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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 569
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week 13
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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
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* noted are in this week's podcast
PLEASE DON'T IGNORE READING THIS: SINCE WE ANNOUNCED WE WILL NO LONGER REVIEW MATERIAL OLDER THAN SIX MONTHS, MORE AND MORE PEOPLE SEND US OLDER MATERIAL THAN SIX MONTHS. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. WE WILL NOT REVIEW IT, BUT SELL THE MATERIAL TO A SECOND MAILORDER OUTLET. ALSO: DON'T SEND MORE THAN 3 (THREE) RELEASES AT ONCE. WE SIMPLY CAN'T HANDLE EVERYTHING ANYMORE. SAVE YOUR FRUSTATION - WELL, AND OURS.
JEAN-FRANCOIS LAPORTE - SOUNDMATTERS (CD
by 23Five Incorporated) *
MATT SHOEMAKER - SPOTS IN THE SUN (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
*
FLUE - BEYOND THE EDGE OF NOWHERE (CD by Diophantine Discs) *
ATOMINE ELEKTRINE - NEBULOUS (CD by Essence Music) *
SETH NEHIL - AMNEMONIC SITE (CD by Alluvial Recordings) *
DISKREPANT - INTO SLEEP (CD by Fin De Siecle) *
HOH - BESTEMOR (CD by Zang) *
SISSY SPACEK - REMOTE WHALE CONTROL (CD by Misanthropic Agenda)
KK NULL - FERTILE (CD by Touch)
SOFTWAR - SOFTWAR (CD by Digitalis Industries) *
FABIO ORSI - GIANLUCA BECUZZI - THE STONES KNOW EVERYTHING (2CD
by Digitalis Industries)
CONNECT_ICUT - LA (AN APOLOGY) (LP by CSAF Records)
MLEHST - A CAUTIONARY TALE (LP by Belief Recordings)
MLEHST - ISM ISTS (3"CDR by Belief Recordings)
KASPER VAN HOEK - LIVE AT EXTRAPOOL (CDR by Heils Kabaal Records)
*
AXEL DÖRNER & LUCIO CAPECE (CDR by L'Innomable) *
MILIEU - REMODELLED (CDR by Boltfish Recordings) *
XEDH - AGUJERO NEGRO (CDR by Hamaika)
POOCHLATZ - THANKS FOR GIVING IN (CDR by Something on the Road)
POOCHLATZ - VICTIMS OF SELF PRESERVATION (CD by Heart & Crossbone)
IRONING / GAYBOMB - YOUR OXEN HAVE DROWNED/SCRATCH (12inch vinyl
by Hymn)
DEAD VAGINA/GAYBOMB SPLIT (CDR by Hymn)
MONOID - OPEN CLOSURE (CDR by Tosom)
MONOID - CHAOS CONSTRAIN (CDR by Tosom) *
AIDAN BAKER - THOUGHTSPAN (CDR by Tosom)
CARL KRUGER - INFORMATION ANIMALS (3"CDR by Dim Records)
MACHINEFABRIEK - HAPSTAART (3"CDR by Machinefabriek)
DAVID STACKENÄS & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT - CITRON (3"CDR
by Machinefabriek)
DEREK CRAIG ZOLADZ - SOFTWARE FOR HUMANITY (2x3"CDR, private
release)
MICHAEL GENDREAU - Live at Sonic Circuits DC 2006 (MP3 by Zeromoon)
STAPLERFAHRER - LIVE @ HOEZO EXPO EINDHOVEN 17/12/2005 (MP3 by
Menthe De Chat) *
JEAN-FRANCOIS LAPORTE - SOUNDMATTERS (CD
by 23Five Incorporated)
That someone is acquainted with the music of Jean-Francois Laporte
is hardly possible. He released one 3"CD in Metamkine's Cinema
Pour L'Oreille series in 1997, called 'Mantra'. Still he's not
a busy worker or perhaps a very conscientious one, since 'Mantra'
is in its fully glory also heard here, along with four new pieces
from the decade in between. In four of those pieces he uses field
recordings, like wind such in 'Electro-Prana', but Laporte likes
machine sounds, which are at the core of the other three pieces,
including the air compressor that is heart of 'Mantra'. In this
piece, which it's twenty-five minutes, the massive fundament of
this CD, the motor like sounds are processed (perhaps) and create
an intense, drone like hum (excuse le mot), that might be very
well 'just' a motor, but it's sounds like a choir towards the
end of the piece. In 'Dans Le Ventre Du Dragon', something similar
happens, but then using the large natural reverb of an empty space
of a cargo hull. The fifth piece on the CD is 'Plenitude Du Vide',
which is a piece for a saxophone quartet, 'sax trunk, siren organ
and the Tu-Yo instruments'. I am not sure what those are, but
the idea of this piece is to go from very soft to very loud (well,
within reason that is). In an odd way I thought that this piece
was also a bit machine like in it's approach, but through an imitation
of that with acoustic instruments. Perhaps it's a bit of an odd
ball on this CD, but placed at the end it also makes sense. Throughout
this is a beautiful CD of lovingly machine hum made into music.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.23five.org
MATT SHOEMAKER - SPOTS IN THE SUN (CD by
The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
Trente Oiseaux releases never make it into these pages, so the
two CDs they released by Matt Shoemaker went by unnoticed. Both
cover and information don't give any information as to how, what
and where. Let's assume Shoemaker is a guy with a microphone,
a recording device and a computer. Taken the outside to the inside,
the field recordings to the computer and processing them, so far
that we no longer recognize any of the original sound. That sounds
like Bernard Günter, Roel Meelkop, Richard Chartier or Marc
Behrens? Just a little bit, as there is an important difference.
Music by Shoemaker is always audible and it seems to more than
the others to work with drones. Stretched out fields of sound
with minor developments is what the bigger part of this CD is
about. Then, like the air escaping of a balloon, a piece ends
abruptly, with much activity. These differences may seem small
but in the world of microsound they surely make a difference.
Shoemaker's music is always present, and perhaps a little more
raw than mentioned counterparts, but that's what I like this release.
It moves more wildly through various textures from semi-soft to
semi-loud in a more continuos manner and thus Shoemaker can be
lumped in with some of the drone crowd than say with his microsound
counterparts. In the field of drone music his collage techniques
may seem odd, but it's surely an original voice. A high quality
work, with minor and vital differences. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helenscarsdale.com
FLUE - BEYOND THE EDGE OF NOWHERE (CD by
Diophantine Discs)
On the Dutch Torso label there were once two LPs by a band called
Flue, but they have nothing to do with this Flue from San Francisco.
Although we come across with somebody whom we also from the 80s:
Mason Jones. Once CEO of Charnel House, his solo guitar noise
Trance, later of Subarachnoid Space and now having Flue, as a
new band, together with with Jason Stein and Chris Miller. Although
I quite liked Subarachnoid Space, I never went out to find them.
It was nice 'space rock', just as I liked Vocokesh or F/i. As
Flue, Jones continues his love for spacey music, but he plays
guitar and synthesizer, Stein plays bass and Miller guitar. Hey,
no drums? Indeed the drums are absent here and that surely add
an even more spacey feel to the music. It starts out in a rather
free mood of all sorts of tones floating around freely, especially
after a massage through chorus, flanger, phaser and what kind
of colored sound effects have you. I thought it was quite nice,
the first few tracks. But somewhere after about half the CD things
started to irritate me. It was the same throughout: the same free-ness,
the same effects, the same 'going nowhere interaction' and I liked
it less and less. It happened about every time I played the CD.
Maybe I liked the presence of drums to keep the space rocking
instead of weightless flowing. As a mini CD it would have been
great, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://discs.diophantine.net/
ATOMINE ELEKTRINE - NEBULOUS (CD by Essence
Music)
Peter Anderson's claim to fame might be his Raison D'Etre project,
with whom he made several CDs for Cold Meat Industry. Already
in 1995, on the same label, he released a work as Atomine Elektrine,
with some more light hearted and more ambient. After he released
two more CDs on Yantra Atmospheres and in 2004 the first CD for
Essence Music, now followed by a second one. Just like a nebulous
cloud, this music is highly cosmic. Easily one could mistake the
opening pieces to be the lost works of Klaus Schulze, but when
in 'Veiled Clouds' a rhythm leaps in, it becomes one of the unreleased
works of Chain Reaction. Dwelling heavily on reverb and delay,
as well as a bunch of thickly layered analogue synthesizers, it's
more 90s than 70s. It turns out this is the course of the album:
a cross-over between the cosmic sounds from the mid seventies
mixed with minimal rhythm bits that were hip a decade ago on labels
as Basic Channel and Chain Reaction, but Atomine Elektrine lacks
the techno side of those labels. Surely highly pleasant music
that offers a mix that was done before by others too, but Anderson
creates a fine work himself. Not a masterpiece of musical innovation,
but strong and entertaining enough. Like the sky just fall on
the ground and emits its waves. And that sort of metaphors. (FdW)
Address: http://www.essence-music.com
SETH NEHIL - AMNEMONIC SITE (CD by Alluvial
Recordings)
Perhaps Seth Nehil is better known from his collaborative work
than for his solo work. He worked with jgrzinich and Olivia Block,
but his last solo work was from 2002. In the years between he
worked mainly on different projects that couldn't be released
on CD, such as multimedia installations. The new work 'Amnemonic
Site' is covered with obscurity. Besides his name, the title,
labelname and catalogue number, the cover holds no information.
'Play Loud' it says on the label, which always raises the question
here: why? I usually like to make up my own mind if I want to
play music loud or not. The whole time I was playing this CD,
I couldn't stop thinking 'what are these sounds'? It's of course
a question that I constantly ask myself when playing new music,
certainly when covers are as obscure as this one, but in Nehil's
case, it can be anything really. Are these field recordings? Perhaps.
Or closely miked objects? Also likely. And what about the nature
of sound processing? It seems likely there is some. How and to
what extent? And do I also detect some real instruments, like
wind instruments, or perhaps organs? It's all likely. Each of
the pieces is a large mix up, I imagined, of all of these. There
is field recordings, closely miked objects falling to the wooden
floor, but also long sustained sounds of wind instruments. It
all makes up a particularly strong CD, that is very much alike
the latest Olivia Block release, in which a similar treatment
of 'real' instruments and field recordings is used, and Nehil
easily reaches to a similar height in his 'Amnemonic Site'. Full
of tension, he offers a strong interplay between all of his soundsources
and it's easily the best release I heard from him to date. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alluvialrecordings.com
DISKREPANT - INTO SLEEP (CD by Fin De Siecle)
Music by Diskrepant, also known as Per Ahlund, is pretty rare.
So far we encountered two released by him, one being a split with
Des Esseintes (see Vital Weekly 396) and a much less noise related
'33-12' (see Vital Weekly 456). This new one, perhaps two years
in the production process, sees a continuation of '33-12'. In
many ways Ahlund is like a classical electronic composer. Taking
digital and analogue sound synthesis, along with concrete sounds,
acoustic sounds and many sound effects to create long pieces of
highly composed electronic music. Yet there are also elements
that do not lump him into the serious posse. One of that might
be his extensive use of loops. All sorts of sounds are looped
around, filtered, processed and what have you. Certainly in the
opening track 'Apparatus Like Womb' this brings him closer to
Pan Sonic than to Pierre Henry - if you get my drift. But Ahlund
keeps his own track and cleverly avoids to copy. The other two
tracks are much more drone based, more like the previous release.
Here he moves into the well-known areas of the UK drone meisters
and things become less original - and originality in the drone
field is not an easy task. But again, Ahlund adds some of his
own ideas, such as processed voices which make these tracks not
bad. Again he avoids the 'magick' connotations, which is always
a good thing. Throughout 'Into Sleep' is a fine album, which does
a lot, but never makes his title become reality.
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
HOH - BESTEMOR (CD by Zang)
Norwegian composer Helge Olav Øksendal has been active
as HOH in quite some years by now. "Bestemor", being
the third release, represents the Stavanger-based HOH first step
into the experimental pop-scene. The album nicely balances between
electronic experimentalism and catchy tunes. There are quite a
few pleasant moments throughout the 45 minutes running time, from
the harsh instrumental track "Erlöser" to the beautiful
folk-like opener "To the lighthouse" with female singing
and spiritual atmospheres. "Bestemor" is the Norwegian
word for "Grand mother". The album was made as an ode
to the grand mother of the composer. I am sure that she'd be proud
for this musical result from her grand son. (NM)
Address: http://www.zang.no
SISSY SPACEK - REMOTE WHALE CONTROL (CD
by Misanthropic Agenda)
By now John Wiese is a kind of well-known, I think, due to his
involvement with Sunn O))) and Bastard Noise, and so the vaults
are open for re-issue. Sissy Spacek is the oldest band that Wiese
was involved in, before moving to Los Angeles. Back in the days,
Sissy Spacek was Corydon Ronnau on guitar, Danny McClain on drums
and Wiese on guitar and electronics (these days the band is still
Wiese, Ronnau and Jesse Jackson). Today the band uses the old
recordings which are heavily put in collage mode and set against
newly recorded material. With 'Remote Whale Control' we get to
hear what it sounded like in 2001 when it was originally recorded
and released. Heavy duty free music. Drums are in an absolutely
free spirit, while the sound is picked up by Wiese's electronics.
Both guitars are in similar free noise mood. This is not what
these boys were taught in music school, and that's great. These
days I have my reservations against noise, because much of it
is made without imagination and all too easily, but in this case
sweat comes bursting out of your speakers. No easy way is chosen,
tension is all the way present, balancing the live noise act versus
the studio manipulation. One could wish there is more like this.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.misanthropicagenda.com
KK NULL - FERTILE (CD by Touch)
An active force since the 80s, Kazuyuki Kishino, better known
as KK Null. Once the guitarist of Zeni Geva, Absolute Null Punkt,
YBO2 and later of Monster DVD, but in the last decade (or more
even) best known for his solo work, as well as his many works
in the field of improvisation and collaboration, with the likes
of Daniel Menche, Jim O'Rourke, James Plotkin, John Zorn and many,
many others. These days the guitar is usually left at home and
KK Null uses just electronics. Splicing up sounds in the smallest
particles and moving them around in a highly fragmented, but curiously
rhythmic fashion, he found a niche of his own. 'Fertile' is his
first solo release for Touch, following a disc he shared with
Chris Watson and z'ev. On this album he applies his usual branch
of scattered rhythms along side with field recordings he made
in Australia. Insect choirs, fires, birds and such like are used,
but they are not easy to find. In the world of KK Null it's electronic
sounds that rule the game. Harsh electronic sounds, I should add,
as his music is not for the faint hearted. The rhythmic slices
remind very occasionally to the work of Pan Sonic, but it's much
more minimal and do not resemble any sort of dance beat. On top
he knits together a pattern that could be cosmic as well as noise.
At times he takes the listener by the hand and let things flow
about, but all of sudden he let's go of the listener and with
a loud bang the listener wakes up in a nightmarish reality. Although
indexed as eight pieces, with all the sudden shifts in sound,
it could have been one track or ninety-nine. I am not sure however
if this disc stands out from his vast amount of work (I should
check some out again), but it's a particular sturdy one. Quite
nice altogether. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
SOFTWAR - SOFTWAR (CD by Digitalis Industries)
FABIO ORSI - GIANLUCA BECUZZI - THE STONES KNOW EVERYTHING (2CD
by Digitalis Industries)
The new folk scene made a big impression on a lot of people but
to be honest it all went a bit past me. So when a band like Softwar
comes up, I have a big questionmark above my head. It features
Lorren Chase of Kyrgyz (whereas I only know his older solo work),
Christine Boepple (of Jewelled Antler and Kyrgyz) as well as Kerry
McLaughlin and Geoff Koops. 'They played on a million records'
it says with the info, but I find it hard to name even just a
few. Instruments are not listed on the cover, but there is a female
voice, organs, percussive sounds and other more obscured sounds
(contact microphones to pick up the scraping of a carpet?). It's
sweet music. Careful, delicate, partly improvised and highly intimate.
You can almost see them sitting on their worn out carpet together,
with one microphone for all of them, creating the music. Sometimes
perhaps a bit unfocussed but such is the nature of this music,
which perhaps works even better if one is using illegal substances.
Two Italian artists whom we first met from their releases on Small
Voices, now team up for a double CD. Fabio Orsi released a great
LP called 'Osci' (see Vital Weekly 512) which was produced by
Kinetix, which happens to be the name used by Gianluca Becuzzi.
Slow music based on field recordings of a highly obscure nature,
with some folk (read: guitar) like elements. Back then it was
a unclear as to did and which part Becuzzi had in the final result.
Now it's perhaps a bit clearer: both use 'old keyboards, guitars
and laptop'. It's also less obscure than the Orsi LP, and further
away from much of Kinetix material. Both music and cover reminded
me strongly of Stars Of The Lid. The same typography on the cover,
but also similar slow music, and forty-five minutes per CD. Sounds
only develop at a slow rate, endless sustain coming from the sound
effects, moving slow hum about. Music of a highly ambient nature,
even when some elements seem odd, such as the machine like sounds
of 'Blue Drones For A Ballad (Part Two)'. Now that Stars Of The
Lid may seem to have vanished (in whatever guise actually, or
perhaps contemplating a comeback?), this is a rather good substitute
of a more than excellent nature. (FdW)
Address: http://www.digitalisindustries.com
CONNECT_ICUT - LA (AN APOLOGY) (LP by CSAF
Records)
It's been almost two years since we first and last heard of Connect_icut,
through his CD 'Moss' on Dehausset Records (see Vital Weekly 467)
and now he returns with a super limited LP (apparently less than
100 copies were made) in some fancy handmade cover. In the two
years Connect_icut, a.k.a. Sam Macklin, toured a little bit the
west coast but never made it to LA, there for an apology. Macklin
likes his computer (perhaps like all of us) and he likes popmusic,
taking pop sensibilities into the computer and vice versa. Guitars,
organs and perhaps processed percussive sounds are the main ingredients
in the seven tracks, and sometimes the elements of 'pop' can be
recognized, especially on the first side with the shorter tracks.
However it seems like those guitars and organ like sound have
melted inside the computer, lifted perhaps from another dimension,
and pasted together. Because they don't always make sense, it
perhaps does make sense. When Connect_icut moves away from anything
recognizable, he creates a densely layered sonic mass of sound,
such as on the long 'Clear Sight Blinds', which is perhaps an
appropriate title for something blurry as this. Blurry, but it
does work on the senses. Connect_icut cites Oval, Coil (area 'Worship
The Glitch') and Fennesz as influences and perhaps it's not strange
to see that. It has that same sensibility of Oval's ambient work,
Fennesz' laptop guitar work and the alienation of Coil. Well,
perhaps that and much more. It would be too easy to say that Connect_icut
is a mere copy of those he admires as he surely knows how to add
his own flavor to the mix. Choosing his own sounds, carpeting
them about, and staying away from anything remotely click or cut,
he is not the most original voice on this scene, but carved out
a fine niche for himself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.connect-icut.com
MLEHST - A CAUTIONARY TALE (LP by Belief
Recordings)
MLEHST - ISM ISTS (3"CDR by Belief Recordings)
Only just over a month ago we reviewed two LP's of Mlehst, actually
three of the four sides were by him, and now he returns with yet
another LP and a highly obscure 3"CDR. So he was away for
some time, but perhaps we could wonder if this new overkill is
any good. Style-wise nothing changed in the last month (!). The
mild excursions into the land of feedback, treated in some analogue
manner which is not revealed, is still what makes up these new
releases. The LP was originally tracks for 7"s, but now compiled
into one LP. Tracks here are rather short, although it's unclear
how many 7"s he intended to fill. There is a fair amount
of 'erosion' in his music, like he's been using worn out tapes
to record his music or perhaps re-used some old tapes. At times
I was reminded of the good ol' Eric Lunde sound. Still as crude
and raw as before.
The 3" CDR's obscurity lies mainly in the fact that there
is no cover, just a disc in a blue box. I am not sure what kind
of statement this is supposed to be, perhaps none. Again, no break
with the previous album nor with the previous releases since he
returned, save perhaps that these three tracks sound a bit more
crudely shaped ambient. It's all ok, but perhaps a bit much right
now, following hot on the heels of previous ones, without too
many differences. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freewebs.com/mlehst
KASPER VAN HOEK - LIVE AT EXTRAPOOL (CDR
by Heils Kabaal Records)
Although this is recorded at my beloved Extrapool, on December
8 and 9 of last year, I didn't see this happening - I wasn't there.
Kasper van Hoek is a man who goes through the thrift store to
find old technology. Record players and tape decks have his main
interest. Feeding with crude sound material he picked up along
the way on likewise cheap microphones, making internal connections,
cutting them up and looping them around - quite a physical approach
to music. In this concert, the last in this approach (newer technology
makes his way to his house now), he used two cassette decks 'connected
in a loop and where muted on the mixer, a turntable (with no power
connected) was plugged into the mixer and, when touch, acted as
a receiver for the tape sounds'. If you expect a barrage of noise
than you wrong. Two rather short tracks (almost nine and eleven
minutes) of highly controlled noise. Especially in the second
one, with it's loops from the turntable and high pitched sounds
on top, this works rather nice. Van Hoek keeps his material under
control and delivers quite intense pieces of controlled noise,
which is something that is always spend on me. Short and to the
point. (FdW)
Address: http://www.heilskabaal.net
AXEL DÖRNER & LUCIO CAPECE (CDR
by L'Innomable)
By now I hope that the name Axel Dörner is recognized as
one of the key players of improvisation music, 'new style'. Dörner
plays trumpet in such a way that it hardly sounds like a trumpet.
I am not sure if he is the inventor of this kind of playing but
he has been at it for quite some while. Lucio Capece is a more
recent addition (at least, again, from my perspective) to the
scene and he plays soprano saxophone and bass clarinet. Together
they sat down in July 2004 at Axel's house to record the two lengthy
pieces on this release. I must say I am intrigued by the word
'mixed' on the cover. Usually works like this are straight documentations
of a concert or an in-studio recording session. But perhaps this
time they made a multi-track recording and mixed it? And if so,
are there any overdubs? Sometimes it sounds like that, but perhaps
it's my fantasy going wild (again?). In the fifty or so minutes
that this release lasts, they move through a whole range of textures,
mostly soft and not too outspoken, but rather depicting a lot
of different ways to show one color, like a color field painting.
In that sense it's perhaps good to that this is just two tracks,
and not a whole bunch of shorter pieces, so that the idea of one
color-many shades is furthermore emphasized. A great release of
improvised music, but I must say also one that holds no real surprise
to the trained listener. (FdW)
Address: http://www.linnomable.com
MILIEU - REMODELLED (CDR by Boltfish Recordings)
Boltfish Recordings dabble around with loads of artists, and mostly
they are unknown to me. But Milieu is an exception. 'Beyond The
Sea Lies The Stars', his debut real CD on Infraction Records was
reviewed in Vital Weekly 533, following two releases on U-Cover.
That was one was a highly ambient record, but for 'Remodelled'
things are spiced up with some beats. With the title taken in
account I thought this was a remix record of sorts, and perhaps
it is, but if so than it's only Milieu, also known as Brain Grainger,
who does the remixing. Maybe the remodeling part lies in the fact
that the rhythms are added. As such, in his new guise, he fits
very well in the Boltfish catalogue. His rhythms are 'intelligent'
sounding and his tracks are much shorter than on his previous
excursion. Fifteen pieces no less, which I deem a bit much for
the amount of variation it has to offer. That's at least five
too much (and that's why the old length of LP is so great), but
the ambient doodling set against the mild rhythms, sauced up with
some extra reverb to gain some extra, artificial, depth, works
well. Quite pleasant, entertaining music, but nothing new under
the Boltfish sun (not to mention some of the other labels which
work is similar fields). (FdW)
Address: http://www.boltfish.co.uk
XEDH - AGUJERO NEGRO (CDR by Hamaika)
In Vital weekly 463 we noticed a departure from the land of noise
by Spanish Xedh, through three nice works in MP3 format, but unfortunately
Xedh returns to the aforementioned land here, which is a big pity.
He gets help from Jon Azpiri, Arcadi Ballester, Raul Dominguez,
Jana Garbayo, Daniel Llaria, Itziar Markiegi, Natalia Vegas &
Ohiana Vicente, who all contribute vocals. Well, that is to say,
they all sport for award winner in the competition of 'William
Bennett imitator 2007'. Xedh himself is already winner in the
competition to imitate the full recent Whitehouse sound. Lots
of feedback, lots of heavy fast rhythm and an occasional drop
of silence, or very low hum. I really don't see the point in this
exercise. Shamefully dull, bad noise. Let's hope this is the last
from the land of noise for Xedh and a return to the world of his
previous MP3 releases would be most welcome.
Address: http://www.gatza.org
POOCHLATZ - THANKS FOR GIVING IN (CDR by
Something on the Road)
POOCHLATZ - VICTIMS OF SELF PRESERVATION (CD by Heart & Crossbone)
IRONING / GAYBOMB - YOUR OXEN HAVE DROWNED/SCRATCH (12inch vinyl
by Hymn)
DEAD VAGINA/GAYBOMB SPLIT (CDR by Hymn)
"Thanks for Giving in" recorded when opening to the
Grave Temple Trio- noise improv and distorted vocals and "Victims
Of Self Preservation" - this time adding Hebrew vocals to
"noise" from Poochlatz (i wont say what its translation
is)....*is* influenced by a swathe of artists... **is** (apart
from a biography) a difficult review for a number of reasons which
I may well conceal. Firstly how can an Israeli group slaughter
a 'holy cow', surely a more 'iconoclastic' event would be a cover
of a Pinky and Perky number...or a cover of Jake and Dinos Chapman's
Dead and Zygotic Acceleration, Biogenetic, De-Sublimated Libidinal
Model (Enlarged x 1000)..... I'm trying to be ironic as its long
been the case that harsh (or not so harsh) noise's political content
is only ever ironic, and the overspritualised content of noise
like that of the NGO might be serious but is miss-directed - and
I thought there were dangers where ideology still runs down streets
or flies into buildings, where folks were unaffected by the genealogy
of morals and KFC, but I was wrong. So what are we? to make of
'Victims of self preservation's' long Hebrew wailings? influenced
by pre-packed sushi from Japan - or a smorgasbord from Norway!...
influence is naive - and smells of colonialism -The cradle of
authenticity has shed its skin and created its blog, pictured
on youtube - however the problem lies in the very sincerity of
such acts and attractors- its simply not bad enough - weak enough..
hell it (almost) has a manifesto! - It's left to the Americans
to provide an answer- to show how post-nihilistic culture sounds
- cleverly and ridiculously recorded on Micro cassette and Mini
DVD, Ironing and Gaybomb's Vinyl, and Dead Vaginas concert piece
are perfect, resolve all the issues of a culture which lacks any
depth in the detritus of their work... Dead Vagina's live at Lenny's
is cocktail bar music with a no input mixer! - it defies a genre-
gaybomb loops drumming and screams on CDr and
Vinyl - while Ironing's single LP track (Your Oxen Have Drowned
- analogue feedback hipity hopity )-is just a mess...The Americans
present something which is like sifting through a landfill site
of waste, half eaten pizzas and plastic dolls, plastic wrappers
and pig offal, we listen like modern archaeologists to the actuality
of now, dead waste and rotting food, broken electrical appliances
and vomit... blandly, ever so blandly rolling over pop magazines,
torn children's clothes and garden waste, egg shells and hedge
clippings - empty beer cans, cigarette ash coffee grounds and
junk mail. superb! (jliat)
Address www.myspace.com/poochlatz
Address www.myspace.com/hymnslabel
MONOID - OPEN CLOSURE (CDR by Tosom)
MONOID - CHAOS CONSTRAIN (CDR by Tosom)
AIDAN BAKER - THOUGHTSPAN (CDR by Tosom)
Music by Monoid, also known as Martin Steinebach, who also works
under a whole bunch of other aliases has been reviewed before.
One of the things I didn't know is that Monoid already released
his first work in 1996. 'Open Closure' is now re-released in a
nicely packed box with full color inserts. At the same time Tosom
also releases 'Chaos Constrain', the second tape release from
late 1996. 'Open Closure' starts out in a rough early Esplendor
Geometrico manner. Very rhythmic, very crude and noisy. Great
stuff that lasts at least seven or eight tracks. Then the release
loses it's edge a bit. The pieces are still electronic, still
have some sort of rhythm, but it's all supposed to be a bit more
experimental, but unfortunately Monoid doesn't hold the attention
throughout these pieces. They are a bit unfocussed and it breaks
down the aggression that was built up in the first half of the
release.
To play 'Chaos Constrain' right after that is perhaps a bit much
- both releases last well over seventy minutes, so I had my fair
share of Monoid for at least a week or so. The hard rhythmic sound
from the first half of 'Open Closure' appears here too, and more
throughout the release. According to the information the sound
is more digital here, which might be very well true. It sounds
definitely more on the same dynamic level. Yet this is not a tape
to play throughout in one go. The material is rather too single
minded and with the bonus material being extended remixes of some
of the original music, so you can imagine it's perhaps a bit too
much. Monoid's music here works best in tracks such as 'Home':
up tempo, powerful, loud and dirty.
Of an entirely different nature of course is the music by Aidan
Baker, well-known by now through his many releases on as many
CDR labels, although things have been quiet a bit of lately. Here
he plays everything again, except of some violin and some trumpet
parts. Baker plays guitars, drums, bass and vocals. Through the
use of a four track machine, Baker has the possibility of playing
everything by himself. More than before it seems, he now crosses
the line of ambient guitar to psychedelic krautrock and a whole
new territory lies open. It seems to me that there is some emphasis
on the drums, more than before, and it beats a nice free floating
beat, over which it's nice to let your guitar tapestries float
free. The bass holds things together. Perhaps it's all a bit too
retro krautrock for me, but at the same time it's also pleasant
head trip music. And that is sometimes more than enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tosom.de
CARL KRUGER - INFORMATION ANIMALS (3"CDR
by Dim Records)
If I didn't know any better I could have thought that Carl Kruger
equals Chefkirk, judging by the music. Just like Chefkirk, Kruger
likes his noise, and his noise to be rhythmic and his noise to
be digital. That's all fine, but, and even with Chefkirk being
quiet for at least some weeks, it's all a bit too much in common
territory of Chefkirk. Kruger may apply a bit more rhythm occasionally
and a bit less noise, well, sometimes, this particular field of
music is a well explored one, even with these marginal differences.
By others and far better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dimrecords.tk
MACHINEFABRIEK - HAPSTAART (3"CDR by
Machinefabriek)
DAVID STACKENÄS & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT - CITRON (3"CDR
by Machinefabriek)
Just as I thought that Machinefabriek were these days about releasing
3" with one or two long ambient tracks, he releases 'Hapstaart',
twenty minutes and eleven tracks hovering on the edge of silence.
'Mixing desk, wires, effect pedals, laptop' it says on the cover,
but to me it seems that especially the latter has been used to
transform the sound. One has to crank up the volume quite a bit
to hear the full thing. Lots of deep bass sounds, high end beeps
and the occasional scattering of a contact microphone. Whatever
happens outside the computer is something we don't know. To that
extent goes the principles of processing here. It's indexed at
eleven tracks and they indeed sound different from each other,
it's more or less one work - idea wise - divided in eleven parts.
Quite a nice move again.
Earlier this month David Stackenäs (see also the review of
'Bow' in Vital Weekly 540 and much earlier in Vital Weekly 251))
toured a little bit and in Utrecht, The Netherlands he teamed
up with Machinefabriek's Rutger Zuydervelt to play together. 'Bow'
was interesting drone affair of five acoustic guitars played with
fans. In their duo piece they sort of try to connect the music
of 'Bow' with some more freely strumming. In the first part of
the piece drones, probably generated by fans playing guitar and
this time also electric, prevail, and in the second part sustained
sounds form the backbone of some open end strumming. In the third
part the drones arrive on the scene again, but here more through
the use of feedback going through all the colored boxes on the
floor. It's an o.k. work, not great and perhaps a bit too much
from two people who didn't improvise that much until now (o.k.
this is just an assumption). But surely some parts are quite nice.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
DEREK CRAIG ZOLADZ - SOFTWARE FOR HUMANITY
(2x3"CDR, private release)
Packed in an old floppy box, comes two short CDR releases by one
Derek Craig Zoladz. He hails from America and studied guitar and
saxophone. In 2002 he started to study composition and electronic
sound synthesis with Rocco Di Pietro in Columbus, Ohio. The two
pieces, each on a single disc in this package, come from this
recent studying. Both of them have a long text explaining the
hows and whys of these pieces, which I won't repeat here. Let's
safely say there is a concept behind each of the two pieces. In
'Logic Structures 1' text is used play midi files of an orchestral
nature. The text input was a rather minimal one (according to
the information), which shows in the piece of music itself. It
has a nice minimal texture, although it may sound perhaps also
a bit too much like a bunch of midi instruments, rather than real
instruments. In the end the thirteen minutes are perhaps also
a bit too minimal to hold one's attention. 'Love Does Not Exist'
is more a performance based piece of people watching each other,
which bears relation to the title of the piece, but the music
is a rather common place of feedback of the no-input mixer. Apparently
the music was played softly when the piece is performed. I must
say that this was a rather short but also rather dull piece of
feedback music. (FdW)
Address: <derekcraigzoladz@hotmail.com>
MICHAEL GENDREAU - Live at Sonic Circuits
DC 2006 (MP3 by Zeromoon)
An important part of Michael Gendreau's oeuvre is focused on the
material aspects of records and turntables from the pre-vinyl
era, i.e. the surface noises of worn shellac discs and acetates
and the sounds produced by the mechanic parts of the record players.
Gendreau heavily amplifies these usually barely perceptible hisses,
rumbles, and squeals, and thus reveals their fascinating micro-textural
richness. The work Gendreau performed live at the Sonic Circuits
Festival in Washington DC in October 2006 is a 28 minute long,
gradually built-up drone-piece, that goes from near silence to
powerful upfront passages and back again, with blocks of clear,
detailed sounds gently fading into each other and occasional sudden
changes in volume marking moments of contrast in the overall compositional
structure. The heavy amplification produces a virtual shift in
dimension, as the sounds draw the listener near and gain a sensuous
presence that is as intimate as it is irritating. While layering
sounds of very different textural quality, crackling, rotating
and pulsating at varying volume and intensity, Gendreau manages
to keep each sound distinct in the overall mix. This further adds
to an effect of intimacy and irritation, with the various sound
sources, or rather the listener's imagination of them, collapsing
into a complex construction of a highly absorbing quality.
Knowing about the origins of the sounds lends them a certain preciousness
that perfectly mirrors the aura of the antiquated devices. It
functions as a nostalgically charged backdrop to the stream of
disembodied sounds, which locates them in an instable state between
vague representation and rigid abstraction. The aesthetic dispositions
sketched out here are complemented on the conceptual level by
an implicit reflection on the medial conditions of sound, brought
about by the material itself, insofar as Gendreau brings to attention
the material presence of the medium by utilizing as his sources
what are basically the by-products of reproducing sound - the
surface noise of records and the mechanical sounds of the turntable
itself. This release, as well as Gendreau's related works, such
as "55 Pas De La Ligne Au No. 3" (23Five), is an example
of a most sensitive handling of concrete sound material, equally
exploring its aesthetic dimension and its material context. (MSS)
Address: http://www.zeromoon.com
STAPLERFAHRER - LIVE @ HOEZO EXPO EINDHOVEN
17/12/2005 (MP3 by Menthe De Chat)
Steffan de Turck's project Staplerfahrer finds his way around
the globe. A recordings from Eindhoven, The Netherlands finds
his way to MP3 in Brazil. Global village or what? Over the years
Staplerfahrer has become more and more interesting as far as I'm
concerned. Started out as a rather single minded noise project,
the laptop of De Turck has a few more tricks to show. These days
he plays around with found broken sounds, recorded on location
(but hardly in the area of field recording, more apparatus being
damaged), and then processed inside the computer until we no longer
recognize the original (if such could be recognized at all). These
sixteen minutes are more like a raw version of microsound, with
some crudities thrown in, but towards the end, with the presence
of number stations, things go well beyond the threshold of hearing
and makes quite an intense piece. If this is live, then the next
studio CDR holds a promise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kkfs.trix.net/menthedechat/catalogue/chat018.htm