EDIDIJA MEDEKSAITE – TEXTILE (CD by Music Information Centre Lithuania) *
TOOG – THE PREPARED PUBLIC (CD by Karaoke Kalk) *
SATOKO INOUE & KENICHI KANAZAWA & HIROYUKI URA – SCORES (CD by Ftarri) *
STEFAN ROIGK – THE RISING OF MATTEO (CD by Tochnit Aleph) *
STEFAN ROIGK – SPRACH MUSIK (CD by Tochnit Aleph) *
RALLIDAE – TURNED, AND WAS (CD by Gold Bolus)
KNUCKLEBALL (CD by Gold Bolus)
RIHARDS BRAZINSKIS & RAITIS UPENS – ALDARIS (CD by Unfathomless) *
KASPER T. TOEPLITZ – GRIS (CD by Recordings Of Sleaze Art) *
KEITH BERRY – ELIXIR (CD by Invisible Birds) *
WHITE (LP by Adaadat)
ELEPHANT HOUSE – PONY RIDE (LP by Adaadat)
ALLEGORY CHAPEL LTD – WITHOUT TEARSL NOISE IN THEORY OR PRACTICE (LP by
Throne Heap)
MODELBAU – NEITHER NOR – (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
HLUKAR – UNSPOKEN MISANTHROPIC NARRATOR – (CDR by Urbsounds)
VITALY MAKLAKOV – ZHELEZNIE SKAZKI PT. 2 (CD by Frozen Light)
UTON – ETERNAL FLOW (CD by Frozen Light) *
EASTROD – KEEP NO COMPANY (cassette, private)
CHESTNUT – WATER FOR TEA AND COFFEE (cassette by Land Turtle Records)
HANGJUN LEE & MARTIN TETREAULT – FILM WALK (cassette by Crustaces Tapes)
AGOGOL & NAABTALDEATH – ROMANTIC INTERLUDE (cassette, private)
HOPEK QUIRIN – PASSING TUBES/RÖHREN (cassette by Emitter Micro)
EDIDIJA MEDEKSAITE – TEXTILE (CD by Music Information Centre Lithuania)
Now here’s something quite interesting: Lithuanian composer Edidija Medelksaite combines her interest in musical structures with her interest in textile patterns, and all her compositions after 2005 are ‘grounded in the technique she discovered of mapping textile patterns onto musical parameters’. I would believe she creates these textiles herself and black and white decide pitch, duration, dynamics and timbre. ‘Later, this principle of the mapping of patterns is combined with various other compositional techniques, like, for example, serialism, minimalism, micro tonality orstochastic composition’ and the seven pieces on this release show this really well. The pieces are for various instruments, ranging from solo cello, two pianos, a string orchestra (twice actually), instrumental ensemble, symphony orchestra and choir. The shortest piece is eight minutes and the longest just over twelve, meaning there is quite some music on this release. And it is some excellent music. While I am not always enamoured by modern classical music, perhaps because I know so little about it, these pieces are great. From the fine opener ‘Textile 1’ for two pianos, being in an excellent early Steve Reich mode, to the microtonal exploration of ‘Sandhi Prakash’ for string orchestra, with its raga like influences, or the Ligeti inspired sound cloud of ‘Textile 2’ for choir, full of menace and mystery, and the relative light piece of ‘Scintilla’ at the end of the CD, the minimalism and micro tonalism is indeed a thread that runs through all of these pieces and make a very coherent release; there are differences to be noted among the pieces, there is in fact quite a bit of variation among these pieces and that makes throughout a damn fine disc. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.mic.lt/en/
TOOG – THE PREPARED PUBLIC (CD by Karaoke Kalk)
I can imagine if your name is Gilles Weinzaepflen you would go for an easier to pronounce name, and Toog might do the trick. He is from Paris and in the late nineties toured with Momus and in 1999 Toog released his first album. ‘The Prepared Public’ is his seventh album, and the third for Karaoke Kalk. The piano is an important instrument for him, but to that he adds field recordings, electronics, a bit of acoustic guitar and recordings of people speaking, and all of that makes for some very intimate music. It is not like Nils Frahm and that ilk, but Toog keeps his pieces short and to the point, and brings a fine playfulness to the table. The longest piece here is three minutes and eighteen seconds and the shortest merely thirty-eight seconds. You could think that the title of this album has some relation to John Cage’s prepared piano, but Toog says “he’s a symbol more than a model: his fabulous prepared piano wouldn’t exist without culture, which is ‘preparing’ us to welcome it. We are the prepared public.” With some of the music being quiet and moody, and piano based it is not too difficult not to think about Erik Satie (and of course you know that Cage was heavily inspired by Satie too), especially with some of the music being melodic. But with the addition of all the other sounds and instruments (even drums are used) this is also something quite different; maybe one could see all of this as a recording Satie’s ‘musique d’ameublement’, that proto-ambient piece, recorded in the middle of a Parisian salon in the late 19th century, but also down by rail tracks, a big square, or even inside a techno club when Toog allows a bit of technoid electronics and dub rhythm to be part of it in ‘Ivar Le Crabe’. When there are some spoken French words I always have to think of Dominique Petitgand and his intimate, homemade musical snapshots. Eighteen highly varied snapshots and maybe that is a bit too much; it comes across at times a musical mood swing. But then in a next round of playing this, the amount of variation works just fine. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.karaokekalk.de
SATOKO INOUE & KENICHI KANAZAWA & HIROYUKI URA – SCORES (CD by Ftarri)
Lasting exactly one hour, this is a recording of a trio of musicians playing at an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma. The exhibition was about ‘art & music’ and in ‘Scores’ they “explore the integration of sculpture and music”. Hanging on the wales were “vertical aluminium square tubes with numerous notches carved into their surfaces. He diagrams the notches’ positions, widths and depths horizontally”, made by Kenichi Kanazawa and these were then fixed into a score to be played by instruments. Kenichi Kanazawa himself plays these tubes with a hammer, while Satoko Inoue plays the piano and Hiroyuki Ura plays VSS-30 sampling keyboard and drums, even when the latter was quite difficult to spot in here. There were ten 1,200 mm square tubes so the composition is ten parts of 1,200 measures each. That’s of course a bit of a conceptual approach, and I must admit I didn’t detect ten parts in all of this, but actually a bit less. Maybe five or six arts, and I wasn’t counting any measures. The space of the museum accounts for quite a bit also, sounding like a big sounding board, adding to the atmosphere of the pieces. It moves with very slow pace and with occasional strum on the piano or the tubes, or both and sparse percussion (around thirty to forty minutes into the piece) and a sampling keyboard playing ‘drones’ about twenty minutes earlier than this. Sometimes it has the quality of wind chimes, and then it becomes a modern classical piece or folding together like a fine performance piece in the best Fluxus tradition. This is all very peaceful and meditative; just what we need in these hectic times. (FdW)
––– Address: http://ftarri.com/
STEFAN ROIGK – THE RISING OF MATTEO (CD by Tochnit Aleph)
STEFAN ROIGK – SPRACH MUSIK (CD by Tochnit Aleph)
Two new releases by Stefan Roigk? Well, no, just ‘Sprach Musik’ is new, but Roigk send the other one, ‘a bit older’ as he calls it, because it might be something I like. A bit older means it is from 2014, and perhaps (but I might be an old cynic) there are some unsold boxes of copies, so a bit of extra renewed exposure can’t hurt, perhaps?
I started with that bit of history. Roigk did an artist-residency in Milan in 2009 and he did a bunch of field recordings, as well as some installation piece and all of this combined became ‘The Rising of Matteo’, which he calls a sonic opera, or ‘an Italian love story’; this might very well be a fake opera, or a love story with sound. Throughout these fifty-two minutes we hear the sounds of the city, big and small (well, mostly small actually) along with the electronic drones from what is most likely the sound installation, but for all we know it could also be the processed sounds of electric phenomena around the city. Nowhere one has the idea this is about Milan, or in fact Italy as such, but it is a very fine work with an abstract sense of drama running along this. I couldn’t tell what it was about but it surely sounded quite fascinating. Roigk choose some fine sounds and made some excellent choices in combining these together.
The other new release by Roigk is in fact ‘new’ and ‘Sprach Musik’ could be translated as ‘speak music’, or ‘voice musik’ and deals with the use of the voice. The material for this work has been recorded over a period of three years in performances in Germany, Riga and Chicago, and probably a few others. Now, all of this is in German, and text is printed on the cover, and you can imagine this limits the audience for this (or alternatively ask Roigk to send you the English translation as a PDF), but even with limited knowledge of the German language this is a most enjoyable work. Much of this about language, words, sound, communication, perception of all of these, along with sounds picked up from the environment and ether (I guess), mixed together in the best tradition of a radio play. The fourteen pieces (total length: thirty-three minutes) run as one program into each other and makes up for some very intense listening. There is sometimes a somewhat sacral feeling to the music, which I am not too particular fond of, but when it’s all about acoustic noises, such as rustling paper and vocalizations, I must admit I find it all very fascinating. But I easily admit that the German language is perhaps nicht so geheimnisvoll für mich, but without that I would have probably enjoyed this equally well. This might as easily enjoyed for the quality of the sound itself. (FdW)
––– Address: http://tochnit-aleph.com/
RALLIDAE – TURNED, AND WAS (CD by Gold Bolus)
KNUCKLEBALL (CD by Gold Bolus)
Here we have two very different outfits with new releases on Gold Bolus, the label that surprised me recently with their fantastic release by Thingny. This time we are talking of the debut album by Rallidae, a group from Toronto led by Angela Morris (tenor sax, voice) with following companions: Dustin Carlsson (guitar), Scott Colberg (bass), Alex Samaras (vocals), plus Nico Dann who assists on seven tracks on drums. As a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, violin, flute, clarinet, vocals) Morris contributed to recordings and performances of jazz, improvisation, avant-garde, pop, new music, etc. The EP ‘Paper Birds’ that received positive reviews preceded this first full-length recording. Rallidae is about improvisation, but also about melody, pop, song-format, telling stories. And they have found an interesting mix and very satisfying balance between these two ingredients. Also a lot of musical influences can be discovered. For example influences of African music can be noticed in the opening track ‘Drumheller’. Morris writes most of the material, music and lyrics. ‘Now I walk in Beauty’ is a folk-traditional. Important and beautiful are the vocals by Alex Samaras who worked with Meredith Monk in the past, and Angela Morris. Their music is accessible and unconventional at the same time. I perceived it above all as songs that are opened up for free improvisation, which permits them for free improvised sections, but always somehow close to the song and narrative. The fine arrangements and instrumentation give it a personal and intimate touch. Wondering what the word ‘rallidae’ might mean, I learned from Wikipedia it is the name for a “large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized ground living birds”. I guess that describes them well.
It is a long time ago I heard new from Australian pianist Marc Hannaford. I remember a solo recording for Extreme in the time he operated from his home country. Nowadays he is settled in New York and found partners in Daniel Levine (trumpet) and Devin Gray (drums). This makes the trio Knuckleball who present now their first coming out on Gold Bolus. For four of nine tracks Levine is listed as the composer. For the other tracks nothing is indicated, and they resulted from group improvising I suppose. This is complex and very structured music whether composed or improvised, strong and intense intertwined music. It has concentrated and focused interplay of the three players who equally engage. It may sound a bit cerebral at first hearing but if you go into it, their condensed constructions are full of energy, live and a great many ideas. (DM)
––– Address: http://goldbolus.com/
RIHARDS BRAZINSKIS & RAITIS UPENS – ALDARIS (CD by Unfathomless)
A review that starts with ‘I’m not sure if I heard of this/these person(s)’ happens a lot, much to some ridicule (‘he has no clue that he wrote about him three times before; it’s all a rush job’), but here I’m pretty sure, simply because these names are difficult to write if one wants to avoid spelling mistakes; Rihards Brazinskis and Raitis Upens are from Latvia and in a beer brewery called Aldaris they made their recordings. Apparently the brewery still exists even when I had the impression we are dealing with a particular rusty place, but in other instances this factory seems very much alive. That might of course be the way they recorded their basic material. Of course you wouldn’t know if this was a beer brewery or an abandoned factory of any other kind, but I am sure that is also not really important as you can read about that on the cover of this release. The journey they undertook in this factory reveals some rusty (sorry) barrels, water running, a big hall, the rattling of fences and balustrades, overlooking that part of the factory where they keep the big kettles, the sound of air pressure and all of this with some highly vibrating sound going on. The various recordings are cut and spliced together, maybe even looped from time to time, but not further processed I would say, although I am also not sure about that. I would like to believe that everything here is the result of extensive layering and collaging of sounds recorded in this brewery. These two men do a great job in creating an excellent composition of field recordings of one location, forming a complete picture, well perhaps, of that place and everything lasts just long enough to be exciting, before moving on to the next part of our guided tour. This is an excellent release, one that fits very well in the catalogue of Unfathomless. (FdW)
––– Address: http://unfathomless.net
KASPER T. TOEPLITZ – GRIS (CD by Recordings Of Sleaze Art)
Maybe you are like me and you think, ‘what is a lithophone when it is at home’, which is a valid question since this new composition by Kasper T. Toeplitz is for such and instrument, along with live electronics and electric bass, the latter handled by the composer himself. The lithophone is played by Phillippe Foch, and Wikipedia describes the instruments as ‘consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. Notes may be sounded in combination (producing harmony) or in succession (melody). The lithophone is an idiophone similar to the bars on instruments such as the glockenspiel, metallophone, xylophone and marimba.’ Ah, I see. Foch built this Lithophone himself from rocks he found at the countryside; he later applied electronics to the lithophone and I guess that’s where he met Toeplitz. This being a Toeplitz piece, meaning it is all composed and such, this is also quite a loud release. According to the text this seventy-seven piece has three parts, and perhaps it is because I now know that I also hear this. In the first thirty minutes we hear the exploration of the lithophone and electronics (no bass until minute thirty- seven) in a very busy vein, and while I had this on not too loud, I was reminded of an open air recording upon some alp; the electronics provide the wind sound, whereas the lithophone sounds like cowbells, afar and close by, warning the listener of their presence. The second part seems to be a solo percussion bit of about ten minutes, but it must be that Foch applies his own electronics to it, as it still sounds pretty distorted. Then, for the remainder of the piece, we are on a perpetual descent, with a fine-formed mass of sounds. Maybe the lithophone is played here in a way that makes it not sound like one, perhaps with bows I was thinking, the rest of the instruments provide an equally fine massive drone like sound, going quieter and quieter, even when ‘quiet’ is a notion that isn’t well spend on Toeplitz. I for one would not have minded if this CD was little bit less loud and perhaps there would be more details to be audible. But I’m sure Toeplitz wouldn’t find that to be part of his aesthetics. Nevertheless I thought this was another interesting work from him, despite the volume. In the world of modern composition, I am sure Toeplitz is a unique voice. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.sleazeart.com/sleazeart
KEITH BERRY – ELIXIR (CD by Invisible Birds)
There is not a lot of music available by Keith Berry, unless not all of it makes it to my desk. The last one, ‘Towards The Blue Peninsula’ was actually reviewed not that long ago, Vital Weekly 937. Infraction Records released that, and ‘Elixir’ seems to be the counter part of ‘Simulacra’, which the same label will release shortly, but then as released by Invisible Birds. That label’s name is inspired by Bernard Gunter’s Trente Oiseaux label, which released ‘The Golden Boat’, Berry’s 2003 debut, both of which were a massive influence on the American label. In the short text that comes with Berry gives away much of how he works, ‘heavily granulated processed sounds’ and ‘explore the permutations that digital editing software allows’, which leaves a lot less to ponder about; ‘maybe
he recorded glacial movements of hissy cassettes, at half speed, on the top with a cold storm afar’. That sort of vague description is now not part of it. Well, most likely we still have no idea what kind of sound went into this machine, but my best guess would be it is some kind of field recording or some kind of instrument. If I was to learn that these sounds were orchestral in nature, then I also believe it, as some of this surely sounds like it. The twelve pieces on this release are each their own piece, and not twelve parts of one long on-going composition. Berry uses that well-known drone idiom of long sustaining tones, coloured with some sound effects and shifts in the frequency range, as to make the differences in the piece. It is something he does very well, that much is sure, but it is also something that he does for a long time. That I would say is the downside of this; after all these years much of this sounds alike. But then, as some would argue, why is it necessary to change? Berry did only seven releases in fourteen years so what’s the rush with changing the tune? I was reading a book last night and I had this on repeat along and as such this music worked just perfectly. (FdW)
––– Address: http://invisiblebirds.org/
WHITE (LP by Adaadat)
ELEPHANT HOUSE – PONY RIDE (LP by Adaadat)
The main attraction, I guess, for Adaadat to re-release the only album of White, a Chinese duo of Shenggy Shen and Zhnag Shouwang, is the fact that Blixa Bargeld produced it. He sometimes lives in China, but recorded and produced the music in Europe in 2007. Shen is the drummer for Hang On The Box and Showang plays guitar and sings in Carsick Cars. In 2008 White were the support act for Einsturzende Neubauten. In 2009 they split up and Shouwang started White+. So, now the tenth anniversary of the album sees a re-issue. It is not easy to describe the music, but there is certainly an element of rock music in here, but quite loosely played on guitar and drums, but I assume with a bit of sampling on the side. There is a mild bit of noise also in here and there, as well as electronics in the form of a keyboard of some kind. The result is neither noisy, or dirty or perhaps even strange. I find it very hard to say if there is something in here that makes this Chinese, but something exotic is surely part of this, especially in their use of percussion. The other thing I noticed is that the music is not really dark, which is something nice for a change. Throughout the songs are quite minimal in development, but there is also in most of these pieces a nice melodic touch to be noted along with sometimes vocals and occasionally a more spoken word form. In an odd I thought that most of this had a fine, positive pop vibe, but then all of this with the charm of weirdness. See, it is something that isn’t easy to describe, but nevertheless it is something I enjoyed very much.
Elephant House is not some slow dance music genre, but the name of ‘Sino-Greek psychedelic drone combo’ from London. Shenggy Shen (again) plays digital drums and sings, while Christos Fanaras plays synthesizers and guitars. ‘Pony Ride’ is their first album. One song is a cover of a traditional Chinese folk melody and other songs reference ‘traditional Mongolian coaxing rituals used to encourage female camels into accepting new-born calves’; the name from the group comes from the cafe where JK Rowling poured tea over Harry Potter. Most likely we could consider as another positive vibe, as the music of Elephant House is perhaps a bit different than White’s, mainly because it’s more electronic in approach, with hardly a lot of guitars thrown in, or vocals (which are very sparse), but there is something uplifting about the music of Elephant House. Hard to say what that is. The sort of slowness, laziness in the music, like lying in the sun, such as in ‘Pearl’, but maybe something that goes for all seven of these songs. It is all less rock based, not in the way White does it, but there’s certainly something pop-like about this music and here too I’d say there is something alternative about it. Maybe the whole psychedelic edge of the music, the way some of these pieces are stretched out? For me all of that kind of weirdness just adds to the fun of it all.
These are two great records of the finest what alternative pop has to offer. But I also admit that’s about the extent of alternative pop I am aware of. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.adaadat.co.uk
ALLEGORY CHAPEL LTD – WITHOUT TEARSL NOISE IN THEORY OR PRACTICE (LP by
Throne Heap)
Upon opening the mailer that contained this LP, I said with some disbelief: ‘Allegory Chapel Ltd, now there’s a name from the past. And just when was the last time I heard their music?’ I could not answer that question; I don’t keep lists of what I hear, but surely not since fifteen or more years or maybe even longer? Perhaps because I connect the name of Elden M’s project with the world of late 80s cassette releases of which Allegory Chapel Ltd was part, releasing music on such legendary imprints as Nihilistic, Freedom In A Vacuum, and G.R.O.S.S. and later on, a CD by Charnel Music. I now learn that Elden also worked with Monte Cazazza, His Name Is Alive, as keyboard player for Neither/Neither World, toured with Dive and spend a decade running a black metal label before re-starting Allegory Chapel in 2012, mostly as a live concern, so perhaps twenty-five years might not be unreasonable of not actively hearing his music. And that makes it not easy to remember what it sounded like, but I seem to remember it was part of the world where ambient meets industrial music. Loud but spacious; noise with a beating heart. So the ‘now’ Allegory Chapel actually doesn’t sound worlds apart from what I seem to remember, although I might be all wrong (or just a little bit), but this brings back fond memories of that whole ‘ambient industrial’ world. Maybe one would call this these days ‘power drone’ music? Elden M uses manipulated cassettes, a scratched record, distorted feedback originating from amplified junk metal, vocals, pedal/rack effects, synths, drum patterns as well as live recordings (I am quoting the press text here). Whereas on the A-side this is all over the mind bending spectrum, the psychedelic right (or left) brain where all the subconscious stuff takes place, where music like this becomes either a soundtrack of nightmares or a romance within a post nuclear landscape, the other side starts out with rhythm, slab bang proto technoid stomp, but there are also voice bits and some very lo-fi cassette manipulation that seems to be lifted from a fifth generation cassette copy of a previous Allegory Chapel Ltd release. This is the kind of noise music that sits very well with the best currently active in the field, even when Allegory Chapel stays closer to his roots (so, without using modular synthesizers, or the cut ‘n paste approach towards compositions) with more on-going slabs of noise smeared out all over the place, and that ties it in with the past but also sets out a beautiful second life to come. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.throneheap.com/
MODELBAU – NEITHER NOR – (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
In imitation of prolific Dutch writer Simon Vestdijk, Frans de Waard should be considered “the man who records faster than God can listen”. As Modelbau he has been releasing CDs and cassettes non-stop since the project’s establishment in 2014 and this is the second release this year already.
First track “Nearly” seems to take us back to the modulating drone-based sound of 2016’s “Four Squared Wheel” on Moving Furniture, but the track slowly develops into something more rhythmically charged and ominously dystopian than anything on the aforementioned album. The track ends with a clean square wave that sheds the electric tension that it was vested with, until also this tone dissolves into a distorted cloud of lfo violence.
“Nullify” is based on a surging mechanical loop that slowly devolves in an ‘Alvin Lucier’ kind of way, assimilating it’s own excremental feedback while an attenuation machine in the background squeaks and creaks to keep the volume within acceptable parameters. In the end it manages to do so but it’s left with a crackling valve and a bunch of flickering lights.
Considering the ambient nature of the first couple of tracks, “Nostalgia” is a real floor cleaner; it’s a synth-based noise piece that immediately slaps you in the face in a ‘White House’ or ‘Arafna’ manner, though its frequency distribution is rather mild by comparison as it has a lot of emphasis on the low end, especially a few minutes in. Then things cool down and become ambient again on “Namesake” and yes, perhaps a bit nostalgic even. A melancholic mid range drone stretches itself out to offer a stage to electric humming and croaking of both machines and vocal chords. The track then strands within the looped rehearsal phase of a violin recital. “Niche” cites “Four Squared Wheel” again, but this time the organ tone has a clear impetus that allows it to progress into a
bath of trembling noise until it briefly hits the breaks and leisurely u-turns out of the simmering hiss. And finally, the core sound of “Nevertheless” is a punchy synth bass that either through LFO or looped envelope generates the same note repeatedly, until it is accompanied by a second synth that sounds like it was initially spread out and slowly swelling towards the foreground, but then echoes the punctuated beat of the first in canon.
I really like how Modelbau constantly evolves and incorporates its previous ventures into more versatile sonic landscapes. For such a productive outlet you’d expect a certain reiteration of moves that becomes all too familiar, but somehow De Waard doesn’t allow that to happen. (PJN)
––– Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
HLUKAR – UNSPOKEN MISANTHROPIC NARRATOR – (CDR by Urbsounds)
This might just be the first thing ever to be released by Slovak noise act Hlukar. Since neither the CD itself, nor the label’s bandcamp page gives me much to go on, I’ll just assume it is. “Unspoken Misanthropic Narrator” comes in a nicely designed digipack that ostentatiously flaunts Hlukar’s fascination with the Lovecraftian pantheon, even more than some of the track titles already seem to give away. A pinch of satire was also added to the recipe however; so if you’re not sick of the seemingly obligatory dose of irony in every single bloody thing these days, please do read on. Opener Innsmouthan Necrofunk is a nattering noise piece that is quite well endowed in the low end. Judging from the title one might expect something extremely ghastly and atmospheric (yet danceable?), but closing my eyes and allowing the sounds to cook up their own imagery in my mind, the only thing that pops up is some kind of knock-off R2D2 droid tumbling into a boiling tar pit. The second track “Satanic Colostomy of the Unholy Ulnar Nerve” takes a while to get its motor running, but then it definitely has me nodding along to the rhythm. It’s a decent industrial track, somewhat in the vain of Proyecto Mirage and Mlada Fronta. Indeed sailor, ‘vintage references’ and that does reflect on the music itself. Hlukar’s sound is very much reminiscent of that of a whole lot of classic Hands and Hymen acts – Mono no Aware, Asche, Morgenstern, Synapscape, Imminent – you get the picture. Also the third and fourth track shows Hlukar’s alignment with the post-industrial pioneers. Filthy, syncopated beats with wayward excursions through spikes of IDM and grainy robot vomit. The fifth track (yeah, check out the torturous titles yourself and you’ll get why I can’t be arsed with the rest of them) dwells in Sonar territory and that one and the third track were easily my favourites on this mini album. If you, like me, (still) enjoy listening to a chunk of stomping post-industrial every now and then, this is an album to check out, even though the artwork might have you believe otherwise. Conversely; if you’re looking for a way to peer into the abyss via a Lovecraft-inspired piece of sonic art, this will give you absolutely nothing. And finally, if you think Lovecraft was just a horror writer and abyssal fear is just a fictional trope he cultivated as a concept you can use to ironically refer to on you meta-modern blog that serves as a showcase of your erudite, fragmented patchwork identity, then you clearly know nothing about ego death, and the existential fear that clings to it, at all. (PJN)
––– Address: http://label.urbsounds.sk
VITALY MAKLAKOV – ZHELEZNIE SKAZKI PT. 2 (CD by Frozen Light)
UTON – ETERNAL FLOW (CD by Frozen Light)
Here I am with a dilemma. Should I review music from somebody with whom I was in contact, privately, on the subject on his homophobia and let’s say, in the end we didn’t shake hands? It is of course one of those things that come with social media: we now know more than in the old days when people stuck a few porn images on a cassette and yet when you met them were no sexists at all. Now everybody express their opinion on everything all of the time (because everybody is now an expert on anything of course, and then you get something like “I’m fairly educated. Children will eat sweets and know what is good and what is bad, unlike that abomination that give European and American children in school from an early age. Early sex education and gayest things”. I found out that somebody whose music I reviewed a lot is in in fact a devote Christian; I may have worked with somebody who voted for Trump. Not good, not good, I might say. This particular musician whose new release I have here lost a lot ‘friends’ on the Book, but I am sure he is filled by pride with that, which is a pity; his music, largely based on the noisy end of field recordings, ain’t bad at all. It’s just that I can’t listen to it too much without thinking back to the discussion I had with him about people being gay and open (and foremost happy) about it. But maybe for someone who doesn’t know all of this, or who think that the biggest shits in life produce wonderful works of art, they can easily enjoy this; I am not that man, however. I give him the full freedom to express his concerns about the world; I retain the full freedom to ignore him from here on end, even when his releases have no indications about these views. Labels of the world: release as much of him as you want; however don’t expect me for any different review. I will just reprint this review.
Another release this week that lasts exactly sixty minutes; curious indeed. Uton is Jani Hirvonen from Finland, whose been around for some time and who has many releases under his belt by now. Many of these contain music that can be described as ‘drone’ and ‘lo-fi’ and more often than not these words are used in connection to his work. This new piece is not different, even when it is at the same time not easy to tell what it is that Uton does, or perhaps to say that lo-fi is indeed it is what it is. Drone however, is something surely the case. In this one-hour piece sounds are ringing and singing in your ear. Like said, whatever goes into this machine we don’t know, but it could very well be some guitar and a bunch of sound effects, but at the same time it could also be that a microphone is picking up street sounds but through a long line of sound effects this has become entirely impossible to hear anymore. Through Uton has a very minimal approach to music, this is not without any developments. Slowly Uton changes the music in his piece, by adding a new layer, subtracting another one, applying a different process, and while it stays on the same dynamic level, there is quite a bit of change throughout. One will notice for instance a gradual shift from mid/high frequencies to mid/low towards the end. It is throughout a bit dark, but one could also say this is all highly atmospheric, and quite rightly so. Quite a beauty, this one. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.frzl.ru
EASTROD – KEEP NO COMPANY (cassette, private)
CHESTNUT – WATER FOR TEA AND COFFEE (cassette by Land Turtle Records)
There are two Michaels in Eastrod; Micheal Lee is the singer and Michael Winter is responsible for all the music, without being specific as to how this music is made, using what instruments. They write me that they are big fans of the weekly, but they don’t mention that their music is perhaps a big different than what we normally review. I would say the instruments played by Winter is foremost electronic in nature; a keyboard of some kind, no doubt, and perhaps some kind of electronics to transform the sound. Maybe two keyboards and as such Winter plays both drones, sequences and a bit of melody, but there is very little in way of rhythm machines, if any at all. With Lee singing in a falsetto voice that reminded me of Silver Apples, or perhaps of Suicide; maybe I was thinking of them because Eastrod have a song called ‘Sugar Baby’. Soundwise Eastrod is not like these bands, but since being very much disconnected to the world of alternative pop music I would not know what it does resemble. Having said, I must admit I quite enjoyed this music. It sounded quite personal and intimate, but Eastrod have quite a fine, forceful sound at their disposal; nothing sounded very lo-fi here, but it had some fine power. An excellent release.
As much as I don’t like to throw these things together, the next day I got the cassette ‘Water For Tea And Coffee’ by Los Angeles duo Chestnut; Daniel Watkins (guitar, vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Christina Santa Cruz (bass and vocals) and they ‘traverse between Avant experimentation, and sparse traditionalism in an effort to evoke sepia-toned childhood memories of the first you Googled Aleister Crowley.’ They were originally from South Florida, with it’s “misty landscapes, and rural bleakness […] created in hindsight from the ‘survivor’s guilt-perspective’ of two people who got out”. This is quite folk based, but also rooted in the world of alternative pop
music, just like Eastrod, but if I were to compare the two, I’d say I like Eastrod better. Chestnut sounded a bit too folky for me but at the same time also to deliberate lo-fi, with it’s far away recording, mild distortion on guitars (which might also be just stems from the way it was recorded), plus I’m not blow away by the male voice, whereas the female voice sounded even more folky, but more enjoyable, in it’s more traditional approach. Not bad, but perhaps not entirely my cup of tea. Or coffee for that matter. (FdW)
––– Address: http://eastrod.bandcamp.com/releases
––– Address: http://chestnut1.bandcamp.com/
HANGJUN LEE & MARTIN TETREAULT – FILM WALK (cassette by Crustaces Tapes)
On the ever so lovely handmade label Crustaces (send postcard or gift, receive cassette!) a recording of a concert in Montreal 2016 by Martin Tétreault, who plays here turntable motors and feedback in collaboration with Hangjun Lee who gets credit for multi-projection 16mm and sound. He’s from Seoul and from the same circles as the musicians on the Balloon & Needle label. The cassette is rather short, maybe just twenty or so minutes, of some highly concentrated electrical disturbances, like the faulty devices in some toys or the over amplified recording of a boat that won’t properly start. It is not easy to say what Lee’s part is in all of this, as it could very well be the work of Tétreault solo, but we must assume it is the two of them playing together. This is quite a noisy beast I must admit, bumping around with mild distortion and ditto feedback and I am not entirely convinced it should have been released. This is one of those things where I can imagine that in a live context it sounded great but if you weren’t present it might not be something one can easily relate too. It is short and to the point; more or less. (FdW)
––– Address: http://crustaces.bandcamp.com
AGOGOL & NAABTALDEATH – ROMANTIC INTERLUDE (cassette, private)
The B-side of this release has two guest players whose name I recognized; Mia Zabelka on ‘electrified violin, electronics’ and Korhan Erel on ‘controllers, computer and electronics’, but I never heard of the two main players, AGogol (modified electric table top guitar, electronics, objects) and NaabtalDeath (amplified prepared Zither over kaosspads). They have two parts of the title track on side A, and two pieces with a guest each on the other, all of this which was recorded at Oderbruch (side A) and Hannover (side B); and all of this from the world of die hard improvisation. Normally something I quite enjoy, but today, I don’t know. More than once I remark that music that sounds great in concert not necessarily translates too well to a release, and perhaps this is one of those cases. It might be great to see the action as it is taking place, with whatever interesting constructions of guitars and electronics, but without the image, and just the music it may not work. What I seem to miss is tension among these players, interaction between the duo and their guests as well; it now seems a collection of separate sounds and ideas, with seemingly not too much interaction between the lot. Don’t get me wrong; it is not bad at all, but perhaps just not good enough to release and save for posterity. (FdW)
––– Address: none given
HOPEK QUIRIN – PASSING TUBES/RÖHREN (cassette by Emitter Micro)
The music on this cassette was already recorded in 1986, using a four-track cassette recorder in a place called Tabuk, which is in Saudi Arabia. Quirin dug this out “as part of an installation, playing it through speakers consisting of different – sized tubes made of different metals, and other sound bodies, to merge with surrounding sounds and noises. The original recording was remixed for listening through a regular sound system”, which maybe me then think ‘so what do we have here? Is it the original or a recording of the installation? Quirin also mentions that we should ‘adjust volume as low as surround noise level’, which I didn’t do, but maybe because I already live in a quiet neighbourhood, and there is not much interaction going on with whatever happens around here. So, at this normal volume we hear a most curious mixture of sounds, mostly small ones in the beginning, acoustic in nature, object based, perhaps, but also on guitar and somewhat later on also a synthesizer of some kind. It’s not easy to say. Sometimes I had the impression that many of these improvised sounds were committed to tape without much consideration of what onto the next track and then later, when the tape was full it was all mixed together in a sort of cageian random way, with none of the sounds being very obtrusive throughout. Everything ebbs and flows, while there is an aspect of improvisation throughout. Whether this is a mix of the original tape or a recording of the installation booming out sounds through tubed sized speakers is no longer relevant. It sounds pretty neat altogether. Maybe the next step is to play this inside a four-track machine and do a new mix? (FdW)
––– Address: http://emittermicro.com/