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MICHAEL ZERANG – CEDARHEAD (CD by Al Maslakh) *
MAWJA – STUDIO ONE (CD by Al Maslakh)
ERIC CORDIER – OSOREZAN (CD by Herbal Records) *
MAMMAL – LONESOME DRIFTER (CD by Animal Disguise) *
TENNISCOATS – TOTEMO AIMASHO (CD by Room40) *
CHRISTOPHER WILLITS – PLANTS AND HEARTS (miniCD by Room40)
ADD TO FRIENDS (CD by Someone Good)
CHRISTIAN RENOU – EX-VOTO (CD by Elsie & Jack Recordings)
LUCA FORMENTINI – TACET (CD by Extreme) *
SMALL SAILS – SIMILAR ANNIVERSARIES (CD by Other Electricities)
AVSKY – SILENT DECAY (CD, private) *
YUI ONODERA – SYNERGETICS (7″ by Drone Records)
YUI ONODERA – LE JARIN (3″CDR by Taalem) *
MYSTIFIED – SOOTHGRAINS (CDR by Dim Records) *
KENJI SIRATORI – KILLING MACHINES (CDR by Dim Records)
SABRINA SIEGEL – GRACE/PRECARIOUS (CDR by Pax Recordings) *
VARIOUS ARTISTS – SOUND CONTRIBUTIONS I (5.1) (DVD-R by Leerraum)
GINGER LEIGH AND THE HALLUCINATIONS (CDR, private) *
MIKRONESIA – IRIS OR COMFORTABLE TOO (CDR by Gears Of Sand)
PWDRE SER – THE GRAND IDYLLIC (CDR by Via Music) *
SHOEB AHMAD – MIXED DOUBLES (CDR by Hello Squarerecordings)
MANKILLED/SHOEB AHMAD – MAMMOTH/DEER (CDR by Hello Squarerecordings)
MONDAY MORNING ERECTION – STYLE RUINES (CDR by Brise Cul Records)
YELLOWKNIVES – ACID SUNRISE (CDR by Brise Cul Records)
OPAQUE – THE CULT OF SURVIVORS (4CDR by Kovorox Sound)
KYLIE MINOISE – YOU SUFFER (CDR by Kovorox Sound)
KVLLVLLVLLV (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
LANDING SWABS – JUICE OF PICTURES (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
GLASS CEILING – BLOOD GARAGE (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
GLASS CEILING – FOG OF EXECUTION (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
SEBASTIAN HAMMERSCHMIDT – RATS=ARTS=STAR (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records) *
KRYBBEDOD – SUMMER IS CANCELLED (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
SOG.TAE – FOUND ELSEWHERE (CDR by Taeter Records)
SOG.TAE – TOPOGRAPHY OF (CDR by Taeter Records)
SOG.TAE – THE LUNGS (CDR by Taeter Records)
MACHINEFABRIEK – PIANO.WAV (3″ CDR by Machinefabriek) *
MACHINEFABRIEK – STUIP/STAAR (MP3 by One.Dot)
MICHAEL ZERANG – CEDARHEAD (CD by Al Maslakh)
MAWJA – STUDIO ONE (CD by Al Maslakh)
Release number six and seven from the small Al Maslakh label from Lebanon. In the past we reviewed three other releases from this interesting label: albums by Gene Coleman and Raed Yassin, Peter Brötzmann and Michael Zerang, and another one by Tom Chant and Sharif Sehnaqui. The Al Maslakh label is closely associated with the Irtijal Festival of Improvised Music in Beirut. This festival emerged in 2000 and was a first sign of the appearance of a new generation of musicians from Lebanon that are interested in adventurous music. In order to document this new scene the Al Maslakh label was established. An interesting label not only because of the quality of its releases, but also because it is a label from Libanon, a corner in the world where you don’t expect improvised music to come from. So it is a pleasure that we can introduce now two new releases. Like earlier releases it has Lebanese musicians in a meeting with western improvisors. Chicago-based Michael Zerang changed the States for the second time for Beirut, for a series of duo concerts with local improvisors. The CD ‘Cedarhead’ documents seven of these meetings. It has has Michael Zerang (drums, darbuka, percussion) playing duos with Sharif Sehnaoui (electric guitar), Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet), Raed Yassin (tapes & electronics), Christine Sehnaoui (alto sax), Charbel Haber (electric guitar), Jassem Hindi (electronics) and Bechir Saadé (nay). Recordings were made in april this year at the Grand Music Room of the Bustros Palace in Beirut. The duets differ in many respects. Two of them have Zerang playing in the company of the electric guitar by respectively, Sharif Sehnaoui and Charbel Haber. Both players make use of extended techniques. Also the playing of Mazen Kerbaj on trumpet is far from usual, whereas Christine Sehnaoui stays more close to the common sound coming from the alto sax. In general, all these musicians have a high standard concerning their technical abilities. Between Raed Yassin (tapes & electronics) and Zerang grows a lengthy improvisation with deformed soundmaterial from radio broadcasts and eastern rhythms played on the darbuka. In the duet with Jassem Hindi a noisy treatment of sounds is in battle with subtle sounds from Zerang’s percussion. Totally different in character is the closing piece with Bechir Saade on nay and Zerang again on darbuka. An improvisation moving from or towards middle eastern music?! Most pieces on this cd could also come from Europe or America, as they move within the patterns, etc. that were developed within this kind of improvised music. And also because these improvisations deal a lot about sound. Only the last track is overtly grounded in eastern traditions, not only in the way the instruments are played but also concerning the musical structure along which they improvise.
With Mawja something different is going on. It is a trio of Michael Bullock (contrabass, feedback), Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet) and Vic Rawlings (cello, surface electronics). Recordings date from 2005 and were made in New York. Bullock and Rawlings are two american improvisors who play together already for some years and have some very good CDs out. ‘Studio One’ is a true melting pot of acoustic playing, and using electronic and electro-acoustic means. A very radical treatment, investigating sound and textures, especially in their going together as acoustic and electro-acoustic soundmaterial. Most of the time it is very difficult saying who is playing what. They paint very abstract music, built around slow movements and changes, but dotted with all kinds of little details. (DM)
Address: http://www.almaslakh.org/
ERIC CORDIER – OSOREZAN (CD by Herbal Records)
Eric Cordier we may know from his work with the hurdy gurdy or with improvisers, but to my surprise this new CD contains just field recordings. Likewise to my surprise this is released by Herbal Records, whom we so far know from very limited CDR releases, and low quality packaging. The field recordings by Cordier span from 1993 to 2006, and we either made in Japan or in France. Some of these pieces were ‘edited an reorganized’, where as other pieces are presented as is. However, I believe no sound transformation was used. This is quite detailed recording, and with the useful descriptions in the booklet it’s all easy to follow. The gas filled water of Japan, or the unloading of cars; the bonfire and the lazy afternoon. It’s all there. Perhaps one could argue that this is hardly music, but I was listening with true fascination to these sounds. Cut of reality, they become music, simply because Cordier pressed them on a CD and we listen to it, rather than going out and listen for ourselves – we could do that later on, if we want to, but it’s raining (also a nice sound event), so I prefer to stay inside and listen again to the Cordier CD. Such richness captured in such elegant and smooth way: a true treat for the ears. (FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/herbalrecords
MAMMAL – LONESOME DRIFTER (CD by Animal Disguise)
Recorded during six months of isolation in Detroit and it’s ‘an epic soundtrack to the industrial depression of the city’. I always thought it was exaggerated, until I was there and happy to stay in Livonia. I think I can understand how Mammal feels about Detroit. Play the first track really loud, with it’s slow drum computer pattern, dry as hell, with a load of heavy guitar drones and you get the drift too. Yet, this is not noise, but heavy, top heavy blues. However the first piece sets the tone for the CD, it doesn’t mean that the other pieces are alike. Mammal uses voices, clearly audible, as he strums his guitar. In other pieces he uses feedback, loose tones, more words, and things look grim. But today is a clouded, rainy day, almost autumn like, so the utter depressive music of Mammal fits the scene quite well. There isn’t a single spark of sunlight allowed in the womb of this Mammal and ‘Cremation’, ‘Incinerator Ballad’ and ‘Repulsion’ proof that. However I thought it was quite amazing music. But I needed something light afterwards. (FdW)
Address: http://www.animaldisguise.com/mammal
TENNISCOATS – TOTEMO AIMASHO (CD by Room40)
CHRISTOPHER WILLITS – PLANTS AND HEARTS (miniCD by Room40)
ADD TO FRIENDS (CD by Someone Good)
Sometime ago I saw Tenniscoats, on the same evening as Tape and Andrea Belfi. I was highly impressed by the later two, perhaps to an extent that I couldn’t like Tenniscoats. Maybe my memory is blurred. I assume it was during this tour that they recorded ‘Totemo Aimasho’ (meaning Lets Meet Very Much) in Australia, Japan and the UK. The band consists of various members who each take a role in playing vocals, piano, keyboards, bass, guitar, drums, flute etc. Tenniscoats play ‘simple’ songs, hardly sing along material, but ‘simple’ in the same meaning as naive. Naive music, played rudimentary, without much skill, but they play, or try to play a popsong. Rather than doodling around, they try to make a well rounded song. But there is still something, I must, that I don’t like very much. Perhaps it’s the whole setting of sunday musicians, naivety all around, a bit of false singing and such like that gives me the creeps. It’s not entirely spontaneous I think, a bit forced to be willful naive. Or maybe I am entirely wrong and I just don’t get it. That might also be very well possible.
Christopher Willits can be easily lumped in with Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier with the better known ambient glitch computer musicians (and of course others, but hey you get my drift). His guitar playing is fed through the computer and processed in long form drone music. Here he uses “a mid side recording of a guitar, the unique mixing technique of panning the cardioid M of the M-S array left and right four times at one second intervals alters spatial cues and phase relationships” – but all I hear is gorgeous spacious music of guitar sounds feeding through an ever sustaining patch inside the computer, totally self-controlled (contained even), and one only has to sit back and see this work. Great work, perhaps a bit short at twenty minutes.
These words, Vital Weekly is sent along the binary road of the internet, which is the best invention since the wheel. Yet the internet failure is when it comes to human beings. ‘I looked it up on the internet’ is usually meaning the same as ‘I am wrong, but hey I don’t have the ability to look further, simply because I never learned to inquire more’. Likewise I have not much sympathy for the internet as a means to make friends. ‘Communities’ like Second Life, Facebook and Myspace aren’t communities and require not any form of social behavior or interaction, but are marketing tools to make money, which of course riding high on the hype never happens. I think I rather step down to the pub and talk to someone, preferable in the absence of mobile phones. Yes, I am old and perhaps conservative, but I’ll save the pros of the net for another time. Oh well, you can get nice music, exchange sounds and such like, and that is where this compilation fades in. Someone Good is the name of a sub label from Room40 and it’s all about friends and myspace, and the internet. Maybe that’s one of the reason why I didn’t recognize many of the faces in this book, or myspace is not yourspace. Maybe there is an underground. Many Japanese child like female voices, which were imitated by the eight year old present at the first time I played this. ‘Do you like this?’, I asked and upon confirmation I asked wether she thought this particular CD was made by one group. She thought it was. There is a striking similarity in approaches among these pieces, be they instrumental or otherwise. That is a pity, I think. But of course people choose their friends for similarities rather than differences. Find here Lullatone, Tenniscoats, Ytamo, Trico!, Midori Hirano, Daisuke Miyatani, Caroline and ten more harmless alternative popmusic pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
CHRISTIAN RENOU – EX-VOTO (CD by Elsie & Jack Recordings)
A new approach needs a new name. When Brume switched of the analogue machines and turned on the computer, Brume adopted is christian name, Christian Renou. You all know this of course, since music by Renou under his own name has been reviewed before. But I gather from the delivered notes that Renou wasn’t too pleased with the results so far, although he doesn’t tell us what exactly was wrong with them; we thought they sounded fine. But listening to his new release, there are indeed some interesting differences to be spotted. The basic material was recorded in 2002 in a church, with Ilda von Gerart interpreting ‘Amazing Grace’ on the violin. The violin is processed through the use of computers, and additional sounds from the church are taken in consideration. Sometimes the electronics prevails and we are in total abstract landscape, but as soon as Renou allows the violin to join, things are getting… musical. Very musical indeed. To an extend which we haven’t heard from him in ages, or perhaps even never. The sorrowing tune of ‘Amazing Grace’ hacked together with sometimes crude, sometimes rhythmic processings thereof, making this a rather musical outing for monsieur Renou, and it’s seems to these ears the right move and a line to be explored. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elsieandjack.com
LUCA FORMENTINI – TACET (CD by Extreme)
The word Tacet we know from John Cage’s 4’33, which is officially called 4’33 (Tacet). Like a good classical piece, things have names, so piano means soft and tacet means ‘it is silent’ and one Luca Formentini plays around with this notion. It’s not however a full length version of the Cage piece. Formentini plays guitar, along with one of those sampling devices, allowing to sample on the spot. For his CD about silence he gets help from Steve Jansen (of Japan fame), Markus Stockhausen (of his dads fame), Deborah Walker, Steve Lawson and Frank Moreno, who contribute bass, trumpet, voice, electronic drums and such like. While playing this, I have been wondering what this all has to with silence. There is no silence on this CD. Not even remotely. It has soft music for sure, not very outspoken, band ambient, jazz ambient even. A lot of music actually of layered, sustained guitars, trumpet free fall, all with that unnecessary amount of delay and reverb to suggest space. Things get interesting when he is using contact microphones to scratch the surface of the guitar such as in ‘Skin For The Angel’, but throughout I thought this was all too slick ambient music, with vague notions of jazz music. Too smooth, too easy, and still clueless about the whole notion of silence. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xtr.com
SMALL SAILS – SIMILAR ANNIVERSARIES (CD by Other Electricities)
Small Sails is a young, hip four-piece out of Portland, Oregon that has been tapped by the soul of visual and melodic harmonies. No clearer is this than on the cut Aftershocks and Afterthoughts appearing on this official debut full-length recording. Infectiously repetitious with vocal modulations akin to the subtleties found in works by Sigur Ros and the faded touches of Tortoise. Their sound finds its home away from home tip-toeing through between the fields of folk-electronica and jazzy acoustic pop. Though each track is just short of five minutes or so, they’re instrumental songs of a generation. Not since Pulseprogramming’s flawless ’03 release Tulsa for One Second have we experienced such a combination of upbeat bright hues and mellow hooks. Small Sails do something simultaneously familiar and foreign by layering the cadence of pleasing vocalese with playful percussion. (TJNorris)
Address: http://www.other-electricities.com
AVSKY – SILENT DECAY (CD, private)
Some people still think the no info approach works best. Well, frankly my dear, no it doesn’t. Avsky is the person who played all the music, gets some help from people I never heard of and there is an e-mail on the cover. No label, no website, not a scribble of info. But it’s a real CD, with a real cover; why not put some effort in promotion? It ends up with me guessing my way in the dark, and receiving e-mails on how I all got it wrong. So Avsky is from Norway, judging by his e-mail, and he likes his tunes to be dark. As far as I can tell he plays guitar through 863 different kinds of effect processing devices, foot and hand controlled. Alright, now that sounded not very nice of me. Perhaps I just don’t know. No, I really don’t know. The eight sonic landscapes sound actually very nice. Dark, controlled and haunted, atmospheric. Fans of Moljebka Pvlse, Troum and such like should take notice. Fine dark ambience all around. Maybe this is one of those obscure things that float around on blogs in ten years as the long forgotten classic. (FdW)
Address: <avskymusic@yahoo.no>
YUI ONODERA – SYNERGETICS (7″ by Drone Records)
YUI ONODERA – LE JARIN (3″CDR by Taalem)
Although this name sounded familiar, it seems to be the first time we’re reviewing music by Yui Onodera from Japan, who calls himself a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He has his own label, Critical Path, but these two releases came from Europe. On the 7″ he plays guitars and piano, not that anyone could easily recognize those here. The sounds are taken apart and interwoven on the computer into short but highly sweet pieces of ambient drones, which are also quite musical. It must have been a while since we last heard something on Drone Records that was so careful and delicate made. It’s a pity that vinyl is not the most suitable format to present this delicacy.
‘All sound sources are violin, guitar, electronics, electroanalysis of watter [sic]’ we read on the cover of the 3″ CDR. Three utter soft pieces of a highly minimal movements, if indeed there are movements at all. Things crack, buzz in a delicate ambient way that is found a lot these days in the realms of computer processing. ‘Le Jardin’ means garden in French, but the garden depicted by Onodera in these three pieces is a cold, winter garden. The music is a bit distant and remote, even though it’s quite nice, if not really a big surprise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dronerecords.de
Address: http://www.taalem.com
MYSTIFIED – SOOTHGRAINS (CDR by Dim Records)
KENJI SIRATORI – KILLING MACHINES (CDR by Dim Records)
The Netherlands’ smallest label, perhaps, is Dim Records, run by our Steffan de Turck, otherwise known as Staplerfahrer. His releases have a deliberate low level look and come in editions that is usually not more than two handfuls. Mystified have been greeted before in these pages, and on their new release they extend their blend of sampling even further. They seem to be doing all: techno rhythms, ambient and noise. Everything is thrown in that sampler of theirs and things groove around – well, of course not in a way that will make your feet move, but in a way that will make your feet tap or your head nod. Head nod music was a category some sort distributor once used to lump this kind of music in and indeed Mystified are head nodders. I can even imagine them making a nice 12″ of alternative dance beats some day. The first signs of that have arrived.
Again Kenji Siratori makes his second appearance, following last week’s release with Goh Lee Kwang. Dim tells us his a ‘cyberpunk writer’ and the lyrics are enclosed with this release, which are, even with glasses on, a bit hard to read. Each piece is called ‘Mantra’, and consists of Siratori’s deformed voice, speaking Japanese (sheet is in English) over a distorted rumble of sound. That is nice, as it sounds like noise and poetry mixed together. Unless there is a conceptual edge which I don’t understand but all the pieces sound more or less the same. It doesn’t make any difference wether there is just one or thirty five pieces here. Maybe a book with more readable text and music separate on a CD next time? (FdW)
Address: http://www.dimrecords.tk
SABRINA SIEGEL – GRACE/PRECARIOUS (CDR by Pax Recordings)
Normally releases by Pax Records land on the desk of Dolf Mulder, but for whatever reason this arrived at HQ, and was investigated by fresh ears. Sabrina Siegel is, despite her appearance on fifteen CDs a new name to me. She lives in Eugene, Oregon and she plays guitar and cello, although her background is classical voice and flute. Her pieces are from the field of improvised music, but she certainly has her own edge to it. She plays ‘situations’ rather than ‘pieces’. Placing a bunch of rocks on the strings and then slowly move the guitar – that sort of thing. However the outcome is much more musical, and much less ‘fluxus’ than my inapt description may sound. Sometimes she does play a real song like thing, with singing and all that, but oddly enough I must admit that these pieces work less for me. I prefer the more abstract sound exploring she does. Sat in a room with a wooden floor, the ambience is of equal importance as the actual playing is. Quite intense music, with a lot of things happening, yet at the same time it seems a lot less that is going on. In these pieces tension is felt, between the player, the instrument and the environment in which things happen. It makes this quite a remarkable release of improvised music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.paxrecordings.com
VARIOUS ARTISTS – SOUND CONTRIBUTIONS I (5.1) (DVD-R by Leerraum)
In 2005 and 2006 the Swiss label Leerraum ran an exhibition space for sound art in Bern/Switzerland. “Sound Contributions I” was the first exhibition, consisting of contributions from artists who share an interest in digital sound processing, manipulated field recordings, filigree textures and discreet gestures – call it “microsound”, if you prefer – and who are part of Leerraum’s network, like, for example (you might have guessed it), Dale Lloyd, Freiband, Heribert Friedl, Jason Kahn, Kenneth Kirschner, Steinbrüchel, etc., etc. During the exhibition their sounds filled the room without being clearly assignable to any of the artists and this principle is also maintained for the DVD release, which presents a 5.1 surround sound mix of the sound contributions, arranged by Zimoun. Now I don’t have a 5.1 surround sound system, but stereo headphone listening revealed music of great depth and warmth, a calm, gently evolving 42-minute piece of a dark, relaxed nature. Given the individual artists’ heterogeneous approaches, the unity of the piece is remarkable. Thus presenting the contributions as a single track and without a direct reference to their respective ‘authors’ proves to be a striking solution, since it hints towards the idea of a collaboration rather than a mere collection of more or less related individual works. The ingredients here are pretty common – blurred harmonic textures, traces of everyday sounds and gentle clicks and pulses – yet the result clearly stands out from comparable compilations, as it not only maintains a continuously high quality throughout, but also achieves a degree of aesthetic coherence that is rarely found in compilations. (MSS)
Address: http://www.leerraum.ch/
GINGER LEIGH AND THE HALLUCINATIONS (CDR, private)
With large intervals we are exposed to the music of Ginger Leigh from the USA (Vital Weekly 443 and 513), and here is a new one. Absolutely not my type of music, and yet there is something about it, which I really like. The sampler is the core of the music of Ginger Leigh. In here all disappears and when it comes out, it’s a dark and haunting tune, but always with a light touch and bit of humor. There is cheesy lounge music in there, or carnival like hummings, but Leigh always knows how to bend his stuff into more creepy alleys. Classical music, ethnic, bombast. All the previous elements are still there, but it seems also to me there is a sense of progression. It’s not all dark and doom ringing the bell here, but it seems to be more worked out, more varied in approaches, and in general another damn fine CDR. Kitsch perhaps, and did I already say, absolutely not my thing, but that’s the very thing I like about this. But I am not widely known for my correct taste. Yet, it’s entirely unclear why Leigh hasn’t found himself a proper CD label to bring out this into the open more. Record company bosses should take notice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gingerleigh.com
MIKRONESIA – IRIS OR COMFORTABLE TOO (CDR by Gears Of Sand)
On the excellent Gears Of Sand comes a new release by Mikronesia, of whom we know nothing. He uses the sound of grand piano, but entirely treated in the field of computers. Now that is something of a small tradition of this year, following whatever we already had in this direction, from Fennesz/Sakamoto to this week’s Machinefabriek. The piano can be recognized as such, here and there and throughout this album. The recording process, in which Mikronesia did a first approach in processing the sound through analogue apparatus, and then do some improvisation. The recordings of that were then edited and further treated on the computer, and the seven pieces on this release are the result. It fits the recent tradition of computer treated piano music quite well, but I must admit it doesn’t necessarily add something also. It’s great, it’s warm, it’s glitch, but it’s also more of the same. The same of Fennesz/Sakamoto, Martin Herterich, Feu Follet, Red Needled Sea, Krater, Son Of Rose and Machinefabriek, to mention those other piano/computer musicians of this year. Each with their own specific sound, something that sets them apart, but the differences are small. Mikronesia certainly ranks among the best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gearsofsand.net
PWDRE SER – THE GRAND IDYLLIC (CDR by Via Music)
One Eric S Reitz, playing synthesizers, effects, programming and sampling, is responsible for the hard to pronounce Pwdre Ser. ‘The Grand Idyllic’ is his second release, but the first for us. Described by himself as ‘motorik beats, swelling and distorted loops, angelic melodies, ambient interludes an ethnological forgeries’, this is foremost rhythmic music that is set forward to play some pleasant music, despite the ‘distorted loops’, which I didn’t detect at all. Sweet rhythms and even sweeter playing on the keyboards. A bit of kitsch at times, with those flute imitations coming out of a synthesizer. Things worked best around here when it dwelled on a laidback dub-like rhythm and all those pre-set sounds switched off. But like most of the pieces around they are short, which in those instances is a pity and for some other pieces it’s a relief. I think this is a release with a lot of potential. Some ideas are great, some can be tossed out right away, and tracks should be worked out a bit more thoroughly. Let’s see what the future will bring us in that respect. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/pwdresermusic
SHOEB AHMAD – MIXED DOUBLES (CDR by Hello Squarerecordings)
MANKILLED/SHOEB AHMAD – MAMMOTH/DEER (CDR by Hello Squarerecordings)
Lots of Australians in this particular weekly, and Shoeb Ahmad is a new name for me. He has had two 3″ releases on Sound & Fury an Wilting Flower before, but these are on his own Hellos Quarerecordings. Nine pieces are to be found on ‘Mixed Doubles’, four which are remixes by people who are likewise new to me, except Prettyboy Crossover. At the start are the five original pieces by Ahmad, which shows his love for drone rock, but captured and over powered in the realm of the computer. We hear sustaining sounds of processed guitars, feeding through what are no doubt plug ins, kind alike something Willits does (see elsewhere), but less refined. Nice it certainly is. As far as I’m concerned the singing attempted in the first piece is something I am not too fond off. The remixes take out the guitar, or perhaps even add some more guitar playing, but none of the four remixes move things into a distinctly different area. I guess it’s all o.k., but not brilliant – the remixes that is.
There is also a split release with a Canberra noise rock band called ManKilled. Now they play drone and rock, with a capital D and a capital R. Slow, trance like noise rock, captured in the glorious garage to ensure that that low fidelity treble sound and motorized bass lines. Great stuff that make them sound more from New Zealand than from Australia, if you get my drift. Shoeb Ahmad has five pieces here, which he calls ‘shoegazey pop’. Much alike the previous five pieces, but it seems that he uses a bit more computerized processings here, making things a bit more grainy and low resolution like. Rhythm is also used here to a wider extent, making it indeed a bit pop like, and the overall atmosphere is pointed downward, to the shoes, or inward to the self. Nice stuff all around, certainly when these two don’t seem to match very well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/hellosquarerecordings
MONDAY MORNING ERECTION – STYLE RUINES (CDR by Brise Cul Records)
YELLOWKNIVES – ACID SUNRISE (CDR by Brise Cul Records)
The grass is always greener on the other side, and from this side Montreal looks like a very vibrant city with lots of interesting musicians and labels. The Brise Cul Records is already active since 2001 and has released a whole string of releases from all sorts of people. Monday Morning Erection is a trio of guitarist Ghislain Roy and David Lafrance and Jean-Francois Lauda, both on turntables, although the latter is not on this new record. Apparently this music is dark and louder than their usual work, which I haven’t heard. True, and one could add, pretty chaotic too. Pretty rough noise based improvisations for both instruments, which hardly plays a consistent tune. Things crash, scratch and beep all over the place, and makes a pretty dense pattern. Yet it seems to me that these boys know what they are doing, as opposed to just fool around. Not the easiest music around, but in terms of noise a pretty cool release.
A new duo are the Yellowknives, also from Montreal, and they are described as ‘a digital drone geek and a dubstep activist’ and are called ‘Montreal’s answer to Pan Sonic’, which is understandable. Monotonous blocks of rhythm, with the hissing of synthesizers to go along the trail. It doesn’t quite capture the grooves of Pan Sonic, to which people can be spotted dancing, whereas the monolithic bass beat here is hardly a groove, but more a bass tump – like the head nod music I wrote about earlier on. Creepy stuff this is, with mean sounds, flying low over like a cruise missile on a mission of certain destruction. Quite underground and not the dance thing that it could have been, but I believe that was never the aim anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/briseculrecords
OPAQUE – THE CULT OF SURVIVORS (4CDR by Kovorox Sound)
KYLIE MINOISE – YOU SUFFER (CDR by Kovorox Sound)
To wake up with a four hour CDR set of Opaque. Is that a sensible thing to do? Perhaps not but I did it. The band, a duo actually, exists ten years by now, and like any good band they have a box. A box of unreleased material, which in Opaque’s case is actually a whole bunch of live recordings, recorded mostly in the UK, also some in The Netherlands (and boys, it’s Nijmegen not Nijmegin, your weekly hometown – thank you) and Germany. Four hours of heavy feedback guitar music, drone rock taken to it’s logical extreme. I sit back, pick up today’s newspaper, drink coffee, meanwhile I let Opaque do the soundtrack. The large chuncks, such as ‘Beneath The Awareness Of Mother Culture’, are sometimes a bit much, and I prefer the shorter, noise pieces. When almost four hours later the coffee is done, paper is finished, and the music stops, I know one thing very sure: I am awake.
Which is cool, so I can switch over right away to Kylie Minoise, who pay homage to Napalm Death’s debut album. I remember that album. My radio colleague at the local radio pirate came in one day, in 1987, with that album, announcing that this album was to end all music as we had previously known. He was always doing bold statements, but that day he was right. Now, twenty years later, we have seen some crazy music coming our way, but that album still stands. Although I never play it. Kylie Minoise do a cover of ‘You Suffer’, extending it to just over sixty minutes. It’s one monolithic block of solid noise, with hardly any change, or so it seems, that is nowhere close in the same power range as Napalm Death. This drags on and on without much urgency. Or perhaps I miss a conceptual point entirely. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kovoroxsound.com
KVLLVLLVLLV (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
LANDING SWABS – JUICE OF PICTURES (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
GLASS CEILING – BLOOD GARAGE (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
GLASS CEILING – FOG OF EXECUTION (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
SEBASTIAN HAMMERSCHMIDT – RATS=ARTS=STAR (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
KRYBBEDOD – SUMMER IS CANCELLED (CDR by Black Gap Death Trap Records)
The message about not sending so much stuff at once has been running for only a few months, so it was not received at Black Gap Death Trap Records from Cologne. Six releases at once from this overall pretty noisy label. I dive in with the self-titled release by Kvllvllvllv – a trio from Cologne, operating on synth, electronics, vocals and guitar. Experiments in feedback and distortion. And chaos, as they sure don’t like to play a straight tone, but try to twist it around in every possible way. The recording is pretty low and lack true power.
‘Juice Of Pictures’ by Landing Swabs has some naked girls on the cover – of course. This duo is Sebastian Hammerschmidt and Mathias Schwartz with their hands on found objects, microphones, percussion and synthesizers. This too is about noise, but in a much more controlled way. Their found objects sound quite nice, like they scrape the barrel in a heavy musique concrete manner, but at the same time they add a crude bunch of chopped up electronics – also in a chaotic manner, but it fits the scene rather nicely.
Two rather short releases come courtesy of Glass Ceiling (Raphael Smarzoch, who is also the label boss). One piece is called ‘Blood Garage’ and lasts just over fifteen minutes and the other is called ‘Fog Of Execution’ which is eight minutes. Both are true old school industrial of heavy noise, the feedback wall of sound and full distortion box open. But especially ‘Fof Of Execution’, with its heavy underpinning concrete wall bass sound is quite nice. Nothing new for the noise heads, but quite alright.
Also noise related is the release by Krybbedöd, a band with Anders Hanna, whom we know from MoHa! and Patrick Petterson, but it takes the notion of noise elsewhere. One guitar and two drum kits are used on this release, filled with furious free noise rock. Grindcore but then taken to a new extreme level, if that was possible – yes it is. One of the lads screams his lungs off, and the instruments play some crazy. Sixteen tracks in thirteen minutes. Somebody should do a 7″ of this. The best noise release of the lot.
A solo release by Sebastian Hammerschmidt of Landing Swabs is perhaps the most interesting release of this lot. Playing noise is easy, playing noise on a computer is perhaps even more easy. Yet it’s what Hammerschmidt does here, although in his defense I can say it’s not all harsh noise that beats the clock here. He has his quiet moments in a throughout vast amount of noise bits and beats. His fucked up rhythms of non-sensical beats is quite funny, and reminded me to play some old Rehberg and Hecker, whenever I have spare time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackgapdeathtrap.com
SOG.TAE – FOUND ELSEWHERE (CDR by Taeter Records)
SOG.TAE – TOPOGRAPHY OF (CDR by Taeter Records)
SOG.TAE – THE LUNGS (CDR by Taeter Records)
Taeter Records is a new label, although with three releases by the labelboss, you could wonder what the label aspect is. Sog.tae (no doubt that should be lowercase) lives and works in Frankfurt and he is concerned with ‘time-microscopy, time-deformation’, which very short said, is all about time stretching and pitch shifting. On all three releases he is using short sound samples from Evan Parker’s ‘The Topography Of The Lungs’, which he stretches out and changes the pitch. As lowercase as the name is written, so is the music. ‘Topography Of’ is very quiet, and ‘The Lungs’ is louder, like he has found the normalization button. Otherwise it seems to me to be quite similar music, one louder than the other. I wonder why he didn’t combine these two on one release and make thus radical shifts between soft and loud. ‘Found Elsewhere’ is something different feeding all the stretched particles through a bunch of plug ins on the computer. Perhaps if this was also combined with the material of the other releases, it would have made a pretty varied release, which however would not a big difference to what is out there in this field already. (FdW)
Address: http://www.taeter.net.tc
MACHINEFABRIEK – PIANO.WAV (3″ CDR by Machinefabriek)
MACHINEFABRIEK – STUIP/STAAR (MP3 by One.Dot)
And our friend Rutger Zuydervelt, also known, or rather, better known as Machinefabriek carries on, on end. His private CDR releases sometime read as a musical diary. On the cover of ‘Piano.wav’ it says: ‘recorded August 3, 2007, using a found sample of a piano tone (piano.wav)’. Where this was found we are not told, but one can imagine the pleasure of Zuydervelt. Sound found. Make music. Make cover. Release ready. A slow piece is the result. The sparseness of one piano tone, added/spiced with some reverb and lots of silence, along with a slight change in pitch, makes this into a nice contemplative piece. Spacious music. Not entirely Erik Satie, more Ambarchi. Nice solitairy stuff.
At the same time there is also a MP3 release, called ‘Stuip/Staar’. Funny, well perhaps, is that many of Machinefabriek private releases are down to twenty minutes, but these two pieces last thirty-two and twenty-five minutes. Quite odd me thinks. Both pieces are live recordings, from april and may this year. And both recording is just ‘guitar played through various effect pedals’. It can work out both ways. ‘Stuip’ is quite noisy with a wall of sound approach, once things hit the van, whereas ‘Staar’ is almost like the opposite: quite and introspective, only in the grand finale things work up their way into a solid block of concrete. Pretty strong, but both concerts are also a little bit more single-minded than his CDR releases – and that’s perhaps why we get them in the form of a MP3 – another addition to the diary. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
Address: http://one.dot9.ca/2/releases.php?id=035