Drexciya: 1992 - 1993

DREXCIYA - Deep Sea Dweller (1992) [Shockwave Records]

An incredibly consummate debut EP from the mysterious and much mythologised Drexciya. However the Detroit duo of James Stinson and Gerald Donald had released an EP on Hardwax Balance Of Terror in 1992 under the alias L.A.M. 

The four tracks here are..... is it futile to talk about Drexciya? I mean a lot of previously written words..., what's the point? Top tunes: Yep: Innovation: Yep: Nerdy prog-rock mythos type vibes: Yep: Absurdly influential for 30 years now: Yep. Deep Sea Dweller is an All killer/No filler EP of the highest regard: An auspicious beginning: Yep. Start of a ten year reign as master maestros of Detroit electro-techno of the sublime and idiosyncratic variety: Yep. Still tops: Yep.

DREXCIYA - Bubble Metropolis (1993) [Underground Resistance]

It's funny how much Mouse On Mars were influenced by Drexciya. I didn't realise it at the time. You think it's all contemporaneous whilst you are in the moment but when you look back you can hear the truth plus Drexciya were releasing records a couple of years prior to their existence. Throughout the Drexciya catalogue you can hear future blueprints for the likes of Boards Of Canada, Rustie etc. as well helping shape future sound of genres like electroclash, maybe some dubstep and even hauntology.

Sometimes talking about what a musical entity influenced is dumb and quite lazy. It definitely isn't necessarily a compliment but it wasn't Drexciya's fault a bunch of electroclash knob heads ripped them off in a superficial manner. Nobody could recreate their strange mystic aura though. I assume they influenced a whole lot more of the 21st century's club music and its adjacent scenes but hey I'm blissfully unaware of most of that music. It's also easy to forget there was a hell of a lot of techno in their music too. 

DREXCIYA - MOLECULAR ENCHANTMENT (1993) [Rephlex] 

They continued their odyssey with their twisted variant on electro and tekno Detroit stylee on Drexciya III - Molecular Enchantment. This seems a bit harder than previous releases and was released on the Aphex Twin owned Rephlex imprint no-less. I mean this has got the terrific Hydro Cubes on it, that is a landmark 90s electro tune innit. You gotta love intense noise couched in exquisite lovely-ness. 

Moritz Von Oswald & Mark Emestus: Main Street Records 1993 - 1999

Round Two - New Day (Dub) 1994

Round Two are Mark Emestus and Moritz Von Oswald who were also the legendary Basic Channel as well as Cyrus, Quadrant, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. While I have records and cds by all of those aforementioned groups I'm not really au fait with this moniker. I'm glad I looked into it today.

Round Three - Acting Crazy (Instrumental) 1995

Unmistakable Basic Channel-y sounds. 

Round Four - Found A Way 1998

Pure dub-tech gold! How do they do this trick? It almost dissipates into nothing right before your very ears and yet it still holds a rhythm albeit a rather mirage-like one. 

Round Five - Na Fe Throw Version 1999

Thick vibe man. I just noticed people arguing in the comments whether this should be played at 33 or 45. So I'm guessing all these side Bs are like all Basic Channel 12"ers which you can play at either speed depending on your mood.

3MB Feat Eddie Fowlkes - Illuminism Range 1-5 (1992)

3MB Featuring Eddie Fowlkes - Illuminism Range 1-5 (1992)

3MB are Thomas Fehlmann (Palais Schaumburg) and Moritz Von Oswald (Basic Channel). This track is featuring Eddie Fowlkes the Detroit techno dude. There was like a 5 minute edit of this on a early 90s Tresor cd I had but this is the full 20 minutes of glorious Berlin-Detroit techno goodness.

The Chosen Few - The Joke Is On Us 1978

The Chosen Few - The Joke Is On Us EP (1978)

You gotta love a group that consisted of a teacher and three of his year 12 students from Mornington High (60 Km south of Melbourne cbd) who used to rehearse & drink beer on a farm in Moorooduc.

The Chosen Few played Aussie style brutal yob punk rock inspired by the likes of Radio Birdman but I guess they were a lot more neanderthal.

The Chosen Few used to support Nick Cave’s Boys Next Door at The Tiger Lounge in Swan Street Richmond. They also played The Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda & had a residency at The Champion Hotel in Fitzroy. However they were outsiders because they weren’t inner city trendies, didn’t conform to punk’s orthodoxy and actively hated everyone else on the scene.

They only released one EP while they were together. THE JOKE’S ON US! from 1978 was a six song 7” issued on A FEW PRODUCTION. The original pressing of the single is now going for 1500 Aussie dollars on discogs.

The Chosen Few have become a little bit legendary over the years since their breakup in 1979. Iain the singer walked in front of a train & died in 1995. Cal the drummer played with The Olympic Sideburns, Spencer P Jones, The Saints, The Clip Clop Club etc.

Bored featuring Bohdan X & Eddy Current Suppression Ring have both recorded a cover of The Chosen Few’s THERE’S A LOT OF IT GOING AROUND ensuring them immortality as a seminal influence amongst the underground Australian rock scene.

THE DARKSIDE OF RAVE IV

DARKSIDE GOLD: HITS & MEMORIES

MEGA CITY 2 -DARKER SIDE OF EVIL (1992)

Mega City 2 had at least three tunes I can think of with DARK in the title. This is probably the best. It's swathed in Hellraiser samples and horror soundtrack atmosphere amongst the frantic beats, urgent technoid elements and a peculiar sinister bass hook. 

RUFIGE KRU - DARKRIDER (1992)

Classic piano led 'ardcore with fabulous synth/string stabs then darkness descends with sinister movie dialogue, mentasms and unmistakably massive Reinforced rave riffage, all put through a dub echo chamber.

BAY B KANE - HELLO DARKNESS (1992)

Pitch-shifted Simon & Garfunkel sample begins this low key yet insidiously uncanny tune which is one of a kind in darkside jungle. Absolute!

TANGO & RATTY - TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (1993)

One of the most iconic basslines in hardcore kicks this off at 0.12. Then Rakim gets the chipmunk treatment along with massive rave riffage, dubwize soundz and general frenzy.

DJ SOLO - DARKAGE (1993)

An Amen belter. Often in an Amen sampled jungle tune you'll get the Think break too. Chipmunks take over along with a trippy reggae trumpet sample making this a unique specimen of hardcore rave.

BOOGIE TIMES TRIBE - THE DARK STRANGER (ORIGIN UNKNOWN REMIX) (1993)

Each time I kept adding a choon here I thought "This is the best ever!" so that makes this an All Killer No Filler post and The Dark Stranger must be the best of the lot. More horror soundtrack vibes and deep voiced thespian dialogue snatches from Sir Anthony Hopkins & Gazza Oldman, we get a soul diva, Origin Unknown's mysteriously psychedelic touches, a weird step-y drumbeat for the hook and more. 

BLAME & JUSTICE: MOVING SHADOW 1994

BLAME & JUSTICE - NEMESIS (1994) 

Pinging pinball bass, scattershot 52 pick up snare spillage and an intense creepy time stretched vocal sample all add to the anarchic bliss of Nemesis. Peak disorientating jungle goodness. Mind-bending.

BLAME & JUSTICE - ESSENCE (THE JAZZ TESTAMENT) (1994)

Ambient-Jungle with some dissonant saxamophone. Apparently it was Goldie's favourite tune from 1994. 

BLAME & JUSTICE - ANTHEMIA (HEAVEN) (1994)

Lovely kaleidoscopic ambient-jungle weirdness. 

BLAME & JUSTICE - NOCTURNAL (1994)

Disembodied diva vocals set free into a floating hallucinatory dubby vortex with random drummage. Totally artcore!

BLAME & JUSTICE - NIGHTVISION (1994)

Splattering snares, a dubbed out diva, ambient lulls, bleeps in the echo chamber, melodic octopus drummage with menacing minimal bass. Night-visionary!

BLAME & JUSTICE - SECRET PARADISE (1994)

Bleeps amongst the choppage and dubbed out waves of sound. Loop-y psychedelic jungle.  

ICONS - EMOTIONS WITH INTELLECT

ICONS - ELECTRIC SOUL

First things first Emotions With Intellect is a fucking awful and totally unappealing title so it's no wonder that many jungalists avoided this record upon release back in the 90s. 

Icons are Anthony Bowes and Conrad Shafie aka Blame & Justice who had two big 12"s on Moving Shadow in 1994 (See future post and coincidentally Simon's post here). Anyway the Icons LP didn't come out until 96 despite apparently being recorded in 94/95 (?). It's not like there is an absurd wealth of information on jungle/dnb on the interweb, like there is with rock music, so I haven't been able to confirm as to why this album stayed on the shelf for a couple of years. Like many punters I missed this record at the time and really only became aware of it seven or eight years ago when it was included as FACT's 17th best album of the 90s, beating out Omni Trio, Goldie, 4Hero & Photek to come in as Jungle/dnb's runner up LP behind A Guy Called Gerald's Black Secret Technology which came in at number four. 

ICONS - SALSA FLAVOUR

This does what it says on the tin ie. it's dnb with a salsa flava. It rolls along nicely with its percussive bliss, jungle soundz and humid atmosphere. Choice.

*Fabio's review from Eternity Magazine June 1995.

ICONS - FUTURE ASPECTS

"It was about the ghost notes" 

Blame aka Conrad Shafie.

*Fabio's review from Eternity Magazine May 1995

ICONS - EMOTIONS WITH INTELLECT (1996)

As the kids say this was slept on. 

 

Musick for Psychedelic Duelling Volume 2 - R.E.E.L.

R.E.E.L. return with a good fun follow up to their debut tape from 2020. All sorts of sprawling haunted & cosmic sonic shenanigans. An array of fringe cultural detritus is assembled for your listening pleasure. Cosmic synths, occult electronics, knackered acid house, sinister ambience, esoteric found sounds, dialogue from shonky charlatans and naff beat poets. It's all here to evoke a damp lost psychedelia with glimmers of past euphoria and haunting reminders of failed utopian experiments. In their bandcamp screed R.E.E.L. give us many nudge nudge wink winks to the world in which this recording is ensconced: Half hearted acid house, cosmic foolishness, acid communism, psychic alchemy, Coil, Tangerine Dream, Albert Camus, Sun Ra, Francis Bacon, snail slime, forensic angels, brown acid, Somerset, crackles, special K hole etc. etc.  

R.E.E.L. are Farmer Glitch (Hacker Farm, pHarmerz), Matt Saunders (The Assembled Minds) and Saxon Roach (IX Tab).

THE SAINTS - Chris Bailey 1957 - 2022

None More Surly.

Great Australian Albums: The Saints - (I'm) Stranded. 

TV episode originally aired 18/8/07 SBS TV Australia.

This tells you more about the people in The Saints in the first three minutes than the entirety of that schmozzle of a documentary from 2015. Features Aussie rock icons Rob Younger (Radio Birdman), Nick Cave, Robert Forster (The GoBetweens), Brad Shepherd (Hoodoo Gurus), Damien Lovelock (Celibate Rifles), Mark Callaghan (GANGgajang) and probably a few I've forgotten. This documentary is really about the three albums by the Bailey/Kuepper line-up which is good because I think a majority of fans would agree that the second LP Eternally Yours is their greatest but then again (I'm) Stranded and Prehistoric Sounds are of historical and artistic significance and have their fans too. It's definitely the ultimate Australian three album run beginning with a debut and among just a handful worldwide ie. giving The Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath and Wire a run for their money.

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded (1976)

"Stranded - I'm so far from home

Stranded - yeah I'm on my own

Stranded - you got to leave me alone

'Cause I'm stranded on my own

Stranded"

How could they not appeal to my desolate teenage heart that was stuck in the cultural wastelands of a semi arid Australian country town. I mean they were a bunch of stroppy scumbags from the sweltering sub-tropical outer suburbs of Brisbane. The song was written in 1974 on the train home from the city back to the outskirts of town where the city met the country literally. Spitting in the face of the abyss with gleeful nihilistic abandon. Ed Kuepper has stated "Stranded wasn't a negative song... it was affirming."

Sounds 16/10/76

Juke 25/9/76

Sniffin' Glue 10/76

The Saints - Wild About You (1977)

Here's nod to one of their lineages of influences 60s garage Australian stylee. This set of Antipodean influences sets them apart from The Sex Pistols & Ramones and obviously embeds the Strayan characteristics of this music even further. Wild About You was originally recorded by Sydney band The Missing Links in 1965. Other Australian influences include The Purple Hearts, The Easybeats, Masters Apprentices, Coloured Balls and probably a stack more. First hearing The Saints, in all their sardonic alienated splendour, as a teenager in the mid 80s they just sounded so Australian to me. It was like the'd tapped in to our DNA. 

The Saints - Messin' With The Kid (1977)

The Saints - Nights In Venice (1977)

The Saints - This Perfect Day (1977)

Record Mirror 16/7/77

The Saints - Know Your Product (1978)

"Let's shoot the professor!
Alright!"

The Saints - Memories Are Made Of This (1978)

The Saints - No, Your Product (1978)

The Saints - Swing For The Crime (1978)

"And we hope that you had a good time"

The Saints - Brisbane (Security City) (1978)

The most haunting and evocative tune by the original Saints (1973-1978).

Stranded: The Saints (Documentary 2015) 

Originally aired ABC TV 15/9/15 

Directed by Serge Ou

Rock docs are pretty lame these days and this one's all over the shop. Why do I bother watching them? This is the rock doc nadir. Why is Bob Geldof talking about The Boomtown Rats? We don't care mate. We love The Saints! We're here for The Saints. Then it just wants to be about 70s Queensland politics and for a good while you kinda forget this is about the best band to ever come out of Australia. Then they go on and on about other Brisbane bands many of whom I admire but... This really should have been called something like Punk, Post Punk and The Police State in Brisbane.  

The four writers show a distinct lack of understanding about what The Saints were about. Sure the political climate was a part of the band but they weren't exactly a band rallying the collective scenester activists. No they were pretty anti-social and misanthropic. They'd only had one encounter as a band with Brisbane's finest under the tyranny of Sir Joh. They wrote songs about not wanting to be part of any kind of conformity. Anyone who knows even just a tiny bit about Chris Bailey knows that he was a contrarian of the highest order. I wonder if he hated this documentary? I'd say so. Anyway I came away knowing more about Jello Biafra than Chris Bailey so that's a fucking fail mate. Fuck off Serge!

MOVING SHADOW JUNGLE

DJ Pulse - Stay Calm (Foul Play Remix) (1994)

Distills the hardcore elements into jungle perfection: Darkness, Mentasm stabs, Amens and movie dialogue. 

Dead Dred - Dred Bass (1994)

Total atmosphere until that devastating beat and bass drop at 0.56. Continues with that iconic bass, soul diva, skidding Amen choppage and a maximal time-stretched Dr Alimantado vocal. Doesn't get better than this.

Renegade - Terrorist (1994)

In your face Amen belter. Two basslines for the price of one in this "well 'ard" dubwize jungle tune. The best.

Hyper On Experience - Disturbance (Tango Remix) (1993)

Stadium size rave riffage, eerie scrapes, jittery rhythms, spooky keys and sinister voices all add to this disturbance.

*One thing I've only just noticed recently (by reading youtube comments) is that lots of old school jungle and drum & bass was/is used in video games. I had absolutely no idea jungle was being dispersed into households that normally wouldn't have followed such a music scene. So a lot of game creators were obviously hardcore fans. This has led to Jungle/DnB having longevity and popularity beyond its generation, era and original geographic spaces. The above 4 tunes from the Moving Shadow label were used in one of the versions Grand Theft Auto.