SPLINTERED – TURNED INSIDE OUT (2CD by Totuuden Sarvi Levyt) *
M.B. & SOSTRAH TINNITUS – CONCREDRONES (CD by Korm Plastics) *
OVRO – ID | ENTITIES (CD and artwork by Some Place Else)
JASON KAHN – THINGS FALL APART (CD by Herbal International) *
GOH LEE KWANG – NEW EAR (2CD by Herbal International) *
AARON MARTIN/CHRISTOPH BERG – DAY HAS ENDED (CD by Dronarivm)
RYONKT & OFFTHESKY – BREATHING (double 3″CDR by Dronarivm) *
BARBACANA –BARBACANA (CD by Babel Records)
M.VLATKOVICH & C.LEE & K.MCLAGEN – SUCCULENCE OF ABSTRACTION (CD by Thank You)
PACIFIC 231 & LIEUTENANT CARAMEL – AUNT SALLY (CD by Alone At Last) *
JULIEN OTTAVI THE NOISER – THE BLACK SYMPHONY (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
DANIELLE LEMAIRE – ARTPORJECTS INDONESIA-NEDERLAND 2012 (DVD/book by Inner Landscapes)
ROBERT PIOTROWICZ – LINCOLN SEA (LP by Musica Genera)
DUS –TI – EP (12”EP by TI-Records) *
SONTAG SHOGUN – LTFI EP (10″ by Palaver Press)
MATTHIAS BOSS & RAYMOND DIJKSTRA – INS KAHLE ZOMMER SINKEN BLAUE FIRNE (7″ by Ultramarine Records)
THE DEAR LISTENERS – IN HYPERREALITY (CDR by Norwegianism Records) *
ABUSEMAN – GREATEST HITS (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
CLIFFORD TORUS (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
HORACIO POLLARD – FREQUENCIES OF SEIZURE (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
BLODSPRUT/FREDDY THE DYKE (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
NOXAGT – CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, STAVANGER 08.03.03 (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
NOXAGT – KILL YR EGO, OSLO, 13.08.03 (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
SPLINTERED – TURNED INSIDE OUT (2CD by Totuuden Sarvi Levyt)
Last year I was looking for a particular release in my private collection and when I found that, I found something else, and then something else and then I decided to use all my time beyond reviewing, to play all the CDs that I own again. What is still great and why do I still have that other release; how long has it been since I last played a particular release. I am still far from finished with this great project, but it reacquainted me with music I totally forgotten about, or simply haven’t played in a very long time. Everything goes in a random order, so I grab the letter ‘E’ and play a bunch, then the letter ‘S’, play a bunch. I remember having gone through some releases by Skullflower already (made a selection!), but not yet anything by Splintered. Not that I have all their releases, but some indeed. Splintered was a band around Richo Johnson, but with a floating membership that included Colin Bradley, Paul Dudeney, James Machin, Steve Pittis, Paul Wright and Stefx and as such they toured around, released some LPs, and CDs and more 7″s, the preferred format for an experimental noise rock group. I must admit I forgot how great they were but this double CD compilation of ‘demos, singles, bsides and unreleased material’ is an excellent reminder. The cover lists per track who plays what, so you get this floating line up working quite nicely. A typical Splintered is twice the length of a normal pop song, six, seven minutes and has loud drums, banging about, a wall of guitar sounds, a strong bass and vocals being shouted about, reminding the listener of the good ol Ramleh. Then there are ornamental bits, such as samples thrown in, or radio sounds. Its quite noise based, but also a great psychedelic feel to it. I totally forgot how great Splintered was! There is a great driving motorik between this music, the power electronics vocal-style and the strong riffs. It bangs on and on, but on the second disc there is also a bunch of shorter pieces, which are even more experimental in nature, carried by a solitary rhythm and weird, electronic sounds, or a droney excursion such as ‘(Behind The) Smokescreen’. I immediately took out the other releases I have by Splintered so I can play all of it tonight, post-review time. Totally energizing music, lifting the spirits up; high up in the sky and one is totally exhausted when the music is over. What a blast from the past! (FdW)
Address: http://totuudensarvi.tumblr.com/
M.B. & SOSTRAH TINNITUS – CONCREDRONES (CD by Korm Plastics)
The Italian musician M.B. is active since the beginning of the eighties and was active in the first scene of industrial music. The noise of M.B. was a smash in the face and deals about the old hardcore noise subjects like nazi-concentrationcamps, (neurological) diseases, murder and so one. Lot’s of tapes were released by himself or at other labels. He did also a lot of collaborations projects with other musicians like Atrax Morgue, Siegmar Fricke and Sparkle in Grey. Now after more than 30 years Maurizio Bianchi (M.B.) still creates music in an abstract manner. Of course the style of the music has been changed and is not that harsh as in the beginning. Last year he creates the album Concredrones in collaboration with Sostrah Tinnitus aka Mario Costa. Sostrah Tinnitus is active since 2002 and released 13 albums and is based in the dark ambient sphere. The album Concredrones is released by Korm Plastics and consists seven tracks. The music is a subtile combination of electronics and acoustic sounds created by metal, tin toys and bronze rattles. The two musicians explore possibilities of the long lasting drones created by fresh electronic sounds, tapes and acoustic metals. The first track Sustained Tonality is a beautiful mix between long lasting tones like a choir and abstract metallic sounds which creates a mythical atmosphere. The following track “The Ongoing Sounds” starts with some soft white noise sounds and slowly sounds are added to the base which becomes darker and darker. The following compositions develop into more abstract compositions with a high psychedelic atmosphere created by electronic sounds which refer to synths from the eighties with a lot of delay and echo. The last track “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” is like a collage of a bunch of sounds. Sounds are coming up and goes away in reverse. Concredrones is a nice album created by two Italian musicians with a different background and experience. The album is an adventurous investigation between concrete sounds and drones and creates a creative psychedelic atmosphere. (JKH)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
OVRO – ID | ENTITIES (CD and artwork by Some Place Else)
Some Place Else is a Finnish label and run by Niko Skorpio. The label focusses on experimental electronic music. The standard of their releases has a high quality and the label works only with a selected group of musicians. One of these musicians in Ovro. Since 2003 she makes surrealistic music in which dark electronics and soundscapes will lead to sinister landscapes. Id|entities is her seventh album and has been released after five years of silence. Although… silence?? She has been working on this album since 2008. For this album she recorded a lot of samples from movies which have been broadcasted on TV or have been played on a DVD player. The collection of sounds comes from a bunch of movies and she did not restricted herself to a special genre or quality. All these voices from all these movie-realities has been inserted into 15 compositions which float into each other. The album is like a soundtrack of a creepy movie with some mythical scenes. The dark atmosphere is guided by beautiful chosen rhythms which gives an hypnotic mood. Some tracks does remind me to Zos Kia and Coil, but than in a modern way. The artwork of the CD is sinister as well. Id|entities is a beautiful movie with a visual score. Ovro is able to create images without a camera or brush. (JKH)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
JASON KAHN – THINGS FALL APART (CD by Herbal International)
GOH LEE KWANG – NEW EAR (2CD by Herbal International)
Now here is something new from Jason Kahn. Over the past decade or so, he’s been known as drummer and analogue synth player, but most of time his percussion playing was rather vaguely present and the result was more often than not a more or less drone based musical pattern. Not, of course, I heard all of his work. This new release is quite different. Here we have fourteen pieces, all of which are quite short, say between two and six minutes, of Kahn playing around in the space of an arts organization in Zurich called Kunstraum Walcheturm. They have creaky, wooden floorboards and a wooden ceiling and throughout warm acoustics – according to the liner notes, which describe the various circumstances before the recording could actually take place, as sometimes you plan things but don’t happen that easy, when ‘things fall apart’ and you have to start all over. Here Kahn actually plays the drums, percussive bits and bops, improvised, but also uses a synth and radio set up, and even uses vocals here and their. Sometimes he combines some of this together and works with the space itself, even when the sound seems always near the microphone. There is an intimate, warm sound to the music indeed. I must admit I am not blown away by the singing and chanting here, but these pieces are kept to a minimum anyway. Otherwise I think this is a great release of some great improvised music using conventional and unconventional means. Music that is about action inside spaces. Great release altogether!
I have some more ‘trouble’ with the double CD by Goh Lee Kwang, the owner of Herbal International. For instance, why are these two discs released together? I read on the website: “Back in “Hands”, I was tried to explain how the works been created, make no different then other arts form, it’s by hands; Then I got nothing to say about “Vice Versa”, because whatever it is, it can be vice versa; And “New Ear” is for ears. Instead of music, I’d call this a thought.” That doesn’t shed much light on it. CD one has a piece called ‘Vurnmmkied’, CD two has a piece called ‘Vurnmmkied II’ and ‘3735’. The two pieces with that odd title might be linked together. CD one lasts almost seventy minutes and at one point only has music on one channel for quite a long part. This whole piece and it’s thirty minute 2nd part seems to be build from field recordings, which gradually seem to be alienated into something that sounds more like sine waves, and in the 2nd part has a cracked rhythm towards the end. Kwang takes his time to create this and I would think perhaps its a bit too much time here and there with not always an interesting variation of information. Unless of course there is some element of Zen involved here, which I fail to get. My favorite is the thirty minutes of ‘3735’, which is also a sine wave like experiment, but then in the lower region of the sound spectrum. You could think this piece is something that Eliane Radigue could also have produced, but then perhaps Kwang does it a bit more single minded. I didn’t think this was his masterpiece, and it could have been shorter, even perhaps with the two pieces ‘Vurnmmkied’ trimmed to forty minutes and the complete ‘3735’ to be fitted on one CD. (FdW)
Address: http://herbalinternational.blogspot.com
AARON MARTIN/CHRISTOPH BERG – DAY HAS ENDED (CD by Dronarivm)
RYONKT & OFFTHESKY – BREATHING (double 3″CDR by Dronarivm)
With a label name like this you’d probably expect drone music, and to a certain extend that is what this is all about but there are minor differences. The first one is a split CD by Aaron Martin and Christoph Berg. I heard of the first one, when I reviewed his ‘Worried About The Fire’ release (see Vital Weekly 719), but he has had more releases, on labels as Experimedia, Preservation, Under The Spire, Sonic Meditations. Although no instruments are listed on the cover, the cello is an important instrument for him, in the four pieces he has here – each artist has about eighteen minutes of music here – but also banjo and guitar. Chamber music like that is ‘hip’ these days. I couldn’t help thinking ‘if Brian Eno would be around now, his Obscure Records could sign all of them and it would make a great selection’. Martin’s music is full of melancholy and stripped down, to a few melodic lines, but with nice, bright colors. Like a warm day in spring, soft, breezy and with a wide view on the road ahead. I am less sure if I heard of Christoph Berg before, who lives these days in Berlin, ‘focusing on fragile acoustic chamber music compositions’, although he also dabbles in electro-acoustic music as Field Rotation. His releases were on Facture, hibernate, Denovali Records, Fluid Audio. His music also has string instruments, but also piano. Like with Martin I am not sure how this music is conceived. It could very well be that each instrument is played by Berg and then, via multi-track technique put together, but maybe it’s all a clever form of sampling (I know, as a ‘music journalist’, thus failed as a ‘musician’, I should know these things, but alas, I don’t), or a very effective way of recording within garage band. Who knows these days. Berg’s music seems a bit more complex than Martin’s, with more layers drifting about and an even bigger sense of melancholia, like a colder day in autumn. That’s the difference between the two, I’d say. Both essentially are two slightly different of chamber music. The new modern classical music.
On the format of a double 3″CDR we get a collaboration between Jason Corder (Offthesky) and Ryo Nakata, better known as Ryonkt. It was already recorded in 2010-2011, but now is properly released. I am not sure why it took so long. It started with Ryonkt having a forty-five minute drone piece, and Offthesky adding textures on top which consisted of ‘rice dropped onto a contact mic’d bowl from far above, processed vibraphone, vocals, breath sounds and more’. The forty-five minute piece was chopped in two, one for inhale and the other for exhale. It’s this second piece in which we recognize some of the breathing sounds which one expects with this kind of music. The guitar is also easily recognized but much of the rest isn’t. This is the kind of drone music you’d probably expect and as such perhaps a disappointment. I didn’t expect anything else but warm, atmospheric drone music, so I got what I thought it would be. This music is excellently produced, without many surprises and swift, odd changes, but endless sustaining drones, and weirdly processed sounds. Nowhere one find an idea of stasis, and this music seems to be on a constant shift, with minor changes talking place throughout. Very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://dronarivm.com/
BARBACANA – BARBACANA (CD by Babel Records)
A new release from the UK label Babel Records. A label founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling and mainly focused on jazz and improvised music from the London area. They released already some 60 cds. ‘Barbacana’ is one of their latest. A debut recording by a combo of the same name. We are dealing with an Anglo-French quartet: James Alsopp (tenor sax, bass clarinet) and Kit Downes (organ, keyboard, prepared piano) are from the Uk. Both played with Django Bates. They are joined by the classically trained percussionist Sylvain Darrifourcq (drums, objects, toys), who played with Portal, Ducret, etc, and the highly skilled guitarist Adrien Dennefeld (guitar, cello). They joined in 2009 and played live a lot. ‘Barbacana’ is first evidence on cd. Most of the compositions are by the hands of the English members. Their music is rooted in the traditions of Canterbury-music, Soft Machine, English fusion jazz, as well as prog rock and avant rock. But there is also a strong connection with groups like Claudia Quintet. Their well-constructed pieces show very different faces. The music varies from lazy, laid-back atmospheres to Beefheartesque madness in the opening track ‘Animation’, plus rhythmic complex patterns like in the title track. The musicians feel at home in whatever they are doing and that makes this a very pleasant and engaging debut. The compositions have fine arrangements and in their playing the musicians often add a detailed coloring. Well-crafted and engaging music from a band to watch. (DM)
Address: http://www.babellabel.co.uk
M.VLATKOVICH & C.LEE & K.MCLAGEN – SUCCULENCE OF ABSTRACTION (CD by Thank You)
Trombonist Vlatkovich started in the 70s in the Los Angeles area, and performed over the years extensively in the US, Canada and Europe. He had many different ensembles, projects, etc. He played with many musicians, including Peggy Lee, Brian Setzer, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Bryan Adams, Bobby Bradford, Gerry Hemingway, a.o. In 1981 he established Thank You Records as an outlet of his work. No wonder his latest effort appears on this label. Vlatkovich is encountered here in a trio format with Bevil McLagen on bass and Chris Lee on drums. Catched live in august 2011. The three meet in 15 short improvisations. The three hit ground on many moments. Their music is rich and seemingly simple at the same time. In any case it is very accessible and enjoyable music. Very together, each musician weaves lines that make a wonderful whole. Very sympathetic, touching on many moods and tempers. But always a bit dry and in control. I guess this is just pure jazz , timeless and without much fuzz. Disciplined as they are, everything fits and is on its place in the playing, as the result of some sort of minimalism. They don’t need that much words to make their point. They are not into extended techniques, electronics, etc. There are not into discovering new sounds, but above all in creating harmonies, showing an impressive ‘souplesse’. Excellent job. (DM)
Address: http://www.thankyourecords.com
PACIFIC 231 & LIEUTENANT CARAMEL – AUNT SALLY (CD by Alone At Last)
By roughly 1985 the younger generation of what what then labelled Industrial Music discovered their historical roots, the electronic music of the fifties and sixties and electro-acoustic music. Some of those musicians delved deep in and an interesting mix of non-academic composers merged with academic composers. Some of them took their own name and shedded their ‘band name’. Some carried on using those band names. I never knew if Lieutenant Caramel, also know as Felipe Caramelos, belonged to the academic scene but simply had a band name to work as. He had some releases in the 80s, but even then not many, and seemed to be silent for the most part until some years ago when he had an anthology of older works released by Monochrome Vision. Now there is a new work, a collaboration with Pacific 231, who is from the same country, France, but based in Ireland these days, and who likewise always stuck to his band name. They use field recordings, guitar, electronics, ‘acousmatic art & cut-ups’. To start with the bad news: I am not entirely convinced by this release. ‘Bagliore’ is the longest piece but best forgotten. A guitar wails about and there is a voice manipulation (from a reel-to-reel tape), but its an improvisation going nowhere. The other pieces are better, and have that musique concrete idea but still carried out it seems within the analogue realms, which is not a bad thing. But the compositions themselves don’t seem to be very strong I think. All of them seem to be generated from a bunch of improvisations which have been edited to some extent, but perhaps not enough, not enough for my liking perhaps. Some of these pieces have simply not enough variation to hold the attention for too long and employ not always some surprise edits, but are mere layers of musical and non-musical sounds stuck together. Maybe more recording would have done the trick better? I am not sure here. I played it a couple of times and every time it wasn’t too satisfying. (FdW)
Address: http://alone-at-last.com
JULIEN OTTAVI THE NOISER – THE BLACK SYMPHONY (CD by Monochrome Vision)
Driving force behind the Apo33 collective in France, Julie Ottavi is quite active, as a poet and ‘tongue destroyer’, experimental film maker, ‘anarchitect’, artist-researcher and composer/musicians and its in the latter capacity he works a lot of with computer technology, such as with Pure Data and developing audio software for Gnu/Linux. It’s someone we know who likes a bit of noise. Here he has ‘The Black Symphony’, of nine pieces and three pieces of silence, under his own name but also The Noiser. I expected some heavy computer based noise, but such was not the case here; or rather, not all of the time. Ottavi’s music is quite minimal. He sets forward some layers of hiss/static sound, for instance in ‘Mouvement Secundo Presto’ and leaves that running for a few minutes, but it never leaps into boredom. It’s actually fascinating to hear, but perhaps because a piece like ‘Mouvement Secundo Variation’ follows right after that and which is very soft and seems to be consisting of picked up frequencies from equipment. And sometimes there is variation in a piece, moving all over the place, such as in ‘Canon Mouvement Tercio’. Its quite radical music indeed, in all it’s minimalism, the vast amount of differences in used volumes and radical computer sounds. Not some easy listening symphony but a well thought-out, radical piece of music. Once you are open to this, it will unfold it’s beauty. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
DANIELLE LEMAIRE – ARTPORJECTS INDONESIA-NEDERLAND 2012 (DVD/book by Inner Landscapes)
Artist duo Jan van den Dobbelsteen and Danielle Lemaire have been working together and solo on various art projects for as long as I can remember. Danielle is of Indonesian ancestry and after a family visit she set up an exchange project. In 2012 Jan and she went to Bandung, an island of the archipelago to work with local artists who, in the second stage of the project, visited The Netherlands. This book and DVD document the project. It provides a survey of the trip, and the activities of the duo in Indonesia. The book text explains about how Danielle was inspired by the local music scene which is quite different from the Western scene. Especially the street players who play small tunes to car drivers while they are waiting in the city traffic jam caught her attention. They play tunes that are a mix of Western music and the local traditional variety. Later she made contact with a local group of artists with an art space. During the project in Indonesia she and Jan worked together with the local artists and created an exhibition inspired by the traditional wayang (shadow/puppet) play. The book is well designed and illustrated and gives a nice overview of the project’s process. The DVD serves as an extension to the book. I found that the DVD might have been given a bit more TLC. It is now a sequence of shootings, almost random. A voice over with a text that brings a story to the string of events and perhaps connecting the footage the book would have helped. (JS)
Address: http://www.iae.nl/users/jada
ROBERT PIOTROWICZ – LINCOLN SEA (LP by Musica Genera)
More music by Robert Piotrowicz from Poland, following ‘When Snakeboy Is Dying’ was reviewed earlier this year (see Vital Weekly 881). That album was perhaps all a bit ‘mellow’, compared by his earlier, more electronic output and used synthesizer, guitar, piano, vibraphone and software. Compare that with the new album, which just uses a modular analogue synthesizer, and this can be in return be classified as ‘louder’ again. His modular synth chunks out block wave sounds, that, once melted together, may sound like a bunch of treated church organs playing together while being eaten by a giant computer. It seems as if the sound moves in slightly changing tempi and while moving back and forth between loud and less loud (perhaps not quiet exactly), we have the idea of being lost at (Lincoln?) sea. You hear this is all electronic, but for all we know this could be some electronically altered brass section, droning heavily about. Heavily layered most of the time, with microtonal changes all about. You could wonder if the choice to release this on a LP is fine, since it’s clearly one piece of music, split in two parts and I would think it would have been a better idea if the whole work would be in a continuous mode. I think I wouldn’t have minded that – perhaps because I like CDs more than LPs for delicate music, and for all it’s loudness this is also quite delicate music, especially when things are ‘softer’. While firmly electronic, this is an excellent acoustic drone aspect to it. One to keep playing for a few times in a row. (FdW)
Address: http://www.musicagenera.net
DUS –TI – EP (12”EP by TI-Records)
DUS-TI started in 2008 is a collaboration between Polish rooted drummer Mirek Pyschny and German/Iranian trumpeter Pablo Giw. Starting from experiments with acoustic and electronic music, they developed their own niche. First proof was their album ‘2011’, recorded at Klang WerkStadt in Hamburg. Their new release is an ep, containing four instrumentals, released on their own label. Recordings date from the summer of 2012. They create minimal beats and electronic textures combined with sparse drumming. On top of it the trumpet plays extended melodic lines, in the tradition of Hassell and Henriksen. The result is totally fascinating and satisfying. Very dark music, picking up where Suicide stopped, integrating influences of jazz(core), krautrock, etc. The duo has a clear vision of what they want to create, as this music is crystal clear and not to be neglected. They are very focussed and deliver a beautiful follow-up to their debut album. (DM)
Address: http://www.ti-records.com
SONTAG SHOGUN – LTFI EP (10″ by Palaver Press)
By the time you read this, the European tour of Sontag Shogun is over. This trio (Ian Temple, Jesse Perlstein and Jeremy Young) hit my town also and left me a bit confused. I quite enjoyed their ambient soundscapes of field recordings, old reel-to-reel manipulation, and sparse piano chords, which gave the proceedings a nice radio play element, but wasn’t blown away by the vocals, most of the time (and the video was also something I could live without). All in all it was an enjoyable evening and as a result I got this tour record handed, which I am sure is available still. It has that singing in ‘Let The Flies In’ (no doubt the title piece), but perhaps not unlike the concert this is the only place. In the other three pieces they show their quality to present warm, cinematographic soundtracks, with spoken word (in Dutch even, always nice), field recordings, and electronics, with that electric piano never far away. Quite delicate music, which makes their music probably more suited for wild life documentaries or sad stories about loss and redemption, but I must say it stands well by itself. The crackles of the thin layered vinyl works well as an extra instrumental level. Introvert music of a fine nature. An excellent reminder. (FdW)
Address: http://www.palavermusic.com
MATTHIAS BOSS & RAYMOND DIJKSTRA – INS KAHLE ZOMMER SINKEN BLAUE FIRNE (7″ by Ultramarine Records)
A duet for violin, knife and spoon. The latter two played by Raymond Dijkstra, of whom we have reviewed a whole bunch of records over the last years, and he’s stuck within something he choose to do. Play that, and work on that sounds, using glass surfaces and the result is a scratchy sound which is no doubt his own. His records are like excersises in what he does, endless variations on that theme. I never heard of Matthias Boss, who plays the violin here. He does that in a great way! This really fits the hectic playing of Dijkstra and Boss a similar hectic playing the strings. His playing remains like the one you would expect a hectic violin to be played, yet still sounding like a violin. It adds to a more musical effect to the music of Dijkstra, which is always more like chamber noise music. These two ends working in a similar ways – the hectic, the nervous shifting of sounds – on different instruments make up for an excellent 7″. Right on time, with the exact length to keep the listener hungry for more, but not over feeding them.
Address: http://www.ultramarinerecords.com
THE DEAR LISTENERS – IN HYPERREALITY (CDR by Norwegianism Records)
It’s interesting to read on the cover that the second (and last) piece was recorded live in Rotterdam earlier this year, but there is no mention, live, studio or otherwise, for the first piece. Interesting because I would think that pretty much everything Martin Luiten (samples, electronics, hawaiian guitar) and Robert Deters (loops, drones, fieldrecordings, vocals) do is rooted in some kind of live recording, but that there is also always some kind of editing taken place afterwards. I have no reason to believe otherwise for this new release. Let’s assume that the first piece is a studio recording and the second a concert. There are differences in both pieces, besides the first being a bit shorter than the second. The first seems to be a more concentrated effort of keeping things together. Crackles from vinyl are slowly expanded with the use of effects and a multiple layered drone exercise slowly emerges from those simple crackles. We are taken for a journey into the land of drones, which are neat and tight together here. It’s a great piece. The live piece is nice too, but a bit too noisy perhaps at times and a bit more scattered. It starts out nice, but then becomes a bit blurry and at half way through the piece moves quickly over to something else, like there is a whole chunk missing. In the second half of the second piece there is also quite a bit of noise, which is something that I am not sure suits The Dear Listeners well, it’s perhaps not something they should do; maybe I need to get used to it? I am not sure. The first piece is great, the second piece fine, but they can do much better than this, I should think. Limited to fifty copies only in a great letterpress cover! (FdW)
Address: http://norwegianismrecords.wordpress.com/
ABUSEMAN – GREATEST HITS (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
CLIFFORD TORUS (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
HORACIO POLLARD – FREQUENCIES OF SEIZURE (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
BLODSPRUT/FREDDY THE DYKE (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
NOXAGT – CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, STAVANGER 08.03.03 (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
NOXAGT – KILL YR EGO, OSLO, 13.08.03 (cassette by Drid Machine Records)
Some busy bees from Norway, who do posters, prints, record covers, t-shirts and release their own music on cassettes. All of this using their in house silk screen covers and a distinct box made of that silk screening – that all looks promising. Not every tape has a lot of information, such as Abuseman, who have seven pieces crammed on a rather short tape. The only ‘other’ it says it was ‘recorded by Banan Studios by Mr Bernaise’. I imagine a set up with some easy samplers, loop stations and a drum machine, and a microphone somewhere, and the result is some nice lo-fi sampled party music. A guitar from a record here, a bass somewhere else, some ethnic singing, some sound effect abuse going on. It’s not the greatest but all is highly enjoyable, I was thinking. I wouldn’t mind hearing some of this!
Also short is the release by the power trio Clifford Torus, consisting on Horacio Pollard (guitar, vocals), Kjetil Brandsdal (baritone guitar) and Anders S. Hana on drums. Here we have six untitled pieces of free rock, recorded straight in your face from the basement. A bit of no-wave like perhaps, with strange edged drum patterns and odd hooks on the guitars. It’s mostly instrumental, with an occasional vocal bit thrown in. Heavy, noisy rock stuff, weighing a ton or so. Great bass sounds occasionally in this tape, which seems perhaps odd.
Pollard also has a solo tape out, his fifth album so far, using beats, bass and harmonica if I understand the website well. He’s been playing experimental music since 2002. Here we find him in a less noisy mood, but certainly in a much more abstract vein altogether. Much of this seems to be sampled together, perhaps not unlike Abuseman, but with a much less party vibe to it. Very minimal music, stomping about, maybe the sampled Velvets I was thinking, which was all highly psychedelic to me. With the right amount of volume – the one which you never have at home, I think – a beer in a tiny basement, I can surely dig this even more.
The shortest tape is a split between two duos from Stavanger, of whom I never heard. Freddy The Dyke is a duo of drums and percussion it seems and maybe guitar, but maybe that is sampled too? I have no idea actually. The music is all a bit heavy too, but as heavy as the rapid machine gun drums of Blodsprut on the other. Lots of drum sounds and screaming, all of which are fed through a bunch of sound effects to add a chilly noisy edge to the music. Top heavy this one, and perhaps not the one to my taste so much. Even at this length.
And finally two tapes of historical live recordings by Noxagt, Kjetil Brandsdal’s trio (himself on bass, Nils Erga on viola and Jan Christian Lauritzen on drums), with Billy Anderson on vocals in Oslo. Noxagt is a band I heard before, I am sure of that, but didn’t recall them. This is a loud trio of of noise rock infected music. Lots of heavy playing all around, in which feedback is never far away. I think I preferred the one with Anderson vocals, as this had a fine punk inspired furious and fast drive to it. Very loud, very furious and very fast. It left me a bit breathless, these two. I am not entirely sure why these two had to be released now, but I’m sure there is a fine reason in there somewhere. Not for the weak of heart. (FdW)
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