MATHIAS DELPLANQUE – MA CHAMBRE QUAND JE N’Y SUIS PAS (CD by Mondes Elliptiques)
NECROPOLIS – NECROSPHERE (CD by Cold Spring)
P.A.L. – MODUS (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
AB OVO – EMPREINTES (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED [2005] (CD by Anoema) *
LUC FERRARI – FAR-WEST NEWS (EPISODES 2 AND 3) (CD by Blue Chopsticks) *
SHUTA HASUNUMA (CD by Western Vinyl)
ROBERT LIPPOCK – ROBOT (miniCD by Western Vinyl) *
MANDELBROT SET – ALL OUR ACTIONS ARE CONSTANTLY REPEATED (CD by Highpoint Lowlife) *
HAMSTER THEATRE – THE PUBLIC EXECUTION OF MISTER PERSONALITY / QUASI DAY ROOM (2CD by Cuneiform) *
AXEL DÖRNER & MATTIN – BERLIN (CD by Absurd/1000+1 Tilt) *
PHILIP SAMARTZIS & KOZO INADA – H[] (miniCD by Room40) *
LAWRENCE ENGLISH & PHILIP SAMARTZIS – ONE PLUS ONE (miniCD by Room40)
LOPE/YELLOW6/ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE/KIMONOPHONIC (CD by Bloated Sasquatch Beer Theatre Audio)
BOB – UNSTABLE FRIENDS (CD by &Records)
BERNARD FALAISE & MARTIN TETREAULT – DES GESTES DEFAITS (CD by &Records)
MICHEL F. COTE – 63 APPARITIONS (CD by &Records) *
KLAXON GUEULE – CHICKEN (CD by &Records)
FOODSOON – SOMELOVE (CD by &Records)
DUAL – TOCSIN (CDR by Mystery Sea)
OBFUSC – INTERNAL COUNTRYSIDE (CDR by Boltfish Recordings)
LOST TRANSMISSIONS FROM PLANET ZERO (2CDRs, T-Shirt, magazine) *
JANKO BARTELINK – DECEMBER (CDR, private) *
SABASTIAN BOAZ – SLUGGISH (CDR by Retinascan) *
CHEFKIRK – MUSEUM OF FOOD WASTE (CDR by MNDR)
NUOH – TAJNE PREJSCIA (MP3 by audioTong)
DAWID SZCZESNY – STAPES VI-VII (MP3 by audioTong)
MATHIAS DELPLANQUE – MA CHAMBRE QUAND JE N’Y SUIS PAS (CD by Mondes Elliptiques)
Besides making music on his own, Mathias Delplanque is also a member of the trio The Missing Ensemble, who have released their album ‘Hidden Doors’ on the same label Mondes Elliptiques. On this new CD, Delplanque continues with the music in the similar areas as before, only now there’s only one piece on the album, which is 45 minutes, while on ‘Hidden Doors’ there are more pieces with shorter length. The music on this album is a part of a sound installation which is based on ‘the recordings of sound produced in spaces with no human presence’. Then the recorded sounds were amplified, with their frequencies accentuated to the extreme. There are layers of hissing sounds on this cd, there’s also the occasional bass sound appearing as a background. The music with the sounds altogether are carefully filling up the space, creating a longer drone piece made of many layers of shorter and longer sounds that are spreading in space. It’s interesting in the approach and in the execution of the music, which is curious for listening on this cd, apart from the installation where it was originally presented. (BR)
Address: http://www.angle-rec.net/mondes
NECROPOLIS – NECROSPHERE (CD by Cold Spring)
As we have been waiting for the long-awaited re-issue of dark ambient’s probably most defining album from 1994, “The place where the black stars hang” by Lustmord (re-released on the 7th august 2006 by Soleilmoon Recordings), the time has come for another re-incarnation of an epic moment in the history of dark ambient. Being far lesser known than Lustmord’s milestone, the album “Necrosphere” composed by Russian artist Necropolis is nevertheless a true masterpiece of drone-based darkness. Necrosphere was originally released as an extremely limited edition only counting 85 CDR-copies back in 2003. English label Cold Spring has now given us the chance to experience this unique exploration into the darkest territories of ambient. Musically the album is based on field recordings first of all taken from disused military missile shafts. There is a melancholic atmosphere on the 30 minutes long track both operating in the cold and warm spheres of expression. The album stylishly floats between hostile industrial ambient and warmer spacey soundspheres sometimes reminiscent of early sonic adventures by German krautrockers Edgar Froese and Klaus Schulze. The listener are being taken to obscure territories, where dark ambient fuses with industrial sounds from the military bases. The sound is very dense, though there is much space and air to breathe in the grandiose soundscapes. Deep and three-dimensional sonar effects, multilevel background noises, at times rather tranquil, sometimes suddenly swelling to a massive sound. The album includes an equally high quality standard bonus track – the fifteen minutes ambient work titled “Morning air” that continues the style of “Necrosphere” with the same impressive result. Listeners of hauntingly dark, yet beautiful ambient will appreciate Cold Spring Records for giving this magnificent piece of black art a proper distribution. A true gem! (NMP)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
P.A.L. – MODUS (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
German Industrial-artist P.A.L. (pronounced “pal”) is one of the true legends on German label Ant-Zen Recordings. He had his first release in 1993, the same year as Stefan Alt established Ant-Zen recordings. That was the five-track tape titled “Concrete rage”. After a six years break P.A.L. (a.k.a. Christian Pallentin) has finally released his follow-up to his 2000-album “Release”. “Modus” is quite a step away from the Industrial/power noise-oriented release. In fact it is not an easy job to pigeonhole the expression on this very mature album. Mature because there is a great span in emotions and expressions throughout the 50 minutes playtime. Tracks like “Gone” and “Playtime” certainly demonstrates the musical skill of P.A.L. in how to write music that floats far beyond the home-territories of Industrial/power noise. On the other side he convinces any misbeliever that he still knows how to create heavy pounding Industrial/power noise on tracks like “Jobs” and “Agentfister”. The track with the, extremely hard to memorize, title “dl7vdx v2.0”, is a nice piece of chilling ambient. In other places of the album there is a sense of punk attitude saturating the expression. “Modus” is a very pleasant album that will satisfy the long time waiting fans of P.A.L. for sure, but also novice listeners of this true legend should give the album a try. It certainly is worth it! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
AB OVO – EMPREINTES (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
“Empreintes” is the second full-length out on German label Ant-Zen Recordings from French duo Jerome Chassagnard & Regis Baillet, working under the project Ab Ovo. Having existed since 1991, Ab Ovo is musically far away from the harsh territories of sound expression. Neither does it operate in pure ambient-spheres. But stylishly the music on “Empreintes” is tranquilizing and pleasant with only a minimal use of rhythm texture, floating somewhere in-between IDM and ambient. Not that the rhythmic section of the album has been exclusively suppressed in the sound picture, but the rhythms never disrupt the overall chill-out feeling. Rather the downbeat rhythm-texture helps accomplishing the laid back atmosphere of the album. There is a nice eclectic mood on the album calling for the late night moments of listening. The slowly evolving waves of sound combined with downbeat rhythms create a very nice nocturnal expression. The expression is very cinematic, thanks to the intriguing chilled soundscapes that allows the imagination and the memories of the listener to be prompted into a vision splendid – like an inner cinema. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – UNTITLED [2005] (CD by Anoema)
The majority of the releases by Francisco Lopez are ‘one piece’ releases, one specific work, that can last anywhere between say twenty to seventy minutes. But every now and then he releases a CD that is called ‘Untitled’ (obviously, since that’s what the majority of his pieces are called) and then a year, rather than a number. Usually these CDs have more than one piece, but they were usually all created in that year. Or in this case, ‘also performed’ in this year, since one of the pieces is a piece Lopez wrote, but it’s performed by the Zeitkratzer Ensemble. This is the only recording from 2001, rather than 2005. And of course it’s an unusual piece. Whereas the other three pieces featured on this CD deal with environmental sounds, like so many of the Lopez releases, this is an orchestral piece, played on violin, cello, trumpet, saxophone, accordion, piano and percussion (among others), but still has the Lopezian touch: starting out soft and then rising to an almighty crescendo. These instruments play alike the sounds Lopez would use. It’s funny to see that the three other pieces, don’t have a similar built up: they are more or less straight forward pieces, staying on a similar level, but are (perhaps) heavily layered pieces of insect like sounds, which buzz and sing around. Perhaps it’s a very clever edit? Which ever is the case: this is a worthwhile addition to the expanded catalogue of senor Lopez. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anoema.com
LUC FERRARI – FAR-WEST NEWS (EPISODES 2 AND 3) (CD by Blue Chopsticks)
Late last year Luc Ferrari died, a remarkable composer of musique concrete since the early fifties (being born in 1929), but also one who broke away, finding new ways of creating music. ‘Presque Rien No.1’ is his most famous piece using solely field recordings, not in a linear way, but rather in a story telling way. ‘Far-West News (Episodes 2 and 3)’ is something and more recent. It deals with a trip Luc Ferrari and his wife Brunhild Meyer undertook in the far west of the USA, going from Page to the Grand Canyon (episode 2) and from Prescott to Los Angeles (episode 3). It’s not a soundscape, Hörspiel, electronic work, not a portrait of reality, but a composition ‘in some cases, especially in mine, and increasingly in my life, is a perverted game with the truth’. We hear them meeting people, talking about the pending Clinton impeachment (recordings were made in 1998), talk about cars, food, meeting people, talk in English, French and even Dutch, so it’s about miscommunication too. The French – English tongue of Ferrari and there is some electronic music, some found music and such like. It’s a fascinating journey to do no doubt, but this is also fascinating to hear. There is a lot of stuff happening on various levels, outdoor sound, communication and music, and thus makes a truly remarkable and highly musical journey. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bluechopsticks.org
SHUTA HASUNUMA (CD by Western Vinyl)
ROBERT LIPPOCK – ROBOT (miniCD by Western Vinyl)
These two releases by Western Vinyl are somewhat related, that is musicwise. Shuta Hasunuma and Robert Lippock both share a love for digital manipulation of sounds from whatever nature, but that both keep an eye to the world of popmusic. Yet the outcome of both is a bit different. Shuta Hasunuma from Japan uses field recordings and electronic music but also guitar and piano melodies. They are cut apart in tiny sequences and then pasted together, so that they form new, small melodies. At such he does a great job, but I must admit there was some disappointment here: in each of the twelve pieces I heard a lot of similarities with lots of others in this field, most notably people on Noble Records and Spekk but also people like Stephan Mathieu and Flim. It’s clear that Hasunuma stands in a long tradition, but doesn’t break with it, or makes the next step forward. If you never heard this, and you like your music to be experimental yet melodic, referring to ‘real’ music, then this is the place to be. If Yasushi Yoshida or Kazumasa Hashimoto are already on daily plate, this makes a nice dessert.
Robert Lippock (of To Rococo Rot fame, as well as his solo and collaborative work) created a more or less conceptual album about the robots of the past, about how robots were seen in the past. To this end he uses analogue technology as well as some inspiration from early 90s techno and crafts together eight short pieces of music, which are bit more poppy and a little less experimental than Hasunuma. Lippock uses minimalist rhythms along with sweet melodies in pieces that are sometimes merely sketch like but in this simplicity work rather well. The warmth of the analogue synths, which is at times indeed quite robotic, make this into a melancholic trip. It moves away from the melodic music offered by such labels as Expanding Records, because of this rather simple approach, but in the end makes the music stronger. Very nice and refreshing! (FdW)
Address: http://www.westernvinyl.com
MANDELBROT SET – ALL OUR ACTIONS ARE CONSTANTLY REPEATED (CD by Highpoint Lowlife)
On a lot of occasions we mention that labels such as Expanding Records and Highpoint Lowlife release similar music: breakbeat like with melancholic keyboard lines and such, but in the case of Highpoint Lowlife we should add that they also release music that is way different. Of course this is the case with Mandelbrot Set (otherwise we wouldn’t have mentioned it). Mandelbrot set is a band around one Keung (previously of Hentai) on guitars and pedals (very important to mention that!), Melisa on guitar, bass, cello, drums, violin, banjo, melodica and trumpet and Simon on drums. You have to play this loud to grasp it better, I guess. Mandelbrot Set is a drone rock band, playing walls of sound, employing all the pedals required (mainly live sampling and overdubbing the guitars) and furious drums banging beneath. Whatever Melisa adds is around this: her sounds become the pictures on this wall of sound. Stoner rock? Shoegazing? It’s all there, but Mandelbrot Set gets away with it. Of course because they do something entirely different than 90% of the acts usually to be found on this label, but also because they play a dam fine tune, not caring about any hype or trend, they do their own thing, and at such perhaps not so new under the sun, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, just because it was so different. Great, furious one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.highpointlowlife.com
HAMSTER THEATRE – THE PUBLIC EXECUTION OF MISTER PERSONALITY / QUASI DAY ROOM (CD by Cuneiform)
In the late 70s and early 80s when progressive avant RIO-styled rock was at its peak, it was most importantly an european affair. The Muffins (plus Random Radar Records) were the exception. And not to forget the Conventum-crew from Canada. Only later in the 80s american groups like Thinking Plague, 5UU,s and Motor Totemist Guild a.o. faced the surface and profiled themselves in this musical direction. But this is also already history. To turn to more present days, Hamster Theatre is new american outfit that continues in this musical area. This group was started in the 90s by Dave Willey. He is the keyfigure of this band, playing accordion, keyboards, etc. Mark Harris (saxes, clarinet, flutes, etc.) and Mike Johnson (guitars, mandolin, banjo, etc.) both have their roots in Thinking Plague. Raoul Rossiter (drums, etc.), Brain McDougall (bass on disc 1), Matt Spencer (bass on disc 2) and Emily Bowman (viola on disc one) complete this theatre. Now they present their third release, being a double cd. Disc one is a studiorecording of new material, disc two is recorded live in 2002. Often this combination offers a contrast: a sophisticated studiorecording on the hand, and a rougher version live on stage. But in this case we find on both discs an instrumental combo that offers a comforting kind of avant rock in a similar approach and performance. Their version of avant rock is obvious folk-influenced. Very melodic and friendly. Never sounding tormented, or aggressive like Univers Zero. This should not surprise as leader Willey is strongly influenced by Lars Hollmer. Also Nimal and Ensemble Rayé (both post-Debile Menthol projects) were sources for inspiration. At other moment older bands like Henry Cow, and of course Thinking Plague come to my mind. So we have here an ensemble that is heavily rooted in this idiom. This makes it fair to say I think that they operate with joy and dedication within already known borders of artrock. They remain within the well-known idiom of progressive avant rock. So their power lies not in the fact that they break new ground with their compositions, although they do understand how to compose. But they serve us with their colorful instrumentation and convincing performance by some very skilled musicians. They demonstrate that this tradition of art rock is very much alive, and I hope that they will attract a new and younger public for this kind of music. (DM)
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
AXEL DÖRNER & MATTIN – BERLIN (CD by Absurd/1000+1 Tilt)
Mattin. Where doesn’t this man go? On ‘Berlin’, he plays together with Axel Dörner, and was no doubt recorded in the city with the same name, and perhaps even has to do with the history of the city in relation to popmusic. Perhaps not. But Absurd kindly send us the lyrics from Lou Reed’s song of the same name, about the city of the same name. Mattin, the man of the furious walls of feedback coming from his laptop, has proven to be more than just a loud troublemaker: he can play also soft and inaudible, and even released a couple of singer/songwriter works. I thought his work with Dörner would see a continuation of his more subtle work of lately. Dörner is a trumpet player, whose playing resembles probably anything but a trumpet. But softness plays an important role for him. Here on ‘Berlin’ things are different. The music is always present, and is a true duo of trumpet and computer. Perhaps the sound of the trumpet is fed into the computer and manipulated and perhaps not. Perhaps both are done. Dörner and Mattin plays short pieces that are collated together. Because of the length of the work, three tracks in total, it’s not easy to follow what is going on, and it may leap into a bit of boredom, and you think: oh they cut another sound here. After most of the cuts there is a short silence, but not one that corresponds with the CD index. The third and longest track is perhaps the track that is also the most silent around here, or least it works on a different dynamic level. It sounds more stretched out, which works better when one tries to fully concentrate on it. Throughout a pretty radical disc. Not as soft as some of previous Dörner releases and not as loud as Mattin’s early days, but most enjoyable indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.void.gr/absurd
PHILIP SAMARTZIS & KOZO INADA – H[] (miniCD by Room40)
LAWRENCE ENGLISH & PHILIP SAMARTZIS – ONE PLUS ONE (miniCD by Room40)
Whatever happened to Kozo Inada? It’s not a question that I could think of every day, but today, receiving his work with Philip Samartzis, made me think it has been a while ago, since I last heard his music. Which is a great pity, since his previous works, released by Staalplaat, V2_Archief and Selektion, among others, made a big impression on me, especially after seeing a couple of his concerts. Working entirely with field recordings, going through various computer programs, building to crescendo’s and carefully re-building after that, were excellent. Some of his more recent works, or at least, last time I checked where in collaboration with other people, and now one surfaces: with Philip Samartzis, formerly a member of GUM and since long a solo artists. He too works with field recordings and electronics, but in a more sustaining way, with lesser of a dramatic built up. In their cooperative piece both are represented. The continuity of Samartzis and the dramatic built up of Inada. The result is a more than excellent piece of music. Delicate, warm, glitchy, familiar and highly captivating. An excellent piece of music.
Samartzis’ previous band GUM was one of the first to experiment with vinyl, taking John Cage and Christian Marclay to the field of industrial music. Lawrence English has been using turntables alongside DJ Olive and Janek Schaefer and in 2002 he met fellow aussie Samartzis and since they are a turntable duo. The recordings on ‘One Plus One’ were made early 2006 and sees them both playing vinyl and surface noise. This is a less delicate work than the piece with Inada, but the four pieces are fine pieces of rotating sounds (inescapable when you with such matter) that move nicely about, in a warm bath of electronics, and almost get a rhythm swing to it in the fourth piece and turning it almost into minimal techno piece. Usually I am not too pleased by the works of turntablists but this is a rather nice exception. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
LOPE/YELLOW6/ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE/KIMONOPHONIC (CD by Bloated Sasquatch Beer Theatre Audio)
The four way split release sounds, well at least for me, like a return to the mid eighties, when a compilation LP was good when it had four bands, each about 12 minutes of music, and thus getting a better introduction than when it had 10 or 12 bands. With a CD release you can have up to twenty minutes per artist, so what better introduction could you want? Of the four on this one, I heard Yellow6 and Kimonophonic, but just in passing rather than fully exploring the full catalogues of said bands. Lope starts of with three tracks. Lope is Victor Kvarnhall from Sweden and has a couple of self-released records. His tracks have a lot of bass, perhaps even a bit too much bass, which sorts of breaks with the high melancholic textured music he plays on top of that. Melancholy is a word that can also be used for the other three bands, but there are differences, even when these are minor. Yellow6’s shortest track is pretty much along the lines of Lope, but the other two longer tracks dwell more on guitar sounds, which produce both drones and strummed notes. The piano adds to the melancholy. Absent Without Leave is one George Mastrokostas from Greece, who had a couple of CDR releases and an album for Unlabel. His ‘Achromatic’ is the longest track on the CD, just over twelve minutes, but it’s also the most ambient piece of the lot, quiet and peaceful. Much shorter but similar is his ‘Delete’ track and the his last peace sees the addition of a rhythm to it. Kimonophonic is perhaps also a bit more well known, for he had releases on Earworm, 555, Awkard Silence and such like, and he is the one that shakes up things a bit. His track are shorter, and offers six of them. Two of them are live and one is a collage of field recordings. Rhythm is much more present and his keyboards are cheap, rough and warm. The melancholiac bit here is present but only a very reduced level. It’s great music, by all four actually, and seeing this is the 103rd release by this label, who have much more of this kind of music, it’s time to investigate this highly curious named label. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bsbta.com
BOB – UNSTABLE FRIENDS (CD by &Records)
BERNARD FALAISE & MARTIN TETREAULT – DES GESTES DEFAITS (CD by &Records)
MICHEL F. COTE – 63 APPARITIONS (CD by &Records)
KLAXON GUEULE – CHICKEN (CD by &Records)
FOODSOON – SOMELOVE (CD by &Records)
Of course you often use the ‘&’ sign, but it’s less known that it means ‘Et’ from Mediaeval times, and means of course ‘and’. &Records is a label from Montreal, and all five of the current releases you can find musicians from Montreal, and the broadest description would be to say that they all play improvised music, each in their own specific way. Not that every release is fresh, and let us once again state: Vital Weekly doesn’t like reviewing three years old releases, and good idiots as we are, we still do that. There is will be a time, when we will ignore them. The release by Bob is the oldest, from 2003. Bob is Éric Bernier (voice, computer, machines), Michel F. Côté (computer, machines, rare back vocals), Guy Trifiro (computer, machines) who are helped by Jean Derome (baritone saxophone, bass flute, piccolo), Bernard Falaise (electric guitar), Normand Guilbeault (contrabass) and Alexandre St-Onge (electronics). Like we will see on some of the other releases, the voice plays an important role for Bob, but inside Bob it is the most clear example of voices that originally come from popmusic, or rather postpunk music. Also the music hints in that direction. Very ‘London’ like post punk music, with rhythms, bass, guitar and of course singing by various voices. But then, except the singing, all played on a bunch of modern day machines. It’s quite nice, well produced, certainly sounding outdated, but it’s a great release. Very pop with a great touch of experimentalism.
Martin Tetreault is of course a well-known turntablist, who not just spins records but also the turntable itself. From three solo concerts he made recordings and gave them to one Bernard Falaise, who in turn selected 33 short fragments between 5 and 40 seconds, 11 per concert. These were then used in the eleven, three minute pieces on ‘Des Gestes Defaits’. Conceptually alright, but I must say it also works out musically quite well. It’s a highly intelligent composition of turntable sounds, that is rhythmic, at times noisy and at times introspective. A powerful release of cracking analogue sounds colliding in a digital world called the computer.
Although the name Michel F. Côté rings a familiar bell somewhere, I am not sure if I heard some of his music before. He is one of the two directors of the &Records label. ’63 Apparations’ was written for a choreography and Côté plays electronics, computer, percussion, piano and voice and gets help from Diane Labrosse (voice), Christof Migone and Martin Tetreault (both on objects) and uses music from John Cage (his ‘Erik Satie’ piece) and Erik Satie (the ballet ‘Socrate’). It’s hard to say what the choreography is about (if I would understand choreography at all, really), but the music is very nice: it sounds like a bunch of clockworks going down, hectic percussive sounds, banging on all sorts of small objects and speed up sounds of mechanical toy music. At times highly vibrant and jumpy, but here to the softer parts are equally nice.
Klaxon Gueule is a trio of Michel F. Côté (percussion, electronics, voice), Bernard Falaise (guitars, piano), Alexandre St-Onge (bass, electronica, voice). The voices seem important but they hardly sound like real voices: they are heavily processed or may be the singers are highly possessed and make their own transformations in sound. The music is a combination of improvised music bumping up to the ideas of musique concrete. At times acoustical, at times electrical, and at times a bit boring. Not every second on this CD could interest me, and it stayed too much on the same level, with grabbing the listener very much. Occasionally also a bit too regular in terms of improvisation for me. Having said that, there are also quite captivating moments here, so I’m left with rather mixed feelings.
The latest release is by Foodsoon, a trio of Bernard Falaise (guitar, bass, keyboards), Alexander Macsween (drums, piano, keyboards, vocals) and Fabrizio Gilardino (prepared tapes, electronics, vocals). This is by far the most rocking release of the lot. Foodsoon is a rocking trio that use the method of heavy rock drumming, in combination with a love of improvising sounds on their guitars and keyboards. It makes Foodsoon standing in a long tradition, from anywhere from The Beatles to Sonic Youth to any current day post rock band, but they do a nice job, and one that is not entirely on the well-went paths of other groups. It seems that sometimes the sense of experiment prevails, but then it might as easily burst out into another furious banged rhythm. Perhaps at those times it’s a bit too rock for me, but throughout I thought this is most enjoyable disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.etrecords.net
DUAL – TOCSIN (CDR by Mystery Sea)
It’s been a while since we last from Dual, aka Colin Bradley (no relationship to Paul Bradley, but former member of Splintered), who has been playing ambient music on guitars since 1993, and has a whole bunch of releases available. Ambient music is not exactly the correct tag for the music of Dual, as there is a sense of rhythm present in most of these tracks, which is also an unusual feature in the releases on Mystery Sea. These rhythms are minimalist pulsating matters, and could not be seen as anything to dance to. It’s almost like an industrial rhythm or a metronome, but it’s a more complex than that. On top, Bradley waves together finely knitted patterns on his guitar and multiple guitar effects. Of course the six tracks on this release are long, but Dual takes the right amount of time to say what he needs to say. It’s music that needs to develop over a longer period of time to do what it has to do. It’s at times a bit Rapoon like (at least on this new release) and after the latest bunch of releases with where more or less synomous, Mystery Sea has found something that expands the view of the label yet still fits the context of the label. One of the more surprising releases on the label. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
OBFUSC – INTERNAL COUNTRYSIDE (CDR by Boltfish Recordings)
Boltfish is a new label for me, but taking a look at their website, it seems that they are quite a busy bunch. They work mainly with musicians of electronic music, and can perhaps, just judging based on this release by Obfusc, be seen as another branch dealing with the melancholic side of dance music. A label along side Expanding Records, Highpoint Lowlife and Ai Records, to mention three Vital Weekly regulars. Obfusc is Joseph X. Burke from Brooklyn, New York, who loves police scanner recordings, 1940’s sci-fi radio, voicemail messages as found sound to his rhythm driven melodies. Sometimes he puts his arpeggio buttons on and the rhythm is more stomping than we would expect, but throughout there is a sense of melancholy in his music. However he sets himself a bit aside of the rest of the mob, in the sense that his music is a bit more rougher in it’s edges, perhaps even a bit more analogue than some of his more software driven companions. That makes ‘Internal Countryside’ into a pleasant album that is trying to sound different in an overcrowded world and that is of course always a good thing. Nice collection that is never too long or never too short. (FdW)
Address: http://www.boltfish.co.uk
LOST TRANSMISSIONS FROM PLANET ZERO (2CDRs, T-Shirt, magazine)
I can be short about the magazine. Twelve sides about United States Of Belt, THU20, Dale Lloyd, Valerio Trico and Per Svensson and all in Greek. However there is much to be enjoyed on the two CDRs. One is a compilation called ‘Transmission #01’ and has Per Svensson, 3/4hadbeeneliminated (Valerio’s band), Dale Lloyd and United States Of Belt, whilst the other CDR has a twenty minute by THU20. The latter is quite an obscure piece for this band, who are normally known for playing a more subtle tune. This piece is entirely built from tape-loops, and has two parts. The first one is semi-classical piece, whereas the second part is much more noisier than the usual THU20 material, although it doesn’t come close to ‘Nancy’ or ‘Bordeaux’. It may lack the subtleness of much of their other work, and should perhaps be seen in the light of the time when it was made, probably around 1987. It’s most curious to see that on the other CDR, the compilation, there is a piece that is even longer than the THU20 track, which made me wonder why this wasn’t on the separate CDR. Its a piece by Dale Lloyd of highly processed field recordings, forming a very nice piece of ambient glitch. Also United States Of Belt use field recordings, but in a collage form and rather unaltered. At the musical end of the spectrum we find Per Svensson and 3/4hadbeeneliminated. The latter still operate in the area where they play as a rock like band, using rock gear, but with the studio as the extra instrument. It’s still a fascinating band. Per Svensson’s tracks are bit hard to grasp: a rock song, an electronic song, vocal treatment pieces. He’s the one that doesn’t seem to be making choices, and rather displays the various things he can do. Altogether a nice compilation, even when you can’t read the magazine. (FdW)
Address: <planitis_miden@yahoo.gr>
JANKO BARTELINK – DECEMBER (CDR, private)
This self-released CDR is the eleventh release by Dutch painter, photographer and musician Janko Bartelink (1979), who has a strong love for landscapes and weather conditions – in all three of the disciplines he works in. Although he says that ‘December’ (recorded in the month with the same name in 2005) is influenced by his mood, it’s through it’s cover and titles (‘Cloudy’, ‘Overcast With Showers’, ‘Fog’ etc and even the temperate is mentioned of the day that the tracks were recorded) a much more landscape thing. Six tracks in all of quite a relaxing nature. Electric piano sounds, marimba sounds and synthesizers form the ingredients of the music, which is best described as ambient music. It reflects the month December quite well, with it’s a bit of dark weather, cold temperatures (although in The Netherlands it never is really cold), but also that bit of sunlight. I must admit that for none of these days I have a recollection of what the weather was like, but I’m sure the mood of the day is captured quite well by Bartelink. Imaginative music that helps Bartelink probably while painting but has certainly a relaxing effect upon the listener, or perhaps could inspire him to do a bit of painting too. Nice one, if hardly surprising. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jankobartelink.com
SABASTIAN BOAZ – SLUGGISH (CDR by Retinascan)
A bit overseen last week, the release by Sabastian Boaz, who has been active since he was 18 (in 2001 that was) with his self-titled debut album and now comes with a forty track album, that lasts sixty minutes. I must admit I don’t understand much about it. Short blasts of noise most of the time, with head nor tail. They are hardly interesting. Then the minority of the pieces are more rhythmic and melodic, but here too it seems to be lacking any form of structure or deeper idea. I listened with some amazement to this but couldn’t exactly see a point in releasing this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.retinascan.de
CHEFKIRK – MUSEUM OF FOOD WASTE (CDR by MNDR)
Right away I must admit I lost count of the works I reviewed by Chefkirk, but it must have been at least over twenty or so. Right from the early days, it seemed that Roger H Smith is a man who likes to produce as many records as possible, and he always finds homes for them, almost always on labels I never heard of. ‘Museum Of Food Waste’ is on a German label called Multi-national Disaster Records and contains seven pieces. I recently thought Chefkirk would be moving more to introspective work, in which rhythm and noise would only meet very occasionally, this new release proofs me wrong. This is all noise again, with a firm place for more noise. Rhythm is here to a lesser extent, and appears to be taken the form repeated blocks of noise. It’s a pity since I would consider this to be at least two steps back. It’s OK in terms of noise, but it surely doesn’t add anything to his previous encounters in this field and to noise in general. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mndr.de
NUOH – TAJNE PREJSCIA (MP3 by audioTong)
DAWID SZCZESNY – STAPES VI-VII (MP3 by audioTong)
As with so many mp3-releases “Tajne Przejscia” (“Secret Passages”) was my first encounter with the music of Nuoh, a project from Poland that was active in 2002 and 2003. The four tracks of this EP were recorded in 2002 but are released only now. Olaf Nowaczyk/Nuoh crafts highly captivating minimal compositions from a very reduced palette of sound, that is, as he states, stripped bare of all “cosmetic trash”. The music was recorded live without further edits. Each track is based on a continuous stream of “pure” sound, that evolves and morphs over the course of some minutes, showing great care for tiny modulations, meandering overtones and the use of distortion and delay. The complex, flickering sounds never leap into piercing noise, but are rather slightly blurred, which creates an impression of distance, as if the music would be heard through an acoustic fog. The standout track is “Sen” which starts out with gentle mid-frequencies that go through various gradual filter sweeps and become more and more distorted towards the end.
For reasons not entirely clear to me the release comes in two versions, one mono, one stereo and with two different artworks. The artwork associated with the stereo version includes a black and white photograph that shows dry plants covering a hill and isolated elements of industrial architecture rising against a sky with white clouds. The surface of the photographs is covered with scratches, thus suggesting an old image. These visual elements evoke the fascinating atmosphere of the no-man’s-lands between industrial and natural zones, around fences or in the far ends of backyards and thus greatly correspond to the fuzzy bleakness of the music.
The second recent release on audioTong also deals with minimalism, but is of an entirely different kind. Dawid Szczesny has compiled various short loops that were originally intended for live performances and are used here to create two tracks with a total playing time of just about 10 minutes. In these tracks slightly processed piano and vibraphone sounds form minimally changing patterns that are occasionally accompanied by the soft crackle of unidentifiable field recordings. Things work best in the second track, when the acoustic instruments are joined by some subtle percussive structure, creating a laid back, vaguely jazzy feeling. All this might share some characteristics with more or less recent clicks’n’cuts-aesthetics. But Dawid Szczesny manages to stay away from the overly clichéd digital ambient sounds, and thus keeps a distinct voice on its own. (MSS)
Address: (http://audiotong.net/)
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