![\"GX](\"http:\/\/modisti.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/GX-Jupitter-Larsen-300x194.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DENEUVE – UGLY (CD by Blowpipe) *
\nMULLER – WORKERS (CD by Comfortzone) *
\nSILK SAW – IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES (CD by Kot\u00e4) *
\nTHE BALUSTRADE ENSEMBLE – RENEWED BRILLIANCE (CD by Serein) *
\nRANT \u2013 MARGO FLUX (CD by Schraum)
\nPOST OFFICE \u2013 THE MARYLEBONE GREENWAVE (CD by Minority Records)
\nELEPHANT9 WITH REINE FISKE \u2013 SILVER MOUNTAIN (CD by Rune Grammofon)
\nESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO \u2013 NEVER ENDING JANUARY (CD by Rune Grammofon)
\nZENIAL – MINOTAUR (LP by Zoharum)
\nGX JUPITTER-LARSEN & ACE FARREN FORD\/LE SCRAMBLED DEBUTANTE FEAT. EMERGE\u00a0
\n(split LP by Attenuation Circuit)
\nTHE NORDIC SOUND ART (compilation LP by Nordic Sound Art)
\nTHE NORDIC SOUND ART (compilation cassette by Nordic Sound Art)
\nJLIAT – DECEMBER 7 AFTERNOON (CDR by Jliat) *
\nCREVER \u2013 CRVR (CDR by Crever)
\nDAMIAN BISCIGLIA AND FRIENDS – VOLUME ONE: THE 1980S (CDR by Ri Be Xibalba) *
\nDAMIAN BISCIGLIA AND FRIENDS – VOLUME ONE: THE 1990S (CDR by Ri Be Xibalba) *
\nPHAERENTZ – AUTOFINGER (CDR by Phaerlag) *
\nSLOW SLOW LORIS (cassette by Staaltape)<\/p>\n
[rssless] [\/rssless]<\/p>\n \nDENEUVE – UGLY (CD by Blowpipe)<\/p>\n Sometimes I think I am on a repeat mission. That I am re-writing the same bit\u00a0 MULLER – WORKERS (CD by Comfortzone)<\/p>\n There was once a time that Oval was a band with a massive influence. Their broken\u00a0 SILK SAW – IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES (CD by Kot\u00e4)<\/p>\n It’s been nine years of silence since we last heard from Silk Saw, a duo of Marc\u00a0 THE BALUSTRADE ENSEMBLE – RENEWED BRILLIANCE (CD by Serein)<\/p>\n After I played this the first time round, I started reading the press text and\u00a0 \nRANT \u2013 MARGO FLUX (CD by Schraum)<\/p>\n Rant is a duo of Merle Bennett and Torsten Papenheim. They released three albums\u00a0 \nPOST OFFICE \u2013 THE MARYLEBONE GREENWAVE (CD by Minority Records)<\/p>\n This one is already some time on my desk. A difficult one. A line up of seventeen\u00a0 \nELEPHANT9 WITH REINE FISKE \u2013 SILVER MOUNTAIN (CD by Rune Grammofon) Elephant 9. What a band. What a players! Gorgeous. Their progrock inspired music\u00a0 \nZENIAL – MINOTAUR (LP by Zoharum)<\/p>\n Luksz Szalankiewicz’ project Zenial has been going for quite some years now and in\u00a0 GX JUPITTER-LARSEN & ACE FARREN FORD\/LE SCRAMBLED DEBUTANTE FEAT. EMERGE\u00a0 Both sides were created by way of collaborations. I started with the side that is\u00a0 JLIAT – DECEMBER 7 AFTERNOON (CDR by Jliat)<\/p>\n “Are you sure this is the same Jliat?” When I worked in a record store I managed\u00a0 CREVER \u2013 CRVR (CDR by Crever)<\/p>\n Crever is a project of the Dutch musician Joey Beentjes and exists since 2011.\u00a0 \nDAMIAN BISCIGLIA AND FRIENDS – VOLUME ONE: THE 1980S (CDR by Ri Be Xibalba) Ri Be Xibalba? Isn’t that the current guise of Anomalous Records, once a mighty\u00a0 PHAERENTZ – AUTOFINGER (CDR by Phaerlag)<\/p>\n It’s been quite a while since I heard ‘III’ by Petr Ferenc, who calls himself\u00a0 SLOW SLOW LORIS (cassette by Staaltape)<\/p>\n On Staaltape something is a somewhat bigger edition this time: fifty copies.\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/vitalweekly.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DENEUVE – UGLY (CD by Blowpipe) * MULLER – WORKERS (CD by Comfortzone) * SILK SAW – IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES (CD by Kot\u00e4) * THE BALUSTRADE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":40613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVital Weekly 2012<\/a><\/p>\n
\nof information over and over. Sometimes it is because releases are sparse, such\u00a0
\nas in the case of Deneuve, or as they prefer it deNeuve, and re-introductions\u00a0
\nseem necessary. They being Andre Bach and Marc Tegefoss, who have been together\u00a0
\nfor some thirty-five years now. First they were part of Tox Modell, then\u00a0
\nTecnoville (together with musicians from Dutch punk band Workmates) and for\u00a0
\na long time known as Det Wiehl. In those years (roughly 1985 until 2010) they\u00a0
\nmore and more concentrated on creating music for theatre and dance performances,\u00a0
\nand a lot less on releasing music or in fact playing this music live. As Det\u00a0
\nWiehl their music was mostly abstract but recently Bach and Tegefoss also had\u00a0
\nthe urge to play something that was more song based; pop if you will, but this\u00a0
\nis still quite far off. Anyway, much of this you knew from the previous reviews\u00a0
\n(Vital Weekly 831 and 923) of course, nonetheless there you have it (again).\u00a0
\nNow back in the day I was a huge fan of Tox Modell and to some extent also of\u00a0
\nDet Wiehl, dismissing Tecnoville as too punky for my taste (back then). These\u00a0
\ndays I am open to anything really and I see no objection to allowing a song\u00a0
\nstructure here and there. So I was already quite pleased with their first two\u00a0
\nreleases from the new guise, but this twelve-track album is absolutely excellent.\u00a0
\nI really am clueless why this is called ‘Ugly’ as it comes with a great fold out\u00a0
\nleporello (144 cm!) booklet and digipack, and the music is awesome. The music\u00a0
\nhas very little to do with their earlier work as Det Wiehl and all the more with\u00a0
\nTox Modell and Tecnoville. Rhythm is for one something both these earlier bands\u00a0
\nused; Tox Modell via repeating guitar patterns (they had no drummer) while\u00a0
\nTecnoville (and, come to think of it, the short-lived Scratch, of which Bach\u00a0
\nand Tegefoss were also part in the early 80s) were their most conventional bands,\u00a0
\nincluding a drummer. With deNeuve the rhythm comes out of a box, and it hammers\u00a0
\naway mechanically, playing at times almost techno based 4\/4 rhythms. To that\u00a0
\nBach and Tegefoss add their trademark guitar sound: full of feedback and\u00a0
\ndistortion, howling nicely about, but unlike Tox Modell, pushed to the background,\u00a0
\nforming a wall of sound. Also new is the addition of sampled voices, which I think\u00a0
\nare sampled from movies, such as ‘2001’ and ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ –\u00a0
\nsong titles are indications in that respect. Quite rocky, quite dancy, but above\u00a0
\nall: great music. These are songs by mature (older!) man, so it’s very unlikely\u00a0
\nthey will score a big hit out of this, but I can easily see a great video,\u00a0
\nsampled from those movie influences to go a long and making some novelty thing\u00a0
\nout of this. I believe deNeuve will start playing live as of next year, so it\u00a0
\nwould be good to see that. I have no idea if their music could easily be\u00a0
\ntranslated to the stage, but they should really do and make sure their music is\u00a0
\nheard to a wider audience. The funniest piece, for me at least, was ‘1980 Anger’,\u00a0
\nin which they ‘remix’ Tox Modell ‘Numbers Two’ (I think!), including the feedback\u00a0
\nguitars, Xavier Martin’s super angry vocals but set to a fast almost gabber like\u00a0
\nrhythm. That said, this isn’t about fun as such, but this ain’t 1980 no more:\u00a0
\nyou can’t be angry all the time. Excellent release, and hopefully something that\u00a0
\nwill pick up more audience. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.blowpipe.org<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCD sound provided glitch music, skipping and bouncing with ‘wrong’ sounds, which\u00a0
\ncertainly on their second and third CD found it’s peak. It has been a copied a\u00a0
\nlot since then, hardly surpassed by at best applied and incorporated in other\u00a0
\nmusical forms. Lots of the copyists missed out on the musical edge of the first\u00a0
\nOval records, maybe including Oval themselves on the works that came after that,\u00a0
\nall ambient or noise and no longer pop sensitive (that is altogether a different\u00a0
\nstory). Ryuta Mizkami, who works occasionally with Yui Onodera, but solo as Mulllr\u00a0
\ntook up the Oval inspired cut-up sound, no doubt these days something that is a\u00a0
\nplug-in or a max\/msp patch, but not only lacks the pop sensibility, the melodic\u00a0
\ntouch, it lacks also ideas and composition. Here we have twenty-one tracks\/songs,\u00a0
\nsome quite short, which essentially all sound the same: chopping up techno beats\u00a0
\ninto break core beats, laced with delay pedals and ambient textures, randomly\u00a0
\ndispersed all over this. Everything gets the same treatment, nothing is different\u00a0
\nor standing out. It would seem that much of this was generated in the one hour\u00a0
\nthis album lasts. Put up some track markers here and there and sell it as a\u00a0
\ntwenty-one-track album. I have no idea why I am playing this for a second time\u00a0
\nand thinking about it. This is no good at all. (FdW)
\nAddress:\u00a0http:\/\/comfortzonemusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMedea and Gabriel Severin, from Brussels. I have no idea why things were quiet\u00a0
\nfor such a long time. I must also admit I never heard much of their music, even\u00a0
\nwhen this is their 11th album. Their last CD, ‘8 Reports’ was released by Ant-Zen\u00a0
\nRecording, and reviewed by NM. I must have heard their earliest work by Sub Rosa\u00a0
\nin the years I worked in a record store, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression.\u00a0
\nOne could think ‘Imaginary Landscapes’ is a tribute to John Cage, and maybe it is,\u00a0
\nbut then it’s not to be heard. It’s probably also my introduction to their sample\u00a0
\nheavy music. In the middle of everything they do is rhythm, which is partly owing\u00a0
\nto the world of techno and part-time more drum & bass. I am not a big fan of the\u00a0
\nlatter genre, but what Silk Saw does is not something that is very strict in the\u00a0
\ndrum & bass department, plus they add a bunch of different instruments all together:\u00a0
\nguitars, a piano, some voice material, string instruments and such like. Throughout\u00a0
\nthese eight pieces, clocking in at one hour, there is a strong cinematic approach\u00a0
\nand it’s not a bright movie they show us. Overall I thought the mood was quite\u00a0
\ndepressing, such as in the opening piece ‘Lonely Planet’, with its dark string\u00a0
\nsection, beats that sound like pouring rain and insect sounds from a synthesizer\u00a0
\nor two. Big city speed comes in ‘Torment For Some People Is A Need’ (see: no fun!)\u00a0
\nor slowed techno stomping in both part of ‘The Decision To Exist’. I wasn’t in a\u00a0
\nparticular good mood this morning and you would expect grim music like this to be\u00a0
\neven more depressing, but that didn’t happen. There is now a bit of sunshine\u00a0
\noutside, neatly warm inside and the darkness of Silk Saw effectively lifted the\u00a0
\nmood quite a bit. Quite an excellent first impression, or maybe that should be:\u00a0
\na re-acquaintance? (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/kotaerecords.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nlooking at the cover. Upon first hearing I expected this to be a solo project\u00a0
\nfrom someone who enjoyed calling himself ‘an ensemble’; people do like that\u00a0
\nsometimes. It sounded, again, upon first hearing a guy with a guitar and a bunch
\nof sound effects, or perhaps sound-processing using max\/mps, stretching out\u00a0
\nthese guitars. But lo and behold, this is an ensemble indeed, led by composer\u00a0
\nand guitarist Grant Miller, also including Liam Singer on piano and organ, Wendy\u00a0
\nAllen on voice, Erik Friedlander on cello, Monika Warchol on French Horn, Zeena
\nparkins on harp and there are credits for ‘vintage manuals’ (which are orchestron,\u00a0
\nmellotron and dulcitone) by Matt Henry Cunitz while there is an important role\u00a0
\nfor Scott Miller, for recording, mixing and ‘tinted vapors’. Upon a second\u00a0
\n(third, fourth; I like to obscure such facts) listening I started to hear\u00a0
\nall of these instruments, especially as the CD continues to play (and evolve).\u00a0
\nThere is a sensitive modern classical sound to this music; not academic, serial\u00a0
\nor whatever goes in the official classical world, but these songs (are they\u00a0
\ncalled songs?) are quite dreamlike and introspective pieces of music. What’s\u00a0
\neven more curious is the fact that most of these pieces are rather short and\u00a0
\nto the point. Something between just under the three minutes and just over four\u00a0
\nminutes. This is music to dream by, sleep by, meditate by but it also functions\u00a0
\nvery well as music requiring your full attention. You can sit and listen and\u00a0
\nnotice all the finer nuances this music has. Maybe some of the melodies are\u00a0
\na bit tacky (such as the opening notes of ‘Aerial Verandis’, bordering close\u00a0
\nto the world of new age), but there is also some nasty sounds thrown, towards\u00a0
\nthe end of ‘Processionary’ for instance, in order to keep this balance right,\u00a0
\neven when the overall spirit of the album is atmospheric. Great music for a\u00a0
\ncold winter’s day! (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.serein.co.uk
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\non Schraum: \u2018Seumsund\/Sundseum\u2019(2004), \u2018A Direct Sensuous Pleasure\u2019(2006) and\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u2018Land\u2019 (2011). So these two musicians know each other very well and enjoy\u00a0 making\u00a0
\na statementfrom time to timer. Yes, they have created their very own little\u00a0
\nmusical universe that is worthwhile visiting. As a composer Papenheim produced\u00a0
\nworks for several ensembles. As a performer he often plays solo, but he is also\u00a0
\nbusy with his ensemble Tru Cargo Service. Bennett comes from Hamburg. Moving\u00a0
\nto Berlin she studied Jazz and Popular Music, and worked for a long time with\u00a0
\na modern dance ensemble. Pop she plays with the band Eric and Me. With her duo\u00a0
\nRant she is more into unusual instrumental music as this new release proves.\u00a0
\nInfluences of pop, improv and minimal music can easily be detected. They play\u00a0
\namplified cymbals and drums, bells, bottles, dictaphone, guitars, drum set,\u00a0
\ninside piano, minidisc recorder, piano, zither. Contrast is a word that describes\u00a0
\ntheir music well. In each track they chose for a different sound, although\u00a0
\ndominated by guitar and percussion. Also the tracks differ a lot in structure.\u00a0
\nWhat they have in common is that the music is always stripped down to its\u00a0
\nessence, and transparently recorded. Each piece breaths a sympathetic simplicity.\u00a0\u00a0
\nTheir music sounds fresh and engaging, and has a positive, sometimes even\u00a0
\nchildlike, atmosphere. (DM)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.schraum.de<\/a><\/p>\n
\nmusicians is at work in this typical English work. The ensemble Post Office\u00a0
\ninvites us for a trip that lasts about 65 minutes. Music that is closely related\u00a0
\nto UK progrock tradition. Eddie Stevens and Daniel Darriba are the central forces\u00a0
\nas they wrote and produced this album. Stevens worked with Freakpower, Fat Boy\u00a0
\nSlim, a.o. Together with Darriba he worked with Irish singer R\u00f3isin Murphy, Moloko,\u00a0
\nand recently with Danny Valentine & The Meditations. So both have a background\u00a0
\nin pop. With \u00b4The Marylebone Greenwave\u00b4 they debut with their own project. A very\u00a0
\nambitious one. The title of this concept album refers to a London myth \u00b4where taxi\u00a0
\ndrivers try to drive through King’s Cross to the Marylebone flyover in one attempt,\u00a0
\nwithout stopping at any red traffic lights`. Performance, arrangements and\u00a0
\nproduction are absolutely top and very professional. But the music somehow fails\u00a0
\nto make any impression on me. Too many clich\u00e9s. Can\u00b4t relate it to the here and\u00a0
\nnone of my musical tastes. So I might me the wrong guy to review this one. (DM)\u00a0
\nAddress:\u00a0http:\/\/www.minorityrecords.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO \u2013 NEVER ENDING JANUARY (CD by Rune Grammofon)<\/p>\n
\nis very convincing in some aspects and for sure very powerful. Especially the first\u00a0
\ntrack \u2018Occidentali\u2019 appealed to me. In the other tracks I found myself asking what\u00a0
\nare they heading at. They seem to lose focus and just keep going on for some reason.\u00a0
\nThe weak spot is that their compositions don\u2019t have that much to offer.\u00a0 Srlokken\u00a0
\nplays old keyboards and synths (mellotron, fender, Hammond, minimoog, etc). It is\u00a0
\na tribute to these \u00b4old\u00b4 instruments. If you love their sound, this one is for you.\u00a0
\nBut also the guitars played by Reine Fiske are impressive as is the intensive drum\u00a0
\nwork by Torstein Lofthus. Nicolai Haengsle completes the crew playing mainly bass.\u00a0
\nElephant 9 are around since 2006 and are not to be missed live on stage I think.\u00a0
\nMust be a joy to lose oneself in their spun out instrumental wanderings, as part\u00a0
\nof the audience. This is neo-progressive music of a highly technically advanced\u00a0
\nlevel. But personally I hope to experience more necessity in their structures\u00a0
\nnext time.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 The Espen Eriksen Trio bring us to other territories. Melancholic, jazz-oriented\u00a0
\nmusic is what they offer on their third release, demonstrated in eight well-defined\u00a0
\ncompositions by the hand of Eriksen. Pianist Espen Eriksen has a background in jazz\u00a0
\nand pop. Lars Tormod Jenset plays bass, also in other Scandinavian projects like of\u00a0
\nHot n Spicy, Bendik Giske Kvintett\u00a0 and Rodent.\u00a0 Andreas Bye is a much asked drummer\u00a0
\nand worked with Bugge Wesseltoft, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, among others. As a\u00a0
\ntrio they exist since 2007. Eriksen plays his piano with an elegant touch. Bass\u00a0
\nand drums complete the sound of this trio that focuses on accessible, introspective\u00a0
\ninstrumental music where harmony, melody are important. No avant-garde manoeuvres\u00a0
\nhere. But music of a quiet and balanced nature, that will bring your mind to\u00a0
\npeace. (DM)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Addresss:\u00a0http:\/\/www.runegrammofon.com
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nthe last years it has been mostly by the Zoharum label. Much of the material on his\u00a0
\nlatest LP ‘Minotaur’ has been recorded at Stockholm’s EMS studios, where one can\u00a0
\nfind analogue beauties such as a Bucla and Serge synthesizers. It’s a place where\u00a0
\npeople usually tape a bunch of sounds to take home, and use it there to create new\u00a0
\ncompositions. Judging by the sound of the new Zenial record, that’s also something\u00a0
\nhe did. He samples the sounds of those synthesizers, and adds field recordings and\u00a0
\nEVPs (not that I heard that a lot in here; they are probably heavily transformed).\u00a0
\nThere is also a DVD of films to each of these pieces, by such artists as W?adys?awa\u00a0
\nSzulca and Mariana Kraczkowskiego. I haven’t seen that DVD, so I can’t comment there.\u00a0
\nThe music is quite what we expect from Zenial: a deep electronic sound, with lots\u00a0
\nof dynamics going. The drone plays an important role in this music, but Zenial has\u00a0
\nquite a vibrant sound. Sounds move in and out of the mix, maintaining an excellent\u00a0
\nlevel of tension throughout these seven pieces. One could say this is dark ambient\u00a0
\nmusic, but there is more happening than just that. As easily it refers to modern\u00a0
\nelectronica, but lacks, thankfully the notion of being academic. The music is quite\u00a0
\nintense, but also cinematic; one could easily envisage a horror movie to go along\u00a0
\nwith these pieces. In the opening (title-) piece I was taken off guard by the sound\u00a0
\nof running water, and thought my heating system was breaking down. It’s this sort\u00a0
\nof use of sounds that make this into quite a powerful record. Maybe this is his most\u00a0
\npowerful statement to this date? If you like your music to be all dark, electronic,\u00a0
\nat times to be ambient, but also maybe a bit more industrial, then this one surely\u00a0
\nis worth your time. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/zoharum.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(split LP by Attenuation Circuit)<\/p>\n
\ncredited to Le Scrambled Debutante feat. EMERGE (i.e. the band behind the label).\u00a0
\nBehind Le Scrambled Debutante we find Allan Zane and a rotating cast of musicians\u00a0
\nsuch as (in this particular case) Kimathi Moore and Ms La-Dee-Dada & Her Pet Eye\u00a0
\nOv Tomato, plus sound input by Emerge. There have been various releases by the\u00a0
\nDebutante by Attenuation Circuit before, which I quite enjoyed. I have no idea\u00a0
\nhow they generate their music, even when I can wildly speculate about that. One\u00a0
\nof my favourite theories is that they have an ancient 8-track reel-to-reel machine\u00a0
\nwhich they load up with sounds, spinning the speed control freely when recording,\u00a0
\nand when it comes to mixing this down, they take mixing inspirations from The\u00a0
\nBeatles and Nurse With Wound, and probably also a similar diet of hallucinatory\u00a0
\ndrugs. A hit or miss, and I always like the more or less free aspect of the music.\u00a0
\nHere on ‘Electric Jackass’ it is not always a hit, I must say. It’s quite loose\u00a0
\non the compositional aspect, as expected, but it also seems a bit too ‘easy’ for\u00a0
\nme. The bit of drum & bass cut-up at the end of the piece just doesn’t have it;\u00a0
\nother parts before that work better, but overall it is a bit thin, this collage\u00a0
\nof sound. More sounds, more layers are required; make it more trippy guys.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 The big surprise is on the other side where we see Haters frontman GX Jupitter-
\nLarsen work with Ace Farren Ford, of Smegma fame, but also known for his work with\u00a0
\nThe Los Angeles Free Music Society, The Mystery Band, The South Pasadena Free Music\u00a0
\nEnsemble, Super Heroines and The Child Molesters. Previously I was aware of his\u00a0
\nwork with Jupitter-Larsen and The New Blockaders (see Vital Weekly 991), but don’t\u00a0
\nknow much of his other work. Their piece ‘Vertigone’ also fills up the entire side
\nof the record but it’s not the blast of noise one would probably expect. I never\u00a0
\nknow what the difference is between Jupitter-Larsen when he works under his own\u00a0
\nname versus his work as The Haters, or what in fact Ford’s part is here, but this\u00a0
\nis a twenty-minute drone piece that holds a firm middle ground, frequency-wise,\u00a0
\nand below there are some darker frequencies happening, which are also a bit more\u00a0
\nmuddy and mildly distorted. It works however very fine here, the cleaner mid-high\u00a0
\nand the muddy low mid creating some excellent piece of drone music. Think perhaps\u00a0
\nPhill Niblock but much cruder or Alvin Lucier testing out his sine waves, but\u00a0
\nfine-tuning them as he is already recording them. This is a piece I enjoyed very\u00a0
\nmuch and wished was a bit longer than the side of a LP. Quite a surprise; maybe\u00a0
\nthe virtue of getting older is that noise isn’t always necessary. Maybe it’s\u00a0
\ntime to move on and do more of this? (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/attenuationcircuit.de<\/a><\/p>\n
\nto sell the very first releases by Jliat to one of those lovers of drone\/ambient\/
\ncosmic music lovers that was one of our best customers, but once Jliat started to\u00a0
\npoke his nose into counting bitrates and thinking about digital silence, this\u00a0
\ncustomer’s love affair was cut short. I am pretty sure he never returned as I do\u00a0
\noccasionally speak this gentle older man and never again Jliat is mentioned. He\u00a0
\nmight surely not have liked those harsh noise wall releases or the conceptual\u00a0
\nreleases, but all the same he might be interested in ‘Days’, which is apparently\u00a0
\na new series of works by Jliat, returning to the world of drone music. All of\u00a0
\nthis was recorded in real time, using equipment by Nord, Yamaha, Roland, Boss\u00a0
\nand Korg, looping and delaying the material, taking in account the work of\u00a0
\nmessrs Fripp, Eno and Riley. These are limited to twenty copies and while creating\u00a0
\nthe music on an endless sustain, the twenty covers are hand drawn (and there is\u00a0
\na free download on soundcloud possible). This sounds like a project that Jliat\u00a0
\ncould do for some time to come. This brings back happy memories of ’16:05:94′,\u00a0
\n‘The Dancing Horse’ or ‘The Ocean of Infinite Being’: one long form synthesizer\u00a0
\npiece, with everything on ‘endless sustain’, creating beautiful overtones, slowly\u00a0
\nmingling together. Upon the surface nothing much seems to be changing, and perhaps\u00a0
\none is not required to ‘listen’ as actively as one would perhaps do with any other\u00a0
\npiece of music; maybe one is to ‘undergo’ this rather than actively listen. But\u00a0
\neven when listened to closely this offers enough small changes to enjoy this.\u00a0
\nI was cooking dinner, reading a bit and simply enjoying this as it was. That is\u00a0
\nsometimes the best. On Jliat’s website one can find a short video clip from that\u00a0
\nvery afternoon this was created; if I would post a video of the day this review\u00a0
\nwas written it would be very much alike. That probably ties it all together.\u00a0
\nA great return to something old. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.jliat.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe album \u201cVenus in White\u201d was his first release in 2012 at Het Donkse Oog.\u00a0
\nCrever has been influenced by the sound of machines and industrial music from\u00a0
\nthe eighties. CRVR is a CD-R of about 17 minutes and consists of three tracks.\u00a0
\n\u201cN250\u201d is a ongoing edited industrial and minimal beat. There is hardly any\u00a0
\ndevelopment in the sounds and that\u2019s the strength of this composition. \u201cHusslage\u201d
\nstarts with a flowing pulsating noise with some minimal rhythms in the background.
\nSome layers are added and the track becomes more and more intense. The last track\u00a0
\n\u201cE\u201d is a more abstract dark ambient track and has some more experimental moments.\u00a0
\nCRVR is a beautiful follow-up of the first two albums and Crever is a master in
\ncreating a maximum result with a minimum of sounds, especially in the first two\u00a0
\ntracks. (JKH)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/crever-industrialnoise.blogspot.nl\/
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDAMIAN BISCIGLIA AND FRIENDS – VOLUME ONE: THE 1990S (CDR by Ri Be Xibalba)<\/p>\n
\nmail-order, and slightly less successful label, and these days still selling old\u00a0
\nstock and occasionally releasing a piece of vinyl by the likes of Sun City Girls\u00a0
\nand The No-Neck Blues Band? I must admit I gave up following all of this some\u00a0
\ntime ago, mainly because I am not a big fan thereof and maybe I thought there\u00a0
\nwas an element of snobism in the releases, very limited, arty and no doubt (a\u00a0
\nbit) more expensive. So much to my surprise then I received these two CDRs,\u00a0
\nwhich I would assume a label like Ri Be Xibalba would think as a highly inferior
\nmedium, with music by Damian Bisciglia, whom you may also know as Agog. From\u00a0
\nthe mid-80s to 2004 he released a handful of cassettes and a CDR, and also had\u00a0
\ntwo releases under his own name. He was also a member of Points Of Friction.\u00a0
\nIn December 2012 he took his own life. I must admit I never heard a lot of his\u00a0
\noutput, as certainly in the 80s there was so much to hear and evidently so much\u00a0
\nyou’d miss out upon, so I hardly have an idea what his music was about. On these\u00a0
\ntwo CDRs we find stuff from two decades of music, recorded with friends such\u00a0
\nas J. Alexander, T. Alexander, Rick Potts, Adam Bohman and others. However the\u00a0
\nmajority of the pieces are solo pieces. Only for one piece on Volume Two there\u00a0
\nis an indication towards instruments used, but not for the other pieces on both
\ndiscs, unless, also on the second disc, the title of pieces give away something:
\n‘Guitar Stuff’, ‘Guitar Improv’ or ‘More Turntables, Etc’. There is one piece\u00a0
\nthat is credited to Points Of Friction. A large on the first disc is for ‘The\u00a0
\nGods Speak January 1981′, an early piece of six people and a bunch of microphones,\u00a0
\nusing mainly the mouths to make wordless sound poetry before exploring the living\u00a0
\nroom with a bunch of sticks: one large percussion instrument, with more burping\u00a0
\ngoing round than strictly necessary. For it’s time, 1981, surely a radical piece\u00a0
\nof sound art\/voice poetry\/non music. This is followed by the Points Of Friction\u00a0
\npiece, which uses improvised electronics. Then there are four short pieces of\u00a0
\nacoustic sound treatments, which are not bad, but maybe a bit too haphazard.\u00a0
\nI prefer the two longer on this disc, which combine the banging around the house,\u00a0
\nwordless sound poetry with a bit of electronics. Especially ‘Dinosaurs With\u00a0
\nHorns’ (together with Jeannie Cohen and Rick Potts) is a very fine piece in that\u00a0
\nrespect. The second disc had more musical variation to it. Not just the ‘living\u00a0
\nroom’ music approach of the other disc, but also pieces that deal with turntable\u00a0
\nabuse, ‘multi-tracked zither, etc’ and more extensive improvisations with others.
\n\u00a0Whereas the ‘1980s’ disc seems to be more a statement of ‘non music, any sound\u00a0
\ngoes’ and that sort of Cageian approaches, the ‘1990s’ disc is more a matured\u00a0
\ndisc of experiments that make up music people find more easily to identify\u00a0
\nwith in terms of engaging experimental music. It’s good to see some of Damian\u00a0
\nBisciglia’s music become available again. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.ribexibalba.com\/<\/a>
\nNote!: I am asked to point that the Ri Be Xibalba label as run by Eric Lanzillotta has
\nnothing to do with these releases, and it’s unclear where they originate from. We at
\nVital Weekly also don’t know where they are from.<\/p>\n
\nPhaerentz when it comes to doing music (see Vital Weekly 925). Besides being\u00a0
\na promoter (Stimul Festival, Wakushoppu concert series) and journalist (HIS\u00a0
\nvoice magazine), he’s also part of Birds Build Nests Underground, Radio Royal,\u00a0
\nZ Veseleho Sveta, Prkvoj, MCH Band, PPPP, Biokovo. Back then he had a one-sided\u00a0
\ncassette, now he has a single piece that lasts forty-nine minutes on a CDR.\u00a0
\nThis work was recorded in various places and that is something one can hear.\u00a0
\nThe piece has three sections and slowly crossfade into each other. It opens\u00a0
\nwith a twenty-minute section of electronic sounds and some highly obscure field\u00a0
\nrecordings, mingled together. These could be synthesizer tones, but just as\u00a0
\nwell something processed from those field recordings. The middle part is a loop\u00a0
\nof percussive sounds, very slow and shifting from left to right in the stereo\u00a0
\nspectrum, growing slowly in intensity. Gradually a piano sound is added, in\u00a0
\nsimilar slow-motion, but it takes over from the percussive sounds and becomes\u00a0
\nthe third piece. The piano is played, chord by chord, slowly with spacing in\u00a0
\nbetween, and here to the most curious kind of sound processing is going on,\u00a0
\nlike there is something burning (maybe the piano, I was thinking). Phaerentz’\u00a0
\nmusic is, as before, quite slow and sometimes a bit too slow, I think. Especially\u00a0
\nthe opening part is quite long but does not necessarily stay interesting for all\u00a0
\nthis time, or it doesn’t captivate enough to be hallucinating. In that respect\u00a0
\nsome of this work needs a bit of re-thinking, but the sounds he uses are quite\u00a0
\ngood; all of this has the potential to grow and bloom further. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/phaerentz.bandcamp.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThere is an A6 sized booklet, partly full colour and the cassette all wrapped\u00a0
\nup in a magazine with lots of tape. Behind Slow Slow Loris we find Angie\u00a0
\nYeowell, who was a ballerina, who lived in Ostrava (Czech Republic), Prague,\u00a0
\nAmsterdam and New York. After leaving the world of ballet she went on to live\u00a0
\nwith Buddhist beatniks in Colorado and once that ended she started to play music.\u00a0
\nYeowell recorded \u2018From Monster Till Morning\u2019 with her partner Robert Heim in\u00a0
\nBerlin. There are no instruments mentioned on the cover, but judging by the\u00a0
\nmusic there is all electronic set up; a few synthesizers, all connected to each
\nother, so that everything remains in sync, and on top there is Yeowell’s voice.\u00a0
\nThere is a fine element of repetition in this music; a cold and clinical bang,\u00a0
\nreminding this listener of the cassettes he heard in the 80s. Slow Slow Loris\u00a0
\nis an ancestor to that old school industrial sound. I was thinking of the\u00a0
\nInner-X label and all those offshoots of Sleep Chamber (and curious enough\u00a0
\nperhaps not a lot of Sleep Chamber themselves). I am not sure if the lyrics\u00a0
\nhad any significance, but if they did I must admit I found them hard to\u00a0
\nunderstand. Having said that (I shamefully also admit I never listen to lyrics
\nthat much anyway), I quite enjoyed this dark synth-heavy industrial pop noir.\u00a0
\nIt along the lines of many current dark-wave acts, except that Slow Slow\u00a0
\nLoris still sounds old-fashioned, with their analogue synthesizers in what\u00a0
\nsounds like a basement studio. Powerful! (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/staaltape.wordpress.com\/<\/p>\n