Stolen from the answers to the ILM thread on my old Seventeen Seconds review I started yesterday (idea and most blurbs by Sean Carruthers):

I don't get this photo finish between Wedding Present and Robert Wyatt in my 1991 poll. Is there anyone cheating there? None of those will be my fave, I can assure you. Though they are both excellent of course. But those two were neither particularly innovative nor particularly touching and that's what it needs to win 1991 in my book.

I love the last two David Thomas albums but I do not feel the urge to get any Pere Ubu. What does this mean? Usually when I start to love an artist I discovered (quite) late I want to get everything he/she has ever released. Not in this case. I listened to some Pere Ubu and I was never impressed. But I am with the latest David Thomas albums. Maybe he has just become much better. And nobody realised? By the way I quite like the Rocket From the Tombs pre-Ubu stuff.

Die Tödliche Doris: All their music (8 hours) as mp3's. The Berlin avantgarde band started making sounds in 1980 and finished as planned after seven years in 1987. The most irritating to me are the voices which get more and more warped in the first track Vor dem Krieg of the first audio tape from 1980. Does anyone have an idea where to find their German lyrics? I have big problems to understand what they say. The lyrics seem to be rather political.

Phil at one faint deluded smile has some interesting tracks by P16.D4, another German experimental band from the early 80's. They were from Mainz near where I live right now with PD standing for progressive disco. The numbers are just the positions of the letters in the alphabet. Apparently before the Neue Deutsche Welle got big they played with bands like Der Plan, S.Y.P.H., DAF and Fehlfarben. All those became commercial around 1982, only P16.D4 stuck to their raw noisy approach not too far off from Einstürzende Neubauten. They sound great though you should check yourself.

Two rather unsuccessful bands I discovered recently which I should have known before:

First the Blue Orchids from Manchester who formed in the early eighties. Una Baines, the keyboarder and Martin Bramah, the singer came from an early incarnation of The Fall. On their only longplay from the 80s, 1982's The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) they did not sound as Mark E. Smith's seminal indie rock band at all if you listen to the two songs on their download page. A Year With No Head is more of a short psychedelic guitar hymn in the vein of The Doors. Bad Education is a gem of a pop ballad using the unforgettable line

The third downloadable song I can recommend to you is Wierd World where Bramah sings in a grave voice not quite unlike Peter Hammill. Lots of organ and a flair of gothic otherworldliness.

Apparently they toured a lot with Nico in the 80's which is not surprising given their dark atmospheric style.

They have a new record out called Mystic Bud (without Baines) of which I have heard good things though the available mp3 Black Peg's Son is not really my cup of tea.

The second band came from Glasgow and was simply called The Orchids. They were on the famous (long defunct) Sarah label whose catalogue is taken care of Shinkansen now (no Orchids rereleases yet). Sarah stood for twee pop which was made immortal by the Field Mice. I wrote about them before and called them the missing link between The Smiths and Belle and Sebastian. In retrospect I still think this description is ok but there definitely is a rather gradual but steep decline from the first to the last band in this trilogy. Anyways The Orchids were more adventurous than twee. They did jangle guitar pop, dancy tracks and also a song called Yawn which is a moody psychedelic seven minute piece with distorted guitars. You can download this trouvaille over at The Mystical Beast who has much more info on them and more mp3s (check also the two last posts).

Joni's cat is called Nietzsche (from Elvis Costello's long interview with her for Vanity Fair).

I have been falling in love with Eleni Mandell's gorgeous voice this afternoon. So sensuous, so expressive, so clear. She has a new album out called Afternoon which is scheduled for release in Germany this autumn. Her recent live show at Morning Becomes Eclectic (38 min video) was absolutely fabulous in its haunting relaxedness. She has the pure folk attitude of early Michelle Shocked coupled with the dreamy languidness of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. Plus a lot of charm. She will tour Germany (which she loves) later this year(?).

More links:

• EuroRanch: "Eleni Mandell - 5 Tracks from 'Country for True Lovers'" (her country album)

• EuroRanch: "Eleni Mandell - 4 Tracks from 'Snakebite'"

• Morning Becomes Eclectic March 2003: video from March 2003 with the country songs, program from June 2002

• Recent interview with the German Rolling Stone

• Slate overview from last year with audio snippets