MULTER – NESKT (10″ by Genesungswerk)
KARTEN FRANKREICH – SEGMENT REMIXES (7″ by Genesungswerk)
STEINBRUCHEL – ERROR 1/VERSION 2 (7″ by Synchron)
STEINBRUCHEL – SOLAR 3/FLOPPY 4 (7″ by Synchron)
DRONAEMENT/THE INFANT CYCLE – KLAB (LP by The Ceiling)
BEXAR BEXAR – 07.04.99 (one sided LP by Elevator Bath)
J. CASTRO – SIN TITULO (self-released CDR)
JOHN WIESE – COLLECTED TRACKS (CD by Helicopter)
P. MILES BRYSON – THE PATCHWORK PIANO (CDR by Genesungswerk)
VELMA – CYCLIQUE (CD by Noise Product/Namskeio)
THE EVOLUTION GARDEN – EVIDENCE OF PARALLEL WORLDS (self-released CDR)
MULTER – NESKT (10″ by Genesungswerk)
KARTEN FRANKREICH – SEGMENT REMIXES (7″ by Genesungswerk)
Multer previously released an excellent LP of droned music on this/their
label in 1998 (aswell as various CDR releases, that I am not so familiar
with). Now they return with a likewise excellent vinyl outing, but their
sound has changed. Multer emphasis still the darker edges of music, but
show more interest in dealing with rhythms. The title pieces has subdued
drones, set against a simply form of tabla. ‘Nub’ is a similar piece. The
big surprise are the tracks on side B. ‘Daun’ has a staggering, driving
rhythm force with sounds from calculation machines and small guitars and
bass added. ‘Erl’ uses a lowly filtered 303, and has a similar creepy
atmosphere.
I have no idea who Karten Frankreich is (info is on the labels website),
but he has some CDR release, of which two tracks were remixed by somebody
called Segment. As I haven’t heard the original, I can’t say much about the
remixes. ‘Auf In Den Tanz’ means something like ‘Up with the dance’, and
most likely takes the listener to the floor, with a constant beat, set with
bird sounds, guitar and a neat break. Lo-fi disco indeed. The flip is ‘Wem
die Stunde schlagt’ and offers a more psychedelic drone outing. (FdW)
Address: www.genesungswerk.de
STEINBRUCHEL – ERROR 1/VERSION 2 (7″ by Synchron)
STEINBRUCHEL – SOLAR 3/FLOPPY 4 (7″ by Synchron)
In the world of microscopists, Steinbruchel is a fairly unknown player, but
one who has released some nice, limited LP’s a couple of years ago. These
two 7″s contain work that was recorded at the Granulat events, about a year
ago. There will be, in total, seven, limited to 100 copies, 7″s, the last
one in a box to house them all.
These are the first two releases. Each side has two tracks, and a theme.
It’s kinda hard to decipher which side is what, so sorry if I make mistakes.
‘Error 1’ is very dark ambient bloops with a slight sauced boop. Second
track is likewise.
‘Version 2’ uses basic rhythms, set against a wall of sound.
‘Solar 3’ opens with eerie bleeps on the first track, and has stretched,
dark ambient tracks on the second. The flip is called ‘Floppy 4’ and has
similar dark ambience, but maybe a bit more melancholic. The second track
is just the dark crackle of vinyl rattle, and ends locked.
In general dark stuff, nicely played, but nothing special. (FdW)
Address: www.synchron.ch
DRONAEMENT/THE INFANT CYCLE – KLAB (LP by The Ceiling)
Two active voices from the underground of Canada and Germany who have both
released a fair share of CDRs and obscure vinyl. Dronaement did a 7″ for
Drone Records and is one German guy. His first track is held together by a
continuos simply beat sound, to which synth washes, shortwave and other
psychedelic sound is added. The second track uses “manually altered vinyl”
(recorded by The Infant Cycle), but is a beautiful drone piece of gliding
sounds. This track wins the prize of the best.
Dronaement supplied “sound-synthesizer” in the one track on one side by The
Infant Cycle, who added shortwave, more vinyl, oscillator and feedback. The
Infant Cycle builts his piece slowly from soft drones and feedback and adds
percussive sounds in a kind of dark trip mood – obviously the locked groove
from another record. Slightly amateurish recording, but it has it’s
moments. (FdW)
Address: <http://www.nas.net/~jdejong/ddt.html
BEXAR BEXAR – 07.04.99 (one sided LP by Elevator Bath)
Bexar Bexar is a one man band from Texas, although sometimes with more
people. This is their/his first release, with a 10″ and CD to come for
K-Raa-K in the future. It turned to be a strange release. Using field
recordings (people talking, sirens) set against a looped guitar motif, the
crackling of rhythm on vinyl and small electronic sounds. That’s it, it
takes a whole side. It falls in between The Infant Cycle (but much more
minimalistic) and Janek Schaeffer’s live work. It’s consitent piece that
ask more questions, then it gives answers. Puzzling to say the least. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elevatorbath.com
J. CASTRO – SIN TITULO (self-released CDR)
Without title is what it means. J. Castro has been releasing limited CDRs
for a while, but this one is the most minimal. Just the artist name and the
title written on the CD, in a plastic bag and no further artwork. Nothing
to distract your thought while listening. Castro belongs to that school of
ambient guitarists, who owe homage to Robert Fripp. Repeating patterns
played on the guitar, which are fed through a series of effect machines
(mainly those which repeat the sounds on end). It sometimes arrives at a
nervous playing, in which too many tones seem to exist, but for the main
part, lushly played, stretched out sounds form the core of this one piece.
For me those parts worked best in a dark room, lying on the sofa, having a
bath of sounds.
This one is probably limited, but maybe they can burn some more copies if
you kindly ask? Tell ‘m, I send you. (FdW)
Address: <jorgecastro@mail.com>
JOHN WIESE – COLLECTED TRACKS (CD by Helicopter)
John Wiese is the main man behind the small helicopter label (with such
fine records as the Moonlanding 7″s, The Haters and Bastard Noise), and now
he finds time to compile some of his best tracks. Wiese is at his best when
doing lenghty pieces. His sort of noise isn’t exactly the noise blast type,
even when he uses elements that sound like Merzbow. He carefully places
these blocks of noise in more quiet, subtle pieces and he takes great care
in the structure of his pieces. Elements aren’t drowned in somewhere, but
life their own life in the mix. The collaborative piece with Eric Wood (aka
Bastard Noise) is the stand out. Creepy drony sounds that sound like the
soundtrack of a thriller of a science fiction movie. These two long
beautiful pieces are followed by a series of shorter tracks, which are
fiercely harsh, but lack the intensity in the first two. Only in the
closing two pieces (both called ‘Untitled’), John Wiese regains strength
with extreme sounds that sound like lap-top pieces. So apart from the
shorter noise stuff, this is nice CD, that should appeal fans of Daniel
Menche. (FdW)
Address: http://home.earthlink.net/~johnwiese
P. MILES BRYSON – THE PATCHWORK PIANO (CDR by Genesungswerk)
I never heard of this man before (he has a CDR on Self Abuse/Solipsism
too), but his work sounds interesting. In the past he composed music for
orchestra and ensemble’s, but his solo work is about the ‘patchwork piano’.
Music played on piano and prepared piano. The “patchwork” element is where
he treats the recordings with electronica, maybe computer? The information
is not very clear about this. The piano can mostly be recognized here,
although there are pieces where this is very hard. The music shifts between
traditional, romantic piano playing and more abstract, sampled sounds. This
makes this release into a lively thing, and never has a dull moment. (FdW)
Address: as above
VELMA – CYCLIQUE (CD by Noise Product/Namskeio)
Velma are a Swiss trio, and this is their third release or so. Originally
released by Emperor Norton for the USA and Japan, but now available for the
difficult markets of Europe. Velma make hard to classify music. If you
think they are in the corner of trip hop (by their spacy rhythms, warm
female vocals), but the next thing you notice is that make make noise!
glitch! minimalism! It’s like they tried to make each track different from
the other. At times I was reminded of vocal version of To Rococco Rot, or a
samplemanic version of Steve Reich, and sometimes everything ends up in the
blender and they probably sound just like themselves. There was only one
track that I couldn’t enjoy, which was the noisy outing of ‘Ping Pong’.
Otherwise I thought that the future of popmusic could sound like this. Very
well crafted popmusic, very serious sounding (a bit like the stuff that
comes from the areas of Hausmusik or Morr Musik). Popmusic from the last
millennium to the coming one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.namskeio.com
THE EVOLUTION GARDEN – EVIDENCE OF PARALLEL WORLDS (self-released CDR)
The Evolution Garden are a trio from the sunny south part of The
Netherlands. Two boys on guitar and one plays “others”. My best guess is
that the third one operates synths and drummachines. This is, as far as I
know, their second CDR release, but is a distinct step sideways from their
previously released double CDR. Rhythm tickers it’s way, guitar are
strummed in a melancholic way and quotes from films are used (since I never
watch any, I couldn’t tell which one we hear). The Evolution Garden are,
despite their new agey induced name (not to mention the title of this work)
a bit unsettling, a bit too teasing to be absorped by the world of
aquarius, and whole heartedely welcomed in the unsettling terrain of Vital
Weekly. Ambient industrial music with a bite, more touchy, more balls then
air. Plus plus that whole thing is a relatively short and to point, the big
plus that some of these productions also lack at times. (FdW)
Address: phone: + 31 (0) 455722351
Update to Vital Weekly 244:
From: Gracia Territori Sonor <gracia-territori@ctv.es>
In the last edition of Vital Weekly # 244 there is a very interesting
review enclosed below by Frans De Waard about the recent cd release by
Tibetan Red. We would like to to inform you that Gracia Territori Sonor in
Barcelona released the cd and is its distributor. Should you receive
requests for copies of the cd be it distribution or sales please refer the
caller to at this e-mail contact: gracia-territori@ctv.es or if mail
address:
Gracia Territori Sonor
Apartat 9234
08080 Barcelona
Spain