HERVE CASTELLANI – FLAMME (CD by Trente Oiseaux)
JORG THOMASIUS & GUIDO HUBNER – MINIMIZATION (CD by Play Loud)
DAVID TOLLEFSON – NEW EYES OF THE UNIVERSE (CD by Hypnos)
PITCH BLACK – FUTUREPROOF (CD by Kog Transmissions)
OARS WITH EARS: ATTENTION: GO! (Compilation CD by ORF)
310 – SNORKELHOUSE (self released CD)
BRUME – NORMAL (CD by Relapse)
JOHN WIESE – CAT WOMAN IS A CAT VAMPIRE (7″ by Helicopter)
HERVE CASTELLANI – FLAMME (CD by Trente Oiseaux)
Trente Oiseaux set out new boundaries for perceiving music. You shouldn’t be listening on lo-tech stereo equipment, but get the best possible. All of the CD’s released so far on this label have been mastered at Bernhard Guenther’s studio using super quality equalization. So far so good. But as a total view on this label, one could say that they start sounding all the same: it’s very soft (in some cases merely audible), requiring good bass response and compositions need to be one hour. That could be a strong point, but it is a weak point to run a label: selections that are made are narrowed to: how can we let this music sound like our music? The Castellani release reflects this: who did this sound before it got the Trente Oiseaux treatment? Now the sound is beautiful, but the weakness of the composition (one track – 51’30” minutes) is apparent. Low end rumbling and the occasional rattling of a lighter and matches (hence the title – I think the drones come from central heating system). There seems not to be very much structure in this piece as it goes up and down, back and forth. No story is told, and it’s just what it is. Not that this is a particularly bad CD, but it’s not the strongest either. (FdW)
Address: <bguenter@abo.rhein-zeitung.de>
JORG THOMASIUS & GUIDO HUBNER – MINIMIZATION (CD by Play Loud)
Two Germans with a long term history in experimental, maybe industrial music (if the term doesn’t shock you), both from Berlin, one from the west and one from the east. Thomasius uses on many of solo releases (or the ones released in association with others) stacks of synths and sound effects, in which, and now I’m putting things more bluntly, the heritage of the non keyboard electronics of Conrad Schnitzler play an important role. Hubner (better known under mom de operation “Das Synthetische Mischgewebe”) on the contrary focuses much more on electro-acoustic sound processing. As they both have a wide experience in making music, the result is a carefully constructed interaction between the two, synthetic and concrete sounds. The title of the CD, and thus of the seven pieces, is not well chosen: it’s not really minimal music, but maximum music: lots of small events going on a wide pallet of sound. Each track builds up and holds the attention of the listener. A very good CD. (FdW)
Address: <playloud@esoterica.pt>
DAVID TOLLEFSON – NEW EYES OF THE UNIVERSE (CD by Hypnos)
Daring ambient (that is opposed to fluffy new age) is back underground. All we have to do is to wait for a revival one day. Strongly promoting daring new ambient music is the US label Hypnos, with many good releases, and this is most certainly one of the strongest I heard lately on both Hypnos, but also in the genre. David is one half of Viridian Sun (who also releases on Hypnos) and this album is entirely dedicated to exploring the guitar as the source of ambient music. But unlike postrock darkest doodling, David’s guitar sound far more synthetic and, for me at least, far more richer then the usual lo-fi drone guitar act around. The drones are sometimes like a mass of church organs swirling around, in a sense pastoral space music. Deep, very deep and dark, but not utterly dark. This is very refined music, that unfortunately will not reach the audience it deserves, because ambient is ‘out’. What a shame. (FdW)
Address: <mgriffin@hypnos.com>
PITCH BLACK – FUTUREPROOF (CD by Kog Transmissions)
Humm… with a name like that, I get suspicious… expecting indeed pitch black music, elektro or gothic doodling of the worst kind. But how pleasant the surprise was. Pitch Black hail from New Zealand, and are nothing of that, and also nothing of lo-fi drone rock (for which that country is also known). Pitch Black play new dub music, highly electronic and laid back. Each track is stretched out, giving breath to all those small things that should be done. If Incoming! is no longer producing y’r favorites, then this might be for you (remember: Unitone HiFi were also from New Zealand!). Very nice, again despite the horrible name. (FdW)
Address: <www.kog.co.nz>
OARS WITH EARS: ATTENTION: GO! (Compilation CD by ORF)
Where art meets the sport… row row your boat gently down the stream, if I recall the last campfire correctly. This compilation was put together on the occasion of the 1998 “FISA World Junior Rowing Championships” in Ottersheim, Austria. Various of the creme de la creme of Austrian electronic musicians received a DAT with rowing sounds, the countdown and a rowing competition and they were “asked to use the samples in a short composition that in turn could become the material for live mixes, e.g. by DJ’s”. Well, that in itself sounds a bit weak for a great concept, but the boys and some girls succeed in producing a nice and varied CD of dance music. The provided sounds are not always apparent, but who cares. The winner counts, not how he got there…
Various dance music angles are present here, from techno to ambient to techno to more noisy (Pita is also present and has one of the more daring ones) and of course breakbeat and jungle styled. I must admit there is no real winner. Most of these are o.k., but there is not one that particular stands out above the rest. But alas, let’s not be sad, as the original sounds have been included, so you can give it a try yourself and send it in. (FdW)
Address: <kunstradio@thing.at>
310 – SNORKELHOUSE (self released CD)
Hot on the heels of their classified as very o.k. debut CD, another one, this time self released. 310 are hard to pin to a specific style, as they use a bit of everything: dub, rock, techno and ambient. But in stead of creating faceless music, they blend all of this together into music that forms an unity. Nicely laid back urban space music. Performed with great skills, which is not really a surprise, since 310 have been together for 12 years. The perfect resemblance of the melting pot that New York, where 310 comes from, is. Very good, again. (FdW)
Address: <jade@310.org>
BRUME – NORMAL (CD by Relapse)
Brume has been on the scene since god knows how long, and he produced a great many CD’s (besides various other formats) and one thing must be said: they are all very very good. Brume plays a modern form of musique concrete, electro-acoustic and electronic at the same time, but in more recent times hints of what could vaguely refer to popular music can be found in here (rhythm is one of those recent features). Like I argued before, silence plays hardly a role in the music of Brume. It is as if he’s afraid of it. Sounds are continuously present in his mix. Brume builds from various loops of sound (voices, the striking of a match or any other rumbling in the kitchen as Mr.. MP would no doubt refer to), put these on his multitrack machine, and in the mix he adds electronica from synth and sound processing to it.
There is however one point of criticism to be stated in the vast work of Brume: his musical language changes very slow. In other words, he sticks for a long time to the same idiom and that makes it hard for the more picky listener to choose the better ones (not wanting to collect the entire Brume catalogue). It’s all very very good, but maybe at times all a bit the same. Let’s hope that this release for a bigger label will bring Brume to a new and wider audience. One that is open and fresh to this work. So if you read this name for the first time, then take my word for it: it’s very good music. (FdW)
Address: <relapse@relapse.com>
JOHN WIESE – CAT WOMAN IS A CAT VAMPIRE (7″ by Helicopter)
Despite rumor going round that I don’t like noise (see my review of Sutcliffe Jugend latest CD some weeks back), and that I have never been positive about the genre of power electronics in the past 143 Vital Weekly’s (which I didn’t memorize, it’s hard to object that statement), I do like the genre. But I have some objections to the presentation form of death camps, sex, perversions or insanity: that has to do with my feeling of all those things having nothing to do with the actual music itself. All those musicians propagating this heavy life style have probably nice clothing, a good middle class upbringing, but in one way or the other like to upset people, which is fine, but why take yourself so seriously then?
Nothing of that to be found on this 7″, just the title vaguely referring to that. The a-side has a barrage of Merzbowish noise which is nice (but not more then just nice), and the b-side is stretched sampled drone, which I think is far more interesting. In all, an o.k. 7″, and certainly one that is better then the usual ‘shit-fuck-I-scream-in-feedback’ one. (FdW)
Address: 24846 Walnut Street #205 – Newhall, CA 91321 – USA