WILLIAM BASINSKI – VARIATIONS: A MOVEMENT IN CHROME PRIMITIVE (2xCD by Die Stadt)
OVRO & NIKO SKORPIO – LIVE IN PLACARD #7 (CD by Some Place Else)
STARUHA MHA – RUSALI (CD by Tantric Harmonies)
TOM CARTER & VANESSA ARN/THE MOGLASS – SNAKE TONGUED SWALLOW TAILED (CD by Nexsound)
STEINBRÜCHEL – SKIZZEN (CD by Bine Music)
ANDREW DEUTSCH & TONY CONRAD/MARC SCHULZ/ILYA MONOSOV (LP by Elevator Bath)
ORA – MORGENDAMMERUNG (10″ by Die Stadt)
MIRROR – PLACES OF LIGHT (LP by 3 Poplars/Die Stadt)
DAVID JACKMAN – EDGE OF NOTHING (10″ by Die Stadt)
THURSTON MOORE/JOHN WIESE – JONG/NEW WAVE DUST (7″ by Troniks)
ACCELERA DECK – SUNSTRINGS EP (CDR by Scarcelight Recordings)
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL – WITH MAPLES ABLAZE (CDR by Scarcelight Recordings)
TAPE THAT – AUTUMN COLLECTION (CDR by Humbug)
COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL VOL. 3 (CDR compilation by Humbug)
CHEFKIRK – SELECTION OF DOMESTIC PRODUCTS (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
CHEFKIRK – WESTERN GRIP (CDR by Tibprod)
DOUGLAS FERGUSON – LEXICAL PASSAGES (2xCDR by Evelyn Records)
SINDRE BJERGA – TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS (3″CDR by Tibprod)
TORE HONORE BOE – SUMMERTIME BLUES (CDR by Tibprod)
GIVE THE FINGER TO SPOILERS DISK VOL. 1 (CDR compilation by Mimi Records)
PELLARIN – S/T (OGG by Observatory)
D MINUM – SUNNY DAY COMPANION (OGG by Observatory)
WILLIAM BASINSKI – VARIATIONS: A MOVEMENT IN CHROME PRIMITIVE (2xCD by Die Stadt)
With the bankruptcy of the distributor World Serpent, also this release almost went away unnoticed. Luckily Durtro, home of Current 93, linked with Die Stadt and we can all enjoy Mr. Tibet’s enthusiasm for this work. Like many other works by William Basinski (mainly on his own 2062 label), it is based on old recordings. ‘Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive’ was recorded in 1981, using tape-loops (that ancient wording for ‘samples’ made with analogue tapes, mind you) of piano playing, which were ‘played randomly against themselves creating feedback loops’. Of course recorded with ancient equipment, but it adds, I think a distant quality to the music; distant, both in the way it sounds and distant in time. There is a certain reference to be made to Gavin Bryars or Harold Budd’s piano works, or even some Erik Satie on tape-loops. Each of the eight pieces move slowly forward and backwards, apperentely going nowhere in particular. Ambient music in the first degree. I was doing some manual labour, concentrated on what I was doing and Basinski filled the space with pace. Music for a cold night, with stars shining bright. Quite majestically music. Ambient music as Eno once intended. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
OVRO & NIKO SKORPIO – LIVE IN PLACARD #7 (CD by Some Place Else)
In a mostly boys controlled world of music and laptops, the few girls doing so get more and more attention. People like Kaffe Matthews, AGF and Maja Ratkje are already well-known, and upcoming stars are Iris Garrelfs and Ovro are upcoming. Music by Ovro has been discussed before (see Vital Weekly 395) and here she shares and album of live material with Niko Skorpio. Like I wrote before there are similarities between the sound of Ovro and AGF in a way that both deal with vocals, or maybe rather spoken words. Poetic electronic music. It’s hard to decipher what these poems are about, but hearing the somewhat darker undercurrents in her music I bet it’s not a happy worldview. The musical setting is mostly on the quieter side of electronics. After her live recording follows an improvised piece with Niko Skorpio, which combines the best of both worlds, but less the vocals. Niko Skorpio is an established artist on the Some Place Else label, and he uses sampling to a great extend with noise elements and slow rhythms. When Skorpio puts his Reptiljan cap on, things turn grim with a bunch of laptop grindcore. Two examples are enclosed here too. It makes the entire disc into a well-done, well varied bunch of electronic music by two of the more promising artists from Finland. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
STARUHA MHA – RUSALI (CD by Tantric Harmonies)
Just who or what is Staruha Mha, let alone what the name means, it’s all a mystery for me. Seeing this on Tantric Harmonies, I guess it’s just like label from Russia. On this lenghty CD with lenghty tracks, we find all things ambient and ritual. It’s hard to tell what it is they use soundwise, but my best guess is a bunch of old analogue synths, percussion, voices and above all sound effects through which all of this feeded. Most of the time things drone nicely away, even when the darkness is omnipresent – both in the music, aswell as in the package. Staruha Mha seems to draw their inspiration from nature, through pictures aswell as in their titles (‘Grasses’, ‘… And The Trees Woke Up’, ‘Bonfires On A Hil’), but musicwise they take their inspiration from old school ambient industrial music, such as Maeror Tri (more than they seem to be inspired by Troum), Illusion Of Safety, Yen Pox or very early Hazard. Dark and doomy autumn music. Not a big surprise, but definetely executed with some care, and that’s worth something too these days. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pretentious.net/tantric-harmonies
TOM CARTER & VANESSA ARN/THE MOGLASS – SNAKE TONGUED SWALLOW TAILED (CD by Nexsound)
A split CD between two kinda similar projects, or at least they run similar ideas. Tom Carter (known from the ‘improvising psychedelic folk’ group Charalambides) on lap steel guitar and Vanessa Arn on the triwave tone generator versus The Moglass, a post-rock group from Ukraine. Both dwell on ‘sustaining sounds’, but these sustaining sounds are generated on guitars, at least most of the time. The triwave generator is a self-built synthesizer and sound in combination with the lap steel guitar sound really beautiful. The sound is very open and spacious, while long sustaining sounds float by like silent space ships or falling stars. Music in which nothing much seems to be happening, but which has a great impact.
In The Moglass sound guitars play an important role, but also one can synthesizers, taped radio sounds, all of which are created via improvisations. Instead of leaping into a bunch of noise, they create dense but gentle clouds of atmospheric music. Maybe some of the improvisations are a bit too carefully constructed, in which they take too much time to make their point, but the space is weightless enough here. Both projects play around with the notions of ambient post rock music with a cinematographic edge. Perfect music for a roadmovie. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
STEINBRÜCHEL – SKIZZEN (CD by Bine Music)
The press message says something about this being the second full length solo album Steinbrüchel. I find that hard to believe, since I would have thought there would be more music by Ralph Steinbrüchel. No doubt the blurb is right. ‘Skizzen’ is the German word for sketches and the thirty pieces on this disc are surely sketches. However I must say that I also think that the word sketches is not a good one. If I hear the word Sketches it sounds like ‘throwaway’, something that is not very serious, scribbled on a piece of paper, not worth of releasing. And all of these qualifications are not the case with the thirty pieces by Steinbrüchel. They are carefully constructed small pieces of laptop electronica. Each one carries his own signature, setting themselves aside from the others. The smallest particles made audible, soft crackles and a deep end bass sound. The sounds that Steinbrüchel uses may not be the newest around as this is high glitch land territory here, but over the years he has developped enough skills to make small, interesting pieces of music which don’t deserve the name sketches. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.de
ANDREW DEUTSCH & TONY CONRAD/MARC SCHULZ/ILYA MONOSOV (LP by Elevator Bath)
Most drone music is playing the ‘soft’ card, meaning it’s there to please the listener. This never seems to be the case with the music of Tony Conrad. I readily admit that I haven’t kept up with all his works to date, but what I heard certainly has an aggressive edge to it. And this recording is maybe the heigth of it. Side A has the recording made by Andrew Deutsch and Tony Conrad from ‘a few years back’ and if I understand correctly about thirty other people play on this record. Conrad’s violin is upfront, fiery loud, dirty and noisy. Apart from some distant drums (original tapes were VHS mono) it’s hard to recognize anything else in this recording – maybe more violins? Maybe other stuff to make drones? It’s hard to tell. This side is an excellent example of how loud minimal music can be.
On the b-side we find two ‘remixes’ of the work, although Marc Schulz refers to his as a ‘rework’: ‘playing ping-pong with the recorded original material leads me to another piece’. I don’t think I am aware with ‘playing ping-pong with the original source’, but it seems that he sped up the sound, with the same loudness as a result, but not the same tension. Something similar can be said of Ilya Monosov’s remix. He plays the original recording in a park using a ‘koto, some rusty bells, whistles. flutes and other toys’ but the addition of bird calls and wind doesn’t add much tension to the recording. Maybe some stuff is just beyond remixing. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elevatorbath.com
ORA – MORGENDAMMERUNG (10″ by Die Stadt)
MIRROR – PLACES OF LIGHT (LP by 3 Poplars/Die Stadt)
Drone music of a ‘softer’ kind here. Ora was Darren Tate and Colin Potter, sometimes with other people to join in (like Daisuke Suzuki and Lol Coxhill on the A-side of this record). The recordings on this 10″ were made in 1997 and previously released on a limited CDR. ‘The Sun Sheds A Golden Tear’ uses field recordings of thunder and rain, electronically transformed and seeing the addition of whispering voices and an occassional bang on metal. Dark and moody but haunting as always. On the B-side is ‘The Impregnable’, which is a more monolithic piece of what sounds like slowed down saxophone sounds (but Lol is only on the A-side) that are treated in various ways, all of these processings being closely related to eachother. Two different sides of the same coin. Nice record.
I didn’t count the Mirror LP’s until now, but ‘Places Of Light’ might the thirteenth or so. I can imagine that some people will find that too many, but I think there is still enough variation going on in the Mirror sound to keep things interesting. On this new one, I must say that I found the material ‘light’ and not really ‘dark’, even when some darker undercurrents remain active in their music. Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk however play the higher end of the keys available on what sounds otherwise as a more synthesized record than some of the ones before. The side with the black label has three shorter pieces and the white label side has one long piece. Field recordings doesn’t seem to be present. All of these subtle changes makes this into a somewhat different record than the ones before and therefore is another treasure to keep. Ora and Mirror: two standouts in the world of drone. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
DAVID JACKMAN – EDGE OF NOTHING (10″ by Die Stadt)
I can’t remember what I got first: ‘The Elephant Table Album’, a double LP compilation with some of the nicest industrial music from 1984 or Organum’s ‘In Extremis’. Likewise I can’t remember wether I already was aware of the fact that Jackman was Organum. I do remember that I liked ‘The Elephant Table Album’ but that ‘In Extremis’ blew me away. The scraping sound of metal on metal, slowed down perhaps, layered made a frighting impression but I loved it all the same. On this 10″ Jackman returns to his compilation contribution which sounds like recorded on the same day as ‘In Extremis’. He uses the original material to create two tracks, which last each 6.29 minutes. The memory works in such a way that it is hard to tell wether it’s the same track twice, or that the differences are just very subtle. After all these years and Organum/Jackman records it’s hard to say that shock is still the same, but as a far as these ears go: I am still fascinated by this sound, which after all the years sound fresh to me. If the Tony Conrad record mentioned elsewhere is a manifestation of aggressive minimal drone music than David Jackman is his running mate. Awesome. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
THURSTON MOORE/JOHN WIESE – JONG/NEW WAVE DUST (7″ by Troniks)
The good thing about some famous rock stars is their ability to play in different and difficult other areas of music instead of sipping cocktails near the swimming pool. Perhaps Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore has no pool but in his spare time he plays improvised music. On ‘Jong’ he uses a hospital bleep, feedback and guitarsounds to create an intense interwoven pattern of sound. Definetely no flatliner.
On the other side John Wiese, who is only a star in the smaller areas of industrial noise music. He does whatever he always seems to be doing and that is bringing a good fair portion of noise alive. In all it’s conciseness and consequent approach four minutes and twenty-two seconds seems to the right for such a noise anthem. (FdW)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com
ACCELERA DECK – SUNSTRINGS EP (CDR by Scarcelight Recordings)
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL – WITH MAPLES ABLAZE (CDR by Scarcelight Recordings)
Two more recent releases on Chris Jeely’s (Accelera Deck’s) Scarcelight Recordings. One of them is his own called ‘Sunstrings’ EP, but it’s almost 50 minutes. It says on the cover that Chris uses guitar, oscillator and computer. The guitar sound can be heard in the second most noisy track, but it’s hardly recognizable (or not at all) in the others. The first and the last track (there are 3 titles on the cover and 4 tracks on the cd) are along the lines of the cut-up glitchy/noisy sound, like Pita or like Evol’s release on Scarcelight, but with different dynamics and means. Accelera Deck is more comfortable on the impressionistic side of noise here, or in a more musical term that would be a special kind of shoegaze noise, with much more lap-top, cut-up and more thrown around then the regular, of course. The third track is very short, only few seconds, so maybe that doesn’t count as a track? I don’t know, but I like it as the others. My Bloody Valentine should like this too (and Sonic Youth could learn few nice noisy tricks).
If I understand correctly, Birchville Cat Motel’s main person is Campbell Kneale, but on this CD there are exactly 27 people who have contributed to the music. Some of them contribute with strange things, like Reynols who are credited with ‘reynols’! Other names I recognize are Bruce Russell (fire), Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar; that’s a bit simple for him, if it’s without a sabre?), Ralf Wehowsky (tapes, electronics) and others who are credited with: electric guitar, field recordings, loops, tapes, boiling water, pulse and drone, harmonium, tones, broken amplifier, drums, synths, vocals, metal, feedback, diseased cdrs, violin, piano accordion, contact microphones, radio (that’s almost everything)… Campbell Kneale plays on/with junk, field recordings, baby monitors and percussion. Too much things but don’t let that full you. The sound of this release is mostly quite silent. In a drone areas, maybe low-drones, sometimes made of stretched distant atmospheric sounds and field recordings, sometimes with percussions culminating in fury and adding a bit of tribal… It’s quite good. Mostly it’s coming from a distance and I like that. Distant drones well combined with field recordings that add a natural even rural moment there. The combination is good and it sounds interesting. (BR)
Address: http://www.scarcelight.org
TAPE THAT – AUTUMN COLLECTION (CDR by Humbug)
COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL VOL. 3 (CDR compilation by Humbug)
Not sure if Tape That is a boy band too, meaning they are handsome young man, but it is a funny name of course. Tape That is Koen Nutters on prepared contrabass, minidiscs and objects and Christophe Meierhans on sampler and minidisc. Together they have taped a wide variety of sounds on a wide variety of locations. We hear the reverb of a large building, cars passing, things falling on the floor etc. All in a somewhat rhythmical way (but not unlike that stupid theatre thing called ‘Stomp’ in case anyone knows that), mainly due to the possibilities of letting the minidisc loop nicely. It seems to me, though I am not entirely sure about this, that the two worked individually on their own field recordings and then sat down and played it in an improvising manner together on a third recording device. Instead of carefully placing it on a multi-track harddisc recorder, this is a more and intimate improvisation of tapes being played layered together. Dislocated sounds from various places melt together as one.
Tape That are not featured on Humbug’s latest CDR compilation. Improvisational musics seem to play an important role here. There is of course the loud and abbrassive sound of Phô, but also the careful feedback and acoustic objects piece by Moth or the guitar playing by Lunt. Many new names again, such as Violets Rock N Roll, Maskinanlegg, Anders Hana, Ryfylke (who are quite noisy), Excepter, OvO, Raisonbashi, Wawa – in fact I just recognized the names of Phô and Idea Fire Company, who offer a lengthy live improvisation. Nice new encounters, as always. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm
CHEFKIRK – SELECTION OF DOMESTIC PRODUCTS (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
CHEFKIRK – WESTERN GRIP (CDR by Tibprod)
And Chefkirk… well, Chefkirk just goes on. Here on a new label from Danmark, presenting twelve of his shorter rhythm & noise pieces. Computer manipulations play of course the leading part in this music. In ‘Analog Of Variations’ we hear field recordings leaking through all the plug ins, and that is a rare thing for the music of Chefkirk. Normally his manipulations are taken to an extreme level, and nothing of the original can be recognized. Although I must admit that I find it hard to point out the exact changes in his work, overall the recent Chefkirk output has gained a certain power. It seems as though Roger Smith puts in more and more thought in music, trying to get some structure to it, making it more and more interesting for the listener and not just for the musician. Noise is his main thing still, but he’s getting there to balance it.
The other new Chefkirk is on the more known Tibprod label and it seems that Smith is here in a more noise oriented mood. There seems to somewhat more distortion going on than on ‘Selection Of Domestic Products’, but it’s still a good size of rhythmical destruction aswell. The much needed level of balance, at least for this listener is a bit gone here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.organicpipeline.com
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
DOUGLAS FERGUSON – LEXICAL PASSAGES (2xCDR by Evelyn Records)
For me the name Douglas Ferguson is new and other than that he has released on Distillery Records and Black Orchid (both of which I didn’t hear before), this release on Evelyn Records may serve as a lengthy introduction. It seems that Ferguson knows and likes his ambient classics. The opening piece is a shimmering play of organ like sounds and far away guitar notes. A pretty strong opening piece. But throughout the first disc the guitar plays a more and more important role and where it is embedded in a long line of delay and reverb and the tinkling is free, but towards the end there are some tracks in which he shows too much his love for the use of e-bows and psychedelica runs high here. However the second disc of the set makes things up. Here in three lenghty tracks, although in total shorter than the first disc, the ambient card is played via the use of synthesized sounds – at least, so it seems – and is of a somewhat darker nature but performed with great care. All in all quite an ok release, with some lesser tracks at the end of the first disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.evelynrecords.cjb.net
SINDRE BJERGA – TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS (3″CDR by Tibprod)
TORE HONORE BOE – SUMMERTIME BLUES (CDR by Tibprod)
The reason that I was less convinced about the double CDR by Bjerga and Iversen last week, didn’t mean I should forget to list their release in the list of contents, but I did. This week sees a much more interesting solo release by Sindre Bjerga. He’s one half of Fibo Trespo and runs the Gold Soundz label. I am told that many of his tracks take up to twenty minutes, so the format of 3″ CDRs is well spend on him. Although it’s unclear what his sound input is, Bjerga seems to be improvising around here with electronics and percussion elements. Although two distinct sources, the two swirl nicely in and out of the mix. Sometimes the electronic element is stronger than the other and there is some extensive use of reverb. One could even say it’s a far cry to the well-known David Jackman sound, or rather his Organum sound, in the areas of ‘Vacant Lights’. Quite nice, this one.
Also quite nice is the release by Tore Honore Boe. On the cover of this CDR we find the cryptic note: ‘for the realisation ov this project, Tore went swimming’. The one piece is called ‘Even Poolboys Get The Blues’ (subtitled: ‘Opus for longing loins, fm synthesizes and blending outside) on this CDR starts out with a short sample that is being repeated ad infinitum. Over the course of thirty-five minutes two grainy, low resolution samples are added, one on the right side and one on the left. Nothing much else, until things slow down towards the end. Simplistic one might say, but played at a somewhat higher volume this is certainly a most captivating piece of minimal music, but it stretches the level of what the listener can handle to considerable length. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
GIVE THE FINGER TO SPOILERS DISK VOL. 1 (CDR compilation by Mimi Records)
Mimi Records brings us ‘various artists from the land of the rising sun’, as the subtitle goes for this compilation. Ha, Japan, land of the rising noise, Merzbow, Masonna, KK Null and Aube. None of these on this compilation, not even noise here. Instead we find Duff, Umbrella_Process, @mu:le, Bathroom Orchestra, Count Zero, YeeM, BrandCafeClub, Electron and Irish. None of these names I encountered before. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that it’s one person who did all the music under various names. Sampling and electro-pop play the headlines here, with occassional leaps to electronic body music as the piece by Stingray, or the cheesy pop by Bathroom Orchestra, the arabic sounding YeeM or the sampled Dead Can Dance versus jazz of Count Zero. This is actually quite a funny compilation (if indeed it is, I still have my doubts) of sampling madness. The names may mean nothing, but it’s funny and sweet release throughout. Nothing new, but sweet indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
PELLARIN – S/T (OGG by Observatory)
D MINUM – SUNNY DAY COMPANION (OGG by Observatory)
More new music from the nice label Observatory, a net-companion to the regular Austrian label Skylab Operations. I assume they get much more good demos than they can affort to release CDs or vinyls, so the music appears as ogg-EPs in Observatory’s catalogue. When I think of this, I’ll send a demo to them soon and if I see my tracks on Observatory it’ll be a small dream come true.
Pellarin is not a new name for me. I know him from the previous very good album on Couchblip!, where he presented a well balance of twisted beats, ambient and clicky buzz. Some like to compare Pellarin and many others with Autechre. And I’m always confused when someone compares something with Autechre. Not everything sounds like them. The first track from Pellarin here is too techno for him, and not much to my liking. But the second and the third are superb and excellent idm ambient. Along the lines of the new production, like Maps+Diagrams, and in the third collaborative track with Tigerbaby there’s a singing vocal. That’s new to Pellarin, getting close to Mum. Great track and good decision to add a voice.
Not at all like Autechre is or are D_Minum. You should check the greatly designed site of Observatory for more info about the person(s) behind this name. If comparing is needed, it can be said D_Minum are close to the sensibility of Pram. But, on the other hand, there are many similar bands, styles and musical expressions. So we shouldn’t stick too much to the comparisons. D_Minum’s sound is more plain, reaching the atmosphere without much complexity or drama. Not dramatic at all. Wraping you with simplicity, pure pop ambient, easy-going rhythm appearing… Yes, I know, Opiate is a good comparison for this. But not the same, of course. (BR)
Address: http://www.observatoryonline.org