Tuesday, May 20, 2008

V/A - Faith Will Never Die Cassette (Black Dwarf bdc 5) 1983

This is a 1983 Black Dwarf compilation that I found buried away with some other tapes I forgot to unpack.

Unkommuniti contribute five tracks to this cassette. I don't have too much info on the other artists. One or more could be Tim Gane under different names. Some of the highlights:

Last Breath - lb: Rhythm track stripped down to just a drum machine & effects

Visitia - Tender: An early form of minimal hard techno. Mostly drum machines and noise, similar to Le Syndicat, Esplendor Geometrico.

Unkommuniti - War Cripples: String-based drones with garbled spoken word.

Unkommuniti - Winterkill 1 & 2: Pounding drum machines buried under slow pulses of noise

Jake Ray - Trip One: Moody piece with backward sounds and organ/keyboard

Kallous Kinema contribute three untitled tracks that range from minimal synth diy to the drum-less side of Metabolist

As with a previous Unkommuniti cassette, there is an extra track at the end which is not listed. I have labeled it as an unlisted bonus track (side B)

Enjoy

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Black Dwarf Label Discography circa 1984

I found this insert with the Uncommunity 7".

I'm not sure if this is all of the Black Dwarf releases or not. I'm pretty sure there is no more vinyl, but not sure about the cassettes.

I will post the Faith Will Never Die compilation sometime this week. If anyone knows of links to other files besides those provided below, leave a comment. I will update this page with any new info.


UPDATE 8/3/2008: A link to the two Kallous Boys cassettes on Black Dwarf was posted in the comments a while back. The Black Dwarf discography has been updated with this info. These two cassettes are provided in full for free from the Kallous Boys/Porkweasel website. They have new and unreleased music also available. Thanks to whoever left that link in the comments.


Cassettes:
BDC 01 Unkommuniti - Doktrine C90
BDC 02 Assailer - For Combat C60
BDC 03 V/A - Parlour Musick C60
BDC 04 Unkommuniti - Live Recession 23/11/83 C30
BDC 05 V/A - Faith Will Never Die C60
BDC 06 Unkommuniti - In the Shithouse C90
BDC 07 Kallous Boys - Kick It C60
BDC 08 V/A - Crusade C30
BDC 09 Moise Collectif - Primary Function C30
BDC 10 Unkommuniti - The Prime Advantage C60
BDC 11 Unkommuniti - Live Anarchist Bingo Hall / Soundtracks C60
BDC 12 Unkommuniti - Sense of Unmaking C60
BDC 13 V/A - Ars Magna et Ultima Vol.1 C60
BDC 14 Unkommuniti - Dhol Chants C60
BDC 15 Kallous Boys - Internal Damage C60
BDC 16 Clench - In the Garden C60
BDC 17 Unkommuniti - Ex Oblivione C60
BDC 18 Trilogy - Warped/Disease C30
BDC 19 Final - Maximum Hatred C30
BDC 20 Black Lung - Cope C30

Records
BDBG 1 Uncommunity - Brutality of Fact 7"

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Un-Kommunity - In the Shithouse Cassette (Black Dwarf BDC 06/Freedom in a Vacuum)

Another cassette, and another name variation from Uncommunity, the early 80's industrial/noise project from Stereolab founder Tim Gane.

Like the previous cassette posted, this is also a Freedom in a Vacuum label reissue, so it is likely a second generation copy from the original.

One side features studio recordings, the other, a live performance at 'The Shithouse'. Can anyone confirm if this was an actual venue, or the name of someone's garage/basement, etc...

This one is a bit noisier than the other tape, but has some decent moments at times.

There are two bonus studio tracks listed after the live portion. I worked my way backwards and split out the last two tracks and left what I thought to be the live part as one track. I can't guarantee the tracks are split out and titled as stated on the J-card.

I managed to dig up a Black Dwarf label compilation with Uncommunity and others. Will probably post that one next.

updated 5/13/08: cassette title and catalog number

Enjoy Side A
Enjoy Side B

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Unkommunity - Ex-Oblivione Cassette (Black Dwarf BDC 17/Freedom in a Vacuum)

Following up from their 7" I posted a couple weeks ago, here is the first of two Unkommunity/Uncommunity cassettes I've managed to uncover in my collection. I may have another one or two buried somewhere.

This cassette is titled Ex-Oblivione and was originally released on Tim Gane's own label, Black Dwarf. This rip is taken from the Freedom in a Vacuum reissue. I believe the reissues were merely dubbed off the Black Dwarf label originals, unfortunately making these second generation copies. Given the nature of this music, it may not make that much of a difference anyway.

Uncommunity are usually tagged as power electronics/noise music, likely based on their association with Broken Flag, etc... However, there is quite a bit more here than just noise. Many tracks contain heavy, almost tribal percussion, others minimal & arpeggiated synths & drones, and even a bit of guitar here and there. To be honest, some of these pieces, particularly 'Black Suggestion', could just have easily been released via Insane Music, sounding a bit like Human Flesh.

These are some of the tracks I still enjoy listening to:

Black Goat - Repetitive synth line accompanied by a slowly strummed guitar and some other noises.

The Hand Behind - Tribal-like percussion with some moody organ/synth and tapes/samples

Rats Above Scientists - Synth drones over discussion of tampered Mars candy bars

Turn the Inner Eye - Relatively ambient/drone piece

Black Suggestion - Tribal percussion accentuated with backwards cymbals and a buried melodic keyboard. I have always had a fondness for backwards cymbals...

Eidolon - Synths and other noise slowly building to a crescendo

New Awareness - More backwards sounds with some spoken word snippets - nowhere near being 'noisy'

There are eleven tracks on side A after I split them up. There are only ten listed on the cover (and on Discogs), so the last one is labeled as an unlisted bonus track. There is a chance two of these were to be combined as one. If anyone out there knows for sure, drop a comment.

updated 5/13/08: catalog number

Enjoy.