MONOKROM – TALES OF RABBITS AND HARES (CD by Ant-Zen)
PHILIP GAYLE – THE MOMMY ROW (CD by Family Vineyard)
DAVID LEE MYERS/ELLEN BAND – TWO SHIPS (CD by Pogus Productions)
PETER REHBERG – FREMDKÖRPER (CD by Mosz)
SPOOKY ACTIONS – MUSIC OF WEBERN ARRANGED FOR JAZZ QUARTET – (CD by Muse Eek)
BRUCE ARNOLD & OLIVIER KER OURIO – DUETS (CD by Muse Eek)
MARTIN TETREAULT & OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – AHHH (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
CISFINITUM – BEZDNA (CD by Monochrome Vision)
DIGITONAL – THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD (CDEP by Seed Records)
GALAKTAN – CONSTANCE (CD by Kohvirecords)
FEATHERS – ABSOLUTE NOON (Hometapes)
FINN – THE AYES WILL HAVE IT (CD by Sunday Service)
NICK BUTCHER – THE COMPLICATED BICYCLE (CD/Book by Hometapes/Palcetapes)
KUURORT (CD compilation by Electrosputnik)
CRTL-ALT-DEL (CD compilation by Hedah)
NICK J. SWARTH – DE NAPALMSESSIES (DVD by Het Muzieklab)
VOKS – DARKVAKS (3″CD by Dekorder)
UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L’HERBE – ATLAS SALTA (MAP LIES, BORDER LIES…) (3″CD by Dekorder)
MOHA – ROCK; MEG I RAUA (CDR by Humbug)
GLASS PLATES (CDR, self-released)
RUTH BARBERAN/MARGARIDA GARCIA/FERRAN FAGES/ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – OCTANTE (CDR by L’Innomable)
LUKASZ CISZAK – PHLOEM (CDR by Sqrt Label)
CISZAK/JUCHNIEWICZ/KLIMEK – SPECTRA (CDR by Sqrt Label)
ANTI-LOSS (3″CDR compilation by Sqrt Label)
KASPER VAN HOEK – 5 (CDR, self-released)
GISCARD LE SURVIVANT – LIMITES DE LA DEMOCRATIE (3″CDR by 3 Patttes)
PLANETALDOL & ROHYPNOISE – ET ENSUITE LA VIANDE (MP3 by Earsheltering)
AMK – PLAYGROUND #1 (CDR by Editions_Zero)
KOTRA – AMPERE (3″CDR by Alku)
MONOKROM – TALES OF RABBITS AND HARES (CD by Ant-Zen)
If you think that Frank, the giant rabbit in Richard Kelly’s excellent fantasy movie “Donnie Darko” was terrifying, you wouldn’t want to meet the bizarre bunch of rabbits in German project Monokrom. These rabbits from hell invaded Berlin in 2003 during a three day Noise Festival, only to continue their insane performances on the 2004-edition of power Noise-festival Mascinenfest. Even though German label “Ant Zen Recordings” deals with brutal expressions from a number of Power Noise-projects, it is not very often that you are thrashed by Power Electronics of such a furious level, from the label. Present album by Monokrom titled “Tales of rabbits and hares” goes all the way, and gives us 46 minutes of sonic hell. Apocalyptic human voices of German seem like the only sign of organism in this otherwise merciless crescendo of aggressive Machinery and furious loop-distortion. An extraordinary harsh piece of work that explodes in cathartic aggressions brought on by suppressed demons and hellish sounds. As a document of the aural and visual manifestation, the album includes a video-clip from the live shows. Excellent album! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
PHILIP GAYLE – THE MOMMY ROW (CD by Family Vineyard)
Experimental and improvised acoustic guitarmusic comes from Philip Gayle with his new album Mommy Row. Gayle originates from Houston, Texas where he played all musical styles you can think of in an endless list of local bands. Between 1982 and 1990 he studied percussion and guitar. In the mid-80s he started developing his own style of acoustic guitar improvisation. Nowadays he seems to divide his time between Japan and US. Although “The Mommy Row” is already his fifth album, I have never heard before of this talent. To situate his guitar art think of grandaddies like Derek Bailey, Hans Reichel or Eugene Chadbourne and you have an idea. All of his previous albums seem to be solo-albums, released on Yabyum and Fleece. So he also shares the individualistic nature of the grandaddies. His fourth album HUD Pes is the exception. Its a double CD of live studiorecordings with percussionist Richard Cholakian. That was in 2000. So ‘The Mommy Row’ ends a long period of silence. But listening to his new one, I can imagine it took lots of time to create this unique album. Gayle plays 1-string guitar, aluminum egg bar, mandolin, 6-string guitars, baritone ukulele, Chinese flat gong, kwengari, tingshaws, 12-string guitar, wine glasses, classical guitar, hand held cymbals and more. He made use of multitracking, I don’t know how many times. Also some other manipulations were done by him. The result is a multi-layered jungle of (de-)tuned guitarsounds completed with percussive elements. In some pieces his love for Japan comes clearly to the surface. ‘Certificate’ has an eastern flavor and in ‘Yagamo’ tibetan bells (or something like that) or dominant. Also because this album is very well recorded and produced, it is a true pleasure to listen to. This is a work of a very original improvisor. Very refreshing if you have had it with Bailey and other veterans of the acoustic guitar. (DM)
Address: http://www.family-vineyard.com
DAVID LEE MYERS/ELLEN BAND – TWO SHIPS (CD by Pogus Productions)
Since David Lee Myers returned to the world of music, he has also picked up on a number of collaborative projects, such as his fourth work with Asmus Tietchens, works with Thomas Dimuzio and Vidna Obmana aswell as ‘Pond’ with Tod Dockstader (which sadly enough didn’t make it to these pages). Here he teams up with Ellen Band, whose ‘90% Post Consumer Sound’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 265. She hails from the more ‘serious’ circles of music (whatever that may be) and works mainly with field recordings, such as railroad signs and central heating system. Myers still opts for the use of feedback sound and his background is more underground. There was a time that he was known as Arcane Device, just in case that may ring a few bells. It’s a bit unclear how this material was generated, but reading between the lines I came to think that this is the result of playing and improvising live together. Myers with his feedback machines and Band with her selection of field recordings, some processed and some raw. Her bird calls and insect choirs come close to the pure and synthetic world of Myers. There are three tracks here, each divided in several cuts, but they make quite a uniform whole. It’s also possible to regard this as one piece, rather than three or twelve (the number of tracks on the CD). It’s minimal, with slow changing scenes, but it works on an intense level, or rather multiple levels. A pretty strong collaboration of underground and overground blending together. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
PETER REHBERG – FREMDKÖRPER (CD by Mosz)
As Pita he is one of the leading musicians in the world of digital noise, and has worked with Fennesz, Jim O’Rourke, Ramon Bauer, Marcus Schmickler and Mimeo. But under his real name Peter Rehberg he also plays a much more refined music, mostly commissioned music for dance. It’s unclear to me why this is sometimes under the monniker DACM, and now under his own name. ‘Fremdkörper’ was made for a choreography by Chris Haring in 2003. Unlike the two previous albums by DACM (see Vital Weekly 328 and 359), this is a much more ambient work, and focusses lesser on rhythm. The emphasis lies more on the atmospheric sounds, save for some loud interruptions here and there, which prevents the listener from lulling away, and probably causes some distress with those who view the choreography. Like his digital noise work, the computer and the countless possibilities to process sound on a computer play a big role here, but Rehberg doesn’t fall back in ambient glitch or microsounding crackles. His sound remains present throughout and is a strong work in this field. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mosz.org
SPOOKY ACTIONS – MUSIC OF WEBERN ARRANGED FOR JAZZ QUARTET – (CD by Muse Eek)
BRUCE ARNOLD & OLIVIER KER OURIO – DUETS (CD by Muse Eek)
Its always a pleasure to receive CDscd,s from totally unknown labels and even more unknown artists. Will it be a big surprise, something completely new and overwhelming, yes or no? On such moments, depending on the quality of the music, I often realize how many good musicians are around all over the world, and I feel dissatisfied because I’llI,ll never be able to know and appreciate them all. This happened when two CD’s from the label Muse Eek fell on the doormat, one by Spooky Actions, another by the duo Arnold and Ker Ourio.
Let me reveal first a little from the background of the musicians involved here. Spooky Action is a quartet: John Gunter (flute, saxophone, clarinet), Bruce Arnold (processed electric guitar), Peter Herbert (bass) and Tony Moreno (drums, percussion). They did their best in interpreting two compositions of Anton Webern, “5 Movements for string quartet opus5” and “5 Canons”. They play each movement and canon first note by note, followed by a compact improvisation inspired on it.
Of course we know of composers like Stravinsky and Milhaud who tried to integrate jazz influences in their compositions. More rare are the examples the other way around. I know of a CD by the Keith Yaun Quartet Amen adapting works by Oliver Messiaen for improvisation. But jazz musicians who play compositions of the Schönberg twelve-tone method…? But if you listen to Spooky Actions, you ask yourself why this was not done earlier. Because it sounds very interesting and natural in the treatment Spooky Actions. This may be explained by the fact that Arnold studies already some ten years on the application of twelve-tone music to modern jazz.
Arnold teaches Princeton University and wrote over 50 instruction texts on guitar technique. As a guitarplayer he played with people like Joe Pass, Randy Brecker and Joe Lovano, not exactly the avant garde section of jazz music. Together with John Gunther, Arnold started improvising on classical music in 1997. This duo became a quartet and there improvisations on Webern is their first release as Spooky Actions.
Listening to this CD I imagined Doctor Nerve playing Webern from an rock angle. This may illustrate that Spooky Actions are successful in transforming the work of Webern into a more down to earth version. Some very enjoyable 27 minutes!
Totally different is the collaboration between Arnold and Olivier Key Ourio. They met on an international jazzfestival in Monterry and decided to work together, because they both felt a strong musical kinship. Oliver Key Ourio is a harmonica-player from France, raised on the island of Reunion. Arnold is responsible for the guitar and the compositions. No twelve-tone compositions, but very accessible works, almost Toots Thielemans-like easy listening jazz. Nice harmonic and melodic structures and tunes. Not overdone with sentiment, and no overacting. A music that brings peace to your mind. (DM)
Address: http://www.muse/
MARTIN TETREAULT & OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – AHHH (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
This is the third album documenting the tour of Martin Tetreault and Otomo Yoshihide, following ‘GRRR’ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 554) and ‘Tok’ (not reviewed in Vital Weekly 470), containing the more quiet elements. As promised then, ‘AHHH’ contains the more ‘ambient’ stuff. Both gentleman play turntables here (again of course) and much of what I said on ‘Grrr’ and ‘Tok’ can be said about this new disc: “I am altogether not very sure if this was a good idea. In a concert situation the two go in one concert from loud to fragmented to soft and back again. That makes the concert by Tetreault and Yoshihide to a breathtaking experience. But when they cut out, say all the noise elements of all concerts and isolate them on one CD, it’s a different thing. It may appeal to noise-fans alike, but for me it was simply too much. I rather had one CD documenting all the various aspects of duo, the best moments of every concert.” Now that the series is complete, you can edit your favorite concert, and you are most likely ending up with recordings from one night. (FdW)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
CISFINITUM – BEZDNA (CD by Monochrome Vision)
Of course you know the Theremin, a Russian innovation for the production of electronic music, and perhaps, the Coil fans know the ANS synthesizer. But the former Soviet Union produced more synths, like Faemi, Yunost, Formanta and Venetz. They are used, alongside with violin, accordion, a 3003, a 808, piano, voice, samples and tapes on ‘Bezdna’, a full length CD by Cisfinitum, the sound project of Evgeny Voronovsky, of whom I know virtually nothing. The nine tracks on his album are pretty much inspired by ambient music. Slowly peaceful music that slowly glides by, with sometimes a nasty sound pushed away in the far away background. In ‘Transparency’ there is a far away new agey voice howl, but that’s also kept to a minimum. The influence of Brian Eno is never far away, I’d say. But with a track like ‘Deep Down’ he proofs to have nothing to do with new age at all. The fact that Cisfinitum uses old Soviet synthesizers doesn’t mean much I guess: he manages to make them sound like regular synths. Like many current day ambient albums, this is nothing new under the sun. But at the genre itself, this is particularly good one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
DIGITONAL – THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD (CDEP by Seed Records)
Missing out on their debut ’23 Things Fall Apart’, this is my first encounter with Digitonal, a four track CDEP. Digitonal are Andy Dobson (keyboards, programming), Callum Macmillan (drums) and Sami Bishai (violin) – which seems an odd combination but if you hear the music it makes sense. There is also a vocal bit of Kirsty Hawkshaw, who sings on ‘Halcyon’ from Orbital – and that might attract your attention into a certain direction. For Digitonal plays a cross-over between techno music and ambient, but with a strong dash of darker, atmospheric music, that reminds me of Enya; especially the violin contributions go in this direction. It’s also this influence that made me a bit suspicious – it’s like throwing several influences to attract an audience as wide as possible. No doubt something that wasn’t thought out beforehand, but maybe damn handy now. Do I dislike this? Hell, no, it is warm and pleasent music, every once in a while. I may even look to play that old Orbital track again, or whatever intelligent ambient house I may find from a decade ago. (FdW)
Address: http://www.seedrecords.co.uk
GALAKTAN – CONSTANCE (CD by Kohvirecords)
“Although the record is named after Constance Bonacieux, the fictional character by Alexandre Dumas, the interpretation of the feeling of her age in the Soviet movie ‘D’Artagnan And The Three Musketeers” has had a greater effect on this album than the original novel”. Other movies play also a part on this album by Galktlan, aka Taavi Laatsit from Estonia. His music is described in the press blurb as ‘baroque electronica’, for its lack of modernity – and that is true. The inspiration for the music may not reach back to the days of baroque but it certainly reaches back some thirty years, when people like Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream touched their synthesizers. The ten tracks on this album form a cosmic trip, a trip into the mind, below the sea or whatever transcendental states there are. Maybe a bit darker than the usual cosmic music, this release, but that is, at least for me, only the better. It stays away from the new age influences that is also a strong current in this kind of music. Certainly music that has cinema capacities, with or without celluloid. Not exactly the hippest and newest kind of music around, but nevertheless quite nice passtime music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kohvirecords.ee
FEATHERS – ABSOLUTE NOON (Hometapes)
Roughly said, the genre of postrock existed for a mere 4 years. The first signal was Tortoise’s 1994 debut album, and the same band heralded the end in 1998 with their third album ‘TNT’. For these last 5 or so years now, postrock has been seen as some sort of quickly outlived idea, a hype of academic music for the working classes, a shortsighted view on the possibilities of music, an inspirational cul de sac. In other words: time for a revival. Feathers, a band hailing from sunny Miami, and not windy Chicago, are about to release 3 EPs with their take on the whole thing. With a little help from, you’ve guessed it, John McEntire (as well as Mikael Jorgenson). It can’t get any more unspectacular, but that’s exactly the beauty of this set, which not only wanted me to go back to the originals, but also look forward to the upcoming other EPs. Oh, and some of the most beautiful letterpress packaging as well. (RM2)
Address: http://www.home-tapes.com
FINN – THE AYES WILL HAVE IT (CD by Sunday Service)
Of course you ask yourself why the brothers Finn, formerly of Split Enz and Crowded House, appear in these pages, but Finn is the name chosen by Patrick Zimmer. “The Ayes Will Have It” is the follow up to his debut “Expose Yourself To Lower Education” from 2003. Finn plays guitar, organ, trumpet and sings. This is singer songwriter stuff, intimate playing and singing, but in a poppy way. It’s music for which I recall just women playing it, like Barbara Morgenstern or Tujiko Noriko, but the guitar playing a bigger role than with those two. It’s melancholic and introspective. It’s OK, but such singing always makes me a bit nervous: eleven of these tracks, with eleven times this kind of singing is not well-spend on me. Not because it’s bad, but it is somehow too similar. There are only a few examples in popmusic in which I could like this, but for the bigger part: not so my thing. But for the rest: nice music indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sundayservice.de
NICK BUTCHER – THE COMPLICATED BICYCLE (CD/Book by Hometapes/Palcetapes)
Although I never heard of Nick Butcher, the package of his ‘The Complicated Bicycle’ looks exciting. A twenty-four page book, hand silk-screened of abstract images that look grainy, the residue of ‘real’ images, that upon listening closely to the music, reflects the music very well. The release is by Placetapes, a new side label for Hometapes. Hiss is something that Butcher doesn’t care about. In almost every track there is a certain amount of hiss to be heard, like he made samples of sounds stored away on ferro tapes. Sounds of guitars, rhythm-machines and organs, but they are all thoroughly transformed on the computer. A more lo-fi affair than say The Books, less complicated and more dreamy. Glitchy popmusic at its very best. What else can be said? Images and music fitting well together and make this into a particular strong product. A small item, but one well worth leaving on your coffee table. (FdW)
Address: http://www.placetapes.com
KUURORT (CD compilation by Electrosputnik)
Due to various circumstances this CD stayed in my CD player for a longer time than usual. A ‘Kuurort’ is a place to rest in German (although, if I’m not mistaken it should be spelled ‘Kurort’) and also the main theme for a compilation of music from the three Baltic states and two bands from Iceland – that seems a curious geographical combination. Maybe it’s this relaxing character that made it stay in my CD player. Everytime playing was interrupted for whatever, I started it from the beginning, and the CD grew on me more and more. It’s a very nice collection of mild techno pieces, relaxing rhythmic ambient passages and occasional female vocals, such as the Bjork like The Kurt Webber’s Pink Band. There isn’t a particular standout piece in this lot, which is not a problem: every track is quite nice. With the sun high in the sky, a good book at hand, this is the perfect music to relax. (FdW)
Address: http://www.electrosputnik.com
CRTL-ALT-DEL (CD compilation by Hedah)
With a bit of delay I got this CD handed from a festival from two years ago, which was held in the beautiful city of Maastricht and the likewise beautiful city of Istanbul. The aim of the Ctrl-Alt-Del is that “of identifying the current milieu of the aural experimental approaches within the contemporary art sphere.” Back then concerts, discussions and workshops were held. This CD is also somehow, somewhere part of it. Maybe it’s a bit pointless years after, but the inclusion of such luminaries as Kim Cascone, Scanner and Merzbow make things quite alright, while the majority of the names are new, like ROR, Telco Systems, Jozef Cseres, Small Rocks, Anabala or the ethnic electronica of 2/5BZ. It’s a pretty varied lot, although it seems that the emphasis is a bit more on noise throughout the compilation. It’s hard to tell wether the aim is met here, but if nothing else, than this is quite a nice compilation by itself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.project-ctrl-alt-del.com
NICK J. SWARTH – DE NAPALMSESSIES (DVD by Het Muzieklab)
Packed in a big carton box, with a nice printed booklet comes this DVD, built around the performer/poet Nick J. Swarth, whom recites his poetry in Dutch, but with long music breaks provided by Tobias Delius on saxophone and Steve Noble on turntables. You can watch their performance as is, or with the texts on the screen or just the video part which was also on display, by Simon Heijdens. Unfortunately neither text, nor music nor video could impress me very much. Everything, save for the poetry of which I have not much knowledge, sounded a bit second hand, the music, the images and the recitation. I wonder for whom this was made. The people who saw the concert/performance? Maybe spend some excess government money? As an outsider to this, I could see little reason for this documentation. (FdW)
Address: http://www.muzieklab.com
VOKS – DARKVAKS (3″CD by Dekorder)
UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L’HERBE – ATLAS SALTA (MAP LIES, BORDER LIES…) (3″CD by Dekorder)
In Vital Weekly 374 (that is almost two years ago), I reviewed three 3″ CDs on the German Dekorder label, and two of those artists re-appear in the same format on the same label. We are still clueless who Voks is, except that he comes from Copenhagen and that his release is mastered by G-Man Gaeoudjiparl, aka Goodiepal. The ten tracks on this release are said to be inspired by synthrock and ‘Rock In Opposition acts like The Residents, Art Bears and Der Plan’ and to me that seems at least two bands not connected to Rock In Opposition. Voks sound like they want to play some similar complex sound on a gameboy or on a bunch of casio machines. It reminded me at times of Holger Hiller/Thomas Fehlmann rendition of Hindemith’s children-opera ‘Wir Bauen Eine Stadt’. I wasn’t blown away by the previous release and something similar I can say about this new one. It’s slightly better, more complex but the humor is sadly lacking, still. At twenty minutes, still too much…
Of much more interest in the release by Un Caddie Renverse Dans L’Herbe, his third on for Dekorder. Didac P. Lagarriga from Sao Paulo and now living in Barcelona moves forward. He plays around with field recordings, ethnic instruments (from Africa and South East Asia) but also melodica, drums, guitar and above and beyond all: software. All of these recordings are thrown in the computer and gets a gentle sound processing. The aim of Un Caddie Renverse Dans L’Herbe is never to shock with a lots of plug ins running amok, but instead to play joyful and nice tunes. On this new release he moves away from the song structures and into some more freely played tunes and sounds. I am not sure if that would work on a full length album with losing too much homogeneity, but here on a lovely 3″CD format is works quite well. Progressing from before and still maintaining high quality. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dekorder.com
MOHA – ROCK; MEG I RAUA (CDR by Humbug)
Moha is Anders Hana on guitar and Morten J. Olsen on drums. You may know the latter for his involvement in Phô and the N Collective. In this duo recording the influence of Phô can be clearly recognized: the sound is quite loud and upfront, but played in a collage like style. Sudden, abrupt changes, quick scraping and occasional loud bangs, all with a sufficient amount of distortion. The Phô sound is never far away here. The release is quite short, only some twenty-six minutes but the effect on the listener is one that leaves him breathless behind. Certainly when played loud, and I am sure that’s the idea of this release. This is the kind of noise that I dig very well. Not an endless stream of feedback through some distortion boxes, but a demanding listening experience, of exactly the right length. Great stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm
GLASS PLATES (CDR, self-released)
You could of course think that a group called ‘Glass Plates’ play music on glass instruments, but none so really. Glass Plates hail from Canada and has Robert Pedersen on valve trombone, Chandan Narayan on extended autoharp and Jeffrey Allport on snare drum and trumpet. Of the three Allport is perhaps the most well-known one, having played with Taku Sugimoto, Martin Tetreault, Tim Olive and Rhodri Davies, among others. The nine pieces on this self-released CDR show a great love for textured sounds: the three scrape and scratch the surface of their instruments, rendering the original instruments beyond their traditional sound. Just very rarely one can recognize the trombone or the surface of trumpet. In each track the texture is filled in creatively, but throughout this CDR works as a whole also pretty much OK. Concentrated playing makes excellent music. Think AMM or Kapotte Muziek… (FdW)
Address: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cnarayan/glassplates.html
RUTH BARBERAN/MARGARIDA GARCIA/FERRAN FAGES/ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – OCTANTE (CDR by L’Innomable)
On the Slovenian label L’innomable comes a CDR only release which could have been on Creative Sources- a quartet of Ruth Barberan (trumpet), Margarida Garcia (electric double bass), Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board, pick ups) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion). I might be mistaken here, but it sounds to me like this is a much more noisy release than we are used to from these areas. Not sure wether this stems from the use of feedback and pick ups, but it seems to me that every one of the instruments creates an electro-acoustic scratch and peep. It’s hard to recognize any trumpet, bass or accordion sound in here. It’s like a fight among these four players: who can make their instrument sound like anything but that instrument. Of course Ferran Fages looses: his feedback sounds like feedback. When I say ‘noisy’, it doesn’t mean that this is all at the outer limits of hearing, your eardrum being smashed to pieces. Nothing so. At times it’s really low and inaudible, but at other times the ripping and shredding is loud and menacing. A particular strong work of ‘new improvisation’. (FdW)
Address: http://www.linnomable.com
LUKASZ CISZAK – PHLOEM (CDR by Sqrt Label)
CISZAK/JUCHNIEWICZ/KLIMEK – SPECTRA (CDR by Sqrt Label)
ANTI-LOSS (3″CDR compilation by Sqrt Label)
Three releases by a new Polish label and filled with artists I never heard and unfortunately no information is available, not even on the website. I believe Lukasz Ciszak is the label owner and he is responsible for the release ‘Phloem’. The cover doesn’t list the used instruments, but I gather it’s mainly the guitar here. It comes to us in various forms, sometimes highly distorted, sometimes quite clearly with shimmering, drone like backgrounds and easy tinkling. At times it’s OK, but overall the music is quite unfocussed. It comes without too many structure or ideas, and seemingly doesn’t go anywhere.
The same Ciszak plays guitar on ‘Spectra’, together with Tomasz Juchniewicz on bass and Maciej Klimek on clarinet. Pretty much the same can be said here, with the big difference that there is a fundamental lack of dynamics. Everything goes on virtually the same softer level throughout the release, with no real big crescendo or anything some such. The instruments are played in a rather traditional manner and are clearly recognizable as such. As a backdrop sound it is not bad…
I am a bit in the dark about ‘Anti-Loss’. A big group of people from all over the world play together, most likely through the exchange of sound files over the internet and whoever mixed the piece is not clear. There are two lengthy pieces on this release, which both operate in a collage style: sounds swirl in and out of the mix, sometimes electro-acoustic, sometimes rhythmic and sometimes of an improvised nature. Of the three releases the best work, although I have some serious doubts here too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sqrt-label.org
KASPER VAN HOEK – 5 (CDR, self-released)
A Dutch painter and sound producer this Kasper van Hoek, who self-released his CDR of various works, which serve for me as an introduction to his work and it’s probably intended as such. In some of his titles he gives away what he is doing, like in ‘Turntablism’ or ‘Composition For Pick-Up’s And Vodka’ or what he is aiming at such as ‘Beat’ and ‘Drone 2’. It’s kinda hard to tell though what he is using, soundwise. A turntable, electronics and computer spring to mind. There is an overall sense of minimalism and a mild interest in noise, even when this is not a shocking noise release. This is the friendly face of noise, perhaps. In each of the eleven track things don’t change very much. Once the sounds are in place, they pretty much stay there, which may seem boring, but his sounds are interesting enough to hold the attention throughout. Topped with a nice cover, this is quite a nice release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaspervanhoek.com
GISCARD LE SURVIVANT – LIMITES DE LA DEMOCRATIE (3″CDR by 3 Patttes)
PLANETALDOL & ROHYPNOISE – ET ENSUITE LA VIANDE (MP3 by Earsheltering)
The Belgium CDR/MP3 label doesn’t tell much about their artists, so we are a bit left in the dark as to who Giscard Le Survivant and Rohypnoise & Planetaldol are, other than people trying to think up funny names. Giscard has five tracks on his 3″CDR release of electronic music that is too experimental to be poppy and to poppy to be experimental. It sort of is on the edge of both, but unfortunally I didn’t think that the tracks were interesting enough to hold my attention for very long. The music is rather unfocussed and apparently goes nowhere.
On 3 Patttes MP3 label Earsheltering five tracks by Rohypnoise & Planetaldol. Their release translates as ‘and next for the meat’. Something similar as with Giscard Le Survivant can be said of Rohypnoise & Planetaldol; the five tracks sound totally different from eachother, like they either want to proof that the can play in many styles or simply haven’t made up their mind yet. It can be either way. The title piece with a slowed down Muslimgauze sample worked best for me. (FdW)
Address: http://3patttes.free.fr
Address: http://earsheltering.free.fr
AMK – PLAYGROUND #1 (CDR by Editions_Zero)
A long long time before turntablism was something hip, people like Gum and AMK were producing music using only vinyl, but neither of them got the fame needed. Playground is a Greek magazine and the second issue is dedicated to AMK. Well, magazine… it’s a slab of vinyl with on both sides paper glued to it, with an extensive AMK interview, aswell as a discography of his work and a discography of his own Banned Production label. On the CDR we find at the start a few of AMK’s damaged flexi’s music, in which some of the original sounds can be recognized. Music and spoken word alike, but towards the end the material gets more abstract and doesn’t sound too much like vinyl abuse anymore. This is particular strong stuff here, it has nothing to do with turntablism or any such thing, but rather with industrial music played with vinyl and electronics. AMK was always someone ahead of the flock, and he still is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anet.gr/absurd
KOTRA – AMPERE (3″CDR by Alku)
Dmytro Fedorenko is Kotra from Kyiv, Ukraine. He has played in various bands before turning electronic and as Kotra he has played with various people. “‘Ampere’ was made with the old (1953) soviet radio microphone, mixer and some self-made devices” – which are all locked inside the mixing board with all the connections together: feedback is the result. Thirteen small, sketch like pieces, but don’t let the word ‘sketch’ mislead you: this is serious hardcore headache noise. It’s stuff that has been done before and will be done later, and Kotra is not the worst representative of this kind of thing, but I heard such thing maybe a bit too much in my life. I pass on instead of out. (FdW)
Address: http://www.personal.ilimit.es/principio