JEFF PEARCE – DAYLIGHT SLOWLY (CD by Hypnos)
RGB – An Audio Spectrum (CD by Sircom)
KOTAI + MO – ELEKTRO MUSIC DEPARTMENT (CD by EMD)
PHILIP JECK – SURF (CD by TOUCH)
JEFF PEARCE – DAYLIGHT SLOWLY (CD by Hypnos)
This morning I got up at 6.30 and the streets were all dark and a bit of
snow fell during the night. I went to work by train and I played this Jeff
Pearce CD on my walkman. Slowly the night turned into grey daylight. It
remained darkish as the landscape went by. Time went by. Time went by
quick, 72 minutes were over before I knew. The music of Pearce matched fine
with both time of the day and the non-existent light outside. His guitar as
ambient are flowing as nice as the train through a dark, Dutch landscape,
with lights of cities passing by. No disturbance, no delay, just a fine
relaxing mood of listening to these flows, intercepted by train bumps. With
eyes closed, with eyes open – darkness turning light everywere. Just
beautiful. (FdW)
Address: <mgriffin@hypnos.com>
RGB – An Audio Spectrum (CD by Sircom)
What is the sound of… blue… well or green for that matter? This CD is
an investigation into the relation of colour and sound. The liner notes
speak of Deep Purple to Derek Jarman’s Blue and beyond. The CD opens with
black, and has music from all three participanting artists. It’s one of
those start and stop things, with long gaps of silence. Black doesn’t exist
we learn. Leif Elggren who recorded ‘red’ using ‘neon gas pulsating in an
electric field contaminated by the frequencies of a human body’. Dark deep
drony sounds, that could also very well be a synthesizer…
Then, Source Research does ‘Green’ (this is within the same start code on
this CD), and is an totally opposite piece of flowing, soft synth muzak.
Matmos plays ‘Blue’ with improvised guitar over a breakbeat like rhythm and
weird synth/feedback like sounds in the background.
In the final track, ‘White’, all of these colours/sounds are mixed together
and it fits well together (he said with some surprised smile around his
lips). Now we can argue at length wether they have succeded into
transforming the colours well into sound, but that is not a valid question.
It is a suitable interpretation for sure, and together with the three
covers in the three discussed colours, it’s rounded as a well done project.
(FdW)
Address: <siRcom@map-ref.demon.co.uk>
KOTAI + MO – ELEKTRO MUSIC DEPARTMENT (CD by EMD)
Elektro Music Department is a fine, small dance label that is celebrating
their 6th birthday with the release of a CD. The main artists that release
material on this label are Kotai and Mo, both Berlin based musicians. They
have ties into the Chain Reaction areas, but in their releases so far they
have a strong identy so far. As said, a small catalogue (9 pieces of
vinyl), but all supported with video clips, t-shirts and stolen logo’s
(from AT&T, Esso and Panasonic). From the 13 tracks, six have been released
before. Kotai + Mo have a minimal sound, but one that is still highly
danceable. So if Chain Reaction is too laid back for your feet but you
still want something minimal, then Elektro Music Department might be for
you. (FdW)
Address: <elektro@thing.net>
PHILIP JECK – SURF (CD by TOUCH)
This is the second CD by Philip Jeck to be released on the fabulous Touch
label. The first was titled ‘Loopholes’ and somehow failed to grab me like
this one. Perhaps I just didn’t hear it at the right time.
Philip Jeck (together with Lol Sargent) won the 1993 Time Out Performance
Award for their ‘Vinyl Requiem’ for 120 dansette record players, 12 slide
projectorss and 2 movie projectors.
The music on this CD was composed using record players, tape machines,
Casio keyboards and effects. Jeck is a true alchemist exploring the
perimeters of sound, and while some of his compositions are very
reminiscent of some of the material released by Zoviet France (Tracks 1 and
6 for instance), others retain a deep mysterious colour even after several
and a half listenings. Records are sped up and slowed down, run through
snappy delays and augmented with minimal keyboard pads producing a wide
range of sonic architectures. ‘Box Of Lamb’ sounds like underwater
rockslides, or slow swells of sound surf. Then there’s a slight bongo fury
at the start of ‘Surf Finger’ which decays into an orchestra under fire
from an industrial sandblaster on valium. Erratic, indistinct shapes
convolute and unwrap themselves from a bass pulse – blurred voices try to
share secrets but the lines are crossed and they reach their conclusions
before they realise their subject. Track 5 ‘1986 (Frank was 70 years old)’
is a jumpcut journey from one side of a city to the other – angels with
upside-down faces live at the edges – gravel chants, chancing gravity. The
final track on this release ‘I Just Wanted To Know’ starts reassuringly and
then develops as a soundtrack for the final stroll down that last corridor
– gentle, warm and safe.
The peerless Jon Wozencroft created the cover, which like the music, is
imbued with a deep sense of nostalgia and comfortable familiarity. The
images he uses resonate with all the clarity of archetypes – like going
home. (MP)
Address: <touch@touch.demon.co.uk>