JAN BOERMAN – THE COMPLETE TAPE MUSIC OF (5CD by Donemus)
Unfortunately there is no government health warning, so here’s mine: do not play all 5 after each other. Not because it’s bad for your health, but it’s just too demanding as it needs intense listening. Just like the Dick Raaijmakers three CD set reviewed a while ago, this is an old man retrospective. Beside the fact that the two are closely related, everything else is different. The music composed here is not for theatrical or conceptual purposes, but it’s music that, in most cases, stands on it’s own. The only reference Boerman makes in his music is to landscapes, and then only occasionally.
The complete work of Boerman is just too much to fit in the few words of a review. Simply because it’s very abstract. Both the sound itself (just sine waves, hacked and spliced together in the method of the ‘Golden Section’, which is compositional thing Boerman developed), but also the language Boerman uses to describe his work: a hardcover book of 167 pages… This is just not the right place for starters. But if you, just like me, have a copy of his first LP ‘De Zee’, and played it as much as I did, the CD version is an improvement. But all in all: this is a worthwhile set having, and consuming in small doses is recommended. (FdW)
Address: Donemus – Paulus Potterstraat 16 – 1071 CZ Amsterdam
(started with this review last week, but here it is complete… sorry):
GESCOM – MD (Minidisc by OR)
Of course Minidisc is another attempt to exploit the market of digitalia, after CD, DAT, DCC and of course it has added some gadgets: you can have many more track numbers on a disc, it’s easier to use in loop mode, or shuffle the information. Therefore I doubt whether many people who actually own a minidisc player will have it hooked in their home stereo system, or packed next to their records for tonight’s DJ set… Nevertheless this is the first official independent minidisc only release (and I’m sure it will be bootlegged to CDR by those who think that the format is just a waste of money)(Yep, you’re right there, Franky – MP), and it’s not hand copied, but factory manufactured. Gescom, as we all know, is one of the alter ego’s of those very intelligent technoids Autechre (my favorite in this field). So far I’ve heard the odd piece, and a dancy 12″, but this is altogether something different. The 88 tracks are quite short, and very noisy. Occasionally it hints at something, that may be a beat… but it’s rare. Knowing that this is released by OR, we are not suprised it sounds like Farmers Manual or Pita – the Viennese abuser of digital media. Of course I tried looping some tracks (as the minidisc is better capable of performing that than the CD) and it worked fine. No doubt this minidisc will appeal to the adventurous DJs (I’m not) and that bootleg copies will be made to CDR (the other exciting new medium) for home consuming (Right again, Franky _MP). If the shuffle modes of previous CD’s by Jos Smolders, Farmers Manual or Otomo Yoshide appealed to you, then this is another treasure-trove of sounds. (FdW)
Address: <or@touch.demon.co.uk>
ANDRE MARANHA – NACHT UND TRAUME (CD single by Ananana)
Of course we all remember Andre, member of Osso Exotico, who combine serious composing with maybe (but who knows, maybe not) electro-acoustic music derived from what could be vaguely identified as industrial music. But that’s ancient theory, if we closely examine the three tracks on this CD. The first piece (hey, I hope you don’t mind me not repeating the titles, which are way too long, and all in Portugese anyway) is the longest – a solo piano piece that, if I understand the cover correctly, is based on a title by Franz Schubert. But played slowly, withut much emotion. Very sober. Then the second piece is a woodblock kinda sound with spoken word – and then the third track combines what we heard before. This is probably crammed full with loads of metamorphical meaning which is well beyond me. To enjoy this is easy, as it’s calm, relaxing, and Oh So Serious academically composed music. (FdW)
Address: <ananana@esoterica.pt>
THAT NOTHING IS KNOWN (CD by Recorded)
This might be the title here, it might be the band name. Four guys go to the limit on this one. It’s the full CD range of improvised music, recorded at their first meeting in two sessions (at John Corbett’s Radio Dada Programm – quality guaranteed I guess). The line up has vocals, drums, percussion, saxophones, flutes and a whole range of electronics. It’s especially these electronics that make this into a more enjoyable affair – for me (as I know that some people hate this sort of hit-and-play music) at least. But I have to admit, there are some pieces which drag on too long, sometimes. A pair of scissors (Oops ! edits in pro-tools) could have made this shorter and maybe better. (FdW)
Address: www.recorded.com
FELIX KUBIN – SHAKIN’ TUNDRA/ANTARKTIS FLOW (7″ ON MEEUW MUZAK)
This record by Whirlwind Wizard of the Ivories, Felix Kubin, is a testament to why he actually became famous for his organ technique at health resorts in Baderstreick in what was once the Kingdom of Czechoslovakia. Various command performances for Middle Eastern despots, misled and misleading Eastern guru-types wit de beard and members of European royalty were not enough, it seems, to save him from becoming ensnared by a number of dubious occult and satanic organizations, where he had to whip it out on his much-beloved organ until a qualified solicitor and a brief sojourn in psychic rehab rescued him from a death worse than life. Now he spends his time acting as telepathic channel for space pioneer Urine Gagarin, who directs Felix and his organ from beyond the grave (he dead then?), compelling him to produce works like these.
Meeuw Muzak have taken me quite by surprise with this 45RPM 7″. Music for the not-quite-right-in-the-head types. I can’t help wondering just how long it would take for a swarm of remixers to gather to beat their batter if more of this were released. (MP)
DJ T-1-11 – NATURAL SELECTION (Catalog No. 001)
The unsavory combination of Ennio Morricone’s harpmonica and a disco bass drum wind this release by DJ T-1-11 into unholy life, as turntables collide with prime-evil sampler technology, the best of the worst of ‘knee-high’ technology and a bunch of records nobody else could stand anymore.
The mad mutations started on Side 1 continue on the backside, as it were, with combinations of voice and music creating suitably crusty parodies of self-improvement and relaxation courses disseminated on audio cassette in the 70’s and 80’s. (Everybody was too busy feeling too good in the 60’s to ever consider filling in ‘Guilt’ and ‘Alienation’ as their parents’ names on passport applications.)
More than an interesting assortment of appropriated oddities; ‘Almost everything was stolen without shame’ on this mostly groovy debut vinyl re-presentation by DJ T-1-11.
‘Will Smith die slow ‘ indeed ! (MP)
Address: <greg@staalplaat.com>
SHIFTS – SONATAS (10″ on Korm Plastics)
The best Shifts music since the first 7″ of 1996, then with guitar as source of ambient, now using the piano as only instrumentation. I suspect it was made by inducing rapid vibrations of the strings inside the piano and allowing sympathetic strings to resonate, sustain pedal depressed all the while. Filtering and EQ sweeps may also have augmented the possible multi-tracking, and the results are rich, warm, deep-pile acoustic drones which make space shake.
There are three Sonatas smeared over a double-sided slice of vinyl – an Interlude (50hz hum, with a dash of equalization, a sprinkling of scrunch left to simmer in some slight reverb for a minute or two), which (yes, same sentence) separates the first two.
Cute packaging, a fine release. No, you can’t have it back ! (MP)
LEIF ELGGREN – INSOMNIA/SOMNAMBULISM (10″ on Some Records)
Listen to insomniac Leif Elggren’s knife-sharpening technique in a roadside cafe, where caught in the space between too many coffee beans, he whittles away at time aggravating tin till it’s keen. Outside small voices request some gasoline. Traffic passes endlessly in the shapeless night, keeping the tarmac warm. So much cutlery, so little time.
The somnambulist continues honing in the sharply reverberant space of active sleep. Soundlessly the sleepwalker’s feet fall along the edge of the parapet, like a slug sliding up the thin side of a razor blade. Shrill bats swarm from the crevasse of slumber, bearing secrets, but unable to share them. The slow, relentless approach of the executioner of sleep. (MP)