VERNON & BURNS – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
ROLF JULIUS – MUSIC FOR THE EARS (CD by Western Vinyl)
PREMONITION FACTORY – 59 AIRPLANES WAITING FOR NEW YORK (CD by Longstreet Records) *
M. HOLTERBACH & JULIA ECKHARDT – DO-UNDO (IN G MAZE) (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) *
IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2009 (book plus 3 CDs by Ftarri)
JOHN BUTCHER & RHORDRI DAVIS – CARLIOL (CD by Ftarri) *
MIRT – HANDMADE MAN (CD by MonotypeRec.)
THAMNOS – WIR (CD by Sound Claim)
CHEMINS – CDR #3 (CDR, private) *
JOE FRAWLEY – LEFT CINCINNATI (CDR by Joe Frawley Music)*
JOE FRAWLEY & RACHEL RAMBACH – ANGEL BOXES (3″CDR by Joe Frawley Music)
A VIBRANT STRUGGLE – BETWEEN THE WOODS AND FROZEN LAKE (CDR by Moving Furniture Records) *
GO GENRE EVERYTHING – HUMANS AND LUXURY (7″ by Spanish Magic)
JIMMY JAMES & THE WHITE CRANES – THE STUD (CDR by Spanish Magic) *
BUM CREEK/HOLY BALM (cassette by Spanish Magic)
PREHISTORIC FUCKIN’ MORON – THEY LOOK ALIKE/MAINLY AROUND THE HEAD (cassette by Spanish Magic)
SHELF LIFE – COURTESY (CDR by Psychic Oscillator)
MASSIMO FALASCONE + BOB MARSH – NON TROPPO LONTANO (CDR by Eh?)
BRUNO MOREIGNE – ANEMOS VOL. III (3″CDR by Kaon) *
PORATZ – BEAT (3″CDR by Electroton) *
V4W.ENKO – SND (3″CDR by Electroton) *
KETEM – COLOUR (3″CDR by Electroton) *
INCITE/ – ICONICITY (3″CDR by Electroton) *
INCH-TIME – A HANDFUL OF DUB (cassette by Static Caravan)
A VIBRANT STRUGGLE – SOFT ILLUSIONS (cassette by 2:00AM Tapes)
ROYALLEN – MOTIVATIONAL TAPE (cassette by Vanishing Hour Revival)
VERNON & BURNS – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
This might very be the first time that Staalplaat repeats a cover for their Mort Aux Vaches: the metallic cover for this one was also used for the Mitchell Akiyama release (unless of course one states that a lot where printed on paper), but with a different pin. Musicwise of course Vernon & Burns are something different than Akiyama. What many perhaps don’t know is that perhaps the whole Mort Aux Vaches enterprise started with VPRO and Staalplaat was by asking people to deliver radio plays for transmission. From there on things grew as an in studio project. To have Vernon & Burns it sees a return to the radio play days, as they incorporate a lot of spoken word in their little pieces. They don’t make necessarily a story per se. Not inside a track, but also not as a whole. These stories rather set a mood, although its not a clear one. It might be a different mood for each listener. There are funny bits, sad bits, melancholic bits, spooky bits, all packed with musique concrete elements, electro-acoustic music and such like, which are placed with great care onto the spoken word material and the plundered sounds from old trash-bin records. Matches being struck, water sounds, quite fascinating stuff really. One could argue that it would be nice to see them working within a larger story frame, and no doubt that’s something for the future. This CD – recorded in 2007 already – shows Vernon & Burns at their best, quite coherent in their action than their recent, somewhat shattered LP release for Gagarin (see Vital Weekly 722). An excellent head trip. Much better to spend your time with this than watching any tube. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staalplaat.com
ROLF JULIUS – MUSIC FOR THE EARS (CD by Western Vinyl)
Now here’s someone who is perhaps world famous in the world of sound art, yet hardly ever appears in Vital Weekly. Its, among other reasons, because he didn’t release that music, but also because his music is usually heard in museums and galleries and not always on record. But the good news is that Western Vinyl will re-release eight of his old works, starting with ‘Music For The Ears’, which comes with the subtitle ‘small music no. 1’ and small music it is. ‘Song From The Past’, the first of the two pieces on this album sounds like one long tape loop of bamboo flute being played. Every now and then it stops and then it starts again. Music that is very undemanding – an environmental piece to fill your ambience. Or perhaps music to meditate by – if only I ever did that. The second piece ‘Music On Two High Poles’ is different. It might be played on a small, children’s organ or a harmonium, cut into two loops of a varying length. Its a bit louder, or perhaps it just appears so: I turned up the volume quite a bit for the first piece, so this one comes in louder. I think both pieces are designed to do the same thing: create a sonic environment. What I especially liked about it, and that’s something you can only hear when the volume is quite a bit, is all the extra sounds that come along: the static hiss from the used analogue tapes that creates a nice additional sonic layer to the music. And which doesn’t seem to make the music static but very much alive and vibrant. Excellent music. This is the earliest Rolf Julius recording, from 1979 and the start of a great career. Can’t wait for the other seven releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.westernvinyl.com
PREMONITION FACTORY – 59 AIRPLANES WAITING FOR NEW YORK (CD by Longstreet Records)
Its with much confidence that Sjaak Overgraauw, the man behind Premonition Factory and his new label Longstreet Records, releases this CD. He was a keyboard player and mixer in various projects, but only started to play music Premonition Factory in September 2009, and in February he released his first CD. That’s what I like: if you really believe in what you are doing, then you have to show it, so why not indeed release a CD straight away? What’s probably going to help him is the fact that the album is mastered by Dirk Serries, also known as Fear Falls Burning, Microphonics and Vidna Obmana. Especially the latter incarnation seems to me to have been an inspiration for Overgraauw. He uses one or more loop devices, through which he feeds his synthesizer and creates music that is similar to the work of Vidna Obmana. Dark. Atmospheric. Ambient. The keywords for this kind of music. One could easily argue that Vidna Obmana already made a strong point with that kind of music through an immense catalogue of works, and that Overgraauw not necessarily adds much more to it. That would be negative approach and one could more positively say that since Vidna Obmana is no more, it has found a great successor in Premonition Factory. The six lengthy pieces of music are all dark and introspective, maybe even a bit sombre, and make up some excellent late night music. Excellent works, if indeed nothing new under the moon. The titles could have some rethinking (‘The Future Will Be Whatever We Make It’?) and a picture of the composer on the album? Mwah… That aside, its a most promising start. (FdW)
Address: http://premonitionfactory.com
M. HOLTERBACH & JULIA ECKHARDT – DO-UNDO (IN G MAZE) (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
In Brussels we find a sound-art laboratory called Q-O2 Werkplaats which is run by, among others Julia Eckhardt, who is also a performing musician herself. Over the years she has build an archive of viola recordings played exclusively in G. People who visited the Q-O2 Werkplaats could use these recordings. One of them is Manu Holterbach, who works primarily inside field recordings. He brings to the table recordings of an arc lamp, the sounds of Parisian subways and an electric powerplant – all of which happen to be in G. too. All of this is combined in ‘Do-Undo (In G Maze)’ which is a lovely work of acoustic drones and field recordings. Quite an intense piece of work actually, that, despite the fact that this is all acoustic and field recordings alike, sound pretty much ‘electric’, rather than ‘electronic’. A big buzzing, ringing enters your environment, with some excellent changes that add a further vibrancy to the material. Cut into two pieces, the first one seems to draw the attention to the acoustic side, while the second is more about the electrically charged sound. Think a refined meeting between Phill Niblock and Alvin Lucier and you get my drift. Limited to just 300 copies, so grab it while you can. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helenscardale.com
IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2009 (book plus 3 CDs by Ftarri)
JOHN BUTCHER & RHORDRI DAVIS – CARLIOL (CD by Ftarri)
The magazine starts with an apology: ‘Improvised Music From Japan’ is supposed to be an annual magazine but it has been some three years since the last issue came out. Now there is a new one, and its bilingual, with some excellent English translation. Since I haven’t seen any of the previous issues, I have no idea what they are about (well, other than improvised music), this particular issue deals with ‘festivals and concert series in Japan’. To that end they interview a whole bunch of musicians and organizers (most likely the same people, adding ‘audience’ to the list of roles) from festival like Perch, P-Hour, Deep Listening Chair Festival, Asian Meeting Festival, Tide – names that may not mean much, but reading about them may provide some insight in the sometimes small scene, and sometimes in the bigger ones: Atak Night is also discussed and I happened to witness their full house disco Unit in 2007, but then again that was far off for improvised music, save for the bewildering ten minutes of Keiji Haino, but Pan Sonic, Evala, Keiichiro Shibuya and Goem were hardly improvising matters. A great read, and a great guide into what this country has to offer. And otherwise you can also play the three CDs and be guided through what Japan has to offer on what is actually an extended meaning of the word improvisation. A duo called Hum play something like ambient music, or noise by Madoka Kouno, laptop music goes hand in hand with double bass or piano improvisation, sine waves vs a string quartet. To mention the variety on the first disc, extended into whatever on the second and third. From the thirty-one names I only recognized a handful (Seed Mouth, Chihei Hatakeyama) and so many new ones: Shinchi Isohata, Hiroyuki Ura, Makoto Oda, Satoshi Kandam Koji Sato, Saya, Jyurin and many others. And then there is no Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto or Otomo Yoshihide. A whole new universe to explore. It was great to study this little bible over the calm easter period.
Actually it took more time to read the entire book than to hear those three CDs, but luckily enough there is another one, by John Butcher – perhaps our favorite player of the saxophone (plus feedback, motors and embedded harp speaker) and Rhodri Davies, who plays pedal harp, lever harp with embedded speaker and electric harp, and an aeolian electric harp. Both Butcher and Davies are well known voices from the world of improvised music. And they are good, damn good in what they do. Their work was recorded in a studio (the first six tracks) and the seventh seems to be some sort of thing cut together from various recordings. There is of course lots of careful playing around here, but not always necessarily ‘quiet’. Things can get quite vicious here, although its always a polite form of viciousness. None of the instruments used really resemble what they are constructed for. Each of the instruments, either through playing or amplification, sound like working the overtones in great, Lucier-like manner. Gliding sounds, overtones nearly into feedback and such like create a wonderful world. In the last track, ‘Distant Leazes’ Butcher shows he can play a true free saxophone too. I surely would have believed without hearing this. While the harp is all out in overtones, Butcher jams away. Not my favorite piece here, but throughout the first six tracks leave a mighty fine impression. An excellent disc of improvisation. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ftarri.com
MIRT – HANDMADE MAN (CD by MonotypeRec.)
Handmade Man is a conceptual album of the Polish musician Mirt. Mirt is musician and graphic designer. He uses analog electronics, prepared trumpet, guitar, loops and fieldrecordings. All this compositions are edited with analog tapes and without the use of a computer. He plays also in the Brasil and The Gallowbrothers Band. Since 2001 he made six solo-albums. In his new album “Handmade Man” he discovers how a homunculus will see and view the world? In what kind of safe area will he lives in the world full of human stupidity, greed and fanaticism. Alchemists believed that they can create a human being of sperm without the intermission of an uterus. When the homunculus will grow up in a good atmosphere he/she can develop to a person with special power and possibilities. Nowadays still scientists investigate how to create human-beings who are more perfect and without any genetic determinated diseases.
The albums starts with sound of birds, synthesizer and guitarmelodies in a relaxed atmosphere. The world seemed to be peaceful and with an open view to strange creature. The song “Handmade Man” Mirt sings about the dreams of a Homunculus when he would be a king. “Glass Mother” is a nice musical interpretation of the laboratorial uterus made of glass, a subtile mix of fieldrecordings, voice and music instruments. The albums develops more and more and the sphere becomes more narrow and melancholic. Is our world ready to accept human-beings created in a laboratory? Does a homunculus wants to live in this world? Mirt doesn’t give answers to this questions, but the sphere is not hopeful, but his concept of this album is interesting and worth listening to it. (JKH)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
THAMNOS – WIR (CD by Sound Claim)
Behind Thamnos we find singer Annemarie Borg and musician Tomas Weiss, behind an array of synthesizers and drum machines. “Music is a language that transcends prejudices and taboos, it triggers emotion and provokes, it nourishes the soul, speaks to the imagination, echoes spirituality without interference from other senses”, they write on the press release and that says perhaps a lot about the music already. Melodramatic singing, dramatic minor chords on the keyboards (including a piano), all trying to invoke those feelings but to be honest didn’t do much for me at all. It all worked on my nerves. The spiritual sound inspired by… well, what do I know… Enya perhaps. Nothing for Vital Weekly, that much I’m sure of. Best for an TV commercial about saving the planet. (FdW)
Address: http://www.el-culto.eu
CHEMINS – CDR #3 (CDR, private)
The third release by Chemins from Finland (see also Vital Weekly 707 and 716), and again its a twenty minute work, working from a rock end improvisation in the area of drone music. Even more here than before. Drums seems absent, or play rotating tunes with objects on the toms? The guitars can being played with e-bows or violin bows and all along there is a bunch of field recordings; I assume these are played on a laptop which is also responsible for the electronic sounds in the music. Like with their second release, this piece has two distinct parts, broken up by some louder parts on the guitar but in the second half it moves more and more into an electronic field. Again an excellent piece, on par with the previous two releases. Chemins, people, Chemins. Get them for your label. Please listen up. I tell you, you won’t be disappointed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cheminsgroup.blogspot.com
JOE FRAWLEY – LEFT CINCINNATI (CDR by Joe Frawley Music)
JOE FRAWLEY & RACHEL RAMBACH – ANGEL BOXES (3″CDR by Joe Frawley Music)
A bit like Vernon & Burns (see elsewhere), Joe Frawley is someone who composes music that deals to quite some extent with voice material and perhaps like Vernon & Burns, Frawley uses the found sound in both instruments and voices, and he also mentions where he found them. Additional voices he recorded himself with one Rachel Rambach, with whom he also recorded a new 3″CDR. Frawley’s music is also not about telling us a story, well, not necessarily, but also about creating a mood. Unlike Vernon & Burns, who use different moods for their work, Frawley’s mood is throughout melancholic. Chords in minor on the piano and the keyboard, whispering voices, sometimes about ‘leaving’ (‘I didn’t like highschool, so I left Cincinnati’), repeating voices, orchestral tunes, all delicately sampled and cut into loveable small portions of radioplay. Here too, I think Frawley should consider doing a longer radioplay, perhaps considering a story as a starting point. If I’m not mistaken all the parameters indicate it could be a good one.
On the three inch with Rachel Rambach, there seems to be an equal division of labor. Rambach’s voice is the starting point, which is processed by Frawley and with some sparse additions on the piano. It opens with five parts of the title track, all of which have wordless singing and a bit too much on the side of electronic processing (reverb (which always is a strong addition in Frawley’s music). These nine, short, pieces are all quite sketch like, a pencil drawing rather than a fully inkted one. More like an experiment or a study in sound, voice, and electronics. Although its not bad, its not great either. Sort of alright, but not the usual Frawley quality stamp here. A nice idea perhaps, which works only half. (FdW)
Address: http://www.joefrawleymusic.info
A VIBRANT STRUGGLE – BETWEEN THE WOODS AND FROZEN LAKE (CDR by Moving Furniture Records)
Back in Vital Weekly 634 I reviewed the first release by A Vibrant Struggle, the collaboration between Jan-M Iversen, Sindre Bjerga and Steffan de Turck and I predicted many more releases to come from their weekend long session in Norwegian woods, and there have been a few which I didn’t review, but much to my surprise not as many I thought. Inside the cabin there were electronics, objects and a guitar. Here we have another release based on the 2007 sessions, and I must say I am less excited. All out improvisation as to be expected from these boys but somehow it doesn’t grab me at all. It all seems rather pointless banging on objects, electronics rattle like a stove in the background and things don’t go anywhere at all, no dynamics to be found in this piece and it just goes on and on for thirty one minutes and sixteen seconds. Just why this was dug out for release kind of eludes me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com
GO GENRE EVERYTHING – HUMANS AND LUXURY (7″ by Spanish Magic)
JIMMY JAMES & THE WHITE CRANES – THE STUD (CDR by Spanish Magic)
BUM CREEK/HOLY BALM (cassette by Spanish Magic)
PREHISTORIC FUCKIN’ MORON – THEY LOOK ALIKE/MAINLY AROUND THE HEAD (cassette by Spanish Magic)
These four releases are very much packed to obscure any sensible information. I always try to imagine how these people think. “Oh, let’s handwrite the information and we’ll be true outsiders?”, “printing is so boring”. Probably a cover says a lot about the amount of trouble that went into the music as well. Like so many other things these days, its to some more important to be part of something, rather than doing something that one beliefs in. Here people want to be part of some musical scene. Judging by the music, its especially the 80s that they want to be part of.
First there is a 7″ by Go Genre Everything, which seems to me some sort of garage band. Heavy on the guitars, two voices singing (making the whole thing a bit symphonic) and badly recorded drums. The b-side sound quite different, more punk like, different vocalist perhaps? I understand that this is part of the esthetic of bands like this. Its simply not the kind of music that Vital Weekly is known for and which I think is very hard to judge for those, like me, who are not initiated in that particular alley of musical history. It sounds alright for sure, but is it something I would play a lot? I doubt that. Maybe there is no enough old punk records lying around here for that fun, who seems to have a more dynamic feel to it.
Then there might be a band called The Stud. It might also be Jimmy James & The White Cranes, as said on the insert and maybe ‘The Stud’ is the title. Who cares? The seven pieces are best put down as no wave music. Mayhem, chaos and such like within the vague notion of pop music. Drums are used, guitars are tortured, ‘crazy’ voices. The Stud have listened quite well to the 80s no wave. The whole thing sounds like mastered from a cassette, which is probably the nicest thing about it. Its not bad at all, but ‘dated’ is a word that sprung to mind.
The first of the two cassettes is a split by Bum Creek with a track from late 2008 and Holy Balm from early 2009. I believe both sides are recorded in concert. Bum Creek is on side one here and use drum machines, vocals, saxophone and electronics, and sound pretty wild and improvised, all along the banging of the drum machine and the blearing of the saxophone. Quite an industrial affair: not in some technical sense but in a sort of raw early SPK manner. Holy Balm also harks back to the old days of 80s underground music. Lots of keyboards and rhythm machines as well as neat delay machines. Maybe like an out take of Crawling Chaos jamming about. Maybe its a bit of a dragging on too much I think. A bit more variation wouldn’t have harmed the thing.
Prehistoric Fuckin’ Moron (yep, names don’t matter) have two lengthy tracks of cut-up music from a skipping record and a noise box. More on the right side of the speaker than on the left. Maybe the band name should have been Prehistoric Fuckin’ Mono? The b-side doesn’t fare much better, with an even more low level noise from vinyl. The whole thing just eludes me. In the 80s people who did cassettes always said that one of the advantages of the medium was that they could be re-recorded. A good option for this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spanishmagic.blogspot.com
SHELF LIFE – COURTESY (CDR by Psychic Oscillator)
Casual rattle from this rather ductile collective centered around Public Eyesore head Bryan Day and experimental co-conspirator Jospeph Jaros. ‘Courtesy’ is broken into three tracks: “Morning Parlance,” “Afternoon Parlance,” and “Evening Parlance.” I don’t quite catch the meaning here, but Shelf Life’s manner of speaking is rather disheveled, full of clutter and clatter sourced from household percussive elements, stray metallic clangs, peripheral vocal blather, and some guitar shards positioned for good measure. One might not be inclined reach for “Courtesy” for a spur-of-the-moment casual listen – that isn’t its place. Instead, Shelf Life provide fifty-six minutes of crisply-recorded, acoustic free-improv; it’s a fun dose to rattle your soul, if nothing else. (MT)
Address: http://we-11.blogspot.com/
MASSIMO FALASCONE + BOB MARSH – NON TROPPO LONTANO (CDR by Eh?)
Falascone and Marsh populate this rather lengthy (and lively) stretch of free-improv with spastic spatterings of sax, violin, electronics, and clipped samples. The duo employ a fair dose of negative space, upchucking brief tidbits of sound on a backing of silence; the result is often tense and surprising, though abuzz with a cacophonous array of squeals, bleeps, and stutters. Some improvisations are rather sparse and awkward (“Facciamo,” “Mattina”), though I am more partial to the fuller whirls of sound that comprise the busier moments of ‘Non Troppo Lontano.’ Jerk-jazzer “Casa Ne Pensi,” wild “Everything is Done,” and mega-whimsical “Sigma 40” are among the duo’s stronger compositions, each evocative of carnival worlds filled with devilish instrumentalists and menacing mechanoid beepers. It’s a maniacal trip, to be concise. (MT)
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com/
BRUNO MOREIGNE – ANEMOS VOL. III (3″CDR by Kaon)
This continues the series started in Vital Weekly 706 and then continued in Vital Weekly 716. By now things start to elude me. I wrote on volume 2: “Moreigne, not known as a very active composer, again goes out in the woods of rural France to record his sound material for what will be a five part series. The usual elements are there, again, like birds, water, insects rain and of course the wind. The wind is what it also revolves (or rather evolves) about. It takes a while before we are there, as we first hear a lot of other sounds, church bells and such like included. It almost makes you want to a book a holiday into that rural French areas. Although this is actually nice, perhaps as nice as the previous, its not something we haven’t heard before. I wonder how this series will evolve. Will it be five similar discs or will there be some sort of development towards the compositional technique applied? This again seems a sequence of various events, rather than a layered composition or a single event. We’ll wait and see”, and now I waited and see/hear the same approach again, seemingly without much difference. I sort of can see how this series ends, which is quite unfortunate. The only difference here is that its no longer one piece, but divided in ten – not that makes any difference to the music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaon.org
PORATZ – BEAT (3″CDR by Electroton)
V4W.ENKO – SND (3″CDR by Electroton)
KETEM – COLOUR (3″CDR by Electroton)
INCITE/ – ICONICITY (3″CDR by Electroton)
Following various download only releases, the German Electroton now goes on with releasing physical product. The first four are to be released soon (I have no idea why I am reviewing early April something that has a release date of June 25 2010, but then: do the marketing principles of the real industry also apply to the world of a limited CDR release, I wondered). Design wise these releases look very similar to the early Raster Noton releases, and musicwise there are also strong links. Poratz is Patrizio Orsini from Livorno, Italy and his release is dedicated to Aoki Takamasa (should I know him? I think so) and in his seven pieces he sets forward a nice danceable beat. Beat indeed, I was thinking. Maybe a bit too weird for the real dancefloor (although on my travels through nightland I have encountered more stuff like this and I saw people moving), with sounds and breaks just a bit too weird for that. Well, that, and the fact that this no piece of vinyl – although: does the current DJ use vinyl? I should pay attention. Poratz is actually quite nice, somewhere half away home and house (that sounds better than home and techno, I know).
From Kyiv is Evgen Vaschenko, who works as
v4w.enko, who started in 2007 as ‘live electronics, sounds and videostreams […] being realized in realtime by manipulating of self programmed algorithms’. No doubt, given the title, inspired by SND from Sheffield, but there is also a strong connection to Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda. Sine wave like sounds, cut into smaller blocks of repeating sound, deep bass sound rumbling below. That’s the sort of action we get here. Even less hinting towards the floor, while quite rhythmic too. This is head nod music. Hardly an original version thereof, but its done in a nice way anyway.
The release by Ketem is around ten minutes, the shortest of these four. Its the collaboration between Shay Nassi (Mise En Scene) and Tom Kemeny (Darmock). They are from Tel Aviv and in their version of digital glitch music it seems that they sample ground hum and sine waves and maybe a bit of real rhythm. In all these slight variations (I am talking here about the four releases) its not easy to find different parallels, but Ketem seems to me dreaming of Pan Sonic. It has that similar somewhat brutal attack on the bass line. Maybe a bit too short to form a real opinion, but apparently they are working on a full length album.
From these four the Incite/ duo might be best
known – if only for their consistent mailing of concert dates to Vital Weekly. They have had a couple of releases before and play all over the globe. A duo from Hamburg, of Kera Nagel and Andre Aspelmeier. This is where all the influences emerge together: heavily influenced by Pan Sonic, with bouncy rhythms, the crisp clear digitalia of Alva Noto and Ikeda, with a fat bass sound. The sound is a bit too jumpy to be really straight forward dancing but somehow I think that in a battle of the bands, Incite/ would be the ones to get the crowd moving. All in all four quite similar releases, none of which is highly original, but all four made with true labor of love. (FdW)
Address: http://www.electroton.net
INCH-TIME – A HANDFUL OF DUB (cassette by Static Caravan)
Of course this was expected: Static Caravan also venturing into the world of cassettes. Recently we reviewed a LP by Inch-time, one Stefan Panczak from London (see Vital Weekly 720), with some very relaxed laidback dubby jazzy tunes. I didn’t straight away of a remix, but come to think of it: why not? Six tracks here, of which one is a new Inch-time tune, one is a self-remix and the other four are by others: Shoeb Ahmad, Radovan Scasascia, Paul Gough and Lawrence English. The first two bring out the dubbiness from the remix, whereas the latter two are more interested in the ambient shades of Inch-time. Cleverly put in pairs on both side, with Panczak’s own remix and new piece as new pillars at the start of a side. Great light music, burning like a small sun, as quiet as a campfire. I wish I had a car, so I could put this in and drive around. Lovely orange tape in an edition of 100, with a badge. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.org
A VIBRANT STRUGGLE – SOFT ILLUSIONS (cassette by 2:00AM Tapes)
It’s hard to argue with a collaboration between Sindre Bjerga, Jan M. Iversen, and Steffan de Turck (staplerfahrer), and I don’t intend to. Instead, I’ll remark that the trio have crafted something pretty damn curious here, exploring the worlds of drone and noise music but combining them with free improv clatter and burbling synth loops. Side A, “Buzzin for Hum,” transitions from industrial-calibre guitar feedback drone to a tape-concluding Casio vortex, the result being a novel and exciting work of avant-zaniness. Grimly titled (and executed) “Dead City,” meanwhile, makes ominous work of some deathly guitar rumblings, employing plenty of heavenly/devilish feedback goop along the way. It’s on the more traditional end of the experimental scene’s clamor, but it’s executed with enough noxiousness to plant a smile on my face. Ultimately, the first side is, for me, the real spectacle here, but these three veterans ensure the tape’s entirety is at least up to snuff. (MT)
Address: http://www.2amtapes.com
ROYALLEN – MOTIVATIONAL TAPE (cassette by Vanishing Hour Revival)
Royallen’s muddled motivational brew is a seething cauldron of sample-o-phonic sound – be it Bodyflex infomercials, skipping records (Morricone, I believe?), crackly new-age film score melodiousness, or eerie relaxation instructional tapes. And that’s all on the first side. This is, basically, your ideal twenty-four minutes of thrift-store musique concrete, its joy predicated on the profound juxtaposition achieved by pairing disparate audio sources with one another. It’s a fine solo debut from Mr. Royallen, who has issued a steady stream of splits n’ comp appearances on Housecraft Records, and who also occasionally records as Zebulon. There is plenty of tongue-on-cheek humor on tap here, but some of my favorite moments are those which blend the germane with the outright ominous, experienced best, perhaps, on the garbled speech and synthesizer gloom of side B. God bless experimental music that dares to be fun. (MT)
Address: http://vanishinghours.blogspot.com/