Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Orphans

The anti-everything of No Wave was a collective caterwaul that defied categorization, defiled the audience, despised convention, shit in the face of history, and then split — Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch is fucking badass. It’s hard not to be inspired by someone with such a fuck you, anti-commercial, DIY attitude. An angry — and intelligent woman, she is predictably hated by many but in my opinion Lunch was, and is one of the realest people in music, straight up legit.

I came across Lydia Lunch by chance, I first heard the name after seeing her in the film clip to Porn.Darsteller’s Brigitte, in which a scene of a nude Lydia writing lustfully on the floor from Richard Kern’s film Submit To Me Now loops hypnotically on a TV screen. Sometime after I saw an LP of her first solo album Queen of Siam at a record fair and though I hadn’t heard her music took a chance and bought it. I’ll post something from Queen of Siam later but as you can guess ever since then I have been a huge fan of her work.

Orphans is the opening track of the pink EP from Lydia’s first musical venture Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. One of the most important names in New York’s short lived but influential no wave scene, Teenage Jesus’ sound is an abrasive, all-out assault on the senses. Though they are probably not too familiar a name outside underground circles, and despite leaving only 18 short recorded tracks they were a huge influence on later post-punk bands including The Birthday Party and Sonic Youth as well as the burgeoning noise scene.

I think the film clip posted at the top was made by a fan but unfortunately I don’t have any more details.

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Orphans

Copenhagen Trains – Vandal Tactics (A3)

So I think I must have watched this trailer about a hundred times by now. Copenhagen Trains: Vandal Tactics is a soon to be released graffiti movie documenting the train scene in Danish capital city Copenhagen, and in particular a tribute to the 2nd generation S-Trains of Copenhagen, those infamous red steel monsters that were the object of desire for generations of writers all across Europe and the world, the last of which was retired from service in 2007.

Nearly 10 years in the making, Vandal Tactics is the fourth and final edition of the Copenhagen Trains series, which started out on VHS tape in the mid 90s. The series has featured all the greats of the Dansk graffiti scene as well as countless guests from all over Europe and the world.

As well as fucking dope Dansk graffiti footage, Vandal Tactics also has an amazing electro soundtrack produced by some of my homeboys in CPH. The soundtrack was written and produced especially for the Copenhagen Trains DVD, consisting of 10 tracks of dark and heavy analogue electro. The drums are raw and lo-fi, and all synth parts are hand played giving it a tense and edgy feeling which perfectly capture the atmosphere; tracks “so fat you can almost smell the rusty tracks and feel your fingers stick to the cap”.

Copenhagen Trains: Vandal Tactics OST 12″ on Cytown Records. From my collection

The soundtrack was released as a 12″ on Copenhagen electro label Cytown Records (who also released an AMAZING Nancy Fortune track produced by The Seducers along with several other great 12″s)

The DVD will be released soon, I for one am hanging out for my copy! A little bird also tells me that I will soon be interviewing Copenhagen graffiti God Cave for Cold Crush. So you know the motherfucking scope, stay tuned for the rawness baby!

Official Site: www.copenhagentrains.com

Copenhagen Trains – Vandal Tactics (A3)

Jackie Ransom – Final Exposure

Miami might be best known for cocaine, vice, Miami Bass and sunshine, but what you might NOT be aware of is that there is some seriously dark and experimental wave music coming out of Miami. Probably the best known, is Staccato Du Mal — he had several tracks on each of the Wierd LPs, as well as a handful of great independently released 7″s and CDRs under various aliases and collaborations (including a beautiful 7″ with vocals by Liz Wendelbo of Xeno & Oaklander) on his own label SDM.

Another member of this lesser known Miami underground is Miss Jackie Ransom. Like Staccato Du Mal, Jackie shares a certain punk aesthetic to her music — using exclusively analogue instruments, including cheap synthesizers, lofi drummachines and guitar, all played live: one-take recordings of every track, often improvising with vocals and synth riffs as the track is coming along, making for a raw and unique sound.

Final Exposure is from Jackie’s upcoming album Cell Death. Featuring 8* (the vocalist from Flesh Græy Display) credited for vocals, guitar and mistake — yes you read that correctly. A duet of haunting vocals between Jackie and 8*, with dark and poetic lyrics with maybe just a slight nod to Joy Division.

The video clip was also made by Ms. Ransom herself, a disturbing collage of old archive video footage of hypnotism, psychology and sight, edited into a horrifying film noir nightmare. Once again that punk DIY aesthetic and imagination shines through, saying fuck to the million dollar video clips we are assaulted with any time we switch on a TV.

I have a split 7″ on the way with Miss Ransom, featuring her track Killer Inside (which will also appear on Cell Death and the upcoming Doom & Glamour album on Zerohour) and my track Eternal, with vocals from Beta Evers. Two great songs if I may say so myself, and it also features some beautiful artwork by the ever-amazing Caitlin Shearer. It will be released shortly on Zerohour so stay tuned baby!

Ms. Ransom also plays in electronic improv rock project Mascara Scare with 8* and Jackie Soir — check them out.

Jackie Ransom – Final Exposure

Four Tet – Aying

Keiran Hebden better known as Four Tet has had all types of labels thrown at his music — from post rock to future jazz, electronica and er, “folktronica” — whatever the fuck that means. But whatever the media want to call it, it’s dope. Raw, grimy beats with elements of cosmic jazz, progressive rock, trip hop and breakbeat thrown into the mix. But let me tell you, the dude knows his way around a sampler, plus it’s fairly to say he would have some of the dustiest fingers around — his sample selection is wild and obscure.

This track Aying was released on delicious 12″ vinyl in 1998, but I didn’t hear it until about ten years later when a friend burnt me a copy of his first album, Dialogue (released in 1999, where this track also appears). Needless to say, I tracked a second hand copy of the 12″ down PRONTO cos, this track is completely wild. Distorted horns and flutes, dark strings and sitar samples and fat breaks including a little Bollywood break. Shit is dope!

There is another track on the record called Fume, which is completely devestating…think breakcore from a parallel universe where it is just really fast jazz or something (with bonus cuts and a few bars of an electro beat for good measure). Badass. The album and 12″ are both long deleted, so you’re going to have to find them yourself, but they are worth tracking down.

The dude has also remixed for a pretty impressive array of cats including Aphex Twin, Madvillain, Nathan Fake and Black Sabbath which I think deserves a little street cred.

Four Tet – Aying