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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 712
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week 1
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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
before submitting material please read this
carefully: http://www.vitalweekly.net/fga.html
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
BJNILSEN - THE INVISIBLE CITY (CD by Touch)
*
LOBISOMEM - BRIGHTEST SOLIDS (CD by Tall Corn Music) *
FRED BIGOT - MONO/STEREO (CD by Holy Mountain) *
ERIC LACASA - ZONE SENSIBLE 2/DUNDEE 2 (CD by Room40) *
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - LOVE VIA PAPER PLANES (CD by Sound
& Fury Records) *
TEN - JOURNEYS (CDR by Owls) *
VIRIDIAN SUN - INFINITE IN ALL DIRECTIONS (CD by Hypnos Recordings)
*
SEREN FFORDD - STELLAR NURSERIES (CDR by Hypnos Recordings) *
STEVE BRAND - CHILDREN OF ALCYONE (CDR by Hypnos Recordings) *
THE D. - D.A.F. (LP, private)
212CODE - MEMORY STICK (DVD-R by Modisti) *
ROBOT FARTS: 2009 NORCAL NOISEFEST COMPILATION DOCUMENT (CDR by
Norcal Noisefest)
RAY OFF - DOUTISAHIMASHITE (CDR by Black Petal) *
MULLER & CONLAZO & EARZUMBA - HERMANOS REYNAFE (CDR by
Dialsinfin) *
FRED LORCA - COSAS QUE SUCEDEN (CDR by Dialsinfin)
ANDREAS BRANDAL/IAN HOLLOWAY (cassette by Agharta Tapes) *
BIG CITYY ORKESTRA - YMIR (cassette by Agharta Tapes) *
New MP3 releases
announcements
1. From: olivier rodriguez <tuladi@hotmail.com>
BJNILSEN - THE INVISIBLE CITY (CD by Touch)
By now BJ Nilsen (or rather BJNilsen) is a mainstay on the Touch
label. He is not a man of many words, or big concepts. I am not
sure what the title 'The Invisible City' refers to, but it does
have a detailed list of all of his sound sources per piece. Its
an interesting read of 'amplified chair dragged across floor,
window shutters, steel whistle coffeepot, dead trees leaning against
each other, train, footsteps in snow, crows, rain' but also acoustic
guitar feedback, tapeloops of found sounds, pitch regulated viola,
B&K Sine Random Generator Type 1204, virtual Hammond Organ
and such like. The titles of his pieces do not give away much
either: 'Gravity Station', 'Phase And Amplitude', 'Scientia',
'Virtual Resistance', 'Meter Reading', 'Into Its Coloured Rays',
'Gradient' and the title piece. If necessary at all, one could
consider Nilsen to be part of the crowded scene of people who
create atmospheric, drone based music through all sorts of means,
but at the end of the chain there is always the computer: all
pieces list 'various DSP' at the end. That renders some of the
sounds, if not all, beyond recognition. As said this music is
highly atmospheric and finds its origin in drone music. This is
a fine disc, don't get me wrong. There is some excellent music
on here, that is at times more daring then the usual 'field recordings
and drone music', with some nasty frequencies here and there,
and some sudden changes. That is what sets BJNilsen apart from
many of his peers. But somehow I also had the impression that
'heard it already' is also part of this. It seems to me that BJNilsen
created some fine work which is already in his line of work, rather
than making the next move. That perhaps is the only downside to
this release. If you are not familiar with his work, then this
is good release to get to know his work, and perhaps if you can
never get enough, then this will proof no disappointment either.
An absolute great disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
LOBISOMEM - BRIGHTEST SOLIDS (CD by Tall
Corn Music)
Brad Loving is the man behind Lobisomem, who now lives in Chicago,
where he records his music and is a DJ. The music on 'Brightest
Clouds' started as compositions on a laptop, but in the studio
they were transferred to analog tape, and mastered straight to
vinyl lacquer (why, I asked myself, since he made a CD out of
it). Six tracks here which makes it into something that is perhaps
a CDEP, of electronic music with a strong, firm basis in rhythm
oriented music. It was quite alright, but I must admit I didn't
hear much new going on here. This music seems to me for fans of
labels as Boltfish, Expanding Records and such like. Beat oriented
but not always 'just' aiming for the dance floor. Music that you
can also as well enjoy at home, while doing the dishes, vacuum
cleaning or just reading the newspaper. Armchair techno. Quite
pleasing, but not much of surprise. The digital-analog transition
of this sort of went past by me, judging by the music itself.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.tallcornmusic.com
FRED BIGOT - MONO/STEREO (CD by Holy Mountain)
Sometimes it seems as if people disappear. You just forget about
them. I would have probably never thought about Fred Bigot or
his Electronicat project if this CD would have appeared. Not that
he is no longer active, but maybe he moved onto a different radar
screen. You have no visual on him anymore. I do remember liking
his music as Electronicat. Poppy, electronic, strong rhythms,
vocals. Rockabilly electronic. I am not sure, but perhaps I never
heard his work under his own name. In 1999 he released a 12",
which can now be found on this CD along with various unreleased
cuts from the last ten years. Its very much music from that late
90s, early 00s era. Deep bass rhythm of drum machines being filtered
through analogue synthesizers, minimalist and repetitive, on top
heavy, sine wave like sounds that pierce right into your brain.
Music that reminded me of the early works of Alva Noto and Frank
Bretschneider, some of Mego earliest releases, Ryoji Ikeda, Goem
and above all Pan Sonic. Using a Roland TR 808 and a Waldorf and
Sherman filter, Rat distortion and Lexicon Jamman, this is some
heavy weight minimal head nod music (in stead of taping feet)
music. I am not sure if this aims at the dance floor, but my suggestion
would be to put this on your MP3 player (discman would be better,
but who uses that these days?) and play this at ear-splitting
volume. Or at home at full volume, until all your furniture starts
moving. Though nothing new, this might be the start of a revival
of this kind of music. Would be about time! (FdW)
Address: http://www.holymountain.com
ERIC LACASA - ZONE SENSIBLE 2/DUNDEE 2 (CD
by Room40)
Two new works by Eric LaCasa, the active composer of musique concrete.
By now he has a long list of releases under his belt, and on this
CD he presents two new works. 'Dundee 2' is in three parts, while
'Zone Sensible 2' is one work. That one was commissioned by Les
Instants Chavires (France) for a festival and uses solely the
sounds of bees, recorded in a beehive. It starts out with the
sound of bees, but soon starts to move about in some electronic
after life. Or so it seems. Until now I always thought, but perhaps
wrongly, that LaCasa only works with pure sound, always recorded
in the fields (agricultural and urban), and never used that much
sound processing, but perhaps I was wrong. Here its a much more
electronic work that depicts the chaos of the beehive very well.
Buzzing with life, sounds crawl about and its hard to figure out
what is going on - except of course if you are a bee yourself.
A work full of life.
'Dundee' was commissioned by Arika for 'Kill Your Timid Notion
in 2007 and uses sounds of that Scottish city, which was played
back on a six channel system, devised along with Ken Jacobs, an
American film maker. Here we have the 'empty' spaces that resonates,
sometimes interrupted by voices ('what are you doing in the parking,
recording spaces'?, or station announcements) or by events we
can longer trace back to its origin. Here it seems to me LaCasa
uses no electronic processing, but the pure sound phenomena as
captured on tape. A powerful work, even if you don't know the
city of Dundee (at least I don't). What sets LaCasa aside from
his colleagues in the same field, is that he composes with the
material, rather than presenting them (for instance works like
this on the German Gruenrekorder label), and that makes them all
the more engaging to hear. I am not sure why 'Dundee 2' has been
cut into three separate pieces, but like 'Zone Sensible 2', these
are excellent pieces. LaCasa is one of the true masters of working
with field recordings. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - LOVE VIA PAPER
PLANES (CD by Sound & Fury Records)
TEN - JOURNEYS (CDR by Owls)
So far I counted two and half releases by The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles,
a three piece from a land downunder. Karen De San Miguel, Matthew
Aitken and Gregory Taw. The latter started the band, but now is
a real band. They are a guitar band primarily. A shoegazing guitar
band, with a strong influence of Windy & Carl and Stars Of
The Lid. Long sustaining sounds are produced the guitars - maybe
with the addition of other instruments, but I can not be sure
of that. Spacious music, played with the use of looping devices,
lots of chorus and reverb - perhaps the latter is over-used here.
The guitars no longer tinkle away, like they did on their previous
two releases, but sustain on end, with every now and then some
wordless singing added to it, the Windy & Carl influence I'd
say. 'Dusted', a short piece towards the end uses organ like sounds
and no guitars. The final track, the also short 'True Love Will
Find You In The End' is the only one in which the singing has
words and seems to be breaking away from the first four tracks.
Ambient music for space heads (wether or not inhaling substances).
In the same parcel there is also a CDR release by Ten, although
on a different label. Ten is Dom Dean, who plays keyboards, samples
and glockenspiel and gets help through a string quartet. Although
I don't think that the string quartet appear in all of the nine
tracks. This too is quite ambient, but working in an entirely
different territory than The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles. Whereas they
are quite closed, Ten has a much more open sound. Very laidback
electronics, that don't play drone tunes, but arpeggio's of keyboards,
with the occasional twinkle from the glockenspiel, or a nice touch
from the strings. More Klaus Schulze than Brian Eno if you get
my drift, but without the teutonic pathos. Easy listening music,
a pleasant background music for the late evening. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundandfury.com
VIRIDIAN SUN - INFINITE IN ALL DIRECTIONS
(CD by Hypnos Recordings)
SEREN FFORDD - STELLAR NURSERIES (CDR by Hypnos Recordings)
STEVE BRAND - CHILDREN OF ALCYONE (CDR by Hypnos Recordings)
Although Hypnos may not seem to appear as prolific as they used
to be, its always good to see their releases. M. Griffin, responsible
for the label, doesn't set out to innovate the world of music,
but has carved out a niche of his own, which he likes to explore,
either through his own music or that of others. Together with
David Tollefson he plays music as Viridian Sun. They both take
credit for playing guitars, bass, percussion, looping, procession
and Griffin also for voice. Not that I detected many voice on
here, but no doubt one could say that for guitar, save for some
obvious point here and there. Everything they play is transformed
into lengthy washes of ambient sound. Like the title suggests
about the universe, it can also be said of the music. It expands
in all directions, moving slowly, elegantly forward - or backward,
or downward, side ways, up, down - and perhaps all of it in the
same time. Time? Another relative thing - although I am not educated
to say such things that deal with nature, or in any philosophical
ways. Seven tracks, clearly apart, perhaps that's the extent of
these things that make them time based. According to the cover,
this was all recorded live in the studio, which made me think
that these boys should be on the road and play all night concerts,
endlessly improvising and exploring the depths of the synthesized
ambient music. Warm music in cold days.
I never heard of Seren Ffordd, who has one hour long piece of
music on his 'Stellar Nurseries'. The cover has some words regarding
space, stars and how they have influenced this release: 'once
born the planets spiral round and round creating new notes chords
and harmonies' - it seems a bit too easy for me as points of reference.
This work was recorded in 2004 and first released by Umbra. The
music was recorded with a Korg 016 and a Yamaha PSA 262 keyboard,
in case there are gear freaks amongst the readers. The space music
by Ffordd is not unlike that of Viridian Sun, I think, but its
a darker and seems to me more drone based, certainly in the first
half hour. Then slowly it moves in a slightly lighter tone, with
a more clearly played chord sequence on the keyboard. From these
three the one that is the least ambient and the most 'dark drone',
the isolationist one.
Things have been long quiet for Steve Brand, since his 'The Quiver
Of Dreams' (see Vital Weekly 414 - and whatever happened to XZF?).
Before that he had released under the guise of Augur with releases
on XZF, Alluvial and A Pyrrhic Victory. As noted in that previous
review, it seems that when working under his own name Brand works
more in the field of drone music, rather the zoviet france inspired
electro-acoustics of Augur. The sounds here are sustained longer,
and seem to be played on looping devices, which get bell sounds
or other acoustic objects as their basic signal. Maybe that's
the difference with his older work. He still uses the electro-acoustic
side of things, but the results are more long form and sounds
simply better. This release seems to me the missing link between
the gentle spacious ambient of Viridian Sun and the drones of
Seren Ffordd. Brand's music is partly based on the ideas of massive
drones, but work out a bit more gently than Ffordd's heavy drones.
The perfect order to play a trio like this would be to start with
Fford, then Brand and have a great chill out with Viridian Sun.
In all three there is nothing much new under the sun (stars even)
in the field of drone music, but that aside, this is some great
music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hypnos.com
THE D. - D.A.F. (LP, private)
D.A.F. in this case doesn't stand for Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
but for Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade. The marquis wrote
his texts on toilet paper and deals also with an interview Charles
Manson did about how black gangs were exchanging messages in jail.
Confusing? It goes on. On this LP, under the banner The D. (being
French visual artist Nathalie Bles) various people have sound
input: Alexander de Large, Manson F, Horacio Pollard, Sgure, Hypo
and Ocsidised. Not separated into various tracks, but presented
as two side long compositions of noise, cut ups, voices and vocals,
some field recordings, acoustic instrument abuse. Not in the strict
sense a compilation, but maybe all the artists threw in their
sounds - probably literally - and then further abused by The D.
I think. I don't know. Probably what the germans would call a
gesamtkunstwerk, of which the meaning somehow eludes me. I though
the record was not bad, but not great either. A pretty standard
sort of noise based record, but luckily beyond the 40 minutes
of endless feedback and distortion, which made it nice enough.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.nathalie.bles.free.fr
212CODE - MEMORY STICK (DVD-R by Modisti)
The future of releasing music might be like this release. Five
pieces of music which you can play in a quadraphonic version,
as well as a stereo, plus an interlaced version - whatever that
might be. Presented on a DVD - only until when we get superfast
internet and you buy downloads of this. 212Code is a duo of Merran
Laninestra (voice and electronics) and Pedro Lopez (electronics).
The latter is the man behind the label and also founding member
of improvisation groups as Zyklus, Fases, Modisti and Scorecrackers.
Merran comes from Australia but lives in Madrid since 1999. She
works with max/msp, piano and voice and works in various fields
of music, such as contemporary classic, jazz and improvisation.
Five pieces here, all of improvisations dealing with electronics.
Computerized electronics that is. Lots of crackling sounds, hissing,
spliced into small particles and occasionally the voice of Laninestra,
with some wordless singing in a contemporary classical style.
Maybe at the basis there are some field recordings, at least that's
what I suspect, which go through all sorts of computer treatments.
Its all quite alright I guess, but nothing really earth shaking.
Somewhere on a cross road of contemporary electronic music and
field recordings, but there doesn't seem to be enough uniqueness
in these recordings that truly sets it aside from say any good
release on Empreintes Digitales, which I guess is not a bad reference
either. (FdW)
Address: http://modisti.com
ROBOT FARTS: 2009 NORCAL NOISEFEST COMPILATION
DOCUMENT (CDR by Norcal Noisefest)
Despite the fact that the Norcal Noisefest is being organized
since 1995, and thus the oldest festival of this kind in the USA,
I never heard of it. The 2009 edition had no less than fifty artists,
of which twenty-seven are collected on this compilation. Many
of the pieces are out takes of longer pieces and noise it is.
Much feedback, screaming and distortion stumped through floor
boards, but occasionally things get softer, experimental and sometimes
even improvised. Its obvious that I like those bits more than
the pure harsh noise onslaughts. However they are placed with
care all around this lengthy compilation, so we don't have to
listen to the all around noise thing for too long. I must admit
I quite enjoyed this compilation, even some of the noise bits,
that there is no particular track that stood out. Its however
a compilation that will introduce you to many new names. Included
are Instagon, Sissters, Nux Vomica, Gohger/AuralAntithesis, 15
Degrees Below Zero, UEM, Medicine Cabinet, Mucky The Ducky, +Dog+,
Chopstick, Smite!, Moe! Staiano, Noisepalm, Liver Cancer, Dental
Work, Kill Kill Kill, Superzapper Recharge, Hypnotic Injection,
Cerebral Roil, Father Of The Flood, Phog Masheen, Sabreteeth,
Actuary, Shrew Florist, Kawaiietly Please, The Transhumans and
Jolthrower. (FdW)
Address: http://www.norcalnoisefest.com/
RAY OFF - DOUTISAHIMASHITE (CDR by Black
Petal)
This very much doesn't sound like your kind of music, my friend
said who overheard me playing this. Well, I said, what does it
sound like then? Like jingly-jangle sixties psychedelic improvisation
he said. Your territory? I asked him. Not really he said. Ray
Off is a New Zealand group of Jim Currin (guitar), Afke Riemersma
(drums), Toki Wilson (recorder, voice), Motoko Kikkawa (metallophone)
and Tim Cornelius (drums, autoharp). The latter also played with
Sandoz Lab Technicians, one of my favorite groups of New Zealand.
Its an all improvisation band and they indeed ask, no: demand,
something from the listener. There is no easy way of getting around
this. It is either being fully immersed by it or complete hatred.
This is as captivating as annoying, if you know what I mean. I
have no idea, based on this hour of music, what to think of it,
but it seems to me that these recordings are unedited and presented
here in their full naked being. If you decide to surrender to
them, what I did, its all highly captivating stuff. Things go
on and on, with slowly strummed sounds, disoriented percussion,
wordless humming voices and plink plonks on the violin. Indeed,
my friend was right, this is sixties total free from improvisation
(think the Velvets and LaMonte Young, but less drone based), but
he was wrong in another way: I quite like it, even when its not
my kind of music per se. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackpetal.com
MULLER & CONLAZO & EARZUMBA - HERMANOS
REYNAFE (CDR by Dialsinfin)
FRED LORCA - COSAS QUE SUCEDEN (CDR by Dialsinfin)
Christian Dergarabedian is the man who calls himself Earzumba
since 1995. That's when he left Reynols, of which he was a founding
member. On 'Hermanos Reynafe' he reunites with Conlazo, another
original member of Reynols. Earzumba was in Argentina for a few
months and by initiative of one Tomas Muller (who plays guitar,
percussion and effects), there were numerous sessions with Conlazo
(guitars, drums, percussion, voice) and Earzumba (keyboards, bass
synth, sampler, percussion, voice) plus guestdrummer Pluma on
two pieces. On a few occasions here they play some heavy free
improvisation rock music, such as in the opening 'El Mulato',
but their main play seems to be to recreate krautrock, with its
trance like riffs on the guitar, spacious keyboards and drums
that keep on banging on end. A slow built up, to get everything
in place and then it starts rolling, and rolling, and rolling.
A bit like the Acid Mothers Temple. Not bad at all, and I quite
enjoy this, but this will never be my favorite music to play all
and every day. Every now and then I do like space rock.
"If you listen to this album maybe you will think it doesn't
fit to Vital. Fred Lorca its quite different to Earzumba but they
have in common some irrevant spirit, humour and sampladelia collage
thing". Fred apparently means cold in catalan and lorca is
hot in buenos aires slang. Earzumba wanted to create some cheesy
vocal based music, with various cheesy, cheap dance rhythms and
vocals about... well, I don't know. Earzumba proudly does something
different, I very much agree, but he's right: this is nothing
for Vital Weekly. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/earzumba
ANDREAS BRANDAL/IAN HOLLOWAY (cassette by
Agharta Tapes)
BIG CITYY ORKESTRA - YMIR (cassette by Agharta Tapes)
Agharta Tapes is a cassette label from Lithuania, but on these
two releases there is nothing from musicians from over there.
This is more like a label from the 1980s: the international hometapers
releasing their music all over the world on cassette. The first
tape is a split tape between Andreas Brandal from Norway on one
side and Ian Holloway on the other. I must admit I am not Brandal's
biggest fan. His music seems to be based around loops a bit too
much and a bit too obvious, with some sparse electronics to go
along with that. You can hear he has put some time in his music
to create it, think it over and reconsider, but in the end its
not very engaging to hear. On the other side we have Ian Holloway,
previously Psychic Space Invasion, but since a couple of years
under his own name active. His music didn't change that much,
in this name shifting process. Drones is what it is. I think he
has some cheap organ, some effects and some field recordings.
I must say that there are some differences between this and some
of his self-released works. 'The Prescient Machine' is a bit more
louder, angular than his previous works, and has bits of feedback
coming in. It seems to be the result of some process while recording.
It slowly decays over the course of the piece. It shows a somewhat
more experimental version of Holloway and its actually quite nice.
The other tape - in an edition of 70, instead of 60 - is by Big
City Orchestra, and apparently its their 79th tape. Thirty years
and still going strong. Upon listening to this cassette, it seems
to me that Big City Orchestra use the medium of cassette to play
out their more spacious, experimental, improvised work. They have
their own radio program, and this tape sounds like a jam session
on the airwaves. A bit unfocussed, sounds going on a bit too long,
spoken words, number stations and such like. But its nevertheless
also a nice work I think, floating freely in space, with a bit
of rhythm here and there, synthesized sounds floating about and
in general just pleasant to hear, without asking a lot of the
listener. Quite nice indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.arma.lt/agharta
New MP3 releases
1. From: Nadim <n@contentismissing.net>
Artist: Skate
Title: Underwater Retreats EP
Remixes by: Christoph de Babalon, MusSck and nikea bustla
Release date: 15.1.2009 (digital only)
Release
http://www.contentismissing.net/blog/?p=2746
Download Presskit
http://www.contentismissing.net/data/press/CIM005_Info.zip
If you have any questions, contact us at
nadim@contentismissing.net