FENNESZ – LIVE IN JAPAN (CD by Headz)
JOE COLLEY – TWAALFDE MIXER (2×7″ by Mixer)
MANON LIU WINTER & FRANZ HAUTZINGER – BROSPA (CD by Grob)
WERNER DAFELDECKER/KLAUS LANG – LICHTGESCHWIINDIGKEIT (CD by Grob)
TERRE THAEMLITZ – THE OPPOSITE OF GENIUS OR CHANCE (LP by En/Of)
TARENTEL – LATENCY (LP by En/Of)
MIRROR DASH – SWEETFACE/ROM SUPPLY CO. (LP by En/Of)
TINY HAIRS/MILLIONAIRES WITH GUITARS (Lp by En/Of Deluxe)
DALE LLOYD – ENABLING ARTICULATE FIELDS (MP3 by Earlabs)
IOS SMOLDERS – THE GOEM VARIATIONS # 1 (MP3 by Earlabs)
ALP – OUT AND ABOUT WITH ALP (CD by Soleilmoon)
THE SONIC CATERING BAND – LIVE FROM THE CANTEENS OF ATLANTIS (2CD by Absurd)
GOODNIGHT STREETLIGHT – THE GREAT INVENTION OF THE WHEEL (3″CDR by
Piehead Records)
IVAN BACHEV – CAPTURES FROM WORK PROCESS ON ‘SOUND BEHAVIOR’ IDEA
(CDR by Tib Prod)
LOESS – 12BC (12″ by Non Response)
5CC (CDR compilation by Jeringas)
TAMING POWER – FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR AND TAPE RECORDERS (10″ by Early
Morning Records)
CAN/HARALD “SACK” ZIEGLER (split 7″ by Musical Tragedies)
Editorial note: most likely next week no Vital Weekly, due to
holiday, but who knows…
FENNESZ – LIVE IN JAPAN (CD by Headz)
Let’s hope that Christian Fennesz doesn’t need an introduction. Many
of his works are landmarks in the world of laptopmusic, maybe with
‘Endless Summer’ being the biggest one of them all. Fennesz is also a
person who plays live a lot and is among the best ones to improvise
freely on his laptop. A live solo album was to be expected. Here it
is. It was recorded in Japan, in February of this year and released
on the Headz label (run by the same guy that did Meme some years ago,
let’s hope this label is somewhat better organised), of course with
permission of Touch, the UK label to which Fennesz is exclusively
signed to. The press blurb raves about the best laptop concert ever
given. Maybe that is a bit too much, but I must agree we are dealing
with not just a very good recording, but also with some great music.
Guitar plays a major part in these recordings, with long passages of
untreated guitar playing, to which Fennesz adds little bits of his
special layerings of processed guitars. Fennesz has his own style of
playing (and I mean laptop here), which is not really about cracks
and clicks, but rather psychedelic patterns of sounds, fields, more
or less aggressive drones, which are real-time filtered and collaged
together. In the encore we even are offered a xylophone and Fennesz
comes close to the Beach Boys here. Maybe not the best laptop CD ever
made, but certainly for a live CD, one of the best around. (FdW)
Address: http://www.faderbyheadz.com
JOE COLLEY – TWAALFDE MIXER (2×7″ by Mixer)
Joe Colley was formerly known as Crawl Unit. For reasons I am not
sure about, he changed to working now under his own name. Maybe it
has to do with his work getting more mature, or maybe he seeks more
serious recognition as a composer. His latest offering is a double 7″
on Mixer, the second double 7″ after Kaffe Matthews one. Joe Colley
does something rather simple. He takes a bunch of loops, two per side
and makes a small composition with that, without too many changes
going on per side. This is present on all four sides. It’s a process
he borrowed from Steve Reich’s tape compositions, but Colley splices
it over four different tracks. Much more then a composition by itself
per side, this is more like a DJ kit. You can play any side along
with any other side and thus create your own mix (and yes, that
sounds like one has to buy two copies to make it work at the most
optimum way). Each of the pieces have a distinct drive (I rather
avoid the word groove, because they are not beats) to it, which makes
this production into a rather mechanical, rotating machine. Clinical
music as such, but as said, the icing on the cake comes from
yourself. If you’re not a DJ, it might be hard to grasp the fine
points here, but still you might be taken by its minimal approach.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.stichtingmixer.nl or info@stichtingmixer.nl
MANON LIU WINTER & FRANZ HAUTZINGER – BROSPA (CD by Grob)
WERNER DAFELDECKER/KLAUS LANG – LICHTGESCHWIINDIGKEIT (CD by Grob)
Maybe this happened to you: you put on a CD but for whatever reason
after a while you got distracted, suddenly the music comes back to
you and you think: oh shit, I forgot, what did I put on? I had
something similar with this CD by Manon Liu Winter (extended piano)
and Franz Hautzinger (quartertone trumpet). It was a windy day
yesterday when I played this CD. Windy but hot, so the windows were
open. At one point I thought the wind was so loud that things came of
of the roof – that didn’t happen, but it was combination of the
strong wind outside and the CD. It is by most means a violent CD.
‘The Respiration’, you could guess: with breathing sounds in the
trombone and loads of banging on the piano. Quite some violent music,
which is in total contrast with the piece after that
‘Strudelhofstiege’. Hautzinger and Winter are all over the place with
their sounds, and it seems almost that they set out to do anything
except not sound like a piano or a trombone. Wether or not they play
loud or soft, they always play captivating music, music that takes
you by throat and forces you to listen. This is one of the more
interesting discs of improvised music I heard in quite some time.
Also on a different edge of improvised music are Organ player Klaus
Lang and bassplayer and multi-instrumentalist Werner Dafeldecker. On
a cold Austrian winternight they went to a church and recorded this
duet between an organ and a bass. It’s an unlikely Grob release, not
for it’s improvisation, but for it’s minimalism. These seven pieces
don’t move at all. They are static, densely layered and more static.
The organ doesn’t produce organ sounds, but most of the time only the
sounds of the pump soaking in air. Yves Klein-like music, monochrome
paintings spring to mind here. If you need a reference, I’d say it’s
a cross-over between AMM (but more minimal) and Phil Niblock (but
less loud and present). And the title, meaning ‘speed of light’
couldn’t be more apt chosen: you can’t see light moving, and it’s
similar very hard to see this music move at all. Two new Grob
releases and they’re both great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.churchofgrob.com
TERRE THAEMLITZ – THE OPPOSITE OF GENIUS OR CHANCE (LP by En/Of)
TARENTEL – LATENCY (LP by En/Of)
MIRROR DASH – SWEETFACE/ROM SUPPLY CO. (LP by En/Of)
TINY HAIRS/MILLIONAIRES WITH GUITARS (Lp by En/Of Deluxe)
Up until now records in the En/Of series came in series of three, but
now it’s four. Three of them are regular En/Of ones, meaning an LP
and an original, multiple artwork. One is an En/Of Deluxe, in which
each artwork is unique.
Terre Thaemlitz is our man of concepts. It’s hard to tell what he
means by his concepts. The multiple artwork is by Elmgreen and
Dragset, a white vinyl record with no music and just the text on the
label: “This Is Not A Terre Thaemlitz Records, Please Check Opposite
Sleeve” – very funny. On side A of Terre’s record we find three
original pieces of music. One by Marcel Duchamp, one by Grace Jones
and a recording by Terre at the age of 10 (I am not sure if this is a
composition as it’s mostly Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’
without any additions). On the b-side we find Terre’s remixes of
them. He turns Marcel’s breathing piece into a beautiful piece of
lounge music, Jones’ stays close to the original (‘La Vie En Rose’),
and seems almost like an instrumental b-side of the original 7″. Also
his reworking on Simon & Garfunkel (or should I say ‘his reworking on
his own’?) didn’t get much change. The concept of this record is a
little bit beyond me, I just seem to fail to understand this. But
Terre’s rework of Marcel is quite alright – the best piece of the
record.
With the Tarentel LP you get a photo by Jonathan Monk, which I
haven’t seen. It’s been awhile since I last heard music by Tarentel.
The last two years went by for me without following what they were up
to. They are a ‘post-rock’ band (oh no!) from San Francisco, with a
strong interest in the more minimal aspects of music. The various
pieces on this record are just called ‘Latency A’ and ‘Latency B’.
Distant guitars, loose notes on a piano – sometimes it seems they are
played without taking much care for composition, but they start to
repeat and intervals become clear. Maybe it’s a bit too disorganised
to count as ‘ambient’ or ‘post-rock’, but I find it refreshing to
hear them breaking away from the known grounds of ‘post-rock’. It
seems to me that this record is Tarentel’s computer record, a collage
of sounds played in the studio and then treated on the computer
(looping, changing pitch etc.). It’s a sobre, austere but very nice
record.
Mirror/Dash you may ask, who are they? Maybe you don’t know
Mirror/Dash, but it’s a duo of Kim Gordon (guitar) and Thurston Moore
(guitar), and both you know of course from Sonic Youth. And you know
of course then as well that the various members of Sonic Youth are
always keen to play improvised music. So one afternoon in March,
Thurston and Kim plugged in their guitars and turned of their
recording device an hour later. The first half hour is filled with a
wall of sound feedback and other sorts of guitar distortion, which is
nice, but nothing more then that. The b-side of the record is quite
nice with a much more open piece of guitar playing, quite minimal and
rhythmic at that. Wish it was more of that… The record comes with a
screenprint of Dan Graham.
With the En/Of Deluxe you get two prints that are each unique by
artists Dan Devening and Markus Linnenbrink. This is the first split
record. One side one two pieces by Tiny Hairs, a group of Chicago,
which can be compared with Town & Country, but with the difference
that Tiny Hairs material seems to be generated through improvisation.
This works best in ‘Soaked And Poisoned Cigars’ with great tunes on
guitars and drums. The b-side is by Millionaires With Guitars, the
band around visual artist Markus Linnenbrink. A trio of two
guitarists and a drummer. Their side long improvisation is among the
worst music I have ever encountered. A total masturbation exercise.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com
DALE LLOYD – ENABLING ARTICULATE FIELDS (MP3 by Earlabs)
IOS SMOLDERS – THE GOEM VARIATIONS # 1 (MP3 by Earlabs)
Two new web-based releases from the friendly folks at Earlabs. Dale
Lloyd runs the and/OAR label and releases compilations for
phonography.org. His work is from the realm of field recordings. The
basis for these 5 short tracks are sounds recorded in his apartment,
mainly the sound of air trying to force its way through his front
door one particularly windy night, while opening another window to
adjust the air pressure within the apartment. Having experienced this
phenomona on several occasions I can attest to the interesting sounds
that can occur, from door slams to the squeal of a pressure cooker.
Lloyd processes these sounds and for the most part they are no longer
recognizable. Faint shimmerings, crackles, and whispers are the
results of heavy audio filtering to which Lloyd adds some
embellishments from his Moog Concertmate MG-100 analog synthesizer.
What remains is the sensations that the original sounds can conjure.
At times this reminds me of the swedish project Dead Letters, with
the quiet goings on of organic matter rendered into strange mechanic
operations. A fascinating listen.
How often have you listened to a piece of music and thought “I really
like this music, but if I was in this group, I would have done this
with it.” Well Ios Smolders had the same thought when listening to
Goem and decided to do something about it. Smolders presents four
tracks on this release, creating his version of Goem. The tracks are
not remixes of Goem persay, but utilize Goem as a starting point, to
which Smolders adds his own sounds. The first piece “punik 2 – 4th”
has that signature Goem pulse, but Smolders gives it locomotive
quality and adds shifting electronic drones on top. One can say its
almost like Pan Sonic. After a long intro the track gets chugging
along and you’re in for a great ride. The second track is much
lighter in tone, but is still held together with synthetic pulses and
towards the midway point chords start to break through, like rays of
sunlight, and it almost enters dub territory. The third piece is
even more minimal and hence aptly titled “reduktie2-basis5a” with a
dub rythm set against musique concrete electronic outbursts. The
closing track is one steady pulse offset with the same sound in
reverse and speedup dial tones and pounds right into your head. This
release is the first part of Smolders’ variations on Goem and the
second is expected later this year. Check them out. (JS)
Address: http://www.earlabs.org
ALP – OUT AND ABOUT WITH ALP (CD by Soleilmoon)
Whatever happened to O Yuki Conjugate? This band was one of the main
players of the ambient music of a decade ago, and had various
interesting spin-offs, such as A Small Good Thing and Sons Of
Silence. Founding member Roger Horberry produced a solo CD as Alp on
Soleilmoon (see Vital Weekly 186) in which he used contact microphone
recordings of common day objects found at home (therefore the CD was
called ‘At Home With Alp’), which led to an interesting musique
concrete CD. I thought it was an one-off exercise for mr Horberry, so
I am quite pleased to get a second release by him. The subject this
time are field recordings he made in Amsterdam (hence ‘Out And About
With Alp’), where Horberry lived for a while and which he finds one
of the most quiet big cities in the world. I can agree with that.
Many parts, outside the touristic center, are indeed quiet and
beautiful (though I must state that I never would like to live
there, thank you!). In my review of the first CD I stated that Brian
Eno could be proud, and I add: he might even prouder about this.
Although Horberry uses locations as names, none of these eight pieces
sound like the zoo, a market or a bridge. I am not sure what he does
with his original sources, but it seems to me he has updated his
software and everything is fed through a whole bunch of dsp effects.
So it might aswell be a recording of Tokyo’s busiest street or
downtown Manhattan, with all the noise levelled out. Calm and
peaceful music is produced of a lighter hearted nature. Maybe I’d
expected a little bit more of hearing some of the original
recordings, but then the CD is fine as it is. Consequent and
consistent. True ambient music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
THE SONIC CATERING BAND – LIVE FROM THE CANTEENS OF ATLANTIS (2CD by Absurd)
The Sonic Catering Band are no more. This trio (Colin Fletcher,
electronics, Tim Kerby, electronics and Peter Strickland, appliances)
used cooking of vegetarian meals to trigger electronics. Much of what
happens in the process of cooking is something that we don’t know
about, the heating, the chemical process but the Sonic Catering Band
was also about the lovely sounds one can hear while cooking. This
double CD set is about their live career, 1998-2001, from the very
first concert at London’s 333 Nightclub to the last one at Geneva’s
Moloko restaurant. The second disc in this set is their entire
performance of that last night. You hear the sounds of cutting
vegetables, stirring in pans and maybe the occassional lighter and
frying. You can’t hear they are preparing some Far Eastern recipes.
To this some moderate electronics are added, delay, filtering through
a synth, some sounds are looped. It’s a more electronic version of
AMM, maybe along the likes of Morphogenesis or Kapotte Muziek (less
the electronic effects). It is said that this is the only coherent
recording that was worth releasing – can’t argue with that, since I
never saw them live or heard any of their other live recordings, but
I agree it’s a nice recording.
The first CD is a collage of various concerts. Unlike the one stream
of sound on disc two, this is much more fragmented and the
processings of the music even lead a highly rhythmic effort. Not
really popmusic, but still much more then ‘just’ an ongoing stream of
sounds. I must say I’d preferred those over the musics on disc one.
That seemed to be dwelling too much on the use of sound effects added
to the process of the cooking. I think I prefer sounds as they are,
and in the cooking process there is lots to be heard, even without
the use of sound effects. (FdW)
Address: <absurd@otenet.gr>
GOODNIGHT STREETLIGHT – THE GREAT INVENTION OF THE WHEEL (3″CDR by
Piehead Records)
This year’s Piehead series seems to be about young and unknown
musicians, ones like Goodnight Streetlight, aka Raoul Fernandes, who
has been working out of his bedroom for a couple of years with lo-fi
electronica, crafting little melodies on a toypiano, guitars and drum
patterns. As this is the first time I hear his music, I can’t say how
it progressed over the years, but these five tracks are very nice.
Naive playing, almost childlike but that’s just a mere deception as
these pieces are well crafted. Not really intellegent dance floor
material, but much more close to the Suction robot sound, albeit with
a less cold and clinic style and much more warmth in the piano keys
and analogue bubbles. Definetely one of the nicest Piehead releases
in their 2003 series. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pieheadrecords.com
IVAN BACHEV – CAPTURES FROM WORK PROCESS ON ‘SOUND BEHAVIOR’ IDEA
(CDR by Tib Prod)
From reading the very fine print on the sleeve on this CDR, I
understood this is a work in progress, finished aswell as unfinished
pieces. The composer throws in an old concept, to play the CD in
shufflemode. Of course nothing new under the sun (in fact all cd’s
with more then one track could be played in shuffle mode, me thinks)
and something which I never do. I always play them in a linear way.
Another conceptual edge here is the “stage from semi-natural
behavours-on-how music results becomes – work on mr. Alvin Lucier
ideas – generated sound environments where audio to event converted
oscillator signals are used to control the parameters of the audio
output oscillators, filters, delay, pan generators”. Are you still
there? Process music it is. Twenty-one minutes and twenty six short
pieces of laptop works – clicks, scratches, peeps and oscillating and
modulating tones. Not always nice pieces, how can it be for music
that is not always finished – and not always sounds you never heard
before (unless of course microsound or microwave is not a genre for
you). But the execution is done rather nicely. On a scale of ten, I’d
rate this with a solid 7. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
LOESS – 12BC (12″ by Non Response)
A while ago, in Vital Weekly 310 to be precise, I discussed a CD by
band named Loess, a US duo of Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman, who
released an interesting, self-titled CD on the Non Response label. On
the same label, they now release a 12″, in which they rework music by
others. One side is a remix of a Belgium Ontayso, which is basically
a downtempo beat, with broken up textures and gradually dissolving
organ patterns. Much cruder and less smooth the usual downtempo music
and therefore quite to my liking. On the other side they rework a
piece of music by a band named Gridlock. Here too a downtempo rhythm,
and more experimental sounds, which sounds less like a digital low
resolution sample, but still a pretty coherent get together of music.
Like with their CD, I’d like this music for it’s fine combination of
rhythms and more experimental (or unusual if you wish) sounds. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nonresponse.com
5CC (CDR compilation by Jeringas)
From the darker unterwelt of Italy comes a compilation which is a bit
of a problem for me. The title is I believe ‘5cc’, based on a text
written by Emilio T. Espejo and the label is called Jeringas (Italian
for syringe) – that is, if I am not mistaken. The text is about the
use of drugs – and drugs, that is a subject, next to cars, I never
talk about. But apperentely it’s a source of inspiration for the
people of this CD and the guy who the text. All of these bands hail
from Italy and some have gained a reputation in the world of
industrial music, such as Murder Corporation and Atrax Morgue. Other
bands include Cupio Dissolvi, Lunus, Progetto Morte, Teatro Satanico
Charles Manson and N. I was prepared for a full hour of noise music,
but it was a little more then just noise. Many of these bands use of
course tape-loops (probably in the most conventional sense of the
word), dark synth, dark atmospherics and not as much Whitehouse like
shouting and screaming or banging the good old oildrum. There was
even some variation to be noted here and there. Much of the music
goes over well-known paths of variations in the areas of industrial
music, as to be expected, but overall the quality is pretty good,
even for me, a non-sucker of the genre. If the works of labels like
Tesco appeal to you, this is something to have. (FdW)
Address: <giuliani70@libero.it>
TAMING POWER – FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR AND TAPE RECORDERS (10″ by Early
Morning Records)
This is an somewhat older record from Taming Power whose records were
reviewed before (Vital Weekly 365, 372, 376). This record pre-dates
the one reviewed in Vital Weekly 376 and is for electric guitar and
tape recorders. The guitar is again fed through a whole bunch of tape
recorders, which provide time-delay on the various sounds that are
fed into this. Both sides have similar approaches: playing random
notes on the guitar, wait for the feedback and then play some more.
Both pieces are overal quite alright, but the sound quality of the
recording is not really brilliant – that’s a pity. Small, unwanted
distortion happens here and there. But otherwise it’s a nice record
that fits Taming Power well. (FdW)
Address: <earlymrecords@yahoo.no>
CAN/HARALD “SACK” ZIEGLER (split 7″ by Musical Tragedies)
Musical Tragedies have released a lot of sawbladed 7″s and from a lot
of different musicians: from The Hafler Trio to Ace Frehley to
Blondie and Frank Zappa – always split 7″s of an unusual combination.
Can is a band that I never really liked (I hope no politically
correct music lover is now offended). I believe their ‘Serpentine’
track is from the later, without Czukay period. It’s a nice piece of
krautrock with a jazzy feel. When it comes in a such a small dose as
on this 7″, I actually enjoy Can.
The b-side has Harald “Sack” Ziegler, the well-known weirdo from
Cologne. In his best vein he offers a quirky nice popsong, dedicated
to Barbie (and Can, of course a pun to Barbie’s boyfriend Ken). Funny
as always. Nice 7″, this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.empty.de