zikzak mix 6 : Deep Head Scene - Unsettled Ambience From The Industrial Era

This next mix is one I have wanted to do for some time but it took a good while to get all of the material together and get down to doing it. Now that its done, I’m very excited to share it with you!

So what’s this mix all about?

This mix got jumpstarted when I noticed there was a new O Yuki Conjugate release announced. The first volume of “A Tension Of Opposites” was one of my favorite releases of that year and continues to amaze. Not sure how familiar you all are with this outfit, but they were formed in 1982. While thy would never be called “Industrial” by any means, they came up during that era and were loosely affiliated with the artists of that scene. The Wikipedia entry states accurately that

“their music has been variously described as 'ambient', 'fourth world', 'ethnic', 'tribal' and 'dark wave'; the band prefer to call it 'dirty ambient'.

It was the “dirty ambient” term that really got me thinking. Their sound had elements of what we typically think of as ambient, but its has more edge and a certain level of darkness and intrigue. OYC, along with other groups of the era, used the tools at hand to create their music, most of the time with minimal equipment. Reel to reel tape loops featured prominently and that added to a sort of sound that wasn’t clean or pristine and that was part and parcel of the punk (or post punk) DIY ethos most of these groups had. I asked Andrew Hulme, who is one half of the group, what he might classify the sound or genre he was affiliated with at that time (rather than industrial or post punk). Andrew wasn’t keen to classify or label his music and unlike me, he isn’t obsessed with labels and genre. He mentioned a term, rather than using the pretty much useless term “experimental”, that struck a chord with me, and that was “Deep Head Scene”. Andrew was introduced to that term from someone he knew, who told him about a record shop in the United States had a section with that title. The music in that category wasn’t psychedelic or experimental. It was just “Deep Head Scene.” I assume that term made an impression as the first track on the new OYC album uses it as a title as well.

That term helped make sense what I was looking to create with this mix. I wanted to sort of pull a lot of this music from the 80’s & early 90’s and give it a sense of identity.

This post could be an entire novel so i will try to keep it brief. I want to give some context about the environment this sound came from. Now as many of you know, I am as a listener and a musician linked up with the term “kosmische” music. While that sound was focused in the 70’s in West Germany, it neither started or ended there. In the UK a sound was being forged by Throbbing Gristle that had elements of this kosmische music but wasn’t trying to be pleasant or trippy in the sense people had come to know. There was a trip happening to be certain, but mostly a demented, dark, disquieting one. Through the electronics genius of Chris Carter, the template of this sound was laid down. Highly processed environmental sounds, mixed with synths, guitar, & tape loops, combined to create a dark ambient music that had seldom been seen before and was only present in some of the deepest head records of the 70s. Now, to be clear…TG’s music wasn’t all this dark textural ambience. A lot of it was harsh metallic dissonance that was uneasy listening at the best of times. That being said, TG were sort of akin to the Beatles in the sense that they were the inspiration for thousands of groups that came after them. If you listen to as much of this eras music as I have, you will notice that very few albums by individual groups or the zillions of various artist cassettes that were made, have an abundance of this dark ambient sound. I tried to pull all of these moments into one flowing 3 hour mix. I churned and burned a lot of tracks to make this and often I had 2, 3 or 4 tracks running concurrently to create something that was new using this music as raw material. I wanted to showcase this “vibe” that is so very important to me. This music as a whole hasn’t been nearly as well documented as it should be and this micro niche within it has rarely been addressed as a concept unto itself I think. This was my mission and I hope I achieved it.

I was purchasing this music when it came out at the time. One of my favorite shops was RRRecords of Lowell Massachusetts. They were the foremost importer of LP’s and cassettes of this style and that was such a lifeline for me in the 80s. They are still around as well which is really very amazing indeed

RRRecords

Also the Dutch shop Staalplaat and their American counterpart Soleilmoon.

staalplaat

soleilmoon

Trying to follow along with a tracklist will be almost impossible because of the quick and overlapping nature of this mix. I will however post it here along with some vital albums and informational sources you can dive into to learn more if you desire

This first compilation I think showcased the sound I’m shooting for more than any other. it was the “Rising From The Red Sand” compilations that came out on the Third Mind. There were 5 of them and they were later compiled as a single set on tape. They were then re-released on vinyl for the first time on the Vinyl On Demand label

Rising From the Red Sand

Speaking of the Vinyl On Demand label, the cassette/industrial scene has no greater advocate than Frank Bull (Meier), honcho of this amazing label. If you have never seen on of his meticulous reissues, its a sight to behold. Almost no other reissue label does it with this level of love and attention

An interview with Frank Maier

Vinyl On Demand Website

He also is a driving force behind the Tape Mag website. This amazing archival resource has copies of posters, ephemera, fanzines, catalogs, you name it of the music of this era and its a lovely place to get lost in. Very nice place to wade through

https://tape-mag.com/

Another recent “reissue” label has also stoked interest in this sound and that is the Light Sounds Dark (LSD) label. They are a little problematic in that they reissue lots of things that were on cassette and quite rare but they put it out on vinyl. Not a problem in an of itself as VOD does much the same. The problem is that they often don’t credit any of the artists and just leave the tracks as “Untitled”. I assume they do this because their comps are not strictly legal (read bootlegs). I’m not someone who gets all up in arms about this sort of thing for obvious reasons but its worth mentioning that a lot of what they release will be completely mysterious and that is something that i have a difficult time with.

A few more resources I should mention here are the amazing blogs that still post about these albums. I have waded through a LOT of comps from these fantastic places and I have tried to isolate the best and most useful. While i enjoy music from some of the more abstract artists like Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant, P16.D4, Etant Donnes, and Maurizio Bianchi, that’s not the sound that I’m looking for but you might enjoy finding out more about some of these artists. Here are a few of these great sites:

tapeattack

Wet Dreams

DIY or Die

Archaic Inventions

Lastly I wanted to point out some of the visual artists that are affiliated with this scene. Some of them are still relatively unknown but I feel like their visual aesthetic really contributes to an overall understanding and appreciation of this music. What i like about these film makers is that they co opt some of the techniques of 60’s experimental filmmakers like multiple exposures that give them a hallucinatory quality but often the subject matter is a bit more dark and less “hippy” for lack of a better word. Industrial estates, Carparks, Motorways, that sort of thing rather than people running through a field, or blissfully sitting on a beach.

a still from Nick Cope

Nick Cope Film

Richard Heslop

Here are the track lists for the comp. Again, I hope you enjoy, and as always its free to download