SOUFFERANCE, VISION – TRAVELS INTO SEVERAL REMOTE NATIOS OF THE MIND (CD by Valse Sinistre) *
SVART1 – NON TUTTO CIO CHE TACE E MORTO (CDR by Valse Sinistre) *
(AURA) – INVISIBLE LANDSCAPE (CDR by Valse Sinistre) *
SAROOS – SEE ME NOT (CD by Alien Transistor) *
RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI – THE NORTH BEND (CD by Room40) *
MINAMO & LAWRENCE ENGLISH – A PATH LESS TRAVELLED (CD by Room40) *
BJORN FONGAARD – ELEKTROFONI (3CD + 1DVD by Prisma Records) *
FRANCISCO MEIRINO & DAVE PHILLIPS – WE ARE NONE OF US (CD by Misanthropic Agenda/Domizil) *
STEVE SEVERIN – SLEEPERCELL (miniCD by Lumberton Trading Company) *
SAM HAMILTON – PALA (LP by Tumblingstrain)
HOWARD STELZER & DAVID PAYNE – SWELTER (LP by Cardinal Records) *
MARCONI UNION – GLASSWORKS (12″ by Bine Music)
O.R.D.U.C. – DO (7″ by Motok)
KIRCHENKAMPF – LOWLAND (CDR by Cohort Records) *
GULBENKOGLU & GORFINKEL – VIBRAPHONE/SNARE (CDR by Avant Whatever) *
FRANK ROTHKAMM – AMERIKA (CDR by Flux Records) *
MUTANT BEATNIKS – TRANSGRESSION (CDR by Institute For Alien Research) *
BLINDHEAD – LAGUNA SUNRISE (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
JUAN JOSE CALARCO & JAMES MCDOUGALL – REDUCED SPACES (CDR by Siridisc) *
///POLAROIDS\\\ (CDR by Flittermice) *
WHITE RIVER (CDR by Flittermice) *
EMIEL TEN BRINK & FEVER SPOOR – EEN GRENS AAN HET GEDULD (CDR by Anima mal Nata)
ALLAN CONROY & FEVER SPOOR – (RE)UNITED (CDR by Anima mal Nata)
DAVID WELLS – RESOLUTIONS (cassette by Con-V)
SOUFFERANCE, VISION – TRAVELS INTO SEVERAL REMOTE NATIOS OF THE MIND (CD by Valse Sinistre)
SVART1 – NON TUTTO CIO CHE TACE E MORTO (CDR by Valse Sinistre)
(AURA) – INVISIBLE LANDSCAPE (CDR by Valse Sinistre)
Sinister Walzes is not what we find on this trio of releases from a label from Rumania (a first I should think). The lettering on the covers and use of images should draw similarities with Cold Meat Industry and perhaps does so some of the music. First we have, from Montreal, a man called Peine, who works as Soufferance, Vision. He started in 2006 and up until released a few bits and pieces around, but ‘Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The Mind’ is his first proper album. A concept album, so we are told by the label: ‘a travel into the human mind, a travel into the subconscious’. One track, sixty-five minutes long, but clearly divided into several parts (why not separate on the CD I wondered). Travels are the main inspiration, and as such he lists a whole bunch: Verne, Hemingway, Swift, Steinbeck, Dumas, Baudelaire, Dafoe, Melville and such like. No mentioning of instruments though, but if I were to guess (and I am, am I?) than the guitar has the central in this epic tale. Sometimes sustaining while resting on a wave of sound effects, but sometimes clearly strumming away chords. The pieces in itself a quite brief, which I must admit isn’t as effective as it could have been for a record of mood music. Before you are well into a texture or mood, its already moving into an entirely different place. Some moments are downright tedious, such as the heavy metal licks around minute 48. Here we come to regret there are no separate tracks on the CD. Throughout – easily two-third – is however some fine mood music. Maybe Peine should have more confidence in playing some tunes a bit longer.
From Canada we travel to Italy, Sardinia to be
precise and meet up with Raimondo Gaviano, also known as Svart1, who creates his music with field recordings, synthesizer, guitar, salterio ‘and other interesting objects’, both from the analogue and digital world. This is ‘Italian styled dark ambient’, the label says, but, despite his eight previous releases, a new name for me. Its recommended for all fans of Northaunt, Kammarheit and Atrium Carceri, which are bands I never heard of (proving the fact there is only so much a set of human ears can digest). So I don’t know these bands, nor what Italian dark ambient’ is, but these seven tracks give me a pretty good clue. It doesn’t sound like something confined to a country, as what Svart1 does fits many other countries and labels. Foremost I was thinking of Sweden (Cold Meat Industry) or the USA (Malignant). Darker than dark music, based on a few inner earth rumbles, some lengthy synth wash and a slowed down bass thumb. But there is always a bit of melody creeping from underneath the rocks. Autumn has arrived, not just when looking outside, but also on the inside, Svart1 delivers the perfect soundtrack for that. The lightest piece is ‘Nascimur Uno Modo, Multis Morimur’, which is short but very light. Like sun in autumn time – rare but warm. Quite nice and to the point.
And for now something completely different (as they say). (aura) is Andre Fernandes from Portugal along with Jose Ramos, who is responsible for the photos in the booklet. Not unimportant this fact, since we must see the music as a soundtrack to these pictures. No dark ambient here, but certainly one of the stranger mixtures recently when it comes to music releases. Fernandes plays around with ambient house, soundscapes, classical music, post rock, techno, field recordings and electronics – sometimes even within one track (“Warm Winter” for instance). That delivers hardly a very coherent album as one can imagine, but I must admit I thought it was all quite funny. Eight tracks are rather short (up to three minutes), while the last two span fifteen minutes – and that surely adds to the confusion here. Not the greatest release ever, but surely very funny. I must admit it doesn’t translate the pictures quite well though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.valsesinistre.com
SAROOS – SEE ME NOT (CD by Alien Transistor)
A trio from Germany, ranking Florian Zimmer (Iso68, Jersey), Christoph Brandner (Lali Puna, Console) and Max Punktezahl (the Notwist, Contriva) as its members. If you know these bands they are, and I know only some, you might have a clue where Saroos will bring you. Imagine a post rock band with just too much love for electronica and studio techniques. Capable players of their instruments (drums, bass, guitars), plus also capable of adding all the right electronics to make it a great record, without getting it overwhelmed by technique. Krautrock like rhythms, banging on end, groovy at times, jazzy at others, celebrated wit nice vocal samples, flutes and such like become vibrant matters. Bass heavy, dub like, post rock, more jazz and lots of headspace. Eight pieces of this instrumental hybrid of pop music’s finest. A great CD – a total outcast for Vital Weekly obviously, and that’s perhaps why I digest this so well. If you like the bands these people are a member of, then this will surely needs your attention. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alientransistor.de
RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI – THE NORTH BEND (CD by Room40)
MINAMO & LAWRENCE ENGLISH – A PATH LESS TRAVELLED (CD by Room40)
The only two times we came across the name Rafael Anton Irisarri is when we reviewed music by Normal Music, of which he is one third (see Vital Weekly 414 and 475). It is once mentioned he is a member of The Musique Concrete Ensemble, but otherwise I do not know much about him. ‘The North Bend’ is an album that is based on the natural surroundings of the Northern part of the USA – let’s say Twin Peaks land. I looked at his website to find out more about him, and see various pictures of a man behind his laptop, but apparently he also plays guitar. I can see the Twin Peaks connection: the music could easily fit a long shot of from the air, with lots of green, and a road running through these woods. Its already dawn, so we see its headlights. The car is red. The music on tape is that of warm glitchy fields of processed guitar. Ambient music of endless sustain. Its quite nice. It works well. Bt but but, I must say it also is something that we heard well enough before. It doesn’t stand out particularly from the vast sea of ambient/drone/minimal/glitch music that is around. That perhaps is the downside of this release.
Maybe that can be said of the other album too, although the music is a bit different. Minamo is a Japanese band consisting of electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, electronics and objects. Their releases so far are best described as electronic chamber music. Intimate, sparse, open music, with minimalist gestures. I am not entirely sure how the collaboration with label boss Lawrence English was done, through mail exchange perhaps or via meeting face to face in the studio. English adds bass, harmonium, field recordings and electronics (so perhaps an exchange of sound files is indeed more likely. This Minamo ‘plus’ version delivers some great music. All the ingredients of a great Minamo record are in here, but there is more. Lawrence English, himself a master of finely tuned electronics and field recordings, adds in the right place the right sound and when nothing is necessary he doesn’t add a thing. As the album goes on, it seems to be growing and growing. More and more sounds are added in each new track, slowly building up to ‘Fireworks’, which is the closing statement of the CD, in an even mildly distorted surrounding. Here too, objectively speaking, Minamo or English doesn’t walk a new path in my opinion, but in bringing their sound worlds together, they sure do go off their main road. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
BJORN FONGAARD – ELEKTROFONI (3CD + 1DVD by Prisma Records)
It is kind of funny, I was thinking, to receive a 3CD of, of a composer I never heard before. That was more or less my introduction to Appliance last wee, but now also applies to Bj¯rn Fongaard. This Norwegian composer and guitar player lived from 1919 to 1980 and during his life he never released a single LP of his music, yet he had some pieces on ‘Electronic Music From Norway’, which Lasse Marhaug bought a few years ago, and that led for him to the discovery of Fongaard’s music. Fongaard’s daughter contacted Marhaug after he wrote something on that 1966 LP and this, eventually, resulted in this box-set. So unlike Appliance I don’t have to feel entirely guilty for not knowing this name. Fongaard was foremost a guitar player, appearing as a studio musician on many records, and as many times on TV and radio, but the real interesting thing is his interest in micro-tonal guitar. Instead of twelve tones, he uses twenty-four, on a special custom built guitar. He also composed pieces of an orchestral nature. On the first CD we find pieces for solo guitar, many of them onto tape, but without extensive processing techniques. It seems to me that these pieces are more or less improvised, working on all those smallest tones. Certainly nice and ahead of its time, seeing that some of these pieces were recorded in the mid sixties. Of greater musical interest, for me at least, is the second disc, which has seven piece of Elektrofonia ‘for Orchestra Mircotonalis’. How these were made is not clear – the booklet is extensive on many sides, but somehow lack information like this – but they sound great. Almost like sparse drone music, floating very spaciously about. An excellent work. The third CD sees a continuation of the first one, so it seems, with more pieces that sound improvised. Some of these have that spacious character of the second CD, and some of the improvised nature of the first CD. The DVD has some interesting things too. There is a ballet, an animation/ballet, a TV fantasy and an audio only interview. All of this is quite nice, although may not add a lot to the previous three hours of music. The main thing however is the TV interview from 1971 which you may not understand, but I recommend you watch it, since he shows how he plays his guitar: study material for aspiring table top guitarists. I must say I thought the whole package was quite fascinating, but also a bit too much. No doubt entirely my problem wanting to digest it all at once, but such I guess is the life of a reviewer. However its surely a small monument for a great unknown composer. (FdW)
Address: http://www.prismarecords.blogspot.com
FRANCISCO MEIRINO & DAVE PHILLIPS – WE ARE NONE OF US (CD by Misanthropic Agenda/Domizil)
Some weeks ago I received the official announcement that Francisco Meirino is no longer using the name Phroq as his moniker, but from now on wishes to work under his real name only. I wrote about this tendency before, and no doubt it has something to do with opting to be taken more seriously (by whom I wonder?). Dave Philips works as such for a much longer period of time. There is an interesting parallel to be drawn from both artists, which is that both work with what I call intelligent noise. Both of them use the collage/cut-up in a dramatic way. They have various building blocks of electro-acoustic sounds and field recordings at their disposal, which they cut together. Sometimes deceivingly silent and quite, which can linger on quite a bit, but just when you don’t expect this, they cut it out with some harsh, nasty sound. That happens a few times on their collaborative work, as its hardly a surprise that both man work together. The six pieces on this work, which took four years to create, are excellent examples of their work. There is a great sense of story telling in these pieces, although its not obvious what this story is. Its captivating music throughout, very intense and thoughtful. Sometimes this puts you off, since there are odd changes and interruptions, loud as hell, but you can not help but sucked into this music. Definitely from the background of noise music, but with so much more to tell and with so much more pleasure to hear. Excellent collaboration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.misanthrophicagenda.com http://www.domizil.ch
STEVE SEVERIN – SLEEPERCELL (miniCD by Lumberton Trading Company)
Quite a catch here, I should think. Steve Severin is perhaps best known as founding father of Siouxie & The Banshees, where he played the bass. A heritage not easily to be ignored, I think. But Severin has done a lot more, and his biggest interest lies within working with sound to film. That’s his main line of business these days, composing music to films, or adding live music to silent movies. Not so for the three tracks on this mini CD (twenty minutes in total). This is inspired by so called number stations (which are, back in the old days, when you could actually use the dial of your transistor radio where to be found at the edges of the frequencies and used by espionage to transmit information – Irdial did a great 4CD of those by the Conet Project in 1997) and a short poem Severin wrote about the Cuba crisis of the sixties. I loved that Conet project release, as I did dialing the radio when I was young (and actually had a radio). In the title piece we hear those familiar sounds, with a little bit of synth added to it, and in ‘Sleepercell Awakes’ he adds a drum sound to it, rattling about like not too good drum & bass (less the bass). The longest piece is ‘Countercode’ which uses only a little bit of those number station sounds and is a very ambient piece, with sampled voices. A bit of cliche, but that goes for all three. I must admit that I expected a bit more. I did like the old band, I must admit this is the first time I hear his solo work, and I think its pretty much alright, but nothing too good. Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high. Pretty decent, but nothing more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lumberton-trading.com
SAM HAMILTON – PALA (LP by Tumblingstrain)
More music by Sam Hamilton, as a follow up to ‘Sooty Symposium’ (see Vital Weekly 667) and this time packed in a nicer cover. It doesn’t list any instruments, except that live drums where played by Chris O’Connor and Alex Brown. So I believe to hear voices, guitars, electronics, organ sounds and such like. Eight tracks and Hamilton moves away from the loopy pieces of instrumentals, in favor of his own form of popmusic. Wicked and wild, jumpy and bouncy. It doesn’t belong to any particular world but perhaps to many. The keyboards and rhythm machines play a too fast techno bit, the vocals (multi-layered most of the times) however remind me of Richard Youngs on speed (like on his Dekorder LP) and so does perhaps a fair bit of the music on this record. Music that leaves the listener behind without breath. I am not exactly sure what to make of this. Perhaps I liked the previous CD more? But having said that, there is something about this record that is surely quite captivating. A fresh take on the whole notion of singer songwriting thing for sure. Extremely odd music, which doesn’t make it much clearer, I know. Every time I play this, I like it more. Surely one of the more stranger records of recent times. (FdW)
Address: <tumblingstrain@gmail.com>
HOWARD STELZER & DAVID PAYNE – SWELTER (LP by Cardinal Records)
A limited edition LP of two masters of the lo-fi. David Payne is a member of Fossils whereas Howard Stelzer is known as the man who plays with cassettes in an extraordinary manner (besides running the excellent Intransitive Recordings label). Their LP is the result of an ongoing exchange of cassettes through the mail. These are played on walkmans, memorecorders and four track machines, as to alter the speed on them. All of the results are then layered together into a heavily vibrant piece of noise music. Not exactly the kind of noise music that works with endless streams of feedback and distortion, but a kind of distortion that works on a different level. Field recordings are used, crudely taped onto cassettes, played in strange and unusual manners, electro-acoustic sounds of stuff dropping and falling on the concrete sidewalk and such things alike. A very vivid and imaginative record. Crude but thoughtful noise. Excellent and too short (with some fifteen minutes per side) unfortunately. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cardinalrecords.blogspot.com
MARCONI UNION – GLASSWORKS (12″ by Bine Music)
Back in Vital Weekly 682 I reviewed the album of Marconi Union, which was about an imaginary view of the city of Tokyo. Now there is the 12″ ‘Glassworks’, which sees them exploring further the notion techno meeting ambient music. Mind you, I think that we will see a return of ambient house somewhere soon – all the signs are right (unless I am horribly wrong and shortsighted). Three versions of this track, of which two have a nice laidback beat, maybe a bit too slow for the dance floors, but which would work well in a chill out room. The derelict mix is beat-less and wanders even further out into ambient land. Nice music, indeed. Forthcoming is a new CD from them, which I await with some anticipation. The 12″ format is nice, but not really for home-listening. (FdW)
Address: http://www.binemusic.com
O.R.D.U.C. – DO (7″ by Motok)
My favorite (well, almost) revived electronic band from The Netherlands is O.R.D.U.C., from Nico Selen. Since he’s back on track, he’s quite active, mainly by releasing new records. Playing live is, I believe, of no interest for him. Last year he released a fresh new 7″ called ‘Auto’ (see Vital Weekly 694), which was followed by an LP called ‘107’ (see Vital Weekly 710). Now there is a new 7″ (the previously 7″ ‘Iron Jubilee’ was released in March, but in a very small edition, so perhaps that’s why it never made to these pages?) called ‘Do’, which, if I understand correctly has four tracks from ‘107’, but in a slightly different version and four new tracks. I am not entirely sure about such marketing techniques, but perhaps there is fine reason. While playing this new 7″ I was contemplating what it is that I like about the music of O.R.D.U.C. I am not entirely sure about that, but it must be that charming naive character of the songs. Vaguely pop music related, but Selen is not a rock star, will never be. His voice is not made to sign a real song, yet he always sings. That’s for sure something I like. His drum machines never sound like a cool rhythm machine from the world of electro music, but not of a very spiky brand. The lyrics do not seem to be about anything in particular, but aren’t also abstract poetic matters. More like daily observations. So what is it then that is so captivating? I think I have to come back to my first observation, and that is the sheer naivety, but also utmost pleasure which O.R.D.U.C. uses to create his music. Not exactly that of a professional, or an artist with a deeper meaning, nor the will the change the musical landscape, but just to create eight short, at times sketch like songs. In that sense there is no marketing in here, and O.R.D.U.C. just do what it likes to do, wether that is playing new songs or creating new versions of existing songs. Jolly nice! (FdW)
Address: http://motok.org
KIRCHENKAMPF – LOWLAND (CDR by Cohort Records)
John Gore is an active guy, with his Oratory Of Divine Love and >wirewall< in slumber mode, but still releasing fine music on his Cohort Records label and his own musical project Kirchenkampf. Whereas with Oratory Of Divine Love he works with radio waves, with Kirchenkampf that goes in combination with synthesizer and sound effects. Over the years his music didn’t change that much I must say, but perhaps that is not his intention. On these seven pieces he explores the radio waves, synthesizer and modest sound effects in a very relaxed fashion. Maybe that’s where the change is? This new release sounds a lot more mellow than it used to be. In fact, perhaps even the most ambient excursion I encountered from Gore. A highly delicate release, carefully constructed with a few sound elements, music that hides away, stay away and forms the perfect ambient back drop. Dark, mysterious, minimal: all of those common ground places fit this release. And perhaps its not the most ‘new’ (in an avant-garde sense of the word) releases, Kirchenkampf has produced his best work to date. (FdW)
Address: http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
GULBENKOGLU & GORFINKEL – VIBRAPHONE/SNARE (CDR by Avant Whatever)
Both of these men have been reviewed before. Arek Gulbenkoglu had a CD on Impermanent Recordings called ‘Point Alone’ (see Vital Weekly 492), while Dale Gorfinkel did a CD with Robbie Avenaim on Split Records (see Vital Weekly 616), where they played vibraphone. Here Arek Gulbenkoglu plays snare drum and Gorfinkel vibraphone. Both are active in the improvised music of Australia. They recorded this work in a concert situation, but without being able to see each other. I am not sure how they play their instruments, but I am pretty sure it involves some kind of mechanical devices. There is something distinctly electrical about this release (unless its the buzzing of speakers), which makes that this doesn’t sound at all like a vibraphone or a snare drum, especially not as the piece progresses. At the start we may think they do so, but in a nervous, hectic way of playing, but slowly buzzing and sawing comes in and towards the end objects rubbing the surface take over. Quite a vibrant recording at work here, with a direct in your face recording and with a total length of twenty-one minutes an excellent work of improvisation. (FdW)
Address: http://www.avantwhatever.com
FRANK ROTHKAMM – AMERIKA (CDR by Flux Records)
On the press release we find quotes by Mr “Karl May” Rothkamm and Ms “Klara May” Rothkamm. The first being the foreword to Winnetou III and the second just says ‘letters’. We also find “Frank Rothkamm is a composer and conceptual artist who lives and works in View Park”, which is perhaps true. At least: its something I can acknowledge. Rothkamm composes music and packs it as a conceptual artwork. ‘Amerika’ is a five part work (well, actually works, as they are Opus 475, 476 up to 479) and are played on a ‘1954 Wurlitzer Spinet Piano’. No electronics at work, no processing, no plug ins. Just two hands and one piano. Five pieces, each spanning somewhere between eleven and seventeen minutes. Its not ‘easy’ listening music, nor a take on Erik Satie. But just what it is? That’s a difficult question as my knowledge of modern classical music is very, very limited. That makes this CD not easy to digest. I am reminded of his one of his earlier releases, ‘Opus Spongebobicum’ (see Vital Weekly 636), but now with five in stead of forty pieces. I can just as easily repeat what I wrote back then: “It’s not the piano playing of say Satie or Debussy – that much I know – but more like 19th century piece of classical music with some ‘strange’ elements thrown in that make this is quite a strange piece too. Even when the overall concept left me with questions, the work as such was nice to hear. That’s about all I can say about it.” Applies to this one also. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com
MUTANT BEATNIKS – TRANSGRESSION (CDR by Institute For Alien Research)
Shaun Robert is the main man of Mutant Beatniks. He hails from Bath (UK), but he recorded this new album ‘Transgression’ with Dennis Ward (from Cornwall). Robert writes: “Dennis’ input is mostly screaming and shouting, tapping and banging things and finding interesting samples. Shaun Robert does everything else – collating, putting together”. That may suggest that we are dealing with some product of the industry of noise – type: heavyweight – but that isn’t the case. The keyword in Robert’s words is ‘sampling’. Whatever screaming, shouting, tapping and banging may mean in another context, in this context they are sampled to create vaguely rhythmic music of a more crude nature. Again: not as in the context of noise, but rather in an early Pan(a)sonic sense of the word, without however strong 4/4 beats. Everything is filtered through some synthesizers or computer plug ins, which add that needed glitchy character. Compared with their three previous releases (see Vital Weekly 724, but some where much older), the plunderphonic aspect is largely gone. Everything seems to be ‘self-made’ as opposed to ‘plundered from other sources’, which in my book is always good. Overall Mutant Beatniks have progressed quite a lot. Not every track here is great, but throughout this was thumbs up all around. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/edgeofthecosmos
BLINDHEAD – LAGUNA SUNRISE (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Since reviewing the first two releases by Blindhead (where e a are together and the o has a thingy on its top, but which I learned is a ‘d’), see Vital Weekly 621 and 649 I learned some more about the project. Its from somebody whom we shall refer to a S/, from Brussels and who is behind the excellent record label Ini.Itu. Their releases focus on the use of field recordings made in Indonesia. So he has a released an MP3 on Ruidemos and an one side LP for his own label, actually the start of the label. Like on the previous releases, Blindhead uses extensively field recordings, but, and this might be a new feature on the Mystery Sea label, these seem not derived from anything close to the sea. Crackles of wood, human activity (recorded over a great distance it seems, allowing lots of hum as an extra musical source). It continues where the LP left. Lots of acoustic ‘rumble’, contact microphone stuff and such like, but its all sounding quite mysterious (I see here more mystery than sea). This is due to the fact that the pieces are heavily layered and filtered. Distant rhythms are present in the final piece, but they are a rarity. Throughout an excellent work of field recordings, microsound and ambient, touching at one hand on all the familiar grounds, but Blindhead has enough of its own to make things thoroughly interesting. An excellent release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
JUAN JOSE CALARCO & JAMES MCDOUGALL – REDUCED SPACES (CDR by Siridisc)
Siridisc is the new label run by David Wells (see also Vital Weekly 736 for another release on this label), and here he releases two musicians working together. From Buenos Aires we have Juan Jose Calarco, who likes to work together (previously with Ubeboet and Nicolas Szczepanik) who teams with James McDougall, who started to record music as Entia Non, but these days works under his own name. On this release, they each have a solo track and a collaborative piece in the middle. I must admit I did note this when I studied the cover closer, which was when I started to write this review. When I first played it, I thought all three pieces were collaborative efforts, as they all seemed very close to eachother. They all gave me the impression that a microphone was stuck in the middle of a room, in which one or more players are moving quietly on chairs and/or performing some obscured action. The sound is colored through some filtering and layering perhaps a few of these sound actions. This might the case in all three of them, with the collaborative piece being the most busiest one. While I thought this was all pretty interesting, I must admit its also all a bit long. Three times a highly obscured form of field recording from a similar perspective, a slightly processed action recording is maybe a bit too much. In itself however very fine – when doses properly. (FdW)
Address: http://www.siridisc.blogspot.com
///POLAROIDS\\\ (CDR by Flittermice)
WHITE RIVER (CDR by Flittermice)
The fact there is existed something like ‘Witch House’ escaped my attention, but the ‘band’ ///polaroids\\\ play that, in combination with shoegaze. I recently read an article about odd band names, which is to make it hard(er) to find them on any social network. Now we’re talking. Any such band has my attention: they might be the true underground. Down with facebook, twitter and what have you, with their 20 templates to create your unique, own presence. Thank god ///polaroids\\\ are on http://slashpolaroids.tumblr.com/. So far my idealistic talk about underground perhaps? According to the label, Flittermice (from The Netherlands), ///polaroids\\\ play something that is a cross between “Anti Pop Consortium and My Bloody Valentine, hold the guitars”. Lots of slow electronic rhythms, melancholic keyboard lines and voices that sound like recorded from a coffin, buried some time ago. Not entirely my cup of tea, but I didn’t think that this was bad. A bit gothic perhaps? I thought it was pretty entertaining in a sort of nice 80s retro way.
White River is a new group, with Steffan de Turck (also known as Staplerfahrer and Preliminary Satuaration) and Vincent Koreman (of Travolta’s fame, although RA-X might ring more Vital bells, as well as god knows what else in Tilburg’s music scene). Here Flittermice makes the reference to Black Dice, which I can see. The music is all recorded live and uses a lot of rhythmic elements. Not necessarily these elements are from the world of techno or strict dance music, but bouncing samples of a percussive nature. It doesn’t have (yet?) the complex layered structure of the Black Dice, but White River operates in a less complex manner, feeding one or two rhythmic elements through a bunch of sound processors – perhaps of an analogue nature. It doesn’t sound at all like any of the other stuff these guys normally do, which makes it all the more refreshing. Quite raw in how it works here. Not heavily doctored, or strictly composed, but it seems like thrown on the tape (erm, harddisc probably). Pleasantly raw and untamed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.flittermice.org
EMIEL TEN BRINK & FEVER SPOOR – EEN GRENS AAN HET GEDULD (CDR by Anima mal Nata)
ALLAN CONROY & FEVER SPOOR – (RE)UNITED (CDR by Anima mal Nata)
I wrote this before in these pages: Marcel Herms is an active man and for now he released two CDR’s at his own label Anima Mal Nata. His concept is to create music with other musicians and combine his and their sounds together. This concept is not new, but it is mostly interesting how musicians can inspire each other to new musical experiments. The collaboration with the musician Emiel ten Brink from the north of the Netherlands is a very noise one. Emiel ten Brink released before music at the netlabel Completely Gone Recordings from the United States. For now he created a noise world with Fever Spoor. The two musicians go wild with their noisy spectrum, high pitched sounds, screaming voices and grungy soundlayers complete the not really surprising noise. Only the last track called Schaduwdans (dutch for ‘Shadowdance’) is different, because of the use of fieldrecordings far away in the background, what gives the composition more space in the narrow blast of noise.
Allan Conroy is active in the music-scene for many many years. A few weeks ago I reviewed the trilogy with Fever Spoor and Not Half. For this CDR they are re-united again and create a beautiful CDR. Part One has 5 tracks and has been made by using reel-to-reel tapeloops and effects which are recorded in a 4-track machine. The result is an intimate atmosphere with some noisy elements. The compositions are built up quietly and slowly. Part two has three tracks. The basic sounds have been made by Marcel Herms and Allan Conroy edited this material on a computer with Logic. The sounds are more clear and digital, so the soundstructure has become less intimate than the tracks before, but I like how Allan use the multiple possibilities of this program and the compositions have an open structure. The last part are sounds played on a 4-track tape-player at the wrong speed and some minor effects have been added. Some original recordings have been released at Industrial Therapy Unit in 1990. This long track (23 minutes) gives a nostalgic mood by the creative use of tapes. Highly recommended CDR. (JKH)
Address: http://myspace.com/animamalnata
DAVID WELLS – RESOLUTIONS (cassette by Con-V)
The music on this release was already recorded in 1997-98 in Cramond, Edinburgh, then transferred to a digital format in 2006 and re-assembled earlier this year. David Wells is one of the drone guys from the UK, just like say Paul Bradley, Monos, Ora, Colin Potter or Jonathan Coleclough (and no doubt others I can’t think of right now). In both versions of this piece, called ‘Resolutions A’ and ‘Resolutions B’ (so two versions of the same piece, right?), it seems like he’s playing an organ like sound on a keyboard. A kind of digital church organ sound, but with some delay behind it to cloud the sound a bit, but which adds a nice endless sustain to the music. The whole thing is highly minimal, and has a beautiful ringing tone to it. Excellent late night dream music – before or after sleep. Classic ambient drone stuff. Simple and effective. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org