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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 524
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week 18
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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
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - UNTITLED #164 (CD by Unsounds)
*
GUILTY CONNECTOR - BEATS, NOISE & LIFE (CD by Planet Mu)
M. BENTLEY - THIS WORLD (CD by The Foundry) *
SGNL_FLTR - VEBRA (CD by Databloem) *
ALAN COURTIS - ANTIGIUOS DOLMENES DEL PALEILITICO (CD by Sedimental)
*
GABRIEL PAIUK - RES EXTENSA (CD by Sedimental) *
CONTAGIOUS ORGASM/GOVERNMENT ALPHA - HEARTSTRINGS (CD by SSSM)
*
KK NULL & Z'EV ARTIFICIAL LIFE (CD by C.I.P.) *
RADU MALFATTI & MATTIN - GOING FRAGILE (CD by Formed Records)
*
PROJECT: BICYCLE (CD compilation by Ache Records)
AD NOISEAM 2001-2006 ( 2CD+DVD by Ad Noiseam)
D_RRADIO - DEAR JOHN/PICK ME UP (7" by Distraction Records)
*
HIMOG - CARPE NOCTURNUM (CDR by Hidden) *
INKLINGS - BIOMECHANIC WAVEFORMS 1 (CDR by Hidden) *
KOJI ASANO - LIVE IN GLASGOW 2006 (MP3 by Seven Things) *I
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - UNTITLED #164 (CD by Unsounds)
Things have been quiet for Francisco Lopez. It seems, at least
from my end of the telescope. Just a few live recordings were
released, but not so many new studio recordings. But at long last
here is 'Untitled #164', composed in commission of the Brussels
Sonic Matter festival, organized by Argos in 2004. Lopez recorded
sounds in the city, together with TRMX, Johan Vandermaelen, Martiens
Go Home and Building Transmissions, but it's Lopez who in the
end mutates, collates and processes these recordings. Lopez moves
away from a few things: this piece is lengthy, seventy-three minutes,
right from the start it stays in an audible fashion and towards
the end there is also a bit of rhythm. That's three major differences.
The unearthly rumble at the opening return every once in a while,
and it seems that the microphone is buried deep in the ground.
Other sounds rumble and hiss along in this utterly spooky work.
There is nothing that refers to the city of Brussels (which I
didn't visit in some time, but I know what it could sound like).
'Untitled #164' is a different work than many of his other 'Untitled'
works, and fits more along with 'La Selva' or 'Buildings [New
York]', which are both recognized as master works, but this is
surely another powerful work. Moving away from the territory we
know and loved, and entering a new territory, which we will no
doubt love as Senor Lopez explores. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unsound.com
GUILTY CONNECTOR - BEATS, NOISE & LIFE
(CD by Planet Mu)
Behind Guilty Connector is someone calls himself Dr. Kouhei, aka
The Filth, aka GxCx and before he released a CD with Tabata (see
Vital Weekly 384). Maybe that already hints in which way to look
for his music: in the corners of Japanese noise music. Guilty
Connector builds his own sound effects and uses them in combination
with iron plates. It's odd to see this released on Planet Mu,
but it's well-known that they have a wide taste. It will no doubt
shock the die-hard followers of the label and they would wonder
where the 'beats', as promised in the title, come in, as they
pretty don't, unless the bpm is right over 500 and it becomes
this utter blurr of sound. In terms of noise shock, Guilty Connector
does a fine job at shocking the technoids at Planet Mu, but for
those who heard at least a hundred Merzbows, and I'm happy to
include myself, this is a bit of standard noise thing. Not bad
at all, but walking the alley of Masami and the likes a bit too
much to innovate the genre. The title piece with his dynamics
is the best road to take, me thinks, blending silence and noise
together. (FdW)
Address: http://www.planet-mu.com
M. BENTLEY - THIS WORLD (CD by The Foundry)
The M in the name stands for Micheal and Micheal Bentley founded
The Foundry in the mid 80s as an outlet for his chapbooks. A decade
later or so later he started first to release cassettes, but quickly
moved over to CDs. Alone or with various people he worked under
such guises as eM, Mollusk/Malcolm Bly, The Apiary and Rhomb,
but more recently also under his own name. His music, as-well
as those he releases on his own label, are all strongly influenced
by ambient music, but Bentley never leaves the experimental music
out of sight. 'This World' consists of two lengthy pieces, divided
into smaller ones, of which 'Chronos And Kairos' is the longest
and important one. 'Import', being fifteen tracks of one minute,
was previously released by Fällt as part of their Invalid
Object series (see Vital Weekly 291), which was described back
then as 'one long track, starting with field recordings, modifying
them and later adding other sounds of a more digital nature. This
is a blend of ambient acoustics and electronics with a strong
atmosphere'. Still a nice piece. 'Chronos And Kairos' means 'Time
eternal (chronos) and the propitious moment, the time of opportunity
or cleverness (kairos)', in ancient Greek. World of men vs world
of nature. The music is part of a video, which was lost until
recently, but I saw some of the raw material, and it looks promising.
Of course lots of clocks, spinning forward and backward, sine
waves and abstract imaginary, slowly moving over into the world
as we know it, with shots of nature and humans. The music is now
released and stands by itself quite well. There is a strong introspective
sound played on synthesizers, but the sound of thunder, various
clocks ticking or glitchy electronics, make this into a dark ambient
work, with lots of external additions, that is far beyond the
world of new age or standard ambient music. Even without the images
it's already a strong work, but with it (The Foundry is planning
a DVD release), I'm sure it will be even stronger. A very fine
work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.foundrysite.com
SGNL_FLTR - VEBRA (CD by Databloem)
First of all, I'd like to stress the fact that we don't want to
make it in a habit of reviewing 'old' albums. Vital Weekly wants
to concern themselves with just very very recent material, and
the Sgnl_fltr album 'Vebra' is from 2004, which in our book is
ancient history. Sgnl_fltr is one of the names used by Danny Kreutzfeldt
from Denmark, who usually works under his own name (and records
for Databloem as-well) and he is, together with Mads Weitling,
records as Rumforskning. He describes the music of Sgnl_fltr as
'cold abstract ambient techno'. That is very much true, except
maybe it's not techno. Is it techno to use some rhythm machine
that ticks time away in a very slow fashion? Or do you want some
nice 120 bpm (or higher) rhythm in a sweaty club? I personally
like techno to be that, even when I play it home, so for me Sgnl_fltr
is indeed cold and ambient and indeed abstract, but with a rhythm
machine underlying some of the cold structures inhabited by the
machines of Sgnl_fltr. Don't get me wrong, it's nice music indeed,
except that the kids wouldn't run wild on it in sweaty techno
basements. The coldness comes in when Kreutzfeldt uses a bit too
much reverb for my taste. The machine tick away like cold water
drops, but when things are moving, such in 'Nocte' or 'Nkuh',
you might your self find tapping feet along. Those are the prize
winners here, but on a cold spring night, it's throughout an enjoyable
album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.databloem.com
ALAN COURTIS - ANTIGIUOS DOLMENES DEL PALEILITICO
(CD by Sedimental)
GABRIEL PAIUK - RES EXTENSA (CD by Sedimental)
Two new releases on US Sedimental label, and both deal with music
from Argentina. One is by the already well-known Alan Courtis
of Reynols fame and one is by Gabriel Piauk. Underlined on the
cover of the Courtis CD is the fact that no microphones, instruments
or inputs of any kind were employed in this project, but it lists
a bunch of equipment, such as a mixing desk and several sound
effect processors. Courtis plays the no input mixer here and that
is hardly a new trick, but then, many people play the same guitar
and there is no complaint either. It's way you do with it, I guess.
The title means 'ancient palaeolithic dolmens' and was the inspiration
for this four part composition. Courtis doesn't exactly play the
soft card here, it's quite loud and piercing music, just as you
would expect from feedback like music. In the 'Part I' the deep
bass end and in 'Part II' and in 'Part IIII' the higher end of
the spectrum in a very minimal fashion. In the third part the
machines start humming like birds, and that is the most interesting
piece of the entire CD. The high feedback sounds in the fourth
part are just a bit too much for my taste. Courtis executes a
very consistent work, but it's perhaps a bit too single minded,
idea-wise.
Paiuk is a new name for me. He is a composer, improviser and pianist
from Buenos Aires and his pieces are usually played by ensembles.
As an improviser he played with people like Jason Kahn, Axel Dörner,
Manuel Mota and loads more. 'Rex Extensa' is a tape piece, consisting
of various layers of sound materials 'related to our everyday
sound environment and coming from different origins: marginal
sounds from electric devices, analogue sources, field recordings
and many more of unwanted sound that are present in our daily
surrounding. "The fragments used in 'Res Extensa' [...] are
not a representation of the world but rather extracts of our vibrational
experience, of our shared surface of perception, feeling and thought".
In this piece of all of these sounds are layered and stapled together
and in the mix unfold their beauty. Paiuk creates a dense, yet
minimal microsound affair of buzzing cable, helicopter noise and
refridgiator hum. Sometimes they work unisono, all together, working
their way into a mighty crescendo, but the main difference is
that Paiuk uses the abrupt cutting in sounds to move to a next
section. Sometimes things are really sparse, with just one sound
moving almost silently. It's an absolute nice piece of music,
working in the realms of microsound and musique concrete and as
such it's perhaps not much new under the sun, but Paiuk surely
created a well-crafted piece of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sedimental.com
CONTAGIOUS ORGASM/GOVERNMENT ALPHA - HEARTSTRINGS
(CD by SSSM)
Following the previous release by Contagious Orgasm, the collaborative
work with Zyrtrax (see Vital Weekly 486), here is another collaboration,
with Government Alpha. Both are from Japan, and both have a background
in noise music, but there are differences: Government Alpha is
in general the more over-the-top noise and Contagious Orgasm is
the more rhythmic oriented one. It's a combination that works
well, as proven by history and by this disc. The rhythms are loud
and fast, sometimes techno inspired, but always quite heavy in
approach and never exactly dance music. On top there is a whole
bunch of noise related sound, sometimes working in sync with the
rhythm parts, sometimes not at all. Besides there is a whole bunch
turntable manipulations going on that adds even more mayhem to
this already filled sound pallet. Top heavy music, with lots of
things going on, on all levels of the sound spectrum. Played loud
you will no doubt feel exhausted at the end, as this surely sucks
up all the energy in your body. Cleansing music, after which you
feel refreshed. Not necessarily something new, as the combinations
of rhythm and noise have been tried before, but this in another
well made effort in similar fashion. (FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.jp/coolanatomy/
KK NULL & Z'EV ARTIFICIAL LIFE (CD by
C.I.P.)
A review on a CD like this could start like this: do these two
heavy weights of experimental music need any introduction, probably
not. But then who remembers that KK Null was originally a guitar
player, although in the recent years we see him mostly playing
electronics. Something similar can be said of Z'ev, although in
recent years he shifted back from electronics to percussion, which
is the thing that gave him his household name since the early
80s. Recently both were on tour in the UK, and on that occasion
this CD was produced and in a way can be seen as a continuation
of a recent work they did with Chris Watson (see Vital Weekly
503). Both are works of playing together, but in the case of the
release with Watson, it was Z'ev putting the stuff together afterwards
based on the sound material offered by KK Null and Chris Watson,
whereas in this case Null and Z'ev where together and played the
music in an improvised way. That means there are differences to
be noted. The Touch CD was much more densely shaped with a wide
variety of sounds being blurred together into fine woven pattern,
whereas here electronics play a main part but separately from
the percussive elements thrown in by Null (who gets credit for
electro-percussion) and Z'ev. Less dense, but with a lot of variety.
From the tribalism third piece (all are untitled) to the abstract
and quieter second and fourth piece, these two gentlemen play
a fine piece of music. Throughout they know what they are doing
and it may seem that Z'ev is the man who plays the 'solo's' here,
meaning he gets a more distinct sound, but it's a wonderfully
varied and intelligent disc. No wonder they are heavy weights.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.cipsite.net
RADU MALFATTI & MATTIN - GOING FRAGILE
(CD by Formed Records)
This is the second collaborative work between the young and the
old, each with their own approach. Malfatti playing his trombone
and Mattin on 'gnu/linux computer feedback'. The first one was
'Whitenoise' (see Vital Weekly 412). The new one contains two
pieces, a lengthy studio recording and a shorter live recording.
For whatever reasons I played this on my discman, sitting in a
sunny garden. It made me realize that listening circumstances
are always important. Besides the music, I hear sounds from the
environment (children playing, cars passing, a small airplane)
while the headphone volume is cranked all the way up. Malfatti's
trombone treatment (blowing usually) follows curves with long
gaps of silence, along with like wise curves of a computer hissing,
sometimes playing a louder bump, but most of the time it's really
tranquil playing. Despite the environment in which I hear this,
I notice that it's very demanding music. One has to concentrate
really hard to capture all the moves in this music, whether or
not it's the studio or live recording, although the latter is
somewhat more direct in approach. Playing time is over an hour,
and that is a lot to capture. You could easily do with just the
forty some minute studio recording and still feel exhausted and
elevated after hearing that. But the rawer live cut makes sense
too, as it shows how these things sound in a live context. Highly
demanding yet highly rewarding music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.formedrecords.com
PROJECT: BICYCLE (CD compilation by Ache
Records)
Listeners of BBC 4 Radio voted the bicycle the most significant
invention since 1800, beating computers, internet and combustion
engine, and as a true lover of that travel device (and watcher
of bicycle racing), I can only applaud that. Each of the artists
on this CD received just one sample of the bicycle and reworked
that sound into what became this highly divers project. The participants
sample the hell out the sounds, pitch it and down the scale and
in general no bicycle is to be recognized. There are jumpy pieces,
almost in breakcore fashion by people like Aelters and Secret
Mommy, but also more contemplative pieces by Romanhead and Tu
M'. Two pieces stand out: the one by Greg Davis who plays the
source material while riding his own bicycle and Jason Forrest,
who adds, even when not allowed, sound material from others, such
as the almost inevitable 'Bicycle Race'. Throughout a fairly decent
compilation, and for the daring (or perhaps unsatisfied) listeners
who are musicians (aren't we all?), the original source material
appears at the end of the compilation.
Address: http://www.achrecords.com
AD NOISEAM 2001-2006 ( 2CD+DVD by Ad Noiseam)
Teknoir, the five-year anniversary compilation by German technoid
label "Hymen Records" released back in 1995, stand as
a milestone in the history of harsh experimental electronics,
if you ask me! There hardly is a dull moment on Teknoir. Now more
than a decade later the time has come to celebrate the fifth anniversary
of another German label from the harsh electronic sound world
- Ad Noiseam Records. And as it was the case with Hymen Record's
"Teknoir"-compilation, Ad Noiseam's anniversary set
titled "Ad Noiseam 2001-2006" demonstrates the supreme
quality of this label's back catalogue. Containing two cd's and
a dvd, the listener will have to find almost 4 hours of spare
time to complete this massive voyage into the sonic brain of Ad
Noiseam. Beginning in the cd-section, the first disc opens with
a few tracks of tranquilizing atmosphere peaking with the beautiful
contribution from Andrey Kiritchenko titled "Timetravel of
a snail" based on gentle acoustic guitar strums and silent
drones waving in the background. Following track, "Sleepy"
by Air Inspector, also represents the section of trippy ambience
with its Eno-like eerie soundscapes assisted by clicking pulses
and glitches giving a more updated sound. "Sleepy" functions
as a bridge towards the more upfront breakbeat-contributions in
the cd-section starting out with Exillon's atmospheric techstep-track
"Julipt" and continuing with the dark threatening and
noisier track by Keef Baker's "Nr42" built on drones
of distorted sounds. Thus things slowly get harsher. Magwheels'
excellent but quite disturbing track "Aghanistan" based
on collaged concrete noises is the climax on that musical development
towards abrasive expressions. After that Morc makes a radical
expressional change and closes first chapter of the Cd-section
with the beautiful guitar-based ambient-track Venus. Second disc
opens with two slow-tempo tracks, the ethnic-inspired and ritually
rhythm-structured "Yesterdays" by Cdatakill and the
bizarre funky "Z crazy day eyes" by Lapsed & Non
Non based on heavy Dub. The funky fresh expression continues on
the "Area vs area" by Mothboy. After that Panacea takes
over with the furious Darkside-based breakcore-track "Mortal
sin". And this is where the freaking breakcore-party seriously
begins, as Needle Sharing continues the mix of energetic breakcore
and voice samples soon after followed by Submerged' harsh Darkside-floorfiller
"Chore boy". Tarmvred makes a turn away from the extrovert
expression of violent breakcore with some more ambient-based melancholic
breakbeat reminiscent of Gridlock. Closing track of the second
Cd comes from Wilt. His eight minute-track "Days of crows
part 2" is a beautiful moment of tranquilizing ambience far
away from the full-throttle breakbeat-inferno dominating the second
chapter of the Cd-section. Moving to the visual section of the
anniversary set, the enclosed DVD contains 14 music videos, with
only four of the videos based on tracks from the cd-section of
the set. The main part of the DVD is other tracks by some of the
profiles represented on the two Cd's. Where the first five videos
are great fun and very entertaining the true mastery appears as
Crno Klank posses the screen with his prize-winning work "Atalodz"
visually created by Gisèle Pape. That certain video demonstrates
how sounds and visions of art can be melted into higher arts in
its most beautiful form, though the video is a quite dramatic
and a dark piece of working art. From this video forward the style
changes from the visually more extrovert expression to an abstract
and more eerie dreamy approach. The video to Andrey Kiritchenko's
"Timetravel of a snail" is also an artistic beauty,
not surprisingly based on the visual field of a snail. The video
to Larvae's "Solo shoots first" brings the audience
away from the visual never never land and back to the grim reality
with a violent video of mass fight apparently inspired by Quentin
Tarantino's Kill Bill-movies, thus putting an end to the dvd-section
of the set. With its 230 minutes of intense sonic and visual artistry,
"Ad Noiseam 2001-2006" is a massive package of high
quality sound arts. The birth of milestone? I think so! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
D_RRADIO - DEAR JOHN/PICK ME UP (7"
by Distraction Records)
The John, named in the first track, is of course John Peel, to
whom this piece is dedicated, after he called the band D_rradio,
'Lugubrious', which kind of makes sense if you know that it stands
for Death Row Radio. Their previous 7" was well received
here (see Vital Weekly 510). D_rradio continues here with two
instrumental pieces, where in the flip 'Pick Me Up' is a particular
nice piece for the upcoming summer. 'Dear John' starts out a bit
dark, it's a memorial track I reckon, with a lot of glitchy beats
under the carpet of thick synths, but towards the end it's a rocky
and funky piece. As said 'Pick Me Up' is also a lively early summer
track, eyes half closed, lying in the sun, with a nice psychedelic
guitar feature. Very nice stuff along the lines of Static Caravan,
Expanding Records and Highpoint Lowlife, but unmistakably much
more fresh and less dramatic. (FdW)
Address: http://www.distractionrecords.com
HIMOG - CARPE NOCTURNUM (CDR by Hidden)
INKLINGS - BIOMECHANIC WAVEFORMS 1 (CDR by Hidden)
One could think we at Vital Weekly know more or less all the Dutch
projects, but I must say that I never heard of Dogon, 'a band
known for electro sounding stuff', and therefor also the offshoot
Himog is a new name for me. It's apparently something different
and the opening sequence of tis hour long track isn't a promising
start: it's a bit of kitschy ambient rhythm piece that sounds
a bit too much made on 'magic music maker' software, or some such
easy creator software. But then it fades over in true ambient
patterns and that is much more of my liking. Synthesizers, no
doubt coming from various software plug ins start running and
play a thoughtful lengthy sounds-cape, taking up the next thirty
or so minutes. It concludes with a piece that is likewise ambient
in approach, but is a bit more heavy loaded and a tad more industrial
in approach, with mumbling space voices. A bit like the releases
on Fax Records from a decade back, but Himog plays quite a nice
personal touch of the given sound palette.
Inklings present their second release and according to the label
we shouldn't regard this as part 2 of 'Acid James' but it's hard
to see things differently, me thinks. Five lengthy spun tracks
in which a sort of acid rhythm still plays an important, at least
in three out of five. It's always good fun to make this kind of
music, and see people dance to the music, but in the case of Inklings
I don't see this happen all too easily. The tracks are a bit too
sparse, non-foot
moving, well and perhaps not 'fat' enough to move the crowds.
But it may be
good music to do your home-work too, or play in the car when their
is
traffic jam. Maybe some-such. It's not bad, but not great either.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.hidden.be
KOJI ASANO - LIVE IN GLASGOW 2006 (MP3 by
Seven Things)
Usually MP3s are free, at least certainly those MP3s in the areas
of Vital Weekly, but the Scottish label Seven Things release exclusive
works that you can purchase, or even subscribe too. This release
by Koji Asano is the first one, and then in the following months,
there will be Charlemagne Palestine, Nmperign, Zoe Irvine, Yannis
Kyriakides and Peter Dowling. Asano's work is a live concert that
was recorded earlier this year at the event that launched Seven
Things. Of course Asano is a man of many skills, but in a live
solo situation he relies on his laptop. It seems to me that Asano
feeds his laptop here is own piano music and starts treating them
around. Over the course of thirty some minutes the piano sounds
are effectively eaten away by the zeroes and ones of the computer,
which take over control and start playing their own melodies.
Towards the end this takes the form of a computerized bagpipe
concert. Just in the middle things get a bit noisy, but throughout
there is quite a gentle flow of sounds. One of the better Asano
releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.seventhings.co.uk
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