Vital Weekly 45 Week 29 Number 45 PLURAMON -PICK UP CANYON (CD by Mille Plateaux) Don't know the exact wording of this, but it is probably something like Post Krautrock, New Avant Garde Rock or something. Bands like Tortoise and ui brought on a whole new perspective on the classical rock bands. And they remain up to date with arranging remixes by trip hoppers or avant-technoids. The cover of Pluramon is nothing but a bad collage thing. Whose behind this? No clue here. The only thing I can say it has ex-Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit on one track, and the thing is produced by Marcus Schrnickler (renown POL member as well as a musician in his own right). The three instruments that make up this record are guitars, drums and the studio. There is more studio trickery going on on this one then on your average indie record. Snippets of sound are thrown in here and there, droning soundscapes fill the background. What can I say? I haven't been properly listening to anything with drums 'n guitars since some doomy vocalist cornrnited suicide, but hey Tortoise grew on me on too after a couple of listening hours. A track like 'Skala' could have been Tortoise: opening with a droning sound, loops over them and then them drums fade in (darnrn it the next track has started). And now that I hear Plurarnon for the third time, my feet start tapping along with the rhythms. I wouldn' 't be surprised is this will be extensivly remixed by some trip hoppers. (FdW) Address: SILK SAW -COME FREELY, GO SAFELY (CD by Sub Rosa) Sub Rosa is one of the few labels that know how to blend together the known and the unknown. They make a few buck from Laswell and Brotzmann, in order to release Silk Saw, to name one. Apparently some duo who use tons of samples, mainly voices, which are laid over dark involving synthesizers and equally dark percussion. If there is a rhythm to it, then it is slow and dub/trip hop like. At times reminding me of Laibach (such as in the intro of 'The Treasure') in their use orchestral samples. Borrowing ideas allover the place, this is still a convincing CD, with tracks that work best if the the tracks get a chance to develop. (FdW) Address: Sub Rosa - P.O. Box 808 - CM 1000 Brussels - Belgium WAR SMASH HITS (CD by Sub Rosa) War is reduced to a TV spectacle, or maybe even less. This compilation is based upon the war in former Yugoslavia, media war number 2, after the Gulf War, but what about Burundi? To mention one... There are four bands, three of them with pieces of over 12 minutes. Dutch band Kong opens up. I am not really familiar with their older work, but this sound alright. A dub like rhythm with strings and sampled wind instruments. On top words and voices from refugees (beyond recognition). Laswell in conjunction with Jah Wobble, DJ Spooky and Tetsu Inoue (don't understand why he isn't mentioned on the cover) have a fairly austere piece of dub and bass playing with spooky sounds. Silk Saw present a piece not dissimilar to their full length CD (see elsewhere), so if you like what they are doing here then get after the full length (or vice versa of course). Laibach finally sample the orchestra once more for a threatening piece. Wagner loved war, so does Laibach? Then, after Laibach, there is a long gap of silence, followed by a mystery track: a collage of sounds, people, cars and other noises from the battlefield. Frightening stuff. We enjoy CD's and the music, yet war out there continues. (FdW) Address: see elsewhere OCCUPIED TERRITORIES -MUSLIM GAUZE REMIX PROJECT (2CD by STAALPLAAT) The furore created by the book 'The Satanic Verses' resulted in me not only having to don a beard each time I nip out for a pack of fags or a violent Hong Kong viddie; it also meant that I had to apologise a lot to members of the fastest growing religious cult for making a load of dosh off what was perceived as an insult. I vowed then never to write about anything muzzelmen again, but when this double CD package arrived, quite mysteriously on my desk, I realized I would have to stick my neck out, as it were. A short while ago, well about a year, I guess, the main purveyors of Mr Gauze's endless emissions commissioned a bunch of remixes from an interesting cross-section of musicians/composers, who actually got it togetherr and returned some material on DAT. The best were carefully isolated and sequenced under two headings; Occupied Beats and Occupied Frequencies. The first CD, not surprisingly, has drums and stuff on it, with some beautiful contributions from Sons Of Silence ( are we happy? ), Human Beings open that filter, close that filter), o Yuki Conjugate ( bit too long this one) and S.T.M.E. ( ripping, angular drum and bass ). LoSD end the first CD ( after a rather flabby contribution by the Zion Trainers) with a slow languid valium trip- hopperty type of a thing. Nonplace Urban Field, Drome by another name, starts the second CD with a wonderful piece which I much prefer to his other track in this pack. zoviet*france plummet to the depths of bass with their contribution and a certain Bryn Jones ( no relation to Tom) provided two versions of Abuse. The first, which clocks in at 1'40 is one of his better works, not because it is so short but because it's sounds so bloody good. People LIke Us provide an uncharacteristic but reasonably effective Muzzel Of Deceit and Panasonic close the set, sounding quite unlike themselves...I mean there are other noises besides a kikdrum Brightly packaged, something for everyone, mostly good...in fact one of the better thematic compilations I have heard this ear. ( Salmon Rusty) JONTY HARRISON -ARTICLES INDEFINIS ( CD on Empreintes Digitalis ) I watch this label like a hawk following some of their earlier releases by Bobby Normandeau, Mickey Chion, Surge Arcuri, Mrs Van De Gorme, Franky Dhomont and so on. They specialize in electroacoustic works, which is a classification that can be extended to include just about anything, I guess. It is certainly a specialty of the French both here and there (it is a Canadian label) so it should come as no surprise to discover that Jonty is a Pomme. He has won all sorts of prizes at the usual competitions and has now been allowed to make a CD. The first thing that struck me about it on first listening was that electroacousticians everywhere may all be resorting to the same methods of sound production...how many times can you get away with rolling a marble around on a tea tray, how many words are required to justify the existence of music...how much longer will this review continue... This CD shimmers with the multi-syllabilic gloss of well-equipped studios...not just anybody can afford to do this you know...with all the characteristic processing and panning that digitization has made more possible. I still love the idea of sourcing natural sounds and turning them inside out to discover their intimate bits. My favorite track is the third one, titled 'Unsound objects' which seems to have originated with sounds of water. Jonty understands and explores sound and space with a smooth familiarity and this track displays his prowess reasonably well. However, my personal opinion is that proceeding releases on this label were far superior ( check out some of the above) and the fact that this comes packaged in a user unfriendly designer type thing which is bound to fray and eventually be replaced by a jewel case does little to appease me. By the way, when do we get full- length releses by Hildegard Westerkamp and Christine Groult. Help me lobby by emailing Empreintes Digitalis at the address below. (MP) DAVID SHEA -121 (12 " on Sub Rosa) I read in an interview somewhere that Sub Rosa were planning a foray into the terrain of petroleum by-products with holes in the middle. Well they've done it and I cannot help but wonder why. They chose for the occasion a couple of obvious tracks off David Shea's full-length CD 'The Tower Of Mirrors' which came out earlier this year and which I have just included in my top ten for 1996. Quite frankly, I cannot see the point for the grooves as it were...some slight augmentation and an additional fiddle do not a record make...well, in this case I suppose they do. Sub Rosa probably plan to release more on vinyl and hopefully these will be better than what sounds like Muslim gauze on speed. Sod this flexible object and get the whole CD... it's brilliant and you won't miss a thing. (MP) 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 (MP)