NATURALISTE – AU REVOIR NATURALISTE (C62 cassette by Foreign Lands)
THE HITMACHINE – MUSIC FROM NIJMEGEN (LP by Ole Records)
BRENDAN MURRAY – GARDEN
JASON TALBOT – THANK YOU (Both mini-CD-R’s on Kissyrecords)
KEVUEQ – IDEM (Mini-CD by Kling Film Records)
87 CENTRAL – SAXMOWER (CD by JDK Productions)
TEAM DOYOBI – EMPIRE (3″CDR by Alku)
RUPERT HUBER – RADIOTOPIA (CD by Staubgold)
TENNIS – FURLINES (2CD by Bip Hop)
TIBETAN RED & VICTOR NUBLA – TAO POINT (CD by Hronir)
TEMPER – NAVY BLUE (3″CDR by Piehead Records)
SHEFFIELD/RIPPIE – VESSEL (CDR by Elevator Bath)
FREQUENCY CURTAIN (CD by Elevator Bath)
ILYA MONOSOV – VINYL DOCUMENT #1 (LP by Elevator Bath)
FRANS DE WAARD/ROEL MEELKOP (split LP by Mixer)
ILIOS – 18102002 (CDR by Absurd)
ROEL MEELKOP – LIAR (3″ CD by Kling Film)
NATURALISTE – AU REVOIR NATURALISTE (C62 cassette by Foreign Lands)
Ahhhh, the smell, the sound, the feel of cassettes. Some of you may
remember when the cassette was the medium de rigeur for experimental
underground music. In this digital age it is always nice to see that
there are still those like to work in this medium. Foreign Lands from
Omaha, Nebraska is one such label. This tape captures excerpts from
several live performance from Naturaliste’s US east coast tour of
last year. Lofi recordings, perhaps made on a boombox or walkman, the
compressed sound captures all the details and events in the
performance spaces, the audience chatter, all sprinkling it into the
mix. Naturaliste uses lots of instruments, like piano and saxophone,
plus some electronic gadgets. The music is at times like the nihilist
spasm band for its free for all chaos and like early mnemonists for
their junk
sonic collages. But things never get too random sounding, there often
is a sense of composure, a lightness of touch. Classify under
american folk music, junk style. (JS)
Address: voostviszt@yahoo.com
THE HITMACHINE – MUSIC FROM NIJMEGEN (LP by Ole Records)
Ah, subtitled Music From Nijmegen – isn’t that wonderful. No, you
might say, because where on earth is Nijmegen? But me, as a true born
Nijmegen guy, think it’s exciting to hear experimental music from my
own city (even when Twilight Circus, The Legendary Pink Dots and
Girlfriends are kinda of around here too) with such a strong
emphasizes on Nijmegen. On the very nicely printed frontcover
(stencil print by Knust, whom you know from the Brombron covers and
‘The Tale Of Pip’ by Alejandra & Aeron) there is a postcard with a
local ancient tourist attraction. So The Hitmachine is a new name,
and gathering from the cover, they are with four people, or maybe
three, as the record says: ‘Produced by The Hitmachine and Ernest’.
‘To Marry Your Cousin’ is the title of this packed weirdness. The
Hitmachine is singer songwriter music, but one that is totally
outside the tradition. Outsider music. Pieces of noise influenced
music (like ‘Vlinder’ or ‘Ravesplatter’) and coupled with traditional
guitar playing and singing or some bluesy improv or an a cappella
song and even a synthi song (like ‘Snokkies’). This record doesn’t
have one style, maybe it has as many styles as there are titles on
the cover. That’s why I would call this outsider music, as it doesn’t
fit any style, and The Hitmachine doesn’t seem to make any attempt to
be part of any sort of musical style. They seem to be hoovering
around in the own weirdness (or is it madness? – maybe this record
comes straight out of an asylum where it was recorded as daytime
therapy). Naive music. I envisage this LP, which is limited to 300
copies, to be a slow seller, then when it’s sold out (in five years)
it will become a sought after collectors item and much raved about
for it’s unqiue approach. (FdW)
Address: www.ole-records.com
BRENDAN MURRAY – GARDEN
JASON TALBOT – THANK YOU (Both mini-CD-R’s on Kissyrecords)
Kissyrecords is a new label from Boston, run by Jason Talbot, whom
some of you might know from his exploits as a turntablist (with a
severe edge).
First release is by Brendan Murray, whose CD ‘ Not Now’ on
create.transmit i thoroughly enjoyed. This little disc conains one
track of just over 16 minutes. And this one track takes you places
again: dark deep drony places, torn apart by sudden blasts of
shearing noises. Or ringing bells with subliminal glitches, streaked
with hisses from another room. There is more of an edge to this
recording than to ‘Not Now’, less subtility and more tension,
building up constantly, with only a subtle release every now and
then. The overall sound is also rougher, less polished, with more
cuts inserted in drony parts and more sudden changes. But still,
there’s a strong sense of purpose to what Murray is doing, again. Be
this different from his former CD, it is just as intense and
certainly as much a pleasure to listen to.
‘Thank You’ by Jason Talbot is also one track, clocking in at just
under 17 minutes. As I mentioned earlier, the turntable is Talbot’s
main instrument, together with a small DJ mixer and sometimes a small
cassette player. In this track, Talbot thorouhgly explores the
possibilities of his instrument: using a record only very sparsely,
mostly playing around on the cartridge or the table itself, he builds
a piece slowly, juxtaposing sound and silence, fast and slow
movements etcetera. In a certain sense this could be seen as a study
for turntable and mixer and, were Talbot educated in classical music,
he could have called it so (but of course, ‘Thank You’ is a much
better name). The variety of sound material is actually pretty
amazing: from soft scratching to a severe feedback. it’s all there.
The track builds up well and holds tension as it unfolds, but is a
little bit on the long side for a solo. (MR)
Address: www.kissyrecords.com
KEVUEQ – IDEM (Mini-CD by Kling Film Records)
Kling Film is a subdivision of Cling Film, a record label from
Belgium with a lot of organisational potential (they do concerts and
other projects as well).
Kevueq is Kevin van Volcem, one of the two forces behind the Cling
Film organisation. His untitled mini-CD is the fourth in a series
that stands out because of its very beautiful design: the white
mini’s are mouted (with a nut and bolt!) on a plexiglass background
that has a sticker with the info. Kevueq features three tracks, the
first of which is a piece also presented in the Cling Film
Installation in Brugge (B) last year. A very well done electronic
piece with high tension and great dynamics and some pretty funny
textlines from a swedish movie. The second track is a short uptempo
rythmic piece, made with analogue synths, more or less Kevueq’s
trademark. This one is almost over before it’s started and a very
nice intermezzo. Track three is the one that reconciles the fromer
two: subtle sounds with an occasional rythm, combining very well with
the sparse samples. This track has the most eerie atmosphere of the
three and at the same time the most funky. Very well done. (MR)
Address: www.clingfilm.org
87 CENTRAL – SAXMOWER (CD by JDK Productions)
This is 87 Central’s second release, which has been in the works for
some time. Jeff Carey, for it is him who is 87 Central, currentely
lives in The Netherlands were he studies sonology in The Hague. His
first release was also on a Dutch label, ERS Records, and showed his
interest in playing around with feedback sounds. On this new CD,
which has eight tracks, he continues to explore feedback sounds (or
as some people would call it, the ‘no input mixer’), but he adds
field recordings to his instruments. Last week, I saw him playing a
concert, and that was a true joy. Sitting behind his mixing board,
with a stack of effect racks and his laptop hidden somewhere
(streaming the field recordings) one could easily see how his sound
is manipulated through equalization, fading of channels etc. Like on
this new CD, the result is not some mere static droning thing (nor a
harsh high toned excercise), but rather a rhythmical effort. Deep
bass end sounds in cyclical ways, with changing high end peeps and
cracks. In some way similar to say Alva Noto, but 87 Central is not
really interested in a quantized 4/4 beat and let everything run
smoothly for a modern dance floor. 87 Central rather picks up
influences from composed musique concrete, so the compositional
structure is much wider, rather then limited to an almost techno
track of five minutes. Maybe in a way this is glitch music, but
certainly one of the kind that has something new to say, a new and
more interesting approach then what is going on. While harking back
to various traditions, 87 Central builts his own new thing of it.
(FdW)
Address: www.jdkproductions.com
TEAM DOYOBI – EMPIRE (3″CDR by Alku)
Team Doyobi is one of those names I see popping up, but of whom I
don’t know much. I associate them with labels like Fat Cat and Skam.
They are with two persons, but due to the font being unreadible, I
can’t reveal their names. On their three tracks three inch CDR for
the excellent spanish label Alku they display their interest in
rhythmical pieces which are short and fragmented. Despite the fact
that there are three tracks, it sounds like there are at least 10 or
more pieces on here, but all highly defragmented. It’s a bit like
listening to various sketches for future full length songs. But maybe
I am entirely wrong, who knows. It seems like Team Doyobi plunder
through their entire collection of techno and hip hop, fed it to the
hungry plug ins which by return spits it out like machine gun fire.
Hasty music from hasty people. Compelling enough though. (FdW)
Address: http://personal.ilimit.es/principio
RUPERT HUBER – RADIOTOPIA (CD by Staubgold)
To explain what this Radiotopia project is about is certainly not an
easy thing. It comes with a large fold out explaining everything. But
basically it comes down to a large database of sound on the internet,
which Rupert Huber (of Tosca) plundered freely to built sound
collages to be transmitted on the radio and the internet, together in
conjunction with people performing live music. Although everyone was
asked to submit sounds, it’s a limited group of people that submitted
sounds (Micheal Nyman on the phone, sir). There is a strong element
of collage in these results. Piano’s play, vague electronical sounds,
people talking, violins (Alexander Balanescu, who presented a work at
Ars Electronica before, is also present). Nice pieces of sound
collage, but it also stays a bit on the tame side. Sounds fade in and
out, and it seems to me there is not much interaction between the
artists. It’s an anarchist, free thing here, but one that could not
enjoy or satisfy me for the entire 100%. (FdW)
Address: www.staubgold.com
TENNIS – FURLINES (2CD by Bip Hop)
The ongoing collaboration, I guess one might say with their third
album: a real group, consisting of Douglas Benford (otherwise active
as si-cut.db) and Benjamin Edwards (otherwise as Benge). As Tennis
they operate in a rather well-throdden territory of glitch music cum
techno inspired music. A lot of known influences can be found here,
anything from Kit Clayton to Chain Reaction to Pole. But it wouldn’t
entirely justify them right, because one could altogether too easily
think that they copy the best infuences of others and have nothing of
their own. Tennis’ blend of styles results however in a nice hotch
potch of all of these styles, and by adding for instance a little bit
more melody on top of every track, they offer warm, melodic and above
all dubby music that works well at home – I am not too sure about the
dancefloor though.
Maybe the enclosed free bonus CD of remixes do well on the dance
floor? Fifteen remixes based on ‘Europe On A Horseback’, their
previous CD on Bip Hop, by as many artists. Not really dancefloor
related these remixes, as many artists rather go for a more abstract
approach. Taking a few samples here and there, but almost everybody
is building a entirely new track based upon these few samples, but
most of the times, as said, in a more abstract way then Tennis’ own
approach, even despite the fact that many of these tracks use
repeated blocks of sounds (also known as loops). Not really a big
problem though – I ain’t no dancefloor type anyway – because the
outcome is quite nice. There are pieces by Taylor Deupree, Frank
Bretschneider, Pimmon, Warmdesk, Bovine Life, Scanner and many
others. Many stick to the trade, which in the case of Electronicat
works really nice. His trademark Suicide influence work really nice
in the context of a remix. (FdW)
Address: www.bip-hop.com
TIBETAN RED & VICTOR NUBLA – TAO POINT (CD by Hronir)
In Vital Weekly 244 I discussed the CD by Tibetan Red, that had the
entire recorded works of that one man band on one CD. But maybe the
success of that CD led to recording another one, here in a close
collaboration with Victor Nubla, formerly known as one half of
Marcomassa and since some time the heart of the more avant-garde
music scenes in Barcelona (organising the Gracia Territory Sonor
festival). Five pieces are performed here by the two men (there is a
picture inside, so I assume these are the artists). Five lenghty
pieces – from eight to seventeen minutes. More so then the previous
work by Tibetan Red, this deals with dark drone rumbles that move
just above and just under the surface of the earth. A contact
microphone is stuck in the earth’s core and slow shaking foundations
of the earth are being taped. Well, it’s either that or the use of
low bit samples of shortwaves being fed through a couple of cheap
effects and taped, especially for it’s effect, on a four track. There
is certain strange appealling quality to these recordings. A sound
that reminds me of the good old 80s, with its low rumble cassettes.
Tibetan Red and Victor Nubla built audible Lopezian works here.
Everything is moody and dark, but at the same time also on an
audible level. The dramatic built ups arrive at the end of a piece
and can have the same ear splitting result as Lopez in a live
situation can have. Captivating drones. Very nice stuff (FdW)
Address: http://hronir.org
TEMPER – NAVY BLUE (3″CDR by Piehead Records)
After last years subscription series on Piehead, they started a new
series for 2003, which will consist of 11 3″ CDRs in an edition of
211 copies, plus a free compilation CD for subscribers only. The
first one is by Temper, aka Micheal Weak. He’s a young guy from
Canada, who plays his music mainly at home. Usually he composes his
tunes on the piano, which he then transforms in music via cheap
software. His music is best described as Aphex Twin inspired music,
but one that is more sunny and quirky then the sometimes darker edges
of Aphex or any of the Warp artists. Eight relatively short pieces of
electronica – never too long or never too short. Nothing really
earthshaking new or hot, but well crafted miniatures in electronica.
(FdW)
Address: www.pieheadrecords.com
SHEFFIELD/RIPPIE – VESSEL (CDR by Elevator Bath)
FREQUENCY CURTAIN (CD by Elevator Bath)
ILYA MONOSOV – VINYL DOCUMENT #1 (LP by Elevator Bath)
In Vital Weekly 316 I reviewed a very nice minimal LP by Colin Andrew
Sheffield and James Eck Rippie and here they return with a short
(eightteen minute) CDR of ‘Installation Recordings’, for an
exhibition held in Texas in september last year. Although we don’t
get to know much about the actual installation itself (the three
postcards that come with this package, don’t tell us that much, other
then it’s part of an exhibition ‘It’s Alive On The Beach’), it seems
as if water is the only sound source used here. Rather then a loop,
it also seems that it is one long piece of sea sounds, which are
being processed a little bit. The original source material is always
recognizable in here but at the same time one can hear bit of the
process going on. Nice work.
Also from Austin, Texas are Frequency Curtain, a trio consisting of
Josh Ronsen, John Grzinich and Rick Reed – three names from the
active improv scene in Texas. The first two play laptop electronics,
and shortwave radio, and Reed plays tone generators and shortwave.
They improvise here together on four lenghty cuts, of slowly moving
electronics, cutting radio waves and darker edged electronica. It
seems as if not all of these sounds work together very well, as
happens more with works of improvisations. Thick washes of sound,
almost psychedelic in nature, this is indeed a somewhat different
thing then laptop crackings of the worlds of Mego and like minded.
Especially the hermetically closed ‘Vector Identity’ and ‘Grounding
Regions’ work well in this respect. Still, despite mixed feelings
about the entire project, my final judgement is mildly positive.
I must admit I never heard of Ilya Monosov – although the name sounds
Russian, he or she might not be from Russia. Not really important
either, I guess. Monosov has a lenghty piece on one side called
‘Music For 2 Glitching Organs’. I really don’t know what a glitching
organ is, maybe just a bad or broken recording of an organ? Two loops
of recordings go out of phase, just a little bit, with a biting high
end peep. But it’s a moody and atmospheric piece, despite the lo-fi
affair in recording it. ‘Broken Music’ is the short track at the end
of the record, using solely broken music boxes and is also a minimal
piece but one that works differentely. More light and open-ended. The
b-side has a remix piece of another Monosov work, ‘Music For
Everyone’ by Andrew Deutsch, with some accordion playing by Pauline
Oliveros. Deutsch puts the sources through some computer processing
and the accordion lays down some foundations. A nice piece, but I
think I preferred to hear some more music by Monosov. (FdW)
Address: www.elevatorbath.com
FRANS DE WAARD/ROEL MEELKOP (split LP by Mixer)
The Eleventh Mixer is an split-LP by Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard.
Both of these artist don’t need any introduction anymore.
In the course of years, Kapotte Muziek has given several workshops in
their way of working. One aspect of these workshops was that the
participants had to go outside and make environmental recordings that
were going to be used during the performance that Kapotte Muziek gave
at the end of the workshop with the participants.
Roel Meelkop has used these environmental recordings to create this
track called “Workshop”. Without processing the original sound but
only use editing and mixing he manages to transform the original
sounds into a new composition.
The track from Frans de Waard is called “Fragment” and his source
material are the recordings of the 1993 Kapotte Muziek tour in the
USA. He already made this track back then in 1993 which is absolutly
amazing concidering that it still sounds very much “today”. The track
is mainly based around drones and therefore stays abstract (except
for one moment; a singer of islamic origin at the end of the track).
The track is like the sound of a space environment, architectural
music or a soundtrack for a film never made. This is the experience
of sound with a musical perspective. An excellent record!! (RMens)
Address: http://www.stichtingmixer.nl
ILIOS – 18102002 (CDR by Absurd)
Ilios is one of the more conceptual and experimental artists from
Greece, despite diverting his time between Athens and Barcelona. Some
months ago he played at the Small Music Theatre in Athens, and Absurd
now offers the recordings. Things start out at a very high end of the
sound spectrum for about the first ten minutes, then slowly
contactmicrophones take over. From there the work evolves around deep
end rumblings and processings of the contact microphones. I assume
Ilios is a man with a laptop, based upon what I hear. Sturdy
experimental music of the better nature. Sonic rumbling is all over
the place. Even when laptop tactics are at stake here, Ilios plays a
well-composed piece (meaning, I couldn’t honestly say whether this is
improvised or composed, but I assume the latter). Thick layers of
sound move over eachother in an almost psychedelic vein. Quite noisy
at times, but the piece never gets anywhere near being obnoxiously
loud, but certainly moves along the more extreme lines of sound.
Die-hards will seek their pleasure here. (FdW)
Address: www.anet.gr/smt
ROEL MEELKOP – LIAR (3″ CD by Kling Film)
I wouldn’t dare calling Roel Meelkop a liar, but he is. For the last
two or so years he has been playing a live set in various venues and
it was always announced as: here’s a piece which I composed for live
concert and which will not come out on CD – so he is liar, now that
Cling Film are releasing it as a 3″ CD. In the live version of this
piece, Roel Meelkop mixes four seperate sound channels together from
his laptop. Having seen and hearing this piece a couple of times,
it’s a sort of familiar piece – oh that’s the bit which sounds like
his hallway, oh these are familiar clicks etc. It’s a rather free
form piece for Roel, blending together various of his interests, but
for the bigger part his love of processing recordings he made around
the house. These recordings get a treatment, and in the end it’s the
role of the composer to make it sound like a coherent piece. And
that’s something Roel is very capable off. Small blocks of sound,
silence and noise move along eachother, juxtaposing eachother or
sometimes in simple denial. Meelkop builts up tension and then breaks
it down, brick by brick. When nothing is left, he starts again.
Captivating stuff, as usual. (FdW)
Address: www.clingfilm.org