BELT – THE KILLING VERDICT (CD by Freedom In A Vacuum)
Maybe I’m one of the few Europeans who has seen Belt in live performance. Seldom
I was more impressed by a performance, such intensity, set to harsh, looped
music. A strong feeling of uneasiness was felt throughout the audience. Belt’s
music is yet very unknown having released 17″ record, a 30 minute cassette and
maybe one or two compilation submissions. The tracks on the CD are simply great.
Sampled heavy metal guitars, looped voices, intense songs, strange and abrupt
collages within one track. As intense and powerful as Laibach or In Slaughter
Natives, but with much more sense of experimental music. In one word: a great CD
Address: FIAV -P.O. Box 862, Station F -Toronto, Ont M4Y 2N7 -Canada
MESMER (LP by Ash International)
Friedrich Anton Mesmer was some Austrian doctor who experimented with sound to
heal the sick (as far as I understand the text with this record) .The music had
to be hypnotic in some way. So we have a hypnotic record by anonymous musicians.
The first side consists of 999 bars of the same thing played over and over
again, no changes, just this one thing. Played at a soft volume and with taking
notice indeed the same thing. Played loud and listened to with care, the
hypnosis may take you in. The second track on the second side is the same thing,
yet one octave lower. The first track is strange mi~ of spoken word, rhythms and
sounds, with in there (possibly) a reworking of the sound on the A side. If this
is too much at once (the record is limited to just under 500 copies), then maybe
you should wait for the remix CD which Ash now organizes, with remixes by Daniel
Menche, Bruce Gilbert, Quest and others.
Address: <Touch@touch.dmon.co.uk>
ZOVIET FRANCE – ASSAULT AND MIRAGE (plus three other titles) (CD’s by Charrm)
With the current flow for ambient music, more and more people are getting
interested in what’s not so common, the experimental side of the hype. Zoviet
France are true ancestors of experimental ambient. As far as I can tell is the
complete back catalogue now available on CD with the release of these four. They
all come from the ‘mid-period’ of the band 1985-1986 (if you think of the band’s
separation as their final period band member Ben Ponton will continue the name
of Zoviet France from now on) .To some this mid-period is not their best period,
but I think this period best described what Zoviet France meant when they coined
the term ‘songlets’ : not completed songs, but loosely recorded improvisations
with acoustic instruments, sometimes electronically treated and looped. Added
with a fair portion of reverb and delay, and yes: it may be characterized as
ambient. Certainly of a more daring kind. Address:
ALMOST DIGITAL (CD by Hypnotism)
Our friends of Atom Heart (see Vital 40) in one of their disguises. The press
message raves about ‘paving the way to a new and modern techno movement’ .Don’t
know if that is going to happen. The 8 tracks on this CD do come off as an
interesting mixture of techno and ambient. In some tracks it even gets uneasy
(simply to avoid the term experimental – which doesn’t seem appropriate here)
.This is an interesting album -never harsh, never real house like -but also very
rigid (to avoid the term ‘German’) .If you have an open mind for techno and
ambient, then check this one out.
Address: Hypnotism – P.O. Box 910127- 90259 Nurnberg – Germany
NO NOISE REDUCTION – THE COMPLETE NO NOISE REDUCTION (CD by Moneyland Records)
Recorded by Paulo Feliciano (never heard of. ..) and Rafael Toral (who had a
great ‘ambient’ CD on Ananana a while back) , this contains no less then 46
tracks, sampled from John Cage to Mark Stewart, from Thursten Moore to Boney M.
Most tracks last just under/over 2 minutes and are witty and to the point. Yet
because of this not always one find good tracks, it stays somewhat rudimentary.
But also no boring moments. A nice work.
Address: Moneyland Records P.O. Box 30036 1321 Losbon codex – Portugal