Journeyman & Real Life

Couple of early ambient albums on Coldcut/Ninja Tune’s ambient & electronica offshoot. Originally Ninja Tone, that single letter difference confused people, so NTone it became. Journeyman included Paul Frankland, aka Woob, whose Em:t albums are particularly choice. They made a second record, National Hijinx, three years later that we’ve seen in a few places around and about recently so we won’t bother reposting. Real Life was mostly Paul Castle, trance producer and studio engineer. That’s all we know; that’s all there is.

Journeyman – Mama 6, CD, NTone, 1994

01. Valves (4:54)
02. Estarlay (10:48)
03. Mama 6 Pt. 1 (21:22)
04. Latneiro (Woob’s Sunrise Dub) (15:19)
05. Mama 6 Pt. 2 (13:02)
06. 3001 (Edit) (13:31)

Link | Discogs

Real Life – Journey of the Carcharadon, CD, NTone, 1994

01. Predator (7:23)
02. Sublime (5:41)
03. Shark Infested (9:43)
04. Shark Dance (6:50)
05. Astral Beach (10:53)
06. Forever Onwards (5:44)
07. Clockwork (10:46)

Link | Discogs

Henri Chopin – Audiopoems

LP, Tangent, 1971

To quote the Discogs summary: “Henri Chopin (1922, Paris, France – January 3, 2008, England, United Kingdom) is an avant-garde poet and musician. Henri Chopin is a little-known but key figure of the French avant-garde during the second half of the 20th century. Known primarily as a concrete and sound poet, he created a large body of pioneering recordings using early tape recorders, studio technologies and the sounds of the manipulated human voice. His emphasis on sound is a reminder that language stems as much from oral traditions as from classic literature, of the relationship of balance between order and chaos.”

What they said.

Incidentally, there is another LP, a tape and a CD all bearing the title Audiopoems in Chopin’s Discography; they are different releases entirely. If you got ’em…

This was released on the lovely, lovely Tangent label. Tangent is a hard label to collect. We only have one other, the early Ann(e)a Lockwood record Glass World – we were all set to rip our mint copy of that one too when T. spotted it was reissued as part of her Early Works CD, which we’ve seen posted elsewhere in the last month. We’d really love some more Tangent – anyone else ripping any? Even the Isla St Clair record?

A1. New Departure (4:39)
A2. La Peur (First Movement) (17:10)
B. Pleuralité 1.1.1.1. (25:50)

Link [320] | Discogs

Kid 606/Tigerboy – Attitude

7″, V/Vm Test Recordings, 2000

Insert descriptive text here.

[Insert smiley here.]

A. Kid 606 – Straight Outta Compton—MC DSP Mix (3:52)
B. Tigerboy – With Attitude (4:21)

Link | Discogs

Various – Chemical Imbalance #8

7″, free with Chemical Imbalance issue vol.2 #3, 1993

Well, as it happens we had this lined up ready for ripping some point soon, and our correspondent asked nicely, so why not flip it to the top of the pile and bang it straight up here. (This may not happen too often, before you crazy kids get any grand ideas…) More from a freebie single that came with the oft-missed Chemical Imbalance magazine. Rather hard to argue with this line-up…

A1. Kicking Giant – Rapid-C (0:49)
A2. Faust – Live in Hamburg 10-90 [excerpt] (4:15)
A3. Kicking Giant – Background, Moving Quickly (0:39)
B1. Pavement – My Radio (1:22)
B2. Sun City Girls – Swing of Kings (2:14)
B3. TV Personalities – Girl on a Motorcycle (2:12)

Link | Discogs

Various – Chemical Imbalance #2: Happiness is Dry Pants

7″ EP, free with Chemical Imbalance issue #5, 1988

OK, so side two is nothing special. And on the flip, the Tengo’s Fleetwood Mac cover is not their best by several leagues. But side one, track two, well, that’s why this has them all frothing. Shame they never developed this one further. IYAU a properly recorded version would have been most welcome on Songs About Fucking. YMMV.

A1. Yo la Tengo – Dreams (4:37)
A2. Big Black – Burning Indian Wife (2:30)
B1. Kilslug – Warlocks, Witches & Demons (4:26)
B2. Moving Targets – Squares & Circles (2:13)

Link | Discogs

Glenn Branca – Symphony No.6: Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven (Live at the QEH, London 30.1.88)

LP, Fierce, 1988

I (Stefan talking now) was at this concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, part of the South Bank arts complex in London, back in January 1988 for what I vaguely recall was the premier of Branca’s sixth symphony. So too, it seems, was someone with a half-decent tape recorder, for a short while later this excerpt from the show (the studio release on Blast First the year after has five movements; there are three tracks here) popped up on sometimes scurrilous Welsh label, Fierce. Only “half-decent’ though, because the massive frequencies that Branca’s guitar orchestra summon up would prove far too much for even an expensive bootlegging microphone, and thus it is here.

Coincidentally, I was also at the Jesus & Mary Chain “riot” show at North London Poly, which Fierce also bootlegged, but we don’t have that one. I’d like to hear that sometime, see if I can pick out the howl I gave when a monitor flung off the stage smashed me in the ankle. Feel free to stick a link to your rip in the comments (I can dream).

A1. Part One (15:55)
B1. Part Two (6:05)
B2. Part Three (5:49)

Link | Discogs

Atom Heart – Orange & Softcore

Our personal jury is still out on the copious swathe of releases from Uwe Schmidt (OK, so Señor Coconut was pretty cute the first few times we played him and Lassigue Bendthaus were rather crunchy), probably because he does spread his talents so very far and wide across almost as many pseudonyms as Marc Acardipane, but we do like these discs’ spiky minimalism. Released by Fax, so they are caught up in the whole collector mania thing and worth a packet, they were issued in one-off editions of 500 and 1000 copies respectively.

Orange, CD, Fax, 1994

01. One Atomsecond (8:00)
02. Ode to BG (13:20)
03. Cobal #1 (7:14)
04. Rainecho (6:44)
05. Cobal #2 (21:25)

Link | Discogs

Softcore, CD, Fax, 1994

01. Naked Eye Spy (10:54)
02. Rather Bent Than Shaked (7:02)
03. Home Sweet Home (10:03)
04. Funkified Female (6:35)
05. Difference Engine (5:44)
06. Plenty of Food (4:36)
07. White Hole 1 (2:06)
08. White Hole 2 (14:07)

Link | Discogs