LAFMS - Los Angeles Free Music Society
The Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) is a loose underground collective of experimental avant-rock artist-musicians formed in 1973, who found commercial rock too boring, slick, and predictable, and set out to reinvent improvisation and sound experiments with a DIY ethic
The Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) is a loose underground collective of experimental avant-rock artist-musicians formed in 1973, who found commercial rock too boring, slick, and predictable, and set out to reinvent improvisation and sound experiments with a DIY ethic
Member of: Joseph Hammer
Sonic Fermentations
**200 copies** "The moon is out and it's time for experiments in the Pacific Northwest. Enter the abode of Smegma Laboratories, dwelling of Ju Suk Reet Meate & Oblivia (The Tenses) whom are active in Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) notable collaborators with Merzbow, Wolf Eyes, John Wiese and infamous rock critic Richard Meltzer. It's late in the evening and they have invited fellow Smegmateer David Morgan along with synthesized sculptors Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper of MSHR, and psyche…
Dialling For Smegma
**numbered edition of 40 copies** This LP contains one Side with fantastic new Smegma Material and one Side with superb previously unreleased 1970’s Material. Side A Recorded at Smegma’s Studio 2011-2018, except LSD Bomb recorded Live at Tusk Festival in Newcastle UK 2013. Featuring: Ace Farren Ford (Ace), Donkey Flybye (Fats), Dennis Duck, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Oblivia, Maddy (Guzo) and Al the Anti-Pal (Cheez-it-Ritz). Side B Recorded in Pasadena 1974, except for 3/78 recorded in Portland 1978. Fe…
Vibe
Important Records announces Vibe, the new LP from Extended Organ, the Los Angeles-based quintet associated with the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS). Vibe, Extended Organ's first full-length studio LP since 2000's XOXO was recorded in April 2016 by members Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, Paul McCarthy, Tom Recchion, and Alex Stevens. The album consists of two side-long tracks, Hate and Vibe, recorded live at LACM Studio in Pasadena, California by acclaimed engineer André Knecht. On Vibe, the gr…
Abacus Incognito
**Edition of 200 (numbered)** New primitive-suburban-folk music from Temple City and Pasadena, CA, circa 1973-4. This new edition is culled from the original unissued Smegma tape vaults of Ju Suk Reet Meate and represents the most pure expression of the insular sound-world that was spontaneously discovered as a group. Unlike 2017's Look'n For Ya (TES 154LP) no song forms are ever used, instead fearless group improvisational vocals take you on a strange shape-shifting journey through operatic sho…
Look'n for Ya (1973-75)
In 1973, when Smegma (the band) was born they had only one rule: No Musicians! That way they could re-invent the musical wheel with a new primitive, suburban, anti-hippie approach. 44 years later perhaps the world is ready for the first full LP of this original, uncompromising sound. At the time, it seemed they thought they were on a solitary journey, but shortly after these recordings, it was discovered that there was another local group, The Los Angeles Free Music Society, that they shortly be…
Bikini Tennis Shoes
*totally sold-out at source, few copies back in stock* The origins of Le Forte Four are those of the Los Angeles Free Music Society itself. Chip Chapman joined forces with Rick Potts (and shortly thereafter Tom and Joe Potts), taking up the LAFMS name in 1974. Ultimately baptizing themselves Le Forte Four, they began threading imagined lines between John Cage and The Residents, Cecil Taylor and Henry Cow – generating sounds completely unlike any of these and anything since. The inaugural release…
Ya Gotta Get Really Crazy
Part of the underground collective Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS), the American iconic weirdos SMEGMA were formed in Pasadena, California in 1973 to reinvent improvisation with a DIY etchic, against the boring, conventional commercial-rock of the time. This release gives the holder the opportunity to capture the development of their own “primitive suburban folk” approach and traditions of their existence. First side of this tape is featuring drunken chaos at a Party, then an inner mind S…
LAFMS Box Box
Bringing together over seven hours of absurd, elusive and often disturbing music, The Box label finally unveil this epic, years-in-the-making 13x LP Box Set from Lafms, a must for those of you familiar with their work or, indeed, the colourful dreamscapes so often associated with.LAFMS BOX BOX documents every performance from the exhibition Beneath the Valley of the Lowest Form of Music - The Los Angeles Free Music Society 1972-2012 at The Box, Los Angeles in 2012. The Los Angeles Free Music So…
Oaxaca Dawn | Bamboo
**Edition of 250** Elevator Bath's ongoing series of picture disc LPs (each record being adorned with full-color artwork by the recording artist) continues with Tom Recchion's lovely 'Oaxaca Dawn | Bamboo.' Originally slated for release nearly ten years ago, this pair of humble field recordings is now finally available. 'Oaxaca Dawn' and 'Bamboo' are two raw, unadulterated, and unpretentious snapshots of specific moments in time and space: the early morning cracking of dawn in Oaxaca, Mexico and…
Second Life: Light Bulb 1977-81
As part of our Second Life series, we are pleased to present a special anthology of Light Bulbmagazine (1977–81), produced in cooperation with the Los Angeles Free Music Society and edited by LAFMS founding member Chip Chapman. Light Bulb was the house organ of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, made by and for the experimental collective of musicians that formed in 1972 Pasadena and soon "became a lightning rod for art-damaged, weird-music lovers everywhere." Nowhere is the DIY, visual complex…
Hallucinatory Huareches
Edition of 180 copies. Reissue of the Slowscan cassette from 1985. Recorded December 1984. Engineered by Rick Potts & Joseph Hammer. Le Forte Four (Rick Potts, Joe Potts, Tom Potts, Susan Chapman & Chip Chapman) were the original line-up of the Los Angeles Free Music Society or LAFMS. While they were working on their first album ‘Bikini Tennis Shoes’, they changed their name from LAFMS into ‘Le Forte Four’ and used the name LAFMS for the label on which they released that album in 1975. All…
Roadless Travel
LAFMS musician Joseph Hammer creates unparalleled works of tape manipulation. However, as yet there are comparatively few solo albums by this phenomenal artist. To rectify this situation, Art Into Life has decided to release Roadless Travel, his latest album. The album comes with a dense 24 page booklet of liner notes (essentially a full history of Hammer) by T. Sakaguchi, who has enjoyed a long friendship with him and is the foremost Japanese historian of the LAFMS scene.
Guff Vout Mulch
The Smegma & Blood Stereo collab LP "Guff Vout Mulch" on Nashazphonehas finally landed. Old fashioned postal collab finished up in 2009, sweet printed colour sleeves and bonkers liner notes by the noise soulman John Olson.Good old fashioned Trans-Atlantic postal collaboration LP between Smegma and Blood Stereo, recorded in Brighton, Pasadena and Portland. The whole shebang was finished in 2009, but Cairo's Nashazphone label didn't think you dinks were ready for it then, now they reckon yo…
Ever And Anon
The mythical LAFMS collective Smegma really needs no introduction, where would we all be without them? How many bands were so ahead of their time (1973!), and have been for so long, like Smegma have? Well, here they are with a brand new LP of their famous mix of free jazz, industrial noise, improvisation, straight-up weird music so typical of these masters / US freaks. On the opening track, they are riding on the amazing drums of historical member Dennis Duck (of Dream Syndicate) to pay h…
Proscenium
** 500 copies ** Tom Recchion’s Proscenium, released by Elevator Bath, is a beautiful piece of ambient/drone that was originally created for Janie Geiser’s play, Invisible Glass. Proscenium is a subtle and remarkably controlled collection of atmospheres. The air of mystery, deliberate pacing, the deep tones and unidentified sounds of Recchion's 2006 album Sweetly Doing Nothing have been explored even further here. It's a logical development but the results are unexpected and strikingly original,…
Blorp Esette
2011 remastered edition. Remastered in June of 2011 by Ju Suk Reet Meate. Perhaps the only logical follow up to the historic LAFMS: The Lowest Form Of Music 10CD box on RRR, is this 4CD compilation based around the 2 LP volumes of Blorp Esette which Ace Farren Ford released under the LAFMS umbrella in 1978 (Vol. 1) and 1980 (Vol. 2, a double LP set). Both of the LPs featured cover & label art by Don Van Vliet which as been reproduced on this CD reissue. Capt. Beefheart cover art was quite a c…
Split
This album was specially released for The Lowest Form Of Music event celebrating the work and legacy of the Los Angeles Free Music Society that took place in London over the weekend of the 22nd - 24th October 2010. It features two raw bursts of live material from two legendary bands. Side A : Airway, Live at Gramercy Theatre, New York. 22/11/09. With Dennis Duck, John Duncan, Aaron Moore, Fredrik Nilsen, Linda Pitmon, Joe Potts, Rick Potts, Tom Recchion, Vetza. Side B : Hijokaidan, Live a…
Free rock
Dennis Duck (ds), Fredrik Nilsen (b), Tom Recchion (mock cello, strangaphone), Keiji Haino (g), Rick Potts (g). Recorded in 1982. A definite, honest-to-goodness blast from out of the deepest vaults, bringing together Haino and a trio of wildly surreal pranksters from the Los Angeles Free Music Society scene. An amazing archive find!
Suite The Hen's Teeth
*Exquisite black and silver silk screen printed cover. Limited edition** Oh man, this match-up must be a dream come true for at least a handful of freaks, somewhere, us included! The tenth release on Jozef Van Wissem's Incunabulum imprint sees the label curator jamming with LAFMS legends, Smegma at the Pink House in Portland, 2010, infusing his 13-course swan neck baroque lute into their uncontainable free improvisations in eight parts. They appear to be entirely respectful of each others space,…
Unboxed
Unboxed, a collection of dissected from the Lowest Form of Life 10CD box set (on RRR) (including tracks not available in the box set) is a splash introduction to a newcomer of the L.A.F.M.S. The Lowest Form of Music is an utterly devastating set of the works of the Los Angeles Free Music Society. This tremendously obscure collective -- a loose assemblage of artists and with shared subversive musical interests (John Cage, The Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, The Residents, Derek B…