ONYX was the avant-garde electronic duo of American songwriter and instrumentalist Judd Stone, and British vocalist and fashion model Beveur in the early 80s.

The only instruments they used are drums /percussion and synthesizers – except for a primitive drum machine track that is used on “Planet X”. All of the instruments are played, and there is no syncing or sequencers used on any of the recordings. The bass tracks are keyboard bass. And what they recorded it is still fresh:

COMPLETE WORKS 1981-1983 will release in June on Osaka based Franco-Japanese label MIND RECORDS.

11 years ago in Atlanta, 4 girls have decided to start a band, walked in a pawnshop, bought the cheapest instruments and begun to learn play. So THE COATHANGERS‘ early recordings are not too defined works, but I like these nice no wave-like primitive garage rock songs. Naturally, they have developed their musical skill, but the music stayed simple, not too sophisticated but great garage rock and roll. There were more albums and some split 7″ singles (Audacity, Nü Sensae, Davila 666) but I think their best album LIVE is going to release on 1st of June on SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS. Listen!

Oh, almost I forgot that one of the original 4 quit.

Our favourite psych garage rock band from Bordeaux JC SATÁN recently released their 5th album CENTAUR DESIRE on BORN BAD RECORDS. Strange that this is their first release which was recorded all together. On the past albums, Arthur (guitar) and Dorian (keyboards) used to handle all instruments.

The title Centaur Desire tells everything about the record. Traditionally the centaurs were the offspring of Ixion, king of a Greek tribe and Nephele the cloud nymph. They lived in the mountains of Thessaly and Arcadia. The centaurs were often represented drawing the chariot of the wine god Dionysus or bound and ridden by Eros, the god of love, in allusion to their drunken and amorous habits. Their general character was that of wild, lawless, and inhospitable beings, the slaves of their animal passions. These passions were channeled into this album with French jauntiness and Italian fervour.

If you feel this powerful passion then need to buy the legendary first release of RNR666 RECORDS, a beautiful limited edition JC SATAN / PIRESIAN BEACH split 7″ vinyl EP directly from RNR666 or at Musicland and Wave record shops in Budapest.

New Yorker PARQUET COURTS is a punk band. Hard to say anything else. OK, compared to Total Punk Records style punk bands they rather play pop music. Their influnces come from Velvet Underground, Ramones and Talking Heads, but I also hear The Fall and even Country Teasers in their music. I remember their first album was a big revelation for me. There the sound was more punk than on the next ones. Fortunately, unlike many others they don’t write the same record year by year. And now with the new album WIDE AWAKE we arrived to New Orelans:

SHILPA RAY  new EP  NIHILISM  on 16 May

The song “Shoot This Dying Horse” is a rainy day waltz about how bad things can happen to anyone, at any time in the most random and meaningless ways. More specifically, it’s about getting dumped at a bar two days before Christmas. It was inspired by and written after binge-watching the Grateful Dead documentary series Long Strange Trip.

On the B-side, there is an Alice Cooper cover. The story behind this version is that she and her band listened to this one a lot on tour. When she paid closer attention to the lyrics, she realized if sung by a woman the song could be a feminist anthem.

„What have I got
That makes you want to love me
Now is it my body
Or someone I might be
Or somethin’ inside me”

The original one.

Digital and limited cassette editon on NORTHERN SPY RECORDS (US)

GOSH! is a minimal psych-pop duo. OK, there are many. But when I got their new album ODYSSEY I wanted to show it to everybody. Hey, listen to this! So simple, bittersweet and beautiful.

GOSH! started when Padraig left his psychedelic post-americana band Nude Sunrise and started dating with Claire. One of the first moments they spent together there were guitars. Claire picked the bass and they learned „Badlands” from The Jesus and Mary Chain. Anyway she never played any instruments before and GOSH! is her first band. And it is among my brand new favourites.

New album ODYSSEY was written after they got back to Chicago from a chaotic tour. It remembers an underpaid journey as arduous as the real Ulysses’s, full of tragic twists and chemical quicksands. „All while watching the new season of Twin Peaks. It was a dark time, but we channeled that darkness and complete sense of defeat into creativity and in turn have produced something incredibly positive” – said Claire.

I know it coming soon on NICEY MUSIC

Unfortunately at the moment I cannot show the song Lake Shore Drive to you, but you can listen to it in KILLBONOCLUB this Saturday.

Sex Judas brought David Holmes to my mind. There was a summertime open-air party in Budapest, and he was late because of police problems. Hours went after hours. When he finally arrived at dawn I was drunk and smoked so much that I was not able to speak normally. And after he started to play I was just shouting and wallowing on the grass. Same feeling.

Norwegian producer Tore Gjedrem of Ost & Kjex channels his love of comix, bohemia and fascination with human vice, the unspoken, the Red Light districts, the alleys of the mind into his alter ego Sex Judas. He is no bad character but certainly says what it’s author cannot.

“I wanted to create a world where any musical idea is possible, wound together by the world and word of Judas, the ultimate sinner, reborn as a child of Venus.”

The album GO DOWN JUDAS was made with contributions by his friends in the Oslo scene as hometown legend Dj Pål Strangefruit Nyhus, composer Ole-Henrik Moe, jazzpianist Bugge Wesseltoft, Sidiki Camara from Mali playing that beautiful Ngoni, and multi instrumentalist Ivar Snuten Winther. Music inspiration ranges from Africa to 80’s NYC, from Bohannon to Quasimoto, from Norwegian New Wave to Acid House. It touches anything from blues, funk, disco and post-punk to IDM, acid house and electronic explorer music. And it’s a fuckin funny album:

The album comes as a 2 x LP and Digital release on OPTIMO MUSIC on May 25th. Distributed by Kompakt.

Sex Judas on Spotify

I love if a band can make me some laugh with their music like
DOG CHOCOLATE from London.
By their own words, they perhaps play sloppy, messy, silly and jerky punk music:

Jono plays a couple of drums, Matthew plays a guitar and a load of pedals, Rob plays another guitar and sings some songs and Andrew sings most the songs and plays another guitar and sings some songs and Andrew sings most the songs and plays percussive keyboard when he’s not. They write songs without thinking too much about things that make them feel a lot, as it sez in the song „It’s About Giving A Shit” but at the same time not giving a shit!! It says more too, but dont worry about that now.

New album MOODY BALLOON BABY on UPSET THE RHYTHM RECORDS (UK)

Cadillac born New Orleans based American traditionalist LUKE WINSLOW-KING plays a mix of old, but maybe eternal American tunes with his band: ragtime, country, blues, gospel, dixie, bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll with minimal and occasionally brass band orchestration.

New album BLUE MESA out soon on BLOODSHOT RECORDS (US)

„BLUE MESA” on Bandcamp

LWK on Spotify

FOR EPICUREAN SOULS

V/A  RARE FINNISH SYNTH – POP & DISCO 1979 – 92

Title song by EMILIA

She is internationally maybe the most sought-after Finnish disco 7”. Released in 1981, it was the debut single of the singer Anne Luoto under this moniker. Her experiments in cosmic Italo disco didn’t find any positive feedback from the Finnish rock critics, but luckily it didn’t stop her from making a highly collectible album also. Even though the eponymous album (1982) includes many quality tracks – and also her debut single Satan In Love – the standout track in her repertoire is this strange love song with devilish lyrics. The original track was released by Italian disco project La Bellini in 1978 and this Finnish version from three years later uses the same backing track. Anne Luoto had a very interesting day job – she was a calligrapher.

If you want to know more and you are curious about the Finnish lyrical version of this song by Fredi you need to buy this double LP. It comes with an essay about early Finnish electronic music by Mikko Mattlar: DJ, journalist and historian on Finnish music.

This year the legendary unknown raw and wild synth-punk band PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS turns into 40. They (we) celebrate it with their third album ON DRUGS.

The band started in 1978, in the same place and same time than the Birthday Party. After a single they relocated to London, in same time than the Birthday Party, and promptly broke up in 1980. But there was a post-split-up single under the name of Zye Ye Ye in England in 1981. The first album was released in 1980. It’s a live recording of a gig supporting the Boys Next Door in 1979. The Boys Next Door was renamed to Birthday Party.

In 1986 they reunited for the sake of a film and relesed an EP but there were nothing new but a remix on it. In the early 2000s they were discovered, records were reissued together with unreleased live and other recordings. Then they have reformed in 2009 at the request of Nick Cave for the first All Tommorrow’s Pary in Australia.

First studio album THE WORLD IS FUCKED was released in 2013. And now the third album finally here. It is a little bit different than the others. Heartbreak and loss also appear beside nihilism and rage at the world. Even, there is a ballad, a dark, nasty, dire dirge.

ON DRUGS ON SPOTIFY

PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS FACEBOOK

This was a happy Wednesday morning because I have got the new album ROACH GOIN’ DOWN of American avant-punk girl trio PALBERTA. On this album Ani, Nina, and Lily continue to pave the way as innovators in the field of guitar-based music, delivering a barrage of twisted, catchy hymns that manage to be both challenging and feverishly compelling. They combine the band’s signature frenetic instrumentation with a thoroughly developed pop sensibility that fans merely glimpsed on previous releases. And this time it’s grounded by a lyrical nuance and newfound melancholy that gives the record an air of maturity compared to previous releases. But best describe their music what I’ve found on their FB page:

“You wanna wabbada? Wap wap wap dabbada?
You see that mabada? ding ding dack dabbada?”

Album on Bandcamp