Departures was a radio program hosted by Marcel Dion on CJSR FM 88.5 in Edmonton, Alberta between the years 1978 and 1991. The program, highly inspired by the legendary Alien Soundtracks program on Vancouver’s Co-Op Radio, contained a diverse mix of vintage and new-at-the-time left-field // fringe-musics and was the first and only of its kind in Alberta. On top of curating a weekly program, Marcel helped found The Borealis Electroacoustic Music Society (
BEAMS) and released
one-or-two compilations of avant-garde music in Alberta. The Departures Revisited section of Weird Canada’s universe is inspired and dedicated to Marcel’s early efforts at establishing Alberta and Canada’s weird musics. Thank you, Marcel!
August 31st, 2010
|
The Acid Archives [2nd Ed.]
Edited by: Patrick Lundborg
(Lysergia)
Stockholm, Sweden
Published: 2010
|
From the acidic archives of Aaron Levin:
The Acid Archives is the definitive guide to North America’s musical underground. In succinct and thrilling prose (from which Weird Canada took much inspiration) an entire generation (1965-1982) of diy and minor-to-major-label long-playing visionaries across all boundaries are captured and documented. Scattered within the 5,000+ reviews of fringe-psych curiosities lies the ultimate guide to the Canadian underground. From Aaron Space to Warpig, Bent Wind to John Lyle, and Jeremy Doremouse to Christmas, the Acid Archives enshrines vintage Canada’s unique indie soundscape. It’s a crucial document of vintage Canadiana and a must own for anyone remotely interested in the indie culture of yore. I estimate approximately 400 reviews of archaic Canadiana. The 2nd Edition is a welcomed improvement on the black-and-white original; 400 colour pages, 1,000 additional reviews, essays and the fan-favorite top-ten lists. There are two Weird Canada references in the book; if you can find them I’ll send you an LP reviewed in the archive. An exciting and phenomenal read. If you’re on this website, you should own this book.
File under: aa // aaron levin // acid archives // books // diy // fringe // outsider // patrick lundborg // psych // waxidermy
Categoria!! Departures Revisited :: book | No Comments »
August 25th, 2010
|
King-Beezz
Found and Lost b/w Now
(Quality)
Edmonton, AB
Originally Released: 1966
|
From the Lost and Found of Aaron Levin:
The King-Beezz’s third single is the toughest polyvinyl artifact from Edmonton. “Now”‘s snarling, wrangled guitar leads, put-me-down harmonies, and screaming, postured ad-libs trash every punk archetype in the purest teenage pursuit of attitude. On the A-Side, “Found and Lost”‘s jangly, loner lament, bass-walkery and bedroom percussion craft a brilliant bizarro pop-psych excursion into the recesses of vintage fringe culture. Just ridiculous stuff. ‘Twas the bees-knees (!) finding a copy complete with the glorious Quality company sleeve. A full history of the King-Beezz can be found here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
King-Beezz – Found and Lost
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
King-Beezz – Now
File under: 1966 // aaron levin // garage-punk // pop // pop-psych // psych // punk
Categoria!! 7" :: Departures Revisited :: alberta | 1 Comment »
August 22nd, 2010
|
The Brazda Brothers
The Brazda Brothers
(Dominion)
??, ON
Originally Released: 1973
|
From the Russian imports of Aaron Levin:
These two Russian hippie-bros emigrate to Ontario and release an album celebrating the pastoral scenery of their new home. With thick, stilted Ruskie accents and strange instruments (Cordovox?) they weaved twelve streams of folk-rock textures in dedication to our unique landscape. Their foreign perspective is the album’s greatest strength; take their journey and visualize the vast industrial heartland through outside, lysergic eyes. The resulting innocence, both serene and moving, place the Brazda Brothers alongside other nationalized fringe-folk canon whose trails into uncharted territory shaped our anomalous soundscape (Riverson, Ptarmigan, PCC, etc). The band claims that 5,000 copies were pressed but the number of known copies states otherwise. Released on a budget label concerned mostly with fiddle and children LPs. I flipped my lid when I found a sealed copy of this!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Brazda Brothers – Gemini
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Brazda Brothers – 20th Century
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Brazda Brothers – Blooming Flowers
File under: aaron levin // acid // folk // folk-rock // private // psych
Categoria!! 12" :: Departures Revisited :: ontario | 6 Comments »
July 26th, 2010
|
The Esquires
Love Hides a Multitude of Sins b/w Why Should I Care
(Columbia Records)
Ottawa, ON
Originally Released: 1966
|
From the put-me-down vortex of Aaron Levin:
After Don Norman (the original low-man!) left, at-the-time-pop band The Esquires scrambled to reform and find another label. They landed on Columbia and recorded two great garage-punk singles, this being their last and lesser-known (it’s uncomped). Killer guitar tone and classic put-me-down lyrics, the oddly-placed poppy chorus is balanced by the ripping hand-clap organ solo. Makes me want to stomp and get dumped, wallowing in a single-dude vortex full of gnarled fuzz. Except not really.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Esquires – Why Should I Care
File under: aaron levin // canadian columbia // garage // garage-punk
Categoria!! 7" :: Departures Revisited :: ontario | 1 Comment »
July 22nd, 2010
|
Morley Loon
Cree Songs
(CBC Northern Service Broadcast Recording)
??, NWT
Originally Released: 197?
|
From the northernly service of Aaron Levin:
Mystic folk-psych drifting between a Native American tradition and the first wave of acoustic lysergia. Morley’s intimate Cree singing is augmented by woven strands of ethereal flute, hand percussion, and melancholic guitar, conjuring a dense empathetic miasma. One of the most affecting records I’ve ever heard. Found in a pile of CBC Northern Broadcast Recording 7″s I received from a friend and the only of its kind I’ve ever encountered. If you know anything about Morley Loon (who unfortunately passed away some years ago), please get in touch. A short history of recording sessions in this series can be found here (PDF). 500 copies pressed and distributed as promos.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Morley Loon – Agajee Dona Nooch (To hunt no more?)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Morley Loon – Deb Skum (My Own)
File under: aaron levin // cbc // folk // folk-psych // inuit // native // psych // traditional
Categoria!! 7" :: Departures Revisited :: northwest territories | 2 Comments »
July 1st, 2010
|
Jack Hennig and The Breaking Point Group
Busy People b/w Maybe Tomorrow
(Cupid Records)
Edmonton, AB
Originally Released: 196?
|
From the breaking point of Aaron Levin:
Obscure lyrsergic artifact from the totally unpsychedelic pastures of 60s Edmonton, Alberta. Jack Hennig’s second foray into the world of self-released 7″ obscurity left us with two syrupy, drug-induced pop-psych laments. Maybe Tomorrow‘s classic garage-punk woes pull the untamed ears to oblivion while the faux-sitar and pop harmonies on Busy People win me over with vintage diy conviction. Jack Hennig would go on to be a country singer of national renown and now resides in Edmonton having forgotten almost everything about his hip-trip maneuvers with The Breaking Point Group.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Jack Hennig and The Breaking Point Group – Maybe Tomorrow
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Jack Hennig and The Breaking Point Group – Busy People
File under: aaron levin // cupid records // edmonton // garage // pop-psych // psych
Categoria!! 7" :: Departures Revisited :: alberta | 1 Comment »
March 9th, 2010
|
EMILY
Neat and Tidy in Your Mind
(Mo=Da=Mu)
Vancouver, BC
Originally Released: 1985
|
From the generally untidy mind of Aaron Levin:
Destructive guitar congruance. Menacing synthetic tones. Echo-to-infinity vox processing. Extirpated TASCAM wreckage. Neat and Tidy in My Mind is the most relentless barrage of left-field maximal synth North American has ever seen. It’s the second cassette by solo, multi-format Vancouver artist Emily Faryna, whose visionary digital mythics have been obscured by Canada’s under-documented vintage cassette scene. Her conical prose hovers darkly over Neat and Tidy‘s minor-key delirium, brewing the magnetic urgency coursing through its self-producing ether; a last, desperate attempt to convince the world that the mind’s ailments exist on the outside. It’s a gateway drug into the underbelly of a hyper intimate experimental underground torn from the pages of Neuromancer and, to me, the flagship vehicle for the vanguard of fringe-Canada. Words left to describe Neat and Tidy in Your Mind: ambitious, singular, forward-thinking, powerful, intense, and prodigious. There is a reissue in the works.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
EMILY – Who Cares
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
EMILY – Compromise
File under: 1985 // aaron levin // ambient // experimental // maximal synth // minimal synth // mo=da=mu // noise // psych // punk // synth
Categoria!! Departures Revisited :: british columbia :: cassette | 4 Comments »
February 5th, 2010
|
Various Artists
Dove Project No. 9
(Self Released)
Calgary, AB
Originally Released: 1970
|
From the partially-ordered, semi-continuous grippage of Aaron Levin:
We have witnessed the possessed meanderings of teenagers pushed to the creative fringe for years. It’s not uncommon these days for some residential weirdo to emerge from their suburban cave with a MySpace full of damaged sounds teetering on the edge of unsanity. This was not the case for Canada’s underground rock scene of the 60s, whose output pales numerically to our American counterparts, owing to a lack of custom pressing plants and home-recording equipment. Which is why it’s incredible that Calgarian Doug Wong, at the tail end of 1969, when psychedelic music delivered its last blow to the world’s unsuspecting youth, decided to package the last issue of his high-school newspaper with a 7″ of school “rock bands” (I’ve posted the full story here). The resulting 7″ has become a truly bewildering artifact of Canada’s marginalized fringe music community: a compilation of unfettered teenage expression; trashy, face-melting, fuzz-drenched glorious hard-rock mingling amongst Dylan-inspired folk and sunshine pop. A beautiful peak into the small lives of folk-club weirdos at a time when their sounds usually withered and vanished. Amazing and incredibly rare. This is the third time I’ve written about this record and it still astounds me.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Wrinkled Pumpkin – Hello
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Sundance Reunion – I’m Leaving
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Dusk – Three Thirty Two
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
File under: diy // doug wong // hard rock // psych
Categoria!! 7" :: Departures Revisited :: alberta | 3 Comments »
January 11th, 2010
|
Lightdreams
10,000 Dreams
(Self Released)
Victoria, BC
Originally Released: 1983
|
From the cassette-gripping hands of Aaron Levin:
There is a universe inside the mind of Victorian Paul Marcano unlike anyone has or could have imagined. After self-releasing Islands in Space (Paul’s 1981 cosmic folk consecration to the colonization of space released under the moniker Lightdreams), Paul seemingly disappeared into the serene pastures of Vancouver Island with only a brief mention of a new cassette available in an issue of CLEM (Canadian List of Electronic Music). Almost mistakenly lumped in with left-field Canadian avant-gardism, 10,001 Dreams takes a leave of absence from the ambient, synthesizer-driven visuals of Islands in Space to craft a wild, lysergic-filled journey into pan-delic psych and guitar workouts, stretching our understanding of pop-psych and bursting our tiny minds with visions of unfound landscapes. It is thee underground psychedelic masterpiece from Canada; released 15 years too late on a format no one cared about and relegated to absolute obscurity shortly thereafter. The cassettes were made-to-order and incredibly rare. Paul remains a visionary of human experience and is dedicated to experimenting with music and virtual reality.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lightdreams – Who is the One
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Light Dreams – 10,001 Dreams
File under: 1983 // folk // new age // psych
Categoria!! Departures Revisited :: british columbia :: cassette | 4 Comments »
