Bozo´s Night Out

Been too long since the last time I have reviewed one of those... strange computer games from the old times. Been messing around with my Commodore 64-mini, USB-drive and have offcourse added some extra games to the damn thing. 

One of the games which I didn't have as a kid was a game simply called Bozo´s Night Out. Surfing the various sites for old computer games, I stumbled upon it. The title alone makes you wonder, and also the cover-artwork as well. Obviously, a drunkard walking down a lane, with a skinhead looking angry at him behind a wall... while he is getting closer to an opened manhole! This game MUST be fun, no doubt about it! So let us get a closer look at it. 

The game itself was released back in 1984 by Taskset, programmed by Tony Gibson (R.I.P). Commodore 64 was the only platform on which this game was released for. 

The game starts with your first night out as Bozo, having his very first pint of lager. After this one pint, then you have to get home to bed offcourse. But on the way from the bar and to your home, you have to avoid various obstacles offcourse. You don´t want to walk straight into skinheads, beautiful ladies or a copper otherwise you´ll end up straight into the hospital! After the visit to the hospital, you´ll start over offcourse (back in the bar drinking!). 

If you succeed in getting Bozo home to his bed, then you´ll continue with level 2 which means that the next night out Bozo he will drink more pints. This then means that Bozo will be harder and harder to control with your joystick!. How fun can a game be?!. There are offcourse some short-cuts in the game as well, take a walk through the park which offcourse inhabits monsters and other kinds of nasties!.   

So what are you waiting for? Buy some beers and invite your friends over, having a night out with Bozo on the Commodore 64-mini is all worth it!.

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo%27s_Night_Out

Download:

https://www.c64.com/games/566

Praying For Oblivion - Station Grau

If you don´t know Praying For Oblivion, then I can reveal to you that this harsh-noise/power-electronics project has been around for some time now. And has been highly productive aswell. Been around 1999, and has had releases via cult labels like Smell the Stenth, Cranial Fracture, and Tourette Tapes. This one came out last year via Spanish Marbre Negre (30 copies) and U.S-based Imploding Sounds (25 copies). A-side contains a 17 minutes live recording called Zodiak, while the B-side contains two tracks called Station Grau I & II.

We start the A-side with Zodiak. A metallic, ritualistic and blistering wall of dynamic harshness greets the listener. Static radio noise and occasional painful human voices can be sensed in the vortex. There is a physical presence in the sound, the sound of a rumbling microphone-thingy inside a dryer-machine-thingy. A lovely and dynamic live-recording delivering harsh-noise statements with an industrial and ritualistic edge to it. Love the "one more time" from some guy at the concert, and offcourse the noise continues... into burning oblivion offcourse!. Would love to have experienced this live concert!. 

We continue with the B-side which soundwise goes into another direction. Station Grau I is not a harsh-noise action, but more of an abstract low-tech experiment with a sound-track´ish approach. Surreal, musique concrete, early Dr. Who-soundtracks made by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop... that sort of stuff! And it´s actually very good, and incredibly inventive and dynamic.

The last track Station Grau II moves away from the abstract and moves a little bit closer to an intense bad trip. Not as subtle and quiet as the first one, but more of a nerve grinding tale to smother your ears into pulp. Not as interesting and mind-bending as the first Station Grau-track though.

A release having a great diversity in sound and dynamics. Great live recording, and some great moments with the Station Grau tracks. The release works and feels like some sort of an outlet of tracks, like a compilation. Would be great if the track had a clearer conceptual idea behind it... but as you guys know... that is how noise-artists work! Overall I think it is a great and interesting release, give it a spin! You can also purchase the t-shirt which came with it, check out the link below!

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/station-grau

Bandcamp (band):

https://prayingforoblivion.bandcamp.com/

Official website (band):

https://prayingforoblivion.webs.com/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR1_eDm92rF7hExa-dIRH3Tz2szkgXdjGTUOVSxf8uB24RWFMc9S4233Rvo

T-shirt:

https://my-store-a12ebd.creator-spring.com/listing/praying-for-oblivion?brk=fb70de5c7c&edit=1&fbclid=IwAR1pLckd-AGtoZo4U5SsaUGIurpCtMjlXlxJXMrevWEU1brm6mDE1Lf0UUc&product=2&variation=2397

 

            

 

Miasmata - Last Entrenchments 

Another thing out from the Copenhagen-based label Sektion 1. Another highly obscure act is called Miasmata with its debut called Last Entrenchments. 2 long tracks on each side of the cassette, about 20+ minutes in total. Again Sektion 1 nails the cover-artwork/design for the release, lovely cardboard paper, and excellent printing as well. Not sure what the artwork is trying to illustrate, but it thickens the mystery and heightens any abstract thoughts. The cassette is limited to 50 copies.

The album starts with something which sounds like a radio recording, some radio channel playing bombastic classical music of some sort. The pleasantness slowly grinds into the raw territory of industrial harsh noise. Very sort of the late 80s vibe here, early Grey Wolves/Macronymphia sort of sound. Very dynamic and chaotic with the classical radio-music going on in the background, could be a live performance? The whole thing sounds like something is being disintegrated, or something being grinds into absolute nothingness. 

The second track again has some interesting recordings going on. Very low-fi and very eerie vibe going on. It really does show how creative you can get with a primitive approach. A bewitching slice of industrial harshness, or just call it atmospheric/ritualistic harsh noise. If some soldier in the first world war was doing some sort of harsh noise in the trenches, it could sound like this!

I turn the cassette to the B-side and jump into the third track. Obscure radio recording with some lovely analog industrial minimalism. It´s not all harsh noise and all that, highly experimental recordings going on in here. Again, sort of takes me back to a time when noise was more of an experimental nature rather than being noisier than your neighbor-approach. Fans of early MB/Sacher-Pelz would love this. Tons of diversity in this track!

The fourth track (and the last) returns to the classic sound of early harsh noise. Screaming feedbacks, rumbling sounds, looped soundscapes... Reminds me of early Con Dom (without vocals though) and the radio-recording of some opera going on in the background. Again, the whole thing has a lovely live feeling attached to it.

And that was the 4 tracks on the album. It´s harsh noise in the interesting section of the store. A lovely old-school early 90s/late 80s sound to this. Lots of mood and lots of dynamics/diversity going on, not a boring release at all. A lovely treat for the senses!. 

Official website (label):

https://sektion1.bigcartel.com/

Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/label/1637277-Sektion1

      

Flow Control - Endless March 

Elm Records is at it again with one of their latest releases by a new and unknown act called Flow Control. I did a search on Discogs but couldn´t find any info regarding this new act, but what I did locate was a Bandcamp site that held 3 other only-digital releases. The act is described as something which lurks in the realms of ambient, lo-fi, classic IDM, and synth-wave music. The album endless March was released on Elm Records on cassette (30 copies) on the first of April 2021 and it isn´t available on Flow Control´s official Bandcamp site. Another thing that I can reveal about this album is that it works around a certain concept built on an experience... here goes:

This album is called "Endless March”. It’s an ambient exploration into alienation and anxiety, which I began composing near the onset of the pandemic but gained significant meaning as I watched the Bighorn Wildfire engulf my home wilderness in Tucson, AZ at the time of the riots. It became a contemplative journey into the sonic landscape of the fires that raged in my backyard and within our current social conditions. The work is 3 tracks in which I explore these using field recordings, tape loops, eurorack modular synths, and piano.

I like the concept. I like the idea when you have, stuff that crashes into another and then afterward creates another kind of view on things. Yes, a worldwide pandemic is a pretty big deal, but so is a wildfire (and the riots going on as well). Between the first and the second world war, people didn´t have time to worry about the Spanish flu... although it actually killed around 25-50 million people. Big things/stuff is happening all the time, and it usually happens so fast in our information-driven society that our minds cannot actually relate to it when it does happen. Enough of my philosophical mumbo-jumbo, let´s get it on!.

First track Normalcy. Gives the listener an idea of being somewhere where the land is flat, and the sky is huge! Not much is going on, the essence of quietness is there for sure. Somewhere along the line in this quiet and peaceful place, something is changing (going on). The sound of something burning? Melancholic ambient moods and a beautiful glass/crystal-like drone sound. There is also a piano-driven melody hiding in the vapors of the wasteland. and eerie tv-samples going on. A very good and mysterious ambient-drone piece with a good adventurous expression of sound.

We flip over the cassette and start the B-side with the second track, called Release. Backward recorded piano recordings going on at the same time as the normal piano recording, lovely slow-driven melodies going on as well. A really kind of sad sort of a track. Getting back to some of the drone/post-rock-related stuff made by The Swans here. Also, a kind of Angelo Badalamenti feel/mood going on. Really good ambient stuff going on here kids!. 

The last track Summer Fires works like a beautiful ending for a beautiful album. After the wildfire, things will grow (hopefully). There is hope/light beyond the tunnel. Might just be my favorite track on the album, certainly the most mysterious track on the alum.

And that ends the Endless March! A beautiful and relaxing trip through an unsettling apocalyptic setting! Fans of Steve Roach, Swans, and Brian Eno take notice. An album filled with contradictions, apocalyptic and sad, but also very peaceful.

Bandcamp (label):

https://elmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/endless-march

Bandcamp (Band):

https://flow-ctrl.bandcamp.com/