In week 30 and 31 (July 19 to 31) there will be no Vital Weekly. Any
announcements for that period should be with us before the 14th of
July.
COELACANTH – MUD WALL (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
IRR.APP.(EXT.) – OZEANISCHE GEFÜHLE (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
JOHN WATERMANN/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA (CD by Hvexas Records)
FOURCOLOR – WATER MIRROR (CD by Apestaartje)
AERO – RISES & FALLS (CD by Apestaartje)
OBJECT SET, AND MOTION (CD compilation by Apestaartje)
JANEK SCHAEFER/CHRISTOPHER FLORES (split LP by Apestaartje/Snail Article)
NICOLAS COLLINS – PEA SOUP (3″CD by Apestaartje)
ECCENTRIS #1 (CD compilation by Tenzenmen)
DUNAEWSKY69 – CONTIGUITY (CD by Shaped Harmonics)
KILN – SUNBOX (CD by Ghostly International)
BJÖRGÚLSSON/PIMMON/THORSSON – STILL IMPORTANT SOMEKIND NOT NORMALLY
SEEN (ALWAYS NOT UNFINISHED) (CD by Cronica Electronica)
KOTRA – DISSILIENT (CD by Nexsound)
CARLOS GIFFONI & LEE RANALDO & JIM O’ROURKE – NORTH SIX (3″CD by Antiopic)
SAKADA – NEVER GIVE UP ON THE MARGINS OF LOGIC (3″CD by Antiopic)
WARMDESK – PISTACHIO (12″ by A Touch Of Class)
WARMDESK – SAFETY FIRST (12″ by A Touch Of Class)
RADIO WORM 52 (CDR compilation by Worm)
JE & [.] – SCHIZOIDE ANOMIQUE (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
MARSEN JULES – YARA (MP3 by Autoplate/Thinner)
MIKKEL METAL – CASSINI PIECES (MP3 by Thinner)
AIDAN BAKER – ICHNUEMON (MP3 album by Tibprod)
TORE HONERE BOE – MO# PROJECT SOUVENIR (MP3 album by Tibprod)
PART OF ME: APPARATUS (MP3 album by Tibprod)
NAVNEMO – LIVE AT AMBIENT FESTIVAL, SOFIA, BULGARIA, 26 MARCH 2004
(MP3 album by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – ALONE IN A CHAMBER (MP3 album by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – MYTH (MP3 single by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – SERIGRAFIA (MP3 single by Tibprod)
COELACANTH – MUD WALL (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
IRR.APP.(EXT.) – OZEANISCHE GEFÜHLE (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
I am altogether not too sure if Helen Scarsdale is really somebody
and is really running an agency, but apperentely it’s the name of a
nice label. I missed out on their first release, by Jim Haynes, but
the second third and third release make up things. As noted before
Coelacanth is the work of Jim Haynes and Lorren Chase. Noted in the
review of ‘Mud Wall’ in Vital Weekly 407. So is this a new CD then or
a re-issue? I guess it’s neither. It’s rather an expanded version of
the Mysery Sea CDR, with some extra twenty minutes of material,
mainly placed at the beginning. Loren and Jim collected a whole bunch
of organic material in the studio, like wood and metal and started
scraping them. The sounds are fed through a whole bunch of delay and
reverb units, until a thick, waving pattern of sound started
vibrating the studio walls. A careful rumbling of objects takes place
over the course over forty minutes and off and on they seem to be
using field recordings of water. There are some darker edges to be
noted in this material, which fits the traditions of Small Cruel
Party and Giancarlo Toniutti (though not as sparse as the later) of
the older generation and Yannick Dauby, MNortham and Seth Nehil of
the newer lot. Good sturdy, earthy minimalism.
For some strange reason, many people seem to know the name
Irr.app.(ext.), aka Matt Waldron from California. Strange because the
man only released two albums, one of Fire inc (1997) and one on
Crouton (2003) in the last decade or so. His name popped up in some
releations to say Nurse With Wound and Stilluppsteypa. So ‘Ozeanische
Gefühle’ is the third album and it’s easy to set this along the finer
works of expanded drone music. Music that is related to drone music,
but use in a piece more paths, more instruments, and doesn’t just
rumble from a to b. The title piece, the core of this work, is a
forty-some minute collage of all things processed: woodwinds, bells,
bowls, organ sounds, maybe even guitars. Everything is thrown in the
giant blender which is called the ‘studio’ and Irr.app.(ext.) takes
us to a variety of landscapes, each with it’s own colour and tone and
is far away from his previous work. The second, shorter piece is ‘The
Demiurge’s Presumption’ and harks back to his earlier work. Although
drones play an important role in this piece, improvisations made on
guitar also play their role. Although this is a fine piece, I think
just the first would have been enough. It’s quite an overwhelming
piece of music going on here, after which you need to relax and
served another great piece. But in all, a great CD and hopefully the
gateway to some more releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helenscarsdale.com
JOHN WATERMANN/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA (CD by Hvexas Records)
It’s now almost two years ago that John Watermann died at the age of
67. Throughout his life he remained a bit of an outsider in the world
of music and art, but with a small and dedicated group of followers
and friends. One of the last things he was working on were pieces
that now ended up on this split CD with Kouhei Matsunaga. Two lenghty
pieces of electronic music. In his final years, Watermann had a great
love for soft- and hardware and these pieces were created with
programmes such as Reason. The short, rhythmic cutup of his early
work is no longer present, but instead quite melodic and rhythmic
music comes instead. Sometimes a drak and sinister synthesizer is
fade in, but throughout these a pleasent piece of music. The second
piece ‘People Was Shake My Hand’ is more abstract with
electro-acoustic elements. Kouhei Matsunaga could have been his son
in age, but here he is. Like many Japanese artists Kouhei plays
noise, using his computer and electronics. His short ‘Night Shift The
Power’ is a fierce cut up piece with many short sounds, whilst ‘Ddct
Jhn Wtrmnn’ (note the Cageian leave out of letters) is a more random
piece of electronics, swirling in and out of the mix. The piece
starts out quite loud, but over the course of time, it gets quieter
and quieter and despite the somewhat random feel about it, it stays
nicely together. Quite a nice CD, indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hvexas.org
FOURCOLOR – WATER MIRROR (CD by Apestaartje)
AERO – RISES & FALLS (CD by Apestaartje)
OBJECT SET, AND MOTION (CD compilation by Apestaartje)
JANEK SCHAEFER/CHRISTOPHER FLORES (split LP by Apestaartje/Snail Article)
NICOLAS COLLINS – PEA SOUP (3″CD by Apestaartje)
The summer 2004 campaign by Apestaartje consists of a whole bunch of
interesting new releases. It kicks off with Fourcolour, the solo
project of Keiichi Sugimoto, who is part of Minamo (who had a release
on Apestaartje before) and also half of Fonica (with a release on
Plop). Sugimoto plays mainly the guitar on his release, at least
that’s what we are led to believe, as the careful notes and tones on
this CD could have been as easily generated by some Max/msp software
for all I know about this. Very microsounding, microtonal, maybe
micro everything music going on here, highly ‘ambient’ in execution.
The CD ends with the magnum opus of the CD, a twenty five minute
soundtrack to the film Frontire by Japanese filmmaker Jun Miyazaki.
Here the addition of field recordings made a children’s playground
add just that little bit extra to make it even more nice.
The man behind Aero is one Koen Holtkamp, who also runs the
Apestaartje label. Originally from The Netherlands, but for ages in
the USA to forget his beautiful native tongue. In order of appearance
he plays “computer, electronics, piano, guitar, melodica and other
objects”, although it starts with a banjo thing. In these seven
pieces, Aero harks back to the darker world of ambient music, with
highly processed tones and textures, in which it is hard to recognize
any of the piano and guitar sounds. It is called by some as ‘laptop
ambient’ and maybe that is so, however, I don’t think it should have
such a negative tone. This is highly entertaining music to play at
home (wouldn’t be too sure about a concert version of this), late at
night in a sparsely lit room. Not surprising new, but nevertheless of
the better kind in its genre.
Under the banner of ‘Object Set, And Motion’, Apestaartje offers a
second label compilation of people that don’t have their own releases
on the label, but nevertheless are worth hearing. Sebastien Roux for
instance is known for his releases on 12K and plays guitar on his two
heavily melancholic tracks. Guitars plays with ebows and long
stretched darker ambient is the result. I never heard of Asuna, aka
Naoyuki Arashi from Tokyo. He plays harmonium which he feeds through
various computer processings and result in a highly fascinating drone
piece. Likewise the two boys of Tu M’ are also in melancholical
moods. Their two tracks have lots of guitar samples and for once (at
least to my knowledge) their sound is less broken up and more
coherent – way to go, boys. The compilation closes with Duul_Drv, aka
Arden Hill, whom I first heard on a 12K/Line compilation. He works
solely with field recordings which are sparsely treated in the
computer. In terms of microsound, Duul_Drv comes closest to the
‘real’ thing with nearly inaudible music. Soft, sparse crackles
appear at the surface and bass sounds appear just below. About time
for his own release.
Another new thing, perhaps a new series by Apestaartje, is Snail
Article, a split LP by Janek Schaefer and Christopher Flores.
Schaefer’s side is called ‘Orders EP’ and consists of five ‘ordered’
pieces: collaborations and commissions, all of which are funnily
described on the cover, like when he works together with the bass
player from Rothko, he asks them to remove the snares of his bass and
takes them to the studio. Or ‘Love Song’, the word love sung by seven
different women in various pitches, which are edited together to form
a vast mass of sound. The shortest piece is a locked groove, based on
333.3 parts of a 10 minute recording. Nicely, dense, atmospheric
recordings. I never heard of Christopher Flores, who is from
Baltimore, who played in various post rock and experimental, before
going solo on acoustic and digital compositions. His compositions
‘M.O.R.T.’ and ‘Edits For Piano’ sounds almost like one piece. In the
first he tries with digital means to create a piece that sounds like
a real instruments being processed, and in the second he actually
takes piano sounds into the digital realm. The result is highly
similar and just by hearing it’s hard to tell where one stops and the
other begins. Overall there is a strong ambient feel to the pieces,
and not to dissimilar to the work of Kenneth Kischner – long pastoral
sounding passages of carefully processed digital sounds. With Nicolas
Collins, Apestaartje goes for the real fame. Depending of course how
famous you think Nicolas Collins is. He is the second one to add a
release to Apestaartje ‘listen’ series. A series of 3″ CDs filled
with field recordings and ‘other non overtly musical audio’. ‘Pea
Soup’ uses “A self-stabilizing network of circuitry (originally three
Countrymen Phase Shifters) nudges the pitch of audio feedback to
different resonant frequency every time the feedback starts to build.
The familiar shriek is replaced with unstable patterns of hollow
tones, a site-specific raga reflecting the acoustical personality of
the room” and moving through the space the sound can change. So it
can be an installation aswell as a concert. This piece was composed
in 1974-76 but the recording here is from 1999 and Collins plays the
electronic part and George Cremaschi plays double bass. It starts out
some sine wave like stuff but then somewhere, almost unnoted the bass
drops in and the piece becomes very musical with several sorts of
bowings bouncing against the underpinning sine waves. A beautiful
piece and maybe less suitable for the ‘listen’ series, mainly because
it’s so musical. (FdW)
Address: www.staartje.com
ECCENTRIS #1 (CD compilation by Tenzenmen)
This is certainly one of the strangest compilations I have come
across with recentely. I don’t recall ever hearing Can Can Heads, but
I was aware of Hinterlandt of course and also Zu I saw play live some
ago, and it is a strange combination to see them on a CD together.
But the CD opens with Hinterlandt and that’s a real surprise. I knew
Jochen plays around with the notions of popmusic, but the three cuts
here are entirely sampled from death metal, pop and symphonic rock
with just that tiny bit of experimental electronica. After
‘Poprekordt’ maybe the thing to expect but I just dislike death metal
and symphonic rock, also when they are sampled. I must admit though
that Hinterlandt does a fine job in what he does.
Zu are free rock trio from Italy of drums, guitar and saxophone. They
play free rock or free jazz, you don’t have to call it anything if
any terms shocks you, but they play whatever they do with great
power. Seven relatively short cuts of intense playing. Maybe the sort
of thing I wouldn’t play often, but their concert left me a good
impression, so maybe I am positively influenced by that while
enjoying this.
As said, I never heard of Can Can Head, who are a five piece band
from Finland, on guitars, drums, bass, vocals and saxophone. They
also play free rock music, and this time it’s a bit more traditional,
less jazz and a bit more punk related. Of the three bands, this is
the one which I had much trouble with. Too traditional for my taste
to enjoy these free punk reputations too much. But the renewed
connection with Hinterlandt and Zu made this well alright for me.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.ten-zen-men.com
DUNAEWSKY69 – CONTIGUITY (CD by Shaped Harmonics)
Some time ago the label Shaped Harmonics was run by Novel 23 and
Ambidextrous, both known and important figures from the Russian new
stream of melodic idm influenced music, but now the label is run only
by the melodic craftsman Novel 23. On this album release all tracks
are written and produced by Dunaewsky69, that’s Alex Gladun, another
unknown Russian artist who makes classy music in the melodic style.
It’s definitely not typical idm, that’s for sure, but nevertheless
the songs are still pretty much classic and conventional, with
influences from few styles and genres. The general impression is that
the artist is trying to achieve the melodic moments with more firm
and concrete sound, like Novel 23’s album on Bip Hop. Dunaewsky69
probably uses some old Russian analog synthesizers too, I guess. I’d
compare this music with the more energetic tracks from Ulrich
Schnauss, this time going into shoegaze-idm direction maybe? Shoegaze
with synths, not guitar distorsion, even though the guitar (alike)
sound is present here from time to time. Also, there’s blurry
drum’n’bass rhythm in one track called Hilli Jona, and the rhythm is
very much pointed out everytime. The synths add an electro flavour
sometime, Solvent alike, as in the second track Haresh with it’s
intensively developing atmosphere and more harsher. Maybe the rhythm
is too narrow sometime, as in Luo, when it sounds like it’s played
with drums, but it’s still programed. In all the tracks all these
elements are arranged in different ways and they make different
shapes of the songs. So, you can choose your favourites. One of mine
this time is Wyky. (BR)
Address: http://www.shapedharmonics.com and http://www.electrosputnik.com
KILN – SUNBOX (CD by Ghostly International)
Here’s something nice. Kiln are 3 people from Michigan who have been
making music since the early 1990s. This short album/EP of 31 minutes
is the first release I’ve heard from them. The label says Kiln are
‘one of today’s finest downtempo electronic groups’, and having heard
this release I agree. They’re on the crispy side of chilled music,
where it’s more interesting. And they play and experience it with
amusement and make it sound more fresh that way. Nothing new under
the sun or the moon maybe, well, who knows…? Yeah, ok, that’s
probably true, but it’s not so important in these cases, when the
music is alright. Maybe Kiln sound as Pram trying to make some
microsound for Raster Noton, trippy weed inspired microclicks for
dancing shrimps and lobsters by the sea, a (not so) new stream in the
style maybe? Or maybe Raster Noton should start a new series in their
catalogue and call it Sargasso Sea, for supporting music like this?
The guitar in the forth track adds a little post-rock to it, in the
best Tortoise way. And hey, the music is all around you, not
shockingly new but more than just decent. Very nicely done. (BR)
Address: http://www.ghostly.com
BJÖRGÚLSSON/PIMMON/THORSSON – STILL IMPORTANT SOMEKIND NOT NORMALLY
SEEN (ALWAYS NOT UNFINISHED) (CD by Cronica Electronica)
The Dutch Earational festival (out of ‘s-Hertogenbosch as the city is
called in every atlas and not Den Bosch as it says on the cover, just
in case you may wonder where to find it) is an annual electronic
music festival, but it varies in size. Sometimes four days, in 2003
it lasted ten or so days, but probably in 2002 it had it smallest
size, when the festival lasted one day. In the evening there was a
concert by Main, and a performance with music of Roland Kayn, in the
afternoon Pimmon, Heimir Björgúlfsson and Helgi Thorsson each played
a solo concert. All three, aswell as Robert Hampson (Main man),
arrived a day and there were some rehearsals for a collaborative
improvisation between the three afternoon guests. Everything was
recorded, rehearsals and concert, and Hampson has edited this release
out of it. I just happen to know that the recordings were all two
track and not multi-track, so Hampson did have a difficult task
editing this out of it. It’s not difficult to guess what ti expect:
crackling electronics, occassionally rhythmical loops, noisy bits
thrown in and some plunderphonica. Some of the pieces (which of
course have no title) are quite exciting, like the opening piece, but
occassionally it leaps into straight boredom, when the improvisations
drag on and go nowhere. Therefore this is a bit of hit and miss, or
maybe rather: the document of hit and miss. I think it can be heard
that none of these three involved musicians are experienced
improvisers and that that is the main reason why it’s nice sometimes
and boring at other times. Robert Hampson did a nice job glueing the
whole thing together – and that seems to me no easy task. (Fdw)
Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org
KOTRA – DISSILIENT (CD by Nexsound)
The man behind Kotra is one Dmytro Fedorenko, who played bass in a
jazz-noise band, had a noise duo called Zet and has worked with the
likes of Kim Cascone, Andreas Berthling and Andrey Kiritchenko. Here
he plays twenty-one tracks in just over thirty-four minutes. When I
started this CD, I thought my opinion would be ready after 2 minutes:
noise, generated through feedback and processed digitally. But as
this CD progressed, and the sound remained almost similar throughout,
I realized that I was not listening to twenty-one tracks, but to one
work broken up in twenty-one different pieces. As the piece evolves
more sounds are added, even a guitar can be heard, and the whole
thing is broken up with smaller sound particles. Although noise is in
general the thing I am no longer concerned for, the conceptual
approach is something that I like very much. Given the concise and
precise dealings with Kotra, I am all for it. That’s the way to do
it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
CARLOS GIFFONI & LEE RANALDO & JIM O’ROURKE – NORTH SIX (3″CD by Antiopic)
SAKADA – NEVER GIVE UP ON THE MARGINS OF LOGIC (3″CD by Antiopic)
The small but nice Antiopic label (who also have a website with many
MP3 releases) just start out with a new series of live recordings of
improvised electronic music. The first one is by Carlos Giffoni
(computer, synth and guitar), Lee Ranaldo (guitar, firebell) and Jim
O’Rourke (synth) with a recording from August last year. If ever
there was lo-fi punk version of musique concrete, then it must be
this trio. They play furious music, one giant wall of noise that can
easily meet Merzbow, but with a wider variety in sound textures.
Sometimes the guitar sips through, psychedelic walls of synthesizer
sounds only to erupt in a further wall of feedback and noise mayhem.
The entire thing clocks in at 18:58 which will leave one breathless
once it’s finished. Essential listening for those who love noise and
a text book for those who want to try their own hands at noise.
The second release is by Sakada, a group of Rhodri Davies (harp),
Eddie Prevost (percussion), Mattin (computer feedback), Margarida
Garcia (double bass) and Mark Wastell (amplified textures). All of
these people are well-known in the world of improvisation, playing in
various combinations throughout the world, and of course more than
that in the UK. In their live recording the emphasis lies on bowing
sounds on all of these varied instruments. In the back the death
digital humm of Mattin provides the backdrop of the piece. For such
an extended line up it is rather a surprise that there is such an
overall pace in this recording. Everybody is waiting for the others,
and everybody seems to take their own role and take it from there. As
opposed to the other mini CD, this is a very silent release, but with
a likewise intense outcome. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antiopic.com
WARMDESK – PISTACHIO (12″ by A Touch Of Class)
WARMDESK – SAFETY FIRST (12″ by A Touch Of Class)
Here are some well balanced critical beats Philip Sherburne should
definitely review, if he hasn’t done that before? Sorry, I’m not that
regular Wire reader. Warmdesk is William Selman from Chicago, there’s
nice interview with him @ www.modsquare.com, he has one album on
Deluxe + few EPs on his own A Posteriori label (I know Mr. Sherburne
reviewed one of them) and now 2 EPs on A Touch Of Class. That’s
sub-label of the German Background Recordings, and they say A Touch
Of Class is for deep-house music but they also leave it to you to
decide what’s deep house for yourself. How wonderful, since I’m
always a bit confused about the sub-genres of house. Pistachio is the
older release of the both. It’s a really wonderful release. Three
great tracks with warm bass lines, quite linear ongoing sound, in the
best new tradition of this music, say, what labels like Trapez or
Traum Schallplatten mostly put out. Safety First EP opens with the
title-track that has a bit more upbeat feel, but still very well
thought-out. All music by Warmdesk on these EPs is excellent, dancey
of course but in a background landscape way, like Cpen’s music on
Aesoteric, this is specially true with the calmer Pistachio EP, so
what you got is Chicago and more teky answer to California’s
endlessnessism. A bit more sculptured sound than a classic Cpen
composition, going more in minimal clicky direction. Sometimes more
jump-up, like in Pression, but always pretty well balanced. No
explicit melodies you can remember but rather echoes of melody in a
wider soundscape, minimal but still kinda groovey. Is this deep house
because of the warm basses that add depth to the sound? What’s deep
house for me? I really don’t care that much. It’s very good music,
and if it’s deep house then I’m fan of this kind of that sound. (BR)
Address: http://www.background-records.de
RADIO WORM 52 (CDR compilation by Worm)
Although this says ‘Radio Worm’ and is indeed broadcasted on radio
(both real radio in Rotterdam aswell as digital radio), it’s also
available on CDR. Normally things like this don’t last very long –
just like magazines on CDR – but ‘Radio Worm’ is already up to number
52. It’s a rather random pick of me to review this and not one or all
of the others. Apart from one track licenced from somewhere else (the
Osso Bucco track, see also Vital Weekly 416), it’s all new tracks
send to Worm or taken from like cuts made at Worm’s excellent stage
in Rotterdam. Although not frequentely listed in Vital Weekly’s
announcement section, this is the place to be in Rotterdam for
experimental music. Many of these names may not mean much to you (or
me for that matter), but it’s presented as a radio programm,
including jingle’s in between, here and there. Because of the number
of tracks, it sounds like ‘real radio’, less the boring talk –
luckily enough. In current years Worm programms a lot of breakbeat,
broken beats and plunderphonica alike, so it’s not a surprise that
this leaks through to the ‘Radio Worm’ editions. Bands like Xian,
Toecutter, Enduser, Droon and Mash Up Soundsystem but there are also
more quieter moments such as with DJ Pausa, Yituey and Osso Bucco.
Everything is placed in such a way that various styles are in row,
but luckily just enough before starting to get tedious. If real radio
was like this, I would switch on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.wormstation.nl
JE & [.] – SCHIZOIDE ANOMIQUE (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
Even after checking JE’s website, I can’t tell you much more about
this guy, other than that he plays guitars and electro-acoustic
objects. He is playing a sort of duet with himself, because as JE he
plays ‘electric+tronics’ and as [.] he plays electroacoustics. I can
be brief about this release: the tracks (fourteen in total) were made
in the process of improvisation using guitar, occassionally a
rhythmmachine and more obscure noisy sounds. However in none of the
fourteen tracks, a sparkling idea was heard by me. Everything stayed
on a similar level, in a rather uninspired fashion. Not the sort of
thing that I like very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.burningemptiness.fr.st
MARSEN JULES – YARA (MP3 by Autoplate/Thinner)
MIKKEL METAL – CASSINI PIECES (MP3 by Thinner)
First things first: I have called the label ‘Audioplate’, but it’s
‘Autoplate’. They have just released the second MP3 by Marsen Jules,
one half of Krill.Minima. Whereas on his first release (see Vital
Weekly 393), Jules is playing around with classical music, in the
best tradition of Gas or Ekkehard Ehlers’ ‘Betrieb’, this time he
fiddles around with some live recordings by a band named ‘Trio Yara’.
These recordings were made in a smoke filled bar, with quite some
distance between band and audience, and the microphone being set half
way through. So we hear some vaguely piano’s, distant mumbling
voices, glasses at the bar but to enhance the moody atmopshere, Jules
adds a fine dose of delay and reverb to it. Somehow this sounds very
much along the lines of his ‘Lazy Sunday Funerals’, even when the
input is so totally different. An piece of ambient music throughout.
Very very nice. No surprise that his next CD will be released by City
Centre Offices.
Autoplate is a side-label from Thinner for their more ambient
excursions, and Thinner for the more rhythmic stuff. Mikkel Metal aka
Mikkel Meldgaard is from Danmark and after playing in some rock
bands, he switched to electronic music and has produced two 12″
records. The works collected on his MP3 release are from 2001-2003
and we get six of them, plus four remixes by others. Mikkel’s music
is click related with some fine dub influences, along the lines of
Chain Reaction. Delay lines on the synths and the crackles, while the
bass nicely jumps forward. The remixes, by Off The Sky, Lufth,
Krill.minima and Theodor Zox all extend more or less the original
Mikkel Metal sound, except maybe for Theodor Zox who offers a more
uptempo sound. You wouldn’t recognize them as remixes but rather as
different tracks by the same person, and that’s a pity and maybe
beyond the idea of a remix. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thinnerism.com
AIDAN BAKER – ICHNUEMON (MP3 album by Tibprod)
TORE HONERE BOE – MO# PROJECT SOUVENIR (MP3 album by Tibprod)
PART OF ME: APPARATUS (MP3 album by Tibprod)
NAVNEMO – LIVE AT AMBIENT FESTIVAL, SOFIA, BULGARIA, 26 MARCH 2004
(MP3 album by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – ALONE IN A CHAMBER (MP3 album by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – MYTH (MP3 single by Tibprod)
CHRISTIAN DI VITO – SERIGRAFIA (MP3 single by Tibprod)
Hardly a week goes by without something new by Aidan Baker, and here
it comes in the form of a MP3 album. Three lengthy tracks of music
that Aidan plays best: ambient music with guitars and occassional
percussion and samples. Of the three pieces I thought that the
opening title piece was the best. Voice samples, guitar lines and
percussion are finely interwoven and none of the elements takes the
leading role here. “The Footprints Of Flies” is the most ambient
piece here, but it’s rather too vaguely structured, but maybe that’s
the whole point of ambient anyway. ‘Crawl Inside’ is too minimal for
what it does – just an ongoing rhythm.
Only last week I had the pleasure to see the very last concert ever
by Tore H. Boe – at least that’s what he claimed. He played a short
set on his self-built laptop: two identical wooden cases with
identical small objects being amplified. Therefore is his ‘Mo#
Project Souvenir’ indeed, at least for me, a great souvenir to a
crazy night, although not strictly similar to what he did that night.
Here he plays indeed the small amplified acoustic objects, but unlike
the concert, there is a great addition of electronic sounds, but
mostly unwanted, such as hiss and feedback. Short and sweet pieces of
raw electro-acoustic music.
Tibprod also just released a whole bunch of MP3 works by people I
never heard, nor have any information about. Part Of Me: Apparatus
for instance, nine pieces are to be found on his or her MP3 album,
and it seems to me that the apparatus in question is the laptop. A
lot of crackling, plug ins running amok, and always a bit on the
noisy side. This is the kind of thing that many people, myself
included, have against laptop music. Without too many ideas of their
own, without too much structure and similar things repeated
throughout. Just not my thing.
Likewise I never heard of Navnemo and was surprised to see a live
recording from such an unlikely place as Sofia, Bulgaria. Navnemo use
two cardboard boxes and places 0.5 Watt speaker in the smaller one
and put the small box in the bigger one, and was then able to work
with the resonant feedback, using two microphones and a small mixer.
I am not sure how works either and it starts out with some feedback
sounds, albeit controlled, so I expected something static, but in
fact throughout the piece, things started to be alive, with samples
coming in, forming loops and mutating feedback.
About Christian di Vito I know that he is born in 1979 in Rome and
that he started after hearing ‘On’ by Aphex Twin. and that he uses
just a laptop. On the title track of his ‘Alone In A Chamber’ both of
these things hardly seem relevant: no rhythms and the dissonant
frequencies heard could also found there original in windsounds, but
which group in the course of twenty-five minutes in intensity. The
others works, including the second piece of his Mp3 album, are
shorter and here the computer plays indeed an important role.
However, I thought not much of it. Mainly noisy, yet unfocussed slabs
of noise in a rather dull manner. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com