1/TAU – HIKUIOTO (CD by Tau)
A beautiful cover holds this CD together: handcrafted paper with embossing.
The man that hides behind this name is Boris Daniel Hegenbart who is
fascinated by the Japanese culture. In almost every track there is a
reference to Japan, either karate, haiku or the love of the Japanese for
noise. This said, this is not a jap noise CD. In a very clever way 1/Tau
uses samples of all kind, sometimes in a very low resolution, to create
experimental music that could easily been released on Mille Plateaux or
Touch. The most important piece on this CD is ‘Musicforcicadas’ which is
entirely centered around a short sampled voice, which is layered like Steve
Reich’s early tape pieces. A highly trance like capacity. A track like
‘Sultriness’ which is slowly envelopping rhythm and electronics is in the
best Microstoria/Oval tradition. A very well debut and, probably due to the
complexity of the package, an edition of 500 copies. (FdW)
Address: Haupstrasse 97 – 10827 Berlin – Germany
BITTER HARVEST – RITUAL MUSIC FOR BROKEN MAGICK (CD by Gaijin)
By now you know me: I’m slighty allergic to all things that are either
‘ritual’ or ‘magick’, let alone ‘… and …’. It connects my mind to so
many things in music that I particulary don’t like: it brings to mind a
dark crowd of grim looking youngsters that are neither performing rituals
or into magic deeply. Having said this, the CD by Bitter Harvest is not bad
at all. Many of the eigth pieces are indeed dark and rhythmical, like a
computerized Crash Worship. But the humming voices and ditto strings, that
are commonly found on this sort of releases, are kept to a minimum.
Therefore this CD is more enjoyable, well at least for me, then say the
average Hybryds CD. But I doubt wether I will be a big fan of the genre
anyway. (FdW)
Address: P.O. Box 18 – 354 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M5B 1S5 – Canada
TOEMASS – THE HYRDO TRIAD (LP by Violet Glass Oracle)
Packed with nostalgia! In a silk-screened cover and no info at all, this
comes like a souvenir from the mid-80s.
‘Horse-Radish Glass’ fills the entire 28 minutes of side 1, and is a
hotch-potch of sounds, mixed in a rather random event mode. Very
simplistic, with a great sense of naviety, but not enough to hold my
attention throughout.
‘Still Water Runs Deep’ is a deep ambient piece with synthesized water
sounds that rumble at the far deep end. There are a couple of treated
backwards tapes to go along and that will eventually some kind of rhythm.
The whole thing is however to really dynamic – maybe the result of analog
recordings? The second piece on side 2 plays around with the good ol’ echo
machine in which a couple of sounds are fed.
So, not just an 80s cover, but also fairly outdated experimental music. For
the lovers of nostalgia only. To add: an edition of 200 only… (FdW)
Address: VGO – 2678 Whiteway Rd #2 – Toledo, OH 43606-3661 – USA
GRAIG BURK – TEXTS FOR SOLO VOICE (CD by Ouestalia)
I remember the name Burk (no relation to Dan Burke) from the time I was
heavily into the magnetic tape areas as the alternative for record
production (and that was well before silver hinny discs came along). I also
remember Burk did solo vocal pieces on obscure compilations cassettes from
France, and I generally dind’t like those. The opening piece 20 tracks are
called ‘Text For Solo Voice’: Burk recites singely, and single, short
pieces of text. A bit like Jaap Blok, but unlike Blonk, the texts are
easily to follow. Each is about 1 minute… I’m not much into poetry, so I
don’t want to comment on the contents of the writing. It’s an interesting
thing, but quite a sit to hear all 20 at once. You want stuff to go
banging. Then track 21 is the 27 minute piece ‘Times You Can Tell’ and
things go rocking! Burk takes the ‘digitally processed electric guitar’ and
produces an array of collage like noise, quite scratchy at times. I have
not much reference here, other then maybe Bruce Gilbert’s digitalized noise
orchestrations. Quite a very good piece. The CD is closed with ‘Codes Of
Abstract Conduct’ and is 12 strating codes on the CD. It’s a historical
piece from 1983-84. This features Burk on voice, guitar and trumpet and
whole bunch of musicians. You will find him more in a free improv direction
here with a hit here and a bang there. If Burk wanted to release a CD that
is a showcase of his various musical interests then he is well succeded. I
think I will use the programm mode on my player next time I put this in,
but otherwise it’s very fine disc. (FdW)
Address: 7410 SW Oleson Road – Box 200 – Portland, OR 97223 – USA
ONNA-KODOMO – SYUUKA (CD by Charnel Music)
There are seven tracks on this CD, but the first time I played it I wasn’t
looing at my player and I realized at one point that it sounded a like,
whereas I came to track 5 or so. Two people play bass, one guitar, there is
a voice and a violin. This is something etheral, heavenly about this and I
am not sure wether to like it or it. Kitsch can have it’s beauty. The
violin is played with long stretches and the bass occasionaly plucked. The
voice sings wordless long drones. It could have fooled me if it was on
Hyperium. I listen and listen and I’m puzzled. Do I like this, or should I
hate it? (FdW)
Address: http://www.charnel.com
VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION – WEAT YOUR CHEESES, BUT NOT IN MY SALAD (CD by
Charnel Music)
I too received weird looking tapes by this organization (one was covered
with red spots that looked like blood) which made some impact on me. This
is their debut CD and is more oriented towards the rhytmical side of music,
albeit of course I don’t mean house music. There are some mighty powerful
drums to be found here with fill in of synths and weird sounds, like the
pigeons that got stuck in loop mode on ‘Reverie’. They poke fun with lots
of styles, like the middle eastern sounding ‘Whirling Dervish’ or the
chinese ‘Tao City Hovercraft’. As wacky as say Kingdom Scum, but without
the vocal bits. new name to watch out for. Oh yes, the booklet has 4 pages
of people that inspired them, so you have something to read while listening
and wonder what the fuck they like them for… (FdW)
Address: http://www.charnel.com
HOWARD STELZER – STONE BLIND (CD by Intransitive)
Beautiful packed in one of those handmade digipacks, Intransitive is a new
label with it’s first major production by the labelboss himself. To
classify Stelzer’s work as noise doesn’t justify it altogether: he builts
cleverly 3 long compositions of collaged sound. That good ol’ splicing of
magnetic tape to tell a story. He uses silence to a great extent – I’m
reminded of Aphasia. Building blocks of field recordings, shortwave noise
and repeating elements of destroyed tapes. It’s the more attractive side of
noise, simply because it requires more of the listener. Not lulled to
sleep, as the usual orgy of feedback would do, but the abruptness will keep
you awake. This is well made debut and of course limited to 500 copies
only. (FdW)
Address: www.visionload.com/intransitive
COLLAPSING ORCHESTRA – THE BRUTUM FULMEN AND NINNUAM (CD-R by InDigest Press)
More US noise, this even more limited on one of those handtoasted CD’s.
Adequate descriptions on the insert explaining what these boys used from
scrape yard to produce this. No synthesized sounds, sequencers or power
electronics, this is another fine work of modern electro-acoustic music.
Too much to describe what they found, but again a cleverly put together
work, which clearly shows what these boys are doing. The plain scraping of
metal is not enough, you need to place material against eachother, or in
conjunction with eachother. To add structure is to add liveliness I think.
The natural sound like a door hinge has more impact then a bunch of wrong
connnected feedback. If you like Brume or Kapotte Muziek, then you might
need to check this out too. (FdW)
Address: <indigestpress@geocities.com>
Compilation – Adventures in Modern Recordings. CD on Black Music.
This is the second in a series of compilations of Columbus, Ohio based
electronic musicians. The first compilation called “Music for Shopping” was
released in 1993. This second compilation contains 15 tracks in a variety
of Drum’n’Bassish, Trip Hopish and Technoish styles. Compiled by James
Towning who contributed one track himself as well, using the name;
“Realistic”. “If you find extra saliva in your mouth, you swallow it”. The
selection of tracks was based purely on the musical preferences of the
compiler. I’m not familiar with any of the names on this compilation;
Monochrome, Evolution Control Committee, Midislut, Resonance, ARS, etc.
Overall quite an interesting compilation with lots of different styles and
ideas.
There also is a brilliant cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit on
this CD and it is done by Pong live in 1995 on a Casio-like machine with
Stephen Hawkings on vocals. Nice and corny. (RM)
contact: bmusic@blackmail.com
REALISTIC – MAIDENHEAD (CD by Seeland)
Realistic is James Towning. He runs the Black Music label. But this CD is
on the label of Negativland and I can hear why. “A lot of these men have
experienced abuse themselves as children, either sexual, physical or
emotional abuse”. Although there is more “music” on this CD then you would
normally be used to from CD’s from this label, it still sounds like a real
Seeland CD; lots of cut-ups, voices, etc.”Your eyes make me so exciting”.
The music bit is most of the time made up out of breakbeats, quite nicely
done actually. “I wanna feel you in bed. You can touch me any part you
like”. Familiar samples in the music that works very well. “Simple click
does it all”. A very good CD! Nice and funny.RM
contact: www.negativland.com
SONIC HIEROGLYPHS – FROM THE NIGHT CONTINENT
MACHINE FOR MAKING SENSE – TALK IS CHEAP
(Both of the above on Split Records, Australia)
Two CD’s with strangeman Rick Rue and labelboss Jim Denley as common
factors. Let’s look at them in turn as I have more to say about one than
the other.
Sonic Hieroglyphs includes Shane Fahey (also a member of Social Interiors),
Torben Tilly
and the Random Module Twins, who are really a ‘which’, which are two
MiniDisc players in shuffle
mode. Jim Denley plays (mostly) wind instruments as a ‘tangential
improvising soloist’ to the unprdictable sonic variations produced by the
MiniDisc players. (A very groovy idea, innit ?) Rick and Shane manipulate
sound on one track and Torben plays the monochord on two other. So this is
mostly Jim’s stuff. And intense it is too ! I found this music worked well
in two quite distnct ways depending on whether I listened to it loud or
soft. (This is not true for all music of course)
Cranked up it was quite physical, an overwhelming barrage almost,
comparable to intellectual modern jazz (not a ballad at any tempo), but
then again, all Jim’s subtle manipulations of his aperture are apparent. At
lower volume it is much more gentle, sounds creep out of the speakers and
take on shifty shapes. This works exceptionally well as dream music and
would probably be a magnificent live event.
The second CD, ‘Talk Is Cheap’ includes three other people, two of whom
contribute text and vocals and another (Steve Wishart) who adds hurdy gurdy
and violins. I really did my best to appreciate this after listening to
Sonic Hieroglyphs but it was difficult. It sounds like there’s masses of
work here; a multitude of vocal cut-ups are layered over each other, cut-up
again and then interspliced with equally mutated sounds of mysterious
origin to form a relentless, repetitive and ultimately forgettable CD. Talk
is cheap indeed. (MP)
Address: <splitrec@ozemail.com.au>