EM:T 1197 (CD by Time Recordings)
And Time… well they just continue on their own track. Again with a
compilation introducing some new artists and some from the Time stable.
Richard Bone offers his best track from a CD released on Quirkworks some
time (Vox Orbita). Bad Data is in ever too familiar territory with their
ambient doodlings. I will never know what 8 square meter of stereo will
sound like, but they have a slowly building track of ambient sound and
acoustic percussion and Woob continues where he left off with his second CD
(and is similar to the 8m2 Stereo track) – adding a Didj now. More digital
ambient by Gas and International Peoples Gang is, again, more of the same.
Now the big surprise comes from somebody called Dallas Simpson. His 12
minute piece is called ‘Waterpump’ and consist of walking through a forest,
bird whistle and of course water sounds with sound processing kept to a
minimum. Em:t won’t be rich, but here is a consideration for them: do a
compilation with just these sound scaping pieces, and praise will be their
part. Miasma is in dark territory with a moody piece. The CD closes with
Hywel Davies with an odd piece of acoustic sounds (mainly flutes being
played) and deep bass rumbing, this is more orchestral piece. End survey:
one outstanding piece, a lot of average material and nothing really bad.
(FdW)
Address: <emit@msn.com>
REHBERG & BAUER – <<FASST>> (CD by Touch)
Someone wrote me a while ago stating he wanted to see more drum & bass
reviewed in these pages, since D&B were the only true successors to
industrial music. I don’t agree. D&B is in many ways the true successor,
the electronic version of Jazz Rock of the 70s. If Industrial music needs a
succssor, or if we need to find something, I would classify this CD as
being it (or Panasonic, Oval, Microstoria, anything on Mego): music made
with broken down technology (preferably digital) that have a raw sound
aswell as a groove to it. It may not be surprise that these two boys from
Vienna have a background in dance music, but growing into a new sound.
Ramon Bauer is a member of General Magic and Peter Rehberg is known as Pita
(with an outstanding CD on Mego). This CD offers 10 tracks (20 index point
on the CD however) of noisy, yet accurate sound processing. Noisy indeed,
but with a groovy (as not in danceable) rhythm. Check out the future of
industrial music: check out this. (FdW)
Address: <touch@touch.demon.co.uk>
CRAWLING WITH TARTS – I AM TELEPHONING A STAR (CD by ASP)
CWT are sympathetic duo from Berkeley, California doing their stuff,
without caring about what is hot or not. They released a whole bunch of
CD’s, and here is another odd one: 15 tracks spinning in 44 minutes. There
is acoustic, improv sounding stuff, along with weird record playing stuff
(as on their ‘Grand Surface Noise Opera’). Their concept for this one is
beyond me, but maybe it’s just highlights of what CWT is capable of. By
putting short tracks we get a nice birdview of their many sounds and never
bores. So if you ever need one CWT CD (and you do!) – then this is it. (FdW)
Address: <tart@sirius.com>
JLIAT – THE NATURE OF NATURE (CD by Jliat)
Jliat’s fourth offering on CD is the longest thus far, and also, to some
extent the darkest. The cover is all black with just a tree and the remark
‘a single piece of electronic drone’. Now that the Jliat novelty is out
there (read: picked up by those who tell you the novelty – only months
after you found yourself), and minimalism is hip, we may except more
interest in this one. The description is very apt. This is nothing else
then a single piece of electronic drone, but let this not put you to sleep.
The drone on this CD changes slowly and takes various shapes, but only
noteable to the concentrated listener. The unconcentrated one, he/she who
plays this at this a soft volume will find a meditative piece of music.
Just wonderful! (FdW)
Address: <james@jliat.demon.co.uk>
RUNE LINDBLAD – DEATH OF THE MOON (CD by Pogus)
Now here is welcome re-issue of something that I would consider essential.
Rune Lindblad was a Swedish composer (1923-1991), the first in his country
to compose electronic music. Before his first “official” release, on Radium
in 1988, he only had two record releases and although he is largely ignored
and forgotten by the serious big avant-garde people, he had many students
who continue his work (among them are C.M. Von Hauswolff and Ulf Bilting).
This CD is the re-issue of the Death Of The Moon LP (his second “official”
on Pogus in 1989), with some material added from the Radium double LP. The
CD opens with ‘Party’, his opus 1, taking shortwave sounds and people
speaking. The title piece sounds like a slowed down speech tape, with
electronic added, and is maybe a key piece to Lindblad’s work: electronics
and tape manipulations are mixed with eachother, as early as the
mid-fifties when this was composed and Stockhausen (plus the rest of German
gang) and Schaeffer (and his french mates) were arguing whether electronic
music should either electronic or tapes. The three following pieces are
titled ‘Fragment 0, 1 and 2’ and are again manipulations. The percussive
sounds in Fragment 0 are surpriselingly fresh, but the breathing in a
microphone gives this a primitive turn. Guitars or other snare sounds are
the totured object in ‘Evening’, with doors squeecking and sped-up tapes.
The last piece on this CD is ‘Optica 1’ is quite famous, since it uses
damaged 16mm film. In all an interesting overview of extreme early musique
concrete work, that sounds raw and maybe primitive but didn’t loose much of
their original intensity.
Together with the re-issue of Roland Kayn’s work, and recent works by
Henric Chopin another essential historical work. And more to come. (FdW)
Address: <pogal@ix.netcom.com>
LIMINALITY (CD by Digital Narcis)
Already available since 2 months, but good enough to be ignored. This is
another fine collection of 6 lengthy tracks by six young ‘musique concrete’
composers. The CD opens with a soundscaping piece by Eric LaCasa that moves
from from nature sounds into the city and back into nature again. Something
similar, soundscaping wise, is offered by Nick Peck. He takes water sounds
(‘that a fish might hear in daily life’) and processes them with the
recognizable water as the main focuss. Ora (with some people associated
with Organum) offer a fine drone piece in the best Organum tradition. Deep
sounds, scraping sounds and an occasional bell. Koji Marutani, a.k.a. boss
of Digital Narcis, explores more sound scaping field recording processings
with church bells, piano sounds and traditional music. The shortest track
and oldest (from 1991) is by PFN – hey who remembers them? They had a great
LP on their own Quiet Artworks label but seemed to have disappeared from
the earth. Metal sounds rinkel and electronics play a small backgrond role.
RLW closes the team with what sounds like a breath sampled and tearing up
paper, but you never know with this kind of stuff. Every artist on this CD
take his time to show what they can do, so if you ever wonder what they
were about, this is a good place to start. (FdW)
Address: <dnarcis@jxa.jumbo.or.jp>
VARIOUS ARTISTS – SOLAR (CD on Soleilmoon)
This is another compilation featuring a bunch of the usual softies,
starting with TUU, whose earlier CDs may be familiar to sombunall of you.
Their track ‘Shiva Descending’ is a flutebelldrone which drifts out of the
speakers like heavy mist over oily ground. This is followed by true fusin
from Jorge Reyes who mixes authentic instruments with body percussion and
voice into an excellent hypnotic track. Ancient rituals, new technology. O
Yuki Conjugate play the bongos and keep the loups at a distance. Stillpoint
sound disappointingly like Jon Hassell, despite being comprisewd of members
of other much mopre innovative groups. This is followed by the first of a
few audio-photographs which serve as intersections in this journey. It is a
way too loud recording of the Hi-Fi Market in Bangkok. A whole CD of this
would do very nicely, actually.
The group Raksha Mancham is comprised of people who have definitely have
difficulty spelling their own names. Their singer is either very good at
pulling faces or so intent on looking at the floor, no one knows for sure,
but by all the demons in Tibetan mythologies, this is verily a truely
appalling track, which even the yards of text in the otherwise mostly
informative booklet-thingy, were unable to save. Then a bad recording of a
real religious procession in Nepal – just as well these two are together.
Two birds with one press of the Skip-Knob.
A Small Good Thing create a strange sonic building which is better than
most of their recent stuff. This is followed by two tracks which segue
perfectly-from the somewhat restrained and carefully paced bell-atmosphere
by Frank Perry to the insect-like drone by Max Easterley, which gradually
subsides into long, bowed (?) tones. Lovely piece this. Then there is a
brief recording of a ‘Roadside Gamelan’ which is followed by a new and
reasonably massive piece by Rapoon, constructed from yedaki (?), voice and
effects. And probably more. Sounds like a tour of inspection by a large,
introspective beastie.
Then there is the final track by Paul Schutze called ‘Sleep V’, an
expansive piece with a feeling of stretched, taut space. Very minimal and
still highly charged.
And that’s it.
Mostly for fans. Certainly definitive, albeit a little late. Please God,
let there be some truth in the words of the acoustic Bob, may the times be
achanging…and music too. Much fresher produce required. (MP)
Address: <soleilmoon@aol.com>
TONTO’S EXPANDING HEAD BAND – TONTO RIDES AGAIN (CD on Viceroy Music)
Here’s a CD of music originally released 26 years (that’s older than you
buddy!) ago as ‘Zero Time’. I was one of those fortunate enough to pick it
up in 1975 on the Atlantic Records release complete with appropriate
artwork (This new sleeve is absolutely horrid) (For colour photocopies of
the original artrwork, contact this broadsheet and send as much money as
you think it may be worth. No pay, no see, gottit!). It is music made by
two blokes, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, both still active in
studios in the States, and an artillery of analog (read mostly Moog) gear
and quite possibly a bunch of Owlsley’s best. This CD also includes a
number (7) of unreleased tracks which don’t quite make it (and probably for
this reason were not included on the original) and which distract from the
original record. Whether they knew it or not (pass the sugarcubes please,
Bob), this music was made for tripping, and the first six tracks deserve to
be on any psychonauts shelf. Sadly, the words for ‘Riversong’ were only
ever included in the original packaging, so the lyrical content of this
tune must remain a mystery. ‘Zero Time’ was definitive for it’s time, so
much so that Little Stevie Wonder bought them out immediately and got them
to make a bunch of records with him, starting with Music Of My Mind and
ending with Jungle Fever. So now we know who to blame. I, for one, have had
so many unforgettable experiences with this music that I was overjoyed to
hear of it’s re-production. Mix it up with E.A.R. or Spectrum and similar
hippie-shit for an effective voyage. Enjoy! (MP)