Geraldo Made Me Kill- "Free Sex" CDr (1995/2001)

Now we're getting deep.
Henry Dunlevy, the sole consistent member of Geraldo Made Me Kill, has been on the fringes of the fringe scene for 25-odd years now. He's something like a Section 8 Steven Stapleton of Providence, being a dedicated non-musician having brought dozens of folks (myself included) into the fold to collaborate or contribute to GMMK recordings over the years, often without their knowledge (also myself included, haha). Working with found sounds, radio broadcasts, spoken word, cheap synths and electronics, as well as the odd traditional instrumentation, mixed, mashed and manilupated via beat-up tape machines and 4-tracks. Henry had churned out over 15 GMMK albums by the last time I was in frequent contact with him, and I believe hasn't slowed down much in the past 10 years since then.

GMMK is true drug music in every sense. These tracks were all inspired by and about drugs, conceived of, recorded, manipulated and edited, and artwork designed under the influence of drugs.  A history spotted with hospitalization, homelessness, and addiction has contributed to this music remaining as under the radar as it is. At the same time these disparate conditions have unquestionably made it all possible.  Ask anyone who was around the Providence weirdo music scene in the 90s and early 2000s and they'll undoubtedly have stories to tell about the enigmatic character/s responsible for this.

This is one of the classic first-wave releases by the "group", recorded between 1990-95, released on a limited basis on handmade cassette in the following years, and in a cdr edition in 2001. Stylistically all over the place, jumping around from raw sound collage, droning abstract industrial, and damaged experiments with synthwave, funk and even demented reggae. Alternately unsettling, hilarious, creepy, and deeply darkly psychedelic.

Recommended for fans of early Coil and C93, Severed Heads, Negativland, and the Residents' more sinister moments.

MEDIAFIRE LINK HERE

The Lasers - st CDr (2004) + "Nuclei" CDr (2007)

 THE FUCKING LASERS. I have prided myself for over a decade as the number one fan of this band, and listening to their stuff again for the first time in years confirms that my love is still real.

The Lasers were Providence's singular heroes of post-millenial Digital Hardcore, in the classic DHR style, but fully synthetic with not an Amen break or Slayer riff in sight. Short, sharp blasts of sputtering kickdrums and synth squelch backing dual boy-girl screaming vocals. And they could actually write songs. There's a shocking amount of catchiness in these 40-second blasts of shreiking energy and noise.

Mark Marine/Laser went on to play in a ton of other awesome bands, doing vocals in Bermuda (with members of Daughters and Fang Island), playing drums in Bellows and Worms in Women & Cattle, and most recently playing bass in In Heat and ALTARATLA (with Roby Newton of Milemarker on vox).

The first CDR featured the Lasers as a duo with Lauren Furtado, recorded by J Hockenberry at the Box of Knives, and released in 2004. The second, "Nuclei" found the Lasers stripped down to just Mark. It was recorded by Nick Sadler (of Daughters, Fang Island and Bermuda) and originally released in 2007 on CDR. "Nuclei" was rereleased on cassette a few years back by Mickey Zacchili's Price Tapes label.
Unfortunately I only still have the disc itself from "Nuclei", so I've included the insert art for the later cassette release in place of the original art (which will hopefully surface sooner or later for me to include here).

Here we've got both released zipped together for ya for maximum efficiency (and because they're each only 10 minutes long.)

 Mediafire link HERE

Vincebus Eruptum - st CDr (2003)

Here we have another personal favorite of the era, but one that's a bit tougher to describe convincingly here in metal-saturated 2015. Vincebus Eruptum were years ahead of the "blackened punk" (or whatever) curve that every group of dudes in Beherit longsleeves seems to be side-project-ing to their "proper metal" bands these days (which is fine by me).

Featuring bass player Dan St Jacques (longtime member of Landed and Olneyville Sound System, among others) and drummer Brian Dufresne, the two of whom made up the rhythm section of the reformed Six Finger Satellite in 2009), as well as guitarists Jeff "Odegaard" Brown (later of Worms in Women and Cattle, Hard Drug and Haxen), Shawn St Martin (later of Neon Bitches), and the truly unhinged vocals of Matt Johnson.

The original incarnation of the band would play a single, plodding two-note doom dirge for anywhere from 10-30 minutes, with Matt just going apeshit over the top, and occasionally accompanied by sax from sometime OSS member Raghu Bhat. I fucking loved it myself and remain bummed that they never recorded that one song which they played singularly for their first half dozen or so shows.

Their debut CDr demo features five tracks perfectly blending filthy dirging noise-rock and black metal-influenced thrash, anchored by those maniacal, mucid, spittling vocals. Recorded raw and nasty without sounding self-consciously "lo-fi". Their sole other release (on Load Records) is absolutely essential if you're into this kind of grimy shit.

Mediafire link HERE

SAWZALL - st CDr (2002)

Next up is a true lost millennial Providence classic, the sole release by the mighty SAWZALL. Thundering, scuzzy thug-rock quartet featuring two full drummers (one in each stereo channel for the recording for maximum pound factor), bass, alternately wailing/whispering vocals and occasional sax. Bass player and design artist Pippi Zornoza went on to form a series of amazing bands after Sawzall, from the blasting banshee grind of Throne of Blood (with Jeremy Harris of Lazy Magnet, Miles Lacouture of Ninja vs Wrester and Hector 3, as well as 2/3 of Necronomitron), ritual occult doom duo Bonedust (with Assembly of Light choir mastermind Chrissy Wolpert) and terrifying cavewoman nightmare-metal duo Vvlture.
Thudding, creeping, sensuous, threatening, driving, plodding, ugly, beautiful, fucking perfect. Get this now.

 

Mediafire link HERE

Ren Schofield - selt titled CDr (2004)

 Let's start things off right with an album of smooth, mostly vocal pop jams written, recorded and released by Ren Schofield, then fresh from ADD electro spazz-rock duo Japanese Karaoke Afterlife Experiment (in the queue of upcoming uploads), and noise rock powerhouse Dynasty (with Jeremy Harris, Carlos Gonzalez and Christopher Forgues). These days Ren is better known for making hard industrial techno as Container and gurgling tape noise as God Willing, among many other projects before and after.
Expect nothing even remotely like any of those reference points to be found here. What we've got is a nine-song suite of catchy bedroom pop recorded with cheap keyboards and cheaper guitar backing up Ren's plucky vocal stylings. Lots of songs about food, which hits me in just the right spot.
Note: levels jump all over the place song to song, so just play it super loud for good measure.

 

Download from Mediafire HERE

Post-Millenial Torsion

2015 seems like the perfect time to start waxing nostalgic for an audio platform which, for a period beginning at the tail end of the 90s, took the place of the cassette as the go-to method of quickly and cheaply disseminating music from the underground and beyond. The ease of burning off a stack of CDrs of home or demo recordings of your band or project made it an invaluable resource for anyone making music under the radar out of a practice space, bedroom, or basement. Though the record industry had yet to begin suffering the indignities and crippling financial and distribution setbacks of the iTunes age, there was such a explosion of new music being generated (especially in the hugely blossoming noise and experimental scenes) that it was impossible for the expensive and time-consuming process of factory-pressing CDs and vinyl to keep up with how quickly and easily it was for an artist to simply press, package and distribute their own music. The cheapness and ease of the format also allowed for a great deal of absurd indulgence, one-offs and oddities that might otherwise have just languished on four tracks and hard drives.
 Unfortunately, CDrs were not made to last. Because of how the data was physically encoded, CDrs are very easily damaged beyond repair by the data coating being scratched. They also do not stand the test of time and tend to fade and degenerate after a few years, even when kept in optimal conditions.
While there is a handful of success stories of CDr demos being properly mastered and fully realized in professionally duplicated formats, the vast majority of music released on CDr during the prime period of 2000-2007ish has been relegated to storage bins, desk drawers and trash cans in the last decade or so. The aim of this blog is to try to rescue some of the truly amazing (and truly ridiculous) music released on this decaying format before it rots away and disappears forever in a puff of regret from those who neglected to properly archive it when it was still fresh.
Starting off, I'll be exclusively uploading material burned from my own personal collection, and will rip audio at the highest MP3 quality and include cover scans and artwork when available. The initial focus will be on bands and projects from Providence, RI, where I am from. If anything of yours shows up that you would rather I not share, please feel free to contact me and I will take it down immediately. I would also love for folks to contact me about contributing their own rips of CDR material that would fit in this archive.