Obscuro Flying Nun group The Max Block released a sole twelve-inch in the mid-'80s before members Maryrose and Brian Crook moved on to The Renderers. Before hanging up the towel on The Max Block project, however, they recorded another EP that never saw the light of day. In 2012, the Siltbreeze label announced plans to release the group's full discography.
The release is called 'Air Ache in the Belly of the Leech' and includes The Max Block's self-titled debut and their unreleased tracks. As Siltbreeze explains, "The Max Block pushed different boundaries than other active Christchurch bands at the time; they came out slinging a brain-splattering goo of art-spaced, Pere-Ubu-seared cerebellum, and frenetic, Mars-fried medula oblongata." [SOURCE: EXCLAIM!]
British band The Lo Yo Yo was founded by Family Fodder frontman John Pearce, aka Alig, in 1984. The Lo Yo Yo was active for 2 years and released one cassette, one split cassette with Look De Bouk, one full-length LP and appeared on the 'Local International 15-26' compilation cassette on Recommended. The band’s name comes from a Captain Beefheart song titled "Low Yo Yo Stuff" on the 1972 'Clear Spot' LP. The Lo Yo Yo’s line-up was actually more varied and included, along 10 or so other musicians, various Family Fodder members like Mick Hobbs, Felix Fiedorowicz and Rick Wilson. All three also played in The Work and Officer!, sometimes with Pearce himself. Charles Bullen of This Heat occasionally played drums with Family Fodder and co-produced The Lo Yo Yo’s unique LP, 'Extra Weapons', in 1985.
Pearce’s punchy bass playing and Carrie (Caroline) Brooks’ post-punk drumming form the backbone of The Lo Yo Yo sound, complete with singer Joey Stack, Annie Hunt's cello and Mick Hobbs’ guitar. At times, this rhythm section has the band appear like a dub+rock fusion with occasional flexible, bouncing reggae touches -characteristics also present in Family Fodder. Playful vocals and the songs’ inventive arrangements evoke punk influences from bands like Rubella Ballet, Hagar The Womb or The Slits. [SOURCE: CONTINUO]
Hans Schiller (real name Michael Gutierrez) moved from a small providence in Canada to San Francisco due to his sexual orientation. He was fascinated with electronic music and Germany in general (hence his artist's name). He converted his garage into a little recording studio and ran three different phone lines (artist, sexual orientation, legal name). 'Flieg' was his first release. He pressed a 1,000 copies of this record, but never sold it. Hans ended up getting language cassettes to improve his German.
He used some of those tapes for his second release called 'Hyko'. It never came out and exists as a demo tape only. Right around this time is when he met Peter Ziegelmeier and formed Kode IV. In 1994, Hans returned to Canada being very sick from AIDS. After his death, all his records and cassettes that were stored in his garage were thrown in the garbage and his synthesizers, instruments, and recording equipment were sold for very cheap. His 'Flieg' original LP as Kozmonaut is nearly impossible to come by. 'Hyko' consists of 16 songs in total, all of which are unreleased. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
Painter / experimental musician John Duncan is renowned for his use of shortwave radio. Getting his start hosting radio programs (including one such show titled "Close Radio"), Duncan began his musical journey in 1980, as he likened the sounds of a shortwave radio to what one may hear while dreaming, and began to merge this uncharted sound with music (another popular technique of Duncan's is recording his voice on tape reading text backwards, then inverting the tape to achieve peculiar effects on his voice). One of his earliest recordings, the 1984 cassette 'Pleasure Escape', includes a piece titled "Blind Date", which features Duncan talking about a dead body and a vasectomy operation. Further releases followed, such as music for a series of Japanese porno films, titled 'The John See Soundtracks', plus 'Riot', 'Incoming', 'The Crackling', 'Tap Internal', 'Palace of Mind', and 'NAV', among others. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Furyo were a British gothic rock band who formed in Luton in mid-1983 after UK Decay split. UK Decay members Steve "Abbo" Abbot, Steve Harle and Eddie Branch stayed together after that band split. The three recorded under the name Slave Drive on compilation LP 'The Whip' (though the CD reissue credits the song to UK Decay) and as Meat of Youth on LP 'Young Limbs, Numb Hymns: The Batcave Compilation', with a guitarist named Patrick, who soon left.
They were joined by guitarist Albie de Luca, formerly of Gene Loves Jezebel, and renamed themselves Furyo. They played their first show in September 1983. The band released two mini-albums, 'Furioso' and 'Furyo', and recorded an unreleased album before splitting in early 1985. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Diatribe emerged from somewhere between Reading and Bristol, did not gig much. One incident did happen to add to the non legend that is Diatribe, one of the members brought a gun into the NME offices and fired a shot, luckily it just shot blanks, but no one saw the funny side and after being thrown out the offices Criminal Damage Records dropped them. 'Diatribe' is only material that the band released. Two great tracks in "Seventeen And Dying" and "Stop Dancing", the more traditional sounding. The other two tracks are voiced over mainly drums and very minimal instrumentation. [SOURCE: KILL YOUR PET PUPPY]
Interaccion were a duo of Jose Iruretagoyena and Carmen L. Fernandez de Velasco active in Madrid throughout the mid-80es. They made two self released cassettes: 'Extension de los Significados', compling works from the period 1980-83, and 'Ancestrales', compiling works of the 1984-85 period as well as a video tape called 'Luc Ero Lucis et Umbrae'. [SOURCE. DISCOGS]
Human Flesh was founded in 1981 and is one of the many disguises of Alain Neffe, masterbrain behind the legendary Insane Music label from Belgium. It is not an existing group, merely a musical project around the person of Alain Neffe. On his albums he works with numerous like-minded artists: Xavier S. (Pseudo Code), Debbie Jaffe (Master/Slave Relationship), Benedict G. aka Nadine Bal (Bene Gesserit), Guy De Bièvre, Daniel Malempré or Mirella Brunello. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Flash Zero is a band from Madrid formed in 1986 by "Fan Dl Kaox" (vocals), Pedro San Narciso "Pitufax" (guitar), Fran Díaz (synthesizer), Santiago Cruz (synthesizer) and Paco Kameros (drums). Electronic trends, EBM and Synth-Pop were the lines followed by the group.
In 1988 they released their first album, the only one in which they signed as Flash Cero (with C). The title of the work was '1988' and was edited by La General, the sublabel of Fonomusic. A year later 'Conspiracy' was released, another full-length album released again through La General.
In 1990, they changed company and signed with Toma Toma Records, with whom they edited several singles and Maxis: 'Raya España 21' (1990), 'Madrid / Rytmo' (1991), 'Musulmania' (1991) y 'Doble personalidad II' (1991). Apart from all this, some of their songs appears in several techno compilations, until 1992, when the group dissolved.
They has resumed the musical activity for some years, participating in different shows both individually and collectively. Proof of this is the one entitled "Madrid Fue Una Ciudad Mundial", in which they shared the stage of the Mon Live venue in Madrid in September 2018 with three other similar groups: Azul y Negro, El Aviador y Sus Obreros Especializados and Esplendor Geométrico. [SOURCE: GRUPOS NACIONALES NUEVA OLA 80]
An offshoot of legendary Flying Nun band The Clean, The Great Unwashed recorded two psychedelic-pop albums in the early 80s. The first -'Clean Out of Our Minds'- was recorded in Christchurch by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour in 1983, while they were giving The Clean a rest. By their second recording, the brothers had been joined by Peter Gutteridge (Snapper), who gave the band a harder sound. The Great Unwashed are seen as an important part of Flying Nun heritage, linking from The Clean to the music all three members went on to make. [SOURCE: NZ ON SCREEN]
Excès Nocturne is a french coldwave band formed in 1984 and split in 1989. At their peak, Excès Nocturne were a five piece, with alternating male and female vocals, but began and concluded as a quartet. Excès Nocturne would reform in 2006, seventeen years after their initial demise, and remain active to this day. The band currently consists of Remy Lozowski (guitars), Richard Horon (bass), and Ariane-Corine Zimny (vocals). An EP of new material appeared in 2009. The band’s entire discography has remastered and re-released by Infrastition, which coincidentally led to the band’s reformation. [SOURCE: SYSTEMS OF ROMANCE]
UK-based post-punk/minimal synth band Decades released only a mysterious pair of 7” singles in the early 1980s on the equally unknown Emperor label. All tracks feature glacial drum machine rhythms (most likely DR-55), deep bass, eerie synth lines, and hypnotically stark guitar. The vocals float on top, adding a sense of dread to an already gloomy cocktail. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but an amazing listen that calls The Cure’s incredible 'Carnage Visors' soundtrack to mind. [SOURCE: SYSTEMS OF ROMANCE]
Upstate New York's Chesterfield Kings landed upon the growing punk / new wave scene in the late '70s with an unbelievably raw '60s rhythm & blues sound that borrowed heavily from pre-1966 Rolling Stones. The group, so unlike any other underground sensations of the period, arguably kickstarted the entire '80s garage rock revival, which flourished in small circles until the end of the decade.
After releasing two scene-defining LPs, 'Here Are the Chesterfield Kings' and 'Stop!', the combo changed its lineup and sound. With only singer Greg Prevost and bassist Andy Babiuk remaining from the Kings' 1979 incarnation, the band rescinded its promise never to sound like anything from rock's post-1966 history, and began to generate a '70s Rolling Stones / Flamin' Groovies hard rock image and sheen, which culminated in its 1994 LP, 'Let's Go Get Stoned', a sendup / tribute of post-'Aftermath' Rolling Stones. Still, the Kings have never drifted too far from their garage band roots, and the group's subsequent albums, which include 'Where the Action Is' (1999), 'The Mindbending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings' (2003), and 'Psychedelic Sunrise' (2007), have all been cut from the same fabric. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The Body Electric formed out of the remnants of Wellington punk band The Steroids in 1982. Originally they were a two-piece, Alan Jansson and Andy Drey, who both programmed and produced, but during their early rehearsals they were joined by actor Garry Smith on vocals before signing to Jayrem Records.
Their debut single ‘Pulsing’ was recorded in the 2ZM Studios, with the band producing (although Ripper Records label owner and 2ZM DJ Bryan Staff gets a co-production credit for arranging and overseeing the session). ‘Pulsing’ was later re-recorded at Wellington’s Marmalade Studios for a limited edition dance mix in 1983. Pioneers of dance electronica in New Zealand, 'Pulsing' spent 27 weeks in the New Zealand Singles chart, peaking at No.13 in April 1983, some 14 weeks after it first charted, despite the fact it was largely ignored by both mainstream and student radio.
In 1982 former Flight X-7 keyboardist Paul Turney was briefly a member, having come from Gisborne after Jansson had invited him to join. He left when he was disappointed at the irregular live shows.
In mid-1983 they headed off with fellow Wellington post-punkers The Spines on the "Pulsing With Punch" tour of the lower half of the North Island, promoted by Wellington venue, The Last Resort's Sue Barlow. Following the tour success, Drey left and was replaced by bassist Wendy Calder from The Spines. After 'Pulsing' The Body Electric released several more well received singles, two of which 'Dreaming In A Life' and 'Imagination' were moderate hits. The latter, recorded at Auckland’s Harlequin Studios, has become very sought after in recent years, fetching high prices in Europe and the USA.
The Body Electric released their first and only album 'Presentation And Reality' in November 1983. It would spend 3 weeks in the charts, reaching No.32. Playing sporadically around Wellington in late 1982 and early 1983, the band made its first foray north to Auckland in August 1983, playing at A Certain Bar in Wellesley Street with three shows promoted by Propeller Records' Simon Grigg. Famously, Auckland radio DJ (and general legend) Barry Jenkin hated the electronic sounds and on the first night went behind the stage, pulled the plug and then stormed out.
In early 1984 The Body Electric disbanded. Jansson moved permanently to Auckland, went into record production and had a global smash hit with "How Bizarre" by OMC in the mid-1990s. Smith went on to later manage The New Zealand Ballet Company. [SOURCE: AUDIOCULTURE]
The Apostles were an experimental post-punk band who developed within the confines of the 1980s Anarcho Punk scene in the UK, but did not necessarily adhere to the aesthetics of that movement. Although the core of the group remained stable, Andy Martin and Dave Fanning were joined by various members over their 10 year span. Variation was also key in music styles as they varied from pop to punk to industrial through to pure experimentation, with influences like The Velvet Underground, The Adverts, Alternative TV, Lemon Kittens, The Pop Group and Twelve Cubic Feet cited.
Although highly critical of the seemingly inward looking
anarchist movement of the times, the autonomous and libertarian approach
of The Apostles seemed to portray classic anarchism, as opposed to the
conformity of many of their contemporaries. This led to much respect
from notable members of the original anarcho-punk movement such as Crass with whom the band co-operated during the squatting of the Zig-Zag Club
and running of the (Wapping) Anarchy Centre and (Westbourne Park)
Centro Iberico venues, and Conflict who released a single and album by
The Apostles on their Mortarhate label.
Originally formed in 1980 by William Corbett, Julian Portinari, Dan MaCintyre and Pete Byng-Hall, the band came into its own when Andy Martin joined to contribute lead vocals and lyrics. Shortly afterwards he was joined by Dave Fanning, ex-Innocent Bystander bassist. During this period the band recorded numerous DIY demo cassettes. In 1982 The Apostles released their first 7" single and were joined by 14 year old Scottish drummer Chris Low, ex-Political Asylum. It is from this time that The Apostles have been described as having started their 'proper recording career', releasing four classic singles, the best of which are shortly to see a long overdue re-release on CD, plus numerous full-length albums and further cassette releases.
The Apostles split up in 1989, immediately forming Academy 23 who released a number of works. Andy Martin and Dave Fanning continue to record and play live as Unit. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
41 Degrees featured ex-member of Slight Seconds, K.S.Eden. They released this hopelessly obscure album, features various Object Music backroomers to back up what is essentially a K.S.Eden solo album. (Steve Miro appears, as usual).
It's a self-released and forgotten Post-Punk / Post-Prog classic, full of interesting experimental pop that sank before it ever had a chance to surface. [SOURCE: DIE OR D.I.Y.]
Wire Train was formed as The Renegades in April 1983 in San Francisco by San Francisco State University students and guitarists Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr with the rhythm section of Anders Rundblad (bass) and Frederico Gil-Sola (drums). The group signed to the local 415 label, also home to acts like Romeo Void and Translator, all of which found themselves with national distribution when 415 entered into a deal with Columbia Records. Wire Train's first album, '...In a Chamber', made the national charts in 1984, but the group began to suffer personnel changes. Gil-Sola was replaced by Brian Macleod for the second album, 'Between Two Words', after which Herr left, to be replaced by Jeffrey Trott. A third album, 'Ten Women', charted in 1987. The group's last two albums, 'Wire Train' (1990) and 'No Soul No Strain' (1992), appeared on MCA. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Vocoder was formed in 1981 in Zaragoza. Antonio Laval and Ildefonso Olarte, young high school classmates, together with Antonio Tenas, from Radio Juventud, formed this group inspired by the "Movida Madrileña" and the synth-pop. With the incorporation of Pilar Pellicer they have a positive response of Neon Danza (Discos DRO) that leads to record the Maxi 'What Happens Now' in 1984, 'Mindanao' in 1985 and the LP 'Vocoder' in 1987, published in several countries of South America.
They also take part in the compilations 'Hasta Aquí Hemos Llegado' and '¿Dónde Estabas Tú en el 87?', published in 1986 and 1993 respectively together with the most important groups of the Spanish scene at the time. They also participate in the T.V.E. shows "Tocata" and "La Bola De Cristal", a reference point for the music of the time. [SOURCE: GRUPOS NACIONALES NUEVA OLA 80]
Toiling Midgets is a rock band from San Francisco, California with roots in seminal San Francisco punk acts The Sleepers and Negative Trend. They were one of the first West Coast punk bands to experiment with dub and post-punk elements, and have been active on-and-off since 1979. The current lineup does not feature a vocalist, and the Midgets' instrumental rock is almost always defined as "undefinable."
The Midgets were formed in 1979 by drummer Tim Mooney, of The Sleepers and Negative Trend, and guitarist Craig Gray also of the local San Francisco band Negative Trend, guitarist Paul Hood from Seattle's Punk bands Meyce and The Enemy, and bassist Nosmo King (aka Johnathan Henrickson). Paul Hood had previously been a bassist in Seattle but picked up the guitar in the hopes of playing in a rock band (like his hero, Mick Ronson). The band added singer Ricky Williams to its lineup in 1981. The Midgets released their first album, 'Sea of Unrest' about this time, before Williams insisted that Nosmo King leave the band, leaving the band without a bass player. At the end of 1982 bassist Aaron Gregory joined the group, and Annie Ungar (Gun Club) joined as a third guitarist. The formation of the band released 'Dead Beats' on Joe Carducci's Thermidor label, which represented a return to the all-instrumental approach with which the Toiling Midgets has initially been formed. Toward the end of 1983, the band broke up. Hood moved to Seattle, Washington and Gray moved to the United Kingdom.
In 1989, the band reunited just before the Loma-Prieta earthquake. Returning to the instrumental format with which the band had begun, the band recruited singer Mark Eitzel of the American Music Club. The new group released a CD on Matador Records in June, 1992 (recorded in 1990) called 'Son' and had embarked on a U.S. tour earlier in May. However, on the eve of the tour Eitzel quit the band.
Without a singer, the band toured instrumentally. Williams did not reunite with the band in 1989, instead he moved into a Midget side project that included violinist Mary Redfield Wade and recorded an unreleased album in 1991. Shortly after rejoining the band, on November 21, 1992, Williams died due to respiratory complications and a mixture of drug and alcohol abuse. Shortly after the tour, drummer Tim Mooney and bassist Joe Goldring left the band (Mooney went on to join the American Music Club, which Eitzel was still fronting), and were replaced by drummer and long-time producer Tom Mallon and bassist Erich Werner, who had previously been in the Seattle bands Telepaths and The Blackouts.
Mallon and Werner are still part of the lineup today, along with Gray and Hood. Along the way, they picked up keyboardist Mark Sullivan. For a brief time during this period the band was joined by Paul Hood's sister, violist Joanna Hood (who had performed with the Loma Mar Quartet and Paul McCartney). The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 1997, but reformed in May, 2007. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Sixth Comm was founded in 1986 by Patrick "O'Kill" Leagas, former drummer and vocalist in the first incarnation of Death In June. The early Sixth Comm releases present a mix of melancholic synth pop, ritual sounds and experiments, as well as several reworkings of songs which Leagas had written for Death In June. Sixth Comm's imagery is heavily influenced by Norse mythology and magic. The band had sometimes the collaboration of appreciated pagan scholar and writer Freya Aswynn. Later on Leagas met dancer / singer Amodali and they started to collaborate under the name of Mother Destruction. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
American hardcore band from Philadelphia, PA. Their first live shows and recordings date to 1980, with founders Damon and Glenn Wallis on guitars, Steve Marasco on bass, and J.R. Arters on drums. By 1982, the lineup of Ruin was largely settled: Vosco Thomas Adams on vocals, Cordy Swope on bass, the Wallis brothers on guitars, and Richard Hutchins on drums. Paul Della Pelle became the drummer when Hutchins left the band in 1984. All six members played the so-called ReUnIoN shows in 1996, 1997, 2013, and 2016.
As teenagers inspired by the eruption of the American and British punk movement, the Wallis brothers and Adams began writing songs together around 1978. Several songs that became fixtures of Ruin's performances date to this early period, including their revved-up covers of Leonard Cohen. In what became a hallmark of Ruin, the early Wallis-Adams songs, while loyal to the hyper-rhythms and aggressive delivery of early punk and later hardcore, were just as likely to evoke the melancholia of American folk music or the frantic jam quality of psychedelic rock. Incoming bassist Cordy Swope added elements of 1960s British invasion and American underground art rock to the band's mix of styles. This eclecticism became a defining feature of the Philadelphia underground music scene of the 1980s and beyond, an environment that contributed to Ruin's success. [SOURCE: DISCOGS]
Love of Life Orchestra was created by Peter Gordon (sax, keyboards, composition) and David Van Tieghem, a talented, smart-aleck avant-garde percussionist with ties to new music composer Steve Reich. Both have gone on to greater fame as elder statesmen of the downtown music scene in New York, but these early works stand as an important developmental chapter.
Collaborators on their recording 'Extended Niceties' have included Arto Lindsay and David Byrne. Early members of the band included Laurie Anderson (electric violin), Blue Gene Tyranny (keyboards), Ken Deifik (harmonica), Scott Johnson (guitar), Rhys Chatham (flute), Peter Zummo (trombone), Arthur Russell (cello), Kathy Acker (vocals), and Jill Kroesen (vocals). [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
