669

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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 669
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week 11
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a weekly webcast, freely to download. This can be regarded as the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radioprogramm with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed. It will remain on the site for a limited period (most likely 2-4 weeks). Download the file to your MP3 player and enjoy!
complete tracklist here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html

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* noted are in this week's podcast

DOMENICO SCIAJNO - DOVES DAVES IN PALERMO (CD by Bowindo Recordings)
KIM CASCONE & DOMENICO SCIAJNO - HYALINE (CD by Bowindo Recordings)
GENE COLEMAN & DOMENICO SCIAJNO - DIOSPYROS (CD by Bowindo Recordings)
DOMENICO SCIAJNO - SEQUENZA FOR ENSEMBLE OF 16 ELEMENTS (CD by Bowindo Recordings)
Bowindo Recordings is the label run by Domenico Sciajno and Valerio Tricoli, but its perhaps a bit too much to release four CDs at once to get his work across. Two of them are collaborations with one artist, and one is a series of collaborations, which include also the two artists with whom he shares a whole CD - I think it all could be combined into a double CD. I started with the various duets CD, where Sciajno plays max/msp and live processing on all tracks. He teams up with some people I never heard of, such as Andreas Wagner (clarinet), Robin Hayward (tuba), Tez (laptop), Gianni Gebbia (alto sax), but also with Gene Coleman (bass clarinet), Kim Cascone (laptop) and Thomas Lehn (analogue synth). I thought that especially the mixtures of real instruments with the laptop of Scianjo was quite nice. These pieces had a nice sense of free improvisation and microscopic bleeps and hiss. In the pieces with Lehn, Tez and Cascone this gets a bit lost, even when with Lehn the element of improvisation is still present, but with two guys on their laptop the sound gets more unified, which is actually great too, but perhaps a bit too different from the other pieces.
With Kim Cascone, he already produced a CD for 1.8 Sec, but in the summer of 2008 they worked together on new recordings in Palermo. I thought it was a particular strong album. Both are in fine shape here. I must say I haven't heard much from Kim recently, but what he does here is great. It moves away from the free laptop play ground, of letting sounds run wild and free, but the five pieces sound composed. I am assured that this is not the case, but instead all live and without editing, which is hard to believe. At a lower volume this is perhaps micro-ambient music, but I played this somewhat louder than usual, and then all sorts of nasty frequencies come out, like a deep bass on the opening of 'Cleistogamia' and some high frequencies in 'Eulophia'. A solid work all around, two highly skilled masters at work.
On CDR then a duet with Gene Coleman, who also visited Italy, in March 2008 with his bass clarinet. Four pieces of highly improvised music here, where Coleman plays the instrument and Sciajno picks up the sound and processes it in real time. This is not easy music by any means. Especially the first two tracks are highly free pieces of music in which both the clarinet and the laptop produces an endless amount loose sounds. In 'Granadilla' however Sciajno waves together longer sustaining sounds and Coleman adds likewise longer sustaining clarinet sounds on top and it results in a powerful, intense piece of music. Its the best of this particular release, but maybe I am getting tired from this endless stream of Sciajno music?
Whereas the big blow had to come: 'Sequenza' is the longest of these four releases, but also quite different. This work was composed by Sciajno in 1999 for flute, harp, voice, piano, trombone, viola, oboe, violin, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, basoon, accordion, alto and soprano sax, contrabasso. No computers, no laptops, no max/msp. The title already indicates a homage to Luciano Berio, and Sciajno tries to bridge the gap between contemporary classical music and improvised music. I didn't see the score to this piece, but it could very well entirely written out, or on the other hand it could have parts that are played in an improvised way. I must admit I am not the man to know these things. Sometimes must be admitted also: I really think its a good move of Sciajno to release this older work, as it gives us a Sciajno we haven't heard before, but to purely enjoy this disc is a bit difficult. Contemporary classical music I guess will never be my cup of tea, and its perhaps just my thing, but this is just not for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bowindorecordings.com

SKARE - SOLSTICE CITY (CD by Glacial Movements Records)
The Per Ahlund who gets credit on this CD for 'sounds & editing', I must assume is the same as Diskrepant? It seems unlikely that two guys of the same name make similar kind of music, but of course you never know. Partly of course the problem lies in the fact there is no press info. Skare is a trio. Besides Ahlund there is Mathias Josefson, also sounds & editing and Frederik Olofsson on videos & live visuals, which aren't enclosed on this CD. Two long pieces and a short opening track. Like Diskrepant, Skare plays dark drone music of a highly atmospherical kind, but are even less noisy. Especially in the two long pieces sounds seem to be dropping down to a stale cold wind - perhaps in honor of the label name, but there is this chilly polar wind blowing around, with some carefully placed field recordings which occasionally arise from the mix. 'Through Wind And Broken Ice' and 'The Snow Angel Factory' are the titles of these pieces, and a winter landscape is sported on the cover - yes, we get the idea. Despite naming all things obvious here, its also quite a nice release of atmospheric music, which doesn't necessarily do anything beyond the ordinary, but it makes some great nocturnal scary listening session. (FdW)
Address: http://www.glacialmovements.com

LAWRENCE ENGLISH - IT'S UP TO US TO LIVE (CD by Sirr-Ecords)
The quickly rising star of Lawrence English delivers another musical baby. There are no hints on the cover with regards to what he does here, or wether there is a special concept, but it sounds like a CD of seven tracks and not some bigger concept. Which of course is fine too. English offers us a seven course dinner with a carefully balanced meal. 'Somewhere Inside Me Is You' is a heavy plate of heavily treated guitar (courtesy of Benjamin Thompson) through the usual laptop means, but it has for sure a great noisy texture to it, which is followed by 'Genuine Reflected', which has also a dark metal atmosphere around it. In the earlier parts of the CD things are more quiet and soft, what we know best (better?) from English. The microsound of before seems to be left behind, if only partly, and to be replaced by a more heavy approach. The odd linkage between metal guitar music and microsound - hearing is believing. It can be done, and English does it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com

SYNAPSCAPE - AGAIN (CD by Ant-Zen)
MARCHING DYNAMICS - THE WORKERS OF HAITI (CD by Hymen Records)
Two new albums from the hard pounding Anz-Zen camp proves that this is the place to be if you're looking for catchy brutal power noise. First album comes from the dynamic duo from Bielefeld, Synapscape. Philip Münch of Synapscape also works under projects where the style is electro-pop as The Rorschach Garden and in more electro-industrial veins as Rasputeen. In his collaboration with Tim Kniep however the brutal side of expressions dominates. With the debut almost 14 years ago, Synapscape has been shaking the audience both in concerts and with a number of albums that combines distorted vocals and harsh noise expressions with hard pounding rhythm textures. Even though the duo has impressed me with every new release, latest album titled "Again" unquestionably find its way to the top among their approx. ten full lengths. Despite the focus on harsh industrial, Synapscape on this album widen their stylish approaches from listenable club-tracks to violently distorted noise. From clubbish technoid tracks such as the trance-like "Countercroque" and the instrumental floor-filler "Requirement" across cynic Vromb-reminiscent ambient-scapes of "Ring the bell" to the aural machismo of "Who painted my cat black" and "Purge". Synapscape has always had the talents of creating progressive rhythm textures, but "Again" seem to beat earlier efforts from the hyper-energetic combo: Hyper-fast but always with an alluring catchiness making sure that the body of the listener will feel pleasantly restless throughout the 57 minutes. Awesome comeback from the grand old men of Power Noise. Next album comes from the sister-label of Ant-Zen: The technoid oriented Hymen Records. "The workers party of haiti" is the follow-up to the awesome debut "Nailsleepeer" from the L.A.-based composer Shane Talada. "The workers of haiti" continues the style of "Nailsleeper" with a hypnotic mixture of moody ambient-techno, breakbeats and a few moments of industrial interventions. The name Marching Dynamics neatly describes the ability of the composer to create on-going almost militant-like rhythm textures that in combination with the tribal atmospheres makes the album an excellent club-album. Best moments on the album comes with the two atmospheric technoid tracks "Ability to distance" and "The apparition speaks", but also the dub-reggae meets distorted bass drones-track "Confederate". Another excellent moment (so many of them!) is the joint venture with label-mate Tonikom on the track "29" - a minimalist piece with tribal beat-textures and droney ambient-scapes swirling in the background accompanied by distant spoken words. Brilliant follow-up from Marching Dynamics. (NM)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com/
Address: http://www.hymen-records.com

THIS MORN' OMINA - INFERNO (CD by Spectre)
MIKA GOEDRIJK - PELLICULES (CD by Ant-Zen)
Since the opening of the new millenium, Belgian composer Mika Goedrijk has feed the world with an unusual blend of tribal trance and harsh industrial under his alias This Morn Omina. Unusual because the integration of danceable trance is a quite unheard territory in the world of Industrial. Never the less This Morn Omina succeeded his mission and has released a number of albums under the concept. Latest album under the flag "This Morn Omina" leaves the tribal rhythm textures behind and exclusively focus on drone-based dark ambient. The album titled "Inferno" is released on the interesting Belgian label Spectre. "Inferno" is divided into three lengthy and untitled intersections running from 15 to 18 minutes. The atmospheres are dark and alluring with subtle buzzing drones surrounding the listener meanwhile distant voices creates a nightmarish feeling. Another new album from Mika Goedrijk has just been released, this time under his birth name. Again the original tribal trance/industrial-sound has been suppressed. But in contrary to the non-rhythmic "Inferno"-album there are rhythms on the album titled "Pellicules" released on German label Ant-Zen Recordings. The rhythms are more downbeat than the earlier style, meanwhile the texture is more complex thus approaching the classic IDM-style of early Warp Records with a combination of atmospheric ambientscapes swirling along rhythms of complexity sometimes reminiscent of early Autechre or The Black Dog. Distant voices and conversations keeps a mysterious feeling on the album that balances between threatening and alluring atmospheres. Both albums is quite a different take from Mika Goedrijk alias This Morn Omina, and might capture new listeners but also fans of the original style will be fascinated on these ones. (NM)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com/

CELER - CAPRI (CD by Humming Conch)
Berlin's MP3 label Resting Sounds have expanded into a new label, a physical release label that will release CDs, CDRs, cassettes and vinyl, and the omnipresent - at least these days it seems - Celer kick off with the first release, a CD with no less than twenty-nine tracks called 'Capri'. Celer, it should be known by now, is a duo of 'husband and wife' Will Thomas Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. They have had various releases in the past six months, and for 'Capri' they went to the island of the same name and they play piano, strings, horns, acoustic guitar and field recordings, although the latter have been pushed back a bit. Unlike their previous release, the twenty-nine pieces (spanning almost 78 minutes) are separate entities and a more sketch like. Each and everyone contains of sustaining sounds that move gently around. Whatever they have done to the piano I don't know, but that too moves in long durations. Field recordings, as said, are pushed back in favor of the instruments. One could easily argue that Celer doesn't add much to what we heard previously, but this is absolutely a very fine release, perhaps the best Celer so far. Best enjoyed late at night, played on random and repeat and let it go until you fall asleep and perfect music to wake up by. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hummingconch.net

CONRAD SCHNITZLER - WINDVOGEL (CD by Waystyx)
JOHN WATERMANN - DENIAL OF RICKET (CD by Waystyx)
PBK - UNDER MY BREATH (CD by Waystyx)
There are a few similarities between Monochrome Vision and Waystyx: both labels are from Moscow and both have a strong love for new music by 'old' musicians. There are differences too: whereas Monochrome Vision's releases are unlimited and a strong black and white cover esthetic, Waystyx releases are highly limited (Schnitzler to 187 copies) and complex, great covers. And most of the times no information. The Schnitzler release has nothing at all. I am a big Schnitzler fan, even without having heard all he did. I even may not like all his music, but what I really like is his total independent approach to electronic music, away from hypes, styles and scenes. He's one of my heroes, along with say John Cage. This means I am hardly an expert when it comes to actually reviewing a work of his and placing it in the right corner of his vast discography. It seems to me that this is a fairly recent recording, with great emphasis on using sampled rhythms, rhythm machines and analogue synthesizers. Fifteen short(er) pieces of quite pleasant electronic music, with some tracks a bit too sweet for my taste, but throughout it fits his non-keyboard approach well - using all the filters of a synthesizer rather than playing a sound using the keyboard. Excellent mood music.
I am not sure if the title of the Watermann CD is right. His old website says 'Denial Of Cricket', but it really says 'Denial Of Ricket' here. We can no longer ask Watermann since he passed away in 2002. Like with Schnitzler, who is about similar year of birth as Watermann, I like the
independent aspects of his work, and not always the actual music. Watermann has some great releases, 'Calcutta Gas Chamber' being a particular highlight, but also some weaker brothers. 'Denial Of Ricket' is among that latter phase I'm afraid, but its the sound which made his music become more well-known across the ocean. Short sampled segments of voices create a rhythm of their own and form the basis of the tracks. On top of that Watermann adds more sound snippets, electronics and sometimes even a real rhythm machine. Not unlike his 'Illusions Of Infinite Bliss', 'Ambiguity' and 'Dummyhead' releases. These are pieces without head or tail. They start and go on in a rather loosely improvised manner. Sometimes nice, certainly the first half of each track, but its all a bit too lengthy for my taste. Its good to see it on CD though and Brume did a great job making a fine re-master.
Younger than Schnitzler and Watermann is PBK, even when he has been around for a long time, including a long absence. But he's back since some time, and he is attached to the old and the new, the younger generation of sound artists. Pieces on 'Under My Breath' were recorded with people like Akifumi Nakajima (Aube), Christian Renou (Brume), Dale Lloyd, John Wiggings, Nigel Ayers, Slavek Kwi (Artificial Memory Trace), Tore Boe and Wolf Eyes. PBK uses 'natural or man-made acoustic sounds, digital glitching and turntable noise', but its his goal to create music that is 'organic' and not (too) noise based. He blends his various source recordings together and makes up a sound that falls half way in the old ambient industrial school and the other half shows an interest in using computer processing for his sounds. Eleven tracks in nearly eighty minutes is perhaps a bit much, but throughout the material is quite strong. PBK successfully updates his own 'old' style and makes something new out of it. A pity that the track titles are printed in reverse - that was a bad joke before with someone else, and still is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.waystyx.com/

KILL AND EAT - GREEN BUSHES (CD by Alright Now)
Three tracks on this one. In the first track we are on the way for some 18 minutes with slow romantic pianoplaying and a voice singing "Green bushes, concrete trees". After some 10 minutes trumpet and drums take part is this extensive and minimalistic ballade. Also for the two other tracks the musicians take their time. Slow jazzy music in a low-fi jacket is what we have here. The players are not great instrumentalists. This makes their music sound fragile and sympathetic. The endless repetition of phrases in the second piece make it either work for you or it makes you nervous. The third piece "Ellipsis" has effective and captivating drumwork. But I must say, I could not really find the door to the world where these guys live in. For very romantic souls only. (DM)
Address: http://www.killandeat.com/

KONSTRUKT - AKUSTIKELEKTRIK (CD by WM Recordings)
Konstrukt is a trio from Istanbul founded in 2008 with Korhan Argüden (drums), Özün usta (percussion, voice) and Umut Caglar (guitar, electronics) plus Korhan Futaci (reeds, flutes, voice) as a regular guest. All members have their background in a diversity of experimental bands in Istanbul. Through the Russian Clinical Archives-label they released their first CD in june 2008. Dutch WM Recordings makes their second effort available. From the first moments it is evident that this improvising combo is inspired by the free jazz from 60s and 70s. The opening track begins with a long intro, slowly culminating in a hectic brew. Throughout, their improvisations are dominated by drums and percussion. Futaci is a Brötzmann-like powerplayer. Most characteristic and appealing however is Gaglar with his use of electronics and guitar like in "Kaptan Swing". He is the most virtuoso player of this quartet. The interlude by guitar and sax in the middle of "Ilk Hareket" and guitarsolo a little later, are one of the sparse moments that kept my attention, because here they try to do something different . The players do their job with verve, and they do reach moments of great intensity, but musically spoken they do not have many surprises for us. It all sounds too familiar. On the other hand, the hardcore free jazz of Konstrukt makes curious about more is happening in the clubs of Istanbul. (DM)
Address: http://www.wmrecordings.com/

THE LANGUAGE OF - COMPILATION (CD by Quiet Design)
Truly a very nice and high quality release that deserves to be noticed. It is a compilation of 10 compositions by 8 young composers from New York. A variety of exciting and well played compositions. An excellent example that new music can be very emotionally appealing. The CD opens with 'Nucleus', a short work by Alex Mincek for tenorsax, played by Mincek himself and Ian Antionio on drums. A convincing and disciplined work with sax and drums equally involved as solo-instruments. The finale of this work is most remarkable. After a Henry Cowish first part we go to end first with a long percussive outro to be followed by some very tiny last remarks by the sax. Excellent. It is the first of four other compositions on this CD for duo-format: 'Switches' by Sam Pluta for cello an drums, dominated by over the edge cello-playing by Dave Edgar in a piece that is built accordingly to the esthetics of noiserock. Another duo-piece, "I am the Beat that waits for you to see me" by Clara Latham for drums and flute, is more close to improvised musical exercises. The work by Kate Soper for accordion and saxophone is an example of intimate chambermusic. In between we find, for example, three solo pieces by Jeff Snyder that breath a completely different atmosphere: short and very abstract electronic works for Buchla, that sound organic at the same time. Another solopiece is "Shruti" by Ales Ness. A fantastic composition for viola, very passionately performed by Amy Cimini. An exuberant composition that is rooted in Indian music. A highlight! The longest work takes 16 minutes of dueling violins in a quartet by Eric Wubbels. The titletrack comes from the composition by Jim Altieri for solo cello. It takes too long to comment on all the compositions enclosed here. So may I conclude, saying that this is very tasteful selection of new compositions by young promising composers. (DM)
Address: http://www.quietdesign.us/

I/D - MIDNIGHT HOT (CD by Flux US)
Improvised noise rock from a band from Singapore that was formed in 2005: Shark (assault n' battery, noises), Harold (more assault, virtuoso machine abuse), Wei Nan (noise-wave generator), David (whiplash lacerations), Ian (deep abyssal throbbin'), Joseph (kling klang motorik). Plus friends: George Chua (sampler, 'flutes', screams), Evan Tan (laptop, bass), Tim O' Dwyer (reeds, noises) and Goose (er-hu, effects). In four lengthy tracks they demonstrate their technical capability as noise rockers. They make clear that 70s progressive rock and jazz fusion, psychedelic rock, harsh noise, experimental electronics, etc are their influences. In 2007 they released their first, 'Midnight' is their second try. A trip into a dark but fascinating world. The pieces originated from free improvised sessions. They succeed in creating a condensed and multi-layered fat sound. Interesting is the solowork by the guitar. The drummer however has little phantasy. The music lacks focus and vision. Too much going nowhere. The music never really starts to boil. And that is a pity because they can make some hell of a noise together, that tastes very good. (DM)

JEAN-LUC GUIONNET - NON-ORGANIC BIAS (2CD by Herbal Records)
The work of Jean-Luc Guionnet deals at times with organs, church organs, pipe organs. Only one piece here with organ sounds. All three are granted a text to explain what they are about, but they aren't too easy to understand. Likewise I don't know what Guionnet does to his organ sounds. Are they played in real time? Are they layered? Are they processed? I simply don't know. In 'Espace Bas' it seems this is not the case, and its played 'as is', with lots of air sounding through occasionally played tones and small clusters of tones. The shortest piece, the title piece, which doesn't seem to have organ sounds, but what it is that is played here I don't know, but this seems to be a much more electronic sound of a hardly identifiable nature. Feedback? Electronics? Enhanced room acoustics? Quite a heavy piece of music here, almost noise based, which seems unlike Guionnet. 'Estuaire' is the longest piece on this double set, which is also very unclear what the sound event is, but its a much more 'mellow' piece than previous piece (which are on the same disc). Slow humming - a motor, an engine, perhaps - with very minimal changes throughout. This is a beautiful piece, the best out of three. Its a piece of ambient music built from all sorts of frequencies that just by themselves wouldn't qualify as relaxing ambient music, but in the drone like capacities work absolutely nice. Very refined this one, whereas the other two are good, and the title piece is the least convincing one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.herbalinternational.tk

NESTOR FIGUERAS & DAVID TOOP & PAUL BURWELL - CHOLAGOGUES (CD by Schoolmap Records)
There is of course a lot of music recorded and released in the past in crazy small editions on cassettes and vinyl. At one point I hoped a lot of them would be re-issued on CD, simply because they sound better than crackling vinyl or hissy tapes, but these days I think we have to do with crackling vinyl being converted to MP3s, which sound worse I guess, but when its distributed it is at least 'free', and one can get to hear it at least. Compare it with a black and white xerox of a Rembrand painting. So its good to see things like this. I wasn't aware of this LP, released in 1977 by Bead, so I can't cheer about 'historical importance' and such like. The CD version is the original recording as one track of a piece of improvised music by Figueras (credited with 'movement, respiratory and vocal sounds, body percussion), Toop (lots of flutes) and Burwell (on percussion, water, dog whistle, bows, and a Max Eastly invention called 'aeroplane clastic'). Forty one minutes of freely improvised music. Schoolmap also refers to 'various non-European music styles', which is something I just didn't discover on this record. Its quite a nice record for sure, of 'slow music' (Schoolmap's words): slow and minimal they play with the various instruments at hand and throughout sound on top of things. No weak spots here. Perhaps a lost gem of the improvised music from the 70s, but it still sounds fresh today. (FdW)
Address: http://www.schoolmap-records.com

BEEHATCH - BROOD (CD by Lens Records)
In Dutch the word 'Brood' means 'bread' and to some it might refer to the deceased Herman of the same name. I am not sure if Phil Western and Mark Spybey are aware of that. Its their second CD, following their self titled debut CD which was reviewed in Vital Weekly 623. Their background reads like a long list of post industrial music projects (Skinny Puppy, Zoviet France, Download to mention three). Their debut could not entirely convince me, but I must say 'Brood' is much nicer. Whereas their debut suffered from a big variety of musical styles, this new one seems much more coherent in approach. Rhythm plays an important role, and the delve in the mines of Krautrock and cosmic music, and the pieces sound coherent together as well as coherent inside a piece. Sometimes pieces are merely electronic moods, but then easily followed by a piece using rhythm and guitars, along the omnipresent synthesizers in 'Turkische Hasa'. Every other track has a vocals on it, which sometimes have just repeated lines, or wordless 'oh aah' singing. This is an important step forward for Beehatch. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lensrecords.com

JANA WINDEREN - HEATED: LIVE IN JAPAN (CD by Touch)
Following Nana April Jun in last week's Vital Weekly, Touch offers another release by someone we never heard of. Jana Winderen only released a 7" so far on Auotfact, although she worked with Hauswolff's Freq_out and saw her field recordings used by Sigur Ros on their film 'Heima'. 'Heated' is a live recording made at Super Deluxe in Tokyo on 24th October 2008, containing field recordings made in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. Details of the equipment used are on the cover, and is perhaps of interest for specialists only, but it includes Hydrophones to record the world below the sea waves. I assume she uses various CDs with various field recordings, which she combines in an improvised way to create a piece of music, which in this case lasts twenty-six minutes (and on a separate track a spoken into by one Tetsuro Yasunaga). I must say the field recordings are absolute great. No doubt about that. Also the composition as such is very good. But what bothers me a bit is that this doesn't seem to stand out from much else that is done in this field. This could have been on And/Oar for instance or Alluvial. With a label like Touch one would assume an extra component, a conceptual angle or something like that, but its not the case. A great, gorgeous work no doubt, and certainly someone to look out for in the future. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk

HEAVY WINGED - SPREADING CENTER (CD by Release The Bats)
This band no longer exists in the form a band, that is rehearsing and playing all the time. The three members started out like that in 2004, and originally wanted to play songs, but it deemed quickly upon them that they rather liked to play improvised noise rock. Heavy Winged recorded every session which resulted in a string of concerts and releases. In 2006 Jed Bindeman left to live in Portland and Ryan Herbert moved to Windsor, while Brady Sansone left behind in New York. But they decided to get together twice a year to do short tours and record new material. Their 'Spreading Center' CD was recorded in two different concerts, one in 2007 and one in 2008. This is my first encounter with their music, and I must say I like what I heard. An endless onslaught of banging drums, heavy guitars (type: wall of sound) and pounding bass. Two tracks, each around twenty-six minutes of endless guitar noise, although the 2007 opens in a spacious way. Psychedelic noise music. Not for the weak of hearth, and best played loud. But what seems better I guess, is to see this played in a live concert, I think, when their loud and dirty aspects would be glorious to hear. The CD is great but a substitute for the real thing. I am not sure if I would dive into their entire recorded catalogue, but this one is very nice indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.releasethebats.com

PRURIENT - THE BLACK POST SOCIETY (CD by Cold Spring)
It is not every day, you find such a brutal artwork as is the case with latest album from american composer (or rather sound destructor) Prurient on the top of a charts list. At the moment his album titled "Black post society" ranks as #1 on the TOP 5 Downloads-charts of British label Cold Spring. And let's get it clear from beginning: It couldn't be more deserved. Behind the Prurient-project you find the Brooklyn-based artist Dominick Fernow, who apart from the Prurient-project also is the man behind the label Hospital Productions. For the last decade Prurient has launched a giant number of releases on various medias counting cassettes, 7" and 12# plus CDRs plus quite a few CD-releases with this latest out on Cold Spring. What makes this extremely expressive noise-album such an alluring experience is the combination of full throttle digital aggression and fragile soundscapes of sonic beauty drifting somewhere in the deeper levels throughout the eight pieces on the album. The noise part of Prurient is built on crushing power electronics that operates in such a depth that the listener might start getting worried during playback his audio equipment. Another important element on the album is the vocals from Dominick Fernow, vocals that ranges from whispering to full-throttle screams, sometimes high-pitched screams as on the black metal-reminiscent piece "Domina milking" to the monstrous growling on pieces like "Wooden weapons" and "Egyptian bondage". Favorite moment comes with the work "Wooden weapons", a cruel beast that during its eight minutes running time opens in calm never the less ultra-destructive crushing drones waving a long subtle (un)human growls, until hell breaks loose towards the end with some desperate growls balancing between anger and sorrow. This balance between sonic aggression and fragile sorrow is what makes "Black post society" such an emotional noise work. In a moment of global regression and ongoing deterioration of the global environments, "Black post society" is the perfect soundtrack to describe this present state of global chaos. Unquestionably the strongest work of noise-related art I have heard in quite some time... (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk/

NED BOUHALASSA - GRATTE-CITE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
DAVID BEREZAN - LA FACE CACHEE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
The DVDs released by Empreintes Digitales don't contain images, but highly quality music, to be selected as stereo or 5.1 surround sound. In the past I complained about the lack of difference between the various releases on this label, with some exceptions, but the release by Ned Bouhalassa is something different. Bouhalassa has a background as a composer for films and TV series and is from Montreal. He doesn't seem to belong the academic world that usually inhabits Empreintes Digitales. He works much more like the others around with loops of sounds, more regular synthesizers but every now and then also throws in some breakbeat rhythm. At the same time he uses field recordings (street sounds, natural sounds) and the length of the pieces is not entirely pop song either. The combination of all of this makes this quite a surprising CD, a great one for this label. Modern electronics without the pretensions, the same idiom and such like. Nice one indeed.
Berezan is a student of Jonty Harrison and he has won two prices for his works, and has founded Mantis, the Manchester Theatre In Sound. He is firmly based in the tradition of electro-acoustic and acousmatic music, and fits very well the many release on this label. I must say that what I heard I liked to a certain extent, even when it is at times based too much in what this music had to before by others. Berezan uses some of those techniques but not entirely. He does pick his choose of techniques to process his sounds also from the world of microsound, which makes it more varied than the usual posse of acousmatic composers, but by and large not my cup of tea. In its kind not bad, but certainly not as fresh and surprising as the Bouhalassa release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.electrocd.com

IMPOSSIBLE HAIR - WHAT IS THE SECRET OF IMPOSSIBLE HAIR? (CD, self released)
JENIFEREVER - SPRING TIDES (CD by Monotreme Records)
Five Roses is a press agent for labels that deal with guitar music. They used to send music to this place we call Vital Weekly, but we told them not to bother as the music seemed to be too far away from what we are interested. Now they return with these two, and both bands are true rock bands, and again, nothing us. I have no idea why this is. Please Five Roses, don't consider us a good place for scoring reviews for your bands. We don't have the knowledge to discuss your rock bands. (FdW)
Address: http://www.impossiblehair.com
Address: http://www.monotremerecords.com

KADAVER MOLESTED INTO FORM (CD by Fractured space Records)
SLAVE AUCTION / DEMONOLOGISTS + METEK Untitled (CDR by 13 monden)
I've reviewed Kadaver before (VW 557 and 607) and first off this seems to be an improvement in that the sound is definitely doing more of the work. The CD insert is a glossy sepia of various scenes of atrocity in the form of dead bodies. The tracks are fairly noisy with hints at voices, still too filmatic for my liking, rhythmic and dangerously pleasant at times. One can imagine long panning shot of massacres with this as soundtrack, however one can agree with M.Z. himself - 'so what', if "everything is pointless". Why make this recording and try to sell it? If life is just "war, pestilence, famine, violence, drugs and sex," then lets open another bottle of scotch and watch the Sound of Music. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens". visiting this site http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/favorite.htm is far more depressing than anything Kadaver has yet to produce. try yourself ... The fact that MZ choses to see the dark side suggests more than a disinterest - but that he likes his vision of humanity- but seeing that side only of the coin is no different than the authors of "my favorite things".. are the screams on "heart shaped torture" of terror or joy? Sounds like a recording made in a fun fair. if *this* is all pointless then the coin tossing exercise not only reveals an equal probability but also explains the reason why all this is here- of course such a proposition is an act of faith, not quite as improbable as the immaculate conception- but still a faith in that the coin will never land on its edge or do anything other than behave according to the laws that humanity has given it.
Enough of 'thought for the day'- the SA / D + M = "Two tracks of gravel and filth by the US/Swedish desperado duo of Demonologists and Metek. Vocal spasms buried under hisses and electronic mist, hazy drones for the underdogs. Slave Auction bloat a lengthy suite of harsh walls, tape splatters, crippled bass riffs and grey synth tones." So I suspect the worst possible critique would be to call these "nice"? I think the problem with much of noise which either looks back on or is still emerging from industrial/horror/slash metal / whatever is that is very much like domestic ambient sounds just amplified until a general background mush appears within which the occasional event is detected. Nothing wrong with that, but its still story telling isn't it? (jliat)
Address: http://www.fracturedspaces.co.uk
Address: http://www.13monden.com

RAIONBASHI - IN TEUFEL'S KÜCHE (10" by Absurd/Ignivomous)
To say there is a lot of information on the cover of Raionbashi's 'In Teufel's Küche'... well, no. I came across the name Raionbashi before, on two compilations, but I have no idea who or what it is. The label says 'All Voices, Noises, Instruments, Body-Functions & Apostrophes by DL' and that this is a follow up to 'Kollekte', a LP for Hanson Records in 2006. The music is great, yet hard to define. Is it musique concrete? Perhaps one could say it is. There is the use of piano sounds, various objects picked up with contact microphones and perhaps some voice material. But what Raionbashi does with this material is not drown it in electronic processing, but built in various layers of unprocessed nature. Lots of layers it seems, but with various moments of silence built in. I perhaps wrongly expected some noise, but this is far from it. This is some great obscured music (as opposed to obscure music), with some intense moments. Not easy listening, but one that grows every time you play it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.noise-below.org http://www.ignivomous.org

THREE IDEOPHONES (triple 10" by Onomatopee)
JUSTIN BENNETT - SHOTGUN ARCHITECTURE (10" by Onomatopee)
No costs have been saved to release these two by Dutch art organization Onomatopee. 'Three Ideophones' comes in a 10" box, and all three records are picture discs. Perhaps you are aware of the 'Three Ideophones' which Dick Raaijmakers did as an installation in the sixties, to which this release is a nod, not a remix. A definition of Ideophone is 'a vivid representation of an idea in sound. A word, often onomatopoeic and reduplicated, which describes a predicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, color, sound, smell, action, state or intensity'. The three artists here, Goodiepal, Alejandra & Aeron and Jörg Piringer, don't just work in music, but in a variety of disciplines. They were asked to contribute sound pieces to the idea of Ideophone. Goodiepal presents a piece along the lines of his recent cassette for Alku. A radioplay of some sort, but with less rhythm, and perhaps less of a story, but it would indeed be a radioplay of some kind. Nice but not as hilarious as the cassette. Jörg Piringer is perhaps the least known artist in this box and his record seems to be dealing with the human voice, processed and unprocessed, but it all remains a bit too unfocussed for my taste. The best record in this box comes from Alejandro & Aeron, who use a multitude of motorized objects to create a wordless radioplay. Just exactly what idea it is they are getting across, I'm not sure of, but at least it sounds good. This record left me with mixed feelings. It looks great, there is no doubt a great concept at the bottom of all of this, but the endresult is only partly a success.
Justin Bennett's record is about gunshots. He uses a starting gun and records the various reflections these sounds have in various buildings in an area in Amsterdam with high, multinational buildings. Pictures and drawings on the oversized poster that is the cover of this record. Freek Lomme wrote the text about this, also part of the cover. Side A has various short pieces based on these recordings, which work in a great minimal way. A gunshot, and then what seems to be processed sounds, derivations of that sound. Horrified source material (especially in a city like Amsterdam where gangster killings are not uncommon), but strangely enough it works quite relaxing. The other side has one long piece, which seems to me a combination of various recordings found on the a-side. Also a nice piece, but perhaps a bit superfluous, as it seems a repeat action of the first side. (FdW)
Address: http://www.onomatopee.net

FRANK ROTHKAMM - FRANK GENIUS IS STAR STRUCK (CDR by Flux Records)
Record labels make claims that aren't always true but they sound nice. "Frank Rothkamm is one of the few conceptual sound artists that can honestly be labeled 'original'" are actually Rothkamm's own words, but its true. He never seems to do the same thing twice. His previous release 'Opus Spongebobicum' was a piano work, 'Just 3 Organs' an electronic ambient work, and here on 'Frank Genius Is Star Struck', he goes back to his first release from 1994, 'Planet Genius', which I surely heard but forgot. He calls his new work an 'autobiographical "digital cantata" - set in San Francisco in the years A.D. 1990-1991', recorded with a Yamaha TX16W Sampler and TX81Z + FB01 synthesizers, programmed on Atari, in 1990-1991 and assembled on PC in 2008-2009. This is again something entirely different. As Frank Genius he plays popmusic. Robotic voices, electronic break beats, electro rhythms, sampled strings and uptempo synthesizers. Dance music with a great bite. The twelve tracks are throughout short and very much to the point, with tracks flowing into eachother. I was reminded of some of the earlier works by Greater Than One - still an ipod favorite here. Upbeat music that puts a big smile on this face. Frank Rothkamm is Frank Genius - never letting down on the surprise side. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com

IRONING - NASSAU (CDR by Hymns)
A few weeks ago I reviewed a LP by Jeff Rehnlund which was made with microcassette recordings made in Korea, now we have is Ironing, the project of Andrew Chadwick, who made some field recordings 'aboard the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship at sea and in Nassua, Bahamas', which he mixes with Bahamian radio and mixed in 'the wee hours'. Sounds like a nightmare, such a cruise, but that might just be me. Thirty one very short snippets of sounds, with the radio 'on' somewhere underneath, on top, some curious voice pieces: does Chadwick like this cruise himself, or is 'I Smile Along With You' merely ironic? Though I like the concept of this a lot, and it evokes holiday pictures with a guy in his cabin and his various cassette recorders creating music to make his holiday a bit more enjoyable, its on the other hand also a bit long. What he has to say in these thirty one tracks could have easily been reduced to twenty minutes, with similar impact. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/ironing

CHEFKIRK - BURL!!! (CDR by Quagga Curious Sounds)
Roger H Smith on no-input mixer + sampler- 12 tracks of experimental noise and now only two left so get in your order now!- staccato hiss and feedback sounds, clicks et al. obviously modulated which is the problem here, well the problem is letting the modernist grand narrative in by the backdoor - "experimental" noise - like military intelligence, an oxymoron of huge proportions through which pin prink a thousand dead philosophers appear and not so much walk as talk again the dead weight of history the modernity of technics and experiment, the curse of all zombies is to feed of the living, you see a zombie is an oxymoron also as is the idea of killing one by a bullet in the head.. "Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in North America, and whose most famous and influential exponent was John Cage (Grant 2003, 174). More loosely, the term is used to describe music within specific genres that pushes against their boundaries or definitions, or else whose approach is a hybrid of disparate styles, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients" - and that is not noise is it playmates? Or is a no input mixer pushing against any boundaries- there are non - once again everybody say 'Il n'y a pas de hors-texte' - and again 'Il n'y a pas de hors-texte'. (jliat)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/quaggacurioussoundsandoddities

AZOIKUM - ENDZEIT (CDR by Produck)
"Stefan Widmann Influences Influenced by the cruelty, uselessness and ugliness of mankind" - and cites PE - this is 4,361 seconds of what could be continuous harsh noise... but is in listening more like some tonal music which has been stratified and fossilized for in very short and at two or three instances it shows through the continuum of filtered modulated and distorted white noise and mangled electronica. Strangely then though it seems to make a point or is attempting something programmatic the sedimentations prevent this from becoming anything other than empty. (jliat)
Address: http://www.produck.tk

DEAR MICHAEL/KUMMIEBAND & GLEBSTOFF - SPLIT (12inch glue flexi + 2 x3 inch CDR by Produck)
Deliberate or not but the "glue flexi" which you play from the inside out was literally spilt - made from some kind of PVA - mould off a lathe cut I suspect. The first or last track was a piano piece - the outer last track only part playable sounded like rumbling noise, the DM CDR has 6 tracks of which track 3 is the piano off the glue flexi, though the other 5 tracks are mostly silent with odd scrapes and scraps of noise. The KG CDR has 12 tracks mostly sub minute of harsh noise except the last of 5 minutes which is I think just a recording of someone walking, which I suspect makes up the outer track of the glue flexi. From the website of Produck its clear that the label goes in for this kind of thing. I'm not sure of just what to make of it all - "interesting" is not to be used. This is a situation where the nature of manufacture and materials is perhaps as important- if not more so than what is actualized. Strangely it reminds me of jugglers, I don't much like them or do I dislike them but I know many are impressed by such performances. For those who like the arcane, the two headed dogs on display in circuses etc. they should no doubt enjoy collecting the Produck range - though not as odd or costly as Marc Quinn's "Self" (Jliat)
Address: http://www.produck.tk

DARREN TATE & IAN HOLLOWAY - WET RAT YEAR (CDR by Quiet World)
IAN HOLLOWAY - WHERE HAVE WE BEEN IN THE WORLD TODAY (CDR by Quiet World)
BANKS BAILEY - VIBRATIONS FROM THE HOLOCENE (CDR by Quiet World)
Quiet World is the label by Ian Holloway, and its primary interest is to release his own music or of those he works with. These three are no different. First around is the disc he recorded with Darren Tate, Monos frontman and previously involved with Holloway. No information on the cover, and not much on the disc either. Following their previous more drone related work, 'Wet Rat Year' is a different cup of tea. The opening piece is a duet for improvised guitars and effects. Field recordings do pop up in the second piece, but also noisy synthesizers. This noisy and improvised is continued in the next track, which is the weakest on this disc. Too loosely improvised. The fourth piece is a piercing synth improvisation, whereas the final track is a more subdued improvisation, and perhaps the best of the disc. Not a particular quiet world this release, and also not very convincing in the musical department. Not every new move turns out to be great.
Ian Holloway's solo disc is not about making new moves in music, but at least it sounds a lot more interesting. His music is divided in eight pieces, which is kinda unusual for him, and in some pieces, like 'Summertime Violet' there is a small similarity to the music he did with Tate on 'Wet Rat Year', but throughout this is much more gentle playing of drone related music. Electronic by all accounts, maybe on real synthesizers or perhaps digital versions thereof, but flowing, elegant and perhaps not entirely new, it seems to me that this worked out better, less randomly improvised. Quite nice.
Banks Bailey worked before with Tate and Holloway on the 'Summerland' album, and here he presents a disc of his own make. He hails from Tuscon, Arizona where he records the fields. Descriptions on the insert which are hard to decipher. It seems to me that he takes the sound 'as is', without any further manipulation or processing. Birds, wind and water are his primary targets. Nicely recorded and sweet to hear, but perhaps also not more than that. Maybe it would have been nice to add something to that, or do something with it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quietworld.co.uk

AUTORES VARIOS - ASTILLAS AL VIENTO RUGEN (double CDR by Ruidemos)
A massive comp of 19 artists from Granada Spain - well the comp not the 19. The blurb translates as "silva ruidista in two large movements cough, distilling an exquisite palette of fertile cracks along a dynamic range of intensities of ARG BEL CHIL ESP EUS JAP MEX PER PUE" I think tracks - but have no idea of cough. And dynamic range sounds ominous, well that's my research - you will now metaphorically have to wait some hours whilst I listen to the coughing cracks - is that Joyce? .. I'm not going to give a detailed review of each - which would only be descriptive but a well compiled set of pieces across the two disks forming a fairly coherent set of sounds - sound sculptures and electronica- music concreate kind of thing typified by sparse silences and electronics with at times perhaps field recordings and looping along the conventional lines of electronica - no industrial/metal/noise as such - useful perhaps as an introduction to these sound artists though the folded paper sleeve gives only names and titles. I'm not a great fan of compilations as I've said before- but this could have been better done if contact details and some background information on each artist had been given. Maybe cost plays a part here - the sleeve is B&W paper and the two disks Verbatim branded. Ok so it might be going for a throwaway aesthetic- which if done on a quirky single can work - but not here I think. Its probably not that more expensive to use blank digi packs and inkjet printable Cdrs- and if the cost of extensive printing of contact details and backgrounds to the pieces is prohibitive, then a link to a website providing these details would be helpful. The label's website is similarly fairly thrown together- and here the obvious appears - on further translation "a collection of virtual disks free download, which aims to raise awareness and support artists in the area of noise as a form of expression as other trends abstract minimalist / maximalist and improvisatorias, leaving the door open for a time most popular aesthetic" OK - but the lack of contact details and information on the artists still stands unless I've missed something Spanish here again. However if you are going in for virtual web based releases (and send review copies to an English based review) maybe detect the browsers language and direct to the appropriate pages- it not that difficult. Please not those silly flags to click on - OK so Spanish is widespread - but what I received was anything
but clear and as for me learning a new language - English is hard enough -
(jliat) AKA the dyslexic Kid.
Address: http://www.ruidemos.org

FREIBAND - MUSIK FOR NO TITLE (3" CDR by My Own Little Label)
BEEQUEEN - ATEM (3" CDR by My Own Little Label)
FRANS DE WAARD - HEERLEN HISS (3" CDR by My Own Little Label)
Three new releases from the "My Own Little Label"-company has seen the light of the day. M.O.L.L. is owned by Dutch sounds artist Frans De Waard with the aim of launching the works of his many aliases plus a number of other interesting artists of the Dutch sound art scene. First of the new albums comes from the project Freiband, which is the latest alias of mr. Waard, a project that first all focus on exclusive digital sound textures. Present work released under the title "Music for no title" was originally released in 2003 under the Polish label Mik Musik as part of five remixes. The seventeen minutes long piece opens with glitching drones that shortly after fades out giving space for a wide spectre of digital pulses and buzz drones. Expressively the piece lies somewhere between abstract sound art and drone ambient, ending out with a hidden melodic atmospheres drifting underneath some alluring hypnotic glitchy buzz drones. Next 3" comes from the project Beequeen. By the way it is the longest running piece by the two man-project consisting of Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar. Originally released in 1996 but now out of print, present MOLL-issue, gives the listener the chance to experience this organic drone piece of Beequeen. Compared to the aforementioned MOLL-release from the Freiband-project this piece is more dark and sinister with almost threatening drones slowly building up. It is a minimalist piece giving some great opportunities for soul drifting. Last album is released under the birth name of Frans De Waard. It is a 19 minutes running single piece. "Heerlen hiss" is a remix of three different pieces that focus on hisses from old cassettes as well as field recordings of faulty cassette mechanisms. The work combines studio recordings with live recordings. The piece opens subdued in expressions. Rumbling hissing sounds slowly builds up but never turns harsh. The piece remains in the more subtle levels with a minimalist approach to the hissings. Anyone interested in drone-based sound art should these three MOLL-releases out. You can hear sound clips from the releases via website of the label. (NM)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html