MX-80 Sound - 'Big Hits and Hard Attack'

Ok, really, this is the real reason I started doing this blog again. I wanted to post this record, realizing I never did a few years back when I was heavy into these fellas.

Coming out of the oasis of Bloomington, IN (basically the ONLY good thing in Indiana, and a pretty strange place), this band is a combination of influences that I really don't like. I hear a lot of Captain Beefheart, whom I despise, and also maybe some Frank Zappa, who is ok but not my favorite, Velvet Underground, who I also hate, and an assortment of 70's radio rock. Somehow, all this ends up being awesome, and completely unlike anything else, no matter how many people say they 'sound just like Sonic Youth.'

This kind of music just doesn't happen anymore. Here you have some college dudes in the middle of nowhere, just making music and playing for their friends, without ANY real musical worldview. So out of touch with everything going on in '76 that they sound current in 2016. It's fitting that they were discovered by The Residents, who also put out the bulk of their material on their Ralph Records, after Island dropped the band.

Since I can't really relate their sound to anything else other than their influences (which really doesn't cut it), this might get a little detailed.

So, you've got scratchy, 'angular' guitar work that sounds half-improvised, but always inspired. It's also really unpretentious...it never feels like the band is 'trying' to be weird, or experimental, they're just weirdos. You can tell there's a lot of early heavy metal influence in the guitar work as well. And yes, some parts sound strikingly similar to Sonic Youth drones, but more interesting, I would argue.

The bass player is ALWAYS busy, and actually has some of the 'lead' riffs while the guitar fucks around. Best, however, are the drums, which are SO FUCKING HEAVY. It sounds like an old jazz kit being played as hard and fast as possible. Like, I don't even really know, I was just smiling at this guy's playing the whole album, it's way funkier than you'd think for this type of music, and also REALLY idiosyncratic, maybe a little like Primus.

Primus is actually a good comparison, come to think of it. Except the vocals aren't super fucking annoying, and the songs don't feel as laborious.

Speaking of the vocalist, who sounds a little like Jesse Michaels from Operation Ivy, except crazy, he is VERY good at his limited style. He's not the best singer, but he doesn't just get the fuck out of the way like most noise-rock vocalists. If he's not conversationally joking about PCB's and kidnapping girls, he's honking on his out-of-tune saxophone.

I could just go on. I don't even know how many times I laughed at the bizarre jokes in the lyrics. Rich Stim has perfect comedic timing in the way that only the Dead Milkmen or The Frogs perfected.  When he does get serious, it's more creepy than anything, and makes the band seem sort of menacing, like their live shows must have been totally out of control.

Aaaaanyways, their second album, 'Out of the Tunnel,' and the third, 'Crowd Control,' are also very good. Their later stuff is spotty, but I'm glad they're still slightly active. Definitely my favorite band on Ralph Records, which is pretty insane considering their roster includes Tuxedomoon, Snakefinger, and of course The Residents.

NOTE: My version also includes their first EP, as 2 long tracks at the beginning of the album. It's good, but 'Hard Attack' is where it's at.

MX-80 Sound - 'Big Hits and Hard Attack'

Tracklist:

1. Train to Loveland / You Turn Me On / SCP / Til Death Do Us Part
2. Myonga Von Bontee / Boy Trouble - Girl Trouble / Tidal Wave
3. Man on the Move
4. Kid Stuff
5. Fascination
6. Summer '77
7. PCB's
8. Crushed Ice
9. Tidal Wave
10. Theme from 'Checkmate'
11. Facts-Facts
12. You're Not Alone
13. Civilized / Demeyes
14. Afterbirth / Aftermath
15. Sad Girls (Bonus Track)

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Singers and Players - 'War of Words'

I've also been listening to a lot of Jamaican music. All the way from ska and rocksteady to the dub and roots reggae of the 70's. Of course, I wouldn't post something here unless it were a little out of the ordinary. Lots of dub has strange qualities...I mean, it IS a genre founded on getting high and doing the craziest mixes you can think of to pre-recorded tracks. It just sounds like pure fun. This album, however, is not fun at all.

Initially I saw this described as 'gothic reggae,' and I guess that's not far off the mark. It's got a very skeletal, sterile dub sound. The echo and reverb is all harsh and digital, and for some reason there's also a lot of super-distorted guitar, which is atypical of dub. The lyrics are all performed in creepy whispers, or a really deep, smoked-out toasting voice.

Everything, down to the black and white cover photo, conjures up a deeply depressive vibe, something also atypical of dub. While it's normally bass-heavy and minimal, this is heavy in different ways.

If you're looking to get into reggae, but want to start with the furthest possible point from Bob Marley, this is probably a good bet.

Singers and Players - 'War of Words' - 1982

Tracklist:

1. Devious Woman
2. Quante Jubila
3. Sit and Wonder
4. Fit to Survive
5. Reaching the Bad Man
6. World of Dispensation
7. '91 Vibration

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Terje Rypdal - 'Descendre'

Going to try summarizing what I've been listening to for the past 2 years...until I get bored anyways. Winter always gets me in a jazz mood, especially ECM stuff. This label specializes in clinically-produced, note-perfect jazz that a lot of people find too sterile. That's true if you stick with stuff like Pat Metheny and Oregon, but a lot of the Scandinavian artists featured on the label are pretty innovative.

Terje Rypdal is a Norwegian jazz-fusion guitarist with several albums out on ECM. The double-LP 'Odyssey' is maybe his best work, but I think this one from 1979 distills that album's best ideas into a one-album set, without any 20-minute ambient soundscapes. Despite that, it's still very dreamy. Although Rypdal developed his style in a totally different time, his playing is very shoegazey.

According to the information I can find, most of his recorded material is at least partially improvised, which is pretty impressive considering how focused the mood here is. Well, it's not just here...most of his work has a late-night, creepy vibe, that would be taken to extremes by dark-jazz groups like Bohren and Der Club of Gore in the 2000's.

Good stuff to zone out to. I'd recommend it even if you're not a jazz fan, because this reminds me a lot of post-rock, which makes sense because a lot of the best post-rock seems to come from Scandinavia as well.

Terje Rypdal - 'Descendre' - 1979

Tracklist:

1. Avskjed
2. Circles
3. Descendre
4. Innseiling
5. Men of Mystery
6. Speil

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Reader submission: Avant-garde strangeness from the deep web

Got another reader submission the other day, this time from someone who found me on the RateYourMusic website. He sent me a few albums, and a link to his weekly podcast.

He goes by the name of Tunnel Rat, and his music is somewhere in between bizarro Jandek outsider improv and the early chaotic releases of Beck. I'm actually not sure where he's based, but he's had records put out by labels from Florida and Canada. The one on Panama City's Fork and Spoon Records, called Rothko, features free form improvisation on bass, and some very strange spoken word sections. There are also some field recordings and odd samples, giving it a definite vibe of 'bedroom music.'

It's a very short affair, with the longest track being just over three minutes. Despite the amateurish recording quality, Tunnel Rat sounds pretty proficient on the bass, and some of this stuff reminds me of 60's avant-garde jazz. The poetry set to it gives the whole thing a completely different feel, though.

The other release I was sent, which is titled Hide The Syrup Spacemen, is even more avant-garde and strange. This was the one that reminded me of Beck's early sound experiments. Odd in-jokes are combined with distant-sounding field recordings and some spastic mandolin playing. I don't know what to make of it all, but if you were a fan of the Obscuro! radio program, you'll definitely be into this.

His internet podcast is sort of a discussion on experimental and spoken-word music, but it also touches on conspiracy theories, current news events and the benefits of the RateYourMusic website. It's every bit as strange as you'd think it is from hearing the music.

Thanks for the submission, Tunnel Rat, and to everyone else, keep 'em coming!

Some scare-tacular listening for All Hallow's Eve 2014

Even though I'm focusing on my movie blog right now, I had to come back with some scary albums for Halloween. Some of these are actually kind of frightening, but most are just silly. They're all out of the Obscuro! radio program vaults, from my numerous Halloween theme shows.


1. Anton LaVey - 'Strange Music' EP

The founder of the Satanic Church (and author of the Satanic Bible) is also, hilariously, fairly proficient on the pipe organ. He has another album of mostly instrumental stuff called 'The Devil Takes a Holiday,' and it's pretty funny to me that this dude obviously can poke fun at himself. Anyhow, the majority of these tunes are his versions on old standards (i.e. 'Gloomy Sunday.') It's not great, but it's totally the type of thing you can throw on at a Halloween party.


2. Lucifer - 'Black Mass'

Electronic music pioneer Mort Garson did this album under the Satanic pseudonym, presumably because it's darker music than his other stuff. If you like the horror-movie synth soundtracks of the 80's, or the library music stuff I've posted here, you'll probably dig this. I did feature it in a previous Halloween post, but the blog I linked to for a download is apparently long-gone, so I re-uploaded it myself.


3. The Elm Street Group - 'Freddy's Greatest Hits'

Of all the dumbed-down horror movie merchandise to come out of the 80's ('Toxic Crusaders,' anyone?) this might take the cake for stupidest. Some no-name studio musicians concocted these run-of-the-mill synth-pop tunes (many of which are covers of 50's and 60's novelty songs) and somehow got Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger) to lend his voice to them. It's all pretty bad, but 'Do The Freddy' at least has novelty appeal. I guess by '87, the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise was pretty much a joke anyways.


4. Moevot - 'Ézléýfbdréhtr Vépréùb Zùérfl Màzàgvàtre Érbbédréà'

Okay, THIS is genuinely scary. An anonymous 'black metal' musician, whose music sounds more like recordings from inside a long-buried tomb than actual metal. I guess it's not to dissimilar from the ambient tracks on Burzum albums, just....way more poorly recorded. And it's got these weird groaning vocals that sound like a ghost. I dunno. It's fascinating, if nothing else.


Happy Halloween, y'all....

More incredibly strange metal

Here are a few more of these oddball metal releases I've collected over the years...

First, two non-classics from the Metal Enterprises label. See this post and this post for more info on that fiasco...

Kalaschnikov, like the other artists in the ME stable, probably just wanted distribution for their mediocre album ('The Torture Never Stops') but got ripped off like so many others when the label did a fake 'follow up' record with their own in-house musicians/producers. Unlike the other groups (such as Killer Fox, whose original recordings were just unlistenable garbage) Kalaschnikov's sound was at least weird on its own.

The whole album kinda feels like it was written in a day, including the lyrics, which are so over-the-top 'evil' you have to hear them to believe them. It's like somebody told the vocalist to just sing about stuff that was the opposite of the Bible, so you get classics like 'Kill Your Neighbor' and 'Devil's Your Hero.' Despite the crappy production, it's a pretty good time, and you can't really hate songs like 'Rockin' By the Graveyard' and 'Video Monsters.' The lack of musicianship also seems to have resulted in some unusual guitar riffs in a kind of Voivod-ish way.

So, then, enter the ME staff's version of Kalaschnikov, present on their second (and final) album 'Desert Storm.' It sounds like they weren't even trying on this one. Two long tracks of obvious space-filling 'ambient' stuff, a few songs that sound a little too musically competent to be the ME staff...my guess is that they got hold of some Kalaschnikov demos for a second album, and dubbed their own awful vocals over. Then there are a handful that are obviously the same people responsible for the second Killer Fox and Thrash Queen albums. The ridiculous female operatic vocals and the snarly cartoonish male vocals, bad drum machines and totally non-metal guitar tones. Oh yeah, and whistling solos.

Yeah. Fucking whistling solos on what is essentially a thrash metal song ('Czarewitch').

Well...basically, if you're for some reason collecting all the Metal Enterprises releases, these will be of use to you. Otherwise, probably not? Oh well, the first album is enjoyably funny at least.

Kalaschnikov - 'The Torture Never Stops'

Tracklist:

1. Devil's Your Hero
2. The Haunted House
3. Rockin' By the Graveyard
4. Kill Your Neighbor
5. Chosen One
6. Demon's Rebellion (Instrumental)
7. Video Monsters
8. Hell's Runnin' Wild
9. Demon's Rebellion (Vocal)

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Kalaschnikov - 'Desert Storm'

Tracklist:

1. Czarewitch
2. Siberian Werewolf
3. Homage to the Holocaust
4. Headbanger
5. Stinking Shrine
6. Scull Scratcher

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Lastly, here's a release that might not be EXACTLY metal, but it definitely has metal influences (mostly from the doom genre) and it's certainly fucked up. While there are quite a few bands calling themselves Warning, this is the 1982 release by the German synth-doom group. Actually, the vocals here wouldn't sound too out of place on a Metal Enterprises release...they're like...death metal growls? I guess? But put through all sorts of effects to make it sound like aliens. The music is literally a head-on collision between OG doom metal (think Sabbath and Witchfinder General) and euro-disco synth stuff.

It's pretty goofy, but it's also very enjoyable, and occasionally really creepy. One review compares them to Rammstein, and I guess that's not far off, but WAY WAY more 80's than that description lets on. It really does sound like Kraftwerk playing satanic metal before that kind of metal even existed. If you read this blog, you'll like it I'm sure.

Warning - S/T

Tracklist:

1. Why Can the Bodies Fly
2. Magic Castle
3. Wild Roses for the Exit
4. Darkness
5. Out of Tune
6. The Door (Pt. I)
7. The Door (Pt. II)
8. A Message
9. Warning
10. Lost in Time
11. In the Crowd

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2 classics of 'incredibly strange metal'

Here are a couple relics from my days as a metal radio guy. Hopefully I will put some other stuff like this up here in the near future.

First up, an experimental death metal band from Italy called Trifixion. Apparently they only put out this one album, in 1995, although there is at least one other band with the same name.

It's way more varied than pretty much any other death metal release out there...atmospheric keyboard passages lead to psych-rock jams, which lead to trebly black metal guitar and psychotic screaming. I'm not really sure what kind of audience these guys were going for, and maybe that's why they only did one album.

I guess some of the experimentation could be called similar to Voivod (my favorite metal band) but basically if those guys were death/black metal instead of thrash. It isn't particularly well-recorded, but all the musicians are super-talented so you never really notice. The artwork is fairly creepy, too. Probably more out there than most experimental metal fans can tolerate, but outsider/weirdo music appreciators will dig this.

Trifixion - 'Abschurfungepoch'

Tracklist:

1. Fear, Is All That I See
2. Col Heaven
3. Litanie
4. World Called Truth
5. Immortal
6. You Breed
7. Abschurfungepoch

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Next is a release that isn't nearly as challenging or intelligent. Actually, it's not intelligent at ALL. You may remember me posting about Killer Fox and the awful Metal Enterprises label. Click that link, please, so I don't have to recap.

This is another outing from the producers of the second Killer Fox album, and it's just as awful, if not more so. There are some very distinct (and completely out-of-place) reggae influences, and it also has the WORST Beatles cover I've ever heard. The female vocalist who is present on the Thrash Queen album is on this quite a bit. Also, it seems like they included some demos by the original Godzilla band, as if the album wasn't inconsistent enough already. Just terrible, stupid, and entertaining.

Godzilla - 'II'

Tracklist:

1. Ingoz
2. Helter Skelter
3. Ass of the Prophet
4. I Followed the Zombie
5. Cinderella Rockefella
6. Halfbreed
7. Killing Joke
8. Foul
9. Outgoz

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Rare proto-punk megapost

While doing my proto-punk, punk and post-punk radio show, I often came across some fairly rare releases (not PHYSICAL, but y'know). Some of these took weeks of searching to dig up. Now, I'm dropping a bunch of 'em on you. This post is for the proto-punk stuff, obviously, which would be from the early 60's to the mid-70's.

Heavy Goods Vehicle - 'Keeper of the Sands'

Loud, super-stoned and super-slowed blues rock, in the tradition of Black Sabbath and Pentagram. Maybe a little bluesier than either of those bands, but just as noisy. This album totally sounds like garbage, probably demo recordings of some kind, but it's pretty great because it sounds like they're breaking the tape deck with their volume. Includes a completely incomprehensible cover of 'Wild Thing' that somehow manages to be sloppier than the original. Maybe more proto-doom-metal than proto-punk, but it's got the spirit.

NOTE: The only proper tracklist for this I could find was COMPLETELY different from what I have, so I'm just listing the tracks alphabetically.

Tracklist:

1. 1976
2. Capitalist Blues
3. Feed Back (1976)
4. Heavy Goods Vehicle
5. Heavy Music
6. I'm a Man
7. July Morning
8. Keeper of the Sands (Intro)
9. Lucifer
10. Race with the Devil
11. Time to Cry
12. Wild Thing

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Pi Corp - 'Lost in the Cosmic Void'

Early artifact from the same Ohio scene that produced Rocket From The Tombs, Vertical Slit, Pere Ubu and the electric eels. It's fairly dissimilar from those releases, being more like early Pink Floyd I guess. But, the experimentation and gleefully noisy interludes definitely get it an inclusion in the proto-punk 'genre.' Plus, I think a few members went on to be in 'real' punk bands, so yeah. It sounds like a live recording, and honestly it isn't too great, but it's historical. My favorite tracks are 'Together,' which kinda sounds like a simplified Black Sabbath jam with weird echoed-out yelling over it, and 'Shiiit,' which is a psych-rock jam filtered through basement recording.

Tracklist:

1. Introid
2. The Dirge
3. Drumola
4. Together
5. Devil Weed
6. Just Another Song
7. LSD 1
8. Space War
9. Shiiit
10. Telarama Boogie
11. Organ Over Easy

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Doug Snyder and Bob Thompson - 'Daily Dance'

This one's pretty amazing. Supposedly, these guys went home after an early Iggy and the Stooges show and started writing these noisy, semi-structured jams. They were also from Ohio, although a more rural part. The 'songs' contain no vocals, just super blown-out heavy guitar and equally distorted, frenzied drumming. It actually has a feel not unlike the band Sleep, but obviously less structured. The two guys also regrouped in the late 90's to cut another LP, but I've never heard it. This one was independently released in '73, in a 500-copy run.

Tracklist:

1. Daily Dance
2. Living with the Crocodiles
3. Time Overlaps Itself
4. Soul and Universe
5. Hit and Run
6. Truth is a Pathless Land
7. Teenage Emergency

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Gudibrallan - 'II'

Swedish bang that DEFINITELY sounds a little closer to the punk era, and this goes way back to '71. Although usually listed as prog-rock, don't think it's gonna be a bunch of flutes and weird time signatures. It's actually more like the early Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart style of prog-rock, where it's just fucked up sounding. I guess there are elements of Swedish folk music here, but I don't know that stuff well enough to pick it out. There is definitely some wild saxophone and lots of yelling though. Somehow, this is the band's second album, too.

Tracklist:

1. T-Doja
2. Sosse
3. Terjes Klagan
4. Sprutan
5. Sommar Uti Hagen
6. John Boy
7. Berusa Er
8. Hispan
9. Visa Om Jungfrun

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This Heat - 'Live at Krefeld'

More hard-to-find shit for ya. I was pretty surprised to find that this release (from 1980) isn't up anywhere else at the moment. People are finally starting to discover this band, so I figured that an actually good-quality live recording of them would be more popular, but I guess not.

First of all, I'm not the type of person who really gives a shit about live recordings usually. I don't listen to them, unless there's not an alternative (like the Wire 'Document and Eyewitness' recordings.) I'd rather hear studio creations, and if I give a shit enough to hear the songs performed live, I will go to a show (which doesn't happen too often.)

This release isn't really any different for me...I'd probably listen to 'Deceit' over this any day, BUT on the flip side, it's really cool to hear how accurately these guys could recreate those recordings in a live setting. It couldn't have been easy, considering all the crazy shit going on. And, I don't think it was a large band, either...just three or four guys?

If you're big into these dudes, you will probably like this...there's a track called 'Unreleased Title,' and I can't really tell if it's an unreleased track or not, because it's been so long since I've put their studio albums on. But, it probably is? Because, this recording seems to have a pretty good representation of their short career, which tracks from both studio full lengths, and 'Health and Efficiency' from the EP of the same name.

Probably only essential for completists, but y'know...

This Heat - 'Live at Krefeld'

Tracklist:

1. Paper Hats
2. The Fall of Saigon/Testcard
3. S.P.Q.R.
4. Makeshift Swahili
5. Unreleased Title
6. Music Like Escaping Gas
7. A New Kind of Water
8. Twilight Furniture
9. Health and Efficiency

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Rustic Hinge - 'Replicas'

Going back into the vaults today...Tried looking this album up, and only found it on one page (possibly Russian?) and the link seemed to be dead. So, once again, it turns up here so it doesn't get lost in time.

This is a remnant of my proto-punk, punk and post-punk radio program. I probably downloaded it because it's Captain Beefheart-influenced instrumental avant-garde shit, which is a surefire way to piss off radio listeners. Looking back now, the group apparently had members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and High Tide, both bands I used to be a pretty big fan of, so I don't know why I never found that out before. But oh well.

Basically, that brief description is all I have to say about the release...if you (like me) enjoy some of Captain Beefheart's music, but are fairly annoyed by his vocals, this is something you might dig. The music is fairly similar, and there aren't any vocals...one review credits Arthur Brown with vocals somewhere, but I couldn't find it. 

So, it's very complex, jazz-based math-rock type stuff (before there was such a thing) played with a basic guitar/drums/bass lineup. Some of it actually reminds me of a less-heavy Gore for some reason, and the later tracks veer into Sun City Girls world-music-on-western-instruments territory (which is pretty cool.)

Despite the image all this may conjure up, it's not an unpleasant listen by any means, and some of it (not the concrete noise stuff) could be good background music. Anyhow. Check it out, if ya want. Also, apparently, the whole first side is parts of a movement? Dunno.

Rustic Hinge - 'Replicas'

Tracklist:

1. T on the Lawn for 3

    a. Excitation Wavelength

    b. Litmus Transformation

    c. Opus Pocus

    d. Crystallized Petard

    e. Kinesis

    f. But That Was Then That Was But

    g. ---

2. Last Time

3. High Tide Play Rustic Hinge

4. Rumanian Folk Dance No. 1

5. Macedonia

6. Radio Kabul

7. Rumanian Folk Dance No. 2

8. Mastadon

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Little Stevie McCabe - 'Sweat it Out'

Been a bit. So, here's some more music from the darkest depths of my collection...

I really don't know too much about this one, other than it's fairly bizarre. The download I snagged was from the long-gone (but awesome) Decrepit Tapes blog, and that link is no longer functioning. It apparently comes from 1986. This guy (Little Stevie) has some connection to the lo-fi scene in New Zealand (groups like The Dead C and The 3Ds) and played/plays(??) in a group called Axemen, which is described as 'Half Japanese attempting to play Chrome.'

I haven't heard them, so I can't comment on that, but this album kinda reminds me of Renaldo and the Loaf maybe mixed with a little Half Japanese. Or Ween? I don't know. It's very weird, but not in a 'let's be weird' way...this guy just seems genuinely strange. Some of the songs are pretty catchy, and have an 'old-timey' vibe to them...like maybe he listened to a lot of old swing, jazz and blues while writing this stuff? It also comes off as maybe the home recordings of a teenager, which might be why he adopted the name 'Little Stevie McCabe' for the release (he just goes by Steve McCabe in Axemen.)

Whatever the case, it's some very strange stuff, and it's clearly ALL him...there are no drums for the most part, just out of tune guitars and shaky vocals. I can see similarities between this and some of the weirder New Zealand stuff, like the Tall Dwarfs, but this goes way way way into outsider music territory.

There are a whole shit-ton of songs, too, and most of them are too short to get sick of. Give it a listen if you want to hear something playfully demented.

Little Stevie McCabe - 'Sweat it Out'

Tracklist:

1. Love Feel
2. A Seeker Peeped Into Space
3. Sweat it Out
4. The Place
5. Sea Spray Gets in Your Eyes
6. More
7. Ulterior Locomotive
8. Sparing Partner
9. Take the E-Train
10. Sounds Like...A Drunken Party
11. Your Little Chevrolet
12. Chip On My Shoulder
13. Spring Song
14. Aunty-Anti
15. Clues to a Dream
16. Dirt in the Blood
17. Crazy
18. Life Doesn't Go On
19. We Love Louis
20. Terminal of Love
21. The Call of the Forbidden Sea
22. Noise Must Go On
23. That's Why You're a Human Being
24. Welcome to the Province of Nausea
25. The Way I Walk

DOWNLOAD

Obscuro! Mixtape #24 - 'Summer smokeouts'

Been a while, so I compiled another DJ-mix type thing. It's a little different than the last few.

Mostly, it's what I'd consider 'summer' jams...lots of breezy instrumental funk and jazz, some dirty south rap classics, and a bit of new school rap as well. Enjoy!!

Obscuro! Mixtape #24 - 'Summer smokeouts' by Bizarrojerry on Mixcloud

Pine Hill - 'Isolation Album'

Here's another album from the lost days of the Obscuro! radio program.

It seems to only be up a couple places now, so I'm posting it here. Not one of my favorites, but someone will enjoy it I'm sure.

It's very low-key folk-rock with some psychedelic influences, and a very homemade quality to the whole thing. But, it's more like a Guided By Voices record, where the whole thing is cohesive even though it's clearly home demos. The band does come up with some unique studio tricks along the way, like pitch shifted guitars and weirdo percussion.

Some of the tracks are catchy, but most fit the album title, 'Isolation.' It's a very downer album on the whole. I also have no idea what country it comes from, as it does have a lot of British rock influences, but it also feels like it could've been made in the 60's when the release date is '77. A couple of the songs even veer into definite weirdo territory, like 'Insane,' and 'Old Soldiers Never Die.'

Basically, it's perfect for a pleasant drive in the country, somewhere that you can truly experience isolation. I'd be willing to bet these guys holed up in some weird country house to write and record this album. No idea if they did anything afterwards under a different name, either.

Pine Hill - 'Isolation Album'

Tracklist:

1. Apertif
2. Clockwork Apology
3. Priscilla
4. ...Sometimes
5. Roundabout Rosie
6. A Sense of Union
7. Work
8. Hero
9. Personnel
10. Old Soldiers Never Die
11. Beecher Street
12. Insane
13. The Cook's Story
14. Letter From Fiddler's Green

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Robo Arigo - 'Sexy Thing'

I haven't gotten into a whole lot of Afro-funk yet, but this album is pretty damn good. To be sure, it has some elements I've heard in stuff like Fela Kuti...the hypnotic, repetitive grooves and chant-like vocals, but then there's the influence of what seems to be early Prince and Parliament. The sound is very lean (kind of lo-fi, but not overly so) and stripped down, and the vocal melodies are really catchy, especially in 'Them Crazy' and 'Sexy Thing.' The only track that abandons the funk groove is the last one, which I didn't care for too much.

As to what instrument Arigo is playing here, I have no idea, but everything is completely on point. The interplay between guitar and bass is especially great...the guitar could almost have been pulled from some mid-period Meat Puppets recordings. The basslines are similar to some of Rick James' early stuff, too, especially on 'Sexy Thing' which is as great as anything off James' 'Street Songs' album.

The album is also unfortunately very rare, and I couldn't find it on a single music blog, so here ya go. It's not exceptionally weird, although it is very hypnotic...just really good funk music. Oh yeah, it also has a kinda weird Bob Marley cover...

Robo Arigo - 'Sexy Thing'

Tracklist:

1. Konastone Ponk
2. Girls Reservation
3. Get Up, Stand Up
4. Them Crazy
5. I Want You
6. Sexy Thing
7. I'm Gonna Love You

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Bobby Brown - Discography

No, not THAT Bobby Brown...

This is a bizarro one-man-band from Hawaii who recorded during the mid-seventies. I don't know why this guy's stuff is slowly disappearing from the internet, because it is quite exceptional. It kind of bridges the (albeit large) gap between spaced-out new age drone and psych-folk, with a lot of laid-back Hawaiian influence as well.

The story goes that this loner surfer-type guy built this giant....instrument?? I guess?? out of whatever he had laying around. So he literally plays all the sounds you're hearing at once, at least on most of the tracks. You can kind of see his gadget on the cover of his first LP, 'The Enlightening Beam of Axonda,' and it looks basically fucked. He and his dog would travel around in an old van wherever the surfing was good, giving impromptu performances of these strange, mellow songs. I've read his voice described as similar to Tim Buckley, which I guess is kind of true.

The first album is very odd, sounding kind of like a gamelan orchestra playing 70's folk rock. The second album, 'Bobby Brown Live,' is not quite so strange, but the story behind it is definitely weird. Supposedly, he was picked to open for Fleetwood Mac (which, to me, sounds like a big deal) and recorded the performance for this album. Brown, however, was unsatisfied with the crowd sounds(!), feeling they distracted from the music, and re-recorded the entire thing in his van AFTER the show. Whatever the case, it doesn't really sound like a 'live' record or anything.

A few years later, he did a much more pop-oriented album called 'Prayers of a One Man Band.' Well...it's HIS interpretation of pop music, which is still pretty odd. It's got a lot of vintage synths and drum machines, and a lot of people seem to feel it's his best release. I dunno about that, but it is very good. The songs are also MUCH shorter, which might appeal to some listeners.

Anyhow, here are all three albums for ya to check out:

Bobby Brown - 'The Enlightening Beam of Axonda'

Tracklist:

1. I Must Be Born
2. My Hawaiian Home
3. Oneness with the Forest
4. Tiny Wind of Shandl

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Bobby Brown - 'Bobby Brown Live'

Tracklist:

1. Hawaii
2. In Search of a Dream
3. Let Me on Board
4. My Dog is Every Bit as Good as Me
5. The Waterfall of Love
6. Lonely Boy No More
7. Mother Nature We're Guilty/I Don't Wanna Be No Macho Joe
8. Motherless Child

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Bobby Brown - 'Prayers of a One Man Band'

Tracklist:

1. The Boy a Sailor
2. Steamboat Mama
3. Sail On
4. Lady Tennessee
5. Jungle Cowboy
6. Hawaii Nei I'll Miss You
7. The Peaceful Ko 'Olaus
8. My Dog the Outlaw
9. If the Angels Cry
10. Sweet Clean Air
11. I'm Bolieve
12. The Cry of the Wild

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Obscuro! Mixtape #23 - 'Garbage can full of funk 5'

It's been a looonnng time since I did one of these, so, here ya go.

Pretty similar to the other 'garbage can' mixes...lots of murked-out, lo-fi rap. This one's probably a little weirder than the last few, though.

Obscuro! Mixtape #23 - 'Garbage can full of funk 5' by Bizarrojerry on Mixcloud

Konrad - 'Evil'

For some reason, this damn album seems to follow me wherever I go! When I was still doing the Obscuro! radio program, a few people would CONSTANTLY request the track 'My Girl,' and now I've got a request for the full album to be posted, so I must oblige. It is a great record, I won't deny it. Somewhere between the DIY minimal synth stuff of the 80's and sci-fi acid casualty, Konrad is a one-man-band who cranks out some of the catchiest tunes you'll ever hear about binary code, matrices, and music scientists (whatever those are.) There is also a spot-on parody of The Police that's about...police.

Also, the guy behind this project is QUITE a character. He claims to have both created the idea behind 'The Matrix' films, and to have sold speakers to Celine Dion. I'm not sure if either is true, but here's hoping.

Konrad - 'Evil'

Tracklist:

1. It's Only a Matrix
2. Music Scientist
3. Don't Want No Police
4. Alien
5. Working Man
6. Keep On Playing That Jazz
7. My Girl Likes to Buy
8. The Man of Mystery
9. Blue Sunrise
10. One Way Motorcycle Ride
11. Seems Like One of Those Days
12. DMZ Bolero
13. People

***LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST***
Preorder the re-release here.

Rockin' Rollin' Blues Band - 'Wild and Untamed'

Here's another one of those random private press LP's that seems to have disappeared from the web. From what I can tell, I got it off the Cosmic Hearse blog a while back, which unfortunately looks like it's dead. Shame, cuz that guy posted some insane stuff.

This record isn't 'insane' per se, but it's pretty strange. Probably, it's a snapshot of a local band recorded in some friend's studio, but it still puts the listener into an interesting moment in time. For one thing, this band seems very 'out of touch' with what was going on (it was apparently released in '73.) In an era dominated by hard rock, these guys/gals were cranking out 50's rockabilly-influenced bar jams. But, a few of the members (specifically the guitarist) are clearly influenced by the hard rock/heavy metal of, say, Deep Purple. So, it's an unusual mix. I might go so far as to call a couple of these cuts 'proto-punk.'

Then there are the vocals. To say that they 'aren't very good' doesn't really do them justice. Sure, they aren't 'technically' good, but they are interesting at the very least. There is a guy and girl, who sometimes sing together, but often take different sections of songs. The girl's voice almost has an operatic quality sometimes, and the guy is a little gruff but mostly smooth. Neither sounds like they give too much of a shit. Judging by the cut-up pictures that serve as the album cover, I'd say these are probably some drugged-out bikers.

I'm also factoring the lyrics into this judgement, because they have this kinda backwoods vibe to them...not like they intentionally wanted to conjure this up but that they couldn't help but pull it into their music.

So, maybe that makes this album a little more 'authentic' blues than a lot of other 70's stuff? I dunno. But, if you like sloppy, trashy blues rock like Janis when she was with Big Brother, then you will probably dig this. The guitarist is really good at least, and a couple of their songs are pretty catchy.

No track names, sorry, apparently they were lost in time.

Rockin' Rollin' Blues Band - 'Wild and Untamed'

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Lewis - 'L'Amour'

This is one of those private press LP's that mostly got re-discovered because of its silly cover. But, that cover, coupled with the strange music within, makes this guy seem almost like a David Lynch character.

The music is fairly subdued...mostly acoustic guitars and odd synthesizers, with Lewis' deep voice overlaid. Someone on RateYourMusic has described it as 'Jandek covering the 'Twin Peaks' theme,' which isn't far off the mark. It's very mellow, but also kind of creepy...slightly amateurish, but also fully realized, which is unique for a vanity release.

I don't really know much else to say about it...it's not entirely 'my thing,' but it's also very unique and interesting to my ears. Maybe you will like it.

Lewis - 'L'Amour'

Tracklist:

1. I Thought the World of You
2. Cool Night in Paris
3. My Whole Life
4. Even Rainbows Turn Blue
5. Like to See You Again
6. Things Just Happen That Way
7. Summer's Moon
8. Let's Fall in Love Tonight
9. Love Showered Me
10. Romance for You

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MC Trachiotomy - '...w/Love from Tahiti'

This might be the most insane rap album you ever hear. I'm using the term 'rap' very loosely as well, by the way...there isn't much here that resembles traditional rapping, sampling, or even music.

So, let me at least TRY to describe it in terms that Trach would likely appreciate. Imagine one of those old, cassette-dubbed rap albums that sounds like garbage, and was put together by people who didn't know what they were doing. Samples are chopped up incorrectly, don't line up on time, and the beats are mixed all wack. Then, imagine that the guy doing all this mixed a little too much LSD in with his regular cough syrup and weed, causing him to spit 'verses' that are almost anti-rap. Sometimes he's just grunting, sometimes he's 'crooning' on beat, and every once in a while he spits some fire, but it's almost always buried in distortion and his heavy New Orleans accent.

That should give you some semblance of the tuneage here. It's literally like nothing else. And, considering the dude is a surrealist prankster who has some connection to the Butthole Surfers, it's pretty obvious that this is all intentional.

Some of it is genuinely creepy, while other stuff will just boggle your mind (i.e. a deranged race car sketch set to a lurching sample.) And, of course, some of it is just dope, head-nodding Nawlins rap. DEFINITELY check this stuff out if you thought rap only started getting weird in the last few years.

MC Trachiotomy - '...w/Love from Tahiti'

Tracklist:

1. EKG
2. Form of Gardenias
3. Now Thatcha Droolin'
4. Along Th' Coast
5. South Pacific Weenie Roast
6. Midway Dining
7. Drop Th' Kids Off at the Pool
8. Long to Hold You
9. Bareboat Blessing
10. Stay Awake
11. Fix You Martini
12. Valentine (Instrumental)
13. Palpitations (ft. Bisquittino)
14. S.S. Ssumpn' Sseet
15. Can You Feel It
16. Angle Dust
17. Discover It
18. You're on the Phone
19. Where You Gonna Go
20. Last Thing I Ever Heard (I Never Saw It)

DL