PRETTY BOY CROSSOVER & JULIO SOTO – WE’RE ALL DRIFTING (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti) *
MONOTRACT – XPRMNTL LVRS (CD by Ecstatic Peace!) *
SUPERNATURAL HOT RUG AND NOT USED (CD by EM Records)
ANLA COURTIS – TAPE WORKS (Pogus Productions) *
SALTILLO – GANGLION (CD by Suspicious Records)
MONTREAL SOUND MATTER (CD by Pogus Productions)
MATT ROGALSKY – MEMORY LIKE WATER (2CD by Experimental Intermedia) *
TIM EXILE – NUISANCE GABBARET LOUNGE (CD by Planet Mu)
SACRED SYMBOLS OF MU (2CD by Planet Mu)
PHILIPPE LAUZIER & MILES PERKIN & ROBBIE KUSTER – TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY – (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
DB BOYKO & CHRISTINE DUNCAN & JEAN MARTIN – IDIOLALLA (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
LLOYD BARRETT – MISE EN SCENE (CD by Room40)
GREG DAVIS & JEPH JERMAN – KU (CD by Room 40) *
DAN JOSEPH – ARCHAEA (CD by Mutable Music)
THE PLASTIC PALS – THE BAND THAT’S FUN TO BE WITH (CDEP by Polythene Records)
NADJA & FEAR FALLS BURNING (LP by Conspiracy Records)
STROTTER INST – ANNA/ANNA (7″ by Implied Sound)
DIE TOEDLICHE DORIS – GEHOERLOSE MUSIK (DVD by Edition Kroetenhayn)
GREG HEADLEY – THE OPERATION OF THE HEAVENS (CDR by 28 Angles) *
FORMICATION – REDUX (CDR by Harmful Records) *
TANDOORI DREAM – SAFFRON SOUNDS (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
CHAPEAU – DON JAIL ROADWAY (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
V-A – DRONE SEASON II, THE MISSION (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
KALLABRIS – OFF MIND (3″CDR by Entr’acte) *
SCOTT TAYLOR/SRMEIXNER – PLEASE KEEP CLEAR AT ALL TIME (CD by Entr’acte)
MARC BEHRENS/DAVE PHILIPS/CHEAPMACHINES/KEITH BERRY (CD by Entr’acte)
VEND – KARADA BI AI (CDR by VND) *
COALITION FOR A BETTER TOMORROW (CDR by Apop Records)
CROSSBRED – TAKE OF YOUR FUCKIN’ VANITY (3″CDR by Apop Records)
TWODEADSLUTS ONEGOODFUCK – GIRLS BORN IN THE 90S (3″CDR by Apop Records)
ROXANNE JEAN POLISE – WE’RE ALRIGHT (3″CDR by Apop Records) *
UNCHAINED – THE CARDINAL CAGE (CD-R by Kitty Play Records/MP3 by
languagerecovery.org)
BOOZLE BAM – CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING STUPID (2CDR, private) *
ITTO – SOUND ON AN EMPTY ROAD (CDR by Elvis Coffee House Records) *
PLACENTA POPEYE & FABSTRE (MP3 by Tanzprocesz)
PRETTY BOY CROSSOVER & JULIO SOTO – WE’RE ALL DRIFTING (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
Cocosolidciti is a pretty unique label in that way that their releases are these days always a CD and a DVD, and usually by people I never heard of. They work together on the end result, even though it’s usually filmmakers putting film to existing music. Pretty Boy Crossover has had releases before on labels such as Surgery and Sensory, both from Australia, but ‘We’re All Drifting’ took three years to make. Guitars play a big role in this music, that is however highly electronical. Pretty Boy Crossovers music is foremost written in minor keys to depict melancholy. This is were shoegazing meets glitch, or some such. Rhythms are kept to a laidback pace and the mood is overall a bit dark. Maybe a times a bit too doomy for my taste.
The DVD has two films by Julio Soto and music by Pretty Boy Crossover. His films consist of urban scapes, cities from a helicopter view, airplanes and fish. All of these are layered, thus giving it all a dreamy context. And it’s a context that fits the music quite well. The same melancholy that is captured in the music, is also captured in the images. Especially in ‘Invisible Cities’ this works really well. The layered images of cities add a haunting and spooky texture. With images perhaps better than without. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cocosolidciti.com
MONOTRACT – XPRMNTL LVRS (CD by Ecstatic Peace!)
Carlos Giffoni is the only name here that I know of, and quite well too; his noise excursions are amongst the best around at the moment, as he proved with records such as “Welcome Home” (Important Records) and “I Am Real” on his own Not Fun imprint. Monotract is a trio he makes up with Nancy Garcia and Roger Rimada. They already have released some CDs under this name on labels such as Animal World or Public Eyesore, this probably being the one which will reach the largest audience. Against expectations they make pop music, if only very marginally, but at least they follow its structures through most of these tracks, which might have to do with the vocals and the rhythmical electronic backbone (yes, even drums). That said, these vocals are deformed and distorted into a mean blast of sound most of the time and the sample-based array of loops and rhythms sounds grainy and unpolished, ready to spin off in a different direction any minute. The feeling of watching some Berlin electro outfit being washed at 90 degrees in a human washing machine comes up several times whilst listening to this. It doesn’t have the vengeance and focus of Giffoni’s solo material though, and seems to fall between the chairs a little bit. Not pop enough for even the most wintered pop lover, and not out there enough for the experimental music fan, this might appeal to people who like Dat Politics but also think they are just too way damn cute (as displayed on “Game 7”). (RM)
Address: http://www.ecstaticpeace.com
SUPERNATURAL HOT RUG AND NOT USED (CD by EM Records)
In a big room overlooking Osaka, two men are playing one electric guitar, one sort of bass, preamps, amplifiers, microphones, but no effects. They are Tim Olive, who toured with Nimrod, Twerdocleb and Soap-Jo Henshi, and played improvised music with all sorts of people from the scene and there is Brunsho Nisikawa, who played with Osaka bands such as Brazil, Kakisubata, Pocket Kiniko and Ko-q. Both have a rock background. Not that it matters for the recordings captured on their self-titled album. The eight pieces are improvised, but sort of all in between various genres. It’s not the silent type of improvisation, the guitars sound as guitars, albeit played with objects and such. There are elements of noise, through the use of feedback, but it never gets anywhere obnoxious loud and dirty. The noise here plays a rather functional role: it adds to the same what raw character of the improvisations. Despite this rawness, there is a good portion of tension in these recordings, which clocking at some thirty eight minutes has just the right length to attract full attention. Longer would probably be, well, just too long, and shorter would probably leave an unsatisfied feeling, the feeling for more. A nice crossover between improvisation, noise and a bit rock oriented. (FdW)
Address: http://www.emrecords.net
ANLA COURTIS – TAPE WORKS (Pogus Productions) CD
Now back to his real name Alan Courtis, this still comes out under the misspelled Anla Courtis moniker (a slight name change given to him by his former Reynols companion Miguel Tomasin), as it features music from the time he was still called Anla. Even whilst being in Reynols for most of the 90s and early years of the new century (and releasing a sludge of records accordingly) he also always made his own music. This was mostly made through the use of tapes, as he apparently didn’t get a computer until 1999. Not sounding like the best idea for some progressive experimental music he actually manages to instill these tape works with lots of innovative sound spells. “Rastrillo-Termotanque” is three minutes of CD torturing in the best possible Oval way, without ever really sounding like them, a real accomplishment. Or “Studio for Wire Plugs” which is exactly made up out of only that. It doesn’t all work though. “Jarabe De Llanura” is made up out of water sounds, apparently to show the ,other side’ of the possibilities of water, meaning more noisy, and not new agey. It maybe works when you don’t know that it’s all water, but as soon as you read the nice liner notes it falls flat really. But that’s only rarely, as most of it seems to hold my attention throughout. Even the more electro-acoustic pieces have a certain hands-on quality, which give these works a certain charming quality, and prevents it from falling into the trap of contemporary musique concrète. (RM)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
SALTILLO – GANGLION (CD by Suspicious Records)
Something not very typical today is the trip-hop style. That music was interesting to me when Portishead released their album ‘Dummy’, but the style itself never really caught my attention much. Anyway, what Saltillo aka Menton J. Matthews III has done here is very charming and amusing for listening. He takes trip-hop mostly as a base for the music and besides the programing-electronics there are a bunch of other instruments in the music: violin, cello, viola, piano, bass, drums, guitar and banjo. The classical instruments and how they’re used here fit perfectly in the atmosphere of melancholy, so characteristic for this trip-hop related album. Sometimes the rhythm and the music is too downtempo, as in ‘Giving in’, while in ‘A simple test’ it’s much faster, a crossover of drum n bass and jungle, still keeping the melancholic feeling, that’s what the trip-hop base in this music is for. Most of the songs, some with female and male vocals and lyrics or speaking voice samples, are arranged in the evident Saltillo style, with sharp beats, clever (often abrasive) rhythms and melodies and the ever present bitter-sweet atmosphere of melancholy to lose yourself in, not praising it, but just immersing it. The production is along the high standards of today’s electronic (dance) music. The last two shorter songs are mostly piano and guitar plus vocals, a perfect fade out on this highly affective album. (BR)
Address: http://www.suspicious-records.com
MONTREAL SOUND MATTER (CD by Pogus Productions)
Montreal is a nice city, at least the two streets I saw when I stayed there a whole week (my mistake, I know). It has been also the second home of Francisco Lopez for the last six years, playing lots of concerts there and from there it’s a small step to ‘Montreal Sound Matter’, a workshop on environmental sound by Senor Lopez of which there is in the end this CD, an installation and a concert. Various musicians from Montreal attended this workshop, which deals with collecting sounds from Montreal. Not to make an audio postcard of the city, but rather a more abstract and personal view of the city, by people who already lived there much longer than Lopez. So it’s not a matter of saying, ‘oh this is that street, or this nice restaurant (‘Schwarz’, anyone?)’, but to sit back and take it in as a long soundscape of the city. Rather than seeing this as eight separate pieces of music, I see it as one city seen through eight microphones and some of them present their work in their most pure form, like an unaltered recording, some as a cut-up and with some it’s hard to recognize any sort of field recording at all, such is the case with Tomas Philips. But all the tracks are thus placed on the CD that they make their trip through the city, from busyness to quietness and back again. Only towards the very end of the CD, in the piece by Mathieu Levesque, there is a bit of music sipping through: a computerized game music thingy. In the end we know nothing more about Montreal, but we do experienced a beautiful trip through a very nice city. It also includes pieces by Helene Prevost, Steve Heimbecker, Louis Dufort, Chantal Dumas, A_dontigny and of course Lopez himself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
MATT ROGALSKY – MEMORY LIKE WATER (2CD by Experimental Intermedia)
As far as I can see and hear, Matt Rogalsky is a computer musician, who wrote a piece of software himself, called Kash. It treats whatever sound input it gets. On ‘Memory Like Water’ a double CD spanning live works from 1996 until now, these are guitars, violins, noise, tones and radios. Not all at the same time, but rather one at a time. Of these Rogalsky spins long pieces of music out of this. The emphasis in his music lies on ‘sustaining’ and ‘minimalism’. The shortest piece on this set is thirteen minutes and the longest over thirty-one. That makes the whole thing quite a sit through, I must admit. Each of the pieces develops in a slow manner, starting with almost no sound and building up to large crescendo. In ‘Transform’, the radios sound like a wall of guitars, but in ‘Kash (Guitars)’ it’s almost the other way round and things are almost quiet and empty. The seven pieces are all interesting to hear by themselves, but two discs crammed full of this, is a bit too much. One would have been enough, at least for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xirecords.org
TIM EXILE – NUISANCE GABBARET LOUNGE (CD by Planet Mu)
SACRED SYMBOLS OF MU (2CD by Planet Mu)
I never heard of Tim Exile, nor his previous release ‘Pro Agonist’, which apparently bridged drum & bass and techno. ‘Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge’ is something different again. Exile has built something which allows him to improvise with rhythm, electronics and vocals, but to me sounds like a sample machine, a kaos pad and a drum computer. The nineteen pieces here are all improvised in something that is called The Gabbaret Lounge, playing around with gabba rhythms, drum & bass, Britney Spears and on top he does vocal improvisations, abuses the audience (which respond back, as can be heard). It’s more punk than drum & bass, despite the whole thing being much more electronic. General mayhem rules here, and it’s all done with high energy. Furious and noisy, but with a lot of humor. Quite alright this one, especially when played loud.
And Planet Mu are up to their 100th release. Which labels do tend to celebrate, as much as they celebrate twenty-five years of existence. The previous 99 releases where not all heard by me, not even close I must admit, but from what I heard, Planet Mu is a pretty varied label, and this double compilation proofs that once more. I heard it last week for the first time, sitting with feet in cold water, drinking coffee and suffering heat, and didn’t noting the track listing. It was like listening to the radio, a good alternative station that is. I heard breakcore, techno, people singing, hip hop, rap and much more. Not that I liked every bit, like good radio also plays pieces you don’t like, but it’s was quite nice. When I later glanced the box, I name checked Luke Vibert, Venetian Snares, Leafcutter John, but also many new names such as Dykehouse, Shitmat, Tom Burbank, Pinch, Breakage, Distance, 0=0, Vex’d, Boxcutter, Milanese and many more. Quite a nice one, this. Especially when the weather doesn’t invite you to do anything else then sit back and listen. (FdW)
Address: http://www.planet-mu.com
PHILIPPE LAUZIER & MILES PERKIN & ROBBIE KUSTER – TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY – (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
DB BOYKO & CHRISTINE DUNCAN & JEAN MARTIN – IDIOLALLA (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Since a few years the Ambiances Magnetiques invests in new talent. With these both releases we have another proof of this policy in our hands. On both cds we find a trio at work. With ‘Today is a special day’ the trio with Philippe Lauzier (alto and soprano saxes), Miles Perkin (double bass and voice) and Robbie Kuster (drums and percussion) make their first statement. Lauzier is from Montréal where he studied saxophone and composition. He is active in the fields of jazz and new music. Miles Perkin, is another rising star in the Montréal music scene. The projects he is involved in, are to many to mention. As a composer he leads his own ensemble Common Thread. Also working on many fronts in Montréal is swiss-born Robbie Kuster. As a trio they exist about two years now. Most of the compositions are by Lauzier, some others by Perkin. Also they adapt two compositions by Bela Bartok : Mikrokosmos #61 and # 113. Their jazz is far from traditionalistic, but also not superbly modern, but somewhere in the middle. With their their disciplined and well crafted playing they create an open and dynamic music that is very mature. In all respects a very consistent trio of dedicated players with a clear concept and identity. Couldn’t find a weak spot here.
Totally different is ‘Idiolalla’, a collaboration of two female singers, DB Boyko and Christine Duncan, completed by Jean Martin on drums. This trio is specialized in very free form improvisations, with mainly both vocalists on the forefront. From Vancouver comes DB Boyko. She worked with the NOW Orchestra and made impression with her song-cycle Amphibious Tales in the 90’s. Of both Christine Duncan – with a five octave range – the one who has the most experience. She worked with Kenny Wheeler, Paul Horn, etc. Percussionist Jean Martin worked with David Murray, Lori Freedman, and many others. So speaking of ‘new talents’ should be taken as a very relative notion. By the way, Duncan and Martin also perform as a duo. The non-verbal mouth music of this trio is very dramatic and intense. Drummer Martin plays modest but effective. But when listening repeatedly to this cd, I could not suppress the thought that all becomes a bit more of the same. Which is may be due to the free form character of their improvisations. So how expressive and adventurous the improvisations may be, this does not guarantee a CD that impresses from beginning to the end. (DM)
Address: http://www.actruellecd.com/
LLOYD BARRETT – MISE EN SCENE (CD by Room40)
GREG DAVIS & JEPH JERMAN – KU (CD by Room 40)
On these two new Room40 releases we welcome one very old acquaintance, one well-known star of the day and one new kid on the block. The new kid is Lloyd Barrett from Australia. He works since ten years in music, from ‘postconcrete sound and abstracted rhythmic projects to spacious ambient works’, but in 2005 he started to work along the philosophy of people like Michel Chion. I am ready to admit that I don’t know much about them, other than Chion outlined the principles of electro-acoustic music, and he called it ‘acousmatic’ music. On ‘Mise En Scene’, Barrett works with electro-acoustic sounds of a nature that is no revealed to us. Electronically treated, sampled and fed through a whole bunch of sound effects. This sounds serious and it is serious. Serious as in overground avant-garde. Sounds fall over eachother, beside eachother or lie on top of eachother, with hardly a moment of rest in sight. Only ‘Canopy’ is just a moment of tranquility, with it’s insect like sounds. A release that could have been as easily on Empreintes Digitalis. It’s not bad at all, but for me this is usually a bit too serious.
The other CD brings the old acquaintance is Jeph Jerman. In the first ten or so years of his career (1985-1995) he worked as Hands To, releasing tons of cassettes and some pieces of vinyl and CDs and was part of City Of Worms. After that releases were much more sparse and changed drastically. From densely layered sample based of Hands To, he changed his working method to playing acoustic sounds, using stones, paper, metal wires and such. On ‘Ku’ he works with Greg Davis, star of the microsound but here without his computer. Together they play a variety of stones, sticks and lo-fi electronics, and prepared instruments, gongs and broken percussion. They recorded a whole bunch of sessions together, which were later edited together to create a dense field of electro-acoustic music. In the first two pieces things sound hectic and nervous, with sounds flying about, and with a lot of field recordings that aren’t field recordings. Jerman and Davis rather sit outside on Jerman’s veranda in Arizona and the bird and wind sounds form a natural part of the music. The third piece is much more quiet, with a gong/cymbal like sound and obscure sound of crackling. At times I was reminded of the current Kapotte Muziek sound, which has a similar balance of acoustic object playing (but with pre-recorded field recordings), going from the almost inaudible to the nervous hectic playing. The multiple layered and edited part removes the ‘live’ feel, but that is hardly an objection: it makes the sound more present and keeps the flow going. Great CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
DAN JOSEPH – ARCHAEA (CD by Mutable Music)
When I opened the package containing this CD, I immediately thought this would be more music for fellow writer Dolf Mulder, but out of curiosity I played it first. Dan Joseph is a composer who has been working inside the experimental tape music underground since the late 80s, but later on went to get degrees at CalArts and Mills College. As instrument he plays the hammer dulcimer. On ‘Archaea’ he plays this instrument, along with a small ensemble, of violin, clarinet, percussion, harpsichord and cello. Joseph says to be influenced by the first generation of minimalists, and that is well heard throughout these three pieces (all between fifteen and twenty minutes). I played this with curiosity and fell in love with this. Especially the first two pieces, ‘Percussion And Strings’ and ‘Archaea Quartet’ are great. It’s an odd mixture of minimalism, along Steve Reich’s early seventies works (like ‘Octet’, but then without any wind instruments), oriental (eastern Europe), baroque and even mediaeval at times. Melodies flow by, instruments shift about and small webs are formed and shaped. The hammer dulcimer gives the music a certain drive, hammering (pun intended) the basic chords of the pieces. That adds an element of ‘rock music’ to the pieces. Think The Lost Jockey (when is that coming on CD?), Micheal O’Shea and a very mild Glenn Branca meeting Steve Reich and Micheal Nyman. There are so many links to so many people, but Joseph knows how to keep his music fresh. That ‘Lotus Quintet’ is the weakest link, is ok. It has good movements, but somehow the drive is less apparent. Great CD (sorry Dolf). (FdW)
Address: http://www.mutablemusic.com
THE PLASTIC PALS – THE BAND THAT’S FUN TO BE WITH (CDEP by Polythene Records)
The arrival of many new bands on the scene that are influenced by the late seventies, early eighties postpunk/new wave, made me curious to check them out. But I must admit that bands like Franz Ferdinand or Arctic Monkeys aren’t the same thing to me, as say good ol’ XTC or Fischer Z (to name but two). Swedish The Plastic Pals call themselves the missing link between Television and Green On Red. Four tracks on their CDEP ‘The Band That’s Fun To Be With’ and again, like their more famous UK counterparts, it doesn’t impress me that much. The four tracks are pretty and pretty harmless affairs of pop inspired post punk or post punk inspired pop, but not really catching in the melodies or lyrics. There is no necessity to be more than just a popband, which is of course fine, but for this old bloke, the old thing was just better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.theplasticpals.se
NADJA & FEAR FALLS BURNING (LP by Conspiracy Records)
Two prolific minds, Dirk Serries and Aidan Baker meet up here. The first as Fear Falls Burning, playing his guitar and his effects and amplifier and the latter as Nadja, which is Baker with Leah Buckareff on bass, guitar and vocals. So far I haven’t been a big fan of Nadja (see also Vital Weekly 495). It’s a wall of sound ambient played on guitars, bass and a pounding drum machine. Perhaps not unlike Earth or Sunn O))), but with a blurriness to the sound. The three met up somewhere, somehow and made this record – no doubt, keeping in spirit of Fear Falls Burning for the moment – in exactly the same time as the record lasts – a live record. It’s a massive record, not like anything Fear Falls Burning did so far – maybe that’s his compromise to this record: “we do it live, in the way Nadja wants to”. A loud violent beast of a record it is, which sounds more Sunn O))) to me than Earth, I guess. A wall of sound, blasting with guitars and the drum machine being the constant factor. The voice appears to me to be present on the second side only. Head banging music for sure, but not this head. No doubt I’d do that if I hear this really loud, in a club with a few hundred other people, but at home, I must say that some of the power is lost on me. I’d rather play Alien’s ‘Celebrating Your Victory’ (not at anyone knows that of course) to bang this head again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.conspiracyrecords.com
STROTTER INST – ANNA/ANNA (7″ by Implied Sound)
The only time I ever saw a record spinning backwards was ‘Tractor’ by The Haters, who convinced Aardvarck cutting to make it like that. Today’s 7″ by Strotter Inst is the second time I see and hear one. Strotter Inst. is one Christoph Hess, playing music on five old Lenco turntables. He has a couple of previous releases, of which I only heard ‘Live @ Oblo Cinema’ on 1000+1 Tilt Recordings (see Vital weekly 504, where we misspelled his name). On this 7″ he has four tracks. The two tracks on the outside, i.e. where you start playing the record, spin from the outside to the inside, the track after that from the inside to the outside, and they all end in lockgrooves. Thus perhaps a bit hard for those with automatic turntables. It’s a bit like the poem ‘Anna Blume’ by Kurt Schwitters, ‘a n n a’ can be read from the back as well. The four pieces are quite short, around three minutes each, and consisting of rotating loops that make intense patterns, especially on ‘Na’ (of the a-side). Think Philip Jeck, think Institut Fuer Feinmotorik, and you’ll get the loop. It’s a pity that these are all so short, since there is more potential in the music, given some more time. Next time perhaps a 10″ or 12″? (FdW)
Address: http://www.impliedsound.com
DIE TOEDLICHE DORIS – GEHOERLOSE MUSIK (DVD by Edition Kroetenhayn)
Changing identities and the development and mutation of information are recurring themes in the work of Die Toedliche Doris. They have asked strangers to take their place and play a concert as ‘Die Toedliche Doris’, they have engaged a mediocre show band to play along traditional dance tunes with prepared noise tapes, they have released an immaterial album which exists only when their records “Unser Debut” and “sechs” are played simultaneously. The DVD “Gehoerlose Musik. Die Toedliche Doris in gebaerdensprachlicher Gestaltung” (which roughly translates as: “Deaf Music. Die Toedliche Doris in signs and gestures”) documents another reincarnation of Die toedliche Doris which took place in Berlin in 1998. The group’s first LP “” (1981) is ‘translated’ song by song into signs and gestures to make it available to deaf people. Two women, dressed in black, act in front of a completely black stage. Their gestures and movements correspond to the lyrics and the sounds of the individual songs. The original acoustic information has changed its form and moved on into a new medium. Die Toedliche Doris has found a new temporary body to live in. Even if this might be little stimulating visually, it is conceptually a consequent continuation of Doris’ earlier interests and keeps up with the quirkiness of their work in the 1980s. Fortunately enough the DVD also features all the music from the 1981 LP. The tracks deliver a fine blend of radical dilettantism, absurd humor and aggressive nihilism. Basic rhythms, scraping violin sounds, unidentified lo-fi noises, shaky singing and pseudo-hysterical screaming are the main ingredients here. The sense of dilettantism and weird black humor which is present in all the songs makes them an imaginary soundtrack for a mythical, gloriously decaying 1980s West-Berlin. The DVD comes with a book which reproduces the artwork from the original LP (each song has a corresponding graphic and/or text, which is conceptually more or less linked to the sound/lyrics) and contains transcriptions of the German lyrics as well as English translations. And the package is made complete with a short video in which Wolfgang Mueller, one of the core members in the 1980s and today the main man behind Die Toedliche Doris, explains the ideas behind “Gehoerlose Musik” – of course simultaneously translated into sign language. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kroetenhayn.com
GREG HEADLEY – THE OPERATION OF THE HEAVENS (CDR by 28 Angles)
When I was much younger, my father used to explain classical music to me as a story: “Peter & The Wolf’ being an obvious one, but also ‘Die Moldau’ by Bedrich Smetana: the river from a small creek developing into a big river, depicted in music. I don’t recall if Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ were part of this training. I don’t think so. It’s too late to ask, but it seems my father didn’t like that piece very much, although I do recall hearing it. Written in 1916, Holst wrote a piece for every of the seven known planets then, each with it’s own character, as each planet was to have it’s own characterics. Mars being fury, Venus being love etc. On ‘The Operation Of The Heavens’, Greg characteristicsHeadley transforms Holst’s piece ‘using a method modeled on ancient alchemy’, using a bit of elements from the original, but composing much more of his own. Headley started out as a guitar player of the more unusual kind. So it has been a while since I last the original, but I am sure it sounded quite a bit different than Headley’s one. His seven pieces are in an odd way, all quite ambient to some extent. String like sounds, processed, sustained guitar sounds, sometimes building up tension and sometimes not at all, and things continue to move like in a vast, empty space. This is throughout a very spacious (sorry for the obvious word) music, that perhaps doesn’t sound too different from each other, i.e. the planets might remain the same, but as a weightless journey this is very nice. This should have been released on a real CD on a label like Hypnos or any some such ambient label. (FdW)
Address: http://www.28angles.com
FORMICATION – REDUX (CDR by Harmful Records)
If understood well, Formication are a two piece group from the UK, who might not be around for very long: their first release is from last year. On the website we read: ” The music of Formication strays into dark territory, inhabiting forgotten grounds; less of a showcase for new technology and more an essential medium for the expression of the human psyche where the soul is the interface.” The four long pieces captured on ‘Redux’ show an interest in reduction – I think. I didn’t hear their previous work. It’s not easy to categorize this, and that’s always good. The four pieces are held together by string of sequencer like sounds and samples, over which other instruments, like mumbling voices, synths and perhaps processed guitars play a more or less free role. It’s a meeting place for psychedelic music (especially the German cosmic music, say Ash Ra Temple or Conrad Schnitzler’s non-keyboard electronics), industrial music along the lines of Throbbing Gristle (area ‘Heathen Earth’), very vague minimal techno (even when Formication don’t use any danceable beats, more a highly reduced – again – rhythm pattern along the lines of Porter Ricks), all touched by a lick of dark paint – the Coil influence. The sound is a bit muffled, but that is not a bad thing here: it works as an extra cloud to cover any instruments to stand out of the mix. Normally this sort of thing would be a bit too dark for me, but I must admit there is something quite captivating about this. Perhaps it’s somewhat muffled sound? The darkness, but with a touch of light always lurking around the corner? I don’t know, but it’s captivating indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.theformicarium.com
TANDOORI DREAM – SAFFRON SOUNDS (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
CHAPEAU – DON JAIL ROADWAY (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
V-A – DRONE SEASON II, THE MISSION (CDR by Brise-Cul Records)
Three new releases on the label Brise-Cul and my first encounter with what kind of music they’re releasing. Tandoori Dream are Martin Sasseville and Nimalan Yoganathan and their album was recorded between october 2005 and may ’06, edited and assembled in june 2006 from various tapes, so there’s the lo-fi aspect in the sound and the hiss of the tapes in the background. I’m not sure what instruments are used, probably a bunch of ‘primate electronics’, but the music is evolving around the ideas of creating an atmosphere, which slowly develops in a heavy loaded drone piece in a form of a collage in most of the four pieces on the album. That is most evident in the last piece, which is the most noisy of all, not being too harsh, only fully present atmosphere of a more heavy kind. The sounds squeak and buzz while the guys are improvising with the few layers of sounds playing simultaneously.
Of a different kind is the music of Chapeau, which features lyrics and vocals, so Chapeau records songs on this release, but sure it’s not the typical songwriting style, although in some ways it tends to be. These 6 songs and lyrics deal with darker themes, namely with murder and death, which can be understood as a very personal issue for everyone. Some of the titles are: ‘It’s hard not to die’, ‘From life and death to living dead’, ‘Waiting to die (and the suspense is killing me)’… It’s interesting how Chapeau combines the music and the singing, sometimes sounding like a very stripped version of Nick Cave. It seems the music is played on a combination of more regular instruments – bass guitar, percussions, etc., and additional electronics, adding noises, effects and dizziness to the atmosphere. With enough diversity and variations in the sounds to keep it dizzier, this is a strange and very captivating shorter album of 30 minutes.
The compilation is a part of a series with drone music. It’s not a quiet laid-back affair, many of the 8 pieces are related to the post-industrial sound and aesthetic, which is an influence, occasionally bursting out into noise, as in the first track by Datashock. As with the previous two releases, it’s a matter of setting up the atmosphere. I only recognized Grkzgl, who has a nice EP on Angle Records, which is more glitchy compared to the weightless ambience of his piece here (onkyo style drone, maybe?). Cheapmachines is featured in the label’s catalogue before, now offering a very squeaky piece, which crossovers with noise. The other artists are: Conversations About The Light, Dead Wood, Rotten Piece, Mystified and Skillful Means. On the inner side of the cover it says: Primate electronics for ever! All three releases are inspiring in that matter. (BR)
Address: http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net
KALLABRIS – OFF MIND (3″CDR by Entr’acte)
SCOTT TAYLOR/SRMEIXNER – PLEASE KEEP CLEAR AT ALL TIME (CD by Entr’acte)
MARC BEHRENS/DAVE PHILIPS/CHEAPMACHINES/KEITH BERRY (CD by Entr’acte)
Of these three new releases on Entr’acte, the one by Kallabris is perhaps the most surprising one. Kallabris have been around since many, many years, but are in general a highly mythical band. They have by now a solid discography of rare material available, but they don’t pursue any sort of career. They release something and then disappear again. Their 3″ CDR comes with a newspaper like thingy, with just one line printed on each side. They explored the north pole, chemistry and here the theme is: epistemology covered with ontological speculations. In the first piece a female voice explains this, even when it’s merely sound poetry to me. ‘Corpus Maior (Hymnus Stultus)’ is loosely based on a sketchy rhythm and the female voice returns in ‘Epilogus’, also with a minimal rhythm underneath. The instrumental part is also loose and mostly atmospherical. Definitely a nice release, but of course answering no question. It’s not the answer that matters, only the road to the answer. Bye again, until when?
If I understood things well, Scott Taylor and Srmeixner didn’t actually work together, even when both are based in London (I think), but exchanged sound files. Scott Taylor has had some great releases on Sijis and con-V, dealing with many subtle layered field recordings and Srmeixner was once a member of Contrastate, but started a new life behind the computer. On the first piece, ‘Kirschner Wind’ they also used the always decaying piano sounds by Kenneth Kirschner and rain recordings by M.A. Tolosa. An empty piece of music, but with a strong, haunting character. ‘Nothing Falls Into Place’ is a pure field recordings piece, more Taylor than Srmeixner, me thinks, of layered sounds that form a deep drone, with some looser textured sounds on top. ‘The Sound Of X’ is a rework by Taylor of Srmeixner concert that involves also Jonathan Grieve on vocals (he was the other member of Contrastate), but it’s reworked to such an extent that the vocals can no longer be recognized. It’s a digital drone rework of mid-frequency sounds that sound like sea waves. All three tracks are great pieces of haunting, cinematographic field recordings and careful electronic treatments. Great stuff.
The final release is of a highly conceptual nature. Phil Julian, of Cheapmachines fame, invited four musicians to make a four minute recording on Saturday 15 October 2005 at 19:00 GMT. These four tracks, by Marc Behrens, Dave Philips, Cheapmachines and Keith Berry are presented here, along with a fifth one, consisting of all four played at once. Behrens and Philips weren’t engaged in much activity, Philips nothing at all it seems, Behrens squeaking his chair and table, but Cheapmachines listened to the radio and hovered about with some objects and Berry has ‘processed fragments from a recording of contact microphones on an indirect hot water cylinder’. No surprise of course that in the final, layered version, these latter two play the dominant role in the mix. A strange release of pure field recordings in a geographical different, but time-wise different context. Perhaps some such from all continents would have been a better idea? But it’s nice enough anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk
VEND – KARADA BI AI (CDR by VND)
Of course you know Vent, who had a couple of releases on 12K and Line. This is a UK based duo of Joe Gilmore, formerly of Powerbooks For Peace and Rand()%, an automated net radio station and Alex Peverett. As noted before, they are a laptop duo operating from the safe boundaries of microsound. ‘Karada Bi Ai’ is a CDR release that they made for their Japan tour, which is just over. I assume they have a couple of copies left to sale for those who didn’t come over to Japan. The three pieces here sound what one could expect from a laptop duo working inside microsound, even when it also seems that much of their work is based on improvisation. Working with highly processed field recordings and treated electro acoustic objects, it sounds more lively that some of the more regular ambient glitch around. Sounds pop in and out of the mix, creating highly vibrant textures, that have a strange psychedelic mood to them. The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t shed too much new light on microsound, so that the question ‘where to next’ still stands. (FdW)
Address: http://www.qubik.com/vend
COALITION FOR A BETTER TOMORROW (CDR by Apop Records)
CROSSBRED – TAKE OF YOUR FUCKIN’ VANITY (3″CDR by Apop Records)
TWODEADSLUTS ONEGOODFUCK – GIRLS BORN IN THE 90S (3″CDR by Apop Records)
ROXANNE JEAN POLISE – WE’RE ALRIGHT (3″CDR by Apop Records)
The four releases by Apop Records are all packed in petri dishes, contain all handmade ‘elements’, like wax and paint. They are all part of the pasteur series. The first one, the only 5″CDR is by Coalition For A Better Tomorrow, which was originally an one-off live collaboration between D.N. of Eugenics Council and Andrew of Praying For Oblibion/Tote Stadt and Scott and Paul of Sikhara (none of these names mean much to me, but alas). The tracks were recorded already in 1999 and released by Menschenfeind Productions). One this re-issue the original thirty minute live piece and Eugenics Council and Sikhara live, plus unreleased tracks by all three bands. The main piece of them altogether contains noise and drumming, a bit like Einsturzende Neubauten meeting Crash Worship, but perhaps a bit less furious. The solo pieces are more noise related, in which the live set by Eugenics Council has a lot of feedback like sounds, but sounds fine. The others plundered the ideas of thirty years of industrial music very finely, making this perhaps not the most original piece of music, but it’s throughout most ok.
Crossbred are one Rie and Mayuko from Osaka, Japan. Its just one piece of synth noise over a bed of drone like sounds and some far away vocals sounds, feeding off through a bunch of delays. A shortwave pops in there as well. In the second half of the piece things get meaner and more rhythm oriented. It is all quite alright, but perhaps a bit too unstructured.
The shortest release but with the most tracks is the Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck release. It has fourteen tracks in just eight or so minutes. This is the true violent noise thing with screaming vocals, feedback and distortion throughout, with some tracks only lasting a couple of seconds. Because of this shortness this release holds a good, solid power in it. Anything more would be probably be boring, but this is the right dose.
The quieter moment comes from Roxanne Jean Polise, of whom we pleasantly reviewed a couple of releases before. They play the card that says ‘dark drones’ and they do a good job. Still it’s highly unclear as to what it is that they do in terms of sound processing. Perhaps it’s the sampling of classical instruments, adding sound effects and a little bit of field recordings, but perhaps I’m entirely wrong. This piece builds slowly from an unearthly dark rumble towards the end with objects falling to the floor, making a strong statement of ambient drone music with a delicate touch of industrial music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.apoprecords.com/
UNCHAINED – THE CARDINAL CAGE (CD-R by Kitty Play Records/MP3 by
languagerecovery.org)
Unchained is a one-man project from the USA. He has several self-released cassettes and CD-Rs, which are all available in mp3-format from his homepage. On “The cardinal cage”, recorded in NYC in March 2006, Unchained goes for the psychedelic side of guitar noise. The setting is quite simple, the guitar is fed through some delay and distortion pedals, but its sound always remains recognizable. This results in more or less spacey melodies which are buried under a wall of distortion. ‘Unchained’ doesn’t build his tracks from multiple layers of sound, but rather relies on the massive amount of distortion he applies to his guitar playing to create the drone quality of the music. This is nice, but maybe is a bit too basic. On his previous release “Problems” (2005) Unchained also relies on distortion very much, but besides the guitar he incorporates more instruments, i.e. cheap keyboards, drums and vocals, and even plays some ‘real’ songs, thus arriving at a more varied sound with strange little melodies and lots of lo-fi hum and background noises. Compared to “The cardinal cage” this is certainly the more interesting approach and well worth exploring further. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kittyplayrecords.com
Address: http://www.languagerecovery.com
BOOZLE BAM – CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING STUPID (2CDR, private)
This is not the first time we review music by Boozle Bam: the first time was a CDR by Dhyana Records (see Vital Weekly 464), which had a rather fragmented sound all over it, perhaps made with a bunch of low rate samplers or some such, and throughout with a not all too great sound quality. I still have no clue as to who Boozle Bam, but here is a rather lo-fi, handmade double CDR by them. I am not sure if they are talking to the listener if they say ‘Congratulations On Being Stupid’. Of the two CDRs there is one with the ‘right’ music, that is the fifteen tracks that are also on the tracklist, the other disc has left overs, even when it’s difficult to hear much difference between the two discs. Musicwise things didn’t really seem to have developed since then. Much of this still sounds sampled together with a bunch of keyboards, and left on playing random mode, so that there is not much structure or idea to be recognized. And stretched out at two CDrs I assume I don’t have to tell that this is a bit much, right?
Address: <jgeckerman@hotmail.com>
ITTO – SOUND ON AN EMPTY ROAD (CDR by Elvis Coffee House Records)
Very honestly the man from the Elvis Coffee House Recordings admits that writing press releases drive him insane, so he didn’t do one for Itto. Fair enough, but it limits the length of the review also a bit. I think Itto are Ian Holloway and Neil Rowling, as the are credited with ‘sound’ on the cover, and they play just one long, thirty-eight minute piece of drone music on ‘Sound On An Empty Road’. It’s not the sustaining of a couple of notes, but throughout this piece things move about considerably, from the low end rumble by which it starts, to a higher pitched section somewhere in the middle and more mid range tones towards the end. There are some suggestions of field recordings, most notably cars on a road (even when the title suggests something else) and throughout this is more abstract and experimental drone music than ‘just’ drone music. At times the frequencies used are a bit too nasty and mean to get classified as pure drone music, but this more adventurous road is certainly one of the things that make this one of the better ones in it’s genre. (FdW)
Address: http://ecr.homestead.com
PLACENTA POPEYE & FABSTRE (MP3 by Tanzprocesz)
Placenta Popeye and Fabstre join forces here and present improvised guitar drones of the less subtle kind. Their main interest on these three tracks lies in creating simple dense repetitive patterns. The highly distorted guitars are strummed in a rhythmic way and far in the background some loose drum playing is going on. There is not a moment of silence to be found here, except towards the end of the first track, when the hectic strumming stops and gives room to slowly unfolding feedback which mixes with a longer sustained, repeated note played on the guitar. Actually the music doesn’t succeed in conveying the power, aggression or acoustic intensity that you could expect within the given parameters. The playing remains static, there is not much variation in the tracks and the sound quality is not the best. Yet the diy-character of the music gives it a rawness and directness so that this is a really charming release after all. (MSS)
Address: http://tanzprocesz.free.fr/
Correction: the American breakcore artist Bong-Ra (see last week) is in fact from Utrecht, in The Netherlands, not USA
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