\ / | ----- /\ | \ / |== |== | / | \ / Week 25 \ / | | / \ | \ /\ / | | |/ | \ / Number 85 \/ | | / \ |--- \/ \/ |__ |__ |\ |__ | SUB DUB - DANCEHALL MALFUNCTION (CD by Asphodel) BYZAR - GAAIATRONYK (CD by Asphodel) Two bands that operate from New York, and that could be classified as 'Illbient' (if only we knew what that would be). Sub Dub have had previous releases, which I associate more with ambient, then with dub, but maybe I am totally wrong. Most of the tracks on this CD are deep, dubby rhythms in the best crooklyn tradition. Sometimes even up tempo, like in 'Jawbreaker' which goes into jungle a bit. Funniest track-title here is 'Guided By Voices', carried by a strange voice and reggea rhythm (so, anything unlike the band with the same name). As a whole album, I thought it to be more enjoyable then a whole album on Wordsound... THOMAS DIMUZIO - SONICISM (2CD by RRRecords) The name of Thomas Dimuzio may not be unfamiliar to anyone with an eye open for the more serious composing underground artists. I particular liked his LP 'Headlok' which came out years ago. Long droning fields of layered sound washed from the speakers. Recentely Dimuzio released a CD with retrospective works ('Louden' by Odd Size), and having played that one a couple of times, I was a bit put off by his sound. It was a bit-outdated for me. So with some suspicion I started this new double CD. Dimuzio plays around with a wide variety of sound sources, including things we would recognize as instruments, like acoustic guitar and clarinet but also a wide variety of field recordings. It blows me away totally. Great walls of sounds, slowly building to a high point, to be cut off extremly, only to be followed by soft, environmental recordings (like on disc 2, with the fourth track being rain, thunder and bees). If ever 'ambient' was something, this is it. This plays around with droning sounds and ambient alike. Address: RRRecords - 23 Central St - Lowell, MA 01852 - USA TAC - OUT OF CONTEXT (CD by Pure) AKALA - DELICATE INSTRUCTION (CD by Pure) MERZBOW - LOVES EMIL BEAULIEAU (CD by Pure) It's only a matter of time, but CD's are going to replace the self-released cassettes, either a CD-R or a 'real' release. The Pure series from RRRecords releases stuff that in the old days would be on cassette. By using monochrome covers, the consumer can easily recognize them and they know it is noisy in one way or the other. Here a couple of recent issues. TAC's Tom Cox has been around for several years, and releases many cassettes and pakages of 'anti-' cassettes. Also he too part in that 'collaboration' CD released by Harsh Dept last year. Many of his works consist of tape-splicing, feedback manipulation and reel-to-reel stuff. This is noisy collage stuff, a kind of primitive musique concrete that never is really surprising for as a composition is that stays too much of a random affair. But no offensive noise here either. Akala come from Lithunia and is linked to 'naj', who had a CD on Pure before. The music of Akala is rather dark, displaying an interest in both ambient and noise. Slowly envelopping noise fields, using synths, loops and radio sounds alike. Again primitively made but with intense. Merzbow loves Emil Beaulieau - let there be no doubt it. This particular collaboration (announced to be Vol.1...) takes the collaboration LP that came in the RRR 5 LP box set and manipulates that again, including new tapes and sounds. Resulting in the usual fine industrial piece. I wonder who said: "No more Merzbow, enough is enough" Address: Pure - 23 Central St - Lowell, MA 01852 - USA CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE - GODBEAR (CD on Barooni) It is mostly due to the efforts of Roland Spekle of Barooni Records that the name Charlemagne Palestine has been twisting tongues of late. Last year saw the re-issue on the same label of a collection of works under the title 'Four Manifestations on Six Elements' and now it's time for Godbear. The title comes from a gigantic sculpture created by C.P. for Documenta 8, an art festival held in Kassel, Germany ten years ago. The artwork in the booklet reveals something of this gentleperson's unusual obsession with cuddly toys. (Who remembers the artwork by Mike Kelley under the inlay tray of Sonic Youth's CD release 'Dirty' of several years ago ? Question is : Who went into the woods and hugged the bears first ?) The liner notes are written by the man as he would say them...bold, brash, to the point (whatever it is) stream of consciousness flowing like an oral torrent manifested as ink on paper. No high-falutin'. There are three legendary tracks on this CD titled 'the lower depths', 'strumming music' and 'timbral assault'. Concerts by C.P. are loud - he fills the space with his relentless, merciless fisting of the extended Bosendorfer. However I personally (that's me) gained optimum enjoyment from this release by playing it really quietly so that the source of this shifting palette of sonic colour was totally unrecognisable. The fluctuations in volume allowed for the surrounding sounds from my fridge, kids, cars outside, neighbour's TV and a persistent bird to blend into the shimmering spirals of hovering overtones. No single colour, but all colours. The BIG note indeed. (MP) EBOKA: BAAKA SONGS AND CEREMONIES FROM THE AFRICAN RAINFOREST (CD on Staalplaat) The title of this CD 'Eboka' is a baAka word which encompasses both 'music' and 'dance' - and for those of you who don't know it yet, the baAka are a foraging tribe who live in equatorial forests in central Africa. And the music on this CD was recorded between 1986 and 1996 by Louis Sarno, a sound reporter. The CD book is like a visit to the dentists, or am I the only one who browsed through the piles of National Geographics while waiting for the holes in my head to be filled ? There are copious details included in the booklet which greatly enhance what is already a beautifully recorded and produced sound document of a world 99% of us are unaware of. There are descriptions of instruments, song content, dances and daily life - for all of these are inseparable in the baAka culture - new songs are received in dreams, news and gossip form the lyric content of what could be considered musical telegrams and, as it is just about everywhere, dance is the primary courtship ritual - a time to display the body, flirt and whisper secret desires. Everpresent is the jungle itself...frog throats yurp, the twit of birds and the morphing resonant field generated by scratching crickets. A powerful, positive release which conveys the joy experienced by these nomads in their green, breathing domain. (MP) AUBE - DAZZLE REFLEXION (CD on Releasing Eskimo) Yet another bunch of tracks by Mr Nakajima whose work now appears with monthly regularity. Whilst I remain mostly unmoved by his stuff - and this release is no exception - I do fully appreciate his frequent attempts to fuse the soft with the hard (the whole of a previous release 'Metal De Metal' exemplifies this with all the subtlety of a high voltage love-in with some of the machines the Survival Research Laboratories were never allowed to unchain). One of the obvious drawbacks of continuous emission is that the quality of the substance tends to pale, become transluscent and occasionally dry up all together. Sadly this applies to Dazzle Refexion which has a couple of enjoyable pieces ( 'Glimmer' and 'Afterimage, in partricular), but otherwise sounds like a recording of a bull in a steel foundry bunged through a rather nifty effects unit. (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), The Square Root Of Sub (MP), Ching-Chong Jing-Jong (CP), Radboud Mens (RM), Sister Clika (RTH) http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/tbennett/staalplaat/st-home.htm. -- 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: Vital Weekly/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, ), Heimir Bjorgulfsson (HB), Dolf Mulder (DM), Meelkop Roel (MR), Brian Lavelle (BL, ), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH), Jeff Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK) and others on a less regular basis. 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