BIP HOP GENERATION V.5 (CD compilation by Bip Hop)
DAVID GRUBBS – RICKETS & SCURVY (CD by Fat Cat)
TELEFORM – COUSIN F (CD by Domizil)
MARCUS MAEDER – QUICONQUE (CD by Domizil)
THILGES 3 – NEUROTITAN (3″CD by Thilges)
V.V.V. (7″ by C.I.P. and Throat)
VERTONEN – THE INITIAL DECAY WILL BE ILLUMINATED BY LOW LEVEL LIGHTING
VERTONEN – CERTAINTY WITHOUT PAUSE
HOWARD STELZER + JASON TALBOT – HEAVEN
(All mini-CD-r’s by Crank Satori)
DESORMAIS – CLIMATE VARIATIONS (CD by Intr_Version Records)
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – CHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL VOLUME 11, 12 & 13 (Cd
by Soleilmoon)
MASONIC (2-Cd compilation by Hymen)
V/VM – SOMETIMES, GOOD THINGS HAPPEN (CD by V/Vm Test Records)
V/VM – SOMETIMES, GOOD THINGS HAPPEN (CD by V/Vm Test Records)
DEREK BAILEY/FRANZ HAUTZINGER (CD by Grob)
NITRADA – 0+ (CD by 2.nd Rec)
KOENIGJOHANNES – 8 (LP by Digital Kranky)
BIP HOP GENERATION V.5 (CD compilation by Bip Hop)
If you place all the Bip Hop releases next to eachother you might get
a nice encyclopedia like series on your CD shelf. Still with six
artists per volume, combining the well-knowns with new names.
Accelera Deck for instance is one of those well-known names with
releases for Endorphin Records, 555, Morr and Neo Ouija. His music is
at times an odd combination of techno and guitar music. Or I should
say ‘was’, as this track is the last to appear under the Accelera
Deck monniker. A very strange piece of tinkling guitars that has an
eastern atmosphere. A lively piece.
Andrew Duke is a relatively new name, who will have various releases
out this year (including one on Bip Hop). His piece is a straight
forward techno like piece, with a deep ambient synth below, but which
is at least twice too long.
Mikeal Stavostrand, by now a household name in the Mille Plateaux
scene, offers here one epic piece that falls apart in 2 parts.
Microscopic beats, with many small micro sounds happening and even
getting a bit dubby towards the end.
Tonne is interested in combining visual and sound and have included
visuals for Scanner, Pole, Sringheel Jack and Monolake. Their music
is one of minimalism, with a Pole like rhythm bubbling and a far away
synth bathing in reverb.
Rechenzentrum have gained some fame already (including a John Peel
session), but here they seem to have slipped in a hasty job. A Pan
Sonic like rhythm drives on, a hornblower is asked to deliver some
improvisations, a synth slowly fades in, some others fade. A
superflous piece. The CD closes with D’iberville, which is name
chosen by the Bip Hop designer, but with various releases to his
name. His music consists of short samples sounds which are layered
and then being transformed by digital means. He’s the only one to
present in his time three songs instead of one long piece (maybe an
example to follow?), which keeps things at a lively side. Not that
these tracks are necessarily great, but they are ok. I don’t know
what I would think of an album’s worth of this though. As with more
compilations, there are some tracks here which are not really great,
but which serve as a nice introduction to some new and established
names. (FdW)
Address: www.bip-hop.com
DAVID GRUBBS – RICKETS & SCURVY (CD by Fat Cat)
At one point I got the Gastr Del Sol (the group of David Grubbs and
Jim O’Rourke) CD ‘The Harp Factory’, and was blown away by it. That
was strange, since alternative rock music was in general not my
thing, and singing in alternative rock music is also not my thing.
Since then I have been a keen follower of David Grubbs (Jim’s work
was already gospel before he was in Gastr Del Sol) work. There is a
particular group of works of his dealing with rock structures,
guitars and vocals and there are his various improvised works inside
drone music. Although the latter prevail with me, I also enjoy
listening to the other side of Grubbs. This CD is the other side. Ten
pieces of rock music, which are hard for me to pin down (hey, I told
you I’m not a rock lover) but which I enjoyed. I even though for a
moment that Grubbs was going to play a Beatles cover in ‘Pinned To
The Spot’, which intro sounded like ‘Doctor Roberts’. Towards the end
there are some different, because more experimental, pieces, dealing
with silence and strange improvised sounds. Grubbs has another fine
record out, full of melancholy, warmth and depth. (FdW)
Address: www.fat-cat.co.uk
TELEFORM – COUSIN F (CD by Domizil)
MARCUS MAEDER – QUICONQUE (CD by Domizil)
Two times the world of laptop, and two different approaches. I must
admit, I have a little bit of trouble with Teleform. In 37 minutes he
offers 35 tracks and can be seen as a long track or as 35 seperate
tracks. You can play this in shuffle mode, or not. All of these
tracks seem to be made with the faults in the computer, small
crackles and other sonic particals found as a residue on the
harddisk. Most of the tracks are short, too short. Only where
Teleform seems to take time to do something more (like in track 16),
things seem to be alive, vibrant and even something as an overal
structure seems to be apparent. When the tracks are short, it seems
to be just a few sounds running together, to be put together without
much effort. Maybe it works well in a DJ set, if you one puts one
track on repeat, but by itself it doesn’t work well.
Marcus Maeder works in a similar fault in the crack approach, but he
puts his sounds together, thinks of what a piece should sound like,
and offers seven pieces of music. There is a lot more variety on his
soundbank, from digital free-form to even rhythmic structures. Per
track there is a sense of structure, each having it’s own atmosphere
(which, maybe, best described as various shades of grey, really).
Marcus comes closer to people like Roel Meelkop or a more noisy
Richard Chartier, and is lesser connected to the clicks n cuts
circles, save for a piece like ‘Prigorod’. The overall impression I
got, impression I got from this CD is that Marcus is interested in
space and void, and this sort of atmosphere is audible throughout
this very nice CD. (FdW)
Address: www.domizil.ch
THILGES 3 – NEUROTITAN (3″CD by Thilges)
Thilges 3, the Austrian collective with a collection of analogue
synths, are to release a series of 10 3″ CDRs, of which this is
number seven. It was recorded live in some shop in Berlin, as is with
all the Thilges 3 miniCDs, they all document live concerts.
Apperentely a four channel performance, but here reduced to 2 of
course. The 20 minute piece opens up with a long drone piece and
small sounds being fade in and out the mix. Maybe it would have
worked better if the sounds came from four directions, because now is
a fairly normal sort of drone piece which is not unpleasent to hear
but also not exciting, which after 15 minutes is gradually faded over
in a rhythmbox with a synth line and has a very early 80s cassette
feel over it (which I like, I must admit). And that’s it. Hmmmm…..
now if things were turned round: the drone piece short and the rhythm
piece long, then I would have been more excited about it. (FdW)
Address: www.thilges.at
V.V.V. (7″ by C.I.P. and Throat)
This single is a collaboration between V.V. and Vertonen; they sent
each other raw material and made a piece (and released it together as
well). It is hard to say if it’s a 45 or a 33 rpm record, so I put it
on 45, which seems to fit the sounds quite well (or I am too
impatient…). V.V.’s piece ‘This is fortune’ is close to the tracks
on his CD ‘Note’: hissy sounds, combined with field and close mic
recordings, build up an atmospheric piece with strong timing and good
tension and a surprise ending. A real pleasure again. Vertonen’s
piece ‘Surface sound surfacing’ (great title) starts with field
recordings of a machine or a distant train (maybe) and slowly fades
into a noisy hiss that becomes more complex over time, with effects
and other sounds added. This sounds very much like a live recording
really: everything in one go and no dubbing or editing. And that’s
just fine with me: a very nice track indeed. (MR)
Adresses: www.throat.org / www.crippledintellectproductions.net
VERTONEN – THE INITIAL DECAY WILL BE ILLUMINATED BY LOW LEVEL LIGHTING
VERTONEN – CERTAINTY WITHOUT PAUSE
HOWARD STELZER + JASON TALBOT – HEAVEN
(All mini-CD-r’s by Crank Satori)
All these mini-cd’s were recorded live, so I won’t mention this
seperately with each disc again. The first one by Vertonen starts off
as a dark and drony affair, but slowly becomes clearer and more
defined in sound. Then there’s a sort of break and things become
almost natural: distant hissing and clinks and clonks with some
distortion and then the track ends with whistle sounds and metal (?).
Somehow I have the feeling that the live tension is not quite
captured in this recording, because I can sense it, but it doesn’t
really show. And that’s a shame.
‘Certainty without pause’ begins in a similar way as ‘The initial
decay etc.’, with dark rumbling sounds, but gets more complex faster.
Layers of different sounds build up into a dense atmosphere, cut
every now and then by a metallic clunk. Then, all of a sudden, things
speed up and the rumble dissappears, leaving glissando’s of hisses
and crackles that steady into a loop. Another loop is added and
before you know it, we’re in a new part with an uptempo loop and
short metallic sounds. With all the effects added to this part it
sounds quite industrial, until there’s a sudden cut. A noisier part
now, densely layered and with pretty high tension, that slowly fades
away into a dark rumble, soon combined with a high whining sound. The
track ends with the whine and a metallic loop. This piece has
defenitely got my preference, both because of the structure and the
sound quality.
Howard Stelzer (who might also be known as the boss behind
Intransitive Recordings) and Jason Talbot (and not: Albot, I’m really
sorry for this!) have been touring extensively throughout the USA in
the last year, so it’s no surprise to see this live recording
released. Talbot is playing turntable again and Stelzer is taking
care of tapes, or to be more precise: cassettes. Much in the same way
that Talbot uses his turntable as an instrument, Stelzer uses small
cassette players and cassettes as his. The result is a number of
short tracks, built up very carefully, with bursts of sounds and
silence and even solo’s on the instruments. The good thing is that
these guys don’t use other music as a source really: the source is
the machine (turntable and cassette player), so their music is not
about sampling and re-using, but about creating their own music with
specific sound sources.
Actually I think that this CD should be in every DJ’s collection! (MR)
Adress: cranksat@xnet.com
DESORMAIS – CLIMATE VARIATIONS (CD by Intr_Version Records)
>From Now On is what Desormais means and is collaboration between
Mitchell Akiyama (from Montreal, known from his Substractif and
Raster Noton CD) and Joshua Treble (from Cincinnati, releases on his
own aii label and Pitchcadet). From reading the press blurb I don’t
think the two met for this production, but they exchanged sound files
through the internet, e-mails and by post. The result is a work of
high quality and one couldn’t tell they have not sitting behind the
mixing desk together. Ten tracks of an overall warmth. At times
taking a techno rhythm on board, but most of the time glitchy samples
(of piano’s and guitars mainly) and ambientesque drones, they have
cooked up a meal which is most definetly microwave. I think this
easily meets Fennesz’ ‘Endless Summer’ very close. Each track is well
thought out, and the boys know how to structure a piece and don’t let
themselves free in a ‘let’s see what this button does’ mood. Besides
Fennesz, Oval and Tone Language might be other point of reference.
This is great stuff, one album with not a weak moment. (FdW)
Address: www.intr-version.com
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – CHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL VOLUME 11, 12 & 13 (Cd
by Soleilmoon)
Often when bands start collecting their never before released
materials, B-side-tracks and so forth, on an entire album, the result
very often ends up a bit dull, since there somehow was a reason why
the materials was not released in the first place. In that sense it
was a great pleasure to realise that this more than three hour long
journey into the unknown territories of The Legendary Pink Dots
actually does reach the levels of the Pink Dots at their very best.
Reaching volumes 11, 12 and 13, which are the ones packaged into one
3 double Disc box, in a series where the idea was to represent tracks
that never made it to any of the main albums, also emphasizes the
impressive musical activity of this very unique band. Another
impressive fact about this box is that the musical flow of all three
CD^”s generally works really well, despite the fact that most of the
tracks collected has been taken from different contexts and therefore
were not built together as a whole. An explanation to that though, is
that new materials were composed according to the requirements of
creating the musical flow in the Box. Don^”t expect to find any
obvious radio airplay moments during the three hours. The soundscapes
are so bizarre and disorienting thanks to the constantly shifting
textures and atmospheres of electronic and acoustic sound treatments.
Obvious musical comparisons would be old sixties and seventies
prog-rock, with elements of early Krautrock-cut-ups as it sounded in
Can and Faust combined with psychedelic instrumental experimentations
as heard in early Pink Floyd. But The Legendary Pink Dots still
manage to create their very own musical universe. The Legendary Pink
Dots have with this excellent CD-Box put themselves into a position
as one of the true Space-rock-bands of our present time! (NMP)
Address: www.soleilmoon.com
MASONIC (2-Cd compilation by Hymen)
German label Hymen, established by members of Klangstabil, has always
been close companion to the Industrial Noise-oriented label Ant Zen
Recordings. Eventhough Hymen represents a more Technoid approach to
the electronic sound, their excellent 1999-compilation still proved
the label^”s predilection to the harsh expressions. On this new
compilation titled ^”Masonic^’, the label has taken one step away from
the harsh expression and put more concentration into the more
technoid side. The eruptions of noise come less frequent on Masonic
compared to the Teknoir-compilation and the overall atmosphere is
generally more open to a wider spectre of audience just like there
are plenty of moments for radio airplay to be found during the 140+
minutes. Still the album is a breathtaking over-the-top listening
experience. Best moments come from Gridlock who opens CD 2 with the
beautiful deep space ambient-track that all of a sudden makes a sharp
turn into a massive wall of distorted beat explosions. Other great
contributions come from Imminent (formerly Imminent Starvation) and
Baracuda who both delivers excellent tracks of frightening sonic hell
based on kaleidoscopic rhythm-textures. Also worth mentioning track
is ^”Phase^’ by Xanopticon that distinguish in its furious pace of
extreme drum^”n^”bass. Not quite reaching the overall level of the
amazing Teknoir-compilation, Masonic is still something Hymen should
be proud of. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: www.klangstabil.com/hymen/
V/VM – SOMETIMES, GOOD THINGS HAPPEN (CD by V/Vm Test Records)
V/VM – SOMETIMES, GOOD THINGS HAPPEN (CD by V/Vm Test Records)
V/Vm again succeeds in confusing his audience. He releases a CD
‘Sometimes, Good Things Happen’, but two different versions appear on
the market. One has a corn field on the cover and the other one has
the same image of the corn field in negative print. One CD is the
right one, but we are not told which one… So the one with the
‘real’ image is a soft, almost ambient like album. A V/Vm unlike
album, if you know their previous output. No harsh rhythms or
pisstakes at other artists, just consumer friendly muzak (dare I say
it?). Pleasent music that harks back to Aphex Twin’s ‘Selected
Ambient Works 2′. The negative album is one of the older V/Vm styled
noise. Harsh rhythms, over the top laptopnoise, inspired by Merzbow
in his best days and sounds surely like V/Vm like one should expect.
Most puzzling indeed, and I couldn’t hear which is the ‘real’ album.
I just guess both of them are real albums but if you are no fan of
ambient, or no fan of noise, then I’d say: have a listen in the
recordstore before getting the right one. (FdW)
Address: www.brainwashed.com/vvm
DEREK BAILEY/FRANZ HAUTZINGER (CD by Grob)
The initative for this record came from Franz Hautzinger, an Austrian
Quartertone trumpet player who in january 2001 went to London and
recorded some three hours of improvisations with the legendary free
improv guitar Derek Bailey. The recordings were edited in this
release, lead to rest for a year and new tiny changes were made. So
alltogether it’s not a strict improv record, ie a documentation of
two people meeting and making music. But when one hears this record
it’s hard to imagine that it is anything but an improv record. The
two play eleven pieces of improvised music, scraping, plucking and
hitting the guitar and trumpet abuse.^C Especially the Hautzinger
manages to crank out a really wide variety of sounds out of his
trumpet (and knows, most of the time, to make it sound like anything
but the trumpet). Sturdy improvised music, that will be of great
interest for the hardcore lovers of the genre. Wether or not edited
afterwards! (FdW)
Address: www.churchofgrob.com
NITRADA – 0+ (CD by 2.nd Rec)
Sound and image are equal partners for Nitrada, aka Christophe Stoll.
On this short debut CD, he offers eight pieces of music, and on his
website one can find visual representations of each track. Of these
eight tracks, there are four ‘Themes’ and four music pieces. The
music pieces are all influenced by techno music, in a more
melancholic, Morr Music like mood. Breaklike beats, distant piano
sounds and ditto strings. Entertaining for sure, but also nothing
special. The theme pieces are shorter and more abstract in nature.
For the lover of the more experimental music inside me, this is maybe
the better part of the CD, but they do seem to be falling aside of
the other four tracks. In total, without viewing the graphics, this
is one of those mediocre CDs that are nice and entertaining, but not
a masterpiece. (FdW)
Address: www.2-nd.com
KOENIGJOHANNES – 8 (LP by Digital Kranky)
Koenigjohannes is probably the band of Johannes Koenig, a Berlin
based artist who studied serious composition, but moved to electronic
work in the mid nineties. Previously a CD was released on Tete A
Tete, and now this new LP of which the eight untitled pieces are
inspired by the eight windows of a building, which one can find on
the cover. Koenigjohannes is clearly inspired by the best Berlin has
to offer in techno areas (Pole for instance), but his minimal, techno
inspired tracks carry enough of a trademark of his own. He adds his
own little strange elements to the music, samples which are not
really common, and, although he operates in a minimalist context,
it’s not the sort of minimalism for DJs sake, but listenable
minimalism with small changes per track, that makes this into a
record that may be better off on the hometurntable then on the club
technics. An entertaining record that crosses over from techno to the
more abstract music. (FdW)
Address: www.digitalkranky.de