DISSECTING TABLE – LIFE (CD by Relapse)
EM – GREATER THAN ZERO, LESS THAN ONE (CD by The Foundry)
ERINYS – MANHATTAN/DWELLING (CD by Tesco)
JLIAT – HILBERT’S HOTEL (CD by Jliat)
FENNESZ – PLAYS (7″ by Mego)
MLEHST – LIVING WITHOUT FEELING (CD-R by Absurd)
MICHEAL SCHUMACHER – ROOM MUSIC (CD by Warpodisc)
GODZILLA – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDINGS VOLS 1 & 2
(CD’S by Silva Screen Records – licensed for sale in Europe and Australia only)
ATSUSHI TOMINAGA -056 (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
YIKES ! OOPS ! CRUMBS ! CRIKEY ! GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY ! BUGGER !
My Miss Take – No, really ! To all of you who suffered any confusion or
delay because of my misspelling of the latest S.E.T.I.
release. (Still tasty after several-and-a-half hundred spins). It’s called
‘About Black’, not anything else. I blame the Sunday barmaid with the
flexible wrist. Oh! The editor has already dunnit, innit ! (MP)
DISSECTING TABLE – LIFE (CD by Relapse)
Another CD – not ‘live’ but ‘life’… Four long, dense tracks of
instrumental and vocal insanity – like diving into a bath of mud or oil.
This boy screams his lungs out, while doing steady attacks on percussion
and synths. Drenched in tons of reverb and feedback. This is true
industrial music, one that delves right into your mind. Nuff said. (FdW)
Address: <mailorder@relapse.com>
EM – GREATER THAN ZERO, LESS THAN ONE (CD by The Foundry)
About a year ago, the Foundry started as a label, and among the first
output was the moniker EM (or eM). From the releases so far on this small
label, the first EM was by far the most interesting and challenging for the
ears. Now here’s the second EM CD and uses solely computer data, translated
by means of the computer into something that is called music. At times
partiulary noisy, but also ambientesque soundscapes. There is a sense of
remoteness on this album, sometimes that is out of place… not there
yet… something that makes this album necessary for repeated listening,
before one could say it’s very good or very easy made. I have played this a
couple of times, and I could never make my mind up. Uneasy listening for
sure, and should definetly please the fans of Disinformation or Panasonic
and everything in between. (FdW)
Address: <m@foundrysite.com>
ERINYS – MANHATTAN/DWELLING (CD by Tesco)
Tesco is known for releasing power electronics in their usual extreme
fashio, but this is an interesting release. Erinys hail from New York, and
is one Gerald Stevens. His music touches many musical fields, like musique
concrete, elecctronica, ambient and noise, but he is capable of creating
his own unique thing. Taking sounds from the city (part 1-7) or his former
home (8-12), feeding them through synths and other effect boxes, a dense
field of noisy ambient concrete music arises. Certainly towards the end,
this disc reaches it’s peak with very well crafted soundscapes of an
austere beauty. This, an the beautiful folder it’s packed in, make it a
very good release, and can be placed right next to Illusion Of Safety’s
‘Cancer’ release on Tesco (which for me is another previous highlight from
their catalogue). (FdW)
Address: <tesco-organisation@t-online.de>
JLIAT – HILBERT’S HOTEL (CD by Jliat)
Jliat is by now one of the more powerful voices in minimal music. A while
ago I reviewed his first vinyl production (after releasing four CD’s), and
that was bit more raw, noisy if you want, affair. But with this new CD, one
single 73 minute piece, he returns to his previous works on CD. Beautiful
textured, church organ like drones, wave by as todays clouds do: slow and
majestic. Changes are, as usual, slow and crawl from behind if you are not
paying enough attention. Simply (in every sense of the word) beautiful…
(FdW)
Address: www.jliat.demon.co.uk
FENNESZ – PLAYS (7″ by Mego)
In eternal controversy, I am the fan of The Beatles and not of the Rolling
Stones, so either I am bored with Fennesz playing ‘Paint It Black’ or
cheering… I wouldn’t care at all, if this was just a ‘real’ or
‘recognizable’ interpretation, but it’s not. Crackles, popnoise and an
occasional strum on what could a guitar, make this into virtually a cover
of any pop record (probably I am mistaken, and I have not paid enough
attention to the structure of the original and compared it with this one,
but I don’t have the original! – and I am glad). The flip contains a
similar interpretation of ‘Don’t Talk’ from the Beach Boys. The link to
these songs in probably that they were both recorded in 1966, and somehow
that must have been an important year for Fennesz. Of course strangness all
over on this Mego record. It’s limited to 500 copies, but Jim O’Rourke will
release it on CD in the future on his Moikai label. (FdW)
Address: <info@mego.co.at>
MLEHST – LIVING WITHOUT FEELING (CD-R by Absurd)
Mlehst is a one man band producing noise, and has released his works on
CD-R before. This one, in a fake digipack, comes from Greece, and is almost
an official looking release. For reasons now unclear I expected the full
hour of feedback (but maybe that’s a bad association I have), but on the
contrary, I was suprised quite intelligent (you know I hate the word in
relation to music) noise based collage music. It’s mainly tape treatments
of found sound, radio voices, electronics and the like. I was reminded at
times of THU20 or some more droney work of Zoviet*France and collage work
by Nurse With Wound. All in all a pleasent journey of interesting
electronic music. (FdW)
Address: P.O.Box 62140 – 15201 Chalandri – Athens – Greece
MICHEAL SCHUMACHER – ROOM MUSIC (CD by Warpodisc)
Schuhmacher surprised me last year with his duet disc with Donald Millar of
Borbetomagus and now he surprises me again, this time with a solo CD. To
explain what he does on this CD is not easy (besides copying the press
information), but basically it is “16 channel computer-generated sound
environment… using a complex set of algorithms that control the random
generation of timings for the articulation of the pitches by the various
(synthesized) instruments”. The result is a long (71 minutes) piece of
droning electronics, gliding piano sounds and occasional feedback tones.
Each is divided in it’s own section (although the CD is only indexed as 1
track) and each section flows organically into the next. This is again
minimal music, but not like the Jliat disc mentioned above, but more moving
and changing all the time. Designed to be played at a low volume, your room
will be filled with small frequencies, swirling in and out of the room.
Beautiful austerity. (FdW)
GODZILLA – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDINGS VOLS 1 & 2
(CD’S on Silva Screen Records – licensed for sale in Europe and Australia only)
Several years ago I chanced upon some orchestral works by Akira Ifukube,
tastefully packaged in one of the first Digipaks, and oozing quality. It
contained two pieces, both played with stunning precision by the Tokyo
Symphony Orchestra, and recorded live with pristine clarity and
overwhelming attention to detail. (I was reminded of Zappa’s London
Symphony Orchestra recordings which were executed with individual
microphones for each instrument – and a 128 track Sony Digital Recording
system. The only problem with these recordings was the usual English
penchant for unionised drinking sessions between takes, which meant that
hundreds of edits had to be made in post-production so that the final
result approximated the expectations of the justifiably obsessive
Frankenmeister.)
Akira Ifukube was born in 1914 and specialised in forestry engineering,
simultaneously working for the Imperial Forestry Ministry and composing his
first works for orchestra. He was awarded a prestigious prize for his very
first composition ‘Japanese Rhapsody’. During the war he directed studies
on the elasticity of wood, but was subject to an over-exposure to radiation
during these tests, which resulted in complicated problems with his health.
He obviously quit forestry work and dedicated himself to composition and
teaching.
Back to Godzilla – in total, the Japanese produced 22 Godzilla or ‘Gojira’
films, which have of course now acquired a wider cult status, thanks to the
recent Hollywood release (complete with shite pop and crap rap soundtrack).
All of the Japanese productions present a so-much more likable beastie of
understandable dimensions and personality (check out ‘The Son Of …’) than
the American version. And of course, the usual apocalyptic destruction,
car-killing and human crunching in the latest version probably cost as much
as a small country (indeed a war might have been fought somewhere to pay
for it’s production costs, who knows ?), yet still failed to retain most of
the most important qualities of the monster itself. It can’t even spit fire
properly anymore, goddammit !
A short while ago, I was fingering through the Soundtrack bins at the
local, looking for – Yep, you guessed it, the Francis Lai soundtrack to the
David Hamilton Vaseline extravaganza ‘Bilitis’ – when I chanced upon the
second volume of the Godzilla set, sub-titled ‘Now’ and covering the period
from 1984-1995. I immediately ordered the first volume, ‘Then’, which
contains soundtrack material from 1954-1975.
Now, here’s the link… a great deal of the music used in the Godzilla
films was composed by none other than Akira Ifukube (as if you didn’t guess
it already), and because this happened over a period of 41 years, we are
treated to an amazing trip through the evolution and variations of the
piece ‘Symphonic Fantasia’, which culminated in the ultimate (?) version on
the Les Disque Du Soleil Et L’Acier (European) release. (It used to be
distributed by Semantic who, for reason best known to themselves, have
since gone bang.) Both volumes contain additional material by some other
Japanese composers, and, on Volume One, even leans in the direction of Easy
Listening. Included in the booklets are brief synopses of each of the films
and there are often several pieces from each soundtrack. The translations
of the original Japanese film titles also provide moments of mirth (now,
THAT sounds like a Genesis record title, or what ?), and it’s no wonder
that the distributors for the rest of the world chose the titles they did.
There just wouldn’t be enough room on the billboards, otherwise.
Incidentally, ‘the Japanese name ‘Gojira’ is a conjunction of two words
Go(rilla) and (ku)jira (which means ‘whale’). Toss that one out next time
you’re engaged in trivial pursuits or any other stunningly cunning
linguistic stunts. (MP)
Address: <info@silvascreen.co.uk>
ATSUSHI TOMINAGA -056 (7″ on Meeuw Muzak)
Here’s an unusual recording by one of the four members of the Japanese
conceptual collective known as Wrk. It’s another in their slowly expanding
list of ‘Sound & Phenomena – Conceptual Works’ series.
This time the idea revolves around the rather dangerous notion of recording
sound inside a microwave oven, while it’s working. And it doesn’t stop
there – the sound committed to this skinny sheet of transparent vinyl is of
the actual microphones being (micro)waved good-bye. Disobeying the user’s
manuals, Tominaga-san suspended two speakers, rewired to record sound
(instead of emit it) above a bowl of water and switched on the oven. Get
down with your bad selves while technology is fried to a crisp in a slow
symphony of intermittent crackles and tiny squeals, culminating on one of
the two unnumbered sides, in the sound of the oven turning itself off. I’m
quite surprised that it didn’t explode. It’s minimal and it’s mean. And it
should come with a health warning! Don’t try this at home, folks !
Groovy cover photo says it all, really.
(P.S. – My own tentative experiences with microwaving metallic based
objects has only achieved the status of CD’s themselves – a short while
ago, a local cat food company gave away free promo CD’s with highlights
from A.L.Webber’s Mock Opera ‘Cats’, which I was compelled to microwave
before our small, but perfectly formed cat surreptitiously attempted to
play them. The results were infinitely more interesting than the music, and
I now perform this ritual regularly, enjoying the almost endless surges of
testosterone which infest my loins whilst observing the tiny but exciting
lightning storms inside this highly sophisticated kitchen utensil.) (MP)
Address: <laridae@xs4all.nl>