Search Results for:

FINDERS KEEPERS RECORDS

Beth Anderson

I Can’t Stand It

    Carving an unlikely and elaborate niche in the stoney academic landscape which she once shared with the likes of Phill Niblock, John Cage and Sorel Hayes, the excitable proto-punk poèmes sonores of the linguistic loose cannon known as Beth Anderson first rolled through New York in the mid-1970s (from Kentucky via San Francisco) like a jumbled tumbleweed of lost Letterism, face paint and threadbare drummy funk to astonish gallery floors, lecture theatres and loft apartment stages. One thousand leagues under the radar of the commercial music industry, with a sense of humour that elevated way above her highbrow peer group, the music of Beth Anderson has successfully evaded the pressing plant for most of her creative career, and not unlike fellow New York gallery actionist Suzanne Ciani, it has taken decades to successfully collect and contextualise these early recordings - expanding her elusive discography beyond the rare and mysterious solo single entry in the process.

    When uttered amongst the type of vinyl vampires that haplessly gravitate between both art school vintage vanity pressings and family funded plunder funk, there’s an outside chance that the name Beth Anderson might muster some vague recognition on account of her one and only solo wax sojourn into the expansive DIY market. In 1980 the 45rpm single 'I Can’t Stand It' combusted into the consciousness of adventurous participants with its deep rhythmic backbeat (courtesy of future Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr producer Wharton Tiers, member of the new wave band Theoretical Girls), climaxing with two colourful and commanding linguistic tantrums before disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving would-be fans dumbstruck without so much as a label name or distribution contact to explain what they had just heard. For those who have spent the subsequent years on the edge of that same seat, it might come as some comfort knowing that somewhere out there (on the OTHER side) there is also a contrasting world of gallery patrons and experimental sound poetry enthusiasts that similarly didn’t know that their regular performance poet Beth Anderson even made the ambitious pop record. For the uninitiated, the enigmatic Beth Anderson has straddled both sides of
    the art/rock fence placed between two equally niche pastures. Hopefully this first-ever vinyl compendium will succeed in joining the dots, loops, yelps, squeaks, beats and repeats! Let us follow Beth’s lineage, along her magnetic tape highways crossing multiple boundaries in a hope to bridge unlikely anti-genres like “yoga punk”, “ramble rap”, “combustion pop” and “form room funk”… all of which were officially neatly bracketed under the curious TextSound movement where Beth garnered utmost respect as a key practitioner... 

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Ocean Motion Mildew Mind
    2. Yes Sir Ree
    3. I Can’t Stand It
    4. Country Time
    5. If I Were A Poet
    6. Torero Piece
    7. Peachy Keen-O

    Suzanne Ciani

    Buchla Concerts 1975 - 2024 Reissue

      Finders Keepers invite you to witness these incredible earl Buchla synthesiser concerts/demonstrations providing a distinctive feminine alternative to The Silver Apples Of The Moon if they had ever been presented in phonographic form. This is history in the remaking.

      This is an archival project that not only redefines musical history but boasts genuine claim to the overused buzzwords such as pioneering, maverick, experimental, groundbreaking and esoteric, while questioning social politics and the evolution of music technology as we’ve come to understand it. To describe this records as a game-changer is an understatement.

      This record represents a musical revolution, a scientific benchmark and a trophy in the cabinet of counter culture creativity. This record is a triumphant yardstick in the synthesiser space race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial moon. While pondering the early accolades of this record it’s daunting to learn that this record was in fact not a record at all... It was a manifesto and a gateway to a new world, that somehow never quite opened. If the unfamiliar, modernistic, melodic, pulses, tones and harmonics found on this 1975 live presentation/grant application/educational demonstration had been placed in a phonographic context alongside the promoted work of Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos or Tomita then the name Suzanne Ciani and her influence would have already radically changed the shape, sound and gender of our record collections. Hopefully there is still chance.

      In short, Suzanne was a self-imposed twenty-year-old employee of the Buchla modular synthesiser company, San Francisco’s neck and neck contender to New York’s Moog. Buchla was run by a community of festival freaks and academic acid eaters whose roots in new age lifestyles and the reinvention of art and music replaced the business acumen enjoyed by its likeminded East Coasters. In the eyes of the consumer the creative refusal to adopt rudimentary facets like a piano keyboard controller rendered the Buchla synthesiser the more obscure stubborn sister of the synth marathon, steering these incredible units away from the mainstream into the homes and studios of free music aficionados, art house composers and die-hard revolutionaries. Championed and semi-showcased by composer Morton Subotnick on his albums The Bull and Silver Apples Of The Moon, Buchla’s versatility began to open the minds of a new generation, but the high-end design features and no-compromise modus operandi was often confused with incompatibility and, in the pulsating shadow of Moog’s marketing, the revolution would not be televised nor patronised. Suzanne Ciani, as one of the very few female composers on the frontline (and also providing the back line) did not lose faith.

      These “concerts” are the epitome of rare music technology historic documents, performed by a real musician whose skills and academic education in classical composition already outweighed her male synthesiser contemporaries of twice her age. At the very start of her fragile career these recordings are nothing short of sacrificial ode to her mentor and machine, sonic pickets of the revolution and love letters to an absolutely genuine vision of and ‘alternative’ musical future. In denouncing her own precocious polymathmatic past in a bid to persuade the world to sing from a new hymn sheet, Suzanne Ciani created a bi-product of never before heard music that would render the pigeon holes “ambient” and “futuristic” utterly inadequate. Providing nothing short of an entirely different feminine take on the experimental “records” of Morton Subotnick and proving to a small, judgmental audience and jury the true versatility of one of the most radical and idiosyncratic musical instruments of the 20th century. These recordings have not been heard since then.

      The importance of these genuinely lost pieces of electronic musics puzzle almost eclipses the glaring detail of Suzanne’s gender as a distinct minority in an almost exclusively male dominated, faceless, coldly scientific landscape. Those familiar with Suzanne’s work, a vast vault of previously unpublished “nonrecords”, will already know how the creative politics in her art of “being” simultaneously reshaped the worlds of synth design, advertising and film composition before anyone had even dropped a stylus in her groove. Needless to say this record, finally commanding the archival format of choice, courtesy of the Ciani and Finders Keepers longstanding unison, was not the last “first” with which this hugely important composer would gift society, and the future of a wide range of exciting evolving creative disciplines.

      You have found a holy grail of electronic music and a female musical pioneer who was too proactive to take the trophies. With the light of Buchla and Ciani’s initial flame Finders Keepers continues to take a torch through the vaults of this lesser-celebrated music legacy shining a beam on these “non records” that evaded the limelight for almost half a century. You can’t write history when you are too busy making it. With fresh ink in the bottomless well, let’s start at the beginning. Again. You, are invited!

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Concert At WBAI Free Music Store
      2. Concert At Phill Niblock’s Loft

      Suzanne Ciani

      Buchla Concert At Galeria Bonino New York April 1974

        The very first Buchla synthesiser performance by revolutionary composer Suzanne Ciani finally makes its fifty year journey from its switch-on New York art gallery to its long deserved and discerning global phonographic audience.

        With this previously unheard vinyl pressing, Finders Keepers Records are proud to present an archival project of ‘art music’ that not only redefines musical history but lays genuine claim to the overused buzzwords such as pioneering, maverick, experimental, groundbreaking and esoteric, while questioning social politics and the evolution of music technology as we have come to understand it. To describe Italian-American composer Suzanne Ciani’s resurrected Buchla concert records as genuine gamechangers would be a gross understatement. These records represent a musical revolution, an artistic revelation, a scientific benchmark and a trophy in the cabinet of counterculture creativity. This sonic installation album, alongside her recently liberated WBAI/Phill Niblock 1975 sessions (FKR082), are triumphant yardsticks in the synthesiser space race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial musical moon. While pondering the early accolades attached to these golden era New York recordings it’s daunting to learn that these records were in fact not even records at all.

        What exists on this disc now was a manifesto and a one-time gateway to a new world, which somehow was only partially pushed ajar. Captured here is a genuine live act exploring new territories with a fully performable music instrument. If the unfamiliar, modernistic, melodic pulses, tones and harmonics found on these 1970’s artistic gallery collaborations/live presentations (then soon to be followed by academic grant applications and educational demonstrations) had been placed in a phonographic context alongside the widely marketed work of Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos or Tomita, then the name Suzanne Ciani and her infectious influence would have already radically changed the shape, sound and gender of our record.

        With the light of Buchla and Ciani’s initial flame Finders Keepers continues the journey through the vaults of this increasingly celebrated music legacy, illuminating these ‘non-records’ that evaded the limelight for almost half a century. You can’t write history when you are too busy making it. With fresh ink in the bottomless well, let’s start at the beginning. Again.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Buchla Concert At Galeria Bonino New York April 1974 Part One
        2. Buchla Concert At Galeria Bonino New York April 1974 Part Two

        Emma De Angelis

        Emma De Angelis

        As one of the most enigmatic figures of the 1970s Italian soundtrack and library music network Emma De Angelis and her short recording career provides thirsty fans of speedball psychedelic rock and drum heavy instrumental funk with a tight discography rivalling many of the long-standing bastions of the otherwise male-orientated business. With encouragement from her brothers, Emma, who would also write music under the pseudonym of Juniper, would record a tight clutch of solo-penned material and seldom credited studio contributions to Guido And Maurizio’s film commissions, such as the score for Giuliano Carnimeo’s ‘Simone e Matteo: Un gioco da ragazzi’ (aka ‘Convoy Buddies’). While simultaneously pursuing a career as an illustrator and set designer the De Angelis family contacts would lead Emma to the offices of Romano Di Bari, whose up-and-coming Flirt label was finding success providing custom-built mood music for use in TV and film. Alongside important composers like Alessandro Alessandroni, Gerardo Iacoucci and A. R. Luciani, the young Emma Di Angelis would record a small number of tracks for a compilation called ‘Underground Mood’ (credited in the small print to E De Angelis - not to be confused with Italian singer Edoardo De Angelis). It is from this rare LP that the record you are now holding is compiled. Within the Flirt family of labels Emma De Angelis would also share schedules with other important female composers such as Daniela Casa and Giulia ‘Kema’ De Mutiis - both of whom have appeared on dedicated Finders Keepers releases. As one of the most enigmatic figures of the 1970’s Italian soundtrack and library music network Emma De Angelis and her short recording career provides thirsty fans of speedball psychedelic rock and drum heavy instrumental funk.


        Latest Pre-Sales

        203 NEW ITEMS

        E-newsletter —
        Sign up
        Back to top