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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 500
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week 45
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: as an experiment
for the time being, we offering a weekly webcast, freely to download.
This can be regarded as the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly.
Presented as a radioprogramm with excerpts of just some of the
CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed. It will remain on the site for
a limited period (most likely 2-4 weeks). Download the file
to your MP3 player and enjoy!
you can subscribe to the weekly broadcast using the following
rss feed:
http://www.harmlog.nl/vitalfeed.asp
New broadcasts will be sent directly when uploaded. For more information
on
podcasts go here: http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/
* noted are in this week's podcast
TV POW - BURNED BRIDGES AND LOST LOVES (2CD
by Bottrop-boy)
ROGER DOYLE - PASSADES - VOLUME 2 (CD by BVHaast/His Master's
Noise)
EUSKAL INTERPRETATZAILE BERRIAK 1 SAILA (CD compilation by Antifrost)
SCOTT ARFORD - RADIO STATION (CD by Antifrost) *
MIRROR - STILL VALLEY (CD by Die Stadt)
SECRET MOMMY - VERY REC (CD by Ache Records)
INITIAL PRAYER - THE LAST MEN IN EUROPE (CD by Corrosive Growth
Industries) *
NEGRU VODA - UNPLUGGED (CD by Autarkeia) *
DIS_PATCHED (2CD by Rx:tx)
FLUGROOVE - LIKE BRETHREN (CDR by Cabin Music) *
ENDUSER - BOLLYWOOD BREAKS (CD by Ad Noiseam) *
DETRITUS - ORIGIN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
SYNAPSCAPE - ACT! (CD by Ant-Zen)
STUNT ROCK - THIS IS STUNT ROCK VOLUME 3 (CD by Cock Rock Disco)
*
STATIC - RE: TALKING ABOUT MEMORIES (CD by City Centre Offices)
*
EL CAMINO - AT JENNY RICHEE (CDEP by Drowning Man)
NOW (12" by Underscan)
INCITE/STAPLERFAHRER - SPLIT (CDR by Authorized Version)
TOSHIAKI TAKAYASU - NAGARE (CDR by Authorized Version) *
HURRA CAINE LANDCRASH - MOVING (CDR by No Ground Processes) *
HL - BROKEN EP (3"CDR by First Person)
HODAG (CDR by Heule)
ETTRICK - INFINITE HORNED ABOMINATION (CDR by Heule) *
EPIDEMIA - LA MUERTE (CDR by Electrum)
In the last eight weeks Vital Weekly was
not transmitted for various reasons, dealing with internet traffic.
We continued however Vital Weekly on a weekly basis, published
them on our own http://www.vitalweekly.net (if you want any of
the old, missed issues to be mailed, just reply and let us know
which ones you missed).
Now, celebrating Vital Weekly 500, meaning ten years of Vital
Weekly and close to twenty years of Vital as a magazine, it's
time to move on. Vital Weekly was hosted by Staalplaat for the
ten years, providing us webspace. It was often confused as a platform
from Staalplaat, or even referred to as the 'Staalplaat newsletter'.
It was not, never has been. Vital Weekly is an independent platform,
now hosted by ourselves. We thank Staalplaat for all their time
and energy for Vital Weekly, but it's time to move on. As of now
http://www.vitalweekly.net will be the only source for Vital Weekly
and it's podcast. The e-mail address @staalplaat.com will be suspended
somewhere soon, so as of now, address all mail to: vital@vitalweekly.net
TV POW - BURNED BRIDGES AND LOST LOVES (2CD
by Bottrop-boy)
It's been quite while since we reviewed TV Pow's 'Powerful Friends
And Devoted Lovers' - Vital Weekly 417 to be precise. That double
CD was just the start as here is the 'rest', but by no means 'the
rest'. To refresh your memory: TV Pow asked all their musical
colleagues to do a remix of their 'Friendship Patrol' release
(see Vital Weekly 306), with it's 69 tracks (with twenty-nine
remixes on the first and thirty one here, it now equals the number
of tracks). And like the first, this is another excursion into
who's who in laptop music, or even some beyond. Who would expect
Tarentel to do a remix? TV Pow have friends in high places I guess.
Among this new lot we find celebrities such as Francisco Lopez,
Alva Noto, Wolf Eyes, Illusion Of Safety, Tim Hecker, Stephan
Mathieu (the only one, I believe who was also present on the first
time around), but also lesser-known (and perhaps upcoming?) people
like Kotaru Fukui, Junkroc, Ben Vida, Rob Ray, Ben Bracken, Jeff
Snyder, Molecu. Many stay firmly along the lines of whatever is
called microsound, ambient glitch with occasional bursts into
noise, and this is an extension of the sound TV Pow has: glitchy,
improvised, and occasional noise, but then smeared out over two
CDs. My best suggestion for a rainy day: take out the original
'Friendship Patrol', play it, and then start 'Powerful Friends
And Devoted Lovers' and 'Burned Bridges And Lost Loves' - preferable
all in a 5CD player on shuffle mode. You can try to guess who
did what, or enjoy the endless crackle and deep hum for let's
say an hour of seven. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com
ROGER DOYLE - PASSADES - VOLUME 2 (CD by
BVHaast/His Master's Noise)
The BVHaast label that started in the 70s as the outlet for Willem
Breuker's jazzmusic. Breuker always had the public in mind and
did not choose for obscure experimental jazz that satisfies the
musicians only. Over the years the label became also the outlet
for other dutch composers, filmmusic, etc. Curiously enough the
label BVHaast became also the home for die-hards-only-music, like
electronic music. To Vital readers the Acousmatrix Series may
be known from the releases by Luc Ferrari, a.o. More recent is
the His Master's Noise series, another series of electronic and
experimental music. And Doyle's "Passades 2" is the
most recent release in this series.
Doyle is an Irish composer from Dublin, who has many CDs and LPs
out. Of his projects of the last few years we should mention "Babel",
released on 5 CDs. When we go back to the beginning and listen
to Doyle's first album from 1975, "Oizzo", it is clear
that Doyle from a very early stage in his career choose to make
experimental and electronic music. Doyle continued to do so up
to the present day. And this deserves respect I think, because
you sentence yourself to a small public.
Doyle started his "Passades" project in 2002 and began
"working with the creative possibilities of music software
which captures sounds like a freeze-frame in video, making sound
movement stop, or go forwards or backwards slowly. A "Passade"
is an equestrian term meaning to move backwards and forwards over
the same space", Doyle writes. So the composition originated
from his trial and error exercises of this technique.
The first results from this project were released as "Passades
1" by BVHaast in 2003.
And now we have part 2 available. Parts of this work have been
made for different occasions. Parts 9 to 11 - called 'Virdissa
- for example, were commissioned by the music theatre company
Operating Theatre, who have been long time associates of Doyle.
All the parts were compressed into one work for this CD. Although
the kind of electronic music that Doyle composes, makes comparisons
with academic european music unavoidable, like the INA-GRM productions,
on the other hand his music has also features of ambient soundscaping
exercises we know from many non-academic artists. The music on
"Passades 2" astonishes because it is very organic,
lively and breathing.
Partly because Doyle because he made use of the voices of Olwen
Fouere, Paul Dutton and Mary Doyle. The human voice fulfills a
central role in this work. For the other (biggest) part because
Doyle is a great composer and craftsman in this métier
(DM).
Address: http://www.bvhaast.nl/
EUSKAL INTERPRETATZAILE BERRIAK 1 SAILA
(CD compilation by Antifrost)
SCOTT ARFORD - RADIO STATION (CD by Antifrost)
Of course you know Mattin, the laptop noise musician who travels
the world to play his improvised noise works, and who runs the
W.M./or label. He is a basque, not spanish. I don't know how how
political he is about this, but I believe he is. On Antifrost,
the Greek label whose headquarters are in Barcelona (and that
is in Catalonia, to stay on the strict political side), there
is now a compilation with five different composers from Basque
origin. Mattin and Xabier Erkizia had releases before on Antifrost,
Tzesne on Drone Records and the other two (Inigo Telletxea and
Edorta Izarzugaza) are new to me. Mattin plays the shortest track,
'Death To R'n'R'', a cut-up collage of rock sounds, with feedback
noise. Erkizia also plays around with feedback variations, but
moves into more glitch related sounds as the piece evolves. The
other three are even more into microsound/glitch territories,
but they all seem to be dealing with computer processing of feedback
sounds. It seems as if the work of Mattin is now a whole school
of noise musicians, at least in the Basque country. But each has
it's own variation, and this makes this into quite a nice compilation.
In the Bay area he's quite well-known, Scott Arford, operator
of the 7HZ label, video artist, musician and collaborator of Francisco
Lopez, Randy Yau and Micheal Nine. His output however is quite
small. 'Radio Station' is his latest work, and it deals with one
of the easiest to obtain sound sources: radio sounds. Not the
speech type, or plunderphonica, but everything in between the
stations - the cracks, the static, the hiss. Arford is not a sensitive
man: whatever he finds on the radio waves he uses, but with a
high intensity. His work is not about careful, delicate sounds,
but a rather forceful, mean and loud mixture of waves crumbling
over each-other, falling apart, chopped up. Not really moments
of silence and contemplation here, but on the other hand, Arford
isn't interested in doing 'just' a bunch of noise either. He knows
how to make a strong, vivid collage of sound out of these radio
station and how to make a forceful, interesting piece of music.
Energetic and present. The use of radio sounds may not be entirely
new, the results of Arford are certainly very very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antifrost.gr
MIRROR - STILL VALLEY (CD by Die Stadt)
Probably it's not the right thing to say, but I always prefer
CDs over vinyl - but maybe I moved houses too often and find carrying
the vinyl down the stairs a drag. While the Mirror project is
on hold for a while, or so it seems, it's good to see some of
the LPs back in print on CD, even when 'Still Valley' was only
released earlier this year, but in a very limited edition. On
this CD things sound even better, scratch-less and one can lie
on the floor for the full forty-seven minutes and fifty-four seconds,
enjoying the music. Mirror is here on the most calm moment, even
when they are a trio here (core members Christoph Heeman and Andrew
Chalk helped out by Jim O'Rourke), in a trio of tracks (one more
than the original vinyl) that are utterly relaxing. Soft organ
tones paint the living room in a deep warm color, slowly swirling
and changing shape. While some of the other Mirror works are a
bit more darker and dronier, this is their most relaxing piece
of work. Utter minimalist and probably nerve racking to the uninitiated,
but I think this is a stunning beauty. But as a devotee of Mirror
(he hastened to admit), things can't go wrong anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
SECRET MOMMY - VERY REC (CD by Ache Records)
While concept albums sound very seventies like, 'Very Rec' by
Secret Mommy is also a concept album, in it's own way. Secret
Mommy plays kind of breakcore glitch or anti-techno (no three
bars are the same), but for each of the twelve tracks on this
new CD his sound sources are 'field' recordings, but not y'r usual
wind blowing over the sea, but those of 'recreational activity',
being playing tennis, soccer, squash or playing the trombone for
the first time. All of these sounds are then processed by Secret
Mommy on his computer into crazy, rhythmic (or perhaps not rhythmic,
because it's hard to dance to these) pieces of music. Breakcore,
but the sound of the trombone, the racket or kung fu movies stay
always clear as the central point of the track. Taking the serious
electro-acoustic music into the world of dance music (even when
there is nothing to dance to), this is something very very nice.
It stands nowhere close to the world of the academics, while by
choosing his sound sources he moves away from the use of rhythm-machines
and synthesizers, thus making a particular strong statement against
both worlds, by re-dying old standards and adopting them to his
own needs. That is a great achievement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.acherecords.com
INITIAL PRAYER - THE LAST MEN IN EUROPE
(CD by Corrosive Growth Industries)
Although around since the early 80s inside a musical genre that
I watched a lot (the UK guitar noise posse, that is), I never
heard of Initial Prayer. Not a big surprise, since 'The Last Men
In Europe' is their debut album, despite playing live all those
years. It would, based on same of the tracks on the CD, too easy
to slag them down as Skullflower would-be's. As the album is more
in rotation, there is more room for spacious keyboard pieces,
and more krautrock inspired guitar parts, such as in the closing
piece 'The Longest Journey'. Despite going into various musical
directions, such as krautrock, guitar noise and even some more
gothic-like areas, the overall tone of the album is dark and doom.
That's a bit of a pity, since some sunlight wouldn't do no harm.
The quality throughout this CD is great: much care went into producing
it and there is enough variation to make it very enjoyable for
the time these songs last and that's something that is rare these
days. Dark and doom, but enjoyable. (FdW)
Address: http://www.corrosivegrowthindustries.com
NEGRU VODA - UNPLUGGED (CD by Autarkeia)
Probably it's not the biggest secret in the world, but I never
really loved the music coming out of the darker corners of Sweden.
For a while I heard much of them in another professional capacity,
but the dark and doom of many of the bands (say, centered around
the Cold Meat Industry label) were just well spend on me. So it's
hard for me to review a rather random release out of the scene.
Negru Voda is the new project of Peter Nystrom, who used to work
as Megaptera, a 'death industrial' band. What exactly the difference
is between the two projects is a bit unclear to me, as I do recall
Megaptera to be harsh and dark, Negru Voda is no different. Despite
the title, this is by no means 'unplugged'. Taking his samples
directly from the factory floor (iron mills but also machines,
wether or not fully functioning), mixing them with other sounds
(shortwave radio? analogue synths? - who knows) into a dense mixture
harsh, industrial rhythms that for me sound a bit like a more
ethnical variation of Esplendor Geometrico. Recorded live in Vilnius
this is a bold statement of pure industrial music - very nordic.
Very dark and alien. It didn't win me over as a new converted
follower of fashion, but it's a well-made album, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.autarkeia.org/
DIS_PATCHED (2CD by Rx:tx)
Belgrade seems perhaps an unlikely place for an electronic music
festival, but since five years they host the Dis-patch festival.
Started out as a radioprogramm to promote all forms of alternative
music, but as a festival they concentrate on electronic music.
This double CD is a collection of recordings made during the first
three editions (2001- 2004) of the festival and is a whose who
in the world of laptops: Pita, Murcof, AGF, Tujiko Noriko, Rechenzentrum
(who have two tracks, just like AGF) and Monolake, but also Tarwater
and Radian, going into more rock oriented areas. It also contains
lesser known people such Marc Marcovic (with a singer-songwriter
piece), Davide Balula, Icarus, P.O.S. and Information. Surely
pleasing the fans of the more-known artists, desperate to collect
every second of their favorite artists, but if you are only mildly
interested in this kind of music, it's perhaps a good introduction
(or if you are curating such a festival yourself the yellow pages).
In case you are not such a die-hard fan, it's a bit too much at
once. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rx-tx.org
FLUGROOVE - LIKE BRETHREN (CDR by Cabin
Music)
In the last week, I have been playing this disc a lot. Not that
I like it that much per se, but simply because I found it hard
to make up my mind what to think here. Flugroove from Amsterdam
was originally a duo of Frans van Gastel and Willem Janssen, but
now a fourpiece, including a female vocalist and violinist. Flugroove's
music is like a cross-over between various styles of popular underground
music (in contrast to non popular underground music), post-rock
and 'intelligent' dance music, or in Flugroove's word 'a cross-over
between Boards Of Canada and Joy Division', but also a vocalized
version of Godspeed You Black Emperor (less the pathos) in a bed
of electronica, could be the case. Usually melancholiac in approach
with it's minor piano chord, jumpy rhythms, but on top they use
guitars, vocals, trumpet (always a classic for melancholy) and
the violin (although not everything in one track, mind you). As
such the cross-over succeeds well, a hotchpotch of various styles
(post-rock, IDM but also trip hop like rhythms), blending into
eight very nice tracks. Flugroove need to be picked up by a bigger
label and pushed forward into the land of bigger acts, me thinks.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.cabin-music.com
ENDUSER - BOLLYWOOD BREAKS (CD by Ad Noiseam)
American composer Lynn Standafer (a.k.a. Enduser) is for the harsh
Breakcore-scene what English extreme metal-specialists Napalm
Death was for the Grindcore-scene back in the mid-80's. Having
existed since 1994, Enduser has become a legend in the territories
of hyper speed breakbeats, with a number of releases on important
labels like Ant Zen Recordings and Mirex Records, as well as some
airplay on the probably most important independent music radio-show
in history - the strongly missed "John Peel Show" on
BBC Radio 1. Last year's Enduser-album "From Zero" impressed
me a lot with the transference of the ethereal vocals of Enya
into a hellish storm of gabba beats. This time Enduser has turned
his violent sound machinery towards the Indian Bollywood-based
Bhangra music. Originally released in October 2004 as a 12"
version "Bollywood breaks" was soon after sold out.
So here we are with this CD-version that apart from the three
original tracks from the 12" also includes three remixes
by the breakbeat-artists Larvae, Line47 and Mad E.P and a video
for the "More distant than you think"-track.
Opening with the track titled "Not so distant drums"
some female vocals probably sampled from a Bollywood Flick are
nicely combined with Indian Tablas and the impressive over-the-top
breakbeats. Following track opens beautifully with some tranquilizing
ambience added another female vocal-sample this time taken from
the amazing "Light from a dead star"-track from the
Lush-album "Split" (1994). As the track progress the
evil sounds of darkside drum'n'bass penetrate resulting in a great
"beauty and the beast"-feeling. Third track is based
on passages of Sitar ambience and another excellent Indian female
chant. These two elements are the only emotional parts on this
otherwise extremely aggressive track floating in orgies of ultra
heavy bass-lines and violent Techstep breakbeats. The three additional
remixes suits well into the style of the three original tracks
though they never reach the same full-throttle intensity. What
assembles the three additional remixes to the original "Bollywood
breaks"-album is the tense breakbeat-texture that quite often
operates in the darkside/techstep-jungle area with heavy basslines
and dark atmospheres to make the album everything but friendly.
Overall this is an excellent re-release by the original 12"-album
"Bollywood breaks", - an album that unquestionably deserved
to be re-incarnated. Essential for lovers of Breakbeat-brutality!
(NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
DETRITUS - ORIGIN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Usually Industrial-related music is known for its more or less
harsh musical expressions ready to attack the listener as soon
as the play-button is pressed. Detritus (a.k.a. David Dando-Moore)
belongs to the minority of Industrial composers who instead of
focusing on the aural aggression more concentrates on melody and
emotion. Working in the borderlands between beautiful ambient
and distorted rhythmic Industrial, the weight first of all has
been put in orchestral ambience. Detritus' musical strength is
unquestionably his ability to create an infectious blend of warm
synthetic tones and flamboyant orchestral exhortations. As the
album progresses the harsh side of Detritus slowly begins to saturate.
On the final track "Sense" the rhythms changes from
the previous gentle breakbeat-textures towards more hostile areas
of heavily distorted Power Noise-rhythms. Meanwhile the ambient
expression moves away from the soft orchestral soundscapes towards
darker emotive expressions. A nice little musical twist towards
the end. As a supplement the album contains two remixes by Mothboy
and Mad E.P. (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
SYNAPSCAPE - ACT! (CD by Ant-Zen)
It is quite some time ago since we last saw a full-length album
from German harsh-industrialists in Synapscape. Since their previous
album "Raw" released back in 2002, the Synapscape-team
have been cooperating with another legend from the Ant-Zen label
Imminent (formerly Imminent Starvation), though the expression
on their joint venture-project "The Incredible Three"
is quite different from the solo-works of Synapscape. "Act!"
is yet another great achievement by the two members of Synapscape
(T. Kniep & P. Münch). There is a nice varied stylistic
expression on the album. Opening with three instrumental tracks
of heavy-rhythm Industrial with some doses of drum'n'bass, the
fourth track titled "Reaktonoize" is the first track
to open the gates into the realms of sonic hell with heavy rumbling
Power Electronics added some excellent demonic vocals. Following
track "Sonique" could've been included on Download's
"The Eyes of Stanley Pain"-album thanks to the progressive
and constantly fast changing rhythm texture and the rather weird
sound interruptions throughout the track. Another gate into hellish
sounds of Power Electronics opens with the track titled "Katunga"
- a slow rhythmic beast of crushing electronics transforming every
sign of melodic tone into a storm of infernal noise. Most outstanding
moment on the album though comes towards the end of the album
with the intense, strange titled work "So einfach ist Tennis"
opening with some atmospheric even melodic Trance almost reminiscent
of early Underworld soon after to develop into a fast and furious
mixture of distorted beats and destructible drones of crushing
electronics. What makes this album so interesting is Synapscape's
ability to constantly surprise the listener. Expect the unexpected
and enjoy this magnificent trip to hell! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
STUNT ROCK - THIS IS STUNT ROCK VOLUME 3
(CD by Cock Rock Disco)
The Volume 3 here probably relates to his previous CDR releases
which he would give away when drunk at shows. Stunt Rock is William
Flegal, once of a performance/band Meat, together with Dan Doormouse,
but now an active force as Stunt Rock. And when released on Cock
Rock Disco, Jason Forrest's label, you know where to look for
it: weirdness. Stunt Rock samples his stuff together from records:
drums, guitars, bass and movie dialogues, most of the time of
the more stupid kind. Sometimes Stunt Rock sounds like a straight
forward rock band (which he is not of course, armed with his sampler),
but at other times he's taking the music to the breakcore areas.
However overall this is much a plunderphonic thing, since spoken
word is to be found in every track. Abusive language, small talk,
radio nonsense - set against a strong tapestry of likewise stupid
standard rock riffs and musical mayhem. Think Public Works (the
successors to The Tape-beatles), but than with a lot more aggression
and speed. Very uplifting music. The energy of punk, but then
with a lot more fun. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cockrockdisco.com
STATIC - RE: TALKING ABOUT MEMORIES (CD
by City Centre Offices)
Without being an expert on the music of Hanno Leichtmann, aka
Static, I can say that whatever heard from him, it usually sounds
good. Either his work as Static, but also his various other guises
(Ich Switze Nie, DJ Attache, Beige Oscillator). His previous album
for City Centre Offices, 'Flavour Has No Name', was missed out
on here, but the one before that, 'Eject Your MInd' (see Vital
Weekly 301) was received with mixed feelings and that was mainly
due to the singing by Ronald Lippok (of Tarwater/To Rococo Rot
fame). I am just no fan of his singing, can't help it. Here he
sings on the opening piece, as-well as on the cover Static does
of The Assembly's 'Never Never', which is a nice thing to do,
but sadly the weakest track on the album. So again the instrumental
tracks are the best on the record, also with thanks to Martin
Siewert on guitar and Christof Kurzmann on drums. Luckily the
instrumental tracks are poppy stuff with uplifting rhythms and
melodies and even a great trumpet sample on 'Shift, Smash, Surge,
Swell', which is the highlight of the record. The balance however
here between instrumental and non-instrumental piece is about
fifty-fifty, so the mixed feelings remain. Maybe a singer (male
or female) that would do more along the lines of real popmusic,
would be a good thing? (FdW)
Address: http://www.city-centre-offices.de
EL CAMINO - AT JENNY RICHEE (CDEP by Drowning
Man)
A long long time ago, I saw on a rather dull evening of local
popmusic, a great post rock band from the Dutch city of Haarlem:
El Camino. Despite their love of vinyl (having released two LPs
and a 7"), they now release their first CDEP, with five tracks
spanning twenty-two minutes. Another new thing is the guest vocal
on one track, but for me that wouldn't have been very necessary.
El Camino plays instrumental rock music in the best traditions
of post rock - meaning real rock, with drums, bass and guitars.
Their influences are Hood, Explosions In The Sky, Blonde Redhead
or even a less jazzy version of Tortoise. Complicated music, but
at the same time entertaining enough to sit back and experience.
Maybe too much energy to be cinematic, but the title track could
be a piece for a documentary on life in the big city. Great stuff,
perhaps a bit too short. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elcaminosounds.com
NOW (12" by Underscan)
Under the banner 'Now', Underscan, the Berlin label, produces
12" compilations of techno and related music. First they
introduce us to Bogger, (Oliver Kiesow from Berlin), whose 'Honz'
track is a electro piece, with some wacky fat analog synth lines
underneath. The vocals are sent through gated filters slicing
up the release. A powerful piece. Ronny Engmann, aka Dalezy, was
responsible for the first ever release on Underscan and his 'Silkweed'
sounds like a runaway track from a computer game - no surprise
for someone who worked a lot with Commodore 64. A short piece,
but with a nice melody. The best known person here is Frank Bretschneider,
who released an EP on Underscan in 2003. He is known for his love
of dub like sounds, and goes further into the field with a particular
catchy dub tune, using percussive elements (shakers! toms!) on
a bed of echo. Everest from Switzerland have had a couple of releases
on their own Everest label and cook up an IDM track, with harder
beats but melancholic synths, but failing to surprise beyond the
ordinary. Labelowners Menu:Exit also love their dub, but in a
more modern sense, with digitized beats colliding. A nice ending
to an otherwise most enjoyable piece of various directions in
dance music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.underscan.de
INCITE/STAPLERFAHRER - SPLIT (CDR by Authorized
Version)
TOSHIAKI TAKAYASU - NAGARE (CDR by Authorized Version)
Two new releases by Authorised Version, one of the many Uk labels
for the more noise related musics, although in both these new
names this doesn't play a big role. The first one is a split of
Incite from Germany and Staplerfahrer from The Netherlands. I
don't know why these two have been chosen to be one CD, maybe
it has to do with the fact that their material was too short for
their own release, or perhaps because of vague similarities in
sound approach. Incite, a duo from Hamburg plays rhythmical music
in similar territories as Pan Sonic or Goem, but usually quite
slow (or slower than those mentioned). The use synchronized time
stretched sounds to play their game. It's a sound that they have
been exploring for some time now and which they cover well. Here
things are no different, but maybe some fresh look on it would
be nice.
As Staplerfahrer Stefan de Turck, from The Netherlands, gained
some recognition in the world of CDR/MP3 releases. On this release
he works solely with processed sinewaves in six small, sketch
like tracks. In a very minimal way he works through a bunch of
laptop tricks, but unfortunately the material wasn't too engaging
to be interesting enough throughout.
The second new release on Authorized Version also doesn't deal
with noise. It's by one Toshiaki Takayasu, apparently an established
visual/sound artist from Japan, who was also a regular contributor
to the 'off-site' concert scene in Japan. It's hard to tell what
it is that he does on 'Nagare', in terms of music production.
My best guess (is usually wrong), but it seems to be computer
treatments of electro-acoustic events, or perhaps field recordings.
He treats these field recordings into delicate desolate sounding
pieces of microsound. Small variations in the color of the sound,
sometimes almost empty in approach, but never reaching the threshold
of hearing. Takayasu is mostly interested in creating drone like
textures in each of the tracks and he manages very well at that.
Quite a nice release! (FdW)
Address: http://www.a-version.co.uk
HURRA CAINE LANDCRASH - MOVING (CDR by No
Ground Processes)
HL - BROKEN EP (3"CDR by First Person)
Dan Hopkins, the man behind HL (which may or may not stand for
Hurra caine Landcrash, according to the cover), is also the owner
of the No Ground Processes label, which so far, if I do recall
this, only released 3"CDR releases. Here as Hurra caine Landcrash
he releases a full 5"CDR, and it 'was recorded during 2002
and 2004, and deals with moving on in life and death and also
moving in equipment used for the making of my music'. The latter
is a bit cryptical, but maybe it's the use of guitars here that
has become a bigger feature in his music. He plays his guitar
by strumming notes and tones, feeding them to the delay and reverb
maggots and let's the sound stay there for the time a track lasts.
Occasionally there is the use of electronics, again in the same
minimal approach. It's throughout alright, but way too lengthy
at times. Many of the pieces could have been cut in half and still
be interesting. That's a pity.
On a different label, First Person, HL has a 3"CDR under
the banner of 'The Broken EP' and here he returns to 'making vocal
led work', along with his guitar playing. There is indeed some
sort vocal stuff going on, but not much, and by no means real
singing. Otherwise this is still the guitar (main part) and electronic
(more reduced) than the full length, but here the songs seem lesser
worked out than on the full length. Maybe it serves as a good
intro... (FdW)
Address: http://www.noground.co.uk
Address: <frstprsn@yahoo.co.uk
HODAG (CDR by Heule)
ETTRICK - INFINITE HORNED ABOMINATION (CDR by Heule)
The website of Heule doesn't give us much extra information on
the artists they just released on two CDRs, but I believe Jacob
Heule is a drummer. As Hodag he teams up with Chadwick Rntnen
on bass guitar. Their five tracks are however built up from the
meanest noise, in which a drumkit or a bassguitar are hard to
recognize. Pretty harsh stuff going on, also pretty free and wildplaying
with these boys. They have 'quieter' moments available here, but
usually they explode in your face, when the feedback and distortion
comes back in. Free improvisation for sure, but in the strict
realms of noise.
Jacob Heule is also part of Ettrick, another duo, here with Jap
Korber. They both play drums and saxophones here, but switch instruments.
Heule however is always on the left channel and Korber (no relationship
to Tomas) on the right channel. Here too force is at work, but
in a totally different way. The instruments are to be recognized
as such but the two play this with great energy (and pain, no
doubt). Energetic free improvisation, with hardly a moment of
rest. Less the feedback of guitars, but with the addition of drums,
this comes close to the Borbetomagus sound. Certainly a blast
that leaves the listener behind, exhausted in his chair - that
is if you can find the energy to play it in one go and at a loud
volume. For me the Ettrick release was more engaging, since the
noise type of Hodag is something I heard before and Ettrick made
a more solid impression throughout. (FdW)
Address: http://heule.us/
EPIDEMIA - LA MUERTE (CDR by Electrum)
Here's something I don't understand: why would you want to release
one song (7 minutes 45 seconds) on one CDR? A big hit in the works
(why release it as a CDR in an edition of 133 copies)? Promotion?
No more talent or ideas? It beats me. Epidemia are from Mexico
and play 'La Muerta', an utter dark song of distortion, synths
and metallic doom percussion. Not a big hit in my book, for any
discotheque, not even the one for dark, latex packed people. Maybe
it could work well on a compilation by Ant-Zen or Cold Meat Industry,
but itself it's nothing special. (FdW)
Address: <info@diskusfonografika.com>
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