VARIOUS ARTISTS - GAIN YOUR INDEPENDENCE: HOT ROCKETS AND BARBED WIRE KISSES FROM THE PACIFIC NORTH WEST

Mixtape 2015

01. The Microphones - I Want the Wind to Blow
02. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
03. D+ - Super 8
04. Beat Happening - Bewitched
05. Bratmobile - Girlfriends Don't Keep
06. Love As Laughter - Stay Out of Jail
07. Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
08. Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Sunshine
09. Unwound - Honourosis
10. Green River - Hanging Tree
11. Earth - An inquest Concerning Teeth
12. Mount Eerie - The Place I Live
13. Neko Case - Things That Scare Me
14. Old Time Relijun - Siren
15. Dub Narcotic Sound System - Dub Narcotic Selector Pt.1
16. The Blow - Fists Up
17. Lois -  Darvey
18. Mudhoney - Hate the Police
19. Panties - Rule This Town (You Don't)
20. Sunn O))) - Big Church

This is the first in a series of compilations made especially for It's Lost it's Found.

Here's the compiler:

"In my recurring dream one hot summer, I was ten minutes from Olympia, driving a bluebird with Calvin Johnson gazing up at the Pacific Northwest stars. We were on our way to hear some basement noise by the good guys and girls of the Evergreen state College in Olympia. We never made it, so I made this compilation instead.

Olympia is the home of K records and its founder Calvin Johnson has provided a blueprint in how to nourish, maintain and provide a network for a musical independence, which allows artists to work and communicate with the world on terms that best suits them.

Many of the bands on this compilation are K bands – The Microphones and Beat Happening being the best known.  K stands for knowledge, integrity and teenage rebellion. The shield around K has burned brightly now for over 30 years, providing a home to hundreds artists and lost souls that are connected by a D.I.Y. attitude that has had a big effect on how I and countless others view art and music and how it shapes our lives.

Other artists on this comp (all from Washington state) take in proto grunge (Green River), riot grrrl (Bikini Kill), drone metal (Earth) and ‘alternative rock’ (Modest Mouse). The music is diverse, creating many genres and sub genres that are still mutating nicely today, it is all linked by a sense of wonder at bigger things, and an urgency to take nothing for granted, to never accept the status quo. One day I hope to make it to Olympia, I hope you get there too."

- Marc Gillen.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - LAMMAS NIGHT LAMENTS VOLUME 12

01. John Cameron - Judd Walks To the Mine
02. Karen Beth - Come December
03. Karen Dalton - How Did The Feeling Feel To You
04. Chuck & Mary Perrin - Run Away with Me
05. Lesley Duncan - Love Song
06. Haizea - Argizagi Ederra
07. Jan Dukes de Gray - Wonder Child
08. The Trees - Psalm 45
09. Barry Dransfield - The Werewolf
10. John and Chris Leslie - The New St George
11. Graham and Eileen Pratt - Lark In The Clear Air
12. Brandywine Bridge - Three Loves
13. Magenta - Gipsy
14. Pentangle - Rain & Snow
15. Nigel Mazlyn Jones - Reality
16. Mushroom - Early One Morning
17. Chris Harwood - Mama
18. Terry Reid - Dream
19. Pink Floyd - Julia Dream
20. Arthur - Eleanor
21. Jade - Raven
22. John Cameron with Harvey Andrews - Riding Free

SYD BARRETT - MISCELLANIA

Bootleg, recorded 1970-74

01. Terrapin
02. Gigolo Aunt
03. Baby Lemonade
04. Effervescing Elephant
05. Two of a Kind
06. Terrapin
07. Gigolo Aunt
08. Effervescing Elephant
09. Octopus
10. Baby Lemonade
11. Dominoes
12. Love Song
13. Birdie Hop
14. Slow Boogie
15. John Lee Hooker
16. Fast Boogie
17. Boogie #2
18. Boogie
19. If You Go, Don't Be Slow
20. Ballad
21. Fragment
22. Was That O.K.?


The third and final of my own Syd Barrett boots.

Tracks 1-5 are from a Peel Session recorded on the 24th of February 1970. Includes the unreleased song 'Two of a Kind'.

Tracks 6-9 are from the first and only live solo show, recorded at the Olympia Exhibition House, 6th of June 1970. After four songs, Syd unplugs his guitar and walks off stage, leaving the band.

Tracks 10-13 are from the second and final Peel Session. Recorded 16th February 1971.

Tracks 14-22 represent the final recordings Syd Barrett made.

SYD BARRETT - BARRETT OUTTAKES

Bootleg 1970.

01. Baby Lemonade - Take 1
02. Waving My Arms in the Air - Take 1
03. Maisie - Take 1
04. Maisie - Take 2
05. Bob Dylan Blues
06. Gigolo Aunt - Take 6
07. I Never Lied to You - Take 1
08. Rats - Demo
09. Wined and Dined - Demo
10. Birdie Hop - Demo
11. Rats - Take 1
12. Wined and Dined - Takes 1 & 2
13. Milky Way - Take 5
14. Dolly Rocker - Take 1
15. Let's Split - Take 1
16. Effervescing Elephant - Take 2
17. Dominoes - Take 1
18. Dominoes - Take 2
19. Word Song - Take 1
20. It is Obvious - Take 2
21. It is Obvious - Take 3
22. It is Obvious - Take 5
23. Love Song - Take 1

The second of my personal Syd Barrett bootlegs, all tracks are taken from the sessions for the second L.P. 'Barrett'. Includes two takes of 'Dominoes', one of Syd's best songs and inexplicably left off the album.

WE ARE THE WOODEN HOUSES - THE HEADLAND OF THE DEMON HAUNTED CASTLE

TOR48 Released March 2015.

Al and I were interested in making music in several different ways, but where the music would be bound by feeling and esoteric relationship; contrast and exposure. The selections on this recording fall into several categories:

Field recordings – throughout 2014 I made many field recordings: cathedrals, nature, street bands... I thought these could be used to make several collages; a running theme and interesting sonically with various effects applied.

Thematic variations – there are several versions of the main theme of a soundtrack that has no movie.

To venture less explored emotions and feelings in music - fear, paranoia, mental health, calmness, the esoteric, the occult, death, desolation, isolation, contrasted with the more recognisable hope, warmth, calm and stillness.

To try and further pinpoint the source of such inspiration, its relationship with its environment.

Focus and distraction through drone – both Al and I love drone and ambient music. So we decided to go all out on some of the tracks. Again, instinctively knowing they would fit with the others.

There was also the instinctual decision to make this instrumental. There are human voices on there, but they’re as murky and confused and as misunderstood as the emotions they’re trying to convey.

The Recordings

01. Last chance to advance beyond human... – Essentially a guitar experiment. A short drone. The name comes from the header of a flyer posted by the Branch Davidians in their final weeks.

02. The Black Square – The first theme variation, performed on nylon string guitar.

03. Perception is a reflection of existential self-knowledge – Electric guitar drone with field recordings, and a vocal sample of Jordan Maxwell.

04. The Power of the Witch – The title comes from a recently re-discovered BBC documentary from the seventies about witchcraft in modern society. The music was spontaneously composed.

05. Spire – Composed, improvised and re-composed piano version of the main theme.

06. Mirror Mountain – Manipulated field recordings and improvised melodica. Inspired by the German various artists album ‘Vor Der Flut (Hommage An Einen Wasserspeicher).’ Also has a snippet of a slide guitar demo.

07. Priest Hand License – Primitive guitar blues.

08. Lateral exclusion field along a path of least resistance – This piece is made exclusively from manipulated field recordings. At the end, dogs in a valley, their barking swept up by the wind from the top of Blencathra.

09. Spiral – The final and most elaborate version of the main theme. The variations on the main theme run from the most vague to most complete order. This was to give the listener the effect that something was becoming clearer, and to realise that something had always been there.

10. Just After Now – An exploration of tone and rhythm within sound. Purely sonic adventure.

11. The Smiling Chair – The most explicit and visceral of the recordings; horror ambient? The title was inspired by the picture ‘The Singing Chair’ by Arthur Tress.

12. Kielder – A direct sonic representation and homage to the woods and water of Kielder in 12-string and bowed bass.

‘The Headland of the Demon Haunted Castle’ is an approximate translation of ‘Skinburness’, the name of the road I grew up on.


- Stephen.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - LAMMAS NIGHT LAMENTS VOLUME 11

01. Paul Giovanni & Magnet - Ruined Church
02. Madde Harris - The Wind at Eve
03. Hedgehog Pie - Fishing Song
04. Maddy Prior & Tim Hart - Dancing at Whitsun
05. Lal & Mike Waterson - Fine Horseman
06. Etchingham Steam Band - Horn Fair
07. Bob & Carol Anne Pegg - A Glass of Water
08. Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick - Prince Heathen
09. Albion Country Band - I Was a Young Man
10. Green Man - Salisbury Plain
11. Spriguns of Toigus - Curragh of Kildare
12. John Renbourn - The Cuckoo
13. Meic Stevens - Yorric
14. Mr. Fox - Mendle
15. Celebrated Ratliffe Stout Band - The Yellow Peg
16. Toni & Davy Arthur - Hey John Barleycorn
17. Dransfield - The Blacksmith Part One

Note: Yes, I am aware that Volume 10 was due to be posted next. I can't find it, but when I do, it will be posted. Don't fret psych-folksters!