RADIAN – TG11 (CD by Mego/Rhiz)
DANIELLE LAMAIRE – ATOMIC BALLROOM (CD by Inner Landscapes)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED(1998) (CD by Generator)
STILLUPPSTEYPA – NOT A LAUGHING MATTER, BUT RATHER A MATTER OF LAUGHS EP
(CD-EP by Fire Inc.)
MAEROR TRI/CRAWL UNIT (7″ by Disaster Area)
LASSE MARHAUG/THE VIOLENT GRIND (7″ by Disaster Area)
DAVID JACKMAN – MACHINE GUNS (7″ by Die Stadt)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – VON MUND ZU MUND (7″ Die Stadt)
THE HAFLER TRIO – HLJODMYND (CD by Die Stadt)
SYNTHETIC – 21 (12″ Synthetic)
NUDGE/IF.THEN.ELSE (12″ by Outward Music Company)
BEN SCHOT & WARREN DEFEVER – PREEWEET (CDR by Time Stereo)
PIMMON – KINETICA (CD by Kraak)
RADIAN – TG11 (CD by Mego/Rhiz)
The combination of live musicians and electronic sounds does not
necessarily end up succesfully. Though it apparantly does for Austrian
trio Radian. After the brilliant self-titled debut from 1999, Radian just
seems to keep up the high standard on this, their first full-length. The
creations of digital and analogue noises by Stefan Nemeth are cheerfully
joined by the cool rhythms of Martin Brandlmayr doing some live-drumming
and John Norman experimenting with bass. Musically, TG-11 sounds like Ryoji
Ikeda’s digital fizz meets Pan Sonic’s icy analog-frequencies being set up
under the funky freshness of live musicians. The final track takes a few
steps off the path , with some beautiful organ-vibrations putting and end
to this very exciting creature from the Mego-camp. (NMP)
Address: <www.mego.co.at>
DANIELLE LAMAIRE – ATOMIC BALLROOM (CD by Inner Landscapes)
“Atomic Ballroom contains music that is made by and connected to the
paintings, drawings, sculptures, photos, videos, graphics, books, records,
special collection of fround things, way of life, friends, man, family,
fans, trees, flowers, admired geniuses, house, studio, furniture,
instuments, gods, bodies and minds of Danielle Lamaire”.
Danielle Lamaire is an artist who is not just making music, as the above
list she herself compiled on the inside of the cover points out. She also
exhibits her work in galaries or even outside, like the one that consists
out of 72 woolen puppets under an old tree on a small hill in the woods.
http://home.iae.nl/users/jada/innerlandscapes/story.html
This new CD contains 21 new sensitive songs, parts of live (like a
performance on selfmade ceramic instruments), duets with friends and many
surprising sounds. She is using a wide variety of instruments like organs,
accordeon, keyboards and also more exotic sounds like the sound of a
boiling waterkettle or eating an apple, next to tapes, environmental
recordings and records. There are a few recordings on this CD of here
live-performances. Experimental music from a different and very personal
angle. Privat as a diary. ((RM)
Address: http://www.iae.nl/users/jada
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED(1998) (CD by Generator)
Seven new tracks by the master of low volume music. The first track is
inaudible on normal volume, even on headphones, so when you pump the volume
up, there is an ever so gentle hum, very dense and still light, with very
slow fades in & out. Quite remarkable. The second track is indeed audible
and sounds strange for Lopez at first: there seems to be a synth in there!
Of course, later it becomes clear that it is not. This track remains kind
of new though: recorded in an extremely reverberant space (or with the
addition of reverb), sounds swing from left to right and back again. Almost
ambient this. Track three is a very soft hissing, being filtered slowly
over time. Again the volume is very very low. Later on in the piece a lower
hiss is added. Track four has a more or less normal volume and is different
in composition. It starts with one rumble, then another one cuts in, then
another one and so on, creating an rich texture which fades into a new
layer that goes very very quiet. So far the most exciting piece. Track five
starts with a ringing hiss and a dark drone, giving the whole a strong
presence. Very slowly during the piece, a drone of mid frequencies is
added. Track six sounds as if there’s a whole buch of turbines running in
the room nextdoor, then suddenly fades away and finishes. Probably the
shortest piece by Lopez I’ve ever heard. The last track is one of those
really soft ones again but again sounds very nifty when audible. So, once
again a good and strong release by Lopez. (MR)
Adress: www.generatorsoundart.com
STILLUPPSTEYPA – NOT A LAUGHING MATTER, BUT RATHER A MATTER OF LAUGHS EP
(CD-EP by Fire Inc.)
I actually start liking this EP format for CD (I am probably too much
influenced by the length of LP’s), because of their limited time span.
Somehow it seems that a lot of releases in this format are more concise
than their longer brethren. Track one of four starts with a high sound
panning slowly, which is cut off by some clicks and ends with a very deep
bass and a women’s voice reciting numbers. This is also cut off and we’re
in track two, with trumpets and short hisses. Some of the trumpet sounds
have been edited and are layered with the others. The hisses form a rythm
and some other noises are added. There is a strange, but strong atmospheric
quality to this track. Some more rumbles and hisses enter and then a voice.
All very clear and crisp. Track three starts with a deep rumble again.
Beeps fade in and everything stops. Then the rumble starts again on an
almost Lopezian volume, although there are a lot of dynamics in this sound.
Later a mid frequencies rumble sets in and then the beeps again. The bass
stops, the beeps go on, with a silence every now and then. A very subtle
and gentle track. The last track starts with a real subsonic bass, almost
inaudible, but certainly perceptible. A low panning hiss is later added and
then both fade away. This must be the most subtle Stilluppsteypa release
yet. And a very good one. (MR)
Adress: www.fire-inc.demon.nl
MAEROR TRI/CRAWL UNIT (7″ by Disaster Area)
LASSE MARHAUG/THE VIOLENT GRIND (7″ by Disaster Area)
More final last recordings by the German legendary trio Maeror Tri, backed
with a band that will never split, simply because it’s one guy. Maeror Tri
come up with their usual wall of sound drones played by guitars through a
number of effects and a voice that off and on can be heard. Crawl Unit may
seem to operate in the same genre of ambient industrial sounds, but his
side is much more fragile, with bleeps over a repetitive field of drones
and far away mixed percussive sounds. Pure as a one track presentation I
prefered the Crawl Unit side over the Maeror Tri side. Pressed on white
vinyl with band logos to tell you which is whose side.
A step further is the music by mail collaboration. Artists all over the
world send their raw sound material to others, and the otherr rework them
into new originals. Especially in the more noisy areas much has been done
this way. Lasse Marhaug is one of the more active actors on the scene. Here
he works with the for me unknown Violent Grind. Both sides are filled with
thunderous noise blasts, even when Lasse pulls the rhythmical card via
simple yet effective loops. This the thing that japs make, and americans
love. (FdW)
Address: <disaster_area@t-online.de>
DAVID JACKMAN – MACHINE GUNS (7″ by Die Stadt)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – VON MUND ZU MUND (7″ Die Stadt)
I have great respect for the music made by David Jackman under the name of
Organum. Beautiful and powerful drone music. What he produces under his
name I can’t dig. Much has to do with World War II, most clearly
exemplified by this 7″ (who has a counterpart on US Robot Records). Sound
recordings of machine guns, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, are being
processed – well, a bunch of delay is added. There is not much difference
between side A and B.
Of more interest is the second installment in Asmus Tietchens trilogy ‘Von
Mund Zu Mund’. Known for his extensive career in musique concrete, Asmus
releases three 7″s in which text, spoken word and his own mouth play the
major role. On the first installment the voices were only slightly treated
and snippets of text could be understood. These four new tracks are only
vaguely similar to voices and Tietchens employs a whole bunch of sound
effects to treat them. In return we get high quality Tietchens music,
filled with effects, but still with a breath of the original sources. I
wonder what volume three will bring us. (FdW)
Address: <jschwarz@diestadtmusik.de>
THE HAFLER TRIO – HLJODMYND (CD by Die Stadt)
After many years of sporadic hard to get releases, The Hafler Trio return
with a full length CD. This has been many years in process, as it got the
first catalogue number by Die Stadt (DS 01), whose recent 7″ releases were
already DS 26 and DS 27. The recordings featured are made late 1994 and are
part, if I understand it correctly, of some art installation in Iceland.
The Hafler Trio, on this occassion Andrew McKenzie and Erla Porarinsdottir,
take off were the left us. A series of processed sounds, stretched – I
assume in the good analogue ways – but it differs from for instance the
seven 10″ records. For a whole hour this seems to be the work. Sounds,
processed and unrecognizable from their original source, wave back and
forth in the mix. A certain amount of decay is added, like the same sound
has been processed so often that a mere static remains. Now, the main
question is: is this a great CD? Humm… altogether I am not sure. It’s
nice, but it’s a long sit to fully concentrate on this. Another CD that was
recentely released by The Hafler Trio, ‘Hand Wave’ (a super limited real
CD, edition of 46 copies for subscribers to the 10″ series), is a much more
coherent ambient listening then this. So maybe I should plead for a normal
release of ‘Hand Wave’? (FdW)
Address: <jschwarz@diestadtmusik.de>
SYNTHETIC – 21 (12″ Synthetic)
Kinda obscure and limited 12″ by Synthetic. The A-side has a sort of
rhythmic, howling sound, that is in loop-mode and that shifts back and
forth between hiss and clearness. The b-side is likewise minimal, except
that the sounds are sped up and slowed down during the piece. This record
reminded me of the first Sahko releases, in all their minimal doodlings. A
must of DJs that are into microwave stuff, but seek vinyl. (FdW)
Address: <syntheticamericka@yahoo.com>
NUDGE/IF.THEN.ELSE (12″ by Outward Music Company)
>From a series of split 12″ on Outward Music Company (haven’t seen one
before, I must admit), two USA outfits of “intelligent” dance music. Nudge,
whose music I haven’t heard before, is a trio and present their song
Idiolect and gets a remix treatment by Solenoid. The remix is filled with
more live beats, additional synths and all that, and is like a room with
too much nice furniture. The original is a strip bare track and has a nice
melancholical touch to it.
If.Then.Else have two original tracks. I heard them before on the nice
debut on Emanate Records. The two pieces are a nice blend of rhythms in the
best IDM style, in combination with very relaxing keyboard stuff and have a
dubby atmosphere (but not in the Chain Reaction/Pole style, as If.Then.Else
have much more digital and open sound). The If.Then.Else side was preferred
by me over the Nudge side, but hey tastes can differ. (FdW)
Address: www.outwardmusic.com
BEN SCHOT & WARREN DEFEVER – PREEWEET (CDR by Time Stereo)
A new release on Time Stereo! Noise hurray, me thinks. But the
transatlantic collaboration between Warren Defever and Ben Schot deals
mainly with exotic birds sounds which have been slightly processed, and
even then, some of the pieces sound like pure soundscaping. Track four has
a sort of vocal imitation of birds… There ain’t much going in this CD,
but the overall atmosphere is certainly one of alienation. Certainly one of
the more weirdo things lately in my CD player. (FdW)
Address: <time-stereo@prodigy.net>
PIMMON – KINETICA (CD by Kraak)
Slowly the name Pimmon gets a household status, through his releases on
Meme (whatever happened to that label?), ERS and Static Caravan – plus
maybe others, which I haven’t heard. Unmistakenly Pimmon is part of the
lap-top scene – mainly boys armed with computers, processing cracked sound
information into new cracked sound information. Most of the time it’s
fragile stuff, like in ‘Directory Is Empty’ or ‘Indigo_Upper’, which barely
exists on the surface of audibility. But then ‘Empaner: Redacter’ or ‘Buzz
Like Blue Children’ bursts out in a harsh, Oval-like mood, and you are back
on your feet. And there are down right sort of industrial tunes here, such
as ‘West Spaghetti West’. With 10 tracks, this is a nice division of the
various tracks, and they are placed in a rather normal way (loud track,
soft track etc.), but that’s ok. Overall I thought that the atmosphere was
more loose then on his CD ‘Waves And Particles’, which has it’s charm. (FdW)
Address: www.kraak.net