Vital Weekly

Number 1435

Week 18

  • – COMAOCEAN (3CD by The Keraunograph Organisation) *
    MUMMIES AND MADMEN – RED FRONT/MUMMIES AND MADMEN GROW DARK IN THE SUN (CD by Winter Hill Recordings) *
    GREGORY BÜTTNER – SCHWEBENDE LASTEN (CD by 1000 Füssler) *
    TENHORNEDBEAST – CAPRA HIRCUS (CD by Cold Spring) *
    DANNY CLAY – NO MORE DARKNESS, NO MORE NIGHT (CD by Laaps) *
    ENRICO CONIGLIO – THE SIRENS OF TITAN (CD by Dronarivm) *
    ROBERT FARRUGIA – TILWIN (CD by Dronarivm) *
    ISABELLE DUTHOIT & FRANZ HAUTZINGER – DANS LE MORVAN (CD by Relative Pitch Records) *
    ANTHROPODS – ABUNDANT SHORES (CD by Klanggalerie) *
    AGENCEMENT – BINOMIAL CASCADES (LP by Pico) *
    DEFTLY DEMOLITION – QUANTUM SLEEPER (2CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    FLESH SHUDDERING – SCISSORS (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    E.O.C. – DREAMS (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    EDDIE LEE SAUSAGE/{AN} EEL – INNER PLAINS (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    MONEY (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    MIDNIGHT ONLY (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
    LITHIUM SPIT – SELF EXTRACTION (cassette by Abhorrent A.D.) *
    UNSIGNED EXPERIMENTAL NOISE COMP#8. (cassette compilation by Unsigned)

  • – COMAOCEAN (3CD by The Keraunograph Organisation)

“I haven’t included an artist name or credit on the CD sleeve but if you do write about it, you can credit to my name. It’s not hat I’m avoiding responsibility for all this, just prefer the music to exist independently of any sort of person or personality”. Hence this 3CD set is listed by – on Bandcamp. The previous releases I reviewed by – or the same label were credited to James Hamilton (Vital Weekly 1082) and JH (Vital Weekly 1331), so there is a gradual removal of personality already. Hamilton’s primary instrument is the Hammond organ and the three discs use recordings from various places, The Pines Recordings, The Restoration Wing (both in Montreal) and EMS in Stockholm. In the latter place, he fed the Hammond recordings to the Serge modular and “Various outboard devices (EMT plate and AKG spring reverbs principally)”. There is also shortwave and voice material, none of which I easily recognised in the music. But then, also not the Hammond organ, as another technique used is amplification. Without being very specific about how this works, I imagine speaker systems and microphones in all sorts of nooks and crannies of the studio, picking up curved emissions of sound. The first disc starts with three minutes of near silence, followed by a piece of more than an hour. Disc two is 3 minutes, disc three 70. The music covers a wide dynamic range; from near silence and for some considerable time to extremely loud, also without any holding back. As said, I didn’t recognise any of the instruments, and if anything, I would have thought this was just a massive amount of digitally processed sounds, along the lines of Francisco Lopez. No such thing is mentioned, but I’m sure ‘play loud’ is a recommendation Hamilton would give us. It’s not something I can easily do in this old house, and with headphones, I found the experience quite claustrophobic. Think of The Hafler Trio’s drones being taken to the conveyor belt noise of industrial music, interspersed with moments of quietness and contemplation—the quiet before or after the storm. At 173 minutes this is all too much to be taking at once, but I imagine this is precisely what Hamilton is looking for. To bring the listener to the point of exhaustion, without stopping at that point, Hamilton continues. In this case, he succeeded very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://keraunograph.bandcamp.com/album/comaocean

MUMMIES AND MADMEN – RED FRONT/MUMMIES AND MADMEN GROW DARK IN THE SUN (CD by Winter Hill Recordings)

Here, we have a re-issue of work from 1983 and 1984 by an ad hoc band called Mummies And Madmen, a trio of Cryptic Z Mostmen (guitar) and Gamla Stan (synthesiser) and Alan Rider (bass, synthesiser, and drum programming). They did a session on the afternoon of 24 August 1983 and recorded ‘Mummies And Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun’ without thinking of another track to release on record, somewhere else, or future (it’s the 1980s). Fourteen months later, they reconvened and recorded ‘Red Front’. Now owning two lengthy pieces, they release a c46 cassette on Slob Tapes, Bob Oliver’s (the man behind Cryptic Z Mostmen and future member of Attrition) label. Recently, they found one copy and remastered it now appears on CD (an LP turned out to be too expensive). The two pieces here appear in reversed order. I assume they feel ‘Red Front’ is the more substantial piece. A guitar plays strange sounds over a bed of looped sounds in the background; a voice recites a long text, poem or political manifesto. It’s hard to say what applies here. The cover looks like a rip-off of a Foetus cover from those years and those were inspired by Soviet art of the 1920s (as far as I know), so maybe there is a link there. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had a similar attraction to the left as it has today to right-wing politics. I am more enamoured by ‘Mummies And Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun’, the all-instrumental other piece by this trio. The bass plays a significant role, windows are open, so we hear birds twitter along, and the guitar is in its best post-punk behaviour again. That open-minded experimentation ran rampant in those years, leading to nowhere in particular, as this remains a jam session of like-minded spirits. To say this is a long-lost masterwork is not right; it isn’t. To some people, it might be interesting to know these musicians went on to Attrition, Stress and Irsol, to name but a few, which is a sales point, although this fact is met with some indifference too. I enjoyed what I heard, liking the instrumental piece more than the one with vocals, but it’s not something from the past I would return to a lot. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/

GREGORY BÜTTNER – SCHWEBENDE LASTEN (CD by 1000 Füssler)

It’s interesting how often the EMS studios in Stockholm come up on these pages. Studios, as there are several: one for mixing in surround sound, one for regular mixing, and one housing the Serge and Buchla modular synths (among other facilities!). Very few people go in there to record and mix a piece in the traditionally finished way. Think of this as machines to generate a plethora of sounds and you record many of those and work on a composition at home. That’s what Gregory Büttner did in 2013. He also applied some digital processing. However, he does something else that not many do. He “played the results through different external loudspeakers, which I prepared with resonant objects such as tin cans, tubes, paper, metal plates, wooden boxes or small objects”. Thus, the strict electronic sounds mingle with acoustic sounds, and everything becomes vibrant. These electronic sounds set acoustic objects in motion, becoming highly unstable and irregular, adding a new texture to the music. The music has throughout a very percussive feeling, even with all the irregularities. Büttner works with many variations of the same approach, not only in the objects and electronic sounds he uses but also with the speed and intensity of the sounds. This means the music slows down at times or speeds up, takes an introverted turn, but also can be light and melodic. None of these pieces are straightforward one-of events, as within a piece, there are many changes, the whole slowing down/speeding up, creating different distinctive shifts. Perhaps that slight melodic touch is strange when much of the material is also very abstract. It’s music that defies easy categorisation. It’s not improvised music or electro-acoustic music on the ground of the mechanical process. Sound art or installation music covers it, and what’s essential: also without any visual stimulants, the music is still powerful. (FdW)
––– Address: https://gregorybuettner.bandcamp.com/album/schwebende-lasten

TENHORNEDBEAST – CAPRA HIRCUS (CD by Cold Spring)

Last time I wrote about Tenhornedbeast I expressed my surprise I wrote about them before (Vital Weekly 1329), but this time I remembered. The last time I played the music without glancing at the information and thinking I had not heard Tenhornedbeast, I didn’t want to spoil the pleasure of hearing the music. By spoiling, I mean the sort of thing that people like Christopher Walton, the man behind the music here, latch onto the music, the kind of stuff that goes like this: “The wild goats (Capra Hircus) of the Cheviot hills have lived there for millennia and are the Avatars of the wild places. If there is a heathenry left on this island, it is to be found in the places where the wild goats gather, in the secret valleys and alongside nameless burns. They are the Children of Pan in an Arcadia that straddles both the imagination and the real world.” On a more mundane level, Cold Spring mentions Tenhornedbeast “intentionally moving in a different direction from the cryptic doom-ambient” of the previous album. On that album Tenhornedbeast used guitar and bass, but I don’t know if that’s the case here as well. These five lengthy pieces of music sound like they have a more synth-like approach or processed feedback and a beautiful eerie quality. It is very dark and atmospheric and also quite ambient. It’s the sort of darkness you’d expect from the Cold Spring label but without much of the heaviness it usually comes with. There are no forced dark rhythms but looped sounds, shards of melodic residue, all slowed down, and it sounds great. While technically it’s springtime, the weather is still cold, and because doctors are I should take more outside walks, I see more trees than before. Tenhornedbeast refers to this album as an “outdoor” album, and no doubt he’s from an emptier landscape than I am. I took one afternoon walk playing this music outside (and, I admit, a rare thing; I will not do that with every new release coming in). I enjoyed it as the perfect soundtrack of forest-like quality and was glad it was still a bit cold outside, even without meeting any ghosts or other stuff of nightmare this music probably also could carry. (FdW)
––– Address: https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/

DANNY CLAY – NO MORE DARKNESS, NO MORE NIGHT (CD by Laaps)

Some months I decided to sell the few LPs I have in the Obscure Records series and use the money to buy the CD box of all records, a worthwhile investment. I mentioned this because I was thinking of various of the Obscure Records while playing the latest release by US composer Danny Clay. From his previous work (use the fabulous search engine on our website), I know him as someone who loves to work with other people directly, via the exchange of sounds, but also as a composer of pieces for musicians, via scores (cue in Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Volti, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Wu Man, Sarah Cahill, Phyllis Chen, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Dal Niente, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra). He sometimes uses “classical instruments, open forms, found objects, analogue media, and digital errata in his work”, but in the case of ‘No More Darkness, No More Night’, I’d say it’s only classical instruments, by a string quartet (twice violin, viola and cello), with Clay on pedal steel guitar. The last time I reviewed a CD from him (VItal Weekly 1239), I drew comparisons to Bryars’ ‘Sinking Of The Titanic’, which is something I can do here, too. There is that same slowly meandering classical approach of West Coast minimalism, something I also associate with the music released by Cold Blue Music. Slow, pastoral music, moving with acceptable pace, drifting is a better word. If any electronics are used, I am unaware of these, not in the way he used these last time. In that sense, ‘No More Darkness, No More Night’ is a fully realised piece of modern, composed music. Music for slow and rainy days; the first, I don’t seem to have enough of, and the second, sadly, we have a lot, but luckily, with a proper soundtrack. (FdW)
––– Address: https://laaps.bandcamp.com/album/no-more-darkness-no-more-night

ENRICO CONIGLIO – THE SIRENS OF TITAN (CD by Dronarivm)
ROBERT FARRUGIA – TILWIN (CD by Dronarivm)

Here are two new releases by Russia’s Dronarivm label, represented for easier availability by Amsterdam’s Fonodroom. The first is by Italy’s Enrico Coniglio, of whom I reviewed work before. He borrows a title from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, which Wiki calls “a comic science fiction novel, first published in 1959. His second novel involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history, with much of the story revolving around a Martian invasion of Earth.” That’s not to say the music of Coniglio is comic, far from it. I haven’t read the book (yet!), but the music would serve as a fine soundtrack for reading; I know I just did. Bandcamp mentions “guitar tapestries and space oddities”, which shows how little I know about the creative process. I assumed these would be mainly synthesiser pads and electronics, with a glimmer of field recording. Only when the guitar is recognised, such as in ‘As They Fall’, I know there is one. That piece also has glitches of vinyl and is a more conventionally structured song, as opposed to a piece, if you get my drift. There might also be a voice in this piece. As with many releases by this label, this is very ambient music and, also not for the first time, borderline new age. In the case of Coniglio, the music stays firmly on the ambient side, with its rough edge being vaguely present, that dark side of the music that makes ambient to be ambient, at least, in my definition of these matters. Within these eight pieces, there is quite some variation, yet the whole album is coherent. Coniglio never drifts too far away from his goal of playing ambient music. Along with the release are eight prints on tracing paper featuring original drawings by Alina Lutaeva, based on scenes from the novel and created specifically for this release. That tops off a very stylish product in beautiful black and white.
Pinkish/purple is the cover of ‘Tilwin’ by Robert Farrugia. It’s actually ‘Keaykolour Lipstick’ (which shows there’s always something to learn). I had not heard of Robert Farrugia before, and he’s from Malta, where ‘Tilwin’ means ‘colouring’. He started composing the music in the summer of 2023 and ended on the last day of that year. A year with highs and lows; “Each event described here is coloured in Robert’s mind by a ‘hue’ that was then reflected in each track forming the album. Tilwin depicts events as varied as a tragic incident endured by a loved one and their period of convalescence, as can be heard on the song ‘Long Wait’, to the birth of a new family member on the Christmas day, as can be heard on the song ‘Post Christmas'”. None of this is reflected in the music. If you didn’t read this, you may have never guessed. Much like Coniglio’s album, I have no idea if Farrugia plays guitar, synthesiser, electronics, laptops or whatever else, but also, much like Coniglio, the music here is very ambient. It’s even more ambient. Whatever roughness Farrugia added to the music, it’s very much obscured within the atmospherics of the overall sound; only in ‘In Sequence’ does something rougher arrive. He produces long washes of drones, going slowly up and down. Atmospheric, indeed, but not necessarily very dark. Think of this as looking at the sea on a misty day. The sun is there; you can feel and almost see it, but water and mist are of various shades of the same colour, blending into one mass. The piano sounds in the music are like raindrops from that mist. Everything moves at a slow pace; nothing much seems to be happening, and yet there is always movement. It’s a pity this is a relatively short album, clocking in at 37 minutes. I wouldn’t mind being seated in my comfy chair and engaging in more of this. Alternating between these two Dronarivm releases for a while worked very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/

ISABELLE DUTHOIT & FRANZ HAUTZINGER – DANS LE MORVAN (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Franz Hautzingers’ 60th birthday is the reason that this music exists. It’s a celebration of his birthday. Clarinet and voice by Duthoit and quarter-tone trumpet -designed to play quarter-tone intervals, half of a semitone, especially used in Arabic music, or to be more specific, Persian music-. Both musicians studied at conservatories in Lyon, France and Vienna, Austria. And both pass their knowledge on to future musicians and composers through teaching. And I’d expect some excellent traditional playing with some experimental detours. But I got a crazy sound world with Duthoit using her voice and clarinet to produce extraordinary wordless vocal sounds and airy, breathy clarinet sounds, sometimes just air and the pitched clicking of the keys. Hautzinger does the same with his trumpet. There’s a story behind that. He practised too much and without correction from his teachers while attending a jazz department of an art school in Graz. The result was lip palsy, forcing him to quit playing altogether. After six years, he began to play again, and with baby steps and good teachers, he developed a style of trumpet playing that uses the trumpet as a sound source in a non-classical way. By the way, Duthoit and Hauztinger are not only musical partners but also life partners. Hautzinger is a familiar name at Vital Weekly; several releases, including a solo release in 2000 on Grob Records, have been reviewed here. Duthoit has also been mentioned, mostly as a musician with whom people have worked. Back to the music: it works on several levels. The breathy sounds of the trumpet, the voice mimicking textures, and the titles of the individual pieces all help to form a mental image of the duet they play. By accident, I had Microsoft’s copilot come up with a text with the translation of the titles as a starting point :
“The granite speaks and the blackbird, In the shadow of the mountains, he stands, His words engraved in the stone, Ancient echoes of a bygone time.
The Mist strolls and the kingfisher, At the edge of the stream, he watches, Its bright blue plumage, a fleeting shine, Like a reflection in calm water.
The placid lake and the barn owl, Under the light of the moon, she flies, Her silent wings brushing the surface, Guardian of nocturnal secrets.
Frida and the blue tit, An improbable but sincere friendship, The painter and the bird, linked by color, Each brushstroke, a song of hope.
The black crow and the magpie, On the electric wires, they argue, Stories of thefts and hidden treasures, Their cries intermingle in the cold air.
The flowing waters and the chaffinch, The river dances, swirls, And the chaffinch, perched on a branch, Sings its melody to the rhythm of the water.
The solitary oak and the green woodpecker, Its deep roots, anchored in the earth, The woodpecker, with its sharp beak, digs, In search of hidden insects.
The fire of the sky and the swallow, The storm roars, the lightning streaks the sky, But the swallow, fast and agile, Dances between the raindrops.
Long Story, The seasons pass, the stories intertwine, Each creature, each element, Contributes to the fabric of this infinite story.
The urodeles and the anurans, In the marshes, they cross paths, The salamanders and the frogs, Their silhouettes emerging in the mist.
The full moon and the nightingale, The night is sweet, the moon full, And the nightingale, perched on a branch, Sings his love to the starry night.”
Not bad for an AI. Given the title: ‘Dans Le Morvan’ – in the Morvan, a protected regional park in France, with forests on mountainlike granite hills and farmland – the music evokes the imagery through sound. This might not be everyone’s tasse de thé (cup of tea), but it is mine. There’s even an industrial-sounding piece: la Corneille noire et la pie bavardage, with its low screeches and breathy, pneumatic sounds. It’s in this week’s podcast. The music is delicate and should be listened to in a relatively quiet environment, preferably with headphones. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

ANTHROPODS – ABUNDANT SHORES (CD by Klanggalerie)

Abundant shores is the sophomore record by drummer Mark Holubs “Anthropods”. The name of the group may be an allusion to the human centipede trilogy, but more likely a term to express the collectivity of the ensemble; arthropods (e.g. centipedes and shrimp have segmented bodies, in analogy to the members of the ensemble. Their debut had nine pieces, the follow-up has eight consecutive parts, segments if you will, that comprise Abundant shores, a through-composed piece written by Holub with ample room for improvisation. The other members are Clemens Sainitzer (cello), Irene Kepl (violin), Susanna Gartmayer (bass clarinet) and last but not least Jakob Gnigler (tenor sax). All muscians are well-known in the Vienna impro-scene. There’s no double bass here, both bass clarinet and cello take up bass duties, and go all the way up to the higher octaves. This means there’s flexibility in textures and timbres. Throughout the piece there’s a nice flow between delicate, soft solo work, and inspired groovelike, reminiscent of krautrock in the way a climax is build up, at other times there is collective skronkiness. There’s much to be enjoyed on this release. It reminds me a bit of Frank Pahls Only a Mother, but without the vocals. It’s adventurous music, with a lot of small details to be enjoyed. This might even sound better live, although the recording has a live feeling to it. Favorite track for now is part 5 with its incessant bass line in bass clarinet, as I wrote earlier, the segment reminds me of krautrock and a surprising break and coda. Excellent stuff. (MDS)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/

AGENCEMENT – BINOMIAL CASCADES (LP by Pico)

Browsing the Vital Weekly archive, I learned I made more references to Agencement than actual music reviews by Japanese musician Hideaki Shimada, who goes by this name. Whenever I write about his music in the past 35 years, I reference his first two LPs, which struck like thunder. The hectic violin playing sounded like nothing else I heard before, but maybe I wasn’t aware of improvised music as much as I am these days. On his Bandcamp, Shimada mentions ‘Binomial Cascades’ is his first vinyl release in 35 years and that the music is expanding further on a release he did for Scatter Archive (scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/october-variations) under his own name. I am unsure what makes him decide to use his own name or Agencement, except for the latter being better known. I heard a previous release from him under his own name, which was more improvised and Agencement more composed. Composing is undoubtedly the case here. Shimada plays the violins, viola, cello, contrabass, piano, electronics, and magnetic tape at different times, recording individually in the studio. While there is undoubtedly some improvised feel to the music, with what seems to be random scrapings, scratching and bowing, the more I hear it, and I played this LP quite a bit, the music seems to be structured. However, being not all too familiar with modern classical music, I find it hard to talk about this in terms of composition, techniques or traditions this might be part of. I enjoyed the music a lot, even when I am not known as someone favouring modern classic music. The music doesn’t have the nervous, hectic approach of early Agencement, but some are still there, next to slower-played sections and instruments. The magnetic tape creates some curious textures, which, at one point, sounded like fireworks. It also gives the music a slightly more electro-acoustic edge. Every time I play this LP, I hear something else, a different construction, another approach, or changes I had not heard earlier, such as the piano on the first side, seemingly indicating changes within the piece. (FdW)
––– Address: https://hsppico.bandcamp.com/

DEFTLY DEMOLITION – QUANTUM SLEEPER (2CDR by Love Earth Music)

I’ve known David Dodson for about 20 to 25 years now. We’ve both played on several Rhode Island Noise Fests and met on other occasions. And we always kept in contact, albeit not weekly or even monthly. But it’s always fun to meet or talk, and we’ve both gone through musical development, and these days, we both make music on modular systems and have grown beards – though he is way bigger. And before me is his latest release, a double CDr on Love Earth Music with loads and loads of new material and a few tracks released previously on samplers or fundraisers. Because, yes, his heart is at the right spot. The front of the packaging mentions guest appearances by Mark Pistel of Consolidated, Merzbow, Mono No Aware, Solypsis, and This Is Not Okay. And I admit those last two don’t ring a bell, but the first three definitely do.
Disc discs One and Two shall be called Disc Alpha and Disc Omega. I don’t know how tracks were selected other than the flow of the whole release, and if Alpha and Omega indicate a beginning and an end, maybe concerning recording or I don’t know. But Alpha is playing, and there are a lot of dynamics on here. From industrial hip-hop (“America”) to technoid industrial (“Tell Your Stories”) and from experimenting with sounds (“Mason Jar Meditation”) to experimenting with noise (“Testostraphone”). Though the last two are exceptions here. Almost all tracks are rhythm-based, with or without a song structure but with a message. The track with Leigh of Mono No Aware has a great EBM vibe, and the 10-minute “A Mutated Meditation” may best be described as a drone without drone sounds but with rhythmic layers. And then the slow movements we find in drones mutilating/mutating those layers.
The Omega CD has a slightly different approach, making it even more interesting for me. The first part of the CD has more tracks, continuations the styles we found on Alpha: Rhythmic with influences of industrial, technoid, rhythmic noise and anything rhythmic. David likes experimenting, so give it a try. But what makes it extra interesting is tracks 9 to 14 which are parts of a live performance he did at Synthcube Headquarters. As I see it, live sessions are a great way to experiment with the capabilities of your setup. To play some tracks, you can also buy on a release that doesn’t add i.m.h.o. to the tracks unless you’re doing something extraordinary with added improvisation. Otherwise, it would be a situation of ‘press play’ and watching things go. So the live recording presented here gives an extra insight into David’s mind and how he actually works on sounds. And maybe it’s me, but it looks like some of the ideas from the live set made it into tracks, or some ideas previously generated were reused to improvise within the live set – which is the other option. So yeah, that added live set made me extra happy.
Overall, a very lovely release of an artist who means a lot to the New England experimental scene – rhythmic and otherwise. My favourite track, except for the live set, is the collaboration with Mark Pistel of Consolidated, “Quest For Empathy”. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

FLESH SHUDDERING – SCISSORS (CDR by Love Earth Music)

A new stash of Love Earth Music hit the office doormat this week and the first one that hits the tray is “Scissors” by Flesh Shuddering. For me a new name and it seems Caleb Crittenden is the man behind this project. There have been several releases since 2020, of which a few are released by the ‘usual suspects’ like Abhorrent A.D., Tribe Tapes, Serrated Tapes, as well as Caleb’s own label Cruel Symphonies. This latter I had not heard of before, with an excellent roster of past releases where SBTDOH, The Rita, Knurl, Dosis Letalis, Vincent Dallas, G.X., Kadaver, Xome and L’Eclipse Nue are just the names I also find in my private collection. So yeah, fun, DIY, noisy and loud should probably fit the general direction of where to think.
So how is my first encounter with Caleb? Well, not unpleasant at all. From the first sounds, it’s loud, in your face and obnoxious, so it’s exactly how I like my harsher noise. However, the 45 minutes of this one go through several states of harshness and sound specifications. At some moments, the compositions have an analogue feel (“Isolated”, “Zeitgeist”), creating some deeper layers in the frequency spectrum, while at other moments, it seems to be done more within the digital domain where – yes, personal opinion – I sometimes miss the depth of lower harmonics. Examples of the second might be “Exhibit A” and “Depatterning”. And no, it’s not a validation of the quality of the compositions; It’s just a remark. After all, noise is about experimentation, and if there is one thing that Caleb does on this album, he does not run away from experimentation.
The subtitle of this album is ‘Data Scanning, Formatting, and Distribution Systems’, and I have no clue what to make of that, especially not in relationship to scissors. I mean, yes, the album has moments of cut-up noise and weird samples fed into the compositions, but I doubt that is what the message is. And the drawing inside from a sent signal from a message from sender to receiver through encoding and decoding through the noise… It’s not making it any clearer for me. Although listening to the album made me think about modulation and demodulation of sounds. And to be invited to believe by a fellow artist is a great thing in my book. Thanks Caleb! (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

E.O.C. – DREAMS (CDR by Love Earth Music)
EDDIE LEE SAUSAGE/{AN} EEL – INNER PLAINS (CDR by Love Earth Music)
MONEY (CDR by Love Earth Music)
MIDNIGHT ONLY (CDR by Love Earth Music)

From the active forces of Love Earth Music, another set of releases, and while the label dabbles with a lot of noise music, and sometimes other strange forms of music, as we will see. So that I don’t repeat myself: I don’t know anything about the artists I am about to write about. First, there’s E.O.C. and no clue what that stands for. “Album inspired in [sic] the documentary ‘The Century Of The Self’, which my good friend Wiki describes as focussing “on the work of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud, and PR consultant Edward Bernays. In episode one, Curtis says, “This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” I assume that’s where the various voice samples come from. E.O.C. uses a lot of sampling, not just of voices but also sounds, looping them around, feeding to electronics and synthesisers and crafting an interesting set of experimental pieces without sounding all very loop-based. In ‘Dreams’ with a heavily reverbed metal percussive bit. That might be as noisy as it gets here. The music has a cosmic touch, but it never drifts into ambient music. The music has a radio play/documentary aspect, even when I don’t know what the original documentary is about (I am curious enough to learn more). In some way quite an old-school ambient industrial release, with compositions not going into the deep end but with a fine sense of naivety. Some of their instruments may sound more 2010s than 1985, but this would have fitted a cassette release in the 1980s well. For all I know, this is something Love Earth Music is the logical successor of, and CDRs are replacing cassettes.
Bananafish Fish’s Seymour Glass wrote the liner notes of this release, and much like his erstwhile fanzine, one has to take his words with some caution. But who knows? Maybe there is some truth in {an} EEL hailing from Toronto and Seattle-based Eddie Lee Sausage. Maybe there is an autoharp, mbira, melodica, air organ, shruti box, electric bass, toy megaphone and assorted objects by Eddie and spring coil unit, voice, canjo, various bells, chimes, accordion, recorder and ice for Neal, {an} EEL. There are also field recordings. The rest of the text I take with a pinch of salt. It’s easy to see why they ask Glass to write these liner notes, as the music resembles something he’s also prone to do. That fine mixture of improvisational instrument recordings and an assorted string of sound and objects. The studio is the canvas to paint the picture on. All of this is massively inspired by outsider music. There are songs in the purest sense of the word, such as ‘Pagan Love Song’, but very far away from the traditional structure. There’s weirdo singing, random trashing of objects, looped instruments, all with that homely sound. It’s easy to imagine them sitting in the living room, on a rug, surrounded by their instruments and two microphones to record the proceedings. I know that contradicts the studio-as-instrument approach, but what would life be without any contradiction? Very free and wild music, even when not chaotic or energetic. It’s not the kind of thing I listen to very often, but in all its weirdness, I found this most enjoyable.
Wild and energetic words apply to the duo Midnight Only, RJ Myato on electronics and Jabke Ledoux on drumset and gong. They met via “social media music groups (noise and improv) in the late twenty teens”. In 2022, they met in person to play what they assumed would be a one-off concert. “In autumn of 2023, tracks were recorded and swapped, and this self-titled work came to be” indicates that they didn’t play together in one studio to record the three pieces here. As said, Love Earth Music is a noise label, and this is a noise release, but not the kind that compadre BW would like (assuming here), as it mixes noise and improvisation. Opener ‘Salted Caramel’ is one furious, wild roller coaster of feedback noise and that drummer trashing around like a Muppet – no offence. ‘Massive Faces’, the third track on this release, is a similar noise fest but with the drums effectively twisted and turned inside the electronics, so we no longer recognise these as such. This is the most traditional piece of noise music on this release. In the middle, we find ‘Some Creature’, a remarkable tranquillity harbour. Electronics are used to get the gong in motion and there is some deep bass rumble to be heard. Combined, these elements result in some excellent, powerful pieces of drone music, a heavyweight of intensity. The variety of approaches here is quite exciting and yet also coherent. I’d like to see which direction they will head to next.
A most curious release is ‘Money’ by Money. The cover has the following words: LEM, 2024, lovearthmusic.com, 000000000000000000 and Money; the latter word is repeated 32 times. Two pieces of music, both 30 minutes and 40 seconds (maybe another clue hidden in that?). The conceptual edge might be… Money, but what stance we should take, I don’t know. It could be covers of Abba and Pink Floyd. The group, project or whatever dabble with some very bassy sounds, and it’s impossible to figure out what they are doing here. From flipping coins to stretching indeed Abba and Pink Floyd simultaneously and filtering out any frequency over 50 hz or something like that. It could be twice the same piece. (It isn’t, as I also played both together). As a think-piece, this is fascinating stuff, calling for more questions than answers, but the music only convinced me in entertainment terms a little. How often would one play such as a release? This could serve a purpose if one wanted to get it of unwanted visitors. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

LITHIUM SPIT – SELF EXTRACTION (cassette by Abhorrent A.D.)

Matthew Mullane, not your average American living abroad. These days, he resides in Nijmegen, where he teaches at the university. Next to history and architecture, he has a weak spot for music in general and – so it seems with this release – sounds in particular. In his new project Lithium Spit he explores the boundaries of harsh noise. Not HNW, but the more erratic kind.
Abhorrent A.D. from the US has the privilege of unveiling the first release under the Lithium Spit moniker. These are not just two tracks, but two powerful 10-minute sonic journeys, untitled to leave room for interpretation. Matthew, through the use of synths, tapes, and FX, delves into the question of ‘what it sounds like deep under the soil when rare minerals are being carved out of the Earth’. The 20 minutes are a testament to his experimental approach, with the second part of the composition, culminating in the HNW, being a personal favourite.
I’ll probably find some time to dive into his other projects as well because if this is harsh noise made by someone who hasn’t done this before, I’m kinda triggered into thinking about what he would do with other styles; for example, for instance with his background in architecture combined with perspectives on composition. It can go everywhere, so there is only one way to find out. (BW)
––– Address: https://abhorrentafterdeath.bandcamp.com/

UNSIGNED EXPERIMENTAL NOISE COMP#8. (cassette compilation by Unsigned)

How to define ‘unsigned’ is the question for today. The Hungarian label with the same name sure knows where to find artists you may never have heard of, but also some whose names you recognise. I name-checked Alexei Borisov, Instagon, Juice Machine, Radio Noise Duo, Noiseculptor, and Chefkirk on the latest. That doesn’t mean they are signed. Who is ‘signed’, as ‘we will release all your work’, to a label these days anyway? The musicians I recognised released their music on various labels many times only once. This is a long cassette, 90 minutes or so, and limited to 36 copies, which, with 24 artists, either means only 12 are sold, or the artists don’t get a free copy (or those are not counted of the 36). As with previous instalments of this series on the Unsigned label, this is filled with ‘experimental noise’, as the title promises. That’s not to say that we’re dealing here with 90 minutes of loud noise music, far from it. The 24 groups deal with many subgenres of all things electronic, emphasising the experiment. There are, for instance, the more improvised sounds of Alexeo Borisov & Alexander Cheskidov, Instagon or Flamethrower, but they are exceptions. Sometimes, a more dance-oriented beat comes in, with ROBotron, for instance. The majority, however, are more towards the drone noise variants, yet very few deal with a bunch of screaming electronics or walls of feedback. Ifjú Sátáns ‘How To Torture Nazis’ is an example of totally over the beats and noise of the top. Persefone is one of the few quieter moments on this album; ambient music, which goes along with that, is the minority of this album. The pieces are thus placed on the compilation that no two are alike, and that means a lot of variation and listening pleasure on this compilation. If you have a label and are looking to ‘sign’ new artists, this is a place to seek new talent. (FdW)
––– Address: https://havizaj.bandcamp.com/album/unsigned-experimental-noise-comp-8