DANIEL LERCHER & HENRIK MUNKEBY NORSTEBE – TH_X (CD by Cmafu Nocords) *
GIANLUCA FAVARON – EQUIVALENT XI (CD by Silentes/13) *
FABIO ORSI – QUI VICINO (CD by Silentes/13) *
MUSIC FOR HARD TIMES – CITY OF CARDBOARD (CD by Public Eyesore) *
SOPHIE AGNEL & OLIVIER BENOIT – REPS (CD by Cesare) *
TAYLOR DEUPREE – LOST & COMPILED (CD by 12K) *
HELENE BRESCHAND – LES INCARNES (LP by DAC Records)
IAN MIDDLETON – WELL OF SORROWS (LP by Skire Records)
JEROME LONGHI – SONAMEON (12″ by Empiric Records)
I WATCHED YOU DIE – I WANT YOU ALL DEAD (7” lathe record by Breaching Static)
FILE UNDER TONER – 1812@33 (CDR by Hazard Records) *
PROPIA COPIA (CDR compilation by Hazard Records)
DJ HAZARD – PROPIA COPIA REVISISTED (CDR by Hazard Records) *
SERGIO SANCHEZ – 33 MINUTOS CON HAZARD (CDR by Hazard Records) *
MUSICA VENENO – ON THE BEACH WITH SATAN (3″CDR by Hazard Records) *
LUKASZ CISZAK – WEST (CDR by Bdta) *
HOARFROST/JEDNOSC/JENOT – KATOWICE (3″CDR by Sqrt Label)
A. JARVIS – A FEATHERED CORPSE BEAMS FORTH THE EVIL EYE (3″CDR by Sqrt Label) *
STERILE GARDEN – SELF-TITLED (cassette by Mazurka Editions)
BENE GESSERIT – BENEFIT (cassette by Insane Music)
INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE VOL. 26 (cassette by Insane Music)
GERRITT WITTMER & ROMAIN PERROT & FRANCISCO MEIRINO – ABSENCE OF SONG (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
JAN WARNKE – SHADE/WRAITH (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – LYSIOSQUILLA/GAUSSIA (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
POM BOUVIER B – XEROPTICA DERBENTINA (cassette by Crustaces Tapes)
HUNTER COMPLEX – HOURS (single, download) *
DANIEL LERCHER & HENRIK MUNKEBY NORSTEBE – TH_X (CD by Cmafu Nocords)
In 2010 Lercher and Nørstebø met up as part of the Czech-Norwegian-Austrian “Onczkekvist Improvising Orchestra”, which has thirty members and who recorded a CD for the ORF, and as a result these two men decided to continue working. In 2011 they composed this work, ‘TH_X’, which was then recorded at the Amann Studios in Vienna. The instruments used were the trombone of behalf of Nørstebø and sinusoids, resonators and filtered red noise on Lerchers part. The idea here is to see if the sounds of these instruments could in some way merge together. I must say: they fit wonderfully well together. It might be the way these pieces have been developed over some time, and perhaps due to multi-tracking techniques have been melted together, but it sounds great. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what the trombone does, other than playing these sustaining tones and Lercher’s electronics play heavily processed trombone sounds in either more drone like vein, or heavily chopped up such as in the third (untitled) piece. This is very well made, blurring those lines between what is improvisation and composition, with some pretty strong pieces. It’s all very collage like, which is something I happen to like a lot, within the realms of live computer music. Very intense and very beautiful and perhaps at thirty-six minutes, not long enough for my taste. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nocords.net
GIANLUCA FAVARON – EQUIVALENT XI (CD by Silentes/13)
FABIO ORSI – QUI VICINO (CD by Silentes/13)
Italy’s Silentes label works with a variety of ‘series’ of which ’13’ is one that usually deals with photography, which is rather absent on the release of Gianluva Favaron. He’s a member of Under The Snow with Stefano Gentile and of Zbeen with Ennio Mazzon, whereas in the past he was also member of Ab’she and Lasik Surgery (with Pierpaolo Zoppo). On this new work he continues what he started on his previous record, ‘Surfaces’, a limited piece of vinyl which we didn’t review (or hear), but which apparently deals with every day sounds – songs from the kitchen sink? – such as paper, scissors, kitchen stuff, which are treated with two delay machines and the result is eleven short pieces, from less than a minute up to five minutes. This is a most strange release, and if you know me, strange is not a word I use easily. This music has a certain naivety, or perhaps something rather ‘simple’ with the objects being played with relatively ease, but then captured or locked into a system of living electronics, bending and moving these ‘easy’ sounds around. Maybe it’s all done in a very simple and direct way, much like it is suggested. And there is nothing ‘wrong’ with that. In the end it’s the result that counts and that is result is something I like very much. It’s very quiet music, almost accidental, ‘I couldn’t help it, it just happened’, but of the variety that is usually associated with the label and the styles we know it for, ambient and drone.
Also on the short size, length-wise, is the release by Fabio Orsi: thirty-three minutes but it comes with a great A4 sized folder (16 pages) of his photography, which is something I really like. Earlier this year his father died and this package is dedicated to him. Orsi is from Italy but now lives in Berlin, for quite some time now, and has had many releases on such labels as A Silent Place, Small Voices, Last Visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His primary instrument is the guitar, which he uses to create drone sounds, along with field recordings and electronics. Sometimes he also uses synthesizers, acoustic instruments and computer treatments. On this new release there are no credits and we don’t know what he does, but my best guess would be that he uses just his guitar and electronics. The piece is divided in two parts, both going from very silent to mildly loud, in one long crescendo per part. This is the kind of music we know Silentes best for, and perhaps also Orsi himself. A damn fine gorgeous drone piece, dark, melancholic, waving, meandering about, over empty deserts, windy plains on part clouded day, or just launched into deep space like a spacecraft onto the destination unknown. This is not a release in which Orsi shows us a new direction in his music, but which further carves out his niche of ambient tunesmith of longitude pieces. No surprises here, but a wonderful release and beautifully packed. (FdW)
Address: http://13.silentes.it
MUSIC FOR HARD TIMES – CITY OF CARDBOARD (CD by Public Eyesore)
The name Paul Winstanley vaguely rang a bell somewhere (maybe I was confused by Kiss’ Paul Stanley), but this bass player is/was part of Plains, a large group of improvisers from New Zealand of whom we reviewed some releases before. Here he’s one half of Music For Hard Times and gets the credit for ‘bass guitar with extensions’ on all seven pieces, whereas Tom Nunn plays Skatchboxes, Lukie Tubes, Resonance Plates, Crustacean, Ghost Plate, Harmonic Rods, Music Boxes and Friction Twister – not all the same time, but in various combinations on either of these seven pieces. His instruments are not of the kind you can buy in a music store, but of his own making. Boxes with objects (combs, toothpicks, washers, dowels etc.) that he can pluck scratch or rub along and which sound is amplified. These seven pieces are in the world of improvisation of the variety that I really like. The use of non-musical objects for musical purposes is something I always like and often see misused. That hideous group Stomp with their dust bins banging them like drums: I don’t see a point in that. It’s still a drum and says nothing about the sound quality of a dustbin. Luckily Nunn and Winstanley understand this much better and explore the surfaces of their objects – in which the bass is also another object really and besides: what extensions are there? We don’t know – and create dense patterns of sounds/musical pattern. Sometimes drone like such as in the final two long pieces, ‘Bad Volts’ and ‘Map Of The Alleys’ and more scratching and hitting in the five shorter pieces. Nervous, hectic at times and mildly introspective at other times, such as in ‘Shantytown Council’. They offer quite a diverse plate of possibilities on their home-made instruments without having it sound like a demonstration record of possibilities. Great work! (FdW)
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com
SOPHIE AGNEL & OLIVIER BENOIT – REPS (CD by Cesare)
It’s raining outside. Why would this be of interest to you? Not really of any interest of course, but as the rain hits the windows, and I am playing this CD by Sophie Agnel (piano) and Olivier Benoit (guitar), suddenly it seems that I either have a leakage or some odd sound appears in the music. It’s the latter – thank god – but that’s what sound can do sometimes for me. Am I really hearing this on a CD or is it happening outside (somewhere in my street somebody has a couple of chickens since a few days and that sound I assumed to be part of a CD I was listening then, which of course it wasn’t – I don’t expect chickens in my urban street, I guess). I believe I never heard of Agnel and Benoit before – you can never be sure – and it’s not easy to say to what extend they do their thing on these instruments and if there is any sort of post-processing or additional electronic or computer treatment applied to this music. We have two pieces here, with a total length of thirty-four minutes, and it’s some very interesting music. Partly very acoustic, inside piano, keys, strings, guitar body and all that, but I sense there is also some amplification, especially on the guitar part which makes that it sings, howls and distorts – and is responsible for sounding like a leakage in my room. Each of these pieces start out in a very natural way, in order to amass to a multi-layered, densely woven pattern of sounds, in which in ‘Reps 1’ goes via a myriad of a very loud beginning to something that is very soft and almost underground, to that loud ending. I thought this was all pretty radical music, with blurred lines between such notions as improvisation and composition, analogue and electronic, live and studio. Overwhelming record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.label-cesare.com
TAYLOR DEUPREE – LOST & COMPILED (CD by 12K)
Now here’s a kind of compilation I like! In the world of electronic music there is, probably, always various early versions about of a piece and with hard drives to save all of that easy available, they are all being kept. Sometimes a piece of music is created for a limited audience only – installation piece, exhibition catalogue, some such – and then disappears. And there are still true fans out there trying to get all of these. I used to be a real fanatic when it came to my heroes – Organum being one – but not so much these days. Taylor Deupree compiles such a release of some of these pieces for a tour he did in Japan in 2014, and as such only available on the road and through his own label, but not the usual distribution channels. I am sure the fans will know. These nine pieces, spanning 2007-2013, are partly unreleased, rough sketches and partly different versions. You could use this as an introduction to the music of Deupree, if ever you need one, and if you are only half interested you might want to leave it alone. It shows us Deupree at his best: water paint music, sketchy, fleeting perhaps, but in a few strokes he paints a still life, a pond, a forest at dawn or some birds in the sky. Ever since I saw a concert by him, small audience, nice space, humid weather, and rain outside, but the doors open, so rain and music merged nicely together, I am big fan of his music. Carefully played, intimate music, almost Zen like, should I be into that at all, which I am not. I am no longer the fan boy who wants to collect it all, but I agree this is a fine collection. Not just for fan boys, I should think. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
HELENE BRESCHAND – LES INCARNES (LP by DAC Records)
The harp is not an instrument we hear on a daily basis, here at the weekly HQ, but of course there are some players in this field, Rhodri Davies for instance is quite active. I never heard of Helene Breschand, who works from contemporary music to jazz, both solo as well as a chamber musician, including improvisation, musical theatre and visual arts. She has performed works by Luciano Berio, Emmanuel Nunes, Yoshihisa Taira, David Toop and Christian Marclay and has founded the group Laborintus. Both pieces on this new record are called ‘Les Incarnes’. These pieces have hardly anything to do with jazz or contemporary music, unless of course radically sparse improvisation is what you call contemporary and/or jazz. She plays electric and acoustic harp and uses her voice and both pieces are excellent in a way that these are very intense, quiet most of the times but with a lot tension underneath. She uses a delay pedal occasionally and strums her instrument, bows it, plucks it and uses her voice in pretty much the same way. Not to accompany her, but to create something that fits her unworldly playing of the harp. On the B-side she bends the harp to go a bit more extreme levels and even mildly distorted, but here too it remains to have a certain austerity. Excellent record! (FdW)
Address: http://www.dacrecords.fr
IAN MIDDLETON – WELL OF SORROWS (LP by Skire Records)
While I was playing this new record by Ian Middleton I was thinking about him. I never met him, and know some of his music. I am not sure if we even ever corresponded. I do know that his work is released by small labels around the world, who, alike Middleton, seem to be off the map. An outsider, and that’s odd, since his synth based music could do well when promoted in the ‘right’ circles. But I suspect that Middleton is not young and doesn’t sport a hip beard, tours about and therefore, ergo, is not hip at all and releases his music on unhip labels as Swill Radio or even more obscure as this new one. Maybe the appearance of Andrew Chalk on one piece will do any help? I hope so. Like said, Middleton plays within the realm of synth music, and solely uses a Korg MS-10 to that end. His synth music is sparse, but not really ‘cosmic’. In stead he plays small curves, with a bit of melody and changing throughout, rather than staying in one place. He shares a sensibility with say Idea Fire Company – another bunch of outsiders destined not to make it – for the more adventurous type of synth based music, and rather than following the hype, setting out his own course. Very meditative but without being corny drony ambient music. ‘Lonely Highway’ depicts indeed a lonely highway, a US one; one drives slowly through what seems to be an endless empty landscape, desolate but not desperate. In just and rightful world Ian Middleton’s sombre synth pieces would be selling like hot cakes and he’d be composing soundtracks for great movies of a more arty nature. It’s not to be, but you can own one of these limited to 300 copies record. Excellent record, but that ending wasn’t a surprise, right? (FdW)
Address: http://wellofsorrows.blogspot.co.uk/
JEROME LONGHI – SONAMEON (12″ by Empiric Records)
Although it’s not mentioned on the record itself, I believe this to be at 45 rpm. The whole thing looks a bit unlike Emperic Records. So far their vinyl editions had nice printed covers, but here it’s a black, unprinted disco sleeve, but then, this is also cheaper than the average record. It’s the debut record of one Jerome Longhi, ‘who grew up in a musical family and learned playing guitar at seven, started his first band as a kid and now owns a production studio’. He still plays guitar it seems on these pieces, but he also uses quite some effects on his voice, in the a-side piece ‘Sonameon’. The guitar appears heavily processed as well as in its original form. A spacious drone cloud hangs over this side. On the other side we find something completely different, even when the title may suggest ‘Sanomeon’ might be closely linked. It’s perhaps likewise spacious (and lengthy) piece, but not a cloud like structure but held together, tightly, by the slow trippy hoppy drum set – and I realize this is indeed at 45 rpm – and the guitar meandering about in the background. While not my trade, I have no idea if this is in any way oriented towards a more dance floor space, but I can imagine a more adventurous type of DJ would know how to deal with this. I was thinking it’s been a long time since I last heard Bowery Electric. Nice pieces (except those sparse occasions in which he uses his voice on ‘Sonameon’), but just not enough to say what this guy is ‘all’ about, but I wouldn’t mind hearing some more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.empiricrecords.com/
I WATCHED YOU DIE – I WANT YOU ALL DEAD (7” lathe record by Breaching Static)
When compared against the minuscule five-inch (!!!) single that Breaching Static released alongside this disc, a seven-inch record is like an eternity for Alex Nowacki’s noise project, I Watched You Die, to operate – even if he only uses one side. What happens on this disc is interesting: whereas the five-inch, ‘You Are All Lame Fucks’ (recorded as Boar) skittered in agitation from plank-of-noise to plank-of-noise, here Nowacki seems more comfortable fleshing out a relatively level plateau of abrasion. And it’s crusty & crumbly wall, but not one that’s overly onerous to consume. Instead, it erects an impressive texture that is simply awe-inspiring to behold. It is curious how at odds this craggy mo’fo is with the pristine, transparent record that houses all the sound, but that’s the beauty of the format. Another important ingredient is the brevity of the proceedings. I reviewed a full-length album Nowacki put out awhile back, and it was monstrous in good and bad ways. In one sense, there is something cathartic and purifying (and perhaps artistically profound) about 70 minutes of static wall-noise. But it’s also more than one can digest in a given sitting. With this lone, enormous track, Nowacki manages to pack a similarly intense thrill, but achieves it in a concise, intense, and visually appealing context. (MT)
Address: http://breachingstatic.blogspot.com
FILE UNDER TONER – 1812@33 (CDR by Hazard Records)
PROPIA COPIA (CDR compilation by Hazard Records)
DJ HAZARD – PROPIA COPIA REVISISTED (CDR by Hazard Records)
SERGIO SANCHEZ – 33 MINUTOS CON HAZARD (CDR by Hazard Records)
MUSICA VENENO – ON THE BEACH WITH SATAN (3″CDR by Hazard Records)
We received quite a bundle of releases on the Hazard Records label from Barcelona, who celebrate 15 years of existence with a frantic release schedule. In order to celebrate that they will release a CD every week and these four new releases are ‘revisions/re-readings of our back catalogue or second (or even third) parts to previously released albums’ and some of these previous albums have been reviewed in these pages before. There is for instance File Under Toner of whom we reviewed in Vital Weekly 642 we reviewed ‘This Is The End, Beautiful Friend’ and in Vital 769 ‘And Now, The End Is Near’, made out of lock grooves from old records, and which caused some problem because of copyright infringement. For this new release File Under Toner heads towards the classical music, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Ouverture 1812’, in 12 different performances, and famous for it cannon shots at the end. Apparently Tchaikovsky didn’t like his work very much, calling it without ‘artistic merit’. As File Under Toner says, you don’t know if these sounds are from these records, but it’s a good story, isn’t it? The music however is so-so, I think. Turntablism is by now a bit old hat and these blank grooves with a bit of delay and reverb doesn’t sound very inspiring, and it was hard to keep close attention for the complete eighty minutes. Why not do a 3″CDR with the length of 18 minutes and 12 seconds, and use all of the sound material which lasts here eighty minutes?
The next one is a compilation of which the label was lost forever: none of the back-up CDRs could be read anymore. It deals with ‘appropriation and copy in contemporary sound art’ and was originally an enhanced CD with texts and such by ‘some of the biggest names in Spain’s official sound art’. I am not sure if they are on the CD, which sounds like a seven-part excursion into the world of ‘white noise’. It’s all very loud, very static and very noisy. It includes Javier Ariza, Joan Saura, Xavier Maristany, Martin Fuks, Oscar Abril Ascaso, Maison Bricolage and Josep Manuel Berenguer. It’s from 1999 and the only thing that I really liked about it is that it predates any Harsh Noise Wall, but it would sit perfectly in that scene.
I skipped to hear what DJ Hazard made of this in a remix fashion (you gather my joy? compilations, remixes, all that I love), of which the entire length is exactly the length of the original release. This has nothing to do with the original it seems. We have here beats, rhythms, samples and all such like but very loosely organized, like somebody loaded a sampler keyboard and started playing around, almost captured live on the spot. It’s all highly plunderphonic in execution, but without the political undercurrent of DJ Hazard’s US counterparts – unless of course you seek it in the free use of these sources, whatever they were.
More DJ material we find on the disc of Sergio Sanchez who has one thirty-three minute mix of music from the label, all set next to each other, so no reworking, no layering or any such thing. Here I am not sure why Hazard wanted to release this. Their releases are usually free to hear anywhere on their website and the Internet Archive, so there is, me thinks, not really a need to have a DJ sampler of some kind with someone’s favourite picks. Even when it’s nice to hear, mind you.
From Musica Veneno, a project of Jesus Brotons, it has been ages since I reviewed two mini CDRs, ‘Non Stop Erotic Karaoke’ (Vital Weekly 301) and ‘Party 7’ (Vital Weekly 335), so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t know what they were about. Both of these dealt with plunderphonics, and so does this, ‘On The Beach With Satan’, which completes the trilogy – and no doubt followed by a re-issue of all three on one CDR – with many sampled voices, rhythms and keyboard sounds from other people’s records – at least that’s what I assume. Maybe its stuff that he plays himself, but most likely it’s not. What the hell it is? I have no idea, but I am pretty sure it’s obscure collection of sounds. Music-wise this is probably the one release that is musically enjoyable; in which a fine concept, such as plunderphonics, meets up with something that makes a nice of bunch of sounds. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hazardrecords.org
Postscript: After publishing the above review I was notified by Hazard Records that the copy of ‘Propria Copia’ wasn’t properly copied – oh irony, with such a title – and in fact I had been listening to noise instead of the music, and hence the review of DJ Hazard made no sense. I downloaded the proper copie and indeed this is something entirely different indeed. These seven pieces deal, each in their own way, with electronics and plunderphonics, yet almost each of them also has a fair amount of rhythm, owing to the world of techno in all it’s various guises. Downtempo on ‘Remember Me’ by Xavier Maristany, or nicely minimalist (Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai) by Maison Bricolage. In some of these elements of musique concrete/electro-acoustic music are also used, but in a more sequenced way.
Oscar Abril Ascaso has with ‘RMS (cafeteria CCCB)’ a piece that is build with field recordings, from the local cafeteria, on apparently a not very busy day. It’s the only piece that has no rhythm. In fact: a most enjoyable compilation!
Listening to this and then returning to DJ Hazard’s remix of this makes sense. It very much has to do with the original music, loading all of this into the sampler and then starting to play around with it, in a live fashion. That much of the review is still what I think of it.
LUKASZ CISZAK – WEST (CDR by Bdta)
HOARFROST/JEDNOSC/JENOT – KATOWICE (3″CDR by Sqrt Label)
A. JARVIS – A FEATHERED CORPSE BEAMS FORTH THE EVIL EYE (3″CDR by Sqrt Label)
Two new releases by the Sqrt Label, run by Lukasz Ciszak, who himself has a new release on the BDTA label. Ciszak is an experimental guitar player from Poland, who has three pieces here. On the first piece it says on the cover that it ‘is based on harmonic and melodic material from ‘Drei Kugeln auf Rudi Dutschke’ by Wolf Biermann, while for the last piece it says “‘Charlottenburg’ begins with an improvisation based on ‘Heimweh nach dem Kurfurstendamm’ by Bobby Kamp”. For the track in the middle there is no note. That seems all a bit cryptic, certainly when we hear the music. It’s a strange release of lots of noisy field recordings – gain all open picking up the entrance of a building it seems – which is used to play his drone like guitar parts. That is in the first two pieces, the last one is solo guitar noise and distortion. It buzzes and hums, and Ciszak plays his oddly blues inspired music in a true drone/noise fashion. Not loud per se, but nicely present for those who can feel the pain (too). Slow burning music of mild distortion. I think I preferred the ones with field recordings over the long solo guitar piece, as those field recordings/guitar pieces seem to have something extra, something more, something odd. Fine, solid release.
On Ciszak’s own Sqrt label we first find a three way compilation of three composers, of whom I never heard, who create each a five/six minute piece made with field recordings from Katowice in Silesia. Two pieces are, curious enough, called ‘Rondo’. No human interaction can be heard here, but it’s all about humming sounds from motors, ventilators and picking up sounds from a distance. Jenot has some sort of rhythm to his. It’s hard to say what exactly has been done to these pieces of sound. It may very well be there is some sort of processing to these pieces, but it sounds nicely obscure(d). I wouldn’t have minded some more information on this, and a double length on each of these three pieces.
And the final release is by one A. Jarvis, of whom I know nothing and the label isn’t telling us anything about him either. The cover says ‘recorded by Jock Monotone in the Burselm Crypt 2014’. This is quite a noisy release of heavily treated field recordings, tilted to the maximum allowed but with minor movements in the piece. It’s not a HNW release, but it’s certainly unrelentless. A bit of tortured blues is in here too, such as Roro Perrot seems to be doing, but throughout I must say I had a hard time liking these twenty-one minutes. For a noise release it’s not bad, but is that good enough in itself? I doubt that. I heard this stuff done much better with a bit more thought and consideration and even that could be quite loud. (FdW)
Address: http://bdta.bandcamp.com/
Address: http://sqrt-label.org/
STERILE GARDEN – SELF-TITLED (cassette by Mazurka Editions)
Coming from Denver via Aussie label Mazurka, Jacob DeRaadt’s Sterile Garden project brings us a limited-to-forty cassette following his Monorail Trespassing release last year. The futility of a ‘sterile garden’ is conjured here by DeRaadt and his friends’ sordid, industrial vistas. Each side is separated into multiple brief pieces by brief hiccoughs of silence, asserting a distinct texture for each individual bit – yet the common element is a sense of shapes being vaguely perceived amidst curtains of noise-fog and tempered squall. Amidst the mix are various tape-tropes: reverberant beams of warehouse clatter, obfuscated vocal mush, mysterious loops of unknown significance. There is certainly a theme of primitivism here – this files in most adeptly with a certain breed of weird-hometaperism from the mid-eighties, when bedroom dubbers detailed abstract environments and harsh realities on grainy cassettes. When there are electronics here, they are indistinguishable from the tape chicanery and acoustic clamour – instead, everything converges on a central premise, and it’s one that’s familiar to anyone who’s been following Mazurka’s exploits over the last little while: something dark, unknowable, and patently compelling. (MT)
Address: http://mazurkaeditions.blogspot.com
BENE GESSERIT – BENEFIT (cassette by Insane Music)
INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE VOL. 26 (cassette by Insane Music)
Is it hype? I think so, more and more music is being released on cassette. One of the most advantages of the cassette is that you cannot shuffle the tracks and that you cannot make your own track list. The construction of the tape is binding, the musician makes his own set and it is difficult to change it. Insane Music from Belgium and run by Alain Neffe goes back to his roots and releases two tapes. Good old BeNe GeSSeRiT “Benefit” sounds really fresh. The musical project of Benedict G. and B. Ghola has the same ingredients like they have for many years; female voice, synths, guitar, bass and drumcomputer, but the sounds and the mix are far behind the eighties. Although… the echo which guides the voice is a recognizable element in their music. Some songs on the tape refer more to rock-music, electro-beat and jazz, but a song like “DeBoRaH, RoMiNa, MaRTHa, SaBRiNa, TaTiaNa, BarBeRa” is a nice experimental song with beautiful layers of the voice and and ongoing and repeating happy melody on the synth. These fragile songs like this make this tape, with more strong and complex songs complete. The tape “BeNeFiT” is a logical step in the musical development of BeNe GeSSeRiT, the music is more layered and has more changes in atmosphere and sound. The tape “Insane Music for Insane People”starts with a happy song of BeNe GeSSeRiT with a catch beat and swinging piano melody. The second track is a live recording of M.A.L. from 1983. A beautiful minimal guitar piece played by Daniel Malempré. Human Flesh surprises me with a sweet track created by piano, harp and acoustic guitar, but with a really unpleased and threatening voice. Life is not so sweet as it seems. Another highlight is created by The Chopstick Sisters with the beautiful voices Nadine Bal and the American vocalist Anna Holmer. The tape ends with three other projects of Alain Neffe do also contribute with an unreleased track. Pseudo Code, Cortex and Subject have another approach to music and it is interesting how Alain Neffe is switching from the experimental sounds of Cortex, to the no-wave sounds of Pseudo Code and the harmonic new-wave music of Subject. Side B starts with a 22 minutes composition aka improvisation of Kosmose. “The First Untitled Track” is recorded somewhere around 1975 and reminds me to the improvisations of Pink Floyd at UmmaGumma. High psychedelic music, which opens for me a new view of the musical devolpment of Alain Neffe. Multi-instrumentalist with too many names Niala Effen plays sitar and the psychedelic atmosphere continues without any problem. This interesting compilation about the insane musical world of Alain Neffe ends with a glorious “Yaaaa.” It is always a pleasure how Insane Music aka Alain Neffe treats the world of old and new music with a nice combination of electronics, different music styles, experiment and wonderful female voices. (JKH)
Address: http://insane.music.voila.net/
GERRITT WITTMER & ROMAIN PERROT & FRANCISCO MEIRINO – ABSENCE OF SONG (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
JAN WARNKE – SHADE/WRAITH (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – LYSIOSQUILLA/GAUSSIA (cassette by Geraeuschmanufaktur)
More music by Romain Perrot, whom we also know as Vomir. It’s his release I started with when I started to play these three new releases by Geraeuschmanufaktur. Eightteen minutes of two versions of the same piece. On the first side we hear the live version and on the other we have the ‘reverse engineered studio version’. It was recorded, live, in Brooklyn 2013, at the End Of Thymes Festival and consists of a sustaining feedback like organ drone, voice and something that maybe one could identify as something falling to the floor causing more distortion. It’s quite harsh, and I seem to enjoy the b-side of this more. The feedback/organ is less piercing here and the whole thing sounds more composed. The voice turns out to be someone sleeping, apparently so when the piece comes to a natural ending. This is quite excellent noise.
Labelboss Jan Warnke has an even slightly shorter tape, sixteen minutes only of field recordings captured in Malmo (Sweden) in 2013. I have no idea what these field recordings were like or to which extend they were processed. In ‘Shade’ it sounds like a train or perhaps that should be the sounds have a train like quality? In both ‘Wraith’ and ‘Whisper’, Warnke adds his own voice, whispering and while not entirely to be compared I was reminded in both pieces of Etant Donnes, but perhaps in a somewhat more electronic environment. Especially I enjoyed ‘Whisper’, with its water like sounds, whispering and electronic drones. I played this tape a couple of times on repeat. It was that good, but it was also that short, which was a real pity.
And lastly there is a re-issue of a Francisco Lopez tape from 1985, which back then came in an edition of 50 copies. It’s a reminder: with such a vast back catalogue, why is there not more re-issues? Or perhaps a bandcamp page where Lopez actively promotes his older work? But maybe it will come due time. ‘Lysiosquilla/Gaussia’ was his second release back then, and sheds some interesting light on his coming age as a composer. We don’t know what he used, sound-wise, back then, if this is already compiled from field recordings or more electronically in origin. It sounds like the latter, but it’s perhaps the first. Nothing-here forecasts his later ‘silent’ work, as this is all loud and clear. The sounds are fed through a bunch of electronic devices, synthesizers or what had you in 1985, and sound quite crude. Crude and minimal. Maybe created using a bunch of tape-loops with the source material feeding through some apparatus, moving, phasing in and out of the mix. It doesn’t have the sensibility of his later work, but more noise-oriented minds will surely find this of interest. At least I did (not being a noise mind per se). The earliest Lopez recordings is something I didn’t hear that much myself back in the day, so it’s good to fill in this part of history. (FdW)
Address: http://geraeuschmanufaktur.bandcamp.com/
POM BOUVIER B – XEROPTICA DERBENTINA (cassette by Crustaces Tapes)
On the odd label Crustaces Tapes – ‘to receive it send a gift or postcard’ – we now have music from Pom Boubier B. and one side is ‘field recordings’ and the other side is ‘composition based on the field recordings’. It’s hard to say what these field recordings are. Some kind of obscure crackling, fire perhaps, a loose electricity thing, a bicycle ride through the streets, a walk in the forest – your guess is as good as mine. Which brings me to the composition. It’s likewise hard to say to what extend this has been composed. It’s hard to say if there is any difference between both sides. The field recordings sound like the composition and vice versa. That is not to say I dislike this. I actually quite enjoyed this tape. It seems like there is a conceptual edge to the music, which I may not entirely grasp, but as pure ‘entertainment’ (I am sure this is not the right word) I quite enjoyed the crackling fire like sounds on this tape. It’s perhaps all a bit low on the information side, but it’s fascinating sounds/composition – You don’t have to call it music etc. (FdW)
Address: http://crustaces.bandcamp.com/
HUNTER COMPLEX – HOURS (single, download)
Obviously we don’t review digital releases, but this landed as a CDR on my desk, and I started writing, before realizing this. Now, perhaps, this has to do with the fact that I quite enjoy the music of Hunter Complex, of Narromind Mastermind Lars Meijer. This is the second single of his LP ‘Heat’ – I didn’t realize people still release singles from LPs as that sounds like something from my childhood – but ‘Hours’ is a great piece of 80s inspired pop music (check also my review of the LP in Vital Weekly 896). The No does a remix of ‘Serious Glass’ and make it sound also very 80s, but in a more dark wave styled guise, with a voice that sounds like from beyond the grave. Nice. Drvg Cvltvre is Vincent Koremans (RA-X might be know still!) with a long ambient w/rhythm inspired piece called ‘Highway Hypnosis’ and sounds like Tangerine Dream on ecstasy, especially when the rhythm kicks in after some time. Be careful driving cars while listening to this music. Now, in a just and right world, this would have been a great 12″. Where did the 80s go? I do miss them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.narrominded.com