Various Artists - Extremely Mild And Pleasant Tasting - The Best Of Bob Chaos Recordings 1984-1986 (2004)

WM Recordings

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• Lo-fi 
• Psych-rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Dada music 
• DIY 
• Free jazz
• Experimental rock 
• Freeformfreakout 
• Noise pop
• Acid rock

Comment: this bunch of 22 tracks provides a good overview about the intention and music of such a cutting-edge imprint as cassette-only Bob Chaos (based on Muncie, Indiana, USA) due to a music label from the Netherlands, WM Recordings. Actually it was released in 2004, at the time home recording activities and the New Weird movement started appear in a dizzy way. Actually by such artists as Latent Chaos, Modern Exteriors, The Suadetones, Atomic Butterfly, MCRB, Disposable Air Sickness Band, Sonic Clams, Band-O-Fun, and Soul Celtics the listener can find out many those characteristics which started appear two decades later. Knee-deep psychedelia, at times being deliberately buffoonish and provoking by subverting the so-called established pop narratives. For instance, there is up a slippery version of Goldfinger by The Suadestones, there is also a song being obviously aroused by the Broadway aesthetics as a main sign of Western Capitalism and decadence. At times there are up themes being obsessive in their absurdity and madness being imbued with faint odours coming from the glistening aesthetic of Joe Meek, kitchen sink, space age music, radiophonic art, exploitation genres, and free jazz. I have always adored such sort of bands who dared to provide absurdity as a refreshing colour to the embodiment of music. And the most important thing is that we all are the apes in spite of bearing clothes and by using smart talk. By the way, our closer relatives used to do it as well. In a word, it is fun to partake in that decorous, spiky madness. Would you cut off your dick for art?

Atomic Butterfly – Atomic Butterfly (1985)

Bob Chaos

• Hard rock 
• Heavy metal 
• Psychedelic rock 
• Live session
• Crossover
• Krautrock 
• Improvised music 
• Math rock 
• Space rock

Comment: there has been a coon`s age since I last reviewed something from an obscure imprint called Bob Chaos Recordings. It can be said most of the compositions from within come out of the 80s. Outside the imprint there has been slight traces of it. I can remember for a release of WM Recordings called Extremely mild and pleasant tasting The best of Bob Chaos Recordings 1984-1986 (one of the artists appeared on it was Atomic Butterfly). And four more issues by Phil Reavis. By the way, Phil Reavis was a member of Atomic Butterfly, a name which used to have resemblance with Iron Butterfly, a combo which did contribute strongly to the development of heavy rock, and heavy metal. In fact, by listening to the albums and watching the pictures of the so-called heavy metal and hard rock combos from the end-60s and the beginning-70s the case used to be frequently thoroughly psychedelic and hippy by its nature although some violent threads started already to appear within the combos` sound. It is the case because Atomic Butterfly`s 12-track issue - unfortunately I was allowed to download 10 tracks only because a couple of them had problems with the downloading links - is as rough and hirsute as a piece of corroded iron. In truth, Atomic Butterfly is a live session record filled in with stomping drums, abrasive guitar noodling and acidic organ playing. I like that shitty sound quality. In any cases, if are searching for a robust, refreshing experience then you should come over to this legacy. It is a frantic instance of improvised music being far away from a neat, commerically oriented, often contemporary hard rock example (nuff said). You can hear even some motorik/krautrock, and math rock patterns although officially the latter term was not invented yet. In any cases, for once again, crank up the volume knob and get your rocks off on listening to it with your neighbours.

The Suadetones - Ultrasuade (1985)

Bob Chaos

9.2

/Covers, Alternative, Avant-garde, Weird pop, Lounge pop, Improvised music/

Comment: The Suadetones was a weird output under an off-kilter Muncie, Indiana-based label, Bob Chaos, being active from 1984 to 1988. The Suadetones comprised three members and even once shared the stage with Sonic Youth in Chicago (the crowd was very hostile toward them at a time, though). They issued 2 albums, however, all of that was recorded on tapes (this was an era lacking of computers and Pro Tools). One of them, getting reviewed at the moment, is a 24-piece cover-based publication. These are quite free-formed, even a little bit certifiable versions driven by Casio synths and reed organs representing the feeling of 80`s lo-fi/DIY/bedroom pop culture. Indeed, let`s take your time and listen to the covers of Moon River, New York New York, Yesterday, Goldfinger and many more pop culture gems.

Sonic Clams - Sonic Clams (1986)

Bob Chaos

9.1

/Weird pop, Avant-garde, Non-music, Experimentalism, Improvised music, Psychedelia, Psych-music, Sound collage, Found sound/

Comment: approximately 2 years ago I reviewed Phil Reavis` amazing album The Reagan Years, which was issued on WM Recordings in 2008. Before it Phil Reavis played in some Muncie/Bloomington, Indiana-related bands which in turn were related to Bob Chaos Records, a avant-garde cassette label having had the lifespan from 1984 to 1988. Anyway, Sonic Clams represents an album of 18 tracks which can be deemed to be one of the precursors of nowadays lo-fi/DIY/tape music culture (the label needs to be discovered by a wider audience yet). More profoundly, all is revolving (or revolting) around those hazy soundscapes which are loaded with deliberate tape hisses, spoken word samples, found sound additions, somewhat majestic organ drones or on the other side filled in with angry, obsessed prepared guitar shards and noise. However, at times this album seems to be a chain between R Stevie Moore, and The Residents, for instance. It also borders upon the early doings by John Crewdson aka the Hirundu and Halloween-induced compilatons.