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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 532
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week 26
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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
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podcasts go here: http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/
* noted are in this week's podcast
HUMCRUSH - HORNSWOGGLE (CD by Rune Grammofon)
*
GREG MALCOLM - HUNG (CD by Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) *
OBJEKT 4 - EXTERMINATION PROCESSING TOWER (CD by Ravenheart) *
SLEPCY - WE ARE THE NEWEST BATTLE MODELS (CD by Cock Rock Disco)
*
LARVAE - DEAD WEIGHT (CD by Ad Noiseam)
EVOL - PUNANI QUATRE (CD by Alku) *
BRUCKMANN/DAFELDECKER/HAUF - WANE (CD by Formed Records) *
DEBRIS FIELD (CD/Book by Bolton Museum)
TRACIS (Book by Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery)
NOOK - AUBAINE (2CD, private) *
DIRK SPECHT - ABIME/NOCTURNE (DVD-R, private)
BASS TONE TRAP - TRAPPING (CD by MUSIC 'A LA COQUE)
AIDAN BAKER - THE SEA SWELL A BIT... (CD by A Silent Place)
THELEMA - BURNT MEMORIES (CD by Small Voices)
ANDREAS BRANDAL - DRIVE HOME WITH A HAMMER (CD by Quasi Pop) *
JØRGEN KNUDSEN - WEALTH (CD by Quasi Pop)
AUBE - COMET (2CD by Cipher Productions) *
GELSOMINA - NOSTALGHIA (CD by Cipher Productions)
TELLEMAKE - SCARBO (LP + CD rom by Angstrom Records) *
MONOMARC - JUDAS IN TAKKITAKKILAND (3"CDR by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek)
MASONIC YOUTH - GOING DOWN (7" by Smittekilde)
CTACIK - IN ORDER TO PEREVENT SENSE (CDR by Verato Project)
POSTBLUE - NAKED WOMEN DANCE ALONE (CDR by Phase! Records) *
SCHROEDINGER'S CUT - BOWED INSIDES (3"CDR by Phase! Records)
OLIVEIRI/FIGURE - CELEST (CDR by Entr'acte) *
JOE GILMORE & GEORGE ROGERS - ELSEIF (3"CDR by Entr'acte)
LUTNAHIMAT - KLEINE MITZEKATZE (3"CDR by Entr'acte)
FOSSILS - ILLUMINATIONS (CDR by Longlongchaney)
NIHIL IS ME/BE INVISIBLE NOW! (Cassette by Longlongchaney)
SHIVERS - A MISTY PLACE (Cassette by Longlongchaney)
ASHER - DIRECTIONS (CDR by Leerraum) *
LONGMO - SANBAN (CDR by Leerraum)
KENNETH KIRSCHNER - NOVEMBER 18, 2004 ET AL (CDR by Leerraum)
MAHMOUD REFAT & ZIMMOUN - STATICS I (CDR by Leerraum)
MAHMOUD REFAT & PE LANG & ZIMMOUN - STATICS II (CDR by
Leerraum)
AUTOBAM - QUASI SATELLITE (CDR by Leerraum)
YUZO KAKO - T/T (CDR by Leerraum)
ZIMOUN - KABEL (CDR by Leerraum
HUMCRUSH - HORNSWOGGLE (CD by Rune Grammofon)
Behind Humcrush we find Thomas Strønen on drums and live
electronics and Stale Storlokken on keyboards. Strønen
is a member of Food, Maria Kannegaard and Parish, and Storlokken
a founding member of Supersilent, Terje Rypdal's Skywards, Bol
and Cucumber. Not many of these names mean much to me, but that's
perhaps they are mostly linked to jazz music. 'Hornswoggle' is
their second CD, following their debut of 2004. With the instruments
at hand, one would expect this to be not very jazz related, but
in an odd way it does sound like jazz like, but of a more electronic
nature. The drums play at times a groovy, funky rhythm, sometimes
as disorganized as you can expect from jazz, but it's the electronical
component of this CD that makes the difference, and is the icing
on the cake. Sometimes they follow the rhythm, but more often
they just seem to drop in and out of the mix, like raindrops (as
opposed to rain). All the tracks are the result of improvisations,
which is a big surprise for me, as it seems much more planned
and organized. As the album progresses the music gets more a tad
more experimental and stranger, but it always stays on the edge
of entertaining and listenable. Very fine work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.runegrammofon.com
GREG MALCOLM - HUNG (CD by Celebrate Psi
Phenomenon)
Since with the last review of a Greg Malcolm solo record, you
must be aware that his solo concert at Extrapool in 2003 was one
of my all time favorite concerts and it's not necessary to repeat
that again. 'Hung' is his latest solo CD. Greg Malcolm plays three
guitars at the same time, one with his hands, and two with his
feet. He added some extra strings to his hand held guitar, contact
microphones, but also springs and bells attached to the guitar
on the floor and thus becomes an one man orchestra. The pieces
he plays are improvised on the spot. Its not easy to describe
the music of Greg Malcolm, if you never heard it. Perhaps as always,
it doesn't entirely justify the music. Malcolm strum, plucks the
guitar, and bangs out a simple rhythm. Sometimes he add a small
motor device or an e-bow to form more solid backdrop, but that's
not part of the normal routine. The results are always spacious,
free floating tones, that create an intimate atmosphere. Unlike
the previous release, the tracks are shorter here, each creating
it's own biotop and time seems to come to a virtual stand still.
Solemnly, slowed down, but never pathetic or doom loaded, this
is just 'simple' played beauty. Great CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cpsip.co.nz
OBJEKT 4 - EXTERMINATION PROCESSING TOWER
(CD by Ravenheart)
This is my first encounter with Objekt 4, a sound project of Anders
Peterson from Sweden. 'Extermination Processing Tower' is his
second full length release, after a hand full of EPs. I don't
know how this new release relates to the previous work, but I
must say that I rather enjoyed this release. While it is nothing
new under the ambient industrial sun, Objekt 4 is rather good
at his job. Dark ambient textures, with much thanks to the use
of reverb, in combination with musique concrete elements, such
as the dragging about of stones and the squeaking of doors, make
this is into a highly spooky record. 'Breath Of Sickness' (I guess
titles aren't his best thoughts) is at such the highlight. From
all the influences he could take, Lustmord seems to me the one
that he cherishes most. Sometimes there are elements of noise
and rhythm on some of the pieces, and that is an area that should
not be touched by him. They break away from the atmospherics captured
in the other tracks, and on 'Encrypted No.2' it sounds like In
Slaughter Natives at on an off day and on 'Minisex' it's Muslimgauze
on a bad day. Those aside this is really a well-enjoyable album
that should definitely finds its place on the overcrowded market.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.ravenheart.myseria.cz http://www.objekt4.com
SLEPCY - WE ARE THE NEWEST BATTLE MODELS
(CD by Cock Rock Disco)
Despite their previous releases on Ambush Records, Kool.pop and
Suburban Trash Industries, I never heard of Slepcy, a duo from
Poland, consisting of Piotr Kurek and Marcin Stefanski. A breakcore
meets pop band is probably the best description of what they do.
Slepcy wants to merge together, and while at it, they also want
to add a bit of synthi pop, jazz or classical music. When set
against the usual blend of breakcore rhythms, it becomes a furious
mass of sound, a totally over the top wall of sound, such as in
'Laurence'. It's nice for sure, but it perhaps lives also too
much up to the expectations one might have for breakcore music.
The albums best tracks are the ones in which the pop element starts
prevailing, and as such offer a new take on the word 'popmusic'.
Not that these tracks are mellow per se, but the melodies such
as in 'Tiracon Theme' or 'Flying Things' offer just that bit of
extra to the breakcore genre. The spaghetti western guitar of
'With Charles Bukowski On The Ride' is the prize winner on this
album. Here things have a complexity but one that wins also the
not so convinced listener over. It seems to me a road they should
explore further. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cockrockdisco.com
LARVAE - DEAD WEIGHT (CD by Ad Noiseam)
A few weeks ago German label Ad Noiseam celebrated their fifth
anniversary with the superb release "Ad Noiseam 2001-2006"
presenting almost four hours of excellent contributions from the
labels history on two CDs and one dvd. Larvae was the composer
that opened the great show with the tranquilizing sounds of "Snowy
day" and he was the one to end the visual part of the set
with a full-throttle action-packed video to breakcore-track "Solo
shoots first". Already here we had the impression of the
great span of musical expressions from this very interesting composer.
"Dead weight", being the second release from the project,
emphasizes Larvae's ability of controlling various genres of music.
The result is an album that appears extremely varied in expression.
The main part of the album remains downbeat and introvert with
the expression based on acoustic instruments stylishly connected
to the post rock-scene. In some moments the music floats in melancholic
post rock-spheres of weeping guitars and slow-rhythm drumming,
added female vocals from among others singer songwriter Jessica
Bailiff from the Kranky label (Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Pan
American, Loscil). The dreamy vocals of Jessica Bailiff reinforce
the feeling of melancholy on tracks like "Telecast"
and "Thanks for playing". In other moments the album
radically changes into an aggressive extrovert expression close
to the UK Grime-scene with deep throat rapping from Shadowhuntaz
("Nation of bling") and Scalper ("Art of war").
A few tracks around the album remain completely instrumental and
others involve elements of subtle speaking ("Dead beat").
Towards the end of the album the atmosphere turns darker and more
threatening with the final three tracks being more hostile in
expression ("Dead beat", "Art of war", "The
logical end"). "Dead beat" prepares the listener
with a dark and nocturnal post-rock expression reminiscent of
US-postrock-band The For Carnation. "Art of war" takes
over and strengthen the hostile atmosphere with the pretty raw
rapping of Scalper operating above a simple but very effective
horror-flick-sort of tune. "The logical end", with its
ongoing change in rhythm-texture, is a superb instrumental track
of sheer aggression, furiously putting an end to the album. "Dead
weight" is a very convincing release by Larvae. An album
that will satisfy a wide span of listeners! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
EVOL - PUNANI QUATRE (CD by Alku)
It's been a while since we last heard from the Spanish Alku label,
who released a whole bunch of CDR releases, which were all about
'computer' music and especially the more louder kind. Evol is
one of their man bands (in fact THE band behind the label) and
'Punani' is a series of compositions by Evol, so far released
on Mego, Scarcelight and Fals.ch. The fourth one, aptly called
'Punani Quatre' is one their own Alku label and contains two long
compositions by Evol, and four remixes. in 'Jabbercocky XII",
Evol gets help from Jakob Draminsky-Højmark, who plays
bass clarinet, in this rather nerve racking battle of computer
generated noise versus the rather 'clean' sound of the clarinet.
They form an interesting contrast. In 'Punani Testarossa', a live
piece, things are for solo computer and even more chaotic. In
this time Evol was listening to free jazz, and that shows here.
This live recordings was remixed by Peter Rehberg, Cock E.S.P.,
Dave Philips and Wobbly. Rehberg's remix is less chaotic, but
quite noise related and rhythmic. Monolithic and to the point.
Cock E.S.P. also keeps things to the point, one minute to be precisely
of things exploding into noise. Dave Philips on the other hand
has a much longer piece and it's quite subtle. He isolates just
a few tones from the original and builds a new piece around it,
which includes his neighbors stepping about. Wobbly's remix is
the most accessible one, as the rhythm might be jumpy but it's
the glue who sticks everything together. Computerized pop music.
It's a lengthy CD, but quite nice throughout. (FdW)
Address: http://vivapunani.org
BRUCKMANN/DAFELDECKER/HAUF - WANE (CD by
Formed Records)
On the ever so excellent Formed Records a group named Wane, but
perhaps it's just an one-off band. Wane consists of two Viennese
musicians, Werner Dafeldecker on guitar and percussion and Boris
Hauf on synthesizers and baritone saxophone along with Kyle Bruckmann
on oboe and English horn. The later is from Chicago and is mostly
known as one half of EGK. This trio does a great job at combining
long sustained sounds from the various wind instruments and the
synthesizer with the shorter, more randomly produced sounds of
the guitar and again the synthesizer, or shorter sounds produced
by the wind instruments. None of the three players has a specific
role, and it seems if all members are equal in their goal to produce
something that is at times very Alvin Lucier like in terms of
sine wave/feedback like sounds, but with the addition of all sorts
of smaller sounds. There is a high level of concentration in the
playing of these three guys, but strangely enough, it doesn't
seem to require the same concentration of the listener. Rather,
he can sit back and let it all come by just as seemingly easy
the musicians have produced it. Great improvised music by three
established players. (FdW)
Address: http://www.formedrecords.com
DEBRIS FIELD (CD/Book by Bolton Museum)
TRACIS (Book by Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery)
Two catalogues on exhibitions about music, but two opposites.
Of the two, the catalogue for 'Debris Field' is perhaps the more
regular one, the way such a catalogue must be. 'Debris Fields'
was curated by Phil Mouldycliff and deals with 'remains', the
debris after the act. It's not an exhibition about music per se,
as it includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and also
music. Some of the participating artists are also musicians, such
as Loren Chasse, Keith Rowe and Phil Mouldycliff and they all
delivered some music to Colin Potter, who presented 'Debris field
Ambient Wash', a mix of all the sounds into a 'discreet, constantly
changing audible environment' to fill up the space with the exhibits.
While flipping pages of the catalogue at home, this music fills
also up the private space, and the big advantage is of course
you can turn up the volume much louder and enjoy things perhaps
better than in the public space. The music alone is worth getting
the catalogue for.
'Traces' is also a catalogue for an exhibition, but rather than
'just' an account of activities, this is 'where notions of trace
as they are addressed within the project are given shape in written
form'. So it's more about the artists, their work in general and
a bit about the work itself they presented during 'Tracking The
Traces', an exhibition held in the Galerie Leonard & Bina
Ellen Art Gallery in Montreal, Canada. Participating artists where
Dominique Petitgand, Mika Vainio, Lynn Pook, Peter Sülyi,
Mika Taanila and Leif Elggren, among others. Their works are described
in a not too difficult, pleasant to read style, in both english
and french. Nice enough, but that bit of music makes it always
a bit more nicer. (FdW)
Address: http://www.icrdistribution.com
Address: http://www.ellengallery.concordia.ca
NOOK - AUBAINE (2CD, private)
DIRK SPECHT - ABIME/NOCTURNE (DVD-R, private)
Its perhaps a little over the top, this double CD, as both CDs
contain the same music. One is a regular CD with a regular stereo
mix, to be played on a stereo installation and one is a 'kunstkopf'
version, a binaural version recorded using a dummy head. Why not
(also) a surround sound version on DVD? And with the three pieces
that form 'Aubaine' being thirty three minutes, it could have
easily fitted on one CD. NooK is a duo of Dirk Specht and Gerriet
K. Sharma and 'Aubaine' was their joint postgraduate project at
the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. They used Wave-Field-Synthesis,
which is all about spatialization of sound. I must admit I don't
like to hear music on headphones that much, at least not the more
difficult kind of music, so I only played the 'regular' stereo
version, and what I heard was an interesting, though not really
surprising kind serious electronic music that partly takes its
influence from modern classical music and partly from microsound,
with it's deep bass sound and computerized crackles. There might
be some kind of electro-acoustic music part of this, sounds that
have been treated in some electronic (digital of course) way,
but I am not too sure of that. It's an ok work for what it is.
Not a real innovative blast, certainly not bad at all. But perhaps
of course I should have played it on headphones.
Of an entirely different nature is the DVD-R release 'Abime/Nocturne',
which is announced as a 'musicplay with images'. The music is
by Dirk Specht, one half of Nook, and the music is much more regular,
focussing on drum sounds, electronic music, field recordings and
soundscapes. The movie is presented as a split screen, also of
found images as well as images produced with various actors. And
sometimes things go dark, like the title would suggest. The music
seems to me generated through improvisation, with the drum/percussion
tracks being played first and then later added with other sounds.
I must admit I am not directly blown away by the music, which
seems to me a bit too haphazard thrown together (even when no
doubt much work went in it), but along side the visual part things
work quite well. It's hard to say wether there is any story, or
that they are rather capturing the nocturnal mood. If it's the
latter, they do a good job. (FdW)
Address: <dspecht@khm.de>
BASS TONE TRAP - TRAPPING (CD by MUSIC 'A
LA COQUE)
First a few words on this small label. It is based in southern
Italy and specialized in freeform jazz, white funk, avant punk,
etc. Most releases from their small catalogue concern a free-funk
band called BZ BZ UEU. Free and funky also characterizes the music
of Bass Bone Trap, an english combo from Sheffield. With this
release the label gives a second life to their one and only album
originally released in 1983. White funk was in the air in those
days. Just think of A Certain Ratio, Bush Tetras, James White,
etc. The (re-mastered) music of Bass Tone Trap sounds remarkably
fresh after all those years. Their punk jazz offers a nice mix
of british funky new wave and free improvising. The more straight
funky pop pieces sound a little dated like 'Africa Calling', but
other more free and experimental pieces still stand. The band
emerged form the Sheffield free music scene at the end of the
70s and existed until 1984 somewhere. The group consisted of competent
jazz musicians and some non-musicians: Derek Saw (sax, clarinet),
John Jasnoch (guitars), Paul Shaft (bass, vocals), Pete Infanti
(drums), Neil Carver (guitar, little instruments) and Martin Archer
(sax, violin, organ).
Musicians with very different backgrounds and abilities, but intensively
they frequented the local pubs and stages and they grew into a
very tight unit. They make no secret of the fact that they take
most of their inspiration from James Blood Ulmer and Ornette Coleman.
Bass Tone Trap was the first band of Martin Archer, who changed
in later years to electronic manipulating of prerecorded improvised
music. What happened to the others? John Jasnoch is an active
improvisor, solo and in several ad hoc ensembles. With Martin
Archer he had the electro-acoustic duo ASK. Both gentlemen do
also most of the solowork on this CD if I'm not mistaken. Or better,
saxes and guitar are dominant, played by Neil Carver and Derek
Saw as well. Although I didn't know this album from the time it
was released, it served as a perfect trigger for nostalgic feelings
and brought me back to the musically interesting early 80s. I
don't mean to say it is only of historical interest. For those
interested in experimental free and funky music Bass Tone Trap
is a welcome exponent. (DM)
Address: http://www.musicalacoque.com/
AIDAN BAKER - THE SEA SWELL A BIT... (CD
by A Silent Place)
THELEMA - BURNT MEMORIES (CD by Small Voices)
You could of course do too much. There is just one guy who gets
a way with it, I think, and that is our dear friend Merzbow. But
for many other whose engine is overburning, there is a risk of
overheating the system. Aidan Baker is one of those liabilities.
There is nothing wrong as such with the three pieces on 'The Sea
Swells A Bit...', as they all capture the ideas of Baker quite
right: semi-psychedelic tapestries of many layered guitar sounds,
feeding through large stacks of effects, held together by sparse
bass notes (which are also never alone without sound effects)
and tape-loops and a drum machine, although he doesn't ask for
prominent role until 'Davey Jones' Locker'. It's as said, another
fine Aidan Baker record, but it's another one, and there is already
a great deal of his music out there, so the risk of over production
is also there. I think, but perhaps that's only my private opinion,
you can only make as many albums in one style as is necessary
and then new roads could or should explored.
Thelema, thelema, I kept mumbling. Where did I hear the name before?
I think I saw the name a long, long time ago, as part of that
particular angle of the Italian music scene, which I never really
liked: Ain Soph, Sigillum S and erm, others. I think Thelema were
part of that too. Rather bad imitations of Current 93, Sol Invictus
and such like. Thelema are Giorgio Parmigiani and Massimo Mantovani
and 'Burnt Memories' is the fourth album, since 1984 and the first
in nine years. Inspired by Aleister Crowley, obviously. Ok, so
I readily admit I didn't hear their old music, or perhaps it's
erased from this hard disc mind, but I must say, I rather enjoyed
'Burnt Memories' for what it is. It's quite poppy with vocals
from the grave, doomy and spooky, but there is unmistakably a
poppy feel to this. Verses, choruses and such like, even when
the lyrics aren't exactly about the most pleasant things in life.
A bit dark folk music, which is an area that is usually ignored
in these pages, and perhaps Thelema are a third rate copy cat,
but since I don't have that many points of reference, I must say
I enjoyed quite a bit. Perhaps the inclusion of a cover of 'The
European Female' from the Stranglers did help, for this big time
Stranglers fan (old and euro-pop alike). Here Thelema certainly
adds an even darker edge to the original, but the organ sounds
a bit like the original and so is that nice guitar sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.asilentplace.it
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
ANDREAS BRANDAL - DRIVE HOME WITH A HAMMER
(CD by Quasi Pop)
JØRGEN KNUDSEN - WEALTH (CD by Quasi Pop)
A small label from the Ukraine, sending two promo's, and both
are from Norwegian artists. That is curious. The label is called
Quasi Pop and that name is chosen with some irony, as none of
these two releases deal with popmusic at all. Or not one as we
know yet. Andreas Brandal is, as said, from Norway, Bergen to
be precise, and released his first recording in 1994, a two and
half minute cassette. Later on he released work as Larmoyant,
Nullpluss and The Western Gloom, and has played with Merzbow,
John Hegre, Maja Ratkje and Karkowski, to name but a few. Despite
all this activity, 'Drive Home With A Hammer' is his first solo
CD. For this he uses analogue equipment as well as computers.
The eleven tracks on this CD are all in the realms of experimental
music, and, yes, I agree, that is broad term, but such is the
bandwidth of music found on this CD.
From computer processing of sounds, orchestral
maneuvers and downright noise, Brandal has composed an album that
is both pretty varied and yet sounds homogenous in approach. The
noise moments on this CD are not that much of my liking for they
don't add much, but the orchestral sounds of 'File Under Lost'
is a great almost modern classical piece of music.
Jørgen Knudsen is also from Bergen, Norway and has been
on the music scene since the 80s, mainly in rock bands, but his
main work was composing music for dance performances. He was also
one half of Information, who released their music on Beatservice
and Rune Grammofon. 'Wealth' is also his debut solo CD. I must
say that his music was a little less attractive for me. The idea
of collage seems to be the main interest for Knudsen. Taking piano
sounds, exotic rhythms, electronic sounds and such like which
are all thrown into a blender and see wait for the results. When
a rhythm is holding the stuff together, things are alright, but
very often it is just a bunch of sounds thrown freely around and
things don't seem to be adding much very much. Everything doesn't
seem to go anywhere, nor is there the will to go anywhere. Not
my thing really. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quasipop.org
AUBE - COMET (2CD by Cipher Productions)
GELSOMINA - NOSTALGHIA (CD by Cipher Productions)
There was a time that Aube, aka Akifumi Nakajima was as active
with releases as Merzbow. It was the time when a new label would
start with a Merzbow release, and then one by Aube (and then disappear).
For whatever reasons I never fully understood, this came to a
halt, also some years ago. But he's back, or perhaps not. The
recordings on this double CD were made from November 1997 to April
1998, re-mastered in 2002 and then shelved until recent. Like
with many if not all of his releases, the music is made with a
single sound source, or in this case, one sound source per disc.
One disc it's ice and on disc two it's space, although I must
admit, I am not sure what that means. Space as in the space you
are in, or the constellation above us? Whatever Aube lays his
hands upon, soundwise, he produces a couple of short sound with
them, samples them and then starts playing around with them. Loops
spin on end, in sometimes a more ambient way and at other times
in a more rhythm and noise manner. I hadn't played much Aube in
the last years, but now I hear this 2CD set, I do remember what
it is that causes a problem for me: many of the pieces, regardless
of the sound input, sound a like. One loop, another and another
one, some delay and reverb effects, built up, climax. Out of the
pieces on this 2CD I think one could select one quite alright
CD, but there are some weaker brothers here that make two a bit
too much.
The name Gelsomina was encountered before, on a bunch of CDR compilations
from Finnish Musically Incorrect Records, who also released 'Rautavaara'
(see Vital Weekly 365). The first ten tracks on 'Nostalgia' were
originally released by Smell The Stench in 2004 as a cassette.
Gelsomina is the nom de plume for Pekka PT, who is credited for
'noise' and noise is what we get. Loud obnoxious feedback and
distortion, the full works are here. Unlike others in this field,
Gelsomina has 'depth', has 'variation' and has 'skil' - three
factors not always present in the work of the lesser imaginative
noise makers. Even when Gelsomina walks the paths of noise that
is now paved like a highway and no longer a 'find your way in
the bush', he still does a pretty fine job, pretty much along
the lines of a good Merzbow. One of the better noise makers I
encountered recently. (FdW)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.cipherproductions
TELLEMAKE - SCARBO (LP + CD rom by Angstrom
Records)
Many drummers leave their kit for what it is, and start playing
around with computers. Jason Kahn, Jon Mueller, Eric Cook and
also one Christophe Guiraud, who once was a drummer in Spoonful
and Dogma, before turning to all things electronic. Now he is
Tellemake and 'Scarbo' is his first LP, following the 'Moorning'
EP in 2003. On the eleven tracks drums plays still an important
role (more than with the three peers mentioned), but also manipulated
guitars, violins and vocals. Again unlike the other three mentioned,
Tellemake cares for a good tune. No microsounding processing cum
live processing, but a track in which he can cross-over from jazz
to electronics, from pop to experimental music is what he cares
about. It's all however beyond any regular standard: it's not
jazz or pop, since the experimental side of samples and computer
manipulation is a far more present feature than what would be
normal, and it's exactly this what makes this a great LP. When
vocals leap in, things sound a bit like AGF, but throughout it's
something that is definitely his own thing. And as an unusual
feature, a CDRom is enclosed in this package, which contains films
to the music by Sylvain Fogato, which are like wise moody experiences.
Also included are various remixes by people such Sink, Arco5,
Lodz, Kob i Vento and Yenkell. All worths twice the size of the
LP, more or less. Great value for money, I think. (FdW)
Address: http://www.angstrom-records.net
MONOMARC - JUDAS IN TAKKITAKKILAND (3"CDR
by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek)
MASONIC YOUTH - GOING DOWN (7" by Smittekilde)
From the ever so crazy world of De
Hondenkoekjesfabriek a 3"CDR release by Monomarc, who I believe
is part of the Fckn Bstrds, perhaps the best known band out of
that part of the world. The tracks on this release were partly
released on compilations, and contain a wild mixture of noise,
noise, cut-up and more noise. Feedback, distortion and a bit of
rhythm thrown into it. Nothing new under either the noise sun
as well as for Monomarc. The usual OK quality stamp for a noise
product.
From perhaps the same area comes Masonic Youth.
Their website is protected, so I have no clue who they are. Their
7" is released by Smittekilde and in a way it's also noise,
but of an entirely different order. It doesn't contain the usual
distortion, but its a rather lo-fi affair of found sound, mumbling
voices, slowed down rhythms and some such. This the sort of thing
that is too short to form a solid opinion about and in general
leaves the listener rather puzzled. But I must admit it's also
rather captivating, leaving room to guess what it is all about.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tellab
Address: http://www.smittekilde.dk
CTACIK - IN ORDER TO PEREVENT SENSE (CDR
by Verato Project)
Only about twelve weeks ago, we reviewed the previous release
by Ctacik, a.k.a Stanislav Popov (see Vital Weekly 520). Here
he returns with 'In Order To Perevent Sense' (and that sounds
like a writing error). Compared to the previous 'Amur Region',
which was a step forward from his previous more noise oriented
work, this new release continues the new style, in which ambient
music, noise and musique concrete work finely together. Field
recordings of bird sounds and people talking are set against a
wall of dark synthesizer sounds. A piano tinkles away with rain
sounds, but also with what sounds like an engine. It's still not
pleasant music, for its all quite dark and alien music, but it
has a certain cinematographic quality that makes this most workable
soundtrack for any home shoot movies. As said, along the lines
of 'Amur Region', but just a little bit better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.verato-project.de
POSTBLUE - NAKED WOMEN DANCE ALONE (CDR
by Phase! Records)
SCHROEDINGER'S CUT - BOWED INSIDES (3"CDR by Phase! Records)
On Greece's Phase! Records label a new studio album by Postblue,
which was already recorded in 2004. Postblue is a band consisting
of Aris Stathis, Panos Ladas, Panagiotis Spoulos (labelboss of
Phaseweb) and Thodoris Zioutos. They compare the music with Grateful
Dead, Die Princess Die or early Butthole Surfers, which may be
all true. Psychedelica is definitely an interest for Postblue,
as they play lengthy rock songs in which bass and drums play an
important role as the providers of the backbone, while guitars
and organ play the solo's in this music. It's a bit jazz related,
freaky and above lengthy, with just a few touches of experimental
music. Postblue is above post-rock. It's not really great, not
really bad, and not really original. Among the majority of laptop/electronic
related music landing on this desk, it's quite nice at the same
time.
On a smaller size we find Schroedinger's Cut, which is a duo of
Aantasis Grivas and Panagiotis Spoulos. Apparentely 'Bowed Insides'
is a taster for a forthcoming full length album and the three
tracks are best described as 'free'. Free noise in the opening
parts, but going into more careful and subdued scrapings of what
are perhaps objects of whatever kind, after which they move over
into the world of drone music. As an introduction this surely
works fine, by itself it's perhaps too scattered over the place.
The drone side of Schroedinger's Cut is certainly an area to explore,
me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.phasewebtk
OLIVEIRI/FIGURE - CELEST (CDR by Entr'acte)
JOE GILMORE & GEORGE ROGERS - ELSEIF (3"CDR by Entr'acte)
LUTNAHIMAT - KLEINE MITZEKATZE (3"CDR by Entr'acte)
Figure is a name that appears in Vital Weekly since a long time,
but sometimes it's spelled Brannon Hungness, Kill My Self On Monday,
Oblivion Ensemble but strangely enough we never mentioned his
work with Glenn Branca or Elliot Sharp. On 'Celest' he plays music
with Chad Oliveiri, a journalist from Rochester, NY (where also
Brannon lives), who also produces music. Together they did a whole
bunch of improvisations, Chad on his laptop and Brannon on keyboards
and effects and after that Brannon sat down in his bedroom studio
to edit these recordings into this release. The input on those
computers and keyboards is mostly electronical, but there are
also real instruments to detect, like guitars and violins, all
sampled. Stylistically this is not far away from the music Figure
produces himself, dark and atmospheric slabs of sound, but the
addition of Olivieri's computer adds a 'modern' component: crackles
and glitches all set in loopmode to repeat them selves. That makes
a rather odd marriage of ambient industrial and microsound, but
it's one that much to my surprise works quite well. It adds an
element of surprise to both microsound music and dark ambient,
even when some of the pieces are bit long and unfocussed.
Its been a while since we heard from Joe Gilmore, part of Powerbooks
For Peace and working in the area of 'loud' computer music, instead
of the more delicate. Here he teams up with one George Rogers,
who is also a video artist and painter. He played at various festival,
but I believe he has not had any releases. For 'Elseif' they use
'dynamic stochastic synthesis', as developed by Xenakis. 'A stochastic
process is one whose behavior is non-deterministic in that the
next state is partially but not fully determined by the previous
state'. Its not easy to say how this works out in the music, this
music. But the computerized noise of Gilmore and Rogers is harsh,
but not violent. They start a piece with say a linear sound, which
can be interrupted, broken up and replaced with something else.
At times this seems to be a random process, but perhaps there
is logic in there somewhere. I must say that the combination of
serious composed electronic with a sound palette such as used
here, is certainly one I like very much, as it brings out more
thought to noise, which is always a good thing.
Entr'acte doesn't provide us with any information on one Lutnahimat,
who also delivers a 3"CDR, with one piece of just a bit more
than thirteen minutes. 'Kleine Mitzekatze' is a computerized piece
of drone music. Over the duration the piece slowly develops and
gets a minimal treatment. It's surely a nice piece, but perhaps
a bit too short and one has the impression the potential would
have been bigger than just this piece. (FdW)
Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk
FOSSILS - ILLUMINATIONS (CDR by Longlongchaney)
NIHIL IS ME/BE INVISIBLE NOW! (Cassette by Longlongchaney)
SHIVERS - A MISTY PLACE (Cassette by Longlongchaney)
Longlongchaney is a new name for me, and this label hails from
Italy. Apart from releasing CDRs they also release cassettes.
On CDR format we find Fossils, an offshoot of Offensive Orange.
Although we mentioned this band before, it was only in connection
with David Payne, who is a member and of whom we reviewed a couple
of solo releases. I believe Fossils are a trio and the music contains
elements of David Payne solo feedback music, but it's much more.
It contains elements of spontaneous, improvised music played on
guitars, feeding through distortion, violin scraping, feedback
and perhaps synthesizers. The label compares it to the old Los
Angeles Free Music Society and that sounds pretty valid to me.
Free music, made within the context of rock music (with the absence
of drums however), but taking it a step further. As such the music
isn't much new under the sun: it could have been easily recorded
twenty years ago by some of the LAFMS bands or by PD when they
started P16.D4. It bears some resemblance to the current wave
of noise bands from the USA (even when Fossils are Canadian, in
fact), except that Fossils' interest is not in playing super loud,
totally distorted music, and as such there is much more to enjoy
here.
I never heard of either Nihil Is Me or Be Invisible Now!, but
together they share a c10 cassette. Be Invisible Now! plays a
Korg MS-20 and samples and Nihil Is Me plays electric guitar without
effects. The first one is a cosmic synth track in a fine Germanic
tradition of Conrad Schnitzler or Klaus Schulze in their early
days. In similar fashion, Nihil Is Me is also psychedelic, but
much more raw and untamed with the guitar howling about, more
like Ash Ra Temple, to stay in reference land.
Shivers is one Ulf and his ten minute cassette is filled with
harsh cut ups of noise related material. It's alright for this
length, but it's pretty much a 'been there, done that' thing,
from indeed the times when people were doing this sort of stuff
on tape releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.longlongchaney.com
ASHER - DIRECTIONS (CDR by Leerraum)
LONGMO - SANBAN (CDR by Leerraum)
KENNETH KIRSCHNER - NOVEMBER 18, 2004 ET AL (CDR by Leerraum)
MAHMOUD REFAT & ZIMMOUN - STATICS I (CDR by Leerraum)
MAHMOUD REFAT & PE LANG & ZIMMOUN - STATICS II (CDR by
Leerraum)
AUTOBAM - QUASI SATELLITE (CDR by Leerraum)
YUZO KAKO - T/T (CDR by Leerraum)
ZIMOUN - KABEL (CDR by Leerraum
Here is a whole bunch of releases by the Swiss Leerraum label,
who also organize art events, installations and such like. Their
releases are housed in a simple but very stylish carton sleeves,
and are limited to 150 copies. We meet and greet people we already
encountered before in Vital Weekly, as well as some new names.
Asher for instance is somebody whom we met before. In his usual
style of minimalism, he produced three lengthy pieces of music
at the usual low volume. Using static humming bass sounds, and
carefull cracks of vinyl skipping (or so it seems). Quite nice,
even when I don't understand why it's listed as three separate
tracks, since there is an altogether very strong similarity in
all three tracks.
Whoever Longmo is I don't know, but he lives in Zürich, Switzerland
and on 'Sanban' just one piece. Again firmly rooted in the world
of microsound, with crackling and static sounds, but it's a lively
mass. I see loads of insects or ants crawling about in a big bucket.
Every once in a while something stirs the animals, that represented
by a piano chord played every now and then. As the piece progresses,
all sorts of subtle changes arrive on the scene, a bit more bass
here and there, some more insects are thrown in the bucket. This
is an absolutely great piece of microsound music. Organic and
lively.
More playing around with the notion of silence and just a little
bit of sound is Kenneth Kirschner. Usually he plays the piano
in his own undefinable way, but for the three tracks on his Leerraum
he seems to be leaning towards the use software synthesizers for
the main part, and lesser to the piano, although it can be heard
here and there. There are gaps of silence between the sparsely
played notes, creating a fine atmospheric tapestry of highly contemplative
sounds. Great stuff.
The next two releases are linked to eachother. One Mahmoud Refat
from Cairo plays five pieces with Zimmoun on 'Statics 1'. Zimmoun
is the man behind the Leerraum label. These five pieces live up
to their name: machine like humming that barely moves forward
or backward, but throughout each of the pieces, minimal changes
become apparent by means of carefull filtering.
I might be entirely wrong but I think 'Statics II' is a continuation
of 'Statics I', and perhaps even using the same sounds, so perhaps
it's an extension or a remix project. With an extra player on
board, one Pe Lang, they continue in similar style of careful
crackling, machine hum and other such delights. Played right after
'Statics I', this might be a bit too much.
If all these things carefull and delicate is a bit too much to
be true, then Autobam might be something for you. On 'Quasi Satellite'
up front rhythms play an all important role, and even when its
built from clicks and cuts, there is an element of dance music
throughout these pieces. It has that Ryojia Ikeda sort of groove,
that makes your feet go tapping along (if you are one of the dancers
that move like me). The clicks and cuts feed off through a bunch
of synthesizers (probably all digitally) and it's highly enjoyable
for those who like Kompakt's minimalism.
Like Yuzo Kako, of whom I also never heard. He or she plays on
'T/t' five pieces minimal techno music, which are even less techno
like than the ones by Autobam, but more in a good Pan Sonic direction.
These five pieces have also a good driving force. Deep bass sounds,
clicks on top and white noises playing the rhythm. Nothing new
under the minimal sun, but it's great music.
The final release here is by labelboss Zimoun, whose work fits
more the last two, Autobam and Kako, but who works more in a style
that is related to Pan Sonic, but without the highly rhythm groove.
Zimmoun's music is entirely rhythm based, but these rhythms aren't
for dancing. His work bears similarity to that of Goem: minimal
to the bone, always rhythm inspired, but not necessarily dance
music per se. Rhythms aren't made of machines here, but are rather
short loops of white noise and static. Quite a nice one this one,
too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.leerraum.ch
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