No time for a lengthy description... but I believe this is Mad Room's debut release. They were an Aussie wave band that put out another 7" and LP (+ possibly more) and made some compilation appearances. I have heard a few scattered tracks over-the-years that never really grabbed my attention... though I think fans of minimal, coldwave, and post-punk will likely be pleased with "Kisses Touched With Madness" off this one.
Mad Room - The Cruelty of Beauty 12" (1983, Talk of The Author Records)
01. Kisses Touched With Madness 02. Host of Others 03. Play For Me
Obscure late 80s UK synth/electro-pop band. Not 100% sure if the band's name is The Shrine, The Shrine K, or The Shrine KK due to the K's in the middle of the sleeve and labels on the vinyl... though the few sources online list this one as simply "The Shrine".
Great 7" for fans of a more raw, DIY '81-82 era Cure that coincidentally just happened to be released by Robert Smith himself on his own Dance Fools Dance label. The last track, "Foreign Lands" is a bit more goth-oriented, but the other two tracks could have been Pornography-era Cure demos.
An apparent quote from a Facebook page that might no longer exist:
Robert Smith (The Cure) also played a big part in the career of, then 16 year old, Leon Muraglia and his band, Animation. Leon said: "I played a bit with The Obtainers at school, I knew Robert Smith through The Cure's Porl Thompson, who worked at L+H Cloake in town (the record shop). He lived round the corner from me, so I’d often pop round on a Sunday and sit and talk - sounds a bit weird, I know! And sometimes he'd invite me in and give me a guitar to play. He ended up producing and putting out the Frame One 7-inch on his label, Dance Fools Dance in 1982. We pressed 500 singles, which Smith left in the back of his car (a white Vauxhall VX1800 estate), for a few sunny days when he went on a drinking binge with Steve Severin of Siouxsie + The Banshees so half of them were badly warped." Animation - Frame One 7" (1982, Dance Fools Dance)
Great DIY compilation featuring four bands from 's-Hertogenbosch in The Netherlands. The Parlinone track seems to be most widely known song off this release in collectors circles for minimal synth fans, Factory Toys deliver a gritty goth atmosphere, Bolero has a doomy garage sound, and Goudhaantjes end up sounding the most conventional out of the lot to my ears simply due to sounding like a lot of other Dutch post-punk/new wave bands - when likely they would have been the oddballs on many other compilations.
VA: Trash Records 7" (1984, Trash Records)
01. Bolero - Hotel Holland
02. Goudhaantjes - This Is
03. Parlinone - Dodubdada
04. Factory Toys - Vapouring Pictures
Their lone, but nice little post-punk / dark wave single from this Boston area band featuring Wally Gagel, who later became a well-known producer, engineer, musician, and songwriter in the 90s. Wally also played drums on Jeff & Jane Hudson's "Special World" 7", and a quick check on discogs even reveals he offered his talents on a Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus album some years back! You would have never guessed hearing this one.
The Production Club - Excitement 7" (1982, Advanced Research Records)
Highly obscure Belgian goth band with a great primitive sound you might expect from a private pressing. Some Sisters influences for sure, but also reminds me of some of the German goth bands from the later half of the 80's.
Candy Stripe - As Above So Below LP (1990, Disques-Editions TLP)
01. Missing Words
02. Between The Lines
03. I Am Crazy For You
04. What I Feel Right Now
05. Candy
06. In The Cold Night
07. Out of The Screen
08. What I Feel Right Now (Accoustic)
Here's a self-released CDR that I believe most fans of the band are likely unaware of collecting material recorded between 1989-2006. Not sure how many copies of this were produced, or if this release was sort of put together on an "on demand" basis since its appears home-made. I got a copy from the band after contacting them on myspace, so that possibility might still exist for those interested in a physical copy. This release includes three of the tracks from their 7" singles and everything else would be consider rarities. Unfortunately, I do not know if these other tracks were originally released on some of their cassettes - quite likely. Anyways, classic French coldwave band... "Le Nez Rouge" is easily one of my all-time favorite songs. The last 2 tracks on this CD are certainly from a low-quality source, so my VBR ripping method might appear that I purposely ripped those tracks at a low-bitrate... not the case. A flat 320 bitrate isn't going to solve anything in regards to the sound other than creating an unnecessarily big file.
German guitar indie 7" with some slight dark/melancholy touches at times on some of these tracks. The song "Different" is excellent, the last track ("Hello") has a locked loop groove, so I simply faded it out after a couple seconds...
This appears to be their debut release, though a CD (not including these tracks) was later released featuring recordings from 1992-96.
The Dead Adair - Different 7" (1990, Die Schwarze 7)
01. Different
02. Monterrey Revisited
03. I'm Sure I'll Go To Heaven (Anyway)
04. Hello
I believe this is the only release put out by Rot Guts, a Belgian
cold wave, post-punk, new wave act. "Forgotten In The Age" is the better
of the two tracks in my opinion, great DIY early Cure sound. "What Did
You Do?" is certainly a more conventional new wave/post-punk tune, but not
bad...
Rot Guts - Forgotten In The Age 7" (1982, Nuclear Production Records)
Missed In Diary were a band from Detroit, Michigan in the early-mid 90s that often got lumped with the goth scene (not sure if by accident or design). While many of the bands in the genre during this time period were trying their darndest Andrew Eldrich, Carl McCoy, Siouxsie, Ian Curtis, Rozz Williams, Robert Smith, etc. impressions... these guys appear to have been greater influenced particularly by bands like For Against, along with the guitar-wave indie + shoegaze movement. Certainly an under-rated band, and they appeared to have received more recognition in Europe. These records are not that difficult to find despite being released on their own label, and often are cheap whenever I see them. I believe some cassettes were also released, but I only recall ever seeing one on ebay many years ago.
Missed In Diary - Wonders Why 7" (1991, Eye Records)
01. Wonders Why
02. Rise & Shine
Missed In Diary - Remember When 7" (1993, Eye Records)
01. Remember When
02. To Crowd The Hours
Missed In Diary - Dissolve EP CD (1995, Eye Records)
01. To Crowd The Hours
02. Pause For Effect
03. Wonders Why
04. Gone
05. Dissolve
Last week this California band's sole full-length LP was posted over at Vinyl Obscurity, so I thought I'd go ahead and share their only other vinyl release to complete the set. This 7" predates their "Moonrise" LP, and I personally don't find the songs to be quite as interesting as some of the tracks from that release (certainly not horrible though)... The two tracks here aren't quite as atmospheric dirge, but faster-pace heavily psychedelic influenced goth/wave with a wailing female singer...
Pagan Myth - Corpus Delicti 7" (1983, Nuclear Waste Records)
Super rare UK tape / zine compilation that I've only seen for sale once. I added this release to discogs over five years ago, and have received quite a few private messages regarding it, which I presume is due to the track by one of the most mystified/rare UK goth/post-punk bands of all time - the short-lived Aemotii Crii, who included members such as Andy Cousin (All About Eve, Pink & Black, The Mission, Sex Gang Children, etc.), Tim Bricheno (All About Eve, Sisters of Mercy, XC-NN, etc.), and Rob Stroud early on (Sex Gang Children, Pink & Black, Technoquake, etc.). I'm not sure if the track will quite live up to all the expectations some might have imagined that have been seeking out material over the years, but here it is... Black, who later hit it big with the song "Wonderful World", contribute an early rarity that is quite good dark wave. Some Now Are contribute a nice dark post-punk track... their second 7" was produced by Peter Hook, but from what I remember it's nowhere as interesting as this song. There are some minimal/experimental tracks by Tanoy Entertainment and Stephen Horsfall, as well as other new wave and avantgarde material.
VA: Index #2 K7 (1983, Index Audio)
01. Side A Introduction
02. The Aemotii Crii - Gifts For All
03. Stephen Horsfall - Bleak & Wild Lands
04. Send No Flowers - Days of Rage
05. Ludus - Wrapped In Silence (Live)
06. Side B Introduction
07. Eric Random - Eastern Promise
08. The Balcony - Black Ivory Coast Towers
09. Tanoy Entertainment - Create & Exploit
10. Some Now Are - A Nightmares Dream
11. Black - Reunion
These "Scream" compilations were promo LPs only released in a generic white sleeve containing the quote on the label, "Sampler containing really exciting American music." There are also two other volumes in this series (1 and 4) containing tracks by bands such as The Arms of Someone New, Executive Slacks, Algebra Suicide, and Rash of Stabbings. In reality, these compilations are not identified by volume, but by catalog number (SCRM-2, SCRM-3)... I simply labeled them by volume to reference easier. There are also at least two other LPs from the same label called "Scream Down Under" containing all Australian bands... I have one of these as well - but it is too terrible to post with the exception of one track by Gravity Pirates that is easily available on their "This Way To The Cargo Cult" LP.
Amongst these 2 LPs there are a couple nice tracks for fans of obscure 80s dark/synth/wave/guitar indie bands - Ninth Column, Lung Overcoat (exclusive track), Modern Cities, Boca Iy Ear, Eyes of God, Martin Human, Valley of Kings, and The Big Race. However, the rest of the bands are not "exciting" to me... but possibly worth the download for the couple of good ones (so check the preview below).
01. Eyes of God - Garden of Sin
02. The Big Race - Hands On Fire
03. Modern Cities - Worlds Away
04. LMNOP - Forever Thru The Sun
05. Buddy Love - I Can't Stand Myself
06. Zone - Americans
07. Loose Ties - Take A Ride
08. Valley of Kings - Where Have You Gone?
09. Martin Human - Upside Down & Backwards
10. Emily West - Constant Back Beat
11. Boca Iy Ear - Witch Doctor
12. Sadistic Exploits - Beginnings
01. Primitons - You'll Never Know
02. The Statics - Transistor Radio
03. Echo - Mannequin Man
04. Lung Overcoat - Maybe We've Gone
05. Snakeout - Surfabilly
06. Bedful of Metaphysicians - The Wish I Had
07. The Uptown Rulers - Sneakin' Out
08. The Schemers - Valley of Love
09. 22 Cave Gods - Cave God Chant
10. Ninth Column - Bela's Box
11. PS - House With No Words
12. Pirate Radio - You Are The Knife
Very good quality early cassette release by US goth band Dichroic Mirror, who went on to release three cds between 1994-2000 that I doubt that many people ever bothered listening to (and must have called it quits sometimes afterwards). Their sound could possibly draw comparisons to some other US bands active around the same time period such as Stone 588, Mephisto Walz, Requiem In White, or early material by The Shroud... but they certainly have their own unique melodramatic elements, ghostly female vocals and a great atmospheric guitar sound. Some of the tracks on here later made it to their debut CD "Silence Is Foo", though these do not appear to be the same versions from the couple tracks I compared. Another early cassette exists called "Children of Lir" from '93 that I do not own nor have heard. Time to pull out the tarot cards!
01. Disconnection
02. Night Sky
03. Here We Fall
04. Veils
05. Box of Sand
06. Afterlife
07. Hide From The Shadows
08. Ghost Dance
09. At Sunset
10. Entrophy
