============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 388 ------------ week 37 ------------ contents: TIM HECKER - MY LOVE IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE (CDEP by Substractif) RICHARD H. KIRK - TWAT V.04 THE WAR AGAINST TERROR (CD by Intone) ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - BEES & HONEY (CD by Zeromoon) GI JOE KILLAZ (CD by Cobra Records) ORA - AFTER RAINFALL (CD by ICR) PAUL BRADLEY - TWENTY HERTZ (CDR by ICR) COLIN POTTER & PAUL BRADLEY - BEHIND YOUR VERY EYES (CD by ICR) PHIL MOULDYCLIFF & COLIN POTTER - SHELLFISH IN KETTLEBLACK (CDR by ICR) BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - MOISTURE (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) TIM CAITLIN - SLOW TWITCH (CD by Dr Jim' Records) PLANKTON - CELESTIAL PAD (12" by Digital Kranky) DOUGHNUT DONGLE - FRESH FOR YOU (CDR by Digital Kranky) JACKIE-O-MOTHERFUCKER - THE MAGICK FIRE MUSIC/WOW (2CD by ATP Recordings) FREIE HAND (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) JONATHAN WRIGHT - AI UI AI (CDR by Evelyn Records) CULVER - METAL BREAST (CDR by Evelyn Records) MINMAE - REMEMBER THESE CHORDS IN THE MORNING (CDR by Evelyn Records) OPAQUE - COSMETIC (CDR by Evelyn Records) STREETLIGHTUNIT - MERRY XMAS (CDR by Evelyn Records) ID - FROM CAUSE TO EFFECT (CDR by Evelyn Records) MIDWICH - NATURAL WASTAGE (CDR by Evelyn Records) SON OF MUMRAH - SUCH A WASTE (CDR by Evelyn Records) JAMES P KEELER - POLELIGHT (CDR by Evelyn Records) PORCH - ][ (CDR by Evelyn Records) POLMO POLPO - THE SCIENCE OF BREATH (CD by Substractif) FHIEVEL - VERTRI DI CARTA (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) KAR & TIZIANA LO CONTE - CHECK & SET (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) ALESSANDRO FOGAR - TRANSMUSTATIONS (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI - BUT SPEAK FAIR WORDS (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) DALE LLOYD - ELEMENTAL DIALOGUE (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) FORMATT - EXEMN (mp3 by Earlabs) POLYVOX POPULI 2 COMPILATION (mp3 by Nexsound) ARC - FERAL (CDR by Arcolepsy) THE BOOKS - THE LEMON OF PINK (CD by Tomlab) MARKUS KUERTEN - SCHEUSALPUSIK (CDR by Bruit) DANIEL MENCHE - BEAUTIFUL BLOOD (CD by Alien8 Recordings) ILLUSION OF SAEFTY - TIME REMAINING (CD by Ossosnossos) TIM HECKER - MY LOVE IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE (CDEP by Substractif) The only previous work by Tim Hecker I heard was under his alter ego Jetone, the Mille Plateaux release and I wasn't blown away by it. It was nice work of minimal techno, that lacked tension and originality. His first album on Substractif, under his own name, I didn't hear. I must say it comes as a suprise this new CDEP. Hecker is not on his minimal techno trip, but rather plays his own version of plunderphonics. Apperentely he takes samples of popmusic from the eighties and mixes them with other samples of interviews and concert announcements. Guitar chords play an important role, but he processes them into a loud wall of noise. It's jagged music, distorted to the bone, but still recognizable as a pisstake on popmusic. It's a rather violent version of Fennesz' more poppy outings. This is music about the sillyness of major popacts and the ludicrous behavior towards their audience. It's a pretty radical release, both in terms of music and chosen subject. It makes me wonder about his other CD for Substractif. (FdW) Address: http://www.substractif.com RICHARD H. KIRK - TWAT V.04 THE WAR AGAINST TERROR (CD by Intone) It's probably blasphemy, but I must admit I was never a big fan of Cabaret Voltaire. There it is. During the last ten years I heard some interesting works by Richard H. Kirk, such as his Sweet Excorsist and Sandoz monnikers, but also works that didn't much either. I think I gave up a while ago, but upon the arrival of this new CD, I was quite keen to hear what Kirk is doing now. The War Against Terror is of course just another reason for more violence against innocent people, more state control and more repression, if you are not with us you are against us - that sort of thing. If I understand the cover correctely this CD was recorded on may 21st 2002, probably in one go. The six tracks flow into eachother. It works like many other Kirk works: a voice sample starts, rhythm kicks in, more samples are added (in similar tempo) and cross fades are made between the various rhythms. Sometimes these rhythms are fed through some synths which in return add a nasty, piercing sound. It's good to see that Kirk still holds on to this basic method, which probably didn't change much since the days of Cabaret Voltaire. It's a crude, harsh and very underground techno spirit he has. The rhythms are kinda slow overall, and I don't think this work is ment for a dance floor - unless maybe a subterrean one. The homogenity of the sounds used, the same basic idea throughout six tracks, almost fifty minutes in length, doesn't help much either. I think I still prefer Sandoz' 'Digital Lifeforms' much more - light weighted, rich of sounds and ideas, whereas this is crude, poor and distant. A good cause needs a good CD. (FdW) Address: none given ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - BEES & HONEY (CD by Zeromoon) Now this is a really clever move: not so well-known artist releases CD and to pitch sales he asks more well-known artists to send in remixes of the material to be released.......This commercial angle notwithstanding, Kiritchenko's tracks (being the first five on the disc) are not at all bad and they deserve the attention and the company. I think his music can be described as ambient glitch: washing sounds and clicks 'n cuts on top. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed but has a certain depth, so as not to get boring. There is an interesting interplay between the sounds in the back- and foreground, creating a rich texture of electronics. After the first three short tracks there are two longer ones, track four a gradually changing drony piece and track five an almost melodic one (the track titles suggest a concept album, btw). So, onwards to the remixes: the first is by Brian Lavelle, a very light affair with tremendous space, sounds approaching slowly. Very subtle work, very well done. Next up is Marcus Maeder with a very good piece, based on the second track. It moves from atmosphere to atmosphere in a quiet but steady fashion and has been put together very carefully. Scanner is next with a work that is surprisingly exciting: a piece that gets denser over time before it closes in a quiet manner. 833-45 is a name (?) I have never heard before (maybe because it doesn't seem to cling to my grey cells) and that is a shame because the track they present here is just as good as the others so far. This one is the first with an overt rhythm and that seems to be the only problem with it: there is not enough happening twith this rhythm to keep it strong for the whole duration of the track. Other than that it's a piece with a very good sound texture andf a lot to listen to. Kotra is another unknown name (to me) and is the second one with a certain rhythm: a steady pulse is the basis under the first part of the track, then a break and the track seems to get lost a little until the beat returns. Violet are doing some heavy distorting in their remix (it makes me wonder if this is a remix at all....). Sounds do not seem to stem from Kiritchenko's tracks but are field recordings with some electronics on top (that's probably Kiritchenko's material then). A very interesting and exciting piece, because it combines these two different sound worlds. Well done. The Moglass seem to work in a somewhat similar way as Violet, but a lot more subdued and with a lot more FX added. At some points one is even able to hear voice and instruments. This is the most psychedelic track so far. Kim Gascone is next, with a track consisting mainly of hisses of all kinds and a variety of clicks. This is a pretty ethereal piece, inducing a somewhat lost state of mind (which seems to fit to the title 'Dead World' ...). Cray's Moonshinermx 56 seems to be a more or less live manipulation of the original material, using digital means to do so. It sort of gets stuck in this manipulation and doesn't develop into a real piece which is a shame, because there is potential here, certainly in the sounds. Last one is Freiband with an extremely electronic remix, reducing the original material to shreds of what it was and therewith building a very dense track of power electronics, only not so loud...Then ending with a very nice tone. As a conclusion I would like to say that this disc is without doubt a very good collection of contemporary 'ambient glitch'. Kiritchenko fits into this category very well and has placed himself accordingly with this CD. And rightly so, I might add. A good release. (MR) Adress: www.zeromoon.com GI JOE KILLAZ (CD by Cobra Records) It's probably blasphemy, but I must admit I never like rap. or Hip Hop. or R&B. Except for some of the productional aspects of the music. Otherwise I always think they are doing a worldchampionship of saying all the dirty words in thirty seconds over some lame music. There it is. Does this change if the band is called G.I.Joe Killaz with a guy called Destro, a girl (sorry that should be bitch, but I was raised properly) called the Baroness and the Cobra Commandor doing the beats? Not really. Does it change when the Cobra Commandor is called Tomas Jirku? It shouldn't but it does change, at least for me as a Jirku aficionado. I listened with a keen ear to what it would sound like, Jirku doing hip hop beats, a bit of techno and acid thrown in. It sounded nice, sometimes with the same lameness as other hip hop records that occassionally see and hear on MTV or such like. I even heard some funny lyrics in the raps. It seems to me a pisstake on the real gangsta raps, ridiculing that a bit, so that's always good. Let's hope they don't kill the band members. Do I like this? Well, I played it with mild enthusiasm and will probably give it some more spins, but I don't think I will ever be big fan of rap. Or hip hop. Or R&B. (FdW) Address: http://alien8recordings.com/store ORA - AFTER RAINFALL (CD by ICR) PAUL BRADLEY - TWENTY HERTZ (CDR by ICR) COLIN POTTER & PAUL BRADLEY - BEHIND YOUR VERY EYES (CD by ICR) PHIL MOULDYCLIFF & COLIN POTTER - SHELLFISH IN KETTLEBLACK (CDR by ICR) Maybe to the superficially interested bands like Mirror, Monos and Ora and all the various solo projects by members thereof (Colin Potter, Andrew Chalk) may all sound the same. But to the real lovers this ain't so. Mirror deals more with drone music played on instruments, Monos adds a lot of field recordings and Ora is the more abstract of the three. Ora is a mixed company of people, including Darren Tate, Colin Potter and Lol Coxhill, although I can't be sure since the cover doesn't list any names. The music on this new CD dates back to 1996 tot 1999. They should have been released before but it was assumed that the masters got lost. They aren't. Ora is at it's best here. An overwhelming but open drone sound, loaded with all sorts of electronic effects, field recordings of water dripping and manipulations of wind instruments. In five lengthy pieces they display their quality quite well. In the title piece the waving sound is connected to some sort of metallic percussion. In 'Gnome Culture' a guitar plays the main role and is almost psychedelic in approach and in 'Darkness' a desolated saxophone imitates a cat in a likewise desolated atmosphere. After a lot of hard to get CDR releases and some limited vinyl releases, this may be the first proper introduction to Ora. If Mirror or Monos are already your tea then I'm sure that the more abstract drones of Ora will come down with you quite well. On the same label, but then as a CDR, comes a release by one Paul Bradley, a new name for me and I don't know much about him, besides that he is from England. His five pieces do relate quite nicely to the works of Ora et al, but have their own place in this particular universe. It's not music made with sine waves, as the title suggests, but in a rather old-fashioned ambient way. Mostly relying on a wall of synthesized sounds he paints a rather spooky sight. As a counterpoint to these stretched sounds, he uses loops of sounds, of various sources unknown, which act as rhythm but which fade in and out. In 'Overcome' things reach almost a noise level, but it stays within the right amount. Overall it's a nice work, that bridges the eighties industrial and the more contemplative drone music of recent. Around the same time a collaborative album with Colin Potter was released, with four long ambient pieces. Here it seems to come together, the more industrialized sounds of Bradley and Potter's work with Ora, Monos, maybe even Nurse With Wound and his solo work. Both synthesized sounds and environmental sounds (the latter being heavily processed though) are blended together. A piece like 'Decline' has siren like sounds, sea wave like synths and something that is a like highly processed pool table game. These guys work in a strict minimal way. 'Flattered To Deceive' for instance is a hardly moving, almost static piece of music, but full of atmospheric tension. I think musicwise, this work comes close to that of Mirror with sam, hermetic closed sound. A great CD. And then finally comes another collaborative work of Colin Potter, this time with one Phil Mouldycliff, a person I never heard of before. He is listed on the cover playing 'audio debris field', whatever that may be. Colin's work is down to 'processing and mix'. I have been thinking about this audio debris field - it sounds good, it leaves something to imagine. Sounds from erased tapes, magnetics that try to erase information from magnetic tapes, or any other form of sound residue? It's hard to tell by just hearing this. Maybe it's due to the heavily processings by Potter that the sources can not be as easily recognized. There were moments when I thought of short or long-wave signals, going through an endless line of sonic processing, knitting them together in an endless string of sound. On this release the pieces reach their longest duration, but keep on changing through each of the three pieces. In the second piece (that might be called 'In') whispering voices against a chilling electronic background play a role. Strange and compelling release. (FdW) Address: http://www.icrstudio.co.uk BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - MOISTURE (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) It may have gone unnoted, but in September 2001 Big City Orchestra toured Europe a bit and now, two years later, those recordings are edited into a release. It's kinda hard to tell what is what here, but I believe track one to seven are highlights of various concerts and tracks eight to twenty seven are the usual Big City Orchestra sound effects (for those who do not know: on every Big City Orchestra CD one gets a whole bunch of short sounds to be freely used - strange though that there has been no project of people using them). To be noted is also that this release includes recordings made at Amsterdam's Radio 100 on the night of September 11th, 2001, but it's not noted which track that is. Included are also tracks Big City Orchestra (core members Das and Nina Pixie on tour, Rob Wortman and Russ Kent supplied the backing tapes) recorded with Phil Knight (aka Silverman of Pink Dots fame) in a camper along the river banks in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Maybe it's due to his influence that this particular Big City Orchestra is a more spacious one than some of the other recent releases. The seven 'tracks' are lengthy jams of synthesized sounds, swirled tightly together in a labyrinth of sound. Big City Orchestra has covered many subjects inside popmusic, and here they thread the paths of cosmic/kraut rock, and they do a good job. And that library of sound effects keep calling for a remix... (FdW) Address: http://www.reduktivemusiken.de TIM CAITLIN - SLOW TWITCH (CD by Dr Jim' Records) It is doubtful whether we should Tim Caitlin a guitarist, even when his album, his first I believe, is full of guitar originated sound. He doesn't play the guitar in any regular sense, but approach the machine with six guitars with fans and e-bows and creates his own underworld of overtones. None of these four tracks were in any way manipulated in the computer; it's a rather 'live in studio' approach Caitlin has, in an almost scientific way. Placing a fan on the strings in such a way that only a few or maybe all start to vibrate and to search were the nice modulating overtones are kept. The result is a complex of sounds, minimalist - of course, what else could be done - in approach, but which are an isolationist, ambient joy to hear. It's not clinical and cold as one would expect from a mechanically played instrument, but it's warm and feels like a bath. Of course the idea to play guitars mechanically isn't something new (think Arnold Dreyblatt, Remko Scha or Shifts), but it's still a relatively unknown territory in music. Tim is a good discoverer. He shouldn't stay too long in there but find more and new ways also. (FdW) Address: http://www.drjimsrecords.com PLANKTON - CELESTIAL PAD (12" by Digital Kranky) DOUGHNUT DONGLE - FRESH FOR YOU (CDR by Digital Kranky) Releases on the German label Digital Kranky are indeed a bit kranky. One guy named Christian, now living in Berlin, just released a 12" with some strange, slow, maybe techno inspired music that was inspired by his youth in a small village. It's the kind of music I have trouble with: it's not very well recorded, it doesn't have much ideas of his own, it's rather mininal but not intruiging etc etc. It seems to be made by someone who wanted desperatly to have a record out too, for the sake of releasing a record. Maybe it gets a spin or two at an underground techno party, but you won't catch me on its dancefloor. On the same label is Doughnut Dongle, which is not, as the presstext says, from the USA, but one of the guys from Koenigjohannes (see Vital Weekly 322) and someone else who forgot all the names he worked under. They present themselves as fake rock stars on the cover, including what kind of strings they have on their bass guitar, but this release was entirely conceived on a few keyboards and drummachines. Unlike Plankton, they have a much clearer idea of what good music should sound like. They have a more downright inspiration from techno and ambient music and know how to come up with some decent tunes. Spooky in 'Klopfen' or downright uptempo in 'Foggy Frogger'. One may object that at seventeen tracks with a playing length of just under seventy minutes, this is maybe a bit long (what's wrong with a good solid forty minute album?), but there is enough fun in here. I could find some tunes here that would be doing something on vinyl... (FdW) Address: http://www.digitalkranky.de JACKIE-O-MOTHERFUCKER - THE MAGICK FIRE MUSIC/WOW (2CD by ATP Recordings) Now here's a band that has gathered some fame through a well-known music magazine who didn't dare printing the entire bandname on the front cover. I came across their name before, but I don't think I ever reviewed their works. The band was founded as two piece in 1994 and has released five LP's (including two double), one split 12" and two CDs and now has a floating membership of twenty people. In anticipation to their appearance at All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2004, the label of the festival decided to release this double CD which were released in 2001 as LPs by Ecstatic Peace and Fisheye and went into obscurity a while ago. Both LPs, or should I say, the two CDs have similar material: free jams of rock material that is less hermetically closed as Godspeed You Black Emperor, more improvised then Mogwai and less noisy then Sonic Youth. They sound alike the No Neck Blues Band. Somebody plays a tune on say the guitar, and others then start playing along or against that tune and during the piece other instruments take over with a new theme or idea and the same procedure is followed. Like the No Neck Blues Band, it's music I quite enjoy, having a weakness for this sort of loosely, somewhat lo-fi improvised music, that sometimes goes on and on, on end, without being a hippy myself. (FdW) Address: http://www.atpfestival.com FREIE HAND (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) The name Freie Hand roughly translates as 'Free Hand', and is a duo from Hamburg, consisting of Jan Ivers and Thomas Beck. The first has a label called 'No Records' which apperentely releases 'unusual formats' and Thomas Beck has the more well-known label Wachsender Prozess aswell as his solo project TBC. They started Freie Hand in 1998 and they describe it as nonmusic. I think most of these pieces were generated in a live manner, as the volume sometimes drops or raises quickly. The interest of Freie Hand lies mostly in the use of high pierced tones, played on a whole bunch of old synthesizers. The material is not overal quite good - it's more right moments then right tracks. Their use of rhythms operate also on the brinks of lo-fi industrialism, but here any sort of the raw power lacks. Only in the fifth track (all five tracks last at least over 10 minutes) a bit of musique concrete tension comes alive in the use of static hiss and cracks. The release is a bit too underground to ever reach the overground, which is a pity. A bit more thought would have certainly been an improvement. (FdW) Address: http://www.reduktivemusiken.de JONATHAN WRIGHT - AI UI AI (CDR by Evelyn Records) CULVER - METAL BREAST (CDR by Evelyn Records) MINMAE - REMEMBER THESE CHORDS IN THE MORNING (CDR by Evelyn Records) OPAQUE - COSMETIC (CDR by Evelyn Records) STREETLIGHTUNIT - MERRY XMAS (CDR by Evelyn Records) ID - FROM CAUSE TO EFFECT (CDR by Evelyn Records) MIDWICH - NATURAL WASTAGE (CDR by Evelyn Records) SON OF MUMRAH - SUCH A WASTE (CDR by Evelyn Records) JAMES P KEELER - POLELIGHT (CDR by Evelyn Records) PORCH - ][ (CDR by Evelyn Records) The whole pile of releases on Evelyn Records looks like the eighties cassette scene turning towards CDR format. White envelop sleeves with stickers and simple xeroxed inserts. So far they released ten CDRs in two different series. The first series is vague centered around guitar music and organic ambience and the second series around abstract electronica, drone and collage. Most of the artists have releases on various other CDR labels too. Series one open with Jonathan Wright and besides the title no other information is given and no track title. Wright has released also on Sunny Days Out. He claims to be using environmental recordings, drones and loops. It seems that the drone's he using stem from the field recording - processed hiss. It's hard to tell what kind of field recording this is - it's too vague to say anything about it. This makes this thirty minute piece into quite a closed work but a nice one. No guitars though. Guitars can be found on the Culver release. Culver is a little bit more known for his work and releases (on his Matching Head label) of Reynols, Lasse Marhaug and EHI. His CDR has three tracks, and the opener is layered piece of guitar drones. The second piece, 'Collision' has an acoustic guitar playing swirling around in loops. 'Broadcaster' has a few repeating loops of recognizable guitar sounds, but lacks tension in the end. Especially that last track, which takes up half the release, is a pity and leaves the release only half good. Behind Minmae is a US guitarist called Sean Brooks, whose previous releases are on Rocker Racer, Blackbean And Placenta, Dogprint and Blue Sanct. Nine tracks in just over twenty minutes is what he offers. Sean also plays drums, bass and does the vocals parts. He's singer songwriter, playing simple tunes on guitar and singing. A bit country like but in a sort of alright, lo-fi manner. In 'This Grateful Hour' he uses sampling. And so this release swings back and forth and lacks his own face. Opaque have been reviewed before in Vital Weekly, especially their releases on the Scottish Consume label. They are a three piece post rock band of a more improvising kind. Their thirty minute excursion seems to be recorded live and is a raw and untamed diamond. Fuzzy guitar, pounding drums, occassional excursions in feedback. A very free psychedelic jam session. One of the finer moments in free noise rock. The final release in the first series is by a London lo-fi guitarist, who is also part of the streetlight Collective, 'an improvised guitar band'. For this release he plays acoustic guitar, violin, voice and radio samples aswell as some live drumming. Maybe it's the title at work here, but the whole thing has a pretty intimate, lo-fi air around it. Simple strumming on guitars, some voice humming. It's like being with someone in the same living room. He's trying out some tunes, and you are watching falling the snow outside. Both won't help making you happy, I guess. The first release in the second series is by ID, a soloproject of Ashley Davies of Project D.A.R.K. and C4I and he has a 10" on Speeding Across My Hemisphere. This work, one piece at forty four minutes, was recorded with a champagne hangover after a Project D.A.R.K. concert and uses a tone generator. The outcome of this hangover is a minimal, beating and biting piece of music, with a constant drive and changing pitch. Maybe it's a bit too minimal and a bit too industrial, but it has an overal ok feeling. Also among the more well-known acts on Evelyn Records is Midwich, the musical outing of Fencing Flatworm owner Robert Hayler. In his own musical outing, Midwich does what he can do best: play minimal drone music on a small bunch of synthesizers. This one piece release has a simple organ tune, which is stuck to what it is, with the sound being fed through maybe another synth or effect boxes and that's it. It's a simple, but hallucinating thing. Towards the very end things go out of control and the piece stops there. Simple, but trance enough. The guy who calls himself Son Of Mumrah also works as Tungsten Grasshopper, Hedren and Fencepost, but none of these names mean anything to me. It seems that he makes his music creating 'organic samples processed through a laptop'. He does this in twelve tracks, which are not very long in length, but which seem to explore one idea per track - feeding any sound through some filters and that's it. I am quite surprised at the rather low quality of the recordings - this is a CDR? and recorded with the use of a laptop? Why does it sound like a cassette then? 'Polelight' is not the first release by James Keeler aka Wilt under his own name (see Vital Weekly 348), but it's a distinct breakaway from his isolationist drone rumblings as Wilt and on his previous 3" CDR. The sounds he uses here act as a 'fictitious biography of my experiences on the farm' - and uses samples, found objects, handheld tape recorder, microcassette recorder, microphones, guitar and others. Fifteen short tracks of indeed a personalized form of musique concrete, with processed sounds, that have more thoughts, ideas and structures than in some of the other releases on Evelyn. And then the final release in the second series is the first release by a duo calling themselves Porch, 'using keyboards, organic samples and a variety of effects'. Their organic drones are of a more extreme nature than the usual isolationists play. It's at times quite noisy and loud and do not lull the listener to sleep. As such it's quite a nice release, though maybe not altogether very original. (FdW) Address: http://www.evelynrecords.cjb.net POLMO POLPO - THE SCIENCE OF BREATH (CD by Substractif) Behind the name Polmo Polpo is one Sandro Perri, a guy from Toronto. He opened up for bands like Do Make Say Think, Pan Sonic and Oval and has released a couple of 12" on his own Audi Sesna label, four tracks of which are now included on his debut CD for Substractif plus four new tracks. It's good to notice this, since the four tracks taken from previous 12"s are a bit different than the four new tracks. The 'old' tracks are up tempo, spacious and minimal beat driven pieces of music - maybe the good old Chain Reaction of Basic Channel inspiration. But the addition of a slide guitar (or a sample thereof) in 'Acqua' is a nice touch to the genre. The four new tracks are shorter and less beat oriented. Here Polmo Polpo explores the world of microsound. These are a bit ambient and are apperentely based on processed guitars, slides and cellos. It's a pity that they are so short, because they sound quite alright, really. Now they act more or less as intermission pieces between the more dance oriented pieces. I would be interested to know which direction Polmo Polpo will choose from here: both directions he explores well, and does nice stuff, but not always new. To make a choice would not be a bad thing. (FdW) Address: http://www.substractif.com FHIEVEL - VERTRI DI CARTA (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) KAR & TIZIANA LO CONTE - CHECK & SET (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) ALESSANDRO FOGAR - TRANSMUSTATIONS (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI - BUT SPEAK FAIR WORDS (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) DALE LLOYD - ELEMENTAL DIALOGUE (CDR by S'Agita Recordings) Five new releases on Italy's S'Agita Records, who seem to have chosen for a new direction in cover design. All of them have similar shapes and do not look as handmade as before. Luca Bergero is the man behind Fhievel and 'Vetri Di Carta' is his third release (I don't know the other ones). Luca is not a man of many words I'm told and his music shows that. His music is minimally made. Using just a few sounds, culled from field recordings (birds is the only source one can recognize at one stage), changing them endlessly via means of software, his music hoovers on edges of silence. Overal there is both a classical, almost Stockhausen approach in his compositions, but in a modern approach of silence. Although it is possible to link his music to people like Bernard Gunther and Richard Cartier, the most strong influence seems to me Roel Meelkop. The same approach in sound treatment and composition can be noted. Luca Bergero may or may not be aware of this, so it's probably unfair to call him a copycat. The four pieces show a great talent. Kar is a duo from Rome who team up with Tiziane Lo Conte, a singer who joins them during live concerts. Of the two pieces on this disc, the first one is a studio recording and the other is live. The studio track is very short (just over two minutes) and too short to say anything about it. It could have been a live piece aswell. The live piece is an improvised affair, around (off and on) a rhythmic sample, sounds that may come from a computer and voice that howls, groans and is fed through some echo. Quite unfocussed music, without any tension or good, skillful improvisation. I'm told that most soundwork by Alessandro Fogar is for sound installations, but this new release on S'Agita (he has some CDR releases on his own) has seven pieces that are not connected to any installation. The transmutations mentioned are all related to chemistry connections (Pb 82, FE 26 etc.) and all last seven minutes exactely. Fogar uses field recordings and computer processing for them. All pieces can best be described as dark ambient music - closed, densely layered pieces of music of dark atmospheric hummings. It fits the dark edges of the Hypnos label, Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach. Strong pieces of hermetically closed music. The for me unknown Claudio Rocchetti is a live improviser, working with electro-acoustic sounds. This is second release, after one on Wallace Records. He plays around with his sounds (which also include electric and acoustic guitars) by means of sampling and fiddling about with laptop techniques. At times one is reminded of Fennesz and the likes, and sometimes to more traditional improvising and electro-acoustic musics. Five pieces with a total of twenty minutes is about enough to serve as an introduction but it's hard to say much about it. It's nice stuff indeed, but too short to form a well founded opinion. The only none Italian in this new lot of releases is Dale Lloyd, who is known for his And/Oar label as well as the nice Phonography compilations (and website). For his release he uses recordings from fire, air/wind, earth, coal, glass to electricity and electromagnetic fields. In the nine pieces Lloyd is mainly busy on the lower side of audibility: very soft sounds, sometimes surprisingely unprocessed, but in a collage form. It's a bit like the Luca Bergero work, but in the Lloyd release the field recordings remain the number one sound source and at times recognizable. A strong work of field recordings. (FdW) Address: http://www.sagitarecordings.vze.com FORMATT - EXEMN (mp3 by Earlabs) Formatt is the project name for Peter Smeekens from Belgium. Exemn is his 3 track ep for the growing library of mp3 releases on Earlabs, and its one of the best ones yet. The sonic vocabulary is a familiar one, composed of digital sounds culled from a laptop. But how Smeekens articulates these sounds is what makes it work. The compositions are short and focused, without the seemingly randomness that plagues alot of laptop music. Tight use of repeating motifs help give the compositions structure and forward momentum. The first track reminds me of a mix of gamelan music and P16D4 in form and content. The ep comes with a bonus remix track, that only will play using Winamp, which I was not able to play. But judging from the first three tracks, I bet its a worthwhile addition. (JS) Address: http://www.earlabs.org POLYVOX POPULI 2 COMPILATION (mp3 by Nexsound) This compilation is the follow up to the first compilation, the difference being that volume 1 was a CD focusing on artists from Ukraine, while this second edition expands to feature artists from Russia, Estonia, and Belarus and is released in mp3 format with a pdf cover. This is a nice way to learn about artists that do not get enough exposure due to their geographic locations. For the most part the artists here work in the area of IDM/experimental digital musics, and its quite a pleasant mix. All of the tracks display strong compositions and enough individuality to encourage one to seek out more of their works. Included are artists such as Eloshnye Igruski, Klutch, Ambidextrous(who provides a pleasant track with his unmistakeable analog keyboard melodies and who just now has a release on BipHop), Novel 23, Infra Red Army (with a very effective track based on themes by Henry Purcell), and other Nexsound stable artists Kotra, the Moglass, Alphonse de Montfroyd, and Andrey Kiritchenko. (JS) Address: http://www.nexsound.org ARC - FERAL (CDR by Arcolepsy) ARC is a Toronto based trio composed of Aidan Baker on guitars, woodwinds, strings, vocals; Richard Baker on drums, percussion, guitar; & Christopher Kukiel on percussion. Their music is a mixture of Popul Vuh acoustic compositions and dense, organic drones with enthno rhythms. Feral displays some strong focused playing with interesting textures. At times all of the instrumentation blurs into a warm droney mass, probably do to the use of a battery of signal processors and loops. It is very pleasant music, one to turn on and space out too. The final track is the a wonderful appex to the release, a long stellar groove to return you from your trip. ARC has alot of ideas here, and while this was obviously recorded on home equipment, I would like to hear what they can do in a proper studio setting. (JS) Address: http://turn.to/arcolepsy THE BOOKS - THE LEMON OF PINK (CD by Tomlab) This is the second CD by The Books, and I must admit, I didn't expect that to happen. The Books is the working principle of cello player Paul de Jong (a Dutch guy now living in New York) and Nick Zammuto, the laptop artist. Why I never expected this? It's mainly the person of Zammuto. He released an excellent CD on Apartment B, plus another good one for Infraction and disappeared after that. By that time, the first Books CD was already done. Since we still didn't hear anything from Nick, it's surprising to see his collaboration with Paul continues. That's good news! They exchange their music via e-mail and CDRs and which is put together by each seperate. The sounds they exchange are mainly cello, guitar and banjo, which are a bit treated, but never much, but they spliced out in small particles and then put together again, adding voices or some extra sounds. The whole laptopness of the first one, which was already not very present, is even less on this one. The computer is mainly there to put the music together, for small minor treatments (loops, reversing some sounds, mix), but it's nowhere a laptop record at all. Then what it is? Good question. I would mumble: pop music of the future. Even when this is mainly an instrumental piece (save for some of the voice samples, some even in Dutch!). Nice little melodies, vague ethnic in 'Tokyo' or as close as it gets to popmusic: 'Take Time'. This follow up to 'Thought For Food' is a great one. Let's hope for two things: a third release by The Books and the return of Zammuto solo. (FdW) Address: http://www.tomlab.com MARKUS KUERTEN - SCHEUSALPUSIK (CDR by Bruit) So far Markus Kuerten worked for his two previous releases with Paul Wirkus (see Vital Weekly 307), but now he has his own release. I, with my limited knowledge of the German language, don't know what 'Scheusalpusik' means, but what I do know is that this is a work of extreme minimalism. The cover, just a flexible cd pack, with just a sticker with artist name and title, do promise that and the piece doesn't fail. A simple, rhythmic piece of two colliding pulses are at work for just under an hour. Maybe, just maybe with some simple changes in tonecolour, nothing much seems to be happening. I don't think this is the kind of minimalism Steve Reich would have dreamt of when he wrote his early pieces - they are a wealth of sound and changes compared to this. It's clinically cold work, but somehow it has captured my attention. Waiting and waiting for something to happen, but nothing really does. Mesmerizing some would say, but I can imagine it works on someone's nerves at the same time. Not an easy work to access really, but then life can't be easy all the time. Do I like this? Well, give me some more time to think about that. (FdW) Address: http://www.bruit.de DANIEL MENCHE - BEAUTIFUL BLOOD (CD by Alien8 Recordings) Some weeks ago I mentioned that I hadn't caught up with the recent Daniel Menche works, so Alien8 thought it would be a good idea to send me this CD, which was released earlier this year. 'Invoker', reviewed in Vital Weekly 385, had an overall ambient character and some weeks ago I wondered how Daniel came from an good noise artist into more ambient areas. 'Beautiful Blood', recorded before 'Invoker', I guess, might be the key. In the two lenghty pieces, Daniel starts leaning towards the ambient sound, especially in the second piece, but certainly in the first piece, things are noisy, like in his old days. Noise music according to Daniel Menche is never the pointless hour of feedback noise, but changing patterns noise works colliding together, eroding and rusty. I must say that the new style by Menche, started with 'Beautiful Blood' and later on 'Invoker' is a beautiful one. Atmospherical, long drones, great textures: let's hope he stays around here for a while. (FdW) Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com ILLUSION OF SAEFTY - TIME REMAINING (CD by Ossosnossos) This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the very first performance by Illusion Of Safety and maybe by odd coincidence, this CD is also the 20th CD by Illusion Of Safety. Twenty years ago, I assume Illusion Of Safety on stage was Dan Burke plus a couple of his friends who were member then (Thymme Jones, Chris Block, Jef Bek, Rross Feller) and over the years, membership has changed but with Dan to be the core member. Since a couple of years, all the studio work is also done by Dan Burke, with no-one else on the side. Just like the membership changes, the music is subject to change too: from free improv industrial to techno to musique concrete to sound collage and plunderphonics: all of these have been investigated by Illusion Of Safety, and some with more good result then others. 'Time Remaining', compact disc number twenty, seems for me to sum all of this up. Somehow it reminds me of 'Historical', compact disc number one. Drones, noise and sound collage - each seems to have it's own place on this CD. Whereas a lot of other CDs were in one direction, this CD is in more places, sometimes even within one track. I was thinking that despite the various tracks (each having their own title), this is more a continious work, just one long piece of music, each track flowing in the other. With this CD one can hear the experience of Dan Burke, both as a studio musician and a live one - the sheer elegance with which is this is made. Unlike many others, Illusion Of Safety changes all the time, and comes up with something new, based on twenty years of experience. Let's hope there is a lot of remaining time, for lots more. (FdW) Address: http://www.ossosnossos.com correction: The 3" CDR by Palsecam is not released by Absinth Records but by Polychephal. Their website is at: www.polycephal.terra.pl 1. From: kuwayama kiyoharu Lethe.Voice Festival vol 5 october 1st(wed) ~ 5th(sun) at Artport Warehouse No.20, Garden Pier Nagoya Port http://www.lethe-voice.com http://www.artport.city.nagoya.jp/ 1500yen(1day) 2500yen(2day) pm 6:30 open pm 7:00 start 10/1 (wed) * Ohno Kunihiko : bycycle,contact mics, * NMR Ceremony Project * Lethe : sound installastion * Yanagawa Yoshinori : alto sax * Suzuki Akio 10/2(thu) * Kakera : mixer * Akiyama Tetuzi : guitar * NMR Ceremony Project * Paul Hood : GP3 (record player), amplified objects, mixer (UK) * Urabe Masayoshi + Kuwayama Kiyoharu : alto sax , etc + !!! 10/3(fri) * Yamada Nobuo : daily junk * Narita Mamoru : sound of music * NMR ceremony project * Mizutani Kiyoshi + kuwayama Kiyoharu : electronics + !!! * Urabe Masayoshi : alto sax , etc 10/4(sat) * NMR ceremony project * Ito Yukiko : electronics * Kuwayama-Kijima : cello + violin * ASTRO : electronics * Mukai Chie + kuwayama Kiyoharu : er-hu, voice, percussion,etc. 10/5(sun) * Murakami Hitoshi +kuwayama Kiyoharu : per,etc + !!! * Shimada Hideaki : violin,electronics * NMR ceremony project * Takahashi Ikuro : electronics * Kuwayama-Kijima : cello + violin ---------------------------- kuwayama kiyoharu www.lethe-voice.com/kk/ k-k@lethe-voice.com 2. From: extrapool EXTRAPOOL * FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2003 THE VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA OPEN 21.30 * ADMISSION 4,00 euro THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER Helga Blohm Dynastie Melted Men OPEN 21.30 * ADMISSION 5,00 euro FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER Popronde met Cyozlab OPEN 22.00 * ENTRANCE FREE SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER LVR labelnight OPEN 21.30 * ADMISSION 5,00 euro THE VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA Das Erste Wiener Gemueseorchester. The ladies and gentlemen forming the stricktly vegetarian orchestra from Vienna will be visting Extrapool again to make a soup without balls! And all is being done the hard-core way: Blenders, drills and....vegetables. The vegetables will be tortured gently by rubbing it, knocking, they even breathe their breath through it! (carrotflutes, pepperclarinettes). Their latest cd says it contains: "interpretations en constructions of electronic music with organic means" and "the pieces feature various forms of notations and are composed for live-performance" The flavours of vegetable-soup made of their music-instruments attack the air just during the concert. hint: Get up and get a cup of dilicious soup after the show! 3. From: Benjamin Green ...as... airs: EVERY SUNDAY MIDNIGHT 104.4FM [London, UK] live streams: http://www.resonancefm.com other times: http://www.worldtimeserver.com contributions/feedback: b@estsoks.demon.co.uk 14.09.03 Alexandre St-Onge: <> http://www.squintfuckerpress.com 21.09.03 Kiyoshi Mizutani: 58 minutes as voice of Jike This is the recording in the rural place called Jike near my house. There remains the scenery of old Japan. I did the work which replaces a pebble in a brook. And I have paddled water with a stick. What I was conscious of at this time are that the sound is made by action and that the sound becomes a signal in environment. This will also become the material of another work. These were recorded on the early morning of June 25 and July 1. http://www.kaon.org/kiyoshi_mizutani/index.php 28.09.03 Christof Migone: one hour as a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. http://www.squintfuckerpress.com 4. From: mario@ikatmethod.com ***SHINKOYO SHOWCASE*** 9.14.03 @ The Empty Bottle (Chicago, IL) Zeljko McMullen (heavy walls of the electronic) Doron Sadja (12k / a piece of string, a sunset) Peter B (who builds sythesizers) Skeletons (pop hooks and digital explosions) STEXX (violin, wailing vocals and noise walls) Severiano Martinez (clocks and psandas) 1035 N. Western Ave - 9PM. more info @ http://www.shinkoyo.com 5. From: francisco lopez absolute athens, greece sept. 19: solo live show @ videodance festival athens -> http://www.biofighter.com sept. 20: collab w/ ilios & guests (10-hour show) @ small music theatre, athens -> http://www.anet.gr/smt 6. From: "Liles, Andrew" Andrew Liles Live with Skrol and Job Karma SATURDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2003 Rock Café Národní 20 110 00 Praha 1 Czech Republic and in the UK with volcano the bear Wednesday 29th October Marlborough Theatre Brighton UK -- 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), Roger Teeling (RT) 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://staalplaat.com/vital/