- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
- Von LMO "Red Resistor" 1996 (USA)
- The man known as Von LMO is as mysterious and underground a cult figure as the American music scene has ever produced (as of this writing, wikipedia doesn't even have an entry for him.) He first appeared on the downtown "no wave" scene in NYC in the late 1970's, playing in a band called Red Transistor which recorded two songs for a single (which wasn't released until the 1990's.) His bizarre solo debut from 1981, Future Language, was a notorious twelve inches of black vinyl insanity (and already a CAOTW), which mythologizes LMO as a space alien sent to earth to transmit a message of universal peace and vaguely jazzy heavy metal music. But after that he vanished for more than a decade. Then two new CD's came out in the 1990's -- Cosmic Interception from 1994 is basically three new solo recordings plus rehearsal versions of Future Language songs from circa 1980 -- but then in 1996 he dropped his mammoth Red Resistor album of brand new songs, including the 30 minute opus "X + Z = 0". Since then some more 1980's live recordings have surfaced on CD, but little has been heard of the man himself. As far as I know, the true identity of this reclusive figure has never been revealed (I doubt his backup band on this album even knew his real name!) He has never been pictured without dark sunglasses, and in his most recent reincarnation he always wore a plastic wig! (Back in the 1980's, he had a shaved head and wore a space suit!)
- I could only find one Von LMO video, from his 1994 comeback single and album "Cosmic Interception". But as a bonus, here's some rare clips from the heyday of German "krautrock": first, the lesser known groups Kraan in 1972 and Eloy in 1971; and finally here's a clip of the short-lived Schneider/Rother/Dinger lineup of Kraftwerk in 1971.