Altruismusic Online

A live album recorded at the Isobar Jazz Café at the end of a 30 show stint. Hollowbody electric played fingerstyle through a Fender Twin Reverb amp. These are all covers of material as retro as Nat King Cole & as recent as Mia Dyson.

1. 4:34All the people (Money Mark) [6.3MB]
2. 4:12Wonderful world (George Weiss & Bob Thiele)
3. 4:45Never be another u (Harry Warren & Mack Gordon) [6.5MB]
4. 3:06I love the way u walk (Johnny Lee Hooker) [4.3MB]
5. 5:15Chances are (Al Stillman & Robert Allen)
6. 3:20String along with u (Al Dubin & Harry Warren)
7. 5:15All there is (Jo Jo Smith)
8. 4:31First memories (Jo Jo Smith)
9. 4:37Piccolo song (Carla Werner)
10. 5:40Thru this town (Mia Dyson)
11. 4:55Neon sign (Jo Jo Smith)
12. 5:20Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
13. 4:25Lilac wine (James Shelton)

59:55Total playing time

The title is a term used to describe the art made by people who suffer from Schizophrenia & Autism. The cover art was influenced mildly by the art of Basquiat & the music was written to the artwork, not the other way around as is usually the case. It is an instrumental album & is surreal, eclectic & features a large garden of tone colours.
This recording includes two bonus tracks from way back in 1989!

1. 5:58A Voluminous Koniption [8.2MB]
2. 3:43Hip scratchin’ and the tambourine hands
3. 2:53Koto, dulcimer and bass [4.0MB]
4. 7:17Outsider Art [10.0MB]
5. 2:11Interloop
6. 4:59Didge
7. 3:41101 Mischevious moves
8. 6:55LET IT GO
9. 8:44[bonus] ‘Q’
   (i) not to be confused with a frenzy
   (ii) Portatrack Gravy
   (iii) before they dropped
10. 3:45[bonus] Equinox

50:06Total playing time

This album is drenched in the sound of summer in Nimbin. It has Mbira (african thumb piano), water drums, acoustic guitar, and vocals. It has an expressive and reflective musicianship within it. The music blends African and celtic musics and the addition of the sound of crickets gives it a warm tropical vibe. At the time when it was being made Andrew spent hours swimming in a large pond and meditating in a small dome shaped hut made from sticks and reeds, hence the title ‘Otter Spirit’. Much of the spirit of this place: Djangbung gardens, permeates this recording and can be described as a gentle joy.
Guest musicians include Whompy Thompson and Robyn Francis.

1. 7:53My year, my month [10.9MB]
2. 7:15You know you’ve got me
3. 10:05Cherish
4. 4:06waiting in vain (reprise)
5. 5:50Remember [8.0MB]
6. 4:30Don’t say you are forbidden fruit
7. 9:36Return

49:15Total playing time

Singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Andrew Benthe has numerous albums and this is one of his best. A very beautiful recording of original folk, contemporary acoustic rock and Celtic-tinged ballad songs. The opening track ‘Ethereal’ is definitive folk-rock-pop. The albums mood and substance mainly stays within the boundaries of exploring the lighter and darker side of love and fidelity. It has sub themes of; both the need to see the similarities rather than the differences between yourself and significant other (in the personal and universal) and the theme of trusting your intuition in relationships and with yourself. Instrumentation includes: 12-string acoustic guitar, cello, bass, drums, keys, electric guitar, wooden flute, Uilleann pipes and mandolin. It is filled with sublime musicality and lush layered vocals. This album is a good starting point for discovering Andrew Benthe’s work.

1. 3:45Ethereal
2. 3:46Inside your skin [4.6MB]
3. 2:53Closer
4. 5:08Optimistic [6.0MB]
5. 5:24Waterfall
6. 5:24Miss Lust [7.0MB]
7. 5:48Lucky
8. 4:10Found you
9. 6:07Come Around
10. 8:53Beautiful Girl
11. 7:30Love Never Dies
12. 2:32Lotus

1:01:00Total playing time

Musically diverse this album is. There are sombre piano instrumentals, anthems about inequality, and long sinuey reflective compositions.“The world they see” - eerie experimental pop about the way animals in intensive agriculture must see and endure the world, features the sound of 20,000 Lismore cows! The track ‘I got mail’ is made out of sampling and manipulating mobile phone noise and static - very moody and astounding. A live track called ‘strengthen your will’ which sounds like someone triumphing over depression and feelings of loss, has some wry, wistful and emo-late cure meets Janes Addiction – style darkness which fuels the songs powerful intent. E.S.P Mail has a track called ‘Fear got the better’ which at times is reminiscent of Louis Tillet’s ‘children of the cave’ which probably belongs on Benthe’s ‘The Mirror’ album (all about the same relationship). A Billy Bragg inspired song called ‘Therefore change’ which states in the opening line: ‘you don’t have to come across like an asshole, just to make a point’ draws a connection between our attitudes towards animals and our attitudes to each other. This album is generally possessed of either wordy songs about rare song topics such as non-violence, ear-candy type instrumentals, or unrequited love ballads and light catchy ditties such as ‘Mariner’ and ‘Moving on’ which say a lot because they say so very little. The closing track ‘I AM Happy’ is full of spontaneous exuberance and amazing rare vintage synthesiser sounds And chaotic changes in genre. E.S.P mail is never boring!

1. 2:50Fishbowl heads [3.0MB]
2. 3:16Why Kill for food?
3. 7:02The world they see [7.8MB]
4. 6:31In Bloom
5. 3:11Open
6. 3:33I got mail
7. 6:38The magic of feeling
8. 6:39Better man
9. 6:20Fear got the better
10. 5:46Strengthen your will (fatale) [7.3MB]
11. 5:43Therefore change
12. 1:32Mariner
13. 4:11Moving on
14. 11:30I am happy

1:15:00Total playing time

Recorded in 1988, an exploratory tranquility permeates this Andrew Benthe debut. A soundtrack to a time of regeneration and transformation. Largely instrumental it contains two songs: ‘Be yourself now’ and ‘Controller’. The other works are sublime layered impressionistic compositions impacted to great effect by the work of Jon Hassel and Ken Nordine. The sound of multi-timbral synthesizers down to analog tape adds warmth and clarity. Suitable for deep relaxation. The opening track has two dueling but soothing spanish guitars and is the first incarnation of a track called ‘Love never dies’, of which another more produced and effulgent reprise version exists toward the end of the disc.

1. 10:31Love never dies (acoustic) [13.2MB]
2. 4:45Be yourself now
3. 3:46Controller (love in freedom) [4.6MB]
4. 2:57Field of tears
5. 1:52Spirit of the mall
6. 3:40Painted faced men
7. 1:34Blue
8. 8:14Nam yo ho ren gae kyo
9. 3:17Horizons
10. 1:34Loss
11. 3:21Men with heads
12. 2:37Temple rush
13. 10:21Mind
14. 5:02Love never dies (reprise)
15. 2:34Vigilante
16. 2:39Sadness
17. 3:50Omegahedron [3.8 MB]

1:13:00Total playing time

A.B.’s first pop rock record. First released on cassette in 1991 independently. There are many rock influences of the day on this CD. INXS, Ratcat, Diesel, Gun’s ’n' Roses, Captain Beefheart, Sting and Pink Floyd’s final cut album. But at the end of the day this recording is a lot more unusual than the sum of those influences.
This is because the music is a backdrop to the albums running narrative, about the crime we don’t see. Contains a chilling track called ‘Destiny Ship’ about splitting the atom, and how (corporate) killers hold governments in grip with dollars for murder.
‘Creature’ and ‘The Hidden Crime’ were written on auto pilot and provided the momentum to create an album addressing the root of crime. ‘Phantasmagoria’ is a piece of deep philosophical mischief about a metaphysical view of existence and is a solid interesting piece with an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western chorus.

1. 3:44Fathers of fortune
2. 4:56Phantasmagoria [6.2MB]
3. 5:45Destiny ship [7.3MB]
4. 4:26Forget we are two
5. 7:17Creature (original)
6. 1:39God and science
7. 6:01The Message
8. 2:50Dreams
9. 4:57The message (instrumental)
10. 7:53Vinculum
11. 4:10Silent secret partner street
12. 4:07Jealousy [3.9MB]
13. 8:15The Hidden Crime (original)
14. 2:00A Second of brahma
15. 0:52Space and time
16. 4:21Fashion accessory

1:13:00Total playing time

This album has influences of Nick Cave and Steve Kilbey, especially the first four tracks. The title track is a semi-instrumental which has a definite science fiction sound. Guitar pedals and keyboards, bass, drums, sampled sitars and vocals all seem to be used in unorthodox ways here to evoke imagery of a passionate heartbeat running through a cold technological landscape.
‘Shadowman’ has a sampled western guitar riff and a memorable tune with dark imagery being forged by middle eastern wind instruments.
Apart from the first four and another two originals toward the end, The Science of Falling has some cover versions from a diverse range of songwriters including Tex Perkins, Tori Amos, Marty Wilson-Piper, Kate Bush and Carol King.

1. 5:31Love Child [6.3MB]
2. 6:52The science of falling [8.3MB]
3. 2:21Shadowman [2.6MB]
4. 3:49What I done to her
5. 4:53How come they don’t touch the ground?
6. 4:22Winter
7. 4:03Wish
8. 3:38Feel it
9. 3:08Jewel box
10. 3:58Woolgathering
11. 2:36We will become
12. 3:30The strength to change you
13. 3:19Precious
14. 6:24Leaving you up in the air
15. 2:47It’s too late

1:01:00Total playing time

The mirror is a short, punchy and wordy record.
It largely attempts to draw a parellel between nationalism and impersonalism, that is to say a link between walls and barriers that we erect between each other and walls we erect between ourselves and other countries / cultures. Strangely enough ‘the mirror’ then links this in with walls in personal relationships by serving it up to the listener in this guise. It is in essence a talking book black comedy for the literally and metaphorically blind, and general critics of human ‘civilisation’.
It has an amazing instrumental called ‘The Abyssobenthic Zone’ which is intended to describe the strangest creatures of the deep sea. The Mirror ends with ‘You’re in my mind’ which is just like too many neurons firing at once and ends with the line “tonights song has been brought to you by severed organ advertising” !

1. 1:15The robot and the soul
2. 2:35Cat ate my dogma [3.1MB]
3. 2:33Islands [3.3MB]
4. 2:58You let go of a classical fish
5. 3:53Just for you
6. 2:17The cocoon [2.9MB]
7. 4:43The Abyssobenthic zone
8. 3:41Far from something real
9. 1:15Flee the beast
10. 3:14I want you back
11. 4:31You’re in my mind

32:55Total playing time

Archealogy has a great track called ‘walking the dreampath’ which encourages the listener to remember and follow their dreams. It is at once abstract and inspiring. Lines like “walking the dreampath tramples fears and diminishes the cage” are evocative of otherness and shamen - like states of mind. In contrast “what’s the Mish” (in actuality a cover of the theme from mission impossible) is ‘cooky’ and ‘nutzo’ with a vocal akin to William Burroughs after too much bad ice.
Here Benthe makes the Plastic fantastic (i.e. samples and synthetic sounds used in an organic way) and on tracks such as ‘Heart’, ‘Shine On’ ‘Leaving Limbo’ and ‘Free of me’ technology and human grooves are blended making archeaology a garden of diverse sounds and styles.

1. 3:45Heart
2. 6:16Walking the dreampath [7.1MB]
3. 4:44Undeserving hands [6.0MB]
4. 3:25Overactive imagination
5. 1:37A higher Taste
6. 2:02Astral love [2.6MB]
7. 1:36Leaving limbo
8. 1:49Aftermath
9. 0:06Two minus two
10. 2:22Smothered for tyrants
11. 1:05Whats da mish?
12. 1:00Untitled
13. 1:38Underworlds
14. 9:13Shine on
15. 3:27Desert suspence
16. 3:21Organodance
17. 3:42Free of me
18. 2:54Birthright
19. 3:49Thing
20. 5:14Omegahedron

1:03:00Total playing time

This surreal album has a mind bending vesion of Norwegian Wood (Beatles) as if it were performed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Jeff Buckley with the worlds strangest, most brilliant arrangement. ’Bushfire’ is a folky 12 string tour de force with lush harmonics. ‘The Train’ is a piece of otherworldly folk rock about the need to pass the torch to the next generation because the species wont survive if we push a baby-boomers agenda.
‘The innocent beast’ has an eriee early Freddy Mercury type vocal over thumbed 12 string and accompanying spanish guitar that plays call and response to the vocal.
There are many futuristic instrumental interludes here which give the CD a dream-like quality.

1. 7:51Norwegian wood
2. 5:12Post new clear dream time [6.5MB]
3. 3:49Get into it
4. 2:49His impression of beautiful things
5. 11:36The innocent beast
6. 6:21Destiny ship [7.8MB]
7. 3:00Drift wood
8. 3:06Jewel box [2.8MB]
9. 4:58The train
10. 4:52Bushfire

53:34Total playing time