ORGANUM – OMEGA (CD by Die Stadt) *
NERVE NET NOISE – DARK GARDEN (CD by Intransitive Recordings)
LIONEL MARCHETTI & SEIJIRO MURAYAMA – HATALI ATSALEI (L’EXCHANGE DES YEUX) (CD by Instransitive Recordings) *
HOWARD STELZER – BOND INLETS (CD by Intransitive Recordings)
ORIGAMI BONDEPRAKTIKA & ORIGAMI SUBTROPIKA & ORIGAMI SYNERGIKA –
COLLABORATIVE FAN-CDR (CDr by Cipher Productions)
TADM & TIMISOARA – ‘I AM NOT DYING IN A NIGHTMARE’ (split CDR + 3″CDR by
Cipher Productions)
SEWER ELECTION & TRERIKSRÖSET – KILLING SESSIONS (CD by Troniks & Chondritic Sound )
TRERIKSRÖSET – SEXREGLER (CD by Troniks & Chondritic Sound) *
PAPER & PLASTIC (2CD by Suitcase)
UUSITALO – KARHUNAINEN (CD by Huume Recordings)
QUIO – PHIU (CD by Agf Producktion)
NETHERWORLD – KALL, THE ABYSS WHERE DREAMS FALL (CD by Mondes Elliptiques)
CINEPLEXX – RESTAR (CD by Testing Ground)
QEBO – WROLN (CD by Low Impedance Recordings) *
ZOMBIE BATTLE AXE – … NOW YOU ARE DEAD (CD by Slut Factory Records) *
EVAN BARTHOLOMEW – CAVERNS OF TIME (CD by Somnia) *
YUI ONODERA – SUBSTRATE (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
AKKORD I ON – PPP-FFF (CDR by Replica) *
TEN SECOND COMPILATION (CDR by Kif Recordings)
DEAD TREVELLER – NEVER A DULL MOMENT (CDR by Phase!)
ZONDERLAND – OIDIPUS: MOTHERFUCKER (CDR, private) *
THELMO CRISTOVAM & FERNANDO S. TORRES (CDR by Dim Records) *
MACHINEFABRIEK – MUSIC FOR INTERMITTENT MOVEMENTS (CDR by Machinefabriek) *
MATTIN – BROKEN SUBJECT (CDR by Free SS)
JULIEN SKROBEK – LE PALAIS TRANSPARANT (CDR by Free SS)
IRIS OLLSCHEWSKI – SOUND-DESTILLATION (3″CDR, private release) *
YOSHIMI! – II AKA THE CHESHIRE RAT (MP3 by Esc Rec)
TOXIC CHICKEN – MAKE MY DAY (MP3 by Esc Rec)
SLO-FI – ‘S LOOT (MP3 by Esc Rec)
ORGANUM – OMEGA (CD by Die Stadt)
Collecting music for the sake of collecting is not something I am very keen. Music hearing for the sake of hearing music, that is what I like. There are a few artists whose new works I usually try to get, and Organum is one of them. Although I must admit, I sometimes (or perhaps more often than not) am clueless what it is about. If it’s about something at all. The music by Organum is a mystery that comes in clusters. The cover of ‘Omega’ looks like ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Amen’, so no doubt there is a relation in the music, which comes to form in the use of a church organ like sound, some highly processed chime like sound and a deep drone of rusty metal in the background. Just as on ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Amen’ – and much true to the form of Organum mystery, there are three pieces here, which all sound quite similar – or perhaps they are similar? You can’t tell, and that’s probably the whole point. After some fifteen minutes, another track of fifteen minutes that sound similar, is that then also similar? It’s a question Organum asks himself, or rather, just raises for us to find an answer too. I am afraid I have no answer myself. I sit back and listen and wondering what this means, ‘Omega’, ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Amen’ – a holy trilogy? Better would be, perhaps, not to ponder too much about this and just enjoy that crazy genius Organum. I am long converted to his belief. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
NERVE NET NOISE – DARK GARDEN (CD by Intransitive Recordings)
LIONEL MARCHETTI & SEIJIRO MURAYAMA – HATALI ATSALEI (L’EXCHANGE DES YEUX) (CD by Instransitive Recordings)
HOWARD STELZER – BOND INLETS (CD by Intransitive Recordings)
To this very day I am writing this I landed in America and Howard Stelzer picked me up at the airport and proudly showed his latest releases on his Intransitive Recordings label (see Vital Weekly 559). Now, exactly one year later, he releases a three new CDs. Nerve Net Noise is a duo of Hiroshi Kumakiri (original synthesizer, Sherman filterbank, sound create) and TAGOMAGO (mix, effects, treatments). Over the years they have released a bunch of interesting, yet never easy, music on labels as Hronir and Intransitive. At times more conceptual based than music based, and it seems that ‘Dark Garden’ might be a bit more musical than conceptual. It sounds very analogue in approach, very dry. Clicky rhythms, deep bass sounds, that sort of thing, and in some pieces indeed inspired by the dance rhythms of techno, but this is hardly music to dance to. Head nod music at it’s best for some of the pieces, but at other times even stranger than nodding your head and a bit unnerving. A bit of very raw Pan Sonic or Goem with whom they share a love of all things analogue. Strong production – very clear, very loud and bass heavy. I think because it’s more musical than much of their previous work, this is their best release so far.
French composer Lionel Marchetti “returns to his favorite subject: the modern musique concrete composer as shaman”, the label informs us. Inspired by ‘Hatali Atseli’, an ancient Greek ritual of the exchange of eyes. Marchetti uses fire, water, wind instruments and percussion along with the voice of Seijiro Murayama, the percussion of ANP. It’s a work that is not like many around in the fields of musique concrete. Usually it’s a strictly composed piece of music from daily sounds and field recording, heavily processed, but Marchetti and Murayama take it into a theatrical field and makes things very visual by using sound only. The crackling of fire, the far away drum sound, the splashes of water and the voice make you feel almost part of the ritual, but you remain an outsider. It’s hard to tell what the ritual is about, but you can watch/listen with full fascination. It’s a work that grows in the listener. It’s brief at thirty-three minutes, but as soon as it was over, I played it again and it started to grow on me further. It’s highly captivating visual music, very much along the lines of Etant Donnes’ ‘Bleu’ CD – and that’s possibly the only thing I can compared it with. A true beauty, fascinating and captivating.
Label boss Howard Stelzer started Intransitive Recordings ten years ago, by releasing his first CD ‘Stone Blind’, and while he has released many more works on a smaller scale (CDRs and cassettes), ‘Bond Inlets’ is his second major work. Stelzer is a man who plays cassettes in all sorts of crazy ways; a bit like a turntablist, but then with cassettes. Speeding them up, slowing them down, placed on metal and other crazy techniques. He’s fun to watch to see him do this sort of thing live (alone or with others as he loves to play improvised music with others). In the earlier days, the work of Stelzer sounded like playing cassettes, in a free form collage like manner, but Stelzer too learned the tricks of the computer, but he doesn’t use this as a tool of transformation. If anything it’s a tool to staple your sounds, which is exactly (and only) what he does. On his tapes he has found sound – residue of the old music – but also his own sounds, field recordings. Inside the computer this is layered quite densely into a heavy piece of music. Stelzer knows and likes his noise, that much seems to be clear, but unlike so many noise makers around, his main effect is not the pure wall of noise, but rather a full wall of sound, with small events happening on all levels. A great work this one that shows a much more mature composer and one that has been constant refining his work over the last decade to cook up this master piece. (FdW)
Address: http://www.intransitiverecordings.com
ORIGAMI BONDEPRAKTIKA & ORIGAMI SUBTROPIKA & ORIGAMI SYNERGIKA –
COLLABORATIVE FAN-CDR (CDr by Cipher Productions)
TADM & TIMISOARA – ‘I AM NOT DYING IN A NIGHTMARE’ (split CDR + 3″CDR by
Cipher Productions)
Collaborative fan-CDR is packed in a plank – two squares of 4 mil ply with 4 bolts and inside a full size CDr – only silvered out to 3inches both bearing the image of an Ouroboros.. (look it up then!) is on a Tasmanian label hosted by those sulky Californian guys at iheartnoise. (So don’t be my friend then Phil!) Obviously part of the Norwegian instigated world wide collective – here Karl Midholm of Swedish Ovum, Jorge Castro of Puerto Rican Cornucopia and The Great Lasse Marhaug. collaborate (obviously) on three tracks of neo-experimentalism – first track someone typing, second improv with cans and rubber bands, third pure sine waves .. &. bit of noise rhythm etc. TADM (a Canadian guy? Who has collaborated with the likes of Incapacitants) harsh noise and Timisoara – (Keiko Morita ) guitar and electronics – a strange mix – the packaging for one- of a full size CDr and a 3inch – both repeatedly fall off their little plastic nipples in the card sleeve. But Timisoara’s drone/industrial that’s nothing like the extreme harshness of TADM, so the question why? Lets ignore for a moment – TADM s contribution on the 3inch is a singularity – though by the CDrs fourth track is beginning to experiment with structure – soon we may see the nazi leader and the schematics for a worm hole machine – its dangerous when the meaninglessness of any noise takes on form, as the Origami’s neo-experimentalism certainly follows its cyclic logos, ‘ I am not dying in a night mare’ still needs refinement into that which is art and experimentalism or to *actually* consume itself and so open a horizon in communication which is the essential dissemination of non-ironic noise- aka the pornography of the cum-shot. (jliat)
Address: www. http://www.iheartnoise.com/cipherproductions/
SEWER ELECTION & TRERIKSRÖSET – KILLING SESSIONS (CD by Troniks & Chondritic Sound )
TRERIKSRÖSET – SEXREGLER (CD by Troniks & Chondritic Sound)
Both are protracted noise works within the first three shifts in dynamics from a rocket-noise & feedback continuum in the second it is as if the sample rate has been reduced to virtual disappearance – but you can these days hear this yourself*, my description is redundant, as is with the aid of discogs.com any historicism – the significance I find here then is that these are two re-releases of pieces originally on cassette in 2004 and 2002 respectively, the latter re-mastered by (The Great) Lasse Marhaug. I will then question the archiving and the move from analogue to increasinglyparticular forms of digitalization – PCM, MP3, MP4, ATRAC RSS feeds etc – and this increasing virtualization to the point of it be un-playable- missing the right codec, disappearing in a matter of microseconds- delete all y/n. Already the cassette is becoming obsolete and the digital archiving (such as above) might be proof of some deep psychological panic about the erasure of history and so ones identity. Perhaps it doesn’t matter as regards noise whose technology unlike the violin is comparatively simple touse, and so repeatable- but that brings into question these releases –
doesn’t it? Isn’t the significance of noise partly its un-importance? The preservation of the Mona Lisa demonstrates the ridiculousness of modernity in putting the painting behind bullet proof glass and having six million people look at it for 15 seconds whereas the perfect device for playing noise would be an analogue tape whose takeup reel is replaced with a shredder? (jliat)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com/
Address: http://www.chondriticsound.com/
PAPER & PLASTIC (2CD by Suitcase)
Although some may find it absolutely unnecessary, a nice package is better than nothing. A handmade packaging can be such drag – the Vital Weekly HQ has some prime samples to show to people. Somebody who is known, at least to some of the older readers that is for creating the most bizarre handmade packages is a man named Abo. His label/band Yeast Culture didn’t release much (a 10″ and Lp by himself, a Kapotte Muziek LP, a Hands To LP and a double 7″ compilation, as far as I can remember), but they all had a great combination of handmade work and silkscreens. But Abo seemed to have disappeared, just as did a small cassette label from Atlanta called Suitcase Recordings. I am talking late 80s, early 90s here. Not a big deal. People come, people go. Loose their interest, their money, their idealism. Perhaps a pity for those who were promised a release, but they might have put it on something else later on. When opening today’s mail, it was like going into a time machine. The box that came out of it, looked like Abo’s work. Sticky tape, small objects, envelopes – a little box of Pandora. It turns out to be the result of a compilation that was supposed to be released a decade (or more?) ago, but despite a launch party in 1998, it was never for sale. Now it’s released in a truly unique box. As easily you can spend the whole time listening and watching the various ingredients of this box – papers, objects, photo’s. The line up reads as a who’s who in experimental and noise music of a decade ago (I do realize some are still active as such): Inzekt, Sudden Infant, Wash Your Brains, Runzelstirn And Gurgelstock (these four represent the Schimpfluch label, who is probably on par with Abo when it came to crazy packaging), Small Cruel Party, Yeast Culture, Agog, Chop Shop, A4 (the man behind the label), Ios Smolders, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Merzbow, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Emil Beaulieu but also more forgotten names as TAC, Native X, z.B.u.a., Appi. Achim Wollscheid provides some of his more crazy conceptual approaches on the CD called ‘Plastic’. Now I come to think of it, a lot of these are still active in experimental music (some less noise oriented), so Suitcase did a good selection. Some of the tape/collage/experiments may be naff and dull, but throughout it was a strong statement. By the end of every year, I always get sentimental, play old music (though not always of the likes of this) and reminiscine about the past. In that respect this box does wonders (limited wonders that is, as there are only seventy of these. A separate edition of 300 will be different, and the remainder of the edition will be in regular jewel cases). (FdW)
Address: http://www.a4suitcase.com
UUSITALO – KARHUNAINEN (CD by Huume Recordings)
Uusitalo is Sasu Ripatti, who is probably better known as Vladislav Delay and Luomo, and ‘Karhunainen’ is my first encounter with the music of the Uusitalo alias. The atmosphere on the album is coherent, except the first short intro track and the last one that sound like ambient music, all the other tracks are rhythmic and more or less upfront with their beats, forming a collage of few electronic dance music styles and creating diverse electro-techno-house atmospheres. With it’s delicate production and execution, this album can be compared with Monolake’s ‘Polygon cities’ or with The Orb’s ‘Okie dokie’. Uusitalo makes the tracks that are layered and also quite often improvises with the rhythms, which is probably not a surprise, because it’s known that Sasu comes into the electronic music from a jazz background and improvisations are some of the main features in jazz music. I think the pieces on this album that are with more shifting rhythms and layers of sounds are more interesting and they make ‘Karhunainen’ to sound as a new direction or a new definition of something that can be called the ambient-techno of today, if The Orb were the ambient-house in the early ’90-ties and later. The atmosphere on the album is dreamy and very suitable for listening at home and it’s obvious that this Finnish producer has created another album that opens to the listener with it’s layered sounds and an album that sounds best when Uusitalo improvises with the rhythmic and sound patterns in a Vladislav Delay way. (BR)
Address: http://www.huumerecordings.com
QUIO – PHIU (CD by Agf Producktion)
‘Phiu’ is the second album for Quio, who is one of the few female MCs in Germany that collaborates and performs with more various artists and sings over different styles of music, like drum’n’bass, garage and dubstep. In this case, on the album ‘Phiu’, she performs with her vocal over the music made by the German electronic music producer Agf. Since Agf is known for her experimental approaches in her own music, it’s expected the hip-hop rhythms on this album to be more chopped than they are in the more common hip-hop or rap music. Knowing that the mastering is by Vladislav Delay and the album is released on Agf’s label Agf Producktion, it’s expected the production to be on a high level. There are many other people that Quio collaborates with in the 12 tracks and they all contribute to the vibe in the music, that is varied from louder to calmer tracks like ‘Mole’, or even a bit spiced up with a distant jazzy mood, as it’s presented in ‘Come closer’. The singing by Quio, to fit the various moods, changes from one track to another and in ‘Better mood’ it even reminds a little bit of Bjork. There’s a specific atmosphere and a mood that are characteristic about this album, and that is a mixture of a kind of chopped out hip-hop beats and various MC performances by Quio, that altogether make this record layered, witty and delicate in it’s execution, as the modern hip-hop music should be. (BR)
Address: http://www.agfproducktion.com
NETHERWORLD – KALL, THE ABYSS WHERE DREAMS FALL (CD by Mondes Elliptiques)
Netherworld is Alessandro Tedeschi and on the album ‘Kall – the abyss where dreams fall’ he shows his interest in cool ambient and drone related kind of music, that slowly and patiently unfolds in the space. The music is presented in four tracks that are called ‘Kall’, from part one to part four. What’s most present in the 14 minutes of the first piece is the pulsating drone atmosphere, that sounds very gentle and is put in the front, while from time to time there are other sounds too that are appearing in the background and are adding a specific and slightly tribal sounding sense to the track. The sense of tribal ambient music is even more present in the second piece, while in the third longer piece of 21 minutes, there are motives similar to those in the first track – slowly unfolding layers of sounds that are coming from the cooler corners of the ambient spectrum, a kind of atmosphere that is present through the whole album. ‘Kall – part 4’ is no exception in the sounds that Netherworld uses in the music on this album. The fourth part is as smooth ambient music as the previous parts, it is the smoothest track, with almost 8 minutes of few slowly shifting layers of a kind of sustained, unusual, calm and sometimes linear sounding and spreading ambient music, a kind of aesthetic and approach to the music that is mostly present on the whole album, that is not a typical ambient aesthetic, but it crossovers the border-lines between the ambient and drone kinds of music. (BR)
Address: http://www.angle-rec.net/mondes
CINEPLEXX – RESTAR (CD by Testing Ground)
My understanding of the spanish language is poor, but I can understand what Cineplexx aka Sebastian Litmanovich likes to say in the first track on this album, that is titled ‘Buenas noches’ and the vocal samples saying ‘buenas noches’ are repeating through the track. That would be ‘good evening’ in english, so Cineplexx welcomes the listener into the intimate atmosphere of the evening when this album should be played, or maybe it is ‘good night’, so then Cineplexx opens a path for the listener to visit the cosy dreams that are following in the next tracks. I say tracks and not songs, because the music on this album sounds as dance music but it’s not at all for the dance floors, it’s only for intimate home listening. There are no vocals, singing or voice samples (except in the first track) and most of the tracks are rhythmic in a very linear way, sometimes as in house music, but as I said, this music is not at all for the clubs. So, the kind of techno inspired rhythms, that sound very gentle and sometimes even a bit fragile, are the basic rhythmic forms of the tracks that are build in various directions, with adding more layers of sounds that are slowly appearing from the background and often they’re forming a specific dreamy ambiental aura around the tracks. Besides Sebastian Litmanovich, who is using various electronics and a sampler, there are few guests with electric guitars, that also sound very dreamy and may put the listener in a state of lucid dreaming. Using musical patterns, motives and approaches from dance-techno music, to make a personal music with it’s own distinctive sensibility (which is not techno at all), it’s something I haven’t heard often and on this album Cineplexx is doing that in a very nice way, making a kind of ‘good night’ music to sleep by. Music that is not connected to any concrete genre or style, but still it has elements of some of them, like ambient, idm or even a special kind of, let’s name it, ‘lucid dreaming techno music’. A fusion of more musical styles or approaches might bring in more diversity in the tracks on the album, but maybe that’s how the next album will sound. (BR)
Address: http://www.testinground.com
QEBO – WROLN (CD by Low Impedance Recordings)
Last night I went out, simply because I like going to places and hear some loud popmusic. Before I did I played this release by Qebo, apparently a long time after his previous release, which I didn’t hear. Qebo hardly plays the sort of popmusic I heard later in the evening, but I had to think of Qebo when being there. Should I play music by Qebo at an equally loud volume (taking the risk of a fight with the neighbors), because maybe I like it better then. Qebo make crazy music, totally over the top fast beats, with lots of glitchy sounds that go along all in a nervous an hectic manner. Seven tracks in total, with a length of some thirty-six minutes. That doesn’t seem much but it left me utterly exhausted (might of course also the hangover from last night) after hearing the CD. There is a lot of information in this disc, which makes it not easy to grasp. I think it’s all a bit too much of hyper nervous going on here. Maybe I am missing a/the point of it, and would it be better to listen on much more volume and even possibly try to move my feet. At home this seems lost. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lowimpendance.net
ZOMBIE BATTLE AXE – … NOW YOU ARE DEAD (CD by Slut Factory Records)
‘The Soundtrack to a fictitious b-movie zombie attack’, is how Zombie Battle Axe (highest entry in the silly name contest, along with the name of their ‘record company’) describe their CD. It comes with hardly any information on the cover, which is something that I hardly understand, but alas such might be the world of Zombie Battle Axe. I am for one hardly a lover of zombie movies and thus hardly ‘in the know’ of their soundtracks, but ask me any day how I imagine it could sound, I may describe something like Zombie Battle Axe. That is, one track of the five, and I wouldn’t state that all five sound alike, since that’s what happens here. Fat organ sound, feeding through some effects (oh reverb, spooky!) and BBC’s sound effect library number 13 to 15 (church bells, doors) in full effect thrown at random through the music. As much (or as less) I can take zombie movies any serious, the music for their fictitious counterparts is as equally non-serious. I had a good laugh about the music, and shouted ‘hurrah for Slut Factory Records’ and forgot all about it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.slutfactoryrecords.com
EVAN BARTHOLOMEW – CAVERNS OF TIME (CD by Somnia)
YUI ONODERA – SUBSTRATE (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Normally I don’t like to lump in releases together, but with these two there are pretty similarities that’s almost natural to tie them together. Both deal with ambient music, with the big A and both were conceived in the world of zeroes and ones: the computer. I have no idea who Evan Bartholomew is, but it seems to me that he is the man behind Somnia (‘music for the spaces in between’), since the first two releases are made by him, in an edition of 777 copies (there is meaning there, I assume) of a nice package – textured, handmade paper, sewn together, that kind of thing. Bartholomew opens with a heavy long spacious piece of what could be vocalized textures of sound. The second and third track are alike, so I began to think this might be for all six tracks and which would have been a bit too much. But with ‘Elusive And Effevescent Is Our Destination’ a simple but effective beat pops in, in what seems to be a piece of hiss like sounds. ‘Descending Deeper In Search Of The Timeless’ opens strong but harks back to the tradition of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, early seventies cosmic music, while ‘Reborn, We Fluctuate And Fade’ cools the place down. Maybe a different order of the pieces would have been better, but throughout it’s a pretty strong release for those who like the forementioned German cosmonauts, Eno and everything Ambient that came after that.
Yui Onodera is a bit better known for he has releases on his own Critical Path label, but also on Drone Records and And/OAR. Here he appears on Mystery Sea, but his telescope is not pointed towards the sea but to the sky, to the various stratospheres above us. In eight pieces Onodera takes us sky high where oxygen doesn’t exist, everything is pitch black and weightless. His compositions are highly ambient in approach too and represent the ‘one stroke of paint’ approach: one sound, set forward with not much change or movement. It lasts a few minutes and then the next track appears. Quite a minimal approach, but seeing all tracks are called ‘Substrate’, its perhaps better to think of this one track in eight parts then eight separate tracks. It’s a work that has no water references, which is kinda odd for this label, but musicwise it fits well among his fellow sailors. If there is one major difference between Onodera and Bartholomew, then it’s the volume: the first is much softer than the latter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
AKKORD I ON – PPP-FFF (CDR by Replica)
Slowly Vital Weekly conquers the world – or rather the world conquers Vital Weekly. Akkord I On are from Almaty, Kazakhstan – the very first time I receive something from that part of the world, of which I know nothing (but I never go the cinema either). The label Replica was launched during a festival of the same name, the very first (again!) in that country. Akkord I On is a duo of Roman Bliznetsov and Konstantin Timoshenko, who released an EP before and now come with ‘ppp-fff’, which classical music phrase for ‘pianissimo-fortissimo’ – very strong silence that is. Timoshenko plays laptop, field recordings and electronics, while Bliznetsov plays accordion (hence the band name), small horns and objects. Just as we recently saw with the release by Zavoloko, this seems to be a new wave of artists merging music from their own country along with microsound, techno or more experimental music. Akkord I On does it mainly with techno like music. Pieces are held together with a 4/4 rhythm, over which they freely (and more experimentally) freak out with their sounds. Not every moment succeeds well, such as ‘Grace’ which is way too long, and muddles in dub effects, but the opening ‘F Birds’ is very nice, with clear field recordings, melancholy on the accordion and a strong beat. Also ‘Shoegazetta’ is quite alright (and the titles shows their humor, ‘L’Amourmansk’ is another fine example). This is release may have needed a bit more editing, but as debut it’s quite alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.replicafest.org
TEN SECOND COMPILATION (CDR by Kif Recordings)
Seventy-one tracks in twenty-five minutes. That is, if I’m not mistaken ten seconds per track. Kif Recordings asked, through internet, people to send in music that lasted ten seconds – one of those internet projects. You can play it, and before you read from the insert band name and track title, the next one is already almost over. Is there a point to all of this, I wonder? I could spend more time thinking about that than actually listening to this and still don’t work out a proper answer. So maybe it’s better to glance the various names and marvel at all the new names, silly names and silly titles and funny music. It’s not all noise that shines here, but it prevails, in all its variations and deviations. Rather than trying to point out the point in all of this, I must admit it’s all much more interesting that one would expect. A pity that some are only very short and one wish to hear more, in some cases ten seconds is still quite long. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/kifrecording
DEAD TREVELLER – NEVER A DULL MOMENT (CDR by Phase!)
For as long as I know Nicolas Malevitsis, and that is a long time, I very rarely see him release any of his own music, but I know he creates some. Here he teams up with Giannis Karabeilas, who gets credit for ‘live video mix’, while Malevitsis plays tapes. It’s a recording from 2005 of a pretty rough nature, both the music and the somewhat crude way of recording it. Sounds battle together in a free manner, fed through all sorts of electronic and have a nice, old fashioned noise feel to it. If one had told me it was the re-issue of a cassette from the mid 80s I would also have believed that. It’s a pretty decent affair this one, which makes it’s title come true. (FdW)
Address: http://www.phaseweb.tk
ZONDERLAND – OIDIPUS: MOTHERFUCKER (CDR, private)
A new band, but with one person who we met before: Orphax’ own Sietse is part of Zonderland, together with one Bart and Michel. There are no credits towards the instruments, but we hear drums, guitars and electronics (Orphax is known to play laptop, but who knows what else he has mastered?), but perhaps it’s all pre-programmed on laptops? Who can tell in the digital age? A two hour session was recorded in a studio in Utrecht which was edited down to this one hour release in three lengthy pieces of music. There is an element of improvisation to be detected in this music – obviously, I should add – which could have perhaps needed a bit further trimming, but I must say hats off for this. Post rock may be well over its height but that should not stop people from creating music like that. Themselves give references to Godspeed, Subarachnoid Space, Tarentel and Arvo Part – who am I to add more names to that list. They took their references very well and play music that is very much alike that. Pieces are built up slowly and over the course of many minutes it grows and grows, like a cascading wave (the Godspeed approach I would call this), but then it breaks down as such as things started only to built new theme upon new theme. Head space music, post space rock, gravel noise or such things like. Dark, of course, but taken with all the right substances (more smoke than alcohol) you could easily be lost in this trip. I think Zonderland holds many promises and are perhaps unprecedented in The Netherlands. They should shop around for a real CD release and start touring: they can be big. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zonderland.org
THELMO CRISTOVAM & FERNANDO S. TORRES (CDR by Dim Records)
Improvised music from South America came to us before from the Thelmo Cristovam, who here teams up with Fernando S. Torres. Together they played two pieces of improvised – or rather ‘real time composition’ as they call it – music using trumpet, c-melody sax, concert flute, piezos, air-duster and processed feedback. In the first piece the wind instruments are pretty dominant and fed to the echo unit, which I must admit didn’t do much for me, so for some parts. But at almost twenty-four minutes I thought it was rather long. The second piece is even longer, twenty-six minutes, but is much better. The wind instruments are played more in onkyo style, but heavily treated through all sorts of effects, which makes this hardly microsound, but makes a fine, densely layered pattern of sound, that occasionally sounds like wind/storm sound. Intense piece that one, and works really well. To release just that would have been a much better idea, rather than being complete, I think. Release your best works, not your complete doodling. Their previous release on Menthe De Chat is also included as MP3s on the same disc, and is an another mix of the same session – speaking about completists! (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/dimrec
MACHINEFABRIEK – MUSIC FOR INTERMITTENT MOVEMENTS (CDR by Machinefabriek)
Perhaps a bit premature, but Machinefabriek will play at the Rotterdam Film Festival, later this month. He has been commissioned to write music for films by John Price. Price’s website describes the films and even offers previews but somehow there is no workable link. From what I can tell he makes silent films, shot on super 8 or 16 mm, and sometimes his describitions are short. On ‘Camp Series 1′ he writes “The first of the camp series was shot during a fathers’ day fishing trip to a remote corner of Newfoundland”. I can sort of think what it looks like, and it sounds to me that he learned a few tricks from Stan Brakhage – but of course I might be entirely wrong. Machinefabriek offers the perfect soundtrack to go with these films, I think. Although working from a different angle as Machinefabriek works with the computer extensively these days, his ‘silent’ music (he has really settled himself for this kind of music after some soul searching in other styles) fits well, but somehow it doesn’t entirely convince me. Maybe it’s the lack of seeing the films? I don’t know, but it seems to me that these five pieces (well, four for film and one interlude) aren’t as worked out as his previous releases. Maybe he worked too fast on them? Or is his workload killing him? It sounds a bit like loose ends tied together that haven’t been really, truly captured as a composition. No doubt the many fans of Machinefabriek will love it, but for me its not his strongest work to date. (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
MATTIN – BROKEN SUBJECT (CDR by Free SS)
JULIEN SKROBEK – LE PALAIS TRANSPARANT (CDR by Free SS)
Two new releases in Mattin’s new ‘Free Software Series’ ‘for the promotion of works realized using free software’ and Mattin himself adds one to the series too. His work is about noise, no doubt about that (even when he ventured into singing/songwriting before) and usually I turn the volume a bit down, but for this new release the volume is better a bit up. In the ten pieces (‘created with PC, PD, Jamin’) Mattin delivers blocks of heavy computer treated sounds, which he cleverly mixes with blocks of silence. Maybe something he picked up some ‘silence is a noise too’ when collaborating with various Japanese musicians, but it works well. The loud bits are loud, but good. I have no idea whether he treats acoustic recordings, or let the software feedback internally with the computer, but the result is a must hear. Mattin actually starts composing with his sounds, rather than let them freely play around to create full ear damage. It’s by far the best solo Mattin release I heard.
‘Audicity under Debian’ is what is said on the cover of the release by one Julien Skrobek. Into ‘Audicity under Debian’ he feeds the sound of guitars and sine waves. Here too there is a clever interplay of sound and silence, although it doesn’t work like a competition as with Mattin. It’s not either very loud or total quietness with Skrobek. The plays loose notes on the guitar, followed by lengthy chunks of silence. As soon as the sound of the guitar sounds, there is also the sine wave hissing and peeping about. The sounds aren’t as loud as with Mattin. Certainly no easy work here going on. There is lots of silence, with very occasional and irregular intervals of sound, which makes this a highly sort of Japanese styled release. Full attention is required for this one, otherwise you might be easily lost. But it’s certainly a very fine work too. Both of these make the series quite interesting. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freesoftwareseries.org
IRIS OLLSCHEWSKI – SOUND-DESTILLATION (3″CDR, private release)
Destillaat is a yearly exhibition of young artists at Extrapool, taking the form of video, installation, painting, printing and in some cases music. To distill the new talent from the various art schools in The Netherlands. One of this years participants was German’s Iris Ollschewski, who asked a whole bunch of people that at one point or another played at Extrapool to send in some sounds from which she would distill a composition that was played on four speakers in a small room. Thirteen people responded positively and Iris composed a six minute piece out of that. It’s hard to believe that it comes from such diverse sources, even when Iris applies collage like methods to create the piece. The various sources flow quite naturally into eachother and form a coherent music composition of little over six minutes, also when ‘reduced’ to a stereo mix. Comes with a nice cover and limited to a few handful copies. Completists for the works of say Roel Meelkop, Harald Sack Ziegler or Machinefabriek should pay notice! (FdW)
Address: http://www.missesfree.com
YOSHIMI! – II AKA THE CHESHIRE RAT (MP3 by Esc Rec)
TOXIC CHICKEN – MAKE MY DAY (MP3 by Esc Rec)
SLO-FI – ‘S LOOT (MP3 by Esc Rec)
Deventer’s (that is in The Netherlands) Esc Rec closes the year, or perhaps starts up with three free MP3 releases, two of which are by artists whom we know from before and a new one. Yoshimi! is one Niek Hilkmann, who is only 18 years old, and who plays the cello (along with other instruments he claims to be qualified for, such as ‘Conga, Guitar, Synth, Bass, Bongo, Tarbuka, Rababa, Harmonium, Trumpet, Accordeon, Euphonium, Drums, Ukulele and some other small things”) , but for his electronic music he turns on the computer. He samples his own playing and makes popmusic out of it. Electronic music with quite some speed, until ‘A Building’, which is a more of a slow piece. The instruments that he claims to play all drop by at one point or another, and make an utter varied work that is quite funny and mature, despite his age. A promising start, and certainly somebody who is going to be picked by more mainstream alternative music.
Quite hot on the heels of ‘Lo Fi’ (see Vital Weekly 593), Toxic Chicken now arrives with ‘Make My Day’, which is hardly a break of styles. Short tracks with the raw and untamed energy of anarchy. A bit electro, a bit punk, still the sort of music to be used while engaged in various activities, like cleaning the house, doing shopping (MP3!) – anything but reading basically. It’s hard to concentrate while this is squirting away from the speakers.
The final MP3 by Esc Rec (for the moment), is by slo-fi, the techno project of one Roel Meelkop, who is another life is known as Roel Meelkop, the serious composer of microsound, silence and such like. But rhythmical always had a strong interest to him. See his involvement with Goem, with Zebra and solo as slo-fi. The project that is probably the easiest to access is also the project that brought him the least fame. He has two old 12″ releases on Audio.NL, one of Antenne Records and some CDR release, and here four tracks that could have been a great 12″. But it hasn’t been. If that is a great pity is not for me to tell: I am not a DJ of any kind, so the medium in which things take shape is always of least interest to me. But I can imagine that this would sound really fine on 12″, when cut right, and that a fine DJ would spin this in front of a dancing crowd. That would in a world of justice, but there is no such world. I think slo-fi makes great dance music, even for those who hardly move their feet, like me. It’s a pity that this side of Meelkop’s career never took off and he is not ranked as important as he is in that area. Shame shame. But now you can take it for free and see what you missed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.escrec.com