DANIEL MENCHE – INVOKER (CD by Antifrost)
TEXTURIZER (CD by Antifrost)
ILIOS – OLD TESTAMENT (CD by Antifrost)
REMANENT – THE RAPTURE (CDR by Zwavelzuur)
THE HAFLER TRIO – THE MAN WHO TRIED TO DISAPPEAR (10″ by Ossosnossos)
JLIAT – MY COMPUTER (3″CDR by Alku)
CADMIUM DUNKEL – ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE (MP3 by Tib Prod)
KOFF KOFF – BESME-AM (MP3 by Tib Prod)
FRANS DE WAARD – EIGHT LINES (Mini CD-R by Zeromoon)
SHIFTS – VERTONEN (CD-R by Humbug)
BERTRAND DENZLER & HANS KOCH – ASYMETRIES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques)
TENSILE (CDR compilation by Labile Music)
BUJEOLD – FABRIQUE DECOLOURS (CDR)
MY MALADY (CD compilation by Mental Monkey Records)
TOMAS JIRKU – BLEAK 1999 (CD by No Type)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY… (CDEP by Korm Plastics)
FLIM – HOLIDAY DIARY (CD by Plinkity Plonk)
FREIBAND – MUSIK FOR NO TITLE (CDR-EP by Mik Musik)
KOMET – GOLD (CD by Raster-Post)
AIDAN BAKER & TOMAS BAKER & ALAN BLOOR – TERZA RIMA (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
FREE FROM DISGUISE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
AYAMI YO-KO (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
BAD GIRLS – UNAUTHORIZED RECORDINGS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
THE BUNNY BRAINS – HOLIDAY MASSACRE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
TSURUBAMI – GEKKYUKEKKKAICHI (CD by Strange Attractors)
SCANNER – WARHOL’S SURFACES (CD by Intermedium)
BOOKS ON TAPE – SINGS THE BLUES (CD by No Type)
NIKO SKORPIO VS REPTILJAN – SILENCE IS KING (7″ by Some Place Else)
DANIEL MENCHE – INVOKER (CD by Antifrost)
TEXTURIZER (CD by Antifrost)
ILIOS – OLD TESTAMENT (CD by Antifrost)
To be honest, I didn’t keep up with Daniel Menche’s recent work. By
the time he arrived on the scene (when was it, 1995?), he was there
as one of the younger and more interesting noise makers. His CDs for
Soleilmoon Recordings are still landmarks of good noise music. After
that, his career is a bit scattered, at least for me, a mild,
interested listener and not a devotee. ‘Invoker’ therefore is a
renewed introduction. It is “inspired by the afe old ancient practice
of sound being used to call upon higher dieties for strength and
guidance and how mankind continues to use sound as an “invoker” in
modern times”. Three lenghty pieces, totally over sixty minutes (I
don’t have the titles of the pieces here). It’s hard to discuss
‘Invoker’ in the light of its predecessors, but I must say, I was
quite pleased with sound. Only the third piece seems to hark the
inspiration from his older noise work, the other two are more dark
ambient pieces. Daniel Menche uses contact microphones and real
microphones to record sound (I remember a concert where he amplified
rubbing salt on his body), but besides he uses so many sound effects,
that the original sources aren’t to be recognized again. For some
people that may be a problem, that it is loaded with an overkill of
sound effects, but especially in the first two pieces, Menche reaches
an intense level of atmospheric sound. Introspective and
contemplative. Menche might no longer be the young and rising star,
he still knows his tricks well.
Texturizer seems to me a very apt chosen name for the duo work of
Nikos Veliotis and Coti K. The first one plays cello and Coti plays
the electronic part. Apperentely this new CD was recorded in the
Agios Georgios Church in a suburb of Athens, but they could have
fooled me. No huge amount of natural church reverb, but a nice set of
four pieces. Texturizer, who can it be different, play drone music,
using cello and electronic processings thereof and field recordings
(maybe those of motors, fans etc, basically anything that sounds
drony), and of all these closely related sounds fit together very
well. Overall, I found this drone music of a more louder nature,
without saying it’s aggressive or anything, it’s just more present
and more audible, and less blurry then some of the other music in
this area. Since you may know me as a sucker of good drone music, I
can’t be wrong this one: very nice work.
And then the final release by Antifrost is by their head president
director Ilios. This guy had his first release some ten years ago and
since it’s been hard to follow his career; not that he would care
either. If I understood right, ‘Old Testament’ is one half (‘New
Testament’ to follow shortly) and goes back to the era before
computers played a big role in Ilios’ music. Of the three recent
Antifrost CDs, this is the most ‘difficult’ one. Lengthy pieces of
obscured sounds, scratches and drones – this could be as much as
newer computer work as an older piece of analog electronics (I assume
the last but digitally remastered). Silence seems to be playing an
important role too, as sometimes things drop in volume a lot. So, I
can’t say wether this is really old, or updated. Although it’s a not
bad CD, it could interest me the least of the three new ones. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antifrost.gr
REMANENT – THE RAPTURE (CDR by Zwavelzuur)
Remanent is the solo-project by A.W. Schulte based in Amsterdam. On
the cover-sleeve of this CDR titled “The rapture” there is a dark
misty landscape under a grey sky of almost threatening clouds. The
dramatic landscape nicely symbolises the sonic explorations on the
album. Dark ambient drones swirls as atmospheric winds behind the
rather strangely dramatic sound of Remanent. Musically the sonic
approach seems like a mixture between subtle rhythmic textures and
old-school elements varying from early Detroit techno to hammer
horror’ish organ-freakout. Favourite track on the album is the spooky
“Horses of death” that could be an ode to Washington Irvin’s tale of
the headless horseman. “Horses of death” opens with samples of harp
strumming, shortly after followed by drum-machine-alike rhythms
sounding like a galloping horse further dramatized by furious samples
not too far away from earliest Download. Overall this is a promising
album by Remanent, available via the web-address of Remanent shown
below this review. (NMP)
Address: http://www.zwavelzuur.nl/remanent
THE HAFLER TRIO – THE MAN WHO TRIED TO DISAPPEAR (10″ by Ossosnossos)
There has always been a link between the work of The Hafler Trio and
the work of Brion Gysin. The dreammachine release of the late 80s is
one, but there is also a small book that Andrew M. McKenzie wrote on
Gysin for a Staalplaat release. If Gysin is the man who tried to
disappear, as mentioned in the title of this release, I don’t know,
but I truely think he is. Recordings were made at ‘135 Rue St.
Martin’ and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s an address where Gysin
lived. Like on many of the recent Hafler Trio records, subtle drones
are explored here, on both sides of the record. Maybe it’s a
processed atmospheric recording of the room mentioned in that
address. An empty room, left behind by a man who tried to disappear.
Towards the end of ‘Open Bank Is Closed’ on the a-side, the wind
plays with the windowpane. By and large the drone music on side A is
mournfull, sad and melancholic. The b-side is more hectic, like a
swarm of insects inside a glass jar, which are multiplying at a
strong rate – like in a science fiction movie – until one dark image
is left. Maybe the flickering of a dreammachine? The only trouble I
have with this 10″ (and some of the other recent ones) is that the
soundquality is not overall ok and that they arr sometimes too short
to have ideas fully expand. And for those who like to know: yes,
there is more happening on this 10″ then on the recent Die Stadt and
Nextera CDs. Otherwise a fine Hafler Trio record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ossosnossos.com
JLIAT – MY COMPUTER (3″CDR by Alku)
Our beloved conceptual master Jliat returns. This time the subject is
the various .exe files on his computer, which he transformed into
.wav (that is audio) files. No less then thirty nine of those .exe
files are brought alive here, in under ten minutes. Playing these
short noisy, Mego styled pieces, it’s hard to think that this is the
same Jliat who released many moons ago beautiful drone CDs. While
moving away from that musically interesting area, Jliat choose a more
different and difficult route: making conceptual music, in which he
puts forward questions about the music, silence, originality and
experiment. This may not lead always to interesting records (like his
rendition of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Pink Floyd), but ‘My
Computer’ is not bad – in terms of noise and it could easily lead to
the first remix CD of Jliat. There are tons of nice little brutal
sounds in there that could be great use to the daring computer nerd.
(FdW)
Address: http://personal.ilimit.es/principio
CADMIUM DUNKEL – ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE (MP3 by Tib Prod)
KOFF KOFF – BESME-AM (MP3 by Tib Prod)
Two new releases, available for free as MP3 albums by Tibprod.
Cadmium Dunkel is just one guy, who has his influences from Genesis
to King Crimson and Eno to Deathprod. Surrounded at home by a whole
range of synthesizers and samplers, he thinks of himself as a painter
in sound. Five lengthy pieces make up this album here of synthesized
rhythms, sampled metallic sheets and scary touches on the keyboards.
For me it worked best when the rhythms played a less important role
in the pieces and the dark, atmospheric synths played a major role
and this could the soundtrack to an unlikely Hollywood horror b-movie
about throlls pushing people of Norwegian cliffs. Spooky stuff. Nice
but not great – like a good b-movie should be.
Less is known about the guy/girl who calls himself Koff Koff. “The
music should be at the centre’, it is declared. Couldn’t agree more,
of course, but of course then there is less to write about (well,
maybe more, who knows). Unfortunally the music couldn’t really
interest me. Noise stuff, generated via laptop means, played in
seemingely a random way, without too much notion of composition,
structure or soul, make this into quite a sterile, distant work.
Sometimes it’s not enough to switch on a laptop, and let the plugs
play. I am afraid a little extra is needed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
FRANS DE WAARD – EIGHT LINES (Mini CD-R by Zeromoon)
When mister de Waard works under his own name, you can bet the result
is based on field recordings. In this case that is not entirely true,
unless you regard voicemail recordings as field recordings too. This
twenty minute track is a mix of eight recordings of this kind. The
original recordings are obscure and hardly contain any voice. They
are more colored by static and occasional beeps and although they are
in fact untreated, they sound slowed down, filtered and downsampled.
These eight (telephone) lines steadily blur into a steady drone of
noise. The conceptual part is defenitely appealing, because the noise
is created from a certain kind of silence: people NOT leaving a
message on voicemail. Once the piece is on for six to eight minutes
it can go on for a very long time, and it does just that, the time
being twenty minutes. Not so much interesting as a piece of music,
but certainly as a conceptual piece of sound art, or as a raw sound
source for that blooming practice of contemporary music, the higher
art of DJing. (MR)
Address: www.zeromoon.com
SHIFTS – VERTONEN (CD-R by Humbug)
Yet another release by Frans de Waard, this one under the monniker
Shifts, de Waard’s ongoing investigation into the world of strings.
These seven tracks date back to 1995 (!), when they were released (or
not) by Freedom From (at least so it says one the cover). Remastered
in 2002, this material is now rereleased (or not, depending on if
they were actually released in 1995). The first track is a true
beauty, with extremely low frequencies and ploinks and some strange
clicks (mayby from 2002?). The second track takes it from there,
slowly building from a single tick, drones added untill a carpet of
bass is woven, accompanied by a lonely gong sound. Go on I say! And
it does. Very good indeed. The third track is more akin to the sound
I remember of Shifts: a tapestry of differently coloured, but similar
sounds, layered and mixed into a wall of sound. This piece seems to
come from as different space altogether: dense and thick, whereas the
first two were more open and airy. Number four gives some air again,
but is slowly closed off by a rolling bass sound that washes over the
whole as a whale on dry land. Under this whale something is still
alive it seems. And this living thing goes full blast in track five:
one long scream, pretty nervewrecking and very intense, slowly fading
away. Track six is a break from this story: high frequecy pulses are
layered and sent into space. Once in every while, overtones or
frequencies synchronise and create a second space. An ethereally
beautiful piece. The last track starts with a single piano key being
hit once, then it’s looped and put through some kind of decay device
or so. And then other unnamable things happen. But again this is a
mesmerizing piece of elegant simplicity and beauty. This is most
certainly my favourite Shifts release so far. It seems strange that
it is not released as a real CD…..Anyway, this comes highly
recommended! (MR)
Address: <tchartan@online.no>
BERTRAND DENZLER & HANS KOCH – ASYMETRIES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques)
Denzler (tenor sax) and Koch (bass clarinet, soprano sax) blow their
way through four pieces all entitled ‘Asymetries. Both are exponents
of the Swiss impro scene.
Denzler is a player from Geneva (Switzerland). His cooperations are
to numerous to mention them all. All in the field of improvised
music. He is for instance member of Hubbub an improvisational
collective. Koch is known for his work with celloplayer Martin Schutz.
Denzler and Koch met in 1996 at one of Butch Morris ‘Conductions’
workshops. Since 1999 they established themselves as a duo. With this
cd they make their debute on cd.
It’s instantly clear that both players are not satisfied with the
conventional playing of these instruments. They use different kinds
of technique in order explore and expand the spectrum of sounds that
can come from these instruments. They do not use electronics, all is
done by mouth and fingers. All this done not just for the sake of
discovering more technical possibilities, or to add some more pages
to the catalogue of sounds. They are means in a musical process that
aims at communication. Denzler and Koch give room to each other,
letting the other act or react. The result is a set of well balanced
duets.
The CD starts with very soft sounds. Short lines and figures come
from and disappear into silence. Overall the music is contemplative,
concentrated and controlled. It switches from soft and subtile to
jerky and growling.
For some reason I compare their music with Schwitters’ Ursonate.
Something completely different, be sure of that. But on the other
hand both could be described as examples of soundpoetry that stay
close to breath (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
TENSILE (CDR compilation by Labile Music)
This is a handsomely packed CDR release (organised by Jim Sande and
Micheal V. Farley) with nineteen pieces of all sorts of acoustic
guitar playing. One that is in a totally different vein then the CD I
reviewed in Vital Weekly 380. First of all these pieces are much
shorter, ranging from thirty seconds to just inder six minutes, and
secondly the pieces need not be limited to just guitar. So we have
somebody like Greg Davis, who plays acoustic guitar, but feeds the
signal through his laptop and max/msp patches and offers a great,
intense piece. On the total opposite we find Olaf Rupp, who continues
with his frentic playing, just as on his ‘Scree’ CD (see Vital Weekly
341) – a work of total free improvisation. Somewhere in between are
the thirty conceptual seconds of Jliat. Most of these people stay in
similar areas as Rupp, the improvisational aspects – people like
Brekekekexkoaxkoax, Jim Sande or Bundespublik. More processed pieces
are by Living With Eating Disorders (is this bandname a sick joke on
Vini Reilly, I wondered), Mark McLaren, Cody Oliver, Bill Jarboe,
Glenn Bach, Dale Lloyd, Gydja, Will Soderberg, Micheal V. Farley and
Aidan Baker. With the latter, more expanded range of players being a
majority here, this is much more a compilation of ‘acoustic guitar
plus…’ compilation and not one that is ‘strictly acoustic guitar’.
But the results are equally nice – most of these people stay on the
smooth side of things – the acoustic guitar, even taken out of its
campfire element, is still an instrument to play moody tunes with –
even when plugged into a laptop. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jimsande.org
BUJEOLD – FABRIQUE DECOLOURS (CDR)
Quite a puzzel what is what here. I think Bujeold is the artist and
Fabrique Decolours the title. It’s a short, eightteen minute, piece,
recorded in Macerata – whereever that may be. Other then a few
‘thanks’ notes, nothing else is written here, not even a website
address to order it. Eightteen minutes of violent drone music – organ
sounds that truely bite through your organs. Put under the feedback
test, taking all low end out of it. Maybe heavily under the
influences of the live sound of Phill Niblock, taking his volume and
minimalism as starting points, but can’t see I much enjoyed this
(even when I like drones and all things minimal) – too easy, too
hasty and maybe a bit naive. If there was audience that nights, they
may have lost some of their hearing capacity.
Address: nope
MY MALADY (CD compilation by Mental Monkey Records)
I must admit I feared the worst, when I read the press blurb raving
about ‘a wide range of chaotic sounds together into one sweeping
smorgasbord of interpretations of disease and dysfunction’. It’s not
that I dislike noise, even when it took me four years to hear all
fifty Merzbow CDs that are in the Merzbox. Occassionally I even play
a Whitehouse record, MB or Ramleh. But much of the noise music that
is made by others are just a repetition of archetypes put forward by
those I just mentioned and do not add something new. So when I got
through this lengthy compilation of no-less then thirty-three tracks
by as many artists, I can safely say: noise music is alive and maybe
even kicking (despite it’s disease?). It has become an umbrella for
many sub-genres, feedback inspired noise, guitar noise, dark ambient,
plunderphonics and in some cases even techno oriented. Quite a
pleasent trip. Not to mention the many unknown bands here, like
Bomb20, Burmese, Iran, Persona, Mixel Pixel, Spin Laden, Cussycat,
Berkowitz Lake & Dahmer (yes, some of these people have nice band
names too) or Travis Bickle’s Mohawk. Prime noise makers – that is
people who have gained a following already of their own – include
Illusion Of Safety, V/VM, Zipperspy or The Evolution Control
Committee. It’s the variety of music that makes it quite enjoyable.
Short tracks, from various angles of noise (and related – he hastened
to say) make this quite a vivid compilation. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mentalmonkeyrecords.com
TOMAS JIRKU – BLEAK 1999 (CD by No Type)
By now the name Tomas Jirku is a well respected one in the field of
minimal dance music. His previous 12″s have a strong dance floor
sensibility and his concerts are hilarious. His CDs so far showed a
more austere side of his work, more intended for home listening. They
too use rhythms to quite an extended but are more minimal, working
more indepth on sound and colour. Yet, with his new album ‘Bleak
1999′ he goes a bit further. The rhythms found here are not just
‘acid’ or ‘techno’ rhythms, but very straight forward bangs with
little to none variation. Each of the sixteen tracks here have some
sort of rhythm, but they merely carry the piece. The icing on each
cake comes from a likewise sober use of synthesized sounds and
processed radio transmissions. A somewhat distant, yet quite
atmospheric sound is displayed here. Music that seems to be intended
to be played at that point of the day when day turns into night:
shimmering twilight music, with the lights just turned on, driving by
an abandonned industrial site. Maybe a black and white movie, rather
then a coloured one. It should be a bit cloudy during that day.
Tracks flow into eachother here, thus to emphasize the drive by
nature of the music. Music that is made in solitude and should be
listened in soltitude. Maybe it’s a far cry from Jirku’s partymode,
but at least it’s also something to show that he is not a flat
character. I guess it’s an album that will upset some of his
listeners, but more of the same is always less. To the reasons why it
took so long to release it (the title indicates rightly that it was
recorded in 1999), I can only guess, but it’s good to see it out, at
last. (FdW)
Address: http://www.notype.com
STEPHAN MATHIEU – KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY… (CDEP by Korm Plastics)
Excerpted samples from a live Kapotte Muziek concert are freebased,
slipwired, or in other words, deep-fried. The sounds taken from a
live show in 1996 in Berlin is #10 in a series of manipulated
transgressions from the already deeply dense material in the KM
catalogue. The opening sequence of this 21 minute deluge of
organized chaos plays with the differentials between white noise and
minimal/contained atonal aerobics. “A Microsound Fairytale”‘ is
Mathieu’s abridged version of the Cliff Notes on the artist he
recreates in the form of a perturbed software glitch, ambling over
its many encrypted messages, line by line. He patterns sound that
probably had no linear shape at all. The sheer velocity of the sound
warp created owes a teeny nod to the prolifics of Masami Akita.
Though Mathieu has big ears
for shaping assorted noise forms, he makes what is an aural
equivalent common to
churning dams, waterfalls and other natural water powers. There are
few vacancies in this recording, it is pretty upright and in your
face, while taking momentary breathers to contemplate complex statics
and testosterone fueled variances. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
FLIM – HOLIDAY DIARY (CD by Plinkity Plonk)
This is a lazy afternoon recording made by Enrico Wüttke under the
guise of Flim. If I weren’t looking I could easily mistake this for
something on the Canadian Constellation label, though the quiet
moments are seemingly more austere. On “Murmer Room”‘ the repetitive
strings are at first mesmerizing but slowly wear themselves out, even
with a quite appealing, separate
track of twitches and squeaks used as an additive. “Lime”‘ is a
sleepwalk through musty caverns, tranquil yet murky, especially when
a bassline is introduced. The drama is all in the fuzzy moments where
digital and analogue collide. While there are certainly beautiful
passages where the piano is ethereal such as on “Current
Description”, programming the
blandly mainstream “Above Seagulls” right after it marginalizes its
splendor. “Holiday Diary’ seems like a hit and miss record from
beginning to end. A theme for ballerinas entitled “Home” seems as if
it might be sourced from a completely other artist, and knowing that
this along with some of the previous tracks were recorded on a single
day either proves genius or
insanity. Whimsy divides the almost oompa-loompa-like traditional
harmonies of “No Guitars Please”, by far this diary’s stand out
track. Wüttke has learned from the soundtracks of Philip Glass, and
it is clearly evident here. By sampling unique field recordings by
Jamie Drouin,
Lance Olsen and others Flim has used sources that are unfamiliar
ground to many listeners. With vague resemblances to The Grassy
Knoll, this is anything aside from out jazz. This is in many ways a
hammer and nail type job, back to basics, a learning
work-in-progress, refreshing but sparse material that may be a good
base for future greatness. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
FREIBAND – MUSIK FOR NO TITLE (CDR-EP by Mik Musik)
A pulsating brain in space with lava-like fallout and threatening
undertones. Here in volume five of the “even more special series”
Frans de Waard have released a purring, balanced take on contemporary
static. This real limited edition cdr of only 55 is a
grab-it-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace sorta thing. Sometimes you
just gotta be quick (and knowledgeable) if you are a true fan of
experimental music. For a moment I think there is going to be
build-up to a big house explosion on the dancefloor but the curve ball
thrown takes the ear into uncharted territories. While the silences
seem somewhat awkward, what comes next is just deliciously
unpredictable. The multi-channel pitter-patter vibrates and radiates,
playing ground hog games with the listener. A nerve-ending pulse
glows brighter than the North Star as this 18-minute mini-release
nears is conclusion. You may even get seasick if you are party
prone. With such sparse air space one may mistake ‘Musik for No
Title’ for a time machine dated 2001, the space odyssey, not the much
less exciting actual earth year. (TJN)
Address: http://www.molr.terra.pl
KOMET – GOLD (CD by Raster-Post)
From #3 in the new ‘post’ series, Komet (Frank Bretschneider) offers
eight new thrilling tracks. The grooves are syncopated, the
environment is plastic. The world of ‘Wheel’ is a variegated pastiche
of machine and man facing up to their collective risk management. The
return on investment with many microsound projects can often get lost
in the collective balance. Komet alleviates any worry by conjuring
up a pool of sounds that are as engaging as they are distant. ‘Gold’
is not all about static or toneless fodder, here we have an absorbent
milieu of stratospheric polytonal minimalism as heard on “OMSK’. This
is a space dedicated heartily to a digital oceanfront, lapping digits
and kerning the sands of timing. When ‘Two’ begins with its ticklish
beat, there is an attention paid to not only the movement, but also
the mechanics of calculation. The meter is perfectly measured.
Follow the bouncing ball on “Weiss”! In a tribute to PacMan, this
short piece is a rubber play on harmonics with a happy-go-lucky
attitude. The atmosphere is the warmest of anything I have yet heard
on the Raster imprint as evidenced on ‘Left’. Significant nods for
design and packaging in a very slick yet simple die cut digipak. This
is a solid electronic disc, one that could give any discography
goosebumps. (TJN)
Address: http://www.raster-noton.de/
AIDAN BAKER & TOMAS BAKER & ALAN BLOOR – TERZA RIMA (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
FREE FROM DISGUISE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
AYAMI YO-KO (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
BAD GIRLS – UNAUTHORIZED RECORDINGS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
THE BUNNY BRAINS – HOLIDAY MASSACRE (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
On the disc by Baker, Baker and Bloor it seems to me that Aidan Baker
is the most important player. His name popped up recentely on a whole
number of solo discs. He plays various instruments, but here it is
the guitar that he is playing. His brother Tomas plays piano and Alan
Bloor (also known as Knurl and Pholde) plays amplified metal. The
three lenghty pieces were recorded at the Ambient Ping Series in
Toronto last October. Like to be expected this is a work of
improvised music, but in an ambient context. ‘Tertiary’, the final
track on this disc opens with free styled piano sounds (played on the
keys, not the piano interieur) and is the most jazzy thing on the CD,
a diametrical opposite from ‘Pentametrical’, the opening piece, with
its gliding tones of scraping metal, occassional eerie piano notes
and a guitar that is drenched in sound effects. In the middle piece,
‘Interlaced Rhyme Scheme’, both worlds seem to be united. It’s great
to hear these three entirely different pieces, or rather approaches
to their material, come together. It’s a disc of a strange
combination of ambient music (mainly in it’s approaches for sound
effects) and improvised playing – a nice surprise!
Of an entirely different nature is Free From Disguise, a quartet from
Japan. Tome (vocals), Roco (guitar), Nagao (bass) and Noguchi (drums)
open up with a jazz like guitar which reminded of certain Controlled
Bleeding periods (era ‘Gag’), but soon explode into psychedelic punk
acid rock. Lyrics are in Japanese – at least most of the times. The
first four tracks were recorded in studio and the next five are live.
Especially the studio pieces are of great quality. It’s maybe not my
cup of tea for a daily digest, but the speed and seriousness with
which this played makes these pieces into a very much enjoyable
listening. However in their live setting, the songs are less stronger
(this might be also because the sound quality is not overall very
good) and the playing is less tight. Another thing that is really
beyond my logic is the fact that three studio tracks appear also in
their live version – ran out of tracks? A pity. The four studio
tracks as a cdr ep would have been great too.
Ayami Yo-ko is not the name of the performer, that is one Satoru
Kadowaki. It’s one man singing and playing guitar, but then rather
Keiji Haino styled then Bob Dylan styled. His guitar playing sounds
very much like when I play one – strumming some sounds which I think
might be chords, but surely aren’t. I never sing, so I must not
compared that… It’s all in Japanese, a language which I haven’t
fully mastered yet (probably I should start), but the tone of the
singing says something about pain and agony, loss of love or anything
some such that makes life a hard to endure process and all of the
vocals bathe in a swimming pool of reverb. Long pieces here – five
pieces, over fifty-five minutes in total length. It makes it hard to
endure for the listener. I never was a big fan of Haino and somehow I
don’t think I will be one for Ayami Yo-ko.
The final Japanese disc is by Sotto Voce, a sturdy improvisational
effort around piano, guitar, saxophone and drums. Track one, ‘sep
24,00′ starts out mildly but half way through bursts into a more raw
piece, and it becomes a more jazz/noise rock thing. In one long
stream this stays through out the disc – maybe with the exception of
the final part of the second piece, which seems quite electronic –
and indeed very noisy. Overall, despite it’s free jazz character,
this is quite a conservative free jazz album – played well, but with
nothing new under the sun.
Back to the States, Bad Girls are from Michigan and is a trio of Mike
Khoury on Violin, Wade Kergan on clarinet, sax and electronics and
Ben Bracken on guitar and electronics. Here too we are in
improvisational grounds of music. I don’t know in what way these
recordings are ‘unauthorized’, maybe they thought it was just a funny
title. Six pieces of improvised music, over an hour long.
‘Impressions Of A Filthy Naked Hippy’ starts out this release with a
heavy saxophone improvisation, pushing the other players back. In
such a lead, I am never fond of saxophones, but in the other five
tracks the balance is more right between the three players. Although
the improvisations are not as worked out then on the Sotto Voce
release, I found them altogether more interesting, because of their
‘free from any influence’ playing. Bad Girls seem to do whatever they
like and not hindered by any of influence of theoretical background.
My favourite here was ‘Incidental Music (mix #2), in which everything
seems to be gliding next to eachother.
The final new release on Public Eyeshore is by the Bunny Brains, a
five piece band with vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards, synth and
bass. This one even goes further then most of the other new Public
Eyeshore releases: country rock or swamp rock as some people call it.
Thirteen too long tracks of uninspiring rock music. Me and Adult
Oriened Rock: it will never be something. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sinkhole.net/pehome
TSURUBAMI – GEKKYUKEKKKAICHI (CD by Strange Attractors)
This completely improvised recording for drums, bass and guitar has
this Japanese trio (ala Acid Mothers Temple) riding the wave of
startling, drone ambience. Here we stand in a darkened forest
surrounded by an invisible chamber orchestra bent on burrowing
through a time warp. The 24 minute title track could be categorized
as extreme ambience, with its numbing reverb. On ‘Seiitenrinengi’ we
bear witness to the aftermath of terror, or at least it reminds me of
a strange Godzilla flick, and that is not because I cannot pronounce
it either. The sounds dramatize a lightness of being while at the
same time present a weird convex interpretation of shallow
distortion. The air is opaque, the images are tunnel-like. Though,
about 12 minutes into this nearly 40-minute track, the bass heaves
and allows all sorts of variable prepared sounds to ramble on in
organic, unplanned patterns. ‘Gekkyukekkaichi’ is a very physical,
almost brute recording, that breeds an enlightened power at its core.
This will induce headaches for some, and meditation for others. (TJN)
Address: http://www.strange-attractors.com/
SCANNER – WARHOL’S SURFACES (CD by Intermedium)
Robin Rimbaud has got to be one of the busiest guys in the sound
scene and his crossroads in the fine arts are plenty, including his
own work in sound installation. This is a quirky record using samples
of Andy Warhol interviews conducted in the early 80s. The recording
seems predicated on a quip, a Warholism that goes ‘If you want to
know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface: of my paintings
and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it’. With
such folly Warhol may have manipulated his audience into
understanding that all taste is biased in a glossy, offset world,
maybe a bit cynical, with a ring of truth sharp as a razor’s edge but
dull as day to day life. Scanner reconstructs the language of Warhol,
while his ‘bored, art star’ appeal remains intact. There are samples
of street sounds and other references to New York City throughout.
While there are dense moments where the artist seems directly
engaged, there are equal parts urban silences and low-tone mixes of
motors revving and horns honking. So, even though you may only have
to look at the surfaces, you will have to listen closely not to miss
the subtleties here. If you are at all familiar with the Big Apple
aesthetic this will be symbolic, or maybe even phantomlike in the
wake of 9/11. The de/remixing of Warhol’s voice creates layers of
ambiguity as ‘New York City Street Map’ takes a sharp turn into the
village of unknown squirming echoes. ‘Becoming Someone Else’ starts
by using Warhol’s lips as a swarm, duplicating finite syllables
repetitively. This take on the artist who met the public eye
unflinchingly, but with a calculated reticence, is quite haunting and
intuitive. In many ways Scanner has established yet another
unauthorized aural biography on a man behind the mask, someone who
boldly played the media machine in a less than glamorous field, until
he came along. The beats are jungle-like and hypnotic on ‘Turning the
Dial’. German label Intermedium specialize in sound art productions
and this may be the recording that puts them on the conscious map for
works that blur genre lines and end up with a great collaboration
between sound and vision. (TJN)
Address: http://www.intermedium-rec.com/
BOOKS ON TAPE – SINGS THE BLUES (CD by No Type)
In a short time span, this is the third release by Books On Tape (see
also Vital Weekly 361 and 376), the solo project of Todd Matthew,
who once more takes his punk attitude to the sampler and cooks up a
nice meal of hip hop, punk and techno. Whereas the recent 10″ was
maybe a bit long, the balance here is right. The sixteen tracks are
one long driving energy force of energetic pieces that breath the
speed of punk, but takes it’s sampled sources from anywhere in
history of music – jazz, blues, techno – but without sounding like
that at all. Despite the title, Books On Tape may sing a lot of
tunes, but definetely not the blues. Maybe it’s a more raw version of
Moby at times. Freshly aggressive, raw and untamed. Quite an
enjoyable effort. (FdW)
Address: http://www.notype.com
NIKO SKORPIO VS REPTILJAN – SILENCE IS KING (7″ by Some Place Else)
The busy bee Niko Skorpio is working on two albums at the same time,
one is a solo CD and one is by a band called Reptiljan. The four
tracks on this 7″ “just happened” while working on those two albums.
The title piece is a distorted funk piece with a computer voice which
gradually fades over into noise. Downsampling sounds is the basic
idea for ‘Snap Crackle Pope In The Ear Tunnel Of Love’ and results
into a strange, alienated piece of music. ‘Bassfinder General’ is a
place where breakbeats and grindcore meet – I had to check: but I
played it really at 33 rpm and it’s still sounds five times too fast.
As a counterpoint, ‘Kafka Dreams’ is almost dubby, with a female
vocal somewhere. Strangely fucked up computer cum techno music in
four different directions – that makes a nice EP. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
correction: A terrible mistake in the Guilty Connector & Tabata
review from last week. Guilty Connector is not part of Monster DVD, I
was confused with Government Alpha. Otherwise it remains a great CD!
– Frans