DIE FEINEN TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM – APFELMOST UND ESSIG (LP by
Epileptic Records)
MATTHIEU HA – BRUXELLES PARALLELES – FRAGMENT (CD by Firstcask Records)
THROBBING GRISTLE – PASSTIMES (CD-R)
TORE H. BOE – THE MEETING ALBUM (MP3 on
ROTTERDAM NOISE – FEYENOORD (CD-R on MSBR)
DIE FEINEN TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM – APFELMOST UND ESSIG (LP by
Epileptic Records)
The Pinkels – that how I call these unpronounceble and untranslatable
Germans – are a relatvely obscure company. Several 7″s, some tapes
and now this limited, heavy weight vinyl, on yellow vinyl. I guess
they are a duo (who looking at their respective address, live quite
apart) and probably operate through mail? The resultant of however
they work is a highly lo-fi sort of electronic music. Far away we
hear mumbling of people (recorded in far away places no doubt) and
the Pinkels improvise on a wide blend of instruments. Mostly synths,
but also guitars, bass and percussive, scraping sounds. Recorded a
considerable low volume, there is a dense, creepy atmosphere going
on, mostly moody and dark, but at sparse moments also noisy with
feedback. The overall buzzword here is a sort of danger coming from
behind, yet that never comes. Creepy yet powerful stuff. (FdW)
Address: <dkkut@gmx.de>
MATTHIEU HA – BRUXELLES PARALLELES – FRAGMENT (CD by Firstcask Records)
Actually this CD is connected with a lot of memories, aswell as a lot
of ideas. Do you like to shout when entering a metro tunnel? To hear
your own voice, reverberating in space. That’s one thing about this
CD. The other is: how often did you hear a street musician play and
you thought, ‘hey this is nice, this could be nicely on CD’? The
Belgium composer and accordeon player Matthieu Ha combines this. He
plays his accordeon and uses his falset voice to sing. He goes out to
places such as station, factories and parks (I guess to get those
pieces without reverb). The eight tracks probably display his work
well, but is rather a more curious item then musical outstanding (so
in that respect not the street musician you want to hear at home).
You could save your self a trip to Bruxelles of course, by getting
the CD.
Address: <fsk@altavista.net>
THROBBING GRISTLE – PASSTIMES (CD-R)
Throbbing Gristle still have a warm place in my heart. They were my
introduction into experimental music. Still I check out new releases
by them. I know that the member of Throbbing Gristle have a very
loose attitude towards people releasing their music on LP or CD.
Mostly it concers live recordings (which I heard by now), but there
are some interesting studio recordings still. Much to my surprise the
recentely published book ‘Wreckers Of The Civilisation’ classifies
some of the recentely released (on Dossier) as bootlegs, whereas I
thought bootlegs didn’t exist in the world of TG. The Dossier
releases are essential if you are keen to hear the development of
their music. In my many years of discography spotting I noticed the
IRC 23 cassette only release, which was, apperentely, the only TG
cassette that was a studio one. I have to add I can’t tell wether IRC
0 and IRC 1 are studio recordings. Now IRC 23 re-surfaces as a CD-R
and it sounds surpringly fresh in my ears. A hurray for Pro-Tools I
guess. There are four lenghty tracks, three are called ‘Passtimes’
and sounds like Heathen Earth off-shoot recordings and ‘Industrial
Muzac’ which is a split channel recording of loops, hiss and drones.
Strange to see this surface, after so many other releases. Why did
nobody think of this before? I guess this is a bootleg by the
‘Wreckers’ standard, but it should be official. Also it made me think
if he whoever did this, will be working on the entire IRC catalogue.
Now that would be real yummy… (FdW)
Address: yeah right, if only I knew
TORE H. BOE – THE MEETING ALBUM (MP3 on
<http://home.sol.no/~origami/tore/prod/meet>)
The MP3 format is becoming more and more popular it seems. For Boe
it’s even interesting enough to release his solo debut this way. Boe
is one of the forces behind the Origami network and has played in
many different bands/projects, all with an extensive tour record.
Most of these projects are on the noisy side as far as I know, but on
The Meeting Album, Boe shows another side. Four short tracks (max.
1:30 min.) are presented here. The first one, Fingertip Tantra,
starts with energetic paper rustling, drumming on other things and
bells and is over efore you know it. Too short really, to form a
real opinion. Track two, Avega, continues with the bells, but has a
suden break and then builds up to a climax which is cut off by a
female voice. It’s getting better. Cuisine follows that with an
electric drone on top of which scratching and sliding sounds are
audible. This is broken off by funny distortions and then ends. The
last track, Kvinner, starts with ambient sounds and voices,
accompanied by a truely beautiful loop taken from classic (?) music
and also ends way to soon. Actually I think it would be a good idea
to edit everything together into one piece, so that there is a little
more continuity to the whole. On the other hand it’s nice to listen
to these short tokens of a composer’s ability. This album holds a
promise for the future I think. I wanna hear more! (MR)
Adress above.
ROTTERDAM NOISE – FEYENOORD (CD-R on MSBR)
It is no coincidence that I’m reviewing this CD, because I’ve very
recently seen two of the three projects on it play live in Rotterdam.
And I enjoyed it thoroughly. MSBR takes the lead with an extreme high
frequency drone, with some metallic sounds interrupting every now and
then. The sound just goes right into your head and there is
absolutely no escape. Even so this is a fairly quiet part; it is only
after six and a half minutes that MSBR go into full blast. But not
for very long at a stretch though. Brown noise is interrupted again
and again by the metallic sounds, sometimes raw, sometimes deformed.
Some weird synth like sounds are used as well. The track is kept well
under control and I think that makes it defenitely worthwhile.
Princess Dragon Mom did their Noise Camp performance during the live
show and amazed and entertained most of the audience, me included.
Their track on the CD is basically a noisy drone with several voices
added. For me it’s impossible to understand the texts, but I have a
feeling that they’re not that important anyway. But they do give a
certain nastiness to the atmosphere of the piece. The piece builds up
all the way and gives a good idea of what they do live as well. The
last track is a recording/edit of Noise Work Shop (Detroit,
24-02-99), which is probably a collaboration of the former two (and
maybe some other participants ?). Actually it does sound like a mix
of MSBR and Princess Dragon Mom, so in a sense it’s the heaviest
piece on the CD. Lots of feedback, distortion and electronics. And
lots of noise.
And at times funny as well. And I like it.(MR)
Adress: mail@msbr.com