How the fuck did I miss that Zoviet France has been podcasting. For awhile too!http://zovietfrance.podbean.com
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 July 2014 21:26 (nine years ago) link
tremendous show in SF on Saturday. maybe just rationalizing, but sorta glad that I'm not familiar with their recorded output, had no expectations going in. i was surprised by the hi-def sound palette (think I heard a peaceful forest at one point), less surprised by the droning overlay of dooooom.
― ugh (lukas), Monday, 15 September 2014 16:16 (nine years ago) link
their record output (the stuff i know anyway) covers a pretty broad sound palette tbf
― Daphnis Celesta, Monday, 15 September 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
I was at that show and "tremendous" was not the adjective I would use to describe my experience
― sarahell, Monday, 15 September 2014 16:56 (nine years ago) link
shouting @ the ground
― evangelos (am0n), Monday, 15 September 2014 16:58 (nine years ago) link
what'd you think of it sarahell?
i missed the openers btw, just caught last hour of ZF's set.
― ugh (lukas), Monday, 15 September 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link
I am a pretty big fan, and I thought the set was outstanding. They could put it out without an edit. Doesn't sound like the 80's, but still has that aesthetic of muddying the line between acoustic sounds you can't quite identify and electronics.
Two nord racks, effects, field recording playback, and a table of tiny flutes / harps / noisemakers next to a microphone. Obviously totally improvised, but fantastic pacing with great builds & shifts & turning of corners. Great to get to see which sounds were being mixed, and which generated live, after years of listening to records where you often did not have a clue what was going on.
― Milton Parker, Monday, 15 September 2014 17:58 (nine years ago) link
who's in the z.f. lineup this month
― evangelos (am0n), Monday, 15 September 2014 18:02 (nine years ago) link
Discogs lists Ponton and a Mr. Mark Warren as the current memebrs
― sleeve, Monday, 15 September 2014 18:23 (nine years ago) link
I wish I could have seen this
Genuinely upset that I missed this.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 15 September 2014 20:41 (nine years ago) link
If it makes you feel any better ... a friend of mine had a ticket and completely missed the show because he figured "oh, doors at 8, headliners won't go on until 10 at the earliest ... " nope.
― ugh (lukas), Monday, 15 September 2014 20:54 (nine years ago) link
in that case not really zoviet france imo
― ☝ (am0n), Monday, 15 September 2014 21:23 (nine years ago) link
u think that w/o Robin Storey it isn't ZF? this band has basically been Ponton & accomplices since the mid-90's.
― sleeve, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link
Guys in 85 or 86 I had a ZF cassette release that came in a kind of rectangular porcelain jug and included a dirty seagull feather. I can't remember what it was called, anyone know?
― Rand McNulty (Jon Lewis), Monday, 15 September 2014 22:05 (nine years ago) link
ew
― mattresslessness, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Soviet_Songs_and_Youth_Music
― Daphnis Celesta, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:08 (nine years ago) link
dammit xp
http://www.discogs.com/zoviet-france-Popular-Soviet-Songs-And-Youth-Music/release/100568
"Feathers collected from the shores of the Irish Sea, the most radioactive area of seawater on Earth."
― sleeve, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:08 (nine years ago) link
i think that wd be it, i've never owned a proper copy, fucken great record tho
it really is, I have a 3CD reissue on Staalplaat
― sleeve, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link
Yeah that's it. I chose to be skeptical abt the feather's provenance at the time
Things I wish I still owned chapter 9064
― Rand McNulty (Jon Lewis), Monday, 15 September 2014 22:53 (nine years ago) link
the reissue has a great package, brown felt with a soviet-era pin. It looks like it's still available from staalplaat
― Dan S, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 05:26 (nine years ago) link
feel like the sound changed at that point from classic zf to ponton solo project. decriminalization of country music was good but can't bother with the rest of it
― ☝ (am0n), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 16:04 (nine years ago) link
Mort Aux Vaches and especially Digilogue are favorites of mine, but I see yr point
these days all they put out is like 50-copy 8" lathe cut editions
― sleeve, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 16:20 (nine years ago) link
I do hear what you're saying about the mid-90's run, it wasn't bad but zf went from full spectrum anything-can-happen-next music to solid ambient, precisely at the moment in history where there was so much ambient music coming out that you just needed a break. I thought it was interesting that after they had their first strong well-received post-classic-lineup album decriminalization, instead of flooring it they mostly stopped releasing CDs. Ben said they've been busy the last 10-15 years doing scores for dance performance, and choosing not to put those out. in any case this duo has been stable / playing for almost 20 years and I didn't think that concert embarrassed anyone by being called a zf show.
must admit though, last few days, loaded up my phone with gris / mohnomishe / garista. even on my phone, that music shouldn't exist
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 18:13 (nine years ago) link
what's a good place to start with these guys?
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:02 (nine years ago) link
― evangelos (am0n), Monday, September 15, 2014 12:58 PM
― 💻 👀 (am0n), Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link
ripe for a Vinyl on Demand box set of the 80s run
― brimstead, Tuesday, 16 September 2014 19:11 (nine years ago) link
i don't think it will happen. former members don't want it. i tried to reissue mohnomishe and that was the reason i was given why it wasn't possible.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 03:21 (nine years ago) link
bummer! some of the most sui generis psychedelic music i've ever heard.
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 03:26 (nine years ago) link
xp: yeah Ponton and Storey are not really on speaking terms or so I've heard
― goth colouring book (anagram), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 07:49 (nine years ago) link
really wish these folks could come to terms on some reissues, it's such a shame that all of the old stuff is $100 or more for like a single CD.
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Tuesday, 12 March 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
also, has anyone heard this new-ish release?
https://www.discogs.com/zovietfrance-The-Tables-Are-Turning/master/625120
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Tuesday, 12 March 2019 22:17 (five years ago) link
I haven't heard it, but I like the description on the Soleilmoon website: "Somewhere in the rainy, misty forests of the Pacific Northwest of America, three ladies have the unlikely task of sewing together the packaging for a new album by :zoviet*france:"
― Dan S, Tuesday, 12 March 2019 23:32 (five years ago) link
discussed on the Vinyl On Demand thread, but putting here as well:
https://www.vod-records.com/-1-432-652.htm
(reissues of everything up to the Misfits/Flock/Gesture/Assault releases)
― sleeve, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 21:49 (four years ago) link
norsch is awful
― massaman gai (front tea for two), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 06:17 (four years ago) link
it's not really very good, agreed, I feel the same way about "Hessian"/Untitled/burlap
― sleeve, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 13:52 (four years ago) link
props to brimstead for predicting this box set five years ago
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 14:07 (four years ago) link
"... the sheaves are gone" (xp)
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 14:39 (four years ago) link
...and I’m broke right now too! Oh well
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 15:18 (four years ago) link
I usually enjoy ZF tracks more in a mix with other stuff, but I do enjoy them
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 15:38 (four years ago) link
xp brimstead just go for the extended single-LP reissue of Gris, that's the only one with extra material afaict
― sleeve, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 15:41 (four years ago) link
norsch is the only one i've never heard and been excited to hear. sad to hear it is awful.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 17:07 (four years ago) link
I might not say "awful" on reflection, but my first listen was definitely a disappointment
― sleeve, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 17:09 (four years ago) link
Was hoping they would have a bandcamp or something so I could buy FLACs. After not finding anything I read upthread and saw Stirmonster hadn’t been allowed to do a reissue. So I’m listening on YouTube instead.
― I am using your worlds, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 17:50 (four years ago) link
i put ZF on in Glasgow a few weeks ago and was asking how the reissue had come about when there had been no consensus to do it previosuly and it seems that VOD had offered the former members an maount of £s that made it irresisitible.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 19:00 (four years ago) link
wouldn't say Norsch is awful. they hadn't learned to mess with the drum machines enough which makes the sound closer to other industrial? I totally agree with VOD shoving Norsch & Hessian, two 25 minute EPs, onto one vinyl disc. Garista was the first one I bought after Shouting, and I remember just not being ready to walk that fine line between lo-fi mystery and wait-this-is-just-a-bunch-of-people-banging-on-shit-and-yelling, but I love it now
highly recommended to all fans of pre-Shouting ZF -- lo-fidelity concrete tape-manipulations of eastern classical instruments, from the 40s/50s. one of the few sonic precedents I can think of
https://www.discogs.com/Halim-El-Dabh-Crossing-Into-The-Electric-Magnetic/release/1286486https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/halimeldabh3
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 18 July 2019 00:14 (four years ago) link
kicking myself for not investing in this box & rooting for second edition
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 18 July 2019 00:15 (four years ago) link
US distribution through Forced Exposure, Swill Radio, and one other that I forget at the moment
― sleeve, Thursday, 18 July 2019 00:51 (four years ago) link
oh, Soleilmoon
― sleeve, Thursday, 18 July 2019 00:55 (four years ago) link