Sons Of Robin Stone - Got To Get You Back

Sons Of Robin Stone - Got To Get You Back (1974)

The Philly soul sound goodness is so good on this Bobby Eli production. Melodies in the 70s were just way more expansive and forthright weren't they? Conga, string and horn extravaganza! 

The Dynamics - Yes, I Love You Baby

The Dynamics - Yes, I Love You Baby (1966)

This is such an inspired weird little jam. I'm pretty lost for words on this one...it just seems so instinctual, like it just came out like this and there was nothing they could do about it. It's fun raw off kilter minimal funky soul with a hint of rock'n'roll or just old school unreconstructed rhythm & blues. Whatever it is, it's pretty bloody infectious. Some absolute magic is captured right here on this platter. 

Rewind.

Gwen Owens - Just Say You're Wanted (And Needed)

Gwen Owens - Just What You Wanted (And Needed) - (1966)

This on the surface sounds like just another Detroit mid 60s soul-pop number but it's also pretty insane. What is going on with the band? Sometimes it sounds like there are two bands playing and they're coming in and out of phaze. The drums are so unhinged they sound like they've dropped in from outer space or the studio next door or another song entirely. The bass also seems to be quite unruly, it wants to run off and do its own thing. It's all so deliciously spirited, I can't stop playing it. On top of all the crazy is Gwen's incredible voice. Like one of the great soul voices ever. Her timbre coupled with her restraint put her in an outstanding class. She could have been a huge star. 

The Spinners - I'll Be Around

The Spinners - I'll Be Around (1972)

ALL of the Philly soul goodness. I mean this is just perfection innit. THE INTRO: Best ever! The ecstatic keys. Congas, congas, congas! Sweet soul vocal sounds of Bobby Smith. The toe tappin' tempo. That bassline. The ladies doing back-up. The guitar. The brief but brilliant string and horn sequence. The little organ swirls too. Everything. Written and produced by Thom Bell, thank you very much.

The fact that Bell uses all those elements and I'll Be Around sounds uncluttered and deceptively lean is genius. 

Rewind!

2010: The last official year of hypnagogia

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti - Menopause Man (2010)
I'm deleting instagram. It has become way too toxic particularly in the dysphoric state I'm in. It has to go. Anyway at one stage during the lockdowns I started doing music blog type things on there that never transferred to this here blog, so I thought I'd selvage some things before I obliterate the fucking thing.  

"2010: The last official year of hypnagogia. What a finale. The last great year in music? You can argue amongst yourselves whether these albums belong here or not.

Hypnagogia was a fairly amorphous term. It encompassed radio pop, tv noise, psych, industrial gunk, cosmic synth, obsolete genres like goth, new age, glam, dubby post-punk, electro-pop, ethnological forgeries & quirky one hit wonder new wave, Lo-fi tape hiss, ambient, woozy disco, 80s Soundtracks, pop culture detritus & a whole lot more sonic debris so long as it was all shrouded in a trippy sonic hypnagogic fog.

These aren’t ranked except for the first one as it was a game changer. Almighty leader Ariel Pink burnt off the hypnagogic fog & went spectacularly hi-fi to reveal massive glorious pop anthems worthy of FM radio’s airwaves.

1. Ariel Pink - Before Today
2. Rangers - Suburban Tours
3. Sun Araw - On Patrol
4. James Ferraro -Nightdolls With Hairspray
5. Outer Limits Recordings - Foxy Baby
6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
7. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here
8. Dylan Ettinger - New Age Outlaws
9. LA Vampires & Zola Jesus - Meet
10. Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - Seeping Through The Veil Of The Unconscious"

[timspacedebris Instagram - 13/7/20]

*I know, is this worth saving? Hardly...but hey instagram was all about the pictures of the album covers and I guess that's still an exceptional lil' list of good recordings though.

**Listening back to Before Today it really wasn't spectacularly Hi-Fi like I claimed, more like just a notch above his usual lo-fi. But it's th0se 4AD sessions videos that sounded most epic sound-wise. I think there was another four tunes in the set but they seem to have been scrubbed from the net...surprise surprise. 

 

Outer Limits Recordings - Smoke Opera (2010)

This is classic hypnogogia. Hypnotic lo-fi woozy glam synth fuzz smeared with trademark haze & fog. Sadly Outer Limits Recordings aka Sam Meringue died a few years back when he was only 31 years old.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (2010)

I forgot how much I loved this at the time. This is more on the neo cosmic drone tip rather than the pop hypnogogic of the the likes of Ferraro's Night Dolls With Hairspray. It was like there was a glimmer of hope for music and society back then. Sure Returnal was in the tradition of great 60s, 70s & 90s innovative music but you felt that at some point they might go beyond the exquisite retro-pastiche motifs of Returnal and Rifts. However OPN kinda annoyed me with their following records so I dunno if they ever got there. Perhaps don't start with the uncharacteristic noise track that opens the album, skip to track 4 which is the title track but hey it's all good.

*I might come back to the other records in the top ten tomorrow...

Karen Marks - Cold Café

Hearing this on Ash Wednesday's compilation from 2012 I thought hey that sounds familiar. It turns out it was. Apparently she mimed Cold Cafe on Countdown in 1981 but the video footage remains elusive, which is a shame. Probably heard it on Melbourne community radio over the years too. Anyway this is still really insidious pop perfection all these years later.  

*All these history revisionists with their coldwaves and minimal waves and oz waves and minimal synths and blah blah, it's like they come in and take over this music and possess it and wear it like an identity and pretty soon music from your childhood and entire life doesn't feel like it belongs to you anymore. They are the arbiters of the waves and they're going to tell you about it and yet they often have it so wrong. The only wave this was in 1981 was new wave. As a ten year old it wasn't even that. It was just pop music. This has made me realise how history is very quickly removed from the objective reality of its actual time and rearranged inaccurately. How many inaccurate increments does it take until you're reading fiction? 

Tone Set - He's Got A Little Dog

Tone Set - He's Got A Little Dog (1982)

Dystopian electro from Arizona in the early 80s. The synth tone they set here is very good. Perfectly recorded analogue synthetic goodness containing a good fun rhythmic sensibility.

 

Tone Set - Cal's Ranch (1982)

The tape the above tune came from. Cal's Ranch mainly consists of synths, drum machines and reel to reel tapes of radio and telly dialogue. Who made better home recordings in 1982?

*The Mutant Sounds Blog really changed our lives (well mine at least). A lot of stuff we'd only mythologically heard of finally got to be heard. And stuff we'd also never heard of. It all happened in a very short space of time and our computers and minds were at full capacity. In their peak year 2007 they uploaded two thousand files of seminal and hard to find records. I mean they were the reason I ever bought a hard drive. There are blogs out there now pretending they have awesome collections of tapes and records but we all know they're just re-uploading Mutant Sounds files. And even vinyl on demand based the catalogue of their entire absurd rip off of a reissue record label on Mutant Sounds posts.   

Ed Kuepper - Honey Steals Gold/Friday's Blue Cheer Libertines Of Oxley

Speaking of the early and mid 90s what I love about Kuepper here is that he really is untethered to any international or local trend. He riffs on a Bo Diddley riff and salutes Blue Cheer here but it is in no way retro vomit. He's creating innovative music and this is a peak in an astounding purple patch of creativity.

  

I'm pretty sure this is some kind of new music that somehow became beloved by Australian radio and public alike in 1991. I mean what actually is going on here? How is this mammoth atmosphere achieved. What is propelling this drone? I always assumed there was some kind of cello or string instrument making that all encompassing reverberation. Ex-Laughing Clowns and Necks keyboardist Chris Abrahams is in the band for this record and I'd say he's probably responsible for the surreal air on this tune. He's credited as contributing piano and organ. But I'm still none the wiser as to what the origins of that mysterious chugging ambient sound are or am I just bad at identifying instruments. 

Early 90s Australiana innit.

Kim Salmon - You Know Me Better Than That

Kim Salmon with STM - You Know Me Better Than That (1994)

Totally forgot about this tune and the Hey Believer LP it came from. Speaking of mid 90s rock performers in Australia I mean Kim Salmon (ex-Scientists) was killing it, well he was in Melbourne anyway. Kim Salmon & The Surrealists shows were reaching levels of delirium circa 93/94/95. I recall a couple of great packed ones at The Club and one at the Punters where his pants were so low we thought they were gonna fall off. It was magic how they stayed up.

The band he had for this particular song and half of the album though was STM which contained legends Warren Ellis, Jim White and that dude from King Idiot on bass who if I recall correctly later died of an overdose. They used to play at the Great Britain a lot then later I recall attending a week-night residency many times in probably 93 at the Punters. I'm not sure the band was advertised as STM. Actually I always thought they were called The Body Electric like they were when they backed Charlie Marshall. It might have just been promoted as Kim Salmon solo actually. A lot of the live stuff didn't make it to this cd or anywhere actually. You forget that bands and artists have entire periods and phases that go undocumented.

Anyway this shit right here is peak performance from Kim. The entire group though is absolutely cooking. I'm saying this could be the finest track Warren ever collaborated on. I mean it's scintillating with its sort of Shaft-esque infectious energy. I dunno what Warren's doing here - some sort of picking at the violin. And Jim is effervescent on the skins once again. Whatever's going on with this fusion of lounge, symphonic soul, disco and swamp rock somehow they make it fresh and not particularly resembling any of those influences. The tense fluxion here makes this irresistibly pop and irresistible pop. 

You probably had to be there.

The Go-Betweens - Finding you

The Go-Betweens - Finding You (2005)

What a great tune. I ignored this era of The Go-Betweens. God knows why (well because I think band reformations are lame and they usually are). They were on a hell of a comeback roll. They used to play at a joint that was literally just around the corner from my place in the 00s. I regret not seeing them. My friends went. What was I thinking? This tune is right up there with the Grant greats Cattle And Cane, Dusty In Here, Bachelor Kisses, Streets Of Your Town, Bye Bye Pride, Providence etc. My lord Finding You is so good. There's something about this key that cuts straight to the heart. It's so emotionally devastating it's almost unbearable.

Ed Kuepper - Finding You (2007)

Who better to do a cover than our main man Ed in all his bittersweet and sour glory.

Ed Kuepper - Sea Air (1986)

Haven't heard this one since the 90s. Nobody finds despondency in happiness like Ed or is it the other way round? Or is it just life...ya know ying and yang and ups and downs and highs and lows and such. 

Ed Kuepper - Electrical Storm (1985)

The early and mid 90s in Australia really belonged to Kuepper didn't they. On the radio, on cd and in live music venues across the nation. I still think that concert he did on the St Kilda foreshore in maybe 95 is one of the best shows I ever saw. The storm clouds rolled in off the beach as he struck the opening chords of Electrical Storm and the rain threatened to shut down the entire show because danger. You can't buy moments like that. 

Blind Test: 1990-1993 UK Hardcore

Some legends doing the guessing here. I gotta say though how good does this dude Joe Nebula aka J Shotter from Nebula II look. Also just his general air is such a good vibe, something to aspire to. 

This guessing game is good fun. If you've not come across Blind Test before there's a bunch of old episodes worth watching on jungle, drum n bass, UKG, gabber, ebm and electro. 

Listening to this through a computer makes these tunes sound pretty crap. You have to listen to the hardcore breakbeats on a good system or through good headphones at maximum volume otherwise you just ain't gonna get it.

Nebula II - Seance (1991)

tune

Nebula II - Atheama (1991)

Even in this profound dysphoric mood I can still see that this tune is so fucking great. Perhaps this is the ultimate test as to whether music is frivolous or not. Maybe it's the fact that euphoria is a baked in element to a rave track such as this. Hardcore might just save your life. Sounds as fresh as Joe looks.

*Probably not the best idea to get to the end of your tether just to test out whether a hardcore tune is still relevant though. Don't try this at home.

 

Nebula II - Flatliners (1992)

Classic. 

The House Crew - Keep The Fires Burning (1991)

Spoiler alert this is the first track in the test. Wasn't Acen in The House Crew at the time? I wish they had let him elaborate or comment further about this track...anyway...The House Crew were the in-house group for the Production House label. 

DJ Biz - Losing Track Of Time (1992)

Spoiler alert part two...This is the one that nobody knew. I reckon maybe I've heard it in a dj mix before but never previously ID-ed it. Losing Track Of Time is the sort of rare lo-fi tune that would have turned up at Blog To The Old School fifteen years ago. Gotta love that it's on a label that had just five releases. Although I suspect No Limit records may have had another five releases that aren't listed on Discogs yet as the catalogue numbers jump from NL-1 to NL-7. Then again anomalies like this aren't uncommon.

DJ Biz - Losing Track Of Time (LTJ Bukem Remix) (1992)

Bukem did a remix.

Jonzun Crew - Space is the Place

Jonzun Crew - Space Is The Place (1983)

The best phonkay electro jam. The futuristic atmosphere on this still electrifies today. 

Jonzun Crew weren't just a a sequenced synthetic studio concept though, they liked to intermingle their technology with live playing making them perhaps a precursor to the original intentions of post-rock or maybe more accurately cyborg-rock. This term which never really took off was meant to categorise bands who mixed hands on real time playing with computerised and programmed technology, a man-machine music. Something about Jonzun Crew's electro funk is definitely different to most electro 12"s of the time giving them more of a timeless, swinging and expansive sound linking them to contemporaneous live funk groups like Gap Band, Zapp and Midnight Star.

*You gotta think INXS were fans as those instrumental sections in that break from 3:20 onwards bear an uncanny resemblance to a couple of tunes off their 1984 LP The Swing namely Melting In The Sun and Burn For You.     

**Space is the place now more than ever (in our fantasies) as the abolition of liberty continues in the de-civilisation of the west era here on earth. If an autistic child being arrested in her own home for wrongthink doesn't alarm you to the horrors of our dystopia what more can I say. 

Twilight 22 - Siberian Nights

Peak electro. 

Anti-nuke lyrics, industrial-style metal bashing, middle eastern synth breaks, a vocoder chorus and a prime electro beat. 1984 giving you more.  

*Breakdancing, roller skating and the possibility of nuclear annihilation. Now one of these things is back in fashion when really what the world needs more of is roller skating and breakdancing. 

Alex Cima - Disconcerto

For a start this is Disconcerto the opening track from the 1979 LP Cosmic Connection and not the title track. It's a synth-pop number done in the space-disco style with classic vocoderized vocals. Plenty of nods to the future here as well as many of its time traits. For synth history nerds, proto-house heads and those cataloguing every tune to ever use vocodered vocals. What a vibe, good stuff.

Yoshida Minako - Tornado

Yoshida Minako - Tornado (1980)
That synthetic bass hook sound so beloved in tunes previously posted like Yarbrough & Peoples Don't Stop The Music, SOS Band's Just Be Good To Me and  Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody rears its funky head here.

This is disco slowed to such a crawl that it's barely even boogie. Whatever it is, it's one of the great R&B tracks of 1980. The amazing thing is, it has gone unheard outside of Japan for thirty years until probably the mid-2010s when ye olde funky Japanese disco started getting western attention. 

The synthetic bass is slowed to a veritable creak, you can hear the tape's been manipulated and decelerated filling Tornado with eeriness and dread. This slow jam is also notable for its exquisite vibraphone usage....oh and not to forget Minako's impeccable vocal arrangement executed immaculately. 

Masayoshi Takanaka - Oh! Tengo Suerte

Masayoshi Takanaka - Oh! Tengo Suerte (1976)

I mean this!

The Congas!!

Irresistible. 

It needs to become the theme tune. 

This is life. 

This vibe says freedom and being a 70s baby it matches my wrapped in an Hawaiian shirt forever soul. 

Masayoshi Takanaka - Tokyo Reggie (1976)

Hang on this needs to be the theme tune for our daily battles against the poisonous nonsense they are selling. I will be demoralised no further because samba jazz funk fusion. Remember when the government and media didn't demonise you for having normal boring viewpoints. 

Masayoshi Takanaka - サヨナラ…FUJIさん (1976)

Bless Masayoshi's soul.

Breeze-y with nonchalant cowbell goodness!

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

Fuck the humourless anti-human death cult, live life in abundance.

Anyway Masayoshi Takanaka's debut solo LP Seychelles (1976) which contains the above three tunes was reissued a couple of months ago. Once again however if you missed out it's already going for silly prices. Although unlike Tatsuro Yamashita you can find many Takanaka records on Spotify and youtube.

I first heard this guy seven or eight years ago on that Nippon Funk compilation. He's since become a bit of a cult figure on the internet because his tune An Insatiable High (1977) went viral. 

Flipper - One By One

Flipper - One By One (1984)

All bets are off folks. Enjoy the devastating demoralised euphoria of the greatest apocalyptic post-punk jam of them all. What even is this? What are the band actually doing? These random, out of tune, clangorous, gunk ridden and grinding sounds are strikingly moved around creating a potent dark dissonance that is unexpected and rare. Avant rock noise in excelsis. 

Since discovering this thirty three years ago the intensity of this aural obliteration never gets any less astounding. Flipper conjure absolute revelatory black magic on One By One. It's negative, defeatist, bleak yet exciting...invigorating. The most utterly exhilarating downbeat gloom ever put to record.  

Cataclysmic psychedelia.

*Also contains congas!  

King Snake Roost - Dead All Over

King Snake Roost - Dead All Over (1987)

More intense thick slabs of bass in your face from the 80s. This one might just be the peak for me. Everything about this...

Demented Australian subterranean rock (feedtime, Salamander Jim, Lubricated Goat, Thug, Box The Jesuit, Fungus Brains, Venom P Stinger, Black Eye Records et al.) was at a supreme level at the time. Unfortunately for me I was still in high school in the middle of Woop Woop so I didn't get to experience this post-Birthday Party/post-hardcore noise-rock first hand during its scuzzy prime. Indeed King Snake Roost were done and dusted by 1990 before I'd reached the big smoke.

The menacing funky bass here is provided by Michael Raymond who's obviously indebted to J J Burnel and Tracy Pew. I don't really know that much about him. The debut King Snake Roost album From Barbarism To Christian Manhood seems to be the only record he ever worked on. While KSR recorded three LPs in their time and were somewhat renowned because ex-Grong Grong and Bloodloss legend Charles Tolnay was the guitarist, this first LP in particular, artistically belongs to Raymond. He wrote the music and lyrics for six of the album's eight songs including Dead All Over. Then he appears to disappear from the music scene entirely never to return. Did he die or just retire? Déjà vu. 

KSR would go on to infamy and acclaim with their following two LPs and subsequent signing to Amphetamine Reptile Records after Michael Raymond's departure. For me though From Barbarism To Christian Manhood is their highlight.

Bobby Verne - Red Hot Car

Bobby Verne - Red Hot Car (1962)

The greatest rock'n'roll tune you never heard. I first heard this on a Dr Boogie compilation 20 years ago and assumed it must have been a golden oldie that I somehow missed well... my dad must have missed thus not passing it onto me. However a quick look on discogs reveals this 1962 one off 7" single from Bobby Verne only started popping up on compilations during the 90s. Where the hell was it for 30 years? 

Anyway what an incredible slice of mysterious lost rockabilly, complete with an array of premium atmospheric twangery, a sublime sax solo and a menacing undercurrent. It does not get better than this! Pop culture perfection right here folks. 

TISM - Morrison Hostel

This Is Serious Mum - Morrison Hostel (1988)

Haha haha ha bahahaha. This is still so fuckin funny. Ironically it's also absolutely thrilling rock and roll-wise: The drama, the performance poetry, the seething vitriol, the scathing denunciation, the unbridled wit - all instinctual and within a genius innate dark art rock jam worthy of the most insufferable turd. This is taken from the second record of the double Great Truckin' Songs Of The Renaissance LP which was the performance poetry, prankster collage, lo-fi tape art record as opposed to the first disc which was more on the commercial new wave pop genius tip. 

I Hadn't heard this since the 80s when I was in high school. Fuck I thought The Doors were naff when I was a teenager. My older brother liked them. He even had a fucking Jim Morrison t-shirt and permed his fucking long straight brown hair to emulate him or was that Barnsey or Hutchence or was there even a fucking difference. This is the funniest! I was just writhing in my chair in pain with laughter causing asthma. I love how it had a go at all the rock stars we liked Nick Cave, Hugo Race, Mozza, Bob Smith and even hilariously Albert Camus. Even though we were all somewhat fans to varying degrees of these "private school depression idols" we also knew they were absolute tools. I didn't become a bona fide Doors fan until after the 90s. I actually got drunk with Hugo Race once during the 90s and he was so normal it was weird, top bloke he was.

In my year eleven class level in 1988 there were probably 80 to 100 students and there was just me and my best mate Nicole who were into this record. Then again I didn't take a poll of the other kids and really, I didn't know any of them from a bar of soap so maybe there were a hundred owners of Great Truckin' Songs Of The Renaissance LP. I mean surely most of us saw that insane live performance on Rock Arena so... 

*I have to say I don't think I fully comprehended the genius of This Is Serious Mum as a band, as a musical entity. I mean as comedians, pranksters, satirists, conceptual artists, polemicists and shit-stirrers they were obviously supreme. BUT I didn't recognise their music melded with these other outstanding attributes as the fascinating beast that it actually is.

**Listening to this today has made me disappointed in myself. The fact that I understood and loved a track such as this should have, for one, shielded me against being seduced by retarded French theorists for more than a decade. I mean it is a pure Aussie instinct to smell the bullshit from a mile off. I was a pure sarcastic Australian kid and many said this was to my detriment but fuck me it was my best characteristic. Even my best friend said my sneering cynicism was too negative. The fact that I ever became enamoured by any nonsense, poisonous ideas and mind viruses over the years is a fucking embarrassment. And hey I'll take the shame but hey at least I admit it. 

*** I didn't really fanatically follow This Is Serious Mum after this record. I think my rationale must have been: You can't be a good band musically if you're funny. So while I appreciated them on a clever, comedic and satirical level, I could not also see that they were just as interesting musically and in fact the two concepts needn't be separated. I realise this makes me look stupid and yeah what a twit I was. I guess I was trying to shake off the image of being the doyen of sardonicism...yep what a cunt! I can see parallels to 80s NZ renegades like Axemen and Headless Chickens as well as new wave mavericks like Mental As Anything, R Stevie Moore and They Might Be Giants. TISM though have their own internal logic causing an idiosyncratic classic pop sound.

****The only ever overseas review of Great Truckin Songs... I saw was in Melody Maker but it was actually written by an ex-pat. I've always wondered what people who have never lived in Australia must think of TISM and wether they actually get it. Then I realise why the fuck would I care about that!

"Put your goddam rubbish in a bin"

THE MOODISTS - Runaway

The Moodists - Runaway (1984)

When thick slabs of bass ruled. In the 80s groups like The Birthday Party, PIL, Hunters & Collectors, Flipper flung menacing bass in your face and we couldn't get enough.

Runaway is an outstanding moment in The Moodists funny little catalogue. Actually it might be even better heard in the context of the first side of their Thirsty's Calling LP. In that scenario it's even more startling because what had gone before in the previous four songs had been more dense, energetic and upbeat. But Runaway strips it all back and slows everything down to a menacing crawl. This restrained seething atmosphere becomes an incredibly intense mantra. I mean for the first one minute and fifty four seconds it's just unadorned bass and drums while Graney's vehement tone builds in fervour as his vocals start overlapping and responding back. Then when the mangled guitar enters, the song is engulfed in a fabulously ferocious cacophony. 

So while other Moodists here Mick Turner, Clare Moore and Dave Graney went onto further fame and acclaim during the 90s and beyond in acts such as The Dirty Three, The Coral Snakes etc. the star of the show here is virtually an unknown these days. Veteran bass player Chris Walsh was however an integral character in the Melbourne punk and post-punk milieu. He was even around in the pre-punk proto-punk days.

Previous to joining The Moodists Walsh had been in groups Judas Iscariot And The Traitors, The Reals, The Negatives and The Fabulous Marquises etc. with various legendary Melbourne musicians including Garry Gray, Ollie Olsen, Mick Harvey and Edward Clayton Jones. If I have this correct I think Chris Walsh's best mate in high school was Tracey Pew. Anyway his last bass playing credit seems to be on Dave Graney & The White Buffalo's 1989 LP My Life On The Plains. Then he appears to disappear and never reappears. Did he die or just retire? Anyway what a legend.