IN THERE (CD compilation by T&B)
I’m not into hypes… so the easy tune business is one
big soap for me. Bored people in their 30s who have
nothing better to do then jump on the next bandwagon and
make a buck out of it. ‘In There’ is the successor to
‘Out There’ a double CD that explored the avant-garde
end of current dance music and ‘In There’ explores
“Mutant Pop Hybrids”, whatever that is. According to the
cover it is ‘anything goes’ time this time around.
Anything goes into any direction, musical genres seem to
blend, to mix together. So we have the Lisa Carbon Trio
(a.k.a. Atom Heart) with a jazzy outing, something more
similar by The Connection Machine, Fantastico (a.k.a.
Kirlian) exploring jazzy rhythms (but sound oddly enough
quite acoustic). More in the easy tune area is Klute,
and Sir Julian’s cover of Caravan is recorded in 1960,
but sound as recorded last year. Sounds Of Life on the
other hand explore the armchair jungle/drum and bass.
Let’s see what are missing? Oh yes reggae dub by ti and
true organic ambient etno by Jorge Reyes. As you see
anything goes on this sort of comps and it sure doesn’t
sound odd or misplaced. So this is one to have during a
hot summer night, and it’s enough. (FdW)
Address: c/o Renegade House -5/6 Broughton Place Lane –
Edinburgh EH1 3RS – United Kingdom
VROMB -LE FACTEUR HUMAIN (CD by Ant-Zen)
On the rapidly growing catalogue of one of the nicest
‘Limited editions’ labels around there is the second CD
by Vromb. The theme is around one Heurel Gaudot whose
narrative and written actions acts as the human element
to the Vromb experience. The ‘Human Factor’ ‘represents
the active human implication in it’s musical conception,
be these actions executed in simple fragments or on a
tonal basis’ .I am not sure what it means in relation
with what is offered on disc. The music sound at times
outdated -at least 10 years old industrial music. The
voice in the first track reminded me of Etat Brut (hey,
but who remembers them?), some of the analog synths
sound as old. This may sound negative -but in fact I was
enjoyed by this CD as, unlike many of Vromb’s ancestors,
this didn’t sound too monotone and offered enouqh
variety to attract my attention for a whole CD. And, as
with most of Ant Zen’s packaging, excellent artwork.
(FdW) Address: S. Alt – Lessingstr. 7A – 93049
Regensburg – Germany
LT CARAMEL -J’AI 10 DOIGTS (CD by Sounds For
Consciousness Rape)
LT Caramel has been around the musique concrete scene
for the last 10 years or so and represent the younger
generation. Their music is a rapid collage of sound and
spoken word, with a humorous edge to it. This new CD
(which title translates as ‘I have 10 fingers’) has 3
long pieces. The first piece, ‘La Primitive’ deals with
Cezanne, and appears to be some sort of sound track (I
wish these booklets were in English however) and is
built around voices, sounds of insects (plus of course
others I fail to recognize) The title piece is a
‘respectful homage to Beethoven’ and his ‘Bagatelles’ as
played by Glen Gould form the origins of this piece. As
you ought to know Glen Gould was obsessed by studio
techniques to record classical pieces, thus giving them
the best performance possible. I am not sure how this
translates to this piece. Sounds from keys, handclaps,
voices are sampled and stretched. The final piece,
‘L’Enfer Est On Petit Debut ou Messe Des Pauvres’ (hell
is a small debut or Mass of the poor) is again one of
historical references. It was composed for the 500th
birthday of Rabelais (famous French catholic) and the
Mass Of The Poor is also the name of a requiem composed
by Erik Satie. The pieces uses 5 parts, in text by
Rabelais (plus texts from his book ‘Gargantuee et
Pantgruel), from a requiem: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,
Sanctus and the Agnus Dei. It is slightly reminiscent to
the ‘Requiem’ by Michel Chion: disturbing musique
concrete (though maybe not as violent as Chion) and
electronic passages set to religious text. Certainly not
as ‘poor’ sounding as the Satie piece (this should not
be regarded as a negative qualification -Satie’s poor
men’s Mass is a masterpiece!) Lt. Caramel produced an
interesting CD, showing much respect to tradition in the
widest sense of the word. Much recommended. (FdW)
Address: SFCR -c/o Stephane Santini -77bis Abbe de
L’epee -33000 Bordeaux – France
MAEROR TRI -EXORBITANT (7″ by Ant-Zen)
The rapidly growing fame of this trio bring a nice
onslaught of releases. This 7″ shows two sides of their
ambient & industrial sound. The A-side consists of
phased drones from which guitar sounds arise. The B-side
has guitar plucking over a set of drones and dark
percussion sounds. It certainly lives up to the title
‘Industrial Meditation’ (although maybe more to the
first word then the second). A huge wall of sound. On
delicious white vinyl with nice print work. Excellent
stuff. Addressl see elsewhere
CAUL -CRUCIBLE (CD by Malignant)
A while ago I reviewed another CD by Malignant by the
unknown band Yen Pox. That one was in dark ambient
territory. Now Malignant comes up with an equally
unknown band in virtually the same territory, and of
equal high quality. No information is given on the
cover, except for track titles and address, so I can
safely assume the idea is to focus on the music
entirely. As said Caul operates in a dark atmosphere.
Synth lines playing sparse melodies, drones, heavily
reverbed bangs and hums create a haunting, desolate feel
that remains unbroken throughout. Do not expect a sudden
chance or outburst. This is not innovative music, but if
you are into say Lustmord meeting Thomas Koner at the
graveyard, then this is the right place to end. (FdW)
Address: MlgnantRec@aol.com