GROOVY -GROOVY (CD by Extreme)
I am not sure if Retro music is good or bad or just a mere hype to be ignored by serious music lovers. Muzak and
50/60’s bad taste music is big -at least in some areas where 15 minutes of stardom is important. Groovy is also retro,
but I’m not sure if this is already a hype or not: 70’s funk music. The man behind Groovy is Dan Burke, assisted by
Thymme Jones on trumpet and Layna B. on vocals. Dan is also main-man behind Illusion Of Safety (of which Thymme is a
member too), but Groovy is different kind of music, so Burke choose upon a new name. Back in the 70’s I was not into
funk (but rather into that music area with almost the same spelling) and I only know that kind of music from the radio.
I guess all music on this CD has been sampled and pasted together from various work. There is almost Level 42 bass
playing going, lots of small percussion, distant trumpet playing and smooth vocals. Everything to make it a slick CD –
but its not. The hit-single is missing (I leave it up to you to judge that as good or bad), and if you listen carefully
than you recognize something of the fact that it is all sampled. One can question however if this is all necessary: I
don’t think so. In fact I love this CD, despite the fact that it is dated. But: once is enough. (FdW) // Address:
Maastrichter Strasse 22 50672 Cologne – Germany
KAPOTTE MUZIEK -ADD( Staalplaat)
Alright, alright…I finally got it. The first few times I listened to this new miniCD by Kapotte Muziek left me
completely unimpressed…that was until last night, when having bunged it in the machine, I actually glanced at the LED
display of the player and noticed how quickly the index numbers were flashing by. Aha Allow your CD player to discover
the contents of this tiny item on Shuffle mode and you have a continually changing composition which leaps about
erratically between the 99 start ID’s. Not a new concept by any means (therefore I have no qualms about using it myself
in the near future) but one that certainly adds some pleasure to this particular listening experience. I was not
particularly impressed with the choice of sounds, of which there seem to be three, but there again noise concrete has
never been amongst my list of preferences. In accordance with their aesthetic Kapotte Muziek invite all and everyone to
plunder and manipulate this CD…perhaps another reason for the multiple Start IDs is to facilitate this process. Well
worth checking out for it’s organic (and novelty) value. (MP) // Address: <staal@euornet.nl>
FAUST -RIEN (CD by Table Of The Elements)
Faust is back! In case you still don’t know: Faust was way back in the early 70s a leading German group that involved
electronic, rock and musique concrete and was influential, even to those who didn’t want to know. They stopped around
1975, but in 1991 they re-surfaced with an extensive us tour and some European dates. Earlier this year I had a chance
to see them at work in Amsterdam, and I wasn’t too impressed with either their music or performance. ‘Rien’ is their
first studio work in 20 years. ‘Rien’ means ‘Nothing’, so the cover is just silver inkt, no words or anything. The
first track, lasting a couple of seconds, is silence. Then a voice says ‘Rien de Faust’ and the music starts: guitars
are layered, building up and then it suddenly stops. Slowly the music is building again with radio sounds. Lyrics on
this CD are ‘Can’t beat the silence’ or ‘listen to the fish’: that silence doesn’t exist we already knew, and that was
pre-Faust (John Cage has some interesting words about it in the 50s). In the fifth track, when the utterly boring drums
have disappeared, the guitars start to phase shift, saving this track. The final track two voices give you the credits.
If the concept is silence, emptiness (or to tell us they don’t exist), then I must say it is a slightly worn out coat.
Musicwise I find only half of it interesting. The drum patterns are simplistic by any means, and so is the voice. Other
instruments, like shortwave or guitars are used with more sense. In all, I have very mixed feelings about this… (FdW)
// Address: <totelement@aol.com>
TRENTE OISEAUX
This is the name of a new label, founded by Bernard Gunther. Himself being a composer (with two CD’s on Germany’s
Selektion), he nows puts effort in launcing this label with four new releases. The cover concept is great: good quality
paper (nothing ordinary or glossy) with small writing on the right. The liner notes on the inside of these CD’s are
similar small, which I couldn’t read, even using my glasses. Let’s have a look at the music:
RLW’s CD ‘Revue & Corrigee’ (not named after that great French magazine, but simply meaning ‘revised and corrected) is
a re-working, recycling of material RLW worked on in the late 80s when he was a member of P16.D4. They did a double LP
with SBOTHI, exchanging sound material and working on results. The vinyl quality lacked much depth (well, this is RLW’s
opinion), so he decided to re-do it. Everything cleaned up makes this is a digital delight. Now we can hear the organs,
fast changes in sound as they were meant to be. And recycled of course, since, as far as I can judge, this is all new
material.
The odd entry in this new label seems for me DANIEL MENCHE’s CD ‘Legions In The Walls’, subtitled: Ultra Physical
Performances 94-95. They are all live pieces of high pitched sound, either synthesized or acoustic sound treatments.
For me, his other two, studio, CD’s are better. They really built up pieces from nothing to an immense wall of sound.
Here this seems missing. But, with regard to the fact that these are live pieces, the sound quality is very good. His
use of effects is stunning. Menche is definitely the master of industrial music at the moment.
M. BEHRENS works under various names. A few weekly’s ago we had his ‘armchair’ dance music CD on Hypnotism, and now a
new one, under his own name. ‘Advanced Environmental Control’ it is called and uses indoor and outdoor recordings. I
can’t say I understand the meaning of these in relation to what I hear… This is a well-put together journey which
shifts between very soft parts as well as loud parts. Sometimes these sounds are recognizable (like traffic sounds),
but sometimes they are unrecognizable. If you ever listened to your environment with your eyes closed, you it is hard
to trace the sources. The fourth release, F. LOPEZ’s ‘Warzaw Restaurant’, I really don’t get. Even if you cranck up
the volume to 10, listen intensely, it is hard to say what it is. Low hi-fi background hiss, where nothing seem to
happen. Maybe I am missing a point here? // Address: Firmungstrasse 27 56068 Koblenz – Germany
NOISE MAKERS FIFES -SOIREE DANSANT (CD by NMF)
Hot on the heels of their first CD, these Belgium’s present their second CD, made for a dance production. I haven’t
seen this production, so I can’t tell much about it’s content. The CD sounds as though it is recorded live. It is
indexed with 14 tracks, but the dance thing only had 4 pieces. So one needs to puzzle a little bit which piece belongs to which part. The musical sources involve more instruments (I recognize some wind instruments, which weren’t as
apparent on the first CD). Add to what I said about that one, that here we have more or less the same influences, but,
also Zoviet France’s heritage plays a big role. Small percussion, short delayed sounds, yet it doesn’t sound as refined
as Zoviet France’s master live piece ‘What Is Not True’ .Let’s account the live situation for the fact that is is
rougher and fragmentary, and unfortunately isn’t as strong as the first CD. // Address: NMF – Dr. de Meersmanstraat 37
1070 Brussels – Belgium