A PRODUCE – INSCAPE & LANDSCAPE
(CD by Trance Port)
This CD I was accompanied by a couple of papers with information, of which one was
an interview from a New Age magazine. This may come as no surprise: I am not at
all interested in New Age music! But luckily A Produce is not one of them. But
they do play mood music. In the accompanying booklet you will find listed per
track what they are using for instruments: syn strings, environs, syn vox,
percwave, T3 Balkan flute etc. The overall tone of this CD is very electronic and
very electronic from boxes I mean. There are tons of synthesized sounds, either
as a backdrop synth or as percussion. This is the kind of music that should appeal
to the fans of music from Vidna Obmana (the moody synth part on this CD) and
O Yuki Conjugate (the percussive fourth world rhythms). The CD comes in
a beautiful carton cover printed like a landscape with embossing and gold. (FdW)
Address: Trance Port – P.O.Box 85436 – Los Angeles, CA 90072 –
USA
FINAL – 2
(CD by Sentrax)
TACTILE – INSCAPE
(CD by Sentrax)
Two recent offers from John Everall’s label Sentrax. Tacticle is his own group
together with Teresa Mills and Dael Walker. Their music is built from droning
synthesizers with slowly opening and closing of filters, and gradually adding
sound EFX to them. Sometimes there is a soft ambient edge to this, whereas on
other times things try to burst out in feedback (like in ‘Caged Light’), but
everything is kept under control. Those in favor of this kind of dark ambiance
should check this, for me new name, out too. Final is the solo work of guitar
player Justin K. Broadrick, famous for Godflesh and Techno Animal. As far as I am
told his solo work is derived from sampling the six string instrument and bringing
dark atmospheric soundscapes. Some ofthe tracks here are leaning towards gothic
a bit too much for my taste. Not the gothic sense of those raven dark Germans, but
in a highly reverbed space cathedral of sound. My favorite track is the 8th one,
called ‘( )’ (I kid you not!), which is a 24 minute ambient piece with slow
moves in the texture. This sounds like Tommie Koner on guitar. I guess both CD’s
are fine examples of Isolationist music. (FdW)
Address: Tel/Fax: + 44 (0)115 9791589
PANASONIC – OSASTO EP
(MiniCD by Blast First)
Minimal techno is hot – at least to some. Include me in. (Sundays are always good
for confessions). I like minimal music, whether it is Charles The Great from
Palestine, Steve Reich or their younger followers playing around with pulses and
blips. The kind of stuff that apparently goes on and on without much change. For
some people this kind of music is intended to mix to play two or more copies out
of sync with each other, but I can do with just listening. Definitely one of
the better protégés in the genre are Panasonic from Finland, who are part of
the Sahko label (home of the techno minimalists). The new four piece CD is one of
particular aggression. The tracks knock you down like a hammer. This is very cool
stuff. (FdW)
Address: Blast First – 429 Harrow Road – London W10 4RE – UK
DATACIDE: Flowerhead
(Asphodel)
It’s hip to have retro-looking graphics on your CD these days. The booklet of
“Flowerhead” features layers of groovy 70’s flower wallpaper, and I expected that
my baggy raver pants would be jumping and shaking to some sort of Cuckoo-crazy
techno-thump rhythm, but the only thing I heard after I pushed “play” was dead
silence. For the first minute the music is so quiet that you can’t hear it, but
the level does start to come up, slowly, slowly, slowly. Perhaps it’s a ploy to
get you to turn the stereo up so it’ll be good and loud when things finally get
going. The effect, if one doesn’t initially overcompensate with the volume control,
is very subtle. Like an ambient ice cream truck coming from far, far away, it
starts quietly and builds very slowly. Vibrating bass hums, like an underwater Orb,
set the tone for the opening song, with a gentle but constant rhythm track
gradually easing itself in towards the end. This dreamy floating-on-a-cloud-with-
Brian-Eno-and-Alex-Patterson formula doesn’t change much through the rest of
the record, but it’s OK, because it’s well done, and there’s enough melody to keep
things from degenerating into the self-indulgent echo wank that plagues much of
today’s “ambient” music. Composers Tetsu Inoue and Atom Heart have made one or two
records together already, so there’s no reason to expect anything but genius from
these two talented musicians, and this CD won’t disappoint you. Unless you
expected to stay up all night dancing (there’s still time to vomit up those magic
mushrooms). (CP)
Contact: asphodel@interport.net
ZOVIET FRANCE – DIGILOGUE
(LP by Soleilmoon)
ZOVIET FRANCE – IN VERSION
(CD by Charrm)
The first new real studio recording in quite some time, after some live releases
(which were outstanding, ‘What Is Not True’ is a classic). Side 1 opens up with
‘Alchemagenta’ and this track alone is worth getting this record for: synths are
pitched up, frequency range like African insect chorus, with reverberation and
echoing drums. Should there ever be a ‘greatest hits’ album, this should be on
there. The four other tracks operate is slightly similar territory: mainly synths
and sampler stuff, but with a natural outcome Excellently packed in a paper cover
with wood vessels, and limited to 800 copies – grab your copy now. Maybe it does
not make much difference with Zoviet France playing in their studios or in a live
situation. Improvisation plays an important role in all of their recorded work,
so it’s good to see that the document their best live performances on CD. Their
‘In Version’ (which is not as I first assumed the remix ZF album…) was recorded
in March this year at the Urban Aboriginal festival in Berlin. The start is a slow
fade upwards of around 10 minutes and from there on, until the full hour is over,
the music shifts back and forth in ambient textures of electronic sound,
interwoven with all sorts of acoustic sounds, heavily echoing, reverbing creating
another damn fine live album. (FdW)
Address: <soleilmoon@aol.com>
MAGAZINES
We haven’t been reading too much lately – or so it seems. However we caught up
a little bit:
– TANZ DER ROSEN latest issue features interviews with Big City Orchestra, Kapotte
Muziek, Richard Ramirez and others. More a sort of fanzine for the industrial
crowd, but one of the better ones.
– EST has the same Tony Conrad picture on the cover as Revue & Corrigee a while
ago, but my English is better than my French, so I prefer reading all about
the founding father of minimal music in this issue. Apart from that you’ll find
Charlemagne Palestine (another minimalist), a lengthy piece by Rhys Chatman and
tons of reviews. I wish this magazine would be there monthly, to replace The Wire,
but alas it’s not.
Address: <bd1@mm-croy.mottmac.com>
– SUBRAUM #7 is an all German magazine and covers a wide territory in music. You’ll
find anything from Money Mark to Oval to Ui to Christoph Heemann to Cosmonauts
Hail Satan. To non German readers this is a worthwhile magazine to get, since
there is a 7″ enclosed with exclusive tracks by Scanner, Max Muller, Village Of
Savoonga, Zen-Faschisten and Motorpsycho. Imagine the same musical variety here.
Address: <sm0012@mail.hrz-uni-esssen.de>
ACCRETIONS – SCANNER
(CD on Staalplaat Series ‘Mort Aux Vaches’)
Here’s the latest from Staalplaat in their Dead Cow series, which documents live
sessions at Dutch radio station VPRO presented by Berrie Kamer and Jan Hiddink.
This session was recorded in January 1996 and is very similar to the concert
version which was presented live in the Paradiso about the same time. There is
very little scanned material on this CD…perhaps Robin has been visited by
the MIB ? Instead the crystal-clear voice and dream poetry of ‘hilaire’ accompany
the music. On first listening I was tempted to recall an article which was part
of a pseudo-scientific series about human body-parts I once read in a Reader’s
Indigest while a much younger child in a different world. The article was titled
‘I Am John’s Bladder’ (in this case) and the introduction to the article sticks
out most in my mind; John’s bladder goes off on a power trip bragging about how
capable it is at forcing John to interrupt a televised ball-game or a masonic
thrash-in before he had to go and yes, piss, dammit, before he coudn’t. Which only
goes to show…young impressionable children should not be allowed to read such
a subversive periodical. The CD starts with a low drone and Hilaire reciting
the first of her dreampomes. She urinates on a telephone. Nobody was using it at
the time fortunately. This evolves into Track 2 which feature a rather heroic
keyboard section before we return to the toilet area with hilaire who now wees
amid a pile of books on a dining table in a public lavatory. A phone rings shortly
after she sniffs her ungloved fingers. Track 3 ends with a marvellous honky tonk
piano which so effectively contrasts the radio news broadcast about human culling
disguised as war somewhere in the world. Tr 4 is good grunge till the choir kiks
in. After a beat or two hilaire indulges in a cool, soothing cucumber surprise
while Robin switches on the drill and twiddles his knobs. Faraway I hear
the voices from the machine that put this man on the map. The last pome is sad…
abscence and the feeling of personal loss shudder and slip from her lips like rain
off leaves. Limited to 1000 copies.Probably sold-out already but well worth
fighting for. (MP)
PRIMITIVE by O YUKI CONJUGATE
(CD on STAALPLAAT)
This CD contains material representing the period 1983-87 which may have
previously already appeared on album, cassette or video. There are the usual
apologies for dodgy quality, so what the fuck if it was recorded onto tape in
a period when digital was still on a pinnacle. However, it’s thanks to all
the power that is digital that we have this retro-release. The original tapes have
been enhanced and edited and refried till a crunch more crispy (well, a great deal
more more crunchy in my case, because I am now convinced that my tape copy of
‘scene in mirage’ was really a Sepultura demo. Never mind!) Primitive features
a great deal of space and includes early experiments with their devices. Also
heavily featured is the flute of Claire Elliot, something which made the track
‘cloud cover’ off the CD ‘Into Dark Water’ a firm favourite of mine. There are
the usual odd percussion loops or performances which fade in and out of
the swirling soundclouds which themselves shapeshift continually. I particularly
like ‘Odomankoma’, ‘Flute Cloud’ ; Track 7 ‘Suspicion’ sounds like Edward
Scissorhands in a VERY mechanical situation with occasional garunge door; ‘Rail
Music’ starts and drifts like a Ligeti swarms in endless space. The whole CD
encourages a shuffling repeat play, and while reminiscent of Mr Obmana’s earlier
(and better ) work, certainly contains some of the best examples of limited loopng
I have ever heard. This early work by OYC is a worthy document revealing their
roots and is a validation of the care they always take with what they do. (MP)