Oct 31, 2012

RhoDeo 1244 Aetix


Hello, Happy Samhain or Halloween to the non-Wicca. The dead that linger on are encouraged to move on and leave our material plane, but not without a well meant sending off.

Aetix time again and today it's time for some excellent samplers from the late seventies and early eighties, the heyday of New Wave. The box i'll be posting contains 8 discs, 112 tracks most of which were spun in the alternative clubs of the era, I know because I was one of the DJ's that spun them. It really is smartly put together by the Belgian label Antler Subway. I will break up the box set into 3 postings starting with the first three today. N'joy

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VA - New Wave Club Class•X 1 (flac 394mb)

01 Modern English - Life In The Gladhouse 5:57
02 Executive Slacks - The Bus 3:06
03 Neon Judgement - T.V. Treated 6:31
04 Fehlfarben - Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran) 2:52
05 Polyphonic Size - Mothers Little Helper 3:07
06 Alien Sex Fiend - Ignore The Machine (Remix) 5:07
07 Medium Medium - Hungry So Angry 3:59
08 Snowy Red - Never Alive 3:20
09 Arbeid Adelt - Death Disco 2:43
10 Marine - Life In Reverse 2:44
11 Bollock Brothers - Harley David (Son Of A Bitch) 4:14
12 Nacht Und Nebel - Movoco Syntaca 4:09
13 1000 Ohm - A.G.N.E.S. 6:22
14 Alien Sex Fiend - Ignore The Machine (Original) 6:43

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VA - New Wave Club Class•X 2 (flac 362mb)

01 Bauhaus - Passion Of Lovers 3:53
02 The Clash - London Calling 3:23
03 Theatre Of Hate - Westworld 5:20
04 Anne Clark - Sleeper In Metropolis 4:51
05 Front 242 - U-Men 3:17
06 Repetition - A Full Rotation 3:59
07 A Certain Ratio - Shack Up 3:16
08 Slab! - Mars On Ice 5:08
09 Grauzone - Eisbaer 4:50
10 Luc Van Acker - Zanna 3:11
11 Department S - Is Vic There? 3:08
12 No More - Suicide Commando 3:23
13 The Bollock Brothers - Horror Movies 5:27
14 Severed Heads - The Ant Can See Legs 5:54

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VA - New Wave Club Class•X 3 (  flac 389mb)

01 Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag 4:32
02 Crash Course In Science - Flying Turns 3:02
03 Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric? 5:23
04 Poesie Noire - Gioconda Smile 4:59
05 Kraftwerk - The Model 3:39
06 Gang Of Four - What We All Want 3:27
07 Section 25 - Je Veux Ton Amour 5:16
08 TC Matic - Oh La La La 3:17
09 Virgin Prunes - Walls Of Jericho 3:09
10 C Cat Trance - Shake The Mind 5:32
11 Anna Domino - Rhythm 4:19
12 Fad Gadget - Back To Nature 5:49
13 The Clash - Magnificent Seven 5:29
14 Spizzenergi - Where's Captain Kirk 2:17

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Oct 30, 2012

RhoDeo 1244 Roots


Hello, The arrival of Gary Clail at the On-U Sound stable brought with it the emergence of a previously undreamed raggamuffin tendency. During the mid to late eighties Gary became a regular warm-up for all types of On-U gigs - with his "On-U Sound in the Area!!!!" crowd calls, this came both as a welcome relief as DJ / MC / chanter / warm-up man for devotees of On-U Sound.  It shouldn't come as a surprise his podium presence would extend to studio presence and as a result he's released 5 albums.
 N'joy

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The On U Sound System features an excess of musicians drawn from Tackhead, Roots Radics, Akabu, Dub Syndicate and others. It was officially launched in 1980 by Adrian Sherwood for a one-off album by the New Age Steppers, who comprised various members of the Slits, Pop Group and Aswad. The second album was by the Mothmen (who became the rhythm section for Simply Red), and over the years an impressive roster of collaborative productions took shape. These include works from the likes of Dr. Pablo, Prince Far I, Tackhead, Mark Stewart, Dub Syndicate and African Headcharge. Clail’s bombastic vocal delivery was honed when he grew up in a predominantly black neighbourhood given rhythm by ‘Toasting’ Jamaican locals. He is of Irish descent, though his parents moved to Bristol when he was very young. After spells as a scaffolder and runner for the criminal fraternity, he joined Tackhead and became further involved with the On U Sound team. ‘Human Nature’ was something of a freak hit in 1991. The original intention to sample Billy Graham’s 1958 speech of the same name over the beat was rejected by his representatives, forcing Clail to deputize. It also owed a great deal to Paul Oakenfold’s production, and his knowledge of dance music clubs. His adaptation from On U Sound’s resident misfit to pop star designate was quite remarkable. He still works mainly as a producer and mixer, and in the long term wants to emulate Sherwood by providing new talent with a forum for exposure. In interviews Clail constantly stressed that he is but one cog in a 32-person music-making machine.

Gary's preceding On-U life, held career in roofing, used cars, hanging round with gypsies before Mark Stewart introduced him, (as he did Andy Farley) to the On U  scene. During the mid to late eighties Gary Clail became a regular warm-up for all types of On-U gigs - with his crowd calls This came both as a welcome relief for devotees of On-U Sound and also as an unexpected bonus. The real impact of Gary was to introduce and roadtest new On-U rhythms and tunes, and also to reversion old favourites. He usually lived in the studio when he was not on the road.

Gary made his first vinyl appearance back in October 1985 on the thinly veiled speed track "Half Cut for Confidence" By the following year Gary appeared on the World Label, the imprint was a venture between the TackHead boys and John Loder of Southern Studios, the tune was "Hard Left" with Gary taking the main credit. 1988 saw the release of "Reality" with the credits reversed and Gary as featured vocalist. Gary then went on to negotiate future material through Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label. This union was to result in "a consummation devoutly to be wished", Gary's actual appearance on TOTP, together with the wonderfully over the top Alan Pillay, when "Human Nature" became a number 10 UK chart position (by far the highest placing for an On-U act in its own right).

The "End Of The Century Party" album was basically Tack>>head complemented by a few mates with Gary as lead vocalist. The name TackHead Sound System could no longer be used as the band were shaping up for their, eventually, abortive major label flirtation.. The On-U Sound System proved a good substitute as that was actually what Gary was doing in the first place! The album was a follow-up to "TackHead Tape Time" effectively a greatest hits compilation released the year earlier via Nettwerk. "Beef" opened up the set and was to be radically reworked for its appearance as Gary's first single on Perfecto.

Continuing Gary's long-running theme of delivering lyrics concerning socially concious current issues "Privatise Pts 1 & 2" was particularly hard-hitting. Indeed the issue of privatisation was at its height under the Thatcher administration with the question raised "where would it all end?". Gary Clail's presence on the On-U Sound scene from the late eighties certainly brought a new feeling of energy to the live gigs and although is vocal stylings can be objectively said to be limited, he certainly got the best out of his bag for these tunes and the earlier singles.

While Gary's time under the wing of BMG / Perfecto probably brought him his biggest commercial successes, helped in no small part by the remixing talents of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne in giving some of his tunes more dancefloor friendly edges, the partnership was to be short lived. While BMG's first "Emotional Hooligan" album in 1991 sold well, a combination of Clail's unrealistic belief that he was now a fully-fledged pop star, coupled with a lack of new musicial direction and particularly his record companies increasing dis-interest in promoting him saw an acrimonious parting in 1993. In particular the almost complete lack of promotion of the following "Dreamstealers" album left a bitter taste of major label dealings in both Clail's and Sherwood's mouthes.

A new deal was struck with Yelen Musiques in France for 1995's album "Keep The Faith" which was generally well received and featured more of Clail's characteristic lambasts against injustices of the world before he slipped quietly out of the music scene in the late 1990s. He went on to buy a church in Penzance, England convert it into a guest house and then run it for several years. The most recent word is, however, is that he is living on a boat at Saltford, between Bristol and Bath, and is working at a hostel for homeless people in Bath.

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On this album, the Dancehall Demagogue meets the kings of cut-and-paste funk pastiche. By the time this album was released, Gary Clail's stern political imprecations had become an integral part of Tackhead's live shows; he would sit at the mixing desk and intone radical exhortations while the band ripped things up onstage. With Tackhead Tape Time they take it to the studio, and the result is taut, tough, and funky. Clail isn't much of a singer (though he makes an admirable attempt on "Reality"), and the content of some of his pronouncements can be a bit eye-rolling, but he and Tackhead certainly seem to bring the best out in each other -- the samples of Margaret Thatcher, military officers, and news reporters (as well as the occasional snippet of reggae toaster Prince Far I and someone who sounds suspiciously like Andy Fairley) combine perfectly with Tackhead's robotic and yet strangely passionate electro-funk to create something eerie, exciting, and booty-moving.



Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System ‎- Tackhead Tape Time (flac  203mb)

01 Mind At The End Of The Tether 6:38
02 Half Cut Again 0:28
03 Reality 7:07
04 M.O.V.E. 2:23
05 Hard Left 5:07
06 Get This 4:26
07 Man In A Suitcase 4:09
08 What's My Mission Now? (Fight The Devil) 5:51

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While Gary's time under the wing of BMG / Perfecto probably brought him his biggest commercial successes, helped in no small part by the remixing talents of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne in giving some of his tunes more dancefloor friendly edges, the partnership was to be short lived. While BMG's first "Emotional Hooligan" album in 1991 sold well, a combination of Clail's unrealistic belief that he was now a fully-fledged pop star, coupled with a lack of new musicial direction and particularly his record companies increasing dis-interest in promoting him saw an acrimonious parting in 1993. In particular the almost complete lack of promotion of the following "Dreamstealers" album left a bitter taste of major label dealings in both Clail's and Sherwood's mouthes. Being political (Speak No Evil) at a multinational record company will get you quickly relegated, a pity because Dreamstealers is an excellent album even if it won't appeal to hardcore On U fans as it incorporates dancebeats and chorusses a fusion album, yet Gary towers thru all.



Gary Clail and On-U Sound System ‎- Dreamstealers (flac  424mb)

01 No Comfort In The City 4:53
02 These Things Are Worth Fighting For (Perfecto Mix) 5:50
03 Dreamstealers 5:08
04 Who Pays The Piper (Perfecto Mix) 7:18
05 Speak No Evil 3:31
06 Buzzword 4:02
07 Decadance 5:07
08 Isolation 3:45
09 Autobiography 3:41
10 Trouble 4:28
11 Behind Every Fortune 4:15
12 Free Again 4:42
13 Speak No Evil (Don't Rock The Boat Mix) 5:21
14 These Things Are Worth Fighting For (Original Mix) 3:43

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A new record deal was struck with Yelen Musiques in France for 1995's album "Keep The Faith" (ON-U LP 76) which was generally well received and featured more of Clail's characteristic lambasts against injustices of the world before he slipped quietly out of the music scene in the late 1990s. He went on to buy a church in Penzance, England convert it into a guest house and then run it for several years.



Gary Clail ‎- Keep The Faith (flac  429mb)

01 Let's Get It Right 7:14
02 Another Hard Man 7:20
03 The Dangerous Dance 5:48
04 Privatisation Program 5:24
05 No Sleep Tonight 6:16
06 Keep The Faith 5:46
07 One Flesh & Blood 4:38
08 Stand Together 3:47
09 The Noose Is Getting Tighter 4:13
10 Joyride 4:53
11 No Sleep Tonight (Pure Dub Tonight) 6:05

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earlier
Gary Clail & On-U Sound System - The Emotional Hooligan (ogg 140mb)

Gary Clail & On-U Sound System - End of the Century Party (ogg 130mb)

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Oct 29, 2012

RhoDeo 1244 Byron 5


Hello, I hope you'll enjoyed that extra hour of sleep, not everyone can take it, ask the Liverpool and Chelsea fans and in India Hamilton and Button got taken for a ride by Alonso, Vettel on the otherhand being an organised German was wide awake and cruised to victory once more, thats 205 laps he's lead the F1 circus, much to the annoyance of the outragously nationalistic british punters, just because Vettel tends to cruise to his victories at 200 Mph in a really boring way .

Now listen to the continuing saga of The Byron Chronicles there's a special Halloween episode today ...NJoy

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From The Byron Chronicles Introduction

“Imagine if the world as you know it… was nothing more than an illusion. What if creatures like elves, dragons, vampires, zombies and werewolves walk amongst you every day… But you never see them.”

“This is the world I walk in.
 I am called Byron
 And these are my chronicles…“

The Byron Chronicles is a dark urban fantasy written and produced by Darker Projects, an audio drama company with an extensive website.  The site is well laid out and all of their shows can be heard free of charge direct from the website or  as podcasts, while your on  the go. The Darker Projects website hosts many shows, but I have chosen to focus on The Byron Chronicles for this review.

The Byron chronicles center around a being simply called Byron, who is something “other than human”. Byron lives in the shadows of our modern world, where vampires, werewolves and other creatures of fantasy are very real, but kept hidden from human eyes. The separation of  the supernatural world from the human world is an important element through out the entire series. We quickly find out that when the two worlds mix violence  seems to ensue, usually leading to bad things for humans and supernaturals alike. In fact, the only person who seems to think humans and supernatural beings can get along is Byron himself, who tends to act as a mediator between the two.

Joining Byron on these adventures is Miss Chris Sparrow, who once led a “normal life” as a Barrista at a local Portland Oregon coffee shop before being turned into a half vampire in a freak accident. Chris turned to Byron reluctantly at first, but the pair quickly became fast friends as Chris came to rely on Byron for guidance while supernatural world revealed itself to her. Byron in turn, seemed to rely on Chris in helping him better understand humans as a whole. There were several plot lines in the first season, including Byron saving the life of Lazarus the First Zombie, and preventing a worldwide zombie outbreak in the process. Then Byron had to hunt down a vampire lord named Branlaven, who was selling a super drug called “rush” on the streets of Portland. It was the drug Rush which caused Chris to become a half vampire, and it was here that Chris Sparrow made her first appearance in the series. Next, Byron was taken hostage by two different secret societies; each one trying to save the world from “monsters” like Byron.

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It is the rise of the age of darkness. Byron's life will forever changed by the choice he must make. But will it be the right one?

Byron is still missing. Lord Slate has been summoned to account for his brothers absence only to discover the Tale of Nicolas.

The Byron Chronicles 1 (8,9) ( 90mb)

01 The Byron Chronicles 108 A Time of the Fallen 26:36
02 The Byron Chronicles 109 Nicholas 37:33
seasonal extra
03 The Byron Chronicles Halloween Special, Dead-Time 16:53

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previously

Byron's Tale ( 63mb)
The Byron Chronicles 1 (2,3) ( 67mb)
The Byron Chronicles 1 (4,5) ( 45mb)
The Byron Chronicles 1 (6,7) ( 42mb)

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Oct 28, 2012

Sundaze 1244


Hello,  another Sundaze on the ' longest' day of the year, yes the clock clicked backwards an hour, hmm how about my bodyclock ? Sleep it off or daze away with Brian Eno who has brought from "relative obscurity into the popular consciousness" fundamental ideas about ambient music, including "the idea of modern music as subtle atmosphere, as chill-out, as impressionistic, as something that creates space for quiet reflection or relaxation."

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Brian Eno has featured several times at this blog so i'll keep it short here

Brian Peter George St. Jean le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, sometimes simply Eno, (born May 15, 1948), a  tenure at art school introduced him to the work of contemporary composers John Tilbury and Cornelius Cardew, as well as minimalists John Cage, LaMonte Young, and Terry Riley. Instructed in the principles of conceptual painting and sound sculpture, Eno began experimenting with tape recorders, which he dubbed his first musical instrument, finding great inspiration in Steve Reich's tape orchestration "It's Gonna Rain." He became an electronic musician who started his musical career with Roxy Music. He then went on to produce a number of highly eclectic and increasingly ambient electronic and acoustic albums. He is widely cited as coining the term "ambient music" in his Ambient series (Music for Airports, The Plateaux of Mirror, Day of Radiance and On Land). He collaborated with David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts which was one of the first albums not in the rap or hip hop genres to extensively feature sampling. Eno collaborated with David Bowie as a writer and musician on Bowie's influential "Berlin trilogy" of albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger, on Bowie's later album 1. Outside, and on the song "I'm Afraid of Americans". Eno has also collaborated with Robert Fripp of King Crimson, Robert Wyatt on his Shleep CD, with Jon Hassell and with the German duo Cluster. Eno has acted as a producer for a number of bands, including U2 and James. He won the best producer award at the 1994 and 1996 BRIT awards. He is an innovator across many fields of music and recently he has collaborated on the development of the Koan algorithmic music generator. He has also been involved in the field of visual arts. In 1996 Brian Eno, and others, started the Long Now Foundation to educate the public into thinking about the very long term future of society. Brian Eno is also a columnist for the British newspaper, The Observer. In addition to his musical endeavors, Eno also frequently ventured into other realms of media, beginning in 1980 with the vertical-format video Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan; along with designing a 1989 art installation to help inaugurate a Shinto shrine in Japan and 1995's Self-Storage, a multimedia work created with Laurie Anderson, he also published a diary, 1996's A Year with Swollen Appendices, and formulated Generative Music I, a series of audio screen savers for home computer software. In August of 1999, Sonora Portraits, a collection of Eno's previous ambient tracks and a 93-page companion booklet, was published.

Around 1998, Eno was working heavily in the world of art installations and a series of his installation soundtracks started to appear, most in extremely limited editions (making them instant collector's items). In 2000, he teamed with German DJ Jan Peter Schwalm for the Japanese-only release Music for Onmyo-Ji. The duo's work got world-wide distribution the next year with Drawn from Life, an album that kicked off Eno's relationship with the Astralwerks label. The Equatorial Stars, released in 2004, was Eno's first work with Robert Fripp since Evening Star, the 1975 follow-up to No Pussyfooting. His first solo vocal album in 15 years, Another Day on Earth, was issued in 2005, followed by 2008's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, another collaboration with David Byrne. In 2010, Eno signed to the Warp label, where he released Small Craft on a Milk Sea, a collaboration with Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins. The following year's Drums Between the Bells featured poet Rick Holland, as well as several vocalists.

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If The Shutov Assembly is reminiscent of Brian Eno's earlier "ambient" music projects dating back to Discreet Music (1975), it shouldn't be surprising. Recorded between 1985 and 1990, the atmospheric, slow-moving sound patterns are more, the artist contends, like paintings than music. The Shutov Assembly, dedicated to Russian painter Sergei Shutov, is, like the similar works in his catalog (he cites Music for Films, On Land, Music for Airports, Thursday Afternoon, and Nerve Net, as well as Discreet Music), as much a concept as a record.



Brian Eno - The Shutov Assembly (flac  239mb)

01 From This Moment 1:21
02 Persis 7:41
03 Like Pictures Part #1 1:20
04 Like Pictures Part #2 5:48
05 Night Traffic 8:19
06 Rising Dust 7:44
07 Intenser 5:23
08 More Dust 6:01
09 Bloom 7:10
10 Two Voices 3:59
11 Bloom (Instr.) 7:07

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This is part of Virgin's Brian Eno The Soundtrack Series, and like the others has been remastered using the Direct Stream Digital method. Eno's music, has held up remarkably well in face of the enormous changes that have occurred in the realm of pop-oriented electronic music since the last of these tracks were laid down in 1983. Relatively few of these pieces jump out at the listener, and the overall mood fits comfortably within the realm of his ambient music, but taken as a whole the collection has a tad darker atmosphere than, say Music for Airports. The running time of More Music for Films is certainly more generous than the average entries in Brian Eno The Soundtrack Series, and even though it is not as essential as the original Music for Films collection, it nonetheless affords a fascinating glimpse into Eno's workshop during his early days -- a period some might say was Eno's best.



Brian Eno - More Music for Films (flac  207mb)

01 Untitled 2:05
02 The Last Door 1:31
03 Chemin De Fer 1:57
04 Dark Waters 1:07
05 Fuseli 1:40
06 Melancholy Waltz 1:46
07 Northern Lights 2:13
08 From The Coast 2:02
09 Shell 1:26
10 Empty Landscape 1:26
11 Reactor 1:40
12 The Secret 1:13
13 Don't Look Back 0:57
14 Marseilles 1:29
15 The Dove 1:25
16 Roman Twilight 3:38
17 Dawn, Marshland 3:14
18 Climate 3:17
19 Study Drift Study 2:33
20 Approaching Taidu 3:27
21 Always Returning (II) 3:09

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This decent outing for Eno sounds like a descendent of Music for Films and The Drop, consisting of tunes with simple or random melodies and light percussion. This is not music that will transport you to say space, or exotic locations, this is introspection music.  Apparently an aural accompaniment to the venues at the exhibition, '77 million paintings'



Brian Eno ‎- Making Space (flac 187mb)

01 Needle Click 4:09
02 Light Legs 3:38
03 Flora And Fauna / Gleise 581d 3:56
04 New Moons 4:03
05 Vanadium 1:56
06 All The Stars Were Out 3:53
07 Hopeful Timean Intersect 5:13
08 World Without Wind 5:24
09 Delightful Universe (Seen From Above) 7:33

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Oct 27, 2012

RhoDeo 1243 Beats


Hello, well thursday my provider let me down, no Internet, phone or TV, hence no Goldy Rhox but i'll make it up next week with an extensive posting. Beats meanwhile keeps tracking Luke Slater today in his guise as Planetary Assault Systems ...N'joy

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Born in Reading (12 June 1968, England) and raised in Horley, Slater's early sound dalliances with his father's reel to reel tape recorder and his drumming stints led to work in local record shops, including Jelly Jam in Brighton. By 1988, Slater was immersed in the embryonic acid house scene, DJing in London's Heaven nightclub.

Luke is generally credited with helping to create a U.K. techno tradition with a strong Detroit foundation. Slater's work is probably the more straight-ahead (although he's released works ranging from tough, banging techno to lush, beatless ambient) and tends to build on the Steel City's ruddy, muscular frame rather than simply repeating it. He has recorded under names such as Morganistic, Clementine, Planetary Assault Systems, and Luke Slater's 7th Plane, and quite often in collaboration with Alan Sage. Slater got his start in music in the late '80s at the Mi Price record store in Croydon (just south of London), working alongside Colin Dale and collaborator-to-be Sage. He soon set up his own shop -- Jelly Jam Records -- in Brighton, and from there began releasing original tracks under a slew of different monikers.

His debut came in 1989 in the form of "Momentary Vision," released on white label under the name Translucent. Arriving at the height of techno's rediscovery of the breakbeat, the track's hard funk and stripped-down, Detroit bristle, like the work of colleagues B12 and Kirk Degiorgio, announced a new, historically rooted direction in U.K. techno. Though silent for two years after "Momentary Vision"'s success, a flood of Slater material began appearing in 1991, including 12"s and full-lengths for his own Jelly Jam label, as well as Dutch label D-Jax Up-Beats, Irdial, and especially Peace Frog, including nearly a dozen singles under his own name ("The X-Tront Trilogy") and as Planetary Assault Systems ("The Planetary Funk Trilogy").

Slater's probably most well-known releases to date have appeared on the renowned GPR label (with Alan Sage and under the names Morganistic and Luke Slater's 7th Plane) and tend to combine an ambient or experimental/textural approach with a more minimal rhythmic framework. Slater jumped back to Peacefrog in 1996, as GPR's continuing organizational problems slowed their release schedule to a halt, releasing his full-length Planetary Assault Systems debut in 1997. He ascended to the majors via a contract with NovaMute that resulted in 1997's Freek Funk; Wireless followed two years later. Alright on Top from 2002 was an "album of songs" with vocals from Ricky Barrows and others featured on every track.

His first volume of the mix series Fear and Loathing appeared in 2001 on the React label, the second volume of Fear and Loathing appeared in late 2004. Slater has released the 32nd volume of the Fabric DJ-mix series in early 2007, and has reinvented innumerable tracks in remixes from artists such as Depeche Mode and Ken Ishii to more recent remixes for Radial and Soul Designer. In 2006, Slater set up his own label, Mote-Evolver, releasing limited 12" records and digital downloads through the Mote-Evolver and N.E.W.S. websites.

Even while productions under his own name have explored electro and listening techno, Luke Slater's Planetary Assault Systems guise remained the home for his productions closest to the percussive, banging techno he produced during the early '90s. The alias began quite early too, with a series of four Planetary Funk EPs recorded for Peacefrog during 1992-94 (collected on 1995's Archives). His first full-length under the guise, Electric Funk Machine, appeared in 1997 and was followed one year later by The Drone Sector.

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Archives features nine tracks from Slater's Planetary Funk EP series, including a raft of sleek hard techno classics ("Booster," "In From the Night," "Starway Ritual") as well as (slightly) more atmospheric cuts ("Twighlight," "Flightdrop"). Classic dancefloor techno that will always get you boppin'.



Planetary Assault Systems ‎- Archives 1 (flac  395mb)

01 In From The Night 5:43
02 Twighlight 8:37
03 Trek 5:09
04 Flightdrop 5:35
05 Manipulator 4:59
06 Gated 6:24
07 Booster 8:52
08 Elec-Tric 4:28
09 Starway Ritual 5:18

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Slater's second full album as Planetary Assault Systems is bookended by five tracks of trademarked tough-as-nails phased techno, akin to his early work. The three downtempo productions in between ("You Thought It," "Jay Track One," and the beatless "Long Lost") lift The Drone Sector to a higher plane altogether, showing Slater with a knack for atmospherics that's just as impressive as the energy of his straight-ahead tracks. Drone Sector epitomizes not only the pioneering sound of mid-90s techno, but also the unique approach to music that characterizes the work of Luke Slater, aka Planetary Assault Systems.



Planetary Assault Systems ‎- The Drone Sector (flac  283mb)

01 Shift 3:15
02 Tap Dance 6:57
03 You Thought It 7:53
04 Long Lost 3:35
05 Jay Track One 4:53
06 Screen 6:45
07 Dungeon 6:24
08 The Motive 5:25

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The third album from PAS, no shortage of range on display from Luke Slater. Begin with Dark City and it's dystopian narrative. As the artist name suggests...it's an assault. Moving on with atmospherics and an effective use of claps arrangements I Am The Funkster poses a slippery jack track. Atomic is simply great techno with a sinister twist on themes that may have arrived before...but are arranged and executed tastefully here. Twelve never fails to absolutely delight. Groove For Thought stretches on like a Basic Channel record a tantalising strong piece. Another strong ' Assault'



Planetary Assault Systems - Atomic Finkster (flac 331mb)

01 Darkcity 4:01
02 I Am The Funkster 7:23
03 Atomic 6:43
04 Twelve 6:13
05 Booster (Album Remix) 8:21
06 From Above 3:08
07 Groove For Thought 6:45
08 Mind You Trip 7:29

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Oct 24, 2012

RhoDeo 1243 Aetix


Hello, last week's Aetix post as all about robopunk Numan, the guy was extremely prolific in the eighties and he released somany albums it was easy enough to have another post ( in fact i could do several more), but we'll stay in the eighties here. Gary Numan... N'joy

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Born 8 March 1958 in Hammersmith as Gary Anthony James Webb and educated at Town Farm Junior School Stanwell, Ashford County Grammar School, and Brooklands Technical College. Gary had an early ambition to be an airline pilot, but did not gain any academic qualifications; however, he did go on to join the Air Training Corps as a teenager. He then briefly did various jobs . A guitar was purchased for him at an early age and he began writing songs when he was about 15 years old, and played in various bands, including Mean Street and The Lasers, before forming Tubeway Army with his uncle, Jess Lidyard, and Paul Gardiner. His initial pseudonym was "Valerian", probably in reference to the hero in French science fiction comic series Valérian and Laureline. Later he picked the name "Numan" from an advert in the "Yellow Pages" for a plumber "A. Neumann". (Mad ..wink) Subsequently he rose to prominence at the end of the 1970s as front man, writer and producer for Tubeway Army. After recording an album's worth of punk-influenced demo tapes (released in 1984 as The Plan), he was signed by Beggars Banquet Records in 1978 and quickly released two singles, "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers", neither of which charted.

A self-titled, New Wave-oriented debut album later that same year sold out its limited run and introduced Numan's fascination with dystopian science fiction and, more importantly, synthesizers. Tubeway Army's third single, the dark-themed and slow-paced "Down in the Park" (1979) also failed to chart but it would prove to be one of Numan's most enduring songs, it featured with other contemporary hits on the soundtrack for the movie Times Square. After exposure in a television advertisement for Lee Cooper jeans with the jingle "Don't be a dummy", Tubeway Army released the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" in May 1979. The single took seven weeks before it finally reached #1 at the end of June; the parent album Replicas simultaneously achieving #1 in the album charts.

A few months later Numan found success in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with "Cars", which peaked at #1 in the UK in 1979 and #9 in US in 1980. "Cars" and the 1979 album The Pleasure Principle were both released under the Numan moniker. A sell-out tour ('The Touring Principle') followed; the concert video it spawned is often cited as the first full-length commercial music video release. The Pleasure Principle was a rock album with no guitars; instead, Numan used synthesizers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a distorted, phased, metallic tone. Self-produced in a fortnight for very little money, The Pleasure Principle with its highly distinctive sound, remains one of Numan's most highly-regarded efforts to date.

Numan bewildered the music press. He was a driven, creative, angst-ridden 21-year-old loner who still lived with his parents at the peak of his success. While angry like his punk contemporaries, Numan could not relate to the specific political issues they were singing about. Numan suppressed his anger and "got really hung up with this whole thing of not feeling, being cold about everything, not letting emotions get to you, or presenting a front of not feeling". His persona was aloof, alien and androgynous. Numan was not seen to be part of the punk or New Romantic movements. During this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves "Numanoids".

In 1980 Numan again topped the album charts with Telekon, this final studio album of what Numan retrospectively termed the "Machine" section of his career, saw reintroduced guitars to Numan's music and featured a wider range of synthesizers. The same year he embarked on his second major tour ("The Teletour") with an even more elaborate stage show than The Touring Principle the previous year. By this time he was weary of the pressures of fame and announced his retirement from touring with a series of sell-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981. The decision to retire would be short-lived but it would have a fateful effect on his career, as Numan found the fickle pop audience quickly turned its attention to other artists.

Moving away from the pure electropop that he had made his name with, Numan then experimented with jazz, funk and ethereal, rhythmic pop. His first album after his 1981 farewell concerts was the atmospheric and experimental Dance (1981). . The album featured several distinguished guest players; Mick Karn (bass, saxophone) and Rob Dean (guitar) of Japan, Roger Mason (keyboards) of Models and Roger Taylor (drums) of Queen. However, Numan's career had begun to experience a gradual decline. Each album also saw a new "image", none of which captured the public's imagination to nearly the same extent as the lonely android of 1979. The more upbeat and danceable I, Assassin (1982) fared less well than Dance. Numan supported the album with a concert tour in America in late 1982 (where he was living as a tax exile), which were his first series of live shows since his farewell at Wembley. Warriors (1983) further developed Numan's jazz-influenced style and featured contributions from avant-garde musician Bill Nelson and saxophonist Dick Morrissey (who would play on most of Numan's albums until 1991). Warriors was the last album Numan recorded for Beggars Banquet Records, and was supported by a 40-date UK tour. His look for the album artwork and tour was a Mad Max-influenced black leather costume against a post-apocalyptic backdrop, but this latest image change was scorned by the music press despite the sell-out tour and aggressive vibrancy of his newer sound.

Now battling against the increasing public perception that he was a spent force, Numan issued a series of albums and singles on his own record label, Numa. As the decade continued, he experienced a creative malaise, trying to recapture his former chart glory with less distinguished albums. The first album released on Numa, 1984’s Berserker was also notable for being Numan's first foray into music computers/samplers, in this case the PPG Wave. Berserker moved away from the fluid, fretless sound that characterised Numan's previous three albums, featuring instead harder-edged electric bass and drum sounds. The album was also accompanied by a striking blue-and-white visual image, a tour and a live album/video, but it divided critics and fans and commercially was Numan’s least successful release to that date. This year also saw the death of Paul Gardiner, who was Numan's bassist and friend since his Tubeway Army days, from a fatal heroin overdose. Numan's next album, The Fury (1985), charted slightly higher than Berserker, and featured another new image of white suit and red bow tie. It was the last Numan album to crack the British Top 30.

Numa Records, folded after the release of Numan's Strange Charm album (1986). In addition to Numa's commercial failure, a lack of radio play (his records were removed from the BBC Radio 1 playlist) and sales had drained the fortune (estimated £4.5 million) he had amassed in the late 1970s. Numan signed to IRS Records and his final studio album of the 80s, the edgy, industrial-funk Metal Rhythm (1988) found favour with fans and scored some positive reviews in the UK music press, but it sold poorly.

In 1991, Numan ventured into film-scoring by co-composing the music for The Unborn with Michael R. Smith (the score was later released as an instrumental album in 1995, Human). After Outland (1991), another critical and commercial disappointment and his second and last studio album with IRS, Numan reactivated Numa Records, under which he would release his next two albums. However, even Numan considers his 1992 Machine + Soul, a misguided attempt at a purely commercial release recorded solely to pay off debts, a career low point. The album sold only a few thousand copies. By 1994, Numan decided to stop attempting to crack the pop market and concentrate instead on exploring more personal themes, including his vocal atheism.

His future wife Gemma encouraged him to strip away the influences of the previous years. Numan re-evaluated his career and went in a harsher, more industrial direction with his songwriting on the album Sacrifice — for the first time he played almost all the instruments himself. The move was critically well-received, as Numan's harder and darker sound emerged just as Numan-influenced bands like Nine Inch Nails were enjoying their first rush of fame. Sacrifice was the last album Numan made before shutting down Numa Records permanently. His next two albums, Exile (1997) and Pure (2000), restored his critical reputation. Numan even toured the U.S. in support of Exile, his first stateside concerts since the early 1980s.

Numan has become acknowledged and respected by his peers, with such musicians as Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters and Nirvana), Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), and Marilyn Manson proclaiming his work an influence and recording cover versions of old Numan hits. The band Basement Jaxx had a huge hit in 2002 with "Where's Your Head At?", which relied on a sample of Numan's "M.E." - from The Pleasure Principle - for its hook. Other musicians, and at least one comedian, who have sung Numan's praises in recent years include Beck, Grant Nicholas, Tricky, Damon Albarn & Matt Sharp, Jarvis Cocker, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, Noel Fielding and Afrika Bambaataa, who spoke of the influence Numan's music had on the fledgling American DJ scene: "In the late 70s and early 80s Gary had the rhythms that DJs wanted to get hold of and people waited for his records on the dance floor." "Cars" was also featured on the soundtrack for the blockbuster 2002 videogame Grand Theft Auto: "Are Friends Electric" appeared on EA's game Need For Speed: Carbon in 2006.

In 2002, Numan enjoyed chart success once again with the single "Rip", reaching #29 in the UK chart and in 2003 with the Gary Numan vs Rico single "Crazier", which reached #13 in the UK chart. Rico also worked on the remix album Hybrid which featured reworkings of older songs in a more contemporary industrial style as well as new material. Other artists and producers who contributed on these remixes included Curve, Flood, Andy Gray, Alan Moulder, New Disease and Sulpher. 2003 also saw Numan performing the vocals on a track named "Pray For You" on the Plump DJs album Eargasm, which was well received.

In 2004 Numan took control of his own business affairs again, launching the label Mortal Records and releasing a series of live DVDs. In late 2006, Numan announced on his website that recording would begin on his new album in January 2007, with Ade Fenton co-producing. The album, Jagged, was duly released on 13 March 2006, followed by UK, European and US tours in support of the release. He sold out a fifteen-date UK tour in Spring 2008 during which he performed his 1979 number one album Replicas in full, and all the Replicas-era music including B-sides. The highly successful tour also raised Numan's profile in the media again due to the fact that it coincided with his 30th anniversary in the music business.

Numan's latest album Dead Son Rising was released on 16 September 2011 which had a full U.K tour split in two halves, 15–21 September and 7–11 December, Both parts were supported by Welsh soloist Jayce Lewis.

Numan married a member of his own fan club, Gemma O'Neill. In 2003, after some pregnancy difficulties, the couple had their first child, Raven. In 2005 they had a second daughter, Persia. In 2007 the couple had their third child, Echo. He published his autobiography, Praying to the Aliens, in 1997

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After the spare and lengthy reflections and dislocated experiments of his excellent Dance album, Gary Numan made a return to a more focused approach with I, Assassin, which turned out to be his last truly great album for many years. Much of what would characterize his later music in the '80s did start to show up here, to be sure, Numan's work here with modern electronic funk combines his early rigor and to-the-point rhythms with a deft, creative hand in the arrangements. "White Boys and Heroes," the brilliant opening number, remains one of his best singles, featuring fretless bass work from Pino Palladino (long before both it and him had turned into rent-a-clichés), and set against droning, distorted vocals and doom-laden keyboards. The vaguely Asian (or at least the group Japan)-inspired textures of Dance linger on in songs like "A Dream of Siam" and the title track, while one of Numan's most randomly entertaining songs pops up with "The 1930s Rust." It's a suave finger-snapping number that even features harmonica, but somehow Numan's ear for to-the-point rhythm and strange futurism still comes through. Perhaps the most underrated song remains the sharp hipshaker "War Songs"



Gary Numan - I, Assassin (flac 487mb)

01 White Boys And Heroes 6:23
02 War Songs 5:06
03 A Dream Of Siam 6:14
04 Music For Chameleons 6:06
05 This Is My House 4:52
06 I, Assassin 5:27
07 The 1930's Rust 3:56
08 We Take Mystery To Bed 6:11
bonus
09 War Games 3:56
10 Glitter And Ash 4:43
11 The Image Is 5:56
12 This House Is Cold 5:27
13 Noise Noise 3:49
14 We Take Mystery (Early Version) 5:59
15 Bridge? What Bridge? 4:23

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Berserker, promising title and striking new personal image (combining white skin covering and blue highlights) aside, continued this curious trend, very much a dog's breakfast of sudden, striking ability and a surprising embrace of already shopworn clichés. If there's a specific contrast to be made, it's the difference between Numan's one-of-a-kind voice often capturing a sense of melancholic passion better than ever. It's not so much down in the park as over in the neon-lit bar, and as such kills the album stone-dead at many points. Numan himself often seems like a guest on his own record, at points mixed decidedly deep in the music in favor of saxophones and stuttering early computer-based cut-up samples. That many of the songs are fairly long doesn't help either -- one longs for the spot-on precision of "Cars" or "I Die: You Die" when wallowing through go-nowhere constructions like "This Is New Love" or "Pump It Up." Some notable moments appear -- Chris Payne's shivering viola on "Cold Warning," the paranoid rhythms of "My Dying Machine" -- but the fragile "A Child with the Ghost," his tribute to his deceased bassist Paul Gardiner, is the only truly great song on a decidedly uneven album.



Gary Numan - Berserker (flac 436mb)

01 Berserker 5:53
02 This Is New Love 6:19
03 The Secret 5:55
04 My Dying Machine 5:37
05 Cold Warning 6:01
06 Pump It Up 4:43
07 The God Film 4:42
08 A Child With The Ghost 4:06
09 The Hunter 4:33
 Bonus Tracks
10 Empty Bed, Empty Heart 3:12
11 Here Am I 5:46
12 She Cries 6:01
13 Rumour 2:50
14 This Ship Comes Apart 4:01

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Changing images to a second-rate Bryan Ferry on the cover was one thing, but rather better was the musical change away from Berserker. If The Fury wasn't a full return to form, at points it was still a step up, taking some of his better AOR/funk moves from the previous albums and welding them to the sort of choppy-yet-powerful electronic moves bands like Depeche Mode in particular made their own. There's a greater focus on experimentalism this time out; his appreciation of sampling comes fully to the fore here, and at its best is no more or less effective than what near-contemporaries like Colourbox and Cabaret Voltaire also attempted at the time. Meanwhile, though there's still a definite need for editing at points when it comes to songs outstaying their welcome, Numan is notably much more upfront in the mix, his slippery quaver infusing the sometimes metronomic results with emotion. Even if he lyrically retreads a bit of ground -- "The Pleasure Skin" reflects on male prostitution and sexuality, something similar from early days on -- he knows how to provide the results with his own particular spin. Often the slower ballads connect best; "Miracles," with its bell-synth tinges and steady pace, could almost be a transposition of the Cocteau Twins to a much different setting. .



Gary Numan - The Fury (  flac 404mb)

01 Call Out The Dogs 4:41
02 This Disease 4:06
03 Your Fascination 4:46
04 Miracles 3:38
05 The Pleasure Skin 4:10
06 Creatures 5:11
07 Tricks 5:41
08 God Only Knows 5:26
09 I Still Remember 4:06
Bonus Tracks
10 Call Out The Dogs (Extended) 6:56
11 I Still Remember (12" Version) 5:22
12 Anthem (B-side) 3:29
13 Tribal (Demo) 5:57
14 The Fear (95 Remix) 6:16

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Oct 23, 2012

RhoDeo 1243 Roots


Hello, as the pressedential debate rumbles in the background, Obama the smartest but Romney the slickest and as the US likes to be seduced by slick salesmen, I fear the global disaster (financial/military) that is waiting to happen will come sooner rather than later. Most people just haven't got a clue how big the financial mess is (including most politicians) and either mega inflation or killing the creditors makes any sense (wipe east asia of the map), confiscate all church possessions.

We're still on the On U track laid out by dub genius Adrian Sherwood since the late seventies. N'joy

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The product of the fertile and prolific British producer, mixmaster, and dub genius Adrian Sherwood, Creation Rebel was one of Sherwood's first endeavors as a producer. Originally the backing group for the late reggae great Prince Far-I, Creation Rebel worked with Sherwood from 1977-1980, recording some of the best reggae dub music this side of Lee Perry during the early English punk era. Languorous, funky, spacy, and totally intoxicating, it's exciting to hear the awesome production/mixing talents of Sherwood in their early days. Similarly, the band (drummers Style Scott and Fish Clarke, bassist Clinton Jack, keyboardist Bigga Morrison, guitarist Crucial Tony, and percussionist Slicker) play with a grace, effortlessness, and power that most studio bands would kill to achieve. With the band's talents so wonderfully used by Sherwood, this is without a doubt some of the best and most important non-rock music to be made in England in the late '70s.

Much of Adrian Sherwood's earliest production work was for Creation Rebel. Its players went on to appear on many of On-U's first wave of releases. Creation Rebel's first album "Dub from Creation" was released in March of 1978.

At this time the group comprised of "Lizard" Logan, "Crucial" Tony on guitar, Clifton "Bigga" Morrison on keyboards and Dr Pablo on melodica - which left an urgent vacancy on drums! Introduced to the band via Far I & Prince Records in Jamaica was a young man who had just completed his stint in the Jamaican army - Lincoln Valentine Scott a.k.a. "Style" - who, over the ensuing few years was to become the most in-demand session drummer in reggae and key member of the Roots Radics whose rhythms would dominate the scene between the end of the golden period of roots through to the digital age of the mid-eighties and onwards. Scotty of course also went on to form the nucleus of Dub Syndicate who have since recorded extensively for Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound.

In late 1978 Sherwood and Creation Rebel recorded "Starship Africa" . Not released for the first time until 1980 the album still stands alone musically in reggae where it has no cerebral equivalent. "Starship Africa" can be interpreted critically as forming the third point of a sonic triangle equilaterally occupied by the disparate output of Grateful Dead and Tangerine Dream. A magnet for Headz which retains its stoned power today, the album mixed the customary drum and bass with ambient washes and industrial noise - all within a minimal framework.

The album's story goes something like this. Just after the completion of the "Dub from Creation" LP, the young Sherwood found himself with the basic Creation Rebel cutting a bunch of rhythms in the studio for a character with the wonderful name of DJ Superstar - a contemporary of the Mexicano, and also rapping on top of funked up reggae rhythms. Most of these tunes had bass lines from Tony Henry of Misty In Roots. Sherwood had hummed the bass lines and Tony has re-created them - hence the melodic quality of the bass lines on the finished tracks.

The band's album "Close Encounters Of The Third World" on Hitrun had Prince Jammy credited with the mixdown, with Mr Sherwood referred to in the credits as "technician". The release of the "Rebel Vibrations" album in 1979 preceded "Starship Africa" by over a year. Both sets were instrumental dub affairs and can now be appreciated as largely experimental in their approach, described in an unusually articulate phase by Mr Sherwood as exploring:

"...the unique possibilities of space in sound within the disciplined structures of rhythm, using bass line melodies and relying as much on the understated side of the overall result as on the overstated..."

The remainder of 1979 found Creation Rebel as anchor band for Prince Far I, Jah Woosh, Prince Hammer and Bim Sherman, all were featured in a non-stop three hour show which took to the road as the "Roots Encounter" tour. However, with the arrival of the eighties the band's members were to tour less and less and eventually become disentangled as a creative outfit. Part of the explanation is, of course, that a working musician may have to go through many mutations in order to earn a living in the business.

Part of this inevitable phenomenon for members of Creation Rebel was that individually they also contributed to the musical existence of a whole bunch of other bands, most of whom were associated with Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound - the Maffia, New Age Steppers, Singers And Players, African Head Charge, Playgroup, Noah House Of Dread, Undivided Roots etc as well as the customary stints as backing musicians for visiting stars from Jamaica.

The "Psychotic Jonkanoo" album preceded the band's final set by less than a year ("Lows And Highs" ) on Cherry Red Records in July 1982). The material consists of a fairly standard array of conscious style chants, delivered mostly by "Crucial" Tony in a militant style with harmonies from the band often reminiscent of Black Uhuru - especially on the opening track "The Dope", where we also have the added bonus of "Deadly" Headley's stylish sax intertwining with the vocal lines. The whole feel of the album is raised to a higher creative level by the arrangement and production which is clean, crisp and inventive - especially on the instrumental versions, "African Space" features a wah-wah guitar in almost restrained fashion!

"Threat To Creation" is not only the dub to the preceding "Chatti Mouth" but also provided the title to the band's shared album with the New Age Steppers which appeared in November of the same year. In fact the bass line for "Threat to Creation" slows down to provide the pulse for the most psyched out On-U dub of all time "Chemical Specialist", whereas the title track suddenly assumes a different identity altogether! "Mother Don't Cry" features one Lydon on vocal harmony, a duty for which Johnny Rotten was not renowned, although he had previously assisted the great Dr Alimantado with similar input!

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Sherwood’s production debut originally released on a small UK label HitRun. ‘ John Peel said it was the best dub record to come from England. Creation Rebel's first album "Dub from Creation" was released in March of 1978. The original band, featuring the drummer Eric "Fish" Clarke, had been a studio outfit known as the Arabs, now primarily remembered for their work on the classic dub set "Crytuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1. The rhythm tracks for this album had been laid in Jamaica but the overdubs were worked up at the Gooseberry Studios in London. "Fish" left for Jamaica when these sessions were complete, leaving the group of remaining musicians preparing for duty as Prince Far I's backing group for the DJ's tour of Europe scheduled to start later in the year.



Creation Rebel - Dub From Creation (flac  255mb)

01 Dub From Creation 4:10
02 Basic Principals 4:06
03 Rebel Rouser 3:02
04 Creation Vibration 2:57
05 Creation In A Iration 2:55
06 Dub Fusion 4:08
07 Mirage 3:32
08 Liberation 3:00
09 Rising Star 4:20
10 Vision Of Creation 4:55
11 Frontline Speech feat Prince Far I 3:15
12 Frontline Dub 3:08

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Originally recorded in 1978 (following the recording of Dub from Creation), the mighty Starship Africa was already envisioned as the debut album by one DJ Superstar, toasting over a series of rhythms performed by the basic Creation Rebel unit, with Misty in Roots' Tony Henry on superbly melodic bass. These original tapes have long since vanished -- the project was canceled (Adrian Sherwood declared the results "lame") and it would be another two years before he returned to them, while casting around for the maiden release by a new label he was involved with, 4D Rhythms. Remixing and re-recording the rhythms saw Jamaican drummer Style Scott recruited to play live over Charlie Eskimo Fox's original tapes; an additional half a dozen percussionists, drawn from whoever happened to be in the studio at the time, were additionally overdubbed, with Sherwood camouflaging their basic lack of timing and rhythm by employing some truly wild phasing and echo. Indeed, his 4D Rhythms partner Chris Garland allegedly spent most of the session encouraging Sherwood to take the effects as far from the norm as he could, to the ultimate extent of mixing the tracks blind. The result is an album that has been compared to acts as far afield as Tangerine Dream and the Grateful Dead, a truly spaced-out dub experience that, spread over just two tracks (albeit broken down into five and four movements apiece), stands among the most intriguing of all Sherwood's earliest creations.



Creation Rebel - Starship Africa (flac  230mb)

01 Starship Africa Section 1 5:00
02 Starship Africa Section 2 5:16
03 Starship Africa Section 3 4:33
04 Starship Africa Section 4 3:18
05 Starship Africa Section 5 0:54
06 Space Movement Section 1 8:52
07 Space Movement Section 2 4:08
08 Space Movement Section 3 4:14
09 Space Movement Section 4 4:33

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One of the most startling albums in the early Adrian Sherwood catalog, Threat to Creation is nominally a compilation of recent dubs transformed into a pulsating ménage of rhythms and dubs, through which shoot some truly devastating effects -- is there any greater demonstration of the On-U technique than "Chemical Specialist" (itself a mogadon retread of the title track rhythm)? Elsewhere on this remarkable disc, the New Age Steppers' own "My Whole World," "Got to Get Away," and "Guiding Star" all reappear in dub form, as "Painstaker," "Final Frontier," and the echoing, creaking "Eugenic Device," respectively. Other dubs here include Bim Sherman's "Devious Woman" ("Last Sane Dream") and "Satta Massagana" ("Ethos Design"), both chillingly reworked to strip away almost every last semblance of the original.



Creation Rebel and New Age Steppers - Threat To Creation (flac  207mb)

01 Chemical Specialist 4:21
02 Threat To Creation 3:39
03 Eugenic Device 7:03
04 Last Sane Dream 3:24
05 Painstaker 5:23
06 Earthwire Line 4:26
07 Ethos Design 4:48
08 Final Frontier 4:59

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Creation Rebel's penultimate album, Psychotic Junkanoo might not be the most revolutionary collection in the band's catalog, but it is one of the most enjoyable. With Crucial Tony's militant vocals riding on a bed of delicious harmonies and, on the opening "The Dope," a guest appearance from sax legend Deadly Headley. Anthem by anthem, the album takes shape. Reworking Jah Woosh's "Woodpecker Sound" rhythm, "Chatti Mouth" is a frenetic singsong toast laid over a haunted, effects-riven rhythm. With backing vocals from John Lydon, "Mother Don't Cry" echoes Black Uhuru's "Abortion" in its stark delivery, and "African Space" is propelled by so startlingly evocative a wah-wah guitar that one doesn't even realize it's an instrumental till it's over. Across the board, Adrian Sherwood's production and mix are as crisply clean as any "mainstream" roots album -- cleaner, in fact, as the rhythms float in a space all of their own, and the echoes simply ricochet off one another. Anybody searching Sherwood's catalog for an easy point of entry would do well to start here, and everyone else can simply applaud Psychotic Junkanoo as the last truly great roots reggae album of the 1980s.



Creation Rebel ‎- Psychotic Jonkanoo (flac  299mb)

01 The Dope 7:26
02 African Space 6:04
03 Chatti Mouth / Threat To Creation 6:55
04 Highest Degree 8:36
05 Mother Don't Cry 6:21
06 Yuk Up 5:38
07 Drum Talk 4:10

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Oct 22, 2012

RhoDeo 1243 Byron 4


Hello, bit late, i was watching a movie, Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque) intersting bio pic of sorts (plenty of surrealism) yet the story and his words and music kept me interested throughout the 2 hours it lasted, which I think implies a big thumbs up from me, go check it out

Now listen to the continuing saga of The Byron Chronicles ...NJoy

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From The Byron Chronicles Introduction

“Imagine if the world as you know it… was nothing more than an illusion. What if creatures like elves, dragons, vampires, zombies and werewolves walk amongst you every day… But you never see them.”

“This is the world I walk in.
 I am called Byron
 And these are my chronicles…“

The Byron Chronicles is a dark urban fantasy written and produced by Darker Projects, an audio drama company with an extensive website.  The site is well laid out and all of their shows can be heard free of charge direct from the website or  as podcasts, while your on  the go. The Darker Projects website hosts many shows, but I have chosen to focus on The Byron Chronicles for this review.

The Byron chronicles center around a being simply called Byron, who is something “other than human”. Byron lives in the shadows of our modern world, where vampires, werewolves and other creatures of fantasy are very real, but kept hidden from human eyes. The separation of  the supernatural world from the human world is an important element through out the entire series. We quickly find out that when the two worlds mix violence  seems to ensue, usually leading to bad things for humans and supernaturals alike. In fact, the only person who seems to think humans and supernatural beings can get along is Byron himself, who tends to act as a mediator between the two.

Joining Byron on these adventures is Miss Chris Sparrow, who once led a “normal life” as a Barrista at a local Portland Oregon coffee shop before being turned into a half vampire in a freak accident. Chris turned to Byron reluctantly at first, but the pair quickly became fast friends as Chris came to rely on Byron for guidance while supernatural world revealed itself to her. Byron in turn, seemed to rely on Chris in helping him better understand humans as a whole. There were several plot lines in the first season, including Byron saving the life of Lazarus the First Zombie, and preventing a worldwide zombie outbreak in the process. Then Byron had to hunt down a vampire lord named Branlaven, who was selling a super drug called “rush” on the streets of Portland. It was the drug Rush which caused Chris to become a half vampire, and it was here that Chris Sparrow made her first appearance in the series. Next, Byron was taken hostage by two different secret societies; each one trying to save the world from “monsters” like Byron.

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It is the time of returning. An age of darkness that decends upon the world that will change all mankind has known. And even Byron is unable to stop it. It is the time of rising. An age of darkness has decends upon the world. And Byron has been taken captive.

The Byron Chronicles 1 (6,7) ( 42mb)

01 The Byron Chronicles 106 A Time of Returning 24:11
02 The Byron Chronicles 107 A Time of Rising 2 22:19

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previously

Byron's Tale ( 63mb)
The Byron Chronicles 1 (2,3) ( 67mb)
The Byron Chronicles 1 (4,5) ( 45mb)

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Oct 21, 2012

Sundaze 1243


Hello,  for some reason I assumed that Boards Of Canada had already had a Sundaze post, it rather surprised me when I checked that the only time I posted them was 5,5 years ago on the Scotland page, Geogaddi, reupped that one too. Today here Boards Of Canada's nineties work, some rare music on offer. N'joy

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Growing up in a musical family, brothers Michael and Marcus Eoin began playing instruments at a young age. They experimented with recording techniques at around the age of 10, using tape machines to layer cut-up samples of found sounds over compositions of their own. In their teens they participated in a number of amateur bands, however, it wasn't until 1986 when Marcus was invited to Michael's band that Boards of Canada was born. In the early 1990s, a number of collaborations took place and the band put on small shows among the "Hexagon Sun" collective. They released four cassettes between 1987 and 1993. Catalogue 3 has three lengthy tracks of rather uneventful ambient electronica and two shorter tracks. Their mellow, disjointed electronica was not particularly revolutionary. Acid Memories, by the time of Play By Numbers with the 9-minute Infinite Lines Of Colourful Sevens they showcased a more creative approach.

In 1995, the band released the first work from the Hexagon Sun studio, the EP Twoism. Like earlier Music70 releases, it was produced in a self-financed limited run and was privately distributed, primarily to friends and labels, it was considered of such high quality to be subsequently re-pressed in 2002.  The precursor to Music Has the Right to Children was released in 1996. Titled Boc Maxima, it was a semi-private release that is notable for being a full-length album. Boc Maxima's work was later used for Music Has the Right to Children (98), considered to be a masterpiece by many. They followed with another EP "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country"(2000). Boards of Canada's unique sound is a product of their strong use of analog equipment, mix of electronic and conventional instrumentation, use of distorted samples as well as live and radio or film lyrics, and their layering and blending of these elements. They avoid a purely synthetic sound which gives their music a warmer, emotive quality, often meant to inspire nostalgia.

This album Geogaddi was released in 2002. It was described by Sandison as "a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again." Geogaddi's development involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 23 were selected (one of which is complete silence).

Though never an actively touring band, Boards of Canada did perform a handful of shows. Early shows saw them supporting Warp labelmates Seefeel and Autechre in a scattering of UK dates. They also participated in a few festivals and multi-artist bills, including two Warp parties. Until 2005 they kept the fact they were brothers and not just childhood friends hidden from the media, apparently they didnt want to be compared to the Hartnoll Brothers (Orbital). Their third album for Warp Records, The Campfire Headphase, was released on 17 October 2005. The album featured fifteen tracks, including "Peacock Tail", "Chromakey Dreamcoat," and "Dayvan Cowboy". Two versions of "Dayvan Cowboy" — the original and a remix by Odd Nosdam — are on the six-track EP, Trans Canada Highway, which was released on 26 May 2006. Since, nothing much has been heard from the shy brothers...

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Closes Vol. 1 is a cassette purportedly created and produced by Boards of Canada, supposedly released in the year 1992 to family and friends and later repressed as a CD in 1997. The purported album has never surfaced publicly, and unlike Acid Memories, Play By Numbers, and Hooper Bay, no audio samples claiming to be from these earlier album were ever posted to the early Boards of Canada website.



Boards Of Canada ‎- Closes Volume 1 (flac  244mb)

01 Treeline 1:02
02 Godever 1:51
03 True Map 5:22
04 Close1 0:50
05 5d 5:21
06 Focus On The Spiral 1:28
07 Tends Towards 8:48
08 Close2 1:04
09 Eye / Ear 6:58
10 Helios Sound 0:30
11 Ithcus Sound 0:30
12 Found The Way 6:06
13 Close3 0:26
14 Numerator Original 6:31
15 Fonec 5:42
16 Trillions 3:19
17 Close4 0:34

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Twoism is an EP released by Boards of Canada on their own Music70 record label in 1995. It was a self-financed cassette and record distributed privately. Major public releases would not happen until 1996's Hi Scores EP on Skam Records. This album was, however, the work which got them noticed by Skam Records. In 2002, this EP was reissued on vinyl and CD by Warp Records.Twoism features the same exquisitely spooky, textured emotronica that fans will want to hear, before Twoism was re-pressed years later, it was a highly sought-after item, being pressed only about 100 times. It would often be exchanged from one person to the next for around £800 (US$1500)

Forget everything you ever thought was dull or ponderous about ambient music, as Boards of Canada return like Aeschylusian heroes -- unbound from a genre that often sounds like a washing machine begging for a swift kick. Boards of Canada traced a disturbed childhood in the arctic, austere Music Has the Right to Children, but here there's a slightly warmer feeling. More central, tweaked vocals add a new dimension to the "hard beats + bittersweet melodies" pattern of the past; songs like the gorgeous, ice-melting "Zoetrope" glide along on simple celestial glimmers without a single bassline in sight. It's as if the band is thawing out in preparation for something. Even when it's hard to tell what that might be.



Boards Of Canada ‎- Twoism (flac  312mb)

A1 Sixtyniner 5:40
A2 Oirectine 5:11
A3 Iced Cooly 2:22
A4 Basefree 6:35
B1 Twoism 6:06
B2 Seeya Later 4:33
B3 Melissa Juice 1:32
B4 Smokes Quantity 3:07
B5 1986 Summer Fire 1:36
+  In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (EP)
01 Kid For Today 6:23
02 Amo Bishop Roden 6:16
03 In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country 6:07
04 Zoetrope 5:18

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Like Autechre and Bochum Welt, Boards of Canada draw heavily from both new wave and electro in appreciable measures that, when recombined in the context of the group's tugging beats and simple-but-effective songwriting, end up sounding like way more than either. Hi Scores is a near-perfect six-tracker of gorgeous, building ambient electro and loping downtempo electronic breakbeat tracks that are as pleasing to the ears as they are head-bucking funky.



Boards Of Canada - Hi Scores (flac 254mb)

01 Hi Scores 4:57
02 Turquoise Hexagon Sun 5:09
03 Nlogax 6:54
04 June 9th 5:18
05 Seeya Later 4:12
06 Everything You Do Is A Balloon 7:04

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Although Boards of Canada's blueprint for electronic listening music -- aching electro-synth with mid-tempo hip-hop beats and occasional light scratching -- isn't quite a revolution in and of itself, Music Has the Right to Children is an amazing LP. Similar to the early work of Autechre and Aphex Twin, the duo is one of the few European artists who can match their American precursors with regard to a sense of spirit in otherwise electronic music. This is pure machine soul, reminiscent of some forgotten Japanese animation soundtrack or a rusting Commodore 64 just about to give up the ghost. Alternating broadly sketched works with minute-long vignettes (the latter of which comprise several of the best tracks on the album), Music Has the Right to Children is one of the best electronic releases of 1998.



Boards Of Canada ‎- Music Has The Right To Children (flac  310mb)

01 Wildlife Analysis 1:15
02 An Eagle In Your Mind 6:25
03 The Color Of The Fire 1:45
04 Telephasic Workshop 6:35
05 Triangles & Rhombuses 1:50
06 Sixtyten 5:48
07 Turquoise Hexagon Sun 5:07
08 Kaini Industries 0:59
09 Bocuma 1:36
10 Roygbiv 2:31
11 Rue The Whirl 6:39
12 Aquarius 5:58
13 Olson 1:31
14 Pete Standing Alone 6:07
15 Smokes Quantity 3:07
16 Open The Light 4:25
17 One Very Important Thought 1:25
18 Happy Cycling 7:25

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