“Leaving you spellbound in its androgynous vocal delivery, Spider King’s Animals is a haunting children’s march that paralyses me with each listen”
Cedric Bixler Zavala (Mars Volta/Antemasque)

An unknown pleasure torn out of Manchester’s lost DIY manual, this overqualified / underexposed post-punk pop pillar cast an almost invisible undetected web across the history of Manchester’s inner-city music scene which has trapped body parts of The Mothmen, Martin Hannett, Gerry And The Holograms, John Cooper Clarke, The Blue Orchids, Naffi Sandwich (The Naffis) and The Fates in its glue.

As a central mast to 1970s / 80s Manchester’s “deserted” DIY era, spanning angular jazz funk, punk and sarcastic synth pop, Spider King has also played huge parts in Manchester’s honorary adoption of The Velvet Underground’s Nico (as her lead guitarist), fronted Martin Hannett’s first ever band and inhabits a key roll in the careers of Sad Cafe, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, Paul Young and AC/DC’s Mancunian debut. With dozens of self-penned songs, unreleased demos and two of the best collectable Manc punk funk 45s to grace collectors want lists it’s almost unbelievable (almost tragic) that Mike King never released a full length album… until now.

Shot To Pieces is one of the most elusive jagged pieces of the North West’s punk funk puzzle. Recorded sporadically between 1979 and 1983 with a cast of characters from the Rabid/Absurd label family, such as behind the scenes synth wielder John Scott from Gerry And The Holograms, and producers like Laurie Latham (The Blockheads) it’s plain to see why 2016′s current music climate is the perfect time for the Spider King’s lost music to resurface. Commonly recognised by stalwarts of the era’s mutating punk/alt/indie genre as “the one that got away”, Spider King is the archetypal artist’s artist as well as the outsider’s outsider and the hardest working man in no-business who is now attracting a whole new audience of champions from bloggers, vinyl nerds and well respected contemporary musicians with his appearances on mix-tapes and various artist compilations. On hearing this essential release you could argue that these lost “spider-grams” are more relevant now than they were when those arachnophobic A&R men shooed him away over 3 decades ago. For those who ain’t afraid to get bitten say hello to the Spider King.

TRACK LISTING

Shot To Pieces (Part One)
CIA
Animals
Mad Dog
City Girls
Chinese Takeawy
Would You Wanna Die
For England
Back On The Pills
Time Looks Away
Shot To Pieces (Part Two)

Incredible, idiosyncratic and obscure early 80s French futurist DIY project led by Jean-Luc Aime (Univers Zero) this feature-length album of elusive recordings marks the bone fide axis point where Zeuhl-Skool meets synth pop, dark ambient and early electro culled from rare vinyl and disparate cassette co-op releases for this first ever LP release.

A lost art-ifact from a micro genre where ZED, Eskaton and Heldon share outernational tape space with Vox Populi! The Normal, Colin Potter and Luc Marianni this record occupies a unique place on the shelves of fans of early DIY electro and post punk while ticking the boxes of 80s VHS OST enthusiasts and the growing interest in European cassette zine projects. These melodic macabre tape experiments fuse multi-track cassette experiments with home-made special effects at the hand of an accomplished multi-instrumentalist working on the outer reaches of disenfranchised progressive-pop and reluctant techno defining then deconstructing genres that have yet to exist. Fuelled by futurist gothic imagery and operating on a parallel plain to his European and American contemporaries there are few artists like Stabat Stable and virtually none more enigmatic. This benchmark record is the first signpost to a darker part of your musical want-list as the invisible glue for fans of the aforementioned anti-genres. File under “Not Yet”.

Having spent exactly 10 years living off the small change and 45 adapters of each others pockets, Finders Keepers / Cache Cache Records co-founders Andy Votel and Doug Shipton spread their wings and pool their DJ bags for a new series of sporadic compilations focussing on the global punk and makeshift electro records that have kept their beer soaked dancefloors and distorted sound systems moving in recent years. Meet the younger sarcastic sisters of some of the classic Finders Keepers family and their spotty friends then watch what happens when jazz-punk underdogs cock their legs to their overqualified elder brothers.

'Plastic Dance' presents 10 unacquainted and elusive slices of synthetic squat pop, angular funk, teapot kosmische and fraudulent disco from self-propelled imprints and global co-ops. Named after Günter Bernas obscure DIY anti-band this ongoing series combines rare, unknown and untravelled wax nuggets of night club punk, art school Zeuhl and quasi-political pop united by soldering irons, C-60s and sarcastic synth tones. Featuring a cross section of unobtainable unreleased unknown and unwanted reluctant punk and snide synth pop with sleeve-notes by respected DJ / Haç hack / Situationist addict John McCready and artwork by airbrush legend Terry Pastor (Ziggy Stardust / Soft Machine / Arthur C. Clarke) 'Plastic Dance' becomes flexible under heat.

Femme fronted pocket punk and domestic-synth pop from French DIY workaholics X Ray Pop. Compiled from the mastertapes of the original 1980s privately pressed vinyl LPs and minuscule cassette runs.

X Ray Pop are a group of whom are easy to scratch the surface, but almost impossible to get the bottom of. With an iconic moniker, telltale graphic style and demanding ‘buy me’ Day-Glo colour coding policy the French vinyl output of X Ray Pop as a specialist subject is, at first glance, memorable and achievable. Cocksure fans of Euro wave pop often proclaim X Ray expertise from behind many a record shop counter or blog page but the truth of the matter is that no-one, not even the band members themselves, have the knowledge or mental capacity to truly understand the splatter range of the god speed anti-tactics that have turned this interchangeable, unarrangable and thirty-year sustainable auto-pop combo into one of uber-legendary status. For those that tread the chemins of 80s Gallic record racks, from agit pop to Zeuhl-school (bridging synth pop to Celluloid) these 7″ square flags reading El Gato, L’Eurasienne, Alcool and Fuzzy Christmas are merely alluring landmarks pointing to another sebaceous underground of magnetic tape that flows swiftly (like Magma) awaiting Pirates and liberators alike. X marks the spot!

Peeping out of a warren of unexplored passages their seminal self-distributed debut singles and appearances on the genre defining alternative funk Alternative Funk Folie Distinguée compilation in 1984 made them an omnipresent fixture for the French tape wave scene that shaped a generation and influenced many more to follow. But beneath the trademark fluo- rescent sleeves stands the highly stacked foundations of endless cassette only releases that give this pocket punk husband and wife duo one of the most impressive and elusive back catalogues of all their cut ‘n’ paste French funk contemporaries. Plundering the depths of a self-estimated 400 recorded songs, X Ray Pop founder Didier Pilot has joined up with Finders Keepers sister label Cache Cache to reassess, rescue and reissue some of the bands most underexposed sonic snapshots, many of which were distributed in issues of less than 50 up to 500 for exclusive global releases in France, Spain, Portugal, Japan and America (where bands like Brian Ladd and Julie Frith’s Psyclones and The Beastie Boys championed the band as a likeminded inspiration.

CD edition (available separately) is accompanied by two vinyl releases - ‘Ding Dong Disques’ and ‘Ding Dong Dubs’ - compiling the rarest vinyl (‘...Disques’) and cassette (‘...Dubs’) releases (both featuring exclusive bonus tracks).

TRACK LISTING

Orques Et Goblins Intro
Dream Of A Shadow
Klac Klac
Alain Aime Samantha
BAL
Les Nonnes En Noir
Pamela
Living Dead
Le Mouchoir Violet
Nana Electronique
Oh Quel Supplice
Ca Te Mouille Le Bec
Orques Et Goblins Outro

Femme fronted pocket punk and domestic-synth pop from French DIY workaholics X Ray Pop. Compiled from the mastertapes of the original 1980s privately pressed vinyl LPs and minuscule cassette runs.

X Ray Pop are a group of whom are easy to scratch the surface, but almost impossible to get the bottom of. With an iconic moniker, telltale graphic style and demanding ‘buy me’ Day-Glo colour coding policy the French vinyl output of X Ray Pop as a specialist subject is, at first glance, memorable and achievable. Cocksure fans of Euro wave pop often proclaim X Ray expertise from behind many a record shop counter or blog page but the truth of the matter is that no-one, not even the band members themselves, have the knowledge or mental capacity to truly understand the splatter range of the god speed anti-tactics that have turned this interchangeable, unarrangable and thirty-year sustainable auto-pop combo into one of uber-legendary status. For those that tread the chemins of 80s Gallic record racks, from agit pop to Zeuhl-school (bridging synth pop to Celluloid) these 7″ square flags reading El Gato, L’Eurasienne, Alcool and Fuzzy Christmas are merely alluring landmarks pointing to another sebaceous underground of magnetic tape that flows swiftly (like Magma) awaiting Pirates and liberators alike. X marks the spot!

Peeping out of a warren of unexplored passages their seminal self-distributed debut singles and appearances on the genre defining alternative funk Alternative Funk Folie Distinguée compilation in 1984 made them an omnipresent fixture for the French tape wave scene that shaped a generation and influenced many more to follow. But beneath the trademark fluo- rescent sleeves stands the highly stacked foundations of endless cassette only releases that give this pocket punk husband and wife duo one of the most impressive and elusive back catalogues of all their cut ‘n’ paste French funk contemporaries. Plundering the depths of a self-estimated 400 recorded songs, X Ray Pop founder Didier Pilot has joined up with Finders Keepers sister label Cache Cache to reassess, rescue and reissue some of the bands most underexposed sonic snapshots, many of which were distributed in issues of less than 50 up to 500 for exclusive global releases in France, Spain, Portugal, Japan and America (where bands like Brian Ladd and Julie Frith’s Psyclones and The Beastie Boys championed the band as a likeminded inspiration.

TRACK LISTING

Rana
Ding Dong
Petit Animal
Bulle De Sang
Dream Of A Shadow
Marilyn Au Paradis
Klac Klac
Louche
Le Bateau Cellulose
BAL
Ca Te Mouille Le Bec
Pam Pam
Alain Aime Samantha
Living Dead
Oh Quel Supplice
Rock N Popoff
Pamela
Les Nonnes En Noir
Oh Oui J'Aime
Le Mouchoir Violet
La Mort
Alcool
L'Eurasienne
La Morte (Doc Pilot Solo)
Alcool (Doc Pilot Solo)
L'Eurasienne (Doc Pilot Solo)
Contact / I Wanna Be A Dog Medley (Live)

Femme fronted pocket punk and domestic-synth pop from French DIY workaholics X Ray Pop. Compiled from the mastertapes of the original 1980s privately pressed vinyl LPs and minuscule cassette runs.

X Ray Pop are a group of whom are easy to scratch the surface, but almost impossible to get the bottom of. With an iconic moniker, telltale graphic style and demanding ‘buy me’ Day-Glo colour coding policy the French vinyl output of X Ray Pop as a specialist subject is, at first glance, memorable and achievable. Cocksure fans of Euro wave pop often proclaim X Ray expertise from behind many a record shop counter or blog page but the truth of the matter is that no-one, not even the band members themselves, have the knowledge or mental capacity to truly understand the splatter range of the god speed anti-tactics that have turned this interchangeable, unarrangable and thirty-year sustainable auto-pop combo into one of uber-legendary status. For those that tread the chemins of 80s Gallic record racks, from agit pop to Zeuhl-school (bridging synth pop to Celluloid) these 7″ square flags reading El Gato, L’Eurasienne, Alcool and Fuzzy Christmas are merely alluring landmarks pointing to another sebaceous underground of magnetic tape that flows swiftly (like Magma) awaiting Pirates and liberators alike. X marks the spot!

Peeping out of a warren of unexplored passages their seminal self-distributed debut singles and appearances on the genre defining alternative funk Alternative Funk Folie Distinguée compilation in 1984 made them an omnipresent fixture for the French tape wave scene that shaped a generation and influenced many more to follow. But beneath the trademark fluo- rescent sleeves stands the highly stacked foundations of endless cassette only releases that give this pocket punk husband and wife duo one of the most impressive and elusive back catalogues of all their cut ‘n’ paste French funk contemporaries. Plundering the depths of a self-estimated 400 recorded songs, X Ray Pop founder Didier Pilot has joined up with Finders Keepers sister label Cache Cache to reassess, rescue and reissue some of the bands most underexposed sonic snapshots, many of which were distributed in issues of less than 50 up to 500 for exclusive global releases in France, Spain, Portugal, Japan and America (where bands like Brian Ladd and Julie Frith’s Psyclones and The Beastie Boys championed the band as a likeminded inspiration.

CD edition (available separately) is accompanied by two vinyl releases - ‘Ding Dong Disques’ and ‘Ding Dong Dubs’ - compiling the rarest vinyl (‘...Disques’) and cassette (‘...Dubs’) releases (both featuring exclusive bonus tracks).

Alaska, 1980. The robotic harmonica and his Clones have landed on glacier planes. Meet mutant commander Gary Sloan - this is the dawn of Harmonitalk! Less than 1000 copies of this privately pressed Alaskan electronic harmonica album by the tight-knit synth trio called Clone actually survived the journey out of their Anchorage base camp, leaving an explosive trail of unidentified synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, vocoded folk funk and prog rock blazing behind them. See what happens when a homespun innocent blues collective become possessed by the souls of Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and Suzanne Ciani on the frost bitten film set of John Carpenter's The Thing. Over 30 years later Cache Cache and Finders Keepers Records resurrect Harmonitalk's original black box and find more lost transmissions in the process.

Originally released as a privately funded 1000 copy vinyl run in 1980 this rare LP by Alaskan electric harmonica player Gary Sloan and his interchangeable synth trio known as Clone is a record that pushes the concept of American outsider music to its furthest geographical limits. With few physical copies travelling beyond their tight Alaskan fan base upon release this mutant album of conflicting mediums and truly forward thinking electronic pop music combines an unlikely mix of synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, folk funk and prog rock - providing the locale's sparse vinyl industry with a much needed and veritable document of this collective's truly unique and open-minded psyche.

With its origins lying a decade earlier in the 1971 release of Sloan's first privately pressed prog rock electric blues combo, Proof, the transmuted music of Clone stands as a triumphant example of how independent and experimental American music can flourish and evolve outside the restraints and fashionable whims of the major music industry. Taking the true essence of rhythm and blues and applying it, without inhibition, to the most profound mediums available, Sloan's integration with local synth enthusiasts Paul Alexander and Kurt Riemannn (known internally as The Trio) coupled with a wide range of unfiltered influences (comprising everything between New Age to new wave) lead to what is perhaps one of the most unexpected, improbable and underexposed pop fusion triumphs to emerge out of 1980s North America. Throughout the 70s and 80s, as a pillar of the Anchorage live music scene, Gary provided local musicians (including himself) with welcome platforms via his organised events and radio shows, such as The Import Hour which opened two way doors for regional and international artists resulting in various members of the Proof family collaborating with names such as Harvey Mandell and Klauss Schultze. The ongoing Proof records, limited cassette releases, and the Boogie Til Dawn production company have also played host to a wider community of North American both blues, punk and New Age artists with the same integral free-thinking and progressive policy (some of whom can be heard for the first time guesting on this LP).