Vital Weekly 606

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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 606
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week 51
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a weekly webcast, freely to download.
This can be regarded as the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a
radioprogramm with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3)
reviewed. It will remain on the site for a limited period (most likely 2-4
weeks). Download the file to your MP3 player and enjoy!
complete tracklist here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html

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* noted are in this week's podcast

MURMER - WE SHARE A SHADOW (CD by Helen Scarsdale) *
HENNIG LUNDKVIST - THE END OF A SYSTEM OF THINGS (CD by Komplott) *
SAM SHALABI - EID (CD by Alien8 Recordings) *
PHILIP DAVENPORT - CONSTELLATION OF LUMINOUS IDEAS (CD, private) *
PAUL BRADLEY - MAS MEMORIAS EXTRANJERAS (CD by Alluvial Recordings) *
LAPSED + NONNON - THE DEATH OF CONVENIENCE (CD by Ad Noiseam)
BONG-RA - FULL METAL RACKET (CD by Ad Noiseam)
GLOWSTYX - CLASS OF 1992 (CD by Cock Rock Disco)
DETRITUS - FRACTURED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
ROBEDOOR - RANCOR KEEPER (CD by Release The Bats Records) *
WARMER MILKS - LET YOUR FRIENDS IN (CD by Release The Bats Records)
SIXTEENS - INTO THE GOLD WAVE OF FUTURE NON RIP-OFF (CD by Hungry Eye
Records) *
TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN - COSTA DEL LUNA (LP by La Scie Doree)
ONDE - ONE (LP by Ondemusic)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DAS SCHONE (LP by Le Souffleur)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - SCHIJNHEILIGE VISSEN (LP by Le Souffleur)
TAMING POWER - TWELVE PIECES (10" by Early Morning Records)
ROBIN SAVILLE/DOLLBOY (7" by Static Caravan)
INCH TIME - THOUGHT OBJECTS (3"CDR by Static Caravan) *
COLIN POTTER - THE SIGHTS OF THE DROWNED FABLE (CDR by ICR) *
BIEN VICTOR - SORE DAKE JA: MIZUNOKUCHI SESSIONS JAN-FEB 2006 (CDR by
Belsonic Strategic) *
SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE - SUDDENLY SILENCE BURST MY EAR (CDR by Tosom) *
DIE KALTE ZEIT - TOSOM MIXED BY XOTOX (CDR by Tosom)
BRAM STADHOUDERS - TONELIST (CDR, private release) *
DECONSTRUCTIVE MUSIC (3xCDR compilation by More Mars)
FERVENT - CONJESTION (CDR by More Mars) *
I DIED THEE VIRGINAL BRIDES SPLIT (Cassette by Black And Purple)
THEE VIRGINAL BRIDES / KÖRDHA / FEVER SPOOR MOMENTS OF TRUTH (CDR by
animamalnata)
VINCENT KOREMAN FEVER SPOOR HEMELTERGEND (CDR by animamalnata)
CHEFKIRK - THE WORD 'VEGANISM'... (3"CDR by Jeshimoth)

MURMER - WE SHARE A SHADOW (CD by Helen Scarsdale)
Releases on the Helen Scarsdale label are usually nicely packed and this new
one is not different. As far as I recall this is the second CD for Murmer,
also known as Patrick McGinley from America. However, he's a traveller,
living in various parts of this world for some time, and then moves. In each
of these locations he is present with his recorder and tapes the
environment. This has brought him to England, Portugal, France, Estonia and
Germany. In the development of his work he has moved from using a simple
four track machine and external sound effects to the computer. McGinley is
however not 'just' a field recordist. It's part of what he does. He also
uses environments to play sounds using objects, like metal rods and balls.
This variety of recordings is the foundation of his work: recordings of the
environment and sounds played in it. In the third stage he treats his work
on the computer and creates stylish pieces of drone music. This is what ties
him to the Helen Scarsdale
family, the dark drone relatives. Two long tracks of heavy rain fall that
grow over the course of time into heavily computerized pieces of music,
which work well on the atmospheric level. Perhaps as such he is not the one
of the original players on the crowded scene, but his work can meet the best
of his English counterparts, in particular Jonathan Coleclough and Colin
Potter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helenscarsdale.com

HENNIG LUNDKVIST - THE END OF A SYSTEM OF THINGS (CD by Komplott)
It's been a while since a radioplay shook the world, 'The War Of The Worlds'
dates if I'm not mistaken from 1938. I am not sure who Hennig Lundkvist is
(this is his first release for Komplott) and to what extent he was
influenced by Orson Wells. The album is "based on a number of conceptually
and visually thematic performances in galleries throughout Sweden and
Europe" and deals with the sampling of all sorts of sound material, based
"around a post-apocalyptic theme" it says on the website. Since there is
hardly a real story and just a thirty-two minute stream of sound, which
kicks off with some orchestral music that suggests fear, a classic film
soundtrack for a horror music. But in the end the voices kick in and the
'story' (as far as there is one) is about war, nuclear treat and such like,
and the voices, taped from TV, radio, film and such like are stuck together
but never the impression arises that this is a real story. The whole thing
is rather alienating than a hörspiel to
heard and experienced. Now it sounds merely like a long collage of spoken
word and music about the end of the world lacks real strength and the
message gets lost. (FdW)
Address: http://www.komplott.com/

SAM SHALABI - EID (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
The man behind the band Shalabi Effect also produced various solo released
but it's been a while. Following 'Osama' and 'On Hashish', there is now
'Eid', his third solo CD. In 2006 Sam Shalabi found himself living in Cairo,
Egypt and worked on two separate interests: working with singers he liked
and creating 'modern Arabic pop'. It's hard to say if he succeeded in that.
Simply because there are not points of reference for me in this area of
modern Arab pop. The opening tune' Hawaga' brings us straight to arab
sounding textures with his playing on the Oud. Did Shalabi go out there and
will he stay there? No, he doesn't. 'Jessica Simpson', the second track has
a psychedelic almost Beatle like opening riff, but great vocals by Radwon
Moumneh.
>From then you realize this album bounces easily
all over the place and things turn out to be great. Seldom I heard such
crazy mixture of music as here. From endless guitar solo's, arab percussion
and vocals, post rock textures, improvisation, jazz, field recordings and
much more thrown into a blender to create an exotic cocktail that tastes
great. Some of the tracks are a bit too long and go down in a bath of being
too freaky, but throughout I thought this crazy amalgam of music is a great
trip - around the world, and all of that in sixty-six minutes. That is
great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com

PHILIP DAVENPORT - CONSTELLATION OF LUMINOUS IDEAS (CD, private)
When I read this was about 'poetry' and 'sound treatments', I thought it
would be about poetry reading and some sound, which is, generally speaking,
not my tea. Philip Davenport is an experimental poet of the new wave of
experimental poets and he has handwritten notebooks, which are read by a
variety of readers. In many cases he uses the first take, thus leaving
mistakes. At one point one of the readers is interrupted by nurses talking
next to his hospital bed. Great idea. In some cases the words are 'erased'
and breathing, sighing and traces of voices remain. Davenport uses a variety
of people to transform his sounds, by people such as Ben Gwilliam, Lee
Patterson, Laurence Lane, Dave Clarkson, Christine Johnson and Gareth Bibby.
I must admit the whole things sounds much better than is suggested on the
cover or press text. Dreamy sequences of sound, voices mumble rather than
recite a text. When you can understand them, they appear to be a loop. A
very fine mixture of sound and poetry
,
or perhaps poetry and sound. Or perhaps there is no hierarchy at all in
this. The curiosity of sound and poetry recorded in various places make this
a wealth to hear. I should never judge a book by it's cover. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lotta-continua.co.uk

PAUL BRADLEY - MAS MEMORIAS EXTRANJERAS (CD by Alluvial Recordings)
Winner of the Vital prize for economics is Paul Bradley. In exactly the same
cover as 'Memorias Extranjeras' (see Vital Weekly 523) there is now 'Mas
Memorias Extranjeras', a sort of follow up work. Back then, I wrote this
(quote the entire review): "On the back-cover of the new Paul Bradley CD, we
see a tourist picture: people standing in a sunny street and when we read
that this was recorded in Valencia and Gandia, both in Spain, we may know
that this picture is made while recording the field recordings used. At the
basis of all Paul Bradley music is the field recording. After that Bradley
manipulates the material until is a stretched out piece of drone music and
the original source recordings have disappeared. That's why in the early
days we thought it was a bunch of synthesizers. However for 'Memories
Extranjeras' he has these recordings made in Spain, and he by and large does
the thing he always does best but there is a slight difference. The original
field recordings are here
and there to be heard: at one point the rhythms of a marching band arrive
out of a mass of sound and sounded like an odd counterpoint in this music.
On other spots we hear the crowd cheering or talking in a reverbing hallway.
This 'revealing' of sources is a quite nice new feature in this music. It
doesn't add a whole new perspective, nor does it break the good flow in this
work, but at the same time, you feel that Bradley is slowly shifting
interest towards new paths. I wouldn't be surprised if he switches over one
day and reduces the electronic processing in favor of the pure field
recording. But that's all for later. For now, Bradley added another fine
work of drone music to his already nice discography."
I must admit that I think this new work doesn't add much to what I already
wrote above. It is about two minutes longer than the previous work, but
several of the elements (crowd sheering) return in this new work. I
suspected, perhaps wrongly that this is merely a re-arranging of sounds and
less a new work. More for the true completists and die hard fans and it
wouldn't bring not necessarily many new fans to Bradley. I think I prefer
new works. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alluvialrecordings.com

LAPSED + NONNON - THE DEATH OF CONVENIENCE (CD by Ad Noiseam)
I was quite amazed by the previous album from Lapsed released on Ad Noiseam
back in 2005. The album, simply titled "Lapsed", had a very interesting
approach drifting in unusual borderlines - between hip hop-based textures
and dreamlike ambient atmospheres. The more you listened to it, the more
attracted you got. The same can be said about this third album from the
American composer. Despite the fact that hip hop plays an important role on
this new album, the stylish expression is different. On this latest album
carrying the title" The death of convenience" , Jason Stevens ( a.k.a.
Lapsed) has joined forces with turntablist Dave Madden known as NonNon. The
moody ambience has faded away meanwhile the hip hop-expressions are much
more in focus with the appearance of rapping MC's adding some new
perspectives to the Lapsed-spheres. The tracks are built on the
characteristic rhythm-structures of Lapsed in combination with a rich number
of samples and turntablism. Compared to the more
nocturnal ambient-based "Lapsed"-album, "The Death of Convenience" is a
straight forward "in your face"-sort of dark electronica meets hip hop.
Intense album! (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net

BONG-RA - FULL METAL RACKET (CD by Ad Noiseam)
GLOWSTYX - CLASS OF 1992 (CD by Cock Rock Disco)
Belgian breakcore artist Jason Köhnen known as Bong Ra has made it very
clear before: He is not afraid of crossing the borderlines between furious
breakbeats, noise and extreme metal into an infernal noisy mix. "Full metal
racket" is a collection of tracks from his earlier 12" Ep's "Grind Krusher"
and "Sick sick sick". Conceptually the tracks on this intense new shot from
Bong Ra take their starting point in early extreme metal. Unquestionably the
title "Grind Krusher" is a tribute to the British label Earache's quite
amazing and legendary compilation "Grindcrusher" released back in 1990.
Opening track on "Full metal racket" takes a solid starting point in the
contributing track from Earache's Grindcrusher-compilation, "Dead shall
rise" from US-grindcore-project Terrorizer and it definitely does add an
interesting updated electronically based angle to the hyper-fast track from
Morbid Angel-vocalist David Vincent. Following track is a breakcore-medley
of early Slayer-materials
spanning
from the "Hell awaits"-album up to "Seasons in the abyss". The combination
of pioneering extreme metal and Bong Ra's ability to create insane
breakbeat-structures works really great and I do advice listeners of extreme
music, electronic or metal, to check out this refreshing album. Grindcore of
the new millennium! Another new album, this time produced by Bong-Ra's Jason
Köhnen is released on another German label. The "Cock Rock Disco"-label is
known for its focus on breakbeat-based electronics. Under the name
"Glowstyx", British composer Ebenezer Gurnsville brings the listener into
other territories of hyperfast rhythm structures. With a nostalgic glance
back to the early 90's, Glowstyx reanimates the mixtures of energetic beat
texture and ear-catching hooklines of melodic house/trance and trippy
minimalism as it sounded back then. Listening to the album is like having a
sonic trip back to the heydays of rave clubbing. (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net

DETRITUS - FRACTURED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
If you enjoyed the first two albums by David Dando-Moore known as Detritus
you will certainly appreciate this third album from the American composer.
The ideas from the debut album "Thresholds" (2003, Ad Noiseam) and from the
following mini-CD "Origin (2005, Ad Noiseam) seems to move to higher levels
on this album titled "Fractured". Where especially previous effort "Origin"
was more downbeat, the rhythmic contrasts on "Fractured" is bigger spanning
from the gently downbeat track "Lethe" to the upfront and aggressive
"Collide" with some quite significant rhythms reminiscent of 808 State's
classic "Ex:el"-album (1990). Things move to the extremes with the sinister
track "Diolch" consisting of breakcore-beats and evil
darkside/techstep-basslines. The real force of Detritus is Dando-Moore's
ability to create cinematic atmospheres based on acoustic sounds (piano and
guitar being the most significant on this album). Exactly these moments of
cinematic beauty is the ones that stand clear
after the album has finished. Especially the aforementioned track "Lethe" as
well as the closing track "Dancing on moon beams" is utterly beautiful
works. Two mixes from label-fellows DJ Hidden and Keef Baker nicely end this
album, which unquestionably is Detritus' best album to date. Highly
recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net

ROBEDOOR - RANCOR KEEPER (CD by Release The Bats Records)
WARMER MILKS - LET YOUR FRIENDS IN (CD by Release The Bats Records)
SIXTEENS - INTO THE GOLD WAVE OF FUTURE NON RIP-OFF (CD by Hungry Eye
Records)
Despite their thirty some releases, the name Robedoor is not a household
name here. So far we reviewed only two of their releases, of which one was
partly in collaboration with Pocahaunted. Robedoor has two members: Alex on
keyboard, cello and drum and Britt on guitar, voice and cymbal. On the cover
we see them, crawling on the floor, with a minimum of means but with a heavy
impact. The release with Pocahaunted sounded drone like with rock
influences, here its drone with a strong influence of noise. Noise is the
big thing in the US underground, and I take the risk of sounding like the
old man that I am, it's a scene where I found it hard to hear something new.
I don't share the enthusiasm that some of the kids have for this. The
history of music works in waves and everything returns: the music of
Robedoor here could have been on (almost any) Broken Flag cassette in the
80s. Don't get me wrong however: its nothing more than a statement, rather
than a qualification. If you'd ask me to
judge this in terms of avant-garde, musical innovation, than I'd have to
decline that. What Robedoor does is not very new. That's hardly a problem, I
think, since it's simply not necessary to measure everything on the ruler
(rules?) of innovation. The four pieces here are cascading walls of drone
noise, minimal yet effective. An industrial wall of sound, with sounds
feeding through a stream of distortion and echo pedals, howls and in the
epic piece 'Wendigo Psychosis' the addition of drums, that recalls good ol
Skullflower. It's the kind of noise that I do like, very much even. Just as
much as I do like Ramleh or Skullflower.
Warmer Milks is a new name for me, with the nucleus of Micheal Turner and an
ever changing line up. Here he receives help of Paul Oldham, Greg Backus and
Shawn David McMillen, who plays a variety of stuff: coffee bass, new kitten,
blue phase and mouth breath, tomorrow person crying and schizophrenia. I am
quoting the cover here, not losing direction of senses. Since this is my
first meeting with the band, it's hard to compare it with earlier recording.
Things start out promising with analogue tape collages, but the band soon
starts hammering way in a punk rock fashion meeting metal music of whatever
nomination - its field that I am not into, so no black/grunge/slow/speed
before it. A strange combination of sorts, but in the end, not much my cup
of tea. Too much free rock jamming for my taste, and not enough tape
manipulations. It seems that there is more in there than what is presented
now. The way it sounds now, is that it is recorded and mixed in about the
same time it took them to
play it.
Release The Bats also sent a release by Sixteens, called 'Into The Gold Wave
Of Future Non Rip-off!', released by Hungry Eye Records. No website on the
cover, which is hard to read anyway. Here too a cycle from past passes
again, but not the noise on. Sixteens play retro electro music, with a fiery
drum machine, sequencer, snippets from films and male and female vocals.
Electro-punk, although I don't recall we had such term twenty-years ago.
Think Suicide, but less aggressive, think Cabaret Voltaire (because of the
taped films) or early Human League. Things work best, I think, when they
keep tracks to the point, but that is a bit of problem with Sixteens. Some
of these tracks are unnecessary long. They made their point half way through
and they go on for about the same length. That is a bit too much. Music like
this works best when kept to the pop-point, say three minutes or even less.
The repeat mode works against the tracks. Its a pretty fine CD by the
Sixteens, but here too I have
the impression there was much more possible, be it in a different area than
Warmer Milk. In the 80s this would have been a great cassette. (FdW)
Address: http://www.releasethebats.com

TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN - COSTA DEL LUNA (LP by La Scie Doree)
ONDE - ONE (LP by Ondemusic)
Over the many years Timo van Luijk showed his interest in vinyl and nothing
else. There is perhaps an odd CDR release by him, but in general he likes
vinyl. Wether releasing music as Af Ursin, Asra (with Raymond Dijkstra - see
also elsewhere), In Camera (with Christoph Heeman), it's on vinyl. Here he
releases two new records, the first being a work with the for me unknown
Kris Vanderstraeten. He plays percussion on this record, whereas Van Luijk
gets credit for zither, flute, keys and tape. It's a record of
improvisation, but certainly a bit of an odd one. They play carefully, but
without silence. Things are being hit, strummed, blown in an endless stream,
rather than in small blocks, as is perhaps more usual in the field of
improvisation. But in the endless stream nothing jumps above it, it stays on
the same dynamic level. That I found a bit dull. Certainly this record has
some nice moments, but perhaps also a bit too psychedelic for me. Without
the right substances it seems to hard
to enter the world of Van Luijk/Vanderstraeten. The cover certainly hints at
this psychedelic element. Like said, it's surely a nice record, but the
mixing could have been more adventurous.
Van Luijk is also present in Onde, a new trio of himself, Marc Wroblewski
and former Noise Makers Fifes member Greg Jacobs. The first record is called
'One', how appropriate, and is dedicated to Geert Feytons, the main man of
Noise Makers Fifes who took his own life last year. On the back of the cover
we see an image of them: one guy on an upright bass, one of the drums and
one playing a saxophone. A jazz band? Four pieces on this record and it's
certainly not really jazz. On side one we find the pieces 'Four' and 'One'
and 'Three and 'Two' on the other. There is a strong difference between both
sides. Side One is a wild, psychedelic noise affair, in which it seems that
all three players have an endless variety of sound effects at their
disposal, whereas on side two there is also improvised music, but without
the wealth of sound effects but with the inclusion of electronic tape
manipulations. Instruments can be recognized as such and there is much more
detail to be heard. I thought
this was a great record, both sides of the big black coin. The noise brings
them to the common day rock noise improv drone of say Sunn 0))), whereas the
other side is more traditional electro-acoustic improvisation. Here the
adventure that could have been the Luijk/Vanderstraeten LP is present and
makes a most promising debut. (FdW)
Address: <tivalu@telenet.be>
Address: http://www.ondemusic.be

RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DAS SCHONE (LP by Le Souffleur)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - SCHIJNHEILIGE VISSEN (LP by Le Souffleur)
Just like his buddy Timo van Luijk, Raymond Dijkstra loves thirty centimeter
pieces of vinyl. And thirty centimeters of plastic, as these two latest
releases by him were pressed by Peter King in New Zealand as so-called lathe
cut records. Basically the same plastic as they use to produce CDs but cut
with grooves, a record. The great thing is one can do really small editions,
which is another thing Dijkstra likes. Both of these records come in an
edition of 50 copies only. He continues where left us ('Die Wille', 'Die
Sonne') and now there 'Das Schöne' ('the beautiful') and 'Schijnheilige
Vissen' (sanctimonious fish'). No other information. Dijkstra is the true
outsider in music. He doesn't care about style, scenes, groups or such like
but does he what he does. For the superficial listener (for whom this is
certainly not produced) what Dijkstra does may sound the same. Like say a
guitarist he uses his instrument: on 'Das Schöne' a table played with glass
and an echo unit. A reduction
that is in various way. Before he used an organ too, more electronics.
That's one difference. But here he also plays with silence. He plays for
maybe twenty second shrieking sounds, fed through echo and then there is
silence, in which nothing happens. Sometimes these silences are longer than
the actual music. It leaves the listener in nothing less but a state of
confusion. To the annoyed, who think: is this it? Is the record over? But to
the more careful listeners, he builds great tension - the strongest line
between silence and sound.
The other new LP is more along the lines of the previous ones, the glass
sounds, organ/harmonium and echo unit at work. There are strong similarities
between all of these works, but it's the smaller details that these works do
differ from each other. 'Schijnheilige Vissen' seems to be using the element
of silence and also a bit more distortion, but that might very well be the
King pressing at work. Dijkstra builds a consistent piece work - an oeuvre
as you will. A highly personal world of sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl

TAMING POWER - TWELVE PIECES (10" by Early Morning Records)
Until now releases by Taming Power, and there has been quite a few, were
highly limited editions of around 150 copies, but this new one is released
in an edition of 525 copies: the pressing plant don't do any less anymore. A
pity since Taming Power has to 'sell out' before making anything new, so
this might be one of the last before some time. Taming Power, the musical
project of Askild Haugland from Oslo, Norway, is a man who loves drones, but
as you can tell by the title these don't have to be long. Twelve pieces on a
10". The seven pieces on side one are short, sketch like pieces, played on
the guitar, zither and keyboards. Haugland feeds the sound through a little
bit of reverb, fortunate not enough to drown the sound, but to make the
whole thing a bit 'rounder'. The pieces are simple melodies, effective and
work best when played on the guitar. The keyboard pieces are bit less in
quality I thought. The five pieces here are more complex, layered sounds,
more sound effects, and
effectively more drone related in the way people associate this with drones.
Layered sounds, with the usual analogue means of Taming Power (who works
with tape recorders rather than computers), these pieces are more along the
lines of his recent works. Complex, drone based, this is some damn fine
music going on. It would be a pity not see any new thing from him in a
while, but maybe he should consider doing CDs? So I recommend any serious
lover of drone music to get a copy (or two) and keep Early Morning Records
alive. (FdW)
Address: <earlymrecords@yahoo.com>

ROBIN SAVILLE/DOLLBOY (7" by Static Caravan)
INCH TIME - THOUGHT OBJECTS (3"CDR by Static Caravan)
It's hard to believe in these scattered days of so many labels, releases,
formats and what have you, but when I was young one loved labels and sought
out whatever they released. For me Factory Records was one of them, and Les
Disques Du Crepuscule another. The latter' sheer intelligent combination of
popmusic and modern classical, in combination with stylish covers made all
(almost all) of the releases on that label. Why this nostalgic ramble? I was
thinking about those old days when playing the latest two releases by Static
Caravan. They seem to becoming the Crepuscule of the new millennium. More
and more their releases consist of the same pop meets modern classic
quality, while their covers get more and more stylish. Robin Saville has a
nice sweet tune for player piano and rhythm machine that has a strong
christmas sound to it. Dollboy is even more classical in approach with his
'Prelude no. 1', adapted from Johan Sebastian Bach, but is more pop than
Saville, with lovely bouncing
rhythm and lush keyboard textures, but is more timeless, i.e. less for the
season only. Just a lovely little item, this one.
Also lovely and little is the 3"CDR by Inch Time, which is the project by
Stefan Panczak. He too seems to have a love for the 88 keys of the piano,
but unlike the 7", his music is much ambient related. The first part opens
with piano sounds which slowly get transformed into lush textured ambient
music. A single key stroke is transformed in a light hearted rhythm with a
dark undercurrent. Things get even more sparse in the second piece, with
very loose end piano tones and equally sparse gamelan percussive sounds at
the beginning and chirping birds at the end. Comes in a small enveloppe with
a nice printed insert. Classy indeed. Maybe it's too late to start
collecting this label now, but you better start now because later is not
good enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.org

COLIN POTTER - THE SIGHTS OF THE DROWNED FABLE (CDR by ICR)
A man of very british humor, our Colin Potter. He advertises his release
'The Sights Of The Drowned Fable' as: "The next in the 'haven't got enough
time to make a studio album' series". And if you don't have time to record a
proper studio album, you go back in the archives and pick that live
recording which you think is great, special or different. The work here was
recorded at the Resonator Festival in Preston in July of this year. It
starts out in a loud and rhythm way, that we don't connect to Potter (or at
least not with his work of late), but its a welcome shot, an alarm going
off. We start. From then on the work rolls out in what is a typical Potter
sound: partly drone based electro acoustic music. Vibrant music, feeding
through lots and lots of sound effects. Music that bounces up and down,
through reverb and delay and no doubt loads of other effects. Potter sets a
sound forward and then starts playing around with it, until a hybrid of
sound occurs, hard to decipher or trace
back to it's origin. He never looses sight of the atmospheric aspect -
that's where he reputation as a drone master comes in. The psychedelic
element, working on elevating the mind, playing a moody card: it's all done
well in the more than capable hands of Potter. I don't know if this
recording is great, special or different for Colin Potter, or wether it's
just one great live recording of the shelf, simply because we haven't heard
them all, but I think it's surely a very nice one and that's good enough for
me to see a release on CDR. (FdW)
Address: http://www.icrdistribution.com

BIEN VICTOR - SORE DAKE JA: MIZUNOKUCHI SESSIONS JAN-FEB 2006 (CDR by
Belsonic Strategic)
Thomas Transparent, the man behind The Domestic Front, returns here with
something a little bit more different. A group of himself on computer and
bass, Jason Funk on drums, computer and flute and Brandon Hocura on guitar
and electronics. They hail from Portland, Tokyo and Montreal, but they met
up in Tokyo in the first months of 2006 and recorded six hours straight to
mini disc. Like I said, mister Transparent moves away from his recent
interest in collage, industrial and musique concrete and with this trio he
goes into the area of cosmic music - the free form float music. Think
anything krautrock and you are already almost there. Slow pieces, slow
drumming, endless fuzz and sustain on the guitars, electronics flicker
around in a slow and peaceful manner. I never know wether this should be
heard taking a lot of substances of any kind and one can enjoy it better;
who knows. But I did something else: I played this first thing when I got
out of bed on a very cold morning, clean as a
whistle, and also enjoyed the content of this disc. The floating, spacious
character of the music, sort of extended the process of not being entirely
awake, but not fully asleep. A most pleasant feeling. If you love Aidan
Baker, then this trio should be up you alley too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.belsona-strategic.com

SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE - SUDDENLY SILENCE BURST MY EAR (CDR by Tosom)
DIE KALTE ZEIT - TOSOM MIXED BY XOTOX (CDR by Tosom)
This is our second encounter with the music of Martin Fuhs, also known as
Seconds In Formaldehyde, whose 'Inaudible' was reviewed in Vital weekly 567.
He plays guitar and 'all songs recorded live without any studio overdubs or
post production effects', it says on the cover. Gone is the use of a drum
machine. While playing live, Fuhs feeds his guitar through a whole bunch of
boxes, such as echo's, sample device, reverb, chorus and what else have you.
Ambient music with the very big A. Like with 'Inaudible' it's easy to see a
connection with Fear Falls Burning, or even with its predecessor Vidna
Obmana. Five lengthy, atmospheric pieces of music, still, quiet, drone,
ambient - all the necessary keywords are in place. On a dark, cold and above
all grey day like this, this is the perfect soundtrack to fit the season.
Cold outside, warm inside where Seconds In Formaldehyde softly tinkles away
on his guitar and his endless string of sound effects. 'Untitled 4' is odd
ball here where things
do get a bit out of the ambient hand. Nothing special, nothing new and
nothing wrong with that.
On the same label, a small CDR release that came as part of Bad Alchemy 56.
Bad Alchemy is one of the better German magazines which cover almost similar
territory as Vital Weekly, but with more improvised music at their disposal,
and since some years they have free gifts with every new issue. For number
56 this is was Andreas Davids who works as Xotox who took the Tosom
catalogue and made a long, seventy mix of the various releases. Tosom as a
label releases both ambient music such as by Seconds In Formaldehyde but
also the noise of Richard Ramirez and anything sub-genre in between. It
makes this one piece also quite a varied shopping bag of music, and not
always easy to follow where we are (some times on the cover would have been
nice), but certainly is a nice overview of the label and is almost like a
nice alternative radio station. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tosom.de

BRAM STADHOUDERS - TONELIST (CDR, private release)
In Vital Weekly 599 we reviewed a CDR release by one Franz Fjödor and Bram
Stadhouders. Here Stadhouders returns with his Tonelist Trio, being himself
on guitar, guitarsynthesizer and laptop, Jasper Lekkerkerk on keyboard and
effects and Onno Govaert on drums. The spacey electric piano that dominates
the nine pieces of this otherwise long CD brought back to memory a very nice
record: 'Six Empty Places' by A. Tent, released some twenty-five years ago
by Cherry Red (and of course not on CD) which had a similar jazzy feel on
the piano and drums and a light experimental touch in the electronic
department. Highly atmospheric music, that A. Tent release, which had some
nice tension. Unfortunately that is not the case with 'Tonelist'. The
guitar, keyboards and drums are on an seemingly endless repeat mission. Only
the eighth and ninth track sound different, but they were recorded on a
different date, most curious enough. But the first seven tracks sound
throughout very similar and works on
my nerves. One or two are o.k. of this doodling stuff, but seven is a bit
too much. Almost new age in approach. The final two tracks are less in that
area, have more tension and more subtle variety, so it might be possible.
That gives them the benefit of doubt, even when I am not entirely convinced.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.bramstadhouders.nl

DECONSTRUCTIVE MUSIC (3xCDR compilation by More Mars)
FERVENT - CONJESTION (CDR by More Mars)
To review compilations is never a task I enjoy. Not because of the music,
but simply it's not an easy task. Mention each track? The overall feeling?
Concept? Selected highlights? Certainly when it comes to 29 track, three CDR
set like 'Deconstructive Music' on the new Greek More Mars label. If there
is a common theme or approach to be detected among this lot, I think, it's
the factor where improvisation meets noise meets silence. A lot of the
contributors are 'famous' in that scene, mainly due to a slew of releases -
we have here Bill Horist, Mattin, Omnid, Xavier Erkizia, as11, Carlos
Giffoni, Ilios, Anthony Guerra and Stasis Duo - to mention a few names that
pop up in Vital Weekly and of people who are most active in releasing CDRs.
But this compilation can also serve as an introduction to new names, to
mention say TMP, Threnody Ensemble, Sinistri vs Dimcoast and David Daniell.
So far the facts - the music is as varied as possible. There is a lot of
interesting noise things to be
found among the lot, but throughout most people take a much finer line
between noise and silence, and anything in between. The more experienced
players in the field have the more interesting pieces, I thought (Guerra,
Hood & Rodgers, Manuel Mota) and the cup for the strangest contribution goes
to Sean Meehan, whose piece is almost silent, save for a digital glitch or
two in about five minutes. The package comes with separate cards, for each
track one, which the label required to be part of it. Most surprising name
to find here is Zeitkratzer.
On the same label, second release there is Fervent, perhaps the man behind
the label? He likes noise, so it seems. There are seven tracks on this disc,
but three are very short, interludes almost and have no title. 'Ferver' and
'Scarecrows Against Reasoning' are quite noise based, rhythmic, loud but not
the best around. Of much more interest is 'Music Box Reconstructed' which is
a collage/musiqe concrete piece of music box sounds and 'Organ Piece For
Anna/[comm]', which are two pieces in one, or so it seems. It's also the
longest piece on the release and has noise bits but throughout there is also
lots of quiet, crackling glitch stuff which makes this into quite a fine,
thoughtful piece of music. These two interesting pieces, along with three
vague field recordings would have already made a nice release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.moremars.tk

I DIED THEE VIRGINAL BRIDES SPLIT (Cassette by Black And Purple)
THEE VIRGINAL BRIDES / KÖRDHA / FEVER SPOOR MOMENTS OF TRUTH (CDR by
animamalnata)
VINCENT KOREMAN FEVER SPOOR HEMELTERGEND (CDR by animamalnata)
Beginning by taking into consideration what 'should' be said the cassette is
pulsy electronic noodlings on one side with more spacey 50s sci-fi on the
other, rhythmical - chiming bottles industrial in the sense of an eastern
block factory through simple effects, Moments of Truth - a 46 minute CDR
(Sony!) has more "field" recorded sounds - a Mall, water, various mains
loop/hums and micro sounds which evolve or decay, track 5 has some Christian
evangelical spoken text about child rearing. Hemeltergend is glitchy at
times almost inaudible (no good in the car then!), glitch beats and what
appears to be a monster/goblin moaning/roaring, and yet more low-fi
electronica - as I've now been careful to listen several times and then do
so research."Industrial slash drone slash noise" - id say low noise rather
than harsh- and this has generated nothing - contentiously I'd say -and lets
be contentious- music only generates when its 'noise' - when its
unlistenable- the work here is too significant to be creative- as creativity
now takes place elsewhere as an escape or failure - here we can listen -
there are things to listen to. Though connections are made is it only in
their disruption that things occur. AKA Pornography as opposed to
phonography used to record industrialization (of not just sound). Though
within the network we can establish too many sterile facts - proof that the
internet cannot be conscious-what it needs is more than dissemination (a
fuck up) -I Died = Chris Gierig Noise artist from Eugene, Oregon. Thee
Virginal Brides = Gibet + MortalManifest + Vomit Arsonist, Genre: Electronic
Style: Industrial, Noise, Experimental, Ambient Notes: Side A : Recorded
live on KWVA Radio, Eugene OR on Chris' 40th birthday. Side B : Recorded
between July 2006 and August 2007. Black And Purple DIY cassette label run
by I Died The Virginal Brides started in May 2006. A new experiment in
droning electronics - the brainchild of
AlBéRiCk, Andy and Oren. Kördha = Botchan Karisen = Botchanimal =Fever Spoor
= Marcel Herms. Here is the problem Style: Industrial, Noise, Experimental,
Ambient prevents any binary opposition - or does it?- eat me! What it needs
is "Will to Power" and the magnificent collapse of such a will into the
germ, it fails in this and so is completed. played out. (jliat)
Address: <bulikah@hotmail.com>
Address: http://www.vincentkoreman.com/
Address: http://www.animamalnata.nl/

CHEFKIRK - THE WORD 'VEGANISM'... (3"CDR by Jeshimoth)
Somebody recommended me writing a very positive review of Chefkirk and that
it would stop his flood of releases. Perhaps, but I'm an honest man and
don't like to lie. This is release number 254 if I'm not entirely mistaken
and it has a long title, explaining what the word 'veganism' means.
Following master Merzbow in his campaign for animals and his love of noise,
Chefkirk does the same. Not as radical though, perhaps. Who am I to tell?
One track, twenty minutes of no input mixer + 'sp-202' brings us loud noise,
that mainly can be found in the high end areas of sound, lacking any deep
bass response. It makes it rather dull. So the flood has not been stopped
here, I guess. This is a set back as some of his recent releases showed
progression, whereas this is twenty minutes of pointless, directionless
noise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jeshimoth.com

1. From: "incite@gmx.de" <incite@gmx.de>

Hoerbar Hamburg presents:

Jahresausklangfestival 2007

December 28
Sudden Infant (CH/Berlin)
Sonata Rec (Hamburg/Berlin)
Xyramat (Hamburg)
DJ Gisli (Hamburg)
DJ Zipo (Cologne)

December 29
chdh (Paris)
Feine Trinkers bei Pinkels Daheim (Bremen)
Evapori (Hamburg)
DJ Gisli (Hamburg)
DJ Inchspector (Hamburg)

Doors 21:00, day ticket 6¤, festival ticket 10¤
Hoerbar @ B-Movie
Brigittenstr. 5 Backyard
Hamburg St. Pauli
http://www.hoerbar-ev.de
incite@gmx.de

2. From: "Vatican.Analog" <vatican.analog@gmail.com>

dear all,

VATICAN ANALOG is putting together an allday NOISE/DRONE/EXP fest in
TILBURG, HOLLAND. the date is SUNDAY march 2 - performing artists will be:

OPTIMUS PRIME NOISEFEST
GRIEFER, BRUTOPHILIA, ZYRTHAX, VINCENT KOREMAN, COCK COBRA, VULVAX,
ANDROGENE COLLECTIVE, YOUR NAME HERE and loads more....

if you want to play as well or sell records or just come hang out, we'd love
to have you here!!! We have no money, but we'll divide whatever we make at
the door among artists playing. let us know as soon as possible if you want
to play, or forward to people interested?

thanks,
-vince / vatican analog
--

Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to
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All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), Dolf Mulder (DM)
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