number 1123
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week 11 ---------------------
Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a weekly webcast,
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of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed. It will remain on the site for a
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SM/DP - FAULT TOLERANT (CD by Nekoerekords) * JOSHUA GEROWITZ – SOLANO CANYON (CD by Pfmentum) MISHA FEIGIN & LUKAS IMONIS – THE SQUAT (CD by Z6 Records) HANS TAMMEN & THE DARK CIRCUITS BUNKER ORCHESTRA – TEN MINUTES LATE WITH NO BUS AND NO TAXI EITHER (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) EINZELSTÜCKE – ZEHN SOLOS (CD by Tonkunst Manufaktur) PARA – PHON (CD by Freifeld Tonträger) GIANLUCA FAVARON - VARIATIONS (FRAGMENTS OF EVANESCENT MEMORIES (CD by Silentes) * KEVIN DRUMM - INEXPLICABLE HOURS (2LP by Sonoris) * MAXIMILIAN LATVA - HRÖN (CDR by Art First Records) * EYE FIEND EDITS (CDR compilation by Eye Fiend) JLIAT - EINSTEIN VIOLATED; MUSIC FASTER THAN LIGHT (CDR by Larks Council England) * THE JOY OF NATURE - EMPTINESS IS A LONG STORY (CDR, private) * INABILE CAOS - I.O (CD by Essentia Mundi) * SLEEP SIGNAL (cassette, private) * WRECKERS - RUIN (cassette) DAI COELACANTH - NANY CREAKS IN GRAVEYARD SLIME (cassette) SM/DP - FAULT TOLERANT (CD by Nekoerekords) The acronym stands for Suorsa Marko, of whom I don’t think I heard before and Dassum Penti, whom we best known as the man behind Umpio, and as such responsible for quite some distinctive wild electronic improvisations, of which I never could figure out it was all very digital or the opposite. Here the two of them worked on a long distance collaboration and according the musicians it was all about using their “discarded sound sources” and “1% junk noise and 99% computer music”, using such tools as GRM tools, Hourglass, Reaktor, Soundgrain and such, so there is at least one thing clear; it’s all made in the digital domain. It all sounds quite academic, ticking off all the right boxes when it comes to musique concrete but there is also some rough and tumbling about this, naivety if you will. It is not exactly about following the rules of the ‘real’ academic world of musique concrete, but rather a do as you think see fit. What I thought was quite remarkable is that this is supposed to be a ‘long distance’ collaboration and to be honest: I could have sworn this was two guys, two laptops, one room. The cover is not very clear as to who does what here, in terms of mixing and such, so for all I know either of them did his piece/mix, using an extensive library of sounds. Some of this leans towards the noise scene, such as the heavy slab called ‘Irreversible Polymer’ and is akin late 80s industrial music discovering their musique concrete roots (think P16.D4, Merzbow before he turned to noise only), but in other pieces the violence is kept under control. All six pieces have a fine unleashing of vibrant energy; there are lots of movements around here and there is never a dull moment. This is a lovely work of improvisation, electronics and digital music. (FdW) ––– Address: http://www.umpio.com JOSHUA GEROWITZ – SOLANO CANYON (CD by Pfmentum) Gerowitz is a guitarist, graduate of Berklee College of Music and California Institute of the Arts. There is not much to tell about his whereabouts, as he is a young musician, with a future to come. ‘Solano Canyon’ is his debut work consisting of eight short works, five of them are written by Gerowitz. Three others are co-written with other performers involved. All tracks have Gerowitz playing electric guitar, assisted by Louis Lopez (trumpet, tracks 1-7), Colin Woodford (drums, tracks 1-7), Jake Rosenzweig (bass, tracks 2, 5, 6, 7), Carmina Escobar (voice, tracks 2, 5, 7), Joe Santa Maria (saxophones, tracks 1, 3, 4) and David Tranchina (bass, tracks 1, 3, 4). When I was about giving up listening to the opening track ‘Smooth as ice’, the music in a sudden turned into psychedelic and grooving excursion that really hit something. Gerowitz is guitarist working from jazz, blues and rock attitudes fused with experimental tendencies. His sense for experiment becomes most evident in the three ‘Hamburger Island’ pieces. ‘Hamburger Island 4’ for example is an intriguing improvisation built from long extended soundscapes and textures, with extravert vocals by Carmina Escobar. Also ‘Hamobruger 3’ surprises by the beautiful opening played by Jake Rosenzweig on bass. A mixed bag altogether, showcasing the different idioms and contexts Gerowitz likes to operate in as a guitarist, improviser and composer; as an artist with many ideas. ‘Angels Point’, the closing piece on this album is a moody improvisation by Gerowitz solo on guitar and effects. Interesting and convincing debut! (DM) ––– Address: http://pfmentum.com/ MISHA FEIGIN & LUKAS IMONIS – THE SQUAT (CD by Z6 Records) Coming from a classical background Feigin started his career in the 80s in Russia recording albums of free improvised music for the Melodia state label. Since the 90s he works and lives in the US. Simonis is a long time musical activist with roots in punk, known from his work with Dull Schicksal, Aa Kismet, Coolhaven, to name just a few of his collaborations. Feigin contacted Simonis for a duo- project using electronics, texts, songs and improvisation. They did a short tour in 2017 and recorded this cd that same year. The release consists of eleven tracks, some of them close to song format, spoken word of free improvisation. Simonis plays guitars, pedals and Arp Odyssey, Feigin guitar and vocals. It is evident that we are in the company of two free spirits, two musically very profiled weirdoes. For example Simonis produces nice electronic textures to the spoken words by Feigin. Their interplay results in transparent structures, with noise and sounds as ingredients as well as melodic and harmonic elements. It is done with discipline and also with humour. But although everything is there, it doesn’t really happen if you ask me. Also weirdness becomes normal. (DM) ––– Address: http://www.z6records.nl/ HANS TAMMEN & THE DARK CIRCUITS BUNKER ORCHESTRA – TEN MINUTES LATE WITH NO BUS AND NO TAXI EITHER (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) Hans Tammen grew up in Germany. Played rock in his early youth inspired by Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. Discovered Coltrane and Sharrock and moved to jazz. Besides guitar he became interested in electronic instruments, and developed over the years into a soundsculpting improviser. In 2001 he moved to New York, where he lives and works up till the present day. In New York he initiated the Dark Circuits Festival focused on contemporary electronic music. Also he started writing for large ensembles of electronic instruments. This resulted in a performance by an ensemble of performers primarily using modular synthesizers (Chuck Bettis, Chris Penalosa, Laura Feathers, Mike Bazini, Nick Berry, Matthew Gantt, Sofy Yuditskaya, Greg Neeld and Lorenz Fish, adding David Keay on drums). Because of the success of this project it was decided to record it in the studio, and Gold Bolus has the courage to release this work. Concept and composition are by Tammen who also conducted the ensemble, inspired by Earle Brown’s open form of conducting. I have think very deeply to come up with another example of an ensemble of modular synthesizers. But I can’t think of any other ensemble of comparable size. So, in that sense it is unique what we are witnessing here. ‘Ten Minutes Late With No Bus In Sight And No Taxi Either’ consists of six works. In total about 63 minutes of electronic escapades. Spacey atmospheres dominate in ‘Poker Star’.‘Kafka’s Hat’ is a beat driven excursion with a prominent role for drummer David Keay (early collaborator with Moore and Gordon in pre-Sonic Youth times). What makes this one special is first of all, its unique sound spectrum built up from numerous electronics instruments. I enjoyed it for the wave of sounds, strange sequences and constructions of different electronic sounds. As a composition I had difficulties with it. And I missed a nucleus or focus in the music. It is likes looking at the clouds, and to see how they drift by, being impressed by their shape and size. But there is no further structure or plan behind it and it is an exceptional work, of intended over the top proportions. (DM) ––– Address: http://goldbolus.com/ EINZELSTÜCKE – ZEHN SOLOS (CD by Tonkunst Manufaktur) Tonkunst Manufaktur is a new initiative by Constanze Reimann (graphic designer) and Claudius Reimann (musician). They released an audiobook, an airplay and a CD, presenting this way their scope and focus. It is here the CD we want to talk about. Called ‘Einzelstücke’ or ‘solos’ to put it in English. The CD has ten of these, solos by well-known and lesser known musicians: Ute Völker (accordion), Iouri Grankin (voice), Markus Markowski (electric guitar), Anke Ames (viola), Martin Blume (percussion), Katharina Bohlen (clarinet), Eberhard Meisel (electric zither), Carl Ludwig Hübsch (tuba), Klaus Treuheit (Goll-Orgel). Also one of the initiators, Claudius Reimann makes his contribution with a solo for baritone sax. Together with Treuheit he released and album already in 2010. And in the company of Bohlen and Reinale Noisten, Reimann did an album for Creative Sources in 2015. Neither he nor most of the others are extensively documented on CDs. This makes this release an interesting opportunity to learn more about some lesser-known German or Germany- based improvisers. All improvisations are abstract and radical improvisations, playing with dynamics, texture, sound as main ingredients. Some of them, like the improvisations by Markowsi, Bohlen and Hübsch stand out by their directness and impact. But also the others have interesting and engaging moments to offer. Is it the nice vocal improvisation by Grankin or the experimental piece by Meisel. As in most improvisations the played instrument can be identified in an instant, with the improvisation by Eberhard Meisel on electric zither this is not the case. He seems to use diverse objects to play the strings and uses electronics to create a far out sound improvisation. Hope this turns out as a fruitful kick off for this new initiative. They have releases of improvised music and audiobook in preparation. (DM) ––– Address: http://tonkunstmanufaktur.de/ PARA – PHON (CD by Freifeld Tonträger) Para is a trio of Elena Kakaliagou (french horn, voice), Ingrid Schmoliner (prepared piano) and Thomas Stempkowski (double bass), musicians of Greek and Austrian background. The cd documents a live set, recorded at the Kaleidophon Festival/Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg, on May 6th, 2016. It is their third release since their start in 2011, and their first release by Freifeld Tonträger. They debuted with ‘Para-ligo’ in 2012. And in 2014 ‘Paraphore’ followed. Kakaliagou and Schmoliner released also a remarkable duo- album ‘Nabelóse’ for Corvo Records. Stempkowski plays bass in classical as well as jazz and improvised contexts. In 2016 he released the solo-album ‘Auf der Suche nach der Stille’ for Reifeld Tonträger. As a trio they have a history of about seven years and created very much their own musical universe. Their new release is baffling proof of this. They have chosen their parameters for their extended improvisations that concentrate on texture, timbre and colouring, abstracting from many aspects we normally expect from music. But music this is! So delightful that it really gave me the creeps, which is not often happening. Repetition is another key element of their well-balanced constructions. Their music is very sensitive and delicate on the one hand, but also strong and self-conscious at the other. From deep drones and sonorities by the bass, fascinating percussive patterns by the prepared piano and gurgling and bubbling sounds from the French horn, etc. they create a world that won’t let you unmoved. (DM) ––– Address: https://www.freifeldtontraeger.com/ GIANLUCA FAVARON - VARIATIONS (FRAGMENTS OF EVANESCENT MEMORIES (CD by Silentes) It’s not often we see Arnold Schönberg quoted on a cover, so it’s nice to repeat it: “even variation is a form of repetition”. Gianluca Favaron is someone who has been around for quite some time with his solo work, as well as in groups as Under The Snow, Zbeen and Ab’she. On this new solo CD, which is released in an edition of 100 copies with an individual image stuck on the sleeve, he plays a variety of instruments, such tape recorders, analogue synth, objects, guitar, field recordings, contact microphones, hydrophones, cartridge and effects and recorded the music from April to December last year. Silentes says about this release: “Favaron has elaborated his concept of repetition by frangling the sound to break it down into infinitesimal parts. Therefore adding a new piece in his discography that represents an essential starting point for new research. In the sound. Of sound.” I am not sure how all of that works out, I must admit, as what I hear sounds very much like what I expected from a release by Favaron. The microscopic look at small sounds, perhaps if you will the residue of sound, captured on tape, and spun around on reel-to-reel machines, speeding up and slowing down, usually at the same time it seems, comes with more debris from the rest of the instruments used. There is some fine interplay with field recordings from the streets below, some multi-effect machine set to distortion, but then just very occasionally, waving a small drone below. In effect one could say this is very much musique concrete, with a strong love for hands on manipulation of sounds, turning those small sound particles into very vibrant pieces of music, cutting and splitting up and stitching the whole thing together again. All of this makes up another very fine Favaron release, his usual high quality. (FdW) ––– Address: http://13.silentes.it/ KEVIN DRUMM - INEXPLICABLE HOURS (2LP by Sonoris) Sonoris already released a 6CD set by Kevin Drumm, ‘Elapsed Time’, at the very end of 2016 (see Vital Weekly 1064), which just made it to my top-whatever records of the next year. Kevin Drumm is a man of many faces, when it comes to music, from downright noise to drone music. That particular box contain mainly the latter, while an earlier, unreviewed, 4CD set ‘Nekro Acoustic’ is all about the noise end. I think when it comes to noise, Drumm does a fine job, but either I heard enough noise for the rest of my life, or Drumm isn’t my hero in that genre (I guess a bit of both). But I surely haven’t heard enough drones for the rest of my life, and that’s why I enjoyed ‘Elapsed Time’ that much. ‘Inexplicable Hours’ is along similar lines, even when ‘noise’ (note the parenthesis) isn’t entirely gone. I am not necessarily (again) a preacher when it comes to format, techno is best on vinyl, grainy noise on cassette and ambient on a CD (all of these styles as 96 bit audio as a digital download for the real philes), but with music like Drumm is doing here, the CD is just the perfect format. Luckily there is one included with the album, which made me think that for the production cost of 2LP is a gatefold sleeve could have easily been another box set of multiple discs, but alas; you can’t win ‘m all. This is another great set of pieces. From the closing organ drones of ‘Reverse Osmosis’, which sounds majestically and mystical with that slow rhythm buried underneath to the field recordings of ‘The Loop B’, there isn’t a weak piece inside this package. It is not about the pure drone as such, as in ‘Old Connections’ he ups the ante and arrives at some piercing drones towards the end of the piece. It is hard to say if Drumm turned towards modular synthesizers for this new release. The sticker on the front says ‘audio generators’, and ‘various electronic devices’. Field recordings are looped around here and sometimes buried a bit inside the music and electronics play the most important role around here. When things are very quiet, as in the aforementioned ‘Reverse Osmosis’ and ‘A Blind Spot’ it is not difficult to see the influence of Eliane Radigue, especially for their pure approach to the word ‘drone’ and ‘electronics’. In his other pieces, the shorter ones, it’s a bit louder and, for the lack of a better word, ‘noisier’, but still with a firm doses of ambient attached to it, and it connects to the world of Mirror, Ora (especially when field recordings are used) and Orphax. This is a beautiful piece of music, all seven pieces of it. It is varied and coherent, and it’s just the way I love these. (FdW) ––– Address: http://sonoris.org/ MAXIMILIAN LATVA - HRÖN (CDR by Art First Records) This is very well most likely my first introduction to the music of this Finnish composer, who uses a “small modular system, two monosynths, various guitar pedals and toy instruments. Acoustic sounds are sometimes sampled”. I believe this is his second album. Latva calls this ‘electronic chamber music’, and some have compared this to Charles Ives and/or Krzystof Penderecki. I like to add another name to that and that is Conrad Schnitzler. Over the years I heard quite a bit of his music and while we know Schnitzler best as an electronic composer, quite rightly so (but no doubt because the various re-issues deal with more that side of his legacy, than with much else of his), but the sampled acoustic instruments in combination with electronics is something that we find here in these seven pieces. None of these compositions seems to be along lines that are in anyway logic, but sometimes don’t seem to make much sense, such as the odd changes in ‘Demestes’, which also comes with a bit of guitar distortion. The chamber orchestra feeling lingers through all these pieces, usually with sampled brass and violins, but Latva uses quite extensively also electronic sounds, as chords, modulations, oscillations and stabs and it all sounds pretty serious modern classic. Which, I guess, means not the easiest music around, especially since some of this comes with quite some brutal force. Not for the weak of heart. (FdW) ––– Address: https://vokkolainen.wordpress.com/art-first-records/ EYE FIEND EDITS (CDR compilation by Eye Fiend) Good to see that the musician slipped in a note with this as with a carton sleeve with an image/no text stuck on and nothing else it is very hard to guess what it is. I assume this is mostly sold through Bandcamp, where it says ‘Available on CDR to anyone who wants it’, so by then you know what you are ordering. I say ‘compilation’ here, but it’s mainly Paul Harrison, also (better) known as Expose Your Eyes, but with various aliases he uses; “some of my personal favourites of the projects I've been doing since starting this Bandcamp - edited and boosted in all the right places to, hopefully, make this a pretty punchy compilation”. I am not sure about the punchy character of this compilation as it lasts 80 minutes, which gave me time to have a look at his Bandcamp as I must admit I had only a vague recollection of what Expose Your Eyes was about, except that somehow, somewhere I connected this with noise music. That turned out to be not far off really. The twenty-three pieces from a mere minute to ten are all filled up with noise, distortion, a bit of vocals, a tad of rhythm (very rare however; as PH Tension), heavy duty synth noise and I guess there is some variation in here but you have to be a true detective of the noise genre to find all the differences. There is a bit of good ol’ power electronics in here, industrial music, noise, ambient industrial, tape manipulation and what else and the only thing missing I thought was the very now Harsh Noise Wall variation, but it’s safe to say I didn’t miss out on that. I assume this is indeed quite a good overview of what Paul Harrison in various guises and if by ‘punchy’ he means something like a smack in the face then surely safe to say it is hard blow. Good to hear an updated version of his music again. (FdW) ––– Address: https://eyefiend.bandcamp.com/ JLIAT - EINSTEIN VIOLATED; MUSIC FASTER THAN LIGHT (CDR by Larks Council England) Here we have the man who asks the kind of questions I couldn’t dream of asking myself, such as ‘what is the smallest sound possible’ or ‘if light travels at such a speed, and sound in another speed, how long does a second take?’ Light is 905.00 faster than sound, so if you accelerate sound to light it takes 10 days for 1 second and 34 years for 20 minutes. See, and I bet you never thought of asking that. Jliat has written software to create very large sound files, by using raw .SND files (about a 1000) and splicing them together. Several gigabytes of sound were created and compressed 905.00 times, matching the speed of light. There are two pieces on this CDR; one is an example, “a very small chunk of a massive .SND file. Track two is 34 years! of PCM sound, over 36 trillion bytes, reduced to twenty minutes, which is the source of midi data as opposed to PCM data”, and just as in school I nodded out when it came to numbers. What’s that you’re saying, sir? I was thinking I could leave the review more or less at this: “and so what does this sound like, you may ask? It’s nothing that you can imagine, so I won’t spoil it” but somehow that seemed a very easy way out of a review. Jliat is someone who did a bunch of great drone records early on in his career, before he asked those questions that brought him loud noise and digital silence, and the outcome of this acceleration process could be anything as the cover doesn’t mention the sound input at all. You might be surprised to learn that in the machine went a bunch of piano sounds that at any rate (or speed) still sound like a piano. In the first piece it sounds like a modern classical piece, mid-tempo, but also very digital; clearly no Ludwig Van at work but quite nice while contemplating about the philosophical implications of big numbers, while the second (also untitled) piece is very chaotic and prevents the listener for formulating clear thought. Clearly Jliat is one of the most original conceptual composers I know. Without playing his music that often/if at all, I can safely say it is all very original work. (FdW) ––– Address: http://www.jliat.com THE JOY OF NATURE - EMPTINESS IS A LONG STORY (CDR, private) INABILE CAOS - I.O (CD by Essentia Mundi) SLEEP SIGNAL (cassette, private) Lumping various releases together into one review is not something I like to do a lot, at least if they are not on the same label. But there can be good reasons for it, such as similarity in the music. That is not the case here. What combines these three releases is perhaps the fact both of them don’t seem exactly material for Vital Weekly although I can see why both musicians/labels think it is. The Joy Of Nature quite rightfully send their latest release this way because of previous reviews dedicated to their work in Vital Weekly 764, 832 and 1015, of which only the latter is written by me. I called their music back then ‘gothic’ and declared my love for ‘Aion’ by Dead Can dance, and this is something that lingers on in the release of ‘Emptiness Is A Long Story’, which is a compilation of their twelve years of existence, compiled as twelve songs. There is no indication as when each song was recorded, which is a pity, perhaps, as one could have detected or followed their growth as a band. But as I am also told that all of these tracks have new mixes and arrangements, one could perhaps think that the music is much a thing from the present. It’s hard to say. At least the album has this impression and that’s fine, as it makes it nicely coherent. As said privately I very much enjoy the work of Dead Can Dance, from their early rock sound to the later medieval sound, but that doesn’t make me necessarily an expert on this kind of music. I find it very hard to say if The Joy Of Nature is a straight copycat or that they add something new to the genre of medieval, exotic, percussive, doom guitar gothic, but I also thought this was most enjoyable music. Not as long as the previous release as these twelve songs span forty-five minutes. I am sure they didn’t spend much time thinking about my remarks in that respect last time, but a LP length works best for this kind of music. Slightly more confusing was the music by Davide Donvito, also known as Inabile Caos. It is maybe due to what the label writes “dark ambient with dark jazz, guitar drone all in a traditional Italian school”. I wasn’t aware of an Italian school existing I think, or if it’s just a reference to the country where Donvito lives. Donvito’s main instrument is the guitar but not exclusively. There is much room for additional guitar effects, of which the reverb has the top position. On three pieces there is the drums of Tommaso Costa. So what is it that I find unclear about this music? That is something very hard to point out I think. I can surely hear what is ambient about it, hard to avoid the reverb. The dark jazz element is something I am less convinced about what that should be here, but it could be more loose notes of ‘1.5’? I am not sure. It is perhaps it’s single-minded approach of a solo guitar, a bunch effects and very little else that made it hard for me to get into. Maybe it’s the right thing for Vital Weekly, but it just so happens that this is one of those I simply don’t get along with. Somehow it seems to lack a lot of tension. In ‘1.6” I found there was a bit of that, but it was one of the shorter songs on this release. I just could not get very enthusiastic about this. And finally, the first release by a duo from Berlin, being Evelina Taunyte from Latvia on vocals, flute and objects and Steven Kovar, from the USA on modular synth and computer. They have been working together since 2014 and describe their works as ‘experiments with coincidence in interaction, object sounds bent and alienated from their origins, mixed with ancient poetry”; the latter by Sappho, li P and Aldona Gustas, but honestly I didn’t recognize any of that. Taunyte’s uses her voice as another layer in the music, so the words get easily lost within the music. Lyrics are, however, printed on the cover. I must say that the vocals are the weakest link of Sleep Signal, even when I could imagine they think it’s the most important thing. It’s just that I am not so blown away by ‘much reverb gothic cathedral chant, singing, mumbling’. Maybe it is very impressive in a concert situation (especially when it is in a cathedral), but I would prefer Nico any moment. The music, sticking with the Nico reference, is also not unlike the German singer, especially in the b-side filled ‘Kingdom of The Sky’ with it’s organ drone guiding the voice, which starts half way through. For the pieces on the other side I was sometimes reminded of The Legendary Pink Dots if they had a female vocalist, and a lot of reverb, but it also works very well for what it is and that is music that evokes certain moods and textures. I could easily imagine them playing at a few of dark wave festivals in their current home country, yet it’s not necessarily my kind of music. (FdW) ––– Address: http://thejoyofnature.bandcamp.com ––– Address: http://essentiamundi.com ––– Address: https://sleepsignal.bandcamp.com/ WRECKERS - RUIN (cassette) DAI COELACANTH - NANCY CREAKS IN GRAVEYARD SLIME (cassette) Last week I followed a discussion on Facebook about the fact that cash money could disappear in the future and a group of self-declared anarchists debated that they never used a card to pay, because ‘banks would then know how you spend your money’, all of course in the name of privacy, as discussed on Facebook, out in the open. I once had the idea of starting a recycled cassette label, without Bandcamp and no sound samples, just a website with text and instructions to send money wrapped in an envelope, like in the old days, and with the disappearance of cash money would be an impossible way of ordering. Here are two tape releases taking things even further and I will quote the letter that came with it: “These tapes are not on any label do not have cat number cannot easily be found online. Interested parties should make their interest known. We monitor all channels. Both Dai and Wreckers are from the Midlands. That’s all anyone needs to know”. Funny that right above I could read about Wreckers “a duo from the country stranded in town. Kitchen sink dramas time travel emanations from the gutter - a bad smell appalling sound and hysene (? - FdW) loops instruments barely played chanting. Its science and vagrancy is what it is very actual -> REAL LIFE EMERGENCY” and about Dai Coelacanth “basic punkrock world war 3 police oppression outbursts power/less regular concerns”. I started with Dai Coelacanth, thinking this would be with punk rock, but nothing such is the case. On an indeed recycled Roger Whittaker cassette there is a lo-fi collage of sound and spoken word. Mostly spoken word actually, captured and played back on Dictaphone or two, and of course you are dying to know what these spoken words are about. I don’t know. It could be the rant of a drunk, of a vagrant, or something of a sound poetry nature, it is just not very easy to understand what this is all about. If at all about something, indeed. Sounds are captured while recording the voice and there is a strange sound quality to it, but that is due to the lo-fi nature of the equipment used. You could easily think this is something of little interest, but I listened with great pleasure. It’s obscure, utterly vague, strange and maybe something that quite rightfully could be labelled as ‘outsider’. Punkrock in the very limited sense of the word is something with drums, bass, guitar and a voice discussing banks, Facebook & fascism (for instance), but in a wider sense of the word it’s about all things unusual, weird, strange and out of the ordinary. So yes, Dai Coelacanth is very much basic punkrock, I’d say. A work of radiophonic proportions. Wreckers then who borrowed the recording equipment of Dai Coelacanth (or vice versa) for a similar lo-fi recording but they seem to be using more instruments even if it is not easy to say what kind of instruments these are. They drum on things that lie around, there is perhaps some kind of tone generator, tape loops of sound, the grand out of tune guitar, obscure keyboards and field recordings grabbed on a Dictaphone for that extra layer of lowness. They too use voices, but more as instrument and not for some internal narrative of some kind. This is surely noise music, but one that doesn’t dwell for once on an overload of pedals and an endless stream of screams, and that is absolutely great. Wreckers keep their shit together by keeping it all relatively short and together, to avoid saying ‘within the relatively length of a song’. Both of these tapes are punk, at least as far as I’m concerned in terms of breaking the musical rules, and whereas Dai Coelancanth is perhaps the sound poetry version of the genre, than Wreckers I think could be best seen as the noise variant. It is exactly the kind of noise I like. (FdW) ––– Address: express your interest I’d say. But how? • |