Oddball Bandcamp Roundup

As i am trudging through my collection to find things to post here, I try to check to see if the albums have been put up on Bandcamp before i post them. Today quite a few contenders showed up so i wanted to make sure you were aware of these great albums and might consider adding them to your collection

Randall McClellan - “The Healing Music of Rana - Vol. I”

These lengthy improvisations were created in live performance while I was seated on the floor behind a Moog Prodigy and Micromoog synthesizer - one above the other - to allow for simultaneous playing of the two keyboards. With the synthesizers, I used a microphone, small mixer, a specially designed drone box, and two reel-to-reel tape recorders placed side by side with a single audio tape passing from the first machine to the second .

In performance, the sound is recorded on the first machine, played back several seconds later on the second machine, mixed then recorded on the first machine to create an environment of continuously evolving multi-level melody. Each repetition becomes progressively quieter and more distant as new melody is presented.

Each improvisation lasts from twenty-five to forty-five minutes. An entire performance is up to three hours and is designed to provide an environment of meditative sound.

Anthony Manning - “Chromium Nebulae”

For this series of pieces the Roland R8 drum machine was joined by a first-generation Novation Bass Station, an old Yamaha DX7, and a cheap effects unit. A borrowed Yamaha QX7 took care of sequencing requirements.

Extensive use was again made of reams and reams of graph paper, as this sequencer offers only a tiny lcd screen for editing purposes. Raw melodies were improvised real-time into the QX7, and the recorded values drawn onto graph paper scrolls, to enable better visualisation of melody flow, to aid with writing companion phrases, and to map out the structures. Several pieces feature live takes of keyboard improvisations recorded over a base structure of looped sequences.

The pieces were recorded onto a cassette-based Tascam 8-track and mastered at Irdial's studio onto an ex-BBC half inch tape deck.

Carl Weingarten & Gale Ormiston -”Windfalls”

from link here

By comparison with its predecessor, Windfalls seems a lot more synth oriented, even though Weingarten plays guitar and loops on every cut except one, and even flute on one piece, Ormiston plays synthesizer and sequencer exclusively throughout. For those familiar with the first Delay Tactics, it’s difficult to listen to this without hearing some similarities, although many of the electronic sounds here tend to be more stretchy and textural, and a little less loopy and repetitive in character. The album opens with “Rainy Journey,” featuring both Weingarten and Ormiston on synths, while Udell handles the guitar duties plus celesta; the synths provide an interesting and evolving sequenced pattern while the guitar comes up from behind with a howling clarity of beautiful tones. Appropriately titled, “Between Clouds” begins with two soft and dreamy synthesizers (Ormiston and Whitney) while Weingarten’s guitar loops stretch out in every direction, blending nicely with the fabric of the piece. “Currents” features guitar loops at the fore, while synths adorn the background, a bit more experimental than most of what’s here. The title track is the only piece on the album that features all four players: Ormiston and Whitney on synthesizers, while Udell plays forward lead guitar and Weingarten plays reverse guitars. Another standout is the ten-minute “Sand,” which closed out the original LP, with Ormiston’s synth dueling with Weingarten’s guitar and effects, and some incidental saxophone textures from guest player Dominic Schaeffer blending into the fabric of the piece.

Bernard XOLOTL - “Journey to an Oracle”

review from Prog Archives

A psychedelic electronic trip, from the "Golden Decade" of Progressive/electronic music.

Low profile Bernard Xolotl, could be claimed among the co-founders of "Prog/Cosmic Synth Music" in accordance that electronic music has been with us since the late 1920, early 30's (more or less). And that this kind of "celestial" music, has always been in the mind of 1000s of electronic music composers, then and now, in any field of music, electronic and not.

This psychedelic "Journey to an Oracle", 1977, is so unique, rich in instrumental arrangements and an astounding direction in composition and performance, I have a hard time thinking, why we 3 people who have rated it, differ so much?

Been that it has no other reviews, you will have to trust me, on this one. Here are my findings:

It does not sound, not even a bit, like Schulze nor Tangerine Dream's same decade projects, that for starters, rips it away, from the zillion clones, happening at the time, then and now (as always).

Tim Robertson - “Outer Planetary Church Music”

….During the next two years he got obsessed with creating the compositions of the future temples on Saturn and Neptune. He recorded hours and hours of music. In the end, feeling totally frustrated, he decided to throw to the bin all those tapes. Well, not all of them. Happily he kept two as a gift to his parents. Sadly, his parents passed away some years later. While cleaning their apartment he found the tapes and with the passing of time he decided to keep them as a memory of that crazy time. I was really curious about those tapes so I asked him if it would be possible to listen to them. He said 'no worries', and that he would bring them to work the next day. So 24 hours later I was there with my walkman, anxious to start listening to those mysterious cassettes. After a couple of minutes I was totally captivated by them. It was so strange. The kind of repetitive music with cheap keyboard presets. So rough, basic and fragile. It was then I told him that i felt more people had to listen to those recordings. It was a bit difficult to convince him. One of the main reasons is because he doesn't like internet as it is full of pornography and punks. After quite a bit of arguing, he finally accepted. 'At least i’m sharing the word of God with more people', he said. As soon as i came back to Belgium i shared the tapes with my friend Pieter (Aguirre Records) because he would totally be into it and maybe even release it.