7″, Dübreq, 1970-ish

Hey, guess what we got for Christmas…

Much beloved of David Bowie (hear the rocket take-off bit in the middle of “Space Oddity” for starters) and latterly Orbital, the Stylophone was a fabulous little home synth perfect for any boy or girl, whatever their age, who wanted to sound like a frustrated bee. With its odd little contact stylus and touch-sensitive keyboard, it seriously must have had a profound influence on a whole generation of early Seventies kids in a way that multi-thousand pound Moogs the size of Jodrell Bank could not. Add crazy uncle Rolf (ex-teacher, Aussie with a German name who hit big in the UK in the 60s with a mix of very odd songs and while-you-watch painting) as your guide and this is a veritable time machine of nostalgia.

And the fact that you can actually get them again, and now with MP3-friendly playback, is surely the perfect excuse to dig this out and rip it.

A. Lesson One (5:41)
B. Lesson Two (5:19)

Link | Discogs

one-sided 7″, Pedigree Dolls Ltd, 1964

Guess what we got for Christmas…

Cheesy but seriously cute ye-ye pop promo aimed at toy shops for “the doll they’ll ask for by name”, namely the Brit rival to Barbie. A worthy companion to our Rolf, I’d say. Now to track down that Sindy & the Dollybeats single!

Note: this comes on very special “much loved” vinyl. Either that or the studio engineer was frying himself a lovely bacon sandwich that morning.

A. The Doll You Love to Dress (2:01)

Link | Discogs

Season’s Greetings CD & christmas card, John Brown Publishing, 1996

John Brown Publishing is a lively English magazine publisher, whose stable includes the notorious Viz (adult comic) and Bizarre (a glossy Weekly World News type look at the extremes of culture). Its eponymous owner happened to live next door to a certain B. Eno, so when the company decided to release a CD of Christmas songs and messages as their 1996 corporate Christmas card, who better to arrange it all than the next door neighbour?

So here we have it… a couple of vaguely listenable Christmas songs with Mr Eno’s emminently recognisable voice prominent in the mix, plus a sprinkling of quite frightful corporate messages, all in a nicely designed gatefold. The staff scribbled their names on them and sent them out to clients and friends; best guess would be that there were maybe 250-500 of these made.

Note: It’s all ripped as one track, but sure you could extract the meagre musical content with ten minutes’ wrangling on a sound editor. You’ll only be sitting around bored all Christmas time.

1. Season’s Greetings from John Brown Publishing (7:27)

Updated link [MU] and link [MF]

7″, no label, c.1986

Blah blah christmas spirit blah blah best of the the fucking Noughties blah blah Christmas blah blah Michael Jackson blah blah. Breaking news: Santa Claus is dead.

A. Santa Claus Was My Lover (4:49)
B. Depressed Christmas (2:31)

Link | Discogs

7″, Bird Man, 199x

To accompany our festive snatch of Culturcide that’s around here somewhere, here’s another rarity, from their noisy “We’re an actual band, yknow” incarnation, along with some selections from San Francisco’s ten-years-too-early folky psych Americana nutters, Caroliner.

Note: the Caroliner side is ripped as one track. It seems to be about eleven tracks rammed together, and doesn’t stop till the needle hits the label. Gosh, those wacky guys, etc… The Culturcide tracks, meanwhile, were recorded live in Antwerp. That’s in Belgium you know.

A1. Caroliner – Bring Culture to the Treetops
A2. Caroliner – Fiddle With the Heart Stuck in it
A3. Caroliner – Wonderful Warm Hearted Flesh Donations
B1. Culturcide – 3:38
B2. Culturcide – 4:51

Link | Discogs

CD in wooden slab cover, Spezialmaterial, 2002

Ever bought an album because of its fuck-me gorgeous packaging? Damn right. That was, we confess, the initial reason for snapping up this one, on Switzerland’s lovely Spezialmaterial label, which seemed to specialise, at least for a while, in the sort of experimental packaging that makes design groupies like us get all wobbly.

Good job, in this particular case, that the crisply minimal electronica inside is well worth a listen too. Check it out. We’ll be sat over here in the Friendsound noise hut, rubbing the wooden case. Ltd edition of 500, long OP. BTW, Solarium is the alias of the interestingly named Martin Wigger, who as far was know has not adopted dreadlocks and a disgraceful white Rasta accent.

01. Part I (5:38)
02. Part II (3:17)
03. Part III (6:43)
04. Part IV (6:44)
05. Part V (4:32)
06. Part VI (3:45)
07. Part VII (5:04)
08. Part VIII (6:32)
09. Part IX (5:52)
10. Part X (3:16)
11. Part XI (4:43)
12. Part XII (4:49)
13. Part XIII (4:39)
14. Part XIV (5:54)

Link | Discogs

CD, Gefriem, 1992

That’ll be Jan St Werner, out of Mouse on Mars, and his equally noisy Sonig-label friend then. More lovely packaging for this one’s sleeve, extra-thick embossed cardboard with no ink printing, plus a poster foldout. And more equally lovely electronics, this time more in the over-amplified geiger-counter having a nervous breakdown end of the field. Tasty? Very tasty. A very tasty world indeed, Mr Cornelius.

01. Fucker (5:59)
02. Build (4:11)
03. Fast Forward (8:47)
04. Soft Talking (5:27)
05. Psychomatic Loop (16:35)
06. Experts (7:06)

Link | Discogs

LP/CD, Radical, 1989

Also known as Virgo Four, Eric Lewis and Martyn Sanders made some of the finest early Chicago…. well, back then we just called it all techno, but it seems to have ended up being categorised as deep house. This is just very special, calm but intense, with a pulsing glide it shares with Larry “Mr Fingers” Heard but precious few others. Just have a listen to the glistening streetlight freeway cruise of ‘Ride’, maybe run it back to back with Bam Bam’s “Where’s Your Child?”, to get a flavour of the times. These guys did very little after this defining moment, just a three tracker in 1992 as Ace & the Sandman on Saber. Then they were gone…

For those who care, these tracks were originally released as two EPs by the legendary Trax label out of that Chicago: “Do You Know Who You Are” credited to Virgo Four and “Ride” as by M.E. (i.e. Martyn & Eric). This album collecting the pair was only released over in the UK, it seems.

01. Do You Know Who You Are (4:45)
02. In a Vision (4:40)
03. Going Thru Life (4:35)
04. Take Me Higher (4:35)
05. Ride (4:30)
06. School Hall (4:25)
07. Never Want to Lose You (4:39)
08. All the Time (4:20)

Link | Discogs

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.

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