[engl] Documenting the unlikely coupling of British free jazz bastion Lol Coxhill and the sarcy synth pop don't-wannabes known as Gerry And The Holograms this rare incognito full-length album bridges the micro-niches of electronic jazz and punk jazz from a band formed in 1979 at an axis where DIY and new wave hadn't quite collided! With sprinklings of post-punk female vocals worthy of PragVEC and Suburban Lawns, featuring angular art rock paeans to voodoo dolls and closed-circuit TV, this privately pressed LP comes directly from the man who gave Martin Hannett some of his best ideas and wrote the "Blue"print for Manchester's new musical order. Imagine if Talking Heads became Mark E Smith’s backing band for a week before being sacked for wearing a Frank Zappa t-shirt while Eric Dolphy forgot to take his headphones off… If that sounds up your street, then you should be paying double. A genuine lost moment from the post-punk era with progressive pop credentials from the university of Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias before everyone got a job at the local Factory. Why are you the only person who doesn't know about this?

[engl] From the same studio that brought us 48 Chairs (Gerry & The Holograms), The Fall and The Blue Orchids, while following the bona-fide bloodline between Danny And The Dressmakers, Toolshed and 808 State, the “difficult second album” by Biting Tongues (released on a minuscule cassette run by The Buzzcocks vanity label) has since become a near mythical artefact of Mancunian DIY. Cementing the path between the Absurd label’s kitchen sink synth assaults and Factory’s 99 informed downtown aspirations, Biting Tongues’ bass-driven, pounding-sounding, schizo-skronking, squat-pop put the emergence of punk-funk under a blinding interrogation bulb then hid round the corner evading secret police. Pouring three letter words like ESG, DAF, PIL and ACR into Ken Hollings Scrabble bag would result in a unique form of wordy dictaphone agit-rap and closed-circuit commentary to Graham Massey’s overqualified punk ensemble, laying foundations of future Manc activity using uncertified sand and gravel tactics, only to be safety checked every 38 years, or thereabout. Live It, the lost Biting Tongues album, still breathes. Including what the original members of this pioneering post-punk platoon unanimously consider their greatest work, Biting Tongues seldom-heard, second roll of the dice was presented to The Buzzcock’s own label New Hormones to coincide with full-length DIY debuts by Ludus, Dislocation Dance and a distinct tightening of pursestrings. Recorded on half-price studio time (in the midst of a multi-track repair session) and duped on to compact cassettes to keep pressing costs down, the album Live It even entirely bypassed the non-existent art-department before landing in the hands of a small readership of peculiar punk die-hards, instantly slipping into obscurity, evading official band future discographies and reaching an imaginary status in the history of unchartered Manc-manufactured messthetics. Now available, on vinyl, with two sleeve variations and extensive notes from Graham Massey and Ken Hollings, Live It is a welcome misplaced release and an essential addition to Finders Keepers’ Cache Cache catalog. Biting Tongues make wise heads!

[engl]  Comprising two of the most complete bodies of work from innova- tive Swiss electronic jazz pioneer Bruno Spoerri this combined archival release delves into a deep vault of commercial and exper- imental film music revealing the vibrant versatility of the compos- er in collaboration with two important Swiss directors. Mastered from original studio tapes this compendium comprises an expand- ed range of instruments and studio techniques placing the artist on either side of his comfort zone parameters. Utilising vocals in both a treated/experimental form as well as in a formal song based capacity this release instantly reveals two new sides to Spoerri’s personality. The two soundtracks also reveal the natu- ral progression of Bruno's interaction between live bands and jazz musicians working alongside industrial field recordings and con- crète tape experiments (previously exemplified in his work for forklift truck manufacturer Lansing Bagnall). Spoerri's broad palette of electronic instruments is widely utilised within these recordings revealing Bruno's home studio as one of the early exponents of the Lyricon wind synth and various modular synthe- sisers developed and re-customised as part of a wider creative relationship with the creators of Buchla and Arp instruments. Both programmes span a decade of commercial work for Swiss and German advertising companies furnishing a unique Swiss culture of tangible vinyl giveaway records which punctuates the artists varied discography alongside a list that includes collabora- tions with musicians from German Krautrock band Can, legendary progressive jazz/electronic musicians like Klaus Weiss and Joel Vandroogenbroeck, as well as physical visual artists like Betha Sarasin. Presenting the entire previously unreleased score to Kurt Aeschbacher's experimental film Lilith and a remastered ver- sion of the rare vinyl soundtrack to Rolf Lyssy's comedy Teddy Bär (including an newly excavated non-LP track) this release goes beyond the typical realms of commercial film composition includ- ing full-length cues and fully realised electronic tracks which stand up both within and outside of the context of the original, seldom seen celluloid achievements. Enjoy at best with an open mind with eyes open or closed for a wider perspective on this one man music machine.

[engl] Well–documented as one of Frank Zappa’s favourite ever groups and instantly recognisable as the BLUEprint of 80’s Mancunian electro pop, the inflated alter–egos of Gerry & The Holograms (and their unrivalled brand of conceptual sarcastic synth pop) successfully remodelled, ridiculed and redefined plugged–in punk before hitting the self–destruct button and burying the evidence under a pile of hand–mutilated microgrooves for over 35 wet summers. Having risen from the electronic embers of Manchester’s first genuine psychedelic band, via Vertigo commissioned prog and experimental theatre, then refined through the musical mind behind the most inspired vinyl moments of Martin Hannett, John Cooper Clarke and Jilted John – the onliest discography of the GATH anti–band remains unrivalled as the most idiosyncratic and enigmatic pivotal post–punk artefact from the first electronic entrenchment of pop. A consistent inclusion on record collector want-lists, transcending both decades and musical genres, the first-and-only listenable 2 track record by this masked art-rock studio duo, entitled Meet The Dissidents originally appeared in record racks in 1979, selling-out instantly only to be sequelised by a totally unplayable situationist-inspired follow-up which was glued into its own sleeve destroying the grooves in the process (rivalling that of Peter Saville and Durutti Column’s Debordist sandpaper re-hash by at least 3 years). With a life-span shorter than the hours on their studio bill, the band would find bedfellows amongst other incognito groups like Naffi Sandwich, The Mothmen and Blah Blah Blah within the Absurd Records stable – a daring Mancunian imprint that sat awkwardly between older and younger half-sister labels Rabid and Relentless. With a 11 release library of mostly non-returning faceless atonal electronic punk/DIY industrial bands Absurd would spearhead and pre-empt the subsequent decades of Mancunian independent record labels that followed in the footsteps of the more commercially successful Factory Records (while also drawing comparisons with Spiral Scratch, Test Pressings, Object Music and Throbbing Gristles’ Industrial Records). Despite just one official title to their name however, the true identity behind Gerry And The Holograms would unify those sister-labels and collectively play an important supporting role in Manchester’s independent music history with a story which goes back as far as most rain soaked memories can attempt to forget.

[engl] For the uninitiated the composer of the music on this record is also a master craftsman who throughout the 1980s combined his off-the-wall ideas and sky high expectations using craft, experi- mental technology and a trusted team of participants to help con- coct some truly bizarre local produce in mass quantity without compromise. Ilaiyaraaja, known to his family as Gnanadesikan, and to many of his zillion strong fan base as Isaignani (meaning musical genius in Tamil) represents the epitome of a nostalgic national treasure especially for a single solo composer in the Tamil micro music industry. His euphoric electrified music of the 70s and 80s (and beyond) captures every essence of joy and jubi- lation and is still used in celebration as much as it is celebrated in its own right. Ilaiyaraaja, a man of humble physical stature, sparsely equipped with a self-sufficient studio of compact elec- tronic devices literally COMMANDS celebration with his single handed symphonies. Defying any fair comparisons in the Western world (besides inad- equate parallels to Joe Meek and Jean-Pierre Massiera) it is also virtually impossible to find similar electronic mavericks in the East. Imagine a mixture between Turkey’s Ilhan Mimaroglu and the acidic synthesiser ragas of Charanjit Singh and you're still left short of the songs. Essentially, Ilaiyaraaja is to the local Kollywood film industry what RD Burman/Bappi Lahiri or M.Ashraf/Tafo are to Bollywood and Lollywood but then remember that Ilaiyaraaja is a one-man band, with a single vision and zero competition. This compilation reveals more tasty treats from Finders Keepers ongoing obsession with The Crown Prince Of Tamil Pop - focus- ing on his growth in the mid-1980s as a confident young compos- er adding freak pop fuel to the flickering flame of Kodambakkam's Kollywood film industry, while embracing domestic synthesiser technology and fusing the power of electro and synth pop to his Carnatic canon.

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

[engl] “Leaving you spellbound in its androgynous vocal delivery, Spider King’s Animals is a haunting children’s march that paralyses me with each listen” Cedric Bixler Zavala (Mars Volta/Antemasque) An unknown pleasure torn out of Manchester’s lost DIY manual, this overqualified/underexposed post-punk pop pillar cast an almost invisible undetected web across the history of Manchester’s inner-city music scene which has trapped body parts of The Mothmen, Martin Hannett, Gerry And The Holograms, John Cooper Clarke, The Blue Orchids, Naffi Sandwich (The Naffis) and The Fates in its glue. As a central mast to 1970s/80s Manchester’s “deserted” DIY era, spanning angular jazz funk, punk and sarcastic synth pop, Spider King has also played huge parts in Manchester’s honorary adoption of The Velvet Underground’s Nico (as her lead guitarist), fronted Martin Hannett’s first ever band and inhabits a key roll in the careers of Sad Cafe, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, Paul Young and AC/DC’s Mancunian debut. With dozens of self-penned songs, unreleased demos and two of the best collectable Manc punk funk 45s to grace collectors want lists it’s almost unbelievable (almost tragic) that Mike King never released a full length album… until now. Shot To Pieces is one of the most elusive jagged pieces of the North West’s punk funk puzzle. Recorded sporadically between 1979 and 1983 with a cast of characters from the Rabid/Absurd label family, such as behind the scenes synth wielder John Scott from Gerry And The Holograms, and producers like Laurie Latham (The Blockheads) it’s plain to see why 2016?s current music climate is the perfect time for the Spider King’s lost music to resurface. Commonly recognised by stalwarts of the era’s mutating punk/alt/indie genre as “the one that got away”, Spider King is the archetypal artist’s artist as well as the outsider’s outsider and the hardest working man in no-business who is now attracting a whole new audience of champions from bloggers, vinyl nerds and well respected contemporary musicians with his appearances on mix-tapes and various artist compilations. On hearing this essential release you could argue that these lost “spider-grams” are more relevant now than they were when those arachnophobic A&R men shooed him away over 3 decades ago. For those who ain’t afraid to get bitten say hello to the Spider King.

[engl] Incredible, idiosyncratic and obscure early 80s French futurist DIY project led by Jean-Luc Aime (Univers Zero) this feature-length album of elusive recordings marks the bonafide axis point where Zeuhl School meets synth pop, dark ambient and early electro culled from rare vinyl and disparate cassette co-op releases for this first ever LP release. A lost art-efact from a micro genre where ZED, Eskaton and Heldon share outernational tape space with Vox Populi! The Normal, Colin Potter and Luc Marianni this record occupies a unique place on the shelves of fans of early DIY electro and post punk while ticking the boxes of 80s VHS OST enthusiasts and the growing interest in European cassette zine projects. These melodic macabre tape experiments fuse multi-track cassette experiments with home-made special effects at the hand of an accomplished multi-instrumentalist working on the outer reaches of disenfranchised progressive-pop and reluctant techno defining then deconstructing genres that have yet to exist. Fuelled by futurist gothic imagery and operating on a parallel plain to his European and American contemporaries there are few artists like Stabat Stable and virtually none more enigmatic. This benchmark record is the first signpost to a darker part of your musical want-list as the invisible glue for fans of the aforementioned anti-genres. File under “Not Yet”.

[engl] Having spent exactly ten years living off the small change and 45 adapters of each others pockets, Finders Keepers/Cache Cache Records co-founders Andy Votel and Doug Shipton spread their wings and pool their DJ bags for a new series of sporadic various artists compilations focussing on the global punk and makeshift electro records that have kept their beer soaked dance floors and distorted sound systems moving in recent years. Meet the younger sarcastic sisters of some of the classic Finders Keepers family and their spotty friends then watch what happens when jazz punk underdogs cock their legs to their overqualified elder brothers.Plastic Dance presents ten unacquainted and elusive slices of synthetic squat pop, angular funk, teapot kosmische and fraudulent disco from self-propelled imprints and global co-ops. Named after Günter Bernas obscure DIY anti-band this ongoing series combines rare, unknown and untravelled wax nuggets of night club punk, art school Zeuhl and quasi-political pop united by soldering irons, C-60s and sarcastic synth tones. Featuring a cross section of unobtainable unreleased unknown and unwanted reluctant punk and snide synth pop with sleeve-notes by respected DJ/Haç hack/Situationist addict John McCready and artwork by airbrush legend Terry Pastor (Ziggy Stardust/Soft Machine/Arthur C. Clarke) Plastic Dance becomes flexible under heat.

[engl] Greetings sisters and brothers. Let’s talk about reductionist revolution and the kicking in of doors. Let’s talk of iconoclasts and culture bombs. Let’s talk about moral panic and censorship. Let’s talk about punk rock.