ARC – THE CIRCLE IS NOT ROUND (CD by Small Voices) *
MAURIZIO BIANCHI – A MB IEHN TALE (CD by Small Voices)
ERIK VOERMANS FEATURING ERIC VLOEIMANS – NOCTURNAL GHOST SONGS (CD by Basta)
GERRITT – SPACE LEVEL BLAZE (miniCD by Misanthrophic Agenda) *
MERZBOW & JOHN WIESE – MULTIPLICATION (CD by Misanthrophic Agenda)
JOHN WIESE- MAGICAL CRYSTAL BLAH VOLUME 3 (miniCD by Helicopter)
Z’EV – RHYTHMAJIK (CD by Small Voices) *
KK NULL & CHRIS WATSON & Z’EV – NUMBER ONE (CD by Touch)
LAPSED – LAPSED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
FREQ_OUT 2 (CD compilation by Ash International)
KINETIX – WHITE ROOMS (2CD by Small Voices)
PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA – THE LEGEND OF THE ELK BAND 1996-1999 (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording Collective) *
ARGH & JEREMY KENNEDY – TITLED (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording Collective)
PAUL BRADLEY – LIQUID SUNSET (CD by Twenty Hertz) *
PAUL BRADLEY – DRONE WORKS #6 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY/DAVID WELLS – HEART OF EMBRA/OP.5 (3″CDR by Twenty Hertz)
MONOLITH ZERO/NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER (CD by 804noise Records) *
ANTLER JUICE – LIVE AT RELAY O3 (CD by Postmoderncore) *
CATHODE – CHRONOPHOBIA/ECONOMIC GROWTH (7″ by Distraction Records) *
MUSHI MUSHI – CHICKEN EP (7″ by Distraction Records)
GRADUATION TRIO (CDR by Free1003Point9)
N.R.A. (CDR by Free1003Point9)
SKYLINE – PRIVATE SECTORS (CDR by Free1003Point9)
TUNE(IN))) (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
RADIO ACTION II (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
SCAPE 2 (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
CROSSED CIRCUITS (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
ASHER – … AND INVARIABLY THE BLUE (MP3 by Con V)
ARC – THE CIRCLE IS NOT ROUND (CD by Small Voices)
The name Aidan Baker has popped up many times in Vital Weekly. Usually when he has solo material on offer, but also with his trio Arc. But mostly they were CDR or MP3 releases, not many on ‘real’ CD or vinyl. But with “The Circle Is Not Round’, Arc delivers their first full length CD. Arc is besides Aidan Baker on guitar, flutes and tape-loops) the non-related Richard Baker on drum-kit and percussion and Christopher Kukiel on percussion. With two people on percussive elements and one guitar and flutes, it’s perhaps easy to think that they play a full on set of music based on rhythmic sounds, but that is not the case. The music from Arc has a very retro, very seventies sound to it. Not that of progressive rock, but that of psychedelic, cosmic music, think Popol Vuh meeting Pink Floyd meeting Ashra Temple. Stretched out pieces of multi-layered guitars being played by e-bows, while the sounds coming of it, run amok in a bed of sound effects, and the percussive sounds are more supportive than doing their own thing, their own solo. Despite this somewhat outdated sound, it’s a highly recommended disc: the music is very vibrant, constantly moving back and forth between places, moods and textures. A hot bed of psychedelic music that is much enjoyable, even without the intake of any substances. (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
MAURIZIO BIANCHI – A MB IEHN TALE (CD by Small Voices) The story of Bianchi’s disappearance and resurrection has been well-documented. Over 10 years ago, Italian industrial Meister Maurizio Bianchi suddenly vanished from the earth. He had been responsible for a string of grainy industrial records with gruesome images of concentration camps, which made him something of a legend in the industrial scene. A few years ago an ardit fan contacted all the Bianchi’s in the Milanese phonebook, which led to Bianchi’s return to music. It turned out he had become a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. His new recordings for EEs’T records lead to fierce debate among his fans, as they featured ambient synthesizer pieces, which paled compared to his fierce work in the 80s. On the positive side, it also resulted in the re-release of his early 80s albums in two box-sets. Even his old tapes as Sacher Pelz were re-released. Fans were delighted by the old works, but the new ones did not gain many positive reviews. However, this one, the cryptically titled A MB Ienh Tale, sees Bianchi return with a vengeance. The 8 tracks (“decompositions”) on this album feature treated piano compositions. Not that you’d recognize the piano per se. This is slow, industrial yet meditative blurred music, harking back to the days of Bianchi’s opus magnum The Plain Truth from 1984. The tracks were reconstructed by Sandro Kaiser who has collaborated with Bianchi on several of his CD’s. On tracks like Asephic or Martyr the piano is only remotely audible, drowned out in echo’s and reverb. On Hormone the reverb rules, whereas on Electrolyte the piano chords are more to the fore with only minimal reverb. Best of the bunch is the 20-minute closing track Tale though, with a distant yet brooding ambient atmosphere, without any traces of the original piano. This CD proves there is still live in the old beast. (FK)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
ERIK VOERMANS FEATURING ERIC VLOEIMANS – NOCTURNAL GHOST SONGS (CD by Basta)
One could easily get confused over the almost similar names on this package. This unique cooperation features Erik Voermans, an accomplished guitarist and music journalist and Eric Vloeimans, jazz trumpetist extraordinaire. Vloeimans was recently nominated for the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival. However, this should not be filed under classic jazz. Maybe experimental ambient jazz is a better description. On these spacious, minimal but still melodious compositions, Voermans plays open, almost traditional chords and gentle solos. At times he feeds his guitar through effect pedals and Ebows (as on the beautiful Weeping) making it sound like washes of ambient sound. Vloeimans adds beautiful controlled breathy trumpet playing, not unlike Miles Davis. The two combined make for lonely late night melodies. On several pieces they are joined by Gert-Jan Blom on bassguitar. The four Night Dobro themes, performed on Dobro resonance guitar, form a welcome break from the unobtrusive guitar/trumpet/sound themes. The final track Pawn features Voermans guitars fed through various effect-pedals. The result is an ambient tapestry, which is a nice listen but also shows how much the trumpet (or the melody) is needed. The music never peaks, but keeps to the laid-back, almost tranquil mood. Nocturnal Ghost Songs is a great listen, but perhaps not challenging enough for the Vital audience. (FK)
Address: http://www.bastamusic.com
GERRITT – SPACE LEVEL BLAZE (miniCD by Misanthrophic Agenda)
MERZBOW & JOHN WIESE – MULTIPLICATION (CD by Misanthrophic Agenda)
JOHN WIESE- MAGICAL CRYSTAL BLAH VOLUME 3 (miniCD by Helicopter)
In the world of noise we find people like John Wiese, Gerritt and the king of the genre Merzbow. Gerritt is, as far as I know, the person to run Misanthrophic Agenda, and on his own miniCD ‘Space Level Blaze’ he treats the listener with a nice, short but powerful set of noise music. With his previous release on Troniks I wasn’t too impressed, but here things are more than quite alright, within the realms of noise (which is a pretty standard sort of music, with nothing much new directions). The six pieces are made of electro-acoustic sources, distortion and feedback and good old reel-to-reel manipulations – or so it seems.
King of noise Merzbow teams up with John Wiese, not yet a king, but member of Bastard Noise, as-well as a renowned solo artist. Their collaboration was done through mail, and Wiese mixes six shorter tracks and Merzbow one long piece. In Wiese’s pieces the traditional forms of noise appear of distortion and feedback, but unfortunately I must say it’s one of his lesser works. The Merzbow track is also a traditional Merzbow piece, but it’s Merzbow at his best. The endless stream of sound, rapidly changing into more obscured forms of psychedelic noise clouds. It’s the Merzbow we love. As a collaboration it’s quite ok, not great, but not bad either.
Of more interest, if not just for the concept, is Wiese’s mini CD ‘Magical Crystal Blah Volume 3’. Volume 1 (see Vital Weekly 438) was also Wiese solo, but Volume 2 (Vital Weekly 465) was a remix project of Volume 1, including Panicsville, KK Null, Damion Romero, Karkowski, Christian Renou, Mike Shiflet, Freiband, RLW and Joe Colley. Normally things would stop there, but on Volume 3 Wiese uses the remix CD to take matters further. Here the main input is less noise related, but more in the form of collage cut-up and digital manipulation of the material, making new thick clouds of sounds in decay. This is more along the lines of the original, with electro-acoustic manipulations being blown up by distortion, as-well as quieter moments of almost sheer inaudibility. With the whole thing indexed at thirty-seven tracks in just under eighteen minutes, this is an excellent thing to put on ‘shuffle/repeat’ and create your own Volume 4. (FdW)
Address: http://www.misanthrophicagenda.com
Address: http://home.earthlink.net/~johnwiese
Z’EV – RHYTHMAJIK (CD by Small Voices)
KK NULL & CHRIS WATSON & Z’EV – NUMBER ONE (CD by Touch)
In case you didn’t notice: Z’ev is back, but these days with something else than what we know him for: rhythmic music. Although his new album for Small Voices deals with rhythm again, as they publish the Z’ev’s book ‘Rhythmajik’ in Italian. The book is subtitled ‘Practical uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound’ which probably says it all. Z’ev provides music for the book on the CD with the same name. He plays homemade instruments, such as gongs, metal percussion, titanium plate and low steel drums. In no less than thirty-two tracks, Z’ev displays his unique style of percussive music, usually quite slow, and working on the sustaining of sounds. The result is a densely layered album of multiple percussive elements. It’s the Z’ev we know so well from the 80s, but with a sound that has progressed a lot.
Of a completly different nature is the collaboration between Z’ev, KK Null and Chris Watson – it even seems on paper a most curious collaboration. Z’ev and Null played together one evening and talked about collaborating. It would involve the structure of the NOH theatre, sounds used would act as developing characters and the ‘the character interactions would be placed as the ‘figure’ inside particular soundscapes as the ‘ground’. Z’ev is the man to mix the various sound input by KK Null and Watson – the first known for his electronically manipulated electro-acoustics and the latter for his field recordings made in Africa. An unlikely combination perhaps, but surprisingly it works very well. The bird and insects sound electronic and the electro-acoustics sounds sound quite natural. Z’ev’s responsibility is to mix all these elements together, and he does a great job, much along the lines of his ‘Headphone Musics 1 To 6’ (see Vital Weekly 444). Densely layered pieces of sounds swirling in and out, which work best with headphones one (despite the fact that no such reference is made on the cover). It’s music that is hardly to be described as ‘ambient’ or ‘soundscaping’ or even ‘industrial’, but which is very much it’s own thing, defying any category (well, perhaps ‘avant-garde’ comes in place then?). A highly vibrant disc of beautifully dense music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
LAPSED – LAPSED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Another well recommended release by Berlin-based label Ad Noiseam! Last year the label released the debut album of American sound Artist Jason Stevens (a.k.a. Lapsed) titled “Twilight”, an album that took its starting point in precision, sharpness and glitchy harmonies. This year’s self-titled follow-up also focuses on the click-driven sound expression, but stylishly Lapsed has taken an interesting step into the territories of Hip Hop roots. The albums opens with lots of atmosphere where clicking beats easily moves inside subtle drones of low frequency ambient. The hip hop beats do exist on the opening tracks but in a more calm state. Having left the first two tracks behind the expression slowly begins to get funkier. There are plenty of samplings ranging from voices of black rappers to sampled moments from Justin Timberlake. As we approach the final part of the album the funkiness slowly fades giving way to the melancholic atmospheres that surrounded the opening part. And so there is a pleasant musical development on the album. Being a rather unique beast, the only comparison I can come up with is the 1998-album “Frequency jams” by Req, thanks to the alluring mixture of hip hop beats and experimental Ambient. Excellent! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.com
FREQ_OUT 2 (CD compilation by Ash International)
The idea behind this CD, or maybe I should say, sound installation, is that thirteen artists work within a specific sound range. Unlike the first volume (see Vital Weekly 406), this is not a compilation of various pieces, but just one piece, spanning one hour. I think each artist plays within the given frequencies, but in one long jam session together. The piece is a slowly evolving matter of softly gliding tones, with sometimes elements rising out of it, but only mildly, just above the rest, but no sound seems to be taking a distinct shape. This makes this a highly ambient record, or better an environmental album, one you can put on repeat for the rest of the day at a soft volume and your space will be filled with sounds that don’t force themselves upon the listener, but rather provide a nice background soundtrack for the user (rather than ‘for the listener’). It’s a very nice disc, much better than the first volume in terms of listening experience. Artists included are BJNilsen, J.G. Thirlwell, Jacob Kirkegaard, Jana Winderen, Maia Urstad, Kent Tankred, Finnbogi Petursson, PerMagus Lindborg, Brandon Labelle, Franz Pommasl, Mike Harding, Tommi Gronlund and Petteri Nisunen. A very fine disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freq-out.org
KINETIX – WHITE ROOMS (2CD by Small Voices)
Following a couple of CDR releases and one CD by Small Voices, here comes the biggest undertaking by Gianluca Becuzzi and it’s a major leap forward. ‘White Rooms’ is a four part work, of which three span the first CD and the fourth the entire second CD. The work deals with the relationships between physical space and acoustic space, divided in ‘inside the room’, ‘length of the room’, ‘height of the room’ and ‘volume of the room’. Whereas his previous works dealt with either micro-sound and minimal techno, he now seems to have taken the path of microsound. Carefully constructed soundscapes of sine-waves gently moving in and out, with occasional crackles and soft whispering voices, certainly in the first part. It reminded me of some of Jos Smolders’ older work in this direction (but much better recorded by Kinetix, but in Smolders’ defense, he work with hissy tapes in his early days). In the second and third part Kinetix uses the voice of Alvin Lucier with his well-known ramble about rooms that he is in and you are not, but Kinetix uses it quite nicely. The fourth part is a stretched out drone piece with off and on rumbles and it moves all quite slowly. The previous works by Kinetix were nice, but couldn’t convince me that much, but here it surely does. Not so much in terms of presenting something new, but it’s a well-thought out disc, excellently produced, good concept and presented well. Thumbs up! (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA – THE LEGEND OF THE ELK BAND 1996-1999 (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording Collective)
ARGH & JEREMY KENNEDY – TITLED (CD by The Fuck Me Stupid Mountain Princess Recording Collective)
‘Let’s Foam’ was the debut of Puppy vs Dyslexia back in 2001, but I missed that. Maybe if I did hear I would understand this better. Puppy vs Dyslexia are a two piece of Zak Puppy and Jeremy Kennedy. Together they present no less than twenty-five tracks on this new album, and as far as I understand this is a collection of various bits and pieces recorded over the last few years, ‘fusty tapes of pot marked seedlings, folio imprints and live shots’ as it is called. Wether or not from the period 1996-1999 as mentioned in the title, it’s unclear to me. An utter lo-fi affair this release, with mostly deliberately badly recorded songs of guitar, drums, bass and noise and oh yes, vocals. Madness along. Butthole Surfers, Sun City Girls and other free punk spring to mind. Not music I regularly digest, but it’s alright for a CD long of weirdness. And then move on.
The same Jeremy Kennedy pops up in Argh & Jeremy Kennedy on the disc ‘Titled’, which is far more interesting for the Vital Weekly crowd, me thinks. Argh is one Adrian Riffo, the guitarist of the ‘Parisian jazz/noise trio Glen Or Glenda’. The two meet up, discuss what to do and book a session in a studio, with both of them on guitar and electronics. The session has been cut into three tracks, ‘Green’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Blue’ and offers in all three track a very free play of sustaining electronic sounds, objects on the six strings and more noise related outings, using distortion pedals and some such. Things work best when they go for a somewhat softer sound and explore all the possibilities that they have at hand, rather than letting things explode. Luckily these moments are the majority here. Together with the rather raw recording (live microphone, rather than everything going straight into a mixer), makes this a very vibrant recording of improvised music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fmsmprc.com
PAUL BRADLEY – LIQUID SUNSET (CD by Twenty Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY – DRONE WORKS #6 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
PAUL BRADLEY/DAVID WELLS – HEART OF EMBRA/OP.5 (3″CDR by Twenty Hertz)
This is something I have noted before, but let’s repeat and extend a little. Drone music is at a dead end, at least for the time being (save for maybe technical changes in the future), but that’s perhaps also to be noted for a lot of music, like ambient music, noise or microsound. That is a pity for those listeners who’d like music to develop into new directions. But perhaps the majority of people is not interested in that all. They discovered ‘drone’ (or whatever genre) music and learned about their few favorite artists and set out to get everything, even when it doesn’t change that much. That’s why, say Klaus Schulze, has such a big following. And that’s why some people don’t mind that their favorite artists are over-productive. People such as Paul Bradley. With three new releases you might think he’s over-productive, but ‘Liquid Sunset’ is his first solo CD, apart from a bunch of collaborations and CDR releases. I have learned that Bradley is not a man with a bedroom full of analogue synths, but rather armed with a microphone and minidisc goes out to do field recordings and treats them on his computer into extended pieces of drone music. Stretching out sounds by the possibilities of the computer with very occasionally the sound going to the raw field recording, which is always obscured beyond recognition. A short walk perhaps, leaves cracking but the main portion is the extended drone sounds. Great stuff, but nothing new under the (liquid) sun(set).
The differences between ‘Liquid Sunset’ and ‘Drone Works #6’ are marginal, except that the latter is a twenty minute EP, without any traces of the original source/field recordings. Slowly humming, gently vibrating music.
On the website of Twenty Hertz, Paul’s own label, we can read that the field recordings for his split release with David Wells (another upcoming name in the areas of drone music) were made in Edinburgh, visiting tourist sites, walking and drinking but without any bagpipes. Each of the artists produced his own piece of drone music from it. Bradley with another signature piece, with mildly recognizable crackles. David Wells brings in more drama to the scene, with sounds swirling in and out of the mix, rather than going for the stretched out pieces of drone music. But his piece is also strictly inside drone music, despite the sudden changes and the overall more soundscaping character of the piece. It’s a very nice piece however, with the field recordings being more recognizable present in the mix. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twentyhertz.co.uk
MONOLITH ZERO/NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER (CD by 804noise Records)
Both Monolith Zero and Never Presence Forever are new names to me, and so is the label, 804noise Records. They hail from Virginia and focuss on artists from the Richmond Area, I assume it’s run by the artists who release on the label. Monolith is one Adam Hudson and he presents two tracks of electrically charged electricity. In the first piece this works out in smaller sounds, produced while rubbing contact microphones against each-other, interrupted by short loud bangs. Quite an intense piece of music going on here. The second ‘_0_’ is a much louder piece of machine hum, distortion and feedback, but presented in a good collage form, balancing the noise with silence. In the second half of the piece things move into quieter water before arising from the swamp.
Never Presence Forever is Andrew Westerhouse, who remixed Merzbow before. His music sound ‘swedish’ to me, which means echoing the likes of Cold Meat Industry and their ‘death ambient’ bands. A rather subdued form of noise or a violent form of drone music. Never Presence Forever takes the sounds of ‘transformer hum in a vacant lot littered with refuse, a blast furnace echoing in a concrete stairwell’, and puts on a bunch of electronic processing to create a dense, layered mass of sound, in a careful built pieces of great music. Lovers of Megaptera and Lustmord with a healthy dose of noise, should find their way here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.804noise.org
ANTLER JUICE – LIVE AT RELAY O3 (CD by Postmoderncore)
The three players who recorded as Antler Juice are Jin Sangtae (radio, sampling, electronics), Choi Joonyong (CDs) and tangent (aka Sam Stevens on laptop, microphone, flute, okarina, toy guitar, throat). They met up for the first time on september 16th of this year when they played together at Relay 03 in Seoul, Korea. Of course of twenty-five minutes they play together a set of improvised electronics, scratchy electronics, in a pretty raw and direct way. Not that this falls in the category of noise or some such, but it’s a in your face recording of more forceful sound material. Not every moment is great here, but throughout it was most enjoyable. (FdW)
Address: http://postmoderncore.com
CATHODE – CHRONOPHOBIA/ECONOMIC GROWTH (7″ by Distraction Records)
MUSHI MUSHI – CHICKEN EP (7″ by Distraction Records)
In Vital Weekly 411 we discussed ‘Special Measures’, the first full length album by Cathode, aka Steve Jefferis, which was nice, but didn’t stand out too much from the world of Static Caravan, Expanding Records or some such melancholy electronica labels. He does stand out with the first A-side of his new 7″ for Distraction Records, ‘Chronophobia’, not so much for the music but for the beautiful voice of Caroline Thorp who sings here with a dreamy, layered voice. A simply great piece. The other A-side is built around a set of minimal sine waves, which are greeted by a set of nice rhythms. It’s a bit more experimental than the others operating in this field, which makes this into a most enjoyable 7″.
Whoever Mushi Mushi are, we don’t know, but ‘Chicken EP’ is their debut 7″. Four tracks in just under ten minutes, that calls for a true electro-punk spirit. They play fast music on a crossroad of punk and electro music, just of that alley where free new wave of the early 80s also lurk around the corner. Recalling all the nice bands from then to now, this is a highly energetic slab of vinyl. Great start for a new label, with two these handsome releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.distractionrecords.com
GRADUATION TRIO (CDR by Free1003Point9)
N.R.A. (CDR by Free1003Point9)
SKYLINE – PRIVATE SECTORS (CDR by Free1003Point9)
TUNE(IN))) (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
RADIO ACTION II (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
SCAPE 2 (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
CROSSED CIRCUITS (CDR compilation by Free1003Point9)
A whole bunch of releases from The Free103Point9 label from Brooklyn, linked to an illegal radio station and performance space. Many of their releases on CDR deal with music of an improvised nature. Such as Graduation Trio, being Nels Cline, Chris Corsano and Carlos Giffoni, a power trio of drums, guitar and noise. The two pieces, spanning forty minutes, were recorded in 2003. The music is a most furious set of free rock/noise improvisation, nervous and hectic, moving all over the place, with hardly any point of rest or contemplation. Music for die-hard lovers of the free genre. A pity that the recording quality isn’t that great.
N.R.A. has nothing to do with the National Riffle Association, but stands for Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Vic Rawlings (cello and open circuit electronics) and Ricardo Arias (bass-balloon kit). Here to improvisation prevails, and like Graduation Trio, they sure like to play things loud, but unlike Graduation Trio, they don’t go for the endless stream of sound and being a free as possible. N.R.A. loves their quieter moments, thus letting their instruments breath, take shape, and then let them move on. When they burst out they do it well and loud, but it’s not their main thing. Exploration of the various possibilities their instruments have to offer, as-well as all the different techniques to apply in playing them. A very fine disc of first class improvisation.
It’s been a while since we last heard of Skyline, Damian Catera’s band, despite the fact that the first two releases came quickly after each-other (see Vital Weekly 291 and 237). Skyline is besides Damian on guitar and electronics, JB on rhythms-capes and ‘jbscapes’, DJZ on turntable, soundscapes and rhythmscapes and V. Olsen on ‘lo end abrasions and other thump’. Together they make a complex web of rhythm, rhythm and noise. It’s at times most enjoyable, even better than the previous Skyline releases, but at the same time it remains also quite remote music, it doesn’t seem to be grabbing the listener that much, at least not this one.
All the other releases are compilations of events and especially commissioned music for broadcasts. ‘Tune(In)))’for instance consists of recordings made at a festival of the same name, held at The Kitchen in April 2004. The audience members could tune in via headsets to the music that was played live. No amplification in the room itself. Five long pieces (six, if you count the introduction) by some of the participating artists, of which Scanner is the best-known one. His piece is the longest here with his entire set played that night. Pulsating ambient and dropping at various moments all sorts of field recordings, but of course the main thing being spoken word of varying kind. Damian Catera samples real time Thurston Moore’s guitar, but unfortunately comes down as too much noise and chaos in the end. Ben Owen’s piece is also worth mentioning, since it’s a very fine, soft piece of radio crackles and field recordings.
Another compilation is ‘Radio Action II’, a seasonal release using radio transmissions as an instrument or theme. Many of the enclosed artists are new to me, such as sabers, Keith Obadike, Marcel Blum, Tom Roe and Joshua Fried. Some of the pieces make quite a clear use of radio sounds, whilst in some others it’s less obvious. Overall it’s alright, but nothing spectacular.
On a different conceptual angle (which is something they love at Free1003Point9), is ‘Scape 2’, a double CDR of identical material which you should play at the same time and put to shuffle. Besides Scanner again a bunch of new names. Overall the material dwells on darker edges of ambient and little bits of more noise related material. Many of the names from ‘Radio Action II’ return and the same thing can be said here: overall it’s alright, but nothing spectacular.
The final compilation is ‘Crossed Circuits’, with again many of the same names as on the previous compilations and was part of an exhibition, involving photography, sculpture, painting and music, all dealing with ‘the blurring of senses. Much alike the other compilations, it’s an alright thing of fairly interesting experimental music, but again nothing spectacular. (FdW)
Address: http://www.free103point9.org
ASHER – … AND INVARIABLY THE BLUE (MP3 by Con V)
“The well-known fact of the Inuits having access to more than 13 (or was it 30?) terms for ‘snow’ comes to mind on the apperception of this release’ – perhaps it’s not so well-known fact, I think when reading the press text. Asher works and lives in Brooklyn, New York and had previously a release on 12K’s net-label Term, which I didn’t hear. His new MP3 release deals with the spectrum of ‘blue’, all it’s various shapes, just like the ‘snow’ for the inuit. Three long tracks, which all sound a bit similar (I assume that’s the ‘blue’ aspect of it) of deep bass tones and slowly altering field recordings. If microsound is a term you never of, then try this and you know what it is all about. It’s a pretty good release of pretty nice mood music, but also a bit standard for what it is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
corrections: the website for Remanence (see last week) should be http://www.mpathrecords.com.
Antanas Jasenka is not from Russia but from Lithuania and Dan Warburton (Vital Weekly 501) is not an American, but English.
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