COMPILATION – NATURE IS PERVERSE (2CD on Fylkingen Records)
JLIAT – ROCK AND ROLL STILL LIFE #4 (3″CD by Edition…X)
TELEFORM – TELEFORM (CD by Domizil)
BARBED – POCKET REMINDERS/ROLF O.D.
COLIN ADREW SHEFFIELD – SPRING (TIME)/THE BRIDGE
(7″ by Elevator Bath)
AULD COVE (CDR by Stroboscope)
PETRA KLUSMEYER – PRE_NEXT_POP
BRIAN LAVELLE – FAULT/R
HEM – SEE INLAY CARD FOR DETAILS
(All CD-R’s by Microwave Recordings)
FROG POCKET – MY FAVOURITE (CDR by Mouthmoth)
MICHAEL PETERS – ESCAPE VELOCITY (CD by Originalton West)
COMPILATION – NATURE IS PERVERSE (2CD on Fylkingen Records)
This Double CD is a documentation of the Nature Is Perverse festival,
organized 27 – 29th of November 1998 by Fylkingen and the modern Museum in
Stockholm, Sweden.
First track is by Dror Feiler and consists out of a piercing noise with
some overdrive and a lot of high pitched whistling, probable coming from a
clarinet. Next up on this double live CD are Kapotte Muziek. Although their
track starts out very quiet, this Kapotte Muziek track is a little noisier
than what they normally do. Next to the usual squeaking and crackling,
there is a 50 Hz hum. Very well done! Third track is a music-concrete-like
noise track by Farmers Manual, spelled Framers Manual this time for a
reason that is not clear to me.Their track consists out of three parts.
They used to be much more interesting when they started out in the
beginning, if you ask me.
Track four is by MStavöstrand and is a natural-like sounding noise
environment, very nice! Mats Lindström’s live performance was in
contribution with 6 children playing electronics conducted by Mats
Lindström and is called Girl Power. Freundschaft, a noise band from
Frankfurt that sounds like a demonstration in the street that will most
certainly end in a complete and violent riot. The police has no chance with
these guys; the volume of their megaphones is definitely going to be louder
than the ones the police uses, and so demonstrates will not hear any of the
warnings of the police, which will make this whole thing end in a disaster
for sure. Media-terrorists is the word I was looking for, ideas that I read
about in Electronic Revolution, the book by WS Burroughs. Last on the first
CD is Kent Tankred.
Second CD starts out with Goem; deep base rhythm in the beginning and
slowly opening (and closing again) with a filter. Voice Crack are Møslang
and Guhl and they both play cracked everyday electronics; which means that
they alter normal electronic devices like radio’s to create their noise
with. Karkowski composed his piece in Tokyo. Noise piece that consists
mostly out of a kind-of-whitenoise-loop that is being played around with;
length-wise and volume-wise.
Sören Runolf track on this CD is called Reddish Noise and is a collection
of excerpts of the concert. Elggren / Liljenberg use voices in their
performance, and it sounds like a fairy tail kind of story which is a bit
hard to follow. Let me in! Piss off! Let me in! Piss Off!
Tetsuo Furudate plays samples and e-guitar together with a tape composition
of Pneuma. Very dark and gothic, bashing of metal, killing of pigs, that
sort of thing.
Small Cruel Party’s track is called “Revealing Vessels Within Vessels”.
Their sound reminds me of the sound of Kapotte Muziek but is far more
“music” and less “broken”. (Kapotte Muziek means broken music as you might
well know). I always like their music since it is relaxed but not ambient.
Electro-acoustic music at it’s best.(RM).
contact; e-mail;<intermedia@fylkingen.se> web; <www.fylkingen.se>
JLIAT – ROCK AND ROLL STILL LIFE #4 (3″CD by Edition…X)
I had some trouble keeping up with Jliat’s work. His more experimental
stuff was released on those lathe cut LP’s and CDRs, and simply not easy to
get hold off. So it’s hard for me to comment where he left his typical
drone stuff to arrive at this, most curious 3″ CD. This is a short CD, 4
minutes and 2 seconds of a single click sound. To quote from the press
message: “It consists of a four minute 3 inch CD made by writing
consecutive blocks of code beginning with a single word set to +32767
followed by 44100 of words set to zero”. This is for me total abacadra –
but then the computer for me is just an extensive typewriter. The sound
changes, well at least that’s what I think, judging my ears. The click is
repeated, but it changes in intensity (not in volume!). Excellent stuff to
sample or to DJ, but as an independent object it may face some difficulty.
It’s short, it’s raw and you may wonder: what is it about? But this aside,
Jliat remains true to his esthetics: you develop a concept and produce it
as consistently as possible. It’s about time to find out for myself what I
missed in his development from the old drone stuff to this click release.
(FdW)
Address: <fenton@stonehenge.ohr.gatech.edu>
TELEFORM – TELEFORM (CD by Domizil)
Another release on that small Swiss label, with off-shoot projects from a
band called ‘Das Erdwerk’ and all of this moves into distinctly different
areas. Behind Teleform we find Bernd Schurer, proud owner of a computer and
lots of software. He managed to produce ten very nice, and very varied
pieces of music. Sometimes it moves from the intelligent side of composing
(think Gunther or Meelkop) and sometimes it’s drum & bass. Schurer is a man
of humor. His “Hydrophone 174.2” sounds like Asmus Tietchens on speed and
sums up in 2 minutes what a hydrophonie can be about. “Japaner In
Flugzwang” is one of those would-be drum & bass pieces. This is followed by
an extremely serious piece of electro-acoustic sounds, stretched drones and
interruptions. There is bits of everything of modern electronic computer
music. That’s what makes this into a very enjoyable CD, almost like a
compilation. (FdW)
Address: <info@domizil.ch>
BARBED – POCKET REMINDERS/ROLF O.D.
COLIN ADREW SHEFFIELD – SPRING (TIME)/THE BRIDGE
(7″ by Elevator Bath)
To the real lovers of the genre called Plunderphonic, Barbed might be known
name, but to the vaguely interested it might be a new name. Apart from one
CD and some compilation appearances, this is their second own product.
Their ‘Pocket Reminders’ is held together by a strong rhythm section and
samples, but it doesn’t get towards techno or the likes. On top you’ll find
a voice speaking. A machine like rhythm and forceful beat are the main
ingredients of the ‘Rolf O.D.’, the b-side. Both tracks are close the
Public Works/Tape Beatles new style (as on their CD’s ‘Matter’ and ‘Good
Times’), so less on the plunder style and more on the beat/rhythm side. And
that’s a development I welcome.
Elevator Bath labelboss Colin Andrew Sheffield produces his second 7″.
‘Spring (Time)’ is an electro-acoustic piece, but with unidentifiable
means, maybe the lifting of a turntable arm in conjunction with synth
tones. Not noisy, but strangely put together, at all different RPM’s. ‘The
Bridge’ is more ‘song like’ with a simple, repetitive line on a keyboard
and sort of Oval-far-away-tick-in the background rhythm. Obscure sounding,
but quite alright. (FdW)
Address: <eeaoa@aol.com>
AULD COVE (CDR by Stroboscope)
Behind Auld Cove we find David Turgeon, who produced this very limited CDR
release, put together with relatively simple means: vinyl cracklings being
sampled and audiotools from the computer. The opening piece is a rather
ambient setting piece – not bad, but a bit too regular. In the second piece
things move into more exciting areas, with small high pitched tones that
gradually move over into a breakbeat. A sort of microwave crossing over
into more regular dance music. Not every track is coherent and tracks end
in a freaky way, but there is certainly some good pieces to find, like
‘Parowax’ or ‘Set’. Certainly music that should be heard outside the very
strict limitation it is now presented in… (FdW)
Address: <david.t@steam.ca>
PETRA KLUSMEYER – PRE_NEXT_POP
BRIAN LAVELLE – FAULT/R
HEM – SEE INLAY CARD FOR DETAILS
(All CD-R’s by Microwave Recordings)
Having introduced these names on the compilation ‘A Manual’, Microwave now
presents full length releases of the above mentioned artists. Petra
Klusmeyer’s work could be described as interrupted drone ambient, the focus
of the music not being so much on the rhythm, but more on the sound quality
of the pieces. The interruptions are part of a total soundscape. The tracks
are relatively short and one slides from one to the other. In general the
pieces are quite gentle, with a sudden break here and there. It seems to me
that this is as much microwave as it is electronic music or even ambient.
In this way Klusmeyer escapes categorization and sets a style of her own. A
good record, that makes me curious how Klusmeyer will develop her music in
the future.
Brian Lavelle’s record also defies categorization pretty much. Loops and
bleeps seem to predict your average microwave record, but that is soon
enough denied by all the weird sounds used. At some times the tracks even
seem to become poppy in there structure. But they never get really
predictable (although track four could have been a little shorter). I was
particularly amazed by the way Lavelle manages to create sounds that I have
never heard before. Excellent sampling and filtering generate a sound world
of its own. Track six, for example, seems to consist of a stretched sample,
but cut up and filtered in such a way that something totally new emerges.
Very very nice indeed.
The last one in this review only adds to the descriptions above, but is
certainly the most funky of the lot. It barely escapes the dance floor (or
does it?). Again there is an array of sounds that seem to come from
someones distorted brain (not Brian), used in such a way that the word
poppy springs to mind again. But that is only superficial, I’m happy to
say. Hem also succeed in escaping a too narrow definition. They produce
some highly catchy tracks here, without falling into the trap of
predictability. The tracks have a feeling of nervous relaxation to them,
which is a paradox of course. But that is also exactly what makes them
strong. Another good one here. With three releases at once and all of them
good, Microwave is establishing itself as one of those small labels that
are able to discover and introduce new and interesting music without too
much ado.
(MR)
Address: <mailorder@staalplaat.com>
FROG POCKET – MY FAVOURITE (CDR by Mouthmoth)
This is how I like them: limited but stylish packed release, full color
cover and with a pro-sound. Frog Pocket could previously be heard on a 7″
on the same label, but the full album is not to be missed. The frogs move
around in those areas where you also find people like Autechre, the boys
from Suction and other, hopefully intelligent, danceists. In that sense
Frog Pocket doesn’t add much to the changing the style, or pushing it
towards new areas. But the eleven tracks are a truly warm listen and it
should deserve a wide attention. My favs include ‘Boris’ (with it’s nice
string melody line) and ‘Rub It To The Ducks’ for it’s childlike qualities.
Having said that and contemplating this CD while re-reading the review, I
might I think most tracks are very nice… Ok, so you supposedly real
bosses out there with a taste for this kind of music: here is a good band,
this is a good album: grab your changes! (FdW)
Address: http://mouthmoth.go.to
MICHAEL PETERS – ESCAPE VELOCITY (CD by Originalton West)
This CD I received as a follow up to the review of recently I wrote of Jeff
Pearce on Hypnos. I rambled about my lack of knowledge on Robert Fripp and
this guy wrote me he used Fripps system of loops to create his own music
and that he would send me his CD. Suddenly I was back: Oh yeah Fripp and
his tape-delay system. I remember seeing a scheme of that when I was 15,
and thought it would be great to have it myself. But my dad only had one
reel to reel. Anyway, nuf about my childhood frustrations, as Michael
Peters has such a system which is no doubt digital now and learned some
tricks from Fripp directly. His CD is rather not a set of specific worked
out piece but can be seen as a work in progress, a photobook filled with
snapshots. Tracks are short and there is a variety in tunes. So far so
good. Pearce’s album was very good, because it was very silent, very
pastoral, very coherent. Peters’ tracks are quirky, some nicely repetitive,
but some are also a bit over the edge. I find it less ambient, as most
tracks do have a tempo, and that is usually not a very slow one. The
balance stays at the positive side, as it’s still quite raw and never tacky
new agey… (FdW)
Address: <mpeters@aol.com>