Aural-Innovations Blog » Vas Deferens Organization & Perihelion – “The Science Of The Impossible” (Pure Pop For Now People 2011, Pure 07, LP): “Here we’ve got another archival recording from those menaces to the mainstream and mediocrity – Vas Deferens Organization (VDO). Recorded in 1997, The Science Of The Impossible was a one-off collaboration between VDO (Matt Castille and Eric Lumbleau) and a studio-only duo named Perihelion, which was keyboardist David Price and the late synthesist Tim Boone.

Gilded Portals Through Abandoned Temples / Shrouded Processions Through Forgotten Empires opens side 1. This is classic Kosmiche but in a carnival mood and reminds me of VDO’s Zyzzybaloubab album which was released the same year these recordings were made. We’ve got multiple keyboards and synths, all playing distinct roles, both melodic and atmospheric, and all grooving along to a playful rhythmic pulse. Around the 7 minute mark things get briefly loud and noisy, before settling into an eerie but playful vibe that’s like a blend of the early German cosmic pioneers and the Residents. Elegant Eskimos In Arctic Ballrooms is next and starts off with a blend of trippy cosmic mood-scapes, bleepy blurpy effects, and freakout guitar bits. It goes quiet after a couple minutes, the cauldron bubbling ominously, with strange sounds and light melodies rising gently from the pot.

Side 2 kicks off with The Illusion Of Equilibrium. Slow moving and sparse, it begins with a simple Casio-like rhythmic pattern, over which a parade of electronic sounds and textures pass by, some spaced out and some on the found-sound/experimental side. About halfway through all the sounds abruptly gel, working together to concoct an avant-Kosmiche stew. There’s still a big glom of different sounds, though the fun of it all is hearing how they contrast and cooperate. The Perils Of Gravity is next, at first sounding like mid-70s Tangerine Dream, but these guys waste no time warping the analogies by tossing in a non-stop barrage of sounds and clatter. LOTS happening here, making for an intense ride that’s an intriguing blend of classic Kosmiche and avant-garde fun.

Wow, lots of activity from the VDO camp in the past year, with both new and archival releases, and The Science Of The Impossible is another welcome addition to the VDO cannon.

The Science Of The Impossible was pressed in a limited edition of 200 LPs and is available directly from the Pure Pop For Now People label at http://www.ppfnp.com (Vinyl junkies should closely inspect their web site as they have released many treasures)

Email them at purepop@buissnet.com

Visit the Vas Deferens Organization web site at http://vasdeferensorganization.com

The latest and greatest VDO information is always posted at the Mutant Sounds web site at: http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz”

(Via .)

Ringing tones of famed Philharmonic silenced by ringing cell phone – CNN.com: “New York (CNN) — Add a new one to the irate reactions triggered by incessant ringing of a cell phone: bringing one of the world’s great symphony orchestras to a dead stop in mid-performance.”

David Bowie’s 65 birthday: 65 crazy facts and bizarre myths – mirror.co.uk: “David Bowie’s 65 birthday: 65 crazy facts and bizarre myths
By Paul Cockerton 8/01/2012
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1 First things first – how do you pronounce David Bowie’s name? It is ‘Bowie’ to rhyme with ‘Joey’, rather than as if it were similar to the acronym for The Only Way is Essex, TOWIE.

2 Did Bowie help start the credit crunch? BBC journalist Evan Davis suggests he may have had a role. In 1997, Bowie sold bonds on his future back catalogue royalties, an idea which was copied by the banks who sold on mortgage income. This ‘securitisation’ was partly responsible for the problems banks developed in the late Noughties.

3 Bowie says he was moonwalking years before Michael Jackson wowed the world in 1983′s Billie Jean. He wrote on his official website that choreographer Toni Basil taught him a type of moonwalk for his 1974 Diamond Dogs tour.

4 Bowie was interviewed on a BBC programme as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men at the age of 17. He complained: “It’s not nice when people call you darling and that”.

5 Bowie shares his birthday with Elvis Presley, who was exactly 12 years older. In her book, Stardust, Angie Bowie writes David Bowie could do a “devastating” impersonation of Elvis Presley. And Elvis once considered recording a cover version of Bowie’s 1976 hit, Golden Years.

6 Bowie’s first ever release was Liza Jane/Louie Louie Go Home in June 1964, under the name of Davie Jones with The King-Bees.

7 Born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London in 1947, he changed his name to avoid the similarity with Davy Jones from The Monkees. Due to the similar-sounding name, a popular misconception is that Bowie was actually in The Monkees.

8 Bowie got just one O Level – in art. He still draws, paints and sculpts with his favourite artists listed as Picasso, Michael Ray Charles, Tintoretto and Erich Heckel.

9 Many young boys in the 1970s and 1980s grew up wanting to be Bowie – and so did girls. Queen of Shops Mary Portas said Bowie was her hero as a child and she dressed up as Ziggy Stardust aged 12.

10 Blue-eyed boy Bowie’s left pupil is permanently dilated thanks to a punch thrown by friend George Underwood at school over a girl. His thumbnail dug into Bowie’s eye, which now appears either brown or blue depending on the light.

11 The fictional Major Tom has appeared in three of Bowie’s hits: ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969, ‘Ashes To Ashes’ in 1980 and ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ in 1996.

12 Rock guitarist Peter Frampton was Bowie’s friend at school and he has played guitar with Bowie many times during his career.

13 Bowie released his debut album, called ‘David Bowie’, in 1967 after playing in pub and club bands.

14 The Laughing Gnome – regarded by many as Bowie’s worst song – was the most requested track by fans when invited to make phone votes to select songs for him to perform on the 1990 world tour – although he didn’t play it.

15 His first hit in the UK was ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969 and – aptly enough – was used by the BBC for the coverage of the moon landing.
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16 Nicolas Roeg cast Bowie in his first lead role in 1976, as a stranded alien, in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

17 His first number one in the United States was Fame, in 1975. Co-written by John Lennon, it features the late Beatle on backing vocals.

18 Bowie wrote the soundtrack for the BBC dramatisation of Hanish Kureishi’s novel, ‘Buddha Of Suburbia’.

19 On album ‘Diamond Dogs’, Bowie plays pretty much every instrument, including the guitar riff on ‘Rebel Rebel’.

20 Bowie was ahead of the pack when the internet started to take off. In 1997 Bowie made single ‘Telling Lies’ available for release only on the internet. He launched Bowienet, his own ISP, a year later.

21 Bowie made a special guest appearance on the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Atlantis SquarePantis as the Lord Royal Highness in Atlantis SquarePantis on November 12, 2007.

22 Bowie formed his own mime troupe in 1969 called Turquoise, later to change their name to Feathers.

23 Bowie appeared as Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.

24 In contrast, in the 1986 movie Labyrinth, Bowie plays Jareth The Goblin King.

25 Bowie married supermodel Iman in 1992. In fact they married twice – at a registry office

26 Bowie’s hit ‘Ziggy Stardust’ is about Vince Taylor, proto-punk and frontman for The Playboys.

27 A version of ‘Space Oddity’ was recorded in Italian titled ‘Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Solo’ which translated means ‘Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl’.

28 Chart rivals Roxy Music were miffed when Bowie copied their catsuit look on stage – so they ‘stole’ his trusty lighting engineer.

29 Bowie’s duet with Bing Crosby of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, recorded for Christmas 1977 and a hit five years later, was Crosby’s last ever single.

30 A letter that Bowie sent to Young American Sandra Adams in 1967, thanking her for sending his first fanmail from across the Atlantic, was unearthed in 2010.

31 It’s nothing new for bands to be pelted by missiles during gigs, but the projectile usually takes the form of a beer cup of water bottle. Not so during a gig by Bowie in Norway in 2004 when he was hit in the eye by a lollipop while onstage. The gig was stopped while Bowie received medical attention.

32 Actor and musician Scarlett Johansson said: “I learned I was a sexual being through David Bowie’s songs.”
David Bowie performing The Jean Genie on Top of the Pops in 1973

33 Lost Top of the Pops footage of The Jean Genie from 1973, regarded as the ‘holy grail’ by Starman’s fans, was found in a dusty box by a former cameraman on the show last year. It had been wiped by the BBC and assumed to be gone forever.

34 ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ has been covered by Nirvana and Lulu.

35 Bowie proposed to Iman in Paris while on a boat cruise on the Seine while it was passing under the Pont Neuf.

36 His favourite aftershaves are Minotaure by Paloma Picasso and anything by Guerlain.

37 David Bowie has been immortalised in stone to celebrate turning 65. Artist Ed Chapman, 40, created this tile mosaic of the Starman in time for his milestone birthday. Ed, who lives in Manchester, has previously made of a portrait of Lord Sugar out of sugarcubes and Jimi Hendrix from 5,000 plectrums.
Bowie pin-up

38 Bowie declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003. He said: “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”

39 He was the star of an episode in the second series of Ricky Gervais, where he makes up a song ridiculing Gervais’ character Andy Millman.

40 Bowie grew up in Bromley, London, but his family hail from Doncaster in South Yorkshire and Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

41 Rumour has it that Bing Crosby did not know who Bowie was before they recorded their Little Drummer Boy duet, but Bing’s son recommended him.

42 29-year-old Bowie was arrested for cannabis possession in Rochester, New York in 1976.

43 Wife Iman has a Bowie knife tattooed on her ankle as well as the name ‘David’ in Arabic writing.

44 Estimates of Bowie’s wealth range from £100m to £500m.

45 Other pseudonyms Bowie has used over the years include Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, Tao Jones, Halloween Jack and John Merrick.

46 His Glastonbury performance in 2000 is regarded by fans as one of the greatest Glasto shows of all time. And in a poll of who festival fans want to headline Glastonbury when it returns next year, Bowie was number one choice.

47 A new spider species discovered in Malaysia in 2009 was called Heteropoda Davidbowie.

48 Guitarist Mick Ronson’s work with David Bowie is sometimes credited as being the ‘birthpoint of heavy metal’.

49 The video for Ashes to Ashes was voted the 27th greatest music video of all time in a poll by Channel 4.

50 When recording the Magic Dance song for the Labyrinth soundtrack, the baby wouldn’t provide the necessary coos and giggles so David Bowie did it himself.

51 His mum Peggy was a waitress and his dad John worked for Barnardo’s.

52 A pupil at Stockwell Infants School in south London, he had a reputation for ‘defiance and brawling’.

53 Bowie began playing the piano at the age of ten and played the ukelele and tea-chest bass in skiffle seesions with mates.

54 He met first wife Angela Barnett in 1969 – they married within a year.

55 The song ‘Kooks’ on 1971 album ‘Hunky Dory’ was written for his son Zowie.

56 Now know better as Duncan Jones, he is an award-winning director responsible for science fiction-techno-thriller 2011 flick Source Code.

57 ‘Diamond DOgs’ was planned to be a musical version of George orwell’s 1984.

58 In 1980, Bowie did a three-month run on Broadway in The Elephant Man.

59 He turned down the chance to play baddie Max Zorin in James Bond film ‘A View To A Kill’ – a role that was performed by Christopher Walken.

60 In 1992, he played FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’.

61 He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

62 He and Iman appeared as characters in 1999 game Omikron – for which he provided the soundtrack.

63 Bowie suffered an acutely blocked artery that required emergency heart surgery in 2004 and went into semi-retirement.

64 Rolling Stone magazine declared him 39th on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time.

65 Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.”

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The Wire: Adventures in Modern Music: Article: “Hosted by Anne Hilde Neset, with tracks by Can, Vas Deferens Organization, Ariel Pink, Baloji with Konono N? 1 and more”

ALTERED ZONES – Vas Deferens Organization: “Defenestration At The Gravity Pit”: “In Eric Lumbleau’s recent piece for The Wire’s Collateral Damage column, the Mutant Sounds writer weighs in on the effects of file sharing on the underground music timeline. Forgetten outsider gems are gaining exposure to a new and surprisingly willing audience via torrents or mp3 blogs like Lumbleau’s own, allowing everyone to be their own curator, to write alternative musical histories based on what resonates with them in the now

Though Dallas’ Vas Deferens Organization, Lumbleau’s band, have a varied and prolific output, it’s safe to assume that their own musical timeline would give due props to veteran freaks like Captain Beefheart, The Residents, or Throbbing Gristle. In “Defenestration at the Gravity Pit,” the opening track from their latest Eye Peels And Brain Picks LP, this goofball approach to psychedelia manifests itself as a collagist, peyote-fueled soundtrack for your ritualistic mating dance. –Matt Sullivan, Altered Zones

Eye Peels And Brain Picks is sold out on Puer Gravy, but Side A is available as a free download”

Vas Deferens Organization and Brad Laner – “Transcontinental Conspiracy”: “Headed up by Matt Castille and Eric Lumbleau, Vas Deferens Organization’s history dates back to the mid-1990s and includes a sizable discography. Summary descriptions of the band can’t possibly do them justice, but put a gun to my head and I’ll say – imagine if The Residents listened to 100 of the best Psychedelic, Krautrock, Prog, Experimental, and 80s Hometaper albums, and then started making albums based on their digestion and regurgitation of all those albums… and you might get something like Vas Deferens Organization (VDO).”

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VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION coupe poudre scirocco by HLAVA

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Vas Deferens Organization + Perihelion – The Science Of The Impossible (Vinyl, LP) at Discogs: “Vas Deferens Organization + Perihelion – The Science Of The Impossible Label: Pure Pop For Now People – PURE 07 Format: Vinyl, LP Country: Germany Released: 15 Nov 2011 Genre: Rock Style: Space Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental”

Pro Tools beta adds Lion support | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog: “Pro Tools is the industry-standard audio creation and production software used in the music and entertainment industries. Traditionally, Pro Tools takes its sweet time to be updated to work on newer OSs, but today Avid has released a Pro Tools 9.0.5 beta, which adds support for OS X 10.7 Lion. Note, however, that even though Pro Tools 9.0.5 is officially qualified to work on Snow Leopard systems, that’s not the case with Lion. Hence the “beta” status. If your livelihood depends on Pro Tools, you probably shouldn’t upgrade your production workstations to Lion and version 9.0.5.

If you intend to upgrade, note this warning and advice from Avid. When Lion is installed on a system with Pro Tools, the OS will disable some Pro Tool plug-ins. Given that, Avid recommends against updating a Snow Leopard workstation that already has Pro Tools installed. Instead they suggest Pro Tools users create a new partition on their hard drives, then install Lion from scratch, and then install Pro Tools 9.0.5.

You can check out Avid’s Read Me file on the matter here (PDF) and download the Pro Tools 9.0.5 update here.”

Hellenic Antidote: Radio Akritas: Anestis Delias: “Anestis (Anestos or Artemis) Delias was born in Smyrna in 1912 and with Markos Vamvagaris, Giorgos Batis and Stratos Payioumtzis made up The Legendary Quartet of Piraeus, which defined the Piraeus school of rembetika that lasted until 1937 when the Metaxas regime cracked down on the music and those who played it.

Delias was badly affected by the suppression of rembetika and in 1938 got mixed up with Katerina or Koula the Skoularikou (Koula the Earring), a prostitute and heroin addict, who, the rembetologist Ilias Petropoulos claims, was so fearful of losing Delias that while he slept she would insert a paper cone up his nose, blow heroin through it and in this way induced him to become dependent on the narcotic and on her.

Indeed, Delias, despite all the songs rembetes wrote about drugs, was the only rembete to become involved with heroin, and to succumb to it; for, having done everything he could to escape heroin and the clutches of Koula the Earring, including joining the army and fighting on the Albanian front in 1940-41, the Earring tracked him down in Athens and drew him back into her orbit, soon after which, in the winter of 1944, Delias was found dead in the street outside the teke Seraphim in Metaxourgio of a heroin overdose, clutching his bouzouki.

In Radio Akritas, I’ve made available four Delias songs: 1. ? ????? ??? ???????? (The Junkie’s Complaint); 2. ????? ? ????????? (Crazy Nick); 3. ?? ?????????? (The Show Off); and 4. ?? ?????? (The Jacket).

The Junkie’s Complaint, written in 1935, before he knew Koula – who outlived Delias, her victim, by 50 years – is horribly prophetic:

From the time I started to smoke the dose The world has turned its back on me; I don’t know what to do. From sniffing it up, I went on to the needle And my body slowly began to melt. Nothing is left for me to do in this world Because the drugs have left me to die in the streets.”

SERPENT Vas Deferens Organization & Brad Laner – Transcontinental Conspiracy:

SUPERSISTER » This is no good news…: “Supersisters and brothers

This is no good news… Since July 20th, wednesday morning,  our dear friend bass player Ron van Eck is no longer with us.  After several years of heavy health struggling his body ‘simply’  had to give up – the end was reached. The end of his working so hard and so patiently on recovering, which even one day resulted in the fact that he picked up the bass guitar again.  Supersister even started to rehearse – very cautiously –  we had high hopes to be able to play Nearfest ’11 after also completing a short TV appearance in September ‘10. Sadly enough we had to cancel all this shortly after : Ron suddenly suffered from significant fall-back. It seemed as if Ron had to start all over again – which he did, as he had done everything before, utmost bravely, but as we know now, half a year later: in vain…

Ron was Supersister’s architect and philosopher – without him it would have been something else completely, as well musically as lyric-wise.  We sure will miss him badly, our dear music mate and friend with whom we went through so many stages in life together.

Bye bye Ron, thank you for all your notes, words, ideas… our Red Giant !”

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Vas Deferens Organization – Ninth Ward Fourth World (Vinyl) – Buy at Discogs Marketplace: “Vas Deferens Organization – Ninth Ward Fourth World Label: Free Dope And Fucking In The Streets Catalog#: Fdafits 33.3-1 Format: 100 × Vinyl, LP Country: US Released: 2010 Genre: Electronic Style: Experimental”

MUTANT SOUNDS: PRE-RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION & BRAD LANER-TRANSCONTINENTAL CONSPIRACY-FULLY REMASTERED REISSUE WITH BONUS TRACK: “In conjunction with the new Polish label Niklas , I’m pleased to finally announce the imminent CD re-release of the first of Vas Deferens Organization’s two collaborations with Medicine/Steaming Coils/Electric Company mastermind Brad Laner. Transcontinental Conspiracy not only marked our first collaboration with Laner, but it also contains contributions from three members of the legendary Mercury Rev (Grasshopper, Suzanne Thorpe and Jason Russo). This 15 year anniversary edition has been dramatically remastered by Vas Deferens Organization and comes equipped with both an exclusive and brand new 10 minute VDO & Laner track from 2010 called Scheming Foils and with brand new packaging design courtesy of the fine folks at Niklas, who’ve made this all possible.

They’ve described this album thusly on their site: “An absolutely must-have rock avantgarde classic of the 90s., one of best albums on its field, where advanced studio sonic experimentation meets refined influences of Faust and Can, funk, electronics, breakbeats and Dadaist humour – and results in long, crazy, multi-layered suites – a quintessence of what we call post-rock”

You can download one minute long samples in full .wav audio of three of these tracks here , to give you a better sense of it’s remastered sound quality and to absorb what lies in wait with the bonus track.

The official release date for this CD is July 31st, 2011. It will be available at that date to order worldwide from Polish distributors Serpent . A list of further distributors will be made available on the Mutant Sounds announcement on the day of it’s official release. Wholesale and distributor inquiries should be directed to Monotype Records

A full press release for this album can be downloaded via the above Niklas link.”

NiklasRECORDS » Vas Deferens Organization & Brad Laner: Transcontinental Conspiracy: “Vas Deferens Organization & Brad Laner: Transcontinental Conspiracy

An absolutely must-have rock avantgarde classic of the 90s., one of best albums on its field, where advanced studio sonic experimentation meets refined influences of Faust and Can, funk, electronics, breakbeats and Dadaist humour – and results in long, crazy, multi-layered suites – a quintesence of what we call post-rock…

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Geneva Jacuzzi

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Geneva Jacuzzi – Love Caboose??- YouTube:

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Wild Man Fischer, Outsider Musician, Dies at 66 – NYTimes.com: “Wild Man Fischer, a mentally ill street musician who became a darling of the pop music industry in the 1960s and as a result enjoyed four decades of strange, intermittent and often ill-fitting celebrity, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 66.”

Back to the future – Page 1 – Music – Dallas – Dallas Observer: “Mazinga Phaser is nothing if not ambitious. Exhausted from a day of intense mixing, producer Matt Castille and four of the six band members are slouching in the bedroom of Castille’s home studio. Although fatigued, they’re talking enthusiastically, riding that final rush that follows a job well done. Phrases like ‘massive cultural enlightenment’ and ‘new psych-rock explosion for the ’90s’ enter the conversation casually, so it’s no surprise when guitarist Wanz Dover announces the title of the debut album they’re working on: Cruising in the Neon Glories of the New American Night.”

Transcendental Blues – Page 1 – Music – Dallas – Dallas Observer: “‘There never will be another Doug, that’s for sure,’ says Matt Castille, who worked with Ferguson in the Vas Deferens Organization, a formerly Dallas-based group that has gained a widespread cult following for assimilating obscure forms of experimental music into a willfully bizarre brew. ‘He would get in his car and drive to the end of the world if he knew he could play on a great record.’”

Dennis Gonzalez Finally Gets His Due – Page 1 – Music – Dallas – Dallas Observer: “The world is just now getting to know Ariel Pink. The totally out-there Los Angeles freak-folker has been stuck in the underground, making some of the world’s weirdest music for over a decade. But since his critically acclaimed indie-pop album, Before Today, earned its release back in April, people have started paying more attention to his unusual pop sensibilities.

HAL SAMPLES Meet Dennis and Aaron Gonzalez, two of the driving forces behind Ariel Pink’s latest blog hit. Related Content Good Friday: True Widow Album Release, Descender, Destroyer, DEVO, Arlo Guthrie, Salt-N-Pepa, Murs, Nervebreakers, REO Speedwagon, Dashboard Confessional & More! March 25, 2011 This Week In Dallas Music History: The Vas Deferens Organization is Not For Everyone December 27, 2010 Happy Days Are Near Again For DFW Market? So Insists National Retail Real-Estate Report. February 15, 2011 Truck Thefts from Texas Soda Distributors Make Dallas a Hub for Hot Dr Pepper April 6, 2011 35 Conferette Adds A Whopping 135 More Bands To Bill, Including A Whole Slew of Locals January 21, 2011 More About Ariel PinkDennis GonzalezDallas (Texas)Eric LumbleauArts, Entertainment, and Media And, now, they’re paying attention to this fun fact: In February, earlier this year, Ariel Pink was right here in the metroplex—Mesquite to be exact—working on his next record, Ariel Pink with Added Pizzazz.

Because of a mutual friendship that had grown after several years of trading music on an underground share-blog called Mutant Sounds, Ariel Pink enlisted Matt Castille and Eric Lumbleau of the former Dallas psych-rock outfit Vas Deferens Organization to handle the record’s production. Ariel Pink and Vas Deferens Organization had been discussing the idea of making a pop record with a basis in jazz-rock for some time. But, to do so, Pink’s backing band, Haunted Graffiti, would need to be upgraded to a group of musicians fluent in both rock and free jazz.”

Out Here – Page 1 – Music – Dallas – Dallas Observer: “MIT consists of Mazinga Phaser leader Wanz Dover, Ohm’s Doug Ferguson, and the Vas Deferens Organization’s Matt Castille and Eric Lumbleau. Unlike Bedhead, these guys are unabashed machine musicians with absolutely no tendency toward pop song structure. That said, Musik von Tone Float is one of the warmest and friendliest examples of this kind of music you’re likely to encounter; the VDO crew in particular did an excellent job of subduing its impulses toward confrontational freakiness. We’re definitely in the realm of soundtrack here, running the gamut from random noises shooting through space (‘tonight we sleep with the eggroll king’) to slowly-building tribal stomps (‘millipede’), but the whole trip is quite seamlessly constructed. A fascinating peek in a surprising direction.

–Matt Weitz”

Out Here – Page 1 – Music – Dallas – Dallas Observer: “The third cassette in the 10-tape series from local avant-noise collective Vas Deferens Organization, this is indeed the sound of men playing with their penises in public. But God love ‘em, they aren’t ashamed about it. Art-rock, Krautrock, trance-rock–whatever the tradition it’s all noise on this end, sound effects and static meant to evoke a mood and create an atmosphere. It’s the legacy of Faust and Neu! and LaBradford taken to the nth degree, where sound becomes pure noise and dreams give way to nightmares and music becomes ‘music’ by definition alone. The sound of the sampler and the computer, human sounds (Arabic chants, exotic percussion, guitars) blend with the inhuman (beeps and squawks and squeals and distorted static) to create something bizarre, frightening, ridiculous, unreal, unlistenable.

That’s not to say Castille doesn’t know all this: The tape, divided into the ‘Acid’ and ‘Opium’ sides, proudly displays its pretensions in everything from its silver-and-black slip-on cassette condom to the noise on the tape. And though a good hunk of the cassette plays itself out like a radio tuned into five stations at once (hell, five countries at once) with the static in between, sometimes he actually achieves something quite remarkable: The Middle Eastern samples on the far more effective ‘Opium’ side contrast extraordinarily with the noise effects (maybe they’re horns sampled into a computer, maybe they’re created by the computer itself), and the result is something just this side of Eno’s ambient sound tracks. It’s actually quite beautiful in spots, even creepier in others–no doubt Castille’s intention from the get-go.”

Cyclic Defrost: Felix Kubin & Ensemble Intégrales – Echohaus (Dekorder): “Felix Kubin, long a stick in the spokes of the mundane, manages to flip the script once more and deliver a distinctly wrong-footed move in a career that has specialised in just that. Although being credited predominantly on Echohaus, Kubin could be described as composer and producer, rather than a player in this scene. Hamburg-based Ensemble Intégrales descended into the bowels of Westwerk, once a squat and cultural nexus for left-field arts, now the recording studios of ‘underground pop producer’ Tobias Levin. The details of the recording process are rather fascinating, and do add a further layer to the understanding and appreciation of Echohaus. The Ensemble, led by Burkhard Friedrich and Barbara Lüneberg, were recorded in separate rooms, connected only by headphones. The acoustic temperament of the room added the degree of echo in the haus, so to speak. Often seemingly drenched in reverb, no effects or reverb was added to the recording post-production.

The cover of this release features a nighttime shot of what I assume must be the Westwerk building. It’s very reminiscent of that brutalist piece of public housing found on Victoria Rd, in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville – Blandville Court (never has a block of flats been bestowed with such an appropriate moniker). And there are further parallels to Echohaus in Blandville. Vignettes and moods slide by – the album doesn’t really go anywhere, preferring a sombre mood to an exciting dynamic journey for the senses. Kubin’s trademark lightness of touch and ‘space-age’ pop from previous releases is certainly absent from der Echohaus.

As an introduction to the album, ‘Uncanny Valley’s creak and thump of disconnected musicians and dusty Intonarumori, flag that Echohaus maybe shouldn’t feature Kubin’s name so predominantly in the title. Rather appropriately, further on, ‘Nachtschicht (Night shift) für Russolo’, features mournful strings, hanging chords and simple piano motifs, like a cross between Morton Feldman and Jan Jelinek, this is night music for ghosts and insects. There’s not much going on in ‘Zerschlage mein Herz, dreifaltiger Gott’ other than delicate, high-pitched bowed violin, a deep rumbling spasmodic bass and badly timed rimshots, yet it would make a fantastic soundtrack to a forgotten silent horror classic.

Central piece ‘Schwarzer Fluss’ starts in a flurry of keys, creaks and percussion. It flits through numerous creepy varieties of chamber music where extended techniques ramp up the tension inexorably, kind of like Kubin contemporary Marcus Schmickler’s use of the Shepard tone on his latest album. The paranoia-inducing conclusion is reached via radio static, abased pianos and screeching orchestration. The remainder of Echohaus manages the odd serene moments in between the glowering soundscapes and chattering instrumentation. For the most part Echohaus is a descent into the underworld for Kubin and his companions, whereas previously the composer has preferred to orbit above the earth, somewhere in the stratosphere.”

1000+ Sound Effects Download Free and Premium – tripwire magazine: “1000+ Sound Effects Download Free and Premium”

Electronic Music Foundation: “Electronic Music foundation

What EMF does … We produce concerts and festivals. We provide recording facilities and technical support for artists. We circulate information through our global community. We promote events and distribute CDs, DVDs, books, and other materials to a global public.”

Record Industry: Limewire Could Owe $75 Trillion – Judge: “Absurd”: ” So we’re all pretty desensitized by now to the mind-blowing stupidity on display by the record industry in its foolhardy attempts at assigning damages in piracy cases — was anyone surprised when they told one woman, who had shared 24 songs, that she owed nearly two million dollars? Yes, ridiculous. But this — this is beyond ridiculous. This is… sublime.

The record companies suing Limewire were asked to estimate the damages that should be paid by the file-sharing service. Their estimate? $400 Billion on the low end, and at the high end — $75 trillion dollars. That’s more than the GDP of the entire world.

The judge, in a refreshing stroke of good sense, deemed these potential damages ‘absurd’ and the plaintiff’s approach ‘untenable’. The $75tn figure relies on an interpretation of copyright law that provides statutory damages for each instance of copying, and with the numbers of downloads and individual songs the industry is alleging, the money adds up quickly. Even the $400bn figure is certainly grossly inflated, however ‘conservative’ it may appear to Virgin, Atlantic, Sony, and so on.”

17 Excellent Studies About Music, The Brain, and Your Health: “For years, nurses and other health care professionals have known that music has positive effects on the brain. Indeed, the complexities of music are thought to stimulate brain function. On top of that, there also seems to be an effect of music on health. Some health care professionals note that music therapy can help in a variety of ways, leading to increased chances of recovery.

You can see for yourself that music can be a boon to many. Music can help make you smarter and keep your brain functioning, and it can also be a positive influence on your health. Here are 17 studies about music, the brain and your health:”

Mick Karn, Bassist for Synth Heroes Japan and Peter Murphy’s Dalis Car, Dead at 52 – Los Angeles Music – West Coast Sound: “?Mick Karn, best known as the bassist for influential synth pop outfit Japan died on January 4 at the age of 52. The following is the statement from his website: It’s with profound sadness that we have to inform you that Mick finally lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully at 4.30pm today, 4th January 2011 at home in Chelsea, London. He was surrounded by his family and friends and will be deeply missed by all. Born Adonis Michaelides, Mick Karn rose to prominence in the late 1970s as bassist for the seminal synth pop outfit Japan. Fusing glam rock and electronic influences, Japan proved to be innovators in the U.K.’s post-punk landscape. The 1979 album Quiet Life ultimately predicts both the look and the sound that would dominate pop music in the decade to follow.

“

This Week In Dallas Music History: The Vas Deferens Organization is Not For Everyone – Dallas Music – DC9 At Night: “?In this edition of This Week In Dallas Music History, former Observer music writer Matt Weitz wrote a 1996 piece on the Vas Deferens Organization — an avant garde music collective that engineered recordings so strange, they made Ariel Pink sound like The Beatles.

Interestingly enough, though, it was because of an Ariel Pink recording in Dallas this year that we featured the Vas Deferens Organization in a story about Dennis, Aaron, and Stefan Gonzalez — a local jazz family that connected with Pink because of their relationship with members of the VDO.

Pink isn’t the only high profile artist with connection to VDO, though. This piece features an interesting story of how VDO members Eric Lumbleau and Matt Castille tricked members of Medicine and Mercury Rev into recording on a project called Transcontinental Conspiracy. “

If they were not trying to do DR John’s Gris Gris I will eat my hat!!!

“

Another I produced for The Eyelash Carpets, this one with Jeff Mattson from Crash Worship.

lfusetronsound: ” Artist: SHITS AND GIGGLES Title: Trick Or Treat Format: LP Label: F.D.A.F.I.T.S. Country: USA Price: $22.00 ‘The union of warped avant pop maestro Ariel Pink and the shapeshifting surrealists and Mutant Sounds blog co-authors in Vas Deferens Organization, Shits And Giggles is an inspired and unprecedented collision of two distinct and fully formed galaxies of advanced dream logic art fuck, with Ariels hazy/glazy universe of dissociative pop song rupture and advanced command of psychedelic song structure a virtual playpen for the pranksters in VDO to jerry-rig with plunderphonic joy buzzers, synth punk trap doors, kosmiche time machines and an embrace of willful illogic; a psychotropic melee onto whose exoskeleton has been grafted unexpected episodes of luminous grace from legendary free jazz trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez and his son, bassist Aaron Gonzalez.’ -F.D.A.F.I.T.S. “

The 23 Best Names Ever | Smosh: “When your parents pick out your name, they are choosing something that will define you for the rest of your life. In the case of these people, their parents have chosen to define them as hilarious. Let us know any crazy names you’ve heard in the comments!”

The original website of strange and wonderful album covers | Bizarre Records: “Joquina, that guy’s on the front porch again. I told you to get a restraining order.”

Aural Innovations SpaceRock Radio in streaming RealAudio: “Radio Show #251: VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION Special (December 24, 2010)

Since 1994, Vas Deferens Organization have been blending Psychedelia, Krautrock, Progressive Rock and other musical forms into a bubbling cauldron of lysergic madness and fun. In honor of the first Vas Deferens Organization album in nine years, this tribute show explores the band’s work and various side projects.

Visit the Vas Deferens Organization web site at

http://vasdeferensorganization.com

Visit the Free Dope and Fucking in the Streets label web site at

http://www.freedopeandfuckinginthestreets.com

Visit the Mutant Sounds blog site at

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com

Listen Mp3 Download Mp3 (114 megs) Playlist

[Track 1: 0:00-7:15] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Lazy Eyed Locusts in Defocused Landscapes’ (from Saturation)

[Track 2: 9:30-18:30] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Hors D’Oeuvres’ (from Drug Bubbles)

[Track 3: 18:30-24:40] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘The Matmos’ (from Sweat Your Cheeses, But Not In My Salad)

[Track 4: 24:40-30:15] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Navajo Beach Blanket Bingo’ (from The Idiot Parade)

[Track 5: 30:15-34:05] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Wald Lied’ (from Queas & Art)

[Track 6: 36:35-42:45] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘E.V.P.’ (from Ninth Ward Fourth World)

[Track 7: 42:45-47:00] Shits and Giggles – ‘Zykatronics’ (from Trick or Treat)

[Track 8: 47:00-1:01:00] Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Futura Perspective’ (from Zyzzybaloubah)

[Track 9: 1:02:10-1:08:30] Tone Float – ‘Vapourspace Lookinglass’ (from Musik von Tone Float)

[Track 10: 1:08:30-1:13:50] Sound – ‘The Screaming Zenith’ (from The Screaming Zenith)

[Track 11: 1:13:50-1:20:40] Muz – excerpt (from Muz)

[Track 12: 1:20:40-1:26:15] Muz – ‘On The Sun’ (from Banana in Portuguese)

[Track 13: 1:27:25-1:31:25] Electric Company and Vas Deferens Organization – ‘Extracting Epiphanies From The Thicket Of Implausibility’ (from More Pelvis Wick For The Baloney Boners)

[Track 14: 1:31:25-1:41:05] Vas Deferens Organization and Brad Laner – ‘T’ (from Transcontinental Conspiracy)

[Track 15: 1:41:05-1:47:00] Vas Deferens Organization and Christopher – excerpt (from Suspension)

[Track 16: 1:47:25-2:04:30] Sound – ‘Phantasmagoricon’ (from Drunk on Confusion) “

Don Van Vliet, avant-garde rock musician known as Captain Beefheart, dies at 69 – latimes.com: “Don Van Vliet, a maverick musician who emerged from the Southern California desert with the name Captain Beefheart and a singular and influential form of avant-garde rock in the 1960s, died Friday. He was 69.

Van Vliet, who retreated to a reclusive life as an abstract painter in the early 1980s, died from complications of multiple sclerosis at a hospital near his home in Trinidad in Northern California, said a spokeswoman for the Michael Werner Gallery, his New York-based art dealer.

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band never sold many records, but their work was critically acclaimed, especially the epic, surreal 1969 album ‘Trout Mask Replica,’ which was ranked No. 58 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.”

Abbey sidewalk: ” Abbey sidewalk

Just before the famous Abbey Road photo was taken, The Beatles were photographed on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street.”

MUTANT SOUNDS: “To accompany our share of side A of the brand new VDO LP ‘Ninth Ward Fourth World’, it seemed apropos to also unleash this, the first of two collaborations VDO undertook with Christopher Moock (the second being the Vas Dererens Organization & Christopher-Suspension LP on Beta-Lactam Ring) prior to Messr. Moock joining VDO officially some 5 years back, casting as it does some light on how Chris and his sensibility slot into the mix. In truth though, much of this particular release could also be viewed as a Muz and Christopher collaboration, as aside from the last third of side B, I’m wholly absent from this one, these recordings having come together very rapidly over these course of a weekend while I was away, with Miasmata principally consisting of Matt manipulating and building out material submitted by Chris and my coming in on the end stretch and adding a cherry on top. The results sit midway between the sustained amniotic electronic probings of Matt’s eponymous first Muz LP, the krautrock-indebted jamming periodically heard our collaborations with Brad Laner and a sorta swarming avant garde-ish synth-y symphonism suggestive of The Legendary Pink Dots.

Get it via Megaupload Here

MUTANT SOUNDS: VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION-NINTH WARD FOURTH WORLD LP – AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER AND FREE PARTIAL DOWNLOAD NOW!: “Yes, the wait is finally over folks. The first new album by Vas Deferens Organization (Eric Lumbleau, Matt Castille, Christopher Moock) under our own banner in nine years (coming on the heels of all our recent work with Ariel Pink as Shits And Giggles and Ariel Pink with Added Pizzazz) is now finally upon us. The first title out of the gate in our new 33 1/3 degree series on our Free Dope And Fucking In The Streets imprint, Ninth Ward Fourth World represents the distillation of the VDO aesthetic to a 151 proof fine science; a collapsing of the sinister, the absurd and the sublime into a reality-annihilating gravitational nexus. We’ve spared no expense in the creation of this remarkable and extremely limited audio artifact, with both the front and back of the jacket sporting full sized four-color hard plastic laminated panels and with eye-popping artwork laser etched into the center of the 180 gram vinyls in place of labels. This LP and all future releases in this series are limited to only 100 physical copies.

With a official release date of Nov. 13, this LP is offered on a strictly first come, first served basis and is limited to 3 copies per customer. Pre-orders are now being accepted Here

and look out for further new albums on Free Dope And Fucking In The Streets by Vas Deferens Organzation and it’s satellites as well as the highly anticipated third album from avant pop auteur/one man band/ex-pitchfork scribe Dominique Leone.

To whet your appetite, you can download and check out all of side A in 320 kbps Here