THE CHILDREN OF SUNSHINE - DANDELIONS

KBK 1971

01. Dandelions
02. The College School
03. Tuffy
04. War
05. They Call It Love
06. The Children Of Sunshine
07. Uncle Harry
08. If You Are Lonely
09. Talking
10. It's a Long Way To Heaven
11. Harmony
12. Talking


Tres Williams and Kitsy Christner were both 10 years old when they recorded the album ‘Dandelions’. Encouraged by their guitar teacher, Tres and Kitsy wrote, arranged and recorded 10 songs. They used a picture from their school photography project for the cover, enlisted local musicians to help out and privately pressed 300 copies to sell to friends and family.

This album is beautiful. Confused observations about war, divorce and god sit along side joyful ditties about dogs, uncles and school. Contemporary folk is an influence (Judy Collins, James Taylor) but the songs and performances are utterly free of pretense. The voices and playing contain the kind of joy and charm that could only be written and performed by children as yet unburdened by the responsibilities and stresses of adult life.

This will be your new favorite record.


From the back of the L.P. :

"It was just two years ago when we met each other — that’s when it all started. Jim CURRAN started giving us guitar lessons. After a while we always played together at the shows at school. Then we had a photography class with Frank. He taught us how to develop pictures and what a photographer should know. One day it was very nice out so we went over to the college to ake pictures and there was a great big dandelion field and so we thought why don’t we take pictures here. So we all picked some dandelions and posed in them. Frank took our picture and we developed it. In a few weeks we were together at Kitsy’s home for the weekend and Uncle Scott and Aunt Judy were there when we started to make up some songs. Uncle Scott said, “Why don’t you two make an album since you’re so good?” We said, “O.K.!” So we started making up songs and Kitsypractice doing our songs, so Jim said we should have a show of our own for the school just to get used to crowds. We did and we sang all our songs. Finally we had a whole bunch of rehearsals for the album and we had background people like Wendy and Mike — Mike played the drums and Wendy the bass. It really started to sound good so we had our first recording sessions. On our first recording session we recorded 4 songs but we only used two: “Dandelions” and “Tuffy”. In our second recording session we were tired of rehearsing and recording so we decided we were going to do them all that day. They all turned out good. The following Monday night at 8 o’clock we chose which songs we wanted to do which finished the album. We had everybody who wanted an album at the College School send in $5.00 to us. When we got pretty much money we finished the album and that made us very proud. We’d like to say “Thank you” very much to Jim CURRAN, Wendy KATZ, Mike KIEFFER, John MacENULTY, Uncle Steve (Uncle Harry?) and all the people who helped us make our whole album. TRES and KITSY"

Think The Shaggs, Beat Happening or The Vaselines but as two girls in the seventies.

No kitsch, total charm. Total obscure classic.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - VOR DER FLUT (HOMMAGE AN EINEN WASSERSPEICHER)



Eigelstein Musikproduktion 1985/De Campo Records 1988

01. Christian Bollmann, Doris Zeman, Gerd Kappelhoff, Helmut Scherner, Jochan Vetter,
      Roberto Laneri, Stephanie Wolf - Invocations                        
02. Dario Domingues - Pacha Siku 
03. Pauline Oliveros - Watertank Software
04. Budi Siebert & Joe Koinzer - Trüffeltanz
05. Jochen Vetter, Doris Zeman, Gerd Kappelhoff, Helmut Scherner - Praevocationes
06. Dario Domingues - The Spirit of the Wind
07. Pauline Oliveros - The Gentle (Short Version)
08. Budi Siebert - Wal-Hall-A
09. Saxophon Mafia - Kellerdschungel
10. Conrad Bauer - Bötz
11. Butz Dahn, Michael Hohler, Wolfgang Hamm - Unter Der Stadt
12. Heiner Goebbels - Ein Vorfilm Für Herbert Achternbusch

Twelve tracks of out there free improvisation recorded in a temporarily disused water tank. The minimal compositions perfectly exploit the incredible reverb and acoustics of this unique recording location resulting in total organic avant garde ambient.

From the liner notes of the reissue :

"In December 1984 musicians from different countries and the 'Tanzforum der Oper/Köln' met in the almost 100 years old drinking watertank (Wasserspeicher) SEVERIN (which had been emptied for refurbishment) located on the southside of Cologne for an exceptional music and dance project. The recordings of this CD testify for the unique acoustics of the subterraneous colonnade. All takes have only been recorded with microphones distributed throughout the tank, without using any additional studio effect equipment before it was finally flooded again (german title - vor der flut : before the flood).

Mixed at Studio Zuckerfabrik, Stuttgart; Soundexpress Studio, Köln.
Mastered at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg."

Both the reissued cd from 1988 and the original vinyl from 1985 are out of print and hard to find.

MIKE TINGLEY - THE ABSTRACT PRINCE

Decca 1968

01. A Real Fine Time
02. Begin The Sun
03. Connected To Nothing
04. Emotions And May
05. Monotony's Message
06. See The People
07. Abstract Prince
08. Of Sand
09. Of Soul And Deed
10. I Weep
11. It's Time To Leave Her
12. Crossroads


Californian Mike Tingley recorded and released his only L.P. in 1968. ‘The Abstract Prince’ is a very sixties fusion of folk and psychedelic pop enriched with Spectoresque strings and tight arrangements.

Still essentially unknown, this record is ripe for a reissue (Sundazed perhaps?)

On first listen, some listeners may find the songs a little light. The production is pretty and there is a whiff of teenage pop. However, repeated spins reveal lyrics of existential angst, social commentary and personal observations.

Here’s the artist himself :

“I have been asked to write a few lines for this LP. But where do I start? I think I am just now realising what has taken place. I will start by thanking to everyone who was involved in the making of this record. And there are so many that added so much to it. My producer, Tony Vos, whose guidance and supervision I couldn't have done without. My recording technician, Gerard Beckers, whose skill in a control room was consistently outstanding. The drummer, Cees Kranenburg and the bass player, Jan Hollesteller, who both demonstrated the only thing that only a good musician can...talent and plenty of it. And speaking of musicians, I really owe a special debt gratitude to Bert Paige, who did all the orchestra arrangements and to all the studio musicians participated in this LP. There is only one word to describe their contribution to this music...beautiful. There are so many other people directly or indirectly involved, that I could never write them all down on this jacket. But my heart felt thanks go out to each one of them just the same. I was also asked to explain each of my songs. I thought a lot about it and decided that it wasn't fair, in a way, to you the listener. Although, when I wrote each song I had a definite idea in my mind, these were only my impressions. I feel that if I were to explain each song to you, it wouldn't give you an honest chance to develop your own impressions. And this is what I think is one of the most important parts of any music: the capacity to be interpreted differently, depending on who the listener is. I would like to end by thanking you, the listener, for giving me this opportunity to express the many emotions and thoughts that are contained in each and every groove of this LP.”

I suspect record company fecklessness is behind the record having no success. Released only in Holland and confusion over how to market Mike Tingley ensured this record would be lost and forgotten.

Find it, dig it and let the sunshine in.

ROBBIE BASHO - BOUQUET

Basho-Productions 1983

01. The Golden Medallion

02. Khalil Gibran

03. The White Swallow

04. The Polish Rider

05. El Cid

06. Lightening Thunder

07. Land Of Our Fathers (Hopi Hymn)

08. Tears Of Teresa

09. Blues From Lebanon

10. The Song Of Leila

11. The White Princess

For those new to the artist - Robbie Basho was a pioneer of contemporary acoustic guitar. He took his name from  Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho, adopted the steel string acoustic guitar from John Fahey and was introduced to folk music by Max Ochs. After hearing Ravi Shanker, Basho used dropped tunings and developed his 'Esoteric Doctrine of Color & Mood for12 & 6 string guitar'.

Basho released several albums between 1965 and his death in 1986. These records covered Eastern mysticism, the old west and European folk. The majority of this discography has yet to be reissued.

'The Seal Of The Blue Lotus' (1965) and 'The Grail And The Lotus' (1966) were Basho's first two offerings and remain his most well known work. Both of those albums were instrumental and focused on Basho's long raga inspired guitar workouts.

Bouquet was Basho's penultimate album and by this time he had incorporated vocals, piano and spoken word into his music. 

Cassette only private press release.

This album has since been re-issued. Check out a post about it here.

CAN - PREHISTORIC FUTURE

Tago Mago 1984

01. Side A (15:46)
02. Side B (14:09)


Spontaneously composed by Can at Scholss Nörvenich, West Germany, June 1968. This is the first ever session by Can. The core line up of Karoli, Czukay, Schmidt and Liebezeit are augmented by David Johnson (flute, tapes) and Manni Löhe (vocals, percussion, flute).

Originally released  in France as a limited edition cassette.

Mono Recording. Tape edited and mastered by Holger Czukay. First edition of 2000 copies. Sourced from official cassette.

RUTH WHITE - FLOWERS OF EVIL

Limelight 1969

01. The Clock
02. Evening Harmony
03. Lovers' Wine
04. Owls
05. Mists and Rains
06. The Irremediable
07. The Cat
08. Spleen
09. The Litanies of Satan


Electronic music pioneer Ruth White sets the poems of French poet Charles Baudelaire to music. Total electronic doom, creepy analouge synths with the multi effected vocals of Ruth White reading the poems sounding dead. A must.

Here's the artist on the record :

"To me, Baudelaire's poems are of such unique power that they always seem to rise above the level of the personal and sometimes existential nature of their content. In this composition, I have attempted to parallel the transcendental qualities of the poetry through electronic means.

For the words, I used my own voice as the generator of the original sound to be altered or "dehumanized." This seemed practical since my experiments with the medium were too time consuming to have been easily accomplished with a collaborator.

To modulate my voice, I used a variety of techniques. Changes of timbre were achieved with filters. Tape speed changes were used to control pitch. Into the shape of some words, I injected sound waves and white noise, thus changing the quality of their sound but not the flow of their delivery. By adding reyerberation, I varied atmospheres and decreased or increased space illusions. To accent special words or phrases, I used controlled tape delays. Choruses were created by combining slight delays with multiple track recordings.

The musical settings around the voice were made with music concrète materials, a moog synthesizer, other electronic generators and conventional instruments, which were usually altered electronically.
In the translations, there was no attempt to rhyme the verse as in the original french poems. I tried only to keep the language as direct and simple as possible, for I always found that the dominating power of Baudelaire's ideas were in themselves of electrifying force."