\ / | ----- /\ | \ / |== |== | / | \ / Week 40 \ / | | / \ | \ /\ / | | |/ | \ / Number 97 \/ | | / \ |--- \/ \/ |__ |__ |\ |__ | BEAT SYSTEM (CD by E:MT) For me it took a long long tim, but at last I'm very excited for a new release on E:MT. Beatsystem were on a couple of compilations by E:MT before, but I forgot their input. Beatsystem is one Derek Pierce who works apperentely with a lot of computer-generated sounds (as in 'samples'?). This is by no means techno or ambient, but leans towards more 'serious academic composing'. Derek takes relatively sound sources, such as the human voice, to compose pieces which are all broken and spliced together, but in a digital way. 'For Pierre' is dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer, founding father of Musique Concrete' and is basically a computer version of his piece for a 'door and a sigh', a hugh wall of sound with much more processing then the original. My favourite piece however is the 'No Jumping Up And Down', which starts out with the voice of John Cage and treats the voice like Cage would do himself, but, unlike Cage, the is more a composition then a free run of sounds. The only thing I don't get is the name 'Beat System' as there aren't many beats to be found here. This is the sort of ambient that is a lot more demanding (so for the right ambient) and not much diaree here. Let's hope E:MT are on their way back with this more of this stuff. (FdW) Address: DMDN - SLING TRIP 2 (CD by Supreme Tools Supplies) This new DMDN (Dva Met Dva Nichts) should be regarded as the brother of 'Sling Trip' which came out last year on Pure (the RRRecords noise impint). Both of these are historical works by the one guy Dutch band, who also plays in the loud rock group Lewd and is a member of the 'modern musique concrete band' THU20 (who are on stage in Paris next month after 5 years of silence - but that's a different story). DMDN makes noise music, no more and no less. There are interesting shifts in tones, feedback is processed all the time and there are shimmering dark textures underneath. Partly alike the old (and much better) Ramleh and length wise MB stuff. Certainly this is produced with much more skill (hey my humble opinion) then much of today's noise dropping at my doorstep. So if 'Sling Trip 1' was up your alley, then this is a must have too. (FdW) Address: PAULINE OLIVEROS - ALIEN BOG/BEAUTIFUL SOOP (CD by Pogus) PAULINE OLIVEROS - ELECTRONIC MUSIC (CD by Paradigm) Coincidence exists! One the same I received two CD's by Pauline Oliveros, composer since long time, and both are archive discs, dating back to the mid-sixties. The Pogus one contains two pieces, from 1966 and 1967, of which one is previously unreleased. Here Pauline works with the Bucla Box 100 synths and her own tape delay system. Rich textured sounds fly by, take a shape and disappear. Ambient music from the time the word was non-existent. Close the curtains and turn off the light, and put this medium volume: it's like stars falling on end. 'Beautiful Soop', the second piece on this CD, has a narration and comes across to me as Randy Greif's interpretation of 'Alice In Wonderland'. More a piece to be listened closely in one wants to follow the text. The other CD starts out with a noisy composition of what sounds like processed feedback, using real time processing. Really dense at time with drony undertones. 'Big Mother Is Watching You' is like processing of sounds, but more primitive (this doesn't mean bad). 'Bye Bye Butterfly' is also a piece made in real time, according to a studio set up. Both of these discs contains vintage works of electronic music from the days no one could afford a home studio. Historical works and one can be glad it has to come digital now. Essential if you are interested in the historical perspectives of electronic music. (FdW) Address: Address: fax: + 44 171 609 1754 ANEMONE TUBE - Forget Heaven (Cassette by Bawler Productions) This is an unknown cassette-project for me, on a label that originally came from the Grindcore/ Death Metal which has slowly evolved into the more experimental & ambient side of things (so far released nice 7"es by Aube & Alchemy Of The 20th Century; as well as some tapes). Anemone Tube come from Tettnang, which is near the Bodensee in Germany, they create a quite droning mixture of deep rhythms, harsh noises and some very dense parts. The whole sounds rather dark and depressed, as the titles of the tracks suggest, too. Some extracts reminded me of AUBE. I think this is a good noisework, as it combines different elements and atmospheres (6 tracks as a whole, of which the longest one is the harshest). A good start for Anemone Tube (guess it's their first tape), which makes one look forward to listen to their further development. Bawler Prod have very good prices and run a small mail-order with some experimental & grindcore stuff. The tape is nicely packed in an oversized cover with full-colour artwork . [BAR] Contact: Bawler Prod - Thomas Gith, Von-Hess-Weg 13, 20535 Hamburg, Germany ULTRA MILKMAIDS - Nadine (Cassette by Rendevous Radikal) One of my favourite "ambient" groups with a new cassette, on a brandnew label from Berlin. It's good to see that the U.M. don't stay on the same line, they manage it to develop gradually from each release to the next. The tape begin with their usual nice melancholic guitar-ambient, but with the second track they get more electronically influenced (as they already showed on the great 'Borray' 12" on Noise Museum), and mix field recordings of birds with strange electronic sounds, later added by rhythms, again quiet wonderful guitars, and long haunting drones. I love the overall melancholic atmosphere and can only recommend this highly for all those space-heads around! The tape is nicely packed in white cardboard, with a b/w-photo on it, and limited to 88 copies. [BAR] Address: Rendevous Radikal - Juergen Eckloff - Ursula Goetze Strasse 13 - 10318 Berlin - Fax: X49-30-50898538 AUBE - RUMINANT (CASSETTE BY Sound Probe) I'm going to tell you a true story, which is unusual for me, so listen up: I was listening to this two days ago, pretty damn loud, if you wanna know the truth, when I heard a pounding at my door and a guy with unmistakable panic in his voice shouting "Hello? Hello?" I ran to the door and saw that it was the mailman. He said "Is everything alright in there? I heard your alarm going off, and didn't know if everything was all right in there, or what! Did you leave your kettle on, or something, are you okay?" I was puzzled at first, then realized that he was hearing my new Aube tape. "No, no, I'm fine, everything's fine, I'm just listening to a tape". This didn't seem to satisfy him, he still looked worried, but saw that the converstaion was over, he handed me my mail and left. Quite amused, I soon forgot about that. Today, the mailman came again, and I greeted him at the door (y'see the guy every day, practically, you have to be friendly) and he immediatley said "Well, damn, you're not listening to yr record. I can't say I understand why you was listening to that, scared hell out of me, or something, damn..." and muttered and walked off. Good to know the postal service is concerned, I thought. So, here's what the poor guy was subjected to, which apparantly had a lasting effect on him. A tape limited to 125 copies with a BEAUTIFUL package, a sort of rubber pocket with drip designs on it, real impressive package. The source is one oscillator. Four tracks, each one quite different from each other. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am super-quick to slag Aube, mostly because I know how dear his fans hold him, so it's fun. But I'm going to be fair: this is pretty damned interesting. The first track, the one the postman heard, consists of what does sound like a car alarm. But close listening reveals many layers of conflicting rhythms, so that what initially appeared to be one tone shatters into tons of tiny pieces. I like that. The other tracks are less abrasive, dark whooshing that doesn't stick around long enough to become wallpaper, which is nice. There aren't the typical obvious effect-pedals (you know "Flood-Gate" is only as long as it because Akimfumi couldn't get over his DoD 'phaser') or loops that mar other Aube recordings, either. A good, solid album. (HS) COLUMN ONE - KRIEGSSCHAUPLAETZE (LP by L.O.K.I.Foundation) Here's another release from this interesting group from Berlin, who are standing somewhere between the old Industrial-approach and newer Techno-influences, and so far they seem to sound different on each release they do. This LP is a document of a Festival about the theme 'war Theatre' that took place in Potsdam in January 1994 for a whole week, an exhibtion with films by (for example) Genesis P.Orridge, Paul Viebeg and concerts by Netzach, Rongwrong, Hafler Trio, Contrastate, Za Siodma Gora; E. Ka-Spel and Column One. The LP contains recordings of two concerts by Column One. The LP begins with voice-samples, accompanied by background-noises, which slowly shifts into other atmospheres by using a violin which plays a melancholic tune, and the whole thing sounds then like an improvised soundtrack with lots of differents effects, samples, rhythms, etc... The large booklet with lots of dark collaged images (maybe from one of the films?) gives some background-information and has a small text from Stanislav Lem in it (about self-torturing in order to achieve endless lust while dying), and a philosophical quote from Column One, where they try to explain why human beings are interested in war: because they search for experiencing the NEW at any time ("the unknown causes the hope"). The text is written all in German, unfortunately, an english translation would have been nice. This is a quite ambitious release, not only the music, also the artwork and texts fit together well. The LP is pressed in clear vinyl and limited to 320 copies only. (BAR) Address: L.O.K.I. : Fax: 49-3771-554494 DAVID SHEA - THE POEM DE NUESTRA SIGNORA (CD on More Music) David Shea has recently done a bunch of recycling of his own samples of other people's music, mostly producing milder and milder dilutions of what atrted out as a great idea. This particular CD represents new work, most of which is made without Shea, but who's presence in the studio during the sessions was of apparent tantamount importance. This project was coordinated by 'organizational genius' Tullio Angelini, who is partly responsible for a series of traditional and avant garde music concerts which occur in Italy each year. The idea for this CD was to record Shea in a series of improvisations with folk musicians from Sardinia. There is a profusion of traditional instrumentation here - all instruments are listed in each track and the music retains a rough edge; there are constant medieval references and many of the tunes are variations of traditional pieces. Much of Shea's contributions seem to be samples of the original instruments which he then works, rather unspectacularly, into the arrangements. The last track is Shea and solo sampler, and it is an ineffective end to what many might consider to be an unusual attempt at documentation. I'm still waiting for some new work from Shea which comes close to the excellence of the till now unsurpassed 'Tower Of Mirrors' (Sub Rosa). It may never happen... (MP) DAVID CUNNINGHAM - EXT. NIGHT (CD by Piano) Here's a piece of music recorded in London in 1992. It's David on his own, playing a guitar through a couple of effects units. And released on his own label too ! The motif is uncomplicated, a few notes are patiently plucked and allowed to hover in space until they almost disintegrate only to be reanimated by more of the same. 'Ambient' is a sorely abused word; once it was adopted by the dance/rave scene it was subjected to all the rules of forced music. I still perceive Eno's early experiments as definitive of this categorisation, and of course there have been others who have created 'ambient' music, often without even being aware of the label. This soft, seductive work by Mr Cunningham is an amazing addition to a short list of music, and it floats out of the speakers, non-intrusive yet there when the ears require it. A therapy of sorts (MP) NEGATIVLAND - Pisspied (CD on Seeland) More new work from the undisputed masters of the cut-up, and instigators of the first true (and extremely well-documented on their own 'Helter Stupid' CD/LP) media virus in the States. More famous in some circles for their bold forays into the domain of copyright and ownership, this latest release msut have been yet another legal nightmare. They claim immunity by asserting that 'All of the cola commercials that were appropriated, transformed and re-used in this recording attempted to assault us in our homes without our permission. An interesting point and one which could no doubt lead to years of wrangling between those who make the rules and those who challenge them. I am certain the Negativlads would be supported by the majority of thinking people who have similar reservations with regard to this issue. Still, as the united advertisers occasionally inform us, entertainment is by and large supported by advertising... what would happen to the quality of our spare time if all revenues derived from this often very unsubtle tool were to disappear. A long debate and not one I'm going to get into in too much detail here. Provided with the CD is 'A Proposal To Coke And Pepsi' from an organisation called One World Advertising, which has a few succint observations and some obvious suggestions to make to their advertising departments. The CD itself contains the usual Negativland mix of appropriated and recontextualised speech and vocals; their sources are listed inside the booklet and range from the familiar motivational marketing tapes made by marketing executives to Bryan Ferry. Product endorsement by the famous comes under scrutiny as do the dangers attached thereto. Child molesters do not a product sell. That is until the image of the personality is cleansed by effective repetition in the media of the good things they may have done. Early on in the CD we are told that it is quite possible to replace an idea in someone's head by twisting the original message around to suit the new requirement. Which is just what Negland are up to themselves ! Or not ? I am a fan of their work and greatly appreciate the amount of time they must spend creating a social commentary like this one. Don Joyce must be recording all the time, constantly busy with a myriad of projects simultaneously. Zappa frequently spoke about conceptual continuity in his work, if there ever was a group more absorbed by the idea than he, it must be Negativland. Intelligent, multi-layered and demanding. Entertainment, definitely, but of the best kind. Not for passive people who wait with open orifi (?) for their daily dose of media barrage. (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), BAraka[H], (BAR), Howard Stelzer (HS) webpage: www.staalplaat.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 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. This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it. Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send any attachments/jpeg's, we will trash them without viewing. Backissues may be found at: www.staalplaat.com and http://www.aesova.org/vital