Pete Nu – Morrocan Reggae

Great British instrumental reggae single inscribed to Pete Nu and titled “Morrocan Reggae”. Obviously released during the 1980s, the record comes without a cover, just like a regular reggae single. The tracks have a touch of classical music and jazz, and superb arrangements, too. Instruments include piano, bass, drums, flute and clarinet, all played by consummate, unidentified musicians. The B-side sounds like the obligatory dub version, with prominent bass and straightforward drums – plus strangely detuned piano at the beginning of the track. The lead-out grooves bear the inscription “A Porky Prime Cut”, signaling the master was done by British sound engineer George Peckham. Pete(r) Nu had a duo with singer Maggie Nichols in the 1980s – they released 2 LPs on Leo Records: Nicols ‘N’ Nu in 1985 and Don’t Assume in 1987. It seems Peter Nu now lives in New Orleans.

01 Morrocan Reggae (4:22)
02 Morrocan Reggae – dub version (3:50)

Total time 8:12

7in record, no label, UK, date unknown

Download

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

Above: Peter Nu performing at Oak Street Cafe in the Carrollton historic district, New Orleans, 2010.

* *
*

Alain Meunier – Voyage aux fonds de la mer

To my knowledge, this is Alain Meunier‘s unique LP release – and not to be confused with French classical music cellist Alain Meunier. Titled Voyage aux Fonds de la Mer, or A Trip to the Bottom of the Sea, it is a rare example of electronic music on Le Kiosque d’Orphée. My copy doesn’t come with any information, though there was perhaps, in typical K.O. fashion, some xeroxed info sheet enclosed that is missing here. The Discogs page apparently knows better and lists a precise instrumentation as well as guest musician Christine Meunier on Hohner Clavinet on the 1st side, and that it was recorded and mixed in the Bordeaux area.

♫ Starting with an exquisite acoustic guitar track, the LP only progressively indulges into pure electronic endeavors to become a genuine, instrumental Kosmische Musik travelogue in the tradition of Pascal Comelade’s Fluence project (1975) or Richard Pinhas’ Chronolyse (1976). Aquatic, floating synth sounds emerges on track #2, graced by a sublime Fripp-ian guitar melody. Meunier unleashes the beast on #3: a Korg 800 DV duophonic, analog synthesizer (nice YouTube demo here), used by the likes of Vangelis or Kitaro. The next one, Promenade avec les Poissons, or A Walk with the Fishes, is a tripping, almost acid house instrumental. After #4, a short, funny interlude about sea slugs (!), the pièce de résistance is the epic, side-long Les Épaves, a stately, hypnotic exploration of underwater worlds by means of undulating cosmo-synth lines, a 23 minute ride on electronic music waves through semi-hypnagogic hazes. Happy diving!

01 Ballade (Sur les Rochers) (2:34)
02 Descente dans ce Monde Inconnu I-IV (6:18)
03 Promenade avec les Poissons (9:40)
04 Aplysia Depilans (Lièvre de Mer) (2:07)
05 Les Épaves I-V (23:08)

Total time 43:47
LP released by Le Kiosque d’Orphée, ref. KO 09.0410, France, 1979

Download option 1

* *
*

Various – Rencontres du 1er Type

This cassette is apparently the unique release from Intra Musiques, a French underground music magazine from Strasbourg in eastern France directed by critic, concert organizer and record distributor Pierre Durr who now writes in Revue & Corrigée. Published from 1981 to 1987, Intra Musiques covered avant jazz, Rock In Opposition, industrial rock, DIY cassette releases, etc, in the tradition of legendary magazine Atem founded in the mid-1970s by Gérard N’Guyen of Les Disques du Soleil et de l’Acier record company.

♫ The “Rencontre du 1er Type” compilation gathers bands from Strasbourg, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy (home of the Musique Action festival since 1984) and Reims (home of AYAA and Look de Book). The style is roughly similar to the AYAA compilation LPs Douze Pour Un vol. 1 and 2, that is instrumental avant jazz tracks with a rock structure, inspired by John Zorn and Fred Frith. The Look de Book tracks were exclusive to this tape and never appeared on LP or CD.

Neo Museum
01 Premier Elément (6:00)
02 Elément de Paraphrase (6:55)
Look de Book
03 Braque pour une Grosse Bique (:47)
04 L’Heure d’Appât du Panda (1:54)
05 Grotte de Biques (3:55)
06 Demain ou Ailleurs (4:46)
07 Jones, Jones, Jones and Jones Untitled (9:20)
08 Speedubong Duo Mutations  (7:18)
09 Traces de Saxes Toujours Plus à l’Ouest (6:44)

Total time 47:39
Cassette released by Intra Musiques, Strasbourg, France, 1986

Download

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

Below: some Intra Musiques issues
(#9 is availalbe as a PDF here)

* *
*

Hazard – Le Chemin de l’oubli

Hazard was a French progressive rock band from the South of France (Avignon or Carpentras), active between 1973 and 1977. Though the band toured France extensively during their lifetime, this 7 inch single was their unique record release. It was published by Photosonor, an artist-paid imprint run by Mr Chansigaud in Romainville, near Paris. Photosonor published several singles by French bands who, like Hazard, had won the Golf Drout rock contest organized by the Parisian concert venue of the same name during the 1970s. Hazard also famously played at the Arcane rock festival organized by French progressive rock band Ange. After the demise of Hazard, guitar player Richard Seigle joined the band Friends Quartet in 1978. French sound archivist and radio producer Jeanne Robert collected many Photosonor releases on this archive page.

Above: singer Joël Marchand with guitarist Richard Seigle (source)

♫ Mediocre recording quality doesn’t do justice to the band’s powerful sound and interplay, led by pounding bass lines and solid drumming, over which singer Joël Marchand delivers poetic and cryptic lyrics. What makes the band really stand out are Richard Seigle’s brillant guitar parts and Jean-Claude Jullian’s awesome keyboard playing, either on organ, mellotron or synth. A miniature concept album, Le Chemin de L’Oubli, or The Path of Oblivion, spreads over 2 sides and goes through frequent rhythm changes and several instrumental passages – the introduction alone is 2-min long – in true progressive rock fashion.

Le Chemin de L’Oubli
01 Part I (4:45)
02 Part II (5:44)

Jean-Claude Jullian, organ, synthesizer, mellotron
Richard Seigle, guitar
Jean-Marie Jouve, bass
Gilles Villot, drums
Joël Marchand, vocals

Total time 10:29
7in record, privately released by Photosonor, France, 1974

Download

* *
*

Zeppi-Vingt Doigts – Social Behaviors

Vingt Doigts, or Zeppi Vin Doigts, was the avant-rock duo of Zeppi and Jack Schaeffer, from Rochester, NY. Zeppi Vin Doigts was sometimes augmented by drummer John Grieco, as was the case on the Foist Collective LP I posted earlier, and the three formed Down With People, Rochester’s pre-Grunge rock outfit. Zeppi reputedly studied with Beth Custer and Fred Frith during the 1980s, and was part of innumerable local bands in Rochester.

♫ On Social Behaviors, their unique LP published 1988, Zeppi Vingt Doigts blend their progressive and industrial rock influences into a kind of compact math rock with angular rhythms and unsettling atmospheres. The synthesizer mostly contributes to the latter with climatic and paranoid frequencies reminiscent of San Francisco duo Rhythm & Noise. Uncompromising drumming underline some of these instrumental tracks, while others are graced with guest vocals, cello or flute, so that no track sounds like the next one.

01 Children’s March 1944 (3:02)
02 Concession (3:42)
03 Crux (3:00)
04 Zygomorphism (9:19)
05 Green Grass Growing (2:08)
06 One Has Half Stars (2:57)
07 Western Duck (:51)
08 Victorious Over The Flesh (1:50)
09 April 10, 1986 (Bomb Lybia) (2:35)
10 Subversion IV (5:00)
11 Umbrage (1:46)
12 Ode To GE (Money Sees) (1:28)
13 Schleimhaus (3:10)

Zeppi, guitar, bass, keyboards, sax
Jack Schaeffer, guitar, bass, keyboards, sax, recorder

Total time 40:50
LP released by Nadirean Extensions, Rochester, N.Y., 1988

Download

* *
*

Flying Lesbians s/t LP

The self-titled, self-released Flying Lesbians LP belongs to the pioneering feminist releases of the 1970s, along Alix Dobkin’s Living with Lesbians LP, or Berlin all-women band Lysistrata. This movement came after the first generation of artists like Gertrude Stein or Claude Cahun on the one hand, and before all-women Punk bands like Hagar the Womb, Malaria or the Riot Grrrl movement on the other hand. While in a male-dominated society Feminist and Lesbian claims generally come across as a provocation, it is all the more provocative in the context of rock music, with its ethos of blatant virility and assumed machismo. Formed in 1974 by Monika Mengel and Cillie Rentmeister, the Flying Lesbians comprised 7 women from West Berlin performing at Feminist festivals around Europe as well as Frauenfesten (women’s festivals) in Germany. The band lasted from 1974 to ’77 and self-released their unique LP in 1975 via Frauen Offensive, a one-shot record label distributed by Frauenbuchladen Vertrieb GmbH, a Berlin woman-run, national distributor of women’s literature.

♫ Credentials on the LP bear all the signs of a vindicative, activist project, complete with Amazon double-axe symbol on the cover ; lyrics credited to British suffragette Emily Pankhurst (actually written by Monica Mengel and other members of the group) and lyrics in German and English dealing with feminist’s claims exclusively. Musically speaking, the Flying Lesbians have an opulent sound thanks to a strong rhythm section led by Monika Savier and Danielle de Baat’s powerful bass lines, and finally by Cillie Rentmeister’s piano accompaniment, somewhere between Janis Joplin and Czech band Psí vojáci.

01 Battered Wife (3:08)
02 Trebermädchen (2:43)
03 Arbeitlos (4:07)
04 Für Frau Dr. A (4:17)
05 Frauen Kommt Her (+ Frauen Erhebt Euch) (5:49)
06 I’m A Lesbian, How About You? (3:58)
07 Die Bisexualität (3:35)
08 Wir Sind Die Homosexuellen Frauen (3:38)
09 Matriarchatsblues (5:36)
10 Shake It Off (6:00)

Monika Savier, bass guitar
Monika Mengel, drums, vocals
Danielle de Baat, guitar, bass, vocals
Cillie Rentmeister, piano, synth, harmonica, vocals
Christel Wachowski, guitar
Gigi Lansch, drums
Monika Jaeckel, percussion, vocals

Total time 42:49
LP released by Frauen Offensive, Germany, 1975

Download

* *
*

Tòcabiòl – Es el, es ela…

Occitan singer/songwriter J.G. Tòcabiòl made two LPs for French Revolum label, run in Toulouse by Rosine de Péira since the mid-1970s. The first one, Es el… es ela… (It’s Him, it’s Her…) in 1977 and a second one, Belèu (Maybe), in 1978. Along Ventadorn, Revolum was the leading publisher of Occitan music in France. They issued various folk and protest singers, as well as the incredible Riga Raga LP I posted earlier. Thanks to a team of fine backing musicians, Tòcabiòl’s debut updated the Occitan folk medium with Frippertronics on guitar, synthesizer sound effects and sinuous electric organ parts, with a style that was both lyrical and progressive.

♫ Though the first tracks stay close to traditional acoustic folk, the inclusion of oboe – played by Vincent Penchinat – and harpsichord sounds on electric organ bring these humble folk tunes into chamber music territory. Track #3 L’amistat is exquisitely balanced between accordion and acoustic guitar, with nothing else in between, which is typical of this LP’s minimalist arrangements. Bass guitar appears on #4 Per signification, along soft synthesizer portamento notes in the background. When we reach #5 and 7, the synthesizer takes the lead and drives a pair of infectious, off-kilter tracks with duck’s quack sounds, announcing the weird arrangements of the B side. The epic 19mns title track starts with electronic beeps, progressively joined by bass guitar and organ accompanying Tòcabiòl’s voice. The track goes through various phases and instrumental passages with an instrumentation and magical organ sounds that recall Bo Hansson’s Lord of the Rings, 1972. When the Fripp-ian guitar enter, Es el, es ela… has already derailed from the folk idiom confort zone to enter experimental rock territory. Unforgettable. There was a CD reissue at some point with 5 extra tracks, but it seems to be even rarer than original LP copies!

01 Ma Mia Maria (3:22)
02 Lei fuòcs de la Sant Joan (2:38)
03 L’amistat (2:45)
04 Per signification (3:27)
05 Tot es gris (3:19)
06 La venguda (2:42)
07 La dròlla dau capelan (3:06)
08 Es el, es ela… (18:55)

Total time 40:20
LP released by Revolum, ref. REV008, Toulouse, France, 1977

Download

* *
*

Lindsay Cooper – Rags

Having played with British bands Comus and Henry Cow during the 1970s, bassoonist, composer and songwriter Lindsay Cooper, born 1951 (more info here), was used to communal music activities and LP-cum-political-tract releases when she co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group (FIG) in 1977 with Maggie Nicols (of Centipede fame). Her first solo LP, Rags, published 1980, was the soundtrack to The Song of the Shirt, a 1979 Feminist/Marxist film by Sue Clayton and Jonathan Curling. The musicians are members of FIG (Lindsay Cooper, Sally Potter, Georgie Born) plus Frith and Cutler from Henry Cow and Phil Minton from the Mike Westbrook Band. Self-published in 1980 in the UK through small label Arcades, Rags was recorded and engineered by Dave Vorhaus at his own Kaleidophon studio, the usual White Noise recording facility.

♫ As expected by anyone familiar with other Rock In Opposition discs, Rags is a mix of progressive-folk, workers’ songs and 20th century chamber music. What it lacks in communal chutzpah compared to the above-mentioned big bands is more than compensated by a more personal, delicate and chamber-like music idiom. The music is entirely written for small ensembles in which piano, bassoon or guitar lead the melody, while Sally Potter and Phil Minton alternate on vocals. A few tracks are entirely played on wind instruments by Cooper in re-recording. The beautiful last track, The Song of the Shirt, reminds both Hanns Eisler’s Die Mutter and French chanson réaliste.

The 20pp booklet includes many b&w collages by Linn MacRitchie as well as historical research on 19th century’s working classes by Sue Clayton and Jonathan Curling. As a whole, Rags is a wonderful concept album, politically comparable to the Red Krayola and Art & Language collaborations (ever wondered what Red stands for in Red Krayola?).

01 The Exhibition Of Fashions (1:30)
02 Lots Of Larks + General Strike (2:59)
03 Woman’s Wrongs I (3:35)
04 Woman’s Wrongs II (3:06)
05 The Charter (1:41)
06 Parliament Catch (1:28)
07 Woman’s Wrongs III (2:31)
08 Film Music (4:21)
09 Prostitution Song (2:22)
10 1848 + The Chartist Anthem (3:13)
11 Cholera (2:48)
12 Stitch Goes The Needle (2:34)
13 A Young Lady’s Vision (1:24)
14 Pin Money (:54)
15 Woman’s Wrong IV (3:49)
16 The Song Of The Shirt (5:01)

Total time 43:10
LP released by Arcades, UK, 1980

Download

* *
*