steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

I think everybody wants to help us out.  Deep within, every human on this globe wants to show off how smart and cool they are. And what's the best way to do this? BY TELLING US STUFF! That's right! Below are some bands and labels that we have heard of, but can't seem to find any information about. We'd be more than appreciative if you could help us out. Be warned, though, lots of this is obscure and rare. If you give us information about any of this, you will get credit [your name, website, email, or whatever you want] in the "solved mysteries" department.  So read on, and if you see something you know about, e-mail us at mattshimmer@gmail.com.

Our request for help:
Ants is a hardcore techno outfit that we know nothing about.  Well, we do know that they have one album out, called "Newcastle Sound", and we have heard the song "dissassembler" off of it, but other than that, we have no idea.  "Dissassembler" was heard on WFMU and was just awesome.  We'd be really appreciative if you could offer us any information on Ants because we are simply unable to do so ourselves.

The response (courtesy of Shank of http://www.shankweb.com)
This is all I could dig up on the label that released the 12" Newcastle Sampler featuring Ants.  No website is apparently up and operating, there is however contact information in the first link.
http://www.discogs.com/label/Bastard_Loud_Records
http://www.bloodyfist.com.au/1024_Index.html
a division of http://www.industrialstrengthrecords.com/

Our request for help:
Spalax is a label from France that reissues lots of old psychedelic stuff.  They've done releases by Lard Free and the like.  If you can find their website or e-mail address (or both!), then you truly are the king.

The response (courtesy of Shank of http://www.shankweb.com)
This is all that exists for Spalax
I finally found an address and used Google France to trace the address back to this link.
Sorry the email addy in the link is incomplete....may be intentional, I don't know. However there are other sub labels affiliated with Spalax Music that may yield additional information if searched for.
http://www.sppf.com/bddphp/test3.php?var=851
Spalax Records
10 rue de Feuillantines
75005 Paris France

Our request for help:
Recently we reviewed a homemade cassette from a Japanese singer/songwriter named Bloom.  The problem is, we have no clue who he is or what else he's done.  Any information would be appreciated!

The response (courtesy of the always-resourceful Shank of http://www.shankweb.com)
"BLOOM = Peter Lee Joun. Born in Hawaii and moved to Tokyo. Not much to tell except he is a real nice gent. He sent me a couple of demos about two years ago that were very good for home tape approach, I have since lost touch with him. Unless a label has picked him up I would say that he is still unsigned - the first demo was a "G Love and Special Sauce" japanese edition cassette that he had 4 tracked on top of. The second CD-R came a few months later with a newer and more impressive collection of songs, along with hand written information on about 5 sheets of plain white paper. I fowarded some of the material to folks I know in the biz and they all thought it was great, don't know what has become of it however. I can probably dig up some more stuff on him, but I think I have covered the basics here."

Our request for help:
White Knight is a techno outfit that has a minor club hit awhile ago with the song "Orgasm."  We want to know if they had any other songs.  Additional information about the people behind the outfit would also be dandy.

The response (courtesy of Shank of http://www.shankweb.com)
Links:
http://www.byte.be/
http://www.discogs.com/artist/White_Knight
"Their latest re-release seems to be affiliated with Nothing (records??) NIN? Don't know, probably not the same Nothing Records."

Our Request For Help
Who or what is Hypnotoad?  There are many bizarre website relating to hypnotoads, but none seem to actually reference the one I'm looking for.  They have one song I know of, called "This Feeling," which was released on the Enduro label on a "3-d 7inch" called Plusprodukt.  A Google search of "hypnotoad enduro" yields a bunch of sites in German that I, alas, cannot understand.  You can download the "This Feeling" mp3 here if you're interested.  We've also found an announcement by the label here.  What do we want from you?  Get us an e-mail address, a snail mail address, or a list of any other things The Hypnotoad has been involved in, and we'll grant you true kingship.

The response (courtesy of Shank of www.shankweb.com and somebody else whose e-mail I lost!)
"I translated this following passage as best I could:"

We remember: In April Enduro published a freely downloadable MP3 Compilation with the name "Ground zero".

A TRACK there already particularly stung in the eye and did not only provide with us in the editorship for Entzuecken. The speech is of Hypnotoads "This Feeling", a Technohouse TRACK with SAM-polarizes from the Song of the same name the Dutch volume "Earth & Fire".

To these appear contemporaneous in as 12"on Enduro. A publication followed after Blaou in October 2002 and a licencing to the label Silly Spider, on which "This Feeling" appeared under the name Kid Quesran and/or Kid Q.. A ReRelease after Blaou and a ReReRelease under Urban followed now. Well thing wants to have while.

After background are clear, now also the boldness reveals itself, with which Mr. hyper hyper alias Scooter proceeded with its new publication. The Hypnotoad/Kid Q. (everything the same person) release (among other things into the DDC at place 4) was used as collecting main for Scooters newest work "Weekend", which SAM-polarizes now with the same offers and so that the Charts wants to erklimmen, what an easy will surely be. "How much is the fish?"

Details background to the incident and more information under blaou.com
The Scooter plagiarism gibts for pure hearing under scootertechno.com

http://www.ae-pool.de/images/news/newsfebruar2003.html Link to above info (in German)

and...

"This comes from the label (Enduro). Should close the deal..............."

hey shank,
yes, right label.
record been available on 7" last year,
meanwhile sold out (limited etc).
today it s for various weeks
in the german single charts via silly spider/universal
and the guy hopefully will see some money for it soon.

(an e-mail address was also provided)

http://www.sillyspider.com/index_.html was also given.

Our Request For Help
Anybody want to find out something about this guy / girl / band? It's not supposed to be "Binary," it's Binray. Apparently they have a demo CDR out. And, yes, this is cool, but it's not quite what I'm looking for - a band website, e-mail, profile, or whatever.

The response (courtesy of Shank and Binray himself)
Binray gave us some important details about himself and explained that he had a record coming out on Zod soon.  Shank followed this up with a link to the release's mini-site itself - http://www.zodrecords.com/releases/zod23.html.

Our Request For Help
Had a split with Matt Borghi, I'm looking for a website or e-mail address.  Or anything else, for that matter.

The response (courtesy of Matt Borghi himself!)
Matt provided us with his website - www.mattborghi.com, as well as Kosik's - www.kosik.org.  Looks like our previous You Are The King! champion has some competition!

Our Request For Help
Find a website, e-mail address, or any information whatsoever about Musicfor and that would make you the king.  They most recently contributed a song to the Watermelon Should Last Forever compilation on Asaurus Records.

The Response (courtesy of none other than Asaurus Records owner Matt Baringer!)
Matt provided us with the Musicfor website, www.the-musicfor.com, and the e-mail address.  He also assured us that all of their records are terrific and are available from the website.  You can visit the Asaurus Records website at www.asaurus.org/records and can read an Indieville review of one of their albums here.
Musicfor also recently provided some Musicfor albums which we will review shortly.

Our request for help:
What is/was Snuffy Smiles?  If you can provide a website, email/postal address, discography, mini-bio, or anything else, that would be really cool... I believe they are/were based in Japan.

The response (courtesy of the awesome Mike Day):
Hi,
I happened across your "mysteries" page and I can solve one of these for you... Snuffy Smile is/was a punk label from Japan. They released stuff by bands like Husking Bee and Nails of Hawaiian. I know this because a long time ago I used to have a CD called "Peace & Love," released by Broken Rekids, which was a compilation of stuff from Snuffy Smile. Apparently this CD is rather rare and expensive now.
Hope that helps!
Mike

Our request for help:
Tokyo-based electronica musician.  Find what you can.  Get cracking!

The response (courtesy of Shank of http://www.shankweb.com)
This guy plays lots of live DJ gigs around Tokyo/Kyoto. It appears the he has done a few things with https://aquariusrecords.org/ Japanese label. I never did find the guys name that was translatable to english - below are some things he has done - looks like he has been active since at least 1996. There is a whole load of info on this guy on the www - however there is no reference to whom he actually is.....
(A list of compilation appearances, both old and recent, was then included.  As well, it turns out he also goes by the name 1000 NEEDLES PUSHER)