Zoviet France: Classic or Dud?

makes me appreciate popul vuhl more too...

MOHNOMISHE, JUST AN ILLUSION, VIENNA, WHAT IS NOT TRUE? and THE DECRIMINALISATION OF COUNTRY MUSIC all blow my mind on a regular basis.

the first 3 rapoon cds are great too although i feel they lost their way a little after that

As for solo stuff, I like some of Mark Spybey's stuff (although I don't know if he really counts as a member...). The Propeller CD (the one with the scrap metal sleeve) and Dead Voices On Air's Shap are great.

where can these be found? all i have is mp3s

Wow, all of these were in print just a few years ago but it seems the CHARRM label that was rereleasing them has disappeared. So I guess its just used for now.

oh and there's a stomping track called "cad goddeu" literally stomping - the rhythm is like sped-up godzilla steps. i don't know what it's from. "eostre"? i don't trust these tags.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Zoviet+France

I think Collusion is their best album, even though its not a real album. All the tracks are strong, and it covers styles from their whole career. And its still in print.

decriminalisation of country music - c/d?

C

Decriminalisation of country music is fantastic!

I dunno, it's soooo front loaded - nothing approaches the awesome peak of Something Spooked the Horses. It's the only track which really takes on the country music conceit, and I wish they'd carried it forward more. I do like the other tracks but after that dominating slide guitar they all seem kind of hollow.

Decriminalisation of Country Music is pretty damned classic, but I'd agree that it's a bit front-loaded.

Album reminds me of when I lived in Chicago and would walk around in the winter down by the lake.

DoCM is classic classic classic

There is another thread somewhere where I debate a bit with Mark Spybey concerning the merits of post-Storey Zoviet France. I could swear I read some interview ages ago where there was a reference to the band members having made some sort of lifetime pact to never break up or do solo stuff, which obviously didn't last and might be my imagination. I think later ZF work like Digilogue and DoCM and (ESPECIALLY) Mort Aux Vaches are really high quality, if a bit different in focus than the earlier classics. Less "ethnic music made by aliens" type stuff and more drone-bliss is just fine with me.

decriminalisation of country music - c/d?

this was commissioned for the opening of a big arts space in glasgow called the tramway. they then performed an interpretation of it at the opening. it was wonderful.

They will do a live performance again, opening for Lustmord http://incubate.org/2011/artist/72/Zoviet+France

Live performances these days are rare but not unheard of, they played in London earlier this year. I say "they" but aside from Ben I have no idea who is in the line-up these days or even if it's more or less his solo project.

The string of albums from 1987 (A flock of Roations, Loh Land, Assault and Mirage) is one hell of a run. I cannot get enough of that stuff.

don't forget Gesture Signal Threat! Misfits/Loony Tunes always seemed a little less amazing to me though.

going through youtubes of the early albums I hadn't heard (I'd heard Garista, Gris, Oestre) and... this band sure was good

pretty much everything they did after the Hessian/burlap record is essential imo. sucks that all of it is OOP and insanely expensive.

only heard DoCM but a great album.

How the fuck did I miss that Zoviet France has been podcasting. For awhile too!
http://zovietfrance.podbean.com

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.

their record output (the stuff i know anyway) covers a pretty broad sound palette tbf

I was at that show and "tremendous" was not the adjective I would use to describe my experience

shouting @ the ground

what'd you think of it sarahell?

i missed the openers btw, just caught last hour of ZF's set.

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.

who's in the z.f. lineup this month

Discogs lists Ponton and a Mr. Mark Warren as the current memebrs

I wish I could have seen this

Genuinely upset that I missed this.

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.

Discogs lists Ponton and a Mr. Mark Warren as the current memebrs

in that case not really zoviet france imo

u think that w/o Robin Storey it isn't ZF? this band has basically been Ponton & accomplices since the mid-90's.

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?

ew

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Soviet_Songs_and_Youth_Music

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."

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

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

the reissue has a great package, brown felt with a soviet-era pin. It looks like it's still available from staalplaat

u think that w/o Robin Storey it isn't ZF? this band has basically been Ponton & accomplices since the mid-90's.

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

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

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

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

what's a good place to start with these guys?

shouting @ the ground

― evangelos (am0n), Monday, September 15, 2014 12:58 PM

ripe for a Vinyl on Demand box set of the 80s run

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.

bummer! some of the most sui generis psychedelic music i've ever heard.

xp: yeah Ponton and Storey are not really on speaking terms or so I've heard

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.

also, has anyone heard this new-ish release?

https://www.discogs.com/zovietfrance-The-Tables-Are-Turning/master/625120

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:"

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.

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)

norsch is awful

it's not really very good, agreed, I feel the same way about "Hessian"/Untitled/burlap

props to brimstead for predicting this box set five years ago

"... the sheaves are gone" (xp)

...and I’m broke right now too! Oh well

I usually enjoy ZF tracks more in a mix with other stuff, but I do enjoy them

xp brimstead just go for the extended single-LP reissue of Gris, that's the only one with extra material afaict

norsch is the only one i've never heard and been excited to hear. sad to hear it is awful.

I might not say "awful" on reflection, but my first listen was definitely a disappointment

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 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.

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/1286486
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/halimeldabh3

kicking myself for not investing in this box & rooting for second edition

US distribution through Forced Exposure, Swill Radio, and one other that I forget at the moment

oh, Soleilmoon

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

Frank's FB page is quite illuminating, he doesn't talk about the €€€ for this box but he's been fairly open in the past about how much he offered people like Coil and Neubauten to do boxes for them, both of which offers were refused. With 600 copies of the :z*f: sold out on presale I estimate the gross at about €150,000 which should be enough to give the members a tidy sum and more than cover his costs on top.

Managed to acquire mohnomishe and it’s remarkable.

yeah that's my favorite of the early ones

do any of you maniacs have this release in any digitized audio format? YSI?

https://www.discogs.com/Zoviet-France-Live-In-My-Livingroom/release/1472782

I didn't realize Robin Storey left before What Is Not True was recorded! It makes sense in retrospect, listening now. To continue my debate with amon (miss u) above, I think that one's a total classic for sure.

Managed to acquire mohnomishe and it’s remarkable.

i used to play chunks of it in the middle of dj sets at club nights during the rave era when 90% of the audience were extremely high. i'm not sure many people in the audience were digging it but i was getting the biggest kick from hearing it through giant pa systems. it sounded incredible.

i treated myself to the box which is by far and away the most i have ever spent on any release and which has subsequently caused me to endure massive post purchase dissonance.

it arrived and is a beautiful thing. the dissonance is abating slightly. i keep reminding myself it is tax deductible.

there are some incredible photos of the assembly of some of the early covers. i'm going to dive in now.....

gah, can't wait

has anyone heard the more recent (since 2005) Reformed Faction CDs, particularly "Vota" with the Storey/Spybey/Eardly lineup? I'm intrigued.

pmed you sleeve re Livingroom. 128, unfortunately

<3

wow that extra material on the Gris LP really hits the spot, a very very deep alternate version of the title track and what seems like an extended coda of the original.

amazing box of course, the deeply alien "band photos" are the icing on the cake.

upon further review, I have two more observations:

1. the remastering here is spectacular, I hear new details in tracks that I've been listening to for over 30 years.

2. following from #1, Norsch is in fact awesome, a worthy precursor to the huge leap forward that occurred with Mohnomishe.

Reissues

https://boomkat.com/products/monomishe

Genre: DARK AMBIENT / DRONE / METAL

lol

I’ve messed up that link but there’s other titles too

helpful note from Discogs:

Rest assured also that both tracks titled "Burning Bush" from Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music are included, although only the second one is labeled in the track listing. The first one--the nine minute one that was the first track on side C of the cassette and track 2-12 of the cd--is here as the last track on side 4 of PSSAYM (i.e., side LP2-R), after "Fearn", right where it ought to be.

YES!! I HAVE $$ AGAIN

2nd box.

RELEASES SCHEDULED FOR LATE APRIL 2020

VOD 163: ZOVIET FRANCE 'Châsse Vol.2' - Recordings 1984-1996 16Lp Wooden Box (ltd. 400 plus 99 artists-editions in colored Vinyl plus 8 x Stand Alone Releases (ltd. 200 each)

Lp1/2: Shouting at the Ground 2Lp (1988)
Lp3/4: Just an Illusion 2Lp (1990)
Lp5/6: Look Into Me 2lp (1990)
Lp7: Vienna 1990 1Lp (1980)
Lp8/9: Shadow, Thief of the Sun (1991)
Lp10/11: What is Not True 1Lp (1993)
Lp12/13: Collusion Vol.1 2Lp (1984-1991)
Lp14/15: Collusion Vol.2 2Lp (1992-1996)
Lp16: Music for a Spaghetti Western (1986)

i hope this is an error that "Vienna 1990" and "What is Not True" are only going to be single LPs as that will mean they have been drastically edited if so.

Nah they have double numbers, 16 LPs total. Gonna pass on the full box, but might upgrade my Shouting At The Ground and maybe go for Collusion 2. I'm happy with my OG CDs/LPs of the rest (and really dislike split tracks on vinyl).

"Vienna" only has one number assigned to it - the very end of that CD is my favourite part so i hope they don't ditch that.

"Cyclonic Sub Alien" on "What Is Not True" is in my ZF top 10 but at 54 minutes long will have to be broken up across 3 sides. Still, I'm super happy to be able to contemplate having Vienna, What Is Not True & Collusion on vinyl for the first time.

"I was Jim Jones' attorney..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9X8YVWoQn0

Vienna... is only 64:23, I have VOD album sides longer than 32 minutes that have zero issues, the mastering is always impeccable. So my guess is that it will be full-length - sorry, thought you meant Shadow there in yr initial post.

i don't believe that 32 minutes is possible per side with zero issues. Especially with a recording as dynamic as this. I guess we shall see......

2nd box is now sold out, standalone LPs still available

https://www.vod-records.com/SHOP-1-6.htm

dang I am so psyched for the two unreleased albums and More Collusion, and absolutely thrilled that the long track from Bad Alchemy #10 ("Spike") is on there.

OMG thank you sleeve. just ordered JAi and STOTS. xmas comes early!

happy to help!

wow, lotta stuff here for download as well as listening

https://soundcloud.com/zoviet-france

A most useful tip! Pity I missed them in SF by a year...

Wowowow, last week I came closer than ever to shelling out a fortune for Shadow, Thief so I'm so glad I saw this.

awesome, yeah get in here ILM lurkers and fans, these are gonna sell out soon

FYI the 1st "unreleased" album (The End Of Nothing, The Beginning Of Everything) is actually the previously-grey-area "Music For A Spaghetti Western" but it has been retitled and has actual track names now, and more tracks than the original 4.

That is great to hear. Any insights into "Russian Heterodoxical Songs"?

not yet... hoping that isgenuinely unreleased. and to clarify above, what I mean is that the long track (Scene 2) appears to have been broken up into a bunch of individual tracks, there is no extra material but there are more tracks and they have new names.

Are you sure about the above, sleeve? Having now listened to The End... I don't think it's the same as Music from a Spaghetti Western.

not 100%, but there's a sample in the latter that has the title of the former? my box won't be here for a while yet I assume

got my copy of Shadow, Thief of the Sun

yay

although

I don't understand why it's a 3LP with two blank sides, rather than the 2LP it claimed to be ...

Mine is 2LP FWIW.

That's strange that you got a 3LP version. mine is 2LP too.

Yeah it's a 2LP with three sides of music and one blank side.

hoping this shows up on the West Coast in the next week or so

I thought maybe the two single-sided discs would be identical, but no. I'll post pictures of the label art later.

Did you order multiple records? I got two 2LPs but the 4 overall discs were split into 2 packages, one with 1 disc the other with 3. I panicked because I thought I was missing a disc and emailed VOD but figured out they just moving the v records around to cut down the shipping cost.

ohhhh that could be it, yeah

Are you sure about the above, sleeve? Having now listened to The End... I don't think it's the same as Music from a Spaghetti Western.

― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Thursday, November 5, 2020 4:37 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

not 100%, but there's a sample in the latter that has the title of the former? my box won't be here for a while yet I assume

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Thursday, November 5, 2020 6:57 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was wrong, and it isn't. totally riveted right now on my first listen.

Russian Heterodoxical Songs is astonishing, a worthy addition to the canon right in between JAI and LIM

Listen to Misteltan (Live Winter Solstice 2019) by :zoviet*france: on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/4KEVj

hands in the air ambient

Châsse 3

<3 <3 <3

Most beautiful and integrated package so far, no oddball 7"s or blank sides, just eight gorgeous double albums

I had not actually caught up with 7.10.12 or Tables Are Turning so I am enjoying those a lot

unreleased 2LP "A Long Walk" is good as well

lots and lots of perfectly executed lock grooves this time around

yeah the fact that they had done a Motorhead cover was an interesting discovery.

lol wait what? I missed that somehow

Bomber, it's on the Third Collusion album that mops up various tracks originally released on singles, compilations etc.

Somebody on Discogs has uploaded pictures of this release which have me salivating. Way out of my price range unfortunately but looks magnificent

Bomber, it's on the Third Collusion album that mops up various tracks originally released on singles, compilations etc.

my brain is exploding that they covered it, though listening now on YT and of course they "cover" it as only ZF could.

waiting for this still, but very, very happy that "The Decriminalisation Of Country Music - Themes For Tramway" is finally on vinyl. i was at the live performance they did of it in Glasgow.

i was hoping they would include "Patina Pooling" in this box so i could offload my copy as it is flaking bits of rust all over the place.

xp the albums are being released as individual 2LP standalone as well, 24 euros + shipping via VOD website

Their podcast, "A Duck in a Tree," is worth a listen.

absolutely

lotta cool stuff on their Soundcloud as well

I loved Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music from 1985, and the 2004 cd edition was fantastic, bound between two round gray felt pieces cut from black market Red Army caps, and held together with a Soviet military pin

lotta cool stuff on their Soundcloud as well

Yes, including a 2018 live recording from Kyiv which they've made available free but are requesting donations for Ukraine disaster relief.

this is blowing my mind still, from the Rapoon thread:

Some of the late 80's - early 90's ZF records were Robin Storey solo with other members just contributing artwork... A Flock of Rotations, Assault and Mirage, Shouting at the Ground, Just an Illusion and Shadow, Thief of the Sun, at the very least.

really? is this confirmed anywhere? so ben ponton only contributed artwork to these???

― stirmonster, Wednesday, March 16, 2022 5:25 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Info was on the now-dead unofficial ZF website which had detailed music/production/artwork credits for the whole discography.

― atonar, Thursday, March 17, 2022 5:40 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Found it on archive.org:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120320095815/http://www.the-edge.ws/zoviet/disc.html

― atonar, Thursday, March 17, 2022 5:45 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Had also heard this at the time from the person who ran DOVe who released 'Shadow...' - arguments around credit and attribution were largely the cause of the fracturing of the group. In any case you can hear the pretty sharp change in sound from 1992 on.

― atonar, Thursday, March 17, 2022 5:50 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

thanks for the link - fascinating!

93's What Is Not True is one of my very favourite ZF releases but it's undeniable that it is a radical change of sound.

― stirmonster, Thursday, March 17, 2022 6:13 AM (five days ago)

Storey talks a bit more about it in this interview:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010218131126/http://www.pretentious.net/Rapoon/articles/tdr.htm

lol what

I will prob never hear these, but it's a cool idea

via their FB:

Our first NFT (non-fungible tape)
By speeding them up by a factor of several hundred and using extreme audio compression, we've discovered that the entirety of our unreleased recordings will fit onto this 3-minute loop cassette. This will be made available as a one-off exclusive release of its own that will be sold in a private auction tomorrow. The cassette will come with details on the the speed factor used and an explanation of how to decompress the audio. Once sold, these recordings will never be made available again.
To register your interest in participating in the auction, please add your name as a comment on this post.

dude, check the date

ahahaha got me

CD reissues of the three Châsse box sets coming later this year

hoping VOD releases these as standalone discs as well, although that seems unlikely.

just getting into them now, lol. didn't have the money in the late 90s to blind buy/ forgot about them/missed them online somehow. listening to Mohnomishe (1983) for the 3rd time in a row , sounds really good.timeless quality.

Just listened to What Is Not True (found among a few hundred CDs an unknown neighbour dumped on a lawn across the street, including several dozen more rare ambient and experimental CDs) and it’s pretty fantastic and reminds me why I love ZF

wow! and yeah that's a great one

CD reissues of the Chasse box sets are coming next year, btw

oops I see I said that four months ago

What Is Not True is one of my favourites. The use of the Radio 4 UK shipping forecast is just incredible (i guess maybe more for anyone who grew up hearing it in the UK). Forth, Tyne, Dogger.....

ahhh I never knew what that was saying!!! tyvm

As also referenced in "Mercy" by Wire.

shipping forecast also features on last track on ashtray navigations' "four raga moods". i think if you were making music with radio in the uk it's pretty inevitable you'd end up using the shipping forecast

Listening to What is Not True now = so fucking good

I pushed the button on the monster 34CD box set. Three small and beautiful wooden boxes housing the CDs, inside a big wooden box. The craftsmanship is extraordinary, well worth the money I'd say.

I did as well, one of the more extravagant music purchases I’ve made

Just arrived today

nice, I stuck with my vinyl sets but I sure would love a YSI of the bonus tape ;)