Vital Weekly 41 Week 41 Number 23 IN THERE (CD compilation by T&B) I'm not into hypes... so the easy tune business is one big soap for me. Bored people in their 30s who have nothing better to do then jump on the next bandwagon and make a buck out of it. 'In There' is the successor to 'Out There' a double CD that explored the avant-garde end of current dance music and 'In There' explores "Mutant Pop Hybrids", whatever that is. According to the cover it is 'anything goes' time this time around. Anything goes into any direction, musical genres seem to blend, to mix together. So we have the Lisa Carbon Trio (a.k.a. Atom Heart) with a jazzy outing, something more similar by The Connection Machine, Fantastico (a.k.a. Kirlian) exploring jazzy rhythms (but sound oddly enough quite acoustic). More in the easy tune area is Klute, and Sir Julian's cover of Caravan is recorded in 1960, but sound as recorded last year. Sounds Of Life on the other hand explore the armchair jungle/drum and bass. Let's see what are missing? Oh yes reggae dub by ti and true organic ambient etno by Jorge Reyes. As you see anything goes on this sort of comps and it sure doesn't sound odd or misplaced. So this is one to have during a hot summer night, and it's enough. (FdW) Address: c/o Renegade House -5/6 Broughton Place Lane - Edinburgh EH1 3RS - United Kingdom VROMB -LE FACTEUR HUMAIN (CD by Ant-Zen) On the rapidly growing catalogue of one of the nicest 'Limited editions' labels around there is the second CD by Vromb. The theme is around one Heurel Gaudot whose narrative and written actions acts as the human element to the Vromb experience. The 'Human Factor' 'represents the active human implication in it's musical conception, be these actions executed in simple fragments or on a tonal basis' .I am not sure what it means in relation with what is offered on disc. The music sound at times outdated -at least 10 years old industrial music. The voice in the first track reminded me of Etat Brut (hey, but who remembers them?), some of the analog synths sound as old. This may sound negative -but in fact I was enjoyed by this CD as, unlike many of Vromb's ancestors, this didn't sound too monotone and offered enouqh variety to attract my attention for a whole CD. And, as with most of Ant Zen's packaging, excellent artwork. (FdW) Address: S. Alt - Lessingstr. 7A - 93049 Regensburg - Germany LT CARAMEL -J'AI 10 DOIGTS (CD by Sounds For Consciousness Rape) LT Caramel has been around the musique concrete scene for the last 10 years or so and represent the younger generation. Their music is a rapid collage of sound and spoken word, with a humorous edge to it. This new CD (which title translates as 'I have 10 fingers') has 3 long pieces. The first piece, 'La Primitive' deals with Cezanne, and appears to be some sort of sound track (I wish these booklets were in English however) and is built around voices, sounds of insects (plus of course others I fail to recognize) The title piece is a 'respectful homage to Beethoven' and his 'Bagatelles' as played by Glen Gould form the origins of this piece. As you ought to know Glen Gould was obsessed by studio techniques to record classical pieces, thus giving them the best performance possible. I am not sure how this translates to this piece. Sounds from keys, handclaps, voices are sampled and stretched. The final piece, 'L'Enfer Est On Petit Debut ou Messe Des Pauvres' (hell is a small debut or Mass of the poor) is again one of historical references. It was composed for the 500th birthday of Rabelais (famous French catholic) and the Mass Of The Poor is also the name of a requiem composed by Erik Satie. The pieces uses 5 parts, in text by Rabelais (plus texts from his book 'Gargantuee et Pantgruel), from a requiem: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and the Agnus Dei. It is slightly reminiscent to the 'Requiem' by Michel Chion: disturbing musique concrete (though maybe not as violent as Chion) and electronic passages set to religious text. Certainly not as 'poor' sounding as the Satie piece (this should not be regarded as a negative qualification -Satie's poor men's Mass is a masterpiece!) Lt. Caramel produced an interesting CD, showing much respect to tradition in the widest sense of the word. Much recommended. (FdW) Address: SFCR -c/o Stephane Santini -77bis Abbe de L'epee -33000 Bordeaux - France MAEROR TRI -EXORBITANT (7" by Ant-Zen) The rapidly growing fame of this trio bring a nice onslaught of releases. This 7" shows two sides of their ambient & industrial sound. The A-side consists of phased drones from which guitar sounds arise. The B-side has guitar plucking over a set of drones and dark percussion sounds. It certainly lives up to the title 'Industrial Meditation' (although maybe more to the first word then the second). A huge wall of sound. On delicious white vinyl with nice print work. Excellent stuff. Addressl see elsewhere CAUL -CRUCIBLE (CD by Malignant) A while ago I reviewed another CD by Malignant by the unknown band Yen Pox. That one was in dark ambient territory. Now Malignant comes up with an equally unknown band in virtually the same territory, and of equal high quality. No information is given on the cover, except for track titles and address, so I can safely assume the idea is to focus on the music entirely. As said Caul operates in a dark atmosphere. Synth lines playing sparse melodies, drones, heavily reverbed bangs and hums create a haunting, desolate feel that remains unbroken throughout. Do not expect a sudden chance or outburst. This is not innovative music, but if you are into say Lustmord meeting Thomas Koner at the graveyard, then this is the right place to end. (FdW) Address: MlgnantRec@aol.com 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 mails 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) visit us in Amsterdam or in Xyberspace Staalplaat's shopl Staalkade 6 -Amsterdam In August 1996 Staalplaat will be for one month in Berlin, opening a temporary shop and staging many concerts, performances and installations. Send an e-mail requesting the complete program that will include Etant Donnes, J. Blonk, People Like Us, Oval Bad Sector, Kapotte Muziek, Co Caspar, C. Palestine, Deutsch Nepal, Karkowski, Fetisch Park, Muslimgauze, Spoke, F. Tan, BMB Con, TMRX, T. Koner, D. Petitgand and more! CD catalogue under the title 'Sonderangebot' with many of these bands will be available mid-July and only be available this period.