SUPERFICIAL DEPTH – DIGITAL SUPERIMPOSING (CD by Side Effects)
DANIEL MENCHE – SCREAMING CARESS (CD by Side Effects)
Superficial Depth is a new name chosen by Uwe Schmidt, who we of course
know as the busyst bee buzzing around with Lassigue Benthaus, Atom Heart,
Lisa Carbon Trio and many more. His discography grew skyhigh in only a few
years. Recentely he moved to Chile, but I doubt that he is cut off from
doing exciting music. In a way this new side project is just too perfect:
the music, one long track of just under 70 minutes, seems like suited very
well for a release on a label such as Side Effects. If ever Side Effects
needed a perfect example of what the label stands for, Superficial Depth is
it. Waving tones of synths and samples (no melody heard however) of superb
dark ambience, rumbling of percussive sounds in the background, anything
that is not static but constantely shifting in tone and colour makes this a
perfect listening when you turn of all your lights at night. Dark ambient
indeed.
To some Daniel Menche is the Mozart of industrial music, and it seems
strange that he too has a release on Side Effects. His music consists of
rubbing contact microphones over his body in addition to which he using
sound effects and everything he finds on his way (bells, sand, stones
etc.). Every track you hear on this CD is adequate and to the point. Unlike
many other noisicians (and this is what makes Menche truely different) he
does not extent his pieces too much, but he knows what is enough.
Address: <info@soleilmoon.com> or <darkvinyl@t-online.de>
NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES – INTERVISAGE (7″ by Drone Records)
DELPHIUM – SNOWHILL-X (7″ by Drone Records)
Noise-Maker’s Fifes have a growing reputation, mainly due to their 4 CD’s
released in the timespan of less then two years. NMF produce a dense
ambient sound which hints at Musique Concrete and improvisations. Here the
Part 1 is like stone rubbing in the background to which slowly light
metallic echoeing percussion is added. These are slowly building to a
climax. More high pitched sounds open ‘Part 2’ and is quicker in building
to a climax of tunderous trains driving by. This piece ends quietly in
drony landscapes.
Delphium have been reviewed in these pages before in the last few weeks,
and here is another offer of 4 tracks. These were recorded in 1995, but
only recentely mixed. ‘Unforgiven’ is a dark moody synth piece and the
title piece a more abbrassive affair with howling sounds and percussive
sounds throughout, ending in a massive wall of guitar sound. ‘Stringsong 1’
takes drones and samples for another brooding atmosphere and in ‘Lie To Me’
is a strange song of keyboards with again dark atmospheres in the
background. Musicwise this stands far from the CD reviewed here two weeks
ago. Delphium’s sound seems more primitive on this and though not bad,
maybe less favourite with me. But in all rawness this a nice record.
As usual with releases on Drone, they covers are handmade and their first
run is 250 copies.
Address: <dronetroum@aol.com>
The Sons of Silence – Silence FM (Bay 1CD)
Ah yes, the long awaited SOS debut CD. What we get is a load of breaks (but
thankfully not Chemicals-style Big Beats), simple but appealing melodies,
dub bass, crispy high hats and a whole mess of vocal snippets. But hang
on…isn’t that exactly what the last one had? I mean its good, indeed
accomplished, but by track five its all wearing thin…it just doesn’t,
well, engage me. Thankfully things pick up half way through – “Larry
Addled” tends towards queasy listening, while “It’s a Bloodbath” picks up
the tempo into a spy-theme sort of thang. By track eight (“A Low Speed
Chase”) things have slowed to ambient pace, while the super-slinky sax
employed on “Cocktails at Dawn” works to enliven the by now over-familiar
looping formula. “Oddball/Highball” move inna G-funk kinda way, although
the remaining tracks revert to type, despite pleasing scratching and
interesting guitar textures. So it it any good? Yes, although it seems SOS
must now move on to bigger and better things. Nothing dramatic has changed
from previous releases – the phat dope beatz (ahem) continue largely
unchanged, although on the plus side the narrative flow from piece to piece
is now pleasingly disrupted by more advanced editing techniques. The truth
is there’s only so much you can do with a fistful of loops, and as they’ve
now perfected their techniques in this area it’s time for something new.
(RTH)
Address: <tony@number9.demon.co.uk>