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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 556
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week 50
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: 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.
* noted are in this week's podcast
DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS - OLD
GHOSTS, NEW GHOSTS, ALL GHOSTS CD (CD by Ideal Recordings)
CHRISTIAN WEBER & HANS KOCH & MICHAEL MOSER & MARTIN
SIEWERT & CHRISTIAN WOLFAHRT - 3 SUITS & A VIOLIN (CD
by hatOLOGY)
CHRISTIAN WEBER - OSAKA SOLO (privateCD)
KYLIE MINOISE - SPANK MAGIC LODGE (CD by Kovorox Sound) *
MATTIN - PROLETARIAN OF NOISE (CD by Hibari Music) *
ULTRA MILKMAIDS - POCKET STATION (CD by Ant-Zen)
GENEVIEVE PASQUIER - VIRGIN PULSES (CD by Ant-Zen)
STRANGE ATTRACTOR VS DISINFORMATION - CIRCUIT BENDING (CD by Adaadat)
*
MOVE D & BENJAMIN BRUNN - LET'S CALL IT A DAY (CD by Bine
Music) *
BRENT FARISS & BILL THOMPSON - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER (CD by Spectral
House)
BEN FROST - THEORY OF MACHINES (CD by Bedroom Community) *
HERIBERT FRIEDL - BACK_FORWARD (CD by Non Visual Objects)
HERIBERT FRIEDL & BERNARD GUNTER - TRANS~ (CD by Non Visual
Objects) *
RICHARD GARET - INTRINSIC MOTION (CD by Non Visual Objects)
MORMO - WASTING 500 SOUNDS (CD by Low Impedance) *
16STAGES - KRUPNIK (LP by Low Impedance)
MOONMAN - NECESSARY ALIBIS (CD by Greed Recordings)
CORNFLAKES HEROES - OFF WITH YOUR HEADS (CD by Greed Recordings)
CENTURY OF AEROPLANES - TWO CHILDREN MOVING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS
(CDR by Greed Recordings) *
BLACK FORREST/BLACK SEA - S/T (CD/LP by Music Fellowship)
LANDING - GRAVITATIONAL IV (LP by Equation Records)
FEAR FALLS BURNING - I'M ONE OF THOSE MONSTERS NUMB WITH GRACE
(LP by Equation Records)
PAUL DEVENS - TESTING GROUND (DVD-R by Moab Records)
PAUL DEVENS & 10:21 AM - LATITUDE (DVD-R by Moab Records)
NOKALYPSE - OCEAN OF INEXISTENCE (CDR by Triple Bath) *
SELECTONE - UNEARTHED (CDR by Ressonus Records)
TABORSHELL/SEKTOR - THE TANDEM SERIES SIX (CDR by Boltfish)
ZAINETICA - REDIRECTION (CDR by Boltfish) *
PHROQ - 77 SOUND OBJECTS (CDR by Cipher Productions) *
MLEHST - INEDIBLE HARVEST/INDELIBLE HARVEST (8" by Cipher
Productions)
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE LIGHT - BARREN FIELDS FLOWERING (3"CDR
by Cipher Productions)
HATI - MANTRA 1: PREHISTORY OF HATI: VOL. 1 (CDR by Eter)
HATI - RECYCLED MAGICK SOUNDSYSTEM: LIVE (CDR by Eter)
HATI - RECYCLED MAGICK EMISSIONS (3"CDR by Malachit) *
MACHINEFABRIEK - FLOTTER (3"CDR by Machinefabriek) *
KARL BÖSMANN - VORSICHT MUSIK (3"CDR, as part of Bad
Alchemy 52) *
SHIFTS - BRANCHES (3"CDR by Taalem)
DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS - OLD
GHOSTS, NEW GHOSTS, ALL GHOSTS CD (CD by Ideal Recordings)
Listening to Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words has always been
a hallucinatory endeavor with its ability to conjure imagery of
wandering through the bowels of some ill-defined decaying urban
atrocity. With "Old Ghosts, New Ghosts, All Ghosts"
the landscape has changed, moving to the innards of a decaying
heart. The inhabitants here are ghosts-ghosts of lost, attempted,
and rejected love manifested in sound. The tracks are numbered
yet not all are titled, as if one cannot name them or is too afraid
to articulate their names. Such are the sounds that emanate: strange
articulations of scratching, clicks, objects being dragged in
the mud in one continuous flow. Sometimes a form takes shape and
arises from the muck, repeating drones that raise our spirits
then succumbs to its inherent flaws.
Unlike a lot of what falls under the loose genre of microsound
or digital musics this one is best played at maximum volume. (JS)
Address: http://www.idealrecordings.com
CHRISTIAN WEBER & HANS KOCH & MICHAEL
MOSER & MARTIN SIEWERT & CHRISTIAN WOLFAHRT - 3 SUITS
& A VIOLIN (CD by hatOLOGY)
CHRISTIAN WEBER - OSAKA SOLO (privateCD)
Two CDs by the young austrian (or swiss?) musician Christian Weber.
Christian Weber, who did his musical studies in Graz and Linz,
is active in several projects of improvised or composed music.
Current projects include WAL (with Bruno Amstad & Joke Lanz),
WWL (with Urs Leimgruber & Christian Wolfarth), Korber-Weber-Wolfarth,
Wiesendanger-Weber-Ulrich and Space Madness (with Richard Koch
and painter Zasd). Regular performances with ensembles for contemporary
composed music (a.o. Collegium Novum, RSO Vienna...).
With '3 Suits & a Violin' he presents his own ensemble and
music. Accompanied by four musicians from Austria and Switzerland,
they are exploring dynamics, sound and textures in Amm-like improvisations.
From the last sentence you may conclude that we deal here with
a typical european kind of improvisation or avant garde music
with Amm as an important point of reference. A kind of music that
fortunately still attracts younger musicians nowadays and audiences
(I hope). The line up is: Koch (bass clarinet, saxophones, electronics),
Moser (cello), Siewert (guitar, lap steel, electronics), Wolfahrt
(drums) and Weber on doublebass. Moser and Siewert you may know
from Polwechsel. The music for this CD arises from a open concept
that Weber composed and that is worked out and giving shape by
all five improvisors. All of them are equally involved in coloring
these soundscapes. While listening to the music it is my experience
that it has strong sense of direction and structure. Whether this
is the result of the structuring quality of the underlying concept,
or of the improvisational qualities of the players I am unable
to judge. But the raw and subtile noises, are well-tempered and
-balanced interwoven into a whole that succeeds to keep the attention
of the listener. The recordings already date from 2002 and are
now at last released by HatOLOGY. So I am not sure whether we
are talking here of history, meaning that the ensemble does no
longer exist. I don't hope so, because their improvisations are
satisfying and imaginative. If not you may derive some comfort
from the solo-recording by Weber. The privately released 'Osaka
solo' captures 18 minutes of Weber in a solo concert on march
12, 2006 in Japan. A very concentrated and energetic piece, that
proves Weber is also perfectly capable on his own feet in making
exciting noise-oriented improvisation. It starts with deep growling
noises in the lower regions. Then soft and silently, Weber makes
a new start in the higher regions, playing gradually louder and
with deeper drones and a rhythmic pattern. Nicely recorded by
Jason Kahn (DM)
Address: http://www.hathut.com/
Address: http://www.christianweber.org/
KYLIE MINOISE - SPANK MAGIC LODGE (CD by
Kovorox Sound)
The name bashing thing to make fun of the overground pop stars
is of course happening for quite some time. Locally we had an
older Belgium couple waiting for Donna Summer, the disco queen
and were shocked to see Jason Forrest (this is very much a true
story). I don't think that will happen to Kylie Minoise, attracting
teenagers waiting for the little star from down under. Whoever
Kylie Minoise is, I don't know, and neither why they depicted
Myra Hindley on the cover, but perhaps this is another form of
bashing: the icon of industrial music? One thing Kylie Minoise
does however is that he/she/they make noise. Not the straightforward
'let's put on a shortwave signals, lots of distortion and feedback',
but they opt for short pieces that are sometimes in the realms
of true noise, but also can be something different, like the loop
based drone piece 'Deep In Flower-power Knelt The Young Mother
By The Dark Fence'. Kylie Minoise uses cut-up and collage methods
as a form of tactic and as such they do a pretty fine job. It
makes 'Spank Magic Lodge' into a pretty varied CD that surely
will appeal to the true noise heads, but for someone as me who
has pretty much heard much everything of the noise scene, this
is indeed quite nice, because of it's variety on approaches. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kovoroxsound.com
MATTIN - PROLETARIAN OF NOISE (CD by Hibari
Music)
With intervals of two or three weeks, Mattin produces a new work,
and more and more released on 'real' CDs. I am a bit unclear what
his new work has to do with 'King Of Noise' by Hijokaidan, but
besides using the title, he also uses the cover of that release.
in 'Computer Music/Post-Fordism' he uses the sound of typing on
a computer keyboard, which I thought was a great example of computer
music. In the next three pieces, Mattin plays his more usual barrage
of noise music. Lots of feedback, but in 'Attitude Fetishist'
there is also a rhythm machine banging. That is a new feature,
but also the fact that Mattin uses lyrics these days. He spits
the words out like in a good ol' Steve Ignorant style type of
singing. More than half the CD is taken up by 'Thesis On Noise',
which is mainly silence, interrupted by a female voice reading
the thesis (also printed on the cover). By itself a strong statement
(and with a difference to text which I won't spoil here), but
perhaps also not the newest thing to happen around noise and silence
as a musical theme. And of course as a music piece a bit hard
to listen to. But through Mattin makes a strong point in all five
pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hibarimusic.com
ULTRA MILKMAIDS - POCKET STATION (CD by
Ant-Zen)
Many musical territories have been crossed during the thirteen
years of existence by French band Ultra Milkmaids. Starting back
in 1993 as a hardcore punk band the project moved across experimental
free jazz into a techno-based sound sphere until they decided
to find themselves somewhere in the borderline between electronic
and acoustic sound expression. On this latest release Ultra Milkmaids
stylishly makes my thoughts go back to glory days of German krautrock.
With the blend of experimental rock added some punk attitude and
lots of free flying psychedelia, the expression turns my minds
back into early 70's krautrock albums such as Neu's "Neu
2" and Faust's "Faust IV". This is cheerful music
with a nice dose of pensiveness. There's not much electronic interruption
here, just pure guitar-driven rock at its best. From the emotional
track of true melancholy, "Why?", to the simple yet
very effective tune "My star" with great vocals reminiscent
of something in-between the guttersnipe-vocals of Mick Jagger
and the distant and unpolished voice of Ian Curtis (Joy Division).
"Pocket station" is a great album. Another great achievement
by the band with the funny name! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
GENEVIEVE PASQUIER - VIRGIN PULSES (CD by
Ant-Zen)
This is a really cool release! It makes me think of early industrial-pioneers
of the 80's transformed into the modern sound technology of 21
st century. French composer Genevieve Pasquier impressed me with
her previous album titled "Soap bubble factory" but
this new album titled "Virgin pulses" is even better!
The strength of Genevieve Pasquier is her excellent voice that,
sometimes being sung other times spoken, adds a perfect charm
into the icy and tough expression of the album - like electronic
music's answer to rock music's femme fatale, P.J. Harvey. That
the greatest force of Genevieve Pasquier is her voice says quite
a lot, since the album compositionally spoken is an awesome beast
as well! Musically "Virgin pulses" presents anything
from harsh power electronics sound spheres to ethereal ambient
sometimes being integrated in cynic spheres of early industrial
drones reminiscent of Alan Vega's pioneering project: Suicide.
The great variation in sonic expression from soft soundscapes
to noisy chaos combined with the remarkable voice of Genevieve
Pasquier makes this album a truly unique and very fascinating
work. Excellent! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
STRANGE ATTRACTOR VS DISINFORMATION - CIRCUIT
BENDING (CD by Adaadat)
It has been a long, long time since I last heard something by
Disinformation, also known as Joe Banks, who uses electrical phenomena
of all kind to produce some highly charged electric and electronic
music. I have no idea what he is up to these days, but here we
find him working with Mark Pilkington, also known as Strange Attractor,
of whom I know next to nothing, other than he also runs the Strange
Attractor journal. On 'Circuit Bending' they use 'vintage, high-voltage
electromedical apparatus to achieve an effect described by the
artist and sound engineer Richard Brown, who reported accidentally
using Tesla waves to trigger spontaneous music in a toy electronic
keyboard'. To bend circuits you have to open an electric device
and touch the electrical wires and knobs inside, or you can modify
them yourself. It can open up a whole world of sound, if you know
what you are doing. The twenty-seven minute work, spanning nine
tracks here, are culled from six hour of performance recordings,
and is surely a crazy work. Notes are seemingly randomly played,
there is distortion and crackle and throughout there is a strange
sense of hectic and nervousness about this music. Because of a
power failure today, I was forced to listen this on headphones
and a CD walkman, which made the overdose of hectic going straight
into my brain, making me partly nervous and wanting to throw away
the headphones. But there is something truly captivating about
this release. All of the random patterns start making sense, a
line is to be discovered, perhaps even a structure, how illogical
at times it may sound. And some tracks are just plain sweet, such
as the fourth one. The 'old' Disinformation sound is still in
there, but it has opened to new fields of sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.adaadat.com
MOVE D & BENJAMIN BRUNN - LET'S CALL
IT A DAY (CD by Bine Music)
One of the core artists of Bine Music is Benjamin Brunn, of whom
they released two 12"s before, and now a full length, collaborative
CD with Move D, also known as David Moufang. He plays his 'flying
carpet' and Brunn his Nord Modular synth. I am not sure how literal
we should take the title, but it was produced over a period of
three days, before they called it a day. Lengthy, minimal and
spacious. Those are the words to describe this. A rhythm is set
forward, feeding through synths and minimally changes in both
texture and rhythm is set forward. Tracks can be up to seventeen
minutes and with seven in total, I must admit some boredom leaped
in. The material is only on a superficial level different, but
the ground idea remains the same for each track, and the spacious
keyboard lines start to irritate and one starts wondering who
this music is made for. It's not for people who dance, but at
the same time, it's to rhythmic to just sit back and relax. Given
that the musical innovation is far away, this is an ambient dance
record that would have fitted well on Fax Records ten years ago,
but now since a bit overdue. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.de
BRENT FARISS & BILL THOMPSON - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
(CD by Spectral House)
This is my first encounter with both Spectral House as well as
Brent Fariss and Bill Thompson. The first plays 'prepared contrabass,
electronics, field recordings' and Thompson plays 'electronics,
amplified percussion and field recordings'. Both studied composition
at Texas State University in the mid 90s, and they cross lines
of modern composition, electronics, noise and free improvisation.
As far as i understand both pieces on this release were commissioned
by an arts organization to be played live but the result were
thus nice that they decided to go into the studied to do a full,
good studio recording of it. Rightly so, because this is music
that deserves to be heard. In 'August' things start at the long
drone end, with a wall of electronics, but gradually over the
course of this piece, things move towards letting the instruments
be heard as such and even ends with a desolate bowed string. The
second piece, 'September' works along less well defined lines,
and is more an open ended collage form piece of music, moving
through various textures, both electronically and acoustically.
Both pieces are great works from the world where composing and
improvising meet up. No doubt we'll be hearing more from them.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.spectralhouse.com
BEN FROST - THEORY OF MACHINES (CD by Bedroom
Community)
Like the previous release on Bedroom Community this one comes
with extensive liner notes on the artist and the recording, almost
in a modern classical way. Daniel Johnson tells us about Frost's
fascination for the Swans, about films and about the pieces. I
didn't want to spoil my fresh opinion about Frost, as this is
the first time I hear his music (other than a remix on a Room40
compilation). Frost lives in Iceland, has had work released on
Room40 and a release as School Of Emotional Engineering. His main
instrument is the guitar and sound effects and to a lesser extent
he uses drums. His main goal is to create a wall of sound. No
exactly in a traditional noise manner, but perhaps in Swans like
manner. Layers upon layers of (wether or not processed) guitars,
with minor changed pitches form the massive body of this work.
That can be loud but also soft such as the piece 'We Love You
Michael Gira'. Drums don't play necessarily a good hook, but rather
bang out a good groove, on end, without much variation. If they
arrive at all. In each piece it seems to be taking a while to
get there and they sound like they have been filtered through
some computer plug in section. Pieces are long but never too long,
as the changes aren't that minimal that they arrive unnoted. In
every piece something changes rather quickly. Five tracks, just,
no more, but with great, exhausting, power. One to leave you behind
rather tired. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bedroomcommunity.net
HERIBERT FRIEDL - BACK_FORWARD (CD by Non
Visual Objects)
HERIBERT FRIEDL & BERNARD GUNTER - TRANS~ (CD by Non Visual
Objects)
RICHARD GARET - INTRINSIC MOTION (CD by Non Visual Objects)
Two of the three new releases on Non Visual Objects deal with
music of the labelowner Heribert Friedl. 'Back_Forward' is a solo
release where Friedl plays an instrument called the hackbrett,
also known as cymbalon. Friedl plays this, and afterward he transforms
the sound inside the computer. However he opts not for a total
transformation but a combination in which we can hear some of
the original sounds, as well as the processed versions thereof.
That is a nice thing. At times Friedl uses a bit too much reverb
for my taste (when it comes to presenting the instrument sounds
as they are) or some echo effects. Other than that he creates
a powerful interplay between the acoustic and digital sounds,
sometimes as opposing elements, sometimes as separate elements,
divided in time and sometimes working together. No doubt the music
was composed thoroughly, but it maintained a vivid improvisational
feel to it. Quite nice.
I lost track of Bernard Günter's output a long time ago.
I was, I must admit, never a big fan of his computer based Feldman
inspired music, nor of his later improvised recordings. On 'Trans~'
he works with Friedl, who plays the hackbrett again. Günter
himself plays his electric cellotar, a self-made bamboo flute
and three harmonicas. To this he adds a field recording of a group
of 'three small power transformers [...] changing microphone positions
to cull different sounds and overtone spectra from the transformers'
intense hum'. Maybe it was the intense hum bit that sacred me
off, but maybe it was a Günter exaggeration of making things
clear. There is indeed humming in the background, but it plays
a modest role; the instruments on top play a much more important
role. The two work their way through changing textures and moods
in a quiet and subtle way. They produce some elegant music, giving
each of the used instruments their own place over the course of
the work. Time slips by easily as one is emerged in this work.
Quite nice altogether.
The name Richard Garet we encountered before on the 'Territorium'
compilation on the same label, but which sadly didn't leave a
big impression here. For this solo work he uses field recordings
(we hear birds singing), 'found sound appropiantions', contact
microphone play, feedback and all of this undergoing studio processing.
Much of what was my problem with the 'Territorium' compilation
applies here. It's all in the field of careful editing and processing,
static crackle, fading in and out peeps and that sort of ingredients
that hoover in the world of microsound. Garet does a fine job,
let there be no doubt about that, but it's all a bit too regular,
non exciting and too much like others already in this quite crowded
area of music makers. If you never heard anything like that you
will no doubt be carried away by it's beauty, but if say Richard
Chartier belong to your daily digest, than this must be approached
with some care. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nonvisualobjects.com
MORMO - WASTING 500 SOUNDS (CD by Low Impedance)
16STAGES - KRUPNIK (LP by Low Impedance)
Behind Mormo is one Tomasz Kaye, who debuted with an EP called
'A Mouth Full Of Small Barks' on Papergoose and now offers fifteen
new tracks under the banner of 'Wasting 500 Sounds'. To start
with the bad news: it has at least six pieces too many. Mormo
plays music with splintered beats, broken rhythms and those melancholic
synthesizer lines, which we heard a bit too much by now from the
likes of almost everybody on Highpoint Lowlife or Expanding Records.
Mormo's beats are a bit more broken up, the mixing a little bit
more experimental and at times even borrowing ideas from dub music,
in itself these differences aren't enough to think something remarkable
new is going on. A couple of them are quite alright, but for the
entire duration of the CD it is simply a bit too much.
Joseph Kaye is the man behind 16stages and as such he presents
his debut work with 'Krupnik'. Much of what is said about Mormo
can be said here, but here we are dealing with six pieces only,
and it is throughout musically more engaging. Kaye is classically
trained musician, which is shown in the way he uses the piano
to play jazz like solo's. Even when musically it falls in similar
territory I liked this one better. It's shorter, more to the point
and more trotting new paths. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lowimpedance.net
MOONMAN - NECESSARY ALIBIS (CD by Greed
Recordings)
CORNFLAKES HEROES - OFF WITH YOUR HEADS (CD by Greed Recordings)
CENTURY OF AEROPLANES - TWO CHILDREN MOVING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS
(CDR by Greed Recordings)
Greed Recordings are a new label for me, even when they have been
around for a longer time, and of their three releases two are
all part of the world of popmusic, which is perhaps not necessarily
the world of Vital Weekly. Moonman plays 'indie-pop' on guitars,
drums, some cello, poetry telling. Sometimes catchy up tempo,
sometimes introspective, but always 'honest popmusic' (the kind
of music so-called alternative music lovers like, and is used
to say something negative about others with computers).
Also Cornflakes Heroes are a band, a classic four piece. Their
indie pop is a slightly more distorted, more indie rock (I know
it's all semantics). I read in the press blurb that there are
influences of Pavement, The Shins and Sebadoh, but I have been
cut off of 'alternative' rock music for more than twenty years,
so who am I to tell? It's actually quite good, some really catchy
tunes, such as 'Silly Boys Are Untrue'.
The last release is by Century Of Aeroplanes and is the most interesting
one, for the more adventurous experimental music lover. They are
a big band, including people on trombone, percussion, voice, violin,
viola and guitars. They have had releases on WM Recordings and
Unlabel, and here are presented on CDR. They play a kind of modern
classical mood music, where I was reminded of the Boxhead Ensemble,
even when these pieces are not directly linked to film. There
is a certain cinematopgraphic quality to these pieces. Influences
seem to be coming directly from the world of minimal music, with
Steve Reich being the most obvious one. It is a pity that some
of these pieces are so short, only spanning two or three minutes
and that is too short to get into the piece. They are located
at the beginning of this release, as towards the end things are
longer and they go more indepth into the composition. Quite a
nice release this one.
As for the other two it's alright to hear once, but as an old
bloke I rather stick on to my old new wave collection. (FdW)
Address: http://www.greed-recordings.com
BLACK FORREST/BLACK SEA - S/T (CD/LP by
Music Fellowship)
Black Forest/Black Sea is the duo of Jeffrey Alexander and Miriam
Goldberg from Providence, RI with releases on labels such as Last
Visible Dog, Time Lag and their own Secret Eye imprint. Their
latest work, which comprises two pieces of about 20 minutes each
and includes contributions from Stefano Pilia and Miriam's sisters
Margot and Gillian, starts out with free, harmonic cello playing,
that is soon joined by a soft electronic drone. At this point
you could think you are dealing with the soundtrack of a nature
documentary, full of overexposed and multilayered images. However,
as the music progresses these images blur and the associations
multiply with the music shifting back and forth between rumbling
drone passages and dreamy guitar and cello playing, embedded in
semi-naïve Casio melodies, decaying electronics and obscure
concrete sounds. The roots of this music are in the sensibilities
of traditional loner folk, which are inscribed into the aesthetics
of fuzzy improvised drone, with results that are as dense, floating
and highly organic as they are expressive.
The second track is in parts reminiscent of the austere intensity
of Christina Carter's solo works (with whom BF/BS released a split
CD in 2004), but also incorporates a short noisy improv part and
pulsating delay patterns. A set of half improvised guitar notes,
a few tones on the Casio and Gillian Goldberg's vocals meander
ghostly for some minutes, gradually build up to a dense wall of
sound and then break down into a dissonant, fragmented guitar
and cello improvisation. Then there is an abrupt, yet not disrupting
change, and the piece ends in a free, almost lyrical way, with
guitar, cello and effects again.
So, to sum it up, it is a thoroughly pleasant manifestation of
the current (as it seems decidedly not post-modern motivated)
interest in hybridizing folk music, with those passages being
the most intense that merge traditional notions of personal expression
with the affective impact of free-form playing or of thick blankets
of organic sound and noise. (MSS)
Address: http://www.secreteye.org
LANDING - GRAVITATIONAL IV (LP by Equation
Records)
FEAR FALLS BURNING - I'M ONE OF THOSE MONSTERS NUMB WITH GRACE
(LP by Equation Records)
On the insert of the LP by Landing we find miniature reprints
of the entire catalogue of Landing, and I studied it close enough
to conclude I never heard any of them, but still the band has
a somewhat vague ring in my hear. Maybe I am just getting old.
This five piece band is from Connecticut and the easiest way to
classify them is to state they are a post-rock band, even when
Adrienne Snow also contributes vocals. A standard rock line up,
and perhaps 85% of the music is instrumental. Quite drone with
e-bows on guitars, feeding off through pedal samplers, but the
drums make this even a bit more krautrock than expected. In 'Gravitational
VI' things sound very seventies and very ccchermanic - very much
Neu!, Can, Ash Ra Temple. This time no points for originality
here, since every single sound or idea contained herein has been
heard before, I thought it was a most pleasant record. Recordings
are fine, music is not too experimental, flowing nicely and is
executed with care. I look out the window, see a bit of sunlight
and sometimes that's all there is to have a fine time.
How exactly he does this, I don't know, but here is another record
for Fear Falls Burning, also known as Dirk Serries, in a previously
life-time Vidna Obmana, for some twenty years. As Vidna Obmana
he released some thirty-five CDs, but it seems as if he is trying
to do more that with his new incarnation. I already lost count
since he started two years ago with Fear Falls Burning, but several
CDs, LPs and a five hour DVD. The principle is always the same.
All pieces are live, recorded to two track. Dirk plays guitar,
feeds it through effects and that's it. This is my main objection:
the rigid working method is preventing any changes. A common Fear
Falls Burning piece start out with some strumming, and from there
beautiful (because don't get me wrong: I think it's wonderful
music) clouds of overtones start to emerge, like shimmering clouds,
organ like tones, and in some distance there is distortion working
on the strings. There is no big bang ending like in some of his
other works, and another minor difference is that this sounds
a bit more noisy than some of the more ambient works from before.
Minor differences can be spotted here, and it is still no doubt
a great record, but it would be time for some more fundamental
change.
Thumbs up for the presentation: full color gate fold sleeve, extra
inserts, and beautiful colored vinyl. Both in a limited edition
of 400 copies. Did I hear the word 'collectors item'? (FdW)
Address: http://www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
PAUL DEVENS - TESTING GROUND (DVD-R by Moab
Records)
PAUL DEVENS & 10:21 AM - LATITUDE (DVD-R by Moab Records)
From the southern part of The Netherlands hails
Paul Devens of whom we reviewed 'Gunpop' in Vital Weekly 504.
Here are two works that deal with video and audio - or audio and
video, which you prefer first. For 'Testing Ground' it's best
to play it a high volume and on a surround sound system. The first
I can do, but not the second. There is a stereo mix. 'Testing
Ground' deals with space and sound. Speakers play strict separated
sounds, high and mid range on to speakers facing the ceiling,
with the bass rhythm rumble bouncing around. It's a bit hard to
describe and the way I played it, probably hardly justifies the
real thing, but the video gives an impression of things looked
like. The bass rhythm (which isn't in anyway a dance thing) provides
a strong backdrop, on top of which the high end comes around in
a vicious, dirty manner. Explosive work.
Together with someone who calls himself 10:21 AM, there is also
another DVD-R release, but here no video, just a black screen
for the first two-third of the work. Again the work is probably
best heard in surround sound, but again no such thing. Over the
course of almost eighteen minutes, the two merge rhythmic particles
together in a very minimal way, but with great care and style.
Minimalist changes and in quite a noisy and crude way. Perhaps
influenced a bit by Pan Sonic, or rather Mika Vainio's solo work,
this is an austere work. Once the video kicks in, things also
change sound-wise: it becomes thicker, due to heavy layering of
sounds. Like before, this review is only like listening to it
with one ear. A surround sound as a present for christmas tree,
is what I want! (FdW)
Address: http://www.pauldevens.nl/
NOKALYPSE - OCEAN OF INEXISTENCE (CDR by
Triple Bath)
Triple Bath label owner Themis Pantelopolous works as Nokalypse
and as such he has already released two CDrs, of which I heard
only 'Axiac Infinity' on Echo Music (see Vital Weekly 481). Pantelopolous
calls this 'reflections of ambient, electroacoustic, classical',
but for me it's mainly ambient, albeit of a darker nature. Five
lengthy pieces, spanning in total 81 minutes (!), and most tracks
are divided into several parts. It's system music: music that
goes from system to system, sounds are linked to eachother and
seem to follow out of each other in a kind of natural way. Things
move slowly and in a minimal way, occasionally rhythmic but the
emphasis lies on producing highly atmospheric music. Some of these
pieces could easily fit the Mystery Sea label (I wouldn't be surprised
if he releases there in the future). It hardly holds a surprise
this music, but it's executed with great care. Perhaps a bit long,
but at the same time it's the longitude that works well and is
perhaps needed for this kind of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.triplebath.gr/
SELECTONE - UNEARTHED (CDR by Ressonus Records)
The first time I reviewed music by Selectone was in Vital Weekly
472, when they had a split release on Mufonic with Neutrino. Now
they return on a new label, also from the Czech Republic. The
first time around I wasn't too impressed by their music. It deemed
to me that they used low resolution samples made on cheap samplers
of lounge music. Musically 'Unearthed' has progressed from that
into something that still uses samples but now of all sorts of
music. There is rock, hard rock, classical music, ambient and
ethnic music. I am not sure what exactly they are aiming at here.
Is it a display of their record collection? A show-off what they
can do? Or is there a genuine story behind this? It's hard to
tell, as the music shifts back and forth between all sorts of
musical influences, including the obvious crackling of vinyl.
Sometimes I quite like the moods they depict, especially when
things calm down and sometimes it's too heavy loaded with pathetic
orchestral music or bombastic hard rock drums. There is potential
in here for sure, but Selectone has to make up their mind, I guess.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.ressonus.net
TABORSHELL/SEKTOR - THE TANDEM SERIES SIX
(CDR by Boltfish)
ZAINETICA - REDIRECTION (CDR by Boltfish)
Music on the Boltfish label is music with rhythm and these three
bands are no different. On something called the Tandem series
they offer two artists on one release, the sixth and last installment
being Taborshell and Sektor. The first one is Chris Massey, relatively
new to creating music, since last year. He likes to use 'destruction,
experimentation and re-composition', but I must admit it's a bit
unsure how that works in his four tracks. He claims that they
aren't 'complete', but they sound complete to me. Broken beats,
quite forceful, doomy synth lines, dubby sound effects. Quite
nice, even when no big surprise. Behind Sektor is Plamen Marinov,
who has released on Tonatom, Uran97, Canomille Music and Kahvi.
More or less he works in a similar musical territory as Taborshell,
but his rhythm section is less crunchy and his synthesizers more
spacious and melodic. Minor differences, but no doubt in this
world big ones. Both are quite nice.
Zainetica, a.k.a. Mark Streatfield, is from london where he creates
his music that was released on labels as Clickclickdrone, enpeg,
kahvi, Lacedmilk, subvariant, rednetic, octoberman and ivdt (and
then I think: gosh so many labels that I never heard of!). And
still Zainetica has a lot of music, since his 'Redirection' (from
what, me thinks) has fourteen tracks that span almost the entire
length of a CD, which could all to easily lead to the impression
that is not very critical as to what to release. Which is sadly
true. His music is closer to Expanding and Highpoint Lowlife than
the previous two, even when some more single minded and less complex,
but it has mild keyboard lines. Techno plays a bigger role too,
at least in some of the pieces but as non-dancer I can't say wether
they would all work very well on the dancefloor. It's certainly
alright, this music, but I must admit that sitting through the
entire length of the release was a bit much for me. No prices
for originality, but done with flare. (FdW)
Address: http://www.boltfish.co.uk/
PHROQ - 77 SOUND OBJECTS (CDR by Cipher
Productions)
MLEHST - INEDIBLE HARVEST/INDELIBLE HARVEST (8" by Cipher
Productions)
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE LIGHT - BARREN FIELDS FLOWERING (3"CDR
by Cipher Productions)
If something is open for rework than it must be Francisco Meirino/Phroq
'77 Sound Objects' - actually it's 76, all quite short and they
are used in a big collage form in the first piece, the 77th sound
piece. Phroq didn't alter any of the original sound files, but
used them in a straight forward manner, although I believe they
are layered as such. In the first piece Phroq moves between all
the usual suspects of his work: from quiet scratching the surface
to very loud eruptions of noise. A very solid, if somewhat unsurprising
Phroq work. He's good at creating works like this, but perhaps
they sound a bit the same. The 76 soundfiles are equally interesting
to hear and perhaps for the more adventurous listeners something
to re-use, or even try and re-create Phroq's first piece.
A highly limited lathe cut comes from Mlehst. If understood correctly
this was already recorded in 1998 and shows Mlehst in his best
lo-fi noise form. Mlehst is short and to the point here, with
harsh feedback/drone pieces but his recording quality is never
so good, but it adds a great charm to this. With a total length
of only ten minutes, this is almost like a popsong, except it's
not pop and not a really song. But it's quite nice indeed.
I never heard of Conversations About The Light, which seems to
be the project of one Robert Hunter. I really have some trouble
with this. In his softer moments he sounds quite ambient but in
darker lands, which is quite nice, but why on earth does he have
to play his noise tricks too? For me it seems two worlds that
are hard to combine.
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com/cipherproductions
HATI - MANTRA 1: PREHISTORY OF HATI: VOL.
1 (CDR by Eter)
HATI - RECYCLED MAGICK SOUNDSYSTEM: LIVE (CDR by Eter)
HATI - RECYCLED MAGICK EMISSIONS (3"CDR by Malachit)
Quite recently Polish Hati did a small tour together with z'ev.
No doubt Hati is one of those bands that use concerts to sell
CDs and perhaps for that reason they released these three CDRs.
Hati is a drone group who use a variety of instruments: animal
horns, bamboo pipes, steel jingle bells, wooden pipe, plastic
tubes, cymbal, steel lids, wood wind chimes, and much more and
the outcome is both atmospheric and occasionally rhythmic. On
'Mantra 1: Prehistory Of Hati: Vol. 1' we are transported back
to the past, to the very first sessions by Hati in 1997. Here
they still use loops, guitar, effects, voice, found objects and
a drum machine. Especially the drum machine makes a big mark on
the music. It rambles on like there is no end. The entire sound
spectrum is smeared with sound effects. Very trance like, but
for the weak of mind, this can turn out to be a bad head trip.
Sometimes a bit noisy, but such as in 'Suntan 1' a nice cross-over
between the old zoviet*france and the more recent Troum.
We leap forward to 2006 and find 'Recycled Magick Soundsystem:
Live'. I am not sure why people spell magic as magick, as I hoped
it would have been over by now. It distracts me a bit of the music.
Between 1997 and 2006 Hati has turned off their volume, worked
on structure and balance of their sound and working with z'ev
has influenced quite a bit. Their sound has softened and became
more deeper, but it still uses extensively sound effects and synthesizers.
Nice, but a bit too raw of a combination. But this is a live recording
so it's also a bit more rough, at least more rough that the 'Recycled
Magick Emissions', which is a 3" CDR where they reach the
perfection of their sound. Densely layered, using reversed sounds,
minimal changes and throughout mostly acoustic sounding. I must
say I prefer the shorter recent studio recording over the longer
live recordings. The all acoustic sound works quite well. It's
drone related, but acoustic and highly atmospheric. Soon a 7"
to come on Drone Records, apparently along similar lines. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hati.info
Address: http://www.nefryt.serpent.pl
MACHINEFABRIEK - FLOTTER (3"CDR by
Machinefabriek)
Perhaps the last release by Machinefabriek for this year, but
you never know. It's still 18 days to go. I think I noted this
before, but Machinefabriek has settled upon a style now. Highly
atmospheric and deep soundscapes, preferable of a longer kind.
'Flotter' has just one track for the full twenty minutes. Crackles
that sound like of an old vinyl, fed through a bunch of delay/reverb
and a bit of distortion, perhaps the bowing of a guitar (the usual
list of instruments misses for this release) and even a longer
bit of field recordings (cars passing). Throughout a highly atmospheric
release, no big surprise or change after 'Slaap' and 'Zucht',
but not with the same impact either. This is a bit too much on
the regular side as far as I'm concerned. Too easily made, too
fast, and not enough worked out. It fits his catalogue quite well,
but not his recent high standard. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
KARL BÖSMANN - VORSICHT MUSIK (3"CDR,
as part of Bad Alchemy 52)
In the days of Vital-the paper magazine and the early days of
Vital Weekly we used to review magazines. Perhaps because there
were more magazines in the environment where Vital Weekly was
made, or perhaps the digital age has not as many anymore. One
of the survivors however is Bad Alchemy, a German magazine, which
sees the daylight three times a year and running since the late
eighties. They cover much the same ground as Vital Weekly, but
more also: more jazz, more improvised music. Every now and then
they have something to go with it, a 7" or in this case a
3" CDR by Karl Bösmann, who has had releases before
on Tosom and Verato. I guess, I would have said about his music
so far, that is experimental, working with loops, but that it
didn't leave a very clear impression on me. 'Vorsicht Musik' came
rather as a surprise. The first time I played it, I had to double
check if this was the right CD. It was. It's not because I like
it that much actually. But the sampled guitars, vocals, drums
don't sound like any of his previous work. The title piece is
a heavy banger, but someone the sampled together sounds don't
work very well. Or rather they do, but they don't make up some
nice music. It's kind alike popmusic, in very pompous way. Bösmann
knows how to handle the sampler, that's for sure. But I think
I preferred his previous work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.karlboesmann.com
SHIFTS - BRANCHES (3"CDR by Taalem)
Derrida's idea that the "semantic horizon which habitually
governs the notion of communication is exceeded or punctured by
the intervention of writing." which "..does not give
rise to a hermeneutic deciphering".. is key to understanding
the difficulty of locating the 'drone' within the idea of music
which is "western" - i.e. teleological, which is written
contra the arguments given in S.E.C. And though we have passed
through such a teleological epoch we are only now in the light
of post modernism reconsidering the alternatives, i.e. 'turtles
all the way down'.. the eternal return of the same. and alternative
mythologies - Buddhist, Jain, Hindu .. even Wagnerian prior to
Parsifal... And so this 'music' is open to the critique of those
who wish to enforce a teleology upon us. (And the usual ploy of
leveling ethnocentric critiques on musics which are not part of
this great tradition of the west! - and its teleological meta-narrative
- i.e. Christian / Jewish / Islamic / Marxist) This piece avoids
the latter critique, its very Conrad-esq beginning locates it
within modern western culture despite its use of the de-tuned
string instrument. Its development, and that's a very dangerous
word to use here, is something subtle - it does not so much hide
the development but points towards a cyclic anti hermeneutic work
- and this is perhaps my only 'valid' point of criticism of this
otherwise excellent work, and maybe not that valid - but given
a piece of music (normally) has to be temporally located this
provides an obvious challenge to the drone work - (unless repeat
play is used) - maybe via an mp3 disk this temporality could be
extended but never breached, but this is not a significant philosophical
challenge to the drone work as its not surprising that our technology
supports the western idea of a teleological universe even though
there is a likely alternative - eight track tape as the anti-Christ!
(jliat)
Address http://www.taalem.com
correction: Nyarlathotep's real name is John LUNA, not John Luba and Brian Kopish's solo project is SURROUNDED, not Surround.
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