Righteous Pigs were a grindcore / death metal band who were formed in 1987 in Las Vegas, USA. They recorded two albums: 'Live And Learn' (1989) and 'Stress Related' (1990), but split up following the release of the latter album when guitarist Mitch Harris left to join Napalm Death. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Political Asylum was a Scottish anarcho-punk band formed in Stirling in 1982 and active until 1993. One of the most popular bands within that scene, they played hundreds of gigs across the U.K., Europe and America and were an integral part of the fiercely independent underground that existed at the time.
The band was formed in early 1982 by 15-year-old Stirling High School pupils Ramsey Kanaan (vocals and bass) and Stephen "Cheesy" Brown (guitar). The two began writing songs together despite the fact that Kanaan was an anarchist punk rocker who admired The Mob, Zounds, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Hüsker Dü, while Brown sported long hair and patched denim and preferred hard rock and heavy metal bands such as Saxon, Ozzy Osbourne, Status Quo and Dire Straits.
Originally named Distraught, they tried out several potential drummers before settling on schoolmate Chris "Spike" Low, two years their junior, and changing their name to Political Asylum at his suggestion. Low's simple, tom-heavy drumming contributed to an emergent post-punk sound as they worked up a live set and began organising DIY gigs around the Stirling area. These were mostly multi-band benefit gigs held in non-commercial venues, with the proceeds going to the kind of social, left-wing and radical causes espoused in the band's lyrics, as would continue to be the case throughout their existence. In the years to come, most of their releases would also be fund-raisers.
By early 1983 the band had an album's worth of material and began looking for a budget studio in which to record it. Finding nothing nearby, they settled on Black Gold Studios, 25 miles away in Blanefield, north of Glasgow, owned by Ian McCredie of 1970s pop group Middle of the Road. Here, in two days, they produced their first release, the 15-track 'Fresh Hate'. Self-released and home-duplicated on cassette, it eventually sold over 6000 copies, mainly through fanzines, gigs and tape trading networks. Kanaan soon decided to concentrate solely on vocals and a couple of bass players came and went before the arrival of classmate Norman Thomson in late 1983. Low left the band the following year, going on to play for The Apostles and Oi Polloi, while Kanaan, Brown and Thomson relocated to Edinburgh to go to university. This was also the home of their new drummer, Tam Francis, a denizen of the city's Gracemount suburb.
Their second cassette release, 'Valium For The Masses', was recorded in Edinburgh in June and revealed an increasingly heavy metal-influenced guitar style, as well as setting a precedent for future releases by mixing studio and live recordings. By now the band were playing gigs further afield, including a trip to Belfast to support Subhumans and Conflict, where they were spotted by Tim Bennett of the Bristol-based Children Of The Revolution label. This led to their first vinyl release, the 7-inch EP 'Winter', which featured new versions of three 'Fresh Hate' songs and a 5-piece lineup which added Francis' friend Pete Barnett on rhythm guitar. All 3000 copies were sold within a year of its release. Despite this success and a couple of short UK tours, personality clashes led to the departure of Francis and Barnett in the autumn of 1985.
Reverting to a 4-piece, the band recruited drummer Keith Burns, a university friend of Brown's from Buckhaven, Fife and recorded the five studio tracks featured on the 'Walls Have Ears' cassette. The new songs highlighted Brown's increasingly technical guitar playing along with faster tempos and more intricate, rock-influenced rhythms and arrangements. The band continued to gig constantly, but Thomson decided to leave in the spring of 1986 and was replaced on bass by Ewan Hunt, a school friend of Burns' from Leven, Fife, who had a more virtuosic and melodic style. This lineup played all over the UK and recorded the 'Someday' mini-LP for the Edinburgh label Big Noise Records, run by Paddy O'Connell. It featured two new songs, along with re-recordings of three tracks from 'Walls' and two from 'Valium' and was co-released by the German punk label We Bite. Following its release, the band played their first European tour in the summer of 1987, the German leg of which was named the "Seeing Red Tour" by its organisers and co-headliners, the Lübeck-based band Pissed Boys. However, musical differences, which had been brewing for a while, led to Brown's departure after the tour, and he went on to form a hard rock/heavy metal band, also named Seeing Red. They released a single, 'Angel', in 1991 and an album, 'T.V. Degeneration', in 1993 (re-released as 'Keep The Fire Burning' in 2017.)
Brown was replaced by Edinburgh guitarist Stevie Dewar, formerly of Sad Society, who brought a simpler and more direct style. The new lineup gigged extensively, including a second, much longer, European tour in the summer of 1988, sharing bills with the likes of NOFX and Christ on Parade, and a lengthy UK tour in early 1989 with Thatcher On Acid and Chumbawamba's Danbert Nobacon. All of the money raised on the latter went to help local anti-Poll Tax groups. A live recording made on this tour formed the basis of the 'Window On The World' LP, which included two new songs plus studio re-workings of the 'Someday' material with Dewar on guitar. However, running out of steam, the band split up following a short American tour that summer and Dewar moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands, while Kanaan concentrated on his nascent radical distribution and publishing house, AK Press, and Burns switched to guitar to form the alternative rock trio Nectar 3.
In 1991, Kanaan and Dewar revived the band with Rotterdam musicians Leo van Setten on bass and Kees de Greef on drums. They recorded the new song "I've Got A Name" and played a short European tour, for which Burns temporarily returned to play drums as De Greef was unable to travel. Marcel van Buren then replaced Van Setten on bass and the band recorded two Burns songs from 1989. These three new songs, along with a live acoustic radio session featuring Van Setten on acoustic guitar, were released the following year as 'How The West Was Won', a 10-inch mini-LP on the American graphic artist John Yates' Allied Recordings label. Dewar then moved to Göttingen, Germany, and began working with the rhythm section of local band Nancy And I. However, with Kanaan still based in Edinburgh, it became increasingly difficult to keep the band going and the last tour was in 1993, with the final gig in Göttingen.
Kanaan continued to promote the ideals of the band through his AK Press imprint, moving his base to Oakland, California in 1994 and eventually founding another imprint there: PM Press. He also continued to sing, both in local protest-folk group Folk This! and with the South African-inspired Vukani Mawethu choir. Dewar also gravitated towards folk music and in 1998 formed The Assassenachs, a Celtic-inspired acoustic trio based in the Netherlands, who continue to the present day. Nectar 3 released the EP 'Lost' in 1993 and Burns switched instruments again after the band split in 1995, establishing himself as a bass guitarist, although he also returned to drumming for a while, co-founding the alt-metal trio Zapruder with Oi Polloi bassist Roland Wagstaff. They released an album, 'Obsessive/Compulsive', in 2000. In 1997, the San Francisco label Broken Rekids released a 21-track CD compilation of Political Asylum's work called 'Rock, You Sucker'. Beginning in 2004, the Finnish label Passing Bells (via Boss Tuneage) re-released almost all of their studio material across four CDs, adding live recordings from 1987 and 1989. The band's longest serving bass player, Ewan Hunt, who emigrated to Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s, died of leukemia in December 2015, aged 49. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Odal is Dutch born Noise/Industrial artist Peter Zincken (1962) from the Amsterdam area. He has been operating since the early '80s, with Odal as his main project. He is also famous for being a long time member of Fckn'Bstrds and his other solo project Dr. Bibber. Peter Zincken describes his project with the following statement: "Odal is just eh... Take of your cloths... Show your cock... Go for it full speed." [SOURCE: (H)EAR - EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH]
Neneh Cherry forged a groundbreaking mix of genres in the late '80s that pre-saged the emergence of alternative rap and trip-hop, and has gradually added to a discography filled with similarly unpredictable twists. The singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer got her start in the U.K. post-punk scene before she made a mainstream breakthrough as a solo artist with the global smash hit "Buffalo Stance," which sent her eclectic solo debut, 'Raw Like Sushi' (1989), to the Top Ten of charts in several countries, and led to a Grammy nomination in the category of Best New Artist. Rather than follow the standard path of a commercial musician, Cherry opted instead to record solo albums every few years, and has assisted on material headlined by artists ranging from Peter Gabriel to Gorillaz. In the 2010s, she recorded a series of wildly creative albums, namely 'The Cherry Thing' (2012), 'Blank Project' (2014), and 'Broken Politics' (2018), and in the following decade collaborated with younger artists on new versions of songs from earlier in her career, heard on 'The Versions' (2022).
Born Neneh Mariann Karlsson on March 10, 1964, in Stockholm, Sweden, Neneh Cherry is the daughter of West African percussionist Ahmadu Jah and artist Moki Cherry. Raised by her mother and trumpeter stepfather Don Cherry in Stockholm and New York City, Cherry left school at age 14, and in 1980 relocated to London to sing with the post-punk group The Cherries. Following flings with The Slits and The Nails, she joined the experimental funk/post-punk outfit Rip Rig + Panic and appeared on the group's albums 'God' (1981), 'I Am Cold' (1982), and 'Attitude' (1983). During this period, she also recorded with New Age Steppers and as one-third of the one-off group Raw Sex, Pure Energy. When Rip Rig + Panic broke up, Cherry remained with one of the spin-off groups, Float Up CP, and led them through 'Kill Me in the Morning' (1985). The next year, she was featured on "Slow Train to Dawn," a single off The The's 'Infected'.
In 1987, Cherry and fellow artist Cameron McVey (aka Booga Bear) became long-term creative and personal partners after they met as models for Ray Petri, creator of the Buffalo fashion house. Later that year, Cherry co-wrote and was featured on a B-side version of Morgan/McVey's Stock Aitken Waterman-produced "Looking Good Diving," titled "Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch." Signed to the Circa label, Cherry hit the U.K. singles chart as a solo artist in December 1988 with "Buffalo Stance," itself a revamped version of "Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch." The Bomb the Bass collaboration reached number three in the U.K. (and performed similarly well in several other territories). Furthermore, the song neatly forecast the eclectic fusion of pop smarts and knowing hip-hop energy showcased throughout the parent album, 'Raw Like Sushi'. A number two (and eventually platinum) U.K. hit issued in June 1989, the LP featured executive production from McVey and additional input from the likes of Will Malone and Nellee Hooper, as well as Mushroom and 3D of Massive Attack. A pair of additional singles, "Manchild" and "Kisses on the Wind," followed "Buffalo Stance," as did a nomination for a Grammy in the category of Best New Artist (won by Milli Vanilli).
After she contributed to the benefit album 'Red Hot + Blue' (with an interpretation of Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin") and Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines' (as co-writer, arranger, and background vocalist on "Hymn of the Big Wheel"), Cherry returned with her second album, 'Homebrew', in 1992. A more subdued collection than 'Raw Like Sushi', the number 27 U.K. chart entry featured cameos from Gang Starr and Michael Stipe, and writing and production assistance from McVey, Jonny Dollar, and Geoff Barrow (pre-dating the latter's emergence with Portishead). Cherry returned to the charts in 1994 as Youssou N'Dour's duet partner on "7 Seconds," another global hit, but was otherwise on child-raising hiatus until 1996, when she resurfaced with 'Man', a number 16 U.K. hit containing "7 Seconds," an update of Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" (featuring piano from half-brother Eagle-Eye), and "Woman," an empowering response to James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." A remix version of the album, simply titled 'Remixes', followed in 1998. Cherry prioritized family life well into the new millennium, raising her daughters Naima, Tyson, and Mabel, and cropped up with intermittent activity, including collaborations with Live's Edward Kowalczyk ("Walk Into This Room"), Peter Gabriel ('OVO'), and Gorillaz ("Kids with Gunz"), as well as recordings with her band cirKus.
Cherry returned in the 2010s with some of her most progressive recordings yet. For 2012's 'The Cherry Thing', she fronted The Thing, the experimental Scandinavian jazz trio whose founding mission was to play her stepfather's music. The album mixed originals with imaginative reworkings of songs initially recorded by the likes of Ornette Coleman, The Stooges, Suicide, and indeed, Don Cherry. In 2013, she collaborated with London duo RocketNumberNine on their album 'MeYouWeYou', and worked with them on her long-awaited fourth proper studio album, 'Blank Project'. Produced by Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet), the album was released in 2014 and consisted of originals written by Cherry with McVey and Paul Simm. Another set with Hebden on production, the meditative and undaunted 'Broken Politics', followed in 2018.
A 30th anniversary expanded reissue of 'Raw Like Sushi' was released in 2020. The same year, the first verse of the album's "Buffalo Stance" was included in Dua Lipa's 'Club Future Nostalgia: The Remix Album' (mixed by The Blessed Madonna), and Cherry co-wrote and appeared on The Avalanches' "Wherever You Go." Admiration for Cherry's first three solo albums continued to grow, and in 2022, Cherry partnered with ten artists -ranging from daughter Tyson and Jamila Woods to Sia and Robyn- to record 'The Versions', consisting of updates of highlights from 'Raw Like Sushi', 'Homebrew', and 'Man'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Orfeón Gagarin is one of the first project of the veteran electronic musician from Madrid Miguel Angel Ruiz since the mid eighties. Ruiz's music is one of the best kept secret of the Spanish underground electronic music since the early eighties, as he is not as well known internationally as other musicians from Spain who started in those years, such as Esplendor Geométrico, Francisco López, or Diseño Corbusier, to name a few.
In 1986 he released his first work on cassette as Orfeón Gagarin on his own legendary label Toracic Tapes, and since then he has been very active in the international cassette label movement and has collaborated with musicians from different countries such as Cisfinitum (Codachrom), Dieter Mauson, Francisco López, Siegmar Fricke (Efficient Refineries, Ambulatorio Segreto), Stephano Barban, etc.
As a solo artist, besides Orfeón Gagarin, he has released dozens of works in all formats, mostly on cassette, under different names: Funeral Souvenir, Exhaustor, Michel Des Airlines or Ventral Metaphor. His first LP on vinyl was 'Encuentros en la Tercera Edad' (1991) which was endorsed by the master of German electronic music Asmus Tietchens when he released it on his (short-lived) label Hamburger Musikgesellschaft. He has also released on other well known international labels throughout his career such as Discos Esplendor Geométrico, Old Europa Café, Aquarelist, Monochrome Vision, Menstrual Recordings, etc.
Fascinated by the sonic possibilities of synthesizers and analog (mainly) and digital instruments, Ruiz's style is fantastic and surprising, with an imagination that can be catalogued as overwhelming in a long and prolific career that reaches the present day. Energy, Soviet cosmonautics, Borges, surrealism, Moscow, clinical pathologies, black humor or extra-planetary life: any anomaly has a place in the microcosm of Miguel A. Ruiz. His musical references are diverse: the post-industrial music of the eighties recorded in home studios and published on cassette, German cosmic music of the seventies, pioneers of electro-acoustic, Japanese techno pop, soundtracks of old and strange movies, retro-futurism, mutant pop, ambient, etc.
Currently Miguel A. Ruiz is very active and in one of his best creative moments, performing more than ever because he has been discovered by a new generation of young electronic musicians who look for his work and admire him.
[SOURCE: MORADA SÓNICA]
La Femme was a fascinating meld of late Seventies influences including Punk, New Wave, Glam and Hard Rock. Former members of the violent 70's Sharpie Gangs of Melbourne, they formed in 1978, and played the inner-city scene alongside all the other new bands of the day like Models, The Boys Next Door, The Ears, Little Murders and The News. Led by a charismatic frontman in Chane Chane, a flashy guitarist in Brett Walker, and supported by the thuggish rhythm section of Peter Kidd and Graham Schiavello, the band earned themselves a reputation for being confident, showy and popular in certain circles. La Femme had a strong rapport with audiences, and for that reason was readily accepted on the suburban pub circuit where many other bands of the day would have been despised.
La Femme signed to Keith Glass's Missing Link label and issued the single 'Chelsea Kids / I Wanna Be Your Man' (June 1979), which contains many fine examples of the band’s confident, swaggering Glam-infused Punk-Metal sound. The band also scored an appearance on Countdown, (one of the first Punk/ New Wave bands to do so) but because the show's producers took exception to the lyrical content of "Chelsea Kids", the band went to air miming to their cover of Lennon / McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man". However the band was to ultimately make six appearances on Countdown. In 1980 Missing Link also release a second single 'I Don't Want to Go Home / All Day and All Night', as well as a debut album titled 'La Femme'.
While many believe La Femme could have made it into the big league if they’d wanted to, in many ways they were their own worst enemies. An unwillingness to play the pop star game and serious drug addictions, among other things, perhaps ended up compromising the band’s drive. But despite their setbacks, La Femme toured constantly, built up a huge support base in the city's and suburban pub circuits all over the country, and scored several prestigious support gigs (including Iggy Pop and the Ramones). La Femme eventually broke up at the end of 1983. [SOURCE: LANEWAY MUSIC]
Knife Edge formed in Leeds in 1976 and released one classic single in 1980. The band were not happy with the weak sound of the single as it did not represent their live power but it sold well locally and got some radio airplay on local stations -as well as getting a few plays by John Peel. 'Favourite Girl' was released as a double A-Side -with the up-tempo "Say You Will" being backed with the more commercial "Favourite Girl". The single was released on the bands own No Hessle label.
The strength of the band was it's live performances. Knife Edge started during the dawn of Punk in the UK and played a huge amount of gigs. As well as headlining their own gigs they also gained support slots with the likes of Wreckless Eric, 999, The Only Ones and Penetration. The style of the band was to always play loud and to be exciting. The singer, Mark Sweeney, always stripped to the waist (Iggy Pop being his idol) and he used his 100 foot microphone lead to sing everywhere within the venue (and sometimes outside).
The only other recorded output of the band appears on the various artist LP called 'Rock On' which was released on the EMI label. This was an album that featured Battle of the Band winner Knife Edge which featured "Street Credibility" on it. Another unreleased track, "Fighting in the Chapel" which appears on the 'Bored Teenagers Volume 2' compilation LP/CD is taken from a 6-track tape that the band used to sell at gigs.
The band played their final gig on the 1st of August 1981 with Mark Sweeney going onto form Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. [SOURCE: BORED TEENAGERS]
One of the great English punk bands of the late '70s, there is only one thing wrong with the careers of X-Ray Spex and lead singer Poly Styrene -they didn't record enough music. Formed in 1976 by school friends Marion Elliot (Styrene) and Susan Whitby (saxophonist Lora Logic), X-Ray Spex exploded onto the punk scene with one of the era's great singles, the feminist punk rallying cry "Oh Bondage, Up Yours." With Logic's sax stating the melody semi-tunefully and Jak Airport's guitar laying down a wash of distorted chords, Styrene's vocal, especially on the chorus, is a marvel. Along with the early Sex Pistols and Clash singles, this was one of punk rock's great moments.
So, too, was X-Ray Spex's debut LP, 'Germ Free Adolescents', which was great in spite of "Oh Bondage" not being on it (a situation that would be rectified with the 1993 CD reissue). Lora Logic was gone (to form Essential Logic), but her replacement, Rudi Thompson, played in as rudimentary a fashion, but stayed in tune a little more. The songs were guitar-driven punk-pop that combined outrage and aggression with a sense of alienation and disenfranchisement about rampant commercialism and an increasingly sterile and artificial world. Styrene's songs were more likely to be about drowning in a sea of corporate-designed consumer fantasies than straight-out attacks against the government. This didn't mean the songs were any less political; they simply attacked the zeitgeist from a different vantage point.
Tragically, there was no immediate second X-Ray Spex record. But there was Poly Styrene's only full-length solo record, 'Translucence'. Abandoning completely the loud guitars of X-Ray Spex, 'Translucence' is quiet and jazzy in a way that anticipates the work of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn in Everything But the Girl. It's a bit of a shock coming after 'Germ Free Adolescents', but it's a beautiful album, and Styrene's singing, though not as exciting and unhinged, is frequently stunning. Consistent with her career up to this point, Poly Styrene dropped out of music entirely shortly after the release of 'Translucence' and joined a London-based Hare Krishna sect. She emerged from "retirement" in 1986 with a wonderful EP titled 'Gods and Goddesses'. In late 2006, the Spex got deluxe treatment from Sanctuary Records with the release of 'Let's Submerge: The Anthology', a two-disc collection that features pretty much the band's entire recorded output and then some. Poly Styrene died in her sleep on April 25, 2011 after a battle with breast cancer; she was 53 years old. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Joan Bibiloni is a composer, guitarist, vocalist, arranger and record producer born in Mallorca in 1952. He has a musical background that links him to international names such as: Jon Anderson, David Allen, Gilly Smith, Kevin Ayers, David Graham, Larry Coryell, Celia Cruz or John Cale, with whom he has collaborated, played or recorded on several occasions. He recorded his first album at the age of fifteen and for the next four years he played with different groups in the islands such as Harlem and Talayots. He formed the group Zebra (a fusion of Los Bravos and Z-66) and together they released one album. Later he formed the duo Milán y Bibilioni, recording an album and touring extensively in and out of Spain.
In 1981 he joined the Kevin Ayers Band, performing in Spain and Europe and co-producing an LP. In 1982 he recorded his first solo album 'Joana Lluna'. In 1983 he produced and recorded with Jorge Pardo and later created a super-band, which united great musicians of the country such as Jorge Pardo, Max Suñer and Kitflus, performing and collaborating on records. He released in the United States the album 'Color Drops' with the American flutist Ernie Mansfield. In 1985 he formed a duo with Larry Coryell.
Joan Bibiloni's work as a producer covers styles ranging from the popular music of Tomeu Penya to pop productions such as Furnish Time. In 1988, a new and important stage towards his international launching with the record label Polygram (London), with whom he signs a three-year contract. In 1989 he presents his album 'For A Future Smile' at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) and also produces and composes for Marina Rosell on the occasion of the presentation of the album 'Cinema Blau'. He collaborates with Maria Del Mar Bonet composing and recording for her album 'Bon Viatge Faci La Cadernera' and from then until 1998 he produces 'Palabra de Guitarra Latina' with guitarists such as Tomatito, Larry Coryell, Luis Salinas, Ray Gómez, Tito Alcedo, Jordi Bonell, Raimundo Amador or Jaime Stinus. And so until today, releasing albums and producing other artists, such as Antonio Vega, from his production company Satie. [SOURCE: PRODUCCIONS BLAU]
The British band The Bolshoi flirted with gothic rock without succumbing to the genre's limitations. The group formed in 1984 after Trevor Tanner (vocals, guitar) and Jan Kalicki (drums) hitchhiked to Woolwich, England, to find stardom. With the addition of bassist Nick Chown, The Bolshoi opened up for bands such as The Cult, The Lords of the New Church, Wall of Voodoo, and The March Violets. In 1985, The Bolshoi released the EP 'Giants', and songs like "Happy Boy" and "Fly" defined the group's early sound -stark, ominous guitars and morose narratives. Keyboardist Paul Clark joined the band before they recorded their first album, 'Friends', for Beggars Banquet in 1986. Distributed in America by I.R.S., the soaring single "A Way" garnered the band a loyal following on college stations and it was a hit in dance clubs as well. A year later a remixed version of "A Way" was included on the soundtrack of "Something Wild". The Bolshoi toured with Peter Murphy and Spear of Destiny and then recorded their second album, 'Lindy's Party'. With radio-friendly tracks such as "Please" and "T.V. Man," 'Lindy's Party' enjoyed more airplay than The Bolshoi's previous efforts. In addition, 'Lindy's Party' sheared the group's gothic leanings, opting for synth-driven pop that would expand their commercial appeal, but English critics continued to praise Tanner's taut songwriting. Nevertheless, deciding it was no longer fun working together, the band broke up shortly after its release. Clark moved to Seattle and became involved in electronic music. After a lengthy hiatus, Tanner returned to the studio to record "Master of the World" in 1998. Tanner reunited with Clark on the track "Majorette," and "Master of the World" was featured on 'Away...Best of The Bolshoi', a retrospective of the group's career, in 1999. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Ice the Falling Rain was a short-lived synth-driven New Wave trio comprised of former members of Manchester aggro punk band The ViolatorsSean Stiles (vocals, sequencer), Louise King (vocals) and Matchi (percussion, sequencer), plus Jim Bellicoso (synthesizer). Their sound is reminiscent of Human League. They only released the 7" single 'Lifes Illusion' in 1983 on the Future Records label. [SOURCE: NTS]
Herman Te Loo is a
Dutch saxophone player (soprano, alto and tenor - and sometimes bass clarinet), and a musician who does not like pigeonholes. He has played and plays in groups and groups that cross boundaries, but always have an element of improvisation in them. In the past, these included the industrial garage-impro quartet Gorgonzola Legs (with guitarists Hessel Veldman -Y Create- and Jos van Duijne and drummer Gert Jan Prins), the free jazz trio with a dash of ShakespeareTeeming Womb of Royal Kings (with bassist Egon Kracht and again drummer Gert Jan Prins) and the power-impro trio Thoroughbred Mongrels (with guitarist Anton Goudsmit and drummer Pierre van der Linden). Herman could also be heard in larger ensembles such as Way Out West and Perfect Or What!?, with which he played an eclectic repertoire that included Frank Zappa, Astor Piazzolla and Thelonious Monk equally well.
Today, his musical activities have coalesced into two groups: Humph and Zapmachine. He also still occasionally plays as a duo with Humph reed player Ditmer Weertman under the name Gallery Play, and from time to time appears as a guest with groups such as Velatropa. [SOURCE: HERMAN TE LOO]
The Gerogerigegege (ザ・ゲロゲリゲゲゲ) (Japanese pronunciation: [za ɡeɾo ɡeɾi ɡeɡeɡe]) is a Japanese experimental music project, founded in 1985 by Juntaro Yamanouchi (山ノ内純太郎).
Though they are often categorized with Japanese harsh noise acts such as Merzbow and Masonna, The Gerogerigegege has also released albums of more straightforward punk rock ('Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'), noise ('45 RPM Performance'), and ambient music ('None Friendly', 'Endless Humiliation'), in addition to several seven inch records mixing these styles with found recordings. The group is best known for their 1990 album 'Tokyo Anal Dynamite'. Juntaro Yamanouchi also ran the Vis a Vis record label.
Over the years, The Gerogerigegege has included many members, the most notable and consistent other than Yamanouchi being Gero 30 (aka Gero 56, real name Tetsuya Endoh), an exhibitionist known to masturbate onstage during live performances. Male masturbation is called Senzuri (千擦り, "a thousand rubs") in Japanese and was Gero 30's trademark. Yamanouchi met Gero 30 at an S&M club in 1986. Other members have included Toshinori Fukuda (aka Dynamite Gero) on drums, Hironao Komaki (Dee Dee Gero) on guitar, Junko Katoh (Gero Grace Seijoh), their live manager, and Masatoshi Katsuya (Gero Route 66), the band's driver.
The Gerogerigegege is known for their releasing records with unusual concepts, such as 1989's 'Showa' ('昭和') released after the death of Hirohito, which bookended a recording of people having sex to "Kimigayo", the Japanese national anthem. A special edition of 'Showa' falsely presented itself as a Ramones bootleg called 'Britzkrieg '75 (Demo Tracks)', with no mention of Gerogerigegege or 'Showa' anywhere on the release. 'The Night' 7″ features a recording of a man defecating into a toilet after the usual "one, two, three, four" count. The compilation album 'Recollections of Primary Masturbation' contains 338 songs, including the entirety of 'Tokyo Anal Dynamite' as one track.
There are also some non-musical conceptual releases including 'Shaking Box Music: You Are the Noise Maker', which consists of 100 blank cassettes in a large metal box. 'This Is Shaking Box Music Part 2', which is a destroyed copy of the 'Mother Fellatio' EP in a cassette case. 'Art Is Over' consists of a single octopus tentacle housed in a cassette box. These non-music releases were typically released in even smaller quantities than the music releases, in quantities of 50 or less. Similar concepts are rampant throughout the band's catalog, and often, the more ridiculous the theme or packaging of a release is, the more sought after it is by collectors. Copies of some Gerogerigegege records sell for hundreds of US dollars.
Following the release of 'Saturday Night Big Cock Salaryman' in 2001, The Gerogerigegege became inactive. Juntaro Yamanouchi had seemingly disappeared and people who had dealings with Gerogerigegege had no idea on how to contact him. Rumors proliferated on the internet about his fate. The first Gerogerigegege release in 15 years, 'Moenai Hai' ('燃えない灰'), was released on 20 April 2016 by Eskimo Records, Japan. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
In 1982 Sick Things guitarist Mick Turner formed Fungus Brains as a proto-grunge and punk rock group with Simon Adams on bass guitar, Peter Maddick on trumpet, Geoff Marks on vocals and saxophone, Simon Sleigh on guitar and drums, and Andrew Walpole on drums and guitar. Their debut album, 'Ron Pistos Real World', was released in 1983. Ian McFarlane described it as "a stylistic collision of punk,Birthday Party trappings, avant no-wave jazzy noise and a dozen other reference points." The group went into hiatus when Turner joined The Moodists, in April 1983. Mick Turner went on to form Venom P. Stinger and later Dirty Three. [SOURCE: HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FROM 1960 UNTIL 2000]
Enema Syringe was formed in the summer of 1985 by Kai Parviainen and Mats Lundberg. Kai and Mats only recorded two songs together of which one was released on the 'Unveiled' compilation tape. In january 1986 Landgång joined the band. He did most of the singing and Kai controlled the equipment.
All of the early songs were recorded on two channels with no mixing possible. The instruments and recording equipment was a Marantz amplifier and tape deck, Casio VL-tone VL1, an old rhythm box and vocals through headphones or some crappy microphone.
In 1987 they released the first tape 'Ger Dig Bilder På P & Pk' on Tommy Carlsson's tape label White Fire Rekords. The tape was supposed to be released in an edition of 100 copies but only about 30 saw the light of the day.
Landgång left the band and Kai continued
for a while on his own, releasing a tape on Nihilistic recordings in
Holland and participated on a couple of compilations. New instruments
were also bought, a Prophet One and a Casio RZ1 drum machine. Kai stopped recording under the name Enema Syringe sometime in the beginning of 1989 as he started a band with Jonas Ohlsson called Enema & Gejonte in October 1988.
In 2005 TommyCarlsson re-released the tape on his Abisko label. A (different) original version of the tape was included as a CDR in the first 23 copies of the 'Visa Mig Vägen Till Mellringe' LP with a full colour cover made by my close friend and artist Jonas Ohlsson. The CDR also include one of our two short live performances that they made, performing “En Krullig Mongoloid” (featuring Kai and Göran Lund). In 2006 Dennis Tyfus released on his label Ultra Eczema the LP 'Bögens Massage Institut' with old material.Recently Kai begun playing as Enema Syringe again after more than 20 years of silence. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
While recording an album in 1989, New York City punk band The Rat Bastards imploded due to typical musical differences, and two members, Andy Gortler (guitar, vocals) and Steve Baise (bass, vocals), carried on with the project as The Devil Dogs. Influenced particularly by '60s trash rock (Sonics, Wailers), the Phil Spector "Wall of Sound," and the big New York punk sound of the '70s (Ramones, New York Dolls, Dictators), The Devil Dogs went on to release a slew of LPs, EPs, live albums, and 45s. Gortler originally formed a band called Gilligan's Revenge in the early '80s, which became Token Entry and then Black Train Jack after his departure. Baise played in a New Jersey-based surf/punk combo, PT109, before joining The Rat Bastards. Drummer "Mighty" Joe Vincent, who also played in PT109, joined the group in 1991. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Click Click is a British electro-industrial music band formed in 1982 by Adrian Smith, and Derek E. Smith, after the end of their previous rock project Those Nervous Surgeons (which formed in 1976 with bassist Tim Wilson). When Wilson bought their first synthesizer, (an EDP Wasp), the direction of the group changed so dramatically, they renamed themselves.
In 1982, the group acquired guitarist Richard Camp from Bikini Amber and thus the first experimental synth-rock incarnation of Click Click was born. They cut their first single later that year, but Camp departed over creative issues and formed a blues band.
Influenced by artists such as Brian Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, The Residents and Frank Zappa, and of course "Blade Runner", Clive Barker and "mind-expanding" substances, Click Click continued on with other revolving members down a more electronic path until their eventual break up around 1990. Other members included guitarist Jon Morris, who was replaced by Graham Stronach in 1987 and Pete Hosier who remained with the group until the end.
After a seven year hiatus, Adrian and Derek Smith reformed briefly in 1997 to record 'Shadowblack' on the OffvBeat label. The album was more EBM than their earlier work and almost completely instrumental. It was greeted with overall positive reviews within the underground music scene. Due to the member's volatile relationship however, the band split again in 1998, with no plans for another reunion. Throughout the 2000s, Adrian has been involved with Paperhouse, a darker ambient soundtrack project. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Broken Paws is a one-man Minimal Wave project from Calgary, Canada, formed by multiinstrumentist Richard Reynolds (cymbals, finger cymbals, log drum, percussion, tape loops, bass pedals, EBow, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, toys, electric piano, synthesizer, clarinet, oboe, violin, cello), member also of Wings + Heaven. He released two tapes, 'Broken Paws', (1986) in his own Broken Paw Music label, and the split cassette shared with Weep O' Mine Eyes 'The Ropes That Bind' (1988). In 2003 Broken Paws released the CD EP 'What Yah Wanna Do Tonight' on the Beat Buddy Music label.
With their cross-pollination of literate, soulful rock & roll and folk traditions of the British Isles, The Waterboys have tread a multitude of musical paths since singer/songwriter Mike Scott formed the group in London in the early '80s. From the grandiose "Big Music" of their early classic, 'This Is the Sea' through the rich Celtic-inspired folk-rock of their 1988 highlight, 'Fisherman's Blues', the mercurial Scotsman has made dramatic sea changes a regular occurrence, swapping lineups and chasing stylistic whims on an almost album-to-album basis. Across nearly four decades of work, Scott's sonic and spiritual explorations have been shared by literally dozens of bandmembers, though only fiddler Steve Wickham (and to some extent early mainstay Antony Thistlethwaite) has maintained his post as a Waterboy for a significant portion of the group's existence. In his dual role as restless seeker and wily rock & roll romantic, Scott has consistently steered the band toward interesting projects -like 2003's 'Universal Hall', recorded at a remote Scottish commune, and 2011's 'An Appointment with Mr. Yeats', which featured eclectic, almost Baroque-rock adaptations of W.B. Yeats' poetry- with each new album adding another layer to The Waterboys' distinctive patina. Scott's musical wanderings continued with vigor into the next decade with the release of 2022's 'All Souls Hill' as he experimented with electronics and production that showed the influence of hip-hop and funk.
A native of Edinburgh, Scott first became involved in music as the creator of the fanzine Jungleland and later played in a series of local punk outfits. After college, where he studied English and philosophy, Scott and his band Another Pretty Face recorded some demos in London; following the group's breakup in 1981, he formed The Waterboys, so named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids" but wholly appropriate given Scott's recurring lyrical fascination with sea imagery.
A newspaper advertisement calling for musicians led to a response from multi-instrumentalist Anthon Thistlethwaite, and along with drummer Kevin Wilkinson, The Waterboys issued their self-titled debut in 1983. A particularly cinematic mix of post-punk and new wave with a healthy dose of romanticism, Scott's approach during this period would later be described to as "The Big Music," after a single of the same name that appeared on their next album, 'A Pagan Place'. Released in 1984 and aided by keyboardist Karl Wallinger and trumpeter Roddy Lorimer, the record expanded the group's rich, dramatic sound while further exploring Scott's interest in spirituality. With 1985's 'This Is the Sea', The Waterboys reached an early peak; a majestic, ambitious record, it earned the group a significant hit with the single 'The Whole of the Moon'. However, after the album's release, Wallinger departed to form World Party, leaving Scott to strike out in a new direction altogether, thus ending the band's "Big Music" phase.
Relocating to Dublin, Scott, Thistlethwaite, and fiddler Steve Wickham began incorporating traditional Irish music, country, and soul into The Waterboys' sound. This new folk- and Celtic-inspired approach culminated in 1988's excellent 'Fisherman's Blues', marking a dramatic sonic reinvention that polarized some of their earlier fans, but has ultimately come to be considered one of the band's finest releases. Taking this new approach even further, Scott added several new folk and traditional players like accordionist Sharon Shannon and flautist Colin Blakey to the mix for 1990's vibrant British Isles journey 'Room to Roam'. Similar to their "Big Music" period, the folky Waterboys lineup of the late '80s has been referred to as the "Raggle Taggle Band" era, named for their rendition of the traditional song "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" that appears on 'Room to Roam'.
Changing tacks once again, Scott moved to New York without Thistlethwaite, Wickham, or any of his other mainstay bandmembers. The release of 1993's 'Dream Harder', cut with American session musicians, marked a return to an electric hard rock sound. In spite of a fairly poor critical response, it yielded a pair of singles that reached the U.K. Top 30 and fared better chart-wise than its predecessor. Not long after its release, Scott abandoned The Waterboys name and, moving back to Scotland, began a lengthy stay at the Findhorn spiritual commune, where he recorded 1995's acoustic folk LP 'Bring 'Em All In' under his own name. A second, more rock-driven solo album, 'Still Burning', appeared in 1997. By early 1999, Scott was at work on another record with a host of different musicians; among them were Thistlethwaite and original Waterboys drummer Kevin Wilkinson, although tragically, the latter took his own life in July of that year.
In 2000, Scott released 'Rock in the Weary Land' under The Waterboys name, referring to its edgy experimental sound as "Sonic Rock." The following year saw the release of 'Too Close to Heaven' (titled 'Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2' in the U.S.), which collated a group of outtakes, demos, and alternate versions of songs from the 'Fisherman's Blues' era. With Wickham again a full-time member, it heralded another sea change for the band, who again headed in a more folk-oriented direction on 2003's 'Universal Hall', named after and recorded at the theater at the Findhorn Foundation, to which Scott retained a deep connection. Following a 2005 live outing, 'Karma to Burn', The Waterboys returned with 2007's more spirited 'Book of Lightning', which was recorded mostly live in the studio.
After a couple of years of touring and time off, Scott assembled and released a compilation of unreleased songs from The Waterboys' 'This Is the Sea' sessions called 'In a Special Place'. He also published a memoir entitled "Kiss the Wind: A Waterboy's Adventures in Music". Around this time, he, Wickham, and bassist Marc Arciero also assembled a new version of The Waterboys who began performing together in late 2010 and early 2011. In March they entered a studio to record a new project built around the work of one of Scott's lifelong heroes. Released in the fall of 2011, 'An Appointment with Mr. Yeats' was a collection of new songs whose lyrics were taken from the poems of William Butler Yeats.
In January 2015, The Waterboys returned to entirely original music with 'Modern Blues'. Recorded in Nashville, produced by Scott, and mixed by Bob Clearmountain, it reached number 14 on the U.K. Albums chart, marking the band's highest appearance since 1993. Scott's next Waterboys project was an ambitious and eclectic double album, 2017's 'Out of All This Blue', which added elements of country, R&B, and hip-hop to the group's mix. Scott and company continued to blur genres in 2019 with 'Where the Action Is', which took its title from the chorus of Robert Parker's '60s Northern soul classic "Let's Go Baby." The prolific run continued into 2020 with 'Good Luck, Seeker', a typically adventurous Waterboys set that featured the sprawling, seven-minute single 'My Wanderings in the Weary Land'.
Late 2021 brought an archival box set, 'The Magnificent Seven: The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues/Room to Roam Band 1989-1990', that contained four discs of live tracks, demos, and studio outtakes from the period, a remastered edition of 'Room to Roam', and a DVD of fan-shot concert footage and home movies from the band. Composer, producer, and frequent Paul Weller collaborator Simon Dine collaborated with Scott to write the bulk of the material for 2022's 'All Souls Hill'. The LP found Scott once again indulging his interest in hip-hop-inspired production, with extensive use of loops and electronic rhythms, while taking a more organic approach to numbers like a re-written cover of Robbie Robertson's "Once Were Brothers" and an extended and updated take on the folk standard "Passing Through." [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
One of the most outstanding artists in the minimalist corner of alternative music in Barcelona in the eighties was Avant-Dernieres Pensées.
Anton Ignorant (Antonio López Pastor), alias under which a former announcer of Radio Pica worked, is the only member and responsible of this unit specialized in domestic collages in the industrial wave echoing the sound of artists such Residents, John Cage or Throbbing Gristle.
Ignorant, a key piece of the scene, was part of different groups such as Macromassa, Secreto Metro, Clónicos or Superelvis.
His first two recordings were two cassettes, 'Arte Deshecho' in 1984 and 'Nachtmusik y Total Distortion' in 1985. IEP, Luis Mesa's label, released the tape '¿Música enferma?' in 1984 as a compilation of different bands such as Comando Bruno, Avant-Dernières Pensées, Recursos Ajenos, Sistemas de Programación, Línea Táctica, La Parada de los Monstruos, El Estado y la Historia, Proyecto Merz, Zusammenwachsen and Interacción.
In 1985 they record a split with three other groups from Barcelona: Melodinamika Sensor, 32 Guajar's Faragüit and Camino al Desván. The album is released by Esplendor Geométrico Discos. The following year, another compilation is released with the track 'Waffen SS' in the album '6 Nuevas Bandas Catalanas', released by the label Grabaciones Góticas, together with Buildings, Sangre Cristiana, Donación Agnelli, Los Humillados and Ai Las Tibet.
After a new tape entitled 'Descomposición Elemental', comes their first and only LP in 1986, 'Radiante Porvenir', once again edited by Esplendor Geométrico Discos, label that would also record, that same year, a split album with Comando Bruno entitled 'Muestras Sin Valor', and another with Victor Nubla, 'Delirio de Dioses', the latter signed with their names and published by Fusión de Producciones.
Two years later, Ignorant appears in a cassette compilation entitled 'Veterinarios del K'os: Miedo', and finally, his last recording was the track "Radia Por II" included in the compilation 'Alter Músiques Natives' already in 1995.
In 2013, the song "Masturbación" is included in the triple CD part of the album-book edited by Munster Records and written by the journalist Jaime Gonzalo, entitled 'La Ciudad Secreta', a musical historical compendium of what was the experimental rock in Barcelona between 1971 and 1991.
In 2008 Ignorant moved to Buenos Aires where he continued his artistic activity. Since 2015 he taught at the Theatre and Performance Area of the Faculty of Design and Communication at the University of Palermo. In August 2019 Anton Ignorant passed away in Buenos Aires. [SOURCE: GRUPOS NACIONALES NUEVA OLA 80]
Watermelon Men was a pop/rock band from Uppsala (Sweden).
The band consisted of Erik Illes (vocals/guitar), Johan Lundberg (guitar), Imre von Polgar (guitar), Hans Sacklén (bass) and Erik Westin (drums). This line-up recorded the debut EP 'Blue Village' and the three albums 'Past, Present and Future', 'Wildflowers' and 'Moving Targets'. On the last album Magnus Ågren was added on organ and piano. On the band's last single '4 Heartbeats', the organ and drumming had been taken over by Jonas Rehn and Ola Jameson respectively. Jameson was also a member of the Uppsala band Webstrarna.
Watermelon Men came to be counted among the wave of Swedish pop and rock bands of the 1980s that were brought under the "garage rock" label. That wave was documented on the compilation album 'A Real Cool Time - Distorted Sounds From The North' and Watermelon Men are of course included. In the period between ABBA and Roxette, these groups still achieved some attention outside the country. Watermelon Men were among the more successful bands of the wave and they achieved great success in Germany and in England they were on the cover of the then important music magazine Sounds. The group's second LP was produced by Clive Gregson from Any Trouble. Watermelon Men's music was characterized by strong melodies and very nice arrangements with the two guitars in the center and in Erik Illes they had a strong singer. In addition, they dared to use both strings and accordion in the music. The fact that both singer Erik and guitarist Imre had Hungarian roots was also highlighted.
The group only ended in 1994 when singer Erik moved to Laos. But it was really the failure of the third LP that made the group withdraw. There they abandoned parts of their unique sound and adapted somewhat to being on a major record label. So despite good song material, it wasn't as good as the first two albums. Guitarist Imre von Polgar died in the 2004 tsunami disaster in Khao Lak. Watermelon Men played a one-off gig at Katalin in Uppsala shortly after the memorial service for Imre and his two daughters. Since 2013, Erik Illes is again active as a singer, songwriter and guitarist in the band Distant Days. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
