TWILIGHT CIRCUS SOUND SYSTEM – HORSIE (CD by M Records)
DOC WOR MIRRAN – LASHER (CD by Tremor Recordings)
WOBBLY – GREETINGS (CD by General Injectables And Signals, Inc.)
ERIK M – ZYGOSIS (CD by Sonoris)
TWILIGHT CIRCUS SOUND SYSTEM – HORSIE (CD by M Records)
Now releasing his fifth CD, Ryan Moore, aka Twilight Circus, aka Legendary
Pink Dots bass player, matures beyond the reggea/dub thing into something
that is much more. The dub sound becomes just a vehicle to create, well…
maybe I’d just should call it popmusic. Because if there is one thing
apperent then it must be the good tunes he plays, the real catchy ones, as
the simple organ melodies in ‘Dance’. The guitar plays a much more dominant
role on this CD, thus adding to the already organic sound. Highlight is for
me “Oats” which is almost a postrock/tortoise/krautrock affair. The dub
thing almost disappears here. But that goes for the bigger part of this CD
anyway. Its no doubt the best Twilight Circus to date. Adding a naive
handmade cover, rounds this of as a highlight for me this year. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bsg-inc.com/twilight/
DOC WOR MIRRAN – LASHER (CD by Tremor Recordings)
Doc Wor Mirran has as many faces as musical sides, or bandmembers for that
matter. Core members are Joseph B. Raimond and Peter Schuster. Some of
their work is punky guitar based, some of it outright noisy and some drony
ambient like. There was a time I was a keen follower, but I lost track
(there is just so much music one can hear I guess). So where they are now,
I don’t know, and how to place ‘Lasher’ in their recent output.
The CD starts out with two simple cosmic synth pieces, followed by an
almost mediaval piece of lute playing inside a tropical rain storm. Then
“Janet And The Holy Battle Of Donnelaith” is the same storm, but now taking
the disguise of feedback guitars. Diversity rules here. There is a hit and
miss too, in the form of “Drowning And The Hands”, which is an unstructured
collage thingy going nowhere. But the fans of Doc Wor Mirran can be
satisfied: this CD proofs again their constant quality in producing
surprising and diverse music. This is the first release by Tremor
Recordings, just in case you were wondering.
Address: 21 Frandale Road – Knaresborough – North Yorkshire, HG5 0NY – UK
WOBBLY – GREETINGS (CD by General Injectables And Signals, Inc.)
The phenomenon of university or campus radio is unheard of in The
Netherlands. Here there are some pirate stations that have some good
quality programs, and that’s it. Not so in the USA: it seems that every
campus has its own radiostation. And apparently they offer some
possibilties for people like Jason Brown & Jon Leidecker to do broadcasts
that are a weird mixture of mixing and playing stuff. ‘Greetings’ is a
recording of live broadcasts from 1991 – 1994 and it defenitely has that
very powerful live touch about it. There are 16 tracks on this one,
although you could have fooled me; the pieces are cut together so it is
basically one long track. However, i don’t care too much about codes so i
just listenend to this music, which is weird, dreamy, wacky, silly, heavy
and live. And i like its diversity and its energy. Harsh beats, followed by
an over the top piano piece, followed by a soft murmuring of voices,
followed by loops and cuts, drony ambient pieces, you name it, it’s all
there. Cut together with a sense of humor not unlike the Tape Beatles, but
in a more agressive way and less focused on the text. And this quality is
at the same time the weak point of the album: it’s packed with different
pieces and sounds, and because of that a little chaotic at times. That is
probably due to the fact that these are live recordings, but that’s an
advantage as well because of the raw energy that they emanate. I dare say
that these guys should go on with whatever they were doing then. (It would
be nice to hear more recent material from them, because this CD contains
stuff at least 4 years old.) BTW, the CD comes with a small booklet, which
i haven’t read yet, but looks really funny. (MR)
Adress: General Injectables & Signals, Inc. 12 Serial Avenue, Bridgeport
Commons, Block # C, Utah, USA
(I hope I got the Block # right, because the cover was slightly damaged
there…)
ERIK M – ZYGOSIS (CD by Sonoris)
According to the press statement this is M’s first record, although he has
played together with the likes of Christian Marclay, Jim O’Rourke, Tom Cora
and others. It also states that, although M works a lot with turntables and
vinyl, this should not be considered plunderphonics. Having read this, i
open the tastefully designed digipack and a paper falls out with a list of
names on it, most if them pretty well known. So, music has been used of
Chop Shop, Berio, Queen, PIL, Aphex Twin and many more. At this point I am
getting suspicious: are we dealing with a real composer here, or is this a
DJ gone arty (like so many others)? Only one way to find out: listen. The
first track is mildly amusing, some old dance music (like really old,
fifties or something) is looped and weird sounds are added. The second
track is a bottle being opened and (probably) beer being poured into a
glass. Not funny. My doubt is increasing. And then there is track three: my
doubt disappears instantly. This is real music. Samples from violins, a
guitar piece and electronic sounds are blended together, creating a very
exciting piece of work. I wanna hear more! Track four starts off as an old
school cutup piece and then all of a sudden someone starts singing ‘crazy
love’ for a while and then it’s back to cutups again. But hey, we’re in
track five now! More cutups. Good enough, but why the two startcodes, I
wonder (I am not a DJ). Drum samples and electronics, a dark drone, it’s
getting exciting again. Wow, it’s getting noisy now and then: a sudden
stop. A repeating synth(?) sound is left, which is later layered and slowly
we’re on our way to noise again. But not for long; a broken record with
romantic orchestral music sets in and then it ends. The next piece starts
off very gently with a violin piece and slowly builds up with some noise
added and again a sudden stop. I’m getting confused here. Track eight is
built around a nice reggaelike drum beat. Weird stuff, strange voices. This
might be a little too funny for me…
Tracks 9-22 are very short sounds (to be used as loops probably). So than
we’re in track 23. Cool, it’s going really fast. Ah, so this is where the
PIL sample comes in, together with string samples and brass. This sounds
minimalist (in the original meaning of the word, Glass, Reich and so on)
because of the looped strings and is pretty bombastic, but also funky. Next
up is a pretty jazzy piece with (understandable) voice and sax on a piano
loop. I think it could have been a little shorter; tension somehow fades
away after 4-5 minutes. Twentyfive is a loop piece that also looses itself
somewhere. Twentysix also fails to hold my attention. My confusion is
growing again. Somehow i have the idea hat this CD is too long, but when I
check the time it says 49 minutes and 1 second. Then it hits me: this is
simply too much for me. The compositions are good enough, but somehow I
feel that it might have been more condensed in its material. But hey,
that’s only me talking. (MR)
Adress: <sonoris.fr@lemel.fr>