Can 45 - Spoon, Shikako Maru Ten, Vitamin C, I'm SoGreen

Left: Yes we can can

Wonderful double 7" posted at Krautrock Team by everyone's favorite German-American-Japanese krautrock band-the mighty Can. Thanks to Krautrock Team!

Komackino - Joy Division

Komackino - Joy Division
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Still from "Lancelot du Lac" (1974)

Robert Bresson lenses a haunting version of the Camelot legend that begins as the Knights of the Round Table return from their fruitless search for the Holy Grail. Lancelot is reunited with Guinevere, who begs him to become her lover. Convinced his unchaste thoughts are the reason he hasn't found the Grail, Lancelot refuses, vowing to continue the quest. But when jealous Mordred spurs rebellion, Lancelot decides to remain in Camelot and fight.

Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else: HAL's father??

Post two in a three-part series of cool vintage electronic music records: This is a great bell telephone labs 7" from 1963 which includes synthesized speech. Bell Labs was interested in synthesized speech to improve telephone call quality, but this technology, including the Vocoder, would soon be turned to creative purposes like being used on Electro records. Enjoy!

Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else: HAL's father??

First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival

Above: Computer Music '79!

Here's a cool record of the 1978 First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival, featuring mp3s you can download of various
composers, playing on obscure synths like the RCA Cosmac, ALF, SSM, or NOTRAN. This record is a surprisingly late issue of traditional academic electronic music (think Columbia-Princeton). It is weird to hear old chestunts like the Mexican Hat Dance played on synths several years after Kraftwerk had written Autobahn and Cabaret Voltaire were unleashing electronic squalls in Sheffield. Anyway, a great find and a generous post.

First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival

Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Records

Above: Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood

Posting the Halloween record mp3s reminded me of the great Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Records, which has tons of related images and sounds from flexi-discs, novelty records, and kids' 45s. Some are interesting, like the Skippy self-amplified record, and some are fresh, like He Pioneers Electronic Music, many are just bizarre like the Sounds of Self-Defense or Chun King. Also, this is on the WFMU site, which is one of the best radio stations in the country-and also online.

The 8-Bit Construction Set

The 8-Bit Construction set is a great record that came out a few years ago. It's a collection of vintage Atari and C64 sounds, beats created using those machines, and even software--on vinyl! If you remember playing a software cassette in your tape deck and hearing an ungodly whirring and high pitched whine, yes, this is what they've included. You can actually record this sound and load it into your vintage machine as software! And to make things a bit easier on the ears, the software is only in one channel, with kitschy organ music playing in the other.

Here's a bunch of the Atari samples

8-Bit Construction

The Record Bin: LSD Records

Among the many incredibly strange genres of vintage vinyl releases is the interesting category of LSD Records. In the mid 60s, chemical experimentation was becoming an adventure for some youth and a nightmare to the adult authorities. At this point vinyl records were something like the internet of today: they distributed all kinds of music, religious and historical recordings, how-to information, as well as the thoughts of anyone who walked into a studio with a checkbook.

Here is a great site that profiles several of these rare records:

LSD Documentary Records