JOCELYN ROBERT – CANNED GODS(CD by Ohm Avatar)
PIERRE ANDRE ARCAND – LE LIVRE SONORE (CD by Ohm Avatar)
MANUEL MOTA – I WISH I NEVER I’D NEVER MET YOU (CD by Headlights)
SUSPICION BREEDS VIOLENCE – DEJA VU OF A DUCK (CD)
YXIMALLOO – FANGS OF LUCIFER (LP by Old Gold)
REYNOLS – PAULINE OLIVEROS IN THE ARMS OF… (CD-R)
BRUME & TOY BIZARRE (CD by Staalplaat)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED (1993) (CD by Staalplaat)
SHIFTS – LOVE ONE (7″ on Korm Plastics)
JOCELYN ROBERT – CANNED GODS(CD by Ohm Avatar)
PIERRE ANDRE ARCAND – LE LIVRE SONORE (CD by Ohm Avatar)
Jocelyn Robert has released various albums in the Recommended Records area and more recentely on Ohm Editions, from his home land Canada. This new work is inspired by ‘sound effects’ records – you know these CDs or records that you can buy to put as a artificial soundtrack from nature when you do a film. In every country there are these CD’s for sale, but their differencies between countries. The USA ones have more car sounds then the UK ones – well, this is what the info tells me. Robert took ‘sound effects’ from the USA land and started to compile his view of america, or maybe it’s better to say his view of a particular part of the USA, Arizona.. The subtitle of his CD is ‘A Typical Afternoon In The Backyard In Phoenix, Arizona’. As I have never been to Arizona, I can’t tell what a typical afternoon souns like over there. However, from what I know of Arizona, I can well imagine it could sound like this. There are lots of animal sounds being used here (cats, chickens, dogs, cow & bells, ducks), plus sounds that could visualize the loneliness of desserts in Arizona. The whole thing is put togther with some thought and as much wit, so it was a pleasent trip down to Arizona.
Pierre Andre Arcand is also from Canada and as gained some reputation as a ‘sound poet’. His latest CD is quite short, but the booklet is an art catalogue, so there is a lot to look at. Microphones are used as pencil, points and pens. If you ever had a microphone is your hand, you know the sensation of amplyfing the sounds you make. Writing or drawing with a microphone is double fun: you hear the drawing/writing process. The five pieces on this CD are registrations of similar processes. The result are animal like sounds – the lion’s roar or too many buzzing insects. But these animals carry a strange sense of machine’s with them. Like they are captured, or trapped, inside some sort of machine and repeat their calls on a machine command. Quite a pure CD I think. The booklet is not just about this, but views the visual side of Arcand in the last twenty or so years. (FdW)
Address: <ohmavtr@meduse.org>
MANUEL MOTA – I WISH I NEVER I’D NEVER MET YOU (CD by Headlights)
Eight relatively short pieces we found on the third CD by Portugese guitarist Manual M. Mota – and to our surprise not on the well-known Portugese label Ananana, but a new enterprise Headlights (who will also release a CD by God Is My Co-Pilot, but I don’t think I’m interested). Mota plays here four duets with a guy that does ‘electronic percussion’, which I think is a different phrasing of ‘contact microphones rubbed on various surfaces’. Mota plays an electric guitar, which sometimes buzzes and humms, but never distortes. We have entered free improv areas here. The four tracks that are solo electric guitar are way more jazzy then the other four, which are more crackle and popnoises. Even with its short length (under 34 minutes), this is a well enjoyable portion of free improv for a day – at least for me. Short, lovely and nice. (FdW)
Address: <ip237643@ip.pt>
SUSPICION BREEDS VIOLENCE – DEJA VU OF A DUCK (CD)
Sometimes you hear music in which you recognize quality, craft, skill, call it what you like, but that you simply can’t get to like it. I mean it’s well-done music, but you won’t play it again. This is my problem with the Suspicion Breeds Confidence. Everything is made with great care, many ideas blend together, the technical side is o.k. and yet for more there is something missing to really really like it. It’s hard to pin down to something specific. This release could have been on Ant-Zen, contains tons of voice samples, dark synths and ditto rhythms, there are dashes of ambient, techno, drum & bass and still there is missing that magic touch. But I’m sure out there, there are people interested in it. (FdW)
Address: <schmitt@acrylnimbus.de>
YXIMALLOO – FANGS OF LUCIFER (LP by Old Gold)
Every once in a while a name pops up and you wonder: hey it’s a long time since I heard about him/her/them. Yximalloo is one such name. A decade or so ago he made strangely and bright coloured tapes on his own Sakura Wrechords. Later on he made some CD’s. I remember one with Jad Fair (well somebody out there will correct me if I’m wrong), and Nao, as the musician behind Yximalloo is called, was in that area of electronica and improv. Thanks to the hard labor of Old Gold there is now a selection of vinyl of the 40 some releases made since the early eighties. There is really a surreal dada feel to be detected here. Casio tunes, objects of unidentified nature and other (non-) electronic gadgets are there to produce industrial music, collage weirdness and children like songs, it’s all put in a giant blender and invokes a lot of fun and distraction. The Residents have a small Japanese brother and he calls himself Yximalloo. Hurray to Old Gold for making it available again. (FdW)
Address: <oldagolda@hotmail.com>
REYNOLS – PAULINE OLIVEROS IN THE ARMS OF… (CD-R)
This is a most curious release! Apperentely a CD(-R?) and cassette (lovingely put one CD for the reviewer) of remixes made by one guy from Argentina named Reynols which he made of Pauline Oliveros. Nowadays everybody gets a remix, so why not deep dronist Oliveros? The six pieces dwell to a great extent on the drone sounds of Oliveros. In the first piece you might even think: hey is this the original or what? Towards the end of this piece some of the additions are revealed. Although I couldn’t tell from listening, Reynols seems to be a band (inc. drums, vocals and guitar), but the main guy processes everything into beautiful, haunting drone music. Very nicely made remix/hommages. (FdW)
Address: <acourtis@cvtci.com.ar>
BRUME & TOY BIZARRE (CD by Staalplaat)
Sometimes I find it rather difficult to review CD’s for reasons that are not obvious. This untitled CD by two of France’s perhaps most well known composers is one of those, because it is simply too complex to write something sensible about it in a short review like this. It seems that Brume & T.B. have exchanged sound material and you can guess what that results in: 7 wonderful tracks of musique concrete, very well balanced, very exciting and utterly beautiful. It’s all there: tension, sinistermoods, delightful drones, sharp cuts, gentle processing of materials. So I’ll keep it short: get this one! (MR)
Adress: http://www.staalplaat.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED (1993) (CD by Staalplaat)
Here we have the sequel to the 3″ CD released some time ago by Staalplaat. Presented on this new one are five live works by one of the most austere composers of our time. All recordings were made in the USA in 1993 and in this case Lopez was assisted by other illustrious contemporary composers, such as Michael Gendreau, Zan Hoffman, John Hudak and Gen Ken Montgomery, Michael Northam and Steve Peters. And not surprisingly, the pieces sound somewhat different than Lopez’s solo works. Strangely enough though, it’s near to impossible for me to describe exactly how they are different, because at first ‘glance’ they sound like normal Lopez pieces: soft drones, woven together from environmental recordings. Yet there is a very subtle ‘otherness’ to the sound, probably due to the collaboration with others. There seems to be a lightness to most of these recordings, which is probably due to the addition of sound material from the others. This results in very gentle and convincing works with a mesmerizing character, something to enjoy thoroughly. A very good release. (MR)
Adress: http://www.staalplaat.com
SHIFTS – LOVE ONE (7″ on Korm Plastics)
Basically a strange little record, this one. I actually believe that Shifts is defenitively breaking with its industrial roots here. Two sides with loops and no shifting of patterns. Weird. Or is it? If the patterns aren’t shifting, then what is? And yes, on closer inspection one finds out that it’s the sound is slightly shifting, emphasising different aspects of the loops in the course of the pieces. A very subtle work with a strong Reichian influence (I actually put on Six Pianos to verify this statement). Knowing some of Shifts’ older work this doesn’t really come as a surprise. The influence of Reich c.s. has been always there, but never so strong as here. It makes me wonder what the next step will be. Very clever and very nifty. And I really want to hear more now. (MR)
Adress: kormplastics@staalplaat.com