Week 29

KLEISTWAHR – WINTER/MUSIC FOR ZEITGEIST FIGHTERS (2CD by Fourth Dimension)
RAMLEH – HYPER VIGILANCE (CD by Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)
MASSIMO TONIUTTI – SHANGHAI FILES (6 OR MORE RING-SHAPED FILMS) (CD by Fungal Editions)
LARS-GUNNAR BODIN – RETROSPETIVE EPISODES (7CD by Firework Edition Records)
ILLUSTRIOUS – MESMERINE 111 (2CD by Cold Spring Records)
BLOOMERS – CYCLISM (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
DENLEY/GORFINKEL/FARRAR – VENTS (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
RICHARD YOUNGS – ZERKELUS (LP by Fourth Dimension Records)
FELICITY MANGAN – STRING FIGURES (LP by Elevator Bath)
ELOINE & YPSMAEL – OF DELUSIONS (LP by Chocolate Monk)
UNTITLED ARTIST – A DOOR (12″ by Infraction Records)
STEFFAN DE TURCK – TREETOPS ANTI RECORD (anti LP by DIM Records)
STRIDORE – STRIDORE (CDR, self-released)
UNSUB – VEXATION (CD by Love Earth Music)
INCAPACITANTS / AWKWARD GEISHA – SPLIT (CDR by Love Earth Music)
CONTAGIOUS ORGASM + PRAXIS – VELVET WEAPONS (cassette by 999 Cuts)

KLEISTWAHR – WINTER/MUSIC FOR ZEITGEIST FIGHTERS (2CD by Fourth Dimension)
RAMLEH – HYPER VIGILANCE (CD by Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)

With the end of Vital Weekly rapidly approaching, is there something lost? As in, for me? Something I will regret? Absolutely. For one, it is no longer receiving music from musicians whose work I have enjoyed for a long time, and you know where this is going: Gary Mundy’s Kleistwahr is such a project. I am a fan, but not one to rush out and buy every record. Luckily, there’s Fourth Dimension Records to reissue the limited vinyl onto a format I prefer: the CD. This double CD contains the LP ‘Winter’, first released by the Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2021 (an edition of 300 copies), and the ‘Music For Zeitgeist Fighters’ on Nashazphone in 2017, also in an edition of 300 copies. I missed out on both of them, but, as said, always welcome on a CD, especially with five bonus pieces.
Following Kleistwahr’s output in recent years, which has been substantial since the restart in 2009, a discernible ‘signature sound’ can be noted. A few words always spring to mind, and noise is an obvious one, but not noise for the sake of noise. Through the use of reverb, spread across all of Mundy’s instruments (guitars, vocals, synths), the sound is dark and ominous, even orchestral. Mundy likes his music to be massive, even in its more vulnerable moments. These arrive using soaring, mournful organ tones, another trademark of the Kleistwahr sound. A tremendous howl of dystopian proportions. A word that fits Kleistwahr’s music is psychedelic; not rainbow-coloured, hippy-dippy stuff, but various shades of black and grey, and with the epic length of the pieces, usually between 10 and 20 minutes, there’s time for the music to develop and for the listener to be on a spacious drift, into the vast unknown realm of a black hole.
While these records are from some years apart, it’s interesting to note the differences and similarities, with ‘Winter’ seemingly having a slightly broader instrumental palette. Still, it’s music by the same musician, and the quality of it all is excellent.
The bonus tracks on both discs are earlier/alternative versions of the official pieces, and mark some interesting variations. Especially ‘Music For Fucked Films’ is quite a different thing altogether, but all five offer something different from the main work, and not just for completists.
From Mundy’s primary musical outlet (since 1982!), Ramleh, a completely new work, ‘Hyper Vigilance’, takes the form of a very long CD, or a double LP. Ramleh exists in two different incarnations: as a noise duo (Gary Mundy and Anthony Di Franco), and a more rock-oriented version of the two with additional players. Here’s the help of drummer Stuart Dennison, who was also the drummer in Skullflower, a group featuring him, Matthew Bower, Mundy, DiFranco, and various other players. If Ramleh is in rock mode, their sound isn’t far away from Skullflower. The drums make the difference with the noise version of Ramleh. Noise rock is a word you can latch onto the music, with deep, dark drums, howling guitars and slow bass playing, lots of feedback, and the feedback screams, but what Ramleh does in this incarnation is surprisingly more musical than just a mindless assault on the aural senses. Perhaps it’s Mundy’s talent as a musician, playing in more conventional bands, that sets Ramleh on a path of heavy music with strong melodic content, distinguishing it from some of his noise peers. It’s loud, different from Kleistwahr, with a crystal-clear recording and an orchestral sound (but again, it’s distinct from the others, etc.) that creates a wall of sound. Nothing indicates these are, with all respect, older men trying to keep up with musical traditions (what would they be, anyway), but it all sounds relatively fresh. The most surprising track, ‘The Ingathering’, begins with melodic strumming and drums rolling in, accompanied by double-tracked voices, slowly building towards a crescendo – yet for a remarkably long time, it remains a ‘quiet’ piece. It sounds unlike anything I remember from Ramleh, and yet fits the group’s sound very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/
––– Address: https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/ramleh-hyper-vigilance

MASSIMO TONIUTTI – SHANGHAI FILES (6 OR MORE RING-SHAPED FILMS) (CD by Fungal Editions)

Perhaps I’m mistaken, but this might be the first time I’ve received a CD from Darren Tate. It’s not a release with his music, which, if remembered well, was on different labels, but the start of his Fungal Editions as a label. A label, so I suppose, to release his work and not that of others, so much to my surprise, it’s new music by Massimo Toniutti. I always thought Massimo was the slightly unknown Toniutti, but these days it seems he does more releases than his brother Giancarlo. On this new CD, he has three pieces, of which the first is the primary one. The genesis of these pieces is in a work he already composed in 2007. That was “an environmental piece, it consisted of six pre-recorded sequences of different lengths, each looping on its speaker suspended from a large, centuries-old plane tree. The setting was the garden of a historic villa.” In 2020, when we had time to revisit the past, he dusted off the sounds in his archive and composed ever-changing patterns with them. On CD, he treats these sounds like the game Shanghai; “held in the hand, then released — falling into a chance pattern, a circle of sound shifting with each new drop. Hence, “Shanghai Files.” I admit I don’t play many games, so I have no idea what this is. The sound sources are diverse, including spoken and murmured voices, large drones, and small sounds, all of which are digitally manipulated. Much like Steve Roden’s work, these sounds overlap in numerous ways, never forming the same configuration twice. Unlike Roden’s work, Toniutti’s music on ’41 Ring-Shaped Films’, as the central piece is called, isn’t as ambient and follows a slightly more cut-up feeling, moving through vastly different landscapes.
‘Spillikins (Radio Edit)’ is the shortest of the three pieces and a more traditional song-like composition, employing musique concrète-like cut-up techniques within a shorter time frame. Still, I would think with much of the same sound material, it would turn out to be a neat little radio play. The CD ends with ‘A 3rd Chemical Bath’, in which all sounds blend in a more amorphous tonal poem. It’s a natural resting point of the CD, an ambient coda, and it’s not that the album needs such a coda. It’s not what happens before that must result in a ten-minute long-form drone piece, but it’s a fine piece nonetheless. An excellent inaugural release for this label. (FdW)
––– Address: https://massimotoniutti.bandcamp.com/

LARS-GUNNAR BODIN – RETROSPETIVE EPISODES (7CD by Firework Edition Records)

Many years ago, I visited Fylkingen in Stockholm to record music at EMS. Still, on our ‘other’ time we set up in an attic at Fylkingen, sitting next to original reels by people like John Cage and Henri Chopin and the organisation excess stock of releases, to which we helped ourselves (I believe with their permission; it’s been 30 years), and among those were records containing music by Lars-Gunnar Bodin. I can’t check, as I’ve long since sold a lot of the records, CDs, and cassettes I once had. Bodin, born in 1934, passed away in 2021. I had only once reviewed a CD from him, in Vital Weekly 721, which wasn’t an easy task; I lamented the length, so what’s this seven-plus hours going to be like? For a start, there’s a lot to read about Bodin in the booklet, how he worked with text and sound, his activism in electronic music, leading Fylkingen for a while, just as he founded and directed EMS, as well as depicting some of his graphical work, which graced record covers of Fylkingen. There’s a lot about his work in these pages as well, from new text to old liner notes (and, surprisingly, when a piece is previous unreleased, there’s hardly any information, which I found a bit curious). While there’s a lot of music on these seven CDs, there’s also a lot without voices or sound poetry, creating a fine mix of Bodin’s musical interests. While I found many of the sound poems interesting to hear, some went over my head due to the language barrier. When that happened, Bodin’s text pieces became abstract pieces of radio drama, while the texts I did understand, I failed to grasp – that’s all on me, a lifelong struggle with understanding texts. As always, I enjoyed the instrumental pieces best, and here Bodin experiments with what has become known as ‘modern electronics’, including tape manipulations of test equipment, as well as early computer music, as recorded at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1975. With some of these pieces, there’s a visual aspect that one misses out on, such as music for ballet, but this box provides a reasonably complete overview. Various pieces were previously compiled on LPs and CDs, and one LP/CD is included here. However, some of his work isn’t, and I’m sure these other works are still available from this label. This box, seven CDs and an extensive booklet, is an excellent place to start. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.fireworkeditionrecords.se/

ILLUSTRIOUS – MESMERINE 111 (2CD by Cold Spring Records)

Almost daily, I try to take a little walk in the area, stepping away from writing about music and in true John Cage style, I could listen to the traffic or the silence of the slight stretch of trees we can’t call a forest. I don’t because I listen to podcasts. History stuff, but also lots of music. Fact: Over the last few weeks, I have been listening to Martyn Ware’s Electronically Yours podcast, in which he interviews another musician (mostly; I have yet to hear the one where he interviews Steve Coogan). As Ware was part of The Human League Mark 1, he then founded Heaven 17/British Electronic Foundation and produced a wealth of music. Many of the interviewees are people he met throughout his nearly 50-year career. I’ll be honest and say I skipped a few; I mean, China Crisis? Terrance Trent D’Arby? Sure, they might have something interesting to say, but I keep hearing their music. But I heard most others, and that means that on more than one occasion I heard Ware talking (as with many people who do podcasters a certain self-importance and love of one’s voice is present here) about Illustrious, a company he started in 2000 with his ‘good friend’ Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure) to create “unique three-dimensional sound technology”, and on more than one occasion he tries to entice his interviewee “to come around and do something toegther with this unique three-dimensional sound technology.” Perhaps I shouldn’t listen to such podcasts in a row. Another fact: during yesterday’s walk, I heard his interview with Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins, and one of the topics was precisely the topic of his musical work I am hearing right now. “Findings of MRI scans suggest that at exactly 111Hz, the brain switches off the prefrontal cortex, deactivating the language centre, and temporarily switches from left to right-sided dominance, which is responsible for intuition, creativity, holistic processing, inducing a state of meditation or a trance.” And that Neolithic men already discovered this. I ignored (or rather, saw when it was too late), “Safe when used as directed. Recommended optimal dosage: 30-60 minutes at <70dB, delivered by Illustrious Labs 3D AudioScape system or binaural through your headphones”. Maybe I am suffering from possible side effects listed, Contraindications (in less than 10% of cases), Loss of consciousness, Unresponsiveness, Low blood pressure, Hypnogogic meta-trance, Inertia, Extreme calm, Hypnotic, hypersensitivity, Hyperacuity, Visual hallucinations”. Or maybe, since I played both CDs without the required sound system and headphones, I never use headphones to listen to music. Both CDs contain the same piece of music, but the second CD features a vocal mix that provides a hypnotic voice explaining the Neolithic men cave thing and the state of hypnosis. I was reminded of John C. Lilly’s CD on Silent Records in the 1990s, which I enjoyed for its ambient music, but I didn’t always return to it due to the spoken word. However, I can imagine that in Illustrious’ case, there’s a soothing effect of the voice, which you may not always consciously notice, but which works well if you are into the whole trance thing. As much as I like ambient music, trance is not my thing, nor mantras, hypnosis and meditation. I enjoy an immersive soundtrack as much as the next man. I don’t have the advanced multi-speaker set-up (I never heard any Blu-ray versions of surrounded sound mixes of classic records), not even Brian Eno’s three-speaker set-up, just a fine stereo setup, and I quite enjoyed the dark ambient of Ware and Stookes. Massive drones, slow thuds of bass sound, treated string sounds – I am guessing here. It all sounds pretty good, very decent and something that has been covered a lot in the pages of Vital Weekly in the last 30 years, from labels as Silent Records, Fax, Hypnos, Lunar or Databloem, and as always, there’s very little to expect here when one is looking for something new in ambient music; there probably isn’t. Which begs the question, would Cold Spring release this if it were a demo from Mister Nobody, cooking up a similar immersive thing and backstory? (FdW)
––– Address: https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/

BLOOMERS – CYCLISM (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
DENLEY/GORFINKEL/FARRAR – VENTS (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Three musicians, three wind instruments in different constellations, with two of them doubling: Danish-born and Copenhagen-based Anne Efternøler (trumpet), Danish-born and based in both Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen Maria Dybbroe (clarinet & alto saxophone) and Irish-born and Copenhagen-based Carolyn Goodwin (clarinet & bass clarinet). All of them are accomplished improvisers, and for me, all new names. Short and shorter pieces named after essential dates in the history of the struggle by women to change their outlook and that of their gender, or for a remarkable accomplishment by a woman. Number 13 is named Space, June 16th, 1963. The day the first woman was in space: the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Or Stockholm, December 10th, 1905: the day the Nobel prizes were awarded. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a woman: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner.
I could share everything that I found on the dates, but if you’re interested (and you should!), you can look this up easily. Onto the music. The three players have an interaction and an excellent rapport. By which I mean that ideas are mimicked, or picked up by all three players. And it is pleasant music with lots of melody and interesting passages that keep the listener (and the player) engaged. Put in another way: to me, it is heartfelt music and a joy to listen to. Not everything is tonal. They don’t shy away from sound experiments on their respective instruments. Not for showing off, but to create a different sound world. Bloomers is (I think) a reference to Amelia Bloomer, a nineteenth-century newspaper editor, women’s rights and temperance advocate. Temperance means the total abstinence from alcoholic beverages, among other things. Anyway, this one comes highly recommended, and I, for one, hope it won’t be the last release they put out. Again: kudos to Relative Pitch Records for picking this up.
Also released on Relative Pitch Records is this one. Just as Bloomers is a trio, not of Scandinavian women but of Australian men. Jim Denley (flutes), Peter Farrar (hot plates, orbeez -water pearls that expand in water-, and submerged tiles) and Dale Gorfinkel (airdrums). The latter invented these: they consist of a latex membrane made from a large balloon that is stretched over the shell of a drum. It is part wind instrument, part percussion and is played by blowing lightly (and occasionally singing) into a tube which rests on the membrane, causing it to vibrate and reverberate. It creates bass and sub-bass frequencies as well as various overtones. It is susceptible, and even slight changes in the position of the tube or changes in air pressure can alter the sound radically.”
I took this from the liner notes. This section covers the instruments Farrar uses. “He performs with dry microporous ceramic tiles and stones immersed in tubs of water, orbeez (small, colourful, gel-like beads made of a special type of polymer that can absorb water and expand to many times their original size) and hot plates. Hydrophones and a directional mic amplify an extraordinary plenitude of polyphonic musicality where micro-dissipative structures—billowing bubbles—birth clicks, whistles, wheezes, cries, tones, long glissandi, and polyrhythmic sequences.” Again, all three names are new to me. The music is a strange and eerie sound world divided into two long pieces, each around twenty minutes long. To summarise: it’s an exciting sound world full of notes forming tentative melodies of some sort, coupled with hisses, blips and deeper bass sounds. It’s fascinating music, yes, music. Off the beaten path and with an excellent flow. There’s no silence here, just an organically evolving sound organism. It also reminds me of the aesthetics of Kapotte Muziek. Anyway, check this one out. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

RICHARD YOUNGS – ZERKELUS (LP by Fourth Dimension Records)

I’ll be honest: I always admire music by Richard Youngs (well, the man is also likeable), and while not all of his output is to my liking, that’s the reason for my admiration: you never know what he comes up with next. Youngs has covered many musical territories, from drones to singer-songwriter stuff to techno and noise music (I am probably forgetting something), and to be a fan is to be open to all of that. I may not be as interested in his singer-songwriter approach, but I do enjoy the fact that he plays these things anyway. I don’t know what ‘Zerkelus’ means, and the LP (a surprisingly small edition of 150 copies) has no information. The cover features Youngs’ face (eyes open and eyes closed) and has a single composition on each side. I am informed he uses voice, oboe and “indiscernible sources to create an otherworldly raga”, and both sides are of similar yet very distinct make. One label has the ‘eyes open’ photo and is on the first side. Here, Youngs is in an open and spacious mode. The music is dense and closely together. The flute and voice reminded me of Organum’s ‘Vacant Lights’, but the ‘indiscernible sources’, which may be guitars, add a slightly different and disturbing flavour to the music. It all sounds like the various collaborations Youngs did with Simon Wickham-Smith (and Wickham-Smith’s solo works), which is a particular favourite phase of mine. The Organum inspiration tops it off. The ‘eyes-closed’ side uses similar sounds, but this time the system is closed, and we find him in a noisier territory. The wind instrument adopts a slightly more exotic approach, reminiscent of Derwish flutes, and then a bass-like noise emerges, elevating the work by a notch or two. If the first side is some kind of spacious drift, this is a wilder ride, more rafting than canoeing. This is a type of ritual music that evokes a spooky and unsettling atmosphere. This too is Organum-like in some ways, but also brings back to mind 1980s groups using wind instruments, such a 23 Skidoo and Metamorphosis, but without their rhythmic approaches. An excellent record by a remarkable musician – why make just 150? This deserves a broader audience. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/

FELICITY MANGAN – STRING FIGURES (LP by Elevator Bath)

‘String Figures’ is the first LP from Felicity Mangan, an Australian sound artist based in Berlin. She had some cassettes on such labels as Mappa, One Instrument, Warm Winters Ltd, Possible Motive, and CDRs on HellosQuare Recordings and Sound & Fury. I reviewed the latter two in Vital Weekly 861 and 866, so a long time ago (I accidentally called her Feliicity Morgan in the first). Hopefully, I am excused for no longer knowing much about them. I am now told she presents her work as multichannel installations, live performances, and site-specific settings. On this LP, she samples and combines “the resonant timbres of strings and electromagnetic textural fields with field recordings from wetlands”, which she then transforms using digital means. I admit, I’m not sure what wetlands are supposed to sound like, and I couldn’t say if any of the sources shine through here. Somehow, I think the level of processing is very high here, judging by the slightly digital character of the drone-inspired pieces on this record. Mangan uses these processes in a looped form, in a somewhat phase-shifting kind of way; various similar loops playing at the same time, going in and out of phase. In ‘Magnetic Moss’, she adds a rhythm impulse, and the piece becomes a slow drifting Pan Sonic-inspired piece. That way, she allows the six pieces to have some variations in compositional approaches, and yet they sound quite coherent in the context of an album. The music isn’t too ambient, and yet also not very noisy or loud (not at all, to be honest); it has that gentle, atmospheric approach that I remember so well from the laptop days, now already firmly in the past (at least in my perception), when lots of cold digital processing lead to many warm ambient-inspired click ‘n cuts. In that respect, Mangan stands on the shoulders of giants, continuing and expanding the genre. Very delicate and refined music! (FdW)
––– Address: https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/

ELOINE & YPSMAEL – OF DELUSIONS (LP by Chocolate Monk)

Oops. When I reached the end of side one and wanted to play the other side, I realised I had it set at 45 rpm instead of 33. That is assuming it is indeed 33! It’s always interesting with music of this kind on vinyl that we don’t immediately hear the speed difference. I remember when I was young playing records at alternative speeds, sometimes preferring the slow over the fast version; ’23 Skidoo’ by Eric Random, or that long drone piece on Crispy Ambulance’s ‘Hot On An August Night’ being two examples I always remember. The kind of music played by Ypsmael from Germany (using feedback electronics, acoustic & amplified objects, voice, effects and live sampling) and Eloine from the USA (also known as Public Eyesore boss Bryan Day on invented instruments, found objects, electronics, and field recordings) is perfect for exploration on different speeds. Their improvised electro-acoustic music serves as an ideal playground for editing, recycling, and remixing. They offer two live recordings here, from October 7, 2023, in Glasgow and October 6, 2023, in Brighton. They gave their pieces titles, which is not very common in this field. The cover doesn’t mention anything about editing and mixing, so perhaps this is an unedited, straightforward live recording. Although at the end of Vital Weekly (almost!), it’s no surprise if I say improvised is in general (!) not my thing, I do like this of object cracking, object abusing, hand cranked, object upon object being amplified collages very much, perhaps because it’s something I can relate to very well, having done a fair bit with Kapotte Muziek over the years. It will always remain a mystery why these two recordings deserve an LP release (incidentally, the 666th by Chocolate Monk, if someone cares to count or distil any meaning from that), and not the other gigs they played on this UK tour (assuming they recorded it all). These recordings are noisily and muddy, dark and obscure, scratchy and clicky, as was to be expected and is to be enjoyed as such. Seeing this kind of thing in action is always the best thing, but this coloured slab of vinyl is an excellent substitute. (FdW)
––– Address: https://chocolatemonk.co.uk/Index.html

UNTITLED ARTIST – A DOOR (12″ by Infraction Records)

This is not an artist going by the name Untitled Artist (much like Various Artists was a band name on Chain Reaction), but rather an unnamed artist. Years ago, Infraction Records received a demo, unmarked and asking others who this was, but nothing worked. Yet, the music was good enough to release, and I admit it’s a daring move. Granted, the story, short as it is, is alluring, but given the production costs for a record, to release something by someone whose name we don’t know is a risk. The choice of material made this an edition of 100 copies, bound in a letterpress cover. I have no idea who this artist might be (I do get ‘do you know who made this great music’ question a lot; usually it doesn’t involve great music). There are two pieces, one on each side, both approximately 9.5 minutes long. ‘Closed’ on side A is what I would call an orchestral piece, with samples from orchestral instruments (mainly strings through) sampled and slightly processed, not entirely beyond recognition. It begins as a bit abstract and filmic, before settling into a dramatic, melodic part; it then becomes a bit drone-like, slowly building to a dramatic crescendo at the end, followed by a brief postscript. Quite a lovely piece, ambient (as was to be expected on this label), melodic and mysterious.
On the other side, we find ‘Flew’, which is an entirely different approach. Here, we have a woman’s voice whispering words that are hard to understand, but perhaps that’s not the idea, and some heavily obscured background sound. For all I know, it’s the humming air conditioner in the bathroom where this was recorded. In some ways, it reminds me of various Japanese (female) artists, with similar vulnerable results. I admit this isn’t my cupper very much, and it’s hard to believe both pieces are by the same unknown artist, but, granted, anything is possible. A most curious release, by all accounts. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.infractionrecords.com/

STEFFAN DE TURCK – TREETOPS ANTI RECORD (anti LP by DIM Records)

In Vital Weekly 1487, I reviewed a cassette by Kamloops, the musical project of Steffan de Turck, who in the past worked as Staplerfahrer. That cassette came about after reading about the Recycled Music label, a subdivision of RRRecords, in my book about that label, ‘America’s Greatest Noise’. Another chapter in that book is about Anti Records, which are records that serve as visual art pieces, but which, most of the time, can also play on a turntable. RRRecords did a few with hand-scratched grooves, and, back in the 198s, I loved those records, delivering me many new sources. I had an old turntable dedicated to playing these records, recording sounds on cassette for further use. People still make anti-records; the US label Auris Apothecary expanded on the theme a lot, and also did a lot of crazy cassette releases.
De Turck still has two boxes of his ‘Treetops’ LP from 2007. See Vital Weekly 610 for more information on the actual music, as it’s not featured on this anti-record. The record is entirely covered with paint on one side, and the other is white, with a hand-scratched lock groove. The cover contains additional images, glued onto the original cover. These days, I only have one turntable, so I can’t use that one to play it, but on Bandcamp are three of these loops for a pay-what-you-want download. I grabbed these, as the Americans love to say, and I used them in a compositional form in the podcast; warning: this little piece doesn’t represent anything you find on this LP. An anti record is as much a visual object and a musical one, and it’s lovely to see new people inspired by a 40-year-old idea. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dimrecords.bandcamp.com/

STRIDORE – STRIDORE (CDR, self-released)

A creepy portrait of a symbiont skull/baby is on the front cover of this self-released CDR by Stridore. The weird part is not the symbiont, nor the skull, but the eye in the baby’s half. It’s such a piercing look, bringing me back to one of the most influential horror movies I watched as a child: The Omen. Damien’s eyes … As I read the letter accompanying the release, which provides only limited additional information, I wonder if the information I will be hearing will connect to the impact I felt when I watched the movie.
Behind Stridore is Johny Prunell, who also releases under his own name, but of whom I had never heard before. I think I’ll also have a quick peek there, as in maybe understand why he chose a different name for this release ( insert break ) Hmm, ok. So I’ve just listened to a few moments on the release under his own name, “Canciones para otros tiempos” (Songs for other times), and even while there are some moments of ambient-ish or noise-ish sounds, the most significant part of that release is reserved for guitar-based music. Not one particular kind, but it ranges from rock-based to slightly metal to folk and neo-folk. So if you’re as curious a person as I am, you might want to check that. Not Vital material, but.
Back to “Stridore”. I suspect this is a collection of experiments that started with writing different tunes, but which somehow ended up triggering Johny’s mind so he felt like continuing the experiment. There are a few notable touches of sound on the album mentioned above under his name, and for example, “Canción Absurda” and “En Directo En Casa” are guitar-based experiments. Albeit one acoustic, one electric. And maybe more, who knows.
Twelve tracks in 53 minutes, and tracks ranging from under two to over 13 minutes, and while writing that, most are between 2 and 4 minutes. Enough to be curious, sometimes too short to get into it, at other moments too short because you want it to last longer. A very well taken first step to move from song-based music to the domain of abstract music. (BW)
––– Address: https://stridore.bandcamp.com/

UNSUB – VEXATION (CD by Love Earth Music)

This is the third Unsub album of the collaboration between graphics designer and guitar player Kevin Fetus and the man behind the Love Earth Music label, Steve Davis, a.k.a. +DOG+. How this collab came to be and some background on the howz and whatz, I’ll skip this time, and I’ll gladly refer you to the previous episodes, being 1458 & 1473. Because there are other things I want to talk about.
First, the artwork. Very well done and entirely in sync with the previous two albums. In the first album, it was overtones of quite massive black parts, in sync with the post-rock parts of the music. The second album had a more open feeling, and the colour scheme used underlined the open character. This album is mostly grey tones and has images of monstrosities straight from a Jackson movie. The one on the inside could have been a zombified Orc army, so creepiness on top of creepiness. We’ll find out if it fits the sounds in a bit, I guess.
The album consists of five tracks in just under an hour. “Ceremony of Failure” is the opening track, a nice dark ambient soundscape that, although not entirely new, is well executed and produced. “Parade of the Infected” gets to me. Ritual rhythms and layers of noise, this is the track that fits the previously described description of an army of zombified Orcs. The third track is the shortest one and the most ‘normal’ one. “This Grave is Taken” is a rhythm with some harmony and what seem to be sounds hailing from the Middle East. I think it could be described as a drone where, instead of all layers being FX or unknown sounds, it’s a drone where one of the layers is a rhythm. The atmosphere with ghouls screaming for a place at the graveyard will appeal to any dark soul.
“Calcified Reflection” is a bit more difficult. Fourteen minutes of dark guitar-based minimalism. Is it a song? No. Is it rock? Hell no. The layers of noise in the back add to the depth of it. The guitar in the front gives you something recognisable yet ‘off’. The layers in the back become more harmonic and audible. The shifts in the music are always there, yet never sudden. And in the end, you find out the subtle noise in the back has taken over the front. Which you noticed because of that one sudden change. Nice. The release ends with “You Take Me Higher”, and yes, here we have an actual post-rock track with vocals included. And yes, I like lesser experimental styles like post- and math-rock. The track fits the album, and in total, this third album is the best thought-out full flow of the Unsub albums. But if the album had been built of tracks just in this last style, I don’t know if VW would be the correct platform to review. And that is a compliment for being able to incorporate styles into what this album shows. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

INCAPACITANTS / AWKWARD GEISHA – SPLIT (CDR by Love Earth Music)

The second split album features one of the big ones from Japan. However, I have another confession to make. I mentioned before that I have loads and loads of Contagious Orgasm in my collection, and from Incapacitants, all I have to show is a few tracks on samplers. Somehow, just about everything Fumio Kosakai and Toshiji Mikawa did was off radar to me. As I listened to the 30-minute recording “Live at Bushbash”, I couldn’t think of a reason why they escaped. Harsh noise, Japanese style, the fact that Toshiji and Fumio are/were both members of Hijokaidan. I have no clue.
Thirty minutes of relentless sonic torture. Lots of feedback, lots of contact mic noise, shitloads of distortion, not that much metal abuse, I think, but some fun analogue bleeping in between chapters. It is a recording from an actual live show on the 28th of September 2024 at the Bushbash in Tokyo. What a thrilling event that must have been if this is ‘just’ a recording from it …
Awkward Geisha is not Japanese, even if you thought so. Ade Rowe is from the UK, and where Dada ended, Ade started. Triptych is 22 minutes of collage in a completely different way than the sonic collage I described in the previous review of Contagious Orgasm. Because collage art, albeit sonic or visual, also has multiple forms. There is always the ultimately refined form and the more DIY punk approach, kinda like John Heartfield versus CRASS. I love them both, though, but they’re not the same.
So here we have Dada / NoDada Awkward Geisha with a track that, for my taste, has way too much jazz-influenced bass improvisations and wind instruments. There are a few bursts of noise, and those I really like because of the carefully executed production. Leaving just enough space in the frequencies to make the far, far-away layer a tad bit better audible, beautifully done. But the question is whether I can survive the jazzy parts. I will try it repeatedly until I have an answer for you. I have no clue. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

CONTAGIOUS ORGASM + PRAXIS – VELVET WEAPONS (cassette by 999 Cuts)

I admit, I am a fan of Contagious Orgasm. Have been one since the early 90s (Voltage Controlled Filter on Tesco era), and my Discogs counter mentions the number 75 in green. So I must have approximately 75 releases by them or with them. So this saves me buying a new release because, well, I’m listening to it now, aren’t I? The perks of being a reviewer, and I think you already know, I am not going to say anything negative here.
Hiroshi Hashimoto has always been the key figure in the project, and as far as I can tell, this 29-minute track titled “A Voice From Hades” is done by him. After a process of collecting and creating sounds for this track, he carefully layers and mixes them into what can only be described as a gorgeous, surrealistic collage of sounds. A track that keeps on giving: There is constant movement, it is beautifully layered, and when you think you’ve got it, there is another change that completely gives you a different perspective or emotion. Wow. An absolute highlight in C.O.’s discography.
The reverse side of “Velvet Weapons” is by newcomer Praxis from Israel. Newcomer, and this is their actual first official release. The two tracks on this side of the cassette are titled “Keshet” and “Erets Zara”, and their Bandcamp has a release by that name that is from March 2024. So releasing your material through Bandcamp might lead to actual releases on interesting labels. Here is the proof. Praxis is the duo of Meitar Inbar on guitar and vocals, and Asaf Hangal on mix, drums, vocals, and, I suspect, sound processing. What they do is hard to describe. It’s guitar-based ambient, but not ambient, it’s guitar-based noise, but not noise. There are no rhythmic patterns that lead into songs, yet there are rhythmic patterns. It’s a bit of everything, but it’s well executed and, in contradiction of what you might think right now, absolutely coherent. “Keshet” originates from the Hebrew word for rainbow, symbolising hope, promise, and diversity, while “Erets Zara” translates, as far as I could find out, to strange earth. And yes, there is always hope on this strange earth. (BW)
––– Address: https://www.999cuts.com/