The Flowers of Romance

As announced last time already, the previous post was the last in the series of translations of material related to the greek uprising of December '08. Rest assured that there's a ton to be discussed: the attack against three patrolling cops which left one of them seriously injured (& which, some analysts say, might - might - have been staged by some state-run, counter-insurgency service instead of by leftist urban guerrillas/misguided idiots); the ultra-violent suppression of the teacher/student demo of 8 January; the polarization (& politicization) of a bunch of people in greece following the recent events; the hard-to-believe (even by greek standards) level of apathy exhibited by the government; & so on. But, neither these nor other issues will be discussed here - this blog goes back to being a music blog, once I've taken the time to thank everybody who has made this attempt worthwhile by reading even a tiny bit of the information included in the last 7 posts: thanks; for as Subcomandante Marcos says 'we acquired a consciousness of language not as a way of communicating with each other but as a way of building something.' (Which is naturally impossible for a me(dioc)re translator to claim, but certainly true of some of the trench poetry translated here.)

So, as much as I'm reminded of an old comic strip - middle-aged man reading newspaper expresses his depression regarding the world situation: war, famine, the works; young woman sitting nearby tells him he's reading the wrong paper: to elucidate, she takes out hers & starts reading how wonderful the upcoming spring fashion collection will be... -, I'd better leave politics out of this blog & get started with the musical matter at hand. The Tribe4mian blog "beat" me to it by uploading quite a few posts on The Flowers of Romance, already, including an interview which I had never read before & which I, therefore, greatly appreciate. For more info on the band - & I mean both more than presented here and more than I know myself anyhow - check it out; it has quickly evolved into one of the handful of music blogs I check regularly.

By means of a little history, I was introduced to F.O.R. in the spring of '93 by means of Radio Acropolis: at that time, a 2-day festival with The Last Drive, F.O.R., Deus Ex Machina, & Panx Romana was being held in Thessaloniki (21-22 May 1993 & in Θέατρο Κήπου, to be exact). I was studying day & night for my final exams so, regrettably, I didn't go; but I did get to hear (& also tape, little archivist that I already was proving to be) the festival ad on the aforementioned Radio Acropolis quite a few times, together with interview snippets from The Last Drive & F.O.R.. (A couple of years down the line, I'd find out that the background music in that ad came from F.O.R.'s cover of 'Paint It Black' in the 'Love Means Death' 12".) A very bitter & very pyrrhic victory, indeed... The spark caught on, at any rate, & I was lured into F.O.R.'s work (how could it be any different, after all, since I was finishing high school & the band's 'Autumn Kids' - played in the same radio at the same time - refers to 1936; as I for years mistakenly thought did The Last Drive's 'Killhead Therapy' - by the power of association, as the track was also played in the radio at the same time...).

In the late spring of 1994, I came across a copy of the band's second LP, "Pleasure & The Pain" - I doubt I even knew at the time they had a first LP (no internet, remember?). (That must have invariably happened in Rollin Under - Lazy Dog's HQ, if you prefer - & probably in their Socratous location, although it could have in principle happened in the old room in Exadaktylou they operated their mailorder from.) That & Ξύλινα Σπαθιά's first record sure made my spring - unfortunately, although I managed to see Ξύλινα Σπαθιά three times in the coming few months (the standout being the first time - June '94 in Μύλος - where they ran out of songs & asked people which one they wanted to hear again...), it took way more to get to see F.O.R.. Various images graze my memory right now: asking a friend to notify me if 'any worthwhile bands, & especially Flowers of Romance, play the city' as I was getting ready to leave Thessaloniki & head back to my hometown for the christmas break; writing 4 verses from 'Pleasure & The Pain' in an ancient public computer (in fontsize 72 or something), printing it out on the then-usual dotmatrix paper, turning the printout into a stencil & then using it to spraypaint my room's door in order to commemorate my first lost love (I slept for 4 fucking years in that room, waking up to those verses - argh!); what the tape on which I recorded 'Dorian Grey' & 'Pleasure & The Pain' looked like (very much like the tape I recorded Purple Overdose's self-titled LP on, in fact); finding the 'Love Means Death' 12" in a record store on Egnatia which had the weird habit of being open once or twice per year (I kid you not; too bad I forget the name); finding the self-titled - promo, as it later proved - 7" in Rollin Under for 900 drachmas; having thought of listening to 'The Last Summer Night (On Earth)' on 08/08/99; & eventually spotting a poster one morning - blue border, B&W pic of the band (the same one appearing as 'Noiz mag (#40, June '97)' in the band's myspace profile) - advertising F.O.R.'s appearance in Μύλος (in the club of course, not in the much larger concert hall).

Of which the documentation is right under, freshly ripped during the vacation as promised to panelo8riambos, together with a small file with what material I have taped regarding the aforementioned 2-day festival, the "Love Means Death" 12," the eponymous 7". The latter two recordings are presented here essentially for completeness: assuming you have all three - wonderful - albums, & seeing as you can probably still get a copy of the "Channel Z" cd-single somewhere on the web, you'd be missing "Love Means Death," the eponymous 7", the track "Island in the Moon" (contained in the 1994 Nyctalopia CD release of "Pleasure and the Pain"), & the track "Amaradina" contained in Wipe Out!'s "Double Shot" compilation (& also in the Nyctalopia cd as bonus) - the track "Autumn Kids" (their contribution to Wipe Out!'s legendary & much sought after compilation "Wipe Out Presents 12 Raw Greek Groups") is also contained in the "Love Means Death" 12". If I missed anything (apart from the early demo, which I've been dying to get my hands on for 15 years already...), please let me know. & if you do have the demo, do drop me a line, I'd be grateful.

How about the former ones, then? Well, regarding the interview snippets & the like, there's little to be said - they're included here for the benefit of that miniscule group of amateur historians of the greek scene. Regarding the bootleg, now, the sound quality is pretty bad plain & simple - in fact, I was a bit heartbroken when, last month, I dug the tape out for the first time in ten years & listened to it. But hey, there's nothing I can do at this stage; in fact, there was little I could do at any stage, seeing as the show was recorded using my roommate's cheap, journalist-type tape recorder - the same one I had somehow broken in '94 at a Honeydive show by jumping up & down way too hard (to be young again & so on, indeed...). What does not help at all is the knowledge that the show was, indeed, all I had expected it to be - & I had spent a year or so listening to the first two albums pretty much every day, so I had improbable expectations; just look at the setlist & you'll get my point. (In fact, the show was so good that it couldn't even get mired by a bunch of girls from my old high school who walked in, annoyed the hell out of me by making fun of the band & being loud, & left after ten minutes; I guess the music didn't agree with their ethnic - or whatever was in fashion that month - sensibilities...) Unfortunately, I didn't find the time to dig out the poster; & unbelievably, I can't find a single picture of my room back then any more (where the poster was hanging), so I've no idea when the show took place. I promise, though, to rectify this next time I wreak havoc on my belongings from that time... At any rate, it must have been sometime in the fall of '97, as I remember talking to vocalist Mike Pougounas after the show (in my scale, mustering up the courage to approach him was not just bold - it was heroic, hence the memory) & asking him about the new album; it should be out in a week or two, he said. I spent six months looking for it, until one day it dawned on me to look into Rollin Under's miniscule cd section - I freaked out to see there was no vinyl release & they had moved from Wipe Out! to FM (which created some bad blood between the label & the band, but that's a story I've no desire to tell). At least I could hear the album right away this way, instead of waiting until I visited my parents where my record player was...

Enjoy the material; it's been a long time coming, but I hope you'll find it plenty. Yours truly makes a cameo appearance when he yells for "Amaradina" - ha!...

P.S.: As you'll notice, the small file with the material pertaining to the 2-day festival includes a super short interview snippet with The Last Drive. I chose not to include the track following it in the tape, as it can be found - in exactly the same version - in the "Noisecide/Drive Live" bootleg tape (collecting hard-to-find The Last Drive material) - see here, for example. Speaking of the snippet, the Drive mention that this track was recorded in 'the second winter of their existence' - indeed, their bio states that this track has been recorded live in February 26, 1985 at Kyttaro Club (Athens) & included in one of Di-Di's compilation tapes. (Wow! When I first found this bootleg track in this old tape, I never dreamed I'll identify it someday...)

Tracklists

Live at Mylos, Thessaloniki, Fall 1997 (bootleg)

IA01. Kashmir

IA02. Love
IA03. Who's Playing Jesus
IA04. Dear Prudence (The Beatles cover)
IA05. Winter Waltz
IA06. Fetish
IB01. The Royal Hunt of the Sun
IB02. Reptile Dance
IB03. Winning (The Sound cover)
IB04. Carnival of Souls
IB05. Pleasure and the Pain
IB06. All I Can Remember
IIA01. For the Wolf Within
IIA02. Bitch (unreleased)
IIA03. The Ocean Floor
IIA04. Black Snow
IIA05. In Blood Eternal
IIA06. The Crying Puppet
IIB01. Love Commandos
IIB02. There's Nothing We Can't Solve Together
IIB03. 1,000 Dying Words

Two-Day Festival (1993)

Αναγγελία Συναυλίας (Radio Acropolis)
Διαφήμιση Συναυλίας (Rock Management)
Interview Snippet 01 (The Flowers Of Romance/Mike Pougounas)
Interview Snippet 02 (The Flowers Of Romance/Mike Pougounas)
Interview Snippet 01 (The Last Drive/Alex K.)
Interview Snippet 02 (The Last Drive/Alex K.)

Love Means Death (12") (1992)

A. Love Means Death
B01. Paint It Black (Rolling Stones cover)
B02. Autumn Kids (originally in the "Wipe Out Presents 12 Raw Greek Bands" comp.)

Pleasure And The Pain/Winter Waltz (7") (1993)

A. Pleasure And The Pain (version)
AA. Winter Waltz (version)

Live at Mylos: two miles from the cage (IA , IB , IIA , IIB)
Two-Day Festival: three miles from the cage
Love Means Death (12")
Pleasure And The Pain/Winter Waltz (7")

3 Split LP's

It's been quite sometime since the last post, during which all of the content added to this blog has been graciously contributed by those reading it. (& what a surprise it was to find out that some people actually read part of it - no, really.) I haven't gotten any closer to ripping the Radio Utopia tapes, as I have been swamped with work & personal stuff (friends visting us/us visiting friends) - a tape takes about ten hours to rip, divide into tracks, compress, listen to in order to tag, tag, & catalog, & there's been no time at all to do any of that recently. I've ripped about 1/3 of my tapes by now, & I hope that I'll do more during vacation time, but don't expect much any time too soon. Spring looks more like it.

To ease the pain, meanwhile, I'll proceed with uploading three freshly & lovingly ripped split records featuring one greek band each: the Mushroom Attack/Forgotten Prophecy LP (1991), the WWK/Πανικός LP (1996), & the Knallkopf/Stateless In The Universe LP (2001 or shortly after - if you know the release date of this one, please post a comment!). The B-side tracks of all three records have been available in the internet for 7-8 years, ripped (mostly in low bitrates) by the first generation of techno-savvy greek punks (to which I, among others, remain deeply & irrevocably grateful). Apparently, in an attempt to catalog the recordings of the greek scene, those people made the - in my opinion misguided - choice to not include Side-A tracks. A somewhat ironic state of affairs, given punk's self-proclaimed internationalist character, although this particular choice was most probably due to lack of means/time/critical thinking (or otherwise is a sign of poor judgment &/or sheer laziness). I am significantly less understanding, though, when it comes to contemporary greek mp3 blogs (re)posting these mp3's, occasionally with historical notes & words of wisdom but often without bothering to comment on the fact that the foreign bands' tracks are not included. (Not that mp3 blogging is, in my opinion & for some bloggers, much more than a perfection of the art of reposting what's already available.)

Anyhow - unless I'm very much mistaken, the first two of these three records have previously appeared in full (in other rips) while the third one hasn't: the Mushroom Attack/Forgotten Prophecy LP was kindly ripped by & posted in Malisha Old 666's blog (Malisha is Croatian), while the WWK/Πανικός one in Foris's blog. Seeing as the Stateless In The Universe tracks have also appeared in punk.gr's music database, the sole direct benefit of this post is that the Knallkopf tunes & the record's booklet appear in a blog for the very first time (completists of the world unite).

At any rate, & as per usual, you can skip down to the download links - what follows is the usual mix of 90% reminiscence (or self-indulgence, if you must) & 10% historical fact (often inaccurate) for which I expect to be put up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Regarding Mushroom Attack (or virtually any other dutch band, especially those coming from Groningen), see bacteria's page here - suffice it to say that Mushroom Attack are, essentially, pre-Fleas & Lice (I would even dare say that they are more refreshing & original than Fleas & Lice, if somewhat sloppier). I only discovered them through this record, so I've nothing to add to what can already be found in the web - good, refreshingly imaginative kraakpunk with a nerve & audacity somewhat characteristic of dutch bands. (Note, for example, how they raise the issue of political asylum a full decade before exclusion became a european priority, & then link it to the fact that the country has traditionally been receiving a large number of asylum seekers.) As for Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία (Xehasmeni Profiteia/Forgotten Prophecy), look at Malisha's post (linked above) &, most notably, at Billy's comment on it ('Ntinos,' that Billy refers to, is Ntinos Zoumperis). Αλέκος (Alex, for those abroad) has been around for over two decades now with some of the most influential athenian crust bands; my earliest memory of his is the back cover of the Χαοτικό Τέλος (Haotiko Telos/Chaotic End) "Μπροστά Στην Παράνοια (Mprosta Stin Paranoia/In Front Of Paranoia)" LP, circa 1993, with the band posing on top of a big rock (here). I never liked that record (modulo the burgundy vinyl...), until I got hold of a copy of their "Πόλεμος Του Μίσους (Polemos Tou Misous/War Of Hate)" demo less than a decade ago (thanks to Agathocles' Jan AG, who still has it in his distro along with the Ναυτία demos!) - that one hit the spot for sure! Of course, by that time Hibernation were also in the process of releasing their first 7", & the rest is history... Αλέκος & Γιάννα are definitely two of the people I look up to in terms of commitment/continuity & of defying the punk stereotype in more than one ways. (Note for the aforementioned completists: the sample concluding "Never Ending Road" comes from Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The UK," while that concluding the "Tale Or Reality" comes from Κοινωνικά Απόβλητα;'s (Koinonika Apovlita?/Social Outcasts?) "Folklore.") So what do we have here? Well, the birth of the athenian crust legacy of course! Heavy, lengthy crust masterpieces from a time when crust was not stale (amazingly enough, one can still hear traces of this sound in Hibernation's work). Equally importantly, the lyrical content is genuinely reflective, avoiding 'war=bad' pitfalls (&, unbelievably enough, one can also see certain themes resurfacing in Hibernation's work more than a decade later!). Altogether a great listen.

WWK are a german band of which I know very little, apart from the fact that they have been around for ages (since 1986, reportedly) & that they released a new LP in 2004 which had something funny going on with the cover (but I'm not sure what, as I never got hold of it). Not my cup of tea at all: those into '90s german punk & HC will not be disappointed, whereas the rest might find them somewhat derivative or outright too chaotic. Πανικός (Panikos/Panic) , on the other hand, are a crust band from Thessaloniki which has recently reformed - for more information on & recordings from them, check out Foris's blog linked above. I came across the name through a very close (& very old) friend, who once said something along the lines of 'My schoolmates who play in Πανικός, at least, realized their lifelong dream: to play with Doom' (I still have the poster from that show, I think...) - despite that, I somehow failed to catch them live in their heyday. Or, maybe, precisely because of that, as I subconsciously (subconsciously?) classified them as generic just because some of them happened to attend school with somebody I knew (instead of crawling out of a gutter, I guess - what an idiot...). When punk.gr released their discography "The Burning Of The Brain" in retrospect (a cd-r release), it blew my mind. The tracks in this record, especially, stand out like sore thumbs - brilliant, heavy greek crust at its best!

It is Knallkopf that I know absolutely nothing about! I tried to connect them to the few other austrian bands I know - E.M.S., Plague Mass - but I failed. If you have some info on this band, please leave a comment behind... Their material here is rather interesting, if not outstanding, although I'll have to say that the one track that really, really gave me that familiar feeling of butterflies in the stomach turned out to be a Petrograd cover (no wonder - I adore Petrograd). Αθίγγανοι Του Σύμπαντος (Athigganoi Tou Sympantos/Stateless In The Universe), now, also hail from Thessaloniki & go back to the mighty Ναυτία (Naytia/Νausea), what with Sonia having been a member of both. Lyrically speaking, they're the most interesting band among all six featured here. Leaving behind Ναυτία's brutality, they settle for a more elliptic style with fewer catchwords which, surprisingly, becomes all the more emotive - & also more serious, seeing as each track is accompanied by lengthy supplementary material (see booklet). What particularly appeals to me is the treatment of homosexuality (in "Ερωτικό") & of gender roles (in "Γυναίκα"), as these are issues that I tend to think a lot about (& reportedly so did Sonia); & also because what they wrote remains painfully resonant (especially in the greek scene) today: '(...) to overcome egocenrrism and the kind of (petit) bourgeois conditioning we have undergone in order to perpetuate the reproduction of the monstrosity: of a society which exclusively consists of the heterosexual couple, of the nuclear family neat households. This transgression is perhaps the most crucial point for all those who consider themselves being members of a subversive social scene and (or) a corresponding subculture.' Now take this & compare it to what happened to Kill The Cat's female members when the band played in Biologica a year ago... Incidentally, the band wins a lot of extra points for coining the term 'turbo folk' as a translation for 'σκυλάδικα' - not that it's so hard to connect the two; but because the greek scene has also been traditionally distanced from its balkanian counterparts for one reason or another (exceptions do exist & are vastly important, of course), & this shows that these people did not share this such isolationist views. (Keep in mind also that Dead Ideas did play Villa Varvara in Thessaloniki, which shows that someone(s) did care about forming ties with the scenes in neighboring countries.) Naturally, my biggest grievance relates once again to my own idiocy: having missed Ναυτία in September '93 (terrifying first week in college; absolutely dying to take the bus & get back to the pa-/maternal residence on Friday already; sacrificing Ναυτία playing FLS the same night...), I also managed to miss Αθίγγανοι Του Σύμπαντος 4-5 years after: in fact, I did catch them for about 5min playing in front of Biologica, thought ill of their name (I told you, idiocy always prevails), disliked the PA, & left. Oh well, at least these are grievances against my own self... If you like what you hear & read, go get their demo from Billy's second blog.

Happy downloading.

P.S.: Does anyone know the No Sin (Thessaloniki, currently active) discography & where to find it? I came across them looking for information on Moot Point (Thessaloniki, late '80s-early '90s), as I believe Moot Point's Lia was playing with them, & now I see they also featured Πανικός & Stateless In The Universe members!

Tracklists

A01. Revolt (Mushroom Attack)
A02. We Are Happy With Our Rats (Mushroom Attack)
Α03. Consuming (Mushroom Attack)
Α04. Mohawk Struggle (Mushroom Attack)
Α05. Kill The Pigs (Mushroom Attack)
Α06. Political Asylum (Mushroom Attack)
Α07. Campaign For Non Violent Silly Dancing (Mushroom Attack)
Α08. Violence (Mushroom Attack)
Α09. The Fight Goes On (Mushroom Attack)
B01. Never Ending Road (Forgotten Prophecy)
B02. Tale Or Reality (Forgotten Prophecy)
B03. The Big House (Forgotten Prophecy)
B04. Anathema (Forgotten Prophecy)
B05. The Winter Song (Forgotten Prophecy)

A01. Vollalarm (WWK)
A02. Blind (WWK)
A03. Nicht Mit Uns (WWK)
A04. Amen (WWK)
A05. Endlösung Der 90'er (WWK)
A06. I A Gemüse (WWK)
A07. Tausend Gründe, Tausend Köpfe (WWK)
B01. Θάνατος Είναι Η Άγνοια (Thanatos Einai I Agnoia/Death Is Ignorance) (Πανικός)
B02/03. Where Is The Freedom/Φόβος (Fovos/Fear) (Πανικός)
B04. Πληγές (Pliges/Wounds) (Πανικός)

A01. Alice im Wunderland (Alice In Wonderland) (Knallkopf)
A02. El Duderino (Knallkopf)
A03. Umbertln (Knallkopf)
A04. Einer muss gehen (Someone Has To Leave) (Knallkopf)
A05. J.R. Ewing (Knallkopf)
A06. Winnie Puh (Knallkopf)
A07. Manchmal, aber ... (Sometimes, but ...) (Knallkopf)
B01. Ανάθεμα (Anathema/Curse) (Stateless In The Universe)
B02. Ερωτικό (Erotiko/Love Song) (Stateless In The Universe)
B03. Γυναίκα (Gynaika/Woman) (Stateless In The Universe)
B04. Σημαδεύουν Πάντα Στο Μυαλό (Simadevoun Panta Sto Myalo/They Always Aim At The Brain) (Stateless In The Universe)

Mushroom Attack/Forgotten Prophecy
WWK/Πανικός
Knallkopf/Stateless In The Universe

Horis Kanona #1

And now for something completely different - the first issue of the fanzine Χωρίς Κανόνα (Horis Kanona/Without A Rule - or, as its editors christened it, 'No Rule'). Χωρίς Κανόνα was a fanzine put out by a bunch of kids from Thessaloniki in the mid-'90s - fully in greek, let me add, so that you don't end up wasting bandwidth if you don't speak the laguage. Its editors existential fear expressly presented in this issue's editorial ('An issue to which we don't know whether a successor will ever be added') was allayed in subsequent years, as another three issues were added to this one making a total of four. (Allayed but not superficial: it took a year & a half for the second issue to appear...) The three subsequent issues will be posted here in the coming months, too, but not any time (too) soon as I want to present them with rips of the vinyl that accompanied them - which (vinyl) I neglected to carry with me, as I left my parents' place once again this July, & therefore I cannot rip before I'm back again. Hath patience.

So, this is the first issue of Χωρίς Κανόνα, put out by a bunch of music lovers from Thessaloniki. In recent years, the fanzine seems to have acquired something of a cult status among greek 'zine lovers, something that I neither knew nor had foreseen when I laid down my 200drc to get this copy from Rollin' Under (where else, really?). Somewhat uncharacteristically, I vividly recall turning the fanzine around & seeings a pic of The Sound adorning the back cover - that (& the price, which was lower than that of even a 7") must have been the deciding factors in me getting it: you see, I had been The Sound-brainwashed for a couple of my teenage years in my small, rural, & backwards native place, as the only bar we would visit at the time was playing the same DJ mix every single weekend (I still can't figure out why they hadn't paid the DJ a lump sum to make a tape of his mix & clear off). The mix would invariably include The Sound's 'I Can't Escape Myself,' among 'Stairway To Heaven' &, for a few precious months, Make Believe's 'Leave Me Alone' - all these would be presented in a manner as linear as the series of kamikaze's my friends & I were using to experiment with alcohol, to be replaced by failed attempts to play Motörhead on the jukebox of another cafe where we would crawl to deliver the final kick (our group selects the numbers to be played; drinks are ordered; Motörhead come on for a few seconds, only to be replaced by the next track; person from our group with an alcohol-generated bravado speaks to the owner; the owner ends up returning 100drc instead of yielding to Motörhead; mixed feelings of triumph & of a need to leave this place once & for all). I never liked 'I Can't Escape Myself' all that much, but my pedantry led me to buy 'Jeopardy' (from Kaleidoscope - anyone remembers that record store? Yes, the one with a xerox copy of The Last Drive's 'Midnite Hop' on the wall, & I don't mean the Blind Bastard reissue). & was I surprised - the angst in that record!... Anyhow, I'm rambling on, I know. So, yes, I bought the fanzine with the The Sound xeroxed picture on the back & read it cover-to-cover. It's hardly worth the trouble relating to anyone what it meant to be able to read somewhere about what had happened in Liverpool in 1979 or, finally, about what the Mods were - hardly worth the trouble today, that is, where internet in general & Wikipedia in particular can satisfy anyone's curiosity in seconds. But it did mean a hell of a lot to me back then, namely that here was finally something on print, instead of wild (& wildly inaccurate) stories from self-professed know-it-alls.

I've nothing more to add; more anecdotes - of marginal or no interest at all, surely - will be added in subsequent Χωρίς Κανόνα posts, when I finally get around to writing them. For the time being, enjoy this - I certainly did, since, for a bunch of furious years, I thought I had lost all four issues. (I only found them this summer, under my childhood's bed, among piles of compositions from the first grade - 'Χθες ήταν κυριακή. Πήγαμε στο χωριό και παίξαμε με τα ξαδέρφια μας. Γυρίσαμε κουρασμένοι αλλά και ευχαριστημένοι.' Which is why aimof's post hit me all the harder...) I also plan to send the link to the awesome Punks Is Hippies blog, which features a variety of zines &, incidentally, some of my favorite people in the blog-world. This post goes out, with a vibrant shout & a loud cry. to Yorgos of Σκύλα 'zine (who hooked me up with some great contemporary 'zines & rare vinyl & back into the art of paper correspondence) & to Slobo, Billy, & His Holliness The Pope Himself from Punks Is Hippies.

Issue #1

Within Range - 2 LP's

I believe that, in my very first post, I promised that I'll upload some of my own LP rips. This is the first batch, & I chose Within Range so as to exacerbate a couple of things.

For those not in the know, Within Range hailed from Norway & were active between 1988 & 1992. In that time period, they managed to record two albums - a self-titled debut (1989, X-Port Plater) & "Take Care" (1990, Knall Syndikatet). Their association with the legendary X-Port Plater is no accident, either, seeing as their drummer Stian was a member of Kafka Prosess. (Now, I honestly don't intend to put any punk-rocker down for not having kept track of all the great bands that came out of Norway, as the type of self-loathing such petty attitudes induce are best handled by oberelitists instead of by yours truly; nevertheless, do consider doing yourselves a favor by getting a copy of Kafka Prosess' discography available from Skuld.) Both records were recorded in Amsterdam, in April '89 & April '90, respectively, at a place called ADM's Koeienverhuurbedrijf (which translates into 'Adam's Cow Renting Co.' - ha... grapje...). I don't know what's so particular about Amsterdam in April (I'd have to say not much - it rains less than during the summer, it's less cold than in the winter, & that's about it); unfortunately, I never came across ADM's studio either, which is particularly unlucky as I need more info on this band (most norwegian sources online credit them as 'the norwegian Motörhead,' which is not all that enlightening). On the other hand, I did come across the Endart gallery/studio recently & did nothing (question for anyone from Berlin: do they even have opening hours?), so that's a pretty poor excuse for anything.

Well: I first came across them through Σιχ's show (see previous posts, if you have to) sometime in '93-'94, but at that time I couldn't tell apart day from night, as far as music (& most all other things, too) goes, so it stayed at that. I rediscovered them half a decade ago or so, when I exhumed the bunch of Radio Utopia tapes I described in my first post; Σιχ - or rather a guest of that particular show called Στελλάκης - played 'When Peace Is War' from their then-new album, & what a track that was! (Still my favorite Within Range track, in fact - well done, Στελλάκη.) I looked for their records left & right, but to no avail; unixpunx's ftp server had no Within Range material either. Eventually, I tracked down mp3's of "Take Care" through soulseek (they later proved to be only part of the record); & a few years later, I came across a dirt-cheap copy of their first record in Skuld's distro, which I proceeded to get immediately together with other consumer goods of the same type. (Remember Skuld? Yes, it's that label which has been putting out great music for decades & which every shithead - occasionally even those owning a Tragedy T-shirt - had an opinion on when they stopped being able to pay their bills a few years ago. Which goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished, as far as Kleister & Oliver are concerned, plus another few disgusting things, as far as the punk-rock crowd is concerned.) At any rate, I was a bit taken aback (even disappointed) that this was not the same record with 'When Peace Is War' in it; I didn't even know they had put out multiple records, after all. A year & a half ago, I finally tracked down "Take Care," together with some other great records (including Gulag's "Στην Αυλή Των Θεαμάτων") in Utrecht, again for a great price - which goes to show that, if you absolutely have to be scum of the earth in the form of a record collector, at least do it right: buy records outside their country of origin; they're cheaper, as there's no hype surrounding them, so that you can respect the band's wish (often explicitly expressed in the back cover) to not turn them into collector's items.

That's it. I won't finish with admonitions concerning the norwegian scene - info on bands of that particular scene is acceptably abundant in the world-wide web (nowdays even for people who don't speak norwegian), plus nobody reads lengthy tirades (much less follows advice) so what's the point? I trust that all 10 people who have been looking for this will enjoy it, while the rest will either pass, compulsively download, or simply steal (not from me - from the artist) the beautiful front cover art to adorn some deep thoughts they felt obliged to post on their blog accompanied by a picture they didn't draw themselves (to boot!). Needless to say, my sympathies lie with the 10 people (including irishdave); after all, had I wished to be smothered by virtual kisses, I'd simply had uploaded some obscure Napalm Death 7", as a good friend pointed out recently.

P.S.: Greek visitors, especially, will notice Naytia in the first record's thank list (Naytia played in Oslo in 1988, after all, as their live demo tape "Sex, Drugs And Greek Salad... "documents); what are the chances that Στελλάκης was NaytiaStateless In The Universe's Στέλλιος?

Tracklist (S/T)

A01. You Think You're Tough
A02. Falseness
A03. Livin' In A Microwave
A04. What A Man!
A05. Pumpin' Iron
A06. Rock 'N Roll Inq.
A07. Fuckin Scout
B01. Don't Forget
B02. Warning
B03. Not Just A Dream
B04. National Feelings
B05. When
B06. Ty Musiš Rozumět!
B07. Get Out!

Tracklist ("Take Care")

A01. Take Care
A02. Tied Up
A03. Television
A04. Like A Clown
A05. Zombies
A06. When Peace Is War
A07. The Crutch
B01. N.W.C.
B02. This Time
B03. Ain't My Funeral
B04. Unchained
B05. Statens Menn
B06. You've Got The Right
B07. Testtube

(S/T)
"Take Care"

Ohra Speirohaiti - early demos

I've been sitting on a couple of Ωχρά Σπειροχαίτη demos for over a decade now. Seeing as they (apparently) haven't been digitized yet - or, if they did, failed to reach a safe haven open to the public - I thought I'll do it myself. Truth is, this particular issue also cropped up recently in the band's blog; it seems that they have lost track of their early (pre-1994) recordings acetates & were left with barely listenable, worn-out tapes - one more reason to rip them myself. Not to mention, also, that not only I but also these tapes are not getting any younger; or that I strongly wish that everyone listened to this material; or numerous other things - I don't know why I feel the urge to justify myself for ripping these tapes & I am not interested in psychoanalysis of the online-variety either, so I'll just stop excusing myself here & proceed with the details.

As usual, people who have heard of Ωχρά Σπειροχαίτη (greek for Treponema Pallidum - the spirochaete bacterium associated with syphilis) already know everything I know, & people who haven't have a slew of other bands to check out, so this is a loose-loose situation pure & simple. & yet, uninterested as I am in baring my soul (argh!) in front of an invisible (maybe even nonexistent) public, I remain very much interested in telling stories that I like to tell & so I'll go on & tell this particular little story too. You can scroll down to the download links for all I care, I doubt you'll learn anything useful by reading on. Meanwhile, I'll just say that one of the most spectacular things regarding this band is their ability to also grasp people who don't speak the language: I've traded cd-r copies of their first cd twice - once with a serbian friend & once with Jeremy Toomey (omnipresent in world punk circles), & they both singled it out among several other recordings & contacted the band. (Jeremy even wanted to feature one of their tracks in a compilation he was preparing at the time; I'm not sure what came out of this, but I believe that nothing happened in the end.)

I'm not sure when I heard of them for the first time, but I remember very clearly how I got to sit on these tapes. Sometime in the mid-'90s (no later than 1997; not earlier than 1995), I was in my room with my (now ex-)girlfriend listening to - what else? - Radio Utopia. A track came on, my girlfriend saw the light, & suddenly I had to call the radio station to find out who the band was. The person on the other end of the line proceeded to mention the name Ωχρά Σπειροχαίτη, to which I must have produced a null reaction; somehow he offered to dub a couple of tapes he had in his disposal & then drop them off at Villa Varvara (the pride of the local squat scene at the time), where I was supposed to subsequently pick them up. The week after the phone call I stopped, indeed, by the little library at the squat, spoke my name, & was handed a couple of Maxell UR60's chokefull of Ωχρά Σπειροχαίτη material. The ownership of the tapes must have switched immediately to my girlfriend, as I was unimpressed by the song on the radio (& remained unimpressed as she played these tapes in my room); I only saw them again when we broke up, at which point she returned to me certain items of mine still in her possession. These two tapes were among these possessions (my choice of the word 'possessions' is not accidental), although I had even forgotten their very existence by that point. We also managed to catch them live once - in Villa Varvara - in a beautiful show, probably in '97, in the little room to the left with the bee-like light fixture. (My girlfriend managed to catch them live once again, in one of Radio Utopia's 3-day festivals; I've no idea why I wasn't there, apart from the fact that I often tend to be despairingly stupid.) I don't recall the setlist, apart from a song whose lyrics they attributed to a poet known to be christian; & I recall that, because they made a neat job of explaining their decision to set these verses into music (these verses being, with near-absolute certainty, T.S. Eliot's 'The Hollow Men;' the song found its way in their second cd in a most dazzling performance). Varvara itself was evicted in the following months; the bee-like light fixture moved to the Biologica squat; & I still hadn't fell for the band.

When I moved out of Salonica a year after, the tapes crossed the atlantic with me - I don't know why. Finally, near the end of 2001, I got hit (& got hit hard): while studying with one of my roommates, we played a little game where one would pick a number & the other would find the tape corresponding to it counting from the top; then, we'd listen to that tape. Thus I ended up listening to these tapes again, after I don't know how many years, & this time I did fall for them. I contacted the band immediately, asking whether there was other material; they replied 13 months later (meanwhile I had copied their first cd from a friend - 'half-roommate,' as the inner joke goes - back in Salonica, which was passed to him by his ex-girlfriend) asking for an address to which they could mail their new cd, assuming I was still interested. (The band distributes their material free of charge; in fact, they hold very specific views on commercial & monetary relations in general - visit their blog to find out more.) I was (still interested), which is how I got to listen to the best recording of that year & one of the most spectacular records that have graced my ears to this day.

This is, then, the little, innocuous, irrelevant, & incoherent story of these tapes. Be sure that all the demons on this earth conspired so that these tapes become unlistenable as well: apart from having been dubbed by who-knows-what-generation tapes themselves, flying back & forth quite a few times, & being generally mistreated in a way that only tapes can & do handle, they have also been played extensively by both me & the aforementioned ex-girlfriend. & still, they're very much listenable... Seize the opportunity & enjoy.

P.S.: Some technical notes: the artifact (slight discontinuity) in track IA08 at around 3:13 is due to the fact that the track is the result of stapling together two tracks: Side A of the tape run out (remember tapes?) & the dubbing continued in Side B... Tracks IB07 & IIA08 are also butchered: the second halves of these tracks are missing for the same reason (luckily, you can find both tracks in the band's first cd). The artifact in the beginning of track IIB01, on the other hand, should be recognizable to anyone who grew up with tapes. Note that I also decided not to split track IIB06 into two tracks, as I should, since there's no clear cut - 'Αλίκη' merges into 'Ραμποειδές.' & finally, most of the tracks contained here may be found (in reworked versions) in the band's first cd - the ones that are not are IA04, IA05, IA06, IA07, IA08, IB04, IB05, IIA05, IIA07, & IIB06.

Tracklist

(tape I)
IA01. Δερβίσης (1991)
IA02. Απελπίζομαι Καθολικά (1987)
IA03. Μπαλάντα Για Μια Λυπημένη Χώρα (1987)
IA04. Ρεκβιέμ Για Μια Αυτοκτονία Στο Στρατό (1988)
IA05. Μια Εισαγωγή (1991)
IA06. Ένα Μονόπρακτο Για Να Μην Πεις (1989)
IA07. Της Σαπφούς
IA08. (άτιτλο)
IB01. Διάβασε Με Απ'την Αρχή
IB02. Εθνικά Ιδεώδη (1993)
IB03. Μπροστά Στη Πύλη (1993)
IB04. Δημοσθένους Λέξις
IB05. Θρακιώτικο (1993)
IB06. Οι Στίχοι (1993)
IB07. Στο Χωριό Πριν Το Γλέντι (1992)
(tape II)
IIA01. Περιθώριο (1994)
IIA02. Αθήνα (1994)
IIA03. Για Το Νίκο (1994)
IIA04. Ορέστης (1991)
IIA05. Με Το Πανί Μου Πάντα Ανοικτό (1994)
IIA06. Δειλινό Νοτισμένο (1994)
IIA07. Η Μπαλάντα Της Έγκρισης (1994)
IIA08. Βαρκαρόλα (1994)
IIB01. Αλβανικό (1995)
IIB02. Θα Φύγω Μια Μέρα (1995)
IIB03. Καπετάν Σαφάκας (1995)
IIB04. Κιθάρες (1995)
IIB05. Ίων (1995)
IIB06. Αλίκη/Ραμποειδές


tape I
tape II

V/A, "Made In Yugoslavia"

Up next: a tape compilation of yugoslavian "wave" bands (note the quotes) released in 1992 by the greek fanzine Βρωμιά (Vromia/Dirt) & compiled by someone called Humpty Dumpty ('in dolby,' as the tape boasts - or warns...). I've never been into fanzines all that much myself, apart from very few notable exceptions (Χωρίς Κανόνα, 1000+1 TiLT, Σκύλα more recently, maybe a few more that I forget), so I know nothing about Βρωμιά; Παρακμή the infamous claims that it was one of the most well-known fanzines at the time, though. This tape probably did not accompany one of the 'zine's issues; instead, it must have been released independently of the fanzine - do correct me if I'm wrong.

The bands in here are an interesting, if somewhat incongruous, mix. For one thing, the recordings span the entire decade 1981-1990 - a rather wide range which also reflects on the styles included. Another interesting issue (which I find affectionately cute for my own selfish reasons) is the inclusion of bands both instananeously recognizable & bufflingly obscure: Belgrade's Sarlo Akrobata & Električni Orgazam definitely belong to the former category, having participated in the scene-defining compilation "Paket Aranžman"; the same goes for Disciplina Kičme - one of the two Sarlo Akrobata offshoots - & of Slobodan Tišma's Luna from Novi Sad. I would also include in this list the croatians Let 3 & the slovenians Strelnikoff, both of which are, first, excellent bands &, second, infamous for certain provoking incidents each. The rest of the bands, on the other hand, are either noticeably pretty obscure (Roderick, Abbildungen Variete), or prolific but still somewhat marginal (Sexa), or simply not wave at all (Miladojka Youneed). Or it could be that I'm prejudiced, since I didn't know the more obscure bands (with the sole exception of Sexa) anyhow...

That said, the compilation is pretty effective in presenting an interesting slice of the wave scene in Yugoslavia in the '80s. The first side is faster & more adventurous, combining the jazz rock of Miladojka Youneed & the proto-wave of Sarlo Akrobata with the demented industrial onslaught of Strelnikoff ('demented industrial onslaught' - pfff!... that's what blogging will do to you, apparently...) & the recognizably-yugo post-punk of GRČ. (Don't expect any punk here: there are no bands whose name starts with a 'P,' after all...) I am certain that there is a well-defined label for the more homegeneous second side, but I don't think I'm aware of it; dark wave is the only thing that comes to mind, as a generic substitute for music that is just plain weird at times. It definitely had an effect on me, since it led me to the macedonians Mizar whom I was unaware of - what a great, great track they contribute here... (Meager comparisons to compatriots Anastasia could be drawn, but only in that evocative religious feeling suffusing their sound; I, at least, hear nothing akin to tradition here.) (Oops - what do you know, Anastasia were 2/3 Mizar after all!)

That's it. The rest of this post is irrelevant musings from my side which you can (& invariably will, if not should) skip by scrolling down to the donwload link; let me only thank Στέφανος of Πλήγμα 'zine who passed me the tape.

Now that we're alone: a further issue of interest (to me) relates to posting this tape here: is there really any point in posting something like this (I'll assume an a priori optimistic view: that nobody's posting random stuff just for the hell of it)? After all, one can do a blog search & download a bunch of recordings by most (if not all) of the bands in this tape - so why the tape? Well, it looks to me as if one should start from the other end of the temporal line: why this tape in the first place? This particular answer, though, is easy: who even knew of yugoslavian wave (in 1992; in Greece)? A handful of people at most - like this Humpty Dumpty person who compiled it. & since one can only look for something one suspects the existence of, this tape must have been intended as a sampler of the insanely cool outpourings (can you tell I'm a fan?) of the neighboring country & as a gentle shove towards its music. I think that, plainly, efforts of this sort have become obsolete in the western world; or, if not obsolete, then a certain reversal of polarity happened: whereas tapes like this one were putting music forward through the darkness (how could the average joe hunt down such records in the pre-ebay/gemm era?), today's compilations hope (at most) to put music forward through the maddening lightshow of chaotic over-abundance (ranging from your grandma's high school band to the brand new releases of a million bands out there). So, the original intention is irrevocably lost; check your favorite yugo-blog & download what you will (or even become an expert in a month - cross-checking is far easier than to used to be, after all: 'just google it'). This manifests itself in the "naïvité" (read: lack of uniformity) with which this tape was compiled, after all. What does remain is this: that I still won't download & listen to 100⁺ albums of yugo-music (what with fads changing about every 5sec, as expected in this overabundance), but I will listen to a tape someone gave me. & in it, I'll discover Mizar whom I didn't know, just like I discovered Anastasia through the radio or La Strada through an mp3 cd-r I was sent by a friend.

Another touching particular of the tape is its cover, which - according to the tape itself - was B-92's symbol. (In short: B-92 was Belgrade's independent radio station at the time of Milošević's regime; apart from broadcasting great music, it opposed the regime on multiple occasions. Not in short: read Matthew Collin's "This Is Serbia Calling.") It's a wild guess, but I think that I did chance upon B-92 in one occasion, way before I knew the name: my girlfriend & I were travelling from Salonica to Prague by bus (1996), so we went through Serbia at night. Browsing through radio stations on my walkman, I finally got one playing some great (& dark) music - I don't speak the language, so naturally I cannot prove it was actually B-92... What's even funnier is that I mentioned this to an older fellow traveller the next day, to which she claimed zero surprise: according to her, a lot of great music was coming from yugoslavia 'back in the day.' Maybe she was Humpty Dumpty...

Tracklist

α01. (excerpt from LP 'ghastly beyond belief!') (Miladojka Youneed)
α02. Ne trebam te (Let 3)
α03. Svidja mi se da... (Disciplina Kičme)
α04. Čovek (Sarlo Akrobata)
α05. Brain (Sexa)
α06. Noćas se beograd pali! (GRČ)
α07. Gimme a gun (Strelnikoff)
α08. Parole dostojanstveno bedu prate (Napred U Prošlost)
α09. Afrika (Električni Orgazam)
β01. Stoji (Mizar)
β02. Ogledalo lune (Luna)
β03. Letzte dance (Roderick)
β04. Ishodisce subjecta (Abbildungen Variete)
β05. His Secret Sin (Autopsia)



Πράξη Πρώτη

Pissa & Poupoula b/w Phenomenon

Alright, so here's the first post with a nontrivial musical content.

Side A of this tape contains an interview of Πίσσα & Πούπουλα (Pissa & Poupoula/Tar & Feathers) conducted by Σιχ (the name is an abbreviation of Σιχαμερός, which translates into 'disgusting'); in fact, an excerpt of this interview appeared in the sixth compilation tape released by Radio Utopia, namely, the part where the band explains the idea behind their tune "Α Γαμήσου Ρε Μπάμπη (Βάλτε Φωτιά Στα Σκυλάδικα)." What you get here is a larger part of the band's interview together with an untitled live track of theirs, an instrumental live track of Αρνητική Στάση (Arnitiki Stasi/Negative Stance) called "Λόγια Σοφίας" which hasn't appeared in their record releases, & an instrumental live track of Make Believe which must have been recorded in the period before guitarist Diamantis Kazouris joined them (this last piece of information is due to the unmatchable singer of the band Flora Ioannidou). Also certain tracks played from records which you can hear elsewhere in much better quality but which I chose to include for completeness. The live tracks have been recorded at Φ.Λ.Σ. - i.e., the squat at the Philosophy Dept. of the U. of Salonica (if I'm not mistaken, the space was squatted in 1989 & lasted until 1993 or so, with people from Ναυτία, Πανικός, & Ήταν Είναι Και Θα Είναι being part of it - please, DO correct me if I'm wrong here); probably at some show organized by the team "Άνοιξη Στο Σκουπιδότοπο (Anoixi Sto Skoupidotopo/Spring In The Refuse Dump)" which was active at the time. (Φ.Λ.Σ. was really a household name for pretty much all salonicans with an interest in the alternative scene; people elsewhere probably know the name from the tape compilation "Νύχτες Στο Στέκι Φιλοσοφικής" (released in 1993 & still available in mp3 format here).) According to the recent booklet "Η Ιστορία Των Punk, Hard Core Και Άλλων Σχημάτων Από Το 1990 Έως Το 2000 Στον Ελλαδικό Χώρο" (Αναρχική Αρχειοθήκη), Πίσσα & Πούπουλα recorded a live tape at Φ.Λ.Σ. which they distributed; if there is any connection with the recordings here, then that would mean that the recordings here are from that 1992 session.

The aforementioned Σιχ was the person behind the radio show "Τα Κουρέλια Τραγουδάν Ακόμα (Ta Kourelia Tragoudan Akoma/The Wretches Are Still Singing)," the long-term (1989-1998) punk/HC show at Radio Utopia whose name derives from the N. Nikolaidis movie. I will stick to facts & postpone commenting on the effect that the show has had on me for another post, as I'm getting a bit emotional here. I've never met Σιχ in person & probably also never talked to him on the phone, but I remember listening to his show on Wednesday evenings, him hardly ever missing a show even when it was raining cats & dogs outside (you know how that city gets at times). The onslaught of bands that paraded from the radio station's decks during those shows (as evidenced from what few shows of his I taped) is hard to stomach: So Much Hate, Exploding White Mice, Nomeansno, Amebix, Life... But How To Live It?, Extreme Noise Terror, & a host of others - people reading this probably know it, so excuse me for repeating, but I'm talking about the pre-internet era, where the best you could wish for was getting a couple of mail-order catalogues into the mail & friends going abroad bringing back some records... & then of course all the local bands that paraded from the studio either in person or through some demo of theirs being played by Σιχ - I have three of them being interviewed on tape & there must surely be tons of others... Σιχ is still active, by the way, & puts out a magazine called "Τα Κουρέλια" which "μοιράζεται χέρι με χέρι με καμία απολύτος οικονομική συνδιαλαγή και ουδεμία σχέση με μαγαζιά" to use his own words (my eternal gratitude to Billy for providing me with an issue). He also went through some rough shit having to do with the usual shaved shitheads, which goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished (eventually, that particular bad deed also didn't go unpunished...).

The end of the tape's B side is probably the precursor to the beginning of side A (...this sentence makes sense, believe me) & contains standard studio material. The rest of side A, though, belongs to a local band called Phenomenon (it could be that the name should be spelled with greek characters, seeings also as their lyrics are in greek, but it's spelled with english characters on the tape cover) which I had totally forgotten about until I found this tape again. Honestly, I don't know for sure how I came across these recordings; I think I remember, though, that they were passed on to me by a friend I was sitting with in high school (& probably around 1992-1993, then). The story, the way I remember it, is that this kid had a cousin living in Salonica, working in a garage, & apparently playing in Phenomenon; they must have recorded this demo, & I came across it through him. This could be complete fiction - even if it isn't, though, it hardly says anything about the origins of the band. What is for certain is that I don't recall seeing this recordings anyplace else in any format or hearing of the band in any other context; for all I know, this demo could have never been publicly available (or was pressed in a few copies, or... - the list goes on). That's about all; if you have any other info, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to post a comment, as I absolutely love this demo (it may be fair to say that it betrays some Εκτός Ελέγχου influences & in a really charming way).

Note that the tape, & especially the Phenomenon side, has been played multiple times. Nevertheless, the sound quality is pretty good (for my ears, at least). Some more info on Radio Utopia may be found at Radio 98's forum - check this topic, in particular, & then the downloads section for the great Άνθη Του Κακού retrospective. The date of either recording is unknown. If my recollections are about right, the Phenomenon demo must have been recorded in 1992-1993. As for the interview, it certainly happened before '96 - as part of it appeared in Radio Utopia's sixth tape compilation in '96 - & no earlier than '93 - as the band's record is mentioned. Seeing as I also recorded a Λώλαμα track from their 7" in the same tape, it must have also been before I bought their 7" & thus before '95; that's about as close as I can get to pinpointing it.

This first post it dedicated to Σιχ - I hope he won't be pissed when he finds out I put this material out - & to Flora - whom I promised the live track to a full decade ago; here it is, finally... - THANKS.

Tracklist

A01. Αναγγελία A02/Prologue To A02 (vox) (Σιχ & Πίσσα & Πούπουλα)
A02. (untitled) (live) (Πίσσα & Πούπουλα/Tar & Feathers)
Α03. Περάσαμε όμορφα... πάμε παρακάτω (vox) (Σιχ)
Α04. Ο Παραμυθούλης (LP) (Πίσσα & Πούπουλα/Tar & Feathers)
Α05. Όχι άλλος Μπάμπης (vox) (Σιχ)
Α06. Δύσκολη Φάση/Tough Situation (LP) (Πίσσα & Πούπουλα/Tar & Feathers)
Α07. Η ιστορία του Μπάμπη & Το 'Επίλογος' δεν είναι καψουροτράγουδο (vox) (Σιχ & Πίσσα & Πούπουλα/Tar & Feathers)
Α08. Αναγγελία Α09/Prologue To A09 (vox) (Σιχ)
Α09. Λόγια Σοφίας/Words Of Wisdom (live) (Αρνητική Στάση/Negative Stance)
Α10. "Αναγγελία Α11" (vox) (Σιχ)
A11. (untitled) (live) (Make Believe)
Α12. Δύο Δευτερόλεπτα/Two Seconds (LP) (Πίσσα & Πούπουλα/Tar & Feathers)
Α13. Ευχαριστίες/Thank-you's (vox) (Σιχ)
Α14. Η Εκτέλεση/The Execution (LP) (Λώλαμα/Craziness)
Α15. Είναι το Ράδιο Ουτοπία/This Is Radio Utopia (vox) (άγνωστος/unknown)
B01. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B01. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B02. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B03. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B04. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B05. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B06. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B07. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B08. (unknown) (Phenomenon)
B09. Η Δικιά Τους Αρετή/Their Kind Of Virtue (LP) (Εκτός Ελέγχου/Out Of Control)
B10. Αναγγελία B11/Prologue To B11 (vox) (Σιχ)
B11. Το Κουτί Της Πανδώρας/Pandora's Box (LP) (Αρνητική Στάση/Negative Stance)

one mile from the cage