MB/HUE/FHIEVEL – ERIMOS (CD by Digitalis Industries)
MUDBOY – HUNGRY GHOSTS! THESE SONGS ARE ENDORSED (CD by Digitalis Industries) *
STEVEN R. SMITH – OWL (CD by Digitalis Industries)
I AM A VOWEL – ET OP LA BANG (CD by Fang Bomb) *
ANGHARAD DAVIES & TISHA MUKARJI – ENDSPACE (CD by Another Timbre) *
FLORIANA VS MACRO – HELEYLAH SUNSET (CD by Dalaki) *
ZAVOLOKA – VITER (CD by Kvitnu) *
BOY DIRT CAR – SPOKEN ANSWER TO A SILENT QUESTION (CD by Aftermusic) *
STEN OVE TOFT – LIT DE PARADE (CD by Roggbif Records)
ANAKRID – UNODOS (2CD by Beta Lactam-ring Records) *
MOLJEBKAS PULSE | SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING (CD by Topheth Prophet)
DEUTERROR – LE GUEULE DE GUERRE (CD by Steelwork Maschine)
TENHORNEDBEAST – THE SACRED TRUTH (CD by Cold Spring)
JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN : DARK BRITANNICA (CD by Cold Spring)
VON THRONSTAHL – SACRIFICARE (CD by Cold Spring)
BOWLINE (CD by Sonoris)
DUANE PITRE/PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE – ORGANIZE PITCHES OCCURING IN TIME (LP by Trome Records)
MANDATE (12″ by Mandate Records)
CHANDELIERS – CIRCULATION (7″ by Ghost Arcade)
MARK HAMM – TO THE NAKED EYE (CDR by Muertepop Records) *
JLIAT – NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOLUME 9 (CDR by Jliat)
A WEEVIL IN A BISCUIT (CDR by Bearsuit Records)
FRED LONBERG-HOLM/BREKEKEKKEXKOAXKOAX – SPLIT (CDR by Cohort Records)
JEPH JERMAN – METAL DRIFT (CDR by Fissur)
TÔ – ETASMA (CDR by Cesare) *
MATT EARLE – GOLDEN GUITAR (CDR by Black Petal)
GEODESIC DOMES OF THE EASTERN SEABORD – VISCOUS ’70 MAGNETS MULTIPLIED BY NOTHING (3″CDR by Black Petal)
THE IMPROMPTULONS – BEAT IT/BEAT OFF (3″CDR by Black Petal) *
MYSTIFIED – D-PROGRAM (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records)
CORPOPARASSITA – ILBELGIOCO (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records) *
NANOHEX – THE BRAIN EXPERIMENT (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records)
MAJA RATKJE – TEIP (3″CDR by Ambolthue) *
TORSTEIN WJIIK – LIVE AT STOY PA LANDET FESTIVAL (3″CDR by Ambolthue)
ELISE DE WAARD – GELUIDJESMUZIEK (businesscard CDR by Moll) *
VIOLET & FREIBAND – FENDER BENDER Fender Bender (3″ CDR by Moll)
WANDER (businesscard CDR by Moll)
MB/HUE/FHIEVEL – ERIMOS (CD by Digitalis Industries)
MUDBOY – HUNGRY GHOSTS! THESE SONGS ARE ENDORSED (CD by Digitalis Industries)
STEVEN R. SMITH – OWL (CD by Digitalis Industries)
The Digitalis Recordings catalogue is quickly expanding barrel of anything non mainstream, but these three releases also proof the big variety in sounds offered. Just like the other M & M (Muslimgauze and Merzbow) Maurizio Bianchi has a wealth of releases, which seems to be vastly growing in more recent times. Maybe I wondered before how much of it is his work, but here I do it again. The cover says ‘inspiration and concept by MB’, but ‘mixed and mastered by Hue’, whereas the music is created by Bianchi, Hue (Matteo Uggeri) and Fhievel (Luca Bergero), the latter known as Sparkle In Grey. So in what way is this a MB album or, say a Hue album? Or is the presence of the name MB a mere marketing trick. Let’s say that it’s the work of three persons (and two further guest players on guitar and piano). The concept is about the emptiness of deserts and solitude of hermits, in Greek called ‘Erimos’. In a single forty-one minute piece this desert is depicted through calm and meditative music, but it’s not a single ambient drone. This trio moves through various stages of which the first two are drone like, time stretched pieces and synthesizers (at five minutes almost techno like), but as the work evolves and extra piano and guitar are moved into this electronic landscape things step out of the ordinary drone/synthesizer music, and perhaps becomes a bit kitschy, but throughout it’s a fine work, and not as empty as desert is (well, or perhaps as we think it is).
Who or what Mudboy is we still don’t know, not after his previous releases (for Ultra Exczema for instance), but to me he seems like a real outsider. A guy with an organ, some effects, his voice, well and perhaps nothing else. Like a savage poet he sits in his single room apartment and records his songs – not really with lyrics or something like that, but more atmospheric sketches of angst, desire and despair. A drone piece, a piece of rhythm and fury, such as in probably the best worked out opening piece ‘Hungry Ghosts!’ or minimal, jazz like rhythmbox in ‘In Which The Sea Hag Is Lead Away, or We Are Lead by Her’. Mudboy throws it all on tape (well, that’s gotta to be a computer, since the quality is quite good, and not the usual outsider lo-fi), and the differences in volume between the pieces is quite high. I thought it was a great release, pretty raw in a way, but also sophisticated in the way it was recorded and mixed. Relaxed at times and a rough diamond at others. The enclosed film displays the psychedelic nature of some of the songs – well, that, and the excellent cover.
The new main feature on ‘Owl’ by Steven R. Smith seems to be the fact that he now singing. But for me that’s hardly a new fact since I never knew he wasn’t singing. Smith is a member of Jewelled Antler, something I may have read about in the Dire, but never heard their music. Also outside the format or genres, Smith plays his guitar in a desolate way, sings his desolate songs, about lost world, lost love and whatever, and yet Digitalis still calls this ‘hopeful’. Perhaps it’s because it’s raining outside that it’s hard to see anything hopeful about this, but it’s not suicidal either. Hardly music to cheer you up, that much is true. I am not a big lover of male vocals (well, of vocals in general), but in the case of Smith things work best indeed when it’s instrumental, as the drone like ‘The Tree King’. Smith doesn’t have the crazy power of Mudboy, but the same loneliness as Bianchi, be it in an entirely different way. (FdW)
Address: http://www.digitalisindustries.com
I AM A VOWEL – ET OP LA BANG (CD by Fang Bomb)
Behind I Am A Vowel is one Nelly Languier who recorded these eight (short) pieces in Paris. I never heard from her, but ‘Et Op La Bang’ is her first release. Her soundsources are limited: as you may guess, she uses voices, but also stones and a computer. The latter is easy to guess if you hear, the first two is a bit more difficult. Languier treats her material quite extensively. Fang calls this ‘pop-drone’, but I’d say it’s more drone than pop. There are small rhythmic particles flying about (stones?) and loads of time stretched sounds (voices?), but it doesn’t quite constitute as pop to these ears. No problem I think, as the material is quite nice. It has a certain intimacy, one that is not uncommon in the female parts of the micro world (think AGF or O.Blaat), and, as said, tracks are kept short. They are more sketches than worked out pieces of music. Usually she gets one idea going and that’s it. Which, given at this length is fine enough. Longer would be a nuisance and shorter nonsense. At twenty-five minutes this is long enough to hold the attention, but for a next release it would be nice to expand the concept a little I think. What it is now, is perhaps a bit limited. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fangbomb.com
ANGHARAD DAVIES & TISHA MUKARJI – ENDSPACE (CD by Another Timbre)
Of both these improvisers I never heard. Angharad Davies is from London, plays violin which can be heard on releases for Absinth, Creative Sources, Simple Geometry, NEA and Emanem, whereas Tisha Mukarji is from Copenhagen, works on the inside of a piano and made her solo debut on Creative Sources in 2006. These two women got together in July of this year at the Goldsmith’s College to play this concert of a highly delicate nature. The music is quite soft, but not silent or empty. There is always something going on here. The violin sounds at times like a violin, but also at times like a small sine wave. Mukarji hits, strums and bows the inside of the piano and it sounds like she adds a bit more musical elements to the music. Fragile music for which one has to turn up the volume quite a bit and stay focussed. Otherwise you may miss a few bits. To treat this like aural wallpaper doesn’t justify the music at all. Full attention is needed for this piece of beauty. It may take time, but its rewarding to o. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anothertimbre.com
FLORIANA VS MACRO – HELEYLAH SUNSET (CD by Dalaki)
Today I did some physical exercise, of what nature is of course not of big importance. I came home, opened my mail, and found this CD by Floriana vs Macro, popped it into the CD player, because I read the words ‘deep ambient’, ‘deep jazz’ and ‘deep slow dub’. Why this one, and not (fill in some of the others from this weekly)? Because I wanted to sit down and relax. Simple as that and this seemed the right choice. It is the right choice, I hasten to add. Quite, spacious, rhythmic, jazzy ambient dub. Organic. Flowing and floating. Like having a warm bath – except I have no bath. Floriana is Joerg Schuster who is owner of the Dalaki label and Macro is ‘a very nice guy from Madrid, Spain’. Ah Spain. Sun. A bit of warmth. No rain. No such thing here. But the music, the music makes up for this. Warm music. A bit glitchy, modern living room music. I sat down, listened a bit superficially and felt relaxed. This is not a work with a higher meaning or an intriguing concept, just eight fine pieces of entertaining music. After a day of hard work that is sometimes the only thing one wants. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dalaki.net
ZAVOLOKA – VITER (CD by Kvitnu)
From the several highly active composers of the
Ukraine – Kiritchenko, Kotra and Zavoloka – the latter is quite active and her music is rapidly progressing. This new album is one of four, dedicated to the four elements. ‘Viter’ means wind and it’s the air vibrations of violin and cello that is at the hearth of this CD. She has those played by Olga Potramanska and Anton Zhukov, while Zavoloka herself edits the music on her computer, by adding rhythms and electronic sounds. Seven short tracks, in total just under twenty minutes. It’s strange, strange music. It’s light of nature, swirling and moving. The lack of any knowledge on my side of any folk music makes this hard to place down. The rhythms are borrowed from the world of clicks and cuts, but the whole string part could be traditional, folkloristic music from the Ukraine. Or perhaps not. It sounds like recorded in a cathedral. If you read this, it may seem an uneasy marriage, these two totally alienated approaches, but rest assured: they make a perfect combination. To incorporate what is called – horribly – ethnic/traditional/third world music with electronics is a new path of which Zavoloka is the among the first to do so, and it makes way for perhaps an interesting new direction in music. Hurrah for that. ‘Viter’ is a most promising start. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kvitnu.com
BOY DIRT CAR – SPOKEN ANSWER TO A SILENT QUESTION (CD by Aftermusic)
While listening to ‘Spoken Answer To A Silent Question’ I read the newspaper. Apparently twenty million people tried to get a ticket to the third Led Zeppelin concert since the band split up in 1980. Reunion rock is big business. I can’t remember when I first heard Boy Dirt Car, nor when the last time was. It must have been years (to quote Gary Numan). Originally started as the band of Darren Brown and Eric Lunde, shortly after that completed with Keith Brammer and San Kubinski they were an exciting noise band in the mid eigthies, with various releases on RRRecords. Their last recording dates from 1980. After that Lunde and Brown went solo, the first under his own name, doing performances and poetry and Brown worked and released music as Impact Test. But lo and behold, now in 2007, Boy Dirt Car is back, without Lunde, but with the others and even three new members. They met up last year and decided to get things going on. Like I said, I can’t remember when I last played a record by Boy Dirt Car, but it must have been at least fifteen years ago. On this new one I keep thinking to recognize the old Boy Dirt Car, but there is also strong memories of Impact Test. I never saw them play live, so I don’t recall how noisy they were, but this new CD doesn’t seem to be very noisy. Not at all. Boy Dirt Car’s instruments aren’t listed on the cover or on the information, but I assume they are bass, guitar, percussion (metallic no doubt), electronics and tapeloops. Three shorter pieces and one long epic track. It’s not easy to pin this down, but rock drone would come close I think. Slow, peaceful organ loops, heavy bass and siren like sounds, make this balancing on the fine line of ambient industrial and ‘real’ industrial, although this comes nowhere close to the real noise. Hard to imagine that eight (!) people play on this work. It’s both retro sounding as well as new, this can be a true example for everybody who love their lo-fi noise/drone/rock music of the younger generation. A pretty strong return this one. Especially the long piece ‘Gentlemen, It Has Been A Privilege Flying With You’ has strong psychedelic qualities. (FdW)
Address: <boydirtcar@earthlink.net>
STEN OVE TOFT – LIT DE PARADE (CD by Roggbif Records)
Although the name Sten Ove Toft popped up in Vital Weekly, it never occurred to me that he never released a proper CD of his own. With ‘Lit De Parade’ this is now ‘corrected’. He has been playing music since 1999 and worked with Ryfylke, Waffelpung, Röyskatt and Audiokustus. Much of this is in the world of noise music, but ‘Lit De Parade’ is however to a lesser extent present in that area. Occasionally things explode here into the realms of noise, but throughout it’s more microsound than noise. Toft uses guitar and electronics, I think and quite some computer processing (again: I think). Drone like at times, cracks, hiss, static, all the usual components are there, save for the fact that they sometimes explode into noise. I must admit I listened carefully to this album, and surely some parts I really liked, such as the sixth part, which seemed to be the most worked and detailed one, but as a whole, I thought it was very hard to get into this. A bit like ‘been there, heard that’ feeling occurred to me. As if Toft tried to play music to please me, using the idiom of microsound, but without making something of his own. (FdW)
Address: http://www.roggbif.com
ANAKRID – UNODOS (2CD by Beta Lactam-ring Records)
Despite being active since 1990, Chris Bickel, who is behind the name Anakrid showed up once in Vital Weekly, with his self-released ‘Reality Is Elitist’ (see Vital Weekly 391), but he has released a lot more music, on CDRs and LPs. This new double CD compiles two self-released LPs and some bonus tracks from the same sessions. Normally Bickel plays in various punk bands such as In/Humanity, Guyana, Punch Line and Confederate Fagg but for his solo music he does something entirely different. ‘Father’, the first CD is a nineteen track affair, which brings out the collage man. Bicker has all sorts of sounds (percussion, cheap old tapes, microphones) which he throws together in what seems to be an audio-blender (no, don’t look on the internet for this lovely device, I made up the word): sampling his stuff together, adding more electronics in what becomes a wild, hot brew of sound. The influence of Nurse With Wound is never far away in this work. It’s wild, even industrial at times, but the musical element is never lost. The second CD in this package is ‘Rapture Of The Deep’, which takes the material into a different direction. Things happen here in a much more peaceful manner. No wild collages, longer tracks and in general a more electronic approach. It seems as if sound is captured inside an electronic system, locked in rather and from there on things start to live their own life, in that closed system. Here no real Nurse With Wound influence, but rather that of the academics of the fifties and sixties, the era of serious composed electronic music, although Anakrid is not as rigid as the old masters. His form is more free, aiming for dark effects and sounding like a good horror soundtrack. Two different sides of the music of Anakrid, now that’s what I call a successful double CD package. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blrrecords.com
MOLJEBKAS PULSE | SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING (CD by Topheth Prophet)
DEUTERROR – LE GUEULE DE GUERRE (CD by Steelwork Maschine)
It is not every day you find reviews of albums released by Israeli labels in Vital Weekly. Topheth Prophet is an independent Israeli label formed in summer 2002 whose aim is to spread the knowledge of the Israeli noise scene to the outside world. The label focuses on styles ranging from harsh noise across power electronics to dark ambient. This 13th release from the label deals with drone-based ambient music. On this particular release one of the presented projects has its origin in Sweden. It is a split album between Israeli project SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING and Swedish project MOLJEBKA PULSE. The album opens with the 27 minute long track titled “Ravha” from the latter mentioned project. The brain behind Moljebka Pvlse is the Swedish sound artist Mathias Josefson who explores the sounds of both acoustic and electronic origins, quite often with the starting point taken in found sounds and field recordings. The “Ravha”-track is a nice example of Mr. Josefson’s ability to transform the sounds of reality into a world of drone-based minimalism. Opening with a mixture of concrete natural sounds and buzzing drones the expression slowly turns more and more harsh as the field recordings develops into noisy drones including spoken words. At a point the concrete sounds fades away or turns into sonic abstraction. The track moves into pure drone ambient minimalism. Nice work.
Seventeen Migs Of Spring is an Israeli project consisting of three members, Gurfa, K-76 and B-74. As was the case with aforementioned Swedish project the conceptual approach of this Israeli project is sonic drones based on concrete sounds. Compared to the Swedish project the Israeli projects goes further to the extremes with sounds of a rather noisy kind. Especially four or the five tracks get quite harsh with the use of an on-going mixture of static noise and radio-based shortwave frequencies.
Inbetween the two projects comes a collaborative track that successfully combines the style of the two projects. Everyone interested in drone based ambient with focus on concrete sounds should definitely check out this album. Talking about drone-based works another one comes from French label Steelwork Maschine. After having released two mp3-albums, “Cohortaris Lex” and “Agripen”, Belgium sound artist calling himself Deuterror is ready with his debut CD-release. The album titled “Le Gueule De Guerre” is a very dark piece of ambience. Dominating on the album is harsh industrial-based buzz drones giving a quite hard-edged and disturbing approach to dark ambience. Despite the cynic and quite brutal air saturating the album, there is a great atmosphere adding some melodic warmth to the album. Especially the final track shines with its mixture of brutality and beauty woven together into a tense contrast between grim reality and idyllic soundscapes. The limited edition of 1000 copies also includes a section computer-generated images and short film clip of medieval-looking fantasy landscapes, suiting the atmosphere of the music very well. (NM)
Address: http://www.topheth.org/
Address: http://www.steelwork-maschine.com/
TENHORNEDBEAST – THE SACRED TRUTH (CD by Cold Spring)
With a past in the British dark ambient-project Endura in joint venture with Stephen Pennick, Christopher Walton knows exactly how to create atmospheres of the disturbingly black kind. His solo-project “Tenhornedbeast” is like a trip back to the early days of death industrial. The expression on the five intersections of the album is repetitive and slowly moving, though the approach to dark minimalism varies on the overall album. With drones based on orchestration of the dark kind the associations from beginning of the album stylishly turns towards the Cold Meat Industry-scene, more precisely towards the lesser harsh moments of Brighter Death Now around the “Necrose Evangelicum”-period. From fourth intersection titled “In the teeth of the wolf”, the drones becomes more guitar-based in the gloomy drone-rock style characterizing the expression of Sun O))), with a dark ambient-based touch reminding of Lustmord and early british industrial/metal-ambient-project Saw Throat (aka Sore Thoat). The true power of this album is Christopher Walton ability to create cinematic atmospheres of trance-like hypnotism with this great mixture of acoustic and synthetic. Impressive album. (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk/
JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN : DARK BRITANNICA (CD by Cold Spring)
VON THRONSTAHL – SACRIFICARE (CD by Cold Spring)
One of my favourite compilations was released back in 1999. “Succour : The Terrascope Benefit Album” was an album released to economically support the legendary experimental music magazine Ptolemaic Terrascope. Though the approach on this new compilation released on Cold Spring is different there is some similarity to aforementioned “Succour”-compilation. Both compilations have a great folkloric atmosphere saturating throughout the album. On new double disc compilation from British label Cold Spring Records, titled “John Barleycorn Reborn : Dark Britannica” the folkloric expression is completely dominating. And the result is a deeply inspiring musical experience. With a running time of more than 150 minutes, the album presents 33 projects spanning from completely unknown to folk noir-legends such as Sol Invictus. “Dark” refers to a historical unknown period of Great Britain. More precisely “Dark Britannica” means dark folk of Britannica referring to the fact that all tracks on the compilation have been derived from a time in British history that has been completely forgotten. Each of the contributing artists has done a very nice job making this “music of the forgotten past” speak its very own language in the age of present time. With deep respect to the ancient folkloric expression the interpretations emerges into modern expressions spanning from neo-folk across modern psychedelia to ethereal space rock. “JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN : DARK BRITANNICA” is an extremely beautiful voyage back to the days of dark British folk. Another album to explore if you’re interested in the updated sound of traditional folk is the latest album by German project Von Thronstahl. Based on traditional instruments with strums of acoustic guitar playing an important role, the music floats into grandiose soundscapes alternating from cold electronic escapism to more orchestral and warm expressions. The vocals of brainman Josef K fits well into the neo-folk atmospheres, but in the moments where the vocals of Josef K are assisted by backing vocals the vocal parts pull the music to even higher grounds. Especially the “Death In June”-reminiscent track “Gloomy white sunday” is a nice example and one of my personal favorites on the album. With “Sacrificare” being one of the Von Thronstahl’s more melodic albums to date this album will appeal to everyone interested in the singer-songwriter part of modern neofolk. Highly recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk/
BOWLINE (CD by Sonoris)
Behind Bowline we find the more and more present musician David Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego (see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit for ‘hammond organ, violin, vox amplifier (with Francesco cello signal), glass harmonica, tremolo and distortion pedals’. Of the four tracks , the first is the most silent one, taking several minutes to get started. Like with so many other projects of David Maranha, in which ever form it takes, this is a work of minimalism. Of sheer, utter minimalism and what beauty, once again. The careful strumming of various string instruments, the drones added, sparsely of course, from the other instruments. Three short tracks which eventually culminate in the fourth track, which takes up about two-third of the CD and in which the three previous excursions return but glorified. Everything comes together here. If you love Osso Exotico or any of the works Maranha did after that, this is will be a most welcome addition. Also fans of traditional minimal music, especially Lamonte Young will find this a great release, I’m sure of that. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonoris.org/
DUANE PITRE/PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE – ORGANIZE PITCHES OCCURING IN TIME (LP by Trome Records)
At the basis of this LP (which is also released on CD by Important Records) is a ‘conceptual composition’ from Duane Pitre: two ‘long-form drone compositions’ with ‘set tonic, set pitch classes, playing methods and technique restrictions’ and is played by Pitre himself on guitar, and the Pilotram Ensemble which has a tone generator, bass clarinet, alto saxophones and a violin, with the extra addition of a pump organ. Two, twenty-five minute pieces of pure drone music, in which the instruments play along the tone generator, thus combining acoustic and electronic sounds. This is hardly y’r common drone music that one can find a lot in these pages. It’s rather a piece of modern classical music, perhaps along the lines of the Theatre Of Eternal Music (if only we could hear more of them), but also Alvin Lucier and to a lesser extent Phill Niblock (although one could easily link this to ‘Five More String Quartets’). Beautiful, peaceful music of slow passing clouds of sound, all excellently recorded. Music rises, falls, rises and falls again, staying in that harmonious way of seemingly one drone (well, two). Great work for the dark winter night. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tromerecords.com
MANDATE (12″ by Mandate Records)
CHANDELIERS – CIRCULATION (7″ by Ghost Arcade)
Being a dancing fool is something I am not, and never was, but having said that, I do like rhythmic music every now and then. Perhaps only certain examples of rhythmic music, like a good bit of straight forward techno or house. Music you can do things to, rather than force you to listen intensely. Ghost Arcade LTD deals with this kind of music that sound as retro as can be. They say that the 12″ from Mandate could have been from 1993 as well as 2007. I agree. The pumping beat, the sweet keyboards makes me want to play Sweet Exorcist and Sandoz right after this. Music that puts a smile on your face… well, at least this face that is.
More electro inspired – also fine with these feet – is a 7″ on Ghost Arcade with three tracks of a five piece called Chandeliers. Their music is a bit more chaotic – maybe due to the line up of five people, I thought – and less straight forward than the Mandate 12″.
Great full color cover this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ghostarcade.com
MARK HAMM – TO THE NAKED EYE (CDR by Muertepop Records)
You could expect Mark Hamm to be English or American, but his real name is Francesco Giannico, from Taranto, in the southern part of Italy. He studied ‘Musicology and Musical Heritage’ and has been active since 1999 as a guitarist, with several self-released productions and some on Afe and Muertepop, like the most recent one ‘To The Naked Eye’. The idea behind this album is ‘the involution of post-modern humanity in the globalization age, or more simply, a sour consideration of our days’. That may sound quite heavy and some of the titles are top heavy depression, like ‘academic disumanity [sic]’ or ‘Overheated Century’, I must say none of that reflected in the music. Throughout the music has a calm and peaceful touch to it, with largely processed guitar sounds – be it from traditional sound effects or computer processing. Dark ambient music, isolationist as it was called ages ago, but Hamm does a nice job at what he does. Lighten up, I’d say, the world is in decay, but let’s plant a tree. The music and the film presented here are a nice start at that. (FdW)
Address: http://www.muertepop.com
JLIAT – NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL NOISE VOLUME 9 (CDR by Jliat)
Our in house reviewer of all things noise Jliat does exactly what noise wants: provoke in a noisy way. He doesn’t approach reviewing noise in a regular reviewing manner, but associates his way through it. Or maybe he uses a lot of drugs. Maybe he puts bad noise in a few words. It’s hard to tell. But maybe some noise just doesn’t deserve any better than that? Some of the noise works reviewed in these pages is terribly bad, poorly made and still has to be welcomed as the next masterpiece? Obviously not and if you expect otherwise than Vital Weekly might not be your stage. Jliat’s own ‘Now That’s What I Call Noise’, now up the ninth volume, is certainly not a masterpiece either. It’s more like a conceptual work, the whole series that is, of ‘songs’ of around four minutes, and each volume has eight pieces. It has to do with his take on popmusic, and ripping up covers. Jliat isn’t Merzbow either, and the concept might be done and said with. Unfortunately however for the other noisicians, who rather see me reviewing their music, I only have to deal with Jliat because it would be hard for him to review his own stuff (he could try) and not with so many others in that area. Only when I like it and that’s a relaxing thought. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jliat.com
A WEEVIL IN A BISCUIT (CDR by Bearsuit Records)
It’s probably hard to believe but there are moments when even in the Vital HQ there is silence. The desk is empty and we are truly free to play whatever we like. It’s likely we go back to something from the not so immediate past, a LP or maybe even a cassette. I was thinking of that when listening to ‘A Weevil In A Biscuit’. And probably I was a bit jealous about the fact there is something like internet, where you can easily invite artists and compile such a release. Much better than the old days when you had to write letters and wait for weeks, months for a reply. Just as then, the compilation is a favorite tool to explore new artists. Of the sixteen presented here, I didn’t recognize a single name. Wow. So many weeklies and still so much to explore. The music here is mostly based around rhythm of a diverse nature. Rhythm machines tick away beats, jazzy, techno like, breakbeat like, even glitches, but what keeps this together in a funny way is that it seems that everybody tries to make a small popsong. I am not sure wether that was the original intention of Bearsuit Records, a method of selecting these artists or just something that happened. It makes the whole thing however nicely coherent, even when it is diverse. That may seem a bit strange, but this compilation works like an alternative radio: experimental pop tunes that are throughout pleasant to hear, never too long or alienated. Names? James Ross, Harold Nono (son of Luigi?), Linda Bjallam Alfred Brown, Kaboom Karavan, Alone Together, Anne King, Oldman, Hulk and Cahier. Oh and many more! (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/bearsuitrecords
FRED LONBERG-HOLM/BREKEKEKKEXKOAXKOAX – SPLIT (CDR by Cohort Records)
Over the years we have learned about the work of Fred Lonberg-Holm as a fine improviser on string instruments, hailing from the Chicago scene. In recent times we lost a bit track of his work, but here he returns, with some thirty minutes on the split CDR with Brekekekexkoaxkoax (you always hope to write that well, I guess) and to be honest: I don’t get. Improvisations for feedback, but recorded without any power or tension. Not the best recording for not the best kind of music, ouch. I think he could do so much better. Brekekekexkoaxkoax here is the head honcho Josh Ronsen on the left channel playing guitar, as well as clarinet (stereo I believe), with Glenn Nuckolls on electric guitar/right channel, acoustic guitar, banjo and violin, Genevieve Walsh on flute, drums, voice and Jacob Green on oboe, organ, electronics and misc. instruments. They go for an all free improvisation jam, scattered on a multi-track and mixed in a totally free improvisation spirit. Sounds drop in and out, scratching the surface of the instruments and no-one seems to be taking the lead here. A continuos free flow music that is a wealth to hear after Lonberg-Holm’s half hour. (FdW)
Address: http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
JEPH JERMAN – METAL DRIFT (CDR by Fissur)
TÔ – ETASMA (CDR by Cesare)
For me Jeph Jerman is one of the biggest secrets in the world of experimental music. His career may span now by some twenty years or more, and who remembers his alter ego Hands To or his group City Of Worms. Since perhaps a decade or so he works under his own name, playing almost exclusively acoustic junk, stones, metal, wood and such like. For ‘Metal Drift’ he went out with his mini disc to record found metal on the street and in the dessert (I believe he lives in Arizona) using microphones and contact microphones. After the streets had been roamed, he transferred all the material onto various CDRs and with a four channel mixer created this collage. Jerman as a composer? Yes, that’s right, as a composer. Whereas most people, myself included, would rather thinking of him as a player, an improviser, here he sits down and creates a work out of his previous recordings. I am not sure to what extend things had been planned, but judging by the quality, it might be fifty percent planning and fifty percent improvisation and/or spontaneous playing of the material. Textured recordings these are, of sounds that aren’t necessarily harsh or loud, but on the contrary most of the times sound like underwater recordings. Sonic debris, decay, rust even a touch of sadness is about these recordings, of things lost. I thought this was a very mixture of field recordings, ambience and musique concrete.
The label which released the Jeph Jerman disc is Fissur, and Thomas Tilly who runs the label also plays music under the name of Tô. He sent us two of his releases, of which ‘Elaeis Guineensis’ is from 2005, and therefor too old to be reviewed. But I played it and the use of various natural sounds (think of clay, children, water, insects) and combined with mental sounds (pain, devils, fever, spirits) and made an interesting combination. The liner notes of ‘Etazma’ weren’t entirely clear what it is we are dealing with here. Played after ‘Elaeis Guineensis’ which was quite organic, perhaps due to the nature of the sound sources used, I thought that ‘Etazma’ was more electronic. Large cascading waves drop by, break down, collapse almost, but never die out, and slowly rise up to make the hit again. A bit of a distant work this one, however not as good as the previous one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fissur.com
Address: http://www.cesare.fr
MATT EARLE – GOLDEN GUITAR (CDR by Black Petal)
GEODESIC DOMES OF THE EASTERN SEABORD – VISCOUS ’70 MAGNETS MULTIPLIED BY NOTHING (3″CDR by Black Petal)
THE IMPROMPTULONS – BEAT IT/BEAT OFF (3″CDR by Black Petal)
Anthony Guerra’s Black Petal label catalogue grows nicely and if you put all the releases next to eachother you’ll see that he loves to make nice packages. Strange papers (he lives in Japan after all), cords to tie ‘m up, cloth etc. The CDR market as the real do it yourself market. Also music wise he has something interesting to tell. Matt Earle for instance, whom we greeted before as Muura (also on Black Petal), but also active under many other guises (which we haven’t heard). ‘Recorded in the Blue Mountains Winter’ it says on the cover. Are the winters in Australia cold? I can imagine Matt Earle sitting outside, strumming his guitar on end, with no point, with a metal rod between the strings and Earle mumbling a word or so (‘vocals’!). Highly minimal work this one, with certainly in the second piece not much happening (‘tension’), this quite radical lo-fi music and perhaps a bit much. Track one with either two or three would be nice, but as a trio it’s all a bit too much.
Behind the Geodesic Domes Of The Eastern Seaboard is Peter Blamey, whose name we recognize from his work with Jim Denley for Split Records (see Vital Weekly 546). Two tracks, of which the first is quite long and quite noise based, even with some revolving rhythm (lifted from a record perhaps). Quite loud this piece and perhaps not quite what expected following that great work with Denley. The second track is very short, just under a minute, and has a lo-fi rhythm and some feedback like sounds. Strange one, this one. Maybe a tad bit too noise based for my taste, but quite alright, perhaps also in it brevity.
Something of an entirely different nature are The Impromptulons, a bigger group with Joel Stern, Will Charlton, Alan Nguyen, Rin Healy, Marek Rygalski and Adam Park (Peter was absent it says on the cover). ‘Everybody solos, nobody solos’ is the starting point of this work. They all play just for themselves it seems, while nobody seems to be responding or reacting to the other. It bangs on and on, but the lo-fi recording quality prevents this from being a real loud stomper though. Highly minimal in approach this one, and also oddly fascinating. Minimal, without becoming a drone, like the Velvet Underground not becoming rock. Highly appealing recording. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackpetal.com
MYSTIFIED – D-PROGRAM (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records)
CORPOPARASSITA – ILBELGIOCO (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records)
NANOHEX – THE BRAIN EXPERIMENT (3″CDR by Industrial Culture Records)
The new Industrial Culture Records label releases all sorts of experimental and industrial music, and the noise part went to Jliat and the ‘softer’ (ambient, drone) side landed on my desk. The omnipresent Mystified, also know as Thomas Park, selected (2007 !!) discography counts twenty titles, and that doesn’t include the ‘Lower’ release, reviewed a week ago. Eat your heart out, Merzbow. The four pieces on ‘D-Program’ are all to be found on the lower, drone ambient side of the musical spectrum. Machines humming, field recordings or pitched down samples: whatever the input may be Mystified delivers some fine work in a known modus operandi. The rhythmic aspects of his work, which was detected some time ago, is entirely gone here, which is a pity, since that proved, I think, a possible way out of the somewhat dead alley of ambient drones.
Although their list of works is less extensive as that of Mystifieds, there is still quite an amount of work available from Corpoparassita, of which I only heard their release on Tosom (see Vital Weekly 458), which back then didn’t leave a big impression on me, mainly because they sounded like Ain Soph and Sigillum S (none of which are favorites of mine). ‘Ilbelgioco’ means ‘the good game’ and is the alternative name given to the Sabbath. So you know in which dark corner we are now. Three pieces of which one is a cover of Discharge, although you couldn’t tell. I must admit I think this is a leap forward from the previous release. It’s also in the dark ambient/drone corner, just like Mystified, but the backward guitars and the lacks of voices from beyond the grave make things quite nice and scary. Soundtrack like music, genre horror and science fiction. Much improved.
Nanohex is a new name for me, and behind it is one Bojan Nikolov from Macedonia. He only started to work in 2003 and has a handful of works to his name. I must admit I thought this was the weakest brother of the lot. Nanohex uses a lot of voice like sounds, fed through sound effects that probably recall the underworld, but just doesn’t lead to very interesting music. Maybe some people would call this ‘dark poetic’ music, but it just failed to make any impression on me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.industrialculture.org
MAJA RATKJE – TEIP (3″CDR by Ambolthue)
TORSTEIN WJIIK – LIVE AT STOY PA LANDET FESTIVAL (3″CDR by Ambolthue)
It’s good to note that Maja Ratkje doesn’t think of herself to be famous not to release CDRs, let alone 3″ CDRs. ‘Teip’ (phonetic for tape I guess) was recorded in the last three years using a dictaphone. I am not sure wether this is a collage of various sounds found on her dictaphone and to what extend she did some processing to it. The cover says it was ‘randomly recorded in two different speeds and chronologically copied from the original micro cassette for this release’. On hearing the twenty minute collage, I think she hasn’t done much about, other than making a nice sequence of sounds. Field recordings as pure as possible. Singing, applause, odd atmospheres and such like. Not a very refined work of course, and the recording quality isn’t the best around, but it’s a curious, private document.
Noise man Torstein Wjiik played the Støy Pa Landet festival in June of this year, using vocals, electronics, samples and feedback. I am not sure if these twelve minutes span his entire concert. I am not sure why it was necessary to release this. I believe Wjiik plays more concerts, and what he does isn’t much different from his usual work, loud noise, screaming his lungs out, feedback and distortion, so why release this? The twelve minutes are o.k., but it shouldn’t have been much longer, I think. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ambolthue.com
ELISE DE WAARD – GELUIDJESMUZIEK (businesscard CDR by Moll)
VIOLET & FREIBAND – FENDER BENDER Fender Bender (3″ CDR by Moll)
WANDER (businesscard CDR by Moll)
Moll’s back catalogue is expanding rapidly. The latest three additions are one 3″ and two business-card CD-Rs, all wrapped in the usual (and usually very beautiful) photopaper covers and of course all related to Frans de Waard in one way or the other. Right after the curious all-acoustic concert by Kapotte Muziek (Moll 11) there is another pretty curious release – a short field recording work created by Frans’ eight-and-a-half year old daughter Elise. If I hadn’t known about her age when listening to the music, I wouldn’t have guessed it, as the track doesn’t sound childlike at all, but rather serious, except for the finishing vocal part, maybe. The world heard through the ears of a child (couldn’t resist that cheesy image) comprises the sounds of a train, a washing machine, ping-pong balls (or something like that), looped giggles and more, which is less easy to identify, but makes for slightly mysterious, soft rumbling. Elise puts in some effective breaks and counterpoints and knows how to mix her sounds to keep them interacting (and interesting). This is definitely a good start and I just wonder what kind of music Elise will be doing when the first of her contemporaries will begin to realize that something like musique concrète exists.
“Laptops a gogo” it says on the cover of the collaboration between Frans and Jeff Surak/Violet and that translates as two people improvising on their laptops, going through their respective sound-archives and offering bits and pieces for the other to react. The overall mood is rather calm here but with a dark and occasionally harsh grounding. Despite being edited and “fit into shape”, there is a distinct jam-session-character to this recording and this means you get all the surprising changes, the improvisatory friction, but also the moments, which lack a direction. Nevertheless, these two improvisers keep things under control and manage to make their point. But since I’m in general not as enthusiastic for all-digital improvisation as I used to be, 20 minutes is just the right amount of that to take for me.
If I’ve learned my history lessons correctly, Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar started Wander, when the music they recorded as Beequeen shifted from drone to a more pop-oriented style (some six or seven years ago?). Wander took over the drone part and each of their releases is in a different media format and always with a vintage erotic image on the cover. So this is their business-card CD-R release, a five-minute composition. My guess would be that the source sounds are acoustic in nature – maybe organ sounds – which are digitally shaped into dark and rather austere sine wave-like sounds and pulsations. Despite the drone-tag Wander’s piece is not minimal at all, but pretty lively, with continuous gentle shifts and variations. Yet, when it comes to drone aesthetics one short track might not be enough to leave a true impression, so even if this is quite a pleasant track it would at least call for more material to do justice to the music’s aesthetic parameters. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html