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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 496
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week 41
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TAPE - RIDEAU (CD by Hapna)
COURTIS_MATSUNAGA (CD by Prele)
HARALD SACK ZIEGLER - PUNKT (CD by Staubgold)
MIKROKNYTES - SESS-SUPASTRENG (CD by Kavekavity Records)
EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH - WORN TO A SHADOW (CD by Lumberton
Trading Company)
PANTHER SKULL - SLOTHWAVE (CD by SNSE)
NOTHING CONCRETE (CD compilation by 99x/10 Records and Tapes)
ERIN LANG - CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (CD by 99x/10 Records and
Tapes)
DOVE YELLOW SWANS - LIVE DURING WAR CRIMES (CD by Release The
Bats)
PIERRE-YVES MACE - CIRCULATIONS (CD by Sub Rosa)
UM/ASCOLTARE - SPLIT (LP by Tripel)
PAUL BRADLEY - SOPHIA DRIFTS (CDR by Mystery Sea)
CHEFKIRK - ZYGODACTYL (CDR by Stop/Eject Records)
MACHINEFABRIEK - HISS PANIC (3"CDR by Machinefabriek)
CATZENJAMMER (4xCDR compilation by Tib Prod)
RADAR - DROWNING OR DRINKING (CDREP, private)
EKMAN - THE ART OF BREATHING (CDR, private)
EKMAN/RADAR - NGONDRO (CDR by Kala Recordings)
THE BRACES - I'LL KILL YOU (DVD-R by Pineapple Tapes)
MATSUTAKE - NINE AND SEVENTEEN (MP3 by Nexsound)
ARTURAS BUMSTEINAS - PLACIDO (MP3 by Zeromoon)
CD-R - HIDE AND SEEK (MP3 by Zeromoon)
CRITIKAL - STATE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
KOTRA/VIOLET - SACHERTORTE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
NORMAL MUSIC - GENERIC (MP3 by Zeromoon)
R.R. HABARC - DETEKTIV (MP3 by Zeromoon)
RECHE/UBEBOET - COLL. 1 (MP3 by Zeromoon)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK/TIBOR MACEK - CIAO JAZZCLUB (MP3 by Zeromoon)
SUMERKI PROJECT - SALVE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
TUBE ALLOYS (MP3 by Zeromoon)
VISTECLARO - 12 HELICES (MP3 by Zeromoon)
VOLGA - KIASMA (MP3 by Zeromoon)
ANLA COURTIS/PABLO RECHE - TRANSISTORES DE AIRE (MP3 by Con-V)
TAPE - RIDEAU (CD by Hapna)
Finally the third studio CD by Tape (their fourth release if you
count the live album 'Mort Aux Vaches'), the trio of the brothers
Andreas and Johan Berthling and Tomas Hallonsten. They play acoustic
guitars, samples, computer, field recordings and maybe even an
electric guitar. The previous two studio CDs were recorded in
rural parts of Sweden, but for 'Rideau' they went to Cologne to
recorded under supervision of Marcus Schmickler. I can't say it
helped, but it certainly changed the sound of Tape. It seems as
if musical events are more present in the mix, without being 'harsh',
more clearer and apparent. Without losing their sense for experiments,
nor the wish to make it more poppy, Tape is still on the edge
of experimental music meeting pop, or vice versa. They don't use
vocals, or even samples from vocals, which makes this still far
away from the world of real popmusic, but Tape crafts minimal
tunes, walking the thin line between acoustic guitar playing,
drone pieces of their melodica and bon tempi organs and computer
processed field recordings. The addition of horns in 'Sunrefrain'
and violins in 'A Spire' make their marks for an even extended
sound in the future. Can't wait for the next one. Slow, peaceful
and pastoral: Tape is simply beautiful music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hapna.com
COURTIS_MATSUNAGA (CD by Prele)
This is the debut CD of a new label from Japan called Prele.
It is a collaboration between Anla Courtis (of Reynols fame) and
Kouhei Matsunaga (the man behind the Flying Swimming label, also
from Japan). The disc contains nine tracks of widely varying lengths
and collaboration methods. To name a couple: remix of the other's
material, telepathic collaboration and real collaboration. Most
tracks are of a certain ambient nature, but with enough things
going on to definitely go beyond that (strange cuts, sudden outbursts
of seemingly random noise, etc.). The overall quality is pretty
lo-fi, which is very good, because it is combined with very typical
computer sounds. This works very well and adds a warm quality
to the sound. For me the most interesting piece is actually the
longest one: the telepathic collaboration. Somehow Courtis and
Matsunaga seem very well in tune and have created a very good
track with so many kilometers between them. Somehow this track
is almost a condensation of the whole CD. It will be interesting
to see what the Prele label has to offer in the future. (MR)
Address: http://www.kokeko.net
HARALD SACK ZIEGLER - PUNKT (CD by Staubgold)
That Germans don't have any humor is a very common mistake - people
like Sack proof Germans can be funny. Harald Ziegler, aka Sack,
produces since umpteenth years his own funny variation of popmusic
with German sung lyrics. Perhaps if you don't master the language
things are a bit difficult, but luckily I do. Songs about his
grandma, dogs, barbie and ken, chocolade, being tired, set against
a somewhat more rocky tune than before, but with the usual additions
of horns and bassoons, adding that wacky big band sound. But at
other times, Sack sounds intimate and small, with just a guitar
and two voices. Sack is a multi-instrumentalist, playing here
most of the instruments (he is sometimes a member of Mouse On
Mars as well as the Kölner Philarmonie). Twenty-two tracks
speed by, and they are mostly around one to three minutes (although
the latter is an exception). If you like rock, techno, children's
songs and radio-plays all thrown into one mighty blender, and
still sound as normally together as this, then Harald sack Ziegler
is the man. He is the man, since many many years! So get your
text book out and learn German and enjoy this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
MIKROKNYTES - SESS-SUPASTRENG (CD by Kavekavity
Records)
Since 1998, Derek Morton (electronics, effects, mind control)
and John Coursey (violin, electronics, idea manufacturing) are
Mikroknytes, and they have released a small number of works ever
since. 'Sess-Supastreng' is their fourth excursion into the world
of 'massive drones through a barbed-wire filter of cracked electronics
and random codes'. In the five lengthy pieces this works out as
a semi-improvised, semi-composed work of many layers of sound
- a massive sound indeed. Sounds are stapled onto each-other until
a dense, vast, thick layer of sound arises from the mass. It's
never too drone to be ambient, nor is it too noise to be industrial.
In a way Mikroknytes have a very retro 80s sound. P Children or
old Illusion Of Safety spring to mind. Music that is too smooth
to be industrial and to harsh to be ambient, and was is too analogue
to be truly modern. That is no problem at all, me thinks, as it's
music that not many people create these days, so it might easily
pass for something new. That, and the fact that Mikroknytes play
some really fine tunes in this particular musical niche, makes
this a most enjoyable album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kavekavity.com
EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH - WORN TO A
SHADOW (CD by Lumberton Trading Company)
This is the first release on a new label, Lumberton Trading Company,
run by Hassni Malik (of the bands dROME and Splintered, but also
of Irrational Arts and Progress Report) and Richard Johnson of
Fourth Dimension Records, Adverse Effect, Splintered, Theme and
their mission "is dedicated, essentially, to bringing new
and exclusive releases by musicians, artists and writers whose
vision and commitment to their work exists beyond the usual clutches
of their environment." I am not sure if this is the case
with the first release, which is by Sonic Boom, aka Experimental
Audio Research, which started out as a side project of his work
with Spacemen 3. Sonic Boom plays a variety of vintage synthesizers,
like the EMS synth Aks, the EMS VCS3 and a Serge Modular Music
System. This is drone music with the big D, but it's something
entirely different than Mirror, Colin Potter etc. Entirely based
on the sounds of the old synthesizers, playing slow curves, and
distant like beeps - mechanical water drops - this is very cosmic
music. Slow enveloping sounds, this is perhaps music that is best
enjoyed when smoking a big joint - but rest assured, it's also
pretty fine music when listened to totally clean (or on a sunday
morning with a hang-over). Music from altered states, going right
into the subconscious. Having said all that, it must be noted
that there is not much new development in the music of Experimental
Audio Research, but he plays his tricks still very well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lumbertontrading.com
PANTHER SKULL - SLOTHWAVE (CD by SNSE)
Only two weeks ago, we reviewed 'These Graves' by Devillock, and
as noted then, Justin Chris Meyers is also working as Panther
Skull. Under that alias he just released also his first 'real'
CD, 'Slothwave'. According to the press info 'Panther Skull takes
the gunky tape sound of that band and crumples it, leaving behind
a more haunted, ambient tone'. There is indeed some similarity
between Devillock and Panther Skull, but the latter is more open,
and at the same time also more crude sounding, but in a rather
lo-fi manner. I remember playing around with my father's old reel-to-reel
recorder, slowing things down, which I had recorded with a cheap
microphone. The machine's motor made a buzzing sound that was
also captured onto the recording. Panther Skull is alike this:
very lo-fi buzzing drones, that are simply too crude (not noisy)
to be classified as ambient, but also not really part of the world
of noise. It's the short of release that defies the categories
and that in itself is an achievement. Strange captivating stuff.
Address: http://snse.net
NOTHING CONCRETE (CD compilation by 99x/10
Records and Tapes)
ERIN LANG - CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (CD by 99x/10 Records and
Tapes)
Maybe I said this before but I like, every now and then at least,
to hear music that is really outside the world of Vital Weekly.
Just to hear it, but also to review it, even when my references
are perhaps low. 99x/10 is a new label and reads like '99 Times
Out Of 10' and is run by keyboard player Roger O'Donnell, who
once played with The Cure, Psychedelic Furs and Thompson Twins).
His idea is to help young bands and artists, which we at Vital
Weekly of course appreciate highly. We received two releases,
'Nothing Concrete'; being a sampler of stuff coming and Erin Lang's
'Choose Your Own Adventure'. Of the compilation I recognized none
of the names, but maybe bands/artists like Sensory Factory, Alka,
Goddamn Electric Bill, The Maybe, Dead Waiter, Pale Amber Glow,
Ecce and Somnolent ring any familiar bells anywhere? Overall the
music is quite electronic, but not always in a techno sense of
the word, but rather melodic, melancholic, with soft guitar, even
vocals, crossing over into more rocky territories, such as Pale
Amber Glow. Pretty decent popmusic throughout here, very mellow
and smooth, with Somnolent being the most experimental one, but
there too: no shocks.
No shocks either by Erin Lang. She hails from Montreal, Canada,
and her father was a rock star and her mother a puppeteer. She
co-runs the 99x/10 label and her debut album 'Choose Your Own
Adventure' was recorded in Weilheim, with Mario Thaler of The
Notwist, Lali Puna and Ms John Soda fame. That is not the worst
reference, as it seems that erin Lang listened closely to those
bands. Soft, melodic popmusic (with the big P however), with Lang's
mostly whispering and dreamy vocals. A bit trip hop like, but
not as dense and dark, nice slide guitars. Six tracks here - but
perhaps this is just a preview copy? - which is just the perfect
thing for me. I am not sure if it would be better if it had more
tracks. This was just the right amount for me, after a day of
work, to relax and sit back. Like I said, not my to refer to here,
but it's nice enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.99xoutof10.com
DOVE YELLOW SWANS - LIVE DURING WAR CRIMES
(CD by Release The Bats)
The band Yellow Swans are sometimes called something with a changing
'D' word, such as Dark Yellow Swans, Die Yellow Swans, Dreamed
Yellow Swans or here as Dove Yellow Swans. It's a duo made out
of Pete Swanson on drum machine, vocals and electronics and Gabriel
Mindel Saloman on guitar, vocoder and feedback. The six cuts on
'Live During War Crimes' were recorded in concert in May and June
2004 and previously released on obscure CDR compilations, but
now re-mastered for a proper CD release. I must admit I was quite
surprised by this lot, as I expected things to be much more noisier
than this, like a furious wall of feedback. It's not that the
music is by any means soft, but it's main thing is the diversity
and balance between the various instruments. The drum machine
marches on, feedback from various effect pedals and the guitar
play interesting lines, while vocals howls are way down in the
mix. The CD builds up in intensity, starting rather soft (for
a noise band), ending in a fiery crescendo of cascading tones,
fading out during the final (untitled) piece. As such this is
a highly pleasant work of noise, an example for many noise makers
out there. Excellent stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.releasethebats.com
PIERRE-YVES MACE - CIRCULATIONS (CD by Sub
Rosa)
Young Pierre-Yves Mace (born in 1980) has already released a CD
on Tzadik in 2002 and now a follow-up on Sub Rosa. Mace works
primarily with samples, but he limits himself to one instrument
per section. In each section there is one instrument that plays
the music, and that's the instrument that is sampled. They are
percussion, electric guitar, harp and clarinet. The result is
the interaction between the instruments and samples thereof. The
first piece for percussion is a hectic and nervous piece, which
sounds like a very serious modern composition, but in the next
two pieces, for electric guitar and harp, things smooth out in
a very nice contemplative way. Things unfold slow and peaceful
way, almost like a smooth ambient record. These two pieces are
the highlight of this work, as the fourth one with the clarinet
is the weakest brother here. Here all the samples are used in
a modern classical way, but with the addition of sampled electric
guitars in prog rock vein. But with two great tracks and one lesser,
this is surely a very fine work. Musique concrete meets post-rock/ambient
- well, or some such. (FdW)
Address: http://www.subrosa.net
UM/ASCOLTARE - SPLIT (LP by Tripel)
A picture disc is something that one doesn't see that often these
days, but the one by UM/Ascoltare is quite nice to look at. UM
is a new name for me, whilst from Ascoltare I heard a 7"
before (see Vital Weekly 484), which was a bit Fennesz inspired.
Here, both sides seem to be dealing less with glitch, clicks and
such and more with plunderphonics. Ascoltare uses a lot of snippets
of reality TV cooking programs, including Rick Stein, Keith Floyd
and Gordon Ramsey - the rants of the latter are also cut separately
for the DJs at the end. Ascoltare throws them all together and
prepares us a nice dinner plate with plunderphonica and spoken
words about fish, eating and quality of food. Here no such thing
as Fennesz like glitch processing, but instead a much more musique
concrete influenced sound collage, albeit with spoken word. Quite
nice.
Behind UM is Peter Gregory, who has produced a 7" for Strange
Lights and several CDR releases. On his side of this LP, he plays
fifteen short, one minute tracks of his singing alongside a blend
of rhythms and even more garbled, warped digital noise. Occasional
there is a melody to be spotted, but mostly not. UM tells us small
stories, although it's hard to tell what these stories are about.
Quite nice, maybe a bit too short, this self-chosen limitation
of one-minute per track. For fans from Felix Kubin, Voks and The
Residents. And certainly for lovers of picture discs: you never
see enough of those. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tripelrecords.com
PAUL BRADLEY - SOPHIA DRIFTS (CDR by Mystery
Sea)
In a relatively short time, Paul Bradley has become a household
name in the world of drone music, mainly through the various releases
on his own Twenty Hertz, but also his collaborations with people
such as Colin Potter and Darren Tate (the latter being on Plinkity
Plonk). Such activities don't go unnoticed, and therefore Bradley
is now signed (ho-hum, merely joking here) for an one-off deal
with Mystery Sea - the other mainstay in the world of drone music.
In the past I wrote about his work that it involved a bunch of
analogue synthesizers, but Bradley assured me that there is no
such thing. Principally he works with field recordings and computer
processing. He could have fooled me. In 'Sophia Drifts', the material
indeed drifts, in long, slow, majestically moving grace. Deep
atmospheric, but there is half way through the piece the addition
some sounds from the higher frequency range. It's here when the
piece comes truly alive in a beautiful shimmering tones, not unlike
the best Organum from his early days. In terms of new directions
in drone music, this is not the place to be, but in terms of quality
in drone music, this is surely one to remember. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
CHEFKIRK - ZYGODACTYL (CDR by Stop/Eject
Records)
If my counts is right, this might very well the fifteenth release
by Chefkirk we are reviewing, since Vital Weekly 383, when we
first wrote about him. Here on a CDR label I never heard of, Stop/Eject
Records. We find him in pretty much similar areas as his past
few releases: rhythm and noise on a fine line together. Chefkirk's
music is built out of many small rhythmical elements, perhaps
computer treatments of electro-acoustic recordings, which are
then blown up into many tiny bullets of noise. It's a trick that
Chefkirk by now masters quite well, but at the same time, it should
be noted that in this vast body of work not much news is happening.
Things have been rather steady for a while now and it should be
about time that Chefkirk masters some new tricks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.stop-eject.com
MACHINEFABRIEK - HISS PANIC (3"CDR
by Machinefabriek)
Machinefabriek should a little bit more careful about his releases,
me thinks, otherwise he might fall in similar traps as Chefkirk,
see elsewhere. He plays out live a lot these days, which is absolutely
great in getting your name known, but why he wants to release
most of his concerts on three inch CDR is a bit beyond me. This
new release 'Hiss Panic' contains two of his recent concerts,
one dates October 1st (!) and sees a continuation of his recent
live style: carefully building noise, until it reaches a mighty
crescendo, although in the 'Hiss' piece this is more or less a
rhythmic crescendo, which is a new feature. A bit too gothic for
me. As for my suggestion: why not save some more concerts up and
collect them on a big CDR and release that on a foreign label?
That might be a good career boost. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.tk
CATZENJAMMER (4xCDR compilation by Tib Prod)
There is no doubt about it: the world of CDR releases is a confusing
one. Every week new bands, new labels, side-projects: if I wasn't
this close to the fire, I am sure it would all be Chinese for
me too. But the good thing is 'Catzenjammer' a 4CDR set by Tibprod
(sometimes spelled as 'Cat-zen-jammer', 'Catz-en-jammer' and 'Catzen-jammer'),
which is probably the most complete guide to bands that release
CDRs, not just on Tibprod, but also all these other labels that
flood the headquarters here. Four times seventy minutes per CD,
makes a total of sixty-nine tracks. Phew. It contains a few people
who have released real CDs, such as Lasse Marhaug, Kobi, Aidan
Baker, Jan van den Dobbelsteen, Shifts and Tore Honore Boe. They
are probably the heroes here. Otherwise it contains some of the
most active players in this underground, names you see a lot,
like Chefkirk, Guignol Dangereux, Sound OO, Taming Power, Tzesne,
Sindre Bjerga, and it (re-) introduces us to Your Name Here, Subinterior,
The Suncd Project, Makinoize, Skylined and Monotonos. The music
ranges from the softest ambient, via musique concrete collage
to harsh noise, all thrown together, but that is the biggest charm
here: it's not the individual quality that matters, but the overall
impression. A nearly complete guide to this year's underground...
(FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
RADAR - DROWNING OR DRINKING (CDREP, private)
EKMAN - THE ART OF BREATHING (CDR, private)
EKMAN/RADAR - NGONDRO (CDR by Kala Recordings)
These three releases are connected to eachother because Ekman
and Radar work together on one of the releases and they are for
sale at the address below. Ekman is Roel Dijcks from Breda, The
Netherlands and Radar is Albert van Abbe from Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Both are also playing together in Penik Ettek and The Untitled
and have a background in design. The differences between Ekman
and Radar are in the music. Radar's CDREP 'Drowning or Drinking'
contains four heavy stomping tracks: a minimal yet forceful rhythm
with a slight touch of experimental sounds in the background.
The rhythms are not meant for dancing, I think, but they are quite
mechanical, almost industrial. In a way, Radar seems to be influenced
by Esplendor Geomtrico.
Ekman's release is almost the opposite from Radar. He plays around
with electronica, but also piano samples and field recordings.
His release starts out with a deep ambient piece of synth washes,
but in the other pieces, his music gets a bit more spicier with
technoid rhythms. There is a certain sense of melancholy in this
music, but it's too straightforward (or perhaps less complex)
than many of the counterparts on Expanding Records, Highpoint
Lowlife or some such. Clearly a much more ambient influenced work
than a techno inspired thing. Very nice music while you work.
Ekman and Radar produced the 'Ngondro' release together, with
Ekman delivering three pieces and Radar four. This is a release
on their own Kalarecordings, named after the buddhist steps to
enlightenment. 'Kala' meaning eternal time. The pieces by Radar's
pieces are improvisations with hardware and without samples, all
recorded live. It's a bit unclear what that means, but here is
music is much darker, yet still rhythmical, but in a less stomping
way. Ekman's pieces are much longer here, the piece 'Mayavadi'
lasts eighteen minutes for instance, and see a continuation of
his 'The Art Of Breathing', but more stretched out and even more
ambient. His 'Asanga' piece is made of crackles and is an odd-ball
so far. One could think that the combination of two such diverse
projects wouldn't work, but not so. Radar's deeper rhythm pieces
work nicely along Ekman's ambient pieces. A fine start! (FdW)
Address: <appievanabbe@hotmail.com>
THE BRACES - I'LL KILL YOU (DVD-R by Pineapple
Tapes)
Scott Foust is one of my heroes - and I am not sure why. Perhaps
it's his music, as Idea Fire Company, as Tart, as XX Commitee
but perhaps it's his film 'Here's To Love' of which he send me
a preview copy - it's coming soon, and a must see, even if I have
no clue what is about. I liked it, just for it's slowness and
pretty vague story (more to be revealed later on when I do the
review of the film). I didn't know Scott was also doing The Braces,
but perhaps there is more that I don't know about him. With The
Braces Scott plays guitar and sings and free drummer legend (?)
Chris Corsand. This is Scott's closest thing to punk, I guess.
Tight drumming and the singing is pretty neat. Here too I don't
have a clue what the songs are about, but it has speed and energy
and still a certain wackiness that defies this as real punk. I
don't think I would have expected anything else from Scott. Here's
to love. (FdW)
Address
MATSUTAKE - NINE AND SEVENTEEN (MP3 by Nexsound)
Khabarosvsk - this Russian city's claim to experimental fame is
a LP Merzbow recorded there in the 80s, but it's also hometown
of Evegeniy Gorbunov, aka Matsutake, which I believe is the name
of a mushroom. The source material for Matsutake's work is all
recorded with a microphone, which is then processed with a computer
in an improvised way. It's quite a curious mixture of serious
musique concrete, folky tunes (but then sped up) and sometimes
painful experiments that not always work very well. At times it
seems as though Matsutake is searching too much for the right
sound, or the right process, or the right sound, but then the
composition start to fly away: it's searching too much. But sometimes
he hits upon the right spot, and things turn out quite nice, such
as in 'Da', 'No 2' and 'Flying Dogs'. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
ARTURAS BUMSTEINAS - PLACIDO (MP3 by Zeromoon)
CD-R - HIDE AND SEEK (MP3 by Zeromoon)
CRITIKAL - STATE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
KOTRA/VIOLET - SACHERTORTE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
NORMAL MUSIC - GENERIC (MP3 by Zeromoon)
R.R. HABARC - DETEKTIV (MP3 by Zeromoon)
RECHE/UBEBOET - COLL. 1 (MP3 by Zeromoon)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK/TIBOR MACEK - CIAO JAZZCLUB (MP3 by Zeromoon)
SUMERKI PROJECT - SALVE (MP3 by Zeromoon)
TUBE ALLOYS (MP3 by Zeromoon)
VISTECLARO - 12 HELICES (MP3 by Zeromoon)
VOLGA - KIASMA (MP3 by Zeromoon)
Here is a whole bunch of MP3s released by Zeromoon, a label that
also releases normal CDs and CDrs. Many of these MP3s are by artists
from the eastern Europe and Russia parts of this world. Arturas
Bumsteinas is from Vilnius, Lithunia. His music has been received
with some pleasure here. I am not sure if the vocals of Placido
Domingo form the basis of this music, but Bumsteinas surely plays
around with the notions of ambient glitch in quite a nice way.
Slowly unfolding music made out of glitches and carefully processing
whatever sound input there was. A bit dark here and there, but
very nice.
CD-R are Nikita Golyshev and Stas Bobkin from Moscow, and their
music is much more noise related, but they never go for the full
blast of things. They built the tracks with care, but end up in
quite forceful sound patterns, where high pitched sounds and feedback
work alike. It is worked out quite nicely.
Labelman Jeff Surak is one third of Critikal, together with Andrey
Kiritchenko and Jonas Lindgren. Seeing where these boys live,
I'm sure we are dealing here with a collaboration of mailing sound
files. The recordings for 'State' were made in 2002. The eight
tracks operate in a noise related drone way, especially the short
fifth track is pretty loud. The sixth track is also short and
sound a bit like Nurse With Wound. The others are more lo-fi drone
related, but sound quite nice.
Ukrains Kotra has already had some releases on Nexsound and is
a pretty violent music man. On March 24 and 26 of this year he
was in Vienna, and so was Violet (again, the label-boss himself
in solo guise) and together they played 'home built electronics
and zither'. It starts out with a long solo track by Kotra which
is just a vicious loud noise beast, that didn't do much for me.
Then Kotra and Violet (note the order), and again noise plays
a big role, but in a more cut-up form. Violet and Kotra is unfortunately
more of the same, even when some Violet's trademark ambient glitches
are somewhere hiding in there. Not my thing.
Of much more interest is Normal Music, the trio of Rafael, beat-master,
guitar (The Musique Concrete Ensemble), Thomas on field recordings
and rumbles (Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words) and Jeff responsible
for drones, autoharp and tapes. I guess, but that's purely my
private opinion that Normal Music are the world's best kept minimal
techno secret. Why they do MP3s and not 12" on ~Scape eludes
me. The work of Normal music can easily be compared with the best
of Pole or Deadbeat or any some such. Two lengthy cuts of dubby
rhythms, pulsating drones and obscured field recordings. One track
is called 'Close Your Eyes And You Too Can Make Normal Music'
calls for a remix project, right? Although lesser rhythm based,
this could have been a perfect 12".
The name R.R. Habarc might not be unknown to the Vital Weekly
reader, despite his career of only small edition CDR releases
in handmade packages. Habarc is from Budapest, Hungary and his
music is a blend of piercing electronics and deep bass sounds.
I don't think his very suitable for the compressed MP3 format,
since it has a wide frequency range. Minimalist pulses along the
lines of Ikeda and Goem, but also a bit more noise related at
times. Not his strongest moment, but still quite enjoyable.
More Pablo Reche (see also elsewhere), here in collaboration with
someone named Ubeboet from Madrid, which is one Miguel Tolosa
from Madrid. They play pretty dark and dense drone music, that
is much louder and abrasively present than most others in this
field, especially in the piece 'Littoral', although 'Littoral
(Version)' sounds much more delicate. It's quite alright in terms
of drone music, but nothing special.
I never quite figured out wether Rinus van Alebeek is a real Dutch
man, despite his Dutch name: but hearing some Dutch speaking on
this release, I am pretty sure he is. Just like his previous release
(Vital Weekly 373), this deals with field recordings he made at
work (at Kindergarten?) and at various locations. Just exactly
what the role of the for me unknown Tibor Macek is, I don't know.
There is at various places some electronic sounds, maybe that's
his part? It's actually quite a nice collection of found sound,
recorded on the spot, keeping the spirit of the moment alive.
A highly concrete sound, and very acoustical.
The band Sumerki Project is a new name for me. They are a five
piece band from Tallinn, Estonia and the members play keyboards,
gregorian singing and Russian Orthodox singing, but also 'chewing
cat sounds', electric guitar and 'crying child sounds'. There
is an experimental edge to this music, but in general I wasn't
too impressed by this semi-gothic music. Here I pass on.
Tube Alloys are not a 'real' band, but more or less a conceptual
project by Zan Hoffman and Jeff Surak. Both run their own labels
and both get demo's, which sometimes has a nice piece or two,
but one can't release it all. So they choose an economical solution,
namely to present a sort of mega-mix of the best pieces from these
demo's. It includes music from Alessandro Bosetti/Chris Forsyth
(USA), Kuorinki (Finalnd), Fabio Selvafiorita (Italy), Jacob Ludvigsen
(Denmark), and Palsecam (Poland), and sound like anything from
drone music to ambient to noise and electro-acoustic music. All
of which happens in twenty minutes. Quite nice, but the concept
and the execution thereof.
I know nothing about Visteclaro, which seems to be a free improvisation
music duo from Argentina. Their '12 Helices' is filled with free
guitar strumming, electro-acoustic sounds and some sort of horn
blowing. Most of the times these improvisations quickly explode
in to a vast mass of distortion, which is only occasionally alright.
At other times a bit tedious.
Volga is a group around the singer Anjela Manukjan, who is a professionally
trained vocalist and folklore researcher, who combines her voice,
singing old Russian texts and authentic melodies along with electronic
music, played by Alexei Borisov, Jeff Surak, Anton Nikkila, Sergei
Letov and others. Surely an interesting combination, but for me
a little bit too much of a techno version of Dead Can Dance, which
is of course a nice thing, it's again, not so my thing, just like
the Sumerki Project. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zeromoon.com
ANLA COURTIS/PABLO RECHE - TRANSISTORES
DE AIRE (MP3 by Con-V)
In the years to come, new markets for electronic music will become
bigger and bigger. Of course China will be booming, but also South
America is upcoming. Anla Courtis of Reynols is for instance already
a household name to some. Here he teams up with Pablo Reche, a
fellow Argentinean drone musician. In the summer of 2005 they
recorded 'Transistores De Aire' together - an eighteen and half
minute pure drone piece. Shimmering at the very low end of the
sound spectrum, just deep tones are covered here in this territory.
How this was done, we don't know. Perhaps some old analogue synth?
Maybe the aircondition system being amplified? There is hardly
a movement in this piece, no big moving passages, just this very
slow, humming sound that is recorded at a low volume. One waits
for the big burst, that will destroy everything, but no such is
happening. A very intense piece when played loud, and a very atmospheric
piece when played soft - a frightening piece when played in the
dark. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
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