TOM RECCHION – SWEETLY DOING NOTHING (CD by Schoolmap Records) *
TOM RECCHION – WHERE WERE ON CHRISTMAS/CHRISTMAS FILLED WITH TEARS (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
DRONE – COLOURFORMONEY (CD by My Kung Fu) *
ENNIO MORRICONE – CHI L’HA VISTA MORIRE (CD by Fin de Siecle)
ILIOS/FRANCISCO LOPEZ – HYSECHASTERION (CD by Antifrost)
CONTRASTATE – HANDBAGS & DADA (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
ANTI-DELUSION MECHANISM – EUGENIX (CD by Holispolis) *
CLAUDIO PARODI – HORIZONTAL MOVER (HOMAGE TO ALVIN LUCIER) (CD by Extreme) *
ENDUSER – PUSHING BACK (CD by Ad Noiseam)
COINCIDENZA (CD by Zufall3177)
HOP-FROG’S DRUM JESTER DEVOTIONAL – BETS OV, VOL. 1 (CD by URCK Records) *
DIALING IN – COWS IN LYE (CD by Pseudo Arcana)
EMANUELE ERRANTE – MIGRATIONS (CD by Apegenine Recordings)
MATHIAS GRASSOW & THOMAS WEISS – CONSCIENCE (CD by Nextera)
MONOCEROS – TALES FOR SILENT NIGHTS (CD by Imaginary Nonexistent Records)
ANGEL & HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR – IN TRANSMEDIALE (CD by Oral)
JOE COLLEY – WASTE OF SONGS (CD by Oral)
MYLENA BERGERON – CHRONOPEE (2) (CD by Oral)
17 PICTURES (CD by Ahornfelder) *
DAISUKE MIYATANI – DIARIO (CD by Ahorenfelder)
TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS – FROM THE WALLED GARDEN (CD by Shining Day) *
PAUL BRADLEY – PASTANDPRESENTCOLLIDE (CD by Shining Day)
CHRIS WATSON & BJ NILSEN – STORM (CD by Touch)
GEIR JENSSEN – CHO OYU 8201M (CD by Ash International)
ROSY PARLANE – JESSAMINE (CD by Touch) *
DAMION ROMERO – NEGATIVE (CD by PACRec)
ENVENOMIST – ABYSSAL SIEGE (CD by PACRec)
ROMAN TORMENT – SKIN GAME (CD by PACRec) *
TOY BIZARRE/DALE LLOYD (CD by Bremsstrahlung Recordings)
JOSH RUSSELL – FOR LP (CDR by Con-V) *
SEFA – PEACH A HEART/MANO A MANO (7″ by Static Caravan)
TRYPANOSOMA – A STUDY IN POWER (CDR by Echo Music) *
METAL DUNGEON – CELLS (CDR by Time Stereo) *
XV PAROWEK – KURZ Z KALUZY (CDR by XVP)
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE – GLEISDREIECK/GÖRLITZER TUNNEL (2CDR by AIC)
CHEFKIRK – BIRDS (CDR by Evelyn Records)
IVERSEN – CALIGULA SYMPHONY C (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SCOTT TAYLOR – ARCHIVAL (CDR by Evelyn Records)
FENCEPOST – 2TAPE (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SILO – ADVERSE EFFECTS (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SEAN O’NEILL – WHEN I KNOW YOU WILL TOO (CDR by Evelyn Records) *
LOISL – INLAND (CDR by Dirty Demos)
BJERGA/IVERSEN – LIVE AT SOUND OF MU, OSLO NORWAY (CDR by Dirty Demos)
EXPLOSIONS AND SCREAMING – INFINITELY HUGE AND ENDLESSLY LOUD (3″CDR by Dirty Demos)
DEAD WOOD – REINFORCED SIGNAL (3″CDR by Dirty Demos)
JOHN CLAIR/JED SHAHAR/LOREN STEEL (MP3) *
E:4C – TECHNICAL UNWANTED SIGNALS (MP3 by e-twopoints)
TOM RECCHION – SWEETLY DOING NOTHING (CD by Schoolmap Records)
TOM RECCHION – WHERE WERE ON CHRISTMAS/CHRISTMAS FILLED WITH TEARS (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
Schoolmap Records calls it ‘thirty years practice in sonic explorations’, which seems to me a bit strange. I am sure practice is gone and replaced by craftsmanship by now? Tom Recchion founded the Los Angeles Free Music Society in the late seventies (and if you can find it, try and get the 10 CD box that was released on RRRecords a while ago, which is an excellent documentation), and later on worked with David Toop, Keiji Haino, John Duncan and Smegma. For his solo work he loves ‘exotica’, which was ten years ago a term for lounge music of an exotic nature. Mood music played on an organ. These titles, Recchion uses a laptop with Ableton live, and perhaps the title of his latest CD is to be understood with some irony for that, but Ableton can do what Recchion wants ‘a great improvisational tool for non-idiomatic compositions but also served my interest in loopy tonal mood music’. This ‘loopy tonal mood music’ can work two ways. In the opening track ‘The Elephant God’, this is all rather smooth and nicely, like the organ music of yesteryear, but in ‘The Crazy Beat’, the guitar loops hum and play all sorts of notes in a rather improvised way (hard to believe that this is an improvised track), which is followed by ‘Ho Ho 66’, which start out with bird twitter and organs, before slowly moving into very vague and loosely improvised music. I must say that although I liked most of the tracks, I thought they were all a bit too long for what they were trying to bring over. The musical content was perhaps a bit too sparse per track to hold the interest. ‘Ho Ho 66’ is the best example. What starts out quite cheery and funny, ends for a bit too long in this too loose improvisation of sound that don’t mean much. Some more strict editing wouldn’t have hurt here.
Some strict editing certainly worked well on Tom Recchion contribution to what I call the darkest days of the year, or at least the most boring days. Like Mister Meeuw I don’t like Christmas very much, but it’s a fine day to play all your alternative tunes and avoid ‘Last Christmas’ and Mister Meeuw adds every year a new tune. Tom Recchion puts on his mood tune hat, and digs for some gospel preacher preaching where you were on christmas. The b-side has an even more sorrowful tune from a guy who lost his father and now he is all alone. Both pieces are precise and to the point. Let the season begin! (FdW)
Address: http://www.schoolmap.org
Address: http://www.meeuw.net
DRONE – COLOURFORMONEY (CD by My Kung Fu)
Ever got fooled by a name? Bought ’20 Jazz Funk Greats’ because it sounded groovy, but it turned out to be something else (and since then you read Vital Weekly to avoid mistakes like that). Don’t let the name Drone fool you, as the work of Cassidy Phillips doesn’t have much to do with drone music as we know it. In fact it has nothing to do with drone music at all, not even the ones we don’t know. Drone is from Kidwelly, West Wales (and probably nothing to do with the band who worked on that name years ago for Irecords), and armed with an ancient ‘sound tracking software’ and comes up with some rather melancholically electronica, not too dissimilar of those found on labels such as Expanding or Highpoint Lowlife, but there are some interesting differences to be spotted which make Drone standing out of the genre. One is the fact that he has a couple of songs with vocals, such as the loving ‘Cutting Teeth’, with its soaring cello’s: almost a real pop song (a bit long at that though). The other difference is the sometimes somewhat crude quality of the songs. Refinement is not the thing that bothers Drone too much. It’s only refined at the start of the CD, but as things progress, they change a great deal and things aren’t exactly aggressive, they are at least less refined than some of his counterparts. That makes this in many ways a most remarkable CD. There is room for improvement indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.my-kung-fu.com
ENNIO MORRICONE – CHI L’HA VISTA MORIRE (CD by Fin de Siecle)
In the almost endless list of releases featuring Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack work, Fin de Siècle (probably better known for their more experimental releases) surprises us with Chi L’ha Vista Morire (better known as Who Saw Her Die). This 1972 whodunit flick about the murder of a young girl by a psychopath benefits well from the choir music as composed by Morricone. Roughly divided in three sections; childhood (angelic choirs), helplessness and loss (where the choirs become more and more uncanny and eerie) this 30 minute score will definitely appeal to Morricone’s fans. The music starts off innocently enough with choir singing (unfortunately the choir itself is not identified on the cover), but soon develops into a more schizophrenic and musically more appealing nature. In Morricone’s total body of work, this is a remarkable but alas a mediocre piece of work (much like the film itself, despite the fact that it featured the future Mr Bond George Lazenby and Anita Strindberg). Restored from the original masters and packed in a good-looking digipack this is a welcome but rather unspectacular addition in the long line of Morricone re-issues (FK)
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
ILIOS/FRANCISCO LOPEZ – HYSECHASTERION (CD by Antifrost)
Some two months I was in Greece to visit a baptizing party and part of the trip went to the a Greek Orthodox Church up in some mountain. It was sunny and crowdy, but today, in grey The Netherlands I play this new work by Francisco Lopez and Ilios, which deals with field recordings they made together at various monasteries in Greece and at Mount Athos and the rocky hills of Katounakia. I wonder if we needed to know this (for me it’s ok, because I remember that lovely sunny day in September), because what do we actually know in relation to what we hear? Much of Lopez’ work deals with absolute sound, and there is no information to be found on many of his releases, so that the listener is free to make up his own mind. But even now we know, I strongly wonder what it helps. Both artists went home with these sound sources and started creating each a piece of music out of it. With highly processed large chunks of wind there is something austere and stale about these recordings. I have no clue at all how these people work with what they do, but in both pieces it all sounds highly fascinating. Ilios is the man of some subtle and some abrupt changes, in which get turned around and are put upside down, whereas Lopez makes a straight forward, slowly building to a mighty crescendo piece (perhaps that should be called ‘the classic Lopez composition technique’) until it collapses and remains silent for some time. Both are masters of their trade, and this is no different (in various aspects really) and shouldn’t missed in any collection of a diehard. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antifrost.gr
CONTRASTATE – HANDBAGS & DADA (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
Already the third release by Contrastate on Fin de Siecle, and again much of it is a re-issue. During their lifetime (1987-2000) Contrastate releases a bunch of records, some CDs and played a handful of concerts, of which only one was released during their lifetime: their VPRO recording as part of Staalplaat’s Mort Aux Vaches series. From the thirteen other concerts, two were released as part of packages on Tesco, on limited vinyl and cassette. The three different concerts on this release, are from three different phases of the band. The first is a recording of the first duo line up of Jonathan Grieve and Stephen Meixner, and perhaps my favorite Contrastate line up. Analogue synths, the rumbling of low resolution samples, some feedback guitars and a deep dark howling voices. Much of these ingredients turn up in the next phase, but it’s more refined and, perhaps a bit to my sadness, the voice turned a bit more pathetic (shouting slogans it seems), but in other tracks more quiet. A better vocal range here, and the music is worked out more. This is the mid-area round about their CD for Staalplaat. It’s also the only concert represented with more than one track. In the third phase they were a four piece, and it’s also the time which I least remember. The live piece here is the last live concert, in April 2000, and sees them harking back to the analogue synth days, but with a more complex humming of vocals and more emphasizing percussive elements, but still with the dark ambient industrial undercurrent. The differences in the various phases of Contrastate lie in the smaller details. I must admit that in the later years I was a bit put off by the vocals used by various people in Contrastate, adding a slight pathetic feel to the music, but the music part was quite alright. Contrastate combined the right amount gothic, experimentalism and electronica to be one of the more unique bands of their times. I wonder what will be re-issued next. (FdW)
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
ANTI-DELUSION MECHANISM – EUGENIX (CD by Holispolis)
Following their ‘Songs Of Maldoror’ (see Vital Weekly 477), there is now ‘Eugenix’ by Amsterdam’s Anti-Delusion Mechanism. Here the vocals are done by Vilbjørg Skrot (before it was one Hodja Hog) and Dead Fish Fuck on synths and processing. On the previous releases he played roots, trees and synths. The music on ‘Songs Of Maldoror’ was pretty much alright, but I wasn’t too blown by the voice of Hog, who sounded a bit too much like Diamanda Galas meeting Chrystal Belle Scrod. This has now changed. Skrot may sound like something similar in the opening piece of this release, but in many of the other pieces she sounds like something. At times a whole bunch of buzzing insects, where her voice is used to stir up a few sounds in the synthesizer (somehow I think they are triggered by the voice). The texts aren’t easy to follow, but they are dealing with ‘current scientific and commercial texts of genetics in combination with historical and newer ideas of eugenics’, but they are printed on the otherwise nicely printed cover (by Knust). The whole work is a major step forward from the previous release. Produced with great care, the music is highly emotive and experimental, with lots of small things happening on various levels. An electronic version of Nurse With Wound is what leaps to mind here. The first time I fully satisfied by a release by this collective. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antidelusionmechanism.org/holispolis.html
CLAUDIO PARODI – HORIZONTAL MOVER (HOMAGE TO ALVIN LUCIER) (CD by Extreme)
The name Claudio Parodi has come up in Vital Weekly a lot of times, but only in the announcement section (or so I believe), so this CD is our first encounter. It’s the first of seven releases to come on Extreme, all in dedication to someone. Now it’s Alvin Lucier, to come are Charles Hayward, Yasunao Tone and Alvin Curran. The choice for Lucier is remarkable, or perhaps not. Lucier makes wonderful concepts on how to work with sound and space, but in general Lucier only makes one composition per concept. Find out how he made ‘I’m Sitting In A Room’ for instance, and apply that to sounds of your own. You’ll be amazed how it is easy it is to process music, without computers. Parodi’s homage is partly based on this Lucier composition, as well as the use of reasonators: objects moving because of the sound. The starting point here is a composition by Tiziano Milani (omitted here) and twelve subsequent processing stages. Parodi uses a whole bunch of percussive instruments as resonators, as well as various amplifiers and various diffusers. In each new stage the sound is stretched until a point when the computer couldn’t cope anymore and from then on it is only smaller portions. In the final stage, all twelve parts were crossfaded for a continuos listening. Perhaps it sounds a bit complicated, but it’s all relatively easy to do yourself (and highly recommended). Milani’s original piece is omitted as said, but in the early stages it can be recognized as something to do with percussive sounds and flutes, but before the ten minute mark, it’s clear that this evolves into a piece of drone music. Over the next forty minutes matters move through various stages, until it reaches it loud conclusion. There is certainly more happening than in an average Lucier piece (nothing wrong with that actually) and it’s certainly more in pure musical areas than an average Lucier piece, which makes this into a well-enjoyable release that crosses the lines of drone and ambient. A very fine release. Released with the consent of mister Lucier himself. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xtr.com
ENDUSER – PUSHING BACK (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Enduser has done it again! Earlier this year I had the pleasure of reviewing his album “Form without function”, a harsh breakcore-album with overdoses of violent breakbeats and drones of darkside jungle. Apparently the American composer Lynn Standafer (aka Enduser) has a lot to say, because this album keeps the impressively high standard of breakcore from the “Form without function” despite the fact that this is his second release in 2006. It is not a straight continuation of the sonic terror of the “Form without function”. More rather the album combines the best elements of the two latest albums. In the same manner as the previous album “Bollywood breaks”, a few tracks transform elements of eastern music culture into breakbeat-science. Other tracks run amok with aggressive storms of breakcore attacking the listener in moments when it was least expected: Take a listen to the two tracks “Across” and “The catalyst”, that both begins atmospherically with melodic ambience slowly being interfered by distorted drones of heavy bass until an unexpected blast of furious beats washes over like a tidal wave. There is also room for chill-out moments in a track like “Positioned” that turns my mind back to the glory 90’s of LTJ Bukem’s “Logical progression” including some cool rapping of Shadow Huntaz. Thus “Pushing back” comes around a wide spectre of expressions. The hyper-active composer Enduser has released another great album that manage to deliver the goods both for some intellectual listening and for some high energetic physical club performance. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: <http://www.adnoiseam.net>
COINCIDENZA (CD by Zufall3177)
This new Italian label wants to promote musical improvisation. To this end their first release is ‘Coincidenza’, a CD which is not a compilation and not one band. It is a bunch of musical pieces recorded by no less than twenty four musicians from Rome, and a quick survey learned that there wasn’t a single one I heard of before. There are flutes, piano, rock line ups, live electronics, wind instruments: the whole lot. The improvisation can range from introspective and quiet, duets for piano and flutes to free rocking loud, post punk with saxophones. Throughout these tracks are quite short, all from a minute to four minutes, which makes the whole thing quite vivid and lively, and it sounds more than the label probably want like a compilation, but perhaps that has also to do with the organisation of the pieces. The improvisations themselves are alright, but they stay also on the safe side of improvisation music. Very few musicians go out of their standard routine of playing the instruments and such it’s a bit of a conservative release. But not bad at all and quite entertaining. Like a radio station spinning all sorts of improvised music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zufall3177.com
HOP-FROG’S DRUM JESTER DEVOTIONAL – BETS OV, VOL. 1 (CD by URCK Records)
It’s a bit of an odd name, Hop-Frog’s Drum Jester Devotional, but it’s the solo name of one of the founders of the Hop-Frog Kollectiv, also known as E. Loi, and also as Jeremy Morelock. The music he produces solo is like that of the Kollectiv an eclectic mix of various styles thrown together. At the heart there is the true love for all things minimal. Rhythm battle on, vocal chanting, minimal patterns, once stuck in a loop there is no holding back. There is also the ornaments, which can be tabla samples, Moroccan flutes or eastern melodies. Washes of vocals from gypsies, indians or some other corner of the world – this is true One World music. Everything is thrown together like equal partners, and in this pressure cooker, it all becomes music. Of course you could wonder what the people who made it would feel that it can be done like this, but I’m sure Robert Smith of The Cure would raise a smile when he would hear ‘M’ from ‘Seventeen Seconds popping up as sample in ‘Another Intricate Gem Of The Mouthfrothian Liberation Front’, but perhaps he is used to this sort of this thing. As an old bloke of course my favorite track, but I thought it was throughout a most enjoyable CD save for some passages which were a bit too much Muslimgauze like. (FdW)
Address: http://www.urckrecords.com
DIALING IN – COWS IN LYE (CD by Pseudo Arcana)
The iterative process of recording a sound source, playing it back and re-recording the playback has been explored from various perspectives by such different artists and projects as Alvin Lucier, Die tödliche Doris and Loren Chasse. It also plays a central role in the work of Seattle-based sound artist Reita Piecuch aka Dialing In. For her album Cows in Lye Seattle-based she uses field recordings from a trip to India, piano and a “Shruti Box” (electronic Tamboura) as sound sources, that she repeatedly plays back and re-records in various reverberant spaces such as caves and bunkers. However, I only gathered this latter information from the press release, since she weaves the resulting sounds into gritty tapestries of high density that are not so much reminiscent of the Deep Listening Band as of the ambient industrial sound of, say, Maeror Tri and the likes. The natural acoustics of the spaces and the process of recording itself produce a muddy mass of distortion and lo-fi hiss, that transforms the sound sources and results in an amorphous spatial quality. There is an extraordinary fuzziness to these multilayered sounds, that gives the music a highly mesmerizing character. Played loud it fills the whole room with a giant ecstatic rumble, a delirious stream of multicolored haze, completed by occasional far-away acoustic reminiscences of India and a pleasantly weird vocal contribution from (as the press text says) avant-crooner ‘Herb Diamante’ on the second track. (MSS)
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com
EMANUELE ERRANTE – MIGRATIONS (CD by Apegenine Recordings)
On the small Canadian label Apegenine Recordings we get one Emanuele Errante, of whom I never heard. This is the first release in the Chapitre series which will deal with electronic ambient music. As such Errante succeeds well. His music seems to me made of guitars and synthesizers, of which he creates bigger and smaller loops, which is fed through Ableton Live (I think I recognized some of effects in that program) and each of the eight pieces is a nice flow. Not too deep, certainly not very dark but also not too bright. Errante makes easy music, and perhaps the easy way. Easy listening music, that occasionally goes into the direction of New Age music, but it never crosses the line. Errante creates wonderful, beautiful risk free ambient music that stands firmly in the tradition of Brian Eno and everything that has come our way in the field of ambient music since then. (FdW)
Address: http://www.apegenine.com
MATHIAS GRASSOW & THOMAS WEISS – CONSCIENCE (CD by Nextera)
Although I’m not familiar with the entire body of work put out by Matthias Grassow, I must say what I heard was not bad at all. Ambient with the big A, but always with a slight touch of experimentalism, keeping it away from the dreaded new age posse. Here he teams up with one Thomas Weiss, of whom I know nothing, but he thanks ‘God for his immense love and kindness’. The four piece on this CD sound exactly I would expect this to sound (which in itself is a pity since a surprise is always nice). Deep washes of synthesizers, with sparse, slow melodies and in the ornament side some far away, alienated sounds. Ambient with the A, as I said. It’s not an album where big or new things happen, but Grassow and Weiss walk a well-known path: through a misty forest on an early sunday morning, with a touch of sunlight. One where even the firmest non-believer could think God exists. The cover tells us that the music doesn’t want to entertain us, but ‘give you a view inside your ‘self”. Perhaps I am just too much a non-believer and merely want to enjoy the music and the spiritual side is a bit beyond me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nextera.cu
MONOCEROS – TALES FOR SILENT NIGHTS (CD by Imaginary Nonexistent Records)
It’s been about two years ago that we reviewed ‘When I Was A Child I Wanted To Be An Astronaut’ by Monoceros, also known as Joan Male (see Vital Weekly 456), which was released by Expanding Records. In between he released some EPs and soon this ‘Tales For Silent Nights’ will be available. Officially in January 2007, which is odd, since with such a title I would have thought it would be released before Christmas. But the music has nothing to do with christmas, and sees a continuation of his previous release. Quite complex rhythms, synthesizers, lots of reverb to create ambience (never a particular favorite of mine), and still in Expanding Records, HighPoint Lowlife land. Some of it was quite nice, with ambient like piano sounds, a bit of processed acoustic guitar, but throughout I must say that it sounded like so many other things in this area and it seemed to me that Monoceros didn’t add much of his own, or perhaps the differences are of such a subtle scale that I missed them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.inrecs.com
ANGEL & HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR – IN TRANSMEDIALE (CD by Oral)
JOE COLLEY – WASTE OF SONGS (CD by Oral)
MYLENA BERGERON – CHRONOPEE (2) (CD by Oral)
A collaboration of many kinds, this one. Dirk Dresselhaus is at the core. The man from Schneider TM, as well as band member of Locust Fudge, Pancake and Dr. Drek has played with Hildur Gudnadottir before, on the CD ‘Good Sound’ under the banner Schmuck’s Farm (on the same label as this new one, see Vital Weekly 486) and also with Ilpo Vaisanen is active as Angel (see Vital Weekly 350). Vaisanen is most known for his involvement with Pan Sonic, but also played with Bruce Gilbert, Alan Vega and a forthcoming release with The Hafler Trio. Back when reviewing Schmuck’s Farm I had no idea who she was, but she is part of Kitchen Motors collective in Iceland, as well as playing the cello with many people on Iceland. In April 2005 the three played together at the Transmediale festival for more than an hour, and the result is now available on CD. This release continues the style set out by Schmuck’s Farm rather than the music of Angel. One long piece of drone music. The basic rule, so it seems, is that they agreed to start out in a rather soft manner and then make a sweep into noise land and land safely in more quieter realms. The noise part really cracks out here. I believe that the two men pick up the signals produced by Gudnadottir and process these through their own blend of electronics, by which we don’t understand laptops, but all sorts of black boxes with knobs. This has only vaguely something to do with drone music, but it is made on entirely different level than the usual drone suspects of Vital Weekly. Powerful music, as opposed to music that is supposed to lull you to sleep. It’s great to see at least something moving away from the usual path.
Joe Colley is also someone who shouldn’t need much introduction. Years ago he was active under the name Crawl Unit, but who remembers that? It’s been Joe Colley for some time now and as such he is quite active as a recording artists (solo, but also in collaboration with say people like Francisco Lopez and Jason Lescalleet), performing around the world, and putting up sound installations. His work got recognition at Ars Electronica and Transmediale (but I wonder who would care about that really?). Colley is a man who loves the sound of decay. Things that are on the fringe of being broken beyond repair find a good place in his hands. The last breath of something electrical is in good hands with him. All to easily you could think that Colley deals with ‘just’ noise. Not so at all. He is also a man who loves drones – how he conceives them is not really of great importance, certainly not through a laptop, but he has them. These two ends, the drones and the noise, may seem opposites but be assured they are in very capable hands. The opening piece ‘Bruise Voltage And Field Error’ is a loud beast of a broken contact microphone choir and cable hum. ‘The Last Audience’ closes the CD with a heavy drone piece that could almost be derived from feedback, but it stays away from the real noise bursts. In between the journey went through various stages, various moods (not all that negative, which seems to hover around his work) and various forms. Joe Colley’s music is an unique blend of highly intelligent noise, blending the harsh end with the more soft side, but always remains listenable. From his solo work this is perhaps the best so far.
The final new release on Oral is by someone of whom I never heard, Mylena Bergeron, and still don’t know anything, other than her working methods. She collects raw, concrete sounds which she then dully processes. In this process she wants to preserve the essence of the sound, which is done in the third phase, harmonization, through methods of editing. She calls her compositions “evocative and narrative sound landscapes”. Many of the pieces here (twelve in total) seem to be made with the sampler. She loops small particles and creates per piece indeed a sort of landscape, or rather a picture of landscape. The original sources are not always to be recognized, even when we hear voices, the supermarket, muzak and such like, but they are embedded in the overall processed sound. It took some time for me to get into this, as at first it all sounded a bit too simple, too easy, but as the CD progressed I got the drift of it, and thought it was quite nice, but perhaps a bit long. Sometimes Bergeron seems to be taking a little too much time to tell her story without knowing where to end it. A bit more concise and perhaps with a couple of pieces skipped, this would have been an absolute gorgeous CD, now it’s just pretty much alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.oral.qc.ca
17 PICTURES (CD by Ahornfelder)
DAISUKE MIYATANI – DIARIO (CD by Ahorenfelder)
Music by Wechsel Garland, also known as Wunder, also know as Jörg Follert, has been released in the past by labels such as Karaoke Kalk and Morr Music. But it’s been a while since we reviewed anything on those labels, so also something of Garland. Despite the new name being ’17 Pictures’, there are nineteen tracks on this CD. Follert plays guitar for the most part, mainly acoustic, but also a Fender Rhodes piano, harmonica and strings (probably coming out of a keyboard), as well as some percussion instruments. The tracks are all quite short, like a picture indeed, and not like a film. There is through this a very sketch like approach in this music, which is a pity. Sometimes one hears a short track, which is over in about a minute or so, and one wishes it would have been a bit longer. The nineteen tracks here span just over thirty four minutes, so you can imagine how short some of these tracks are. But the music is absolutely nice: sweet like a summer breeze – we could use some again – and intimate, with some more uptempo ones to make the perfect balance. This, but then say twelve tracks with the same length as the total is now, would have been the perfect album.
A bit of the same problem is to be noted with the album of Daisuke Miyatani, of whom I never heard. He works in a bookstore on the Awaji Island in Japan and finds his rest there to create peaceful music. Also the guitar is his main instrument, in some pieces even the only instrument, but there is also xylophone and an organ (as well as perhaps other things). Sparse music in traditional Japanese tones, empty, haiku like: all the cliché’s become true. His pieces are a bit longer than that of 17 Pictures, but also more single-minded. 17 Pictures likes the make a lot of variation in his music, but on ‘Dairio’ it seems all mostly ambient plink plonk guitars and drone like organs. Not bad in itself, but also not with the strongest variations. Also it’s a bit that there is some tape-hiss on the guitar recordings, of which it is unclear wether this is left in there intentionally or not. Right after 17 Pictures this is the weaker brother though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ahornfelder.de
TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS – FROM THE WALLED GARDEN (CD by Shining Day)
PAUL BRADLEY – PASTANDPRESENTCOLLIDE (CD by Shining Day)
Following ‘At The Landgate’, a limited edition mini CDR (see Vital Weekly 486), there is now a full length CD by Twelve Thousand Days, the group of Martyn Bates (formerly of Eyeless In Gaza) and Alan Trench of Orchis and Temple Music. Guitars play a big role, but there is also whistles, karimba, percussion, tibetan bells, dulcimer, recorder, keyboards, and of course the ever present voice of Bates, which can be recognized quite easily. Like I was pleasantly surprised by the EP, which I thought was a bit too short, and again I’m surprised, although now I think it’s a bit long. Forty minutes would be the right size, I think. The music of Twelve Thousand Days is not my usual thing. The voice of Bates is drenched with spleen, the music of soft tinkling guitars, mediaeval flutes and dulcimers, the reverb on the voice: all the ingredients of music that I would normally not like, but it is quite captivating. The best track here is ‘Cries Distant Calling’, with a strong melody, nice slide guitars, and a tune that sticks right in your head. Despite the fact that it is so different, or perhaps because of that, this is a damn fine release.
The mastering of the Twelve Thousand Days CD was done by Paul Bradley, who present his latest solo work ‘Pastandpresentcollide’ (what is that a lot of things are written as one word these days?). Bradley is one of the more active drone meisters, with many releases on his own Twenty Hertz label and his various collaborative releases, such as with Darren Tate, makes him the fastest rising star on the firmament. Although not in league with say Merzbow, release-wise, there is a certain risk of over production. In itself drone music, and certainly the area in which we find Bradley, is already a bit of a dead end, so it would not be a bad idea to broaden the horizon. On the previous Bradley release ‘Memorias Extranjeras’ (see Vital Weekly 523) he already had some unprocessed field recordings as part of his soundscape, so it might be expanding slowly. Throughout this new piece (like per usual, Bradley offers one piece per release), there is faint trace of children singing, but that’s about the extent as where we hear the ‘real’ field recordings. But for perhaps 95% this is all in the deep underworld of drone music. Slowly humming about, with deep bass sounds, and a bit organ like sounds towards the end, this is an absolutely beautiful piece. Let there be no mistake about it. However, at the same time, we should also note that is doesn’t differ that much from his previous work, which is a pity, since there is already quite some work available from him. If this would be your first encounter, you could easily think that’s great, but as a diehard fan, you could probably do with a slight change in the menu. (FdW)
Address: http://www.shiningday.pl
CHRIS WATSON & BJ NILSEN – STORM (CD by Touch)
GEIR JENSSEN – CHO OYU 8201M (CD by Ash International)
ROSY PARLANE – JESSAMINE (CD by Touch)
Of these three new releases out of the Touch imperium (although Ash International should be seen as a separate entity, the ties are pretty strong), two of them deal with field recordings. Of all field recordings that are to be made ‘out there’ that storms and rain are the ones that are most ‘easy’, since they produce a lot of sound. Not entirely true, this somewhat bold statement, because it takes some to make a good recording of a nice storm, that sounds like a storm and not a bunch of tape hiss. If you leave the microphones to people such as Chris Watson or BJ Nilsen, you know there are in good hands. They both love a good storm, and have gathered a bunch of interesting recordings in that area. One storm was followed by Watson (in Newcastle) and Nilsen (on Öland and Gotland) and became a collaborate piece of music. Also each of them has a solo piece, composed out of storm sounds. In Watson’s solo piece there is a heavy storm, lots of seagulls (probably other birds as well, but I’m not the ornithologist at hand), which goes through various stages, using the different acoustics of the various places which were used to make the recordings. In their collaborative piece things are rather more subdued and calm, strangely enough and only towards the end things get louder and meaner. In BJ Nilsen’s solo piece, various recordings from various places are melted together, in order to make a strong piece of storm sounds. All three piece may sound relatively ‘easily made’, but there are not. They are highly imaginative pieces of natural sounds, and should appeal to fans of Eric LaCasa as well as others who use recordings like this to create powerful music, again like this.
On Ash International we find a CD by Geir Jenssen, mostly known as Biosphere (and as such with releases on Touch), but since we are dealing here with a strict project of field recordings, it is released under his own name. In September and October 2001 he undertook a trip into Tibet, climbing the Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain of the world. Whereas others would probably take a camera, Jenssen is more the kind of guy to take a minidisc and a microphone to make a sonic diary. He also took a world band receiver so that he could listen to the news (and thus heard about 9/11 high in the mountains). Mentioning the shortwave is important, since unlike Watson/Nilsen, Jenssen records some sounds of that in the environment he is, and they ended up on the CD. That marks already one big difference between this and the previous CD. Some of the tracks use these shortwave sounds in addition to the field recordings. Another difference is the fact that Jenssen’s twelve tracks are more pure recordings of events and situations, and the previous is a musical collage of various recordings at the same time. Throughout these pieces are minimal, but are clearly defined. Each is a snapshot of a particular part of the journey. Although Vital Weekly didn’t review ‘Dropsonde’, it’s easy to see why some of this was used as source material on that particular Biosphere CD. In terms of music, this is unmistakably the more musical one of the two that deal with field recordings. The release comes with an extensive booklet, also a diary, but then of words, of which the last entry reads: “I’m not sure I’d ever undertake a similar journey. Once was enough”
A little over two years ago, Rosy Parlane, made his debut on Touch with ‘Iris’, following solo releases on Sigma, and a membership of such bands as Thela and Parmetier. Three tracks back then, and on ‘Jessamine’ again three tracks. Rosy plays here electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw (an instrument designed by Marcel Bear), bowed metal, household objects, field recordings, radio, computer and contact microphone, and if that isn’t enough there is also help from a whole bunch of people who played guitar. The first track starts out in common territory: ambient glitch made with bowed guitars, violins, but Parlane’s music is more angular. It has a sharper edge, already in this first piece. Even a bit of old Organum could be traced in these scraping and bowing sounds. It’s hard to say if all the instruments mentioned on the cover are also there, but guitars are definitely there. In the loudest part, ‘Part Three’ things become orgasmic loud, almost in a Merzbow manner, but Parlane keeps things nicely under control. Overall, Parlane has a richer sound than on ‘Iris’, there is more happening and he is stepping out of the more safer microsound glitch. Quite a leap forward! (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
Address: http://www.ashinternational.com
DAMION ROMERO – NEGATIVE (CD by PACRec)
ENVENOMIST – ABYSSAL SIEGE (CD by PACRec)
ROMAN TORMENT – SKIN GAME (CD by PACRec)
What is the noise project, what is the genre and how can it be distinguished and evaluated? Or is it just a collective for an ill defined project, or not a project at all. Do we even want one, well I for one think we do in order to facilitate a critical dialogue with the art form… but these three Pacrec releases only serve to confuse the issue. Damion Romero’s Negative reminds me of Tarkovsky’s Stalker, it’s a fine work, it has all the feeling of a post-industrial wasteland, unbelievable and supernatural urban deserts of wrecked rooms, the idea of an hallucinatory salvation where such landscapes become mindscapes. It’s both desolate, and poignant, and like the film, excellent work. But it doesn’t relate to an abstract form which delineates noise from experimental music in general, so I wouldn’t place it within the genre. So now keeping to our movie analogy, what of Envenomist’s Abyssal Siege with its synth pads, well it isn’t Noise, i or is it Fireball XL5, or Star Trek but perhaps Space Patrol. Only with Roman Torment do we arrive at something which can be critically evaluated within the idea of a noise genre, that is – abstract sound centered on white/brown/black noise & feedback which has a clearly defined (even scientific criteria) – of a ‘clearly’ defined quality. Skin Game represents a definitive statement of abstract sound- its based directly within the contexts and form of a definitive noise work. So- within the analogous context of film then it must be Die Hard! And a serious comparison is possible here between the two as both exhibit a clear archetypal exegesis of their art form, and the range of nuances, possibilities, aesthetics within it. (Jliat)
Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com
TOY BIZARRE/DALE LLOYD (CD by Bremsstrahlung Recordings)
JOSH RUSSELL – FOR LP (CDR by Con-V)
It’s been a while since Bremsstrahlung released the first two issues in a series of ten mini CDRs, in which they feature the work of two artists (Vital Weekly 393), but here is number three, with music by Toy Bizarre and Dale Lloyd. The first two were pressed as separate mini CDs, but here they are pressed on one CD, probably out of economic reasons. Cedric Peyronet is one of the few people in the world of microsound who still uses his old moniker Toy Bizarre, whereas everybody who thinks he is more serious uses their christian name. Bravo Cedric. There is also something else that sets him apart from the microsound posse, and that his relative loudness. ‘Well, Wind, Wood, Night, Plane’ starts out like it’s been cut out of a bigger composition and the title sums up what we hear. All of these recordings were made in Pommier, France and processed in the studio. It’s a piece of music that is of a rather ambient nature, that throughout gets softer and softer, until it’s gone. Then it returns for a few minutes in an almost noise mode. None of the original sources are there to be spotted, but it’s a marvelous piece of music. Nothing like true microsound, but very evocative.
Dale Lloyd is known for releases on his own And/Oar label, and running the Phonography site, and his work is strongly inside the world of field recordings. His ‘From Dayspring To Eventide: Within The Green Half-Light’ (one small part and one quite long) is based on recordings made in Alabama and Washington and processed at home. In the short piece a faint seagull is singing and in the long piece the sounds are even more difficult to recognize, and has lengthy transformations into the world of sine waves (high and low) with static crackles. Nice, but perhaps a bit too regular and not too different from a lot of things happening the area of microsound and field recordings.
Labelowner Josh Russell is also a composer of similar music himself. He describes his work as “the gully between academic electro-acoustic and ambient. Inspired by the soft incidental noises that one normally filters out he distills these sounds down and composes with them”. His releases so far were on Stasisfield, Lowercase compilation and now on Con-V. The release starts conveniently with ‘album volume calibration; to ensure ideal monitoring conditions please adjust volume so frequency is palpable’, which is perhaps a thing more people should do. Each of the three pieces are dedicated to a person (not any names I would recognize) and it’s largely based on field recordings of whatever kind. The filter is raised high here, so it’s not easy to hear what the original input is, although perhaps the title of the release suggest he uses the sounds of LPs, and at least ‘For Lobsang Tenphen’ is suggesting such a thing. The three pieces are fairly long and especially the first two seemed a bit unfocussed for me. What is it that he wants? Why not make them a bit more concise and bit more intense rather then a somewhat free flow of sounds. It’s throughout quite alright, very microsound, but a bit long. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bremsstrahlung-recordings.org/
Address: http://www.con-v.org
SEFA – PEACH A HEART/MANO A MANO (7″ by Static Caravan)
On the website of Static Caravan the catalogue of this 7″ is given to someone else, so I couldn’t retrieve any information on Sefa. They have a 7″ on that lovely label, for whom the 7″ is the most desired format. A female voice, two guitars: these are the main ingredients, plus something that is not easy to describe, but somehow I don’t think this electronics, but maybe an accordion. The voice (sometimes double tracked) is a sweet one, the songs are sweet, and especially ‘Mano A Mano’ is gorgeous folk tronic song – well, perhaps just a folk song, since the electronics are more or less absent. Sweet music. What more could you possibly want? (FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.org
TRYPANOSOMA – A STUDY IN POWER (CDR by Echo Music)
On the cover it says: ‘Trypanosoma is a two person act on vocals, clarinet, tenor saxophone, groove box and breakable objects’. They are helped by Kostas Stergiou and Hedwige Hurtel. I can imagine that the fans of Echo Music will raise an eyebrow here. The six tracks were all recorded in a single take in the studio and is a really odd combination of improvised music meeting popmusic, albeit of a more weirder kind. There is rhythm that holds the pieces together, but the wind instruments blow in a rather form. Stergiou’s fender rhodes piano plinks sometimes away and Hurtel chants a bit, but without getting really to sing. This release moves away from the previous Echo Music releases because it’s no longer the very serious approach to electronic and computer music, but more a free form post punk popmusic played on a bunch of electronic instruments with the addition of wind instruments. Quite a curious release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.echomusic.gr
METAL DUNGEON – CELLS (CDR by Time Stereo)
‘This release and all other Metal Dungeon releases are dedicated to Maurizio Bianchi’, it says on the information that comes along with this release. Metal Dungeon is Wade Kergan and Davin Brainard both playing electronics. Even when dedicated to Bianchi, it doesn’t mean it sounds like the old master himself. Metal Dungeon plays short tracks, twenty in total in twenty four minutes and they sort of flow into eachother, so you could think it’s one continuos track, or perhaps twenty different cells. It’s less noisy than the previous ‘Grids’ release (see Vital Weekly 434), but it sounds like a good old industrial release. Speaker hum, mild distortion, some synth like sounds and scraping the barrel with a contact microphone. Not too short or too long, this is a very nice noise trip to a well-known land with well covered territory. Big things don’t happen here, but that’s ok. It’s nice as it is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.timestereo.com
XV PAROWEK – KURZ Z KALUZY (CDR by XVP)
Bartek Kalinka is the man behind XV Parowek and he releases music only very sporadically, but since 1994. Perhaps one release per year, so the last one was reviewed in Vital Weekly 475. Now he returns with a new one, that isn’t very long. It holds eleven tracks (in less than thirty minutes) and sees a continuation of ‘Quarter Of A Can God Kicked’, sound collages. There are some field recordings to be spotted, but for the bigger part it is hard to tell what it is that he is doing here. Perhaps the sounds get computer treatments, but perhaps I am entirely wrong. I think this is a somewhat lesser release than the previous. The sound recording doesn’t seem very well, and it is a bit muffled. Also the collages aren’t very well worked out, and seem to be lacking any sort of structure. It is sort of OK but there is a potential in there which is not worked out. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xvp.pl
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE – GLEISDREIECK/GÖRLITZER TUNNEL (2CDR by AIC)
These days it’s probably no longer known, but Das Synthetische Mischgewebe was a band, and not the project of G.do Hübner, which it is since some time. Before people like Yref, Chazev, T.O.W. Richter, Isabelle Chemin and Jean Rene Lasalle were member at one point or another. The recordings on this double pack are in more than one way historical. They are old, twenty years to be precise, but they were also made in the then divided Berlin, in a place you can’t find anymore. Das Synthetische Mischgewebe used an old tunnel and a subway station going from East to West Berlin to rehearse for concerts that were later held. Abandoned industrial areas, in which they could easily find material to play their music on. Everything you hear on this double pack is recorded on the spot, using what ever is available there. Industrial tools, scraping metals, obscure objects which we can’t visualize and such like. But they are played like musical objects and rather than trying out what the sound possibilities are, the actors in Das Synthetische Mischgewebe want to play a piece of music with those objects, so they carefully move about and create pieces of improvised music with these objects. Battery run amplifiers and a walkman to record the whole thing onto give this a slightly rough edge, although I must say that the sound quality is more than excellent. Cut into sessions of thirty minutes, this can’t be engaging to hear from beginning to end without leaping into a moment of boredom, but throughout I thought this was a very fine release. Not loud or heavy industrial as some of the early work was (or perhaps that’s just a wrong memory? Apparently Vinyl On Demand is releasing some LPs with older work), but rather pre-dates a lot of the onkyo type improvisation of the last few years and a very fine work of electro-acoustic music. Topped off with a nice presentation and a most enjoyable set of personal liner notes. Great archival release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.0000-anti.info
CHEFKIRK – BIRDS (CDR by Evelyn Records)
IVERSEN – CALIGULA SYMPHONY C (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SCOTT TAYLOR – ARCHIVAL (CDR by Evelyn Records)
FENCEPOST – 2TAPE (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SILO – ADVERSE EFFECTS (CDR by Evelyn Records)
SEAN O’NEILL – WHEN I KNOW YOU WILL TOO (CDR by Evelyn Records)
It’s been quiet for some time for the UK based Evelyn Records label, but here they return with five new releases as part of their subscription series, and a release that is not part of it. Their subscription series are always five releases at once, sometimes with one or two more well-known people, and some which are new names, so that it becomes a case of helping the new ones. Chefkirk is indeed a well-known name, but perhaps not the cash cow the label needs. On ‘Birds’ he offers twelve tracks, which all clock in at a few minutes, so the whole release lasts about forty minutes (which seems to me the average Chefkirk length). Music wise however this not average. It’s still the Chefkirk blend of rhythm and noise, but he takes things a bit further away into the area where we can find, say, Pan Sonic: click and cut textured music, with even a bit of silence packed inside. Little bit little Chefkirk is developing himself into a real musician, in stead of a plain noise artist.
Also a bit well-known is Jan-M Iversen, owner of the Tib Prod label and from his duo with Bjerga. Solo he has made already a whole bunch of releases, which in some way or the other roam in the field of electronics, laptop, microsound and an occasional step into noise land. As such this new release is nothing new under the Iversen sun, as it finely displays once again all of these interests, but it should be said that some of the pieces are much too long. They lack any form or structure, and should have shortened quite a bit.
Like the title implies, ‘Archival’ contains a bunch of old work by Scott Taylor, known for his recent releases on Sijis and Con-V. Eight tracks spanning 1981 to 1995, which made me think: why didn’t we hear of him before? Fans of his recent output should think carefully before buying this blind, as obviously it is a bit different. Field recordings certainly seemed to have his interest but there are embedded in big washes of ambient sounding synthesizers. There is a strong trace back to the world of ambient house, even when Taylor doesn’t use that much rhythms, but the combination of synthesizers and field recordings wouldn’t have sounded too strange on a smaller label with some guts ten years ago. Not to be compared with his recent efforts, but nevertheless an interesting overview.
The first unknown band is Fencepost, which is a side project of Graham Williams, who also works as Son Of Numrah and Hedren, and such had releases before on Evelyn Records. Seven tracks in total some fifty-five minutes, but the most curious thing is that ‘o2ersatz’ lasts forty minutes, so the others are quite short. I have been thinking: what is that I hear? Experiments with microphones and contact microphones, scratching the surface of objects, blowing etc. Maybe there is some sort of processing going on, but that’s perhaps only in the territory of looping sounds around and speeding up of sound. Also for one reason or the other, I was reminded of very old Merzbow cassettes when I played this. Action for two microphones, that sort of thing. It’s quite crude and lo-fi but it has something quite captivating, at least to play once or twice. I’m not sure if this lo-fi version of electro-acoustic will stand up in time. I’ll check later again.
On Silo I have no information. ‘All tracks abducted, killed and buried in the woods’ it reads on the insert. Eight tracks here, and Silo likes to play around with noise. Crude noise (that sounds like the same word) of distorted computer sounds, looped around, fed through plug ins, but the real power is not there. Soundwise it sounds like recorded with a microphone in front of the computer speakers, perhaps to gain an extra lo-fi effect, but it misses the noise point entirely.
Not part of the subscription series is the release by Sean O’Neill from Austin, Texas. I never heard from him, but he had a release on Asaurus Records called ‘Astoria’. Again it’s quite difficult to tell what it is that is going on here, but my best guess is that O’Neill picked up the guitar and starting to play around with it, record it to a computer and treats the sounds further in the digital domain. He does this along the lines of a more ambient version of Fennesz, into the world of ambient glitch, but it’s not free form down the flow pieces of ambient pieces, but rather more angular and somewhat distorted at times. It doesn’t put him aside as to what others did in the same field, but throughout it’s an enjoyable release, working on a line between ambient, glitch and noise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.evelynrecords.cjb.net
LOISL – INLAND (CDR by Dirty Demos)
BJERGA/IVERSEN – LIVE AT SOUND OF MU, OSLO NORWAY (CDR by Dirty Demos)
EXPLOSIONS AND SCREAMING – INFINITELY HUGE AND ENDLESSLY LOUD (3″CDR by Dirty Demos)
DEAD WOOD – REINFORCED SIGNAL (3″CDR by Dirty Demos)
More releases following last week’s batch of Dirty Demos, where we encounter some new artists and others on a returning schedule. Loïsl hails from France, and is the new face around here. His music is probably made on a computer and is the darker variations of glitch music. While it has the components of glitch (cracks), it also has the marks of things ambient industrial. Unlike others, Loisl is not concerned with silence: on every scale of his releases there is something happening and silence is simply not allowed around here. That makes this a pretty much nice release, with only one problem: all of the tracks are a bit too long. The music could have been so much better if the pieces were kept a bit more to the point as tension flows away too easily around here when things are too long.
Bjerga and Iversen follow Chefkirk’s trail in wanting to release something on every CDR label in the world, but to be honest, I like the Norwegian’s in general better. Here we are dealing with a concert recording from June this year and I must say it’s one of the weaker brothers of recent. Whereas much of their current work is well-balanced in terms of noise and improvisation (or rather improvisation and noise), this is most a loud action of distorted guitars, and oh yes, distortion. No doubt a feast to hear live, but here on a CDR it doesn’t get the message across very well.
Also new is Explosions And Screaming, which is a side project on Alex of Thee Moths (of whom I likewise never heard). The title sounded to me like a blast of noise, but it’s not. In stead what Alex does is amplifying hiss, static and crackle of turntables to quite and then starts feeding them through the computer. Rather not endlessly loud, this is more ambient glitch but one that isn’t dealing with silence at all. Powerful ambient so to say – as if such a thing could exist. The beginning of the piece is much nicer than it’s ending, it sort of dies out in a somewhat uninspired way. But its ok, it’s a nice release.
The final new release is by Dead Wood, the band from Adam Baker and the man behind Dirty Demos. Just like the previous, full length release, Baker concentrates on microsound here in a more rhythmic vein. One piece that lasts twenty minutes, but which could have been easily various parts. It would have made, in my mind, a somewhat more coherent release. Sine wave like sounds buzz in the background, and in the foreground there is the clatter of rhythmic particles colliding. Just like the ‘Same Place Different Weather’ release, perhaps a bit thrown together, but throughout it all quite alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dirtydemos.co.uk
JOHN CLAIR/JED SHAHAR/LOREN STEEL (MP3)
It’s a bit hard to tell how this release works, but perhaps it’s on temporarily available from a server somewhere, but John Clair has had some release on Arrival Records, and perhaps that’s good enough to do a review. Clair plays guitar with a metal lid, Jed Shahar plays construction materials and ‘tromphone’ and Loren Steel on laptop. The piece is from a recent concert at The Foundry in New York. It’s mostly a quiet work of soft rumbles of the metal on the guitar and perhaps on the floor, with the laptop producing a bed of faint sine waves, mostly in the higher region. Slowly they built up their piece, scraping gets louder but things don’t explode around here. It all stays on the careful side of things. It’s quite a wonderful combination of improvisational playing on traditional instruments in combination with the laptop. Quite a wonderful release and quite a pity it’s not available on a CDR or CD. (FdW)
http://www.biv0uac.com/other/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=16&ttitle=06/25/06-_John_Clair,_Jed_Shahar,_Loren_Steel_at_the_Foundry
E:4C – TECHNICAL UNWANTED SIGNALS (MP3 by e-twopoints)
From the lovely city Porto, in the Northern part
of Portugal comes e:4c, being one H. Vasconcelos and J. Correia, and they use ‘heavy pre and post processed field recordings, cable static and general software sound generation’. Twenty-one sketch like pieces and they make up what they promise, especially in the area of software sound generation. Cut short to form a loop or two. Add some static, hiss or pink noise and bob’s your uncle. It’s alright, but nothing spectacular of any kind. Quite regular clicks and cuts that wouldn’t have looked out of place on ‘Clicks & Cuts V.21’. Oh well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.e-twopoints.com/
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