Spotlight: OUT OF FOCUS : The Greatest Krautrock Band?

I'm a devout afficiando of Krautrock (whatever the style)!  I'm immersed the last 2 days (aside from the late Klaus Schulze's music), in the deep sonic vibrations of Munich's OUT OF FOCUS.  Inspired by  Klemen Breznikar's just published "MUST READ" interview in the wonderful online mag PSYCHEDELIC BABY with Remigius Drechsler.💕

            https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2021/12/out-of-focus-interview-wake-up.html?  fbclid=IwAR1v8wv4uuf7f-dvEtcDbprnyk9DPCziaZKrHA_uX2vWHy4ae1RXyMSoAHk

Unbenounced to me, Out Of Focus guitarist and leader Remigius Drechsler just passed away one month ago on the 28th of March 💔.  Drechsler was also in one of my all time fave's EMBRYO !!! 💕  I'm not gonna wax on here about anything other than this...I can think of no other group from the scene in Germany that made 3 pivtol studio LPs in their prime better than Out Of Focus !  They were masterful, totally "schooled" and made Godlike trips throughout, that never let you down and evolve with every repeated listen!

1971...Self Titled

https://youtu.be/XKy1NBerjQs

1971...Wake Up!

https://youtu.be/ZBodFx8pHWc

1972...Four Letter Monday Afternnoon

inspired by Soft Machine's BRILLIANT "Third" LP and every ounce as exceptional...💣💓👽

https://youtu.be/DArnQEb5-wg

Please read Klemen's interview it's awesome and tackle the delight of hearing one of Germany's greatest band's: OUT OF FOCUS!  Check out the other recordings after the first 3 as they are KILLER as well!  Happy Travels Music People...Rest In Power Remigius Drechsler 👽

POP UP BIRDMAN: April 30th, 2022

 

Slow Dawn...Livin' In The City, It Will Eat Out, Eat Out Your Heart...

Ottawa's Slow Dawn have a new LP, their second.  Around this burg, it will of course go un-noticed for the most part as the machinery in our hub are generally geared to only what's safe and Slow Dawn are NOT a safe proposition!  Most of us longtime practitioners know this well, could care less and it never stops us from "keepin' on, keepin' on". 👽

I know several of these fella's personally and have shared stages with them in the past when in other projects.  I recall encountering Dan Druff (vocalist), maybe for the 1st time in Quebec, at an outdoor late night fest type thing that my band Four 'N' Giv'r (pre-TBWNIS) were playing as well, back in maybe, 2005-6 ?  Dan was fronting his then scuzz rock, psych punk, CHROME influenced band: HOLY COBRAS.  He was wonderfully shitfaced while wearing a large green GLAD garbage bag and was superbly like Iggy...they were FUCKING AWESOME!  The Cobras eventually saw release of a wicked LP called "Forever" on Telephone Explosion Records and it's pretty SWEET as well!  Jesse Winchester who plays bass in Slow Dawn, has been in a shitload of snarly, fucked up outfits including Ottawa's HEAVY MENTAL (Jesse, Mat Oxley, Matthew Cosgrove, Rod Duchamp, Pierre Richardson and Zac Millen); who played with TBWNIS when both our combos backed Krautrock GOD Damo Suzuki back in May of 2014.  Heavy Mental were a wonderful, acidic noisey mess of goodness live that eve and they had a pretty stellar super ltd. 8" lathe cut released on the legendary Ottawa label Bruised Tongue! 

Heavy Mental with Damo Suzuki.....

https://bruisedtongue.bandcamp.com/album/damo-suzuki-with-heavy-mental

Heavy Mental lathe cut...

https://bruisedtongue.bandcamp.com/album/laszlo-toth

HOLY COBRAS...."Forever"  LP  2011  https://holycobras613.bandcamp.com/album/forever

SLOW DAWN...earlier works... https://slowdawn0.bandcamp.com/

2022 now see's Slow Dawn with an international release which comes from a joint jam between 2 great record labels!  The UK's venerable Cardinal Fuzz and America's Centripetal Force! "Into The Machine Haus" is an album reeking of  a most wonderful case of ill repute!  It's rotten to the core, HEAVY, scuzz, soiled underpants, RAFR! There's melody and catchiness and it's pretty, in the ugliest of best ways.  Dense, molten feedback, pounding rhythms, mutated vocals with bile regurgitated ferociousness. These are the kind of sounds that are always the FUCKING NOW SOUND...FUCKING EXCITING and hitting the nail squarely on the HEAD!  

Get in, or get out on this slab...Highly Recommended from my perch and btw...it's played at 45 RPM but is ABSOLUTELY THE BOMB AT 33rpm...you been served notice! 💕💣👽

https://slowdawncf.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-machine-haus

"Decompression"  Youtube Video 2022

https://youtu.be/0rra1qx4zLw

MULTI-VENDOR POP UP RECORD SHOP : SUNDAY, APRIL 24TH

 

Everyday Is Record Store Day...trust me, I know...Next Sunday, April 24th (last Sunday of the month) is our monthly multi-vendor pop up shop with Serge, Brian, Dan, Steve and myself. This event takes place at 591 Bank St. in Ottawa, right beside the old Birdman Sound haunt and runs from 10 am - 4 pm. It's ridiculously curated! You will be enriched mentally, poorer financially and if you wear a mask while inside (mandatory), you''ll be just fine !

New Slabs In The Shop... 4/16/2022

 

The 5LP vinyl 40th Anniversary release with a bonus concert spread across four 180g LPs!

Unreleased Toronto concert is from March 25, 1981. A large format booklet features new Hugh Syme illustrations and sleeve notes by Kim Thayil, Les Claypool, Taylor Hawkins, Bill Kelliher and Neil Sanderson !!!

https://youtu.be/G3SvBmFFylI

EURO FUNK HOLY GRAIL! Featuring superb drummer Sylvain Krief, Airto Fogo’s sole album from 1976 is one of the best instrumental jazz-funk / rare-groove albums ever recorded in France. Heavy drums, Rhodes, analogue keyboards, deep bass, hot horns, Blaxploitation & Latin touches

https://youtu.be/HTsYXMw3TMQ

Vocalist/guitarist Rob Crow (Pinback, Heavy Vegetable) drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, The Offspring, Rocket From The Crypt, Danko Jones, Social Distortion) Jordan Clark played bass with Mrs. Magician and guitar for The Frights and The Soaks. Guitarist John Reis was and still is from Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt and more!

https://youtu.be/BIdkwVDBpd4

Scorching album of all unreleased tracks from one of America's greatest psych-fuzz-punk bands of all time!  Ltd. Edition LP

https://youtu.be/bVyJBl4G8xY

Vancouver '60s fuzz punkers , famous for their monster garage-punk double sider from 1967, the reverberating "Hard To Cry"/ "Get Away From It All", the group released seven singles between 1966 and '73...All collected here on one sizzling platter!

https://guerssenrecords.bandcamp.com/track/keep-on-running

One of the rarest teen-garage albums from the US, originally released in 1968 on the custom Century label.  A mix of fantastic original songs and imaginative covers.  From garage-punk to moody folk-rock, beat and proto-psych.

https://youtu.be/Gl82DKp0e3c

1989, London-based acid psych trio Outskirts Of Infinity released Scenes From The Dreams Of Angels on their own Infinity imprint. Heading deeper into space rock, the album had bassist Nick Saloman on keyboards in places and front man Bari Watts on synth, but his ripping guitar is really spectacular throughout and is nothing shy on the hallucinogenic power of this LP !

https://youtu.be/_mKmyGIyDBE

Total killer 3xLP box set of unreleased dynamite from San francisco band Uther Pendragon who did their thing from 1966 - 1978!  100% unadulterated West Coast guitar psych and hard rock that recalls QMS and even Kurihara-era White Heaven.

Friday Afternoon Cartunes: 4/15/2022

                                                 https://youtu.be/WTC3B4zQ2mM

Listening Center -Chemsuit  (Polytechnic Youth)

Colin Potter - A Long Time  (Polytechnic Youth)

El Hombre Al Agua - Replicant Ice Fortress (Noiseagonymayhem/Echodelick)

Dead Sea Apes - Regolith (Cardinal Fuzz)

William S. Fischer - Patience Is Virtue (Embryo)

Psychedelic Dirt - Solvents In Heat (Noiseagonymayhem)

Brotzmann/Graves/Parker - Track A (Black Editions Archives)

Roland Haynes - Second Wave (Black Jazz)

Missus Beastly - 20th Century Break  (Garden Of Delights)

Abronia - Caught Between Hives (Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube)

Ambassador Hazy - Percolator (Cardinal Fuzz)

Lyd Syn - Kat Ser Kat (Bad Afro)

Vibravoid - A Taste Like Sugar (Stoned Karma)

Wet Tuna - Ain't No Turnin' Back (Three Lobed)

Trip Hill - Trai Tim Than Yeu (Bad Afro)

Bob Bell -Necropolis Pt. / Pt. 2 (Telephone Explosion)

New Arrivals In The Shop...4/12/2022

Loads of new vinyl in the shop as usual....

Kourosh Yaghmaei

Mustafa Ozkent 

Paul Kantner

Agitation Free 

Ash Ra Tempel 

Cher 

Pretty Things 

Omar Korshid

Don Cherry

Curtis Mayfield

Keith Hudson

Dadawah

Hailu Mergia

Miles Davis. Albert Ayler

Son House

 

New Arrivals on Cardinal Fuzz from the UK....

Ambassador Hazy  

https://cful.bandcamp.com/album/ambassador-hazy-the-traveler

Abronia - Map Of Dawn (May 2022)

John Dever Airport Conspiracy  

https://cful.bandcamp.com/album/john-denver-airport-conspiracy-somethings-gotta-give

Birdman Sound Pop Up Record Shop 4/16/2022

 

Birdman Pop Up Shop : April 9th, 2022