“Sometimes it seems Human progression is a myth. We move forward only to be dragged back by the stupidity of individuals who infect with misinformation & false promise. Their numbers seem to grow & So…..
Dark Days are Here Again.”
Leer.
Released September 6, 2019 / Synthesizers, Sampler & percussion / Thomas Leer.
The third installment of the Solanaceae Tau Reissue series is “Epical Obscura“, originally published in July 2000 and heavily influenced by ecological activist Julia Butterfly who saved a giant and ancient redwood tree and surrounding forest in California by living on it as long as it took to get an eternal contract that it will be saved. Three of the tracks use lyrics by her and the all other lyrics are critical observing the state of the world by then too. One of the album tracks reminds me a lot of Algebra Suicide in a positive way;
Nihilistick Noise Archive aims to present the legacy of Solanaceae Tau as best as possible furthermore each album reissue is accompanied by a free single, in this case The Circle c/w Announcement Of Darkness. Get it here.
The original cover art can be seen archived on discogs, slightly altered but still blatantly taken from the innersleeve of an Grateful Dead record to underline the strength and unitiy of alternative culture but due to the re-working of the album it seemed approbiate to update and re-design this too.
As with the preceeding reissues (2007’s Novus Ordo Seclurum and 2003’s Voices From The Ground Behind) the tracks where professionally remastered by Maurizio Pustianaz of Noisebrigade honoring the late Axaxas aka Fenryr aka Andreas Kirchner.
I’ve been in contact with him again as I had the idea to publish some of this projects works on Klappstuhl because they where badly underrepresent anywhere online which was a shame… S.T. never managed to fit into one style be it experimental, electronic darkwave, industrial, neo folkish or cybergoth or whatever and had most likely because of this and limited distribution only a selected followship.
[click to listen]
Landscape pic by Dominik Scythe.
Skull pic by Max Kleinen, thanks to both.
Design & layout fd (full printable artwork included with dl).
Adi Newton, conceptualizing & envisioning Clock DVA since 1978.
2023 sees the first DVA all new album release since 1993’s ‘Sign’. The 2nd (electronic) incarnation of Clock DVA was then already faded out with only Adi Newton and Robert E. Baker left. Dean Dennis had at least participated still to ‘Man Amplified’ before starting his own project Sector in the fall of 1993. Adi Newton did publish the weakest TAGC album ‘Iso Erotic Calibrations’ in 1994 and also the excellent ‘Burning Water’ Recordings dating back to 1987 and 1990 on Side Effekts and stayed as far as known in Italy with very few signs of musical activities besides 1996’s Psychophysicist collaboraton with Andrew McKenzie which had already been recorded in 1994.
A reissue deal with Mute was once rumoured about but nothing came of it so in general all proper DVA albums are still mostly out of print. I guess it is quite difficult to sort it out properly as there have been many group members through the years who contributed even when A. Newton always was the head and main writer.
Vinyl On Demand explored with various formats and boxes the earliest phase from roughly 1978 to 1980 with three different box-sets (4 if you like to count the double 7″ with the book) and which helped me to get my hands on some of the material I only ever heard of before.
But concerning new music the current line-up did not rush with releases.
Maurizio Martinucci (aka TeZ) Permanent DVA Member since 2010.
As is his do-it-all-alone style various sites and announcemnts popped up in the 2000’s but until 2013 when a compilation of unpublished Mid 90’s tracks appeared as “Post Sign” and in 2014 the first new tracks coupled with a multi media approach, remixes and video on an USB Stick in best possible audio quality plus two remixes on a limited 12″ through his Antererio Research Media Com. the Neoteric CD EP in 2016 was the next one with a Remix 12″ following in 2019 and also a Vinyl Reissue.
The Anti Group Project stayed pretty on the backburner besides a new Remaster available in 2013 of 1994’s Adi Newton solo effort, a few compilation tracks up to 2018 and very few live activity but is now fully active again with no less than 3 new works published and another expanded reissue of the singles Compilation. A playlist with TAGC & Clock DVA tracks older and more recent compiled by Adi Newton to promote his appearance as The Anti Group at Cinema Classico’s Overlook in Torino, Italy on the 1st of July 2017 is well worth a listen:
Adi Newton also collaborated with Jack Dangers (of MBM) as SŌON and published one excellent CD in 2019.
Various other projects have seen the light of the day, usually difficult to obtain, expensive or both. It got better since he teamed up with the Italian label / publishing company Rizosfera /NU KFM who handle the european ARM COM Releases for now.
Find full details / tracklisting / formats here.
Incredible 23 years have passed without an regular Keith LeBlanc solo album now, hard to believe as he’s been all over the place all of the time but except some reissues on his / Blanc bandcamp lately there was hardly any solo activity besides 2008’s Chess Moves – Future Blues Project not many seemed to know what to make of as it was a strange hybrid of original recordings with added Instrumentation by Keith, Doug (Wimbish) and Skip (McDonald) – maybe best described as found on dc “Re-production and partial re-instrumentation of old blues tracks using the original tapes”. Then there where regrouping activities as Tack>>Head live and even culminating into the “For The Love Of Money” cover versions album in 2014 which didn’t exactly overmatch it’s expectations. I’m not even sure if the title was meant ironically.
Anyway; 12 Movements Of Boom does.
Of course it might be there where no expectations to see another KLB album which was really regrettable as his incredible mix of electro, hip hop, funk, jazz and whatever style comes to his mind held together by his rhythmic brilliance somehow managed to build up to amazing heights, especially on Time Traveller (Blanc Records 1992) and Stranger Than Fiction (Enigma / Nettwerk 1989) two albums I regularly return to. The selected cast of guest musicians old and new support this all-in vision.
His long time allies Doug & Skip ‘Little Axe’ and a shelved but not forgotten tape with recordings of vocals and poetry from the late Andy Fairley given to him in the 90’s build the solid core of Boom. He dives more into mellower jazz ambience and hip hop here than in the 1990’s without loosing himself and his trademark edgy beats. A very welcome highlight.
A week later, October 25th he released the companion album – Boom Instrumentals & Bonus Tracks.
More Blanc Records digital releases, rarities and reissues are online at bandcamp and further infos on keithLeblanc.com .
Summer is gone finally, so the Dub Producers from Rootz Zombie found time to release a new album via Culture Dub Records and their own bandcamp simultanously. This one is more in the vein of their 2018 first collaborative release “Sounds From The House”, again with wonderful artwork from Legras Fist, a blend of harmonies and grooves enriched with prominent vocalists Sammy Gold, Thomas Anton (from Travelerz), Mista B, Little R and Bobby Surround.
While the download is free you can support the artists and label directly through a pay what you want option @ bandcamp and find more music in both cases, of course it’s just a tip of an iceberg but a good starting point into the current french dub scene as it can be.
Roots Zombie from Bordeaux are a great example because they’re not to strict stylistic and explore Bass Music, Hip Hop, House whatever makes them fancy but thankfully not all at once which makes it a pleasure to listen to.
Just a quick note for July ..
Urbanik Resonance EP
I am very proud about the two recent releases by Hungarian Dub Master Kálmán Nemeth published lately. The EP tracks where recorded early this Spring and released with extraordinary artwork by TapeAir from Budapest. The new album – his first since the excellent Eleven from early 2020 collects recordings from 2021 to late 2022 – made in isolation and compiled thematically coherent.
Pandemic Dub
I rediscovered my love for dub techno (which started with some of the first basic channel 12″s I bought when in Berlin during the early 1990’s) while working from home. It helped to keep me focused, most tracks aren’t too short so if fits in easily with the patient needed sometimes and besides there is a steady but not too dominant groove involved. I know this is not the real point here but it’s easy to enjoy the wordless space created here while being busy with whatever.
OhmikRon was one of dozens artists I discovered via bandcamp and soundcloud and he moves never too much into ambient ambiguity and this makes discovering his releases (and DJ Mixes) a pleasure.
Both releases are Digital Only.
Eric Ramsden from Manchester was one of a handful of early electronic post punk pioneers, unique and uncompromising not completely unlike Robert Rental, Fad Gadget, . He was involved with early Factory acts, the New Hormones label, Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley as The Tiller Boys and maybe best documented with Cabaret Voltaire (as guest musician on record, as opening act on tour and fully absorbed on the Pressure Company live LP). From solo output up to putting a band together (The Bedlamites) and getting recruited for the then Manchester based femme fatale junkie legend Nico as tourband member – with additional stints in the Suns Of Arqua, Psychic TV and the Durutti Column.
This short bio shows a lot unknown facts, thankfully supported by the man himself about his whereabouts and his surprising return to electronic music starting with ‘Man Dog’ in 2014 on Klanggalerie after a 18 years hiatus and continuing until the present day. Find his latest Album ‘No-Go‘ here as CD and DL and a live recording from 2019 promoting the ‘Wire Me Up‘ 2*12″ on soundcloud.
An incredible find, many, many thanks to Hugo Ball.
Soft Cell & Pet Shop Boys: “Purple Zone” (Extended Mix)
This 12″ Video Remix was edited by Myles Matisse.
Official video for “Purple Zone” see here.
“Purple Zone” is taken from Soft Cell’s forthcoming new album, *Happiness not included, out on May, 6th.
While the digital single is out since late March and already the most succesfull Soft Cell single since a very long time the physical
singles will be out as soon as May (CD) and November (12″).
Of course all with different mixes. The CD single even has an extra non-album track while the 12″ tracklist shows 2 exclusive Pet Shop Boys Remixes.
Pre-ordering now just in time for X-Mas is possible here.
Another lost album rediscovery thanks to mobile working lead to this release. Partially it has still a 90’s optimistic Ambient flair with a touch dreamaway but paired with selected speech samples. Soundwise it prequels Fernando Cerqueira’s earlier vaporwave works as Walt Thisney with it’s distinguished slightly unreal appeal up to the final track which dives into drone territory and was published separate in 2004 as EP. This one connects more to his recent works with it’s timeless approach.
The general unreal futuristic feel no matter if generated through different voices or noises, synth or piano sounds is what always caught my attention so this is paired with altered images of Tokyo, Japan, 〒101 0021 tōkyō to, chiyoda city, sotokanda, 1 chōme−15−１ 半田ビル (Original Photo by Gwen King on Unsplash) to reflect this.
‘Asuna’ was his second solo release after Ras.Al.Ghul splitted for good. The first one, ‘Space.Scape’ had been reissued before remixed and remastered by his alter ego Walt Thisney in digital format. Originally issued by Thisco in 2003 as Thisk 12 on CD (and Thisk 19 in 2004) who rececently celebrated their 20th Anniversary with a highly recommended compilation (ltd. LP / DL) 7300 Earth Spins featuring new and old allies of the label he founded together with Luis Van Seixas aka Sci Fi Industries when he too still lived in Portugal back in 2001.
If you order the LP you’ll even get a Compilation CD from 20 Years ago free with it to linder the hurting if you see the postage costs.
Listen and get this insubstantial artificial artefact here >
