K. MIZUTANI – MILLSTONE (CD by Pure)
Mizutani might be known to some people as the guitar player from
Merzbow (for instance present on Merzbow’s first tour in Europe in
1989). As far as I know there is an LP (from 1990) and now this CD,
packed in the. as always, monochrome Pure covers (in other words, no
info available). The first track is a 30 minute piece of scraping metal
or stones, multi-tracked. Highly amplified, but apparently no studio
effects have been used. Derived from maybe 4 different sound sources,
this piece never gets boring. Since there is no loop or sampling, it
changes all the time -but there is no evolution. The second track has
the sound of snare being hit (with no regular intervals), some metal
being banged and every once in a while some wild saxophone comes in.
More improvised music then one would expect in the Pure series. Again
no evolution. More metallic sounds on the third track, like a
microphone scraping on the surface. The most violent one -even without
the electronic effects. There is some overtone, natural feedback in
there. A most peculiar CD, quite a surprise in the Pure series, and
highly recommended. // Address: Pure -151 Paige St. -Lowell, MA 01852 –
USA
MsBR – COLLAPsELAND (CD by Heel Stone)
Heel Stone’s second release (the first being Merzbow) is again
beautiful packed, an oversized 7″ booklet with prints on transparent
paper as well as a glossy paper. MsBR is one of the Jap noise bands
which I never heard very well until this CD. The theme of this CD is
the earthquake of Kobe, Japan 1995. I am not sure how this should be
translated to the music, which is mainly harsh noise, using synth,
guitar synth, effects, loop’ .The whole thing is mostly loud, distorted
and feedback like, yet there is enough happening in there to make it
sound interesting. Track 3 for instance is soft by any means, yet
tension is built up before… the final collapse? There are abrupt
shifts in there, sounds rising up and going down again, in a vast array
of noise. I could go as far, saying that this is the sound of amplified
earthquakes, or that this causes earthquakes, but I’m not that
poetical. I’d say, a fine work of sheer noise. // Address: P. Hermisson
-Lindenaustr. 8 -79199 Kirchzarten -Germany
THE HAFLER TRIO – THE DAY I MARRIED THE WORLD (7″ by Fire)
Limited to 479 copies… numbered and signed… The two tracks featured
here continue the Hafler Trio track featured on the ‘Unentitled’
compilation CD. Stretched tones, quite light of tone (not by any means
the dreaded A word), but high EQ-ed. Towards the end of one side,
drumming (a steady, yet not housy) comes in. A somber and austere
release, so buy it even when you think it’s expensive (for you may
never want to know what poverty is). // Address: Fire -P.O.Box 7257 –
127 Reykjavik -Iceland
MAGAZINES
Bad Alchemy Nr. 27. Why are these German only magazine so damn good?
Good intellectual writing about experimental music, well Bad Alchemy is
another example. Tons of reviews, a piece on ‘Noise Culture -Secret
Listening’ (showing there are no real borders between techno, ambient,
musique concrete) and a tape release featuring Tesendalo and Michael
Renkel. // Address: R. Dittmann -Franz-Ludwigstr. 11 -97072 Wurzburg –
Germany