VIDNA OBMANA – LANDSCAPE IN OBSCURITY (CD by Hypnos)
LOWFISH – FEAR NOT THE SNOW AND OTHER LO-FIING OBJECTS (CD by Suction)
JEAN BACH – EINEN TRAUM FÜR DIESE WELT (LP by Dhyana)
DISCMEN – STUCKER (miniCD by Ananana)
REUTOFF – THREE SOULS FOR A REASONABLE PRICE (cassette by House of Mirkmoon)
WORKING IN SILENCE – NUCLEAR-AMBIENT-PASTINGS (cassette by TAPE RECORDS,
TR030)
CRYPTIC VAULT / BIG ART – SPLIT (cassette by Like An Everflowing Stream)
BRUME / WURZELBEWUSSTSEIN – LE TROU DANS L’EAU / TRAUMBEISETZUNG (Cassette
by Transfixional Entertainment)
DAVID JACKMAN – Flag of Silence 7″ – Die Stadt
YASNAA – Onokoro.1/Yokul.2 (picture 7″ by Ant-Zen)
RIOJI IKEDA – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by STAALPLAAT)
JAMES O”ROURKE – EUREKA (CD by DOMINO)
VIDNA OBMANA – LANDSCAPE IN OBSCURITY (CD by Hypnos)
Having known Dirk Serries, aka Vidna Obmana, for many years now, he moves
slowly out of my reach. I know he has been doing more then just this CD on
what I already may call my favourite ambient heritage label, but somehow I
don’t seem to be picking it up. His moving around in what might be called
‘daring new age’ circles (Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Jorge Reyes etc.) is
something that might be good for him, but not one of my prime interests.
Why you may ask? In general I like music to thought provoking anddaring, if
possible innovative. New age is mainly just pleasing: like eating a candy.
It tastes nice and you want more, more but it reaches a limit and then you
feel sick.
Having all this in mind, I started playing the new (?) Vidna Obmana, which
is a single piece, built around a flute and a saxophone player. I must
admit I found out hafl way through the CD, when I studied more closely the
booklet. It a rich textured music, with lots of overtones, small events
hapenning and the two windinstruments playing small circles. Dirk uses
recordings of the two and processes them like they were synthesizers, they
become one. That’s one of the strong points of this piece: it’s coherent
and consistent sounding character. But it may be also a bit too sweet for
me. When the sun pours into the house on a sunday morning, and I eat a nice
load of bread, then this might be the right waking up music. But the other
six days it is usually dark and I eat nothing because I’m in a hurry. (FdW)
Address: <mgriffin@hypnos.com>
LOWFISH – FEAR NOT THE SNOW AND OTHER LO-FIING OBJECTS (CD by Suction)
Despite the big time money spend by the “real” record labels to make dance
music an endless resource for money, there is also underground in dance
music. Spread around the world, they operate out bedroom studio’s and ditto
record labels. Bunker in Holland, Serotonin in New York and Suction in
Toronto. These are two new productions of lo-fi, home made electro- dance
music. Electro is the new buzz word, harking back to things happening 15
years ago (if we leave out the Kraftwerk heritage). Robotic voices and
sometimes joyful synthi tunes – and despite the robotic voice, everything
is analogue. Lowfish present 16 tracks in about 50 minutes, so most of
these pieces are short and to the point, almost like a three minute pop
song. Largely instrumental, but played with skill. An album that grows
everytime I play it.
On my favourite format (also for dance music) we get two robot pieces of
electro music. Again with this 80’s feel to it, with that tiny bit out of
tune synths and jumpy everywhere. The Lowfish side is the more concentrated
of the two. This is a limited edition of 500 copies, so you might be too
late already… but if you’re into the real underground, you should keep an
eye open for the small but great catalogue of forthcoming releases by
Suction Records. (FdW)
Address: <suction@interlog.com>
JEAN BACH – EINEN TRAUM FÜR DIESE WELT (LP by Dhyana)
Germans with humor? Ach so… and why not. Der Plan were fun, Andreas Dorau
was fun, and to a certain extent, Jean Bach (wether or not related to JS)
has that wicky sense of humor too. Side two opens with a classic German
schlager and then followed by a gabber-like pounding beat. But Bach’s
influences are more: from Esplendor Geometrico to Aphex Twin: heavy techno
like rhythms, weirdness samples and fun. The second side is anyway the more
coherent of the two, and, although divided in three tracks, maybe just one
long one. The first side is more a mixed mode thing, with Aphex like beats,
and almost childish tones. I have been this a lot in the last couple days,
and the more I play it, the more I like it. Only 500 of these vinyls are
pressed (on purple vinyl), so go and get it! (FdW)
Address: <bernd.spring@weltbild.de>
DISCMEN – STUCKER (miniCD by Ananana)
According to the press blurb, the people behind Discmen got a CD stuck in a
CD player in januay 1994, and a year later they first heard Oval. Which is
of course true. They now present 10 short tracks of treated music of CD’s
getting stuck in machines. There is not a single sound we haven’t heard
before on any Oval CD, but that’s o.k. It doesn’t own the complexity of
Oval, but that’s o.k. Did anyone ever say to Oasis not to use guitars,
because the Beatles used them too? These are just people using the same
idiom as Oval but what’s wrong with that? That was a simple but very
effective thing they stumbled upon. They set out a course, and Discmen are
following their path. Their mini CD is just very very nice. (FdW)
Address: <info@ananana.pt>
REUTOFF – THREE SOULS FOR A REASONABLE PRICE (cassette by House of Mirkmoon)
I had the opportunity to visit Moscow last year and to meet with some
russian “Industrial/Experimental” – musicians. REUTOFF is a trio living in
the suburbs of Moscow – in a place named Reutov where you a truly
confronted with a very strong and Industrial-like atmosphere. REUTOFF
combine different Industrial-influences, from death industrial tunes to
synthetic dark ambient to harsher textures, but their compositions always
have a sad & eerie touch. It seems that their main theme is the “suffering”
and “torturing” of the human soul. Although some might think this is too
clichee-like, listening to their music shows me how sincere and honest
their feelings are, and the atmosphere evoked here is really intense and
captivating. I must say this is one of the most sad music I have heard in a
while. It’s really time for a label to pick these guys off and release
them in other (more accepted) formats. [BAR]
contact House of Mirkmoon through: <rekirill@cityline.ru>
WORKING IN SILENCE – NUCLEAR-AMBIENT-PASTINGS (cassette by TAPE RECORDS,
TR030)
A new name coming from Aachen, Germany, also active under the name WARDROBE
MEMORIES. On Side one a rather dark ambient atmosphere is built, it begins
with quite conventional synths but is then turning into something more
complex, pulses underneath and strange drone-noises that seem to come from
everywhere. Some strange harmonies are occuring and crossed with unharmonic
sounds, which sounds a bit eerie. Excellent I dare say. On the second side
it becomes more experimental, with voice-experiments, rhythmical patterns
and harsher outbursts of which some parts I found pleasant whereas some
sounded too fragmentary for my taste. But I really love the first side.
Limited edition of only 40 copies in a special 7″-format cover, with
strange surprises inside. [BAR]
Address: TAPE RECORDS, Marcus Maida, Wielandstrasse 54, 40212 Duesseldorf
CRYPTIC VAULT / BIG ART – SPLIT (cassette by Like An Everflowing Stream)
There are still people around who built new labels – not CD-R or minidisc
labels, but just Cassette-labels. This is an example, and it’s from
Dresden, East-Germany. The both groups or projects presented here come from
Norway. CRYPTIC VAULT seem to be ready for the apocalypse, as they say
themselves on the inlay. The music is most dull & nebulous & slow & dark
droning ambient you can imagine. Some may classify this as “apocalyptic”,
but for me it’s just atmospheric and beautiful. There’s not really
“happening” very much, only on a microtonal or slow-motion level. BIG ART
say that they work with noises they are surrounded with, just like a
refrigerator, electric shaver, airplanes, trains. This “environmental”
approach doesn’t sound very new to us all, but it’s the result that counts,
And the result is not bad at all, sound-sources are sampled & mixed and
can’t be revealed really, the whole web of sounds is changing all the time
and is sometimes even a bit funny and doesn’t bore. The tape is released in
a full-coloured cover filled with straw and other goodies, in an edition
of only 60 copies. This is a release to check out (if you still haven’t
changed your cassette- deck against a mini-disc-player), also the other
releases, for example by HYGIENICA (Dresden based trio). [BAR]
Address: Pain Art/Like an Everflowing Stream: <markus_on_pain@yahoo.de>
BRUME / WURZELBEWUSSTSEIN – LE TROU DANS L’EAU / TRAUMBEISETZUNG (Cassette
by Transfixional Entertainment)
The french composer BRUME alias Christian Renou is one of the few better
known artists in the post-industrial/experimental/whatever – scene who is
still releasing lots of tapes – and it’s truly no garbage that he puts on
the tape-releases. There are three long tracks of him on his side,
beginning with a voice and strange bass-playing, later long delayed
harmonies played on a horn are added, and concrete noises appear with slow
percussions, the whole becoming more and more melancholic and less
aggressive than usual, with a deeply atmospheric touch. Really great.
WURZELBEWUSSTSEIN is a duo from south-Germany, and I think it’s their first
output, they work with cello, guitars, percussion, and lots of electronic
devices and treatments. Here they present 5 tracks in a quite experimental
vein, tracks begin with silent noises and end up in harsher textures,
cut-ups appear, mysterious sounds are everywhere, even more conventional
passages come to the air and intense atmospheres are created. A promising
debut. It’s good to see such stuff on cassettes. This is limited to 150
copies and comes in a professional cover. [BAR]
Address: Transfixional@t-online.de
DAVID JACKMAN – Flag of Silence 7″ – Die Stadt
Aron’s Records buyer Meyer (Gregor) had this to say: “Two outstanding
drones from Organum’s Jackman. The a-side is unreleased while the b-side
is from an extremely limited (only 10 copies) cassette from ’84. This 7″is
limited to only 100 copies.” Hm.
The a-side: a distinct cadence of rumbles emerges, and the sounds seem
more synth)etic than side-b. It would be interesting to know how the
sounds were created, but there are three chances of finding out – slim,
fat, and none. Each sound (of which there are several) seems to have its
own mood – to BE its own mood – and is there a natural urge to separate
sounds from movements like these – that you identify with personally? Now
at 45rpm. Does speed more clearly reveal underlying sound, the faster
something is played? Is the impact of such a piece lessened or
strengthened depending on that speed? This side, more than the b-, changes
into an entirely different animal at the faster speed. It would be
interesting to somehow create a piece whose sounds leak from side a to side
b…but for now – has this record come close?
There seems to be plenty going on in the b-side, besides – and yes, a
grinding is apparent. But – “drones” are a bit underestimable of the
sounds on this piece. In fact, at times, the foreground and background
sounds jockey for first place. The end sounds are reminiscent of a machine
winding down. Keep in mind, these are the sounds played at 33rpm. Now at
45rpm – seemingly the sound of clarion calls, with no clearly evident
rhythmic pattern. One of the nice things about people who don’t include
any technical information on their releases – you can “play” it any way you
like (including destroying it entirely), and who’s to say it’s “wrong”?
(These pieces were listened to at both speeds, over Sony MDR-V600
headphones, via a JVC AL-A151 turntable with a
five-year-old AudioTechnica 1001 stylus – your listening results may
vary…)
Address (Jochen Schwarz – Vor dem Steintor 218, 28203 Bremen – Germany
YASNAA – Onokoro.1/Yokul.2 (picture 7″ by Ant-Zen)
Some things are just so incredible-looking, you have to pick them up –
despite if you know what the sounds within are or not. Such is the case
with this exquisitely painted, rough-edged, (dark)blue picture disc.
The a-side features what sounds like French spoken by a determined and
pensive female, over breathing synths and meditating chains. A cold wind
shatters through the proceedings, and there is a fantastic “build” to it
all. The b-side features a younger female singing, with more sounds of
wind and loops and the world around us. Na na na. It would be perfect
fuck music if only you didn’t have to go back and forth to the turntable.
Regardless, it’ll look great on the wall beside my blue vinyl,
star-of-David-shaped 7″ by “GEFILTE JOE AND THE FISH” on Rhino! In an
edition of 466, mine being 307, you beautiful trainspotters you!
Address: S. Alt – Lessingstr. 7a – 93049 Regensburg, Germany
RYOJI IKEDA – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by STAALPLAAT)
Yet another collectible release by a composer popular among those who know.
Or so I’ve heard. This series of live radio concerts co-ordinated by VPRO
Radio and Staalplaat has dedicated laser time to some of the current greats
and this last is no exception. It contains two tracks previously released
in other versions on the Touch CD =/- from 1996. (This remains my favourite
Ikeda CD, by the way)
‘Headphonics/::=/-‘ is a merged track which features all the crystalline
clarity and frequency separation which I found so seductive about the
originals. Perfect timing and glorious low-end. The second track ‘LSDS’ has
apparently appeared elsewhere (searching for clues here), and tend towards
some of Ikeda’s music on the marvellous Dorobo compilation ‘Atomic Weight’
of a few years back. I have a feeling that this new Ikeda radio recording,
replete in one of the best packages in the unique Mort Aux Vaches series
will sell-out pretty fast, if it hasn’t done so already. (MP)
JAMES O”ROURKE – EUREKA (CD by DOMINO)
Musical chameleon, multi-instrumentaklist and production master Jim
O’Rourke has trod a woven path through music. This CD is touted by Domino
as his foray into pop, although the closest I got to happy clam ‘Legs’
Mariah Carey ain’t happening here, Tankgod. There are, however some
amazingly catchy ditties, starting wth ‘Women Of The World’ and gliding
past ‘Something Big’ (a Burt Bacharach/Hal David cover) to wrap it up with
a ‘Happy Holiday’. There’s just about every sound you could think of on
this CD, carefully placed so that each one has a glorious, shining moment
in the bubbling music. Random radio whine shimmers under a tapestry of
guitar. Pianos gurgle and saxophones roar. Lyrics uncurl like cigarette
smoke. The ghostly shadows of David Byrne (some semi-orchestral CD he
released a while ago, forgot the title – help me somebody !), Tom Waits,
Pink Floyd (Yessiree ! – that sax sure sounds like Dick Parry’s playing,
fer sure.) and Jimmy’s hero Van Dyke Parks hover high and full of approval
in the studio. Music oozing love, care and dedication. Carry on watching
this man – one day he’s going to be very, very expensive. (MP)