JASON KAHN & GUNTER MULLER – BLINKS (CD by For 4 Ears Records)
ERIKM & GUNTER MULLER & TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA – WHY NOT BECHAMEL (CD by For 4 Ears Records)
UP-TIGHT – FIVE PSYCHEDELIC PIECES (CD by Static Records)
SPECTRE FOLK (CDR by Static Records)
VIRGIN EYE BLOOD BROTHERS – LIVE IN THE DEEPEST HOLE IN LOUISVILLE (CDR by Static Records)
JACK DANGERS – FORBIDDEN PLANET EXPLORED (2CD by Important Records)
VITOR JOAQUIM – A ROSE IS A ROSE (CD by Doc Recordings)
F.S. BLUMM – SESAMSAMEN (CD by Plop)
MOKIRA – FFT POP (CD by Cubicfabric)
CLUB MORAL – LIVING (STONE) (CD by Robo Records)
HANS APPELQVIST – BREMORT (CD by Komplott)
DIRK VEULEMANS – THE WEASEL IS LIVING ON THE LOFTS NOW (CD by Robo Records)
PHÔ – THIS IS HANDIWORK (CD by Humbug)
BROKEN CHANNEL (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
FOUTREDIEU!!!/IVERSEN (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
RECONSTRUCT 2: CADMIUM DUNKEL REMIXED (CDR compilation by Tib Prod)
CORDELL KLIER – TRACES (CDR by Mystery Sea)
JASON KAHN & GUNTER MULLER – BLINKS (CD by For 4 Ears Records)
ERIKM & GUNTER MULLER & TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA – WHY NOT BECHAMEL (CD by For 4 Ears Records)
Two of the busiest bees in Switzerland are Gunter Muller and Jason Kahn (although he is of course a born Swiss man). Both moved away from the drumming to playing around with electronica. Muller plays ipod, percussion and electronics and Kahn is a pure laptop player. And each of them has developped a distinct sound. Microtonal soundscapes that are always a bit ambient and which never is far away from the rhythmical aspect. Together they sample electro-acoustic sources and then start playing around with them in the realms of digital technology. On this particular CD they offer nine relatively short pieces, each with it’s own character. It moves away from the lengthy improvisations and stays maybe more close to being a sketch – I was going to write popsong, but that is of course not true either. So, let’s say it’s sketch, even when that too doesn’t justify the music. It’s very nice, concetrated pieces of music.
The same Gunter Muller is also present on a trio disc with turntable specialist ErikM (with whom Muller was once a member of Poire_Z) and no-input mixing board specialist Toshimaru Nakamura. Erik M plays here a 3K.pad endless system and on the first track computer. In the piece mixed by Muller, the dark broading atmosphere of the recording plays an important role, with a leading role for the controlled feedback of Nakamura. Small eruptions come from ErikM and Muller. ErikM mixed the other two, shorter pieces and here the input of all three seem to get an equal share. Despite this going on for a greater length than the Kahn/Muller CD, the level of concentration among the players is quite high. Great improvisations of electronic music. Both of them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.for4ears.com
UP-TIGHT – FIVE PSYCHEDELIC PIECES (CD by Static Records)
SPECTRE FOLK (CDR by Static Records)
VIRGIN EYE BLOOD BROTHERS – LIVE IN THE DEEPEST HOLE IN LOUISVILLE (CDR by Static Records)
This bunch of new Static Caravan releases mark two changes for the label. The first is that Static Caravan moves towards the release of CDRs, in spite of their long standing catalogue of vinyl and some CDs and the second is a change of musical direction. Hence maybe the change of the name to Static Records. The more electronic music is now backed by rock music. The first release is by Up-tight, who are a Japanese trio of bass, drums, guitars and vocals. In the apptly called ‘Five Psychedelic Pieces’, they do exactely as promised: playing stretched out psychedelic improvised music jams. Of course it’s not the musical territory you would fine me easily connected to, but if I would compare it to others I would foremost think of Keiji Haino’s work. Crazed out jams, with vocals that seem wordless (or maybe they are in Japanese? Who knows), and merely just another instrument, playing an equal role to the rest. Not so much my cup of tea for it sounds like so many other things (which maybe no-known will remember) like Vocokesh or Subarachnoid Space or similar Japanese bands. As an one-off for me it’s ok though.
Up-tight made it to CD, Spectre Folk has to with a CDR, but it’s nicely packed in hand stitched pouch, in an edition of 100 copies. Behind Spectre Folk is one Peter Nolan, who opens with ‘White River Junk’, which is a lengthy psychedelic improvisation piece and sounds unlike the next pieces, which are more lo-fi affairs of Nolan singing and playing guitar. In ‘Place To Crash’, Nolan even manages to get a nice lo-fi sixties sounds, and this is the best tune of the release, together with ‘Lover/Creeper’, with a very lo-fi orchestral sample and Nolan singing a creepy long song. Minimalist and film noir like here. A pretty varied release altogether, but very nice indeed.
Also with an eye-catching cover is the release by the Virgin Eye Blood Brothers: a cork-like booklet with some inserts such as x-ray shots. I don’t know anything about the band with such a horrible name, but Static Records call them a US noise band. Must be a different noise than I know, because I don’t call this noise per se. The metallic percussion is played freely and the saxophone’s play distantly in a tunnel. Then a likewise distant guitar comes in, which tinkles away. Not regular music per se either, but the Virgin Eye Blood Brothers sound like a stripped down version of the No Neck Blues Band or Jackie O Motherfucker or a less noisy version of Wolf Eyes and less psychedelic than Black Dice. But their less is truely more, as they know how to create a nice, fine tapestry of sound. The most horrible name in this bunch, but the best of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.org/staticrecords/news.htm
JACK DANGERS – FORBIDDEN PLANET EXPLORED (2CD by Important Records)
In Vital Weekly 433 I noticed that in the early pioneering days of electronic music, the late fifties, the relationship between electronic music and space became clear. Kid Baltan’s ‘Song Of The Second Moon’ didn’t deal with Yuri Gagarin (an error on this historian’s side), but it delt with the launch of the sputnik. Kid Baltan was later also asked to compose the soundtrack for ‘2001 – A Space Oddysee’, which he refused. At the same time Louis & Bebe Barron composed their purely electronic soundtrack to the film ‘Forbidden Planet’, which now gets a re-interpretation by Jack Dangers, aka Meat Beat Manifesto. Entirely composed on a Synthi 100 synthesizer (I believe that’s an EMS one), he performed this at the ‘I.D.E.A.L.’ festival in Nantes during a screening of the film. Dangers stays close the original ideas of electronic music for sci-fi films, with a chilly sound, alien (pun intended) bleeps and glissando waves. I must admit, entirely my mistake, that I never saw the film, only heard the original soundtrack, and I think Dangers does a very fine job, staying that close to the original, yet keeping his own voice in this. And to make the fun complete, a second CD contains ‘sci-fi sound effects’, fifthy in total, so all you home astronauts can compose your own soundtracks to real or imaginairy films. I know I would… (FdW)
Address: http://www.importantrecords.com
VITOR JOAQUIM – A ROSE IS A ROSE (CD by Doc Recordings)
Although I never heard of Vitor Joaquim he seems to be a key-player in the electro-acoustic music circles in Portugal and the director of the annual EME festival. For the music on this CD he improvised a bunch of stuff and them later assembled it in the studio. What it is he improvises with, I am not sure, the cover notes ‘includes sound bits from random tv sounds’. Something else, maybe? Nothing else, maybe? I played this CD a couple of times and although some pieces are quite alright, such as the ambient influenced field recordings of the third track (none of these have titles) or the radio sounds in the fourth (was there a radio transmission on the TV, we wonder?). But there is also some tedious moments in there, such as the processed spoken word opening of the final track – which luckily gets better towards the end of the track. I have some mixed feelings about this disc. The majority of nicer tracks outnumber the lesser ones, but as a whole I don’t think it’s something that stands out as a masterpiece to last for years to come. For now it’s pretty much ok. (FdW)
Address: http://www.doc.test.at
F.S. BLUMM – SESAMSAMEN (CD by Plop)
The name F.S. Blumm aka Frank Schültge should be familiar by now for his ongoing Sack & Blumm work and his solo work for such fine labels as Staubgold, Tomlab and Morr Music. For this new CD he wanted to do something special. The basis is formed by Blumm’s guitar playing, inspired by Ethopian rhythms. He burned the thing on CDR and send it to a few friends to add some sounds, music or whatever to his work and the closer they would stay to the original, the more easy it would be to create a ‘symphony of friends’ afterwards. Blumm added bits and pieces afterwards and although it’s not really a symphony, it’s still a nice CD. The trademark Blumm sounds are still in there. The childlike sounds and instruments, the toypiano, the bass, the guitar, the vibraphone and the organ sounds. If you wouldn’t know about the concept behind the CD, then you could easily mistake this for another fine Blumm solo CD. Great work, with or without the input of people like Greg Davis, Harald ‘Sack’ Ziegler, Anne Laplatine and Guido Mobius. (FdW)
Address: http://www.inpartmaint.com/plop
MOKIRA – FFT POP (CD by Cubicfabric)
Andreas Tilliander is a busy man. Working under a variety of aliases, such as Mokira, Rechord, Komp, Lowfour aswell as under his own name, he produces different types of music. Somehow they are related rhythmical music, but each seem to have it’s own character. As Mokira he started out with what he called ‘crip hop’ on Raster-noton, but on ‘FFT Pop’ (his fourth album as Mokira) he moves into an electronic version of shoegazer music, and especially cites the “Loveless” album My Bloody Valentine as his main source of inspiration. In these seven tracks – six of them are instrumental, one features the vocal qualities of Piana – Tilliander fiddles around with some grainy sounds, a sort of low resolution samples turning hi-fi. His sound turned inside, towards the self, rather then to someone else. Shoegazing indeed. One could say that there is a hint of ambient music in here, but that’s not true. It’s rather maybe based on ambient music, but there is so much happening in all these low resolution samples, long and short (as said, Mokira’s work is rhythm based), that is simply too hectic and unnerving to be ambient. Seven very nice tracks of what could also be the future of popmusic. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cubicmusic.com/fabric
CLUB MORAL – LIVING (STONE) (CD by Robo Records)
Last week or so I wrote something about the music of heyday coming back these days, but the same can be said about the musicians from heyday. There are days that I don’t think, say about Club Moral, but sometimes their name pop up in a conversation and it goes: whatever happened to them. Club Moral, the musical venture of Antwerp’s couple AMVK and DDV, had quite a following in the early 80s when they released many cassettes, had their own club, magazine and what have you, all dealing with art and music – in that order – of the most extreme nature. AMVK was responsible for the most piercing electronic noises and DDV for his biting, cynical singing. I assume(d) they are still foremost visual artists, but I am quite surprised to find a CD on my doorstep. It concerns a live recording of a concert held in a living room for approx. 35 people, and sees Club Moral extended by Dylan on turntables and Mauro Pawlowski on guitar. The newspaper of the day is where the lyrics are found, except for ‘On Suicide’. A Dutch language newspaper, but even if it were english (or any other) language it would be hard to understand. The first few tracks start out in a true Club Moral fashion: piercing electronics, nicely divided over the high and low ends, with DDV’s vocals. Later on the guitar plays a more dominant role and it’s played in an improvised way, which is not always to my liking. The addition of the turntable sounds are more to my liking and here it seems that Club Moral have found the link to the 80s industrial music and the current digital noise. Maybe the pieces are a bit lengthy but it’s a nice come-back album, just in case they were ever away… (FdW)
Address: http://www.freaksendfuture.com
HANS APPELQVIST – BREMORT (CD by Komplott)
In case you start looking on any map of Sweden to find out where Bremort is – and based on the enclosed cityplan that comes with the CD, you could think it’s somwhere – than you run into bad luck. Bremort doesn’t exist. It’s a fictitious city and during a limited amount of time we get a sound picture of this. Each picture comes with it’s own sound. But beware: Hans Appelqvist doesn’t make field recordings. Just like his previous CDs (see Vital Weekly 379 and 321) he continues what he does best: tinkling guitars, a piano being played loosely, strings are sampled and all of this set against a bed of rhythm, sometimes a bit breakbeat like, sometimes drum & bass like and even trip-hop like. In between he throws bit of conversation or daily sounds like a doorbell, an alarm or a telephone. This gives the whole thing a notion of a radioplay or a narrative, but somehow I don’t think this is actually the case. The narrative aspect here acts mostly as just another instrument. It’s a pity that Bremort isn’t a real place, because I would have love to visit it. The CD is a really fine subsitute however. (FdW)
Address: http://www.komplott.com
DIRK VEULEMANS – THE WEASEL IS LIVING ON THE LOFTS NOW (CD by Robo Records)
Maybe the name Dirk Veulemans means as much you as it does to me: nothing. He is a Belgium composer of electronic music aswell as music with contemporary ensembles and runs a private studio. On this CD you will find seven of his electro-acoustic and electronic pieces. These pieces are made over a course of many years, some even date back to 1998. Each of the pieces are described in the booklet, what kind of sounds and methods are used. Always nice to read, me thinks. Unlike many other contemporary serious electronic composers, Dirk Veulemans doesn’t offer uninteresting computer treatments of sounds, but really plays around with the sounds, goes much deeper into them and usually uses a longer duration to get them working. This makes his music probably a bit more minimal, but the end result is a rich, varied sound. The title piece is for flute and 8 track tape composition and swirls around with spoken word and distorted radio transmission and finds this CD at it’s best. It’s been for quite a while that I heard such great electronic and electro-acoustic work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freaksendfuture.com
PHÔ – THIS IS HANDIWORK (CD by Humbug)
>From Amsterdam vibrant improv scene comes Phô, a trio of Bjørnar Habbestad on flutes, electronics and digitals, Morton Ohlsen on drums and Nicolas Field also on drums. That may sound like a strange line up, but the result is even stranger. Phô play mainly extreme improvised noise. The opening piece ‘It’s Benign’ is in that respect a true manifesto intro piece: the high pitched electronics bounce from left to right, with the drums sounded in a true cut up style. In none of the other nine tracks they let the listener down. The sound level is cranked up, very vibrant and noisy. Certainly not improvised music for the weak at heart. There are traces of the good ol’ Merzbow in there, the old analogue phase. Like more improvised music, this isn’t an easy pill to swallow, but I can imagine that Phô will certainly appeal to many more people than just lovers of improvised music. Noiseheads beware. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm
BROKEN CHANNEL (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
A lot of the releases on the Cocosolidciti label are politically inspired and “Broken Channel” is no different. Much of it deals with big cities and the mass/mess it makes. All of the music and images on this package deal with CCTV and surveillance cameras. And these produce sounds, although on first hearing it might be difficult to think that these surveillance cameras produce so much rhythm oriented music. At least in the two tracks by Ultra Red and Battery Operated & made (who is also in Gescom). Ultra Red produce two fine pieces, in which they as usual have sounds of demonstrations, linked to very minimalist techno music. The four tracks by Battery Operated & Made are in a much more abstract area than say the Ultra Red pieces, but still the technoid rhythms prevail. Behind Kampuchea we find the same person as Phonem, but he’s clearly along very different musical lines on his lengthy ambient piece, rhythms are used more straight forward and less in a techno fashion. At the end of the spectrum we find Kaffe Matthews, who has a lengthy feedback piece, scanning the architectural aspects of the place she is in. It’s rather a self-operated surveillance. On the DVD we get to see many shots of buildings, architecture plans and ‘exit’ signs. It fits the somewhat alien music of the CD – big cities but no-one seems to be living in them… The DVD is probably not well spend on me, but the music is nevertheless quite alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cocosolidciti.com
FOUTREDIEU!!!/IVERSEN (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
RECONSTRUCT 2: CADMIUM DUNKEL REMIXED (CDR compilation by Tib Prod)
The connection between these two is Jan-M Iversen, the busy bee who divides his time between his own Tib Prod label and as Iversen his solo music. On a split CDR with Foutredieu!!! he presents two more parts of his “Caligula Symphony” (see also Vital Weekly 426). The release opens with Foutredieu!!! whose music here is inspired by the videogame Doom. The track ‘Iddqd’ and ‘Idbehold’ offers some furious noise, but it’s middle piece ‘Idkfa’ in which there is a dark ambient undercurrent present that makes Foutredieu!!! much more interesting than the two noise outbursts. Iversen has, as said, two more parts of ‘Caligula Symphony’. The two previous parts I heard, Iversen combines the noise parts with the more subdued parts, within one track. Usually his pieces are all over the place and this here is no different. I prefer the more controlled moments of music, be it in noise, be in the quiet areas, but they work best for me.
On Iversen’s Tib Prod label we find a lengthy reconstruction project based on the sounds by Cadmium Dunkel (already announced in Vital Weekly 397). The music of Cadmium Dunkel doesn’t always attract me very much, although I hear some nice things in there. But they have something ‘gothic’ which I don’t like very much. Here the get the full remix treatment by a lot of musicians connected to Tib prod, such as Iversen (obviously, needless to say), Origami Klassika, ODRZ, Christian Di Vito, Staplerfahrer, Chefkirk but also some I think I didn’t encounter before, like Swamps Up Nostrils, Tzesne and Scullfaced Moon. All the possible plug-ins run amok here. It seems if almost everybody wanted to take the proceedings to the most extreme level of digital music. I must admit I didn’t care that much for the more noisy ones, but once things turned abstract, it was a real pleasure to listen to these deconstructions. (FdW)
Address: http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
CORDELL KLIER – TRACES (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Another busy bee is Cordell Klier, who is besides a musician also running his own Doctsect label. More so than his previous ‘Winter’ CD (see Vital Weekly 394), he is now really in a winter atmosphere. On the three pieces offered he depicts a dark, very dark world. ‘Traces’ is probably a very apptly chosen title: this music is like long traces in the snow. Klier plays around with the notion of dark, isolationist ambient music, in the best tradition of say Thomas Köner. Nothing much seems to be happening in this empty world of Klier, but upon closer inspection (simply cranck up the volume a little bit) it seems to be very active music – small events, living organism creep away under the snow, trying to find their way out. Not an easy task, because life out here is chilly. Quite an impressive work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
Corrections: the URL for ‘FROTTEMENTS: OBJETS ET SURFACES SONORES’ (see last week’s issue should be http://www.mnba.qc.ca and the label for ‘Observer Drift’ is called Authorized Version, not A-Version.