Electronic & Dance 450 Items

If you check the credits of The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup LP from 1973 you'll find a certain "Pascal" listed on the percussion section. That is none other than Los Angeles based artist Nicolas Pascal Raicevik (1933-1994), aka 107-34-8933, aka Head, aka Nik Pascal, aka Nik Raicevic. Besides his hitting the bongoes on the Stones album, Nik was a great artist on his own, both as a painter and as a musician. As a musician, he was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers, preceeding the Berlin school by some years when his Head LP was released on on Buddah in 1970. Buddah probably saw in Head the opportunity to cash in some money from the remains of the psychedelic scene - the three tracks on the LP are named after drugs used in the late sixties. The sounds, however, are accomplished works that show Raicevic as one of the most interesting pioneers in the use of synths. The album probably didn't do too well, since Buddah didn't renew the contract with Raicevic, who instead took his own way releasing his works on his very own Narco Records and Tapes label. Between 1968 and 1975 Narco would issue 4 LPs credited either to Nik Raicevic (Beyond The End... Eternity) or Nik Pascal (The Sixth Ear, Magnetic Web and Zero Gravity) plus one credited to 107-34-8933 (Numbers, which is in fact the same LP as Buddah's Head, albeit with different cover art). Copies of these LPs came with an ironic sticker over the shrinkwrap that read "Do not listen to this LP if you are stoned".

If you check the credits of The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup LP from 1973 you'll find a certain "Pascal" listed on the percussion section. That is none other than Los Angeles based artist Nicolas Pascal Raicevik (1933-1994), aka 107-34-8933, aka Head, aka Nik Pascal, aka Nik Raicevic. Besides his hitting the bongoes on the Stones album, Nik was a great artist on his own, both as a painter and as a musician. As a musician, he was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers, preceeding the Berlin school by some years when his Head LP was released on on Buddah in 1970. Buddah probably saw in Head the opportunity to cash in some money from the remains of the psychedelic scene - the three tracks on the LP are named after drugs used in the late sixties. The sounds, however, are accomplished works that show Raicevic as one of the most interesting pioneers in the use of synths. The album probably didn't do too well, since Buddah didn't renew the contract with Raicevic, who instead took his own way releasing his works on his very own Narco Records and Tapes label. Between 1968 and 1975 Narco would issue 4 LPs credited either to Nik Raicevic (Beyond The End... Eternity) or Nik Pascal (The Sixth Ear, Magnetic Web and Zero Gravity) plus one credited to 107-34-8933 (Numbers, which is in fact the same LP as Buddah's Head, albeit with different cover art). Copies of these LPs came with an ironic sticker over the shrinkwrap that read "Do not listen to this LP if you are stoned".

Numbers was the first reference in the Narco catalogue (NR101), each of the three tracks it contains is named after a drug: Cannabis Sativa, Methedrine and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. The album was credited to 107-34-8933, there is no date of release on the disc, some sources take it as back as 1968 - in any case, this is the same record that was issued on Buddah in 1970 credited to Head and eponymously-titled. The Wah Wah reissue features the original cover artwork from the Narco edition.

Under the alias of Zanov we find the works of French electronic pioneer Pierre Salkazanov, who had started playing guitar in the 1960s in a Shadows styled band, Les Ambassadors. Instrumental rock was not enough for Salkazanov, he was always looking for evolution, so when a meeting with French synth player Serge Ramses (of "Secret" fame) got him into the world of synthesizers he just dived deep into the bourgeoning world of electronic music. He got himself a VCS3 and started producing works into a 4-track Teac tape machine. French music was at its best, it was the time of Jean Michel Jarre, Didier Bocquet, Richard Pinhas and Heldon, Alain Meunier... Even Gong's Tim Blake was living in France at that time. And so Zanov soon caught the attention of Polydor, who released his first two LPs Green Ray in 1976 and Moebius 256 301 in 1977. In Course Of Time, his third LP was originally issued in Canada in 1982 and in France in 1983, although it contains works that he had began working in 1979. The material was originally shelved due to legal matters, although he continued to add some changes even after that. The Canadian edition came out in Les Disques Solaris, a recently created label that wanted to specialise in "cosmic" music. Zanov used the same equipment he had used on Moebius 256 301, albeit this time he gave more use to the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer.

Zanov's three albums met with unanimous critical acclaim for the sound quality as well as for the originality of this very personal universe.

Zanov's third LP was released in 1982 in Canada on Les disques Solaris and in 1983 in France on Ondes.

This is not a reissue, it is the original 1983 French edition on Ondes. Please note that these are mint unplayed vinyl copies, but they have been laying around in warehouses for long time so sleeves show the pass of time (some yellowing mainly, not bigger problems).

New Lp-edition of an obscure un-released library of the early ‘70s.
Together with Florian Fricke, Peter Michael Hamel and Stephan Micus, Deuter is certainly the main responsible of a fruitful encounter between European sensibility and Eastern aesthetics in the German music of the 1970s. Soundtrack was originally produced by Kuckuck in 1973 not for an official and public release, but as a “library” to be used for films, TV and radio. As a library it respects the canonical and typological structure of the genre with 26 short sonic fragments, sequences imagined and conceived like fulminating illuminations. There's still a solid electronic vocation that, however, has put aside the most disruptive effluvia of D (1971) of pure “kraut” ancestry. In fact, the album is more like an ideal passing bridge between some ritual instances of the previous Aum (1972) and the following successful phase of Deuter during the period when he stays in the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's ashram in Poona realizing, in parallel to a renewed inner life, masterpieces like Celebration, Haleakala, Ecstasy and Silence is the Answer. Musically speaking, Soundtrack presents itself as a heterogeneous work with nocturnal, cinematic, galactic and atmospheric-environmental implications. Electronics remains the predominant factor but can vary from mantra drones of more ceremonial and meditative “space-relax” tones of some tracks (Triad, Deep Sea, Gothic Velvet or Evening) to the most amused formulations of pulsating analog synths that in the hands of Deuter become “toy-equipement” to modulate and explore (Desert Rock, Synth Effect, Flea Dance or Laser). There is no lack of acoustic moments more ethnically inspired with Arabian and Indian (Reed, Arabia) or devotionally solar themes (Tom Bombaddils Dance), so evoking an air of diffuse peace then completely conquered in the beloved India.

Double LP: first one includes tracks remastered from "Kondens" original master tapes (originally released in 1982); second one includes unreleased tracks taken and remastered from 1983-1984 original master tapes (produced and composed for Scandinavian "theatre" performances)

Originally released in 1982, including tracks written for Crosstalk (a science fiction thriller film made in Australia) and other electronic themes, it was written, performed and recorded by Chris Neal in his home studio, using Roland System 700 and Roland MC8.
In 1982 there were only a few System 700s ever produced and Roland was more interested in promoting their more commercial System 100M (that's why it was credited on the 1982 original cover to give them a plug). The System 700 was developed by Taro Kakahashi and his team in Japan as a direct challenger to the Moog modular system.
The ORBEATIZE remastered reissue also includes a special bonus track remixed and produced in 2017 by Jolly Mare.

From the pumping heart of The Magnetic System comes the “dirtiest” Da-Da-dancefloor
anti-jams with this lost 1979 blueprint of Italian conceptual cosmic disco played by the
cream of the Goblin studio band. Ultra rare and unscrubbed, Finders Keepers finally snip the
trip from the cash machine to the trash machine. Pay dirt just got dirtier.
Carving its own grubby niche as an early prototype of cosmic disco cum Italo space funk
whilst simultaneously harbouring Dada hat stand satire with a junkshop glam aesthetic this
ecological illogical poplitical crab cabaret clearly broke the mould before way before the jelly
had set.
Fans of “other” obtuse outernational agit-camp might find a fantasy fusion between France’s
J. P. Massiera and Sweden’s enviroMENTAL marvel Kaptain Zoom while trying to unravel the
Madfilth tangle - but rest assured there were method men behind this madness and a portal
to Italian funk royalty still festers at the bottom of the psych rap scrapheap.
Originally drip fed out of Cesare Andrea Bixio’s Cinevox stable as one of a tight grip of nonsoundtrack
LPs, made to test the label’s commercial potential, Madfilth would follow the
band Goblin (and their non-cinematic Roller) as well as the hens’ teeth eponymous long
player by the group The Motowns in what was perhaps the last-ditch attempt at custom
built popsploitation - combining the skills of overqualified composers with undercooked
conceptual mind farts! Naturally, after almost 40 years in the barrel, this micro-brewed
oddity finally quenches the acquired taste of a new breed of shambolic psychotropic guzzlers
proving that 1979 was obviously good year for fool’s gold. The Madfilth medicine has finally
come to cure your psychic ills so open wide and don’t bite the spoon.
As both doctors and diggers will agree, always read the label. It is beneath the flamboyant
rhythm rants and vari-speed osric slop of alt-comedic sarcy-satirist Alberto Macaro (a genetic
beneficiary of a vaudevillian comic bloodline) that we find The Magnetic System maestros
Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera as the sonic driving force behind this unmarked treasure
trove of B-musical diamanté discoids. It will also come as little surprise that Cinevox/Dario
Argento favourites Goblin were not too distant from the whiff of this curates egg with the
men who many consider to be the group’s greatest assets in bass player Fabio Pignatelli
alongside sports rock drummer Agostino Marangolo. It was this unison that remained
consistent throughout Goblin’s career, weathering the temporary departure of Claudio
Simonetti and maintaining the stylistic heartbeat of the group. Madfilth’s inclusion of Goblin
synth Maverick Maurizio Guarini and the band’s mid-period guitarist Carlo Penessi (founder
of the band Etna) pinpoints the jobbing Goblin session group during the time they recorded
the soundtracks for the films Buio Amiga and Squadra Antigagsters. This lesser celebrated
late 70’s era also witnessed the mutating Goblin rhythm section providing discoid backbeats
for records such as Giorgio Farinas Discocross LP, Simonetti’s own Capricorn alter-ego and
the homoerotic nightclub spin-off Easy Going - all of which, alongside Madfilth, provide a
strong mutual stylistic support system for their claim to cosmic discos deep red bloodline.

Another great release in the prestigious ReR Recommended vinyl reissue series.
Water Messages on Desert Sand was the very first sound creation from the Italian avantgarde duo of Roberto Musci and Giovanni Venosta. A classic work in the genre, released by Chris Cutler's Recommended Records in 1987.
Back in the mid Eighties, Musci & Venosta, both on sampler, synthesizer, guitar, piano, effects and tapes were masters in overlaying and constructing rhythmic and harmonic pictures of transparent sound from electronic, acoustic and documentary source, taking ethnic field recordings (from Africa, Indonesia, Asia, India) as their thematic centre. "Water Messages" finds place In the realm of Eno-Byrne "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" but far more accomplished and developed. A rich moving and still very stimulating work and an essential purchase for anyone interested in adventurous modern art informed by ethnic music and sound explorations. In two words: Highly Recommended!

Lost-in-time Kosmische / Kraut / Avant-Garde artefact, produced by Toby Robinson aka The Mad Twiddler circa 1975 for his private Pyramid label.
Tolkien inspired dark ambient soundscapes with spooky / ritualistic atmosphere, treated percussions, gongs & guitars, trippy Hammond & Mini-Moog, tape loops, weird noises, drones…
File under dark ambient, proto-industrial, kraut, experimental...

How a boy from the Sri Lankan jungle formed the greatest post-punk band you’ve never heard. Fronted by an intense singer with an oblique songbook and a mysterious past Glorious Din were unlike any other group to emerge from San Francisco’s ‘80s underground. With singer Eric Cope, the chosen persona of a Joy Division-obsessed Sri Lankan boy who travelled halfway around the world to follow his punk dream.

Music From Memory’s final 12" for 2017 is a reissue of Dub Oven's self released, and sadly one-off, 1983 EP 'Skin N Bones’.
Pioneers in the Post Punk Industrial and New Wave scene in 1980’s San Francisco, Gary Miles (Voice Farm) and Blaise Smith (Minimal Man), met at San Francisco’s notorious 181 Club in December of 1982. This straight/same sex/swing-both-ways late night dive bar was tucked away in one of the city's most risky, drug riddled neighbourhoods. Stationed near the SF Museum of modern Art it attracted a wild audience of local patrons, aspiring young artists and music heads. In the thick of all this the duo felt impartial to a lot what was going on musically and set out to produce electronic music that could break through the "somewhat exhausted post disco sound that was then competing in the local San Francisco clubs". Enlisting soul vocalist Celeste Miller, the duo were also inspired by Lee Perry / Upsetters dub tracks being produced in Jamaica and created a unique breed of avant guard hybrid New Wave/Electronic Funk.
With it's influences seemingly as much rooted in the past and the present as it was focused on the future; Dub Oven formed a distinct, mystical approach to music intended for the dance floor. All three tracks on this 12" embody a signature groove and an inventive synthesized abstraction to express a languishing urban unsettledness and spiritual awareness. Recorded at L7 Studios in San Francisco with the assistance of the the studio’s in house producer Marco Perry (who currently now works with Bjork) the record was unfortunately overlooked by A&R at several major and even local labels and was finally self-released in very limited quantities. Utilising analog electronics and instrumentation, the record draws on elements of dub, new wave, soul and funk to create a sound that is uncategorizable and one that was perhaps simply too forward thinking for it’s time.

Alésia Cosmos was a collective of musicians led by Bruno de Chénerilles formed in the early 1980s in Strasbourg, France. The group consisted of Pascal Holtzer (guitar, synthesizer, tapes, drum machine, vocals), Pierre Clavreux (vocals, gong), Marie-Berthe Servier (vocals), Bruno (guitar, tapes, synthesizer, drum machine, vocals) and Tunisian percussionist Lotfi Ben Ayed (darbukas, bendir). In 1981 Bruno composed and wrote some sci-fi radio plays for French state radio channel France Culture. Under the influences of William Burroughs, John Cage, Pierre Henry and others, he developed tape music studio work. By 1982 he appeared for the first time under the name Alésia Cosmos Furi Show. It was a solo performance on guitar, voice, analog synth and tapes. This experimental show lead to a music project based on Bruno and Pascal's compositions to be performed and recorded with other musicians in the beginning of 1983.


Exclusivo! was the group’s debut album recorded and self-released in 1983 on Planetarium. Pascal and Bruno would compose tunes in their personal home studios. Then they would bring the tapes, electronics, guitar lines and lyrics to experiment and rehearse with the other members of the group. Improvisations and adaptations brought more ideas and the album was recorded in a few days. The result was a musical mixing of electronic music, field recordings, North African and Asian percussion, electric guitars and voices, compositions and free improvisations. All four musicians take turns singing onomatopoeic phrases and backing vocals, even sometimes in an unknown language, a sort of mixed bag between Breton and Japanese. All songs have been remastered cut by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is housed in a replica of the 1983 cover and includes a 6-page insert with photos, lyrics, reviews and liner notes by Bruno de Chénerilles.

"The Loa of Music" is the debut recording project of Milanese composer and musician Roberto Musci inspired by Voodoo Religion; Vever (the magical voodoo paintings) and Loas, the dark and magic spirits. The deep charm of non-Western music has led him to travel for many years across Africa, India and Asia, studying rhythms, scales, performance and interpretation of the most varied traditional and indigenous music, as well he make many field recordings and collected ethnic instruments that would then be combined with synthesizers and electronics in The Loa of Music.

Recorded in 1983, the project originally had 80 minutes of music but only half was released on original LP. SOAVE has pressed for the first time the Complete Recording Session from original tapes of this phenomenally ambitious masterpiece that entirely refuses the well trod path - distilling a remarkable range of sonic reference and reality. A work of field recording, musique concrète, electronics, synthesis, and instrumentation, pulling from countless musics from across the globe, the result is nothing short of brilliant and stunningly beautiful. A near perfect work - an egoless gesture, which rather than attempting to find consensus, offers every voice equity and cohabitation - harnessing the history music, with all of its cultural diversity, as a vision for a more ideal future. Geographies and their sounds intertwine, while Musci’s interventions and instrumentation thread a path. Ambiences ripple, sounds and voices converse in a vision of unity that may only exist within sonic realms. Unquestionably seminal, and one of the most important works to emerge from Italy in the last 50 years. Never before issued on vinyl since it’s original release, and surely not to be around for long, this is one not to miss.