CORRADO ALTIERI & GIANLUCA FAVARON – DECOMPOSED DAYS (CD by Silentes) *
WALT THISNEY MONDO COSMICO – SPACE.SCAPE (CD by Thisco) *
SEPTET 2013 (2CD by Pico) *
KAPITAL – NO NEW AGE (CD by Bocian Records) *
SPACE MONKEY – THE KARMAN LINE (CD by Hubro)
HAKON STENE – LUSH LAMENTS FOR LAZY MAMMAL (CD by Hubro)
HAKIKO – MAX UHLICH (CD by Edmonton Arts Council)
SPACEHEADS – TRIP TO THE MOON (EP by Electric Brass)
MIGUEL A. GARCIA – CHOIRS (CD by Copy For Your Records) *
BLOOD BRIGHT STAR – THE SILVER HEAD (LP by King Of Monster Records)
IDEA FIRE COMPANY – THE LABORATORY EP (7″ by Dischi Del Barone)
NO INTENTION – GOOD INTENTION/MATERIAL DILEMMA (7″ by Dischi Del Barone)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & PHARMAKUSTIK – METAPLASIE (CDR by Naked Lunch Records) *
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE – WISTFUL ENTRANCE, WISTFUL EXIT (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions)
SCHWINGUNGEN 77 ENTERTAINMENT – ACT 1: NOTES IN FREEDOM (CDR by Setola Di Maiale) *
SELECTONE – DEAD GROOVES (CDR by Ressonus) *
OLEKRANON – APHELION (CDR by Inam Records) *
RU/ST (3″CDR by resdatcom)
ANDREW WEATHERS & SETH CHRISMAN – LOUELLA (cassette by Full Spectrum Records) *
THOMAS SHRUBSOLE – EARLY ANALOGUE SELECTED WORKS ON TAPE 2002-2004 (cassette by Dissolving Records)
T. SHRUBSOLE & C. TATTERSAL (cassette by Our Other Ideas)
CORRADO ALTIERI & GIANLUCA FAVARON – DECOMPOSED DAYS (CD by Silentes)
Here’s the follow-up to the CD ‘The System Of Objects’ by Corrado Altieri (synthesizers, electronics, tapes) and Gianluca Favaron (microphones, loops, effects, computer) – see also Vital Weekly 904. Just like that previous release, this is a rather short album (thirty-two minutes), but the tracks being a bit longer, with ‘Vertical Features’ even being twelve minutes. This work has less an ambient feel to it, and more a musique concrete/electro-acoustic feel. There are again the heavily treated field recordings and sounds from objects and fewer synthesizers. I might be wrong though. There is an overall sense of experiment here. More noise without being noise, if you get my drift. It’s not loud per se, or rather, not at all, but to say this ambient would also not be the point. Throughout the music didn’t seem very loud (or maybe I just turned down the volume?), but quite intense at this level; maybe it’s just this early morning listening session that makes my judgement a bit clouded; maybe I am not awake yet? Lots of obscure sounds from all these sources are melted down into this obscured drone music of a highly experimental nature. I quite enjoyed the radical nature of this somehow lo-fi sounding experimental noise. Lots of crackling and rust between the notes. This is, I may repeat myself, the noise I like very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.13.silentes.it
WALT THISNEY MONDO COSMICO – SPACE.SCAPE (CD by Thisco)
Its slightly confusing, all of this, actually. There is not really a cover, something seemed to be brushed out by paint on the CD itself and the bandcamp release (where this cover looks differently also) already refers to a quote: “”devoting your time to anything else but listening” (Vital, Netherlands )”. But Walt Thisney Mondo Cosmico is an “Avant – Pop Playgiarist ! PiraTEDxer ! Agit – Disco Reproducer !”, so maybe he reproduced this review from the future? Can I say something? Or am I restricted to ‘devoting your time to anything else but listening’? Still there is more confusion. I would expect something disco like, sampling from old records, recontextualised of course, and not ‘ambient/cosmic/drone’. Strange it may be, but Thisco has brought more confusion in the past, I think. Ambient and cosmic and drone: you took the words right out of my mouth, as these four pieces are exactly like that. I fell asleep half way through – long weekend – but perhaps in these circles of ambient/cosmic/drone this is a recommendation? It’s actually music that you can obviously listen too, but not exclusively. You could also have a nap, like I did, or play it as background music while reading, doing the dishes or any such things. This is ambient music that stays on the more experimental side of things and doesn’t crossover into the land of cheap and cheesy new age. It remains quite dark and mysterious, but is also just beautiful to hear. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thisco.net
SEPTET 2013 (2CD by Pico)
If you look up the discography for the Pico label, because, maybe you think, ‘ah, this is Pico 005/006, maybe I can collect the rest too’, you might be, perhaps, surprised to learn that the previous releases are from 1986, 1989, 1991 and 2001. So, there is quite a hiatus here. All of the four previous releases where by Hideaki Shimada who went by the name Agencement for much of that period. This new release is a break away from that. First, the name Agencement is no longer in use, and secondly the two discs here, two hours of improvised music, is recorded with other people. One disc recorded in May 2013 with Ko Ishikawaya (sho), Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Kenichi Matsumoto (tenor sax), Daysuke Takaoka (tuba), Toshihiro Koike (trombone) and Madoka Kouno (tape recorders). Koike is the only whoi is present on the second disc, recorded in October 2013, along with Kazushige Kinoshita (violin), Junji Hirose (tenor sax), Maresuke (contraviola), Hideo Ikegami (contrabass) and Manabu Suzuki (electronics). There are pictures of both concerts and we see Shimada in the middle, front stage. This is his doing, is what is told with these pictures. All of these pieces are twenty-two to twenty-five minutes and do not sound like the old Agencement. That was very nervous and hectic, but in these new pieces everything seems very spaced out. Very acoustic of course, and still a bit layered, like the old sound, but diversified into various instruments. Perhaps wrongly I assumed it would ‘nice’ to see if that old Agencement sound be emulated into an ensemble sound with more and different players. That is not the case. These six pieces are all exercises in quiet music, carefully playing of their instruments and a general Zen like feeling of emptiness. The second disc seemed to have a bit more ‘unrest’ and that seems to be mainly because of Suzuki’s electronics. That I thought was a very nice thing. It added an additional layer to the music, and not one that was already there, as the other players seemed to be doing. I quite enjoyed this release, even while it didn’t sound like much Agencement once did and perhaps also a bit like more traditional (Japanese) quite improvisation music. Plus I would recommend not playing both discs in one stretch: that seems a bit too much. (FdW)
Address: http://sites.google.com/site/hsppico
KAPITAL – NO NEW AGE (CD by Bocian Records)
Hati member Rafal Iwanski meets up with Kuba Ziolek (also known as Stana Rzeka) and they call themselves Kapital. It’s one of his incarnations I didn’t hear of before. They played in their homeland Poland, but also in New York, earlier this year. I understand that the material on this CD was recorded after playing three concerts, but they still play parts of this in their concerts. Iwanski plays tone generator, analog synthesizer, sampling unit and electronic effects, while Ziolek plays electric guitar, electronic effects and loop system. It’s perhaps not really the kind of music you would expect on Bocian Records (known for radical improvisation, radical electronics), and I think that is mainly due to the guitar of Ziolek. While Iwanski plays his electronics in a deep, bouncing atmospheric bath of sound, Ziolek waves on top guitar lines that owe to the world of psychedelic music and perhaps less to whatever is radical in both improvisation and electronics. Having said that, this doesn’t mean this is a bad album; it’s just one that is a bit different from what we heard on Bocian so far. His guitar doodling reminds me of lots of seventies German guitarists, but it’s whatever it is that Iwanski is doing that prevents it from becoming cosmic in any way. It’s here where the album has its experimental roots and where I enjoy this more than I would do if it had leaning more towards krautrock. It seems as if Ziolek is the grandson of Manuel Gottsching, who has been surrounding himself with the crudest of current technology as opposed to the smoothest. That’s what I like about this album. Old meeting new, vibrant pieces, spacious but gritty, atmospheric and disturbing. Quite likely one of the last releases on Bocian Records, as rumour has this label will cease to exist shortly. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bocianrecords.com
SPACE MONKEY – THE KARMAN LINE (CD by Hubro)
HAKON STENE – LUSH LAMENTS FOR LAZY MAMMAL (CD by Hubro)
A new solo album by Stene. He plays compositions by British composers Laurence Crane and Gavin Bryars, as well as a piece by Norvegian musicians and composer Chistian Wallumrod. Stene is a Norvegian percussionist who has played folk music with Nils Økland and Benedicte Maurseth, electronica with Pantha de Prince and the Bell Laboratory, baroque music with Rolf Lislevand and contemporary music with Asamisimasa. An artist with a very wide scope. From what I read he was focused for many years on complex modern music, but turned to music built from more simple and harmonic elements, finding his way to a new simplicity. This solo work is an illustration of it. A meditative album that has Stene performing six compositions by British composer Laurence Crane, one by Gavin Bryars and another one by the Norwegian improviser and composer Christian Wallumrød. And one track is by Stene himself. It is post-minimal music standing on the shoulders of composers like Satie and Morton Feldman. Slow and simple music that invites to concentrate on sound. Listening the album in one take, it is too much of the same. All pieces invoke a similar reflective mood by me as a listener. A mood I wanted to escape from after a while. Spacemonkey is a duo of pianist Morten Qvenild and drummer Gard Nilssen. Qvenild is an innovative musician in Norway who participated in In the Country, Shining, Jaga Jazzist, Trinity, a.o. Nilssen is a very active drummers who played with Bushman’s Revenge, Astro Sonic, Puma, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, etc. Qvenild and Nilssen met in the ‘Skala’-project by Mathias Eick and decided to work as a duo. Their music is first of all of a mysterious kind and romantic in nature. It has elements of jazz, improve, ambient, easy listening, etc. But as Spacemonkey they make their very own mixture that transcends the genres and styles they depart from. So here speaks a very original voice. Especially the electronic textures take you to new territories. Their ‘fusion’ music comes from a very strong musical concept. All pieces originated from improvising sessions. The result is a very captivating and pioneering album, full of surprises. (DM)
Address: http://www.hubromusic.com
HAKIKO – MAX UHLICH (CD by Edmonton Arts Council)
As I know absolutely nothing about Max Uhlich, we have only his music to go on. Or, in the words of Uhlich himself in his accompanying letter, “Four years of lyrical soul searching” and “pure-hearted songs studying some kind of ecstatic nihilism”. This lack of additional information takes away context (which is nice) and urges the reviewer to work harder with his (or her) ears. Having said that, a quick internet browse made me find out that Uhlich comes from the town of Edmonton (whose art council partly funded the album) in Canada and it looks like this is his debut album. So what do we make of Hakiko? These are conventional songs, in the sense that they contain an intro, chorus and refrain, all written by Uhlich himself (bar two songs). The instrumentation and playing, mostly guitars, is conventional as well. Uhlich’s vocals are, somewhat drowned in reverb, mixed to the forefront stressing the importance of his lyrics. His voice reminds me somewhat of that of Anthony Haggarty, but not in his singing – rather in having a unique sound/quality that makes you love or hate it. Uhlich’s singing is thin and sharp (almost like Gucci from Virgin Prunes), which stresses the intensity of the songs, almost forcing you to either listen or turn the music off. It is obvious that Uhlich worked hard on his album. I would hesitate to call Uhlich a singer-songwriter, but his work comes close to that tradition. All this makes Hakiko not an experimental album, not in music, structure nor in his lyrical approach. It is, to put it simply, the work of a man trying to make sense of his world by putting his thoughts into songs. The opening track Pure Morning is my favourite as this is where the concept works best. Running to 14 songs in nearly one hour, Hakiko suffers from ambition and overload. Had it been cut down to say 40 minutes, it would have benefitted both listener as music. With many of the songs using the same sparse instrumentation in the same tempo and key, the heavy bass on Pure Evening, the keyboards on Be Like A Bee or the percussion on GBM come as a welcome relief. Having said that, a programmable CD player can omit the songs you don’t really like or you could play this album in various sessions. Many debut albums have their flaws. Hakiko is not a perfect album, but it is a very sincere one. The album is also available via Bandcamp at a most reasonable price (pay whatever you like). (FK)
Address: http://maxuhlich.bandcamp.com/
SPACEHEADS – TRIP TO THE MOON (EP by Electric Brass)
Spaceheads is a working unit of veterans Andy Diagram and Richard Harrison. They are on the road since the 90s. Both have a history that goes back to New Wave-times, as members of Diagram Brothers, Dislocation Dance, a.o. As a duo, operating from their base in Manchester as well as London they throw a few catchy instrumentals into space every now and then. ‘Trip to the Moon’ is their 9th release. It contains four songs with Diagram playing trumpet, loops and FX Harmonizers, and Richard Harrison on drums and percussion. On ‘Cosmic Freight Train’ they are assisted by Paddy Steer (Biting Tongues) on bass. The title of the ep refers to an early sci-fi film by Georges Méliès that served as a source of inspiration this time. It is absolutely their craft and strength to create unpretentious, poppy tunes. Results are not spectacular, not experimental, just solid and almost danceable music. Not to forget, the ep is released on Electric Brass, a label Diagram started in 2013 as an outlet for his own music, as well as electronic brass by others. (DM)
Address: http://www.electricbrass.com
MIGUEL A. GARCIA – CHOIRS (CD by Copy For Your Records)
The buys bee Garcia finds a good home with Copy For Your Records, following his collaboration with the labelboss. Garcia was once called Xedh and as such explored various genres before settling upon his own brand of electronics/computer processing/noise/electro-acoustic, and not necessarily in that order. I somehow, wrongly expected here to find the sound of processed choir recordings, but it’s not to be. Unless of course they have been processed to such an extended that we are no longer able to hear this. Garcia plays radical music, and the radicalness is to be found in the use of dynamics. His music can be very quiet, such in ‘Ninos Rata’, but also very loud as he proofs in ‘Centre’. There is a certain playful aspect in this music, which reminds me of his background in the world of improvised electronics. The chopped up sound of ‘Centre’ is such a thing that is a reminder of that. Most of the times however Garcia has a more composed sound, and goes within a piece from soft to loud, as in ‘Tentacle’. Using field recordings fed through analogue electronics and maybe some sort of computer treatment is collaged together in dense fields of sound, like various power stations in vast plain. There is certainly an element of ‘dirt’ around here, ‘rust’ if you will and it all buzzes and sparks electricity. Drone music of a more violent nature. Garcia can be placed next to Francesco Meirino as one of those boys from noise who know what they are doing and keep things interesting. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cfryre.co/rds
BLOOD BRIGHT STAR – THE SILVER HEAD (LP by King Of Monster Records)
From the same label that brought us Gog (Vital Weekly 942) we now have a record by Blood Bright Star, which is one Reuben Sawyer, who is also a visual artist. His previous releases were on Ivory Antler, Anti-Matter and Anthithetic. Like with the Gog record I am not sure what I letting myself in for, although maybe just a little bit more this time. What I hear (!) sounds to me like doom music that could have easily be from 1982. Or even: more like 1982 than 2014. Sawyer does all the music himself, we are told, and plays like a slow rock doom band, without Martin Hannett at the controls. This is more home-doom than studio-doom. Garage doom, anyone? The six pieces are quite minimal, maybe one riff per track being played with a small amount of variation. The Velvets doing krautrock while contemplating suicide (the act of, not the band, mind you; although…?). But face it: 2014 isn’t fun either. War, terror, murder, destruction, religious madness. It is like the early 80s all over again, so maybe it’s not the strangest music to play these days. I used to love my Section 25, Crispy Ambulance, In Camera and De Brassers (and you have your favourites, I know) and maybe it’s good to have stuff like Blood Bright Star for the younger. I once asked a youngster why she liked a particular artist who not only played like Syd Barrett but also looked like him (‘we had all of that, as well as clones thereof ages ago’, I told her), and she reasoned that she wasn’t around to witness any of that live, so every time needed a new Syd Barrett. Good thinking, I must say. I had my Joy Division, the young can have that as well Blood Bright Star. I nodded kindly along with these hypnotic grooves, and hopefully in thirty-five years someone will remember this record as fondly as I do the long forgotten ones by In Camera. (FdW)
Address: http://kingofmonstersrecords.bigcartel.com
IDEA FIRE COMPANY – THE LABORATORY EP (7″ by Dischi Del Barone)
NO INTENTION – GOOD INTENTION/MATERIAL DILEMMA (7″ by Dischi Del Barone)
In the same week I celebrated my birthday I got the Falx Cerebri CD and the Idea Fire Company 7″. Friends of mine asked me what I want for birthday. I already have everything, honey. What more could you want? I don’t think the 7″ is a format that suits Idea Fire Company very well, since their minimalist electronic music (although some of their recent records are pretty acoustic!) works best when it’s a bit longer. Here on the two parts of ‘The Laboratory’ core members Karla Borecky and Scott Foust play a form of power drone music, both operating a synthesizer. It could be that both pieces are individual compositions, or perhaps two parts culled from a longer work; and that’s why I think music like this is hard to do on a 7″. Quick fade in and fade out and there is your two sides. Having said that, I must admit I quite enjoyed this powerful drone stuff. It seems the mighty monotron has entered Wunderwaffen – their studio – and fed through some sound effects to create a lovely, demanding piece of music; or two actually. Following some of their more recent delicate renditions for piano and wind instruments this might be a shock to some. To the true fans – and you are looking at one here – this is a most welcome surprise; in every possible way.
On the same label a ‘group’, ‘project’, ‘person’ called No Intention. The website learns that this is ‘sound poetry/TAPE music from Allen Mozek/Good Area, following up the Debris Music CS released on VITRINE in 2013. Recorded at home, early 2014 in Philadelphia, PA.’ On ‘Good Intentions’ we hear a rhythm fed through a sound effect – delay, if you want to know – and a spoken word. Play at 45 rpm. Maybe sound poetry? I am a bit lost as to what this is about, but it seems somehow a private thing. Is the label boss called Mathias? Did I understand that correctly from the words?. The B-side is at 33 1/3 rpm and without words and a lot more action. This could be recording in a living room, piano included, with Dictaphone noise, a bang on the piano and some randomized sound events of some kind, ending with a comment on the tape being stuck in the machine. This was a curious piece of music, anti-music if you will. More like an artist record, maybe a conceptual statement of some kind, but this side sounded quite nice. Weird record, but it surely fits the format. Both are limited to 200 copies. (FdW)
Address: http://www.iddb.se/
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & PHARMAKUSTIK – METAPLASIE (CDR by Naked Lunch Records)
From ever-active Maurizio Bianchi here is another work with Pharmakustik, which is the name chosen by Siegmar Fricke. They have been working together for some time now and I must admit I am always a bit at loss as how their collaboration works. For a while I thought Fricke was completing the work of Bianchi, by adding additional sound effects and mastering. Maybe they actually do this? M.B. gets the credit for ‘liquefactuce dysplasia sequences’ and Fricke for ‘apocrine electronics’ and it’s all done with ‘morphologic elaboration at Pharmakustik studio, Germany’, so it ended, one could say, with Fricke. There is a lot of expensive words used on the cover, which read like a medical handbook, but the music is a bit like we know it (which might be a bad thing?): three long spacious dark holes of rotating sounds in an endless spiralling circle of many different colours, which all happen to be black. Very loud, but never distorted; very dark, but never closed off from the rest of the world. It’s not the kind of early industrial music that Bianchi once made loosely organised, but rather something that is more thought out. Black monolithic pieces of ambient meets industrial meets drone. Atmospheric? I am still not sure about that. Maybe it’s atmospheric but it’s hard to say what the atmospheres are here. Space ships colliding on Planet X? Is that an atmosphere or an image? I should say the last. If there are daring film makers out there willing to shoot a twenty-minute scene of alien life in all it’s busyness on such a planet, than any of the three pieces from ‘Metaplasie’ could serve as its soundtrack. Play loud and play in the dark and life will not have been the same. A night of unrest is likely to follow. Not their best work, but certainly one their better albums. Nice digi-pack here too. (FdW)
Address: <naked.lunch.recordings@gmail.com>
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE – WISTFUL ENTRANCE, WISTFUL EXIT (CDR by Kendra Steiner Editions)
Diaz-Infante you may know from his releases on Pax Recordings, a label he co-founded in the 90s. The label seems no longer active at the moment. Cdr-releases with his music continued to appear however, for example for Kendra Steiner Editions, like this new release ‘Wistful Entrance, Wistful Exit’. What shall I say about? If you want to shake up your listening habits, this may be the one for you. Infante zooms in on a very limited set of musical aspects, in a way that is not often met. I love him for the consequence by which he follows his ideas, more then I like the result. This new release counts three tracks, respectively ‘This’, ‘Long’ and ‘Moment’, all taking about 15 minutes with Diaz-Infante playing 12-string acoustic-electric guitar. Throughout Diaz-Infante is constantly strumming his guitar in a more or less constant pace. There is no development, no (anti)climax, but just repeated strumming, with minor differences and minimal changes. After a while you start to hear overtones, and some ‘complexity’ occurs. A very minimalistic approach. This is not so much music that asks for attentive listening, but more for a active non-listening. Or a listening that skips all expectations, and simply enjoys the sound, like sounds of nature. Listening this way becomes a meditation exercise. Maybe this conjures with the state Ernesto was in when conceiving this music. It was when he had to deal with death in the family and he searched for a music that offers “an opening of time”. (DM)
Address: http://www.kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com
SCHWINGUNGEN 77 ENTERTAINMENT – ACT 1: NOTES IN FREEDOM (CDR by Setola Di Maiale)
Three guitarists of whom I never heard, Andrea Massaria, Enrico Merlin, Alessandro Seravalle who go by the name Schwingungen 77 Entertainment. In addition to their guitars they add objects, live electronics, kaospad, toys, electronic substratums and samples. All three players have an extended background in improvised music and jazz, which is something one could tell from this release. Having said that I should immediately add that for a non-jazz lover like me it actually wasn’t hard. At the beginning I was thinking this had more to do with the world electro-acoustic music, computer treatments and such like, but a track like ‘Finale Di Partitura Stra… Schonberghiana’ owes more to jazz indeed, despite the bit of electronics they use. That marks the two ends of this release, and while it seems to be limping, I think it all works quite well. The twelve pieces here show an interesting variety of interests, both in stylistically approach (jazz, electro-acoustic, rock, noise), but also in their way of dealing with the dynamics. It’s throughout not the most difficult music one could hear, but Schwingungen 77 Entertainment keep their music rather light and pleasant to hear, even with all the apparent difficult things they do. I can imagine this is even more interesting to witness in concert, but the CDR is just as nice, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://setoladimaiale.net/
SELECTONE – DEAD GROOVES (CDR by Ressonus)
It’s been a while since I last heard something from Selectone from the Czech Republic. That was in Vital Weekly 472 and to say I know the music of Selectone (is it Select One or Selec Tone?) is a bit overdone. I did remember correctly that it had to do something with rhythm, although I suspected back then some form of lo-fi sampling. That no longer seems to be the case. Selectone is what you could perhaps call a plunderphonic project as he (?) uses sounds heavily worn shellac records, but perhaps, so I was thinking he also adds some more electronics; at least, I can’t imagine all of those drum sounds from worn out shellac. The music is throughout a bit dark but it is also quite nice, full of small variations and lots of rotations. Everything seems to be in full swing here, repeating and repeating. Rust and dust music, with an ancient ghost singing on ‘Dead Swan’. There is more to this than just some found sounds from old records; the material seems to be more composed with and doesn’t act as just a bunch of sounds. Especially a piece like ‘Dead Swan’ shows there is more to that then just some sounds. Here Selectone actually creates a beautiful intense piece of music, haunting and sparse, but with a fine bass end. ‘Positive Einstellung’ does perhaps the same, but then through an uplifting rhythm, sampled voices, eerie electronics and with a ghostly undercurrent too. The jazzy ‘Solaris’ evokes a sighting of a smokey nightclub in the fifties. These pieces are the best on this release I think, but all six are equally nice, I think. A fine release. Don’t wait too long with the next one, Selectone. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ressonus.net
OLEKRANON – APHELION (CDR by Inam Records)
It’s been a while since I last heard of Olekranon, one of the various incarnations of Ryan Huber, sometimes known as Sujo. Vital Weekly 792 that was and back then I noticed something about going into hibernation. So perhaps ‘Aphelion’ is a sort of a comeback album for him? In the old days he uses guitars and rhythms, loud but towards the end also more subdued. Here it seems he has no guitars, just ‘looped rhythms, noise, and drone’. Purely coincidental I was on my bicycle earlier today and I listened to good ol’ Porter Ricks – perfect music for such an activity. While Olekranon references Henry & Hazel Slaughter, Shifted and Black Dice, he could have as easily mentioned Porter Ricks. His has perhaps a less techno-based drive, but there is surely a fine motorik drive here. Maybe industrial music would have been a good point too, early industrial, but I don’t think Olekranon is too much of that. It’s not loud for the sake of being loud. It forceful, yes, it’s loud but pleasant, and it’s not irritatingly noisy. Olekranon builds in moments of (un-)rest, playing the ambient industrial card and delivers within these twelve pieces an excellent variety. Guitar howl may no longer seem to have a place in this, but that’s fine. This is very strong as it is. A great album, a fine comeback and certainly a fine move in a new direction. (FdW)
Address: http://olekranon.bandcamp.com
RU/ST (3″ CDR by resdatcom)
This is a release from Zaporozhye of a ‘one-man’ noise project. Zaporozhye is in Eastern-Ukraine so we are in dangerously topical geography and politics here. I could find no mention in any of the material of this which is strange as we seem to have more of an overt message here- only one that responds to Zaporozhye’s industrial decline… ‘the voice of a dying city’ an attempt to communicate the economic crisis rather than political, but economics and politics are not different. Pictures across the Dnieper river show factory chimneys and dockyard cranes, signs of heavy industry. The laws of contingency connect the Netherlands with the Ukraine in a tragic way, and a far more feeble coincidence – if it is- Zaporozhye is twinned with Birmingham, my temporary home from where I write looking over the city centre hotels… the only cranes tower cranes constructing new hotels, though there once were many redundant factories, of the collapsed motor trade, a product as much of Thatcher as Red-Robo, to compare the two cities is difficult as I’ve never visited Zaporozhye and street view is yet to get to that part of Europe. My stance on the inability of pure-noise to communicate should not be news! However it does pose a moral problem, for anyone who is bothered to think rather than indulge in hedonist masochism. Pure noise like pure science seems to both ignore the consequences of its activity – to mankind – and devote an a-political energy which given the current situation could be seen as again an immoral stance. Simply put as in Buddhism tophilosophize in a burning house is an act of extreme folly. The product of the physics of the early 20th C was more than knowledge, it was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not of course that noise theory is at all potent! Of course that’s a lie! What are the crises in humanity but ideas, and that is where politics should be engaged in seeking to communicate at all levels in a two way process without professional politics the morality(s) of the polis. This makes both HN and HNW bad. Though meat is murder it’s not obvious, or is it obvious just what is the ethics regarding shark killing in the sounds ofthousands of dead gods. Well here (at last you might say) is 20 minutes of harsh noise wall industrial static and saw mill sounds…. An abstract wallwith absolutely no content other than accompanying texts… My point again… Should then the makers of such incommunicable HNW stop this practice of non-sense and start making music again, death-metal, black-noise…. I don’tthink so – so keep the black bags over everyone’s head! As the politics ofMusician / Audience is an old model, of leaders and armies. Which is why there cannot be a polis of PE/Industrial- just a minority group on a platform and an audience of head swaying sheep. (jliat)
Address: http://resonan.wordpress.com/
ANDREW WEATHERS & SETH CHRISMAN – LOUELLA (cassette by Full Spectrum Records)
Things have been quiet for a whole for Full Spectrum Records, following some strange releases in the form of booklets and postcards with download links. Here is a proper cassette by label co-founder Andrew Weathers with one Seth Crisman, who also goes by the name Widesky. They locked themselves up in a remote corner of the Olympic National Forest in Washington State in a guard station, setting up a small temporary studio. Among them they use guitars, banjo, lo-fi electronics and field recordings and it cuts into two sidelong pieces of music. Music with a very home brew character, I believe the word ‘folk’ should be in place. But instead of capturing an instrument or two, much of the emphasis goes out to recording the environment in which the music is created. I imagine, although probably a highly romantic notion, a microphone set up in this guard station, doors open, gain all open, so we hear every creaky bit of the floor boards, a guitar one side and some monophonic small synth on the other side and field recordings streaming from a cassette with a build in speaker. The two musicians barely dare to breath, but they let their drones mingle with the outdoor sounds, occasionally strum their guitar, use a slide and make the guitar sound like a dobro. Refined music but also very direct. Direct in your face, direct as without any dressing up. It sounds very intimate, this music, like you are almost sitting next to it, keeping your breath, because you don’t want to spoil the recording. No doubt these pieces were culled from longer bits and edited together, but it all sounds like one piece that was played this way. Excellent release! (FdW)
Address: http://fullspectrumrecords.bandcamp.com/
THOMAS SHRUBSOLE – EARLY ANALOGUE SELECTED WORKS ON TAPE 2002-2004 (cassette by Dissolving Records)
T. SHRUBSOLE & C. TATTERSAL (cassette by Our Other Ideas)
Formerly known as Subloam, Thomas Shrubsole now released something under his own and I am not sure. Maybe it has to do with the fact that these are among his earliest recordings when he started to play around with analogue synthesis and hardware recording. Mostly for his own pleasure, although some of this has also been used for an exhibition of his pieces. If I understand well the selection was already made back then. I quite liked Subloam with its sound treatments of instruments such as the saxophone so listening to this early work is a bit strange. I couldn’t help thinking that these were somewhat crude and primitive; both in the way they are recorded but also in the way they are played. Mostly synthesizer stuff with a sort of industrial music touch to it. Very minimal all around here. It’s not bad or unpleasant to hear, in all its crudeness and if you like his recent you might want to lent this an ear too.
It’s interesting to continue with the cassette he did with Craig Tattersall right after this. Tattersall has been a member of Remote Viewer, The Boats, Humble Bee, Cotton Goods and such like, and Shrubsole and Tattersal have been members of The Dissolving Orchestra. Late 2012 and early 2013 they recorded music at Shrubsole’s home studio and now edited into this sixty-minute release. What is interesting to note here, is that there is a noisier attitude present in this music too. It’s not of the same carefully constructions as Shrubsole’s Subloam music of late. They are using three reel-to-reel machines, cassette loops, mini-modular synth and a saxophone. There is a certain distortion in these recordings present, and even being noise based at times, but only mildly distorted. It’s not noise for the sake of noise, but slow music with a rough edge. Sometimes it pushes towards a bit of feedback, sometimes there is just a bit of strumming, and in general it has a bit of crummy sound sources. I am not sure if there was any kind of post-editing of this material, or if it was recorded as-is, but there is an element of looseness in this material; at times a bit unfocussed, and disoriented, but that adds to the feeling of the music. In it’s way a fine addition to the somewhat industrial early works. (FdW)
Address: http://dissolvingrecords.blogspot.com
Address: http://ourotherideas.tumblr.com