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.
JODI CAVE – FOR MYRIA (CD by 12K) *
POINTS OF FRICTION – AFTERLIFE DNA FINGER-PAINTING (CD by Melon Expander) *
EDWARD KASPEL – DREAM LOGIK (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
EDWARD KA-SPEL – MELANCHOLICUS ANONYMUS (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
THE SILVERMAN – STATE OF UNION (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
ZONK’T – -TROPE (CD by Sound On Probation) *
MIMEO – SIGHT (CD by Cathnor) *
MOVE D – 10/11 LIVE AT JOHANNESKIRCHE (CD by Bine Music)
PAL ASLE PETTERSEN – KOMPROMISASJONER 7-13 (CD by Zang) *
MARSEN JULES – GOLDEN (CD by Genesungswerk)
TARKATAK – MORMOR (CD by Genesungswerk) *
EXTRACT (2CD + book by Non Visual Objects)
MATT WESTON – RASHAYA (CD by 7272 Music)
MATT WESTON – RESISTANT CRUISERS (CD by 7272 Music)
SPACEHEADS & MAX EASTLEY – A VERY LONG WAY FROM ANYWHERE ELSE (CD by Bip Hop) *
LARYTTA – YA-YA-YA (12″EP by Creaked Records) *
NODOLBY – AXE MAGNITUDE/ALTERED BEAST (7″ by Dokuro Records)
GREEN MINE – ULTRA RAINBOW (3″CDR by Dokuro Records) *
CIRCLE SIX – NIGHT IN KANSAS (CDR by Annuit Cîptis) *
JLIAT – NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOL. 4 (CDR by Larks Council Of England) *
ORPHAX – PROOF OF CONSPIRACY (3″ CDR by Cut Hands) *
SEWER GODDESS – ERIS SADISTICUM (3″CDR by Silken Tofu)
SKY BURIAL – SB IV (3″CDR by Silken Tofu) *
JODI CAVE – FOR MYRIA (CD by 12K)
12K’s compilation ‘Blueprints’ (see Vital Weekly 550) was supposed to be the stepping stone of a bunch of newly signed artists. Pjusk was the first to do their debut (Vital Weekly 575) and now it’s time for Jodi Cave from the UK. Unlike Pjusk, Cave did leave an impression on the compilation, with some musique concrete inspiration composition. On ‘For Myria’ this is continued, but incorporated in a more musical setting. Cave is capable of handling many instruments, such as harmonium, clarinet and guitar, which he waves along side field recordings, stones, scraps of metal, some of the recording at close range: the musique concrete element. Seven pieces, somewhere between nine and two minutes. The good news is that Cave plays some mighty fine music. The combination of the music side with the concrete sounds works fine. The downside is that there is not much difference between this and so many others. It’s almost if there is a blueprint (pun intended) out there, follow these seven steps to create this type of music. As such I really didn’t hear much new in the work of Jodi Cave. But as someone recently asked me wether it’s really necessary to have something new going on all the time, or that it’s my own person who wants that (perhaps as a result of hearing so much of everything). That is a valid question, I think, and one I can’t answer too easily. Indeed it might be the overkill of this (as well as other kinds of music, say noise) kind of music that makes me a bit harsh on what is released as such, but I realize one can’t always be original. Perhaps for some people, and maybe Jodi Cave is such a person, it’s good enough to make some music which is just nice to hear. Cave certainly made such as CD. It’s well made, sounds great, but alas is not the most original one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
POINTS OF FRICTION – AFTERLIFE DNA FINGER-PAINTING (CD by Melon Expander)
Melon Expander’s third release is by Points Of Friction, following releases by Joseph Hammer and Solid Eye. Forthcoming releases include other members of both Solid Eye and Points Of Friction. I mention this to point out that it arrives from a lively scene: Los Angeles. All of these people and bands have existed since the late 70s when they were all loosely (or less loosely) associated with the Los Angeles Free Music Society label. Points Of Friction released two cassettes in the 80s, which were released on CD and CDR in 2002 and 2004, by which time they gathered again and started anew. Points Of Friction’s line up is now Tim Alexander (prepared zither, wooden bowl, electronics, birdcage, toys, spring-loaded mechanisms), Damian Bisciglia (metal sculpture, psaltry, birdcage, digital piano, sampler, electronics), Mitchell Brown (arp synth, ring modulator, electronics, birdcage, tape loops), Joseph Hammer (real time tape loop manipulations) and Kenny Ryman (turntables, loops, zither, thumb piano, electronics). Perhaps needles to say, but Points Of Friction play all improvised music and with such as extended line up, this is quite massive. Massive in a sense that silence is not apparently not allowed in this music. There is always, so it seems, at least two things happening at the same time. They like to feed their sounds through various delay lines, which makes this sound altogether continuos affairs, sometimes it’s a bit too much, but at the same time it also makes very vibrant music. The tape-loops bounce sound back and forth, sounds pop in and out of the mix, electronic and acoustic alike, and there is no instrument that takes on a lead. In a totally democratic fashion everything that is possible, also happens. Two longer and three shorter pieces of tape manipulation form the right sized album of this kind of music, which, in the old days would have made a great LP. In a way Points Of Friction sound like the old LAFMS bands did, but they also upgraded their sound to the new millennium. They play like children, but it’s a great recording, spliced together with great care and style. (FdW)
Address: http://www.melonexpander.com
EDWARD KASPEL – DREAM LOGIK (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
EDWARD KA-SPEL – MELANCHOLICUS ANONYMUS (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
THE SILVERMAN – STATE OF UNION (CD by Beta lactam-ring records)
BLRR is vastly becoming the purveyor of Edward Ka-Spel music. Dream Logik Part 1 is his new studio solo album. True to the gorgeous artwork (a very lavish thick book-like high-gloss full-cover cover) the album starts off equally gorgeous with the Twin Peaks-like spoken introduction Threshold. From that point on Dream Logik is a rollercoaster of sounds and ideas. These mostly work out great. Songs like Harvester with its slow rhythm and spoken word, the beautiful yet harrowing songs Good Life and And The Stars are among Ka-Spel’s best. Unfortunately, this does not count for The 9 O’Clock Train To Oblivion, which does not manage to hold the interest like the previously mentioned songs. The same goes for Revolution 834, which is like its more famous Beatle counterpart, only, well, less fab. With these two exceptions, Dream Logik Part 1 is an intriguing addition to the Ka-Spel catalogue, and far more impressive and interesting than the somewhat directionless Fragments Of Illumina. Dream Logik part 1 is a bleak and highly personal album, full of confusion. “I could not find the doorway” Ka-Spel sings on the beautiful collage-like track Laughing Gas. That is exactly how this album sounds.
In BLRR’s very successful Black Series Melancholicus Anonymus is a great addition. Here we get a series of previously released tracks as well as the obligatory unreleased bonus track, all recorded between 2000-2007. The CD begins with Clara Rockmore Dog, one of my personal favorite tracks. Somewhere between a children’s nighttime story and a bizarre twisted tale, Ka-Spel’s deep sonorous voice tells the story of two dogs who both meet their fate to a background of whizzing and whirling sounds. There is more spoken word with added abstract background in the form of the 20 minute The Evidence Of Absence from the LP of the same title. Clara Rockmore’s Dog b-side Stars On Some Days features some beautiful reverberated piano. The CD also includes two tracks previously released on 10-inch gallery edition albums Meltdown and Complex, both of which sell for quite a lot of money on the internet. Whereas Meltdown features the ambient/abstract soundscape you’ve come to expect, Complex is a beautiful short-spoken word wonder. The unreleased track is Karis In The Spring, which is another ambient piece of work with distorted keyboards. A treat therefore for the Ka-Spel completist.
Although not as productive as his Pink Dot-compadre, The Silverman aka Phil Knight has released some amazing albums. My personal favorites remains State Of Union, which was previously released as a CDR on the Dots private label. This re-release on BLRR features all tracks from the original release including a, you guessed it, a bonus track (not a leftover, but a beautiful full length excursion). State Of Union contains beautiful ambient meditative music, well played and well produced and, on the BLRR release, with considerably less hiss than on the original release. Nothing like the Dots’ music, State Of Union is like a cosmic dreamscape, at times like mid 70’s synthesizer ambience and if you think that sounds naf – you’re wrong. This is a beautiful record that deserves to be heard (again). All these come in gorgeous drawn covers by Jesse Peper. An artist in his own right. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blrrecords.com
ZONK’T – -TROPE (CD by Sound On Probation)
In recent times the name Laurent Perrier pops up quite regularly: either under his one name, or as Heal or Zonk’t. Here it is the Zonk’t hat again, and once again he changes the parameters of his sound. On his first (not reviewed in Vital Weekly) it was in the trip hop/illbient fashion of DJ Spooky, on ‘Purr’ it was the minimalism of Bretschneider and Pan Sonic but now on ‘-Trope’ he combines these along side a lot of other dance music influences, such as techno, ambient house, hip hop, more dub, intelligent dance music or glitchy clicks ‘n cuts. All played on a blend of analogue and digital instruments. One could all too easily think that this mixture of styles would lead to a CD that is too scattered, but its this variation that makes this a highly enjoyable CD – for home listening, I must add. Somehow I don’t see the mass on the dance floor going crazy for one of these tracks or even a live concert – there the varied palette of Zonk’t would work against it, but at home this hotchpotch of dance styles would make a fine listen. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundonprobation.com
MIMEO – SIGHT (CD by Cathnor)
Although I don’t like to do big quotes, I must quote a large section of what is written on the website about ‘Sight’ by Mimeo: “For the sight project each of the eleven members of MIMEO spread across Europe were asked to place approximately five minutes of sound anywhere they chose onto a blank sixty minute CDR. This was done independently of one another, with no communication between the musicians about how or where the music should be distributed on the disc. This process was only completed after the musicians had spent considerable time considering the task at hand, trying to understand what their colleagues may be doing. Finally in late 2006 the finished CDRs were sent to one group member, Marcus Schmickler, who then compiled all eleven discs onto one single CDR, superimposing the eleven pieces of music over each other to create a single work. This task was completed without listening to the music at any stage.” So, did that then include just one CDR with a contribution of each of the Mimeo members, or was this process repeated a number of times, perhaps as many as there are members? This latter is suggested by the fact that Marcus Schmickler ‘superimposed’ it. Or perhaps he did a blind mix, just like Cy Twombly does occasionally blindfold drawing? Mimeo is a large ensemble of improvisers of which membership can run up to twenty-four members. Here however it’s limited to about half of them: Gert-Jan Prins, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews, Peter Rehberg, Jerome Noetinger, Marcus Schmickler, Christian Fennesz, Phil Durrant, Rafael Toral, Cor Fuhler and Keith Rowe. Whatever sort of conceptual approach was used, it’s of course the music that matters here. Mimeo is, by being a large ensemble, a well coordinated troupe of musicians. All of the members have a long history in improvisation and this experience is brought into Mimeo. Be quiet when necessary, make a sound when it fits in. Of course in this case, the all random approach, it might be a total miss (or a total hit), but I think it works out quite well, for the most part. Mimeo is at times a noisy beast. when things shake and burst around, but at other times it’s really quiet and only a few sounds can be heard or even enter lengthy blocks of silence. Throughout it’s hard to tell what it is that they are doing and unless you know that say Gert-Jan Prins uses radio and cables and Lehn a EMS synthi A or Rowe a guitar, then it is possible, perhaps to trace back specific sounds to specific people. Again, not that that is of real importance either. The arbitrary nature of this recording seems pretty low and it could in fact be the result of a composing, rather than just a random ploy. This is an excellent CD! (FdW)
Address: http://www.cathnor.com
MOVE D – 10/11 LIVE AT JOHANNESKIRCHE (CD by Bine Music)
David Moufang, also known as Move D, is one of the regular visitors to the small catalogue of Bine Music. Here he comes with a superlong CD of a recording made at the Johanneskirche on september 10th of year unknown.
Move D is, to me at least, best known for his work on Fax Records, and that’s where I place him: ambient techno with jazzy touch. Perhaps I invented the jazzy touch upon hearing this live recording. Deep space synthesizers, jazzy keyboard lines, a jumpy rhythm and an acid style bass line. The first time I played this was early, very early morning at a considerable low volume, and then the ambient character of this record came out quite well, but later on when I turned up the volume a bit the rhythm part turned out to change these pieces a little bit and made me quite cheery. Best be heard in one go, I think, while lying down and relaxing – no doubt like the audience did when they saw and heard the original concert. Quite nice, but at the same time, also quite out of date style wise, as there was a time when there was a lot of this kind of ambient dance music. But Move D certainly is one of the better players. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.de
PAL ASLE PETTERSEN – KOMPROMISASJONER 7-13 (CD by Zang)
Over the years we have come across the name Pal Asle Pettersen a few irregular occasions. The last time was in Vital Weekly 512 with it’s nerve wrecking ‘Skjegg’ release, with it’s fifty-tracks in twenty five minutes. He now writes that ‘Skjegg’ was an album of ‘improvisations of found sounds’, whereas this new one is ‘an exploration of manipulation of sounds and new ways to use computers to create sound and sound structures’, but at the same time we are also informed that this work is from 2001 to 2004. So perhaps it was created prior to ‘Skjegg’? I must say I like this work better because in general the pieces are more worked out. Always dealing acoustic sounds, but which we are never to find out what they are about. Each and every one of them is treated inside the computer, and could be of any kind. Pettersen’s music is better served with the longer length of a piece, as he proofs to have a keen ear for variation and structure in his pieces. His work stands firmly in the tradition of musique concrete, division microsound (although entirely not really soft), but he has a certain playfulness that is lacking in so many of his peers, which makes this CD quite a nice. His best work to date. Serious and playful go hand in hand in this very nice. This should have been on Empreintes Digitales, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kunst.no/paal.asle.html
MARSEN JULES – GOLDEN (CD by Genesungswerk)
TARKATAK – MORMOR (CD by Genesungswerk)
Strangely enough Vital Weekly did review a bunch of releases by Marsen Jules before, but not his two albums on City Centre Offices, and that’s probably where most people know him from. Jules, or Martin Juls as his real name is, hails from Dortmund and started working as Krill Minima, having releases on Genesungswerk, Thinner and Autoplate. His work is not easy to describe, but it’s partly rooted in ambient music, partly in electronic music. Jules likes a melodic and dramatic touch. For his latest album “Golden” he returns home, to Genesungswerk, and while it’s not easy for me to compare this with the two previous records he did, I must say this is a pretty strong album. Jules plays guitar, piano and electronics – and probably in this order. The electronics are kept to a minimum – glitches in the background, rhythmic, supportive and never asking for the lead in the music. That role is for guitar and piano – both on an equal level. They play minimal melodic touches – more like poetic thoughts and gestures than well rounded compositions. Highly atmospheric music at work here. Defying the notion of ambient (too much glitch) and microsound (too musical by any standard), this is also a work of non-dance music, as one could perhaps expect based on his City Centre Offices connection. Folky, poppy, electronic, those are the keywords, but in a more modern classical setting. The name Durutti Column popped up. Great work.
Tarkatak is Lutz Pruditsch, who works under this name since 1994, and who has released a whole bunch obscure CDRs, cassettes, 7″ and a LP. ‘Mormor’ is his first real CD, and it’s about time it happened. Since long he is ready to conquer the world of ambient drone music. It’s been a while since I last heard music by Tarkatak, and I associated his music before with analogue synthesizers, e-bow, guitars and effects. When a switch over was made I don’t know, but there definitely was one, since ‘Mormor’ sounds far more digital than anything I heard from him. Tarkatak’s music is still highly atmospheric, but much more sparse these days. Each of the four long pieces is built around just a few loops, which Tarkatak plays around with, changing the color of them, getting them out of sync and back in sync again, and such like, and creates a wonderful textured sound. There are times when ‘Mormor’ reminded me of Taylor Deupree, but then a bit more dark, but it has the same relaxed feeling to it. But there is also the featuring of rhythm, which is also an entirely aspect, certainly when it comes down to stripped down techno rhythms. Quite a break with the past, I think and quite a step forward. Including is a film for one of the tracks, which depicts the sea and the sand, along with a lonely man – the sort of film you’d expect with this lonesome music. Great CD, and hopefully bringing him some more recognition. (FdW)
Address: http://www.genesungswerk.de
EXTRACT (2CD + book by Non Visual Objects)
Its possible to start with saying I don’t like to review compilations, and ‘Extract’ is a real difficult one. Two CDs, twenty-two tracks, by people that we may know from the world of microsound. That is twenty-two pieces of deep bass hum, crackles, processed field recordings and static hiss being filtered through Max or PD (depending who’s side you are on). It’s not easy to spot the highlight in this contest of ‘I am more silent than you’. That is a possible approach. But we should be better off approaching this from a more positive view. The owners of Non Visual Objects have already released a bunch of CDs and this book is a sort of introduction to the world which they are present in. The hardcover book has about 100 pages, and it’s four pages per artist. ‘Where are you from and what do you do’ is more or less the approach taken by the curators of the book. Not a book about theory, but a gentle introduction. Some people talk about their origins through the form of interviews, others write themselves about their work, which is not always about their music. It can be also about other forms of art they occupy themselves with, such as photography, installations or drawings. It adds a more human aspect to the music, seeing the photo’s of the artists and their personalized stories, which work best if they leave the format of an interview, and when they are really personal, like the ones of Steve Roden, John Hudak and Roel Meelkop. With a fresh look at the book (with excellent minimal design), we return to the CDs and listen with different ears. Here we now notice small differences in the various musics that are presented here. The sheer silence of Chartier, I8U, Dean King and Meelkop, but also the street sounds of Gunter, the radio looped minimalism of Hudak, the looped ambience of Taylor Deupree (who has a true trademark sound by now), drone like material from Dale Lloyd and Keith Berry, Jos Smolders’ musique concrete based on environmental sounds, or even a bit more noise based as with Will Montgomery. It’s the smaller variations perhaps to the untrained ear, but major ones to people who are used to microsound. Also included are Heribert Friedl, Richard Garet, Andy Graydon, Tomas Philips, Steinbruchel, Nao Sugimoto, Asmus Tietchens, Toshiya Tsunoda, Ubeboet and Micheal Vorfeld. One could wonder a bit over the selection here, which seems a bit arbitrary. Why no Francisco Lopez, Stephan Mathieu or Marc Behrens? But it’s perhaps too much of a personal selection, but at the same time it introduces us to some lesser known people such as Andy Graydon, Richard Garet and Micheal Vorfeld (who is better known in a different scene, I guess, that of improvised music). This is an incomplete overview but it may serve as an excellent introduction to the uninitiated as well as shedding some light on some of the people we know so well, but who don’t get so much coverage in the real press. As such the best book this year so far. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monvisualobjects.com
MATT WESTON – RASHAYA (CD by 7272 Music)
MATT WESTON – RESISTANT CRUISERS (CD by 7272 Music)
7272 Music is a new label for artists that are best presented in small formats. So they plan to release eps and singles only. The first two releases come from Matt Weston, a drummer and improvisor from Chicago. He played with maestro Jack Wright, Ken Vandermark, Jim O’Rourke and many others. But he seems above all to climb the stage for solo performances as a drummer/percussionist. Besides drums, he uses bells and a limited set of other other objects. Also Weston plays electronics. Listening to both minicds is is evident that a true innovator is at work here. Weston has an extensive vocabulary, and weaves nice textures in a post-AMM style. His improvisations have a strong drive and sound very fresh and to the point. In contrast to his subtle drumming is his use of electronics. Especially on ‘Resistant Cruisers’ we hear him play some primitive and harsh noise. But effective and funny it is. Weston is a very self-consciousness player who knows what he wants, as make these crystal clear improvisations evident. Good stuff. (DM)
Address: http://www.7272music.com
SPACEHEADS & MAX EASTLEY – A VERY LONG WAY FROM ANYWHERE ELSE (CD by Bip Hop)
The name of Max Eastley will be linked eternally for me with the Obscure Records Series of Brain Eno. These records were an important point of reference for me, when I started to discover ‘other’ music. Eastley became a well-known sound-sculptor in this sector of the arts.
Already in 2001 Eastley recorded an album with the Spaceheads, called ‘The Time of the Ancient Astronaut’. Then and also on this new cd Max Eastley plays the arc, a self-built instrument of course, to be more exact: a monochord of wood and wire, which is scraped, bent and flexed into an orbit of amplified effects. Andy Diagram – once member of the new wave band Diagram Brothers – plays trumpet, using echo and other electronic gadgets to reach his fluid sound. Together with Richard Harrison, who plays drums, both were once members of that other new wave band named Dislocation Dance. All this is history. As Spaceheads they continue their collaboration since 1989. From this knowledge, and listening to this album, I conclude that these guys must have really developed themselves in quite a different field of music, that is more close to soundsculpting and abstract improvisation. But all this is speculation, because I don’t know their earlier work. Recordings for this record came partly from the Mimi-Festival, on an island south of Marseille. The other tracks originated in an isolated village somewhere in England. At moments I don’t know what to think of record. The music seems to move in any direction without much control by the musicians. At other moments the music is very strong and concentrated, like in ‘The Dream that murdered sleep’. The title track falls a bit apart from the rest, as it is the only track with a steady beat going on, in a sort of Jon Hassel-like version of world tribal music. It must be said that the combination of instruments goes very well together and create an interesting blend of sounds, and make it a coherent album. (DM)
Address: http://www.bip-hop.com
LARYTTA – YA-YA-YA (12″EP by Creaked Records)
A new release on the eclectic Creaked Records and a new EP for the dance floor industrialists Larytta, a duo of Christian Pahud and Guy Meldem from Switzerland. I had a chance to play their music in a local alternative club when people danced to it. Larytta’s music is a well balanced mixture of few styles or influences and some of those are: squeaking electronic clicks and glitches, hip-hop, pop, percussions, guitars, vocals, lyrics and twisted melodies… But probably the most present atmosphere in their music is that which comes from the industrial music, cleverly settled down in the manners of pop music. On the new EP ‘Ya-ya-ya’ all of that is specially well done in the last track ‘Wonder vendor’, which of all four tracks has the most songwriting sense, which for me is specially interesting in Larytta’s music (reminding me of Safety Scissors). I think that songwriting approach should be more explored and applied by the duo perhaps on their next album release. Great music and a nice EP. (BR)
Address: http://www.creakedrecords.com
NODOLBY – AXE MAGNITUDE/ALTERED BEAST (7″ by Dokuro Records)
GREEN MINE – ULTRA RAINBOW (3″CDR by Dokuro Records)
These are the first two releases on a new Italian label, called Dokuro Records, which advertise themselves as ‘for noise and others misshapes electronics activities’. It seems, but not entirely sure here, that the first releases deal with the band ENT, which may or may not have split up. The first release is a 7″ in an edition of 166 copies (100 on black vinyl and 66 on marble-amethyst colored vinyl) by Nodolby, the new name of Michele Scariot, one half of ENT, whose ‘Fuck Work’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 511. Apparently Scariot has been recording music as Nodolby since 1998 but never released anything as such. On his two pieces on this 7″ he goes in the all out noise area. There is someone playing a trumpet on the b-side, but I don’t think I discovered one as such. High pitched feedback going through an endless amount of distortion – the usual noise drill (pun intended) going on here. Alright, but very worn out.
The second release is by Emanuele Bortoluzzi, also known as Kabu and the other half of ENT. As Green Mine, Bortoluzzi focusses on ‘ambient-noise music made just with Suzuki Omnichord OM-27, efx and laptop’. I must admit I thought this was more noise than ambient. Bortoluzzi presses down a few buttons on his keyboards and let’s the sound go wild through his sound effects. It doesn’t have the same surprise as ENT did before as the five pieces sound rather like a lo-fi version of someone who would want to play ambient music, but in stead plays a bunch of noise versions thereof. It’s pretty o.k., but also there is enough room for development, or even improvement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dokuro.it
CIRCLE SIX – NIGHT IN KANSAS (CDR by Annuit Cîptis)
The website by Circle Six shows a handful of releases, but what they are about, is hard to say. ‘Night In Kansas’ is his latest and looking the fourteen titles, they all deal with driving through Kansas (according to his myspace site, this is the place Circle Six is from), because we get songs like ‘Driving Into Kansas’, ‘Night In Kansas’, ’70 MPH’ to end with ‘Now Leaving Kansas’ (and curiously not ‘I Have A Feeling Where Not In Kansas Anymore’), but wether these sounds used on the songs deal with Kansas, or driving cars, is a bit unclear. Don’t let the list of influences distract you. The music has little or nothing to with The Cure, Skinny Puppy, Future Sound Of London, Numb or Richard Devine (let alone Kant, Nietzsche or Marx). Just what it is that Circle Six is not entirely clear. There is, I think, electronics involved, sampling and such like, of field recordings, which are knitted in a somewhat obscure mass of sound, which is a bit amorphe. It seems partly improvised, and partly worked out. Dwelling on old industrial music, but in a richer and more atmospheric textured environment. Not every moment on this almost seventy minute release is of similar interest, but Circle Six creates some interesting moody textures from the underbelly of the underworld – which might be an apt description for Kansas (how would I know?) – and there are only a handful copies available. That’s too bad as it would certainly appeal to more than thirty. (FdW)
Address: http://www.circlesixmusic.com>
JLIAT – NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOL. 4 (CDR by Larks Council Of England)
bince Jliat board of the review oh for a popnois posse, we feel a bit relieved. Noiseenre is mea dead end, even when I play a bit of noise and n eabif eeky: many are follwer ad few are chosen as trendsetters. Which is no big d, it’s like real life. Whe Jliat as a mus badly an fits i? Tht is nil England he relases with a rip off cod it on. It soe of te oder Merbow work, a bit more in lo-fi territory Not ebut hin totxt of noise. ueight tracks of exactly three minutes anse is thirty nine secoweekhve peard volme one of tto th ones) and things explode, eight times. And augmentof volume two, it doesn’t iffer from volume one very. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jliat.com
ORPHAX – PROOF OF CONSPIRACY (3″ CDR by Cut Hands)
It’s been a while since we last heard from Orphax from The Netherlands, ‘Sand In Boxes’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 464. Since then things have been busy for Sietse van Erve on non-musical matters as well that he did a small tour in The Netherlands as part of Instant Music. ‘Proof Of Conspiracy’ was recorded this year and it’s one, twenty minute piece of music. The input, sound wise, and if I am not mistaken is a bunch of white noise sounds. Or perhaps even one kind of white noise. But once arrived inside the computer it starts a whole new life of its own. It takes on various shapes and once they have that the color changes and it goes into mutation, a bit of rhythm even. Like a fast forwarding glacier mass this comes rolling of a mountain. It moves from the relatively soft beginning via the path of noise to a more quiet ending, but it has arrived in a totally different area. Not a surprising work, but quite a nice one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cuthands.net
SEWER GODDESS – ERIS SADISTICUM (3″CDR by Silken Tofu)
SKY BURIAL – SB IV (3″CDR by Silken Tofu)
On the lovely little label Silken Tofu from Belgium two new releases, and the label expands their horizon across the ocean with two bands/projects from the USA. Sewer Goddess is new to me and he hails from New Hampshire. Among his instruments he lists “Boss RC-20 / Boss ME-50 / Eurorack MX 802A / Korg Electribe Em-l / FX 55c pedal / FX 86b pedal / Line6 pedal / ANALOG Tascam Ports02mk11 / Contact mic / Mic”, which, me no gear freak, seems like a simple line up to produce some effective noise, judging from the musical content of this twenty minute release. Much reverb is used for a set of crude tones, barbaric drones with a gothic undertone. Especially the use of reverb put me off I must admit, since it’s something that one should use with care, and not to create an artificial depth or tension that was not in the music in the first place. It’s alright but it sounds a bit too much like a copy of music on Old Europa Cafe to me.
Micheal Page’s Sky Burial project is a busy off-shoot of his likewise busy Fire In The Head project and as such he has produced a bunch of releases, some of which made into Vital Weekly. His musical development is going quick, and the eighteen minute piece covered here is a true beauty of dark, atmospherical music. Build around samples of an obscure nature, perhaps field recordings or collapsing sheets of metal, he depicts a dark world or maybe an occult ritual taking place. Horror film soundtrack would be an option if he ever wants to make serious bucks from his music. Still heavily in depth with the likes of early Lustmord, a much louder version of Zoviet France or a much softer early Controlled Bleeding, the choice to put on one lengthy piece is a good decision. It gives his music the opportunity to develop beyond the song format and grow into the heavy beast it’s now. It works quite well and it’s definitely a road to explore further. (FdW)
Address: http://www.silkentofu.org
correction: the Unit 21 on Lagunamuch reviewed last week is not called ‘Dislocation’ but ‘November’.
Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don’t wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome <vital@vitalweekly.net>. Forward to your allies.
Snail mail: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard – Acaciastraat 11 – 6521 NE Nijmegen – The Netherlands
All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>, Robert Meijer (RM), Niels Mark (NM), Jeff Surak (JS), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW), Jliat (Jliat), Freek Kinkelaar (FK), Magnus Schaefer (MSS) and others on a less regular basis.
This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it.
Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send any
attachments/jpeg’s, we will trash them without viewing.
There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. Any MP3 release to be reviewed should be burned as an audio CDR and send to the address above.
Some people think it’s perhaps ‘cool’, ‘fun’, ‘art’ or otherwise to send something to Vital Weekly that has no information. Don’t bother doing this: anything that is too hard to decipher will be thrown away. Also we have set this new policy: Vital Weekly only concerns itself with new releases. We usually act quick, so sending us something new means probably the first review you will see. If we start reviewing older material we will not be able to maintain this. Please do not send any thing that is older than six months. Anything older will not be reviewed. In both cases: you can save your money and spend it otherwise.
Lastly we have decided to remove the announcement section of Vital Weekly that is archived on our website that is older than five weeks. Since they 95% deal with concerts that have been, it’s gentle to remove the announcement and more important the e-mail addresses coming with that.
the complete archive of Vital Weekly including search possibilities:
http://www.vitalweekly.net