THOMAS WATKISS – ANCESTOR PHASE 2: MACHINE (CD by The Seventh Media) *
CLUSTER – QUA (CD by Klangbad) *
SISTER IODINE – FLAME DESASTRE (CD by Editions Mego)
NOVI_SAD – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
QUARTET OFFENSIVE – CARNIVORE (CD by Morphius Records)
THE TONY WILSON SEXTET – THE PEOPLE LOOK LIKE FLOWERS AT LAST (CD by Drip Audio)
VIVIANE HOULE – TREIZE (CD by Drip Audio)
FACET – CONSCIOUS MENTAL FIELD RECORDINGS (CD by Satelita)
BIRDS OF TIN – ALTERWISE (CD by Diophantine Discs) *
BORAH BERGMAN & STEFANO PASTOR – LIVE AT TORTONA (CD by Mutable Music)
JB FLOYD & THOMAS BUCKNER & GEORGE MARSH – IN CROSSING THE BUSY STREET (CD by Mutable Music)
DREKKA – COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME ONE (2CD by Morc Records) *
NIKASAYA – ONE SUMMERHEIM (CD by Someone Good) *
AKIRA KOSEMURA – POLEROID PIANO (CD by Someone Good) *
GARCON TAUPE/LEGOWELT (split LP by Narrominded) *
SAVVAS YSATIS & TAYLOR DEUPREE – HOURGLASS (12″ by 12K)
CHARLES BASCOMB VS ROBOT BRAIN (CDR By Stront)
DOODLEINAKAKOON + SHITTING WHORE + ODAL LIVE ON RADIO STRONT (CDR by Stront)
L.S.D. MOSSEL – 9-2-08 LIVE (CDR By Stront)
DASHA BI (CDR By Stront)
ODAL – NOISE (CDR By Stront)
ODIVSEMBOEL – VOMIT SUCKING CUNT LIPS (CDR By Stront)
EGODEATH (CDR By Stront)
STIRNER (CDR By Stront)
BARTHEL GADAU KOPP ROTHER WEIBEL – RADIO STUDENT (CDR by Hymns) *
CHEFKIRK & IRONING – NOTORIOUS (CDR by Hymns) *
D’INCISE – SECHERESSE PLANTEE EN PLEIN CIEL (CDR by Gruenrekorder) *
ISCHIO ROMANTICO – FROM THE HIP (CDR by Shadazz) *
JAN-KEES HELMS – SUMMER (CDR by Q-Tone) *
AKUMU – TAPETEN (DVD-R by Spider Records)
HOTEL GROMADA – AMAZONIAN ROVERS (CDR by Elephant And Castles)
PRESLAV LITERARY SCHOOL – BEAUTIFUL WAS THE TIME (CDR by Elephant And Castles)
CAWA SORIX – PIPISTRELLO (3″CDR by Elephant And Castles)
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 216 [DATA #5] (3″CDR by Ingeos) *
MARK CETILIA – ANEMOI (3″CDR by Quiet Design) *
SRMEIXNER – I AM YOUR PALLBEARER (MP3)
+ new MP3 releases and annopuncements
THOMAS WATKISS – ANCESTOR PHASE 2: MACHINE (CD by The Seventh Media)
As announced back in Vital Weekly 623, Thomas Watkiss is busy to release a trilogy. ‘Silence’ was the opening, now its time for ‘Machine’, which comes in the form of a double CD. One CD has phase two, the other has a live recording from Norway from Autumn of 2008. The new album moves away from the dark ambient music of ‘Silence’ and the machines are set in motion. The landscape he depicts is that of an empty industrial site – at night of course. Hit perhaps by a nuclear blast a few days ago, smoke everywhere. Or maybe after an invasion of bugs. Its certainly not a pleasant world – but perhaps its our modern world indeed. Maybe the reality is not so pleasant? More than before, but this is merely an assumption, it seems to me that he is using synthesizers, sound effects and computer manipulation, rather than guitars, or bass like on the previous. Well, perhaps he does play them, but then its less obvious. In the live version, spanning two long pieces, in which things are a bit more stretched out then in his studio work, taking more time to develop his music. Here he seems to be combining the dark ambient of ‘Silence’, with bits of the more bleak industrial nightmares of ‘Machine’ – a combination that works wonderfully well. It made me curious to hear the third part by now. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thomaswatkiss.net
CLUSTER – QUA (CD by Klangbad)
In Germany they make a distinction between E music (from ‘ernste’, serious music) and U (from ‘underhaltung’, entertainment). No doubt something the two gentleman behind Cluster are aware of. But I wonder where they see themselves in this division? E or U? I’d say that their oldest (and still best) records were Kluster one and two, spelled with a K, and they were definitely serious music. I still give them a spin, once a year. I didn’t keep up with the Cluster releases, far and many, or their solo works, from the last forty years, but occasionally I hear a bit, here and there. ‘Qua’ is the latest addition to their expanded universe. A beat is set forward, synthesizers are added. For a good seventeen tracks, nearly fifty-five minutes of music. I ate some crackers with cheese, a few more pages from my book, checked e-mail and all along I said to myself: ‘this is jolly good, funny entertainment’. The music never forces itself upon the listener, but in stead flows by, like an endless stream of sounds, ideas, images (if you care to take a look), sketches and notes. Good or bad seem irrelevant here. Its impossible to hate this, but likewise its difficult to embrace it whole heartedly. It seems to be too normal, like a nutritious meal which tastes good, but isn’t special either. Good U music though, very good. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klangbad.de
SISTER IODINE – FLAME DESASTRE (CD by Editions Mego)
This was originally released as a vinyl – the French “band” which consists of drummer and two guitarists- Lionel Fernandez (fr, Paris) Erik Minkkinen (usa, Paris), Nicolas Sakamoto-Mazet (fr-usa, New York) have in the past played with the likes of Sonic Youth, Faust, US Mapple, Circle X, Keiji Haino, Flaming Demonics, Bästard, Krackhouse, Melt Banana, Tone Rec. and have just completed an extensive European tour. On this release the sound is not that recognizably guitar/drums – but electronics – noise – but carefully choreographed, the sounds appear, and disappear although the semiotics is strange the underlying picture is sonically total and representational. They form part of a tendency to re-musicalize noise and backed by a certain “successful” neo-clique will probably succeed. Illusions of child pornography and carefully structured pieces which are rational and describable – certainly bodies with organs – a movement to re territorialize not just noise but culture itself. More (! as in Thurston?:-) specters of Mussorgsky than Marx, but the same generality of some line of flight- wire music – the doctors have re-taken the asylum, at best/worst it’s the pink floyd at their best/worst, and more an embroidery than a bricolage of abstraction rather than the psychic commitment of the insane and out of luck, money, ideas, talent, future .. of authentic noise, its just too good, too well done. (for me/or to be really silly – for the thing in itself) Maybe I’m wrong here- maybe its an ironic careful photo realistically plastic representation of noise – as if you can – and you can – copy its texture as flat surface, it reminds me of art language’s paintings by mouth, a physical talent used to subjugate or avoid the confrontation with the “concept”, “idea” and problematics of ideality. Whether deliberate or not its Noisesac as in the Sgnt Pepperist penultimate track of 7.51 half of which is silent (the latter) should have been 8.66 and then we would all be laughing. (jliat)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
NOVI_SAD – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
From the somewhat forty-five minutes this new
discs last, about eight minutes are totally silent. Since putting an excerpt of this in the Vital Weekly podcast, I have to transfer it to my computer and normalized (meaning make it zero DB) and noticed there is also actually music in there. Odd, why should it be so incredibly silent? If you would turn up your volume all the way up in those parts (three minutes at the beginning and five at the end) it would mean ripping your speakers apart in the middle part, when things become so much louder. A Lopezian take on dynamics, perhaps? Since this was recorded for a radio broadcast I am pretty sure these minutes were not broadcasted. Novi_sad from Greece is the youngest ‘star’ on the scene of microsonic, field recording and laptop artists, with a considerable profile, playing for instance the Gaudemus music week here in The Netherlands (who hardly invite would invite a like minded Dutch artist I’d say) and works for Touch. And quite rightly so: what Novi_sad does, might not be entirely new (but then: who does?), but what he does he does with some excellence. Following his silent intro, there is an outburst of sea wave like noise sound for a while, which forms the absolute counterpoint of the silent intro. The middle part – of the part that actually can be heard – is a sort of organ like drone piece and in the closing part, the organ and the seaside meet up and make a brutal return of cascading sound. Before we leap into silence again, the organ makes the final fade out. Its microsonic in that respect that the changes in this piece are as minimal as they come, whereas the sound has a maximum output – when there is something to be heard of course. In that respect Novi_sad is not microsound at all: the music is loud and abrasive. A really great work, which brings a lot of delight here. Loud, soft, silence, noise, its all there and all brought with elegance and style. Excellent package also. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staalplaat.com
QUARTET OFFENSIVE – CARNIVORE (CD by Morphius Records)
This one was lost for a few weeks. It strangely disappeared after a nightly ride. But happily it surfaced yesterday, and I can complete my review of this one at last. “Carnivore” is the debut release of a group from Baltimore: John Dierker (reeds), Eric Trudel (sax), Matt Frazao (guitar), Adam Hopkins (bass) and Nathan Ellman-Bell (drums). So a quintet rather dan a quartet. They are around since 2007 and already shared bills with Tim Berne, Jack Wright and others. The recording was done live and no overdubs or editing took place. This exemplifies how they work. Each performance is unique, performing a show twice is not what they are interested in. They play written as well as improvised stuff, making an original mix jazz and rock. They are residing in the same in-between-land as groups like Claudia Quintet. To call it avant garde goes a bit too far. But they are original and refreshing in their approach. However not engaging and convincing from beginning to end. Sometimes the power an togetherness is gone, and at other moments I,m not sure in what direction they are moving. But at many other moments they show they are capable of effectively structuring their music, and building up pieces gradually towards a climax. Also they demonstrate that they don’t feel afraid to move from very slow and patient passages to very loud and rocky interludes. Easily they switch from almost easy listening atmospheres like in the beginning of “Goodbye, Cavendish”, to straight rock like in “O.D” or the opening track. They also feel at home in abstract improvisations leaving many conventions behind them. Frazao attracts attention with his electronically processed guitarsolo in “Heavy-Light”. He is responsible for some convincing solowork also in “O.D”, whereas the reedplaying in this track lacks this same selfconciousness. I like them best in cacaphonic passages like in the closing track “The MSB”. All together a promising debut from a band that can tab from many sources (DM)
Address: http://www.morphius.com/
THE TONY WILSON SEXTET – THE PEOPLE LOOK LIKE FLOWERS AT LAST (CD by Drip Audio)
VIVIANE HOULE – TREIZE (CD by Drip Audio)
Two new releases from Drip Audio. “Treize” is the debut album of singer Viviane Houle. Houle is a an extremely capable vocal artist with many techniques to her disposal. Assisted by 13 musicians she spent three days in the studio, mid-2008, for free improvisations sets in a duo-format. The results are amazing. The instruments that accompany her are: cello, piano, sax, drums, guitar, analog keyboards, violin, trombone, bas and laptop. Not only the instrumentation differs from piece to piece, but also the atmospheres, etc. she builds with her musical partners, all of them musicians with whom she plays regularly. Because of this procedure Houle meets very different proposals, styles, personalities, etc. This makes that we hear Houle explore her almost endless vocal possibilities in very different directions. In the few pieces where she sings a text, her voice is most close to jazz phrasing. In most of the pieces however Houle hums, scribbles, squeals, grumbles, screams, always in an intense performance. All these improvisations move at the same extreme abstract level. Sometimes very introvert, like in “Paperthin” with Coat Cooke on saxophone. In other pieces very extravert like in “Au Revas”, where Houle shows a very theatrical face. “Song not for you” with Brent Belke on electric guitar, comes close a rock esthetics. In contrast it is followed by the closing piece “Curve”. This one consists of one long drone. A nice ambient piece. Because of the wide range of dramatic settings, this is not just another album by a vocal improvisor. It is a very original, multifaced and fulfilling statement.
“The People Look At Flowers At Last” is the name of the CD of the sextet of Tony Wilson. The crew are all established musicians from the Vancouver scene who all have their projects going on: Kevin Elaschuk (flugelhorn, trumpet), Dave Say (saxes, flute), Peggy Lee (cello), Paul Blaney (double bass), Dylan van der Schyff (drums) and Tony Wilson himself on guitar and harmonica. The history of this sextet goes back to 1990. The line up is stabile since 1995. 2001 saw their debut on Spool. At last their second one is out now. The first nine pieces on this album offer rearrangments of parts from Benjamin Brittens composition “Lachrymae”, a work originally written for piano and viola. Wilson adapts this classical composition into the context of jazz. I don’t know the original work by Britten. Listening to the adaptations by Wilson, I just find myself very excited by this jazzmusic from this fantastic ensemble. The album closes with four works by Wilson, one of them is the titletrack, “The People Look Like Flowers At Last”, derived from a poem by Charles Bukowski. Tony Wilson, who by way studied with acclaimed jazz musicians like Dave Holland, John Abercrombie, Steve Coleman, a.o.., offers some very dynamic, and engaging jazz. Free music not allergic of melodic components. (DM)
Address: http://www.dripaudio.com/
FACET – CONSCIOUS MENTAL FIELD RECORDINGS (CD by Satelita)
A (new?) trio of improvisers under the banner of Facet: Maciej Sledziecki on guitar, Joris Rühl on clarinets and Adrian Myhr on double-bass. They say they are inspired by northern minimalism, no wave music and electronic sound collages. The latter I can vouch for, but the other two influences are a bit harder to see. Although minimal is certainly the right word for their work. These boys don’t play a lot of different notes and tones. They keep things to a minimum. Their improvisations are usually of a more traditional kind: the instruments sound like they are supposed to. Quite intense playing at that actually, held backed, controlled, with each player receiving the space they need. As said this is quite a conventional disc of improvising, which is not a bad thing. The real beauty lies in the improvising densities they create with their music. Nice one indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.satelita.de
BIRDS OF TIN – ALTERWISE (CD by Diophantine Discs)
Did we by now acquire more insight in the works of Birds Of Tin? Not really. He has been around for a long time now, and releases mostly CDRs of his work. Here however on CD. Two pieces, both recorded already in 2004, and for whatever reason only now released. Or perhaps re-released? Or perhaps it has to with the fact that no music was recorded after 2004 by Brooke Oates? I read some of my older reviews of Birds Of Tin and in all those years, the one major things that connects all of his releases, is the endless, continuous sound that is so very much part of his work. Sounds of bells, analogue synthesizers are fed through that endless line of delay pedals and produce a sound that is not far from the original zoviet*france work. Music that was once described as ambient meets industrial and that still holds the tune in balance. Like the previous release, ‘Rinpoche’, this is another long release. Two pieces, almost seventy-seven minutes in length, and also like before not every moment of is equally strong. As such I wonder for whom this is made. Maybe there are persons who like to use this as part of a ritualistic event? To be stoned out of their heads? I am not sure about that. It might be something like that. Sipping coffee and thoroughly getting through to this is not an easy thing. Editing is again needed. (FdW)
Address: http://discs.diophantine.net
BORAH BERGMAN & STEFANO PASTOR – LIVE AT TORTONA (CD by Mutable Music)
JB FLOYD & THOMAS BUCKNER & GEORGE MARSH – IN CROSSING THE BUSY STREET (CD by Mutable Music)
“In Crossing the Busy Street” is a 22-minute song cycle composed by J.B. Floyd. Floyd is a pianist, composer and improvisor with very diverse experience: classical recitals, solos with orchestra, jazz improvisations, new music, etc. I don’t know any of his earlier work. In the backcatalogue of Mutable Music we find a solo album by Floyd, “Transporting Transmittance”, plus a trio work with David Rosenboom and Trichy Sankaran (“Suitable for Framing”).
He frequently collaborated with singer Thomas Buckner, which is also the case on this new recording. Floyd used a poem by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore that is sung by Thomas Buckner with Floyd himself accompanying Buckner on piano. With his characteristic baritone voice Buckner defines the grace and elegance that surround these songs. The compositions of the songs make the impression of an ageless form of chambermusic.
This changes on the second part of this CD where the songcycle is followed by 5 improvisations that are inspired on songs from this cycle. Here Floyd demonstrates his improvisation abilities together with George Marsh on drums. The first improvisation “He’s The Echo Inside The Echo’, starts more or less in the same way as the song. Other improvisations however move further away from the songs they are inspired on. The pieces are very close to jazz. Floyd seeks depth and originality staying within well-known musical forms. Musically not spectacular if you expect experimental new music, but new it is from the point that Floyd is a thorough artist working on solid ground as a composer and improvisor.
With the CD by Behrman and Pastor we stay in comparable atmospheres. Again a work with piano as the central instrument. This time it is played by Borah Bergman. Also for Bergman this not the first release on Mutable Music. With Lol Coxhill and Paul Hession, he released “Acts of Love”.
In the first part of the opening track “Spirit Song” I had to think of Randy Newman. The same kind of melancholy and piano music deeply rooted in traditional american music. But from the moment the playing of Bergman becomes very jumpy, it is clear we have to deal here with a pianist who is at home in jazz and improvised music. Monk and Taylor seem points of reference. His playing has much soul and is very warm. Inspired and intense playing throughout. Fully in control, he expresses the musical form he has in mind. Italian improvisor Stefano Pastor is is his partner in this concert and he attracts attention for another reason. He plays the violin, albeit a strange one. Pastor rebuilt his instrument using the strings of electric guitar. This results in a heavy sound that works out fine in this context. Pastor plays jazz and improvised music only in recent years, but earlier his interests went in many directions (Picchio dal Pozzo, etc,). The recordings of this duet by Bergman and Pastor were done during a small festival in Tortona, Italy. By accident these recordings prove Italy still is a very catholic country. At several moments we hear churchbells in the background. It was the first concert of both gentlemen at the start of a tour through Italy in 2007. Must have been a blessed tour. (DM)
Address: http://www.mutablemusic.com/
DREKKA – COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME ONE (2CD by Morc Records)
Someone sent last week’s issue as a reply back to me, saying he never heard of any of the artists featured. Which I guess is good. Download the podcast and find out, I’d say. It also proofs there is some much music out there that deserves to be heard and that I never heard of. Drekka for instance, the project of one Micheal Anderson, has been around 1986 (though since 1996 as DRekka) and now gets a collected works release, which are basically his first two cassettes and some assorted other work from his earliest days as Drekka. Morc Records says that if you like folk, shoegaze, drones and/or minimal songwriting this is thre right place. Actually I do like some of that, to some extent or another. And seeing that this is my first introduction to his music, from his earliest days, a good place to start. Although two discs is a lot of music to take on at once, I must say I m quite pleased with the music. Drone like is the best word to describe this, but played in a lo-fi manner, with a nice emphasis on the guitar and field recordings. Quite raw at times, but never noise based. Maybe its all a bit much with twenty-two tracks, of which some are quite lengthy, but the counterpoint lies in using occasional vocals here and there. Not in all tracks, and not always throughout. Those pieces are not always what I like, say the ‘minimal song writing’ thing, but here it works quite well. It prevents the CD from being too much of the same thing, which is always good thing. Nice moody, textured music, with nice rough edges to it. Lo-fi drone noise music. Great introduction. (FdW)
Address: http://www.morctapes.com
NIKASAYA – ONE SUMMERHEIM (CD by Someone Good)
AKIRA KOSEMURA – POLEROID PIANO (CD by Someone Good)
When playing the disc by Nikasaya I was contemplating – not that the music invites you to, but about the music on offer here. Nikasaya is Nikaido Kazumi from Hiroshima and Saya of Tenniscoats’ fame. They meet up at the Guggenheim house in Shioya, overlooking the bay of Kansai, they sit down and write songs. Voices and guitars principally, using the architecture of the building for some natural reverb. The music sounds very Japanese, a very particular kind of Japanese music of course. Not the noise thing, but the dreamy pop of Tujiko Noriko, well, or perhaps Tenniscoats, and various others whose names elude me right now. They elude me for the reason that I find lots of this music not particular interesting or engaging to listen to. Its not because I don’t understand the words (to which, I must admit, I never really listen anyway), but perhaps its all a bit sweet for me. I can listen to say Carpenters on a rainy sunday afternoon, but that’s about it for that. I must say though that the singing on this particular CD by Nikasaya is very good. Great close harmony, almost in a medieval style at times.
While not a bad CD by Nikasaya, I found much more pleasure in the release by Akira Kosemura, who plays the piano here. Just like the poleroid mentioned in the title, this CD captures moments, and it colors them, just like a poleroid. He plays ten of these pieces in a room of small noises. Or perhaps they were added later on, I am not sure, but they play an important role here too. Where in other recordings of plain piano music they are kept out, they are deliberately in here: the foot on the pedal is obviously the best reference (that is if you know what it takes to play a piano). Music along the lines of Debussy and Satie, careful, melodic, silent. One that could have easily fitted on Brian Eno’s Obscure label. Not really pop like, which you may except on a label like Someone Good, but then also way to ‘normal’ to be on Room40. A sort of record that is beyond any categorization. Whatever you think – pop, classic, experimental – this is damn fine record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someonegood.org
GARCON TAUPE/LEGOWELT (split LP by Narrominded)
The fourth issue on Narrominded split LP series sees two Dutch bands from the world of electronic dance music. Legowelt is already well-known, perhaps from their releases on Bunker Records an Garcon Taupe have been on previous Narrominded compilations. They open up on side A, with five tracks, deep, very deep on the low end of the bass spectrum, and a dirty old fashioned 80s drum computer with some great analogue synthesizers. They play rudimentary electro poptunes, that are actually quite nice. Catchy tunes is what they call this I guess. It mixes good ol’ fashioned 80s synthi-pop with 90s techno, but in a very playful manner. Legowelt, in their four pieces, play altogether a somewhat darker tune. Darker, more mysterious tune. More straight forward techno music, with less earth shaking bass to it. Nice tracks too, but not on par with Garcon Taupe, I’d say. I wish this would have been an all Gracon Taupe album, and then perhaps a nice LP by Legowelt in black/white cover later on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.narrominded.com
SAVVAS YSATIS & TAYLOR DEUPREE – HOURGLASS (12″ by 12K)
There you go: last week I muttered about the 12″ as the forgotten format for music not being techno, here is the second release to proof me wrong. Four tracks (ain’t that classic or what?) of music recorded by Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree over the course of one week in Deupree’s country studio. They continue what they started on ‘The Sleeping Morning’ (see Vital Weekly 597). Folktronic. And yes, by now, we are perhaps used to this idea this being on 12K. Deupree and Ysatis play two instrumental pieces, of warm acoustic and electric guitars, some spacious synthesizers and those psychedelic vocals on Ysatis in the other two tracks. His voice still sounds like that of Peter van Vliet from The Use Of Ashes: heldback and dreamy, and fits the music just perfectly (it would not be my cup of tea very much if this was spaced out rock music). An excellent work, once again, and while the impact of such a change isn’t as big as it was before, I must say this is yet another fine record. I am not sure if a full length is something I would want of this, but served in such a small dosis is just great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
CHARLES BASCOMB VS ROBOT BRAIN (CDR By Stront)
DOODLEINAKAKOON + SHITTING WHORE + ODAL LIVE ON RADIO STRONT (CDR by Stront)
L.S.D. MOSSEL – 9-2-08 LIVE (CDR By Stront)
DASHA BI (CDR By Stront)
ODAL – NOISE (CDR By Stront)
ODIVSEMBOEL – VOMIT SUCKING CUNT LIPS (CDR By Stront)
EGODEATH (CDR By Stront)
STIRNER (CDR By Stront)
Arguments rage over the origins of & nature of noise (its ontology and its epistemology) & these 9 Stront releases (a lofi-cheap graphics Dutch label)
offers an exposition of the current diversity found under the “label” – with perhaps one notable exception. In evolutionary terms noise arrived out of a multiplicity of sources but arrived at its epistemological stance by virtue of the over-inscribing of whatever was its original ontological history. This dialectic which culminated in the over-inscription of data – typically of Japanese artists can now in turn be approached from the other direction in what is called HNW (Harsh Noise Wall). (Here it’s the Charles Bascomb vs Robot Brain piece) As a kind of reversal of the originating dialectic- the method is very simple- what is difficult is tolerating such an approach ideologically. A simple demonstration – download http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ – from the menu “Generate” -> White Noise – > set length and go. Next Edit -> Select -> Select All. and ->
Effect -> Bass Boost – you now have some parameters to play with – keep the boost high and alter the frequency- you can now produce variations of HWN Synthetically. This HWN (e.g. Charles Bascomb vs Robot Brain et.al.) is epistemologically opaque- but from its synthetic origin and not from its methodology. The philosophic, cultural, ideological ramifications are vast, and cannot be covered here in any detail, but the simplicity of the process as an instance reverses the creative ideologies certainly of the enlightenment but at a deeper level the meta-narrative of evolution itself. No one as yet fully explored this – its almost like a machine for making philosophy, perhaps its defies rational analysis itself- pushes further the Deleuzean idea – perhaps it is a body without organs, something he thought impossible- has evolved – or un-evolved, HWN has no parts. The remnants of this evolution can be heard in the 8 other releases – Odivsemboel Vomit Sucking Cunt Lips – L.S.D. Mossel 9-2-08 Live – Heavy Metal Guitar Screaming Vocal and (at times) mad drumming- some deconstruction of Thrash Metal? Via a Punk aesthetic? Other evolutionary sources which did not
evolve from the “Rock Band” include Music Concrete (Egodeath and Odal Noise) slabs of (looped?) sound objects – through to the more Merz (not Mezbow!) collage of found sounds and vocal noises, from the extreme and fabulously operatic Doodleinakakoon(sp?) + Hitting Whore + Odal Live on Radio through the less so Dasha Bi and the more homogeneous Stirner which all tip the hat at Fluxus – as many do. The exception missing here being those works which are over loaded with signifiers to the extent of appearing molar though not – and those which mimic these, if at times ironically, or better as cybernetic simulations. But the irony of the truth is another matter. (jliat)
Address http://www.myspace.com/odalnoise
BARTHEL GADAU KOPP ROTHER WEIBEL – RADIO STUDENT (CDR by Hymns)
CHEFKIRK & IRONING – NOTORIOUS (CDR by Hymns)
Andrew Chadwick’s Hymns label has two new releases. One is credited to Barthel Gadau Kopp Rother Weibel and apparently is a collaboration recorded in 2003 by The Nautical Deconstruction, CFS and Dobra Minus. The first short piece is a sort of spoken word thing, perhaps an introduction, followed by a twenty-one minute onslaught of noise based electronics. More voices here, lots of delay delay delay and throughout an improvised sound. I must say I didn’t like this very much. Very unfocussed. Let’s go and see what happens seems to be motto here. Creating music is great, but not all needs to be heard by others.
In the past I haven’t been the biggest fan of Roger Smith’s Chefkirk project – that should hardly be a secret. His over production in noise wasn’t always favored by me. In June 2008 he teamed up with Andrew Chadwick, armed with microcassette, transcriber, record player and handheld microcassette player and Smith’s no-input mixer and sampler, the result is noise, of course. But it is certainly appealing to me. Not just a wall of feedback and distortion, but it is brought in the form of a sound collage. One part has Chefkirk’s noise, which works fine with Chadwick’s blend of microcassette sounds of people talking, object clutter and such like. Tracks are, here and there, a bit long. Some more editing could have been in place I think and it would have made a particular strong 3″CDR, in stead of a somewhat mediocre forty minutes release. But surely one of the more interesting things I heard from Chefkirk. (FdW)
Address: http://hymnslabel.blogspot.com
D’INCISE – SECHERESSE PLANTEE EN PLEIN CIEL (CDR by Gruenrekorder)
Back in Vital Weekly 686 we first lent an ear to D’Incise, a project from Geneva, Switzerland. Here he returns with an album for Gruenrekorder, and for the label, its that much needed change: to incorporate field recordings – in this case made in the Czech Republic and Poland – with music. D’Incise, it is noted before, is the man armed with a sampler. Rhythms play a role in his work, and stretched out flows of sound – ambient in other words – are also important. To this he adds his field recordings – children playing, ventilation, means of transport. He bends and pitches his material around, like before. One of the things that also stayed, a bit unfortunately, is that his pieces are throughout a bit overlong. Six, seven minutes is the rule here, and that is, I think a bit long. The music is not always that good or that varied to hold the attention for the entire length of a track. That is a pity. The music would certainly gain power if things would have been shorter and more to the point. The great potential is certainly there but too stretched out and leaps into mediocre pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gruenrekorder.de
ISCHIO ROMANTICO – FROM THE HIP (CDR by Shadazz)
If the release is packed the way I received it, then there is not much joy. A drawing by Jussi Brightmore, and it says ‘Ischio Romantico’ and ‘From The Hip’ as the title. This is exactly one of the reasons why I’d like to see the original and not a copy. Or perhaps this is the original (not good, in my opinion). Ischio Romantico is a quartet of Adam and Jonathan Bohman (a.k.a. The Bohman Brothers) with Leonard Aspen and Roger Boulding (both of whom worked with Xentos Jones and Lepke B of Die Trip Computer Die). A mixture of turntables, electronics and amplified objects – latter courtesy of The Bohman Brothers, but it seems to be blown away, most of the times, by the electronic interventions of the others. A work of improvised music, but then with a lot of drive and energy. Never a silent moment, never a dull moment. It takes the listener on a trip, a fairground ride, with lots of odd things happening. Quite nice. A wacked journey of improvised music meeting up electro-acoustic music in the fastest acceleration possible, the energy of punk, I’d say, but without sounding like punk. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/shadazzrecords
JAN-KEES HELMS – SUMMER (CDR by Q-Tone)
Earlier this year Jan-Kees Helms returned to creating music again, after a hiatus of some years, following his Little Seed cassette project in the late 80s, early 90s. Since his return it seems as if he is active as before. This particular release is not on his own Lor Teeps, but on Germany’s Q-Tone and consists of three pieces based on field recordings of a naturist camping in Soest and on the island of Texel, both in the Netherlands. The pieces are based on what Helms thought to be remarkable sounds of those locations. I have not been to naturist camping so I don’t know what could be remarkable in those locations, but no doubt its not different from any ordinary camping site. Hard to tell here what they are, but the weather didn’t seem very good: some rain fall. The Texel sounds are split into two pieces and all three pieces are quite nice excersises in processed field recordings. Not always easy to spot, save for the rain, birds and a boat, they are dense, but also open in approach. Its already a major step from his two previous 3″CDRs, with compositions being more structured and worked out, spaced out in longer sequences, this is surely the right path to follow. Nice one indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.q-tone.com
AKUMU – TAPETEN (DVD-R by Spider Records)
Perhaps I should be flattered to get all sorts of media to review, but as I noted before I am not the multi-reviewer. I don’t have knowledge of novels, poetry, sculptures and, in this case, video art. As a musician Akumu popped in Vital Weekly 538 when his split CDR with Andrew Duke was reviewed, but apparently Deane Hughes is also a film maker and this DVD-R shows us an anthology of films made between 2005 and 2008. The music remained pretty much the same throughout these years: ambient music with a strong love for small click rhythms, deep bass bumps. As such nothing much has changed. Still nothing new under that particular click ‘n cut sun. The images look nice: planets, fractals, operation gear, skulls and bones, in odd lights (say lots of blue, or lots of red, or lots of green). Quite a technological approach, but then ‘technology is an extension of the body’, as the Cronenberg quote reads on the cover. Nice enough, I guess, although I have no idea where to place this in tradition (or outside). The nicest thing perhaps is that all twelve films are mixed sound and image wise as one long piece. Though it changes throughout, the constant flow of sound and image makes a nice environment. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spiderrecords.com
HOTEL GROMADA – AMAZONIAN ROVERS (CDR by Elephant And Castles)
PRESLAV LITERARY SCHOOL – BEAUTIFUL WAS THE TIME (CDR by Elephant And Castles)
CAWA SORIX – PIPISTRELLO (3″CDR by Elephant And Castles)
Elephant And Castles is an ‘almost’ brand new label from Paris. Their releases are on CDR and also available as MP3 for whatever price you wish to give. Labelbosses Nicolas Perret and Cedric Anglaret are behind Hotel Gromada, since 2008. They operate with guitars, field recordings and electronics. Through improvisation they compose their material, until they find a structure to built a piece from. Eight pieces here on ‘Amazonian Rovers’ which however seem to be more or less a continuous piece (no track list with my copy). Emphasis lies heavily on field recordings, not pure and clean, but they compose their music using these recordings in order to create a bigger picture. Occasionally they stumble upon music, played by themselves I assume, such as in the fifth piece. A pretty interesting release with a most refined combination of lots of nice field recordings mixed with a bit of music.
Behind Preslav Literat School is one Adam Thomas, and ‘Beautiful Was The Time’ is his second ‘studio’ release. He is a writer and musician and for his second release he collected one hundred cassettes and microcassettes, which he was given or he bought, and used found sound from those cassettes in this work, using equalization and organization of those sounds, adding along his own sounds. The end result is three pieces of highly drone music from the lower end of hi-fi spectrum. Things rumble and rattle in a very low grade manner, like in the good ol’ days when people released cassettes and nothing else. Also quite a nice work. Perhaps not as good as Hotel Gromada but as a lo-fi drone project not bad.
Tito Gascuel from Grenoble is behind Cawa Sorix and his 3″ is sold as his ‘second album’. He is also a poet and does drawings. The fact that he is a poet is shown in his music. He takes pieces from spoken word, in French, and cuts these up, loops them, lifts them from vinyl, adds a bit of electronics to it, and offers no less than fifteen of these pieces here. Many of these are of course very short, which adds to the fun. The longer the pieces the less interesting they are, it seems. Maybe there is humor, satire or parody included here, but then I fail to see it. Not bad, but not entirely to my liking either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elephantandcastles.com
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 216 [DATA #5] (3″CDR by Ingeos)
Its been only two weeks that I reviewed the previous installment of this series and I noted that “to keep this series interesting and be a bit more different, change is necessary, I think.” Maybe Toy Bizarre is psychic? The fifth one is different. It opens with a looped voice that says ‘sun’, phased along Steve Reich’s ‘Come Out’ and then spoken word. It turns out that this fifth work is all about the human voice. I am sure there is some sort of connection to the weather being here, the word ‘sun’ in the opening piece is of course the best example, but also in the two other parts I seem to detect some connection to the weather. This piece is divided in three clearly distinctive parts, all dealing with looped voices and sparse electronic processing thereof. The phasing of the voice material is not unique but Toy Bizarre uses it in a highly effective manner. This is the big chance in style I was hoping for. Imaginative, strange, sound poetry alike, this is a great piece. Now I am even more curious as to what the rest will bring us. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ingeos.org
MARK CETILIA – ANEMOI (3″CDR by Quiet Design)
Maybe the name Mark Cetilia doesn’t ring an immediate bell, but he is a member of Mem1, part of Redux, curator of Ctrl+Alt+Repeat festival and travels the world to do residencies. ‘Anemoi’ can be seen as a sort of conceptual work. Cetilia created a square loop antenna ‘capable of detecting any changes in the electro magnetic field with 10 miles: lightning, atmospheric conditions’. Shortly after he created this antenna, power was cut because of a tropical storm flying over. In his piece he tries to recreate that experience, picking up all those signals, and avoiding any radio sounds. The first ten minutes sound like long wave crackles and then dies out. In the second half a more drone like sound builds slowly up and then dies out again. Quite a nice atmospheric (pun intended) release. If you wouldn’t know any better, you could all too easily think this is some laptop musician doodling around with plug in stuff, but after you read the story on the cover you know better. Great piece of a nice concept turned into a nice piece of music. That’s something more people should do. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quietdesign.us
SRMEIXNER – I AM YOUR PALLBEARER (MP3)
Why was I talked into reviewing this? Oh yes, its a ‘teaser’ for a forthcoming album on spaghetti western music and this ‘teaser’ is a download you need to buy. I wonder who would do that? SRMeixner, once of Contrastate, offers the piece ‘I Am Your Pallbearer’ which lasts five minutes and eight seconds, and it starts out with some drone like bits, and half way through the Morricone like harmonica’s come in. Its where the abstract meets up real life music. Not a bad track, but it just seems like regular ordinary piece of music. I am not sure why especially this track had to go out as a ‘teaser’ for a forthcoming compilation. But perhaps time will tell us. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fatghost.com/Singles.html