Vital Weekly 48 Week 35 Number 48 TENTATIVELY, A CONVIENCE -USIC, SQUARE ROOT 1 (LP by Wafer Face Records) There are at least 3 things to write about this before saying one word about the music. It's a picture disc, but the actual picture has the size of a 7" record -the rest is transparent. One side is 'double grooved' (haven't seen that since M doing 'Popmuzik' ) and the other is single grooved. Both sides open and end with lockgrooves. To explain each track on the record, Tentatively, need 6 LP sized papers filled with words. See folks? I still didn't say anything about the music. I really shouldn't waste too many words on that -not that is bad (au contraire), but to describe the dadaist inclinations on this record would be too much. There are pieces made up of broken records, weirdo tunes like the Residents meeting up Half Japanese, a lockgroove of a female voice saying 'boo', clocks (some of which are also locked in a groove). This record must be seen as a historical document, as some of this stuff dates back to 1979. A slightly negative is that the texts have been printed by a poor matrix printer, and can't thus be easily read. But alas, this Concept Art with capital C & A. But great C & A! (FdW) Address: Wafer Face -P.O. Box 4272, Station A, Portland, Maine 04101 -USA LASSE MARHAUG -SCIENCE FICTION ROOM SERVICE (CD by Jazzazin) After having himself launched into the world of industrialists with a split 7" with king of noise Merzbow, here a full length CD with overtop industrial stuff, with the instrumentarium including tapes, electronics, vocals, bass, guitar, scrap metal and treatments. Well done stuff, which should appeal to Merzbow devotee's (in case they have any money left this week -but the CD is offered cheap). (FdW) Address: Jazzazin -P.O.Box 1402 Leangen -7002 Trondheim - Norway THURSTON MOORE -PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME (CD by Pure) Now here is a boy with Attitude! Recording for majors, playing the masses in a stadium, but doing solo stuff for Pure, your beloved noise label from RRRecords. Much of the solo stuff (as well as the sonic adults on stage so I'm told) is captured in the noise improv field. On this CD you'll find1 track, just under 32 minutes of guitar noise feedback handled with care. Only for listeners with an attitude, I'd say. It's only noise, but I damn well like it. (FdW) Address: Pure -151 Paige St. -Lowell, MA 01852 -USA AUBE -MAZE HEAD SHIFT (7" by Pain Art/Bawler) Let's say you got some money, and you had been releasing tapes for a while, but then the money comes in and you can do a record... A situation that often occurs. Usually you do the obviousl ask Merzbow or Aube to do a work for you, and probably within the month you have your limited vinyl sellout thing. O.k. I'm cynical here, but why just these two? The world is full of great bands, great music, and they all deserve your attention. Not that Pain Art/Bawler did a lousy jobl neatly packed, limited to 500 and Aube delivers a fine excursion into noise field with brain wave/electroencephalogram recordings. Let's hope for a quick sellout and let's hope their second vinyl outing will not be Merzbow, but something you could never think of. (FdW) Addressl T. Gith -Marienhof 18 -24939 Flensburg -Germany CM VON HAUSWOLFF -PLAYS JOHN CAGE CRAWL UNIT -REMAINS HANDS TOI CIPHER (three 7"s by Povertech Industries) Some weeks ago I reviewed a 7" by MNortham. His record is part of a larger series to which all of these belong, and who need your attention. CM Von Hauswolff (known from the Radium/Anckarstrom labels and his work with Phauss and The Hafler Trio) pays tribute to one of the most inspiring composers of this century. Imaginary Landscape #5 is 'for tape and sinus tones through walkie-talkies' and has distorted synth sounds that sound through the walkie-talkies as guitars. Voices are in there as well. A nice tribute to the man who loved noise too. The other side is 4'33 with no grooves and etched in there 4 feet 33 inches of silence and is one of the better conceptual approaches to the famous silent piece. Crawl Unit is the band behind the Povertech label and go also in the concept areas with a sound track for any portarit of Mayakovsky', 'study for damaged speaker' etc. Strangely recorded ambiences with an industrial edge to them. Hands To have been around for long and released a vast amount of tapes, vinyl and CO's. The eroding/erosion sound approach should appeal to anyone with an interest in the recycling of sound. The title track is quite harsh and distorted, whereas the other Bide is more concentrating on sounds, like a cart riding along a sand path. Keep your ears open for other releases in these 'Artifact' series. (FdW) Address: PSYCHOPHYSICIST -NEWTON/MCKENZIE (CD on SIDE EFFECTS) Take a few slightly technical pamphlets with a load of multi- syllabilic terminology, add some sine tone generators, stir in some synapses from Adi Newton and Andy HcKenzie and voila, another pseudo-scientific CD which does little to stir the stumps or put spurs in yer stirrups. Apparently the Ircam facilities were persuaded into letting these twins of fire fiddle with their computer systems...Pierre was no doubt on holiday...and the result is this rather tired, dated sounding product masquerading as research. The usual names are mentioned in the booklet in an attempt to give this an air of authority...roll out Nicky Tesla, Hans Jenny and Professor Gavreau. If this last is unfamiliar to you, don't feel inadequate...he's the bloke who designed the low-frequency sound cannons for the French ubercops in the sixties, which were the final solution to dispensing with unruly long-haired students, as they are extremely effectively at re-arranging internal organs without requiring invasive surgery. Anyway. Enuff I. The tracks yield no surprises which is a pity as I would have thought any collaboration between these two would have been slightly more dangerous. Fortunately we are spared any vocals ( by either of them) as we plough through the predictable fade-ups/fade-downs and occasional abrupt endings. The sound-constructions may be more effective if the listener is in the right mood...perhaps acres of trendy chemical amusement aids or a crash course in Yogic technique will help. (HP) STARGATE by DISINFORMATION (LP by Ash International) A short while ago I came across the CD 'Voice Of The Earth', a NASA space recording of our glowing orb. It is one in a series of five or six similar recordings made by the Voyager and a bunch of other space probes, which record the electromagnetic vibrations of the various planets as they pass them, transmit this information back to earth where it is decoded and becomes audible as the music of the spheres. Kepler, of course, pursued this music in another way, utilising science and it's formulations to calculate tones from a planet's rotations around it own axis in relation to the length of time it takes to revolve around the sun. His investigations produced some rather satisfying results, currently being promoted by Joachim Ernst Berendt as a Gnu Age product (sadly). Disinformation is one Joe Banks, a persistent surfer on the extremes of the radio wave spectrum, who has re;leased one LP and a CD on Ash, as well as contributed to at least one of their compilations. In a way I consider him something of a shaman...skirting the edges of our information frequencies, capturing something previously unheard and then returning with his prize, for delectation and delight. The first side of this long-player is a recording of 'Type II radio emissions from the sun' and is a soft sparkling floatscape and by far the best of the three on this release. Side 2 starts with a shorter tr ack titled National Grid, which I found a bit jarring. It is sourced from a 50Hertz Extra-Low Frequency signal plus it's harmonics...something like that penetrating mains hum that rears it's ugly bum when you've plugged in the last of your gear and are ready for a take. The final track appeared as an analogue version on the Ash Compilation 'A Fault In The Nothing' .which was considerably shorter and more preferable than this vinyl version. It is derived from 'Lightning induced high frequency atmospherics, electrical storm recorded at 3.95MHz' . Personally, the first side of this release does me good and I look forward to hearing it off a CD sometime. (HP) 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 shop: Staalkade 6 -Amsterdam ]