“La Pologne,” La France Chasons (2007)
I have expressed my love of the lost pop genius John Pantry here before, a love shared by the French filmmaker Serge Bozon. Bozon’s beautiful 2007 war musical LA FRANCE, in fact, features soldiers singing melodies inspired by (or directly lifted from) Pantry songs. This particular track takes the lovely, infectious refrain from Pantry’s “Gospel Lane” to new heights. Thanks to my friend Michael Lieberman for finding this.
David Bowie’s personal reply to his first-ever fan letter (1967)
We’re living in a stylistic tropics. There’s a whole generation of people able to access almost anything from almost anywhere, and they don’t have the same localised stylistic sense that my generation grew up with. It’s all alive, all ‘now,’ in an ever-expanding present, be it Hildegard of Bingen or a Bollywood soundtrack. The idea that something is uncool because it’s old or foreign has left the collective consciousness.
“I think this is good news. As people become increasingly comfortable with drawing their culture from a rich range of sources — cherry-picking whatever makes sense to them — it becomes more natural to do the same thing with their social, political and other cultural ideas. The sharing of art is a precursor to the sharing of other human experiences, for what is pleasurable in art becomes thinkable in life.
”Black Devil (Disco Club), “‘H’ Friend” (1978)
Black Devil are shrouded in mystery. Their rare first (and until recently, only) album might be called Disco Club, or the band might be called “Black Devil Disco Club,” and the EP might be eponymous. Attributed to Joachim Sherylee and Junior Claristidge (actually library musicians Bernard Fevre and Jacky Giordano, or maybe just Fevre), this slab of French pseudo-Italo-disco incorporates tape loops, synth washes, tribal drums, and melodic yelping. It sounds so ahead of its time, in fact, that many people question if this release actually came out in the late ’70s or was recorded later and backdated.
Printed in the liner notes for the essential first Nurse With Wound record Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella and expanded on the subsequent To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl, this legendary list is a primer on both influences of the band and some of the greatest, rarest, strangest music ever recorded. With nearly 300 artists (some of them incredibly esoteric, and some maybe even made-up), this document is the perfect guide for starting a pretty amazing record collection.
Agitation Free
Pekka Airaksinen
Airway
Albrecht D
Alcatraz
Älgarnas Trädgård
Alternative TV
Alvaro
Ame Son
AMM
Amon Düül
Amon Düül II
Anal Magic and Reverend Dwight Frizzel
Annexus Quam
Aksak Maboul
Arbete Och Fritid
ARCANE V
Archaïa
Archimedes Badkar
Area
Art Bears
Art Zoyd
Arzachel
Robert Ashley
Ash Ra Tempel
Association PC
Il Balletto Di Bronzo
Banten
Franco Battiato
Han Bennink
Steve Beresford
Jacques Berrocal
philippe besombes
Biglietto Per L’Inferno
Birgé Gorgé Shiroc
Blue Sun
Raymond Boni
Don Bradshaw-Leather
Brainstorm
Brainticket
Brast Burn
Brave New World
Anton Bruhin
Brühwarm
Franz de Byl
Cabaret Voltaire
John Cage
Can
Capsicum Red
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Chamberpot
Checkpoint Charlie
Chillum
Henri Chopin
Chrome
Cohelmec Ensemble
Jean Cohen-Solal
Collegium Musicum
Roberto Colombo
Come
Companyia Elèctrica Dharma
Comus
Cornucopia
Crass
Creative Rock
Cromagnon
David Cunningham
Cupol
Dadazuzu
Wolfgang Dauner
Debris
Decayes
Dedalus
The Deep Freeze Mice
Der Plan
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
Dharma Quintet
Dies Irae
Dome
The Doo-Dooettes
Philippe Doray
Roger Doyle
Jean Dubuffet
Dzyan
Eiliff
Emtidi
Eroc
Etron Fou Leloublan
Exmagma
Family Fodder
Patrizio Fariselli
Faust
Luc Ferrari
Fille Qui Mousse
Floh De Cologne
The Flying Lizards
Food Brain
Förklädd Gud
Walter Franco
Free Agents
Friendsound
Fred Frith
Gash
Ron Geesin
Gila
Jef Gilson
Glaxo Babies
Gomorrha
Gong
The Good Missionaries
John Greaves and Peter Blegvad
Grand Magic Circus
Fernando Grillo
Ragnar Grippe
Grobschnitt
Group 1850
Jean Guérin
Friedrich Gulda
Guru Guru
Hairy Chapter
Hampton Grease Band
Henry Cow
Pierre Henry
Heratius
Hero
Juan Hidalgo
Hugh Hopper
Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin
Horrific Child
Ibliss
L’Infonie
International Harvester
Iskra
Island
martin davorin jagodic
Jan Dukes de Grey
King Crimson
Basil Kirchin
Osamu Kitajima
Kluster
Frank Köllges
Kollektiv Rote Rube
Komintern
Kraftwerk
Krokodil
Steve Lacy
Lard Free
Le Forte Four
Lemon Kittens
Lily
Limbus 3
Limbus 4
Bernard Lubat
Alvin Lucier
Magical Power Mako
Magma
Colette Magny
Mahjun
Mahogany Brain
Malfatti - Wittwer
Mama Dada 1919
Michael Mantler
Albert Marcoeur
Mars
Maschine Nr. 9
Daniel Vallancien & David Maté
Costin Miereanu
Min Bul
Mnemonists
Modrý Efekt
Moolah
Anthony Moore
Mothers of Invention
Moving Gelatine Plates
Fritz Müller
Thierry Müller
musica electronica viva
Music Improvisation Company
Mythos
Napoli Centrale
Negativland
Neu!
NEW PHONIC ART
Nico
Night Sun
Nihilist Spasm Band
Nine Days Wonder
Nosferatu
Nu Creative Methods
Oktober
Yoko Ono
Operation Rhino
Opus Avantra
Orchid Spangiafora
Out of Focus
Ovary Lodge
Tony Oxley
Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton/Marilyn Crispell
Pataphonie
Jean-François Pauvros
Pere Ubu
Pierrot Lunaire
Plastic Ono Band
Plastic People of the Universe
Poison Girls
Pôle
The Pop Group
Michel Portal
Bomis Prendin
Public Image Ltd.
Red Krayola
Red Noise
Reform Art Unit
Steve Reich
Achim Reichel
The Residents
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes
Boyd Rice
Terry Riley
Claudio Rocchi
Rocky’s Filj
Ron ‘Pate’s Debonairs
Dieter Roth / Gerhard Rühm / Oswald Wiener
Ray Russell
Terje Rypdal
Martin Saint Pierre
Samla Mammas Manna
Günter Schickert
Second Hand
Secret Oyster
Seesselberg
Semool
Alan Sondheim
Sonny Sharrock
Silberbart
Siloah
Smegma
Soft Machine
Sally Smmit
Snatch
Sperm
Sphinx Tush
Karlheinz Stockhausen
The Stooges
Demetrio Stratos
Supersister
Taj Mahal Travellers
Tamia
Tangerine Dream
Ghédalia Tazartès
Technical Space Composer’s Crew
Mama Béa Tekielski
Théatre Du Chêne Noir
Third Ear Band
Thirsty Moon
This Heat
Jacques Thollot
Thrice Mice
Throbbing Gristle
Paolo Tofani
Tokyo Kid Brothers
Tolerance
Tomorrow’s Gift
Ton Steine Scherben
Trans Museq
Uli Trepte
Twenty Sixty Six and Then
Univers Zéro
Christian Vander
The Velvet Underground
Vertø
Patrick Vian
L. Voag
Michel Waisvisz
Igor Wakhévitch
Lawrence Weiner
James Chance & The Contortions
Whitehouse
Wired
Trevor Wishart
Woorden
Robert Wyatt
Iannis Xenakis
Xhol
Xhol Caravan
Ya Ho Wha 13
La Monte Young
Frank Zappa
Zweistein
ZNR
The wonderfully catchy, synth-happy opening credits music from Eric Rohmer’s A GOOD MARRIAGE, part of his essential “Comedies and Proverbs” film cycle. This piece comes courtesy of my friend Dan Sallitt, and as far as I can tell, is unavailable anywhere else online.
“Nardwuar the Human Serviette” is a Canadian DJ and interviewer who — while perhaps a touch overly energetic at times — manages to elicit incredibly personal reactions while talking to musicians. The above, very touching interview with Pharrell Williams from N.E.R.D. and the Neptunes is a perfect example, where Nardwuar gets Pharrell to discuss personal interests — like Carl Sagan or holistic education — you’d otherwise never hear about in other standard interviews. Narduwar’s radio show has recently come to America via the great WFMU.
Letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol, on designing album art for the Stones.
“Au Clair de la Lune” (1860)
Yes, you read that date right. Discovered only last year, this haunting recording of the classic folk tune comes courtesy of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph, an invention that predates Edison patent of the phonograph by 17 years. As of this writing, this brief, ghostly melody is the earliest recording of the human voice in existence.
John Cale — brilliant musician, filmmaker, game show guest?! From a 1963 episode of I’ve Got A Secret, Cale appears for his role in a legendary 18-hour Erik Satie concert. He has “a whim of iron.”
Flormaleva, “Los Muertos” (2004)
Argentine director Lisandro Alonso makes quiet, patient, near-structuralist films with laconic protagonists wandering through sweeping landscapes. (Though his work is largely underseen in this country, his austere style has developed something of a cult following; director Kelly Reichardt quotes liberally from Alonso’s films in her OLD JOY.) The one recurring shock in his stripped-down films comes during the open and/or closing credits, where Alonso plays loud, jarring songs by the band Flormaleva. Here’s the heavy, hypnotic closing track to his 2004 masterpiece LOS MUERTOS. Many thanks to Danny Kasman for the tip.
One of my favorite bands ever, Galaxie 500, playing their first single “Tugboat” in the Commonwealth School gymnasium in Boston in 1989.
Glass Sun, “Stick Up For Me” (1968)
Greg Cartwright is responsible for hours and hours of amazing music over the last few decades, through bands like The Oblivians and the still-extent Reigning Sound. Like a lot of my favorite musicians (Tim Gane, say) he’s an insatiable record collector with a breathless knowledge of pop and rock music traditions, and incorporates his love for sounds old and new into his own work. As with Martin Scorsese in film, Cartwright’s value is as both archivist and creator. For the new Reigning Sound record, he covers this rollicking Detroit gem from a band I’ve (and many others, it seems) never heard of. Here’s the original, in all its raw glory.
