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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 517
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week 11
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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!
complete tracklist here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html
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
ZAAR - ZAAR (CD by Cuneiform) *
TAKUMI SEINO & ANTOINE BERTHIAUME - ARC BENEATH THE SURFACE
(CD on VOS Records)
TOMAS KORBER/CHRISTIAN WEBER/CHRISTIAN WOLFARTH - MERSAULT (CD
by Quakebasket) *
ROBERT MARCEL LEPAGE - PEE WEE ET MOI (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques)
TRIO DEROME-GUILBEAULT-TANGUAY - THE FEELING OF JAZZ (CD by Ambiances
Magnétiques)
IZU - GOING SALAMANDER (CD by Highpoint Lowlife) *
FISK INDUSTRIES - 77 AND RISING (10" by Highpoint Lowlife)
UNCLE E. - DEEP IN THE BUSHES (CDR by Antboy) *
RUNAR MAGNUSSON - THE ART OF DYING IN A LIVE SITUATION (CDR by
White Label)
VINDVA MEI - FUNGI TO THE MOON (CDR by White Label) *
EARZUMBA/PAULO BETO/ELOI SILVERSTRO - PSICOTRUCHAS AROUND THE
WORLD (CDR by Edition Fästing Plockare)
THE CIRCULAR RUINS - DEGREES OF SEPARATION (CDR by Databloem)
*
MATHIAS GRASSOW & GUESTS - OPUS POSTHUMAN (CDR by Databloem)
DANNY KREUTZFELDT - CLOSELANDS (CDR by Databloem) *
FORMATT - RE-TAKE_REPEAT (CDR by Audiobot) *
LOOPOOL - PARTHENOGEN (CDR by Audiobot) *
DOUG THERIAULT & KATHLEEN KEOGH (CDR by Audiobot)
OFFENSIVE ORANGE - ROUGH RIDERS (CDR by Audiobot)
KOLUMKILLI - VILLAGE AT NIGHT UNDER LUCENT SKY (CDR by Brise-Cul
Records)
WAPSTAN - TRANSCENDING HYPOTHERMIA (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
WAPSTAND/CLON (3"CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
HARM STRYKER (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
FEEDBACK COWBOYS - WOODEN BULLETS (CDR by Brise-Cul Records) *
DRONE SEASON 1 (CDR compilation by Brise-Cul Records)
IDLE SUNDER - AETHER 1 (MP3 by Entity) *
DOTKRAZ VS IDLE SUNDER VS CASUAL COINCIDENCE - RUST (MP3 by Entity)
ANTANAS JASENKA - SONIC MACHINE (MP3 by Entity)
SEDARKA - SHIBASHI TODOMEN (MP3 by Entity)
FP - FIUK & CSAJOK (MP3 by Entity) *
CISFINITUM - MALGYL (MP3 by Entity)
ZAAR - ZAAR (CD by Cuneiform)
The vielle à roulle or hurdy gurdy is a popular instrument
in the folk music of france. But it also finds it's way to other
musical territories. French improvisor Dominique Regef plays it.
I remember also a very impressive improv concert by another french
man Eric Cordier on hurdy gurdy accompanied by japanese percussionist
Seiji Murayama. With this CDc.d. by Zaar also from france the
hurdy gurdy appears in a rock context. Ok, because of my fascination
for this instrument I choose for this introduction, but let's
come to business now.
Zaar arose out of the ashes of Sotos in 2004. Sotos is an example
of the second generation of avant-progressive music taking the
heritage of King Crimson, Magma, etc. They made two CDs for Gazul
and Cuneiform. Zaar takes over where Sotos left and continues
in the same musical area. The axis continues to be formed by the
brothers Hazera. Michael on drums and percussion, Yan on guitar.
Pairbon play bass and double-bass plus. A very conventional line
up if it were not completed with the hurdy gurdy played by Cosia.
Central on this CD are two lengthy pieces (20 and 17 minutes).
In both tracks they take their time to work out themes and motives.
The first one "Sefir" impresses because of the frippian
solowork on hurdy gurdy. The other one "Omk" succeeds
in creating the most intense atmosphere through the lines of a
striking composition. The other shorter pieces attract attention
because of different aspects: "Ce n'est pas triste"
with acoustic bass is very spheric and a little jazzy, followed
by the very speedy and electric "Tougoudoegoum", in
order to continue again with a more acoustic sounding piece called
"Discasambo". Pieces like "Zolg" and "Scherzo"
stand out as a very cleverly composed polyrhytmic pieces.
With this diversity of compositions these guys fuse together chamber-rock,
symphonic and progressive rock, improvisation, and even elements
of folk. They operate in the more friendly section avant rock.
Their music has not the darkness and aggression of Present or
Univers Zero.
But a typical french touch that reminded sometimes a bit of Philippe
Cauvin and Vortex. Not all their compositions are that original,
although they are far from just imitating their heroes. This surely
is a band with real potential. I hope they will develop their
own voice further in the future. For the moment there are some
very surprising twists, etc to be enjoyed. And the playing is
intense and dedicated. Bob Drake (Thinking Plaugue, etc.) recorded
and mixed this album. I hope you do not mind I return to the hurdy
gurdy again. I was really delighted by the natural way this instrument
is used in this rock music and hope Zaar will explore this further.
At the moment Zaar prepares their contribution for a cd that will
be a tribute to the music of Magma: watch out for their Troller
Tanz! (DM).
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
TAKUMI SEINO & ANTOINE BERTHIAUME -
ARC BENEATH THE SURFACE (CD on VOS Records)
On july 18, 2005 Berthiaume and Seino gave a concert at Big Apple,
in Kobe, Japan. It is perfectly recorded and made available on
this cd. And it was worth it. Because this duo offers some really
innovating guitarwork that's hard to describe. Both are unknown
guitarists. Berthiaume debuted a few years ago with a cd with
duets with Fred Frith and Derek Bailey. It was followed by a cd
in trio format with pianist Quentin Sirjacq and sound engineer
Norman Teale. Both cds were released by Ambiances Magnetiques.
But of the two players Seino seems to be most experienced one.
He has already several cds out, just explore the VOS-catalogue.
He had his own trio, and group and was engaged in numerous - most
japanese - collaborations. Both are well-educated and very talented
guitarists, and what is more important they are intelligent musicians
who have something to tell. If easy listening and avant garde
can go together, I would say this describes some of their improvisations,
like the first part of track 6 or the solo piece by Berthiaume.
Also the title-track is an excursion into spacious and echoing
guitar-sounds that makes them more related to Frisell of Fripp-like
soundscaping then to Frith or Bailey-inspired improvisations.
But at other moments they chose for a very hectic, distorted and
dynamic approach, like in the end of the title track. Although
the cover makes no mentioning of it, it is evident that both have
surrounded themselves with lots of technical and electronic devices.
But the gentlemen are throughout in charge of what they are doing
and deliver some very engaging music, true sonic symphonies I
would say. (DM)
Address: <http://www.takumiseino.com/ http://www.antoineberthiaume.com
TOMAS KORBER/CHRISTIAN WEBER/CHRISTIAN WOLFARTH
- MERSAULT (CD by Quakebasket)
The ever so active Tomas Korber, guitar player and electronics
expert, is a lively force in the world of improvisation music,
especially in his home land Switzerland. Here he teams up with
two Christians: Christian Weber, a for me unknown double bassplayer
and Christian Wolfarth on drums and percussion. Of him we recently
reviewed a solo CD. Here is where the world of analogue and digital
sounds meet up, these days not an uncommon thing in the world
of improvisation. The occurrence is usually of a different nature.
Sometimes the emphasizes lies on the difference of both, or the
two trying to imitate each-other, so that they all blur together.
On this CD however the form is rather much more open and free.
There are section when everything indeed blurs together, but that
seems to me to that the majority of music everybody does their
thing, using the specific coloring of their own instruments and
put them to use in perspective of the greater thing. Don't get
me wrong here: it's not about how we play our own thing and not
caring about the rest, but it's a highly delicate form of playing
together, using their own sounds and place them in the right combination
with the others. They do a more than excellent job at that. It
brings the listener a set of three pieces that are all highly
powerful to say the least, ranging from soft, introspective playing
towards some more noise related paths, but throughout it's a well
made disc. (FdW)
Address: 113 Spring St. 4th Floor, NY, NY 10012 - USA
ROBERT MARCEL LEPAGE - PEE WEE ET MOI (CD
by Ambiances Magnétiques)
TRIO DEROME-GUILBEAULT-TANGUAY - THE FEELING OF JAZZ (CD by Ambiances
Magnétiques)
Veterans of the new music/jazz scene of Montréal honor
some of their jazz idols. The trio presents 11 standards of Duke
Ellington, Lee Konitz, Sonny Clark and even Misha Mengelberg.
Why record these standards that have been played and recorded
by the composers and others so well and so often? Derome simply
states "music needs to exist in the flesh" which is
undeniably so. Jean Derome plays flute, saxes and also sings.
Normand Guilbeault plays bass and Pierre Tanguay percussion. They
really enjoy playing these standards and play them with verve.
Robert Marcel Lepage concentrates on the work of Pee Wee Russell
(1909-1969) a composer and clarinet player in the ragtime and
swing-period. Not by playing his compositions, except one (Muskogee
Blues). But by evoking his music through his own bluesy compositions.
The pieces are played by Tanguay (drums) and Guilbeault (doublebass),
Rene Lussier (guitar) plus Lepage and six other musicians on clarinets.
In each track Lepage explores an aspect of Pee Wee's legendary
phrasing and tonal language. The result is some really 'goodtime'
and accessible jazzmusic. Only by the complex and freaky guitarwork
by Lussier - as in track 2 - we know life is more complicated.
(DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
IZU - GOING SALAMANDER (CD by Highpoint
Lowlife)
FISK INDUSTRIES - 77 AND RISING (10" by Highpoint Lowlife)
Ronnie MacPherson was brought up on the remote Hebridean island
of South Uist, but now lives in Glasgow, where he lurks around
in the electronic scene and plays around under the Izu moniker.
He was part of the compilation of the Marcia Blaine School For
Girls (see Vital Weekly 461) and had a 12" on Stuff Records.
I believe 'Going Salamander' is his first real CD. There is in
Vital Weekly the reference that goes like, 'sounds like music
released on Highpoint Lowlife or Expanding Records', when referring
to break-beats and melancholiac keyboards. Izu is not part of
that. Izu plays loud music, heavy rhythms, aggressive keyboard
lines and when things come down to being melancholiac, such as
in 'Jumpers', Izu effectively kills it with a fair amount of distortion.
Izu moves away from the 'standard' (hohum) sound of Highpoint
Lowlife in order to create something that is much more of his
own than something that can be anybody on the label. Loud, mean,
driving around with high speed, this techno punk as we want to
hear more.
And although many if not all releases on Highpoint Lowlife deal
with dance music, I believe this 10" by Fisk Industries is
the first vinyl release on Highpoint Lowlife. In Vital Weekly
389 we were both introduced to the music of Fisk Industries as-well
as the label, and this is his follow-up. Mat Ranson, the man behind
Fisk Industries, is not a fast worker, but the results are quite
nice. He has played concerts with Funckarma, B12 and Posthuman,
and they, along with Boards Of Canada and ISAN are still important
influences. The previous release sounded to me a bit fresher and
cheerful than many of Fisk Industries contemporaries, but this
new 10" is a bit darker, without the usual melancholy that
is also often part of this kind of music. A bit monotone, a bit
more industrial, but it means also that Fisk Industries is capable
of producing that is outside the standard and that is of course
a most welcome thing. These six tracks are to the point, do something
new outside the usual paths of this kind of music, and is in general
a very fine small item to have. (FdW)
Address: http://www.highpointlowlife.com
UNCLE E. - DEEP IN THE BUSHES (CDR by Antboy)
Now, this is a bit of surprise. Uncle E. is one Timothy Pledger
from Melbourne, and besides playing music, he makes films. He's
the leader of Bohjazz, an experimental band, but also plays in
the rockband Bikeboy and he has two audio visual experimental
bands, Sandwich Jesus and Viaduct. He is 'deeply involved in the
tonal and emotional aspects of rhythmic harmony as they move against
each other in blocks and waves of sound', it says on the cover.
'Deep In The Bushes' is resampled reworking of Bohjazz album 'Deep
In The Woods', and is his third album as Uncle E. The reason why
I call this a surprise is that it is indeed all about emotions
and harmony, the latter aspect not a frequent thing on releases
by Antboy. Usually this label deals with the more noise related
aspect of improvisation and electro-acoustic music. In each of
the five pieces, Pledger uses samples of mostly wind instruments
that only differ marginally from each other but that he staples
as blocks next to each other and creates shifting layers out of
that. Highly electronic and organic sounding, this moves away
from the cut 'n collage sound of many other Antboy releases. Minimal
along the lines of Phil Niblock, but more harmonic and also with
a more low fidelity character. Shimmering, twilight music. The
only point of critics might be that some of the tracks are perhaps
a bit too similar, like 'The Dep Boy Descends' and 'Deeper', but
throughout I thought this was a very nice moody and atmospheric
release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antboy.com
RUNAR MAGNUSSON - THE ART OF DYING IN A
LIVE SITUATION (CDR by White Label)
VINDVA MEI - FUNGI TO THE MOON (CDR by White Label)
This gives me the opportunity to set some fact straight. When
I reviewed the previous Vindva Mei CDR, 'Germans Are People Too',
I complained about the fact that it had only one track, but I
forgot to mention the subtitle 'Alive & Kickin', and the fact
that it was a live recording. Same thing here with the release
by Runar Magnusson, one half of Vindva Mei. It's not so my thing
to do one track of whatever long length on a CD, but ok, let's
say that this is a live CD - although we can't find any clue as
to where and when it was recorded, but according to the press
info it was recorded at the Sound Art festival in Copenhagen in
2004. Magnusson continues with what he left us with the previous
'The Greatest Of The Great': pretty dense and dark soundscapes,
that shows an interest in The Hafler Trio as-well as some mid-nineties
Stillupsteypa. Slowly unfolding soundpieces that are at times
creepy, but never without a small trace of light, a trace of humor
(any good horror movie has these funny bits). Sometimes things
get of the track, but throughout it's a nice CD.
Also from Vindva Mei there is a new release, or rather a re-issue.
Originally released in an edition of 15 copies for some festival,
then re-issued in an edition of 51 copies and now copied on demand.
The recordings are somewhat older, from 2001 to 2003. Despite
the fact that this material is a bit older, they take us on a
similar ride as with the previous album, albeit now chopped up
in separate tracks. Things work best for me when Vindva Mei are
a little bit more abstract, making longer curves in sound, incorporate
field recordings and built up the tension, such as in 'You're
A Moist Doggy Now'. When thing are more rhythmical, this tension
is not really present and alive, but remains cold and alienated.
It never becomes dance music anyway. Although Vindva Mei operate
in a multitude of sound approaches, they know how to create a
pretty consistent album. There are some weaker spots on there,
but throughout it's quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://this.is/whitelabel
EARZUMBA/PAULO BETO/ELOI SILVERSTRO - PSICOTRUCHAS
AROUND THE WORLD (CDR by Edition Fästing Plockare)
The ever so active Christian Dergarabedian, aka C.D., aka Earzumba
dug up an old recording of him and two boys from Brazil, of whom
I never heard: Paulo Beto, of the electronic bossa-nova project
Anvil FX and Eloi Silvestro, who builds his own instruments from
the trash. Together they operate analogue synths, laptop, tapes,
radio and percussion. The recording is from 2002, but sounds still
like a very fresh thing. It moves away from the usual Earzumba
material but is certainly also not the plink plonk improvisation
on a bunch of electronic gear. In stead the boys move in a sort
of psychedelic, cosmic trip of crashing analogue synth sounds,
set against a constant driving rhythm of sequencers, rather than
drums. A bit like the good seventies, but than a lot more experimental,
with digital organ sounds flying about. Crazy stuff that in the
end is a bit too short, but perhaps the wish for more is enough.
One shouldn't always want too much! (FdW)
Address: http://www.edition-fasting-plockare.ch
THE CIRCULAR RUINS - DEGREES OF SEPARATION
(CDR by Databloem)
MATHIAS GRASSOW & GUESTS - OPUS POSTHUMAN (CDR by Databloem)
DANNY KREUTZFELDT - CLOSELANDS (CDR by Databloem)
The medium of CDRs can have a mixed appearance: from hand-written,
badly xeroxed covers to say the top-level, the CDR releases by
the Dutch Databloem label, in their Data Obscura series. The only
reason why you know they are CDRs, is the green side (once Databloem
knows there are also silver bottom CDRs, can't tell the difference).
Databloem is a label which is specialized in ambient music, with
the big A. These three new releases contains the work of an old
friend, a second introduction and a newcomer. That's be Anthony
Paul Kerby, aka The Circular Ruins from Canada. It's not easy
to review his release, other than in terms of general ambient
speak. Stretched out pieces, warm analogue baths of synthesized
waves of sound, floating endlessly. It's very nice stuff for sure,
and I played this all morning (like all three Databloem releases
in a row, really) and it creates a feeling of levitation, but
The Circular Ruins are edgy enough to not fall into any new age
trap.
The old friend of this bunch is Mathias Grassow, of whom we reviewed
previously some work on labels such as Staalplaat and Lunar. He
is sort of a well-known person in this world of ambient music.
For this CDR he comes up with a bunch of friends, such as Jim
Cole (harmonic singing), Kai Schröder (self-built Veena,
an Indian string instrument, an electric bass and field recordings)
and Klaus Wiese (tambura, another Indian string instrument, drones
and bowls). The two Indian instruments play an important role
in the four 'Improvisations On Raga Shudda Todi', where they play
a majestical strum every once in a while, set against a dark wall
of electronics and processed harmonic singing. In the other four
pieces things are more the regular sound of Grassow, which is
deep space ambient music, moving slowly around like planets around
the sun. Majestically moving, peaceful, but Grassow is dark enough
to stay away from the dreaded new age shit. Great stuff once again.
Danish Danny Kreutzfeldt's previous release 'Counterpheripheral'
was reviewed in Vital Weekly 479, which had dubby bass lines and
clicks in combination with ambient synths. This new release was
recorded between 2004 and 2006 and sees a departure of that music
in favor of a much more experimental sound. Deeply atmospheric,
but much more wayout there than the usual dark ambient music.
There is hints towards some form of rhythm, but it's all covered
up, twisted around and transformed into alien life support machines.
They stand there in the dark, quietly but distinctly pumping their
way, forming heavy weight particles falling towards the swamp,
where they slowly sink away. Kreutzfeldt crosses the lines of
drone music, ambient and industrial, which for me is always a
fine combination of styles. Without putting the other two down,
I think this is best of these three new ones. (FdW)
Address: http://www.databloem.com
FORMATT - RE-TAKE_REPEAT (CDR by Audiobot)
LOOPOOL - PARTHENOGEN (CDR by Audiobot)
DOUG THERIAULT & KATHLEEN KEOGH (CDR by Audiobot)
OFFENSIVE ORANGE - ROUGH RIDERS (CDR by Audiobot)
Another fine label to release CDRs is Belgium's Audiobot label.
Their packaging always looks nice, just as the Databloem releases,
except that Audiobot operates in an entirely different field of
music. Their releases are usually more noise related, but they
use a very broad perspective for that. Things had been quiet for
Formatt for a while, but 'Re-take Repeat' is a new release. Formatt
is Peter Smeekens and he has released a whole bunch of CDRs of
his laptop made music. Some of his previous releases dealt with
a rhythm related version of that, but in this work the rhythm
aspect, in some other life time it was called 'clicks & cuts',
is less present and replaced by the more common microsound/ambient
glitch. Not much I know about these five tracks, even when the
title may relate to some sort of remix project of some kind, maybe
his own music. The titles of the pieces doesn't help any further.
They are good, solid pieces of ambient glitch, made with skill
and care, but also remain a bit too much on the known side of
things: the music as such doesn't hold many new directions. That
by itself isn't a big problem, but the music doesn't seem to grab
the listener that much, but stays a bit distant, cold and remote.
Having said that, I must also say that's all made with great care.
However Loopool is, I don't know. It's a nice palindrome though.
They play two lengthy pieces of music that is hard to pin down.
They use electronics, guitars, sound effects, synthesizers, all
mentioned here with a big perhaps, because it's not known. The
music is loosely improvised, but the name of the band hints towards
some sense of looping sounds. Loopool loops their sounds through
delay pedals. The whole thing breaths a lo-fi affair. None of
the sounds jumps out of it, and it's more an endless stream of
sound without any hierarchy or structure, but that is strangely
enough also quite captivating. Very alien but very nice.
Also Doug Theriault and Kathleen Keough are new to me. The first
plays 'sensor guitar' (whatever that may be) and the latter dictaphone/voice.
Their release has one piece of just under thirty-seven minutes,
which was recorded in July last year, 'live in studio'. Probably
recorded in one go, this is the typical product of improvisation,
but it seems to me in the learning stages of improvisation. At
times these strike a note, an idea or a thought which sounds pretty
good for a while, but in other moments they are trying out to
get anywhere, but they fail. That makes this release sort of alright,
but not great. Just a nice but perhaps a bit average improvisation
disc.
Although 'Rough Riders' is my first encounter with Offensive Orange,
I reviewed two releases by one of their members: David Payne,
who is credited here with electronics and voice, but has two excellent
solo feedback release on his list. Together with Matthew Boughner,
who also plays electronics and voice, he is Offensive Orange.
Another 'live to tape' recording. One can see the influence of
Payne on this project, which is a loud and harsh electronic sound,
but overall the material is not as convincing as Payne solo material.
Overall it's a pretty standard noise affair of feedback electronics
and probably some voices to trigger it (thank god it's stays away
from any Whitehouse imitation). Quite alright, me thinks, but
not the greatest new thing out of the world of noise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freaksendfuture.com
KOLUMKILLI - VILLAGE AT NIGHT UNDER LUCENT
SKY (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
WAPSTAN - TRANSCENDING HYPOTHERMIA (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
WAPSTAND/CLON (3"CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
HARM STRYKER (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
FEEDBACK COWBOYS - WOODEN BULLETS (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
DRONE SEASON 1 (CDR compilation by Brise-Cul Records)
Although I reviewed two previous releases by Brise-cul Records,
this is the first time I received something directly, and I must
say: it's a bit much. Many new names, sometimes hard to read covers,
and all that. Kolumkilli is new and has a cover that is hard to
read. I understand he Iain McMaster from Montreal and his release
'Village At Night Under Lucent Sky' was recorded on 'September
17th and unknown'. He plays 'guitar and all between', whatever
that may mean, but this one-piece release, is a nice travel in
the world of darkness. The guitar vibrates somewhat metallically
around, bathing in reverb and delay, creating small overtones.
Nice and spooky.
Behind Wapstan we find one Martin Sasseville, also from Montreal
and he has a couple of more releases on Brise-Cul Records, which
I do believe is his own label. He too plays the big D(rone) music,
but he sort of settles for the more noise related version of it.
The first piece is relatively soft but in the other two pieces,
the feedback and distortion come up and create a more violent
of monotonous drone music, but I must say it lacks the true power
to be real noise, or the subtleness to be real drone music.
More Wapstan is to be found on a 3"CDR release which is recorded
via mail with Clon, a.k.a. Cornucopia. Here again drone music
is at work, but where things sort of fail at 'Transcending Hypothermia',
they work much better here. Two pieces of twenty minutes in total
of slowly evolving and enveloping sounds, with just a little bit
of the right amount of noise creeping into it. Me thinks that
both artists did their own mix of the material collected. Pretty
good dark and deep drone music here. Well played, well executed
along the known routes of the music.
No information on either cover or on the website on the label
or Harm Stryker himself, but his release has a bunch of pieces
on this otherwise handmade CDR release (handpainted, handwritten)
which deal with the subject of noise, but just as handmade it
looks it also sound a bit handmade. Distortion, feedback, sometimes
a loose end rhythm, but made without caring too much about whatever
he was doing or who the listener is. A bit too easy this one.
The Feedback Cowboys are also from Montreal and are a duo: P.
Ayotte and E. Wrazen, and they play a variety of guitar, theremin
and 'analogue stuff' and on September 4th 2005 they recorded two
lengthy pieces of improvised music: 'Muddy Boots And Bloody Hands'
and 'Noisefight At The 0Khz Corral'. This is some dam fine improvisation
music, along strict minimal lines. In the second piece everything
is held together by an ever ongoing rhythm machine, but in the
first it's just mainly the guitars who do this job, and they do
it well. Once everything is set in motion, things move slow but
steady forward. Like marching music. Things pop in and out of
the mix, but everything remains pretty lo-fi, thus adding to the
directness of the music. A bit like some of the old Henry Flint
stuff, but with the intensity of early Cabaret Voltaire, but then
played on guitars - get my drift? Very nice one this.
The final release is a compilation of various drone musicians
from Canada, eight in total of which I just recognized Roxanne
Jean Polise. Overall it's the more noisy forms of drone music
at work here. The densely layered chaos of Scant Intone or the
higher pitched shrieking tones of Pulse Emitter. Softer moments
arrive through Warning Broken Machine, Broken Sleep and Roxanne
Jean Polise. A nicely varied compilation showing the various forms
that drone music can take, with new names to discover to the more
adventurous A&R managers of CDR labels. (FdW)
Address: http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net/
IDLE SUNDER - AETHER 1 (MP3 by Entity)
DOTKRAZ VS IDLE SUNDER VS CASUAL COINCIDENCE - RUST (MP3 by Entity)
ANTANAS JASENKA - SONIC MACHINE (MP3 by Entity)
SEDARKA - SHIBASHI TODOMEN (MP3 by Entity)
FP - FIUK & CSAJOK (MP3 by Entity)
CISFINITUM - MALGYL (MP3 by Entity)
Belgium's netlabel Entity sort of never got my attention, despite
their big catalogue. Here is no less than six of their releases,
mostly by people I never heard of before. People like Idle Sunder,
which seems to be a group. 'They set out to disassemble the physical
reality we all reside in' and by looking at the title of their
release, I think they use sounds lifted from the aether. These
sounds are heavily treated inside the realms of the computer and
served as a highly intelligent collage of radiowaves, even when
the original is hardly to be recognized. When things are abstract,
they reminded me of The Hafler Trio, circa 'A Thirsty Fish' and
when things are a bit more rhythmical they reminded me of the
older work of Lilith, with whom they share throughout a fine taste
in sampling obscure sources. A very nice work.
More Idle Sunder is to be found on a release of various collaborative
works, together with Dotkraz and Casual Coincidence. It's not
all of them working together all the time, but rather one vs the
other, the other vs the third, the third vs the one etc. Although
I don't know anything about these bands I wouldn't be too surprised
to learn that the members are linked together since there is a
strong coherent sound to be detected among this lot. Again the
sampling of sounds is the main ingredient in this music and once
again the music is quite dark. The piece by Idle Sunder vs Casual
Coindence reminded me a bit of the late eighties period of Controlled
Bleeding (area 'Golgotha'), which was quite nice, marking this
music down as a residue of a very specific moment in time, but
even in this new millennium it sounds pretty fresh.
Lithuanian composer Antanas Jasenka was reviewed here before (and
even called Russian by mistake), most recent with his split CDR
with Arturas Bumsteinas (see Vital Weekly 502) and for this MP3
release he takes up the 'sonic' tag again, this time dealing with
the relationship man and machine. Not doing a Kraftwerk cover
here, but producing mechanical music to show the relationship
between man and machine. Jasenka doesn't feel himself to be limited
to any specific sort of style, so this release becomes a hotchpotch
of styles. There is drum & bass, techno, glitchy parts and
even some bits of noise. Given that this release holds no less
than twelve tracks, spanning just under an hour, one can imagine
it's a bit of ride to hear all of this various styles. Maybe a
bit shorter and a bit more coherency would have been a better
idea. But since it's a download you can always re-arrange the
order and make the coherency yourself.
Sedarka is from Belgium and despite his releases for labels such
as Divine Comedy and Mirex, I never heard of him. On 'Shibashi
Todomen' there are six of his own tracks and two remixes, one
by Satka and one by Atomhead. Sedarka plays breakcore music of
a hyper-nervous kind. Beats roll over like crazy, in an ultra
tempo. Somewhere in the back there are drone like sounds lurking
about, trying to form a counterpart, but unfortunately they remain
in too much in the back. After a long day of reviewing, this is
the one that causes serious brain-damage!
I had more fun with the release by FP, which stands for Fabrice
Planquette, who sometimes works as element.act, acta and xE Phalanx,
with various releases on Entity but also on Enough Records. On
'Fiuk & Csajok' he works also with rhythm but in a much straight
forward fashion, but also in brutal way. The opening piece 'Int'
reminded me of Esplendor Geometrico in their best years and sometimes
a bit Muslimgauze like. But that's just part of his sound. In
other tracks he uses field recordings as-well as freely plundering
other people's works. It seems I heard some Asmus Tietchens passing
by, but also James Brown, making this into a dam varied album
of rhythmic pieces, atmospheric pieces, musique concrete and popmusic.
All excellently produced.
The final release is by Russia's Cisfinitum, who is getting more
and more recognition outside it's home country. 'Malgyl' is the
closing part of a trilogy, following '0 vs 0' and 'Landschaft'.
Cisfinitum plays mood music for the darker than dark minds. But
unlike many others he doesn't do this by just turning on some
analogue synths or running plug ins over a few field recordings,
but instead he uses a large dose of classical samples, which he
stretches out. This gives the music a highly loaded character
that perhaps in another life I would have slagged down as 'gothic'.
I must admit that despite the fact that this is all nicely produced,
it's still not my cup of tea. Too much pathos for no apparent
good reason, although some parts were quite alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.entity.be
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