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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 587
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week 31
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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.
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weeks). Download the file
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FOR BARRY RAY - NEW DAYS (CD by Room40)
*
CANDLESNUFFER - WAKOOL (CD by Room40) *
F.S. BLUMM MEETS LUCA FEDDA (CD by Ahornfelder) *
VINCENT KOREMAN - ANGST (LP by Bunker Records)
ASCOLTARE - BEAM (12" by Tripel)
JOHN HEGRE & HOWARD STELZER - THE BORING LEADING THE BORED
(CDR by Humbug)
ORIGAMI SKANDINAVIA - FURET VÆRBITT (CDR by Humbug)
MY FUN - SONORINE (CDR by The Land Of) *
STAPLERFAHRER/SASCHA NEUDECK - DIFFERENT ANGLE OF VIEW (CDR by
Tib Prod) *
MARC MCNULTY - CODE INCONNU (CDR by Earphone) *
MARC MCNULTY - LE L'EGENE D'EER [DIATOPE]] (CDR by Earphone) *
ERTHAD - GMA (CDR by Zhelezobeton) *
THE INFANT CYCLE - PLAYOUT (CDR by Zhelezobeton) *
SPOOL ENSEMBLE - THREE ELECTRONICS PIECES (3"CDR by Heat
Retention Records) *
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - PARIS AU PRINTEMPS (3"CDR by Primecuts
recordings) *
KING RAZOR POSSET SPLIT SERIES #1 (CDr by Dirtydemos)
JOE+N HEAD COLD (3inch CDr by Dirtydemos)
KHADEAUX/KVIK - VS (3inch CDR by name records)
HARM STRYKER - CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS (CDr by Sockets) *
FOR BARRY RAY - NEW DAYS (CD by Room40)
CANDLESNUFFER - WAKOOL (CD by Room40)
From Sweden is Carina Thoren and from Australia
is John Chantler, but they live and work in London under the curious
banner of For Barry Ray. Thoren has played with groups such as
Satellite Book and Trigger Happy & Performing Apes, whereas
Chantler already released work on Room40 and playing drums on
a Tujiko Noriko CD. Together Thoren and Chantler play all the
instruments, even when it's quite hard to name all of them. There
is a guitar for sure, drums, flutes, and organs, whereas Dom Garwood
adds a bit of clarinet here and there. Despite being Australian/Swedish/Londoners,
I thought it all sounded quite New Zealandish actually, even when
the recording is much better and the music at times more complex.
However the overall nature of the music, the free-form 'let's
play and see where it ends' is very much like a lot of things
from New Zealand. For Barry Ray however have much more to say,
and play a wider range of different tunes here from introspective
and calm to more drone and noise related work. It's a very fine
work of really alternative rock, with a true keen ear for experimentalism.
Also from down under is guitarist Candlesnuffer, also known as
David Brown, whom we know best from his trio work with Anthony
Pateras and Sean Baxter, but who has a lot more to his credit
in the world of improvisation. Here he plays acoustic guitar,
prepared bandura, eukolin and banjo. He uses a little bit of sound
effects, but throughout things sound nice and clean, recorded
in four sunday afternoons. Unlike Andy Moor's CD from last week,
this is more a homogenous thing altogether. Brown hits the strings,
plucks them, let the sustain die out and presses his foot down
to add a bit of electronics. Sometimes wild and improvised, but
at the times, it's almost like country & western style, using
slide playing and fingerpicking. More an unified whole than a
display of techniques, this is however quite a fine work of solo
improvised guitar. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
F.S. BLUMM MEETS LUCA FEDDA (CD by Ahornfelder)
Over the years we have learned to love the work of F.S. Blumm
(born as Frank Schültge), who released his music on mainly
German labels such as Staubgold, Tomlab and Morr Music (although
he also ventured out to Plop for his previous CD 'Sesamsamen'
was released by Plop in Japan). On that work he already worked
with other people, be in through mail, but here he meets Luca
Fadda, who is a trumpet player from New York. I never heard of
him, but it seems he plays a digitally processed trumpet. There
are two live pieces on this CD, which are both very jazzy. Bass
is plucked, the trumpet wanders off and Blumm adds his own blend
of guitar, bass, toy instruments. The best this works in 'Ricke
And Dina', which is a bit more filled with weird elements, dropping
in and out of the mix. Maybe it's because it was recorded in front
of children that the musicians allow themselves more liberty in
making fun on stage. The other live piece is more minimal and
serious in it's jazz approach. Furthermore there are also four
shorter pieces, in total less than ten minutes, which are kind
of alright, but don't seem to be adding more to it than we already
know. You must like fairly traditional jazz music to like this,
I think. Despite the fact of the weird instruments, the bass and
trumpet dominate this recording, which in the end, at least for
me, made it sound all a bit too similar; that one long live piece
would have been enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ahornfelder.de
VINCENT KOREMAN - ANGST (LP by Bunker Records)
There was a time that I followed everything released by Bunker
Records with great interest, but as time went by I lost my interest
a bit, but while playing this new LP by Vincent Koreman, made
me grab a few of the old ones again to be played later on. Koreman
is from Tilburg (The Netherlands), but always strongly linked
to Bunker (who are from Den Haag) in an esthetic way. Dark, mysterious,
heavy and minimal beat music. Koreman, perhaps better known to
the readers of Vital Weekly as Ra-X and to the rest of the world
as a member of The Travoltas, plays music here that is only vaguely
related to the world of techno - the beats are there, but I'm
not sure if they invite the listener to dance, at least not all
the time. 'Yuppie Funk' I can understand as a dance piece, but
the slow 'Abandon Yr Goals is more difficult. There is something
nasty and creepy about these six pieces. They are top heavy under
the weight. Anger, fear and other less comfortable images are
evoked in these pieces. A bit EBM like, but luckily only on the
outside. Pleasure in discomfort. Great furious music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bunker-records.com
ASCOLTARE - BEAM (12" by Tripel)
Following a bunch of releases on his own Tripel label, as well
as outings elsewhere, Ascoltare, also known as Dave Henson, moves
away from the glitch and clicks an enters the dance floor, with
this five track 12". Five tracks, but what a difference is
there to be noted. Sometimes dub like, sometimes straight forward
house like, techno based, but there is always an element lurking
around of things experimental. When we first heard Ascoltare his
music was kinda Fennesz inspire glitch, but here these elements
are gone. Things work best, at least for this minimal mind, in
'Flatwoods' with a strong minimal rhythm and the digital ethno
beats of 'Sky Fishing'. But the other three are also fine tunes.
To be regretted, well perhaps, that I am not a DJ, otherwise you
could find me spinning this one. Now it's spinning at home and
I am the only to enjoy it. On the myspace site of the label there
is apparently also a second part. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/tripelrecords
JOHN HEGRE & HOWARD STELZER - THE BORING
LEADING THE BORED (CDR by Humbug)
(this review appeared last weekly, but with a wrong header. To
correct this, we re-run the entire review) John (pronounced Jun)
Hegre, the perhaps lesser known half of Jazkamer/Jazzkammer, and
Howard Stelzer are good buddies. They toured quite a bit in the
USA with Lasse Marhaug, and, I might add, as per usual, they team
up on various nights to play improvised music together. Hegre
and Stelzer played together in the winter of 2005 at The Midway
Cafe in Jamaica Plain and together at Stelzer's home studio. 'Evening'
and 'The Heckler' are the pieces called here. Hegre gets credit
for 'electronics etc' and Stelzer for 'cassette tapes etc'. In
'Evening' (I assume the live piece), things rather quickly explode
into the world of noise. It's alright, but it stays a bit too
much on the safe side as far as I'm concerned. As such 'The Heckler'
is more interest. The noise element is of course present here
too, but on a totally different level. Stelzer is in full form
here with careful playing of his tapes, with the head tapes scanning
the tapes, lots of hiss like sounds and an occasional burst into
the world of noise. This piece has a better structure, with outbursts
of noise coming in, but sounding creepy and mean.
Address: <tchartan@gmail.com>
ORIGAMI SKANDINAVIA - FURET VÆRBITT
(CDR by Humbug)
A delicate work, at times nostalgic and at others a commentary
opposing a proposed oil terminal, short tracks of a few minutes,
a longer 22 + minute noise piece and found sound, metallic, always
seeming polite and civilized with perhaps not humor but a whimsicality
within the strange genre of "extremely gay noise"...
this is a "CDR lamenting Norway's' 100 year independence
from Sweden (by importing a Danish Price"??? Part of, if
part could be, origami republika "A cultural network where
over 260 people from all over the globe and with uniquely diverse
backgrounds have participated since the start in 1990". One
is reminded of Peter Blake's nostalgic pop art which mourns something
that was only ever an idea of something like a toy shop, a sweet
shop, a seaside pier with miniature railway and hand crafted pin
ball machines in mahogany cases, woodbine cigarettes - in some
abstract collage of sound and sentiment, delightfully sad. (jliat)
Contact http://www.museumsnett.no/alias/origami/skandinavia/index3.html
MY FUN - SONORINE (CDR by The Land Of)
This is the fourth release by My Fun, also known as Justin Hardison
(see also Vital Weekly 471, 504 and 551) and there is truly a
strong upwards curve to be spotted in his work. Hardison started
out with something quite beat related, but after that he went
to all things field and all things micro. On 'Sonorine' he adds
instruments. A sonorine was a spoken word postcard which you could
send with your own personal message carved into it. You can easily
imagine that such a thing would sound quite cracky and perhaps
My Fun thinks that's a sort of pre-date micro glitch. On the eight
tracks on this release things crack, glitch and click a lot. Voices,
field recordings, guitar sounds and lots of plug ins: that's the
extent of My Fun's music, which is still close to the likes of
especially Fennesz with this release, but also to Stephan Mathieu,
but it's growing, composition wise. His pieces are getting better,
more complicated and better. No prize for originality given here
(but that's something we never do), but within the frame My Fun
is working, this most certainly a fine release. It also has a
great cover, so it could almost be a real CD release. That will
happen no doubt one day, if My Fun keeps on growing like this.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.thelandof.org
STAPLERFAHRER/SASCHA NEUDECK - DIFFERENT
ANGLE OF VIEW (CDR by Tib Prod)
Music by biochemist Sascha Neudeck was reviewed before (see Vital
Weekly 562) and of course Staplerfahrer is our own Steffan de
Turck, who has had many releases so far on MP3 and CDR labels
and plays around like a maniac. His music has gradually moved
from noise into the field of microsound, although a certain element
of noise is always present. On this release both present a solo
piece, as well as a remix of a piece by the other. Four tracks
in total, and if you wouldn't be looking at the cover than it
would be difficult to find out who is doing what as there is a
strong similarity between the various pieces. Things rumble an
crack under the weight of field recordings running amok in the
computer. Having said that there is nothing new under this sun,
the micro sun, the four pieces are quite strong, especially Staplerfahrer's
solo piece, which ends in a long, dark drone piece of shivering
nature. In the terms of microsound, which is where you can lump
these boys in, they deliver a fine job, nothing surprising, but
it's made with care and eye for the detail. Not sure which is
the different angle they mean with the title though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
MARC MCNULTY - CODE INCONNU (CDR by Earphone)
MARC MCNULTY - LE L'EGENE D'EER [DIATOPE]] (CDR by Earphone)
Now it's official: Marc McNulty is back. About a decade ago his
name came up with various releases, then he moved out of sight
for a while but now he's back. These two releases on his own Earphone
label are very very recent recordings. 'Code Inconnu' was 'recorded
July 2007', which it still is as we write. 'Code Inconnu' deals
with recordings made in Montreal and on the bridges in Boston.
There is are people talking and whatever field recordings can
be made on a bridge. There are similarities between this and John
Hudak's 'Brooklyn Bridge' or even better the CD by Tom Hall: McNulty
plays shorter pieces than Hudak, but some of the drone related
material is more like Hudak than Hall's sometimes technoid rhythm
pieces. He reworks the material in good electro-acoustic fashion,
which musicwise was not too far from some of the recent material
by Asmus Tietchens. Good sturdy work going on here, and not rhythmic
as on his previous 'Asymetric Error Propagation' (see Vital Weekly
582). Quite powerful stuff, certainly not academic, but perhaps
that's what I like about this kind of acousmatic music.
In 'Le L'egende d'eer [Diatope], McNulty does a 'recontextualisation'
of Iannis Xenakis piece which was originally for '8 tracks of
independent tapes an to be performed/played within an existing
piece of architecture'. Here the space are the ears of the listeners.
I am not sure if McNulty uses the same sounds as Xenakis, but
somehow I think so, but perhaps he's also feeds them through his
own fine blend of processing devices. There are eight voices to
be detected in this work, which sort of move forward in a linear
fashion. Sounds drop in and out of the mix, which could have worked
very lively, but it lacks a bit of passion. Perhaps if one would
hear this super loud, it could work better, but here on the average
installation, the power doesn't really come across. It's good,
but the other one is better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.earphone.org
ERTHAD - GMA (CDR by Zhelezobeton)
THE INFANT CYCLE - PLAYOUT (CDR by Zhelezobeton)
One of the reasons for not doing spoken announcements in our podcast
are the tongue twisting names of artists and labels. Erthad might
be doable, but the name of the label Zhelezobeton is certainly
less easy. Erthad is originally from Kazam and started out in
the late 90s, but it's not until now that he made his first release
on this for me new label. 'GMA' was already recorded in 2002,
using 'voice and software noise synthesizers' as it says on the
website (the cover holds no information). Very occasionally it's
a bit of rhythm, but the major part of the music are built of
long sustaining sounds, that are not loud enough to be real noise,
but at the same it's not ambient enough to be called erm ambient.
It's music that sort of falls between these categories and that's
of course not something new. It's not always 'deep' but rather
stays on the surface of things and one wish they had gotten some
more out of it.
Jim DeJong's The Infant Cycle has been around for a good thirteen
years already and he released a whole bunch of material on various
media. This new release is not exactly new, since it was recorded
in 2003 already an it's a kinda of conceptual release. The cover
says for sound sources 'one carved-vinyl record groove, record
player operational sounds (augmented by violin bow and razor blade)',
which left me thinking what to see. It's now released here on
this Russian label and it's quite a minimal piece of music, actually
two pieces. Records are spun at various speeds and the razor blades
are held at different positions - well, or some such, me thinks.
'How To Bow A Tone Arm' is a minimal, industrialized piece of
music of continuos drones, which is nice but not great. 'Skinning
The Platter' is more interesting, starting out with a sort of
beat, and far away drones, which slowly seem to disappear, instead
of increasing. It's a much more careful piece of music, with a
strange development, but one that holds the attention throughout,
not knowing what to expect next. A great piece going on here.
(FdW)
Address: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
SPOOL ENSEMBLE - THREE ELECTRONICS PIECES
(3"CDR by Heat Retention Records)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - PARIS AU PRINTEMPS (3"CDR by Primecuts
recordings)
Micheal Thomas Jackson has been a strong force of experimental
music for close to twenty years, and is still active. In 1996
he founded the Spool Ensemble, together with Aaron Bachelder to
create free improvise music on electronic instruments. To that
end they ask others to join in and as such they played with Bob
Holub, Matt Smith, Eugene Chadbourne and others. I believe however
that on this 3"CDR it's just Bachelder and Jackson. The latter
plays no input mixer an the first does real-time digital sampling
and processing. The resulting three pieces are interesting pieces
of harsh noise that however have enough variation an dynamics
to be interesting. A sort of violent Stockhausen, but perhaps
with a bit too much improvisation for my taste.
Of more interest is Micheal Thomas Jackson's own 'Paris Au Printemps',
which is not a tribute, at least so it seems to me, to Public
Image's album of the same name. Jackson uses feedback going through
'multiple effect processors'. Static feedback comes out of it,
but there is certainly change in there. This is music that one
should not play very loud but rather soft and then move through
your space: the sound waves will alter by itself. Psycho-acoustic
music in the best Alvin Lucier tradition. It's a very fine disc,
a short but powerful work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.heatretentionrecords.com
Address: http://www.microearth.com/jackson
KING RAZOR POSSET SPLIT SERIES #1 (CDr by
Dirtydemos)
JOE+N HEAD COLD (3inch CDr by Dirtydemos)
Another "split" series - well at least its not a comp
of 55 various artists - and tricky - King Razor sounded like the
spin up and down of the CDR in the computer with some domestic
background noise and a thumping sound - the thing winds down to
an eventual stop and the track is over, prompting me to think
maybe there is something wrong with this P.C. - have I been listening
to the CDr player break. Posset promises to be a tasty dish of
heavy analogue noise - but all I'm getting is silence and an egg
timer. A quick save and then investigation. On the Walkman King
Razor has obviously got an auto panner.. its very minimal various
hums and glitches - and yes the spin up and down sound was down
to Fujitsu Siemens and not KR - how embarrassing that could have
been! - now the Posset is remarkably similar - no its not - its
KRs second track - a split with two tracks each? again micro-sound
effects and field recordings - some speech.. and echoy bits. industrial
noodlings and wooooowy sounds. Now Posset's - noisy - hardly analogue
but metallic crashes - imagine a maniac on a fork lift truck in
a steel works - then strangely track 4 seems a continuation of
the fork lift sequence - very strange but quite likeable - not
harsh enough for my taste - Chicken Tiki not vindaloo.. and some
3 or 4 minutes of silence at the end - or is the Walkman now on
the blink?
Moving on then. Joe+N's 3inch has two pieces of guitar, steel
strings? Either de-tuned or tuned to some exotic scale? and looped
melodica which unfortunately for me sounded at times a little
like a harmonica, especially on the second of the two live tracks,
which even more unfortunately at times sounded like The Rock Iron
Line by Lonnie Donegan, such are the perils of live improv I once
realized that we were drifting into the theme tune from the magic
roundabout. So leaving the dubious accidents of track 2 - track
1 was more thought provoking- it builds pleasant steel string
riffs and chords- and I was thinking how best to describe this
- and decided on simple associations rather than eccentric metaphor,
what came to my mind for perhaps no good reason - or by virtue
of the piece was- Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights or Matisse's
le luxe calm et volupte.. A memorable fancy? (jliat) P.S. Windows
media player tells me the Split might contain errors - and I should
turn on error checking.
Address: http://www.dirtydemos.co.uk
KHADEAUX/KVIK - VS (3inch CDR by name records)
HARM STRYKER - CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS (CDr by Sockets)
Khadeax and Kvik is a collaboration- with little information -
name records is not a particularly useful signifier when it comes
to google - KHADEAUX/KVIK gives 3 hits - 1 of which is Kviks myspace
site - and links to the more dancey Khadeaux - but getting to
this particular collaboration - its dark industrial slash drone
slash echo and slash sci-fiy stuff. They glide zoom and swoop
over imaginary planetary landscapes with noise and ominous rumblings-
or at least they produce the sounds familiar to the darker sci
fi landscapes of Gieger.
Harm Stryker I reviewed in VW 581 - a more than the ordinary and
at times a little quirky duo of electronic improvisers and here
continuing in much the same vein, fashioning what could be bird/insect
sounds electronically, at times even sounding like someone making
an animal out of balloons - if you are familiar with such performances
and accompanying sounds, not sure of the relevance to the title
or accompanying blurb regarding gentrification? (jliat)
Address: <kvik.drone@gmail.com>
Address: http://www.socketscdr.com