GÜNTER MÜLLER/STEINBRÜCHEL – PERSPECTIVES (CD by List)
TAKU SUGIMOTO – MUSIC FOR CYMBAL (CD by Cut)
JASON KAHN- TIMELINES (CD by Cut)
NORBERT MÖSLANG – CAPTURE (CD by Cut)
SURASSHU – STRENGTH IN NUMBERS (CD by Apegenine Recordings)
THE NEVERMET ENSEMBLE – QUATRO ESCURO (CD by Rudimentol)
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN/GREG DAVIS – YEARLONG (CD by Carpark)
LUGOSI – DAWN (CD by CMR)
PXP – NADA (CD by Dekorder)
ENDUSER – RUN WAR (CD by Ad Noiseam)
DES ESSEINTES / E.P.A. – AZ50HD (CD by Fin De Siecle)
SOPHIE RIMHEDEN -H2-FI (HI-FI REMIXES) (CD by Mitek)
SOPHIE RIMHEDEN – H2-FI (HI-FI REMIXES) EP (12″ by Mitek)
JOHAN SKUGGE FEAT. LAURA DELICATA – DECADENCE EP (12″ by Mitek)
IFRAME – AFO 4 (CD and DVD by Mousike lab)
MUSIC OF DENEB.2099 (CD compilation by Dars Records)
BLACKLETTER – JUNK EXTENSIONS (CD by Vibragun)
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF – PARARGA (12″ by En/Of)
THE ALUMINUM GROUP – UNTITLED (12″ by En/Of)
ALVA NOTO – TRANSIT (LP by En/Of)
9KHZ HEGENBART/DEMAND – 9KHZ (LP by En/Of Deluxe)
THE IVYTREE/CHRIS SMITH (split 12″ by Fat Cat)
KONONO NO.1/THE DEAD C (split 12″ by Fat Cat)
NOW O1 (12″ by Underscan)
JOHN B/EXILE – BROKEN LANGUAGE (12″ by Planet Mu)
UNMONO – AS LONG AS AN ALBUM (8″ by Dhyana Records)
ISTARI LASTERFAHRER – SET MY OWN ADVICES (8″ by Dhyana Records)
JEAN BACH – LITTLEBRUTALRAVEBASTARDS SERIES VOL. 4 (8″ by Dhyana Records)
BOOZLE BAM – FRAGMENT AND TAG IT (CDR by Dhyana Records)
CRACKLEBOX – WINTER RADIO/WINTER INSTRUMENTAL (7″ by Earsugar Jukebox)
MEK OBAAM – SOME SAY YES/WHILE YOU’RE SLEEPIN’ (7″ by Earsugar Jukebox)
ADD NOISE – SURFACE NOISE/SURFACE DUB (12″ by Earsugar Beatbox)
THIN FILMS – ESKIMO (CDR by Thin Recordings)
THIN FILMS – HALF NAKED (CDREP by Thin Recordings)
LE MONOCHROME (3″CDR by Monochrome)
MEATSOCK (CDR, self-released)
SEAN OG – VERY LITTLE IS WEIGHTLESS (CDR by Deserted Village)
ODD JOB – MACRO-MADE SESSION (CDR by Deserted Village)
THE COSMIC NANOU – ST. WARNA’S ARRIVAL (CDR by Deserted Village)
SNOWMACHINE – IN A LIGHT (CDR by Deserted Village)
XENIS EMPUTAE TRAVELLING BAND – THE HIEROGLYPHIC MOUNTAIN (CDR by Deserted Village)
PETER WRIGHT/THE NORTH SEA/AGITATED RADIO PILOT (CDR by Deserted Village)
BJERGA/IVERSEN – MATINEE PREPARATION (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
CHEFKIRK – FIELDS OF PARANOIA AND FEAR (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
VIOLENCE BEYOND THE SNOWLINE – SKIN MAPS (CDR by [Collapse/all] Records)
OMNID – WRONG NUMBER (3″CDR by Authorized Version)
ORPHAX – SAND IN BOXES (CDR by Verato Project)
MARIA CHAVEZ – THOSE EYES OF HERS (CDR by Pitchphase)
OBADIA – WHERE DOES DUST COME FROM EP (MP3 by Autres Directions In Music)
GÜNTER MÜLLER/STEINBRÜCHEL – PERSPECTIVES (CD by List)
Here is where two artists with different backgrounds meet up. Günter Müller is originally a drummer, playing improvised music with Nachtluft, but since quite some time now, he is a solo artist, playing percussion, sampling and laptop. Steinbrüchel has a whole catalogue of not easy to find vinyl and CDs and is pure electronic musician, who worked is usually pre-planned. Together they did a small tour, bringing them to Geneva, Berlin, Paris, Basel and Bologna (in a period of five months actually) and the material on this CD is not a straight forward documentation of the best bits of each concert, but a recycling of the concerts. Each doing their own thing, each having six pieces. Not that that really matters, since this CD can be best enjoyed by crancking the volume up a bit, sitting back and enjoy what’s coming – do not care about who did what, as the twelve piece is one flow of sound. Carefull cracklings, microscopic and detailled beeps and bass sounds and more of those usual microsound ingredients. I say this a bit negative, but it’s not what I mean: this is really great stuff, with loads of small things happening, and even when the paths are known, it’s done with great care. A short, thirteen track, is added by labelowner Hervé Boghossian, taking the recordings of the Paris concert of Müller, Steinbrüchel and himself into a new territory. Although this is more drone based and sustained, it fits well with the rest. Great microsound at work here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.list-en.com
TAKU SUGIMOTO – MUSIC FOR CYMBAL (CD by Cut)
JASON KAHN- TIMELINES (CD by Cut)
NORBERT MÖSLANG – CAPTURE (CD by Cut)
So if sunday morning insomnia drives you out of bed really, and you look at the pile for Vital Weekly, what better is there to start the day than with a new Taku Sugimoto CD? It wouldn’t disturb the neighbours and it’s good music to recover by. ‘Music For Cymbal’ is composed by Sugimoto and performed by Jason Kahn, who commissioned this piece. Kahn, originally a drummer, recorded various ways of playing the cymbal, sent them to Sugimoto, who wrote a score based on these recordings. This graphical score is now performed by Kahn, and it’s has the trademark Sugimoto composition all over it. Sustained sounds and silence, although these silences are usually not as long here as on several of his own performed compositions. Another difference is that Kahn’s attack on the cymbal is somewhat harsher in tone, than Sugimoto on the guitar, whose work is generally softer. However, it’s still the perfect music to start the day with. Nice piece of a single sound source, played with care and variation.
Also on the subject of graphical scores is Kahn himself, in his ‘Timelines’ piece, for six players with whom Kahn worked before. These are Thomas Korber (guitar, electronics), Norbert Möslang (cracked everyday electronics), Günter Müller (mini disc, ipod, electronics), Steinbrüchel (laptop), Christian Weber (contrabass); the sixth one being Jason Kahn himself on analogue synthesizer. Kahn says that ‘”Timelines” approaches the idea of a “social music”, in that this composition can only work with these particular people in this particular context’. ‘Timelines’ is a lenghty piece, around seventy minutes, and that is a bit too much. This mainly has to do with the dynamics of the piece, or maybe rather the lack thereof. Things go by in a seemingely endless stream, in which each player gets his solo role (the cracked everyday electronics of Möslang burst out at one point), but at the same time, in the background things continue to sizzle, crack and hum. Some of the passages take too much time. What I miss in this piece is the tension between the players, maybe some dramatic built up or something like that. Maybe the piece should have been forty minutes, with a little bit more dramatic tension among the players. Plus it would have been nice to maybe see in the booklet how such a graphical score looks like.
Norbert Möslang is of course well-known for his collaboration, until 2002, with Voice Crack, or his collaborations with Lionel Marchetti, Kevin Drumm, Jim O’Rourke, Oren Ambarchi and Keith Rowe. Möslang also dabbles around in visual arts and ‘Capture’ documents the audio side of a light and sound installation in Austria. A bank of fluorescent lights amplified by contact microphones and processed through a computer with software. As you may know sound is vibration and lamps make sound. I’m not sure if the sound of ‘Capture’ is a live recording, a sixty minute outtake from whatever length the exhibition had, and in what way the software worked, but I might not be mistaken to know that this is just a sixty minute outtake indeed. Although this may all sound high art, it fits the cracked everyday electronic esthetics of Möslang, even in this highly minimal setting. One long buzz of sound, slowly changing and taking shape, this is quite a captivating work. It reminds me a bit of the work of Paul Panhuysen, who executes his ideas with the same conceptual intent. Nice work. (FdW)
Address: http://cut.fm
SURASSHU – STRENGTH IN NUMBERS (CD by Apegenine Recordings)
Popping in the CD, taking a peep at the cover, I sort of guessed this was some rhythmic, maybe breakbeat thing, but cover and bandname made me think it was Japanese. Much to my surprise Surasshu is the project of a twenty year old Dutch guy Steven Velema. His debut was on the netlabel Scene under the /Slash monniker. I’m not sure how that differs from Surasshu thing, but here he plays around with hip hop beats, break beats, techno beats, all sauced up with some nice synthesizer sounds coming out of his computer. Less breakbeat than the cover suggested, but altogether thirteen nice tracks, though maybe not surprising in its genre. However Surasshu plays his music with great care and skill. Each track holds enough variation and style enough of its own to be interesting, making this into some well enjoyable forty five minutes of IDM styled music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.apegenine.genshimedia.com
THE NEVERMET ENSEMBLE – QUATRO ESCURO (CD by Rudimentol)
In Vital Weekly I introduced the work of Miguel Cabral via two CDR releases on the Rudimentol label and here he is back with the The Nevermet Ensemble, which as the name suggests is an ensemble of people who never met. The musicians sent in their soundmaterial through the post and Cabral mixes them together. Not an entirely new idea of course, since P16.D4’s ‘Distruct’ LP (from 1985) this was done a lot in experimental music. The musicians in this ensemble include Alex Temple, Brekekkekexkoaxkoax, Emmanuek Ferrand, Godfried-Willem Raes, Paco Balbuena, Remedios Ayala, Phobode and Tetsuro Yoshimitsu, playing everything from guitars, drums, electronics to computers. Many of these kind of collaborations are put together along the lines of free improvisation but this one is a little bit different. Miguel Cabral is present on all tracks and probably adds his playing to the sounds of the others, thus making things a little bit more uniform, and perhaps also a little bit more musical than the usual music through mail collaborations. Hints of prog-rock via some sustained guitars is present throughout various pieces on this CD. That makes this perhaps into a more musical CD, but unfortunally some of these prog-rock guitar lines are not well spend on me. But in a conceptual way, I still find such projects highly appealling. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rudimentol.com/
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN/GREG DAVIS – YEARLONG (CD by Carpark)
Fame is something you get through hard work and as a musician that means get out and play live. This was understood by Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis and that’s why they are sort of well-known. Both release these works on Kranky, Carpark, 12K, Anticon, Locust, Sub Rosa and loads more, but more importantely in 2001 and 2002 they were on the road for almost a year, in America, Europe and I believe also Japan. They each played their solo set and jammed together. From some eightteen hours of improvisations they edited this forty five minute disc. Both Whitman and Davis are experts on laptop use and still making a nice piece of music out of it. The music of Whitman under his own name stands far away from the one he does as Hvratski, and, like that of Davis, can be best described ambient glitch, with detailled processings of bell like sounds, deep space bass sounds and guitar interceptions. Music along the lines of Fennesz, but a little bit lesser in quality, I think. Not every moment is particular strong and sometimes the proceedings drag on a bit too long. Maybe touring brings some sort of fame, it may very well possible it is a tiring experience too. To be fresh and to the point is another thing. But I am sure fans of both gentleman will disagree here… (FdW)
Address: http://www.carparkrecords.com
LUGOSI – DAWN (CD by CMR)
Although I have always listened with much interest to the lo-fi droner rocks of New Zealand, and for a while collected that kind of stuff, I must admit I never heard of Lugosi. They existed in the mid to late 90s and included Campbell Kneale (now known of Birchville Cat Motel), Andrew Savage (of Sunship) and one Leon Schutz. In my defense I should say that Lugosi releases were usually on lathe cut records and cassettes, so not easy to get. ‘Dawn’, just released on CMR (who announces to concentrate more and more on obscure music from New Zealand), is their only real CD and has six improvisations recorded in 1998. Apperentely the three boys play guitars and keyboards. If ever you want a recent blue-print of New Zealand’s droner rock, than this CD provides it. Long sustained guitar tones, somewhere between a strummed note and feedback and little bits of percussion are the main ingredients. Drone for sure, but on an entirely different level than say Mirror, Ora or Monos. The drones from bands like Lugosi (or K-Group, Surface Of The Earth or Sandoz Lab Technicians, to mention a few others) are upfront, slightly aggressive, but at the same also, at least for this listener, trance-like and hypnotic. Not being a collector of the music per se, I think this is another damm fine addition, and another new name to watch (just in case one runs into some of the older stuff). (FdW)
Address: http://www.cmr.co.nz
PXP – NADA (CD by Dekorder)
Unlike those judges at the Prix Ars Electronica, I wasn’t blown away with PXP’s first CD ‘While(p)print”‘ (see Vital Weekly 326), but maybe there is a lack of understanding history on either side. Apart from the opening and closing piece – none of the pieces on this CD have a title of course – which are pretty ambient in approach, the other pieces are again of a heavy rhythmical type. PXP, a sub-division of Farmers Manual, repeat their first CD. They have a great love of rhythmical noise-typed music, which sound to me inspired, again, by eighties industrialists, especially the type of people of used forcefull rhythms. I can be short about this CD: it still fails to impress me (except for the opening and closing piece, which holds a promise for a different path) and sounds like new clothes for an old style. I am sure I may differ again with those Prix judges, but so be it then. (FdW)
Address: http://dekorder.com
ENDUSER – RUN WAR (CD by Ad Noiseam)
My diary shows that I saw a concert by Enduser, but I fail to remember what it sounds like, although I do remember Donna Summer, who played that same evening. Enduser, one Lynn Standafer presents no less than seventeen tracks in almost eighty minutes of high energy breakbeat styles, which are in general uptempo and a bit aggressive, although in some tracks, he adds a sweet female voice (almost Björk like in ‘Under My Bed’) and a somewhat more downtempo rhythm. But that’s a minorty here. The big beat, ragga styled rhythms, rap like vocals prevail here. I must say that I will probably never be a lover of the breakcore genre, and stuff like Enduser, tracks like ‘Rohypnol Beats’ are well spend here. But eighty minutes in a row, is simply too much for an old man like me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
DES ESSEINTES / E.P.A. – AZ50HD (CD by Fin De Siecle)
Two creators of sonic extremism join forces on this mini-CD out on Swedish Noise-label Fin De Siecle. In fact owner of the label, Magnus Sundström (a.k.a. The Protagonist) is the man behind the project Des Esseintes. Magnus Sundström impressed with his contribution as Des
Esseintes on the split-CD “Folie à deux” combining Power Electronics and eerie Gregorian chant into an excellent crossover. The other creator of this present CD titled AZ50HD is the Australian composer Darrin Verhagen. He has become a legend with his ambient-focused experimental project Shinjuki Thief. If Shinjuki Thief was the beauty of Mr. Verhagen then his alternative project E.P.A. is definitely the filthy beast. E.P.A. impressed with his “Black Ice”-album released on Dorobo in 2004. “AZ50HD” contains four tracks. There is one track from each noise terrorist and two tracks where the two artists remix each other’s work. Even though the original versions are strongest, it is very interesting to hear how they interpret each other. Darrin Verhagen (a.k.a. E.P.A.) pushes Des Esseintes track titled “Residue” into soundspheres constantly changing between orchestral sounds and industrial noises. Magnus Sundström (a.k.a. Des Esseintes) pulls the aggressive sounds of E.P.A.’s “Shredding rubber” down to a more tranquillizing level with atmospheres of tense ambient and subtle rhythms. Highlight on the album though is the original version of “With shredding rubber” originally from the “Black ice”-album. A merciless work clocking 13 minutes with aggressive hordes of power electronics floating like waves into an almost rhythm-like expression, reminiscent of Namanax’ 47-minutes long power electronics mayhem titled “cascading waves if electronic turbulence” (1996). “AZ50HD” offers 30 minutes of harsh electronics at its very best. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
SOPHIE RIMHEDEN -H2-FI (HI-FI REMIXES) (CD by Mitek)
SOPHIE RIMHEDEN – H2-FI (HI-FI REMIXES) EP (CD by Mitek)
JOHAN SKUGGE FEAT. LAURA DELICATA – DECADENCE EP (12″ by Mitek)
Sophie Rimheden released one of best albums in 2003 and here she is coming with remix version of it. Very interesting artists that are working on similar sound field are doing remarkable remixes of her absolutely beautiful experimental pop electronica. Dwayne Sodahberk, Hakan Lidbo, Static, Folie, Johan Skugge, Fenin are some of remixers that are offering different aspect of Sophie’s distorted funky disco pop. Effected vocals are still here but with another music background instead of his cut up glitchy electronica. Glitchy rhythmic moments can be sill found into Folie’s mix, hardly produced rhythms in Dwayne Sodahberk version, distorted (but still pop) moments in Different’s mix and more abstract/ambiental/experimental in Son of Clay version· Danceable perspective is most outstanding into Johan Skugge’s voodoo version which is into his repetitive techy house style, Hundrana Fran Soder’s track, who is providing old school electro sound into completely contemporary production and Fenin who is giving sunny and dubby mix… Not to forget are also mixes by Static (CCO) as well as mix by one of most prolific Swedish artists Hakan Lidbo. Of course all other remixes are great too, using different sounds into Sophies tracks and still giving its own unique approach.
Remix variation of HI-FI album first was released as 12″ EP. Idea is similar as the CD remix version but with less remixes and on vinyl. It includes deep minimal tech-funk mix by Mitek’s owner Mikael Stavostrand, The Architect’s even deeper ‘Swedish Fish Dub’ mix, Sam Miller’s regular techy house mix and technoid ‘Strange Remix’ by Johan Fotmeijer. Sophie’s vocoded vocals are still here but music is directed into Mitek’s dancefloor orientation. According to the sound all of this mixes are intended to be played on the dancefloor. That’s why they are released on vinyl as well.
The album ‘Volume’ (Vital Weekly 462) by Johan Skugge was announced with 12″ EP containing of two original tracks and supported with two remixes. Beautiful ‘Bring me on’ and ‘Acidized Decadence’ are on side a in their original versions and on the b-side are Steward Walker’s ‘Decadence Remix’ and Mikael Stavostrand’ ‘Boring Men Remix’. Steward Walker (Force inc., m_inus, Tresor, Persona) is providing pure techy house mix of decadence a bit more straight than the original track. Than label owner Mikael Stavostrand is offering another dancefloor pearl, mix of ‘Bring me on’ directed into deep, minimal and funky sound. Both original tracks are with gorgeous vocals by Laura Delicata that are also present into remixes. (TD)
Address: http://www.mitek-web.net
IFRAME – AFO 4 (CD and DVD by Mousike lab)
Here we have another new piece of music from Mousike lab. But this time they are coming also with a video. Divide Mastropaolo and Leandro Sorrentino two members of the band asked Nina di Majo, young Neapolitan director to make visual track for their latest collection of tracks entitled ‘Afo 4’, an audiovisual project presented for the first time at the Romaeuropa festival 2003 in the Sonarsound section. So the regular process of making soundtrack this time, for this movie was inverted and completely opposite of their previous work. Music here at is also completely soundtrack oriented. Quiet, long, background, ambient pieces, relaxed, and repetitive. It seems that muic is produced to be background of movie, so this inverted way of work is not noticeable at all. Sound is changing from track to track. >From calm soundscapes with narrations and ambiental pieces with classical feeling interrupted with clicks to dark tracks with irregular rhythm and tracks with classic instruments· In whole, this concept seems and sounds interesting. Ambiental pieces are functioning well as soundtrack and as well as stand alone music despite I don’t like classical moments into whole musical context. Movie looks great and music is perfectly functioning with it. Music here stands for the screenplay. Same as music it has quite surrealistic approach. It contains scenes from ‘Afo 4’ which is the name of the fourth tower of a dismissed industrial area nearby Napoli. (TD)
Address: http://www.mousikelab.com
MUSIC OF DENEB.2099 (CD compilation by Dars Records)
One of the biggest markets for electronic music to come is, besides China, Russia. It’s already there of course, with lots of small labels and new artists, with some even having a record contract outside Russia. Sixteen of these artists can be found on this compilation (although two are from Hungary), of which I only recognized the name Andrey Kiritchenko, who delivers a fantastic opening piece of glitchy but danceable music. It sets the tone for what is to follow. Technoid rhythms, glitchy tunes, intelligent dance music and almost every variation available along the lines. And although this is quite an enjoyable compilation, which I heard a couple of times in entirety, there is no particular standout track after Kiritchenko’s opening piece, but at the same time there is also no weak brother around. So if you a daring person, looking for new electronic music that is not excitingely new but nevertheless nice to digest, or you wonder what bands like Add, Stud, Fizzarum, Ili, Enegwai, Navague or Nole Plastique sound like, then this is a most perfect place to start. (FdW)
Address: http://www.darsrecords.com
BLACKLETTER – JUNK EXTENSIONS (CD by Vibragun)
Whatever the real name of Blackletter is, we are not told, but maybe we can assume, his name is really Blackletter. He is from Asutralia, born in 1980 and started playing music on computers at the age of fifteen. After a short experience in a noise improvisation group called The International Colouring Contest, he returned to playing solo again and ‘Junk Extensions’ is his first full length CD. It’s hard to say what I think of this CD. Blackletter draws inspirations from anything from Tangerine Dream to Farmers Manual, from Devo to Ligeti, but none of the references are very clear on his CD. His sound is electronic, sauced by rhythms, mainly of a techno kind, but at the same time also noisy and experimental, at various times that is. It’s rather unfocussed in what Blackletter wants, but at the same time it’s nice enough. Kind of wicked music, strangely shaped with curious edges. One of those things that are puzzling enough. (FdW)
Address: <x@vibragun.com.au>
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF – PARARGA (12″ by En/Of)
THE ALUMINUM GROUP – UNTITLED (12″ by En/Of)
ALVA NOTO – TRANSIT (LP by En/Of)
9KHZ HEGENBART/DEMAND – 9KHZ (LP by En/Of Deluxe)
Back in the world of real art meeting nice music, the En/Of label releases four new 12″/LP’s. Kammerflimmer Kollektief have a 12″ with four tracks, and you’ll get a photo with it by artists duo De Rijke/De Rooij. In ‘Nachtwache, 19. Oktober’, they offer a pretty strong film noir jazzline and nicely subdued percussive sounds. Music to drive around late at night in a desolated city. The short ‘Subnarkotisch’ is by total contrast a hectic and scraping piece. The two tracks on the b-side are more coherent and continue the longer piece on the a-side. I might not be their biggest fan, but this is a very nice record indeed. Cinematic.
I never heard of The Aluminum Group, which is one Frank Navin, who composed the pieces, but gets his help from Rob Mazurek on cornet, Jeff Parker on guitar and Larry Beers on drums among others. His 12″ comes with anodized aluminium and paint, made by Martin Boyce. The four pieces are all called ‘Subtitle’ with between brackets the subtitle – very mmm conceptual. The music is best described as melancholical popmusic. Xylophone sounds, melodic keyboards lines, a bass and vocals (on three of the four tracks). A bit mellow and jazzy but surely nice enough.
Carsten Nicolai is the first artist to produce the music and the artpiece that goes with it. Musicians aren’t usually good visual artists (and vice versa), although many think different about that, but Carsten is the exception. He has an etching on offer. On the a-side he has a lengthy piece, ‘Transit’, of gentle flowing glitchy and slightly rhythmic ambient music. It’s been a while since I heard his music (unfortunally Raster-music doesn’t keep this station up to date), but the cold click stuff has evolved into this dreamy stuff. Nice stuff. ‘Optical Loops’ on the b-side are a bunch of static, deep bass humms, which are a bit short to say anything decent about it. I guess they are ok.
And on the second issue of En/Of Deluxe, in which all the art stuff is unqiue, also a well-known musician makes the art: a pigment print by Christina Kubisch. Boris Hegenbart plays computer and Sascha Demand electric guitar. Hegenbart might be known for his Quecksilber CD or his self-released 1/Tau CD. Here he presents twenty short tracks of him processing the guitar playing of Demand, although it’s not easy to recognize any of the guitar playing in these carefully manipulated microscopic detailled humms. This is a strong continuation of his previous work and probably the only real successor to Oval. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com
THE IVYTREE/CHRIS SMITH (split 12″ by Fat Cat)
KONONO NO.1/THE DEAD C (split 12″ by Fat Cat)
Luckily Fat Cat returns with one of their better series: the ever ongoing split series. A 12″ record, usually around fifteen or so minutes per side, with sometimes a well-known artist and sometimes total new ones, thus introducing young artists to a wider audience. Of these two new releases, on The Dead C are well-known; well perhaps. However, the first new one is by The Iveytree and Chris Smith. The Ivytree is not a band, but the solo project of Glenn Donaldson, the founding member of The Jewelled Antler Collective, a group of experimental folk musicians from California. In the five tracks guitar, vocals, harmonium/organ plays an important role, with the remarkable high voice of Donaldson at the center. Like Lau Nau’s music (reviewed last week), this is not music that I am used to play a lot, but the lenghty ‘In Meadows’ reminded me of Richard Youngs: the same melancholic playing, minimal and warm, experimental yet very easy to digest. Very nice. On the other side (b-side is not the appropiate word here) there is Chris Smith, who had some records before on Avalanche express and Death Valley, which I didn’t hear, but I am told these were along the lines of Windy & Carl and Flying Saucer Attack. The five pieces on this split 12″ are the first since his ‘Replacement’ (2000) album and sees him in a somewhat louder vein. Multiple layered guitar with distortion play an important role in these improvisations, but are somehow too short to leave a good impression. For these fine sonic tapestries (which they are), it is better if they get some more time to develop and take the course they need.
Konono No.1 is Fat Cats first signing from Africa, from the Democratic Republic Of Congo and they produce ‘electric traditional music’. Still recognizable as traditional African music – I think, I’m no expert on the subject – but the amplification, built out of magnets from old car parts – add a strange kind of distortion to the two rhythmical pieces with vocals and Likembé, a kind of thumb piano. Apperentely they draw their inspiration from Bazombo trance music, there are elements in their music that links them to experimental rock, minimalism and electronic music. Most curious and nice indeed. The Dead C also work through methods of improvisation. Guitarists Micheal Morley and Bruce Russell (who usually pops in Vital Weekly for his solo work) and drummer Robbie Yeats play together since 1987 and have released some twenty albums. The Dead C always play live and never make studio recordings and the three tracks here live, although notes are not there as to how old the first is. The first, undated and oldest track here, has vocals by Morley and is pretty straight forward, but the shorter other two tracks are more free-rock freak out styled heavy noise rock. And that is pretty fine stuff!
Four sides of music presented on four sides of two pieces of vinyl. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fat-cat.co.uk
NOW O1 (12″ by Underscan)
This is the first of four 12″s, presenting new and old Underscan artists as the current state of the label. The first one is Funckarma with a rather nervous beat track, highly uptempo and hectic, with walls of reverb playing in the back. Never my thing. Gram is on an opposite side with a much slower piece, involving a deep bass sound but also likewise heavily reverbed sounds to form a ‘melody’. Somshit has a somewhat hectic breakbeat too, but their synthesizers hiss analoguely in the background and that makes it into a rather ok piece. The best piece comes last, by Pytlik and has a melancholical edge and a pretty straightforward rhythm to it. Mixed feelings here, but maybe I’m too disconnected to dance music these days. (FdW)
Address: http://www.underscan.de
JOHN B/EXILE – BROKEN LANGUAGE (12″ by Planet Mu)
Having once drum and bass dismissed as ‘digital jazz rock’ and then never giving it that much attention anymore, I must say that John B & Exile’s ‘Broken Language’ is quite nice. Both sides are quite hardcore, almost industrial music, but with drum and bass meeting gabber-like rhythms. Exile’s solo b-side is even a bit more experimental than the a-side and I must say if more dnb was like this, I would certainly be investigating this more and more. Two strong piece pumping loads of energy and adrenalin around. (FdW)
Address: http://www.planet-mu.com
UNMONO – AS LONG AS AN ALBUM (8″ by Dhyana Records)
ISTARI LASTERFAHRER – SET MY OWN ADVICES (8″ by Dhyana Records)
JEAN BACH – LITTLEBRUTALRAVEBASTARDS SERIES VOL. 4 (8″ by Dhyana Records)
BOOZLE BAM – FRAGMENT AND TAG IT (CDR by Dhyana Records)
Dhyana Records completes their Super 8 series with these three new releases of 8″ lethe cut records, limited to 50 copies. Behind Unmono we find Chris of 12Pylons and Coney Noise. He plays guitar, sings and uses drumcomputer to play his distorted form of popmusic. Lo-fi for it sounds recorded with a two-dollar microphone in a garage, just not punk enough but with a lot of energy to make things up.
Istari Lasterfahrer were reviewed before (Vital Weekly 293) when they took part in a compilation 7″, and here he has five tracks, which are longer than those previous ones. He plays guitar, a Korg MS-20, melodica and sequencer. The two tracks on the a-side are melancholical with guitar playing and introspective tunes. The three tracks on the b-side are all more rhythmical with chopped up breakbeats. Two different sides.A strong naive sense around here, but that’s actually quite nice. Much less lo-fi than Unmono, and also less crude.
Jean Bach is relatively well-known for his various releases on labels such as Stichting Mixer and Dhyana. He continues with his noise disco tracks: loud and vicious slabs of noisy rhythms, ending with sex commercials from TV. The less distorted b-side and more uplifting techno like b-side was my favourite.
Clueless as to who Boozle Bam is, but the title of his CDR is very apptly chosen. I assume that they have a couple of low rate samplers at their hands, maybe a cheap drummachine too and that everything on this release is lifted of other people’s records; not that the listener would recognize any such thing of course, as this hotchpotch is well stirred. The tracks are short and pretty varied, and that’s quite nice, compared to some of the recording quality, which is pretty rough in places. Ok, not great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dhyanarecords.com
CRACKLEBOX – WINTER RADIO/WINTER INSTRUMENTAL (7″ by Earsugar Jukebox)
MEK OBAAM – SOME SAY YES/WHILE YOU’RE SLEEPIN’ (7″ by Earsugar Jukebox)
ADD NOISE – SURFACE NOISE/SURFACE DUB (12″ by Earsugar Beatbox)
Have you been working in a radio sometime? Can be rewarding and nice experience. The radio where I go and play music every week is a music station only, no regular news about politics, no commercials except music/art related. A general ‘more music less talking’ attitude and loose comments about the music from the hosts of the various programs. All this radio talking is because Cracklebox’s (btw very radio-friendly) track ‘Winter radio’, on side A with Ann Scott’s sweet vocals and side B is instrumental. As the label’s info says, she “teamed up with Earsugar veterans Hi Lonesome Electric…the result was something similar to Cat Power being immersed in glitched acoustic guitar melodies & tiny beatbox rhythm in a sweet blend of electronics and songcraft.” How nicely said and indeed it is very nice. Only not so much glitched, ok maybe compared to Cat Power, but still not more than the level of Mum. Great classic songwriting crackly pop, as good as any sweet thing from Morr Music, for a comparison. It’s winter going to spring here, nice season and weather for visiting the radio and playing this music.
More classic country-ish sounding music appears on the Mek Obaam’s second single, which will be followed by his album ‘You and I’ in spring. The label’s info compares it to “early releases on Scotland’s Postcard Records by artists like Orange Juice and Josef K, with a dose of Psycho Candy era Jesus and Mary Chain.” This means not much to me, I only know Jesus and Mary Chain a little but not that album. However, this is certainly one of the songwriting musics that goes along pretty well with my taste for this kind of music. Can be easily compared with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Belle and Sebastian or Papa M. This could practically be a must have, if they or this kind of music is your thing so much. It’s that good.
>From a musical ground I have more general interest in (compared to classic songwriting which is not that much my thing), comes this amazing 12″ by Add Noise, whoever that is. The label Earsugar starts a new series of 12″s for the experimental dance floors. And a hell of a start it is! Two amazing minimal-house tracks, side B with a more obvious dub bass line, and minimal not meaning hectic this time. Reminiscent more of Jan Jelinek’s dancey production. As Warmdesk for example, one of the nicest 4/4 rhythm music. (BR)
Address: http://www.earsugar.com
THIN FILMS – ESKIMO (CDR by Thin Recordings)
THIN FILMS – HALF NAKED (CDREP by Thin Recordings)
This is not a cover version of The Residents’ ‘Eskimo’ album, nor does it come anywhere near that masterpiece. This ‘Eskimo’ is simply about something else. Dan McRae used to be, with Davie Rennie, in Lien and had a LP called ‘Matika’ – both of which I never heard. But not McRae is solo and has just released his full length ‘Eskimo’ and ‘Half Naked’ EP. There is not much difference between the CD and the CDEP: Thin Films play intelligent dance music, maybe a touch of darker undercurrents than is usual in this field, but for some reason Thin Films is into cinema and soundtracks, so much of this should be understand as soundtracks for imaginary films. The music is alright, although I didn’t get immediate cinema’s in the head, but not really surprising. It’s much alike many other bedroom dance acts I heard before and usually that kind of music never bores me, but at the same time it’s leaves me indifferent as to who made it. But thumbs up for the nice presentation of this CDR release, looking professional. ‘Half Naked’ belongs to a film, which is actually quite a nice one and which can be previewed here: https://front.framestore-cfc.com/html/player.html?id=189b74913fbb5a3 It will also give you a good impression of how Thin Films sound like… (FdW)
Address: http://www.thinfilms.co.uk
LE MONOCHROME (3″CDR by Monochrome)
Few weeks ago the new album ‘Sweet bits’ by David Kristian was reviewed here at Vital Weekly. The launching party for that was on January 27th in Casa Del Popolo with 2 guests, Le Monochrome being one of them. This untitled 3″EP is released by the same label that released Kristian’s album, Montreal/Quebec based Monochrome Recs. As I understand from the cover of this release, Le Monochrome (don’t know who that is/are?) use various softwares, including Fruity Loops and Max/MSP. Musically it goes into electro, but not strict, very free-form and vague sometimes. At least in the more concentrated track ‘LaBelge’ it’s definitely more directly electro oriented compared to the album by Kristian, which with it’s unmistakeable electro tendencies often ends up as ambient and too atmospheric. In the last track ‘Squaredub improv’ Le Monochrome end up with a 7min loose improvisation on a theme: easy-listening electro-dub. The previous shorter tracks are also mostly pretty much loose. Compared to Solvent, this is electro as much as RLW’s band P.D. is punk compared to The Clash. More free-form kind of music here, well done and a little strange. (BR)
Address: http://www.monochrome.ca
MEATSOCK (CDR, self-released)
This release caused some problem here: it looks a demo, and we don’t review demo’s. Period. All music we review should be ‘available’ somehow, but Meatsock says that if anyone gets in touch with him, he’s willing to send a copy of this. Even with copyleft and other such freedom aspects, it should be possible to get some cover out of the computer printer, right? That aside, it’s value for no money. There are no less than eightteen tracks on this release, spanning the almost eighty available minutes. For the bigger part of this music, Meatsock likes his tunes to have gabberlike breakbeat rhythms, vocalsamples from religious broadcasts and bits of synthesizers. Nice to see that a typical Dutch invention of gabber is kept alive across the very big river. Best piece, but not for musical reasons was ‘Jack Frost (Meatsock Remix)’ – hopefully named after the BBC series of the same name – and this writer’s favourite of UK detectives. Otherwise in a much smaller dose of say four tracks well enjoyable, but all in eightteen in a row… phew. I noted before, I am getting old. (FdW)
Address: http://www.grep-fu.net
SEAN OG – VERY LITTLE IS WEIGHTLESS (CDR by Deserted Village)
ODD JOB – MACRO-MADE SESSION (CDR by Deserted Village)
THE COSMIC NANOU – ST. WARNA’S ARRIVAL (CDR by Deserted Village)
SNOWMACHINE – IN A LIGHT (CDR by Deserted Village)
XENIS EMPUTAE TRAVELLING BAND – THE HIEROGLYPHIC MOUNTAIN (CDR by Deserted Village)
PETER WRIGHT/THE NORTH SEA/AGITATED RADIO PILOT (CDR by Deserted Village)
Ireland is not the first country I think of when I think of countries for experimental music, but these seven releases on Deserted Village proof me, once again, that things happen everywhere and all the time. I recognized a couple of names and of course there are many new ones. Like Sean Og, who plays a wide variety of instruments such as rumpophone, glockenspiel, tenor and soprano saxophones, autoharp, synthesisers, guitar, percussion, no-input-desk, piano and flute plus the voice of Martina Evers on one track. Og plays intimate yet experimental music, which shows traces of folk music and singer-songwriter material. Sometimes a bit melancholic, like in ‘Very Prettily Put’, with it’s jazzy blowings, but also with a nasty, bit nosiy undercurrent, such as in ‘Neuter’. Along the lines of Richard Youngs.
Odd Job is not Irish, but hail from France, and is one Sebastien Chou. No list of instruments here, but I think that there are guitars and synthesizers at hand, and a multitrack recorder, but probably no computer. Merely guessing of course. The one track that makes up Macro-made session is a densely piece of sound knitting. Sounds swirl in and out of the mix, sometimes forward and sometimes in reverse. Rhythmic ticks pop up and die out. Quite a nice thing actually. Lo-fi psychedelica of an unusual kind.
No idea who The Cosmic Nanou is, one person or more, but I’m told that all the pieces on ‘In A Light’ deal with the apocalypse, “as it was revealed to The Cosmic Nanou during a vision experienced whilst observing the summer solstice on a drizzle-swept atlantic archipelago”. To that end The Cosmic Nanou sings, plays guitar and has haunting electronica sweeping in the background. Dashes of rhythms wave back in the fifth track. Maybe a bit too much on the singer-songwriter stuff but all the experimental doodlings in here make things up quite nicely.
Along similar lines is the release by the likewise obscure Snowmachine, but less spacey and less orchestrated. Here guitar playing and singing is the main thing and the rest is pushed far away to the back, bits of sound effects, reverb and that. Less interesting that The Cosmic Nanou this is, too straight forward lullabies of the new dark ages (oops, just stole that).
Murmansk is a band that I reviewed before, their ‘End Of Navigation’ release (see Vital Weekly 415). They run the Deserted Village label and got together through a workshop with AMM percussionist Eddie Prevost. I believe that this untitled release, the first on the label, is also the first release by Murmansk. Endless streams of continous sounds, played on percussion, wind instruments and assorted sheets of metal. The Prevost/AMM influence is still well noticed here on these recordings, silence intercepts sound or vice versa. Quite an enjoyable release this is.
Also the Xenis Emputae Travelling Band have been reviewed before (Vital Weekly 330 and 386) and those previous works were influenced by Zoviet*France, with their improvisations on synths, metallic percussion and flutes. I imagine them being in a wooden shed, sitting on the floor and improvising the night away until dawn arrives. Later on these recordings are edited and the best pieces are released on CDR. Here too folky influences, but on a much more psychedelic level. I must say I quite enjoy this, but maybe it’s because I realize I haven’t paid my Zoviet*France much attention lately.
The final release by Deserted Village is a compilation of three artists. The Peter Wright pieces were recorded in London, so I doubt if it’s the same Peter Wright that I used to review, who was from Australia, but perhaps he is. His three pieces of sustained guitar playing flow into eachother quite nicely, reminding me a bit of Roy Montgomery’s work. The North Sea has four pieces of piano playing, in a subtle way. Hard to tell wether these are loops or real time playing, but it’s nevertheless quite nice. I never heard of Agitated Radio Pilot. Their first piece is an organ piece of a rather droning kind, the second one a cello piece, which slowly evolves into subtle drone music and the last piece is also made of strings. Quite a nice compilation for the homogenity yet diverse approaches to atmopsheric and subtle music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.desertedvillage.com
BJERGA/IVERSEN – MATINEE PREPARATION (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
CHEFKIRK – FIELDS OF PARANOIA AND FEAR (CDR by Organic Pipeline)
I wasn’t exactely impressed by their previous 3″ CDR release (see Vital Weekly 447), but that didn’t stop them, luckily enough. Both Iversen and Bjerga have a good reputation for producing experimental music, usually of a somewhat louder kind. Here on this forty minute, one piece release, these louder parts are still present, but overall they play around with a somewhat more subtle sound pallet. Moving around with field recordings through endless plugins on the computer, this create an overall nice play of sound, noise and unnoise alike. Way better than their previous dabbling.
On the same label is third release (already, I should add) of Chefkirk, who is present in every other Vital Weekly. Here he continues his path of noise ‘n rhythm, adding vocal samplings to the proceedings. According to the pressblurb it ‘thematically looks at the current state of American politics’. That was a bit hard to find out, when listening to this CDR. Taking the industrial music to the world of digitalia is what Chefkirk does best and the nine pieces hold enough variation to be musically interesting throughout. It might be an idea to think things over a bit longer and work out a real masterpiece by now. (FdW)
Address: http://www.organicpipeline.com
VIOLENCE BEYOND THE SNOWLINE – SKIN MAPS (CDR by [Collapse/all] Records)
Under the strangely named monniker Violence Beyond The Snowline (and with today’s snow an appropiate name) we encounter the second release by Jamie Stephenson. The first one was ‘The Beauty And Strangeness Of A Frostbitten Field At Midnight” on Nid Nod (see Vital Weekly 422). Just like the previous release, Jamie works with a multitude of soundsources, such as field recordings, found sounds and guitar improvisations, which are all fed through the computer’s possibilities. The result is a likewise varied dish of occassional noisy elements, computerized cut-ups and somewhat crude droney soundscapes. Despite all the computer work that went in it, there is still a sense of lo-finess to this release. It’s not the greatest thing on earth, but certainly has potention to grow further in the future. (FdW)
Address: http://collapseall.blogspot.com
OMNID – WRONG NUMBER (3″CDR by Authorized Version)
More Omnid (see also Vital Weekly 462), the ongoing project of Albert Casais, exploring the depths of guitar in combination with max/msp, that elaborate computer programm to alter any sound beyond belief. A guitar is not easily recognized in these two tracks (nineteen minutes, but on a 5″CDR that looks a like 3″CDR; saw that with real CDs, never with CDRs), if at all really. It sounds like a lightbulb’s last breathing seconds or electrical charges better not touched by something metal. Just like the previous release on Verato, this is a pretty good release of intelligent made, experimental music. My only complaint is that this is a bit too short. Two more tracks of similar length would have been nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.a-version.co.uk
ORPHAX – SAND IN BOXES (CDR by Verato Project)
This is perhaps the third release by the Dutch one man project Orphax. Perhaps, but it’s third one I am reviewing (see also Vital Weekly 407 and 427). After the subtle moody pieces from before, the opening title piece comes as a bit of shock. Did Orphax discover noise and repeats it? ‘Moist’, the next piece proofs me wrong, although volume goes up towards the end. The final two, lenghty, pieces at the end show that Orphax has also a renewed interest in playing the drone card again. Heavy and sustained sounds which gradually grow in volume (both in volume sense, aswell as in thickness). This release sounds to me like a distinct break from the previous work, but it’s perhaps not the kind of thing that would interest me very much in seeing further development. The older, more dark ambient sound had stronger possibilities for a more fruitful exploration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.verato-project.de
MARIA CHAVEZ – THOSE EYES OF HERS (CDR by Pitchphase)
Women and experimental music is still, unfortunally, something exotic. Add to this that Maria Chavez was born in Lima, Peru and exotica mounts up, even when she grew up in Austin and lives in Houston. After becoming a club DJ her mentor David Dove (director of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation) advised her to experiment with turntables and vinyl. She got all excited about this and now solely works through improvisation, melting vinyl and working with broken stylus. The twelve improvised pieces on this release show indeed a great love for the way out experimental possibilities of turntablism. Going from inaudible to noise and back, with some heavy spinning and hardly anything recognizable coming from the vinyl, Chavez is perhaps not unique (think Yoshihide, think Jason Talbot), but there are really not enough people doing this kind of thing, so if you want a really want something nice out of your turntable, play this CDR. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pitchphase.com
OBADIA – WHERE DOES DUST COME FROM EP (MP3 by Autres Directions In Music)
Autres Directions In Music are moving forward. They have released their 9th release ad im continuously following their good work. They are interested into electronic pop variations, indie pop combinations and even more experimental stuff. This release is combination of all that. It is ep recorded between April 1998 and December 2003 in Paris and Stocholm and it is just a piece of material choosed from larger mass of recordings. First track begins with interesting shifted electronica and interesting acoustic guitar supported with weird rhythm and vocal samples. Second track is also very weird of course in good sense. Totally cut up mix of rhythms, scratches, vocal pieces· Cut up atmosphere is present into next tracks also· weird melodies, break rhythm, acidized basslines but everything mixed into compact totality. On fifth track it seems that everything is going slower, and in sixth it really goes but still with style. Everything is finishing in completely cut up mash. Short but very interesting and sweet. Of course waiting for more tracks and releases by Obadia. (TD)
Address: http://autresdirections.net
Correction: after twenty years of collecting the music of Asmus Tietchens, I still make a mistake: ‘E-Menge’ is not the fourth in the series, but the fifth. I left out ‘Delta-Menge’.