MORPHOGENESIS – CHARIVARI MUSIC (CD by Paradigm)
Who thinks that the ‘industrial’ market place is just for those
hyper-active noise bands? They should become avid collectors of the works
of Morphogenesis. This London based band have been active since 1985, yet
they have produced so far 1 LP, 1 CD and some cassette only releases. Their
member Clive Graham just released this new CD on his own Paradigm label.
Morphogenesis may produce some weird music, they operate from a tradition
of live, improvised electro-acoustic music. The 7 members (under which is
the highly profilic Micheal Prime) operate in various combinations, where
everyone takes his part in generating sounds or doing mixes. The six pieces
on this CD fluctuate nicely in various acoustic and electronic spaces. This
music works best, I think, when played on a headphone. The obvious
reference to Morphogenesis would be to say that this is ‘electronic’
sounding version of AMM. No sound gets to play the main role, but they seem
to act on a democratic level. It’s a pity but we have to wait another 4
years probably to play their next one. And that’s a real shame. So daring
labels who read this: get y’r Morphogenesis release, dudes. (FdW)Address:
fax: + 44 171 609 1754
TWELVE GOLDEN CRATES (CD by Pi Recordings)
Pi Recordings, as well as it’s twinsister label T&B Vinyl, mainly release
12″s packed with dance music in all of it’s forms. But since not everybody
who is interested in dance music is willing to find out about obscure
vinyl, these sort of labels release compilation CD’s with the best of their
12″s. I must be fair: I haven’t checked out all of T&B/Pi, so I dare not
say if they choose the right ones. However, hearing this CD, I might not
hesitate to say: this is a label worth checking out if you like dance music
stuff in it’s various capacities. Presented are that fine finnish
minimalist O (with the line through so that we can’t print it ), likewise
minimalist 6K (with an unreleased spot here, plus a 12″ track), or the LOSD
mix of Muslimgauze’s Bandit Queen, or the more straight forward bleeps of
Intensive Care Unit. And Pi have guts: the 80s guitar and rhythmbox of
Agent Random still don’t appeal to me. Very good again is MP Lancaster,
also with an unreleased cut (and who has a CD on Pi), with a steady, groovy
Muslim’ like Bell (hey Square Sub… you’d hate this) in more minimalist
vein. Others to be found here are The P Man and the Redeye Kidz. So, if you
are into dance but not into vinyl, this is for you. (FdW)
Address: fax: +44 131 558 3665
THD 01 (Magazine + CD)
Als jij geen nederlands kunt lezen dan heb je natuurlijk niets aan dit
blad, because this magazine is all in Dutch. It’s release is an initiative
by Gaudemus, who is the organisation taking care of the more serious Dutch
composers, plus a whole bunch of people with past experiences in other
magazines. Featured are interviews with Miss Djax, Roland Spekle of the
Barooni label, Huib Emmer, Florentijn Boddendijk, Dick Raaijmakers, Jacques
Pallinx. If these names will not make your heart beat faster, then there is
CD enclosed so you can find out what they do. I’ll just sum up for you:
Miss Djax is detroit Techno stuff, Florentijn Boddendijk samples the piano
if he was Conlon Nancarrow, Yannis Kyriakides trio for violins and piano,
David Dramm thinks we are a decade behind with his marimba and tormented
voice, Jacques Pallinckx plays 10 short improvised guitar pieces, Huib
Emmer moved from the downright academic to a techno assualt (but, maybe
because it’s live, not my sort of thing) and Dick Raaijmakers brings a
weird collage of mechanical sounding objects which are sampled throughout.
This closing piece turned out to be my favourite on a otherwise heavily
varied CD, that I only liked for 3 pieces… But giving maybe a nice
overview of Dutch ‘Contemporary’ music (for whatever that is worth). Of
course we wish that THD will be alive and not just disappear like many of
this sort of new magazines. (FdW)
Address: <redactie@thd.nl>
GLYTH – A SHOT IN THE LAB (CD by Ex-It)
Christophe Bailleau is a busy bee, making music is just one of his things.
His moniker is La Chiesa for the more dark electronic music, Glyth when it
comes to the more up-beat tempo stuff. This is my first encounter with
Glyth and I must say, I am impressed. In many ways Glyth continues where
The Aphex Twin left off. Decipher the sounds that make up the rhythm in
‘508 cum’, that sounds like the sampled sound of a carpet. Each of the 11
tracks seem to have something that is experimental aswell as some definete
beats to it. I doubt wether this will have the same selling potential of
Aphex Twin, because much of this will be classified as ‘too weird’, so yu’d
guessed right by now: this is something I definetly dig. (FdW)
Address: rcampus@resulb.ulb.ac.be>
STILLUPPSTEYPA – ONE SIDE MONA LISA (miniCD by Fire Inc.)
Watch this name, before you miss out where they came from. They have bundle
of 7″s and other vinyls, but as far as I now this is their first CD. They
pack their CD in a Hafler Trio like package, and the first track is a remix
by Andrew Mckenzie (of the Trio) and ‘an elf’ (maybe another member of the
trio). A pumping beat that is not willing to be a beat, intercepted by
drones, that comes very close to the Trio’s recent stuff. Alledgely track 2
has the voice of Yuntaro of the Gerogerigegege (what a bummer I didn’t
recognize that) with the sampled sounds of plucked guitars and drones that
suddenly move into piano sounds, voices and tape collage. The third track
is a remix by Matt Wand, from Stock, Hausen & Walkman, and consist of same
wacky easy tune rip off tunes and maybe technoish beats. The fourth is
again by the Stillup boys themselves and drones throughout in a rather
somber atmosphere. If you seek a more composed then stolen People Like Us
or Stock, Hausen & Walkman, then this is for you. And there is more to
come! (FdW)
Address: <sfs@isholf.is>
RLW – PULLOVER (CD by Table Of The Elements)
My long term appreciation for the work of Ralf Wehowsky, known as RLW or as
founding member of P16.D4 shoud be known. On his new CD he limits himself
to voices. And voices reading in German text from Markus Caspers, but not
all are native German speakers. This can turn into hilarous results,
however this didn’t happen, luckily. Many times the voices are sampled
beyond recognition and RLW carefully constructs the generated voices into
compositions. In the opening piece, apply called ‘Atmosphere’, there is the
non-narrative use of breathing and vocal sounds. Other tracks have
recognizable text pieces and are intercepted by sampled extracts, at times
noisy, as in the fourth piece (called ‘Atmosphare’). RLW uses a lot of
computer generated sound, but remains to present them fresh (i.e. not
boring as is usual the case with computer music). Yep, another damm fine
CD. And watch out for this years 5CD box set where tons of people play RLW
tracks! (FdW)
Address: <totelement@aol.com>
VARIOUS ARTISTS – CONCEPT: A COMPILATION (Double Space Records)
This CD is a prime example of those who can and those who try. It is a
rather motley crew spearheaded by Zoviet France with their usual
ingredients of loopy arabs, spine sliding drones and the endlessness of
reverberated delay. They’re followed by Starfish Pool with a muffled mix
which rises and subsides like a tired tide. It stumbles, regains what
momentum it had and then stutters to an ungainly fade. Atom Heart takes his
time winding up his machines which slowly drop into a sparse arrangement.
Deutsch Nepal provide a horrendous ‘Pain Is The Language We Use’ – perhaps
they should try music as a form of communication instead? Chris & Cosey
wheeze and moan their way to a dead-end where a small exotic electronic
insect waits. Budha Building, whose work has previously been released on
Double Space, win the award for the most dynamic track if it is compared to
what went before. No wasting time accumulating stretch marks on an intro
here – it’s play dem bongos now, boy. Quest provide a copy of their track
Sol (Murmix), which also appeared on their full-length CD ‘Electro City’ on
Italian label Lunar. Bubbles, bubbles and starlight, but in a different
mix. Cosmic Connection end this batch merrily enough. Shame about the
bass-line here tho’. (MP)
Address: Double Space – Mechtildisstr. 2-21 – 5021 CN Tilburg – The Netherlands
HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP – TRANSFORMATIONS (CD ON EMPREINTES DIGITALIS)
Well, I’ve been waiting years for this one…ever since I heard the
unbelievable ‘Cricket Voice’ on the very first Aerial compilation released
on Nonsequiter ages ago. Hildegard is, as it pointed out by Pauline
Olivieros in her brief introduction, sensitive to soundscape. She calls
herself a sound ecologist and handles her subject with a great deal of
care. She’s included a bunch of technical notes which explain some of her
procedures.
The CD starts with ‘A Walk Through The City’, which in addition to natural
and processed sounds also includes a bit of spoken voice. Not my favourite
thing in this kind of music, but after a few listenings I discovered that
it fitted perfectly. The idea behind the inclusion of a voice being that it
symbolizes the human prescence in the urban soundscape. There’s carhorns,
brakes, sirens aircraft, pinball machines, construction and a couple of
hobos, one of whom insists on not knowing why he can’t stop drinking.
This is followed by ‘Fantasie for Horns II’, for French Horn and tape.
Sound sources on the tape are trainhorns, foghorns, boathorns, factory
horns and even an alphorn ! Loadsa horns, in fact, which remain intact with
their natural modifications as modulated by their surrounding landscapes.
It beautiful – a trip, quite reminiscent of the stuff by Pauline Olivieros
in the Cistern Chapel (which far exceeds anything I have yet heard by
Stuart Dempster and his trombone ensemble recorded in the same place).
Next up is ‘Kits Beach Soundwalk’, an extension of Hildegards radio plays
called ‘Soundwalking’. Fortunately this track is just less than 10’00
long…I say fortunately with some reluctance as I did try my best to
assimilate Hildegard’s voice which accompanies this soundtrack. She
explains in mildly poetic terms what is going on and then displays some
technical tricks which come across as a sort of lesson at the School Of
Audio Engineering. I found this piece most annoying, but all is not lost
because she saved the best till last. ‘Cricket Voice’ is included here too-
it is a brilliant shimmering exploration of minuscule sounds recorded in
the silent desolation of a Mexican desert region. The cricket’s chirp,
slowed down, becomes the ‘heartbeat of the desert, at it’s original speed
it sings of the stars’.
And finally, ‘Beneath The Forest Floor’, which is composed from sounds
recorded in old-growth forests on British Columbia’s westcoast. It includes
the sounds of small songbirds, ravens, squirrels and flies which move in
and out of the forest silence like the small creek that meanders through
it. This piece creates a wonderful sense of peace in the listener, which is
the intention. It glides slowly into a world of processed sound which is as
close to the sound of a tree growing as I have ever heard.
Never mind track 3, just get this thing ! (MP)
Address: Metamkine – 50, Passage des Ateliers – 38140 Rives – France