INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC

1. There are orignal, creative and "progressive" artists/bands bent on doing something new and exciting. All praise to them! Many are represented on these pages.
2. There's also a couple of acts who don't have any specific aim with their music, but are true individuals and make sure their art is not contaminated with outside influences in a way that promotes instant recognition. These bands conjure up true cre8ive magic and are highly endorsed by DAA!
3. Finally there's artists, bands and even whole styles of music that usually have a perfectly clear idea of what they want to do with their music/records, but they either fail to reach this goal completely, or their work is mutated by the passing of time, making it quite a trip to look at/listen to in the light of today's norms. This is a very simplified description of what is generally considered to be "Incredibly Strange Music".

Some Incredibly Strange records/artists that have crossed my path...

V/A - "Girls & Boys - Helge's 87" LP 87 (Andrew Mountain)
This album was the 1st I knew I had to tell you all about on DAA. One of my greatest finds of all time! For you to understand how an album like this came about you need some background info:
Sweden has always been a country where the state/commune/city is striving to engage youth in various social and cultural activities (Keeps them from munchin' drugs and fucking things up in general). One way to achive this has been to create these "recreational caf廥" where kids from ca. 10-16 can meet, just hang around or take part in various study circles (founded by the city or various educational institutions). These caf廥 often have musical activities - rehearsal rooms, instrument courses and gigs, available for youth up to about 20. Every now and them they also decide to release a record of all the bands rehearsing there. In about 95% of the times, these albums turn out totally mediocre and boring beacause the adult in charge is a complete ASSHOLE who can't keep his dirty, pretentios fingers away from the kid's highly creative process. Usually they contaminate the production and songwriting with their own conservative musical ideals, picks out their own favourite bands/material and generally destroys any possibility of coolnes. (The '92 follow-up CD to this album is the perfect example)
"Girls & Boys" is the Golden exception, made by the people of the place "Helge's" in the town of Gävle, Sweden in the mid 80's. Not only are the musicians exeptionally young (ca. 10-15), they have also been alowed to really create their own sound without too much fiddling from some "activity-leader" clown.

Note: this album could more or less be considered a one-sided affair, since it's only the A-side that carries these really wild, young, mindblowing bands. The B-side is mostly just upper-teen, mediocre hard rock, perhaps with the exception of OZARK's "fight for your rights" , which carries some serious turkey-qualitys. Hilariously crappy!

GALAXY opens with the straightest rock song on this side, also the only track on the album w/ Swedish lyrics. Kinda what you'd expect they'd put as the 1st track. Already on the second track the magic starts for real. The 5 girls in PINK BABYCATS (how much does that name kick ass?! like MAJOR, dude!) does with this totally off-beat break between the verses. MIX MUSIC

"Why the Girls & Boys LP is so good" by Jennifer Espling

"All the kid's lyrics deal with things they know are 'cool' and 'grown up', but which they themselves, being too young, have very little experience of. Police and thieves, beautiful boys, clubs, murder... What makes this so tuching is the appearance of an image the kids think they are expected to live up to, in order to appear as adults. Who gave them these pictures?
With their defective insight in these subjects they give us a stripped down reflection of our own images. It echoes desolate and empty. The underdeveloped music enforces this impression - keyboard lines that are supposed to be catchy and energic often turn out hesistant and melancholic instead.
'Girls & Boys' should make them who hear it think about what kind of image the children have of the grown-up world.
Silent in themselves, bearing their secrets, they deliver a simplified picture of that which we ourselves have created. We laugh at it."

The strangeness continues here!