NEWS

09.27.2016

3 European Cassette Underground Releases Out Today

SHIPPING NOW: 3 reissues from the underground cassette trading world of the 1980s in Europe.

Diseño Corbusier – Stadia LP
$16.00 Add to cart

SIDE A
Festival Para Dos
Silencio
El Circulo De La Infancia
Flanco – Dama
Malinconia

SIDE B
Le Chat
Chiquillo 83
Clónica
La Fanatica
Mi Propia Vision
Harakiri
Arde En Sus Ojos La Luz

Diseño Corbusier is the avant-garde electronics duo of Javier G. Marín and Ani Zinc, formed in Granada, Spain 1981. Like Sheffield’s relation to London during the punk explosion in the UK, Granada developed an experimental music scene 400 kilometers south of Madrid. As a child, there were no records in Ani’s house, so she grew up listening to the radio and was hypnotized after hearing ‘Remember Love’, by Yoko Ono. While attending university in Granada she responded to an ad in a music magazine by Javier, “If you’re into bands like Cabaret Voltaire or Flying Lizards, call me”.

The duo recorded their debut album “Stadia” in 1982 and self-released as a limited edition cassette on their label Auxilio de Cientos. They drew influences from contemporaries like SPK, Throbbing Gristle, Esplendor Geométrico and DAF. They employed the ’cut-up’ technique William Burroughs used to write his books to splicing their magnetic tape loops. Instruments used included a Korg Lambda, Boss DR-55 drum machine, Roland SH 101, and MFB 501 drum machine. The lack of money to buy more expensive instruments forced the duo to be more creative. Everything was recorded directly to a cassette player that was plugged into a Revox B77 reel to reel tape machine to add echo. Ani manipulated and treated her naive, menacing vocals to match Javier’s processed rhythms. These early sketches contain atonal, arhythmic, thick shifting curtains of synth, loops and radio samples. For this reissue we’ve added 7 bonus tracks taken from various cassette compilations, as well as three previously unreleased songs. Elements of industrial music, primitivistic techno and vocal manipulation are fused with a Dadaist approach utilizing modern technology.

All songs were remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The front cover is an exact replica of the band’s original design, restored by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes a 4 page xeroxed booklet with photos, press clippings and liner notes from Javier. “Powerful and evocative, soundtrack music for a rising storm or revolt.” Sound of Pig magazine 1985

SIDE A
Message Through Hertz
Sex By Force
Ouverture
Ton Retrait Des Eaux
Hand In Hand

SIDE B
Leders Klub
Invisible Man
Zoophilic Lolita
Stranger
After The Last Gaze

Die Form is a French post-industrial and electronic band formed in 1977-1978. The name ‘Die Form’ means ‘(the) form/shape’ in German and is a play on the English homonym ‘deformed’ and on the French homonym ‘difforme’ (deformed). Die Form is the primary project of electronic musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began by recording a number of experimental cassette releases in the late 1970s and formed the Bain Total label to release these early cassettes, as well as various side projects such as Krylon Hertz, Camera Obscura, Eva-Johanna Reichstag, Hurt and Fine Automatic.

In 1982 Die Form released their debut vinyl album, “Die Puppe” in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. “Zoo” is a compilation of 10 tracks recorded during the “Die Puppe” sessions from 1980-82. These were the first esoteric electronic experiments, often improvised. Underlying themes of eroticism, death, and other ‘taboo’ subjects become apparent in both the music and the album artwork, which Philippe also produced. The album was recorded with entirely analog equipment, including a Roland MC4 Micro-Composer, TR-808 Rhythm Composer, ARP 2600, and Kawai 60F recorded to a Revox B77 reel to reel tape machine. Songs range from hypnotic, minimalistic proto-IDM to daring experimental sound manipulation. 4 of these songs were featured as a bonus 7” to accompany the 1989 vinyl reissue of “Die Puppe” but remixed for the project. The remaining 6 songs were also remixed and released on CD in 2001. For this reissue we asked the band to transfer the analog Revox tapes to release never before heard original versions of all 10 tracks.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The front cover was designed by Eloise Leigh and features a black and white photograph by Philipe. Each album includes a double sided post card with liner notes and a rare photo of the band.

Bocal 5 – Musique Électronique LP
$16.00 Add to cart

SIDE A
Cobra
Folie D’ice
Gourmandise
Vampire
La Souris Verte
BB Coquin
Mr Pickett
Un Evenement
Tarzan Réglisse

SIDE B
Moska
Babouin Calin
La Bombe à Toto
Camion Solo
Faune Plum
Boule De Gomme
Bel Angelo
En Hop et en Air
Maud
Gogol Le Lézard

Bocal 5 were a No Wave art group composed of Doc Pilot (synths, vocals), Zouka Dzaza (bass), Florian Guillou (synths), Mickey Lepron (electronic drums, bass) and Evy Tinguette (lead vocals). The project was born in November 1980 in Tours, France as the brain child of Doc Pilot. Between 1981 to 1986 Bocal 5 recorded one 7” single and a cassette-only album before taking a year off in 1984 to launch X-Ray Pop. Influenced by Erik Satie, Brigitte Bardot, Suicide and Young Marble Giants, they call their music “minimum naive new wave.”

“Musique Électronique” is a 19-track compilation of songs recorded across 1983, most of which have never been released on vinyl before. 16 tracks appeared on the “From Bocal 5 To X-Ray Pop” album originally released on cassette by Sound of Pig in 1984. Both tracks from their debut 7” originally released in MB5 1984 are included and show a progression in sound as a result of newer recoding equipment and techniques. Also present is a song from the tape compilation “Andreas N°3 L’Animal” released by Fraction Studio in 1984. Armed with a Korg 770, MS-10, Prophet Pro-One, Roland TR-707 and TB-808 they crafted their own brand of quirky synthesized electronic pop. Songs are short, concise and well structured; richly textured, moving at a quick speed with hardly a pause. Evy’s pouting, tongue-in-cheek vocals (sung in French) come together for a catchy, sensuous, danceable, eccentric psychedelic ride. This collection shows the group’s sense of humor, vitality and carefree playfulness.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each jacket displays a bright neon green collage of photos and ephemera from the band’s archives designed by Eloise Leigh that exudes the project’s DIY spirit. Each copy includes a 6-page xeroxed booklet with photos, original artwork and press clippings.

Buy all 3 of our European cassette underground reissues and get a discount:

Buy both our DIE FORM reissues and get a discount:

PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OUR NEXT ARCHIVAL PATRICK COWLEY RELEASE DUE OCTOBER 17TH

SIDE A
Candida Cosmica
Elementals

SIDE B
Shimmering (Where Am I?)
Tantum Ergo
Tomato Song

Patrick Cowley is an electronic music trailblazer and a revolutionary in the canon of disco music. He created his an original brand of Hi-NRG dance music, “The San Francisco Sound.” Born in Buffalo, NY Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 at the age of 21. He studied at the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab. During this time, Patrick, along with his classmates Maurice Tani and Art Adcock, would create electronic pieces using the school’s equipment: first a Putney, then an E-MU System, and finally a Serge synthesizer. The Lab was interested in creating sounds that mimicked nature, like drops or birds, and also very unnatural sounds unattainable any other way. Patrick was a young alchemist discovering new elements all around him. He would layer experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

In 1972 Patrick was living in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood with some friends from back east. Through these roommates he met Candice Vadalla, a singer, actress and art student from Queens, NY. Candice would later take the stage name Candida Royalle becoming a pornographic film actress, a producer and director of feminist erotic films, and a sex educator actress before passing away on September 7, 2015. Candice was performing in shows with Cockettes splinter troupe The Angels of Light as well as performance projects Warped Floors and White Trash Boom Boom she formed with friends. Patrick arranged, embellished and recorded music pieces for these theatrical performances in his bedroom studio. Candice, meanwhile, played both musical muse and sex goddess to Patrick. Playfully enamored with each other, the pair became occasional lovers, the sexual energy fueling their musical collaborations and improvisations. In the collection of pieces compiled here, Candice’s sweet, melodic and playful voice hints at the more public persona she would cultivate as Candida Royalle. Influenced by Tomita and Wendy Carlos, Patrick crafted his electronic sound from synthesizers (Serge modular, Electrocomp system, Arp 2600), percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. Candice’s multi-octave range chirps, soars, and growls, going into operatic staccato runs a la Yma Sumac and ‘Illuminations’ era Buffy Sainte-Marie. The vocals add an organic, human element and at times lyrics can be deciphered such as in alchemic adaptation of the Latin hymn “Tantum Ergo.” As a bonus included is the sultry, jazzy “Tomato Song” that Candice sang a capella for the Angels of Light ‘Kitsch-On Show’ in 1973.

Featuring over 30 minutes of music recorded between 1973-75 found on tapes in Maurice Tani’s attic. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The jacket features an alluring photo of Candida seductively sprawled with a broken Virgin Mary statue around her head, originally commissioned by Jorge Socarras for an Indoor Life single, and shot by Arne Svenson. Each copy includes a 16-page booklet with never-seen-before photos, interviews and liner notes from Patrick and Candida’s friends, roommates and musical collaborators. Released on the week of Patrick (Oct 19) and Candida’s (Oct 15) 66th birthday, “Candida Cosmica” presents a glimpse into the liberated, playful wonderland that San Francisco was at the time. These recordings shine a new light on the early experimental collaborations of a disco legend and of a feminist pioneer who were taken too soon.

We have two “Candida Cosmica” record release parties scheduled for SF and NYC