MASAMI AKITA – THE PROSPERITY OF VICE/THE MISFORTUNE OF VIRTUE (CD by Che)
The first solo CD by Merzbow’s frontman! At long last. Now we will know
what Mr. Akita’s input is, and of course everyone is curious to hear the
difference between Merzbow and Akita. The 18 pieces on this CD were
composed for a theatre play by Japanese theatre group Romantica and the
play was based on texts by Marquis de Sade – topics not much different. The
seperate pieces are short and vary in volume – yes, some can be called soft
(… to some extent of course). Some of these pieces have a pulsating
rhythm basis and could easily compare Panasonic (to name one). The second
piece, with scraping violin and throbbing rhythm is a different affair. If
one listens to this CD as one piece the collage character is more apperent.
The sound shifts back and forth a lot. But the gigantic Merzbow sound is
also there. As a whole I think this CD does not much differ from the
Merzbow sound – so I wonder why this wasn’t called Merzbow… Needless to
say that this is a great CD! (FdW)
Address: <irec@cheltd.demon.co.uk>
PARA NOISE TERMINAL – MECHANICAL FAIRYTALE (CD by Stein Sein)
To manufacture a CD is a cheap affair nowadays – the result is clear: the
market is flooded by new releases every week, in all musical areas. Another
result is that it is harder and harder to produce a new CD on a ‘real’
label. Luckily there is a new thing, the CD-R. The recordable CD will be
the medium of the future. The machines are getting cheaper every day and
soon all of us will have one of those at home and we can bake our own CD’s
(being one step away from downloading music from the internet). More and
more artists will produce small editions of their own work on a good
quality format and offer them for the price of a normal CD. Here is one
such band. The two piece group from Germany with some history in releasing
cassettes offer CD-R with full colour xerox cover with two excellent live
recordings. Metallic sounds are drenched in reverb and the synth bubbles
along. Quite quiet atmospheric music. They have been listening to
zoviet*france, but are less refined or more rough edged. As said excellent
stuff that will give you a good impression what this band can do at your
chill out party. (FdW)
Address: <stefanrossow@delphinet.co.uk>
MAEROR TRI – MORT AUX VACHES: HYPNOS/TRANS (CD ON STAALPLAAT)
The first of two new releases on the ‘Mort Aux Vaches’ series released by
Staalplaat documenting live radio concerts commisioned and broadcast by
the VPRO Radio Show ‘De Avonden’. Previous releases in the series include
performances by Deutsch Nepal, Merzbow, Illusion Of Safety and Scanner.
Hypnos/Trans contains three long tracks, all very similar in structure and
sound. Now, I’ve no recall of ever hearing anything by this group, so
cannot compare it to their previous output; apparently though, it all
sounds a bit like this, so it may be a case of heard one, heard ’em all. I
have no idea how they work…the sounds could have been produced by
anything, but I suspect the inclusion of at least one guitar, bunches of
tapes and samples (?) and an arsenal of effects. All three pieces exude
confidence and power, starting as well-defined drones which continue to
develop and thicken, in some cases muffled percussion swirls in the
background, and there is an obvious lack of silence in the world of the
Tri. I felt little difference between the pieces; they could have all been
one long take actually, and sadly none of them really managed to propel me
anywhere. Frightful psychedelic packaging, too!
BEEQUEEN – MORT AUX VACHES: STET SON (CD on Staalplaat)
The second release this month in the ‘Mort Aux Vaches’ series is by Dutch
electronic duo Beequeen. It contains four tracks… the first is a
composition for two musicians: Big interstellar ships materialise out of
the billowing wind and hover, humming. The hum fills the heads of all
occupants of first a city, then a country, then the planet…except for one
man who, desperate to document his audible memories, hammers away at an old
Rermington. The voices of the dead percolate up through the soil
evapourating and filling his ears with their discordant murmuring as they
float past on their way to trance-mutation. Track 2 is named after your
common and garden, everyday household appliance, the honey pump (every
bedroom should have one !). The honey pump sounds like a modified
lawn-mower or edge trimmer (but is really a sewing machine), fouling up in
dense growth, while a mechanical bug inches forward; it’s blue spring-steel
heart straining like an old hinge. Then, a voice reading from Joseph
Beuys’I’m Searching For A Field Character’ emphasises Beuys’ philosophy
that ‘Every man is an artist’. I wasn’t really invited by the tone of the
voice to listen to the multi-syllabilic, bulky text, and besides, voice in
music is known to throw me. It is almost drowned out by de drones, dough.
Nice grind.
Track 3 is named after the title of the text used in the previous
piece…bloke walking, scrunchy gravel. Space chord drifts like slow snow.
Weird shout. Owl response. Head down…left foot, right foot. Mall
memories. Chirp, chirp. Tweet, tweet. Loads of stones, maybe we’re in a
quarry. Ah! He’s buggered off. (So he has…he’s scarpered!). The last
track on this CD is called ‘Phlight’…BIG metal sky slides shut. Monstrous
locusts sharpen their rasps. Dropping their steles, they line up in rows
around a central place. They dance in preparation for flight. Morse code.
Dot. Dot. Dot. Wonderful piece which pushes at the edges with it’s
bigness/closeness. (MP)
Address: <staal@euronet.nl>
DECREATE – BUMP & GRIND (XT9605)
CLIPPER – SPIN-OFF (XT9604)
NEVEN – SCARWASH (XT9601) (All on Ex-it Records)
I’ve trawled the internet and asked around, but no-one seems to know much
about Ex-it Records and their acts. As a result I’m forced to review these
CDs with just the music to guide me. Now, that might sound like a healthy
approach, but I ended up wishing I knew something positive about this music
or the people who made it. These three outfits contain varying permutations
of the same team. Thus Peter Clasen turns up in both Neven and Clipper, and
the delightfully named Chester Fondu handles all artwork duties. All I can
say is, I wish he hadn’t – the Ex-it corporate sleeve design could be
sub-titled “Cheesy Photoshop For Beginners” – its dull, its derivative and
it doesn’t contain much in the way of ideas. Unfortunately it suites the
music all too well. But lets try and be positive – Neven is the best of the
bunch. Here you get an intelligent overview of a variety of rhythmic
formats, with a commitment to melody and the occasional interesting sound
or texture. Re-contextualized this could work well. DeCREATE and Clipper
both chart similar territory but with less success – there’s a strong
feeling of accurate but uninspired formula-following, as though this music
is a minutely observed copy of an altogether more exiting original. There’s
nothing explicitly wrong you understand, its just that there’s no real
point of difference between these acts and a hundred other
techno-influenced outfits. The hi-hats are crisp, the bass pumps, its well
recorded but it just isn’t happening. The ratio of generic dance features
to original elements is wrong. So what we get is a reasonable example of
what we’ve all heard a hundred time before – is this the music that
inspired your author and her mates to race around the M25 in the late
eighties, dodging the cops and looking for raves? I think not. (RTH)
Address: <rcampus@resulb.ulb.ac.be>