ASPEC(T) – ABATTOIR (CD by Nuun) *
MICHEL CHION – LA TENTATION DE SAINT ANTOINE (CD by Nuun) *
ERLAND DAHLEN – ROLLING BOMBER (CD by Hubro) *
THE BOATS – BALLADS OF THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT (CD by 12K) *
DROG-A-TEK – TOO LATE TO CARE (2LP/CD by Inner Ear) *
S* – UNEARTHED FROM AIRWAVES (REINTERPRETATIONS OF S*) (CD by IO Sound)
S* + KK ? Clyphs of Erebus Sumblime (CD by IO Sound)
ANDREW PECKLER – SENTIMENTAL FAVOURITES (LP by Dekorder)
DANIEL PADDEN – SHIP CHOP (LP by Dekorder)
ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE – CROSSING THE PASS, BY TORCHLIGHT (LP by Dekorder)
NXP – BEAUTY TAKES OUT THE WORST IN PEOPLE (CDR by Requiem Productions) *
KJETIL HANSSEN/NXP (split 7″ by Requiem Productions/Ambolthue Records)
ROBIN STOREY & MARK SPYBEY – WITH AN EAR AND A WHY (7″ by Tourette Records)
LITTLE ANNIE & FABRIZIO MODONESE PALUMBO – BLUE XMAS EP (7″ by Tourette Records)
PER SVENSSON & MICHAEL ESPOSITO – THE GHOSTS OF OGILIVE STATION (7″ flexi by Firework Edition)
FANTOM AUDITORY OPERATIONS/MICHAEL ESPOSITO – THE CHILD WITCH OF PILOT’S KNOB (cassette by The Tapeworm)
FRANZ ROSATI – THEORY OF VORTEX SOUND (CDR by Ripples Recordings) *
USHER & WEHWALT & ZREEN TOYZ – LE CHRYSAOR PARAPHILE (CDR by Inner Cinema)
DESERT ISLAND DISCKS/WHERE WOODROSE WALK – CLEARANCE SALE (split CDR by Amoebic Industries)
AGORA REGATHERED (CDR by Bitsquare)
XDUGEF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (CDR by Obfuscated Records)
DON HAUGEN ANGELS WITH BLACK WINGS (CDR by Obfuscated Records)
MYSTIFIED – COMING DAYS (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
SGHOR – REVERSED AND UNEASY OLD VARIATIONS IN MINOR SCALE (ELLHOX OLIVA ELL ELLENTRE VISJOUX DRONES) (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
B*TONG – UN_B*TONG (3″CDR by Attenuation Circuit) (
PIERRE JUILLARD – AQUIFERE (3″CDR by Kaon)
DECEH – FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE (cassette by The Tapeworm)
BURNING TREE – STINGER (cassette by The Tapeworm)
PETER HOPE-EVANS – CAST-OFFERINGS: VISITATIONS, FETCHES, REVENANTS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
THE REPORT FROM DISTANT LANDS: RUSSIA (three cassettes by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
ASPEC(T) – ABATTOIR (CD by Nuun)
MICHEL CHION – LA TENTATION DE SAINT ANTOINE (CD by Nuun)
Two entirely different discs on the Nuun label. First there is the Italian duo Aspec(t), being SEC_ on revox tape recorder, computer samples, no-input feedback manipulated on tape and Mario Gobola on feedback and acoustic saxophone, minitape, self-made electroacoustic chain of feed-drums and piezo-speaker feedback. Their music was reviewed before and comes from the world of improvised music. This new CD is no different, but it seems to have progressed from before. The eleven pieces range from a mere thirty seconds to just over six minutes and in general have an aggressive feel to it. Things bounce around in feedback, objects collide to each other and all the major forces are used to make it loud and brittle. But Aspec(t) know how to capture the right feeling of surprise: their use of collage methods are very well done. Abrupt changes, sudden moves, small gestures, big transitions. Action music from the world of electro-acoustics, musique concrete, an excellent montage of sounds. It reminded me of the best work of Jerome Noetinger, when playing with his film friends of Metamkine. Aspec(t) have grown and become a force to be reckoned with. On tour these weeks, but sadly not making it to my part of the world. A pity, I’d love to have seen this in concert.
I know I will be in trouble, but I will say it anyway: why do the French think that the whole world is able to read their language? Why is this entire booklet in French? I will return to Wikipedia for some extra information on Saint Anthony (ca 251-356) was from Egypt and one of the priests who lived in the desert, with great austerity and later on inspired others to live their life as monks. While in the desert he was tempted by demons to lure him away from true faith, and these temptations have led to works of art, paintings, books and an opera. And here a work by French composer Michel Chion, whom I called a believer, but was boo’d away for it (see, I told you I don’t read French). This work was already composed in 1984, using the voices of Pierre Schaeffer (as Anthony), Michele Bokanowski (as Ennoia), Chion as the narrator and others. Now of course this is all spoken/narrated in French, although Anthony bumps into an English speaking guy (must be a demon), but it all quite interesting to hear. Just as a radiophonic work, with objects falling to the floor, the rustling of papers and other obscured sounds to tell this story, with this fine variety of voices, sounds all very nice. I just sat back and listened and actually enjoyed it a lot. Its like listening to a radio station from a country which language you don’t grasp – or perhaps its my temptation, not to understand this. Fascinating, though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nuun-records.com
ERLAND DAHLEN – ROLLING BOMBER (CD by Hubro)
Slowly I am getting more and more enthusiastic about the releases on Norway’s Hubro. Always from the world of improvised music, but then always with a nice angle. Here we have Erland Dahlen, a percussionist/drummer who has played with Mike Patton/Kaada, Serena Maneesh, Marit Larsen, madrugada and Nils Petter Molvaer’s trio. His work can be heard on some 130 records. His drumkit here is a Slingerland Rolling Bomber, from World War Two, in which there is no metal, but rosewood. To that kit he added a lot of other instruments, such as musical saw, timpani, gongs, bow on cake form with springs, tank drums, cuica, maracas, kalimba, temple blocks, steel drum, log drum, bells, electronics. No doubt this is a work of the studio, as I can’t imagine him playing all of that in one take. An excellent record. One has the impression of listening to a record of percussion sounds plus a lot of other things and not just a percussion record. The bows and electronics add nice small melodic interjections to the music. These seven pieces show an interesting variety in approaches. ‘Funeral’ is like an ambient piece, ‘Piratmen’ starts out ethnic but becomes ambient also, while the closing ‘Germany’ is an excellent Krautrock stampede (hence the title I’d say), including what seems a theremin, although none is listed. In other pieces he is more traditionally improvised or leans towards modern composition. A great CD, not too long, not too short. Spot on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hubromusic.com
THE BOATS – BALLADS OF THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT (CD by 12K)
A duo of Craig Tattersall, whom you may know from Hood, The Remote Viewer and Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra), known as The Boats and who had already releases on Flau and Home Normal as well as limited edition releases on their own Our Small Ideas label. The word ‘ballad’ in the title is something we should take serious, even when these ballads are small in number, four to be precise, and stretch out from ten to twelve minutes. This is another sign of 12K slowly changing interest from the world of electronics (goodbye) and extended use of acoustic instruments (hello!), which for the Boats include credits for ‘electronics, acoustics, tapes and effects’ and a bunch of guests on cello (on all four pieces actually) and vocals (on two). If there is an element of experiment in play here, I’d say its the way they compose their pieces: rather loosely. None of the four pieces are quite coherent, but rather shift back and forth between textures and moods. Loosely put down to tape and then mixed together in a similar free mode. Autumn like music – a bit dark, a bit grey, and when looked from the inside: quite warm. Light your fireplace and start playing The Boats. I assume that’s the general idea they are trying to get across here. While I thought this was a very fine CD indeed, I must admit that the material could have benefitted from a more rigorous editing, to make it more into real compositions. Perhaps that would mean various pieces would fall apart into shorter pieces, and more than one piece, but throughout also a bit stronger. Now its fine chamber pop or a rather loose nature. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
DROG-A-TEK – TOO LATE TO CARE (2LP/CD by Inner Ear)
Its been a long, long time since I last heard from Drog-A-Tek – Vital Weekly 504 to be precise, and shortly before that I saw the band perform live, in Athens, Greece. I could try and imagine what they did in the meantime, but apparently its all plain and simple: they went on to record and play music, and above all, record music. All documented on a double slab of vinyl, but with a free CD of the same material – or vice versa for that matter. Something to welcome, this sort of dual format – I can pick something for the podcast! Drog-A-Tek is a band with a floating membership. I saw four on stage, but sometimes they are up to nine persons – assuming this is still the case, as the cover doesn’t indicate any individual members. Rhythm is still important, from a mere thumping bass, jazz like to a more hard stomping drum sound. Then there is a multitude of trumpets, guitars and organ like sounds. Recently I had a writing commission and listened to some post punk music from the 80s, reading a bit of old Vinyl magazines (the leading voice on such matters in the 80s in The Netherlands), and some of that nostalgic feeling I had when listening to this. In my judgement of their previous CD I was perhaps a bit harsh – mostly because this was a lengthy work, and this again, is a lengthy one, but somehow it worked better. There is a sheer variety in the pieces which is very nice. Its almost like listening to a compilation from the old days. A bit of jazz, a bit of noise rock, post rock, post punk and even maybe bits that are pretty much electronic, even techno-ish: its all there and its hard to believe its the same band. Still a bit long, but sitting in a comfortable chair, listening, reading those old magazines, I had this curious feel of ‘then’ and ‘now’ warping together – a time machine implodes. (FdW)
Address: http://www.inner-ear.gr
S* – UNEARTHED FROM AIRWAVES (REINTERPRETATIONS OF S*) (CD by IO Sound)
S* + KK ? Clyphs of Erebus Sumblime (CD by IO Sound)
A new label from Canada with two great releases in the micro-electric world. The artwork is well done by a professional designer and has a high spacy character. The music is made by the unknown S*. The musician loves to work with with two reel to reel machines and plays with the tapes with loops, speed etcetera. Electro magnetic cracks, drony sounds, noisy glitches and several layers makes this music to something special. Mostly this kind of music is made with a more academic starting-point. But I do not know why, but in this music there is a lot of emotion, although the sounds are harsh, subtile and noisy. Maybe it has to do with the ideas of the musician to create a psychedelic atmosphere, so that the listener can fly away into the sky to other planets. The first release are reinterpretations of the music of S*. Six musicians like Coingutter, i8u, Tomas Phillips, Richard Chartier, Jeff Carey and Scant Intone worked with his music and created a complete album, as it likes as it is of one person. The second S* plays together with Katherine Kline of Montreal?s psychedelic noise and industrial outfit Dreamcatcher. Samples of voices and cut-up technics makes this second release more human and less industrial. The two musicians play carefully with the electronic bleeds and tones. Lovely album. IO Sound has made a good start with this two beautiful releases which are recorded in 2008. I do not know how many more recordings S* has made, but it these are the only one, it is a real pleasure to discover this spacy emotional world. The label wants to keep S* as a secret, but on the internet it easy to find S* is the same as Saibotuk, which is a project of Tobias C. van Veen. I do not know why the label is doing so difficult.. the music is great and this fairytale leeds to nothing. (JKH)
Address: http://iosound.ca/
ANDREW PECKLER – SENTIMENTAL FAVOURITES (LP by Dekorder)
DANIEL PADDEN – SHIP CHOP (LP by Dekorder)
ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE – CROSSING THE PASS, BY TORCHLIGHT (LP by Dekorder)
Music by Andrew Peckler has been released by Scape, Staubgold and Kranky, so one might be able to say he’s a big shot. Each album he releases is about something, an investigation into an ‘abandoned genre or aesthetic trope of the past’. For ‘Sentimental Favourites’ he goes out to the seventies’ easy listening, say Burt Bacharach to the Mystic Moods Orchestra, not by sampling the hell out of it, but using his own electronic treatments on his atmospherics to re-create such atmospheric music. Sometimes its hard to say if its the pressing faulty or if the music is a bit ‘scratchy’. I’d believe its the latter. Throughout these moody pieces we hear a far away beat of a drum, like a steady heartbeat going on, somewhere below and far away. There is a certain similar thread running through these pieces and that easy listening is perhaps far away, but as an album of moody electronics it works quite well.
I know Daniel Padden as a man of songs, guitar and a bit improvised. Either alone with his own The One Ensemble or with Volcano The Bear. I would never have expected a record like this ‘Ship Chop’ – a record build entirely out of snippets from other records, pieces of vinyl of course rather than CDs, mostly of an ethnic nature. Padden loops these around – how? I wondered… by putting tape on the record, inside the computer, a loop station – and creates some excellent plunderphonics out of it. According to the cover we have at least three different countries per song. Now I am not sure about this record. Some of this sounds really nice, with some great editing going, making this into a real new song, which I guess what for me plunderphonics should be all about, certainly when there is no socio/political/cultural subtext shining through in spoken word (think Tape-beatles or Negativland), but there are also moments which seem to be cut ‘n pasted together, but not necessarily make this nice coherent piece of music. This is one of those of things were one wonders if this would have been a demo by somebody unknown, Dekorder would have still released it. I doubt that.
And last we have Brian Pyle, of Starving Weirdos and RV Painting, who is being economic, by being alone and calls himself Ensemble Economique. This records follows previous releases on Digitalis, Amish and Not Not Fun, but my first encounter. Like I have been saying for some time, the cosmic music revival may very well run into a re-appreciation for ambient house. Not that Ensemble Economique plays anything even closely house music – but then so didn’t many of the musicians from those days, but rhythm played an important part. That’s what happening here too. Pyle plays a bunch of synthesizers, loops these around, waves a nice bouncing rhythm underneath it – real drums like in ‘To Feel The Night As It Really Is’, but most of the time like a drum machine. Although generally warm and atmospheric there is also a black line, such as the moody ‘Sparks Exploding, Splintering Blackness’, which has a somewhat sombre texture to it. So its not all happy go lucky music around here, and a bit too dark for the chill out room, but I guess that makes things much more interesting in our own rooms. Excellent record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dekorder.com
NXP – BEAUTY TAKES OUT THE WORST IN PEOPLE (CDR by Requiem Productions)
KJETIL HANSSEN/NXP (split 7″ by Requiem Productions/Ambolthue Records)
Tore Stemland’s musical history goes back many years. He was a member of Asod Dvi and Psykisk Tortur in the 80s as well as various punk bands. Nekro XP was also in those the name for his solo project, later shortened to NXP. This new album is his 11th as NXP since 1984 and released on his own Requiem productions. In this album he wants to combine his various interests in creating music: “field recordings, avant-garde, rhythmic noise and other forms of music in that field”, and that is indeed what he does here. The rhythmic noise has the upper hand here, and it makes that the album is perhaps a bit dated. Maybe the addition of Jim Jones talking helped that idea a bit. The use of spoken word returns in a few other pieces, and the whole thing sounds pretty retro: good lo’ classic industrial music. Minimal rhythms, fed through a bunch of sound effects/synthesizers and such like, as said with occasional use of spoken word. Sometimes the variation is a bit poor per track, and it gets stuck in a few loops for a bit too much time. But the closing title, also by far the longest of this release, the rhythm is surprisingly absent and we have a fine piece of ambient drone music, and here the length works quite well. Maybe those roads are to be explored more and move away from the same what dated old rhythmic sound? Unless of course its this variation he wants so much.
There is also a new 7″, with three short tracks by NXP on one side and one longer piece by Kjetil Hanssen on the other. Things have changed, after some failed 7″ releases in the 80s. NXP’s tracks all revolve about heavy rhythm, feeding through some effects to create industrial distortion. Since time is limited, these are all to the point. Excellent. Kjetil Hanssen is sometimes known as Torstein Wjiik, when it comes to harsh noise and is from younger generation of Norway’s Noise scenery. Under his own name he creates far more interesting music, not entirely free of noise either, but certainly not HNW either. He uses samples without permition [sic] from Marhaug, Stine K and Swamps up Nostrils and with these he creates a rather lo-fi set of electronic sounds, densely layered. Perhaps a bit unfocussed. Both sides end in a lockgroove, so remixers have more fun out of this. Nice one. (FdW)
Address: http://requiemproductions.blogspot.com/
ROBIN STOREY & MARK SPYBEY – WITH AN EAR AND A WHY (7″ by Tourette Records)
LITTLE ANNIE & FABRIZIO MODONESE PALUMBO – BLUE XMAS EP (7″ by Tourette Records)
The third 7″ to celebrate Dead Voices On Air is one with his former compadre of Zoviet*France Robin Storey, better known these days as Rapoon, I should assume. Together they have also worked as Reformed Faction, and this 7″ could have been released as such, but its part of the concept, I guess, to name their own names. I am not sure if this is on 33 or 45 rpm, but for one reason or another I assume on 33. The two pieces are closely related through their titles, and perhaps also through the music. One side is a bit more rhythmical, with a kind of mechanical loop and low distorted voice sounds coming in and taking over the scene, whereas the other side is more about ambience as a means to an end, and has wacky old reel to reel tape loops from the old days, or so it seems. Its two nice pieces, but somehow don’t seem to be have made for 7″: music like this, I keep stressing, is usually not fit for the format.
Especially for the season there is a blue vinyl of Little Annie (Anxiety – recently also collaborating with Coh on 7″ for the same label) with Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo who is a member of Larsen (seldom reviewed in Vital Weekly) and solo known as ( r ). This 7″ is part of the ‘we dream in colour’ series, although with a somewhat different cover. This is great music, especially ‘Chinatown Blues’ is an excellent piece of music: electric guitars in free play and Little Annie in great form. The b-side deconstructs the classic ‘Blue Moon’ and has a more mellow outing in ‘The Ballad Of Blue Obsessions’. An excellent 7″ for the season. (FdW)
Address: http://touretterecords.com/
PER SVENSSON & MICHAEL ESPOSITO – THE GHOSTS OF OGILIVE STATION (7″ flexi by Firework Edition)
FANTOM AUDITORY OPERATIONS/MICHAEL ESPOSITO – THE CHILD WITCH OF PILOT’S KNOB (cassette by The Tapeworm)
Its his main line of work, to capture Electronic Voice Phenomena: voices of ghosts. We can find Michael Esposito in graveyards and haunted houses with his tape recorder. On the cover of his flexi disc (hurrah a flexi disc, why don’t we see more of those?) we have some extended liner notes, which you can’t finish reading before the music is over, about the phenomena of EVP. The way I read these notes is that Esposito gave sound material to Svensson, who send it through Oscillograph Nordmende from 1958 and recorded the modulated sound along with original. Or some such. The result is a short – too short – piece of music that is actually more musical than I usually anticipate with the world of EVP. A shimmering trace of a melody shines through here. Oh why is this so short – a nightmare, on various accounts.
On the Tapeworm release Esposito uses recordings from a graveyard in Kentucky where in the late 18th century a witch was burned alive, along with her daughter. More hiss and crackling of tapes – but do we hear voices, I sometimes wonder – come along with the church bells. The whole thing has quite chilling effect on the listener and certainly is all bleak and dark. It is somewhere in the middle of a horror soundtrack and a radioplay, to be broadcasted just before the midnight hour. Sometimes things are so scary that one keeps on listening (or watching, in the case of a movie) and this is one such thing. A pleasant trip in the horror house. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
Address: http://www.tapeworm.org.uk/
FRANZ ROSATI – THEORY OF VORTEX SOUND (CDR by Ripples Recordings)
A vortex is a all about fluid movements. One Franz Rosati gathered a whole bunch of field recordings from the Middle East and also some folk music from the same area as well as Europe, which he then massively ‘transfigured and distorted, melted together and structured in sound masses flowing from a matter state to another, with the aim to handle sound and its informations like a fluid apt to pressure, oscillation, drifts and tension’. That sounds pretty interesting, but why using custom build software live in the studio with ‘no additive post-production intervention’? Is it some sort of sin to work on your recordings afterwards? What kind of esthetic laws are there to obey here? For Ripples Recordings this is quite a heavy release, as Rosati’s music is pretty heavy weighted. Lots of blocks of sustaining noise sounds are used here, and put together in quite a nice manner of composing with that – even when this is all live, its done in quite a nice way. At times a bit too loud for my personal taste. None of the original sound sources could be detected as such – as far as I’m concerned it could have been anything from anywhere by anyone. Maybe a tad bit too noisy, but surely quite an interesting release. (FdW)
Address: http://capillarywaves.bandcamp.com/
USHER & WEHWALT & ZREEN TOYZ – LE CHRYSAOR PARAPHILE (CDR by Inner Cinema)
Three French artists are working with a phrase of Edgar Varese “the perverse music does not exist, because it does not talk about sex”. The musicians did an investigation and use sources like Sigmund Freud and Marquis de Sade. The old mix of erotics and death has been found and is a great inspiration of artists. The three musicians have a long experience. Zreen Toys presents himself as a Sounds Sculptor and after a few years of classic training on piano and drums he starts to improvise his own music since 1970. Usher is also active since the seventies. Firstly with music like noise punk and cold wave music. Ezeckiel Wehwalt is born in the seventies and since he discovered the work of music concrete composers he starts to make music without any definition and borders. The musicians worked together and created eight tracks. The album is an electronic landscape of all kind of atmosphere with a high thrilling atmosphere. Abstract tracks with noisy echoes will be alternated by more long compositions which have elements of a song structure or repeating beats. I cannot find the deeper ideas in the album, or I had to find it a composition of Zreen Toys where a woman sigh as a porn diva? but I that will be too obvious? The release is a interesting sound-palet of a lot of different sounds with well composed electronic experimental music, which is aswell sensual as harsh and noisy. This is Acte 1 and I am curious to the upcoming actes. (JKH)
Address: http://inner-cinema.com
DESERT ISLAND DISCKS/WHERE WOODROSE WALK – CLEARANCE SALE (split CDR by Amoebic Industries)
The current financial crisis is what Desert Island Dicks and Where Woodrose Walk inspired them for this new album, which has one collaborative track, and five by the first and four by other. Apparently Desert Island Dicks is ‘an anonymous international plunderphonic noise collective’ and Where Woodrose Walk is an one man project from Brighton. The whole plunderphonic thing is not something I heard, unless the spoken word bits here and there, and the use of sound effects albums, but there is also noise, drone and electronics, and sometimes its just that. I am not sure what to make of this. It seems to me that this is an album made by people who like doing music, without much plan, just as a sort of hobby, a passtime – always better than starting a war, I should think – but I must say it didn’t convince me that much. Its not bad, its not good, and one wonders why. Where Woodrose Walk seems to be more about music, and not about using vocals, whereas Desert Island Dicks have much more voices mumbling, speaking and no doubt with some political comment on the financial crisis, but it somehow eluded me. Maybe I just don’t get it… (FdW)
Address: http://amoebicindustries.bandcamp.com
AGORA REGATHERED (CDR by Bitsquare)
On the subject of remixing I already wrote extensively. I really very occasionally see a point in them, and mostly no point. ‘Agora’, the first CDR release by Derek Piotr was reviewed favorably in Vital Weekly as a fine start, but why on earth did it need to be remixed? It proofs that a) he is a fine networker and b) many people have spare time to do a remix. Each track is remixed and so we have fourteen of them, chosen carefully ‘mixers from widely different demographics, both notable and obscure’, while the press texts has in big lettering ‘featuring remixes by Steinbruchel, Scanner, Blevin Blectum, Twenty Knives & others’ – there is no such thing as being equal – interestingly no AGF, who was such a big inspiration on the first release. Why this is, I don’t know. Having said all of this, one could think I may not like what I heard on this release. That is not true. The original voice matter can be detected in many of these pieces, and come usually with extra ornaments, usually in the form of rhythm, glitches, cracks and hiss. Sometimes it stays closely to the original it seems, which is a bit of a pity. Other remixers are Jhom, Heeg, Protofuse, Dendrite, Zach Thorpe, Lemosh, Chaircrusher, Salakapakka Sound System, Thone Holo and Pitkanen. Still, I think this comes too early in his career. (FdW)
Address: http://bitsquare.net
XDUGEF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (CDR by Obfuscated Records)
DON HAUGEN ANGELS WITH BLACK WINGS (CDR by Obfuscated Records)
I need to describe these two releases quite carefully, not to assuage some very angry people, but because in the end I want to be quite critical about these works. Can or should a review do either of these things? After all there is nothing wrong with ‘restfulness, neutrality, perfection’…Integrated circuit is 14 tracks of what the wire calls electronica, synthesized beats, processed through filters on track 1, electronics replacing vocals in some jam between deep base pulses and high pitched oscillations, technically meshed- suddenly jumping to a high BPM, and becoming rhythmically more sophisticated, track 2 begins with a slower base pulse again counter posed with high pitched filtered noise, and again the bass beat structures the piece as well as giving a sophisticated variation into what is or could be dance music. Some tracks like #4 lack any clear beat, only to be re-introduced with #5s rhythm gurgling dance floor beats, and glitch vocalizations. Some tracks – #7 blend all these forms. #8 stands out as it’s an old clip of some American woman very politely saying “I hope this doesn’t bother you but I’ve been imagining what you look like naked” – #11 mixes in some old jazzy music recordings? I must cut short my attempts at description for space or inability at a note for note doubling, other tracks are similar, #13 begins with a deep drone and is non-rhythmic abstract electronics in a deep reverb- which continue in the “spacey” Alien- ated #14. Angles – has 4 tracks – most begin low volume – #1 mains hum and Morse code short wave and speech- static – which morphs into deep electronic drones and processed static…#2 sine wave bell tones – which throb and vibrate- at one point sounding like? A police siren – unless it is a police siren – #3 is much more aggressive in the timbre and attack of the oscillators, and #4 ends a little more smoothly with close synced low pitched oscillators drifting in and out of phase. The sleeve and audience applause indicate all 4 were live performances. Did I like them – well yes…quite.. Why then should these be criticized – is – because of a certain lack of understanding, which IS understanding. In this case understanding what Good music, good noise, is, or if you like simply what it is, what is the case. And that would be splendid for the high modernist, or confused post-modernist or most anyone who assumes that thought (understanding) is always good – (aesthetically and so ethically!) thought is always from the best intentions and so allied to the truth. And so art and music likewise – are guaranteed if thought enough as aesthetics, a value. What is the problem – and of course this is straight Deleuze- is this “image of music” or ‘image of noise” only re-cognizes music, sound-art, noise – whatever. It recognizes – re presents to us, as if we already know what is good music, what music is. What anything is. We “hear” this and recognize it as music. Nothing wrong with that- precisely! Hence it will always be in the best interest a confirmation of what we already know, what we feel, lacking surprise, lacking, shock, lacking the violence of the other, the stranger that unwanted thing, that dis-ease in the night- that unwanted persona or sound – NOISE. Art which is good, is kindly to us, bad art shocks us, wakes us up, beats us up- and that fraternity of noise-heads are just too fraternal, too moralistic to beat up the critic, to beat him or her up, other than some reply on a web-site, everything should be friendly, welcoming, familiar. That is why the idea of resting in peace seems so odd – but then perhaps not- good friends standing watch of each other and sending to sleep with lullabies? I do hope I’ve not upset anyone… (jliat)
Address: http://www.obfuscatedrecords.com/ob/
MYSTIFIED – COMING DAYS (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
SGHOR – REVERSED AND UNEASY OLD VARIATIONS IN MINOR SCALE (ELLHOX OLIVA ELL ELLENTRE VISJOUX DRONES) (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
B*TONG – UN_B*TONG (3″CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
From what I heard from Mystified, I quite enjoyed it. Music that could in any sort of direction, ambient, drones, field recordings and even a bit of noise. Mystified is the work of Thomas Park, existing since 2002. Here he creates seven pieces of drone music, using trombone, overtone flute and pan pipe and I assume all the subject of sampling and/or heavy processing, as its not always easy to recognize any of these sources in the music. Very occasionally we may recognize a little bit of blowing down pipes, but it feeds heavily through sound effects and creates a massive, dark and atmospheric sound, a full sound but clearly with some detail. Small melodies shimmer through, such as in the particularly moody ‘The Shock Of Coming Days’, complete with a hammering slow industrial rhythm, but then also majestically slow humming in ‘Faux Rapture’. A fine album, one of the better for him, as far as I can judge that is of course.
I never heard of Sghor, who apparently started to release CDs in 2004, and has done some more noise oriented work. According to the label we should look for ‘Krautrock acts such as Harmonia, atmospheric black metal, and near-silent lowercase frequency manipulations’. The title of this release indicates that the music was reversed from whatever the original was and otherwise manipulated, but it never sounds ‘uneasy’, at least that’s what the label claims. I beg to offer. If the idea is to create some form of ambient music than this is perhaps ‘uneasy’ ambient music. The music, all through synthetic means created on a computer, doesn’t have much warmth around it. Chilly, icey sounds, which dwells mainly in the mid-to high end region of the spectrum, but occasionally a bit distorted, i.e. recorded too loud. The whole aspect of reversing escaped me a bit, or black metal, or lowercase or Harmonia. Not well spend on me, and I am usually friendly to all things drone. What’s wrong with me?
Swiss-swedish artist B*Tong is perhaps best known for his ambient soundscapes, but on this new release opens up a new style. Six short tracks in which he uses digital manipulation of various sound sources. I am altogether not too convinced that this direction is that interesting. The label may call this a cross-over between Mille Plateaux/Lowercase on one side and Burroughs/Gysin/Henri Chopin on the other, perhaps because there is some voice material used in here. But this material all sounds pretty digital to me, and consists of pitch-shifting, time-stretching and such like but not really done in a nice way. Perhaps done in Ableton Live, and then have a bunch of loops running along. ‘Femme Fetale’ is the track of which I thought worked best – also stretching times, but at least put together in the form of a nice composition. I must admit however that his previous style works better for me. Maybe he should have chosen a new name for this new direction. (FdW)
Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
PIERRE JUILLARD – AQUIFERE (3″CDR by Kaon)
In the ongoing series of ‘processed river sounds’ (recorded by Cedric Peyronnet) we have here a new name, Pierre Juillard. Since I don’t know anything about him, I just have to be rely on the music. The last few in this series seemed to be turning away from the pure field recordings work, this new one starts out with a collage-like form of various river sounds, before moving over into a very nicely treated electronic sound from those river recordings. Hard to say what it is that he does. Sometimes we hear bits of the original, but then inside a sort of ambient back-drop, which some might call acousmatic. Atmospheric, a bit dark, a bit moody, and something that works wonderfully well. An excellent piece, reminding me of Lionel Marchetti. So, who the hell this guy? And where can we hear some more? (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaon.org
DECEH – FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE (cassette by The Tapeworm)
BURNING TREE – STINGER (cassette by The Tapeworm)
PETER HOPE-EVANS – CAST-OFFERINGS: VISITATIONS, FETCHES, REVENANTS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
Three entirely different cassette releases here from The Tapeworm. There are no bandmembers listed on the cover of the release by Deceh, but (internet-) belief has it that at least two members of Eleh are involved – Eleh being an influential drone company of a more mysterious kind (and seldom reviewed in these pages). Their tape is made with a Hammond organ and a sruti box, that drone instrument from India. Both sides have the same five pieces, which according to the cover are played ‘with attention given to the organization of isolated frequencies and the effects of these vibrations on brain activity’. In the first piece one wouldn’t say these are sounds from a Hammond organ nor struti box, but a physically loud piece of closely linked drones – trademark of Eleh. But as the tape progresses things tone down a bit more and then drones arrive which are more mellow and meditative. I am not sure if and which part of this particular brain was effected, but it surely sounded great – but me being a sucker for drone music anyway. Excellent tape.
By total contrast we have also Burning Tree, a duo of from Norway, being Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums and Dag Stilberg on saxophone. Normally he plays these with a whole bunch of guitar effects (in his other band Maranata), but here its all acoustic, for both of them. Total and utter free improvised music – free-jazz if you will. This tape last thirty-five minutes and this seems to me the same amount of time spend in the studio – with stuff like this there is no need for editing, dubbing or producing – this music is just being documented, ‘as is’. Now you could easily wonder if this music needs to be documented at all, or wether its the live element that should count only. Obviously I don’t agree – I think it should be, and when recorded under fine conditions: why not. This reminded me of an old Dutch band, Der Junge Hund, whose first LP lasted thirty-five minutes and they didn’t spend more time in the studio. Ear blasting, chaotic, wild, lovely.
The third side of the medallion, should it have one, is the music of Peter Hope-Evans. In the seventies he was a member of Medicine Head and as such darlings of the late John Peel, even recording for his Dandelion label, but these days he is stuck on a houseboat with his collection of jew harps, mouth organ, bells and his own voice, plus Baby Taylor occasionally on guitar. The walkman with a recording possibility is set up and Hope-Evans plays his music – I assume blues like, if I was someone who knows these sort of things (if only!) – but even more sparse, to the bare chilling bone. Hope-Evans doesn’t have the right sort of voice for it, being a bit unstable but perhaps that is part of the aesthetic of this? A most curious item, one of those where you could think someone is playing a joke on the listener. Just that thought made me smile. After Burning Tree a breath of fresh air. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tapeworm.org.uk/
THE REPORT FROM DISTANT LANDS: RUSSIA (three cassettes by Impulsy Stetoskopu)
The subtitle made me suspicious that this is a new series of compilations. On cassette. Three of them. Now obviously most people are aware that I don’t like to review compilations (on all formats) and when they arrive in the form of three cassettes, each lasting 90 minutes, you know how I feel (meanwhile answering e-mail from people who ask me where the hell their review is of something that I received in the last few days – is it just me or do more people have just 24 hours at their disposal?). Ok, so the subtitle is ‘Russia’, and this means no doubt that all of the bands presented here are indeed from Russia. A quick scan learned that I know Wozzeck, I might have seen the Exit In Grey before, maybe Kshatriy, but not the others (which are, never mind the long list – but hey, I have four hours of music ahead – Zen Porno/Dizen Porno, All Blacks, Riby Dien,MFC, Booby Masoon, Instant Movie Combinations, Obozdur, Cyclotimia, Sagittarius Promo Group, Mimi Hatua, Admi, Rajfajh, Post-Materialists, Three Dead Dogs, Nyctalops, Shum Davar, DHNW, Razxca, Blockhead’s Guts, Rose Sobchak, Lowhumgaz and Alisa-Yhtye). Some of these pieces are pretty long, which is good thing since it gives a fine impression of what an artist can do, but if one thinks a track is boring, skipping to the next is not always easy on this format. I expected a lot of noise and while this is never ‘easy’ listening by any standard, the level of pure harsh noise is in fine balance with more interesting experiments in electronics. The piece by MFC on the first tape is such an example of pointless distorted lo-fi noise. On the other side a fine piece by Dizen Porno of computerized field recordings that however doesn’t outlast the entire length, which may also go for the Kshatriy track. All of this is pretty abstract music, but a piece like ‘Financial Glossary’ by Cyclomtimia is more music, with spoken word and rhythms. The entire third tape is very noisy. I skipped a bit through it, but not much could bother me in that department. (FdW)
Address: http://www.impulsystetoskopu.pl
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