Saturday, March 31, 2012

C. Memi - Heavenly Peace (Fairy Records, 1982)


"Heavenly Peace" is the whimsical sophomore release of C. Memi. Following her shared debut with Neo Matisse (described as "that famous 'No Chocolate'-single" in "The Hijokaidan story"), we are presented with five pretty darn disparate tracks held together by some kind of magical antimatter.

Opening track "Ishin-Denshin" is perhaps the weirdest of the bunch. The ticking of a drum machine coupled with somewhat ham-fisted post-punk/DIY style drumming forms the foundation of the song; sounding at least slightly reminiscent of a cat coughing up a hairball. Add a reverb-soaked flute playing a hazy melody through a fairytale forest and astonishingly dry and unemotional vocals and this stew of singular confusion is complete.

Two transitional tracks follow - "C'est un Chanson" is a chanson-ey (who whould've guessed?) and unfortunately pretty snooze-worthy affair. The cute piano and music box bagatelle "For Monster of Dr. Frankenstein" fares better, though perhaps mainly because of its brevity.

The weirdness resumes with the jingle-like "Hitokichi". Sounding like a commercial for an extraterrestial soda or something, "Hitokichi" is a strange melange of ultra-processed vocals, droning basswork and white noise drum snares.

Memi leaves us with the magnificent title track and it's soothening swathes of synth pads punctuated by sparkles of cosmic sound-shrapnel. A perfectly serene way to close off the EP, with just a slight sentimental touch. Real nice.

Dendö Marionette - s/t 7" flexi (QP., 1981)


Legendary (and legendarily expensive) only release from über-cult group Dendö Marionette. I gotta say... this deserves the hype. Frozen・Edge reminds me of Red Exposure-era Chrome + Cabaret Voltaire at their fiercest - a cyber-punk anthem replete with electroid guitar solos and blurred vocals. Conciousness is comparable the sub-zero crawl of house favorite Motionless by Libido, and the incredibly woozy Walts (For Lautréament) starts off like a collaboration between The Gurdjieff and Taiji before settling down in ultra-dark industrial synth-pop territory. Amazing!

This rip was contributed (but not made) by bX-59cppw, who just recently upped the C.Memi + Neo Matisse 7" on his blog, which needs to be heard by everyone who follows Stalking Duppi!

Re-ups

Posts are hidden until the links are back up. Working backwards in random order, might post some rips from other sources in the meantime.