MACHINEFABRIEK – THE MEASURE TAKEN (CD by Zoharum) *
MACHINEFABRIEK – LOOS (CD by Machinefabriek) *
SINDRE BJERGA AND FABIO ORSI – FADED BROWN AND GRAY (CD by Korm Plastics) *
RIMA KATO – FAINTLY LIT (CD by Flau) *
MOON:DOS – NATURA (CD by Luscinia Discos) *
HANNES BRUDER – CHANGES II (CD by Umlaut Records) *
MATTEO UGGERI – UNTITLED WINTER (CD by Scissor Tail Records)
ÉVIDENCE – MONK WORK (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
FÜNF – LA RÈGLE (CD by AAmbiances Magnetiques)
KLAXON GUEULE – POUR EN FINIR (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON – SO LONG (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) *
JIM HAYNES – SCARLET (cassette by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
LUCIO CAPECE – EPOCHÉ (CD by Hideous Replica) *
ILIA BELORUKOV & KURT LIEDWART & ANDREY POPOVSKIY – SOMEBODY RATTLED (cassette by Hideous Replica)
SAINCT LAURENS – VOLUME 2 (LP by E-Tron Records)
YOBKISS – THE LIGHT (12″ by Grond Records) *
RIE NAKAJIMA – FOUR FORMS (12″ by Consumer Waste)
HEDOROMERUHEN/H/ALKBAZZ (7″ with artwork by Le Petit Mignon)
LE PETIT MIGNON VS LE CAGIBI (7″ by Le Petit Mignon)
CRISTIAN ALVEAR MONTECINO – QUATRE PIECES POUR GUITARE & ONDES SINUSOIDALES (CDR by Rhizome-s) *
ENHÄNTA BÖDLAR – ALTAR BESMIRCHER (cassette by Maneki Neko Tapes) *
WARSZAWA – KINETICA (cassette by Maneki Neko Tapes) *
SVENSKA HAPPA (cassette compilation by Maneki Neko Tapes)
THE HARE AND THE MOON – THE GREY MALKIN (cassette by Atsla)
E.M.I.R.S. – THE REEL ESTATE (cassette by Belch Kitchen)
DAS DING – SEQUENCER (cassette by Dehef)
IAN MARTIN – ALLIANCE (cassette by Dehef)
JSCA (cassette)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – SACRED GROUND (download by Schwebung) *
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Vital Weekly #970 by Vitalweekly on Mixcloud
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tracklist for Vital Weekly 970:
0000 Tune
0014 Enhanta Bodlar – Tunnel Arbeit
0323 Yobkiss – The Light
0630 Rima Kato – You Still Dream
0925 Machinefabriek – Part II
1234 Warszawa – Wostock
1539 Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson – Late Night Arrival
1845 Machinefabriek – Loos
2154 Sindre Bjerga & Fabio Orsi – 5.
2504 Hannes Buder – Bird Drone (for Henry Flynt)
27:53 Moon:dos – Dos
31:00 Lucio Capece
34:11 Stephan Mathieu – Black Hills Theme
3716 Cristian Alvear Montecino – Line.ar.me
40:34 Tune
MACHINEFABRIEK – THE MEASURE TAKEN (CD by Zoharum)
MACHINEFABRIEK – LOOS (CD by Machinefabriek)
It seemed ‘quiet’ lately when it came to Machinefabriek. It might have been not since Vital Weekly 925 that we last reviewed something – which, in the world of Machinefabriek, not equals: didn’t release anything – but I do know he’s busy with on-site pieces, installations and in the case of ‘The Measure Taken’, music for a choreography by Alexander Whitley and also, at the same time, visual artists Marshmallow Laser Feast. This piece was commissioned by The Royal Ballett Studio programme and premiered in April 2014 in France and also performed in London. There’s a short introduction piece, followed by the four parts of the piece. Obviously I haven’t seen the dance piece, or the visuals, but judging by the music, there has been a shift in Machinefabriek’s music. Some of the ‘old’ Machinefabriek is still present here, the long ambientesque soundscapes is of course something that is still present, but it seems as if Machinefabriek now handles the form of sound collage more and more, building towards crescendo’s and then drops out radically. Another important addition is the use of rhythm in ‘Part II’. A kind of click ‘n cut rhythm that is not unlike that of, say, Carsten Nicolai. It’s quite surprising but it works out very well. Topped with some noise bits here and there, this is surely on the more varied releases by Machinefabriek in quite sometime. If you aren’t the biggest fan of Machinefabriek but like to check out a release every once in a while, then make sure you check out this one.
At the same Machinefabriek released ‘Loos’, which is a twenty-seven minute live recording from a place in The Hague, called Studio Loos on December 11th 2014. In the old days Machinefabriek would have probably edited this into a 3″CDR, but these days is confident enough to release it on a real CD in a nice, austere cover. This is one for the more dedicated fans, I’d say, of which Machinefabriek has plenty. Here he works with his usual sine waves, contact microphones, sound effects and such like and creates a fine musique concrete meets microsound composition. There are various bits of acoustic noise abuse in here, which work really well. They act as loud counterpoints to the lengthy soft, sustaining drone fields. This too shows ‘another’ Machinefabriek (although we should not forget that in his very early days, Machinefabriek dabbled in many different kinds of music before finding firm ground in what he does best), a stronger, more forceful balance between loud, acoustic sounds and more introspective sounds, almost in equal amounts now. So, perhaps, not just for the die-hard fans either, but for everyone? Both are excellent releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zoharum.com
Address: http://machinefabriek.nu
SINDRE BJERGA AND FABIO ORSI – FADED BROWN AND GRAY (CD by Korm Plastics)
The Brombron project started in 2000 and is an initiative of Frans de Waard and Extrapool. Two musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, a space for art in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and have the possibility to do recordings in a fully equipped sound recording studio. The collaboration between Fabio Orsi from Italy and Sindre Bjerga form Norway is a wonderful mix of beautiful sounds. Fabio Orsi is specialized in creating atmospheric drones by guitars, old keyboard and field-recordings. He released music all over the world and did collaboration with a lot of other musicians. Sindre Bjerga is active since mid-nighties and released more that 100 records on labels worldwide. He creates his drones by microcassettes and contact microphones in combination with a lot of electronics. The result is five intense pieces of music. The first track is a short fragile track with some fine sounds and is followed by a composition with an on-going tone and concrete sounds are coming up and fade away. The track develops into an electronic on-going changing sound layers and flows into a melancholic melody played on an electric guitar. The following droney track has the same concept of an on-going and slowly changing tone. The fourth track is a beautiful mix of several sound layers, which create a dark ambient atmosphere. Concrete sounds crack the threatening atmosphere and sphere changes to more chaotic and aggressive. The last track is very strong. The track starts in silence with a droney dark tone. The guitar of Orsi goes on and on and he plays louder and louder with a lot of intensity. The sounds of Bjerga like looping screams or a yelling mass guides the massive guitarsound. Great album, highly recommended for lovers of drones with a taste of experiment. (JKH)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
RIMA KATO – FAINTLY LIT (CD by Flau)
Even when this is quite a short release, time-wise, clocking in twenty-five minutes, there is a lot happening and all of which was created by the same person, who goes by the name Rima Kato. I am not sure if that’s her real name; she plays acoustic and electric guitar, casiotone, flute, glockenspiel, recorder, percussion and she sings. Eight songs here with quite a mature production. The way she sings is of course very… well Japanese: a bit thin, sometimes half spoken, child like; that’s I guess a trademark thing, which you like or hate. I only like this to a certain extent: that is, not always. But today, a grey day, in which melancholia may prevail, I quite enjoy this. But perhaps it’s also that the music itself is very well played and produced here that I very much enjoy this. Rima Kato’s songs sound great, played with great care and there is lots of stuff happening. Percussion, flutes, glockenspiel, all of that plays a great role, along with the voice and the guitar being the main instruments, present in all these songs. Quite folk like, quite Static Caravan like; a great release which only left me with one question: why so short? (FdW)
Address: http://www.flau.jp
MOON:DOS – NATURA (CD by Luscinia Discos)
Although they have been playing together since 2008, this is the first release by Moon:Dos, the duo of Paloma Carrasco (cello and piano) and Javier Pedreira (guitar). I never heard of either of them, but they are both active in the world of (free-) improvisation. On December 7, 2012 they recorded for a single day in a studio of which the results are released on ‘Natura’. The four lengthy pieces they recorded are quite interesting as you can only faintly hear the sound of a cello or guitar (and piano, no doubt, but even more difficult it seems) and yet it doesn’t seem to be one of those ‘instruments are acoustic objects’ improvisations, simply because one can recognize all the instruments as such. They scrape around, hit carefully, swipe their instruments and such like as if they are afraid to make too much noise and thus carefully explore whatever possibilities there are on these three (?, two?) instruments. They take ‘m apart (not literally of course) and examine these possibilities with their bare hands or by using objects. We may recognize a guitar, a cello or a piano (again, the latter is not easy to spot), but it owes all the more to the world of electro-acoustic music, I think; a most delicate exploration of sound in whatever way and by whatever means. Not the easiest music, but for those willing to listen there is a lot to be enjoyed. (FdW)
Address: http://luscinia.ruidemos.org
HANNES BRUDER – CHANGES II (CD by Umlaut Records)
Probably this is my first introduction to the music of Hannes Buder, a Berlin based guitarist, who released his debut ten years ago. Umlaut released a duo recording of him with Hannes Lingens in 2013. The music he operates in is that of the improvised variety, but in these ten pieces, the guitar can easily be recognized as such. In a way it is perhaps even quite traditional guitar music we have here. I think Buder uses multitrack techniques to record his pieces. In the first four pieces he plays rock/folk/blues like – I have no idea what I’m saying – but then in ‘Ocean #1’ he plays a drone like piece for a pump organ and it has a great yet sad quality to it, just as ‘Ocean #2’. ‘Bird Drone (for Henry Flynt)’ uses a guitar and flute, the latter imitating feedback it seems, and has that raw Flynt like quality to it. These three pieces are among the best on this release (also on LP and download), but perhaps because both didn’t sound too much like guitar music. His more regular plying was all right, reminding me of John Fahey (‘Es Flog Ein Kleins Waldvögelein’ in particular), but not always too well spend on me. Not unpleasant to hear, but perhaps for me a bit too regular all together? (FdW)
Address: http://www.umlautrecords.com
MATTEO UGGERI – UNTITLED WINTER (CD by Scissor Tail Records)
Matteo Uggeri lives and works in Milan – Italy and is member of the experimental post-rock group Sparkle in Grey and releases also solo albums of albums in cooperation with other musicians. The album Untitled Winter is released by Scissor Tail Records from the USA. The atmosphere of the album is warm and comfortable. He recorded this album during the long winter of 2009 and was assisted by viola by Franz Krostopovic, piano and guitars by Andrea Ics Ferraris, cello by Andrea Serrapiglio, drums by Mattia Costa and whispers by his wife Gaia. The intimate album is fragile, soft sounds and field-recordings are guided by moving guitar drones, on-going piano patterns and gliding cello melodies. The combination of neo-classical music, experimental electronics and field-recordings is beautiful. The music touches several elements of the musical landscape. The listener can focus on different layers and although I played the CD many times, I discover new elements or layers in the music. One moment the music leads you to the inner world by ongoing drones, the other moments the concrete sounds returns you to the “real world.” The album ends with a track, which is a beautiful combination of cold windy sounds guided by a trumpet and a drony ongoing sound. The following track is like a band, which is playing far away, somewhere at a great distance in the mind, as if the music keeps playing in your head. The album ends with the track “Tender is the Night” composed with some abstract concrete sounds as if someone prepares himself for going to sleep under the sheets. Matteo Uggeri surprises me again and this album is really a good guidance for a cold evening laying on the couch with a burning stove. (JKH)
Address: http://www.scissortailrecords.com/
ÉVIDENCE – MONK WORK (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
FÜNF – LA RÈGLE (CD by AAmbiances Magnetiques)
KLAXON GUEULE – POUR EN FINIR (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Évidence present their third release of Monk interpretations. This group has a long history. Derome and Cartier played already Monk-compositions when they were operating as a duo in the 70s. For many years they played Monk for their own sake as a hobby. In 1993 they decided however to make a studio recording, ‘Musique de Thelonious Monk’. It was followed in 1999 by a live recording ‘Live à la Casa’. Now, some 14 years later they do another try. They choose 11 compositions, including ‘Dreamland’ and ‘Two Timer’ that are seldom performed. But also well-known pieces like ‘Brilliant Corners’. Their interpretations didn’t make me forget other interpretations, although they with joy and verve. Klaxon Gueule is around already for some 20 years now. It is the most long lasting combo initiated by Côté if I’m not mistaken. Besides Côté, Bernard Falaise and St-Onge are part of this trio. Falaise we recently met on the fantastic second album by another trio, called Subtle Lip Can. Likewise Klaxon Gueule write their music from a very own and distinct grammar. But how strange their language may be, they really express something relevant. They offer incredible, fascinating music. Complex, but not academic. Always with both feed in the mud. The music always moves strangely forward, but there is happening a lot in the meanwhile. Patterns change through uncommon cyclic procedures. Every little detail is functional and enjoyable. Fünf is a new voice. It is a collective of Magali Babin, Andrea-Jane Cornell, Martine H Crispo, Anne-Françoise Jacques, Émilie Mouchous and Erin Sexton. As an all female ensemble they fit however in a tradition with Wondeur Brass and Justine as earlier all-women line ups in the Ambiances Magnétiques circles. They use a wide range of electronics, synthesizers, microphones, field recordings, loops, amplified objects etc. Only accordion and voice as conventional instruments. They spread their ideas over 12 tracks varying in length between 0:39 and 8:53 minutes. It is radical noise improvisation what they practice, but not of a kind that attracts much attention. The music makes no immediate appeal on the listener, who by his turn has really to concentrate. Is this rewarding? I think so. They don’t choose for an overkill of noise, but for very stripped down sound improvisations. And there surely is some poetry in their sonic excursions. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON – SO LONG (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
JIM HAYNES – SCARLET (cassette by The Helen Scarsdale Agency)
Following a bunch of releases in the late summer of 2014, mostly on cassette, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson (one half of Stilluppsteypa) returns with a full length release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, following the fact that the original label to release this, Intransitive Recordings, stopped shop a while ago. These three pieces were made over a long period of time, 1998-2013, of course not being worked on a daily basis, but evolving slowly. Sigmarsson himself published a shorter version of this on cassette – see Vital Weekly 935 – about which I wrote: “these two pieces (fifty minutes in total) are more collage like yet also maintain the trademark drone character of the music of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson. Various pieces are cut together in one long piece (Sigmarsson also mailed me the WAV files for these pieces to be included in the podcast). Beautiful dark drone music, using computer techniques no doubt and on the other side we find field recordings of natural sounds, church organs and who knows what else. It’s the music I very much like, and perhaps also can’t be critical about. Yes, I heard this before, as good as this etc., but I just like this a lot. Highly inspired ambient drone music with a strong bite. Not lulling the listener to a deep sleep but transporting him to different worlds. Excellent!” As a bonus we get here another fourteen minutes of processed organ sounds and likewise processed field recordings adding more mood to the previous fifty plus minutes. It makes it all quite a fine release of one of the best drone meisters.
Jim Haynes, label boss here, was at one point perhaps also a master of drones, but on this new release he traded in his drones for a more noise based approach. Not noise of the variety that is all about distortion and mayhem, but creating sonically interesting blocks of louder sound. He uses strobe lights, shortwave radio and ‘psychic disturbance’, which we perhaps also could understand as ‘sound effects’? Perhaps; I am merely guessing. These rudimentary sound sources doesn’t led to power electronics, but to eight great pieces of a noisy variation of musique concrete. Occasionally quite loud but usually holding the middle ground: pleasantly present, loudly droning and machine humming away. Imagine being at an abandoned industrial park at night; lights flicker away, machines buzz, sparks of faulty electricity lines snap away. That’s the sort of images Haynes creates in this music. This is along the lines of Francisco Meirino and Joe Colley, this operates on the side of intelligent noise music. Loud(er) but made with some fine imanigation. A most powerful cassette. (FdW)
Address: http://www.helenscarsdale.com
LUCIO CAPECE – EPOCHÉ (CD by Hideous Replica)
ILIA BELORUKOV & KURT LIEDWART & ANDREY POPOVSKIY – SOMEBODY RATTLED (cassette by Hideous Replica)
Hideous Replica is slowly growing into a nice little label with some highly unusual music on offer, here on CD as well as cassette, both in an edition of 100 copies. Capece uses analogue synthesizers, oscillators, ring modulator, equalisers in feedback, hand fan, sine waves and electronic drum and recorded two lengthy parts of ‘Epoché’. Knowing his background in improvised music where Capece plays saxophone, I wonder whether these pieces were recorded in real-time or if they are perhaps the result of some multi-tracking. And if this is ‘live’ I’d be very much interested to see what it would look like. The music is very much synth based, obviously, static and minimal although it doesn’t stay in the same place for a very long time. Every few minutes things change over to the next section of the piece, by gradually fading in new sound elements. I kept wondering about that hand fan and electronic drum, where they fitted in, what they added, as it seemed not easy to spot. This is all very much along the lines of the second piece on his recent release ‘Factors Of Space Inconstancy’ (see Vital Weekly 962), a piece that I liked, but the first one over there was much better. These two new pieces on ‘Epoché’ are alike, and they are very fine examples of his synth/drone interest, but may lack a certain conceptual edge, which the first piece on that other CD had to a great extent. Good, solid work, but not his best work.
On cassette we find the ever so active Kurt Liedwart on ppooll, electronics, found objects, space), and Ilia Belorukov (alto saxophone, effects pedals, phone, ipod, objects); they play together a lot and here collaborate with Andrey Popovskiy (lap steel guitar, effects pedals, electronics, objects), and both sides where recorded on the same evening, a year ago, almost to the date, at the always lovely Experimental Sound Gallery in Saint-Petersburg. This is their usual gathering of improvised music, of the variety where the silence plays an important role. A few sounds here, a few there, some silence, some loudness, noise even and there we have a more or less fine idea of what happens on this. I personally like this, but I do think Liedwart cum suis release a lot of this kind of improvised music sets. Maybe there is a market for this, I have no idea. I think they could be more critical when it comes releasing this kind. I understand that each concert is an unique event – such is the nature of improvised music of course – but to have it all released, is something I’m not entirely sure off. One could consider Bandcamp as an alternative way of distributing all of these live recordings (unless of course the goal is to reach as many labels and as wide of an audience), for the die-hard fans only. It’s not easy to see or hear the difference between the various releases by Liedwart and Belorukov. Though nice as this one (also) is. (FdW)
Address: http://hideousreplica.co.uk
SAINCT LAURENS – VOLUME 2 (LP by E-Tron Records)
Although the name of Pierre-Yves Martel and Philippe Lauzier are prominently featured on the cover, the band name is Sainct Laurens and ‘Volume 2’, so the album which was called ‘Sainct Laurens’ (see Vital Weekly 715) must be volume one, I reckon’. On ‘Volume 2’ Lauzier plays bass clarinet, alto and soprano saxophone and Martel viola de gamba, objects and feedback. Perhaps this too is the result of various days/hours in the studio recording together – it doesn’t say it is, nor does it say it’s a live recording – but unlike the previous release this seems less noise based. Here the two operate on a much careful level, creating small sounds with big impact. It’s sustaining and it’s sine-wave like (thanks no doubt to the use of the feedback, saxophone and viola being scraped), but there is much control over the sound here, more so it seems than on their first release. Besides these lengthy scraping sounds, there is also lots and lots of small sounds, hectic playing on the viola, uneasy playing of the saxophones (no doubt sometimes two at a time). As a whole, I think Sainct Laurens progressed quite a bit. There is more variation here, more control also and more dynamics – a fine interaction between the louder and quieter bits and in these nine pieces it’s all on this display. It doesn’t make this much easier to access; perhaps it’s even more difficult even: it takes the listener on a great journey through highs and lows, wide spaces and closed off areas. This is one to be fully immersed by. (FdW)
Address: http://etronrecords.com/
YOBKISS – THE LIGHT (12″ by Grond Records)
Originally Paul Borchers (son of Jan Borchers, of Au, if you remember them) is a drummer who played in a black metal band, an ambient post/noise rock band and as YobKiss he started to work with techno and house music. Primarily it was a solo project until he met vocalist Yuko Hazama, while playing in Tokyo and they started to work together, recording these pieces through the use of the Internet. It’s not a pure techno or house record, but something more, much more. In the title track there is a lot of guitar to be noted, which shows Borchers’ rock hinterland. The synth is in full arpeggio mode and the drums nicely rock like. The music is a fine hybrid of more energetic musical interests – rock, techno – and it works well. Minimal as in the mechanics of krautrock. However I must admit I am less enamoured by the vocals of Hazama. Half whispering, a bit like French whisper songs, it softens the music quite a bit in my taste. It sounds like something that I can’t place somewhere – maybe that shows my limited knowledge of singers. It might that I like instrumental music more than music with vocals, but I also believe powerful music should have powerful vocals, and that’s not the case here. That’s a pity, I think. It’s music wise a great record. Maybe YobKiss should have remained a solo project as far as I was concerned. (FdW)
Address: http://www.grond.org
RIE NAKAJIMA – FOUR FORMS (12″ by Consumer Waste)
The four-track 12″ single! You may have other expectations when you read that, but that’s what this is. David Toop penned the liner notes, which may be – I am not sure – about the mechanical nature of this music. The printed inner-sleev shows us objects – whistles, lids, cans, ceramic bowl, glasses with small balls and some device; judging by what I hear on this record, this device is something mechanical which sets these objects in motion and Nakajima records these vibrating objects. Nakajima is from Japan but works in Oxford and she co-curates the ‘Sculpture’ series with Toop – that explains – and creates these objects. I quite enjoyed this record. It’s rattling and shaking, but it firmly stays on the abstract side. Nakajima doesn’t want to produce an imitation of a music style – say do a dance record with abstract means – but creates some interesting, highly non-static music by moving around objects and/or changes the position of the device. Sometimes quiet and introspective, but at other times rattling like thunderous rain storm. The last piece seemed a bit ‘un-composed’ to me, going a bit too much over the place, but the other three pieces were very tight: minimal, yet changing all around. This I’d be interested to see live and/or as an installation and hear it move through space. (FdW)
Address: http://consumerwaste.org.uk/
HEDOROMERUHEN/H/ALKBAZZ (7″ with artwork by Le Petit Mignon)
LE PETIT MIGNON VS LE CAGIBI (7″ by Le Petit Mignon)
Sadly we recently learned once more that France is a country where the comic is both high art and a potential victim of terrorism. A French exile (?) in Berlin, Guillaume Siffert, runs the Staalplaat store and has his own label, Le Petit Mignon (and the label Staalplaat no longer exists, at least not in it’s original form), where he releases 7″s which are packed like comics. The first one here is a fold out sleeve on white paper with orange and green print, all screen printing done by Alkbazz. The music was born out of a festival co-organised by Le Petit Mignon, called ‘Angura – experimental music and art from Japan’, and Daisuke Ichiba and Yasutoshi Yoshida took part. The latter you may know as Government Alpha, while the first is more active in the underground visual art, but also playing avant-folk music. They liked each others work and back home they started recording as Hedoromeruhen of which ‘The Cat’ is one of their first songs. Quite a vibrant weird song it is. Guitar and singing form one ingredient of this, but they are packed – wrapped would be a better word – inside some totally crazy set of electronics, bringing out way more psychedelics than one would expect. Voices are slowed down, piano is trembled upon and electronics are wildly spacious. In just over four minutes a wall of sound is erected and thorn down. On the other side is H, head of zamzamrec, and she was discovered when playing in Geneva by Le Petit Mignon. I never heard of her but her drone like sounds are quite impressive. Using a bunch of loop devices, music devices and other stomp boxes, she generates a densely layered carpet of bell like sounds; gamelans taking a wrong turn and ended up in a rock club? Both are actually great pieces, marking an excellent product.
But hold your breath: if you think that looks great, which it does, then you are in for real visual thread with Le Petit Mignon Vs Le Cagibi. This is a French screen-printing studio and this booklet looks even wilder than the other. Many colours are used and the images are great, lots of sexually related images, dirt and monsters (perhaps that says a lot about people who draw comics; maybe some psycho-analytical mind could examine them?). This is not y’r regular Tintin comic. The music here is also a split release. On the first side we find a band called Vinyl-Terror & Horror with a piece called ‘Inner Dialogues’ with an interesting collage of desperate sounds. Doors squeaking, people laughing (a cafe?), plates and vinyl abuse, all of which are put down to real magnetic tape, cut and spliced together. Sometimes it speeds up and it slows down and reminds me of Nurse With Wound at times, but maybe also more from a turntablism end. Nice piece. Toys’R’Noise we do know from their LP (see Vital Weekly 892) and their ‘Pachitea Aida’ is a fine rocking piece. It starts within the world of collage, but then moves over to the world of beats and drones and oddly enough this too reminded me of Nurse With Wound, when they are in a more kraut-rock phase. This is a real song! Head and tail and all, with a fine noisy ending. An incredible package with two great songs and a fine visual treatments. Beauty like this doesn’t come cheap but it’s worthwhile every penny. (FdW)
Address: http://staalplaat.bandcamp.com
CRISTIAN ALVEAR MONTECINO – QUATRE PIECES POUR GUITARE & ONDES SINUSOIDALES (CDR by Rhizome-s)
The name Cristian Alvear Montecino didn’t ring a bell here. He plays guitar, objects and sinewaves and three of the four pieces he performs on this release were written for him. The CDR opens with ‘On The Carpet Of Leaves Illuminated By The Moon, for guitar and pure wave oscillator’ by Alvin Lucier is not composed for him. If there is a common thread going through these pieces, then it’s the word ‘silence’. Everything around here is very quiet, culminating in ‘Piezo De Escucha III’ (composed by Santiago Astaburuaga), which opens with very few, sparse tones following which there are very soft sine waves. In other pieces the sine waves are more present, but the guitar plays only few notes, very occasionally. This is very demanding music; you can’t put this on and do something else. You have to stay focussed all the time, concentrate really well; otherwise this will be something that just doesn’t work. What is most likely to happen is that you’ll be annoyed by what seems random plucking on a string and some peep in the background. Only if you sit down and make a concentrated effort on actual listening you’ll find a fine and refined world of sound, slowly unfolding. Not easy, but quite beautiful. (FdW)
Address: http://rhizome-s.blogspot.pt/
ENHÄNTA BÖDLAR – ALTAR BESMIRCHER (cassette by Maneki Neko Tapes)
WARSZAWA – KINETICA (cassette by Maneki Neko Tapes)
SVENSKA HAPPA (cassette compilation by Maneki Neko Tapes)
Maneki Neko Tapes is one of the divisions of the Vuz Records Megastore empire, which includes also Bastet for CDR releases and Cat’s Heaven (for whatever else they do; I am not sure). Maneki Neko is supposed to be the smallest brother/sister, and looking like a real 80s cassette label. The first two releases here certainly brought back some good memories of those days. Enhänta Bödlar was a trio with Conny Nimmersjö, Uddah-Buddah and Roger Karmanik (the latter also of Bright Death Now and the infamous Cold Meat Industry), although the latter is no longer a member. There has been a long hiatus from the mid 80s to the mid 00s, so I assume it’s since then a duo. There is no information on the cover as to when this was recorded, so I may assume it’s recent stuff. Although… it actually sounds more like 80s. I am a massive fan of one particular Nocturnal Emissions record, ‘Viral Shedding’ (which old friends used to called ‘Vital Shredding’ in honour of this weekly when it was tri-monthly paper thing), which was a rudimentary dance record: crude loops from disco records, coupled with some crude synth playing/primitive sequencing and voices/samples/vocals quite on top of the proceedings. Maybe sixty minutes is a lot for what are essentially very similar pieces of music, and something more LP length – forty minutes – would have been most enjoyable. Maybe a LP re-issue would be something to consider in about twenty years time, when this tape has found a cult status? The best underground disco I heard in a very long time. ‘Viral Shedding’ is next up and I have a party going on here.
‘From the man behind Epoch and Signal To Noise’ we get a release as Warszawa, which Maneki Neko describes as ‘relaxed space techno ambient’, which actually is all not really true. There is rhythm indeed, but of the straight 4/4 techno variety; it’s covered with quite some delay machines which makes it hectic and nervous, and not really relaxing. Also the same sort of delay is also used on a variety of other instruments – bass synthesizer, keyboards – which doesn’t necessarily add to the ambient character of the music. What I like about Enhänta Bödlar, the crudeness, the straight forward loops, the singing, is all not here, and Warszawa hints towards making his tunes sound good, but it sounds a bit muffled and dark; like it was recorded on a cassette. The other thing I didn’t particularly like, was the fact that all the instruments used kept sounding the same. That didn’t lead to much variation in here. I played this tape while cleaning up a bit around the house, and as such it was a pleasant work.
A good old-fashioned compilation was also released by Maneki Neko, ninety minutes of Swedish bands, including Enhänta Bödlar, En Halvkokt I Folie, Enema Syringe, Brunst & Frak, Fatal Casualities, Handysound Orchestra, Braindamage and Commando Laarz. Some of these names have been around for a long time, and found their way on multiple cassettes, vinyl and CDs. I expected, wrongly, some loud industrial music, power electronics and such like, but it’s actually much more ‘regular’ electronic; perhaps some kind of industrial music that isn’t about screaming feedback. More than on the Warszawa tape this is all a bit techno inspired, hinting always towards elektro and Esplendor Geometrico inspires some of these bands. Quite a long tape indeed so one easily looses it’s track here: who did what? I couldn’t tell. Does it really matter? Not really. It’s all quite enjoyable stuff, with some excellent variations on a theme on offer here. Get it now, or wait for another twenty years before this pops up on a blog. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vuzrecords.de
THE HARE AND THE MOON – THE GREY MALKIN (cassette by Atsla)
There was no information enclosed with this tape. I assume The Hare And The Moon is a duo of some kind – I have no idea why I think so. I must say I wasn’t that impressed that I wanted to dig deeper. It’s a bit of a mystery this tape; not just because there is no information but also the music itself. There is a female vocalist, who sounds a bit folky, but the music is a bit gothic: dark, sustaining guitars and a slow bang on the big drum. The kind of medieval sound that I am slightly allergic too. At one point I did like Ordo Equitum Solis – I must admit that – but I was young and easy to be impressed by beautiful longhaired girls singing mysteriously. That is no longer the case. Just as much I don’t like Current 93 or Death In June or any of those folk worshippers, I didn’t like this very much and I doubt we are the right sort of the bulletin to review such dark matters. (FdW)
Address: http://soundcloud.com/thehareandthemoon
E.M.I.R.S. – THE REEL ESTATE (cassette by Belch Kitchen)
Once there was Belch, an one-man noise/punk army on guitar and drums – simultaneously – but now Belch calls himself E.M.I.R.S. and I saw quite an impressive first concert by him, late 2013, handling microphone, objects, cassettes, small synths and reel-to-reel tapes; perhaps all of those were also used as Belch, but now found ground in remarkable accessible music. On his new release he uses again reel-to-reel tapes, which he found in storage of theatre group, almost seventy of them. On this tapes were rehearsals, shows, sound checks and ‘all mixed down to a c90 cassette. No cuts, editing or additional effects, pure sounds of the tapes’ as the insert tells us, and the cassette is packed in one of those of reel-to-reel boxes. I am not sure how that worked, this mix down, but it doesn’t sound like all seventy tapes being played at the same time. Maybe some of Cageian method applied to copying the sound of these seventy tapes to get them on some available space on the tape. Maybe they were just very short and they appear one by one? Hard to tell. But whatever is the case here this is a wild release. It’s like listening to a radio station being not entirely on the tune, and somewhere in between two stations. This is very much un-composed and presented as a stream of unconsciousness sounds. Think ‘Revolution No.9’ by The Beatles but then ‘Revolution c90’. Voices, endless amounts of voices keeping popping up, along with instruments, street sounds and other mayhem. If you heard five minutes then you heard it all; I kept on listening however. Partly because I was too lazy to switch the tape but mostly because I thought this was all highly fascinating stuff and maybe ninety minutes wasn’t even long enough. Excellent cassette, in an edition of 56 numbered copies. Paul is not dead! (FdW)
Address: http://belchkitchen.tumblr.com
DAS DING – SEQUENCER (cassette by Dehef)
IAN MARTIN – ALLIANCE (cassette by Dehef)
JSCA (cassette)
Three releases by a new label from Rotterdam, although one might be from somewhere else. I started this trip with the tape by Das Ding. Back in the 80s I used to own some of his cassettes, released on his own Kalkulator label and Stichting Update Materials but Danny Bosten – der Das Ding – stopped doing music until he found out his music was heavily in demand, due to the activity of the no longer forgotten music blog. His old music was re-issued and Bosten dusted off the old machines (maybe acquired some new) and started to produce new music. ‘Sequencer’ is a rather short cassette, just as in the old days it seems, with four pieces, ‘Sequence 1’, ‘Sequence 2’ and so on. The label references to the music of Aphex Twin but in my humble opinion I like this better. Das Ding has a nice, dry, clean dubby sound, which bounces around nicely; long live the sequencer, I’d say. It’s a pity this lasts only fifteen or so minutes as I would have loved to hear more, much more of this. ‘Sequencer’ has a great, raw quality to it and nowhere one has the impression this is some early stages work or demo’s of some kind, which means, in my book, that Das Ding still loves his cassette releases and doesn’t consider this to be a playground for random shots.
Ian Martin is from Rotterdam – also! – and is a DJ for Intergalactic FM, and the six pieces on ‘Alliance’ are something entirely different from the work of Das Ding. His music has some fine dark quality of humming synthesizers, organ sounds and sampled voices. At least according to the sparse information: it’s not something I heard, unless it comes heavily processed. The music has a nice, dark cosmic feel to it, without sounding overtly cosmic – if you get my drift. No real bouncing arpeggio’s around here, but everything is moving majestically around, like a feelt of space ships in a pitch black sky, going from one planet to the next. With the sad passing of Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese last month it’s time to think about his (grand-) children, and Ian Martin is no doubt one of the more grim-looking relatives. That’s oke, as his music would easily fit any post apocalyptic soundtrack. Hollywood: beware of this.
Not directly on Dehef but I got it anyway from them is a duo named JSCA, who named themselves after a song from Monoton (from the classic ‘Monotonprodukt 07’, re-issued by Oral, not reviewed here) and play a similar monotonous music, yet sans the rhythm. Sequencing here is important too, but reduced to a few sine waves and on top of that we have some female vocals. While all three of these tapes have a distinct retro feeling, I’d say that JSCA is the one that sounds alike many 80s synth acts (I was thinking of Inner XXX label) without necessarily adding something new to route. That’s oke, I got rid of the old tapes a long time ago, and could do with some new version of the old stuff. Excellent scray, post industrial, post apocalyptic music. (FdW)
Address: <dehef.tapes@gmail.com>
STEPHAN MATHIEU – SACRED GROUND (download by Schwebung)
Stephan Mathieu is a familiar name for Vital Weekly-readers. But for me ‘Sacred Ground’ is my first meeting with his art, I have to admit. As a longtime fan of Popol Vuh, running http://www.popolvuh.nl and always keen on any Popol Vuh allusions, my attention was attracted to the soundtrack ‘Sacred Ground’ as Mathieu dedicated it to Florian Fricke (1944-2001), leader of Popol Vuh. Mathieu happened to have listened a lot to Popol Vuh during the time he worked on the soundtrack for ‘Sacred Ground’. Popol Vuh turned out to be a source of inspiration. C’est tout. ‘Sacred Ground’ is a documentary by Tim Grünewald and Ludwig Schmidtpeter about the Wounded Knee and Mount Rushmore memorial sites in South Dakota. Wounded Knee is a neglected, desolate memorial site, where on Mount Rushmore the tourist industry flourishes. The Wounded Knee region is one of the poorest areas on the western hemisphere, “an on-going crime”. At the end of the documentary an Indian person says the place should be left alone, giving time to heal from the injuries that took place here during the massacre in 1890. It is sacred ground. Grünewald and Schmidtpeter work mainly with a static camera and no zoom function. These formal aspects work well with the drones Mathieu delivered for this film. Also the wide-open landscape. Soundtracks often functions in evoking of stimulating emotions that fit with the scene or the narrative. If this is a law, one could ask what emotions are to be triggered by the soundtrack of Mathieu. Or if not, in what other way this soundtrack is meant to function for the film. In what way the music parallels, contrasts, underlines the images? Realizing the drama that took place here, and poverty of the remaining Indians, the music worked as one long extended cry. The soundtrack counts seven tracks that can stand own their own feet as well. In combination with the documentary they may transport feelings of alienation and desolation. As such however the carefully painted drones feel warm and human. Rich music, full of little details. Mathieu released the soundtrack on his Schwebung-weblabel, accompanied by a stylish booklet, designed by Caro Mikalef, containing black/white movie stills for every different track. (DM)
Address: http://www.schwebung.com