ROBERT TURMAN & AARON DILLOWAY – BLIZZARD (CD by Hanson Records) *
AARON DILLOWAY – HISS NAUSEA (CD by Hanson Records) *
CESAR BOLANOS – PERUVIAN ELECTROACOUSTIC AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC 1964-1970 (2CD by Pogus Productions) *
S.E.T.I. – CORONA (CD by Loki) *
LAND:FIRE – SHORT WAVE TRANSMISSIONS (CD by Loki) *
CHRISTOPHER MCFALL & LUIGI TURRA – TACTILE.SURFACE (CD by Unfathomless) *
NOMMO OGO – ACROSS TIME AND SPACE (CD by Record Label)
CORDAME – MIGRATION (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
AMY HORVEY – INTERVIEW (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
NOZEN – LIVE AU UPSTAIRS (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
PAUL DEVENS – INK SUMMIT (LP by Moab Records)
EVOL – TEN CANISTERS OF PRESSURIZED TETRAFLUOROETHANE OVER THREE WEEKS (7″ by Alku)
MARTIJN HOHMANN – EQUIVOCAL GENERATION (7″ by Universaal Kunst)
ERIC CHENAUX – WARM WEATHER/LE VIEUX FAVORI 4 (7″ by Eat, Sleep, Repeat)
ELEKTRIK UNDERGROUND 2009 (CDR by Motok) *
ROBERT HORTON & SINDRE BJERGA & CAREN OHLSON – BROKEN WISDOM ON IT’S WILD LONE (CDR by Striate Cortex) *
THE GHOST BETWEEN THE STRINGS – DROWING TIME (CDR by Egocide) *
LUSRUTA – TRANSPARENT OBSCURITY (CDR by Egocide) *
ULV – HYPNOOTTINEN (CDR by Egocide) *
ANASTASIA VRONSKI – THE DROWNER (CDR by Date With A Corpse) *
ZEBULON KOSTED – NOVAYA ZEMLYA (cassette by Haute Magie)
THE PATRIOTIC WINDOW KINGS – GUITARGUMENT (cassette by Speed Tapes) *
ROBERT TURMAN & AARON DILLOWAY – BLIZZARD (CD by Hanson Records)
AARON DILLOWAY – HISS NAUSEA (CD by Hanson Records)
Last year in January there was horrible snowstorm in Ohio. It looked Aaron Dilloway (ex-Wolf Eyes, Hanson Records man) and one Robert Turman (ex-Non, Z.O. Voider) in a room, with a bunch of synthesizers, tapes and effects. If you can’t do anything, then do music (and if you can do something else, also make music). Stuck together they recorded these four pieces of blizzard music. Unlike a blizzard, this is music that doesn’t move very fast. Long stretched out sounds on the synthesizer, bending the music down, down and more down, into a shaking rumble of sound. On top tapes of highly obscured sounds move around in a bunch of sound effects and the outcome is actually quite beautiful. The cruelty of beauty that is. Vast and spacious in the first movement, earpiercing in the second movement, rattling like snow and ice being crushed in the third. The final track has a oscillating drone and some nice vaguely vocal loop on top, making this the most ‘musical’ outing of the four. Four excellent excursions that fit the snow white world of the Vital headquarters perfectly. Released at exactly the right time: winter music.
In 2006 Dilloway released a double cassette in an edition of 30 copies, which now gets a re-edition of 200 copies, along with fifteen minutes of music not on the previous release. Like the title implies, Dilloway uses hiss, along with feedback and loads of tape-delay. Now this would call cassette music. Five relatively simple pieces, derived from one idea, exploited for seventy-five minutes. Tucked away in my lazy chair with a book, I was thinking of the 80s, when I loads of cassettes like this. I was studying my books and play this kind of music on end. Based on loops, hiss, feedback, some delay pedals, maybe the occasional synthesizer in play. This afternoon I looked at my CD player and contemplated a few things. One was that this isn’t isn’t the greatest CD ever released, that is was quite long, but it was also a journey into the past – the world of twenty-five years ago, me as a young man falling in love with crazy music. Maybe out of those kind of sentimental reasons (I’m not allowed to say, I know, but the age, the age) I thought this was quite an enjoyable release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hansonrecords.net
CESAR BOLANOS – PERUVIAN ELECTROACOUSTIC AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC 1964-1970 (2CD by Pogus Productions)
Electronic music from Peru? Pogus boss Al Margolis goes with his search for some of the exotic, unknown composers from the most obscure parts of the world. Cesar Bolanos was born in Lima, Peru in 1931, who also composed for piano and chamber orchestra. In 1963, while in Buenos Aires he was introduced to electronic music, which he continued to compose until 1970. After 1973 he was back in Peru, but without any further means to continue this line of work and devoted the rest of his time investigating pre-Hispanic instruments. Now for the first time his electronics appear on compact disc. Only the first piece, ‘Intensidad Y Altura’ is pure electronical piece; all the others combine electronics with other, ‘real’ instruments. About one hundred minutes here of what is best called ‘difficult’ music – the germanic ernste music. I must have written this before, but I am not the most right person to do this music any justice. This is a highly serious mixture of avant-garde classical music in combination with electronic sounds. My favorite is ‘Cancion Sin Palabras, ESEPCO II’ for two piano’s and tape, which is intense at times, soft at times and has a great touch to it, including some scarping and bending sounds. The other pieces were not bad either, but not all the time worked for these classically untrained ears. Definitely an interesting release, but perhaps I wished for some more electronics. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
S.E.T.I. – CORONA (CD by Loki)
LAND:FIRE – SHORT WAVE TRANSMISSIONS (CD by Loki)
Over the years I lost track of Andrew Lagowski, sometimes (such as here) known as S.E.T.I. I have no idea why I lost track, but perhaps he was busy playing concerts, or just not as active with releasing music. I learn that ‘Knowledge’ from 1994 was his first album (and perhaps I should add ‘a classic’) and ‘Corona’ is only his fifth album as S.E.T.I. until now. Space is still the place here. S.E.T.I.’s music is based on the cosmos, space, stars, and everything else connected to that. It takes a look at that vast empty space from within, but also from a distance. Lagowski uses recordings from Nasa which he cuts into his heavy drone based music. The novelty of that is long gone – ‘Knowledge’ is a classic – as it is done by him and by others after him. That is perhaps, after sixteen years the downside of this music. Its all a matter of heard and seen it all. But with so few S.E.T.I. releases out there, we may not mind about that little progress that has been made. The music here is excellent. On a grey winter day with darkness starting half way through the afternoon, this is just the perfect ambient soundtrack for the cold season. Highly atmospheric, no rhythm in sight, just slow evolving patterns played on a bunch of analogue synthesizers, sound effects and some radio transmissions. Ambient music may be a dead end street, but this is a damn beautiful work.
With a title like ‘Short Wave Transmissions’, you could perhaps easily think that the album of Land:Fire is along that of S.E.T.I. That is only partly true. There is indeed a lot of talking on this record, snippets from the radio, but the music is somewhat different. Land:Fire is an alter-ego of Herbst9, and it has been five years since he last released a record. This is all about radiological warfare, nuclear fall out and other somewhat unpleasant things in life. Here too we have some analogue synthesizers, computerized effects but also rhythm machines, which create a cold clinical and mechanical sound. That may seem like something negative, but its not. The music is very dynamic, moving back and forth between blocks of synthesized sound and soft spoken ambient textures, all spiced up with radio talk. Its not easy to say wether the music really reflects the radiological/nuclear holocaust theme (would you be aware if it wasn’t told?), but there is certainly a spooky atmosphere surrounding this record. Excellent soundtrack to an imaginary film about these kind of subjects. (FdW)
Address: http://www.loki-found.de
CHRISTOPHER MCFALL & LUIGI TURRA – TACTILE.SURFACE (CD by Unfathomless)
The second CD on the Unfathomless imprint by Mystery Sea is a collaborative work by Christopher McFall, whose work we came across already a few times and the for me unknown Luigi Turra. In this series the label is “trying to illustrate artists’ personal fascination for specific locations, either natural, human built, or fictitious, as well as other pregnant related environmental experiences impacting into memory and onto our senses.” In this duo work we have the living room and windows of Turra, as recorded in Schion in the North of Italy and from McFall recordings from Kansas, through the western lands of Kansas up to Colorado (I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore). Turra also uses bits of a shakuhachi flute here and there. I have no idea how all of this was merged together by these two men, but they did. And the results are surely quite nice. One piece, that lasts about forty-two minutes and has quite a desolate feel to it: the empty room, the window clapping, the vast open space of Kansas. Yet this is not a work of total silence, as there is always something happening. Sounds are heavily processed through the use of extensive equalization, bringing out, mainly, the deeper end of the bass spectrum and occasionally high pitched tones. Quite a nice work, I’d say, but the problem is that the fact that this is cut as one track, which leads us to think this is meant to be a single composition, but unfortunately it doesn’t work as one composition. Its bumps into various places (excuse le mot), which are then cross faded into another part, and then another one. Why not make distinct endings to a piece and then start another one, I thought? Even without too many changes in the actual piece, but just the mere change into various pieces, with an occasional full stop here and there would have made the whole into a much stronger work. Otherwise I think this is a great work of microsound and field recordings, all according to the big textbook of the genre. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unfathomless.net
NOMMO OGO – ACROSS TIME AND SPACE (CD by Record Label)
The title of the album gives a clue: This is indeed a very trippy journey from the band with the strange name “Nommo Ogo”. The music is a blend of electronic music and acoustic psychedelia. The style is always kept on a relaxed downbeat pace, both rhythmically and with the overall instrumentation. The acoustic part of the album draws associations towards early krautrock (Amon Düül II, Faust, Can) though this is exclusively instrumental. Also the acid-style of earliest Pink Floyd shines through as well as newer approaches to psychedelia as from Legendary Pink Dots and Subarachnoid Space. Consisting of nine pieces the length of the intersections exceeds 8 minutes with the Esoterrorade sounding like a mixture between early IDM of the Warp label but still with the acoustic interference. Field recordings and spoken words also are part of the expression on this very interesting album. (NM)
Address: http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/
CORDAME – MIGRATION (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
AMY HORVEY – INTERVIEW (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
NOZEN – LIVE AU UPSTAIRS (CD by Malasartes Musiques)
The continuity of interesting releases by Ambiances Magnetiques is also the case for the sublabel Malasartes Musiques, that was started by Damian Nisenson several years ago. This time Nisenson presents his new group Nozen, a quartet by Pierre Tanguay (drums), Jean Felix Mailloux (bass), Bernard Falaise (guitars) and Nisenson himself on (alt and tenor sax). They interpret 12 compositions by Argentina-born Nisenson that move between jazz, new music and musical traditions of Jewish Eastern Europe. After the revival of klezmer in the 90s, it was also embraced by jazz musicians. Just think of John Zorn’s Massada or Burton Greene’s Klezmokum. Nozen is also exponent of this development as Nisenson also strives above all for a combination of jazz and klezmer. He does so very successfully. Their playing is modest and inspired. The music often starts very calm but gradually effervescent passages takes over and climaxes are reached. Very satisfying are the few tracks where guitarist Falaise impresses with fine solo work and dissonant, like in the opening track and in the fantastic “Spread the News”. They counterbalance perfectly with the pieces that pass by relatively unnoticed because they are built around klezmer-like themes that sound to common and therefore insignificant. Like the closing track “No Milk No Sugar”. However after the short silence a new piece begins that is added as a ghost track. This is by far the most experimental track and was probably produced in the studio.
Mailloux is ready for his second record by his group Cordame (Marie Neige Lavigne – violin, Julie-Odile – violincelle, Remi Giguer – guitares, Ziya Tabassian – percussion, vibraphone, Pierre Tanguay -drums). “Migration” draws inspiration from Persian, Indian and Armenian music, and modal and improvised music. In this respect it is a similar project as Nozen, as both integrate eastern musical traditions in a western context. In contrast with Nozen Mailloux moves further east, not only geographically but also in the music he composes. Jazz-influences, as well as other western idioms are less obvious then in the case of Nozen. Mailloux is not interested in opposing or confronting these influences with western traditions. He brings an ode to eastern musical traditions, leaving behind all the ornaments that characterize this music often in its original form.
Of course one can hear immediately that the music is played by western players, who – that is also very evident – are very dedicated to this music. It is evident that Mailloux is very fond of eastern music. However the compositions are not always satisfying or engaging from beginning to end. A bit too spun out from time to time. The music often moves along in the same slow – walk like a egyptian – pace. If you can surrender yourself to this it is a very pleasant slow journey. Very organic and pleasing chamber music. Constantly in the same relaxing mood but played very spirited.
With “Interview” something else is going on. This is the fist solo effort by the young trumpeter Amy Horvey. She works mainly as a contemporary, orchestral and Baroque trumpeter and appeared as a soloist with numerous ensembles and orchestras. On her first solo-album she interprets works from very different composers. The CD opens with “Quatrro pezzi per tromba sola”, a beautiful composition by Scelsi. It is followed by pieces from unknown contemporary composers: “Musica Invisible” (Cecilia Arditto), “Interview” (Anna Hostman). In “Apparatus Inconcinnus” (Ryan Purchase) a story of the Russian writer Charms is read by Horvey, interrupted by instrumental parts. “Overture to The Queen of the Music Boxes” features Jeff Morton on music boxes, toy instruments and electronics. It sounds like an improvisation, but I can be wrong. To conclude I can say that Horvey made the right decision in including a wide variety of compositions, showing that she feels at home as a trumpeter in very different musical worlds. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
PAUL DEVENS – INK SUMMIT (LP by Moab Records)
So far I thought of Paul Devens as someone who was mainly interested in noise music. Loud noise music based on computerized transformations of whatever field recordings. But over the last few he toned down and let the field recordings speak and keep whatever process down. His latest work, I believe his first LP release, was presented at Experimental Intermedia in December last year. It has eight pieces, all based upon field recordings, from air ventilation systems, branches, heating furnace. All of them are fed through digital processing and modular sound synthesis. No longer the pure noise is at the forefront, but whatever process is applied in the computer its there to serve the sound. The original field recordings seem to be main point of focus. Mechanical humming versus irregular sound events are spiced up with bits of computer work. They add an extra layer to the music, and not take it over. The result is a very vibrant record of musique concrete, based on electro-acoustic events with bits of electronic processing. An excellent record, in a beautiful fold out poster cover. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pauldevens.nl
EVOL – TEN CANISTERS OF PRESSURIZED TETRAFLUOROETHANE OVER THREE WEEKS (7″ by Alku)
The title of ‘Ten canisters of pressurized tetrafluoroethane over three weeks’ describes the record’s contents astutely, believe it or not. You see, the titular chemical happens to be the high-pressure substance contained within gas horns, and it is the blaring of these very horns which comprises the entire unprocessed duration of this crimson disc. EVOL’s Roc Jiménez de Cisneros has been using these canned noise-makers in his live performances for years, but this recording — the ninth in Cisneros’ ‘Punani’ series — is the first to employ them to the exclusion of any other sounds. As can be imagined, the resulting performance is a challenging one to behold at times, but it also proves to be an interesting study of the parameters of sound native to an unconventional instrument. Since gas horns emit a tone oscillating around 440 Hz, the apertures of several canisters were partly clogged with epoxy to produce a wider scope of sounds. The recording, as a result, sounds sort of like an ineptly mistuned brass section warming up — Cisneros’ blaring canisters trumpet along discordantly, producing a curious range of textures, from a wheezy gasp to a last-breath sputter to a full-out bellow. It is definitely musical but freely improvised, and largely about concept and spectacle. Played loudÐ — the horns themselves scream out at nearly 120 dB on their own) — ‘Ten canisters’ makes for a cacophonous little
confrontation; it’s a brief record that catches the listener off guard with its pseudo-musical, unpredictable nature. Beyond that, it’s likely to be the lone gas horn single in any discriminating record collector’s library. (MT)
Address: http://alkualkualkualkualkualkualkualkualkualku.org/
MARTIJN HOHMANN – EQUIVOCAL GENERATION (7″ by Universaal Kunst)
2009 was not only the year of Charles Darwin and his evolution theory, its been also forty years since Alvin Lucier composed ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’. That piece of music is also about evolution. Lucier speaks a short text and then records the sound of him speaking in the room, feeds it back to the room, records that and repeats that process for about twenty or so times. If you ever need a simple process to transform any sound, then this is the way to do it. Perhaps Martijn Hohmann did this? The record is pressed as a lathe cut and comes in two edition: one standard in an edition of 50 and one in a red linen box as a picture disc (which in lathe cut terms means they are glued together). It looks great, a small art object. There is only one side to this record, oddly enough. Hard to tell what it is… some sort of scraping sound, perhaps a church bell? But also there are insect sounds in there, which ties this to the world of Darwin. The lathe cut is a perfect medium for a record on evolutional processes of music: unlike real vinyl, the decaying process is quicker and one can almost get a new piece of the evolution every time one plays this record. A pity that its all a bit short, this evolution.
Address: http://www.universaal.nl
ERIC CHENAUX – WARM WEATHER/LE VIEUX FAVORI 4 (7″ by Eat, Sleep, Repeat)
Strictly speaking there is no a or b side to this record. Which of course seems to me the right thing to do. None of these two tracks is more important than the other. on ‘Warm Weather’, Chenaux (of whom I never heard) plays a nylon guitar and sings. Multiple channels of guitar playing, although I don’t think more than two or three. I must admit I am not a coinnaseur of this kind of singer songwriting, but it seems to me damn close to Nick Drake, this piece. Intimate, up close, and very personal. On ‘Le Vieux Favori 4’ we have electric guitar, melodica and ‘spinning speakers creating a classical cinematic sound’ and no vocals. There is a nice drone layered element to this piece of music, with an odd rotating sound, like multiple violins (which I guess there aren’t any) shimmering away. An entirely different piece, but it has a similar not too outspoken quality to it. Nicely private music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.eatsleeprepeat.com
ELEKTRIK UNDERGROUND 2009 (CDR by Motok)
Originally this was planned to be a lathe cut record, but somehow turned out to be a CDR. It comes from the world of Nico Selen, who is best known, for many years, as O.R.D.U.C., but who also works as E.M.M. and Nonotes (as well as many other names), each within a specific niche of electronic music. On this short compilation (twenty-four minutes) Selen appears three times under his own, and then once as O.R.D.U.C., E.M.M. and Nonotes. His three pieces as Nico Selen are more like tunes, as the are all quite short. ‘Faces’ by E.M.M. is a minimalist synth piece of wailing bass notes from a digital synth. ‘Do’ by O.R.D.U.C. takes out the triangle of the original and leaves out the synthesizers, which create a strange atmosphere of almost emptiness. NoNotes ‘Tumultus (Aqua Mix)’ is with eleven minutes the longest piece here and I must say its a bit overlong, as I think things could have been edited a bit down. Not as short as ‘Guttae’, by Selen, in which he uses some elements from ‘Tumultus’, but that’s actually a nice jingle piece. It seems to me that Selen wanted to create a compilation here of music that is slightly more experimental than on say the average O.R.D.U.C. recording. It doesn’t always succeed – see the NoNotes piece – but in the other pieces works quite well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.motok.org
ROBERT HORTON & SINDRE BJERGA & CAREN OHLSON – BROKEN WISDOM ON IT’S WILD LONE (CDR by Striate Cortex)
More music by Sindre Bjerga on Striate Cortex. Here he teams up with Robert Horton (gong, boot, computer, filters, and gong microphone) and Caren Ohlson on voice. I am not sure if this the same Horton as the one I knew many years ago, but perhaps it is. Bjerga himself gets credit for korg poly 61, tape player and filters. The music was recorded in Stavanger, Norway (where Bjerga lives) and El Cerrito, California (where Horton lives, I presume), between 2007 and 2009. I don’t think Bjerga or Horton traveled back and forth to record a highly limited CDR release, so its more likely that this is the result of some sort of music through mail collaboration. I have no idea where Caren Ohlson fits into this, as its hard for me to hear any voice, unless of course (and no doubt that is the case), this voice has been highly manipulated. The work is a thirty eight minute thing (sort of the usual Bjerga length), of slowly changing drone music, built around the heavy filtering of gong sounds. It makes a nice drone based soundscape, of the more darker kind. It has that trade mark lo-fi kind that is marks many of the works by Bjerga. Not really grainy or hissy, but also not the most top notch recording. A bit of rough on the edges. Quite a nice, solid piece of moving drone music, nothing great or out of the ordinary in Bjerga’s vast catalogue, but surely a fine one. (FdW)
Address: <arborntolose@msn.com>
THE GHOST BETWEEN THE STRINGS – DROWING TIME (CDR by Egocide)
LUSRUTA – TRANSPARENT OBSCURITY (CDR by Egocide)
ULV – HYPNOOTTINEN (CDR by Egocide)
The Egocide label has nice covers, which however do not reveal a lot of information. The Ghost Between The Strings just note on their (his?) cover: “e-bowed guitar. recorded april 24, 2009, mixed april-may 2009′. Then there is just the music. In some forty plus minutes things unfold about as exact and precise as these things should sound like. Dark, atmospheric, isolationist. The rumble doesn’t go too deep below the earth surface but stays on the surface, scanning the topography of a some what hilly terrain. It moves a bit up and down (result of some sound effects applied in real time, while recording this), and makes throughout a nice listen. Nothing much new for the lovers of dark ambience, but its not bad. Not top class either, but all in all quite alright.
Dark and atmospheric are also the words that apply to the work of Lusruta, of which we likewise know nothing. Instead of guitars and ebows, I think its the extended use of synthesizers and sound effects (of course I might be entirely wrong). Eight tracks at work here, which last almost seventy minutes. That seems a bit much to me for the amount of variation it has to offer. The dark textures are being played alongside the use of sometimes crude, distorted effects, which makes this at least a bit more angular. The twenty-four minute ‘Endymion’ could have been easily skipped and it would have made the release much stronger. Think Lustmord of Controlled Bleeding’s ‘Golgotha’ and you get an idea about Lusruta. Again, not bad, not great, quite alright (although not my cup of tea, instead of The Ghost Between The Strings).
The final release is by one Ulv. It’s almost an hour long track of some highly alien sounds that have no direction. Its hard to say what kind of sounds they are, maybe something slowed down, maybe with some sound effects, maybe without. Again the atmospheric card is played here, but of the three releases its the least interesting one. The sound moves sort of without any idea up and about, down and out, but the real hypnotic ambience is not reached. Maybe if it was half the length, and with some more dynamics, or something of a composition, things could have been saved, but in its current form it just doesn’t work. (FdW)
Address: http://egocide.wordpress.com
ANASTASIA VRONSKI – THE DROWNER (CDR by Date With A Corpse)
Alright, I am going to guess here. I think this is Anastasia’s second release, and perhaps its also released by Date With A Corpse, just like ‘The Spell’ (see Vital Weekly 686), but its not on the cover or the information. There is nowhere an address or website to be found either. I am not sure how Vronski wants to get rid of her CDs this way. ‘The Drowner’ is what she calls her musique concrete record, using sounds from the kitchen sink, closing doors and her noisy apartment. It starts with the dripping of water, and slowly moves over into a territory where we find tapeloops of some ‘dirty’ kind of noise, feeding off into some delay pedal. It takes a bit too much time to develop, whereas they could have easily be concise to half the time. Just the same problem as with ‘The Spell’. Not much of musique concrete I’d say, but a bit better than ‘The Spell’. May I ask for some better presentation next time?
Address: none given
ZEBULON KOSTED – NOVAYA ZEMLYA (cassette by Haute Magie)
The core of Side A’s lone track, “Novaya,” features Rachid Abdel Ghafour’s deadpan recitation of some line about God and suffering — it’s an emotionally bereft performance, somehow sounding like one of Conet Project’s numbers station recordings — fittingly matched with an endless procession of rapidly transforming and re-calibrating noise layers which shift abruptly from level to level. These roaming segments skip from grating harsh noise to gentle ambience to the tiny thrush of a rainstorm, all in mere seconds. According to the track
listing, Ghafour’s noise is produced solely through samples and electronic manipulation; at times it seems as if the recordings were collected by throwing a tape recorder into a host of different conditions — under a highway overpass, next to a train, into the heart of a prairie duststorm… But it’s hard to decipher each noise’s origins – partly because Ghafour moves so impulsively from one to
another, allowing limited room for reflection. Still, it’s pretty solid stuff; owing to the shifting layers of sound, this A-side turns out to be more spastic and interesting than lots of sheet-noise efforts, and the deadpan vocal line adds an esoteric and alienated sensation to the recording. Curiously, side B’s “Zemlya” is an abrupt departure from its predecessor. What formerly was a vocal sample and diverse quantities of noise is now a continuous, hollow, metallic timbre which pulses and cycles over the entire side’s duration. This track is significantly less enrapturing than “Novaya,” although it has a curious sense of emergency to it, almost like a distant, marred air raid siren blaring forth. Over the course of the track, the original, repeated cycle becomes gradually modified and changed. Taken as a beast of two disparate sides, ‘Novaya Zemlya’ is an intriguing little nugget worth inspection by free-wheeling ears. The first side, however, is ultimately the more intoxicating of the two. (MT)
Address: http://www.heofthehouse.com
THE PATRIOTIC WINDOW KINGS – GUITARGUMENT (cassette by Speed Tapes)
Those kind people of Speed Tapes, supplied me with a cassette of their release by The Patriotic Window Kings, as well as a CDR of the material, always handy for putting some in the podcast. “Guitargument” its called and it deals, quite naturally with the guitar. Not much information otherwise to go by here. So I ‘think’ this all to deal with an electric guitar and a few stomp boxes. The Patriotic Window King is, again assuming here, one guy, who improvises on the guitar in a rather lo-fi manner. String torture which only occasionally leads to interesting results I think. When its on the fringe on drone and improvisation its pretty good, but when its a random play of strings than I don’t think its particularly good and sometimes down right tedious. Typical music for a cassette release this music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/speedtapes