Number 113


MANDIBLE CHATTER – FOOD FOR THE MOON (CD by Manifold)
This is, if I counted right, Mandible’s fourth excursion into dark ambient
– well that term is certainly inappropiate here. The “Sad Three Song” that
opens this CD is an up-tempo vocal pop song, with new wave influences.
African voices take you into a pounding rhythm track of “Twilight Of The
Idylls’ (which title I don’t like, but these boys are altogether not very
good at titles – “Blessings From The Kingdom Of Silence”?). Two utterly
different pieces to start a CD with. A short acoustic guitar is next only
to be followed by “Blessings”: a collage of street sounds and far away
percussion, but grows in a dark etheral composition. The title piece sums
all above up in an epic piece of 32 minutes: drums, guitars and drowning
soundscapes. The CD is closed by the second vocal piece, which is highly
melancholic.
Some bands have one good idea which is exploited for 5 CD’s, Mandible
Chatter has 7 good ideas on 1 CD. Just amazing. (FdW)
Address: <www.manifoldrecords.com>

AUBE/KNURL (CD by Alien8)
Not a collaboration, but a split one, between a coming man and an ultra
active force. Aube just uses telephones as his source material. “Scramble
Public” has a great built up in sound – kicking around the low end rumbles
and slowly growing into a hugh cosmic affair with a monkey beat and
feedback at its tail. It gets nasty there at the end, but we are dealing
with a live recording. “Violence Call” lives up to its name with a fierce
throbbing bass and chaotic noise.
An Aube CD may sell, so it’s ice to let him team up with somebody whose
name has not been around. Knurl uses ‘various scrap metal’ and the usual
electronics. His two tracks employ full fuzzyness, screetches of white
noise, which show a full interest in the work of Merzbow. Not bad, but a
bit flat for my taste. (FdW)
Address: <alien8@total.net>

HALANAZINE 3 (Magazine and CD)
I probably will not do this much justice, if I say one of the more
spiritual magazines around. More then the two previous issues, artists get
their chance to write their own story. David Grubbs delivers the text of a
lecture, Charlemagne Palestine writes his life story in his own unique
style and in Bernard Gunter’s interview the questions are simply removed.
The CD contains music by those interviewed. Bernard Gunter offers a look at
his forthcoming CD with crackling sound and deep end in his usual high end
style. But audible – even on my plywood. Be sure to turn your volume down,
while going to the next track. Charlemagne Palestine’s church organ piece
is also an excerpt of something that was supposed to come on New Albion.
Exceptionally careful droning music. John fahey has an untitled detuned
guitar piece and operates in an entirely different spectrum. Raw and
untamed improv stuff. David Grubbs is another highlight of melancholic
accordion playing in minimal vein. The sustained tones on this work very
well. The last two are again improv piece, the solo bass of Motoharu
Yoshizawa and and a guitar piece by Alan Licht. In all an excellent CD to
an excellent magazine. Keep up that very fine work!
Address: <halanazine@aol.com>

HANDS TO – EGRESS (LP by Anomalous)
Hands To have been around since ages with tons of interesting releases on
all sorts of formats. This LP uses ‘the remains of dead cactus’. The rest
on the insert is not very well readable, but it explains how these remains
were played. Hands To use a kind of lo-fi recording techniques, like hand
held cassette recorders, which result in a somewhat more noisy, pimitive
version of works such as can be compared with Small Cruel Party, Michael
Northam or even to some extent F. Lopez and Bernard Gunther. For me this
rawness is the signature that sets Hands To apart from the other blokes
(who, in some way, sound the same in that respect that they use the high
end digitalized sound). It is good to have the opposite. Hands To’s sound
of improvised rubbing and bowing, adding no effects, hints to his work with
the improv group Blowhole, but in a musique concrete way. (FdW)
Address: <anomaly@zipcon.net>

MSBR – COLLABODESTRUCTIVISTS (CD by Isomorphic)
Noise music on a label that was until now known for dark ambient. Like the
title suggests this is the well known path of collaborations through mail:
one person sends a tape to some other artists, who re-creates new sound
material by return. This process can be repeated endlessly. MSBR uses sound
material here from Daniel Menche, Basic Noise (which is Jeff Reid, the man
behind Isomprohic) and Crawl Unit. A can be expected the result is quite
noisy. But one that stays luckily on the listenable side of things. Not
every track has Koji of MSBR at the end-control, which for me makes it more
a compilation then a MSBR release. Maybe it is the variety of mixers that
make this a varied of well structured noise. (FdW)
Address: Isomorphic – 17709 108th Ave SE – Renton, WA 98195 – USA

STEVE RODEN – TRANSLATIONS & ARTICULATIONS (CD + BOOK released by Griffin
Contemporary Exhibitions)
Steve Roden is a name I have come across before; don’t know where, don’t
know why. (Oh yes, he’s In Between Noise) (And there’s that rather spiffy
CD ‘Crop Circles’ on Trente Oiseaux) He’s a visual artist (read: chucks
paint about) and composer with an extensive track record, and the music
contained within this booklet (instead of the other way round) took me
somewhat by surprise. The first time I listened to it I thought it yet
another of those dronescape thingamajigs that drift around aimlessly before
reaching the inevitable conclusion, ie a two minute fade out. When I
discovered that it’s total length was only 23’00, I realised that somebody,
somewhere obviously believed in this bloke, so I played it again,
considerably cranked-up.
The music on the CD is titled ‘of space enclosed by planes or surfaces’ was
composed entirely from very brief samples of sounds recorded in the Griffin
gallery spaces. Whilst Mr Roden was there on a scout-about he recorded the
sounds of construction that was occuring at the time and then went back
into his studio to manipulate (or not), and treat these sounds as he saw
fit. There is a conceptual blurb that accompanies his description of this
process and his intent which compares making music to the craft of
architecture. La-di-da. (As Woody Allen once made Diane Keaton say several
and a half times sonewhere in that other architectural miracle, Manhattan.)
The sonic construction itself is a slow, very minimal piece which drags
itself into the listening space like a slow, slithering beast. Soft bass
creeps in on padded feet, there’s the occasional rattle and bang; blurred
voices spread like pools of oil. Just as soon as it starts it stops and I
was left with the feeling of wanting more. (Dial Auto-Repeat, please) It’s
perfectly concise, not only because of this technological possibility. At a
low volume it could go on all day. Most certainly a space within a space.
Brill ! (MP)
Address: <anomaly@zipcon.net>

LA PALMA – A SOUNDSCAPE EXCURSION (CD on Wdr/Zwerg Productions)
This is the third CD in what may well be a continuing series of mixed and
merged location recordings by (possibly) Michael Rusenberg and Hans Ulrich
Werner. All of the recordings were made on the Plaza de Espana at various
times over several days. There is a picturesque description of what the
Plaza looks like (I wish there were photos, but maybe the sound recordings
are supposed to convey the appearance and shape of the space). (They do,
but… y’know…). World merge in La Palma. Terraces, herds of goats,
solar-powered street lighting, vegetable patches, wind-driven power
stations. Grass-roots economics flourish alongside modern factories, ‘like
rock strata in a tectonic fold. Here, more than anywhere else, the past and
the future are (the) present.’
Sound like a tourist brochure? Personally, I would probably never listen to
something like this more than once or twice, preferring short audio
photographs as part of more varied compositions or compilations, unless it
was a memento of a perfect holiday in a Spanish-speaking country (ie: no
water in the bog, cockroaches in yer knickers, an occasional bout of food
poisoning, out-of date bottled water and loads of fat English tourists,
wearing Dr Scholl sandals and covered with Ambre Solaire Factor 15 who
still look like lobsters, complaining about the tea, or the fish ‘n chips
or anything…) (Jesus, is this a record review or a therapeutic exercise
?) Gorgeous recordings, wonderful explorations of the natural acoustic
spaces within the Plaza de Espana, and not too many goats. (MP)