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Otolithen weren't even on RYM!

I had to add them myself a while back.

Joren: Assaf summed up Astrid Proll perfectly, but do check out my review.

Talking of Astrid Proll... I heard from Agustín again today and he says he and the rest of the band are looking very much forward to their addition to PA, so when will this happen?  Just curious!

Hmmm, well you know full well I don't like the Art Rock tag too much, but under current guidlines, it's the best place for them.

I will certainly make a request.  It's just they're quite a remote band still and I am reluctant to upload the album... unless they are willing to add them without hearing them.  I think word of mouth from you, myself and Chamberry should be enough though.

Struggling with the Doctor Nerve bio, I will start afresh tomorrow. In the meantime go here for info and samples: http://www.doctornerve.org/

Geck0 wrote: I do know that the guy from Doctor Nerve had something to do with the band Bone though, which also featured Hugh Hopper. Yes indeed. Nick Didkovsky along with John Roual from Forever Einstein along with Hugh Hopper colaborated on a project. Didkovsky also produced the second Forever Einstein album. Maybe Adam can assist when he returns? I am speaking with him these days actually when he is available. I got help from Cesar Inca on this addition, so it should be ok now. I was a bit ambitious with the original bio I wrote, and I will make a simpler one. The one I did for Forever Einsten took a lot of time and efforts, and not much was left for Dr. Nerve.

I have that album too, but have yet to hear it.  I guess I should as well!

I have been following the discussion of this forum for a while, and some questions just popped up :

1. Of the ''original five'' of RIO, I realized that Stormy Six isin't well known. (well, the name dosen't come up very often) Is there any reason ? Has anyone ever listened to their material ? 'Cause I was thinking about buying one recently and I could only find one or two critics on the net...If anyone could enlighten me, it would be appreciated.

2. Goes about the same for Aksak Maboul...

3. I fell upon the 2 cds of Conventum recently...and in the archives, it is classified as prog folk... I have some doubts cause for me it sounds much more closer to RIO then anything else...I failed to find any samples of them on the net, so this question is more directly adressed to Huges Chantraine, since he's the one who did their bio and critiqued both cd..

http://www.progquebec.com/conventum.html
http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=2478

4. I've been listening to Katzenjammer Kabarett for a while, and I've always wondered if it could be considered as RIO or juste an avant-garde band...here are some links to listen to some sample:

 http://www.katzenjammer-kabarett.com/
http://myspace.com/katzkab

Well for now it's about it, and it's kind'of too bad I don't have the time the read all the thread, cause all of you have some really interesting tastes in music. And sorry for the precision of my english, I kinda lost it over the years...hopefully it'll get better.

Cheers !

XIII wrote: I have been following the discussion of this forum for a while, and some questions just popped up :    1. Of the ''original five'' of RIO, I realized that Stormy Six isin't well known. (well, the name dosen't come up very often) Is there any reason ? Has anyone ever listened to their material ? 'Cause I was thinking about buying one recently and I could only find one or two critics on the net...If anyone could enlighten me, it would be appreciated.  I 2. Goes about the same for Aksak Maboul... 3. I fell upon the 2 cds of Conventum recently...and in the archives, it is classified as prog folk... I have some doubts cause for me it sounds much more closer to RIO then anything else...I failed to find any samples of them on the net, so this question is more directly adressed to Huges Chantraine, since he's the one who did their bio and critiqued both cd.. http://www.progquebec.com/conventum.html http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=2478 4. I've been listening to Katzenjammer Kabarett for a while, and I've always wondered if it could be considered as RIO or juste an avant-garde band...here are some links to listen to some sample:  http://www.katzenjammer-kabarett.com/ http://myspace.com/katzkab Well for now it's about it, and it's kind'of too bad I don't have the time the read all the thread, cause all of you have some really interesting tastes in music. And sorry for the precision of my english, I kinda lost it over the years...hopefully it'll get better. Cheers !

I know this is not RIO or Avant etc. but Joren has added a Polish group to the Jazz-rock/Fusion genre called Robotobibok, and from their description it sounds as it might appeal to people who like the genres discussed here.

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=2630

 

 

Oh, another issue. Please Welcome Geck0/James to the ZART.

Great to have you, James (you better not let your triple duties affect your Discography work... )

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome James 

Well here is a little something from the NWW list. Not overly good but I certainly did get a little bit of a laugh from the linear notes with the CD reissue. I hope you like british humour. Also I will post a link soon. There is a blog at the moment posting some of hte NWW stuff which people might be interested in. Particularly EFL's first album, which will be a treat for those unfarmiliar with the band.


Deep Freeze Mice.
 

• Minstrel radio yoghurt (2.44)
• I vote conservative (because I am in love with you) (2.29)
• Emile Zola (3.17)
• Phylis is a protozoon actually (3.31)
• Embalming fluid fucha (4.07)
• I met a man who spoke like an UCCA form (4.57)
• The octagonal rabbit surplus (26.26)
• The octagonal rabbit surplus surplus (25.25)

The first 6 track are iffy, but I find at least some enjoyment from 'The Octagonal Rabbit Surplus' It is one of those really low-fi records albums.

Linear Notes:

Some Sleeve-notes for 'My Geraniums are Bulletproof' by Jonathan Staines (under a different name)

Plaza Hotel 5th Ave NYC
April 1st 1991

Dear Listener.
f**k.
I was here in New York City when it happened. I hadn't counted on it, but the waiters mugged me. I said 'Hey penguins, I had to get away from Leicester and the iconaclaustic minefield of metaphorical cats'. Unbeknown to me this was Manhattan street jargon for 'I've got a semi-automatic concealed in my trousers and a fanatical desire to rid the world of purple zinc waiter fish'. Something was lost in the translation. The innocence of the implied hithero unheard of metal subservient fish killing cult, was lost. Instead I had told them my brother was Keith Moon, and would they like to beat me up for money?.
At the point when the fist blow struck my jaw it was exactly forty years, forty weeks, forty days, forty minutes and forty seconds since my first abortive attempt to join a little known band called the Deep Freeze Mice, a combo of experimental musicians from Leicester. In those days, and arround the time when this piece of recording history took place, the band sounded similar to a washing machine on its spin programme. Liberated house people take note. Soon, minimalist domestic appliance solos were the norm, throughout the midlands music scene. Such was the Avant Guarde eletism of these pioneering performers that more often than not, performances were often mistaken for simple household chores such as washing up, cleaning the oven, ironing the dog, etc. This ironic form of eclectic expressionism was not the 'Eclogue ode to an echinda' much loved by the 'Echinoderm' pop movement, more perhaps 'this could fill in the other side of my L.P., I'll call it the 'Octagonal Rabbit Surplus'.
And so it was that this simple collection of raw pop tunes and remarkable melodies found their way into recording history. And believe me, not a better example of pre-electric guitar music exists, and don't let the eminent display of instrumental wizardry contained on this CD persuade you otherwise.
However, must dash. Things to do. You know how it is. Actually it seems I'm being cut into very small pieces by a street posse and fed to a Bronx tiger. Doesn't look like I'm going to get those sleevenotes done after all.

Your existential friend

Bic Biro
ex-musician

Robert was over by the bar making cocktails. The girl walked up to him again and and leered sugestively at him through the bottom of her tall, empty glass. "Get me a slim muskrat and breadfruit" she giggled, and just managed to stop herself sliding from the bar onto the floor. Robert looked down at her and knowingly reached for the vodka in an infuriatingly casual way; just as if he knew how to make one, He poured some vodka into the bottom of another tall glass while she watched him hatefully. Then he took another bottle from under the counter and added some of its contents to the cocktail; turning the bottle as he poured, so that the girl couldn't read the label. "What's that?" she said suspiciously. He turned to her in the most casual way he could manage, "What?...this?" he said, holding up the bottle, "oh it's just cobalt hexacyano ferrate III", he smiled pleasantly, She frowned, "Is that poisonous?", "ah...it's..er..well, yes", "Why are you putting poisonous things in my cocktail? Are you trying to kill me or something?". "you did ask for a 'slim muskrat and breadfruit'", he said, "you can't make them without cobalt hexacyano ferrate III you know. "Don't give me that" she growled at him, "You don't have poisonous cocktails", "That's why slim muskrats arn't very popular, for drinking", he said, "You usually use then for getting rid of muscrats that live in the skirting board and thingsslike that", "Oh yeah?..and there was I thinking that I'd just thought of them" "Must have been a coincidence" said Robert.
A fat lady wearing most of the chinchillas in Ethiopia and half the glass in somewhere where there's a lot of glass walked up to the bar. Her poodle followed her at a safe distance, "Barman" she said in a voice like an ostrich, "Fix me a 'green landrover' will you my man". He fixed her a 'green landrover' - squirt of gin, twist of lemon, shot of gravy, jab of pomegranate, lurch of bread crumbs, splurt of hydroxybenzaldehyde -he put two ice-cubes and a slice of lime on top and handed it to the fat lady. She payed for it, picked it up, turned round and put the glass on the floor in front of her poodle which was also fat. It climbed to its feet whith difficulty, and lapped up some of the cocktail. Then it lay down again and started to turn brown and curl up, "Baxter-hemprington two,! " screamed the fat lady, "You beast" she screamed at Robert, "You've murdered Baxter-hemprington two, you beast", "You did ask for a green landrover'" he said, "They arn't for drinking usually, I thought you must have wanted to clean out an elephant cage or something, I didn't know you were going to give it to your poodle madame", he explained. She tried to take the poodle in her arms but it just fell to pieces.
At that moment a company of R.A.F. cadets came into the bar, One of them came up to Robert, "It's my birthday" he said, "I'm buying everyone a cocktail". "Certainly sir", said Robert.


Some sleeve notes from 1979 (These were sent out with promotional copies of the L.P.) Seven freshly recorded titles are included on the 'two' generously filled 'sides' of this record. The first half of the session 'gets' away to a rip-roaring 'start' with a powerfull treatment of RADIO YOGHURT OVERPOWERS MY HEART. Two more Deep Freeze Mice compositions follow with these remarkable 'talented' tunesmiths handling their own lyrics on I VOTE CONSERVATIVE (BECAUSE I GOT MY HEAD STUCK IN A FENCE ONCE AND HARROLD MACMILLAN HELPED ME PULL IT OUT) and EMILE ZOLA which features Henry's superb slightly country and western guitar solo. PHYLIS IS A PROTOZOON marks the disc debut of a piano full of lettuce. The 'rest' of the fabulous threesome create some unusual instrumental effects. Graham spits fragments of tree bark into an ornamental pond, Sherree bangs two turtles together and Alan is very rude indeed to a photgraph of an obscure Asian religious leader who has been wrapped in cellophane by an extreme right-wing organisation from Sumatra, (don't ask me where he picked that up!) to pound out the on-beat percussive drive.
Those who considered having their eyes gouged out with a spanner mildly amusing will be more than pleased to hear the Mice assume the role of romantic balladeers on EMBALMING FLUID FUTURE, the song that had more to do with the extinction of the blue whale than some other songs, too numerous to mention. Chuck Berry's ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN has been one of the most requested items at recent concert performances by the Mice, but they still haven't bothered to learn it. Obseving the tremendous audience response that Henry has been getting whenever he sustains severe head injuries, the Mice put their heads together to pen a special new number for their fierce-voiced person. The result is a real raver entitled THE OCTAGONAL RABBIT SURPLUS during which he is ritually beaten to death by small Japanese people skilled in the martial arts. During the final movement of this 'symphony' his headless corpse is pelted with aubergines. Mass suicide is also featured on the program's closing track, I MET A MAN WHO ATE A BATHROOM SUITE SO THEY HAD TO TAKE HIS TONSILS OUT. Henry describes this as a 'really big screamer'. It also makes a completely worthy climax to this knock-out program. Hope it doesn't leave you too breathless to flip back to side one for a repeat-play session of MY GERANIUMS ARE BULLETPROOF.

The history of the Deep Freeze Mice part one

why is this record such a load of crap? Its hard to say really. Probably because none of the members of the Deep Freeze Mice knew anything about how to make one. They didn't know how to sing or write songs or play any musical instruments either, so there wasn't much chance that they were going to make a record which wasn't a load of crap. Unfortunately they were all too ingnorant to realise this, so they made an L.P. anyway and this is how it came out. Its lucky they didn't want to be brain surgeons. Here are the background details anyway. Alan Jenkins (b.16/3/59), Sherree Lawrence (b.24/5/59) and Graham Summers (b.30/7/58) were all at school together in Wellingborough - stop me if this gets too boring - until 1977 when they left and went to college. Alan went to university in Nottingham where he played guitar with various people, including Sherree sometimes, who called themselves The Deep Freeze Mice. The name came from a song called "Back to life the deep freeze mice" written by a friend of Alan's. He got the title from a newspaper headline. Meanwhile, Graham went to university in Leeds where he formed a band called The Statics which included a bass player called Michael Bunnage (b.21/12/58). In about June 1979 The Deep Freeze Mice, who still hadn't played live (they didn't have the first clue how), or recorded in a studio, decided to make an L.P. and they roped in Graham to play drums on it. Unfortunately all the members of the band dropped out except for Alan and Sherree, so they did it with this line up; (Alan played bass - Michael came along to the recording session but he hadn't really joined the band yet and he just contributed backing vocals on "I met a man who spoke like an UCCA form"). They were also very short of money but Alan and Graham worked in factories for a few weeks that summer and saved up about #450 which they used to pay for one day in an eight track studio in Nottingham and to press 250 copies of the L.P. They also saved money by using plain white covers with photocopies stuck on them, and also by only recording side one of the record in a studio. Side two of the L.P. was a collage of various cassette recordings that they'd already made, some at home and some in the music department of Leicester Polytechnic (this is where Sherree went to college) using grand pianos, marimbas, gongs, tubular bells, vibraphones and timpani which happened to be lying around there. The six songs on side one were all written by Alan and were selected from lots and lots of songs he'd written. If you think the ones on the record are bad you should hear the others, none of them have proper tunes and most of them are about squirrels - (Alan couldn't have sung them even if they did have proper tunes anyway). This didn't worry Alan though because, being a megalomaniac, if he was going to be involved with music at all he was going to make an L.P. with as many of his songs on it as possible - and plenty of guitar solos inspite of the fact that he could hardly play the guitar at all.
The Deep Freeze Mice called their record company Mole Embalming Records" and easily sold the first 250 copies of the L.P, called "My Geraniums are Bulletproof", which was released in November 1979. (This was towards the end of the period, just after the first punk era, when it was fashionable to be a small independent record company, and if the Mice took some of their records into such places as the Rough Trade shop in London they could count on selling a box or two). Next they used the money to press another five hundred copies, this time with a printed sleeve, and they signed a distribution deal. This turned out to be a bad idea because the company in question kept the records in their warehouse for a year, only sold 20 copies, and never paid the Mice any money at all. This meant that they couldn't afford to record another L.P. for over a year. Eventually they got the records back and sold them - mainly in Europe via exporters. It was re-released by Cordelia Records, the successor of Mole Embalming, in 1984 and has now sold about 2,000 copies altogether. It might have sold more if Cordelia Records could afford to keep re-pressing it.
The Deep Freeze Mice played their first ever gig at the Haddon Hall, Leeds in February 1980 supporting The Statics (who had changed their name to "The Subliminal Cut" by this time); Graham and Michael played in both bands. Shortly after this the Subliminal Cut broke up and Graham and Michael joined the Mice properly and they all went to live in Leicester. This was because Sherree was the last one to leave college so she had to stay in Leicester for the time being.

The extra track on this CD version is derived from the same grotty old cassettes as the original "Octagonal Rabbit Surplus". The sound quality is slightly better because Alan is better at editing things now, and he had access to better equipment this time. If you're interested: the version of "Emile Zola" near the beginning was recorded in the cellar of Graham's house in Leeds on the first day that Alan, Sherree, Michael and Graham ever played together (approximately January 1979). This was the second song they played, the first one was a version of The Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the man". You didn't want to hear that did you? There are lots of other songs from this period which exist on grotty cassettes, recorded and performed horribly badly. If you don't buy all the other Deep Freeze Mice compact discs in this series a tape of these songs will be sent round to your house disguised as a record by your favourite band. You will listen to it and feel as if a Conservative cabinet minister has just licked the side of your head.


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Well I think I have bored people enough today, so that will be my post here for today. Hopefully more involvment coming from my part in November *fingers crossed*