PLURAMON -PICK UP CANYON (CD by Mille Plateaux)
Don’t know the exact wording of this, but it is probably
something like Post Krautrock, New Avant Garde Rock or
something. Bands like Tortoise and ui brought on a whole
new perspective on the classical rock bands. And they
remain up to date with arranging remixes by trip hoppers or
avant-technoids. The cover of Pluramon is nothing but a bad
collage thing. Whose behind this? No clue here. The only
thing I can say it has ex-Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit on one
track, and the thing is produced by Marcus Schrnickler
(renown POL member as well as a musician in his own right).
The three instruments that make up this record are guitars,
drums and the studio. There is more studio trickery going
on on this one then on your average indie record. Snippets
of sound are thrown in here and there, droning soundscapes
fill the background. What can I say? I haven’t been
properly listening to anything with drums ‘n guitars since
some doomy vocalist cornrnited suicide, but hey Tortoise
grew on me on too after a couple of listening hours. A
track like ‘Skala’ could have been Tortoise: opening with a
droning sound, loops over them and then them drums fade in
(darnrn it the next track has started). And now that I hear
Plurarnon for the third time, my feet start tapping along
with the rhythms. I wouldn’ ‘t be surprised is this will be
extensivly remixed by some trip hoppers. (FdW)
Address: <force@mail.pop-frankfurt.com>
SILK SAW -COME FREELY, GO SAFELY (CD by Sub Rosa)
Sub Rosa is one of the few labels that know how to blend
together the known and the unknown. They make a few buck
from Laswell and Brotzmann, in order to release Silk Saw,
to name one. Apparently some duo who use tons of samples,
mainly voices, which are laid over dark involving
synthesizers and equally dark percussion. If there is a
rhythm to it, then it is slow and dub/trip hop like. At
times reminding me of Laibach (such as in the intro of ‘The
Treasure’) in their use orchestral samples. Borrowing ideas
allover the place, this is still a convincing CD, with
tracks that work best if the the tracks get a chance to
develop. (FdW)
Address: Sub Rosa – P.O. Box 808 – CM 1000 Brussels –
Belgium
WAR SMASH HITS (CD by Sub Rosa)
War is reduced to a TV spectacle, or maybe even less. This
compilation is based upon the war in former Yugoslavia,
media war number 2, after the Gulf War, but what about
Burundi? To mention one… There are four bands, three of
them with pieces of over 12 minutes. Dutch band Kong opens
up. I am not really familiar with their older work, but
this sound alright. A dub like rhythm with strings and
sampled wind instruments. On top words and voices from
refugees (beyond recognition). Laswell in conjunction with
Jah Wobble, DJ Spooky and Tetsu Inoue (don’t understand why
he isn’t mentioned on the cover) have a fairly austere
piece of dub and bass playing with spooky sounds. Silk Saw
present a piece not dissimilar to their full length CD (see
elsewhere), so if you like what they are doing here then
get after the full length (or vice versa of course).
Laibach finally sample the orchestra once more for a
threatening piece. Wagner loved war, so does Laibach? Then,
after Laibach, there is a long gap of silence, followed by
a mystery track: a collage of sounds, people, cars and
other noises from the battlefield. Frightening stuff. We
enjoy CD’s and the music, yet war out there continues.
(FdW)
Address: see elsewhere
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES -MUSLIM GAUZE REMIX PROJECT (2CD by
STAALPLAAT)
The furore created by the book ‘The Satanic Verses’
resulted in me not only having to don a beard each time I
nip out for a pack of fags or a violent Hong Kong viddie;
it also meant that I had to apologise a lot to members of
the fastest growing religious cult for making a load of
dosh off what was perceived as an insult. I vowed then
never to write about anything muzzelmen again, but when
this double CD package arrived, quite mysteriously on my
desk, I realized I would have to stick my neck out, as it
were. A short while ago, well about a year, I guess, the
main purveyors of Mr Gauze’s endless emissions commissioned
a bunch of remixes from an interesting cross-section of
musicians/composers, who actually got it togetherr and
returned some material on DAT. The best were carefully
isolated and sequenced under two headings; Occupied Beats
and Occupied Frequencies. The first CD, not surprisingly,
has drums and stuff on it, with some beautiful
contributions from Sons Of Silence ( are we happy? ), Human
Beings open that filter, close that filter), o Yuki
Conjugate ( bit too long this one) and S.T.M.E. ( ripping,
angular drum and bass ).
LoSD end the first CD ( after a rather flabby contribution
by the Zion Trainers) with a slow languid valium trip-
hopperty type of a thing. Nonplace Urban Field, Drome by
another name, starts the second CD with a wonderful piece
which I much prefer to his other track in this pack.
zoviet*france plummet to the depths of bass with their
contribution and a certain Bryn Jones ( no relation to Tom)
provided two versions of Abuse. The first, which clocks in
at 1’40 is one of his better works, not because it is so
short but because it’s sounds so bloody good. People LIke
Us provide an uncharacteristic but reasonably effective
Muzzel Of Deceit and Panasonic close the set, sounding
quite unlike themselves…I mean there are other noises
besides a kikdrum Brightly packaged, something for
everyone, mostly good…in fact one of the better thematic
compilations I have heard this ear. ( Salmon Rusty)
JONTY HARRISON -ARTICLES INDEFINIS ( CD on Empreintes
Digitalis )
I watch this label like a hawk following some of their
earlier releases by Bobby Normandeau, Mickey Chion, Surge
Arcuri, Mrs Van De Gorme, Franky Dhomont and so on. They
specialize in electroacoustic works, which is a
classification that can be extended to include just about
anything, I guess. It is certainly a specialty of the
French both here and there (it is a Canadian label) so it
should come as no surprise to discover that Jonty is a
Pomme. He has won all sorts of prizes at the usual
competitions and has now been allowed to make a CD.
The first thing that struck me about it on first listening
was that electroacousticians everywhere may all be
resorting to the same methods of sound production…how
many times can you get away with rolling a marble around on
a tea tray, how many words are required to justify the
existence of music…how much longer will this review
continue… This CD shimmers with the multi-syllabilic
gloss of well-equipped studios…not just anybody can
afford to do this you know…with all the characteristic
processing and panning that digitization has made more
possible. I still love the idea of sourcing natural sounds
and turning them inside out to discover their intimate
bits.
My favorite track is the third one, titled ‘Unsound
objects’ which seems to have originated with sounds of
water. Jonty understands and explores sound and space with
a smooth familiarity and this track displays his prowess
reasonably well. However, my personal opinion is that
proceeding releases on this label were far superior ( check
out some of the above) and the fact that this comes
packaged in a user unfriendly designer type thing which is
bound to fray and eventually be replaced by a jewel case
does little to appease me. By the way, when do we get full-
length releses by Hildegard Westerkamp and Christine
Groult. Help me lobby by emailing Empreintes Digitalis at
the address below. (MP)
DAVID SHEA -121 (12 ” on Sub Rosa)
I read in an interview somewhere that Sub Rosa were
planning a foray into the terrain of petroleum by-products
with holes in the middle. Well they’ve done it and I cannot
help but wonder why. They chose for the occasion a couple
of obvious tracks off David Shea’s full-length CD ‘The
Tower Of Mirrors’ which came out earlier this year and
which I have just included in my top ten for 1996. Quite
frankly, I cannot see the point for the grooves as it
were…some slight augmentation and an additional fiddle do
not a record make…well, in this case I suppose they do.
Sub Rosa probably plan to release more on vinyl and
hopefully these will be better than what sounds like Muslim
gauze on speed. Sod this flexible object and get the whole
CD… it’s brilliant and you won’t miss a thing. (MP)