 number 1003
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week 42 ---------------------
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COIL - BACKWARDS (CD by Cold Spring) * BOCHE - BEATS (CD by Entr'acte) * CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSWOLFF - SQUARED (CD by Auf Abwegen) * ASMUS TIETCHENS & MARTIN PEINEMANN - HARVESTEHUDE (2CD by Auf Abwegen) * GRENZEN (CD compilation by Edition Degem/Auf Abwegen) MARGARIDA GARCIA & MANUEL MOTA - CRYPT (CD by Yew) * MANUEL MOTA - SETE (CDR by Headlights) * LIETTERSCHPICH - FOR FEARS (LP by Nova Romema) NORBERT MÖSLANG & JASON KAHN - DISTINCTLY_DIVE (LP by Bocian Records) JASON KAHN - SONGLINE (2LP by Editions) ANNA ZARADNY FEAT CHRISTIAN FENNESZ - RE:EM (12" by Musica Genera) NIELS LYHNE LØKKEGAARD - SOUND X SOUND: MUSIC FOR 30 CHROMATIC TUNERS (7" by Hiatus) * NIGEL SAMWAYS - TEMPLE OF THE SWINE (CDR by Cathedral Transmissions) * FADENSONNEN - PD7 (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) * BELLTONE SUICIDE - NON-CONFORMIST SESSIONS (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) * MASSIMO MAGEE & DAVID W. STOCKARD - INTERROGATORIES (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) * SELECTONE - TRANSITIONS (CDR by Ressonus) * ONEIR (cassette by Dehef) JSCA - ISER (cassette by Dehef) SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS - MOMENTS (cassette by Metaphysical Circuits) COIL - BACKWARDS (CD by Cold Spring) A posthumous Coil release; I was somewhat surprised to hear the news to be quite honest - though a while ago I had actually considered the possibility that there might be tons of unreleased tracks on a shelve somewhere, with a different set of mix aspects. Still in this dark age of love I had expected it to be virtually impossible to get the rights to release this unpublished material. I reckon others must have felt the untameable urge to discuss the moral side of this story already - with both Balance and Sleazy gone - so I think I’m not going to bother and focus on the release itself. To some people this will definitely be blasphemy, but, right upfront; I can't say I'm a such huge Coil fan. Yes, I do play their work every now and then and I do appreciate their legacy, even more the oneiric/esoteric content of their work, but sometimes the music just loses me somewhere along the way - especially the more lengthy tracks with much synth fiddling and little Balance. Now, somewhat reluctantly I started listening to "Backwards" but I have to admit that it really blew me away immediately. According to Danny Hyde this album bridges the gap between "Love's Secret Domain" and the "Musick To Play In The Dark" twins and I think I’ll have to agree with that. It seems to usher in the latter with repetitive introspective pieces like "Amber Rain" (which we already knew from "The Ape of Naples") and "Paint Me As A Dead Soul", while eponymous track "Backwards" retains the industrial nature of Coil's earlier work. The early version of "Heaven's Blade" revisits the 90s dance excursions of ELpH and the different takes on classic anthems "A Cold Cell" and "Fire of the Mind" are quite refreshing as well, though much more minimalistic. By all means an album that is quite diverse regarding the territory it covers - perhaps not unlike 'Scatology' or 'Horse Rotorvator' in that sense. Don’t know if it will be up there with the classics, but it definitely is an adequate addition to their vast oeuvre. Essential for anyone with a taste for 90s occult experimental electronica and if you're not familiar with the work of Coil at all this album might as well serve as a proper introduction. (PJN) Address: http://coldspring.co.uk BOCHE - BEATS (CD by Entr'acte) Little known fact (perhaps): Marc Behrens ran a cassette label from 1988 to 1993 called Animal Art, releasing his own music, as M. Behrens or his band Animal Art, some compilations and also an artist named Boche, who released his only tape on this label, in 1991. Behind Boche is one Hans Ludwig Jacoby, who was active as a musician from the mid 80s to 1991, using a drum machine, a Roland Space Echo and sometimes a small zither "that he played with a metal plate-turned-plectrum that previously had been put into his leg after an accident". Later on he went to compose 'ambient electroacoustic music', but I see no evidence of releases. The CD currently available has no less than twenty-seven pieces, recorded from 1983 to 1988 and as the title indicates are all quite 'beat' heavy. I have heard quite a bit of music released on cassette in that period, but I believe none of that was from Boche (and most likely not any other one released by Animal Art), so for me it's also a first introduction and I can't rave about such things as 'long lost classic finally becomes available', which is usually the case with these kind of re-issues; my own words. This is music that is indeed typical of its time. Boche plays ultra minimalist beats, which he feeds through a single synthesizer and that leads to industrial music in the best tradition of the very early Cabaret Voltaire, certainly when Boche adds voice material taped from the radio or number stations, to give it that spy satellite idea. Music recorded in the height of the cold war, when we faced with such nightmares as atomic bombs and apocalypses. None of these pieces is really very long and that's great; none of this need to be very long I think. Each of the pieces is an idea, fine as they are, but not something that should be stretched out for too long. It just doesn't have that minimalist long feel to it. It's best at the short, two-three minute length these pieces now have and even at seventy-seven minutes I think it was a long stretch to hear all of this in one go. Towards the end of this release, one notes that Boche is running out of variations on his themes. However if 'minimal wave' and 'NDW' are musical notions in your daily digest, make sure to explore Boche too and you will add a new name to that plate of music. (FdW) Address: http://entracte.co.uk/ CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSWOLFF - SQUARED (CD by Auf Abwegen) ASMUS TIETCHENS & MARTIN PEINEMANN - HARVESTEHUDE (2CD by Auf Abwegen) GRENZEN (CD compilation by Edition Degem/Auf Abwegen) Although his music doesn't always make it to the pages of Vital Weekly, I think over the years, Carl Michael von Hauswolff has delivered an impressive set of very radical music releases. Sometimes very minimal and electronic, but also releases using field recordings and more conceptual work. On 'Squared' we have both. The first piece is called 'Circulating Over Square Waters' and is a thirty- minute live recording from the ZKM. The information says this piece is something that Hauswolff has been playing since 1980, but over the years changed drastically, according to the composer. It's a piece for sine waves from the lower end of the sound region being played continuously, and only if you listen closely you will notice subtle changes and additions of sounds in the middle region; these could be related electronic sounds or maybe some other sparkling electronic current, or maybe even a field recording; it is not something that is altogether very clear. At thirty-one minutes the piece evolves at a rather slow pace, but it sounds really intense and I enjoyed it a lot. The other piece is 'Cementerio Del Norte', using emission spectroscopy recordings of soil of the German cemetery in Montevideo, Uruguay. This brought him a bunch of samples that he uses in this piece, which was also used in a film by Jan Häfström, Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberana and Hauswolff. While this is also minimal in approach, it doesn't have the austerity of the first piece: right from the start there is a lot more sonic detail and while none of the actual soil is recognized around here, it has a grainy, sandy feel to it. Almost like some low-resolution sampling music. It slowly drifts apart in two, almost separate channels, towards the end of it. At close to sixteen minutes I believe I wouldn't have minded all of this to be a bit longer. Both pieces had an excellent mysterious feel to it. Quite a treat: last week we reviewed a brand new release by Asmus Tietchens, and this week there is even a double CD of collaborative works. Asmus worked with lots of people in the past, from Merzbow to Vidna Obmana, from Achim Wollscheid to Arcane Device. Most of his collaborators are quite well known, save perhaps for C.V. Liquidsky (and we are still waiting for that particular album to be released on CD as part of Die Stadt/Auf Abwegen's re-issue program), but he's the man to whom Tietchens and Martin Peinemann dedicate their collaboration. Right, Peinemann, you may ask: now who's that? I also have no idea, really, as up until now he never released anything. The two discs here were recorded in two different periods. The first disc, called 'Hochallee' (the name of the street where Peinemann lived then) has recordings the two musicians made together in the period 1992 to 1996. For Tietchens this was an entirely different environment than the usual surroundings of the Audiplex studios where he always seems to record (well, save for a few exceptions). With rather 'low' standards, such as a four-track recorder, six-track mixer and all sorts of apparatus, they recorded thirteen pieces, and at the end they deemed this fit enough for a release (which then took another twenty years). The other disc is called 'Klosterallee' and it's here that in springtime 2005 Peinemann recorded basic sound material for Tietchens to re-use, and this he did at the beloved Audiplex studios. By then Peinemann had moved his work into 'extreme digital manipulations' (the word of the label). One is right when one says this is an interesting find, displaying us mid 90s Tietchens and mid 00s Tietchens, working in for him slightly different surroundings (at least on one disc) and with someone with whom we have absolutely no history. I was corrected following last week's review and told that Tietchens does work with computers since about fifteen years, using GRM tools, but of course on the first disc that is not the case. These thirteen pieces are rudimentary pieces of electronic music, sometimes blissful feedback, sometimes a dub inspired synth song ('Hochallee 12'), pieces with looped, rhythmic sounds, and in general it seems that the classic Tietchens treatment is never far away in these pieces. Several of these pieces could have been on, say, 'Aus Freude Am Elend', the various albums with Terry Burrows or some others from the early to mid 90s. That slightly mechanic play with sounds, the entrapment in sound effects (reverb plays some role indeed), but also a rolling rhythm (reminiscing krautrock, one could muse?) in 'Hochallee 6', which makes this first disc quite an odd bunch of different approaches, but it's a variety that works very well. The second disc is the Tietchens we know from recent years, and indeed he doesn't refer to himself as a reductionist, because his music doesn't resemble that of Ikeda or Noto; also knowledge picked up last week. His current music is all about quietness, not for any esoteric reasons, but simply because he wants us to listen more closely, and perhaps concentration is by now a lost art form in this hectic life everyone is supposed to have these days. Here none of the source material is easily recognized, in fact not at all, but it feeds through analogue and, as we have learned since last week, digital means and reduced to a few sounds here and there sometimes held together with a simple, sustaining drone like sound, a residue of what once perhaps a much bigger sound element. It's interesting to play both of the discs back to back and hear the progress of Tietchens and the way he treats his sounds. On the second disc perhaps less 'new', because there have been more works alike this and some of the early/mid 90s stuff has moved the background of our memory. I am not sure if that's really the case. However both CD's in this package are, no matter how different they turn out to be, a quite beautiful. This is a must for every Tietchens fan. Auf Abwegen helps out the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik e.v., or in short Degem, and they release compilations, which are curated by one person around a special theme. The new theme is 'Grenzen', which translates as 'borders', which is probably a very hot theme these days (especially in Germany). Borders of place, of time, between people, thoughts, ideas: the list is probably endless. Florian Hartlieb invited ten composers to ponder of the subjects of borders: Golla & Heyduck, Arsalan Abedian, Hans Holger Rutz, Gerald Fiebig, Marc Behrens, Peter Eisold, Brian Smith, Denise Ritter, Kai Niggeman, Clubblue. There are pieces on planes (across borders, freedom!), with sound and sound treatment, about differences between religions, borderline personality disorder, stereo mix down of an installation and such like. The piece by Denise Ritter, containing interviews in German and field recordings, might be a bit lost on the non-German listener. Otherwise the nine other pieces are fine studies in musique concrete, electronic music and electro-acoustic music. Each within it's own variation and all pieces equally good, nothing leaps out in a positive or negative way. Quite abstract I would say: none of the pieces would easily be traced back to the thematic approach of 'Borders'. But that becomes clear from the extensive liner notes, so there's a mystery solved, I guess. If discovering new artists in these fields has your interest, I'd say: keep collecting these Degem compilations. (FdW) Address: http://www.aufabwegen.com MARGARIDA GARCIA & MANUEL MOTA - CRYPT (CD by Yew) MANUEL MOTA - SETE (CDR by Headlights) Ah Manual Mota, the man with his guitar and nothing much else. Well, and Margarida Garcia on bass - upright one, I think. In his solo music Mota is very quiet - see below - But also in his collaborations he is very quiet, but at times also seems to be using a bit more sound effects. Garcia has had a couple of releases on Headlights (Mota's label) before, some solo and one in collaboration with Thurston Moore. I am not sure if she uses any sound effects in her playing. With a title like 'Crypt' I expect it to be recorded in a hollow space, perhaps something such as a crypt. The music is very quiet, but never silent; it meanders about, without goal, without purpose but has an excellent mysterious character to it. It's hard to define what that mysterious character is. A kind of scraping sound, some reverb, something from a far (such as in 'The Candle Indoors'). There is something menacing about this release, something creepy. Maybe Mota uses a bit more sound effects here, mild doses of distortion here and there. Unlike his solo work, in duet with Garcia there is a fine sense of drama, maybe it's even possible to say this is kind of painful, heartfelt blues music? Six pieces here, possibly all recorded in cavernous situations, all live obviously with no overdubs or editing and at thirty minutes a bit too short for my taste; that perhaps was the only downside to an otherwise great release. Solo we find Mota engaged in two live recordings. June 21 2015 he played in Antwerpen, Belgium and on May 31st at Ericeira in Portugal. I believe he plays electric guitar (google his name and look at wedding dresses for some time!) without much use or need for effects. The reverb we hear might come naturally from the environment in which Mota plays his guitar. Last week I called Asmus Tietchens a reductionist, for his use of electronics, stripping away anything that is not necessary through electronic means. One could say that Mota is a reductionist of the real-time playing. His music is very quiet and sparse. A note here, two there: that's about the gist of it, but it never is completely silent. There is, how little it may seem, always something happening somewhere. Mota carefully plays his instrument, never playing a chord, never getting louder, never seems to intensify his playing, but he let's his notes hang freely in the air. Like stars, really. Or flowers in a field. You can see them apart, and pick them one by one. Maybe there is something that says 'desolate' around this, but I didn't find that be the case. It's perhaps not very optimistic either? Maybe everyone is free to get out of this what he/she thinks is best for him/ herself? A highly refined release! (FdW) Address: http://headlightsrecordings.blogspot.com LIETTERSCHPICH - FOR FEARS (LP by Nova Romema) This is the third release by Lietterschpich and it seems that it took them almost eight years to come up with something new after their previous album. So what are they all about? The label info brands this group with the term doom-dub. Now, the music is indeed doom metal paced rhythmically speaking, but that's about as far as that comparison goes. The dub element I suppose is either the vocals that are pulled through some kind of effects rig or it is the "no input mixer" mentioned in the credits - which I reckon is some kind of circuit bent mixer that serves as a noise box. So the latter fills up the low end, by means of feedback and the modulation thereof. The guitar parts in their turn are light years away from being either doomy or dubby and often sound as if their riffing is completely improvised on the spot. The vocals range from something that resembles Mr. Arafna's claustrophobic tantrums, passing black metal hysteria to downright pig- like squealing. Then there's the occasional heavily modulated vocal sample, probably originating from the reel-to-reel, and the bits where it seems like almost every instrument is routed through that one effect unit which ensures a fair amount of spastic back flips. Lietterschpich have an interesting thing going on. After a brief glance at the cover art I expected depressed blackened doom, or worse; some crusty post- rock outfit cross-dressing in black metal aesthetics. So yeah, no. It is definitely dark, but kind of fresh and different too. I find it hard to think of a reference that does this album justice, but perhaps it makes sense to say that it does to doom metal what The Locust did to grindcore. Or what White Mice did to your childhood Walt Disney fantasies of mice playing music. So not recommended for those who expect memorable riffs or actual metal (or dub for that matter). Don't know whom I wóuld recommend this to either, but I did like it. (PJN) Address: https://www.facebook.com/novaromema NORBERT MÖSLANG & JASON KAHN - DISTINCTLY_DIVE (LP by Bocian Records) JASON KAHN - SONGLINE (2LP by Editions) These two releases featuring Jason Kahn arrived almost on the same day; such is sometimes what happens with people releasing a lot of music. Much of what Jason Kahn does is in the realm of improvised music and if you have a tendency of recording everything it is perhaps likely you will release a lot of music (providing there are enough labels willing to fund that, but it seems that Kahn doesn't have any trouble in that direction). Kahn is originally a drummer and after a long time playing synthesizer and laptop, he's back at the kit in more recent times and teams up with Norbert Möslang (erstwhile of Voice Crack and Möslang/Guhl), who is best known, for a long time, to play 'cracked everyday- electronics', the amplification of half broken machinery, rotten cables and such like. Much of his work is quite noise based and the recording here, from March 1, 2013 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, sees this happening too. The drums sound a bit pushed away in the recording, and Möslang is quite present. I was reminded of Merzbow and Balazs Pandi; not all the time as loud and wild, as Kahn/Möslang allow occasional silence in their work. Occasional, as this is quite a tour de force. I think the recording quality could have been better on this record; recording drums is not an easy task and this record has the making of sticking up a pair of microphones in a space, capturing all the sound activity. That makes that some of the drum sounds sound a bit muffled. That is perhaps the downside of this otherwise powerful record. The other new release by Jason Kahn holds a much bigger surprise: he sings! He writes in the liner notes that he has been doing so for a couple of years now, and some of it has found it's way to releases (which I may have missed) but 'Songline' is his first studio recording and each piece is performed in real time, no re-starting, no editing. This is just Kahn in a room and a bunch of microphones (as shown in the photographs). He also writes that his voice work is influenced by his work as an electronic musician, 'the notion of noise and distortion and sounds pulled to their breaking point', and upon playing these four pieces, one can easily see what Kahn means. This is not 'conventional' sound poetry, but in fact pieces of music in which Kahn uses his mouth to produce rather minimal, yet sustaining sounds. Take a deep breath, make a strange sound with one's mouth; that may sound all too easy, and surely we all did that at one point in our lives, but the true beauty, the fine craftsmanship lies in repeating this sound again and again, with the most minor changes. It has indeed all the notions of electronic music, and someone who wasn't aware said to me when she walked in: that sounds odd, and when I explained it was just the human voice, she was rather surprised. I was playing the third side; when we turned the record over, and played a bit of the fourth side, it was clearer that this was indeed the human voice. Kahn is very proficient in keeping his voice going and performs his piece as he probably planned it. For me it worked best if he tried to sound like electronic sounds, crackles and drones, culminating on 'Side C' in the best out of four. When it sounds too much like the human voice, I am perhaps less interested, such as 'Side D'. The other two sides worked quite well also, balancing between both ends. Quite a surprising record, and with just a voice when travelling one could expect lots more Kahn releases exploring this new interest. With 'Songline' he delivers a great calling card for a new direction. (FdW) Address: http://www.bocianrecords.com/ Address: http://jasonkahn.net/editions ANNA ZARADNY FEAT CHRISTIAN FENNESZ - RE:EM (12" by Musica Genera) Three pieces are to be found on this release. 'Stop The Chaos' on side A and 'New feat Old' in two versions on the other side. For the second version it says 'composed and remixed by Christian Fennesz in 2015'. Does that mean this is the only piece that features Fennesz? The cover says 'Anna Zaradny feat Christian Fennesz', which suggest maybe a bigger involvement? For 'Stop The Chaos' it says 'composed and recorded in 2013 as a remix of an Antigama piece' and is short (the record is at 45 rpm; a good old fashioned 12") but it turns out it is a powerful piece of electronic music, of dark sequences of electrical currents sparking around; music that sounds like driving in the fast lane of a futuristic highway, with occasional collisions interrupting this windy ride. Excellent piece. 'New feat Old' is 'composed and recorded in 2008' (and with no composer mentioned, I believe it is Zaradny solo) and starts out with some crackles but gets into a pretty decent stomping ground. Not too fast, a bit dark and maybe 'gothic' but it surely works quite well. Fennesz takes the piece into an almost orchestral setting into the material, with lots of reverb through in, and an off-rhythm loop but it doesn't seem to work well, I think. It all sounds a bit too easy for my taste. It's one of those of things that give remix a bad name. One missed opportunity, one fine piece and an excellent piece taking up one side. (FdW) Address: http://musicagenera.net/ NIELS LYHNE LØKKEGAARD - SOUND X SOUND: MUSIC FOR 30 CHROMATIC TUNERS (7" by Hiatus) From Danish composer Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard we received the second 7" in what should become a series of singles, which aim it is to 'get the instruments to exceed their own familiar sound, and multiplying does exactly that. The sound is transformed, and appears new and clean'. On the first 7" (which we didn't get) he used 8 recorders, both soprano and alto and now it's time for the Chromatic Tuner as produced by Korg (model CA-1, to be precise), which produces a single wave sound, each fit to a note on your instrument. The 7" has a solo side, played by Løkkegaard himself and an ensemble side played by a five players (each six tuners then? - how that work?). Both sides are quite conceptual in approach, with this loud and quite obnoxious sound coming out of your speakers. I played around with it a bit and found out that it is best to keep the volume down a bit and then, when one moves to the space in which this is played, the sound makes subtle changes - maybe not unlike a record by say Alvin Lucier would do. I like the conceptual approach, which Løkkegaard takes with this, but I am not sure if it works to well with mechanical devices; I'd rather see this done with real instruments and multiple players and see how perhaps imperfections in playing would change the piece. (FdW) Address: http://www.nielsloekkegaard.dk NIGEL SAMWAYS - TEMPLE OF THE SWINE (CDR by Cathedral Transmissions) It might be a bit of a bummer, but whatever Nigel Samways does, I will always compare it with 'Havenots Havenever' (see Vital Weekly 835), in which everything he did worked very well: field recordings, ambient like music, wind instruments, percussion. I was reminded of A Tent's obscure LP from the early 80s (when Cherry Red Records released such great daring records and which is, I believe, still not on CD). Samways releases after that where fine, great, but didn't reach the level of excellence that was 'Havenots Havenever'. I am not sure why that is. Maybe it's just coincidence that I linked 'Havenots Havenever' to A Tent, and thus marking a distinction for me, which I haven't found yet in his other releases. 'Temple Of The Swine' has all the right ingredients, field recordings, and percussive sounds, a bit of drones, lots of use of delay, spread out over three pieces. If one has to compare it, I'd say that it no longer sounds like the foggy jazz nightclub atmosphere, but it is more like a more generic ambient album, which is not bad either. His previous release reminded me of zoviet*france, and that's something which serves well also for this new release. The music is more spread out, lengthier pieces and without too much compositional thought behind it. A lot of sounds are collected, all switched on at the same and a mix is being made in a rather intuitive way, introducing sounds as they come along, adding delay and reverb when necessary. But maybe Samways is also a bit too careful and nothing leaps out very much; that is, I think, a pity. Only in 'The Morning Tide' instruments are added, a piano loop of some hazy kind, but then not much happens around it. Don't get me wrong: I think Nigel Samways is a fine musician and 'Temple Of The Swine' is nothing but worthy; except that 'Havenots Havenever' has set the bar rather high, so that reflects on every subsequent release. Let that not withhold you from listening to new music by Samways, as there is plenty of ambient/drone beauty in this one. (FdW) Address: http://cathedraltransmissions.com/ FADENSONNEN - PD7 (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) BELLTONE SUICIDE - NON-CONFORMIST SESSIONS (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) MASSIMO MAGEE & DAVID W. STOCKARD - INTERROGATORIES (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions) Although the cover and website tell me that Fadensonnen is the name of the artist, the backside of the cover lists 'PD - feedback, amplifiers, radio interference, harmonic + electroshock guitars, drums, percussion' and the suggestion to play this loud. Forty or so years after Lou Reed's get out of record contract epic 'Metal Machine Music', people still want to have this unrelentless wall of sound approach, of distorted radio sounds, lots of sustaining noise, feedback leaping in and out of the mix and damn, it sure sounds great, especially in 'Feedbacker', which is a fine clash of distorted feedback and radio sounds. The other piece is 'Interference' (and both cut exactly to fit on a LP, which is probably what Fadensonnen would have loved most) in which the same maximum amplification is used but then with a lot more guitar sounds, which sound actually a bit retro in my ears. Not bad but without the same brute force as 'Feedbacker'. I am not sure if one day this will be discovered as the long forgotten noise classic, bootlegged on vinyl, but I am sure some people would love it in that particular format. Until that it is available on a limited CDR. More noise is to be found on the Belltone Suicide release, which turns out to be a re-issue of a 3"CDR Kendra Steiner Editions released five years ago. Belltone Suicide is Mike Barrett, and he recorded the twenty pieces of the original release after midnight at Chateau L'Orange Studio East 19 in Amherst, Massachusetts and four more pieces just a month later at the same radio studio. These four were not released before. Barrett calls the 'non conformist sessions', but they conform themselves quite easily to the world of noise music. These pieces are between nineteen seconds and forty minutes and employ feedback, electronics and effects. Maybe some modular synthesizer feedback on the in- and output, with the gain wide open? Quite a heavy release indeed and maybe too much of a headache, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the briefness of some of these pieces and the way Belltone Suicide offers a bit of variation in his music. It collides, bursts and tears apart, and probably does that in every piece, but all with a little consideration for the listener: keep them interested! And Belltone Suicide does that quite well, so it turns out this a mighty fine high-octane noise release. Massimo Magee also knows how to play a bit of noise (see the review of 'Poussez' in Vital Weekly 966) but in his duet with David W. Stockard on snare drum, it is a bit different. Magee plays acoustic, amplified and feedback soprano saxophone and both pieces were recorded in one go and there have been no overdubs or edits. It is different, but that's not to say there is no noise on this release. There is surely a bit here too. While most of the two pieces sounds recorded directly in a room, with two acoustic instruments in the middle, there is sometimes also quite a bit of feedback going on here, but they keep it to a minimum. Only towards the end of the first piece it becomes quite audible. There is something odd about the recording of this music, in both pieces. Sometimes it seems from quite some distance and sometimes it seems all very close to the microphone, like someone was walking around with a recorder, rather than using a fixed position to make a recording. That created a sense of un- ease with me, as I kept thinking this was supposed to be intentional or not. Maybe it distracted me also a bit. The music was actually not bad, and Magee and Stockard are highly gifted players and extracting extra ordinary sounds from their instruments. Regardless a steady or unsteady recording. (FdW) Address: http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com/ SELECTONE - TRANSITIONS (CDR by Ressonus) If one decides to call their release 'Transition' then it's likely the music is a transition (unless of course it's a mix down of a multiple speaker installation in which the sound transits from one speaker to another) and that is the case with Selectone, who never seems to stay very long in one musical genre anyway. A long time ago I thought his interest lied within plunderphonics and in their (?) latest release he sampled more drums and made it all a bit groovier. On this new release the groove still has a very prominent place, but the tempo went down, and the swing changed to 'dub'. There are four pieces on 'Transition' (so one is not sure if this is actually a transition or merely a temporary shift in style). The first two are very laidback and dub like, but 'Seized' is already a bit more up-tempo and bounces hard up and down in a world that one could easily describe as 'industrial'. The same heavy weighted rhythm marches in 'Detachment', but much slower and as graciously as possible, but there is some rust to be spotted on this machine, which makes it also quite heavy but at the same is a more open piece. There is synth in stutter mode nearby. The title piece reminded me most of Chain Reaction, especially Porter Ricks, and 'Kardiodub', the opening piece is the most dubby excursion. Four pieces only? Yes, that's all folks and that's a pity. Just as I was getting into this, it was already over. Damn. On repeat is the next best option. (FdW) Address: http://www.ressonus.net ONEIR (cassette by Dehef) JSCA - ISER (cassette by Dehef) Two new releases by Rotterdam's Dehef (Tapes) run by (one of the) members of Sweat Tongue. There is not much known about Oneir, who dedicates his tape to Theo van Baaren, of whom I just learned is a poet and theologian, but also one of the very few surrealists of the lowlands. Oneir means, in Greek, dream, and combine that with the title of the two sidelong pieces, "The Moon on a Balcony of Clouds, Soft Still" and "The Night of a Face", and you know this is all dark stuff for the early hours of night (or perhaps the very late hours actually). The music is very dark too, with a bunch of sub-bass tones being sequenced in a very slow manner and some high chirping sounds on top. Just as cicadas come out at night to sing their high voices. So on one hand we have the sleep state bass sound and on the other we have the lively night-time insects. What is being dreamt of, I have no idea, but it surely sounds quite obscure. Oneir music is very minimal and comes without much changes, although it seems there are various pieces glued together here into one piece; just a quick cross fade is made between both pieces. Serious analogue synthesizer drones only, it seems. Excellent dream state music. From JSCA, a duo who got their name from a track by Austria's Monoton, we already reviewed a tape with no title (see Vital Weekly 970). 'Iser' was already released last year but sold out, so now it's time for a re-issue, as the label says "reworked material with new mixes and edits. Four pieces instead of five. One new piece. You do the math." That sounds, almost, like an entirely new release, I would think, but then: I didn't hear the previous edition of 'Iser', so what do I know? Pieces are repeated on both sides, and it seems there are three only? Maybe I am confused on repeat? Well, maybe there are four. Much like where they got their name from, Monoton, the music by Jsca is also quite monotonous. Sequenced synthesizer patterns, albeit slow, on strong repeat, a piercing tone on top (someone in the next room thought I had a new ringtone) and female vocals - very much the same ingredients as with the release from earlier, but it's surely captivating enough. It still has that vaguely industrial sound, still along the lines of bands on Inner-X (Hideous In Strength, Women Of The SS, Sleep Chamber maybe) back in the mid 80s. None of that stuff is easily found, except maybe on obscure blogs (do they still post such old tapes, I wondered), so no doubt many may have missed that. Maybe this is not the most original music but very nice. However, maybe JSCA should save up more pieces and do a somewhat lengthier album next time? (FdW) Address: <dehef.tapes@gmail.com> SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS - MOMENTS (cassette by Metaphysical Circuits) The Danish duo of Claus Poulsen and Henrik Bagner strike again, and according to themselves this might be their seventh album and it could be, at sixty-four minutes also be seen as a double album; 'Moments is our longest album ever - it could almost be considered two albums', it says on the cover. The two musicians have their hands full on using guitar, radio, tapes, viola and 'various gadgets', by which they mean no doubt tons of sound effects, analogue and digital. The five pieces on the first side are very much drone based affairs, with those long, on an endless sustain string of sounds, but not played on automatic pilot. There is a sufficient amount of manual manipulation going to suggest it is not devoid of human activity. It rumbles dark and deep and sounds like solid Small Things On Sundays music. Which actually also goes for the other side, and the four pieces we find here. These pieces were recorded during rehearsals and are effectively alternative versions of previous pieces; I must admit I didn't noticed that, but perhaps with so much music to hear every day I am excused? Here the drones are less present and more in favour of slow bouncing sequencers, meandering synthesizer sounds, hand cranked acoustic sounds and such like. Here the music is a bit more open, spacious of course but with more air and light to it. At times 'Two Instruments' sounded quite gentle with bird and water field recordings and pleasantly unsettling electronics. The A-side was abstract where the B-side was a bit more musical, even when the margins are small there. Another fine work by this duo, celebrating now their tenth anniversary. (FdW) Address: http://metaphysicalcircuits.bandcamp.com/ ------------ 1. From: Till Kniola <zipo@aufabwegen.com> 19.10.2015, 20.00h MEGO20 showcase live THIGHPAULSANDRA PITA THOMAS BRINKMANN EDVARD GRAHAN LEWIS BILL ORCUTT KLARA LEWIS at: Stadtgarten Venloer Str. 40 50672 Cologne Germany Tickets: pre-sale 12 EUR, on the door 15 EUR Website for the event: http://www.reihe-m.de/?p=2829 Website with venue info and ticket pre-sale: http://stadtgarten.de/?m=event&id=9368 FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/373315052879818/ 2. Digital in Berlin | News <news@digitalinberlin.de> Musikbrauerei | Greifswalder Straße 23a in 10407 Berlin/Prenzlauer Berg Admission: Pre-sale 11,50 EUR | At the door 12 EUR Doors 20:00 | Shows 21:00 Matana Roberts (US) LIVE (Constellation/Central Control) Rayon (DE) LIVE (Alien Transistor/Morr Music) Decks: DJ Falko Teichmann (DE) Facebook Event: http://fb.com/events/911556055572464/ Read and listen: http://goo.gl/wktMhq Tickets: http://goo.gl/DSPB24 Web: http://kiezsalon.de ------------ Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome <vital@vitalweekly.net>. Forward to your allies. Snail mail: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521 NE Nijmegen - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>, Niels Mark (NM), Jliat (Jliat), Freek Kinkelaar (FK), Jan-Kees Helms (JKH), Michael Tau (MT), Peter Johan Nijland (PJN) and others on a less regular basis. This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it. The editor can shorten announcements. Please do NOT send any attachments/jpgs, we will trash them without viewing. There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. Some people think it's perhaps 'cool', 'fun', 'art' or otherwise to send something to Vital Weekly that has no information. 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