============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 378 ------------ week 27 ------------ contents: PARADISE CAMP 23 - BAR-BQ DUNGEON (CDR by Mandragora Records) PARADISE CAMP 23 - MANDRAGORA (CDR by Mandragora Records) MASSACCESI & EVERY KID ON SPEED - SPLIT (CDR EP by Acid Fake Recordings) JACK WRIGHT & BOB MARSH - BIRDS IN HET HAND (CD by Public Eyesore) JAD FAIR AND JASON WILLETT - SUPERFINE (CD by Public Eyesore) LIB (CD compilation by Fabric) FORMATT - LIVE AT KUNSTEN CENTRUM BELGIE 08/02/2003 (CDR by Robo Records) LIVING ORNAMENTS/ACCELERA DECK (split Lp by Narrominded) JANEK SCHAEFFER - SKATE/RINK (LP/3" CD by Staalplaat) NORWEGIAN NOISE ORCHESTRA - TENDER LOVE IS A BITCH (CDR by Tib Prod) FRANK NIEHUSMANN - LIVE (CD by Nur Nicht Nur) ARNE NORDHEIM - DODEKA (CD by Rune Grammofon) TBTTBC - MUSICSOUND (CDR by To Be The To Be Announced Records) SINDRE BJERGA & ANDERS GJERDE - STAVANGER (CDR plus fanzine by Playground) PARADISE CAMP 23 - BAR-BQ DUNGEON (CDR by Mandragora Records) PARADISE CAMP 23 - MANDRAGORA (CDR by Mandragora Records) Two new releases on Mandragora Records, who seems to be specializing in music that is a crossover between psychedelica and industrial music. Paradise Camp 23 clearly takes their inspiration from good ol' Throbbing Gristle. Distorted guitar, treated field recordings, snippets of field recordings. Their CDR could have easily been part of the twenty four CD by Throbbing Gristle. Quite a rough recording, maybe down the garage of one of the members (are there members, or maybe just one?). Actually I though this was quite nice, since I always a big Throbbing Gristle fan, and I think their sound was never really copied to such an extend. The other release is a mix work, in which Paradise Camp 23 samples the entire Mandragora catalogue in one long mix (split in five tracks). You'll have to forgive me, but I am not altogether familiar with the Mandragora catalogue, so I don't recognize anything here. Musicwise it's more open then the "Bar-BQ Dungeon" release, even when both "psychedelic" and "industrial" are stamped all over it. Maybe this one is more psychedelic and the other release more industrial? The "Mandragora" release features more guitar samples and comes closer to some form of lo-fi rock music. Both releases are quite nice, and very much rooted in musical underground. (FdW) Address: http://www.madragoragora.com MASSACCESI & EVERY KID ON SPEED - SPLIT (CDR EP by Acid Fake Recordings) The world of abstract electronic music is growing larger every day, spreading like a virus, but a healthy virus. Macedonia is just one of the many countries to have been hit by the bug, and Acid Fake Recordings has put itself on the map of unusual electronic music with its third release of glitch induced mayhem. This split ep is the first in a series that will contain two artists recording a twenty minute track each. The first track comes from Massaccesi, who has a variety of releases on compilations, cdrs and most notably his 2001 release on Phthalo "I Never Fall Apart Because I Never Fall Together"‚ he continues where he left of in the world of cut-and-paste dynamics; however there is a notable improvement in his sound design abilities. His composition, 'L'hotel Massacesi'‚ was recorded entirely from sounds he sampled while at work at small hotel in New Hampshire, USA along with his additions of analog keyboards giving the track a 1970's gore/horror film vibe. Printers, computer buzzes, swimming pool, etc. were used to create vast soundscapes and electro-acoustic bliss, while the addition of source material from gore films completes the picture. Sometimes a rhythm ensues, giving the listener a false sense that a minimal techno track is building, but abrupt changes and inserted silence keep things interesting. 'L'hotel Massaccesi'‚ is a great headphone piece and a wonderful example of how to kill time, while working at a hotel during the graveyard shift. Next up, is the label-head, Every Kid on Speed with his track 'jj'. This glitch/noise piece opens with gurgles and bubbles, which move into IDM territory. Shortly thereafter, recordings of voices pitched up roll in and out until shards of noise fill the open spaces. From that moment on, 'jj' is a noise piece. Its highlight is the white noise that flows effortlessly in and out of the mix. Avoid all hallucinogens and narcotics while listening to this track; it's too intense for mind altering substances. Both tracks work well together in this format. It will be interesting to see the development of this split ep series. Stay tuned! (GK) Addresses: http://www.massacessi.com, or http://www.acidfake.tk. JACK WRIGHT & BOB MARSH - BIRDS IN HET HAND (CD by Public Eyesore) Two great musical personalities shake hands here. They have met and played before, looking at their discography. On this new cd we find them together with a bunch of improvisations recorded live in 2002 mainly and 2000. Some background information first. Composer and multi_intrumentalist Bob Marsh (violin, cello, piano, vibraphone, flute, extended vocal techniques) is the founder of the Quintessentials, the Emergency String Quartet and the Emergency Piano Quintet. He is involved in several musical projects like Fred Lomberg_Holm's "Phenomenal String Quartet". He played with people like Ernesto Diaz_Infante, Bhob Rainey, Hal Rammell, Scott Rosenberg, Ken Vandermark and Michael Zerang. Wright plays already for 25 years and cooperated with a great variety of musicians: Chris Cochrane, Peter Hollinger, Fred Lonberg_Holm, Jim Meneses, Roger Turner, Mike Bullock, James Coleman, Greg Kelley, and so on. Since 1986 Marsh and Wright play together regularly. They explore their version of improvisational music and implicitely their relationship as friends. Wright says "For me, music is about loving what you do and those with whom you do it, and, so, paradoxically, free improvisation becomes an exploration of the interdependence of partners'. For there new explorations Marsh plays cello all over the cd, and violin in track 6. His processed voice is also heard throughout the cd. Wright plays contra-alto clarinet, alto sax and soprano sax, equally distributed over the 6 tracks. It's music with great feeling and humantiy. Good interplay. If you think free improvised music is dead already since a long time, here is some evidence of the opposite. These musicians are important exponents of the renaissance of free improvised music (DM). Address: http://www.sinkhole.net JAD FAIR AND JASON WILLETT - SUPERFINE (CD by Public Eyesore) Jad and David Fair wrote history with their band Half Japanese. Their importance cannot be denied. I don't know what David is doing these days, but Jad still continues on the road Half Japanese once paved. It was already in the days of Half Japanese that Jad started to release solo stuff. His solo-output is of a considerable quantity now. Not all of it is okay, off course. I still like 'Best Wishes' from 1985. But several months ago I was greatly dissappointed by a cd by Fair and R.Stevie Moore. One of his mates for many of his solo work in the last few years is Jason Willett with whom he released several albums (see catalogue of the Megaphone label). By the way, output by Jason Willett is dominant on this Megaphone label. We come across Willett as a member of The Dramatics, The Pleasant Livers, The Can Openers, The Jaunties, The Attitude Robots, The Recordings and The Dentures. But for this new collaboration, Public Eyesore was chosen to release it. The cd features 20 songs, plus 135 MP3 bonus songs!! Songs in the tradition of Half Japanese. Punky, trashy and noisy. Bizarre and eccentric. We hear Jad Fair doing all the vocals as only he can do it. With over the top singing, screaming out his bizarre fantasies. Willett signs for mix, production and music. I'm not sure but it seems Willett plays all instruments. We hear a great variety of instruments, objects, etc. So I suppose it was quite a job for Willett to produce this album. This way each song has its own characteristic. Well done! At least what the 20 songs on the cd concerns. I cannot judge about the 135 MP3 songs, because I have no facility to play them at the moment. Fair and Willett must have a great joy in playing together. 135 songs! What a exuberance. I suppose they continue their extravagant punk journey (DM). Address: http://www.sinkhole.net/pehome LIB (CD compilation by Fabric) Fabric is a new sub-division of Cubicmusic, and they start their new side-dish with a compilation. The main focuss lies on presenting artists that are somewhat well-known via their own releases but do not belong (yet) to the top ten of the glitch 'n cut scene. Z.E.L.L.E., Aero, Tu M', Motion and Alejandra and Aeron represent the European/US side and Minamo (the band who is behind this label, I think), Tosjimaru Nakamura, Masahiko Okura, Yoshio Machida and Kazumi Namba the Japanese side of this CD. I know, I said glitch 'n cut, but that was just to quickly put them in a corner. In fact not one of these artists belong in strict rhythmic corner, as the overall idea behind these tracks is a rather austere soundworld. Aero has a simple piece of sine waves moving along eachother, but which works well. Yoshio Machida works with sound processings of his steel drum, maybe this is one of the more odd-balls in this collection. Another one might Minamo themselves who do an improvisation on guitar and electronica, which sound, at least, in this collection, quite traditional. High pitched excursions are to be found in Z.E.L.L.E.'s piece and of course the no input mixer from Nakamura. Motion and Kazumi Namba are the only ones from the warm laptop ambient circles. In all a small variety that is offered in maybe a limited context. But for the very well iniatated, there is a great deal of very nice music to be discovered here. (FdW) Address: http://www.cubicmusic.com/fabric FORMATT - LIVE AT KUNSTEN CENTRUM BELGIE 08/02/2003 (CDR by Robo Records) Behind Formatt is Peter Smeekens who started playing in a grindcore band at the age of fifteen. Now he is twice as old and works, armed with a laptop, in the areas of microsound. Apperentely he was quite pleased with a recording he did in february this year at the 'Kunsten Centrum' in Belgium, that he decided to release this. For the main first part of this recording his laptop doodlings hoover around in more ambient areas which continious drones and crackles to put the icing on the cake, but after some seventeen minutes, slowly a beat kicks in, which in the second part of the set slowly builts up. But Formatt is not a crowd pleaser, his beats do not evolve into a big techno party or indeed any sort of quantized 4/4 rhythms. It remains a strange affair, more dubby with small echoy effects then something straight forward. The sounds below and beneath show a side interest in trip hop and illbient. The recording is of course a bit more raw then an official studio recording, but it works well here for the raw character of the music. (FdW) Address: http://www.formatt.info LIVING ORNAMENTS/ACCELERA DECK (split Lp by Narrominded) The small Dutch label Narrominded surprised us some time ago with an excellent compilation LP 'We're Running Out Of West' (see Vital Weekly 317) and now offer the first in a series of split LP's. On this first one we find Living Ornaments and Accelera Deck. The first is the band behind the label. Their side is called 'Ribbels' ('ripples') but is divided in eleven short pieces, which are all crossfaded into eachother. The basic material are piano and guitar, which are extensively transformed and mutated on the computer. Because of all these tracks going into eachother, but keeping an overall feel to the entire twenty minute work, it almost seems like a seventies conceptual prog rock band, but then updated for the next millenium. Living Ornaments quite clearly state their influences, mostly Fennesz, Keith Fullerton Whitman or in fact many from the laptop areas (Stephan Mathieu comes to mind), but the material is strong enough to stand by itself. The sparse rhythms work nice enough as counterpoints and give the material a nice extra touch. On the other side we find Chris Jeely in his Accelera Deck monniker. I thought he stopped using that name, but maybe I was wrong. Accelera Deck, or in fact the majority of Jeely's output, has always been a diverse project. From 'intellegent' dance music to folk songs and now these four pieces of low resolution sampling. Grizzly samples with a very low sampling rate of guitar noise have a strange, yet appealing character. Towards the end the folky acoustic guitar arises from the mass of computerized sounds and puts the listener back on earth. Strong material - again! (FdW) Address: http://www.narrominded.com JANEK SCHAEFFER - SKATE/RINK (LP/3" CD by Staalplaat) To tell the reader what this new Janek Schaeffer work is about, is probably the same as re-writing the cover notes. The 'Skate' LP is 'a record that usurped the deterministic spiral (and the 'anti-skate mechanism') as a way of playing and listening to sound on vinyl'. The grooves are made by hand held stylus, cutting is done seemingely randomly. The 'Rink' CD uses sounds from the first version of the vinyl, and is divided in 99 tracks, to be played at random. As you can understand this is not a production to put on and sit back and relax. This record is an invitation to use. By you, at home. Try it at 33, or 45 or spin the album manually. Everytime new possibilities occur. If you are an adventurous DJ, you can even take this out and try to evacuate the dance floor. This record is sure fun and would even opt for a remix CD, me thinks. Most of this stuff has been done before, think RRRecords' anti records from the mid eighties or Ios Smolders or Freundschaft's shuffle CD's, but they were never as lavishly packed as this one. Art with a big A. (FdW) Address: http://www.staalplaat.com NORWEGIAN NOISE ORCHESTRA - TENDER LOVE IS A BITCH (CDR by Tib Prod) What else can you expect from a noise orchestra then noise? The Norwegian Noise Orchestra exists of a varying line up, but on this live recording, made at Betong (whereever that may be), there are fifteen players. Many names I didn't hear of before, but also including Sindre Andersen, Andreas Meland and Ole H. Melby. The whole hour that this recording lasts is filled with noise in the best Merzbowian tradition. Loud, noisy, aggressive and like a bath of sound to get drowned in. A nice work of the more intellegent noise. Only one thing crossed my mind: why are fifteen players needed for something that can also be done by one person? Maybe that is where a bit of my disappointment comes from. What could be the real oppurtunities for fifteen people doing noise if they would operate from fifteen personal views? (FdW) Address: http://www.tibprod.com FRANK NIEHUSMANN - LIVE (CD by Nur Nicht Nur) The music of Frank Niehusmann is made with open reel analogue tape machines, and that is not a fancy plug in, which pro-tools offer you. Frank uses an eight track reel to reel on which there is one loop running, with eight different sounds, which he mixes in a live situation, using every button of the machine (start, fast forward, rewind). Almost like a DJ, but with strictly his own input. "Schnitt" is a recording of such a live thing, in eight different movements. Needles to say that this music, regardless of the input has a repetative element, from machine like structures, environment recordings, sine waves and Morrocan drumming. Quite a vivid play of sounds, that, despite the input and maybe the limitness of the concept, is quite enjoyable to hear. Also on this CD is a piece called 'Untertagemusik Nr. 1', which is hard for me to translate into English. Apperentely the sounds were recorded 1000 meters underground, with very special recording-equipment. Since Niehusmann is from the highly industrialized Ruhr area in Germany, he went down old mines to do his recordings. Later on he manipulated these recordings via his analogue and digital working methods. The recording here is part of his usual programm for playing live, but I believe it's a studio version. Highly industrial music with machine like sounds (that me think are impossible to record at such a depth, but who am I to disagree?), but those synthesizers dropping in half way through the piece sort of spoil it for me. Otherwise a nice piece indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.niehusmann.org or http://www.nurnichtnur.com ARNE NORDHEIM - DODEKA (CD by Rune Grammofon) The Dodekaphonie, the twelve tone musical system, was developed about a century ago by Arnold Schonberg, who attempted to break through the usual system of eight tones. I am not sure if this what Arne Nordheim had in mind when he composed the twelve short pieces of 'Dodeka'. Nordheim would fit nicely in the Sub Rosa series (reviewed last week) as a forgotten and underrated composer. He was born in 1931 in Larvik, Norway and studied organ, piano, theory and composition and composed electronic music. In 1998 his CD 'Electric' gained him attention again. 'Dodeka' was recorded in Warsaw between 1967 and 1972, mainly because there was no electronic studio in Norway. Maybe the work comes as a rather primitive one, but one should not forget that it is made under maybe primitive circumstances. Oscillations and primitive sine waves play an interesting act together in a very clear way. The music, entirely electronical, fits more the German tradition from the early fifties (the WDR studio recordings by people like Koenig or Stockhausen) then the French school. It's a nice work, historically right to release, but not a surprisingely new or innovative work, even for the days in which it was made. (FdW) Address: http:.//www.runegrammofon.com TBTTBC - MUSICSOUND (CDR by To Be The To Be Announced Records) The name TBTTBC stands for To Be The To Be Continued, which is a funny name of course. the history of this bands dates back for almost a decade when they started out as a guitarrock band, slowly evolving into free rock and now exclusively working with synths, computers, guitar and bass. The pieces on this CDR are by TBTTBC, aswell as various solo pieces by the two members. Their five tracks sound a bit like the Paradise Camp 23 mentioned elsewhere: a mixture of industrial but maybe less inspired by Throbbing Gristle (or maybe more accurate: not as obvious), but they produce a nice thickly layered industrial ambient, with analogue synths bubbling up every once in a while. The solo tracks are a bit different: sometimes a bit hooky with guitar lines like 'Paddington' by Layer (the other calls himself The Insane Alchemist), but also playful collage works and stuff that sounds like TBTTBC. I must say, I enjoyed the solo tracks more then the five band tracks. Quite obviously there is more variation and overall a bit more joy when playing. To me it seems Layer is more the guy with the pop background and The Insane Alchemist is more the man for the experiments. The mixture of both talents needs some shaping, but this is a young band, so I am sure it work out. (FdW) Address: http://www.tbttbc.tk SINDRE BJERGA & ANDERS GJERDE - STAVANGER (CDR plus fanzine by Playground) If you are like me, and have some difficulties with the greek language (and no doubt that will be the case with the vast majority of the people reading this) then maybe this new magazine will not be well spend on you. "Playground" will present itself in various formats, dealing with one set of artists, whom are friends of the editor. A CDR will always be part of the magazine. Here Sindre Bjerga and Anders Gjerde were asked to do something about their hometown Stavanger. Gjerde runs the Humbug label (a handy list of his releases is included), but this is the first time I encounter him as a musician. Together they went through the city looking for sounds, which were manipulated afterwards, aswell as presented in their raw state. I must admit I was highly amazed by the sheer quality of this. The combination between electronics and field recordings work really well. Dogs barking, water dripping and people in a shopping center, coupled with drones, cracks, hiss and synths (or so it seems). Everything is thought out well, nicely structured with lots of variation in the material. What else is there to say? A great release, even when the written portion comes in an unreadable form. (FdW) Address: 1. From: Jonathan Coleclough Performance: London Saturday 19 July 2003 from 2 to 3 pm (but check website for performance times: http://placard.slab.org ) As part of Placard: London Headphones Festival, Jonathan Coleclough, Colin Potter & .murmer: headphone performance All performances will only be heard via headphones in the venue, and broadcast to the world via the Net. It's a perfect opportunity for some focussed listening. Bring your own headphones. at: State 51, 8-10 Rhoda St, London, E2 7EF, UK (tube stations: Liverpool St · Old St · Aldgate East · Shoreditch) Time: from 12 midday to 12 midnight Free entry or donations Bring your own headphones Contact: placard@slab.org For more information, including the full line-up: http://placard.slab.org Over thirty other performers including: · cassette41-/gr · datamath · powerbooks for peace · we're breaking up · anthony guerra · frankie the robot · dual · lj kruzer · ixi project · garry jeff · john eacott · sick lincoln · max eastley · si-cut db · dallas simpson · voodoo muzak · peter cusack · sumugan sivanesan · tex la homa · jay ropinsky · slow sound system · jem finer · leafcutter john · icarus · bitTonic 2. From: 44 strings is a bass compilation project launched by Edinburgh based label mrw44. The idea is to celebrate the bass through a series of tracks composed and played by various bassists or double bassists from diverse geographical origins and musical backgrounds. We want as many bassists as possible to submit a track - from the most famous to the totally unknown, whether they play in a band or not, no matter what their age or experience is. If that sounds good to you, please check our website at http://www.44strings.co.uk for full details and submission guidelines. Feel free to relay the information to any bassists you may also know!!! Deadline for material is 31st October 2003. 3. From: jeff Electric Possible IV Concert Series presents Neil Feather - homemade instruments Violet - strings+trash+mutilated instruments DJ Panic - sawed vinyl D. Thumbski - gameboy $5 8:00 pm Sunday July 6 Phillips Hall, 801 22nd St, NW Rm B120 (22nd & H Streets/GWU metro accessible) George Washington University Washington DC 703/533-3423 4. From: hauf timeout billy roisz / dieb13 / boris hauf http://hauf.klingt.org/timeout/ thursday 3thjuly, 20h Medien Camp am Karlsplatz, Treitlstraße 4, A-1040 Wien http://mediencamp.karlsplatz.at/mc/programm http://mediencamp.karlsplatz.at/mc/bilder 5. From: wojt3k kucharczyk HALOHOLA! mik.actions=upcoming .!. soon .!. 17-18-19 july 03.!. @ inow?ódz festival 2003/festival in the landscape/festiwal w krajobrazie (PL) = /dzien´ drugi/day two 18.07/pia*tek/friday = __molr drammaz+8rolek __pathman 19 july 03.!. @ ms stubnitz visiting szczecin 03 (PL) = ***mik.musik.label.night.!. onboard with: __deuce __8rolek __molr drammaz __retro*sex*galaxy __ksawery kaliski vj __mik.djs +++&&& guest superstar = monsieur FELIX KUBIN (D/gagarin/a-musik/ski-pp) .!.!.!. details: www.stubnitz.com 9 august 03.!. @ garage 03 festival, stralsund (D). "no concept". "survolt"/"strange foreigners" evening, curated by eric mattson/oral+mutek with: __retro*sex*galaxy (PL) martin tetrault (CAN) christof migone (CAN) details: www.garage-g.de -- 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 - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521 NE Nijmegen - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP ), Dolf Mulder (DM), Meelkop Roel (MR), 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. There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. Any MP3 release to be reviewed should be burned as an audio CDR and send to the address above. the complete archive of Vital (1987 - 1995) and Vital Weekly (1995 onwards) can be found at: http://vital.staalplaat.com/