JAN PAUL WESTGEEST – GET ITEM VALUE (LP by Hyena)
TJACO VAN CROMVOIRT – ELECTRIC BONGO (LP by Hyena)
G POCKET/RANDOM NUMBER – SPLIT MINI ALBUM (12″ by Mouthmoth)
KETTEL – BROTHER MAX (7″ by Mouthmoth)
IMMEDIA – 2|1 (CD by Line
MSBR – ULTIMATE AMBIENCE 2 (CD by 20city)
KOIJ ASANO – Quoted Landscape (CD by Solstice)
TRUMMERFLORA – No Stars Please (2CD by ACCRETIONS)
MORGENSTERN – COLD (Cd by Ant-Zen)
TENNIS – EUROPE ON A HORSE BACK (Cd by Bip Hop)
ANEMONE TUBE – EXISTENCE (CD by Auf Abwegen)
ANEMONE TUBE – FLOWERS OF REALITY (10″ by Transfixional Entertainment)
PHOLDE – SEAL TO SELF (CDR by Phanta Rhei)
JAN PAUL WESTGEEST – GET ITEM VALUE (LP by Hyena)
TJACO VAN CROMVOIRT – ELECTRIC BONGO (LP by Hyena)
One of my resources to satisfy my needs for second hand new wave
records here in The Netherlands is a mailorder company called
Feedback. I recentely learned that they release vinyl themselves and
received these two records by young Dutch talent.
Jan Paul Westgeest is a trained violin player, but none such can be
heard here on his first LP. According to the press message he is
equally influenced by Pierre Henry aswell as Squarepusher. Both sides
have equal length here and is just one track per side. Westgeest
plays around with sampled sounds a lot, mainly those of beats. He
doesn’t put them in any sort of quantized rhythm, but seems to be in
a sort of random mode. Probably, at least to me, more Henry then
Squarepusher. Side A is less complex and swirls mainly around drones
of all sortsExtremly complex music that needs a more concentrated
listening session then normally. But it unveils some beauty.
Tjaco van Cromvoirt was previously active as a drummer, but who is
now entirely occupied by computers and synths. His music is straight
forward techno inspired, but he manages to give it a twist of his
own. ‘Bongo A Go Go’ is a nice bassline and funny lines on the
keyboard. He doesn’t go by the paths we know, but certainly adds a
nice and funny flavour. At times inspired by Autechre and the like,
but without being too much of a bother to me. (FdW)
Address: <hyenarecords@hotmail.com>
Tarakatak is the solo project of Lutz Pruditsch, one half of
Germany’s Raumerkundigung. In this solo project he plays around with
guitar, four tracks and sound effects to create dark atmospheric
music that is not unsimilar to the more well known Troum/Maeror Tri
posse. On this CDR release he collaborates with ‘No’, a band that was
unknown to me. I am kinda lost on this collaboration, i.e. who mixes
who etc. (the cover was not very clear either), but let’s say this is
one of those “I do your mix and you use my sound’ things
FROG POCKET/RANDOM NUMBER – SPLIT MINI ALBUM (12″ by Mouthmoth)
KETTEL – BROTHER MAX (7″ by Mouthmoth)
Two new records on one of my favourite small labels down up from
Scotland. Mouthmoth specializes in music that is kinda like techno,
but the sort that you can’t always dance to. Random Number for
instance dabbles around with those nervous beats, a melancholic synth
line and are overall Autechre inspired, although the track ‘Rake’ is
almost gabber like in speed. Frog Pocket on the other side do
something similar, but they add a stronge dose of guitars to the
overall mix, and make it more a rock oriented thing, but still very
nice. Rhythms fall over each other, fighting for a place, and the
guitar holds the pieces together.
Kettel is also one of those bands (I imagine these are all one person
bands operating from behind the computer up in the bedroom) that I
never heard of. The a-side ‘These Birds Around Meadows’ has a nice
melancholic line on the keys, downtempo rhythm and birds chanting.
This could have been on Morr Music without any problem. On the b-side
we find ‘Embolaze’ remixed by one Max (maybe the Max from the title
of the 7″?) which is more up in tempo and has cheerful tune to it.
(FdW)
Address: www.mouthmoth.go.to
IMMEDIA – 2|1 (CD by Line)
After listening to this CD I was left with a lot of questions. Why
are the first 10 tracks all around 3 minutes and why are the last 6
tracks all around 7 minutes? Why is there no apparent musical
structure? Could it be that all the first 10 tracks are mixes of the
same material and the last 6 also? So why keep it so strictly
nonmusical? Well, the answers to all these quetions are all in the
inner sleeve of the plastic wallet. I won’t give them to you, because
that might give away a lot of the pleasure of hearing this disc for
the first time. So I also suggest that you don’t read the liner notes
until after listening to the tracks first. The disc is divided into
two parts. Part one is called ‘virtual recordings of imagined
spaces’, which might actually provide people smarter than myself with
enough information to go on. This is the part with 10 tracks of very
quiet sounds or combinations of sounds. Part two is alled ‘in audio’,
a more insistent 6 tracks of audio. Basically I should end this
review here and now, but let me just add that the material on this CD
is very carefully crafted, very rich in texture and above all,
composed. (MR)
Adress: www.12k.com
MSBR – ULTIMATE AMBIENCE 2 (CD by 20city)
This CD contains 3 tracks, the last of which is a live recording. The
first two tracks are called spherical electronics and that’s exactly
what they are. MSBR know how to produce noise in an almost symphonic
way. This is not a matter of FX merely, it’s a way of how the sounds
are layered and secondly, the material itself. In the first track, an
organ seems to be tortured relentlessly, accompanied by a dense and
pulsing drone. The organ is recognisable as such sometimes (if it is
an organ at all…..), almost as if screaming for mercy. Which it
will not get, of course. In fact, things get worse and later on the
organ is defenitely dead, drowned in feedback, only to arise from its
grave as a ghost. Track two starts off directly with a howling of
synth sounds, that are mistreated in every conceivable way. This
track then breaks up into something of a cut up piece, followed by an
almost melodic piece and then everything goes crazy again. Track
three is an edit of a live peformance in Chicago and sounds
distinctly different. The overall atmosphere is darker and the sound
spectrum is denser. And at the same time it has another energy, which
is undoubtedly the ‘live’ thing. A harsh record, in that typical MSBR
style. (MR)
Adress: www.20city.com
KOIJ ASANO – Quoted Landscape (CD by Solstice)
Here we have the 20th cd Asano made for Solstice, a spanisch label.
Born in Japan (Saitama), Spain is also the country were mister Asano
works and lives (Barcelona).
His style comes from a wide range of preferences: solo piano,
computer synthesis, bands, experimental electronics and string
ensembles. Besides album works, he also produces original soundtracks
for dance performances and films in Europe and Japan.
‘Quoted Landscape’ is one piece of over 70 minutes of pure
acoustic-electric noise. In a way it seems to be literally what the
title says, namely the recording with a bad microphone of wind. But I
may be totally wrong. Maybe he worked with loudspeakers and woofers.
I don’t know. There is no information included. Anyway Asano seems to
me a very conceptual artist in his soundart. But listening this this
cd, I did not have the impression that we have here a strong
‘incarnation’ of an idea or concept as it failed to make any
impression on me. It left me with a big question: what the hell is
Asano aiming at? (DM)
Address: <http://www.koijasano.com/>www.koijasano.com
TRUMMERFLORA – No Stars Please (2CD by ACCRETIONS)
The Trummerflora Collective (San Diego) present themselves here on a
double cd in very lengthy tracks of groupimprovisation. All pieces
were recorded live during 2000. So it is a sort of document that
presents the full range of there experimental and improvised music in
a certain phase of there development. This does not mean that it is
only of ‘historical’ interest, like a photo-album that you only open
very rarely. No there is some very enjoyable music here.The
Collective consists of 7 musicians: Marcelo Radulovich (bass,
electronics), Nathan Hubbard (drums, percussion), Damon Holzborn
(guitar, electronics), Marcos Fernandes (percussion), Robert Montoya
(percussion, sampler), Jason Robinson (woodwinds) and Hans Fjellestad
(keyboards, electronics). The musicians have very different
backgrounds (jazz, progressive rock, classical music) but there
(collective) way of improvising.
In order to subscribe there way of improvising a very old fashoned
term came to my mind: ‘jamsession’. But in the form of collective
madness and certainly not as an endless series of solos. Sometimes it
almost rocks with ‘funky’ touches, sometimes it is very abstract.
On one piece George Lewis (trombone) is present. He is a well-known
improvisor who played with Material long time ago. Now he teaches at
the University of San Diego and some of his students play in the
Collective.
By the way if you are searching for an up to date version of the old
Christmastune ‘Silent Night’ here you can find it. The theme pops up
in the 27 minute long improvisation ‘Frosty the Snowman/Silent Night’.
There are three shorter pieces on this cd (Nonet 1, 2, 3) that are
very tight electroacustic improvisations that show most convincinly
that this Collective has their own face.
The musical jams deserved a better recording, but the energy,
spontaneity and joy of their playing cannot be missed. I’m looking
forward to there next step (DM).
Address: <http://www.accretions.com/>www.accretions.com
MORGENSTERN – COLD (Cd by Ant-Zen)
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a theory saying that
blending extremes of beauty and brutality opens into some of the most
powerful emotional expressions. That theory is certainly supported by
third call from Morgenstern – a German project headed by Andrea
Brner (ex-member of legendary Ars Moriendi) with assistance by
label-mates, A. Schramm and P. M¸nch of respectively Asche and
Synapscape. Crushing electronics rumbles while machineries of heavy
noise loops creates an almost rhythmic structure in the otherwise
ambient sound expression. Eerie drones of low frequency sounds,
suppressed to the lowest level of the sonic expression, function as
an extreme contrast to the massive wall of tribal noise. Thus
Morgenstern’s frightening noise-sphere gets even more frightening
while the eerie sound of beauty only seems necessary to complete the
journey through the threatening universe of Morgenstern. An evil
masterpiece from Morgenstern released by Germany’s power
electronics-label number one. (NMP)
Address: www.ant-zen.com
TENNIS – EUROPE ON A HORSE BACK (Cd by Bip Hop)
After the two brilliant “Bip Hop Generation”-compilations, French
label “Bip Hop” have now released the first entire album by one
single artist. Tennis is the collaboration between Ben Edwards (aka
Benge) and Douglas Benford (aka Si-{cut}.db), both having their base
in the London electronic scene. On this second release of Tennis, the
two sound artists focus on style that blends electro-acoustic
expressions into a glitchy post-digital texture that point its head
towards Pole and Kit Clayton. Multi-layered rhythmic pulses dance
along with digitally glitch and catchy dub-grooves. Though “Europe on
horse back” does not break the limits of the experimental dub-style,
the album still have power enough not to drown in the great ocean of
releases in that musical area. Overall a nice album that shows a
promising future both for the Benge/Si-{cut}.db-collaboration and for
the Bip Hop-label. (NMP)
Address: www.biphop.com
ANEMONE TUBE – EXISTENCE (CD by Auf Abwegen)
ANEMONE TUBE – FLOWERS OF REALITY (10″ by Transfixional Entertainment)
Anemone Tube is as far as I know an one man band from Germany, having
various releases in various formats. Here is a recent work and an
older piece of vinyl.
“Existence” is a seven track affair of which the first four blast off
into noise fury. It’s like the kind of stuff I heard before. Not
that’s really bad, but it’s a worn out territory. The other three of
what we used to call ambient industrial sound collage. Slowed down
tapes with highly reverberated sounds. The sort of music that fits to
badly lighted films about abonned factory sites. Again nothing
exciting new, but at least better to wade through.
The 10″ is an oldie (1997), but apperentely still available. This is
less noisy, but also less well recorded, which makes it into a lo-fi
noise thing. That brings more charm to the music then the recent CD,
I’d say. One side is more rhythmic noisy, kinda like a cross-over
between Esplendor Geometrico and Pan Sonic. Not bad this record, not
bad at all. (FdW)
Address: www.aufabwegen.com
Address: anemonetube@transformed.de
PHOLDE – SEAL TO SELF (CDR by Phanta Rhei)
Another CDR only release by Pholde, the ambient side of Mr. Knurl.
This time in an edition of 50 copies. Alan Bloor, for it is him, made
the five pieces here entirely with found metal objects. These objects
are played by Alan by rubbing them, pushing and pulling, thus
creating a nice intense set of overtones. Apperentely this comes
without overdubs and possibly without adding any sound effects. A
very plain release, but then again, a very deep sound. Hauntingely
chilling music, ambience at the far deep end of the scale. It’s the
kind of music that fully embraces you, a total mesmerizing going on.
Lean back, dive deep. (Fdw)
Address: <movknurl@interlog.com>
Vital Weekly received the following message with great sadness:
From: “Schilling, Paul /DPEE” <P.Schilling@deutschepost.de>
Dear friends, vendors and artists of PLATE LUNCH,
on the 8 June 2001 Norbert Schilling deceased suddenly and totally
unawarely. He was up in his successful work and he had ever so much
scintillating projects.
Now we have to transact the business started as good as possible.
Therefore we beg your appreciation, patience and if necessary your
help as well.
Marc McNulty, Norberts american associate, short-dated agreed to
continue the business for the time being. So please contact him for
all business inquiries: marc@tiln.net <mailto: marc@tiln.net>
In any other matters please contact:
Paul Schilling
Lahnstrasse 4
D-51105 Kln
phone: +49-221-999 28 57
e-mail: PaulSchilling@gmx.net
or
Ursula Schilling Paul Schilling
Buchvertrieb und Verlag
Karl-Simrock-Str. 76
D-53604 Bad Honnef
phone: +49-2224-940311
fax: +49-2224-940312
e-mail: U.Schilling-Buch@t-online.de