VOTD 09/03/2025

Nocturnal Emissions: Befehlsnotstand: The Incomplete Werk of Nocturnal Emissions. (Sterile)

Purchased used at Amazing Books and Records, Squirrel Hill

I've sometimes used this forum to comment on the state of being a record hound. How, through the years, the chance to purchase used albums of interest has waxed and waned. The opportunity to buy something really unusual, and at not a completely outrageous price, seems to mostly be a thing of the past. Finding the Batman and Robin LP with Sun Ra last week was something of an exception. Not that it's a particularly valuable slice of vinyl, but rather to find it in the wild was exciting.

Even more than that particular album, any sort of 1980s industrial/experimental/noise LPs are very rare to come across, even at premium prices. I paid a what I consider to be a lot for my recent purchase of Hoisting the Black Flag, the early United Dairies compilation, because that we close to the top of my "want" list.

I definitely don't go hunting for Nocturnal Emissions LPs. I don't really know that much about them/him. The band, if you can call it that, is centered on Nigel Ayers (now there's British name). I remember their albums were generally part of that early 80s British industrial/noise scene, half a generation behind groups such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. The in-house label was Sterile Records, which also released an LP by MB and cassettes of Lustmørd and SPK.

But there's a NE album in a neighborhood used book and record store. Not cheap but not outrageous either. (I know I'm being evasive. More than ten dollars, less than fifty.)

This gives you a general sense of their direction. More often than not NE sounds a bit like Cabaret Voltaire, with early drum machine, distorted vocals, noisy instruments. Sometimes it's more of a wall of sound, but not the sheer confrontation of early power electronics groups. Can I describe this as cheeky? That's too cute. I get the sense of Nigel being young and passionate, enjoying the noise but not wanting to alienate everybody. As an album, it feels like an assortment of odds and ends; some of the tracks are taken from live performances, according to the sleeve.

For my personal collection it feels like a piece of the puzzle of that time and scene filled in, filed in between to my Bourbonese Qualk and Nurse With Wound albums. 

CDOTD 09/01/2025

 Mustafa Özkent vi Orkestrasi: Gençlik Ile Elele (Finders Keepers)

Purchased used at The Exchange in Squirrel Hill

I bought a new boombox yesterday at Best Buy. I dislike having to rely on a big box store for such things, but it seems there are few choices otherwise. 

Why a boombox? I wanted something portable I could play outside if need be, plus it's a combined CD/cassette/Blue Tooth player, which I can run through my stereo. I had been using a DVD player for CDs, but it lacked a screen to display tracking. 

Compact discs, such a rise and fall. I don't hide that I love vinyl. However I will continue to defend CDs as a format. They can hold close to eighty minutes of audio, don't degrade on multiple plays if you handle them correctly, they're light and take up very little space. Try moving 500 LPs as opposed to 500 CDs, and you'll gain an appreciation for how heavy and bulky vinyl albums really are.

Cars don't come with CD players any longer. To play discs in my car, I bought a $20 portable player, hot glued the power supply running from what used to be the cigarette lighter, and connect using an 1/8" cable. Unlike built in players in decades past, the disc doesn't pick up where it left off when you restart the car. 

I remember a time when, if you wanted to pick up a cheap copy of something used just to check it out (for example, I wanted to hear Miles Davis' Tutu), the cheap one was the vinyl over CD. That has completely reversed now. Vinyl, new or used, has reached some ridiculous prices. 

I did a small bit of research though, and maybe I'm not being entirely fair. The first LP I bought for myself was Kansas' Leftoverture. (Hey! I was thirteen!) Let's say I paid probably $6 for it new. According to an online inflation calculator, that would be $34 in current money. 

New single LPs often run about $35. I don't know, it still seems like a lot of money though.

The Exchange is a chain of new/used media and collectables in western PA and Ohio, and probably beyond. For a time the dollar bins were a wealth of real scores, such as when I found two Fela Kuti CDs for $1 apiece. I'd also say the used in general were more varied and interesting about ten years ago. I don't think I'll ever find something as multiple disc sets of Morton Feldman and Harry Partch on the shelves now. But I still look.

Which brings me to this oddity. It was sitting in my neighborhood Exchange. I suppose someone must have put it face out on the shelves, because why would I have ever noticed it otherwise? Who is Mustafa Özkent? Why is there a chimp wrapped in recording tape on the cover? It was the quotes on the outer cover that got to me, including, "The Harry Partch of Turkish Pop..." There's also notice it's part of the "Anatolian Invasion Series". Okay, now I'm interested. Being a used CD, it was at most $8 if I remember correctly.

So what is it? Let's start with the basics: all instrumental (fine by me). The instrumentation is guitar (often with wah wah), organ, bass, and drums, with possibly some additional rhythm instruments mixed in. It's vaguely kind of psychedelic; I'm reading the album originally dates to 1973. Driving bass grooves, often very prominent, with soloing on guitar or organ. The pieces are generally simple. if everything was less intense, you'd almost start to head into easy listening. I have found this a a good thing to put on for cookouts. It can play in the background, but will catch your ear sometimes.

Discogs.com indicates that a single original vinyl copy has sold there for $1700, with another currently up for $2150 (from South Korea!). Too rich for my blood, I'm happy to experience this for $8.

And wouldn't it have been a shame, that I'd never have gotten to hear this gem without the inexpensive CD version crossing my path.