THE HATERS – HEARING MUD DRY (3″ CD by V2 Archief)
A medium not very common, but extensively used by the highly critical V2
Archief (who have nothing in coomon with V2 – the new label of former
Virgin boss Branson). The Haters are just one of my favourite bands. An
industrial sounding band with a utter sense of humour. Who will write a
book on the numerous actions of GX Jupitter-Larsen?
Hearing Mud Dry is a single piece, divided up in 49 pieces with a total
length of 18 minutes and 25 seconds. It skips randomly to the next track.
The track itself is a single drone, low end bassy with a high tone on top.
Nothing changes (well or so it seems). Life is no time to be practical. The
fancy, non standard package, comes with a delighful booklet with the text
‘Egit Mod Hoop’ and deals with counting the numbers and other favourite
topics of The Haters. From the many new releases by The Haters this is one
of the more favourible to have, since it is a total package that sums up
his work, both aurally and text.
Address: <archief@v2.nl>
KAPOTTE MUZIEK – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
This latest CD by Kapotte Muziek is the 9th in the Mort Aux Vaches series
which captures the more successful sessions commisioned by two chummy
blokes at the VPRO, a national Dutch radio station.
Kapotte Muziek have been going for more than ten years now, basing most of
their compositions on the stuff other composers and musicians (and people
in general) usually toss into the bin. They are often to be found scouring
the streets of whichever town they are due to perform in, seeking resonant
garbage. Apparently, they consider this to be an extrapolation of the
‘folk’ tradition.
There are four index points on this CD but all tracks segue. It starts by
wheezing and groaning it’s way into unholy life… found objects are
closely miked, hardly effected and it seems that the whole point may be to
actually avoid anything that may bear any resemblance to music. Lumpy
things are ground together, pieces of metal are scraped and rubbed,
prepared tapes start and abruptly stop. A low drone, like a power
station-in-waiting wraps itself around frying gravel and snapping
twigs…the surgeclick of my unsuppressed fridge turning on and bleeding
through the speakers is a MAJOR event. The quiet roar of hungry
microphones. The sound of shifting shirts and shorting circuits. Someone
stirs a saucepan full of rusty hinges and then starts to mix amalgam,
preparing to perform his own fillings. Rivers of mercury and a seismic
pulse. The sound a mouse makes when you pinch it’s face too hard.
Not for the faint hearted or hard of hearing. (MP)
Address: <staal@euronet.nl>
VARIOUS ARTISTS – UNDERWOOD (CD by Sub Rosa)
If my cobwebbed memory serves me correctly, then several of these tracks
have already appeared on other Sub Rosa compilations, their repetition here
may have been necessary because, without them, this would have been a
considerably less interesting collection. Sub Rosa, once such a defined
label, seems to slowly be hacking it’s fingers off as sacrifice to the gods
of confusion. Or what?
This compilation accompanies a bunch of new releases, none of which curled
my ears in new ways. There are a couple of killer tracks on this set
though; Bisk, a Japanese gentleman with supreme control of his sampler,
opens with ‘Viscosity’, from his second CD on Sub Rosa, which is a massive
well-balanced feast of sound sounds and rhythms very reminiscent of his
first (and better) CD on this label. This is followed by a piece by Vedic
(who compiled a CD for Sub Rosa, subtitled ‘Indian Music For The 20th
Century’ – available now). Then there is a piece by David Shea off his
recent ‘Satyricon’. Mr Shea’s music has become rather dilute of late, what
with his continual inclusion on the appalling Sub Rosa Live series, often
in weak collaborations with people with big foreheads.
Bill Laswell and Ninj provide a very groovy D & B tracks which is full off
arrangements and breaks sampled straight off the track ‘Abducted’ by DJ
Soulslinger which was included in the ‘Mood Sculpture’ (fuck me) titled
‘Necropolis’ crafted by DJ Spooky for The Knitting Factory in 1995.
Mick Harris and Eraldo Bernocchi provide a great remix off their otherwise
quite uninteresting CD ‘Overload Lady’ (also on Sub Rosa, of course) and it
sounds better by far than any of the original pieces. A bit Torque-ish, but
then innovation is a rare fing these days, innit Mick.
There is a brief glimpse into an up ‘n coming Scanner CD – nothing new
here. Thanks goodness it’s almost beatless though; I fail to be convinced
by most of Mr Rim’s techno output.
Then there’s a short guitar track by Rawfrucht, slow dubporridge by Ui,
hesitant, pointless drum exercises by Tone Rec. Another strong piece is
‘SDll Audio Template’ by Oval/Main which we’ve heard before. 8 minutes of
good, original atmospherics which crackcreak from the loudspeakers, bending
the air.
Last track by Nus should not be here. There’s also a CD-Rom track on this
CD, but as I don’t have the technology, I cannot comment. The end. (MP)
Address: <guymarc@switchon.be>
ROBERT RICH/ALIO DIE – FISSURES (CD by Fathom)
Take two serious blokes with appropriate frowns and enormous reverbs, bung
them together in a room for the weekend with a box of drones, flurrying
flutes, a muted barrage of bongos and a few eminently pluckable string
instruments and you might end up with music not unlike that on this CD.
Fathom is the moody, darkling child of Hearts Of Space, run by Steve Roach
and which has in the past released a load of similar sounding material by a
rather moody collective, including (mostly) Mr Rich and Mr Roach, TUU, Paul
Haslinger, Lightwave and Lustmord.
There are a couple of silly sentences on the back of the CD box itself,
which are perhaps intended to induce immediate consumption by those
impressed with perfumed multisyllables. I usually find these sort of
promises offputting, however I did persist and actually placed the CD into
my player. And pressed ‘Play’, too.
Robert Rich is a careful man with a good pedigree…he certainly has a
great deal of feeling for what he does…but I yearned for something more.
How many times can the same ingredients be recombined…perhaps it’s just
my impatience to be taken by surprise as so much of what I hear sounds like
so much else…not something I thought I would ever say about alternative
music, but like it’s large commercial cousin, this whole sonic area seems
to be floundering. All good ideas are milked until reduced to
silence…which has itself been overworked. The gracious atmospheres on
this CD were compelling enough but left me supine, unable to gauge these
murky depths. (MP)
Address: <www.fathomusic.com>
BIG CITY ORCHESTRA – EEK! (Cassette by EE Tapes)
In former times when VITAL was printed, cassettes were often featured in
the issues. Today it might seem that Cassettes are a medium with no real
future. Still there are numerous good Cassette-Labels around who bring out
nice releases, and still they are operating nearly totally divided from the
rest. BCO is one of those groups who always released their sounds on
Cassette, and they still do. EE TAPES from Belgium are on of the finest
Tape-Labels around at this moment of time I think, releasing quiet good
compilations & full-length tapes in coloured covers at reasonable prices,
and they will celebrate their 10th anniversery soon with a lim. CD-release
(which will afterwards come out as a cassette, too, of course). EEK is the
second BCO cassette-release on EE TAPES and has a great A-side, very deep
and low-frequent sounds that create a dense and alien atmosphere, from time
to time there are coming strange noises up to the surface. Side B is even
more stranger, with lots of undescripable loops that are not easy to
recognize. I liked the A-Side much more, although the B-Side has a stronger
experiMental spirit. The edition is limited to only 50 copies, so if you’re
interested you should hurry up and contact the label.
Address: EE TAPES, Eriek van Havere, Clement Heirmanstraat 10, B-
9100 Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, FAX: x32-3-7662791 (BAR)
LEIF ELGGREN – THE INTERNATIONALE (7″ by Firework)
Hummm… I can’t sing the Internationale, other then the first line
‘Proletarier Aller Lander Einigt Euch Und Ihr Seit Frei’, but there are no
words in Elggren’s version to sing along with. This record is of utmost
curiousty. Side 1 is a music box which plays the Internationale, steadily
more reverb being added. On the flip the music box is placed on a resonant
underground and has a far more creepy tone. The steady erosion of a highly
ideological piece of music. What is it about? That answer is beyond me.
(FdW)
Address: <leif.elggren@mbox300.swipnet.se>
LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJENBERG – EBOLA & SWEDISH DREAMERS (7″ by Firework)
Dear Leif & Thomas,
on september the 10th 1976 I dremt that I made a book and CD about dreams
from me being stolen by others. From that project, I made another CD and I
also dremt about doing more extended versions. One was a 7″ with sampled
voices and weird synth playing. In my dream I put on the b-side a maniac
mechanical rhythm piece and joyful singing to start it out.
Now I see you made such a record, but you didn’t put my name on it. That’s
o.k., just send me the money you earn on it’s release. Greetings,
FDW
OUTERMOST – BEAST MECANIQUE (CD by Les Disques Bruitistes)
Noise noise noise and more noise from Japan on a french label. So if you
are into noise noise noise and more noise and you can have more after
Merzbow CD 50, Masonna CD 20, then Outermost CD 1 is finally out there.
(FdW)
Address: F. Douris – 12 Rue Du Clos – Vermont, 73000 Barberaz – France