ORGANUM – VACANT LIGHTS/RARA AVIS (2CD by Die Stadt)
ALPHANE MOON/OUR GLASSIE AZOTH – EXPERIMENTING WITH AN AMEN (CD by
Oggum Records)
PATERAS/BAXTER/BROWN – ATAXIA (CD by Synaesthesia)
STENDEC – A STUDY OF ‘AND’ (CD by Expanding Records)
KEITH ROWE & OREN AMBARCHI & ROBBIE AVENAIM – HONEY PIE (CD by Grob)
CHRISTIAN CALON/CHANTAL DUMAS – RADIO ROADMOVIES (2CD by 326)
POLWECHSEL – 3 (CD by Durian)
ASMUS TIETCHENS & DAVID LEE MYERS – 60:00 (CD by Line)
ON PETER ROEHR (CD compilation by Whatness)
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER – LOOPING I-VI (AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS) (CD by 12K)
EMOTIONAL JOYSTICK – BELLICOSE PACIFIC (CD by Zod)
LUC FERRARI – LES ANECDOTIQUES: EXPLOITATION OF CONCEPTS NO.6 (CD by Sub Rosa)
RAN SLAVIN – PRODUCT 02 (CD by Cronica)
@C – V3 (CD by Cronica)
INTERTECSUPABRAINBEATZROOMBOYZ – 69 LUFTGITARREN (miniCD by Nneon)
A*CLASS – AIN’T NO FUTURE BUT OUR FUTURE (miniCD by Nneon)
MERZBOW – MINI CYCLE/YOSHINO TAMAGO/YONOS BIGFOOT (3″CD by Ohm Records)
JIM O’ROURKE – TWO ORGANS (LP by Three Poplars)
TAMING POWER – SELECTED WORKS & FRAGMENTS 1987-97 (LP by Early Morning Records)
TAMING POWER – SELECTED WORKS 1996-97 (7″ by Early Morning Records)
JACK THE RAPPER – DUTROUX RAP (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
Z’EV/THOMAS KÖNER & ULRICH KRIEGER (2×7″ by Die Stadt)
ORPHAX – IN A LONG NIGHT (self-released CDR)
CHAOS THROUGH PROGRAMMING – ROCK N ROLL GENOCIDE (CDR by Push The
Button Records)
ATONE – UN JOUR (MP3 by Autres Directions In Music)
ORGANUM – VACANT LIGHTS/RARA AVIS (2CD by Die Stadt)
Great great great. Some ultra rare old 7″s being re-issued on CD. But
why why why only five tracks which don’t span over 20 minutes, packed
as a double CD which doesn’t last more than 35 minutes??? All of this
stuff could have easily fitted on one CD, and then there would have
been room for another 3 old and rare 7″s. I really don’t understand
this release policy at all. Is David Jackman’s policy an experiment
in human nature and how stretch its limits?
Now the music, ah that’s something different. Vacant Lights belongs
to one of my more favourite records and the tracks collected on the
second CD to some of the rarest Organum stuff.
‘Vacant Lights’ shows probably Organum’s most soft side. Apperentely
this LP was recorded in the backyard of IPS studio, which I didn’t
know, but that accounts for the cars driving somewhere around.
Organum, here being David Jackman and Dinah Jane Rowe, play the
rumbling of objects and added is Jackman playing his bamboo flutes.
There is no real dramatic built up in both these pieces, just a nice
passing of sounds – percussive metallic sounds, the bamboo flute and
the cars driving by in the background. The traffic causes a heavy
background hum, which makes this album a kind of ambient, but then in
a sort of Organum way. His most relaxing album, let’s safely say
that…
‘Iuel’ and ‘Wolf’ were recored with the help of Christoph Heeman and
Jim O’Rourke, whereas ‘Obon (Version)’ is an alternative mix by
Robert Hampson and O’Rourke and ‘Rara Avis’ is just O’Rourke. These
are classic Organum pieces: the scraping of metal, the bowing of
guitars and the overall careful atmosphere, moving away from his
older ‘In Extremis’ sound, make this into unforgettable Organum
stuff. These four tracks originate from similar sessions, and added
in ‘Hibakusha’, a piece in which the flute takes a role too. This
tracks comes from an one-sided record, in an edition of 50. Let’s see
who dares to sell his original copy now…
So apart from the hard to understand release policy, this is a true
must-have Organum work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
ALPHANE MOON/OUR GLASSIE AZOTH – EXPERIMENTING WITH AN AMEN (CD by
Oggum Records)
Oggum Records releases neo-psychedelic music by such bands as
Phosphene, Nimbus 2000, Yr Agog and Alphane Moon/Our Glassie Azoth. I
have heard Our Glassie Azoth before but Alphane Moon is a new name
for me. You could say that both play drone music – lenghty pieces of
drone-like sounds, which find their origins in feedback. I have heard
quite an amount of feedback music in my life, but on this CD it is
sometimes quite painful, but hey, who knows, maybe I’m getting old
and my ears pick up different frequencies these days. Sometimes there
is the additions of guitars and, even more sparse, of vocals.
Although one could easily think that psychedelic music plays the card
of music that puts the listener in an alternate states, I found it
hard here to think the same thing. Some of the more nasty frequencies
will be too difficult to handle for those who want to be put in an
alternate state. ‘Opal Fire’ by Alphane Moon is a standout piece of
subtle electronics, far away feedback and works well. Our Glassie
Azoth has three tracks but they take up two-third of the disc in
length. The differences between the two bands are only marginal.
Alphane Moon plays two shorter, more folky tracks and Our Glassie
Azoth plays only lengthy pieces, but their approaches are the same.
Certainly not an easy disc, but nevertheless one that requires some
attention. (FdW)
Address: http://www.oggum.co.uk
PATERAS/BAXTER/BROWN – ATAXIA (CD by Synaesthesia)
Anthony Pateras lived for a while in the UK, but is now back in
Australia, where’s got a new trio with himself on the piano,
percussion player Sean Baxter and guitarplayer David Brown. Both
Brown and Pateras play prepared versions of their instruments:
screws, bolts and what have you are attached to the strings and
create a fascinating new world of sounds (in case you never heard the
prepared piano before in your life). I must say that I was quite
surprised by this release. There is a certain vividness hoovering
along the six tracks which makes this probably even for a non-improv
lover, worth checking out. ‘Maladroit’ is one of the few tracks that
is contemplative, but the other five are lively uptempo, sound
changing throughout. Of course to use prepared guitar and piano in
combination with percussion is not really a new thing, but I think
Pateras, Baxter, Brown really add something to the paths taken by the
various AMMs of this world. Recentely they were on tour in Europe,
but sadly didn’t make it to my door. (FdW)
Address: http://www.synrecords.com
STENDEC – A STUDY OF ‘AND’ (CD by Expanding Records)
Finally the labelbosses of Expanding Records come with their own CD
on their own label. Ben Edwards and Paul Merritt work as Stendec and
released as such a 7″ on their own label, a 7″ on Static Caravan (see
Vital Weekly 336), and a track on a split 10″ and a compilation
track. I go at this length with the discography because all of these
tracks are collected on this CD plus seven other tracks which they
have composed over the past few years. Stendec is not a very
productive band. Stendec plays ambient techno, well or techno
ambient, depends on what you find more important. Keyboard melodies
plays a big role, they carry the pieces and sometimes the rhythmbox
ticks sober in the background. Certainly not music that is a crowd
pleaser, but rather intimate music, intended for home playing.
Pleasent, nice, maybe a bit long… (FdW)
Address: http://www.expandingrecords.com
KEITH ROWE & OREN AMBARCHI & ROBBIE AVENAIM – HONEY PIE (CD by Grob)
This is the long awaited follow up of Thumb, a quintet of Rowe,
Ambarchi, Avenaim, Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide (see also Vital
Weekly 363). Here the quintet is reduced to a trio of two guitar
players, Keith Rowe and Oren Ambarchi and one percussion player,
Robbie Avenaim. All three use along their regular instruments live
electronics. Unlike ‘Thumb’, ‘Honey Pie’ isn’t about the big sine
wave drone thing, but in stead over the course of forty minutes these
three built their piece out of nothing. Small sounds fly through the
space for quite some time, and little by little electronic sounds
start to play a role in here. It’s only half way through that longer,
sustained sounds start to drop in and drone like sounds are formed.
From then on things evolve more quick, the spectrum becomes more
full, the ties are closed. The loose sounds are still there but play
a less dominant role. It seems to me that all three find it very
comfortable to work in such loose playing. A good, sturdy
improvisation is the result, but I didn’t expect anything less from
three such masters. (FdW)
Address: http://www.churchofgrob.com
CHRISTIAN CALON/CHANTAL DUMAS – RADIO ROADMOVIES (2CD by 326)
This is one of those things that fall out of the sky and you have no
idea who or what it is about. One Chantal Dumas and one Christian
Calon made a trip through Canada, and this double CD is the sort of
Horspiel about it. Recording natural elements on their trip, aswell
as say rain falling on the tent but also them speaking about places
they visit (not always as a clear narration) or the meeting of
people, like ‘the chiefs in the Gitskan village of Kispiox’. It’s
hard to say wether a lot of post-processing took place. There are
moments in there in which I think all the sounds are as they are, but
in some cases there might be also some sort of post-processing. Not
that’s really important at all, because it’s fascinating journey to
hear. You could wonder if it’s something you’ll find spinning a lot,
but in all it’s a captivating recording. On the second CD ‘Surface
Documents’ nine tracks are presented of sounds as they actually were
but then presented in collage form. Grouped together are various wind
sounds or water systems. Here no talking but instead pure
soundscapes, which are quite delicate and nice. The narrative aspect
is all gone here, but on the other hand I can imagine people playing
this disc more often. Quite a surprise this double pack, in a very
nice digipack. (FdW)
Address: http://www.326music.com
POLWECHSEL – 3 (CD by Durian)
Amid the vibratory static and the background of sloshing striped
percussion, Polywechsel has designed ‘Government’ as something of a
live video game in surround sound. With assistance from producers
Werner Dafeldecker and Micheal Moser ‘3’ is an atonal, slightly
unnerving compatriot to former work by all players, with the
exception of its very blunt stop-start technique that may remind some
listeners of their own dalliance as part-time DJs while spinning
before they buy in your local record shop. The deck here is more like
a staccato jazz trio improving piecemeal alongside lawnmowers, and
bouncing oscillators. The sounds are quick glimpses into suspended
and piercing exhalations. Multiple, yet audibly awkward high
frequencies commune on ‘Not Forgetting the Forgetting’ – warming-up,
tuning, and playfully plunking strings. A creaky upright bass’
strings are elongated and stretched like a Disneyland attraction to
the brink. In what could easily become the next wave of music for
modern dance, Polywechsel uses the edge of feedback pitch to define
the awkward silences presented by ‘Schlieren’. With the distended
spouting of fat bass and excess tonal testing the track seems to take
its pauses serendipitously. On that account, the final cut, ‘Floater’
which includes the playing of jazz sax man John Butcher. The track
pops like a piece of contemporary classical ala the Hilliard
Ensemble, but has no real penchant to stick within any particular
guidelines, hence its random, freestyle scraping, static, and
sensuous outbursts of dark rhythm and shifting modalities. (TJN)
Address: http://www.durian.at
ASMUS TIETCHENS & DAVID LEE MYERS – 60:00 (CD by Line)
Asmus Tietchens has done a lot of collaborations with a lot of
people, but I believe the most work was done with David Lee Myers
(the guy that used to be Arcane Device, and who is now back under his
own name). ‘60.00’ is their fourth collaboration and it’s first in
which the working principle was changed. Before Myers send raw sound
material to Tietchens who transformed and made the compositions. Here
blocks of sound were send back and forth all the time and each did
his share of processing. In the end, it’s not clear who did what. A
collaboration as it’s supposed to be, I believe. The principle sound
source is still feedback, but don’t let that scare you off. The
feedback sounds here all transformed in such a way that there is no
harsh tone to be found. Instead the gentle sounds have only vaguely
something in common with feedback sounds. Compared with the previous
three collaborations they did, it seems that they have now moved in
the areas of computer processed sounds. A track like ‘five’ seems to
be built out of dsp-plug ins treating the feedback on a microscopic
level. Tietchens recent album for Ritornell went already in that
direction and here it is extended a little bit more. Small loops,
going through various computer programms make this into a most
delicate work, resulting in the most finest work of the two to date.
And this work doesn’t sound like their end station, so this fruitfull
collaboration will be even more fruitfull in the future. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
ON PETER ROEHR (CD compilation by Whatness)
If you have never heard of Peter Roehr then there is no need to be
ashamed. He died in August 1968 at the age of 23. His work was about
‘serial assemblies’, which he applied to visual art but also to sound
by lifting speech from films and commercials. Highly repetitive stuff
was the result, and it may not be a surprise that this is a good
source for contemporary musicians to play around with his notion. So
he’s getting a sort of tribute/remix CD. Some of the artists play
around with rhythm and voice samples, like Liam Gillick, Markus
Schneider or leave the text altogether out like Markus Schneider.
More contemplative sounds are brought by Albrecht Kunze, who plays
around on his guitar in shear desolation or Nobukazu Takemura’s icy
glitchy sounds. Only Alva Noto does what he always does in his music.
The biggest surprise here is a reggea dub track by Shantel. And then
it’s done, but as Captain Sensible would say: if you like it that
much, we’ll do it again. All tracks are twice on this CD. Taking
‘serial assembly’ here, dude. (FdW)
Address: http://www.whatness.de
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER – LOOPING I-VI (AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS) (CD by 12K)
Probably I shared this before, but I never know what the musical
difference is between Komet and Frank Bretschneider. For Frank is
Komet. Usually his music is strong and up-beat but on this new CD he
fits the 12K catalogue quite well. 12K offers music that is on the
fringe of minimalism, ambient and rhythm, and Bretschneider masters
them all here. Despite the title indicating that these are various
tracks, it hears like two pieces in various parts, there is a
distinct break in the middle. The material is only partially
rhythmical in the sense that rhythmboxes are used, but the ‘looping’
mentioned in the title, means that there is a lot of small sounds
that are repeated all the time. These layers of loops criss-cross
eachother and form an ingenious web of sounds. Most of the time,
Bretschneider uses longer loops of drones in the background, thus
taking care of the ambient side of things. Each of the twelve tracks
displays his love of minimalism but with enough interest to keep
things interesting. Bretschneider expands his sound world, from the
more rhythmical material to the more deeper, almost ambient material.
From all of the clicks and cuts artists of yesteryear, he’s one of
the few to maintain a high quality level. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
EMOTIONAL JOYSTICK – BELLICOSE PACIFIC (CD by Zod)
It’s quite nice listening to this music. If there’s light and dark
side of gabber, this would be the lighter one, even with some jazzy
moments. And a little bit of idm, which is still recognizable and
even expected here. Shorter tracks that often go into each other, and
constantly shifting, changing and bouncing rhythms and textures. A
little harsher than the melodic idm stuff but much calmer and funkier
than, say, Venetian Snares. I’d leave it as an open question is there
enough free space left for being more inventive and original in this
music and style (still I think not much), but it’s fair to say this
music is still very much alright, one of the best I’ve heard in this
genres. I like it the most when there are melodic parts repeating in
the tracks. (BR)
Address: http://www.zodrecords.com
LUC FERRARI – LES ANECDOTIQUES: EXPLOITATION OF CONCEPTS NO.6 (CD by Sub Rosa)
Among the French composers of musique concrete, Luc Ferrari is one of
the most original voices, not just composing instrumental and
electronic music, but also working inside the field of soundscapes.
On this CD he collects a bunch of ‘field recordings’ made on his many
trips abroad. They act as small anecdotals of places he visits. The
material is large untreated, ie things are as they are. Each of the
pieces stand by itself. In that respect it’s much a like the double
CD reviewed elsewhere of Chantal Dumas and Christian Calon, but there
isn’t a narrative aspect as such, which is of course a bit strange
for an anecdotal. The people’s voices in here are captured in their
daily work, trying on customes, a trip into a cement factory or the
embarking of containers. This is a most captivating work, because it
crosses the pure soundscapes by adding small bits of electronic sound
processing, which act in the background. Even when a lot of languages
on this disc is probably something that no lot of people master (at
least not all of them), this is an even more fascinating feature. A
good work to start with, in case you are not familiar with Ferrari
yet. (FdW)
Address: http://www.subrosa.net
RAN SLAVIN – PRODUCT 02 (CD by Cronica)
@C – V3 (CD by Cronica)
With Cronica’s Product series the label tries to confront and fuse
two works on a single CD, either two musicians or a musician and a
visual artist. Here Ran Slavin does the music (divided in two parts
on the CD, each with distinct own tracks) and Jewboy Co, aka Yaron
Shin from Tel Aviv, does the cover art. As much as I like both the
music and the cover, I find it hard to see how they relate. Who Ran
Slavin is, I don’t know. He is also from Tel Aviv, started as a
painter, played in rock and experimental bands and now does
audio-visual work. He works with computer processed sound and field
recordings. Much to my surprise, the main instrument being fed into
the computer is the guitar, which is rather joyfully being processed
in the first work ‘Tropical Agent’, which are nine tracks in total.
In a strange the music is rather uplifting. In ‘Ears In Water’, five
tracks, the mood is a bit darker, introspective. The guitar might be
there too, but maybe not. These tracks are also a bit more minimal. I
must say I prefer ‘Tropical Agent’ over ‘Ears In Water’. Ran Slavin
doesn’t have the most original voice in microsound, for it’s here
that his work falls in common ground, but there are certainly some
nice tracks to be found here.
I was first introduced to @C a while ago with their second CD,
‘Harddisk’, one of the first releases on Cronica. I wasn’t overtly
impressed by their CD, and much of my words then, apply now. All of
these pieces were recorded in concerts in Palmela, London and
Huddersfield and see them performing their improvised music played on
laptops being extended by some guestplayers such as drummer Andy
Gangadeen, guitarist Manual Mota, Joao Hora and Vitor Joaquim. On
paper it might sound like an odd combination, guitar improvisations
with laptop doodlings, but most the time it works quite alright.
Still the laptops play their usual Pan Sonic meet Mego style
electronica and the guitars improvise over that. Maybe an odd
combination that works well, I still found it difficult to enjoy
their music very much. The improvisational aspect of the playing felt
a bit distant for me. It’s rather ‘cold’ material, that unfortunally
not really grabbed me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org
INTERTECSUPABRAINBEATZROOMBOYZ – 69 LUFTGITARREN (miniCD by Nneon)
A*CLASS – AIN’T NO FUTURE BUT OUR FUTURE (miniCD by Nneon)
Two more releases from Nneon label, a sub-division of Stora. Last
week they had Ausgburger Tafelconfect, now they go all the way with a
release by the unprouncable Intertecsupabrainbeatzroomboys, a duo of
Erik Minkkinen and Andy Bolus, the first one unknown to me, and the
second rings only vague bells of old noise terror. Noise terror, in a
way, is also present on this mini CD, but the old analogue terror has
been replaced by modern digital terror. Despite the title, somehow
related to Nena’s ’99 Luftballone’, this not a record about guitars,
let alone airguitars. Instead they have seems serious fucked up music
to present – zombie technoid rhythms and noise are their main things.
Most of the time pleasentely fucked up however.
And more weirdness on A*Class, the new band from Patric Catani and
Wildest Gina V. D’Orio, also as the Digital Hardcore Recordings band
EC80R. But after the split, the two went solo in different
directions. Catani with his excellent Candy Hank disguise and Gina
with Cobra Killer. A*Class is far away from EC80R, musically. Nneon
describes it as ‘Miami-Bass-Bootysound’, whatever that means, but on
top of the rhythms, the two rap and sing. The vocals are actually
quite funny. When rap music is usually about big cars, girls, drugs
and girls, A*Class declare that reading books is good, dancing is no
fun (‘I don’t like the Prom, at home we have meatballs’) and ‘Ain’t
No Teacher Like Our Teacher’. In ‘Let’s Read A Book’, they sing that
‘teachers are humans, just like us’. So much for youth revolution,
but since youth culture is commercial exploited the rebellion is long
gone (and I believe that there was no rebellion at all in youth
culture). (FdW)
Address: http://www.nneon.com
MERZBOW – MINI CYCLE/YOSHINO TAMAGO/YONOS BIGFOOT (3″CD by Ohm Records)
Funny to realize: there aren’t that many 3″ CDs by Merzbow around.
Apperentely everybody asks him to a full length CD. The basis of this
work was recorded in a radiostation in Oslo and later reworked in
Merzbow’s bedroom studio. I must admit I don’t know where Masami’s
love for chickens comes from, but a whole chicken chorus is present
on this work. They are their in the form loops, and on top Merzbow
improves with computers. A dense, cloudy swirl of sound is what the
result. But somehow it doesn’t seem to explode, like other Merzbow
usually do. Only towards the end things heat up and we are found in
usual Merzbow territories. Despite the work done later on in the
studio, the ‘live’ element is still present here. The whole thing
seems to collapse half way through. Although you won’t find me saying
something negative about Merzbow, I must say that this is not his
most strongest work of recentely. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ohmrecords.no
JIM O’ROURKE – TWO ORGANS (LP by Three Poplars)
A long long time ago, there was a young man, who played guitar, piano
and studied composition in Chicago. He played improvisational music
and was in a band called Illusion Of Safety. He came round to the
city where I lived one day and played a wonderful droney set just
using a tabletop guitar. I believe he was paid 30 euros, the amount
of money collected at the door. It was in those years that he made
the two compositions that now finally made it to vinyl. ‘Two Organs’
and ‘Two More Organs’ make exactely clear what this music is about.
In the first piece the sound of two organs playing a drone chord,
slowly start drifting apart, thus creating higher pitched
modulations. Played at a relatively soft volume, the music starts to
really live in your space. ‘Two More Organs’ is even more minimal in
approach, slowly drifting organ notes. This side is even more
spatial. Great to see this released. And the young man made some more
excellent music in those days, so I hope more of this will be
released. Please do. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
TAMING POWER – SELECTED WORKS & FRAGMENTS 1987-97 (LP by Early Morning Records)
TAMING POWER – SELECTED WORKS 1996-97 (7″ by Early Morning Records)
Although Vital Weekly only wants to review releases that are brand
new, I am reviewing these two older ones, simply to set something
straight. In my recent review of a Taming Power 7″ (Vital Weekly 424)
I said that this ‘new recording’ was a step forward, but now I
learned a couple of things about Taming Power. Many of the reviews of
Taming Power delt with the concept of the ‘great triptych’ – three
10″ records, then a LP, and then another three 10″ records. All
dealing with guitar sounds and magnetic tape. But over the years,
music was recorded that didn’t fit in this concept, and is only
released now. So, the 7″ with manipulated radio sounds was recorded
some five years ago. These two records were the first Taming Power
releases. On ‘Selected Works & Fragments 1987-97’ there is what
Taming Power calls ‘freeform psychedelic music’. The main instrument
here is a casio keyboard but also acoustic guitar, harmonica,
recorder, voice and percussion plus of course tape-manipulation
(reversing sound, obstructing the tape while recording etc.). There
is a certain spontanous naive sound on this record. Somebody rambling
on his keyboard, playing at random music. Quite lo-fi in approach and
certainly fitting his fellow country man Kjetil D. Brandsdal. Not
every track is great, but I found it certainly most enjoyable.
The 7″ is the very first release by Taming Power and here he uses
musique concrete elements. On the A-side this results is some heavily
tape-processed piece, that reminded me of the very first Blackhumour
works. The b-side is more loosely orchestrated with sounds popping in
and out, until the move towards a bigger crescendo. Even for an
earlier work, this is nevertheless most enjoyable. (FdW)
Address: <earlymrecords@yahoo.no>
JACK THE RAPPER – DUTROUX RAP (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
Apperentely Jack The Rapper is a sixty some year old guy from
Antwerpen, Belgium, who produced a rather sick record under the name
‘Dutroux Rap’. I assume the name Dutroux doesn’t need much
explanation. On the a-side, called ‘L’Etat’, there is the sound of
crying babies and a monotone rhythm over which there is some of
French rap, hard to understand I guess even when French is a language
one masters. The b-side ‘Le Trou’ is a mere instrumental remix of the
a-side, but now without vocals. Good? Bad? I don’t know. I kept on
thinking: where in God’s name does Mister Meeuw find people like Jack
The Rapper? Just a question as hard to answer as wether I like this
record or not. File under: sick. (FdW)
Address: http://www.meeuw.net/
Z’EV/THOMAS KÖNER & ULRICH KRIEGER (2×7″ by Die Stadt)
You can’t have missed the fact that Z’ev is back. In the 80s one of
the main players in the ‘industrial’ scene with his ritualistic
drumming on metal percussion but somewhere in the nineties he seemed
to have disappeared from the scene. Now that he is back, he is also
playing live again, an experience which I didn’t enjoy so far. For
his recent German tour, Die Stadt released this double 7″, with one
record two new tracks by Z’ev, recorded earlier this year. In what
seems to be a great hall (either real or artificial), Z’ev drumming
rattles like firework in a metal garbage can. Very vibrant. Studio
post production adds a significant sound to the work.
The other 7″ contains the new collaboration between Thomas Köner and
Ulrich Krieger. The latter was a member of the Zeitkratzer Ensemble
and is now a member of Text Of Light, a new group with Lee Ranaldo
and Alan Licht, among others. It’s surprising to see that whatever
Köner does, solo or with others, the maintains a strong interest in
droney and minimalist soundscapes. These two tracks are no different
and this is a true isolationist work. Once a term for a lot of
musicians, but Köner being the undisputed master of the genre. This
is the start of another fruitful collaboration.
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
ORPHAX – IN A LONG NIGHT (self-released CDR)
Until Dutch one man band Orphax released his music on mp3 sites such
as MP3 and Soulseek, but now it’s time that he released his first
CDR, on his own label of no name. It’s a pity that he didn’t find
(didn’t look?) for a label and possibly gained some more attention,
because his music is definetely worth hearing. ‘In A Long Night’ has
five lenghty pieces of deep, melancholic drone ambient. Playing
around, I think, with guitars, samplers, sound effects and (or)
synths, he creates quite nice music at that. Peaceful drone music.
Subtle and minimal in approach, but the results are no doubt worth
hearing. So we may find it a pity that maybe not many people will
actively go out and buy this CD, because it’s not attached to a
label. Orphax better get out and seek connection to labels who could
be interested. I’m sure there should be some. (FdW)
Address: http://www.orphax.cjb.net
CHAOS THROUGH PROGRAMMING – ROCK N ROLL GENOCIDE (CDR by Push The
Button Records)
This is already the third release by Chaos Through Programming, a
band from Malmo, Sweden. Here they take the entire musical history of
rock music and over this overview in less than thirty minutes. Their
samples has a big memory, I guess, as all of the sounds I heard seem
to be lifted of something of pop musical origin. But they do it
clever, as it’s very hard to recognize the originals – that, or maybe
I just didn’t hear enough popmusic in my life, that’s also possible.
Mostly electronic music, electro-clash maybe, but with the addition,
at times, of sampled drums, guitars and vocals. Despite the genocide
mentioned in the title, this turned out to be a very funny release,
with strange samples, big beat influences, noise and stadium techno.
Could have easily been released on say Tigerbeat6. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pushthebutton.tk
ATONE – UN JOUR (MP3 by Autres Directions In Music)
Behind Atone is one Antoine Monzonis-Calvet from France. At one
point in early 2003 he produced these five tracks, using several
machines (sequencers, synths, rhythmboxes), a keyboard and melodica
on stage ‘to have a direct and sensitive hold on structures and
melodies’, but somehow didn’t work out the way he wanted. Now these
tracks are reworked and released. Atone’s music falls in the category
of ‘intelligent dance music’ and I although I must say that these
five tracks were really alright, I also couldn’t resist the
impression that I was listening to music I have heard umteenth times
before. Very much like the copy of copy of copy – but the quality of
copy remains almost as good as the original. (FdW)
Address: http://www.autresdirections.net
Correction to Vital Weekly 426: making fun and explaining band names
and spell them wrong. It’s not Augsburger Tafelconcert but Augsburger
Tafelconfect. And my german is sadly not good enough to translate
that.