DAVID KRISTIAN – SWEET BITS (CD by Monochrome)
GOEM (CD by Atak)
MARSEN JULES – HERBSTLAUB (CD by City Centre Offices)
DANIEL MENCHE – DRUNK GODS (CD by Lapilli)
THE HAFLER TRIO – HOW TO REFORM MANKIND (CD by Korm Plastics)
J.O. MALLANDER – MORE TIME – HITS & VARIATIONS 1968-1970 (CD by Anoema Recordings)
KODI & PAUSA – BROMBRON 07: IN ONE WEEK AND NEW TOYS TO PLAY (CD by Korm Plastics)
LATER DAYS – SONGS OF THE WATCHMAKER (CD by Scarcelight)
CHCUK BETTIS – SONIC SIGILS (3″CD by Scarcelight)
LIM – EMBRACING HUSH (3″CDR by Scarcelight)
BRIDLE WIRE – DAMPER STRING (3″CDR by Scarcelight)
MARTUX_M – EXCEPTIO (CD by DSP Records)
DARRIN VERHAGEN – D/CLASSIFIED (CD by Dorobo)
THE NESHAMA ALMA BAND & ZZAJ – 2 Join Occult (CD by Zzaj Productions)
JASON KAHN & JASON LESCALLEET – RED ROOM (CD by Chloe Recordings)
ABER DAS LEBEN LEBT – PERFECT TEEN (CD by Niesom)
DAVID LIPP – IN IMMER: LOVE (CD by Niesom)
GELEE ROYALE – WIR SCHEISSEN NICHT DANEBEN (CD by Niesom)
MAREK – IT’S THESE MAGIC MOMENTS THAT I’M LIVING FOR (CD by Niesom)
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – BROKEN VESSELS (CDR by Mystery Sea)
CORPOPARASSITA – CORPO SBAGLIATO-ERA SBAGLIATA (CDR by Tosom)
STILLSTAND – KREUZUNG (CDR by Tosom)
NULLKOMMAJOSEPH – INFIDEL! (CDR by Tosom)
ST (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
GRAHAM MOORE – 32:19 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
FILTHY THURD – NOISEMANURE #2 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
HIRMKRAMPF – 1 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
KAZUMICHI GRIME – MU (MP3 by Conv)
DAVID KRISTIAN – SWEET BITS (CD by Monochrome)
Without being a really big fan of David Kristian, I have always followed his work with interest. If I was fan I would have sought out all those releases on labels as Ninja Tune, Lo Recordings, Wikkid Records or those others who never make their way to Vital Weekly. But those labels that do, such as Alien8, Piehead and of course Suction, maybe not give the complete Kristian picture, but what I heard made me always keen enough. On this new CD, Kristian leaves any ambient aside and returns to the purest robot sound possible, the sound that Suction Records is known for, even when this CD is on a label called Monochrome. Thirteen pieces of elektro rhythms, warm analogue synths that either produce spacey sci-fi sounds or a cosy little melody. Each of the pieces are nicely minimal, taking the right amount of time to develop. That may be then the only problem I have with this CD: with thirteen of these lenghty tracks it’s altogether a lenghty affair. With this kind of music I think I’d like it to be shorter as a total (even when the individual tracks need the length to develop). Right after the seventh track ‘Eleven Forty Four’ (which sounds heavily like Pan Sonic bytheway) it would have been a good ending. On the other hand: you could think that you get two albums on one CD! Once again, for lovers of real robotic electro music, this is the place to be. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochrome.ca
GOEM (CD by Atak)
Here are the mighty Goem again, actually here is this time, because usually Goem is trio but on this album it’s only Frans de Waard. Frans got access to the sound studio connected to the local art event Extrapool, where he’ve found a wide array of vintage synthesizers which he used to make the recordings for this new Goem album. A while ago I was told by Frans that he wanted to take the Goem sound into a new different direction. And changes can be well noted on this new release. At the end, track ten sounds as lounge music, reminding very much of Andrew Pekler from Scape Records. The excellent track two is drum’n’bass/techno in Goem’s terms, with a really pointed out rhythm. These changes are pretty good, refreshing and I’ll leave you discover the others if you hear the album. Which, by the way, is on my list of 10 best albums in 2004. Although, from the other Frans-related releases in the previous year I’d select ‘Drone works #5’ EP on Twenty Hertz (see Vital 447) also as my favourite. (BR)
Address: http://atak.jp
MARSEN JULES – HERBSTLAUB (CD by City Centre Offices)
Another interesting release on the nice label City Centre Offices. In my book (actually in the folders in my brain) CCO are a label for some of the most sophisticated pop music in the past few years and today. It’s a pleasure keeping up with their new releases. Marsen Jules, on other hand, is known for his Krill.Minima and Falter music released by Thinner/Autoplate, being mainly in the atmospheric/dubby ambient areas. So, there it is. Unlike Ulrich Schnauss, Static, Arovane or Christian Kleine, some of the artists City Centre Offices is most known for, Marsen Jules (aka Martin Juhls, that’s his real name) goes into ambient, no beats, no catchy melodies. Instead there are 6 catchy atmospheres on this album. Even when it’s not explicit pop as the music of the before mentioned artists, ‘Herbstlaub’ is pretty much pop ambient of the finest kind. Just a little unsettling in the second track, bringing in some diversity, but all other tracks are very calming and peaceful. Sometimes Martin mixes samples of classical instruments/music with the electronics, other times guitar/string sounds. All of that is perfectly combined, in the best manners of what today can be considered as majestic pop ambience. Beautiful music. (BR)
Address: http://www.city-centre-offices.de
DANIEL MENCHE – DRUNK GODS (CD by Lapilli)
Daniel Menche is on my list of best discoveries in 2004. I know now he has been releasing music since the early 90s, but the first time I found out about him and heard his music was in the previous year. Still, I’ve heard just a little so far, compared to what Menche has released. But I’m most curious in every new thing I have a chance to listen from him. So, besides ‘Skadha’ released by Antifrost, this is the second Daniel Menche release I have. ‘Drunk Gods’ is an EP with 1 track of 20 minutes, the second release on Lapilli Recordings run by Scott Taylor, who also makes interesting music and have released it so far on Sijis, Touch and Conv.
‘Drunk Gods’ is an intense 20mins piece, the speakers can sure bleed from it, as Menche says in one interview. But it’s not only about nonarticulated noise. It starts calmly but still directly, even when the sounds are quieter at first. And it builds it’s own tension, not becoming too much harsh noise, but still powerful. Focusing your attention on the changes through it, patiently developing into great music. One of the most interesting things I found out about Menche is that he works on the music with a sound engineer, who helps him to achieve the fullest spectrum of sound. ‘Drunk Gods’ may be noise, but it’s the most musical noise I’ve heard. Very inspiring. (BR)
Address: http://www.lapilli.org
THE HAFLER TRIO – HOW TO REFORM MANKIND (CD by Korm Plastics)
This album have been originally released by Touch in 1992, when I was 12 years old and probably listening Roxette, U2 and Guns&Roses. Now, about 12 years later, it’s re-issued by the fine label for various selective kinds of music – Korm Plastics from The Netherlands. So, now is the first time I’ve had a chance to listen to this release, actually it’s also the first release ever I’m listening from The Hafler Trio, that’s Andrew McKenzie. I was curious to hear something from The Hafler Trio after reading many positive reviews about his music here at Vital. And I like it, quite a lot. ‘How to reform mankind’ is made of 7 pieces with various lengths. The music is generally in the stretched-out atmospheric areas, more unsettling compared to the regular ambient, or in other words it’s what’s considered to be drone music these days. There are (post)industrial moments sometimes, as in tracks 4, 5 and elsewhere, with a slight noisy touch. One of the best things in this music is that, as Daniel Menche for example and others too, while being experimental it’s also very musical. It doesn’t lose it’s musical contents for the sake of the experiments with the sound. As Troum the previous year, The Hafler Trio will be on my list of the best discoveries in 2005. (BR)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl and http://www.brainwashed.com/h3o
J.O. MALLANDER – MORE TIME – HITS & VARIATIONS 1968-1970 (CD by Anoema Recordings)
Years and year ago, a beautiful exhibition of records was organised in Berlin: Broken Music. It delt with records (vinyl) made by visual artists. The only Finnish contribution to the exhibition is by one J.O. Mallander. He is an artist involved in the Finnish Undeground movement, member of the music-performance collective Sperm, but also a writer, gallerist and curator. This CD contains his LP, his 7″ and an unreleased piece. The 7″, from 1968, is called Extended Play and both sides are called ‘Kekkonen’, the famous president of Finland, to some a hero and to other a democratically elected dictator. Both sides of the record are the same: the word kekkonen being repeated for about six minutes. The unreleased piece is for the Text-Sound festival in Stockholm from 1969 and is a plunderphonic collage of various versions of ‘I Got You Under My Skin’ – an utter stereo track, until it slips into loops of ‘In Reality’, that somehow stays close to it’s original until moving into the phased loops. In 1970 he made his last recorded work, the LP ‘Decompositions’. On the six tracks of this LP he works with other records as his source material. Probably not an original idea by today’s standards, but maybe more so shocking in 1970. Mainly jazz records skipping and other audible faults in the vinyl are manipulated. Again by current turntable standards not the greatest thing. Even though I thought this was a very nice, and can see the historical interest in this, I wonder who would actually go out and get it. True collectors would want the original and that’s a pity. It’s a nice art record anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anoema.com
KODI & PAUSA – BROMBRON 07: IN ONE WEEK AND NEW TOYS TO PLAY (CD by Korm Plastics)
The idea behind the Brombron series may be well-known to you: “In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn’t have the time or the equipment to realize” (promo-info).
For the seventh edition Natalie Bruys (Kodi) and Lukas Simonis (Pausa) occupied the Extrapool territories. Natalie Bruys started as a visual artist but nowadays she is more and more involved in the world of sound and techno. Lukas Simonis wrote history with bands like Dull Schicksal, Morzelpronk, a.o. ApricotMyLady (with the Bohman Brothers and Ann Laberge), The Static Tics (with Henk Bakker) and Vril (with Chris Cutler and Bob Drake) are some of his more recent collaborations.
Did Kodi and Pausa they feel at home in the Extrapool-studio? Yes, I think so because they left 10 tracks behind that found there way to this cd. The title of this cd suggests that both didn’t work from an underlying concept. It simply describes the context: being one week in a studio working with the available possibilities and instruments. And this it. It is difficult to trace what toys they played with. If I’m not mistaken I hear good old synthesizer sounds. But also guitar, banjo (!), and several sounds and voices they took from the environment. In most pieces the result is more close to soundscape and collage then to music. The first track shows maybe most clearly the techno background of Kodi and the guitar-improv style of Pausa. Track 5 is a demented Residents-like tune. Track 7 combines all these aspects of Kodi and Pausa and is the most successfull track in my opinion: a childlike tune, beats and environmental sounds are united here.
Although not all pieces impressed me, the atmosphere throughout the cd is a pleasant one. Both musicians have a fresh non-academic approach. Both feel no need to complicate and analyse things endlessly. Spontaneous music, that’s what it is(DM).
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
LATER DAYS – SONGS OF THE WATCHMAKER (CD by Scarcelight)
CHCUK BETTIS – SONIC SIGILS (3″CD by Scarcelight)
LIM – EMBRACING HUSH (3″CDR by Scarcelight)
BRIDLE WIRE – DAMPER STRING (3″CDR by Scarcelight)
Scarcelight have set themselves to a fierce release campaign, both on CDs and CDRs. These are four new one just released. Later Days, aka Wayne Jackson, debuted on Fallt with a 3″CD (part of the 24 3″CD series) and ‘Songs Of The Watchmaker’ is his full length debut. He is “is intrigued by the complexity of emergent systems, both natural and computational”, sometimes building his own software. The nine pieces of this CD however do not sound ‘computized’ at all, I think. It’s rather a tribute to the serious electronic avant-garde of forty or so years ago. If it would have said on the cover ‘everything composed with analogue synths’, I would have easily believed that aswell. Sounds swirl in and out in ‘Squiggle For Sol’ or sound ambientesque in ‘Audiomata’ – the only easy thing to compare this with is Jack Dangers’ recent soundtrack to Forbidden Planet. The pieces do not sound outdated because of the references to old avant-garde, but are rather fresh and vibrant. Warm sci-fi music.
Whoever Chuck Bettis I don’t know, nor wether this is his first release. There are eight relatively short pieces on this 3″CD (that looks like a 5″) of manipulated computer music, or computerized manipulations of music, whichever way you turn the wheel. Occassionally quite noisy, and then going back into a more relaxing mood, but the pieces were not convincing enough for me. It’s hard to pin down what it is that I didn’t like about these recordings, maybe it was just a question of the sounds themselves being a bit dull and nothing really captivating going on. Heard it before and better, I guess.
Behind Lim is one Darren Milos from Conneticut and the four pieces on ‘Embracing Hush’ are all based on “15sec. flute sample from this New Haven, CT. kind of prog/psych band, that my mom’s friend gave me an LP of.” By means of computer manipulation – again – he creates four distinct ambient pieces with them, which are mainly the treatments of the static of the original vinyl, at least so it seems. Like the Chuck Bettis release, there isn’t something I never heard before, but the result is much nicer. The piece seem to be levitating a bit, with a good ambient flow without being too cliche or kitsch.
Also new to me is Bridle Wire, aka Thaniel Lee, from New Albany, IN. His work was entirely constructed from using piano sounds samples. You surely heard that tune before, but Bridle Wire is a man who loves to layer his sounds ad infinitum. At various speeds these sounds drop in and out and maybe there is a moment when you hear just a few layers, overall it’s a densely layered drone noise piece with classical references, especially related to the New York scene around Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth’s side projects. Quite scary but nice indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://scarcelight.org
MARTUX_M – EXCEPTIO (CD by DSP Records)
Now maybe Martux_m is not a familiar name, the man behind it, Maurizio Martusciello, is perhaps known for his releases on KIP or maybe his recent split LP with Kaffe Matthews on Stichting Mixer aswell as being a member of Z_E_L_L_E and Metaxu. ‘Exceptio’ is the final work that begain with a live-visual performance in Rome, inspired to Agamben’s “Homo Sacer’. “Exceptio is an inner reflection about history and its recurrences”. In seven pieces he depicts duality: cold vs warm, war vs peace, fire vs water, etc. He does this with great care. Moving in the usual areas of microsound, he has a deep ambient glitch sound: stretched out fields of sound, argumented by small, microscopic clicks, but minimally changed and repeated. It’s hard to hear the duality mentioned, but for sure these seven pieces are some of the finest ambient glitch musics around. Maybe not entirely original with nods to say Stephan Mathieu, this is nevertheless the best work I heard from him to date, solo and group works alike. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dsprecords.com
DARRIN VERHAGEN – D/CLASSIFIED (CD by Dorobo)
Maybe Darrin Verhagen is one of the better known musicians from Australian’s underground music scene, for his many releases on his own Dorobo imprint, either under his own name of his band Shinjuku Thief. His music goes into many directions, the somewhat gothic sounds of Shinjuku Thief or the detailed microscopic sounds of his solo work. In between is ‘D/Classified’, announced as ‘music for computer games’. Now I’m way to old to be involved with computer games, so for this reason alone it’s hard for me to relate to this music. Also I can’t tell wether this material is for an existing game or not. But it’s also the music itself that troubles me. Based heavily on methods of sampling orchestral sounds and techno/drum & bass rhythms, this is a forceful release of bombastic sounding material. It’s majestic, bombastic or maybe even pathetic tone don’t appeal to me at all. Maybe it’s now official that I am just too old? (FdW)
Address: http://home.mira.net/~dorobo/dorobo.html
THE NESHAMA ALMA BAND & ZZAJ – 2 JOIN OCCULT (CD by Zzaj Productions)
The Neshama Alma Band is Ernesto Diaz-Infante (vocals, acoustic guitar, 4-track, sampler) and Marjorie Sturm (flute and lyrics). They are accompanied here by Rotcod Zajj (Dick Metcalf) on keyboards. I’ve never heard before a record with this mad professor Rotcod Zajj. This may explain why his contributions impressed me above all. He plays some unidentifiable organs and keyboards in a jazzy style. They have a very specific lovely sound. Hope to hear more from this guy who is around already for quite a while.
Diaz-Infante transformed Zzaj’s keyboards together with other sounds and instruments into a solid wall of noisy sounds. In other tracks the jazzy playing by Zzaj stays in tact. From time to time the flute playing by Marjorie Sturm pops up. Far from prominent but a surprising presence in the soundjungle Diaz-Infante creates. Diaz-Infante recites the lyrics that were written by Sturm in his typical non-singing style that we know from other recordings. By the way, if you are collecting versions of “Are you sleeping Brother John”, in the last track on this cd you have one.
But what strikes me most on this cd is it’s atmosphere. There is some strange kind of mystic here. And if the secret of this mystic is the working together of these three musicians I hope they will continue to do so (DM).
Address: http://home.comcast.net/~rotcod
JASON KAHN & JASON LESCALLEET – RED ROOM (CD by Chloe Recordings)
Usually I put in a CD, press the play button and wait for what’s to come. I usually don’t look at the record very much, or read the press blurb. So I knew I had a CD on Jason Kahn and Jason Lescalleet, but was clueless wether this was a live recording or some studio/mail collaboration. I assumed Kahn was in his usual laptop/percussion mode and Lescalleet on his vintage reel to reel machines. To my surprise I learned that Jason Kahn plays percussion here and an anlog synthesizer (brand unknown) and Jason Lescalleet plays tapes and a Casio SK1 and a Casio SK5 (for those unaware: very old, very low fi sampling keyboards) and that the four tracks were recorded in live at concert at the Red Room, Baltimore. Red is supposed to have the lowest frequency in the spectrum of visible light. Recordings of the audience are deliberately left inside this recording, and form with the density of the music one thick warm blanket. It’s difficult to say what is what here, whose producing which sound. Too bad of course if you want to find out how an SK5 sounds like, but of course it’s of no real importance to know who is doing what. The four lenghty improvisations are all equally thick and massive in sound and might be classified as ambient. Well, or maybe improvisations? OR? What it is exactely it’s hard to say. It bears resemblance of many different things (ambient, improvisation), but it simply defies these descriptions and moves in perfect isolation itself. Great, thick air. (FdW)
Address: http://www.chloechloe.cc
ABER DAS LEBEN LEBT – PERFECT TEEN (CD by Niesom)
DAVID LIPP – IN IMMER: LOVE (CD by Niesom)
GELEE ROYALE – WIR SCHEISSEN NICHT DANEBEN (CD by Niesom)
MAREK – IT’S THESE MAGIC MOMENTS THAT I’M LIVING FOR (CD by Niesom)
A whole bunch of promotional stuff by the Niesom label, with Niesom standing for Nihil Est Omen (and if my latin is correct that means something like Nothing Is A Sign) and all of the four CDs are by Austrian bands and they are all likewise unknown to me.. More translational work: Aber Das Leben Lebt means, ‘But Life Is Alive’ or some such similar and it’s a three piece band from Austria playing rock music, on their guitars, bass, harmonica, vocals and keyboards. Pretty regular unspectacular rock music I must add, even when they are helped by Bernard Fleischmann or Christof Kurzmann. Seventeen of these tracks is also a lenghty affair for such regular doodlings. Nice girls are portrayed on the cover though. That’s about the only nice thing about this release.
Of more interest I thought was the CD by David Lipp. He is the finger and writer of the Austrian rock outfit ‘4 Experimentelle Die Nur 2 Sind’, but on his solo debut he plays synth, sings and has a rhtythmmachine. Now you can argue if Lipp has a great voice, but his rather flat singing fits the tunes quite well: they too don’t really sparkle and shine brightly, but no doubt that’s related to the subject material of this CD: love – and perhaps not the happy love but the abandonned one, the lost lover and more heartache stuff. No happy stuff here, but the seven songs on this CD sound nevertheless alright for what they are and for this length of material. It’s enough as it is.
Gelee Royale is a duo Martin Max Offenhuber and Franz Adrian Wenzl and since 1998 this is their third full length album. It goes without saying that I didn’t hear those, but I doubt if I would want to seek them out. Not that this is a bad CD in anyway, it’s just that there is only a limited amount of weirdness a person can handle and for the eight tracks on this CD, this is enough for me. Gelee Royale are a bit all over the place with electronic popsongs, metallic percussion, lo-fi weirdness and likewise flat vocals. It’s ok, not great and for me just the right amount.
The last one is by Marek, aka Christopher Marek, a singer songwriter from Austria. He’s a man with a guitar, sparse rhythm and his voice. According to Niesom he is a ‘unique synthesis of Pulp and Calexio, Alex Empire and Johnny Cash’. Elsewhere they call it an urbanised Will Oldham. It’s pretty raw and emotional stuff going on here and which is easily the best of these four new ones, except that this is a way too lenghty release. It would have gained so much more power if it was somewhat more concise in approach, with say half the tracks and half the length. That would have made a really nice album, whereas now it is a heavy burden. With these four releases Niesom played me some recent alternative popmusic for me, but sadly I wasn’t too blown away by it. So, I think I stick to the old alternative popmusics or the real alternative electronics. (FdW)
Address: http://www.niesom.at
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – BROKEN VESSELS (CDR by Mystery Sea)
The second encounter for me with the work of Mathieu Ruhlmann, following his ‘Two Stills Concrete’ on S’Agita (see Vital Weekly 399). For this new work, Ruhlmann (despite his German sounding name from Canada) took his inspiration from a photo by Anselm Kiefer: iron rods in an old bathtub filled with water. To this end Mathieu went to a harbour and recorded sounds there of water, but also ships bouncing against the harbourwalls and the like. Back home the material is transfered to the computer and extremely filtered, although throughout the water sounds can be recognized throughout these three lengthy pieces. Hugh walls of reverb make this into a particular dark ambient work. More Side Effects than Hypnos, if you catch my drift. Maybe some of the processing is too simple (adding reverb is something that is not really an interesting tool when composing), but especially the first two parts have a good combination of water sounds, electronic processings and filtered field recordings. That makes things quite nice for this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
CORPOPARASSITA – CORPO SBAGLIATO-ERA SBAGLIATA (CDR by Tosom)
STILLSTAND – KREUZUNG (CDR by Tosom)
NULLKOMMAJOSEPH – INFIDEL! (CDR by Tosom)
Three new releases by a German label that deal with the more obscured darker edges of likewise dark atmospheric music. Corpoparassita hail from Italy, and they sound like I those previous Italian bands, like old Ain Soph, Sigillum S or Tam Quam Tabula Rasa. Voices play a role for sure, but lyrics not at all. All of sounds are covered with reverb, so that’s hard to say what it is they are doing. Let’s assume for the moment that it is a form of low bit rate sampling with the addition of a forementioned reverb and other effect boxes. None of the six tracks left a good impression on me.
‘Kreuzung’ is the third release by Stillstand on Tosom (see also Vital Weekly 316) and it’s project of Martin Steinebach, who also works as Conscientia Peccati and Monoid. The CDR is subtitled ‘Drei Akutische Verkehrsbeobachtungen’, meaning ‘three acoustic views of traffic’. It is entirely based on a sixty minute recording of traffic, split out in three seperate tracks. There is some additional information in the package, but none of which tells us what it is that Stillstand does with the source material. In some odd way, the traffic itself is hard to be noted in these recordings except for the third track, and some eroded sound is what remains. With this release Stillstand continues to play the classic ambient industrial card, but he does it quite well. Deeply atmospheric, even when it’s a bit low end and low-fi, with minimalist changes throughout. Quite nice.
Previously I reviewed a work by Nullkommajoseph (Vital Weekly 410) which he did with Tscheljabinsk65, but here is a solo work. The two lengthy pieces on this CDR move in the directions of ‘dark drone and atmospherical’ music, with ‘…Jahre Später’ being the more louder beast of the two and ‘Platz Der Freundschaft’ is the winner track with it’s softer tone, changing textures and slowly developping scenes. Nice one in its genre anyway.
Address: http://www.tosom.de
ST (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
GRAHAM MOORE – 32:19 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
FILTHY THURD – NOISEMANURE #2 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
HIRMKRAMPF – 1 (CDR by Nervous Nurse)
Recentely I reviewed a CDR release by the Nervous Nurse label as part of a bigger review of noise related CDRs by Apocalyptic Radio. Today in return four other releases by the Nervous Nurse label from Germany. Their cover esthetics are black and white, but without the usual sex or death images. None of the names rang any bell here.
ST has a short release, about twenty minutes, or harsh noise. Maybe there are shortwave radios at work here, feeding through a bunch of synthesizers or footpedals. Despite the relative shortness of it all, there are various cuts in the material, making it a little bit more than the average Merzbow clone. Not great, but not bad either.
Graham Moore also has one track, but it’s ten minutes longer than the ST release. His sound is less over the top noise, more lo-fi looped based. Here too there is a Merzbow connection to be noted, but not the Merzbow of the nineties, but his earlier sound, aswell as the use of animal sounds (that is a recent feature on Merzbow CDs). Otherwise, Graham Moore gets the same appreciation from me as ST: not great, but not bad either.
Filthy Thurd is the only name I recognized, for they had a release on Verato (see Vital Weekly 395). This one piece release is actually much more interesting than the first release. On ‘Noisemanure #2’, Filthy Thurd opts for a noisy cut-up collage style, that goes relatively fast. At a length of thirty-six minutes it’s also the right length for such a work.
Least pleased I was with Hirnkrampf. The shorter pieces on his/their release are too monotonous, and do not seem to have much idea or progress in the piece itself. A noise is started and then it stays there for a couple of minutes before moving on. The noise itself seems to be computer generated and sound alien and distant like. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nervousnurse.net.tc
KAZUMICHI GRIME – MU (MP3 by Conv)
Tobias Kazumichi Grime is from Australia and is featured on the forthcoming compilation on my small label Centuries which should finally be out in the next few months. So, I’m familiar with his music before from a really nice demo I got from Kazumichi Grime. He claimed to be a big Oval fan and there can be noted concrete glitch influences in his music. But it’s not only about that, because improvisation takes place in the music too. Pretty much in the tracks here, maybe even more than before. Then again, don’t expect it to be in the Grob/Erstwhile style, it’s more in the interesting type of atmospheric ambient style. Kazumichi improvises carefully with atmospheres here, going into ambient fields much more than before, getting closer to Fennesz’s ‘Venice’ rather than Oval. It’s done with good sense for music, maybe a bit absent in the second track ‘Vertical’. If interested you can read an interview with Kazumichi Grime on the longer time not updated site www.star6789.tk, on the ‘interviews’ page. (BR)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
correction: the label for the Iovae and Andrea Ermke CD’s reviewed last week is not called Zangi Music, but Zarek.