Various – Acid Trance

LP, Blue Chip, 1988

… Meanwhile, the guys behind Blue Chip Records and the Kevin Saunderson-worshipping Nexus 21 were plotting their own move from Detroit-inspired early techno into pure acid… as they saw it. As is usual with these records, everyone on the disc is really pretty much the same guys under a bunch of pseudonyms. And as is often the case, they finally hit on a couple of artist names that they’d stick with for a while – in this case, Altern-8 and Bizarre Inc.

01. The Smiley People – It Makes Me Haaappy
02. MADM – To the Acid House
03. Bubbleena – Ah Ha Ha Ha Haaa (Alright Matey Mix)
04. Blip Blop – In a Trance (Doo It)
05. Jeuce – Zoooommm
06. Thieves of Bagdad – Let Me Hear You Scream

Link | Discogs

PS, both side of the single version of the Smiley People tune recently gone up on the charming TechTech2009.

Various – Acid House Volume One

LP, BPM, 1988

Couple of intriguing but not madly rare compilations today, from the dim and distant early years of British acid house. Just as with the British Invasion of the US in the 60s, punk from NYC and then back to the US a few years later, and so on, in those far off early days, the music that inspired the first glowing articles was more talked about than heard, and as a result some British producers set about creating a music they had only read about. The most warped example of this is probably the Jack the Tab album, and there’s some of this “Chinese Whispers” effect happening on these two discs as well.

BPM and Warrior Records were a pair of allied dance labels formed by members of 400 Blows, and on this record Tony (Moody Boys) Thorpe is all over most tracks. Warrior released their own acid compilation around the same time, featuring many of the same contributors. Some of it’s odd, some of it’s crude, and to be honest very little is what you would call proper acid house, mostly pitched somewhere around early techno with more sampled voices. Just a couple of years later, many of the acts sounded far more at home making Depeche Mode-esque industrial electro. That New Chapter track at the start of side two, though… very tasty.

01. Joi Bangla Sound – Taj Ma House (5:29)
02. Silicon Chip – Phuture Music (6:06)
03. Construction Crew – Heartbeat (4:10)
04. Force Motive – You Will be Dealt With (4:56)
05. New Chapter – Acid Generation (5:17)
06. The Moody Boys – Boogie Woogie Music (5:43)
07. LE Bass – Acid Bitch (6:22)
08. Mister Monday – Keep On (4:44)

Link | Discogs

Günter Schickert – Somnambul

CD plus PC data, Musiques Intemporelle, 1995

We’re suckers for echo machine guitar blissouts by Krautrock types such as Achim Reichel/AR & the Machines and Mañuel Göttsching. Best of them all are Überfällig and Samtvögel by the lovely Günter Schickert, which remain firm favourites in our own little noise bunker. This particular disc collects up sound scraps and demos from 1980-1984, along with a little multimedia suite including a clutch of movies and some sound loops. There’s a cracking couple of echo guitar moments, along with some more out-there moments, and a smattering of more song-based stuff that’s closer to his older stuff with GAM.

If you’re new to him, start with those other discs, which get posted hither and thither frequently, but click that link if you’re a sucker for everything the guy does or just a general rarity collector geek-child like us.

01. Dig It (1:13)
02. Töchter der Neere (10:00)
03. Arabische Nächte (11:20)
04. Dig It 2 (1:59)
05. Monkeys (7:46)
06. Dig It 3 (1:04)
07. In der Zeit 1 (6:37)
08. Now (3:30)
09. Sirenen (3:50)
10. Somnambul (5:36)
plus 3 AVI movies and 36 sound loops in WAV format (all included)

Link | Discogs

Dominik von Senger – The First/The Second

More usually to be found accompanying Can’s finest, Jaki Liebezeit, in Phantomband, or as part of Dunkelziffer or Unknown Cases, guitarist Dominik von Senger also found time record a couple of solo records. Perhaps he was busy. Accompanied by the likes of Can’s Rosko Gee on bass and synth compatriot Helmut Zerlett (he of Baked Beans fame, on Recycle or Die, in our little musical warehouse, if not in yours) this is a tasty slice of no-wave with Krautrock overtones. “Dlaluc” has turned up on a few trendy New York mix CDs this year, and we read somewhere recently that there’s a new version of “No Name” on its way reworked by a US remix/edits crew.

The second record from a decade later is a tad less Talking Heads-y, a little crunchier, but again well worth your attention. (And if you want to be way beyond geeky, you could even point out that Helmut Zerlett’s keyboard solo on “Blow” is basically a reprise of “Bake Daga” by those Baked Beans… of whom we shall talk more soon.) Meanwhile, Dominik’s new band Grundwasser has a website. Bring it on!

The First, LP, VeraBra, 1983

01. No Name (3:45)
02. Late Night Blues (4:40)
03. Serial No. (5:07)
04. Blow Off (3:34)
05. Turnaround (1:23)
06. Bus Stop Paradise (5:19)
07. Dlaluc (2:28)
08. Sunny Face (2:27)
09. Fronting Twilight (3:09)
10. Acoustic Fade (5:43)

Link | Discogs

The Second, CD, Fünfundvierzig, 1995

01. Digit (3:46)
02. A Rhythm That Takes You (4:54)
03. Hymn (3:41)
04. Blow (6:15)
05. Heat in the Shade (4:13)
06. Inspiration (4:52)
07. O.T. Noise Collage (0:35)
08. Loopy Loop (2:35)
09. Festival (4:03)
10. Cyberg Reality (6:32)

Link | Discogs

PS, bit more Senger here, courtesy those lovely crate diggers at The Growing Bin.

400 Blows – Beat the Devil

7″, Concrete Productions, 1982

Also from 1982, this doomy little charmer. Cast your minds back… back… way baaaacck into pop history, to a time when “industrial” didn’t mean hammering drum machines and metal guitars. This little darling, poised pretty much exactly between 23 Skidoo and Cabaret Voltaire, is especially tasty in its swampy, bass-heavy b-side version. Later they went more dancey, as did so many of the early industrial culture types, and then metamorphosed into acts like The Moody Boys and founded BPM and Warrior Records. Check out the inner sleeve’s playlist (in the archive) for a preview of where they would try to take their sound. Not quite the NWW list, eh?

A. Beat the Devil
B. The Beat Continues

Link | Discogs

Birth of the Y

LP, Y Records 1982

When we ripped the Mouth single a while back, we secretly promised ourselves we’d get around to ripping this tidy collection of Y Records’ artists. OK, so there’s no unreleased Pop Group or Slits, worse luck, (though a 2005 Australian CD boot version added “Where There’s a Will” and “Man Next Door”) but plenty more of the label’s particularly skanking approach to post-punk and beyond. And some crap too, but you can choose the tracks that fall into that category for yourself. Apparently this was by way of a Christmas album from Y Records, though there aren’t any festive tunes – and presumably the piece of The Litanies of Satan was just a bit of pre-Richard Dawkins balance.

A1 Disconnection – Bali Ha’i (3:14)
A2. Pigbag – Six of One … (4:26)
A3. Tymon Dogg – Low Down Dirty Weakness (2:54)
A4. Diamanda Galás – Excerpt from “The Litanies of Satan” (3:03)
A5. Mouth – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (7:09)
A6. R.A.P.P. – Guns, Bombs, Handgrenades (4:51)
B1. Pulsallama – Ungawa Pt. 2 (Way Out Guyana) Remix (2:24)
B2. Maximum Joy – Searching for a Feeling (4:54)
B3. Sun Ra – Excerpt from “Strange Celestial Road” (4:40)
B4. Promenaders – Stranger on the Shore (3:53)
B5. Chris Reeves – After the Romance (3:52)
B6. Shriekback – Despite Dense Weed (3:49)

Link | Discogs