ALVA NOTO – XERROX VOL. 2 (CD by Raster Noton) *
ATOM TM – LIEDGUT (CD by Raster Noton)
CHAS SMITH – NAKADAI (CD by Cold Blue Music) *
DANIEL LENTZ – POINT CONCEPTION (CD by Cold Blue Music)
CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS – TRIOS FOR DEEP VOICES (CD by Cold Blue Music)
LARS MYVROLL – THE ISLAND (CD by Safe As Milk Records) *
LUCA MAURI – BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE (CD by Creative Sources Recordings) *
FERRAN FAGES – AI VOLTANT D’UNPARA/LEL (CD by Etude Records) *
FABRIKSAMPLER V2 (Compilation CD by Pharmafabrik)
LARVAE – LOSS LEADER (CD by Ad Noiseam)
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – ALCHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL (CD by Caciocavello)
CUSTODIAN – I (CD by Syzmic Records)
METACONQUEROR – OF STEEL, BONE AND FIRE (CD by Syzmic Records)
JAMES RUSHFORD – VELLUS (CD by Cajid Media)
EUGENE CHADBOURNE – CHADBOURNE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT AND RESCUE SQUAD (CD by Rossbin)
MALE – ALL ARE WELCOME (CD by Other Electricities)
BAJA – AETHER OBELISK (CD by Other Electricities) *
ANNA ZARADNY – MAUVE CYCLES (CD by Musica Genera) *
THE RISK OF BURNS EXIST (CD by Rhiz)
THOMAS BEL – THE BIRDS ARE STILL THE MONARCHS (CD by Annexia) *
F (Compilation CD by Zelphabet)
EVAPORI – REHEARSALS FOR OBJECTS (CD by 1000Füssler) *
APPLEYARD COLLEGE – LOOK AT ME (CD by Cold Current Production)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI – SOUNDPOSTCARDS (CD by Cold Current Production) *
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SPARKLE IN GREY – NEFELODHIS (CD by Cold Current Production)
GRAINS – CRANES (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
AALTO (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE/WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
CHRISTOPH MIGONE – RIMMED RECORD (LP by Squint Fucker Press)
JACOB CHELKOWSKI – BABUSHKA! BABUSHKA!… OOOOH (2CD by Squint Fucker Press)
SIMON BROWN/DYLAN CRICHTON – 99 FINGERS: RECORDINGS 1997-2007 (CD by Squint Fucker Press) *
UNDO – DES TOURNAGES (miniCD by squint Fucker Press) *
RED STARS OVER TOKYO – I NEVER GAVE UP (BECAUSE I NEVER STARTED) (LP by Hot Hair)
KAPOTTE MUZIEK / RICHARD RAMIREZ – MUZIEK-MIX-MEMORY (CDR by Licht-ung) *
MERZBOW – DEAD LEAVES (CD by Licht-ung)
MARINOS KOUTSOMICHALIS – CHROMA (CDR by Echo Music)
GRAPHICAL SOUND – SHAPES (CDR by Synesthesia Recordings) *
U.S.O. PROJECT/SELFISH – INHARMONICITY (DVD by Synesthesia Recordings)
THE WANDERING RHIZOME (CDR by Why Not Ltd)
PM – LIVE ACTIONS – BERLIN (CDR by Why Not Ltd) *
JAMES WHITEHEAD (JLIAT) – STILL LIFE 4-33 (CDR by Jliat) *
UBIK – LOOP FINDING… (CDR by Recycling Records)
ANTN HRKWK – MUTUALLY ASSURED (CDR by Recycling Records) *
PHILIP HALKE – THE TWO EDGES (3″CDR, private) *
PHILIP HALKE – ABOVE THE DIN (3″CDR, private)
FILTHY TURD – DEATH RAY ORGASM / NO SEXUAL HYGIENE (Cassette by Space 07)
FILTHY TURD – THE TURD MASTER (Cassette by Hanson Records)
MUTANT TURD – OOZING EARL OF DENMARK (A6 Booklet)
MEM1 – STATIONARY DRIFT (MP3 by Resting Bell)
ALVA NOTO – XERROX VOL. 2 (CD by Raster Noton)
ATOM TM – LIEDGUT (CD by Raster Noton)
It was never easy to keep up with the work of Atom Heart and Alva Noto, in whatever guises they choose to appear. I like the vast body of work, but only when its easy to access, as I will not actively search for it. This goes for both. Alva Noto’s first volume of Xerrox wasn’t reviewed in Vital Weekly, and apparently the press text takes for granted that we know what it was about. But we read on the Raster-Noton website it is about ‘reproduction of muzak, advertising, soundtracks and entertainment programs’ which Alva Noto samples and plays into music. I remember hearing ‘Vol. 1’ at a friend’s house and thinking ‘well, nice ambient music, hardly Alva Noto like, but also not very engaging. What would Raster-Noton do if somebody would have come with such a demo?’. For the first volume Alva Noto uses sounds from Narita Airport, a hotel in Paris, Forma in London and others, and for the second volume he uses sounds from the USA – the new world. I must admit no matter how much I like Alva Noto and think he’s one of the best composers around, the ‘Xerrox’ series is not for me. Deep ambient sounds, a bit of digital processing on top, it all sounds excellently produced but at the same time it also stays a bit flat – a bit like, indeed, muzak itself. You can stick this on, play it, even enjoy it, but then in the end it just didn’t stick around very well. Perhaps that’s the whole idea of it, its hard to tell. Nice enough, but it could have been so much more I think.
The package is missing from the promo here, so its a bit sketchy, the release by Atom TM. It started as a search for his own roots, and he found himself in the Austro-German time, finding inspiration in Nietzsche, Helmholtz and Franz Schubert – between science and irrationality. As basis of the music lies ‘white noise’, which Atom TM processes into music. Feeding through a vocoder, along with his voice, makes this a very odd album, but also very enjoyable. An analogue album, but also a very digital one. Slow modulations, spoken word which is hard to understand and sometimes its broken up into small rhythmic blocks of sound, but yet it never forms a real (say techno) like rhythm. The biggest surprise of the album is the hidden track, a spoken word piece by Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider (who said he was a recloose?) which serves as an epilogue at the end. Quite a strange album, but nevertheless a great one. One that won’t disappoint the fans of Atom TM and will perhaps drag some Kraftwerk fans into it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.raster-noton.net
CHAS SMITH – NAKADAI (CD by Cold Blue Music)
DANIEL LENTZ – POINT CONCEPTION (CD by Cold Blue Music)
CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS – TRIOS FOR DEEP VOICES (CD by Cold Blue Music)
From the gentle west coast minimal music scene
comes the outstanding label Cold Blue, of whom we reviewed many CDs before. They have been around for many years, starting out with vinyl. My first encounter, if I recall well, was the Chas Smith album ‘Nakadai’, which is now re-issued. I must admit I haven’t heard the LP for some years now, but playing this CD version, I am still amazed by its beauty. Smith plays here pedal steel guitar, solo and multitracked in in the first two and last two pieces and with a small ensemble on the two pieces in the middle. The first piece is a multitracked one and it works so beautiful with the overtones created on steel guitar, but when played solo Smith creates an equal finely pattern of overtones. When vibraphone, marimba, hammered dulcimer, bowed rods, microtonal chimes and small metal objects are added, things get a slightly more metallic sound to it, but it maintains a strong warmth in it. Drone like music, organic, and simply gorgeous music. Two ‘bonus’ pieces are added, the dark and spooky ‘Ghosts On The Window’, an entirely new piece from 2008 and from 1991 ‘Joaquin Murphey’ for solo steel guitar. This is a great and most welcome re-issue.
Back then I didn’t hear Daniel Lentz’s ‘Point Conception’. Well, at least I think so. The title piece is for nine piano’s, played by Arlene Dunlap and no doubt not all at once, this is the sort of pleasant minimal music that Cold Blue is so famous for. They are overdubbed and use octaves in a harmonic and melodic way. Things seem to jump over eachother and have minimal changes throughout. Sometimes it seems to slow down and then speeds up again. It keeps on playing this game with speed and makes it quite in a whirlwind release. As a bonus we get here ‘Nightbreaker’ a piece from 1990, for four pianos. This piece is less based on the principles of minimal music, but finds it roots in late 19th century-early 20th century classical music, the romantic area. Nice, but I’m afraid a bit lost on me.
The new release is by Christopher Roberts and contains five trios for double basses. Its a ‘musical evocation of the sounds and life of Roberts experienced in the jungles of the Star Mountains region of Papua New Guinea, where he lived in the early 1980s. This is perhaps the most modern classical release of the three releases here and perhaps also the one that causes me some difficulty to review, simply because I lack the experience and knowledge to review music like this. It seems that the pieces flow in eachother, like the two slow pieces ‘Around The Hearth’ and ‘Kon Burunemo’, making these contemplative pieces, whereas in the other pieces things are more uptempo. As much as some of the popmusic that lands here is unVital, this is also unVital music too, but from an entirely different perspective. I quite enjoy this, but its hard to tell why. (FdW)
Address: http://www.coldbluemusic.com
LARS MYVROLL – THE ISLAND (CD by Safe As Milk Records)
LUCA MAURI – BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
FERRAN FAGES – AI VOLTANT D’UNPARA/LEL (CD by Etude Records)
A trilogy in which the guitar plays the all important role. Things have been quiet for Safe As Milk Records for a while, but they are revived now with the release of this ‘un-pretentious concept album’ by one Lars Myrvoll. he was a member of rock trio Fatuhiva and ‘improvised anti-music’ in Brotthast Pany, but played also improvised music with people like Rafael Toral, David Stackenäs, Axel Dörner and a whole bunch of others. The concept of the album, un-pretentious or not, lies in the fact that all the pieces were recorded in his bedroom between 2002-2008, so perhaps the ‘concept’ lies a bit in the some what crude recording technique of his otherwise nicely played instrumentals on the guitar. Short, sweet melodies, a bit blues like, touched by experimentalism and pop like tunes. Quite nice. But also without too much variation. Twelve tracks at thirty-seven or so minutes isn’t that long, but it doesn’t have that much variation in them. One could wish for more tracks like ‘The Gleaming Water (Monaca)’ with a vague shimmering violin and horn section, that has a nice tropical feel to it. Sun and surf. It moves away from just a guitar piece and that is something that the majority of the pieces are made of. More that, less of just one type of playing. Keep up with the great booklet though.
More on solo guitar is one Luca Mauri, who plays ‘guitar, ride, snare, crash, editing’, which means he plays guitar and drums. Oh, and I think one of those loops devices, which makes every men an orchestra. Luca played drums in Kokoro Mayikibo, and bass/guitar/drums in a duo called Two Dead Bodies, ‘devoted to tribal/noise improvisations’, as well as various improvisational gigs. I must say his CD isn’t great. ‘Choke’ is all about distorted guitars but adds nothing to the idiom of guitar noise. ‘All That Remains’ is an ambient epilogue. ‘A Quiet Storm’ has just too much looped guitars, which perhaps can also be said of ‘Decline Of A Beautiful Face’. ‘Pulse/Loop’ explains itself. Its not all bad, but it sounds too much like other things that have been better. This could have been a nice CDR somewhere, but need not be on CD per se.
The final hero of the six strings is Spanish Ferran Fages, who plays electric guitar and nothing else. It is also the one that is furthest moved from the other two. Where Myrvoll tends to play (pop-)music, goes Mauri a bit more towards improvised music, but Fages goes all the way. I’m not that saying that it is because of that, that this is good, but his solo guitar (no effects, just amplification) has a great solitude character to it, a feel of isolation, desolation perhaps. He succeeds where Mauri fails: there is audible tension in the music – this marks the difference between good improvisation and ‘doing some music’ I think. If you like Loren Connors, then this Fages CD is right up that alley. Hauntingly beautiful. (FdW)
Address: http://www.safe-as-milk.org
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
Address: http://www.etuderecords.com
FABRIKSAMPLER V2 (Compilation CD by Pharmafabrik)
Listening to this compilation is like drifting through a dream. Pharmafabrik is a Slovenian label that has been on the stage for almost 15 years. Despite its long existence the label has only a limited back catalogue of releases behind, but on the contrary there is a number of interesting releases covering various styles of electronic music. The same can be said about the first sampler from the label that was released in 2006, covering a wide specter of styles from noise across trip hop to IDM. As the 19th release from Pharmafabrik now comes the second sampler titled “Fabriksampler V2”. Opposite the first sampler that had a great span of electronic styles, this second compilation has a strong focus on ambient expression or subtle downbeat at the most. As written in the opening of this text, there is a dreamlike quality hidden in this 53 minutes long journey. One thing is the way the each of the eleven tracks has been interwoven into its neighbor tracks. Another thing is the choice of expression from the included artists. The list of contributors counts big shots such as Lull aka Mick Harris (ex-Napalm Death / Defecation etc.), Final aka Justin Broadrick (ex-Godflesh) but also more unknown, never the less very interesting acts counting Swedish artist Henrik Nordvargr Björk and Slovenian artist Pureh, that took part in the sampler “Elektrotehnika Slavenika” released by The Wire Magazine. There are many great moments on this lengthy journey of ambience. Climaxes occurs with the appearance of Pureh and his guitarbased ambient-track of dark and beautiful soundscapes spiced by ghouls and strange voices titled “Kogel” and with the otherworldly weird work “Mu” from the artist Go Tsushima built on subtle rhythm textures and spacey sounds bouncing in and out. Other great moments comes with the deep space from The Cherry Blues Project including buzzing hypnodrones and industrial noises crackling from behind together with abstract sub-rhythms. One of the most noisy moments is presented by Dodecahedragraph, with an alluring piece of buzzing noises accompanied by long sheets of lush melodic soundscapes – beautiful. A very impressive sampler of experimental ambient from Pharmafabrik. Highly recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.pharmafabrik.com
LARVAE – LOSS LEADER (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Larvae are the alias of Matt Jeanes. Since the beginning in 2000, Larvae has had quite a few releases on German label Ad Noiseam + a few on Sub:Marine and Creative Space Records. Present album is the third full-length issue from Larvae. Where the last full-length from Larvae, “Dead weight” (Ad Noiseam, 2006) included some quite upfront moments of breakbeats and grime + had some vocal elements, this present album titled “Loss leader” is a pure instrumental work with warmer and more melancholic expressions. But once again Larvae emphasize his ability of controlling various genres of music, with an album that roughly could be described as a crossover between post-rock and IDM. The main part of the album remains downbeat and introvert with the expression based on acoustic music instruments stylishly connected to the post rock-scene. In some moments the music floats in melancholic post rock-spheres of weeping guitars and slow-rhythm drumming and in other moments the guitar work turns noisier with drones of guitar-riffs creating a dramatic change in atmosphere. With the changes between repetitive guitar work creating a gently hypnotic atmosphere and the harsh moments of noise rock, there are associations towards Scottish post-rock quintet in Mogwai. Other parts of the album circulate in pure electronic sound spheres with elements of a nocturnal IDM-based electronica. A pleasant album that will satisfy a wide span of listeners!
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – ALCHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL (CD by Caciocavello)
The phrase “Legendary” in their name must be understood literally after all these years. In almost three decades the Dutch/British project Legendary Pink Dots has been exploring sound worlds of both acoustic and digital background. As the name of the band suggests, the expression of the band is quite unique and almost as far from mainstream style as possible. With a back catalogue of 40+ albums the band has come across a great number of stylish expressions from neo-psychedelia to electronic avantgarde. Present album was originally released on the sub-label of Soleilmoon Recordings, Caciocavallo in a limited edition of 400 editions packaged in a cloth bag inside a soap stone box with trident symbol etched into the stone. As it was sold out in only a few weeks, the label has now re-issued the album in softpack edition. An important source to the album is field recordings from India. The authentic sounds of the great country has been derived and integrated in the psychedelic spheres of Legendary Pink Dots. There is a great dreamlike atmosphere on the album titled “Alchemical playschool” and compared to other recordings of the Pink Dots, the album sticks to a ritual atmosphere built on a mixture between eastern music instruments and electronic ambience. Divided into four intersections each tracks develops into a great number of expressions with the mixture of field recordings and acoustic as well as electronic equipment always with respect to the sounds of Indian culture. A few moments recalls the early days of Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma-days thanks to the organ-like sound that penetrates. The use of Indian instruments such as tables and sitars adds to the psychedelic input on the album, meanwhile the use of found sounds of street life, ringing telephones and falling rain adds some interesting sounds to the wide specter of noises on the album. Despite the domination of instrumental moments on the album, the album also includes some spoken word from Edward Ka-Spel. In its heavy utility of eastern sounds “Chemical playschool” is both an unusual and outstanding work from the Pink Dots. If you get the chance, go see them live! (NM)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
CUSTODIAN – I (CD by Syzmic Records)
METACONQUEROR – OF STEEL, BONE AND FIRE (CD by Syzmic Records)
Syzmic Records is a brand new Wisconsin based US-label that focuses on music of the dark side counting harsh noise, power electronics, industrial and dark ambient. The very first album of label comes from a composer calling himself Custodian. Judged by the title “I” present album is the first album and it would be unfair to accuse it for being expressionally modest: Less than thirty of full throttle noise divided into eight smaller chunks of sonic brutality. Not extremely innovating, on the contrary this is an album to be remembered for its lack of sonic mercy. Second album from the label is by an artists calling himself Metaconqueror. Compared to the aforementioned full throttle aggression, the album titled “Of steel, Bone and Fire” is an album that more points towards the ambient-scene. With ten pieces of sheer darkness and no happy tones the album lies somewhere between dark ambient and power electronics thanks to some quite abrasive interventions once in a while. Like the distorted growling voice on the work “Beasts of oblivion”. Peak on the album comes with the atmospheric and quite melodic piece titled “Barrier of the gods”. A quite beautiful moment on an album that first of calls for the darkness of electronic sound. (NM)
Address: http://www.syzmicrecords.com
JAMES RUSHFORD – VELLUS (CD by Cajid Media)
This one brings us to Australia. Cajid media is a small label dedicated to experimental music and sound art by Australian artists and musicians, like Thembi Soddell, Lawrence English, Natasha Anderson, a.o. This ninth release presents work by James Rushford, a young Melbourne-based composer and performer, interested in a diverse range of contemporary music. ‘Vellus’ brings together six compositions. It is hard to imagine that these works are composed by a 23-year old person. Rushford is in most compositions also one of the performers, mostly playing electronics. The unconventional combinations of instruments is what strikes me first. The CD opens with ‘Lucas Stumbles’, a work in three parts, for speak-percussion and electronics. The first two parts are very calm. In the third part however we witness an explosion of percussive sounds. This play with dynamics is one the characteristics of his style. In ‘La Madre’ we hear the voices of two sopranos, plus cello and electronics. This piece satisfied me most of all, because of the expressive vocal work by Deborah Kayser and Jessica Aszodi. ‘Tractus’ is written for a diversity of string instruments plus tam-tam. It is a very dynamic work, played with verve by the musicians. Clarinet and electronics do an interesting noisy research on sound and textures in ‘Holdmegentlytightly’. In ‘Respite in the Woodland’ clarinets and chamber organ are combined. The CD closes with ‘Borders’ a work for solo double bass. Rushford proves himself a very disciplined composer. He is both not afraid of silence and noise. In each composition he works with a limited set of sounds and musical ideas. This way he creates interesting works that didn’t bore me one moment. Although this is modern composed music, there is a certain roughness and power in the music that make it very charming. So all in all a satisfying debut from Rushford, a composer with considerable potential. (DM)
Address: http://cajid.com
EUGENE CHADBOURNE – CHADBOURNE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT AND RESCUE SQUAD (CD by Rossbin)
Since Chadbourne made his first appearances on the Parachute label, run by him and Zorn, Chadbourne has released many, many records on a great diversity of recordlabels. Now it is the turn for Rossbin to release one. This label has a very mixed catalogue with releases by Scott Fields Ensemble, Mike Cooper, Hafler Trio, Alessandro Bosetti, a.o. I must admit that is a long time ago since I last listened to mister Chadbourne. I keep good memories to the Shockablliy-concert somewhere in the mid-80s, which was my first encounter with his genius. Later I often saw him on stage with Jon Rose and others. But in the last few years, he disappeared out of my sight. So it is nice to have a new CD here by him. The CD contains recordings made between 2002 and 2006. They have in common that all of them are country and protest songs. Some of them composed by Chadbourne himself, others by Merle Haggard, Nick Drake, a.o. Some are solo banjo-tunes, like the great opening track ‘Shape of Things’. It has all the characteristics of how Chadbourne treats, interprets songs. Sometimes speeding up, sometimes drifting way from the song through moments of very free improvisation, but always returning to the melody of the song. Other pieces are in duo-, trio- or quartet-format. For a few tracks Chadbourne is assisted by ex-Violent Femmes musicians Brian Ritchie and Victor de Lorenzo. In another track Frank Pahl (Only a Mother, etc.) is participating, playing a pump organ in the background. With the harmonica of Walter Daniels, and pianoplaying by Earl Poole Ball, Chadbourne plays a nice blues in ‘One More Road to Cross’. Together with some other line ups in other tracks, this makes a nice mixed bag.
‘Sestina for Religion’ is the exception on this CD. Chadbourne plays with turntables and speaks of his anti-religious feelings. Most songs on this CD however are very loosely played country- and protest songs. The low-fi recording fits well with the atmosphere of these songs. Some of them recorded live, others in the studio. It is nice to hear that Chadbourne still continues on his path. But if you already walked along this path for a while this CD will not offer many surprises. (DM)
Address: http://www.rossbin.com
MALE – ALL ARE WELCOME (CD by Other Electricities)
BAJA – AETHER OBELISK (CD by Other Electricities)
Two quite different releases here on Other Electricities. From the a rock and improvisation end comes Male, a duo of Jonathan Krohn (keyboards) and Ben Mjolsness (guitar), who have been together for five years. In their hometown Chicago they met a lot of musicians, from rock to improvisation an they were asked to do a recording session with them. If I understood well, Krohn and Mjolsness first laid down the first tracks and then each musician added his (no girls as far as I can see among their friends) part to the whole, one by one, without hearing what the others did. Quite a nice idea. In the post production stage only ‘incidentals’ were cut out. Their friends included Steven Hess (percussion), Mike Reed (percussion), Josh Berman (cornet), Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), Todd Mattei (guitar) and Nick Butcher on tape. Four pieces on this thirty minute CD of which the opening ‘Wrangler For Higher’ is a bit of a messy rock song, but ‘I’ll Be Standing Soon’ is quite a nice drone like piece with nicely shifting percussive sounds and the core piece of the CD. ‘Dark Advances’ is short and seems to be guitars only, more like a bridge to ‘Used To be Guy’, in which the tapes by Butcher are used from outside, the street sounds and more shimmering percussion sounds. Quite a nice CD, fine concept and worked out in a great way. Maybe a bit short?
A year ago, in Vital Weekly 611, we reviewed ‘Wolfhour’, third album by Daniel Vujanic, and now its time for the fourth ‘Aether Obelisk’ and it doesn’t much change the routine of before. Its still that crazy odd mixture of jazz, pop, rock and free improvisation, all thrown into a sampler, with bits of real instruments on top, organ, drums, guitar and voices. The real surprise of last year has worn out here I must admit, but it still works very neatly. Still funny, still feel good music, still packed with lots of crazy witty sounds. A particular strong voice of his own here. Very nice again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.other-electricities.com
ANNA ZARADNY – MAUVE CYCLES (CD by Musica Genera)
In Poland women play a marginal role in experimental music, Musica Genera tells us. I never heard of Anna Zaradny, who was in 1977 already on a compilation called ‘Women In Electronic Music’. She played with Burkhard Stangl, Cor Fuhler, Zbigniew Karkowski, but also composed music for theatres, sound installations and collaboration with visual artists. Yet she never made her own CD, which ‘Mauve Cycles’ now is. Her first solo CD. And I must say: what a great CD! Two pieces, ‘Mauve 1’ and ‘Mauve 2’, which are pieces of electronic music. Drone based, but loud, deep, and never noisy. Towards the end of ‘Mauve 1’ the material starts to modulate and vibrate, in a Pan Sonic/ø like manner. Think Eliane Radigue but then just a little bit louder and more forcefully present and with more rhythm aspects to it. Highly minimal but with those slight variations at all the right moments that make this a damn fine release. I am not sure how the music was generated, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if this was made on a bunch of analogue synthesizers (but I might be wrong). I was blown away, literary, but this one. Great, massive work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.musicagenera.net
THE RISK OF BURNS EXIST (CD by Rhiz)
To celebrate ten years of the Viennese venue and bar Rhiz, the label of the same name released a very nice small box, which holds print work, pictures, a badge, a booklet and a small plastic bag. Inside the booklet you see with every track also such a bag, filled with something and dated on the day the concert was of which they used a track. Very cute. Musicwise there are some interesting things to be noted. I have no idea how big Rhiz is, but there is some interest in rock oriented music from Blurt, Volcano The Bear or Bulbul & Maja Osojnik, where we would have expected only the presence of laptop boys as Pita, Fennesz, Bernhard Fleischmann or Sluta Leta. They may form the majority on this compilation, the ‘others’ form the interesting counterpart of these. It makes this a pretty varied compilation of live pieces, from the jazz of Blurt to the techno of Wipeout, the singer songwriting of Gustav or Bruckmayr and and the laidback electronics of Schlammpeitziger. A nice souvenir. (FdW)
Address: http://rhiz.org
THOMAS BEL – THE BIRDS ARE STILL THE MONARCHS (CD by Annexia)
Every day, almost, a new name can be added to the musical history. Here is one Thomas Bel from Toulouse, France, who uses purely acoustic sources such as guitar, cello, field recordings and digital ones, like ‘processing, drones, ‘clics”, along some vocal recitation of poetry. Perhaps its only the latter that sets him somewhat, but not completely apart from the usual world of microsound, ambient glitch and processed field recordings. I am not sure, but somehow I don’t think these voices are there to be fully understood, but they merely add an extra layer to the sound. In his sound, I must admit, I didn’t hear much news. Everything you know from these musical areas are repacked here, and Bel does a fine job for sure, in producing these nine pieces and it surely makes a nice spin, but, apart from sounding like so many other things, its also a bit flat. None of the pieces leap out, nor is the voice used to an extent that it could be a difference from the others, so I’d say: go on, but try and find more a voice – literary – of his own in this crowded world. (FdW)
Address: http://www.annexia-net.com
F (Compilation CD by Zelphabet)
Zelphabet is an L.A.-based label that focuses on noise music. Over the next four to five years, the label will release a series of 26 noise CD compilations, which is exactly the number of letters in the English alphabet. Thus there will a compilation for every letter in the alphabet. Up until now there has been contributions from legends such as Achim Wollscheid, Arcane Device, Asmus Tietchens, Daniel Menche, Dave Phillips and Charlemagne Palestine etc. + a number of lesser known artists. On issue #6 in the series we have come to the letter F and the installment features contributions from Failing Lights, Fin, Francisco Lopez and Frans De Waard. The compilation opens with the two lesser known acts, first the artist Failing Lights and his 20 minutes work “The submarine twilight” of guitar-based ambient/noise followed by the collaged noise work “Works for magnetic tape” from Fin. After these two comes two well-known of the sound art/noise-scene: First Francisco Lopez and his untitled work #210, a work that draws associations back to the field recordings milestone “La Selva” (V2, 1998). The work is based on animals as sound sources, where the barking of dogs is an important part. Final and most interesting piece comes from Frans De Waard and just like the contribution from Lopez, the work from Frans De Waard is built on recordings of concrete sounds, first of all from the public space i.e. human crowds and distant industrial sound drones. As the piece develops the collage of found sounds slowly transforms into an abstract soup of thick drones of abrasive noise. Thus an interesting noise compilation and a very interesting conceptual idea from the Zelphabet label. (NM)
Address: http://www.zelphabet.com
EVAPORI – REHEARSALS FOR OBJECTS (CD by 1000Füssler)
Oliver Peters, the man behind the AIC label and the musical project Evapori, likes his sounds to be free of computer plug ins. Take an object, place a microphone and record the object. The placing of the microphone is essential as it alters the sound. Take a whole bunch of objects, record them and then make a CD out of these recordings. The computer is merely a recording device, where, in good musique concrete tradition, cuts can be made, stereo adjustment and balancing the various sounds. That is most commendable, I think, as most computer plug ins do tend to sound too similar. What Peters does here, is not done a lot. Using natural space to create reverb, he carefully touches his objects and makes a very intense sound collage out of it. One that requires full attention. At times I was reminded of the live sound of Kapotte Muziek, but then multi-layered and with more concentration – but then of course the computer here can cut out all the unwanted sounds, which live is more difficult. By adding machine hum towards the end of ‘Rehearsal 1’, he manages to sound like drone music too. I think this is a great CD, but there is one thing I don’t understand: why call this rehearsals? Rehearsal for what? It gives the impression that this is unfinished business, unless Peters wants us to cut further in this material, but somehow I don’t think that this the case here. Why not go full on and state that these are ‘compositions’? (FdW)
Address: http://www.1000fussler.com
APPLEYARD COLLEGE – LOOK AT ME (CD by Cold Current Production)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI – SOUNDPOSTCARDS (CD by Cold Current Production)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SPARKLE IN GREY – NEFELODHIS (CD by Cold Current Production)
GRAINS – CRANES (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
AALTO (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE/WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW (CDR by Centre Of Wood)
A small trick is to split up your label in various sub-divisions and then send three releases of each label, and think you can get away. Well, no, to me its just six releases, even its three CDs on Cold Current Production and three CDRs on Centre Of Wood.. Also I think in this bunch some are much older than six months, like the release by Appleyard College. He’s inspired by men with beards and guitars, by Nick Drake, Neil Young, A Silver Mountain Zion, Current 93, and throws in a bit of experimental sounds to make it a bit more interesting (to me?), but its the songs that count here and to which Luigi Porto has devoted his hearth to. Its nice songs, melancholiac popmusic, but far away from the Vital world.
Much more interesting, at least to me, is the release by Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi. The two have been producing music together since 2004, but their individual histories in music go back quite some time. ‘Soundpostcards’ was already released in two parts in 2004 as mp3s but are here together, reworked and with a bonus tracks. Guitars play an important role in this music, playing melancholiac tunes and ambient tapestries, nice, safe drone music. Ambient with the big A. Sweet music that needs a lot of time to tell its story. I must admit, I thought it was all bit much. After a while I thought it was enough. An hour is very long. But perhaps this is more nighttime music and not bright sunlight covered sunday afternoon music.
Back in Vital Weekly 604 we reviewed ‘Erimos’, an album of collaborative effort by Maurizio Bianchi, Hue and Fhievel. The latter also goes by the name Sparkle In Grey and as such this album is the sister (brother?) album of ‘Erimos’ – with strong similarities in design (I mistook it for ‘Erimos’ at first glance). ‘Erimos’ means ‘desert’ in Greek, ‘Nefelodhis’ means ‘cloudiness’ in Greek. Like before, too (!), the cover says ‘inspiration and concept by MB’, but here all tracks by MB/Maurizio Bianchi and Sparkle In Grey. Its unclear what they use, soundwise, but I believe to hear various string instruments, such as guitar and violins, sometimes covered with the dust of sound effects. Like the previous ‘Erimos’ this is a work of ambient music, but less electronic based and more organic flowing from instruments. Unlike the Becuzzi/Orsi release, this is less refined and a bit more rough in a strange way. Not as clean ambient drones as the other one, but more improvised within the ambient field, and that makes it for me it the best CD out of three.
On CDR, on the subdivision Centre Of Wood, comes Grains. I have no idea who or what Grains is, but there are thirteen tracks on ‘Cranes’, played by Rob Williams, on ‘vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion, nintendo DS, wahooji, cigarette lighter, smoking’ and last almost eighty minutes. On end this doodling last. Williams strums his guitar per track way too long, without much sense of direction. I think, perhaps, you could each track in half, and leave half the tracks, of and you’d still have a pretty good idea of what this is all about. Not for me, this one.
Aalto is a band from Finland, although they do not sound like nordic musicians (whatever that may mean). They seem to draw their inspiration from ethnic music, played on ethnic instruments, like sitar, didgeridoo, tabla’s but also clarinet, banjo, acoustic guitar and female voice. It sounds very folky, very ethnic, very nice and all very unVital like to me. I had solid pleasure in hearing this curious mixture of instruments which don’t seem to match up, but played on the Global Village square of course it does.
The final release is a split release by Family Battle Snake, also known as Bill Kouligas, and We Wait For The Snow. Kouligas has played with a lot of people, from Ashtray Navigations to Sudden Infant, worked solo as Beyond Repair, Blackest Rainbow and shared stages with the best: Faust, Carlos Giffoni, Wolf Eyes, Black Dice, Prurient, Corsano and Psychic TV. Here he has two piece for ‘solo strings and tape loops’, inspired by the Gunter Brus video “Impudenz Im Grunewald”. Apparently Kouligas started Family Battle Snake as pure harsh noise project, yet these two pieces show something else. A love of louder, meaner drone music is what comes to mind, shrieking, chilling. Think Paul Panhuysen or Ellen Fullman without the refinement, but with some anger and aggression. Nice pieces of not so subtle music. Behind We Wait For The Snow is Andrea Penso, head of these labels, and he is inspired by ‘Walden’, the famous book of David Thoreau’s ideal world. He gets credit for ‘all instruments/field recording’. Here too drones are play, but they are of a more conventional nature, but quite good. Not as chilling as Family Battle Snake, but deeper and more atmospheric. Now that after a day of hearing all of this (written in order of playing actually), the sun is down and soon it will be dark with this being the perfect soundtrack to end such a day of much mood music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.centreofwood.com
CHRISTOPH MIGONE – RIMMED RECORD (LP by Squint Fucker Press)
JACOB CHELKOWSKI – BABUSHKA! BABUSHKA!… OOOOH (2CD by Squint Fucker Press)
SIMON BROWN/DYLAN CRICHTON – 99 FINGERS: RECORDINGS 1997-2007
UNDO – DES TOURNAGES (miniCD by squint Fucker Press)
A is for Art here (not ambient). The sticker on the package said ‘1 vinyl, 3 CDs’, but was super light. Not strange if the ‘Rimmed Record’ by Christoph Migone is ‘physically reduced to just the outer rim […] playable at your own risk’, which looks great, along with a silkscreened recycled (?) record cover. If ever you are invited to a party where you asked to bring a record, take this one. Everybody will be jealous and you’ll be able to talk normally instead of shout. As I said A is for Art.
There for its also hard to judge the Chelkowski release, since I got the cheapo promo version and not the ‘multiples, beet seeds and rosemary… all housed in hand made wooden box’, in an edition of 25. Otherwise no information – go figure. I never heard of Chelkowski and is that box still available, and if not why would I bother? Its dedicated to one Sergei Parajanov and contains mostly pieces of sampled ethnic music, mixed with ethnic records. The second CD has a fifty minute piece called ‘Franck And The Sun’ and seems more a documentary or radio play. This A is for Art is too obscure for me. I don’t consider myself an art critique and therefore discharge me of the job at hand.
Less arty, unless you count the rather cryptic liner notes, is the CD by one Simon Brown and Dylan Crichton (there is a small card in the package that says ‘In Memorium Dylan Crichton 1978-2008), who offer no less than 99 tracks, although I don’t see the word ‘random’ mentioned. The press text makes hardly any sense – maybe the art is in there – and so do the 99 tracks, which are apparently recorded over a decade. Short pieces, of around one minute plus, of electronic music, some singing, answer phone machines, weirdness. Outsider anyone? Maybe the dictionary of disrupt minds? You never know with these things I guess. There are nice pieces in here for sure, but the shortlived character makes it very hard to focus on just that one – The Residents ‘Commercial Album’ should be a text book for people like these.
The most interesting one, musically, while still having the right looks (microphone scratched the surface of the jewel case), is a ‘fan CD’ (mini CD in a transparent bigger one) by Undo, the ongoing duo collaboration of Christof Migone and Alexandre St-Onge, who recorded this work already in 2002. The text is also not very clear about this, as it skips between english and french in one line, without, I think the translation, but the actual music is very nice. A bit microsound, picked up whatever kind of microphone scratching the surface. Rotating crackling sound of sources unknown, like long wave sounds, star dust or sandpaper upon a turntable. A strange piece, but one I like very much. The obscure character of the sounds, which seem to turning and turning with irregular cracklings on top and some vague low micro sounds at the moment, the dynamics of the mix, makes this a great piece. (FdW)
Address: http://www.squintfuckerpressdotcom.com
RED STARS OVER TOKYO – I NEVER GAVE UP (BECAUSE I NEVER STARTED) (LP by Hot Hair)
“Probably this is not expr/improv/weird/drone enough for the vital list”, the label writes me, but I don’t think we are exclusively about those things. Read more closely. Red Stars Over Tokyo are perhaps from Belgium, find their inspiration in early 4AD, Factory Records and Himalaya Records (if anyone is old enough to remember that?) or even Brian Eno. Red Stars Over Tokyo is a band (?) armed with a bunch of synthesizers, a rhythm machine, some sound effects. ‘Sonic watercolors’ is what they call it, and indeed that’s very nicely put for the nineteen tracks here, in somewhere thirty-six minutes. Short, sketch like synthesizer doodling, piano riffs (which reminded me a bit of some of Les Disques Du Crepuscule artists), but then also a banging rhythm machine, which doesn’t sound very good and also out of place. I believe only track has vocals on it – those typical minimal synth vocals we know from the 80s. This is a nice record, and certainly experimental enough to pass the test. I don’t think the true cosmic music lovers would dig this very much: the pieces are too short and too ‘strange’ to fill their cosmic heads (hats?). As said more Les Disques Du Crepuscule than early 4AD or Factory I think, but hey, that’s not bad either. A pity my copy is quite scratched on one side though, when it is played ‘quietly at night’, as suggested on the cover. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/RedStarsOverTokyo
KAPOTTE MUZIEK / RICHARD RAMIREZ – MUZIEK-MIX-MEMORY (CDR by Licht-ung)
MERZBOW – DEAD LEAVES (CD by Licht-ung)
Lichtung is a German label specializing in what they describe as “Punk kein rock”. Browsing through their back catalogue you realize that the focus of the label is noise oriented music with releases from heavy weights like Merzbow, AUBE, Kapotte Muziek, Zbigniew Karkowski etc etc. Latest albums from the label includes the first two mentioned artists. First album is titled “Muziek-Mix-Memory” and is a “versus”-album between Kapotte Muziek and Richard Ramirez. First track is the legendary trio of Kapotte Muziek, Frans De Waard, Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop manupulating the source materials of composer Richard Ramirez. The intense work opens fairly quiet with crackling sounds and field recordings of water. Bursts of noises attack the relative quietness of the opening, but as the track develops the noise washes in and after twelve minutes the work transforms into hordes of harsh noise until the final moments where the tracks dwells back into peace. Second track is Richard Ramirez’ take on Kapotte Muziek. In contrary to the radical change in expression of Kapotte Muziek’s contribution, Radical Ramirez constantly keeps the mass of noise on a quite high sound levels resulting in an almost 20 minutes piece of harsh noise/power electronics. During the work there are moments of slightly easier levels but overall Mr. Ramirez creates a hard time for the receiving ears. Next album comes from an artist who is one of the true legends of abrasive sounds. The work titled “Dead leaves” from Merzbow consists of three lengthy pieces titled I – III. From zero the listener approximately gets twenty seconds of adjustment before the first attack of apocalyptic symphony drills its way into the brain. Overall the album offers full throttle noise during the three intersections of the album. Where the first two works are kept on an almost earaching noise-level the final work is slightly easier listening to with its low frequency sound levels and the subdued tones pumping from the ground into the work. Two interesting albums from the Licht-Ung that will first of all satisfy listeners of sonic extremity. (NM)
Address: http://www.licht-ung.de
MARINOS KOUTSOMICHALIS – CHROMA (CDR by Echo Music)
Maybe the cover says it all: ‘Chro(m)a deals with static music, sustained sounds, immobility and non causality. No editing or other kind of ‘compositional’ treatment takes place, other than the choice of recording equipment and the final ‘selection’ of what will be released’. Two pieces of twenty five minutes of various pieces of machinery recorded with contact microphones. Nothing happens in these highly static pieces of sound. Sound is a great phenomena, and surely you can record a bit, and then say it’s a composition, but perhaps its even nicer then to go into your kitchen and listen to your fridge yourself. Nice thing to upset unsuspecting visitors. (FdW)
Address: http://www.echomusic.gr
GRAPHICAL SOUND – SHAPES (CDR by Synesthesia Recordings)
U.S.O. PROJECT/SELFISH – INHARMONICITY (DVD by Synesthesia Recordings)
Behind Graphical Sound is Matteo Milani, whom we recently heard for the first time in Vital Weekly 644 as one half of the U.S.O. Project. Milani started at the end of the 80s, splicing tape at radio stations. These days its all about the computer, ‘blending synthetic and organic sound material, sharing the Pierre Schaeffer ‘audio vision’ of musique concrete’. The four pieces on this release are nice, but hardly musique concrete, unless of course the sounds have been altered to such an extent that we don’t recognize the original input – that might very well be possible. Only in ‘Water Emotions’ we do recognize the water sounds and it seems that Milani here tries to play a cover of ‘Blanket Level Approach’ by The Hafler Trio. Its more ambient music of a highly digital kind, time stretched sounds, filtered with tons of granulating sound effects. Flowing like the best Hypnos release, but less based on analogue synthesizers and more computers. A minor difference, and probably not a very important one. Milani plays his music with great skill and this is a very nice ambient work.
The U.S.O. Project themselves released a DVD together with Giovanni Antignano, who works as Selfish with live video performances. Milani is U.S.O. Project together with Federico Placidi. My knowledge on the subject of video-art is very low, and its hard for me to comment on the quality of the visual side of ‘Inharmonicity’. Vague images of an unidentified nature of what could stains, chemicals, blurred images, sometimes almost black, sometimes colored (although it never seems to bright). Its nice. The music side of this has been discussed when U.S.O Project released this on CD (see Vital Weekly 644): ” U.S.O. stands for Unidentified Sound Object and very much like flying objects, their music moves about, seemingly off course. Whatever they do, it mainly sounds electronically. There is hardly an acoustic device in sight with these boys, or perhaps there were, but then there are well hidden in the electronic mass of sound that is cooked up here. In ‘Invisible Worlds’ the radio waves make up the sound sources. The long ‘… From The Past… Out of The Future…’ is forty
minutes long and the most ‘silent’ piece here. I think this piece sums up what this project stands for: long meandering sounds, which come from nowhere and which don’t seem to go anywhere. Just a stream of silent sounds. Like with Concrete Cookie & The Maggot Farmer release reviewed elsewhere, this is not about carefully composing music, but playing moods and textures, albeit of a somewhat lighter side of the moon. A refined late night listening session.” I have no idea why this was released separate on CD and DVD – that seems a bit much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.synesthesiarecordings.com
THE WANDERING RHIZOME (CDR by Why Not Ltd)
PM – LIVE ACTIONS – BERLIN (CDR by Why Not Ltd)
From the world of improvised electro-acoustic
music. I don’t think I ever heard of The Wandering Rhizome, which is one Patrick Farmer. He plays here bass drum, large bamboo stem, four acoustic guitar pickups, microphone and milk frother. Quite a curious piece of electro acoustic sound emerges from the speakers, with occasional rattling sounds and what seems to be lots of lo-fi hiss sound. Lots of silence is built in this piece. But then sound gets sometimes picked up again, and the volume increases substantially. It hoovers that fine balance between almost silence and almost noise. Quite a nice piece of what I believe live action music for a few objects.
Behind PM are Goh Lee Kwang (mixer feedback) and Olaf Hochberg (piezo). I remember reviewing a rather obscure 3″CDR by them, but this one is actually quite nice. Four pieces, recorded in three different places in Berlin, with only few days in between (so you can tour a city!) of an endless stream of feedback like sounds and small crackles and big noise. It emerges on the borders of improvised music, electro-acoustic, microsound as well as noise. I know this sounds like a strange mixture, but it works well here. A great work, a strong leap forward. (FdW)
Address: http://www.herbalinternational.tk
JAMES WHITEHEAD (JLIAT) – STILL LIFE 4-33 (CDR by Jliat)
To be honest I forgot what Jliat’s ‘Still Life’ series was all about, but it was some conceptual thing about silence being translated to audio and/or midi. The series is now picked up again with this ‘cover’, ‘interpretation’ of the famous silent piece by John Cage. Originally performed on a piano by David Tudor, by not playing any notes, Whitehead chooses here to play the piano on the first piece and field recordings on the second, which was ‘processed via software and played as a midi file’. Its a bit unclear as to what it is that he wants here, or perhaps I am too ignorant (or stupid) to see what the relation is to the Cage piece. I must say I like it for what it is, and that the puzzling aspect is kinda amusing. Jliat knows how to surprise me. In music as much as in writing. Thought for food stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jameswhitehead.org
UBIK – LOOP FINDING… (CDR by Recycling Records)
ANTN HRKWK – MUTUALLY ASSURED (CDR by Recycling Records)
Two very professional looking CDR releases: full color artwork, full color print on the labels. That is really the way to do these things, I think. I don’t believe I heard other work by both artists. Ubik is from Poland and this is his third release and (seems) to be dealing again with plunderphonics. ‘The idea was to find and sample short loops from the tracks that have not much to do with the mentioned stylistics and to try built completely new composition based on every one of them’. Fancy talk me thinks for making just another fine album of glitchy ambient tunes, which is what this is. Heavily, perhaps too heavily, based on short samples, running for some time, in various speed changes, which in the first six tracks is all a bit too long for what it has to offer. The next eight tracks were previously released as a MP3 and is called ‘Cut With The Blade’ and consist of deconstructions of the clarinet and saxophone playing of Mikolaj Trzaska (from Kammerflimmer Kollectief). Here the tracks are much shorter, between two and four minutes and have more to it. Here less is truly more. Ubik transforms the sound, but always allows the original to be part of it. That makes quite a nice interplay of electronic processed sounds and acoustic playing. Maybe it would good to revise the first six in such a manner too?
Also no information on Antn Hrkwk, who operates from a similar territory. Sample sounds, plunderphonics and electronics, but with one important difference: he likes popmusic. The sort of pop music played by Oval. Skipping CDs are at the basis of the music, but never for too long, as Antn Hrkwk cleverly puts them into real songs. Lots of beat stuff happening, more the world of techno than Oval’s I must admit, but it works well. I think ‘Milk Mile’ was sampled from ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ by Tight Fit and Britney appears in ‘Sectarian Violins’. That may give an idea to the extent which Antn Hrkwk is interested in sampling the hell out of. At one point the bouncing beats and skipping noises may become a bit much and one wished for a counterpoint, a silent piece for instance, since the method of working doesn’t change throughout this CD. That is the downside of the album, which however might put a smile on a few faces if you decide to play this as a DJ. The idea is good, Hrkwk works out things quite well, but is too single minded to keep the full forty minutes of attention. (FdW)
Address: http://www.recyclingrecords.com
PHILIP HALKE – THE TWO EDGES (3″CDR, private)
PHILIP HALKE – ABOVE THE DIN (3″CDR, private)
A long time, in Vital Weekly 484, we reviewed ‘Fucking Hospital’ by Sunday Noise ‘Peace’, which seemed to be inspired by Ikeda, Pan Sonic and Goem. After that we heard nothing, but now we learned that behind the project is one Philip Halke, who lives in Greece. He now returns with two mini CDRs, self released, but with a good quality printed cover. The music has certainly changed. Minimalism stayed, but Halke joins the microsound crowd with this release. On ‘The Two Edges’ there are two pieces. ‘A Place That I Said Goodbye To’ has field recordings from Corfu, and is both an elegant and dense piece of music, with strong emphasis on the deep end of the sound spectrum. ‘Beyond Movement An Animal, Beyond An Animal The Sound’ was created for a dance piece, where, if I am right, the dancer controlled the sounds. Water, insects, churchbells and processed sounds thereof make a likewise intense piece.
‘Above The Din’ has only one piece of music, which starts out for some time being very quiet. If I understand right this deals with sounds from ‘civilization of machines and contemporary societies’, so slowly this piece adds environmental sound upon environmental sound, with more and more city sounds dropping in and out of the mix. A bit of a more dirtier piece than the two on the other 3″CDR but also quite menacing. Like waiting for a big bang to happen. Excellent soundtrack material to a short horror movie. Both releases are excellent, very much like Behrens or Meelkop, Halke can easily match with the best in this field. (FdW)
Address: <philiphalke@ymail.com>
FILTHY TURD – DEATH RAY ORGASM / NO SEXUAL HYGIENE (Cassette by Space 07)
FILTHY TURD – THE TURD MASTER (Cassette by Hanson Records)
MUTANT TURD – OOZING EARL OF DENMARK (A6 Booklet)
George Proctor’s Various noise projects and collaborations involve an extremely opaque collection of materials, represented here by the resurgence of the cassette in the noise scene and the production of a booklet which revolves around badly Xeroxed and grafitted pornographic images riven with poetics around sex and baader-meinhof musings. A grouping of either Burroughs’ children or the parasitic remnants of the naked lunch. Proctor & Co at any rate deserve far greater attention despite or because of their material resembling the floor of a public house toilet late on a Saturday night. Not *all* of human life is there but a reality shorn of the hypocrisy of the news of the world the day after and strictly come dancing from earlier in the evening. As for the cassettes the idea of quality or any indication of a Dolby setting would of course be facile, TM consists of a track of obliterated sound, maybe distinguishable voice somewhere as if – and it might be the case – it was over recorded with the erase head
missing, it reminded me of a blocked drain- the reverse side is more discernible singing- speech- guitar and looping. Though again the prominence of tape wow-and flutter *makes* the piece, and DRO/NSH follows a similar format this time the more incoherent side gives screaming, as opposed to the more coherent side which is wall of noise and feedback – but the actuality of the recording is of course the logos of the piece. – I found all of this very enjoyable – why? simply put because of its realism- though I had the benefit of the booklet as well as the tapes which presented a multi-media experience akin to throwing up in someone’s lap, so please GP could future releases each have a booklet? Which hopefully might raise the status of this underrated collective. (jliat)
Address: http://mutant-ape.blogspot.com/
Address: http://www.hansonrecords.net
MEM1 – STATIONARY DRIFT (MP3 by Resting Bell)
Mark and Laura Cetilia hail from Israel and call themselves Mem1 and they have released a CD ‘Alexpharmaca’, which we reviewed back in Vital Weekly 566. Their main instrument is the cello, which gets transformed all around, the least in ‘Hanging Valley’ and then more and more until the fourth piece ‘Stationary Drift’, where things have become a dense clouded tapestry. More than before there is to a certain degree some menace in these pieces, which I thought was lacking on the CD before. Nice drone like music, with the addition of sound effects on cello and perhaps even a bit of field recording. Quite nice, this one. Not great, not original, but not bad either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.restingbell.net