Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos was a New Zealand band comprising Michael Morley and Richard Ram. The group was active from 1980 to 1986, disbanding shortly before Morley’s next band, The Dead C, was formed. Wreck Small Speakers released a number of cassettes in the early 1980s and put out the River Falling Love EP on Flying Nun in 1986, from which “Lots of Hearts” comes off.

Ram doesn’t seem to have done much after Wreck Small Speakers, but Morley has had an extensive career as the vocalist/guitarist for The Dead C (he was also involved with the Tanaka-Nixon Meeting and 2 Foot Flame). Morley has recorded under the name Gate as well, and still releases under that name today, in addition to teaching at an art school in Dunedin.

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Last month, the prolific Robert Lowe released Timon Irnok Manta on the Malden, MA-based Type Recordings. The album consists of “M’Bondo,” my pick for today, and a fantastic alternate version of the track.

Lowe also recently released Lítiõ Fõlk under his moniker Lichens on the Belgian label Morc Records. I haven’t heard it yet, but judging by the sample on Morc’s site it’s definitely worth checking out (as is true for all of Lowe’s work, which I can’t praise enough).

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Polyrock emerged out of the late-’70s scene in New York City with an impressive pedigree: Their first two albums were produced by composer Phillip Glass, who also played keyboards on the group’s releases. Today’s track, which features Glass on piano, comes off their 1980 self-titled debut album. Glass produced the record with Kurt Munkacsi, who produced many of Glass’ releases (as well as The Waitresses’ song “I Know What Boys Like”). Changing Hearts came in 1981, Polyrock’s second album with Glass, but the group disbanded after putting out the Above the Fruited Plain EP in 1982 without Glass’ involvement. Both their albums with Glass were out-of-print until 2007, when Wounded Bird put out a reissue, but it looks like those are out-of-print now as well. Check them out if you get the chance.

[Discogs]

“My Pulse” is a song taken from Peter Hammill’s 1983 album Loops & Reels, a cassette released on Hammill’s own label (and studio) Sofa Sound. Hammill was a founding member of the English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator along with Hugh Banton, Guy Evans, and Chris Judge Smith. The band has changed lineups and experienced several hiatuses over the years, most notably between 1978 and 2005. The band is still releasing music regularly; earlier this year, they released ALT. Hammill has had an extremely active musical career spanning several decades and genres, releasing some 35 solo studio albums, in addition to 13 VDGG albums and even more live albums. Today’s song was also used in a ballet by Nicolas Dixon, performed at London’s Riverside Studios.

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Horse Lords’ debut LP, released this September by Ehse Records, is fantastic. Today’s track, “Wildcat Strike,” forms the first half of the album, which comprises two sidelong cuts.

Andrew Bernstein, Max Eilbacher, Owen Gardner, and Sam Haberman had played in various experimental groups in Baltimore before forming Horse Lords—Bernstein, Gardner and Eilbacher had previously played together in Teeth Mountain (check out this review in the Baltimore City Paper for more background on the band’s early days). Ehse’s blurb about the record probably puts it better than I could, so I’ll quote it: “The band transmutes experimental tactics (polyrhythm, arcane tunings and modular synthesis) into direct, muscular and surprisingly funky songs.”

If you like it, head over to Ehse’s site where you can freely stream and download all of the labels releases; they’re also available for purchase on LP and CDr.

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