Boredoms - “(Two Circles)”

So been listening to the Boredoms’ Vision Creation Newsun again lately, this track is my current fave. Love how in the back half of the track, it sounds like there’s a vocodered voice in there, intoning “freefall” over and over…

I’m probably in the minority but I prefer the Boredoms’ psychedelic trancerock phase from the late 90s / early 2000s to their spazzy noisepunk origins.

Colourbox - “Tarantula”

Hard to believe that the 4AD label is 30 years old. To mark this auspicious anniversary, the label dug into their archives to reissue a 4 CD box set of everything by… Colourbox? A band who’s claim to fame was to have collaborated in a one-off side project — albeit one that resulted in the surprise dance hit “Pump Up The Volume.”

My 80s was soundtracked by a good chunk of 4AD’s classic back catalogue, but it didn’t extend to this punk-funk duo. So it’s a bit of a head-scratcher. Why wouldn’t the label release something more, uh, significant? Some Cocteau Twins remasters? A Bauhaus reissue? But anyhow.

Yeah so this is actually quite good. Very much a product of its time, in that early-to-mid-80s postpunk-goes-funky kinda way. I can imagine this on a mixtape with some Scritti Politti, major label-era Clock DVA, maybe a little post-Chris Watson Cabaret Voltaire, a groovier Wolfgang Press track, mid-period Shriekback… you get the idea.

BTW when this started playing, I recalled the version of this tune recorded by This Mortal Coil. Aha, so this was what they were covering! (and in retrospect, it’s quite the inventive re-imagining of the song).

Tropic of Cancer - “It’s All Come Undone”

Final track off the second EP from this dank and mysterious UK act.

As with previous sides issued by this group, it’s ethereal gothic postpunk circa-‘82 revivalism of the highest order… this time even slower and more minimalistic!

Temporal Maraduer - “Subtractive Existence (Part 1)”

Well now, who can resist a record of abstract bleeps and bloops that comes complete with a bogus backstory? Not I, that’s fer sure.

Here’s the tall tale from Editions Mego:

If Jean Logarin did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.  Never mind your outsider composers; never mind your library music. Never mind your merely unreleased records. Jean Logarin’s music, like some recent unearthings by Belgium’s Ultra Eczema label, exists at a remove from publicity so complete that it was nearly not among us, and has never been before. Like any obscurity, its immediate appeal might be that this music could count as a more genuine artifact of its time than any more commercial product, by virtue in part of its being outside of history. Jean Logarin’s music is definitely outside of history, but it is no artifact.  It is so deeply consonant with the best contemporary electronic music that it is hard to believe it isn’t brand new. But the biographical details, however elusive of our usual channels of verification, speak for themselves:  Logarin studied under Andrew Rudin during the early 70’s; his interest in electronic music further developed while working as a studio assistant for engineer Max Tanguy, an associate of famed krautrock producer, Conny Plank. Through Tanguy, Logarin met percussionist Hans Schule, an eccentric whose shady wealth bankrolled a series of recording sessions at Tanguy’s studio. Together with Logarin’s then-girlfriend, Llissa Zuckovich, Tanguy, Schule and Logarin proceeded to compose in the studio several hoursworth of finished pieces whose original purpose and intention have only become cloudier with time. There was no serious attempt made to release it, and only vague talk of attempting to sell it for commercial usage. The music on MAKES YOU FEEL is, then, from a historical perspective, purely a vanity project. A vanity project within a vanity project, even: None of the pieces were given titles by Logarin, and the name TEMPORAL MARAUDERS does not predate this release. The album was compiled, its presentation determined, by its own first fan. And here is where the story strains credulity, because it requires believing that Jean Logarin one day met, by chance, accordionist and composer Guerino Raglani, who even then was uncle to a young Joseph Raglani, today trafficking in romantic, kraut-tinged electronics under his own name. Two years ago, the elder Raglani passed onto his nephew a set of DAT transfers of his old tape reels, among which were (what have proven to be the only known) copies of Logarin’s studio recordings. The younger Raglani, so the story goes, flipped out—became “nearly scared,” in his own words—and demanded to know more. His uncle shed what light he could on how he came into possession of the tapes (a funny story in itself), but it took an extensive search to find any accessible trail to Logarin. While Jean and the rest of the erstwhile group were pleasant enough when located, and happy to lend their support to the belated discovery of their work, each was mostly surprised anyone would want to go to the trouble; particularly Logarin, who declined the invitation to be involved in the project beyond its approval, and encouraged Joseph to come up with the album’s names and titles himself. So, the project became Raglani’s, and it bears the impression of his own aesthetic stamp, drawing from a range of references he and Logarin discovered they had in common. And yet: a “vanity project within a vanity project”?  What else is music to begin with? How can it be said to begin with any purpose, and whose is it to name?  In any case, this is close to the limit of what can be said about MAKES YOU FEEL. One may search for further information about Jean Logarin beyond these and a few other bare facts, but only in vain; he does not wish to be known. But to anyone who supposes that music this enjoyable and exciting, however buried, would’ve already been found by now if it actually existed, I would suggest that it has arrived at just the right time to be heard.  And to those who will inevitably question if Logarin himself is real, the only straight answer is that we have his music.  How could he not be real? - Michael Ferrer.

Donna Summer - “I Feel Love”

RIP.

Legendary sequencer track.

From Wikipedia:

According to David Bowie, then in the middle of recording of his Berlin Trilogy with Brian Eno, its impact on [disco’s] direction was recognized early on:

“One day in Berlin … Eno came running in and said, ‘I have heard the sound of the future.’ … he puts on ‘I Feel Love’, by Donna Summer … He said, ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.’ Which was more or less right.”

Kinda makes me wonder what the development of electro/house/techno would have looked like without this tune.

Grabbel and the Final Cut - “Psycho Popsong”

Long lost noisedream miasma from an obscure band out of Hamburg, Germany. Now seeing the light of day as part of Captured Tracks’ series of shoegazer reissues.

I can never get enough of quality shoegazing sounds. That it’s from the original early 90s wave of distortion and reverb is even better.

The Boomtown Rats - “I Don’t Like Mondays”

Grrr. Feeling grumpy about today, so it made me think of this song.