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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 685
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week 27
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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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Submitting material means you read this and approve of this.
* noted are in this week's podcast. We finally have a feed again. 1000x times to Maximillian for his endless patience & help. Its here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.xml
Editorial news: we have decided to stop reviewing MP3 releases. Please do not send any discs with MP3 releases. Just send me an e-mail with a link and a short description, so people can download it. The amount of releases pile up every week and I can no longer devote time to MP3s. Whatever you see coming in the next few weeks are the last ones. Please do not send anymore. Also: releases that do not contain the original artwork will most likely be no longer reviewed. The real thing is necessary for a real judgment. If you wish to send us not the real thing, please contact us first. <vital@vitalweekly.net>
STEPHAN MATHIEU & TAYLOR DEUPREE - TRANSCRIPTIONS
(CD by Spekk) *
ROBERT HAMPSON - VECTORS (CD by Touch) *
DAVID RAKOWSKI - WINGED CONTRAPTION (CD by Bmop Sound)
JOHN HARBISON - FULL MOON IN MARCH (CD by Bmop Sound)
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
YELLOW SWANS - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - EERILY (CD by EE Tapes) *
BIRMINGHAM SOUND MATTER (CD by Audiobulb)
KAZUYA ISHIGAMI - TRASH, RUBBISH, POOR WORKS (CD by Neus 318)
*
BIOMASS - ELECTROZALI (CD by Low Impedance Recordings) *
EVENTLESS PLOT - IKON (CD by Granny Records) *
FENN O'BERG - MAGIC & RETURN (2CD by Editions Mego) *
ELECTRONIC MUSIC AARHUS 2008 (CD by Aarhuse)
BATCH TOTEM - FUNKTION #2 (5" flexi disc)
NOKALYPSE - REPEATED IN AN INDEFINITELY ALTERNATING SERIES OF
THOUGHTS (LP by Entr'acte/Absurd)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DE SCHROEF (LP by Le Souffleur)
SUPERNOVA 2 (2x10" by Interstellar Records)
ERSTLAUB - BROADCASTING ON GHOST FREQUENCIES (CDR by Moving Furniture
Records) *
SPARTAK - THE LOST SIGNAL TOUR (CDR by HelloSquare Recordings)
*
JAMES RUSHFORD & JOE TALIA - PALISADES (CDR by Sabbatical
Records) *
FEDERICO BARABINO - SOLO EN VIVO (CDR by Ruidemos) *
GARRAPATA - 2 (CDR by Ruidemos)
100 PIECES EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC SUITE (CDR by Backwards Records NW)
MURDER BURNIN DOWN YR BLEAK VILLAGE (CDR by Backwards Records
NW)
KANIN KRUSETE - LIKE A THING (CDR by Twighlight Luggage)
NORSS - HYMNE ZWEI (CDR by Verato Project) *
DREAM OF NOTHING - DUKH (CDR by Verato Project)
MP3 releases
STEPHAN MATHIEU & TAYLOR DEUPREE - TRANSCRIPTIONS
(CD by Spekk)
If such a thing exist, a pyramid of sound artists, then for whatever
microsound I guess Taylor Deupree and Stephan Mathieu might be
at the top (not alone, they aren't king of glitch - nobody is
king of anything, if only some would realize this) with their
top productions, and its not a strange thing that they ended up
working together. Mathieu uses here his recent interest of wax
cylinders and 78 rpm records, which he feeds directly into real
time processing software, along with piano sounds. Deupree received
the material and adds guitars, synthesizers and processes the
material a bit further. Eight pieces of sheer minimalist delight.
Its hard to tell what is what. Sometimes we seem to detect a bit
of guitar, some sort of synth or the soft crackles of vinyl, but
everything is put nicely into place and it blends well together.
This is ambient glitch music in optima forma. Gliding waves, ringing
softly in the overtone department, highly atmospheric. One could
easily say there is not much new under the sun here and whilst
that may be true, one could also point out that there are two
great masters at work, doing exactly what we expect them to do
and they deliver a great job. I know I like to point out the 'nothing
new under the [...] sun, but here I am all for it. A great work.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
ROBERT HAMPSON - VECTORS (CD by Touch)
A long time I met Robert Hampson and talked with him about the
movie '24 Hour Party People'. What I didn't knew is that Hampson
and his band Loop toured with the Happy Mondays, so he shed some
extra light on those scenes involving the Mondays. I was thinking
of the curious career of Hampson when listening to 'Vectors'.
The rock days of Loop merging into the ambience of Main to the
electro acoustic of Hampson, who no longer uses the name Main
anymore. I liked Loop, I truly loved Main and sometimes I found
myself thinking 'what is Robert Hampson doing these days?'. Its
been some years since his last Main release, but apparently his
into France these days. All three pieces here were recorded for
things in France, festivals, commissions of INA GRM. Indeed a
curious career. Robert Hampson - serious composer. Who would have
guessed? One could see it coming I guess, as the last Main releases
forecasted the music on 'Vectors': computer manipulated electro-acoustic
music, brought to you in the form of an audio collage. If you
need to compare it with something, then the whole microsound posse
comes to mind, but Roel Meelkop in particular. Hampson shares
the same sensibility of creating intense audio compositions, with
slow curves, occasional rapid change and a keen ear for atmospherics.
Crackling, ambient, computer treatments of acoustic objects. Well
crafted compositions, that never seem to leap into the doodling
that some of the 'real' (what is real anyway?) acousmatic composers
in this scene seem to be doing. Challenging music of the highest
order. Its only a pity that there is not so much of that from
Hampson. Let's hope the next one is not three years away. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
DAVID RAKOWSKI - WINGED CONTRAPTION (CD
by Bmop Sound)
JOHN HARBISON - FULL MOON IN MARCH (CD by Bmop Sound)
It remains a mystery why certain labels send their CDs to us.
Like for instance BMOP Sound. It is a difficult job to cover these
two of their new releases. They fall beyond the scope we usually
cover. So I will be very descriptive only on these two. But first
the label itself. It is the outlet of the Boston Modern Orchestra
Project. They perceive it as their mission to record important
classical compositions of the 20th and 21th century. These two
releases may illustrate this. We are talking now of two respected
american composers who are however not very well known at this
side of the Atlantic. To me are they are completely new. But both
have long careers behind them as very productive composers. On
'Winged Contraption' by Rakowski three compositions are documented:
'Persistent memor', (1996-97), 'Piano Concerto' (2005-06) and
'Winged Contraption' (1991). The performances are led by Gil Rose.
Piano and toy piano are played by Marilyn Nonken. Rakowski had
his training at the New England Conservatory and other institutes.
As a composer he made fame with his long series of piano etudes.
Listening to his works on 'Winged Contraption' it was difficult
for me to connect him with other composers and traditions. To
my ears his style sounded very 'European'.
Also on the CD by John Harbison three works are presented: 'Full
Moon in March' (1977), 'Mirabai Songs' (1982) and 'Exequien for
Calvin Simmons' (1982). Harbison composed string quartets, symphonies,
operas, chamber and choral works, etc. Also he makes sidesteps
to the world of jazz from time to time. His vocal works dominate
this new CD. 'Full Moon in March' is an opera based on an adaption
of W.B.Yeats' play 'Full Moon in March'. The 'Mirabai Songs' center
around poems of 16-century Indian poet Mirabai. With the final
piece Harbison wants to remember conductor Calvin Simmons who
died in an accident. No doubt BMOP has a good nose for what are
influential and innovative compositions in our times. And probably
the compositions by Radowski and Harbison adjust to these criteria.
But as said above this is not my territory, and their music doesn't
really talk to me. (DM)
Address: http://www.bmopsound.org/
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN - MORT AUX VACHES (CD
by Staalplaat)
YELLOW SWANS - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
These two additions to the extended catalogue of Mort Aux Vaches
proof once again a few things: the broad musical range of the
series, showing there is no boundary at all, just fine music.
That's one consistent thing. The second is the cover art. Yellow
Swans and My Cat Is An Alien are true delight again, although
the latter is extremely low on information. It mentions the bandname
and the title and nothing else on the entire packaging or CD (unless
this is another twisted Staalplaat thing where one has to burn
the package to retrieve more information). I don't know much about
My Cat Is An Alien, but its the duo of Maurizio and Roberto Opalio,
two brothers from Torino, Italy. They improvise their music, using
electric and acoustic guitars, percussion, toy instruments and
voice toy microphones. They have an extended discography of which
I didn't hear much (a superficial glance learned me that), but
what I hear here, should make me find some of their other recordings.
The music of My Cat Is An Alien is, as said, improvised and if
we take a look at the list of people they played with, its not
easy to spot the influences: Jackie O'Motherfucker, Keiji Haino
but also Sonic Youth. But there is also the influence of people
like Simon Wickham-smith and Richard Youngs to be noted here -
the records that they did together more than their solo records.
Improvised, drone like, but not of the kind of 'play the lowest
note on an organ and feed it through some endless sustain delay
pedal', but throughout acoustic, warm, but also electronic and
with slow developments which leave enough room for development.
Certainly a band to look out for.
The Yellow Swans I know better, through various of their releases
and the fact i saw them play live once. Maybe on the same tour
as they recorded this, I don't remember when I saw them. The cover,
which shows us a yellow swan and a girl (no doubt from some fairytale,
which I am trying to remember, but somehow it doesn't pop into
this clouded head) as a stuck on, 3D thing. Very nice, and approved
by the children around here. Yellow Swans are a noise duo, playing
guitar, bass, lots and lots of effects and in general put on a
hell of a racket. In general, not always. It takes some time to
get there, and that's where Yellow Swans drop their noise mask
and start building their blocks of noise. I know word out there
is that I don't like noise, which is simply not true. But I did
hear a lot of noise throughout the years and a lot I like. But
these days my digest is not so much for the pure noise anymore.
And that's why I like this Yellow Swans release quite a bit. It
moves from 'quieter' ground, via curves and hiccups, into the
land of noise, with its heavily reverbed ebow guitar (which sound
very retro actually, and might not be one of the things I like
very much), and feedback/distortion treatments and then back again.
Quite a fine work of noise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staalplaat.com
BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - EERILY (CD by EE Tapes)
Underground is a difficult term. Perhaps its best defined as Do
It Yourself. Not looking for the next record deal, or moving from
CDRs to CDs and never wanting to do CDRs again. That sort of attitude.
If one band live up to that, then today my choice would be Big
City Orchestra. They have been around for ages, releasing on all
formats the world of music saw, but never gained 'fame' in any
way. And perhaps that's good. Let's have them underground, with
us. Here for instance is a new CD by Das, the master mind behind
Big City Orchestra since the beginning, but also members like
Cliff Neighbours, Ninah Pixie, Univac, Jonathan Segal, Melissa
Margolis and as a special guest David Aellen of Gong fame. Although
Big City Orchestra was never fixed into one musical genre, there
is, throughout the years an overall idea to be noted. Roughly
somewhere in the grey area of ambient music, drone, narrative
music and perhaps all touched with a sense of psychedelic music.
These six new pieces here sum up this very well. No doubt largely
conceived in the world of warm, analogue synthesizers and guitars
with lots of effects. The result is an eerie (sorry, couldn't
help that one), desolate sound piece with very slow, minimal shifts.
Maybe to some extent they still sound the same as back in 1987
when they released cassettes, but luckily it sounds much richer
now on CD. The underground is not about sticking to hissy cassettes
out of some perverse love of retro, but finding the best ways
to express yourself, without keeping any notion about the overground.
In that respect to people who want to hear a band develop, then
Big City Orchestra might be the wrong place to turn to, but I
think this is great music. Mood music, dark night, late night
music. Music that has not been made to please the big crowd, but
a small but caring community of truly devoted fans. I may not
be one, simply because I don't have everything they made, I certainly
rank myself as someone who is always keen to anything new by them.
'Eerily' is a great CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.eetapes.be
BIRMINGHAM SOUND MATTER (CD by Audiobulb)
Recently an interesting book was published by Thomas Bey William
Bailey called 'Microbionic' about 'radical electronic music and
sound art in the 21st century'. If you want to know why people
do what they do, the likes of Ryoji Ikeda, Peter Rehberg, Merzbow
then this is a highly recommended read. Also featured is a piece
on Francisco Lopez. His music doesn't have a story - Absolute
Music he calls it - no message, politically, but he wants the
listener to listen to sound. Lopez is probably a fine teacher,
as in Birmingham he did another project in his Sound Matter series.
First Montreal (see Vital Weekly 537) and now Birmingham. Lopez,
along with participants went out to record sounds in the city
and then throw them into a soundpool and each was to process them,
together and alone, and from that even more extended soundpool,
composers picked the sounds to work with. Unlike Montreal, I have
not been to Birmingham, but I imagine a city with some high buildings
and some nice parks. From whatever sound we hear in place here,
we hear birds and cars, all immersed in heavily electronic processing.
The participants are self-taught or academic, and we recognize
the names of Helena Gough and Nicholas Bullen among them, but
all of them seemed to have the lessons from the master himself
in transforming sounds and composing with the results. None of
them seem to be inspired that much by the Lopezian silence treatments
of yesteryear, but they are all present and correct. Mark Harris
is the only one who plays a piece that is closely to 'real' music,
with an underlying melodic form. Also included are Martin Clarke,
Bobby Bird, Cormac Faulkner, Annie Mahtani and solo piece by Lopez,
who isn't that 'silent' either these days. A fine work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiobulb.com
KAZUYA ISHIGAMI - TRASH, RUBBISH, POOR WORKS
(CD by Neus 318)
So far the Neus 318 label, ran by Ishigami, has produced a lot
of CDR releases, but for some reason this anthology of older works
is released on CD. Ishigami was trained as a music engineer and
has played around the globe to perform is works and improvising
with others. He is also a member of AdC~/DaC~, Billy? and Daruin.
The title of his new CD leaves me a bit puzzled. Are these throwaway
pieces from his career? Why release them as a CD then? Or, perhaps,
its more tongue in cheek approach here? I don't know. The music
of Ishigami can best be described as a computer version of electro-acoustic
music, true to the original form of Musique Concrete. Collage
like, bouncing up and down, back and forth, jumping, but sometimes
also with longer sustaining blocks of sound. All of which dwell
heavily in the world of ones and zeros. I am not sure but it seems
there is not an analogue machine in sight. Not every composition
is convincing here as at times I had the impression that Ishigami
was playing around with the possibilities of sound processing,
rather than actually creating a composition with them. Especially
when he wants things to be a bit more noisy it goes out of control.
Having said that, the disc sort of falls in between that. Its
a pity since it stands the pieces that are nice in the way a bit
and makes that I'm only partly convinced about the result.
Address: http://www.neus318.com
BIOMASS - ELECTROZALI (CD by Low Impedance
Recordings)
For his third album, which seems throughout a continuation of
his click 'n dub style, the method of operation changed a little
bit. Here he seems to be working with samples of traditional instruments
such as the Cretan lyra as well as music from the Middle East
area. With those basic ingredients he crafts together seven pieces
of music that are pretty nice. Nicely bouncing rhythms, which
aren't the exact 4/4 rhythm pieces people dance too, but in a
somewhat slower, dub 'n click style. The ethnic samples form a
nice counterpart and may remind the listener at times of good
ol' Muslimgauze. Biomass plays some nice catchy music and keeps
his pieces concise and to the point. The samples work in a great
way and add a nice musical edge to the pieces, moving away from
being strictly sterile dance music. Warm, glitch like and just
very relaxing, pleasant music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lowimpedance.net
EVENTLESS PLOT - IKON (CD by Granny Records)
Also from Greece are Eventless Plot, who released a split album
with Good Luck Mr Gorky which was reviewed in Vital Weekly 618.
Eventless Plot is a three piece group 'using a variety of organs,
analog sources, field recordings, as also electronics and processed
sounds', although elsewhere it is mentioned that they use clarinet,
piano, melodica and guitars. Whatever, me thinks. Its not that
important, the result here is what counts and the result is great.
This is not music that is easy to classify. But things come close
to some of the music on 12K: glitch like, ambient, atmospheric,
but there is throughout a feeling of jazz and post rock to be
detected in these pieces. The piano plays softly in the background,
the clicks produce a jazzy rhythm, and the organs are nicely adrift.
Not very outspoken this music, but rather introspective and throughout
highly atmospheric, but they do reach firmer, more solid ground
at times, such as in 'Habit Habitant'. Throughout an excellent
debut album. If you love the recent slight moves 12K made than
this is definitely up your alley too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.grannyrecords.org
FENN O'BERG - MAGIC & RETURN (2CD by
Editions Mego)
Perhaps, to some, the best news in some time was the return of
Jim O'Rourke to playing music again, and part of that is the resurrection
of Fenn O'Berg. By accident Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg and
Jim O'Rourke played together for the first time in 1997 and then
until 2002 they played around the world, being one of the first
super groups of the laptop scene (and if we must believe the press
text sometimes in places that didn't accept a laptop trio). The
three recorded their shows and from the first period 'The Magic
Sound Of Fenn O'Berg' was released, using various bits of the
early concerts and then later 'The Return Of Fenn O'Berg' was
released, which culled material from only two concerts. After
that the three drifted apart, swarmed with work elsewhere. Now
they return later this year, and will record a new CD in Tokyo
(the new home of O'Rourke) early next year. So this is the right
moment to re-issue both old recordings, including two bonus tracks,
from a compilation for the Sonar festival CD and one being the
bonus of the Japanese version of 'The Return Of Fenn O'Berg'.
Back then (in Vital Weekly 206 and 332) I wrote of the 'The Magic
Sound': "In their lap-tops they play released CD's (mostly
popmusic) and use whatever program is hot at the moment (I am
clueless on the technical side of course). All I know is that
you can edit and transform music in real time, as it is playing.
There are recognizable instruments in here, as well as scratching
the surface and noisy bits. Piece the resistance for me is the
final 'Fenn O'Berg Theme' with its orchestral
theme and small noisy bits. Maybe a cliche track but I really
don't mind. Very nice CD!" and on 'The Return': "Taking
from two concerts last year, we are served with the best fragments
in a collage style. Like it's predecessor, 'The Magic Sound Of
Fenn O'Berg', they again use lots of elements from popmusic, but
unlike Kid 606 or that posse, it's hard to recognize what exactly
they are using. The elements are blurred and transformed on the
spot, by all three of them at the same time. Like with many improv
trickery, this has good and bad moments (even after the magic
edit button erased the weaker parts). However the good moments
outlast the weaker ones and those weaker ones are usually the
starting point of a new good bit. It would be nice to see them
doing their thing in the studio and edit a studio album. Fenn
O'Berg remain noisy, funny and poppy, all at the same time."
I must admit I haven't played both CDs in some time, but now that
I hear them again, I am still taken by the great music. I forgot
all about the plunderphonic aspect of the music, but its still
great music. A most welcome and complete re-issue. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.at
ELECTRONIC MUSIC AARHUS 2008 (CD by Aarhuse)
BATCH TOTEM - FUNKTION #2 (5" flexi disc)
Someone who hasn't read Vital Weekly very well, is either Jonas
Olesen of Morten Riis. Either one of them send me a parcel containing
'Feeding The Transmitter', which we already reviewed last week,
as well as a compilation called 'Electronic Music Aarhus 2008',
so well beyond the 'nothing older than six months'. The compilation
contains some interesting music however, nine pieces by nine different
artists from Aarhus, Denmark, bouncing all over the place. Serious,
almost academic in approach from Jonas Olesen to the wicked popmusic
of Heidi Mortenson (whom I saw live which came across as the female
answer to Jamie Lidell), breakbeats of Karsten Pflum or the ambience
of Morten Riis. I have no idea how big Aarhus is, but it seems
a lively city.
Also included in the parcel is a 5" flexi disc on green vinyl,
packed in old yellow floppy disc cover, just like New Order's
'Blue Monday' (which was black). Two tracks of techno inspired
music, quite short of course given the size of the format. Not
being a DJ, I can imagine it will raise a few eyebrows if you
spin this at a party. No address for that, and I hope I got the
title all correct. Maybe available in any shop in Aarhus? (FdW)
Address: http://www.aarhuse.dk
NOKALYPSE - REPEATED IN AN INDEFINITELY
ALTERNATING SERIES OF THOUGHTS (LP by Entr'acte/Absurd)
Only a few weeks ago I reviewed a CDR by Nokalypse, the musical
project of Themis Pantelopolous, who also runs the Triple Bath
label. Here he has two pieces which he recorded in 2006 already
but that are now revised for the release on this LP, a joint venture
between UK's Entr'acte and Greek Absurd branch. Nokalypse plays
music using software, Audiomulch and Wavelab are two of his favorite
toys. With that he creates drone music but its not the usual kind
of drone music. At times it sounds like music that is somehow,
somewhere slightly academic in approach, but throughout one hear
it isn't. Besides the official academic composers of the sixties,
there were also then outsiders, who released music on vinyl. HIghly
obscure material, and when I was listening to Nokalypse I was
reminded of that. His compositions aren't very tight, but rather
loosely structured, with repeating blocks that return every now
and then, sounds fading in and out. Things are pitched up and
down the scale and develop over the course of the side of a record.
A bit PBK like, Conrad Schnitzler is never far away as an influence,
and it makes two lovely pieces of music. Somewhere between academic
and non academic, ambient and industrial, this is a great one.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.noise-below.org http://www.entracte.co.uk
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DE SCHROEF (LP by Le
Souffleur)
Perhaps our most beloved outsider in experimental music. Raymond
Dijkstra never ceases to amaze me. 'De Schroef' ('the screw')
is his biggest edition so far (I think), limited to 200 copies.
That's not the only chance here. The music is ten pieces of maybe
one minute to 90 seconds, ending in a silent lock groove and with
lots of blank space in between those pieces. Meaning you have
to get up to place the stylus into the next piece. Most odd. It
doesn't end there. Each of the pieces seems to be a variation
on the same theme. An organ/harmonium sound, scraping of glass;
all done rapidly. But the proceedings are short and one is left
to think its the same thing, but perhaps its not. That's the great
thing about releases by Raymond Dijkstra. It leaves an endless
amount of thinking about it. Is it same, or different? Why is
it cut like this? Poetry. I think Dijkstra offers us sound poetry.
Without words, but these ten poems are variations on a few sounds.
It will surely annoy a few listeners, but no doubt the true fans
of Dijkstra - count me in there - are amazed. Once again. The
great outsider. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl
SUPERNOVA 2 (2x10" by Interstellar
Records)
Back in 2001 I think I missed out on Supernova 1, a four tape
set with music by Calamari Autopsy, Monster DVD, Interstate 35
and Mute Audio, back in 2001. Some water has passed under the
bridge before the second installment arrived, this time in the
form of a double 10". A strange mixture of music. On one
side we find the extreme noise of Merzbow, with one of the better
tracks. It seems more composed than improvised. On the extreme
other side we find turntablist Wolfgang Fuchs with a sheer silent
piece of 'Laurenz', and some more upfront popping vinyl in 'Rundschau'.
In between these two there is two types of rockmusic. The weakest
link is Peach Pit, a math rock trio from Croatia. But then perhaps
math rock is just not my kind of music. In the other corner Bulbul
from Australia who are also a rock trio, from Austria. Their music
is much more silent and improvised, with lots of silence and gaps
in between sparse notes. An odd bunch indeed. I quite enjoyed
3/4 of it, but I wonder if say a Merzbow will dig Fuchs. But you
never know, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://www.interstellarrecords.at
ERSTLAUB - BROADCASTING ON GHOST FREQUENCIES
(CDR by Moving Furniture Records)
Back in Vital Weekly 601 we first heard the music of Erstlaub,
also known as Dave Fyans from Perth, Scotland. On 'On Becoming
An Island' Fyans composed everything live, without processing
or multitracking using a Nord G2 synthesizer. I don't know if
that's the case here too on 'Broadcasting On Ghost Frequencies'
but its again a single track, this time lasting almost forty-nine
minutes. That's not the only link to the previous release. This
new work sees him continuing on the thematic approach of drone
music. A nightmare like soundscape. The sky tonight is covered
with clouds, no moon, no stars. But the clouds drift on the howl
of wind. One can barely see a thing - no street lights are on.
Apparently Fyans is inspired here by the Ganzfeld Procedure 'where
the participant is deprived of visual stumulus and bombarded with
white/pink noise drawing the mind to form patterns in the chaos
often hearing voices from the past or inventing entirely new constructs
within their consciousness'. I hear voices too, but they are real:
they come from the outside. No clouds, just lots of sunshine.
This might be the wrong moment to hear this? It works well, except
that its not chaotic at all. Its a beautiful piece of drone music.
Nothing new under the pitch black sky, done however with great
care. (FdW)
Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com
SPARTAK - THE LOST SIGNAL TOUR (CDR by HelloSquare
Recordings)
Shoeb Ahmad, guitarist, computerist, flutist and vocalist of Spartak
is a busy man. If not playing with Spartak, he might be creating
his own music, or releasing work on his own HelloSquare Recordings
label. A busy bee from downunder. Improvising music seems to be
his main interest these days and Spartak his principle outlet
for doing so. Its a duo of him and Evan Dorrian on drums, computer
and field recordings, but also playing the electric organ on this
release. They blend ambience music with rock themes and free jazz
improv. This release, a sort of tour item for July's Australia
tour (as well as two dates in Signapore and Malaysia) and in between
two 'real' albums, sees an interesting expansion of their style.
Things are quite dark, held back, subdued, even in the most 'loud'
piece 'Sleet/Skid' they seem to be holding back. In the other
three pieces it seems almost like they want to play a microsound
like work with real instruments. Moody, textured, atmospheric.
Free improvised but keeping things together in a great way. It
must be great to see them performing live. I hope one day to catch
them in concert here or over there. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hellosquarerecordings.com
JAMES RUSHFORD & JOE TALIA - PALISADES
(CDR by Sabbatical Records)
From downunder, Melbourne to be precise are James
Rushford and Joe Talia. Together they play prepared viola (Rushford)
and spring tank, beatsink, cymbals, woodblock, floor tom (Talia).
That I would have never guessed. The four pieces here are highly
drone based and work extensively in the field of overtones. Lengthy
sustaining music of long held tones, and with a strict minimum
of changing the menu of sounds. Only in the third track things
are stretched apart and we can note the scraping of viola. The
fourth piece (all untitled) sees them exploring this further with
sounds that swirl loosely in a mass of natural reverb. The music
below sounds like it has been made with sine waves, but I guess
it isn't. Highly refined music this is. No doubt created through
improvisation, but then I guess this is not their first result
in doing so. I think after hefty experimentation they came to
these results. An excellent release at that. Great music at work
here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sbbtcl.com
FEDERICO BARABINO - SOLO EN VIVO (CDR by
Ruidemos)
GARRAPATA - 2 (CDR by Ruidemos)
These two releases come as a CDR, with carton, full color sleeves,
so they must be CDR releases, but its hard to find any info on
the Spanish website of the label, which suggest they are Mp3 releases,
which we no longer review. OK, so CDRs they are. The cover information
for the Federico Barabino release is also in Spanish, but I understand
this is a live recording for guitar and feedback. One piece, roughly
twenty-four minutes and its quite nice. His previous release 'Ruido
Is Not Noise' (see Vital Weekly 655) was not entirely convincing,
but the singing of overtones here is quite nice. It starts as
a slow, cascading wave, and grows in a great minimal way in intensity.
Reverb, if used, is kept to a minimum, and the noise is well under
control here. That makes this quite nice.
Garrapata, a trio of Apolo, Galarreta and Castillo, have some
more trouble with that aspect of volume. Their music is also recorded
live, but its difficult to make up my mind what to think. Its
quite a noise based, seemingly drawn from electro-acoustic objects
being used and abused. Twenty minutes, three tracks, but to be
honest, none of this could really bother me that much. It reaches
the point, at least for me when I think, noise is sometimes just
silly. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ruidemos.org
100 PIECES EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC SUITE (CDR
by Backwards Records NW)
MURDER BURNIN DOWN YR BLEAK VILLAGE (CDR by Backwards Records
NW)
100 pieces is two tracks of spoken audio describing the disease
followed by fairly harsh noise- 4 tracks of chop up noise ending
strangely in a short piano melody? Murder's 8 tracks of noise
looped drum sequences and electronic guitar riffs.. (i think are
remixes?) - a strange collision of - showing my ignorance drum
and bass beat?s with chop-up noise sound effects makes rather
compelling listening. Both seem to be attempting at pushing the
envelope. a quirky americanaist move? An attempt to (if they are
located within noise) politicize - or even moralize the emptiness,
to co-opt noise- but noise in itself has a metaphysics which is
part of post-modernism (I can hear the sighs) in which there is
no one single big idea and so sub-groups can co-opt noise- surrealism
dada etc with no need to worry about meaning. Noise is essentially
disorganized (sound) and so cannot as is - in itself- represent
anything. Rather like abstract painting - it simply 'is'. At this
point it in effect questions the ontology of culture. in its refusal
to communicate. This is a radical destructive / critical questioning
of the
ideas of truth, beauty, ethics - the great grand narratives -
western creations - fictions- just like the old idea (grand western
narrative) that art - music had a meaning outside of culture -
the music of the spheres - noise is a direct counter to that idea
of music - OR ANY OTHER which marks the end of music. Some people
will find it hard, even unacceptable at the removal to the plane
of "culture" these things that they assumed were outside,
but that is an act of bad faith - so- It's not surprising then
that noise artists get into politics and politico uses of noise-
but as the reality- that all of these are just arbitrary choices-
is what N called the greatest weight. That is the individual can't
bear that meaningless individuality and so joins a group. (herd)
And herds do not communicate other than noises to identify their
existence, mooing. and sameness.." (jliat)
Address: http://www.backwardsrecords.com/nw.html
KANIN KRUSETE - LIKE A THING (CDR by Twighlight
Luggage)
Veering more towards HNW (that's the Harsh Noise Wall of The Rita
et al.) at times, unfortunately for anyone who sees HNW as not
anything - the use of speech - distorted shouting throughout the
first tracks removes the contextless that is HNW, so there is
some kind of angst, a process which deteriorates further into
avant garde gentle distortion and found sound speech clips of
track 4 - "1987 Buick GNX "Over My Dead Body" (Chop
And Screw Like the Noise Doers Do)" once again this becomes
music with movements and dynamics and not inline with the idea
of not giving a dam thing, we have even if inadvertently re-entered
the idea of meaning which elevates the nature of human being well
away from the vacuum that is HWN. Tracks 5 (Dedicated to all the
Jewish-Taoist-Hindu-Toltec-Buddhist Bullshit) and 6 (I'm Sick
of You) regains or attempts the loss of form but still the use
of "field" recordings provides a point of leverage -
I guess only time will tell A final thought for KK- "My formula
for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing
to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity.
Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it-all idealism
is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary-but love it.
"- so as far as HNW goes its either that or pop music, not
giving a dam is a position - HNW is the übergeräusch
not of supreme indifference but an amor fati more sexy than angst.
(jliat)
Address: http://www.twilightluggage.com/
NORSS - HYMNE ZWEI (CDR by Verato Project)
DREAM OF NOTHING - DUKH (CDR by Verato Project)
Both of these releases show, I think, the strength of the CDR
world. Both seem to be working from one idea and explore that
a bit. For whatever reason I think Norss is Dutch: he thanks various
people with Dutch names from bands/projects like Kristus Kut,
Wolfsduister and Peinzend, which I don't know, but seem to be
a doomy bunch. 'Inspired by Indiian Ragas' it says on the cover.
I remember from the old days the reel-to-reel tapedeck my father
had. I borrowed a gregorian chant record from the library, taped
it at the highest speed and then played it at the slowest speed
and thus had my own 'Nature Unveiled'. It's the simplest thing
to create music, and with computers I never had that same effect.
It seems that Norss does something similar for his piece here,
which lasts thirty eight some minutes. Perhaps he adds some equalization
to the fact, some sound effects and such thing alike (things I
didn't have back then). Mind you, I like simple things. One idea,
executed with great care.
Dream Of Nothing also has one idea: playing the guitar and using
lots of echo to it and one (or more) of those looping devices.
He (or she) divided this into eight different small pieces of
gliding tones and strummed chords. Here too it seems that one
idea is at work, and unfortunately they don't get worked very
much. This means that most of the pieces sound more or less the
same, and the variations are minimal. Its nice, but not great.
The lesser of the two releases on Verato. (FdW)
Address: http://www.suggestion-records.de
MP3 releases:
From: Cronica Electronica
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http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=043