SOMATIC RESPONSES – AUGMENTED LINES (Cd by Hymen)
FORMANEX – LIVE IN EXTRAPOOL (CD by Fibrr Records)
CLICKS & CUTS 2 (3CD compilation by Mille Plateaux)
BETWEEN TWO POINTS (2CD compilation by 12K/Line)
BATTERY OPERATED – VECUUM (CD by Cocosolidciti)
PHOSPHENE – LONG MEADOW FELT COMPANY (CD by Oggum)
YR AGOG (Compilation CD by Oggum)
SOMATIC RESPONSES – AUGMENTED LINES (Cd by Hymen)
Teknoir – The brilliant technoid-compilation released by Hymen in 1999, was
the one that introduced me to Welsh duo Somatic Responses. The
uncompromising mass of energy that saturates the expression of Somatic
Responses’ track “Oblique” on Teknoir is absolutely unavoidable. Like being
trapped in a futuristic land of decay, the listener is surrounded by
chaotic rhythms that swirl inside waves of sonic darkness. The extremely
dramatic atmosphere was continued on Somatic Responses’ Circumflex-album
from 1999. Now two years later Paul Healy and John Healy have finally
released another full-length opus. Being less nightmarish, the sheets of
ambient on the other side seem darker and even more desolate than earlier.
The beats are kept mid-tempo with complex rhythm-textures most comparable
to earlier Autechre as they sounded on Tri Repetae and Amber. Even though
the Augmented Lines contains the unmistakable atmosphere of Somatic
Responses, the album on the other side differs a few steps from previous
works. A mature musical development for the two brothers, and in all senses
a great album. (NMP)
FORMANEX – LIVE IN EXTRAPOOL (CD by Fibrr Records)
Last week I had the pleasure to see a four piece group from France called
Formanex. They played at Extrapool, the small stage here in Nijmegen. About
six months ago they also played there, performing various pages from
Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise. This is a large graphic score of lines,
circles, blocks, with no instructions. Formanex are set out to play pieces
like this. To do so, they use prepared guitar, percussion, small and found
objects and electronics. At the concert last week, they presented a CD with
recordings made at the previous concert (and housed in one of Extrapool’s
fine printworks, since they have printing studio too), which I sadly
missed. Something which I regret very much. It’s hard to say wether
Formanex fully improvise their music, which I find hard to believe. They
rely on a score and have surely discussed among them how it should be
played. With such open scores as Treatise, it’s impossible to say if the
performance is ‘rightly’ performed or not. Comparing concert and CD, I am
bound to state that Formanex master their skills very well. Ranging from
soft passages to very loud ones, drones andloose end sounds sitting next to
eachother as opposing contrasts, this partly composed, partly improvised
recording is a joy for the ear. The curves they played are shorter then say
AMM, which is a comparisation that can easily be made on the fact that
Cardew was a member and the almost identical set up, who seem to take much
more time to develop throughout a piece. Maybe Formanex, who could have
been the children of AMM members, are influenced by zapping in front of a
television? (FdW)
Address: <formanex@canalv.com>
CLICKS & CUTS 2 (3CD compilation by Mille Plateaux)
BETWEEN TWO POINTS (2CD compilation by 12K/Line)
A very large portion of click and cuts. Just over three hours with no less
then 36 artists. I tried to consume this all at once, but it’s simply too
much. 36 artists, most likely all behind their laptop or desktop, looking
for that one click, that one cut, that microscopic fragment of hiss, which
are all set in sequencer programms, and sauced up with a zillion plug ins,
so that it becomes something… most preferable: dance-like music. Many of
these artists do not do anything else but making dance-able music (like
Station Rose, Farben, M2, Kit Clayton, Reinhard Voigt, Mikeal Stavostrand,
Auch), but the element of the click and the cut is there just a mere extra.
Nice music, no doubt, but the future definied? I don’t think so. Many of
these pieces could have fitted well on a Force Tracks release (of which
Mille Plateaux is a side label), which is not a bad thing at all. However
that’s not all. The more interesting sounds come, in my opinion, from those
that bring that the dance element to its extreme, or come with an entirely
different sound. Fennesz for instance offers a highly rhythmic track, but
without a simple 4/4 beat to keep it together. Instead it’s like the sound
of insects eating his harddisc. Alva.Noto takes things to it’s extreme, and
focusses just on high end clicks and low end bass sound. On ‘Clicks & Cuts
2′ it’s the artists who already had a well defined sound before that stand
out. People like Fennesz, Full Swing, DAT Politics, Taylor Deupree, Richard
Chartier, Pansonic and Dan Abrams. Musicwise this isn’t a bad compilation,
but as a statement of movement, this falls a bit short. Or maybe, the whole
microwave/click/glitch thing is over and emerged more into dance music…
as a genre by itself, I think everything that was to be told is told,
served it’s thing and it’s time to move.
Almost at the same time Taylor Deupree offers another compilation on his
12K label. Or is it the Line label? In fact it’s both. Whereas 12K stands
for more rhythmic music, its subsidairy Line stands for indepth, more
avant-garde electronic music. So one CD of ‘Between Two Points’ is by 12K
artists and one is by Line artists (many of the featured artists will have
their full length release on either label). On the 12K CDwe get some of the
same names as on ‘Clicks & Cuts 2’, like Mark Fell (= SND), Komet (= Frank
Bretschneider), Noto (= Alva.Noto), Dan Abrams, Kim Cascone, Taylor
Deupree. Some of these operate in the dance-like, clickhouse style, such as
Mikeal Stavostrand and Komet. However in general there is more
experimentalism, such as in the lengthy piece by Mark Fell, Dan Abrams, Kim
Cascone or Goem. The Line CD goes way further on the experimental side.
Music that you need to turn up your volume to. The Guenter/Lopez heirs.
Richard Chartier offers a well balanced cut with just high end piercing
tones. Miki Yui an environmental piece of vibrations. Much to my surprise
we find a track by Bernard Guenter, which is a beautiful drone piece of
what sounds like processed wind instruments. Others featured here are Roel
Meelkop, Steve Roden, Immedia, Duul DRV, *0 and Immedia.
This compilation is much more varied then the Clicks & Cuts one, and opens
not just new ways to dance music, but also to the “serious” side of things.
Address: www.mille-plateaux.com
Address: www.12k.com
BATTERY OPERATED – VECUUM (CD by Cocosolidciti)
The second CD by Battery Operated, after the well received CD on Mixer.
Again with an architecture edge to cover and music. This is in fact an
enhanced CD, so you get two films, dealing with buildings and inndustrial
sites, very much along the lines of their cover art. There are twelve music
tracks here and twelve intermission tracks of a few seconds. The latter are
the sounds of skipping CDs, and I have no idea why the are included. Maybe
they are the source material for the six real tracks? These tracks sound
like sampled skipping CDs, or something like that. Off and on a beat is
created and small lines act as bass-line or melody. Not at all like Oval or
Microstoria. Battery Operated have a much more chaotic style and there lies
the problem I have with this CD. The long tracks take almost ten minutes
each and go through various stages. But it would have bee better if these
various stages would have been seperated into individual tracks of 3 or 4
minutes. Sometimes things drag on and anything like a structure fails. Even
when there a good moments, and that’s a pity. With some serious editing
this CD could have been good at 35-40 minutes and now it’s harder to find
the good pieces at almost 56 minutes. Sometimes you have to be a better
judge. (FdW)
Address: www.cocosolidciti.com
PHOSPHENE – LONG MEADOW FELT COMPANY (CD by Oggum)
YR AGOG (Compilation CD by Oggum)
Oggum is a small label run by some members of Our Glassie Azoth, one of
those UK bands devoted to playing drone/space music. You find them also in
circles around Ochre Records. Behind Phosphene we find one John Cavanagh,
who was formerly in Electroscope. You’ll find ten way out tracks on his CD
of psychedelica of all sorts, from short trip on a synth in ‘Chouchou’ or
‘Zoltan On The Bridge’ to the sad strumming (and singing, like just on a
few other occassions) on ‘Earth Over Thunder’. A very varied CD of many
spaces. Like an interstellar journey, each track seems a planet. They all
seem planets, yet they are different and each has a special place.
‘Yragog’ is a benefit compilation CD for the homeless in Wales and features
many bands from the UK, mainly from the Ochre label. Much of this is in
spacey areas, but there are the usual good and ugly. The Magic Carpathians
fall clearly in the latter, with their endless cut of improv jamming. Ole
Lukkove from Russia has a nice ethno tabla track with mediaval sounding
elements. Some tracks go down right to popmusic like Mooseheart Faith
Stellar Groove Band or Valvola (their easy synth pop sounds very early 70s
and has great charm). This CD clearly suffers from the compilations
disease: great tracks are followed by lesser ones, but it’s certainly
possible to programm y’r player and get good decent 45 minutes out of here.
(FdW)
Address: <dafoggum@yahoo.co.uk>
correction:
the CD i reveiwed last week by FIRST FLOPPY – LEGION OF HATRED is
uncorrected mentioned! The band is called Tin.RP and the title is Battle
Zone. Sorry about this. (FdW)