Top 10 Cuneiform Releases

[rcarlberg]

1. Rune 75/76 - Unsettled Scores: Cuneiform artists play other Cuneiform artists' music, an effing brilliant idea and extremely well executed.
2. Rune 210 - U.Zero - Live: I have played this CD hundreds of times and every time it knocks me on my ass. The sound is incredible, the fury of the band, the pelucidness of Denis' vision. Astonishing release.
3. Rune 199 - The Muffins - Double Negative: Quoting the review I wrote for Amazon: "The Muffins are completely original while simultaneously having absorbed anything and everything since the Beatles broke up. This music is catholic (in the small 'c' meaning) appealing to fans of jazz, rock, heavy metal, Teutonic doom, avant-garde, big band, Belgian angst, university art-rock.... In fact it's so damn appealing I can't think of anybody it would offend. "Double Negative" is so good you can't not like it!"
4. Rune 90 - Soft Machine - Spaced: I'll choose maybe an unusual choice to represent the many and varied SM releases, and I chose this one because it's so unusual. Reveals a whole different side of SM I never knew existed before I got this.
5. Rune 74 - Volapük - Le Feu du Tigre: I think of all the bands Steve turned me onto, Volapük is one of the two best.
6. Rune 14 - Miriodor - Miriodor: Miriodor is the other.
7. Rune 56 - Virgil Moorefield - Distractions on the Way to The King's Party: This release absolutely rocked my world in 1994. Opened up a whole new area of exploration for me. Cuneiform has done that a lot.
8. Rune 150 - Matching Mole - Smoke Signals: I think one of the most important things Steve has done is to keep some older bands alive by releasing archival material.
9. Rune 240 - Hugh Hopper - Hopper Tunity Box: No reason other than I ADORE this release.
10. Rune 26 - Doctor Nerve - Beta 14 Okay: I'll mention this one not because I listen to it often (I don't) but because it perfectly displays the experimentalism, the willingness to take chances that Cuneiform embraced. No other label had these kind of balls.

[battema]

Picking just 10 is literally the tip of a very large iceberg, but I'll go with these:

Ergo - Multitude / Solitude
Radio Massacre International - Rain Falls in Grey
Deus Ex Machina - Cinque
Djam Karet - New Dark Age
Guapo - Five Suns
Time of Orchids - Namesake Caution
Steve Moore - Light Echoes
Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores - Sister Death
Chrome Hoof - Chrome Black Gold
Schnellertollermeier - X

The above would be new material. I'm going to cheat slightly and reference a few archival type things that were just awesome too:

Art Zoyd - 44.5 (!!!)
Univers Zero - Relaps
Soft Machine - Spaced
Thinking Plague - Early Plague Years
Univers Zero - Heresie


Oh, and a very special / separate mention for Rattlemouth - Walking a Full Moon Dog, because it was the very first Cuneiform CD I purchased, long before I met Steve or was even really "into" the new prog scene. They played a show @ VCU in the 90's that I loved and I bought the CD at Plan 9 shortly thereafter.

[rcarlberg]

Does anyone remember the old colored-paper Wayside catalogs Steve used to mail out? Hundreds of "mini-reviews" of albums you'd never heard of. I have a whole 3-ring binder full of them, most of them marked up severely with a yellow highlighter.

[walt]

Must spin Leap Second Neutral(Machine/Nuts) and Way Back When(John Surman) today.Been far too long since i've heard 'em.They could easily have made my list.

I probably own fewer Cuneis than most,but i enjoy/play those i have.

[Yodelgoat]

I see a lot of releases listed here, but I would like to know what about them makes them your favorites. For someone like me, - a middle of the road Prog fan who is not offended by latter day Genesis, and for whom a band like Thinking Plague is about as radical as I get, What from Cuneiform would satisfy? I appreciate an occasional melody. I understand that this label deliberately signed artists who would push the envelope (If am speaking out of my ass, sorry, that's just the impression I have), but I'm a little more mainstream prog than most. I've gone down the proverbial rabbit hole when it comes to far out prog, a few times and its never really stuck. Just a little more detail may be helpful to convince purchasing for someone like me, who regularly has a bit of change I can spare, but is a little more to the centre when it comes to the avantguard. There is so much here (which is exciting), too much for me to just blindly sample. I am willing to do research and I am doing it, but if you feel inclined to offer a bit more details about what it is you like... It would be appreciated.

[smcfee]

I am willing to do research and I am doing it, but if you feel inclined to offer a bit more details about what it is you like... It would be appreciated.

I can't totally not take the bait, so: melody that you aren't used to is still melody. Sorry, had to .

That said, not everything on the label is straight-up RIO. It kind of depends what you are into, but some things to consider:

* Proto-Kaw: Kansas-related
* Happy the Man: several live/archival releases
* Radio Massacre International: If you like Tangerine Dream
* Heldon: Some of their stuff is dark electronic music, some of it is very Frippian
* All sorts of jazz, jazz-rock, and Canterbury
* Djam Karet is pretty accessible if you like some of the spacier atmospheric instrumental Porcupine Tree
* Muffins is quite accessible, although maybe stay away from <185> and Open City to start.
* Piero Milesi, Italian electronic artist, very soundtracky
* Philharmonie has a lot of similarities to King Crimson
* Deus ex Machina for Italian prog

[nosebone]

Grits - As The World Grits
Univers Zero - all of em
Machine and the Synergetic Nuts - Leap Second Neutral
John Surman - Way Back When
The Muffins - Bandwidth
Virgil Moorefield - Distractions on the Way to The King's Party
Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic - The Iridium Controversy
Deus Ex Machina - Imparis CD + DVD
Present - 2 on 1
Gosta Berlings Saga - Glue Works

[Yodelgoat]

@smcfee - Thanks for that! I will focus my attention on that. And I was merely using "Melody" as a metaphor.

[walt]

Cuneiform's Bandcamp page has its releases available for sampling and purchase.No better way to check out the music,and if you dig it, you pay.

Words can help but, for my money, there's no substitute for listening and making up your mind based on what you hear.

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/music

[Scrotum Scissor]

Top "currents" (and almost all rock):

Time of Orchids - Namesake Caution
Upsilon Acrux - Radian Futura
Cheer-Accident - Fear Draws Misfortune
Thinking Plague - In Extremis
Miriodor - Jongleries Elastiques
U Totem - U Totem
Rich Woodson's Ellipsis - Control and Resistance
Boud Deun - The Stolen Bicycle
Happy Family - Toscco
Hughscore - Delta Flora
Brown vs. Brown - Odds & Unevens


Top "historical" (and mostly rock):

UZero - Ceux du Dehors
Present - Le Poison Qui Rend Fou (Yeah I know, the original was also on Cunei vinyl)
Happy the Man - Live
Grits - Rare Birds
Gilgamesh - Arriving Twice
Picchio dal Pozzo - Camere Zimmer Rooms
Soft Machine - Grides
Heldon - Stand By
The Muffins - Manna/Mirage
Cartoon - Sortie
Hugh Hopper - Hopper Tunity Box

[JKL2000]

I'm a little confused by the use of the term "archival" in the list on Wikipedia - does it simply mean OOP?

[Steve F.]

I'm a little confused by the use of the term "archival" in the list on Wikipedia - does it simply mean OOP?

An archival release is a first release of previously unreleased, NOT current material (not a reissue).

In other words, all of our Soft Machine releases are archival releases. They are never-before released albums of 40 (or 30 or 20 or 10) year old material.

[JKL2000]

An archival release is a first release of previously unreleased, NOT current material (not a reissue).

In other words, all of our Soft Machine releases are archival releases. They are never-before released albums of 40 (or 30 or 20 or 10) year old material.

Oops, I see - I never realized that almost none of those had "Rune" designations.

[Steve F.]

Oops, I see - I never realized that almost none of those had "Rune" designations.

we are obviously speaking of two different things.

[Bartellb]

Present Triska/Le poison twofer
University Zero Uzed
Happy Family s/t
Sotos Platypus
Heldon Stand By
Doctor Nerve Skin
Nebelnest Nova Express
Guapo Five Suns
Soft Machine Virtually
Djam Karet The Devouring

[JKL2000]

we are obviously speaking of two different things.

If you look at the list on Wikipedia you'll see what I mean. They have a section they call Archival releases, and it's all the kind of stuff you mentioned and Ian listed:


No. Year Artist(s) Title Format Notes
55001/WMAS1 February 1990 Happy The Man 3rd: Better Late... CD recorded 1979
55001/WMAS2 February 1990 Doctor Nerve Did Sprinting Die? CD, DL live 6/14/1989
55003/WMAS3 December 1990 Happy The Man Beginnings CD recorded 1974 & 1975
55004/WMAS4 December 1990 The Muffins Manna/Mirage CD originally released 1978
55005 March 1995 Cartoon Sortie CD, DL reissues Cartoon (1981) and Music from Left Field (1983)
55006/WMAS6 May 1991 Hugh Hopper Band Meccano Pelorus CD recorded 1987 & 1989
55007 January 1993 The Muffins Chronometers CD recorded 1975 & 76
55008 March 1993 Grits As The World Grits CD recorded 1970-1975
55009 January 1995 Steve Tibbetts Steve Tibbetts CD originally released 1977
55010 January 1994 The Muffins Open City CD originally released 1985
55011 January 19933 various artists Transforms: The Nerve Events Project CD 25 artists compose using samples from Doctor Nerve's Beta 14 OK release
55012 January 1997 Grits Rare Birds CD recorded 1976
55013 January 1996 The Muffins <185> CD originally released 1981
55014 January 1997 Happy The Man Live CD recorded July 1, 1978 at The Cellar Door, Washington DC and October 8, 1978 at Louie's Rock City, Bailey's Crossroads, VA
55015 January 1999 Happy The Man Death's Crown CD recorded in 1974 & 1976
Rune 1313 May 2008 Univers Zero Univers Zero (1313) CD originally released 1977 as “Univers Zero”

[Mister Triscuits]

If you look at the list on Wikipedia you'll see what I mean. They have a section they call Archival releases, and it's all the kind of stuff you mentioned and Ian listed

Cuneiform briefly had a sub-label called Wayside Music Archive Series. That's what those "WMAS" numbers refer to.

[bigjohnwayne]

Argh I forgot about those Happy the Man discs. I love those.

[arturs]

I also limited mine to one per artist, but still could not get it down to ten.

Arkham - Arkham
Cheer-Accident - Fear Draws Misfortune
Deus Ex Machina - Cinque *
Djam Karet - Live At Orion *
Gilgamesh - Arriving Twice
Hughscore - Delta Flora **
Miller, Phil / In Cahoots - All That
Nucleus - Live In Bremen 2 x CDs
Picchio dal Pozzo - Camere Zimmer Rooms
Proto-Kaw - Early Recordings From Kansas 1971-1973
Soft Machine - Switzerland 1974 CD + DVD *
Woodson, Rich - Control & Resistance


** I view this as a lifetime Top 5 CD!
* Lifetime Top 40

[rcarlberg]

Oops, I see - I never realized that almost none of those had "Rune" designations.

Well after the first 6 or 15 "Wayside Music Archival Series" releases Steve said "fuck it" and released all the rest of his archival releases as normal Cuneiform Runes.

[arturs]

[*]Rune 90 - Soft Machine - Spaced: I'll choose maybe an unusual choice to represent the many and varied SM releases, and I chose this one because it's so unusual. Reveals a whole different side of SM I never knew existed before I got this.

It was really hard to pick only one SM Cunei release, so I picked Montreux. But this might have been in 3rd or even 2nd place. I agree. Totally different and totally absorbing. Any Softs fan should have it.

[JKL2000]

Cuneiform briefly had a sub-label called Wayside Music Archive Series. That's what those "WMAS" numbers refer to.

Yes, that much I could figure out through the magic of READING!

[Mister Triscuits]

Yes, that much I could figure out through the magic of READING!

You're welcome.

[aith01]

Just placed an order via Wayside for some things I'd been meaning to get for a while, including the most recent Cheer-Accident one. Never heard anything by those guys before, but I sampled some of it on Bandcamp and really liked it! Is it indicative of their other stuff?

[battema]

All three Cheer-Accident releases on Cuneiform are excellent...I slightly favor Putting Off Death over the others, although Fear Draws Misfortune gets considerable love around these parts (and elsewhere) so that's a pretty easy suggestion too

Not that I'm trying to preach to the proverbial choir or anything, but...good god people, GET THAT CHROME HOOF ALBUM It's the best kind of bonkers.