============
VITAL WEEKLY
============
number 511
---------------------
week 5
---------------------
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!
http://www.vitalweekly.net
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
JANEK SCHAEFER - MIGRATION (CD by Bip-hop)
*
SAME ACTOR - SHARP EDGES (CD by Bip-hop) *
ZIMBABWE NKENYA & THE NEW JAZZ (CD by High Mayhem)
OUT OF CONTEXT - PLAYS "ONE INCH EQUALS 25MILES" BY
SUMNER CARNAHAN (CD by High Mayhem) *
ENT - FUCK WORK (CD by Baskaru) *
AUDIOPIXEL - MEMENTO RUMORI (CD by Collectif Effervescence) *
AXIOMATIC INTEGRATION - OFF-TIME (CD by Fragmented Media) *
YANNICK DAUBY - TW04-05 (CD by Edition Ere)
EMERALD SUSPENSION - PLAYING THE MARKET (CD by Oscillation Productions)
PINK TWINS - PAINT IT PINK (CD by Pink Twins Media) *
PCRV - BIG SKY (CD by C.I.P.) *
JOE COLLEY - NO (7" by C.I.P.)
ANTHONY GUERRA - EMPTY KINGDOMS (miniCD by Black Petal)
AIDAN BAKER - PENDULUM (CDR by Gears Of Sand) *
FAGUS - DANS L'INVOLUCRE ENTRE OUVERT (CDR by A Question Of Re_Entry)
ASHER - GRACEFUL DEGRADATION (CDR by Con-V) *
MASSACCESI - NOTHING IS EVER AS IT USED TO BE (CDR by Woodoo/Scrotum)
*
SEIJIRO MURAYAMA & MICHEAL NORTHAM - THEY STOOD AROUND AND
WATCHED
(3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
YANNICK DAUBY - TROIS PHONOGRAPHIES DE PRESENCES ANIMALES EN MILIEU
URBAIN (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
AMBIENCES SONORES, ENREGISTREMENTS DOMESTIQUES & TOURISE AUDIO
VOLUME TWO (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
CAWA SORIX - FLEDERMAUS (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
*
HOWARD STELZER - THIS MAP IS A GIFT (CDR by Gameboy Records)
JOE PANZNER - POLISHED ROCKS (CDR by Gameboy Records) *
DEVILLOCK - COLD ROOM (CDR by Gameboy Records)
ENVENOMIST - DELVING GLACIAL (CDR by Gameboy Records)
CLON - SUDDEN IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES (CDR by Gameboy Records)
LEE PATTERSON/BENJAMIN GWILLIAM - COLLABORATIVE IMPOSITIONS (CDR
by New Acoustical Pleasures)
K.M. KREBS - RIEN A VOIR 15 (online release by Con-v)
MINDLOBSTER - THE HARDEST WORKING HELMET IN SHOW BUSINESS (MP3
by After Dinner)
JANEK SCHAEFER - MIGRATION (CD by Bip-hop)
SAME ACTOR - SHARP EDGES (CD by Bip-hop)
Our beloved busy architect (and daddy now) is of course Janek
Schaefer, who has released a whole catalogue of CDs and strange
pieces of vinyl for such fine labels as Kraak, Mutek, Sirr, Staalplaat,
Fat Cat and his own AudiOh! label, and some which I forgot. Here
he makes his first appearance on Bip-hop. It contains a piece
of music which acts as a soundtrack to a dance by Choreographer
Noemie Lafrance. Dancers were attached by bungee cord so they
could lean forward into open air and defy gravity - hovering above
the audience. Much like the dancers above the audience, the music
is inspired by birds, which migrate above us and culled from Schaefer's
library of field recordings comes the sounds of Nairobi, Madrid,
Perth, New York and Madrid - to mention a few. The piece, divided
in four parts, starts out softly in the first two parts, with
carefully processed field recordings, but with lots of small events
happening. In the next two piece things start to work into a mighty
crescendo of organ like sounds (thanks to Lourdes) and orchestral
sounds in the final 'To New York to Eugenie to Perth'. Here is
where things take off and starts flying around (including sounds
of a helicopter). Quite a captivating piece of work here. Even
without a dance it sounds great.
Of an entirely different order is the CD by Same Actor, aka Chris
Cook from Brighton. Which is just one of his names. Hot Roddy
is another, when he does 'breakbeat sitar abuse'. Cook also organizes
concerts and has a radio-show. 'Made predominantly with guitar,
sitar and dulcimer, processed into subtle music' - that is if
you exclude the many rhythm sources used. Certainly at the beginning
they are more than present and the stringed instruments seem to
play a smaller role. But as the CD progresses they become clearer,
such as the vaguely arabic 'Extreme Pumpkin' or the Micheal O'Shea
like 'Hammer'. This makes this CD limping on two legs. One is
the techno inspired rhythm pieces at the start, to purely guitar
like pieces towards the end. And some of those are a bit too long,
sounding a bit unstructured. That is a pity. A better selection
would have certainly made the album shorter, but no doubt also
a bit stronger. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bip-hop.com
ZIMBABWE NKENYA & THE NEW JAZZ (CD by
High Mayhem)
Some great fresh jazz music from an unknown local talent. Zimbabwe
Nkenya is a jazz-musician from St.Louis who settled down in New
Mexico, and became an important force in the scene of new jazz
music for about thirty years. He played with lots of musicians
of international fame like William Parker, Charles Gayle, Julius
Hemphill, and many more.
He is self-taught and plays upright bass, the african thumb piano
(mbira) from time to time, plus more recently the violin. This
is his first cd, bringing together live recordings from several
occasions. On the one hand we find four solo excercises on bass
(and violin?) by Zimbawe from a live performance at The Center
for Contemporary Arts. Moving pieces that show his engaged playing
and warm sound on the bass. In the other tracks we hear a quartet
with Dave Wayne (percussion), Chris Jonas (soprano saxophone),
Dan Pearlman (trumpet) plus special guest: Bob Brown (alto saxophone
on track 8). Jonas does most of the solos. They are crystal clear
and sparkle. The cd counts 10 compositions, all except one by
Nkneya. They don't move into any extreme experimental areas within
the jazz tradition. Nkenya operates more in the centre of what
jazz music can sound like in these days. In most pieces like 'Ornience'
the tasks are distributed in a traditional manner between rhythm
section and solos by trumpet and saxophone. Concerning this piece,
it's not only the title of this piece that refers to Ornette Coleman,
but also the music. Other compositions are dedicated to Cecil
Taylor and Anthony Braxton. All these points of reference show
that Nkenya feels related to a diversity of the latest jazz giants.
He knows his classics and with his music he adds his ideas to
it, showing that the jazz tradition is still very much alive.
Nice work! (DM)
Address: http://www.highmayhem.org/
OUT OF CONTEXT - PLAYS "ONE INCH EQUALS
25MILES" BY SUMNER CARNAHAN (CD by High Mayhem)
A favorite record of mine is 'Homeing' by Butch Morris. It is
just one of his numerous cd's with his system of conducted improvisation
but a very enjoyable one in my view. Orchestral sounds flow cohesively
from one improvisation into another. J.A.Deane is one of the 12
players on this cd. With his ensemble Out of Context Deane develops
his own version of conducted improvisation. No wonder Deane says
thank you to Morris in the liner notes. And indeed there are similarities.
Also Out of Context is a conducted improvisation where passages
come and go in a flowing manner. Although the cd contains 11 pieces,
they feel as one giant piece. Out of Context is: Jon Baldwin (cornet),
C.K.Barlow (sampler, live sampling), Stefan Dill (oud, electronics),
John Flax (acting, voice), Katie Harlow (cello), Sam Rhodes (bassoon),
Molly Sturges (vocalist), Alicia Ultan (viola), Jefferson Voorhees
(drums, percussion) and J.E.Deane (conductor, sampler, uniflute).
They interpret a project that is the result of a two year collaboration
between Deane and writer Sumner Carnahan who worked with different
composers for the last twenty years to present her stories. Don't
be afraid for a narrator reading continuously a story with illustrative
music in the background. This is happily not the case. The story
and the music are interconnected on a deeper musical level. The
final piece for instance "consists of every word contained
in Carnahan's book, squeezed into a mellifluously layered, post-nuclear,
Joycean cacophony cabled together from thirty-eight recordings
of individual readers and a motley Tragic Greek Chorus."
It's the music itself that tells the story. In the first part
we hear Sam Rhodes on bassoon in a slowly meandering meditation,
with violin and other instruments in the back. Further on the
music reaches from time to time a climax, in order seek to take
up it's way in a more calm way. Then its the oud of Dill that's
is on the forefront, at other moments the cornet of Baldwin or
the voices of Molly Sturgess and John Flax. But throughout the
other musicians are constantly in the neighborhood and taking
part. Its only the samples of Deane that are around more or less
without a pause. All in all this cd is a very concentrated journey
offering very different views and experiences. (DM)
Address: http://www.highmayhem.org/
ENT - FUCK WORK (CD by Baskaru)
Michele Scariot and Emanuele Bortoluzzi formed ENT in 2000 and
'Fuck Work' is their first full length release, following some
stuff for compilations and MP3. If I understood correctly the
material on this album was made in studio, then 'deconstructed'
live during live improvised sets and then reconstructed in the
studio, 'keeping only the elements deemed crucial'. ENT uses a
variety of 'real' instruments and electronica to work in a variety
of styles: from improvisation to post-rock to noise and onkyo.
A nice bunch of styles of course, and they appear throughout in
one piece. What starts out as an improvisational rock piece may
end as a noisy turntable piece, cross-fading into a sort of mellow
ambient techno piece (talking about 'Eternal Plans' and 'Milk
Oblo' here). You could wonder if this isn't a bit too much to
take in, but oh wonder, it does make sense altogether. It's a
headtrip, this music, taking the listener on a long journey through
music land, with tasty bits here and there, and then quickly moving
to another yummy field of exotic music. Not always the most surprising
ones, but it's like cooking: throw some herbs and spices and something
ordinary starts to taste wonderful. This music is a like. By itself
nothing special, but in this eclectic blender, it comes a live.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.baskaru.com
AUDIOPIXEL - MEMENTO RUMORI (CD by Collectif
Effervescence)
Miguel Constantino is a sound engineer who worked at CCMIX, the
centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis, and now busy putting
together his own studio. Armed with an electric guitar, a mixer,
two sampler pedals he wanted to create something to a laptop,
without using one. You could wonder why you want to do that, but
the results are nine short sketch like pieces, which are expanded
beyond the set-up mentioned above. There is the addition of bas,
piano, violin, drums and female voices. It drags the album more
into the area where post-rock meets glitch music. Just how this
set-up work, is quite unclear, but the results are pretty much
ok. Very much along the lines of Belong (see last week's issue),
this is somewhat more extended version of it, especially with
those tracks that use more instruments than just the guitar, just
in the closing piece 'Natas'. Here is where things work best for
this CD: it gives a richer idea of what the music can do, but
it moves beyond the original idea of the composer. I don't mind,
since it makes this into a more balanced CD. Short but nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.collectif-effervescence.com
AXIOMATIC INTEGRATION - OFF-TIME (CD by
Fragmented Media)
Maybe the name Incite rings a few bells? Besides being a duo,
they also do solo projects and put up concerts in Hamburg. And
they run a label, Fragmented Media. The Incite 7" (Vital
Weekly 456) was the first release, and now comes the full length
CD by Axiomatic Integration, aka Kera Negal, one half of Incite.
She released a CDR before, 'Syntonic' (see Vital Weekly 439),
based on her video-performance. The music of Incite and Axiomatic
Integration are closely related, as they both deal with highly
minimalist music, of rhythmic sounds generated entirely in the
digital world. Axiomatic Integration's work is a bit abstracter
than the more formal based rhythmic structures of Incite. Sometimes
she uses time-stretched fragmented of an electro-acoustic origin.
But throughout the six pieces here things remain pretty similar
in terms of sound design and sound processing. That is a pity,
since it could also lead to something entirely different, me thinks.
However the enclosed quick-time movie is great. Here music and
images go together well, lots of red and yellow (and later blue)
images, moving along the music, and changing as the music changes.
Of course highly abstract, although the first few seconds may
give away what the source is, which is great. Maybe next time
a full length DVD? (FdW)
Address: http://www.fragmentedmedia.org
YANNICK DAUBY - TW04-05 (CD by Edition Ere)
More Yannick Dauby (see also below), here entirely with a disc
filled with field recordings made in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005.
It seems that his interest has shifted from a combination of field
recordings and hand-produced, close miked sounds, towards pure
field recordings. This disc contains pieces recorded in Taiwan's
nature, daily-life. Both from animals and humans. The metro, the
backyard, children talking but also some urban activities that
are hard to pin down. Some of these recordings are quite nice,
but overall I must admit I have some trouble with this. The thirty-something
tracks are short pieces, they are all related to Taiwan obviously,
but they somehow don't seem to be telling a story. It's merely
a fine collection of recordings of all sorts of activities going
on in Taiwan, but not the artists interpretation of the country
by means of sound. As such it's possible that people can like
this, but they could as-well any sort of recording of activities
around the world, either by animals and humans. This sort of pure
field recording is a bit too pure for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editions-ere.net
EMERALD SUSPENSION - PLAYING THE MARKET
(CD by Oscillation Productions)
Of course, over the years many weird things have landed on this
desk, strange concepts, strange music and strange packaging. 'Playing
The Market' is only (!) strange by concept, but it leads to some
weird music too. Which market is played, you wonder? Of course,
the stock market. Not that Emereld Suspension (about whom we have
very little information) went into the stock exchange and made
some field recordings and collage them together in a sort of Tape-beatles
manner. He uses for instance 'the pattern of interest rates as
represented by the historical yields of 30-year Treasury bonds'
to make a solo for strings. Or 'The Misery Index': 'an experimental
recording based on the historical patterns of inflation and unemployment'.
These patterns give values and somehow, somewhere they are transposed
to notes. It's a bit like John Cage using star maps to make scores.
Sometimes the music is modern classical, with piano and violins,
but at times the work is almost electro-acoustic, such as the
use of an antique ticker tape machine in 'Irrational Exuberance/Great
Depression'. The aforementioned Tape-beatles lurk around the corner
in 'Bulls And Bears Of The World'. Much of this work is generated
through the use of midi controllers, and simulating orchestral
instruments, but throughout it's a pretty varied work, keeping
a fine balance between the semi (or should that be quasi?) orchestral
pieces, a bit of sound collage and electro-acoustic music, all
powered by this strange concept of whatever facts and figures
the stock market has brought us. A most curious mixture. (FdW)
Address: http://www.emeraldsuspension.com
PINK TWINS - PAINT IT PINK (CD by Pink Twins
Media)
Although active since 1997, I never heard of Pink Twins, aka the
brothers (twins?) Juha and Vesa Vehvilainen from Helsinki, Finland.
They call their music 'freeform computer music' and in 2005 they
toured the world: from the Venice Biennale to several Central
European countries and Serbia (isn't that also Central Europe?)
and China. Two shows captured on the road, in Tampere (that is
around the corner in Finland) and Belgrade, are now released on
CD. In total over seventy-five minutes of 'freeform computer music'
- a bit too freeform if you ask me. Right from the start, until
the very end, the computer are choking up all the noise they can
find, either through plug ins, samples or outboard processing,
but in a very freeform collage like manner. Sometimes they miss
out on structure and things don't seem to go anywhere, but at
other times things stick into a groove, pinned down to feedback
('Pink Haze' one of the tracks is called, so perhaps they love
their Hendrix records?) and things are alright. A very disorganized
Merzbowian blast at it's very best, but way too long to capture
one attention throughout. One track would have made the same point
with the same clarity. Nice cover though, without much pink! (FdW)
Address: http://www.pinktwins.com
PCRV - BIG SKY (CD by C.I.P.)
JOE COLLEY - NO (7" by C.I.P.)
Despite his twenty-some CDR and cassette releases, I never heard
of PCRV, aka Matt Taggert from the remote state of Montana. They
have long, cold winters and a strong 'do things on your own' attitude.
Taggart has played many shows, and came across C.I.P. when he
was in Chicago. 'Big Sky' is his first real CD. Taggart is a noise
artist, that is: most of the time. When he strikes, he strikes
hard, in the best Merzbowian tradition. Feeding his sound through
what he calls his 'pedal setup', (which he constantly changes,
to get different results), he comes, as far as I'm concerned too
close the King of Japan. However sometimes he plays around with
drone related music in a noise context and this is much more interesting.
A piece like 'Modulation Sickness' for instance has high-end feedback
like sounds and a similar modulating pulse. These pieces are much
more interesting, since they really display something that is
not so overtly nicked from somebody else. Maybe an area to expand
into in the not so distant future?
Joe Colley of course is one of the USA unsung heroes of sound
and noise. This one-sided 7" contains the sound of an installation
piece: 'No - Intermittent Positive Negation In Two Syllables'.
Two reel to reel machines have tape-loops that go out of the machines,
along bolts and spell the letter 'n' and the letter 'o' on the
wall (the cover looks great). The loops contain the pronunciation
of these syllables. Sometimes we hear the word 'no' spelled out,
and sometimes it seems just non-sense. A great conceptual work
of this negative man. Probably it was great to see, but as a record
by itself, it also sounds great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cipsite.net
ANTHONY GUERRA - EMPTY KINGDOMS (miniCD
by Black Petal)
The name Anthony Guerra popped up in these pages as a guitar player
from the London improvisation scene, where he did work with Joel
Stern, Micheal Rodgers (as Broken Hands) and others. His releases
are on such labels as Absurd, Pseudo Arcana, Impermanent and his
own Twothousandand label. Originally Guerra is from Australia,
but he now lives in Tokyo. This new solo release moves into a
different territory: that of a singer-songwriter, although the
singing is restricted to the last piece. It's utter desolate music,
written, as Guerra says, during 'various fits of depression'.
Strumming his guitar, lonely, this still has traces of improvisation,
but it moves outside. The influence of Loren MazzaCane Connors
is never far away in this lonely blues, or that of Richard Youngs
when it comes to his singing. Occasionally there are some percussive
sounds or a slide guitar, but other that it's music of despair,
grief and perhaps hope. It's great stuff, in all it's sadness.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.blackpetal.com
AIDAN BAKER - PENDULUM (CDR by Gears Of
Sand)
Ah the busy bee Aidan Baker. Release number...? I lost count.
'All sounds produced by electric guitar recorded in a single take
then doubled and the double reversed', it reads somewhat cryptical
on the cover. Not that it really matters, since Baker does here
whatever he does best: creating thoughtful, improvised atmospheric
music. Not as great as the recent one, released by Crucial Bliss,
but the five lengthy pieces display enough variations in the various
darker corners of the sound spectrum. The continous moving forward
and backward of sound (hence the title), the rumble of percussive
like elements and the constant feeding of the sounds through various
sound effects makes this into a fine, yet not always surprising,
release. Baker by now has settled himself as a main player of
this kind of adventurous ambient music, so perhaps it's time to
look forward and change the menu a bit? (FdW)
Address: http://www.gearsofsand.net
FAGUS - DANS L'INVOLUCRE ENTRE OUVERT (CDR
by A Question Of Re_Entry)
On a new Greek label, A Question Of Re_entry, comes a duo improvisation
CDR by Ferran Fages, who plays an acoustic turntable and Pascal
Battus, who plays acoustic walkman. I can imagine what the first
is, but the second? Fages has made name for himself as part of
the lively Portuguese improvisation scene, and Battus is a new
name for me. Despite their two 'acoustic' instruments, this is
not really 'improvisation unplugged' and if it is, they know very
well how to play around with all sorts of hand-cranked manipulation
of their objects to make high piercing sounds, like the fingers
on the school-board, which you didn't like at school. But here
it sounds fascinating. We don't recognize any sound from either
vinyl or tape, but an highly noise related set of sounds, playing
at times softly and at other times quite loud and abrasive, but
always with full on intention and attention. A highly improvised
disc of highly unusual sounds and something that moves out of
the onkyo styled improvisation and certainly creates something
of it's own. (FdW)
Address: <aquestionofreentry@yahoo.com>
ASHER - GRACEFUL DEGRADATION (CDR by Con-V)
Following his MP3 release for the same label (see Vital Weekly
503), Asher now comes with a CDR release. An old piano, some old
cassettes and an old tape-recorder: these are the ingredients
used by Asher Thal-nir on his new release 'Graceful Degradation'.
The piano is recorded onto these ancient cassettes (which used
to hold music by Led Zepplin and The Police), but have been re-recorded
some many tapes that the magnetic does no longer the information
in a proper way. Asher sampled various portions of these degraded
sounds and places them in a new context. Sounds are looped, but
they are very long loops. Very slow music of majestically strumming
chords, with the hiss and static slightly emphasized. Asher listened
carefully to the work of William Basinski (of course this is an
assumption), as it bears the similar qualities and notions: that
of sounds slowly decaying, but just in time they are preserved
by storing them on CD - well saved for another limited time of
course. When in a few years CDRs start to fall apart, the no doubt
fascinating journey of the piano, old cassettes and an old CDR
can start again. A fine example of micro ambient sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
MASSACCESI - NOTHING IS EVER AS IT USED
TO BE (CDR by Woodoo/Scrotum)
It's been a long time since I reviewed 'I Never Fall Apart Because
I Never Fall Together' by Massaccesi (Vital Weekly 345). Although
still traveling around the world, playing his audio mayhem on
stage, he now moved from the USA to Berlin, where it all apparently
is happening. His new release deals with the refugees of the world.
With the handmade edition of this release, one get a small paper
tent to assemble yourself and send a picture of your micro-refugee
camp. A highly political release. I suggest reading the liner
notes to each track on the website! Massaccesi plays a high energy
punk version of plunder-phonics. Nothing can be easily recognized
or traced back to the original source, since it's all in this
ultra fast blender of sound. Massaccesi uses the computer (or
sampler) to cook up all of these sounds together and throws them
around, like garbage at a refugee camp. It's certainly not easy
music, since there is no catchy rhythm keeping the material together,
which is then perhaps also the problem of the music (if we take
the liberty of just looking at the music): it's all a bit too
much. It goes on and on in this high energy mode and some fatigue
leaps in. Which is kind of sad, since Massaccesi certainly has
a good point, but perhaps that point is missed here in the information
overload. But play bits and pieces and things do make sense. Noise
of an entirely different nature, and that is something worthwhile.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.massaccesi.com
SEIJIRO MURAYAMA & MICHEAL NORTHAM -
THEY STOOD AROUND AND WATCHED
(3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
YANNICK DAUBY - TROIS PHONOGRAPHIES DE PRESENCES ANIMALES EN MILIEU
URBAIN (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
AMBIENCES SONORES, ENREGISTREMENTS DOMESTIQUES & TOURISE AUDIO
VOLUME TWO (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
CAWA SORIX - FLEDERMAUS (3"CDR by Universinternational Records)
Universinternational Records is a small, idealistic label from
France. Their releases are to be found as MP3s, but can also be
bought for a small sum, almost cost-price. They have some mighty
interesting people attached to their label, such as Micheal Northam
who teams up with one Seijiro Murayama, who is a drummer. They
play a thirteen minute duet of drums and whatever it is that Northam
is doing: most likely he is playing small objects and some kind
of sound-processing. Although the recording is intimate, focussing
on small sounds, it is quite an intense work with sound. Very
silent, but very powerful. A strong kick-off.
Yannick Dauby (see also above) also may need no introduction,
as he released a couple of interesting works in the field of drone
music. His music goes into the areas of close miking: place microphones
closely to objects making sound, layers them into a dense field,
hence creating drone music. Here however he has three field recordings
to offer, from Nice, Taipei and Tours. With each track he indicates
the month and time of day when they were recorded. It deals with
animals in city environments. Things go into strict soundscaping
here, without much adding or editing. The animals are hard to
recognize, but perhaps I'm not a zoological mind. Dauby captured
some nice 'events', but it would have been nicer if there was
a little bit more going on.
Something similar, yet different can be heard on the compilation
CDR with the long name. Thirty-one tracks here recorded by a whole
bunch of people in a whole bunch of countries and continents (South
Africa, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Laos, Switzerland and Vietnam).
Short pieces of animal sounds, city sounds and forest environments.
This is, in all it's shortness, quite a nice release, with sounds
that are to be recognized, as-well as some obscured ones. Great
stuff for the very adventurous DJs.
The last one is by one Cawa Sorix, whoever he or she is. It's
a release that goes into an entirely different field, that of
voice/spoken word/sound poetry. Feeding his (I do believe it's
a man) voice through various effects (the cover mentions two microcassettes,
but maybe there is more?), this gives an overall raw effect to
the poetry, which is at times more music than text, which is nice.
The combination of voice and text works, in all it's raw and lo-fi
manner, rather well. Even so different than the other releases,
quite a nice surprise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ui.universinternational.org
HOWARD STELZER - THIS MAP IS A GIFT (CDR
by Gameboy Records)
JOE PANZNER - POLISHED ROCKS (CDR by Gameboy Records)
DEVILLOCK - COLD ROOM (CDR by Gameboy Records)
ENVENOMIST - DELVING GLACIAL (CDR by Gameboy Records)
CLON - SUDDEN IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES (CDR by Gameboy Records)
Things had been quiet for Gameboy Records for a while, but the
offices have moved from Columbus, Ohio to Japan. These five new
releases are the first in a long time. They all look similar,
but I'm not sure if that's part of the new Gameboy esthetic, or
that they are linked together in the form of some series. Upon
hearing all five of them, this might the case, since there are
strong similarities in sound approach by all five artists. Howard
Stelzer, reviewed here last week with his duo CD with Giuseppe
Ielasi, offers one piece of almost forty minutes of his cassette
music. Just like a turntablist, he plays around with cassettes.
Using the fast-forward button, but also by placing the cassette
players on metal plates, he creates a world of his own. But he
works best when playing improvised music with others. As this
is one piece, recorded '2004/2005', I assume it's a collage of
various recordings, including pieces he played with Richard Francis
(laptop), Stefan Neville (drums and tapes) and Clinton Watkins
(guitar). Stelzer creates thick, densely sound fields of highly
obscured sounds. Rather lo-fi in approach, but it's an intense
sound, one that has many detailed sounds that work together on
many levels. It's hard to categorize this as noise (although it
has elements thereof), improvisation (but it's certainly more
composed by collating the various elements together) or as drone
music, even when it has a certain drone like quality. As references
to the latter, one could think of people that use close miking,
such as Af Ursin, Yannick Dauby or Micheal Northam. Played loud,
this is certainly an intense affair, growing into a menacing affair.
Recorded in the same years, is 'Polished Rocks' by Joe Panzner,
one half of Scenic Railroads (which is a duo with Mike Shiflet,
the big Gameboy). Panzner works with entirely with a laptop, processing
field recordings and guitars. Just like Stelzer he has collected
a whole bunch of recordings from various places ('at home and
abroad') and collages them together into two long pieces. All
of the original sources are obscured here, not to be recognized
again. Using 'max/msp, lloopp, delay pedals, hacked vst, ancient
editing software' and all sorts of other stuff, such as 'semi-stable
contact mics', he crafts likewise densely layered music together.
Maybe it's the digital character of the music, but it seems to
me that he sounds leaves more room for the details in the music.
Other than Stelzer he chooses to set the sounds more separate
from eachother. Noise related elements play a bigger role here,
at times creating a fiery thunderous storm of sounds melting down.
Also intense, but not as concentrated as the release by Howard
Stelzer, and some more editing would have been in place.
The release by Devillock is the shortest among these five. Devillock,
as we learned before from his release 'These Graves', is Justin
Chris Meyers on organ, tapes and electronics (see Vital Weekly
494). His piece 'Cold Room' last twenty-two minutes and sees a
continuation of his previous work: slowing down reel-to-reel tapes,
processing the sound through various effect processors and some
organ like sounds. Quite a lo-fi sound here again, but it works
well, in all it's slow and menacing approach. Again a dense sound,
but not as collated together as the previous two releases, but
in a much more minimal way. Again it's not really playing the
noise card as such, but it has strong qualities of dark, heavy
and atmospheric sounds. A very fine example of what noise can
be, or perhaps, should be.
Behind Envenomist is one David Reed, whom we know from his Luasa
Raelon project, who released a CD on Pac Rec before (just like
Devillock, see Vital Weekly 445). The music as Envenomist is something
different. Not very industrial as Luasa Raelon, but rather a darker,
machine like heavy type of ambient noise. The dark bat-in-a-cave
sound reminded me of some of the Lustmord, area 'Heresy'. Heavy
reverbed wall of guitar sound, but Envenomist is a bit more raw
and a bit more down to earth. Here too everything is densely put
together, but mainly through the use of sound effects. However
it's a fairly normal disc of dark ambient industrial music, along
the lines of the aforementioned Lustmord. Nice but not great.
The final new release is by Clon, which is a new nom-de-plume
for Jorge Castro. I am not exactly sure, why he choose a new name,
since 'Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances' sounds not unlike some
of his previous work. He uses field recordings (or, who knows,
air recordings from the Ionosphere?), which is samples in the
lowest form possible (1K?) and then starts fiddling about with
them, attacking the material with the sound effects, such as reverb
and echo, and creates another passage of densely layered ambient
industrial - see where the idea of a series comes from? - release.
Clon is the most raw diamond of this lot, the least complicated
and perhaps the most noisy one. It's certainly one that fits the
work of Castro so far quite well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gmby.net
LEE PATTERSON/BENJAMIN GWILLIAM - COLLABORATIVE
IMPOSITIONS (CDR by New Acoustical Pleasures)
It's been a while since the review of 'Heat Works' a neat 3"CD
by Benjamin GWilliam and Lee Patterson (see Vital Weekly 335).
That work dealt with the conceptual nature of sound and light
bulbs. This new release is something else. Over the last few years
the two have been improvising with computers and small acoustic
sounds, both on stage as-well as in the studio. This release contains
one live cut and two studio pieces. It's certainly a more musical
excursion here than before - although surely some people wouldn't
agree. The two play microsounds on their laptops and carefully
scratch the surface, slowly putting things into a crescendo, a
drone or lower bass sounds. They perform their work with great
care of detail, not disturbing the moment. In terms of whatever
else there is around in the world of microsound, this might not
be the most surprising work, but it's certainly a break away from
the pure laptop pieces that many of laptop-posse have and a fine
combination with live electro-acoustics. (FdW)
Address: <billabollocks@hotmail.com>
K.M. KREBS - RIEN A VOIR 15 (online release
by Con-v)
Last December I visited an exhibition in Antwerp, which centered
around contemporary art from Vancouver. Weird, weird stuff! A
bit moody, without any relativism. KM Krebs is from Vancouver
and, yes, his music might be in that same vein. It is very serious
business. Although his music ranges from rhythmic hip stuff to
complex soundscapes based on radio waves, it all is very serious.
He also produces music as 833-45, by the way.
Con-v releases two compositions which are, to me, the closest
to classical electro-acoustic music that Krebs has ever gotten.
Absolutely Ignorant is a rework from a composition that was earlier
featured on "the halberd of chemistry", released by
Fukk God in 2003. The original is 4:47, the new version lasts
10:08 minutes. The work is a constant swaying between electronic
soundlayers and acoustic recording. The alternations are joined
by sudden crashes or through the morphing of one into the other.
As Red As Rubies, the second composition focuses on the granularity
of sounds and Krebs plays with the spaciality of layers. Two very
strong compositions, very much in the tradition of Montréal's
Empreintes Digitales. I think Krebs deserves a place in that catalogue,
quite soon. This is really his biggest achievement to date. Listen!
(JS)
Address: http://www.con-v.org/conv.htm
MINDLOBSTER - THE HARDEST WORKING HELMET
IN SHOW BUSINESS (MP3 by After Dinner)
Another release by London's Mindlobster, this time as a free download.
Four longer tracks this time, but still of a more 'pop' oriented
nature. More uptempo, with computerized melodies and a somewhat
bigger touch of techno music. Without being retro in terms of
electro music, Mindlobster uses modern techniques to play electro
tunes of the early eighties and they do a fine job at that. Before
I mentioned influences of early Portion Control and the pre-Human
League The Future, but now I'd like to add that this would not
look strange on such a fine label as Suction Records, who specialize
in this kind of music, or alongside of My Robot Friend. Finally
some electronic music from the UK in these pages that do not fall
in the category of melancholic electronic music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.after-dinner.net
Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard
and submitted for free to anybody
with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then
let us
know. Any feedback is welcome <vital@vitalweekly.net>. Forward
to your allies.
Snail mail: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521
NE Nijmegen - The Netherlands
All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP
<sub@xs4all.nl>), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>,
Meelkop Roel (MR), Gerald
Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH),
Jeff
Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK), Craig N (CN),
Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW), Toni Dimitrov
(TD <info@fakezine.tk>), Chris Jeely (CJ) and others on
a less regular basis.
This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in
which
case permission has to be obtained from the respective author
before
reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to
be
credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times
if any
texts are used from it.
Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send
any
attachments/jpeg's, we will trash them without viewing.
There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not
go there. Any MP3 release to be reviewed should be burned as an
audio CDR and send to the address above.
the complete archive of Vital Weekly (1-494) can be found at: http://staalplaat.com/vital/