EXPERIMENTAL LISTING [n. cal. only]
------------------ * Amongst / San Francisco, California, USA
From previous incarnations as The Nuns and The Lawn Vultures comes Amongst. Electronic deconstruction in the truest sense -- fresh, vibrant and oh so listenable.
------------------ * Asbestos Removal Crew / San Francisco, California, USA
Experimental spoken word from San Francisco. Interesting train of thought lyrics accompanied by some excellent musicianship.
Asbestos Removal Crew - Busdriver
M Kyle - Voice Ron K - Guitar, loops, + devices Craig Gotsill - Acoustic bass
Recorded at Radical House S.F. CA April '93 Engineered by Ron K. Produced by A.R.C.
Contact: A.R.C. c/o Radical House 48 San Jose Ave #3 San Francisco, CA 94110 415-648-6602
------------------ * Astronout / Santa Cruz, California, USA
Started when two young teenagers started playing a game called "Weird Sound Wars" using primitive synthesizers to create weird, crazy, trippy, looney, zany, and unusual sounds. Did we mention that they were bizarre too?
The Astronout saga began nearly 10 years ago when two young teenagers played a game known as "Weird Sound Wars". Using primitive synthesizers the two would try to create the weirdest sounds imaginable. The winner, of course, would be the one who created the weirdest, craziest, unusual sounds.
10 years later, Mark Camp and Keith Krate are still at it; only a little more defined. Astronout's music varies from hour long sound scapes that will take you on a trip like no other to the grooviest house and on to the trippiest acid jams ever.
The song you will listen to here is entitled "Midnight". If you would like to take a full trip with Astronout, write to the address above and they will send you a tape.
--------------- * Bobs, The / Berkeley, California, USA
The Bobs are a four member acapella group known for their incredible live show, witty, tuneful original material and outrageous covers of classic songs. The Bobs - Richard Bob Greene, Matthew Bob Stull, Janie Bob Scott and Joe Bob Finetti, are four dynamic personalities who come together on stage to present a show that is part theatre, part comedy, part performance art but most of all a unique evening of music. The Bobs are a "band without instruments" using just their voices and body percussion to fill the theatre with an orchestra of harmonious sound , accompanying themselves on songs that range from soulful to satire, from amazing to moving, from familiar to far out.....
------------------ * Brinkley, Chris / Santa Cruz, California, USA
IUMA staff member Chris Brinkley makes synthesizer noises on the side!
Chris Brinkley has been fascinated with electronic and other unconventional music since childhood. In addition to heading up the encoding section at IUMA, he is currently pursuing a second bachelor's degree in computer engineering at UC Santa Cruz. The pieces here were all recorded in his home MIDI studio.
"Dubious Improvisations I" is actually a series of small sketches on the M1R, melodically interrelated but in radically different timbres ranging from organ to sampled electric guitar and drums to Greek horns to tea chimes transposed down five octaves.
"March from Nowhere to Nowhere" is a more complex improvisation on S-550, MKS-20, Proteus II, M1R, and Kawai K5. An atmospheric intro leads into an increasingly chaotic march that builds to a crescendo abruptly ends. This is followed by a semi-ambient, semi-jazz epilogue.
---------------- * Club Foot Orchestra / San Francisco, California, USA
"...from allusions to Stravinsky to the imperatives of West African folk idioms, taking into account swing jazz, rock, blues and modernist atonality. -- San Francisco Chronicle
----------------- * E is for Elephant / Santa Cruz, California, USA
A focal point of insanity fusing jazz, rock and punk. E is for Elephant hits you over the head with their orchestral trunk of Zappasque wit and overblown
E IS FOR WHAT?!?
The E is for Elephant experience is nearly impossible to describe, so please indulge us - post modern, neo-psychotic, space folk-Jazz meets Stravinsky. Truly for the 21st Century. Looking forward, never stumbling back. A conglomeration of all that was, has never been, and shouldn't have been, but coexisted in a parallel dimension all along. Blah! Blah! Woof! Woof! This is not a regular band!!
Tarik Rajab plays fretless bass percussion, lead graphics and sings. Tarik is a volcano of ideas, a very active volcano, and completely unbound of restraints. A stunning vocalist and bassist, Tarik channels the Music God effortlessly.
Matthew Embry plays piano, Melodica, scary noises, percussion and sings. Matt is a gift to music, constantly exploring with pure intent. He is an excellent pianist, extremely disciplined yet completely free. Matt has a beautiful voice and isn't afraid to use it.
Brian Kenney plays guitar, violin, reverb, the Chapman Stick, percussion and sings.
------------------------ * Holtzman, Steve / Los Altos, California, USA
Steve Holtzman is a composer, musician, and the author of the book Digital Mantras (The MIT Press, 1994). His musical works, digital, analog and instrumental have been performed in Europe and the United States. He has released two CDs on the Shriek! label: Guitar Travel and Digital Mantras (CD). His e-mail is steveh@shriek.com.
-------------------------- * Kaka Pussy / San Francisco, California, USA
Bi-coastal tape-swapping spoken-word noise-music home-recording collaboration. The singer tells of the torment he suffered at the hands of cow lions who clowned him.
Kaka Pussy is: Oskar Alaska and Adam. Kaka Pussy sez: "Never apologize, never explain."
Kaka Pussy cassette available for US $4 postpaid from: Adam Markosian 550 Baker Street #8 San Francisco, CA 94117 Oskar: lem@cs.brown.edu Adam: Aadm@aol.com
----------------------- * Looking Glass / Los Altos, California, USA
An avant-garde blending of spoken word lyrics with visually-evocative hypnotic music.
-The band/The music An avant-garde blending of spoken word lyrics with visually evocative, hypnotic music, Looking Glass invites you to share emotions that run from jagged to ethereal, futuristic to archetypal, slithering to sensual. The spoken word lyrics are somewhere between poetry and song lyrics: there are repeated elements as there would be in lyrics, but not bound by the verse/chorus format. As the material is not read as a poem would be, but spoken, the intent is for the listener to be able to take away something of what was heard, much as being able to remember a song's melody. In a creative blitz, 15 songs have been written and recorded from September of 1993 to today. KFJC, the radio station at 89.7 FM, is playing material from the demo tapes. Other radio stations are in the works.
Member Bios: Tom Aragon -Keyboards and Guitar Tom has independently released Ascension, a collection of ambient musical textures in the electronic/acoustic vein through his project, The Temple of Sound. One of the founding members of Soulstice, he performs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Soulstice has released Wake-up Call, also independently. Formerly, Tom was guitar and keyboard player in the rock group The X-Factor. With various bands, he has opened for such name groups as Y&T, Foghart, John Lee Hooker, and Cold Blood.
Maggie St. Michel -Vocals and Lyrics One of her first projects was the co-writing of The Bloodbank Blues, a humorous, yet touching, vampire tale, complete with music video, with Ron Barron, previously of Quiet Riot, with Chuck Ruff, Longtime drummer for the Edgar Winter Group. A frequent lyrical collaborator with Bay Area musicians, one of her collaborations has been included in a CD released by Rash Behavior (check out their sound also on IUMA)
Out Of The Lair The song It's the 1890's. You're in an opium den in England. It's dark, smoky and red hued: Blood red walls, dark red tapestries on the floor, red velvet sofas along the walls. Whether it's the smoke or the effect of the smoke on your mind, it's hard to tell real from illusion, psychical from imagined. Lewis Carroll wrote about what this feels like in Through The Looking Glass. Enough hints? Listen to the song...
Contact Information: The Band's mailing address is Looking Glass, P.O. Box 127, Los Altos, CA 94023-0127.
------------------- * nada / San Jose, California, USA
nada combines heavy beats, cynical lyrics and unearthly sounds with intricate percussion and intense guitar work to create a new listening experience.
-------------------- * Plasma Boy / San Francisco, California, USA
Blessed are the Random, for they shall inherit the Goat Hammer. Negativland meets Butthole Surfers meets Godzilla.
Plasmaboy sounds like an aural collage garnered by insane alien life forms with electric guitars and DAT recorders, and narrated by kidnapped social-rejects who were tragically presumed to be normal human specimens. In other words, we sound sort of like a mix between King Missile and Negativland, perhaps with some Offspring attitude thrown in for good measure. Welcome to the place where musical categorization breaks down.
We've been making this stuff since 1990 or 1991. lt started as a joke, trying to make really silly music, but these days we're taking ourselves slightly more seriously, at least on some hidden level. The point is, our "music" is meant to be silly, bizarre, and somewhat random. There are three of us: The Rude Mexican, Mustafa Kajole, and Ed.
In the beginning, we liberally sampled any material that made us laugh when taken out of context. This included movies, television, CDs, and radio, and allowed for some hilarious aural collages. Unfortunately, we weren't able to include any of those experimental songs on our album (or IUMA) due to the outdated copyright laws and prohibitive sampling fees. After Negativland's fiasco with Island records, we weren't taking any chances.
We try to be as silly as we can, yet are tenacious in our attempts to achieve our musical goal, whatever it may be for a given song. In the good old days, songs took us about eight hours to complete, which meant that we conceived, created, and recorded them entirely in one day. Now, we generally take a couple days to record a song, which we have preconceived before our recording session. Even though we're working harder, the goal is still to have fun, and create something that makes us laugh.
Granted, most folks still probably think that plasmaboy is the biggest load of crap they've ever wasted their time on, but therein lies our subtlety. Basically, if you don't think our music has a message, then you aren't getting it: Don't take anything so seriously that you can't laugh about it. Our music is ridiculous; our "lyrics" are ridiculous; our lives are pathetic attempts to avoid conformity. Maybe that makes us typical after all.
Our CD contains 15 songs and is more than 45 minutes in length. All the material on it is studio quality, and the production sounds polished. But don't be fooled by the professional quality, this is weird stuff. We've been told by more than a few people that plasmaboy is the ultimate disc to listen to while stoned. We've also been told that acid and plasmaboy don't mix.
"Cops Are Cool" is not on the disc, but these are the songs that are on the CD: "Goat Hammer Advisory", "Waxy Leaves", "The House of Nim", "Wood-Burning Dog", "Chaos in Nijwib", "Quitter", "Toast", "Flowergasm", "Ouiqui Fromage", "Testing", "Plasma Boy Finds Love", "Christ in the Magic Woods", "The Birthday Song", "Relaxation R.P.G.", and "Cigarettes & Telephones".
Write plasmaboy at plasmaboy@aol.com
----------------------- * Strickland, William / Santa Cruz, California, USA
A wacked out story of a daydreaming office worker. Eclectic music backs this train-of-thought, improvised story.
Lightning Tower Known as the "World's Fastest Songwriter" to the tens of thousands who tuned in to his Los Angeles an San Diego radio appearances, William Strickland continues to build his rising career as a spontaneous and outrageous on the spot composer and performer. There are, admittedly, a handful of people who've experienced William Strickland's audience-led concerts of spontaneously-created song and story who say that he's simply nuts. And they might be right.The rest of the world, though -- including we here at Harbor Records -- find him brilliant. And we're in good company. Jim Morrison, for example, once called the callow young Strickland "a damn good singer."
------------------- * The Tenth Man / San Francisco, California, USA
There are indeed fearful things lurking upon the earth: rabid dogs, drunken soldiers, dragons and automobiles, electrical appliances and high interest rates. The tenth man is aware, quiet and suffering needlessly...Jenny has a boyfriend and he's coming to town.
The Tale of Jenny
There are indeed fearful things lurking upon the earth: rabid dogs, drunken soldiers, dragons and automobiles, electrical appliances and high interest rates...diseases fearing and dreaded, such as the Gout, Cancer, Dryrot, the Affliction of the African Sleeping Crab; famine in immense proportions, rioting crowds and protruding knobs, patches of ice, oil and vomit, fascists, fanatics, and scalding beverages. Who is not aware of freeway debris, snake bites, suffering plumbers and sawmill machinery? The atom bomb, faulty aircraft navigational systems, hurricanes and irritating noises? Acids and mysterious liquids (caustic, infectious, debilitating, boiling, over-seasoned), mishandled cheese, small cuts, viruses orally spread, flying shrapnel, stampeding cattle, leaky pneumatic hoses and the organ grinders monkey?
The tenth man is aware, quiet, and suffering needlessly...
(Because the tenth man sees Jenny smoking a cigarette and waiting.) (Yes, Jenny waits)
Jenny waits quietly...(because)
Jenny has a boyfriend and he's coming to town.
The Tenth Man are: Rodney Ryan: Vocals, Bass Brett Lewis: Guitar Emmett Grant: Drums Emma Stahl: Backing Vocals
"The Tenth Man" were formed in 1991 and have been playing in and around the Bay area since. Look for their soon to be released album Jugglers Day on CYBORG MUSIC.
---------------- * Ugly Mugs / Santa Cruz, California, USA
Described as "punk crossed with Frank Zappa," these guys have neglected good taste to bring you some new and bizarre tunes. Arbeit Macht Frei is pronounced something like "are-bite mockt fry" and deals with parallels between the old Nazi Germany and modern day America. Originating in Valencia, CA and now located in Santa Cruz, CA, the Ugly Mugs have been around unnoticeably for about six years. Now, finally, they've become motivated enough to make a demo tape.
"Arbeit Macht Frei" represents the sound of the Mugs as well as any song possibly could. Their music stems from such influences as the Residents, Frank Zappa, Butthole Surfers, Iron Maiden, Spike Jones, and Renaldo & the Loaf. Not content with making music they know others will like, they've been doomed to obscurity until now.
The Ugly Mugs are: * Steve Grice: keyboards, vocals, * Jeff Patterson: guitar, vocals * Danny Johnson: guitar, bass, vocals -------------------- * Virtual Audio / San Francisco, California, USA
Virtual Audio is the definitive listening experience. But don't take our word for it. Listen for yourself.
"Virtual Audio is our own way of digitally recording in full three-dimensional sound. V.A. recordings sound life-like and natural, unlike post-production 3-D processing systems. V.A. recordings are headphone, speaker, and broadcast compatible. featuring uncompromised high quality sound, V.A. recordings are characterized by unprecedented clarity and spatial sensation that gives the listener the feeling of being at the actual site of the recording. "Heyday recently released two other albums using Virtual Audio techniques: Connie Champagne's La Strada and the Club Foot Orchestra's Metropolis. Other Heyday Virtual Audio recordings are currently in production. --Heyday Records
------------------ * Warheads / San Francisco, California, USA
"Improvized" cacophonic jazz from a group of bitter men with instruments.
Title: Warhead Lament Time: 6 min. Copywrite Warheads 1994 Music info: Improvized Band info: Bitter Men With Instruments. John Scampoli 2041 Taylor St S.F., CA 94133 e-mail: scampoli@slip.net
------------------------- * Winges, Mark / San Francisco, California, USA
Mark Winges is a composer and free-lance computer programmer in San Francisco. He writes music with a pen and ink for people who blow, bow, and strike various constructions of wood, plastic, and metal.
Mark Winges is a composer and a free-lance computer programmer in San Francisco. He's rather old-fashioned at both, since he programs mostly on mainframes (although he's a bit of an OS/2 nut), and writes with a pen and ink for people who blow, bow and strike various constructions of wood, plastic and metal (but he does often preserve sounds on digital audio tape). He recently spent money on more memory for his computer, but has no modem. He is composer-in residence with the San Francisco Chamber Singers, and can be reached care of:
The San Francisco Chamber Singers P.O. Box 15576 San Francisco, CA. 94115-0576 via the equally quaint U.S. postal service
Dusk Music II (IN MEMORIAM: ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE) "What's all this quiet music?", he screamed. It's a piece for alto flute, viola, and cello. One of a series of works commemorating people who are "important". The music has an underlying numeric base (the set of numbers 8,6,7,5,6,4,5,3,4,2,3,1 is applied to the music in several ways), and the work also has multiple lines for the instruments to play. The performers can choose which line to play, which shapes the piece a little differently each time it is performed. Janet (who also sings on Kitka) plays alto flute, George (who conducts and is sometimes sardonic) plays cello. The recording is from a concert out at the Headland Center for the Arts on the coast in northern California.