Day 383
The Pivettas: we start this week with a new roundup of 5 recommendations. First is the album “Nowhere Guide” by the Berlin based dreampop band The Pivettas. The bands has been going since 2019 and this is their debut album after a mini-album that was released in the year they were formed. The album “Nowhere Guide” has 13 songs and is available digitally only.
The Umbrella Puzzles: not a formal release but two leftover songs that didn’t get included in the album “A Slowly Dawning Realization” that came out in February. The two songs we find here are “Pick Yourself Up (Original Mix)” and “Like Fine Crystal (Demo)” which sound very nice. As always Ryan Marquez delivers.
Benjamin Belinska: the latest on the reliable Kocliko Records from Spain is the album “Lost Illusions” by the ex-Paris, Texas Benjamin Belinska. 11 songs of jangly pop music on a beautifully designed CD, that’s what you can expect when the record is released on April 16. Exciting!
Romance Languages: a self-titled EP is already out by the solo project of Dane DiPierro who had been in different bands like The Capstan Shafts, Ghost Hotel and Distant Creatures. His new EP has 5 songs including a cover of “Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths. I’m really enjoying this EP, looking forward to future releases!
Still Dreams: now that “Make Believe”, the Japanese band’s album, is close to being released they have released a video for “Last True Love”. I don’t have much more to say other than that I’ve been hooked to the band for a long time. In this song the band wear their New Order love in their sleeve, and it sounds quite good to me.
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Gütersloh is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 people.
That’s where we are heading today. Never heard of this town before, but I have heard of the band before. I actually own a 7″ by them. But I don’t know much about them, so I thought it would be a good time to find out details about this German band!
One thing that is interesting and worth mentioning is that the band also had their own label, Alphyen Viwit. This is the label that released the “Breeze” compilations. That’s cool, right? There are many bands I am curious about on those comps. But not only that, they were true indiepop supporters back in the 90s. They also organized the St. Vit Open Air Festival where they invited the likes of the Fat Tulips or Panda Hop from France.
The band was formed by Michael Witklake on guitar and vocals, Ralf on bongos and congas, Oliver Buddensiek on bass, Alexander Pommerening on cello, Christina on violin and Garvin Nolte on drums.
According to Discogs, the band’s first release was a tape called “Leuchtende Brandung” that was released in 1996 on the Bath, UK, label Kylie Productions (SHI02). This tape included four songs, “The Grass on Your Grave” and “Bluish” on the A side and “Unreleased Dreams” and “Colour My Days” on the B side. On the front cover there’s a photo of a girl, who is she? Then the rest of the sleeve is all handwritten text.
That same year, on the band’s own label Alphyen Viwit, they put out a tape with the same name. The curious thing is that the tracklisting is different. This one has “Scream Within (cello oriented)” and “F.O. Cool People” on the A side and “Today… Please” and “High” on the B side.
Lastly in 1999 the band released a 7″ in the US, on Moonscreen Records (SCR003). This is the record I have and it includes the songs “Unreleased Dreams” and “Colour My Days”.
But that’s not all. The band actually appeared on a plethora of compilations. So we should check that I think.
The band had already been active in 1993. A Turntable Friend, the renowned German label, included their song “Unreleased Dreams” on the classic compilation “Calling At Duke Street (An Anti-Fascist Pop Compilation)” (TURN 16). That same year the band had the song “Bluish” in the ¡Por Supuesto! Records compilation “The Birth of the True II” (STAP-0314) from Japan.
In 1994 the band had “Grass of Your Grave” and “Colour My Days” on the compilation tape “Breeze 4” that they released on their own Alphyen Viwit (004). It seems too that there was a promo version of this tape called “Extract of Breeze 4” that only had 5 songs, one of them was “Grass of Your Grave”. And that wasn’t all for 1994, that same song, “Grass of Your Grave”, was included in the UK tape compilation “Because We Care 2” that had two Cloudberry friends, both The Shining Hour and Fragile.
1995 has their songs “Grass on Your Grave” and “Unreleased Dreams” on the “Magenta” tape released by Bliss Aquamarine (BLISS 019) in the UK. “Grass of Your Grave” and “Today… Please” appear too, this same year, on “Palazzo” a French compilation tape released by Pâte A Modeler (PAM 005).
In 1996 the band has once again “The Grass of Your Grave” on a tape compilation. This time around it is on the “Refuse Collection” cassette released by Refuse Collection (HOHO1).
The German label Meller Welle Produkte releases “25 – A Silver Jubilee” (MEL 25) in 1998. On this CD compilation the band contribute the songs “Today… Please” and “F.O. Cool People”. That same year the song “Scream Within” appears on “Because We Care 3”
1999 sees the band contribute “High”, “Scream Within” and “Colour My Days” to “Zoéphile (An International Pop Compilation)” CD released by Z & Zoé Records (ZAZ 08) from France.
“Today… Please” gets included in the US CD comp “Just for A Day” (DAY 01) released by Just for A Day in the year 2000.
Lastly in 2001, they have “In America” on the compilation “Everything Went Pop!” released by Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 32), and the song “Scream Within (guitar)” on the compilation tape “Breeze C” on their own ALphyen Viwit (005).
I believe they were also on “Breeze A” with “Grass on Your Grave”, but I don’t see any listing of this compilation tape. There is though an entry for “Extract of Breeze A”, a CDR compilation that I assume, just like the previous ‘Extract’ release I mentioned, included just a few songs that were included in the main compilation.
I also know they were on “Breeze D”. Not sure what year it came out or which song was on it.
Something interesting too is that the band’s website, even though it looks dated now, is still accessible. Here they mention a compilation called “From Out of Nowhere” which they appeared on but there is no info of this release on the web. Also mentioned is an EP titled “Downpour” but I can’t find any information about that either.
On Discogs there are a few more names listed as part of the band, ones that don’t appear on the website like Rado Suk, Michael Kunigk or Frank Schiffer. Were there many lineup changes? None of them are listed on other bands. Was Glaring Surge the only pop band they were in? Hard to believe!
Lastly there is a video for the song “Unreleased Dreams” on Youtube.
That’s all I could find on the web. Who remembers Glaring Surge? What happened to them?
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