Sunday Times Soundsystem

The past few years’ resurgence of the unidentified producer and white label in house and techno circles has been widely documented; check this great article from Richard Brophy if you need to school yourself in that particular area. The practice of letting the music doing the talking has never really gone away. From deejays covering the labels of their obscure killer weapons to keep them just that to speculation of who is behind that massive white label that is being played in clubs X, Y and Z across the world. But what of those who go in the complete opposite direction? Why not go and invent a history for your project?

A superb mix from the ‘Endless House Foundation’ popped up on FACT mag at the beginning of this week. The mix was put together to promote the release of the Endless House Cd compiled by the Endless House Foundation on Dramatic Records. Mix aside, it was the associated back story and imagery that grabbed my attention.

The Endless House

The sleeve notes of the release go onto explain that the Endless House was the ‘outlandish brainchild of wealthy audiophile/maniac Jiri Kantor’ . This Endless House being an actual venue constructed in the ancient forest of Bialowieska in Poland, in which its ‘creator’ Jiri Kantor wanted to start ‘a new European sonic community’ not too dissimilar to the actual communes that had been formed in Germany throughout the late 60’s by experimental musicians and anarchists alike. The fact article goes into a full on interview with Kantor himself, explaining the ideology of the project and its swift demise. I think to make sense of this you had better read the article it self, here.

You have to appreciate the effort and originality that has gone into such a project, and the compilation is top quality too (which always helps). Whoever is behind this dupe over at dramatic records (truth be told it could be just one producer) even goes as far as pulling up some archival footage and another interview with another of the Endless House residents ‘Walter Schnaffs’

I’m siding with the elaborate imagination story and that dramatic records really DO do dramatic quite well, some other blogs and sites don’t seem to have made up their minds yet though! See Electronic beats, Clash Magazine (which includes more words from Jiri Kantor) and Visitation rites (who have another lengthy interview). The more I read these the more I start to believe in it!

Another of the imaginative persuasion is one Danny Wolfers, AKA Legowelt AKA Smackos. He had me fooled (well for about 10 minutes) when I picked up the first Ep from his Nacho Patrol project back in 2009. Wolfers penchant for vintage soundtracks and atmospheric electronics is known to most but it was my first experience with a ‘total’ package as it were. Have a read of the sleeve notes to see how he had created this temporary illusion.

‘This obscure lost soundtrack for an even more obscure (and also lost and never finished) ”Italia violenta” cop movie was recently discovered when I bought the dusty reel tapes from a restaurant owner in Fiumicino, a seaside town near Rome. ”Panter 777” aka ”Il Labirinto di Roma Violenta” aka ”The Maze of Violence”, he told me, was directed by Gervasio Giardano in 1981 and was considered too (politically) explicit by the movie production company who dropped the project after the first screening. Apparently heavily influenced by the cult poliziesco “La Polizia Sta a Guardare “ (Ransom; Police is Watching) it tells the story about a corrupt cop who plans to kidnap some big industrial boss as an act of revenge after cops daughter dies in a chemical waste accident. He discovers the involvement of the Catholic Church and the government and gets entangled in a maze of corruptness and violence’

‘The soundtrack, an explosion of wahwah funk riffs and juicy analog synthesizers, was composed by an obscure band called Nacho Patrol. The restaurant owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, was one of the band members and composed most of the tracks. (Danny Wolfers)’

He has gone onto release another two Eps worth of Nacho Patrol material and has an album on the way this year. If you can get your mitts on the Africa Jet Band Ep I suggest you do. The back story did’nt extend past the first Ep but considering I have picked up all three Eps its intriguing ideas hit me in the right place (the music is damn good too). Check Caravalle from that Africa Jet Band Ep (and if you have the time I suggest watching ‘The White Diamond’ where this footage was culled from).

Wolfers takes it in another direction with his Smackos project, the ‘Pacific Northwest Sasquatch Research’ being my favourite. Clones press release alluding to the illusion of some lone film maker wadering the wilds in search of the Sasquatch.

‘On this new album from smackos we join professor Malbador and his international team of cryptozoologists on their expedition to find the sasquatch (AKA Bigfoot) in the forests of the american pacific northwest. With a barrage of synthesizers Smackos brings us juicy analog 70s style electronic soundtracks, recorded on warm and wooly vintage reel-tape. Also contains real fieldrecordings of the sasquatch made by smackos during his own expedition in the wildernis of America earlier this year.’

Give some Time to his Franz Falckenhaus project too (if you can track down copies), you won’t be disapointed.

Of course there are cases where an actual discovery of a lost project does happen, as far as I know it’s a bit rarer than our original friends up above though. A vicarious discovery through someone unearthing some dusty ole tapes and re-committed them to vinyl (or Cd! In the following case) gives the listener the privelaged position of hearing something that could have easily have been confined to the dustbin. The 2008 ‘discovery’ of a lost project from Patrick Cowley being a notable example. The resulting album ‘Catholic – Patrick Cowley and Jorge Soccorras’ finding its way to many of the end of year charts that year.

Interview Pt.2

Interview Pt.3

Reality isnt half as much fun.

EDIT: Heres another mix from the mystery that is Jiri Kantor!

Here!