PORT-ROYAL – FLARES (CD by Resonant)
BLINDFOLD – BLINDFOLD (CD by Resonant)
OLVIS – THE BLUE SOUND (CD by Resonant)
PRESENT – A GREAT INHUMANE ADVENTURE (CD on Cuneiform)
THE END – THE SICK GENERATION (CD by Hymen Records)
DEAD HOLLYWOOD STARS – SMOKE AND MIRRORS (CD by Hymen Records)
YUKO NEXUS6 – NEXUS6 SONG BOOK (CD by Sonore)
ERNIE ALTHOFF – DARK BY 6 (CD by Ant-boy Music)
KOMPJOTR EPLEKTRIKA – REDISETKOMPJOTRALLESKLAAREPLEKTRIKA (CD by Oscillatone Recordings)
THE NEW HEAT/OBSCURED BY LIGHT (split LP by Oscillatone Recordings)
BOVAFLUX – WHERE THERE WAS NOTHING (CD by Highpoint Lowlife)
M2 – THE FROZEN SPARK (CD by Ant Zen Recordings)
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP – ZAP MEEMEES (CD by Sonore)
NEGATIVE ENTROPY – MS STUBNITZ STOCKHOLM 9.7.98 (CD by Absurd/Utan Titel)
NON TOXIQUE LOST – OGRE-SSE (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
FRIEDER BUTZMANN – WÜNDERSCHONE RÜCKKOPPELUNGEN (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS – WELTEN/WORLD/OHONTSA’SHON:’A (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
WAHRNEHMUNGEN 1980-1981 (3LP plus 7″ boxset by Vinyl On Demand)
EGO TWISTER PARTY RUINERS VOL.1 (LP by Ego Twister)
KNORMALITIES V.3 (7″ by Dephine Knormal Music)
TROUM – OBJECTLESSNESS (CDR by Mystery Sea)
PISTOLDISCO – MUSIC!! (CDR by Push The Button Records)
F.U.S. – TINEA VERSICOLOR (CDR by Snip-snip Records)
ZENDEE – LIVE IN LUBLIN (MP3 by Audio Tong)
PORT-ROYAL – FLARES (CD by Resonant)
BLINDFOLD – BLINDFOLD (CD by Resonant)
OLVIS – THE BLUE SOUND (CD by Resonant)
Port-royal are Genoa based guitar collective. Their first EP was issued non Italian label Marsiglia Records in 2002 and after couple years of home recordings they completed “Flares”. They seem to be post rock band. Reminds of post rock ambient bands like Labradford, Pan American, Yellow 6, Aix Em Klemm, Windy & Carl, Loscil, Aarctica and all that Kranky esoteric post rock movement from around 2000. Post rock as a term is a bit passed but at least we can define this album as ethereal electronic music. Long ambient passages are to close up cold isolationistic atmosphere. They also use electronic beats into his guitar driven ambience as well as subtle spoken vocal samples. But at the end we can still define it as post rock, as all previous mentioned projects are or were post rock.
Another Icelandic debut album on resonant this time signed by Biggi from Ampop aka Blibfold. Another album full of emotive, warm but melancholic atmosphere that only cold and dry Icelandic environment can give. Sigur Ros or maybe Mum but with even more pop approach. Melancholic electronic pop with acoustic elements and textured arrangements. Maybe already a cliché. Think of Autres Directions In Music and best moments of Morr Music or City Centres Offices. Maybe here you’ll remind of Ulrich Schnaus or maybe Isan and Manual, but all that combined with Icelandic atmosphere. Vocals are also here, stretched into long unrecognizable moans. It’s all written in small studio with Rhodes piano, juno synthesizer, guitars, p.c. and a mixer without any previous idea about what will happen, just with feeling to canalize all uncomfortable emotions into nice music. And it all happened.
Fourteenth release on resonant is second album by Orlygur Thor Orlygsson AKA Olvis 26 year old philosophy student from Reykjavik who has been interested in music for half of his life. “The Blue Sound” follows on from where first stopped. And where is that? Think about Mark Sandman or Brendan Perry singing on Icelandic over mellow, warm, emotional, melodic electronica and epic orchestration. Calm twinkling melodies are raising from real instruments layered with subtle organic electronica and effects. There are also many guests on this album including people from Sigur Ros which give explanation why this album have their sensibility. Most of the tracks are instrumental with calming effect. Total intelligent chilling ambient atmosphere. And from the other side tracks with vocals are intensively suggestive. This album has potential to be one of most interesting for this year. (TD)
Address: http://www.resonantlabel.com
PRESENT – A GREAT INHUMANE ADVENTURE (CD on Cuneiform)
I’m not sure whether releases on Cuneiform Records were ever reviewed for the Vital Weekly. So may be a few words on this label to start with. Steven Feigenbaum started it in 1984. Before he ran the small Random Radar Records together with the Muffins. In it’s 20 years of existence the Cuneiform label profiled itself with releases that cover progressive and experimental rock, new jazz, off_beat, contemporary and other undefinable music. All this with new releases on the one hand (Curlew, Hamster Theatre, Ahvak, etc.) and with archival releases on the other hand (Soft Machine, Richard Pinhas, Stickmen, etc.).
Their third release was the second album by Present called ‘Le poison qui rend fou’ (1985), later to be rereleased together with their first album on cd. Present is the project led by the belgian guitarist and composer Roger Trigaux, who started his career as a member of Univers Zero (also on Cuneiform). Now, some 20 years later Cuneiform offers their 4th Present-release, being the 8th album by this enigmatic group. Since the belgian Lowlands label premiered in 1993 with the come-back cd ‘COD Performance’, an album by Trigaux and son, Present started a very remarkable second life. If you classify them as a avant rock, RIO-styled, group you may think this is music from the past. But let me assure you that Present’s music no doubt still is very much music from now. The group has a ‘présence’ that offers you no escape. With each album Present leads us further into their dark and hellish universe. Yes, they are still growing in my view. Knowing this group for more than 20 years I was incredible happy to have the opportunity to see them live at last. This was in june in a basement in the centre of Bruxelles. They surpassed all my expectations. What a great band! All musicians were very dedicated, including the new reed player Pierre Desassis. The music is of a great urgency and has a great emotional impact. Their compositions are immediately catching, how complex the polyrhythmic structures may be. The live experience makes clear this is a real rock band who avoid fortunately all of the rock and roll cliches. So I’m happy their new album ‘A great inhumane adventure’ is a live album. The excellent recordings were made in Baltimore during their tour in 1998.
The album opens with ‘Delusions’ from their – at that moment – most recent lp ‘Certitudes’ (1997). It closes with their classic ‘Promenade au fond d’un canal’ from their first lp. In between we find three compositions from the second, third and fourth album. Comparing them the compositional homogenity and continuity is striking.
We hear Trigaux and son dueling on guitar. Pierre Chevalier on keyboards. Jean-Pierre Mendes on bass, replaced by Keith Macksoud in the last track . He is Present’s recent bassplayer. Drummer is Dave Kerman we know form 5UU’s, U Totem, etc.
In most compositions Trigaux leads us step to step to a climax. Repetitive patterns are hammered out furiously on drums, bass and keyboards. Trigaux and son weave their guitar threads into the rhythmic patterns. At moments the music reaches an breathtaking intensity and incredible depth. Are there no weak spots, you may ask? Off course there are. Trigaux is not the greatest singer, like for example in the ballad ‘Alone’. But halfway the track accelerates into a burning instrumental journey. Present offers some of the most intelligent and appealing rock music you can want for the 21st century. (DM)
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com
THE END – THE SICK GENERATION (CD by Hymen Records)
Debut album by The End (a.k.a. Charles Pierce) titled “Science/Fiction”, was very well received when it were released back in 2002. Apart from a few tracks by Charles Pierre himself, this latest release titled “The Sick Generation” consists of remixes by a number of Artists from the breakbeat-scene delivering a full-throttle explosion of stylistic freakout-versions of tracks by “The End”. Generally we are facing infernal breakcore blended with masses of cut-up samples first of all relating to the sound of the sixties. In fact, the album cover gives us a good impression of what to expect from the inside album: a comic-like picture that could have been taken from a comic strip of one of the old action heroes such as Batman or James Bond etc. There is a gangster-sort of atmosphere in the music first of all thanks to the heavily twanging guitars, the soul horns, and the general surf sound on the album. Some tracks, the final track in particular, are built on Big beat-rhythms that with the James Bond-alike background theme reminds a lot of 1998-album “Decksanddrumsandrockandroll” by Propellerheads. On the breakbeat-side the rhythms range from jazzy Squarepusher-like textures to insane breakcore. Interesting album! (NMP)
Address: http://www.klangstabil.com/hymen
DEAD HOLLYWOOD STARS – SMOKE AND MIRRORS (CD by Hymen Records)
This is certainly an unusual release by German technoid label Hymen Records! Third album by Dead Hollywood Stars is very much based on acoustic expressions. Brain-man behind the project Dead Hollywood Stars is John Sellekaers who is best known for his quite different electronic project Xingu Hill. On this Cd-Ep, Sellekaers has joined forces with two acoustic instrumentalists. Guitarist Quentinne de Hemptinne plays his instrument in a long gone western style meanwhile drummer Alex Grousset keeps the rhythmic texture on the album at a cool and relaxed pace. The overall expression comes out as a blend of authentic Americana meeting chilling ambient. As said a quite unusual experience from the ambient side of electronic music (NMP)
Address: http://www.klangstabil.com/hymen
YUKO NEXUS6 – NEXUS6 SONG BOOK (CD by Sonore)
Quite some time ago, in Vital Weekly 365 I review a strange CD, ‘Journal De Tokyo’ by one Yuko Nexus6, from Hikone, Japan. It was a kind of manipulated sound picture of daily life in Tokyo. It was a conceptual interesting CD, that at the same time sounded great too. On her new CD ‘Nexus6 Song Book’, she goes again conceptual: singing jazz, folk and traditional standards in Japanese, English and German, and doing that in her entire own free manner. Cheap recording equipment is used, as well as high brow devices. The voice is the thing that gets manipulation here, but it never stands in the way of recognizing what the voice is about, that is, if you have mastered the Japanese (the other two languages are harder to decipher). Yuko Nexus6 sings songs by Chopin, Friedrich Hollaender, Japanese ones but also ‘He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ – translated in Japanese and with a slightly different melody and reversed singing. Like her previous album, this is another strange affair. Maybe a bit long too, for what it is, because at a certain point the careful singing gets too ‘careful’. But reading a few songs from this book every now and then, wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonore.com
ERNIE ALTHOFF – DARK BY 6 (CD by Ant-boy Music)
Although the name Ernie Althoff might be new to you (it is to me), he is active, mainly around Melbourne Australia since the mid-seventies, when he bought his first ‘vari-speed cassette recorder’. Since then he works as an improviser/composer/performer and instrument builder. The latter is the subject on ‘Dark By 6’, his third solo CD. All of the five pieces found here were derived from sound installations he made, some pictures and descriptions are included in the booklet, which is a fine thing, because it would have to figure what it is that we are hearing. Record players, radios, tinplate bells, bamboo and wire: they are all used (not at the same time). The pieces work out as minimalist constructions, seemingly without too much change, but that is not the idea of a sound installation, I think. Once set in motion, the installation follows it’s course, people walk in, have a listen and then move on again, so it’s perhaps only natural that things remain ‘the same’ throughout. On this CD, each of the sound fragments lasts around twelve minutes, which might be a bit extensive (or not long enough, depending on which point you take), but it’s certainly a most relaxing, almost ambient-without-synthesizers work, very much Steve Roden-like. Would be nice to see in real, even when that seems impossible. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antboymusic.com
KOMPJOTR EPLEKTRIKA – REDISETKOMPJOTRALLESKLAAREPLEKTRIKA (CD by Oscillatone Recordings)
THE NEW HEAT/OBSCURED BY LIGHT (split LP by Oscillatone Recordings)
Two new releases on what could be a very exciting new Swedish label: the packaging looks most promising. Behind Kompjotr Eplektrika is one Monsieur Elektrigato, of whom I never heard. The descriptions in the press blurb are, to say the least, a bit strange, but it reads ‘low-frequent heavy mental defunct sinewaves’, and that could provide a hint or two. In the ten tracks rhythm plays an important role, and it’s a rhythm that is minimalist, steady, blown up by feeding the rhythm into a bunch of analogue synthesizers. At times reminding the listener of old Panasonic, old Noto, old Goem or new Henrik Rylander. But the rhythms do not all seem to be have shaped of sine waves, it could easily be as well some sort of slowed down sample of a pop record. Not every track is great, with some misses here, but throughout this is a deep end, bass heavy excursion. Kompjotr Eplektrika like their sound to be mean and heavy. Nice debut.
On the same label a split LP by The New Heat and Obscured By Light. The New Heat is Nina Canell and Robin Williams. Obscured By Light is Nina Canell and Robin Williams. Yes, that’s twice the same people, but the results are so different that choosing two different names is indeed a very wise idea. As The New Heat they play songs, on drums, guitars, organs and vocals (and more things with keys, really). Dreamy and spacy stuff going on here, a bit Windy and Carl like, but with enough ideas of their own, as-well as enough (as in more) variation in choosing different sounds. Intimate, new-folky electronica in which drones play a considerable role. As Obscured By Light however they do something completely different. It’s an ‘object-based sound installation’, and the music, although one piece, was recorded in sections between September 2004 and January 2005. Pretty much similar instruments, but also milk caps, bucket, radio and a portable chair were used. The resultant twenty minutes is a collage of drone like sounds, synthesizer bleeps, radio static and more some such, but somehow fails to leave a great impression. Too hasty, too much of hotch-potch of sound. Maybe viewing the installation would help… (FdW)
Address: http://www.oscillatone.com
BOVAFLUX – WHERE THERE WAS NOTHING (CD by Highpoint Lowlife)
By day Eddie Symons works as a video game programmer, by night he is Bovaflux, cranking out playful electronic music. So far his releases have been for his Struktur and [d]-tached, but ‘Where There Was Nothing’ is his full-length debut album. Listening to the eleven pieces gathered on this disc, it’s no surprise that Highpoint Lowlife is releasing this. A lazy laid-back dubby rhythm, melancholic piano’s, digital clicks alongside with warm melodies on a bunch of digital synthesizers: influences of the entire Highpoint Lowlife catalogue runs here, as-well as Isan (or loads of the early Morr Music catalogue), Funckarma, Benge and others on Expanding Records. As such this release is of course no surprise in it’s kind, as Bovaflux sounds very much along the lines of so many others, but it’s well-crafted, flowing nicely, and most importantly, it holds enough variation to maintain a most enjoyable CD throughout the eleven tracks. (FdW)
Address: http://highpointlowlife.com
M2 – THE FROZEN SPARK (CD by Ant Zen Recordings)
After the jungle-based project Panacea, German sound artist Mathis Mootz, started another interesting project M2 (pronounced: Squaremeter) back in 2000. With the albums Sinecore (2000) released on Mille Plateaux and Parsec (2001) on Hands Recordings, Mathis Mootz changed his musical direction into micro sounds and clicks’n’cuts. On the two previously released albums as M2 he changed focus once again this time into a more ambient-oriented world with the albums “War of sound” (2003) and Aswad (2004) both out on Ant Zen Recordings. “War of sound” was thematically based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Silmarillion”. It was a beat-driven album of dark and hostile ambience. “Aswad” continued the dark ambient approach but with a more Middle Eastern touch to the evil sound. With his latest release titled “The frozen spark”, M2 has taken the whole step into ambient leaving all signs of rhythm-based sound structure behind. The album contains a wide range of moods and atmospheres spanning from sinister and dark to a more melancholic and melodic expression. Opening with deep rumbling drones of noise added industrial sounds, cavernous noises and other concrete sounds, the album soon after is embellished by gentle and grandiose soundscapes of electronic orchestration. With an excellent expressional mixture of darkness and beauty, of noise and gentle sounds, the album sounds like some mixture between Lustmord’s album “Paradise disowned” (1984) and Biosphere’s “Substrata” (1997) with a few doses of early Aphex Twin and Irresistible Force added. “The frozen spark” is arguably the most successful journey by Squaremeter into the world of ambient sound. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP – ZAP MEEMEES (CD by Sonore)
My introduction to Satanicpornocultshop was with ‘Aneroxia Gas Balloon’ (see Vital Weekly 409) and the follow-up ‘Zap Meemees’ is not exactly the new studio album, but rather a collection of singles, remixes and compilation tracks – not that in the meantime I came across any of those, so perhaps this collection is made for me. Satanicpornocultshop is a band of five people (Ugh aka Alan, Chola, Lisa Tani, DJ Siitake and *S) and collage is the main principle at work. They chop their way through their own music, made of electronics, breakbeats, vocals but also they plunder their way through popmusic. Kylie Minogue is again present, this with some arabic music playing, John Lennon gets a cover too. Crazy edits going on here, and this album is best enjoyed when listening to it as just one track, adding to the total mayhem of the release. Maybe a tiring sit through, this hectic, eclectic release, but one that surely puts a smile on, or two. I did work for me. For those who love Doormouse or Jason Forrest, with a cheesy poptwist. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonore.com
NEGATIVE ENTROPY – MS STUBNITZ STOCKHOLM 9.7.98 (CD by Absurd/Utan Titel)
Sometimes things need to age, probably. The recordings now finally pressed on CD stem from 1998 and were made at the Stubnitz, Europe’s floating centre of all music experimental, when they hit upon the harbor of Stockholm (and as I do recall hit upon Sweden’s alcohol laws). Negative Entropy is the ongoing collaboration of Micheal Prime (of Morphogenesis fame and solo fame) and Geert Feytons (of Noise Maker’s Fifes’ fame). Every once in a while they get together to either play a concert or to do some studio recording. As said, the recording here is all made live in Stockholm and it’s a fine mixture of drone like sound material, mixed with the more acoustic sounds that Feytons is known for. He carefully plays violin, stringed objects and metallic percussion, and the only that is a bit so so is the steady use of reverb and delay. It smears the entire sound together, and doesn’t leave much breath space for the music. That’s the only thing that I was not so pleased with, but otherwise this is pretty much alright live recording. Maybe a few hit and miss points, but throughout played with great care. (FdW)
Address: Address: http://www.anet.gr/absurd
NON TOXIQUE LOST – OGRE-SSE (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
FRIEDER BUTZMANN – WÜNDERSCHONE RÜCKKOPPELUNGEN (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS – WELTEN/WORLD/OHONTSA’SHON:’A (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
WAHRNEHMUNGEN 1980-1981 (3LP plus 7″ boxset by Vinyl On Demand)
Some label specialize in re-issueing old and forgotten bands and one of them is Vinyl On Demand. They have gathered their name from making records in very small editions, literally one-by-one, but since some time they moved into releasing them as ‘proper’ records in bigger editions. So far the labels’ focuses has been for music from Germany from the late seventies and early eighties. Music that certainly can’t be described as ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’, but the way more experimental ones. Some of these bands moved into obscurity and some moved on, gaining more attention later on, either under the existing name and some under new names. The most unknown one is possibly the band Non Toxique Lost, even when Achim Wollscheid was a band member. Non Toxique Lost existed in the earlier parts of the 80s and in recent days (having released a 7″ on Klangalerie as-well as some CDs on Dossier Records). Back in the old days, they released a now sought after LP, aswell as tracks on compilations, but never gained the fame of Die Tödliche Doris or P16.D4. The line up is pretty ‘normal’, with Sea Wanton (vocals, electronics, effects), S. Schütze (violin, bass), A. Wollscheid (electronics, guitar, effects), H. Wöhler (live effects) and Jammin’ Unit ( live effects). Rhythm-machines play an important role, over which the band-members semi-improvise their sounds. Semi, because I think some of this stuff was pre-planned, and that in some way or the other they rehearsed their songs. Especially when the lyrics can be heard through all the noise and effects, Non Toxique Lost sound like the lost brother of Throbbing Gristle. Quite nice, these orgasmic explosions of rhythm and noise. Definitely one of the nicer bands that got lost, and certainly in demand for more re-issueing.
The music on ‘Wunderschöne Rückkoppelungen’ (meaning ‘Beautiful Feedback’) was recorded by Frieder Butzmann when he was fifteen years old, i.e. he started this in 1969 until 1971. Butzmann in the early eighties released ‘Vertrauensman Des Volkes’ out of nothing, but he managed to get Genesis P-Orridge singing ‘Just Drifting’. Later on, until these recent times, he works principally with radioplays. A reel-to-reel recorder and a microphone are used on this early primitive recordings. The feedback is slowed down, sped up, and due to the various recordings of such machines, it’s possible to create delay. If you think that feedback is just that high-end peep you’d like to avoid, then I would suggest hearing this, as this is a true gemm in primitive recording techniques, as-well as a child-like naive work: ‘Sprechfunk Mit Urusla’ contains a walky-talky conversation between, I assume, Frieder and one Ursula, about the reception of the transmission, but the sections between are tape-manipulations of the same material. But on the other hand ‘Ludäschers Generator’ has a strong rhythmic to edge, sounding like a primitive Pan Sonic. A great statement.
Die Tödliche Doris was in the early eighties one of the better known groups, who not ‘just’ dabbled in music and film, but also released books and art objects. In the mid-eighties they split up, leaving a vast amount of work, most of which is now being re-issued by Vinyl On Demand. This record, just being one of many, shows their arty and conceptual side towards music. In 1984 Die Tödliche Doris were invited to record music for a fashion show, for which they recorded twenty-four different tapes, which were played on defective machines (of various defects), to which they had a band playing. This band played regular entertaining bar-music. On this record the result of what must have been a mayhem. And mayhem it is, distorted sounds, tape-loops, electro-acoustic sounds and other, undefinable noise, completed with this totally normal band playing off and on in the background, and people applauding (the fashion or the music, we wonder?), make this foremost a most curious record, than a musical interesting one. The recording (with a stereo microphone in the audience) doesn’t help, I guess.
The biggest undertaking here is the three LP ‘Wahrnehmungen’. This was the name of Selektion before Selektion, run by P16.D4 members before P16.D4. The ‘bands’/’projects’ involve various members of PD/P16.D4, in various constellations. Wahrnehmungen was not just cassette label. They released nineteen tapes, but also two LPs, two EPs and a flexidisc. The six sides on this LP box however view some of the cassette releases, and includes really unknown names, like Ertrinken Vakuum, Kurzschluss, LLL and Der Apatische Alptraum, each project fills their own side. Ertrinken Vakuum open up. It’s the moniker of Thomas Memmler, who had another solo album, and worked with RLW on a few occasions in the P16.D4 period. His music sounds very typical of the period: a rawly cut tape-loop, a rhythm machine set a very simple ticking beat and sounds feeding through effects. Providing one is in the right mood, it can surely be hypnotic – if not in the right mood, it gets to ones nerves. On the other side is Kurzschluss, a ‘concept’ of Joachim Stender and RLW, of PD, using microphones in the middle of the audience, feeding the sound over the P.A., which of course caused feedback and a riot. The music here is a mixture of the concert (two excerpts) and ‘a short circuit of the recording’. A kind of crude mixture of feedback like sounds, feeding through a Korg Ms 20 synthesizer, but surely a more captivating than Ertrinken Vakuum.
The second record has Permutive Distortion with their text piece ‘Brückenkopf’. The band consisted of Joachim Stender, RLW and Thomas Memmler, who played synthesizers, percussion, guitars, violin and of course voice. The texts dealt with ‘the commercialization of the “movement” neue deutsche welle’, although it’s hard to decipher any text at all. This cassette was popular in those days, and it’s to see why: the rhythm box ticks nicely away, guitars play funky motives and the voice sounds like some of Der Plan. The violin is an odd-ball however, but in some way this is perhaps the most poppy outing in the box (I can’t vouch for the entire Wahrnehmungen catalogue, since I didn’t hear all – there is more to re-issue there!). On the other side LLL, a solo project of Joachim Pense, one of the founding fathers of P.D. This is certainly a strange side of things. Pense plays acoustic guitar, flute and voice. He called his music Infra-Jazz, and in live concerts he would play covers of Sex Pistols, Stockhausen and Mingus alongside his own stuff. Despite some feedback used here and there, this by and large an acoustic music affair. Lo-fi when such a term was not yet invited. At first just ‘curious’, but the material grew eventually.
The third album starts out with Der Apatische Alptraum, a solo project of Roger Schönauer, later of P16.D4. This is certainly the most noisy part of Wahrnehmungen, with many tapes of crude field recordings, radio, synthesizers etc., but the entire body of work he produced under that name (represented on this LP side) is not as inaccessible. The noise Schönauer produces is made with care and interest for structure. On the other side at last, P16.D4, with three improvisations and a sketch for a new song. These very early P16.D4 recordings reflect the latter day work of P.D., meaning free improvisation inside a rock structure, but the tapes of RLW play a bigger role. Concrete sounds drop in and out of the mix.
As a bonus there is also a 7″ by P16.D4, with two tracks that were not used for their ‘Distruct’ project. In this project, P16.D4 used sound material sent by musicians all over the world (by normal, it’s pre-internet days here), which P16.D4 used alongside their own work. Here too the elements are crude and noise related, but the later collage aspects of P16.D4 are taken shape. One side of this contains music for a 8mm film, which made me think: a DVD with this and the other filmic activities of P16.D4 and Selektion should be most welcome.
And also check out the labels website, as they have lots of information on these and other obscure bands from the early days. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vinyl-on-demand.com
EGO TWISTER PARTY RUINERS VOL.1 (LP by Ego Twister)
Never enough of party ruiners or savers, right. This vinyl compilation brings together few like-minded artists who have been around the label Ego Twister since it’s beginning in 2004 in Angers, France. Most (or all?) of the artists are a part of the vital French scene of new and sometimes screwed-up electronics, often playing with notions of good and bad taste. Les Robots Musique (that’s Puyo Puyo and Rod Droïd), Debmaster, Amnésie, Yvan + Lendl, Vernon LeNoir, [guÿôm], ladyatone and Ergo Phizmiz – they all sound similar to each other, a mish-mash of 8-bit Peoples ideas and aesthetics (which will certainly appeal to fans of the games Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy and such, as I am) and, of course, a healthy dose of break and hardcore. In a spirit close to their Parisian friends O.Lamm, Hypo and others from the labels Active Suspension and Clapping Music, or as their worldwide friends Kid606 and Venetian Snares. Should be enough to ruin your party, or save it if it’s becoming too conventional for your taste. Vive la France! (BR)
Address: http://www.egotwister.com
KNORMALITIES V.3 (7″ by Dephine Knormal Music)
Not very often I get the change to write anything about The Ex, my all-time favourite punkers from The Netherlands. But they are here, on this four track 7″ compilation from Dephine Knormal Musik. Apparently it’s the third compilation in a row. The Ex open up with a live recording made at KFJC and due to some technical problem there are not much vocals on it, and The Ex play their usual high energy punk/improvisation. Nice, but an entire CD by The Ex is always nicer. Voodoo Muzak contains ex-God/Laika drummer Lou Ciccotelli, and the band has two drummers, a bass guitar and a baritone guitar. Their all instrumental piece is quite post-rocky, but nevertheless quite alright. Cheer-Accident has the ever-so-lovely Thymme Jones on vocals and piano, Jamie Fillmore on guitars and the words of 7th grader Stephanie Lynn Howell. And it sounds like usual complex Cheer-Accident piece, that is slightly alike good ol’ Gastr Del Sol. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is a new name for me and they do a cover of S.P.Q.R., by This Heat, although I must admit I didn’t recognize this right away. A heavy, almost industrial and rhythmical piece, along the lines of good ol’ Crash Worship. Music-wise this 7″ is way out of the ordinary Vital Weekly, but it’s good to wake up with some rock music – not any day of course. (FdW)
Address: http://www.moestaiano.com
TROUM – OBJECTLESSNESS (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Rumor has it that this release is sold out upon release of it, but with an edition of just 100 copies for this band, that is hardly a surprise. This could have easily been a real CD and sell 500 without a problem. Troum is simply one of the best acts of hypnotic, trance like drone music that is more upfront present than some of their english counterparts. Troum, risen from the ashes of Maeror Tri in 1997, play their music in a relative simple way, with relative easy means. Guitar, accordion, percussive elements and a whole load of sound effects. In an endless stream waves of sound roll ashore, seemingly out of the deep. The waves break and one can wait for the next one to come. The music of Troum is rather loosely structured: they don’t care for the right composition, but rather care for the right mood. ‘Echoes Of A Boundless Existence’ is the somewhat weaker brother of the two here, which towards the end collapses, but ‘(Pre)-symbolism’ is Troum at their very best. Mood music for a rawer kind, still one of the best around. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
PISTOLDISCO – MUSIC!! (CDR by Push The Button Records)
This is the follow up to ‘Sound Attache’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 463. They continue is a rather raw and almost live sort of style, with samplers and rhythmmachines playing an important, but vocals play a role now here too. I can’t say that I’m overall that enthusiastic about this, since putting on vocals through a long line of delay machines is not very imaginative, but ‘Rspkt’ is Pistol Disco doing something along the lines of Suicide is quite nice, even when things go right out of control, again to the over-use of the delay machine. Pistoldisco is at their best in the instrumental parts, where they are crude, raw and energetic. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pushthebutton.tk
F.U.S. – TINEA VERSICOLOR (CDR by Snip-snip Records)
Although this is the fifth release of F.U.S., aka Royce Icon, this is the first time I heard of them, also the first encounter with Snip-Snip Records. All of the music was ‘generated on analog instruments, except for one track which has some minor digital elements’. What these analog instruments are, I don’t, but my best guess is a bunch of synthesizers and a bunch of sound effects, such as a delay and reverb machine. The keys in the lower region are played most here, since the music is quite dark and haunting. Little bits of noise zip through, but they are kept to a minimum (some early Ramleh influences can be detected on ‘Vinea’). Some time ago, perhaps fifteen years or so, this would have been labelled as ambient industrial – too normal to be industrial, too dark to be ambient, and it’s very much the product of that area of music making. As such years too late, but, save for some quick fade-outs which leave a hasty impression, executed with similar care as early Illusion Of Safety work. Nice but not great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com/snipsnip
ZENDEE – LIVE IN LUBLIN (MP3 by Audio Tong)
Polish composer Zenial, aka Sennik Androda, has been reviewed before, in Vital Weekly 420, but here he works with one DJ Dee from Hong Kong, as Zendee. DJ Dee is also known as Li Chin Sung, whose ‘Past’ CD was released by Tzadik. Together they played three concerts in Poland and this is one. I wasn’t blown away by Zenial’s first release, but the twenty-seven some minutes captured here make up things. It’s far away from Zenial’s solo work, with it’s hasty sounds. In stead the two go into a dense, microscopic world of deep ambient, via the use of software synthesizers and clouded beats derived from the use of a needle that keeps skipping an empty groove. It grows steadily over the length of the concert, until it bursts out at the end, although the real noise is never reached. A dense as well as intense layered sound, that perhaps worked better when heard live, but nevertheless is a good documentation of events. (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiotong.net
correction: last week’s CDR releases by Gerritt, Damion Romero, Robedoor and Ovum were wrongly listed as released by Truncks, the correct label being Tronicks. And Paul Collins (see ‘Wipe Out’ review, let’s us know that everything on his release was played on real instruments, with software editing afterwards.