AMPLIFIER MACHINE – HER MOUTH IS AN OUTLAW (CD by 12K) *
CHRISTINE SEHNAOUI & MICHEAL WAISVISZ – SHORTWAVE (CD by Al Maslakh) *
STEPHANE RIVES – MUCH REMAINS TO BE HEARD (CD by Al Maslakh)
DRONE LEBANON / WERTHAM – ROMA & YERUSHALAYIM (CD by Topheth Prophet)
UR – TRIEB (CD by Topheth Prophet)
TERMINAL SOUND SYSTEM – CONSTRUCTING TOWERS (CD by Extreme)
SANTIAGO LATORRE – OZBITA (CD by Accretions) *
AUTON – ANY WHERE OUT OF THE WORLD (CD by Structures Sonores) *
JOEL STERN – OBJECTS.MASKS.PROPS (CD by Naturestrip) *
LOREN CHASSE – THE FOOTPATH (CD by Naturestrip)
DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURES – ACTION AND JAPANESE DEMONSTRATION (CD by Fractal Records)
BLUERMUTT – DECIVILIZE AFTER CONSUMPTION (CD by Nexsound) *
AUN & ALLSEITS – IRRLICHT (CD by Oral) *
TRIO SOWARI – SHORTCUT (CD by Potlatch) *
DANIEL MENCHE & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – UNLEASH (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
B*TONG – STRUCTURES (CD by Noecho) *
TBH – BOOK OF SALMS (CDR by Noecho)
PICK UP – LOOP END (LP by Plinkity Plonk) *
PINKO COMMUNOIDS – VOLUME ONE (CDR by Inharmonik)
PARANOID FOUNDATION – LIFE DEATH INDIFFERENCE (CDR by Paranoid Foundation) *
FRANK ROWENTA – RAUMSTUDIEN #3 (2CDR by Gruenrekorder)
DAVID DANIELL – LOS JACINTOS (CDR by Antiopic)
DAVID DANIELL – THE HIDEOUT (CDR by Antiopic)
METATRONICS – METATRONICS: THRONE OF FOG (CDR by Scissor Death)
PSYCHEDELIC GUITAR ORCHESTRA – RAINBOW SABBATH (CDR by Scissor Death) *
DOG YEARS – FRANKENSTEIN SONGS (CDR, private)
STEINFELD – IM CHAOS GEBOREN (CDR by Tosom)
B-MACHINA/N.STRAHL N. – AUFRECHT IM TRUBEN SCHLAMM DER ZEIT (CDR by Tosom)
CONE – MASSIMO (3″CDR by Field Muzick)
DORNINGER – LOOPED NATURE AND MACHINES (3″CDR by Field Muzick)
AMPLIFIER MACHINE – HER MOUTH IS AN OUTLAW (CD by 12K)
Although the name Amplifier Machine is a new one to me, the members have ties to all sorts of other projects, which are also quite aline to me. There is James Dixon (of Swordfish, Supagroop and solo, on guitar, Korg and piano), Seth Rees (The Spheres, This Is Your Captain Speaking, I Want A Hovercraft, solo on drums, violin, samples, piano and guitar) and Alex Jarvis (Automatic, Black Cab, Registered Nurse, solo, on guitar and drums). The have a old warehouse where they play their music. Partly (and perhaps mostly) through improvisation they arrive at what can be heard here. Their rule is that whenever two players have settled, the third one has to change. How that works is not easy to hear here, which seems to be the edited down version of endless jams. Calm, slow, improvised. Those are the keywords for this music. At times I thought it sounded like AMM (especially the piano and the drums) meeting ambient music. Isolationist music it would have been called years and ears ago. I thought it was for various reasons a great release. Not simply because of the calm, improvised music that owes more to the world of improvised music, but also because its a fine departure for 12K out of the world of ambient and glitch music, music made with laptops, and moving into what seems, superficially, an entirely new field of music, but listen closely and you will find exactly the same ambient glitch quality that 12K is known for, except now it’s played on real instruments, by people who know what they are doing. A great release on all accounts. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
CHRISTINE SEHNAOUI & MICHEAL WAISVISZ – SHORTWAVE (CD by Al Maslakh)
STEPHANE RIVES – MUCH REMAINS TO BE HEARD (CD by Al Maslakh)
Maybe this is not so recent as it seems, but the liner notes are written in the present tense: “Micheal Waisvisz is a key figure in the live electronics scene’, which is true, but Waisvisz died in June of this year. However what is correct is that Waisvisz never released much of his music. On top of my head I only know a LP from the mid to late seventies. Here he plays ‘the hands’, one of his better known inventions of live sampling and by stretching his arms and hands he could alter the sound. He teams up for ‘Shortwave’ with Christine Sehnaoui who plays alto saxophone. There are six pieces of lively and wild improvisation. Sehnaoui’s saxophone bends in all sorts of directions, while Waisvisz bends things a bit further all the time. Totally free play among these two, and most of the times its hard to hear who is doing what, or one hears sounds that aren’t easy to understand (is that voice? I noted down). Quite energetic and wild, but there are also moments of introspection, relaxing and a gentle flow. These moments are rare, but provide a fine counterpoint in all the mayhem going on here. Quite fascinating, and quite an attack on the senses.
The soprano saxophone, as played by Stephane Rives, is the one and only instrument of ‘Much Remains To Be Heard’, although perhaps the word ‘How’ misses at the beginning? If the previous wasn’t ‘easy’, this one makes things even more difficult for the listener. Rives uses concentrated blocks of his playing, and cut these with some total silence in between. Over the course of one hour he gradually, dramatically changes his playing and things get really loud at somewhere at the forty-five minute point, when blocks are also longer, much longer. The pause between the pieces seems random. I thought this CD was quite an endurance test. Radical, almost feedback like sounds. Concentrated, but also a bit too difficult to hear. I like a good concept, but I also love a good piece of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.almaslakh.org
DRONE LEBANON / WERTHAM – ROMA & YERUSHALAYIM (CD by Topheth Prophet)
UR – TRIEB (CD by Topheth Prophet)
Two new albums from Topheth Prophet have been launched and once again it is seriously interesting materials that has been sent from the Israeli label. First album reviewed, belongs to some of the most interesting noise/power electronics heard for quite a while. Being a split CD, the album titled “Roma & Yerushalayim” presents two interesting artists from the power electronics scene, Israeli artist Drone Lebanon and Italian artist Wertham. Opening with Drone Lebanon, the opening track sends the listener into religious atmospheres of ritual chant. Shortly after religious act is being overwhelmed by crushing waves of destructive electronics wiping out any sign of musical tone. The combination of Middle-Eastern music culture and crushing symphonies is extremely effective. As the album develops, Drone Lebanon makes a slight change into more technoid sound worlds with the piece titled “Self hating jew” that reminds of early Wumpscut added some excellent black metal-sounding distorted vocals of Drone Lebanon. Other moments of Drone Lebanon takes the listener into ambient atmospheres, though don’t expect any sonic tranquillity from this guy. Second artist on the split album, Wertham, opens his part of the apocalyptic show with a sweet children’s choir, soon after completely destroyed by hordes of high frequency noise. The first piece from Wertham is a long epic piece of ambient noise, consisting of eastern chants, expressive noise moments, distant voices and buzz-drones. Though circulating in the same stylish spheres Wertham is slightly more subdued compared to the harsh sounds of Drone Lebanon. Though both artists should appeal to all listeners of grinding music. Next album from the Tropheth Prohpet label presents the Italian collaborative project, consisting of Federico Esposito and Mauro Sciaccaluga, that both originates from the hardcore punk-scene. In the UR-project, the two composers move into more introvert sound spheres of claustrophobic ambient noise. Containing four lengthy pieces of dark compositions, the expression is first of all built on thick drones that emerge from a combination of subdued noises, distant sounds of voices and industrial sounds. The atmosphere is apocalyptic and dark, with a psychedelic touch that sometimes reminds of earliest Pink Floyd thanks to the frequent use of distorted guitars and acid-like electronic soundscapes, especially on the final track “Happy hour (abattoir lounge)”. Where the first reviewed split-album was extremely upfront in style, this album demands for more deeply listening. (NM)
Address: http://www.topheth.org/
TERMINAL SOUND SYSTEM – CONSTRUCTING TOWERS (CD by Extreme)
Having existed in more than two decades, Australian label Extreme Records keeps pushing one explorative album after other out to the listeners of experimental music and sound art. One of the relatively new projects to be released on Extreme Records, comes from an artist who is also known as the man behind the Godflesh-reminiscent doom/industrial-project Halo. As Terminal Sound System, Sky Klein throws himself into the world of breakbeats – not the easy listening kind of the drum’n’bass-scene: Terminal Sound System has an experimental and crossover-oriented approach to the breakbeat-scene. Having released albums on US-label Relapse Records and Embryo Recordings, Terminal Sound System last year had the first album released on Extreme Records. It was the album titled “Compressor”. “Compressor” was an excellent piece of exploring breakbeats. Present follow-up titled “Constructing towers” is an even greater accomplishment. That the composer has a foot in the acoustic sound world easily comes clear as you let yourself drift through the streams of sonic complexity on the album. In some moments the music bounces between jazzy groove-spheres and upfront threatening darkside/techstep-structures. Destructive low-frequency bass-drones threatens to blow the hell out of the speakers meanwhile jazzy breakbeats calms the density (and probably saves the speakers) in accompany with funky guitar riffs and groovy synth-lines sometimes reminiscent of the jazz-legend Herbie Hancock on his computerised future jazz album “Future Shock” from 1983. Other moments Terminal Sound System moves into more alternative rock and noise rock oriented styles with distant vocals and a complex soup of breakbeat textures underneath. Thus Terminal Sound System brings the listeners into a great world of adventurous expressions. Everyone interested in exploring breakbeat-science will definitely have to check this out. Astonishing work! (NM)
Address: http://www.xtr.com
SANTIAGO LATORRE – OZBITA (CD by Accretions)
My first encounter with the work of Santiago Latorre, a musician from Barcelona. He plays an instrument that I am known not to like very much, the saxophone. But there is some quality about this recording which makes me likes this to some extent. Latorre plays the instrument since he was eleven years old, but over the years he developed an interest in electronics and that is something that is shown here. His saxophone is pretty regular, I think, by Vital’s experimental standards (say unlike the Rives CD reviewed elsewhere), and when the instrument appears naked by itself, such as in the opening ‘Canon’ (albeit playing with and against itself), its not the sort of thing I really like. However, when he starts using electronics things get more interesting. Stuttering, processed saxophone sounds, bouncing off and on, forming loops and are used in the bigger play of the real saxophone. Even drum machines start to play a role here. This makes a nice, yet not always original listening session, but it forms nice late night, jazz inspired music. A good sense of experiment, but never going over the top. (FdW)
Address: http://www.accretions.com
AUTON – ANY WHERE OUT OF THE WORLD (CD by Structures Sonores)
Swedish trio Auton is also a new name for me, and I am listening to this right after the Santiago Latorre CD (see above) and its in some way alike. Or let’s say it fits the time of the day. Auton is Douglas Holmquist, Rikard Heberling and Petter Samuelson. The first two were also part of Dr. Higgins, ‘a more synth driven band’, but here the music is rather ‘toned down’, or at least that is what I’m told, since I never heard Mr. Higgins. But playing this mood music for late evenings tells me I am right. There is piano, voices, percussive instruments (marimba? xylophone? – that sort of thing), a bass. A bit of jazz, improvisation, a bit of Gastr Del Sol, a bit of easy music. If in years to come, he will release nothing else, then he surely has a master piece released by Auton. Says Viktor Sjoberg, the head honcho of Structures Sonores, and I don’t agree. This is surely a very nice CD, very easy and great music for the later part of the evening, but its also a bit too fragmented, too much composed from loose ends, and maybe not as worked out as it could have been. Nothing wrong with that sketch like approach, but perhaps not the master piece. Yet. Maybe I’m wrong. Time will tell me, no doubt. (FdW)
Address: http://www.structuressonores.com/label
JOEL STERN – OBJECTS.MASKS.PROPS (CD by Naturestrip)
LOREN CHASSE – THE FOOTPATH (CD by Naturestrip)
Back in Australia for some time, or perhaps not. Joel Stern might be one of those nomad souls, wondering or wandering the planet and listening to what it might sound like, the world. Stern lived for a while in London where he was part of a young, lively scene of improvisers and field recordists. This CD can be seen as a culmination of work executed between 2001 and 2008 in a variety of places and with a variety of sounds. There is pipes, car radios, bulbul tarang, no input mixer, megaphone, pocket trumpet, doors and many more. Recorded in Lali Bela, Gonder, Ipswich, Brisbane, Pushkar, Luang Prabang and many more. Yet this all sounds remarkable coherent. At times you could all to easily think it’s just a bunch of field recordings picked up by some shabby microphones, or transmitted through the radio, but then all of a sudden, you realize this somebody who is playing the music. A melody or an instrument pops out. Music! Music rather than ‘just’ field recordings. Music in which the field recordings play an important, but not an all important role. The voices of far and wide are carefully placed in the music, music is played like it part of the field recordings, and music that is perhaps played ‘outside’, all carefully constructed, selected and edited to make this excellent release.
Although I know the name Loren Chasse for a long time, and even reviewed some of his music before, the man and his work always seem ‘closed’ to me. Chasse, who is also a member of Blithe Sons, Thuja, Jeweled Antler and Softwar among others, uses natural elements to create his music. Stones have a great interest to him, and also wind, leaves, sand, mud. The origin of ‘The Footpath’ lies in walking on a footpath on Mount Tamalpais and Russian Ridge Space Reserve and in ‘Arbor Pores’ the Black Rock Park. Both paths lead to multiple pieces, although one could easily say that’s impossible to hear, which is what. More like Stern, this is the work of field recording, even when one part of ‘Footpath Apparitions’ has some guitar and percussion like sounds. It seems to me that sounds are altered and processed afterwards to create a highly minimal sparse field (excuse the pun) of sound. No matter how much I like it, it still sounds ‘closed’ to me. I find it hard to say what it is that Chasse is after, or perhaps I think there is an element of hippyness in his music which I find hard(er) to cope with. If I remove all of that, and take the music face value, I quite enjoy the simplicity of both the action and the sound. Quite alright that is! (FdW)
Address: http://www.naturestrip.com
DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURES – ACTION AND JAPANESE DEMONSTRATION (CD by Fractal Records)
First of all a slight warning; I am a big DDAA-fan and I have quite a collection of their 40+ releases, so it isn’t easy to be fully objective about this, the first-ever reissue of their first album. Still, receiving a copy of this did make me go back and sit down and listen very carefully to the music again. First a little history for our younger audience. Deficit des Annees Anterieures or, in abbreviated form, DDAA; are one of the biggest names in experimental/industrial music. Formed by three artschool students (Jean-Luc André, Sylvie Martineau-Fée, Jean-Philippe Fée) in 1975, they are (amazingly enough) still active today, which I guess makes them the Rolling Stones of experimental music. However, in direct contrast with the Stones, DDAA have managed to remain a highly original sound unit over all these years. As new albums by DDAA are far and between (their last album was released a couple of years ago), this reissue of their first album from 1982 is most welcome. Originally privately released on their own Illusion label (who were also responsible for a plethora of vinyl and cassettes often in amazing complex handmade packaging), reading the sleeve notes to this can be slightly confusing. There is a lot of semi-intellectual talk of the Japanese Nebule, which is interesting and fun, but it isn’t always clear how this relates to the music. Leaning heavily on traditional theorism (hence the title) and DDAA’s imaginary travels to Japan, the music could best be described as somewhere between the Residents and a traditional Japanese band. Semi-acoustic string instruments are plucked and treated, there are trebly guitar intermissions and vocal chants with lots of room for improvisation and collages. This leads to naïve-sounding structures, but listening to the music is still strangely entertaining and rewarding. The full original LP is reproduced here with the original Musique et Bruits du Bas Pa-Tat tape (7 tracks dating from 1985 and much in the same vein as AAJD) as a welcome bonus. There are two further bonus tracks from the original sessions. Despite the fact that the cover is printed on somewhat flimsy material and my CD came without any protective inner sleeve, this is, for once, truly an essential reissue by one of the most original bands in the experimental/industrial DIY genre. If you don’t have the original vinyl, there is no longer an excuse for not having the music in your collection. As an aside; YouTube currently lists some interesting mid 80’s videos by DDAA. Here is the link to one of them: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAiVule4r7I>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAiVule4r7I. (FK)
Address: http://www.fractal-records.com/
BLUERMUTT – DECIVILIZE AFTER CONSUMPTION (CD by Nexsound)
The person behind Bluermutt is from Barcelona, but also lives in Amsterdam, and he is part of Mickey Eats Plastic and sometimes works as Crashbonsai. He likes creating music using computers. That is perhaps the thing that I learned from his website. He has a bunch of free tracks on Nexsound, who now release a CD of his work. I must admit I played this CD twice in a row. Not because I thought it was so great, but rather because it was early morning. I was getting up, looked at the ‘today’s pile of Vital Weekly’, and I scanned this briefly before, so it seemed like an appropriate thing to hear, starting the day. The bass I cut down a bit, but the eleven tracks rolled on, with IDM styled rhythms, glitchy sounds, female vocalists, guitars. I picked up the newspaper, ate a bit, drank some coffee, and then this was over. Damn. I think I didn’t get it quite right. So I played it again, made more coffee, finished the newspaper, checked e-mail. Its seems over again. Twice in a row, didn’t notice it that well, but on a third, more concentrating listening (making notes now), I thought it was quite a nice, if not ordinary release of home listening rhythmic music. Not great, not bad, positively in the way it uses various guestplayers, especially the various vocal bits. Certainly a great way of starting the day anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
AUN & ALLSEITS – IRRLICHT (CD by Oral)
The original idea was to use only a harmonica and call the album Harmonica. But it was a bit more so, and with the idea of krautrock in their mind they called the album ‘Irrlicht’, in reference to Herr Schulze. The starting point was still harmonica, but in addition to that Aun plays guitar, electronics and Allseits guitar, voice, electronics. Aun is Montreal based Martin Dumais, who already released work on Oral before. This is his first album in a series of collaborations Behind Allseits is one Nina Kernicke, from Bremen (Germany). Their concerts seem to be loud but the work at hand here is rather subdued and drone based, occasionally bursting out into more heavy ground. The Klaus Schulze references are never far away, even when Aun and Allseits stay in a much more abstract ground. The cosmos is not the blue sky, but the infinite and dark space that lies much further away. Spacious (oops there we go again) dark atmospheric music along the lines of Thomas Koner and more over Troum (with whom Allseits something collaborates). A dark sun, underwhich its hard to re-invent the tones, but where Aun and Allseits do a damn fine job. (FdW)
Address: http://www.oral.qc.ca
TRIO SOWARI – SHORTCUT (CD by Potlatch)
It only seems like yesterday, when I wrote: “As soon as a group of improvisers start working under the banner of a group name, one could say that there is a more or less permanent basis for concerts and recordings” about Trio Sowari. But it was in Vital Weekly 477. They now return with a new work. Trio Sowari consists of Phil Durrant (software sampler, treatments), Bertrand Denzler (tenor saxophone) and Burkhard Beins (percussion, objects, small electronics). Over a period of two days, late November 2006, they recorded the thirteen pieces on ‘Shortcut’. Perhaps the title is an indication of things to come: the short cut to make shorter pieces, as opposed to long pieces, which is more common in the field of improvisation. Here the first five pieces are connected, all very short, all dealing with ‘piercing’ sounds. There are also pieces here which are longer of course. There is however not much progression from the previous work, I think. I wrote back then: “Beins and Denzler play their instruments as objects, with Denzler occasionally blowing a few ‘real’ notes, but their playing works wonderfully well with Durrant electronica. It’s not easy to tell if Durrant is sampling the other two guys; it could very well, but maybe there is input of his sounds”, and still this stands firmly for this new release, albeit with shorter tracks. Its not that they seem to explore one specific topic per track, but rather do as they always do. Having said that this is still a work of great quality. Here are three people at work who know what they are doing, have mastered control over their instruments and the sounds they want to derive from it. If you never heard any music like this, you’ll be amazed. However if you did, then you will recognize the work of masters at work, ranging from subtle quality to loud outbursts. Once again, very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.potlatch.fr
DANIEL MENCHE & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – UNLEASH (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
Right now, I feel tired. Lots of things on my mind, lots of things to do. Yet I decided to play Daniel Menche and Zbigniew Karkowski’s first collaboration again. Perhaps the noise bath will refresh me. Who knows. These two heavy weights of the noise scene since long have worked together for the first time, and this ‘version’ is the mixed version by Daniel Menche – the one mixed by Karkwoski will be released later on. Its the economy, stupid. The music, one track, divided over six cuts for ‘easy listening’, is exactly what such a package would promise. Menche’s recent interest in slow, pulsating sounds, sometimes finding their origin drum sounds and Karkowski wall of digital noise make a perfect pairing on this release. Electronic sounds spark of like electrical currents in a big machine hall – the epicentre of all things electric. The electricity farm, the howl of machines in dying agony, the pleasure of aural pain, but with lots of clarity and keen eye for the detail – not just a blast, but a controlled attack, with lots of smaller events riding on the wave. Nothing new under the mighty noise sun, that pitched black shining star, but its something that true noise heads will love, and after a long and tiring day of doing all sorts of small things, this is the sort of ear cleaning, mind shattering kind of release that is necessary to get vital and lively again. Noise may be a dead end, but sometimes its alive and kicking brutally hard. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com
B*TONG – STRUCTURES (CD by Noecho)
TBH – BOOK OF SALMS (CDR by Noecho)
Music by B*Tong has been reviewed before, but when? The search engine has some difficulty, but as far as I can remember they were all on CDR. This might very well be his first real CD. B*Tong is originally from Sweden, but now lives in Basel and was once part of the duo NID. ‘Structures’ is inspired by a trip to Jukkaskarvi’s ice palace in Sweden, although I don’t believe this release deals with field recordings. Both music and inspiration recalls very much the work of the earliest works of Thomas Koner: icy fields of music, stale cold wind on your body, the mood is dark. Humming slowly, played on, perhaps, a bunch of analogue synthesizers and lots of sound effects. Perfect Isolationist drone music. There is never anything new under the ambient sun, it seems, but what B*Tong does here, can easily match his previous work – no, let me correct that: this is his best work to date. For all fans of Brian Eno, Thomas Koner, Biosphere and Troum: this is the new name to watch out for.
On the same label, but taking the format of a CDR, is tBH, a duo of one Kris Klubo and Tim Shireman, both former members of The Brainhole, am industrial/electronic outfit of whom I never heard. tBH started in 2007 and their music seems to be made during late night jam sessions. I am less enthusiastic about this than about B*Tong (so is the label, perhaps, otherwise they would have been granted a CD too?). The music is quite faceless and directionless electronics, which seem to have neither head nor tail. Five tracks spanning some twenty-five minutes, but I couldn’t get much joy out of it. Not really bad, but what is that they want, I thought. There is much room for improvement. (FdW)
Address: http://www.noechorecords.com
PICK UP – LOOP END (LP by Plinkity Plonk))
Frans de Waard’s fascination with that most popular of instruments the guitar is well-known. In the 90s he used the guitar as sole source of sound in his project Shifts. This despite the fact that De Waard couldn’t play the guitar in a traditional way to save his life. Shifts was therefore all about guitar-treatments. This resulted in a couple of albums, some really good (Trees/Leaves), some not that good (Pangea). After the demise (or should that be possible demise as De Waard leaves his Shifts-options open) of Shifts, De Waard has now formed another guitar-outfit. This one is called Pick Up (the name for the elements – copper wound spools – on the electric guitar, which transfer the vibration of the strings into sound). However, in Pick Up it is not De Waard who plays the guitar, he is responsible for the computer treatments of the sound, which is what he does best. The guitar itself is played by guitarist extraordinaire Martijn Luiten, who is an accomplished guitarist of the Japanese Makaboto/Haino-school, not afraid to improvise and make a structured noise. So what does the combination of these two spirits sound like? The album Loose End features 5 tracks. Side one starts with ‘Row’, a one-note droney opener with subtle treatments that gradually become more prominent. ‘Cone’ is quite different as here the guitar playing is more recognizable, loose tones are picked and string-scraping sounds can be heard. The open nature of the track allows the music to breathe more than the opening track. Side two hits off with ‘Portal’, which is my favorite track. We are treated to gated guitar chord playing, subtle and friendly. ‘Assignment’ is next. Easily the noisiest track of the album, but somehow also relaxed enough not to raise the pulse too much. The end fade is rather abrupt, which is one of the things I don’t like. Closing track ‘Loop Ends’ (not the title track of course, that should have been ‘Loop End’) is another favorite. Here Luiten plays the E-bow, a wonderful but difficult to play properly device that creates long, droney sounds on the guitar, combined with gentle finger picking, this is a fine ending of a fine album. Packed between two grey carton bits and with only the image of a package of guitar strings on the front (cleverly altered of course to read the title and the catalogue number), the package is as downbeat and minimal as the music. Personally (and knowing Frans de Waard’s love of DIY minimalism) that is fine with me, but somehow a splash more spendour in the packaging would have been a bonus. The music does deserve that. Loose End is one of those albums that is destined to sell out its 160 copies without any problem and then fade into obscurity. Until one day, when it will be re-discovered as a classic and you will tear your hair out for not buying a copy when you had the chance. (FK)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
PINKO COMMUNOIDS – VOLUME ONE (CDR by Inharmonik)
From Charlottesville in Virginia hails this trio
of Carey Sargent, Kevin Parks and Wendy Hsu. They play conventional instruments (guitars, accordions, percussion, found objects, circuits, microphones, electronics) in an unconventional manner, using ‘free and structured improvisation’, which sometimes is quite loud, earpiercing loud that is, but which can be gentle and soft too. They exist since 2006 and played thirty concerts, including ones in Taiwan. In the rehearsal space they recorded the three tracks that are now captured on ‘Volume One’, their first release, directed to two track and with no edits. It seems to me that per piece they use a limited amount of sounds, which they explore to the top. Bend it, rub it, hit it, softly, hard, barely, use a ventilator, sticks or just your hands. I think it works best when they have their material flowing gentle and soft, and let the sound explore itself as it were, rather than the somewhat louder parts, which are nice, but could have been better if they would use the space somewhere. It stays a bit flat here. But that’s mainly in the second piece ‘Gust’. The closing and longest piece ‘Dusk’ in which sounds are explored best in a calm and slowly unfolding manner. Quite a nice one this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pinkos.info
PARANOID FOUNDATION – LIFE DEATH INDIFFERENCE (CDR by Paranoid Foundation)
‘Life Death Indifference’ is the somewhat grim title of the fourth release by the Paranoid Foundation, a trio with one member responsible for the visual aspects, one for the texts and one for the music (their previous releases have been discussed in Vital Weekly 526 and 554). They are inspired by krautrock, industrial and punk and judging by the music here, they aren’t very much into changing their music. Two years have passed, but if I read my old review, it looks like very much the same as this one. “What I particularly didn’t like was the voice. A sort of dark mumbling voice, reciting texts, poetry (or how it’s called), and throughout each track in the same uninspired way. Music wise there was a bit of difference here and there”, to which I can add today, that there is lots of drone like synthesizers playing here, but that beats play also a role. Not really crispy fresh techno beats, but at times just hammering away, doodling about – I guess the krautrock/industrial influence. Its all a bit too grim for me, these stories from beyond the grave. I think if I had to choose, I’d say I rather stick one of the early Contrastate albums on, with whom Paranoid Foundation seem to share an interest in narration and dark ambient industrial music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.paranoidfoundation.com/
FRANK ROWENTA – RAUMSTUDIEN #3 (2CDR by Gruenrekorder)
Back in Vital Weekly 562 I reviewed the first installment of ‘Raumstudien’, the ‘come-back’ album by former HNAS associate Frank Rowenta and I honestly think he’s putting on some conceptual joke here. I wrote back then: “In a room there are ‘two automatic working rhythm devices’ which ‘modify themselves in a period of hours’ – otherwise there is no action going on in the room. Recorded to a c120 basf cassette (the orange ones for those who remember), so guaranteed also present is tape hiss. And that’s it. It’s music that one can stick on and leave it as such. It doesn’t require much concentration from the listener. It’s a study for your own space. As such it’s quite nice, but the full two hours is a bit much. Or perhaps not enough. Why not a MP3 CD with six hours of this? Quite ‘nice’, perhaps.” This new piece of two hours sound very much like that first installment (whatever to the second I don’t know), so why bother to write much a new review? I’d lie if I said I couldn’t wait for the next one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gruenrekorder.de
DAVID DANIELL – LOS JACINTOS (CDR by Antiopic)
DAVID DANIELL – THE HIDEOUT (CDR by Antiopic)
Almost six years ago I reviewed ‘Sem’ by David Daniell (Vital Weekly 356), the guitarist of San Augustin on Antiopic, which seems to be his own label. His name popped up an odd compilation and in the announcement section, but nothing new was heard by him. Now he returns with two releases on his own label, as part of the ‘Live Series’. He still plays the guitar, but no doubt with either lots of electronics or computer processing. The press text tells us about blues inspired free music, but its something I don’t hear very well. ‘Los Jacintos’ was recorded in Spain. Following a ten minute introduction organ like play, there is the guitar is glory. Quick finger picking (ok, some blues perhaps), feeding through delay machines. This fades over into a more drone oriented phase which concludes the piece.
‘The Hideout’ is of similar length and recorded in Chicago, in a place of the same name. It moves along similar lines, drones, lots of effects, fingerpicking guitar (acoustic it seems here), but the playing here seems a bit more tighter, more connected to eachother, with a finer balance between the electronics and the ‘real’ playing, which towards the very end sounds like Jim O’Rourke or John Fahey. Throughout a more concentrated piece of music, where the different parts make a better flow into eachother, than the somewhat more free form of ‘Los Jacintos’. Both discs however provide a fine look at his live work, and surely both of them made me curious to hear his new studio work. Its about time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antiopic.com
METATRONICS – METATRONICS: THRONE OF FOG (CDR by Scissor Death)
PSYCHEDELIC GUITAR ORCHESTRA – RAINBOW SABBATH (CDR by Scissor Death)
Nick Hoffman is the man behind Katchmare, Back Magic, Bumbrella Donkey and also responsible for the Scissor Death label. Together with Hank Hofler (also known as Oh Astro and Illegal Art) he is the duo called Metatronics. They are a laptop electronics duo and started out in 2005, and although ‘performances began to decline after they were ejected from a local coffee shop’, this is a live recording from November last year. Three pieces, one solo by Hoffman, one solo by Hofler and one, curious enough the shortest, a duo piece. Listening to the two solo pieces I can see why they play together. They share an interest in highly abstract electronics, with as a difference that Hoffman is the man for continuos sounds whereas Hofler has more broken up, collated sounds. His piece is perhaps a bit more structured, but Hoffman tends to go from loud to silent and plays the dynamic card more. Hofler takes the lead with the microtonal sounds in the duo piece, showing more fascination for Asmus Tietchens, but the sustaining sounds from Hoffman gradually take over.
In an edition of 25 copies only, but with a much, much nicer cover is the Psychedelic Guitar Orchestra, who played three times so far, with 21, 17 and 10 members for the gig. However on ‘Rainbow Sabbath’ its Nick Hoffman, him again, solo playing all the guitar parts (although not specified how many guitars are used per track). Apparently Terry Riley inspired the title, and if you hear the music you can imagine why this is. Repetitive guitar strumming, mixed with pieces played with e-bow or violin bows. A pretty neat, non-noise release of minimalist music. It doesn’t always work out fine, such as in the somewhat long ‘3 Drops In A Shallow Pool’, but for the other seven tracks, which are much more concise and to the point, are much more enjoyable. The combination of strumming, picking and droning make this into the best release I heard coming out of the house of Hoffman. (FdW)
Address: <bumbrelladonkey@hotmail.com>
DOG YEARS – FRANKENSTEIN SONGS (CDR, private)
Vital Weekly is, I think, officially listed to be ‘a good online review source’ in the British encyclopedia of New Wave (oh no, don’t google that, you’d look stupid, it’s a joke), and I’d kindly advise the editors of this (non-existant) encyclopedia to remove Vital Weekly from its listing. We get too many bad new wave, pub rock and sub rock releases that we really don’t like. Dog Years for instance. Bad songs, badly sung, uninspired. Hey, but what do I know? I don’t review this kind of stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://dogyearsmusic.blogspot.com
STEINFELD – IM CHAOS GEBOREN (CDR by Tosom)
B-MACHINA/N.STRAHL N. – AUFRECHT IM TRUBEN SCHLAMM DER ZEIT (CDR by Tosom)
For whatever not very interesting reason a lof of this week’s issue, and perhaps even next week’s is written in the evening and some of it with headphones attached to my head. For some other reason much of the music that ends up playing at this nightly hour is dark ambient. Its not a deliberate reason, it just happens to be that way. Steinfeld was already present on a Tosom compilation, and here they present their first album, born in chaos. Which chaos is unclear, as it seems to me that they have their act together. Climb down an old bunker, with a recording device and some metal sheets and recorded the rumble and dust of the bunker space and the scratching of metal plates. Maybe back home some ‘processing’ took place, adding or subtracting some frequencies to make things more dark. Here on headphones this makes some creepy music. At some seventy-three minutes one could wonder if this isn’t a bit long, as there is sometimes not a lot of variation between tracks and what they actually do per track. Some critical look at the material recorded could have done some miracles and would have made a more varied release. I’d leave off ‘Moloch’, which lives up to its title, for instance and seems out of place here, as well as a couple of tracks before that which seem to be the same.
N. Strahl N. has had a couple of releases, among others on Tosom, and here he teams up with B-Machina, whom we knew before as Bone Machine. Its a split release, with N. Strahl N. doing three tracks, lasting almost thirty minutes and B-Machina one track of about twenty-five minutes. M. Lohr, the person behind N. Strahl N. has come some way to move out of his noisy, industrial textures and now cooks up something that is much more interesting. Build on the foundations of field recordings, machine hum and water dripping, but also the repeating beating of laundry in the machine. His take on field recordings is quite different from the usual stuff in the field (pun intended). More ‘industrial’ than his peers, and more into the beautiful ugliness of sounds around. B-Machina plays one piece of twenty-five minutes dealing with synthesizers and tape-loops of an unidentified rhythmic nature. Its nice, but throughout there is not much variation to be spotted in this piece, making it unnecesary long and minimal for the wrong reasons. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tosom.de
CONE – MASSIMO (3″CDR by Field Muzick)
DORNINGER – LOOPED NATURE AND MACHINES (3″CDR by Field Muzick)
In the ongoing series of 3″CDRs on Field Muzick two new releases. The first is by Cone, one Hermann Blaupunkt, a guitarist from Lupu Negru and owner of the Studio Casa Cassette. Despite his German sounding name he is from The Netherlands. He recorded a bunch of sounds in Sicily (also the home of Massimo, the erstwhile noise glitch artist – where ever he is now?), which he combined with his guitar playing back in his studio in Eindhoven. Repetitive sounds played on the six strings, while adding nice field recordings from a theatre, a train and the beach. The field recordings play a small role here, but they certainly add a nice element to the bittersweet guitar melodies. A whole album would perhaps be too much, but this is a sweet appetizer.
Wolfgang ‘Fadi’ Dorninger has been active since the early nineties, starting out with a cassette label called Die Ind. He has also produced videos for Austrian bands like Monochrome Bleu, Josef K Noyce, Wipe Out and others. For this release he uses just field recordings, placing his microphone on such a place where it captures nature and technology – bird and cars passing, electrical currents and rain – that sort of thing. of the five tracks, four were recorded in one place and in one tracks two recordings are played at the same time. Sometimes he uses some processing, although its a bit unclear what this actually is. The outcome however is quite nice. The slight electric current (processing?) in some of this and the choice of sounds show that Dorninger is a man with some fine ears to the ground and offering some highly interesting field recordings. (FdW)
Address: http://fieldmuzick.net