HOMEMADE LOFI PSYCH --- WHERE TO START?





"There is so much great music here..." WHERE TO START???

I recommend to
start with the HLFP-Samplers (especially HLFP 04).
Here you will come to know many of the bands/musicians featured in this blog. If you like what you hear, you may check out more of their music later on.
(You may also click on the picture on the sidebar and you will find the original post with download links.)

There is also a "FOCUS ON..." section. Here you will find albums that imo are absolutely great (***** = "five-stars-recordings") and that are essential listening and strongly recommended for download.


I TRY to RE-UP some stuff that has been down from time to

time, but I still don't have enough time to

listen to/post much new stuff.

Sorry!

IMPRESSUM: see here!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thickly Painted Walls - disconeck: the last album (USA 2007)

THICKLY PAINTED WALLS is the one man experimental music project of Stefan Frederic Walz from New Jersey, USA.

"The album is called "disconeck: the last album", it is made just by me, solo: stefan frederic walz. It's from 2007, there have been about 3 albums since then. Disconeck I feel is one of my most eclectic works, it's also very dense weighing in at 76 mins (almost a full disk!)

On
disconeck I used every method of recording that I had used previously, this includes: 4 track, 2-track hi-end tape deck mixing, Garageband editing, digital multi tracking (Fostex), I also even used a VCR to record a part of "Independance Day", I recorded right onto the VHS tape just using the L and R connections of the RCA connectors.
There is some reappropriations on the album, including some older recording mixed with newer recording, and a sample off some
"Opera" tape...

The points raised within
Disconeck, were meant to be vast; the old hi-fi vs. lo-fi debate, tests of patience, tolerance, and love are also meant to be endured. Tonality is also a very big issue for me, when people ask why sometimes they cant understand the vocals or why the vocals are low, I tell them because it is just another sound contributing. If I really want people to know what I'm saying I will push them up, like on "oh my god" (which was recorded with 3 tracks I think of overlayed one string acoustic guitar...)

I think the concept of
Disconeck was to have many concepts. The ones I'm attempting to explain in this albeit scattered writing. Like another for instance was "go get a job" where all the sounds are made by rubbing the nylon strings of my guitar. Or "america" where the synthetic is set against the "organic". Or the space sounds of the tale of rape in "midnight cowboy". The pathos attempt at pop in "Buddha". And finally ending with a dedication to the listener in "for you".
The artwork is different for each cdr release of
disconeck, it's a piece cut out of a lingerie book I have, I'm enclosing a photo of one." (S.F.W.)


Here you see another version of the artwork as posted on
http://vacuumnoise.blogspot.com/

"disconeck: the last album" is an experimental record work in the literal sense. Though less experimental than some of the more radical avantgarde bands also posted on this blog, Stefan Frederic Walz is similar to RED KRAYOLA's MAYO THOMPSON seemingly trying to deconstruct the language of rock/pop music as well as actually expressing himself within it. So most of the songs on disconeck are indeed "songs" or at least they have some kind of song structure and sometimes even sung vocals (again reminding me in style of MAYO THOMPSON - though lacking his special whimsical humor - and of RED KRAYOLA's second LP "God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It" - e.g.: 'oh my god'). And there is lots of acoustic guitar playing. But the 'songs' are not very 'poppy', rather they are fragmentary and sometimes the single instruments sound strangely disjointed (e.g. on 'operator umbrella'). Then there are some tracks that are more kind of a soundscape than an actual 'song'. - A very original work and a quite couragous attempt to produce something different.

Favourite tracks: "new car", "midnight cowboy" and "for you"

There is also a very limited CDR release available - contact Stefan for more information (e-mail address in zip-info).

Myspace

THICKLY PAINTED WALLS (SFW) - disconeck: the last album (USA 2007)
(mp3 zip, 17 tracks, 79:21 min, 107,5 MB)
Get it here or here and here (in 2 parts)!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Coreopsis - Hash Noise! (USA, unknown date)

Here is another extraordinary, this time a very radical recording by COREOPSIS: Hash Noise!

"When I was about 15, I read an article in Spin magazine that mentioned Throbbing Gristle. This is what I imagined that they sounded like....."

I'm not sure, if I would really recommend to listen to those tracks - especially the first one - while being in a stoned state... probably only to fans of TERRY RILEY and/or 'Metal Machine Music'... Something very special indeed.
Enjoy! And I'd love to read some comments on this one...

COREOPSIS: Hash Noise!
(mp3 zip, 2 tracks, 66 min, 60,3 MB)
1. Hash Noise! - 19.28
2. MGII - 46.30
Get it here or here!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Coreopsis - Time-Lag Guitar Figures (2008)

Since April 2008 there is a guy from New Hampshire out there, who runs a blog and posts music recorded by himself under the name of COREOPSIS (before he deceided to do a name change in October 2008 - now: ARHA - because he found out, that there existed a metal-core band from Texas with the same name).

COREOPSIS/ARHA is heavily into experimental music - from dark ambient to neofolk, to psych guitar to (mostly) noise and doom. The thing I'm going to post here first is rather "tame" in comparison to most of the other works by COREOPSIS/ARHA: "Time-Lag Guitar Figures"

"As the last Coreopsis release (before making the switch to my new name, Arha) I have indulged my delay fetish to the utmost. Flanged multi-tracked psych freakouts galore!"

Nevertheless this stuff surely isn't for the rock enthusiast... this isn't "rock music" - it's experimental music, at times rather heavy and quite dark, though sometimes there are also some gentle moments to be found (e.g.: 'Rusted Overture'). Very trippy, far out stuff! Enjoy!

COREOPSIS - Time-Lag Guitar Figures (2008)
(mp3 zip, 5 tracks, 102 min, 93 MB)
Get it here (dead link - RE-UP by request)!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Nick Chapman - EP 2007/EP 2008 (UK)

"I am a guitarist and electronic musician operating from Norwich, U.K. I have played guitar for over 25 years and been using music composition software and keyboards for over 5 years. Most of my pieces are instrumental. Some selections have been featured as soundtrack material on various educational or promotional DVDs and on a couple of independent films." (NICK CHAPMAN)

Website

When asked,
NICK CHAPMAN mentions many influences, mostly psych-prog bands from the 70s (AMON DÜÜL 2, ASH RA TEMPEL, MAGMA, PINK FLOYD...). Listening to his two EPs especially the more ambient and electronic instrumental sounds of krautrock musicians like MANUEL GÖTTSCHING (ASH RA TEMPEL) or CLUSTER/HARMONIA or POPOL VUH come to mind - but without simply copying those bands. Some of the more quiet piano passages also remind of BRIAN ENO's ambient works (e. g. "My world is very small").

If you are into electronic/ambient music you should really check these EPs out. NICK's music is quite relaxing and a rewarding listening experience. It takes you on a pleasant journey with some occasional dark passages, but nevertheless makes you feel comfortable, and it never gets kitschy (okay - there's one exception:
"Thin Air", but then: It's only 1:17 min and it's the last song of the EP; so it's quite a nice 'comedown' after the whole trip). The 2008 EP also features some harder guitar passages, more in a prog rock style (e. g. "Bee City").
Strongly recommended!

My favourite tracks: "Observations from the ocean floor" and "Golombek to play (and win)" - excellent stuff!
Enjoy!


NICK CHAPMAN - EP 2007/EP 2008
(mp3 zip, 8 tracks, 53 min, 68,2 MB, artwork incl.)
Get it here or here!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Nuo - Song Collection (Czch 199?)

These recordings from the end of the 90s from NUO are neither homemade lofi nor extremely psychedelic (but so what!) - they are rather quite professionel, and pretty good. We're talking about JAZZ with a slight psych-prog touch (e.g. on 'Moe', a track that could easily be mistaken for a mid-seventies jazzy krautrock piece by EMBRYO or a track by one of WOLFGANG DAUNER's or EBERHARD WEBER's projects).

NUO are: Jakub Zitko- keyboards, Marcel Bárta- altosax, Pavel Hrubý- tenorsax, Oskar Török- trumpet, Jan Jirucha- trombone, Jiří Šimek- guitar, Aleš Slavík- bass, Miloš Dvořáček- drums, Ivan Acher- fonovox.

Some of the afore mentioned musicians, namely Ivan Acher and Jakub Zitko, also played with 1st Regional before they went to NUO. They left Liberec to study on the jazz school in Prague and now work as professional musicians for various recording sessions. NUO released a CD
"Multimusic Minibigband" in 2004. (Info by Richard Charvat)
Enjoy!

NUO - Song Collection (Czch 199?)
(mp3 zip, 5 tracks, 28,2 MB, 26 min)
Get it
here or here!

RE-POST: We're Late For Class - # 6 "Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun..." (USA)

RE-POST of this amazing WLFC recording, also featured as an 10-min-excerpt on HLFP 01.
Get it
here or here!
Read original post
here.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

East Forest - The Education Of The Individual Soul (USA 2008)

The artwork above was penned by VC Johnson.

EAST FOREST is a unique musical project that combines 100% original field recordings with ethereal melodic soundscapes. All East Forest music is free to download at
http://www.EastForest.org, and is distributed through a Creative Commons license.

"The Education Of The Individual Soul" is the first musical offering by EAST FOREST.


It's "a forty-five minute uninterrupted sonic voyage down a rabbit hole of jungle monkeys, vintage piano, entheogenic messages, and pulse like beats ... East Forest is a gift and a gesture in the spirit of cooperation for the benefit of the human experience." (Trevor Oswald, photographer and artist from Brooklyn, the man behind E. F.)

"Let’s call it “Shaman-Rock”. It’s a special blend of source sounds and ambient post rock soundscapes that humbly hopes to serve as a guide, a little tool, to put a few cracks in the hypnotic spell of our modern life and help each of us rediscover a sense of self through introspection. Times they are a changing and a whispering truth is emerging in the collective consciousness: a feeling of spiritual emasculation and materialistic instability — we are being scared shitless out of ourselves. It’s time to gather up the moral courage and dive back in. So turn on, tune in, and drop in to some East Forest and start your education of the individual soul." (T. O.)

Read a very good review by Rachel Kowal (www.npr.org)
here.

Very gentle, relaxing ambient music that mixes samples and sound effects (as frog croaking, side walk preaching, dog barking, playing children) with tasteful keyboard/electric piano impressions. There are no sung lyrics, but some spoken passages and different voices. Enjoy!

EAST FOREST - The Education Of The Individual Soul
(mp3 zip, 13 tracks, 45 min, 64,9 MB, artwork incl.)
Get it here or here or here! (New link Sept. 2012)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Spacefinger - Gas Music From Jupiter (USA 2007)

My 2nd post with music by SPACEFINGER.
Like with so many artists featured on homemade-lofi-psych I really can't understand, why SPACEFINGER hasn't got the recognition yet, that he deserves. I mean, those tracks from "A New Dawn" are really fabulous and anyone who is into ambient electronic music should find them most appealing...

"Gas Music From Jupiter" tells another story: These tracks here are of a different beauty - much more abstract, much darker, more experimental and much harder to explore. As it says on archive.org : "Strange otherworldly noises with very little musicality. This is ambient sound at its purest."

Those soundscapes on
"Gas Music..." surely are less accessable as the more 'smooth' tracks from "A New Dawn", but nevertheless fascinating, though for different reasons... It comes as a big surprise to recognize that those two records were indeed recorded in the same year...

SPACEFINGER - Gas Music From Jupiter (2007)
(mp3 zip, 7 tracks, 61 min, 60,1 MB, vbr)
Get it here or here!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Spacefinger - A New Dawn (USA 2007)


Michael Fuller from Houston, TX, USA, is SPACEFINGER.

Michael has been making music for about 22 years now: Pop Rock, Power Pop, Psychedelia, and Ambient Experimental. SPACEFINGER is ambient sound at its purest.

"I have been a bit of a solo folk guy for a while, but I was in a band called The Sperlings from 96-01 (and recently reunited to work on new material.) We did get national airplay on a syndicated radio show once, but that's as big as we ever got. - I'm sending you some links to my Spacefinger material. This (is) very ambient experimental stuff done with Adobe Audition. My attempt at making a combo of soundscapes, musical concrete, and ambient. - It's all free. I've never made a dime off music, so I hope you enjoy this."

"A New Dawn" was created by using Adobe Audition to distort standard Soundbooth settings. This is probably the most pedestrian and accessable SPACEFINGER recording to date.

This is great ambient space music, quite relaxing and recommended for late night listening. In fact this is exactly the kind of music I love to hear on headphones before drifting into dreamland... Oh, by the way: That's exactly the title of one very long (34:39) track: "Dreamland"...

My favourite songs: "Japan" and "Dreamland""
Enjoy!

Spacefinger site
conical records
mikefuller.blog
Myspace

If you like what you hear, you should really check out the SPACEFINGER site, where you'll find lots of music to download for free.
You may also want to buy Michael Fuller's first book, "Peter Askew", a science-fiction story. Find it on
Amazon or lulu.com.

SPACEFINGER - A NEW DAWN (2007)
(mp3 zip, 8 tracks, 105 min, 104,6 MB, vbr)
Get it
here or in 2 parts here 'n' here!

Re:Interpretace - live APRIL 6TH 2009 (CZCH)

FOR OUR READERS FROM FORMER CZECHOSLOVAKIA:

RE:INTERPRETACE were asked for a live improvisation support for short experimental films in the Reichenberger Library on April 6th. An occasion you surely don't want to miss!
See (click) the poster for details.