\ / | ----- /\ | \ / |== |== | / | \ / Week 5 \ / | | / \ | \ /\ / | | |/ | \ / Number 67 \/ | | / \ |--- \/ \/ |__ |__ |\ |__ | MORPHOGENESIS - CHARIVARI MUSIC (CD by Paradigm) Who thinks that the 'industrial' market place is just for those hyper-active noise bands? They should become avid collectors of the works of Morphogenesis. This London based band have been active since 1985, yet they have produced so far 1 LP, 1 CD and some cassette only releases. Their member Clive Graham just released this new CD on his own Paradigm label. Morphogenesis may produce some weird music, they operate from a tradition of live, improvised electro-acoustic music. The 7 members (under which is the highly profilic Micheal Prime) operate in various combinations, where everyone takes his part in generating sounds or doing mixes. The six pieces on this CD fluctuate nicely in various acoustic and electronic spaces. This music works best, I think, when played on a headphone. The obvious reference to Morphogenesis would be to say that this is 'electronic' sounding version of AMM. No sound gets to play the main role, but they seem to act on a democratic level. It's a pity but we have to wait another 4 years probably to play their next one. And that's a real shame. So daring labels who read this: get y'r Morphogenesis release, dudes. (FdW) Address: fax: + 44 171 609 1754 TWELVE GOLDEN CRATES (CD by Pi Recordings) Pi Recordings, as well as it's twinsister label T&B Vinyl, mainly release 12"s packed with dance music in all of it's forms. But since not everybody who is interested in dance music is willing to find out about obscure vinyl, these sort of labels release compilation CD's with the best of their 12"s. I must be fair: I haven't checked out all of T&B/Pi, so I dare not say if they choose the right ones. However, hearing this CD, I might not hesitate to say: this is a label worth checking out if you like dance music stuff in it's various capacities. Presented are that fine finnish minimalist O (with the line through so that we can't print it ), likewise minimalist 6K (with an unreleased spot here, plus a 12" track), or the LOSD mix of Muslimgauze's Bandit Queen, or the more straight forward bleeps of Intensive Care Unit. And Pi have guts: the 80s guitar and rhythmbox of Agent Random still don't appeal to me. Very good again is MP Lancaster, also with an unreleased cut (and who has a CD on Pi), with a steady, groovy Muslim' like Bell (hey Square Sub... you'd hate this) in more minimalist vein. Others to be found here are The P Man and the Redeye Kidz. So, if you are into dance but not into vinyl, this is for you. (FdW) Address: fax: +44 131 558 3665 THD 01 (Magazine + CD) Als jij geen nederlands kunt lezen dan heb je natuurlijk niets aan dit blad, because this magazine is all in Dutch. It's release is an initiative by Gaudemus, who is the organisation taking care of the more serious Dutch composers, plus a whole bunch of people with past experiences in other magazines. Featured are interviews with Miss Djax, Roland Spekle of the Barooni label, Huib Emmer, Florentijn Boddendijk, Dick Raaijmakers, Jacques Pallinx. If these names will not make your heart beat faster, then there is CD enclosed so you can find out what they do. I'll just sum up for you: Miss Djax is detroit Techno stuff, Florentijn Boddendijk samples the piano if he was Conlon Nancarrow, Yannis Kyriakides trio for violins and piano, David Dramm thinks we are a decade behind with his marimba and tormented voice, Jacques Pallinckx plays 10 short improvised guitar pieces, Huib Emmer moved from the downright academic to a techno assualt (but, maybe because it's live, not my sort of thing) and Dick Raaijmakers brings a weird collage of mechanical sounding objects which are sampled throughout. This closing piece turned out to be my favourite on a otherwise heavily varied CD, that I only liked for 3 pieces... But giving maybe a nice overview of Dutch 'Contemporary' music (for whatever that is worth). Of course we wish that THD will be alive and not just disappear like many of this sort of new magazines. (FdW) Address: GLYTH - A SHOT IN THE LAB (CD by Ex-It) Christophe Bailleau is a busy bee, making music is just one of his things. His moniker is La Chiesa for the more dark electronic music, Glyth when it comes to the more up-beat tempo stuff. This is my first encounter with Glyth and I must say, I am impressed. In many ways Glyth continues where The Aphex Twin left off. Decipher the sounds that make up the rhythm in '508 cum', that sounds like the sampled sound of a carpet. Each of the 11 tracks seem to have something that is experimental aswell as some definete beats to it. I doubt wether this will have the same selling potential of Aphex Twin, because much of this will be classified as 'too weird', so yu'd guessed right by now: this is something I definetly dig. (FdW) Address: rcampus@resulb.ulb.ac.be> STILLUPPSTEYPA - ONE SIDE MONA LISA (miniCD by Fire Inc.) Watch this name, before you miss out where they came from. They have bundle of 7"s and other vinyls, but as far as I now this is their first CD. They pack their CD in a Hafler Trio like package, and the first track is a remix by Andrew Mckenzie (of the Trio) and 'an elf' (maybe another member of the trio). A pumping beat that is not willing to be a beat, intercepted by drones, that comes very close to the Trio's recent stuff. Alledgely track 2 has the voice of Yuntaro of the Gerogerigegege (what a bummer I didn't recognize that) with the sampled sounds of plucked guitars and drones that suddenly move into piano sounds, voices and tape collage. The third track is a remix by Matt Wand, from Stock, Hausen & Walkman, and consist of same wacky easy tune rip off tunes and maybe technoish beats. The fourth is again by the Stillup boys themselves and drones throughout in a rather somber atmosphere. If you seek a more composed then stolen People Like Us or Stock, Hausen & Walkman, then this is for you. And there is more to come! (FdW) Address: RLW - PULLOVER (CD by Table Of The Elements) My long term appreciation for the work of Ralf Wehowsky, known as RLW or as founding member of P16.D4 shoud be known. On his new CD he limits himself to voices. And voices reading in German text from Markus Caspers, but not all are native German speakers. This can turn into hilarous results, however this didn't happen, luckily. Many times the voices are sampled beyond recognition and RLW carefully constructs the generated voices into compositions. In the opening piece, apply called 'Atmosphere', there is the non-narrative use of breathing and vocal sounds. Other tracks have recognizable text pieces and are intercepted by sampled extracts, at times noisy, as in the fourth piece (called 'Atmosphare'). RLW uses a lot of computer generated sound, but remains to present them fresh (i.e. not boring as is usual the case with computer music). Yep, another damm fine CD. And watch out for this years 5CD box set where tons of people play RLW tracks! (FdW) Address: VARIOUS ARTISTS - CONCEPT: A COMPILATION (Double Space Records) This CD is a prime example of those who can and those who try. It is a rather motley crew spearheaded by Zoviet France with their usual ingredients of loopy arabs, spine sliding drones and the endlessness of reverberated delay. They're followed by Starfish Pool with a muffled mix which rises and subsides like a tired tide. It stumbles, regains what momentum it had and then stutters to an ungainly fade. Atom Heart takes his time winding up his machines which slowly drop into a sparse arrangement. Deutsch Nepal provide a horrendous 'Pain Is The Language We Use' - perhaps they should try music as a form of communication instead? Chris & Cosey wheeze and moan their way to a dead-end where a small exotic electronic insect waits. Budha Building, whose work has previously been released on Double Space, win the award for the most dynamic track if it is compared to what went before. No wasting time accumulating stretch marks on an intro here - it's play dem bongos now, boy. Quest provide a copy of their track Sol (Murmix), which also appeared on their full-length CD 'Electro City' on Italian label Lunar. Bubbles, bubbles and starlight, but in a different mix. Cosmic Connection end this batch merrily enough. Shame about the bass-line here tho'. (MP) Address: Double Space - Mechtildisstr. 2-21 - 5021 CN Tilburg - The Netherlands HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP - TRANSFORMATIONS (CD ON EMPREINTES DIGITALIS) Well, I've been waiting years for this one...ever since I heard the unbelievable 'Cricket Voice' on the very first Aerial compilation released on Nonsequiter ages ago. Hildegard is, as it pointed out by Pauline Olivieros in her brief introduction, sensitive to soundscape. She calls herself a sound ecologist and handles her subject with a great deal of care. She's included a bunch of technical notes which explain some of her procedures. The CD starts with 'A Walk Through The City', which in addition to natural and processed sounds also includes a bit of spoken voice. Not my favourite thing in this kind of music, but after a few listenings I discovered that it fitted perfectly. The idea behind the inclusion of a voice being that it symbolizes the human prescence in the urban soundscape. There's carhorns, brakes, sirens aircraft, pinball machines, construction and a couple of hobos, one of whom insists on not knowing why he can't stop drinking. This is followed by 'Fantasie for Horns II', for French Horn and tape. Sound sources on the tape are trainhorns, foghorns, boathorns, factory horns and even an alphorn ! Loadsa horns, in fact, which remain intact with their natural modifications as modulated by their surrounding landscapes. It beautiful - a trip, quite reminiscent of the stuff by Pauline Olivieros in the Cistern Chapel (which far exceeds anything I have yet heard by Stuart Dempster and his trombone ensemble recorded in the same place). Next up is 'Kits Beach Soundwalk', an extension of Hildegards radio plays called 'Soundwalking'. Fortunately this track is just less than 10'00 long...I say fortunately with some reluctance as I did try my best to assimilate Hildegard's voice which accompanies this soundtrack. She explains in mildly poetic terms what is going on and then displays some technical tricks which come across as a sort of lesson at the School Of Audio Engineering. I found this piece most annoying, but all is not lost because she saved the best till last. 'Cricket Voice' is included here too- it is a brilliant shimmering exploration of minuscule sounds recorded in the silent desolation of a Mexican desert region. The cricket's chirp, slowed down, becomes the 'heartbeat of the desert, at it's original speed it sings of the stars'. And finally, 'Beneath The Forest Floor', which is composed from sounds recorded in old-growth forests on British Columbia's westcoast. It includes the sounds of small songbirds, ravens, squirrels and flies which move in and out of the forest silence like the small creek that meanders through it. This piece creates a wonderful sense of peace in the listener, which is the intention. It glides slowly into a world of processed sound which is as close to the sound of a tree growing as I have ever heard. Never mind track 3, just get this thing ! (MP) Address: Metamkine - 50, Passage des Ateliers - 38140 Rives - France 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), The Square Root Of Sub (MP), Ching-Chong Jing-Jong (CP), Radboud Mens (RM) -- 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. 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