NAVEL – AMBIENT 3/FROM VERY FAR OUT (CD by Musea Records) *
FIRST LAW – A FUTURE SO BRIGHT (CD by Loki) *
ERIC LUNDE – FAUSTNOTFAUST (CD/DVDR by Trait Media) *
TAKAMOVSKY – IN STREAMS (CD by Etymtone)
JEREMIE MATHES – EFEQUEN (CD by Unfantomhless) *
MACHINEFABRIEK – DOEPFER WORM (CD by Entr’acte) *
MACHINEFABRIEK – VERGEZICHTEN (10″ by Alien Transistor) *
PHILIP CORNER – ROCKS CAN FALL AT ANY TIME (LP by More Mars)
YOUR VICTORIAN BREATS (2LP by Three:four Records)
NORBERT MÖSLANG – FUZZ_GALOPP (LP by Bocian Records)
KEVIN DRUMM – KITCHEN (LP by Bocian Records)
FFT PLAYERS – CARCOMA (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
FUFFO – NOISE IBERICO (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
MODERN MUSIC MECHANICS (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
M. ARMANI – CONSTRUINDO SOMBRAS (CDR by Luscinia Discos) *
TIM BLECHMANN & MANUEL KNAPP – VIII (CDR by Nada) *
DEUCE – MY NAME WAS DEUCE 1998-2009 (4CDR by Mik Musik) *
SURFACE HOAR VS KENJI SIRATORI – CORPSE CITY (CDR by Roil Noise) *
YOSHIMI – BOTTELAARS EN BEESTEN (CDR by YCR)
NOISE FACTORY 2011: KLANGFASERN (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
POEMBEAT – MIND (3″CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
NECK VS. THROAT – VOLUME 2 (3″CDR Fencing Flatworm Recordings) *
VIPCANCRO/ANDREA BORGHI (cassette by Cipher Productions)
WILLIAM CLAY MARTIN – FUTURE STREET (cassette, private)
PATRICK THINSY – DISAPPEARANCES (cassette by Tanuki Records)
L.E.G. – THE DOGS IN YOU (cassette by Tanuki Records)
WOODGER SPEECE/THIERRY BURNHOUT – 14 RHYTHMS FOR JAMILLA/THIS BEEHIVE STATE (cassette by Tanuki Records)
NAVEL – AMBIENT 3/FROM VERY FAR OUT (CD by Musea Records)
Musical interests come in waves, and start building. Then we have a scene, a hype, a wave. Around the year 1998-2000 to play moody, atmospheric music on your guitar, the extension from post rock, less the drums, was a big time thing. It was then I discovered Germany’s Navel, even releasing two limited CDRs on my own little corner of the empire, which I thought was a fine band, with a bunch of fine releases. I must admit I didn’t think much of the band or their music in the last ten or so years, after leaving the empire. Discogs learns me they had a release in 2005 (after already a period of silence), then went silent and in 2011 did a cassette for Koppklys and for Cosmic Winnetou one in 2012. Quite out of the blue there is now a new CD on the French Musea Records label. The two recent tapes are also called ‘Ambient 4’ and ‘Ambient 5’, with a subtitle to follow, but if that is a wise thing? I don’t know, it sounds of course a bit too much like Brian Eno, for me at least. But alright, it’s ‘To Brian again’, as the cover says. There is, perhaps, good news and bad news. To start with the latter: I don’t think Navel doesn’t do anything out of the usual ordinary, but perhaps I didn’t expect so. The title is of course a give away. It’s still highly atmospheric. If there is a difference, then it’s in the long opening piece ‘Tuning The Amalthea Moon Orchestra’, which is drone like but seems to be entirely constructed from the use of sounds of an orchestra tuning up (which sound like they are preparing for Ravel’s ‘Bolero’, but perhaps I am mistaken). Nicely sustaining sounds with an orchestral crescendo slowly building up. The good news is that it sounds great. Obviously I am (still) a sucker of this kind of ambient guitar/isolationist/drone rock-with-no-drums along the lines of say Stars Of The Lid, but certainly in that opening piece Navel shows they expand their traditional ambient structures into something else, something more orchestral – even when they try to make it sound like a real orchestra – applause included at the end). The other two pieces are perhaps a bit more traditional, by any standard, but it’s an excellent release, and a fine reminder to play their older work again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.musearecords.com
FIRST LAW – A FUTURE SO BRIGHT (CD by Loki)
Andres Wahlmann is the man behind First Law, although the ‘s’ is written with different sign, which I can’t find on my keyboard. It’s already his 7th album as First Law, but the first introduction I have to his music. The title may suggest uplifting music, but it’s not always like that here when it comes to the music, which is all a bit dark and cloudy. Cloudy, not clouded. The music is recorded well, with lots of clarity in the sounds and the final production, laying great emphasis on drums, many layers of guitars, lots of effects, some vocals and perhaps some synthesizers, or such similar, or some of anything similar to create atmospheric tunes. Because that’s what this is all about: atmospheric tunes of a rather dark nature. But it’s not y’r traditional drone music. Far from it. This borders on techno like music, but slowed down or pseudo/quasi ethnic music, slowly bouncing in a world that is otherwise inhabited by worm and bacteria, rotten and broken cables or showing the post nuclear world, right after a full blast. The sky is pitch black but there is still life to be noted. That makes the title of a release like this quite ironic, or sarcastic – whatever school of thought you want of course. Overall, First Law needs at least eight minutes, or more, to tell his story, which is a bit long I thought. Too long sometimes and he could easily make some of these pieces a bit more concise. That would make the CD, I think, stronger. Overall, this album reminded me of Swedish musicians, which, to be honest, I haven’t heard in a while, such as Deutsch Nepal or the old Morthound. Not the worst to be compared with, but perhaps at the same time not always my most favorite sort of music. I can hear it’s quality, but not always which to be under such dark clouds. (FdW)
Address: http://loki-found.de
ERIC LUNDE – FAUSTNOTFAUST (CD/DVDR by Trait Media)
Along with this, there is a sheet of paper in which Eric Lunde talks about his wordpress site amalgamatedtorsoandsuch, where we don’t see a lot, but this text explains his interest in spoken. From John Giorno’s Poetry Sytems and Richard Kostelanetz to Brion Gysin and most importantly William S. Burroughs, especially his record on Industrial Records. Working with voices, reducing them, erasing, finding new meanings along the process. On his new CD he returns to the story of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil for all knowing knowledge, but of comes to regret that. ‘FaustNotFaust’ should be seen as a ‘noise-opera’. Unlike say Burroughs, Lunde uses musical elements along his voice material, and makes it indeed to an opera like work. Orchestral bits, computer bits (mostly time stretching() as well as the usual methods from Lunde of re-recording voice material with the cheapest technology available. Perhaps its not easy to see much difference with his previous work on this subject, nor as a whole in his recent work, but it’s quite a fine release – again. As a fan, you can’t go wrong here.
The DVDR shows us studio and live work carried out with this material, but then with found footage, cut-up and flickering images. Bits from films, which don’t mean much to me, but perhaps I don’t see enough films (Richard Burton playing Faust, F.W. Murneau), which are treated with rudimentary effects. Lots of skulls, lots of images of the ockult. Nicer, perhaps, is the recording of a live concert, so we can see how Lunde performs this in concert, sitting behind a table armed with cassette players, tv screens around, beamer projection, and a metal statue of an animal – most likely the devil, I should think. This opera doesn’t know any arias or theatrics, but is more alike an Robert Ashley one, rather that Richard Wagner. A nice added bonus, this DVDR. (FdW)
Address: http://traitcentral.com
TAKAMOVSKY – IN STREAMS (CD by Etymtone)
Juergen Berlakovic is a musician and linguist who lives and works in Vienna. The label Etymtone was designed by him and is also responsible for the first release of his solo project Takamovsky. The debut album “In Streams” deals about life and communication at different levels, such as the barking of a dog, the polite smile, the lack of contact and non-communication through social media. The ten songs are different in terms of atmosphere, good close to the subject what he musical highlights. The song “Lonesome DJ?” has a great beat, continuous human beatbox sample-and uptempo bass, in short, it is a perfect floor filler. ?Data d’amour? tells about the digitization of the human body, with a strumming acoustic guitar, distorted vocals and electronic sounds. The number “Analogue Cheese Smile” dripping of sarcasm and about the fake smile is palpable. Besides this project plays Juergen Berlakovic Federal also in literature and music performance duo Sergei Monthau and The Vegetable Orchestra. The orchestra consists of 12 members and make music with instruments made from vegetables. The musical centipede knows how to put music, sound and word art seamlessly together. With “In Streams” he puts at least a plain statement of how the communication takes place today with humor and musicality. Not to be missed! (JKH)
Address: http://www.etymtone.com
JEREMIE MATHES – EFEQUEN (CD by Unfantomhless)
Following a CDR on Mystery Sea and a CD for Basses Frequences, here is a new CD by Jeremie Mathes, who made his recordings on Lanzarote in March 2010. Well-known holiday resort, I believe, and it would be interesting to see if he picked any of that up here, besides sea washes, nocturnal insects and aquatic plants, as promised on the cover. Human voices we only hear in the first piece, and only for a short bit. From there on, we only hear the sound of nature. Indeed sea-side, wind, insects and maybe plants. Maybe, since I am not really sure what they should sound like. This release I thought was a fine one. Nice sounds, but together quite well, into five pieces of entertaining (perhaps the wrong word) music, but at the same time I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that this didn’t stand out in any way from so many others who work in this field of music. It’s good, it’s solid, it’s fine, but where does it stand out? That, I know, is not always something that is required, but maybe today I feel differently. Is more of the same as good as well? I am not sure. This release sounds all great, but not different enough from the pack. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unfathomless.net
MACHINEFABRIEK – DOEPFER WORM (CD by Entr’acte)
MACHINEFABRIEK – VERGEZICHTEN (10″ by Alien Transistor)
Two releases from Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as the highly prolific Machinefabriek. With his vast output you could easily think that because of the high demand for his music, it’s always the same. That is, luckily, not the case. Zuydervelt operates within the realms of atmospheric music, but always knows to change his tune a bit, by working with new instruments or sounds. These two recent releases proof that. On the first Zuydervelt works with modular synthesizers. In the two pieces that are called ‘Worm’, the synthesizers are part of the CEM Studios, these housed in that lovely multi-purpose place called Worm, in Rotterdam. Ancient synth stuff there. The third piece is made with a Doepfer Dark Energy synthesizer. It’s not easy to hear where one piece ends and the next starts. All three pieces are presented as collages, in that Zuydervelt is twiddling the dials and knobs on these machines and the resulting recordings are spliced together into the final compositions. These sometimes remind the listener of what we know from Machinefabriek when he hits upon drone like sounds, but sometimes he uses shorter sounds and small blocks, and arrives at that very minimal ‘one tick’ sound – repeated of course and then forming a small rhythmic particles that may (or may not remind you on Pan Sonic). Quite a fine album, I’d say. It has that atmospheric side of the best of Machinefabriek, but also opens new doors to new areas. It’s not as dry academic as some of the more serious (60s) electronic music, but it certainly owes to that world. A great addition to that immense body of work, not just for the die-hards but also for those who demand something new.
On ‘Vergezicht’ he uses source material from Mariska Baars (voice) and Espen Reinertsen (saxophone), but also a hammond auto-vari 64 rhythm box. Rhythm is not something he worked with a lot, as far as I can remember. In the first piece the rhythm box plays an extensive role, indeed varying in beats and tempi. In the background we have some drone like sounds. Hmm. I am not sure about this move. It sounds not like anything we heard from him before, but it also sounds a bit clumsy and not really worked out. A bit thrown together. In ‘Vergezicht 2’, on the other side, the rhythm machine only appears half way through the piece and here it’s pushed away in favor of much more present drone sounds. It starts out like a ‘standard’ Machinefabriek piece, but the slow far away thumb of the beat, makes this a bit different indeed, certainly when, in the last two minutes, it becomes louder and almost becomes a real moody song. This is certainly a surprising track too, but also a piece that is very good. Mixed feelings here about this record. (FdW)
Address: http://entracte.co.uk
Address: http://www.alientransistor.de
PHILIP CORNER – ROCKS CAN FALL AT ANY TIME (LP by More Mars)
This year Philip Corner will turn 80, yet he’s still around to produce music. He studied with Henry Cowell, Otto Luening and Olivier Mesiaen in the fifties, but interests in Zen Buddhism turned him towards Fluxus, of which he is regarded a founding member. His musical pieces defy compositional logic, but are also not entirely rooted in the world of improvisation. Here, on this new LP release, we find four historical pieces, from 1982, 1989, 1997 and 1999. On the A-side these are percussion pieces, one recorded in Bali and one in New York, while on the b-side there is a piece for two trombones and a harmonium piece. The way Corner ‘scores’ his pieces (booklet enclosed) is very open, giving some guidelines, free to the player for his own interpretation. All four pieces have a fine zen like character. Music that starts, stops and not particular leads you anywhere. There is a bit of sound; especially on the b-side its all quite sparse. In the ‘Om. Duet: Jug And Bottle’ piece, with James Fulkerson on trombone, the recording is very low, but all the hiss adds a fine ‘other’ texture to the music. In the harmonium piece there is a mild form of distortion, which might be intentional or the pressing, but it sounds fine. A irregular pattern of clusters here. The more percussive pieces on the first side are somewhat louder of course, but have a similar fine relaxing quality, like wind chimes on a spring morning in a desolated industrial area (in ‘Gong (Ceng-Ceng)’). Very free music from a radical background, to some perhaps more art than music, but even without the Fluxus context, I think this works quite well as music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.moremars.org
YOUR VICTORIAN BREATS (2LP by Three:four Records)
Apparently there was a band called Supreme Dicks (from Amherst, MA) who played lo-fi noise, avant-garde and psychedelia, who recorded but never released a song called ‘Your Victorian Breasts’. This double LP compilation is not an attempt to re-create that song, but a collection of ‘otherwise unreleased’ tracks by twenty-three artists. Whatever the reason is for these pieces not being released is not important. They can be demos (unfinished or never worked out into a proper song), archive material (Supreme Dicks, but not with that song who gave the title to this release), covers, live recordings or simply too new to have been released otherwise. The track list reads like a who’s who in alternative music, ‘but with a guitar somewhere’: Hamilton Yarns, Alastair Galbraith, Robert Hampson, Ignatz and Black To Comm, being the names I heard before, but also (for me unknown) such as Circuit Des Yeux, Mendrugo, Raajmahal, ARP, Filipe Felizardo, Arit, William Taylor, Date Palms, Roger tellier-Craig, Corridors, Pigeons, Syracuse Ear, Eric Chenaux and Alvarius B. A curious mix of many songs with a guitar tinkling somewhere, with spoken sung voices, very few bits of electronics, and most curiously none of these songs sounds like there is good reason not to release them. So why weren’t they released I wondered? Finely lo-fi, almost pop like music, all more or less of a moody, introspective nature. Excellent stuff, good to see this released, finally. (FdW)
Address: http://www.three-four.net
NORBERT MÖSLANG – FUZZ_GALOPP (LP by Bocian Records)
KEVIN DRUMM – KITCHEN (LP by Bocian Records)
Two new LPs on Bocian Records, who march on as if there is no crisis. The first one is a live album, perhaps not a favorite of mine. I always ask myself: why this concert released, certainly when it comes to solo musicians. Was this an unique event, a highlight in performing live, an excellent recording? Norbert Möslang – once of Möslang/Gühl – plays cracked everyday electronics and on August 22nd 2010 he did so at Espace Multimedia Gantner. I saw Möslang/Gühl once live, maybe twenty-year or so (or more!) years ago and that was great. Very noisy, very much a direct collage of loud and soft sounds, from broken cables and such like, but I never saw Möslang play live. In his solo work, Möslang creates more ongoing sounds, like they have been sampled or something alike. It’s hard to guess what it is all about. It makes up a massive droning sound which is generated by an extensive amount of reverb. On top he produces some more loosely connected sounds. It sounds like it has been recorded with quite some distance between the music and the microphone, which doesn’t make this the best recording, even with that deep bass end towards the end of the second side. For me that is. Why would you want to release something like this, I wondered. It’s a live document for sure, and something for the fans.
Of more interest for me, a critic fan (?), is the new record by Kevin Drumm. Normally a man of somewhat louder music, to avoid the word noise, but sometimes also a man of softer movements. Like on ‘Kitchen’, named after the place where he ‘recycled’ 1996 recordings of accordion playing by Eric Wood. Here too I must admit I have no idea what Drumm did to those original recordings, but I am fairly sure it involves quite an amount of computer treatments. My best guess, for both sides actually, he time stretches a bunch of loops of a varying length and puts these in his multi-track program. Then the process of mixing takes place. Subtle differences are created with EQ-ing, changes in the volume and such like. The main difference between both sides is that Drumm on one end has a more subtle variation of these principles and on the other hand a more louder, angular version. The latter seems like fed through a bunch of stomp boxes or maybe it’s slowed down even more? Whatever the case, it sounds like a much more digital exercise than the other side. I actually may have favored the more subtle side of it, but the ‘noise’ end also worked quite well, I must say. Here the element of ‘shifting’ was more intense too, and on the other side more balanced. No indication as to what is side one or two, nothing on the label, and the record all transparent. Just how we like them best, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bocianrecords.com
FFT PLAYERS – CARCOMA (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
FUFFO – NOISE IBERICO (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
MODERN MUSIC MECHANICS (CDR/free download at Hazard Records)
The Spanish label Hazard Records started in 1998 and releasedCD-Rs. Music should be accessible for everyone and for a cheap price. Hence the label now offers music over the internet as a free download in both WAV and MP3 format. Copyright is hard to find in this label, copyleft is what reigns supreme. FFT Players released “Carcoma”. The music is made by Inigo Llanos and Iker Ormazalbal and the duo uses guitar, effects and a laptop and builds an ominous atmosphere, with elements of drone and noise especially used in their musical spectrum. The sounds are dirty, the sound layers are comprehensive and are interspersed with sound from the high and low frequencies, or a heavily distorted guitar. An intense release with a nice concept of repeating parties, experiments on noisy guitar and electronics, that gives the sound barrier a creative character.
Fuffo comes from Spain and is pure noise. Four tracks can be found on their release “Noise Iberico”. The release starts atmospheric, but soon changed it into a circling sound, with a different sound heights pass. The second song starts with a bare touch, that sonically more crowded with different types of noise. The rhythm remains in the number present and the wall builds up slowly. The consecutive numbers are fuller and more vicious noise terms. The strength of Tuffo is the structure that it builds up within his compositions and layer by layer build up, as if it is a controlled chaos, which leads to a strong intensity.
The latest release of Hazard Records is the eponymous debut by Modern Music Mechanics, which treats the listener on 14 numbers. A mix of electronica, noise, blues, punk, and pop music spoken-word characterizes the music. Accessibility is hard to find in this release. It seems like it is a quest in which direction Modern Music Mechanics will go to. Conventional song structures give way to abstract sound collages or walk over to delayed electronic music. The eclectic approach to music is interesting, but sometimes it is out of step, by the frequent use of filters on voices. All in all, this brainteaser a good start to a musical adventure. (JKH)
Address: http://www.hazardrecords.org
M. ARMANI – CONSTRUINDO SOMBRAS (CDR by Luscinia Discos)
Recently Luscinia Discos became one of my favorite CDR labels. Excellent, almost professional packaging and great music, always by people I never heard of. Although the label is from Spain, it carries many links to South America. Like for instance the work of Marcelo Armani, from Brazil. He’s mainly a drummer and percussion player, but here he also plays flutes, clarinet, accordion, plastic, glass and metal objects, samples and field recordings. His main interest is in improvised music; in 2012 he started the 1take label, which name says it all, I should think. However I don’t believe his ‘Construido Sombras’, which is his third solo album, is all recorded in one take. This seems to me to be the construction of various sounds and instrumental passages cut together with perhaps the help of a computer. It’s hard to pin this music down to a specific style. It carries bits of a lot of different interests. There is a rock like structures, free jazz like wind instruments, electro-acoustic sounds thrown about in the form of ongoing looped patterns. There touches of ethnic percussion. A fine sense of experimentation within song structure, which reminded me of the more daring new ‘pop/postpunk’ in the early 80s. A film music score in ‘El Vuelo De Chancina’. Highly musical, yet very adventurous. Moving all over the place, yet blending it all together in a great way, making this is a very diversified disc, but one that sounds strangely familiar. Excellent! (FdW)
Address: http://luscinia.ruidemos.org
TIM BLECHMANN & MANUEL KNAPP – VIII (CDR by Nada)
A work of laptops and electronics that started in the world of improvised music, more or less that is. Tim Blechmann studied informatics and is ‘predominately’ an improviser with laptop and a composer of computer music, while Knapp studied painting in Vienna and computer music and electronic music at the University of the same city. I assume this forty minute piece is the result of playing together and taping that, rather then the product of endless shaping and editing of recordings. A very linear work here with atmospheric drone at the core and slow building of the final composition. Buzzing static, humming, but with some interesting variety of sounds here. What I like about this is the fact that is doesn’t stay in the perfectly nice drone scapes world, but rather adds a whole bunch of nasty sounds and makes it almost aggressively loud. It’s like they found a bunch of recordings made inside airplanes and added those the music. When it gets loud, say around the twelve minute mark it stays loud almost until the very end, but it end is again delicate. It’s the louder mechanical machine humm that made this for me into a very nice work. It borders to the edges of noise music but has so much more to offer. (FdW)
Address: http://nadacdr.blogspot.com
DEUCE – MY NAME WAS DEUCE 1998-2009 (4CDR by Mik Musik)
‘Fortunately there were some hard disk disasters, so there are some tracks missing’, Deuce notes dryly on the liner notes for his 4CDR set covering his output from 1998 to 2009; the eleven years in which he was active as Deuce, releasing music on Mik Musik (see for instance reviews in Vital Weekly 320 and 414), active with concerts during some of this period, and getting to be household name in Europe’s finest underground. In a more or less chronological order we go through his career here, with, if I’m not mistaken 99 songs in total. You can imagine these songs aren’t very long which is actually in favor of the music. Sometimes it seems they are merely attempts at songs, with a few loops running around (such as ‘Heavy Afternoon’), but in most cases they are finished. Deuce takes his inspiration from electronic pop music, elektro and hip hop, but is effectively weird enough to be different; perhaps to say: this is underground and will never be commercial. Just a few synths, a drum machine and occasional voice input – a point which Deuce never was fully satisfied about, and a reason to discontinue this project – makes this flexible music, which surely invites to think about friday night, weekend, party-time, that sort of feeling is what this music evokes, at least for me that is. You could wonder if playing four CDRs in a row isn’t a bit much but actually it’s not. You can slowly follow the evolution of Deuce – yes, there is a bit of difference between 1998 and 2009. The later years had songs that were more worked out, well rounded, Felix Kubin inspired against the more sketch like approach of the early years. So on a Friday night start early with mixing cocktails, play this all the way through and then hit the town like there is no Saturday. Don’t play this when hung over. It should be a government health warning! (FdW)
Address: http://www.mikmusik.org/
KEV HOPPER – TONKA BEANO (CDR by Linear Obsessional Recordings)
A former member of Stump and Ticklish, this Kev Hopper, who has new album on Richard Sanderson’s Linear Obsessional Recordings – another ex-member of Ticklish. These days he has a trio with Rhordri Marsen and Frank Byng under the name of Prescott. In his solo work he uses a lot of samplers and sampling sounds, here on ‘Tonka Beano’ restricted to using sounds from the virtual modular synthesizer Reaktor. Hopper created a great album, with a lot of different angles to his electronic sounds. It morphes into abstract soundscapes, but as easily it can be a piece of crazed dance music, such as in ‘Marzipanned’ or ‘Funny Little Thing 2’, or something along the lines of serious sixties avant-garde electronics. Playful music at work here, hopping all over the place but oddly enough it’s still a very strong album, with lots of interests, I should think. Pleasant and funny, but at the same time also serious and well crafted. This is one of those releases that completely takes you by surprise and you wonder: why just a CDR, why not a great LP release? And also: does the rest of his work sound any similar? All valid questions raised after this excellent release. (FdW)
Address: http://linearobsessional.weebly.com
SURFACE HOAR VS KENJI SIRATORI – CORPSE CITY (CDR by Roil Noise)
Despite a few music releases of his own Kenji Siratori is best known as a cyber punk writer and some of his writings are included here in the booklet, in English, which is a good thing, since he speaks his text in Japanese on this CD. The music is provided by Surface Hoar, who before surprised me with their sample heavy music. I am hardly an expert on cyber punk writings, so I am a bit lost in pieces like ‘Anti-Vital’ (hey!), the two part title track, ‘Dark Side’, ‘Orbit’ or ‘Transfiguration’. The voice is largely untreated, save perhaps for a bit of echo here and there and is in general a bit louder than the music, which is a pity. Since you can’t make out what this is all about – unless of course you a Japanese tongue – it doesn’t matter probably. But since it’s dominant in the mix, it’s hard to avoid the voice and I think it’s a bit in the way of the music. For someone like me, whose primary interest lies in music and not so much in words, that is a pity. I’d loved to have that music is a bit better: I think I detected some mighty fine dark drone rumble in there, but it was hard to determine if that was all about a few sounds, or wether there would be a number of smaller changes inside the music. I would more than perfectly to read the cyber punk at any time that is convenient for me, while listening to instrumental music at the same. (FdW)
Address: http://www.roilnoise.com/
YOSHIMI – BOTTELAARS EN BEESTEN (CDR by YCR)
Sometimes I seriously doubt wether these reviews are read by those who send in their music. Yoshimi!, being Nick Hilkmann from Rotterdam, is no doubt a love-able young man, but his music is just not the kind of music for me. His previous album (see Vital Weekly 797) was all in Dutch, red flag raised here, his new album is a kind of best of – why, at this point in his career I wondered – from his career 2007 to 2012. Still being a kind of Dutch Felix Kubin, or perhaps Harry Merry, and still I think he can be big, somewhere in The Netherlands when the right marketing for him can be found, but any seriously or witty doing a cover of Dire Straits’ ‘Walk Of Life’ seriously doesn’t belong in Vital Weekly. I wish him well in his career, I hope he will be big one day, but Vital Weekly is really not the right vehicle to help him get there. (FdW)
Address: http://ycrrr.nl
NOISE FACTORY 2011: KLANGFASERN (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
POEMBEAT – MIND (3″CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
Oddly enough we don’t hear much from Wolfgang Neven, also known as Y-Ton-G. At least not as much as say twenty years ago, but the one thing he still organizes is the Noise Factory gathering. Ever year, also since maybe close to twenty years, he invites musicians for a stay of a few days in a farm (I believe) and these musicians start jamming around. I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think every year has gotten it’s own release, but here is the 2011 document. Participants that year were Greta Schmitthammer (Das Un-Preetzise Klang-Klang-Labor), Sascha E. Czucha, Robert Frey and Alexander Marco. While there is one piece here, of sixty-one minutes, I more or less assume, this is a mix of various bits that were recorded that year. I think the whole thing is not so much about creating a piece together through finely composing sounds, but rather the joy of playing and creating together on the spot. From all of these jam-sessions, this one-hour long piece is created. Don’t let the title mislead you: this has very little to do with noise in the true sense of the word. All of this is rather atmospheric music played on a wide variety of sound sources. Objects being pushed around, metal rubs against metal, small electronics find a place in the mix, bits of radio and, for all I know, real time laptop processing or any such thing alike. The result is a fine blend of highly atmospheric sounds, aided by a fair (as in not too much) amount of reverb. Sometimes a bit in search of the right flow, but nevertheless quite a powerful, intense listening trip.
I am not sure if I heard of Poembeat before, but there is the suggestion about previous releases. Here no spoken poetry, but the instruments telling a story. This release, five tracks in sixteen minutes, is the first of a trilogy. Why not all of those pieces on one release, I think; there might very well enough releases out there as it is. The music here is created with guitar and keyboards and throughout appears to be soft in volume. There is/was certainly room for some additional mastering. The relatively quietness of the music doesn’t work in favor of the music I think (as I usually think with these kind of soft releases). Obviously Poembeat wants to work inside the field of ambient music, but maybe he should, for example, take Eno’s ‘Apollo’ CD and listen to how that sounds, mastering wise. Here the music is all soft, non-intrusive, non-demanding and barely ‘there’. You could wonder what purpose this music has, other than being just ‘ambient’ I guess. It’s nice, it’s wallpaper, it’s ambient, indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
NECK VS. THROAT – VOLUME 2 (3″CDR Fencing Flatworm Recordings)
A second collaborative work between Throat, also known as Yol, from Hull and Miguel from Mexico. The latter plays guitar neck, electricity and string damage and Yol throat and discarded objects. They worked together before (see Vital Weekly 839) and here they have five more pieces, quite short. Thirteen minutes in total and with a small booklet with some more poetry or perhaps the texts were are hearing. I assume they work together through mail, although it sounds like they work together and it’s recorded down in a empty concrete basement. Quite hollow at that. It’s all improvised playing on the guitar, which I assume comes second. First Yol records his shouting – less Schimpfluch now, but still with a fair amount of aggression and spit, but less performance like. It seemed less noise based than their previous outing and perhaps the briefness of the pieces made me like this even better than the previous, which I found alright, but not great. This one is good, but not great. Minor but more positive difference. (FdW)
Address: http://radiofreemidwich.wordpress.com
VIPCANCRO/ANDREA BORGHI (cassette by Cipher Productions)
Unlike the 80s, these cassette packaging are rather dull. J-card in a plastic box is what rules these days and not bathing sponges, pyramids and soup cans. This split tape is the exception: piece of bend and cut down vinyl, with a new label attached to it which has the credits. It is a split release but VipCancro (as the spelling dictates) is a band with Andrea Borghi being part of it. They had a CD on Lisca Records before (see Vital Weekly 785). Their instruments are laptop, electronics, percussion, tapes, voice and metals and I should think that all of this is played improvising. It’s not heavy on the drum sounds; the kit is just another player in the field of creating atmospheric sounds. Lots of scraping, textured music with nice rough edges around it. On the other side we find Andrea Borghi who, on his own, produces a hell of lot more noise. It sounds like a bunch of contact microphones attached to resonating surfaces, amplified through guitar amplifiers and recorded on a dictaphone. Quite rough, leaning towards the world of feedback, but it doesn’t get overtly loud here. A pleasant kind of noise, I think. Music from an action, rather than finely composed tunes that got their shape over a bunch of weeks/months. Very nice. Maybe upon close(r) inspection I may have switched the sides. Damn. Cassettes. You can never be sure. (FdW)
Address: http://iheartnoise.com/cipherproductions
WILLIAM CLAY MARTIN – FUTURE STREET (cassette, private)
Formerly William Clay Martin was known as The James Family and in 2004 he released something on the Spintonic label ‘and even longer ago in Internet years’, as he writes. The four songs on this highly limited tape (25 in total) were recorded from September 2012 to January 2013 and, while nothing mentioned on the cover, the guitar seems to be his primary instrument. Played to create both drones as more lighter ambient textures. Space is the place here, but Martin doesn’t exclusively go for the drone sounds, but let’s his guitar freely tinkle over the given drones or, in ‘Temporary Crown’ he adds a little distortion to his playing, making it sound a bit more krautrock like. In ‘Chloe At The Pocahaunted Show’ he heads to more melodic minimalism. It’s perhaps a pity that these pieces are short and to the point. Why not a bit longer? Why not a bit more, than just these fifteen to twenty minutes? It would perhaps have given us a better and more balanced view of his music. Now are curious, hungry but not entirely satisfied. (FdW)
Address: http://williamclaymartin.bandcamp.com
PATRICK THINSY – DISAPPEARANCES (cassette by Tanuki Records)
L.E.G. – THE DOGS IN YOU (cassette by Tanuki Records)
WOODGER SPEECE/THIERRY BURNHOUT – 14 RHYTHMS FOR JAMILLA/THIS BEEHIVE STATE (cassette by Tanuki Records)
After three years of silence, Tanuki Records returns. Not I heard of them before, I think (I could be wrong). It’s run by Patrick Thinsy, who is a member of Martiensgohome (whom of course we do know) and of L.EG., who are described as a Belgian experimental hip hop group. Nice packaging, perhaps, but without much information. They are all limited to say fifty to seventy copies. The first tape is by Thinsy himself, and it’s quite short, twenty minutes perhaps in total. Of course I’m guessing here, but for all I know, this seem to be two pieces recorded with tone generators right inside a space – the living room maybe of Thinsy himself – with on the second side also some odd bang – heating system? – and a voice? These pieces have certainly a nasty frequency about them but it sounds, despite perhaps its obscurity, quite interesting. Working extensively on the eardrums. Nice.
I have no idea what exactly should be regarded as ‘experimental hip-hop’, but perhaps I have no idea what hip-hop is anyway. It’s probably something other than what I think it is, and what I think I really don’t like. Here too we have short tape and it indeed has the sort-a slow rhythms that I would associate with hip-hop, with some sort of rap by someone who sounds like that done before – hard to tell wether this comes from a record or is actually something new. Ah, and there is some weird sound mixed in, maybe that counts as the ‘experiment’ in here? This tape didn’t win me over to hip-hop; experimental or otherwise.
The last tape is by two bands/projects/people I never heard of, Woodger Speece and Thierry Burnhout. No information whatsoever. To make life more easy, I guess. Because I start guessing, some disgruntled artists/label manager/fan comes forward and tells me I am not a journalist/all wrong/and why the hell do you assume these things? It’s not mentioned on the tape, but let’s say Woodger Speece are on side A and Thierry Burnhout on side B. Woodger Space creates some odd music, which holds somewhere between noise and electro-acoustic object bashing, but it’s also quite a lo-fi recording (Jacques Beloeil must have had a particular job on this), which makes it difficult to say anything sensible about it. It’s alright, is that ok? Thierry Burnhout seems to be at the end of drone music. Hardly surprising music, but in the light of what I just heard with these other tapes on the same label, one could easily state this is the most musical release of this lot. Maybe I write that with a sigh of relief? This would be something I’d love to hear again, and goes beyond ‘ah um interesting’. (FdW)
Address: http://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com