CHRIS HALLIWELL – FIRST THE WORLD TURNS MONOCHROME (CD-R by Sous Rature)
CHRIS HALLIWELL – ON CRYSTAL NIGHT (CD-R by Sous Rature)
RE-CONSTRUCTIES (3″ CD by Cell)
PLUXUS – FAS 2 (CD by Slowball)
BEEQUEEN – WHITE TUSK (7″ on Plinkity Plonk Records)
HECKER – [OT] XACKPY BREAKPOINT: (CD-R on OR)
CHRIS HALLIWELL – FIRST THE WORLD TURNS MONOCHROME (CD-R by Sous Rature)
CHRIS HALLIWELL – ON CRYSTAL NIGHT (CD-R by Sous Rature)
Probably Chris Halliwell regrets that there are hardly no 3″ CD recordable’s for sale, otherwise he would have put ‘First The World…’ on this format. Halliwell, a musician who runs his own small label, just released two new works. The just under 20 minutes ‘First The World’ and the ‘On Crystal Night’, which lasts just under an hour. Both works differ from eachother, so it was a good decision to release them seperately. The nine tracks on the short CD all dwell extensively on the voice of one Annabel Kapp and breath, besides the usual experimenta, a more melancholical atmosphere. There are short tracks with recognizable instruments (flutes, guitars) and the vocals. Of the two this is this the one that is most close to popmusic. Not bad, but not my thing so very much.
The full length on the other hand is a true beauty. The first track builds from Lopez’ like silence to Ikeda like rhythms. ‘Lead’ has a collage form and ‘Tears’ is again low end sound which is swamped away in near silence. The fourth piece, ‘Close’, is like the second. Vaguely recognizable sounds. It seems as these four form a closed group of tracks on the CD. The other two, simple called ‘R/’ and ‘S/’ are shorter, are louder (not as in ‘noisier’) and are more ‘present’. Although they are good pieces, they could have been left off. Altogether this is a very work, that can easily be matched with the work of Lopez, Guenther or Meelkop. (FdW)
Address: <sousrature@angelfire.com>
RE-CONSTRUCTIES (3″ CD by Cell)
‘t Paard is one of those typical Dutch youth places with tons of activities to keep the boys and girls of the streets. It’s located in Den Haag, and as a former citizen, I have been to ‘t Paard, and thought it was a nice place. Old, big and raw. Now the building gets an upgrade re-style which will take some time to realize. Before they closed it, an art-event was held under the name of ‘Re Constructies’. Various installations were shown in relation to the building, it’s re-construction, the past and the future. I haven’t seen any of this (I am a former citizen!), but five pieces of music were delivered on a 3″ CD, mostly by artists from the city, or that have a relation to the city. Justin Bennett, of solo and BMB con fame, for instance lives in Den Haag and recorded several of CD’s (‘Demolitions’ and ‘City Scape’) using sounds of the city. His piece uses noise (the sound of re-construction) in combination with rhythms – the dynamics of the multi-cultural city Den Haag is. One Mark Bain produces as Vibrosonic a very bassy, low-end piece. It resembles the empty building and wind blowing. Mark and his brother John work also as the Mutant Data Orchestra, but their piece of cut ‘n paste noise, I don’t understand. Edwin van der Heide (mostly known as sympathic young men and collaborator with Zbigniew Karkowski in various musical projects) works in Den Haag at the Conservatory. To see a direct relation with the building is not easy but it’s a very nice piece: relatively soft, irregular bass tones a la Ikeda. Very austere and minimal, but a beautiful piece. The last one is by Ver Licht, one Dirk-Jan Hanegraaff and Erik Quint. They take the chaos and dynamics of constructing sounds and is a pretty linear noisy affair. With one track that was not of my liking, still an enjoyable CD, that works well as on itself. (FdW)
Address: <cell@cell.nl>
PLUXUS – FAS 2 (CD by Slowball)
Just as ambient, industrial and techno merge into new directions, rock, techno and ambient merge into something new aswell. There are many new bands that the format of rock songs (short, pleasent, sad) with samplers and electronica in combination with real time instruments. Pluxus is one of those fine examples. Most of the thirteen are short (except for the 10 minute psychedelic ‘Pluxemburg’) and each displays a certain atmopshere: sadness or happiness sit brotherly here next to eachother. There are dashes of Aphex Twin, old school elektro (‘Elektroplux’), synthypop and techno. Lots of ctachy tunes – well done. (FdW)
Address: www.slowballrec.com
BEEQUEEN – WHITE TUSK (7″ on Plinkity Plonk Records)
New psychedelics from ambient/industrial duo Beequeen: referring to good ol’ Fleetwood Mac with their title (and the song) they have created a poppy track, almost worthy of national broadcasting. Starting with a drumloop, a sudden break and then a magnificent looped sample of Ringo Starr’s sloppy drumming we enter the world on acid. A fuzzy guitar plays the theme (is it really Tusk?) and the drums just roll on & on. Very well composed and produced. The B-side is called ‘Fly like an eagle’, which reminds us of yet another of the names of rock: Steve Miller. A gentle, even somewhat jazzy guitar theme is repeated over and over again. Added are wailing synth (?) sounds that create an atmosphere of tense relaxation. Yep, that’s a paradox, but some good things can only be described in such a way…..(MR)
Adress: <mailorder@staalplaat.com>
HECKER – [OT] XACKPY BREAKPOINT: (CD-R on OR)
This new CD-R label by Touch seems to be focussing on data transmission in an audio format. After the first one by Edwin vd Heide and Zbigniew Karkowski with it’s strong conceptual streak, we are now confronted with a release by Hecker, with a title as mysterious as the music. Under the title it says that all audio was realized in Hecker, which leads me to assume that we’re dealing with some kind of computer program. And if that is true, then it is an amazing program, almost behaving as some kind of weird virtual organism, eating its way through audio data on the hard disk, munching everything that it finds on its path and at the same excreting what it cannot digest. Forgive my animalistic approach here, but this music seems really alive; it seems to ‘happen’ at the same moment that one is listening to it. There is not really a sense of composition in the pieces. They just ‘happen’. It is impossible to trace the sound sources used and it’s equally impossible to determine in what way sounds have been treated. A truly enigmatic piece of work and very, very poetic. (MR)
Adress: www.touch.demon.co.uk/or.htm
Two corrections on the issue:
1. The person playing with Manual Mota on his CD is a girl…
2. Suspicion Breeds Violence is not the band name by Suspicion Breeds Confidence
sorry boys (& girls)