Behind The Wall – The Record
Life behind the Berlin Wall, before the fall. Once there was DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), otherwise known as East Germany. Verging on the ruins of the 2nd world war, in the fog of the socialist utopia, there was a widespread scene fighting against corporations and restrictions. Die neuen Bands, that was the manifesto, a number of small alternative bands facing the efforts of the post-punk (and even post-industrial) revolution. This was happening right after the English new wave or the …
Tapetopia 002: GDR Underground Tapes (1984-1989)
To release a tape in East Germany in 1986 called Ihre großen Erfolge (Their Great Successes) illustrates how every situation produces people that are unwilling to accept that situation. Claus Löser and Florian Merkel were two such people. Their band Die Gehirne and their many side-projects ensured that their hometown of Karl-Marx-Stadt, today's Chemnitz, could assert its role in the independent art world of the GDR. Inspirations included Frank Bretschneider from the experimental electronic band …
Tapetopia 001: GDR Underground Tapes (1984-1989)
Tapetopia 001 -- A Collection of East German Underground Tapes. In 1988, the legendary freak wave outfit Ornament & Verbrechen handed out some 20 to 30 copies of their Rotmaul-Tape to friends. The band, formed by the Lippok brothers, emerged from the first East Berlin punk group Rosa Extra and the avant-wave project Fünf Wochen im Ballon. From the moment of O&V's inception, the band was the wellspring for many acts that would subsequently branch off as tributaries and streams in the East Berlin …
Först River Man Allt
**300 copies** Kizza Ping formed in Linköping 1980 from the ashes of local punk bands such as Spy, RAS, ÅOBF and Zpamhead. Much in line with the current strains of Ny Våg/postpunk happenings around the country in the early '80s, the six members of Kizza Ping went for more a pop-oriented sound though still being somewhat firmly rooted in their DIY punk past. Influences came from acts like New Order and Reeperbahn, but the band added their own touch to the sound, especially thanks to the harmonizi…
Closely Watched Trains
Onderstroom present a reissue of Glorious Din's Closely Watched Trains, originally released in 1987. How a boy from the Sri Lankan jungle formed the greatest post-punk band you've never heard. Fronted by an intense singer with an oblique songbook and a mysterious past, Glorious Din was unlike any other group to emerge from San Francisco's '80s underground. With singer Eric Cope, the chosen persona of a Joy Division-obsessed Sri Lankan boy who travelled halfway around the world to follow his punk…
Post Internet Blues
Post Internet Blues is UK group Gad Whip's latest album, following several low-key cassette albums released since 2014, plus the four tracks that constitute 2017's limited edition In A Room EP. Gad Whip blend avant-garde sensibilities with a contemporary take on the place where D.I.Y. culture meets post-punk, hints of deconstructed garage rock and interstellar voyaging through sweat-drenched waking dreams. Immediate, powerful, confounding and kept in place by wry, sometimes observational, vocals…
Lust In Peace
Advancing the post-punk infused concoction of blazing garage and art-driven destructs-rock, as established on Hand & Leg's grinding self-titled debut from 2017, the bass and drums are here cranked to new heights of molten activity. Murky shades of sexual negativity plough forth with the help of obsidian distortion, careering bass dirges so scuzzed they can clog arteries, ungodly squalls of paint-stripping noise, and a tendency towards playful rhythmic rituals themselves only offering brief respi…
Radio Silence
With This Kind Of Punishment, Graeme Jefferies and Peter Jefferies produced some of most adept DIY sounds to emerge from New Zealand's 1980s post-punk scene. After their phenomenal self-titled debut and classic A Beard Of Bees, the brothers would make one last album together, In The Same Room. Originally released in 1987 on Flying Nun, In The Same Room is perhaps the straightest rock offering in TKP's esteemed catalogue. Opening track "Immigration Song" expertly pairs jagged guitars with wrathf…
Leading Stolen Horses
“One of the best shows I went to in San Francisco during 1984 was the Glorious Din & Trial gig. This show really changed my life & made realize that I had to follow my dreams. Both of these bands were local bands, but they had created this killer post-punk sound that could hold its own with any band from anywhere. Around this time, Glorious Din released their classic album Leading Stolen Horses. This album is a post-punk gem that many people have never heard – trust me, after one listen you will…
The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen
In process of stocking. After two singles for Fast Product, Leeds art-punk collective The Mekons signed with Virgin Records in 1979. The band would have to borrow gear from their mates Gang Of Four to record their major label debut. In classic Mekons style, the album’s back cover featured a photo of Gang Of Four instead of themselves. As Simon Reynolds writes, “The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen got a mixed reception at the time. Listening to it now, though, the first LP sounds more of a piece w…
D.A.P.A. / Oefening Kunstbaardt in Rotterdam
**250 copies** Discos Transgénero presents the first ever compilation of How To Get Rich In Rotterdam and Geluidshouwerij. These were projects of Chris Lindquist and Paul Stoute with the collaboration of Linda Lindquist, all of whom were based in Rotterdam in the early ‘80s. How To Get Rich In Rotterdam was a group - formed by Chris Lindquist and Paul Stoute - than only released one self-titled 7" record. This single was a very limited edition coming in two different covers. Johan Kugelberg sele…
No Forgetting - The Album
**500 copies** Discos Transgénero presents the first ever album by The Manchester Mekon, a group of musicians that were active from the end of the '70s to the beginning of the '80s in Manchester. Influenced by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Igor Stravinsky, King Crimson, Maurice Revel and Pink Floyd, the Manchester Mekon aimed to integrate composed and improvised music, blending orchestral and electronic sounds with rock, both live and in the studio. Over a period of five years (1977-…
Domestic Sampler UMYU
**500 copies** Discos Transgénero presents the first ever reissue of the Domestic Sampler UMYU. Domestic Sampler was a project that Víctor Nubla (former member of Macromassa) recorded for the record label UMYU. It features a host of artists; a synergy of the scene that was happening in Barcelona at the beginning of the eighties. El Grito Acusador, Entr’Acte. Logotipo, Klamm, Secreto Metro, Error Genético, Detra’s Band 10, Boris, Mimi Pimer and Tres reflected the new wave underground scene of Cat…
Color Colour
** Edition of 300 copies, totally sold out at source ** Another incredible archival work from Cabiria Records here, a genuine holy grail of Italian post-punk music, Andy Warhol Banana Technicolor’ legendary 'Color Color' tape is remastered and issued on vinyl for the first time, this is an indispensable slice of ‘80s Italy’s underground experimental rhizome. Like their international tape-scene allies, Andy Warhol Banana Technicolor reacted to this world thru a matrix of mono-synths, drum machine…
Necropolis
Canadian private press mega-rarity/obscurity from the artistically schizophrenic Bob Bell. Recorded in 1978, Bell splits the difference between his love of basement psych splatter/pummel and squalling free jazz ramble, the former occupying side A with a stunning four-part suite of wasted guitar scuzz and churning Krautrock-like drama with an akin to German Oak, Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, DNA, Melt Banana (minus the vocals) and Guru Guru. The latter represents Bell as a saxophonist on side B, and…
Dogs' Ears Are Stupid
Mental Experience presents a reissue of Care Of The Cow's Dogs' Ears Are Stupid, originally released only on cassette in 1983. The album is a fascinating blend of psychedelic folk, minimal electronics and post-punk weirdness. Acid fuzz guitar, incredible vocal harmonies, drum machines, and analogue synths make it one of Chicago's best kept secrets, with a history that goes back to 1974. A trio formed by Victor Sanders, X Baczewska, and Sher Doruff, they had a very unique and eclectic sound, expe…
Spiralling
Mental Experience present an expanded reissue and the first ever vinyl reissue of The Momes' Spiralling, originally released in 1989 on the Woof label. Featuring Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, The Work) on Hawaiian laptop noisy guitar and keyboards, Mick Hobbs (Family Fodder, The Work, Officer!) on bass, and Andy Wake (Unrest, Work & Play) on drums, The Momes were a unique power trio with an abrasive sound channeling post-punk, psych-prog, and avant-rock. Spiralling is their sole album, recorded at …
Rock Y Roll
** Edition of 300 ** War Extension announces the vinyl re-issue of Rok Y Roll by Vic Serf & The Villains, originally released by It's War Boys on cassette in 1982. Musicians on the album comprised Vic Serf (alias of Jim "Amos" Welton), Cathy Spermwrecker, Rita Chulo, and Larry O'Houlihan, along with guest appearances from Ron Dealo, Lepke B., and Sara Fancy. The recording is situated in a particularly fervent and inventive period of 1980s independent and experimental music-making, in which musi…
Poke It With a Stick
“You knew you were in the presence of something powerful whenever they played. Their sound was open and catatonic. Cathartic. You recognized it right away." — Britt Walford (Slint drummer), remembering Louisville art-punks Your Food back when played out, in 1982–83. LP back in print for the first time in 35 years! Plus, first time in digital waves.
Color Him Coma
The first CD in this set is a reissue of an obscure cassette release from 1983 that was originally released in a small edition on the London based, It’s War Boys label. This C60 consisted of 2 distinct halves. Side 1 was formed around several mixes of an experimental track, constructed from a room-sized 24 track loop. A version of this track first appeared on the LP Flagellation by The Just Measurers (who were C. D. Greyt, Yakkö Banovic and Narki Brillans).Side 2 is a collage of mostly unused (a…