beyond the kraut radar: the southwestgerman band syncrisis and their first album "reflections in musical power" recorded in 1980

in 1980 they slipped through every net, and nobody really cared. while in the early eighties there was a very vivid punk and avantgarde scene in the stuttgart/tübingen area in southwestgermany noboredy gave nothing but a fuck for latelate soft machine or mahavishnu fusion for a lot of good reasons. so syncrisis were the last men halfstanding lightfingeredness, virtuocity and mileage allowance on the guitar neck. they even had a drum solo on their first album; and yes, you are about to witness exactly that.

the album "reflections in musical power" was recorded in december 1980 in some dullsville near tübingen and was released completely independent in 1981. syncrisis were titus köstler on guitar, peter frodl on bass, edgar müller on keyboards, and uwe holzwarth on drums. as a special guest they had armin keller on congas , the guy who in tübingen ran the best record shop i ever lived to see. in 1982 syncrisis produced a second longplayer, and then the four of them got lost in the process of growing old. 

and though this is no lost kraut sensation, and though the lolly pope stated they were coumpletely crap, the music is rather interesting at least, and i like some of it quite a lot.

so listen:

01 - just a happy time

02 - kamala (listen directly; click left)

03 - reflections

04 - daydreams

05 - bata mata

06 - mata dalam

07 - one hope

08 - sweet nights

download syncrisis from 1980

(mp3 / all scans included / direct download)

THE LAECHERLING: iggy pop, brian eno and david bowie: countercollaborations recorded in 1977: plus some more

yes, it is the legendary "THE LAECHERLING" album, a compilation of obscure and rather hard to find tracks by iggy pop, david bowie and brian eno, that some psychobsessed northwestgerman bootleggers compiled in 1979 and released as a very limlited edition. and though most of the information provided on the cover is wrong, this is still rather interesting. and additionally for your listening pleasure you'll get most of the tracks that can be found on the long forgotten "DIE BOWIE" album, probably edited and released in the same year by the same people.

first of all, the so-called "low"- and "lodger"-tracks on "THE LAECHERLING" probably have nothing to do with low or lodger at all. on the other hand, noboredy knows, where they reallyreally come from: one source states that they indeed are "low"- or "lodger"-outtakes played at the wrong speed, an other source suggests, that the first track is a coumpilation of some lost brian eno sounds, and the other two are instrumentals that david byrne created with brian eno. but now you can figure it out for your beautiful selves. the remaining tracks probably are some iggy pop rehearsal recordings from 1977 with david bowie on keyboreds and well-meant advices.

so this is what you want, and this is what you get:

01 - low

02 - lodger I

03 - lodger II (listen directly in your browser)

04 - dirt

05 - i need somebody

06 - funtime

07 - shake appeal (listen directly in your browser)

08 - search and destroy

09 - raw power

10 - hard to beat

the following tracks all are from the album "DIE BOWIE"; i only omitted three tracks that can be found as official releases or on every tom-dick-and-harry-bootleg (superman and queen bitch from the 1972 bbc sessions, and stay from the dinah shore show 1976); the remaining tracks are some obscure sounds iggy pop recorded all over the usa in 1977, either live or in a rehearsal room situation with david bowie on keenbrods, ricky gardiner on guitars, and tony and hunt sales on bass and drumns.

here we go:

11 - raw power poem (listen directly in your browser)

12 - night clubbing (drum version)

13 - passenger (german version) (listen directly in your browser)

14 - i'm crying

15 - my name is iggy pop

16 - hang on sloopy

17 - hassles

18 - ordinary bummer (listen directly in your browser)

19 - street crazies / gloria

you better enjoy this music; download or die!

a whole bunch of iggy pop, brian eno and david bowie

(mp3 / lots of scans included / direct download)

pogo of the halfdead: hüsker dü live in bochum 1987; what's going on?

hüsker dü? do you remember? no, you don't, do you? and noboredy knows where to find bochum on a map. but that's alright, mama. on the 6th of september or on the 9th of june 1987 hüsker dü were there in the forgotten and dark-shadowed city of bochum lost deep in the dark woods of germany; and they executed a very fine performance, gute güte. thanks go out to the bootleggers in the audience, who recorded this very fine concert and released it on vinyl; but pondering silence shall rule on and about the quality of this recording.

in 1988 this longplayer was released, and it had it all wrong: the cover was boring, and the tracklist was coumpletely crap and had nothing to do with the music. but anyway, some discogs-maniacs figured out the correct order of tracks, and so here we go. you can listen to both sides of the record seamlesslay in one rutsch each. please note: there is no .zip or .rar download, just the music as mp3; so you have to save the pictures as separate files if you need them.

side one:

these important years
charity, chastity, prudence and hope
standing in the rain
back from somewhere
ice cold ice
you're a soldier

listen to side one

side two:

could you be the one?    
the girl who lives on heaven hill    
everytime    
terms of psychic warfare    
bed of nails    
green eyes    
what's going on?

listen to side two

early eighties german artsyfartsy trash for the underdelighted: blues & bloedel, benny, the mountain sailors, and the fluxus duo of monsti wiener and valie export

the abyss stairs back at you: sum early eighties non-kraut kraut that may never be menschönt amonkst experts or anniewhere else; schlager shmaltz and volksmusick that time has forgotten for a lot of rearsums or rhines. lettus gogo!

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frist off all wear taking off with a 7" that b-schlager b-star b-benny recorded in 1978, the german version of ca plane pour moi: only a few days before the crest of the german new wave neue deutsche welle crashed into the light of whowhatissis and perished into immaterialness only a few days later this little gem was coumpletely ignored by everyboreday; and a shame that is.

benny - bin wieder frei

(click left to listen, click right to download. do not forget to save the pictures. the b-side is included)

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following up are the palatinate blues & bloedel brothers from speyer doing an impression of what they thought all-this "punk" might sound like; in 1981 no-one in the hinterlands had ever heard a conventional punktune, so they had to do it underconventionally. and the b-side is even badder in deconstruckting its genre.

blues & bloedel - palz punk

(click left to listen, click right to download. do not forget to save the pictures. the b-side is included)

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butt for now here is some real art, if you lie kid or not. the austrian fluxus artist valie export teaming up with monsti wiener singing some weired fifties tunes about paedophilic maltreatment and holydace in the sun; this 7" was a supplement for zweitschrift #8 in 1981. oppviciously they like what they are doing. ass the record is coumpletelay woren out and crackles ass hell i decided to share both the original version, and a declicked and denoysed one.

valie export and monsti wiener (worn)

valie export and monsti wiener (declicked)

(click left to listen, click right to download. do not forget to save the pictures. the b-side is included)

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and here is my pissronal favouright, the mountain sailors from 1977 with an old german folk-tune that elvis presley maid a-part of his rempertoire when he lived in germourney wayback in those days. nothing is known about these guys, but they are appsoulutelay graet and womdarbrafull! 

the mountain sailors - must i then 

(click left to listen, click right to download. do not forget to save the pictures. the b-side is included)

and now let us sing this song all together now!

must i zen
must i zen
leave the townele again
townele again
and you
my love stay here

when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
i come back
my love
to dir

i can not longer be with you
i have to leave you now

but when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
i will never from you go

do not cry
do not cry
cuz i will forget you not
will forget you not
i will always think on you

and i know
yes i know
that i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
please believe me that is true

when i come back
you laugh again
and everything is fine

yes when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
then you are wieder mein

in my heart
in my heart
there is always only you
always only you
even when we are depart

i am yours
you are mine
that is very very fine
very very fine
i do feel this in my heart

can i not longer with you stay
my love believe me one

when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
our love fängt wieder an

when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
our love fängt wieder an

can i not longer with you stay
my love believe me one

when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
our love fängt wieder an

when i come
when i come
when i wiederwieder-come
wiederwieder-come
our love fängt wieder an

the charlatans 1967 and 1991, dan hicks 1987, and the flamin' groovies live in 1980: relax! (don't do it!)

coumtree and westcoats hippopies, vrrry charmaning snouts from the passed: the charlatans live in 1967 and 1991, dan hicks in the studio in 1987, and the flamin' groovies live in berlin 1980, all at a rather distinctive sound quality.

there is no proven evidence for the line-up of the charlatans 1967 recordings, but you will find a rather good guess in the linernotes. the re-united charlatans in 1991 were mike wilhelm and dan hicks on guitars and vocals, richard olsen on clarinet and bass, and george hunter on vocals; the second bass player and even the drummer unfortunately remain unnamed. 

the 1987 dan hicks demo is a nice little tune at least, and the flamin' groovies are here with two tracks from a berlin concert in 1980; and while everybody knows the second track, "tell the truth" is a song originally written and performed by derek and the dominos that the groovies never recorded in the studio and only played live two or three times in the early eighties.

as this record changes hands for some 80 euro i thought you might want to listen to it before you buy or die:

the charlatans

01 - alabama bound (1967; unknown source)

02 - alabama bound

03 - folsom prison blues

04 - a girl like you (listen directly in your browser)

(02 - 04 straight theatre, san francisco, 22.07.1967)

dan hicks

05 - up, up, up

(studio demo 1987)

the charlatans (reunion)

06 - how can i miss you

07 - i was born in east virginia

08 - i got mine (listen directly in your browser)

09 - alberta

(06 - 09 new odeon, dayton; 22.06.1991)

the flamin' groovies

10 - tell the truth (listen directly in your browser)

11 - shake some action

(berlin; 07.04.1980)

bonus flamin' groovies

12 - rumble

13 - shakin' all over

(demos 1970/1971; from the cd-version of flamingo / teenage head)

download them all!

(mp3 / all scans included / direct download)

berlin 1984: the soundtrack for the film "der biß" featuring music provided by marianne rosenberg, david peel, die gesunden, unlimited systems, tecnoville and gerd pasemann

in 1984 punk was leaving for good and trash took over the town. in this state of uncertainty marianne enzensberger of the nowavegroup unlimited systems produced her amorph and shambolic vampyre-movie "der biß" featuring improper and improvised actions by the likes of rosa von praunheim, marianne rosenberg, max goldt and many other inmates of the isolated island of berlin in the mid-eighties.

and nobody really cared. in 1985 the berlin inndeependend label schnick-schnack released an album of eight songs that were featured in this film, and nobody cared furthermore or furtheron, and the record vanished in the dustbins of woolworth and kaufhalle for 99 cent, and still noboredy cared, and now the record changes hands for some thirty euro and more. i bought my copy waybackthen, of course, and i thought you might like to hear some of these sounds of the berlin state-off-the-art from 1984 before you better decide to buy the album at a horrendous price, as you will.

so listen:

01 - unlimited systems - farewell stranger

02 - marianne rosenberg - nägel aus eis

03 - die gesunden - kalte liebe

04 - david peel - up against the wall (listen directly in your browser)

05 - marianne rosenberg - rhapsodie in blut (listen directly in your browser)

06 - tecnoville - small piece of silicon

07 - gerd pasemann - sermon im bunker

08 - unlimited systems - ich beiss mich selbst

so get lost.

dronelord der biß

(mp3; all scans included; direct download)

audible rumbles volume one, 1996: the hampton grease band, baby lemonade, bevis frond, man, das weeth experience, tom rapp, outskirts of infinity, mooseheart faith, flying saucer attack, maurizio angus bidoli, magic hour and white heaven

the ptolemaic terrascope was a british magazine that started in 1989 to explore the obscure psychedelic sounds that influenced the wonderful bevis frond whilst turning into the most comprehensive source for information about mind expanding music throughout the centuries. editor phil mcmullen completed the long strange trip in 2004 with the release of PT#35. issues #1 up to #24 each included a vinyl-ep featuring unreleased tracks by the likes of nurse with wound, twink, high tide, spirit, cliff richard, man, vietnam veterans (to name but a few), issues #25 up to #35 each included a full length cd album with more rare and unreleased gems. all editions of the magazine are completely sold out.

to give you a short insight into what you might have missed we decided to share at least the supplements of PT#29 and PT#26 in this here blog; and now here is a little bit more. with the edition of terrascope #21 in september 1996 every subscriber received the wonderful cd "audible rumbles vol.1" for free, and this little gem has become rather rare throughout these years. right here and now you can listen to some exclusive music phil had given to the world back then, to decide if you really want to spend some 25 dollars on an original copy; and yes, i am totalitarily recommanding that you do.

so here we go:

01 - the hampton grease band - live improvisation 1970

02 - baby lemonade - never mind the hype (listen directly)

03 - bevis frond - hard life

04 - man - many are called

05 - das weeth experience - help me father

06 - tom rapp - wizard of is

07 - tom rapp - state u

08 - outskirts of infinity - killing floor

09 - mooseheart faith - another time

10 - flying saucer attack - all about dreams (listen directly)

11 - maurizio angus bidoli - fantastic trip

12 - magic hour - sunset variations (listen directly)

13 - white heaven - gravity

download some audible rumbles

(mp3 / all scans included / direct download)