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AL MARGOLIS/IF, BWANA – AN INNOCENT, ABROAD (CD by Pogus Productions) *
CARL STONE – AL-NOOR (CD by Intone Music) *
UPSILON ACRUX – GALAPAGOS MOMENTUM (CD by Cuneiform)
LUKAS SIMONIS & TAKAYUKI KAWABATA – NEWS (CD by Z6) *
THE CLAUDIA QUINTET – FOR (CD by Cuneiform) AVOID AUDIO – THE IDEA IS BEING KILLED BY ANOTHER THOUGHT (CD by Heils Kabaal Records)
SOUS HYPNOSE (CD by Ant-Zen)
TONIKOM – EPOCH (CD by Hymen Records)
GAVIN BRYARS/PHILIP JECK/ALTER EGO – THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC (CD by Touch)
P. JØRGENSEN – LETS THE SUN DRAG ITSELF OUT (CD by Monotype Records) *
JOHN CHIRSTOPHER SHILLOCK – INVISIBLE JAZZ (BOOK & CD by Musical Comedy Editions)
KORA ET LE MECHANIX – EXCURSIN FORTE (CD by Nextera) *
NIELLERADE FALLIBILISTHORSTAR – SKRANKVERK (CD by Dystoniaek) *
Y-TON-G/ASMUS TIETCHENS/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA – YAK (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
MERZBOW – PEACE FOR ANIMALS (CD by Quasi Pop) *
MERZBOW – LIVE DESTRUCTION AT NO FUN 2007 (CD by No Fun Productions)
CLINE/GIFFONI/LICHT/RANALDO – NOTHING MAKES ANY SENSE (CD by No Productions) *
EDWARD SOL – WRONG ACTION (3″CDR by Quasi Pop) *
BOB MARSH – VIOVOX (CD by Public Eyesore)
PHIL MINTO & YAGIHASHI TSUKASA & SATO YUKIE & HIGO HIROSHI – NIPPARA-TOKYO (CD by Public Eyesore)
GIRAFFE – HEAR HERE (CDR by Eh?) *
MARINA HARDY – PINK VIOLIN (CDR by Eh?)
(D)YNAMIC (B)ROWN (H)IPS – WAVE THE OLD WAVE (CDR by Eh?)
SHELF LIFE – RHEUMA (CDR by Eh?) *
BENJAMIN BRUNN – PAUL AND RAYMOND (12″ by Bine Music)
DITTRICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG – DU FROHLICHE/TANNENBAUM DUB (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
AS11 – PNEUMATIK (CDR by Echo Music) *
AL MARGOLIS/IF, BWANA – AN INNOCENT, ABROAD (CD by Pogus Productions)
A few weeks ago we reviewed an almost ancient work by If, Bwana and Al Margolis is still active as such, although he also uses his own name these days. Besides managing his own Pogus Productions, he does similar duties for labels as Deep Listening, XI Records and Mutable Music, while still finding time to create his own music. The work here is for vocals and one piece for vocals and flutes. These flutes and sources provide the source as well their own voices in the electronic work of If, Bwana. To say that a lot of water has passed under the bridge would perhaps be an understatement. Far, far away from the SK1 sampler and the industrial music, this new CD is more in the areas of serious composed music. There are two pieces here, one I liked and one I didn’t. Unfortunately the one I didn’t like is about three times longer than the other one. The title piece for vocals and flutes sounded very boring to me. I can’t help finding that dreadful word, but the quasi modern classical meandering of flutes and vocals just didn’t work at all for me. Quite tedious, but I hasten to add that none of that stuff is usually well spend on me. Of more interest was the second piece, ‘Issue’, which had many layers of processed, partly pitched up and down, making a quasi tribal chant, partly brass band like sounds. Perhaps also not the best thing I ever heard from If, Bwana (when is that Anckarstrom CD going to be re-released, Al?), but much better than the first piece. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
CARL STONE – AL-NOOR (CD by Intone Music)
Despite composing since 1972, the name Carl Stone might not be that familiar with the audience of Vital Weekly, simply because he doesn’t release that much music on sound carriers or by labels that don’t serve the longest running source of experimental music on the internet. His main interest lies in exploring max/msp software, in which he no doubt builds his own patches. Stone’s music here is deceivingly simple. It seems that each track only explores one loop, say a drum loop in ‘Flint’s’ or voice and drums in ‘Jitlada’. This is fed through the software and from then on things start bouncing around. Playing small portion from a loop, cutting it together with larger sections of the same loop, he creates this simple music. But deceiving, as the result is quite hallucinatory. Taking the minimalism of say Reich and Glass into the world of computers, these four ‘songs’ (lasting anywhere between nine and twenty-four minutes) are all shifting phases and time measures and create a hypnotic feel. In the title piece this might still be a bit too much shifting up and down with voices, but in ‘L’Os A Moelle’ the rock structure reminds us psychedelica, including fuzzy guitar solos, keyboards that play baroque themes and a constant stomping rhythm, but with bridges and fills. Quite a cosmic trip these twenty-four minutes, which curiously never get tedious or boring. Not quite a CD I expected from such a serious composer, but surely one of the best I heard from him. (FdW)
Address: http://www.intonemusic.com
UPSILON ACRUX – GALAPAGOS MOMENTUM (CD by Cuneiform)
Reading about this group in the past, I remember saying to myself: ‘keep this name in mind. Could be very interesting’. And now I can confirm this from my own experience. I,m impressed by this very disciplined combo. Upsilon Acrux originated in the San Diego area in 1997. In 1999 they were ready for their first album ‘In the Acrux of the Upsilon King’, released by Accretions. Concerning what they are trying to do, they are comparable to bands like The Flying Luttenbachers and Ahleuchatistas: bands that try to combine the energy and directness of punk with the compositional complexity and technical ability that we find in progressive and metal music. In their line up they limit themselves to the: two guitars, played by Paul Lai and Braden Miller, bass (Eric Kiersnowski) and Jess Appelhans (drums). With this conventional line up, and because they play instrumental pieces only, they are also closely linked to postrock guitarbands. ‘Galapagos Momentum’ is their fifth album, being their first one for Cuneiform Records. This will make them known to a wider international audience, I hope. All 10 pieces on this CD are very speed-driven exercises and highly complex compositions with many breaks and twists. Sometimes we hear echoes of Beefheart, at other moments they recall the spirit of King Crimson. Listening to this album it is impossible not to be impressed by their discplined and athletic playing. With incredible polyrhythmic structures, unison playing at moments, etc., they play some very powerful music. A minor point: because they are so disciplined, they are only disciplined. They lose themselves in complexity and by consequence the music lacks emotion. It has not the emotional impact like the music of Beefheart or Présent. If they succeed in integrating this aspect as well in their music, next time we will not only be impressed, but changed also. (DM)
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
LUKAS SIMONIS & TAKAYUKI KAWABATA – NEWS (CD by Z6)
Guitarist and composer Lukas Simonis is known for his work with groups like Dull Schicksal, Trespassers W, Morzelpronk, Liana Flu Winks, AA Kismet, Vril and Coolhaven. All of them experimental and crazy groups. On his solo cd ‘Stots’ he showed himself from an even more experimental side. One wonders according to what rules this work is composed, as it is a very weird experience. But it really works. This is also the case for this new cd ‘News’, that is a much quieter cd then ‘Stots’. On ‘News’ we hear two cello players: Nina Hitz and Kumi Kondo. Plus Miki Sugiura (voice) and Simonis himself on guitar and effects. This project came about from as an initiative from Kumi Kondo who asked Simonis for a project on the japanese poet Takayuki Kawabata serving for her final exams on the Rotterdam Conservatory in 2004. Afterwards they extended and deepened the project into a cycle of eight ‘songs’, around the poems of Takayuki Kawabata. Simonis wrote the songs that were performed by the above mentioned musicians. Then Simonis manipulated the recordings through a process of editing, etc. and shaped the songs to its definite form. Concerning the poems they are spoken in japanese, and besides maybe Simonis twisted her words around. Who tells? We are left with the sound of the japanese language and the beautiful voice of vocalist Miki Sugiura. But also the soundenvironment Simonis created for these poems make ‘News’ into an interesting listening experience. (DM)
Address: http://www.xs4all.nl/~lukas/
THE CLAUDIA QUINTET – FOR (CD by Cuneiform)
Since The Claudia Quintet started in 1997 it has reached a considerable audience, and conquered its place within the spectrum of groups making new, jazz-related music. The main force within this quintet is John Hollenbeck, who gained acknowledgment from several other projects as well. For example, personally I,m very fond of ‘Joys and Desires’ that he performed with Jazz Bigband Graz and Theo Bleckmann. With ‘For’ the Claudia Quintet presents its fourth cd. Again with the same unusual line up as we know it from earlier CDs, especially because of the presence and role of the accordion: Drew Gress (acoustic bass), John Hollenbeck (drums, percussion, electronic tape preparation), Matt Moran (vibrahone, vocals/lyrics), Red Reichman (accordion) and Chris Speed (clarinet, alto sax). Although the group is open for many musical influences, in the end I would classify it as a jazz group. Allthough as you understand it is far from straight jazz. All compositions are by John Hollenbeck, and they often direct without really noticing to a climax. Allthough the music is remarkably accessible, it isn’t easy. And it needs a open and dedicated ear before it reveals all its beauty. As on earlier CDs they never sound angry, loud or frustrated, with the exception of ‘Rug Boy’ that starts with a great duet by Hollenbeck, exploding on drums and accordionplayer Ted Reichmann . But most compositions on this cd breath a warm, harmonious and delicate atmosphere. Also the music is full of subtleties, with cascading parts that remind me of the minimal work of Reich and Glass, and often with a grooving and hypnotizing pulse. ‘For you’ is the most far out piece. Hollenbeck concentrates on looping electronics and tape manipulation here, with Moran dropping simple words with great intervals of silence and sparse contributions by the drums, vibraphone and accordion. All in all a very nice album of rich and full-grown, but ‘unspectacular’ music. But by a spectacular group. (DM)
Address: http://www.cuneiform.com
AVOID AUDIO – THE IDEA IS BEING KILLED BY ANOTHER THOUGHT (CD by Heils Kabaal Records)
Hosting two of the most distributed e-magazines of experimental electronic music, Vital Weekly & Earlabs, and being the homeland of legendary label Staalplaat, the Netherlands must be considered as one of the pioneering countries within experimental electronic music and sound art. Heil Kabaaal Records is a newborn Dutch label. The focus of the label is ambient, noise, drone, audio collage and field recordings. On present album compatriot composer Avoid Audio is described as the most pop related yet released by label. If that is so, there will probably not be any albums from the label listed on U.S.’s Billboard Music Charts in the near future. This very promising debut from Avoid Audio titled “The idea is being killed by another thought” does by no means belong to the conventional style of music. In fact it is quite a task to pigeonhole the album. There are many moments of ambience on the album without any interference of rhythms, giving way to some very nice cinematic expressions based on field recordings, processed concrete sounds and buzzing noise drones while discreet melodies keeps a great sonic texture on the album. There are also plenty of rhythms on the album circulating in-between expressions of IDM and breakbeats of complexity. But overall the album is about atmospheres and Avoid Audio certainly demonstrates that his ability of creating sonic atmospheres is unquestionable. Very nice debut! (NM)
Address: <http://www.heilskabaal.net>http://www.heilskabaal.net
VROMB – SOUS HYPNOSE (CD by Ant-Zen)
There has always been a ritualistic and trance-inducing feeling in the music from Canadian composer Vromb. The brain behind the project, Hugo Girrard, has a quite unique expression with oscillating, minimalist frequencies, rotating sequences and bubbling technoid sounds creating his quite unique repetitiveness. The ritual factor is intact on this seventh full-length album titled “Sous hypnose” released on German label Ant-Zen Recordings. With a title that in English means “Under hypnosis” experienced listeners of Vromb should know that the ritual style remains. And it definitely does. Despite the intended titled, I doubt that many hypno-therapists would dare to let their average customer sink into this world of icy drones and cynic rhythm textures. Unquestionably though it would be a quite interesting experience for the patient. The nine tracks drift back and forth between futuristic sci-fi ambient and rhythm textures that develop from non-existing across subdued layers moving up to the front of the sound picture. The great French spoken voice of Vromb does penetrate occasionally sounding like the hypnotist himself. If you enjoy the frostbitten sonic world of Vromb you will definitely appreciate this latest sci-fi launch from the Canadian.
Address: http://<http://www.ant-zen.com>www.ant-zen.com
TONIKOM – EPOCH (CD by Hyman Records)
“Music that refuses to live on one planet”. That was the way Tonikom once expressed his latest album, the first Tonikom-album released on German label Hymen Records. If planets were music styles the aforementioned description hits bulls eye concerning the expression of the album. From the trance-inspired “Salvo infinitum”-track to the abstract IDM-based track titled “Locked out”, that could’ve been part of Warp Record’s legendary “Artificial intelligence”-compilation. Breakbeat textures play an important role on the album from the Techstep/Darkside-based track “Dark river” to the Jungle-based final track “Outro” of tranquilizing atmospheres. Despite his stylish planetary interchanges of expressions, the true power of Tonikom is the awesome atmospheres that flourish on the album as a whole. Especially the opening track “Running as fast as I can” is incredibly beautiful and worth the price of the album in itself. (NM)
Address: <http://www.hymen-records.com>http://www.hymen-records.com
GAVIN BRYARS/PHILIP JECK/ALTER EGO – THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC (CD by Touch)
In the Netherlands there is these days a lot of talk about ‘canon’, things you should definitely know from science, history, film or literature. It made me think about a canon for contemporary, post World War Two music. I think you should have certainly lend an ear to ‘Gesang Der Junglinge’, ‘Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul’, ‘433’ (well, know what that is about) and on this small and very incomplete list, I should certainly add ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ by Gavin Bryars. The unfortunate biggest boat in the world, running in an iceberg in 1912, while the orchestra down stairs kept on playing. Bryars took that ‘orchestra playing’ as the starting point for an ensemble piece by taking the piece that was played, as told by survivors, the slow ‘Autumn’ and Bryars takes it apart, or rather, in free sixties style, let the players decide what to play and also there is voice material on tape, to have the idea of the ship sending S.O.S. signals. This piece has an open length and has been, as far as I know, been released twice. First on LP in Eno’s Obscure Records series in the seventies and in the nineties on CD by Crepuscule, if I not mistaken. Here is a version recorded last year with Bryars on double bass, Philip Jeck on turntables and an Italian ensemble called Alter Ego. It’s a bit wrong to compare all three versions I think. For the occasion I dug out both and the first one comes rather quickly to the point, with ‘Autumn’ coming in quite fast and so did the voices. The first CD version is more spun out and has a dramatic built up, and nice choir like sounds. The new version here starts out and ends with a long ‘solo’ by Jeck, and otherwise seems to follow the original setting. Half way through there is a chirping insect like sound, of which I have no idea who produces this (Jeck perhaps?), but in all the cases that I heard this I couldn’t help laughing. The Titanic crushed into a iceberg in april 1912, surely not really a place for insects. Maybe a wrong record chosen? It however makes also clear that this is a live recording and mistakes happen – not a failure of gigantic proportions but just something that causes a minor ripple on the waves. I am not sure if one should ‘have’ this, unless it’s your first experience of the work (then it’s a must have), since it doesn’t seem to be adding that much to the two previous versions, but for those who want to spot the differences it’s surely a welcome work. It definitely something you should hear once in your life. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
P. JØRGENSEN – LETS THE SUN DRAG ITSELF OUT (CD by Monotype Records)
Not much information on P. Jørgensen can be found on the label’s website, other than he works with ‘heavily computerprocessed acoustic instruments and field recordings’. The music was recorded last year and seems to me one of those nice ambient guitar albums, of which there is already a lot, but some people never can get enough. Jørgensen feeds his guitar through an endless line of effects and creates an ever-lasting sustain on his guitar. Maybe I’m entirely wrong? Things move forward in a slow, solemn manner. Nice enough, but there are one or two things to be said. First of all that the genre of ambient (and it’s various deviations) doesn’t change at all, and hasn’t been doing since quite some time. Also the six pieces on offer here by Jørgensen are all pretty similar in approach. Things fade in, drone on, fade out, without too much differentiation between the tracks. Only the sixth track seems to have a slightly different approach. But perhaps all of this is minor babbling: the album by itself is a really luscious nice late evening music album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
JOHN CHIRSTOPHER SHILLOCK – INVISIBLE JAZZ (BOOK & CD by Musical Comedy Editions)
“Christopher Shillock is called the underground poet laureate of downtown Minneapolis. He has a BA in Spanish and a MA in philosophy. During the 1980,s he was active with various Communist and Anarchist groups in the Twin Cities. In 2003 Shillock received a Verve grant from SASE and the Jerome Foundation for his poetry/video book ‘An Invitation to the Terrorists Ball’. Now that we know this, what about ‘Invisible Jazz’? It is a collection of poems by Shillock that are inspired on ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Paris, baseball, etc. Tabatha Predovich composed the songs, and both sing and perform the poems.
I can’t judge on the poems, but the compositions are very conventional and without any originality. This means boring and completely outdated. They sound as middle of the road 70s popmusic. I asked myself how on earth it is possible that today this kind of music that sounds as if it is directly transplanted from the 70s is played by musicians in 2006. Strange for an anarchist to do so, if you ask me. Of course they merely serve as a vehicle for the poems and most of the poems deal with even more ancient times. In that sense a coherent project (DM).
Address: http://www.shillock.com/
KORA ET LE MECHANIX – EXCURSIN FORTE (CD by Nextera)
It’s been a while since we reviewed ‘Excursin’ from Kora Et Le Mechanix (Vital Weekly 522), so we have to hark back in our memory to remember what it sounded like. These Czechs made some interesting ambient music, which we remember to be a fine combination of Biosphere meeting The Hafler Trio. A nice album, but somehow I didn’t expect that to be remixed, and if not mistaken by all Czech remixers. It’s that the liner notes come in the same language, otherwise I could have told some more. A remix album is supposed to take the original material into new territory and attract say techno fans to the original – a remix album is merely a marketing trick (sorry if this sounds harsh and you may never realized this before). If The Orb does U2, it’s because their record company wants to sell music to Orb fans. Somehow that marketing trick doesn’t work for the likes of Kora Et Le Mechanix and their sixteen remixers. I recognized a bunch of names such as Miou Miou, Selectone and Hypnotix, but that’s not even a quarter of the lot. It’s as usual with these things a mixed bag. There is techno based music, more ambient, deeper ambient, drum ‘n bass and even reggea/dub music. I must admit I glanced at the CD box once, decided that I couldn’t read the liner notes, and not recognizing any of the names, so I instead played the music and decided to enjoy myself, which I did. A mixed bag of music, put in the right order to be surely entertaining, which it was. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nextera.cz
NIELLERADE FALLIBILISTHORSTAR – SKRANKVERK (CD by Dystoniaek)
Yes, that is quite a mouthful, hard to pronounce, even when entirely sober. However we came across them before, when we reviewed their ‘Halrum’ release on SNSE Records (Vital Weekly 492), influenced by Einsturzende Neubauten, New Blockaders and Metgumnerbone and on ‘Skrankverk’ they continue that path. Despite being cut into various tracks, it comes off as one long track. Lots and lots metal rambling, not fast, but slow, maybe even intended to be magickal, ritualistik, I don’t know if that’s the intention. However they cleverly sometimes use tapeloops of electronic sounds, scratching the barrel and such like which give the whole album a feel that there is more to it than just metal rumbling. I have no idea where these boys are from but me thinks they are from Germany, although there is no evidence to substantiate that claim. There is perhaps not even variation between the pieces nor with previous album, which is too bad, I think. But fans of the more obscure semi-industrial music, along the lines of Cold Meat Industry and Old Europa Cafe know the drill: they have been alerted to get this. Me, I think it’s a fine album, but perhaps a bit too alienated. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dystoniaek.org
Y-TON-G/ASMUS TIETCHENS/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA – YAK (CD by Monochrome Vision)
An infinite and sometimes not easy to grasp recycled process. That’s what Asmus Tietchens, at least to me, is known for. Here he teams up with Kouhei Matsunaga from Japan (of whom we haven’t heard much lately, but he had a couple of nice releases on his own Flying Swimming label) and an even more obscure Y-Ton-G, who hails from Hamburg (just like Tietchens) and has been around since the dawn of cassettes and still releases CDRs to this date. Each of them supplied sound material to somebody else who then composed a piece of music. Two of them have sound material by a duo (Y-Ton-G and Kouhei and Asmus and Kouhei) – see, not easy to grasp these processes. Not that it really matters when it comes to appreciating this release. The eight tracks here make quite a coherent flow of music. The starting point – say the rumble on the surface – is processed through means unknown. That is: Asmus in his studio, Y-Ton-G through tapeloops and sound effects and Kouhei through laptop, things are altered, changed, deformed and sound like anything else and the starting point as such can no longer recognized. Through whatever means each of the composer uses here it still sounds pretty coherent. It’s hard to tell who does what here if one is not looking at the cover. One could argue that the composers are perhaps interchangeable, but I like to take an opposite view. Through different working methods, arriving at similar results one gets a great example of various ways in reaching goals in modern musique concrete. Both Y-Ton-G and Kouhei Matsunaga show great respect for the music of Asmus Tietchens and its an album that surely will appeal to fans of Asmus. A very refined work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
MERZBOW – PEACE FOR ANIMALS (CD by Quasi Pop)
MERZBOW – LIVE DESTRUCTION AT NO FUN 2007 (CD by No Fun Productions)
CLINE/GIFFONI/LICHT/RANALDO – NOTHING MAKES ANY SENSE (CD by No Productions)
EDWARD SOL – WRONG ACTION (3″CDR by Quasi Pop)
A story I told before: I gave up on keeping my Merzbow collection complete. Sad but true. I found myself without time of hearing (and re-hearing) all the releases properly. Such is life. So whatever new Merzbow I hear, is getting back to his music. I must admit when I hear it I sometimes think it’s a pity I gave up. Or perhaps not. There is a certain constant factor running in his music that makes him, no doubt about that, the king of noise. Variations and innovations are sparse in his work and can probably only be detected by the true fanr, of which I may I no longer call myself one. ‘Peace For Animals’ sees a continuation of his works of recent years, I think. Computerized noise, perhaps with the addition of guitar effects that are still damaging your ears. However at the same time it also seems that this album is less harsh, well that is relative thing of course with mister Merzbow (an all acoustic album is still in demand, I think), but some of the scraping sounds reminded me of his ‘Enclosure’ and ‘Ecobondage’ times, but filled with some more sound effects. Another powerful statement this one. Maybe the urge for more Merzbow should be controlled and played again what has already been accumulated over the years.
And with luck I just also got another Merzbow CD (which of course the journalists with a less attention span would say: see this guy is over productive, two CDs per week). Merzbow played at the No Fun festival earlier this year and ‘remixed’ it at home into a full on forty-one minute slab in the face. Away from the Quasi Pop release, this is Merzbow full blast of noise. I saw Merzbow a couple of times playing live, among which were his very first concerts in Europe in 1989 when of course nobody came out to witness it, and listening to this live recording brings back the great memories of those concerts. Merzbow studio can be loud, but his concerts are the real beasts. In one concentrated paint brush he paints all the colors of the rainbow in bright as hell tones. A mighty fine work. He should be in our area more often me thinks.
Also a live recording is four guitarist line up of Nels Cline, Carlos Giffoni, Alan Licht and Lee Ranaldo, who teamed up on 0201-2007 at the Tonic to play together, following a review of an old Lou Reed LP (printed on the cover): more is more, being the subject. Bring in as many guitars, as many amplifiers and make noise. That starting point leads to a fifty minute free jam in which the guitar is as important as the amplifier, let alone all those nicely colored boxes on the floor, and the four of them let things explode in a true noise manner. Not to dissimilar to Merzbow me thinks, but this quartet is less noisy than the boss on his own, and they move through more phases unlike the monolithic mountain of Merzbow. At times free jazz and endless prog solos lurk around the corner, but let’s assume they are merely tongue in cheek? Another nice blast (excellently mixed by a fifth guitarist actually, James Plotkin).
Music by Edward Sol has been released by Quasipop before and reviewed here. Here he presents another four tracks on 3″ format in a nice little package. Apparently the theme is about ‘This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story of Pop Diva working and partying hard’, although it’s not sure which diva is meant here. Maybe Kylie Minogue, as suggested by the track title ‘Inside Kylie’? Unlike some of his previous stuff, Sol goes out to old fashioned tape collages, cutting, splicing and pasting of tapes to create his music. At times he wanders out in the rich field of noise, but stays in true spirit of the good ol’ musique concrete. It’s at times loud and vicious, but the collage element of the music prevails. Influenced by say Pierre Henry (voices are spliced together) and Merzbow, makes this his most refined statement so far. Not in every subtle, but created with great care. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quasipop.org
Address: http://www.nofunproductions.org
BOB MARSH – VIOVOX (CD by Public Eyesore)
PHIL MINTO & YAGIHASHI TSUKASA & SATO YUKIE & HIGO HIROSHI – NIPPARA-TOKYO (CD by Public Eyesore)
GIRAFFE – HEAR HERE (CDR by Eh?)
MARINA HARDY – PINK VIOLIN (CDR by Eh?)
(D)YNAMIC (B)ROWN (H)IPS – WAVE THE OLD WAVE (CDR by Eh?)
SHELF LIFE – RHEUMA (CDR by Eh?)
USA’s Public Eyesore started out as a CDR label, but has grown into a ‘real’ CD label these days, but to make life more confusing there is a subdivision dealing with CDRs. It’s called Eh?, most appropriate, since there is hardly any information on any of the releases.
On Public Eyesore we first find one Bob Marsh, who says he recorded ‘this collection of rantings, ravings, sermons, scenes, little operas and whatever they might be, in the flat lands of Richmond California’, so I was kinda expecting some vocal poetry. But the liner notes also mention he plays violin, cello and samples. That may explain the title of this. The words he sings aren’t always words with a meaning, and he sings quite a few those. Unfocussed is a word that springs to mind here. What does he want? It seems that he improvises bits, feed them through his on the go sampler and kaos pad, and that’s a bit. Nice for a few pieces, but going through all of fifteen is a bit much. There is simply not enough variation in the approaches Marsh uses to create his music, so it may seem that we are listening to the same track in variations. I have no idea why this is a CD and not a CDR.
I can see however why the next release is on CD, as I assume Minton has quite a following. This free voice improviser has a long, outstanding career, which brought him around the world, as so here he is in Japan, playing with three players, I never heard of: Yagihashi Tsukasa on altsax, Sato Yukie on electric guitar and Higo Hiroshi on electric bass. Maybe it’s my free improvising mind while playing this release, but somehow it seems to me that these players have a somewhat jazz related background; at least in some passages this seems to be the case. They venture out into some more noise like territory, such as the opening of the (untitled) third track. These players aren’t the silent types, not like some of their Japanese colleaugues. The four men play a highly controlled improvisation set (well, two actually, divided in six tracks) taking the listener on a ride through various moods and textures, continuously listening to each other, acting when necessary or silent when needed. A fine disc for the lovers of the genre of improvised music.
On Eh? we find Giraffe, a duo of Joseph Jaros and Luke Polipnick, and as said, no information. They are a noisy bunch of lads on their ‘Hear Here’. It’s hard to say what sound sources are at their disposal, but things are pretty loud and distorted. A certain interesting low fidelity quality is to be detected in these recordings, voices from radio, the same radio that is fed through a bunch of distortion pedals. However for whatever odd reason I also think they use a computer as a means of producing the noise. All of the proceedings are delivered through methods of improvisation and no editing, which is fashionable in these areas and which is a pity, since not every moment is very strong, me thinks. With some cut and paste it could have been a much more interesting work.
No info, again, on one Marina Hardy, whose ‘Pink Violin’ gave me a hard time. What does she play? A pink violin? Or a sampler? Me thinks the latter and she operates in the good ol’ Plunderphonic style, going all over the place with world music fiddle music, heavy metal guitar solo’s (reminded me of Eddie van Halen, who lived around here, actually), cheesy lounge music, jazz, rock and oh there is a violin here and there, such as in the classical ‘Ceisel’ and the nice cover version of Gershwin’s ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’. Ok, so I think she plays violin and samples. Usually the multitude of styles work against what I like, but in a most curious way things work out quite nicely here. Tracks are to the point and like dialing the knobs on the radio, one goes from one end of the musical spectrum to the other and that is sometimes nice too.
Out in the field of total improvisation, with the total absence of electronics is the release by (D)ynamic (B)rown (H)ips, which are Justin Rhody on trumpet, Clare Hubbard on saxophone and Keith Wright on percussion on the second and third tracks, plus on the first track a whole bunch more on violin, trombone, recorder, upright bass an such like. That is a very heavy, quite aggressive piece, with high pitched acoustic tones and loud bursts of all the instruments. Take away a few instruments and hope things get a bit more quiet? Idle hope, since it seems even the trio of them play louder and more aggression than the extended group. Certainly not easy music and quite demanding; not something to play in one go, I think.
The final release for today on Eh? is by Shelf Life, which we happen to know is a project by Brian Day, the man behind both labels here. Shelf Life is a quartet of improvising musicians playing around in a more heavy rock type of improvisation. The guitar is being tortured, whereas bass and drums play highly distorted rumblings, rather than playing a coherent basis for the guitarists. The whole thing is a kinda alienating, and the somewhat sketchy recording quality doesn’t help either. I must admit I thought the previous release was better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com
BENJAMIN BRUNN – PAUL AND RAYMOND (12″ by Bine Music)
‘This record is dedicated to Paul and Raymond whose zest for life was with me six months long. I will keep it’ it says somewhat mysteriously on the press text. Benjamin Brunn is, along with Scanner and Move D, a stalwart artist of Bine Music, but reviewing this two track 12″ is not an easy task. The rhythm driven music will surely work well on the dance floor, but who am I to tell? I am not a DJ, not even a regular visitor of the dance floor, let alone known for moving my feet, so what can I do with in the cosy place called home with it? I can play it, like it even, but I realize that’s hard for me to say wether this is great minimal techno, or perhaps a faint copy of the real thing. The watershed between me and the world of minimal techno is simply too big. So, I didn’t dance around, but sat down, thought the fat bass was great, the light, dubby keyboards were nice and I thought it was damn nice record. And oh, I thought, I should go out more and dance more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.de
DITTRICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG – DU FROHLICHE/TANNENBAUM DUB (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
And of course, the days are short, the nights are long and we must celebrate the birth of our saviour again. Christmas was no friend of mine. But there is one little bit of light in the dark days of christmas: Meeuw Muzak releases another fine 7″. By now I can spend at least half boxing day listening to the crazy christmas tunes of Meeuw. The latest addition is by Dittrich von Euler-Donnersperg who has released some even more crazy music on his own Walter Ulbricht label and Die Stadt, with partly reading of texts and partly electronic music. Here he offers two soft electronic music pieces, which are like snowflakes (of course it never snows in Dutch christmas times). Almost kitchy and new age like on a super cheesy keyboard with all the wrong (and thus right) preset sounds, Dittrich is perhaps that great family man that such tunes under his tannenbaum for a wealth of happy children, who start unwrapping their presents as daddy finishes his tunes. Great stuff, once again. I can’t wait for christmas with my Meeuw Muzak collection (isn’t about time for a nice CD compilation, mister Meeuw). (FdW)
Address: http://www.meeuw.net
AS11 – PNEUMATIK (CDR by Echo Music)
Music by Greek AS11 has been mostly released by Antifrost, but for his latest release he headed out to another Greek label, Echo Music. Three lengthy pieces, the first two are live pieces and one studio piece. The live pieces were recorded in San Sebastian, of which the second is a collaboration with Edorta Izarzugaza. These are the facts. The little known facts as per usual AS11 like a bit of mystification. I am not sure how to perceive the title of the release, but it seems if all three tracks use some of drill or something pneumatic like that. All three piece are highly minimal in approach with machine like sounds. Especially the two live pieces have that quality. Changes happen, but are rare. An amplified drill, with the addition of… well, of what exactly? It’s hard to tell. The third track, the studio piece ‘Melutaso’ feeds the mechanical machinery through computer effects, to the same minimal extent as the live cuts, but as the piece progresses things happen and there are major changes in the various movements of the piece. I liked that track better than the two more singleminded live pieces. They are mere documents of a live action than thoroughly composed music, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.echomusic.gr
The correct website for Balloon and Needle (see last week) should be: http://www.balloonnneedle.com