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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 636
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week 30
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offer a free-to-download weekly webcast as the
audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radio programme with
excerpts from some of the CDs reviewed here (no vinyl or MP3s). It is
available on the site for a limited period of 5 weeks. Download the file to
your MP3 player and enjoy!
Complete track listing here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html
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Submitting material means you agree with these terms.
* noted are in this week's pod-cast
ROTHKAMM - OPUS SPONGEBOBICUM (CD by Flux Records) *
RESONANT EMBERS (CD compilation by Edition Sonoro)
XX COMMITTEE - NETWERK (CD by Impulsy Stetoskopu) *
NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES - LEGNICA (CDR by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
RAOUL SINIER - BRAIN KITCHEN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
SAMARKANDE - 3 SYNAPSES (CD by Edition Log Musik) *
LAWRENCE ENGLISH - KIRI NO OTO (CD by Touch) *
BLUE WILLOW TRIO - TREES (CD by Grapes)
PAPER WINGS - ASH FIELD (CD by Black Petal/Pseudo Arcana)
CORY ALLEN - THE FOURTH WAY (CD by Quiet Design)
MACHINEFABRIEK - DAUW (CD by Dekorder)
BLACK TO COMM - FRACTAL HAIR GEOMETRY (CD by Dekorder)
ESCAPING FROM COLOR (CD compilation by Quasipop)
EDWARD S - UNTITLED SILVER (CDR by Quasipop)
STEPHANE LEONARD - LYKKELIG DYR (CD/LP by Heilskabaal/Naiv Super) *
TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA - DANCE MUSIC (CD by Bottrop-boy)
ILLUSION OF SAFETY - IN SESSION (CD by Waystyx) *
TRANCE - COMPILED (CD by Monochrome Vision)
THIS INFERNAL LOVE OF LIFE (CD by Monochrome Vision)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - UNTITLED (2006-2007) (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
BARDOSENETICCUBE - NOOSPHERE (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
ROGER MILLS - ANTIPODESIA (CD by UCM)
MIRCAN WITH LIMBO - NUMINOSUM (CD by UCM)
LES COX (SPORTIFS) - NEVERHEED (CD by Stop Looking)
SEMPERVIRENS - DIRGE OF THE DYING YEAR (CD by New Age Dawn/Stellar
Auditorium) *
PROCER VENEFICUS - SALTWATER AND GLASSMOON (CD by New Age Dawn/Stellar
Auditorium)
UNDERJORDISKA/SPECTRAL LORE (splitCDR by New Age Dawn/Stellar Auditorium)
MIRKO UHLIG - THE NIGHTMILLER (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
PROMONIUM JESTERS - PSYCHIC WARFARE (CDR by P In A Circle)
BIRGIT UHLER & HEDDY BOUBAKER - UPSIDE DOWN (CDR by Herbal/Why Not) *
TRIO WERCHOWSKA/PONTEVIA/BOUBAKER - DECALAGE VERS LE ROUGE (CDR by Petit
Label)
PHAT - LA GRANDE PESTE (MP3 by Nc.nd)
FEDERICO BARABINO - ONGAMIRA (CDR by Black Orchid Productions) *
DANIEL PABOEUF UNITY - DPU - (CDR, private)
ADAM JENNINGS - SOUNDS FROM SHANGHAI AND SUZHOU CHINA (CD, private) *
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - NEIL DIAMOND IS NOT THE GOD OF THUNDER AND ROCK
AND ROLL (CDR, private)
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - 10000 Flying Girls (CDR by Frostly You Haunt
Me) *
MARK SADGROVE & TIM COSTER - UNTITLED (CDR by CLaudia)
CURRER BELLS (3"CDR by CLaudia)
WOLFSKULL - BIBI BIBI BIBI (CDR by Insult Recordings)
PET COFFINS/SLOW LISTENER (CDR by Insult Recordings)
CONES - DIE ZACKEN (3"CDR by Insult Recordings)*
DEAD WOOD - BACKLED REALITY (3"CDR by Insult Recordings)
TÔ - U.N.A. (3"CDR by Cook An Egg)
TERJE PAULSEN - SEPTOBER (CDR by Q-tone)
TERJE PAULSEN - DAGBUE (MP3 by Homophoni)
ELAPSE-0 (MP3 by Records On Ribs) *
ROTHKAMM - OPUS SPONGEBOBICUM (CD by Flux Records)
Work by Frank Rothkamm has always a conceptual edge. In 1978, at the age of
12, he started to compose music, on the piano. Later on he devised his own
notation for music and kept on playing the piano until now. I might be wrong
but one of the first times his work was reviewed in Vital Weekly was his
'Tuning' 12" as DJ Flux, which consisted of the sound of tuning a piano.
Here he offers '40 Variations on the secret formula from Spongebob
Squarepants' - which comes with lengthy liner notes on 'variations' but how
it connects to my favorite cartoon hero of the new millennium - I am even
being waked up when he's on by the other, much younger fan when she's
around. Much like I know next to nothing about classical music, it's not
easy to value this work. Forty pieces of piano music, which go in one flow
and which are certainly nice to hear. It's not the piano playing of say
Satie or Debussy - that much I know - but more like 19th century piece of
classical music with some 'strange'
elements
thrown in that make this is quite a strange piece too. Even when the overall
concept left me with questions, the work as such was nice to hear. That's
about all I can say about it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com
RESONANT EMBERS (CD compilation by Edition Sonoro)
How much I like compilations, and certainly this one, things are never easy
to review. I can make some general remarks about who's on it, what the
underlying objective is in the music, pick a highlight, boo at a weak track
and that's it. Compilations are certainly no easy task. On 'Resonant Embers'
we have seven lengthy cuts of drone music. Six of them are by people who
regularly deliver the sonic resonances for Vital Weekly such as Irr. App.
(ext.), Jgrzinich, Ubeboet, Colin Potter, Paul Bradley and Andrew Liles,
leaving us with the introduction of Maile Colbert with Tellemake as the only
new artist on the block. Things drone away nicely, times seven. No weak
brothers or sisters around this lot. But also no particular standout pieces
or, and that's perhaps the weak point, nothing new under the ambient drone
sun. Processed field recordings (are those church bells, mister Potter?),
computerized software sound synthesis and otherworldly sounds from beyond
imagination. All fine, but
also
all text book stuff for these people. It's not that they delivered
yesterday's left-overs, au contraire I'd say, but it's a bit too much
commonplace. If that doesn't bother you, than it's fine. It didn't bother
me, since I like this kind of music anyway, so I thought it was a most
pleasant release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsonoro.com/
XX COMMITTEE - NETWERK (CD by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES - LEGNICA (CDR by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
An online search for really obscure and forgotten releases would no doubt
bring you, also (!), to perhaps this release. XX Committee is one of the
first 'bands' by Scott Foust, which is him on guitar, bass and rhythm and
Chris Scarpino on synth and guitar. They recorded in the basement of Foust'
parents in the early 80s, 'letting the rhythm go for hours', but in the end
the power wasn't entirely captured on the original vinyl, released by
Thermidor in 1983. The masters are lost, but this CD is rescued from the
original LP - oh glory to the computer for that. The ten tracks are pieces
of minimal music. XX Committee (pronounced as The Twenty Committee) set a
rhythm in motion - be in from a drum machine, or from a synth - and let it
go while they hammer out more rhythm and drone sounds on their instruments.
Like machines working in a factory. As such I think this is easily one of
the more important releases from the early, formative years of industrial
music. XX Committee predates say
Vivenza, although he had his own interesting view on the industrial
mechanisms of music, and sidesteps all the power noise of Whitehouse and
their shady friends. XX Committee blend together the rhythm of machines with
the power of drones in a rather unique way, that was unheard at the time,
and never repeated after that - the band went away and Foust went on. Even
when this CD re-issue is limited to 250 copies, it's definitely one must
have if you want to hear a great forgotten record from the early 80s. Maybe
their cassette should be issued to now.
Noise-maker's Fifes were from Belgium and are no longer around, following
the death of founder Geert Feytons in 2006. Apparently Impulsy Stetoskopu
has some old material in their vaults and 'Legnica' is the first to see the
light of day. Its a live recording from 1997 at the Ars Media Presentation
in Legnica and Noise-maker's Fifes were besides Feytons, Marc Wroblewski and
Eric Faes. There is no mentioning of instruments here, but knowing their
music to some extent, I think it's the 'usual' blend of objects (stones,
metal, wood etc) and prepared 'real' instruments. The music I guess is a
typical good gig for Noise-maker's Fifes. They work their way through a set
of improvised playing with a somewhat fixed structure, I think. Scraping the
objects, radio sounds and towards the end resonating strings and cymbals
play a bigger role. Think AMM, think Morphogenesis if such points of
reference are needed. But there are also moments in which things don't seem
to work and the three are
looking for the right sounds and seem a bit lost in the action. I guess such
things happen in the field of improvised electro-acoustic music. 'Legnica'
is not the greatest document of what Noise-maker's Fifes could do - the
visual aspect was certainly as important - but it gives a good solid
impression anyway. (FdW)
Address: <impulsystetoskopu@yahoo.com>
RAOUL SINIER - BRAIN KITCHEN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Raoul Sinier reaches many interesting corners in his latest effort from his
kitchen of sonic experimentation. The French artist impressed me with his
EP-appetizer "Huge Samirai Radish" to this main course titled "Brain
kitchen". If music was food, the variation of expressions on this latest
album by the artist who also has a number of releases on the Planet
MU-label, is like a well-assorted buffet serving expressions from
experimental hip hop, across IDM, abstract techno to cool breakbeats.
Remarkable about this album is the artist's ability to control this complex
soup of electronic sounds and thus end up with this enjoyable result. The
fourteen works on the album spans from catchy pieces sometimes reminding me
of a cutting-edge version of early 808 State to hypercomplex pieces such as
the amazing track titled "The incredible spitting machine" reminiscent of
Autechre from the "Chiastic Slide"-period thanks to the alluring combination
of grandiose ambient-scapes and "spittting"
expressions of microsounds and noise-beats. The frequent occurrence of hip
hop rhythm textures creates a fine line throughout this excellent lengthy
work of Raoul Sinier. (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
SAMARKANDE - 3 SYNAPSES (CD by Edition Log Musik)
We met Samarkande last year for the first time, when they did a split CDR
release with the Oblivion Ensemble (see Vital Weekly 568). Samarkande is a
duo of Eric Fillion and Sylvain Lamirande, who played with John Zorn's Cobra
Game Player, whereas Fillion is a classically trained pianist and organist.
They already have three previous releases, since they started in 1999. The
cover lists their instruments in full detail, even when it means not much to
me, Samarkande seem to be a bunch of gear collectors. It's not easy to
describe what Samarkande is doing. Partly it dwells heavily on the use of
electronics which gives this album an ambient texture, but smaller portions
are reserved for improvised playing on say the violin or the clarinet. What
I thought of their split CDR release with the Oblivion Ensemble is also what
I think of this new one: it's quite nice, but too lengthy and sometimes
drifting too much without wanting to have any sort of structure. It comes
off like many smaller
pieces being mixed together to make one long piece, but which also makes
things unfocussed. My suggestion is to create an album with shorter tracks
and explore them within the time frame of that shorter piece. This doesn't
mean I think this is a bad album, not at all in fact. '3 Synapses' certainly
has some fine moments when explore the more moody roads of the music, and
let things develop in a natural way. Their experience at playing their
instruments helped create a musically fine album, but one with some extra
room for improvement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.samarkande.ca
LAWRENCE ENGLISH - KIRI NO OTO (CD by Touch)
Perhaps Lawrence English needs no introduction, as recently he has presented
much new work in these pages. He is from Brisbane where he deals with field
recordings, installations, improvisations with people like David Toop, Terry
Riley, DJ Olive, Tetuzi Akiyama and many others. Also he is the man behind
Australia's more interesting labels Room40. In his own music he uses a lot
of field recordings, like his recent underwater recordings. On 'Kiri No
Oto', which translates as 'sound of fog', which is not what he uses, but the
music that sounds like fog. Although English doesn't reveal his sound
sources, just referred to as 'instruments and found sounds', which are
processed until they sound like fog. Also the processing is just described
as 'analog filtering and harmonic distortion', but the end result works very
much like fog. No matter how hard you try to see, all you get is blurry
things. And that's what this music does too. Once you think you may
recognize something - be it a melody
,
an instrument or even a melodic part such as 'Allay' - it's never really
clear what it is that you are listening to. I'm not a car driver, but I can
imagine this as driving a car in fog: you notice things, and then they
disappear and as such works the music also. Each of the eight pieces work
like this, each piece of music has its own special quality, even when there
are similarities among the various pieces. Here the fog theme works also a
bigger level - by creating similar yet different tracks, a deliberate mist
is also created. Great record, if not always surprising from the perspective
of 'new' music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
BLUE WILLOW TRIO - TREES (CD by Grapes)
A jazz trio made up of Takumi Seino playing acoustic and electric guitars,
with Masako Hamamura on piano and Jeremy Stratton handling the acoustic
bass. They took their name from the 'Blue Willow' CD they recorded in 2000.
So I guess this is their second release.
Before I go into it, I should say first that I,m not into this kind of music
normally. What we have here is a pure jazz trio of very well accomplished
players. Not my thing usually, but there is a but! The name of Takumi Seino
should ring a bell. Frans de Waard and I covered earlier work of Seino in
Vital Weekly. There was for example a duo recording of Seino with his
canadian colleague Anthione Berthiaume. Jeremy Stratton is an american
player who studied with Charlie Haden and plays a lot with Lee Konitz.
Masako Hamamura comes from Kobe. At the moment she performs and teaches at
the Koyo Conservatory in Kobe. For their new recording the trio played live
two days in october 2007 in the small music cafe Jalan-Jalan, somewhere in
Japan. Of the nine pieces on this album four were composed by Takumi Seino,
two by Masako Hamamura. The other pieces are short collective
improvisations. Together they make up a very homogenous unity in more than
one respect. In all pieces the musicians take
time to develop the lines they want to follow. The playing is controlled and
functional. No meaningless virtuosity. The result is well balanced and well
tempered kind of easy listening jazz that never becomes sugar sweet.
Everything what they are doing fits. The trio delivers a very consistent job
from beginning to end. They are equally involved and dedicated and very
focused. The themes and tunes they composed sound very familiar and close to
the laws that define the format of the jazz trio. But on the other hand the
music is absolutely not cliché. This trio speaks with an authentic voice.
During my listening to this CD my appreciation grew and grew, and now I
simply love it. (DM)
Address: http://www.grapesmusic.com/
PAPER WINGS - ASH FIELD (CD by Black Petal/Pseudo Arcana)
Released by Anthony Guerra's Black Petal label (I think the first real CD on
his label) and Anthony Milton's Pseudo Arcana, both of these musicians are
also responsible for the audio content as Paper Wings. The album was already
recorded in 2005 (I have no idea why it wasn't out earlier) in 'a small room
on a winters day in Sydney'. Both play electric guitar (and both have an
extensive background in improvised music) and use lots of amplification.
This is improvised music but not the sort we review a lot these days. Here
Paper Wings lots of amplification to get a nice resonating sound. And god
knows what else they use, delay pedals, distortion pedals, ring modulation -
the sky is the limit here. Four tracks of howling beauty. They play
everything from just a few notes to walls of feedback and noise, even when
this is not the Merzbow type of noise. They compare it to 'Earth at 16RPM'
and that is very much true - slowly strummed, resonating sounds that work
best at a massive volume.
Four long improvised pieces of two electric guitars that work on an intense
minimal yet psychedelic level and it sticks right in your brain. Absolutely
great stuff and rightly so on a real CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackpetal.com http://www.pseudoarcana.com
CORY ALLEN - THE FOURTH WAY (CD by Quiet Design)
Quiet Design releases a CD by Cory Allen who plays Fender Rhodes and Moog
Voyager, ring modulator and software and call it a 'rich minimal ambient
work [...] building on his signature style of lush and soft linear hypnotic
ambient, Allen ventures into new territory where gripping data textures and
air-tight moog tones push and pull with streaming fountains of electronic
elegance'. For a moment I thought they packed the wrong CD but the label
says indeed 'Cory Allen'. 'The Fourth Way' is, no surprise, his fourth
album. We missed out on the previous three, so I have no idea if they were
indeed 'lush and soft', but this one is certainly a different batch of
music. Cory Allen, who is along with Josh Russel, Rick Reed and Brent Fariss
a member of Sirsit, plays heavy drone music here. Loud, mean stuff, but not
distorted or nasty in the industrial music sense of the word. Allen plays
his music with a fine sense for details, moving away from the quiet drone
music, but doing something much
more heavy. He melts together the warmth of analogue synths with crispy
software sounds and moves away from the traditional drone music, just as
Russel did with 'Sink' (Vital Weekly 612), perhaps not surprisingly on the
same label. Not easy listening this one, but surely one that has a lot of
beauty captured inside. Cruel beauty that is, certainly if, and I recommend
this, you play this loud. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quietdesign.us
MACHINEFABRIEK - DAUW (CD by Dekorder)
BLACK TO COMM - FRACTAL HAIR GEOMETRY (CD by Dekorder)
For a week or two I believed Rutger Zuydervelt was on holiday, since nothing
new arrived here... well, since his excellent release with Stephen Vitiello
(Vital Weekly 531 - oops five weeks of silence), but here is 'Dauw', for
once (?) a CD by Machinefabriek solo and specially composed for the
occasion. Various of his previous CD releases were compilations of his vast
catalogue of 3"CDR releases. Here he plays acoustic, electric guitar,
turntable, sampler, dictaphone, piano, tone generator and laptop. Dekorder
mentions a whole bunch comparisons, from Fennesz to Arvo Part, Godspeed,
Basinski, Philip Jeck and Mogwai which is funny, because it seems so right,
yet it never really crossed my mind to compare him with all of these. It has
the sustaining, drone like sounds of Part, Godspeed and Mogwai, and the
laptop like qualities of Fennesz and the pace of Jeck. This new album, with
its five tracks (the fifth spanning half the album) is another fine
Machinefabriek album, in which his music
crystallize further, reaching another peak of subtle sounds. Machinefabriek
has founds its form already some time, and now finds time to explore things
further and deepens his music. 'Dauw' is a great CD and can easily meet the
best in his extended career.
Black To Comm is the solo project of Marc Richter, the label boss of
Dekorder. He calls this his 'drone' project in which he plays casio, farfisa
organ, electronics and voice and gets help from various people playing
violin, electronics, piano and trumpet. All of his sounds are fed through
analogue and digital effects pedals and then put together on the computer,
'sometimes consisting of more than fifty recording layers'. The first track
with its vocal like chants let me down a bit, but the rest of the album is
quite nice. Black To Comm understands drone not as 'one chord down, delay
pedal full open', but it can he nervous and hectic sounds pieced together on
the computer, with sounds and even melodies dropping in and out of the mix.
He does that in more or less in all seven of the pieces on this album and
manages to hold enough variety in the material, yet keeping control of his
working method. This kind of drone music is something that one doesn't hear
every day and goes beyond the
more traditional types of drone music. That's something I like very much and
this new CD by Black To Comm is great. A highly refined and original work.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.dekorder.com
ESCAPING FROM COLOR (CD compilation by Quasipop)
EDWARD S - UNTITLED SILVER (CDR by Quasipop)
Elsewhere there is a review of Francisco Lopez' new double CD which rounds
up tracks from 2006 and 2007 and one of that is a rather disappointing remix
of Rapoon. I thought I missed that somewhere along the lines, but Quasipop
just send me the complete album of Rapoon 'recomposed and remixed'. As a
quick reminder, since we haven't reviewed a Rapoon CD in quite some time:
Rapoon is the music by Zoviet France founder Robin Storey who left in the
early 90s to concentrate on his own music, which had strong rhythmical (at
times ethno) components and ambient textures. Sounds indeed like a good
material to remix, but I wonder if the fifteen artists here would bring the
material really into a new place, to win over new fans for the music of
Rapoon. We are treated here with work by TV Pow, Machinefabriek, Troum,
Steve Roden, Jorge Castro, Paulo Raposo, Aidan Baker, Anla Courtis, Gert-Jan
Prins, Heimir Bjorgulfsson, Mike Shiflet, Family Underground, Ronnie Sundin
and Cisfinitum (although his
track doesn't count as a remix, since it's a live collaboration with Rapoon
from a concert in Moscow in 2006). Lots of familiar names, from roughly say
the same scene as Rapoon himself, and some surprises - didn't know
Bjorgulfsson was still doing music, Roden as a remixer and Sundin who has
been quiet for a while. The downside is that I didn't hear many surprising
pieces of music - I did hear good versions of Rapoon's music. Some
emphasized his rhythmic side, others his ambient side, some worked with
computerized treatments there of (Sundin, Roden, Lopez and Bjorgulfsson),
and some stay pretty close to the original, like Troum. But none took his
music into the rock arena, the dubstep floor or country-western - to mention
three unlikely places, but where there is perhaps new fans to win over. In
that sense this is 'just' a 'nice' compilation with many nice tracks for
sure, but for whom, we could wonder. No doubt for the Rapoon fans of course
and for some of the remixers (which may
overlap no doubt). A very nice compilation, but perhaps a bit redundant
also.
On the same label another CDR by Edward S, 'Untitled Silver', in an edition
of 23 copies. Twenty track in an equal amount of minutes - there is no doubt
some conspiracy, conceptually driven aspect, which I fail to see. The short
time span doesn't do the music any justice. It's more like twenty-three
attempts at writing short pieces, but they keep sticking in half started
attempts. Rhythm, noise, collage, musique concrete, it's all there but fails
to make a good impression here. Its more difficult to create a good, very
short piece than a somewhat longer one - that is lesson to be drawn from
this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quasipop.org
STEPHANE LEONARD - LYKKELIG DYR (CD/LP by Heilskabaal/Naiv Super)
Its always great to see confidence. I never heard of Stephane Leonard, but
Heilskanaal and Naivsuper are confident enough to do a release that is both
on LP and CD - the first real CD for Naivsuper. That is surely confidence
and I hope it works for them. Leonard released two solo recordings in 2003
and 2004, then learned how to program max/msp and then spent three years on
doing field recordings and editing this album. I must admit that I fail to
see all the confidence. Its by all means not a bad piece of work, but it
doesn't shout 'original' all over it. Ten tracks of glitchy sounds and
rhythms which sound very Fennesz like, even the 'pop' approach is used by
Leonard, doesn't make him the next promise in microsound, click 'n cut or
glitch land. Having said that, I must say that the album isn't bad either.
Leonard plays some nice music, excellently produced, with tracks being short
and to the point. Qualities that are sometimes forgotten by others, but
which are necessary tools of
the
trade. If there wasn't a Fennesz around, and if he didn't release 'Endless
Summer', 'Lykkelig Dyr' by Stephane Leonard could easily be the new king of
all things glitch and pop, now he's one of the many fine servants of the
trade. (FdW)
Address: http://www.heilskabaal.net http://www.naivsuper.de
TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA - DANCE MUSIC (CD by Bottrop-boy)
There is no need to put on your shoes and dance along, since this 'Dance
Music' is music for choreography and as such uses no beats of course.
Toshimaru Nakamura is of course the man of the no-input mixer and one that
has the standard for this instrument. It seems that everyone, except for
Marko Ciciliani whose rapid playing is the anti-thesis of Nakamura, plays
like Nakamura: long stretches of feedback sound, with the minimalist
changes. Nakamura tests our limits on this release. Two pieces, one lasting
over twenty minutes and under fifty minutes, this will do all sorts of crazy
things with your mind. It's not music to put on and play loud, as certified
insanity is what happens next, but even at a much lower volume this is not
easy music to hear. For me this works best at this somewhat lower volume and
create a more ambient/surround texture style of music. The first, shorter,
piece is a more continuous affair, whereas the second is more a bumpy ride,
with sounds dropping in and out.
Certainly not easy music to hear and I doubt wether I would play this very
often. Sometimes music can be too demanding and 'Dance Music' certainly
falls in the category of too demanding music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com
ILLUSION OF SAFETY - IN SESSION (CD by Waystyx)
One of my favorite post industrial bands ever. Period. Since more than
twenty years I am a fan and every new release is awaited with eager
anticipation. This highly limited release from Russia, in a gorgeous
package, is no different. These days, since many years actually, Illusion Of
Safety is reduced one person, following a free floating membership that
included Thyme Jones and Jim O'Rourke to mention just two, which is Dan
Burke. He plays 'sound generating devices and random objects that
deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners'. I deliberately
use the term 'post industrial' and not say 'electro-acoustic' or 'musique
concrete', which could also easily be applied to the music of Illusion Of
Safety. When they started they were firmly rooted in the world of industrial
music, and later on elements of musique concrete came along, but if you
listen to 'In Session' the elements of industrial music are still there.
Heavy, steel walls of drone music pierce your ears and
are
as easily replaced by soft drones, crackling sounds of hand held objects and
contact microphones. I wouldn't be surprised if Burke plays all of this 'in
session', live at home so to speak. I saw him a lot of times playing
concerts which capture the equal beauty that is captured here. Ranging from
sheer noise to near silence and there is always an element of surprise
lurking around the corner. An abrupt, full stop or start and it bring the
piece in a new territory. Illusion Of Safety's music can be compared with
the likes of Roel Meelkop or Toy Bizarre, but is less bound to rules of
composition and more free and joyous (well, that's probably not the right
away) than those of the microsound/musique concrete posse that inhabits the
world of Vital Weekly so frequently. That alone makes a great band and
another great CD. Very fine concentrated bursts of sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.waystyx.com
TRANCE - COMPILED (CD by Monochrome Vision)
THIS INFERNAL LOVE OF LIFE (CD by Monochrome Vision)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - UNTITLED (2006-2007) (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
BARDOSENETICCUBE - NOOSPHERE (CD by Monochrome Vision)
I don't remember when the last time was that I music from Mason Jones'
Trance project - easily more than ten years ago. Perhaps this is the right
moment to admit that I was never the biggest fan for the Trance project and
perhaps that's the reason it has been such a long time, perhaps it had to do
with shifting interests at the time. Jones started Trance in 1987 as a solo
guitar project with a strong interest in slow and heavy, almost industrial
music. He released a couple of cassettes on his own Charnel House label,
then a few CD for the same label, as well as Staalplaat and called it a day
when Trance had a totally different meaning - 'bad electronic music' as
Jones calls this on the liner notes of a CD that compiles various, but not
all, pieces that Trance did for compilation CDs and cassettes (oddly enough
no vinyl). Even when I didn't hear his music for such a long, I must say
that I was eager to play it, to note if my appreciation has changed over the
years. Right from the
very
first second I recognized this a traditional music by Trance. Lots of hectic
beats and lots of distorted guitars that go on top of that. It's still
something I find hard to relate to, even after all these years. The music of
Trance remains very distant and doesn't grab me that much. Sometimes a
guitar line pops up which sounds nice, or when the beats are slower, but
that's it. I think I still prefer Jones' work in Subarachnoid Space much
better.
Somewhere in the vaults of music that I may call 'living' room I have a copy
of 'This Infernal Love Of Life', an album released by Topyscan in 1989. I
don't remember why I have this, wether I wrote a review or not, or even if I
ever played it. But I like CD releases of old vinyl as they usually sound
better. When I heard this I must admit I didn't recognize the music. This CD
goes up and up. The start, a piece by Eld-Omala is not something I like very
much. 'Gothic' music to my taste. I was never a big fan of White Stains
either - too much the Swedish answer to Psychic TV - but their 'Underworld
Initiation' sounds alright. Heavy slow drums, pounding nicely with highly
atmospheric synthesizers. Pretty dated music, but not bad at all. Phauss,
the band of Hauswolff and Phauser have a great piece of field recordings -
at a time when no one did those - mixed with sizzling electronics and
Karkowski presents an early piece I guess of similar electronics and what
seems to warped tape
collages. The electronics reminded me of insect like sounds. Quality
increases on this highly varied compilation, and sounds great. Never
understood why I didn't play the album - or remembering it.
Many of the Francisco Lopez releases have just one piece, but of course
Lopez composes also shorter pieces, usually for compilations or commissions.
Lopez compiles them by the year and here he rounds up two years, 2006 and
2007, on a double CD. Perhaps the most 'strange' piece in this collection is
'Untitled #196', which he was commissioned for by the MAE Ensemble from
Amsterdam. This is indeed an unlike Lopez piece for a small ensemble with
some hectic playing - in that sense also an odd piece for Lopez. The other
pieces are, as said, shorter than the usual Lopez pieces, and there are
times when it seems to me that Lopez has difficulty handling the short time
span, or perhaps it has to do with the assignment, like a rather mediocre
Rapoon remix. However those pieces are in a minority here. When Lopez goes
back into the field to tape his sounds and to do his typical Lopez like
treatments things are great as always. Here the shorter time span works also
a bit against the pieces, or
perhaps one wished they would last a bit longer, but they are fine pieces.
No doubt the die hard collectors have all of these pieces when they were
first released on a compilation, but collected together is something I
actually prefer. A nice round-up of things from the past, preserved for the
future.
Monochrome Vision releases a lot of music from the 'old' boys from what can
be loosely called 'industrial music and beyond', but after every three or
four releases there is also space for a Russian artist, home land of the
label. The cover tell us a story about a laptop with an unknown system error
playing the music of solar wind and a feedback circuit to add elements of
human presence. The laptop was stolen shortly after that so this is the only
account of the piece that was created. Bardoseneticcube is the project of
Igor Potsukaili. His 'Noosphere' is a lengthy piece of music, almost
sixty-eight minutes, that works more like an ambient event than an actual
piece of music. It changes throughout its run, with sounds coming in and out
of the mix, while there are continuous events that run the entire course of
the CD. Its music that you may to play at a somewhat lower volume and
preferable in repeat play and create your own environment. Nice one indeed.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
ROGER MILLS - ANTIPODESIA (CD by UCM)
MIRCAN WITH LIMBO - NUMINOSUM (CD by UCM)
Two CDs that both come in a very deluxe edition. The CDs come with a thick
full color booklet with photographs, etc. They did invest quite a lot in
graphics and design. Unusual if you ask me. UCM stands for Uncatalogued
Music Production. It was founded in 2006 by Mircan Kaia coming from the
Black Sea region and earthquake engineer from profession. In 2007 two CDs
were released on this label; 'Sala' and 'Ashes' both solo-albums by Mircan.
Now UCM presents two new cds. On 'Numinosum' Mircan is assisted by Limbo an
english jazz combo with Roger Mills a.o. Mills did also the mixing and
production in his Eartrumpet Studio in Bristol. With Limbo and three turkish
musicians Mircan realized her latest musical dreams. All lyrics and tracks
are written by Mircan, but the music came about mostly out of improvisation
in the studio. The music is far from jazzy, except in 'To take a Step
without Feet'. Most pieces are dreamy, sometimes rocky songs, with much
attention for an atmospheric sonic
environment. Eastern influences you might expect are hard to discover. Only
in the playing of the accordion-player I discovered some. Mircan sings in
english with a voice that has more potential then shown on this cd. The band
gives a good performance. All together they create a Kate Bush-related world
that will function in your dreamy hours.
Roger Mills is a composer, sound and media artist plus trumpet-player. For
more information on him go to http://www.eartrumpet.com/.
'Antipodesian' is his debut album. His music is a mix of ambient, jazz and
soundscapes. The pieces on his album emerged from improvisations recorded
during live performances between 2005 and 2007. Field recordings he made
during his travels also play an important role. He is helped out by several
musicians playing flutes, drums, percussion, etc. But in the end the music
sounds very programmed and processed. Prominent is the muted trumpet by
Mills. Jon Hassell is not very far away. Also because most pieces breath an
exotic and tribal atmosphere. Like on the album by Mircan the music
communicates a dreamy and spacey soundworld. It is a professional mix of an
improvising trumpet imbedded in nice soundscapes that are made up of
fieldrecordings and manipulated musical recordings. Ambient jazz evoking
melancholic moods. On the other hand I found his blend not very surprising
or original. It is nice and effective soundwork, however moving along
conventional lines. (DM)
Address: http://www.ucmproduction.com
LES COX (SPORTIFS) - NEVERHEED (CD by Stop Looking)
During the big 7 days summer festival of Nijmegen there is a place with
'alternative' stages, so I could easily fill my gap of knowledge with
regards to all things alternative. I'm writing this somewhere half way
through the week, so perhaps the real surprises could be coming, but I heard
on the main stage a current imitation of Section 25, a cross between Emerson
Lake & Palmer and Mother's Finest, white man reggae and third class post
rock. This town ain't big enough. I don't have a copy of the program, nor
does the hangover encourage me to search for it online, but I don't think
Les Cox (Sportifs) are playing. A power trio of guitar, drums, vocals and
bass from the UK, and are an 'unpolished, artless, ramshackle and utterly
charming insight to all that was great with the Indie scene 20 years ago,
yet with both feet stamped firmly in the present', which means selling old
as new, me thinks. But there is no such thing as 'independent music' in the
place where the guitars, drums,
vocals
and bass - it's all unsigned bands waiting for the major to drop by. That's
why they have festivals in small places to test waters. Having said all that
the eight tracks were pretty decent and picked up out of the mailbox this
tomorrow it saved me also time to think of what music I needed to wake up to
and was mildly amused by their band name. So life isn't bad - it changes
color every now and then, and stays the same. (FdW)
Address: http://www.stop-looking.co.uk
SEMPERVIRENS - DIRGE OF THE DYING YEAR (CD by New Age Dawn/Stellar
Auditorium)
PROCER VENEFICUS - SALTWATER AND GLASSMOON (CD by New Age Dawn/Stellar
Auditorium)
UNDERJORDISKA/SPECTRAL LORE (splitCDR by New Age Dawn/Stellar Auditorium)
Chosing a label name like New Age Dawn/Stellar Auditorium raises an eyebrow
here, but thank god no new age music around these three. The label is from
Athens, Greece and focusing on 'both rock/metal and experimental music', but
again thank god no rock/metal - and hopefully not in the future for Vital
Weekly (release it as you like, but we can't review that - thanks). These
three are on the sublabel Steller Auditorium, and the first is by Estonian
ambient artist Margus Mets, who works as Sempervirens. He has had six
releases already and his sound sources are field recordings, electronics but
also say an acoustic guitar. The label compares this to Biosphere, early
Brian Eno and Northaunt's 'Barren Land' and even when I don't know that one,
the others sound like a good reference to me. Dark drones, highly
atmospheric, like picked up transmissions from the sky itself. Stellar music
indeed. Mets plays eight very nice tracks indeed, excellently produced but
nothing new under the sun.
Which perhaps could also be said of Procer Veneficus, also known as Derek
Schultz. He started in 2004 and has a long catalogue of unheard music by me,
but filled, I'm told, with music from black metal, acoustic and organic
ambience. I guess 'Saltwater And Glassmoon' is from the latter category of
works as the five lengthy pieces are very much alike what I just described
as music by Sempervirens. Deep drone music, maybe just a little bit more
monotonous, but certainly as nicely produced as the previous release, and
again, with not much new insight on the subject of dark drone ambient music.
More forest than sky music I guess, like a misty picture of trees. Nice.
A bit more problematic for me is the release by 'two experimental black
metal one-man bands', Underjordiska and Spectral Lore. Both play a variety
of instruments, guitar mostly, drones and electronics, but in both cases
it's an uneasy marriage. It seems to me that both want to display their
ability to really play. So abstract passages in the music, which are quite
nice, can move into post rock or guitar doodling. But it all happens inside
a single track per band, which are faded quite roughly, and one has the idea
that just various tracks are collated together. As said, the more abstract
parts of the pieces with the shimmering dark drones is quite nice, but
display of technique is not my thing. And I have no idea where they found
the black metal thing, since it has nothing to do with metal. (FdW)
Address: http://www.newagedawn.co.uk
MIRKO UHLIG - THE NIGHTMILLER (CDR by Mystery Sea)
So far the work of Mirko Uhlig was highly appreciated here. Not because it's
any 'new' by any sort of standard, but his wanderings into the world of
drone music can easily match those in the field with a higher profile. The
three tracks here are more pieces from what Uhlig does best (his attempt at
'noise' seemed an one off). Very soft in volume, this is drone music of a
highly nocturnal affair. Don't bring this into the daylight but keep it
covered for night time listening. You need to crank up the volume quite a
bit in order to hear something of the low fidelity drones, but if you the
three parts will make perfect sense. Only the title piece seems to be a bit
louder, and could be sampled from Ravel's 'Bolero' covered with a lot of
hiss sounds. It's anyway hard to tell what it is that Uhlig does here in
terms of using sounds and/or instruments. The drones are large, and could be
processed field recordings, but I think I also recognized some (sampled?)
instruments in there. As said,
I
think this is another fine release from Uhlig, even when the whole ambient
drone sound is a dead end alley. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
PROMONIUM JESTERS - PSYCHIC WARFARE (CDR by P In A Circle)
Promonium Jesters is an Ontario-based project that was established in 1994
by school mates Greg Cox and Ethan Moseley, originally with concentration on
Industrial music. With the addition of Dave Miller and Tyler Noble,
Promonium Jester has extended their sound approach with a more wide
Industrial metal-based attitude. And the result on this Ep-release titled
"Psychic warfare" is certainly promising if you're into abrasive stuff.
Opening with a brutal piece titled "Futurekill" approaching the noise-level
of extreme grind-thrashers Exhumed thanks to the excellent cocktail of
furious black metal-like vocals and thrashing guitar-riffs grinding on top
of electronic Industrial-scapes, the ground has been laid for some serious
moshing.... Until second track penetrates with a radical style-change
towards club-oriented industrial-techno reminding me of early Swamp
Terrorists or Wumpscut. The quartet manage to keep the listener glued to the
speakers with the excellent blend of harsh
expressions of Industrial-metal and awesome atmospheric electronic
soundscapes. Especially on third track the shift from harshness to deep
atmospheres works great as the music suddenly changes approx. halfway
through seven minutes running track. Having toured with Noise-acts such
compatriot sound terrorist Knurl and japnoise-legend Merzbow, Platinum
Jesters already has spread their name, but their successful blend of
Industrial, techno, hip hop, rock and extreme metal/electronics certainly
deserves to get wider attention. (NM)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/promonium
BIRGIT UHLER & HEDDY BOUBAKER - UPSIDE DOWN (CDR by Herbal/Why Not)
TRIO WERCHOWSKA/PONTEVIA/BOUBAKER - DECALAGE VERS LE ROUGE (CDR by Petit
Label)
PHAT - LA GRANDE PESTE (MP3 by Nc.nd)
The common factor for these three releases is the French musician Heddy
Boubaker, who plays alto saxophone. All three releases fall in the section
of improvised music. The first release is a duo recording with Birgit Uhler,
who plays trumpet, radio and objects. The six pieces were recorded in
Hamburg in 2007. They play their instruments like objects like so many do
these days. There is however one thing which makes them a bit different and
that is the volume they use. In this area its not uncommon to play things at
a soft level, but here the instruments are loud (well, relatively speaking)
and clear. They play some intense pieces, exploring their instruments in
unusual manner and making some intense listening. A very fine work that has
the right length of thirty-two minutes, which requires your full
concentration.
The second release is a trio, and judging by the name perhaps a more regular
outing for them. Boubaker plays here with Nush Werchowska (piano and
objects) and Mathias Pontevia (horizontal drums). The drums and the piano
tend to play at times in a more 'regular' improvised way, whereas the
saxophone is most of the times in his 'object' mood. This trio moves along
the lines of old and new improvisation, as well as a silence and loudness
and requires the equal amount of attention as the previous one - don't play
this in one go, I'd say.
With the trio Phat Boubakker goes into another territory. It has Fabien
Duscombs on drums and percussion and Marc Perrenoud on bass and electric
contrabass. Here too it's all free improvisation of course but in a strict
free jazz vein. In terms of 'music' perhaps the most 'musical' one, less of
an exploration of instruments and more about playing many crazy notes, this
is the least exciting for me, perhaps while is so regular crazy music and
not something that could be bringing more than lots of crazy playing. Or
perhaps I don't like Free Jazz. Let's stay on the safe side and think that.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/whynotltd
Address: http://www.petitlabel.com
Address: http://insub.dincise.net
FEDERICO BARABINO - ONGAMIRA (CDR by Black Orchid Productions)
We came across the music of Federico Barabino before, when he released
together with Charles Rice Goff III. Here he is solo, playing his guitar and
feeding the sounds through a bunch of delay pedals and ring modulator.
Unlike the recent CD by Ueno (see Vital Weekly 633) in which this marriage
didn't work very well, Barabino does a better job. His playing matches his
processing better - I use the word 'processing', since I wouldn't be
surprised to learn (no information was given with this release) that
Barabino first laid down his guitar playing on the computer and then used
that create 'shadow' files with ring modulator plug ins which he then mixes
together. On one hand highly moody music, but not in the sense of drone
music, but rather plucking the strings and adding on a sub-level some kind
of ambient background, creating sufficient tension for the material. Quite a
nice mixture of improvisation and micro sound techniques with some
surprising results. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackorchid.host.sk
DANIEL PABOEUF UNITY - DPU - (CDR, private)
The name of Daniel Pabouef brings back memories of the days of new wave
music. I know him from Marquis de Sade, Ubik and Sax Pustuls, french groups
that were on the front in the 80s. How things went for him later I don't
know. But he is back now with a CDR by his own project with music that still
is linked to the paradigms of new wave music. Just listen to 'L'excavateur'.
From the first moments it is immediately clear that Paboeuf likes it rough.
Responsible is his power sax playing. But the drumming by Régis Boulard, the
piano and synthesizer playing by David Euverte, and the laptop and
programming plus vocals by Mistress Bomb H also contribute to the cacophony.
Together they fabricate a pleasant wall of sound that surely is the most
attractive aspect of their music, also in a ballad-like piece 'L'étincelle'.
Without guitar and bass the quartet they create their version of rock music.
Lots of energy is generated here, and that is what counts here. But it finds
it's way through
musical forms that we know too well. So I ask myself who will be attracted
by it. But please continue DPU! (DM)
ADAM JENNINGS - SOUNDS FROM SHANGHAI AND SUZHOU CHINA (CD, private)
Have recorder, will travel. Adam Jennings was in China very recently when
the earth quake hit the country and the preparing for the Olympics. Inspired
by the Sublime Frequencies series, he wants to release his own series of
field recordings. This album has no less than 48 small tracks of pure field
recordings, ranging from street sounds, restaurants, TV and such like. I
have not been to China myself, but I can easily believe this what the
country sounds like. However I must admit that the brief character of many
of pieces is a bit of a let down. I rather would have heard fewer pieces,
but a bit longer. Also some of the pieces end abruptly with a click, which
could have been easily removed when it came to transferring to a computer.
Otherwise it's a pretty decent work of field recordings of a crowded country
with lots of activity. Jennings next trip will be to Africa. (FdW)
Address: <meatalulcer@aol.com>
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - NEIL DIAMOND IS NOT THE GOD OF THUNDER AND ROCK
AND ROLL (CDR, private)
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - 10000 Flying Girls (CDR by Frostly You Haunt
Me)
We first heard of The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles in Vital Weekly 592, when we
reviewed their split release with Morning Stalker of Hello Squarerecordings,
which we believed was just the bandname of Greg Thaw, but now it seems to be
more a real band, which includes members of Radarmaker, Jasmine Loop
Control, These Shipwrecks and additional local (Australian) musicians. If I
am right, 'Neil Diamond Is Not The God Of Thunder And Rock And Roll' (gee I
assumed he was), is from 2007 and so might fall outside of Vital Weekly's
period of releases not being older than six months, but of course how can we
ignore such a nice title? The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles play guitar, many
guitars and to that they add organ, vocals, circuit bent toys, strings,
bass, bells, percussion and drums. But guitars, many guitars are the prime
ingredient to this music. It's all looped and sampled around and lots of
small patterns appear all the time in a highly minimal manner. A bit like
Stars Of The Lid, but less drone
based and more like tinkling stringed sounds. This is the sound that they
use on both of these releases, which I think is a bit much - or rather a bit
less for the extended output. The 2007 release last fifty minutes and '10000
Flying Girls' lasts twenty-six minutes but there is not enough variation is
what they offer. Things stay too much on similar grounds through out and the
looped guitar, reversed loops and sampled tinkling wears out after a while.
I think, perhaps for not very clear reasons, I liked the most recent release
better. A bit more brief and certainly the mastering by Taylor Deupree
helped out to expand on the sound territory and adds an extra grainy texture
to the material. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/theghostof29megacycles
MARK SADGROVE & TIM COSTER - UNTITLED (CDR by CLaudia)
CURRER BELLS (3"CDR by CLaudia)
It was only two weeks ago that I reviewed an 'Untitled' disc by Mark
Sadgrove and Tim Coster and here they return with a release for Coster's own
CLaudia label. The three pieces were captured on april 9th 2008 at the Wine
Cellar in Auckland, and Mark plays guitar and dictaphone and Tim plays
oscillator, sampling keyboard, walkman and loop pedals. Their playing is not
unlike the previous released of a fortnight ago, but its less conceptually
inclined and their playing is a bit more free here, even when a small chord
is played it gets musical. The previous was more or less an exercise in sine
wave like experiments, this is more improvisation, let's see what happens.
Not at bad at all, but not as great as the previous release either. It's
more a case of recognition - the path already explored.
Coster is also involved in Currer Bells, a new duo he does with Jane Austen.
They have an extensive line up of instruments and sounds to use, ranging
from bass, cymbals, acoustic guitar, keyboard, drums, glasses, shaker and
glockenspiel. Three songs which all seem to evolve around the use of loops
of all of these sound producing devices and over that they add live playing
of instruments, mainly the drum parts - or so it seems. The result is a nice
combination of improvised playing, along with a whole bunch of computerized
loops in 'Vivid Words', but on 'Two Winters' things are down and the vocals
make this is a very free singer songwriter piece. Fine start for Currer
Bells, and no doubt we'll hear more from them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.halftheory.com/claudia
WOLFSKULL - BIBI BIBI BIBI (CDR by Insult Recordings)
PET COFFINS/SLOW LISTENER (CDR by Insult Recordings)
CONES - DIE ZACKEN (3"CDR by Insult Recordings)
DEAD WOOD - BACKLED REALITY (3"CDR by Insult Recordings)
Four new releases on Greece's Insult Recordings. There is not always
information available. The first band is Wolfskull from New Zealand. This is
band with line up of Iso 12 on synth and vocals, CJA on guitar and vocals,
Zarakov on drums, and Mandroid on bass and harpiscord. Although the cover
doesn't tell us (anything), this is a live recording. They improvise in a
rather noise based manner, with heavy guitars, pounding drums, heavy bass,
all set to the button 'free play', but I must say that I wasn't too pleased
by these thirty minutes. It's quite long, moves on end without an end in
sight, but didn't grab me at all. I'm sure that live it had much more power,
as a CDR it doesn't.
Also the names Pet Coffins and Slow Listener. Pet Coffins as a band name
sounds pretty noise based, but it isn't. Their 'The Stars Are Gigantic' is a
nice, heavy, psychedelic piece of swirling electronics and heavily treated
drums, which have a great trance like to it. Very nice. Actually Slow
Listener is more noise based than Pet Coffins. They have a track of
distorted lo-fi drones that operate in a minimal, ongoing, everlasting
sustain mood, but its too thin to be truly captivating.
The two releases on a smaller size are by people we heard before. First
there is Cones, the duo of Marcel Turkowsky and Ulf Schutte, whose 'Ice
Field Elephants' was reviewed in Vital Weekly 600. 'Die Zacken' is a live
performance, where Turkowsky played 'personal memory tapes played in
prepared walkmen' and Ulf Schutte has a 'pulsating feedbacksystem', feeding
both sounds through a couple of pieces of electronics, mainly delay. Their
piece is a very consistent piece of ongoing lo-fi sounds and electronics,
which work on both a noise and minimal music level. It's loaded with sound,
every hole is filled and there is always something happening, yet
maintaining to stay on similar grounds.
Dead Wood is the active force of Adam Baker, also the man behind Dirty
Demos. Back in the shack of a rural farm he recorded 'Bucked Reality' using
electric guitar, ebow, violin, sine waves. field recordings and digital
processing. In the five resulting pieces he does a pretty nice job. Whereas
his last release, reviewed last week, suffered a bit from similarity among
the pieces, he creates here something that can easily meet say
Machinefabriek. Low humming drones, guitars played with bows and electronics
picking up and transforming the music, like being captured in a closed but
expanding system. Certainly one of the best works I heard by Dead Wood and a
sudden big leap forward. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/insultrecordings
TÔ - U.N.A. (3"CDR by Cook An Egg)
Thomas Tilly, also known as Tô, has had a couple of releases before, mainly
self-released CDRs and this one is on Cook An Egg (finding label names gets
more and more difficult) and contains 'sounds and found objects
manipulations recorded during four night in a beach of Re Island (France) in
August 2005'. 'U.N.A.' stands for 'Unconscious Nocturnal Activity'. Tilly
does here what seems to be his trade: processing these nocturnal activities
at the beach, the rumbling of sand, objects, the cascade of water, into two
pieces of microsound made with field recordings, with a slightly bigger
emphasis on the object part in the second piece. Very much like French
fellow country-man Toy Bizarre, Tô rumbles away in a concentrated vein and
as such has not much news on offer but he does a pretty decent job
throughout. One of those cases were one thinks 'not great, not bad' and 'was
that all?' (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/cookanegg
TERJE PAULSEN - SEPTOBER (CDR by Q-tone)
TERJE PAULSEN - DAGBUE (MP3 by Homophoni)
The name Terje Paulsen is a new one for me, and he hails from Norway. He
plays a '4string bass, 3string guitar, parts of an accordion, bowed floor
lamp and other found objects'. Somehow I thought this was a very 'Norwegian'
music, which is funny as there are two countries where musicians have strong
similarities. That is New Zealand and Norway - and also the musicians from
one country could sound like from the other country - confusing, right?
Paulsen's music is based on improvisation and recorded with an 'in your
face' attitude. Upfront and present that is, a bit lo-fi, but not muffled or
hidden away. His tracks tend to be a bit long I think, which is indeed part
of the game musicians like this play, but it's a fact that it's a bit long.
Take 'Oh No Vember' (from 'Septober') which is a great piece when cut in
half. He can put up some great atmospheric, all acoustic drones of an
intense nature. The difference between these two releases is that 'Septober'
has various tracks,
displaying
the various instruments he plays - usually one or two per track, and
'Dagbue' is a thirty-eigth minute ambient piece of shuffling sounds in the
warehouse. Here the length works actually because it's very consistent sound
piece on an ambient level - with sounds pushed away in favor of the overall
picture of sound. Interesting material, and no doubt somebody of whom we'll
hear more in the future. (FdW)
Address: http://www.q-tone.com
Address: http://www.homophoni.com
ELAPSE-0 (MP3 by Records On Ribs)
Two of the four songs on this free MP3 will be released as a 7" by YUL
Records later this year - which sound a bit like wrong marketing techniques.
Elapse-O are a duo of David J. Roe and Toby Nevitt, who play drum machines,
guitar, bass and vocals. Four slabs of heavy drum machines, a bit like the
recent Fuck Buttons release, totally fucked up and distorted. Hammering away
with lots of reverb (too bad), and distorted guitars and howling vocals.
Quite noisy in the modern sense of the word, which I believe is the latest
craze for some. To this old man it sounded like something that could have
been made when I was young and would have liked it better back then. Ok, its
still not bad, but I assume this one of those bands that is better off on
stage at a smokey club (if they exist still), but not gets the same power
across at home. If only I was a DJ, I could try it on a big sound system.
(FdW)
Address: http://recordonribs.com
1. From: incite@gmx.de
Here´s the upcoming Hoerbar concert and the audiounit #10:
July 25th
Y-Ton-G + Klimperliese
Bohrmaschine Privat
Gregory Büttner
M.Stabenow
Renoised
St.Martin
21:00, Hoerbar presents: Music played only using kitchen equipment
Hamburg St. Pauli
Brigittenstr. 5
http://www.hoerbar-ev.de/
August 5th
fragmented media presents
Chris Cook/ Same Actor (Brighton, UK) Sitar and Laptop
7:30P, audiounit
Hamburg, St. Pauli
Schulterblatt 78
http://www.audiounit.fragmentedmedia.org
<incite@gmx.de>
2. From: "> vertigo" <herrkock@gmail.com>
O Tannenbaum this week:
24. Juli speech and film
Barack Obama @ der Siegesäule &
Dark Star @ O Tannenbaum
Speech 19.00 h
O Tannenbaum open 21.00 h
Film starts 21.30 h
25.Juli Concert
Mimesys (Soundscapes on Double Bass & Klarinet)
<http://www.myspace.com/mimesys>www.myspace.com/mimesys
Open 20.00 h
Dinner 20.00 -21.00 h
Concert 21.30 h
dj's Melissa Frost, P&O Denneboom and more.
O Tannenbaum
Plügerstrasse 79a Berlin
U Schönleinstrasse
<http://www.myspace.com/mimesys>www.o-tannenbuam-berlin.de
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