============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 385 ------------ week 34 ------------ contents: DANIEL MENCHE - INVOKER (CD by Antifrost) TEXTURIZER (CD by Antifrost) ILIOS - OLD TESTAMENT (CD by Antifrost) REMANENT - THE RAPTURE (CDR by Zwavelzuur) THE HAFLER TRIO - THE MAN WHO TRIED TO DISAPPEAR (10" by Ossosnossos) JLIAT - MY COMPUTER (3"CDR by Alku) CADMIUM DUNKEL - ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE (MP3 by Tib Prod) KOFF KOFF - BESME-AM (MP3 by Tib Prod) FRANS DE WAARD - EIGHT LINES (Mini CD-R by Zeromoon) SHIFTS - VERTONEN (CD-R by Humbug) BERTRAND DENZLER & HANS KOCH - ASYMETRIES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques) TENSILE (CDR compilation by Labile Music) BUJEOLD - FABRIQUE DECOLOURS (CDR) MY MALADY (CD compilation by Mental Monkey Records) TOMAS JIRKU - BLEAK 1999 (CD by No Type) STEPHAN MATHIEU - KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY... (CDEP by Korm Plastics) FLIM - HOLIDAY DIARY (CD by Plinkity Plonk) FREIBAND - MUSIK FOR NO TITLE (CDR-EP by Mik Musik) KOMET - GOLD (CD by Raster-Post) AIDAN BAKER & TOMAS BAKER & ALAN BLOOR - TERZA RIMA (CDR by Public Eyeshore) FREE FROM DISGUISE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) AYAMI YO-KO (CDR by Public Eyeshore) SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) BAD GIRLS - UNAUTHORIZED RECORDINGS (CDR by Public Eyeshore) THE BUNNY BRAINS - HOLIDAY MASSACRE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) TSURUBAMI - GEKKYUKEKKKAICHI (CD by Strange Attractors) SCANNER - WARHOL'S SURFACES (CD by Intermedium) BOOKS ON TAPE - SINGS THE BLUES (CD by No Type) NIKO SKORPIO VS REPTILJAN - SILENCE IS KING (7" by Some Place Else) DANIEL MENCHE - INVOKER (CD by Antifrost) TEXTURIZER (CD by Antifrost) ILIOS - OLD TESTAMENT (CD by Antifrost) To be honest, I didn't keep up with Daniel Menche's recent work. By the time he arrived on the scene (when was it, 1995?), he was there as one of the younger and more interesting noise makers. His CDs for Soleilmoon Recordings are still landmarks of good noise music. After that, his career is a bit scattered, at least for me, a mild, interested listener and not a devotee. 'Invoker' therefore is a renewed introduction. It is "inspired by the afe old ancient practice of sound being used to call upon higher dieties for strength and guidance and how mankind continues to use sound as an "invoker" in modern times". Three lenghty pieces, totally over sixty minutes (I don't have the titles of the pieces here). It's hard to discuss 'Invoker' in the light of its predecessors, but I must say, I was quite pleased with sound. Only the third piece seems to hark the inspiration from his older noise work, the other two are more dark ambient pieces. Daniel Menche uses contact microphones and real microphones to record sound (I remember a concert where he amplified rubbing salt on his body), but besides he uses so many sound effects, that the original sources aren't to be recognized again. For some people that may be a problem, that it is loaded with an overkill of sound effects, but especially in the first two pieces, Menche reaches an intense level of atmospheric sound. Introspective and contemplative. Menche might no longer be the young and rising star, he still knows his tricks well. Texturizer seems to me a very apt chosen name for the duo work of Nikos Veliotis and Coti K. The first one plays cello and Coti plays the electronic part. Apperentely this new CD was recorded in the Agios Georgios Church in a suburb of Athens, but they could have fooled me. No huge amount of natural church reverb, but a nice set of four pieces. Texturizer, who can it be different, play drone music, using cello and electronic processings thereof and field recordings (maybe those of motors, fans etc, basically anything that sounds drony), and of all these closely related sounds fit together very well. Overall, I found this drone music of a more louder nature, without saying it's aggressive or anything, it's just more present and more audible, and less blurry then some of the other music in this area. Since you may know me as a sucker of good drone music, I can't be wrong this one: very nice work. And then the final release by Antifrost is by their head president director Ilios. This guy had his first release some ten years ago and since it's been hard to follow his career; not that he would care either. If I understood right, 'Old Testament' is one half ('New Testament' to follow shortly) and goes back to the era before computers played a big role in Ilios' music. Of the three recent Antifrost CDs, this is the most 'difficult' one. Lengthy pieces of obscured sounds, scratches and drones - this could be as much as newer computer work as an older piece of analog electronics (I assume the last but digitally remastered). Silence seems to be playing an important role too, as sometimes things drop in volume a lot. So, I can't say wether this is really old, or updated. Although it's a not bad CD, it could interest me the least of the three new ones. (FdW) Address: http://www.antifrost.gr REMANENT - THE RAPTURE (CDR by Zwavelzuur) Remanent is the solo-project by A.W. Schulte based in Amsterdam. On the cover-sleeve of this CDR titled "The rapture" there is a dark misty landscape under a grey sky of almost threatening clouds. The dramatic landscape nicely symbolises the sonic explorations on the album. Dark ambient drones swirls as atmospheric winds behind the rather strangely dramatic sound of Remanent. Musically the sonic approach seems like a mixture between subtle rhythmic textures and old-school elements varying from early Detroit techno to hammer horror'ish organ-freakout. Favourite track on the album is the spooky "Horses of death" that could be an ode to Washington Irvin's tale of the headless horseman. "Horses of death" opens with samples of harp strumming, shortly after followed by drum-machine-alike rhythms sounding like a galloping horse further dramatized by furious samples not too far away from earliest Download. Overall this is a promising album by Remanent, available via the web-address of Remanent shown below this review. (NMP) Address: http://www.zwavelzuur.nl/remanent THE HAFLER TRIO - THE MAN WHO TRIED TO DISAPPEAR (10" by Ossosnossos) There has always been a link between the work of The Hafler Trio and the work of Brion Gysin. The dreammachine release of the late 80s is one, but there is also a small book that Andrew M. McKenzie wrote on Gysin for a Staalplaat release. If Gysin is the man who tried to disappear, as mentioned in the title of this release, I don't know, but I truely think he is. Recordings were made at '135 Rue St. Martin' and I wouldn't be surprised if that's an address where Gysin lived. Like on many of the recent Hafler Trio records, subtle drones are explored here, on both sides of the record. Maybe it's a processed atmospheric recording of the room mentioned in that address. An empty room, left behind by a man who tried to disappear. Towards the end of 'Open Bank Is Closed' on the a-side, the wind plays with the windowpane. By and large the drone music on side A is mournfull, sad and melancholic. The b-side is more hectic, like a swarm of insects inside a glass jar, which are multiplying at a strong rate - like in a science fiction movie - until one dark image is left. Maybe the flickering of a dreammachine? The only trouble I have with this 10" (and some of the other recent ones) is that the soundquality is not overall ok and that they arr sometimes too short to have ideas fully expand. And for those who like to know: yes, there is more happening on this 10" then on the recent Die Stadt and Nextera CDs. Otherwise a fine Hafler Trio record. (FdW) Address: http://www.ossosnossos.com JLIAT - MY COMPUTER (3"CDR by Alku) Our beloved conceptual master Jliat returns. This time the subject is the various .exe files on his computer, which he transformed into .wav (that is audio) files. No less then thirty nine of those .exe files are brought alive here, in under ten minutes. Playing these short noisy, Mego styled pieces, it's hard to think that this is the same Jliat who released many moons ago beautiful drone CDs. While moving away from that musically interesting area, Jliat choose a more different and difficult route: making conceptual music, in which he puts forward questions about the music, silence, originality and experiment. This may not lead always to interesting records (like his rendition of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Pink Floyd), but 'My Computer' is not bad - in terms of noise and it could easily lead to the first remix CD of Jliat. There are tons of nice little brutal sounds in there that could be great use to the daring computer nerd. (FdW) Address: http://personal.ilimit.es/principio CADMIUM DUNKEL - ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE (MP3 by Tib Prod) KOFF KOFF - BESME-AM (MP3 by Tib Prod) Two new releases, available for free as MP3 albums by Tibprod. Cadmium Dunkel is just one guy, who has his influences from Genesis to King Crimson and Eno to Deathprod. Surrounded at home by a whole range of synthesizers and samplers, he thinks of himself as a painter in sound. Five lengthy pieces make up this album here of synthesized rhythms, sampled metallic sheets and scary touches on the keyboards. For me it worked best when the rhythms played a less important role in the pieces and the dark, atmospheric synths played a major role and this could the soundtrack to an unlikely Hollywood horror b-movie about throlls pushing people of Norwegian cliffs. Spooky stuff. Nice but not great - like a good b-movie should be. Less is known about the guy/girl who calls himself Koff Koff. "The music should be at the centre', it is declared. Couldn't agree more, of course, but of course then there is less to write about (well, maybe more, who knows). Unfortunally the music couldn't really interest me. Noise stuff, generated via laptop means, played in seemingely a random way, without too much notion of composition, structure or soul, make this into quite a sterile, distant work. Sometimes it's not enough to switch on a laptop, and let the plugs play. I am afraid a little extra is needed. (FdW) Address: http://www.tibprod.com FRANS DE WAARD - EIGHT LINES (Mini CD-R by Zeromoon) When mister de Waard works under his own name, you can bet the result is based on field recordings. In this case that is not entirely true, unless you regard voicemail recordings as field recordings too. This twenty minute track is a mix of eight recordings of this kind. The original recordings are obscure and hardly contain any voice. They are more colored by static and occasional beeps and although they are in fact untreated, they sound slowed down, filtered and downsampled. These eight (telephone) lines steadily blur into a steady drone of noise. The conceptual part is defenitely appealing, because the noise is created from a certain kind of silence: people NOT leaving a message on voicemail. Once the piece is on for six to eight minutes it can go on for a very long time, and it does just that, the time being twenty minutes. Not so much interesting as a piece of music, but certainly as a conceptual piece of sound art, or as a raw sound source for that blooming practice of contemporary music, the higher art of DJing. (MR) Address: www.zeromoon.com SHIFTS - VERTONEN (CD-R by Humbug) Yet another release by Frans de Waard, this one under the monniker Shifts, de Waard's ongoing investigation into the world of strings. These seven tracks date back to 1995 (!), when they were released (or not) by Freedom From (at least so it says one the cover). Remastered in 2002, this material is now rereleased (or not, depending on if they were actually released in 1995). The first track is a true beauty, with extremely low frequencies and ploinks and some strange clicks (mayby from 2002?). The second track takes it from there, slowly building from a single tick, drones added untill a carpet of bass is woven, accompanied by a lonely gong sound. Go on I say! And it does. Very good indeed. The third track is more akin to the sound I remember of Shifts: a tapestry of differently coloured, but similar sounds, layered and mixed into a wall of sound. This piece seems to come from as different space altogether: dense and thick, whereas the first two were more open and airy. Number four gives some air again, but is slowly closed off by a rolling bass sound that washes over the whole as a whale on dry land. Under this whale something is still alive it seems. And this living thing goes full blast in track five: one long scream, pretty nervewrecking and very intense, slowly fading away. Track six is a break from this story: high frequecy pulses are layered and sent into space. Once in every while, overtones or frequencies synchronise and create a second space. An ethereally beautiful piece. The last track starts with a single piano key being hit once, then it's looped and put through some kind of decay device or so. And then other unnamable things happen. But again this is a mesmerizing piece of elegant simplicity and beauty. This is most certainly my favourite Shifts release so far. It seems strange that it is not released as a real CD.....Anyway, this comes highly recommended! (MR) Address: BERTRAND DENZLER & HANS KOCH - ASYMETRIES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques) Denzler (tenor sax) and Koch (bass clarinet, soprano sax) blow their way through four pieces all entitled 'Asymetries. Both are exponents of the Swiss impro scene. Denzler is a player from Geneva (Switzerland). His cooperations are to numerous to mention them all. All in the field of improvised music. He is for instance member of Hubbub an improvisational collective. Koch is known for his work with celloplayer Martin Schutz. Denzler and Koch met in 1996 at one of Butch Morris 'Conductions' workshops. Since 1999 they established themselves as a duo. With this cd they make their debute on cd. It's instantly clear that both players are not satisfied with the conventional playing of these instruments. They use different kinds of technique in order explore and expand the spectrum of sounds that can come from these instruments. They do not use electronics, all is done by mouth and fingers. All this done not just for the sake of discovering more technical possibilities, or to add some more pages to the catalogue of sounds. They are means in a musical process that aims at communication. Denzler and Koch give room to each other, letting the other act or react. The result is a set of well balanced duets. The CD starts with very soft sounds. Short lines and figures come from and disappear into silence. Overall the music is contemplative, concentrated and controlled. It switches from soft and subtile to jerky and growling. For some reason I compare their music with Schwitters' Ursonate. Something completely different, be sure of that. But on the other hand both could be described as examples of soundpoetry that stay close to breath (DM) Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/ TENSILE (CDR compilation by Labile Music) This is a handsomely packed CDR release (organised by Jim Sande and Micheal V. Farley) with nineteen pieces of all sorts of acoustic guitar playing. One that is in a totally different vein then the CD I reviewed in Vital Weekly 380. First of all these pieces are much shorter, ranging from thirty seconds to just inder six minutes, and secondly the pieces need not be limited to just guitar. So we have somebody like Greg Davis, who plays acoustic guitar, but feeds the signal through his laptop and max/msp patches and offers a great, intense piece. On the total opposite we find Olaf Rupp, who continues with his frentic playing, just as on his 'Scree' CD (see Vital Weekly 341) - a work of total free improvisation. Somewhere in between are the thirty conceptual seconds of Jliat. Most of these people stay in similar areas as Rupp, the improvisational aspects - people like Brekekekexkoaxkoax, Jim Sande or Bundespublik. More processed pieces are by Living With Eating Disorders (is this bandname a sick joke on Vini Reilly, I wondered), Mark McLaren, Cody Oliver, Bill Jarboe, Glenn Bach, Dale Lloyd, Gydja, Will Soderberg, Micheal V. Farley and Aidan Baker. With the latter, more expanded range of players being a majority here, this is much more a compilation of 'acoustic guitar plus...' compilation and not one that is 'strictly acoustic guitar'. But the results are equally nice - most of these people stay on the smooth side of things - the acoustic guitar, even taken out of its campfire element, is still an instrument to play moody tunes with - even when plugged into a laptop. (FdW) Address: http://www.jimsande.org BUJEOLD - FABRIQUE DECOLOURS (CDR) Quite a puzzel what is what here. I think Bujeold is the artist and Fabrique Decolours the title. It's a short, eightteen minute, piece, recorded in Macerata - whereever that may be. Other then a few 'thanks' notes, nothing else is written here, not even a website address to order it. Eightteen minutes of violent drone music - organ sounds that truely bite through your organs. Put under the feedback test, taking all low end out of it. Maybe heavily under the influences of the live sound of Phill Niblock, taking his volume and minimalism as starting points, but can't see I much enjoyed this (even when I like drones and all things minimal) - too easy, too hasty and maybe a bit naive. If there was audience that nights, they may have lost some of their hearing capacity. Address: nope MY MALADY (CD compilation by Mental Monkey Records) I must admit I feared the worst, when I read the press blurb raving about 'a wide range of chaotic sounds together into one sweeping smorgasbord of interpretations of disease and dysfunction'. It's not that I dislike noise, even when it took me four years to hear all fifty Merzbow CDs that are in the Merzbox. Occassionally I even play a Whitehouse record, MB or Ramleh. But much of the noise music that is made by others are just a repetition of archetypes put forward by those I just mentioned and do not add something new. So when I got through this lengthy compilation of no-less then thirty-three tracks by as many artists, I can safely say: noise music is alive and maybe even kicking (despite it's disease?). It has become an umbrella for many sub-genres, feedback inspired noise, guitar noise, dark ambient, plunderphonics and in some cases even techno oriented. Quite a pleasent trip. Not to mention the many unknown bands here, like Bomb20, Burmese, Iran, Persona, Mixel Pixel, Spin Laden, Cussycat, Berkowitz Lake & Dahmer (yes, some of these people have nice band names too) or Travis Bickle's Mohawk. Prime noise makers - that is people who have gained a following already of their own - include Illusion Of Safety, V/VM, Zipperspy or The Evolution Control Committee. It's the variety of music that makes it quite enjoyable. Short tracks, from various angles of noise (and related - he hastened to say) make this quite a vivid compilation. (FdW) Address: http://www.mentalmonkeyrecords.com TOMAS JIRKU - BLEAK 1999 (CD by No Type) By now the name Tomas Jirku is a well respected one in the field of minimal dance music. His previous 12"s have a strong dance floor sensibility and his concerts are hilarious. His CDs so far showed a more austere side of his work, more intended for home listening. They too use rhythms to quite an extended but are more minimal, working more indepth on sound and colour. Yet, with his new album 'Bleak 1999' he goes a bit further. The rhythms found here are not just 'acid' or 'techno' rhythms, but very straight forward bangs with little to none variation. Each of the sixteen tracks here have some sort of rhythm, but they merely carry the piece. The icing on each cake comes from a likewise sober use of synthesized sounds and processed radio transmissions. A somewhat distant, yet quite atmospheric sound is displayed here. Music that seems to be intended to be played at that point of the day when day turns into night: shimmering twilight music, with the lights just turned on, driving by an abandonned industrial site. Maybe a black and white movie, rather then a coloured one. It should be a bit cloudy during that day. Tracks flow into eachother here, thus to emphasize the drive by nature of the music. Music that is made in solitude and should be listened in soltitude. Maybe it's a far cry from Jirku's partymode, but at least it's also something to show that he is not a flat character. I guess it's an album that will upset some of his listeners, but more of the same is always less. To the reasons why it took so long to release it (the title indicates rightly that it was recorded in 1999), I can only guess, but it's good to see it out, at last. (FdW) Address: http://www.notype.com STEPHAN MATHIEU - KAPOTTE MUZIEK BY... (CDEP by Korm Plastics) Excerpted samples from a live Kapotte Muziek concert are freebased, slipwired, or in other words, deep-fried. The sounds taken from a live show in 1996 in Berlin is #10 in a series of manipulated transgressions from the already deeply dense material in the KM catalogue. The opening sequence of this 21 minute deluge of organized chaos plays with the differentials between white noise and minimal/contained atonal aerobics. "A Microsound Fairytale"‚ is Mathieu's abridged version of the Cliff Notes on the artist he recreates in the form of a perturbed software glitch, ambling over its many encrypted messages, line by line. He patterns sound that probably had no linear shape at all. The sheer velocity of the sound warp created owes a teeny nod to the prolifics of Masami Akita. Though Mathieu has big ears for shaping assorted noise forms, he makes what is an aural equivalent common to churning dams, waterfalls and other natural water powers. There are few vacancies in this recording, it is pretty upright and in your face, while taking momentary breathers to contemplate complex statics and testosterone fueled variances. (TJN) Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl FLIM - HOLIDAY DIARY (CD by Plinkity Plonk) This is a lazy afternoon recording made by Enrico Wüttke under the guise of Flim. If I weren‚t looking I could easily mistake this for something on the Canadian Constellation label, though the quiet moments are seemingly more austere. On "Murmer Room"‚ the repetitive strings are at first mesmerizing but slowly wear themselves out, even with a quite appealing, separate track of twitches and squeaks used as an additive. "Lime"‚ is a sleepwalk through musty caverns, tranquil yet murky, especially when a bassline is introduced. The drama is all in the fuzzy moments where digital and analogue collide. While there are certainly beautiful passages where the piano is ethereal such as on "Current Description", programming the blandly mainstream "Above Seagulls" right after it marginalizes its splendor. "Holiday Diary‚ seems like a hit and miss record from beginning to end. A theme for ballerinas entitled "Home" seems as if it might be sourced from a completely other artist, and knowing that this along with some of the previous tracks were recorded on a single day either proves genius or insanity. Whimsy divides the almost oompa-loompa-like traditional harmonies of "No Guitars Please", by far this diary‚s stand out track. Wüttke has learned from the soundtracks of Philip Glass, and it is clearly evident here. By sampling unique field recordings by Jamie Drouin, Lance Olsen and others Flim has used sources that are unfamiliar ground to many listeners. With vague resemblances to The Grassy Knoll, this is anything aside from out jazz. This is in many ways a hammer and nail type job, back to basics, a learning work-in-progress, refreshing but sparse material that may be a good base for future greatness. (TJN) Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl FREIBAND - MUSIK FOR NO TITLE (CDR-EP by Mik Musik) A pulsating brain in space with lava-like fallout and threatening undertones. Here in volume five of the "even more special series" Frans de Waard have released a purring, balanced take on contemporary static. This real limited edition cdr of only 55 is a grab-it-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace sorta thing. Sometimes you just gotta be quick (and knowledgeable) if you are a true fan of experimental music. For a moment I think there is going to be build-up to a big house explosion on the dancefloor but the curve ball thrown takes the ear into uncharted territories. While the silences seem somewhat awkward, what comes next is just deliciously unpredictable. The multi-channel pitter-patter vibrates and radiates, playing ground hog games with the listener. A nerve-ending pulse glows brighter than the North Star as this 18-minute mini-release nears is conclusion. You may even get seasick if you are party prone. With such sparse air space one may mistake ŒMusik for No Title‚ for a time machine dated 2001, the space odyssey, not the much less exciting actual earth year. (TJN) Address: http://www.molr.terra.pl KOMET - GOLD (CD by Raster-Post) From #3 in the new 'post' series, Komet (Frank Bretschneider) offers eight new thrilling tracks. The grooves are syncopated, the environment is plastic. The world of 'Wheel' is a variegated pastiche of machine and man facing up to their collective risk management. The return on investment with many microsound projects can often get lost in the collective balance. Komet alleviates any worry by conjuring up a pool of sounds that are as engaging as they are distant. 'Gold' is not all about static or toneless fodder, here we have an absorbent milieu of stratospheric polytonal minimalism as heard on "OMSK'. This is a space dedicated heartily to a digital oceanfront, lapping digits and kerning the sands of timing. When 'Two' begins with its ticklish beat, there is an attention paid to not only the movement, but also the mechanics of calculation. The meter is perfectly measured. Follow the bouncing ball on "Weiss"! In a tribute to PacMan, this short piece is a rubber play on harmonics with a happy-go-lucky attitude. The atmosphere is the warmest of anything I have yet heard on the Raster imprint as evidenced on 'Left'. Significant nods for design and packaging in a very slick yet simple die cut digipak. This is a solid electronic disc, one that could give any discography goosebumps. (TJN) Address: http://www.raster-noton.de/ AIDAN BAKER & TOMAS BAKER & ALAN BLOOR - TERZA RIMA (CDR by Public Eyeshore) FREE FROM DISGUISE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) AYAMI YO-KO (CDR by Public Eyeshore) SOTTO VOCE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) BAD GIRLS - UNAUTHORIZED RECORDINGS (CDR by Public Eyeshore) THE BUNNY BRAINS - HOLIDAY MASSACRE (CDR by Public Eyeshore) On the disc by Baker, Baker and Bloor it seems to me that Aidan Baker is the most important player. His name popped up recentely on a whole number of solo discs. He plays various instruments, but here it is the guitar that he is playing. His brother Tomas plays piano and Alan Bloor (also known as Knurl and Pholde) plays amplified metal. The three lenghty pieces were recorded at the Ambient Ping Series in Toronto last October. Like to be expected this is a work of improvised music, but in an ambient context. 'Tertiary', the final track on this disc opens with free styled piano sounds (played on the keys, not the piano interieur) and is the most jazzy thing on the CD, a diametrical opposite from 'Pentametrical', the opening piece, with its gliding tones of scraping metal, occassional eerie piano notes and a guitar that is drenched in sound effects. In the middle piece, 'Interlaced Rhyme Scheme', both worlds seem to be united. It's great to hear these three entirely different pieces, or rather approaches to their material, come together. It's a disc of a strange combination of ambient music (mainly in it's approaches for sound effects) and improvised playing - a nice surprise! Of an entirely different nature is Free From Disguise, a quartet from Japan. Tome (vocals), Roco (guitar), Nagao (bass) and Noguchi (drums) open up with a jazz like guitar which reminded of certain Controlled Bleeding periods (era 'Gag'), but soon explode into psychedelic punk acid rock. Lyrics are in Japanese - at least most of the times. The first four tracks were recorded in studio and the next five are live. Especially the studio pieces are of great quality. It's maybe not my cup of tea for a daily digest, but the speed and seriousness with which this played makes these pieces into a very much enjoyable listening. However in their live setting, the songs are less stronger (this might be also because the sound quality is not overall very good) and the playing is less tight. Another thing that is really beyond my logic is the fact that three studio tracks appear also in their live version - ran out of tracks? A pity. The four studio tracks as a cdr ep would have been great too. Ayami Yo-ko is not the name of the performer, that is one Satoru Kadowaki. It's one man singing and playing guitar, but then rather Keiji Haino styled then Bob Dylan styled. His guitar playing sounds very much like when I play one - strumming some sounds which I think might be chords, but surely aren't. I never sing, so I must not compared that... It's all in Japanese, a language which I haven't fully mastered yet (probably I should start), but the tone of the singing says something about pain and agony, loss of love or anything some such that makes life a hard to endure process and all of the vocals bathe in a swimming pool of reverb. Long pieces here - five pieces, over fifty-five minutes in total length. It makes it hard to endure for the listener. I never was a big fan of Haino and somehow I don't think I will be one for Ayami Yo-ko. The final Japanese disc is by Sotto Voce, a sturdy improvisational effort around piano, guitar, saxophone and drums. Track one, 'sep 24,00' starts out mildly but half way through bursts into a more raw piece, and it becomes a more jazz/noise rock thing. In one long stream this stays through out the disc - maybe with the exception of the final part of the second piece, which seems quite electronic - and indeed very noisy. Overall, despite it's free jazz character, this is quite a conservative free jazz album - played well, but with nothing new under the sun. Back to the States, Bad Girls are from Michigan and is a trio of Mike Khoury on Violin, Wade Kergan on clarinet, sax and electronics and Ben Bracken on guitar and electronics. Here too we are in improvisational grounds of music. I don't know in what way these recordings are 'unauthorized', maybe they thought it was just a funny title. Six pieces of improvised music, over an hour long. 'Impressions Of A Filthy Naked Hippy' starts out this release with a heavy saxophone improvisation, pushing the other players back. In such a lead, I am never fond of saxophones, but in the other five tracks the balance is more right between the three players. Although the improvisations are not as worked out then on the Sotto Voce release, I found them altogether more interesting, because of their 'free from any influence' playing. Bad Girls seem to do whatever they like and not hindered by any of influence of theoretical background. My favourite here was 'Incidental Music (mix #2), in which everything seems to be gliding next to eachother. The final new release on Public Eyeshore is by the Bunny Brains, a five piece band with vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards, synth and bass. This one even goes further then most of the other new Public Eyeshore releases: country rock or swamp rock as some people call it. Thirteen too long tracks of uninspiring rock music. Me and Adult Oriened Rock: it will never be something. (FdW) Address: http://www.sinkhole.net/pehome TSURUBAMI - GEKKYUKEKKKAICHI (CD by Strange Attractors) This completely improvised recording for drums, bass and guitar has this Japanese trio (ala Acid Mothers Temple) riding the wave of startling, drone ambience. Here we stand in a darkened forest surrounded by an invisible chamber orchestra bent on burrowing through a time warp. The 24 minute title track could be categorized as extreme ambience, with its numbing reverb. On 'Seiitenrinengi' we bear witness to the aftermath of terror, or at least it reminds me of a strange Godzilla flick, and that is not because I cannot pronounce it either. The sounds dramatize a lightness of being while at the same time present a weird convex interpretation of shallow distortion. The air is opaque, the images are tunnel-like. Though, about 12 minutes into this nearly 40-minute track, the bass heaves and allows all sorts of variable prepared sounds to ramble on in organic, unplanned patterns. 'Gekkyukekkaichi' is a very physical, almost brute recording, that breeds an enlightened power at its core. This will induce headaches for some, and meditation for others. (TJN) Address: http://www.strange-attractors.com/ SCANNER - WARHOL'S SURFACES (CD by Intermedium) Robin Rimbaud has got to be one of the busiest guys in the sound scene and his crossroads in the fine arts are plenty, including his own work in sound installation. This is a quirky record using samples of Andy Warhol interviews conducted in the early 80s. The recording seems predicated on a quip, a Warholism that goes 'If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface: of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it'. With such folly Warhol may have manipulated his audience into understanding that all taste is biased in a glossy, offset world, maybe a bit cynical, with a ring of truth sharp as a razor's edge but dull as day to day life. Scanner reconstructs the language of Warhol, while his 'bored, art star' appeal remains intact. There are samples of street sounds and other references to New York City throughout. While there are dense moments where the artist seems directly engaged, there are equal parts urban silences and low-tone mixes of motors revving and horns honking. So, even though you may only have to look at the surfaces, you will have to listen closely not to miss the subtleties here. If you are at all familiar with the Big Apple aesthetic this will be symbolic, or maybe even phantomlike in the wake of 9/11. The de/remixing of Warhol's voice creates layers of ambiguity as 'New York City Street Map' takes a sharp turn into the village of unknown squirming echoes. 'Becoming Someone Else' starts by using Warhol's lips as a swarm, duplicating finite syllables repetitively. This take on the artist who met the public eye unflinchingly, but with a calculated reticence, is quite haunting and intuitive. In many ways Scanner has established yet another unauthorized aural biography on a man behind the mask, someone who boldly played the media machine in a less than glamorous field, until he came along. The beats are jungle-like and hypnotic on 'Turning the Dial'. German label Intermedium specialize in sound art productions and this may be the recording that puts them on the conscious map for works that blur genre lines and end up with a great collaboration between sound and vision. (TJN) Address: http://www.intermedium-rec.com/ BOOKS ON TAPE - SINGS THE BLUES (CD by No Type) In a short time span, this is the third release by Books On Tape (see also Vital Weekly 361 and 376), the solo project of Todd Matthew, who once more takes his punk attitude to the sampler and cooks up a nice meal of hip hop, punk and techno. Whereas the recent 10" was maybe a bit long, the balance here is right. The sixteen tracks are one long driving energy force of energetic pieces that breath the speed of punk, but takes it's sampled sources from anywhere in history of music - jazz, blues, techno - but without sounding like that at all. Despite the title, Books On Tape may sing a lot of tunes, but definetely not the blues. Maybe it's a more raw version of Moby at times. Freshly aggressive, raw and untamed. Quite an enjoyable effort. (FdW) Address: http://www.notype.com NIKO SKORPIO VS REPTILJAN - SILENCE IS KING (7" by Some Place Else) The busy bee Niko Skorpio is working on two albums at the same time, one is a solo CD and one is by a band called Reptiljan. The four tracks on this 7" "just happened" while working on those two albums. The title piece is a distorted funk piece with a computer voice which gradually fades over into noise. Downsampling sounds is the basic idea for 'Snap Crackle Pope In The Ear Tunnel Of Love' and results into a strange, alienated piece of music. 'Bassfinder General' is a place where breakbeats and grindcore meet - I had to check: but I played it really at 33 rpm and it's still sounds five times too fast. As a counterpoint, 'Kafka Dreams' is almost dubby, with a female vocal somewhere. Strangely fucked up computer cum techno music in four different directions - that makes a nice EP. (FdW) Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net correction: A terrible mistake in the Guilty Connector & Tabata review from last week. Guilty Connector is not part of Monster DVD, I was confused with Government Alpha. Otherwise it remains a great CD! - Frans 1. From: "c" Phill Niblock/Thomas Ankersmit Japan Tour September 2003 Sunday September 14 Jusshi Square, Tokyo Thursday September 18 Musashino Art University, Tokyo Saturday September 20 Super Deluxe, Tokyo Wednesday September 24 REMO, Osaka Thursday September 25 Chukyo University, Nagoya 2. From: gert-jan prins MIMEO to perform in Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Venue:Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003 designed by Oscar Niemeyer Kensington Gardens, London, W2 Date: 5 September Time:7pm - 10.30pm Tickets: £5, £3 concessions Booking: TicketWeb on 08700 600100 or at the Gallery In the last major event in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, the Serpentine has commissioned internationally renowned musicians MIMEO (Movement in Electronic Orchestra) to perform a one-off sound work conceived specifically for the Pavilion. This is the first London performance by MIMEO, which was formed in 1997 from Europe's leading electronic music specialists.The musicians will use a grand piano, transistor radios, televisions, laptop computers and synthesizers in a unique, improvised composition.Using live digital and analogue sampling, they will capture the effects of the sound as it unfolds inside the Pavilion and feed it back into the performance. MIMEO musicians for this performance are Phil Durrant, Cor Fuhler, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews (Directing), Jerome Noetinger, Gert-Jan Prins, Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe, Marcus Schmickler and Rafael Toral. The piece will be remixed for broacast by Radio 3's Mixing It, and produced on a CD by the Serpentine Gallery.This will be available from the Gallery Lobby Desk from the end of September. Serpentine Gallery public information: Tel: 0207 298 1515, or www.serpentinegallery.org 3. From: "M. Bentley/The Foundry" Friday 19 September 2003 - Before Sleep Saul Stokes and Michael Bentley/eM Musician's Union Hall, San Francisco 8PM - 11PM / $5 This evening of music will present solo sets from Saul Stokes and Michael Bentley/eM, as well as a set featuring collaborations between these two artists. Stokes will be presenting improvised soundscapes using his collection of hand forged electronic music instruments and devices. Bentley will be presenting his audio/video composition Chronos and Kairos. The collaborative material will include some studies for their upcoming Dreamspace sleep concert on October 4th at False Profit in San Francisco. +=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+ Saturday 4 October 2003 - Dreamspace Michael Bentley/eM, Saul Stokes and Dean Santomieri False Profit, San Francisco 11PM - 9AM / $TBA Following the tradition pioneered by Robert Rich, Dub Beautiful and The Foundry are proud to present Dreamspace, an 8 hour sleep concert to be held at False Profit in San Francisco. Music for this event will be provided by sound artists Dean Santomieri, Saul Stokes, and Foundry founder Michael Bentley (eM). The trios' performance will be oriented around the idea of "Music for Lucid Dreaming." Bentley and Santomieri will also provide imagery. Please arrive at 11pm. Do bring a sleeping bag and comfy clothes so you can rest/sleep and enjoy the all-night live performances by Stokes, Santomieri and Bentley. More details about Dreamspace at the Dub Beautiful website - http://www.dub-beautiful.org. More about The Foundry via http://www.foundrysite.com. +=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+ Saturday 1 November 2003 - The Uninvited Guest Dean Santomieri, Michael Bentley, David Kwan, Sarah Klein, Greg Moore, Karen Stackpole and others The Church Hall at the Pt. Reyes Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station 7PM / $3 This will be an evening of macabre stories, video and music to celebrate the season. Stories/poems including Santomieri's A Book Bound in Red Buckram, E.A. Poe's Ulalume and others. NOTE: This show is not suitable for young children. More information via 415-663-1075 and info/map via http://www.dancepalace.org 4. From: Frans de Waard Kapotte Muziek plays saturday (23-08) afternoon (17:00) at the Noisecape festival in Scheveningen, The Netherlands. more info at http://www.goldcoast.nl/noisecape A duo of improvised electronics with Kouhei (Flying Swimming) and Frans de Waard will take place on sunday 24-08 at the Extrapool boat during the Armada in Nijmegen. More info at: http://www.extrapool.nl At the same festival Roel Meelkop and me will be the guest DJ to play an evening of our favourite early 80s music on friday night 22-08, same boat. -- 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/