============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 400 ------------ week 49 ------------ contents: A.H.B. - BAROKKEN (1600-1750) (CDR by Tibprod) OSCILLATOR 707 - SUITE #1 (CDR by Tibprod) JOE COLLEY - DESPERATE ATTEMPTS AT BEAUTY: CONCEPTUAL AND RESEARCH EXERCISES (CD by Auscultare Research) KIYOSHI MIZUTANI & DANIEL MENCHE - GARDEN (CD by Auscultare Research) R.H.Y. YAU - COAGULATION: SELECTED WORKS 1996-2000 (CD by Auscultare Research) PHILIP JECK - 7 (CD by Touch) TINY HAIRS - COLDLESS (CD by False Walls) JOHN DUNCAN - DA SICH DIE MACHTGIER... (CD by Die Stadt) EDWARD RUCHALSKI - HAVING IT OUT (LP by Humbug) CRANK STURGEON - EZ VOICE OVER BOX TOP LIVING SOLUTION (7" by Humbug) A.M. - STRATA (CDR by Humbug) POLIO - CONCRETE (CDR by Humbug) COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL VOLUME 2 (CDR by Humbug) VOLT-AA (2CD by Oral) FANNY - REVELRY AND DECADENCE AS THE RIGHT OF SLAVES (CD by Mirex) JEAN-LUC GUIONNET & ERIC LACASA - MAISON HOUSE II.V (CD by Vert Pituite La Belle) JET BLACK CRAYON - EXPERIMENTS IN THE SPACE METAL TIME SIGNATURE (miniCD by Galaxia) SCREAMERS - IN A BETTER WORLD (2CD by Xeroid) PIMMON - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) TWILIGHT CIRCUS-THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (CD by M Records) DUNCAN/VON HAUSWOLFF/ELGGREN/TANKRED (7" + CDR by Die Stadt) ALEXEI BORISOV & JEFF SURAK - ULITSA NOVATOROV (3" by Locus Of Assemblage) LIVING ORNAMENTS - KLONTEN (3"CDR by Scarelight Recordings) EVOLVED AS ONE (CD compilation by Evolved As One) ORGANUM - EIN SCHWARZERES SCHWARZ (7" by Die Stadt) EL CAMINO - LAIKA (LP by Muze Records) BEANBAG AESTHETICS (2miniCD by Pink Dot) LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - A GUIDE TO LPD'S VOL. 2; PSYCHEDELIC CLASSICS AND RARITIES (3CD by Big Blue) MAITREYA - TELLURIC WAVES (CD by Council Of Nine) SNOSPRAY - YUM YUM (CD by Melody Resort) A.H.B. - BAROKKEN (1600-1750) (CDR by Tibprod) OSCILLATOR 707 - SUITE #1 (CDR by Tibprod) There is not much known about Andre Hardang Borgen, long for A.H.B., other than he is a member of the Norwegian Noise Orchestra. The ten pieces on this CDR were recorded in the course of six years, from 1997 to 2003. I am not sure either what this music has to to do with baroque music or lifestyle - there doesn't seem to be a trace of that. Borgen plays electronic music, which if I am not mistaken follows a more or less chronological order on this release. 'Kunst-hus', the last piece, sounds much more '2003' than the rest of the piece - computer processed synth music, of which most of the others are examples of. Although the music is quite alright, I must say it's also a bit faceless music. Nice to hear, but never a real big challenge for the listener. Ok, but not great. The release by Oscillator 707 is something I don't understand. It's one track on the CDR, but apperentely ten different Italian acts are involved but it's all mixed together by Guignol Dangereux. Did he somehow 'remix' the pieces? Are they originals? Is then Oscillator 707 the same thing as Guignol Dangereux? Or are all the bands of Oscillator 707 and this one is just mixed by Guignol Dangereux? The website wasn't very clear. It's hard to tell which track is by whom, but after a lenghty intro of ambience and ripped apart improvised music, things start to speed up, rhythmwise. Loads of techno inspired musics drop by in quite a nice mix. I had however the same mixed feelings as with A.H.B.: no standout track, but also not a real weak brother. Again, ok, but not great. (FdW) Address: http://www.tibprod.com JOE COLLEY - DESPERATE ATTEMPTS AT BEAUTY: CONCEPTUAL AND RESEARCH EXERCISES (CD by Auscultare Research) It has been a long way from Crawl Unti to Joe Colley - but it follows a tendency of musicians that have been operating under a 'band name', who eventually come up with just their real name and Crawl Unit was once Joe Colley's 'band'. It's not just a name change that went on here. Crawl Unit was best decribed as an ambient-industrial outfit, but especially in their later works going more and more ambient. As Joe Colley, the works have become much more conceptual and are usually fixed on a single idea in sound. Sticking a piezo microphone is clay that dries and listen to it happening - that's the approach of Colley. Funnily enough it also means that his work has become more noisy again. The opening piece 'Icewater.05.02' sees the effective drowning of a microphone and we hear it's death rattle at zero Db - set your speakers for this volume and the CD will sound fine throughout. It's a short piece but powerful enough. Sometimes Colley alters the sounds he has recorded and builts a dark aural picture such as in 'Lost, Or At Last Realizing That Very Soon None Of This Will Matter' - coming close to the later Crawl Unit period. Some of the concpetual ideas are beyond me, such as the inclusion of an eight track, which is not on the track-listening. Otherwise this is Joe Colley's most refined moment to date. (FdW) Address: http://www.groundfaultrecordings.com KIYOSHI MIZUTANI & DANIEL MENCHE - GARDEN (CD by Auscultare Research) Daniel Menche is back! This is maybe the third CD is a very short time-span that I am reviewing of his and here he teams up with Kiyoshi Mizutani, who was (or maybe is, I don't know) a member of Merzbow. The two guys had the idea of making music around the theme 'garden' and set a concpetual restriction: Kiyoshi would do the high sounds and Daniel all the low sounds. I have been to Japan and found that nature, at least in July, was quite noisy. Lots of insect sounds with these high frequency sounds, also in the middle of a city. So maybe it's only natural to have Kiyoshi do these sounds and Daniel the very low end part of the CD - maybe digging in soil and amplifying the sound. It's a solid hour of pure environmental recording - at least that's what seems, I might be (and probably am) wrong. Kinda like Lopez' 'La Selva' this one, but with the occassional low end heart beat sound, a tad more alienated. Towards the end the low end part of Menche comes more alive and things become less purely soundscape like. A nice CD but maybe a bit overlong. At forty-five minutes (that is twenty minutes less), things would have been more concentrated and more lively. (FdW) Address: http://www.groundfaultrecordings.com R.H.Y. YAU - COAGULATION: SELECTED WORKS 1996-2000 (CD by Auscultare Research) For a while Emil Beaulieu claimed to be the 'greatest living noise artist', but he gave that title to R.H.Y. Yau. I wasn't aware of his music that much, but this compilation of works from 1996 to 2000 may provide some insight. Some of these tracks were released on compilations, and some are previously unreleased, such as his collaboration with Kazumoto Endo. I am not sure if Yau is the greatest living noise artist, but this CD is a fairly interesting collection of noise music. Yau uses harsh amplified concrete sounds which he messes around with in a collage form. It's not an endless stream of effect loaded music which doesn't seem to move forward or backward, but Yau composes quite effectively shorter pieces of noise music with sudden and abrupt changes. Perhaps not the greatest, but at least someone who at least tries to do something different in music, and that is perhaps a very, very good thing. (FdW) Address: http://www.groundfaultrecordings.com PHILIP JECK - 7 (CD by Touch) This is already the seventh album by Philip Jeck, and his fourth for Touch. It also has seven tracks, with last 7x7 minutes and 7x7 seconds, so the title couldn't be better chosen. Originally Jeck is visual artist who started to work with music, and most notable with old turntables. Since then he gives concerts and produces installations using old turntables and using casio keyboards. A very lo-fi set up one might think, but that doesn't mean that the outcome is lo-fi too. The seven tracks on this CD are edits of home and concert recordings. It's hard to believe that this is all music coming from old vinyls as these densely layered miniatures have all a strong life of their own. It's unknown for me how many pieces of vinyl Jeck puts on per piece, and what it is that he does to it, but they are all dense and also quite filmic, but not so much narrative, more abstract. More filmloop like than a real film. Repetition is an important thing for Jeck, but here I found it lesser on the foreground then before. It makes Jeck's music even more fascinating, then before. The sorrow-sounding 'Veil', the final track on the CD is an epic by itself. Slow, peaceful humming of sad music. Better than before. (FdW) Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk TINY HAIRS - COLDLESS (CD by False Walls) This is the third release of Tiny Hairs, follwing their debut 'Subtle Invisible Bodies' (see Vital Weekly 314) and a split LP with Millionaires With Guitars (see Vital Weekly 381). Tiny Hairs is a big band, including guitars, double bass, electronics, drums and violin and together they improvise their pieces. Just as with their debut CD, the eleven tunes here are quite nice, but also at the same time not always inspiring. Nice stuff, but not always with great tension among the players. At times just too easy, too mellow with not much exciting going on. Tiny Hairs taps out of many sources, post rock, improvisation and electronica (although this only brief), but do not match the likes of Town & Country or Tortoise. Maybe it's about time they went for some serious composing. The skills to play their instruments well are there, so that shouldn't be the trouble. (FdW) Address: http://www.falsewalls.com JOHN DUNCAN - DA SICH DIE MACHTGIER... (CD by Die Stadt) This is one of those things that seem should have happened a long time ago, but never did. A collaborative work between John Duncan and Asmus Tietchens, two masters of musique concrete, each with their own distinctive style. The start was texts read by Tietchens (of course of Em Cioran, the french philosoph of whom you will find quotes on most Tietchens covers), which he slightly processed and John did work on. In the end Tietchens thought that the work was good enough by itself, and so it's now released as just a John Duncan CD. Duncan's recent style of stretched out ambient fields of noise music, comes best alive in the final piece on the CD and to some extent also on 'Tauf Sind Mit Andere Namen', which is by far the best piece on the CD. Dense and intense, with a very creepy atmosphere. The CD opens however with 'Freih Zein Hoern Macht...' which employs a more heavy type of sound processing, which are quite clearly made in the digital realm. The least interesting piece, also because it stretches out over a longer period of time. The third and shortest piece represents the best what the original processed Tietchens recordings sounded like. But of course there was a series of three 7"s on Die Stadt before, so you know what that could sound like. In the final piece, 'Aber', the voices become a very densely layered mass of sound, almost like swarms of insects, not just a few hundred, but thousands and thousands. It's that we know it's the processing of voice, otherwise one could think it's a flock of seagulls. Quite a minimal piece, but with small changes. Most of the time you place this CD you have no idea you are listening to a processed voice work. Apart from the first track which I didn't like that much, this is quite an enjoyable CD for fans of both Tietchens and Duncan. (FdW) Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de EDWARD RUCHALSKI - HAVING IT OUT (LP by Humbug) CRANK STURGEON - EZ VOICE OVER BOX TOP LIVING SOLUTION (7" by Humbug) A.M. - STRATA (CDR by Humbug) POLIO - CONCRETE (CDR by Humbug) COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL VOLUME 2 (CDR by Humbug) A whole bunch of new releases on Humbug, one of Norwegian's finest CDR labels, although these days also releasing a 7" and various lathe cut records. To start with the latter, a limited lathe cut LP is released by Humbug of US artist Edward Ruchalski (who has other releases on Humbug too). The a-side has three lenghty drone pieces of processed field recordings, with shimmering sounds played on zither, which sound like long strings creating densely layers of overtones. In the four pieces on the other side, the emphasizes is less on drone music, but piano, loose plucking sounds from the zither and mild percussive sounds. Much more loosely played and improvised this side, it's the side of Ruchalski that I am less attracted to. On 7" regular vinyl size we find Crank Sturgeon, a US noise act, who offers some weirdness here. Using tape, electronics, clutter and voice, it was recorded at his desk. I imagine this guy with some electronics and objects on his desk, making sounds with them aswell as with his voice. Very lo-fi but also very personal. A bit Emil Beaulieu like. Concrete noise with a slight poetic touch. Quite nice in all it's weirdness. A.M stands for Anthony Milton, of whom I know is from New Zealand and that's about all I know of him. Much of this was mastered from cassettes, and Milton plays guitar and uses field recordings, sometimes on a very lo-fi basis, but at other times with howling guitars, such as in 'The Movies Over, You're Free To Go' which is a diametrical opposite of 'If You Walk Gentle'. Quite nice stuff along the lines of Corpus Hermeticum. Very much along the lines of much music coming from that island. Also from New Zealand comes Polio, a name chosen by Peter Wright, who had releases before on his on Apolexy label. Here he explores quite effectively drone music, feeding unknown sources into three lenghty cuts of slowly changing but deeply atmospheric music. Very effectively played and done this one. The piece 'Sandblaster' is a beautiful example of isolationism - hey, if there is anyone who recognizes that term. And if none of these names mean much to you, you can always try 'Cottage Industrial Volume 2', which collects a whole bunch of names who have full length releases on Humbug and some people who travel through CDR land. Mostly electronic and ambient in approach (Shifts, Peter Wright, Edward Ruchalski), but also some improvised music (Ivar Grydeland & Oyvind Torvund) and a little bit of noise. Eric Cordier pops up, under his own name by also a NOL, which stands for No Output Laptop. Pricewinning best name. Also included are United Bible Studies, The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree, Anders Gjerde, The Cherry Point, Murmansk and no less then twelve short pieces by Pal Asle Petterson. Address: http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm VOLT-AA (2CD by Oral) Recentely a new edition of the Volt AA festival was held in Montreal and probably on that occassion this double CD was released: a collection of recordings made in the 2002 edition of the festival. The artists were asked to prepare a piece around a theme of their choice. They could choose for 'amnesia', 'mutation' or 'irony'. On the first CD we find four pieces composed for 'amnesia' and one for 'mutation'. It opens with a short atmospheric piece of Christof Migone, with what sounds like sounds from the kitchen. Francisco Lopez has a rather silent piece, but luckily loud enough to be played at a regular volume. Alexandre St-Onge also has a rather silent piece, with concrete sounds and voice manipulations. Skoltz_Kolgen is the only 'mutation' piece on disc one. It seems to me that they are mutating sounds from the environment, maybe even the concert space, into a large hybrid sound of ambient music. Quite deep and atmospheric. Tim Hecker closes the CD (all pieces are lenghty, up to almost twenty four minutes for the Lopez piece) with a piece of sampled guitars that take off like a plane engine and eroding low bit samples as lights on the ground. Erosion takes the piece apart. The second disc opens with Champion, of whom I never heard. They are the only one to have two pieces and these two are the ones from the 'irony' evening. Mutating voices in their 'Chain Smoking' piece into a slow choir, in 'The International Le' the voices are boiled in hot water. I am not sure what the irony is... Mylena Bergeron has a short piece from 'amnesia' but sounds if it fitted better in 'mutation'. Certainly Kaffe Matthews' piece falls in this category, she mutates the sounds picked up in her environment directly. The final two pieces on disc two are by D'Iberville and Pierre Andre Arcand, and form the more noisy parts of this compilation. Here is where the industrial music comes, via tape-loops and machine like static. But in an odd way these pieces fit the CD quite well. In all a good documentation. (FdW) Address: http://www.oral.qc.ca FANNY - REVELRY AND DECADENCE AS THE RIGHT OF SLAVES (CD by Mirex) "If you can stand the cover then you won't have any problem with the sound" is the label's tagline for the album. I almost couldn't...! Considering my personal interest in extreme metal and what this might have carried away of repulsive artwork during the last two decades from bands like Carcass and Cadaver, that actually says a lot about the aesthetics on this second album by Fanny titled "Revelry and decadence as the right of slaves". Also the music is rather extreme in its own way. Opening dramatically with chamber orchestral workout that could be a manipulated soundtrack of some 50's horror flick, we suddenly find ourselves in a storm of breakcore Noise-inferno heavily mixed with grinding bass power and a number of samples penetrating the infernal soundscape. Second track on the album, the 8 minutes long piece titled "Snakecharming", belongs to some of the best I have ever heard from that certain scene of ultra-fast drum'n'noise. The blend of over-the-top distorted aggression and samples of Eastern chant are great! Even though the musical climax of the album peeks within the first 10 minutes of the album, the intensity of the album remains. What is quite remarkable about the album is the clever use of Ethnic samples adding a quite unusual atmosphere to the album. Fanny did a tour around Europe with Venetian Snares in October. Two heavy weights from that certain scene. In the literal and most positive sense of the word, this must have been one hell of a concert just like this is one hell of an album by Fanny. Breakbeat brutality to the filthiest extremes. Repulsive and excellent stuff indeed! (NMP) Address: http://www.c10cl12.com JEAN-LUC GUIONNET & ERIC LACASA - MAISON HOUSE II.V (CD by Vert Pituite La Belle) It's not easy to describe in a few words what this CD is about. Five houses were selected in the Dordogne (south France) and each house is 'the center of the experiment, it is the perimeter of analysis through which filter we get the information from the whole place. According to the parameters of each site, the saxophone seeks for an appropriate note. This note seeps through architecture and landscape and rebuilds space. Both saxophone and microphone organize a measure of the place'. So each of the five pieces (maybe with the exception of the first piece, which is very short), each piece starts out with a calibration of the background noise, and then saxophone playing, followed by field recordings (glasses, people talking in the background) and at the end an interview with the owner of the house, albeit in french, so pardon me. This release bounces off to every corner of serious music: improvisation, musique concrete, field recording and horspiel, but somehow knows how to capture a coherent thing. I can however imagine that four long pieces might be a bit too much, certainly when each piece has more or less the same built up. Maybe compressed to one house on a 3" CD would have been enough for these conceptualists (at least for this one). But overall quite nice indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.vertpituite.lautre.net JET BLACK CRAYON - EXPERIMENTS IN THE SPACE METAL TIME SIGNATURE (miniCD by Galaxia) On the cover it reads that Jet Black Crayon (I assume no connection to Jet Black of The Stranglers) that they play two sets of an hour and a halfper concert, so it eludes me why there is only twenty two minutes of music on this CD, spread over four tracks. They use samples of spoken word, police sirens and scratching laid over a bed of funky post rock guitar/drum doodlings. It seems very intense, but none of the four pieces could really grab me. They were played nicely enough, but didn't had too much of their own, to be really interesting. So maybe it isn't a bad thing that their long sets are down to twenty two minutes for a CD release. (FdW) Address: http://www.galaxia-platform.com SCREAMERS - IN A BETTER WORLD (2CD by Xeroid) In Vital Weekly 394 I reviewed a 7" by Screamers and said that a double CD also exists. It was out of print for a while, but now it's available again. Screamers were from Los Angeles and consisted of Tomata DuPlenty on vocals, Tommy Gear on synthesizer, KK on drums and Paul Roessler on electric piano and synthesizer. The band existed from 1977 to 1981 and had quite a reputation for being a different punk band - mind you: no guitars, no bass, just vocals, drums and synths. During their existence the band didn't release anything, but now, two decades later, people still cherish the old recordings, mostly live ones, but also demo's and radio spots. Screamers play punk music, but one that is much more vibrant then y'r average punk band. Pounding drums, the unsteady vocals of Tomata, and the sometimes irritating tones on the rather primitive synths: it deals with raw energy that works best in their live work. You could wonder if you would need 'The Beat Goes On' in two versions, or the title piece or 'If I Can't Have What I Want, I Don't Want Anything' even three times on the CD, but hey, I know people who have a CD full of versions of 'Strawberry Fields'. You can doubt wether it's a bad thing that Screamers never made a LP. Maybe their magic is in the performance, interacting with the audience, and maybe that would have been lost in the studio. It's something we'll never figure out (Tomata died three years ago). A DVD of concert footage, now that's something I can imagine - if such exist! Screamers are an essential missing link between punk of the late seventies and sole-synth based music of the early 80s. Essential stuff. (FdW) Address: http://www.xeroidrecords.com PIMMON - MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) From all the people with a laptop and who travel, I rate Pimmon as one of the better ones. Not falling in a pure noise mode, or a pure improvisation mode, his music is a combination of melodies, raw chunks of sound and glitchy rhythms. His recent 'Snaps Crackles Pop' (a rather self-explanatory title) for Tigerbeat didn't make it to these pages, but would rank high in my top 10 for 2003. That CD was a studio, to get the full Pimmon picture, one would also need the 'Mort Aux Vaches' CD. Recorded at roughly the same time as the Tigerbeat CD, the live recording on 'Mort Aux Vaches' CD dates from about a year ago, upon his first Europe tour. Of course, the live side is always arranged in a more free mode, small mistakes happen but these pieces bear the Pimmon trade mark allover: grainy yet warm glitch rhythms, amplified static hiss that evolves into small wormholes and crackles and pop all around. However, Pimmon never looses the idea of composition - he never leaps into pure improvisation nor does he let things get out of control, there is always the structure to control. Pimmon clearly has this capacity, both in his studio work, but also in his live work. Finally a very good example of the latter becomes available. (FdW) Address: http://www.staalplaat.com TWILIGHT CIRCUS-THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (CD by M Records) Ah, Dub music. Whats not to like about it? Anyone with even a vague sense of music history knows about the vital role and influence that Dub music has had on the style and production techniques on modern electronic music and virtually every conceivable genre of music. Clearly, it was Dub music in the 1970?s that gave birth to the concept of "remixing" an instrumental version of an artist?s track; - primarily Reggae - stripping it down to the bare essentials with a mixing board; working only with the skeletal elements of rhythm and the minimum of melody. The Dub producer at the helm of his mixing board, then boosted the low bass frequencies of the drums and bass guitar and added various effects, mainly: reverb, echo and delay, to fill out the overall sound of the live, in-the-studio mix. The result of these experimentation?s produced utterly different and original alternatives that proved quite popular in Jamaican dance halls and abroad. Thank goodness we have producers that continue to carry the torch of Dub music into the 21st century. Maintaining the lead with his brand of fantastic dub excursions, Ryan Moore AKA Twilight Circus gives us an incredible album entitled: The Essential Collection; a dozen selections from his acclaimed previous releases from 1995-2001. It is an album designed to tide his fans over while he totally revamps his studio to better suite his future releases. It is also an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the studio wizardry that is inherent in Dub music production. You will be pleased with the lush, spacious and original musical alchemy emanating from your sound system as you spin this tantalizing cross-section of Ryan?s past releases. I eagerly await for his new release: "Foundation Rockers", to scrutinize the evolution his newly rebuilt studio will have on his music. (CN) Address: http://www.twilightcircus.com DUNCAN/VON HAUSWOLFF/ELGGREN/TANKRED (7" + CDR by Die Stadt) Another collectable but also loveable item on Die Stadt. Another 7" released for a concert, with the remainder being sold off through mailorder. Here is the Swedish connection is shown, together with John Duncan. Duncan offers quite a fierce noise piece, minimal yet hectic sound processing of radio waves. Carl Micheal von Hausswolff has a spoken word piece, which is nice, because Hauswolff has a good speaking voice, but in general spoken word pieces are never so my thing. Leif Elggren has the short piece with the longest title ("The Gobblestone Is The Weapon Of The Proletariat No. 8"), which is basically a short time stretching piece. Nice perhaps, but also too short. The first hundred copies get also a CDR by Kent Tankred, also a swedish composer which might be less known as the aforementioned Von Hauswolff and Leif Elggren, but who has an interesting number of works. In 'Tranmission II', he stretches the sounds picked up from radio waves, into a twenty four minute work which sounds like an ambient industrial landscape. Desolated by human life and machines have taken over. I wonder why it is not people like Kent Tankred who do soundtracks to 'The Matrix'? He would do a great job on a soundpicture of 'Machine Park'. (FdW) Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de ALEXEI BORISOV & JEFF SURAK - ULITSA NOVATOROV (3" by Locus Of Assemblage) Two names from the world of underground. Borisov's work was reviewed here before (328, 252) operating in various guises, such as F.R.U.I.T.S., Volga, Nochnoi Prospekt and his own name. Jeff Surak works a V, Violet and in another time as -1348- and is soon on tour in Europe and Russia. Together they team up for a four track, three inch CDR. 'Radioalmaata' is the opening piece and the longest of the CD. It's a bit of mish-mash of synths, samples and radio voices, that half way through changes mood, and seems to become a different track. Track two and four on this release are more rhythmically inspired, and vaguely hint at techno, but in a slightly more industrial vein, whilst the third track is more an ambient soundscape piece in which street sounds play an important role. I think I like these more than the first piece. Overall a nice collaboration of two guys that mastered various skills quite nicely. (FdW) Address: http://www.assemblage.freeuk.com LIVING ORNAMENTS - KLONTEN (3"CDR by Scarelight Recordings) A while ago I reviewed a split LP between Accelera Deck and Living Ornaments (see also Vital Weekly 378). Apperentely with good result for both parties, as now Scarcelight, a small label run by Chris Jeely, aka Accelera Deck, releases a 3"CDR by Living Ornaments. 'Lumbs' is the translation of the title of it, and the seperate tracks are named after 'long forgotten Dutch TV celebrities' (although 'Diewertjeblok' is always my mind, boys). Living Ornaments, a duo of Lars Meijer (who runs the Narrowminded label, who released the aforementioned split LP) and Coen Polack. More so than on the split LP, rhythm plays an important role here. Grainy textures of slowly decaying software is held together by the sticky tape called rhythm. They chop up piano sounds, an acoustic guitar, a broken musicbox in the last piece, and overall a wacky sense of humour makes this into quite an enjoyable release. At times a bit poppy, but never too much or too regular sounding. A fresh approach to the down beat rhythmworld, which lacks humour and which Living Ornaments bring back in. (FdW) Address: http://scarelight.com EVOLVED AS ONE (CD compilation by Evolved As One) A new label from The Netherlands: hurray! Evolved from a series of concerts held in Utrecht, their main man nows has his own label and as a start he released a CD with nine tracks by his favourite seven artists. Like with the evenings, Evolved As One focusses on ambient and drone related music. They seek drone music in various directions: sad, introvert or melancholic. On this CD we find some very deep drony music by some of the more well-known players in the field. Dual, Ultrasound and Troum all have releases out that gained quite some recognition. Runner up are SRMeixner (the solo project of Stephen Meixner, formerly of Contrastate), Ure Thrall (whose 'Breathing' here is on the edge of kitsch, I must admit), Cats Of Tel Aviv (solo project of Rob Ovetz of Ultrasound) and Moljebka Pvlse. These seven groups play their usual standard - high standard, I must say - of organic, densely layered music, but the standout is Troum's 'Ananke', with accordion playing and a highly reverbed and slowed down sea man choir. A true melancholic song - a song that it is, rather then a landscape. It's the shortest song, but quite a surprise. The converted to the genre will surely like this, as much as I do (because I am already converted) and the uniniated will have a splendid introduction to the genre. (FdW) Address: http://www.evolvedasone.com ORGANUM - EIN SCHWARZERES SCHWARZ (7" by Die Stadt) Another Organum 7", is there anybody out there counting? David Jackman has found a new love in playing the piano and here he has two pieces of them. Apperentely no less than five albums of piano music are planned on his Aeroplane Records in 2004. While releasing this under the monniker of Organum, Jackman wants to focuss on using overtones. Part 1 of 'Ein Schwarzeres Schwarz' (more black than black) has bangs on the piano, but also hiss and a reversed recording of the same piano. Minimal, but due to the hiss and the really far away cry of feedback or strings being played, a good Organum piece. The second part finds itself in similar territory, but with the feedback/string a little bit more upfront. Two quite similar Organum pieces: David Jackman never does things the easy way. Of course in a total white cover with white print. Never the easy way. (FdW) Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de EL CAMINO - LAIKA (LP by Muze Records) Maybe calling your music postrock is not the most wise to do, as it will draw people too much into one corner with it and others will abandon it altogether: been there, done that (let's move to the next hype). So maybe we should take El Camino more serious, because they make it very clear what they are about: postrock. El Camino are a five piece band from Haarlem, The Netherlands and 'Laika' is their second LP. Unlike Tiny Hairs (see elsewhere) they play much more interesting pieces, slow and dense, open for experimentation and improvisation, but always with care about the song structure. Like bands like Tortoise, who are probably a prime source of inspiration, El Camino is purely instrumental, standard rock set up, but with the addition of 'extra sounds' - samples, field recordings are added to the darker atmospheres of most of these songs. Postrock may be worn out as a musical term, and pushed back into the underground of music, there is for sure still quality around in the genre. (FdW) Address: http://www.muze-records.nl BEANBAG AESTHETICS (2miniCD by Pink Dot) Who didn't thought of inventing their own music genre and be famous as the inventor, going down in music history? Somehow I am not convinced that the inventors of the 'beanbag' genre will make it into the anals of music history. "Beanbag is best described as 'lounge music for people who can't afford lounges" it reads. I think Beanbag is just another word of plunderphonica. Taking samples from lounge and popmusic, fucking them around in the samples or direct on the turntable, nothing more. Thirteen examples of this on the 'beanbag' CD of the package. There was a time when people had a good laugh about this. Now I just nod my head about such nonsense. The 'aesthetics' disc is apperentely an overview of people working in the genre. Well, I seriously doubt that. No less than 99 tracks of what sounds like a radio finding a tune - 99 tunes to be precise. I guess more time went into thinking of all the bandnames and track titles than in producing the actual content of the CD. No fun. (FdW) Address: http://www.pinkdot.org LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - A GUIDE TO LPD'S VOL. 2; PSYCHEDELIC CLASSICS AND RARITIES (3CD by Big Blue) Be forewarned: this review is gonna be coloured by nostalgia. Over its 20+ years course Legendary Pink Dots has seen many changes in line-up and with that in sound. Their eighties material being most well-known for its experimental electronic music and luscious baroque violin playing from Patrick Q. Wright. The nineties for heading into krautrock/spacerock territory, with a more conventional instrumentation; including for example drums and saxophone. For those still not acquainted with the band, this compilation-release offers a view of both styles? via two audio-discs, though the first one is only featured with two tracks (including Evergreen? Waiting for the Cloud). Die-hard fans will not find any new material (except maybe Old Sparky, that was previously only available on a different artist-compilation boxed set), though may want to checkout the four unreleased live-tracks, dating from 1997. Things did change. This heavy drone rocking is hardly comparable to what we find on the third disc, a dvd-compatible CD-I. Compared to nowadays standards (full-screen, multi-angle, Dolby Surround) this looks pretty bleak, but in here it's the charm that counts. The majority of it being a concert dating from 1989, right before the so-called big break-up. Here we still see Patrick Q Wright on violin, guitarist Stret Majest Alarme, Jason Salmon on bass and Graeme Whitehead behind the keyboards, important contributors in the eighties. Is it really fourteen years ago I saw these guys for the last time? The concert is amateurishly filmed with only one camera, starting somewhere halfway in the audience, fighting its way to centre stage. The first couple-a songs we only get to see Patrick Q. and singer and core-member Edward Ka-Spel. Is good to see him back in the days he was only? the frontman. Nowadays he's a keyboard-player as well, though it must be admitted that this didn't bother him becoming a far more better an intriguing entertainer. What a contrast! Later on in the show we also get a view of the other members. Also included are two so called videoclips, being actually two snippets from performances taken place right after four members leaving the band almost at once. Here we meet new member saxophonist Niels van Hoornblower. Key-part is an interview held in Germany right after the break, in which we are properly introduced to Van Hoornblower. For the long-time follower it's nice to see Ka-Spel again wearing crooked lines on his face and Silverman, the other core-member, actually being silver coloured in indeed. Both have become more their natural selves in the included second interview, held in Poland, dating from 1997. Funny fact I: while the band-members (now also including one Frank Verschuuren) tell their tales a voiceover gives a Polish translation on the spot. Funny fact II: the questions are asked in Polish, which means that the non-Polish understanding audience has to figure out what the actual question was through the answer. This 60min+ disc could never have been a separate release, but as a part of this set it's not only a nice visual introduction to the band but also a touching trip down memory lane for the long-time follower. (RT) Address: http://www.terminalkaleidoscope.com MAITREYA - TELLURIC WAVES (CD by Council Of Nine) This is the 4th release from Council Of Nine, a small label from UK founded in 1999, and it's the 2nd album from Maitreya (Simon Lomax, born in 1979) on the same label. It's ambient music. Do you know what's ambient music for you? I have the impression there's a bit of abuse of the word 'ambient' by some people, or at least it's used in many different contexts. Few weeks ago I played one track from Coil called Chalice on radio and one listener told me on phone that it sounds like ambient. I can agree that it's atmospheric but I can't really say it's pure ambient. To some people 4/4 house music is ambient, Vladislav Delay's Anima/Naima are ambient (and also improvised), Yagya (Force Inc) is ambient... Opposite to all mentioned before, Maitreya is the classic sound of ambient-ambient, no beats, just totally calm atmospheres. You can remember how the separate tracks from Biosphere's Substrata sound, but you can't remember anything from the beginning, the middle or the end of Maitreya. Probably the biggest disadvantage of Maitreya's kind of classic ambient sound is that it's too classic, it would be good if there's a wider space for more inventive and new approaches to music. But compared to Maitreya's first album, this new one has more subtle sound that's detailed and minimal. It's more interesting and also quite enjoyable. I'll surely play it on radio. (BR) Address: http://www.councilofnine.co.uk SNOSPRAY - YUM YUM (CD by Melody Resort) Pop, do we not like it? Snospray are Anders and Mette Arhoj and their album Yum Yum is the first release of the danish label Melody Resort. It says in the inlay of this CD that all tracks are written and painted(!) by Anders and all vocals (sung + cutups) are by Mette. So, Anders paints the music, and that's true because this music is very colourfull, lively and extremely positive! Snospray's influences are diverse: Stereolab, Cocteau Twins, Alec Empire, Stina Nordenstam, Steve Reich, Slowdive, Les Rhytmes Digitales, Pet Shop Boys, Spiritualized... About their own style I'd say it's a crossover between electro-idm-disco-pop. Almost all of the tracks are uplifting, danceable and very much in your face, with exception of 2 or 3 more laid-back tunes (like the amazing Star Forest). It would be interesting if sometime Snospray make a whole album with music only for listening, like those more relaxed tracks. If you're a dj you can play Snospray's music if you want to cheer up the people and if you want to have a happy set. Check their site for more yum yum. (BR) Address: http://www.snospray.com or http://www.melody-resort.com Correction: In last week's issue name and title got reversed of Staalhertz. 'Staalhertz' is the title and Northern Machine is the band. The release will be a CD, and not a CDR 1. From: "Ansgar Wilken" GREG MALCOLM and JENNY WARD (nz) 'Homesick for Nowhere Tour' Thursday, December 4th 2003 @ Knieschussclub / ZAKK, Sielpfad 11, 28203 Bremen, Germany http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~malcolmg/solo_guitar_project.html http://zakk.klubraum.org/ 2. From: Calgary New Music nach Hause proudly presents: Eugene Chadbourne with guests Darren Williams and Ron de Jong Father of Shockabilly music, master of the guitar, banjo, and rake, improv guru Eugene Chadbourne will be making his second concert appearance at nach Hause. Renowned as one of the world's most prolific performers and with a staggeringly extensive discography Dr. Chad has collaborated with the likes of John Zorn, Han Bennink, Henry Kaiser, many, many, many others. For this concert Eugene will be joined by Ron de Jong on drums and Darren Williams on tenor saxophone. Be sure to visit the artist's website: http://www.eugenechadbourne.com Saturday December 6th 2003 doors 8:30pm, show 9:00pm $12 at the door at the EMMEDIA Gallery 351 11th Avenue SW, Suite #203 (upstairs) (403) 263-2833 www.emmedia.ca ADDITIONAL EVENT: Sunday December 7th 2003 1:00 pm also at the EMMEDIA Gallery... Eugene will also be presenting a special 4 hour workshop on Improvisation and its applications within music. People attending the workshop should bring their own instruments (this includes keyboards-sorry, there is no piano at the space!) in order to participate. For more information please call (403) 208-3606 This workshop will be also be $12 at the door. Persons attending BOTH the Concert and the Workshop can pay $20. (Must be paid in advance, at the time of concert admission. Proof of payment receipts will be provided.) These events are being cosponsored through the generous support of the EMMEDIA Gallery and Production Society. For more information on EMMEDIA please visit the website: http://www.emmedia.ca 3. From: Lars Meijer / Narrominded A quick update on live gigs by Living Ornaments in the near future.... Here are the dates: December 12: Galerie Niggendijker, Hofstraat 21, Groningen, 21.00 - 1.00 January 18: Club Funday: the space edition, Patronaat, Haarlem, Oostvest 54. With Sonic Boom's Experimental Audio Research E.A.R. (uk) and Modull (nl). Visuals by Videotroopers. Entrance is free. http://www.narrominded.com 4. From: hauf Sunday, december 7, 2003 - 7:00 PM BORIS HAUF - solo AC.10 2227 N. Kimball Ave #1E Chicago, IL 60647 (ring bottom buzzer) Since this is a private residence, you *must* RSVP to attend. Show starts at 7pm. Free, donations welcome. Refreshments provided. Please RSVP via e-mail blohhskj@yahoo.com or call 773.394.2906 Saturday, December 6, 2003 - 9:00 PM TV POW MICHAEL HARTMAN - percussion and electronics TODD CARTER - canjo, organ, and electronics BRENT GUTZEIT - guitar, organ, and electronics with special guest from Puerto Rico... JORGE CASTRO - electronics / guitar and BORIS HAUF- saxophone, electronics The Candlestick Maker 4432 N. Kedzie Ave. Chicago, IL just north of montrose kedzie stop on the brown line 3 blocks south the sign above the doors reads "perfect rubber stamps: 5. From: jeff Zeromoon Presents: Violet December 2003 Tour Netherlands/Belgium/Russia/Ukraine 12 dec. Violet(usa) man manly(usa) jeroen kuster spermatak monobrain eline en de allochtonen Odal Het Poortgebouw Stieltjesstraat 38 3071 JX ROTTERDAM NL 13 dec. Violet Odal Bratkartoffel Sjab el Kebab Kamp chaos & Robert panne 2B, Zaandam nicolaasstraat 2b NL 14 dec. Violet Odal Bratkartoffel Sjab el Kebab Slaakhuys, Rotterdam Slaakhuys, Slaak 34 NL 15 dec. Oli's above "Aflaat" pub Veemarkt Tienen Belgium 16 dec. Violet [tbttbc]°°° Odal Geluidsoverlast, Antwerp 17 dec. Radio Patapoe, Amsterdam strontprogramm FM 97.3 http://freeteam.nl/patapoe/index.htm 19 dec. Violet Michael Gendreau F.R.U.I.T.S. E-Shak (Richardas Norvila) Cultural Center Dom, Moscow dom.com.ru 20 dec. Alexei Borisov Violet Michael Gendreau Yaroslavl Art Museum, Yaroslavl, Russia 22 dec. Violet Michael Gendreau TBA Gallery of Experimental Sound 21 Art Center Pushkinskaya 10 Litovskii np. 53 3rd fl. 9pm St Petersburg, Russia http://www.tac.spb.ru/ 26 dec. Violet michael gendreau andrey kiritchenko zavoloka blemish kotra -- 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. 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