Antonym - Blood and Aphorisms (1991) C60

Here's the second tape by Antonym. The first can be found here if you missed it, in which case you will additionally find that the associated blog post tells you all you need to know about Antonym, or at least as much as I know myself. This one doesn't even seem to be on Discogs, which is odd. I don't know if it received a more limited distribution or something. Anyway, as you will hear, it's more good stuff in a similar vein, and a vein which reminds me a little of er... early Nocturnal Emissions combined with the more abrasive side of the Severed Heads, maybe with a faint je ne sais quoi of Esplendor Geométrico, P16D4 - something in that general ballpark. I think my only complaint is that these tracks could have been a lot longer, but I suppose if that bothers you, maybe you could just listen to them twice or something.

 

Someone do a vinyl retrospective of this guy please.

Download the twenty-five tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Principle Rising
2 - Prime Mover
3 - Portrait of the Artist as Shark Chyme
4 - Metal Beast IV
5 - Noisework I
6 - Miasma
7 - Pushing Brick Walls
8 - Metal Beast I
9 - Polished Air
10 - Malachite
11 - Cages for the Spirit and Cemetries for the Soul
12 - Mumiai
13 - Erubescent Splash on Chrome
14 - Tear Gas
15 - Present Tense
16 - Feed the Flaming Hunger
17 - AWB
18 - A Short Study in Feedback
19 - A New Face in Heaven
20 - Metal Beast II
21 - Survivor Type
22 - Morass
23 - Metal Beast V
24 - Radiation Complication
25 - Divine Falling

Return to Index

British Blood (1986) C90

The above image isn't the cover, because there never was a cover. Instead it's some photocopy of a collage knocked up presumably by Trev upon the back of which one page of a letter was written, because we used to write to each other quite a lot. Trev, as you probably know, is best known as half of the Grey Wolves, and I knew him because I released Hopscotch by Opera for Infantry - a previous incarnation of the Grey Wolves - on Do Easy, my tape label. I gather that at some point in 1986 Trev had said he was going to send me a new tape for release on Do Easy by Nails ov Christ, the name under which he had taken to performing at the time, but, as he explains in the salient letter...

What I have done instead, and which I think is better than a tape with the two tracks by Nails ov Christ, is send you a C90 that features recordings and excerpts from the very first Opera for Infantry session through to the present with Nails ov Christ and Irritant. As you were the very first label ever to release a tape by OFI, I think it's very suitable that Do Easy release this tape. Please call this historical document, second annual report, or however you would describe it, British Blood. I've enclosed a sheet with the details of tracks featured. It's entirely up to you if you want to include the names of the people who recorded each track. If you'd rather leave them out, that's okay. Hope you like it. You can charge £1.50 (or more if you want) and keep any profits towards running costs of Do Easy. Please design a cover with any artwork or writing you think is suitable. There is nothing I want added to the cover except for the cross on the other page - on the front or on the inside, it's up to you. Please send me a copy when you've done the cover as you have the only copy.

Anyway, the tape never came out, reasons being that 1) I was thoroughly fed up of the whole weirdy tape scene at that point, and 2) it bothered me that Trev had asked me to issue a tape called British Blood with a symbol associated with the British Movement on the cover. I'd already released an Apostles tape with a swastika on the cover against my better judgement, and I wasn't keen to establish a pattern of this particular kind. I understood where Trev was coming from, and I understood the Grey Wolves' two-man mission to scare the living shit out of the rest of us, and I had no objection to the tape existing under either that name or with that imagery, but I didn't want to be the one flogging it to people. So, no-one has heard this thing in three decades, apart from me. This is probably a shame because it's actually a pretty decent collection, and certainly would have been one of the better things on my label had I stuck it out. Here Opera for Infantry sounded more like a primitive Throbbing Gristle than the power electronics tour de force into which they eventually transmogrified - and honorary mentions to Jess Hopkins who also appeared on a couple of these tracks.

By the way, just in case you missed the final sentence of the quote from Trev's letter, I had the only copy. This means that when you see some tosspot selling one of these for sixty fucking quid on eBay bleating about how he taped it off a radio station back in the eighties, don't buy it or anything else he's selling, grass the cunt up, get him chucked off eBay, then go around to his house and do a poo in his pond*.

Download the twenty tracks and information sheet by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - [introduction]

     Opera for Infantry
2 - [excerpt from first recording session]
3 - Hopscotch [excerpt]
4 - Self Discipline Not Self Oppression
5 - Io Pan
6 - Anne Bonny
7 - Genocide
8 - War of the Roses [live excerpt]
9 - Feedback
10 - Destroyer
11 - Shorty

      Grey Wolves
12 - Pursuer
13 - Sands
14 - Golgotha Requiem [live]
15 - Programmed to Kill [live excerpt]

      Irritant
16 - Dissection Fuck Up
17 - British Blood [excerpt]

      Nails ov Christ
18 - Vatican Victims
19 - Smash the Sinners [excerpt]
20 - Attack to Caress

Return to Index

*: This inducement to harassment is entirely rhetorical and is made exclusively for the purpose of entertainment. I strongly advise all who read this blog against taking this course of action, apart from the bit about getting the twat responsible chucked off eBay.

Cassette Music 4 (1994) C60

This is the fourth in the series from Personal Soundtracks, hence the numerical component of the title, and one which initially seemed underwhelming compared to previous volumes; but it gets its hooks into you with just a couple of plays, and it should be noted that nobody could ever have accused Personal Soundtracks of being predictable.

 

Typically, my knowledge is patchy where these folks are concerned, but for what it's worth: fairly sure Dave, the man behind the Personal Soundtracks label, was drummer for the Pranksters, and if I'm getting my wires crossed I'll just have to edit this later, but never mind; I'm not sure what Costes is, but he's been at it for a while and some regard him as a genius. He once sent me a letter which included a photocopy of a nude picture of himself with an erection as apparent illustration to some lyrics which, as I recall, went see the sad boy with the hard cock, don't be sad, boy - you can come in my bum. I didn't write back because I was scared, quite frankly; apparently there's a Vietnamese TV repair guy living in Ho Chi Minh who hasn't heard of factor X, but word on the street is that he's the last one. I'll believe it when and if I ever meet him; and NKVD is of course Glenn of Konstruktivists heard here in his lesser known role of beloved early evening entertainer; Vinci and the Conspiracy appeared on previous volumes of this series but I'm still none the wiser.

Download the sixteen tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Vinci - Philosophie Papale
2 - In Sensorium - Pandemonium
3 - The Pranksters - Celery Lettuce Cucumber
4 - Ampzilla's Delight - My Japanese Drummer is HOT
5 - Costes - Rock 'n' Roll Rip Off
6 - Costes - Aging Punks
7 - The Conspiracy - The Fears of Janet Frame
8 - Teknohedfuk - So Good
9 - factor X - 15 Souls of Flowers
10 - factor X - Settee Boy
11 - The Pranksters - Radio Active TV Repair Man
12 - NKVD - A Riddle
13 - Tone Deaf - Armed
14 - The Conspiracy - Brain Surfing
15 - Terropin - Destruction of Fashion
16 - Vinci - Je T'Aimerais Toujours
 

Return to Index

Onomatopoeia - Anal Almond (1996) C30

It's difficult to shake off the notion that power electronics must by definition be about the joys of a violent and unpleasant sexual deed or how Adolf Hitler was probably amazing in real life, but of course there's no real reason why it shouldn't explore controversial ideas and imagery associated with less obviously contentious subjects, a food allergy for example. This is where Onomatopoeia went with Anal Almond, limited to an edition of one-hundred, issued by a Japanese label in a fancy box physically including an actual almond as part of the artwork. The idea struck me as initially peculiar, but in Onomatopoeia's defence, what you hear on this cassette is probably of an intensity equivalent to what goes through my wife's head when she comes into contact with almonds. She's allergic too and has very strong feelings on the subject.

Anyway, regardless of anything else, this is a very substantial and satisfying slab of noise. I don't know much about Onomatopoeia beyond that it was the organ of Steve Fricker who ran Cheeses International - both a label and distribution - and occasionally worked with the mighty Smell & Quim. So there you go.

Download the tape and scans of the box it came in by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Pink Sugared Almonds
2 - Marzipan
3 - An Acrid Amygdalaceous Aroma

Return to Index