RÉGIS BOULARD & CHIEN VERT – LES TOURISTES (CD by !EDITIONS)
KASHIWA DAISUKE – 5 DEC. (CD by Noble Records)
OLD DOG – BY ANY OTHER NAME (CD by Porter Records)
THE NU BAND – LOWER EAST SIDE BLUES (CD by Porter Records)
PROJEKT TRANSMIT – PROJEKT TRANSMIT (CD by Staubgold)
JOHN WIESE – CIRCLE SNARE (CD by No Fun Productions)
EGK – ELECTRICALS (CD by Another Timbre) *
OCTANTE – LUNULA (CD by Another Timbre) *
PILLOWDIVER – SLEEPING PILLS (CD by 12K) *
MOLLY BERG & STEPHEN VITIELLO – THE GORILLA VARIATIONS (CD by 12K) *
Z’EV & BRYAN LEWIS SAUNDERS – DAKU (CD by Outfall Channel)
WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT – ABSENCE PACT (CDR by Outfall Channel) *
ROBERT VAN HEUMEN & JOHN FERGUSON – WHISTLE PIG SALOON (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
RAMLEH – SWITCH HITTER/THE MACHINES OF INFINITY JOY (10″ by Black Rose Recordings/Broken Flag)
OO-RAY – MAGNIFICATIONS (CDR by Luv Sound) *
CISFINITUM – NEVMENOSIS (CDR by Afe Records) *
HORCHATA – ACYTOTA (CDR by Afe Records) *
GENETIC TRANSMISSION – SPIRAL (CDR by Afe Records) *
KNURL – A HAIL OF BLADES (CD by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
JOSETXO GRIETA – HITZAK, EGINAK, PERTSONAK, ANIMALIAK (DVD by Discos Crudos / Munster records)
ASPEC(T) – EL OBSCENO PAJARO DE LA NOCHE (Cdr by FF HHHH)
ARKLIGHT – TEARDROP ENTREATIES (Cdr by FF HHHH)
ZOOLOGIST – THE CANE TOAD (3inch CDr by Sicksicksick)
BLACK GUYS BLACK HISTORY (CD by Sicksicksick /Hype Machine)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – UNICORN MAN (Cdr by Time Stereo)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – THE ROBOTS (DVDr by Time Stereo)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – TAPES 1993-1997 (Cdr by Time Stereo)
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 216 (3″CDR by Ingeos)
BAS VAN HUIZEN – ONTGALMAN (MP3 by Monocromatica) *
NIENTE RECORDS VOLUME 1 (MP3 by Niente Records)
CERNLAB – 52.09 (MP3 by Electroton)
RÉGIS BOULARD & CHIEN VERT – LES TOURISTES (CD by !EDITIONS)
On “Les Touristes” Boulard presents his new group after working with Streamer. Chien Vert is a french trio of Stéphane Fromentin on guitars and voice, Nicolas Méheust on mellotron, rhodes, mini moog and bass, plus Régis Boulard himself playing drums, voice and Rhodes. Rock in a postrock vein if I have to typify the music in one sentence. Easy going minimalistic rockmusic, mainly instrumental, and focused on creating a certain atmospheres. In their sound the old keyboards they use attract most of the attention. The piece “Chien Vert” for example is dominated by mellotron, evoking old progrock days. In “Omaha-les-Bains” they show their jazzy face with even in a even more easy going pace, although the drummer is very busy in this piece. In “Click Men – Yes Men” they show again another face with a delicious freerock improvisation. In “Swing is White” they create a very weird and spooky world. “Visitez Alcatraz” is an uptempo exercise with strange keyboards. With their musical possibilities they do a good job, developing a non-spectacular music that works under the surface. Concerning their musical identity however they are more into searching and seeking, then into finding. (DM)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/chienvert
KASHIWA DAISUKE – 5 DEC. (CD by Noble Records)
Kashiwa Daisuke is a highly respected Japanese artist who originally was introduced in a radio program by legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto presenting talents of electronic music. Since then the artist contributed with works to commercials and TV programs. That the artist has an interest in progressive rock comes clear, not so much in the musical expression but more in her ability surprise the listener with the completely unexpected. The main ingredient on this third album is the beautiful piano works adding an excellent nocturnal atmosphere to the album along the electronic soundscapes lying beneath. But as the listener drift into tranquility the next in line is over-the-top harsh moments of cut-up electronics, furious breakbeats and drones of noise. The album knocks down any conventional approach to musical genres and in this unpredictable nature, Kashiwa Daisuke has composed an impressive work of multistylish expressions. Highly recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.noble-label.net/
OLD DOG – BY ANY OTHER NAME (CD by Porter Records)
THE NU BAND – LOWER EAST SIDE BLUES (CD by Porter Records)
Two new Porter releases in the jazz section of their catalogue. Old Dog and The Nu Band are bands we are talking of. Both quartets consist of talented and experienced musicians. And both of them strongly depend on traditional forms of jazz (bop). Whether they do so in a traditionalistic or experimental way is beyond my judgment. But I must say beforehand that I never get very excited by jazz that in whatever way remains close to the paradigms of bop. Anyway, let us see what we have here. Old Dog is a quartet by Louie Belogenis (tenor), Karl Berger (vibes, piano), Michael Bisio (bas), Warren Smith (drums). Deeply rooted in the traditions of jazz, Bisio and Belognis wrote nine compositions. The warm playing by Belogenis was what striked me first in the opening track of this album. A nice ballad. The weak spot in me perception is the pianoplaying by Berger in “Endless Return”. On vibes he is more at home if you ask me. In a driving, uptempo composition as “Swa Swu Sui” I missed a finishing portion of convincing power. And this feeling also dominates after listening the complete CD. It is deprived of any feeling of necessity.
The Nu Band is made up of Roy Campbell jr (trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn) Mark Whitecage (alto sax, clarinet), Joe Fonda (bass), Lou Grassi (drums). All four of them contribute with compositions of new bop for their CD. Each track gives room for nice solo work for sax and trumpet. Fonda gives away a nice solo with a fantastic sound on his bass in “Heavenly Ascending”. There is a lot of humor in the drumwork of Grassi in a piece like “Avanti Galoppi”. In every track one feels the enthusiasm of these players. They interact very playful and inspired. The joy they have in playing this style of jazz is not to be missed. Yes, even seductive for someone with my tastes. I liked this one more then the Old Dog CD. But from both quartets we can say that no new chapters in jazzhistory are written here. But well-crafted and spirited jazz it is. (DM)
Address: http://www.porterrecords.com
PROJEKT TRANSMIT – PROJEKT TRANSMIT (CD by Staubgold)
For Tony Buck it was time for something completely different. You probably know him from the ambient-minimalist jazz trio The Necks, or the noise band Peril and improv outfit Kletka Red. So he proved himself already as a multisided artist. But with this project he shows again another facet of his musical preferences. He choses now for very straight forward rock, doing it almost all on his own. He wrote and produced this project. Except for one song, ‘Masters of War’, written by Bob Dylan. Buck plays drums and guitar and sings. Helped out only by Dave Symes on bass. Together they sound as a real band who deliver their music with conviction. Most tracks rest on a minimalist base of propulsive beats or riffs. Over layers of a thick noise Buck weaves with voice and guitar simple melodic lines, creating a harmonious and hypnotizing ensemble. His singing is mixed direction background which was a good decision. With this album of agitated rock Buck makes his point very manifestly. A fantastic outburst of rock energy (DM).
Address: http://www.staubgold.com/
JOHN WIESE – CIRCLE SNARE (CD by No Fun Productions)
John Wiese working within the genre of noise as an “experimentalist” forgive the title, is significant in that his work using microphone and electronics appears to be a coherent development which is rather surprising given the general un-hegemony. Certainly anyone who is following his career or has any interest in this genre will need to consider this as it offers something not so much as a departure or resolution but certainly a development. Each piece – of the 4 tracks builds from minimal staccato noise into a rich field of electronics and microphone manipulations. Though (there is I’m afraid a ‘though’) I have great respect for this and other of his work, moreover I’m reminded of the mix of wit and seriousness of Bruce Nauman – a significant conceptual artist who perhaps because of his wit rather than seriousness has become something of a ‘hero’ to the following generation of artists. Is the very fine work of Wiese the beginning of a new dawn or a glorious sunset (to steal a Wagnerian metaphor) . What I’m attempting to say is how modern and so somehow non-contemporaneous this all seems which offers the following idea. From one (my) perspective this is hauntological in appearance though in no way as kitsch retrofuturism or in any sense of the cyber-punk musicological use of the term- but Wiese might be part of the predicted re-orientation to the past rather than a naive attempt at transcendence, though the “spectre” of transcendence remains. (jliat)
Address: http://www.nofunproductions.com/
EGK – ELECTRICALS (CD by Another Timbre)
OCTANTE – LUNULA (CD by Another Timbre)
Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, english horn & analogue electronics) and Ernst Karel (trumpet & analogue electronics) hail from Chicago, operate as EGK and have had a few releases before, which I thought were pretty good. Their music doesn’t seem to deal that much with the instruments they play, which are most of the time not to be recognized at all, although on the other hand it hasn’t entirely disappeared either. Sometimes we hear the wind instruments, but throughout mostly this music deals with the electronic processing thereof. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. EGK feed the sounds through their analogue electronics, making it sound entirely different of course, but it keeps that improvised music feel, with sudden moves and swift changes, or in ‘Interval’ a mean drone like sound. That combination of analogue and electronic improvisation leads to mighty fine results here again. I must say that I didn’t hear much new under their sun either, but I guess this is the third or fourth CD I heard by them in maybe twice as many years, so there is no overproduction there.
More traditionally improvised music can be found by Octante, which is a quartet (oddly enough not a five piece) of Ruth Barberan (trumpet, speaker and microphones), Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion and objects), Ferran Fages (oscillators and pick ups), Margarida Garcia (electric double bass). Their music has also electric and electronic elements thrown in to the proceedings, but then throughout it deals mostly with acoustic sounds of a more quieter nature. This is the kind of improvised music that requires more concentration than the one from EGK – although some people may differ with me about that. But I thought that almost an hour of this kind of music is too much of a long stretch for me. Two times thirty minutes is just a bit too much I thought. Otherwise it was quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anothertimbre.com
PILLOWDIVER – SLEEPING PILLS (CD by 12K)
MOLLY BERG & STEPHEN VITIELLO – THE GORILLA VARIATIONS (CD by 12K)
12K is never shy to sign up an entirely new act, which I guess is one of the more nicer things about the label. Rene Margraff (born in 1975) lives in Berlin and works for a well-known music software company it says on the press release (if I think and say out loud Ableton Live, I hope they make a nice donation to Vital Weekly – thank you) and plays guitar. Last year he started to play as Pillowdiver, armed with a guitar, looper pedals) or perhaps his own software and the nine pieces act as sleeping pills I guess – or perhaps its because I could some after a month of irregular sleep. Pieces last around three to six minutes and are based on a few loops, and mild distortions. Its quite nice altogether as a sort of later at night relaxing music, but its hardly anything special I think. Nice, but not great. Is that enough to release something? It is to 12K, but I surely have my doubts here.
Stephen Vitiello released before on 12K, an excellent collaboration with Machinefabriek and here he does one with Molly Berg, of whom we learn ‘is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has appeared on recordings by Cracker and Jason Molina’ – entirely my mistake that this doesn’t mean much to me I guess. Together they played some music for Brazilian video artist Eder Santos, but it turned out they had so much material that they edited to some more ‘songs’ and ‘variations’ out of it. Berg plays clarinet, voice, whistling, field recordings and such like and Vitiello returns to playing the guitar here, after a six years hiatus. Quite intimate music going on here, but also a bit single minded. The flageletto guitar playing is a thing you can do only so often on a record and not an entire record I guess. I’d say again later night atmospheric music like Pillowdiver, but I’d play that one first and then this one, as Vitiello & Berg have a some what softer pace in them. Both CDs are nice, but not as spectacular. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
Z’EV & BRYAN LEWIS SAUNDERS – DAKU (CD by Outfall Channel)
WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT – ABSENCE PACT (CDR by Outfall Channel)
Its good to see a good release on CDR being released on CD, and this time with an even nicer cover (not that the original on Stand Up Tragedy Records wasn’t bad, but this just nicer, silkscreened). In Vital Weekly 646 I wrote: “Certainly one of the stranger releases I recently reviewed was Bryan Lewis Saunders’ ‘N1-N4 Variations’, of him talking in his sleep. Here he has another set of spoken word – four stories and an introduction of the word ‘Daku’. It can be love, time, god or anything. Its meaning is its use, Saunders says. Saunders recites his texts, or rather tells his stories and Z’EV uses his voice to create the music. Z’EV’s recent outings in electronic music, say ‘Forwaard’ and ‘Outwaard’, where he processes environmental sounds and which are far away from his usual percussion based work (although nothing new for him, as Z’EV also created text sound pieces in the earlier days of his career). Even when following the text is something that I don’t always do, concentrating more on the texture of the voice in combination with the music, this is a great story telling release. Saunders has a great voice, telling stories about being sick and pain that grabs the listener, while Z’EV provides a fine soundtrack to it. The voices are transformed into animalistic cries and whispers, adding scary elements to the music. I’m not entirely sure if it is meant as such but there is an uneasy, horror like element that is part of this music. Excellent radioplay stuff.” And that’s where I still stand.
Wasteland Jazz Unit is a first time around, at least in these pages. They act as the heirs to the Borbetomagus sound. One Jon Lorenz on saxophones and one John Rich on clarinets and what the liner notes don’t tell you is the extensive use of feedback that howls and screams about here. Its only twenty-five something minutes long, but what a fury it is. Normally noise as heavy as this is not my thing that much, but I have good memories of the various Borbetomagus concerts I saw and this brings that back. Improvised music with that strong noise rock edge to it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.outfallchannel.com
ROBERT VAN HEUMEN & JOHN FERGUSON – WHISTLE PIG SALOON (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
The idea of repetition in the film Ground Hog Day (aka whistle pig day) is that the past as the future can be re inscribed with novelty, and appears in a more opaque form in the writings of Deleuze and Guattari – an opacity in part given by a certain reading of Nietzsche which carefully removes – “of the self same” – which is cool – as it arises out of a long line of (lit) critters, I.A. Richards, William Empson, William K. Wimsatt, Monroe Beardsley, F.R. Leavis as well as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, Geoffrey Hartman et al. so allowing the “re-appropriating a previous moment.” It opens up I suppose a conscious re-evaluation – re-working of difference – to and with the pioneers of modernity such as Cage and Tudor. And so techniques become -re-new-ed. However one criticism needs to be addressed which is scientism – these works were produced in a culture *lab* – how immune from the Sokal affair? – but for myself at this moment more importantly the serious reality of Nietzsche’s eternal return of the same as a not knowing identical experience, “this spider.. moonlight…”, “the most scientific” not literary idea, a la Markov. “John configures the electric guitar as a site for multiple simultaneous points of interaction and queries the iconic cultural status of his instrument via feet, fingers and feedback. Robert crunches, growls and smashes both John`s live sampled sound as well as his private stack of industrial bits and organic beats.” Either there is nothing new – or there is endless novelty – “two cultures”? (jliat)
Address http://hardhatarea.com/WPS/
RAMLEH – SWITCH HITTER/THE MACHINES OF INFINITY JOY (10″ by Black Rose Recordings/Broken Flag)
When Ramleh became Toll, somewhere in the mid 80s, I wasn’t pleased. Toll seemed more like a rock band than the power electronics of Ramleh, which was one of my favorites on the scene, more than Whitehouse. Toll never bothered me that much. Strangely enough, looking back now, I did like Skullflower, which was connected to Toll, sharing members and such like. Ramleh took over again from Toll, but continuing the rock sound, in which noise and improvisation merged together. This new 10″ contains their new recordings, the first since 1998, made between 2004 and 2008. There is no return to power electronics, which is again quite sad, as I’d loved to see an updated version on that. Here its bass, vocals, drums and guitar. ‘Switch Hitter’ is quite a psychedelic song, with vocals, but somewhere half way through seems to be falling apart a bit. ‘The Machines Of Infinity Joy’, an instrumental piece, seems to fare better, and pounds its way through life. Its been a while since I last heard Skullflower, or Toll, and this record is quite good, so I should dig out the old stuff again, and see what it was that didn’t attract me in the good ol’ days. Still, a return to power noise would be great, and hopefully the planned re-issues do materialize sometime soon too. (FdW)
Address: <srmeixner@yahoo.co.uk>
OO-RAY – MAGNIFICATIONS (CDR by Luv Sound)
Ted Laderas is the man behind OO-Ray. Laderas has been with an electro-band Ainu, which I believe I don’t know, nor what he did there. However three years ago he started to learn to play the cello and as OO-Ray he plays solely cello music, which however never seems to sound like a cello. He loops the sounds around, feeds them through a bunch of electronic sound processors and in the end we have this swirling mass of sound. You could all too easily think this is a bunch of analogue synthesizers at work, buzzing away at work for a new album for Hypnos, but apparently its not. All cello and loops devices. The only tracks were this is clearer is at the four live pieces at the end of the release, when there is indeed the cello. In the eight studio pieces this is not the case. Here the deep end ambient structures are the main thing. As such nothing new under new under the sun – think for instance Vidna Obmana’s various explorations in this direction – but Laderas plays things with great care and style. A fine work for late night listening. (FdW)
Address: http://www.luvsound.org
CISFINITUM – NEVMENOSIS (CDR by Afe Records)
HORCHATA – ACYTOTA (CDR by Afe Records)
GENETIC TRANSMISSION – SPIRAL (CDR by Afe Records)
Eugene Voronovsky, the man behind Cisfinitum, went to the Moscow conservatory and is a professional violinist. In his music as Cisfinitum he uses various ‘regular’ instruments, such as violin, piano and percussion, but also found sound. All of the sounds are processed, either with analog tools from the soviet era, as well as digitally. Cisfinitum already has loads of releases, which I haven’t heard all, and I’m sure I wouldn’t want to, but ‘Nevmenosis’ is surely a fine release. Its a compilation of compilation pieces plus two unreleased pieces. Dark, atmospheric, with some field recordings, such as the birds in ‘Hermine’. Cisfinitum plays music that is best enjoyed at night, sitting in an almost dark room, to make sure you got that scary effect (or that estranged mood effect, which ever you prefer with the dark soundtrack of the night) to the full extent. Somehow I think it sounds pretty ‘Russian’, but its hard to say why that is. It isn’t the most original voice in dark ambient, but he does things with great care.
Behind Horchata is one Micheal Palace, of whom we only heard a release he did with Andrea Marutti (the man behind Afe Records). He worked as a research scientist, and the work brought him to the rainforests where he did recordings, which he uses in his music. His reworkings involve lots of computer processing and thus its hard if not impossible to recognize anything from the original sound input. The pieces he creates are, unlike Cisfinitum, entirely in the digital world of sound processing, but the outcome is pretty much the same. Deep, drone, atmospheric music. Horchata has a lot of tracks on his album, which spans almost an hour, and I must admit that even when I thought this was all very nice its also quite long altogether and that there isn’t enough variation in the material to keep it interesting throughout. Maybe some pieces less and the album as a whole could have benefitted from that.
Things are a bit more experimental with Genetic Transmission, which is the project of one Tomasz Twardawa, who had a whole bunch of releases on various labels, like Tochnit Aleph, Beast Of Prey and War Office Propaganda, but none I ever heard (I think). Here he has one track of about forty-three minutes, filled with field recordings at the start, but going into metallic rumble quite soon after that. Once it gets there, it stays there. Sometimes he adds different sounds, like multiple ticking clocks, but when the ball rolls, it rolls. It’s nice, but perhaps too single minded and perhaps also a bit unfocussed. The composition is rather like loose sand and not coherent and strong. That is a pity. If Twardawa would have chosen for strict separated pieces, or parts, it would be a bit clearer and leaving the improvised aspect of it behind. But it surely had some finer moments too. Nice, but with room for improvement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.aferecords.com
KNURL – A HAIL OF BLADES (CD by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
Everything about this release is extreme. Starting out with the esthetic aspect this latest CDR-release by Canadian concrete noise legend Knurl has been packed in-between two big metal plates connected with four bolts drilled through each corner of the plates. A highly impressive cover art on this one. Taking a look at the sonic containment of the release, Knurl a.k.a. Alan Bloor exclusively utilises circular saw blades to compose this piece of anti-music on the album known as “A hail of blades”, an album that are divided into five intersections. Opening with a work of extremely harshness from beginning to end next in line starts slowly and peacefully moves like an ambient piece of found sounds in the first few minutes but as the eight minutes long track develops, drones of crushing noise slowly builds from deep levels of the sound picture taking more and more space until the track ends out in sonic chaos of ear-aching noise. The sounds of crushing electronics continues in the third intersection meanwhile the fourth chapter takes its approach in high frequency screeching noises. As the fifth and final piece arises the speakers are guaranteed to burn from the inside thanks to painfully extreme noise built on crushing power electronics. There are noise music and there are art of noise, as Italian futurist Luigi Russolo suggested a century ago. Alan Bloor once more reveals that his Knurl-project belongs to the latter category. An extreme yet seriously addictive work of crushing art. (NM)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/impulsystetoskopu
JOSETXO GRIETA – HITZAK, EGINAK, PERTSONAK, ANIMALIAK (DVD by Discos Crudos / Munster records)
So there’s these three guys in a dark room – one a drummer on a stage – the other two in semi darkness, a vocalist who screams a lot and a guitarist who makes fairly rhythmic noises as does the drummer. The camera working is dizzily shocking and the sound grows and falls in intensity – though in the mix the vocals are more up front than the others. It may sound cruel to say this but “You never had seen anything like this, and never will have the chance to see it.” leaves these open to the trades description act. Not that I’m saying this is bad – its not- but wrong on two counts – we can see it over and over as it’s a DVD – and they are following a well trod path. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VZFjQpWB68 which might not be where it started but was shocking enough to illicit a no comment from George Martin, and Lennon may well maintain ages before the YBAs that ‘you can make anything you want out of it’ .. or I could reference Derek Bailey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f20VQjKH9xk or many others – what strikes me as very odd is the feeling that the Oxley Bailey piece is more cohesive in its free play. Maybe Josetxo Grieta is trying to communicate something. All of which reverses the naivety of the idea of anything being free. oh – but places itself- these guys- if not us – back in the very naff position of admitting to (a) transcendence.. And that is from me a far more shocking
indictment of the piece. (jliat)
Address: http://www.artoartian.org/
ASPEC(T) – EL OBSCENO PAJARO DE LA NOCHE (Cdr by FF HHHH)
ARKLIGHT – TEARDROP ENTREATIES (Cdr by FF HHHH)
Aspec(t) appears to be sax and electronics improvisation as almost jazz whilst arklight electric guitars drums and vocals as improvisation as not almost regular rock/pop- I think like some of those (whatever happened to them) New Zealand bands- effectless amplification strumming discordant rhythms etc. So if you are at all interested checkout the website there are mp3 samples which saves me a task of description. Unlike Josetxo Grieta both of these in different ways lack any transcendence but affirm the immanence of certain improvisational performance. Roughly translated in the case of Arklight as ‘couldn’t give a fuck’ whereas Aspec(t) as from the name with bracketed t produce crescendos of electronics and wailing grunting sax – and I’m now doing what I said I wouldn’t! Anyway I think immanence is now cool – again – it seems Jacques Derrida’s attempt to re-introduce god into the room has failed and though dead its Deleuze who is the main man – and so immanence – which means these two bands are cool and JG and JD are not! (jliat)
Address http://www.ffhhh.be
ZOOLOGIST – THE CANE TOAD (3inch CDr by Sicksicksick)
BLACK GUYS BLACK HISTORY (CD by Sicksicksick /Hype Machine)
The Cane Toad is a mixture across 4 tracks of found sound electronics guttural noises and blips and burps (a particularly annoying burping) snippets of sound tracks- in short an electronic collage which is “the third in a series of concept EPs (of) John Gross and Todd Novosad Denver ‘pillars-of the-noise-community’..” Whereas Black history is a full length CD – “A comprehensive collection of the Albuquerque duo’s 3″ harsh noise cdrs and drone endless loop cassettes.” which is very much in the mold of the 3inch. (Another set of sound collages.) Information regarding both “projects” is limited but I think a clue in all this “stuff” is the idea of a ‘noise community’. The actual idea of Art has been sublimated by
“community” as also the terms “concept” and “experiment” etc. In platonic terms a society devoid of artists. Noise or art as an anthropological structuring rather than any critique- internal – of art or external of culture/society/community. Within such communities there are all the emotional and sociological tropes we find in any other, whether religious or political, a very familiar phenomenon “they are haunted by the thought of other groups as fearful and hostile as they are themselves… they lie entwined together… each looks to his mate for support and comfort and finds in the other a bulwark. against the difficulties of every day and the meditative melancholia which from time to time overwhelms the Nambikwara. In one and all there may be glimpsed a great sweetness of nature, a profound nonchalance, an animal satisfaction as ingenious as it is charming, and beneath all this, something that can be recognized as one of the most moving and authentic manifestations of human tenderness” (jliat / Levi-Straus/ J Derrida)
Address: http://www.sicksicksickdistro.com/
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – UNICORN MAN (Cdr by Time Stereo)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – THE ROBOTS (DVDr by Time Stereo)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – TAPES 1993-1997 (Cdr by Time Stereo)
Current members: Davin Brainard, Warn Defever, Ronald Cornelissen, Dion Fischer, Erika Hoffmann, Jeremy Kallio, MOG if this is correct, who have spun out of harsh electronic noise to performance art, here on the DVD featuring robots who are often destroyed- yet in friendly manner – there is nothing sinister. Although the reason for the occurrence of such performances at a certain distance may not be connected in any direct way to what was once called “performance art” which arose out of attempts to push perceived boundaries of what was art. It could be that cut off from any pre-existing foundations – PDM share the general anthropologic drift of much of what is now called noise – noise art – etc. Creating now either at the end of art – or the discovery that reality is more a Möbius strip than a road which leads to Rome, a historical schism from what was- has occurred and in any critical evaluation comparisons with the recent past look less profitable than wider cultural comparisons. Ones where custom has replaced meaning through the kinds of performances – which are very stylized – typified by PDM and a good section if not all of the noise scene. Though not rooted in any historical way to Art or any tradition- significantly any pre-art tradition, which might provoke a Deleuzean rhizomatic critique or account, I think such accounts at best will only re-occur – so- I will venture something that is probably not unique or new. Not that these disparate groups cut off from modernity’s teleology’s are aware or not, but I refer to such things as The Padstow Obby ‘Oss or The Mari Lwyd. What for? – an acceptance of madness or a respite from the intellect and emotions which threaten to overwhelm? Of something which once had meaning but is now pointless – but not as pointless a whipping a dead or living horse. (jliat)
Address: http://timestereo.com
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 216 (3″CDR by Ingeos)
Cedric Peyronnet, the man behind Toy Bizarre, starts an ambitious project of twelve 3″CDR releases, each with one piece of twelve minutes and all the data is based on “observations and data, reported by Jude Anderson, about square 1 m of the Atherton Gardens, City of Yarra (Melbourne, Australia)” and if I understood this right, the cover mentions the various sounds used, ‘the laugh of school kids playing on the soccer field’, ‘tram rattles’ and such like, but it also mentions ‘heavy clouds, no wind’, the temperature and such like. The musical component is a strong piece in the best Toy Bizarre tradition. Drone like, microsounding, but also full with sound, sustaining and ringing overtones and sound sources being obscured. Or perhaps its just the list mentioned on the cover, come to think of it, and perhaps even in a chronological order. Toy Bizarre has a strong voice of his own, setting him apart, I guess, from many of his French peers – the more serious blokes – but throughout the many years of him being active, an unique voice in the serious underground music. Not always mentioned, but certainly along the lines of Roel Meelkop, Marc Behrens and Richard Chartier. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ingeos.org
BAS VAN HUIZEN – ONTGALMAN (MP3 by Monocromatica)
From literally almost around the corner – probably one of the few artists who drops his promo’s unstamped through the HQ letterbox – comes a MP3 release by Bas van Huizen, who surprised us before with his computer based compositions in the field of musique concrete, but here he decided to create an entire album devoted to the guitar. He plays the six strings occasionally like a guitar, wailing about, with an e-bow. But by and large his interest goes out to play around with samples of the guitar, making it sound like anything but a guitar. I must admit that the parts in which the guitar doesn’t sound like a guitar were my favorite and that parts which sounded like one, didn’t do much for me. Too much like retro prog rock guitars for me. But as said in the other pieces Van Huizen creates a fine tapestry of sound. Here and there it reminded me of Asmus Tietchens, especially in the metallic rumble of the seventh piece. Throughout a fine work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monocromatica.com
NIENTE RECORDS VOLUME 1 (MP3 by Niente Records)
Quite a bizar one, this compilation. I have no idea wether this is released as CDR or as a MP3, but I gather the last. It has lots of names I never heard of, like Vonneumann, Lendormin, Die Hoehe 19, Mongoholi Nasi, Nihil Is Me, but also some which I did hear before, such as St.ride, A Spirale, Harshcore, Bob Marsh. Musicwise this is also not easy to pin down to something, but if there is a common theme running through these seventeen pieces, I’d say its improvisation. This is not always in a traditional sense of the word, but can be electronic, noise based or otherwise, but not in a way that is more common in the Vital pages. This makes this compilation slightly chaotic, but full of energy. Not every track around here is great, but nothing takes up much space here either. What you don’t like is over pretty quick, but then so is what you may like. A good place to learn some more furious improvised noise makers. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/nienterecords
CERNLAB – 52.09 (MP3 by Electroton)
Electroton is a German label based in Nürnberg. The label focus on state of the art in contemporary electronic music exclusively releasing digital downloads. Since its opening release on the 1st of august in 2008, the label has released another album in september 2008, this present album being the third shot from the label. Behind present project Cernlab, you find German sound explorer Marek Slipek who is also behind other projects , among others with the artist Sven Hahne as Conphusion. As Cernlab, Marek Slipek has an sound explorative approach to his expression with abstract sounds and rhythm textures. The abstract textures are combined with conventional and listenable textures with a nice balance between catchy and experimental style. During the playtime Cernlab comes around stylish touches of minimal electro and dub-like textures giving a nice clubbish approach to the exploring edge of the work. Very interesting indeed! (NM)
Address: http://www.electroton.net/