Week 38

VITAL WEEKLY ENDS WITH NUMBER 1500 – SEPTEMBER 2025

MICHAEL BEGG – LULU & THE BLACKS (CD by Omnempathy)
PAUL SCHÜTZE – THE MOSAIC OF STARLIGHT SLIPS BACK LIKE THE LID OF AN OPENING EYE (2Cd by Auf Abwegen)
MICHAEL CASHMORE – THE NINTH CIRCLE BEYOND THE SUN (CD by Lumberton Trading Company)
BRANDON AUGER – TERMINAL RUNNER (CD by Unfathomless)
CYESS AFXZS – WAS THAT ALWAYS THERE (CD by Input Error)
GABI LOSONCY & THE RITA – FLYERS & BLUES (CD by Input Error)
MASTER GRAVE SERVICES – MAUSOLEUM (CD by Input Error)
NON TOXIQUE LOST – 026750,9 (CD by Klanggalerie)
OFFICER! – DEAD RIGHT (CD by Klanggalerie)
EAT THE FROG KOLLEKTIV – UNCIVILSATION – THE DARK MOUNTAIN MANIFESTO (CD by Jazz Haus Musik)
EDITION REDUX – BROADCAST TRANSFORMER (CD by Audiographic Records)
ILLUSION OF SAFETY – CANCER (LP by Auf Abwegen)
AL KARPENTER – GREATEST HEADS (LP by Night School Records)
GARETH DAVIS & SCANNER – SONGLINES (LP by Moving Furniture Records)
OCCUPIED HEAD – LOOKING THROUGH CLOSED EYES (LP by Kinetic Records)
NAPE NECK – THE SHALLOWEST END (LP by Red Wig/OCCII/Dotdash Sounds)
NAPE NECK – NAPE NECK (LP by Red Wig/OCCII/Dotdash Sounds)
BACILLUS/GX JUPITTER-LARSEN – THE PRODROMAL ONSET OF DEGRADATION (7″ by Patient Records)
DREAMSTATE – THE DRONE CYCLE (CDR by e-Space Editions)
LUIGI ARCHETTI – KNOWLEDGE SILENCE PASSING BY (2CDR by Karluk)
NESTED (cassette compilation by Vonconflon)

MICHAEL BEGG – LULU & THE BLACKS (CD by Omnempathy)

Today it’s the first rainy, grey day of autumn, and it’s meant to be; I am playing the perfect soundtrack (spoiler) for such a day. I don’t know what ‘Lulu & The Blacks’ stands for, if there’s some guiding principle or thematic approach here. The titles may not suggest a theme, but musically, they might be connected, and then they also connect to the entire catalogue of Michael Begg so far. He’s a composer of ambient music, works solo and with Fovea Hex, and his music is very much about minimalism, ambient and stillness. He calls this a personal album, maybe even recorded for personal reflection. Begg’s music might be minimal, and some of his pieces sound as if he holds down a few keys on a keyboard, but that’s just an illusion. His music goes way deeper than that, mixing keyboards and string instruments with some kind of processing and manipulation. Then he strips everything too much, and the remains become the composition. Sometimes there’s a bit of field recordings, hard to define, and some voices, also not easy to grasp (some of which I gather from the Twente webSDR, always an excellent source for any sonic disturbance; but in ‘A Crisis In Archetype Psychiatry’ he also uses a choir, I think), but both of which further colour the music in endless variations of grey and black. The music might sound very electronic, but at the same time, also like a small chamber orchestra, such as the ending of the aforementioned track’s second half. Occasionally, there’s a piano for further classical references. It’s this combination of straightforward ambient and string ensembles that gives Begg a strong personal musical identity. In that sense, we may see this album as a collection of ten pieces, not tied together with some overall theme. I view it as a personal photo album, with great photos, snapshots, still lives and holiday sceneries. Plus, it may serve as an excellent introduction in case you want to investigate what his music is all about. (FdW)
––– Address: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/

PAUL SCHÜTZE – THE MOSAIC OF STARLIGHT SLIPS BACK LIKE THE LID OF AN OPENING EYE (2Cd by Auf Abwegen)

If I’m not mistaken, one of the first ever promo CDs I received was ‘Deus Ex Machina’ by Paul Schütze, which I found a big thing at the time, when my CD collection was maybe not bigger than five titles. I remember enjoying that release, even when, musically speaking, it wasn’t something I was into too much at the time. When I returned to it much later on, I enjoyed his particular take on ambient music. Later, this take on ambient music leaned towards allowing more jazz-like influences, which wasn’t for me. I lost track of him in the late 1990s, and missed out on his work in “photography, film and video art, site specific installations, painting, curatorial work and perfume design”. His name popped up in Vital Weekly recently, when Auf Abwegen released ‘Topology Of A Quantum City’, which was inspired by his love for “1970s krautrock and electric jazz from the same period (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock)”. Quite a jazzy work, but his new work is far from that. This latest work is part of the “Garden Of Instruments project, which began in 1997 with Second Site. Since then, the project has expanded to include sound, writing, video, virtual photography, printmaking, light boxes, installations, and lenticulars. The new piece, which spans 124 minutes across two CDs, further explores the astronomical/architectural phenomena of the Janta Manta instruments.” I couldn’t quite figure what Janta Manta refers to. Still, I read that to Schütze, “they have always stood as monuments that collapse the illusions of time and place: non places that bend chronology and thinking in unprecedented ways; physical markers of paradigm shift and poly sensory exploration.” Two pieces, one per CD, of ambient-based music, rooted deeply in the world of sampling. Just what Schülze samples is not clear, and perhaps less important (otherwise he’d tell us). I would think he blends field recordings, electronics and instruments into one large bowl, in which none of these wants to take the lead, moving freely about, popping up and disappearing again, only to return later in a different shape and colour; sometimes morphed in such a way it is hardly to be recognised as the same thing. Two times 45 minutes (the perfect C90 release!) of non-demanding music, but at the same time very much ‘present’. This is the kind of ambient that is ignorable and pleasuring, very much what Brian Eno intended with ambient music. The free aspect made me think, perhaps romantically, that this is a blind fold mix: Schülze blindfolded behind a mixing desk, pushing up faders, taking them down, based on hearing, adjusting by ear. Or maybe a complex Max/MSP patch with a controlled kind of randomiser. There isn’t necessarily much difference between the two pieces. They could be siblings, or even non-identical twins, and as such, the music is best enjoyed uninterrupted and by moving about with your daily business. And it’s still that private brand of ambient music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/

MICHAEL CASHMORE – THE NINTH CIRCLE BEYOND THE SUN (CD by Lumberton Trading Company)

In my previous review of a Michael Cashmore release (see Vital Weekly 1465), I wrote about not knowing who he is. That album contained short pieces; this new one has ten fully formed compositions. Judging by the music, I assume he still plays piano, electronics, organ, electronics, rhythm, guitar and orchestral sweeps. It’s highly melodic music, very atmospheric and not exclusively dark. The label lists Tangerine Dream as a reference, which I found challenging, although I admit to not having heard all of their 100+ albums. The piano is the leading instrument in this music, but otherwise, the instruments sound quite digital. I mean the strings and the sparsely used percussion. Still, as before, the music sounds quite orchestral; I read that Chasmore composed four symphonies, which are still unreleased, so there is that interest. The music is relatively smooth, and the only edge comes from a bit of synthesiser parts, colouring the pieces. Perhaps a bit too soft for my taste. Also, as with the previous release, there’s a strong filmic quality to the music, even when this album is much more coherent overall. That works way better than the kaleidoscopic approach of ‘Until The End Of Vibration’, as it all stays in the same place, more or less. Sometimes the mood is jubilant, occasionally introvert, but by choosing similar sounds for them, it gives the album a homogenous character. I loved the filmic character of the music; each piece can be seen as part of the overall drama that has its ups and downs. A visiting friend told me that when I played him this album, it sounded very much like Coil and had a distinct London sound, without being able to say what that is, but I thought that was an interesting idea. I should have thought about this before! A CD for the upcoming mood season. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/products

BRANDON AUGER – TERMINAL RUNNER (CD by Unfathomless)

At first, I thought this was the return of Augur, and that I finally learned his first name. However, Augur was the musical project of Steven Brand, and Brandon Auger is something else; the spelling is also different. Brandon had one previous release, a cassette called ‘Aux Slander’ for Buried In Slag And Debris. He made his recordings are the coastline of Point Pleasant Park, Eastern Canada, between 201 and 2023. He also uses “audio enhancements”, such as “bathtub/soup can / teacup spatial reflections, earbud and transducer re-amplification”. The whole thing started by walking away from a long-standing abusive relationship, and walking we have to take literally. Auger would collect ‘sea bricks’ and had 104 at one point. He also came across rusty metal spires from old military batteries and began to record these, along with field recordings, combining all of that into two lengthy compositions. His approach in both composing pieces is quite similar, rubbing stones, stumbling upon rusty objects, and he connects it with “the cyclical nature of abuse”, which is essential for him, but not something the listener may take from this. It’s interesting to hear the music shift and take turns, move around and all this with a very tactile feeling. One can almost imagine Auger crawling over rocky beaches with a microphone and moving, shaking stones and leaves. When he gets back home, he takes everything to the computer and uses some computer technology to alter the sounds slightly, but not significantly, so the rawness remains intact. Not a release with a great new approach to field recordings and how to create music with that, but one with an interesting personal background and an excellent approach to the execution of the ideas. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com/

CYESS AFXZS – WAS THAT ALWAYS THERE (CD by Input Error)

Behold! The band whose name actually looks like an Input Error is being released on the London-based Input Error! How beautifully coincidental can the noise scene be? It might also be Welsh, but after a bit of googling, it turns out it has to be pronounced Size Affects (Cyess Afxzs – see?). Originally a duo from Rome with Stuart McCune on instruments and electronics and Maria Giuditta Santori on drums, but now officially a solo project by Stuart. Although this time it’s a duo again with Caesar Oetterli on drums. Cyess Afxzs has been active since 2021 and has releases on several labels that those into noise will recognise, including Satatuhatta, Rural Isolation Project, White Centipede Noise, Tribe Tapes, and now Input Error. And yet I had never heard of him /them.
“Was That Always There?” is not the longest CD I’ve ever heard, though also not the shortest. However, with 27 minutes, it’s the shortest of the batch I have to review. One track, on the backside of the digipack, described as ‘A continuous piece in three parts’, is King Hoopla, Alsace and King Jack. Style? Noise with drums and a strong improvisational feeling. Not jazz, because then I would have forwarded it to someone else to review. Alboth!, which I believe was also from Switzerland, was way more jazzy in its sound. However, the patterns from Caesar on drums or the use of instruments by Stuart suggest a deeper connection to ‘real’ music than, for example, the noise & drums combination by Peace & Love, which I reviewed in the past. This release is adorable in its own weird, noisy compositional complexity, yet it is noise. Just not as harsh as harsh noise.
My favourite parts of this release are the moments which I think belong to the “Alsace” part. They’re a bit more sound-oriented, and enough time and space are reserved for more complex sounds to develop on their own. Nothing too extreme, but it’s those moments of rest where I think the depth of the composition comes into full bloom. (BW)
––– Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/

GABI LOSONCY/THE RITA – FLYERS & BLUES (CD by Input Error)

It took three years of writing for Vital Weekly to receive an album, of which I have absolutely no clue what to write, or where even to start. My goal for this review is to explore why, because that exploration/research might tell you if this album is something for your collection.
This album has two tracks by two artists. So it’s not a collaboration or something, but it’s a split. The first track is by Gabi Losoncy, and I couldn’t find anything about her. She’s part of the project Good Area, which released its latest one on the IDEAL label, but that was already 8 years ago. Hiatus? Solo, she had 24 releases according to Discogs, and next to two splits with The Rita, there was also a release on Lake Shark Harsh Noise, which is connected to The Rita. The track “Condo Panther” consists of recordings done with NHL regulation hockey sticks and pucks indoors (this also goes for the next track, by the way). And that’s about it. I would describe it as field recordings, somehow; not much is done with the tapes, it seems. And it lasts for almost 15 minutes.
The second track is by Sam McKinlay a.k.a The Rita from Vancouver, Canada. Not gonna write too much about him because if you made it this far, you already know (of) him. Everything I know by his hand is HNW or just harsh noise, so I was surprised when I heard this track. “Sherwood Stick, Blues Puck” is 20 minutes of someone hitting a puck with a stick, and it’s recorded and amplified. At some point, I felt the urge to put the audio file into my software and see if it was all different recordings and hits or if there were some repeats. But I didn’t do it. When you don’t think about it, it’s just a field recording with a bit more amplification in comparison to Gabi’s track.
Two thoughts kept going through my head before I started on the following review. First: In what kind of space was this recorded, because it’s ONLY the puck and the stick you hear. And secondly, but I had a discussion with somebody last weekend about it, I couldn’t help thinking what an artist like Aube could have done with the source material, ‘NHL regulation hockey sticks and pucks’. Now THAT would have been interesting. (BW)
––– Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/

MASTER GRAVE SERVICES – MAUSOLEUM (CD by Input Error)

Third CD by the Input Error label, which visual artist Ewan Aparicio runs out of London, UK. His cut-up/collage art is often featured in releases of the noisier kind, and if I’m honest, the darkness in his visuals and the darkness that can be found, for example, in this release, can very well be the glue that makes it all stick. To create collage art that works, you need space between the parts, but also coherence between the objects. To make noise work, you need to be able to listen and let it infiltrate your brain, but also – in my honest opinion – have some space to let it settle. And that is what I hear back in ‘Mausoleum’.
Master Grave Services is a new project by the duo J.D. Evans (Confounder) and K. Geiger (Dead Door Unit, Inlet Terror), and after releasing a couple of tapes, this is their first CD. A CD available typically in limited quantities, but also in a super limited with 7″ lathe with a track of each artist individually. Seven tracks in total with a lovely mixture of harsh cut-up noises, a little bit of piercing feedback, weird sounds, heavily treated panoramic sounds (listening on headphones in the studio is high on my list), metal and object manipulation, a bit of screaming, some less screaming and more words, empty spaces between the sounds which are there to breath and – dare I say it – sometimes reflections of a melody. It’s dynamic as hell, which figures, as we are in a mausoleum.
With the tracks “Marked In A Hole” and “The New Funerals”, this album ends with a bang as if the lid of the coffin was jerked close from the inside out. But another track will be added to the podcast this week. The tracks “Repeated Haunting” and “Will There Be Smoke?” are, sound-wise wise my favourites because they’re the ones with some space to breathe. Just very nice tracks and even a bit of a Caretaker / Haunted Ballroom feeling in the “Repeated Haunting” one, so I’ll ask for that one to be included. Curious what you think of it. (BW)
––– Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/

NON TOXIQUE LOST – 026750,9 (CD by Klanggalerie)

The name Non Toxique Lost is one I heard in the early 1980s, and I occasionally came across the music on compilation cassettes, but I never truly got to listen to it. Later, in Vital Weekly days, I reviewed some of their releases, and even in the most recent one, Vital Weekly 1302, I mentioned that they are still largely unknown to me. As I said before, the music from Non Toxique Lost isn’t easily defined. There are lots of elements in this music, going from old school industrial music, the rhythmic variety, there is some typical German Neubuaten-like noise and singing, with a similar punky aggression, some improvised rattling on guitars and percussion, and even something that sounds like pop music in my ears (but, hey, feel free to use that term widely). It somehow sounds like Neue Welle music from all those years ago; the side of the scene releasing music on labels as Zick Zack (whose owner passed away some weeks ago), and not the die-hard cassette scene, even when NTL released many of the earliest releases on that format. Non Toxique Lost’s music is heavy on the vocals of founding member Sea Wanton, which isn’t the musical one, so his approach is more speaking and spelling, like ghostly mumbling, evoking the dark spirits of the past, like a radio play about the descent into madness and a voodoo ritual. The music follows the voice, like a guiding light, freely played on synthesisers, percussive (mostly non-traditional sticks and metal, I think), guitars and lots of things covered by clouds of mystery. A dark and intense release, which perhaps makes it all less poppy – compelling it surely is. (FdW)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.com/

OFFICER! – DEAD RIGHT (CD by Klanggalerie)

Two things I learned today: I already knew Mick Hobbs was behind the project called Officer!, but I wasn’t aware that he had passed away earlier this year. And for no particular reason, I assumed Officer! was a one-off project releasing one cassette in the 1980s. Perhaps because I have sold various copies over the years as second-hand items, it turns out he released more cassettes and records after that. Hobbs was also a member of The Work, The Lo Yo Yo, Half Japanese, and Strobe Talbot, and his work is part of what was called, back then, Rock In Opposition. And opposition remained a focus, as he said about this new record, “I have recorded a double album full of songs against the conservative Tories. It is national, but also international”. Lyric-wise wise it connects with the two albums by Nape Neck, reviewed elsewhere, and in some odd way, the music too. I wouldn’t say Officer! plays art punk, but in some twisted way, combines improvisation with rock, jazz, free music, but nothing too complicated, and the music is here to serve the message. What I found ‘punk’ about this album was the briefness of the songs, with various being over one minute, many two to three and with the longest (six minutes) being a collage of multiple pieces. Hobbs plays all instruments and sings, along with Felix Fiedorowicz playing keyboards, plus, per track, a bunch of guest players, mainly for vocals. The music isn’t all electronics, as there’s percussion, rhythm machines, guitar and bass, even when perhaps only sampled. Because these pieces are brief, there is some great speed in this album. When it clocks in at 73 minutes and 30 songs, this is, perhaps, a long album, which left me a bit breathless. Although this is not my usual digest, I quite enjoyed the music, especially the use of rhythm (hip hop and breakbeat at times), the found sounds, and the collage approach, which also includes field recordings. The lyrics are all in the left field, and include a cover of ‘The Internationale’, and a curious version of ‘Oh Tannebaum’ with new lyrics, now called ‘The Red Flag’. It’s a wild and long ride, but a fascinating one at that as well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.com/

EAT THE FROG KOLLEKTIV – UNCIVILSATION – THE DARK MOUNTAIN MANIFESTO (CD by Jazz Haus Musik)

Eat the Frog is a collective of two core musicians: Stefan Vidal Schneider and Tobias Link. Founded in 2020, they worked on projects together with dance collective MNEME kollektiv. One is Uncivilization and is captured on film. You can find a link to the movie on the website of Eat the Frog. Click on the trombone on the homepage. Tobias Link plays the trombone. He studied jazz trombone and piano in Cologne, Luzern and Essen. Stefan Vidal Schneider studied jazz drums at ArtEZ, Arnhem and Musikhögskolan, Malmö, Sweden. This release captures a studio session without the dancers. Apart from Stefan and Tobias, we hear Tobias Brügge on tenor saxophone.
Last but not least, we have Hayden Chisholm on alto saxophone. Hailing from New Zealand, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Germany. He reads the manifesto. In the film, he also plays the saxophone at some point, but I don’t know if he does that on this release. This is a text-heavy release with long tracks, interspersed with improvised music that is sometimes more in the background and sometimes drowns out Hayden’s voice. If you are interested in the text, you can find it on the website of the Dark Mountain Project. You can find it in the About section of the website.
We’ve got drones, ostinatos, fluttering notes, nice modal lines in a minor scale, almost like a eulogy or death march. The last track even ends in a major chord—a happy ending. There’s much to enjoy, and the manifesto demands close reading. It’s not a call to arms, but an invitation to writers and artists to create art and stories. I treated Hayden’s voice as an instrument, because paying attention to the words he says is pretty hard. But very easy if you can read along with him. Anyway, this is a brave release featuring very nice music, made with the permission of the founders and creators of the Dark Mountain Project: Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth. It should be on their website, as other related projects based on the manifesto are prominently placed on their website. (MDS)
––– Address: https://eatthefrog.de/

EDITION REDUX – BROADCAST TRANSFORMER (CD by Audiographic Records)

Broadcast Redux is the second release by Vandermark’s current big ensemble, with a direct lineage from his previous bigger group: Marker. We still have the groove-infected music interspersed with chamber music-like sections. Sections is not the right word, it’s a complete new song added. Vandermark has studied at the film faculty at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, he decided to devote himself to music. But all that knowledge and concepts permeated his musical work. The songbook for Edition Redux is set up in such a way that the musicians can change whole sections, keeping the music alive (and kicking) instead of following a standard form. In his latest blogs, he writes about cut scenes in films, just as a piece of music can transition from song to song in a record, the flow of the music, if you will. On this release, there are several pieces of music on one track. And there’s no clear ending where one piece is ending and the other is beginning. They overlap, and the way they overlap is a subject of investigation (both in music and film). As is his trademark, he dedicates each song to a different artist in every field of the arts. There are dedications to Lester Bowie (music), Peter Greenaway (film) and Diane Arbus or Joel Sternfeld (photography) and many more. The quartet’s first release was reviewed in Vital Weekly number 1423. We have Erez Dessel (piano and Nord synthesiser), Lily Finnegan (drums), Beth McDonald (tuba and electronics), and Ken Vandermark (reeds (b-flat clarinet and tenor saxophone)). The F-tuba is the smallest of the bass tubas and was the only bass instrument in early New Orleans jazz orchestras until the early 1920s of the last century. So we have a wind instrument as a bass, and she solos as a wild person. Because of the depth of the sound, we get an ethereal sound, sometimes growling and sometimes as if the devil possesses her. She even uses electronics to alter her sound. Each member receives their spot to shine. The solos are inspired, and they all listen intently to what is happening. As they should because the material is not fluffy middle-of-the-road with no substance. Sudden shifts in moods, rhythm, rewinds to earlier sections, fast-forwards. Jump cuts in between. To me, this is exhilarating stuff. Repeated listening is necessary to comprehend everything that is happening fully. It’s a beautiful amalgam of every relevant influence that interests Vandermark. Catch them if they are in the neighbourhood! Or look for performances on YouTube. It’s well worth your while. (MDS)
––– Address: https://kenvandermark.bandcamp.com/music

ILLUSION OF SAFETY – CANCER (LP by Auf Abwegen)

As this is a reissue of a 1991 CD release, I thought it would be nice to quote my previous review of this album, from Vital, without Weekly, from the time when Vital was a paper fanzine. Much to my surprise, I didn’t review the album, but Peter Duimelinks did. He wrote that “it sounds very much as a whole, and the ‘story’ is enjoyable from beginning to the end. Actually, I wouldn’t want to miss any part of it. I mean, you don’t read 5 out of 10 chapters from a novel, do you?” I should have mailed this reissue to him, as it’s a trimmed version of the CD, which originally lasted 51 minutes, and the LP clocks in at 39 minutes. I do remember what I thought of the CD when it was first released. I loved Illusion Of Safety’s ‘Historical’ (which, in hindsight, didn’t stand the test of time), but ‘Cancer’ was an essential step towards the kind of music I liked, the combination of industrial and ambient, ditching the sampling of rock guitars and rhythms. A much abstracter sound, highly varied, going from the introspective to the extroverted musical side.
Along with the recently reissued ‘RVE’, ‘Cancer’ was the start of the classic Illusion Of Safety phase. The group at this time consisted of founding father Dan Burke, along with Jim O’Rourke, Thymm Jones, Mark Klein, and Mitch Enderle, each bringing something unique to the table. Jim plays piano and tabletop guitar, Mitch and Chris scrap metal, Mark and Thymme the synths (and Thymme is also the one who plays the beautiful minimal piano piece that ends the record). Burke handles the sampler and edits the music into what we hear. I could have used the option of first playing the CD to remind me of the total work, followed by the trimmed version on vinyl, but I didn’t. I recognised some of the pieces better than others, and agreed with Peter and the group’s idea that this record is music without a film, a story indeed, and that it all worked very well. Andrew Waethers’ remaster is beautiful and shiny, and much like ‘RVE’, the music benefits a lot from the current state of mastering (and maybe something that could be applied to the group’s entire catalogue?), with more depth, more detail and more shine. The music is dark and atmospheric, featuring orchestral tones and monks chanting, perhaps evoking the old world of industrial music.
Compared with the CD, I hear what’s missing, but it’s not something I think is essential, such as the piercing opening tones. It’s not easy comparing both, as the CD has 28 starting points. I never understood this to be intentional or maybe a DAT tape error, writing IDs whenever things are too quiet. That makes a one-on-one comparison a bit complicated. The quieter moments are tricky on vinyl, which is a pity, but otherwise, this is a first-class reissue. (FdW)
––– Address: https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/

AL KARPENTER – GREATEST HEADS (LP by Night School Records)

For a moment, I thought Al Karpenter was some old Fluxus artist (and maybe he was, as I didn’t bother to look it up). Still, it’s a four-piece group from the Basque Country. It consists of Álvaro Matilla (voice, guitar, keyboards & electronics, zither), Marta Sainz (voice, bass & guitar), Enrique Zaccagnini (voice, percussion, Korg MS-20 & Daxophone), and Mattin (voice, double bass, computer, guitar, drums, harmonium & layout design). There are a very guest musicians, such as “ “ [sic] Goldie (vocals), Lisa Rosendahl (vocals), and Mikel Xedh (electronics and keyboards); the latter passed away earlier this year, so the record is dedicated to him. As with many things which involve the elusive Mattin, there is no doubt some conceptual to the music that I miss, but for him, doing this is a rather musical endeavour. So you have an indication: “Al Karpenter expands on their Post-Genre Punk approach, reaching a new level of maturity. In fact, we can say that “Greatest Heads” is Al Karpenter’s “Remain in Light” from Talking Heads in the sense that it is also their fourth record, heavily based on production and influenced by Afrobeat in distorted ways.” I only heard a 7″ (Vital Weekly 1103), which I enjoyed for its No New York references, so I was on the right track. But 7″s are brief moments, and I never heard their other work. I do know the Talking Heads record, well, a bit, and not as well as I should (time to dig into the musical history once I am done with reviewing), but the work of Al Karpenter seems to be a tad more radical than the late 70s Heads and Eno working together. There’s a much freer approach to music, tapping into free improvisation, free jazz, but also noise and electronics, with a strong political undercurrent – “shouting against the current silencing in Germany of people who are pro-Palestine”, as the group says. Mattin is based in Berlin, in case you’re wondering. The lyrics elude me somewhat, and might as well be sound poetry, such as ‘Stop The Genocide’; at least the title is self-explanatory in its message. I thought this was quite a fascinating record, nicely varied madness scattered all over the musical spectrum, from all-out weirdness and some very tight playing. This is a band I wouldn’t mind seeing in concert. (FdW)
––– Address: https://hegoadiskak.bandcamp.com/

GARETH DAVIS & SCANNER – SONGLINES (LP by Moving Furniture Records)

From the family of wind instruments, I like the clarinet the best. I couldn’t say why this is; I guess it boils down to personal taste. Gareth Davis is a bass clarinettist from the UK, living in the Netherlands, who collaborates with musicians from diverse backgrounds, ranging from free improvisation to noise and electronics, as this album demonstrates, having recorded with Robin Rimbaud, also known as Scanner, for over 30 years. Initially using sounds scanned from the (police radio) waves, he is long beyond the found sound approach and using a brand of modular electronics. There’s no information available about how the two musicians created this album, being together in the studio or exchanging sound files via the Internet. I gather it’s the latter, but I have no evidence to back this statement up. This lack of knowledge is quite annoying, as the album is excellent and I’d love to know more. The bass clarinet is an instrument I hardly recognised in the music. Maybe it is so deep that it hovers in the lower end of the music, looped around, and is fed to the electronic circuit boards of Scanner, adding a brand of electronics in the higher range. In ‘Structure Of Statements’, on the first side, this leads up to a very cosmic tonal quality halfway through the piece, and the bass clarinet adds delicate chopped tones to the arpeggio electronics, with drones below to keep the piece afloat.
On the other side, we find ‘Figurative Language’, in which some found sounds are used (not entirely forgotten), along with some kind of field recordings, and slow-motion waves, pumping in and out, slowly building until the two decide to take down the affair and start a drone-like quietness, seemingly into the descent, with some rattling percussive sounds, along a neat bouncing synthesiser sound. Quiet but full of tension, which is something that can be said of the entire record; underneath all the delicacy, there’s a lot of hidden tension, dark and atmospheric, like danger that could erupt at any point, but it never does. (FdW)
––– Address: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/

OCCUPIED HEAD – LOOKING THROUGH CLOSED EYES (LP by Kinetic Records)

Dieter Mauson is the man behind the name Occupied Head. To older readers, maybe best known as one half of Nostalgie Eternelle with Stefan Heinze or Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide, his duo with Siegmar Fricke. While these are in the past, he’s still active with various collaborations, of which 7697 Miles is the one I reviewed most of; it’s a long-distance project with Cristobal Rawlins from Chile. Occupied Head is a solo project he started in 2011 and a name he also uses when collaborating with others, such as Melophobia. I don’t know when he decides to use a new project name or the divider ‘&’. On his latest LP, he offers seven pieces of electronic music. True story: right before I started this LP, I heard some Cabaret Voltaire from the early 1990s, then I started ‘Looking Through Closed Eyes’, sat down, and suddenly thought: hey, Cabaret Voltaire is still on. That’s not to say Occupied Head’s new LP is a strict copy of the early 1990s Cabs sound, but it owes to that sound world. A bit bleepy on some of the electronics, lots of beats, but still with the idea of dancing to it. And sometimes that seems a bit difficult, such as in ‘Tingly All Over’, or with the abrupt fading of ‘New Colonialism’ and ‘Loslassen’, which makes it sound like an excerpt of a bigger thing (although ‘Loslassen’ means let go, so maybe that works). That aside, the pieces are well-made, with sonic depth, with variation, some of it aimed at the dancefloor and some not so much, but that’s what makes this a record that is very well suited for home listening—file under toe-tapping and head-nodding. (FdW)
––– Address: https://kinetikrecords.bandcamp.com/

NAPE NECK – THE SHALLOWEST END (LP by Red Wig/OCCII/Dotdash Sounds)
NAPE NECK – NAPE NECK (LP by Red Wig/OCCII/Dotdash Sounds)

You might be surprised to learn this, but I am not the biggest fan of the fair city of Amsterdam; too crowded, too expensive and unfair. However, it houses one of my favourite venues, OCCII, and I am not saying this because I will present some music there fairly soon. I enjoy their broad musical taste, from punk to post-punk to experimental and noise music. Plus, they put their money where their mouth is, and release music on vinyl and cassettes (maybe even CDs, but not sure of that), and their latest two releases are two LPs by a Leeds-based “art punk” trio Nape Neck (Bobby, vocals; Claire, bass and vocals; Kathy, drums and vocals). ‘The Shallowest End’ is the older of the two LPs, and contains two cassette EPs, with music from 2020 and 2022, and was released earlier this year on LP, whereas the self-titled LP was recorded in December last year. It’s my introduction to this band, and it’s a most pleasant one. It’s the kind of music that I don’t review a lot, but that’s not to say I enjoy this. Throughout the years, I wrote about such bands, only when they appeared in my mailbox, and I couldn’t say many sensible things about how art punk or post punk developed. Seeing the name Arnold de Boer mentioned on both records as the mastering engineer, it’s logical to drop the name of The Ex, one of the groups that have consistently explored art punk music. Early on in their career, they allowed for improvisation, weird instruments, and odd time signatures to infiltrate their highly political songs. I was a fan early on, and I still am, and it’s easy to see their influence in the music of Nape Neck. More strange rhythms, bursting guitars and a swirling bass, and with every member contributing vocals, there is a lot to enjoy here. Lyrics are enclosed for both records, but upon inspection, I couldn’t say what these are about (you know, poetry and me, never agree). It sounded a bit like Baby Fire and Candelilla, two bands I reviewed, and the latter I saw live twice in one weekend or Rotterdam’s Sweat Tongue, and some of that raw energy I also find in these two records, even when all of these bands sound pretty different, but in terms of DIY kicking punk in a different direction, this the real deal.
The question might be, what’s the difference between these two records? I’d say the differences are in the margin of the music. While both records are pretty direct-in-your-face albums, the first one might be a bit rougher and the second a bit more complex, especially in the rhythm department and maybe also a bit in terms of production, which is to be taken very lightly, as this isn’t the kind of music that calls for much production. This is a band I would watch when they are in town. (FdW)
––– Address: https://occii.bandcamp.com/

BACILLUS/GX JUPITTER-LARSEN – THE PRODROMAL ONSET OF DEGRADATION (7″ by Patient Records)

Neat! Bacilius, the musical project of Peter Keller, calls itself ‘the duke of disease’; If that doesn’t catch on! He asked GX Jupitter-Larsen (sometimes better known as The Haters; I don’t know when he switches to using his real name for his music) the following question: “How would a turntable sound without a record, and how would a record sound without a turntable?” and then proceeded by doing the first assignment and then having GX do the second. They are “dedicated artists of entropic decayed sound in service of their own unique and specific conceptual ends”, and on a 7″, the proper format for such an excursion; two songs of three minutes each. Mission accomplished, you might ask? It’s noise music and not easy to tell. It could very well be that Bacillus plays a record without a turntable, or GX plays a turntable without a record, but had I not known this, I couldn’t say they do. Bacillus’ side seems to be a collage of various recordings pasted together, which rocks neatly back and forth, with ultra-short breaks here and there. GX’s ‘Fuchait 2021’ is a loop-like piece of multi-layered sanding of a piece of vinyl, into a strict minimalist noise festival, but with so many layers, a lot is going on, and it turns out your your strict noise wall. Lovely stuff, and it comes in a handmade cover. (FdW)
––– Address: https://patientrecords.bandcamp.com/

DREAMSTATE – THE DRONE CYCLE (CDR by e-Space Editions)

I reviewed four releases by Canada’s dreamSTATE (as is their way of spelling), with the first already in Vital Weekly 867. The last time, in Vital Weekly 1137, I mentioned their iPhone app ”Ephemeral City’, and I immediately used it for some private experimentation. Today’s release goes back 25 years, when they did a monthly improvised concert with each time a different guest, “based on a rotating root note of the chromatic scale”, starting with a C in January and ending with a B in December. Now, 25 years later, they decided to release a documentation of the concerts; I am not sure why they waited so long, as the music is excellent. I admit I don’t know any of their guests (Wally Jericho – trumpet, Kurt Swinghammer – guitar, Michael Rockwood – guitar, Mark Thibideau – synth, Arnold Sprogis – guitar, Eric Hopper (Sylken) – guitar, Cheryl Ockrant – cello, Steven Sauvé – synths, Andrew Aldridge – guitar, Richard Underhill – sax and sampler, Jakob Thiesen – electronics, Stuart Clark – electronics, Matt Thibideau – synth and Joe G – synths). I also admit I wasn’t looking at my CD player each time I listened to this CD, so not aware of any chromatic changes (less worrying) and who was playing what, and that’s, perhaps, more of a problem, as it may be that the music comes off as one gentle flow. Alright, there’s quite a bit of string instruments and synthesisers, so maybe a specific samey approach is there; lots of sustaining sounds, much Frippertronic-style playing. It is within the nature of the music that minds drift away, thoughts are moved, and ears are carried elsewhere. That’s what great ambient music is supposed to be doing for me, and I couldn’t say where I am on the album, 5th or 4th piece, and who’s playing what. There is a half-and-half continuous feeling to the album, but upon closer inspection, each track ends on a short fade, and a new fade continues the trip. I was working on other stuff in the meantime, and I had this CDR on repeat for almost the entire afternoon, and I was in complete agreement with spacious drifts as a soundtrack for some solid, concentrated work. That’s how I like my music best: engaging, not demanding and expansive. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.dreamstate.to/

LUIGI ARCHETTI – KNOWLEDGE SILENCE PASSING BY (2CDR by Karluk)

Swiss-based guitarist returns with a double album of him and his trusted 1936 Gibson LV, which is an acoustic guitar. He calls his new work somewhat pretentiously “A sound essay between knowledge and silence”. He describes the music as follows: “Postmodern forms dissolve traditional certainties and leave room for reflections that are both intellectually challenging and sensually moving. The miniatures enter into a dialogue between materiality and immateriality, between tangible guitar sound and fleeting emptiness. They are sound studies that play with time, stretching it, interrupting it and reassembling it – a meditative process that turns listening into a journey into the moment.” It’s clearer when he says there’s “no singular melody, no fixed theme, but a delicate web of fragments and pauses, a dance between sound and silence”. Don’t understand this silence in the same way Taku Sugimoto works with silence: long stretches interrupted by a single note. Archetti’s silences are shorter and his actual music longer (I am not going into the debate whether silence is also music; we did that in the past, too much). Archetti has various techniques in his approach to the guitar. He strums, plucks, and (e-) bows his guitar, and he plays short pieces – 43 to be precise. Electricity isn’t shunned, as I believe he uses some amplification at times. Each of these is a brief piece, a moment of action, a sketch, a pencil drawing and maybe at times a fully formed piece/song/composition; maybe. However, I think it’s more intended as fleeting moments and movements. To paint a scene and then move on. Sometimes these pensive guitar strokes reminded me of Gastr Del Sol, of course, when he uses only a guitar. It’s excellent music, but I thought almost two hours is a bit too much. I realise that as a reviewer, I am a different kind of listener than a regular one, looking for various types of things. As a regular listener, the length might be no problem, because there’s enough variation in here to keep things interesting. (FdW)
––– Address: https://luigiarchetti.bandcamp.com/music

NESTED (cassette compilation by Vonconflon)

When I was playing ‘Nested’, a compilation cassette by a new label, Vonconflon, run by the artist going by the name RNL, I realised I don’t see many cassettes these days. Not in the amount I used to see them in the 1980s. Back then, I regarded compilation cassettes as the lifeline to explore new names. If a name appeared on a few compilations and all pieces sounded excellent, then it was time to get a cassette from just this artist. Maybe it’s because music is easier to find online these days, with social media communities recommending music, that a compilation is superfluous. So what prompted RNL to invite a bunch of musicians to send in a previously unreleased piece of music? Maybe it’s this: “exploring traces of the natural, the human, and the handmade within the synthetic. They are the insects and mice who have burrowed inside an ancient TV cabinet, tasting its circuits and wires. Within, they discover a life-sustaining warmth, as well as joy, loneliness, fear, determination, and tranquility.” Now I am at the end of what is half a lifetime doing Vital Weekly, I find it quite funny to have a compilation with names I had heard of before, and in the case of Rimarimba’s Robert Cox, even a name going back to the mid-1980s 1980s, and some new ones. The other known ones are Tomutonttu (Jan Anderzén; not as often featured in Vital Weekly, but someone I actually met – possibly the only one here), Günter Schlienz (one of those people I would miss any new works he releases), and Vonconflon label boss RNL, with his cassette constructions. The new names, a majority in fact, are Alexander Ross (the only one with three pieces), Manoir Mole, Ksenija Sundejeva, and Kevin Micka & Noell Dorsey, whereas Micka also has a solo track. I had no specific expectations, other than, perhaps wrongly, thinking these musicians might be on similar lines as RNL, a rough musique concrète-approach. That’s not the case, as the music is quite diverse. Ross works with field recordings and acoustic sounds, whereas Rimarimba works with loops of ambient guitar sounds in the best Fripp tradition, which, more abstractly, perhaps, can also be said of Micka and Dorsey. Schlienz works with his modular systems on a piece of introspective electronics. Tomutonttu’s collage of ‘real’ instruments is a bit of free jazz on toy instruments and electronics, maybe a bit like Manoir Molle, whose piece is a bit straightforward minimalism, on a single instrument, a guitar, most likely. The most conventional sounds come from Ksenija Sundejeva, with a mildly distorted guitar and some chanted vocals; it’s also the least attractive piece for me, but, hey, that’s competition for you. You win some, you lose some, it’s all the same to me, to quote a deceased bass player. (FdW)
––– Address: https://vonconflon.bandcamp.com/