ILLUSION OF SAFETY – IN OPPOSITION TO OUR ACCELERATION (CD by Die Stadt)
SECRET AGENT GEL – P AS IN PETER, F AS IN FRANK (CD by Opiate Records)
SETH NIHIL – UVA (Mini-CD by 20city)
KUWAYAMA-KIJIMA – 00/10/17D 00/10/17E (7″ by 20city)
SUKORA – TWO HORSES E.P (7″by Sukora)
TIM FOLJAHN – Obvious Urban Landscape (CD on OLD GOLD)
AUTOBODY – self-titled single (SINGLE on OLD GOLD)
FOREVER – Love Changes (MINI CD on OLD GOLD)
BRUME – ZONA VENTILLE (CD by Elsie & Jack)
MONERA – FREE OXYGEN KILLS MONERA (3″ CDR by Elsie & Jack)
LIAM GILLICK/EKKEHARD EHLERS & JOSEPH SUCHY (12″ by En/Of)
OLAFUR ELIASSON / HEIMIR BJORGULFSSON (12″ by En/Of)
TOBIAS REHBERGER / STEPHAN MATHIEU (12″ by En/Of)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ & JOE COLLEY – KNOWING WHEN TO NOT KNOW (3″CD by Antifrost)
KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE – 0: ROSTOCK MS STUBNITZ 10.02.2001 (CD by Die Stadt)
BRANDON LABELLE – TECHNE (CD by A Bruit Secret)
EX.ORDER – WAR WITHIN BREATH (Cd by Malignant Records)
CYBERNETIC:FUCKHEADZ> – CYBERNETIC:FUCKHEADZ> (Cd by Pflichtkauf)
UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L’HERBE – POLYHEDRIC TETRAPAK (CD by Ooze Bap)
NONPLACE SOUVENIRS (CD compilation by Ooze Bap);/
DRONA PARVA – TRAVELS IN CONSTANTS VOLUME FOUR (CD by Temporary Residence)
ILLUSION OF SAFETY – IN OPPOSITION TO OUR ACCELERATION (CD by Die Stadt)
Me thinks that Illusion Of Safety is one of the most underrated bands. Well,
maybe I should say: me thinks that Dan Burke is one of the most underrated
musicians, and that his band Illusion Of Safety should be getting more
attention. IOS have released 14 CD’s since 1990 and have grown from a hardcore
industrial/information/sound overload project to it’s current form, in which
close microphone, contact microphones, sound processing and field recordings
play an important role. This new CD, which comes in one of those folders which
I haven’t seen used by anyone since The Hafler Trio on Touch (but I am afraid
with a design that doesn’t match Touch standard – sorry), is the resultant of
Dan’s touring this year in Europe. From the nine tracks, eight are live
recordings and four live recordings and one studio composition are from this
year. The other four live pieces are from 1996 and 1997 and those are also the
pieces that are not Dan Burke solo. If you seen Dan’s concert of this year, you
saw a man behind a laptop, mixing board and contact microphones. Bringing up a
swirling mass of drones, but at the same time, small cracks and close amplified
objects (coins, pens), Dan knows how to create an impressive piece of music.
Unlike many of his other works, this CD comes with no sudden interruptions or
ending in very loud passages. There is an ambient character to this music that
was previously heard on ‘Of & The’ and the first ‘Mort Aux Vaches’ CD: an
uninterrupted stream of sound that creates a beautiful ambience. However the
nine tracks are distinctely different from each other, of course lengthy
pieces, but which go surprisingely in one flow. If you still don’t have a IOS
CD, then this is one to get… (FdW)
Address: www.diestadtmusik.de
SECRET AGENT GEL – P AS IN PETER, F AS IN FRANK (CD by Opiate Records)
This is actually the first time that I’ve held a record in my hands that has
been mastered in Nashville. But I am happy to say that there is no such thing
as country & western on the disc. On the contrary: it starts with what sounds
vaguely like a ping pong ball and then all of a sudden turns to electronic
popmusic and from there to crazy shards of beats and voices with a drum ‘n bass
feel and then there is a low bass rumble with bursts of electronics and so it
goes on, from one thing to the other. All the ‘tracks’are pretty short and
there is a lot of strange sounds inbetween more ‘poppy’ and ambient tracks. I
couldn’t help thinking of german electronic music from the early eighties: the
same kind of sometimes funny weirdness, although not as poppy as a whole. But
the sound is defenitely updated and very much of this time. This is something I
really like when I’m in the mood for it, and I was. (MR)
Address: www.opiatenyc.com
SETH NIHIL – UVA (Mini-CD by 20city)
On this mini-CD Seth Nihil present one track of slightly more than twenty
minutes, starting with the sound of (rolling?) stones, that builds up with
differently pitched layers. Voice cuts and high tones take over and on close
listening there is a tiny melody in there somewhere. Subtle things happen in
the background and after a while only the shimmering sounds of small glass
bells (or maybe the stones again?) are left, slowly disappearing into the
background. This movement takes quite some time, but in the meanwhile other
sounds are faded in. I will simply stop guessing what the materials are and
just tell that it sounds similar to the other sounds, but is different. It is
very difficult to tell whether sounds were manipulated electronically or if
they were actually recorded like this. Which makes for very good listening,
also because of the gentleness of the piece. (MR)
Address: www.20city.com
KUWAYAMA-KIJIMA – 00/10/17D 00/10/17E (7″ by 20city)
This was a difficult one: I thought I could tell at what speed I should play
this, because I was sure I would hear it from the instruments: cello and
violin. Not so, another glitch in my ego. So I decided to play it at 45 rpm,
because it sounded best to me. These two japanese impro musicians have been
working together for quite while now, and one can hear this. It is almost
impossible to tell where one starts and the other stops and vice versa. Another
interesting aspect of their collaboration is the fact that they play on the
starngest locations. In this case it’s the construction site of an expressway,
creating a permanent hum in the background, with people occasionally walking
around. The combination of ‘real’ instruments with this background noise is
fascinating, because the duo sometimes works with this noise and sometimes
against it, creating an exciting tension throughout the record. Well done
again. (MR)
Address: www.20city.com
SUKORA – TWO HORSES E.P (7″by Sukora)
In Sukora’s case i decided to play the record on 33 rpm. Again because that’s
the way I liked it best. Side A is called Two Horses and seems to be a
recording of two horses, moving around a little in a stable. The sound is
pretty opaque, with hums in the background and some movements being made. Side
B is called Chair and seems to be the recording of a chair, being sat on, again
with quite some background noise. But there is movement here as well. So, why
these recordings one might ask? I think this work is not so much about music,
but about presence. On the other side of the recording device, there is someone
or something present. We percieve this presence not when it is actually there,
but through the recording, and therefore at a later moment in time. But the
sense of presence remains, because of the recording. This is really interesting
stuff to think about. Think about it. (MR)
Address: t-kita@alpha-net.ne.jp
TIM FOLJAHN – Obvious Urban Landscape (CD on OLD GOLD)
AUTOBODY – self-titled single (SINGLE on OLD GOLD)
FOREVER – Love Changes (MINI CD on OLD GOLD)
Three releases from the Old Gold label from Atlanta (USA). Releases that do not
have much in common.
Forever is Ben Lawless (drums), Ben Young (guitar, etc.), Sunni McGarriy
(vocal), Matt Miller (bas). They debute here with a 6 song minicd. 6 harmonic
and psychedelic songs. Forever pretents nothing more than to be just a pop
band. Making good songs and tunes is their trade. They sound unpretentious,
friendly and a litle folky. Their are some nice instumental (distorted) parts.
Nice arrangments also. These people seem to be in good balance. So have a good
time with ‘Love changes’.
Autobody and Foljahn are operating on the dark side. Autobody is an obscure fab
four: Sheila McCarthy, Eric MacCohen, David Abel, Jim Abramson. Weird and wild
stuff. Sort off free rock. Many LAFMS-groups came to my mind listening to this
one. This means I would like to more music from this band.
Tim Foljahn takes us on a one hour journey through dark and noisy landscapes
with lots of tapes and electronics. I’m not 100% sure on this, but ‘normally’
Foljahn is a guitar player in bands like Two Dollar Guitar. His music did
remind me of Cranioclast from time to time.
Although the cd has 9 titles, in a way they form one gigantic piece with boring
moments (loops) but also with very interesting atmospheric soundscapes.
Foljahn is also a writer. The booklet contains has a story from his hand
(diary?). (DM)
Address: <http://www.oldgold.org>
BRUME – ZONA VENTILLE (CD by Elsie & Jack)
Just like Illusion Of Safety (see elsewhere) I have high regards for Christian
Renou’s Brume project. Brume has overal a high quality in his work, which makes
it hard to pick a favourite. Apperentely this new CD is the final CD under the
name Brume. I don’t know why, but apperentely is fed up by using the name Brume
and he now uses his own name to create music. Brume plays musique concrete in
the best French tradition: putting together acoustic sounds on tape (or maybe
computer these days) and treating them electronically. Brume’s sound through
out the years have remained lively. He was not a man of silence, with big and
small sounds jumping in and out. But slowly silence entered his work, like here
on the fifth track, which start out very silent for Brume standards. But in
general, also on his final disc, Brume brings out very lively sound, constant
in presence, dynamic as always. Although this is again a very fine disc, it’s
good to see this period closed and wonder what the future will bring for
Christian Renou. (FdW)
Address: www.elsieandjack.com
MONERA – FREE OXYGEN KILLS MONERA (3″ CDR by Elsie & Jack)
Monera is a band with some of the people that also run Elsie & Jack and that
label present this small CD-R in a box that is laser etched, customized (“promo
vital weekly” it says etched in a corner, it looks mighty good). Otherwise
there is no printwork. Monera’s music is kinda hard to describe. Highly
electronic in approach, a bunch of buzzing analog synthesizers go crazy over an
even bigger bunch of electronics and create a highly pschedelic atmospheric of
spaced out music. The whole thing is a kinda raw, but I am sure that’s the
intention. Maybe it’s put together in an improvised way, but maybe editing
could be used too? Nevertheless, as a first statement, it’s intentional rawness
is fine, refinement can wait. (FdW)
Address: www.elsieandjack.com
LIAM GILLICK/EKKEHARD EHLERS & JOSEPH SUCHY (12″ by En/Of)
OLAFUR ELIASSON / HEIMIR BJORGULFSSON (12″ by En/Of)
TOBIAS REHBERGER / STEPHAN MATHIEU (12″ by En/Of)
The highly sympathetic label Bottrop Boy just started a new series of 12″
releases of highly limited records (100 copies each) and each record has a
multiple by a visual artist. Art and music married, but the price is no doubt
high…
The first one is by visual artist Liam Gillick, who presents a felt multiple
with carefully made cuts. The music is by guitarist Joseph Suchy and Ekkehard
Ehlers (formerly Auch, Autopoeises). The record opens and closes with a simple,
nice piece of guitar music, that doesn’t seem to be very much processed. The
two tracks in between are a combination of acoustic sounds and laptop
processing. In ’50’ this works well, and things evolve a micro basis, small
sounds slowly develop but in ‘O3’ all of these small pieces end up in an
improvised blur that is just to sterile.
The next one is an Icelandic affair. Olafur Eliasson printed a map of Iceland
in an inkt that lights up when touched by your fingers. Of course the music is
by Stillupsteypa’s own Heimir Bjorgulfsson. Much of the music produced by him
deals with the electronic processings of environment recordings. Titles for his
record reflect this (river, waters, grounds are words used a lot). Deceptingely
it may seem that you hear every once in a while a sort of rhythm coming, which
is maybe only a small crack of a leaf or one drip of water. Heimir creates not
omninous long pieces, but crafts small miniatures.
For the third one visual artist Tobias Rehberger silk screened a 12″ cover for
a non existent band, and Stephan Mathieu get his own cover of course. It seems,
taking this record and seeing some of his recent concerts, that Mathieu is
heavily under the influence of minimal music. From a relative simple pallett of
sounds he layers a few out of sync with eachother and lets us enjoy the result.
Minimal music more like Phil Niblock then Steve Reich, I may add. Drone like in
character but of a more open nature, more light weight, but also with a sad
touch.
These three records are a great kick off for a new series, despite the art-like
prices, but then you have something to stick to the wall and to play. (FdW)
Address: www.bottrop-boy.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ & JOE COLLEY – KNOWING WHEN TO NOT KNOW (3″CD by Antifrost)
More music by Francisco Lopez, who is besides an active solo composer, also
somebody who collaborates a lot, among others with John Duncan and Zbigniew
Karkowski. Joe Colley might not be a well-known name, but he’s the man behind
Crawl Unit, and that might ring a few bells. The one piece here started out as
a Lopez original which was completed with Joe in California. About the first
few minutes and the last few minutes dabble around in Lopezian silence but the
large chunk in the middle is much more audible, and au contraire much of the
Lopez music, more electronic in nature. There is a lot of electronic sound
processing going on over the original set of environmental recordings. Quite a
powerful result, which is a bit too short for me. Music like this could be
longer to show more development. Otherwise a fine small disc. (FdW)
Address: www.antifrost.gr
KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE – 0: ROSTOCK MS STUBNITZ 10.02.2001 (CD by Die Stadt)
The second installment of the ongoing Asmus Tietchens and Thomas Koner project.
it’s a bit puzzling why there is a ‘0’ on the cover as the recording dates
after the first CD that was released (and which had ‘1’ on the cover). The
series of which this is part are all live recordings and this one was made at
the MS Stubnitz, the well-known boat that usually harbors in Rostock, Germany.
If one is familiar with this boat, one knows the steel inside where the artists
play their music. Somehow I feel that the interior of this boat is reflected by
the music. Starting out for the first 15 or so minutes with what sounds like an
engine roar and followed by water as metallic sounds, or metallic sounds that
sound like water. Submarine sounds, kinda like the ‘Skagarak’ LP by Werkbund,
ages ago (when we believed that Asmus was a member). More austere then the
previous recording by Kontakt Der Junglinge, more dark too. It sounds more like
a try out concert, in which the refinement is not entirely present. However
it’s still a fine disc of sound processing for a relatively simple set of
sounds. You can’t go wrong with these German meisters… (FdW)
Address: www.diestadtmusik.de
BRANDON LABELLE – TECHNE (CD by A Bruit Secret)
Brandon Labelle may not be unknown to you. His CD’s are usually filled with
music with a slightly more conceptual edge then any other music CD. Here the
subject matter is architecture interacting with the body. The six lenghty
tracks have titles like ‘chair’, ‘freeway’, ‘foot’ etc. Most puzzling, like
conceptual art always sets your mind to work. The sounds that are used a hissy,
scratchy, noisy loops of contactmicrophones rubbed against the body… well, or
a freeway, a chair or a foot… Despite all the noisyness of the tracks, this
remains a fascinating release, also after repeated listening. It’s very hard to
say more about it, because too many words will destroy the meaning, I guess.
Fascinating stuff… but uneasy to access. (FdW)
Address: <m_henritzi@club-internet.fr>
EX.ORDER – WAR WITHIN BREATH (Cd by Malignant Records)
As a follow-up to last week’s review of “The crackling of the anonymous” by
Inade, the time has come to take a look at another masterful project by
Inade-members, Rene Lehmann and Knut Enderlein. Best known under the flag of
Inade, the duo has now fulfilled fifth release under the side-project,
Ex.Order. Shipped back in 1993, the raw power electronics of Ex.Order stand as
a sharp contrast to Inade’s more complex explorations into dark atmospheres and
ritual intonations. One can say that “War within breath, is down-to-earth in
its brutal expression, where Inade’s “The crackling of the anonymous” were more
spacey with longer and slower pieces. Taking its conceptual starting point in
the present political inconsistencies of the mankind, the atmosphere on “War
within breath” seems apocalyptic. In its critical approach to mankind of today,
the album is reminiscent of last year’s masterpiece “Analysis of
self-destruction” from Bastard Noise. Not only conceptually do these two albums
share grounds, also the use of subtle drones of power electronics that create
some amazing powers of sonic violence without using the overwhelming sound
explosions, that first of all is connected to the noise-scene. Especially in
title-track “War within breath” and “Prayers of the holocaust”, the use of
suppressed power electronics is quite distinct, with ongoing cascading waves of
high frequent buzz drones complemented by discreet rhythms and heavy
bass-pulses. Other tracks are extremely abrasive with power electronics in full
throttle not far away from the death industrial-style of Brighter Death Now.
Vocals occur in quite a few of the tracks more or less processed, spanning from
megaphone-sounding spoken word to vocals that most of all sounds like violent
noise drones. Created in the Malignant sound-laboratories the production of
“War within breath” is really well, with all sounds in the multi-levelled work
being very clear. In all senses a remarkable piece of power electronics and yet
another great achievement by Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Enderlein. (NMP)
Address: <http://www.malignantrecords.com>
<CYBERNETIC:FUCKHEADZ> – <CYBERNETIC:FUCKHEADZ> (Cd by Pflichtkauf)
<cybernetic:fuckheadz> came out as a result of a joint venture between German
Raoul Roucka (aka Noisex) and Belgian Patrick Stevens (aka Hypnoskull) both
being legendary profiles on German label Ant-Zen Recordings. Both members have
been experimenting with drum’n’bass for many years and both are grown-ups from
the harsh technoid-sound that characterises the Ant-Zen Recordings-style. These
backgrounds are used to develop an intense hybrid of hard throbbing breakbeats,
distorted jungle and harsh industrial noise. Both artists’ long time experience
on the technoid-scene stand very clear on a debut-album, that I wouldn’t
hesitate considering being among the very best recent outputs from the fast
growing drum’n’noise-scene. Unquestionably it would have been a great
experience watching <cybernetic:fuckheadz> live during this year’s edition of
the Maschinenfest Festival, that took place between 5th and 7th October 2001 in
Aachen. (NMP)
Address: <http://www.pflichtkauf.de>
UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L’HERBE – POLYHEDRIC TETRAPAK (CD by Ooze Bap)
NONPLACE SOUVENIRS (CD compilation by Ooze Bap);/
Two releases from Barcelona’s Ooze Bap label of a more electronic, if not
laptoppy nature. Herewith Ooze Bap places themselves more firmly on the map,
after a few self-burned CDR releases.
The first one is by guy who was born in Brazil but now resides in Barcelona. He
combines turntablism with his own samplings of popular music. There are
occassional hints of reggea to be stopped, a touch of a melody somewhere, but
also scrates, hisses and noises from sounds that have no longer a context. The
good thing here is that all 13 tracks are relatively short and to the piont, so
that you move quickly through many atmospheres. After the 13 original pieces we
also get seven remixes by five five minded artists. All of them plunder freely
from the sources, and many of them present them in the form of abstract loops.
Nothing special or extraordinary good. Involved are Alejandra & Underwood, Erik
M, Stephen Vitiello, OnCe 11 and DJ Olive.
The other one is a compilation which do not seem to have a specific theme, but
rather a randomly grasped 9 tracks by 8 artists. It has laptop crackles by
Christof Migone or UK’s Klunk, but also techno beats by Criterion. In between
moves the childish ambient organ piece by Vert. The two tracks from Argentina,
by Remot and by Pablo Reche, were too long for the relatively simple set of
ideas they work from. Nicer was Artificial Memory Trace with a densely layered,
rhythm piece. Not a bad compilation but one that is a bit unfocussed in what it
wants… (FdW)
Address: www.oozebap.org
DRONA PARVA – TRAVELS IN CONSTANTS VOLUME FOUR (CD by Temporary Residence)
You may wonder why I review a CD that has been sold out for sometime, as it was
released in a small edition on Temporary Residence. One reason might I just got
a promo of it… the other reason is that this might be released on vinyl in
the near future, spanning three sides of a 2LP set on Time Lag Records. A while
ago I reviewed a LP from that label, which was by the same band on one side and
Ultrasound on the other. This CD was recorded before that LP…
Lengthyness is a key word here. Three pieces, each spanning over 20 minutes
(each being a LP side long, mind you) of highly minimal guitar music with an
occassional dash on the analog synth. A simple set of notes is played, and then
fed into a loop. Then other electronic trickery comes in, more echo, reverb and
all those other little colourfull boxes that one can attach to a guitar. At one
point this was called post rock, with many followers, but now that seems gone
and Drona Parva (plus a handful others) operate in their own small world of
psychedelic sound tapestries, which is fine. Far beyond the hasty world of
hypes, they create their own space and sometimes you can join in. It’s dive
deep down, but it’s worth it. (FdW)
Address: <Sinewave23@aol.com>