Maljugin Musik is a tape label which releases most kinds of underground music, from pop to hardcore. They also distribute much of the same on other people's labels. Some of the releases below aren't exactly new, but they are new to me, and I'm sure that not everyone reading this will be aware of this label, so this is an introduction to what Maljugin Musik has to offer.

MAGIC MOMENTS AT TWILIGHT TIME Flashbax Vol. 9
Magic Moments At Twilight Time are generally described as spacerock, but they are different to many spacerock bands around at the moment, such as Windy & Carl, Füxa, etc. Their music is more upbeat and even quite dancey at times. They can also sound quite experimental. MMATT have been around for about 10 years, and this tape is a retrospective compilation of stuff from 1986 - 1993. These tracks are more typical of MMATT than the two tracks on the Bliss compilation Carnelian, less accessible I guess. There are nine other compilations in the Flashbax series, I don't know what labels most of them are on, but Vol. 1 is on Acid Tapes and Vol. 5 is on Umbababayee.

MY FAVOURITE MARTIANS Music To Watch Spacegirls By
This is one of the newest Maljugin tapes. It's really good, cute pop with 60s-ish hints, including a Beach Boys cover (Girl Don't Tell Me). This band are apparently liked by fans of psychedelic music, but this tape is one for the indie pop kids as well, reminds me of the cutie bands I used to listen to a few years ago. It's not so twee that it's nausea inducing though. My Favourite Martians also have some tapes out on Acid Tapes, will have to get hold of these.

STORMCLOUDS Nightmares And Daydreams
Another new Maljugin tape. This is a collection of rough mixes, demos and outtakes from the Nightmares In The Sky sessions. Don't be put off by the fact that this is outtakes and so on, it's actually not bad. If the only Stormclouds songs you have heard are the fuzzy cutie-space-pop as featured on their Wild New Orbits 7" or their Psychotronic tape, this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, as this is the more folk-pop orientated side of the band. They have a new singer, Melanie Townsend, whose voice is less twee than Louise Allen's, and the overall sound is far less cute and playful than the aforementioned Stormclouds releases. There's a version of Ocean Jewel with Ken Flynn on vocals, it has a totally different feel to the earlier version with Louise singing. Nightmares In The Sky is yet another different side of the band, this is psychedelic rock. Most of this tape is jangly pop, but not of the twee variety, and there are certainly no references to space or aliens or sci-fi TV shows. There's even a country influence creeping in on a couple of the tracks, but it doesn't sound naff. This tape is really good, if these are the outtakes then the actual album must be brilliant (I'm yet to hear it). Although this stuff is good, it would be a shame if Stormclouds don't release any more material in the same vein as Psychotronic, that was one of the first Stormclouds releases I ever heard, and it's still one of my favourites.

TRESPASSERS W & THE CONSPIRACY split tape
One of the latest Maljugin releases. Trespassers W are a Dutch band whose lyrics are in English and French. Their music is a kind of underground pop which ranges from the catchy to the bizarre. Many of the songs are minimalist guitar based songs, but there are a couple of spoken word tracks with some weird electronic sounds in the background. The Conspiracy's side only has one song which is new to me - the rest I have heard from either Eclectophrenia, King Arthur's Coming or their new tape on M&E, The Grand Illusion. Full colour cover.

THE CONSPIRACY Underground Classics 1987-94
A compilation of The Conspiracy's early recordings. I've heard much of this before on their various other tapes, but there are a few tracks that I'm not familiar with. As well as the 60s/70s influenced pop/rock that seems most typical of The Conspiracy, you also get punk (Cry Baby Cry), experimental stuff with television samples (Welcome To The USA), rap (I Like It Like That), dark, atmospheric music (Black Lodge), and spoken words set to music (Dear Diary). This tape shows just how diverse The Conspiracy's music actually is. Comes with a booklet of press cuttings, a list of all their releases up to January 1994 (a bit out of date now, as they have had loads of other tapes out since then) and other info.

PANDORA'S LUNCHBOX Song For Sextant
Side one of this tape begins with Crossing and ends with Crooked And Cut, both of which are piano instrumentals which could be filed under 'modern classical' or 'easy listening'. These tracks are actually good, but not at all typical of Pandora's Lunchbox. The rest is more what you'd expect of them, the music is quite difficult to describe as it's totally different to anything else. 'Experimental rock' would be the best description, but that's quite vague. The music of Pandora's Lunchbox can be atmospheric, noisy, angry, melodic and almost everything else at once. Not all the songs are easy to get into immediately, but there are quite a few good songs on here. Some tracks are produced by Kramer.

For more information on these, and other things available from Maljugin Musik, write to Stefan Barke, Auf Der Burg 1, 37197 Hattorf, Germany.

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