Editorial news: we have decided to stop reviewing MP3 releases. Please do not send any discs with MP3 releases. Just send me an e-mail with a link and a short description, so people can download it. The amount of releases pile up every week and I can no longer devote time to MP3s. Whatever you see coming in the next few weeks are the last ones. Please do not send anymore. Also: releases that do not contain the original artwork will most likely be no longer reviewed. The real thing is necessary for a real judgment. If you wish to send us not the real thing, please contact us first. <vital@vitalweekly.net>
AP’STROPHE – OBJECTS SENSE OBJECTS (CD by Etude Records) *
PNDC & HOUSEWORK – SECONDHAND LANGUAGE (CD by Ammonite Records) *
DARIO SANFILIPPO – PREMIO MALATTIA (CD by Creative Sources)
BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER – CROWS EAT THE EYES FROM THE LEVIATHANS CARCASS (CD by Release the Bats)
RYOSUKE HASHIZUME, TAKUMI SEINO, MASAKO HAMAMURA, YASUTAKA YOROZU – NEEDFUL THINGS (CD by Grapes Records)
ORFEO 5- A YEAR ON THE ICE (CD by Word Hoak)
ANDREA NEUMANN – PAPPELALLEE 5 (CD by Absinthe Records) *
PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT – AUSTERE (CD by Monorail Trespassing) *
OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD/BARK HAZE (7″ by Krayon Recordings)
GOLDEN OAKS THREE BILLION – WEEKEND PICNIC (CDR by Krayon Recordings) *
PRAM WRECKER – ALPINE (CDR by Krayon Recordings)
MASKINANLEGG VS. SOLVEIG KJELSTRUP – SOLVEIGS LIED REMIXED (CDR by Stront Tapes)
ROBERT WITT – MIDAZOLAM (CDR by Esc Rec) *
BOE – LOW HARBOUR (CDR by Twilight Luggage) *
JOE FRAWLEY ENSEMBLE – EMPEROR OF DAFFODILS (CDR, private) *
MUSO FANTASMA – SE PUEDE BAILAR CON LOS DEMONIOS PERO SIEMPRE EN ACTITUO DE FIESTA (CDR by Moremars)
DIATRIBES WITH DRAGOS TARA AND PIERO SK – L’INSTANT D’APRES (CDR by Moremars/Insurdinations)
ADAM TRAINER – TWICE WORN (CDR by Hello Square Recordings) *
FELICTY MORGAN – HALF FINISHED WORLD (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings) *
STRATEGY – SINES OF LIFE (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings) *
CLEPTOCLECTICS – OPEN TUNED OCCIDENTALS (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings) *
NOISE VS. SUBVERSIVE COMPUTING (1GB USB Stick by Computationally Infeasible Records)
COLLIN THOMAS – WINDOWS/WALKS (MP3, private) *
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New MP3 Releases
ANNOUNCEMENTS
AP’STROPHE – OBJECTS SENSE OBJECTS (CD by Etude Records)
The press text for this release gives a pretty complicated text about the title, which deals with a philosophical explanation of ‘improvisation’, which I somehow fail to comprehend, but Ap’strophe is a duo of Ferran Fages on acoustic guitar and Dimitri Lazridou Chatzigoga, of whom I never heard, on zither. They worked together on Fages’ last guitar album ‘Cancons Per A Un Lent Retard’, in which they worked with detuning guitars, and it inspired them to go on and work on new material. That resulted in this album ‘Objects Sense Objects’, which has four pieces. The shortest is just under six minutes while the longest is thirty-one. That deems to me that this is all a bit long. It’s almost an hour worth of improvised music ‘scored’ (?) for two acoustic instruments, and its an extensive exploration of the instruments used here. Things ramble, detune, pluck and hit. Due to the extensive character of the pieces I thought this was best enjoyed while sitting back and let the music come over the listener, and not by trying to fully concentrate on each specific sound event happening. That seems to be too much asked from the listener. If you want to do that, I’d say take this in smaller quantities. But taken as a bath of sound to immerse yourself in, I think this is a fairly good album of sound explorations and improvisations for two instruments. Maybe I should try and understand the text better to see if I missed a point. (FdW)
Address: http://www.etuderecords.com
PNDC & HOUSEWORK – SECONDHAND LANGUAGE (CD by Ammonite Records)
The music of Predrag Nedic, known as PNDC was a pleasant surprise back in Vital Weekly 616, not because he had the most original sound in the world, but his ‘Fading Away’ release was a nice break in all the hiss and buzz of Vital Weekly. Back then I didn’t use the word unVital, but the music had not much to do with our daily digest of disturbances. Present in some ways on ‘Fading Away’ a greek singer called Housework, known as Thanos Vavaroutas to his friends. The prolific Nedic also works as Keep Away From Heat, but that’s a more synth/techno pop inspired band. ‘Secondhand Language’ is his second full length as PNDC and now Housework gets full credit too. If I understand correctly they exchange sound files over the internet and do not meet up in the studio. That’s something we hardly could hear on this release and that also goes for this new release. Vocals and instruments seem to be in perfect harmony. The music is still a fine blend of new wave with a love of the somewhat darker undercurrents. Its one man new wave, as lots comes out of boxes, rhythm machines, sound effects and on top guitars and the vocals of Housework. In the long ‘The Fix’ the darkness reaches a peak with a film noir like soundtrack, and that’s a thread that goes through almost the entire album. A great album, once again, but maybe it should be more poplength, say thirty-five minutes, with just the very songs of it. No potential hit material here either, so it doesn’t fulfill its pop sensitives just yet. But that may come, due time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ammonite.co.rs
DARIO SANFILIPPO – PREMIO MALATTIA (CD by Creative Sources)
Dario Sanfilippo work is “experimental” using “non-linear DSP systems through feedback-networks” and “environmental recordings”. What we have then is a mixture of electronic feedback sounds and glitches which could well be ‘found’ sounds which populate the 7 tracks of varying length. Its difficult to know just what kind of aesthetic is being deployed/explored here. In the context of experiment the sound textures as the tracks length’s appear fairly arbitrary and improvised. Not that I’m asking for such pieces to be “explained away” but I do think they require some guidance as to just what is going on. An experiment – or the idea of experimentation has to have some kind of framework within which to evaluate its success or failure, otherwise the open ended ness defeats any selection or choice in the matter. So this is a difficult and confusing disk. (jliat)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER – CROWS EAT THE EYES FROM THE LEVIATHANS CARCASS (CD by Release the Bats)
Very funny – black on black printing – I have also just received a USB release whose accompanying text was microscopic- but advertised itself as audio/software made in part by hackers – kind of poison pie factory product? Do they honestly think I’ll run the thing – well I will but not on this c09$%^5645860&^%8er. CETFTLC is essentially horror movie soundtracks kind of thing. Ambient soundscapes. It documents several previous releases with
newer material. I’ve mentioned this before but there does seem to be in the
USA an interest in horror of this kind which might be genuine? It doesn’t cross the Atlantic well, and I suspect it’s a cultural phenomenon. Those of us who live in Europe are aware of a history which does go back to real dark ages, a village I once lived near still has the stocks, where I live now has a water pump in the square which served also a lockup – (prison) and supports a metal beacon for warning and celebrating, the pub opposite when re-decorated a Childs boot was found up a chimney and its common to find under old doorsteps dead / buried cats. I think maybe some Americans (not natives) feel cut off from this past, and it makes my review therefore difficult. CETFTLC sounds fairly gentle- not particularly frightening, but I want to pay it respect in case it is serious. Here they appear like the fun fare ghost train and joke shop novelties, but then that’s perhaps because you can in Europe glimpse the “real thing.” Though places like Warminster have a certain reputation its really old hippies and crystals, but I remember once visiting Ashby de-la Zouch in Leicestershire – an area known for active serious witchcraft, and visiting a magic shop off the high street was not funny, hippy or amusing. Not that there might be any real supernatural events – that doesn’t prevent the occult violence that does take place in communities across the UK, that is real enough. But then the label is from Gothenburg – in Sweden which further complicates the matter. So is it some pesky kids joke, but even then in the non-supernatural there is a psychology of unconscious archetypes – so its either harmless nonsense or harmful nonsense – so be careful there. (jliat)
Address: http://www.releasethebats.com/rtb44.html
RYOSUKE HASHIZUME, TAKUMI SEINO, MASAKO HAMAMURA, YASUTAKA YOROZU – NEEDFUL THINGS (CD by Grapes Records)
This one falls outside the scope of Vital Weekly. So I will be short on this one, although we reported earlier on releases from Grapes Records. We are meeting here an excellent jazz quartet. With exception of the bassplayer all members contributed compositions for this record. But in fact all pieces are shaped by the improvisational labour of all four members. They are caught here on superb live recording, all done on one day in November 2008. No doubt, everything is done excellent here, but why is the question I ask myself. It all sounds all too familiar for me. Much of the usual jazz esthetics and vocabulary passes by, so that it did not attract much of my attention. It is a language that does not really talk to me. They play classical jazz of a strong lyrical character and content, sounding civilized and clean. They make up a really good team. The playing is very together and coherent. The bass and guitarplayer satisfied me most. The saxplayer has his weak moments. All in all, you won’t burn your fingers on this one, no breaking new grounds, just a good professional job of jazz-lovers. (DM)
Address: http://www.grapesmusic.com/
ORFEO 5- A YEAR ON THE ICE (CD by Word Hoak)
In the included letter Orfeo 5 write they count Jon Hassell, Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and Nils Pieter Molvaer to their influences. This feeds our expectations concerning this self-conscious collective. But first who are they? It is a duo of Shaun Blezard (electronics, processing) and Keith Jafrate (saxophones). The project started in 2002 and after many line-up changes they are ready now for their first release “A Year on the Ice”. It contains six improvisations that were recorded live at The Word Hoard in Dean Clough, Halifax.
In the opening title track, sax and electronics are both constantly in the game. Neither of them ever takes a pause . The improvisation has something of a restless meandering river in a landscape. In all improvisations the duo takes time to develop things. It is a sort of minimal jazz, sometimes reminding of work by Terry Riley and Hugh Hopper. To my perception the going together of sax and electronics has two sides. On the one hand both are clearly on the same journey. In other respects and at other moments the music sounded like two parallel worlds that have a lot in common but do not really meet. An experience that I know also from other collaborations between acoustic and electronic instruments. In a track “I looked back” the electronics are in function of the saxplaying becoming an extension of it. In fact a real confrontation or battle between sax and electronics is missed in all tracks on this CD. “Later and later” is the exception. Here electronics produce a steady beat plus some wild improvisations. (DM)
Address: http://www.wordhoard.co.ok/
ANDREA NEUMANN – PAPPELALLEE 5 (CD by Absinthe Records)
Like Andrea Neumann in Berlin I share my house with others, who aren’t musicians and who are away most of the time during the day, so I can work for you on my reviews in relatively quietness. But just how quiet is quiet anyway. On a bright sunny day I open my balcony doors and in the back there is a pet store, with some tropical bird that never gets sold – too noisy probably. Neumann wanted to work on a CD playing the inside piano (her tool of trade) and mixing desk, which required lots of complete silence. Hard in a house with Axel Dörner (trumpet player), Tony Buck (drums), Angela Ballhorn (piano) and her student on the flute and Ekke Pilz playing a CD. Like on a suggestion by Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies’, she decided to use the sounds heard in a new piece. Recorded inside her own room are the sounds produced by the others and Neumann’s own inside piano playing. This is of course where you have to crank up the volume to quite some extent before hearing anything but then it will reveal lots of information. Heavy noise, low trumpet rumble, an occasional plink and plonk on the inside piano. All in a great textured piece, with besides all of this, also silence. A refined composition arises of blocks of sound, blocks of silence and sometimes both. Even with open balcony doors a great work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.absintherecords.com
PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT – AUSTERE (CD by Monorail Trespassing)
When Jonathan Borges was sixteen he started Pedestrian Deposit, which was in 2003. In the early days it was all about harsh noise, which lead to various releases on RRRecords, Hospital Productions and his own Monorail Trespassing label. I don’t believe I heard any of those, and he had been quiet since 2006. In silence he worked on ‘Austere’, a new label which included besides Borges also Shannon Kennedy, who plays here violin, cello and various bowed metal objects. After reading all of this on the information I expected some harsh noise thing and surely there are moments of loud outbursts, I didn’t take the title in account: this is certainly a work of austerity. The overall sound has mellowed down, and that surely benefitted the end result of this. Pedestrian Deposit works with electronic sound means, synthesizers perhaps, processed feedback and/or electronics and they appear at times in monolithic blocks, ney walls of sounds. But in making things more mellow he allows himself to actually compose with the sound material. Bringing in things like crescendo and decrescendo makes this noise much more interesting that just a howl of feedback. Tension, which should be the first and important thing of all good music, is not achieved by just a wall of sound, but as something that holds your attention and brings out real tension. In the fourth and fifth piece certainly getting closer to ambient then to noise, this is a great CD of intelligent noise music. Perhaps to the more narrow-minded a case of betrayal, but so be it then. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monorailtrespassing.com
OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD/BARK HAZE (7″ by Krayon Recordings)
GOLDEN OAKS THREE BILLION – WEEKEND PICNIC (CDR by Krayon Recordings)
PRAM WRECKER – ALPINE (CDR by Krayon Recordings)
A new label it seems to me, and they like their things droney and noisy, as proven by these two releases. Bark Haze is Andrew McGregor (whom I don’t know) and the everlasting Sonic Youth Thurston Moore and their side of the 7″ is an affair of surpressed feedback guitar noise and low humming drones. Not the best in the suppressed field of this kind of music, but nevertheless it lives, hums, and feeds nicely. The other side is Campbell Kneale’s new project Our Love Will Destroy The World with a great tune for rotating sounds on the guitar and lots of sound effects swirling about, with some weird percussive ‘bang’ every now and then. Here the noise prevails over the drone and it makes a great piece. Top heavy yet with many details which is one of the things that lacks with Bark Haze.
On CDR format we come across the Golden Oaks Three Billion again, whose previous release on Dead Sea Liner was reviewed two weeks ago. Here again two pieces of drone music, built from ‘primitive tape loops, guitar and electronics’ and some ‘antique clarinet vibrations’ and whereas I wasn’t too pleased with the previous one, I must say that ‘Weekend Picnic’ is quite nice. The drones are woven more finely. Highly minimal like loops always seem to do, and in both pieces here the clarinet plays free tunes on top of those. Maybe as a loop too, but somehow I think its played live on top of the drones. The recording quality seems to me to be improved and the music benefits from that in a great way. Again, not too long this release, but for what it is this seems to be the right length.
No information on the Pram Wrecker CDR. Boxes of ‘Alpine’ (water? beer?) are shown in the Warholian cover, so let’s call this ‘Alpine’ and its a twenty-two minute guitar and distortion piece, highly minimal. It sounds like the guitar is burned down, or perhaps some sound effect that makes the sound a bit more vibrant. It grows over its course in intensity, but sadly it didn’t do much for me I must admit. Sort of substandard guitar noise music, that never grabs the listener. In a live concert situation I can imagine this to be good though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.krayonrecordings.net
MASKINANLEGG VS. SOLVEIG KJELSTRUP – SOLVEIGS LIED REMIXED (CDR by Stront Tapes)
To state the liveliness of the world of CDRs this is probably the most ultimate item on the scene as it is released by no less than ten different labels around the globe, including two Chinese labels, two Dutch and three in Norway. Mine has got a stamp from Stront Tapes, so that’s why I list only this one in the header. The basic thing here is a phone conversation, in Norwegian, between Maskinanlegg and Solveig Kjelstrup of Fe-mail, who is asked to produce some sounds with her voice, which she does. This sound file gets send to thirteen different ‘remixers’, who use this phone conversation as the starting point of a new composition. More file sharing! I expected, perhaps for no good reason, a whole bunch of noise to be blasting from my speakers, but actually lots of players add synthesizers and rhythm machines to create some fake ‘techno’ like music with the phone conversation on top, sometimes sampled. A bit of noise is at the end with contributions of Torstein Wjiik, Tombre En Combat! and Ncht. Best pieces are also at the end by Iversen, with some great suppressed noise and the collage cut-ups of Pal Asle Pettersen. The idea is quite nice, the execution perhaps a bit so so (two different sources mixed together, rather than taken apart and reconstructed), but with great intentions. And with so many labels: in a shop nearby you! (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/odalnoise
ROBERT WITT – MIDAZOLAM (CDR by Esc Rec)
The man who started his career a double remix project ‘Grannittin’, which was based on a recording of knitting (see Vital Weekly 545) and then ‘SSRI’ (see Vital Weekly 578), now returns after a two hiatus with ‘Midazolam’. Its a work in two parts: the first seven pieces can be downloaded from the label’s website and are each four seconds in length. That is: on the CDR. And they are all blank, but you can download the real thing from the website. It sort of eludes me why there is 30 seconds of silence at the beginning. Witt still samples the hell out of anything he can put his finger on, but whatever he does to it makes it that we don’t know what it is that he sampled. The cover doesn’t give us a clue in that respect. On the six tracks on the CDR release we get a bunch of Chain Reaction like rhythm based music. Deep bass loops, tons of plug ins are applied and the end result is music that is certainly rhythmic but never close to becoming dance music. Certainly in the last track ’13’ this is the case. It comes close to the world techno, but is not quite ‘it’. Microsound, ambient glitch and rhythm combined in what seems to be not an entirely original thing but that is nevertheless quite nice.
In the download album of the seven ‘opening’ pieces (numbered 1 to 7) the absence of rhythm is to be noted. Here Witt goes all the way out into Ambient land, with still highly processed blocks of sound. Deep, dark and highly atmospheric. Monolithic in shape. Things start and stay in what they develop in the first few seconds of the composition. Everything uses also lots of computer processing. The other side of the same coin, music without the love of rhythm. Very nice too, but what I don’t understand is why Witt didn’t choose to release the best of both worlds into one CDR? (FdW)
Address: http://www.escrec.com
BOE – LOW HARBOUR (CDR by Twilight Luggage)
This might not to be the Boe we know, Tore H, as this Boe is Berre Myklebust from Bergen, Norway and not from Trondheim. He plays improvised music and does everything himself, probably however not at the same time. he plays bass, percussion and guitars and in the opening ‘Black Sea’ with some urge and intense outbursts. And although Boe likes his things to be ‘heavy’, all recorded ‘direct in your face’, he is not shy for a quieter moment. ‘Sounds From Low Harbour’ is such a piece. Me thinks he recorded the drum/percussion part first and then added the guitars and bass. The six tracks show an interesting variety of moods and textures, but the main focus is always ‘loud’ and ‘present’. In ‘Thieves’ things are pretty chaotic with a love of distorting guitar sounds. The best pieces are those in which he brings in the dynamics – a different between soft and loud, such as in the aforementioned ‘Sounds From Low Harbour’ or ‘Transmission (1946)’. Quite furious at times. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twilightluggae.com
JOE FRAWLEY ENSEMBLE – EMPEROR OF DAFFODILS (CDR, private)
One of the more interesting people I came across with in recent years is Joe Frawley, who released a bunch of really good CDRs of his version of plunderphonics, radio collage and musique concrete. Now he has an ‘ensemble’ which is himself on piano, found sounds and electronics, and by electronic mail delivery Greg Conte on guitars and Rachel Rambach on voice. A daffodil in French is a narcisse, named after the mythic figure in love with himself. Apparently on the internet there a videos of young woman doing her make-up and looking at herself and these fascinating videos (more than a dozen actually) lead to this work for the ensemble, his most ‘programmatic’ until now (as opposed to ‘absolute’). A sort of a small opera piece, in which the beautiful voice of Rachel Rambach sings the word ‘Lipstick’ in the track of the same name over and over again. She sighs, signs, speaks, while the guitar and piano provide a dreamlike soundtrack, added with extra layers of spacious electronics. This dwells less on the musique concrete part of his previous work (despite the sound of a photo camera in ‘Masque’ for instance), but rather seems to be working towards a finished song structure. This break with the past is quite nice (but not yet necessary, as I thought Frawley hadn’t explored his full possibilities in that respect), and the expansion shows he can do so much more. This is another great work by Frawley, dream pop like. I didn’t think it was possible. (FdW)
Address: http://www.joefrawleymusic.info
MUSO FANTASMA – SE PUEDE BAILAR CON LOS DEMONIOS PERO SIEMPRE EN ACTITUO DE FIESTA (CDR by Moremars)
DIATRIBES WITH DRAGOS TARA AND PIERO SK – L’INSTANT D’APRES (CDR by Moremars/Insurdinations)
Two releases from the new greek cdr-label Moremars, one being a collaboration with the swiss netlabel Insubordiantions. With the release by Muso Fantasma we are presented to a duo from Spain: Pedro Amodio (voice, lyrics, samplers and efects) and Adriana Petit (voice, lyrics, samplers, keyboard, electric guitar, industrial percussion). Their debut was recorded in 2007 and 2008 “between” Mallorca and Madrid. The tracks on this CDR can be divided roughly into two parts. The first part consists of pieces where they flirt with of old music recordings, like old tango music in ‘Tango Maldito’. Not so strange as Amodio comes originally from Argentina. And also not so strange these tracks have a strong nostalgic flavor. This is absolutely not the case with the pieces that belong to the other part. These are built around primitive beats and simple rhythms, like “Mente Terrenal”. In both cases spoken word is often prominently added. So it helps if you understand spanish. The term collage comes most close, I guess, to how this music came about. This is also reflected in the artwork on the cover, etc. With these strange amalgam of influences Amodio and Petit create their own personal world, that is musically spoken not of great interest.
On ‘L’instant d’apres’ something completely different is going on. It documents a fruitful collaboration of Diatribes, a promising outfit from Geneva, that has been reviewed earlier for Vital Weekly. Here they join forces with Dragos Tara, a rumanian artist living in Switzerland who studied at the conservatory of Geneva. He played in several rock, jazz, classical and what have you more combinations. Nowadays he is mainly active in projects of improvised music. The information concerning the other musician that takes part in this project, Piero SK, is a bit more mysterious and doubtful. From what I understand he is an autodidact working in the fields of theatre, writing and music. Tara plays doublebass and Piero SK soprano saxophone. They don’t play together. In one track Tara participates, in the other Piero Sk, and so on. Making up a trio with Diatribes who are of Cyril Bondi (drums, percussion) and D’Incise (laptop, objects, live treatments). The cdr contains seven improvisations recorded in Geneva and Lausanne in 2008. The drumwork by Bondi is the dominating force in most of these improvisations. In the opening track “Entorse aus textures” his drumming is like a constant ever changing stream, putting different accents all the time. The bass by Tara moves in many different corners and edges. A very engaging improvisation, with laptop input by D’Incise that is not to be underestimated.
The second track “Le givre” is a more open and closer to silence, with long notes played by the saxplayer. All improvisations are full of tension and delicate. There is nicely intertwined communication playing by drums, sounds and bass and sax. High quality improvisations. (DM)
Address: http://www.moremars.org/
ADAM TRAINER – TWICE WORN (CDR by Hello Square Recordings)
FELICTY MORGAN – HALF FINISHED WORLD (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings)
STRATEGY – SINES OF LIFE (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings)
CLEPTOCLECTICS – OPEN TUNED OCCIDENTALS (3″CDR by Hello Square Recordings)
Four new releases by Hello Square, and the first one is the only full length release. Its by Adam Trainer, who was a member of Polaroid Ghost and 29 Megacycles and shared a split release with label boss Shoeb Ahmad last year for the same label. It doesn’t say on the cover what he uses, sound wise, but judging by the musical content, I’d say it has a lot of field recordings, lots of processed guitars and a piano here and there. Seven pieces in total and its sounds pretty decent. Like so many thing that have Fennesz as its reference, Trainer does a nice job, without trying to be utterly ‘new’. He stays a bit more on the ‘music’ and less on the glitch side of things, which makes this quite enjoyable for those who think glitches are too alien. For whatever lazy reason I played this twice in a row – not wanting to get out of my chair and switch the CD I guess, and it sort slowly grows on me, plus it has a very relaxing touch to it.
The set of three inch CDRs are all packed in felt, black, white and red, and may belong to eachother, but I’m not sure. Berlin based Felicity Morgan already released her ‘Half Finished World’ in 2005 and its music for a dance piece by Julia and Phoebe Robinson. Now its re-released in an edition of 10o for a ‘wider audience’. Hello Square calls it ambient music, and that’s true. The music is soft and not outspoken and seems to be dwelling on ‘atmospheres’. Quite minimal and totally derived in the digital domain it seems. That makes this more ambient glitch then regular old school, synth based ambient music I guess. Nice and too short this one. For a late night CD this could have easily lasted 45 minutes.
Paul Dickow is Strategy, and probably from Australia, although I’m not sure. Otherwise I still know nothing about him. His ‘Sines Of Life’ is an almost nineteen minutes improvisation of electronics, ‘recorded in one take’, using Audiomulch, guitar, Yamaha DX100 and ‘other electronics’, and is based around a not so fast sequencer pattern and swirling electronics around it. Think ‘E2-E4’ without the complexity, the longitude but simpler, like an excerpt of it. Its quite an alright piece of music and with the right length to stay in this minimal pattern. Ambient meets a bit of techno, but they don’t get around to dance.
I don’t think I heard of Cleptoclectics either, who present their second release with ‘Open Tuned Occidentals’, after a release on Feral Media. Seven tracks here, all around two to three minutes. I think its an one man band, armed with a sampler to plunder around from the world of musical history. Hands on the keyboard to play various tunes with various keys, so its goes up and down the scale. Added are a bit of vinyl scratches and one-off sounds, to make a dense pattern of sound, too dense at times. Overall this kind of plunderphonics is not too well spend on me. Maybe a bit too easy made, or something like that, but it didn’t grab me very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hellosquarerecordings.com
NOISE VS. SUBVERSIVE COMPUTING (1GB USB Stick by Computationally Infeasible Records)
Two groups on a 1 gb usb drive (though just over half is used). A novel idea with 10 contributions from each. Achenor – “Noise Steganography” embeds data in noise .WAVs by altering the lowest byte of the two byte PCM data, though this project assumes noise is sufficiently chaotic it might not be (in certain definitions its not)- you would hear its effect in a PCM stream of 4’33”- the limit of discernibly is about 2 to 3 bits, so why not just alter the lowest *bit* of the signed integer, a single bit change is *not* noticeable, and given 88200 samples per second that’s 11025 bytes – and so far this review has only used 600 or so. Netglitch- a project by ASHRAE uses data from a network (sniffer) attack to generate midi data, (packet drip- odd distortions across the stereo field – and an out of focus MP4 of how it was done?). SIFTING THROUGH THE NOISE runs a speech to text program on random web speech data, it then analyses this data in respect of larger systems – which probably already exist in FBI / CIA sites- Wiki gives Google’s @ 450,000 servers, which cost @ 24 million USD a year in electricity… Another project EK’s “Rainbow” explores synesthesic ideas – (piano chords? And white noise) G0rg0g0l is supposedly a noise search engine? – but in
reality only returns 4 hits, that’s 4 for “jliat” (Google gives 5,890) 4 for
“Merzbow” (454,000) and 4 for “Beatles” (53,700,000)..? What remains is a poem, “I sing riot songs and bring noise to the apocalypse”. Pascal Cretain – “Information Pollution” – a well conceived noise video of computer images and desert landscapes with an audio track of different spoken languages which builds into noise(HN), and Rodrigo Marcos Alvarez – creates mySql functions for playing noise and using a text to speech engine. Perhaps interesting and certainly its welcoming to see collaborations but (ah! but) the real subversiveness of the datasphere is in the illusion that the free play of the “hacker” is something of a threat, whereas they are unpaid ‘sniffers’ for the corporate capitalists to follow. i.e. does Mr Alvarez want to be considered subversive – might not this damage the reputation of *his* company whose accounts I can view for the sum of £18.00. As capitalism is a flow without codes it is able to territorialize – deterritorialize much of this. (All of this @ my most nihilistic) The noise community is less dependent on being pseudo-parasitical – (actually symbiotic) and is able to encode its flows- not as anti-art or art but as both – which probably accounts for Deleuze being the new Mr Cool. But the audio presents another problem – eclecticism. briefly- BBBlood – Bicep Venoms Gut Virus by Paul Watson is a good mix of HN using a plethora of sources. Odd Config.sys – “Bit Bucket” is this techno???? – Family Battle Snake – Black Hat synth noodlings .a typical lópez (untitled #223) at first seeming empty – clicks and deep bass sines – GEN 26 – “Untitled” – static noise fairly continuous – Hellboy106 – “stgzknmhtrka”–manipulated sounds and speech – “hacking” -ILIOS – “4000 ?evaloj kriegas Mi ami Vi” continuous industrial noises — Kommpound soft mod – industrial REVERB (.rtf re moding xbox??) JQR – RE:if you are angry don’t–noise using (obvious) drum loops – & distortion — Sarah’s Charity – “Colour of Clarity” – more industrial side of noise. Obviously the López “earns” its place though not noise as such and undermines the idea of obfuscation in the Achenor piece – a byte in a López work is doing a fair amount of work! – apart from that there its generally an industrial mix excepting the odd inclusion of the techno dance of Config.sys. A 20 artist comp of noise and differing software products makes reviewing difficult/superficial? – and definitions of noise are notoriously problematic – but here there is a factual contradiction. An interesting idea- more collaboration might have helped – as noise is a key factor in information processing – “data without meaning” – so similar to (not wanted) and different from the computer virus which *has* organisation. Not that obviously realized here with the notable exception of Pascal Cretain. And here a simple definition of what noise as striving (becoming) for (a line of flight) if failing to achieve. a nomadic trajectory re
meaning – attempting not to be deterritorialized at the same time reterritorializing its history- (music). And one last consideration must be the fetish of the material consumerist/capitalist object – “a stick” rather than the more obvious ‘open source’ why so? Well even Deleuze comodifies himself with his signature? As do i- where? (jliat) here!
Address: http://www.myspace.com/pascalcretain
COLLIN THOMAS – WINDOWS/WALKS (MP3, private)
Back in Vital Weekly 655 I reviewed ‘For The Painters’ by Collin Thomas, which was inspired by various painters and Thomas used percussion and processing thereof as his tools of trade. This new album is however something else. No percussion as far as I can tell, but as extensive use of field recordings and ‘a small amount of instruments’, as Thomas writes. That may include a piano, I think. A few nights ago I woke of heavy thunder. As it was six in the morning, the birds were already up. After a giant thunder, one could hear just the birds and then slowly heavy rain came, which died out rather quickly, and the birds and occasional thunder remained. As a musical event I thought that was beautiful. But it wasn’t captured on tape, so was it music? I wish I did a recording and maybe added some piano, but it seems not necessary. The field recordings made by Thomas seem to me sound events that happen too, like rain at night, ice hitting the window and other watery events. Collins sits back and watches things happening, sometimes tinkling the piano. He may have added a bit of processing afterwards, but if so, he kept that to a strict minimum. This music is what Brian Eno intended when he thought of Ambient music. Music that surrounds you. Best played at a low volume, doors and windows open, and let whatever is happening on this disc tickle through with what whatever is happening around you. Nice one. Should have been a CDR release! (FdW)
Address: http://www.collinthomas.net
New MP3 Releases:
1. From: Recycling Records <recyclingrecords@gmail.com>
[rr008] Whisky Club Ensemble – “Waking Up The Sun”
Our latest release presents quite new approach to creating music for Recycling Records: samples were taken from recordings of live instruments made specially for that purpose on the very same night the band was established.
During one of the first nights of April AD2009 a group connected with Charles Bukowski’s Whisky Club performed cacophonic ritual of waking up the sun on the top of mountain X over the bay Y. The ritual – strongly influenced by Slavic neo-paganism – is a form of reuniting with Nature glorified by sounds and lets the cosmic energies flow through participators, their ideas & their music. All emotions of these moments flew out unimpeded through instruments in an easygoing jam session in unusual circumstances of nature. Edited version of what was played during that event – of which successors will be speaking in poems for a long long time after – is track presented here: digital clash of psycho-folk and way-too-free jazz made from original recordings with a sense of humor typical for Recycling Records. Or maybe it all never happened…
Track can be downloaded from:
<http://www.archive.org/compress/rr008_wakingsun>
or listen at
<http://www.recyclingrecords.com/pl/rr008>
and at
http://www.last.fm/music/Whisky+Club+Ensemble/Waking+Up+The+Sun
We’d like to add that the band was established and recordings & mix made being sober. Charles Bukowski’s Whisky Club promotes culture of moderate and responsible ways of enjoying alcohol.
2. From: “gintas k” <gintaskr@takas.lt>
GINTAS K – FROZEN TIME (mp3/FLAC by m/OAR )
http://www.and-oar.org/moar_catalog_moarp33.html
“Frozen Time” shows a different side of Gintas K than his previous efforts. It’s essentially, a stasis study that increasingly reveals subtle changes over the course of time.
GINTAS K & GYS – WHEN THE DRUMMER IS SMOKING EP (mp3/FLAC by Conv )
http://www.con-v.org/cnv52.html