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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 508
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week 2
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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!
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* noted are in this week's podcast
JOHN WIESE - TEENAGE HALLUCINATION (CD by
Troniks) *
THE CHERRY POINT - NIGHT OF THE BLOODY TAPES (CD by Troniks) *
KRAKEN - AMORE (2CD by Spectre)
JON BRUMIT - VENDETTA RETREAT (CD by Edgetone Records) *
ANDRE GONCALVES & KENNETH KIRSCHNER - RESONANT OBJECTS (CD
by Sirr-ecords) *
NERVOUS NOISE (CD compilation by Nervous Nurse)
PAWEL GRABOWSKI - ARH (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
PAWEL GRABOWSKI/THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC/JAMES ECK RIPPIE &
PAULO RAPOSO - PRODUCT O06 (CD by Cronica Electronica)
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - ROMANTIC READYMADES (CDR, private
release)
RYFYLKE - MORILD/NUEMA BRISTER (LP by Roggbif)
TOFT & UTARM - KREFTSKAP (3"CDR by Nervous Nurse)
ENCOMIAST - HAVENS (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
SCISSOR SHOCK - WE'RE IN THE TRASHBAG (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
A CROWN OF AMARANTH - LOVE.LIES.BLEEDING (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
KORPERSCHWACHE - TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL KITTY (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
KORPERSCHWACHE - VOICE OF THE OUROBOROS (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
AIDAN BAKER - PERIODIC (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
BEXAR BEXAR - TROPISM (CD by Western Vinyl) *
JOHN HUDAK - SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Con-V) *
CADUCEUS - INFL 03 (MP3 by Caduceus Music) *
JOHN WIESE - TEENAGE HALLUCINATION (CD by
Troniks)
THE CHERRY POINT - NIGHT OF THE BLOODY TAPES (CD by Troniks)
By now John Wiese can easily be called Sir John Wiese, master
of noise. His noise work is big in volume, by which we mean the
audible volume as-well as the size of the catalogue of works and
tours, either solo or as a member of Sun 0))) and Bastard Noise.
Does this guy ever sleep? But John Wiese was of course John Wiese
Jr. at one point, starting out with crashing noise in his bedroom.
That was in 1992 and the fifty-two tracks here span until 1999.
With such an amount of tracks, you can imagine that there are
all very short, somewhere between a few second and a few minutes.
This makes this into a highly scattered disc, of crashing metallic
sounds fed through a wall of distortion boxes (and other multi-colored
guitar effects). Best is to see this CD as one track in fifty-two
parts than inspect the separate tracks for their obscurity ('ah
that must be the 5" split with Panicsville). It's the coming
of age works by someone who is surely one of the leading noise
artists in the USA. Is he now better than before? Or is the early
stuff the true master at work? Irrelevant questions: Wiese did
and does whatever he does he best. This is the missing diamond
in his career, and worthwhile to any true fan.
Troniks CEO Phil Blankenship is also a steady force in the US
noise scene, mainly as boss of Troniks, Pac Rec and his own The
Cherry Point project. Also in the third millennium The Cherry
Point released a couple of cassettes, which are now collected
in the four tracks that span the forty minutes of this CD. Inspiration
comes from blood spatter horror films. I somehow don't think that
many movie directors will first think of The Cherry Point when
appointing a soundtrack composers, and that's a pity. The Cherry
Point play a wall of noise type soundtrack that would probably
do very well in those movies, and would surely add to the mayhem.
But then a 'story' would not have to be told. Chain-saws hacking
on screen, chain-saws hacking away the soundtrack - an idiot going
berserk need this kind of music to do a proper job. Radio-static
feeding through distortion, feedback loops at random and occasional
there is a crash course of cars. That sums these things up. The
Cherry Point moves nicely along the lines of King Merzbow, doing
a good and sturdy job, but not necessarily add something new to
the genre of noise. Oh well, who cares about that then? (FdW)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com
KRAKEN - AMORE (2CD by Spectre)
Getting back to the real world is sometimes difficult! Those of
us who have experienced watching the afternoon show at the movies
knows that experience of leaving the fictional world from the
movie behind and having to relate to the daily rhythm of the real
world outside the theatre is not always easy. With almost two
hours of deeply absorbing soundscapes, latest album by Belgian
project Kraken delivers an experience of abstraction similar to
the aforementioned experience at the movie theatre. The album
titled "Amore" first of all operates in the spheres
of dark ambient built on low frequency drones, deep rumbling horns
and mixtures of concrete and artificial sounds. The music is subtle
and dreamy thanks to the drones of hypnotism and the distantly
echoed voices as well as a clever use of field recordings. Even
with the occurrence of the great amount of samples from real life
accompanying you as you float through the tunnels of eerie ambientscapes
the atmosphere on the album first of all delivers a sense of isolationism.
Imagine the impression of being conscious enough to sense the
dialogues of the surgical team as you lay on the operating table:
The voices surround you, but they sound distant and you are not
part of the dialogue. First CD has been divided into five works
of art meanwhile second disc only consists of two tracks: Where
the first track runs approx. 70 minutes, the closing track with
its short duration of 49 seconds, first of all functions as a
transformation between the sonic darkness of "Amore"
and the outside world. Built on beautifully processed harpsichords
the track, titled "de hoorn in je hoed", lightens up
the atmosphere before the listener soon once again will have to
face the real world. Despite the title there is absolutely no
sign of romanticism on this remarkable exploration into the dark
lands of Kraken. (NMP)
Address: http://www.spectre.be
JON BRUMIT - VENDETTA RETREAT (CD by Edgetone
Records)
Although I never heard of Jon Brumit, I am quite pleased with
his CD. Apparently he found all his sounds on the San Francisco
Dump - what a mighty dump that is. 'Vendetta Retreat' is announced
as a motion picture soundtrack for which the film, or rather separate
clips have to come our way, one day. Brumit is credited with 'sound
devices' and plays around with minimal notions. It seems to me
that he samples his music together from the 'garbage' (is that
a guitar?) he found and layers them in a rather rough way. Sounds
are set to loop, but drop in and out of the mix, in an illogical
way, but one that makes sense in the end. The best things work
in the piece 'Geography/Nowhere', in which this harsher minimalism
comes to live and never leaps into boredom in the almost eighteen
minutes that this excursion takes. A big of Glen Branca, Rhys
Chatham or Band Of Susans like. Each of the three lengthy pieces
are built in similar fashion (which is my main objection to this)
of loose sounds being knitted together. Very vibrant music that
is also a bit strange and off-beat, but captures an unnerving
groove altogether. Captivating release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.edgetonerecords.com
ANDRE GONCALVES & KENNETH KIRSCHNER
- RESONANT OBJECTS (CD by Sirr-ecords)
The resonant objects mentioned in the title are six objects 'suspended
from the ceiling at different heights, each one made from a globe
of white glass with one microphone, one speaker and one electrical
lamp inside'. They were connected to a computer, triggering six
different frequencies, picked up by the microphones and the objects
started to resonate. These resonances were then fed into Midi
and light controllers. No amplification was used and the recording
here is a microphone recordings (hence the occasional cough and
car passing). It's the work of Andre Goncalves and Kenneth Kirschner.
The latter is known from his various works with Taylor Deupree
and the first from his Ok.suitcase project and various recordings
for Cronica, Grain Of Sound and Cherry Music. The result must
have looked great, but we are dealing with 'just' a CD here, and
that sounds great. The resonating patterns are vaguely feedback
like, moving into all sorts of directions, and there doesn't seem
to be a moment of not moving. The overtone like quality of the
work reminded me of Alvin Lucier, more than of Kirschner's master
Feldman. It's music that creates an environment within an environment
- your environment. The best it seems to play this at a relatively
soft volume and move through your space and you will notice that
you seem to be picking up different frequencies throughout. A
beautiful work, moving gently throughout time and space. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
NERVOUS NOISE (CD compilation by Nervous
Nurse)
This is almost classical in approach: Nervous Nurse started out
as a small CDR label, but as there are some more funds available,
they release a real CD, and like any starter in the nineties,
they start with a compilation CD. Nervous Nurse is a noise label
and the sixteen artists they invited are mostly Vital Weekly regulars
in the worlds of CDRs and MP3s. Which is another fine thing of
Nervous Nurse: we have a real CD and want to share it with those
idealists of the CDR scene. So sixteen times noise = a massive
headache? Of course it is to the uninitiated, but me thinks the
overall quality is quite high. Good recording quality, but foremost
also good performances by these bands, with surprising looks to
the genre noise. There is of course feedback and distortion, but
also the intelligent use of rhythm, processing of field recordings
and digital manipulations. The lesser tracks are in a minority
here, and at the same time there is not a particular standout.
Lasse Marhaug is probably the best known featured artist, but
perhaps names as Chefkirk, Zytrax, Monobrain, Fever Spoor, Andre
Borgen, Xedh, Filthy Thurd and Xedh ring a few bells too. If you
want to investigate more about noise and new directions, then
this is the place to be. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nervousnurse.net.tc
PAWEL GRABOWSKI - ARH (CDR by Mystery Sea)
PAWEL GRABOWSKI/THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC/JAMES ECK RIPPIE &
PAULO RAPOSO - PRODUCT O06 (CD by Cronica Electronica)
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - ROMANTIC READYMADES (CDR, private
release)
Little by little the name of Pawel Grabowski is getting around.
He hails from Poland and played double bass in Miastoniepalo from
1998 to 2000. Since then he plays electro-acoustic music, moved
to Ireland, released 7"s on Laub Records and Drone Records
and a couple of CDRs. Here he appears on two new releases of which
one is his first real CD release, and both releases will certainly
bring his career further. On Mystery Sea, Grabowski offers four
deep rumbles of sub-aquatic sounds, entirely conceived in the
zeroes and ones of the computer, but capturing quite nicely the
label's esthetic of deep ambient music that sounds like it is
recorded below the sea-level. Unlike some of the other artists
on Mystery Sea, Grabowski's pieces sound actually more like songs,
with vague hints towards rhythm (such as in the first of 'Arh')
and in every track a bit of melody. The water hits upon a shipwreck
and the picture becomes clearer: the music is the search for an
old boat, set to electro-acoustic music. Quite a beauty this one.
Grabowski also appears on 'Product 06' by Cronica Electronica.
Until now, two musicians were part of 'Product', together with
a designer. But here we have three different musicians, apart
from Grabowski, also The Beautiful Schizophonic and a track by
James Eck Rippie and Paolo Raposo (the man behind Sirr-ecords).
in Grabowski's 'But I'm Not' he uses field recordings, radio waves,
sine waves, voices and found sounds - the usual suspects for this
kind of music. The radio and sine waves are easy to recognize,
the other sources are a bit more difficult, but over the course
of these fifteen minutes, he creates music that is much more vibrant
and lively than his Mystery Sea release, less gloomy but still
atmospheric. The use of reversed sounds add to the liveliness
of the music.
The Beautiful Schizophonic, aka Jorge Mantas from Portugal, has
had a couple of releases before, of which the one of Mystery Sea
(see Vital Weekly 493) was the most interesting. Here he presents
no less than ten short pieces of ambient music, much along the
lines of his work on Mystery Sea. All treated neatly inside the
computer to create dense atmospheric music from all sorts of obscured
sources, including death, trash, grind and black metal music,
but it remains all a bit too sketchy in the end. Why not throw
all these fragments together and create one long big opus of atmospheric
music. 'file under: atmospheric laptopia' it says on the cover,
but place it in the subsection: fragmentary.
The third part of 'Product 06' is by Paolo Raposo and James Eck
Rippie. The first being the man behind Sirr.ecords and Rippie
has produced a very a nice LP with Colin Andrew Sheffield (see
Vital Weekly 316). Rippie is a guitarist and turntablist, and
although the liner notes don't tell this, I assume this is a work
of improvised music, with Raposo behind the laptop. The piece
is all about playing the more atmospheric (again, and probably
for that reason united with the others on this CD) tones of the
guitar and the laptop, although there are more louder fragments
to be spotted. It's a nice piece, certainly the one with the changing
moods and scenery's throughout.
Finally there is also a CDR by The Beautiful Schizophonic under
the banner of 'Romantic Readymades' - for mature listeners, in
an edition of just 10 copies. Here Mantas goes into the directions
of the radioplay, with cut ups of music taped from radio, collaged
conversation and sounds of people having intercourse, in 'Photographers
Are Watchers. I Am Voyeur. Says Karl Lagerfeld' (the titles are
the best part here). All pretty vague and obscure stuff, which
didn't arouse me that much, not in a musical sense and also not
in an erotic sense. Rather be the voyeur than the eves-dropper
I guess when it comes to that. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org
Address: <jorgemantas@hotmail.com>
RYFYLKE - MORILD/NUEMA BRISTER (LP by Roggbif)
TOFT & UTARM - KREFTSKAP (3"CDR by Nervous Nurse)
The previous release by Ryfylke, 'Boknafjord' (see Vital Weekly
463) was hailed by me as a fine cross-over between the Merzbowian
noise and the world of electro-acoustics. Now Stan Skagen and
Sten Ove Toft come up with a new work, this time on LP, and me
wonders if that would go well (I'm reviewing from a CDR here),
considering the wide dynamics their music has. Both musicians
play around with laptops, filling it with field recordings, of
whatever nature and create from scratch, from zero, from silence
a long storm of drones. Apparently unnoted things built up until
they fly away and you'll find yourself in a hurricane of sound,
but just as easily, they take matters back in control and everything
is quiet again. Perhaps a CD release would have been a better
idea, but maybe it works well, who knows. This is nevertheless
some dam fine music. Very intelligent noise!
The same Sten Ove Toft comes up on a 3"CDR for Nervous Nurse,
together with someone named Utarm. Toft has one piece, spanning
almost half of this release. In one long crescendo he builds up
his piece before it collapses and tiny sparks fly around. Less
complex in approach as the Ryfylke stuff, and more straightforward
in it's built up. The unknown Utarm has two tracks, of which the
first is quite a mediocre form guitar noise and the second track
is also noise, but of an even more obscure nature, and likewise
quite uninteresting. (FdW)
Address: http://www.roggbif.com
Address: http://www.nervousnurse.net.tc
ENCOMIAST - HAVENS (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
SCISSOR SHOCK - WE'RE IN THE TRASHBAG (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
A CROWN OF AMARANTH - LOVE.LIES.BLEEDING (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
KORPERSCHWACHE - TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL KITTY (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
KORPERSCHWACHE - VOICE OF THE OUROBOROS (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
AIDAN BAKER - PERIODIC (CDR by Crucial Bliss)
Somewhere on the website of Vital Weekly there are the 'frequently
given answers' and it says somewhere that it's better not to send
your entire label's catalogue at once, but that was missed at
the Crucial Blast headquarters. So I'm taking the risk of reviewing
them all, but at the same time some disappointed label chef (or
musician) saying that Vital Weekly receives too much stuff and
that they are not able to hear everything they get. Crucial Blast
have a sub-division called Crucial Bliss and they categorize themselves
as 'drone/noise' label and we come across such names as Aidan
Baker (who is everywhere, though Chefkirk could be here as-well)
and Encomiast (of whom we reviewed work before, in Vital Weekly
271 and 465). The other names are new to me.
Let's start with Encomiast, the duo of Ross Hagen and Megan Garland
(as opposed to the previous release which was made just Ross Hagen),
who play a wide variety of instruments (including violin, voice,
flute, guitar, gamelan and shakuhachi besides the usual field
recordings), but they create quite dense clouds of ambient drones.
Three long pieces here of slowly developing, but highly organic
music. It's not demanding music at all, gently flowing. More Mirror
than Maeror Tri, I'd say. Certainly a different release than the
previous, and one that truely enjoyable from beginning to end.
The shortest release here is by Scissor Shock, who are listed
as a five piece group on the cover (keyboards, drum computers,
guitar, vocals etc.), but the eight short tracks, which last in
total 10 minutes, were all 'produced, written, whatever' by Adam
Cooley in 2005, with a computer microphone and mixed in cool edit
pro. Total mayhem here of collaged together sounds of rock-noise
like group playing, but also the speeding up of cassettes. Cut
together in a highly fast and energetic way. A nice release, even
at this length (or perhaps because of this length?), but me wonders
what it is doing in a label about drones?
A Crown Of Amaranth is a new name for me and they (he?) play drone
music with strong tendencies towards the darker, louder and more
industrial side of music, apparently all made with the use of
guitars. Quite deep music, but more often than not exploding into
conveyer belt type of music and dwelling heavy on the use of sound
effects. And while those sounds leak into a large rack of sound
effects small rhythms start to appear. It's well produced music
for sure, but it's a bit too much for me. A bit too dark, without
a shed of light coming in. A pitch black picture of a post nuclear
world - not a happy to be, but certainly would work well in as
a soundtrack to movie with a similar theme.
Korperschwache is a trio from Texas, with RKF on guitar and effects,
Doktor Omega on beats and Kid Orgasmatron on beats. On their two
releases just very long tracks, usually around fifteen to twenty
minutes. The differences between both releases are quite small.
On both releases they play a type of heavy rock music, pitch black
wall of sound of guitar sounds set against an ever banging rhythm.
Earth and Sunn 0))) are never far away, but also less recent examples
such as Skullflower and Rhys Chatham. A great wall of sound at
work on both releases. Finish this in one go with the volume turned
all the way up , and you'll be crying for a doctor. Not exactly
the latest new crazy in rock music, but definitely worth checking
out by fans of the aforementioned bands. Also, this is less drone
based and more noise related.
Something which can't be said of Aidan Baker's release, since
that's far out drone related. Apparently created from 'manipulated
and damaged 4-track recordings of electric and acoustic guitars
(as well as drums)', but which have been re-assembled somehow
somewhere. The drums are there, well, perhaps they are there,
we don't know for sure. The two long pieces are endless waves
of organic bliss, slowly moving forward, backward or sometimes
are at a grinding halt. Highly textured music, like we know so
well from Baker, and this is one of the strongest outings thereof.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.crucialblast.net
BEXAR BEXAR - TROPISM (CD by Western Vinyl)
A long long time ago, I reviewed an one-sided LP by Bexar Bexar
called '07.04.99' (see Vital Weekly 245) and I believe in the
mean time he has released some more records, but they were not
reviewed here. The first LP, from 2000, had a nice but strange
mixture of guitar playing and field recordings, and in that respect
not much as changed since then. The new record has separate tracks
(that is different), but his playing is still intimate, carefully
and distant. Some of the tracks are without a fade in or fade
out, they just seem to happen. Although there are lots of references
to be made here (say Tortoise, Mogwai, Radiohead), it's all very
stripped down to just this guitar and the very rudimentary ornament
of an organ (or feedback like) or highly obscured field recordings.
Pastoral music for rainy, autumn like days when the sun seems
to have disappeared forever. Melancholic to the very core. Nice
for sure, even on a cold winter day when the sun shines. (FdW)
Address: http://www.westernvinyl.com
JOHN HUDAK - SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Con-V)
Things have been quiet for John Hudak, or at least from my perspective.
One of the true masters of microsound, returning with a highly
conceptual work. If understood rightly, this work is for 'midi-triggered
cello samples', triggered by the reading of works by Gertrude
Stein and James Joyce. Music for the salon: the meeting place
of the modern of almost a century ago. Someone reading poetry,
someone playing the cello: the bourgeois notion of modern art.
In the five pieces the solo pizzicato cello is the one and only
instrument, nothing else happens. No electronics, no glitches,
no processing. That makes this not really an easy release. As
with good conceptual art, the result it is not really important
but the story behind it, and that is the also the case here. The
idea behind the piece (or pieces, depends on how you view this
release) is very nice, but five pieces of similar music in total
is a bit too much. A shorter release, say twenty or so minutes,
would have made the same point and it would have been a lovely
release altogether too. Now it's like a great dinner, but it's
so much food that you can't eat it all. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
CADUCEUS - INFL 03 (MP3 by Caduceus Music)
*
The fourth release of Caduceus' series of influential music is
from a non-rhythmical order. So far they were all quite rhythmic
(Rehberg/Bauer, Muslimgauze and ø), but here it's the career
changing 'Intoutof' by The Hafler Trio. Until that release, in
1991 or so, The Hafler Trio played mainly collage typed music,
but 'Intoutof' was the first sign of a more drone related sound
- 'to sit around and watch things happens' as The Hafler Trio
would state. The sound of windpipes being looped, altered and
changing throughout, this was a highly influential record (and
still in print, so go get it). Caduceus captures the feel of the
record quite well and make things even more drone related, removing
the moving sound of the original and bring the sounds to an almost
non-moving position. They bring in a sort of utter slow rhythm
in 'Infl0402', but never really that much to the foreground. For
me this is the best of the Influences series so far, since it
moves away from the original and brings out new sonic qualities
into the world of digital drones. (FdW)
Address: http://www.caduceusmusic.net
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