ANDREW LILES – MISCELLANY (2CDR by Pipkin)
SONGS OF SUSPECTS – AMOCCO (LP by Karate Joe)
THE INFORMATION APOCALYPSE COMPILATION (CD by Annihilvs)
JLIAT – VOLUME 1/VOLUME 2 (12″ by Jliat)
MIRROR – NIGHTS (LP by Three Polars)
ORA – ISLE (LP by Three Polars)
LILITH – IMAGINED COMPOSITIONS FOR WATER (CD by Hushush)
OLAF RUPP – SCREE (CD by Grob)
IDENTIFICATION – IDENTIFY (CD by Cocosolidciti)
SCALENE (2CD compilation by Cocosolidciti)
KOJI ASANO – JANUARY RAINBOW (CD by Solstice)
DAN BURKE/KEVIN DRUMM – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
COH – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
COOLHAVEN – BLUE MOUSTACHE (CD by Z6)
FORMA 1.02 (CD compilation by Progressive Form)
PH VS DDN – MESSAGE IN A BEATBOX (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
DT.Y / A DIET OFF – MOUSE HOUSE (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
FORMANEX – TREATISE – CORNELIS CARDEW (CD by Fibrr Records)
DENZEL & HUHN – TIME IS A GOOD THING (CD by City Center Offices)
ANDREW LILES – MISCELLANY (2CDR by Pipkin)
More from Andrew Liles, whose ‘An Un World’ was reviewed a couple of
weeks back. His self-released, double CDR is a historical document
and deals with the devlopment of Liles since 1984 up to this year. It
has many pieces that were on his previous CDR only releases (which he
started to do in 1997, before that date there are no releases, no
vinyl or cassettes, so it seems that he shelved his pieces. The
majority of the pieces are however from the recent 3 years. There is
a track from 1984, one from 1989, one from 1990, two from 1994 but
eight from 2000 for instance. Unlike ‘An Un World’, Liles works less
with musique concrete like elements, and also less with environmental
recordings and deals more ambient synth patterns (the old pieces) and
computer processings (the newer pieces). On the second CD he seems to
be going more into excursions with rhythm, not really techno but more
a driving, almost krautrocky NEU! rhythm (for instance in ‘The
Width/The Girth’). Nice stuff, but it works less then his other
music. But altogether it offers a nice overview of the man’s career,
and together with ‘An Un World’ it’s something to keep an eye open
for future works (to be released by Infraction and Macrophonies).
(FdW)
Address: <a.liles@progressive.co.uk>
SONGS OF SUSPECTS – AMOCCO (LP by Karate Joe)
The way this record starts, sped up tapes of toys and female vocals,
remind me of the CD I recentely reviewed by the same label from Mimi
Secue. But luckily this record is a lot more. Vocals like this are
kept to a minimum, and it’s an album loaded with desktop trickery in
which all recordings are processed, from bontempi organs to slide
guitar, from microphones to harmonium. Songs Of Suspects craft little
poptunes, minimal and melancholical, harking the best of lo-fi
popmusic, digital sound processing and ambient music into one large
tapestry of moody songs. As said, most of this stuff is largely
instrumental, so one can come to terms with the female vocalist Eva
Jantschitsch. Easy, laidback tunes, modern day poptunes. Experiment,
electronica go hand in hand with campfire songs. Very nice music
indeed. An example of how things could have been for Mimi Secue when
they had some more imagination. (FdW)
Address: www.karate-joe.at
THE INFORMATION APOCALYPSE COMPILATION (CD by Annihilvs)
Annihilvs is a label established by the man behind one of the most
interesting U.S.-power electronics acts at the moment, Navicon
Torture Technologies. On the fifth year of existence the label has
now launched its first professional release, which happens to be a
compilation of legendary as well as new artists from the harsher
territories of electronic music. First track delivered by Navicon
Torture Technologies opens with an outrageous roar, that marks the
entrance to an excellent work of atmospheric power electronics, that
soon after is followed by Gruntsplatters track of deep rumbling noise
drones. There are plenty of great moments on the compilation, which
works really well as a whole. Among the bigger surprises is Converter
who normally uses a more edible approach to noise expression. The
contribution here, demonstrates Converter in some of his most furious
moments. Opening with a swarm of noise drones sounding like
bumblebees, the wall of noise are soon after followed by samples of
female screams, giving way to some heavily distorted beats and guitar
samples recalling some mixture between The Prodigy and A Flock Of
Seagulls. Other great moments comes from Death Squad delivering a
great filthy track of subdued power electronics. Despite the fact
that some of the contributors, Converter and Tarmvred just to name a
few, usually are known for rhythmic noise, the overall style of
“Information apocalypse compilation” is first of all based on ambient
atmospheres. Highly recommended to everyone having a slight
interest in Noise and Power Electronics. (NMP)
Address: www.annihilvs.org
JLIAT – VOLUME 1/VOLUME 2 (12″ by Jliat)
I have followed Jliat’s career from the very beginning, and am
bewildered by his courage, but I’m afraid I lost entirely what he’s
up to. This new record, with some philosophical dabbling on the
label, finds Jliat playing synths – big fat chords on analogue
synths. Think of Keith Emerson’s parts in Emerson, Lake & Palmer and
you my drift. Pathetic lines, empty symphonica with no head and tail.
While I still cherish the old monochrome works by Jliat, even found
some of his conceptual works of interest, I really see no point in
these masturbations. And Volume 1, Volume 2 – is there more to come?
Address: www.jliat.demon.co.uk
MIRROR – NIGHTS (LP by Three Polars)
ORA – ISLE (LP by Three Polars)
Maybe it’s not an entirely fair thing to take these records in one
account, but it seems to me that both of these bands belong to that
small scene of which maybe Andrew Chalk is the core member, or maybe
Colin Potter. It involves them, aswell as Jonathan Coleclough, Darren
Tate and also Christoph Heemann. The latter is, together with Chalk,
Mirror (occassionally with other people, like Andreas Martin or Jim
O’Rourke) and as a duo they have produced already some seven or eight
LP’s, one CD and one 7″. All come with extremely no information, all
are limited, and usually have handmade stuff inserted. This LP is a
re-issue of a highly limited CDR which was sold at a show in Chicago
in March 2001 and is now divided in two parts over the two sides.
Side one, an unreleased track really, is a lenghty piece of
shimmering, densely layered orchestrations. Highly minimal and trance
inducing. The b-side is a like wise take on orchestral music, but
more upfront – if ever such a thing would exist in the world of
Mirror. The whole record breaths calm and pace (peace?) all over.
Alright: I am sucker for Mirror.
Ora involves Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate, recordings were made by
Colin Potter. This LP was originally released as a cassette in 1994
(and knowing these guys produced a whole bunch of cassettes and CDRs,
which are all out of print, I believe, there is probably more to
come). Music wise this comes closely to Monos, the duo of Potter and
Tate. Processed environmental recordings, sea sounds, winds and
chimes hanging the wind result in a beautiful dark howl of sound.
Very ambient, as in very environmental, indeed. The add flutes, wind
escaping ballons and the rusty crackle of a contactmicrophone, but
everything is packed inside a big cloud of sound. Thick atmospheres
in which an occassional bright air brings relief.
I know nothing about the label Three Polars, so I recommend getting
in contact with Die Stadt, who seem to be the only source selling
this! (FdW)
Address: www.diestadtmusik.de
LILITH – IMAGINED COMPOSITIONS FOR WATER (CD by Hushush)
Lilith, or better Scott Gibbons has been delivering some of the more
intriguing albums in the past twenty years or so. His older CDs on
Sub Rosa are stand out classics. Two of those albums deal with
environmental sounds: ‘Stone’ has just sounds from stones and
‘Redwing’ has recordings of air. This new name continues the series
with all sorts of water sounds. These sounds have been recorded at
oceans, water falls, rivers, lakes et all. However it’s hard to
recognize them if you don’t know this before hand. Inserting the CD,
playing it and then tell what this is all about, won’t lead to an
eureka saying ‘ah water sounds, of course’. The work at stake was
recorded during two live performances, one on a boat floating down
the Danube. The water recordings were processed in the studio,
according to the liner notes, using analog and digital filters and
effects, ‘and only minimal computer processing’ – again, a little
hard to believe if one hears the synthesized effects these analog and
digital filters have. It all sounds quite electronical in my ears.
But all of this aside, the result is quite nice, really. Dark,
atmospherical music, but not too ambient, with sudden changes that
add an academic, musique concrete feel it to it. Powerful stuff.
Let’s hope that the ‘fire’ album won’t take such a long time to
materialize. (FdW)
Address: www.hushush.com
OLAF RUPP – SCREE (CD by Grob)
Olaf Rupp might not be a very well-known improviser, despite the fact
that his first solo CD was released on FMP two years ago and despite
the fact that he played with people like Aki Takase, Paul Lovens,
Thomas Lehn, Tony Buck etc. Maybe the ‘ah erlebnis’ comes when you
know that Rupp was a member of improvising duo Stol where he played
guitar and Stephen Mathieu played drums. On his second solo CD, Rupp
plays in one go, recored during one session, some very intense solo
guitar music. On his semi acoustic electric guitar he sometimes
explodes such as in ‘Loose Fragments Of Rock That’, which is followed
by a surprisingely melancholic touch in ‘Covers A Steep Bare Slope’,
‘The Particles Are Detached’ or ‘From The Rock Walls By The’. I must
admit I am more pleased by these melancholical touches then by some
of the more extreme outings. Maybe that’s the lover of music over the
lover of improvisation in me? Yeah maybe. But seeing these
melancholical touches prevail here, I think this is a wonderful nice
CD. (FdW)
Address: www.churchofgrob.com
IDENTIFICATION – IDENTIFY (CD by Cocosolidciti)
SCALENE (2CD compilation by Cocosolidciti)
Whoever is behind Identification we are not to know, I guess. The
only thing revealed is some involved in the Ninja Tune label.
Unfortunally my knowledge lacks anything about Ninja Tune, so I
couldn’t even guess who it is. These twelve tracks are his work over
the last three years and were not heard outside the basement they
were recorded. My little to no knowledge of Ninja Tune makes it also
impossible, I guess to compare it with music on that label, and I
have to go by own judgement. It’s nice upbeat music, with technoid
rhythms which seem to me a little bit too off-beat to make the crowd
cheer on a dancefloor. There are also some darker angles in the
synths and other sort of peeps which make it to a more daring and
exciting record then y’r average techno thing. However,
Identification do not boldy go where no one went before. In pretty
much the general overal thing, he stays close to whatever I heard in
areas of people making not quite yet dance music.
The other release on Cocosolidciti, the label run by the people of
Battery Operated, is a double CD of remixes of sounds and images by
three people. CD one holds the original tracks by Battery Operated,
Private Benjamin and Indetification and CD two the remixes. There
also three video people delivering works (Beewoo, Emma McRea and
Mitchell Akiyama) who also remix each others work. If this isn’t
concept enough, the original tracks (sound and images) last three
minutes each, the remixes each six minutes and the remixed video’s
each 1.40 minutes. Each musician and each graphic artist comes from
either Manchester, Melbourne or Montreal. Phew. Quite a mouthful and
maybe I forgot something still… The main underlying concept is that
it deals with cities and these sounds and images reflect cities, are
maybe a guide or a tour. The original pieces seem to me rudimetary
pieces of sampled sounds, set into rhythmical loops; broken beats
really that reflect the no doubt hasty life in the big city. The
images are sketchy, hasty, speedy and cut ups of things from real
life, buildings and environments. I must admit that some of the music
didn’t appeal to me so much, but that the overall concept of back and
forth remixing is of course always well spend on me. Nice work
overall. (FdW)
Address: www.cocosolidciti.com
KOJI ASANO – JANUARY RAINBOW (CD by Solstice)
Just like the work of Jliat, I understand less and less of the work
of Koji Asano. After a period of quietness, he returns now with his
twenty-seventh release, again one piece on the CD, which lasts over
one hour. Set against a wall of feedback and computer noise, there is
the tinkling of piano sounds on top. Sometimes these piano sounds are
fed through some digital effects, sometimes they remain recognizable.
After thirty minutes I heard a cat in his backyard doing mating calls
– a bit early in January? Maybe Koji tries to explore the minimalism
concept in an entirely new perspective, but maybe I just miss the
whole point. There is nothing of interest happening here, me thinks
humbly. If you, just like me, sat the whole sixty three minutes,
fifty six seconds of this CD, then you may have the very same
question as I have: why? (FdW)
Address: www.solstice-europe.com
DAN BURKE/KEVIN DRUMM – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
COH – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
Dan Burke and Kevin Drumm are no strangers of course. Both have an
outstanding reputation in the field of experimental electronic music
and deservedly so. This collaborative effort is a live track recorded
in the VPRO studio with a duration of just under one hour. It begins
very quietly with high tones and some small noises, both elctronic
and acoustic. Time is taken to slowly build up tension and then
release it again. One by one, drones are added to create a thick, but
clear layering of sounds and tension rises. But again there’s a slow
release, and the play starts over again. But this time the tension
rises faster and bursts of noise are added, culminating in a short
noise part. The next part is more erratic in structure and takes a
while before it finds ground again. It almost functions as an
intermezzo, exactly halfway throught the piece. I think this part
could have been a little shorter, because attention is drifting away.
But after a few minutes the gents pick it up again and the next
twentyfive minutes make up for this without any problem. Tense
interaction, with and without space, keep the listener excited for
the rest of the piece. A very good work!
COH’s Mort aux Vaches is a lot shorter: thirty-eight minutes. Again
this is one long track without breaks. It consists of many short
parts, linked by similar sounds. The seperate parts grow together by
the introduction of new sounds or themes or by subtle shifts in
rhythmic structure. All this is done in a very clever way, but at
the same time it creates one steady flow, without much fluctuation. I
believe this will work extremely well on a big PA, creating a
hypnotic state of mind. In this sense it can be used very well by
DJ’s I guess. But alas, at home I cannot afford myself this situation
(I have neighbours…).
Which is a damn shame. (MR)
Adress: www.staalplaat.com
COOLHAVEN – BLUE MOUSTACHE (CD by Z6)
Coolhaven is band from Rotterdam with members who are extremely
active in the Dutch music scene. Aside from their musical activities
they are also concerned with running WORM and performance art.
Coolhaven is a laptop trio, but not in the ordinary sense of the
word: no ‘clicks ‘n cuts’, but ‘cracks ‘n guts’. Their eleven tracks
are actually like songs, with intro’s, themes and outtro’s. Using all
possible ingredients, they range from pop to punk to contemporary
composed to free improv. And mind you: all on laptop and mostly all
of it together in one track. These guys have no apparent inhibitions
and certainly no awe for any of the styles they are using. They will
use anything that falls into their hands with utter freedom and seem
to be having a lot of fun with it as well. And the good thing is that
this fun comes across while listening. Unwillingly one starts
wondering if one has heard certain samples before or if Coolhaven
might have created them themselves. Another good thing is the short
duration of the tracks: it might get on ones nerves otherwise (I
mean: a song that sounds like Supertramp is a lot to take!). (MR)
Address: www.wormweb.nl/z6
FORMA 1.02 (CD compilation by Progressive Form)
Hmmmm…. progressive form, now that’s a tempting name for a label,
maybe music gets finally revolutionary (again?) and this label takes
our ears to really new world we haven’t heard before, radical new
ideas on musical structure, and finally music progresses. Not so. But
I believe progressive in techno music means just another division
from whatever something else the market has to offer. Progressive
Form is a label from Japan and they have a label sampler out with
people that are sometimes known under different names, such as
Yoshihiro Hanno, who as Euphonic released music on Sub Rosa before.
The eleven pieces on this CD offer good background music for reading
the newspaper – which is what I did during those almost 72 minutes.
Entertaining music for sure, aural wallpaper definetely and certainly
nothing progressive to be found here. (FdW)
Address: http://homepage.mac.com/p_form
PH VS DDN – MESSAGE IN A BEATBOX (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
DT.Y / A DIET OFF – MOUSE HOUSE (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
Two new releases from the underground world of France. The first one
is a limited to sixty copies CDR and is a collaboration between Paul
Harrison (who I think went before under the name of Expose Your Eyes)
from the UK and DDN from France. If in fact it’s the same Paul
Harrison, and I have strong reasons to believe he is, he’s probably
responsible for the harsher overtones of this work. Power electronics
meets power techno – or something similar. Strong, forceful beats
that sound like a badly recorded Esplendor Geometrico (which is fine
in these underground areas) in a more strict 4/4 techno/gabber beat.
More pleasent moments is the seventh track which sounds joyful and
fresh. Otherwise it’s fine and grim world out there. But luckily
techno prevails here over industrial noise and makes it easier to
digest.
Dt.Y is the frontman of the Ultra Milkmaids who meets A Diet Off, who
are apperentely, to the catalogue description, into drum & bass. This
release is one track by Dt.Y, one by A Diet Off, one by Dt.Y, one by
A Diet Off etc, twelve tracks in total. Actually I must admit I have
more trouble with this release then with the previous release. The
music is all over the place, from dubby laidback techno to drum &
bass and break beats. Of course there are styles covered which I
don’t like at all, like drum & bass. This mixture doesn’t work very
well I think. It limps around on many feet and is hard to enjoy it
overal. (FdW)
Address: www.burningemptiness.fr.st
FORMANEX – TREATISE – CORNELIS CARDEW (CD by Fibrr Records)
Maybe the commercial edition of this CD looks different then the
review copy, but it was the fact that there was a press release to
this CD, so I know the title is ‘Treatise – Cornelius Cardew’. Cardew
wrote the open ended score in some 140 pages which musicians are
freely to interpretate the graphic lines, dots and other graphic
excitements in their music, using whatever they think is necessary to
do an interpretation. It’s a work that Formanex can handle. They are
a four piece group from Nantes playing bass, computers, guitar,
electronics, percussion, saxophone, objects and above all computers.
The near silent minutes that start this CD is interrupted by one of
those deep end peep sounds that only computers seem to make rightly
these days. Formanex dwell only on improvisation. Like their
predecessor, ‘Live In Extrapool’ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 270) there
is still traces of the classic AMM approach, but it seems to me that
Formanex have progressed since then. Their improvisations have
matured, are more open and use to a greater extent the laptop as the
basic fundament of their music. Of course it’s impossible to say
wether this is a good performance of Cardew’s Treatise (nor can we
ask the man himself), but that is probably beside the point anyway. A
score like Treatise should trigger thoughts between musicians and set
them off playing together. Formanex succeed well in this. (FdW)
Address: http://fibrr.records.free.fr
DENZEL & HUHN – TIME IS A GOOD THING (CD by City Center Offices)
I don’t know who these blokes are, presumably they come from Berlin,
just like most of the artists on the City Center Offices. If you are
on that label, your music must have it’s origins in techno music, I
guess. The music on this CD has that too, but not quite for the
entire thirteen tracks of this CD. Denzel & Huhn go out into the
realms of the experimental and the sonic explorations. This leads to
a pretty varied CD, with tacky upbeat tunes (like ‘Konide’ or
‘Rebirthsample’ – now where did that come from?), but also more
melancholical moments as in ‘Kinogat’ or ‘A 54’. There are even hints
of Steve Reich influences, such as in ‘Ehe’, which seemed like a
slowed down version of ‘Octet’, sampled straight of the vinyl. I
guess Denzel and Huhn are the more experimental guys of the City
Center Offices label, but it is certainly one of the more interesting
CDs on this label, because it’s so varied, being all over the
electronic marketplace. (FdW)
Address: www.city-centre-offices.de