AYIN-NOTHING ISLANDS (CD by Thrown Brick Records)
MORGENSTERN – TWO DIFFERENT FACES (CD by Ant-Zen)
MIRROR – VIKING BURIAL FOR A FRENCH CAR (CD by Plinkity Plonk)
JOHANNES FRISCH/RALF WEHOWSKY – TRÄNENDE WÜRGER (CD by Korm Plastics)
NORMAN GUILBEAULT ENSEMBLE – MINGUS ERECTUS (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
MATT DAVIGNON – BWOO (CD by Edgetone Records)
A TASTE OF RA (CD by Hapna)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – LIVE IN MONTREAL (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
KOJI ASANO – TAKOYAKIKUN (CD by Solstice)
E. LEBLEU – TWO YEARS OFF (CD by Sound-sister)
GROWING/MARK EVAN BURDEN (split CD by Xeng)
KÖHN/DE PORTABLES – OP VISITE BY TANTE KLARA (CD by Kraak)
MECHA FIXES CLOCKS – ORBITING WITH SCREDRIVERS (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
BATTERY OPERATED – RE.CORD (CD+DVD by Cocosolidciti)
WE WOULD BE HAPPY (CD Compilation by Sunship Records)
DOLORES DEWBERRY/ORIGAMI GENITALIA (split CD by Sunship Records)
EN/OF 001-030 (3CD plus book by Revolver Books)
NORMAL MUSIC – ACID TAKES (CDR by Acid Fake)
TORE HONORE BOE – FREEZER BURN (CDR by Humbug)
SOSTRAH TINNITUS – A RAIN WATER STRATUM ON THE SEA (CDR by Mystery Sea)
XV PAROWEK – QUARTER OF A CAN GOT KICKED (CDR by XV Parowek Records)
DANIEL MENCHE – SCATHER (3″CDR by Taalem)
NULLKOMMAJOSEFH – INFIDEL PART 2 (3″CDR by Taalem)
MACHINEFABRIEK – LICHT (3″CDR by Machinefabriek)
STAPLERFAHRER – CADURE (MP3 by Menthe de Chat)
AYIN-NOTHING ISLANDS (CD by Thrown Brick Records)
I have been following this Louisville, Kentucky band for a little while and have been a witness to their evolution from an electronic duo known as Eye to their current abrasive, genre mixing, post rock/electronic sound they now call Ayin. What you have with Ayin is a now expanded five-member band who plays the usual conventional instruments involved in rock but with unorthodox experimentation and oddball composition. I am quite certain Ayin is one of the more original sounding groups in the Kentucky area. They may not be as crazy or demented as Frank Zappa, Mr. Bungle or Captain Beefheart, but pretty near to the mark of insanity with non-linear, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and vocalizations that match their varied sound. Its interesting to see just where one of their songs are going to go and its even more thrilling to realize that this group’s age range is in the early twenties and knowing that they can do nothing
but improve with each album. Nothing Islands is their second proper independent label release from Thrown Brick Records; the rest of their catalog has been self-released. The eleven track CD features the frantic abrasive post/rock sound mix-up described above. The instrumentation and overall sound I found on the album is top notch, which is one of the benefits of constantly playing out live in the Kentucky area. The tracks are around the three to four minute ranges. Nothing Islands is a recommended listen. Ayin is: Brandon Thompson-Drums, Sarah Patrick-Keyboards, Vocals, Daisy-Bass, Jacob Gotlib-Guitar, Electronics and Shane Simms-Vocals. (CN)
Address: http://www.ayinkillsyou.org
MORGENSTERN – TWO DIFFERENT FACES (CD by Ant-Zen)
Morgenstern is a German project originally established by sound artist Andrea Börmer who is also known for her membership in the legendary project Ars Moriendi. I was quite impressed by the second album of Morgenstern titled “Cold” released back in 2001. With its explorations into rhythm-driven destructive power electronics it certainly lived up to its album-title. Asche-soloist Andreas Schramm supported Andrea Börmer during the development of “Cold”. On this new release of Morgenstern titled “Different faces”, Andreas Schramm has not only been a support, he has become an essential part of the Morgenstern-weapon. Thus “Two different faces” uses the nice blend of Andrea Börmer’s mercilessly dark brutality and Andreas Schramm’s ability to create energetic rhythm textures of an almost danceable kind. The mix of these two elements works quite well! Heavy machineries of crushing electronics and eerie drones of low frequency sounds creates a sinister atmosphere meanwhile the interventions of powerful rhythm textures by Asche add a nice supplement to the aggressive expression. An excellent joint venture-project released by Germany’s power electronics-label number one. (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
MIRROR – VIKING BURIAL FOR A FRENCH CAR (CD by Plinkity Plonk)
Mirror is a quintet led by Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk and ‘Viking Burial for a French Car’ is a live labor of love recorded between 2003-04 in Scotland. The first minute is a silent piece paving the way for a field of open ambience. Played loud it provides some low-fi hiss from the soundboard, but the tonal drone blurs most of it. Could it be a Hitchcockian séance taking place, or perhaps something akin to brain candy if it had layers of sweet and sour that alternated as it disappeared into your system. Mirror’s career has afforded them many beautiful recordings, not unlike this one, with its peaceful interlude of hovering sadness. In the wake of 9/11, the Asian Tsunami and all that has but destroyed the Middle East and foreign relations, this is an inquisitive soundtrack for our world in and out of bedlam. It quivers with at its shallow core. Without being
preachy or bold this funeral song of sorts just pauses for a breather
of reality while suspending atypical disbelief. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
JOHANNES FRISCH/RALF WEHOWSKY – TRÄNENDE WÜRGER (CD by Korm Plastics)
The duo of Johannes Frisch and Ralf Wehowsky deconstruct sound like over-amplified child’s play with a host of instruments. They solder, bobble, saw and otherwise get quite methodically physical in their playroom. The tones range from dull to high squeal and all in between as the pitch is made, and the catch is on the fly. But this ain’t no ballgame, it’s a disconnected frequency that just keeps plugging itself in again. With feverish echoes that call out into depths and frontline nitty-gritty nervous percussion, the two have their way with the psychedelics of space, stretching the depth of field out of perspective quite riotously. The low flying ‘copter rhythmics fall and fly away as boxes seem ripped open, and other caustic battery tests are performed. This may only be a test, and if they were playing on tusks it wouldn’t surprise me, there’s a ferocious quality to the disc. And yet, at times, it’s as if they are just tuning up, testing, dawdling and playing for themselves and not an audience, a real uncut, freeplay feel with unplanned feedback and common sounds as if they were under surveillance. Some of this is pretty naked and unedited feeling, but just when it seems that you are listening to a cassette of a mechanic testing an engine, they mix some pure tones from the oud and the sitar that blend so well. And yes, there is the striking of Frisch’s contrabass which sounds, in part, like a tuba case being slammed, its vibration makes your hair stand on end. And when he tweaks the strings its as if you would be swallowed whole if crossing the studio’s path. In this way it’s a very intimate recording that could only be shared by two like minded reverse engineer-styled composers who take us into tomorrow. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
NORMAN GUILBEAULT ENSEMBLE – MINGUS ERECTUS (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Canadian bassplayer and composer Norman Guilbeault offers an album of seven compositions by Charles Mingus. With his ensemble he already works some 15 years on the repertoire of this jazzlegend. His ensemble is a quintet consisting of the following musicians: Jean Derome (saxophones, flute), Ivanhoe Jolicoeur (trumpet, flugelhorn ), Mathieu Bélanger (clarinet), Claude Lavergne (drums, voice) and Guilbeault himself on doublebass and voice. All of them are top-players and feel very happy in the universe of Mingus as this CD shows.
Earlier albums of this ensemble often contain one or two Mingus-compositions. In 1995 Guilbeault released his first album completely devoted to Charles Mingus and now he compiled another album of works by this famous bassplayer and play a few standards like “Pithecanthropus Erectus” and “Moanin”, but also some lesser known works, such as “All the things you could be by now if Sigmund Freud’s wife was your mother” and “Conversation”. Jean Derome contributes also with a composition on this album called “MDMD”.
I’m not a dedicated listener of the jazz classics of Ellington, Parker, Coltrane, Mingus or any other. I do feel some affinity with the work of Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman, but in the end I must say jazz its not my thing. On the other hand I enjoy listening to – often European – free improvised music. So it’s from this perspective that I’m listening now to “Mingus Erectus”. I can’t judge whether this quintet stays close to the original and merely copies them, or whether they reinvent the compositions. I,m always a little suspicious when musicians play old jazz standards, as jazz is the art of improvising, which implies not merely repeating music from the past. But the marvelous playing of this quintet is tempting. Its done with soul and great energy. And this makes me forget the discussion I was just pointing at. For the piece “Fable of (George Dubya) Faubus” the lyrics have been changed and seem to concern president Bush, another sign of their up to date approach. All in all this is a very inspired live recording from 2004. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
MATT DAVIGNON – BWOO (CD by Edgetone Records)
Despite his ten years of improvisation I never heard of Matt Davignon, but his methods, using solely a drumcomputer, is certainly something new. He uses two drummachines, feeding them through some sound effects. One could all too easily think that Matt Davignon plays techno music, but he doesn’t, not at all. It may not even be rhythmical by any conventional standards. I am not sure if the nine tracks on this CD were generated through improvisation, perhaps it was, perhaps not. The beats are treated to quite some extent, they are bend, reshaped and remodeled, and the result is a hasty sound, a muffled sound that by far is not ambient, techno or even industrial. Experimental it is for sure. Certainly one of the stranger things I encountered in recent times. Quite complex sound systems, a sort of nervous microsound, a lo-fi musique concrete or a not so academic acousmatique. This defies much of the usual descriptions. It’s quite a fascinating journey that is going here. It would be nice to hear what he could when he is improvising with other people. As such, with ‘Bwoo’ he handed in his papers. This is it, let’s do it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.edgetonerecords.com
A TASTE OF RA (CD by Hapna)
There isn’t a clue on the cover of who or what A Taste Of Ra is. We hear a sad singer, many guitars and some percussive parts, maybe an occasional wind instrument and certainly no electronics or computers. No names. Is it a band? Just one sad guy? I don’t know. It’s music in the best singer songwriter tradition. Love lost, home burned down, war, isolation – just the common themes of them. I didn’t inspect the lyrics of this, which are all written out on the cover, but they are along the common places. As much as I like Hapna as a label, I am missing the point here. The strict singer-songwriter genre, with no addition of something else, that should be too ‘common’ for Hapna, me thinks. Not much adventure here, which is a great pity. But I’m sure serious music-lovers of the genre will have a new hero. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hapna.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – LIVE IN MONTREAL (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
After several years of his ‘Untitled’ releases, Francisco Lopez now seems to be on a new track: releasing (older) live recordings. Of course in the past he released some (‘Belle Confusion’ on Trente Oiseaux for instance), but ‘Live In Montreal’ is already the third, following ‘Live In ‘s-Hertogenbosch’ and ‘Live In San Francisco’, whereas we haven’t seen much new ‘Untitled’ pieces. I will not speculate as to the reason for this. Let us safely assume that Lopez just has a bunch of interesting live recordings to release from his vaults. All three come with a blindfold. In the first part of this work, Lopez builds up with great care and precision, with a dark unearthly rumble, adding some sort of falling metal sound until a more high pierced sound comes in, that sounds like a serious gas leakage. There is a sudden break at some sixteen minutes, after the which the piece follows a more introspective mood. Here too machine noises seem to be the principal sound sources, but they are densely layered and manipulated, so that they sound like slowed down chanting voices. A sudden bang ends the louder part of the piece, but it takes another six minutes to fade out. A good, typical Francisco Lopez live show. Excellent recording quality and one you shouldn’t miss out on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com
KOJI ASANO – TAKOYAKIKUN (CD by Solstice)
You may forgive me, but when I played this new Asano CD, number thirty-seven, I didn’t immediately think of ‘Gravity’, his third CD, from 1996. Like ‘Gravity’, ‘Takoyakikun’ is a very unlike Asano work, even in his expanded musical world, which ranges from noise to classical music, usually performed by Asano himself. But here it’s a trio of Asano on guitar, Isao Otake on keyboard and Hisashi Nagate on drums and the recordings were made in 1997, shortly after ‘Gravity’. I am not sure why Asano wants to release this, other than he had no time to do it at that time. The music on this CD, in all eight tracks, is a combination of free rock and symphonic rock, sounding like but without the complexity of good lo’ King Crimson. And even when I like ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’, I am not so pleased with this attempt at symphonic in rock. It has nice moments for sure, but the total fifty-seven minute and nine seconds is simply too much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kojiasano.com
E. LEBLEU – TWO YEARS OFF (CD by Sound-sister)
Don’t let the name E. Lebleu mistake you: it’s an alter ego of somebody else: Eric Gamboa, who worked as Destreza, a “rhythmic sense of late nineties IDM, ambient and sometimes even techno”, but as E. Lebleu he keeps his things much simpler and much more together. Cleverly combining hiss, field recordings, feedback and acoustic instruments (guitar, singing), he jumps on the bandwagon of ‘glitchy folk’ music that is being more and more made, say on such labels as Active Suspension, Komplott or Hapna. In the nine short, sketch like tracks, Gamboa plays nice organic music that has it’s clear roots in folk music, but updated to the age of computer, treating all the various sounds into detailed and microscopic yet filmic pictures in sound. If this guy would have lived in London, he could surely be on the next hype. Now he lives in Mexico and it will be harder and that is a pity. Maybe the solitude of being so far away will give him the opportunity to further refine his sound. And he shouldn’t take another two years off to make the next one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundsister.com
GROWING/MARK EVAN BURDEN (split CD by Xeng)
Even when I never heard of Growing nor of Mark Evan Burden, I do understand that they are well-known in some respect. Growing has had a release on Kranky before. Their eighteen minute ‘Firmament’ is a piece for multiple guitars, synthesizers and sound effects – I think, it’s not noted on the cover. It’s a downright ambient piece from the best post-rock traditions, more precisely Windy & Carl. Music for people who like to be stoned, made by people who are. Luckily I wasn’t stoned, but having the flue while hearing this certainly had it’s impact on me. Quite outdated for sure, but quite nice too. Mark Evan Burden’s “10 24 02” is of much more experimental nature. The main instrument is a piano, which is played quite furiously until some sort of feedback sound peeps in. It’s a strange piece and I don’t seem to get into it. It’s like an uncontrolled version of Sema (just in case anyone remembers that) or a bit like Durutti Column, when he played the piano (and better not do it). This is just my cup of tea. Growing was nice, but outdated and not very experimental, Burden was experimental but without any coherent idea. Strange release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xeng.org
KÖHN/DE PORTABLES – OP VISITE BY TANTE KLARA (CD by Kraak)
This is neither a new CD by Köhn nor one by De Portables, two of Belgium’s more interesting music makers, each in their own musical spectrum. It’s the result of an invitation to Köhn to use the ‘Toots’ studio for a whole week, and in he went, with his own musical ideas, but also bringing in the band he’s a member of: De Portables. Alone and together they jammed around for days on end, making post-rock tunes, laptop stuff, abstract musique concrete and even a bit of techno (in ‘120 km/u Is Not 120 bpm’). All of this stuff was recorded and received a post-computer treatment afterwards. The result therefor is neither Köhn not De Portables, but a mixture of both styles and despite the relatively short period in which everything was recorded, this turned out to be a very nice and well varied work. In days like these when the boundaries between electronic and rock music seem to virtually non-existent, this is most welcome release, even when not every moment is great, such as the krautrock doodling of ‘Portables Are Go!’, but that is the only weaker brother around here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kraak.net
MECHA FIXES CLOCKS – ORBITING WITH SCREDRIVERS (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
Although Michel F. Côte is announced as a ‘veteran of Montreal’s thriving experimental’, I never heard from him. He is active in the Musique Actuelle community (and perhaps better known by Vital Weekly’s Dolf Mulder). As Mecha Fixes Clocks he recorded an album with himself playing electronics, percussion, keyboards, accordion, machines, computer and home-made instruments, but inviting a whole bunch of people from Montreal to play a whole bunch of other instruments, such as clarinet, bass flute, trumpet, viola, piano but also sampled CD, needles (by Martin Tetreault) and home spun electronics (by Christof Migone). Despite the long list of people playing on this record and the vast amount of instruments, this is rather a ‘quiet’ record, almost pastoral in atmosphere. Sustained notes played on wind instruments, usually only a few at a time, a guitar being strummed in sheer isolation, the field recording of an otherwise empty dessert: it is perhaps easy yet not be avoided, but one can say that this is music for films – I’m not sure what kind of film it would be, but the sparsely orchestrated richness offers potential to anyone with a camera. Great music, where less is more, indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com
BATTERY OPERATED – RE.CORD (CD+DVD by Cocosolidciti)
To fully understand what this is all about, the best thing is to start with the DVD part of it. It has ten tracks from ten artists around the world, who received a black box, in which they had to put their favorite conspiracy theory in sonic, visual and written form. Once that was completed, it was send back to Battery Operated, who initiated the project, who in return made an audio and visual remix of the material. The ten tracks, spanning most continents and each dealing with their favorite conspiracy theory, is a well-varied bunch. From the surprisingly rocky opening by BCD, one of Richard H. Kirk’s nicknames to the ambient pieces of Kurt Ralske and Mathias Delplanque, tribal rhythms from Kim Ki-Chul and trip-hop breakbeats from Digital Cutup Lounge, to the more experimental outings of Gate and Freiband and the peeps Sachiko M, this is goes all over the musical place and should offer more than excellent reworkings for Battery Operated.
The audio remix of the material by Battery Operated brings the material back to quite experimental techno beats and crackling static hiss. It’s hard to recognize any of the original material in there, but that makes it altogether much more exciting. The remix as a tool is a real expansive one, as once again is proven by Battery Operated. On the DVD part there is also the entire film they made for this work, which is a likewise hallucinatory work of camera’s, both in and out of control. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cocosolidciti.com
WE WOULD BE HAPPY (CD Compilation by Sunship Records)
DOLORES DEWBERRY/ORIGAMI GENITALIA (split CD by Sunship Records)
Combine ‘noise’ and ‘opera’ and out comes the name of Costes. For many, many years now he presents noise performances, which he sometimes calls operas. Costes, together with Cock ESP’s member Elyse Perez, are responsible for the text portion of ‘We Would Be Happy’, a noise opera, with sound contributions from people like Smell & Quim, Lasse Marhaug, KK Null, Richard Ramirez and Cock ESP. The nice thing is however that each of the artists is reworking/remixing material by the others. It’s hard to decipher the texts sung by Costes and Perez, but a glimpse at the titles (‘je T’aime Mon Amour’, ‘French Kiss’, ‘Such A Beauty’, ‘I Want You’ aswell as ‘Racist/Fascist’, ‘My Knife Was Never Sharp’, ‘You Can’t Escape’), this is probably another mixture of Costes obsessions with love and death – the usual misery. Overall the music is loud, noisy and dirty and nothing new under the noise sun, but the whole context of a noise opera makes this guy have a smile on his face.
On the same is a split CD by Dolores Dewberry and Origami Genitalia. Apparently Dolores Dewberry is also part of ‘Extreme Music from Women’, a CD compilation by Susan Lawly and her three tracks are all indeed quite noisy and all seem to deal with sex and pornography. It’s however fairly common ground noise stuff that is going on here, except maybe that the vocals can be understood better. Origami Genitalia is Eric Hofferber of Gentle Tasaday (of which I never heard) and E.W. Hagstrom of Cock ESP (aswell as Sunship Records director). Their ten rather short tracks are much more interesting as they combine electro-acoustic sounds with noise. It’s putting a contact microphone on some small object, amplifying it and the hiss, crackles and noise become part of the original small acoustic sound. A welcome difference with the usual noise onslaughts, and nice that they offer small tracks, instead of overlong, too similar tracks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freenoise.org/sun
EN/OF 001-030 (3CD plus book by Revolver Books)
Although this package includes three CDs I must admit I didn’t hear them. Not because I don’t want to, I will for sure at one point, but because all the music is excerpted from LP’s, thirty in total, that I already reviewed (and hopefully, this list is correct: Vital Weekly 302, 323, 345, 369, 381, 394, 422, 424, 447, 450 and 464). All of these records came with original pieces of art by well-known artists, they are all mentioned in the reviews too. But I have seen maybe a handful originals myself, as they were, sadly, not enclosed with the review copies. To that end there is now an exhibition in the small German city of Kleve (nearby Nijmegen, home of Vital Weekly!), that displays all thirty art editions and with a possibility to hear the records (for those less fortunate than me), but the really nice thing is the catalogue that is released at the same time. All artworks are reproduced, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale, three CDs with excerpts, clever texts explaining the relation between the two, well designed but not over the top presented – and therefore affordable for all. If you happen to be in the area, drop by until June 26th, or try to order this catalogue and buy a small piece of art yourself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.museumkurhaus.de
NORMAL MUSIC – ACID TAKES (CDR by Acid Fake)
This new CDR release proofs me wrong: Normal Music weren’t picked up by the major labels, nor headlining Sonar or Mutek. Such is life, pearls before swains and such. Normal Music is still Jeff Surak, Raphael Irisarri and Thomas Ekelund on synths, bass, autoharp, clicky and dubby rhythms and in their ten tracks here, they haven’t lost a thing of the original feel I had with their CD ‘A Short Exhibition Of Normal Music’ (see Vital Weekly 414). Sampled techno rhythms, in an utter minimal but danceable fashion but sauced up with spicy sounds and frequencies. The tracks seem to me remixes of other people, such as Sound_00’s various disguises and Surak’s own, mid eighties project 1348. Mysterious Eastern Europe voices are used throughout, varied rhythm patterns, moving away from the strict 4/4 beat, into a more complex world. A joyful version of the otherwise more serious looking boys such as Goem, Pan Sonic or Pole. (FdW)
Address: http://www.acidfake.tk
TORE HONORE BOE – FREEZER BURN (CDR by Humbug)
With ‘Freezer Burn’, Tore Honore Boe moves away from his usual careful collage microsound style, if any such thing was ever an option for him, and returns to the world of noise. Apparently he has a five year plan, which I probably saw or read somewhere, in which this release fits. Many of these releases are some sort of deconstruction, de-collage or perhaps just a plain remix of live recordings from his no doubt vast archive. A couple of the more noisy brothers are collected on this disc, and they are alright, but no more than just that. If someone like me, preferring the more subtle forms of noise of Boe, is confronted with plain noise (distortion full open, radio speech, mayhem noise) of the same man, I can’t think anything else than: what a pity. Ok, next time more along the old lines, please. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm
SOSTRAH TINNITUS – A RAIN WATER STRATUM ON THE SEA (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Musician and painter Mario Costa works under two different aliases, Sostrah Tinnitus and Tvmvlvs Seraphim, but I heard neither of them. As Sostrah Tinnitus he had a couple of releases on the Umbra label and on Beyond Productions, and under this name he now appears on the Mystery Sea label. Unlike many others on Mystery Sea, Sostrah Tinnitus works with shorter tracks, well, relatively shorter tracks. Seven in fifty three minutes, which is more than the usual two or three in the same length. In each of these pieces, Sostrah Tinnitus tries to built up a picture of life under water, but he faces a difficult task: it’s not easy to variations on the same theme and with the same sounds at hand. The synthesizer washes can only be of interest once or twice, but seven times is perhaps a little too much, even despite some percussive rumbling in the back. Still, it’s a work that fits Mystery Sea of course pretty well, making a fine addition, not a new chapter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
XV PAROWEK – QUARTER OF A CAN GOT KICKED (CDR by XV Parowek Records)
It’s been a while since I last heard music by XV Parowek (Vital Weekly 423), aka Bartek Kalinka from Poland. This new release is basically a selection of tracks from last year and this year, including some that are supposed to be a collaboration with Zeromoon’s Jeff Surak. Moving away from the soundscapes of ‘Chewing Is Pointless’, XV Parowek is now ready to go into a new territory, that of sound collage. It seems, but I might be entirely wrong, that he is using computer techniques now to generate his sound. All sorts of small acoustic sounds are sampled and played in small particles, sometimes in a mere random order and sometimes making a coherent sound collage, throughout the the thirteen tracks on this disc. Certainly not easy listening music, and if one is fully concentrated on hearing this, one may reach a certain level of tiredness. A somewhat shorter release would have been better. But in all it’s changing styles, XV Parowek, is certainly for new directions all the time. (FdW)
Address: http://xvp.terra.pl
DANIEL MENCHE – SCATHER (3″CDR by Taalem)
NULLKOMMAJOSEFH – INFIDEL PART 2 (3″CDR by Taalem)
If I am not mistaken, this is Daniel Menche’s first release on CDR format, albeit a short one. Despite common knowledge, I don’t think Menche’s music is really that of hardcore noise. Of course things are loud and maybe a bit mean, but there is also a subtleness in his music, a great deal of dynamics that moves on various levels in his music. From the softer moments to downright louder moments, this is ‘noise’ of a much more intelligent kind. As always it’s hard to tell what it is that Menche does on his recordings, other than perhaps translating raw bodily sounds with electronic means. Great work.
Nullkommajosefh is perhaps not as well-known as Daniel Menche, despite his various CDR releases for Tosom. One of those releases was ‘Infidel’ and here is Infidel Part 2′ – in two parts. Dark ambient music, perhaps made on a bunch of analogue synthesizers, or maybe a bunch of computer plug ins – one can’t tell these days, but of course it’s the end result that counts and those are quite nice. Nullkommajosefh stay firmly inside the areas of dark atmospherical music, with a haunting and almost horror movie like soundtrack and don’t add something new to the genre that is so well defined by Lustmord, but finds his own spot in there. (FdW)
Address: http://www.taleem.com
MACHINEFABRIEK – LICHT (3″CDR by Machinefabriek)
After a series of mini CDR releases in a relatively short period, things were quiet in the last months for Machinefabriek. His new release ‘Licht’ lists a whole bunch of instruments, ranging from a laptop to an unused strip of paracetamol, a mobile phone and a casio keyboard. Despite this list of usual and unusual gadgets, he creates his best moment until now. One long drone piece forms the backbone of the piece, and on top of that he adds lots of small sounds to the mix, but they appear somewhere far away in the mix, thus maintaining the drone character of the piece. A very intense piece, with small events happening beneath the surface. The first time that Machinefabriek creates something that is coherent throughout and not scattered with small ideas. As said, his best moment until now. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.tk
STAPLERFAHRER – CADURE (MP3 by Menthe de Chat)
The man behind Staplerfahrer is Dutch Steffan de Turck. He’s been around for some, mostly with CDR and MP3 releases. His latest work is ‘Cadure’, which can be downloaded from Menthe de Chat. All of the sounds he uses are from Cadmium Dunkel, the soundsources for Reconstruct II, by Tib Prod. Apparently Steffan found this material so engaging that he produced no less than six remixes. He stretches, bends, loops, delays and otherwise transforms the material by means of computer technology, thus losing the original Cadmium Dunkel work and cooking up his own louder version of microsound. Though not entirely original, Staplerfahrer sounds fine enough for an uneasy, bumpy and glitchy ride along radio-active waves. (FdW)
Address: http://kkfs.trix.net/menthedechat/