============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 401 ------------ week 50 ------------ contents: AMBRACHI/MULLER/SAMARTZIS - STRANGE LOVE (CD by For4Ears) URS LEIMGRUBER/GUNTER MULLER/ARTE QUARTET - E_A.SONATA.02 (CD by For4Ears) CHARLOTTE HUG/CHANTALE LAPLANTE - BRILLIANT DAYS (CD by For4Ears) NOW IN DARKNESS WORLD STOPS TURNING - TIE DYE (CDR by Verato Project) PI CAB ALTER - MEMOIRE DE L'ETHER FLUCTUANT (CDR by Verato Project) EEYOW KAROOM - AGGRO STATIONS VOLUME 3 (CDR by Verato Project) KOJI ASANO - ZOO TELEPATHY (CD by Solstice) KOJI ASANO - WIND GAUGE (CD by Solstice) KOJI ASANO - THE GIANT SQUID: A COLLECTION OF SHORT PIECES VOL.1 (CD by Solstice) COLONGIB & OCTOPUS INC (EP by Kracfive) STEVE RODEN & JASON KAHN - SHIMMER/FLICKER/WAVER/QUIVER (CD by Brombron) CHEAPMACHINES - [BOREHOLE] (CDR by Uranium City Records) EMITER/K.TOPOLSKI - 16.03.2003 (CDR by Authorized Version) JOHN HUDAK - ROOM WITH SKY (CDR by Chaba Recordings) JARL - PARALLEL/COLLAPSING (CD by Segerhuva) MATT WAND - PUBLIC.EXE (10" by Dekorder) PERLONEX/JULIJUNI (split LP by Happy Zloty Records) BLACK TO COMM (10" by Dekorder) KAZUYA ISHIGAMI/TOMAS KORBER - MISTAKES (CD by Neus-318) BRUNNEN - THE HONEY BUTTON (8" by Plinkity Plonk) BETH ANDERSON - PEACHY KEEN-O (CD by Pogus) FSB----- - --[WE SPY ON YOU." (CDR by Top 40) ED.S - [ENCENS JAPONAIS](CDR by Top 40) JOHN DUNCAN & PETER FLEUR - THE SCATTERING (CD by Edition...) LESSER - SUPPRESSIVE ACTS I-X (CD by Matador) KID 606 - KILL SOUND BEFORE SOUND KILLS YOU (CD by Ipecac) AMBRACHI/MULLER/SAMARTZIS - STRANGE LOVE (CD by For4Ears) URS LEIMGRUBER/GUNTER MULLER/ARTE QUARTET - E_A.SONATA.02 (CD by For4Ears) CHARLOTTE HUG/CHANTALE LAPLANTE - BRILLIANT DAYS (CD by For4Ears) From the ever so active Gunter Muller, three new CDs of improvised music, involving 'real' instruments and electronica. The first one is a trio improvisation from down under. Muller went to Australia to play the "What Is Music" festival and there he teamed up with guitarist Oren Ambarchi and electronica/field recording expert Philip Samartzis. In their piece 'Cooler' they improvise on a fairly held back level, letting static sounds (thanks to Oren, me thinks) and crackles (thanks to Philip, me thinks) evolve in a natural way, embedded in processed rhythmical textures provided by Muller. Only towards the end of this piece, things seem to be bursting out a bit more - a sudden and unexpected death to the machines? Not really, but pre-conceived it seems. The second piece seems to be a solo piece, recorded at home in Sydney, Melbourne and Itingen - it seems like Muller behind the knobs mixing three seperate sound-sources (each player worked at home and send the results to Muller) together on quite an equal level, which makes this piece a much more lively one, but at times also a bit more unfocussed. The next one is not really a disc of improvisation per se, as it involves a composition by Urs Leimgruber. He wrote this piece for the Arte Quartet, a saxophone quartet from Basel, Switzerland. Urs himself also participates on his saxophones and Gunter Muller sits there to pick up the saxophone sounds and process them. Readers from Vital Weekly may be aware that I'm not really a big fan of the saxophone, so I have a little bit of trouble with this disc - entirely my mistake. However, I say a little bit, because the stretched tones of either the saxophone playing and the computer processings of Muller make this into quite an enjoyable disc of what seems to be more improvised playing then a composition. Not quite easily to access but certainly the more intimate moments are quite nice. When all horns blow, it is getting a bit too much for me. When it's all down pitched and layered, like in the opening section, you can see a smile on my face. On the final new release on For4Ears there is no involvement from Muller, other than putting the CD out of course. Charlotte Hug plays viola and Chantale Laplante plays electro-acoustic music using a laptop. They met in London in 2001 and the five pieces on this CD were recorded in concert in 2002. Their duo works are not one person processing sounds from the other, but rather each has their own technqiues and sources. Hug plays viola and plays around with electronics and Laplante works on her laptop with her own sounds. I am not sure if that is a very good idea. Sometimes the works seem to be a hit and miss thing. Overal it's good played, improvised music, but it stays a bit on a clean, distant side. Tension is missed here and there, and so is interaction. Having said that, this is not a bad work, but not one of utter brilliance either. (FdW) Address: http://www.for4ears.com NOW IN DARKNESS WORLD STOPS TURNING - TIE DYE (CDR by Verato Project) PI CAB ALTER - MEMOIRE DE L'ETHER FLUCTUANT (CDR by Verato Project) EEYOW KAROOM - AGGRO STATIONS VOLUME 3 (CDR by Verato Project) Whoever is behind the band 'Now In Darkness World Stops Turning', I don't know, and maybe I don't want to know either. One Josh Banke and one Jason Crumer, both responsible for the noise. Their CDR 'Tie Dye' was recorded 'march-may 2003', that struck me as odd. It lasts 75 minutes and could have easily be recorded in the same time, while making the cover at the same time. The product is 75 minutes of the more boring noise I have encountered. Rumour will spread that I don't like noise (which is not true) and the two musicians will most likely be proud of a negative review ("what we do is so extreme, nobody likes it; it must be good"). Well. Even less information is known about Pi Cab Alter. No names, no background, just this one hour filled with fifteen tracks, but at least something is going on here. Somebody has had a few ideas. Pi Cab Alter delves from the ambient source of music, with a dash of neo-gothic (I think they are called 'heavenly voices' by some) in the form of voice samples. These samples are fed through a series of synths and filters and come with some fairly interesting ambient, although half way through one wishes for a change of diet. The last two tracks finds them all of a sudden in a more experimental mood. Maybe a bit more of that and then mixed in with the other tracks? That would be lovely. Behind Eeyow Karoom is Mister Cosmo, from Cosmonauts Hail Satan and Iron Man Avenga and this is not his first release. Like Now In Darkness, he deals with noise, but he knows how to deal with it, if you catch my drift. Ten shorter tracks, lasting just over thirty minutes, of processed rhythm structures, feedback held under control (always there in a corner, but never full on present), guitars are played through chainsaws (or vice versa). If you say noise is for the untalented, which is something I never say, than you are wrong. To create a piece of interesting noise music, one needs some imagination and some ideas. Mister Cosmo has some of them, and makes up a nice release. (FdW) Address: http://www.verato-project.de KOJI ASANO - ZOO TELEPATHY (CD by Solstice) KOJI ASANO - WIND GAUGE (CD by Solstice) KOJI ASANO - THE GIANT SQUID: A COLLECTION OF SHORT PIECES VOL.1 (CD by Solstice) No news from Koji Asano since Vital Weekly 369, but here he is again, and why not, with three CDs. Three different I may add! Zoo Telepathy has three lenghty pieces with a total length of around fifty minutes of Asano's violin playing, but set against a wall of computer generated and treated sounds. In each of the three tracks he builts layer upon layer of hectic violin playing, in this even more stranger bed of sounds like accordions and flies recorded in a zoo. I have not always been a great fan of Asano's music, even when I am always eager to hear some more, but this release, I rate among his best so far. This nervous violin playing reminded me very much of Agencement, a rather obscure one violin band from Japan, who did similar things but more limited to just the violin. Asano takes this into the world of digital music and expands with some extra sounds. Very nice indeed. On 'Wind Gaughe' Asano expands on older disc 'You Can't Open The Door Because It's Already Open': improvisations on the piano in an environment, taking in the sounds from that environment. On the previous CD it's the recording in a castle in Russia and one hears traffic passing, people talking etc, but on 'Wind Gauge' the piano is more inside Japanese nature and especially the insects that can be heard so much in Japanese summers. Cicadas are everywhere. Much more a relaxing piece than 'You Can't', the music breaths a majestic calmness throughout. The collection of short pieces makes up the third CD but it's Asano's first CD with just short pieces - in his catalogue of 35 CDs he has mainly one track/idea per CD. But here he collects all of his varied output, from noise to piano music. Some pieces are short starters for what became longer works. It seems to me that his main interest however is more for his electronic works. I can imagine that for some people it's hard to choose a CD by Asano because of his vast catalogue, but be assured that this CD of short pieces is a good introduction to his works of the last ten years. I can also imagine that some people have trouble with his one idea per CD approach, so for them it's also good to find out what his music is about. Asano has some interesting things to say... (FdW) Address: http://www.kojiasano.com COLONGIB & OCTOPUS INC (EP by Kracfive) Colongib and Octopus Inc are 2 people from Kracfive Records and this EP is released by both Kracfive (USA east coast) and Obtain Freedom (a small label from Japan). Octopus Inc is Noah Sasso, he has a great mp3-EP Subcon Sound Museum @ Notype.com, and Colongib is Chris Graves. This new untitled (or self-titled) EP has 8 collaborative tracks and the CD version features some additional data: videos, photos, stickers..., and Mack-O-Chalk - nicely designed and entertaining toy (Kracfive sequencer) for making noises using sounds like those in the music composed/improvised by Colongib & Octopus Inc. Their tracks have really strong pop sense but they are never with a concrete melody or rhythm. They are rather experiments wrapped in a poppy cover. This music deserves carefull and close listening, there are many details inside (Chris and Noah, like Matmos, use lots of real sounds) and it doesn't work well as background music 'cause that way you're missing too much. You should listen close to discover very nice sounds on this successful release and it's sampledelic kracphibian ethic. (BR) Address: http://www.kracfive.com STEVE RODEN & JASON KAHN - SHIMMER/FLICKER/WAVER/QUIVER (CD by Brombron) Number 6 in the Brombron series (now being released by Korm Plastics) is yet another joint venture concocted in that small, but highly effective Extrapool studio. I suppose both artists will not need further introductions, as they are well known in the field of electroacoustic and improvisation music. Very aptly, the CD contains six tracks, most of which are around 6 to 7 minutes. Track one is a very atmospheric piece with lots of hiss and very subtle background sounds and basses. It seems mainly loop based, but that is not a bad thing, because the loops are evasive enough. Other sounds are present, but somehow slip away al the time. So basically the whole first track is very evasive and slippery, so that's very good. The second track is also based on loops, most of which seem to be based on bell sounds and strings, with some undistinguishable sounds drifting in and out. But there is a strong tension that holds everything together, not in the least because the main sound is strongly panning from extreme left to right all the time. The third track is the longest, clocking at just over ten minutes. The beginning sheds light on Kahn's musical origins, but only very slightly so. The track is very subdued and rich in texture and just floats on and on untill suddenly it's over! Good track. Track four starts in a similar way, but builds up to a much denser piece with lots of different sound aspects. Track five boosts in with huge hiss and metal reverberation and a fine high line underneath. Slowly a part of the sound shifts from high to mid to low and a sort of rythm develops. Very subtly, the movement becomes clearer untill, again, all is cut off. The last track at first seems more electronic than the ones before, but that is probably due to extreme filtering, because in other ways it is very similar the rest of this disc: shimmering, flickering, wavering and quivering. A very apt title for music that moves on the border of ambient, electroacoustic and improvisation and is highly recommended because it doesn't suit any of these categories. (MR) Address: www.kormplastics.nl CHEAPMACHINES - [BOREHOLE] (CDR by Uranium City Records) In Vital Weekly 397 we discussed a CDR by UK's Cheap Machines, a band?, a person? who have been around for some time now, with quite an endless stream of CDRs on many small labels. Their 'Subfusc' release was quite an enjoyable release of modern musique concrete, so I put on '[Borehole]' with some anticipation. Just one track that lasts just under one hour and it's one big field of noise music. Cheapmachines have been listening to Merzbow a great deal before going into the 'studio' to record this. Nothing delicate, noting refined - just one long steady stream of sound. Merzbow is my thing, but I am never that much interested in more Merzbow under a different name (simply because there is enough Merzbow already, I think). So I sat through the entire length of this disc, writing these lines, waiting for that brilliant move to happen, but it didn't. Sorry, must do better, next time. (FdW) Address: http://www.uraniumcityrecords.com/ EMITER/K.TOPOLSKI - 16.03.2003 (CDR by Authorized Version) Here are two musicians which I never heard (or at least: can't remember hearing of), one Emiter (who plays loops, tapes, electronics and guitar) and one K. Topolski (who plays piezoelectronics and drums). I am not sure what they play, but it seems a bunch of samples set against improvisations on guitar. There are two pieces here, one that last about thirty-eight minutes and one that is about four minutes. As they are live pieces, I assume the first is the live concert and the second is the encore. Style-wise the two lads from Poland move in a wide variety of musics. From noise to improvisation to densely layered electronics. Maybe the styllistical changes are a bit too much here, which makes this concert a bit unfocussed for me. Like the two don't have a specific plan of what to play, and rather try to play all the ideas they had in mind. But having said that, this is not a bad disc of improvised electronic music at all and the good moments outlast the weaker brothers. Address: http://www.a-version.co.uk JOHN HUDAK - ROOM WITH SKY (CDR by Chaba Recordings) John Hudak slowly builts a very consistent body of work together, that by now dates back to the mid 80s and spans many cassette only releases (and most of them worth a re-issue on CDR, mind you), CDs and CDrs and some on vinyl - although that is something not happening a lot. 'Room With Sky' is his latest work, I think self-released on his Chaba Recordings label, a CDR in a small edition. The piece lasts about one hour, like so many other Hudak pieces. It's the perfect length for a Hudak release. Not that there is much development going on here, but it's the right length for the listener to forget time and place and simply to enjoy the sounds. Here it's unclear what kind of sounds Hudak has put into his machines (laptop with max/msp patches, I believe), maybe it's some natural sound, maybe it's a piano? With somebody like Hudak this is never really important - it's the result that matters. These simple sound processings move forward slowly, peacefully - like a mass of ice moving over the course of thousands years - slowly, without much change on the surface, but underneath is where the action takes place. To some it might seem that John Hudak produces ambient music on the fringe of new age, but this is not so at all. His sounds are too edgy for that. Hudak has crafted another fine work - another stone in his slow expanding universe. (FdW) Address: http://www.johnhudak.net JARL - PARALLEL/COLLAPSING (CD by Segerhuva) I never heard of a Swedish band named IRM and thus I don't know what they sound like. It's band because Jarl is Erik Jarl and he is one of the members. With 'Parallel/Collapsing' he delivers a solo CD. The work is divided in seven parts, totalling almost fifty five minutes. The cover doesn't list what kind of instruments Jarl uses, but my best guess is that Jarl works mostly with mixing boards and soundeffects. The input is no longer important - the sound is captured in an endless line of reverb and delay units. Like bacteria these sounds become living organism, eating their way through ones and zeros of these digital lines. The seven pieces flow right into eachother and the sound doesn't seem to change that much throughout this CD. It's a monochrome painting in sound - a whole bunch of endless variations in blue. Too loud and too present to be called ambient, so maybe ambient industrial is the term that comes close to this. Science fiction music to a movie in which human life does no longer exist and the machines fight eachother - cold, alien, gruesome pictures of a world to come. Alienated but captivating. (FdW) Address: http://www.segerhuya.se MATT WAND - PUBLIC.EXE (10" by Dekorder) One may remember Matt Wand as one half of the Stock, Hausen & Walkman duo from a couple of years back, or from his Hot Air label. Since some time Matt Wand also records solo, under his own name, and his love of small electronic devices, led him to use game boys and effect pedals. During a tour with Goodiepal and Nanoloop programmer Oliver Wittchow (the guy who wrote a musicprogramm that runs on game boys), he got noted by Dekorder who asked for a live record by Matt Wand. I don't what your expectations are when you hear people make music with a game boy, but my expectations are always a highly energetic rhythmical music but in a rather bleak way, but somehow Matt Wand doesn't live up to this. Wands approach is of course also rhythmical, but the whole thing is too distorted and too freaky to be a children's version of techno. Wand's music is edgy and at times noisy. The expected bleakness of the game boy is not at all present, and this is quite forceful, present music. It's one of the better examples of using game boys in music. Very nice one. (FdW) Address: http://www.dekorder.com PERLONEX/JULIJUNI (split LP by Happy Zloty Records) Happy Zloty is a small German label who have released a whole bunch of loveable and collectable 7" with improvised music in nice silkscreened covers. Now they move away from the handwork of glueing 7" covers with the release of their first split LP. Of course in a silkscreened cover... On this LP we find two improvising bands from Germany. The a-side has Perlonex, a trio with Ignaz Schick on electronics, devices and turntables, Joerg Maria Zeger on guitars and Burkhard Beins on drums and percussion. They have two CDs on Zarek (see Vital Weekly 235 and 286) and a 7" on Bad Alchemy. Like I wrote before, it's hard to tell wether the music of Perlonex is entirely improvised. I once saw them play live and noted the tight playing, which seemed kinda planned out. Not that it mattered that much to me, because it was a great thing to hear. Perlonex combine various styles of music in their own music: it's a bit of noise, electro-acoustic, ambient, composition and improvisation, that is brought together in very intense and powerful pieces of music. On the other side we find Julijuni, a Berlin/Hamburg trio of Tim Tetzner on feedback, Micheal Rieken on powerbook and Ansgar Wilken (boss of Happy Zloty) on guitar and electronics. They exist since 2001 and their first rehearsal was also their first gig. Since then they have played all over Germany and The Netherlands (they say: I didn't see them). Julijuni operate indeed in a much more improvised music style and they opt for the more noisy side of improvisation. Their piece (although divided in three parts, it sounds very much like an ongoing thing) starts out nicely in a moody way, but gradually builts up to a wall of noise, feedback and extensive scraping of contact microphones. Building up fiercly, this is less delicate than the Perlonex side, but will certainly appeal to those who like noise and improvisation going hand in hand. (FdW) Address: http://www.happyzloty.de BLACK TO COMM (10" by Dekorder) This is debut release from a 'new computer music artist from Hamburg, Germany'. I have no clue who is behind this, but I am sure it's someone who loves to put on some drone music, in combination with some finer points of computer processing. The result may count to some as drone music, but it's drone music of a more violent nature. The bowed sounds that open the b-side of this record, explode within seconds into a mighty violent drone, with machine gun shots fired through plug ins. References in the computer treated guitar music are obvious (think early Fennesz or Pimmon), but the whole violence that is generated is more linked to noise music ala Merzbow, even when there are more quiet spots to be noted here than on an average Merzbow CD. Quite a nice little record, which is albeit too short to have a good picture of what this guy can do. Looking forward therefore to the more extended programm. (FdW) Address: http://www.dekorder.com KAZUYA ISHIGAMI/TOMAS KORBER - MISTAKES (CD by Neus-318) In Vital Weekly 396 I reviewed a CD by Gunter Muller, Ralph Steinbruchel and Tomas Korber, and here again, we see the return of Korber. The Swiss guitarist has a split CD collaboration with Kazuya Ishigami, who seems to be very active these days as Daruin (see Vital Weekly 395) and under his own name on compilation (see Vital Weekly 393). The two guys exchanged sounds they made for the other to re-compose. Ishigami comes up with two pieces based on Korber guitar sounds, but none of which are to be recognized as such. It's quite easy to compare this with the recent works I heard by Ishigami: a major step forward! Delicate and precise, with great care for a balance between louder and softer passages. Noise is not so my thing, but here everything is kept in the right balance. I am not sure what Ishigami send Korber music wise, but his twenty four minutes hoovers on the edges of silence for the bigger part. If it wasn't based on collage, I'd say this is almost Lopezian in approach. Some louder parts occur, but in general this for maybe 80% on a very silent level. But in the darker corners of the unearthly rumble, small explosions take place and slow expanding waves go the surface of the sea. A bell sounds and we dive again. We swim undersea and we see nor hear anything for a while, until a rumble starts again... In all it's minimalism, rich music. (FdW) Address: http://www.neus318.com BRUNNEN - THE HONEY BUTTON (8" by Plinkity Plonk) I am pretty sure I am not the right person to review this record. The reasons are many. I know the musician all to well, and I like what he does when in solo mood, but it's very much outside the world of Vital Weekly. It's most intimate singer songwriter stuff. A man and his keyboard in one track or a guitar on the next piece. Four of these intimate sung pieces. Words like noise, computer processing, plug in or max/msp are not to be found in a review of this. Comes in a lovely handprinted cover and the biggest reason not to review this is the shameful edition of 20 or so copies. You gotta hurry. (FdW) Address: BETH ANDERSON - PEACHY KEEN-O (CD by Pogus) Pogus never cease to amaze me with finding composers that aren't really young but of whom I never heard. Take Beth Anderson. Born in 1950, studied in Kentucky, at Mills, studied the piano and composition, co-editor of the publication Ear from 1973-79 and currentely teaches at the Greenwich House Music School in New York. This anthology of nine pieces are all works of the seventies, and some of them have a really seventies atmosphere. The opening piece, 'Torero Piece', is such a piece. A women's voice recites texts about her daughter and her relation to her daughter and is 'to describe the most dramatic event or relationshio in your life' - not well spend on me. Same goes for the moaning piece 'Peachy Keen-O'Other pieces are luckily of more interest, such as 'Tower Of Power', a heavy droning organ and electronic piece - minimal yet forceful. The four short pieces 'Ocean Motion Mildew Band', 'Country Time', 'Yes Sir Ree' and 'I Can't Stand It' were all quite nice too, text sound based, but with a high rhythmical impact. Reminded me of Craig Burke. The best pieces here were 'Joan' a minimal piano piece in the best Steve Reich tradition and the closing piece 'Ode', a strict tape piece of looped prayer tapes and electronics. Here too, a Steve Reich influence is to be noted, especially 'It's Gonna Rain'. A bit mixed feelings about this CD, but the good pieces outlast the bad ones. (FdW) Address: http://www.pogus.com FSB----- - --[WE SPY ON YOU." (CDR by Top 40) ED.S - [ENCENS JAPONAIS](CDR by Top 40) Are you confused? You should be, these are some new releases from Top 40, a label from the Moscow's underground. I don't know who FSB and >ed.s are, there's no info about them on Top 40's site, but you can still visit the site and ask Vadim (aka Motor, the label's owner) if you're interested. Now we should be more interested about the sound of these releases. You know Radio 4's song Dance To The Underground? Well, this is the underground, but you can't dance to FSB's music 'cause it's too quiet, minimal, no rhythm... But you can still dance in your mind. The second track from FSB's EP is called Food For Your Fantasy and I think this title connects well with the music, which is more a sound experiment, silent and ultra-microsound, present enough to make you aware of it's existence, crawling sound fighting for it's survival in a very fragile way. This music/sound is somehow strange and a bit alienated. Adding more diversity inside or even a little bit of humour might be fine. Though, it still sounds nice as it is. It's more interesting than the second release. The second release by >ed.s is also very quiet, ultra-minimalistic and done in a lo-fi way, there's constant muffled sound that's present almost always and not changing at all. And there's not much else. There are some very quiet and distant voices in russian that sound like they're coming from a television. It sounds like someone has recorded the sound from the television with a poor tape quality and from a distance. Nothing much is happening on this release, it lacks activity and musicality. It's ok as a sound experiment, but not too interesting musicaly and a bit limited. (BR) Address: http://www.top-40.org JOHN DUNCAN & PETER FLEUR - THE SCATTERING (CD by Edition...) This CD is a collaboration album of sorts: the first track (of three) was done by both Duncan and Fleur, the second pece is by Fleur solo, the third by Duncan solo. For those who don't know: Fleur was part of the duo L.O.S.D. with Radboud Mens and later released a very DIY ambient kit in the form of a double 5" (one CD, the other vinyl, beautiful!). The tracks on this disc all stem from 2001 and seem to be based on data files and shortwave sounds. This could be true, but it could just as well not be. Most of the sounds are heavily stretched, so they could have originated anywhere. But of course, that is also unimportant in the end, because what ultimately coutns is the music itself. And after an initial slight repulsion on my behalf by so much stretching (this is strictly personal!), things begin to find their place and flow. The track sounds ambient at first, but escapes this by having way too much composition and build up. The tension stays good throughout the piece and after some time the sound actually stops, which is highly surprising in a work like this, but it's a very nice surprise indeed. We are now more than halfway through, still 13 minutes to go and then: bang! another stretch blasts in and puts everything on edge again. This one lasts the whole last 13 minutes, although it fades out very slowly and somewhere a bass sound is added, that slowly gets richer. This is the title track by the way. Well done. Track two is a 15 minute piece by Peter Fleur, starting with a low resonating ambient bass sound, into which a cluster of higher frequencies is slowly mixed. This movement is repeated, but each time more sounds are added, which does a lot for tightening the tension. And here again, halfway through: a sudden break, a completely distorted sound taking over, fading out and digital rain is left. The track ends with long glissando's of all kinds and a surprise. Defenitely not your everyday ambient drone stuff from Fleur. Something way more interesting instead! Duncan's track is the one stemming from the shortwave sounds. The piece seems to be edited together from several recordings, but then again, it could also be a direct to disc mix. The sounds are familiar for anyone who has ever turned a radio dial and the track itself doesn't do much to enhance that experience, except for layering these sounds. To be very honest: I have heard it done better. Still, the CD as a whole is a success, as far as I am concerned. (MR) Address: http://editionellipsis.hypermart.net LESSER - SUPPRESSIVE ACTS I-X (CD by Matador) Last album from J. Lesser I tried to give a spin was Gearhound. This 2001 beast sounded like playing ones record collection all at once. No doubt that non-penetrable mess contained deeper motifs and theories at base, but I never managed to pick them out. In a way this Suppressive Acts I-X can be considered one big mash-up too, only now clearly structured and brought down to random bursts of noise that one can actually define as songs. Outstanding track is the opening The Science of Pathology, being a deathmetal song, stitched together tightly out of several sampled pieces from the graveyards of the genre. Normally this is brutal and aggressive music, but because Lesser has provided his piece of work with a very mechanical character, it now more resembles John Oswalds Metallica/Kronos Quartet collages. I guess the same can be said about the other material, being techno without the aesthetics of dance music. In here there is no swing. And where other acts their music is without doubt computer-generated, Lesser's sound is clearly sampled and pasted together. It?s noteworthy that most of these samples were taken from metal sources (Lesser being a metalhead and (once) a player in a Metallica-coverband). In a way you could call this old fashioned, but with a keen treatment with nowadays software (listen for example to the extremely noise reduced funk in Dandy in the Fandora, with the guitar-line coming straight out of Adam and the Ants? Stand and Deliver), this Suppressive Acts I-X has a sound all its own. This disc also includes an album by Lesser?s pre-electroclash band The Robotic from 1995, in MP3 format. (RT) Address: http://www.lsr1.com KID 606 - KILL SOUND BEFORE SOUND KILLS YOU (CD by Ipecac) Drum, drill, jungle, breakbeats on the loose with reggae basslines and toasting. If these sounds haven't killed you before they definitely won't do it now either. Soundmurderer, anyone? The Kid 606 is a talented one, but on his latest he tends to repeat himself. A couple a months ago we were already treated on two tracks from Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You, single The Illness and the magnificently titled Ecstasy Motherfucker. The latter is a totally fucked-up mix of aforementioned genres with raving gabberhouse, without immediately becoming digital hardcore. This eight minute killer gave me the same rush of excitement I felt when I first encountered the sounds of Squarepusher, Alec Empire, Jamie Lidell, Remarc and, most definitely, the Kid himself. It was new, fresh and absolutely devastating. Unfortunately most of the other material doesn't quite make-up to the raised expectations, no matter how good it gets. (RT) Address: http://www.ipecac.com 1. From: "Will Guthrie" DECEMBER 14 vert pituite la belle present : Harold Shellinx solo (dictaphones, "sound chronicles" /holland-France) Will Guthrie solo (amplified percussionss, électronics, found or junk ojects etc. /Australia) Bobby Moo (Arnaud Rivière-mixing oard, Miho-sampler, Alexandre Bellenger-turntales, A100, etc.) Price : 7/5 * 8.30pm Les Voûtes / 91 quai de Panhard & Levassor, 75013 Paris / Metro "Bibliothèque" or "Quai de la Gare" PARIS http://www.lesvoutes.org. 2004 JANUARY 7 Micheal Vorfeld & Will Guthrie duo AUSLAND BERLIN http://www.ausland-berlin.de/ JANUARY 9 Will Guthrie solo + Michael Thieke (cl/sax), Axel Doerner (tp) & Fabricio Spera (perc). Raumschiff Zitrone BERLIN http://www.echtzeitmusik.de/ JANUARY 20 Will Guthrie solo Werkstatt für Improvisierte Musik Magnusstrasse 5 CH-8004 Zürich SWITZERLAND http://www.wimmusic.ch/ JANUARY 23 Will Guthrie solo CAVE 12 12 bd de la tour 1205 genève SWITZERLAND http://www.cave12.org/ 2. From: "Joachim Nordwall" ANNOUNCEMENT ...iDEALFESTIVAL 2004... On march 11-13, the second iDEALFESTIVAL will hit us all again!!! Three days of brave music, visuals and more...Last year was a big success...And 2004 will be even better. Confirmed artists so far: PAN SONIC (Blast First!/Mute,SF) FENNESZ (Touch/Mego,A) DJ/RUPTURE (Tigerbeat6,US) MIKKEL METAL (Echocord,DK) HAZARD (Touch,S) CONTEMPORARY PUNK UNIT (iDEAL,S) PEAUX (S) Dj JEAN-LOUIS HUHTA (S) And more coming! Please stay updated on our site at www.idealrecordings.com Tickets will be available from early january and on. Get in touch if you have any questions! -- 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), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR) 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 Weekly (1995 onwards) can be found at: http://staalplaat.com/vital/