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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 503
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week 48
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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!
ARC - THE CIRCLE IS NOT ROUND (CD by Small
Voices) *
MAURIZIO BIANCHI - A MB IEHN TALE (CD by Small Voices)
ERIK VOERMANS FEATURING ERIC VLOEIMANS - NOCTURNAL GHOST SONGS
(CD by Basta)
GERRITT - SPACE LEVEL BLAZE (miniCD by Misanthrophic Agenda) *
MERZBOW & JOHN WIESE - MULTIPLICATION (CD by Misanthrophic
Agenda)
JOHN WIESE- MAGICAL CRYSTAL BLAH VOLUME 3 (miniCD by Helicopter)
Z'EV - RHYTHMAJIK (CD by Small Voices) *
KK NULL & CHRIS WATSON & Z'EV - NUMBER ONE (CD by Touch)
LAPSED - LAPSED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
FREQ_OUT 2 (CD compilation by Ash International)
KINETIX - WHITE ROOMS (2CD by Small Voices)
PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA - THE LEGEND OF THE ELK BAND 1996-1999 (CD by
The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording Collective) *
ARGH & JEREMY KENNEDY - TITLED (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain
Princess Recording Collective)
PAUL BRADLEY - LIQUID SUNSET (CD by Twenty Hertz) *
PAUL BRADLEY - DRONE WORKS #6 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY/DAVID WELLS - HEART OF EMBRA/OP.5 (3"CDR by
Twenty Hertz)
MONOLITH ZERO/NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER (CD by 804noise Records)
*
ANTLER JUICE - LIVE AT RELAY O3 (CD by Postmoderncore) *
CATHODE - CHRONOPHOBIA/ECONOMIC GROWTH (7" by Distraction
Records) *
MUSHI MUSHI - CHICKEN EP (7" by Distraction Records)
GRADUATION TRIO (CDR by Free1003Point9)
N.R.A. (CDR by Free1003Point9)
SKYLINE - PRIVATE SECTORS (CDR by Free1003Point9)
TUNE(IN))) (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
RADIO ACTION II (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
SCAPE 2 (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
CROSSED CIRCUITS (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
ASHER - ... AND INVARIABLY THE BLUE (MP3 by Con V)
ARC - THE CIRCLE IS NOT ROUND (CD by Small
Voices)
The name Aidan Baker has popped up many times in Vital Weekly.
Usually when he has solo material on offer, but also with his
trio Arc. But mostly they were CDR or MP3 releases, not many on
'real' CD or vinyl. But with "The Circle Is Not Round', Arc
delivers their first full length CD. Arc is besides Aidan Baker
on guitar, flutes and tape-loops) the non-related Richard Baker
on drum-kit and percussion and Christopher Kukiel on percussion.
With two people on percussive elements and one guitar and flutes,
it's perhaps easy to think that they play a full on set of music
based on rhythmic sounds, but that is not the case. The music
from Arc has a very retro, very seventies sound to it. Not that
of progressive rock, but that of psychedelic, cosmic music, think
Popol Vuh meeting Pink Floyd meeting Ashra Temple. Stretched out
pieces of multi-layered guitars being played by e-bows, while
the sounds coming of it, run amok in a bed of sound effects, and
the percussive sounds are more supportive than doing their own
thing, their own solo. Despite this somewhat outdated sound, it's
a highly recommended disc: the music is very vibrant, constantly
moving back and forth between places, moods and textures. A hot
bed of psychedelic music that is much enjoyable, even without
the intake of any substances. (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
MAURIZIO BIANCHI - A MB IEHN TALE (CD by
Small Voices) The story of Bianchi's disappearance and resurrection
has been well-documented. Over 10 years ago, Italian industrial
Meister Maurizio Bianchi suddenly vanished from the earth. He
had been responsible for a string of grainy industrial records
with gruesome images of concentration camps, which made him something
of a legend in the industrial scene. A few years ago an ardit
fan contacted all the Bianchi's in the Milanese phonebook, which
led to Bianchi's return to music. It turned out he had become
a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. His new recordings for EEs'T
records lead to fierce debate among his fans, as they featured
ambient synthesizer pieces, which paled compared to his fierce
work in the 80s. On the positive side, it also resulted in the
re-release of his early 80s albums in two box-sets. Even his old
tapes as Sacher Pelz were re-released. Fans were delighted by
the old works, but the new ones did not gain many positive reviews.
However, this one, the cryptically titled A MB Ienh Tale, sees
Bianchi return with a vengeance. The 8 tracks ("decompositions")
on this album feature treated piano compositions. Not that you'd
recognize the piano per se. This is slow, industrial yet meditative
blurred music, harking back to the days of Bianchi's opus magnum
The Plain Truth from 1984. The tracks were reconstructed by Sandro
Kaiser who has collaborated with Bianchi on several of his CD's.
On tracks like Asephic or Martyr the piano is only remotely audible,
drowned out in echo's and reverb. On Hormone the reverb rules,
whereas on Electrolyte the piano chords are more to the fore with
only minimal reverb. Best of the bunch is the 20-minute closing
track Tale though, with a distant yet brooding ambient atmosphere,
without any traces of the original piano. This CD proves there
is still live in the old beast. (FK)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
ERIK VOERMANS FEATURING ERIC VLOEIMANS -
NOCTURNAL GHOST SONGS (CD by Basta)
One could easily get confused over the almost similar names on
this package. This unique cooperation features Erik Voermans,
an accomplished guitarist and music journalist and Eric Vloeimans,
jazz trumpetist extraordinaire. Vloeimans was recently nominated
for the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival. However, this
should not be filed under classic jazz. Maybe experimental ambient
jazz is a better description. On these spacious, minimal but still
melodious compositions, Voermans plays open, almost traditional
chords and gentle solos. At times he feeds his guitar through
effect pedals and Ebows (as on the beautiful Weeping) making it
sound like washes of ambient sound. Vloeimans adds beautiful controlled
breathy trumpet playing, not unlike Miles Davis. The two combined
make for lonely late night melodies. On several pieces they are
joined by Gert-Jan Blom on bassguitar. The four Night Dobro themes,
performed on Dobro resonance guitar, form a welcome break from
the unobtrusive guitar/trumpet/sound themes. The final track Pawn
features Voermans guitars fed through various effect-pedals. The
result is an ambient tapestry, which is a nice listen but also
shows how much the trumpet (or the melody) is needed. The music
never peaks, but keeps to the laid-back, almost tranquil mood.
Nocturnal Ghost Songs is a great listen, but perhaps not challenging
enough for the Vital audience. (FK)
Address: http://www.bastamusic.com
GERRITT - SPACE LEVEL BLAZE (miniCD by Misanthrophic
Agenda)
MERZBOW & JOHN WIESE - MULTIPLICATION (CD by Misanthrophic
Agenda)
JOHN WIESE- MAGICAL CRYSTAL BLAH VOLUME 3 (miniCD by Helicopter)
In the world of noise we find people like John Wiese, Gerritt
and the king of the genre Merzbow. Gerritt is, as far as I know,
the person to run Misanthrophic Agenda, and on his own miniCD
'Space Level Blaze' he treats the listener with a nice, short
but powerful set of noise music. With his previous release on
Troniks I wasn't too impressed, but here things are more than
quite alright, within the realms of noise (which is a pretty standard
sort of music, with nothing much new directions). The six pieces
are made of electro-acoustic sources, distortion and feedback
and good old reel-to-reel manipulations - or so it seems.
King of noise Merzbow teams up with John Wiese, not yet a king,
but member of Bastard Noise, as-well as a renowned solo artist.
Their collaboration was done through mail, and Wiese mixes six
shorter tracks and Merzbow one long piece. In Wiese's pieces the
traditional forms of noise appear of distortion and feedback,
but unfortunately I must say it's one of his lesser works. The
Merzbow track is also a traditional Merzbow piece, but it's Merzbow
at his best. The endless stream of sound, rapidly changing into
more obscured forms of psychedelic noise clouds. It's the Merzbow
we love. As a collaboration it's quite ok, not great, but not
bad either.
Of more interest, if not just for the concept, is Wiese's mini
CD 'Magical Crystal Blah Volume 3'. Volume 1 (see Vital Weekly
438) was also Wiese solo, but Volume 2 (Vital Weekly 465) was
a remix project of Volume 1, including Panicsville, KK Null, Damion
Romero, Karkowski, Christian Renou, Mike Shiflet, Freiband, RLW
and Joe Colley. Normally things would stop there, but on Volume
3 Wiese uses the remix CD to take matters further. Here the main
input is less noise related, but more in the form of collage cut-up
and digital manipulation of the material, making new thick clouds
of sounds in decay. This is more along the lines of the original,
with electro-acoustic manipulations being blown up by distortion,
as-well as quieter moments of almost sheer inaudibility. With
the whole thing indexed at thirty-seven tracks in just under eighteen
minutes, this is an excellent thing to put on 'shuffle/repeat'
and create your own Volume 4. (FdW)
Address: http://www.misanthrophicagenda.com
Address: http://home.earthlink.net/~johnwiese
Z'EV - RHYTHMAJIK (CD by Small Voices)
KK NULL & CHRIS WATSON & Z'EV - NUMBER ONE (CD by Touch)
In case you didn't notice: Z'ev is back, but these days with something
else than what we know him for: rhythmic music. Although his new
album for Small Voices deals with rhythm again, as they publish
the Z'ev's book 'Rhythmajik' in Italian. The book is subtitled
'Practical uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound' which probably says
it all. Z'ev provides music for the book on the CD with the same
name. He plays homemade instruments, such as gongs, metal percussion,
titanium plate and low steel drums. In no less than thirty-two
tracks, Z'ev displays his unique style of percussive music, usually
quite slow, and working on the sustaining of sounds. The result
is a densely layered album of multiple percussive elements. It's
the Z'ev we know so well from the 80s, but with a sound that has
progressed a lot.
Of a completly different nature is the collaboration between Z'ev,
KK Null and Chris Watson - it even seems on paper a most curious
collaboration. Z'ev and Null played together one evening and talked
about collaborating. It would involve the structure of the NOH
theatre, sounds used would act as developing characters and the
'the character interactions would be placed as the 'figure' inside
particular soundscapes as the 'ground'. Z'ev is the man to mix
the various sound input by KK Null and Watson - the first known
for his electronically manipulated electro-acoustics and the latter
for his field recordings made in Africa. An unlikely combination
perhaps, but surprisingly it works very well. The bird and insects
sound electronic and the electro-acoustics sounds sound quite
natural. Z'ev's responsibility is to mix all these elements together,
and he does a great job, much along the lines of his 'Headphone
Musics 1 To 6' (see Vital Weekly 444). Densely layered pieces
of sounds swirling in and out, which work best with headphones
one (despite the fact that no such reference is made on the cover).
It's music that is hardly to be described as 'ambient' or 'soundscaping'
or even 'industrial', but which is very much it's own thing, defying
any category (well, perhaps 'avant-garde' comes in place then?).
A highly vibrant disc of beautifully dense music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
LAPSED - LAPSED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Another well recommended release by Berlin-based label Ad Noiseam!
Last year the label released the debut album of American sound
Artist Jason Stevens (a.k.a. Lapsed) titled "Twilight",
an album that took its starting point in precision, sharpness
and glitchy harmonies. This year's self-titled follow-up also
focuses on the click-driven sound expression, but stylishly Lapsed
has taken an interesting step into the territories of Hip Hop
roots. The albums opens with lots of atmosphere where clicking
beats easily moves inside subtle drones of low frequency ambient.
The hip hop beats do exist on the opening tracks but in a more
calm state. Having left the first two tracks behind the expression
slowly begins to get funkier. There are plenty of samplings ranging
from voices of black rappers to sampled moments from Justin Timberlake.
As we approach the final part of the album the funkiness slowly
fades giving way to the melancholic atmospheres that surrounded
the opening part. And so there is a pleasant musical development
on the album. Being a rather unique beast, the only comparison
I can come up with is the 1998-album "Frequency jams"
by Req, thanks to the alluring mixture of hip hop beats and experimental
Ambient. Excellent! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.com
FREQ_OUT 2 (CD compilation by Ash International)
The idea behind this CD, or maybe I should say, sound installation,
is that thirteen artists work within a specific sound range. Unlike
the first volume (see Vital Weekly 406), this is not a compilation
of various pieces, but just one piece, spanning one hour. I think
each artist plays within the given frequencies, but in one long
jam session together. The piece is a slowly evolving matter of
softly gliding tones, with sometimes elements rising out of it,
but only mildly, just above the rest, but no sound seems to be
taking a distinct shape. This makes this a highly ambient record,
or better an environmental album, one you can put on repeat for
the rest of the day at a soft volume and your space will be filled
with sounds that don't force themselves upon the listener, but
rather provide a nice background soundtrack for the user (rather
than 'for the listener'). It's a very nice disc, much better than
the first volume in terms of listening experience. Artists included
are BJNilsen, J.G. Thirlwell, Jacob Kirkegaard, Jana Winderen,
Maia Urstad, Kent Tankred, Finnbogi Petursson, PerMagus Lindborg,
Brandon Labelle, Franz Pommasl, Mike Harding, Tommi Gronlund and
Petteri Nisunen. A very fine disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freq-out.org
KINETIX - WHITE ROOMS (2CD by Small Voices)
Following a couple of CDR releases and one CD by Small Voices,
here comes the biggest undertaking by Gianluca Becuzzi and it's
a major leap forward. 'White Rooms' is a four part work, of which
three span the first CD and the fourth the entire second CD. The
work deals with the relationships between physical space and acoustic
space, divided in 'inside the room', 'length of the room', 'height
of the room' and 'volume of the room'. Whereas his previous works
dealt with either micro-sound and minimal techno, he now seems
to have taken the path of microsound. Carefully constructed soundscapes
of sine-waves gently moving in and out, with occasional crackles
and soft whispering voices, certainly in the first part. It reminded
me of some of Jos Smolders' older work in this direction (but
much better recorded by Kinetix, but in Smolders' defense, he
work with hissy tapes in his early days). In the second and third
part Kinetix uses the voice of Alvin Lucier with his well-known
ramble about rooms that he is in and you are not, but Kinetix
uses it quite nicely. The fourth part is a stretched out drone
piece with off and on rumbles and it moves all quite slowly. The
previous works by Kinetix were nice, but couldn't convince me
that much, but here it surely does. Not so much in terms of presenting
something new, but it's a well-thought out disc, excellently produced,
good concept and presented well. Thumbs up! (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA - THE LEGEND OF THE ELK
BAND 1996-1999 (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording
Collective)
ARGH & JEREMY KENNEDY - TITLED (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain
Princess Recording Collective)
'Let's Foam' was the debut of Puppy vs Dyslexia back in 2001,
but I missed that. Maybe if I did hear I would understand this
better. Puppy vs Dyslexia are a two piece of Zak Puppy and Jeremy
Kennedy. Together they present no less than twenty-five tracks
on this new album, and as far as I understand this is a collection
of various bits and pieces recorded over the last few years, 'fusty
tapes of pot marked seedlings, folio imprints and live shots'
as it is called. Wether or not from the period 1996-1999 as mentioned
in the title, it's unclear to me. An utter lo-fi affair this release,
with mostly deliberately badly recorded songs of guitar, drums,
bass and noise and oh yes, vocals. Madness along. Butthole Surfers,
Sun City Girls and other free punk spring to mind. Not music I
regularly digest, but it's alright for a CD long of weirdness.
And then move on.
The same Jeremy Kennedy pops up in Argh & Jeremy Kennedy on
the disc 'Titled', which is far more interesting for the Vital
Weekly crowd, me thinks. Argh is one Adrian Riffo, the guitarist
of the 'Parisian jazz/noise trio Glen Or Glenda'. The two meet
up, discuss what to do and book a session in a studio, with both
of them on guitar and electronics. The session has been cut into
three tracks, 'Green', 'Yellow' and 'Blue' and offers in all three
track a very free play of sustaining electronic sounds, objects
on the six strings and more noise related outings, using distortion
pedals and some such. Things work best when they go for a somewhat
softer sound and explore all the possibilities that they have
at hand, rather than letting things explode. Luckily these moments
are the majority here. Together with the rather raw recording
(live microphone, rather than everything going straight into a
mixer), makes this a very vibrant recording of improvised music.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.fmsmprc.com
PAUL BRADLEY - LIQUID SUNSET (CD by Twenty
Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY - DRONE WORKS #6 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY/DAVID WELLS - HEART OF EMBRA/OP.5 (3"CDR by
Twenty Hertz)
This is something I have noted before, but let's repeat and extend
a little. Drone music is at a dead end, at least for the time
being (save for maybe technical changes in the future), but that's
perhaps also to be noted for a lot of music, like ambient music,
noise or microsound. That is a pity for those listeners who'd
like music to develop into new directions. But perhaps the majority
of people is not interested in that all. They discovered 'drone'
(or whatever genre) music and learned about their few favorite
artists and set out to get everything, even when it doesn't change
that much. That's why, say Klaus Schulze, has such a big following.
And that's why some people don't mind that their favorite artists
are over-productive. People such as Paul Bradley. With three new
releases you might think he's over-productive, but 'Liquid Sunset'
is his first solo CD, apart from a bunch of collaborations and
CDR releases. I have learned that Bradley is not a man with a
bedroom full of analogue synths, but rather armed with a microphone
and minidisc goes out to do field recordings and treats them on
his computer into extended pieces of drone music. Stretching out
sounds by the possibilities of the computer with very occasionally
the sound going to the raw field recording, which is always obscured
beyond recognition. A short walk perhaps, leaves cracking but
the main portion is the extended drone sounds. Great stuff, but
nothing new under the (liquid) sun(set).
The differences between 'Liquid Sunset' and 'Drone Works #6' are
marginal, except that the latter is a twenty minute EP, without
any traces of the original source/field recordings. Slowly humming,
gently vibrating music.
On the website of Twenty Hertz, Paul's own label, we can read
that the field recordings for his split release with David Wells
(another upcoming name in the areas of drone music) were made
in Edinburgh, visiting tourist sites, walking and drinking but
without any bagpipes. Each of the artists produced his own piece
of drone music from it. Bradley with another signature piece,
with mildly recognizable crackles. David Wells brings in more
drama to the scene, with sounds swirling in and out of the mix,
rather than going for the stretched out pieces of drone music.
But his piece is also strictly inside drone music, despite the
sudden changes and the overall more soundscaping character of
the piece. It's a very nice piece however, with the field recordings
being more recognizable present in the mix. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twentyhertz.co.uk
MONOLITH ZERO/NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER (CD
by 804noise Records)
Both Monolith Zero and Never Presence Forever are new names to
me, and so is the label, 804noise Records. They hail from Virginia
and focuss on artists from the Richmond Area, I assume it's run
by the artists who release on the label. Monolith is one Adam
Hudson and he presents two tracks of electrically charged electricity.
In the first piece this works out in smaller sounds, produced
while rubbing contact microphones against each-other, interrupted
by short loud bangs. Quite an intense piece of music going on
here. The second '_0_' is a much louder piece of machine hum,
distortion and feedback, but presented in a good collage form,
balancing the noise with silence. In the second half of the piece
things move into quieter water before arising from the swamp.
Never Presence Forever is Andrew Westerhouse, who remixed Merzbow
before. His music sound 'swedish' to me, which means echoing the
likes of Cold Meat Industry and their 'death ambient' bands. A
rather subdued form of noise or a violent form of drone music.
Never Presence Forever takes the sounds of 'transformer hum in
a vacant lot littered with refuse, a blast furnace echoing in
a concrete stairwell', and puts on a bunch of electronic processing
to create a dense, layered mass of sound, in a careful built pieces
of great music. Lovers of Megaptera and Lustmord with a healthy
dose of noise, should find their way here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.804noise.org
ANTLER JUICE - LIVE AT RELAY O3 (CD by Postmoderncore)
The three players who recorded as Antler Juice are Jin Sangtae
(radio, sampling, electronics), Choi Joonyong (CDs) and tangent
(aka Sam Stevens on laptop, microphone, flute, okarina, toy guitar,
throat). They met up for the first time on september 16th of this
year when they played together at Relay 03 in Seoul, Korea. Of
course of twenty-five minutes they play together a set of improvised
electronics, scratchy electronics, in a pretty raw and direct
way. Not that this falls in the category of noise or some such,
but it's a in your face recording of more forceful sound material.
Not every moment is great here, but throughout it was most enjoyable.
(FdW)
Address: http://postmoderncore.com
CATHODE - CHRONOPHOBIA/ECONOMIC GROWTH (7"
by Distraction Records)
MUSHI MUSHI - CHICKEN EP (7" by Distraction Records)
In Vital Weekly 411 we discussed 'Special Measures', the first
full length album by Cathode, aka Steve Jefferis, which was nice,
but didn't stand out too much from the world of Static Caravan,
Expanding Records or some such melancholy electronica labels.
He does stand out with the first A-side of his new 7" for
Distraction Records, 'Chronophobia', not so much for the music
but for the beautiful voice of Caroline Thorp who sings here with
a dreamy, layered voice. A simply great piece. The other A-side
is built around a set of minimal sine waves, which are greeted
by a set of nice rhythms. It's a bit more experimental than the
others operating in this field, which makes this into a most enjoyable
7".
Whoever Mushi Mushi are, we don't know, but 'Chicken EP' is their
debut 7". Four tracks in just under ten minutes, that calls
for a true electro-punk spirit. They play fast music on a crossroad
of punk and electro music, just of that alley where free new wave
of the early 80s also lurk around the corner. Recalling all the
nice bands from then to now, this is a highly energetic slab of
vinyl. Great start for a new label, with two these handsome releases.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.distractionrecords.com
GRADUATION TRIO (CDR by Free1003Point9)
N.R.A. (CDR by Free1003Point9)
SKYLINE - PRIVATE SECTORS (CDR by Free1003Point9)
TUNE(IN))) (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
RADIO ACTION II (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
SCAPE 2 (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
CROSSED CIRCUITS (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
A whole bunch of releases from The Free103Point9 label from Brooklyn,
linked to an illegal radio station and performance space. Many
of their releases on CDR deal with music of an improvised nature.
Such as Graduation Trio, being Nels Cline, Chris Corsano and Carlos
Giffoni, a power trio of drums, guitar and noise. The two pieces,
spanning forty minutes, were recorded in 2003. The music is a
most furious set of free rock/noise improvisation, nervous and
hectic, moving all over the place, with hardly any point of rest
or contemplation. Music for die-hard lovers of the free genre.
A pity that the recording quality isn't that great.
N.R.A. has nothing to do with the National Riffle Association,
but stands for Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Vic Rawlings (cello
and open circuit electronics) and Ricardo Arias (bass-balloon
kit). Here to improvisation prevails, and like Graduation Trio,
they sure like to play things loud, but unlike Graduation Trio,
they don't go for the endless stream of sound and being a free
as possible. N.R.A. loves their quieter moments, thus letting
their instruments breath, take shape, and then let them move on.
When they burst out they do it well and loud, but it's not their
main thing. Exploration of the various possibilities their instruments
have to offer, as-well as all the different techniques to apply
in playing them. A very fine disc of first class improvisation.
It's been a while since we last heard of Skyline, Damian Catera's
band, despite the fact that the first two releases came quickly
after each-other (see Vital Weekly 291 and 237). Skyline is besides
Damian on guitar and electronics, JB on rhythms-capes and 'jbscapes',
DJZ on turntable, soundscapes and rhythmscapes and V. Olsen on
'lo end abrasions and other thump'. Together they make a complex
web of rhythm, rhythm and noise. It's at times most enjoyable,
even better than the previous Skyline releases, but at the same
time it remains also quite remote music, it doesn't seem to be
grabbing the listener that much, at least not this one.
All the other releases are compilations of events and especially
commissioned music for broadcasts. 'Tune(In)))'for instance consists
of recordings made at a festival of the same name, held at The
Kitchen in April 2004. The audience members could tune in via
headsets to the music that was played live. No amplification in
the room itself. Five long pieces (six, if you count the introduction)
by some of the participating artists, of which Scanner is the
best-known one. His piece is the longest here with his entire
set played that night. Pulsating ambient and dropping at various
moments all sorts of field recordings, but of course the main
thing being spoken word of varying kind. Damian Catera samples
real time Thurston Moore's guitar, but unfortunately comes down
as too much noise and chaos in the end. Ben Owen's piece is also
worth mentioning, since it's a very fine, soft piece of radio
crackles and field recordings.
Another compilation is 'Radio Action II', a seasonal release using
radio transmissions as an instrument or theme. Many of the enclosed
artists are new to me, such as sabers, Keith Obadike, Marcel Blum,
Tom Roe and Joshua Fried. Some of the pieces make quite a clear
use of radio sounds, whilst in some others it's less obvious.
Overall it's alright, but nothing spectacular.
On a different conceptual angle (which is something they love
at Free1003Point9), is 'Scape 2', a double CDR of identical material
which you should play at the same time and put to shuffle. Besides
Scanner again a bunch of new names. Overall the material dwells
on darker edges of ambient and little bits of more noise related
material. Many of the names from 'Radio Action II' return and
the same thing can be said here: overall it's alright, but nothing
spectacular.
The final compilation is 'Crossed Circuits', with again many of
the same names as on the previous compilations and was part of
an exhibition, involving photography, sculpture, painting and
music, all dealing with 'the blurring of senses. Much alike the
other compilations, it's an alright thing of fairly interesting
experimental music, but again nothing spectacular. (FdW)
Address: http://www.free103point9.org
ASHER - ... AND INVARIABLY THE BLUE (MP3
by Con V)
"The well-known fact of the Inuits having access to more
than 13 (or was it 30?) terms for 'snow' comes to mind on the
apperception of this release' - perhaps it's not so well-known
fact, I think when reading the press text. Asher works and lives
in Brooklyn, New York and had previously a release on 12K's net-label
Term, which I didn't hear. His new MP3 release deals with the
spectrum of 'blue', all it's various shapes, just like the 'snow'
for the inuit. Three long tracks, which all sound a bit similar
(I assume that's the 'blue' aspect of it) of deep bass tones and
slowly altering field recordings. If microsound is a term you
never of, then try this and you know what it is all about. It's
a pretty good release of pretty nice mood music, but also a bit
standard for what it is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
corrections: the website for Remanence (see
last week) should be http://www.mpathrecords.com.
Antanas Jasenka is not from Russia but from Lithuania and Dan
Warburton (Vital Weekly 501) is not an American, but English.
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