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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 584
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week 27
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a
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THE FRUSTRATION... AND US!
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR, BJ NILSEN & STILLUPSTEYPA
- SECOND CHILDHOOD (CD by Quecksilber) *
KUSARI GAMA KILL - DEAD ANIMAL NOISE PARTY (CD, private)
MATTIN & MATTHEW BOWER - A NEW FORM OF BEAUTY (1975) (CD by
Bottrop Boy)
GULLS - EATS AND OPUS (CD by Sonic Lozenge) *
STEVE PETERS - THREE ROOMS (CD by Sirr-ecords) *
RLW - THE PLEASURE OF BURNING DOWN CHURCHES (CD by Black Rose
Recordings) *
FAGO-SEPIA - L,ÂME SÛRE RUSE MAL (CD by Aposiop)
ATAMINE - LAG (CD)
TOM HALL - FLEURE (CD by Nightrider Records) *
ROTHKAMM - FB03: E PLURIBUS UNUM (CD by Flux Records) *
LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJENBERG - CUNT 69 (CD by Firework
Edition)
CM VON HAUSWOLFF & PER SVENSON & LEIF ELGGREN - LIVE IN
LA (CD by Firework Edition)
PER SVENSSON - EL/ELEMENT 1 (CD by Firework Edition) *
DAVE SOLDIER - DA HIPHOP RASKALZ (CD by Mulatta Records)
M'LUMBO - SACRIFIES TO THE NEON GODS (CD by Mulatta Records)
TWINK - ICE CREAM TRUCKIN (CD by Mulatta Records)
JOHANNA WENT - CLUB YEARS (DVD by Soleilmoon) *
SHIFTS - TREES/LEAVES (LP by Entracte)
GASTR DEL SOL - TWENTY SONGS LESS (7" by Minority Records)
POLVERE (10" by Minority Records)
THE DOMESTIC FRONT - NIFLHEIM VEGETATION (CDR by Belsona Strategic
Schallplatten) *
MARTIN HERTERICH - RECORDINGS 070401-070521 (CDR by Hwem) *
OPEN FORS - EXCERPTS (CDR, private) *
REPTILJAN - ARCHAEODERMOPHAGIA (CDR by Some Place Else) *
RAJAPINTA - BOOTLEG EPHIPHANIES (CDR, no label) *
NOISE CONCRETE KONTONBOY (CDr by Government Thirteen/Deserted
Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE LORD OF LIGHT (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE SATURN WIND (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
RECANT SPIROCHETE FEVER (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
ROEL MEELKOP - BUSINESS AS USUAL (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
BEEQUEEN - WHITE BIKE (Businesscard CD-R by Moll) *
FREIBAND - KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FRANS DE WAARD - XI (FOR CHRISTIAN NIJS) (3" CD-R by Moll)
ENIAC - THE WAGON (MP3 by Chew Z)
STEFANO GIUST - MKULTRA (MP3 by Chew Z)
LO DEV ALM - IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK (MP3 by Chew Z)
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR, BJ NILSEN & STILLUPSTEYPA
- SECOND CHILDHOOD (CD by Quecksilber)
So far there have been already two CDs of collaborations between
Icelandic Stillupsteypa (being Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and
Helgi Thorsson) and BJ Nilsen, also known as Hazard. Here they
come together again, in Stockholm, where Nilsen lives, to work
together and invite a new friend, Hildur Ingveldardottir Gudnadottir.
Who? She plays cello and did so for many of her own projects,
playing Bulgarian and Balkan music, but also for Mum, Skuli Sverrisson,
Angel and has a prominent feature on the recent Pan Sonic CD.
The two previous releases dealt with the thematic approach of
alcohol abuse, but here they sober up and start their second childhood,
going back to the world of pure drone music. Gudnadottir's cello
playing is at the core, and perhaps like a good mother she overseas
the activities of her children play around with whatever she throws
around. But they remain from the Nordic countries so they don't
say much, so much of what these four people do is sparsely orchestrated.
Pieces consist of sparse lit harmonium drones, which no doubt
have underwent some computer processing. There is a more musical
texture to these pieces than on the previous two releases, and
that's mainly the cello to be accounted for. But it's another
strong album, this one. Minimal pieces of drone music, dark and
atmospheric, just the perfect music for a mid winter sit along
at home in Scandinavia or a rain covered day in the Dutch summer.
Another very fine work but of course I am sucker for this kind
of more urgent drone music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
KUSARI GAMA KILL - DEAD ANIMAL NOISE PARTY
(CD, private)
There is no time to prepare on this assault! Seconds after you
begin the exploration into the crushing territories of latest
album from Danish project Kusari Gama Kill, sonic disturbance
rolls like cascading waves of turbulence and thrashes into the
auditory canals of the poor listener. Kusari Gama Kill, is a joint
venture between the two artists Martin Weile and Janus Blomfrø,
the latter also known for his excellent Noise-project Bobby Blitzkrieg.
Not for the fainthearted, Kusari Gama Kill, is ready to blow the
hell out of you with their latest album. Carrying the not-so-friendly
title, "Dead animal noise party", the album doesn't
try to disguise its stylistic expression. With 99 (!) tracks included
on the album, the album turns my mind back to Sore Throats 60-track
freaky album of grindcore/punk titled "Never mind the napalm,
here's Sore Throat" (1989). And as was the case with Sore
Throat's legendary album, the power of grindcore is an important
part of the explosives on "Dead animal noise party".
Needless to say, each track has only a limited run-time, yet during
the short lifetime of each track, the explosive energy has been
so well packed and compressed like a nuclear bomb. Combining heavy
low-end rumblings, impenetrably dark atmospheres, chants from
the grave, and overwhelming feedback with merciless drum machinery
and death growls, the two artists has established 99 short works
each of abrasive brilliance. Apparently the artists seem to have
their inspirational roots in both the Grindcore and the Noise
scene, as the album, compositionally is built on electronic distortions,
human death growling and ultra-fast drum-machinery blended into
a cocktail of apocalyptic extremity. Thus, no matter how different
metal music and electronic music seems, Kusari Gama Kill demonstrates
how beautifully these two genres stylistically can be melted into
one sonic hell. Everyone being interested in extreme music, this
being metal or e-music, need to check the album out. This is black
art in its most beautiful form! (NM)
Address: http://kusarigamakill.blogspot.com/
MATTIN & MATTHEW BOWER - A NEW FORM
OF BEAUTY (1975) (CD by Bottrop Boy)
Recorded live to cassette to guarantee the gloriously fucked-up
lo-fi splendor, this duo work by Mattin on computer feedback and
Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu) on guitar and
microphone captures a 48-minute outburst of remarkable sonic rawness.
This is the kind of music that floods your perception with a full
blast of opaque noise from the first to the last minute. Mattin
and Bower play a risky game in using a rather limited palette
of sounds and going full force right from the beginning, but they
succeed in keeping the energy and tension, as they know how to
keep coming up with new nuances and structural accents throughout.
During the first half of the piece, Mattin sets up a wall of rumbling
and hissing digital feedback noise - static on the surface, but
yielding an overflow of complex sounds below - and Bower joins
in with aggressive guitar treatments. Without ever drifting into
arbitrariness, the structure of this part stays rather amorphous.
Later on, though, as the opacity of the sound decreases slightly,
things get tighter and the guitar completely fuses with the now
more detailed digital beeps and screeches. Even at a low volume,
the music reaches a high level of physical intensity, almost causing
actual physical pain. It doesn't have the catchy quality or the
trash appeal of some other current manifestations of lo-fi noise.
But then again just trying to be more loud or radical than all
the others before would seem pretty redundant after all. So, rather
than that, "A New Form of Beauty" manages to find an
irritating as well as stimulating balance between austerity and
excessiveness. (MSS)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com/
GULLS - EATS AND OPUS (CD by Sonic Lozenge)
Jesse Munro Johnson is Gulls, and he is from that beautiful city,
Portland, who is said to be a multi-instrumentalist, which, if
he played all of this here, is very much true. We hear a trumpet,
some bass, drums, xylophone and a stack of electronics. He improvises
his music, but not as an end: as a means to create something else.
All the work he does, is part of the larger work: the finished
composition, the collage of sound that are the eight tracks (although
some pieces cover more tracks) on this CD. The drums come largely
out of a box, but on top he waves his trumpet, guitar, samples,
field recordings and sticks the various pieces of tape together
in his highly vivid piece of music. Ranging from hip hop (but
louder and dirtier) to musique concrete, from sound collage to
ambient glitch, Gulls covers many territories, which do not really
bite eachother. You could have though it would, but it all makes
great sense here. Gulls takes you out on a trip, a headtrip of
space music. Spacious trumpet sounds, static crackles and heavy
pounding drums: it all passes easily, and does it in a great way.
Big city music with sometimes a country feel. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soniclozenge.com
STEVE PETERS - THREE ROOMS (CD by Sirr-ecords)
Reviews of the work of Steve Peters are pretty rare in Vital Weekly.
Not because we don't get his releases, but simply because there
aren't that many. Peters is mainly known for his work with field
recordings and a little less known for his composed works, some
of which were released by Cold Blue Music. Much of his work is
however unreleased, since it's specific works for sound installations
or relating to dance and theater. But on 'Three Rooms' he offers
us three works of considerable length and which were all made
for installations. We don't get to see them, but experience the
music. There is some difference between the pieces. 'Delicate
Abrasions' is one built of field recordings made in an old warehouse
in Santa Fe and takes all the sounds from that space into the
piece: nails, dust, door, concrete and such like. It turns out
that this is most complex piece sound wise whereas the other two
dwell upon one idea. In 'Delicate Abrasions' we deal with empty
spaces through sparse sound. What sounds like rain dripping, slowly
develops into a piece in which the rusty sounds of contact microphones
become alive in a rather peaceful manner.
The most noisy, if that is at all a relevant term here, is 'Center
Of Gravity' which evolves solely around Steve Peters' own breath,
along side real time sound processing. Filtering, echo and delay
are the simple means, but Peters doesn't create a live piece,
but a sound collage of various of these recordings, inserting
silence, and creating a sea-wave shore piece at times, which is
more hiss like at times and not always the refined counterpart
of the first and the third room.
The final piece is 'Mountains Hidden In Mountains' which uses
the one strike of the densho, a meditation bell at a Zen Buddhist
temple in New Mexico. The attack and sustain of the sound are
used here and it never dies out. Peters lets this sound on an
endless sustaining, no doubt through computer techniques, and
it's ringing sound becomes a highly contemplative piece of music.
It's the least complex of the 'Three Rooms', but one of an infinite
beauty. Drone, meditative, this is elevating the listener just
above the ground.
Three rooms, each with it's own characteristic and approach in
sound; the second being my least favorite room, but these three
rooms together make a very coherent house. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
RLW - THE PLEASURE OF BURNING DOWN CHURCHES
(CD by Black Rose Recordings)
Solo music by RLW (Ralf Wehowsky) is a pretty rare thing. For
RLW the act of music making lies in creating something with others,
wether or not by meeting up or exchanging sounds by (e-)mail.
'Views', reviewed in Vital Weekly 413, was a rare instance of
a solo work and now, quite some time and many collaborations later,
'The Pleasure Of Burning Down Churches' is a new solo work. The
churches of the title hark back to meeting a US veteran in Vietnam
who told RLW that he liked bombing churches because they were
easy targets. Field recordings from Vietnam also form the input
of 'More Churches'. It's hard to see this otherwise than as a
political piece. Just as the guy who rants against an answer machine
on 'Helplessly Friendly' - it's hard to decipher his German, but
it's sure not very friendly. I don't think I had expected RLW
to overtly political and he perhaps he isn't. But it seems to
me as if RLW isn't using sounds just for it's sheer beauty. On
these two pieces he wants to bring a message across. On the opening
piece 'Towards A Decontamination Breakthrough' this is less obvious.
Quite a drone like piece of music, quite unusual for RLW. Collage
techniques are to be found in 'More Churches' and 'Helplessly
Friendly', the first with quite a nice intro of car horns and
the second has a scary feel to it, both through the voices and
the spiraling sounds of 'paper string actions'. In 'Burning Pianos'
things move into the abstract again, not political view, just
the exploration of a piano. RLW's work moves on the edge of musique
concrete, but never looses it's touch with industrial music on
hand and with microsound on the other. But it defies these categories
and can perhaps only be classified as RLW music. Great work, but
perhaps you shouldn't believe me; I find much of his work great!
(FdW)
Address: <srmeixner@yahoo.co.uk>
FAGO-SEPIA - L,ÂME SÛRE RUSE
MAL (CD by Aposiop)
For the title of their cd they choose a palindrome, for the songs
they made things less complicated: "Six", "Neuf",
etc. Anyway the titles make clear that we are in the company here
of a french band. An instrumental postrock combo to be more precise.
They do a nice job. A lot is happening in their inventive constructed
songs. With their use of riffs they succeed in building up nice
layers of organic and melodic music. Very coherent and clear compositions.
Besides all is done very well-crafted. I know they are around
since 2002 and "L,âme sûre ruse mal" is
their second. Alas I can't give you any line-up or other information.
I have it not available. Another french postrock band that impressed
me, like did Crevecoeur and Sincabeza in the last few years (DM).
Address: http://www.aposiopese.org/
ATAMINE - LAG (CD)
Not much information about this one.Katamine is the vehicle of
singer/songwriter Assaf Tager. The ex-Elliott Smith guitarist
is accompanied by Haggai Fershtman, Uri Frost, Sharon Kantor and
Adam Scheflan. Normally I don,t listen to the kind of music they
produce: acoustic guitar-based songs. So I find it hard to write
about it.To be clear, I didn,t hear anything that caught my attention:
they are no great musicians, Tager is not a great singer, writes
no original songs. It is the kind of folky music that was made
already some thirty years ago, and will be made no doubt over
antoher 30 years. There are ten songs on this cd. They all sound
very much the same. Katamine is mainly Tager singing and playing
guitar. The others contribute only very sparsely. Wharton Tiers
of Glenn Branca-fame produced by record. I guess Katamine is about
something I don't get. (DM)
Address: http://www.katamine.org/
TOM HALL - FLEURE (CD by Nightrider Records)
Australia, I'm sure I noted this before, is from the outside a
very vibrant country when it comes to experimental. Here is one
Tom Hall, of whom we never heard before, but who got his CD sponsored
by the Australian Government, mainly because he does something
that relates directly to the country: his 'Fleure' CD contains
sounds entirely using sounds from Story Bridge in Brisbane. The
cars passing and the air that makes the bridge vibrate. Hall picks
it up with a couple of microphones all over the construction of
the bridge. It's a bit hard to tell what he does electronically,
but I'm sure there is some extreme filtering going, and/or extensive
use of computer plug ins, but it enables Hall to move away from
the pure sonic landscapes and go into the world of music. If one
compares this with say John Hudak 'Brooklyn Bridge', then one
notices that whereas Hudak makes a highly minimal soundscape,
whereas Hall, through his use of loops and electronics has something
that gets close the Chain Reaction minimal techno sound. The industrial
sounds of the motorway becoming a dance floor. Well, of course
not really, but it's has the muffled, mechanical dance, however
with a strong backbeat. Another major difference is that Hall
produces nine quite different pieces of music, rather than one
long sound scape, which makes this altogether quite a nice, conceptual
release that is somehow roughly shaped, but those raw edges adds
an extra flavor to it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tomhall.com.au
ROTHKAMM - FB03: E PLURIBUS UNUM (CD by
Flux Records)
With 'FB 03 (E Pluribus Unum) Rothkamm completes his trilogy,
'culminating in an epic of supermodern electronic music', or so
Rothkamm, also known as Frank Holger, claims. Holger is originally
from Germany where he first conducted his experiments, then moved
to Canada and now living in New York, together with his collection
of analogue synthesizers. The 'supermodern' part of this recording
has to be taken with a pinch of salt. While 'FB02: Astronaut Of
Inner Space' didn't follow 'FB01', this new one stands in complete
line with its predecessor. The music is linked to the 'supermodern'
synth music of the 60s sci fi sound tracks and the fifties of
the Cologne posse. Sounds bounce up and down the scale, but have
the old, analogue sounds, as opposed to say much of the modern
classical electronic and acousmatic music. It's a fine album,
again, but a bit less of a surprise as the previous one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com
LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJENBERG - CUNT
69 (CD by Firework Edition)
CM VON HAUSWOLFF & PER SVENSON & LEIF ELGGREN - LIVE IN
LA (CD by Firework Edition)
PER SVENSSON - EL/ELEMENT 1 (CD by Firework Edition)
The liner notes to the release by Elggren and Liljenberg tell
us about how they met a man in a bar who gave them the last poems
by Charles Bukowski, our favorite drink poet. Of course a story
which is not true. Why would anyone carry unpublished poems by
Bukowski into a bar and give it to some, no doubt, drunk Swedish
people. Twentyfive 'poems' are put to music here, but they don't
have have any traditional recitation, and usually consist of a
bunch of noise. Hard to tell how this noise was made, although
I thought to recognize a guitar in there at times, but throughout
there is highly obscured sound sourcing going on. Maybe processed
voices reading Bukowski? You never know. As the CD progresses,
there are indeed some sort of poems read, wether or not they belong
to Bukowski I don't know, I somehow don't think so. What this
release is about is difficult to tell. Maybe they dreamt about
Bukowski and decided to make this CD, with tracks ranging from
a few seconds to twenty-five minutes.
More Elggren on a live recording he made in Los Angeles at Beyond
Baroque in 1999 together with CM von Hauswolff and Per Svenson.
'The concert was performed in conjunction with the project 'Angels
via Spirits' were all citizens of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland
could establish contact with the angels' - hence, no doubt the
choice of Los Angeles. The two kings and their companion play
quite an industrial piece of music, in the old sense of the word.
Spiraling sounds, machine drones, pressing 'hold' on a digital
delay, a bit of a hollow microphone recording: all the ingredients
of yesteryear are there. There might be of course a conceptual
edge or two to it, which I fail to see. To me it's quite an alright
live recording that lacks the refinement of each of the three
players solo.
Which Per Svensson proofs in his 'El/Element 1', two pieces from
1987, which were released in 1989 as a cassette on Firework Records,
but now, luckily enough find their way to a CD. This too is quite
noise related, even when Svensson refers to this as 'electroacoustic
music, an action and a shaman ride' in 'El', with bangs on metal
percussion in a large space. A bit like work from Sons Of God,
Phauss and The Hafler Trio from the same area. In 'Element 1',
the stronger piece of the two, he works with primordial elements:
earth, air, water and metal, and things are loud for sure, but
the various elements work to eachother like an iron welding factory
in a dark, mechanical manner, like a self-contained machine beast
coming alive. The Svensson CD is no doubt the best of this new
trio. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
DAVE SOLDIER - DA HIPHOP RASKALZ (CD by
Mulatta Records)
M'LUMBO - SACRIFIES TO THE NEON GODS (CD by Mulatta Records)
TWINK - ICE CREAM TRUCKIN (CD by Mulatta Records)
"We need to do some promotion, let's pull up a list of possible
places to send promo's, but we don't read further. A review is
necessary from every place we can get. Let's send that new CD
we did, and a couple of older ones, because you never know if
they do older than six months stuff too." Love kids, hate
hip hop, I mumbled when I played 'Da Hip hop Raskalz', which is
made by '5-10 year old kids from Amber Charter School, East Harlem,
New York City' and no doubt local government put in a few bucks
to get it out and keep musicians and kids of the street. Why should
I care about this? The kids 'created ALL of the lyrics, sang and
rapped ALL of the vocals, and played and improvised the music.
Of course I edited and mixed, coached and cajoled' says one Dave
Soldier. But I am not at all interested in any of this. "Look,
our overseas review. Must be a grumpy old man" - I rather
play with the kids outside. Most of the times.
And the grumpy and old man couldn't resist to satisfy his curiosity
for the other two releases, mainly because M'Lumbo is a memory
from the past, when their first CDs came out through linked sources.
I forgot what attracted me in their music all those fortnights
ago, but now I hear it again, I do remember: it's that totally
crazy combination of anything from musical history worldwide.
It's both African and western, classical and pop, jazz, dixieland,
psychedelic guitar solos and loaded with samples, but also loads
of instruments which the six piece (and sometimes even more) unfold
their crazy music. It's rather the bewilderment that I have for
this music, then actually liking all the music. It creates a big
smile on this face from time to time. Spooky jazz tunes, marching
band and a guitar solo, it all goes easily into one piece. Much
of this is recorded live, which is also not easy to believe. I
couldn't help thinking: who on earth may like the whole thing,
the music, the concept, the band? I thought it was great again,
and surely will play this to anyone around here for a while as
'that weird thing I got', but I'm sure it will alienate people.
If record stores have an 'unclassifiable' section, then M'Lumbo
should be placed there. And I recommend you to at least have a
listen.
Finally there is Twink, also known as Mike Langlie, who collects
toy piano's and recorded a whole bunch of tunes of them, which
he handed out to a whole bunch of people to remix them, of which
only the name Ergo Phizmiz rang a bell. Now this fun! Cheerful
tunes. Toy piano's with a techno beat, toy piano's with easy tune
rhythm or in combination with other toy sounds. Sweetness all
around, but at nineteen of these tunes in which the toy piano
never leaves the space, even Twink realized things were getting
out of hand, and put 'Ice Cream Headache' at the end. Langlie
is from Boston, MA and if my recollection is alright, the Ice
Cream Man is also from there and like this, one LP every now and
then is great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mulatta.org
JOHANNA WENT - CLUB YEARS (DVD by Soleilmoon)
It is not every day you find DVDs among the list of reviews in
Vital Weekly. But fortunately it is a growing phenomenon, since
there is a nice connection between the expressions of sound arts
and more visually based expressions from other art directions.
In this case we have the beautiful link between pioneering industrial
music and extreme performing arts of California-based artists
Johanna Went who had her artistic climax around the late 70's
/ early 80's art scene of L.A. With much similarity to compatriot
performer and legendary trash artist Paul McCarthy, who also took
his starting point in the art scene of California, Johanna Went
use a wide range of disciplines for her performances, from collage
to painting, from sewing to gluing, resulting in shows that involves
sex, fluids, liquids, meat to create extreme shows of filth, repulsion
and destruction. Trashiness in its most beautiful form! Set against
a background of very loud noise and rhythm textures, Johanna Went's
show is more a furiously energetic trance-state than the performance
of rational being. The sonic background of the performances is
created by two of early industrial scenes strongest artists, Z'ev
and Mark Wheaton, composing sound sculptures of noise and rhythmic
complexity. Musical climax comes with the third chapter "New
Wave Theater". Being the harshest contribution on the DVD
the track is built on buzzing drones and screeching noises. The
abrasive expression are assisted by some cool drum-patterns works
of Brock Wheaton (brother of Mark Wheaton), impressively following
the genuine performing sickness of Johanna Went. On the performing
side the video peaks with the second chapter "The Box".
Combinations of wild animal video recordings and the physical
performances by Johanna Went make the artist seem like part of
the intuitive and instinctive wild animal life. Absolutely amazing
treatments of performances and manipulated videoclips. As top
of the icing comes a bonus CD including the Hyena LP as well as
tracks from their first 7"-vinyl, "Slave beyond the
grave". For people, wanting to know more about the earliest
stages of industrial culture this DVD-pack is a gem. Also for
people seeking the extreme territories of art expression, sonically
as well as visually, this video is a must-have. The highest praise
for Soleilmoon Recordings for bringing these visually and sonically
works of art back into daylight! For further readings about Johanna
Went and her art collaborations with Z'ev and Mark Wheaton, check
out the book "Industrial Culture Handbook" released
by RE/Search Publications back in 1983; Another informative milestone
in the history of early Industrial Music culture. (NM)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com/
SHIFTS - TREES/LEAVES (LP by Entracte)
Added liner notes to a release are a bliss for both the listener
as the reviewer: they put the music into context, often adding
an additional perspective to the composer's work. On this album
the liner notes include the full history of Shifts as well as
an explanation why this work was recorded. In short: Shifts was
formed in 1995 when Frans de Waard (Shifts' main- and only man)
discovered the electrical guitar, which is interesting when you
realize that De Waard is not an instrument-man at all; he is best
at working with sounds rather than playing them on an instrument.
Over the years, De Waard created many Shifts pieces, which are
mostly layered re-workings of guitar sounds in a traditional Steve
Reichian-way. Personal favorite of Shift records is the limited
album "Leaving/At Last" which is well-worth hunting
for if you got time, money and patience (as it is limited to 25
copies!). However, after a number of vinyl and CD releases and
live performances, De Waard decided to stop working as Shifts.
The reason was that he felt he had reached his limitations of
what he considered possible by using the electrical guitar as
sound source. This is a praise worthy decision and I know quite
a few artists who would benefit from a similar decision. When,
in 2004, De Waard bought a 4 string Spanish guitar he recorded
the final three Shifts pieces; Trees, Leaves and Branches, two
of which appear on this album. Both Trees and Leaves are long
minimal layered guitar experiments, with just enough variation
and depth to warrant your attention and enough similarity to lull
you into a comfortable listen. Those qualifications are what makes
this album great and probably the best Shifts album out there.
One small, but very important point of criticism though. The Entracte
releases do not come in an LP cover. Instead, they are packed
in plastic with the record in a plastic inner sleeve and a flimsy
piece of paper. This is an insult for the artist and his/her music.
Do not let the packaging stop you from getting this album though;
it's the best Shifts you'll ever buy! (FK)
Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk
GASTR DEL SOL - TWENTY SONGS LESS (7"
by Minority Records)
POLVERE (10" by Minority Records)
Back in the day I was a big fan of Gastr Del Sol, the modus operandi
of Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs. For reasons that were never
clear to me (admitting right away I don't read music press), the
collaboration stopped and for long we believed that was it. 'Twenty
Songs Less' has a long text, but nothing about the 7" itself.
It lists Jim and David but also Bundy K. Brown and John McEntire
as the bandmembers, but that is hardly unusual. The latter two
were in Gastr Del Sol in its first incarnation, while Jim was
in the second. But still nothing about this 7" with two pieces.
Left on the cutting room floor? Newly recorded (that I don't believe).
One side has a hectic piece of drums, people crying, guitar strumming
and has quite an improvised feel to it. The second side is a more
intimate played piece, revolving around an acoustic guitar which
is quite to the foreground, but disappears in some tape treatment.
This piece is the best of these two. Quite a mysterious record
this one, but quite nice also.
Moving along similar lines as Gastr Del Sol are Polvere, a duo
from Italy, with Mattia Coletti on acoustic and electric guitars,
drums, percussion and voice and Xabier Iriondo on ukulelem taisho
koto, zither, old '20 Japanese records and electronic treatments.
They had some releases on Wallace Records. Their music is made
through improvisation and is throughout minimal. They start strumming
their strings and play probably with hand and feet to get all
the sounds going. The six tracks where recorded following a tour
in Japan and there are traces of Eastern tunings in the music.
Intimate playing that sounds improvised, folk-like and even good
old DDAA comes back to mind. It combines drone music along with
musique concrete, tying post rock in. Great small music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.minorityrecords.com
THE DOMESTIC FRONT - NIFLHEIM VEGETATION
(CDR by Belsona Strategic Schallplatten)
Originally 'Niflheim Vegetation' was released in an edition of
just seven copies (why, I wonder), and now re-released in an edition
of 93 copies with a possibility of seeing it as a real CD, with
extra material. Why, I ask again? Why not entirely release this
as CD. The title piece is the centre piece of the release, with
it's twenty-seven minute of duration, plus a much shorter piece
as an introduction. Stylistically this continues his previous
release 'Having Achieved Balance, You Cannot Be Moved... So You
Rise', in which he shows himself as a capable electronic counterpart
to Nurse With Wound. Whereas Stapleton incorporates acoustic sounds,
instruments alongside electronics, The Domestic Front, a.k.a.
Thom Bailey, a.k.a. Thomas Transparant, uses just electronic sounds,
either made on real synthesizers or on digital versions thereof.
His montage techniques of sounds is however quite similar. He
let's sounds stay around for a while, but then in a sudden, abrupt
move, he throws them around, or away, and replaces them with a
different set of sounds. All in quite a vivid manner. Though not
as known as Nurse With Wound or Irr.App {ext}, The Domestic Front
would certainly earn a place among them, as this is a pretty strong
work, again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.belsona-strategic.com/
MARTIN HERTERICH - RECORDINGS 070401-070521
(CDR by Hwem)
One half of Sevkens, a duo from Sweden, Martin Herterich is also
active as a solo musician, even when he started in 2003. He moves
only partially away from the ambient glitch of Sevkens, but his
solo work is built around the use of piano, a grand one even,
with some electronics and field recordings. The four pieces have
that slow, meditative piano playing alongside cracking sounds
and rain running in the harbor. It fits the recent trend of 'piano
and electronics', say Fennesz/Sakamoto, even when Herterich pushes
his electronics a bit more to the background. The best piece is
the longest one 'Asleep/Awake', in which the grand piano has the
dominant role and the electronics are reduced to just hiss and
loops are made of the playing. It has that William Basinski feel
to it, even when the sound is a bit more present than his US compadre.
Perhaps a bit short this one, but it's certainly an appealing
release for anyone in moody glitch music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hwem.net
OPEN FORS - EXCERPTS (CDR, private)
It's pretty easy what Open Fors does: he notes himself on his
myspace site: 'synths and loopers'. Open Fors is one Kyle Hodgson
from Calgary, Canada, and besides his influences such as Lee Ranaldo,
Andrew Chalk, Mirror, Thom Yorke, we don't get to know much more
about him. Which is fine, the music should speak for itself. The
pieces are relatively easy made. Hodgson presses down a chord
on his synth, feeds it through a delay (infinite sustain) and
some EQ-ing on top. That's about the extend of his work. Normally
no problem, but in this case I was thinking, "well, that's
it?". There are ten tracks on this self-released CDR and
the total length is twenty minutes. But music like this needs
some time to develop, to produce than trance like drone, that
atmospheric undercurrent that puts the listener to sleep, or such
like. Here a piece starts and before the listener gets into it,
it's already over. That is a pity, because I'm sure there is more
to it than just this. Now we got a peep in his sketchbook of unfinished
ideas which explains the title a bit too well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/openfors
REPTILJAN - ARCHAEODERMOPHAGIA (CDR by Some
Place Else)
RAJAPINTA - BOOTLEG EPHIPHANIES (CDR, no label)
Like many of the releases on Some Place Else, also this one has
musical involvement of the boss himself, Niko Skorpio. It's been
a while since we last heard Reptiljan ('The Hellbender Suite'
was reviewed in Vital Weekly 480), but here he returns, moving
away from the digital area, using bass guitar, contact microphones,
fm radio and delay and distortion pedals. Musicwise this has less
to do with the breakcore of the previous release, and altogether
more with noise. His noise however is not the usual blend of distortion,
but Skorpio knows how to balance things. Odd sounds like an alarm
pops up, while seconds later it gets washed away in a blend of
oceanic noise. Snippets from radio leak through this barrage of
sound, but they add a nice extra flavor to it. Now while noise
is not always on the daily platter, I must say that when it comes
from the likes of Reptiljan it's quite alright. At least for a
weekly digest.
Not on Some Place Else, in a deliberate attempt to create a bootleg,
but who found a bunch of old 7" covers and decided to pack
the CDR by Rajapinta in them. Rajapinta is/was the collaboration
of Ibrahim Terzic and Some Place Else label boss Niko Skorpio.
They worked together from 2001 to 2006 and created 'hundreds of
hours of work and experiments'. Skorpio set forward the task to
edit these recordings and on 'Bootleg Ephiphanies' are the best
pieces. Although a lot of the matter is quite noise related, I
thought it was a pretty interesting release. Rajapinta doesn't
opt for the true all out wall of noise, but rather make a sharp
combination of floating samples, letting them bounce up and down
the scale, thus creating quite a lively set of music. Plus it's
not all noise that rings around here. They know how to pull back
and put on a softer tune. Heavy duty musique concrete, turntable
madness and enough computer plug ins to create a hard disk crash,
it all kind of makes great sense here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
NOISE CONCRETE KONTONBOY (CDr by Government
Thirteen/Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE LORD OF LIGHT (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE SATURN WIND (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
RECANT SPIROCHETE FEVER (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
We begin- 7 tracks all untitled with very little information -
and short pieces - but raw(ish) noise from Japan - contrasted
by three CDs whose genre might be called industrial, experimental'Bardoseneticcube
was formed in summer 1998 by Igor Potsukailo and Sergey Matveev
. The most precise definition of their music is surrealism' Recant
formed in San Diego CA and as it said somewhere on the net they
use voice, sax and other assorted devices that's the easy part.
Noise Concrete's noise is not as pure and crushing as the Pain
Jerk/ Weise ubber-piece of the other week - it had some tortured
vocals and noodlesques about its short 7 tracks, perhaps its trying
to say something- perhaps it shouldn't, perhaps its pushing noise
into music concrete like it says on the tin. In doing this I think
it makes an error - any deviation or movement is automatically
appropriated by "them", "they", "it".
Take surrealism - the Dali worlds are all over the place - so
why the interest in it by what must pass as fringe groups, outsider
art, hell - avant garde- and what do I mean. If you have MS Word
- Format - Font - Text effects - (choose any but I have marching
red ants and shimmer) - MS Surrealism - built into Word and just
as useful as a melted watch. If these people - and I'm grouping
the whole 4 together here- are re-appropriating past isms, genres
then they do need to be careful - of seeming like tribute bands
to western civilization T.M. Is there anything wrong with this
- Noasis after all sounds very P.M. But the Glen Miller Orchestra
continued long after the man died I have found the success at
overcoming this - is to do nothing- now immediately the danger
of 4'32" looms - and its not good enough to simply pass oneself
of as Jane Cage. Even as a drag queen.but its maybe not surprising
that the violence of Japanese Harsh Noise could lie in their long
tradition of doing nothing - violently. Please understand the
3 Industrial / gothic Cds have at times ethereal and filmatic
sequences, glimpses of improv, which for all I know may be ironic,
but in the form of such media the effect can get lost, like you
don't see any marching ants in this text do you? One - well I
for myself want to distance myself - mentally and physically from
the totalisation of modernity - even the seven seven bombers went
white water rafting as some kind of team bonding - just like Microsoft
execs do - very surreal (jliat)
Address: http://www.desertedfactory.com
ROEL MEELKOP - BUSINESS AS USUAL (Businesscard
CD-R by Moll)
BEEQUEEN - WHITE BIKE (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FREIBAND - KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FRANS DE WAARD - XI (FOR CHRISTIAN NIJS) (3" CD-R by Moll)
Just a few weeks after the recently reviewed set of Freiband CD-Rs,
there are four new releases on Frans de Waard's Moll imprint.
Two of these - 'White Bike' and 'XI (for Christian Nijs)' - have
a particularly personal character, albeit of a wholly different
nature. Beequeen is Frans de Waard's long existing duo project
with Freek Kinkelaar. 'White Bike' should have been on the upcoming
Beequeen album 'Sanddancing', but Freek and Frans decided not
to include it on the album and so it was released on Moll, along
with the original demo sung by Freek and an excerpt from the recording
session with an appearance of Frans' daughter Elise. These latter
tracks add a nice, intimate touch to the release and beautifully
match the song itself. It's a wonderful pop song, played on piano
and balloons, with vocals sung by Eva Volmeijer. The melody sticks
in your head immediately and its joyous and slightly naïve
mode puts a smile on your face, making this a promising candidate
for this summer's sweetest tune.
'XI' (for Christian Nijs) is dedicated to Frans' first musical
partner with whom he recorded as Kapotte Muziek in the early 1980s
and who committed suicide in 2002. Although this work is indexed
as one track, it is clearly divided into several distinct passages.
A slowly pulsating, pure electronic drone provides a well-chosen
opening to the disc, which is followed by the rumble and crackling
of various highly obscured field recordings that form the rest
of the piece, together with some minimal electronic insertions.
The use of short loops and the blending of field recordings and
electronics as well as the lo-fi character bring to mind some
early works of Kapotte Muziek here. In its overall solemn and
sparse tone and its subtle personal references, 'XI' finds a quiet
and unpretentious way to remember a person who chose to put an
end to his life.
The limited playtime of just under 4 minutes, that the businesscard
CDs offer, demands a precise and concentrated composition and
Roel Meelkop's 'Business as Usual' delivers just that in a series
of multilayered hissing and rumbling textures which are juxtaposed
with moments of silence and passages hovering barely above the
threshold of audibility. Complexity and tension are successfully
translated in a miniature format here. The same goes for Freiband's
contribution to the ongoing series of reworks of material by Kapotte
Muziek. Dealing with tiny details and porous textures, this is
one of the more austere Freiband works, roughly along the lines
of 'Ice Field', one of the preceding releases on Moll, but substituting
the harshness of the latter with fragility. It thus hints to Kapotte
Muziek's use of amplified objects and largely maintains the characteristic
feel of concrete sounds, transformed, however, into crackling
digital detritus. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
ENIAC - THE WAGON (MP3 by Chew Z)
STEFANO GIUST - MKULTRA (MP3 by Chew Z)
LO DEV ALM - IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK (MP3 by Chew Z)
'The new label Chew Z took their name from that Philip K. Dick
uses in 'The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch' to refer to the
new drug pushed to terrestrian colonists on Mars in order to divert
their minds from their unbearable and boring existence' so the
press text tells us, and they have a 'do-it-yourself' mentality,
which is of course loudly applauded here. But what about the music?
Eniac is one Fabio Battistetti, who likes to ride on the train,
where he composed his sic pieces that form 'The Wagon'. Sitting,
driving, headphones, laptop (I always think that all people around
me with laptops in trains compose music, but no doubt they just
play a game). I can't say that I am very much taken by his music.
Part rhythmical, minimal but by no means danceable, with time
stretching going on, but all six tracks sound more or less alike,
similar sounds and similar approaches to what could be a composition.
Stefano Giust uses 'original sounds by Andrej Nako and Karen O'Brien',
whoever they might be. All tracks are called 'MK Ultra', of which
the first is quite short and the other two are quite long. Chew
Z describes this as 'electronic music solo improvisation played
with stick and electronic pads'. His material is also quite similar,
also in sound and approach, with an arpeggio synth sound and some
banging rhythm which start-stops every now and then but at least
his material is a bit more forceful and aggressive than Eniac.
However it's too sparse to be enjoyed for the full length.
A combination of Eniac and Stefano Giust might be Lo Dev Alm,
also known as one Daniele, who presents his third album with 'It
Is Later Than You Think'. His beats are loud and mean, while his
synths are quite the opposite. It makes an interesting interplay
between these two. His pieces are perhaps a bit too long for what
they are trying to get across, but at least he brings in some
variation in the pieces by using different built ups in his pieces,
a wider variety of sound and with more balls than Eniac. The best
of three this one, even when not great either. All three of these
should find time to explore how, what and why about their music.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.chewz.net