VEGA/VAINIO/VAISANEN – RESURRECTION RIVER (CD by Mego)
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH – MOTUS (CD by Nexsound)
DANNY KREUTZFLED – COUNTERPERIPHERAL (CD by Databloem)
MUTAGENE – SLEEPING POSSESSION (CD by Databloem)
SAUL STOKES – RADIATE – LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO 9.03 (CD by Databloem)
THOLLEM MCDONAS – SOLO PIANO (CD by Pax)
ANTASTEN – EXCENTRIQUES (CD by Loewenhertz)
ANTASTEN – ECHOS AN KEGELRANDERN (CD by Loewenhertz)
G. DEUTSCH/H. LOSCHEL – FILM IST. MUSIK (CD by Loewenhertz)
EREB AFRIK (2CD by Loewenhertz)
LOREN CHASSE – THE AIR IN THE SAND (CD by Naturestrip)
ZAVOLOKA – SUSPENZIA (CD by Nexsound)
BLANK FIELD (CD compilation by Alien8 Recordings)
DIEB13 VS TAKESHI FUNIMOTO (LP by Mego)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA – AFFEN-THEATER (LP by Le Souffleur)
CADUCEUS – CORRESPONDENCE (CDR by Caduceus Music)
CHEAPMACHINES – DIAGRAMMENE (CDR by Entr’Acte)
CHEFKIRK – THE EARTH IS MOSTLY OCEAN (CDR by Entr’Acte)
DREAMCATCHER – HOLYSMOKES (CDR by Alien8 Recordings)
MOLJEBKA PVLSE – IRDLIVIRISSONG (CDR by Mystery Sea)
SPLATTER PC – SPLATTERPUNX ON ACID (CDR by Push The Button Records)
CRAWLING CHAOS COUNTDOWN TO THE APOCALYPSE (CDR compilation by Samskar)
DOLMEN SNIPER – DEAD RINGERS (CDR by Dolmen Sniper)
ANOTHER GIZYA (CDR compilation by L.S.I.)
ANTI/UTON – BORROWED ANTENNAS (CDR by Humbug)
VEGA/VAINIO/VAISANEN – RESURRECTION RIVER (CD by Mego)
Although Pan Sonic, the duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, have a warm place in my hearth, it’s not a band that I have everything of, i.e. I’m not a real collector. But the majority of their releases can be found around the house, but there is certainly one missing: their first collaboration with Suicide’s Alan Vega. Maybe I just forgot to purchase a copy? It makes it harder to compare that one with the new release ‘Resurrection River’. New? The recordings on this new CD were already made in May 2002, and for reasons unknown not released until now. It’s not difficult to see why Vega would want to work with Pan Sonic. The demanding, minimalist sound of Pan Sonic certainly bears a resemblance with that of Vega’s main project, Suicide, but of course Pan Sonic is all instrumental. To add vocals to their sound is a logical step, even when it’s just a side step. Vega has a demanding, almost talking/shouting voice that fits the sometimes militaristic and minimal beats produced by Pan Sonic. Behind that are the sine wave like sounds they produce, the drone like backdrop. It’s almost like Suicide in disguise or perhaps Suicide updated for the new millennium. It has lost it’s ability to shock of course, as since the seventies a lot more happened in music that caused shock, but nevertheless these three provide some essential groundbreaking popmusic – well of some kind that is. (FdW)
Address: http://mego.at
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH – MOTUS (CD by Nexsound)
The Nexsound label may have released a whole bunch of different music on MP3, CDR and CD, but so far they didn’t touch the serious avant-garde. But with the release of ‘Motus’ by Alla Zagaykevych they do. She is from the Ukraine and studied at the conservatorium in Kiev, composition and orchestration and later on at the IRCAM in Paris. In 1998 she set up the Musical Electronic Studio. Her works is both for chamber ensembles, solo instruments aswell as electronica. This nicely packed CD contains five of her works, of which the title piece is a strict electronic composition in the best IRCAM composers tradition. On the other end of the spectrum is ‘Gravitation’ for two violin-cellos and ‘Sans L’Eloignement De La Terre’ violin, guitar and accordion and for both no electronics. The two other pieces combines instruments and electronic. The nicest piece there is ‘Pagode’ for block-flutes (which I thought were called ‘recorders’ in english) and live electronics. Here both elements blend together and acoustic instrument becomes one with the electric charges – or perhaps vice versa. The serious composing of the aforementioned ‘Sans L’Eloignement De La Terre’ and ‘Gravitation’ is probably done nicely, but the kind of music is never well-spend on me. I guess it just makes me nervous, but perhaps this works better in a concert auditorium. ‘Heromeya’ works stylistically in the same way, but the electronics take over and makes this into a highly complex but great piece. The title piece is a bit of an odd-ball in this collection with it’s serious connotations, but it works well. I guess a good introduction to Zagaykevych’s work and surely I’d be interested in hearing, especially the electronic work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
DANNY KREUTZFLED – COUNTERPERIPHERAL (CD by Databloem)
MUTAGENE – SLEEPING POSSESSION (CD by Databloem)
SAUL STOKES – RADIATE – LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO 9.03 (CD by Databloem)
Years and years ago, I met Dennis Knopper who had just released a compilation of ambient/techno music on his own Databloem label. I bought some or so for my employer and remember him returning some time later, with yet another compilation. I think we lost contact after that, so I was more than surprised to find a parcel with three recent releases. Surprised to see he was still on the move as a label, or actually two labels: Databloem for the real CDs and Data Obscura for CDR releases, but both employed to release ‘new ambient’, which by Knopper’s definition is the cross-over between ambient and techno music, but also keeping an eye for the glitch ambient.
Of the three I never heard of Danny Kreutzfeldt from Aarhus, Denmark, who likes his ambient music and spent a youth with repeating beats. The six lengthy cuts on this album display this love quite well. Slow dubby bass lines and echoed clicks are set against a wall of ambient synth washes. Do not expect any sort of dance floor related material, since the tempi are twice as slow as on any slow Pole movement. Music to lie down to and perhaps tap your toe to, but certainly not something for an up right position on the dance floor. It’s definitely well-made music, and perhaps not the most innovative music, since countless others do similar things, but a highly enjoyable ambient exercise.
Mutagene I only hear from the first Databloem release, but that was a long time ago. Mutagene is Alexis Glass from Canada, now residing in Japan. On this CD he has eleven tracks in which he displays, just like Danny Kreutzfeld, a love of ambient and dub rhythms – that is: a bass and a tick with echo – but overall the tempo of his work is a little bit higher, although it’s not likely that a vast mass of people will dance to this easily. The rhythms are hooky, ethnic inspired but not always move ‘right’ for westerns. Also the use of sampled Japanese instruments add to the exotica of the album. The album flows nicely along well-discovered roads, but again, it’s a fine hour of ambient music.
Saul Stokes’ previous albums on Hypnos were all discussed in Vital Weekly before, but that was all a long time ago (160 and 231) and since then I didn’t hear much new from him. Stokes is a man who builds his own synthesizers and this recording contains his first concert with a bunch of them. Set against a background of drones, the synths are definitely more raw and scratchy than what can be purchased from your local synth store (or extracted from your soft-synth package), but it gives the album an experimental edge that sets apart from many of the more regular ambient releases. A name that popped here was that of Conrad Schnitzler, whose ‘non-keyboard electronics’ spring to mind, more loosely, unconnected sounds that occasionally swirl into a little melody, tiny fragmented sparks and weightless space drones. Again, not the most innovating ambient music, but of this lot the most adventurous and most experimental one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.databloem.com
THOLLEM MCDONAS – SOLO PIANO (CD by Pax)
With the release of ‘Solo Piano’ Thollem McDonas knocks once more very determined on our door. In a relatively short period (2004-2005) he recorded and released three CDs. The first one “I’ll meet you halfway out in the middle of it all” was a live recording of McDonas on piano and vocals plus Rick Rivera on trap set (for a review see: Vital Weekly 460). The second one “Everything’s going Everywhere” has the same instrumentation and line up, but McDonas sings here only in a few tracks (For a review see: Vital Weekly 467 ). On the third CD we have McDonas playing solo on piano. With the release of this third CD an impressive and creative eruption seems to come to an end. But I hope (and expect!) another one will take place sooner or later. All three CDs are mature crystallization’s of a clear compositional vision and carry a strong personal stamp. Besides the music is performed with great skill and verve.
The compositions of McDonas are not over the top experimental, but do have many characteristic but unexpected moves and twists that are sometimes beyond my logic. Surprising changes of mood, style and intensity pass by. Intimate lyrical passages are followed by extravagant gestures of more rhythm-based sections or a cascade of notes, etc. McDonas is not seeking experiment just for the sake of experiment. No each piece is like a meditation or a reflection. This is also illustrated by titles McDonas choose for the compositions, like ‘Death Is Our Only Deadline’, ‘Gone Beyond Reason To Find One’, “Living Is The Strangest Thing I’ve done’. He must be a philosophic nature.
As said in earlier reviews McDonas makes use of a diversity of musical styles and genres.
His sense for experimentation is not of a post-modern deconstructivistic kind. But he is seeking constantly for unexpected and undiscovered corners. This is the case for example in the opening track “Ancient Futures”. During the 5:26 minutes it takes, it is as if the piece starts a new from time to time, starting from a different idea, approach or mood. As if he does not know where to start or where to go. This has an intriguing effect. On the other hand you can sense there is an underlying unity which shows the integrating power of McDonas, compositional talent. In the 13 compositions that are on this album McDonas shows many faces, often with humor and irony without being superficial. They all breathe the same atmosphere of adventure and joy and are played by a gifted musician with a heart. Chapeau! (DM)
Address: http://www.paxrecordings.com/
ANTASTEN – EXCENTRIQUES (CD by Loewenhertz)
ANTASTEN – ECHOS AN KEGELRANDERN (CD by Loewenhertz)
G. DEUTSCH/H. LOSCHEL – FILM IST. MUSIK (CD by Loewenhertz)
EREB AFRIK (2CD by Loewenhertz)
A new label, at least for me, and what strikes me that on all four releases there is some involved by Hannes Löschel (piano) and Josef Novotny (electronics). The first release is trio CD of them with Thomas Lehn under the moniker Antasten, and if you know Lehn you know we are looking for improvisation areas here. If I understand the cover notes well, it’s based on Löschel’s piano playing and the sounds it is producing is being fed through Lehn’s analogue synthesizer and Novotny’s electronics, whatever that might be. But the piano sounds remain audible, not always but is simply one-third of the sounds heard. Occasionally no piano can be heard and it leaps into noise, but just as suddenly things turns quiet and the piano returns. Balancing carefully on the edge of silence and loudness, this is some excellent improvised electro-acoustic music.
A second CD by Antasten was shortly released afterwards and follows more or less the similar lines, except that there are two guest players: Martin Siewert on guitar, lapsteel and devices and Didi Bruckmayr on vocals. The latter is not something I liked very much, but throughout it’s nice CD, but not as focussed as ‘Excentriques’.
The ‘Film Ist. Musik’ release is a highly complicated one, at least for a simple soul like me. It says ‘music composed by Hannes Löschel, except 06 by Novotny/Siewert. Soundtrack by Gustav Deutsch (film ist 1-6)’ – so who composed what? I understand things are performed by Velvet Lounge, a small ensemble with violin, violin-cello, doublebass, piano (Löschel of course), guitar (Siewert), synthesizer, sampler (Novotny and Stefan Nemeth of Radian) and Martin Brandlmayr on drums (also of Radian). Of course it’s not really interesting to know who composed what or what the exact context is (probably a film of some kind), it’s the result that counts and those are quite nice. The ensemble plays a strong mixture of electronics and acoustic instruments and reminds me a bit of Efzeg and Radian, not by surprise also from Vienna. A bit jazzy, a bit of noise, a bit more of minimal music and a lot of seemingly improvised music make up a tense pattern of sounds, strange combinations, which surprises the listener throughout. Nice work, even when some aspects aren’t very clear.
The final release is by Ereb Afrik, aka Burkhard Stangl. It’s a composition for two pianos and one player and dedicated to Hannes Löschel. On the first CD is the original composition and on the second there are five improvisations by the Ereb Afrik Kollektiv and three remixes. The first disc has some solid piano playing and exploring the inside and the outside of the instrument. On the improvised disc, Löschel plays piano, Novotny synth and sampling and Stangl spanish guitar and electronic devices. The music is rather soft, moving all too careful along the boundaries of audibility. Too careful as far as I’m concerned. The remixes are short and alright, but after this long sit through they pass by with being noted too much. Maybe it’s not helped that they are only about three and half minute each.
Address: http://www.loewenhertz.at
LOREN CHASSE – THE AIR IN THE SAND (CD by Naturestrip)
Loren Chasse is a not a man who releases tons and tons of material, but just very occasionally bits and pieces here and there. His work fits along the lines of people like Raymond Dijkstra (see elsewhere), yet dwells more outdoor recordings, or Yannick Dauby. Sound events are taped from a very close range, like rain, stones, twigs and what else there is out there, waiting to be picked up and rubbed, broken and scratched. The environment plays a role too, even when one could think it wouldn’t matter with all the close miking. But rubbing stones near the sea side sound differently than on the veranda with the rain pouring down. All of these recordings are then taken home and layered on each other and mixed very effectively. Electronics might play a role here, but I doubt that. I would be surprised to learn that what we think is ‘electronics’ here, is just a plane passing, or the hum of some airco. Many hours of careful recording and mixing must have went in this recording, since it all works rather flawless. For those who think that Tsunoda is too conceptual, for those who think Lopez is too inaudible and for those who like their environmental artists to be playful, Loren Chasse is the name to get hold off. (FdW)
Address: http://www.naturestrip.com
ZAVOLOKA – SUSPENZIA (CD by Nexsound)
It has not been very long since we discussed ‘Plavyna’ by Zavoloka (Vital Weekly 463), and now she returns with ‘Suspenzia’, a seventy-three minute work. Although it must be said in her defense that this album was partly released in 2003 as a MP3 by Nexsound, and it turns out to be the album with the most downloads on Nexsound. Like before, Zavoloka works with the voices of Ukrainian natives, which she effectively processes through the use of the computer. The results as such may not sound very new in the world of glitch, microsound of clicks and cuts, the story of processing ethnic voices by a likewise ethnic computer artists will no doubt be of high interest to some overground artists. Female, young, from a far away country and with a nice story. No doubt she will mentioned along the likes of AGF, with whom she is working already. Maybe I’m too cynical? Perhaps. I like ‘Suspenzia’ for what it is: a nice glitchy, electronic laptop album with some highly unusual soundsources, not great but well made. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
BLANK FIELD (CD compilation by Alien8 Recordings)
Montreal loves Francisco Lopez: he has played there a lot and he also curated, in 2002, an event called ‘Blank Field’ at the Craig Pumping Station. Six of the performing artists made it to this documentation CD and upon hearing this compilation it’s not easy to see what ‘Blank Field’ was about. The for me unknown Shunichiro Okada has a violent broken up track of plug ins running amok, right at the level of distortion, whereas Merzbow takes the proceedings a little bit further – of course I should add. In terms of silence, for that is what I would think of when I hear ‘Blank Field’ (or think of Lopez as a curator), Oren Ambarchi’s careful tunings on the guitar or Micheal Northam’s field recordings cum electro-acoustics come much closer to what I would have in mind for ‘Blank Field’. Daniel Menche is in between the two Japanese artists and Ambarchi and Northam: upfront drones that were probably very loud in the room it was played in, but the drone like character suggest a ‘field’ anyway. The odd ball in this collection is Manon Anne Gillis, whose samples open this collection and fall outside either (noise vs silence), but leave no big impression. A mixed bowl this is, and as a music collection rather a nice one, but some more on ‘Blank Field’ and what it was would helpful. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com
DIEB13 VS TAKESHI FUNIMOTO (LP by Mego)
Two players of the turntable from Vienna. Dieb13 might be known for his work with Efzeg and Jason Kahn (among many others) where he plays turntable and electronics and the lesser known Takeshi Funimoto, who played with Billy Roisz and Otomo Yoshihide. In their collaborative record, a heavy weight picture disc, the roles are divided: Funimoto plays various turntables and Dieb13 plays around with these sounds through the use of various self written software features. Perhaps you could say that this record is a remix of Funimoto’s playing and not so much a collaboration. In any case both sides of the record are filled with a highly vibrant mixture of electronic manipulations of vinyl sounds – and as you can imagine these are hard to recognize. The RPM rotations that form a rhythm may provide the listener with some sense of turntablism, but that’s only part of the fun. Although the music is still very upfront and present, perhaps even ‘loud’ by some extent, this is not really a noise release, like some of the other Mego releases. The collaged aspects of the sounds remind much more of musique concrete and electro-acoustic music, and go back to the old days of the start of electronic music, but then in a rather primitive way. Turntablism as such is not so my thing, but the way it’s presented here is a rather pleasant one. A surprising record. (FdW)
Address: http://mego.at
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA – AFFEN-THEATER (LP by Le Souffleur)
Strange man, Raymond Dijkstra. It’s hard to pin him down to any sort of artist name, although this is the second in a row to use his own name (instead of Ky Sync Pulse, Dadaphon, Asra (with Af Ursin) or Razoul Uzlu). Some of his previous records were poorly packed, but ‘Affen Theater’, translated as Monkey Theater, has an absolute beautiful cover: a hardcover box in black linen with an embossed golden print on the front, and released in an edition of merely 120 copies. Dijkstra’s musical style didn’t see any changes for this new release. What he does he does best: on his multi-track recorder he places acoustic sounds, like scratching glass on glass, a harmonium loop and other hard to define sources. Then he mixes all the sources, adds a little bit of sound effects (mainly echo and somewhere some reverb), but he intends to keep his sounds as ‘dry’ as possible and makes no hierarchy in sound. Everything stays on the same level. I read somewhere about ‘automatic playing’, just as the surrealists did with ‘automatic writing’, and that seems very much true. Dijkstra’s music, although divided over many tracks of the multi-track recorder, also deals with mistakes made, small accidents are not removed, but also not extended – they are just there, as much as the rest is there. The sounds are all closely miked, giving it a very present sound, without being noisey in any way. Another captivating moment – music wise and presentation wise the strongest release by Raymond Dijkstra so far. Grab one while the last. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl
CADUCEUS – CORRESPONDENCE (CDR by Caduceus Music)
The name Caduceus popped up a few time in the very recent issues of Vital Weekly, two 12″ releases and a CDR release, and here is yet another one. Minimal techno is the game of Caduceus and the previous releases didn’t have so much a theme, but this one does: it’s a homage to letter writing – a craft rapidly dying out in the world of e-mail. Christian and Joanne Althoff, they are Caduceus, wrote eachother love letters in the late nineteen nineties and the tracks here are made from reading those letters. I can see eye-brows being raised: reading love letters translated to minimal techno? Don’t ask me how they do it, but they have done it. The music here is first class minimalist techno, along the lines of Thomas Brinkmann, Radboud Mens or whatever name Wolfgang Voigt uses these days (or in the past ten years). One could of course think if eleven tracks of similar playing is maybe a bit too much, there is no counterpoint, a moment of rest, just stomping all the way through, but played a couple of tracks on the dancefloor might not be wrong. A 12″ with four tracks would have been the right thing, both in terms of selection and quality (which always improves for this kind of music on vinyl), but this nice priced CDR provides everyone to pick their own favorite four tracks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.caduceus.net
CHEAPMACHINES – DIAGRAMMENE (CDR by Entr’Acte)
CHEFKIRK – THE EARTH IS MOSTLY OCEAN (CDR by Entr’Acte)
Two of our more active musicians from the world of CDR. Cheapmachines, you may have noticed from our announcement section, recently went on a small tour in Norway and from the recordings two pieces were selected for release. Many of the releases by Cheapmachines deal with noise, but in these live recordings only the second half of the second track, ‘Figur To’, is where Cheapmachines hit it off with noise. ‘Figur En’ is a nice microsounding, low resolution piece of crackling statics and deep drones. It’s something he should definitely do more. ‘Figur To’ starts out in a likewise dark atmospheric drone-played-on-a-laptop mood, but as said, it falls into more common noise grounds as the piece progresses. Not the worst in its kind, but also not something to get cheery about. Perhaps when heard in the concert room, at full force, things would have made more sense.
Chefkirk was silent for the last week, or perhaps two, but here’s back with a sort of thematic release: all the tracks deal with water and oceans and even the cover is blue, 71% of what could be the cover. 71% is also the amount of oceans covering the planet. It’s hard to tell wether Chefkirk uses the sound of water as a starting point for these compositions, it would make sense if he did. And at times he did, and started to recognize the dripping of water and the constant flow of the ocean – but maybe that’s just my imagination running wild? Again, Chefkirk explores rhythm and noise here and continues the paths taken in his recent releases – occasionally noisy, but certainly with more dynamics and more careful mixing than say a year ago. Nice not great – as a lot of his releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk
DREAMCATCHER – HOLYSMOKES (CDR by Alien8 Recordings)
Who would have thought to find a CDR release on Alien8 Recordings? Certainly not me. Dreamcatcher are Blake Hargreaves and Katherine Kline, whom play around with tape-loops and home made electronics. So far they released two cassettes, and recorded a live concert at CKUT 90.3. The recording turned out to be nice and is now released in a small edition of just 88 copies. Dreamcatcher love their rhythm and noise. The rhythms comes through a bunch of distorted loops over which a blend of likewise distorted electronics can be heard. Definitely fitting the lo-fi scheme of bands like Wolf Eyes or an all electronic version of the No Neck Blues Band, which, certainly in the case of Wolf Eyes or Dreamcatcher hark back to the days of industrial music, when it was all distorted and recorded onto hissy cassettes. In that sense there isn’t anything new under the sun, but seeing the sort of recognition this kind of music now gets in the overground music press, I am sure that Dreamcatcher will benefit from that too. It’s pleasant noise, not something new. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com
MOLJEBKA PVLSE – IRDLIVIRISSONG (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Despite Mathias Josefson’s, aka Moljebka Pvlse, many releases on such labels as Eibon, Cold Meat Industry, Fin de Siecle or Segerhuva, a CDR release is still an option for him, but maybe the good and solid reputation of Mystery Sea is particular helpful. On ‘Irdlivirissong’, Moljebka Pvlse plays one hour long piece of his manipulated guitar playing. Long sustained sounds, dwelling on echo and reverb and god knows what other colorful boxes to manipulate the guitar with makes this into a cascading wave of sound. Whereas many of the Mystery Sea releases sound like, or reflect, the life beneath the surface of the sea, Moljebka Pvlse is rather like a sea surface. Likes waves rolling ashore, this music offers a similar drift, but it is very much more present and upfront than many other Mystery Sea releases. However one should not think a nice warm pacific ocean water drift, but rather nordic and cold, music that is a bit metallic and rusty sounding, wrecks washing ashore – alienated sea, of life just disappeared. File under dark and atmospheric. I particular enjoyed this soundtrack. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
SPLATTER PC – SPLATTERPUNX ON ACID (CDR by Push The Button Records)
The Swedish Push The Button Records like their things to be raw and still inspired by popmusic and Splatter PC is no different. The eleven tracks span twenty-seven some minutes offer a blend of lo-fi rhythms and tunes, played on likewise lo-fi casio keyboards, but the sounds are fed occasionally through on old analogue synth, most clearly one ‘SPCC’s (Fiddla)’, with it’s slightly annoying synth sound. Splatter PC can easily meet Felix Kubin, less the vocals, or anything on Mik Musik. Not ‘catchy enough to get regular rotation on MTV’ (press blurb quote), because it sounds to weird and strange, but it could easily be digested in y’r favorite underground disco – that is, if you have around. Sufficiently strange, and surely easy enough to catch yourself tapping your feet (if you can keep up the rhythm, that is). (FdW)
Address: http://www.pushthebutton.tk
CRAWLING CHAOS COUNTDOWN TO THE APOCALYPSE (CDR compilation by Samskar)
In anticipation and before all, celebration of the imminent end, Samskar is releasing a series of ten CDR’s documenting artists, views of this incoming moment. This is CCC-10, first in the series, compilation that highlights various projects with their unique vision to the problem. All this projects were picked for their diversity but here on this recordings they still have some common threads. They all use both acoustic and electronic sound sources, mixing ambience and noise texture. Opening track by Zoool shows that this compilation is worth listening further. Nice eclectic blend of calm melodic ambience at the beginning that transforms into glitchy pattern. Periodical drums and noise are penetrating sometimes into the ambience, but than noise begins to dominate. The Drunken Mohels presents noise piece that varies from harsh moments trough silent parts to calm and melodic variations. La-ra-la offers eighteen minute drone piece with most expressive post apocalyptic sound, which means that they hit the theme precisely. Very similar mix of ambience noise and silence is provided by Mnemonic Arachnoid. Very subtle and melodic but still harsh. Next track is by Oblivole. They are mostly into electro acoustic sound. Amalgamation of sporadically injected noises combined with modified voices and acoustic sound sources. Jeniffer Wasteland are closing this apocalyptic expect. They are also very close to the theme with their calm droney and ambiental long piece that slowly evolves and meander into his twenty two minutes. Whole compilation gives pleasurable sound that honestly I didn’t expect. Also all of the artists were very close to the theme giving very close picture of the apocalypse countdown or maybe they were even closer to the very own post apocalypse picture. You can just listen to this compilation while waiting, till the true moment of the apocalypse arrives! (TD)
Address: http://www.samskar.us
DOLMEN SNIPER – DEAD RINGERS (CDR by Dolmen Sniper)
Under the moniker Dolmen Sniper is Cyrill Duneau former member of D.V.M and Bushido. Dead ringers is his first release under name Dolmen Sniper, released 2003 and now re-edited it is released again. It is perfect mix of electronics, industrial, dark hop beats and noise in perfect proportion. During the whole release there is much more ilbient atmosphere, but industrial feeling never disappears. Also dub influences are noticeable. All this gives impression of sound on labels like Ant-zen or recent Ad noiseam work. A bit harder and harsher sound follows but at the end everything ends around this sound. Nothing impressive but interesting and worth enjoying. (TD)
Address: <dolmensniper@yahoo.com>
ANOTHER GIZYA (CDR compilation by L.S.I.)
Despite having reviewed various previous releases by Liquid Sphere, I don’t recall reviewing the work ‘Gizya’, which was apparently released in 2002. Liquid Sphere, aka Laurent Guerrier plays dark ambient cum dark rhythmic music. So far I thought much of the music was nice, but nothing beyond the ordinary. For reasons not clear to me the work ‘Gizya’ was chosen to get a remix treatment, from people that are likewise active in the world of CDRs and MP3s, although some have released a real CD too, like Wilt or Cordell Klier. Many, if not all, operate also in a similar musical territory. I am not clear how these remixes were made, deconstructed or reconstructed as the cover says, but it seems to me that many took small samples from the original sounds and went playing around with them, but means of looping of time stretching, but it’s clear that the use of sound effects play a big role. They are used to enhance the material, to add more power or in some cases just plainly more distortion. Overall this is a nice compilation, very much alike the work of Liquid Sphere: nice, but not necessarily adding something new. Includes remixes by J. Frede, Aidan Baker, Goose, Final Cut, Planetaldol, Cdrik Croll & Friends, Gydja and Liquid Sphere. (FdW)
Address: http://www.membres.lycos.fr/zuhll
ANTI/UTON – BORROWED ANTENNAS (CDR by Humbug)
The work of Finnish Uton has been reviewed before and whoever is Anti, I don’t know, I presume also from Finland. This duo disc contains improvisations from the period December 2002 and July 2003. It seems to me an improvisation for two guitars and additional sound effects, including perhaps an old synthesizer. The music is rather wild and free, with lots of distortion and noise going on, but also seemingly without going anywhere. For a few tracks this is alright, but as a whole it’s a bit of an overlong affair. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm