KOMET – MANHATTAN (miniCD by Rastermusic/20′ to 2000)
SIR “EDDIE” REAL AND THE REALISTICS
VARIOUS ARTISTS REMIXES
GRINDVERK
FONN – 801
(all 12″s by Fat Cat)
SONOGRAM – HEARTBEAT SUBMARINES (CD by Simulacra)
ORIGAMI ARTIKA – FAQUL (CD by Ohm Light)
GIANCARLO TONIUTTI & SIGMAR FRICKE – KO-USK (CD + book by Pansur Pans)
COLIN ANDREW SMITH – SIDE ONE/SIDE TWO (7″ by Elevator Bath)
HAVERGAL – HAVERGAL (10″ by Elevator Bath)
PIERRE BASTIEN – MUSIQUES PARALLOïDRES (CD by Lowlands)
KOMET – MANHATTAN (miniCD by Rastermusic/20′ to 2000)
Releasing records, tapes or compact discs as if they were magazines: a big
wish for many. Rastermusic tries it this time with a series of 12 mini CD’s
in a handsome box, re-known names. A series to end the century. Frank
Bretschneider, aka Komet, aka formerly one of the men behind Rastermusic,
opens with four pieces of… maybe I should write again minimal techno. But
it’s not minimal techno – goddammit. Everytime I write about music that
borrows elements of house/techno, but also from minimal music, ambient and
industrial music (in general: when we write about Oval, Pan Sonic, Noto,
Ikeda, Goem, Stillupsteypa, Richard Chartier, Mego, many releases on
Touch), we notice that our vocabulary runs short. It’s a lot of things, but
it has no name. I have thought about this for some time now, and I think
‘microwave’ apply describes what it’s about. Micro in the sense that all
the changes appear on a microscopic level, small but evidently present, and
wave, because there is a current wave of serious musicians that take
influences from all these waves of music that have experienced (note that
many of them are around for a long time) and take whatever they fit well.
“Technology will be so small that it will disappear”, John Cage once said.
That might not be entirely true, however it has shrunk over the years. To
produce a good quality music that can easily compete with the work made in
‘real’ studios. Technology is micro too now.
So everything said here can be applied to Komet’s new miniCD and I’m sure
it can be said for the ’20’ to 2000′ series. A magazine, the guideline to
Microwave. (FdW)
Address: www.rastermusic.com
SIR “EDDIE” REAL AND THE REALISTICS
VARIOUS ARTISTS REMIXES
GRINDVERK
FONN – 801
(all 12″s by Fat Cat)
Since Fat Cat lost security of the label that paid and produced their
records they seem more actively producing themselves. I just scored a bunch
of them and let’s have a look.
The Realistic record is fun. It’s almost like a DJ tool. A nice pounding,
almost bossa nova rhythm and just a little bit of sound on top, make this
into a minimal thing. Very nice when played loud.
Various Artists is a bandname, not another compilation. VA hail from
Berlin’s Basic Channel/Chain Reactio cycles and are remixed here. Autechre
stay close to the original sound, Funkstorung makes it more chaotic and add
dashes of melody to it (but not entirely succeed). On the b-side VA are
remixed by close, Berlin friends. Pole drenches the whole thing in a fat
mass of reverb and echo. Neo-dub if such a thing didn’t exist already.
Monolake at last makes the rhythm disappears and concentrates entirely on
the evolution of the synth sounds.
Grindverk is HoH, Mr E and Siggi (probably the much rumoured collaboration
between Hilmar Hoh and the Sugarcubes). The tracks make their start with a
bumping rhythm and weirdness is added (horns, samples). There is also track
telling us they heard Jimmy Tenor’s work. This one didn’t do much for me.
Fonn is a band (person?) of whom I know nothing. She/he/they toy around
with samples, guitars and drums (real ones?) in a variety of styles,
post-rock, guitar rock, techno and sound collage. Quite alright, I’d say.
These four 12″s (actually five, since Fonn is a double) show that Fat Cat
is one of the more interesting labels around and that their interest in
music is very late nineties: a bit of everything. (FdW)
Address: <fatcat@indian.co.uk>
SONOGRAM – HEARTBEAT SUBMARINES (CD by Simulacra)
Simulacra, together with Hypnos, grow into leading labels of ambient and
related musics. Behind Sonogram is one Todd Gautreau. I can be relatively
short about his 11 ambient doodlings: nicely recorded, vaguely experimental
tunes of some kind and in general nice music to pass your time with. It
doesn’t much add to the vocabulary of ambient, or shows new directions for
that kind of music. I guess for those who know the genre and can’t get
enough of it. (FdW)
Address: www.simulacra.com
ORIGAMI ARTIKA – FAQUL (CD by Ohm Light)
To speak about the work of Origami is not easy for me: everytime I think I
have a clue what they are about, I think I miss out something. I guess they
are a collective of artists (musicians, painters, poets etc.) who work
internationally on a wide variety of art projects (if indeed they create
art…, or their intention is art: I do not know). Anyhow, I got send this
CD by one of the core members, who is responsible to putting together this
CD. It’s a re-vitalized documentation of a tour held in 1994 (through
Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Czech Republic and Germany). The music produced
here (as I believe the Origami’s make a wide variety of music) is best
described as ‘mood’ music. Dark sampled sounds and ditto dark synths.
Underneath there are electro-acoustic sounds but well-transformed (as in
‘beyond recognition’). Were the female voice drops in, it tends to be a bit
too kitschy for me. But in general it is nicely put together, dark and
gloomy and well-documented. (FdW)
Address:<thboe@online.no>
GIANCARLO TONIUTTI & SIGMAR FRICKE – KO-USK (CD + book by Pansur Pans)
Well, or should I state: book + CD? The book is a hardcover bound thing (24
x 24 cm) and the CD is somewhere at the back. The texts are divided into a
sectio about the music and a (much longer) section about linguistics. I
have read them and I see no relation to the music. The music has been
recorded over a decade (some people have no hurry) and use solely stones. I
played this CD a few times with and without headphones. Without, the
compositional changes, which are apperent however taking a slow shape, are
less evident. Played loud with headphones they are much more present. The
whole musical process is presented through diagrams, so in case you miss
something… The stones are rubbed, hit and examined for their tonal
colour. Ambient music, but one of an un-electronic kind.
The work of Toniutti is small (and usually presented with texts such as in
this book) and made with others. What he releases is well-made, thought out
thing, both the music, the cover and the whole presentation: everything is
carefully planned and executed. This work is no different. Ciao Toniutti,
until your next project in a decade. (FW)
Address: Via Sistiana 29 – 33100 Udine – Italy
COLIN ANDREW SMITH – SIDE ONE/SIDE TWO (7″ by Elevator Bath)
HAVERGAL – HAVERGAL (10″ by Elevator Bath)
Elevator Bath presents their 2 first releases on transparant vinyl. Smith
(also the owner of the label) is into the world of digital glitches an
malfunctioining of machines. It skips, repeats and echoes throughout. The
crackling of vinyl sort of nicely adds to the result. There are lots of
ideas being hinted at (Oval, Pan Sonic for instance), but it’s too short to
have it’s own face.
Havergal apperentely made other 7″s but I missed out. At first I wasn’t too
sure if it was 45 or 33 rpm record, so I played it on both and noticed
that in most cases that worked fine. I guess Havergal made more music,
because his tracks are worked out more. Again, strinkely hip I guess: it
hints at even moe different styles with glitches, drums, guitars, bass and
voices. It could be a release from Kranky or the K-Raa-K label. With the
right kind of promotion you’ll be seeing this name more soon. (FdW)
Address: <eeaoa@aol.com>
PIERRE BASTIEN – MUSIQUES PARALLOïDRES (CD by Lowlands)
Have you ever had this feeling that you know it all, seen it all, done it
all and heard it all? Well, that’s exactly the feeling i got when listening
to this CD. Now this may sound as a very negative thing to say, but that’s
not how i meant it, really. Not at all. What we have here is very pleasant
music from someone who’s been around for quite a while now, doing his own
thing all the time and performing a lot in many places. Pierre Bastien is
probably best known for his concerts with the ‘Mecanium’, a self built
mechanical orchestra, that serves as his band during the performance, in
which he himself mostly plays the trumpet. This CD is similar to the
liveconcept, except that here he uses prepared grammophone players as his
orchestra. Loops of old records are the basis for gentle melodies that tend
to sound a bit ethnical. At some times i swear i can hear the ‘Mecanium’ as
well. On top of this Bastien plays his trumpet in a quiet, dreamy way.
Sometimes jazzy, sometimes folky, he winds his melodies around the loops,
playing with them without clouding them. (MR)
Adress: <lowlands@ innet.be>