Sympathy Nervous - No More Expo (Negative Emission NE-1002T)

This is the second cassette by Sympathy Nervous on the Negative Emission label. After posting the previous cassette, It's Second Coming, I was made aware that the music was the same as the Mutant Sounds posting of 'No More Expo'. So, it seems the actual 'No More Expo' hasn't been posted online before.

In my previous post, I mentioned that 'No More Expo' seemed to have a thinner sound from using updated equipment. Maybe this is a result of going from analog to digital equipment? Without knowing the equipment used on this and 'It's Second Coming', it is only speculation.

However, what this may lack from earlier work is compensated with more texture and sophistication in programming. There is a lot more going on in these tracks, and at times, the ideas are very similar, especially the use of gated vocals and guitar.

I do not know the actual release date of this, but it is likely from the early to mid 80's. Assuming it is mid-80's or earlier, it still sounds like a lot of music that would be released years later. The music here doesn't fit the minimal dirty electro/techno of 'It's Second Coming', but it does resemble dark wave/synth/IDM. If this had been released on vinyl or CD originally, I could easily imagine hearing many of these tracks in industrial dance clubs of the mid/late 80's/early 90's.

In 1993, Sympathy Nervous & Negative Emission released a CD titled 'Tracks' (NE-C001). This CD features many of the tracks on the 'No More Expo' cassette in this post. I've heard that these are re-recorded versions from 'No More Expo' , but I can't confirm this. I found a copy of the 'Tracks' CD to download online. I listened to the samples but it is hard to tell what, if anything, is different due to the sound quality of the samples. There are three tracks on this cassette that don't appear to be on the 'Tracks' CD: Heart of the Sun, Pale Port, Spirit of the Bomb.

Some of the tracks segue into each other, so I've left them combined. Track A3 is A3-A6, and track B3 is B3 & B4 combined.

Tracklist:
A1 - No More Expo
A2 - Music of the S.N. Phase-1
A3 - Lace Master
A4 - Unicostume
A5 - Khaki Cloud
A6 - My Favorite Patch

B1 - Money Crisis
B2 - Heart of the Sun (Roger Waters)
B3 - Pale Port
B4 - Spirit of the Bomb
B5 - Mescal

Although it is hard to tell, the cover is grey. The cover on Mutant Sounds and Discogs appear to be light blue. Not sure if these are variants, or a result of scanning/photographing. The track is misspelled 'No Moer Expo'.

Coming up, something completely different....

Enjoy

Sympathy Nervous - It's Second Coming (Negative Emission ne 1001T) 1980

I've been meaning to post this cassette for a long time. Last fall, I started the process of putting up the No More Expo tape until I saw it had been uploaded a few months earlier at Mutant Sounds.

Taking the title at it's word - "Sympathy Nervous '80 It's Second Coming", I presume this cassette was released or contains material recorded during or after the S/T LP on Vanity Records posted by Mutant Sounds.

The instrumentation here sounds closer to the S/T LP and their Polaroid 7" than No More Expo, which seems to have a thinner sound using updated drum machines & synths.

The label Minimal Wave recently released a Sympathy Nervous LP (Automaticism) that includes two tracks (Cabaret Voltaire & Extended Time) from this cassette. This LP is also a benefit for Yoshiumi Ninuma aka Sympathy Nervous who tragically lost everything from the Tsumani that hit Japan March 2011. His house, including equipment and recordings all washed away. I urge anyone who downloads this post to pick up Automaticism (Vinyl or download versions). I want to thank C.Patera and his blog Stalking Duppi for making me aware of this release and Yoshiumi's situation.

I won't go into detail about the music, other than to say it holds that same timeless quality other favorite electronic/synth albums of mine do like Conrad Schnitzler's Con, Monton, Kraftwerk and Dark Day, to name a few. Techno before techno and sounds that could just have easily been recorded 10-20 years later; dirty electro/minimal techno of Bunker/Clone/Sahko/Dum labels, Le Car, I-f, etc...

The tracklisting on Side A matches up to the music. The track listing on Side B indicates eight tracks, but I have them split into only six tracks. There are four tracks listed with Japanese titles that are part of tracks B2 through B4 (tks. 6-8 in the post). Track B6 (tk 9 in the post) is Extended Time. B7 & B8 are combined as Track 10 in the post. See included images for actual titles.

Tracklist:
Side A:
1 - Cabaret Voltaire
2 - Plastic Love
3 - Metal Beat
4 - I am a Fan

Side B:
1 - Room 3
2 - 4 Japanese titles
5 - Extended Time
6 - P.S. 1
- P.S. 2

Enjoy

57 Tone Flexi 7" (Joy FY-0002) 1983

This flexi is from 1983. I couldn't find any info about 57 Tone online. I recall picking this up because the cover reminded me of the art for DDAA/IP label sleeves. I have to say, the music here well exceeded my expectations.

The A-Side falls right in with early 80's Factory/Fetish/99/Clock DVA guitar/bass/sax/drums combinations. The B side is more abstract and closer to something from the Vanity label. A part of this track was featured in my Final Procedure Mix from last year.

a: Spiral
b: 4 Reminiseences

Enjoy