HR069 - Woundz Never Heal! — 2 x C90 — 1988
Tape #1
Side A: Big City Orchestra - Grindy Windey Mental Anguish - You Just Gotta Darren Copeland - The Faces In Movement Cephalic Index - Lead Before Leg Viktimized Karcass - Talking About Crack Animation Festival - Basis For Our Religion Jazz-N-Git-Fat - Single Me Out White Cancerous Hand Growth - Subjugate Opera - Just A Love Song |
Side B:
Swinebolt 45 - No Apologies Stream Of Unconsciousness - Cheese Results Randy Greif - Shell Mantra Of The Dayak Semantics Could Vanish - Trudgeryrosary Joe Carnation - Letters Kopfschmerstablette - Bus Stop Of New Life Die Rache - Tal Section 21 Jeff Central - Exotique Pop Druids - Untitled Pierre Perret - La Mer (excerpt) |
Tape #2
Side A: Parade Of Sinners - No Happening Dave Prescott - Untitled Mental Anguish & NOMUZIC - Untitled (Live) X-Ray Pop - Le Poisson John Wiggins - Untitled #3 Bunker Club Project - I'm Gonna Die Mike Crooker - Untitled Teen Lesbians & Animals - Crimson High-Speed John Wiggins - Untitled #1 |
Side B: Nature And Organisation - Siras Etar Besanar (Live '88) Minóy - Thank You For Calling LD Gregory - A House Of Chaos The Arms Of Someone New - Answers Bene Gesserit - Bal If, Bwana - One For The Boys F/i - Free Form Number 2 Dog As Master - Speculative Surgery For Amusement & Profit |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Tape #1
There were probably 1000s of cassette compilations released throughout the 1980s. These collections were a fantastic way for artists to get their work heard, brought together the work of diverse artists, sometimes following a theme, more often not.
Woundz Never Heal! consists of two C90 tapes, a whopping three hours of music, spotlighting an international cast of homemade artists. Many are stalwarts of the 1980s network, others I’d never heard of until writing about this tape. But three hours later it is clear that Woundz Never Heal is Exhibit A for what wonderful historical documents of the era’s creative muscle flexing these compilations could be.
Tag along as I give you the whole detailed gnarly tour of this two-volume gem and you’ll get a feel for the incredible diversity that these compilations could offer. Note the names that crop up in various configurations throughout…
Cassette culture stalwarts Big City Orchestra (Santa Cruz, California) open the set with what sounds like a radio drama soundtrack run through a shimmering and squealing effects grinder. I like the balance between the haunting music and noisy manipulations.
Mental Anguish is Harsh Reality label honcho Chris Phinney, who contributes an eerie, choppily rhythmic, spacey droning and melodic electronica piece.
Darren Copeland (Canada) creates a ghostly, whirly-swirling, insect efx’d bit of what sounds like space electronica from the Orient.
Cephalic Index is Mike Jackson, formerly of Memphis, at this time residing in Boston, and member of Viktimized Karcass. Mike serves up a constantly changing montage of delirium, radio wave fun, and wigged out gurgling effects.
Viktimized Karcass follow with a goofily grooving slab of effects slathered dancefloor space-punk that sheds light on its ‘Talking About Crack’ title.
Animation Festival (Tioga, Louisiana) contribute a short but nifty space-industrial tune. This left me wishing for more, and I’ll sleep well at night knowing that we’ve got an Animation Festival C60 coming in just couple more catalog titles (HR077).
Jazz-N-Git-Fat is a collaboration between Minóy and Roger Moneymaker (Viktimized Karcass, Swinebolt 45), creating a spooky, alter-dimensional glom of lost souls soundscapes.
White Cancerous Hand Growth is a collaboration between Cancerous Growth (Chris Phinney & Mike Jackson) and Anthony Michael King, who ran the Banned Productions label. Their contribution originally appeared on the White Cancerous Growth tape released on Merzbow’s ZSF label and will crop up again later as HR265. Nice blend of noise and drone aggression punctuated by angst guitar and other mangled effects.
I had never heard of Opera but their lo-fi experimental acoustic-folk instrumental came c/o the Italian based Old Europa Cafe label.
Roger Moneymaker returns in his Swinebolt 45 guise with what starts as surprisingly straightforward heavy guitar rock, but which near the end devolves into drugged weirdness.
Stream Of Unconsciousness was a collaboration between Mike Jackson and Dave Prescott. I like their free-wheeling sci-fi electronica, with all the bleeps, blurps and gurgles one could hope for.
Randy Greif (Northridge, California) headed up the Swinging Axe Productions tape label and contributes a compelling blend of ethnic percussion and soundscapes. I love the balance between spacey, spectral, droning atmospherics and varied drumming and rhythms, as if it were some tribal ceremony in the 10th Dimension.
Semantics Could Vanish’s (Madison, Wisconsin) short piece combines cascading electronic blasts, high pitched tones, and symphony-of-growls noise assaults. I wish this would have been developed beyond its 2 minutes.
I’ve not heard of Joe Carnation but he is another that comes c/o the Old Europa Cafe label. I like the combination of dancefloor punk rock and electronic squalls. Dig those slightly sped up vocals. Great freaky tune.
Kopfschmerstablette is another new one to me and comes via Prion Tapes in Germany. I like the darkly repetitive melody punctuated by cascading waves of bubbling electronics.
Also from Germany, Die Rache weigh in with a cool tune that sounds like an Industrial ambient symphony conducted by the Grim Reaper.
I like the Industrial funk pulse and pleasantly tinkly melody on Jeff Central’s (Columbus, Ohio) contribution.
Pop Druids is the duo of Roger Moneymaker and Eddie Hankins, who set a steady beat that anchors an eerie array of soundscapes and orchestra, with effects that come in waves, pulsations, and swirls, some of which sound like horns.
Pierre Perret’s (France) appropriately titled ‘La Mer’ treats us to the sound of waves washing ashore.
Tape #2
Parade Of Sinners was Massachusetts based Andrew Szava-Kovats, who later recorded as Data-Bank-A, ran the K.O. City Studio label (now True Age Media), and organized the outstanding Grindstone compilations. I like the quirkily off-kilter brand of collage, Hip-Hop (sorta) dance tune he contributes to this set.
Dave Prescott (Boston) was a prolific 80s electronic artist who excelled at various forms of space electronica. Dave’s contribution begins with a blend of oddly metered drumming and dripping water. But it’s soon dominated by tumbling waves of sparkling effects, followed by multiple flittering and surging layers of variably paced syncopated melodies.
Mental Anguish (Chris Phinney) and Nomuzic (Carl Howard) were frequent collaborators, and their entry is a hip-shaking and cosmically haunting brand of electronic space rock… or spooky film score. Take your pick!
X-Ray Pop (France) were one of best ‘pop’ bands in the homemade music underground. They were fun, sounded like themselves, and produced some delightful ditties. This tune is more on the dramatic side, with haunting keys, vocal narration, and a variety of bubbly, squeaky toy, and other effects.
John Wiggins is another cassette culture veteran, here creating an intriguing cluster of bells, percussion, and what sounds like some cracked orchestra warming up. John pops up again later with a second track that sounds like a jazz meets The Residents interpretation of Mr Roger’s Neighborhood piano music.
Bunker Club Project was a solo project from Chip Flynn (Port Huron, Michigan) and his entry serves up a dancefloor brand of Industrial electronica that includes spaced out ambience and noise and mashes in daily life conversations.
Mike Crooker (Kent, Ohio) ran the GGE Records label and contributes an uplifting, ambient gong, bells and heavenly keys ensemble.
Teen Lesbians & Animals comes via the Ecto Tapes label in Oklahoma City, and their track is a quirky cut-up of noise-shouts and swirly tape manipulated wails.
Nature And Organisation’s (UK) track is a ghostly collage cauldron of anguished howling and screaming voices, percussion, and effects. It’s like the soundtrack to an avant-garde horror flick. This is pretty spooky stuff. I’d like to hear more from these folks.
Master sound sculptor, the late great Minóy, creates a piece that lays down a rolling, warlike foundation, over which musical bits and pieces pop in… big band jazz, old time music hall… along with various voice samples, soundscapes and effects.
LD Gregory (Houston, Texas) is another artist who is new to me. I like the spacey, gloomy blend of John Carpenter synth soundtrack, dreamy atmosphere, and chorus of alien insect life.
The Arms Of Someone New (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) are also new to me. Their entry is a short but pleasantly melodic Goth infused instrumental.
Bene Gesserit were the Belgian duo of Alain Neffe and Nadine Bal. Neffe is one of the Godfathers of cassette culture, having run the Insane Music label and produced multiple simultaneous band and solo projects. Their contribution is an eerily dreamy space-Goth tune with bewitching, wispy narrative vocals.
If, Bwana is Al Margolis, yet another Godfather of cassette culture, who also ran the Sound Of Pig label. His track combines soundscapes, noisily rumbling effects, and ornithological sounds from nature.
F/i (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) were a long-lived space/psych/noise/punk band who released numerous cassette albums and several LPs. Their entry is a short ambient-noise piece that sounds like the daily hum and thrum of an engine room.
Finally, Dog As Master is a solo project of Hal McGee, who along with Debbie Jaffe ran the Cause and Effect label. His track consists of sci-fi ambience and noise, creating a cool blend of space electronica and edgy soundscapes.
Tape #1
There were probably 1000s of cassette compilations released throughout the 1980s. These collections were a fantastic way for artists to get their work heard, brought together the work of diverse artists, sometimes following a theme, more often not.
Woundz Never Heal! consists of two C90 tapes, a whopping three hours of music, spotlighting an international cast of homemade artists. Many are stalwarts of the 1980s network, others I’d never heard of until writing about this tape. But three hours later it is clear that Woundz Never Heal is Exhibit A for what wonderful historical documents of the era’s creative muscle flexing these compilations could be.
Tag along as I give you the whole detailed gnarly tour of this two-volume gem and you’ll get a feel for the incredible diversity that these compilations could offer. Note the names that crop up in various configurations throughout…
Cassette culture stalwarts Big City Orchestra (Santa Cruz, California) open the set with what sounds like a radio drama soundtrack run through a shimmering and squealing effects grinder. I like the balance between the haunting music and noisy manipulations.
Mental Anguish is Harsh Reality label honcho Chris Phinney, who contributes an eerie, choppily rhythmic, spacey droning and melodic electronica piece.
Darren Copeland (Canada) creates a ghostly, whirly-swirling, insect efx’d bit of what sounds like space electronica from the Orient.
Cephalic Index is Mike Jackson, formerly of Memphis, at this time residing in Boston, and member of Viktimized Karcass. Mike serves up a constantly changing montage of delirium, radio wave fun, and wigged out gurgling effects.
Viktimized Karcass follow with a goofily grooving slab of effects slathered dancefloor space-punk that sheds light on its ‘Talking About Crack’ title.
Animation Festival (Tioga, Louisiana) contribute a short but nifty space-industrial tune. This left me wishing for more, and I’ll sleep well at night knowing that we’ve got an Animation Festival C60 coming in just couple more catalog titles (HR077).
Jazz-N-Git-Fat is a collaboration between Minóy and Roger Moneymaker (Viktimized Karcass, Swinebolt 45), creating a spooky, alter-dimensional glom of lost souls soundscapes.
White Cancerous Hand Growth is a collaboration between Cancerous Growth (Chris Phinney & Mike Jackson) and Anthony Michael King, who ran the Banned Productions label. Their contribution originally appeared on the White Cancerous Growth tape released on Merzbow’s ZSF label and will crop up again later as HR265. Nice blend of noise and drone aggression punctuated by angst guitar and other mangled effects.
I had never heard of Opera but their lo-fi experimental acoustic-folk instrumental came c/o the Italian based Old Europa Cafe label.
Roger Moneymaker returns in his Swinebolt 45 guise with what starts as surprisingly straightforward heavy guitar rock, but which near the end devolves into drugged weirdness.
Stream Of Unconsciousness was a collaboration between Mike Jackson and Dave Prescott. I like their free-wheeling sci-fi electronica, with all the bleeps, blurps and gurgles one could hope for.
Randy Greif (Northridge, California) headed up the Swinging Axe Productions tape label and contributes a compelling blend of ethnic percussion and soundscapes. I love the balance between spacey, spectral, droning atmospherics and varied drumming and rhythms, as if it were some tribal ceremony in the 10th Dimension.
Semantics Could Vanish’s (Madison, Wisconsin) short piece combines cascading electronic blasts, high pitched tones, and symphony-of-growls noise assaults. I wish this would have been developed beyond its 2 minutes.
I’ve not heard of Joe Carnation but he is another that comes c/o the Old Europa Cafe label. I like the combination of dancefloor punk rock and electronic squalls. Dig those slightly sped up vocals. Great freaky tune.
Kopfschmerstablette is another new one to me and comes via Prion Tapes in Germany. I like the darkly repetitive melody punctuated by cascading waves of bubbling electronics.
Also from Germany, Die Rache weigh in with a cool tune that sounds like an Industrial ambient symphony conducted by the Grim Reaper.
I like the Industrial funk pulse and pleasantly tinkly melody on Jeff Central’s (Columbus, Ohio) contribution.
Pop Druids is the duo of Roger Moneymaker and Eddie Hankins, who set a steady beat that anchors an eerie array of soundscapes and orchestra, with effects that come in waves, pulsations, and swirls, some of which sound like horns.
Pierre Perret’s (France) appropriately titled ‘La Mer’ treats us to the sound of waves washing ashore.
Tape #2
Parade Of Sinners was Massachusetts based Andrew Szava-Kovats, who later recorded as Data-Bank-A, ran the K.O. City Studio label (now True Age Media), and organized the outstanding Grindstone compilations. I like the quirkily off-kilter brand of collage, Hip-Hop (sorta) dance tune he contributes to this set.
Dave Prescott (Boston) was a prolific 80s electronic artist who excelled at various forms of space electronica. Dave’s contribution begins with a blend of oddly metered drumming and dripping water. But it’s soon dominated by tumbling waves of sparkling effects, followed by multiple flittering and surging layers of variably paced syncopated melodies.
Mental Anguish (Chris Phinney) and Nomuzic (Carl Howard) were frequent collaborators, and their entry is a hip-shaking and cosmically haunting brand of electronic space rock… or spooky film score. Take your pick!
X-Ray Pop (France) were one of best ‘pop’ bands in the homemade music underground. They were fun, sounded like themselves, and produced some delightful ditties. This tune is more on the dramatic side, with haunting keys, vocal narration, and a variety of bubbly, squeaky toy, and other effects.
John Wiggins is another cassette culture veteran, here creating an intriguing cluster of bells, percussion, and what sounds like some cracked orchestra warming up. John pops up again later with a second track that sounds like a jazz meets The Residents interpretation of Mr Roger’s Neighborhood piano music.
Bunker Club Project was a solo project from Chip Flynn (Port Huron, Michigan) and his entry serves up a dancefloor brand of Industrial electronica that includes spaced out ambience and noise and mashes in daily life conversations.
Mike Crooker (Kent, Ohio) ran the GGE Records label and contributes an uplifting, ambient gong, bells and heavenly keys ensemble.
Teen Lesbians & Animals comes via the Ecto Tapes label in Oklahoma City, and their track is a quirky cut-up of noise-shouts and swirly tape manipulated wails.
Nature And Organisation’s (UK) track is a ghostly collage cauldron of anguished howling and screaming voices, percussion, and effects. It’s like the soundtrack to an avant-garde horror flick. This is pretty spooky stuff. I’d like to hear more from these folks.
Master sound sculptor, the late great Minóy, creates a piece that lays down a rolling, warlike foundation, over which musical bits and pieces pop in… big band jazz, old time music hall… along with various voice samples, soundscapes and effects.
LD Gregory (Houston, Texas) is another artist who is new to me. I like the spacey, gloomy blend of John Carpenter synth soundtrack, dreamy atmosphere, and chorus of alien insect life.
The Arms Of Someone New (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) are also new to me. Their entry is a short but pleasantly melodic Goth infused instrumental.
Bene Gesserit were the Belgian duo of Alain Neffe and Nadine Bal. Neffe is one of the Godfathers of cassette culture, having run the Insane Music label and produced multiple simultaneous band and solo projects. Their contribution is an eerily dreamy space-Goth tune with bewitching, wispy narrative vocals.
If, Bwana is Al Margolis, yet another Godfather of cassette culture, who also ran the Sound Of Pig label. His track combines soundscapes, noisily rumbling effects, and ornithological sounds from nature.
F/i (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) were a long-lived space/psych/noise/punk band who released numerous cassette albums and several LPs. Their entry is a short ambient-noise piece that sounds like the daily hum and thrum of an engine room.
Finally, Dog As Master is a solo project of Hal McGee, who along with Debbie Jaffe ran the Cause and Effect label. His track consists of sci-fi ambience and noise, creating a cool blend of space electronica and edgy soundscapes.