PLEASE READ THIS. WE WILL NOT REVIEW MATERIAL OLDER THAN SIX MONTHS, SO PLEASE DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. NOT ONLY WILL WE NOT REVIEW IT, BUT WE WILL SELL THE MATERIAL TO A SECOND MAIL ORDER OUTLET. ALSO, DON’T SEND MORE THAN 3 (THREE) RELEASES AT ONCE. WE SIMPLY CAN’T HANDLE EVERYTHING ANYMORE. SAVE YOURSELVES THE FRUSTRATION… AND US!
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR, BJ NILSEN & STILLUPSTEYPA – SECOND CHILDHOOD (CD by Quecksilber) *
KUSARI GAMA KILL – DEAD ANIMAL NOISE PARTY (CD, private)
MATTIN & MATTHEW BOWER – A NEW FORM OF BEAUTY (1975) (CD by Bottrop Boy)
GULLS – EATS AND OPUS (CD by Sonic Lozenge) *
STEVE PETERS – THREE ROOMS (CD by Sirr-ecords) *
RLW – THE PLEASURE OF BURNING DOWN CHURCHES (CD by Black Rose Recordings) *
FAGO-SEPIA – L,ÂME SÛRE RUSE MAL (CD by Aposiop)
ATAMINE – LAG (CD)
TOM HALL – FLEURE (CD by Nightrider Records) *
ROTHKAMM – FB03: E PLURIBUS UNUM (CD by Flux Records) *
LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJENBERG – CUNT 69 (CD by Firework Edition)
CM VON HAUSWOLFF & PER SVENSON & LEIF ELGGREN – LIVE IN LA (CD by Firework Edition)
PER SVENSSON – EL/ELEMENT 1 (CD by Firework Edition) *
DAVE SOLDIER – DA HIPHOP RASKALZ (CD by Mulatta Records)
M’LUMBO – SACRIFIES TO THE NEON GODS (CD by Mulatta Records)
TWINK – ICE CREAM TRUCKIN (CD by Mulatta Records)
JOHANNA WENT – CLUB YEARS (DVD by Soleilmoon) *
SHIFTS – TREES/LEAVES (LP by Entracte)
GASTR DEL SOL – TWENTY SONGS LESS (7″ by Minority Records)
POLVERE (10″ by Minority Records)
THE DOMESTIC FRONT – NIFLHEIM VEGETATION (CDR by Belsona Strategic Schallplatten) *
MARTIN HERTERICH – RECORDINGS 070401-070521 (CDR by Hwem) *
OPEN FORS – EXCERPTS (CDR, private) *
REPTILJAN – ARCHAEODERMOPHAGIA (CDR by Some Place Else) *
RAJAPINTA – BOOTLEG EPHIPHANIES (CDR, no label) *
NOISE CONCRETE KONTONBOY (CDr by Government Thirteen/Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE LORD OF LIGHT (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE SATURN WIND (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
RECANT SPIROCHETE FEVER (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
ROEL MEELKOP – BUSINESS AS USUAL (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
BEEQUEEN – WHITE BIKE (Businesscard CD-R by Moll) *
FREIBAND – KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FRANS DE WAARD – XI (FOR CHRISTIAN NIJS) (3″ CD-R by Moll)
ENIAC – THE WAGON (MP3 by Chew Z)
STEFANO GIUST – MKULTRA (MP3 by Chew Z)
LO DEV ALM – IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK (MP3 by Chew Z)
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR, BJ NILSEN & STILLUPSTEYPA – SECOND CHILDHOOD (CD by Quecksilber)
So far there have been already two CDs of collaborations between Icelandic Stillupsteypa (being Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson) and BJ Nilsen, also known as Hazard. Here they come together again, in Stockholm, where Nilsen lives, to work together and invite a new friend, Hildur Ingveldardottir Gudnadottir. Who? She plays cello and did so for many of her own projects, playing Bulgarian and Balkan music, but also for Mum, Skuli Sverrisson, Angel and has a prominent feature on the recent Pan Sonic CD. The two previous releases dealt with the thematic approach of alcohol abuse, but here they sober up and start their second childhood, going back to the world of pure drone music. Gudnadottir’s cello playing is at the core, and perhaps like a good mother she overseas the activities of her children play around with whatever she throws around. But they remain from the Nordic countries so they don’t say much, so much of what these four people do is sparsely orchestrated. Pieces consist of sparse lit harmonium drones, which no doubt have underwent some computer processing. There is a more musical texture to these pieces than on the previous two releases, and that’s mainly the cello to be accounted for. But it’s another strong album, this one. Minimal pieces of drone music, dark and atmospheric, just the perfect music for a mid winter sit along at home in Scandinavia or a rain covered day in the Dutch summer. Another very fine work but of course I am sucker for this kind of more urgent drone music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
KUSARI GAMA KILL – DEAD ANIMAL NOISE PARTY (CD, private)
There is no time to prepare on this assault! Seconds after you begin the exploration into the crushing territories of latest album from Danish project Kusari Gama Kill, sonic disturbance rolls like cascading waves of turbulence and thrashes into the auditory canals of the poor listener. Kusari Gama Kill, is a joint venture between the two artists Martin Weile and Janus Blomfrø, the latter also known for his excellent Noise-project Bobby Blitzkrieg. Not for the fainthearted, Kusari Gama Kill, is ready to blow the hell out of you with their latest album. Carrying the not-so-friendly title, “Dead animal noise party”, the album doesn’t try to disguise its stylistic expression. With 99 (!) tracks included on the album, the album turns my mind back to Sore Throats 60-track freaky album of grindcore/punk titled “Never mind the napalm, here’s Sore Throat” (1989). And as was the case with Sore Throat’s legendary album, the power of grindcore is an important part of the explosives on “Dead animal noise party”. Needless to say, each track has only a limited run-time, yet during the short lifetime of each track, the explosive energy has been so well packed and compressed like a nuclear bomb. Combining heavy low-end rumblings, impenetrably dark atmospheres, chants from the grave, and overwhelming feedback with merciless drum machinery and death growls, the two artists has established 99 short works each of abrasive brilliance. Apparently the artists seem to have their inspirational roots in both the Grindcore and the Noise scene, as the album, compositionally is built on electronic distortions, human death growling and ultra-fast drum-machinery blended into a cocktail of apocalyptic extremity. Thus, no matter how different metal music and electronic music seems, Kusari Gama Kill demonstrates how beautifully these two genres stylistically can be melted into one sonic hell. Everyone being interested in extreme music, this being metal or e-music, need to check the album out. This is black art in its most beautiful form! (NM)
Address: http://kusarigamakill.blogspot.com/
MATTIN & MATTHEW BOWER – A NEW FORM OF BEAUTY (1975) (CD by Bottrop Boy)
Recorded live to cassette to guarantee the gloriously fucked-up lo-fi splendor, this duo work by Mattin on computer feedback and Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu) on guitar and microphone captures a 48-minute outburst of remarkable sonic rawness. This is the kind of music that floods your perception with a full blast of opaque noise from the first to the last minute. Mattin and Bower play a risky game in using a rather limited palette of sounds and going full force right from the beginning, but they succeed in keeping the energy and tension, as they know how to keep coming up with new nuances and structural accents throughout. During the first half of the piece, Mattin sets up a wall of rumbling and hissing digital feedback noise – static on the surface, but yielding an overflow of complex sounds below – and Bower joins in with aggressive guitar treatments. Without ever drifting into arbitrariness, the structure of this part stays rather amorphous. Later on, though, as the opacity of the sound decreases slightly, things get tighter and the guitar completely fuses with the now more detailed digital beeps and screeches. Even at a low volume, the music reaches a high level of physical intensity, almost causing actual physical pain. It doesn’t have the catchy quality or the trash appeal of some other current manifestations of lo-fi noise. But then again just trying to be more loud or radical than all the others before would seem pretty redundant after all. So, rather than that, “A New Form of Beauty” manages to find an irritating as well as stimulating balance between austerity and excessiveness. (MSS)
Address: http://www.bottrop-boy.com/
GULLS – EATS AND OPUS (CD by Sonic Lozenge)
Jesse Munro Johnson is Gulls, and he is from that beautiful city, Portland, who is said to be a multi-instrumentalist, which, if he played all of this here, is very much true. We hear a trumpet, some bass, drums, xylophone and a stack of electronics. He improvises his music, but not as an end: as a means to create something else. All the work he does, is part of the larger work: the finished composition, the collage of sound that are the eight tracks (although some pieces cover more tracks) on this CD. The drums come largely out of a box, but on top he waves his trumpet, guitar, samples, field recordings and sticks the various pieces of tape together in his highly vivid piece of music. Ranging from hip hop (but louder and dirtier) to musique concrete, from sound collage to ambient glitch, Gulls covers many territories, which do not really bite eachother. You could have though it would, but it all makes great sense here. Gulls takes you out on a trip, a headtrip of space music. Spacious trumpet sounds, static crackles and heavy pounding drums: it all passes easily, and does it in a great way. Big city music with sometimes a country feel. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soniclozenge.com
STEVE PETERS – THREE ROOMS (CD by Sirr-ecords)
Reviews of the work of Steve Peters are pretty rare in Vital Weekly. Not because we don’t get his releases, but simply because there aren’t that many. Peters is mainly known for his work with field recordings and a little less known for his composed works, some of which were released by Cold Blue Music. Much of his work is however unreleased, since it’s specific works for sound installations or relating to dance and theater. But on ‘Three Rooms’ he offers us three works of considerable length and which were all made for installations. We don’t get to see them, but experience the music. There is some difference between the pieces. ‘Delicate Abrasions’ is one built of field recordings made in an old warehouse in Santa Fe and takes all the sounds from that space into the piece: nails, dust, door, concrete and such like. It turns out that this is most complex piece sound wise whereas the other two dwell upon one idea. In ‘Delicate Abrasions’ we deal with empty spaces through sparse sound. What sounds like rain dripping, slowly develops into a piece in which the rusty sounds of contact microphones become alive in a rather peaceful manner.
The most noisy, if that is at all a relevant term here, is ‘Center Of Gravity’ which evolves solely around Steve Peters’ own breath, along side real time sound processing. Filtering, echo and delay are the simple means, but Peters doesn’t create a live piece, but a sound collage of various of these recordings, inserting silence, and creating a sea-wave shore piece at times, which is more hiss like at times and not always the refined counterpart of the first and the third room.
The final piece is ‘Mountains Hidden In Mountains’ which uses the one strike of the densho, a meditation bell at a Zen Buddhist temple in New Mexico. The attack and sustain of the sound are used here and it never dies out. Peters lets this sound on an endless sustaining, no doubt through computer techniques, and it’s ringing sound becomes a highly contemplative piece of music. It’s the least complex of the ‘Three Rooms’, but one of an infinite beauty. Drone, meditative, this is elevating the listener just above the ground.
Three rooms, each with it’s own characteristic and approach in sound; the second being my least favorite room, but these three rooms together make a very coherent house. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
RLW – THE PLEASURE OF BURNING DOWN CHURCHES (CD by Black Rose Recordings)
Solo music by RLW (Ralf Wehowsky) is a pretty rare thing. For RLW the act of music making lies in creating something with others, wether or not by meeting up or exchanging sounds by (e-)mail. ‘Views’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 413, was a rare instance of a solo work and now, quite some time and many collaborations later, ‘The Pleasure Of Burning Down Churches’ is a new solo work. The churches of the title hark back to meeting a US veteran in Vietnam who told RLW that he liked bombing churches because they were easy targets. Field recordings from Vietnam also form the input of ‘More Churches’. It’s hard to see this otherwise than as a political piece. Just as the guy who rants against an answer machine on ‘Helplessly Friendly’ – it’s hard to decipher his German, but it’s sure not very friendly. I don’t think I had expected RLW to overtly political and he perhaps he isn’t. But it seems to me as if RLW isn’t using sounds just for it’s sheer beauty. On these two pieces he wants to bring a message across. On the opening piece ‘Towards A Decontamination Breakthrough’ this is less obvious. Quite a drone like piece of music, quite unusual for RLW. Collage techniques are to be found in ‘More Churches’ and ‘Helplessly Friendly’, the first with quite a nice intro of car horns and the second has a scary feel to it, both through the voices and the spiraling sounds of ‘paper string actions’. In ‘Burning Pianos’ things move into the abstract again, not political view, just the exploration of a piano. RLW’s work moves on the edge of musique concrete, but never looses it’s touch with industrial music on hand and with microsound on the other. But it defies these categories and can perhaps only be classified as RLW music. Great work, but perhaps you shouldn’t believe me; I find much of his work great! (FdW)
Address: <srmeixner@yahoo.co.uk>
FAGO-SEPIA – L,ÂME SÛRE RUSE MAL (CD by Aposiop)
For the title of their cd they choose a palindrome, for the songs they made things less complicated: “Six”, “Neuf”, etc. Anyway the titles make clear that we are in the company here of a french band. An instrumental postrock combo to be more precise. They do a nice job. A lot is happening in their inventive constructed songs. With their use of riffs they succeed in building up nice layers of organic and melodic music. Very coherent and clear compositions. Besides all is done very well-crafted. I know they are around since 2002 and “L,âme sûre ruse mal” is their second. Alas I can’t give you any line-up or other information. I have it not available. Another french postrock band that impressed me, like did Crevecoeur and Sincabeza in the last few years (DM).
Address: http://www.aposiopese.org/
ATAMINE – LAG (CD)
Not much information about this one.Katamine is the vehicle of singer/songwriter Assaf Tager. The ex-Elliott Smith guitarist is accompanied by Haggai Fershtman, Uri Frost, Sharon Kantor and Adam Scheflan. Normally I don,t listen to the kind of music they produce: acoustic guitar-based songs. So I find it hard to write about it.To be clear, I didn,t hear anything that caught my attention: they are no great musicians, Tager is not a great singer, writes no original songs. It is the kind of folky music that was made already some thirty years ago, and will be made no doubt over antoher 30 years. There are ten songs on this cd. They all sound very much the same. Katamine is mainly Tager singing and playing guitar. The others contribute only very sparsely. Wharton Tiers of Glenn Branca-fame produced by record. I guess Katamine is about something I don’t get. (DM)
Address: http://www.katamine.org/
TOM HALL – FLEURE (CD by Nightrider Records)
Australia, I’m sure I noted this before, is from the outside a very vibrant country when it comes to experimental. Here is one Tom Hall, of whom we never heard before, but who got his CD sponsored by the Australian Government, mainly because he does something that relates directly to the country: his ‘Fleure’ CD contains sounds entirely using sounds from Story Bridge in Brisbane. The cars passing and the air that makes the bridge vibrate. Hall picks it up with a couple of microphones all over the construction of the bridge. It’s a bit hard to tell what he does electronically, but I’m sure there is some extreme filtering going, and/or extensive use of computer plug ins, but it enables Hall to move away from the pure sonic landscapes and go into the world of music. If one compares this with say John Hudak ‘Brooklyn Bridge’, then one notices that whereas Hudak makes a highly minimal soundscape, whereas Hall, through his use of loops and electronics has something that gets close the Chain Reaction minimal techno sound. The industrial sounds of the motorway becoming a dance floor. Well, of course not really, but it’s has the muffled, mechanical dance, however with a strong backbeat. Another major difference is that Hall produces nine quite different pieces of music, rather than one long sound scape, which makes this altogether quite a nice, conceptual release that is somehow roughly shaped, but those raw edges adds an extra flavor to it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tomhall.com.au
ROTHKAMM – FB03: E PLURIBUS UNUM (CD by Flux Records)
With ‘FB 03 (E Pluribus Unum) Rothkamm completes his trilogy, ‘culminating in an epic of supermodern electronic music’, or so Rothkamm, also known as Frank Holger, claims. Holger is originally from Germany where he first conducted his experiments, then moved to Canada and now living in New York, together with his collection of analogue synthesizers. The ‘supermodern’ part of this recording has to be taken with a pinch of salt. While ‘FB02: Astronaut Of Inner Space’ didn’t follow ‘FB01’, this new one stands in complete line with its predecessor. The music is linked to the ‘supermodern’ synth music of the 60s sci fi sound tracks and the fifties of the Cologne posse. Sounds bounce up and down the scale, but have the old, analogue sounds, as opposed to say much of the modern classical electronic and acousmatic music. It’s a fine album, again, but a bit less of a surprise as the previous one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com
LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJENBERG – CUNT 69 (CD by Firework Edition)
CM VON HAUSWOLFF & PER SVENSON & LEIF ELGGREN – LIVE IN LA (CD by Firework Edition)
PER SVENSSON – EL/ELEMENT 1 (CD by Firework Edition)
The liner notes to the release by Elggren and Liljenberg tell us about how they met a man in a bar who gave them the last poems by Charles Bukowski, our favorite drink poet. Of course a story which is not true. Why would anyone carry unpublished poems by Bukowski into a bar and give it to some, no doubt, drunk Swedish people. Twentyfive ‘poems’ are put to music here, but they don’t have have any traditional recitation, and usually consist of a bunch of noise. Hard to tell how this noise was made, although I thought to recognize a guitar in there at times, but throughout there is highly obscured sound sourcing going on. Maybe processed voices reading Bukowski? You never know. As the CD progresses, there are indeed some sort of poems read, wether or not they belong to Bukowski I don’t know, I somehow don’t think so. What this release is about is difficult to tell. Maybe they dreamt about Bukowski and decided to make this CD, with tracks ranging from a few seconds to twenty-five minutes.
More Elggren on a live recording he made in Los Angeles at Beyond Baroque in 1999 together with CM von Hauswolff and Per Svenson. ‘The concert was performed in conjunction with the project ‘Angels via Spirits’ were all citizens of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland could establish contact with the angels’ – hence, no doubt the choice of Los Angeles. The two kings and their companion play quite an industrial piece of music, in the old sense of the word. Spiraling sounds, machine drones, pressing ‘hold’ on a digital delay, a bit of a hollow microphone recording: all the ingredients of yesteryear are there. There might be of course a conceptual edge or two to it, which I fail to see. To me it’s quite an alright live recording that lacks the refinement of each of the three players solo.
Which Per Svensson proofs in his ‘El/Element 1’, two pieces from 1987, which were released in 1989 as a cassette on Firework Records, but now, luckily enough find their way to a CD. This too is quite noise related, even when Svensson refers to this as ‘electroacoustic music, an action and a shaman ride’ in ‘El’, with bangs on metal percussion in a large space. A bit like work from Sons Of God, Phauss and The Hafler Trio from the same area. In ‘Element 1’, the stronger piece of the two, he works with primordial elements: earth, air, water and metal, and things are loud for sure, but the various elements work to eachother like an iron welding factory in a dark, mechanical manner, like a self-contained machine beast coming alive. The Svensson CD is no doubt the best of this new trio. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
DAVE SOLDIER – DA HIPHOP RASKALZ (CD by Mulatta Records)
M’LUMBO – SACRIFIES TO THE NEON GODS (CD by Mulatta Records)
TWINK – ICE CREAM TRUCKIN (CD by Mulatta Records)
“We need to do some promotion, let’s pull up a list of possible places to send promo’s, but we don’t read further. A review is necessary from every place we can get. Let’s send that new CD we did, and a couple of older ones, because you never know if they do older than six months stuff too.” Love kids, hate hip hop, I mumbled when I played ‘Da Hip hop Raskalz’, which is made by ‘5-10 year old kids from Amber Charter School, East Harlem, New York City’ and no doubt local government put in a few bucks to get it out and keep musicians and kids of the street. Why should I care about this? The kids ‘created ALL of the lyrics, sang and rapped ALL of the vocals, and played and improvised the music. Of course I edited and mixed, coached and cajoled’ says one Dave Soldier. But I am not at all interested in any of this. “Look, our overseas review. Must be a grumpy old man” – I rather play with the kids outside. Most of the times.
And the grumpy and old man couldn’t resist to satisfy his curiosity for the other two releases, mainly because M’Lumbo is a memory from the past, when their first CDs came out through linked sources. I forgot what attracted me in their music all those fortnights ago, but now I hear it again, I do remember: it’s that totally crazy combination of anything from musical history worldwide. It’s both African and western, classical and pop, jazz, dixieland, psychedelic guitar solos and loaded with samples, but also loads of instruments which the six piece (and sometimes even more) unfold their crazy music. It’s rather the bewilderment that I have for this music, then actually liking all the music. It creates a big smile on this face from time to time. Spooky jazz tunes, marching band and a guitar solo, it all goes easily into one piece. Much of this is recorded live, which is also not easy to believe. I couldn’t help thinking: who on earth may like the whole thing, the music, the concept, the band? I thought it was great again, and surely will play this to anyone around here for a while as ‘that weird thing I got’, but I’m sure it will alienate people. If record stores have an ‘unclassifiable’ section, then M’Lumbo should be placed there. And I recommend you to at least have a listen.
Finally there is Twink, also known as Mike Langlie, who collects toy piano’s and recorded a whole bunch of tunes of them, which he handed out to a whole bunch of people to remix them, of which only the name Ergo Phizmiz rang a bell. Now this fun! Cheerful tunes. Toy piano’s with a techno beat, toy piano’s with easy tune rhythm or in combination with other toy sounds. Sweetness all around, but at nineteen of these tunes in which the toy piano never leaves the space, even Twink realized things were getting out of hand, and put ‘Ice Cream Headache’ at the end. Langlie is from Boston, MA and if my recollection is alright, the Ice Cream Man is also from there and like this, one LP every now and then is great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mulatta.org
JOHANNA WENT – CLUB YEARS (DVD by Soleilmoon)
It is not every day you find DVDs among the list of reviews in Vital Weekly. But fortunately it is a growing phenomenon, since there is a nice connection between the expressions of sound arts and more visually based expressions from other art directions. In this case we have the beautiful link between pioneering industrial music and extreme performing arts of California-based artists Johanna Went who had her artistic climax around the late 70’s / early 80’s art scene of L.A. With much similarity to compatriot performer and legendary trash artist Paul McCarthy, who also took his starting point in the art scene of California, Johanna Went use a wide range of disciplines for her performances, from collage to painting, from sewing to gluing, resulting in shows that involves sex, fluids, liquids, meat to create extreme shows of filth, repulsion and destruction. Trashiness in its most beautiful form! Set against a background of very loud noise and rhythm textures, Johanna Went’s show is more a furiously energetic trance-state than the performance of rational being. The sonic background of the performances is created by two of early industrial scenes strongest artists, Z’ev and Mark Wheaton, composing sound sculptures of noise and rhythmic complexity. Musical climax comes with the third chapter “New Wave Theater”. Being the harshest contribution on the DVD the track is built on buzzing drones and screeching noises. The abrasive expression are assisted by some cool drum-patterns works of Brock Wheaton (brother of Mark Wheaton), impressively following the genuine performing sickness of Johanna Went. On the performing side the video peaks with the second chapter “The Box”. Combinations of wild animal video recordings and the physical performances by Johanna Went make the artist seem like part of the intuitive and instinctive wild animal life. Absolutely amazing treatments of performances and manipulated videoclips. As top of the icing comes a bonus CD including the Hyena LP as well as tracks from their first 7″-vinyl, “Slave beyond the grave”. For people, wanting to know more about the earliest stages of industrial culture this DVD-pack is a gem. Also for people seeking the extreme territories of art expression, sonically as well as visually, this video is a must-have. The highest praise for Soleilmoon Recordings for bringing these visually and sonically works of art back into daylight! For further readings about Johanna Went and her art collaborations with Z’ev and Mark Wheaton, check out the book “Industrial Culture Handbook” released by RE/Search Publications back in 1983; Another informative milestone in the history of early Industrial Music culture. (NM)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com/
SHIFTS – TREES/LEAVES (LP by Entracte)
Added liner notes to a release are a bliss for both the listener as the reviewer: they put the music into context, often adding an additional perspective to the composer’s work. On this album the liner notes include the full history of Shifts as well as an explanation why this work was recorded. In short: Shifts was formed in 1995 when Frans de Waard (Shifts’ main- and only man) discovered the electrical guitar, which is interesting when you realize that De Waard is not an instrument-man at all; he is best at working with sounds rather than playing them on an instrument. Over the years, De Waard created many Shifts pieces, which are mostly layered re-workings of guitar sounds in a traditional Steve Reichian-way. Personal favorite of Shift records is the limited album “Leaving/At Last” which is well-worth hunting for if you got time, money and patience (as it is limited to 25 copies!). However, after a number of vinyl and CD releases and live performances, De Waard decided to stop working as Shifts. The reason was that he felt he had reached his limitations of what he considered possible by using the electrical guitar as sound source. This is a praise worthy decision and I know quite a few artists who would benefit from a similar decision. When, in 2004, De Waard bought a 4 string Spanish guitar he recorded the final three Shifts pieces; Trees, Leaves and Branches, two of which appear on this album. Both Trees and Leaves are long minimal layered guitar experiments, with just enough variation and depth to warrant your attention and enough similarity to lull you into a comfortable listen. Those qualifications are what makes this album great and probably the best Shifts album out there. One small, but very important point of criticism though. The Entracte releases do not come in an LP cover. Instead, they are packed in plastic with the record in a plastic inner sleeve and a flimsy piece of paper. This is an insult for the artist and his/her music. Do not let the packaging stop you from getting this album though; it’s the best Shifts you’ll ever buy! (FK)
Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk
GASTR DEL SOL – TWENTY SONGS LESS (7″ by Minority Records)
POLVERE (10″ by Minority Records)
Back in the day I was a big fan of Gastr Del Sol, the modus operandi of Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs. For reasons that were never clear to me (admitting right away I don’t read music press), the collaboration stopped and for long we believed that was it. ‘Twenty Songs Less’ has a long text, but nothing about the 7″ itself. It lists Jim and David but also Bundy K. Brown and John McEntire as the bandmembers, but that is hardly unusual. The latter two were in Gastr Del Sol in its first incarnation, while Jim was in the second. But still nothing about this 7″ with two pieces. Left on the cutting room floor? Newly recorded (that I don’t believe). One side has a hectic piece of drums, people crying, guitar strumming and has quite an improvised feel to it. The second side is a more intimate played piece, revolving around an acoustic guitar which is quite to the foreground, but disappears in some tape treatment. This piece is the best of these two. Quite a mysterious record this one, but quite nice also.
Moving along similar lines as Gastr Del Sol are Polvere, a duo from Italy, with Mattia Coletti on acoustic and electric guitars, drums, percussion and voice and Xabier Iriondo on ukulelem taisho koto, zither, old ’20 Japanese records and electronic treatments. They had some releases on Wallace Records. Their music is made through improvisation and is throughout minimal. They start strumming their strings and play probably with hand and feet to get all the sounds going. The six tracks where recorded following a tour in Japan and there are traces of Eastern tunings in the music. Intimate playing that sounds improvised, folk-like and even good old DDAA comes back to mind. It combines drone music along with musique concrete, tying post rock in. Great small music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.minorityrecords.com
THE DOMESTIC FRONT – NIFLHEIM VEGETATION (CDR by Belsona Strategic Schallplatten)
Originally ‘Niflheim Vegetation’ was released in an edition of just seven copies (why, I wonder), and now re-released in an edition of 93 copies with a possibility of seeing it as a real CD, with extra material. Why, I ask again? Why not entirely release this as CD. The title piece is the centre piece of the release, with it’s twenty-seven minute of duration, plus a much shorter piece as an introduction. Stylistically this continues his previous release ‘Having Achieved Balance, You Cannot Be Moved… So You Rise’, in which he shows himself as a capable electronic counterpart to Nurse With Wound. Whereas Stapleton incorporates acoustic sounds, instruments alongside electronics, The Domestic Front, a.k.a. Thom Bailey, a.k.a. Thomas Transparant, uses just electronic sounds, either made on real synthesizers or on digital versions thereof. His montage techniques of sounds is however quite similar. He let’s sounds stay around for a while, but then in a sudden, abrupt move, he throws them around, or away, and replaces them with a different set of sounds. All in quite a vivid manner. Though not as known as Nurse With Wound or Irr.App {ext}, The Domestic Front would certainly earn a place among them, as this is a pretty strong work, again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.belsona-strategic.com/
MARTIN HERTERICH – RECORDINGS 070401-070521 (CDR by Hwem)
One half of Sevkens, a duo from Sweden, Martin Herterich is also active as a solo musician, even when he started in 2003. He moves only partially away from the ambient glitch of Sevkens, but his solo work is built around the use of piano, a grand one even, with some electronics and field recordings. The four pieces have that slow, meditative piano playing alongside cracking sounds and rain running in the harbor. It fits the recent trend of ‘piano and electronics’, say Fennesz/Sakamoto, even when Herterich pushes his electronics a bit more to the background. The best piece is the longest one ‘Asleep/Awake’, in which the grand piano has the dominant role and the electronics are reduced to just hiss and loops are made of the playing. It has that William Basinski feel to it, even when the sound is a bit more present than his US compadre. Perhaps a bit short this one, but it’s certainly an appealing release for anyone in moody glitch music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hwem.net
OPEN FORS – EXCERPTS (CDR, private)
It’s pretty easy what Open Fors does: he notes himself on his myspace site: ‘synths and loopers’. Open Fors is one Kyle Hodgson from Calgary, Canada, and besides his influences such as Lee Ranaldo, Andrew Chalk, Mirror, Thom Yorke, we don’t get to know much more about him. Which is fine, the music should speak for itself. The pieces are relatively easy made. Hodgson presses down a chord on his synth, feeds it through a delay (infinite sustain) and some EQ-ing on top. That’s about the extend of his work. Normally no problem, but in this case I was thinking, “well, that’s it?”. There are ten tracks on this self-released CDR and the total length is twenty minutes. But music like this needs some time to develop, to produce than trance like drone, that atmospheric undercurrent that puts the listener to sleep, or such like. Here a piece starts and before the listener gets into it, it’s already over. That is a pity, because I’m sure there is more to it than just this. Now we got a peep in his sketchbook of unfinished ideas which explains the title a bit too well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/openfors
REPTILJAN – ARCHAEODERMOPHAGIA (CDR by Some Place Else)
RAJAPINTA – BOOTLEG EPHIPHANIES (CDR, no label)
Like many of the releases on Some Place Else, also this one has musical involvement of the boss himself, Niko Skorpio. It’s been a while since we last heard Reptiljan (‘The Hellbender Suite’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 480), but here he returns, moving away from the digital area, using bass guitar, contact microphones, fm radio and delay and distortion pedals. Musicwise this has less to do with the breakcore of the previous release, and altogether more with noise. His noise however is not the usual blend of distortion, but Skorpio knows how to balance things. Odd sounds like an alarm pops up, while seconds later it gets washed away in a blend of oceanic noise. Snippets from radio leak through this barrage of sound, but they add a nice extra flavor to it. Now while noise is not always on the daily platter, I must say that when it comes from the likes of Reptiljan it’s quite alright. At least for a weekly digest.
Not on Some Place Else, in a deliberate attempt to create a bootleg, but who found a bunch of old 7″ covers and decided to pack the CDR by Rajapinta in them. Rajapinta is/was the collaboration of Ibrahim Terzic and Some Place Else label boss Niko Skorpio. They worked together from 2001 to 2006 and created ‘hundreds of hours of work and experiments’. Skorpio set forward the task to edit these recordings and on ‘Bootleg Ephiphanies’ are the best pieces. Although a lot of the matter is quite noise related, I thought it was a pretty interesting release. Rajapinta doesn’t opt for the true all out wall of noise, but rather make a sharp combination of floating samples, letting them bounce up and down the scale, thus creating quite a lively set of music. Plus it’s not all noise that rings around here. They know how to pull back and put on a softer tune. Heavy duty musique concrete, turntable madness and enough computer plug ins to create a hard disk crash, it all kind of makes great sense here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
NOISE CONCRETE KONTONBOY (CDr by Government Thirteen/Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE LORD OF LIGHT (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
BARDOSENETICCUBE SATURN WIND (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
RECANT SPIROCHETE FEVER (CDr by /Deserted Factory)
We begin- 7 tracks all untitled with very little information – and short pieces – but raw(ish) noise from Japan – contrasted by three CDs whose genre might be called industrial, experimental’Bardoseneticcube was formed in summer 1998 by Igor Potsukailo and Sergey Matveev . The most precise definition of their music is surrealism’ Recant formed in San Diego CA and as it said somewhere on the net they use voice, sax and other assorted devices that’s the easy part. Noise Concrete’s noise is not as pure and crushing as the Pain Jerk/ Weise ubber-piece of the other week – it had some tortured vocals and noodlesques about its short 7 tracks, perhaps its trying to say something- perhaps it shouldn’t, perhaps its pushing noise into music concrete like it says on the tin. In doing this I think it makes an error – any deviation or movement is automatically appropriated by “them”, “they”, “it”. Take surrealism – the Dali worlds are all over the place – so why the interest in it by what must pass as fringe groups, outsider art, hell – avant garde- and what do I mean. If you have MS Word – Format – Font – Text effects – (choose any but I have marching red ants and shimmer) – MS Surrealism – built into Word and just as useful as a melted watch. If these people – and I’m grouping the whole 4 together here- are re-appropriating past isms, genres then they do need to be careful – of seeming like tribute bands to western civilization T.M. Is there anything wrong with this – Noasis after all sounds very P.M. But the Glen Miller Orchestra continued long after the man died I have found the success at overcoming this – is to do nothing- now immediately the danger of 4’32” looms – and its not good enough to simply pass oneself of as Jane Cage. Even as a drag queen.but its maybe not surprising that the violence of Japanese Harsh Noise could lie in their long tradition of doing nothing – violently. Please understand the 3 Industrial / gothic Cds have at times ethereal and filmatic sequences, glimpses of improv, which for all I know may be ironic, but in the form of such media the effect can get lost, like you don’t see any marching ants in this text do you? One – well I for myself want to distance myself – mentally and physically from the totalisation of modernity – even the seven seven bombers went white water rafting as some kind of team bonding – just like Microsoft execs do – very surreal (jliat)
Address: http://www.desertedfactory.com
ROEL MEELKOP – BUSINESS AS USUAL (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
BEEQUEEN – WHITE BIKE (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FREIBAND – KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY (Businesscard CD-R by Moll)
FRANS DE WAARD – XI (FOR CHRISTIAN NIJS) (3″ CD-R by Moll)
Just a few weeks after the recently reviewed set of Freiband CD-Rs, there are four new releases on Frans de Waard’s Moll imprint. Two of these – ‘White Bike’ and ‘XI (for Christian Nijs)’ – have a particularly personal character, albeit of a wholly different nature. Beequeen is Frans de Waard’s long existing duo project with Freek Kinkelaar. ‘White Bike’ should have been on the upcoming Beequeen album ‘Sanddancing’, but Freek and Frans decided not to include it on the album and so it was released on Moll, along with the original demo sung by Freek and an excerpt from the recording session with an appearance of Frans’ daughter Elise. These latter tracks add a nice, intimate touch to the release and beautifully match the song itself. It’s a wonderful pop song, played on piano and balloons, with vocals sung by Eva Volmeijer. The melody sticks in your head immediately and its joyous and slightly naïve mode puts a smile on your face, making this a promising candidate for this summer’s sweetest tune.
‘XI’ (for Christian Nijs) is dedicated to Frans’ first musical partner with whom he recorded as Kapotte Muziek in the early 1980s and who committed suicide in 2002. Although this work is indexed as one track, it is clearly divided into several distinct passages. A slowly pulsating, pure electronic drone provides a well-chosen opening to the disc, which is followed by the rumble and crackling of various highly obscured field recordings that form the rest of the piece, together with some minimal electronic insertions. The use of short loops and the blending of field recordings and electronics as well as the lo-fi character bring to mind some early works of Kapotte Muziek here. In its overall solemn and sparse tone and its subtle personal references, ‘XI’ finds a quiet and unpretentious way to remember a person who chose to put an end to his life.
The limited playtime of just under 4 minutes, that the businesscard CDs offer, demands a precise and concentrated composition and Roel Meelkop’s ‘Business as Usual’ delivers just that in a series of multilayered hissing and rumbling textures which are juxtaposed with moments of silence and passages hovering barely above the threshold of audibility. Complexity and tension are successfully translated in a miniature format here. The same goes for Freiband’s contribution to the ongoing series of reworks of material by Kapotte Muziek. Dealing with tiny details and porous textures, this is one of the more austere Freiband works, roughly along the lines of ‘Ice Field’, one of the preceding releases on Moll, but substituting the harshness of the latter with fragility. It thus hints to Kapotte Muziek’s use of amplified objects and largely maintains the characteristic feel of concrete sounds, transformed, however, into crackling digital detritus. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
ENIAC – THE WAGON (MP3 by Chew Z)
STEFANO GIUST – MKULTRA (MP3 by Chew Z)
LO DEV ALM – IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK (MP3 by Chew Z)
‘The new label Chew Z took their name from that Philip K. Dick uses in ‘The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch’ to refer to the new drug pushed to terrestrian colonists on Mars in order to divert their minds from their unbearable and boring existence’ so the press text tells us, and they have a ‘do-it-yourself’ mentality, which is of course loudly applauded here. But what about the music? Eniac is one Fabio Battistetti, who likes to ride on the train, where he composed his sic pieces that form ‘The Wagon’. Sitting, driving, headphones, laptop (I always think that all people around me with laptops in trains compose music, but no doubt they just play a game). I can’t say that I am very much taken by his music. Part rhythmical, minimal but by no means danceable, with time stretching going on, but all six tracks sound more or less alike, similar sounds and similar approaches to what could be a composition.
Stefano Giust uses ‘original sounds by Andrej Nako and Karen O’Brien’, whoever they might be. All tracks are called ‘MK Ultra’, of which the first is quite short and the other two are quite long. Chew Z describes this as ‘electronic music solo improvisation played with stick and electronic pads’. His material is also quite similar, also in sound and approach, with an arpeggio synth sound and some banging rhythm which start-stops every now and then but at least his material is a bit more forceful and aggressive than Eniac. However it’s too sparse to be enjoyed for the full length.
A combination of Eniac and Stefano Giust might be Lo Dev Alm, also known as one Daniele, who presents his third album with ‘It Is Later Than You Think’. His beats are loud and mean, while his synths are quite the opposite. It makes an interesting interplay between these two. His pieces are perhaps a bit too long for what they are trying to get across, but at least he brings in some variation in the pieces by using different built ups in his pieces, a wider variety of sound and with more balls than Eniac. The best of three this one, even when not great either. All three of these should find time to explore how, what and why about their music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.chewz.net