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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 530
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week 24
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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
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER & PETER DUIMELINKS
- FFLUX (CD by Brombron) *
GENEVIÈVE PASQUIER - SOAP BUBBLE FACTORY (CD by Ant Zen
recordings)
AUS - SONORAPID (CD by Music Related) *
THE HAFLER TRIO - SEVEN HOURS SLEEP (CD by Korm Plastics)
TOM DJLL - BELLEROPHONE (CD by Soul On Rice)
TOM DJLL - SMUDGE (CD by Soul On Rice)
JACK WRIGHT & TOM DJILL & BHOB RAINEY & TIM FEENEY
(CD by Soul On Rice) *
SEI MIGUEL - THE TONE GARDENS (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
GRUNDIK KASYANSKY - LIGHT AND ROUNDCHAIR (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
HEDDY BOUBAKER - LACK OF CONVERSATION (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings) *
BENJAMIN DUBOC & EDWARD PERRAUD - ETAU (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
HANS TAMMEN & CHRISTOPH IRMER - OXIDE (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
TRIPWIRE - LOOKING IN MY EAR (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & GUILHERME RODRIGUES & OREN MARSHALL
& CARLOS SANTOS & JOSE OLIVEIRA - KINETICS (CD by Creative
Sources Recordings) *
MELANCHOHOLICS - A SINGLE ACT OF CARELESSNESS (CD by Deafborn)
*
STEVE ROACH & LOREN NERELL - TERRAFORM (CD by Soleilmoon)
*
ALAN SPARHAWK - SOLO GUITAR (CD by Silber Records) *
VLOR - A FIRE IS MEANT FOR BURNING (CD by Silber Records) *
HOLGER HILLER/THOMAS FEHLMANN - WIR BAUEN EINE STADT (LP by Gagarin
Records) *
BASS COMMUNION - LOSS (LP by Soleilmoon Records)
ARASTOO - THREE (LP by Isounderscore)
DE BRONSTGIETERS - DOOS WHERE THE DAYS (CDR by Esc Rec) *
JASON SLOAN - BLITTERDUST (3"CDR by Kikapu) *
NEW!! PODCAST announcements
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER & PETER DUIMELINKS
- BROMBRON 10: FFLUX (CD by Korm Plastics)
Recorded at Extrapool in the Summer of '04 'Fflux' begins as a
warm wash of punctuated beats, layered under the radar. It's repetitively
funky and subtle at the same time. The two blend a sense of microstatic.
This is just shy of ambivalent dance music. "Fix" has
a crunchy echo and hiss that sort of trips over itself clumsily,
but where it goes, in its drunken state is actually fascinating
to listen to. You can't help sticking with it - with its basic
tactility and sparseness. It's like a lost cart weaving its way
down a hill. Lots of raspy, reedy goings-on meld especially well
on "Fax" in something almost tribally minimal and built
on beats. Then the dub comes as "Prax" prances with
gyrating croaking and vague steely rhythms that play spin like
a wheel in and out of the aural foreground. And then there is
the propeller-like staccato creeping through "Lux".
This disc is chock-full of very pointed, moving sounds, out of
time, it's marching and robotic one moment and something to mellow
out to in the next, but remains very physical music throughout.
(TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
GENEVIÈVE PASQUIER - SOAP BUBBLE
FACTORY (CD by Ant Zen recordings)
Unquestionably the main part of albums from the harsher territories
of sonic expression are created by male composers. Quite often
the albums composed by female composers divide from the male-composed
albums with their very own charm. Third album from French female
composer Geneviève Pasquier titled "Soap bubble factory"
is no exception! Geneviève Pasquier who might also be known
as part of the Industrial project Thorofon. Stylistically I find
Geneviève Pasquier close to artists like Cosey Fanni Tutti
(ex-Throbbing gristle) and Sina Hübner (a.k.a. S.I.N.A.).
The beautiful voice of Geneviève Pasquier, sometimes being
sung other times spoken in English as well as French, adds a great
charm to the musical part. And concerning the musical side of
the album there is a great crossover of various genres always
working excellent with the frigid but soulful vocals. Opening
with the trippy trance-like instrumental track "Elements",
the ground has been laid for an hour of atmospheric meanwhile
both aggressive and emotional expressions from Geneviève
Pasquier. From second track forward the listener are confronted
with soundscapes of darkness in one moment, power noise and harsh
industrial in the next, and electro-oriented futurepop in another.
Despite the great span of various style expressions the album
beautifully works as a whole thanks to the vocals of Genieve.
Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
AUS - SONORAPID (CD by Music Related)
Despite his various CDR releases for U-Cover, I never heard of
Yasuhiko, aka Aus. He is the main man behind the project, producing
all the music, but it would perhaps be a bit boring if it would
be just his music. He is helped by various people of which the
two vocalists, Yukiko Okamoto and Cokiyu, are the best, ear-catching
wise. Their voices add something to this music, which would have
been otherwise mediocre glitch pop. The vocals are not unlike
Tuijko Noriko or Piana, and stand clearly in that Japanese tradition
of soft-singing. The careful and delicate sound processing that
is also going on, are along the similar tradition of microsound
meeting popmusic. Soft and not really outspoken, dreamy and atmospheric.
It's hard to say what is at the basis of this music: treated guitars,
piano's or just a load of software synths? I don't think it does
really matter. Is it good? Well, it's ok, I must say. It takes
a lot of already familiar elements and it is mixed once again
into something that is not something of his own, but, like so
many others on the market, it's produced with style. On a scale
to ten, this goes up to a a big 6. (FdW)
Address: http://www.musicrelated.net
THE HAFLER TRIO - SEVEN HOURS SLEEP (CD
by Korm Plastics)
Coming full circle, in for a landing, once again, is the enhanced
re-issue of the classic Hafler Trio 'Seven Hours Sleep'. Recorded
in Belgium back in 1985 (on the L.A.Y.L.A.H. imprint) Andrew McKenzie
sheds a mixture of sinister sound space with layers of reverent
zen antidotes. Between the chant of a street crowd perhaps trapped
behind a metal fence, then the rustling through an airport, we
are then transported to the vortex of nature by way of wide open
whispers. Stirring murmurs and low-fi grunting are superimposed
in a dance of hypnotic sense-a-round. These hours we sleep, are
filled with aching dreams of falling, deeper and deeper through
galaxies. In just under one hour this longplay tale is told in
shortened, dronish vignettes that deal in a series of tactile
percussion and vibration. The voices are peculiar, some angry
and others gagged through blur and distortion. The definitive
farm animals are the call of the wild through a mysterious psychedelic
haze, warped into a variant of musicality. Over and through this
seems like randomly sewn together recordings of various events
caught on tape by a roving audio voyeur (planes, circus, farm...).
For this reason the overture is quite dada in context. When silences
creep into the work there are suddenly bellowing creeks and distant
bells, subtle and flatulent, the air is clear again. For slumber,
this is a pretty restless night of bent dreams, peppered with
a rumbling cacophony of raw vision. The kettle whistles like an
aircraft, children play like angry tribesmen. Still there are
the seductive moments we've grown accustomed to in other collaborative
pieces with Annie Sprinkle and others, but someone's let the gases
free, and they are filling up this chamber causing blindspots
and mayhem. 'Seven Hours Sleep' plays like a parenthetical excerpt
of several sci-fi soundtracks played backwards in slow motion,
but at times you can only hear the mechanics, rather than the
actual content. A test for the active listener in all of us. This
rendition is lusciously packaged with images made by Ben Ponton,
a poster, embedded PDF files. A brilliant re-mastering by Korm
Plastics undoing the wrongs previously made by the house of Mute
(and lovingly dedicated to Tony Jackson). (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
TOM DJLL - BELLEROPHONE (CD by Soul On Rice)
TOM DJLL - SMUDGE (CD by Soul On Rice)
JACK WRIGHT & TOM DJILL & BHOB RAINEY & TIM FEENEY
(CD by Soul On Rice)
If there is one trumpetplayer of whom it is fair to say he makes
use of extended techniques, it is Tom Djll. For the last twenty
years he explicitly worked on developing and extending the possibilities
of the trumpet, in acoustic but also in electro-acoustic directions.
Consequently he acquired a great vocabulary on this instrument,
and is able to derive a wide array of sounds and noises coming
from the trumpet for his compositions. No surprise that both solo
cds are evidence of this. Djll never seemed to be in a hurry in
making known his research to the public. But now the time has
come. "Bellerophone" and "Smudge" are his
first solo albums. Both are culmination's of his long time work.
But first a few words Djll himself. He (trumpet, electronics,
composer) is one those numerous artists that work in the San Francisco
Bay Area. He did his studies at Berkley School of Music, Mills
College, and other places. His collaborations and projects are
many, but his presence on vinyl and cd seems to be limited. Vital
Readers may remember the review of Moe! Staiano's MOE!KESTRA!
- "Two Forms of Multitudes: Conducted Improvisations"
(Pax/Edgetone). Plus the fantastic 'Signs of Life' album by Jack
Wright, Matt Ingalls, Bhob Rainey and Tom Djll (Spring Garden
Music).
For both solo cds Djll grouped his work into two sections. "Bellerophone"
has trumpet and (non electronic) preparations. On "Smudge"
on the other hand, Djill makes use of analog synthesizer (track
2, 3, 4) and digital processing (track 1, 5,6,7). Tracks 2, 3
and 4 were completed in the years 1988-1991. The other pieces
were recorded in 2005-2006. In these years Djill also made recordings
for "Bellerophone". "Smudge" contains trumpet-driven
experimental electronic pieces. At moments the use of trumpet
has to be believed, and cannot be heard. The charming composition
"Covalents" may be exception here. In a piece like "Patima"
that starts like an electronic drone piece of krautrock allure,
the trumpet is mutated beyond recognition. But maybe the trumpet
is not the soundsource in all cases. In earlier pieces like "Exfoliate"
recorded around 1990, the old-fashionedness of the electronic
sounds is striking, although this does not influence the works
negatively. In "Split" electronics and trumpet are intertwined
in a way that reminded me of what Pauline Oliveros did with accordeon
and electronics (long extended notes). Improvisations on "Bellerophone"
are very colorful and detailed, but they reveal their beauty only
during concentrated listening. Whistling, growling, blustering,
etc. Djll blows his abstract sound poems into our ears. If you
are not very fond of solo albums "Road Signs" may be
the thing for you. In two different trio line ups we hear Tom
Djll (trumpet and preparations) and Jack Wright (saxophones) together
with Bhob Rainey (soprano saxophone) in two tracks, and with Tim
Feeney (percussion & amplifications) in one other recording.
Recordings were made during two different tours in 2002 and 2005.
These high quality improvisations are more close to modern chamber
music then to jazzmusic. In each improvisation the musicians take
their time to develop slowly their research into sound and texture.
With their concentrated playing they create a solemn and restrained
atmosphere. So, at the end of these lines I make a bow for these
gentlemen: great music! (DM)
Address: http://www.djll.com/
SEI MIGUEL - THE TONE GARDENS (CD by Creative
Sources Recordings)
GRUNDIK KASYANSKY - LIGHT AND ROUNDCHAIR (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
HEDDY BOUBAKER - LACK OF CONVERSATION (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
BENJAMIN DUBOC & EDWARD PERRAUD - ETAU (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
HANS TAMMEN & CHRISTOPH IRMER - OXIDE (CD by Creative Sources
Recordings)
TRIPWIRE - LOOKING IN MY EAR (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & GUILHERME RODRIGUES & OREN MARSHALL
& CARLOS SANTOS & JOSE OLIVEIRA - KINETICS (CD by Creative
Sources Recordings)
There are musicians producing way too many CDs of a varying quality,
there are also labels. Usually the lurk around in the areas of
no-cost CDR releases, but Creative Sources Recordings from Portugal
deal with real CDs. There recent blast of nine releases wasn't
over, and the next seven (summer time slowing down?) land on my
desk. It's hard to give all of them appropriate attention, but
perhaps that's not the idea? Creative Sources doesn't release
any press messages of information, so that side is not well covered,
and there aren't that many names that I heard before in this new
lot. Let's start with the ones that are played/composed/improvised
by one person. Although Sei Miguel is shown on the cover, and
he is probably the composer of the three pieces on 'The Tone Gardens',
the pieces are performed by four persons: Sei Miguel on on pocket
trumpet, Fala Mariam on alto trombone, Rafael Toral on computer
sinewaves, portable amplifier feedback and modulated white noise
system (one instrument per track) and César Burago on small
percussion. All three pieces are played live, one in the studio.
Long sustained tones by Toral and shorter sounds on the two wind
instruments and percussion, this is highly improvised music of
the kind that makes me very nervous. Traditional playing, tone
bending and throughout not for me. Not a good start.
Of much more interest is the disc by one Grundik Kasyansky, which
sounds Russian, but the four pieces were recorded in New York
City. Kasyansky uses a feedback synthesizer, computer, small theremin
and radios, to create one very long piece, and the three others
last from four to nineteen minutes. This is quite a minimal sound
that is going on, of indeed mainly feedback sounds. It's quite
'soft' music, despite the input being feedback. The sounds move
around, apparently going nowhere, just circling about like a flock
of birds in the air. The best pieces are the two that also include
radio, which add an extra layer of hiss and static. Quite mysterious
music altogether and it's quite alright. Microsound music at its
best, but Kasyansky adds his own voice to the genre.
Also Heddy Boubaker is a new name for me, and from the liner notes
I understand that the saxophone is the instrument here. But rather
than playing it like 'normal' people would do, Heddy produces
all sorts of sounds with the saxophone, in fact every possible
sound, as long as it's not sounding like saxophone. Breathing
plays an important role here, not the continuous succession of
melodies or notes. Boubaker plays the instrument like Axel Dörner
plays his trumpet: the instrument is regarded as an object, an
electro-acoustic one that can be played by the mouth. Highly abstract
and perhaps a bit long, this is however a fine example of the
'new' improvisation methods that are now applied.
The first duo is Benjamin Duboc (double bass) and Edward Perraud
(drums, percussion). They improvise their way through two lengthy
pieces, playing around with the notion of silence and presence
of sound. They let their sounds explode and then sustain for a
while before dying out and a new explosion comes. Both players
seem to prefer the lower end of the spectrum, the bass drum and
the double bass suggest that, even when there is occasional high
end scraping on cymbals and snares. There is definitely a spooky
atmosphere in this recordings, which is quite intense. Their playing
is more regular improvised, but it's more appealing to me than
the Sei Miguel disc.
Just what an 'endangered guitar' is, here played by Hans Tammen,
I don't know. Maybe a guitar played with objects? It surely sounds
like that. Irmer plays 'just' violin, not endangered. These six
improvised pieces were all recorded in one go, in 2005, are here
the thematic approach seems to be: play as many nervous notes
you can, in a short time span. Hectic, chaotic, this reminded
me of the two first LPs by Agencement. Most of the time it's all
fairly straight forward acoustic playing that is going on here,
but in 'Disobey', there is all of a sudden electronic sound effects
to be heard. 'Rare Metal', the final piece brings some contemplation
to the pieces. Quite a nice release.
Usually the project on Creative Sources are named by the various
musicians, but almost never hidden as a band. I assume the band
name suggest that they are at this for a longer time, instead
of the impromptu of improvisation. Tripwire are Lars Scherzberg
(saxophones), John Hughes (bass) and Jeff Arnal (percussion).
The live recording was made late 2004, and is a fairly normal
set of pieces, although the remarkable thing is that the pieces
are cut into ten separate tracks. The music is again kinda straight
forward improvisation, just as found on the Duboc & Perraud,
but it sometimes lacks the tension of that duo, but throughout
it's quite a nice disc.
The biggest line up we find on 'Kinetics': Ernesto Rodrigues (violin,
viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello, pocket trumpet), Oren Marshall
(tuba), Carlos Santos (electronics) and Jose Oliveira (percussion).
A recording that was made two years ago and seeing the labelboss
appear himself (Ernesto), we can not be too surprised that this
work overlaps the traditional and new forms of improvisation.
The five players approach their instruments both as an object
as well as an instrument. This leads to quite intense moments,
since each of the five players decides to go in that mode whenever
he feels to, without knowing if the others will follow or not.
This back and forth going creates a tension between the players,
which is audible throughout this disc. As a label statement, this
one worked best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
MELANCHOHOLICS - A SINGLE ACT OF CARELESSNESS
(CD by Deafborn)
Without wanting to place Deafborn Records in one particular corner
of the musical spectrum, 'dark' and 'atmospheric' are certainly
two key-words. I never heard of Melanchoholics, which is a three
piece group of Benedikt on guitars, Philip on bass and Lutz on
electronics. Their previous interests lie in Death/Grind/Heavy
metal and industrial and noise, but none of these influences are
shown on 'A Single Act Of Carelessness', which is their second
CD, after the self-titled, self-released CD from 2003. In 2001
they got together, discussing 'dark and solitudous sound atmospheres'
and started jamming around. They probably do that a lot, since
this CD shows a mature sound. The alienated, desolated soundscape
of a post nuclear landscape is what is unfolded before our very
eyes. Empty industrial sites, dark clouds, a thunder - the fine
ingredients of a good nightmare or perhaps the storyboard of a
b-movie entitled 'the last man on earth and his wanderings' (sorry
that didn't sound very hollywood like). The guitar is plucked,
a dark wall of synths and feedback hoover in the background and
we hear the sound of highly polluted water running down the drainpipes.
The album doesn't very hopeful, nor any where near melancholic.
What would they long for? The cross-over between ambient and industrial
has been made before, by many (Illusion Of Safety's during the
late 80s period spring to mind here), but Melanchoholics translate
the sound pretty well to a new millennium. (FdW)
Address: http://www.deafborn.de
STEVE ROACH & LOREN NERELL - TERRAFORM
(CD by Soleilmoon)
Even when Steve Roach and Loren Nerell met in Los Angeles in 1981,
'Terraform' is the first collaboration between the two. For Nerell
is the newer name of the two, even when his name popped up in
the early days of Vital Weekly. 'Taksu' (Vital Weekly 386) was
my first proper introduction to him. Steve Roach on the other
never was properly introduced by a solo recording in Vital Weekly,
for reasons I don't know, but he came as we reviewed CDs on such
labels as Hypnos, Side Effects and with artists such as Jorge
Reyes and Vidna Obmana. When I opened the package and saw the
names of the musicians, I thought I was going for an ambient head
trip for the next sixty or so minutes. But it was not, much to
my surprise. At least not in the sense that I thought it would
be. It's spacious, it's lenghty, but also much more experimental
than I would have anticipated, most certainly in the somewhat
atonal 'Ecopoiesis', in which a lot of similar but different layers
move about in a slightly disharmonious way. But 'Texture Wall',
which lasts nearly thirty minutes, brings back the wall of sound
ambience, with chirping insects (or perhaps they are just another
batch of analogue synths), which is darker than life, but wanderings
through spacious themes. This daring combination of 'real' ambient
vs 'a bit more experimental' works quite well on this CD. It doesn't
necessarily mean that the world of ambient music is changed over
with this, as what Roach and Nerell does so finely on this CD,
is also done by others and they move on similar grounds altogether,
but these masters do a more than excellent job here. With the
weather today at least being as hot as an average day in Arizona
(where Roach lives), one can do nothing but lie back and let this
mass of sound flow uninterrupted. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
ALAN SPARHAWK - SOLO GUITAR (CD by Silber
Records)
VLOR - A FIRE IS MEANT FOR BURNING (CD by Silber Records)
On the day the newspaper tells me Gyorgi Ligeti is dead, I see
him referenced in the press message for the CD by Alan Sparhawk.
It made me think to play Ligeti again. Just a wild guess: I don't
think that any other solo instrument got more CDs than the guitar.
It's just a guess. The press blurb says its 'in the vein of underground
stars like Aarktica & Reynols as well as guitar heroes like
Eddie van Halen (incidentally hailing from the very same town
as Vital Weekly). Alan Sparhawk, of Low fame (to some, not here,
ever since I heard their cover of Joy Division's 'Transmission'),
plays guitar in an improvised manner and adds a high dose of reverb
to the sound, 'allowing a greater immediacy'. But the reverb is
used simply too much, making it very high end like, and creating
an artificial depth, rather than a bass depth. I must say the
reverb builds to large walls of sound, but it also ruins the music,
which could have perhaps been 'warm' and 'intimate', if the choice
of sound effects would have been more delicate. Van Halen returns
in 'Eruption by Eddie van Halen', but instead of the original
super fast, Sparhawk slows it down, letting each note die out,
before turning an engine on. A bit like Low did to 'Transmission'.
Next time a real solo guitar, please, and not a duet of reverb
and guitar.
Of much more interest is Vlor. It started out in 1992 by Brian
John Mitchell (of Remora) and Russel Halasz, playing acoustic
guitars and releasing two EPs. They separated in 1998 when Halasz
moved to Florida. In 2005 Mitchell was compiling a 'best of rare
material' and thought he missed doing music as Vlor. So he recorded
ninety minutes of guitar riffs and sent it to six different friends,
asking them to complete them as songs. These six are Jon DeRosa
(of Aarktica), Mike vanPortfleet of Lycia, Nathan Amundsun (Rivulets),
Jessica Bailiff, Jesse Edwards (of Red Morning Chorus) and Paolo
Messere (6 P.M.). Each of these players added a trademark of their
own, such as violin, vocals, keyboards, more guitars and harmonium.
You could think that this would lead to a very diverse bunch of
tracks, that holds somewhere in between a remix and a rework,
but there is a strong coherency among the twelve pieces. Firmly
rooted in the more experimental corner of postrock, melancholy
is lurking about in every track. Sometimes it stays close to the
original minimal playing of Mitchell, but things work best when
they are expanded into the format of a real song, with extended
instrumentation. Though post rock is by itself a dead end, music
wise, the Vlor is more than well crafted, a labour of love and
friendship. (FdW)
Address: http://www.silbermedia.com
HOLGER HILLER/THOMAS FEHLMANN - WIR BAUEN
EINE STADT (LP by Gagarin Records)
A while ago I was going through a box of old cassettes, seeing
which ones I really liked still, and which ones I could transfer
to MP3 for podplaying. I picked out, among others, a short tape
by Holger Hiller and Thomas Fehlmann. I bought this tape in 1981
or 1982 and it didn't play too well after all these years. That
was a pity, since I really liked it and would have loved to pod
it. It's short, twelve minutes only (six per side) and it deals
with a music piece written by Paul Hindemith in 1930 as a music
piece for children. Like many artists (music and visual) Hindemith
liked doing 'new art' for children and in this piece the children
were at the central. The children build a city, one becomes a
dentist, another one the butcher, people arrive with the dog or
parrot. People arrive by car, train or walking in the new city
and it's about stuff happening at school. A piece deals with hygiene,
washing cloths. In the end thieves arrive, to steal watches and
even young dogs, but they get caught and thrown into prison. Ten
tracks in total, all very short and to the point. I don't know
which instruments are mentioned in the original score of Hindemith,
but Fehlmann and Hiller (who knew each-other back then from the
Hamburg art academy, they were present on 'Das Ist Schönheit'
2LP, before forming Palais Schaumburg) replace all the instruments
by synthesizers and vocals. And still, after twenty five years,
it sounds great. Electro-like but in a very childish manner, simple
melodies, lovely lyrics (unfortunately for some, not me, in German),
very down to earth, but there is a sense of futurism in the original
work, that probably comes out much better now with the synthesizers
and vocoded voices. It hasn't aged a single bit. We have to bow
to Gagarin for releasing this on LP, for me the best re-issue
so far this year. Still not easy to convert to MP3, but let's
hope for CD release in the future. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gagarinrecords.com
BASS COMMUNION - LOSS (LP by Soleilmoon
Records)
No trouble was left out to make this LP into a truly lovely thing:
printing on beautiful paper, a small booklet that looks like small
photo album, with photo's separately glued in, and held together
with a cord. It looks all 'old', even when of course it's fake
old. And it's scented, unfortunately for this delicate nose. Steven
Wilson is perhaps to the readers mostly well-known as Bass Communion,
in the 'real' world he is mostly known as the main man behind
Porcupine Tree, to some the band that sounds like Pink Floyd,
the way they should sound in these days. I didn't keep up with
all of the Bass Communion releases (which also spans various collaborations,
such as with Vidna Obmana, Jonathan Coleclough, Colin Potter and
Muslimgauze), so somewhere along the lines I missed 'Ghosts On
Magnetic Tape', his album about Electronic Voice Phenomena, or
the way the dead communicate with the living through recorded
media. 'Loss' is an extension of that, creating a ghost-like soundtrack.
Steven Wilson uses an upright piano, a vibraphone and old 78 RPM
records and no synthesizers or electronics, which is hard to believe.
The a-side is mainly centered around the piano playing, with the
crackles of the old shellac/vinyl leaking through but also a backdrop
of drone like sounds, that in my book would stem from electronics.
But who knows: its probably the layered recordings of the vibraphone.
The b-side opens with a slowed down piano and sounds of stuff
tumbling down the rabbit hole, going into oblivion. If the previous
side was just spooky, this is frightening. What is going to happen?
It indeed sounds like voices from above and beyond, arriving from
this solemn march of ghosts. A haunting record or a haunted one?
Certainly not a pleasant trip. A look at pictures of dead babies
in the booklet says it all. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
ARASTOO - THREE (LP by Isounderscore)
The number referred to in the title of this record, is the number
of music pieces on this record, but perhaps also a reference to
the number of copies made: 333. Arastoo is Arastoo Darakhshan
from the Bay Area, who had a CDR release in 2005 (missed here).
Apparently Arastoo uses analogue synths, strings and synthetic
textures, but upon hearing this I assume a computer is never far
away. The label advertises the record as 'drone/experimental/noise',
but the noise seems to me a big far away. Drone and experiment
are much closer to home. Arastoo treated his sounds, a piano perhaps,
voices perhaps, by stretching them out into a long, repeating
field of sound, adding a dash of delay. On the first side, the
one with two untitled pieces, bells and piano are at work, and
on the second side, the one with one long piece, voices. It's
spacious but experimental. It's drone related, but not of the
kind where one tone sustains for twenty minutes. Its all the right
ingredients, but somehow this record didn't do much for me. Perhaps
the execution of the ideas is a bit of simple, too straightforward
and perhaps the idea itself is too limited to be fully at work,
certainly on the side long third piece. Fine enough record, though
not brilliant. (FdW)
Address: http://www.isounderscore.com
DE BRONSTGIETERS - DOOS WHERE THE DAYS (CDR
by Esc Rec)
For various reasons this CDR shouldn't be part of Vital Weekly.
First of all, De Bronstgieters are dutch, which isn't the problem,
but it's hard to translate all the wit involved with the songs,
the titles and the cover. Then the music: it's popmusic of a rather
lo-fi kind, but still to be defined as popmusic. A territory not
covered by Vital Weekly, at least not a lot, and one we are not
comfortable reviewing. The band existed from 1987 to 1993 and
released a bunch of cassettes (which at the time went by me, perhaps
because of the music and the fact that cassettes weren't the central
thing anymore for me). On this CDR you will find a selection of
songs from these cassettes. Drums, bass, guitar and vocals, texts
in Dutch, German and English, all packed together with a gentle
sense of nonsense. Admist of all things experimental, this is
a true odd ball, and at that it's quite funny to hear music like
this and break away from the normal routine. The package itself
is quite elaborate: a silkscreened cover, like a comic in the
best punk tradition, and a small booklet that adds to the confusion.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.escrec.com
JASON SLOAN - BLITTERDUST (3"CDR by
Kikapu)
Although Kikapu advertises as a net-label I understand that their
'Circle' series is going to be a 3"CDR adventure. Each release
will be packed in a circular tin in an edition of forty copies
only. Musicwise the series will focus on ambient and minimal music.
Jason Sloan is the first one and I never heard of him. His twenty
minute piece was entirely made with electric guitar, and is not
far away from the likes of Fear Falls Burning. Long sustained
guitar sounds, wandering about in a free fall, locked inside the
closed system of sound effects. Majestically waving at least two
foot above the floor, this is how ambient music should sound.
And as such that is my main point of critique: there isn't much
news under the ambient sun. That music genre seems to be closed
off for new directions, which is a pity, but that's just unfortunate.
Sloan does a nice job at what he does. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kikapu.com
PODCAST announcements
As we don't have the time to get around hearing all podcasts available, Vital Weekly now offers the possibility to announce your own pod casts. Announcements may be shortened by the editor.
From: "Thelmo Cristovam" <thelmocristovam@hotmail.com>
My name is thelmo cristovam, improviser (winds, electronics, strings) and electroacoustic composer from Pernambuco, Brasil.
I'm running a posdcast dedicated to brasilian experimental music.
v(g)erme radio
experimental music from Pernambuco, Brasil
http://thelmocristovam.podomatic.com/
free improv, electroacoustic improv, free jazz, noise, electroacoustic composition, musique concrete, field recordings, soundscapes composition, sound art ... from Brasil.
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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.
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which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author
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Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send
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the complete archive of Vital Weekly (1-494) can be found at: http://staalplaat.com/vital/