BORIS HEGENBART – INSTRUMENTARIUM (CD by Monotype Records) *
MURCOF & PHILIPPE PETIT – FIRST CHAPTER (CD by Aagoo) *
[OWT KRI] – THE NEW SEED (CD by Alrealon Musique)
DEATHROWRADIO – YUMMY (CD by Distraction Records) *
CIRCULAR – RADIATING PERPTUAL LIGHT (CD by Loki) *
SIC & EDYTA FIL & ILIA BELORUKOV – THESES 2012 (CD by Akt Produkt) *
EPICUREAN ESCAPISM II (CD/DVD/booklet by The Epicurean, Silken Tofu and Peripheral Records)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI – DUST TEARS AND CLOUDS (2CD by Silentes) *
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – WITH/IN (CD by Silentes) *
MICHAEL MANTRA – F/C (LP by Silentes/13)
NIVRITI MARGA (LP by Edition Le Souffleur)
KIILN – IS MUSIC INVISIBLE (CDR by Caduc) *
ALEXANDRE NAVARRO – HOZHO (CDR by Sem) *
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 19 (CDR by L-white Records)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 17 (CDR by Sick Art Products)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 7 (7inch by Cat Killer)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 11 (7inch by Cat Killer)
RECTAL SURGERY/CARSTEN VOLLMER – SPLIT (7inch by Cat Killer)
TIER WOLFF/CARSTEN VOLLMER – DE-MONTAGEN (CDR & 7inch by E-Klageto ? Cat Killer )
CARSTEN VOLLMER VS. GEHIRN. IMPLOSION (12inch by Cat Killer Verstand Recs)
DADALA – JUST LOOK IN MY HEAD (CDR by Dadala Music)
DAO DE NOIZE/NAOKI ISHIDA – SPLIT SERIES #1 (CDR by Zero Kei)
BRANDKOMMANDO/DAO DE NOIZE (cassette by Maniacal Hatred)
SANMI – DX_F (3″CDR by FF Space) *
MOWETON/ASTMA FEAT EDGARDS RUBENIS (double 3″CDR by Intonema)
BRAIN DRAIN – FOR SEASONS (cassette, private)
DUCKYOUSUCKER – OF TOMORROW (cassette, private)
ISA CHRIST – 19 YIN YANGS (cassette by Idiotunderground)
BORIS HEGENBART – INSTRUMENTARIUM (CD by Monotype Records)
Although I read the liner notes of this album, I am not entirely sure what it is about. Its apparently a ‘new focus on the formal coordinates and techniques of dub music. It never sounds like this idiom is coming from the reggae tradition in Jamaica, but even if we leave aside the style consideration, it’s the essence of dub itself that we find here in all its transformative power. Hegenbart used the exclusive recordings of nineteen invited musicians and sound artists […] and the results are not simply a remix of a processing of the material. He dissects everything in detail and brings the more obscure components to the foreground, like in a zooming operation.’ The way I understand this is that these musicians play an instrument, say Stephan Mathieu on drums and that Hegenbart processes that in some way on the computer. That is nice, but in what way is that different from anyone else who uses the laptop as their main instrument? That is hard to find out, and as such I fail to see the dub reference too. I hear nineteen short pieces of music (from two to five minutes) in which we recognize the listed instruments (lots of drums, guitars, bass, violin, bass, but also a saxophone), and they are processed by the workings of the computer program – I assume something like max/msp or pure data. It’s all quite nice, I should think, these computer treatments in combination with the unprocessed version and processed version, but it’s hard to see what’s the out of the ordinary aspect here. I hear nice enough music and the list of contributors is indeed impressive (Fred Frith!, Oren Ambarchi!, Felix Kubin!, David Grubbs! and more!!) but perhaps I am missing something entirely here. Fine computer music though, nothing wrong with that, nothing special either I’d say. (FdW)
Address: http://monotyperecords.com/
MURCOF & PHILIPPE PETIT – FIRST CHAPTER (CD by Aagoo)
Sometimes I wonder: who buys all of this? Are there really that many fans of say Philippe Petit out there who head out and buy all his CDs? In recent times this output has expanded rather dramatically. It’s not easy to keep up. Collaborations are an important feature in his work and here he teams up with Fernando Corona, who is perhaps better known as Murcof. I must admit I don’t know his music at all, despite his many years of activities. He releases on Leaf, who never promo’s this direction, so there you go. I do remember at one point his music was quite ‘hip’. I thought it would be more ambient/IDM, but the press text here recalls ‘bridging a gap between Part and Gorecki and part of the electronic scene of today’. Corona and Petit know each other from concerts where they both played and ultimately also playing together. Three pieces in which Corona is responsible for ‘sound manipulation, synths, mix’ and Petit for ‘kazooed voices, cymbalum, electric psalterion, piano, turntable, vibes, synths and electronics’. It’s an interesting album of dark moody music, of which in the first two pieces it employs some fine drone like material. Sustaining but with care for small details. Violin sounds are played and then subtly stretched out, with a fine doses of reverb and delay, until we land in the world of modern classical music with the mezzo soprano voice of Sarah Jouffroy. But especially Petit knows how to keep on track when it comes to weirdness and as such he does a great job here. ‘The Call Of Circe’, the opening piece, is the longest piece, but it’s also the best. ‘Pegasus’, the shortest piece, has a kind of mediaeval feel to it, with a slow drum and odd stringed sounds. ‘The Summoning Of The Kraken’ is the final piece and it’s I think also the least interesting one. It’s quite open but it works heavily with improvised string sounds and an overuse of the reverb unit. This makes the piece rather ‘freaky’, or ‘unorganized’. It bears the same ideas of modern classical music, over a throbbing heartbeat, but it’s not my cup of tea, unlike the two previous pieces, which I think were great. Very moody, very dark, very orchestral indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://aagoo.com
[OWT KRI] – THE NEW SEED (CD by Alrealon Musique)
The music of [owt kri] is composed and played by Kenneth K, with some support of Ned Jackson and Toni Viitanen on vocals. Kenneth K is inspired by everything around him, His artistic statement is : “every word and sound I hear, every picture I see and every path I take, each experience in life leads to an experiment in art.” This intense statement must lead to an intense way of living. And that is what you can hear to his latest album, which is released on Alrealon Musique, a label which is based on experimental music. The album The Need Seed starts with two ambient pieces in which the title track is based on ongoing string sounds surrounded by piano patterns. The following songs are based on guitar sounds, voices, violin and noises. The music moves from quiet episodes to more restless and nervous atmosphere. The track “Dance in Silence” is a slow piano pieces supported by harmonious string-synthesizer sounds.The title “Ocean Hymn” is well-chosen. It is like deep tones are coming up to the surface and far away there are some more deep sounds which support the sounds of singing whale. The last track “The Sirens Call” is a nice closing track, in which several elements come together, like a screaming guitar, ongoing synths and slowly played piano pieces. The tracks with vocals are unfortunately less subtle and are played in another mood, more based on outer expressions. The variation between the several moods makes this album complete. The album consists ten tracks with the length of a pop-song. I think the album will be much stronger if some instrumental compositions will be longer. (JKH)
Address: http://www.alrealon.co.uk
DEATHROWRADIO – YUMMY (CD by Distraction Records)
Somewhere between Vital Weekly 736 when I heard ‘Parts’ by D-rradio, this duo changed their name to Deathrowradio (and lost a member as their previous incarnation was a trio), which is perhaps what D-rradio meant all along? I was truly taken by their earlier 7″s on the very same label that now releases ‘Yummy’. The change of name is because the band changed the music. Their laptops are closed and the synths have been put in the basement and in came the guitars and the drums. Oh, that’s indeed a change here. But it’s a most welcome change. I liked ‘Parts’ but wasn’t blown away, not as I was with their first 7″s, so perhaps they felt to be on a death end too. The band name sounds like rap gang, but this is riff-heavy rock music, pounding in full minimalist fashion. Once the machine is on the road it stays on the road, firm and strong. It starts out with ‘Hocus Pocus’ (not the be confused with the hit of almost the same name by Dutch Phocus, no yoddling here), which is almost like a wall of sound of fuzzy and dirty guitars and machine like drums. It turns out this what works best here. Once there is too much variation, such as ‘Big Wow’, Deathrowradio sounds like another heavy math rock band, but when it stays like a bunch of heavy bricks it works very well, such as in that opening piece or the title piece, or in the closer ‘Boneless’. It’s minimal, yet not loud and metal like, just fine solid minimal rock like. I wish I could say something like ‘sounds like’, which I can’t do, simply because I know nothing of this kind of music. All I know is that this is damn fine disc. Bang your head, trip those legs. (FdW)
Address: http://www.distractionrecords.com
CIRCULAR – RADIATING PERPTUAL LIGHT (CD by Loki)
A follow up to his album ‘Cycles Of Remembrance’ (see Vital Weekly 757), here is a new album by Johannes Riedel. Quite some time between the two (and his third so far), but not with a radical change of tone, which one maybe think was impending. But then some people aren’t that much interested in changing their music, or strive for constant renewal of their sounds, and, while I am not certain about Riedel’s position in this, in some musical directions it’s not necessary to change. Power electronics – reviewed elsewhere – is one such musical direction, ambient music is most surely another. It seems to be following certain ‘rules’, set ideas and notions about what this kind of music is about and how it is to be made. Circular has checked all those notions: deep synths, arpeggio’s, small melodic lines beneath the surface, the rattling of sampled percussion derived from field recordings. It’s all here, again, and it still works very well. Maybe there is a slight shift towards rhythm to be noted, and a sparse guitar howling away, making this more Eno on the Apollo, especially when the guitar is almost – almost – in slide mode. This is a step away from the ambient abstract character of the predecessor and a step forward towards more song oriented ambient music, although this is still without vocals (obviously). Still with lots of reverb and delay, which is perhaps the downside of it all, as that’s also part of the cliches that are part and parcel of this music, but we have come to accept that. A fine release altogether. (FdW)
Address: http://www.loki-found.de
SIC & EDYTA FIL & ILIA BELORUKOV – THESES 2012 (CD by Akt Produkt)
Siberian Improvisation Company: that is what SIC means and on April 15th 2012 they played at theater-studio Vstrecha in Kemerovo. The company has Alexander Markvart (guitar, bayan, objects, percussion), Max Evstropov (voice, text), Dmitri Smirnov (clarinet), Egor Miroshnik (electronics, objects) and Ruslan Danilevsky (objects, recorder). That night they played with Edyta Fil on flutes and IlIa Belorukov on alto saxophone. The seven of them play here (maybe longer in concert?) for forty minutes and forty seconds and this is all improvised music from the textbook. I am not sure if Miroshnik is responsible for all the electronics I hear passing by on this release, but his use of echo is a bit dull at times. Otherwise the music is all very carefully placed with sparse notes here and there, interaction between the various players, obviously with a lot of room for the wind instruments, and seemingly without much voice (except for ‘Improvisation IV’), but I might be very well mistaken. It’s a fine solid disc of improvised music that sometimes comes close to the world of free jazz, which is perhaps less my cup of tea, but throughout a most enjoyable disc. (FdW)
Address: http://vovne.ru
EPICUREAN ESCAPISM II (CD/DVD/booklet by The Epicurean, Silken Tofu and Peripheral Records)
It’s highly recommended to go the website of this release, or perhaps of the festival behind it, and read all about the use of the word escapism, which is the main guiding theme of this festival and hence of this release. I wouldn’t think that easily of the confrontational music and images provided by paintings and collages by Philip Best, Andrew Liles, Rudolf Eb.er, Alex Tennigkeit, Carmen Burguess and Dennis Rudolph as printed in the festival catalogue and on display at the festival. Same can be said for the films on the DVD in this package by Con-Dom. I must admit I never knew he did films, but it’s been a while since I saw a concert by him. Much of the footage is ‘found footage’, sometimes static images, but most of the time moving images of crowds, preachers, salvation armies, the ugliness of society as perceived by Con-Dom. All of these six films come with their original soundtrack, of which I recognized the older pieces ‘The Coming Of Christ’ (inc masturbation scenes???), ‘Vilification’ and ‘All In Good Faith’. It’s hard to believe that all of this is close 25 years old, but still sounds like I heard it yesterday for the last time. Dando’s shouting voice, the layered synth noise, the abuse of preacher tapes and gregorian chants. It’s funny (?) to see that this has grown in a consistent musical field, but perhaps without much development. Fine power electronics and no doubt the many Con Dom fans will be pleased with a DVD documenting this work (providing it is a real DVD and not a DVD-R as I found it in this package). The CD compilation that is also part of this, has seven pieces by five bands, of which the two by Anemone Tube and the one by Ke/hil are in that same power electronics tradition as Con-Dom. Post Scriptum belongs to the dark edges of industrial music with a dark ambient piece. Trepaneringsritualen are also more retro sounding and allow vocals to be part of their noise. Dieter Müh seems to me (but what I do know about all of this) the only band here from the past, which a history that dates back 20-25 years, which perhaps allowed him to provide the longest track here, twenty minutes in total. This is also the piece that moves away most from standard industrial, dark ambience and power electronics, and something more… musical? With tribal sampled drums, shimmering melodies, and more low resolution samples and electronics. Perhaps a bit long, but this might certainly be seen as an escape route for the rest – if you need one. I wouldn’t immediately head to Berlin to witness this escapism – had I known this last month – but it’s good to see an updated status of the current movements of power electronics. (FdW)
Address: http://www.transformed.de
GIANLUCA BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI – DUST TEARS AND CLOUDS (2CD by Silentes)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – WITH/IN (CD by Silentes)
MICHAEL MANTRA – F/C (LP by Silentes/13)
Deceivingly simple. That’s what I thought when I noted on the cover ‘contains american folk samples by Alan Lomax’. Lomax recorded a whole bunch people singing traditional songs, usually without any instruments, and that’s true treasure vault if you want to spice up your abstract music with a more musical element. It almost immediately turns your music into a movie soundtrack or radio play. Easy stuff? The easy road of Moby? Perhaps, perhaps, the eight pieces recorded by Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi, who use a lot a of guitars and field recordings here, and seem to have reduced the electronics, create some great music with not just their instruments, but use the Lomax archives with relatively fine sparseness. Not too much, not too little, and sometimes it seems they process a bit of that too, or just the insects in the background and create perhaps indeed easy music, but easy music that works very well. In the two parts of ‘Talking With Ghosts’ the original Lomax recordings are a bit too much with not enough ‘anything else’, but these are with three minutes each also the shortest ones. The other six pieces are longer, but are more in favor of new music with the Lomax samples to support it. Nice stuff, relaxing, ambient, micro sounding but with an odd twist. Just why did it take so long, as this was recorded in 2007, to release it? Maybe Becuzzi and Orsi weren’t that sure either? As a bonus (?) there is a second CD with four longer pieces of which three were released in 2007 as three 3″ CDRs by Foxglove, with one piece by Becuzzi and Orsi each solo and two duo pieces, of which one is previously unreleased. This is more familiar territory for both artists. Long pieces of ambient like sounds, in which all of the sources – field recordings, guitars, electronics – are further processed and make up some dark ambient music, but not in the strictest drone sense. It moves about in a calm and gentle way, but is perhaps also a bit long here and there, and a bit with form. It moves in irregular shapes and colors and is alright. Not great actually and perhaps a bit too much common ground?
It’s been recently slow (?) – it seems – with releases by Francisco Lopez. Here he has new work which the cover notes ‘created with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanovic’. She is dancer, who studied in Croatia, France, Spain, Turkey, India and The Netherlands where she now lives. “Her main focus is a contemporary view of dances of trance, and research on convergences and divergences between contemporary western and oriental performing arts, in collaboration with musicians, video-artists, film-makers, dancers, and experts in fields of science, including physics, anthropology, ethnology, and psychoanalysis.” The ritual aspect is important. I assume the music from Lopez here is both a musical registration of what she does – a field recording of dancing – as well as maybe a soundtrack to one of her dances? Either way. The immediate surrounding aspect is because she moves around, obviously, which makes we hear lots of aspects of her dancing. Her feet on the floor, her dress moving about or a lengthy section using her voice, breathing heavily. Lopez creates lots of loops out of this, smaller and longer and quite usually plays a lot of those at the same time. He filters them radically, occasionally, and sometimes a few drop in or out of the mix, so that quite a vibrant mix remains. The effect of swirling remains present throughout and throughout there is always ‘something to hear’, but that’s recently with most of the Lopez CDs. It moves from the quite low end range to the very high end range and everything in between. A fine work by Lopez, and maybe the most innovative element here is the choice of sound input.
Music by Michael Mantra doesn’t seem to be out there a lot, but he’s been around for quite some time. His earliest work, the ones I recall that is, were on the more experimental side of ambient music on Silent Records in the mid 90s and this new record shows he’s still on that particular line of business. He presents here two pieces of music, along with 13 photographs, which are called ‘force of nature’, or variations thereof, in which case it’s men forcing nature. It’s not easy to define the music, especially if ambient is any point of reference. In both pieces ‘F Roam’ and ‘C Scape’ the music is rather monolithic and sounds like something static. It could be the static of hiss from an old cassette, but also the close recording of a sea shore or the far away city as heard from a hilltop. A blurry sound perhaps and that may a negative qualification, but it’s not like that at all. This is actually a great sound. Its perhaps music for headphone hearing, which is something I reserve for when listening outside to music, and not at home when listening to music to review, but even without headphones one hears all of these small variations in the music, like it would happen in real life. You just need to open your ears more than you are probably used to. The sound of activities perhaps – lots of them. Think those sea waves or all those cars on the far end of the horizon, humming away. Is that ambient music or music recorded from an ambient surrounding? That’s something to think about, I’d say. This record provides two excellent pieces while doing such thinking. (FdW)
Address: http://www.store.silentes.it
NIVRITI MARGA (LP by Edition Le Souffleur)
Together Raymond Dijkstra and Frederique Bruyas already released a CD, centered around ‘Les Chants De Maldoror’ (see Vital Weekly 801), which I didn’t dig altogether. It was a mixture of spoken word (Bruyas) and music (Dijkstra), separated in the left and right channel, which is perhaps what made it for me a bit less. Here Bruyas and Dijkstra work together, with the help of Timo van Luijk on monochord and acoustic noise. The music is all trade mark Dijkstra: lots of echo used on the sound sources, which here may have a lesser focus on glass and forks, his usual instruments, but a somewhat more obscured electronic sound, maybe the harmonium and electronics? Maybe not, as it’s never easy to tell. Van Luijk’s flute is apparent, and there is an occasional processed feedback. There is also some curious form of processing on the voice of Bruyas, which makes it sound a bit like something that has been sped-up, a bit old school industrial, but very nice, whereas the music is actually not very industrial. Altogether this is highly obscure music, but I must say I quite like it. The voice reminded me of Cortex, or very very early Die Form, and the highly improvised music had also something vaguely old-school, like a mid-80s cassette release. It’s a dark, yet fascinating sound, which is recorded quite softly and not too outspoken, but which allows the listener to perform his own meditation, his own ritual or simply adjust the volume in such a way that one feels most conformable with. Fans of Raymond Dijkstra and Timo van Luijk know what to expect, probably, yet somehow this is slightly different, slightly something else and a further expansion of a highly private universe. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl
KIILN – IS MUSIC INVISIBLE (CDR by Caduc)
Personally I am never that fond of that titles that have a question mark. Is Music Invisible? Are we in some way provided with an answer, perhaps through the music? I’d say music is invisible, but there are technological means to show the presence of sound. Kiiln is a duo of Lance Austin Olsen who plays tape players, radio, amplified objects and trainer guitar and Mathieu Ruhlmann on ukelin, cymbal, piano and amplified objects. There is throughout these thirty-five minutes always something to hear, so maybe music is invisible, it is certainly audible. Audible, though not very loud. This is music from the world of improvisation with electro-acoustic means, along with a bit of instruments. The duo are carefully working their way through their material, delicately strumming, hitting, stroking and rubbing the material at hand. The sheer variety of their material enables them to choose for either long form, sustaining sounds (high pitched, low pitched) and short crackling sounds, usually in combination working together, but sometimes also set next to each other, making sharps contrasts. Music that requires your full attention, otherwise I think it may not work very well. If you do open up, a wealth of sound material will enter your ears. Listen carefully and the music may become visible. (FdW)
Address: http://www.caduc.org
ALEXANDRE NAVARRO – HOZHO (CDR by Sem)
This, I think, is a new name for me. Alexandre Navarro is a self-taught guitarist from France, living these days in Paris and his music ‘drifts between electronica, ambient and post-rock’. He has had releases on Realaudio, Archipel, Standard Klik Music, Mondorla, Laverna, Constellation Tatsu and Eko – all these names I never heard before, thus further giving evidence to my thesis the world of experimental music is infinite big – and many of these net-only releases, a few have been on cassette and now this one on CDR. You could think that ambient is always long(er) pieces of music, but this album proofs otherwise. Here we have no less than twenty-four pieces of music which span only forty-three minutes. None is longer than three minutes and the shortest twenty-six seconds. That is indeed odd. It’s more an album of sketches and ideas than really worked out pieces of music I think. Which is not a bad thing of course. The music here, all made with guitars and laptop processing or loop devices, is quite light hearted and to the point. It’s best to consider this an ever-changing one track album, than something that is the sum of many short pieces. You drift easily from one place to the next and sometimes you may have the idea that you’ve been to a place before. It’s fine since all of this is so brief and sparse. Quite a curious little release this one. Not so much in terms of what it is, but maybe because it’s a bit different from the usual guitar-with-laptops. (FdW)
Address: http://semlabel.com
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 19 (CDR by L-white Records)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 17 (CDR by Sick Art Products)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 7 (7inch by Cat Killer)
CARSTEN VOLLMER – ARBEIT NUMMER 11 (7inch by Cat Killer)
RECTAL SURGERY/CARSTEN VOLLMER – SPLIT (7inch by Cat Killer)
TIER WOLFF/CARSTEN VOLLMER – DE-MONTAGEN (CDR & 7inch by E-Klageto ? Cat Killer )
CARSTEN VOLLMER VS. GEHIRN. IMPLOSION (12inch by Cat Killer Verstand Recs)
Moebius Moebius frequencies and / Möntschew generator… which appears on ARBEIT NUMMER 19 is some device purportedly to “to generate ideas through specific concentration of the subjects concentrated vibrations bundled it as converted kinetic energy made possible to drive a TÃ © oz (express train) for all of 34 yards.” And allow for some kind of telepathetic process – which comes from “Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: In the non-Aristotelian, non-Euclidean, non-Newtonian space between the walls of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles exist bats that can fly through lead barriers, spore-ingesting pronged ants, elaborate theories of memory, and a host of other off-kilter scientific oddities that challenge the traditional notions of truth and fiction.” And was also used on psychiatric patents – but in others “Often described friends / listeners that these frequencies voluntarily exposed themselves, these thoughts cluster as a diffuse, unpleasant feelings associated with panic attacks culminating in a spontaneous instinct to flee…” I did find the high pitched ‘dentist drill’ sounds a little nauseous – but then realized I’d just eaten a whole box of Maltesers. I’m not a fan of ‘whacky’ science which seems the domain of the trickster and simpleton. So what we are left with are some noise sounds – noisy oscillators -which vary dramatically though there are predominant high pitched tones and glitches in places. And moving a train 34 yards! – a few years ago George Harrison funded the divine light party in UK elections – given their super-natural yogic flying – they failed to win – or cure poor George of his cancer. So unlike many who find such antics vaguely humorous or ignore them, I find this spurious nonsense which feeds of pseudo-science positively bad, in that it conflates genuine work, which is sincere, with the insincerity of the charlatan – so we end up with the wrong notion of ‘all X are the same’ when they are not. Should the politics or beliefs of an artist effect his work is another interesting question. Should research regarding human biology from Nazi experiments be allowed? Does art matter. Does anything matter. Yes, No, Yes, Yes. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to even read this. ARBEIT NUMMER 17 seemed much the same as #19 – though #19 begins with a woman speaking in German – which I don’t understand – perhaps a psychiatric patent – but no indication of applying a double blind test, you’re going to get something strange out of anything in these circumstances. I suppose an argument could be made for subverting science – or questioning it, but C. P. Snow’s two cultures is if anything more divided and this kind of thing will not bridge the gap. I suppose it’s the very success of science and rationality which provokes the activities of the Maenads. However it’s the very meaninglessness of noise qua noise and not noise qua pseudo-science which exposes thought as both useful – but as a consequence a capitalist phenomenon – thinking is ‘valuable’ – a very valuable commodity – unlike noise. Ok it could be countered – but aren’t the antics of the Nazi and anti-technologist Heir Heidegger, con-man Paul de Man and the Sliver Fox in effect also practicing a form of charlatanism under the pretense of philosophy, yet alone to speak of the off beat allure of Graham Harman’s ‘Objects’ and ‘vicars’, or Meillassoux’s arche fossil and his patently wrong notion of time, (we *do* perceive *now* a time before life, the distant universe is as it is *now* – but that now is not like our local now – a few milliseconds late, or 9 minutes when we experience sunlight but actually *now* – the present of UDFj-39546284 as 13.42 billion years ago, we see that light *now*, we witness the big bang – *now* like watching a distant thunderstorm) However the more recent speculations within what to an stranger might appear charlatanism at worse, idealism at best, is nothing other than the deployment of imagination, found in physics but in certain dry branches of positivism with its concerns for medium sized dry goods – lacking. Not only to think the correlation, but to think the ‘great outdoors, which is non other than the universe as it is, within us and without us. This is not snake oil. The reality of noise qua noise is that which escapes understanding, akin perhaps to Laruelle ’s ‘Real’ – but perhaps not, but not some pseudo- transcendental-religious mystical mumbo jumbo. Vollmer on the rectal surgery split (ARBEIT NUMMER 12) is a fast and furious cut up of ‘found sounds’ snippets… with RS a more open collage with repeating rhythmic device – better for being freed from being some kind of propaganda… ARBEIT NUMMER 11 picturing female gentialia and a more streamlike noise and rumble of electronica, and another side of Japanese singing and distortion… hum.. like didgeridoo.. ARBEIT NUMMER 7 was more towards the sound quality of harsh noise wall, perhaps the subsequent releases and the seeming intention of ‘saying something’ is another example of the ‘difficulty’ of noise qua noise for a desiring machine… De-Montagen is the 7ich vinyl and Cdr, the vinyl Vollmer and Tier Wolff (as is the Cdr) A side electronica and ambient sounds, B side sound just like a continuous noise of a vinyl’s run off .. the Cdr contains collaged material, field recordings and processed speech, again more of industrial genre than noise….ambient drones tracks of rhythmic glitches (every other track?)…near silent industrial scapes, harp arpeggios, synths… with and without drums – a musical synth tune which could be floyd… a mix of styles indeed which raises more questions than providing answers, but ones which are more regarding the apparent confusion of styles and lack of direction, as opposed to anything either positive or negative? Lastly the 12inch – Vollmer produces harsh noise and feedback (18) urban predator and Geirn. Implosion more continuous harshness akin to some machine shop – industrial…. So a considerable body of work and collaborations which verge from Acid space rock through industrial (P.E.) to noise, at times patently attempting to be thematic at others not so obvious but certainly indicative of wanting to say something, which the medium once again renders difficult or impossible. Perhaps an answer to this musical dilemma, of making meaning from the meaninglessness, is opera or folk, within music and its correlational circle. Noise is essentially boring and unheard, which is the most difficult aspect of its exhibition, hence the struggles to overcome this, here? (jliat)
Address: http://www.lwhite-records.de/
Address: http://www.mndr.de/shop/index.php
DADALA – JUST LOOK IN MY HEAD (CDR by Dadala Music)
The active and productive group Dadala surprises with a new album which is recorded in 2010 and 2011 and has been released this year. Nine tracks which are based on improvisation take the listener to a quiet experimental world. The group compose their music by exchanging material by internet. The CD opens with a complex dark abstract improvisation composition in which all members of Dadala contribute. The musicians take time to discover the jazzy based patterns. The title track for example is based on a jazzy alto sax solo and is surrounded by ongoing relaxing bass- and guitar loops and completed with some electronics. “Is It Worth It?” is a beautiful piano track played by Johann Meyer. The melody is harmonic and it is like that you are sitting in a bar where the piano player goes on and on and everyone takes his drink and chat with each other, but in this composition you do not hear any voice, but the electronics of Loopy C tell strange stories. Great track for a surrealistic scene in a movie. “Half Life” is also a interesting track because of the surrealistic mix of a flooding piano-melody and abstract electronics on the background. Lovely spacy combination. “Dark Middle” is more a like a typical experimental jazzy composition where free chords, sounds and keyboard-improvisations flood together and than beat each other harmlessly. One of the most fragile compositions is the track “Summit” in which Frank Dunlap plays a kalimba. These fresh sounds are guided by dark drony sounds of Loopy C. This varying album is a nice company for a relaxing and refreshing moment. (JKH)
Address: http://www.dadalamusic.com
DAO DE NOIZE/NAOKI ISHIDA – SPLIT SERIES #1 (CDR by Zero Kei)
BRANDKOMMANDO/DAO DE NOIZE (cassette by Maniacal Hatred)
More music by Artem Pismenetsku, also known as Dao De Noize, from Russia. In both of these cases split releases with others. On the first he works with Naoki Ishida, who previous work we reviewed in Vital Weekly 566 and 774 (not exactly an over productive musician!) on one track, while delivering a long solo piece and Ishida also delivering three solo pieces. In total an hour worth of music. In Dao De Noize’s long piece it evolves around a few notes drone and some field recordings and a bit of other synthesizers dropping in and out. Its more ambient than noise, and a firm step forward from his previous work. It flows calmly into the short collaborative piece, which in return flows into the first Ishida solo piece. His music of the past was guitar and field recordings, delicate, crackling stuff, but here either transforms his guitar playing beyond anything that even sounds remotely like a guitar, or he turned all electronics. Whereas his previous releases had some 12K sensibilities, here its all more common place in the land of cosmos. Looped around synth sounds, all rather in a mid range, non-effort, not asking anything, just go with the flow. Comparing this with his previous releases, I would think this is a bit less: too easy to do in terms of creation. We have a bit of sound running and that’s it. That’s what it sounds like. It’s not bad, but sounds perhaps without inspiration?
The other split is on cassette and is with Brandkommando. Each has two tracks, one on each side. Brandkommando, the name states it probably, is a noise act, but not necessarily a wall of noise. Lots of synths and effects here. Its not easy to tell where a track stops and the next begins, so I might be guessing wrong here. Its hard to say what is by Brandkommando and what is by Dao De Noize, as what he does here seems to be close enough to each other. Noise inspired drone music, not unlike that of the kind of his earlier releases. It’s a side of Dao De Noize which pleases me less I think, and Brandkommando’s power electronics with vocals is also something that I think sounds alright but it just is not my kind of music. It seems all gimmick and not enough content. I might be entirely wrong of course. (FdW)
Address: http://www.appliance-gen.org
Address: http://maniacalhatred.blogspot.com
SANMI – DX_F (3″CDR by FF Space)
From the Ukrain is Sanmi, of whom I don’t think I ever heard. The package is nice with stickers glued to hard plastic, simple yet effective. According to the label’s website this an ‘encounter of dance music and passionate free jazz. Algorithm made it possible improvisation by computer with softwares. Second aim is rich feeling of speed which is based on the relative subjectivity. This is different from just high BPM. Third aim is adrenergic experience and story leading to a calm mind at last via whole EP. This work dedicate to a great saxophonist Kaoru Abe…Sanmi” So maybe you have an idea? Because I may not. This is indeed electronic music, based on rhythms that are sometimes a bit loose, and some kind of samples, except the final piece, ‘X_D5’, which is a micro sounding glitch drone piece. The four other pieces are IDM like at their best, and hardly jazz like. Maybe I am missing a point there. ‘F_D1’ has Nasa flight control voices. Somehow I can’t help thinking that the other four pieces are all variations on the same musical piece, as also indicated by the titles, ‘F_D1’, ‘F_D2’, ‘F_D3’ and ‘F_D4’, but it makes you wonder what else Sanmi can do. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ffspace.info
MOWETON/ASTMA FEAT EDGARDS RUBENIS (double 3″CDR by Intonema)
An odd release. In the standard Intonema package we find two 3″CDRs, one with twenty-six tracks by Moweton that last seven minutes – the shortest four seconds and the longest forty-four seconds – and a piece from a concert at unfinished skyscraper in Valmiera, Latvia by Astma, featuring Edgars Rubenis. Moweton plays ‘Fx’d Ibby R-ock G-uitar as Guitardid’ and ‘Trashy Soft as megadrumster’, whatever that means, but surely it has something to do with computer games (and thus flies right over my head), and is sort of punk like release. Short pieces, all pretty aggressive and mean, but with an odd link to computer – games? music? cyberpunk? – and it’s probably more fun than great. They also thought of twenty-six titles, so that’s good. Astma, being Alexei Borisov (bass guitar, electronics, voice) and Olga Nosova (drums, percussion, voice, effects) are guested by Edgards Rubenis on electric guitar and effects during a very concentrated, minimalist noise rock piece of violent crashing bass sounds, compressed noise of the effects, and long howl on the guitar before falling apart into a more free noise jam towards the end. It’s nice, but it sounds perhaps also a bit too much like an excerpt of a concert. And when do we see the end of painted CDRs? Both of these nearly ruined my external CD drive. (FdW)
Address: http://www.intonema.org
BRAIN DRAIN – FOR SEASONS (cassette, private)
From Buffalo, New York (but originally from Australia), we have here Brain Drain, who has been active since the past three years, playing guitar and synthesizer, and no doubt a bunch of looper stations. It’s the first time I hear his music, but ‘For Seasons’ has four tracks and is released as ‘2013 tour cassette’, although I am not sure where he is touring. The four pieces are rather short, I believe not to extend beyond five minutes each, and all of them are in a varying degree of melancholy. Strumming a few chords, feeding them through his devices and depicting lonesome vast areas, with a bit of banging from the drum computer, occasionally. You could as easily think there is a post rock group at play here, but there isn’t, of course. It’s all quite alright. Maybe a bit too brief to form a more solid opinion about this, and as such it stays perhaps a bit too much in common territory and it could maybe benefit from a bit more variation, but who knows what touring will bring? (FdW)
Address: http://braindrain.bandcamp.com
DUCKYOUSUCKER – OF TOMORROW (cassette, private)
More music from Rawmean, who is sometimes called Duckyousucker. As Rawmean he delivered a very nice cassette (see Vital Weekly 878) and as Duckyousucker he had a powerful tape of pop like tunes. Music that made you want to go out and party. If you still have a walkman, and why not, then let’s hope this party is close by, and you can play this new tape by Duckyousucker on the way to get in the right party mood. The two pieces are very nice, with a bouncing beat that is hard to resist moving your feet too, and is perhaps some wacked out, spaced out techno music. Not the cheesy popular variation, but a very decent and not too raw underground version, packed and stacked with sampled instruments, such as the saxophones and guitars on ‘Moonpie’, which gradually builds up and breaks down throughout the five minutes this lasts. Like before, I am not sure if this really stands well by itself, but this is some great party stuff. It’s a pity this party is way too short. Why is that? Let’s hope the next one will be a longer party. (FdW)
Address: http://duckyousucker.bandcamp.com/
ISA CHRIST – 19 YIN YANGS (cassette by Idiotunderground)
Quite an obscure release here, with not a lot of information. The artist, title and label name is all that is mentioned on the cover here. I learned that behind Isa Christ there is one Dylan Hay, who is also is such groups as Blood Priest, Lucifer’s Worm, Mother Earth and Wicked Rot, none of which I heard off. In the eighties the tapes that got a lot of stick were those who were classified as ‘trying out my new synth’ for about an hour, and while Isa Christ has a number of releases available, I am not too sure what to make of this. I believe these are all short pieces, but I might be wrong, of synth noise with a bit of sound effects thrown in for good measure. Chaotic, unstructured synth noise at that, which one
Address: none mentioned, but try http://www.discogs.com/label/IDIOTUNDERGROUND