Rada Odiada is dedicated to Cocaine Death for making my morning !!
COMMUNISMO SATANISMO !
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tartarus - Epimetheus Bootleg (new track 2010)
Just a bootleg from one man band Tartarus... Recorded live with session members...
No trendy ass fuckin' swedish crap here... only pure darkness and EVOOOOOL!!!!!!
Here it is an older track from this true black metal occult band... enjoy!
Mv & Ee - Muskie & Manitou (brave mysteries 2010)
...this tape presents the mv & ee tour of Summer 2009, fresh from the sweetest spot in the taper's pit. As last Summer was coming to a cool simmer, mv & ee strolled into the collegiate utopia of Madison, Wisconsin; to perform at a tiny art gallery for their faithful Midwestern brethren. The room was packed with flannel-clad friendlies and the atmosphere was thick and balmy, as Matt mumbled his way to the opening heatstroke of "Summer Magic", the micro-brewed smiles crept across all our faces, and we were all real gone for a change. This tape effortlessly captures the magic of that evening and and opens the portal, gazing back into the hypnotic waves of Matt and Erika's secret mountain bonfire. *brave mysteries
Download removed by request
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Current 93 - Lucifer Over London (1994)
"LUCIFER OVER LONDON Parts I and II were inspired primarily by the short story "The Tower Of Moab" by Leslie Allin lewis (1899-1961), found in his superlative collection Tales Of The Grotesque, (Philip Alan, 1934; Ghost Story Press, 1994), although the ideas and images in the song are primarily my own. Vocals - David Michael Tibet by the Grace of God, and John Balance by the Grace of Austin Osman Spare and the Zos Kia Cultus. He thanks the gods that be he sees for Hinself as no othr seeth him. I thank God that I do. Guitars, bass, tambourine - Michael Cashmore by the Grace of Gnoddy. Second guitar - David Kenny by the Grace Of Energy. Black Sabbath - Nick Saloman by the Grace of the Bevis Frond. This song is dedicated to my dear friend Richard Dalby, who delves still.
SAD GO ROUND was written by Tony (T.S.) McPhee and appeared on his Groundhog's Solid album in 1974. Acoustic guitar and bass - Michael Cashmore. lead guitar and electric dulcimer - Nick Saloman. Vocals - David Michael. This song is dedicated to Rosemary Pardoe, the editor of Ghost and Scholars, my favourite magazine.
THE SEVEN SEALS ARE REVEALED AT THE END OF TIME AS SEVEN BOWS: THE BLOODBOW, THE PISSBOW, THE PAINBOW, THE FAMINEBOW, THE DEATHBOW, THE ANGERBOW AND THE HOHOHOBOW was written as a sequel to John Balance's introduction to Coil's Horse Rotovator album. Once I looked at the starres and they were all blood. This song is dedicated to the Soul of my beloved and most dear cat MAO who is dead by the Grace of Lordnothing and sleeps, I pray, in Louis Wain's paradise - bounce the ball still Maoma...I slept I dreamed I dreamt a dream and He still lived. Sometimes I sit alone in my room and stare out of the window beyond beyond and beyond; Christ dances around and around the sun, but it does not stop its circling and neither can I. Vocals - David Michael. Acoustic guitar, bass, melodica and glöckenspiel - Michael Cashmore. Sheep Ventilator Guitar and Secret Weapon"-- Steven Stapleton
SAD GO ROUND was written by Tony (T.S.) McPhee and appeared on his Groundhog's Solid album in 1974. Acoustic guitar and bass - Michael Cashmore. lead guitar and electric dulcimer - Nick Saloman. Vocals - David Michael. This song is dedicated to Rosemary Pardoe, the editor of Ghost and Scholars, my favourite magazine.
THE SEVEN SEALS ARE REVEALED AT THE END OF TIME AS SEVEN BOWS: THE BLOODBOW, THE PISSBOW, THE PAINBOW, THE FAMINEBOW, THE DEATHBOW, THE ANGERBOW AND THE HOHOHOBOW was written as a sequel to John Balance's introduction to Coil's Horse Rotovator album. Once I looked at the starres and they were all blood. This song is dedicated to the Soul of my beloved and most dear cat MAO who is dead by the Grace of Lordnothing and sleeps, I pray, in Louis Wain's paradise - bounce the ball still Maoma...I slept I dreamed I dreamt a dream and He still lived. Sometimes I sit alone in my room and stare out of the window beyond beyond and beyond; Christ dances around and around the sun, but it does not stop its circling and neither can I. Vocals - David Michael. Acoustic guitar, bass, melodica and glöckenspiel - Michael Cashmore. Sheep Ventilator Guitar and Secret Weapon"-- Steven Stapleton
*p.s. the only reason i'm posting this is because i finaly got it today.
Download
Download
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Vincent Gallo - When (warp 2001) / Recordings Of Music For Film (warp 2002)
Point to any portion of Vincent Gallo's career-- from his acting in any of a number of underrated independent films, to his work with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the short-lived New York band Gray; from the writing at his self-maintained website, to his twisted directorial debut Buffalo 66-- and you'll always find something a bit off-kilter. Of course, it's in this very awkwardness that Gallo's appeal lies.
In the aforementioned film-- parts of which are admittedly autobiographical-- Gallo plays a loser named Billy who returns, upon his release from prison, to his hometown. On his first day back, he kidnaps a young girl, takes her to his parents' house for dinner, forces her to pretend she's his wife, and then proceeds to wander around town with her trailing closely behind. Over the course of the film, Billy realizes that there's nothing for him in this town, that he's every bit as lost as he'd been before jail. He recognizes the girl as his possible salvation, but finds himself too petrified to act upon this realization. Gallo wrote, directed, scored, and starred in the film; this hands-on approach no doubt the cause of much of its emotional resonance. He approaches When, his solo musical debut, in much the same way. Not only is Gallo the sole writer, performer and producer credited here, but his songs are imbued with the same emotional nakedness that made Buffalo 66 so engrossing.
Throughout the album, but on "Honey Bunny" in particular, Gallo appears to be mocking traditional lovesong lyrics. "Huh-uh-nee Buh-huh-nee," he sings in a faux-Prekopian swagger, dragging out each syllable, pausing between each pair as though to decide which romantic cliché best fits his intentions: "My Bay-ay-bee... girl... friend." Later, on "Laura," he repeats the titular figure's name a few dozen times, growing more desperate with each go-round. The sheer vapidity of these lyrics gives When the feel of a very private affair, like we're standing outside the door to Gallo's room while he sits on his bed inside, guitar in hand, wallowing in self-pity.
This voyeuristic effect is reminiscent of much of Smog's earlier work, though the means by which the two artists achieve it couldn't be further apart. The ingenuity here is not in the lyrics, but entirely in their delivery. Listening to When, one can't help but wonder if this is how Andy Kaufmann's audiences felt. As Gallo speak-sings, "Goodnight baby/ Sleep tight here with me/ We can lay in the bed, you and me/ And I won't go away or leave you alone/ Sweetie-pie/ Baby/ Sleep tight/ Here with me," on "Apple Girl," we're left scratching our heads, wondering if the effect is intentional or not.
I can only assume, based on Gallo's work as a filmmaker and his arrangements on some ofWhen's more ambitious tracks, that it is. Gallo may be self-indulgent, but he's certainly not oblivious. "I Wrote This Song for the Girl Paris Hilton," the disc's opener, begins with a short looped sample of an unwavering horn note, with guitar and drums in the background. Slowly, Gallo builds a song out of other sampled instruments-- a guitar here, an organ there-- piling them atop the relentless three-second foundation. The arrangement is clunky in the same way that a U.S. Maple song is, but this doesn't diminish its beauty. If anything, it serves as allegory for a mind we're led to assume is somewhat shaky and nervous. Consider it an early warning that the songs which follow are going to be a bit off kilter. The instrumentation is lush as can be, while the ever-present loop has a lulling effect that prepares listeners for the slow but beautiful ride through Gallo's fragile psyche to come.
When he samples an old recording of vibraphones on "Was," it's not the melody, but the actual sound that affects. Gallo's placement of the flat, faded, somewhat muted old recording over his own full, lush guitar strokes makes for an intriguing parallel. The sample, much like his character in Buffalo 66 and-- we're drawn to assume-- Gallo himself, doesn't quite belong. Yet, there's an undeniable beauty to the unlikely pairing.
Musically, most of When is sparse, reminiscent of the more haunting moments on Archer Prewitt's Gerroa Songs or a more subtle, less dynamic Bedhead. A lightly picked guitar and barely audible bass make up the bulk of the accompaniment to Gallo's nearly androgynous crooning, with the occasional string section that fades out as quickly as it came in. The result, when added to the often repetitive vocals is captivating, almost hypnotic. But once again, Gallo proves he's more aware than he lets on. On the next track, "My Beautiful White Dog," a gently plucked guitar continues to wander aimlessly, but it does so over a dirty old drum loop and an ominous string section which serves as a wake-up call, yanking the listener to attention after the calm opening tracks.
There's no denying that When is an exercise is self-indulgence. Much like Bufallo 66, it's an effort that, while deserving of respect and maybe even a bit of envy, is riddled with flaws. Just as some of the characters in his film lacked a backstory or a sense of purpose, so doesWhen. Though gorgeous and inexplicably well-crafted, it lacks scope; far too content to swim in circles in a pool of Gallo's emotions to ever strike ground that truly resonates. And even though their ambiguity often lends the lyrics much of their weight, it'd be nice to hear Gallo take a swing at something with a bit more depth than, "I'm always sad when I'm lonely/ I'm always sad."
Still, When is a gorgeous collection of songs which paint an undeniably clear picture of their creator. If, with his next project-- be it music, film or something else-- Gallo attempts to broaden his range, to understand something besides himself, there's no telling what heights he might reach.
Much as everyone seems to want to hate the man, it's proven increasingly difficult to dismiss the fact that Vincent Gallo is just too talented across far too many creative fronts. A ramshackle, home-made charm permeated the tracks presented on his debut album 'When' - released on Warp some months ago, and the same vulnerable patchwork permeates much of the material spread across the 29 tracks on offer here.
Containing music recorded for films between 1979 and 1998, the deeply cinematic stretches veer from lo-fi accoustic trembles to electronic washes of ambience and static pops. The opening 15 tracks recorded for 1983's 'The Way It Is' sound unbeleivably accomplished, bare and creatively honest. The temptation is almost there to describe them as 'ahead of their time', but that would perhaps ignore the long tradition of form and strucure honoured by Gallo in his own deeply charming way.
The 8 tracks included from Gallo's most known cinematic work - Buffalo '66 - open up with the truly mesmerisng 'Lonely Boy' - a kind of stripped layered melancholy in the finest singer-songwriter tradition that comes across as painfully auto-biographical, free of much of the arrogance and pretension that Gallo is reported to retain in character. Straight onto 1981's 'Downtown' and the 'Dum Beet' interlude, 20 seconds of treated lo-fi beats that offer a glimpse of proto-idm beat production in the most lo-fi sense, before 1979's 'If You Feel Froggy, Jump' unravels 3 tracks of open tape-edit experimentation inspired by the Concreté brigade with titles like 'Ass Fucker' and 'Ass Fucker (Reprise)' .
A truly intriguing and deeply enjoyable release from Gallo, made indespensible with the inclusion of Gallo's sometimes hillarious and often controversial liner-notes that veer from pure sexist bitchin' to slanderous ranting to the final, deeply moving homage to Warp's Rob Mitchell who passed away late last year.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
In Trance 95 - Desire To Desire / Brazilia 7" (wipe out! records 1988)
One of the first Greek acts in the late 80's to use electronics only, formed in 1988 by Alex Machairas and Nik Veliotis. Coti K. (their "soundman") and George Geranios completed the line-up and eventually Geranios replaced Veliotis, who became a cello "improvisionist". Eventually the band split in 1996. Alex and George with the addition of Magdalena Sverlander, brought back the band to life in December 2006. After three years of sound experimentation, IT95 got officially reformed in April 2010 with the return of Nik Veliotis. The original core duo Machairas and Veliotis has been together since and within a period of four months finished the recording and mixing of the band's come back album that will be released this autumn and will be entitled "Abovearth".
Alex Machairas: vocals, synthesizer, el.percussion, electronics.
Nikos Veliotis: Synthesizers, guitar, electronics, cello, tapes and vocals
George Geranios: Keyboards, tapes
Magdalena Sverlander: keyboards, additional vocals
Alex Machairas: vocals, synthesizer, el.percussion, electronics.
Nikos Veliotis: Synthesizers, guitar, electronics, cello, tapes and vocals
George Geranios: Keyboards, tapes
Magdalena Sverlander: keyboards, additional vocals
In Trance 95 released their first single when there was no such thing as an electronic scene in athens. "Desire to Desire" starts dark and mysterious with a captivating bass synth and a scream kicks in the rhythm as Alex whispers the lyrics in a Cabaret Voltaire manner. The climax follows on an almost electro-pop instrumental chorus placed somehow after the middle of the track with white noise snare in between. On the other side is "Brazilia", electro metronome beauty,almost six different themes of synths altogether coming in and out like waves and cold vocals from both Nik and Alex ending with "Nothing will stay on this land today".
A cold wave minimal electro little treasure on 7inch vinyl,almost impossible to find today unless you are willing to pay a lot. But it is worth all the money. Two timeless electronic hidden classics.
A cold wave minimal electro little treasure on 7inch vinyl,almost impossible to find today unless you are willing to pay a lot. But it is worth all the money. Two timeless electronic hidden classics.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Various Artists - Turkish Freakout (bouzouki joe 2010)
Turkey is often referred to as the meeting point between East and West, a statement verified by this 18 track selection of choice Turkish grooves. The western rock, psych, funk and jazz influences that began to be incorporated into traditional Turkish sounds during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s can be heard here, as the Anadolu pop sound of Turkeyma balanced these new elements with the complex sounds and rhythms developed over many years. All tracks are referenced from their original 7" releases, painstakingly tracked down from various sources in and around Istanbul, with extensive liner notes to boot. The marriage of these styles is original, captivating and bound to freak you out, big time. First 1,000 copies of double-vinyl pressing include a limited edition Arif Sag 7” single with vintage sleeve artwork. Essential listening for anyone already whirling dervishly to the output of Sublime Frequencies, World Psychedelic Funk Classics, or Finders Keepers.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Pocahaunted - Threshold 7'' (not not fun 2010)
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, bands to solo projects, it’s all the same arc. And here it is, the final RIP action by star-crossed Not Not Fun institution Pocahaunted and the only recorded document of the final triforce-vocal line-up featuring Leyna Noel on keys/crooning/dance magic. The results blaze/amaze. “Threshold” was written on the road and melts through a river mistress intro before revving into a tense kraut-funk burner with catchy femme-soul vocables cascading down from every side. The B, “Echolocation,” is a tranced ghost-reggae comedown ballad and classic slow-dance live staple. Nimble bass maneuvering by whimsy princess Diva Dompe leads the melody up through the choruses into the torch-song bridge climax that leaves everybody on the floor...*not not fun
Head Of Wantastiquet - Dead Seas (conspiracy 2010)
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Head Of Wantastiquet is the alter ego of Paul Labrecque, an American musician, songwriter now residing in Belgium. He has recorded with Chris Corsano and Valerie Webb, and he plays and records with the bohemian group Sunburned Hand Of the Man. Historically, aesthetically and sonically his new work bears genuinely comparison with merican primitivism', a mix of psychedelic banjo hymns, apocalyptic space folk and incredible drugged out soul-whispers. It layers banjos, guitars and smoke as though they were shimmering veins of black pearls, pulsing against the scarlet dawn. *conspiracy
...we need to learn how to fly. The birds know it. The albatross, as if painting a flawless hyper-realistic seascape, crosses the ocean without rippling the water. Slow-motion. With a wingspan of 340 cm, wider than any other bird in the world, he can float almost without flapping his wings. It is easy to imagine him dying of old age while flying and after some period of decay still having it's skeleton carried along by rising air-streams. Somewhere, over the ocean, there must be a sort of air- suspended bird sanctuary where all the albatrosses gather to die when they know their time has come; a flock of soaring skeletons..
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Marika Papagika - The Further the Flame, the Worse It Burns Me (Mississippi Records 2010)
Her family moved to Egypt, probably Alexandria, when she was young. She began her career in this country, working in nightspots that catered for the large resident Greek community. It is likely that she made her first recordings here as well.
Around 1915 she emigrated to the USA where she continued performing and recording. By the mid-1920's she and her husband Kostas ['Gus'], a cembalo player, had their own club in New York. She regularly worked with the fine violinist Athanasios Makedonas. Marika's versatile repertory included folksongs, 'light', European-style songs, but she became a noted exponent of the Smyrnaic style of the rebetiko tragoudi.
She and her husband apparently lost the nightspot in the great financial crisis of 1929, and her recording career ended in the late 1930's. She recorded 225 performances between 1918 & 1929. This LP features some of her most mystical & moving. Instrumental accompaniment is provided by various combinations of cymbalon, cello, violin & clarinet. Includes a booklet featuring all known photographs of Marika & extensive liner notes by Ian Nagoski, which shed much deserved light on one of the deepest artists of the Rembetika & Greek folk music scene. Record is housed in an old school tip on sleeve. Includes 12-page booklet.
Marika died in New York in 1943; it has been said that she died of disappointment.
Download removed by request
ANBB - Mimikry (Raster Noton 2010)
God Blixa's looking a little healthier & fuller of face these days. Doesn't look like he's sprinkling heroin on stale cornflakes every morning, like i'm sure he did once. Instead, he's collaborating with Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) producing dramatic electronic vistas & passages of aural dystopia that are both brittle & expansive, haunting & challenging. There's definately a Neubauten feel to tracks such as 'Once Again' but they've got this weird glitchy, tonal thing on that is prime Alva Noto. It's like Peter Gabriel having a nervous breakdown at a fetish club in Berlin. I think there's summat strangely kitsch about the previous single 'One', he makes a weird crooner does Bargeld. That track also reminds me of Robert Wyatt in a way, yet I don't think the beardy one would smother a song in frosty electronic pulses & glitchy cowlicks. Dave just asked me what "this bullshit" was. I like it when my colleagues wax lyrical about experimental music so eloquently. So if you want some proper deconstructed minimal techno with occasional industrial overtones or just love the sound of stuttering, fizzing machines intermingled with flecks of neo-classicism & the deranged ramblings of one of Germany's most pioneering avant-garde statesmen then get involved. Not as all over the shop as I was expecting & undeniably powerful & progressive to boot. *Norman Records
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Εμβατήρια Και Σαλπίσματα Μουσικής Πολεμικού Ναυτικού 1880-2010 (Μουσική πολεμικού ναυτικού 2010)
This album came to me as a gift last night from my dear friend Tefkros from Tartarus. I honestly tried to listen to it but it was too annoying for me to bare, so i thought what the fuck! I could upload this for fun and to prove how gay is the greek army. I had the shame to join it for one very long year of my life...
About music now, this cd is just a piece of shit! So shit i couldn't find the strenght not to upload it...So i dare anyone who is geting off bed in the morning with Massona and sleeping his day away with Prurient to get this and give it a try...
By the way if Thurston Moore is proud to cover Yanni, why should't i be able to post this? lol
P.S. i will not upload anything like this in the future!
Download if you can handle it !
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sleepy Villas - Hunger Is A place (glass foot 2010)
Sleepy Villas is a Chicago/Brooklyn-based musical collaboration between Alexandra Loughton, Kyle Benjamin Poff, (both from the group Wrugs), and friend and brother Jordan Carol Poff. Recorded this past summer in Albuquerque, over the course of a few weeks, this release is a nostalgic mix of simple strummed guitars, auto harp, Piano, tambourine, slight electronic percussion, drifting synth arpeggios and overgrown tired vocals. Buried on these six tracks is a deep humble groove that floats along like a smokey aftertaste. Heavy influenced by neo-classical compositions from the likes of Ravel and Heitor Villa-Lobos smashed through a blender and mixed with a modern psych no-fi hum. Nothing falls from the sky other than water, unless it dies from flying by.* glass foot records
Royal Trux - Cats and Dogs (Drag City Records 1993)
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Demigods of the lo-fi underground, Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux have released a slew of weird records since 1988. Most infamously unfathomable is the double platter Twin Infinitives, which ranks as one of the most out-there avant-garage albums of the past decade. Cats and Dogs is Royal Trux's fourth and most accessible LP, but it's still pretty disorienting. At its groggy best, it's the missing link between the Stones' Exile on Main Street and Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. The Stones fetish dates back to Hagerty's first band, Pussy Galore, who once covered all of Exile in an extravagant act of homage-desecration.
Two words provide a handle on Trux. The first is junk: They're fond of using thrift-store instruments (decrepit, outmoded synths, cheesy guitar effects), and the pair used to be heroin addicts. The second word is dissipation. Hagerty and Herrema's voices sound drained, ghoulish, as though the years of druggy excess have left them ghosts of their former selves. Hagerty's guitar work accentuates the wasted vibe – it seems to drift and dissipate like narcotic fumes. Tracks like "Friends" and "Skywood Greenback Mantra" slip back and forth between grinding, lowdown raunch and woozy blues. Hagerty's elegantly sloppy solos ripple like heat haze on the horizon.
Two songs stand out as Trux pinnacles. "Turn of the Century" is a shimmering mirage of bottleneck blues, echoey piano and multitracked vocals gabbling spectral imprecations – a real ghost town of sound. Cryptic and cryptlike, "Driving in That Car (With the Eagle on the Hood)" is a slight return to the experimentalism of Twin Infinitives. With its hypnotic-trance beat and clammy, cadaverous synths, the track recalls Suicide at their most sinister.
The futurism of "Driving" aside, Cats and Dogs offers a traditionalism bent out of shape, so that it's less a case of Black Crowes-style reverence and more like, say, the Stones from an alternate universe.
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Velvet Underground & Nico - Unpeeled: The Norman Dolph Acetate (1966 Scepter Studios)
VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO
1966 Acetate LP
AT AUCTION: ARGUABLY THE RAREST & MOST IMPORTANT ROCK 'N' ROLL AND POP-ART ARTIFACT IN THE WORLD
This auction is for a unique 12" LP acetate whose unearthing has been storied in several nderground/label1x.jpg>international news features, periodicals and a documentary over the last several years including Rolling Stone Magazine (December 30, 2004), Mojo Magazine (May 2005), U.K. Record Collector Magazine (May 2005), Goldmine Magazine (December 8, 2006), The Globe & Mail (May 28, 2005 and January 14, 2006), and the 2006 Documentary "Velvet Underground Under Review (An Independent Critical Analysis)".
Following is excerpted and adapted (with the author's approval) from the article written by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland Oregon which is featured in the December 8, 2006 issue of Goldmine Magazine currently on newsstands through mid December:
THE MYSTERY OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "REAL FIRST RECORD" (AND HOW THE ONLY EXISTING COPY WAS BOUGHT FOR 75 CENTS)
In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10" on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.
As I have a small knowledge of records and am an old friend of Warren's, I got a call from him the next day in which he described the acetate. Because of the date and the unique type of pressing, we both agreed that it was probably an in-studio acetate made during the recording of the first Velvet Underground LP back in 1966 (I had heard that they occasionally would have
a vinyl cutting lathe in the studio to cut records of the day's recordings for the artists and/or producers to take home for review). Warren didn't want to play the mysterious platter due to the fragile nature of acetates, and the cheap nature of his record needle, so we agreed that the next time he was visiting me in Portland we would check it out together. If it turned out to be what we thought it was, maybe we could sell it at Mississippi Records, the small neighborhood record store in Portland that I work at. Sight unseen and sound unheard, I assumed that it was likely an acetate pressing of the recording which would be eventually be released as
the group's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico".
It took awhile for Warren to visit, but when he did he brought along the acetate. We cued it up and were stunned -- the first song was not "Sunday Morning" as on the "Velvet Underground & Nico" Verve LP, but rather it was "European Son"- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy
than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us.
The next few days found us scrambling for clues and information about what to make of this find; calling every record collector/historian we knew and reading everything we could find concerning the early recordings of the VU. We pieced together that this was probably a surviving copy of the legendary Scepter studios recordings which had been regarded as lost (hence the epic moniker "the lost scepter studios recordings" applied to these unheard sessions over the years). The recording is comprised of the primitive first "finished" version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective "The Velvet Underground".
This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.
Though the same compositions and even a few of the same "takes" (albeit in different mixes) were used on the subsequent commercial release, that which was eventually issued as their debut album on Verve, "The Velvet Underground & Nico", was a significantly different creation. I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master
tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.
The truth about what we held was fuzzy until Warren managed to track down the N. Dolph referred to on the label for an interview.
Norman Dolph was a perennial in the New York art & music scene of the 1960's. He worked as a sales representative at Columbia Records through 1967, and was deeply involved with different facets of the independent music world on the side. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvets at the time, contacted Dolph & offered him a painting in exchange for services as
"ghost" (uncredited) producer for the Velvet's first recording session. Warhol wanted to record a Velvets album before they had a record company behind them as this would tend to minimize meddling label executives' mobility in compromising the musical arrangement's distraught primal force, not to mention the unprecedented taboo lyrics which openly address sex, drugs, and depravity. Warhol's plan was to have Dolph record it and then shop it around to labels (first & foremost Columbia) as a finished recording.
...and so Dolph rented out Scepter studios, and with an engineer named John Licata by his side, they recorded the Velvets for four days. At the time Scepter studios was between reconstruction and demolition with walls falling over and holes in the floor. Velvets' bass & viola player John Cale would later recall the environment as "Post-Apocalyptic".
Dolph took the master tapes made during this session to the Columbia building, which still had an in-house pressing plant, and cut the acetate "after hours" with people he knew on the inside. Dolph then sent the acetate to Columbia to see if they were interested in releasing it. It was returned promptly with a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our f**king minds?" Dolph then gave the acetate to Andy Warhol or John Cale, he cannot remember which.
Six of the songs recorded during the Scepter session made it on to the "Velvet Underground & Nico" LP, albeit with radically different mixes. The other four songs were re-recorded in LA by Tom Wilson. As far as we know, the only listenable copy of the original versions of Heroin, Venus In Furs, I'm Waiting For The Man, and European Son exist on the acetate that Warren
found. (A Japanese bootleg of the same material did appear, but in poor, arguably ‘unlistenable' sound quality. It is possible that the source tape for the Japanese bootleg was made from this very acetate decades ago when it was in different hands. Who knows?) We have since realized that we are in possession of a likely one of a kind artifact - the first recordings by one of the most influential rock bands of all time!
After establishing the authenticity of Warren's find we photographed the item and made a high quality digital back-up copy of the material. A media frenzy ensued, with articles appearing in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Record Collector, The Globe & Mail, and many other news sources. Calls started flooding in from people interested in buying the acetate, as well as record companies interested in releasing the songs on it. After much consideration, we decided that it would be best to release it to the highest bidder through an auction facilitated by our good friends at Saturn Records in Oakland, California (a store that has a well-established presence in the international vinyl collecting community, and an excellent reputation on the internet).
As to the most interesting mystery brought up by the appearance of this item - how did such an important artifact disappear for 37 years & end up at a Chelsea New York yard sale priced at 75 cents? ...We have no answer.
The track differences between the acetate versions and the commercial recordings on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" are detailed as follows:
1.European Son- completely different version,. Guitar solo is much bluesier. Less noisy and experimental. Longer by 2 minutes or so.
2.Black Angel's Death Song-Same take as released version. Different mix.
3.All Tomorrow's Parties- Same take as released version. Different mix.
4.I'll Be Your Mirror-Same take as released version. Radically different mix. No echo on Nico's vocals. Background vocals on end of song are more subdued.
5.Heroin-Completely different take than released version. Guitar line is different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. Drumming is more primitive & off kilter. There is a tambourine dragging throughout the song.
6.Femme Fatale- Same take as released version. Radically different mix. Percussion more prominent. Alternate take on background vocals. Much more "poppy".
7.Venus In Furs- Different take than released version. Vocal inflections completely different. Instrumentation more based around Cales' violin than the guitar as in the released version.
8.I'm Waiting For The Man- Different take than released version. Guitar line is completely different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. No drums, just tambourine. Bluesy guitar solo.
9.Run Run Run- Same take as released version. Different mix.
1966 Acetate LP
AT AUCTION: ARGUABLY THE RAREST & MOST IMPORTANT ROCK 'N' ROLL AND POP-ART ARTIFACT IN THE WORLD
This auction is for a unique 12" LP acetate whose unearthing has been storied in several nderground/label1x.jpg>international news features, periodicals and a documentary over the last several years including Rolling Stone Magazine (December 30, 2004), Mojo Magazine (May 2005), U.K. Record Collector Magazine (May 2005), Goldmine Magazine (December 8, 2006), The Globe & Mail (May 28, 2005 and January 14, 2006), and the 2006 Documentary "Velvet Underground Under Review (An Independent Critical Analysis)".
Following is excerpted and adapted (with the author's approval) from the article written by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland Oregon which is featured in the December 8, 2006 issue of Goldmine Magazine currently on newsstands through mid December:
THE MYSTERY OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "REAL FIRST RECORD" (AND HOW THE ONLY EXISTING COPY WAS BOUGHT FOR 75 CENTS)
In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10" on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.
As I have a small knowledge of records and am an old friend of Warren's, I got a call from him the next day in which he described the acetate. Because of the date and the unique type of pressing, we both agreed that it was probably an in-studio acetate made during the recording of the first Velvet Underground LP back in 1966 (I had heard that they occasionally would have
a vinyl cutting lathe in the studio to cut records of the day's recordings for the artists and/or producers to take home for review). Warren didn't want to play the mysterious platter due to the fragile nature of acetates, and the cheap nature of his record needle, so we agreed that the next time he was visiting me in Portland we would check it out together. If it turned out to be what we thought it was, maybe we could sell it at Mississippi Records, the small neighborhood record store in Portland that I work at. Sight unseen and sound unheard, I assumed that it was likely an acetate pressing of the recording which would be eventually be released as
the group's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico".
It took awhile for Warren to visit, but when he did he brought along the acetate. We cued it up and were stunned -- the first song was not "Sunday Morning" as on the "Velvet Underground & Nico" Verve LP, but rather it was "European Son"- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy
than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us.
The next few days found us scrambling for clues and information about what to make of this find; calling every record collector/historian we knew and reading everything we could find concerning the early recordings of the VU. We pieced together that this was probably a surviving copy of the legendary Scepter studios recordings which had been regarded as lost (hence the epic moniker "the lost scepter studios recordings" applied to these unheard sessions over the years). The recording is comprised of the primitive first "finished" version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective "The Velvet Underground".
This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.
Though the same compositions and even a few of the same "takes" (albeit in different mixes) were used on the subsequent commercial release, that which was eventually issued as their debut album on Verve, "The Velvet Underground & Nico", was a significantly different creation. I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master
tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.
The truth about what we held was fuzzy until Warren managed to track down the N. Dolph referred to on the label for an interview.
Norman Dolph was a perennial in the New York art & music scene of the 1960's. He worked as a sales representative at Columbia Records through 1967, and was deeply involved with different facets of the independent music world on the side. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvets at the time, contacted Dolph & offered him a painting in exchange for services as
"ghost" (uncredited) producer for the Velvet's first recording session. Warhol wanted to record a Velvets album before they had a record company behind them as this would tend to minimize meddling label executives' mobility in compromising the musical arrangement's distraught primal force, not to mention the unprecedented taboo lyrics which openly address sex, drugs, and depravity. Warhol's plan was to have Dolph record it and then shop it around to labels (first & foremost Columbia) as a finished recording.
...and so Dolph rented out Scepter studios, and with an engineer named John Licata by his side, they recorded the Velvets for four days. At the time Scepter studios was between reconstruction and demolition with walls falling over and holes in the floor. Velvets' bass & viola player John Cale would later recall the environment as "Post-Apocalyptic".
Dolph took the master tapes made during this session to the Columbia building, which still had an in-house pressing plant, and cut the acetate "after hours" with people he knew on the inside. Dolph then sent the acetate to Columbia to see if they were interested in releasing it. It was returned promptly with a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our f**king minds?" Dolph then gave the acetate to Andy Warhol or John Cale, he cannot remember which.
Six of the songs recorded during the Scepter session made it on to the "Velvet Underground & Nico" LP, albeit with radically different mixes. The other four songs were re-recorded in LA by Tom Wilson. As far as we know, the only listenable copy of the original versions of Heroin, Venus In Furs, I'm Waiting For The Man, and European Son exist on the acetate that Warren
found. (A Japanese bootleg of the same material did appear, but in poor, arguably ‘unlistenable' sound quality. It is possible that the source tape for the Japanese bootleg was made from this very acetate decades ago when it was in different hands. Who knows?) We have since realized that we are in possession of a likely one of a kind artifact - the first recordings by one of the most influential rock bands of all time!
After establishing the authenticity of Warren's find we photographed the item and made a high quality digital back-up copy of the material. A media frenzy ensued, with articles appearing in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Record Collector, The Globe & Mail, and many other news sources. Calls started flooding in from people interested in buying the acetate, as well as record companies interested in releasing the songs on it. After much consideration, we decided that it would be best to release it to the highest bidder through an auction facilitated by our good friends at Saturn Records in Oakland, California (a store that has a well-established presence in the international vinyl collecting community, and an excellent reputation on the internet).
As to the most interesting mystery brought up by the appearance of this item - how did such an important artifact disappear for 37 years & end up at a Chelsea New York yard sale priced at 75 cents? ...We have no answer.
The track differences between the acetate versions and the commercial recordings on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" are detailed as follows:
1.European Son- completely different version,. Guitar solo is much bluesier. Less noisy and experimental. Longer by 2 minutes or so.
2.Black Angel's Death Song-Same take as released version. Different mix.
3.All Tomorrow's Parties- Same take as released version. Different mix.
4.I'll Be Your Mirror-Same take as released version. Radically different mix. No echo on Nico's vocals. Background vocals on end of song are more subdued.
5.Heroin-Completely different take than released version. Guitar line is different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. Drumming is more primitive & off kilter. There is a tambourine dragging throughout the song.
6.Femme Fatale- Same take as released version. Radically different mix. Percussion more prominent. Alternate take on background vocals. Much more "poppy".
7.Venus In Furs- Different take than released version. Vocal inflections completely different. Instrumentation more based around Cales' violin than the guitar as in the released version.
8.I'm Waiting For The Man- Different take than released version. Guitar line is completely different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. No drums, just tambourine. Bluesy guitar solo.
9.Run Run Run- Same take as released version. Different mix.
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