ERIC LA CASA – L’INSPIR DU RIVAGE PART 2 & 3 (7″ by Povertech Industries)
PROPELLOR – Argento (cd on Scratch; this edition – cdr sold exclusively on
tour)
INANNA – SIGNAL/OR/MINIMAL (CD by Crowd Control Activities)
DER BRIEF – VOLUM (CD by Jazzassin Records)
KIM CASCONE – PULSAR STUDIES (MP3 by Falsch)
KOJI ASANO ENSEMBLE – FLOW-AUGMENT (CD by Solstice)
A PRODUCE & M GRIFFIN – ALTARA (CD by Hypnos)
IF BWANA – CLARA NOSTRA (CD by Pogus)
TOMAS JIRKU – VARIANT (mp3 on notype.com)
RADIANTSLAB – DEADSCSI PROJECT (interactive stuff at radiantslab.com)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – PSYKOSCIFIPOPPIA (12″ LP by Gagarin Records)
AF URSIN – HAUFTAA JOULAA (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
ERIC LA CASA – L’INSPIR DU RIVAGE PART 2 & 3 (7″ by Povertech Industries)
In the new Povertech Explorer Series, this is a very fine release. La Casa
has recorded the sound of water (boring? no, not very!) and on the a-side
presents a ‘true’ version of them. There are no manipulations, but as far
as I can tell, there is some layering and defenitely composition. A very
quiet but interesting piece. The b-side is a manipulation of recordings,
but not necessarily those of the a-side. Main goal here is to seek the
same’inner morphology’ of the water sounds of the Adriatic Sea. I am not
sure that La Casa has succeeded very well in doing so, but the piece is
defenitely a beauty, with a strong composition and plenty of very well
processed sounds. Actually I think that La Casa did well not to adhere too
strongly to the water theme. The result is a fascinating little disc, with
surprisingly good sound quality. (MR)
Address: Povertech Industries, 1008 10th ST., PMB #761, Sacramento, CA.
95814, USA
PROPELLOR – Argento (cd on Scratch; this edition – cdr sold exclusively on
tour)
An organ keens a beacon behind a mass of shattered signals. Voices slow
themselves into the cloudbank and the scree twirls – and how deeply can
certain sounds bring out an inherently psychotropic quality of the mind?
The beacon seeps out the other side – dissolving into static and hiss. An
errant humming (by way of the machine mind mouth) gives way to rhythmic
starts – slightly reminiscent of someone waiting for something, and the
small moments where brilliant beats are remembered through the idle
fingers… A strumming of stringed instrument, and is it beginning to look
a lot like Christmas? Another small moment emerges – of kicking cans in
the streets? Then, around another corner – static peels off from an onion
of sound, moving in coils. It flutters and shifts into a velvet swath of
onreaching being, changing so gradually as to be unnoticeable. Another
strumming emerges, count and pointercounting against crackl, whirr, crackl.
Pastoral tones in tune, now, melting into a sheer sound – a ripping of the
fabric? And does in-depth work with strange materials leach itself into
the creation of sounds? Piano, now – much and in a minimal way. Yet even
with minimalism – how much is “enough”? How much is “too much”? And how
long until there is a very very active “pushing around” of what little
sound there is to work with? Call-and-response of different sounds now –
at odds? Communicating? Is there a conspiracy of sound that works beyond
the control of the creator, working independent of his hand? The sounds
rise up to create their own forest now, and travel through themselves –
static inverting and emerging from melodies and untouched pools of
feedback. The sounds breathe themselves into coos and chirps, gradually
descending as the piano returns into view. And then – almost a convergence
of everything that’s come before – looking back upon it all. Were the
plans laid for these sounds in some fitful night of sleep, years ago? Upon
making that last special packaging? Through the ashes of a woundful,
wonderful release? Then, like the glistening green flash of setting sun
and the wavering waves therein – the sound passes, and moves away. (DC)
Address: <spybey@dvoa.com>
INANNA – SIGNAL/OR/MINIMAL (CD by Crowd Control Activities)
I’ll be honest: the only thing I have heard from Inanna is a live
performance five years ago and that didn’t prompt me to start buying their
records. However, times have changed and here I am, reviewing their latest
disc. And so far it has been a pleasure: the overall sound is still dark
and ambient, but the sounds used are far from those I heard five years ago.
Instead of that typical digital synth sound, their newer work uses a lot of
looped clicks, hisses and other noise. Combined with etheral drones this
creates a dense atmosphere with a large degree of tension. At the same time
there is a strong sense of distance in this music; it doesn’t get close
somehow. I think this strange quality is what makes this stuff good. I
might even become a fan! (MR)
Address: www.ezlink.com/~crowded
DER BRIEF – VOLUM (CD by Jazzassin Records)
Well, we know what this label stands for: noise from the north. So if one
reads on the cover that the instruments used by Der Brief are drums, synth
and guitar/electronics, one starts to wonder what can be expected. I’ll
tell you: a weird combination of improvlike music and production skills.
Several musical styles are played, but have been deconstructed so heavily
in the production process, that is has become something else completely.
There are a lot of influences to be detected on this record, from Zorn to
Morricone to Sherwood. Not entirely my piece of cake, but probably very
nice indeed for those who like this kind of improv weirdness. (MR)
Address: lmarhaug@online.no
KIM CASCONE – PULSAR STUDIES (MP3 by Falsch)
I recentely reviewed Cascone’s latest CD on Ritornell, and mentioned that
much of his work fits certain new currents, but remains his interpretation
of ambient music. This new release proofs I am (just a little bit?) wrong.
In the course of just 22 minutes, Cascone uses the sounds of the stars to
create 20 short and powerful studies (a very apt chosen name here). It
sounds as untouched by human hands, very much as the stars themselves, very
clean processed by computer programms. More noisy and maybe less worked out
as his releases on CD, this is certainly something different. Let’s hope
this new direction is not something just temporarily, but will be mixed
with his usual ambient on more ‘formal’ releases. This is just available by
downloading them from the net, so if you don’t want you have bad luck! (FdW)
Address: http:www.fals.ch
KOJI ASANO ENSEMBLE – FLOW-AUGMENT (CD by Solstice)
Long strokes of the upright bass give rise to a question – how much stock
is there in projecting one’s emotions across a sea of sound? How much
“listening” happens, at that point? Regardless of how self-centered the
“listening” process is – someone is hearing “something.” A feeling of
descent jumps from other strings. Level of degrees? A violin’s strokes are
underpinned by a lengthy resonance. All instruments make their voices heard
– an argument? A flock of statements? And where does the timbre and temper
of voice make itself known in instrumental pieces like these?
Piano and almost a tuning-up of strings. Fine-tuning. Piano to the fore,
then strings and their striking insistence… There are some touches that
might be seen as “cinematic” – cues? For what, to whom? And is this
another way that music is listened to in the modern age – as a soundtrack,
as a piece nonexistent individually but instead hinting at belonging
elsewhere? At points it is as if each instrument casts off, casts out for
direction – but this is not to say that the sounds fall aimlessly to writhe
and die on the ground. Their movement is almost as that of leaves in the
wind – skattering hither and thon and then welling up in unison to form one
billowing amber cloud…
A shake of notes tumbles forth from the piano, and the strings follow –
running a race through the air and then tumbling into more measured tones.
Looking tentatively around some undiscovered corner,the strings indulge in
self-play until the piano – nestling mother -involves itself in some amount
of structure…into a final flourish ofall into all… (DC)
Address: <solstice@retemail.es>
A PRODUCE & M GRIFFIN – ALTARA (CD by Hypnos)
It’s been a while since I heard music by A Produce, who has a small output
f fine tuned ambient music mainly on his own label Trance Port. Here he
teams up with M. Griffen, who, if not sitting between his synths with the
duo Viridian Sun, runs the excellent Hypnos label. In a period of seven
months, they have been working on five massive ambient pieces. Each has a
distinct character, either dark as in ‘Diffusion’ or the sharper edged
‘Altara’. The CD finds it’s culmination in the thirty six minute epos ‘You
Send Me The Message’. Here ambient is at its best. You dive deep into an
ocean, watch the dolphins, the colours of fish, the vegetation. Everything
that makes life peaceful and beautiful. Perfect late night listening, or
(and I know various people who do) while sleeping. (FdW)
Address: <mgriffin@hypnos.com>
IF BWANA – CLARA NOSTRA (CD by Pogus)
The process that underlies this work is very simple and very old. It was a
combination of Steve Reich’s Phase Shifting and Alvin Lucier’s I’m Sitting
In A Room technique. You take a recorded sound, and place it on a
multi-track, on each track the same thing. If all the tracks are filled you
mix it to the first track again and start filling it up again. And again.
Again. Until you have, say, 106.476 times the same sound. A thick massive
layered sound. In between you can slow it down (although ‘delay is a cheap
drug’ as Steve Reich once said), to make it even more fat, more thick.
That’s the idea behind this new If, Bwana CD. Simple, direct and well
executed. Much like Palestine’s recent CD on New World, although the main
difference is that Palestine is not into the cheap drug and Mr Bwana is.
Me, of course, I don’t care about slowing a tape down. Who cares anyway how
it was made. The result is what counts. And that is a very nice one this
time. Massive, slow changed, a beast turns around. Play this one before the
A Produce/Griffin one mentioned elsewhere and you have a long contemplated
night. (FdW)
Address: <pogal@frontiernet.net>
TOMAS JIRKU – VARIANT (mp3 on notype.com)
After six months of coma Canadian mp3 label notype is back in business. A
new interface and new music. Tomas Jirku has been present before with
‘immaterial’, a collection of shake-your-booty-but-not-really kind of dance
music. Variant is a collection of works that grows. The original files are
ready for download since October and since then variants or versions are
being added irregularly. The music is dark, rhythmic, pulsating machines in
a obscure and damp space. Related to the current German underground dance
culture, no doubt, but Jirku keeps to a (tiny bit) more melodic line. It
definitely breathes a cybernetic atmosphere as does Jirku’s presentation.
His website sticks to old fashioned hi-tek. No fancy lettering, no fancy
colors. And if you’re curious enough it will bring you to really strange
web places. Start your cyber safari at the Notype site.
http://www.notype.com (IS)
RADIANTSLAB – DEADSCSI PROJECT (interactive stuff at radiantslab.com)
Isn’t the internet supposed to be an interactive network? A year ago I
tried to set up an interactive site at Earlabs, where people could download
mp3-snippets of sound, process them and upload back to my server. The
project failed because of my own lack of understanding of the technical
implications, and because only few people knew wat ‘mp3’ was. Now, exactly
one year later, there is the deadscsi project, run by Dan Armstrong, a
commtech suit by day and a noise addict at night. Deadscsi allows people to
download a basis file, edit it, and upload to Dan’s server. And it works!
At least technically it does. And in the sense that people do download the
file, edit and upload. And the uploads are downloaded again, edited and
uploaded, etc etc. Okay but what about the quality of the contributions?
I’d say: not bad, not bad at all. Although the length of contributions
spans from less than a second to 2 minutes. Some people deliver pure noise,
others upload strange sound effects. There is something for all of us. It’s
fun to pick up a sound slice and edit the hell out of it, it’s interesting
to see other people killing your darling. The real challenge (for me at
least) is in combining this stuff into the cubist symphony it is supposed
to become. Let’s all have a go on this Gesamtkunstwerk. Hey, it would be
interesting if someone could drop in some video with this. And maybe these
guys from Modified could turn this into a freaking 21st Cubist Interactive
Opera! Go check it out and be part of the future.
http://www.radiantslab.com/musiek/deadscsi/ (IS)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – PSYKOSCIFIPOPPIA (12″ LP by Gagarin Records)
Yes, this is the real title of a recent 12″ that appeared on the Gagarin
label uberseen by Herr Felix Kubin, Lord of the Deranged. It’s a wild and
unpredictable compilation featuring music by some bands recently discussed
in this screensheet, including stuff by Groenland Orkester and Felix
himself.
Side 1 contains 8 tracks by Electric Helgoland, who if their music is
anything to go by are seriously in need of some sort of intergalactic
psychological assistance. Persistent drum riddims march hither and thither,
punctuated by nervous blips and bleeps in a flurry of succinct compositions
that hammer themselves into any unsuspecting grey cells that may have had
their doors left open by the jailers of sanity. Dance music for the
three-legged amongst us. My favourite is surely ‘Chico (V.T.O.L.)’, which
hauls a track or two by The Residents from out of the mire of my memory.
Brezel Goring contributed four tracks, which conclude this side. They are
somewhat less memorable, with the exception of ‘Megaflittchen’, based on a
recognisable sample, which irritatingly enough, I just cannot recall the
name of.
Side Two starts with two tracks by Felix Kubin, both very much in his
unique style. I am of the opinion that Herr Kubin is the spearhead of this
wacky and unrepentant new musical beasty that is brewing (with a certain
amount of fermentation) in Chermanny.
He is followed by Max Kleyderstorm, whose tracks ‘ Kacheldackel’ and
‘Ruckwrtz’ will probably prove irresistible to those who enjoy twisting and
frooging while inverted.
Groenland Orkester, whose CD ‘Trigger Happiness’ on Staubgold was reviewed
here two weeks ago contribute the longest pieces to this record. Their
approach is clever, new and fresh even if it does smell funny. The track
‘Little P’, which appeared on the aforementioned CD is included here.
This LP is a good introduction to the recent strangeness oozing out of
Chermanny’s hindbrain. Worth checking out for those who enjoy an occasional
musical smirk and have not immersed themselves too deeply in the marshes of
musical sobriety. (MP)
AF URSIN – HAUFTAA JOULAA (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
More unrepentant oddness from Meeuw Muzak: this time it’s a Christmas
single, which started out with recordings of Af’s relatives painfully
chirping out the usual Finnish festive ditties in loud and tremulous
voices. These were then processed by mangling them through an MS-20, and
augmented with a sprinkling of Theremin, soundbites snatched from CD’s and
an ill conceived and badly assembled Radio Shack drum machine, circa the
year dot.
This is not Af’s first release on Meeuw Muzak – he also contributed a track
to the legendary ‘Vage Geluiden’ 10″ (MM007), although I’m buggered if I
can remember what it sounded like.
This record can surely be considered a testament to the suffering of the
Finnish, and a confirmation of the fact that there may be incredible
employment opportunities there for piano tuners and voice trainers alike.
The only thing I missed was the howling of their dog – perhaps it preferred
to freeze it’s minuscule goolies in the snow outside, instead of submitted
it’s fine sense of hearing to yet another discordant family gathering.
This easily (and most severely) beats Hanson’s 1997 Christmas single ‘I
WILL COME to you’ (Yes, that’s how they spelt it!) as my stocking filler
for this year. (MP)
THE GHOST ORCHID (CD on Ash International [R.I.P]
This CD was reviewed several months ago, and the review was expanded into a
reasonably well researched article, that has since appeared in a number of
publications. Those interested may request a copy of this copyrighted
article from me by email at sub@xs4all.nl. (MP)
Correction to last week’s issue:
The Osso Exotico CDR was just a beautiful designed demo and not a
self-released object. Ooops. Good news is that it will be released in
January by the Swiss label Namskeio Records.