POLLYFONNIK – PLEASURE (CD by Kjer)
BJ NILSEN – FADE TO WHITE (CD by Touch)
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & MANUEL MOTA & GABRIEL PAIUK – DORSAL (CD by Creative Sources)
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & GERHARD UEBELE & GUILHERME RODRIGUES & JOSE OLIVEIRA – CONTRE PLONGEE (CD by Creative Sources)
THE PAPER CHASE MEETS RED WORMS’ FARM (Split CD by Robotradio)
RICHARD PINHAS – TRANZITION (CD by Cuneiform)
RICHARD PINHAS – EVENT AND REPETITIONS (CD by Cuneiform)
AIDAN BAKER – AT THE BASE OF THE MIND IS COILED A SERPENT (CD by Le Cri De La Harpe)
CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU – COSMET NIHIL (CD by Le Cri De La Harpe)
STILLUPSETYPA (CD by Atak)
STEINBRUCHEL & KIM CASCONE & JASON KAHN (CD by Atak)
RUTH BARBERAN – CAPACIDAD DE PERDIDA (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
FERRAN FAGES – A CAVALL ENTRE DOS CAVALLS (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
XAVIER CHARLES & BERTRAND DENZLER & JEAN-SEABSTIAN MARIAGE & MATHIEU WERCHOWSKI – METZ (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
FREDERIC BLONDY & JEAN-SEABSTIAN MARIAGE & DAN WABURTON – L’ECORCE CHANTE LA FORET (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
UTE WASSERMANN & BIRGIT ULHER – KUNSTSTOFF (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
STORM BUGS – UP THE MIDDLE DOWN THE SIDES (LP by Fusetron)
SORT MEL – SORT JUL (3″CD by Melektronikk)
FREIBAND – MARTIN (SEVEN [NEW] ASPECTS) (3″CDR by Tibprod)
SHIFTS – VERTONEN 16 (CDR by EeTapes)
MONOID – PATTERN HIDING (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
SOUND 00 – SUMMER 666 (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
STAPLERFAHRER – DEPTHS IN PERCEPTION (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
CARL KRUGER – HELLO OSLO (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
GUIGNOL DANGEREUX – DI MARINETTI E D’INTORNI (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
BALUN – WHILE SLEEPING (OGG by Observatory)
POLLYFONNIK – PLEASURE (CD by Kjer)
I really like this feeling. When I put the CD in the drive, listen to no more than 2 minutes of a completely new release and already know that I like it. As the first minute of the second track passes (the first was an intro track) I know that I like the sound of this release despite never having heard anything from this artist and label or about them at all. ‘Cup size’ is a real pop track, in some new Pet shop boys manner including vocoded vocals. The second continues to follow that style. The fourth track is already pure pop with clear pop vocals and pure pop catchy lyrics. A couple of other tracks pass and this album remains pop. It’s becoming clear that whole album is pop, with melodic male vocals, pure pop mellow melodies and a calm rhythm. ‘Take me to you paradise’ is the ultimate pop hit song, danceable with ultimately female melodic vocals and sugary chorus repeating: take me to you paradise/where everything is nice… Maybe there is no another ultimate hit like this, but the rest of the tracks are very close to this, likewise the next track ‘Whipped cream b (skit)’, combines fine mainstream housey sound, male reciting that looks like MCing and female oldschool singing love lyrics. Then you start paying attention to the next track. And next. and a couple of more tracks that are worthy of yr attention (‘The coffee song’, ‘ Baby jane’, ‘Nice’, ‘Peek-a-boo’, ‘Ciao’). Maybe you should hear whole album that continues with its pop sensibility, combining melodic male/female vocals, weird melodies, clear lyrics, housey like rhythm, mainstream elements… reminding of some old movie soundtrack. It is full of fine, lucid, contemporary, melodic, potent pop tracks. You can also read and sing the lyrics that are included on its cover with a cute design. The whole album has quite a sense of humor. Something which in some cases is not so funny, here is so precisely dosed that it gives off a really cute impression. Sometimes it’s fine to chill out with such an album even if you are not an admirer of such sound. (TD)
Address: http://www.kjer.com
BJ NILSEN – FADE TO WHITE (CD by Touch)
Still young of age and heart, BJ Nilsen (1975) is a mainstay in experimental music. His recording career started when he was 15 and he founded Hazard in 1996. As such he produced a couple of fine dark ambient CDs, but since some time he works exclusively on the computer, transforming his field recordings. These are made either outdoor or indoor throughout 2003-2004 in Europe. These field recordings can be open spaces in which acoustic and electric instruments sound, with a general love for the use of church organs. Once at home BJ Nilsen crafts his own new atmospheres on the computer by blending these various recordings together and a multi-layered event arises, which works on many levels. Occassionally the computer processings have too much control and plug-ins can be heard, but for the majority this is work of natural sounding beauty. Dark humming tones glide by, this ambient music of a more nocturnal kind. Daylight has disappeared and in the twilight the church organ breathes his last tones, captured in a big empty church. One man is there to share this with us, and his name is BJ Nilsen. In his catalogue of works this is the next step up. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & MANUEL MOTA & GABRIEL PAIUK – DORSAL (CD by Creative Sources)
ERNESTO RODRIGUES & GERHARD UEBELE & GUILHERME RODRIGUES & JOSE OLIVEIRA – CONTRE PLONGEE (CD by Creative Sources)
Due to my removal a few months ago these two CDs escaped from my attention. And that’s not fair because both CDs deserve a few lines in the columns of Vital Weekly. So here there are then.
Since Rodrigues started his Creative Sources label somewhere in the mid-90s he put a very clear stamp on improvised music. Each new record illustrates his specific approach of improvised music and is a further enrichment of his musical world. His improvisations are very much about exploration of sound and texture, always in the context of groupimprovisation. Because of this, unconventional playing techniques in order to create new sounds are a common factor by all musicians involved. Of course they not working on a catalogue of sounds that can be draw from the violin, etc. First of all we have to deal here with delicate improvised music.
The soundworlds created by him and his mates are always more close to the abstractness of electro-acoustic music or John Cage then to improvised jazz music. This is also the case for both CDs I want to introduce now.
Especially ‘Dorsal’ is a very fine and successfull recording . Every note fell on the right place here. Rodrigues (viola), Mota (electric guitar) and Paiuk (piano) communicate very much on the same level. All three of them just need one word instead of a whole sentence in order to understand each other. The music is relaxed but also intense and concentrated. It appears sober and subtle but it is also evident that the musicians have a very rich vocabular. Their improvisations have many little surprises. Mota has an unique fingerpicking style of playing the electric guitar. The violin in the hands of Rodrigues sounds very warm and his playing has great depth.
Music must be experienced live in order to be enjoyed at the max, which is with no doubt the case for improvised music. On the other hand, it must be said, that the improvisations on ‘Dorsal’ surprisingly survived their way onto CD. Very well recorded and a joy to listen to.
The same can be said for “Contre-plongée” that was recorded in the same month as ‘Dorsal”: october 2003 at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studios in Lisbon. Again we hear Rodrigues on violin and viola, accompanied by Gerhard Uebele (violin), Guilherme Rodrigues (violin) and José Oliveira (acoustic guitar, inside piano). It is subtitled as >six cuts for string quartet=, so I=m inclined to think that the cuts are taking from one session. According to information on the cover the cuts seem not to be in a chronological order on the cd, for some reason that I cannot determine. So if you want you can >restore= the original sequence. The dynamic third part is originally the opening piece of their session. Compared to ‘Dorsal’ the music is darker and more introvert here. Allthough I experienced a lack of tension at some moments, at other moments the four built something fascinating and beautiful together. It may seem a paradox, but in spite of their radical approach the music is ‘unspectacular’ at first hearing and wants to be good friends with silence. But don’t let this be misunderstood, because both cd’s as also his earlier work proof that Rodrigues is a very interesting improviser and creator of a very human music (DM).
Address: http://www.creativesources.com
THE PAPER CHASE MEETS RED WORMS’ FARM (Split CD by Robotradio)
Robotradio is a new label from Italy and this is their first release. Like many labels they begin with the intention to make something interesting using the weirdest gizmos you find at home while your imagination plays the biggest role of all. Music, comics, cartoons and movies are some of the things that inspired the label owner, he also had an idea to start series of CDs featuring some of the people whose creativity has influenced him over the years, so it was logical Robotradio to become a label that will combine these things into something that would unite artists, comic drawers, designers, video artists together into series of CDs in which every one of them can have a space of their own. In this first release that formula of releasing unreleased tracks from one Italian and one band from abroad, couple of remixes and a couple of video clips (animation, computer graphic or photo works ) is realized. All digipack covers, as well as this one, are designed by comic drawer. On this, practically, split release the Italian band is Red Worms’ Farm and the one from abroad, in this case USA, is Paper Chase. If one song is by Red Worms’ Farm then the next would be by Paper Chase, and so on. The sound of these bands is guitar oriented. Red Worms’ Farm are balanced between post punk and noise, between Fugazi’s punk attitude and Sonic Youth’s melodic vocals and guitars. The Paper Chase are somewhere around here despite being a bit harder, oriented to the old Chicago/Touch and Go sound and the Washington punk rock aesthetics. So in comparison here we can mention bands like Shellac, Fugazi, Girls against Boys, Don Caballero, Uzeda. taking the hard bass from Shellac, hard piano from Girls against Boys, sharp and guitars from Rodan. Just the remixes for two of their tracks are quite more calm or electronic. And of course two videos are included so that the concept is fully realized. One is for Red Worms’ track ‘Pop song’ and other is for Paper Chase’s ‘I’m Your Doctor Now’ both directed by Founthead. All in all, this is an interesting conceptual release that combines music, comic and video art and with this intention it is completely successful. (TD)
Address: http://www.robotradiorecords.com
RICHARD PINHAS – TRANZITION (CD by Cuneiform)
RICHARD PINHAS – EVENT AND REPETITIONS (CD by Cuneiform)
Richard Pinhas is one of France’s major experimental musicians, pioneers of electronic sound, essential figure in the development of electronic rock. His status in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream’s in Germany. His experimenting with electronics and electronic works is precursors to industrial and techno music and his guitar work can be compared with Robert
Fripp’s. After taking his degree in guitar on 17 he formed his first band in 1968 and than as philosophy student at Sorbonne he formed Schizo, his second band. He received PhD in philosophy studying with Gilles Deluze. Than he focused on his third band Heldon with which they released 7 albums from 1974-78. Pinhas also released 5 solo albums simultaneously with Heldon work until 1982. In 1984 he left music re-focusing on philosophy but he returned in 1990. Cuneiform is starting with reissuing Heldon and Pinhas works in 1991 and also releasing his new solo albums as well as collaborations with artists as Peter Frohmader (Fossil Culture), John Livengood and Pascal Comelade. He also formed and ongoing project Schizotrope with French cyber punk author Maurice Dantec that fused guitar, electronics and spoken words from texts by Dantec and Deluze. They have one live recording on Cuneiform (The Life and Death of Marie Zorn). ‘Tranzition’ is album recorded in his Heldon Electronic Studio, some of guitars were recorded live and everything was mixed down at Heldon and Ramses Studio. In producing his tracks, he just use guitar, processing systems and electronics but on this one he has some drums (Philippe Simon), violin (Antonie Paganotti), additional electronics and vocal samples (Jerome Schmidt). Tracks are slow, quiet and long, slowly evolving in their ten to twenty four minutes. Ambient guitar flow is supported by subtle and beautiful melodic electronics and broken drum rhythm structure. Trancey feeling is evident and always present. You can easily flow together with the sound stream that will carry you somewhere far into your mind. Recommended for krautrock fans of Can or Neu!, new ambient listeners of Pub or Vladislav Delay, as well as for those who like noise and improv sound. Pinhas is just using guitar to make electronic music and ambient but he still sound fresh, contemporary and not obsolete. Since we already know about Pinhas from his previous release we can immediately start listening his latest release. Pinhas’ new solo album on Cuneiform, Event and Repetitions, features over 75 minutes of music performed live on guitar recorded directly to a digital recorder in his Heldon studio in Paris. All tracks are made using only guitar and processing systems. In this extraordinary long tracks, walls of guitar noise and
ambient interweave into one another building new solid sound structure. Sheets of deep rhythmless guitar pads create sound textures that weave and meander throughout the whole time. In all of the 25 minutes, as much as a single track lasts, layers of sound and feedback slowly are evolving from quiet to a loud state and vice versa forming subtle guitarscape. Nothing else happens, but with all this richness of sound, you don’t need more. Just give yourself up to this cold river of sound and let the sound flow carry you away to the strange and unknown spaces of your subconscious. (TD)
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com
AIDAN BAKER – AT THE BASE OF THE MIND IS COILED A SERPENT (CD by Le Cri De La Harpe)
CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU – COSMET NIHIL (CD by Le Cri De La Harpe)
More Aidan Baker’s music launched into the world. I got this album on cdr first from Aidan, but then I also got it from the label Le Cri De La Harpe which released it on cd with a wonderful cover design. The music is more on the ambient, calmer side, which is fine to hear from Aidan. As with the previous live release ‘Field of drones’ I reviewed in Vital 447, all sounds here are produced by electric guitar too, something Baker is known for – making droney ambience with guitar as a main instrument. Most of the tracks here are longer, more than 10 minutes. The atmosphere is mostly relaxed, stretched ambient passages. The source material is recorded live in Toronto in April 2003 and then re-worked, manipulated and restructured in July 2003, so this may be a studio counter-part of the completely live record ‘Field of drones’. Aidan Baker produces a lot of music, keeping a decent quality level. Another fine album, nice to see it on cd.
With a different sound and lesser length, but also in a great cover-design on the same label comes the album ‘Cosmet nihil’ by Christophe Bailleau of whom I haven’t heard before. This is quite interesting, on a more fragile side of experimenting. The info says that Christophe, born in France and lives in Brussels, also makes poetic, bizarre short movies, as well as sound installations and sculptures. He has a track on a compilation from the Belgian label Kraak-3 and have released music on other lesser known labels too. It also says, and I agree, that Christophe Bailleau makes music in the tradition of people like Microstoria or Jim O’Rourke. In the best of their tradition, I’d add. Being their fan quite a lot I like this too. Acoustics (guitar, voices, percussions) presented through digital means, that kind of sensibility. Improvising with gentler sounds, less harshness more adventure. This is also not pretentious at all. It’s equally interesting in the longer and in the shorter tracks. Great music. (BR)
Address: http://www.lecridelaharpe.com
STILLUPSETYPA (CD by Atak)
STEINBRUCHEL & KIM CASCONE & JASON KAHN (CD by Atak)
Last year Japanese label Atak released a 60 artist compilation, who all did short sound pieces protesting wars, especially the one in Iraq. They just released a few new CDs. Stillupsteypa is certainly one of the more stranger groups on planet earth. Starting out as an improvising band about a decade ago, then moving towards electronica, later on laptops and now they play… erm well yes, errmm they play electronic music again. It’s combination of laptop electronica but they add a whole bunch of old analogue rhythmboxes to it. Plain and simple, which occassionally work well, such as in the 8th and 9th piece (no titles here), but sometimes it seems to me that the whole thing is put together in somewhat great haste. Like the start and immediate stop of a rhythm that then starts out in the next track. Unless of course I miss out some conceptual notion about this. The sixteenth track is the longest one and seems to me the most worked out track. Here they hark back to their previous laptop work involving field recordings and sound processing. That’s the way I like best.
The second one is by Steinbruchel, Kim Cascone and Jason Kahn, aka the topside of ambient laptop electronica. The material on this CD was recorded in concert by the three of them, but the original recording is not enclosed here. Instead we get eleven reworked pieces, two by Cascone, three by Kahn and six by Steinbruchel. With all Atak releases, the information is printed on the disc itself, so while playing the CD it’s impossible to tell who did which track, but it’s hardly of any importance. There is a strong sense of similarity among the tracks (maybe at times an all too strong similar approach), which makes this into a strong but also long disc. It could have easily been a bit shorter… Long but nice pieces anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://atak.jp
RUTH BARBERAN – CAPACIDAD DE PERDIDA (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
FERRAN FAGES – A CAVALL ENTRE DOS CAVALLS (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
XAVIER CHARLES & BERTRAND DENZLER & JEAN-SEABSTIAN MARIAGE & MATHIEU WERCHOWSKI – METZ (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
FREDERIC BLONDY & JEAN-SEABSTIAN MARIAGE & DAN WABURTON – L’ECORCE CHANTE LA FORET (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
UTE WASSERMANN & BIRGIT ULHER – KUNSTSTOFF (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
A sigh escaped my mouth when I opened this parcel. No less than five CDs from the world of improvisation. That would keep me busy for some time. For one or the other reason I expected them to be along similar lines, but it turned out to be partly so. Two discs contain solo improvised works. Ruth Barberan, a new name for me, plays solo trumpet. But this playing is not so much a standard playing, or the production of mouth sounds, but Barberan uses the instrument as a kind of electro-acoustic object to play. Especially in the first and third this becomes obvious. Here it sounds more like closely miked acoustic objects and not anything like a trumpet. In the second and fourth piece Barberan’s playing comes closer to that of Axel Dörner, whose playing is more like sound poetry then like a trumpet. A fascinating release.
On a total opposite we find the solo disc by guitar player Ferran Fages, one of the leading Portugese improvisers. He plays electric guitar here and has fifteen (although the covers gives thirteen titles) pieces of subdued playing. Strumming notes and chords in very short pieces, almost like sketches. Fages pays tribute I think to Mazzacane Connors in his open, spacious sounds. Desolate road music, strongely melancholic, and chilling to the bone. Almost un-improvised, I’d say.
The first group improvisation is by Xavier Charles (clarinet), Betrand Denzler (tenor saxophone), Jean-Sebastian Mariage (electric guitar) and Mathieu Werhowski (violin). Their ‘Metz’ piece was recorded in concert, in the French city of Metz of course. The thirty-two minute piece is a calm and introspective piece of music that slowly unfolds its beauty. Each of the instruments gets his time to develop and showcase itself. Each of the four players manages to keep things under control and no big counterpoint is there, but the soft and elegant flow maintains throughout.
Also on the more conventional instruments and methods of playing is the disc by Frederic Blondy (piano), Jean-Sebastian Mariage (electric guitar) and Dan Warburton on violin. The recordings here are also made in concert, albeit some time ago, 2001. Their playing is more stretched out and more empty, compared to the ‘Metz’ disc. Most of the time they seem to be making less sound, but occassionally leap forward with short outbursts of hectic and frantic playing. However in ‘Sleep, Perchance To Dream’ they lull the listener into sleep with sheer inaudible playing. Nice one too.
I was least convinced by the disc by Ute Wassermann (voice) and Birgit Ulher (trumpet). With ten tracks/sixty minutes this is a long album to start with, and the variations of sounds – none of them really conventionally played – is a bit limited. Sometimes I had the impression that the voice was imitating the trumpet and vice versa, making this is into a nice game of sorts but as said the variations aren’t too widely spread over this disc, making it into a nice but too lenghty experience. One could have delt with forty minutes too, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesources.com
STORM BUGS – UP THE MIDDLE DOWN THE SIDES (LP by Fusetron)
There is a certain humor and lackadasical attitude with these songs that were “rediscovered” by digging through old recordings from 1978-1982. Storm Bugs were virtually unknown save for a handful of lucky souls until 2000 when they appeared on the bootleg LP “I Hate The Pop Group”, a CD of their finer moments appeared via Snatch Tapes, and in 2002 an ep of new material appeared on Klanggalerie. So this is the 3rd release overall, but i guess it would be the
2nd chronologically speaking. A collage aesthetic seems most active in the assembly of the songs and the overall childlike innocence is disarming, as it puts you at ease despite the fact that you are listening to some fairly random sounding cut-ups of old cassette recordings. My only complaint is the sound of someone peeing in a bottle interupts some of the nicer moments on side A, and as if that isn’t enough it does it again on side B. Theres some lo-fi industrial banging, vocal loop passages, pastoral ambience,….. a little something for everyone really. Thanks to Fusetron for documenting this quirky, but charming material. (CJ)
Address: http://www.fusetronsound.com/
SORT MEL – SORT JUL (3″CD by Melektronikk)
Norwegian label Melektronikk is a strange label. Recentely they released a charming 3″CDR by Düplo, and now an even stranger 3″CD (not a CDR) of Sort Mel – that is in Norwegian Woods ‘Black Flour’. Two boys that wander around the Norwegian fleamarkets, searching for early Norwegian popmusic. At home they sample the old 78s into very elegant popmusic. Organ sounds, vinyl scratch, people talking, even tubalar bells to evoke that special christmas feeling. Because yes, as noted last week, it’s that time of the year again, and Sort Mel sort their record collection and under the ‘C’ of christmas tunes they found a whole bunch of obscure tunes from Norway’s musical finest history. Slightly processed these tunes step aside from any sort of regular plunderphonica, simply because they lack the political or social rammifications. Sort Mel seems much more concerned about sound itself. If this needs a reference, I’d say it comes close to Vance Orchestra’s sound. Very nice indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.melektronikk.com
FREIBAND – MARTIN (SEVEN [NEW] ASPECTS) (3″CDR by Tibprod)
With Joy Division I’m most familiar from their album Closer, which is the only one of their releases that I’ve heard and have until now. I also know songs like Atmosphere, Love will tear us apart, She’s lost control and others that are not part of Closer, but I haven’t heard their other official releases from start to finish, besides some badly sounding bootleg. However, Closer and reading about them gave me a good idea about the band and I’m fan of that album and of them. For this EP, as it’s explained in the inlay of the 3″cdr, Freiband uses sounds from Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures, or more precisely he uses some “false” sounds from that album which are there thanks to the producer Martin Hannett. Those sounds are some faint clicks at the beginning of some tracks, or guitar being strumm, or an extra drum sound in She’s lost control etc…, which are there because, I’ll quote the text in the inlay: “Martin Hannett produced the album late at night, while under the influence of massive drug intake.” Freiband read this in a book by Chris Ott about Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. This is his way of a tribute to Martin/Joy Division, by making some Freiband music with it. So, there’s a diversity in these 7 [new] tracks/aspects to Martin’s production. In some the sound is loop based, like Goem, or it’s more atmospheric, with a slight industrial touch to it. And even when I haven’t heard Unknown Pleasures, I’m reminded of the atmosphere of Closer. It works quite alright. Maybe making another one longer industrial drone piece with those sounds would be a nice idea? (BR)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
SHIFTS – VERTONEN 16 (CDR by EeTapes)
In a edition of 100 copies Eetapes offers a new CDR by Shifts, a side-soloproject of Frans de Waard. He started this project in 1995 and defines it as an “ongoing exploration in the world of guitars”. ‘Vertonen 16’ being his 16th step in this research I suppose, results in one lengthy ambient piece lasting some 33 minutes.
In order to describe the experience of listening to this music I would like to make the following comparison. Imagine yourself looking at a very abstract painiting. A painting even more abstract then the painting (by Frans de Waard) that is on the cover of this release. Imagine a square painted smoothly in just one colour. After concentrating at it for some time, it is as if ‘things’ start to move and to flow in the painting. Of course you know you are imagining it, but on the other hand, it looks as if things really start to move. Listening to the new Shifts CDR is a similar experience. We hear just ‘one’ sound moving slowly ahead with no shifts at all for about half an hour. Because there are no shifts, it’s not correct to say that the piece ‘moves’. In a way development, progress and even duration are no fitting concepts here. It’s a very static and ‘timeless’ music. But by listening closely to the piece it starts to reveal many little changes at a microscopic level and within a very limited range. You start to ask yourself whether these changes are real or effected in the mind like the moving of the colours. So you end up in an ambigious soundworld and that’s an interesting experience. Also an enjoyable one, because de Waard created some nice rich sounds that didn’t bore me at all. So whether imagined or real, in the end this is not relevant. Because one way or the other: it really Shifts! (DM)
Address: www.eetapes.be
MONOID – PATTERN HIDING (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
SOUND 00 – SUMMER 666 (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
STAPLERFAHRER – DEPTHS IN PERCEPTION (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
CARL KRUGER – HELLO OSLO (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
GUIGNOL DANGEREUX – DI MARINETTI E D’INTORNI (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
A whole bunch of new 3″ CDRs by Tibprod here, both introducing new names aswell as presenting some regular artists from their stable. Behind Monoid is one Martin Steinebach, who has releases on labels such as Art Konkret, A&T, Tosom, Error315, DTA and Blade Records under such various guises as Stillstand, Conscientia Peccati and Monoid. A whole bunch, but mostly went unnoted by me, except for a previous release on the Tosom label (see Vital Weekly 316). As Monoid he plays around with concrete sounds objects, such as metal and plastics and creates small rhythmical textures with them which lie in the foreground of the pieces, whilst the background is filled with some more nasty but stretched sounds, which are the best of both the world of ambient and industrial music. It’s too easy to put this as aside as ‘just’ clicks ‘n cuts stuff, because Monoid goes beyond that and offers a much more rawer and intense form of the click n cuts genre.
Somebody who works under various guises is Toni Dimitrov. He’s known as Sound OO, Every Kid On Speed or Every Kid On Acid. Each of these names convey a certain style in sound. As Sound 00 he plays the card of noise music. His previous 3″CDR for Tibprod was more rhythm like and had short tracks. On Summer 666 he goes into a new direction: one long track based on harsh noise, almost Merzbow-like in approach and just like the great master this noise is entirely based on digital distortions made with the use of computers. Certainly one for the lovers of Merzbow, who think there is not enough Merzbow around.
‘Depths In Perception’ is the follow-up of ‘Scsi vs Ata’, also on Tibprod (see Vital Weekly 392) by fellow Dutch man Stefan de Turck. The long gap has been used to produce these eight tracks of microscopic sounds, but I’m told that Stefan is also using circuit-bending to generate his sounds. I think this new release is a major step forward. He combines ‘real’ samples of instruments with sounds that are fully loaded with plugins. With these samples at hand he manages to craft almost melody like stuff in these small sketch like tunes. Breaking away from the really abstract microsound and moving towards a more poppy sound.
Even more tracks can be found on ‘Hello Oslo’, ten to be precise. In Vital Weekly 437 I encountered his music for the first time and wasn’t overtly enthusiastic. His use of rhythms and cut-ups were alright, but not great. On ‘Hello Oslo’ things have changed in that respect that he still uses rhythms and cut-ups, but overall his music has become a bit more noiser. Quite dynamic stuff indeed, with lots of things happening all over the sound spectrum, but I am still not convinced by his music. It’s too chaotic and still on the safe side of things.
Guignol Dangereux has already released a whole bunch of stuff on Tibprod but on his ‘Di Marinetti E D’Intorni’ he continues his previous 3″CDR release ’40n43 74w0′: two theremins, samples and electronics are used in this live improvisation (and apperentely comes close to his live concerts). Unlike ’40n43 74w0′, Guignol Dangereux uses more upfront rhythms, almost in a technoid way. Chilling electronics play an important part. Guignol Dangereux comes closer to his more regular work here, although bridging it with his more ambient tunes. Very much an ok release too. As usual, I’d say. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
BALUN – WHILE SLEEPING (OGG by Observatory)
Some of the most interesting music I’ve found out recently is from the artists who have released their EPs on Observatory. Pity I didn’t have enough time to check out and tell you who Balun are, but, as usual, and I’ve mentioned this before, you can check the greatly designed site of the net-label Observatory for all the info and to download them. Balun are like a prototype for songwriting music. Childish lo-fi indie moments can be noticed, even naivety. But Balun are not doing the experimental songwriting stuff, like Shugo Tokumaru, Davide Balula or Pasif Perifrastik mentioned in Vital Weekly 446 and 449. Instead, they’re just being simple. I’ll enjoy their music not knowing who they are for a while. Balun are specially recommended to fans of Talk Talk. (BR)
Address: http://www.observatoryonline.org