Summer schedule! There will be no Vital Weekly in week 34 (18 to 24 august)
SAWAKO – NU.IT (CD by Baskaru) *
GALATI – MOTHER (CD by Psychonavigation Records) *
MARK ALBAN LOTZ – SOLO FLUTES (CD by LopLop)
JACK WRIGHT & BEN WRIGHT – AS IF ANYTHING COULD BE THE SAME (CD by Relative Pitch)
NFXVII 2013 NORCAL NOISEFEST COMPILATION DOCUMENT (CD by Norcal NoiseFest)
THE NATIONAL JAZZ TRIO OF SCOTLAND – STANDARDS VOLUME III (CD by Karaoke Kalk)
DEADWOOD – SHEOLIC (CD by Cold Spring)
WIEMAN – THE CLASSICS ALBUM (CD by Baskaru) *
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO – ENFANT TERRIBLE (CD by Rune Grammofon)
THE TOBACCONISTS – A SECRET PLACE (LP by A Giant Fern/Fabrica Discos) *
ANDREW LILES – THE MALEFICENT MONSTER AND OTHER MACABRE STORIES (LP by Blackest Rainbow)
PETER J. WOODS – IMPURE GOLD PT. 1 (LP by FTAM Productions)
BORING DRUG (7″ by Altanova Press)
RADIO CEGESTE – THREE INCLEMENTS (CDR by Consumer Waste) *
LUCIANO MAGGIORE & ENRICO MALATESTA – TALABALACCO (CDR by Consumer Waste) *
THE AGROMANIAC – AM (CDR by Ressonus Records) *
OPER’AZIONE NAFTA – AIRPORT MECONIUM (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
RICHARD GINNS – FALL, RISE (CDR by Twice Removed) *
THE HUIXTRALIZER – THE MORNING RESONANT (3″CDR by Twice Removed) *
VOLUTIO (3” by Vuze Records)
LÜ – RETORNO (3″CDR by Eter-Lab) *
ARPA – SIMPLE.MENTE (CDR by Eter-Lab) *
ISZ – BONSAI (3″CDR by Eter-Lab) *
SC – CICLO (CDR by Eter-Lab) *
MICHAEL MUENNICH – SCHAMPROZESSIONEN (cassette by The Tapeworm)
OSMAN ARABI – DESTROYING SYMMETRY (cassette by The Tapeworm)
ELEKTRO GUZZI – CIRCLING ABOVE (cassette by The Tapeworm)
GRAHAM DOWDALL – OUTSIDE BROADCAST (cassette by The Tapeworm)
HANNO LEICHTMANN – UNFINISHED PORTRAIT OF YOUT TODAY (cassette by The Tapeworm)
OREN AMBRACHI – AMULET (cassette by The Tapeworm)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – FLAGS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
WOUTER VAN VELDHOVEN – REDUNDANT/ROTARY/ROTATIONS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
IMMINENT STARVATION – EMERGENCY PROVISION (cassette by Forced Nostalgia)
GERMAN ARMY (cassette by Trapdoor)
SAWAKO – NU.IT (CD by Baskaru)
It must be the weather. Today is entirely different than yesterday. Very humid but dry and sunshine today as opposed to the long day of rain yesterday. But yesterday I didn’t have Sawako, and I wish I had. Sawako doesn’t release much music it seems. Here she has finally a follow-up to ‘Bitter Sweet’, which we reviewed in Vital Weekly 626. So roughly a six-year wait and here’s she’s all alone, as opposed to her previous release which she did with a bunch of other people. In between those six years she worked on sound installations and live concerts. Her previous release was on 12K and it’s not difficult to see that labels catalogue as her natural habitat. I am not sure how she works or what she uses, equipment wise, but there is surely some sort of computer processing, field recordings and piano somewhere present in these recordings. She plays stretched out lines of sounds, nicely sustaining along the quiet waves of a calm sea. It moves but you need to be looking very carefully to see the moves. You could easily take a cynic route to approach this: yeah, yeah, field recordings, yeah, yeah, ambience, piano with reverb, Eno/Hassell, Sakamato/Fennesz: I heard all of this. That might be equally true of young boys picking up guitars and sing rock n roll – there was a guy called Elvis sixty years ago doing that. So, and this might be warmth of today, let’s sit back and simply enjoy what we hear. Thirty-nine minutes of very delicate music. Shimmering, dark, beautiful, naive and simply gorgeous. Take a zip, pick a book and immerse yourself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.baskaru.net
GALATI – MOTHER (CD by Psychonavigation Records)
Back in Vital Weekly 935 I reviewed Fear Drop 17 and the compilation CD that came along with so I already a bit of ‘Mother I’ by Galati. This is the musical project of Robert Galati from Italy and now I hear all five parts of ‘Mother’. Galati writes: “Mother is a diary of a long trip, reporting my personal search for answers and for my inner self. It is about letting go, leaving behind; it means gaining simplicity and innocence. I’ve been observing a metamorphosis in myself, it started in Greenland and went on to far-off lands of Tibet, in the shadows of Mount Everest, the Mother Goddess of the Universe”. So you know. Now that I hear the complete first part of ‘Mother’, I must say that I had a hard time with this piece. Its perhaps inspired by the world of drones, but it’s quite chaotic, not very well defined in sounds, soaked in reverb and bouncing with sound effects, giving the piece a sense of unrest. This form of unrest comes back in other parts too. Galati uses a similar build-up per piece: starting with a few lines on his synthesizers (guitars, electronics or what have you) and then starts adding more and more layers of sounds, and in ‘Mother II’ also some more drumming sounds, or the wild drumming and ‘singing’ (??) at the end of ‘Mother V’. All of this in the low to mid-range with frequencies that seem to collide together, perhaps causing the unrest. I am not sure. It’s occasionally quite a wild and noisy release, and that seems to be the intention of the composer. It somehow doesn’t seem to fit me I think. I only liked ‘Mother IV’, which was the most ambient for ambient sake piece. Maybe there is something about this record that I don’t understand at all, but as far as I got it, I must sadly admit I didn’t like it very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.psychonavigation.com
MARK ALBAN LOTZ – SOLO FLUTES (CD by LopLop)
Lotz grew up in Thailand, Uganda and Germany and did most of his musical studies in Holland. He played with numerous Dutch musicians, as well many others in and outside of Europe. He has his base in Utrecht as part of a collective that runs the Loplop label among other initiatives. Lotz always also did solo gigs. Over the years he was involved in projects of African music, Afro-cuban music, Balkan, dance, impro, house, etc. Crossing borders is something Lotz grew up with, and is normal procedure in his musical life. He led several projects of his own, like Lotz of Music, mark Lotz Quartet, and is featured on numerous cds. Besides Lotz always did solo gigs. This album is the fruit of a 10-day sabbatical in Berlin where he composed most of the pieces. They are performed on concert flute, alto flute, bass flute, pvc contrabass flute, prepared flute and voice. In 17 compositions, most of them with room for improvisation, Lotz reflects on the many musical contexts he worked in during his career so far. It is evident that Lotz has an incredible technique. All these ingredients together make this one a very rich album with a lot to discover and enjoy. Everything is recorded in one go, using no overdubs or loops. Chapeau! However in cases of albums likes this one, I try to find the or an unifying factor. I feel left with the question what is the true voice Lotz. It seems to me Lotz is more a master flute player then a composer creating his very own music. (DM)
Address: http://www.loplop.nl
JACK WRIGHT & BEN WRIGHT – AS IF ANYTHING COULD BE THE SAME (CD by Relative Pitch)
Let’s start with the label, as it is new to me. Relative Pitch is a New York-based label, founded in 2011 by Mike Panico and Kevin Reilly, specialised in improvised and avantgarde music. They have music out by known musicians as Joey Baron, Greg Cohen. Jack Wright is also a big name, but not a well known one. He devoted himself to solely free improvised music at the end of the 70s and sticked to this medium throughout his career. He played with musicians like Bhob Rainy, Tom Djill, Bob Marsh, Fred Lonberg-Holm to name just a few. From the very beginning he released many of his work on his own label Spring Garden Music, that is still in existence. Also he plays already for some twenty years with his son Ben. Father and son are found on some earlier cdrs that were released in small quantity. They consider this release however as their best work so far. And very good it is! Ben plays contrabass, Jack soprano and alto saxophones. The improvisations have moments that are completely lovely! Form and content overlap completely. What is it that can make free improvised music so beautiful? In the end I don’t know, but I’m absolutely certain it is happening here! An imaginative and sensitive work. A quote from the insightful liner notes by Jack Wright: “There is not even a conception of music to guide us, yet this is no chaos; structure is there in every detail. We might seem as far removed from one another as possible, yet at that moment we are playing each other’s song”. (DM)
Address: http://www.relativepitchrecords.com
NFXVII 2013 NORCAL NOISEFEST COMPILATION DOCUMENT (CD by Norcal NoiseFest)
The first Norcal NoiseFest started in 1995 and in 2013 was it’s 17th anniversary. The event is mostly 2 – 4 days in Sacramento – USA. Performers from the USA and Canada will do their show. Some projects played several times, like +Dog+, Uberkunst, Instagon and Chopstick.
The compilation CD starts with a tribal piece of music of The Nothing and is followed by a track of +Dog+ with some harsh noise feedback tones and an on-going penetrating sound layer. The track of Thirteen Hurts (what’s in a name haha) is beautiful. Lots of white noises and feedback-tones, which create indeed an overdose of stimulus to the brains. Overdose the Katatonic (what’s in a name haha) delivers a true old-school power-noise track, short and effective. Instagon contributes with an adventurous composition, electronics like processed musique concrete sounds and some abstract tones. And the compilation continues with a variety of noises created and performed in different ways. It is too hard to describe all 23 tracks. The quality of the several projects is high and creative. The track “Daktari” of Michael Amason for example is a nice mix of harsh noises and soft played rustling. The track of Chopstick is slow and moody. Some high tones are flying around and two low tones take care of the base. Great track! “Volcanoes” played by San Kazakgascar is something completely different. It starts with a tanpura from India and some post-rock guitars fulfill a psychedelic atmosphere. Noisepsalm combines field-recordings of the sea and other watersounds with electronics and hear-a-like birds. Nice atmospheric piece. The last track “My Daughters, Asleep” of Concious Summary is an old-school noise collage of noises, big bangs, a new-wave track, atmospheric strings, screams etcetera. How will his daughters sleep by this lullaby? This compilation gives a nice view of this festival and I think is most valuable that this festival will continue, because the quality of the performers is high and well-selected. (JKH)
Address: http://www.norcalnoisefest.com
THE NATIONAL JAZZ TRIO OF SCOTLAND – STANDARDS VOLUME III (CD by Karaoke Kalk)
When I received this CD for review, I thought I had been given a copy of the CD Standards Volume II by mistake. But it turns out this is actually Volume III (there is of course also a Volume I of “Standards”). This is understandable though, as not only the design of Volume III is almost identical to Volume II, but so is the music. So I thought I’d simply copy my review of Volume II. Here we go:
You would be excused if you’d think this is a trio of musicians hailing from Scotland who play jazz standards. However, very little of this is true. Yes, pianist Bill Wells is from Scotland, but he does not play jazz standards – Standards Volume II features Wells’ own compositions and two clever covers (Mary of Argyle – a Scottish classic folk tune and, surprisingly, My Tiny Butterfly, which is a Moondog original). But hey, his songs might turn into classics over the years. Standards Volume II is, as the title implies, the second album by the NJTS. Here, Wells (piano, guitar and samples) works with three vocalists (Lorna Gilfedder, Aby Vulliamy and Kate Sugden). So if the NJTS does not play jazz, what DO they do? Standards Volume II is a slow tempo’d mix of songs that could have been featured on albums by say Belle and Sebastian, Isobel Campbell, Bela Karoli or even Nouvelle Vague. Piano-led soft pop with an occasional hesitant sample and guitar, with hushed vocals by the girls. It’s all very cleverly done, and sounds tres attractive indeed on a late night consumed with a bottle of wine and some French cheese (better leave out the Scottish haggis). With the flickering light from the fire in the mantelpiece and the Scottish moors on the background you’re guaranteed of a fine evening indeed. A little too wee for Vital readers? Hell no, after listening to albums filled with experiment (whatever that may be), Standards Volume II is balm to the ears. It’s all very lovely dovey and I’m quite smitten by it all.
Basically all this applies to Volume III as well. Volume III continues with the flat breathy vocals set to ever-descending chords (minor of course) over sampled music. Perhaps interesting to note is that the song With Me Tonight is a brief a cappella cover of the Brian Wilson song. If you liked Volume II (which I did) and you thought ‘Hell, I wish there was more of this”, your wish has been granted. (FK)
Address: http://www.karaokekalk.de/
DEADWOOD – SHEOLIC (CD by Cold Spring)
Swedish sound crusher Deadwood has always impressed with his abrasive expressions circulating in the borderlands between power electronics and black metal. With his early albums Daniel Jansson aka Deadwood proved that swedish power electronics reaches far beyond legendary Cold Meat Industry-act Brighter Death Now. On this third installment titled “Sheolic”, Deadwood continues his explorations into landscapes of sheer darkness and brutality, however in a more subtle expression but nevertheless just as disturbing in its style. The album crawls in the territories of dark ambient meets black industrial meets power electronics. The drones of crushing power electronics lies as a giant worm underneath the album consuming every sign of harmony and tranquility. With deep rumbles of power electronics, sounding like the loudspeakers burn from the inside, Deadwood creates dark and disturbing atmospheres. No sweet melody on this one! The evil screams of mr. Jansson cries from the distance like a threat ready to attack the listener. With a background as vocalist in black metal-band Blodulv, Deadwood knows how to sound like make his voice sound like a chainsaw. Compared to the power electronics of aforementioned Brighter Death Now, the sound of Deadwood operates in deeper sound levels of crushing electronics resulting in almost drone-based expressions. With this latest call from Deadwood, Jansson once again proves his position as a true master of contemporary hell. (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
WIEMAN – THE CLASSICS ALBUM (CD by Baskaru)
Wieman is the new project from one of the Netherlands most interesting acts when it comes to experimental electronic music, Zebrá. In fact, suggesting that the duo behind Zebra hadn’t been asked to stop using the band name from the US band Zebra, present debut-album as Wieman titled “The Classics Album” could have been the third chapter in the story of Zebrá. Behind Wieman-project, you find two of Holland’s finest and most innovative sound explorers, Roel Meelkop and Frans De Waard, who have a long collaboration experience with earlier projects together such as Kapotte Muziek and Goem. As Wieman the two collaborators puts serious concentration on rhythm textures and they prove a true talent in building beat structures into very catchy levels. The twosome themselves call it “Meltpop” and describes their style as “complex constructions that can at time sound like pop/dance songs, made entirely out of samples drawn from a very specific and predetermined corpus”. The album consists of five pieces, that all varies from drones of strange complexity to moments where strange rhythm-textures become a central part of the sound picture. However instead of dwelling in one rhythmic motion, the pieces keep changing so one rhythmic texture saturates the other in quite an impressive pace. The two composers has been working on “The Classics Album” throughout six years. All tracks exclusively contains samples taken from songs that have classical music-tinged titles – words like “symphony,” “rhapsody,” “overture,” etc. These samples come from a wide spectre of musical styles such as jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, prog rock, disco, and beyond. Some samples might be recognizable for the specific listener, for example does the quite harsh track titled “Mega deconstructed live wish” contain samples of the awesome thrash metal riffs from Megadeths “Symphony of Destruction”. Other samples are transformed beyond identification. As a listener you cannot help but getting sucked gradually more and more into this bizarre freakshow of a beat patterns. I was quite amazed by the releases of Zebrá. This first album as Wieman is a masterful continuation of Zebrá. A first class exercise in sonic abstraction. (NM)
Address: http://www.baskaru.net
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO – ENFANT TERRIBLE (CD by Rune Grammofon)
The trio is comprised of Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen (guitar), Ellen Brekken (bass)and Ivar Loe Bjornstad (drums). In the best tradition of Hendrix, Page, McLaughlin and other heavy guitar players, Mollestad and her mates excel in controlled madness. Mollestad comes from the Norwegian town of Ålesund where she was born in the early 80s. The record collection of her father directed her toward 70s jazz and rock. This music still is her main point of reference. ‘Enfant Terrible’ is further prove of this. Her third album with the trio, preceded by ‘Shoot’ and ‘All of them Witches’, both excellent albums. They are into instrumental heavy rock music, played very direct and on the edge. It is difficult to escape from this intense music, except at some moments where I thought ‘I know all this, why again’, or ‘I wish the drummer would do some more surprising to intensify the whole’. How heavy and brutal the music may be, it keeps you more in the comfort zone then that it challenges you, as they do not break with any of the rules of the genre. Together with other bands on Rune Grammofon, like Bushman’s Revenge, Grand General or Elephant9, the trio represents a strong turn to progressive and heavy music from the 70s to be observed in the Norwegian scene of today. (DM)
Address: http://www.runegrammofon.com
THE TOBACCONISTS – A SECRET PLACE (LP by A Giant Fern/Fabrica Discos)
More smoking is green from the Tobacconists – well, green vinyl that is, not the actual smoking. Their previous album, Smoking is green (see Vital xxx) was pressed on beautiful translucent vinyl, like this brand new album. But not all is the same: things have changed in the Tobacconists-camp. For one, the Tobacconists are now Three since Mike Popovich has been added to the line-up of Scott Foust (Idea Fire Company) and Frans de Waard. Secondly, even though the label of the new album boasts a picture of the three gentlemen smoking, I know (at least) one of them has quit and this album seems (therefore?) more musical than the somewhat manifesto-y Smoking is green. Thirdly, well this is just a very good album. Recorded in 2012 in Nijmegen and subsequently remixed by De Waard, side one offers 5 ‘songs’ and side two has one long piece. The songs are based on pulsating analogue synth washes, that start off calm enough with Race for Place and get noisier in tracks like Pillow Talk (could this be a Doris Day reference?) and Heavy water experiments. The final track on this side, A Secret Place, is also my favorite with a more open construction. Like most songs on this album, they feel like a cut-out from a larger piece, rather than a track with a beginning, middle and ending. Musically, you can hear the familiarity with Idea Fire Company, which is, in my opinion a good thing. Side two is called An Tone Four Giver, which is a more-or-less translation of the name of Anton Viergiever, who whom this commissioned live piece (from the Gogbot festival) is dedicated. The sound of side two is more direct than the first side and more experimental and open. A very good piece that flows nicely and holds the attention due to its variety. There are 300 of these beauties out there, so do not wait too long with buying one. Add to all this a really cool album design and it is clear that the Tobacconists have plenty of life in them – regardless of their bad health habits. (FK)
Address: http://agiantfern.tumblr.com/ http://fabrica.bigcartel.com/
ANDREW LILES – THE MALEFICENT MONSTER AND OTHER MACABRE STORIES (LP by Blackest Rainbow)
Like any good horror soundtrack, this album opens with a fine thunder storm and creepy ‘Rosemary’s baby’ piano. Add heartbeats and eerie voices before the whole things transfers into what sounds like an Italian gangster soundtrack score and you have all you need for a good nights’ chilling. And that’s only the first track. Liles likes his monsters, and it shows on this splatter vinyl (what else?) album. With no track separation, the album feels like a 45 minute roller coaster that moves from mood to mood, with vocals in various existing and non-existing languages, courtesy of Ksenia Nefedova, Melon Liles, Tomomi Kojo-Robertson and Simona Della Valla. Sometimes the music gets moody and even depressing, but then the atmosphere lifts and we’re back in high gear piano chasing zombies back into their graves. Sometimes orchestral touches are added to the music (and screaming of course), which is very professionally recorded and performed. All hail also to the cover, where we find Mr Liles with a number of decaptitated heads in his hands accompanied by a hellish cat in the picture. There are of course appropriately silly zombie titles like “Burn the Witch”, “Cadaver Collector”, “Zombie Rock” and “Escape from Haunted Island”. Don’t let the playfulness of this put you off this album: musically this works really well as a soundtrack to an imaginary, but very good, late night horror movie. With Liles you’re never quite sure what to expect, as his music varies so much. The Maleficent Monster is another very worthwhile addition to his already large catalogue. Hell, if Disney had known about it they might had used it for their million-selling movie Maleficent. (FK)
Address: http://www.blackest-rainbow.moonfruit.com/
PETER J. WOODS – IMPURE GOLD PT. 1 (LP by FTAM Productions)
More music by Peter J. Woods of whom previously released some music (Vital Weekly 834 and 771 for instance). He is from the circles around Boy Dirt Car and his work is radical noise combined with what one could possible call radical silence. When it’s loud, it’s really loud; when it’s quiet, it’s really quiet. I guess that’s why this is radical music, and not all-pure noise is as equally radical. Also there is the use of voice, which reminds me both of sound poetry as well as Eric Lunde. It’s more his menacing whisper than the erosion of sound. It’s hard to say what these texts are about, as the three titles of the pieces don’t give much clue anyway: ‘Empty Vessels’, ‘Impure Gold’ and ‘Notes From Within The Epicenter’. For the first two, on side A of this record, it’s even more difficult to say where one ends and the other starts. Maybe the silent gap in between is an indication? All of that seems to be adding to the mystery of this record. Obviously this is the kind of noise that appeals to me very much. I love the dynamic range of the music – ultra loud versus ultra soft – that means, at least in my book that some thought went into making this music. I like the execution of the music, the whispering voices, the totally distorted sounds (think Merzbow with the vocals of Whitehouse), the sine wave feedback that opens the B-side of this record; then there is the highly unsettling character of the music, which seems, however, to be something that is trademark of Woods’ music, so perhaps in that regard not the biggest surprise. This is another excellent work by Woods, and perhaps I’d go as far that this is the best work I heard from him to date. (FdW)
Address: http://experimentalmilwaukee.com
BORING DRUG (7″ by Altanova Press)
The size is approximate here. It might be a little over a 7″. This is not vinyl or lathe cut, but pressed on Polycaprolactone Polymer (PCL) and is ‘biodegradable and recyclable’, so finally a musical format something that is good for the environment (following perhaps only cassettes, which you can re-use over and over again). Boring Drug is a band including a bunch of synthesizer players, percussion, theremin and although not mentioned, maybe also a guitar. They play an introspective song on this one sided record which is nice, but what makes it nicer is the material it is pressed on. Remember those recordings of say Rachmaninov playing piano as recorded on a wax cylinder? (Maybe you don’t, but my father had a bunch of CDs with those recordings, so I do) This record sounds exactly like that. It’s if someone poured a full content of a vacuum cleaner over this record, but if you are open minded you could also say this adds an extra layer, a sound effect plus to the music, or, it makes it sound very ‘ancient’, like a Doctor Who recording from 1899. I hate to use such words, but this is a totally unique package. 100 copies made and I bet they sound all different. Somebody should into business offering this record cutting (literally!) business to others. (FdW)
Address: http://www.altanovapress.com
RADIO CEGESTE – THREE INCLEMENTS (CDR by Consumer Waste)
LUCIANO MAGGIORE & ENRICO MALATESTA – TALABALACCO (CDR by Consumer Waste)
Behind Radio Cegeste we find one Sally Ann McIntyre, who plays shortwave, field recordings, FM field improvisations, VLF and broken violin. I don’t think I heard her work before. In March to June 2012 she was an artist in residence of the Kapiti Island Nature Reserve and recorded the three pieces captured on this disc. I think McIntyre went outside with her various receivers of whatever ghostly transmissions that could be captured, and sat down in a field to capture both these transmissions, as well anything that happened in the field at that time. Only in ‘1879, detail (Song For Richard Henry)’ we hear the broken violin – I think. In the other pieces things seem to be dealing more with those transmissions sounds. Not unlike the work of say Stephen McGreevey, things, buzz, sparkle and pop with electricity here. It makes some very nice music, quite mysterious in a way, especially when the broken violin – distant as it may seem – is used. With it’s twenty-nine minutes its sadly a bit on the short end. I wouldn’t have minded an extra piece or two, preferably with the broken violin in a bigger role of some kind. But if what I think is true – recorded out in the open, played in real time – then this is a nicely fresh look at field recordings in combination with electricity.
The other release by Consumer Waste is by Luciano Maggiore and Enrico Malatesta, and we read ‘composed using unrelated recordings of synthesizer and acoustic objects’, which is most curious description I would think. How and what, are the most common questions. The whole piece lasts nearly forty-two minutes and is divided into a bunch of sections and various gaps of silence. It’s all very dryly recorded and truly fascinating stuff. It cracks and hisses, like rubbing some bit of waste plastic very close to your ear, while some electrical current produces static tones in the background. I don’t think many sound effects were used here, if any at all, nor was there any computer processing. Some of these parts are quite short, twenty to thirty seconds, but they can also extent to a few minutes. Like said, I think this is quite fascinating music. Not very loud, at least not in a noise sense, but this is music that requires ones full attention. Take it or leave it, isn’t an option I would think. You go in and immerse yourself in this wonderfully crackling world of electro-acoustic sound. Utterly dry but utterly fascinating stuff. The silence may take up almost a quarter of this release, but nowhere one has the idea this is very long – another odd thing about this release! (FdW)
Address: http://consumerwaste.org.uk/
THE AGROMANIAC – AM (CDR by Ressonus Records)
From America hails The Agromaniac, and ‘AM’ is his debut album. The label informs us that this album is loosely inspired by ‘Harlan Ellison’s short story “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” from 1967. 80% of the sounds on this record were created using a human voice”, which is quite interesting, as the results do not sound like that. That’s great: expectations are shattered. Once you know this, you start to note these things in the strong, heavy beat oriented material. It’s part techno, part industrial and it’s no wonder this release comes with black print on black paper – nice, but difficult to read. The Pan Sonic inspired heaviness of the music is only part of their trade. Maybe half, maybe a little bit more. The other half, more or less, is created with the same voice material melted down to icy plains of ambient atmospheres – cold, stale wind of vast icey masses on the Northpole. The Agromaniac combines this quite cleverly and it makes a highly varied album. In both the rhythm pieces as well as the ambient pieces the voice plays a bigger role. Cut short to make a rhythm, stretched out to make a drone, either way works fine. I am not sure if this is music one could easily dance too, but on a gothic dance party some of these pieces could go down very well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.reaonus.net
OPER’AZIONE NAFTA – AIRPORT MECONIUM (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
A CDR-release of just 30 copies by the German Attenuation Circuit label. Operázione Nafta is an Italian duo of Pietro La Rocca (guitar, piano) and Francesco Calandrino (bass, alto clarinet, sax alto). They are from Sicily and operating already for several years now. I traced their album ‘Cavaru’ released by Siltbreeze in 2008 that has also Marco Calandrino in the line up. But there is more material from them available. From what I can trace Francesco Calandrino is the most profiled musician of them. He has albums out with Chet Martino, Claudio Parodi and Jean-Marc Montera. ‘Airport Meconium’ captures four improvisations, live recorded I presume. They deserved a better recording. Their abstract improvisations have a punky touch, and are not about virtuosity. At moments there is poetry in these spaced out improvisations that move between noisy soundscapes and delicate playing very near to silence. (DM)
Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
RICHARD GINNS – FALL, RISE (CDR by Twice Removed)
THE HUIXTRALIZER – THE MORNING RESONANT (3″CDR Twice Removed)
Somewhere in the Alps in France, Richard Ginns got stuck in a snowstorm, which inspired him to the pieces we find on this release. Ginns released previous works on Analogpath, Cotton Goods, Slow Flow and 12×50, but I believe this is my first introduction to his work. He plays guitar, and along that it comes with field recordings, crackling of software plug ins and such like. All of this generates some great music. In no way it seems to reflect wintery tunes, or a feeling of being trapped in a snowstorm. If anything it has the feeling of a mild spring breeze – but maybe I am confusing music here with today’s feeling of great, early summer weather. This is all great music! It’s nothing one didn’t hear before perhaps, but nevertheless: great it is. Think 12K from a couple of years back, think Stephan Mathieu from a long time ago, think microsound. Ginns uses small melodies, field recordings, sustaining guitars and the music just meanders about. It doesn’t go anywhere, head nor tail, just a random start and a random halt somewhere and then we move into the next delicate move Ginns has to make. If you were looking for an interesting new point of view in the world of microsound, then this is not the right place. If you happen to craving for some fine elegant, warm (!) microscopic look at music, housed in a professional digipack, then this is surely your next port of call.
The other release came with a ton of paper, which pictures of installations, concerts and such like, performed by Jose Soberanes (Tula de Allende, Mexico, 1983), who works as Huixtralizer. Since 2010 he works with electronic music, using open source software ‘plus prepared instruments, objects, toys with some treatments’ as well as field recordings. There are three pieces on this 3″CDR of which ‘Maria’ is a nice electro-acoustic work, ‘Deeper’ is a bit distorted field recording, which didn’t do much for me, I must say and ‘Fractures’, the longest piece here, is also a field recordings based piece, but with a much lighter touch and some nice sound treatments on objects. These three pieces are quite nice, the first and third more than the second, but overal sounding quite nice. It’s a pity that it’s a 3″CDR only, so it’s hard to form a well funded opinion about it. I wouldn’t have minded hearing some of this artist. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twiceremoved.storenvy.com
VOLUTIO (3” by Vuze Records)
Epoch from Germany is playing with elements from totalitarian regimes and militarism and explores the fall and the impact of the western society. The group creates music and art in the tradition of industrial and EBM music from the eighties. The fascination of voices, samples of marching soldiers, sounds of war combined with up tempo beats, distorted guitars and string synthesizers are the elements in their music. In 2013 Epoch releases the album “Purity and Revolution.” They invited four groups to make remixes of this album. Volutio is the result of this invitation. The track of If. Bwana “Eisentruhowerman” is a classical EBM track with samples of several presidents of the U.S.A.. The atmosphere is highly threatening and aggressive and reminds me to EBM music from the eighties. <dE/mute> form Germany plays also with samples of so-called powerful men. The mix between these voices and an ongoing flowing ambient synthesizer composition is highly disturbing. The aggression in the voices and the calming effect of the ambient music gives a clashing mix. The music is getting stronger and faster and the calming effect of a powerful society fades away. Freiband, a project of Frans de Waard, has a completely other approach. It starts with a white noise and a melody is flooding into this noise. And after that a collage of several musical compositions starts and flows into a massive piece of music of dramatic chords and in the background the sound of a church organ. An atmospheric mix of elements of Purity and Revolution. The 3”CD-r ends with a so-called “exploitation dance mix” of N.Fra from Germany. The beats are slow and massive and the surrounding sounds are overwhelming as well. Nice album and great interpretations of the music of Epoch. (JKH)
Address: http://www.vuzrecords.de
LÜ – RETORNO (3″CDR by Eter-Lab)
ARPA – SIMPLE.MENTE (CDR by Eter-Lab)
ISZ – BONSAI (3″CDR by Eter-Lab)
SC – CICLO (CDR by Eter-Lab)
No matter how hard you try, there is always somebody busy stuffing an enveloppe with the entire catalogue of their releases. So I’ll do four of Eter-Lab this week, and four next week. In order of appearance, so we are sure of some of this is older than six months anyway. The releases of the Colombian label come with a plain white card and an image stuck on it. It looks very much like inspired by 12K. The first release is on a 3″CDR by Lü, a duo of Alejandro Henao and Miguel Isazal who are using field recordings and electronics and acoustic instruments. Their piece is about nineteen minutes and this is the first time I hear their music, so perhaps a single piece is not easy to go by. It takes a while before the instruments can be heard, and they turn out to be regular guitar sounds, embedded in this warm mass of field recordings. Probably the processed sounds of the chirping of insects, and processed in such a way that it can function on many levels – dark, light and all that. Instruments seem to be stretched out at the beginning and there is some reverb used to enhance that atmospherical feel. It’s a piece with quite some variation, making it into a nice trip. It’s not the best in it’s kind, but it’s quite all right.
Behind Arpa we find one Miguel Isaza, whose CDR was recorded in Medellin, Columbia and it uses various field recordings from that place, as well as some ancient Andean instruments. But all of those are highly processed into pieces of drone music. At the core there is a whole bunch of computer sounds, plug ins and what have you, and he has been taking his inspiration from the work of 12K/Line and especially Richard Chartier. Very glitchy, but with a mass of processed sound. All is minimal around here, the way it sounds, the way it develops; there is never a complete stand still as it always seems to be moving somewhere, just not very fast. On a grey yet humid morning I quite enjoy such slow music, even when its far from original.
And then back to the small sized CDR releases with Isz, another name chosen by Miguel Isaza and his music was composed as a “micro-montage of elements extracted from the soundscape and grouped through digital processing in order to create alternative points of view and abstractions present in places where field recordings were captured, in Antioquia, Colombia”. I am not sure what that means, although I could guess. This is all very sound art like. Very quiet music, until the end when some insects are quite loud. This too would belong to the world of 12K/Line and in some ways it’s not too unfamiliar to the work of Richard Chartier, except that Isz is not quite there yet. In the final ten or so minutes a deep end bass occurs and not much less and the development of the piece is not great here. It’s not bad, it’s not great and it sounds like something you heard before. It’s not as good as the Arpa release I thought. Mmmm… that’s probably not enough.
And finally, for now, there is SC. This is the musical project of David Escallón, who has four pieces ‘from experimentation with processed field recordings and MUSICAL instruments.’ I am not sure why musical is written in capitals on the website. I think I can understand why though. Maybe following the previous three releases, this is the one that is most ‘musical’, or at least has hints towards music, i.e. melodies. This too is very minimal, a bit drone like, but there is in these four pieces also a sense of melody lingering just below the surface. Field recordings sounds as they are, a thunder storm for instance, insects, and are not (always) heavily treated into something else. It’s hard to say, actually, what those musical instruments would be here; I couldn’t even make a guess actually, which I guess is good. It perhaps adds to the mystery of the music? Very ambient. More ambient than microsound I might say. Not entirely ‘new’ either, but quite a fine release. (FdW)
Address: http://eter-lab.net
MICHAEL MUENNICH – SCHAMPROZESSIONEN (cassette by The Tapeworm)
OSMAN ARABI – DESTROYING SYMMETRY (cassette by The Tapeworm)
ELEKTRO GUZZI – CIRCLING ABOVE (cassette by The Tapeworm)
GRAHAM DOWDALL – OUTSIDE BROADCAST (cassette by The Tapeworm)
HANNO LEICHTMANN – UNFINISHED PORTRAIT OF YOUT TODAY (cassette by The Tapeworm)
OREN AMBRACHI – AMULET (cassette by The Tapeworm)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – FLAGS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
WOUTER VAN VELDHOVEN – REDUNDANT/ROTARY/ROTATIONS (cassette by The Tapeworm)
The Tapeworm, one of UK’s finer houses for cassette only releases, is still going strong, reaching now their sixty nineth release and for this one we have music from Michael Muennich, who has his own label in the form of Fragment Factory. As we can see with releases on his own label, there is an element of performance in his work, one not unlike that of Schimpfluch, of whom he also releases work. The visual element is of course not part of this, which makes it perhaps harder to judge this; to check the performance element. We hear something that could be the dripping of water, looped perhaps, processed perhaps and those form a backdrop for these two pieces. On top there is some sort of slurping sound, like Muennich is drinking from a glass. It’s very minimal but it’s also quite captivating. You never know what’s going to happen. The other side doesn’t have a voice, but closely miked objects being played and which sound not unsimilar to the listening to antenna’s picking up long wave signals. Perhaps less intense but more complex with lots of things happening on various levels. Very fine tape!
The next few are older and in some cases perhaps even sold out from the source, but who knows: maybe you can find them somewhere. On this lazy summer’s day I played a whole lot of them.
I must admit I never heard of Osman Arabi, from Tripoli in Lebanon. More than a decade ago he was occupied with recording industrial music, noise, psychedelic music, dark ambient, and worked with the likes of “Seeker, Kafan, Veinen, Shamanic Death Trance, The Ritual Inclusion of Code, harsh electronics outfit 20.SV, as well as nihilist Dutch collective Stalaggh” – none of which I heard before. In 2000 he stopped performing live and in 2009 he resurfaced, armed with an electric guitar and playing “occult guitar, based on the sigil work of Austin Osman Spare”. Which is not something one can detect all too easily here, but maybe I belong to the uninitiated? August 9th last year he improvised the nine pieces on this cassette and it sounds awesome. Blues music for sure, but blues music of an even more unsettling kind. Obviously one could think of Bill Orcutt, or maybe Derek bailey, but Arabi sometimes repeats phrases – oh the horror in improvised music – which brings a great musical element to the table. This is a dark and haunting release, not for the weak of mind. Desolate beauty.
Something completely different is the music by Austrian trio Elektro Guzzi. I reviewed a CD from them before, in Vital Weekly 774, and I saw them play live at some outdoor festival, maybe last year or the year before. Here we have a trio of Bernhard Hammer on guitar, Jakob Schneidewind on bass and Bernhard Breuer on drums and they play techno music. Yes, that’s right. The meternomic beat of drums and bass play exactly like the bass, kick and snare would do on a drum computer and the bass and guitar are fed through strings of sound effects to create the melodies/sounds/effects. Elektro Guzzi owes also to the world of dub music, as the delay machines work over time every now and then. Very cool minimal techno is the result and it would be at home in the world of Kompakt. All of this was recorded live which means it’s not entirely flawless but I think that’s the beauty of it. Sound like a laptop with glitches: what more do you want as a band?
Perhaps you remember Graham Dowdall from the previous reviews of his work (Vital Weekly 544, 781 and 895) or maybe because at one point in his career he was a member of Ludus, Eric Random & The Bedlamites and toured with Nico. His solo work seems to be about rhythm machines, synthesizers, electronics, and is usually moody, melodic and melancholic. Something different than his earlier work with others, but here he changes his tune. ‘Outside Broadcast’ was made with the cassette in mind, using a 90s cassette recorder and two Ipad apps. Two long, almost twenty-minute pieces of music here, which use more synthesizers that play a more ambient tune, along with some additional sound material, and maybe radio hiss leaking in. Maybe he was outside, in a field, playing this music and capturing it on the spot? It has a nice free play element to it, a kind of improvised ambient music. Both pieces seem to break down into smaller parts, but it strangely remains coherent on that atmospheric level. I don’t think many of his fans will love this change of tune, but I thought it sounded like a great, daring move. A fine trip outside.
Hanno Leichtmann (also known as Static) also composed something for The Tapeworm, keeping in mind the nature of cassettes and returned to the remainder of his earlier cassette collection of popmusic. He transferred them all, and fed them through his modular synthesizer set-up, just snippets really, as a tribute to John Oswals, Curd Duca, Stock, Hausen & Walkman and (above all, he says) Yasuaki Shimizu’s ‘Music For Commercials’. He created about forty pieces, all around ninety seconds and on this tape we find twenty-three of them. Quite conceptual but it also sounds quite nice. Very Ovalesque in a way, also early SND came to mind, but all of this more rudimentary, with a few sounds playing per piece. Never too long of course before moving onto the next few minimal phrases. Maybe a bit long, I thought. Thirty-six minutes which could have also been twenty minutes to get the same idea across. Such is life at the conceptual end of things, I guess.
I know Oren Ambarchi is always busy but somehow I don’t seem to keep up with his work. Here we have two pieces of ‘IPHONE recordings assembled at Chez Cole, Winnipeg, July 2013’, whatever that may mean. A montage of various recordings? An impromptu recording of some kind – there is applause during the first piece – but maybe it’s a field recording of some kind? It’s, as said, hard to say. There is some vague metallic percussion somewhere, there is some humming (which could be a drone of some kind, or some ventillation shaft of another kind), and maybe there is some guitar, somewhere. It’s a totally vague and obscure release, and I think it’s great. One of those things you keep wondering about.
Stephan Mathieu also gets out of his comfort zone and took some photos of his equipment and transformed these photos to audio via header changes. It was funny to read some of the other reviews of this, with reviewers being surprised at the noisyness of this release. They should surely go back to Mathieu’s ‘Kapotte Muziek by…’ for some of his earlier noise and then they would realize that Mathieu is actually very mild here. Unlike the Merzbow like onslaught on that earlier release, Mathieu is loud and noisy, but presents it in a more collage/cut-up like way, which has its quieter moments and yet bounces all over the spectrum. It makes up a rather intense piece of electro-acoustic music, definetly not the kind of music Mathieu is best known. This little mean work however shows Mathieu has humor and is not afraid to alienate some of his fans. Not me, I love noise, certainly when it comes from the likes of Mathieu.
And finally we have a Dutch man and one that I happen to like a lot: Wouter van Veldhoven is a master when it comes to using reel-to-reel recorders. He has loads of them, and connects them together through some complex system and usually plinks and plonks very atmospheric music on them. The music on this cassette is something different – also – for Van Veldhoven. Using his set-up of “24 reel-to-reel tape recorders used for looping, delay, reverse delay and editing and a Doepfer A-100 system, for filtering and switching things. Sound sources: tape-hiss, a broken valve radio, a defective 50s television set, self resonating filters and sine wave GENERATORS” he builts some very nice electronic music with a rather heavy rhythm part – well, heavy for his doing, it seems. This could easily be some wacked out ø/Pan Sonic/Alva Noto stuff recorded on a wobbly tape. Not entirely synchronized, but sometimes, it seems a bit off the mark. Not y’r usual Van Veldhoven music, but then perhaps also not your usual techno music. Now this would have been a great release for Chain Reaction; only a few too late, I guess. Great tape. (FdW)
Address: http://tapeworm.org.uk/
IMMINENT STARVATION – EMERGENCY PROVISION (cassette by Forced Nostalgia)
Forced Nostalgia, we noted two weeks ago, re-issues old music by people he personally knows. Besides this tape I got two of his older releases, a CD by John Avery (previously unreleased) and one by If, Bwana of one of the very early cassette releases (both highly recommended also!). Here’s Imminent Starvation, a name of which I heard before, but I am not sure I ever properly heard. Olivier Moreau from Belgium is behind this and he works since the early 90s as such. His releases were on Ant-Zen and Hymnen. At one point he destroyed his mixer and continued as Imminent. Here on ‘Emergency Provision’ we find some of his earliest recordings from 1992-1993, all self-released and some unreleased before. He uses a simple set up of two synths, an Atar Mega-ST and various tape recorders. His music is noisy and powerful, but also rhythmic. Forceful present rhythms, maybe not unlike that Agromaniac release reviewed elsewhere, but Imminent Starvation also uses ‘vocals’ – screams, shouts, singing, all of which are pusghed to the background in the mix. The rhythm ‘n noise are what counts here. Music to be played loud and it needs you banging your head around. It’s a tad too dark (too noisy, too gothic) for my personal taste, so it’s probably more popular than most here. But this hour was well spent with Imminent Starvation. From a more historical perspective I quite enjoyed it. (FdW)
Address: http://forcednostalgia.com/
GERMAN ARMY (cassette by Trapdoor)
Back in Vital Weekly 906 I was introduced to German Army via an excellent LP released by A Giant Fern. Today I receive another cassette by them, and I notice they have a whole lot more cassettes released in their existence. The man behind German Army is one X from Los Angeles. He plays synthesizers, vocals and rhythms and on this thirty minute tape we find thirteen minimalist, claustropobic music pieces. Just as on the LP, but perhaps more in a first stage of the recording/composing process. It’s sounds all rather simple and easy going, despite it all being a bit dark and obscure. That doesn’t mean that German Army did a quick job on these pieces, far from. It provides us a look in the process of how he works and that’s nice. None of these are throwaway jobs. Its looking at sketchbook, looking at the embryonic ideas of songs. This is something that is very much made for the medium of cassette. Very dark, very obscure, very cassette. Cover in a fine Trapdoor style – cheapest of the cheapest. Another fine release by this band (?) (FdW)
Address: <trapdoortapes@hotmail.com>