SIX AND MORE – BLUE Q (CD by Archgon)
Six And More is definitely one of the more interesting groups, concept wise. Six or more musicians communicate via mail, sending each other electronic and electro-acoustic sound material, which is finally edited by Gunter Schroth in Munich. In total 34 musicians from all over Germany took part in this venture, resulting in 16 tracks. Most of these tracks have indeed an improvised character, of which the results are not easy to follow. This is the music of Stockhausens sons and daughters (although I couldn’t find that many women on the roster) and they use a wide variety of sound sources from digital synthesizers to the electronic bread cutter and back. This is not an easy to access product, but then again: should it be? If you want demanding music, this is the place to be. (FdW)
Address: <guenters@wiesbaden.euro.csg.mot.com>
RUSSELL MILLS – UNDARK (CD by E:MT)
E:MT 2296 (CD by E:MT)
The harder they come the harder fall… the slower they return…? What is the matter with some of the hyped labels? For instance Incoming! Took off like a comet with fantastic CD’s but fall back to earth with some mediocre releases, now slowly returning with interesting releases. E:MT is the same story. Their first release, by Woob, was ground breaking in ambient circles, the compilations featured interesting combinations of dark ambience with beat oriented material. But they somehow went down and are slowly coming back. The first release in 1996 was by composer Carl Stone, and here are two newies.
Russell Mills is primarily a designer. The first LP cover I saw of him was of a most cherished, and much underrated one too, by Five Or Six (‘A Happy And Thriving Land’). Mills’ paintings have a dark, yet organic style. Music-wise, he worked with Gilbert & Lewis a.o. As far as I know this is Mills first ‘own’ product and he is helped with the production from the two from Miasma. Sounds have been made by Mills (from piano wires to lion & elephant roarers to blood flow frequencies) but also a great many friends have contributed and reads like a who is who of the big names in alternative music: David Sylvian, The Eno Bros, Bill Laswell, Robin Guthrie, The Edge etc. I mention David first, since his voice is so clearly recognizable and is a beautiful chilling sung song a only he can do. Overall this is a fine album which shifts nicely back and forth between ambient and more up-tempo songs (because ‘songs’ is the appropriate word here) from purely electronic to acoustic (especially where it refers to cello’s). A damn fine album with ditto artwork.
With regard to the compilation: skip the first and the last track (both are horrible attempts at vocal pop music – I couldn’t stand either of them). You have seven tracks left of moody ambient stuff, sometimes beat/dub oriented like Pablo’s Eye or Miasma. However, the best track is the middle track, by one Dallas Simpson. ‘Abha’ is an almost 12 minute construction of outdoor and indoor sounds. Not strikingly new, as I have heard the effect of water running through pipes-played along with the sound of a small aeroplane before, but it is very well recorded and on the headphones the sounds all get their own place in the stereo spectrum. (FdW)
Address: <emit@msn.com>
KLANGKRIEG/G. REZNICEK (LP by Wachsender Prozess)
The second release on this small German label comes in a cover packed with seriousness. A rip-off classical label design, with pretentious texts. Of these two ‘bands’, Klangkrieg is probably the best known. Their side opens with an overdrive rhythm box which slowly goes out of phase and the quiet sounds of synthesizers and sampled insects (or so it seems) take over and slowly the track builds up from there with beats underneath and high pitched sounds on top. This is an interesting piece of modern electronic music.
Reznicek is a relatively unknown composer, who works mainly with guitar sounds. The piece opens with a sort of ambient drone, which, after some bangs on a string, is followed by heavy guitar manipulations (a sort of psychedelic experimentalism…) after which the sound is broken down into fragmented pieces. After that flows of sound pass by. For me the Reznicek side was more interesting that the Klangkrieg side, since I am more into exploring sounds by themselves, rather then synthesized sounds. (FdW)
LOWGROUND – SOUND FOR FREAKS (CD by Silver Recordings)
The third release on one of my favorite ‘experimental techno’ labels (after excellent releases by Unit Moebius and RA-X). Lowground is a collaboration between Koen Lybaert from Starfish Pool and DJ Mark Broom. The Starfish Pool CD that was released earlier this year still ranks my favorite CD’s as a nasty, distorted minimal techno. Lowground continues on the minimal track. Each of these tracks start off with a few sounds, and some might be added, but are then stuck into a groove and stay there for the rest of the track. Fiddling with EQ makes the changes, but these are kept to a minimum. That’s what makes this CD both ready for the dance floor (oh no why isn’t it on vinyl then?) and for armchair listening. Not being a floor person, I find much joy in listening to all this minimal groovy knob fiddling. Another fine album. (FdW)
Address: <silver@net4al.be>
TORTOISE – GALAPAGOS (12″ by City Slang)
STME – D+B (12″ by Nova Zembla)
Jungle still doesn’t make it – at least not to my turntable. Some of that stuff is way to hectic and probably not suitable for armchair listening. However I occasionally find interesting exceptions. Here are two.
Tortoise is not a jungle act, but belong to that category called ‘post-rock’ (intelligent rock music for intelligent people), maybe too much of a hype for me (to which I’m usually allergic/suspicious), but their ‘Millions Now Living’ CD was not bad at all. Their UK record company thought it to be great idea to have remixes made by various dance music people. Now it’s time for the Drum & Bass section. The first side is a remix by Spring Heel Jack and is a typical drum and bass track: breakbeats with bass dropping in and out, plus the usual sample. Side B is a remix by Jim O’Rourke vs. Bedouin Ascent and has laid back drum and bass sound with, I kid you not, droning guitar stuff. Bytheway: I didn’t recognize any sound from the Tortoise CD… on both mixes!
STME are sometimes called ‘Self Transforming Machine Elves’ and they have three great D+B tracks on this 12″. Side A is a new track, clocking in at 14 minutes and is a huge D+B track, packed with drums and weird sounds whirling in and out of the mix. Side B has two remixes from their second CD, of which ‘Tahiti’ is my favorite. The catchy ethno sample sticks to your head right away and you are bound to hum it all day. ‘K.O.’ is a remix from a remix, as the original was already on their first CD. Still a lovely track with violin and Jorge Reyes sample. (FdW)
HANDS TO – NAZHA (CD by Manifold)
Nazha is a Navajo word, meaning: to spiritually surround and all the sounds on this CD were the result of natural processes acting on human-made objects. Hands To, being around for more then 10 years now, have developed a ‘low-fi’ attitude towards sounds. Whereas others seem to improve on, for instance, recording and sound processing, it seems that Hands To is still working on old equipment. Sounds are recorded in naturally reverberating spaces and then these recordings are layered over each other. Like the statement on the cover already implies, it is hard to tell what sound sources a Hands To uses – and it is not necessary either. The two tracks on this CD sound like a journey through caves, bridges and abandoned factories. (FdW)
Address: vince@ubd1.vdospk.com
ATOM HEART – SHELLGLOVE (CD by Recent Programmings)
From the ever prolific composer Atom Heart a new CD on a new label. Some people may think Muslimgauze or Merzbow are the unstoppable ones, but Atom Heart’s production is even bigger. Most of the stuff Uwe Schmidt put out on his own label, Rather Interesting, didn’t appeal to me very much. Too jazzy, easy or whatever and which I thought didn’t go in any particular direction. On Shellglove Uwe displays a wide variety of the many directions which some define as dance music. At times minimalist, at other times jazzy or ambient, this album is well-balanced and it’s variety makes this into a much better album that one-directional albums on Rather Interesting. (FdW)
Address: Andernacher strasse 18 – 90411 Nurnberg – Germany
SERAFUSE – FALLEN ANGEL (CD ON CHAARM)
Well here’s a CD considerably lacking in surprises and it’s something I would have expected to hear on that San Francisco label Silent, which has had one or two good releases over the years but seems to persist in promoting the bland. It’s only fair to point out that ‘Serafuse’ is a beautifully made product which has a certain grace all of it’s own; personally though I’m searching for novelty and sounds I’ve never encountered before and this music contains very little which hold my attention. It may be that I was not in the right mood when I listened to it (several times), but I doubt it. I suspect though, that this is extremely effective landing gear, but as I’m returning my copy to the shop and have no immediate plans for interdimensional travel, I’ll never know for sure. Perhaps to my loss… (MP)
HEARING IS BELIEVING – VARIOUS ARTISTS (CD DISTRIBUTED BY CHARM)
Here’s a CD which claims to represent a more egalitarian approach to radio and suggestions of new ways to approach it as a technological form. The CD has 22 tracks and I made some notes about those which caught my attention… it’s only fair to note that most of the tracks are excerpted from considerably longer pieces which were used as broadcast material on Hearing Is Believing 105.8 FM, Britains first experimental music station.
It all starts with a mildy amusing (but nicely made) intro jingle by Robert Fraser Munro, who appears another three times on this CD with similar interjections.Next up is a piece by John Coleman, who reads beautifully written (recontextualised) extracts from the Observers Book Of Birds over a background of twitters recorded at various times of the day. Track 3 was constructed by Matt Wand (who also did the editing and mastering of this CD) from Stock, Hausen and Walkman, who worked with found material (as usual). Lawrence Lane gives sensible advice to cool streetwise children.
Pascal Brannen explores aural obscenity, and in this track wonders why we can’t say ‘Fuck’ on radio when it’s virtually every second word in an Englishman’s conversation. His point is that, by now, it can hardly have any shock value anymore. So what. This track is a waste of fucking time, if you acquire my drift. Rude Robin Rimbaud robs people of their privacy (yet again) – the musical atmosphere on this piece is very reminiscent of the Staalplaat release ‘Accretions’, by the same.
Zbignew Jaroc parodies current affairs broadcasts which fail to inform listeners about current affairs. What else is new? Neil Channock asks what he is doing, and why he is here…I wonder too.
An Irish lady phones various abortion clinics in England live on air to book an abortion. Remember abortions are still illegal in Ireland. It reminded me of the last time I ordered a pizza by phone.John Carson tries to entertain his audience with a bunch of self-indulgent ramblings apparently designed to elucidate on the unarticulated complexities of life…adults imitating animal sounds are merely a waste of radio time. Michael Avatar’s odd book at bedtime is populated with the stars of soap operas. Give me the Monty Python version anyday. Lastly, Evelyn Ficarra mixes various radio sounds with radio voices in a collage which is almost interesting.
Well, I suppose you can already guess my conclusions about this thing. Save yer shekels and buy something out of the Radius series of radio broadcasts (availible on Nonsequiter, I fink), or better still, tune into the closest pirate radio station in your neighbourhood. (MP)