JOHN BARTLES - "A Cat Of More Than 9 Tails" (2016)

"A Cat Of More Than 9 Tails" is a CD wth a theme, nine tales bout the cats!

There are songs on here with great titles like "When You're A Cat," and "Tell Me What's Wrong With Cats," but for me, the real standout is "The Human Scratchin Post." John is in fine style, and the bass just kicks cat butt! 

This is one of the few of John's CD's that doesn't have any credits on it, and John has worked with so many incredible musicians, I'd hate to guess which one it is. I've got a bonus for you on this one, before we get down to the cat chow, check out this fifteen second piece titled

"Pussy Cat Fandango"

AND Get Ready...........Here's

JOHN BARTLES - "The Human Scratchin Post"

MARTIN NEWELL - "Gajoob Issue #7 - Sampler #5" - Part 02 (1991)

 

Almost by request, here's another cut from this Gajoob Sampler # 5, because this song is just too good not to be heard!

 

The tape by Martin Newell that this song came off of was called "Songs For A Fallow Land," and was actually made in 1985, but was re-released on Jan Bruun's "Hypertonia World Enterprises" label in Norway in 1991, and Jan submitted it to Gajoob for review. Martin Newell has had many projects like Cleaners From Venus over the years, and you can check it all out at this Discogs link, but don't bother clicking on any of his website links because they either are dead or go someplace else.

 

This song was good in 1985 and 1991, and is still good in 2020! That's how good it is!

MARTIN NEWELL - "Soul Monday"

ROBERT KARNES - "Gajoob Issue #7 - Sampler #5" (1991)

 

This time it's Sampler #5 for Issue #7 of Gajoob. Do you have any idea how much work this must have been for Bryan Baker? A full magazine full of reviews and eight tapes to go along with it? That's a lot of dedicated work!! Cleaning The Augean Stables was probably an easier task!

 

This particular tape had a lot of very good music on it, and it was hard for me to just pick out one song! The Martin Newell song is outstanding too.

 

The artist I chose was Robert Karnes and the name of the tape was "Eve Worshippers," In the magazine, this is a little of what he has to say about his music.

"This tape was put together in the studio over a 2 1/2 year period from early 1988 to mid 1990.  Most of the music was composed in the studio using the studio's facilities (I have to keyboards or instruments of my own)."

I tried to find some current info on Robert on Discogs, Tape-Mag, and Bandcamp but came up with zilch, and there are at least five Robert Karnes on Facebook, and none of them seemed like musicians.

Robert Karnes -  "Making Love To A Virgin Land"

CHRIS PHINNEY & ED DRURY - "Ayuda" (2020)

 

It's difficult times we live in today, but Ed Drury and Chris Phinney aren't letting it stop them, in fact, it's just the opposite. Ed and Chris have been cranking out a tune every day or two for the last month or so, and it just keeps getting better! Even though they live on opposite sides of the country, they seem to be on exactly the same wavelength!

Here's from the liner notes!

"Mental Illness effects more people than most diseases. We dedicate this album to all that are suffering mentally..in it's various different forms. May the sun rise up & caress your face!"

Ed has kind of laid his guitar down for this session, and although it changes from tune to tune, the instrumentation is basically:

 Ed Drury -Didgeredoo, Synths, Tibetan Bowl, Native American chant loops, Medicine drum, Clavichord etc.
and
Chris Phinney - Synths, FX, Treated bells, D. program, final mix etc. at HRM 

 CHRIS PHINNEY & ED DRURY - "Ayuda"

FROZEN PLASTIC - "Glider" (1992)

Here's an interesting CD that it's hard to find any extra information about! I can tell you that it was created by a pair of Jeffs, Farley and Charreaux. Jeff Farley was in a group called Astrobleme, and Jeff Charreaux was in the very cool band called Ultraviolet Eye. One of Jeff C's more current projects is a group called "The Walker Brigade."

Jeff Charreaux had sent me some CDs, and some video tapes to be used on our public access TV show called "Offbeat," and I'm pretty sure this is from the same early 1990's period, even though there is no date on this CD!

This was a side venture that Jeff and Jeff were having fun with, and was actually made to be used as background music. They said it was a tribute to Brian Eno's "Music For Airports" LP from 1978.

So they called themselves Frozen Plastic, and the name of this CD was "Glider." It had three distinct sections, "Sky," "Land," and "Sea," of which I'll present one to you!

FROZEN PLASTIC - "Sky"

EC Split 6 by Mental Anguish and Vasectomy Party (2020)

Mental Anguish — Desire, Tethered, Strapped recorded sometime in the dog days of August.

Gear: Surge & Lokomotive vst analog synths controlled by M-Audio Oxygen 8 & MicroBrute analog synthesizer, Behringer mixer, using Behringer controller, heavily effected with delay, reverb, & compressor.

Inspired by way too many old artists from all over the world back in the day & my EC comrades in arms, also my grandbaby Little Man - Cameron Fleetwood McNamee

Thanks to Hal McGee, Hal Harmon, Jerry Kranitz, Carl (Cuz) Howard, Doug Walker, Jeff Central & all the members of Electronic Cottage.

 

Vasectomy Party — Models of Misdirection I, II, and III
Inspired by time spent recently in the Smoky Mountains. Environmental decay and detritus channeled through sound. Meditation through drone, loops, and glitch. 
Recorded in the waning days of August 2020. 
Gear used (as much as I can...)  

Escaped September 1, 2020
MENTAL ANGUISH - "Desire"

POINT*NO*POINT - "Blankets & Sheets" (1988)

"Blankets And Sheets" was a cassette of cover tunes made by the band Point*No*Point in 1988 to basically hand out to club owners so they could hear how the boys could rock the house!

I never knew Rich Horton back then, so I think it's pretty funny that the following year, we put out our tape of covers called "Ducks And Covers."

The members of the band at the time were Rich Arithmetic - Lead Guitar, Vocals, Lance Morgan - Organ, Guitar, and Vocals, Marc Strader on Bass and Backing Vocals, and Rob Moore - Drums and Tambourine.

 

Some of this stuff is just standard fare, but the medley of "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White/That's What I Like About You" is about as good of a two song mashup as you'll ever hear!

POINT*NO*POINT - "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White/That's What I Like About You"