KATE SOPER FEAT. SAM PLUTA – THE UNDERSTANDING OF ALL THINGS (CD by New Focus Recordings) *
KAORI SUZUKI – MUSIC FOR MODIFIED MELODICA (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
DENIS FRAJERMAN – VARIATIONS VOLODINE (6CD + book by La Volte)
SKELETON CREW – FREE DIRT (LIVE) (2CD by Klanggalerie) *
FRANCESCO SERRA – GUEST ROOM (CD by I Dischi Di Angelica) *
BRYCE HACKFORD – CLOUD HOLDING (LP by Futura Resistenza) *
MARC MATTER – COULD CHANGE (LP by Futura Resistenza) *
MARK WAGNER – SON RISE – SON OF THE SUN (LP by ZamZamrec / Adadaat)
ALESSANDRO BOSETTI – PLANE/TALEA 31-34 (2LP by Holidays Records)
WILL GUTHRIE & RUDOLF EB.ER – HILT (LP by Fragment Factory)
THE RESIDENTS.DOC WÖR MIRRAN FEATURING ADRIAN GORMLEY – SONGS FOR NAMBIA (LP by Minimal Kombinat)
DOC WÖR MIRRAN – PROGRESSIVE PUNK PUNK 1-4 (four mini CDRs by Marginal Talent)
PBK & NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS – EROSION OF THE MONOLITH (LP by Nihilst Recordings) *
JOKE LANZ & MAT POGO (cassette by Nihilst Recordings) *
BEN LINK COLLINS – FICTIONALISM (CDR by Flaming Pines) *
SHAUN ROBERT – BROADCASTS (CDR by Institute For Alien Research) *
THE SAVAGE MORALITY – ATROCITY DECAY (cassette, private) *
NIM – FLOW MY TEARS (cassette by Apport!) *
TIESE – ERRANT THROB (cassette by Apport!) *
KATE SOPER FEAT. SAM PLUTA – THE UNDERSTANDING OF ALL THINGS (CD by New Focus Recordings)
Kate Soper and Sam Pluta are two young USAmerican composers on the interface of electronics and contemporary classical music. Pluta has quite a back catalogue dating back to 2008, amongst others regularly playing with the Wet Ink Ensemble, a modern classical group that is a small orchestra in itself. Soper has previously performed and recorded her work with Wet Ink in the past few years, and thus it is unsurprising that she got help from Pluta on this release.
Soper’s main interest – besides the piano and electronics – is the (her) voice and the integration of narratives into music, or ‘musical structures’ as she puts it. The five pieces on this release are therefore based on poetry and texts by Franz Kafka, W.B. Yeats, Parmenides (a Greek philosopher), and others.
The opening piece plays with a text of Franz Kafka on a philosopher contemplating children’s spinning tops. With the danger of over-charging declaimed text with drama looming, Soper does manage to complement Pluta’s electronics with a musically meaningful counterpart. The sounds interpret the text, with many ‘spinning’ sounds, as the text is presented three times, first in an electronically modified version, then increasingly without processing. At the third time, you wish the composer had acknowledged that you know the text nearly by heart by now. Still, at least the piece ends in a very tight interplay of sound, voice and content, cleverly avoiding the threat of drama with no meaning, similarly in ‘The fragments of Parmenides’, where her voice interacts closely with the piano. She moves between explanatory text on a poem of Yeats, texts by the Greek philosopher, and George Berkeley (an Irish philosopher) and sings the Yeats poem. Thankfully, she again avoids drama and expertly navigates the possibilities text, voice, and instrument offer. The discussion of the text adds a meta-level that kills off the over-emphasis on meaning-laden content we find too often in USAmerican (and sometimes European) contemporary music, be it classical or industrial.
The last piece is based on a text by one of her college teachers that converts into a song based on a text by poet Robert Frost, intrinsically interpreting the last line of the academic text. The end of this piece perfectly sets a stop to the music and the release. Finally, two improvised tracks are duets between Soper and Pluta. The first uses text/voice, and the second is an instrument only. The former discusses the concept of ‘dialogue’ in text and music. Soper is good at this, as she does not unnecessarily add emphasis to the text just for the sake of dramatic effect. Nevertheless, this is one of the weaker pieces. ‘Dialogue II’ is pure music, using her voice as an instrument and not offering any texts.
Things I did not like: thinking it is necessary to have liner notes to explain the music on three pages (either it explains itself, or the artist has missed the point); using foreign language texts but misspelling the words (Kriesel i.p.o. Kreisel); singing a Yeats text with an American accent.
Things I liked very much: this release quite deservedly sits on the verge between electronic/industrial and contemporary classical music. Soper is a clever composer using her instrument(s) and her concepts with care and thought, not primarily going for effects alone and actually offering a bit of humour in selecting and presenting her material. (RSW)
––– Address: https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/
KAORI SUZUKI – MUSIC FOR MODIFIED MELODICA (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
One of the things I like about Moving Furniture Records is that they have a roster of returning artists and add new ones. I had not heard of Kaori Suzuki before, despite her Beacon Sound and Second Editions releases. She was born in Tokyo and now living in California, where she plays drone music of the loud variety. At least, so we’re told. To that end, she uses electric and acoustic instruments, synthesis, tape, oscillators and other materials. She also created her own brand of instruments, which are used by Hiroshi Hasegawa of C.C.C.C. and Astro fame. Which might also be saying something of Suzuki’s own music. In the case of ‘Music For Modified Melodica’, it is clear what she uses, the melodica. The modifications consist of “tuning (and subsequently degrading) the small reeds of a melodica, and the other to modify it playable with foot pumps, allowing for the sustained excitation of the reeds. Playing with the highly resistive foot bellows introduced massive ‘volumes’ of air to the reeds, overblowing them to vibrate loudly”. There are also time delays and “electronically manipulated high frequencies and oscillators”. The work start as melodica piece, and whatever else comes after that, it still sounds like a melodica. There is just one without any attack or decay; there is just the constant droning sound. It is indeed to be found within the mid to high range frequencies, which results in a piercing work; if the low-end, bass side of the music is ignored on purpose to bring out the fierceness of the music more, I don’t know. The whole CD is just this one piece, clocking in at twenty-six minutes and the same amount of seconds. The first time I played this CD, I was disappointed, thinking, ‘that’s a rather short release’. But I played it at a lower volume, thinking about the neighbours, early morning, you know those banalities. Still, when I returned to it, gave it some more attention, also reading up on the intention of this work, the volume went up, and I must say that within the time she allows for this piece, twenty-six minutes is long enough. It is an excellent piece of drone music; it’s loud, but it remains crystal clear. It is the kind of music that leaves the listener behind, grasping for a bit of air. The end is just a quick fade-out, which sounds a bit silly, but otherwise, this is an excellent piece of music. (FdW)
––– Address: http://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/
DENIS FRAJERMAN – VARIATIONS VOLODINE (6CD + book by La Volte)
Denis Frajerman started as a musician and composer for Palo Alto, a French experimental band that started activity at the end of the 80s. A bandmember brought him in 1990 in contact with the work of Russian-French writer Antoine Volodine. Frajerman became immediately fascinated by the work of this writer. Palo Alto came to an end, and this fascination became the primary source from which Frajerman continued his solo career. He started working with writers and storytellers in diverse formats and projects (radio sessions, sound recordings, etc.). Many of the works Frajerman created over the years centre around the work of Volodine, but in what sense? In the beginning, Frajerman states, it wasn’t his goal “to underscore Volodine’s text but rather to imagine a music for the reader to listen to while reading the book.” Later Volodine would propose to work the other way round and wrote poems inspired by the music by Frajerman. A quite unique reciprocal relationship between a writer and a musician/composer. ‘Variations Volodine’ consists of a 6CD-box and a 64-page book. The book has short texts by Volodine in French and an English translation presenting an extensive overview of the main works created by Frajerman inspired by the work of Volodine. Some of the works have been released earlier. Volodine participates, reading from his work on three CDs, starting with the first recording. This CD contains just one track of 13 minutes called ‘Quatre poèmes en prose d’Antoine Volodine. A recording from 1994 by France Culture with the voice of Volodine embedded in musical textures played by Frajerman on electroacoustic tapes en keyboards, plus seven musicians playing guitar, trumpet, cornet, alto saxophone, violin, cello, zarb, voice. The second cd is a rerelease of the first solo album of Frajerman: ‘Les Suites Volodine’, a 65-minute work in five parts released in 1998. It opens with a beat-driven sinister and dark part ‘Un cloporte d’automme’. Very thick and multi-layered work, with many sounds and instruments. The second part starts from field recordings of crickets, a sound that remains dominant during the whole track, more or less. Again a multi-instrumented work using Chinese sounding melodic elements. In ‘Le Montreur de Coconds’ he uses pre-recorded vocal music from the Arabic world, if I’m not mistaken. Also ‘Vociférations Cantopéra’ (CD4) is a rerelease of an album that first came out in 2004. ‘Des Anges, Minuer Oratorio post Exotique’ (2000) is a three-part work first released now. The album opens with atmospheric textures before a repetitive pattern sets in, continuing to the end. The second part proceeds in the same minimalistic rhythmic way with a meandering and improvising solo saxophone. Working my way through this box, it becomes evident that minimalistic, rhythm-based constructions, breathing a neo-classical atmosphere, make the essence of his work. Sometimes it reminded me of the work of Art Zoyd in a way. ‘Terminus Radieux, Cantopera’ (cd5) differs from his earlier work. No lengthy expanded sound works this time. Nor electronics. It is a collection of short songs composed for two mezzo-soprano vocalists plus cello and guitars, and it sounds like neo-classical music. Composed in 2015, it was recorded in 2020. Also recorded in 2020 is ‘Les Fugues Volodine’ (cd6), which is again a rhythm-driven ambient work built from repeated patterns, sometimes with eastern-flavoured solo flute. Yes, Frajerman is a master in building very detailed and multi-layered textures, using a variety of electric and acoustic instruments, field recordings, electronics, etc. resulting in interesting, often rhythm-based sculptures. To dwell in these crowded sound constellations that are meant as a response, counterpart or companion to the writings of Volodine, is a satisfying thing to do, also when you are not able to understand the French poems. (DM)
––– Address: https://lavolte.net/
SKELETON CREW – FREE DIRT (LIVE) (2CD by Klanggalerie)
I was subscribed to a Dutch magazine, Vinyl, as a young man. This was in the early 80s, and it was about all things post-punk and way beyond. Early on, I realized Fred Frith got quite a bit of attention, just as he did in the more conventional, much bigger Muziekkrant Oor. That struck me as odd; one seemed ‘new’, and the other ‘old’, and I kept thinking ‘why is this guy in both these magazines’. In those days, I had no money to rush out to buy anything that sounded interesting, so much of the solo work by Frith, his previous band Henry Cow, or then working unit, Skeleton Crew, had to wait. And in the case of the latter, I am not sure if I heard it later on when I struck upon acquaintance with now Vital co-worker Dolf Mulder, who educated me in the history of progressive rock band and krautrock; and more besides. The core was Fred Frith, who played the guitar, violin, slap-thwacker, Casio, cassette player, snare drum, bass drum and voice and Tom Cora (cello, bass, samples, bass drum, woodblocks, hi0hat, cymbal, voice). In 1982-83 with Dave Newhouse (bass clarinet, alto sax, keyboards, miscellaneous percussion) and 1984-86, Zeena Parkins (electric harp, keyboards, accordion, toms, and voice). I thought this would be not too much of my cup of tea, but since it arrived some three weeks ago, I played it a few times and became quite fascinated by this music. There is a lot of different styles and ideas running rampant here. Obviously, improvisation plays a big role here, yet it is part of something else; there is that element of rock music, brutally and crudely worked on, that can sit nicely next to a lovely folk tune. The addition of taped voices left, and right brings a dramatic radio quality to the music. According to Frith’s liner notes, the idea was to make it sound like a concert would have sounded back in the day. I can’t say if that is true or not for obvious reasons, but I enjoy this bouncing around the place. Maybe it is the fact that this is a live recording, but there is some great energy with this music. Veering between rock songs, folk tunes, pikey punkiness and enthusiasts improvising, this is a two-hour wild ride of music. This is one of those releases that is another reminder to brush up on those gaps from the old days. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.klanggalerie.com/
FRANCESCO SERRA – GUEST ROOM (CD by I Dischi Di Angelica)
Before using his name, Serra worked as Trees of Mint, and I had not heard of that either. Francesco Serra is a man with a guitar, exploring how the instruments resonate in the space it is played. He is compared with Alvin Lucier and Phil Niblock. ‘Guest Room’ results from a residency in Teatro San Leonardo in Bologna. This is a former church, and Serra set up his electric guitar, two amplifiers, three snare drums and a loop machine in this place, along with seven microphones to pick up the music he created. The music is recorded in real-time without overdubs, but with seven microphones, there is something to choose when it comes to mixing. This CD has three pieces, and well into the third, I thought, ‘snare drums?’. Until that point, the music was drone-like primarily, with a slow and majestical pace played, resonating into the naves of the church. In the opening part (tracks don’t have titles), there is a slow build-up but also has this lingering post-rock quality at one point; there is mild distortion sitting next to open-ended playing. In the second part, Serra emphasises the changes within the field, and the guitar has a metallic ring to it. It flies to the corner of the church but returns quicker? The balance between the soft and loud pieces is more in balance. Up until the start of ‘Part Three’, there has been no sign of the snare drums; or at least not to my knowledge. But halfway into this piece, they arrived and sounded through vibrating skins and the occasional bang on the drums. It makes sure a difference with the other two and a half pieces but is it necessary or even wanted? I am not sure. I assume Lucier would have kept it within the realm of one instrument and the way the sound thereof travels through the space. I think another third exploration in a similar style would have fitted wonderfully well. Still, this is a fine release as it is. Solemn and quiet but not conceptually rigid as the composers that are his examples. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.aaa-angelica.com/aaa/dischi/
BRYCE HACKFORD – CLOUD HOLDING (LP by Futura Resistenza)
MARC MATTER – COULD CHANGE (LP by Futura Resistenza)
Futura Resistenza was initially based in Rotterdam and these days in Rotterdam. They have an interesting catalogue by now, starting with some re-issues but now with new music. These two new LPs are certainly ‘strange’. Let’s begin with Bryce Hackford, of who this is his fifth full-length work. He works with many musicians (Ka Baird, Shelley Burgon, Alice Cohen, Michael Hurder, Dominika Mazurova, Camilla Padgitt-Coles). Whatever they did, the others weren’t privy to the proceedings. Hackford plays the Suziki Nobara (a kind of electric koto), among other things (basstation, MicroKorg, processing). The musicians mostly deliver voices and flute, synthesizer, trombone, and such. At times I had the idea that none of this fitted in a way. It sounded as if people were doing stuff but in a relatively disciplined way. The music here has little to do with free jazz or regular improvisation. It sounds too mellow and, maybe, too organized for that. The vocals are wordless singing, intoning or crooning, whatever word you prefer there. There is also a strong electronic component to the music via synthesizers and organs. Here, I find the album at its strongest, simply because there seems enough organisation, which is some other tracks is less apparent. Oddly enough (maybe not), I keep thinking about jazz music, of which this music might be wacky yet smooth version. I might be wrong, of course. While I am not sure if I like all of it, I returned to this LP a couple of times, as I found it also pretty intriguing.
Marc Matter was once a member of Institut Für Feinmotorik but moved on to work with voices and radio plays. This new work is inspired by Diana Deutsch’s ‘Phanton Words’ and Lucier’s ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’. I had not heard of the first and didn’t see the relation with the second. Matter’s piece (one-sided LP here) deals with short phrases cut from news headlines, “arranged in gradually shifting loops created by a custom algorithm” together in a very rhythmical way. More ‘I had to, like, open the bruise up, and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them’, but now without the repeating ‘come out’, as Matters replaces words all the time, repeating them, replacing etc. Sometimes you recognize a word, but by and large, I didn’t. What I liked about this piece was the super shifting of the words, never losing the sense of the rhythm. It sometimes reminded me of the skipping of a record, but you know this isn’t happening because the information changes. At twenty-four minutes, this has the perfect length. Much like news headlines, there is limited information one wants to receive. (FdW)
––– Address: https://futuraresistenza.bandcamp.com/
MARK WAGNER – SON RISE – SON OF THE SUN (LP by ZamZamrec / Adadaat)
Black vinyl, 12 inches of hermetic philosophy (I’m not going into that in this review simply because I don’t know enough of it to have an opinion) with tracks were initially composed in 201. They were performed as a piano & voice piece at St Johns Bethnal Green and Shoreditch churches and released by the combined powers of ZamZamrec and Adaadat.
The album opens with what should be considered the album’s title track, “Son Rise”. The complete feel of the album is being set by the atmosphere in this track; there is a heavy neo-folk feel yet there is something ‘off’. It’s not the neo-folk like we know of so many bands that just can’t play. (Note: as you can already see, I’m not the biggest neo-folk fan there is).
But there is something about the combination of piano and voice that intrigues. It’s not like we know from Current 93 the exquisite combination of David Tibet and Reinier van Houdt. I mean, that combination is a match made in heaven, and I will always have a soft spot for the two of them.
Vocal wise, it has a bit of a Sol Invictus mentality with a sonority as we know of Death In June. Piano wise it’s more like a combination of French chansons and some musicians doing a cabaret or musical performance. Let it be said that it would be more like Tim Minchin than Victor Borge.
The electronic layers are getting a more prominent role in the compositions as the album progresses. Side A continues with a track in French, but proper French pronunciation by an English guy is always difficult. Because of this, it just doesn’t tickle my buttons. Reading the titles, I hoped “What Do You Want From Life” would have been a cover by the Tubes, but no such luck.
Side B opens with “Nigredo”, where a string section (played by Agathe Max) is added on top of the combination rhythm/piano. Right there is where I think the album reaches its full potential. It could have been mixed and produced better, but that is maybe also part of the neo-folk movement. Electronics are more prominent on the second track, “Albedo”, and the high-pitched squeaks could have been taken from an Alva Noto CD. Again the strings by Agathe, and she proves to be the heroin of this album. The final track, “Rubedo” has additional vocals by Hannah White, lifting the ethereal atmosphere to its fullest. (BW)
––– Address: https://zamzamrec.bandcamp.com/
ALESSANDRO BOSETTI – PLANE/TALEA 31-34 (2LP by Holidays Records)
As I was listening to the new double LP by Alessandro Bosetti, I looked up previous reviews of his work in Vital Weekly. Partly because I think it has been a while since I last heard his music, it turns out a lot of those reviews I didn’t write, obviously for reasons I no longer am aware of. I know that voice, words, language and all that relates to these play an essential role in the work of Bosetti. Over the years, he accumulated quite an archive of voices, his voice, and from others, as he often performs his work with others. However, it’s not solely based on voices, but there is also a harpsichord, Ondes Martenot, Cristal Baschet, grand piano, analogue synthesizer and Hammond organ. One LP was, more or less, recorded in 2017 in a country house in Vicobarone and the other in a residency at the French pavilion in the 2017 Venice Biennale. The material goes in various directions; sometimes, I thought of sound poetry, then of a Cardew-inspired choir, laptop glitches, or a more singer-songwriter quality, towards the middle of ‘Plane Talea #34’. I imagine Bosetti going through his vast archives of voices to present a work that reflects the various sides of working voices, something in combination with instruments. Bosetti has a slight impressionist approach to the instruments at hand when it comes to the latter. I am not sure, but I would think this is a more or less improvised approach; well, perhaps, this is modern classical music. At times I had that impression. There is a massiveness within these pieces, but it’s not overwhelming. It rather stays on the intimate side, I think, which worked wonderfully well. Over the years, I lost sight of Bosetti’s work, but this record is a fine reminder to hear more of it. It is both playful and serious, which are great qualities for excellent music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.holidaysrecords.it/
WILL GUTHRIE & RUDOLF EB.ER – HILT (LP by Fragment Factory)
Now, this is quite a surprise release. Even when Will Guthrie operates at the more noise-end of improvised music, I would not expect him to work with Rudolf Eb.er for the simple reason that I don’t see Eb.er as a musician of improvised music. Maybe I should not think of this in such terms; improvisation might not cover it. Eb.er takes the credit for “electro-acoustics, microphones” and Guthrie for “drums, percussion, microphones”. Lock these men in a studio, and getting them to record music doesn’t mean that the outcome is improvised, right? This album is quite a surprise, which concerns the music. If you handed me this idea, ‘what would a record by the two men sound like” I would have treated you with a blank stare. In the first part of ‘Hilt’ (there are thirteen parts), Guthrie plays a fast, steady bass drum rhythm, rolling about and on top, there is the constant, cracking, hissy noises from Eb.er, pulling you right into the record. With some of the sudden start/stop action going on, it is not easy to know when a track starts and stops, nor is percussion always a clear feature. I can imagine Guthrie uses some of the skins as resonating objects or sets them to vibrate using speakers, adding to the electro-acoustic quality of the music. Eb.er may or may not add high-frequency field recordings to the mix, and off and on, there are voices. I heard this album already a few times, and every time I am reminded of Etant Donnes, circa ‘Bleu’ and ‘Royaume’; the electro-acoustics here have the same quality as with the French brothers, cracking leaves and branches, insects, the burning of wood, and the whispering. I am not sure if the whispering here is on a similar poetic level as with Etant Donnes, with no lyrics enclosed here, but there is a great intensity in the music throughout. There is a very earthy quality here if you get my drift. Every so often, Guthrie comes on with a reminder that he plays percussion-based instruments, but mostly in perfect line with the proceedings. It all sounds like a meticulously planned record, composed from start to end. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fragmentfactory.com/
THE RESIDENTS.DOC WÖR MIRRAN FEATURING ADRIAN GORMLEY – SONGS FOR NAMBIA (LP by Minimal Kombinat)
DOC WÖR MIRRAN – PROGRESSIVE PUNK PUNK 1-4 (four mini CDRs by Marginal Talent)
Two new releases by Doc Wör Mirran, or, rather, one-and-a-half. Where to start? With the known quantity of DWM or with The Residents? Hey, mister, The Residents are perhaps an even well-more known quantity! Yes, you are right, of course, to some people; they surely are, however, not for me. The Residents is a cult group, even when I was growing up and never could afford their records. That made me miss out on the lot, save, I think, for ‘Eskimo’, which the music library carried. I liked it from what I heard before, and shortly after that, I gave up. That was around the first volume of the American Composer Series, but I have not much interest in 1984 in either George Gershwin or James Brown. On the other hand, I know dedicated Residents fans, who go to every concert and know, obviously, a lot more than I do; for instance, what The Residents are ‘like’ these days. From a good source, I believe that ‘Holy Kiss Of Flesh’, the side-long Residents piece here, is from ‘God In Three Persons’ (1988). I enjoyed this somewhat psychedelic megamix a lot, having only just heard the original, bringing out the instrumental parts, emphasising the melody and the rock elements, and less on the vocals. Doc Wör Mirran has the centre stage reserved for saxophone player Adrian Gormley, so this means another fine laidback jazzy outing for the group. If you will, a film noir setting, but with some curious samples thrown in from pre World War Two documentaries about Hitler and art. “Love Art Hate Fascism” is the band’s motto, so I can’t argue there. The record is on marbled pink vinyl comes with a 3D picture and a bag of candies that look like eyeballs; that looked like a scary thing to set my teeth in, but it tops a most remarkable record.
And then there is the ‘Progressive Punk’ series – DWM release #187-190, so they are regarded as individual releases. The story here is that they recorded the material between 2016 and 2020, but not as an album, but simply a lot of material and choose the best for an LP or a double LP. But the members (and I assume that we are talking about the core members here; Raimond, Gormley, Svchweiger. and Wurzer) couldn’t agree on what was to be chosen, so in the end, there were no less than twelve ‘sides’ for an LP. These four mini CDRs are four of those twelve, each about twenty minutes, so together, this has the length of a double LP. There is no such thing as ‘progressive punk’, but Andy Martin (of the Apostles) coined it as a phrase to describe Doc Wör Mirran, and why not? It sounds like a great musical genre. Perhaps it covers what they do; playing weirdly progressive music with a rock context, but is not prog rock or punk. The Docs have punk energy, the solos of rock, the beats of kraut and the sort of weirdness that I like a lot but maybe have no name, no genre. The Mirrans are everywhere and nowhere. These four releases show them in a rockier phase than some of their other music; melodic, quiet, loud, spacious, complex, and odd. At times I said, no no, “this won’t do, this is too rocky for my taste”, but then something weird happens, and we’re right back on track. Few musical projects can pull that off and always attract my attention, but Doc Wör Mirran is certainly one of those rainbow coloured bands who can do no wrong, even if I don’t like it. On ‘Progressive Punk’, some songs are not for me, but I enjoyed it all the same. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2208128859484635/
––– Address: http://www.dwmirran.de/
PBK & NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS – EROSION OF THE MONOLITH (LP by Nihilst Recordings)
JOKE LANZ & MAT POGO (cassette by Nihilst Recordings)
For (perhaps) the younger generation, both the names of Nigel Ayers (a.k.a. Nocturnal Emissions) and Philip B. Klingler (a.k.a. PBK) might be legendary. Still, some years apart, Nocturnal Emissions can be put in the first wave of industrial music bands, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, MB, Ramleh and such. In contrast, PBK’s first releases are from 1988, when the industrial music scene was already well established and had its subgenres as ambient industrial and power electronics. Oddly enough, PBK and Nocturnal Emissions were absent from my radar for some time; maybe the Emissions still are. I have no idea of how Ayers’ music developed post-2000. In 2004 he mailed two hours of source material to PBK, and some of it found its way to releases between 2004 and 2009. In 2021 PBk returned to the sources and recorded the nine pieces that now found their way to ‘Return Of The Monolith’. I am, therefore, sure that the music on this album tells me more about PBK than about the Nocturnal Emissions, but I should brush up on the latter for sure. Over the years, PBK refined his methodology, making an effective personal brand of the grey area where musique concrete and industrial music meet up. Stretching sounds apart, have these run around circles through what I assume is a laboratory of sound effects. I have no idea what the sound sources from Nigel Ayers could have been, and seeing this album comes 18 years after sending his material, and I wonder if Ayers could identify any himself. Maybe we should read something in the title of the LP; the monolith being Ayers’ original sounds and the erosion the processing PBK applies to the material? That could very well be the case, so I thought, and each of the finished pieces evolves around this erosion. Maybe the sources shine in some way, but the treatments obscure that? Again, I have no idea. Each piece seems to be detailing a few sources and offering a surprising amount of variation. The monolith is indeed reshaped into something else, and somewhat less of a monolith, and yet at the same time also minimal by itself. An LP of sturdy electronic music; noisy, ambient, concrete and refined.
The cassette format is used here as a documentation of two concerts by Joke Lanz and Mat Pogo. The first was Schokoladen, on the first of September 2020, and the second on June 16, 2021, in Au Topis Pohl. The second had as a special guest JD Zazie on turntables. That presence doubled the turntables as Joke Laz also uses them in both concerts. While the name Mat Pogo seems to me (unless it is the nickname from someone I know; you never know), Joke Lanz has been around for a long time. His main project is Sudden Infant. You hardly find his name in these pages. This is not because we don’t like his work; We just never seem to receive any of it. I know there has been a significant shift in his music in recent years, which I have yet to register. Turntables are the only credit he gets, while Pogo is responsible for voice, electronics and playback devices. Both these pieces, clocking in at around twenty-four minutes each, dwell heavily on the use of improvisation, hand-spinning vinyl, ultra-fast and very slow. On top of that, Pogo delivers a dadaesque form of sound poetry, delivered with the speed of a ranting punk singer. I found it interesting to see that the duo of Lanz and Pogo had more organisation together than with the addition of Zazie. That side seems to be taking quite some time to get to a level of organisation and searches for common ground. It is funny to see that the trio reaches the common ground via a sort of song-like structure, which Lanz and Pogo also do at one point. I am sure this is not something they deliberately search for, but also not avoid when it happens. It seems to last longer within the duo form and becomes the finale of their set. That is not the case in the trio piece and is more of a happy accident. I am not sure if the axis Lanz and Pogo is an ongoing one, but if not, then these two concert recordings are an excellent documentation of their time together. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nihilistrecordings.bandcamp.com/
BEN LINK COLLINS – FICTIONALISM (CDR by Flaming Pines)
As I am not too well-versed in mathematics or the philosophy behind it, I am not aware of a theory that some mathematians adhere too that numbers don’t exist. ‘Three is a prime’ is as a true as ‘Santa is jolly”, as both are abstract ways of interpreting the world. So sayeth Collins in a note to me. I did not know. “Likewise, field recording is a means of distilling real-world events”, and the music is an interpretation of of the real-world. The goal is to create fiction, not truth. It all sounds very much of this day and age, I mused. Collins uses a lot of frequency isolation, as he calls it, by which he means that through filtering, say the train ride, to an extreme level, only a few sound remain and from he composes the four pieces of music on ‘Fictionalism’. Even when I am happy to learn something new, about fictionalism in this case, I am not sure how knowing this benefits (or not!) my apreciation of the music. I know, a good story is what the reviewers want; rather than ‘nothing’. Yet, one can wonder. Maybe I am more of the ‘absolute music’ variety; there is no story, no program, no guidance. Take the music as it comes and, if you want, make up your own story. The post-modern version, if you will, where the listener’s interpretations are the truth. While I sometimes recognize the field recordings (believe to recognize), such as the train in ‘In.tend’ or the birds/insects in ‘Comparable Collapse’, my mind drifted of when I was playing this. I am reminded of much of Asmus Tietchens’ post-2000 releases, in which he, effectively does the same thing. Strip down sounds, reduce them to a few frequencies and create music from there on. Collins’ approach is here of a similar austerity, more than on his previous work (see Vital Weekly 1150, for instance). No doubt, in all of these pieces he mixes a variety of processed field recordings, culled from many different sources, together and create some wonderful quiet version of musique concrète. If I add, just as Tietchens does, I know it sounds like I favour one over the other; that I am not. I’d say that Collins’ variation is a bit louder than Tietchens, and perhaps at times, also uses a bit more sound. This particular release comes with a handmade ” two laser cut pieces of bamboo plywood with a chipboard hinge and yarn latch”, which looks great. (FdW)
––– Address: https://flamingpines.bandcamp.com/
SHAUN ROBERT – BROADCASTS (CDR by Institute For Alien Research)
When trying to find more information about this release, I noticed that this work is already on Shaun Robert’s Bandcamp page with a release date of July 1st, 2016. I am not sure why it took six years to re-issue it. The cover text is sketchy, at best. It is also a tiny font, but from what I gather, these three pieces (two times 26:50 and one 25 minutes) were broadcasted in 2016 and 2019, by radio stations in Spain, Argentina, Chile & México. El Rudio Es El Mensaje, it says on the cover, which means that the noise is the message here, which is something of no surprise when you know Robert’s work; before as factor X and these days under his abbreviated of his birth name. His noise isn’t the traditional ‘all distortion pedals open, let the feedback do its work’, but rather a highly personalised version of musique concrète. I have no idea what kind of technology is at Roberts’ disposal, and just from hearing the music, it is not easy to say. The results here might come manipulating sounds on a battered old reel-to-to reel machine, cut into loops, reversed, sped up, slowed down, but there are these neat bundles of software that create similar results, including a plugin to add tape hiss. So what do we know? A unique feature is that Roberts’ isn’t particularly interested in following rules of composing. He goes about as he sees fit. The ‘no rule’ approach allows him to play around with the sounds at will, let them go on for a bit too long sometimes, or throws in something new when he thinks it is time to do so. There are several instruments to be heard, organs, voices, percussion, which I am sure Roberts’ manipulates sounds out of ; or, an alternative, more use of software? These instruments end up in the stew that is the music. In all three pieces, one detects various sections, usually a few minutes, before moving on to different pastures. In that sense, one could say that the best thing to do is to ignore the fact there are three tracks and enjoy it as one long; be prepared for a bumpy ride, but this is a fun rollercoaster. (FdW)
––– Address: https://shaunrobert.bandcamp.com/
THE SAVAGE MORALITY – ATROCITY DECAY (cassette, private)
As I write elsewhere, I always have questions about releases; it’s one of the foundations of my reviewing shtick, I guess. The Savage Morality? Yeah, somewhere in the back of my mind, that name sounded familiar. I was pointed in the direction of these “industrial anarchists’ by rock musician Steven Wilson, of all people (see Vital Weekly 815), which made me realize that the world of weird music is infinitely more extensive than I knew (how big? Another question). Later on, I wrote a whole piece on the Kurzwellen label, who released some of The Savage Morality’s music, as well as Precision Surgery, Necrosis I, Bijoux Urbain, Anarkhos, Bildung Control and other outlandish names. I have no idea what the status of Kurzwellen is at the moment, seeing there have been no releases since 2018, and I assume their status is ‘on hold’. Outside the label, The Savage Morality had a cassette in Russia, on Signal (but then spelt in Cyrillic), and a heavily self-released limited lathe cut LP (edition of 20). Now, there is a new cassette, also self-released from this Bristol-based group (?). They return with music that could fit the Kurzwellen motto perfectly well: “A new wave of old school industrial music. a celebration of the 80s scene”. The rhythm is the focus of the music, hammering away from what sounds like a cheap rhythm machine feeding into a synthesizer, so some severe distortion occurs. Add to this a synthesizer melody, at times, or drones, other times, and the howl of vocals buried in the mix. I’m sure guitars a plugged in as well, somewhere. Are these lyrics about one thing or another? I have no idea. Did they in the glorious 80s? I have no idea, either. The Savage Morality adds a healthy dose of reverb all around, but mainly on the vocals, veering towards feedback. Think Esplendor Geometrico collaborating with Ramleh. Sounds great? You bet it does. One of the great things about making noise these days is that technology allows you to play that kind of noise music with great clarity. No more murky, hissy textures, even when it had their charm, mind you, but The Savage Morality delivers such more with more sonic richness than them old days. I think this would have been a great LP by Kurzwellen! (FdW)
––– Address: https://thesavagemorality.bandcamp.com/
NIM – FLOW MY TEARS (cassette by Apport!)
TIESE – ERRANT THROB (cassette by Apport!)
Vilnius, Lithuania, is the home of Apport!, a small label with eight releases on cassette so far. According to their FaceBook page, they also are active in organizing concerts, so the description “label & lair of authentic experiences,” as they so eloquently put it, covers it all.
The first release on Apport! is “Flow my tears” by NIM. Again a cassette with both sides the same; This time, five tracks, one longer and four shorter ones. The longest track (ten minutes) begins with heavily treated organ sounds. I suspect granular synthesis because of its stretched, pitched sound and warped flow. So when the voices hit the whole dynamic of this piece becomes alienated from what could have been a straightforward neo-classical piece. Instead, it’s mesmerizing, weird, surreal in the best way possible.
The other tracks continue the path which was chosen in the first track. Vocals/spoken words are more pushed to the front of the mix, and they remind me of the introduction parts of Chris Morris’ Jam. Those who have seen the series now know what I meant by the earlier mentioned ‘surreal’. Those spoken word parts mixed with layers of violin sounds and drones and voices and … And … And yet still it should be labelled minimal experimental neo-classical soundscape.
“Flow my tears” is ИIM’s first release and after this many more will follow. I hope. The promotional text from the website mentions this cassette was released in autumn of last year. It says, “Just listen. This is the best time to do it.” But, any time is the best time. Believe me.
“Errant Throb” is one beautiful massive piece of work. It’s all I wanted to write after listening, but review rules are review rules, so I just had to write more … “Errant Throb” by Tiese is a monolithic noisescape almost tipping the thirty-minute mark. Like the other release on Apport!, the track is repeated on the reverse side.
Tiese is a collaboration of Antanas Dombrovskij (known as Gana2) and Vilius Šiaulys (a.k.a Lys), who have found each other more often in the past on and off stage. They know each other very well, which can be heard from their music. “Errant Throb” is as coherent as it is erratic, which – when you are a musician yourself, you will know – is really difficult. In the thirty minutes several styles are covered, and they’re mixed with a real flow. It’s not just “pieces of noise” with “pads and drones” as the glue that keeps it together. Each part has a function in the composition.
The general consensus of “Errant Throb” is non-rhythmic but structured erratic noise. Definitely no HNW, no real rhythmic stuff but a sort of coherent incoherence layered with stretched sounds, samples and more. From a distance, you can’t notice anything about Tiese being two persons, the unity in the result is solid. This is one beautiful massive piece of work. But I do believe I’ve said that earlier, right? (BW)
––– Address: https://apport.church/