MINIMAL COMPACT – RETURNING WHEEL (3CD by CRAMMED)
S.E.T.I. – SENTIENT (CDR)
HENRY FLINT & THE INSURRECTIONS – I DON’T WANNA (CD by Locust)
NO.9 – MUSHI-No-NE (CD by Locust)
ELLENDE – TI CON ZERO (MP3 by Sine Fiction)
ULTRA MILKMAIDS – POP PRESSING (CD by Ant-Zen)
DRUNK WITH JOY – I SAY GOODBYE (CD by A Maze Records)
THE GAMELAN SON OF LION – THE COMPLETE GAMELAN IN THE WORLD (CD by
Locust Music)
ONE MINUTE MUTANT: BASED ON NOTO’S 747 (CD compilation by Grain Of Sound)
PAULO RAPOSO – FLOATING POINT (CDR by Grain Of Sound)
MIGUEL CABRAL – LATACANTANTE (CDR by Rudimentol Records)
MIGUEL CABRAL – RGB (CDR by Rudimentol Records)
BUILDING CASTLES OUT OF MATCHSTICKS – WINDOWN PAIN (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
TAYLOR DEUPREE – JANUARY (CD by Spekk)
WILLIAM BASINSKI & RICHARD CHARTIER (CD by Spekk)
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP – ANOREXIA GAS BALLOON (CD by Sonore)
BILL WOOD/FREDRIK NESS SEVENDAL – SONG OF DEGREES (LP by Humbug)
CLOE LOCK – BUSTED BY THE MOST LOVED ONE (12″ by Seldomtype Recordings)
MUSLIMGAUZE – ALMS FOR IRAQ (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
SHEDDING – NOW I’M SHEDDING (12″ by Home Tapes)
MINIMAL COMPACT – RETURNING WHEEL (3CD by CRAMMED)
A little reminder: Minimal Compact was a post-punk band from the
eighties. The members hailed from Israel, but started the band in
Amsterdam. The group also backed Wire frontman Colin Newman on his
1986 solo album Commercial Suicide (Newman was and still is married
to Compact member Malka Spigel). Returning Wheel is a 3-disc
compilation of old material, remixes and remakes. The first disc is
called Returning Wheel and contains the so-called classics, a best
off of sorts. Most early post-punk bands where kind of bleak, harsh
and raw, with frantic bass driven songs. Minimal Compact does fit in
with its gloomy atmosphere and baritone drone vocals, but because of
its keen arrangements – including instruments like the violin,
harmonica and/or synthesisers – and romantic touch, the band connects
with Legendary Pink Dots, Tuxedomoon and Mecano as well. The classic
material has stood the test of time. It’s definitely eighties, with
its overall feeling of doom for doom’s sake, but the inventive way
the sounds are sculptured and composed into actual songs is still
there to enjoy. The second disc carries the banner There’s Always Now
and consists of remixes and remakes, by people like Tiefschwarz,
Maurice Fulton, International Observer, Optimo and Krikor.
Unfortunately these remixes are downright horrible. Mediocre
straight-ahead dance-tracks, that no one would care about if not
containing Minimal Compact samples. Because they are recently
produced, they sound totally now, without coming even close to
nowadays standards. Which is proved by the so-called remakes. Peter
Kruder and Stefan Moerth re-recorded It Takes a Lifetime as it being
a funky soul track, with one Hubert Tubbs throwing in his beautiful
warm blooded Negro voice. Richard Dorfmeister seems to rework this
track together with Moerth into techno. Both versions of It Takes a
Lifetime are excellent and capable of filling the floor, but
aesthetic-wise they fit in more with Jazzanova than with Minimal
Compact. The third disc is called Music From Upstairs and contains
unreleased demos and experiments. Usually these discs full of rare
material are nothing more than an unfocused collection of ideas, to
be enjoyed by fans only. But the lost songs and instrumental rhythmic
tracks with melodic keyboard lines on this disc are fleshed-out
enough to and invite you to repeated listens. The eastern influences
here and there reminded me of Japan and Sakamoto as well. (RT)
Address: http://www.crammed.be/
S.E.T.I. – SENTIENT (CDR)
It’s been a while since I heard music by Andrew Lagowski, the man
behind S.E.T.I., aswell as Legion and sometimes his own name. As
S.E.T.I. he works in a specific area of electronic music, namely the
world inhabited by space crafts, pilots, deep space research and
others. Via the use of intercepted aircraft messages and spacious
synthesizers – although I bet these all come from a computer these
days – and an occassional rhythm (from a malfunctioning of a space
craft, no doubt), S.E.T.I. creates music that can best be described
as the perfect soundtrack to either a sci-fi movie or a comic dealing
with the subject matter (and if I was fan of them, I could probably
name one!). Voices sound like coming from outer space in a piece like
‘Senti 1C’, and it’s hard to decipher what it is about. A
computerized voice sounds frightening this way: what mayhem lies
ahead for us eathlings. I am neither a sci-fi fan, nor a comic
reader, but I can certainly feel along with this kind of music. The
spooky atmosphere it evokes, the story-telling, almost radioplay like
built-up of the disc, without becoming a narration: this is a
well-done release. A pity that it’s only released in an edition of
100 and that you should download the cover… (FdW)
Address: http://www.lagowski.com/
HENRY FLINT & THE INSURRECTIONS – I DON’T WANNA (CD by Locust)
Locust have been re-issueing work by Henry Flint before, thank god.
Flint is a composer and a fluxus artist. But as a composer, with a
career spanning more than thirty years, not much was released, and
luckily Locust fill in the blanks. Before it was ‘C Tune’, a raga
inspired work of minimalism, now it’s a recording from 1966 of Flynt
with ‘a basement rock protest band’, The Insurrections. Flynt sings
and plays guitar and Walter de Maria is on drums, Art Murphy on
keyboards and Paul Breslin on acoustic bass. A short ride of thirty
minutes of some very fine lo-fi rock playing. Nowadays it would need
a deliberate action to sound so lo-fi, but back then it was probably
just the normal thing to do. Definitely a basement band recording.
With influences from country & western, The Seeds and the minimalism
of the Velvets. The lyrics aren’t always that easy to follow, which
seems to be a pity for a protest band, but it’s played with great
energy and true spirits. This might not be a standard sort of Flynt
recording, because it moved away from his other ‘serious’ work
(although in his strange career, nothing be the ‘real’ thing), but it
should appeal to many who dig the sixties cross-over between
minimalism and rock music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.locustmusic.com
NO.9 – MUSHI-No-NE (CD by Locust)
As promised in Vital Weekly 395, here is the full-length debut album
by No.9 from Japan, also known to family and friends as Joe Takayuki.
The CDEP back then was a most promising start and it’s fullfilled
here quite well. Joe plays quirky uptempo music on his CDEP, but he
has a more expanded sound on his debut. Stuttery beats and poppy
tunes but also more jazzy moments, such as in ‘Where Come From? And
Where To’ and even field recordings are used ‘Eco Ego’. It’s hard to
find two tracks alike on this CD, which gives this CD a great sense
of variety, one could even doubt if the variety is not too big. One
track is a bit beyond me, which is the ninth one (with a Japanese
title), which lasts over seventeen minutes of field recordings and
electronics. It sort of misses the point of the other, shorter tracks
and breaks the album. It could have been left off and forty-five
great minutes would have been really great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.locustmusic.com
ELLENDE – TI CON ZERO (MP3 by Sine Fiction)
More music by Ellende, a Dutch musician living in Japan. His music is
made available through a whole bunch of CDR and MP3 releases and
resides mainly in the underground. This release is a MP3 release for
the Sine Fiction series, part of No Type. The musicians set a sci-fi
novel to music.’Ti Con Zero’ by Italo Calvino was translated in 1993
as ‘Time And The Hunter’ and is a collection of short stories ‘that
deal with the paradoxes of space and time’. Musicwise Ellende wants
to create tension between what we know, science, and what we don’t
know – fiction. Ellende plays the drone card in these five pieces.
Long stretched out pieces, played on a bunch of synthesizers, in
general in a sombre and dark, atmospheric setting. Not exactely the
new soundtrack for ‘2001’, for it’s a bit too much without dynamics.
It stays throughout with these pieces on one surface, but at the same
time it’s a nice lo-fi drone music affair. In a true underground
fashion Ellende depicts his own otherworld sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.notype.com/sine/catalog.html
ULTRA MILKMAIDS – POP PRESSING (CD by Ant-Zen)
The milkies, as the members of Ultra Milkmaids call themselves, are
being watched by me on an irregular basis. Sometimes I hear some of
their music and then it may take it maybe two years or so, before I
hear something new. Fact is that at least one of their productions,
“Peps” is highly regarded by me: a true landmark in the world of
warm, glitchy popmusic. I used the word ‘warmbient’. But after that I
didn’t hear that much new work by them, except for some odd
historical work. So where did ‘Peps’ go into a ‘Pop Pressing’? The
Ultra Milkmaids still have the wamr, glitchy sound, but it seems to
me that they extended the music with the use of real instruments,
saxophones, guitars and drums for instance. However at the center of
all of this sudden innovation is still the computer and still works
overtime – processorwise. The milkmaids play no less than fourteen
tracks in thirty-eight minutes, yet to say there is a gabba-gabba hey
laptoppunk going on, not really. The tracks are short and to the
point, each has their own central theme and then we move on, until we
end in ‘New WMind’, in which the milkies other interests (playing in
a surf group) leaks through. This album is quite a leap forward from
‘Peps’; this is how we like them: a small catalogue of releases, and
each is a significant step forward. Progression rules. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
DRUNK WITH JOY – I SAY GOODBYE (CD by A Maze Records)
Drunk With Joy are Mila Oshin and Kris Jager, they have songwriter’s
approach to their music and they make songs. I don’t really like much
their 3 songs from this single. It’s not that I don’t like songs at
all, on the contrary. It’s just I don’t like the atmosphere here. The
atmosphere is, I’d say, very mellow and mild post-dark-wave,
traditional instrumentation is merged with plain and not inspiring
electronics. There’s singing and lyrics too. But generally I think it
might sound more interesting, inventive, melodic, playful… (BR)
Address: http://www.drunkwithjoy.com
THE GAMELAN SON OF LION – THE COMPLETE GAMELAN IN THE WORLD (CD by
Locust Music)
Sometimes I wonder (with a bit envy): where does Locust find all
these recordings? Take this The Gamelan Son Of Lion, founded by
Fluxus pioneer Philip Corner, composer Daniel Goode and Barbara
Benary. Their interest was in playing with Gamelan instruments, but
in an unlike Gamelan version. The Gamelan Son Of Lion (‘Son Of Lion’
in Hebrew means Benary) play music that stands in the tradition of
Cage or Feldman. More Cage than Feldman I’d say. Their gamelan
playing sound like Cage’s pieces for metal and prepared piano. Spread
out of two discs, there is some damm fine minimal gamelan-like music
going, which predates 23 Skidoo’s ‘The Culling Is Coming’ by a couple
of years. There is of course a sense of traditional ethno music in
these recordings, but the it’s curious to realize at the same time
that it’s not. Cross-over would be the right word, or maybe even the
dreaded fusion word. I think these are wonderful recordings,
colourfull, rich, minimal: like the previous Dockstader re-issue on
Locust, this is an absolutely must have. (FdW)
Address: http://www.locustmusic.com
ONE MINUTE MUTANT: BASED ON NOTO’S 747 (CD compilation by Grain Of Sound)
PAULO RAPOSO – FLOATING POINT (CDR by Grain Of Sound)
The Portugese label Grain Of Sound now expands from CDR to real CDs
and the first real one is a compilation, with a concpetual hinge:
four artists reworking a small, one minute piece by Noto from the
Raster-Noton compilation ‘Autorec’. Each of these artists has
expanded that piece into a much larger piece, between ten and fifteen
minutes. Despite the background of many of these artists, PL studied
trumpet, played guitar, Etch had a degree in graphic design for
instance, there is a strong uniform thing about the four pieces on
this compilation: they more or less sound the same, as far as I’m
concerned. Collaged together computer processings of the original,
which in itself is of course a manifestation of glitch music (glitch
times glitch is uebver glitch), making the whole thing, I think, into
quite a predictable work. It seems that no one was interested in
producing a piece of music which was really his own.
The second release is a CDR again and I must say of much more
interest. Here Paulo Raposo plays with Jason Kahn and Carlos Santos,
or maybe not. “Sporadic passages from a performance (recorded 10.02)
at Sonic Scope festival” it says on the CDR itself. So maybe an
edited recording of that concert by Raposo? In any case, over the
course twenty nine minutes some carefully constructed pieces or maybe
rather blocks of sound, pass by. The music can be best described as
‘microsound’, with careful clicks and cuts, cracking drones and more
of that. Maybe not really the most innovative thing I heard recentely
in this area, but a good sturdy work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.grainofsound.com
MIGUEL CABRAL – LATACANTANTE (CDR by Rudimentol Records)
MIGUEL CABRAL – RGB (CDR by Rudimentol Records)
Lurking at the website of Rudimentol Records, I learned nothing about
the label, nor the artist in question, Miguel Cabral. Let’s safely
assume that Rudimentol is Cabral’s label and that the first two CDRs
are now available.
The first one, ‘Latacantante’, is made using an electrified biscuit
tin with two strings and effects. I didn’t look at the cover for a
while, when this CD was playing, and I thought they were guitars
improvisations. That’s jolly good to know, since I wouldn’t expect
this to be a tin can with two strings and effects. More like an all
spaced out heavy electric guitar jam. Crazy stuff for some forty
minutes, but since it’s chopped into eleven tracks, which sound like
a quite varied bunch, this is actually much nicer than I anticipated.
On the second CDR ‘RGB’, Cabral plays organ and effects. The first
three tracks are called ‘R’, ‘G’ and ‘B’ and last ten minutes each.
Here too Cabral is in an improvsational mood, but with a totally
different set of ideas. Improvising his way on the organ and some
effects, mainly feedback fed through echo, this is quite a noisy
affair. As a bonus Cabral added ‘Outras Cores’, for microphone and
objects. This is a much calmer piece of disjointed sounds. Tinkling
sounds, squeeking of ballons and a sigh and a door. A relaxing piece
after the electric storm of the previous three. (FdW)
Address: http://geocities.com/rudimentol
BUILDING CASTLES OUT OF MATCHSTICKS – WINDOWN PAIN (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
Also in 2004 Piehead recordings will do eleven releases, plus a CDR
only for subscribers, like in 2002 and 2003. Returning to the format
of 5″ CDR these are limited to 211 copies and contains known and
unknown names alike. The 2004 series kicks off with Building Castles
Out Of Matchsticks, the project of Anne Sulikowski. She started
playing music in 1997 and worked under various aliases, such as
Psychosomatic Climax Machine and Proximal:Distal, aswell as being
active in Pow! Media and doing radio. For her thirteen tracks on this
release, she combines good school electronics and techno with ambient
and glitchy peeps, such as in ‘Your Wandering Demons Throw Pebbles
Through My Heart’. But usually she uses only one of these influences
per track. Maybe, I thought, some of these tracks are a bit lenghty
and when a little bit shorter, they would gain power, but as it is
now, this is quite a nice release too. Rainy sketches for rainy days.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.pieheadrecords.com
TAYLOR DEUPREE – JANUARY (CD by Spekk)
WILLIAM BASINSKI & RICHARD CHARTIER (CD by Spekk)
A new label under the guidance of the excellent Plop distribution in
Japan, and they kick off with greatly packed releases (booksized
packages containing the CD). And two three great names to start a
label with. Taylor Deupree is of course the main man behind 12K
records and himself one of the bigger names in the field of
microscopic music. The five tracks on his CD were inspired by his
trip to Japan, including a heavy yet gentle snowfall. A snowfall is
what Taylor’s music is like: sounds are looped – seemingely similar
loops, but upon close inspection they appear to be different – and
played in a majestical form. Taylor’s music can be regarded as
ambient, but he uses loops rather than drones. This gives his music a
gentle, almost rhythmical touch, while at the same time it spans out
over a longer period of time. Things develop in a rather minimal way
throughout each track. In ‘Midlight’ he goes as far as using a female
voice sample and one might think that Deupree moves towards the
dreaded new age thing, but luckily he stays at the border. This CD
continues his work from his later releases on 12K, aswell as style he
is releasing on that label. Well-thought and well-crafted electronic
music.
The second CD is the result of a collaboration between Richard
Chartier and William Basinski. Both of them have gained quite a
reputation for their own microsounding work, which, I may add,
differs quite a bit from Deupree. Whereas the later works mainly with
loops, Chartier and Basinski are more in the areas of drone music.
Two lenghty cuts are presented here, and both use lenghty, harmonic
drones as the basis of their pieces. The first piece was kind of
similar to some of the work produced by Mirror, but with a lighter
overall touch, while the second one was maybe also like Mirror, but
here the melodic touch was an overall feature. Two pretty strong
pieces, I thought, but maybe I didn’t expect much else from these
drone meisters. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP – ANOREXIA GAS BALLOON (CD by Sonore)
With a name such as Satanicpornocultshop you know you can’t be wrong.
This Japanese band with members such Ugh aka Alan, Chola, Lisa Tani,
DJ Siitake and *S playing this wide variety of electronic gadgets are
all about poking fun of popmusic, especially hip hop, lounge, electro
and other, more cheesy influences. They consumed it all, as the cover
indicates all the samples used and what the various members do per
track. There is even a cover Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My
Head’ or with the same easyness they play ‘Candy Says’ by The Velvet
Underground: what did I say? These boys and girls have consumed it
all and even consumed there own music in various covers. One could
wonder if the cheesyness of the release (over seventy minutes!) is
maybe a bit long or that it would stand for a very long time as a
landmark in history, but if Too Many DJs is your thing, you might
want to shop at Satanicpornocultshop too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonore.com
BILL WOOD/FREDRIK NESS SEVENDAL – SONG OF DEGREES (LP by Humbug)
Two guys I never heard of, but apperentely Bill Wood is also from the
1/3 Octave Band, who have a couple of CDRs and a 7″ out and Fredrik
Ness Sevendal plays in Slowburn and sometimes in Del and Kobi,
besides running Apartment Records. The record that these guys made
was recorded through mail, by sending eachother taped sounds, and
that could be specified as guitar sounds. In each of the five pieces
on this record the guitar (or better: a whole bunch of guitars), play
a main role. Unlike bands like Main, the guitar here is foremost used
in a drone lo-fi manner, forming hissy thick fields of drones. One
track, ‘Difference Engine’, has a more percussive feel to it, and it
sounded like an old zoviet*france track, which was kinda nice, for
the fact that it made a distinct break in the record. Overall this is
a very nice record, especially for those who love the New Zealand
sound of labels like Corpus Hermeticum or Metonymic, and yes, I am
one those. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm
CLOE LOCK – BUSTED BY THE MOST LOVED ONE (12″ by Seldomtype Recordings)
Hardly a week passes by without the arrival of a new label, and this
week it’s (among others), Seldomtype Recordings from Switzerland.
It’s a four track 12″ with the original track by Cloe Lock and three
remixes by Dresdner Dstruct, der Leipziger Perspektive and Gintas K.
The original track is a minimal and slow techno track (at least at
the recommended 33 rpm). Quite a dark one. This is followed by the
Gintas K remix of the same track, and he takes the vocal sounds and
the basic rhythm, and has made both a lot more fuzzy and grainy. The
two tracks on the b-side are also dark, electronic and despite the
fact that they are remixes of different tracks (of a forthcoming CD
by Cloe Lock), they surprisingely sound similar, which is a kind of
pity. Overall these pieces have a slow rhythm and sound a bit
outdated. (FdW)
Address: http://www.seldomtype.net
MUSLIMGAUZE – ALMS FOR IRAQ (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
There was a time when I was involved in a lot of the Muslimgauze
releases – there is not much mystery there, but over the year or so,
I am a bit out of tune. But occassionally I get some of the recent
releases, like ‘Alms For Iraq’, which I play with interest. One thing
that struck me right away, was the cover. Unlike ‘Hummus’ on
Soleilmoon, there is a strong visual package here: it looks almost
like a political pamflet. The recordings presented here are from 1995
(in case you didn’t know: Bryn Jones, the man behind Muslimgauze,
died in 1999) and can be defined, to the iniated, as ‘latter day
Muslimgauze’. Bryn Jones was limited to setting a bunch of arab
sounding loops to work in each track, and fiddling about with the
echo and reverb. Each of the tracks operates within the same mimimal
space. It’s something that he was good at – but he also worked in an
overload mode. Many of the tracks here are mere sketches, such as
‘Pale Elegant Egyptian’, which lasts under two minutes and is just a
bunch of loops. Some of the other, longer tracks are more worked out
and stronger as such. Like with many other releases of Muslimgauze, I
think a critical look would be required to find the strongest
possible tracks and release those, and not go, anymore, for releasing
‘just anything’ that labels have in the vaults. ‘Alms For Iraq’ has
certainly strong moments and as whole the album would have benefitted
from a critical look. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
SHEDDING – NOW I’M SHEDDING (12″ by Home Tapes)
Behind Shedding is Connor Bell from Louisville, Kentucky and this 12″
is, as far as I understand, recorded live one evening and just for
the sake of the 12″ cut in two. Bell’s music is built out of samples,
but he feeds them through software that was designed for him. That
results on this record into a strange mixture of Oval electronics, a
bit of techno rhythm, and twentieth century electronics and even a
dash of cosmic music. All of things are locked into a system that
seems to be feeding itself and which slowly builts layer upon layer,
and it’s on constant change of size, colour and shape. As the record
moves on, things become more and more interesting, and I wished I
could hear the full recording – maybe an idea for a CD release in the
future. Shedding is certainly a name to keep an eye open for. (FdW)
Address: http://www.home-tapes.com