TROUM – ACOUASME (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
Z’EV – ELEVEN MIRRORS TO THE LIGHT (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
COLOSSLOTH – OUTSTRETCH YOUR HAND FOR THE IMPRESS OF TRUTH (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
JOAO CAMOES & JEANMARC FOUSSAT & CLAUDE PARLE BIEN MENTAL (CD by Fou Records)
M.B. & LES CHAMPS MAGNETIQUES – SEGMENTI [A+B] (LP by Tib Prod)
M.B. & LES CHAMPS MAGNETIQUES – SEGMENTI [C1+C2] (LP by Tib Prod)
ZWEITESYSTEM – SYSTEMVERSATZ (LP by Koi8-r)
ZOV – YEDOMA (7″ lathe cut by Cyland)
ZOV – RADIOLARIA OBLYSTAR (cassette, private)
LEIF ELGGREN – DAS BAANK (LP by Fragment Factory/Rekem)
BRUME & EDWARD SOL – GREY (LP by Sentimental Productions) *
ZEITKRATZER – SATURATION (12″ by Bocian Records/Musica Genera)
LOREN CONNORS & SUZANNE LANGILLE – STRONG & FOOLISH HEART/BLUE GHOST BLUE (7″ by Tanuki Records)
ERIC LUNDE – THE FEAR OF APPEARING MONOTONOUS PREVENTS US FROM RECORDING EXPRESSIONS WHICH,
UPON SUCH OCCASIONS, ARE ALL VERY APT TO RESEMBLE ANOTHER (CDR by Ballast) *
MATT SHOEMAKER – FLIGHT/CHROMATIC SPLITTING INJUNCTION (cassette by Elevator Bath)
GIANLUCA FAVARON – POLLINE (cassette by Silentes Tapestry)
SYNTH PIT – ASTERIA (cassette by Tanuki Records)
DEL STEPHEN – UNEXPRESSED (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
PROTO PROTO/SICK DAYS – 45 MINUTES OF BLEEDING, SLOWLY/KINGS ENGLISH (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
MARTIN RACH/KENN BRENNAN – NIGHTLY/BLUE MOON (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
TROUM – ACOUASME (CD by Cold Spring Records)
Z’EV – ELEVEN MIRRORS TO THE LIGHT (CD by Cold Spring Records)
COLOSSLOTH – OUTSTRETCH YOUR HAND FOR THE IMPRESS OF TRUTH (CD by Cold Spring Records)
As I was reading the press information on this new release by Germany’s Troum, I came to realize that
while I know them ever since they did their first steps, post their previous band Maeror Tri, I may
have missed out on a few releases. I can’t remember writing about their trilogy of releases which they
describe as ‘Power Romantic’, but maybe I am just too lazy this morning/evening/night time (when you
think words like these are written) to look for all the previous reviews. Which I guess is good, as
reading old reviews might give me old words to use in a new context, but while playing this without
looking at old reviews I was thinking: so what’s new around here in musical terms? And that is just
probably not a lot. Over the years I learned that some musicians (a minority actually) are all about
changing their tunes, radically or otherwise, and most other musicians settle upon a specific musical/
instrumental palette, which in the case of Troum is all things dark, ambient, atmospheric, leaning
heavily on the use guitars, voices, field recordings, flute, metal, cymbals, tapes but above all on
all of these going through a whole bunch of sound effects, to create these endless patterns of deep
sound. Now, Cold Spring tries to make us believe this is all ‘harsher’ and ‘more industrial’ then
before, but that’s not how I perceive this new album. It’s a further carving into the deep end of
their already existing style, and only seems to differ on a marginal level, and there is nothing wrong
with that. It’s what they think they do best, and, while a piece like ‘Signe Du Miroir’ has slowed
down drums and tons of reverb – hence: industrial – it also fits perfectly normal in the rest of their
work. Troum has settled upon a sound and honed that to perfection.
Obviously, I should think, you have an idea what Z’EV does: percussionist using metal junk. That
is, however, only one part of his rich musical story (well worth a book; an update of ‘One Foot In The
Grave’ would be great!), as he was also active in the field of voice manipulation, electronic music
and, when collaborating (as we saw last week, among others) he plays electronic drums. His discography
is no doubt bigger than say Troum’s, but there is lots of variation to be found in there. According
to Cold Spring ‘Eleven Mirrors To The Light’ is the completion of “an alchemical exploration of Concord
and Dissonance that began with the cosmological equations of ‘Sum Things’ and then clasped the elemental
quintet of air, water, fire, earth, and spirit in ‘A Handful Of Elements'” and this new release is about
the intersection of light and dark. I don’t think I heard these other albums, so I am not sure where to
place ‘Eleven Mirrors To The Light’ among them. But here we have eleven pieces that all last 7 minutes
and 3 or 4 seconds, except for the last, which is exactly 7 minutes. Here it is all about electronic
percussion and/or percussion that has been electronically transformed. If this is about ‘light’ and
‘dark’ and how that connects then this music is a perfect example of that. Z’EV knows how to create a
dark atmosphere with just very little sound, such as in ‘Mirall’, which is very much without rhythm,
but then in the piece that follows it, ‘Svetlo’ he uses dense layers of transformations to create wind
over airy plains. The whole rhythmic element is something that is there, through playing, through loops
created, but it’s about so much more; all of this beautiful dark, drone like sounds that sound like field
recordings of insects, of empty industrial sites and with that excellent feeling of light fading into
night. This is a great release. If you were under the impression that Z’EV rattles metal cages and
nothing else, then I’d say check out a work like this and be convinced that he has a lot more tricks
up his sleeve.
And to end this trilogy of new Cold Spring releases there is also a new album by Colossloth, from
the Midlands, Leicestershire, also known as Wooly Wollaston, if I read that well from the insert. I never
heard of this project. Of the three releases this is the shortest one and also the one I had some trouble
with and that’s mainly because it seems hard to think what it is that he wants with this music. I hear
various interests, such as power electronics, drones, ambient music, loops, tape manipulation, but what
is it that he wants with this music? To cook up a variety of interests? That could very well be the case
of course and if so then he succeeded well. But the sheer variation also makes that this bounces all over
the place too much for me. I’d rather see some more variation used in the section ‘noise’ or the section
‘ambient’ of this and make it all a bit more coherent. I have no idea how any of this was made, but I
assume an array of electronic pedals and microphones were used, maybe along with synthesizers, guitars
or tapes. It’s quite a furious release from time to time, true to the nature of power electronics, and
at just under forty minutes I would say it also has just the right length. (FdW)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
JOAO CAMOES & JEANMARC FOUSSAT & CLAUDE PARLE BIEN MENTAL (CD by Fou Records)
Fou Records is a small French label dedicated to improvisation music, mainly from French musicians that are
known in their field. I noticed such names as Léandre, Nozati, Lazro, Pauvros, etc. Many of the many releases
have Jean Marc Foussat as a participator, so he may be the initiator behind this label. He is a new name for
me, as are also Claude Parle and Joao Camoes. Foussat however is already operating since the early 80s as a
composer and musician, mainly in electro-acoustic environments. He made his first mark with his solo album
‘Abbatage’ in 1983. Of the same generation is Claude Parle, a classically trained accordionist playing in
improvised settings already for decades. Camoes is younger musician from Portugal. He is also classically
trained on the viola. In Lisbon he discovered the improvisation scene, where he now has several projects going
on. Together they combine an unusual instrumentation of accordion, viola and electro acoustic means. On their
release they offer three of their improvisations: ‘L’autre bout’, ‘A vingt ans’and ’Déchirure’. What they
have in common is that the improvisations move on in a constant and often restless flow. Moments of silence
are rare, although they play with dynamics as well. The opening of ‘L’autre bout’ is the exception to it,
as it starts from long extended sounds produced by Foussat. All three equally engage in their communicative
excursions. The improvisations are of a highly abstract level, but at the same time very lively and playful.
Their music is mainly built from short and quickly changing movements and gestures. The colouring of viola
and accordion with sounds of electro-acoustic origin is tasteful and works well. The music is very rich and
condensed. Some very engaging music is the result. (DM)
Address: http://www.fou.records.free.fr
M.B. & LES CHAMPS MAGNETIQUES – SEGMENTI [A+B] (LP by Tib Prod)
M.B. & LES CHAMPS MAGNETIQUES – SEGMENTI [C1+C2] (LP by Tib Prod)
Things have ben silent for Tib Prod for quite some years, certainly when it comes to physical releases. I can’t
remember the last time I saw one, but lo and behold, here’s two of them, and for reasons that aren’t disclosed
this comes as two separate releases, rather than one double LP. M.B. is, well-known I should hope, of course
Italy’s finest master of obscure electronic music since close to forty years Maurizio Bianchi and behind Les
Champs Magnetiques is one Yvan Battaglia, of whom I never heard but had a cassette before on Trapeze Tapes and a CD by La Esencia, despite being around since 1998. As always there is not a lot in terms of information
regarding instruments and such like, but obviously we know mister Bianchi for his electronic tapestries (loud,
soft), so I must assume the rhythm part here is the input of Les Champs Magnetiques. As these pieces are called
‘Segmenti’, followed by a code, it’s probably safe to assume they belong in some way together. Indeed if you
hear this there is certainly one approach to be noted: there is a very minimalist rhythm pattern and on top/
around that there is a set of rather spooky electronics. On ‘Segmenti [A]’ and ‘Segmenti [B]’ there is a more
coherent on-going rhythm, a bit slow, but not too dissimilar from some very experimental techno source. On
‘Segmenti [C1]’ the rhythm has been chopped up, almost like a stutter, a further fragmentation of the original
source material, and this continues on ‘Segmenti [C2]’, which has however quite a bit of bass-end, more so than
the other three pieces it seems. Here we also have some found sound in the form of loops taped from the radio
or some such and this side sounded for exactly that a bit like a very early Muslimgauze record, or even his
previous musical guise, E.G. Oblique Graph. Bianchi’s part is knitting together all of these spooky electronics,
which he keeps doing in a very consistent way for all four sides of music here. Despite the use of rhythm, this
is all very moody and atmospheric; two excellent additions to the soundworld of M.B. and which explores the use
of rhythm a bit more in-depth, which might be a first for him (but I easily admit I don’t know all of his many
records, so there you go). If you are familiar with Bianchi’s work, then this is surely something you want to
hear, as it is again something that is a bit different. (FdW)
Address: http://tibprod.bandcamp.com/
ZWEITESYSTEM – SYSTEMVERSATZ (LP by Koi8-r)
ZOV – YEDOMA (7″ lathe cut by Cyland)
ZOV – RADIOLARIA OBLYSTAR (cassette, private)
Three releases on three different formats and all of these are rather cryptic: that’s the first assessment of
these releases. I believe there is not really a website of any kind, but if you write to the e-mail below the
review you may be able to get a copy. Well, that is if these are still available. The LP by Zweitesystem for
instance is limited to 77 copies. According to the information (which is a load of word like ‘patterns, code,
interchange, block, transform, concept, idea, anti-academic’ and so forth) this is ‘performed on a 102hp euroack
modular, with a roland system100 on one track, played by Kokhlias. All of this in stark black and white, which
counts for both the sleeve and the music. On and off, binary codes, clicks and cuts, played by a modular
synthesizer. It reminded me of early Pan Sonic, Steinbruchel, Goem, Alva Noto, Stillupsteypa or Ryoji Ikeda.
Music that has it’s roots in the world of techno but probably never really aims for the dance floors; well,
perhaps some of those that came before Zweitesystem pulled the dancefloor trick off, but I don’t see his (?)
music easily hit the floor. Having said I should add: who cares about the dance floor anyway? Zweitesystem sets
a particular set of sounds in motion and leaves the machine to make adjustments as it sees, and that results
in some very minimal pieces of music. Repetition is what is, but in his hands this all sounds all quite all right.
It may not be really something new or off the wall (with a list of copyists as long as your arm), but Zweitesystem
does overall an excellent job. The production is great, there is a fine amount of variation in the pieces while
everything has been very consistently been executed, so it makes this a very fine record.
The other two releases are by Zov, by which I understand is Olga Kokcharova and Gianluca Ruggeri. I am not
sure what the relationship is between all of these releases, apart from the fact that they came together in one
parcel. In both pieces on this lathe cut 7″ the sound sources are from cold places, such as “glaciers, frozen
soil, ice formation and melting and other sub-zero enviroments”, all captured by hydrophones and there has been no processing; just layering and editing. On one of the sides (no labels, so it’s hard to tell which) I think
it all sounded like long wave sounds (you know, the opposed ones to short waves) with all sorts of scratches and
peeps, whereas on the other side it is sounding like ice melting and dripping upon surfaces. The quality of the
lathe cut is good, but like things are with lathe cuts it is not top notch. In this case however that is not
really a problem as the scratchy surfaces and occasional ticks work very well with the music. Quite a lovely
little item and with hardly any winter in this corner of the world, one has a bit of coldness available on
vinyl; always welcome then.
The cassette is also a limited edition with hand stamped information on graph paper. The music is also
performed by Zov in 2012 and uses a single analogue synthesizer, System 100, and function generators. There
are nine pieces generated with this machine. ‘Interconnections between an analogue synthesizer and a series
of function generators are set-up in order to operate and produce sound in a semi-autonomous fashion requiring
minor human intervention’. Along with the music of Zweitesystem this is some minimal synth experiment, in which the synthesizer in a rather industrial music fashion transforms waves; more industrial and less techno than
the music by Zweitesystem. I must say I like this a bit, but I wasn’t blown away by it; perhaps because it
sounds too easily made? In the old days (talking about the 80s here) cassettes got a bad name because of this
‘have synth – will experiment’ attitude and while this is surely much better than what I remember from those
‘one-hour bedroom experiments with a single synthesizer’, it is also something that you could and should do
yourself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zov308.org
Address: http://z.x-xx—x.info/
LEIF ELGGREN – DAS BAANK (LP by Fragment Factory/Rekem)
All of the work by Leif Elggren comes with a story, an idea, and a concept and on this new record it’s all about,
if I am correct, the world of money and religion. That’s a world in itself. The two seem inseparable these days,
with all the money in say the Roman Catholic church, the hard-working god fearing Protestants having tons of
money and the oil prices (low as of today of course) which brought richness to the Muslim world. However both the Qu-ran and the Catholic Church disapproved of Usury, ‘the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that that unfairly enrich the lender’, as it says on the cover of this record. There is lots more text on the
cover and while some of Elggren’s music is text heavy in the form of spoken word, this new record is all about
music, which is great for change, I think. And what’s greater is the music. There are eight pieces on this record
and the first two are actually mild pieces of electronically processed sighing or other sorts; it all sounds pretty
intense already, but then in the other pieces Elggren starts to poke around with loud, vicious blocks of distorted
sound. Monotonous, intense but with an excellent raw power. Here is someone cracking the till of the bank, robbing the banks of electronic components and whatever else you can think of, metaphor wise. I played this record three times in a row yesterday evening, and again today, and I am quite clueless what to write about, other than that this is one helluva of a blast. It is easily the best Leif Elggren record in quite some time. Go to your bank, get money and buy this record. That would be the best investment for today. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fragmentfactory.com
Address: http://www.rekemrecords.tumblr.com
BRUME & EDWARD SOL – GREY (LP by Sentimental Productions)
For a very long time Christian Renou was known to the entire cassette world as Brume, and then, early this century for a while under his own name, but I guess sometimes one needs to stay with the old names (easier to get a record out sometimes, perhaps) and these days it is Brume again. It seems, but maybe I am just grossly misinformed, that he is these days less active when it comes to releases, certainly compared to his cassette releases in the 80s. Here however he teams up with Edward Sol, from the Ukraine, where he runs his Quasipop label, and, who knows, the Sentimental label, of which this is the first release. This is one of those ‘music by mail’ collaborations. On the first side Edward Sol created all the music using sounds from Brume and on the other side it’s vice versa. Sol has ‘treatments, reel tapes, loops, electronics, Polivoks, synth, voice’ while Brume uses ‘treatments and re-composition, additional sound sources, mix & voice’, which in my book is just minor differences. It shows in the music too; one has to turn the record over, so you know someone else is responsible for the mix, but in all of the ten pieces on this record there is not a lot of difference in approaches. All of these pieces are dark and textured pieces of treated sound, with quite some loops running around at the same time, some of these slowed down and all of this going through a whole bunch of sound effects, to create some intense sound patterns. Sometimes one ecognizes an instrument, a guitar or saxophone in ‘Short Harvest’, but most of the times the sources are very hard to decipher. Spooky music with a strong cinematic approach, as I can see this easily fit a horror movie. Musique concrete of a rather modern nature. Densely orchestrated, short and to the point, exactly how we like those things.
This album is already a very limited edition release, but in an even more limited edition there is also a bonus CDR, called ‘Fade To Grey’, and is recorded by Edward Sol, solely, taking the material a notch or two further. It’s a single piece, just a minute longer than the original LP and taking all the elements into a new context, again all
very spooky and mysterious. This is the kind of stuff where you only have to add the film to the music; it’s all
there already. I think this is a particular strong piece on it’s own and it deserves to be heard outside the
limitation of twenty copies only. Maybe there should be a proper CD version that goes with each LP, or perhaps
even a separate release on it’s own? Excellent head trip/space music from the world of musique concrete. (FdW)
Address: http://sentimentalproductions.bandcamp.com/
ZEITKRATZER – SATURATION (12″ by Bocian Records/Musica Genera)
This is not a rather recent recording by Zeitkratzer, and oddly enough this is a 12″ record, even when it’s not
in the sense of techno record. Two pieces, one per side, spinning at 45 rpm. Both of these pieces were recorded
in 2004. The first side has ‘Monochromy’, composed Zbigniew Karkowki (1958-2014) and we learn from the lengthy liner notes this piece lasted originally 35 minutes. It was quite a difficult piece to perform as score instructions told the players to keep on playing at full force. Afterwards Karkowski took the recordings home and used these to compose a new out of it, by multi-layering, looping and editing, which Zeitkratzer in turn used as a new score.
This is quite some heavy piece, in which it is hard to tell what the acoustic side is (and probably all of this
is acoustic, but through all the layering and looping that is applied here it gets quite a mechanical feel, like
being locked inside a factory hall with multiple conveyer belts. An excellent piece of acoustic industrial music.
The other side has ‘Xenakis Alive’ in which the players act like machines; the dynamic texture is limited to their
bodies: the length of a bowing arm, the length of a breath, the width of clusters played with one hand and such
like. This too gives the music a mechanical, machine-like power, which is not necessarily as industrial as the
Karkowski piece, but is singing and ringing with almost distorted overtones, all densely clustered together.
Here we have no loops (I imagine) but long form tones that are played out from beginning until the end, that
sound like a record is being slowed down; think a version of the early Organum records, but then using clarinet,
trumpet, tuba, piano, analogue sampler (whatever that is), percussion, violin, cello and double bass. Also very
acoustic, very dense; very saturated, and that goes for both sides of this record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bocianrecords.nethttp://www.musicagenera.net
LOREN CONNORS & SUZANNE LANGILLE – STRONG & FOOLISH HEART/BLUE GHOST BLUE (7″ by Tanuki Records)
Recently I was under the impression that Tanuki Records was moving towards electronic, synth heavy music, but of course this 7″ proves me wrong. Here we have guitarist Loren Connors and singer Suzanne Langille, who already worked together some 25 years ago and have ever since occasionally. Both of these pieces were recorded in Glasgow in 2013 and together are close to fifteen minutes of music; and some very intense music it is. In Langille’s own composition ‘Strong & Foolish Heart’ she sings heartfelt, about love no doubt and Loren Connors makes his electric guitar weep and stutter, but creates no feedback or distortion. In ‘Blue Ghost Blue’, a piece by Lonnie Johnson, it is all about a haunted house and both Connors and Langille try to exorcize ghosts from that house. Both howl around, Connors of course through some reverb guitar and distortion, while Langille recites the text like a piece of poetry. This is more intense than the already heavy first side. One could say this is hardly acrowd pleaser, but some true chilling-to-the-bone music about sadness and despair. Limited edition of 250 copies, and available in three different covers. (FdW)
Address: http://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com/
ERIC LUNDE – THE FEAR OF APPEARING MONOTONOUS PREVENTS US FROM RECORDING EXPRESSIONS WHICH,
UPON SUCH OCCASIONS, ARE ALL VERY APT TO RESEMBLE ANOTHER (CDR by Ballast)
Throughout all the times I came across the name of Marquis de Sade I never felt inclined to read any of his books and as I understand Eric Lunde that is probably a wise decision. Back in 1988 he released a cassette called ‘De Sade’ but immediately withdrew that release and I am not sure why. Among the texts found in the re-issue presented here that’s something that didn’t become clear. Maybe it was because the original was on AWB Recording, a perhaps not entirely correct label? Blake Edwards now re-releases this, with a bunch of original liner notes and new ones and Lunde complains here that De Sade is quite boring, ‘dead on arrival’. At the same time he also acquired a verycheap biofeedback machine to record responses while reading De Sade. On the first piece of music it is a male ‘engaged in sexual activity’ (masturbating) while listening to a reading of De Sade and on the second piece a female’s ‘biofeedback reading whole listening to this broken retelling of Champvilles’ tales, while reading the text out loud and while reading the text in silence’. The booklet has some hilarious interview (no doubt a selfie) with Lunde about all of this and it supposed to embarrassing (‘did you or did you not masturbate while recording this?’), which is perhaps not so embarrassing. This is all classic Lunde material. The voice, the degradation of the voice, ever a central focus in the work of Lunde is present here. None lead led to any particular sexual arousal here, but I thought of this as another fine work by Lunde, presented with a lot of context about theproject, then as well as now. Maybe a bit more focussed on the text, I’d say than some of his other work, but that’s quite all right for a change. (fDW)
Address: http://ballastnvp.blogspot.com
MATT SHOEMAKER – FLIGHT/CHROMATIC SPLITTING INJUNCTION (cassette by Elevator Bath)
Surely by now you know that the modular synthesizer is the new laptop. It seems as if everyone is dragging modules around, tons of cables and Matt Shoemaker joined that club; he used “microphones and assorted transducers, digital and analogue recorders, signal processors, computer, various electronic and acoustic instruments” before (see Vital Weekly 755), and here he uses, besides the modular synth, a drum machine, various media and cassette recorder.
The pieces have no titles, except if you take the title per side to be the title of the various parts. The music
on the first side is a break with the past work of Shoemaker and that is of course thanks to the drum machine,
which hammers away in mid-tempo, feeding through the modular set-up for alternative variations of the rhythm,
making it grittier, dirtier and slightly distorted. I have no idea how Shoemaker would classify this music; maybe
as techno music? Surely the label does and calls it ‘a kind of bizarre minimal techno from outer space’. I don’t
think that’s the case. The rhythms he’s using are a bit too slow and do not necessarily make a great ‘groove’,
but yes, they are quite minimal. Perhaps that’s indeed not what he wants and he wants to play this oddly shaped
rhythm based music. On the second side Shoemaker uses voice material from a whole bunch of sources, which he put down on his Dictaphone and fucks around with it. No modular synthesizer here, and it sounds like a conceptual piece of sound art; at it’s best, but if I am honest it’s not something that could hold my attention for more than ten minutes, so forty-five minutes is, as you may guess, a bit too much. (FdW)
Address: http://elevatorbath.com/
GIANLUCA FAVARON – POLLINE (cassette by Silentes Tapestry)
The credits for instruments on this cassette are ‘microfoni, oggetti, effetti’, which translates as ‘microphones,
objects and effects’. We know Favaron from his various collaborative works, with Corrado Altieri, Stefano Gentile, Deison, or groups as Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Under The Snow and Zbeen and some of his solo works. Most of his music is released by Silentes. I am not sure how his set-up works; also I am not sure if I ever gave it much thought. I did today, listening to this new tape. Here we have all sorts of sounds, of objects-on-objects,
amplified and played through a mixing board changing the colour of sound through equalisation. The mixing board, so I assume, is also used to add distorted drone like sound; mildly distorted that is. I would think Favaron uses a multi-track recorder and records a whole bunch of sounds in a more or less random fashion on tape and then later on starts to mix these together, using vari-speed on both the recording and the playback. This means he has access to many ways to mix his music and make it all very collage-like. Sometimes he stays in one place for a bit, and one recognizes some of the sounds, altogether forming a piece inside a piece before one element stays one and which becomes the next segment of the piece. It all sounds rather vague (which is not necessarily quiet), and perhaps also like a personal statement of musique concrete. And if you think that listening isn’t enough, I’d recommend putting this cassette into your four-track recorder and doing your own mix; that would be
interesting as well. (FdW)
Address: http://store.silentes.it/store.htm
SYNTH PIT – ASTERIA (cassette by Tanuki Records)
If you call yourself Synth Pit, then I’m sure it will involve a bunch of synthesizers. This duo, being Grant Warner
and Dimitri Kapetas, hails from Australia and they surely love their synthesizers. That is exclusively synthesizers
and no drum machines. Preferable (and I must admit I am not sure here) those kinds of synthesizers that look like the operating system of the Tardis: lots of buttons, faders and knobs to fiddle around with. It’s no surprise that
Tanuki mentiones Delia Derbyshire here (and if you don’t know who that is, what are you doing here – go Google!) as the music here sounds very cosmic, straight outta Doctor Who, if it wasn’t cementing their current soundtracks with all these orchestral scores. This is a time machine that takes you back to the early seventies and straight into Berlin, home of Tangerine Dream. It’s only thirty minutes here, which is a pity as I wouldn’t have minded this to last an hour or so, especially the bleep drone from the piece that fills up the entire B-side, but also the three shorter pieces on the first side are top-notch. Slow moving lines on a synthesizer or two (three) drone and bubble about, drifting majestically through (my) space here and having not much else going on I left this on repeat after I wrote (I notice a time warp there) this for a few more hours while working on some other text, which
involved a bit more science fiction and bit less music. Tanuki mentions also the nineties ambient as an inspiration here, but believe me, this is very much more seventies than anything that went on in ambient music after that. Excellent release! (FdW)
Address: http://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com/
DEL STEPHEN – UNEXPRESSED (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
PROTO PROTO/SICK DAYS – 45 MINUTES OF BLEEDING, SLOWLY/KINGS ENGLISH (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
MARTIN RACH/KENN BRENNAN – NIGHTLY/BLUE MOON (cassette by Vacancy Niagara)
More recycled language instruction tapes found in the Niagara-based University’s Department of modern languages, literature and cultures are used here to copy the music, which adds more value to the rather lo-fi nature of the whole cassette scene. I love that; maybe Vacancy Niagara is one of the more eco-friendly labels! The music is not necessarily as lo-fi as the tapes or the covers suggest, and none of the original languages can be heard on these tapes.
I started with the tape by Del Stephen, also known as Stephen Del Duca, who is from London. There is not an
awful lot of information here (read: nothing), except this quote “If to be able to express oneself is a blessing…
then to carry on unexpressed is a curse.” It mentions flute samples from the work of one Poppy Dillon and guitar
by Avery Mikolic-O’Rourke. One hour, four pieces of sturdy crafted experimental music from a bunch of electronic
and acoustic sources. Much of this ends up in the department of ambient/cosmic music, but has a somewhat more lo-fi character; these aren’t exactly the smoothest synthesizers or samplers at work here, but it all sounds a bit grittier and dirtier; hissier also, even (and I checked) if you play the same thing on bandcamp. In ‘Outer Reaches’ Del Stephen reaches for a more Oval-esque sound, with stuttering guitar loops and in ‘All Of Our Uncertainties’, which spans the entire B-side a rather gentle percussive piece, of forwards and backwards spun wooden percussion sounds, which evolve slowly but very lovely. Great cassette, this one!
The second disc is a split release by Sick Days and Proto Proto, the latter being Julian Anderson from the
label’s hometown. His side of the release is called ’45 Minutes Of Bleeding, Slowly’ and lasts (againI checked
on the label’s bandcamp page), exactly 45 minutes. On the bandcamp page he also offers to play anywhere from 2 to 36 hours of live performance, and you can contact him. ‘I also do weddings’, but I am sure it’s not something
he has a lot of business over there for his noise based excursion here. There is a bunch of electronic circuitry
at work here that deforms and transforms electronic sound very slowly, and which has quite an amount of
distortion in them. It’s quite a blast of good old power electronics and industrial music at work here. It is all
quite slow in development, which is a pity, as what is said, could be said in thirty minutes.
Two minutes longer is the side by Sick Days, of whom we already reviewed a CDR in Vital Weekly 969. Jeffrey Sinibaldi, also acting as the label boss here, took a bunch of keyboards/synthesizers and played the pre-set rhythm ‘march’ from all of them, and layering them all together. He also added incidental sounds and live sampler improvisations. The music here is even more minimal than Proto Proto on the other side, but the mechanical drive it has works very well. It’s like being stuck inside a Xerox machine, or sitting right next to a conveyer belt. It’s like a primitive Vivenza. The mechanics of the rhythm stick right in your brain. This is the true industrial music I think. I was fascinated by it until the very last second. This is the minimalism I like.
The last new release for now is also a split release, also by musicians I never heard of. Martin Rach is from
Lithuania and has three parts that form ‘Nightly’. In all three the piano plays an important role and everything
has quite a nocturnal feel. We can’t compare Rach with the likes of Nils Frahm, as his piano playing may be slow and moody, it’s also based (unlike Frahm cum suis) on rather freely pressing keys on the keyboard. In the third part some distant piano and rain sounds are added, and it feels like that great record by A-Tent from the early 80s, but doesn’t have the same jazzy feel. Also Onnyk, in his very early works (see ‘Rising From The Red Sand’ compilation) has the same desolate city at night feeling. On ‘Nightly No.1’ there is just piano and a little bit
of processing, while in the second part there is the addition of more obscure sounds. It is perhaps all a bit
long, duration wise, but it worked quite well for some late night listening.
The other side has Ken Brennan from Niagara, who is announced as poet/musician, and indeed he recites poetry here along with music. The music sounds like it has been recorded on some Dictaphones; recordings of drone like guitar bits, electronics, feedback and such like, but it seems like it has been taped in some kind of hollow space, a basement, with various vantage points. It works quite well. I must admit I am less pleased by the use of the voice, but as you may know this might just be my dislike for poetry reciting over music; I am the pure
music lover I guess. It’s perhaps too much of distraction for me, a voice over some rather fine electronic
soundtrack. (FdW)
Address: http://vacancyniagara.bandcamp.com