Vital Weekly 36 Week 18 Number 36 TEIJI FURUHASHI/DUMB TYPE 1985-1994 (CD by Foil) I must admit I do not know much about this person or Dumb Type. The latter is some kind of performing group, and Furuhashi was the artistic director. He died some time ago. The beautifully designed digipack doesn't give much info on the performance group, except for details on each track, for which performance the music was used etc. So let's stick to that. Since this anthology covers a large period, the music is sometimes somewhat outdated 80s synth music, such as the 1987 track 'Drowning #3', using a sampled beat and a computerized voice. In more recent tracks the music tends towards current dance music, but Dumb Type seems to capture a certain sense of experimentalism in all tracks. That's what makes this CD is a nice overview... damm I wish I knew more about it. (FdW) Address: Foil -Shinimazato 2-10-3, 5-C Ikuno-Ku -Osaka 544 - Japan JON ROSE -PERKS (CD by ReR Megacorp) This work is based on the life and works of one Percy Grainger (1882-1961), who invented 'Random Round' in 1912, long before Cage and Schonberg spoke about aleatory music, made recordings on wax cylinders of folk music (just like Bartok did), wrote piano player pieces before Conlon Nancarrow did... excuse me, maybe I'm too cynical, but it sounds thoroughly fake to me. Had the famous violin player Jon Rose not other alter-ego's like Dr. Johannes Rosenberg? Is Percy not one of them? Well, maybe I'm wrong. The CD is like a long piece of improvised music, with lots of violins, ancient folks melodies, piano players (probably samples...) and the sound of badminton (one of Percy's obsessions, along with SM and 'confused racial bigotry' ). This is a (pseudo?-) intelligent work about somebody who might have lived (I don't have a copy of the New Grove Music Dictionary at hand here), but simultaneous a funny play about free music, but some of the funniest violin players I know. My compliments! (FdW) Address: ReR- 77 Beulah Rd -Thornton Heath -Surrey CR7 8JG - UK KLANGKRIEG -38 CBM (CD by ND) A relatively unknown group from Germany (the name means 'sound war' ), who made a CD for Funfundvierzig a couple of years ago. I don't know if there are any releases available by them. The title for this CD is from the first piece on this CD. It refers to the volume of a freight container, for which Klangkrieg made a sound piece. Due to the deep frequencies the container vibrated. One can wonder if such a thing can be reproduced on CD with normal audio playback in a living room. The music piece is a dark collage of sound, either sampled drones and heartbeats, but also children screaming. A freighting piece, certainly if one knows that the container was at times completely dark. The next piece is a live piece of sampling, analogue synthesizers and drumcomputer. Again it's a kinda dark piece but for me too chaotic and without much structure. The four remaining pieces are shorter. 'Korpus 1 and 2' uses piano strings which are treated with various objects and, due to sampling techniques, these are modern musique concrete pieces. Also 'Tokkata' takes one source, being a Korg MS 20 synthesizer, into the sampling area. The final piece is more dark and droning, like the scanning of surfaces 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) »ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@L PL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T« Visit us in Amsterdam or in Xyberspace Staalplaat's shop: Staalkade 6 -Amsterdam »ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T@ST@@L PL@@T@ST@@LPL@@T«