Vital Weekly 29 Week 9 Number 29 AUBE/SMALL CRUEL PARTY -ACROSS THE WATER (Split LP by Ant-Zen) This is just one of the many releases by Ant-Zen, a small yet fast expanding label from Germany. All of their releases are limited, with excellent printed covers and most of them are on vinyl. Their musical territory can be called 'industrial' (but in a wide sense of the word). Small Cruel Party presents one long piece that starts out with what sounds like two stones being scraped, then long droning sounds are added, with a slight feedback like sound (probably caused by an open microphone recording the stones?). The feedback gets stronger and then the piece is ended by taking away these elements again, until a sort of water sounds remains. A particular strong piece. Aube uses only water sounds (just like many of his old tape releases), which obviously don't sound like water at all. Aube has short samples of noise which are gradually more and more distorted by electronic effects until is a vast amount of feedback noise. Quite o.k., but not as outstanding as the Small Cruel Party side. (FdW) Address: S. Alt - Lessingstr. 7A - 93049 Regensburg - Germany SMELL & QUIM/ONOMATOPOEIA -FANNY BATTER (CD by Cheeses International) This is some kind of collaboration between two well-known UK noise groups on the theme of 'Fanny Batter'. I don't now who she is, but maybe it has something to do with the three s/m pictures on the cover. According to the cover we should be expecting 2 tracks, but on the disc there are 4. Smell & Quirn open with a 20 some minute piece, in which several noise elements, such as feedback and metal percussion, are mixed along side each other. In a way it reminded me of older Merzbow recordings, in his more improvisation days (citca Ecobondage' or 'Storage' ). I guess the other three pieces are by Onomatopeoeia. Here sounds are more processed and recycled into a more organic structure. As for listening I liked this more then the S&Q piece. In all, quite an interesting and entertaining CD. (FdW) Address: Cheeses International 783a Christchurch Road - Bournemouth Dorset - England, BH7 6AW MANDIBLE CHATTER -GRACE (CD by Manifold) pn the small but excellent label Manifold label we find Mandible Chatter's third CD. The two previous CD's were outstanding works in the field of 'ambient-industrial' or 'post-isolationist' vein, so I couldn’t wait to play this new one. The CD opens with some drone, but it faded over into a guitar and cello duet! The next track is more ambient drone stuff, but then track 3 ~s percussive, a bit like O Yuki Conjugate doing 'Peyote' .The next track is more industrial and noisy. The whole CD in fact skips between these kind of extremes: from noisy parts to ambient drones, musique concrete parts as well as neo-classical composition. This is no doubt their best CD yet, and in this kind of field one of the best I ever heard. (FdW) Address: Manifold -P.O.Box 12266 - Memphis, TN 38182 -USA ZABRISKIE POINT I received a bunch of releases from this fine US label, so I review the lot here, even though not all of them are necessarily new. Blowhole already had several releases on Zabriskie Point, and here are two new LP's, 'Guerilla Jazz' and 'Free Metal' .The first one is mainly Jeph Jerman (Blowhole's frontman, also known from the tape project Hands To) solo, from what I can tell mainly guitar/bass pluckings and metal/percussion scrapings with feedback that comes in every now and then. Definitely free improv stuff which should attract you or not. For a great part I like the kind of aggressive tone this material has, but it is quite a sit to listen to all at once. In a live context this stuff will be thrilling however. The other LP is more in rock style, or should I say 'heavy metal' style? Main instruments are drums and guitar, with bass on one track. The drums make this record into a much more rock-oriented thing, but obviously with Blowhole, the word 'free' in form stays very clear. For sheer listening fun, I prefer this over 'Guerilla Jazz' .It's pity that a band as Blowhole, who clearly operate in various free forms of music, gets so little attention in Europe. They deserve it! In a totally different area is G Park. For his second CD 'Geopod' he treats again the sounds he recorded during his various journeys. Mark Zierer, aka G Park, records 'a swallow, the signing chimey, a strange shaped bone, the tunnel voices etc. ' and manages to use them (sample?) them into create soft, vulnerable textured atmospheres. With his sound processing he is obviously in the same field as many of his colleagues, working in musique concrete areas, but unlike many, G Park is not set to shock you, but rather to give a much more friendly composition, dare I say it, this is more ambient/environmental then others that are sold in the same field. The word ambient does certainly not pop up if one is listening to the new Incapacitants CD 'As Loud As Possible'. The first track has a deep base like machine sound, with additional feedback. The machine sounds bursts out all the time, it is like thunder storm with tons of echo. The other two tracks (of which one is a live recording) are in similar territory, yet less bass sounds, and more feedback. From all the Incapacitants stuff I heard so far, I enjoyed this most, as there is happening more then on the others (at least to my humble opinion). If you take the title too literally, then I suggest you have a spare set of speakers at hand already... Remains to say that all Zabriskie Point covers are austere in information and design, but that it certainly gives a genuine strong label artwork. Zabriskie is not afraid to explore many experimental fields and they should keep up the good work. (FdW) Address: Zabriskie Point - P.O. Box 3006 - Colorado Springs, CO 80934-3006 USA DAVID SHEA -THE TOWER OF MIRRORS (CD by Sub Rosa) The Tower of Mirrors is a sonic tour de force based on a Chinese novel written in 1652 concerning the hallucinatory dream reveries of a monkey who, while in this state, enters a green tower, full of mirrors and when he looks into a mirror he enters the world therein. In the end, it appears that the monkey, trapped by a demon fish, had been exploring the multiple facets of his own jeweled mind. Sort of like Steppenwolf, or what? Technically the CD consists of 24 tracks centred around the sampler ( love it !). Shea considers his sampling as tributes ( I wonder how this would stand up in a court of misdirected law ?), and there are multiple examples -in particular from the period between 1955 66 when the discovery of stereo and schmaltz were being thoroughly investigated by the likes of Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Juan Esquivel, Andre Popp and others. There are quotes from film composers (Mancini, Morricone) and some contemporary classical heavyweights (Ligeti, Feldman). Shea weaves these ingredients together in a seductive and cunning narrative. Moods range from the ridiculous ( in the best possible way ) to the introspectively sublime. Zeena Parkins, the harpie, plays the piano. Clear, shining, synthetic analog gracefulness is tendered by David Morley and Simeon Cain speckled exotic percussion throughout. It is these and other contributions which help to distract from the technological foray it could have become. A highly original and absorbing work full of mystery, magic and an uncertain familiarity created by the clever jumpcutting between quoted samples and moods. I much prefer this as being ( partly) an end result of appropriation compared to, say, the mathematical, scientific and sometimes sensationalist excursions of Johnny Oswald. Another glossy feather in the Sub Rosa cap. Very, very brilliant. (MP) Address: Sub Rosa -P.O. box 808. cm1000 Brussels -Belgium DOMINIQUE PETITGAND -11 PETITES COMPOSITIONS FAMILIALES (miniCD by Staalplaat) Petitgrand has been busy recording domestic conversations for years (any relation to David wills ?) and it is from a selection of these, augmented with atmospheric instrumental backing, that this mCD is comprised. Unfortunately my knowledge of les Francais does not extend far enough to reveal the content of these conversations, but I had no difficulty allowing myself to be cocooned in the warmth, intimacy and gentle sounds that have been mixed together here. It is a beautiful thing, almost like being at home -I felt like I was undergoing some kind of Synathaethetic experience -I thought I could detect the Sunday smells of a large family house when (lucky) kitchens around the world ooze with culinary wisdom and the security offered by hot steaming ovens. This CD is, of course, a memory in itself (as are all fixed creative expressions, I suppose), but somehow more than that too. The gentle and enhancing music that accompanies the speaking voices is simple but effective. I sense an overwhelming love here -as I did with a similarly sized Metamkine release by Christine Groult titled'L'Heure S'Incline'. It is a love for the subject and the medium. Very sweet. (MP) Address: Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome . Forward to your allies. Snail mail: Frans de Waard -P.O.Box 11453 -1001 GL Amsterdam - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW) and The Square Root Of Sub (HP)