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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 575
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week 19
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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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rss feed:
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New broadcasts will be sent directly when uploaded
* 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 FRUSTRATION - WELL, AND OURS.
PHILIPP QUEHENBERGER - PHANTOM IN PARADISE
(CD by Editions Mego) *
PURE SOUND - SUBMARINE (CD by Euphonium Records) *
COLLEEN - LES ONDES SILENCIEUSES (CD by Leaf)
EFTERKLANG - UNDER GIANT TRES (CD by Leaf)
PJUSK - SART (CD by 12K) *
CARL MICHEAL VON HAUSWOLFF - TOPOPHONIC MODELS (CD by Feld Records)
MERZBOW - COMA BERENICES (CD by Vivo Records) *
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
NEBRIS - BLEAK ANGELS (CD by Dystonia EK) *
TOM NUNN - IDENTITY (CD by Edgetone Records)
JIM DENLEY - THROUGH FIRE, CREVICE + THE HIDDEN VALLEY (CD by
Split Records)
JAMES SAUNDERS - #(UNASSIGNED) (2CD by Confront) *
HANNA HARTMAN - AILANTHUS (CD by Komplott) *
TULSA DRONE - SONGS FROM A MEAN SEASON (CD by Dry Country Records)
CLUB MORAL - LONELY WEEKENDS/GUN (7" by Dead Mind Records)
ZYRTAX (7" by Dead Mind Records)
NEST & TIM COSTER (CDR by Gest)
HÜZÜN (CDR by The Seedy R)
ANTI-DELUSION MECHANISM - INFINIT KOLISION (2xCDR by Holispolis)
*
CHEAPMACHINES - LOWLANDS (CDR by Authorized Version) *
ID M THEFT ABLE - AND I PULLED THE WORD 'AND' FROM MY BEARD (CDR
by 8mm Records) *
PULSE EMITTER - DEADLY SPACE MISSIONS (CDR by 8mm Records)
HARSHCORE - THE SYBIAN SORORITY (CDR by Rudimentale)
YEK KOO - A PLEA FOR A NIGHT DESERT BLUE MOON STORM (CDR by Seymour
Records) *
DANIA SHAPES - SOUNDSYSTEM PASTORAL (CDR by Naiv Super)
CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU - LA LUDE/LA SONDE (CDR by Naiv Super) *
JLIAT - NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOL. 3 (CDR by Larks Council
Of England)
JANNE HANHISUANTO - PADMOSPHERES (CDR/MP3 by Dharmasound)
VLADIMIR NESSI - SOSULKA (CDR by Arterija)
THE ERIC MOUSSAMBANI MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA - CIVIL NOISE MOVEMENTS
(3" CDR by Heilskabaal)
MACHINEFABRIEK - HUIS (3"CDR by Machinefabriek)
NEUMATICA - LIMIAR (OGG by Desetxea)
ANTOINE CHESSEX - DEMO DEMOLITION (OGG by Desetxea)
DEMAND/HEENAN/VORFELD/WIENERT - JANUS (OGG by Desetxea)
HOCHHERZ/BLECHMANN/MATTIN - POST LACK TRACK (OGG by Desetxea)
PHILIPP QUEHENBERGER - PHANTOM IN PARADISE
(CD by Editions Mego)
It was quite a memorable evening, somewhere in March 2004 at the
Dutch Earational festival. At their night at the rock oriented
club a guy played that me, perhaps an insider of sorts, never
heard of: Philipp Quehenberger. He had just one 12" to his
credit, for Cheap Records, from 2002. He banged away on his keyboards
and sang his songs. Added with a stage dance, by a small girl
with a big knife (perhaps remembered here in 'Wives With knives'?).
It looked and sounded great. Still Quehenberger never released
anything beyond that 12", but now here is finally his debut
CD. I am playing this and thinking about that great evening. But
the CD isn't as convincing. Quehenberger loves a loud, gritty
sound, up tempo electro/techno rhythms and his own voice. Although
the latter not as much as he should do. His music works best as
a cross-over between Suicide, Mister Quintron (both on the vocal
side of the music) and Pan Sonic (in terms of rhythm and noise),
and it works even better when he is singing. A slight cynical
voice with lyrics that aren't easy to decipher. If Quehenberger
goes instrumental he's best in bringing uptempo nasty, almost
rock song like structured techno, but which not always work best
when played at home. It's more like underground club music and
at a much louder volume, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in
the other, this should go down rather well. Throughout a great
CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
PURE SOUND - SUBMARINE (CD by Euphonium
Records)
It seemed only a few weeks ago that I reviewed 'Yukon' by a UK
band Pure Sound, but it's a little bit longer ago (Vital Weekly
552). The band so far was Vince Hunt (bass, tapes, vocals), Simon
Price (drill) and Harry Stafford (vocals) and now with Boz Hayward
on guitar. In general 'Submarine' continues the sound of 'Yukon':
a rock band that incorporates field recordings, along side vocals,
even when it's hardly singing, but more speaking voices. They
no longer use the tags as 'industrial rhythms' or 'colossal bass
lines', but refer to their music as ambient, which it surely fits
the whole thing much better. When there are voices/vocals used,
they tell a small story, such as the title piece about the sinking
of the Lusitania. The field recordings and instruments strongly
stand aside of each other. Both play their own role. Guitars are
being strummed, playing repeating motifs and the field recordings
made a background ambient hiss. The cover lists the lyrics as
well as (some of) the sound sources used. With twelve tracks at
some twenty-eight minutes you can imagine that some of these pieces
are bit short. And at that: too short. Some of the shorter pieces
have the potential to be a larger piece, with more action happening
or making a more complex piece. There is more in it, than what
now comes out of it. The longer pieces here, such as the title
piece or 'Breathe Deep, My Love' (with actually a banging rhythm)
or 'Get My Cutting Head Down' show this. Maybe 'Submarine' was
made a bit too hasty in order to have a quick follow up. But it
still contains some fine music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.euphoniumrecords.com
COLLEEN - LES ONDES SILENCIEUSES (CD by
Leaf)
Colleen's (Cecile Schott) first two albums (Everybody Alive Wants
Answers and The Golden Morning Breaks) showed great promise with
their perfect mix of loops, samples and hushed vocals, making
great low-fi pop music listening. However, all these elements
were thrown overboard for her third album (Les Boites A Musique),
which featured mechanical music boxes - and little else. On Les
Ondes Silencieuses (the silent waves) Colleen plays viola da gamba
(the ancestor of the cello), spinet, guitar and clarinet. Loosely
based on the life of 17th century composer Marin Marais, Colleen
creates semi-classical songs that somehow lack a significant spark
of life. Songs like Sun Against My Eyes or Sea Of Tranquillity
are a cut above the emotionless material featured here, but, ultimately,
Les Ondes Silencieuse is a long and, dare I say it, slightly boring
listen. You cannot and should not criticize an artist for changing
her style, but it appears Colleen has definitely turned her back
on pop music, which is a great loss. (FK)
Address: http://www.theleaflabel.com
EFTERKLANG - UNDER GIANT TRES (CD by Leaf)
Ah, wonderful wonderful Copenhagen! What is it in the Scandinavian
air that makes alt-folk electronic pop groups like Efterklang
flourish so well over there? In this hugely popular scene Efterklang
are no exception to the rule. Their music, described as evocative
and panoramic (whatever that may mean) is certainly remarkable.
Conceived during a recent tour, the five songs of Under Giant
Trees are a great listen. Ranging from the thick layered sound
of Falling Horses to the Oval-like CD skipping of Himmelbjerget,
their songs are laid-back and interesting enough to warrant repeated
listening. Even though there is no sign of the 33 guest musicians
of the first album (including a Greenlandic choir!), Efterklang's
five core members are assisted here by two members of the Icelandic
string quartet Amiina. Packed in a wonderful foldout digipack
with four postcard inserts, this album is full of ideas and promises
for the future. It is to be hoped that Efterklang will survive
the competition of other groups who are active in this genre in
Scandinavia. If they are able to develop their sound and grow,
Efterklang could be big. (FK)
Address: http://www.theleaflabel.com
PJUSK - SART (CD by 12K)
From our end of the telescope Norway may seem a
land of noise, but perhaps we are at the wrong end. Pjusk are
a duo from Norway (Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik and Rune Sagevik) and
being on 12K is still far away from noise. They started out in
the techno scene about a decade ago and now turned into more contemplative
music, as shown here. They were first introduced on the 'Blueprints'
compilation (see Vital Weekly 550), where didn't leave the big
impression. Their debut CD 'Sart' does similar. Pjusk built their
pieces around 'electronics, dub, rhythm, found sounds', but that
can apply to a lot these days. Pjusk to me are very much into
the world microsound and glitch me thinks, and even when they
occasionally hop into a rhythm, loaded with reverb and delay to
guarantee that sense of 'dub and rhythm', it's all of the usual
carefulness and intimate sound knitting. Warm like the mid-winter
campfire. It's certainly not a bad CD, though perhaps a bit long
for the amount of ideas that are thrown around. Thirteen pieces
at some fifty-five minutes, is perhaps five pieces and fifteen
minutes too long. Under the sun of 12K Pjusk isn't the big turn
around, the paradigm of music, but it's a star that shines equally
bright as so many others. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
CARL MICHEAL VON HAUSWOLFF - TOPOPHONIC
MODELS (CD by Feld Records)
More and more Carl Micheal von Hauswolff is a man of drone music.
Well, perhaps he always was? Whereas before he at times used rhythms
to achieve his drone like result, on his new one, he turned purely
to heavily layered drones. All of the pieces describe 'dystopical
and distant contemporary geocivilian sites, such as an airfield,
an oil field etc'. Not that it uses any field recordings. Hauswolff
limits himself to using sine wave generators 'and other organic
sources'. I even thought to recognize a heavily layered flute
sound. In general Hauswolff knows how to create the dense drone
piece, and they sound best as an organ in 'Delta Overview' or
the flute like 'Distant Skyline'. Perhaps the resemblance of a
real instrument makes it easier to connect to this. The more abstract
(although all is abstract here to the untrained ear) sine wave
generator pieces are to distant to feel closely related. All six
pieces have similar lengths, around seven minutes. In that sense
Hauswolff is close to the work of Niblock: not only in his choice
of material and execution of his pieces, but also in choosing
a similar length for all his pieces. But whereas Niblock creates
moving images in his music, the one from Hauswolff remains more
static, and less easy to access. (FdW)
Address: http://www.feld-records.com
MERZBOW - COMA BERENICES (CD by Vivo Records)
Since I gave up collecting Merzbow (couldn't get a second mortgage
on my house) I must say I enjoy it better than before. Perhaps
just because the obsessive need of collecting, blurring my mind
as to what is what and not finding it possible to hear much twice
or three times, the occasional Merzbow just suits me better. Like
ever, it's pretty hard to know what an album is about, if there
are no references to saving animals that is. 'Coma Berenices'
is such an album. Five pieces of improvised noise - that is what
Merzbow does and he does best. It seems as if he picked up a guitar
in 'Earth Worms', feeding it to the many colored boxes one can
get from the same guy who sells guitars. It's not an over the
top noise piece - perhaps that is a change? 'Dark Stars' is more
like the old Merzbow, heavy deconstructed noise. 'Alishan' is
what follows and here it's mostly EMS synthi-A stuff, but do we
detect also a small melody in there? Hard to believe, but true.
The final two pieces (all clocking in at over ten minutes) are
again more a like 'Dark Stars', with a dominant EMS on 'Revenge
On Humanity'. Quite a varied CD in terms of what Merzbow usually
does. It suits him well however. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vivo.pl
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - MORT AUX VACHES (CD
by Staalplaat)
Things have been quite for Staalplaat and their Mort Aux Vaches
series. It seems as Staalplaat moved to another building in Berlin
and things are up and running again. Celebrated with a new release
in the Mort Aux Vaches series, an ongoing series of CDs recorded
at VPRO radio in Amsterdam, and by now with some fifty or more
releases - a small encyclopedia of modern music. And oh: an encyclopedia
of CD design. This new one comes with a sort of bathroom curtain
plastic cover, that is partly transparent, but also makes a hallucignetic
thing. The music is by Andrey Kiritchenko, our man on the laptop
(and more!) from the Ukraine. Around when this was recorded I
also saw him play a concert and besides a laptop, I believe he
used an autoharp and a guitar. The laptop contains the 'usual'
crackles, hiss, and processed field recordings, but Kiritchenko
plays some rather nice warm ambient glitch music. Half way somewhere
Fennesz and microsound, not yet really pop like, and cut in to
one long piece, Kiritchenko plays rather moody, atmospheric music.
Fortunately not too abstract with his ploinks on the guitars,
or his drones from the autoharp. I remember back when attending
the concert that Kiritchenko's music is quite nice, but perhaps
better enjoyable at home then in a concert space with people standing
around and talking (like the one I saw). Now that it is on CD,
I can only applaud the fact: yes, it works much better. Another
great addition to the series. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staalplaat.com
NEBRIS - BLEAK ANGELS (CD by Dystonia EK)
Dystonia EK is a label from Montreal and already exists since
1989. For ten years they released cassettes and a few CDRs, but
with the release of the Nebris CD they start up their activities
again. Before being Nebris, they (he? she?) were called Column,
with various releases as Dystonia EK and 'Bleak Angels' is the
second release as Nebris, following 'Krone' from 1999. They use
'amplified organic materials (bones, gut strings) and minerals
(fossils, meteorite fragments, stones)' and produce three lengthy
tracks. First I thought they were spinning empty grooves of a
record, extremely amplified, alongside long wave recordings, but
knowing what they do make it all sound even more fascinating.
There is a backdrop in all three pieces of rotating sounds, crackles,
highly processed and multi-layered voices, especially in 'V' this
latter feature, and it sounded very much like Tibetan Red. Probably
they throw in lots of electronics to get this swirling mass of
sound. Bleak indeed. There is a great sense of desolation around
this music, the usual ambient industrial post nuclear emptiness.
The empty industrial lot at night. For those who love Tibetan
Red, old zoviet*france, or the more softer edges of releases on
Old Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry will surely find this quite
interesting. Executed with great care and skill, with a keen eye
for details and variation, this is an excellent work in the genre.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.dystoniaek.org
TOM NUNN - IDENTITY (CD by Edgetone Records)
Sometimes you wish something was a DVD and not a CD. I could repeat
what Tom Nunn writes in his liner notes about his self-built instruments,
called exotically Hybryd Mothics, The Octatonic T-Rodimba and
The Crustacean, how they look, I don't really know. Tom, who has
been active as an improviser since 1978 in the Bay Are, recorded
his instruments as pure as possible. Just microphones and contact
microphones, no electronic processing and no editing. You wish
you could see him play this, as what one is hearing is already
quite captivating. From the percussive opening piece (the t-rodimba
played with mallets) to the mothic plays with combs, things are
scratched, bowed, plucked and hit and surely sounds captivating.
Sometimes the pieces are a bit long, and a bit too minimal in
execution, but Nunn always does something inside a piece that
one makes the raise an eyebrow and think: wow that's a nice gesture.
My favorite pieces are the more percussive ones. Highly minimal
with a nice ethnic touch to it, such as 'Cross Rods/6', but the
more scratchy pieces make this into a somewhat more varied CD,
that would be with just percussive pieces, be a bit too similar.
A surely captivating release. A highly varied and highly original.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.edgetonerecords.com
JIM DENLEY - THROUGH FIRE, CREVICE + THE
HIDDEN VALLEY (CD by Split Records)
A few weeks ago I wrote about Benjamin Bondonneau and Fabrice
Charles who seemed to have taken their instruments outside and
made their recordings. Jim Denley, a saxophone player from Australia
and improviser pur sang, took his instrument, camera, audio recorders,
food and a solar charger in the Budawang Mountains on the east
coast of Australia. This rough area inspired him to play music
outside, whilst recording also birds, insects, wind and a helicopter.
Captured on two devices they were later on synched together. Denley
is a highly accomplished player of the saxophone, one who make
the sound of the instrument sound like anything but a saxophone.
Being on his own, in many ways, this leads to music that captures
the loneliness quite well. Sustained tones, crackles, a buzzing
insect: there is much going on, but perhaps Denley tries to beat
the fact that he is alone, playing this music. To drive out the
demons? This is a highly original approach to playing improvised
music: the combination of techniques used, but also the recording
technique itself. It all makes this into a great CD of improvised
music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.splitrec.com
JAMES SAUNDERS - #(UNASSIGNED) (2CD by Confront)
Perhaps reviewing this 2CD package is something that can be done
without listening to it. To describe the idea is probably sufficient.
One CD has a sixty some tracks of clarinet sounds and the other
CD thirty some tracks of cello playing. Any combination of playing
these two CDs, at random or through thorough planning makes up
a new composition. An idea that goes back to the dawn of recorded
history (the electric history that is). Cage did this in all sorts
of variations. But of course why not re-create an idea. Saunders
composed small notes for both instruments, very much in an onkyo
style - much silence throughout on these CDs - with high peeps
and small, isolated notes. Nice work that gains from the possibility
of combining the two, which might be a lot of work for some, but
the more adventurous listeners, with spare time on their hands
(needless to say: and a set up to do so), can create their own
nice pieces. Whether or not this sort of action has been composed
or improvised before. (FdW)
Address: http://www.confront.info
HANNA HARTMAN - AILANTHUS (CD by Komplott)
Following her 'Longtitude/Cratere' work on Komplott (see Vital
Weekly 498) here is now her second CD for the same label. Hanna
Hartman is a composer - full stop. Whereas the first CD was a
work about sailing and a work about the volcano Etna, this new
one has four separate pieces and it's a bit harder to tell what
they are about. Hartman goes out with a tape recorder and a microphone
and records sound. But unlike many of her peers recording natural
events (birds, wind, rain), Hartman focusses on human activity.
Sounds of the mouth in 'Wespen Vesper' - imitating a wasp, alongside
other animal sounds, which are thoroughly edited in the studio.
Hartman is a pure concrete composer. She hardly uses electronic
sound processing, but almost entirely on focussing on concrete
sound collages to craft her pieces of music. All around the world
she has captured sounds of human doing something. Like a fence
being strummed, voices, eating, but of course also birds in the
harbor. Unlike some of the older garde in the musique concrete
scene, she uses repetition to quite some extent, which connects
her music to the world of 'pop' music, but the actual result has
nothing to do with it. No doubt many hours of editing went into
these four pieces, which are very soundtrack like. Perhaps a bit
of short release, but the four pieces are great. Very impressive
stuff here, once again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.komplott.com
TULSA DRONE - SONGS FROM A MEAN SEASON (CD
by Dry Country Records)
There is always an odd ball in Vital Weekly: music that is a bit
outside what we normally review and the simple fact that we get
it is enough to be reviewed. Tulsa Drone is a five piece rock
band with a conventional line up but with one member playing dulcimers
and harmonica, which makes the band a bit less ordinary. The various
band members have played on records by Labradford, Pan-American,
Bio Ritmo, Alter-Natives and Hex Machine - well perhaps some of
that is Vital Weekly material. 'Songs From A Mean Season' is their
second album and it's largely instrumental. Tulsa Drone don't
play drone music per se, as much of it can lumped in with space
rock/post rock. They hammer away their lengthy songs in a sturdy
krautrock fashion and although the pieces are forceful, they are
also open enough to get that empty desert feeling that some of
this music has. Sometimes the whole thing was a bit too rocky
for my taste, but once a week something like this is quite alright.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.drycountry.net
CLUB MORAL - LONELY WEEKENDS/GUN (7"
by Dead Mind Records)
ZYRTAX (7" by Dead Mind Records)
For about twenty-five years Club Moral existed, around the nucleus
of DDV on electronics and vocals and AMVK on electronics. Their
industrial music was rhythm based, vocal based around the personal
lyrical obsession of DDV and they remained underground, never
attempting fame. They reformed recently as Bum Collar (note the
anagram I'd say). This 7", perhaps a farewell one, has two
pieces, from 1981 and one from 2003, in two different line ups.
'Lonely Weekends', recorded live in 1981, with the addition of
Etat Brut on electronics, has a staccato, machine like rhythm
and undecipherable DDV lyrics. It seems like a happy song, but
of course in Club Moral world there is no such thing as a happy
song. 'Gun' from 2003 with also Dylan on turntables and Mauro
Pawlowski on guitar, sees the vocals being extremely filtered
and a bumpy rhythm, with all sorts of electronics sturdy humming
in the background. Quite frightening stuff, if not a bit long.
Zyrtax before released a CD with Contagious Orgasm (see Vital
Weekly 476) and one with Government Alpha and both were collaborations.
Here this is continued with four new pieces, all in collaboration
with others: Dave Philips, G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, Odal and Sudden
Infant. Like with their work with Contagious Orgasm, rhythm plays
an important role in all four pieces. It seems that Zyrtax takes
out one loops and starts playing around with it, and adds additional
noise from the same material. Less Pan Sonic here, but highly
minimal in approach. In the case of Odal we get the full noise
treatment, but in the Sudden Infant case, the track is quite empty,
even when the rhythm itself seems to be recorded and played back
at a level of pain. Together with the rather spooky track with
Dave Phillips, this is the best track, whereas the two others
are pretty much more standard noise thing. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blutistzeit.nl
NEST & TIM COSTER (CDR by Gest)
HÜZÜN (CDR by The Seedy R)
Both of these releases are connected through the musicians. One
release is Tim Coster (who plays computer and modified tape machine)
improvising with Nest, which is a duo of Nigel Wright (laptop)
and Andrew Scott (guitar), the other is by Hüzün, a
duo of Coster and Scott. It shows the scope of the New Zealand
music scene. Everybody plays with everybody and new bands occur
all the time. The Nest/Tim Coster recording was made at the Wine
Cellar (like the previous Nest & MHFS (see Vital Weekly 560)
and is quite a hissy affair of mainly guitar like sounds, but
with the presence of two computer, no doubt the sound has been
picked up and modified, altered and processed inside the world
of ones and zeroes. Slowly moving around, high in the field of
lo-fi drones, this is a most enjoyable release of experimental
drone music, still like they do best in New Zealand.
As Hüzün the balance seems to be more equally divided
between the guitar and the computer or rather their input. The
guitar produces stretched out drones that go towards the use of
feedback, but never cross the line thereof, whilst the computer
knits a beautiful carpet, densely woven pattern of sustaining
sounds and field recordings (activities from a building site,
birds). Throughout these thirty-five something minutes things
work alongside each other in a a great way. At times it's hard
to tell which instrument is doing what here, as they operate quite
closely to each other, certainly towards the end of the piece.
Perhaps the fact that this is a combination of a live and studio
recording has something to do with this. Whereas Nest & Tim
Coster is a good release, the one by Hüzün is a great
one. (FdW)
Address: http://nest.or.gest.googlepages.com
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com
ANTI-DELUSION MECHANISM - INFINIT KOLISION
(2xCDR by Holispolis)
Much of what Amsterdam based trio Anti-Delusion Mechanism does
is generated through improvisation. So far they released two CDs
of their work, 'Songs Of Maldoror' (Vital Weekly 477) and 'Eugenix'
(Vital Weekly 553), in which the improvised music was edited out.
It seems to me a more than logical step to release improvisations
on CDR, the unedited version as to say. The group is Yann Keller
(selfmade instruments, electronics, double bass), Dead Fish Fuck
(electronics) and Vilbjørg Skrot (vocals). On the package
they just send one CDR reflects recordings made in January 2007
and one from February 2007. On the January 2007 the electronics
are quite heavy, and they even allow rhythm in there: a rhythm
machine set to a high BPM, crushing away heavy gabber beats. It's
perhaps sometimes the use of the voice of Skrot that reminds us
that we are listening to Anti-Delusion Mechanism, especially of
course in the more quiet moments. On the February part this seems
to be a bit less, and the music seems to be more fixed around
the quiet moments, with lesser loud and long outbursts. This makes
both CDRs quite different from each other and give a good insight
how this group works. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antidelusionmechanism.org/
CHEAPMACHINES - LOWLANDS (CDR by Authorized
Version)
It's not easy to surpass a master work, and in the case of Cheapmachines,
also known as Phil Julian, the masterwork was 'Fugue Cycle' (see
Vital Weekly 563). Perhaps it will come. 'Lowlands' is a work
that was recorded in 2004 and remastered by Bernard Günter
for current release. 'Tracks were mainly recorded specifically
for radio broadcast using short and longwave radio transmissions
as the original sound source'. In the past years we have learned
(and loved) as a noise band, but whose best works were outside
of the sure confinement of noise. The drones of 'Fugue Cycle'
or some of the earlier musique concrete works. In 'Fugue Cycle'
shows us something of the current Cheapmachines sound, then perhaps
'Lowlands' should be seen as a work of change. Noise is not entirely
gone, but drones have not arrived fully either. None of the long
or shortwave sounds are there to be recognized as such, as everything
is mangled inside the computer. Sometimes the usual loudness but,
and more interesting, also with a forecast of some more quiet
moments. It's here that I think Cheapmachines is really good,
carefully constructing music out of hiss and static crackles.
Obviously not far away from the microsound crowd, but with a strong
voice of his own. Nice one, glad to see it released. (FdW)
Address: http://www.a-version.co.uk
ID M THEFT ABLE - AND I PULLED THE WORD
'AND' FROM MY BEARD (CDR by 8mm Records)
PULSE EMITTER - DEADLY SPACE MISSIONS (CDR by 8mm Records)
It's been a long time since I reviewed something by ID M Theft
Able, a.k.a. Skott Spear: 'Cl Amo/Ang Or/Er Use/E Etc' in Vital
Weekly 415. I have no clue what he has been doing since, perhaps
working on this new, again curious titled release 'And I Pulled
The Word 'And' From My Beard'. When before they (back then it
seemed a duo to me) they played an highly amplified form of musique
concrete, here it seems to be more microphone and turntable abuse.
Spear takes up the microphone and multi-layers his mouth making
sounds very close to the microphone while spinning records of
a rather unidentifiable nature on the turntable. Quite a release
of chaos, but one of a highly captivating nature. Still quite
noise related, as before, but this time I thought it was better
to digest (maybe I have a more lucid moment right now?). It's
all quite lo-fi, but it's also quite poetic, of a rather personal
nature. The nine tracks that span again some fifty five minutes
is of a rather exhausting nature, but it's worth hearing in it's
entirety.
Pulse Emitter's daryl Groetsch is a busy man. He has released
a great bunch of CDRs, some of which made it into these pages
in recent weeks. If I'm right, much of his released material is
generated through live improvisation on his modular synthesizer
(take a look at www.synthnoise.com for some pictures). On 'Deadly
Space Missions' there are two pieces recorded live, from may 2006
and one from september 2005. Before I found his work in the areas
of noise being intelligent, but these two pieces are indeed as
'space' as you can get. The synthesizers bubble around, bend over
and down, up again, and it's sounds like a soundtrack to a science
fiction movie - more space invaders and body snatchers than a
space odysee. The second, roughly of similar length, is a more
introspective drone affair, with sustaining synthesizer sounds
that reminded me a bit of old Organum: it had a similar 'rusty'
character. This is the best Pulse Emitter I heard so far. (FdW)
Address: http://www.8mmrecs.com
HARSHCORE - THE SYBIAN SORORITY (CDR by
Rudimentale)
Despite their name, Harshcore is not really harsh. This Italian
duo of Luca Sigurtà and Tommaso Clerico play around on
"analogic and poor electronics, bass, tape loops and other
junks". On 'The Sybian Sorotity' they have seven tracks to
offer and indeed it's a poor sound - but not in a negative way.
Poor as in 'povera' - like arte povera. The recording quality
is not really top, but their simple loops of rhythm and bass/guitar
improvisations make things up. Many things spin through my head.
'The Amputee' sounds like zoviet*france in their early days, 'Jordan'
carried some influence of Throbbing Gristle later days, but there
are also traces of post rock to be found around here, stripped
to the bone, based around a simple click rhythm. It's not altogether
quite new what is heard here (if that should be a criteria at
all), but Harshcore plays an interesting mixture of old styles
that surprisingly work quite well. Nice one indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rudimentale.com
YEK KOO - A PLEA FOR A NIGHT DESERT BLUE
MOON STORM (CDR by Seymour Records)
Music by Helga Fassonaki was reviewed before, either solo or with
Metal Rouge, her band with Andrew Scott. As Yek Koo she also plays
solo, although I am not entirely sure why diverse from her own
to a pseudonym. She plays santur (being some string instrument),
drums, tabla, computer loop, voice and tape recorder. In her apartment
she plays repetitive music on these instruments (sometimes a bit
too loud for her landlord's taste as we hear on the first piece),
strumming away ad infinitum. Drums and or tabla are not really
to be heard. Fassonaki's recording techniques are a bit crude,
covering mainly the high end of the spectrum, which is a pity.
It makes the music rather without much depth. That's a pity since
it could gain a bit from a better recording and be closer to traditional
raga music. Lo-fi might be a good statement to make, but if it
can be better why not. Otherwise for those who love the New Zealand
music scene this is another one not to be missed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helagfassonaki.net
DANIA SHAPES - SOUNDSYSTEM PASTORAL (CDR
by Naiv Super)
CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU - LA LUDE/LA SONDE (CDR by Naiv Super)
Daniel Lopatin, the man behind Dania Shapes is someone new to
me. He learned to play the piano, destroyed the presets of his
father synthesizer, studied aesthetic philosophy and experimental
music and plays music 'celebrating the potential of amateurishness,
decadence and romance in the realm of digital arts' - wow. 'Soundsystem
Pastoral' was already recorded in the winter of 2004, but recently
remixed and released. Even by 2004 standards it sounds pretty
dated. Lopatin likes glitch music, especially he shows to be a
good student of the works of professor doctor C. Fennesz, lecturer
of glitch music from the University of Vienna. The eight pieces
uses small, repeating clicks and processed hum and bum in the
background. At a neat thirty-two minutes, this is a most enjoyable
release actually, if not really surprising at all. Oval, Fennesz
and the other 5000 microsound artists proof all to be an inspiration,
and Dania Shapes is just one of them.
Lopatin will soon work with Christophe Bailleau, who is an old
friend. In Vital Weekly 67 he was already present with his Glyth
project, later turning into La Chiesa and later on under his own
name. His experience in many different music styles pays off here.
The music on 'La Lude/La Sonde' was composed for a performance
by Martine Vale. Bailleau is a man who likes acoustic sounds -
they dominate this release, certainly in the first half. It's
mainly guitar but also concrete sounds and everything that happens
in terms of digital processing happens in the background. The
second half is more a trip into ambient glitch land, but here
too Bailleau has a much stronger voice of his own than Dania Shapes.
Combining real instruments and digital processing thereof is of
course not something new, but Bailleau does a really great job
at it. Not the most original one - that is perhaps an illusion
- but nevertheless a great job. (FdW)
Address: http://www.naivsuper.de
JLIAT - NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOL.
3 (CDR by Larks Council Of England)
records abince Jliat is on board of the review of tth for a popshe
noise posse, we feel a bit relieved. Noiseenre is for me a dead
end, even when occasionally I play a bit of noise and n e a bit
of eekly: many are followers and few are chosen as trendsetters.
Which is no big d websiteal, it's like real life. Where Jliat
as a mus badly an fits in? Tht is ncil Of England he releases
a purposedesigneR with a rip off cover of 'Abbea good, but simple
safter that he sta q. He has produced a grter to record it on.
It rded me of some of the older Merzbow work, but a bit more in
lo-fi territory. Not ebut here in the context of noise. I ueight
tracks of exactly three minutes anse is whd thirty nine secoweeks
have peard volume one of this series, and it's about time for
numbr Sofning amok, some thenes, as opposed to the soft ones)
and things explode, eight times. And audgment of volume two, it
doesn't differ from volume one very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jliat.com
JANNE HANHISUANTO - PADMOSPHERES (CDR/MP3
by Dharmasound)
Inspired by the four seasons (in nature, not the band), one Janne
Hanhisuanto from Finland plays ambient with the big A. According
to the Dharma website he is a big admirer of 80s synth music,
he 'tries to create images with sound'. The big synthesizer thing
on his release is rather 70s than 80s me thinks. Three big washes
of cosmic synthesizer tapestries and one piece that is a sort
of kitschy orchestral (as in Midi) piece. I have not much idea
about the weather conditions in Finland throughout a whole year,
but it seems to me they are pretty much all the same. It's all
a bit too cliche, almost new age like for me. Very predictable
music. I pass on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dharmasound.com
VLADIMIR NESSI - SOSULKA (CDR by Arterija)
Sometimes highly obscure things land here. The CDR I have here
is not what it should look like according to the website, but
if you decide to get you get the real thing. Or just download
it. The music is by one Vladimir Nessi, who was discovered by
the Cardiowave label a couple of years back, while 'he was singing
romances in trams' in Odessa, Ukraine. 'Sosulka' is very much
a single, in four different versions, a classic, electronic, romance
and a radio version. As a sort of added bonus there is also 'noise
without monologue'. 'Sosulka' means 'icicle' and Nessi plays it
on his guitar, while he sings with a lot of reverb. There is a
version with some added electronics that don't do much either.
There is a version with strings that doesn't add much either.
There is a noise piece, which was great, but way too long. And
there is a song called 'Vesna'. Again a man and his guitar. Nothing
much for Vital Weekly really. But perhaps I missing a point entirely.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.arterija.org/artoo7.htm
THE ERIC MOUSSAMBANI MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA
- CIVIL NOISE MOVEMENTS (3" CDR by Heilskabaal)
Since I am not into sports at all, I had no clue who Eric Moussambani
was. He was swimmer who took part in the Summer Olympics in 2000
and who was twice as slow as the winner (the Dutch Pieter van
den Hoogenband) on the 100 meters and even slower than the 200m
world record. A bit like good ol' Eddie The Eagle in the winter
olympics a few years before. I had to do some more searching,
since the track titles of this CDR are all named after tracks
by a band McLusky, of whom I also didn't hear. So it goes, and
upon hearing the music, I could go on wondering what this has
to with Eric or McLusky. The orchestra plays five pieces of highly
cut-up sounds, which they (he?) culled from various media sources
and fucked it up inside a computer or perhaps analogue equipment.
The five pieces are occasionally noise induced, but there is enough
solid variation to make things quite interesting. Collage like,
noise, quiet hum, static crackles: all the finer ingredients to
make a good release. And with a nice poster of Eric for your bedroom.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.heilskabaal.net
MACHINEFABRIEK - HUIS (3"CDR by Machinefabriek)
By now I must count Rutger Zuydervelt's Machinefabriek to be uncatchable.
Just when I thought I could lump him in with the drone folk, he
comes with 'Huis' ('home'), ten tracks spanning twenty minutes.
He did the short piece approach before, but here he gets help
from people playing such instruments as balalaika, cello, piano,
voice, violin and a saw. In some pieces this leads to introspective
singer song writer music, mostly however of an instrumental nature
and in 'Droog Water' some of the Machinefabriek like sounds come
in: careful crackles, hiss. Guitar plays a big role, not distorted,
but plain strumming. Of course the pieces are short, what else
would you expect from ten tracks in twenty minutes, and one has
the idea that some of the pieces are sketches rather than completed
songs. That is a pity since these pieces are easily to built into
complete pieces, such as 'Schaduw' can be. But then, the new sound
approach of Machinefabriek shows that he is still not finished
searching his own sound and as such he constantly re-invents what
he is doing, and that's something not many people can say. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
NEUMATICA - LIMIAR (OGG by Desetxea)
ANTOINE CHESSEX - DEMO DEMOLITION (OGG by Desetxea)
DEMAND/HEENAN/VORFELD/WIENERT - JANUS (OGG by Desetxea)
HOCHHERZ/BLECHMANN/MATTIN - POST LACK TRACK (OGG by Desetxea)
Most, if not all, releases from Mattin's label w.m.o./r have been
reviewed in Vital Weekly, but, if I'm not mistaken, the music
released on his netlabel Desetxea has never made it into these
pages. To fill this gap I chose some examples from the quickly
growing back catalogue of this label, all released between January
and April 2007.
First up is Neumatica, a duo of Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Pablo
Rega. The latter name doesn't ring a bell with me (although that
is most likely my own fault), but Costa Monteiro is one half of
Cremaster and has several releases under his own name, improvising
in various constellations. Using electronic devices (Rega) and
turntable (Costa Monteiro) they create an intense piece of finely
nuanced electro acoustic noise, based on waves of flickering feedback
and the rich scraping sounds of objects placed on the rotating
turntable. The music combines loudness and density with a fine
sense for structure and variation and is a great example of intelligent
noise improvisation.
Antoine Chessex' piece is devoid of similar subtleties and there
is absolutely no need for them. Berlin-based Chessex plays high
energy 'doom noise'. He feeds his saxophone through guitars amps
and effect boxes to distort it beyond recognition and augments
this massive blast with voice and maybe some electronics. Noise
mayhem as it should be, and despite the connotation of 'doom'
and Antoine screaming furiously there is also an ecstatic side
to the music. By the way it should be remarked that Antoine also
plays very impressive all-acoustic live sets, in which he fills
the whole room with rich minimal circular-breathing drones.
Next is a quartet of Sascha Demand, Chris Heenan, Michael Vorfeld
and Hannes Wienert, recorded live in Hamburg in 2006. They play
guitar, percussion and various wind instruments and move along
the lines of 'classic' free improvisation, sketching out fragmented
hatchings, interspersed with slowly sprawling drone passages and
going from quiet to loud and back again. No doubt the music was
executed with great care and holds enough tension and variation
throughout, but still, although it might be a bit unfair to compare
these, it lacks the extra amount of intensity that marks the two
releases reviewed above.
My final choice is a release that features Mattin together with
Olaf Hochherz and Tim Blechmann. Their piece starts out all silent
and hovers just above the threshold of audibility most of the
time, before it recedes into silence again towards the end. If
you crank up the volume you hear the ambience of a quiet room
during the silent parts, sparse and very soft creaks of chairs
and some birds singing outside. A few minutes into the piece a
static drone with some highly obscure mechanic rumbling underneath
sets in, and gradually and barely perceptible develops over the
course of the next about 12 minutes. It is extremely minimal,
yet gains an almost visual quality, as it evokes the image of
a continuously unfolding thin and heavily blurred dark grey line.
Just as this drone mixes with the ambience of the room it was
recorded in, it gently diffuses into the listener's surrounding
- subliminal and highly effective reductionism. (MSS)
Address: http://www.mattin.org/desetxea.html