Best Of 2013 - Archives, Compilations & Reissues

I think I'll start my end of year lists here as we are in the Retromania age.  I don't have to tell you 'new music in 2013 is just as good as in any era.' in a desperate tone to protect my brand so as to not lose my advertisers. I'll leave all that to those online magazine types. I guess it must be disheartening to be a youth in times such as these, you know, late in the epoch and atemporal etc. They have to try and make themselves believe that their culture is vibrant, alive and theirs because otherwise what have you got?  It's been a thin year for new musical output. Even in the experimental, dance and other usually exciting zones the good stuff is coming less and less. Hey I expected innovation and forward momentum in music to continue on until long after I was gone, I'm gettin ripped off too. So here's a list of great stuff from time.*

Conrad & Sohn - Conrad & Gregor Schnitzler (1981)

What the fuck is this? You may ask. Conrad the legendary German electronic pioneer did a one off LP with his then teenage son Gregor on bass and acid/sci-fi vocals and its fucking great. This is the best album you've never heard. (Yeah I know it's been kickin round the interweb for years but it never sounded this bloody good!)

Silber - Conrad Schnitzler (1974/75)
Another classic from my favourite German electronic guru. This is from the same era as the masterpiece Blau.

School Daze - Patrick Cowley (1973-81)
Porn soundtracks from the disco maestro who gave us the 16 minute extended version of Donna Summer's I Feel Love.

Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound - Various
Sweet soul sounds and new wave funk of the late 70s/early 80s from the land of many lakes and er....Prince Rogers Nelson. Every once in a while a soul/funk compilation comes along and makes me think why would I listen to any other genre?

The Lost Tapes - Rodion GA (1978-83) 
Unreleased gold from Romania. These are the coolest Eastern European cyber-prog jamz you've n/ever heard.

Fragments Of Light - Sensations Fix (1974)

You gotta love a bit Italian space-prog from mid 70s Florence don't ya? Features Franco Falsini on guitar and synth.

It's You - Don Muro (1977)

Perplexing to say the least. Who'd have thought there was a missing link between Big Star and Tangerine Dream and that it'd be good?   

Celestial Music 1978-2011 - Laraaji (2013)

Every ones fave electronic zither player plays tunes for your spiritual enlightenment. 

I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America 1950-1990 - Various (2013)
Meet me on the astral plane.

Celestial Soul Portrait 1975-85 - Iasos (2013)
Meet me in the dimension beyond the astral plane. 

Re-Animator OST - Richard Band (1985)

Ever wondered what Bernard Herman would have sounded like with synthesised drums?

Solaris OST - Edward Artemyev (1972)

Awesome synthesiser score to Russia's most famous space movie. 

De Natura Sonorum - Bernard Parmegiani (1976)
20th Century French electronic composer gets his 70s classic reissued and then a few weeks later passes away. RIP.

GRM Works 1957-1962 - Iannis Xenakis (2013)

I've never heard a bad Xenakis record.

Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings From the 1970s & 80s - Various (2013)

I thought maybe the 70s Afro/beat/disco/psych/funk/rock well may have dried up but no, Soundway move from West to East and bring us more unheard gold.

Who Is William Onyeabor? - William Onyeabor (2013)

Funnily enough I've been asking myself that question since Strut released that seminal Nigeria 70 compilation in 2001. That irresistible keyboard sound is total Guttertronics innit?

Half Dead Ganja Music - Vox Populi (1987)
Experimental ambient psychedelia from France in the 80s. This sounds like it could have come out of today's cassette underground and I mean that in a good way.

The Alchemist: The Best Of 1992-2012 - Goldie (2013)
Rufige Cru,  Metalheadz & Goldie give us drum n bass gold. Disc 1 in particular is da bomb.

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Best 2013 Mixtapes/Mixes/Podcasts etc....

Electro Chaabi for Avant-Guard Lovers - Various @ Soundcloud
Egyptian revolutionary jamz & stuff. Mixed by CLF.

Ketchup - DJ Mustard with Various Artists @ datpiff.com 
The sonic document of 2013. Ratchet = the future of rap and R&B or at least the exciting present.

1017 Thug - Young Thug @ datpiff.com
The coolest and most bizarre rapper ever.

Up/Down - Various @ ASoundAwareness
2 Choice mixes of Italian Library/Soundtrack music from David Thrussel, the man behind Omni Recording Corporation.

The Gold & Silver Dream (1971-82) - Various @?
Tribute to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.

I Can't Beleive How Dark It is - Various @blogtotheoldschool
Old school darkside mix from Dev/null.

Dawn Of The Synth - Various @ EdiaboliksWorldOfPsychotronicSoundtracks
Synth Soundtracks mix.

Fact Mix 380- Various @FACT
The Black Dog present old school bleep and beyond.

Midnite in Europe Mix - Various @?
Moon Wiring Club Mix of 90s electronica.

Orange Dawn - Various @SonicRampage
90s Tech-Step mix from Pearsall.

Actual Pirate Material - Various @SonicRampage
Mid 90s jump up jungle mix by Pearsall.

The Brood

I should be doing my end of year list thing which is usually fun to do and is actually popular. At the moment I can't be arsed with it. Maybe Its a mood or maybe its something more. I can't even be bothered analysing why. Hopefully I'll get around to it next time.

I watched David Cronenberg's The Brood for the first time the other day and was blown away at how good it was.  I love some of his other films Existenz in particular but also Videodrome & The End Of Violence.  The Brood had become quite a mythical film for me and I thought well I better watch it.  When my wife was a small child of around 5 or 6 she was exposed to this film.  She then had nightmares for a very long time following that, with good reason (The Brood is v demented). She never knew the name of the film but her and her sister referred to it as Alien Space Babies.  One day in a high school film studies class a clip of The Brood was featured.  Finally Emma knew what the film was.  Anyway it was many years later when she was working in a certain cafe in Richmond in Melbourne that she served a bespectacled gentleman with a Canadian Accent.  This man praised her coffee making abilities saying something like "That was the best coffee I've ever had in my life." Minutes later the cafe owner pulled her aside and asked "Do You know who that was?" She replied "No." Then he said "That was the film director David Cronenberg!" She was shocked that she was face to face with the man who'd traumatised her childhood and she didn't even know it was him.  Suffice to say she didn't watch The Brood with me the other night.

Spoiler Alert! The alien space babies wreak havoc on Candice's school teacher and granny after popping out of her mums tummy due to bad thoughts! Now that's entertainment. Cindy Hinds who plays Candice the 5 year old is particularly good as are the evil brood.  Oliver Reed's character, Psychotherapist Dr Raglan, is incredibly creepy. Also loved Robert A Silverman as the disturbed but right on Jan Hartog. Not forgetting the performances of Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle as Candice's parents. Don't ever be persuaded to have Psychoplasmic Therapy otherwise you may spawn a brood of killer alien space babies of your own.  I'm pretty sure they got the idea for Alien right here as well things like Childs Play.  Upon finishing viewing of the movie I referred to Leonard Maltin to see what his verdict was.  He gave it a rating of a bomb giving me new found respect for anything in his movie guide that's awarded this rating.  What should it have some shit about Rosebud or some trite message to get it its deserved 4 stars Leonard?  Fuck off Maltin!

It must be nearly Christmas....

Moon Wiring Club always release their albums just before Christmas which usually means I've barely listened to them enough to include them in my end of year round up. Last year's Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets would have been in my top 5, fo shizzle, if I'd heard it more than twice. So this is the new one, cool artwork again. Two different formats, this time a cd and a tape which are the same but different or something....

One of the best songs ever.

INXS Were An Experimental Band

Weren't they?

I loved it when INXS got weird and experimental. The B-Sides in the 80s were always something to look forward to.  I reckon they were into Eno, dub, disco & maybe Cabaret Voltaire and The Residents. This is the other side of INXS, what could have been.....

Slumber Party Massacre

I was brought up a strict Catholic and it wasn't until late 1987 that we got a VCR.  So I basically missed the whole VHS horror thing. 1982s  Slumber Party Massacre is a classic of the slasher genre and along with the teenage kicks you get a feminist message.  Amy Jones was one of the few female T & A slasher directors and she makes the most of it. Way before Scream et al. she made a mockery of the entire genre.  Chicks win in the end and guys come off second best. This movie would have been great if you were a girl in the 80s havin a sleep over. I think it was Bitch Blog who led me to this film. The soundtrack is awesome too. Since watching the film and trying to track down the score I've become aware that this is a much admired item, you know, going for ridiculous amounts of doe on e-bay. Indeed Ralph Jones' soundtrack is up there with the best of the post-Carpenter school like Jay Chataway's Maniac or Tim Krog's The Boogey Man. Minimal and restrained eerie synth soundz for the psychopathic 80s.

Minimal synth tones to be stalked by

Chevrolet III

This is a 1974 LP from Chevrolet.  Listen here if you dare!
Thanks to Maiorov Simpleton's library blog.

Cabaret Voltaire - #8385 Collected Works

On The Hi-Fi In Nov 2013

Never ventured into Cabaret Voltaire's work beyond 1982.  From their inception in the early 70s to1982 they were one of the greatest bands on the planet. Cabaret Voltaire's paranoid clanky custom built low-fi electronic dub funk was an irresistible sound. It reflected, according to Richard H Kirk "Post-war desolation, unemployment and ugly urban landscapes."  I guess their move into more commercial/dancefloor friendly terrain after the departure of Chris Watson during the 2*45 sessions in 1982 always seemed a bit dubious to me.  New Order were already occupying that area with excellent results soon to be followed by Severed Heads. Previously Cabs could do no wrong on their winning streak of releases from 78-82 including classics like Mix Up, Three Mantras, Voice Of America, Red Mecca and their clutch of singles now compiled on The Original Sound Of Sheffield 1978/82. Cabs were also one of perhaps only 2 bands, the other being Devo, that arguably recorded their best work before they started releasing records.  Their pre-history recordings were only ever released to the wider public over 20 years later on Methodology 74/78: The Attic Tapes. That 3 cd set was the sound of a real homemade electronic garage band.

In 1983 with the release of The Crackdown they were reduced to the duo of Richard H Kirk and Steve Mallinder. Along with their change of direction came major labels, money and fancy 24 track studios. The music I'd previously heard from this era, mainly from late night tv, has always underwhelmed me so i'm venturing trepidaciously. When I first put on The Crackdown (disc 1 of 6 in this collection) I thought maybe this was a bad idea and that perhaps there was no need for me to pursue this avenue of exploration. I quickly moved on to disc 2 which contains the Micro-phonies LP and much to my surprise I am comin back to this record for more. Sure that doesn't mean its up there with The Attic Tapes but for anything to get a repeated listen, in this day and age, it must be doing something right. I have to look at them as The Cabs mk II, which they are, to get past the fact that no electronic squalls of dubbed out noise will be coming my way. Do Right, Spies In The Wires and Sensoria are the choice cuts here. The only other disc I've got to so far is disc 5 which has the 83-85 12" versions and is perhaps the best way to listen to this era of Cabaret Voltaire. Just Fascination and Crackdown (both originally from disc 1) are excellent here as is the aforementioned Sensoria.  These versions are beefed up for the disco dance floor and dare I say it make you wanna boogie, in a very white manner of course. This is as far as I've come so far but I'm a lot more positive about continuing on with the other 3 cds and then there's the dvds.....to be continued.....

Choice Cabs artifact.

*I missed that Wire article a while back, so apologies if you're bored of this subject.

Only A Shadow-Cleaners From Venus

Just coz it's like excellent and that.

So is this. Saxomophone....

And this...