs of Chaos.

Top of our list, however, is an undying fondness for the trippy noodlings of Earth Leakage Trip, also proud creators of the first release on Moving Shadow. All three, and especially Progressive Hardcore, are essential documents from that strange period where you could watch hardcore turn into jungle in front of your very ears.

CD, Rising High, 1992

01. Irresistible Force – War and Peace
02. The Hypnotist – The House is Mine
03. Earth Leakage Trip – The Doors
04. Project One – Smokin’
05. Interface – Phaze Four (Mind Transfer)
06. Lenny Dee – Whirlwind
07. RHC – Fever Called Love
08. Friends, Lovers & Family – The Lift
09. Phobia – Phobia
10. Caspar Pound – House
11. HHFD – Start da Panik
12. Interface – Junior Space Cadet

Link | Discogs

CD, Rising High, 1992

01. The Hypnotist – The House is Mine (Westbam Remix)
02. Irresistible Force – Underground
03. Signs of Chaos – You Can’t Stop It
04. Atom Heart – Whitehouse
05. RHC – Posession
06. Knight Phanto – What’s the Situation
07. C of E – Church of Extacy (Confess To The Acid Remix)
08. The Vision – Perpetual Motion
09. Industrial High – Militant Core
10. RHC – Come Fly With Me
11. The Hypnotist – A Modern Promethus
12. Interface – Serious

Link | Discogs

CD, Rising High, 1992

01. Signs of Chaos – Crackerjack
02. Dark Syndicate – Do It Jah
03. Audio Assault – The Experiment
04. Rising High Collective – No Deeper Love
05. Earth Leakage Trip – Strange
06. Rising High Collective – No Deeper Love (Project One Remix)
07. Friends, Lovers & Family – Ordinary People
08. A Homeboy, a Hippy & a Funki Dredd – Revelations
09. Interface – Son of Matthew
10. Project One - Come My Selector
11. The Hypnotist – Day of the Tripheads
12. Irresistible Force – Flow Motion

Link | Discogs

• M:I:5 – Maßstab 1:5

CD, Profan, 1997

The mighty Wolfgang Voigt once more, with some tripped out, post-Studio 1, pre-Gas blips’n'fog. While much of Profan’s output was pretty austere, if you are in any way a fan, check this out, especially, the full seventeen minutes twelve seconds of the last untitled track – definitely to be filed under some “missing link between there and here” category.

1. Untitled (3:12)
2. Untitled (4:15)
3. Untitled (3:56)
4. Untitled (5:21)
5. Untitled (4:08 )
6. Untitled (4:34)
7. Untitled (5:18 )
8. Untitled (6:14)
9. Untitled (3:41)
10. Untitled (6:01)
11. Untitled (17:12)

Link | Discogs

• The Tape-Beatles – Music With Sound

CD, DOVe, 1991

Ah, the dusty world of vaguely political cut-up collage music! It all seems so long ago in this glorious new Golden Age of ours. The Public Works crew, also known as The Tape-beatles, have been operating in a similar zone to Negativland and Evolutionary Control Committee, for close on two decades, though perhaps less prolifically. Bit of a toss-up between this one and its successor from the following year, The Grand Delusion, as to which is best, but this was their first widely available release after a clutch of cassettes, so start here. That’s an order, soldier.

1. Beautiful State
2. Green, Blue Beautiful Place
3. Whole New Animal
4. Different Tool
5. Please Help Me
6. Positive Will
7. Do you Think it’s an Accident?
8. Desire
9. Elevator Music
10. Rah Rah Up and Down
11. I Can’t Help You at All; Sorry
12. I Can’t Do It
13. Another Blue Night
14. More Difficult
15. I’m Waiting
16. Waves of Waves
17. Earlids
18. Stress
19. Coma
20. Creditwise
21. From the Tide or the Wind
22. Scientists are Working
23. Pens, Pencils, Stationery
24. The Great Inspiration
25. Architectual Requirements
26. Message…
27. ‘O’ for Frog
28. …Of Rebellion
29. Is the Night Blue
30. XT92-007
31. Metro-Pulse

Link  | Discogs