NOTE: next week’s Vital Weekly will be the last for this year, but the first to come in the new year will be in week 2 (january 9th). Messages for the announcement section in that period should be here before the 24th of December.
SOCIAL INTERIORS – SPATIAL CIRCUMFERENCE (CD by Endgame Records) *
OSSO EXOTICO & VERRES ENHARMONIQUES – FOLK CYCLES (CD by Phonomena Audio Arts & Multiples) *
FLUTWACHT/PRAYING FOR OBLIVION – SPLIT (CD by Radio Obsolete Recordings)
THE SOUNDS OF EARTH/FLUTWACHT – POLTERGEIST (CD by Theremin Noise Club)
TOLL – CHRIST KNOWS (CD by Cold Spring)
LORI FREEDMAN – 3 (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
LIMPE FUCHS – PIANOBODY 2002 (CD by Sevenleggedspiders & Co)
MERZBOW – BLOODY SEA (STOP WHALING) (CD by Vivo)
ELOE OMOE – MARAUDERS (CD by Animal Disguise) *
GRUENREKORDER AUDIOART COMPILATION 03 (compilation CD by Gruenrekorder)
DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS/RONNIE SUNDIN – FUGLESANG, ASTRONAUT (7″ by Fang Bomb)
FEAR FALLS BURNING – WOES OF THJE DESOLATE MOURNER (7″ by Tonefloat)
SHADOW THEATER – LIVE (DVD-R by Shadow Theater)
DAVID NEWLYN – ANCIENT LIGHTS (CDR by Boltfish Recordings) *
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – AERIAL (CDR by Somne Recordings) *
THEREMIN NOISE CLUB COMPILATION VOL 1 (CDr by Theremin Noise Club)
OBSERVATION POINT VOLUME ONE (compilation CDR by Dirty Demos)
6MAJIK9 – WEAPONS AND MAPS OF WESTERN DESPONDENCY (CD-R by Pseudo Arcana)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – THE TWENTYTHREE PIECES (CDR by Primecuts Recordings) *
SPOOL/THE UPSIDEDOWN STARS (CDR by Rabbot Recordings)
NOISEGARDEN – PERSONA (CDR by Sqrt Label) *
CISZAK & JUCHNIEWICZ – FIELD EXTENSION (3″CDR by Sqrt Label)
DISLOCATIONS. MUSIC FOR A PICTURE (DVD-R by Sqrt Label)
FLUTWACHT + KADAVER (3inch CDR on Nervous Nurse)
KALIBER 9 – Defloration (CDR on Nervous Nurse)
STAPLERFAHRER / VINCENZO BOSSI (CDR on Nervous Nurse)
SOCIAL INTERIORS – SPATIAL CIRCUMFERENCE (CD by Endgame Records)
By accident I once got hold of a CD by Social Interiors. I think. Maybe Rik Rue just gave it to me. I can’t remember. Rik Rue’s solo work always intrigued me as he is an excellent composer using natural sound phenomena (just wanting to avoid the word field recordings here), such as on his excellent ‘Ocean Flows’ CD. His improvisational work didn’t always do it for me. But the Social Interiors CD ‘Traces Of Memory’ blew my mind. It’s a trio of Rik Rue, Julian Knowles and Shane Fahey. The most important piece of equipment they have is the microphone and armed with it they run around their home land recording natural sound. Each of them specializes in creating sound pieces out of that, and on this particular new CD, their fourth (and first non-Extreme release) showcases their individual talent, as well as the group work. Each member has a solo piece here which culminate in a piece by the three of them. However: if you wouldn’t know this, you wouldn’t probably notice this. Each of the four pieces deals extensively with field recordings and to a much lesser extent electronics. Yet it is not easy to say to what extent they process the sound, via looping, filtering and such. Each of the pieces is a strong display of working with field recordings and how to do so in a way that one doesn’t have the idea of listening to a ‘pure’ field recording and/or a residue of it – it’s an utter fine combination of both, I think. Each of the pieces tells a tale of it’s own. One simply hears that all three know what they are doing and that there is a vast amount of experience at work here. It’s been a long, long time since I last heard ‘Traces Of Memory’, but I pulled it out and will be surely playing this again, right after the likewise excellent ‘Spatial Circumference’. (FdW)
Address: http://www.endgame.com.au
OSSO EXOTICO & VERRES ENHARMONIQUES – FOLK CYCLES (CD by Phonomena Audio Arts & Multiples)
When I last reviewed something by David Maranha, I started with the words: ‘After a period of silence, David Maranha comes along with a new CD’. That was Vital Weekly 327 (the one before that was VW 202), so how should I be calling the latest gap? A seemingly endless gap? Maranha returns here with what he started ages and ages ago: Osso Exotico, a group with him, his brother Andre and Patricia Machas. Active in Portugal since the early nineties, they have released some excellent CDs of minimal music, usually performed on violin, cello, flutes, glasses and all to create overtone, textured music. Whatever happened in the new millennium, but their activities, certainly in the area of releasing music on CD, fell back. Here they return with Verres Enharmoniques, the duo of Emmanuel Holterbach and Sophie Durand, who played harmonic music using glasses. Over a period of sixteen months, the two groups worked together on the eight pieces that are now covered on this CD. Unlike some of Osso Exotico’s previous work, this is not one work in eight parts, but rather eight separate pieces. That is a pity. Even when there is a twelve minute piece, some of these pieces are just a bit too short for my taste. In each of the pieces however there is great organic beauty, and through it nowhere sounds the same. Per track the sound input changes, although glass is the constant factor. Sometimes flutes are added, a harmonium, a bowed piano, ‘e-bowed resophonic guitar, or an electric guitar in feedback. The music seems to me generated through methods of improvisation, and in this case that is an affair not without risk. Their intent is to play some highly delicate music, and through improvisation (wether not with some post-recording editing), this can lead to some problems, as is shown on this CD. Not every track is likewise strong, however the majority of the pieces presented here are very good. Humming, sustained sounds, working the overtone area of the sound spectrum, with minimalist changes, make this a through delight to hear. As said, one could only wish some tracks to be longer, to let the full beauty come, but it’s throughout a great CD. And let’s hope this is a true come-back, and that there is more to come in a shorter time span. (FdW)
Address: <phonomena@gmail.com>
FLUTWACHT/PRAYING FOR OBLIVION – SPLIT (CD by Radio Obsolete Recordings)
THE SOUNDS OF EARTH/FLUTWACHT – POLTERGEIST (CD by Theremin Noise Club)
Within what is becoming apparent not what which might have been called a ‘collective’ within a nexus, a rhizome there is an assemblage of apparently diverse artists, ‘groups’, web sites loci – events, “labels” across the German continent which represents nothing more than the achievement of the enlightenment in an equality of structure form and content which should not be easily described, but which in its radical democracy presents a volume of work which is neither propaganda or industrialised output- but a comment on this- that this commentary on.. of the subjective ‘spirit’.. on industrial musics should appear in the situ of both a centre of industrialisation and of an individualist romantic ‘tradition’ should not be surprising, as here eschewing the crass American technologies the work is set in the great traditions of the country, of Marx, Hegel, Beethoven – and Krups! It would be surely a worthwhile task to embark on an exegesis of this phenomena – though I very much doubt simple cataloguing would be possible or appropriate- to catalogue what might be superficially described in Deleuze & Guattari’s terms as a schizophrenic capitalism is more likely to be a new kind of Hegelian dialectic- i.e. the very idea of “split”. (jliat)
Address: http://www.flutwacht.de
Address: http://www.freewebs.com/prayingforoblivion/home.html
TOLL – CHRIST KNOWS (CD by Cold Spring)
Another forgotten gem of sonic darkness has been taken into the shiny light of British label Cold Spring Records. The album titled “Christ knows” was originally released in 1986 by the legendary British project Toll. Toll was a side-project of members from the band “Ramleh”, – a band that together with Whitehouse established the abrasive offshoot of the Industrial-scened called power electronics. The traces of power electronics drifts somewhere in the sound spheres of Ramleh-side-project Toll, even though the album never peaks the same levels of extreme sonic expression that was the case with an album like Whitehouse’s pioneering album “Erector”, which is considered the first brick of power electronics history. Listening to this re-issue of “Christ knows” is like a powerful flashback into the glory days of early industrial with punk-like guitar-distortion and screeching noises of low technology machinery. More than focusing on harsh expression the album deals with atmospheres of sheer darkness. Some tracks like the cynic “As we live and breathe” concentrates on icy noise drones in combination with extremely heavy sounds of distorted bass guitar resulting in an everything but friendly atmosphere. Other tracks include excellent vocals and more uptempo guitar-based soundspheres drifting somewhere in-between the cyberpunk-style of Chrome and the more upfront Industrial-expression of SPK. The album features members of Controlled Bleeding (Paul Lemos) and Stereolab (Tim Gane). Fans of first mentioned band will unquestionably appreciate “Christ knows” meanwhile fans of the latter will be devastated in case they expect something similar to the Stereolab’ish soundspheres. The rest of us can just sit back and enjoy this sonic travel back to the early days of true Industrial. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
LORI FREEDMAN – 3 (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Freedman is an internationally acclaimed performer who works in many contexts and disciplines: composed and improvised music, electroacoustic music. Collaborations in the field of dance, theatre and so on are many. And many composers wrote works for her as a performer. Her own work is available on numerous cds. Concentrating on Ambiances Magnetiques, this label released a solo album by her some 4 years ago: “A Un Moment Donné”. Now its time for a CD with three different trios by Lori Freedman. During three consecutive nights Freedman played with with three different trios. Why trios? For Freedman this is the ideal format for improvising music. The cds opens with five pieces with René Lussier (guitars), Martin Tétreault (turntables). Followed by 4 pieces with Nicolas Caloia (doublebass) and Danielle Palrady Roger (percussion). To close with 4 improvisations with Jean Derome (saxophone, little objects) and Rainer Wiens (prepared guitar, percussion). In all three trios Lori Freedman plays clarinets. Recordings were made live. Afterwards followed some editing and mixing in the studio with the help of Michel F.Cote. What is a clear from the first moment is that Freedman is a very gifted player with a great personal voice. Her playing is very ‘soulful’ and goes straight to the heart. Deeply human and spirited musician.
Together with her companions, they create some very enjoyable improvised music. A great CD. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
LIMPE FUCHS – PIANOBODY 2002 (CD by Sevenleggedspiders & Co)
A new, young english label surprises with a release by an artist whose isn’t that young anymore: Limpe Fuchs. Sevenlegged Spiders is the name of this new label. Alas, there cannot be deduced much at the moment from their site about their program and plans. We’ll see what their next step will be. Together with her husband Paul Fuchs, known as Anima, Limpe Fuchs started her musical career at the end of the 60s with a very personal music, investigating into sound experimentation, free improvised music, using self-built instruments, etc. Because their first outings were released by Ohr Music, they were haunted by the etiquette ‘krautrock’. But their music has nothing to do with (kraut)rock. Since the 80s Limpe Fuchs continued solo. And ‘Pianobody’ marks a career that lasts at least some 40 years! First thing I would like to say on this one, is that is a work difficult to classify. Probably not for those who are more known with her work, but that is not the case for me. Some pieces sound very musical, others however very non-musical. Some pieces are more into soundexperimentation, others are nearer to musical conventions. Environmental sounds seem important in pieces like ‘Erlangen’, where she plays harmonium in the neighborhood of an escalator. In the last track ‘Karpathos’ she plays a prepared grand piano, by a cave by the sea, where we hear water in the background. Of course the environmental sounds could be taped, but if I have to guess, I would say the works were recorded at location. Also because most tracks have the name of an place, which proves nothing in the end of course. On ‘Orplid’ Fuchs plays grand piano and sings in a way that brings Meredith Monk to mind. ‘Berlin I’ and ‘Berlin 2’ are exercises on harpsichord. Both are the most musical pieces of this little disc. I’m not sure how Limpe Fuchs qualifies her art. I’m not sure if she sees herself as a musician in the first place. She seems also have to have affinity with performance art and is interested creating audible ‘events’ at a particular place. So ‘Pianobody’ raises many questions, which makes her an interesting artist. Probably she is not worried by these categorization problems. She is just doing her own thing, call it how you like. If you are interested in crossing borders, this one will surely fascinate you. (DM)
Address: http://www.sevenleggedspiders.co.uk/
MERZBOW – BLOODY SEA (STOP WHALING) (CD by Vivo)
This is a time where external events slide by as glib advertisements, as Baudrillard remarked – there was no gulf war. We only had signifiers. There was no signified – by which I mean can anyone say why we went to war – without even declaring a war? The politician/corporate executive via overwhelming technological power, media subversion and staggering wealth is able to inflict devastation on a global scale. All of their actions in reality are destructive of life, truth and morality. Their texts, their whole culture – justifications, motivations, philosophies even! are only placed to take our attention away from their actual actions. A farmer through the sights of an infra red missile is a terrorist, humans and animals are political-exploitative opportunities and media foci – not anymore even useful commodities, third world famine an opportunity to not feed the world, but feed the pockets and egos of pseudo-political media personalities.. (and Noise is the nihilistic rejection of all this..) We have come along way from Gericault’s raft of the medusa, we have even come along way from Gurnica and the ambiguity of The Weeping Woman- or the blatant hiding of the horrors of 1914-18 through a screen of an iridescent mist of water lilies. It was the artist Schwitters and now his Japanese doppelganger who refused both the exploitation of inhumanity, or a refusal to acknowledge it in an art as opium for the people. After all people are not treated by Merzbow as sheep -but as free moral agents with which the artist can engage in a dialogue, in which the artist’s work is more than an opiate or merchandizing opportunity but a commitment to the idea of community which has to engage in ethical frameworks of cooperation and consideration of all life. Art cannot divorce itself from morality for as Wittgenstein stated- ethics and aesthetics are one and the same. (jliat)
Address: http://www.vivo.pl
Address: http://www.merzbow.net
Address: http://www.australiansforanimals.org
ELOE OMOE – MARAUDERS (CD by Animal Disguise)
This is my first encounter with a Boston duo called Eloe Omoe, being Sam Rowell on bass and Tim Leanse on drums. Right from the start, all the way to the last second, being some thirty-nine minutes, they play one long howl, unrelentness and without any mistake: free music. Loud and dirty, feeding the bass through some distortion pedals into a wall of speakers, while the drums keep on banging, like there is no end to come. Free jazz for sure, although I am sure there are some people who would just agree with the word free. ‘Marauders’ is the debut into the world of recorded media, comes with a nice metallic ink cover, and is solid as a rock. This is not for the weak of hearth, and surely not something to play at a low volume. Loud and dirty is how this should be played. Anything else is besides the point. Quite a blast. (FdW)
Address: http://www.animaldisguise.com
GRUENREKORDER AUDIOART COMPILATION 03 (compilation CD by Gruenrekorder)
Germany’s Gruenrekorder label releases many CDRs, all dealing with ‘experimental’ music in it’s wide variety of forms. Field recordings play an important role, but also electronics, improvisation and sound poetry. Every once in a while they release ‘real’ CDs, usually compilations, filled with their roster. As such ‘Audioart Compilation 03’ is nothing new under the sun. Costa Grühn, Lasse-Marc Riek, Stefan Funck, Gran Ou Lee, Etzin, Suspicion Breeds Confidence: they are all names we heard before, on ‘Audioart Compilation 02’ and the variety works well here again: from the engine of a car to a techno like song, and more adventurous forms of electronica: they are all there. It’s almost like a nice experimental radio show, except that there is no talking in between. But perhaps after the introduction from before, you could wonder why they need to be introduced again? Most remarkable, and perhaps one of the few non-German contributions is the one by Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gruenrekorder.de
DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS/RONNIE SUNDIN – FUGLESANG, ASTRONAUT (7″ by Fang Bomb)
Last week I failed miserably (or felt miserably?), but someone distracted me of going to the concert of both Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words and Ronnie Sundin. The prospect of getting a small musical lesson elsewhere prevented me from going. You can’t be in two places I guess (sorry guys). Which is a pity since in the past I heard quite a bit of both artists, who now share a 7″ to commemorate the first Swedish astronaut in space, launched on December 7th, 2006. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words present a top-heavy guitar drone piece, that, despite its weight flows free in the sky. Like a big space ship, perhaps the ISS (to which this astronaut is heading) in a vast empty space. Perhaps a bit short, this trip.
Top heavy is also the piece by Ronnie Sundin, but it works on a totally different level. It starts out with some vocalizations, feeding through a bunch of effects, and as the piece evolves, things get louder and louder, until the disappear in space. ‘You can’t take words into space’, Burroughs said, and this launch proofs we have to leave our words behind. Maybe the format of a 7″ doesn’t entirely justify this kind of music, but it’s a nice statement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fangbomb.com
FEAR FALLS BURNING – WOES OF THJE DESOLATE MOURNER (7″ by Tonefloat)
It seems now that Fear Falls Burning is going to be present in every Vital Weekly, and here he comes in a highly unlikely format, that of a 7″. One could wonder if that entirely justifies his music, but for me there is another reason to happy. This 7″ contains two excerpts of his concert he played at the ever so-lovely Extrapool, on October 9th. To be honest I do only vaguely recall the way Fear Falls Burning did a built up of his piece, so its hard to for me to say when he played these two excerpts. I think they are both taken from the first half of the concert, with the a-side being the start of the concert, with gliding e-bows tones, slowly disappearing from the scene. A little further along the concert is where we find the b-side, when the sound is more full and all sorts of organ-like sounds have dropped in. It’s right at the end of the first half when things start dying out and things come to rather swift conclusion. Still I am not entirely convinced that the 7″ format suits his music, but it’s indeed a daring approach. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tonefloat.com
SHADOW THEATER – LIVE (DVD-R by Shadow Theater)
This is – is it not – the shadow of Hermann Nitsch’s the ‘Orgien Mysterien Theater’ and in turn in its etymology Antonin Artaud’s Theatre and its Double/Theater of Cruelty – especially Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu with its “with a cacophony of xylophonic sounds mixed with various percussive elements. utilized various, somewhat alarming cries, screams, grunts, onomatopoeia, and glossolalia.” is clear- though the shadow is perhaps detached from the more visceral pantheist ritual of Nitsch like that of Peter Pan’s – in this DVD the catharsis appears more that of the performer than the audience- who sip their beer and chat. Though still with its butchers shop props – and sometimes even delicate improv jazz like – shimmering sound and vision – though not as charming as the prince charmer’s Theater of Pain, another Peter Pan who now resides in Père Lachaise and echoes like the slivers of the beating of Shadow Theater on the metal doors of perception. (jliat)
Address: http://www.schattenspiel.net.tc
DAVID NEWLYN – ANCIENT LIGHTS (CDR by Boltfish Recordings)
The English Boltfish label keeps pushing electronic musicians of whom I never heard, such as David Newlyn, but in his case it’s not a strange thing: ‘Ancient Lights’ is his debut release for Boltfish and his previous releases never reached me. He hails from Durham, and one half of October Man, and also running his own October Man Recordings. and by hearing his music, I assume he is quite a mellow guy. His music is largely mellow, based around the simple ticking of a drumcomputer, a likewise mellow keyboard line or two, some guitar tinkling and as an ornament some bell like sounds out of synth. Rather pleasant music without any serious danger or treat. Maybe you can wonder if thirteen of these tracks aren’t a bit too much as he could have done with eight and still leave a solid impression. But as I was carried away doing some other stuff around the house, and walked about, this was a most comfortable trip. Very nice, very relaxing. Think ambient house but with some serious beats going on. (FdW)
Address: http://www.boltfish.co.uk
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – AERIAL (CDR by Somne Recordings)
Music by Mathieu Ruhlmann has been released in the past by S’Agita, Mystery Sea, Taalem and his own Somne label: all labels with a strong love of the darker and deeper side of atmospheric music. On ‘Aerial’ he presents the sound-side of an installation he made as part of a six-month artist-in-residence program at the pickle company.”… a multi-media installation created in response to understanding the ‘psychic’ communication that resides between individuals as well as the objects that surround them. This installation seeks to broadcast these intimate sonic and visual transmissions positioning the visitor to receive these receptions, which exist in air/space as hidden communication, and thus develop and arrive at a dialogue between the visitor and auditory and tactile space of the site environment’. It’s perhaps a pity that there is no visual component to this piece, so we could also see what this installation was about, visually. As before Ruhlmann treats the listener in a very gentle way. Peaceful, gliding tones wave about in a natural, minimal way. Minimal but not without the necessary small changes to avoid lulling into a big sleep. Ruhlmann knows how play this game very well. The music has small but steady changing movements. Ambient with the big A here, and perhaps as such nothing much new under the sun, but lovers of the ambient/drone genre know their way around. It’s a highly limited edition that screams to be re-issued on CD, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: <mathieuruhlmann@hotmail.com>
THEREMIN NOISE CLUB COMPILATION VOL 1 (CDr by Theremin Noise Club)
I don’t want to be critical of this CDr – not particularly of the participants work on this compilation – I’m forbidden – and rightly so – for listing my favorites – or creating a chart. What then is the problem – my problem? Well – its that the highly complex ‘scene’ or web of German industrial/noise music – (one that itself claims to be avant-garde, ambient, noise, and more) from the outsiders perspective (i.e. mine) when presented as a list – a compilation just doesn’t do in my opinion justice to that landscape – occupied – explored by the artists – the catch all “and more” allows in the acoustic guitar, forbidden planet noodlings and harsher noise – but again listed like this it seems wholly inappropriate as I sit here navigating the various web sites which maps this art form. I’ve said elsewhere this strikes me as a schizophrenic art form – as opposed to the paranoia of modernity at the end of the 20th century, and such an oeuvre represents faithfully that cliché known as post-modernity. Schizophrenia is the post-modern condition and as such this compilation might have been better ‘performed’ as some kind of ‘split screen’ simultaneous ‘event’? (jliat)
Address http://www.8ung.at/tnc/
OBSERVATION POINT VOLUME ONE (compilation CDR by Dirty Demos)
To review compilations of any kind is not an easy task, save perhaps for those which work around a thematic approach. I’m not sure if such a thing is in place for this compilation on Dirty Demos. It seems to me it’s ‘just’ a bunch of music from friends of the label, some of which have had their own releases own releases on the label, such as Explosions And Screaming, Iversen, Sound_00 (the latter two working together here), Loisl, Pinkeye feat Linda and labelboss Dead Wood. Some names are entirely new to me, such as Blackpepper, Matthew, Little Boat, Now, Makinoize, The Four Fisherman. Throughout the music is experimental, but luckily it never reaches the full noise attitude. Everything seems to be a gentle mixture of electronics, field recordings, sound collage, found sound and the more crude musique concrete experiments. The Four Fisherman provide us with some guitars and singing. They form a nice counterpoint in the mass of the more experimental sound. I wish this CD-R wasn’t spray-painted, because it didn’t play very well, but other than that this is a very nice compilation with lots of interesting new names to discover. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dirtydemos.co.uk
6MAJIK9 – WEAPONS AND MAPS OF WESTERN DESPONDENCY (CD-R by Pseudo Arcana)
I have no clue who is behind this rather odd named project – apparently it’s a whole load of people with guitars, percussion, flutes, cello, Theremin, voice, organ and what not. The first track is just a short intro that is over before you really notice it. Things really get going with the second track that starts out as an intense excursion into straight, high-energy drumming with a heavy droning background and about half way through changes into the free-form psychedelia mode that prevails throughout the rest of the album. 6majik9 offer fascinatingly tight woven layers from myriads of acoustic particles, stretched out into long waves or condensed into flickering, sometimes amorphously flowing, sometimes held together by a loose, driving rhythm, and always with that special lo-fi grittiness, that intensifies the sound by giving it a sort of muddy saturation. All this culminates in the last piece, a slow droning 14 minute epic, that sets out all quiet and gradually builds up subliminal tension but never really erupts into a cathartic blast. On the one hand it’s a pity that this release is rather short (just under 40 minutes, while I’d bet that they have hours and hours of jams in their archive), but on the other hand this is maybe one of the strongest point about it. Instead of a disc crammed full with material you get a nice selection with enough variation and tension. Good one. (MSS)
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – THE TWENTYTHREE PIECES (CDR by Primecuts Recordings)
SPOOL/THE UPSIDEDOWN STARS (CDR by Rabbot Recordings)
Underground musician Micheal Thomas Jackson has been around for at least twenty years, starting out in the very lively cassette scene, and some time ago (in Vital Weekly 416) surprised us with a whole bunch of CDR releases on his own Primecuts Recordings label, after a long long hibernation. After that things were all quiet again, but here he is again. ‘The Twentythree Pieces’ are not with twenty-three pieces, but recorded between the autumnal and the vernal 23 October 2005 and 23 March 2006 and sees a continuation of the previous ‘Electronic Feedback Improvisations’. The first piece is over before you know it, but the second piece is a real beast – I think. Pitched very high, almost in the range where only dogs can hear such things – well, or those who are at least twenty years younger than me. Very austere, very minimal, with hardly any change going on. In ‘The Scorpio In My Life’ things are rhythmically built around feedback, seemingly random pulsating around, showing his influence by Arcane Device. It is the best piece on the release. The fourth piece revolves again the high pitches of the second piece, but here they are more lively. Tracks are perhaps a bit long here and there but it’s throughout a very fine release.
Jackson is also a member of Spool, together with Aaron Bachelder and Bob Holub. What they play instrument wise I don’t know, but it’s safe to say it has to do with electronics and feedback. The part of a split disc with The Upsidedown Stars was recorded live in October 2005. The fifteen or so minutes are made of gliding tones of feedback and oscillator sounds sweeping up and down the scale. It’s quite a nice piece. The Upsidedown Stars are Garrette Gentry and Mark Hepp, a duo with percussion, electronics (or perhaps a guitar) and microphones. In a rather improvised manner they play their piece (which sounds like a live recording, but there is no such mention on the cover). It takes a while before the piece gets moving around but once it sticks into a nice groove it’s actually quite nice. Raw and dirty, with a distorted drone at the backdrop and vocals which don’t make much sense. (FdW)
Address: http://www.microearth.com
Address: http://www.rabbot.net
NOISEGARDEN – PERSONA (CDR by Sqrt Label)
CISZAK & JUCHNIEWICZ – FIELD EXTENSION (3″CDR by Sqrt Label)
DISLOCATIONS. MUSIC FOR A PICTURE (DVD-R by Sqrt Label)
The Sqrt Label so far released works around or involvement of Lukasz Ciszak, a Polish guitar player from the world of improv, but with Noisegarden he releases something that has no involvement at all of his. Noisegarden is a trio of Michal Chojecki on guitars and bass, Andrzej Ruszkowski on drums and Antek Sobiecki on guitars and electronics. I assume the latter is the too much delay machine which pops up wrongly used in some of these tracks. Noisegarden don’t play noise in the regular sense of the word, but they play improvised music, but that they do in a very regular sense of the word. A bit (postpunk-)rock like, less any singing, a bit of feedback, free-form figures on the instruments, but not a true exploration of the possibilities of their instruments. Sometimes it’s alright, sometimes it is rather tedious. Nice to hear once, but I am not too sure about a second time.
Of much more interest is the ‘Field Extension’ release by Lukasz Ciszak and Tomas Juchiewicz, who plays keyboards and percussion. Their six short improvisations sound like processed field recordings, but upon close inspection, they are indeed music for drums, keyboards and guitars, all set to play drone music. Violent, loud drone music that is, one who frequencies pierce straight into your brain. Vaguely rhythmic, minimal but throughout quite powerful stuff.
The most interesting thing is a DVD-R release with twelve pictures set to music. Of course we get to see these pictures, which are all shots from around ‘the house’: gardens, walls, interiors. Watching a static screen must lead to somewhat static music. That is perhaps what the musicians thought. Ciszak is of course present, but also OddJob, Noisegarden (with actually quite a nice track), PS Stamps Back and Antmanuv, which were the names I recognized, but also among the new lads there is nice music to discover: Emiter, The Carousel Painter, Tzil, Wolfram or Blue Sabbath Black Fiji. Throughout the music can be classified as microsound, computer processed field recordings and a bit of improvisation. No particular stand-outs, no weaker bro’s either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sqrt-label.org
FLUTWACHT + KADAVER (3inch CDR on Nervous Nurse)
KALIBER 9 – Defloration (CDR on Nervous Nurse)
STAPLERFAHRER / VINCENZO BOSSI (CDR on Nervous Nurse)
I do my research, listen carefully to the pieces and try to – for instance –
try to what just exactly regarding the above – FLUTWACHT + KADAVER 3″ split
CDr is rather gentle ambient deep drones / reverb / echo – washes – KALIBER
9 – Defloration – somewhat too Hollywood for noise or even industrial unlike
the excellent STAPLERFAHRER / VINCENZO BOSSI live split which exemplifies
the industrial / noise genre.this is perhaps what I should write – or
not .<del> <del> <del> I read constantly similar reviews – contextually we
could almost be discussing Robbie Williams – or Robin Williams. Given Zolotov
‘s manifesto – (any bet its not!) I’d do better posting spam-Stable Company!
Fueled by the possibility of an upcoming merger, Wild Brush Energy (WBRS) is
gearing up for an explosion. Is noise meant to be listened to just like
anything else? If not what then do we do- this is the problem. If as it
poses – in Zolotov’s manifesto that there is – a difference -” This is NOT
art nor music.” – then what should we do with it and how should we respond?
On the one hand we ignore the text/context and listen to it much the same as
Mantovani – or do we attempt to engage in the context- perhaps – Now anyone
feeling that this would avoid listening to *what is there* is surely in
Zolotov’s naïve terms wrong- moreover such an understanding would regard
listening as an attempt to regain a presence which is absent – an absurd
impossibility as is the manufacturing of some transcendental presence. We
are not so stupid as the dog on the HMV label . So we are not listening to
what is there – or are we listening to anything else – the problem of
listening qua noise is critically just this, this is the ontology of noise-
the ‘question of listening’ and not the canine/inane act of dodgy/doggy
listening… (jliat)
Address: http://www.nervousnurse.net.tc
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All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP <sub@xs4all.nl>), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>, Robert Meijer (RM), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH), Jeff
Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW), Toni Dimitrov (TD <info@fakezine.tk>), Chris Jeely (CJ), Jliat (Jliat), Freek Kinkelaar (FK), Magnus Schaefer (MSS) and others on a less regular basis.
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