diverse artister : album recommendations 1.14.23
Sorry I have been away for so long. Had a live gig and had to finish an album so it took me away from writing. Hopefully it won’t be this long again, so i can keep sending you new albums to check out.
One of my goals with zikzak is to highlight a wider variety or albums across styles i like. My radio shows tend to feature new contemporary music so this gives me a change to make mixes and write ups of older music i enjoy. In this spirit, here are a few albums under the banner,“diverse artister”. I believe it’s Norwegian for “Various Artists”. I thought it looked cool so i’m using it! The Lovefingers mix i put under that heading as well as its a variety of styles and thats what im trying to focus on here.
Philip Sanderson - On One of These Bends
I ran across this album when i was scouring the website of one of my favorite labels, “Seance Centre” from Toronto. Brandon, who runs the label, may have recommended it to me which i am very grateful for. I didn’t know it at the time but it featured one of my favorite tracks of all time which is Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey’s “Bright Waves”. I knew of this track because it was included in one of the great compilations of the 80’s, “Perspectives & Distortions on Cherry Red.
I didn’t realize that Sanderson was behind this track, and used the Thomas/Vezey as an alias. I also didn’t realize he was behind the group “Storm Bugs”. So lots of discoveries for me! Anyhow, his work has all of the elements of 80’s post punk experimentalism you can ask for. Lots of tape experimentation, lovely synth work, and an absolute air of mystery. The liner notes say it better than i can:
By 1981, after four years of DIY electronics, it was time for a change. For Philip Sanderson that change came in the form of film. At first, requests came from friends for soundtrack work, and by the end of the decade he was making short experimental 8mm films himself. On One Of These Bends is a collection of unreleased songs, soundtrack work and obscure cassette-only pieces from the 80’s which reflect Philip’s shift in focus. It was a departure from the industrial music he had been making with his group Storm Bugs, having more in common with Nino Rota and Henry Mancini, albeit as seen through a DIY lens, and with a reel-to-reel orchestra comprised of an EMS VCS3, vibraphone, DX7, Roland SH-101, Roland TR-606, tape delay, acoustic guitar, fretless bass and Yamaha FB-01.
Anyhow, i hope you love it and that it helps you go down a rabbit hole of other excellent artists working in the same vein
Sandstone - Can You Mend A Silver Thread
I think this is one of those records that i found pouring over the megaupload music blogs of the early 2010’s. This album from 1971 is one of those monster expensive private press records that cost as much as a mortgage payment. There weren’t many originals around and it was something that was pretty much unknown except to the most hardcore collectors. It would be an amazing album if it was released in the UK in 1971, but considering it was done by Americans, it makes it all the more amazing. I dont know of anything of that era from the U.S. that captures a British folk sound like this one
From the Bandcamp notes:
This private press folk/psych album (1971) is so head and shoulders above almost every other album in the genre, it’s hard to believe it’s not better known. The instrumentation and compositional style are reminiscent of heavy English folk hitters like Mellow Candle, Pentangle, and Heron. The Sandstone album was not a major label production like those records. But the local studio at which it was recorded must have been quite high end, because the production quality is astounding. Nearly everyone involved in these recordings was younger than eighteen, but there’s very little evidence of that: the music is well constructed, and no aspect of it is without sophistication well beyond the years of its creators. Sadly, the band only had cash enough for around 300 copies. Other than a few college radio spins for “Flute Player”, barely anyone heard Can You Mend A Silver Thread? outside of their inner circle.
If Britfolk of that era appeals to you like it does to me, i would say you should jump on this album straight away
Dana Westover – Memorial To Fear
Another ridiculously expensive American private press folk record that deserves some attention. Sadly it’s never been reissued but it’s out there in the digital realm. One of the better “Loner Folk” albums from the 70’s you will run across
Here is a selection from the album : “Dedication”
This link will provide a bit of background and we can go old school with an active mediafire link!
Dana Westover - Memorial To Fear @ Swan Fungus
Here is a rare interview conducted by the “It’s Psychedelic Baby” website
Roberto Cacciapaglia - The Ann Steel Album
Not 100% sure where i learned of this album. I have known of the work of Roberto Cacciapaglia for quite some time. If you haven’t, that’s a path you might want to explore. Some details here
Anyhow, this would be a departure for him musically speaking as he was known for more rigorous, austere academic music. This is very far from that. To me, this might be one of the most 80’s albums ever made. And when i say that, i mean some of the best aspects of that era. Its maybe the sonic equivalent to this:
It’s very clever, knowing pop music. The story itself is very interesting. The nice folks over at “In Sheep’s Clothing” hifi explain it better than i do…
Ann Steel was a Michigan-based model doing a fashion tour in Italy when she happened to be introduced to Cacciapaglia. Roberto, under the influence of the rising electronic sound (which he knew a thing or two), and the explosion of Moroder’s “I Feel Love”, felt inclined to try his hand at pop music so he invited Steel to sing on his new album. Steel helped realize Cacciapaglia’s fantastical synthetic world contributing lyrics that cite Einstein, Freud, metaphysics and robotically singing the joys of consumerism in a future utopia. Bleepy synthesizers, cold automated drum machines, and some avant-Disneyland arrangements come together to present a new technological music. An intersection between animation and reality, human and synthetic. It’s no surprise that this wacky release was met with little to no enthusiasm initially, but has since developed quite the cult following.
More info and streaming links here:
In Sheep's Clothing On The Ann Steel Album
i may have seen the video from Italian television first. i tend to think this will give you all that you need to find out if the album is right for you. I love it myself.
Burger/Ink – Las Vegas
I always rated this album pretty highly over the years. I was pleasantly surprised to learn as i was writing this that other people rated it as well (even Pitchfork oddly enough… not sure if thats a good thing or not but there you are…)
Pitchfork's 50 Best IDM Albums Of All Time
This album came out on Harvest in Europe & 2 years later on Matador (for the “electronica crowd here in the states). It didnt get quite the exposure because it wasnt on one of the more fashionable labels but enough people saw it because of the profile of the 2 main artists : Wolfgang Voight & Jorg Burger. This is an album i’m not sure how to classify. I see it referenced as trance but i see it as an ambient/minimal techno album really. Most of the beats are very 4 to the floor but the textures that surround them make it a more interesting listen.
Via Matador’s press release:
Jörg Burger and Mike Ink first met and started working together in the early 1980s. In the beginning they were highly influenced by british pop music but started to change their attitude and music in 1988. “In early ’88 we began to record this really weird electronic music,” says Wolfgang Voigt aka Mike Ink. “It wasn’t like acid house but it also wasn’t song structured and it wasn’t like anything we’d done before. In late ’93, after years of successful collaboration they decided to concentrate on their solo projects and labels. After working together on several recordings, they unveiled a new project later that decade, [las vegas]. “Jörg is the king of harmonies and I’m the king of insane rhythms and we combine that somehow,” explains Mike Ink. Adds Jörg, “I play guitars on the records but Mike hates guitars so we treated them in a way that he could stand it. When we started to think about the concept of the new project we were arguing for 3 months before we actually started to record a single note.
Gil Trythall - Luxikon II / Echospace
This album came out in the early 80’s on a West Virginia label called “Pandora”. Its contents are not always on the money, but when its good, its quite good indeed. It was reissued on limited CDR by Creel Pone in 2009 and that’s about it when it comes to availability
Soundohm’s write up of the album explains it beautifully. I think the review is from Creel Pone honcho Keith Fullerton Whitman
Gil Trythall’s two late-60s “Country” themed Moogsploitation LPs are of course the gilded arches that keep the genre airborne, but it’s this 1980 collection on the minuscule, West Virginia-based Pandora records imprint that’s always been the real show of Trythall’s creative vision. While “Luxicon II's” gorgeous deep-bass filtering, runaway arpeggiations, & spot-on “Electro” -tinged drum-machine gork is the stuff of legend, I maintain that “Echospace” beats a good chunk of time-lag architect Terry Riley’s synth / organ / tape-echo work at it’s own game - it’s a sublimely deep aggregate of flowing sections, each involving pristine, fluttering auto-quantized flights of fancy that do it for me on so many levels that it’s now one of my all-time favorite pieces of music in any genre.
Supersister – Present From Nancy
Now for some good old fashioned prog! I grew up with this album. Got it when i was maybe 17. Got some other Supersister albums later but i always favored this one. The Netherlands has a few remarkable bands from the 60’s & 70’s and these guys are right near the top. Incredible musicianship dominated by spectacular drumming and excellent keyboard work. Should be pretty interesting to people who like the Soft Machine as it has the same basic template and sound
you can check it out on the Spotify if that’s your thing
That’s it for me. Hope you found something worth while.
Back soon