Den Sei Kwan - Pocket Planetaria Cassette (Vanity VAT3) 1981

Here is the third cassette from the Vanity box. More minimal diy electronics and a lot of shortwave radio.


There is a several minute section of silence after the first track on side A. I have excluded this portion in the archived version. There is a short two minute track after the silence consisting of French dialogue.










Tracklist

Side A:

Transparent Radio - slow repetitive distorted drum machine pattern & radio frequencies/noise. Reminds me of a slowed-down instrumental Throbbing Gristle, early Cabaret Voltaire/RH Kirk.

p x t x c = 1 - this may be the silent part between the two tracks.

thugu = rikwo - this is the track w/ the French dialogue.

Side B:

Sarava Tetudo - field and/or radio recordings w/ either a low grinding synth wave or a microphone experiment. Eventually a rhythm creeps toward the surface, but never quite bursting through. This track, and a couple others here, sound as solid as other diy electronic/industrial of the time and could also pass as new music on contemporary labels like Mego, Touch, Ash International....

Pocket Planetaria - Short noisier track, again primarily w/ radio sounds.

Plastic Garden - More radio experiments, the last five minutes of which is very faint.

Enjoy.

Soundclash Five Year Anniversary Friday June 29th @ Marx Cafe, Washington DC

...and another plug for a big event this Friday - the five year anniversary of the best Jamaican music night in DC

First, go here: http://dcsoundclash.com/ - all you need to know in some ways.

Well, you know how when you reach the top and they ask you "did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine..." Except... we're not at the top. But hey, we still rule, like cool rulers, rocking steady for five years and all that. The five years have blown by quickly, and I won't regale you with the history except to say: we've always been at Marx Cafe, we started it all from scratch (Lee Perry reference!), and we've brought you the best in Jamaican music, and that's a fact. Plus our flyers rule the nation. To those that have been getting these emails just about the full five years: thanks for your tolerance. It's worked.

So here's what will be on splendid offer this Friday as part of the Soundclash 5-Year Jubilation activities. Exceptional, fantabulous, Sammy Gong-designed t-shirts. The image of the Upsetters band (Lee 'Scratch' Perry's studio band, which later evolved into the Wailers) adorns these stylish stare-grabbers and is attached for your perusal. Guys' Tees will be available in a light blue, women's Tees in white, light blue and a very tiny offering of pink (seriously - if you want one, best shout now; they'll be gone before the first three crackles on the first 45 is done). $7. You will love these, seriously.

And giveaways. We will be giving away special Soundclash cd mixes, a couple of Trojan Records boxsets, buttons, and a few T-shirts. To get in on the raffle giveaway, arrive before the Midnight Hour and get your raffle ticket at the designated raffle table. And buy a t-shirt there too.

Drink specials. Marx Cafe will offer up $3.50 Red Stripes. Additionally, I've convinced Marx to foolishly make a Jamaican rum punch. And will it ever.

And that's it. Hope to see you there. Taking pics of yourself with your fave Soundclash DJ's will be free. Just this once...

WHERE: Marx Cafe, 3203 Mt. Pleasant St, NW

WHEN: Friday, June 29, 2007, from 10 pm to 3 am

NO COVER

Procedure Wed. June 27th @ Cafe Saint-Ex Gate 54 Washington DC

A plug for my friends' DJ night:


PROCEDURE (3.0)

"something for everyone... and nothing for some"



WEDNESDAY . June 27



nonchalantly sequenced melodies & noise:

Mark Williams + Richard Chartier



(and come help us say goodbye to Sam Reggio, one of our most loyal

listeners, as he leaves for Japan for 2 years)





once a month we present a quite laid back evening of lost and

forgotten music, ambient sounds, electronic whatnot, low brow tunes,

dark covers, b-sides, electric squiggles, bloopy unusual-ness,

blatant obviousness, avant garde obscurities, bubblegum oddities,

punk fun, unintentional hits and very intentional misses...and other

seemingly unrelated genre crossing nonchalantly sequenced.



listen. think. drink. repeat.





GATE 54 (downstairs at Café Saint-Ex)

1847 14th Street NW Washington DC

10pm-close / FREE / 21+



SAINT-EX: http://www.saint-ex.com/

FOR MORE INFO/SET LISTS: www.3particles.com/procedure

JOIN US ON MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/procedure









also this is the official after-party for:



JUNE 27, 2007 / 7-9pm

COLORFIELD REMIX: NIGHT #3 - Juried from open calls

by RICHARD CHARTIER + BRANDON MORSE



CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART / ARMAND HAMMER AUDITORIUM (NY AVE)

500 17th STREET NW / WASHINGTON DC 20006

7-9 PM FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC



(*Presentation of $1000 KRAFT MEDIA PRIZE + $500 Honorable Mention)



ERIKA SUDERBURG + LINDA BESEMER (US)

Finalist, $1000 KRAFT MEDIA PRIZE



ALAN CALLANDER (US)

Honorable Mention, $500 KRAFT MEDIA PRIZE



CHRISTINA BATTLE (CA)

GREGG BIERMANN (US)

REBECCA CARTER (US)

JOHN DAVIS (US)

ERIC FLEISCHAUER (US)

KERRY LAITALA (CA)

OLIVER LYONS (US)

TONY MYATT (UK)

KAMRAN SADEGHI (WA)

SEMICONDUCTOR (UK)

CHAMPNEYS TAYLOR (US)

TeZ (NL)

Kiilo Radical - Denki Noise Dance Cassette (Vanity VAT 2) 1981

Here is the second cassette in the Vanity box. This is by Kiilo Radical and titled Denki Noise Dance. Five tracks on this cassette also appeared on the Vanity Music DLP compilation (under the name Kiiro Radical) - four of those tracks appear here untitled and one track is part of the side titled Denki Noise Dance. At least a couple of the tracks appear to be different versions or mixes from the compilation.

I couldn't find much info about Kiilo Radical or Motida Masaaki other than a review of this cassette (but none of the others in the box) in Japanese here.

As for the music, it doesn't stray too far than the previous cassette - minimal electronics, some guitar, bass and sparse percussion. By comparison to the world outside the Vanity label - a less pounding, lower-fi Pan Sonic, ambient Mouse on Mars and side-projects Microstoria & Lithops with cruder instrumentation., and some tracks that could best be described as raw, lo-fi precursors to the minimal techno scene emerging in the late 90's (Brinkmann, etc...). When the guitar and homemade percussion pops in on untitled 5, I am reminded a bit of the loose/sloppy playing of DDAA (in a good way).

Side A, listed without a title is split into separate tracks but side B - Denki Noise Dance is not. At some points it was hard to determine when a track ended and another began.

Enjoy.

DJ Announcement - Champion Superior Soundsystem @ Marx Cafe, Wash DC This Friday (6/15)

Another month with five Fridays means it is time again for Champion Superior Soundsystem.

I will join Sam & Braulio on the decks for another night of dirty funk dub space afro fusion.

Hopefully mother nature will cooperate this time. The last event was marred by a freak snow/sleet/icy rain storm that followed several days of pleasant weather.

For anyone curious about the music, I posted an older dj set a while back which you can find here. Hopefully this time, we will all remember to keep track of our sets so I can archive them here in the future.

The Champion Superior SoundsystemFriday, March 1610 p.m. - 3 a.m.Marx Cafe 3203 Mt. Pleasant St.NWDCNo Cover, No Escape


Hope to see some of the local readers out there on Friday....

Salaried Man Club - Gray Cross Cassette (Vanity VAT 1) 1981

Now that the computer situation has been sorted out, I'll get back to business with a Vanity label post!

This is the first of six cassettes released on the Vanity label. I am not exactly sure about the history of these tapes. The six were released as a boxset in an edition of 70 copies. I have also seen them sold individually. So, the mystery is - did they release these as a boxset first and sold off the extra copies, or did they release them individually first and later packaged unsold copies as a boxset??

I've seen this boxset labeled Noise Box and Working on a Plan, which is taken from the inscription on the front flap: "Working on a Plan 1981 Agi Yuzuri". Agi was the founder of the label as well as the music editor for the Japanese magazine Rock Music, where Vanity artists and others were featured across twelve flexi-discs.

I will probably not post all six of these cassettes consecutively. There are a few other tapes archived just about ready to go as well which may be sprinkled in here. Included in this first post are a few extra photos of the box itself, which, as can be seen in the picture, has seen better days.

To be honest, until preparing this post, I haven't listened to these tapes in a long time. This first one is better than I recall, perhaps due to hearing for the first time and rediscovering so many other early 80's minimal electronic releases via Mutant Sounds and the like over the last several months.

The only other recorded appearance I know of from Salaried Man Club is on the compilation Foam posted here a few months ago. That track appears here in a different and extended form as the first track on side B (the entire side (4 tracks) is titled Gray Cross). I hear early Cabaret Voltaire & Throbbing Gristle at times, particularly in the bass lines.

The initial standout track (and the most melodic) is 'The Though of Y' (mis-titled in the zip file), featuring a nice combination of synth & human vocals.

Another crucial Vanity label release from the early 80's - contemporary with, and predating even more of some of the best of this genre.

Enjoy.

V/A - Case of Telegraph Product 2 LP (Telegraph TG-020) 1983

Here is a nice varying collection of music from Japan circa 1983. This is the second part of the Case of Telegraph series, basically a sampler of the Telegraph Records roster including EP-4, Auto Mod, Pablo Picasso, Chance Operation and others.

Evolving out of the Vanity Label group RNA Organism, the two untitled abstract, industrial drone pieces from EP-4 (Unit 3) bookend this collection of mostly post-punk/no-wave tunes. 'Cineraria' by Be-2 is somewhat ambient in comparison to the rest of the tracks here as well and reminds me a bit of Haruomi Hosono's - Paradise View album.

The punk/no wave on the rest of the album sounds at times to those found on the Foam compilation posted here a while back.

Enjoy.

V/A - Alternative Funk-Folie Distinguee LP (Vox&Man/VP 231) 1985

My hard drive has finally been replaced after several diagnostic tests could not locate the problem with the old one. I'm currently on a business trip in the middle of nowhere so I have found some time to work on new posts.

I mentioned this LP a while ago when I posted the Alternative Funk cassette. In hindsight, I think the cassette I posted earlier, which in essence were the 'rejects' to what made the LP cut here, is a bit stronger overall, but there are some interesting pieces here as well. For the most part each track is either synth-pop or 80's electro funk. I think the synth pop tracks stands up a little better over time than the funk tunes.

The most notable artists on this LP comp are Vox Populi!, X Ray Pop & Psyclones, who contribute my favorite piece with a fairly infectious bassline.

I will update this post with cover scans once I return home this weekend.

Enjoy.