VITAL WEEKLY
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number 617
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week 10
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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 of 5 weeks.
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* noted are in this week's podcast
CARLOS GIFFONI - ETERNAL NOISE (CD by Bottrop-boy)
NEW HUMANS/VITO ACCONCI/C. SPENCER YEH (CD by Semishigure) *
ANDO - HABITAT (CD by Bine Music) *
SCHLAMMPEITZIGER - SCHWINGSTELLE FUR RAUSCHABZUG (CD by Sonig) *
SOLO ANDATA/SEAWORTHY/TAYLOR DEUPREE - LIVE IN MELBOURNE (CD by 12K)
WILLIAM BASINSKI & RICHARD CHARTIER - UNTITLED (CD by Line) *
ALEX MEIN SMITH - NECESSITY'S FLAME (CD by High Tensile) *
NONOTES - MODE (CD by Motok) *
ERIK LEVANDER - KONDENS (CD by Rumraket)
ELLEN FULLMAN & MONIQUE BUZZARTE - FLUCTUATIONS (CD by Deep Listening)
PAULINE OLIVEROS & MIYA MASAOKA - ACCORDION KOTO (CD by Deep Listening)
GRACEFUL DEGRADATION: VARIATIONS (CD by Sourdine)
ASHER & UBEBOET - A MAP OF THE OCEAN (MP3 by Transparant Radiation)
FEU FOLLET - FOGBANK (CDR by Triple Bath)
NOKALYPSE/NOVOSAK (CDR by Swamp Of Pus)
EARZUMBA & MILAN SANDBELISTIFT - LAMENTAMOS INFORMAR AL UNIVERS0 (CDR by
Licht-ung) *
ARSZYN - EMIGRANT (CDR by Sqrt Label) *
TOM HALL - CROSS (CDR by Hellisquarerecordings)
SPARTAK - OSTPOLITIK (CDR by Hellisquarerecordings) *
ONDO - SHIELDS (3"CDR by Tuguska) *
ELEKTRICITEIT = ONZE HOBBY - DIODENEILAND (3"CDR by Audio Office Records)
KOMMBAT/KASPER VAN HOEK - COLOGNE/GRONINGEN (CDR by Audio Office Records)
ROEL MEELKOP - REAL MASS (3"CDR by Lona Records) *
MESSIAH COMPLEX - ABOVE THE FLOODS (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture)
NANOHEX - THE BRAIN EXPERIMENT (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture)
ICHOROUS - CIRCUMSTANCES (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture) *
CHILD BRIDE/HEAD MOLT (Cassette by Teenage Whore Tapes)
POD BLOTZ - OBEYING SCUM.... LIVE (Cassette by Teenage Whore Tapes)
AUSTINNITUS AUDIO SERIES (various MP3 releases)
JAMES BREWSTER & PETER HENNING - RÖNNBLOMSGATAN RUDBECKSGATAN (MP3 by Hwem)
CHRISTOPHER MCFALL & JONATHAN BENHAM - FOR WINGS THAT SELDOM SLEEP (MP3 by
Klicktrack Music) *
XEDH - EXADH (MP3 by Zeromoon)
CARLOS GIFFONI - ETERNAL NOISE (CD by Bottrop-boy)
NEW HUMANS/VITO ACCONCI/C. SPENCER YEH (CD by Semishigure)
For reasons that in hindsight are no longer clear I turned down the volume a
bit when I started playing this new CD by Carlos Giffoni, expecting some
full power noise blast. Things aren't quiet either here, but altogether it's
not what I expected and I was rather pleasantly surprised. In four lengthy
cuts Giffoni explores the outer limits of noise drone. Cluster like tones
(not as in the band but in the musical sense) of what may be an organ, or an
oscillator, or some pedals on the floor, are recorded with great power and
played what seems to be eternal. Which, besides my amazement that something
like this comes from the house of Giffoni, is also my problem with the CD.
It's great, but each of the four pieces are a bit too long for what they
have to offer for the listener.
On Bottrop-boy's art imprint Semishigure a disc from New Humans, which a duo
of Howie Chen (electronics, vocals) and Mika Tajima (guitar). The latter is
also a visual artist and the duo plays at her art show openings. Here two
pieces that played the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York in 2007 with C.
Spencer Yeh on violin and Vito Acconci on voice. The latter the
art-initiated may recognize from his famous 'Seedbed' art piece and other
works involving his body and (sexual) fantasies. He recites some texts on
the first piece on this CD, which I found quite hard to follow through. The
musicians deliver in both pieces a whole of sound type of rock noise, or
noise rock, which ever way you prefer to look at such matters. In 'Double
Negative' (the piece without Acconci), there is the addition of Eric Tsai on
drums, although his drumming as such is hardly to recognized. Speaking
purely in terms of music, I though this was the better piece of the two,
while the other one may appeal more to
art-heads. Nice, but not entirely convincing. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com
ANDO - HABITAT (CD by Bine Music)
Play this CD by Ando to any Taylor Deupree fan and he or she might say:
yeah, so why are you playing this to me? I am pretty sure Deupree has many
fans who are hardly familiar with his minimalist techno music. It's been a
while, I guess, since he last worked in this area. In fact the only one from
the new millennium which springs to mind are his two 12" inch records for
Audio.NL. As Ando he returns to this style, and it's a taster for a
forthcoming album. Four pieces here, which started life in 2004, but were
completed last year, of minimalist beats and minimalist electronics. Bine
Music is distributed by Kompakt, and that should give those who are keen on
anything rhythmic and minimal, a clue as to what to expect here. Four
straight forward slabs of of minimal techno, quite groovy - going back to
the early days of his career, and which no doubt would do well on the dance
floor. Which makes me wonder why Bine Music released this on a CD? Quite fun
and with four pieces right on the
spot. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.de
SCHLAMMPEITZIGER - SCHWINGSTELLE FUR RAUSCHABZUG (CD by Sonig)
For whatever reason I never kept up that well with the works of
Schlammpeitziger, the work of Jo Zimmermann from Cologne. I am sure there is
no good reason or excuse from my side for this. And now I am listening to
'Schwingstelle Fur Rauschabzug' (my german is too limited to make a proper
translation), thinking that it's quite nice and that I should have done more
trouble keeping up. Having said that, Schlammpeitziger doesn't make life
easy for the listener. It's not that he produces difficult music, not at all
actually. It's the hyper active part that becomes, at times, a bit
problematic. Zimmermann's music operates on various levels at the same time:
a jumpy bass line or two, various layers of keyboards playing both riffs and
melodies, complicated yet danceable beats and lots of small sounds to top
things off; if that was really necessary, which it isn't. Even if you don't
dance at all, it's hard to sit still to this music and just listen. Your
feet, head or hands will start to
move
along. In that respect it's quite tiring music to hear. Schlammpeitziger is
a ADHD kid on speed. He has a great sense of playing the naive musician
card, but that's only a clever play: it's a play, it's not the real
Zimmermann. I hope at least. It's great music to dance to, even if you don't
like dancing. It's a bit much to take in all at once, unless you are dancing
around (which is a bit hard if you sit down to write a review). A jolly fine
work, this one, putting a big smile on my face. Time to find out what I
missed in this career. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonig.com
SOLO ANDATA/SEAWORTHY/TAYLOR DEUPREE - LIVE IN MELBOURNE (CD by 12K)
WILLIAM BASINSKI & RICHARD CHARTIER - UNTITLED (CD by Line)
More Taylor Deupree here, but this time not as Ando but as Taylor Deupree.
Last year he was in Australia to play some concerts and on his way his found
his label mates Seaworthy and a new name Solo Andata (who released on Hefty
before). They, being Paul Fiocco and Kane Ikin open up the CD with a piece
in which they both play their laptop and small instruments, but it's filled
(filed?) with musical gestures. Cello and guitar are the ones we recognize,
which are carefully processed as not to break the delicate ripples made by
the instruments. It moves seemingly without any problem into the Seaworthy
piece, a three piece of laptop and a real guitar. The guitar here comes to
us unprocessed and tinkles nicely away, embedded, or rather immersed by a
nice set of drones. A sort of condensed form of their CD, previously on 12K.
Slowly things get more abstract for them but the piece looses its form a bit
towards the end. Deupree, the master comes last and he does what he does
best - the reason
why I regard him as one of the masters of the genre. A relatively simple
drone, sparse, organ like, with the sound of snowflakes falling about.
"The second CD is the result of a collaboration between Richard Chartier and
William Basinski. Both of them have gained quite a reputation for their own
microsounding work, which, I may add, differs quite a bit from Deupree.
Whereas the later works mainly with loops, Chartier and Basinski are more in
the areas of drone music. Two lengthy cuts are presented here, and both use
lengthy, harmonic drones as the basis of their pieces. The first piece was
kind of similar to some of the work produced by Mirror, but with a lighter
overall touch, while the second one was maybe also like Mirror, but here the
melodic touch was an overall feature. Two pretty strong pieces, I thought,
but maybe I didn't expect much else from these drone meisters." That's what
I wrote back in Vital Weekly 409 on the CD by Basinski an Chartier. It was
released by Spekk and 1300 copies flew away in a short amount of time, so
it's good to see a remastered version back in print, with two new, shorter
pieces as a bonus.
These new pieces don't shed any new light on the previous two pieces,
although it seems, especially in 'Untitled 3' to be a bit louder and
grittier. Otherwise, it's still the beautiful captured atmospherics that is
hardly new for what it is, but it's damn gorgeous. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
ALEX MEIN SMITH - NECESSITY'S FLAME (CD by High Tensile)
Sometimes things get a bit clouded: when I read Alex Mein Smith is from New
Zealand and that he played with Birchville Cat Motel, Peter Wright and
Anthony Milton, I thought I was ready for some lo-fi
guitar/electronics/field recording drone type o'music. But Smith moved to
London played in all the clubs and does something entirely different. His
music is always built around driving rhythms, fast, fat, mechanical, but
more rock than techno. Below, just above the surface, he puts a carpet of
electronics, creepy, haunting and sometimes uplifting. Quite a nice move I
think, but the album left me a bit alienated. Like a cold shower - it never
grabbed the me as a listener. Distant and remote. The sound of the big city
at night. Many lights, but is there is anybody in there? I am not entirely
convinced - yet - by this set of forceful beat material, but if he adds a
bit of personality to the mix, it certainly has a great future. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alexmeinsmith.com
NONOTES - MODE (CD by Motok)
In the second Vital Weekly of this year we reviewed an online sampler,
released by Motok. All works on the sampler had involved, one way or the
other, Nico Selen, who started as O.R.D.U.C. in 1980 with a track for a
Plurex Records, then a LP on his own New Bulwark label and consequently used
various names and for each name he had a distinctive sound. His LP from 1980
is still available and thanks to the current revival of synthesizer/electro
music, it's still bought and has brought Selen enough money to release a CD
as No Notes together with Martin Selen, I believe his son, as the CD 'Mode'
is 'dedicated to our (grand) father'. The (grand) father worked as a
cabinetmaker and Nico Selen loved the industrial hammering of the machines
in the workshop. It's the inspiration for this CD. Nonotes is the band and
as such they don't play any notes. Despite the inspiration from machinery
it's not an industrial work in say the Throbbing Gristle or Vivenza sense.
Nonotes switch on their analogue
synthesizers and start switching knobs to create a dark, sometimes
unsettling, form of ambient music. At times loud and angular with, in a few
pieces, some rusty blocks of rhythm, this is what Conrad Schnitzler would
describe as 'non-keyboard electronics'. Put together in various layers, this
is more mood music than the factual representation of life in the factory.
It's quite nice, certainly when played at a somewhat louder volume. It has
no relationship to the previous more pop encounters of Selen as O.R.D.U.C.
or The Bearcage and I must say this side of Selen is much more to my
personal liking. A great come back album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.motok.org/
ERIK LEVANDER - KONDENS (CD by Rumraket)
Shortly after I popped in this CD, I wanted to switch it off again. Maybe my
mood wasn't in for melodic type of glitch music, but I continued until the
very end. I took it out, thought nothing of it, and the next day I played it
again. Still my first thought was micro glitch, ambient glitch, but for
whatever reason the volume was up more than the day before, and actually I
was thinking when the CD was over: that was a strange mixture of sounds.
This is Levander's second CD, following 'Tonad' (see Vital Weekly 455), in
which he shows again to have been a keen listener to Oval, also when things
here can get pretty noisy. It makes the album a more varied bunch but the
variation is more towards the last five pieces and not in the first four
pieces. Altogether it's not something utterly new or innovative, but I must
admit that Levander does a pretty good. A fine mixture of pop like
structures, shoe gazing microsound (think Tilliander here), minimalist
structures and abstract electronic
processing. A very fine album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rumraket.com
ELLEN FULLMAN & MONIQUE BUZZARTE - FLUCTUATIONS (CD by Deep Listening)
PAULINE OLIVEROS & MIYA MASAOKA - ACCORDION KOTO (CD by Deep Listening)
Four female composers, two collaborations and one label, Deep Listening. But
the outcome is quite different. First the good news. Ellen Fullman is
perhaps, hopefully, best known for her work with metal string music, ever
since discovering it in 1981. Here she works with trombonist Monique
Buzzarte, of whom I never heard before. Apparently she works with trombone,
sometimes in combination with electronics. The results are simply great.
Long sustaining tones are produced by the strings and Buzzarte's trombone
plays like sustained tones on her trombone. Slow and solemn; that's the way
this music moves forward. Majestically. Minimal and melodic. Sombre yet full
of light. Six tracks that work best however as one track. If you like Phill
Niblock than you like this too. Great work.
I wish I could say the same thing of Pauline Oliveros and Miya Masaoka -
also known as accordion and koto. Deep Listening says 'an unlikely
combination' and that's true. The two of them improvise together. Rubbing
the koto, plucking the koto, short sounds on the accordion, longer ones. A
bit of reverb, an Oliveros trademark actually, and that's it. I do like
improvisation, but it's all quite self-indulgent playing with forceful,
majestic gestures to create 'tension'. Perhaps I am missing a point entirely
somewhere. I don't know. But this gave me quite a headache, not knowing
wether this absolute state of the art playing or perhaps something entirely
different. For now, I prefer to think the latter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.deeplistening.org
GRACEFUL DEGRADATION: VARIATIONS (CD by Sourdine)
ASHER & UBEBOET - A MAP OF THE OCEAN (MP3 by Transparant Radiation)
Only very recently I said Asher should step up, away from the world of MP3
and CDR and start releasing a 'proper' CD. Now he did, but I didn't mean
this. Sourdine is the name of a new label, ran by Asher, and in good
tradition the first release is a compilation CD. Perhaps the programmatic
notes for the future? Asher himself is not present on this CD, but his pals
are. All seven of them use, in one way or the other, the sound in decay
approach. You have a bit of sound, you loop it, and cover it with dirt.
Erase it with computer tools - or better: by analogue means. Add static, add
hiss. The original source - be it field recording, be it a piano, be it
something else - is sometimes heard, like the erasing process not entirely
be completed. It still shows, like a stain that won't away, but a stain that
looks nice, so you leave it in. Six of the seven are quite well-known, each
of them of with an extensive discography at hand: Steinbruchel, Kenneth
Kirschner, Heribert Friedl, John Hudak
,
Steve Roden and Jason Kahn. Only Ubeboet is lesser known and his best also
seems to be a bit louder than the others. A pity Asher didn't put himself on
it, but no doubt a CD will be out soon.
Still on the MP3 format then, Asher with Ubeboet in a collaborative work.
Ubeboet is Miguel A. Tolosa, who has his work released on Twenty Hertz, Non
Visual Objects, Zeromoon as well as his own Con-V label. Their collaborative
work is another fine example of what I wrote above. Here it's all field
recordings, or so it seems, which pop up every now and then. Water sounds,
people talking, perhaps cars passing, but by and large it's covered with
'dirt' - hiss, static, processed central heating system humming and such
like. They create a dense, moody, but also rich texture of small events that
cross each other. Thicker than is usual with this kind of music, they do a
fine job. Both of them are clear examples of how this particular niche
operates. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sourdine.net
Address:
http://www.bremsstrahlung-recordings.org/transradiation/trans009.php
FEU FOLLET - FOGBANK (CDR by Triple Bath)
NOKALYPSE/NOVOSAK (CDR by Swamp Of Pus)
These two releases are in-breth, the incest well alive. He said with a smile
on his face. Tobias Fischer, the man behind Feu Follet (and his own label
Einzeleinheit, and co-owning Ex Ovo) has released a CDR by Jan-M Iversen,
and this Jan-M delivers, together with his pal Sindre Bjerga (the catalogue
of releases reads like a who's who in CDR land), the sound material out of
which Feu Follet composed the entire album 'Fogbank'. This is his second
full length release, following his debut on his own label some two years
ago. Still his interest lies in the realms of drone music. It's not easy to
tell that the sound input is by Bjerga/Iversen, but I assume that if you
know it makes sense. Feu Follet uses a lot of reverb on his music, which add
that much needed atmospherical texture to the music, but it's simply also
too much I think. The music becomes clouded by this excessive treatment. I
wonder what it would sound like without all this reverb. In all I must say
it's a pretty decent
release, not the best in the genre, but certainly not the worst either.
Alright late night listening.
The man behind the Triple Bath label is Themis Pantelopoulus and he also
creates music, as Nokalypse, with various releases under his belt on
Echomusic, Phase! Records and here has a split CDR release with Novasak,
a.k.a. Todd Novasad, who is the man behind Swamp Of Pus. And he released
this one. "An electroacoustic display of noise and space using dynamic
volume and spacial depth" is how it's been described and, along with name
dropping from Xenakis to Lopez and Menche to Nurse With Wound, that is all
indeed very accurate. Both bands take a long form of sound - each track is
over thirty minutes of chilly electronics, huge reverb drones and tons of
little sound effects running amok. It owes more to serious avant-garde,
without perhaps a bit of compositional structure here and there, than to the
average noise album - more Xenakis indeed than Merzbow. Of the two Nokalypse
is the more refined one, and Novosak is the more noisy one and ultimately I
think also the lesser one of the two
tracks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.triplebath.gr
Address: http://www.swampofpus.com
EARZUMBA & MILAN SANDBELISTIFT - LAMENTAMOS INFORMAR AL UNIVERS0 (CDR by
Licht-ung)
The name Milan Sandbleistift may not be ringing bells but he runs a nice
label for more loud forms of music: Licht-ung, having released a handful of
limited pieces of 10"s and now some CDs. Here he has provided Christian
Dergarabedian, former of Reynols, since long known as Earzumba with a bunch
of field recordings, which Earzumba uses to create nine pieces of raw
ambience recordings. It moves away somehow, slightly from his previous work
in that sense that these pieces are more straight forward, loud ambient
pieces and deals less with collage methods, rapid changes and such like.
Which is good, since it's different, but on the other hand I was thinking
also that this music is something I have heard before by others done equally
well or better, so in that respect there is nothing much new under the
ambient industrial sun. But Earzumba creates his music with finesse and
style, with care for the detail, so let's safely say that this work ranks
easily with his best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.licht-ung.de
ARSZYN - EMIGRANT (CDR by Sqrt Label)
Since Poland joined the European Community many workers from that country
came to the 'richer' countries to find jobs - jobs that are easy, dirty or
otherwise not really done by the people in the other countries. Polish
musician Arszyn was in London, in itself a city with lots of immigrants, and
found himself fascinated by all the city's noise, and the multitude of
languages. He met some fellow country man, interviewed them, as well as the
sounds of the busy city, and crafted this into this work, with is as much as
a music work and a sociological work. Of course we don't understand all the
spoken words, even when there is also a bit of English in here. At forty
minutes the point to be made is perhaps a long one, but every now and then
Arszyn uses electronic manipulation to change the field recordings, which
adds a third layer to the pure field recordings and spoken words, which
makes a very fine work to hear throughout. Shorter, or perhaps concise is
the better word, would have been
better but now it reaches it far edge of what is still interested. And
still, it can be of great interest for anyone, even if the subject matter is
not entirely his cup of tea. (FdW)
Address: http://sqrt-label.org
TOM HALL - CROSS (CDR by Hellisquarerecordings)
SPARTAK - OSTPOLITIK (CDR by Hellisquarerecordings)
This is the third release by Tom Hall in a relatively short time span (see
also Vital Weekly 584 and 598). The first 'Fleure' with the processed sounds
of a bridge in Brisbane was quite nice in its variety of approaches to the
sound material. 'Floats' and 'Cross', his new release lack these conceptual
angles, and that is a pity after 'Fleure'. Hall uses 'live electronics as
extracted from melodic and field recordings'. I must say things start out
great, the first two tracks are nice pieces of soft versus loud, and have a
scraping element - almost like Organum. But then the next six tracks are
much alike his previous 'Floats' release. Delicate, crackling, warm and all
the other usual ingredients of ambient glitch are present and above all
correct. Hall does it absolutely in a great way, but it's nothing new under
the sun.
Which one might also say of the duo Spartak, but I was quite pleased by
them. Shoeh Ahmad plays guitar and piano and Evan Dorrian plays drums. He's
a jazz drummer from Canberra, which is something he is certainly not hiding.
Ahmad plays the guitar in a more experimental fashion, hardly through
effects but strumming in 'Ostpolitik (draft 1)' and melancholic touches in
'Ostpolitik (draft 2)', while the drums bang along in that one - far away,
although no doubt this has to do with the recording than the production.
Great free inspired rock/jazz/electronics, along the lines of their Viennese
counterparts of Radian and all their off spring. Short, only nine minutes in
length and it could have been a great 7". (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/hellossquarerecordings
ONDO - SHIELDS (3"CDR by Tuguska)
The name Ondo, or that of the man behind it, C-J Larsgarden, or his label
Tuguska, are all new to me. He's also a member of the folktronic duo A
Perfect Friend, works with Rowenta and has another solo project called
Pacta. No doubt each in his own musical corner. As Ondo he plays drone
rock/doom drone/doom rock music. 'Shields' has one single, sixteen minute
piece of music, which is best played at a somewhat louder volume to make
more impact. Maybe it's just recorded or mastered a bit low. Large wall of
sound type of drones (guitars or synthesizers would be my best guess) with
some drum like sounds at the beginning - ritualistik if you ask me - and in
the second half replaced by a dreamy piano type of sound, building up to a
big bang at the end. It's actually not great, but not bad either. Decent
drone music in which just a little bit more happens than in the usual single
minded drone work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pactasunterservanda.se
ELEKTRICITEIT = ONZE HOBBY - DIODENEILAND (3"CDR by Audio Office Records)
KOMMBAT/KASPER VAN HOEK - COLOGNE/GRONINGEN (CDR by Audio Office Records)
Behind Elektriciteit = Onze Hobby (our hobby is electricity, well you might
have guessed that translation) are a bunch of people I never heard of:
Steven Jouwersma, Feiko Beckers, Rik Mohlmann, Bart Nijstad and Gijs
Deddens, who got together one day with the modified children toys and a
bunch of effects. They recorded some ninety minutes of music, which they
gave to the fellow city man (Groningen, The Netherlands) Kasper van Hoek who
edited this into the various pieces now on this 3"CDR. Now him we know.
Recently presented his best release so far, but here he does a nice job too.
It's not easy to which extend he edited the material, or effectively
re-composed the material he was given, but he certainly cut and pasted the
right pieces together to make a listenable chunks (short chunks actually) of
rhythmic noise, bleepy electronics and certainly non-dance beats. Quite
nice.
The same Van Hoek worked together with one Marco Medkour, also known as
Kommbat and who also works as Akustik Film and Organo Flex, and runs the
rec72 netlabel, who is from Cologne. Each of them delivers a track based on
field recordings from their own city and a remix of the other's city. It's a
short release, of which I don't understand why it wasn't put on a 3" either
with such a nice box as the previous one. Medkour's sound picture of Cologne
passes without too much notion, and his remix of Groningen is nice, but
hardly a remix: he sets forward some beat material and mixes in the street
recordings. Van Hoek on the other side picks some sounds and makes short
loops and creates his own industrial rhythm from these sound material at
hand. Quite nice, but perhaps a bit long. His solo field recording amplifies
the hiss aspect of the recording. Good but as great his last offering on
Dirty Demos. (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiooffice.nl
ROEL MEELKOP - REAL MASS (3"CDR by Lona Records)
Not known as a man of many words, at least not on his releases, is Roel
Meelkop, so it's a bit of a surprise to see on the cover this somewhat
cryptic message: 'Dedicated to the darker sides of life (for once)'. A dark
cloud over the head of Meelkop? Not on the cover, but on the phone, he told
me that he uses for his 'Real Mass' piece the voices of Antonin Artaud and
Aleister Crowley - an unusual open Meelkop revealing his sources. I listened
again, but with different knowledge to this piece. Yes, indeed that seem to
be voices. Voices from the past, preserved on scratchy sound carriers. No
doubt all of which Meelkop loves his hands on. He emphasis the hiss, slows
down the voices and creates a true Meelkopian piece of music. His
trademark - rapid changes, decaying until the very end, breaking up with
something entirely new - is present here, but it all sounds a bit more
roughly shaped than before. No doubt a deliberate move on his side, perhaps
to emphasize the darker sides of life. A
solid work, dark of nature and a true small delight to hear. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lona-records.com
MESSIAH COMPLEX - ABOVE THE FLOODS (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture)
NANOHEX - THE BRAIN EXPERIMENT (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture)
ICHOROUS - CIRCUMSTANCES (3inch CDr by Industrial Culture)
Above the floods is it seems inspired by the floods in the UK last summer -
rumbling field recording with static - sounds very much like an over
amplified recording of an urban night's background city hum. The Brain
Experiment is more overtly electronic - mostly high pitched feedback and
noise - track one - track two reverses this with deep rumbles somewhat
restrained which ebb and flow which gives way to a final track of very echoy
reverby twitterings. Both explore the idea of change and so render the
listener static.. and passive. It is only with the third disk we have what
is unmistakably harsh noise -which a poorer review might be tempted to
compare or describe - as say Merzbowesque .. but all harsh noise is so - it
represents a fixed and unchanging phenomena removed from fashion. It is why
it relates not to eroticism with its fashions of stilettos and bikinis' but
to the obscene pornography of today's internet which is no different to the
imagery found in Sade. Such
explicitness, an erect phalluses is and always has been the same - and the
acts are and always were - in such unchanging quantity of production that
has become the backdrop against which humanity can now think - can now
change. Once culture establishes itself as the bassist of phenomena the
human imagination is free from the trap of teleology and metaphysics- free
to enjoy the changes of the moment whilst the art of harsh noise masks what
is demanding and prescriptive of us in society today. (jliat)
Address: http://www.industrialculture.org
CHILD BRIDE/HEAD MOLT (Cassette by Teenage Whore Tapes)
POD BLOTZ - OBEYING SCUM.... LIVE (Cassette by Teenage Whore Tapes)
From the home with a horrible name, two tapes
with three bands in total. The most interesting one is the Child Bride and
Head Molt split release. Child Bride create their music with organ, guitar,
vocals, percussion and samples and create a hippy atmosphere with it,
mumbling voices and music that sometimes doesn't appear over the hiss.
Including a beatle sample towards the very end. Miles away from Head Molt,
who use tapes, guitar, vocals and percussion. They sound like a bunch of
angry young, with distorted loops, tape collages and spitting vocals on top.
It's actually quite nice, since it rapid changes and moves. It's aggressive
but it could have used a better production.
Pod Blotz (crazy label name attracts crazy band names, me thinks) operate in
the scenery which I these days leave to Jliat, but these twenty minutes of
unrelentness noise were actually tolerable. Perhaps it's because my cassette
player isn't hooked up to my installation (and seeing the current amount, I
think I should hook it up), so I have to revert to my headphones, which is
probably more effective for this kind of music anyway. Tape manipulations at
point blank. Speeding up cassette tapes, feeding signals through distortion
boxes - that work, but as said long enough here. Gives you a certified
headache on headphones. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/teenagewhoretapes
AUSTINNITUS AUDIO SERIES (various MP3 releases)
Perhaps I should, or perhaps I shouldn't ashamed, but I was in Austin
fifteen years ago, and I don't remember much about it. I think we did our
laundry. But Austin is a vibrant city of new music, or so Josh Ronsen tells
us. He manages a website, nicely named Austinnitus, which not only provides
the interested with links to local artists, but there is also a page where
you can actually download music for free from (some of) these musicians. I
haven't heard them all, but Ronsen send me a CDR of nine excerpts of these
pieces. There was the total free jazz of EFCA, which I didn't care for at
all. Thomas Fang's crackle of shortwave and electronics sounded much more
interesting. It's somewhere between these two outer limits that things move
here, but, fair is fair, more microsound than improvisation - or, rather
microsound generated through methods of improvisation, but still sounding
micro, such as the dream ambient (with esoteric vocals) by Book Of Shadows,
Carlo Pozo's delicate drones
or
Cory Allen's more simple version there of. Lisa Cameron has a great piece of
percussion and electronics which is very quiet and so is the piece for oboe,
clarinet, chimes and electronics by Ronsen/Green. It's that I have much
music on my plate already, but it's surely worth downloading these names.
(FdW)
Address: http://ronsen.org/austinnitus
JAMES BREWSTER & PETER HENNING - RÖNNBLOMSGATAN RUDBECKSGATAN (MP3 by Hwem)
James Brewster and Peter Henning improvise pieces of electronica - sparse
sounds - from various sources - including no input mixer, samples and
effects. The sounds are delicate electronic twittering and broken
fragments - edited down from longer sessions. The impression is of careful
working and concentration on the processing of abstract sounds. Development
is always a problematic with this kind of abstract work - as it is in
general with any form of art which aims at development given the now present
history of music and sound art. As this is their first release we are yet to
see if and where this goes, if it attempts to go anywhere at all - so I
must remain for the moment silent on any trajectory they may undertake -
just to add though a warning that progress has in effect been made
redundant, though it is very relevant that they produce this as a MP3
download - its no good looking in HMV then. (jliat)
Address: http://www.hwem.net
CHRISTOPHER MCFALL & JONATHAN BENHAM - FOR WINGS THAT SELDOM SLEEP (MP3 by
Klicktrack Music)
Last year Christopher McFall made his debut in Vital Weekly through his
nice, but not entirely original CD for Entr'acte (see Vital Weekly 599) and
here returns with a collaboration with one Jonathan Benham. He provided
McFall with some of the sounds used on this recording, which deal with field
recordings, including electro-magnetic frequencies - the sort of hard to
hear sounds from anything that works on electricity. Sometimes he
manipulates the sounds while recording them. McFall processes these sounds
no longer in real time, but works on them through the use of the computer.
Layered, changed, combining, re-mixing that is the sort of work he employs.
The four pieces here, spanning about thirty minutes, are quite nice. Even
when not entirely original in the world of microsound/glitch/field
recordings, there is a good sense of tension in these recordings. McFall
uses a bit more reverb (or perhaps added by Benham already) to give a creepy
undercurrent to the material at hand. It
could
be the soundtrack to a scary movie dealing with metallic monsters rising
from the earth and coming to live in a rusty scenery. Very nicely executed,
can't wait to see things moving here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klicktrack.com/shop/release.jsp?r=69845
XEDH - EXADH (MP3 by Zeromoon)
More and more Xedh, a.k.a. Miguel A. Garcia surprises us. His last offering
was already an excellent display of microsound, moving away from his
previous work in noise and rhythm and rhythm and noise, this new EP has
three tracks which are again quite low in volume. Each track uses sounds
from other people, Simon Daniel, Thierry Massard and Rafael Flores. Xedh
transforms the material through the use of his laptop, but also using a
mixer, microphones, sine waves and 'treated sounds'. Each track moves into
the next, so it's rather a work in three parts, than three different works.
The bass end is a bit muddy, which shows when you put the volume a bit
higher. But it's another fine work here. Soft, but outspoken, moving around
in various territories and crackling like laptop music, but then made using
microphones. Very nice. The way to follow and explore more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zeromoon.com
Corrections: the correct URL for Creative Sources is:
http://www.creativesourcesrec.com/ and the composer Melnyk "is actually
Ukranian-Canadian, of Ukranian parents living in Canada, though he spends
most of his time in Sweden now".
1. From: "olivier rodriguez" <tuladi@hotmail.com>
WEDNESDAY 12TH MARCH
7.30pm, free
Small But perfectly Formed third exhibition at the Foundry.
Damien Beaton (designer of the label Confront) will show new prints and
tailored video works. Also shown that night films by Samantha Rebello.
To celebrate the news we've asked a bunch of likely minded artists to pop in
with incidental music. Three different approaches to laptop-based
electro-acoustic improvisation.
Nos Phillipé
<http://www.secureonlineshopping.biz/sound323/products.asp?partno=confront%20collectors%20series%2007>
Paul Abbot and Mark Fletcher
prepared and unprepared objects. <http://www.dumpunder.net/>
Isambard Khroustaliov
(one half of the duo Icarus). Here he presents a new collaboration with
videomaker Martin.
The Foundry
84-86 Great Eastern Street,
London, EC2A 3JL
Tube: Old Street (exit 3)
info: http://smabpf.blogspot.com/
2. From: al margolis <pogal@pogus.com>
INTERPRETATIONS
THURSDAY MARCH 13, 2008 - Al Margolis / Denman Maroney
Al Margolis manipulating prerecorded sounds and sampling; Lisa Barnard,
vocals; Monique Buzzarté, trombone; Tom Hamilton, electronics; Jacqueline
Martelle, flute; and Katherine Liberovskaya, video.
ROULETTE
20 Greene Street between Canal and Grand, 2 blocks west of Broadway
$15 general admission/$10 students, seniors, Harvestworks & DTW members
Roulette and Location One members free
Reservations: 212-219-8242 / Information: 212-627-0990
All concerts begin at 8pm
Wednesday, March 19th at 7 PM
Compositions by Al Margolis; Robert Voisey; Douglas Cohen; Christian McLeer;
David Gamper; George Brunner
The Tempest Project concert will take place on Wednesday, March 19th at 7 PM
on the Whitman stage at Brooklyn College. It is part of the 18th Biannual
International Electroacoustic Music Festival.
Friday 28 March 2008
Présences électroniques : Le programme
Maison de Radio France, Salle Olivier Messiaen
Jean-Claude Risset, Michel Guillet, Portradium, Kaffe Mathews, Al Margolis /
If, Bwana
20h Entrée libre
Gratuit - Maison de Radio France, Salle Messiaen, entrée Porte A, 116 avenue
du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris
And more info on the above Festival at:
http://www.ina.fr/actualites/rendez-vous/multiphonies.html
Fri April 4th, De Witte Zaal, Gent
Odradek presents If, Bwana feat. Dan Warburton; Illusion of Safety (IOS);
Mecha/Orga
doors: 8pm / tickets: EUR5/EUR6
De Witte Zaal, Posteernestraat 64, 9000 Gent
- Brussels 5 April 2008 (If Bwana):
LE BONHEUR
A. Dansaertstraat 96 - 1000 Brussels (B)
- KOLN 6 April 2008 (IOS)/IF BWANA /mecha/orga)
studio 672 / stadtgarten
venloer str. 40
50672 koeln
http://www.stadtgarten.de
doors 20.00h first act: 20.45h
price: 7 presales, 10 on the door
reservations: zipo@aufabwegen.com
- Vienna 8 April 2008 (IOS/If Bwana/Onde):
RHIZ
Guertelbogen 37-38 1080 Wien (A)
- Brno 9 April 2008 (IOS/If Bwana/Onde)
SKLENENA LOUKA
Kounicova 23
BRNO (Cz)
www.sklenenalouka.cz <http://www.sklenenalouka.cz/>
- Prague 10 April 2008 (IOS/If Bwana/Onde/Schloss Tegal)
BUNKR PARUKARKA - Praha (cz)
www.argmorta.org <http://www.argmorta.org/>
- Berlin 11 April 2008
Ausland (yet to be confirmed)
- Hamburg 12 April 2008 (IOS/IF BWANA/ONDE)
Rote Flora
Achidi-John-Platz 1 (ex Schulterblatt 71)
20357 Hamburg
www.nadir.org <http://www.nadir.org/>
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