THE COMPLAINER – SAINT TINNITUS IS MY LEADER (CD by Mik Musik) *
REINHOLD FRIEDL – MUTANZA (CD by Bocian Records) *
FEDERSEL & MAKELA – AN EVENING WITH (CD by Poli5) *
NATE YOUNG – REGRESSION VOL. 3: OTHER DAYS (CD by Rockatansky Records) *
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR – LEYFOU LJOSINU (CD by Touch) *
SHANE MORRIS & MYSTIFIED – EPOCH (CD by Lotus Spike/Spotted Peccary) *
CRAIG PADILLA – THE HEART OF THE SOUL (CD by Spotted Peccary) *
LARS BRONDUM – CHAIN OF EVENTS (CD by Elektron Records) *
SYNTJUNTAN – EARLY YEARS (CD by Elektron Records) *
CHRISTIAN VOGEL – THE INERTIALS (CD by Shitkatapult) *
KIRA KIRA – FEATHERMAGNETIK (CD by Sound Of A Handshake/Morr Music) *
NICOLAS BERNIER – TRAVAUX MECANIQUES (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
ADRIAN MOORE – CONTRECHAMPS (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
VEHICULOS DE OCASION – SKILLS (LP by Beverly Brothers Recordings Company)
LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM – ATANIMONNI AITNATSBUS (10″ by Drone Records)
JACINTHEBOX – COMPLETE 1984/86 (CDR by Midas Music) *
IVORYSHIELD – YOU’D WANT THAT AT THE VOLUME THAT YOU’D WANT (CDR by Dirty Demos) *
ORPHAX – CONFUSED (CDR, private) *
NEDEDAR – HIGH TIDE (CDR, private)
WAND. AND PRINCESS – LOCUST 9 (CDR by Sincope Records) *
DAO DE NOIZE – ISHTAR VOICE (CDR by Sincope Records) *
CLAUDIO ROCHETTI & LUCA SIGURTA – SEVIGNY (cassette by Sincope Records)
INDIGENTS – BOTTOMLESS SINKING (cassette by Sincope Records)
VERTONEN AT JENNIE RICHIE – LEAVING OCEAN FOR LAND (CDR by Debacle Records) *
STARTLESS – VOICELESS, AERATION (CDR by CIP) *
STARTLESS – LIVE IN TOLEDO (3″CDR by CIP)
CHFS – BUND (3″CDR by In Dust) *
KITO MIZUKUMI ROUBER – CONCERT AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL (cassette by Rockatansky Records)
IRURETA – 100% PUR SPORT (cassette by Teflon Beast Records)
THE COMPLAINER – SAINT TINNITUS IS MY LEADER (CD by Mik Musik)
Its been a while since I last heard The Complainer, it might be not since Vital Weekly 473 when I reviewed ‘Sponsored By Retro Sex Galaxy’. I believe I saw them live also a couple of times (but alas, I don’t keep lists). Here is at last a new CD, which comes in various editions. The one I have here is a box with ‘inserts’ (cut from magazines) and a CDR with more music. This Polish band still love their analogue synthesizers, rhythm machines and sampling devices. The music is loaded with rhythm and synthesizer sounds, but ‘pop’ is not their game it seems. At times slow, non-dance like rhythms, it reaches for the more darker synthpop of the latter day Gary Numan (post his early 80s success) or the darker moods of Depeche Mode, yet being mostly instrumental. Some of this would have fitted Suction Records quite perfectly (whatever happened to them?), in terms of electro music from a more intelligent perspective. Hard to spot samples here, unlike that previous release. Information on the bonus CDR lacks from the package, so I would have to assume its ‘just’ more music by The Complainer, which is not bad. It makes the total sum of the package around 100 minutes long, which makes a great private party around the house. Freaky, raw and untamed, and perhaps best: not as poppy as this review may suggest. Just perfect underground elektro music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mikmusik.org
REINHOLD FRIEDL – MUTANZA (CD by Bocian Records)
Perhaps best known as the man behind the Zeitkratzer Ensemble, Reinhold Friedl performs also solo, on the piano (just as he plays with Zeitkratzer). Here he has a new CD of solo piano music, but then of a more unorthodox way, as he mentions it on the cover. Maybe if you hear Philip Glass’ ‘Music In Fifths’ you may not agree, as this is a straight forward minimal piano piece, but of course there is something mechanical about it. But then in the other pieces things are pretty unorthodox, like in ‘Mutanza’ (composed by Witold Szalonek) which use the inside of the piano, to be played with all sorts of objects, or the two different ways of making drone like music on the piano, in two different ways, ‘Music For Piano With Magnetic Strings’ (by Alvin Lucier) which is carefully building sine waves with ebows and the loud ‘Pan Fried II’ (by Phill Niblock) which is machine like loud. Also in his own composition ‘Epitaff’ he uses external elements to play the inside – the strings – of the piano in quite a loud way – think an acoustic Merzbow piece. All in all a fine release which shows the various ways of playing piano in a different way. Not just for those who like modern classical music, but also if you like modern drone music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bocianrecords.com
FEDERSEL & MAKELA – AN EVENING WITH (CD by Poli5)
Apart from the long list of instruments there is not a lot of information available on this . We have Federsel, also known as Tomas Prochazka who plays vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards, pivofon, percussions, drum machine, flute, turntable, radio, washboard and objects and Pasi Makela who gets credit for vocal, throatsinging, guitar, bass, percussions, saxophone, clarinet, harmonica, flute, Weltmeister basset and objects. “Leaders of Laski (FIN) and B4 (CZ) got together and recorded couple of unexpected songs blending psychedelia with some post-hippie vibes, ambient and best tradition of freak-out”, is what the cover promises us. And that’s what we get. Almost all of these track hit the five minute mark and seem to me the result of jamming together and sometimes cut out from a larger session. Also it may very well be that instruments were added in a random way, which later, in the mix, found their place. Freaky, jazzy, free music, rock like at times, jazz at other times but also crudely lo-fi electronics play an equally important role here, and they are played in a similar loose fashion. I really thought it was quite a nice CD, but even at fifty-three minutes perhaps a bit long. After a while you get their drift of what they sound like and from then everything may sound as a repetition what you already know. Still half of it – any half – is excellent. (FdW)
Address: http://www.polipet.cz
NATE YOUNG – REGRESSION VOL. 3: OTHER DAYS (CD by Rockatansky Records)
Another Wolf Eyes member, following Aaron Dilloway’s solo releases from two weeks ago. Nate Young, founder of Wolf Eyes, plays around here with lathe cuts, tape loops, electronics and synthesizer. The CD is announced as fourteen tracks, but there are twenty on the CD itself, sic of them being six seconds in length of what seems to be silence. This is noise, but of the kind I like, since its not that ominous loud, but there are some remarks to be made about this. The music sounds relatively easy made. A few loops, some processing, a bit of electronics, a dash of delay and that’s it. Nate Young is someone who we know has produced a lot of music, a fast composer, and perhaps not always the most critical one when it comes to judging what should get ‘out there’, or perhaps the demand for new music is too big for him, and labels are too easy going for him to release new music. Either way, this CD has some nice pieces, but also some that are just too easy. Maybe it would have been a good to put all the sound generated here from all the track together and make a few less pieces that had a less arbitrary nature and was actually a bit more composed. Now, I am sort of left behind with mixed feelings about this. (FdW)
Address: http://rockatanskyrecords.web.fc2.com/index.html
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR – LEYFOU LJOSINU (CD by Touch)
‘Allow The Light’ is what the title means, and its a live recording ‘with no post tampering of the recordings’, but its not played in a concert environment and without audience. So I am not sure what point has to be proven here, if any of course, but Hildur Gudnadottir is excellent player of the cello, electronics and voice. Following the short opening piece, aptly named ‘Prelude’, the main course is served, the title piece. For both her cello and voice, Gudnadottir uses loop devices to multi-layer her own playing and while at it, add more new layers – live. A method that is hardly new new these days and shocking, but unlike so many guitarists who keep doodling about with a few simple tunes, Gudnadottir crafts together a whole piece of humming voice, in tune and then slowly adds, little by little, her cello playing, slowly amassing, while voices are disappearing, ending in a grand finale. An excellent, somewhat moody and atmospheric piece of music. Why ‘live without audience’, or ‘no post tampering’ are irrelevant questions once you heard this. There is not much else to say about this piece: simply a lovely direct piece with a great quality. If Gudnadottir plays concerts like this in front of real audiences: bring it on, I’d say. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
SHANE MORRIS & MYSTIFIED – EPOCH (CD by Lotus Spike/Spotted Peccary)
CRAIG PADILLA – THE HEART OF THE SOUL (CD by Spotted Peccary)
More music by Thomas Park, whom we best know as Mystified. Here he works together with Shane Morris, a percussionist, synthesist and composer of ambient electronic music. Apparently this work contains no electronic sources or synthesizers, only acoustic sounds, which I find hard to believe. These acoustic sounds include trombone, didjeridoo, vibraphone, bass drums, scissors, percussion, all of which are electronically processed – aha. Four lengthy pieces of music which seems to be a template of all things dark and ambient. Highly atmospheric and drone like, with an over-use of the good ol’ reverb unit. That is at times a bit too much, I think. I always wonder what would be left behind if we could cut away all the reverb? But maybe such is the nature of anything ‘dark’, ‘atmospheric’ and ‘drone’ like. Certainly a fine album, without a new light on the genre as such. But for what it is, its certainly an excellent album.
I never heard of Craig Padilla, despite his twenty year career in music. He is inspired by Klaus Schulze, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. He has about forty releases, but ‘The Heart Of The Soul’ is his first album in four years. That has to do with major life-changing events. I have of course no idea in what way this is different than his previous albums, but what I hear here is quite nice, but also sounding like a big cosmic cliche and at times too sweet for my taste. Lots of synthesizers and sound effects, arpeggio’s and such like, but especially the piano and the digital strings sound a bit too new age like for my taste. I do like the more electronic pieces such as ‘Lost In You’, ‘You Were Here’, ‘New Directions’ and ‘Spirit Signs’. But yes, its like listening to early Tangerine Dream or Schulze. When the piano comes into play its too much Vangelis and I look away. The album seems to be limping between these two directions without making up its mind. Still, its not a bad CD for late night listening. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lotuspike.com
Address: http://www.spottedperccary.com
LARS BRONDUM – CHAIN OF EVENTS (CD by Elektron Records)
SYNTJUNTAN – EARLY YEARS (CD by Elektron Records)
Two releases of ‘serious’ modern electronic music from Sweden, and this time not on Fylkingen or Firework Edition. What a rich community I thought with a feeling of envy. Lars Bröndum is a composer, performer of live-electronics, theorist and guitar player, writing for musicians/ensembles but also improvising music. He uses an analog modular system, a theremin, effect pedals and laptop. The pieces on this CD have been played live in Japan, USA, England, Scotland, Spain and Sweden, but here presented through studio recordings made at EMS. Although I think seventy-seven minutes is quite a long stretch for this kind of music, it offers enough variation. Ranging from pure electronic pieces, such as ‘Impetus’ to the more improvised pieces like ‘C.O.R. Rebound’, which has guest players on piano, trumpet and contrabass, ‘or ‘Surge’ with additional violin. From heavy blocks of sounds to more meditative moments. But, as said, this is all quite long and for this demanding kind of music I think the album is a bit too long.
Synjuntan is a group of female composers and instrument makers, formed by Ann Rosen, Lise-Lotte Norelius and Ida Lunden. They appear in various combinations, also along with others. Besides playing concerts, they also do workshops, using a ‘sewn synth’, which is perhaps the device shown on the cover. The five pieces on this CD are all taken from live recordings which shows in the music. It deals a lot with the more crude ways of lo-fi electronics. Music that is improvised and results in some heavy type of noise. Not all of the times, but it does, most of the times. Its not something that I would play at home, feeling this would probably work better in a concert situation, especially if there is something to see for the audience. But that visual aspect is of course a bit lost on the CD itself, and what is left is more like a nice record of improvised noise. Not the worst in its kind, thanks due to the more introspective bits, but it also doesn’t stand out from many others in this kind of music. That perhaps is a pity here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.elektronrecords.com
CHRISTIAN VOGEL – THE INERTIALS (CD by Shitkatapult)
When I spend more time in record stores out of work obligations, I was more acquainted with the world out there. I could listen to labels that I wouldn’t hear otherwise, and get to know some music that hardly makes it to Vital Weekly these days. Music by the likes of say Christian Vogel, when he was still recording for Mille Plateaux. Needles to say I didn’t keep up with Vogel, or all the small sideways techno always seem to take – a marketing coup boys and girls, to keep you interested – so I have no idea where his new album, the fourteenth solo album, would fit in, in either his solo career or, for that matter, in the world of techno (and beyond) music. I don’t think this album is necessarily a very techno album, in fact its a highly varied album. Dub like in ‘Deepwater’ and ‘Dreams Of Apolonia’ or cosmic like in ‘Spectral Transgression’, before leaping into a Chain Reaction like beat, piano arpeggio of ‘Todays Standard Form’ or the slow ‘Moved By Waves’ which seems worlds apart from the industrialized ‘Enter The Tub’. The overall tempi of the pieces is rather slow – not always – and the mod is dark. Hard to see the dance floor filled with this, but that might not be the objective of Vogel here. If his objective was to create a highly varied album for home listening than he has succeeded rather well. I for one non-dancer was highly pleased with it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.shitkatapult.com
KIRA KIRA – FEATHERMAGNETIK (CD by Sound Of A Handshake/Morr Music)
Kristin Bjork Kristjansdottir is a founding member of Kitchen Motors, a label/organization but she is also a composer herself and director of feature films. In between homes she started to work on ‘Feathermagnetik’, which she recorded with a whole bunch of musicians, who provide such as instruments as custom made percussion, psaltery, taisho koto harp, violin, whistles, harmonium organ, trumpet, horns, guitar and lapsteel. Voices also play an important part. Despite the many people who worked on this album, it all sounds very intimate and highly emotional. Instruments are through sparsely used and sound a bit like Mark Hollis – complete with whispered voices, a desolate trumpet and carefully strummed strings. Its all a bit too delicate for me, I must admit. You wish for something really weird to happen, that is out of the ordinary or strange, but it all stays safely on the delicate side. That is perhaps a wise and deliberate choice because it makes a very coherent album of doomy, sad music with a strong overall modern classical feeling, but as a whole is a bit too sombre and too delicate for me. (FdW)
Address: http://kirakira.is
NICOLAS BERNIER – TRAVAUX MECANIQUES (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
ADRIAN MOORE – CONTRECHAMPS (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
Why Empreintes Digitales sometimes releases CDs and sometimes DVDs I am not sure of. The DVDs are not related to films, but contain 24 bit audio (as opposed to 16 bit on a normal CD) and surround versions. Maybe there are no surround sound versions available of the works they put on CD? Here are two DVDs releases, and Nicolas Bernier seems a bit of an odd ball in the more academic serious world of Empreintes Digitales. His background is more in the microsound, ambient, glitch music and has had releases on Cronica, Ahornfelder, Leerraum and Home Normal. He uses the sounds of typewriters, field recordings, tuning forks, old machines and sometimes even real instruments. Yet on ‘Travaux Mechaniques’ his music sounds remarkable alike his peers on this label, save perhaps for the opening ‘Antithese Electronique’, which is an odd one minute laptop punk song. In the four other pieces sounds stumble about, with incidents happening all over the place. ‘Writing Machine’ is an ode to William Burroughs, cutting up a spoken word performance, along with the heavily processed sounds thereof and the sounds of a typewriter. Quite vibrant music, swiftly moving about with a great sense of drama. Not fully absorbed by the world of serious academic electronic music, this is quite an enjoyable work by someone who hasn’t fully understood – quite rightly as it turns out – the exact rules of composing, but follows his own path and makes his own great music.
Adrian Moore has a more serious background, with various studies and degrees in the UK and France and is a teacher. He operates more within the strict rules of composing this kind of acousmatic music, and even crosses the line towards classical music with his ‘Fields Of Darkness And Light’ for violon/violin and electronics. Its the one piece here I didn’t like very much and it seems an odd-ball around here. In the other pieces he may use instruments too, but they are less recognizable (such as in ‘3Pieces’ for piano, horn and violin). Sounds tumble about, with glissandi working on and off and the whole thing has quite learned character. Throughout not a bad release, but it all stayed a bit distant and alien to me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.empreintesdigitales.com
VEHICULOS DE OCASION – SKILLS (LP by Beverly Brothers Recordings Company)
The three tracks on this LP were already recorded in 2009, but somehow now released (well, 2011 that is) and this trio from Norway consists of the drums of Tor Kristian Ervik and the two guitars of Andre Algroy (right channel) and Steiner Sekkingstad (left channel). Accidentally I played this record at 45 rpm at first, or perhaps its intended like that – the cover doesn’t tell us – and oddly enough after that I played it on 33 rpm and it hardly made a difference. These boys play hard, loud, free noise rock music with lots of feedback flying about. Especially the guitars sound particular nasty and the drums are in an excellent free jazz overdrive. Perhaps it wasn’t the right record to get up with this morning but I am surely very much awake now. Ear cleansing and the furious three. (FdW)
Address: none given
LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM – ATANIMONNI AITNATSBUS (10″ by Drone Records)
For the world of isolated drones, head space music or whatever you want to call it, some say just ‘drone music’, Drone Records is the right place to be. In their new series there is now a 10″ by Lunar Abyss Deus Organum from Russia. We have reviewed their effect loaded ambient/drone music before. Here we have two new pieces, especially recorded for Drone Records, which seem to be build by and large from field recordings. On the A-side church bell sounds start off a nightmarish piece of heavy sounds. Not noisy, but heavy in the sense of the multitude of events going on in this piece. Everything seems to be touched with electricity and processed heavily, which is in stark contrast of the b-side in which we start out with more pure field recordings, which gradually move over into more electronics/synthesizers, but the frogs, fire sounds and water never are far away. Also I thought to hear long wave sounds on this side. A strange, unsettling atmosphere is around this record, beautifully haunted I’d say. Spooky stuff for late evenings. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dronerecords.de
JACINTHEBOX – COMPLETE 1984/86 (CDR by Midas Music)
If I wouldn’t have known who Jacinthebox is/was, I would have probably dismissed this release. No sleeve, no information, just a CDR with ‘Jacinthebox’, ‘complete 1984-88’ and ‘R07’. But as a matter of fact, I do happen to know who he is: mister DMDN from Tilburg where he has a great record store (Antenne Tilburg), and besides his solo noise project DMDN he’s also a member of Bunkur and THU20, as well as a celebrity in the dubstep scene. A long time ago he started the label A Tapes, soon changing its name to Midas Tapes, and then Midas Music (as well as Supreme Tool Supplies for more rock like music), and played in various bands. During this period, as yes, that’s the 1984 mentioned here, he had the solo project Jacinthebox, armed with a rhythm machine, a guitar, some effects and a voice. Coming from a punk rock background its not odd to see his two solo cassettes were called ‘Wipe The Church’ and ‘Wipe The Multi’s’, but his political message is hardly in your face. The sixteen pieces, the complete story of Jacinthebox, are excellent examples of rhythm driven experimental rock like tunes, with that mechanical drive. As of his second release, he started to play around with feedback, like he would later explore with PDM and solo, but sounding nicely raw and primitive here. Already on this second release he let’s go for the more song structures used on his first cassette in favor of more free play in combination with primitive noise. It could have been a direction which Whitehouse could have taken post Come’s ‘Rampton’, but they didn’t. Towards the end things get really nasty, loud and violent and it reaches it natural conclusion – no longer ‘song’ based but heavy free noise rock. An excellent overview from a long forgotten project. Comes timely with the Ultra revival in The Netherlands I should think. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antenne-tilburg.nl/
IVORYSHIELD – YOU’D WANT THAT AT THE VOLUME THAT YOU’D WANT (CDR by Dirty Demos)
Its been quiet for Dirty Demos for a while, but at last here is a new release by a duo of Georgia Jones and Adam Baker, the latter working as Dead Wood and owner of Dirty Demos. I guess it didn’t expect him to come with this duo. Acoustic guitars, female vocals? Its really there and perhaps its nothing for us, but it shares the quality that we know from Static Caravan (why not send a demo there, I wondered), plus it has something that is certainly weird about this. There is an electronic component about this music that adds a certain spookiness about it. Its not in all the tracks it seems, or perhaps not as apparent, but it adds a certain weirdness to the music, moving it out of the traditional singer-songwriter material. Six tracks only, seventeen minutes. That’s the downside. I would have minded say ten tracks in thirty minutes and get an even more clear picture of what this is all about. But so far, this is a most promising start. Nice folky music with an odd twist. Yes, definitely along the lines of Static Caravan – the more I play this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dirtydemos.co.uk
ORPHAX – CONFUSED (CDR, private)
Sietse van Erve has been going as Orphax since 2001, first releasing music on net labels and then, since 2004, also on CDR. Van Erve has his own label, Moving Furniture Records, but somehow he never seems to release his own work on his own label. Sometimes on other labels such as Striate Cortex, Cut Hands and Verato, sometimes, such as here, a private edition of his own. Why this is, I don’t know. His first real CD will soon be released on his own label though. Confused indeed. ‘Confused’ is the title of his eight CDR release and is a somewhat older work for semi-acoustic guitar, voice and audiomulch, all recorded in one take. Music with a highly drone like character. Perhaps using an e-bow, or perhaps some sort of motor device on the strings, being picked up by the computer and, once locked inside, start growing and expanding like living organisms. When they organisms are big enough, they take over the guitar playing and now it seems they have a voice of their own. The end sequence of this piece (almost thirty one minutes) has a slightly distorted feeling to it. Perhaps such is the nature of recording things in one go? Throughout however I thought this was a very nice piece and certainly one to be released. I surely wasn’t confused by this, so I wonder where that title comes from. (FdW)
Address: http://www.orphax.com
NEDEDAR – HIGH TIDE (CDR, private)
‘Sounds like: Tracy Bonham, Aimee Mann, Emma Pollock’, but keep in mind a) I am not a journalist of any kind and b) hardly a dedicated follower of pop fashion so who are these women? I think women who play guitar and sing songs as at least that’s what Nededar sounds like. A band around one Emilia Cataldo, going since 2001 and producing five albums herself. Oh and running her own label I guess, and somewhere on the internet look under ‘where the hell do I send my promotional CDs, don’t care who or what they are writing about’ and send one to all these addresses. Vital Weekly very much like to be removed from any list of ‘useful’ promoters/reviewers/media contact. We very much like people to think before acting. What is this place about I am about to send a promo too, would they serve my interests, do these people know Tracy Bonham, Aimee Mann, Emma Pollock and do they seem to care about what I do? Nehedar just send this to the wrong place. Its not a bad release if you like sweetly sung pop music. I even liked it, although I found it hard to relate to and then went on with business as usual. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nehedaronline.com
WAND. AND PRINCESS – LOCUST 9 (CDR by Sincope Records)
DAO DE NOIZE – ISHTAR VOICE (CDR by Sincope Records)
CLAUDIO ROCHETTI & LUCA SIGURTA – SEVIGNY (cassette by Sincope Records)
INDIGENTS – BOTTOMLESS SINKING (cassette by Sincope Records)
I will admit straight away I skipped the first track of the release by Wand. And Princess, a duo of Isabelle Spyridonos and George Kanavos. It was just pointless noise to me. Luckily it is with eight (!) minutes also the shortest piece on this four track release. Its with their music that I sometimes have a trouble with, but the other pieces make up, even when some of these pieces are a bit long. ‘I Dream Of Void’ is a nice ambient industrial piece, which sounds like boats passing the harbor: far away and at night. That mood is continued in ‘Marianne’, the next piece which even has a faint trace of melody about it. It turns out to be the best piece of the CD. ‘Athanor 11’ is a more noisy outing, not as the opening piece, but more like a decaying recording of motorized traffic in the distance. Not bad, but nineteen minutes, me thinks is too much. I would have been happy with just those two piece in the middle.
Artem Pismenetsku, also known as Dao De Noize (see also Vital Weekly 775 and 820) returns here with a new release with two lengthy pieces of his drone plus music. Drones plus noise, drones with field recordings, made with radio, electronics, field recordings. One piece is over twenty-eight minutes and one is just under fourteen. Its music, I should think, that is recorded in a sort of ‘live in studio’ condition, with abrupt changes over, while other sounds are still a going concern. It makes the title piece, the longer of the two, a bit of a haphazard affair. Too random elements are added and removed and it seem to lack form, I think. ‘Destroy All Zikkurats’ starts out very noisy, and then moves over with a Russian voice from radio. Perhaps there is some political meaning to all of this, but its something that eludes me. Dao De Noize holds certainly a promise, but is in need for someone who edits the best bits and make a coherent release.
Two established names from Italy’s world of experimental music team up on a collaborative release: Claudio Rochetti (known from 3/4Hadbeeneliminated, In Zaire, Olyvetty, Vroooom!) and Luca Sigurta (of Harshcore and Luminance Ratio). There are no instruments mentioned on the cover, but I assume they use their familiar set up of cassettes, samplers, electronics, analogue sound sources and such like. On this twenty minute tape they play some nice dark and moody pieces of drone music with a strong love for minimalist changes. Nothing much seems to be happening in this music but has a kind of internal evolution. Maybe its a pity to release such delicate music on cassette, I was thinking, as with some post-production/mastering one could take away the hiss and make it sound much better. Its nothing new under the sun of drone music, but its done with great and style.
Indigents are Stephane Kerandel (of Terrotank) and Hector O (of Mindload). They record jams in Barcelona straight to their tape or walkman, which is something that we hear loud and clear in the two pieces on this tape. Hard to say what they do. Scraping the barrel with an iron brush perhaps, amplifying it to get some additional distortion and there is the use of a primitive keyboard I should think. The two pieces seem to be culled from a combination of jam sessions, crudely stuck together. Quite industrial I should think and not entirely my cup of tea. But this is definitely the kind of music that fits the medium perfectly. There is no such thing as perfection around this lot. Its not bad for a noise release in as far it doesn’t just howl around, which I guess is a winning situation to start with. (FdW)
Address: http://sincoperec.altervista.org
VERTONEN AT JENNIE RICHIE – LEAVING OCEAN FOR LAND (CDR by Debacle Records)
STARTLESS – VOICELESS, AERATION (CDR by CIP)
STARTLESS – LIVE IN TOLEDO (3″CDR by CIP)
Three releases with Blake Edwards – also the man behind the CIP label. Two of them are by Startless, his latest ongoing collaboration with Jason Zeh and one might be an one-off collaboration, with At Jennie Richie. Who or whatever that is, I am not sure, there was no immediate information forthcoming. Also it doesn’t say how this was recorded, together in a studio, live or perhaps through mail. Its one piece, forty-six minutes, divided into six distinct parts. Judging by the way it sounds, I think this is a live recording. Drone like music of long sustaining sounds, endless loops of sonic debris, effective use of reverb. Maybe Edwards uses his turntable set up in some of these places – it has that rotating sound. There is also the use of field recordings (birds, water, wind) in some places, along with sounds from ventilation shafts and motorized mechanics. Mastered by Matt Waldron, of irr.apt.(ext). fame and there is indeed a certain similarity between his own music and the six part composition here. A combination of drone like material, musique concrete and sound scaping, which is no doubt the most original form to approach this, but it makes up for some great music. Dark, moody and spooky – a pleasant nightmare.
The Startless release ‘Voiceless, Aeration’ was edited around the same time Zeh and Edwards recorded their debut album, ‘Circulation Decay’, and although presented as one piece, its a combination of a two studio sessions in January 2011 and a live radio recording from November 2008. Their debut CD was reviewed back in Vital Weekly 771 and received well by me. The use of cassette sounds (preferably highly eroded), tape hiss, record player motors and shortwave made up an interesting mixture of drone music with a louder edge, but never made into the noise land as such. Here in this release, at around nine minutes they do land into the noise world, for a few minutes and its my least favorable bit of this release. When they stay more closely to their debut release of drone like material of crackling hiss and rusty vinyl things work much better. But throughout there is an element of chaos, or unrest in this material which I am not sure works very well. Its not bad, but it seems to lack that refinement from the debut CD release.
The 3″CDR captures a recording from June last year in Toledo, Ohio. This is, perhaps, a more straight forward recording of a show, without too many edits. Low end bass humming from tape players and turntables, some cut up from radio/tape, working in two distinctive parts of drone music, with a section in the middle with sparse sounds. Its quite nice as a set by itself, and no less chaotic/noise based than the ‘Voiceless, Aeration’ release but then overall the better of the two new releases, especially since it works itself up from noise, more noise into a sparse part of random noise, to conclude with a more concentrated effort somewhat harsher drone like material. All the ingredients are here again, but just somewhat a more concentrated effort. Intelligent noise matter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.debaclerecords.com
Address: http://www.cipsite.net
CHFS – BUND (3″CDR by In Dust)
A rather low affair, packaging wise, CHFS stands for Christian F. Schiller, who plays ‘e-bass and the bass-frequencies played the snare-drum’. It seems to me the start of a more conceptual approach to music rather than playing a ‘nice’ piece of music, although I might be wrong here. Pure tones are fed through the snare drum, of which the surface vibrates. That seems to be it. After about ten minutes the music suddenly changes and it seems that the e-bass is played here more. It ends with a swooping sound. Its not bad but somehow I fail to see a point to all of this. (FdW)
Address: http://in-dust.org/
KITO MIZUKUMI ROUBER – CONCERT AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL (cassette by Rockatansky Records)
Apparently they released a 7″ on Siltbreeze and its ‘the weirdest dance band ever that broken avant garde blues and garage rock failed into Japanese soul music, enka. They are freak, play freak and this is the document to know freak’ it says on the website as the cover doesn’t have any information at all. Lo-fi freak music it is. Following a looped intro of ‘Staying Alive’ by The Bee-Gees, we are treated by a full blast of improvised lo-fi guitar noise and drums, recorded down in the basement. I have no idea about Enka, or perhaps about blues and garage music. Its nice for what its and at some thirty minutes, I think this has the right length for such a freak show anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://rockatanskyrecords.web.fc2.com/index.html
IRURETA – 100% PUR SPORT (cassette by Teflon Beast Records)
A band from Trith St-Lywood, France with an extensive line up of drums, bass, guitar and synths, all played by a variety of players, with several of them taking various roles and not all playing at the same time. The band started as a joke: ‘simply record, play, get high and drink delicious beer, not necessarily in that order’. Band jams are recorded and then edited around a lot of shared interests, sport being one of them. They call it ‘regressive rock’ and that seems, to me at least, very appropriate. A krautrock band from France, dwelling on endless spacey jam sessions. Some of these pieces seem to me cut out of bigger parts (which may account as editing by some I gather). Dashes of synthesizer music, cosmic rock, post rock, fuzzy guitars: its all there. Is it great? Perhaps its not the greatest thing I ever heard. Its a bit too much of a rehearsal session that was fun to play. But on the other hand, I surely thought it was all quite entertaining, which, sometimes, is fine enough too. (FdW)
Address: http://teflonbeastrecords.blogspot.com