============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 456 ------------ week 1 ------------ KETTEL - LOOK AT THIS! HA HA HA! (CD by Kracfive) POLA - MÊME (CD by Plop) DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE - CASUAL PRAISE OF DOMESTIC CALAMITIES (CD by Hypnagogia) VIVA [SECTION] (CD compilation by [Section] Media) THE CHILD READERS - MEMORY AND FANTASY (CD by Mallard Lake) MOLJEBKA PULSE - THE LEAVES OF THEIR SONGS (CD by Fin de Siecle Media) DISKREPANT - 33-12 (CD by Fin de Siecle Media) LAWRENCE ENGLISH - TRANSIT (CD by Cajid Media) TIM BRADY - Playing Guitar: Symphony nr.1 (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques) QUATOR BOZZINI - Portrait Montreal (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques) THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE - 1953 (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) KRAKEN - FÖRLISA (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) DEF - C (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) PROJECT ARCTIC - THIRD POLE (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) AUTODIGEST - A COMPRESSED HISTORY OF EVERYTHING EVER RECORDED, VOL. 2: UBIQUITOUS ETERNAL LIVE (CD by Cronica/Ash International) BERNARD SCHREINER (CD by Reduktive Musiken) TOTSTELLEN - WORKING WRECK/WRECKING WORK (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) KYO ICHINOSE - IONTANO (CD by Cubic Music) ROCCO DI PIETRO - MULTIPLES/THE LOST PROJECT (2CD by Di Pietro Editions) LAMBENT - THESE DAYS (CD by Expanding Records) MONOCEROS - WHEN I WAS A CHILD I WANTED TO BE AN ASTRONAUT (CD by Expanding Records) KUNT - 1997 (CD by Rats Milk Records) PROGRESS (CD compilation by Rx:tx) RYOKO KUWAJIMA - KISE-TSU (CD by Melange Records) MONIKA FORCE (CD compilation by Monika Enterprise) GUTEVOLK - TWINKLE (miniCD by Happy) ROD - ALL MY LOVE (miniCD/12" by Underscan) INCITE/ - MINIMAL LISTENING (7") MEK OBAAM - GOODNIGHT, THANK YOU/JOHNNY & MARY (7" by Earsugar) HI LONESOME ELECTRIC - PIERRE AND JOHN HENRY/HOOLA (7" by Earsugar) THE SCHNEIDER TM EXPERIENCE- PSYCHEDELIC QUEEN/THE NEW COBWEB SUMMER (7" by Earsugar) SUPER REVERB - JACK POTATOE/HEY MR. RAMBLER (7" by Earsugar) JULIA HUMMER - BOXY, WHERE ARE THE SPANGLES/BOWLING IN WOODSTOCK (7" by Earsugar) BERTIN - DIGITALLY DISTROTED MINIATURES (CDR by Ole Records) MACHINEFABRIEK - BRICKS & PIECES (3"CDR) MACHINEFABRIEK - BIJ MIRJAM (3"CDR) MACHINEFABRIEK - PIEPSHOW (3"CDR) CHEFKIRK - PYCHONTUS JOCOSUS (CDR by Organic Pipeline) KETTEL - LOOK AT THIS! HA HA HA! (CD by Kracfive) Here's a release I have for quite some time now, but didn't manage to review it earlier. It's a longer EP (25 minutes) by Kettel, one of my favourite of the new melodic (idm) artists, and by now a favourite to many like-minded people around the would. Even when Kettel (aka Reimer Eising) is obviously inspired by the global idm scene, it's certainly fair to say that there are much more things and diversity in his music, at least what I've heard so far. It varies from one to other track, so you couldn't guess what's the next surprise. I figured out there can be quite a lot of jazz in Kettel's music, just hear the track 'Any waken sly blonda' from the EP 'Cuddle and then leave' released by Dub. That electronic jazzy feel is present on the 'Look at this! ha ha ha!' EP too, though not to that extent and with same intensity as in the track I mentioned before. What Kettel does and it distincts him from many of the artists on that scene is not trying to be precise in the melodies, as Novel 23 is for example, but he rather improvises with the melodies, mixing sounds, beats, field recordings etc. and playing with the sounds and with those various sound sources as with instruments. And he's quite good in that. As a result of that is the absence of classic stand-out tracks, which you can't really find on this release (although it comes close in tracks 2, 6 and 7), but instead there's an ongoing shifting atmosphere. Sometimes more absent, other times more concentrated, as in the nice track 'Twinkle twinkle that is you'. Mixed up melodies, coming from the idm jam sessions in Kettel's means, where often sudden and unexpected joyful things surprisingly show up, as in 'Philiphill timee'. (BR) Address: http://www.kracfive.com POLA - MÊME (CD by Plop) Pola should of course not be confused with Bola, the Skam recording artist. Pola comes from Japan, and 'Même' is his first album (don't know what relation it has with the Japanese label of the same name). Pola use an MPC2000, a piece of hardware to manipulate all sorts of clicks, skips and beats to create his music. It took two years to make this album, but that's something I don't hear while playing it. For sure, the twelve tracks are nice rhythmic, ambientesque doodlings along the lines of early SND or Mokira, and to a lesser extent some more rhythmic Oval, but in general it sounds too much like those, aswell as a host of other things on say the Mille Plateaux label from years back. A kind of outdated sound if you are looking for the lastest movement in clicks and cuts. But for an afternoon of book reading, coffee sipping and smoking, this is certainly most entertaining. Especially if you have misplaced your SND collection. (FdW) Address: http://www.inpartmaint.com/plop DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE - CASUAL PRAISE OF DOMESTIC CALAMITIES (CD by Hypnagogia) Now here's yet another legend who returns to the world of CDs, or maybe he was just never really away. Since the day I started to listen to self-released cassettes in the eighties, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe belong to my digest (though not daily, I admit). From the early cassette days via some vinyl releases in the mid nineties to sparse CD releases these days: there is also a clear progressive line in his music. From the hissy induced sound via noise to musique concrete these days. Das Synthetische Mischgewebe sound like, but are not, a laptop act. His work, as the band is one person, Guido Hübner, is entirely based on manipulations of field recordings (a.o. the harbor of Hamburg and in his hometown of Caen) but also recordings of household appliances. None of these are easily being recognized in the resulting compositions, which all sound electronic. Probably many hours of tape manipulations and feeding them through synthesizers go into this work. In all his work, Guido Hübner stays close to the original ideas of musique concrete, using concrete sounds and manipulate them through various studio techniques. The resulting ten tracks are all of great beauty but require ones full attention and simply can't be used as background music. But if one does this, it will be a rewarding experience. (FdW) Address: http://www.hypnagogia.org.uk VIVA [SECTION] (CD compilation by [Section] Media) Digital breakcore and hardcore was never my thing too much, but when it's done as it is here, it sure is! Venetian Snares is also very much my thing, so I'm reviewing this music having in mind Mr. Funk as a highlight there. This is a very good compilation with a kind of breakcore music, mixed with some ragga MCing in Maladroit's great track. All artists included are unknown to me, I don't know are they known on their scene, but I still kinda doubt it. But that's hardly important, 'cause these people know what they're doing. Some of the finest underground breakcore within the digital means, coming in different shapes and forms varied enough to stand on their own, from the artists: Kiki Ill, Omega Red, Toecutter, Simulcast, Chromer..., to name a few. Trashy, primitive, lo-fi and excellent. Besides 11 audio tracks, there are 3 interesting videos which are done in the same aesthetics as the music and go well with it. A characteristic moment are Puzahki & Herts Solvent with a great rap/hip-hop hardcore track. Puzahki has a full-length on another label Alias Frequencies that sounds good. When I reconsider, well done breakcore is pretty much my thing. (BR) Address: http://www.sectionmedia.org THE CHILD READERS - MEMORY AND FANTASY (CD by Mallard Lake) Sometimes you hear some music and like the ideas in it very much, but not as much as the music itself. That's the impression I have about this album by The Child Readers aka Jason Honea and Loren Chasse. There's quite a lot in this music - voice, mandolin, harp, guitar, electronics, percussion, piano and monochord (if that's all?), but they're all in forms of improvising songs, often quite loose. As I said, I like the idea, but sometimes the songs on this album are too stretched and lose my attention. More concentration within these songs of improvisation would be good. One of the more interesting tracks is 'The shark airplane'. Drifty music with plenty of great ideas in it, that gravitate around the improv ways of playing, but might be better executed and combined I think. Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbon have a nice album called 'Songs' where they like to put the improvised music in a song form. But in their music the content is still improvisation. In The Child Readers' case the form (that's song here) affects the content of the music, not in a greatest way. (BR) Address: http://www.freewebs.com/mallardlake MOLJEBKA PULSE - THE LEAVES OF THEIR SONGS (CD by Fin de Siecle Media) DISKREPANT - 33-12 (CD by Fin de Siecle Media) The name of Moljebka Pulse is probably by now a settled one, with previous releases on Eibon, Cold Meat Industry and Segerhuva. The latter released 'Tamon' (see Vital Weekly 436) and there it seemed that Moljebka Pulse went into the world of noise, after a long career of highly drone related works. Nothing such so. On his 'The Leaves Of Their Songs', Moljebka Pulse returns to his older style of deep electronic ambient drone works. Apperentely guitars and electronics lie at the basis of this music and things are heavily processed into these long, stretched and pitch black atmospheric tunes. In 'Chorei' there is a rhythm to be detected, but in general these are kept to a minimum. Sometimes the music is a bit gritty and raw but that certainly is quite nice. Only six pieces to be found here, but lenghty as hell, with 'Anzan' even almost twenty-eight minutes. If you the rawness of Troum, then I'm sure Moljekba Pulse is something that would go down well too. The other new release by Fin de Siecle Media is the first full length of Diskrepant, who had a split release with Des Esseintes (see also Vital Weekly 396). There is however a great difference between that release and this new one. The previous was a loud, vicious noise beast, but here Per Ahlund, the man behind Diskrepant, goes into drone music. "33-12" deals with the spirituality of man and to that end he uses electronics, gongs, bells and chanting. That may sound a little bit too esoteric, but the result is actually quite nice. The chanting part is remotely hidden away in the corners of the album, and the processed gong and bell sounds are there, but do not sound like anything 'magick' (as some people want to write it). This Diskrepant recording is of course dark atmospherical and highly drone related, and fits the likes of Mirror, Jonathan Coleclough, Ora and Paul Bradley. If they are your cups of tea than check this out too. (FdW) Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com LAWRENCE ENGLISH - TRANSIT (CD by Cajid Media) The Australian label Cajid comes around again with their release and now they have someone whose work I encountered before. Lawrence English is the name and he is a sound environmentalist but extending his soundscapes with instruments. His previous 3" CD was reviewed in Vital Weekly 318. Not that he plays everything himself, but he gets recordings from people to use. People such as Philip Samartzis whom delivers field recordings from Tasmania, Robin Rimbaud (electronics), Cat Hope (bass), DJ Olive (Turntables) and others. If I understand correctely he recorded all of these in the various locations of a long travel: London, Tokyo and Brisbane - hence the title. English plays ambient music, incorporating both field recordings (crickets, people speaking, cars passing) and synthesized musics, but the addition of other people's instruments sort of expands this a little bit. It's quite nice and intimate music that he plays here, one that is really ambient: it fills your environment without being overtly present. Perhaps not the most original voice in this already crowded field, but the seven tracks are executed with care and grace, and that's nice in itself enough. (FdW) Address: http://cajid.com TIM BRADY - Playing Guitar: Symphony nr.1 (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques) QUATOR BOZZINI - Portrait Montreal (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques) The music released through the Ambiances Magnétiques label covers a wide spectrum: extreme noisemusic by Tetréault, all kinds of improvised music and jazz, beautiful songs by someone like Letarte, but also modern 'classical' music. Both two new cds belong to the last category. Canadian composer and guitarplayer Brady offers two of his new compositions on his new cd. "Playing Guitar: Symphony nr.1" is a work in 5 movements, two movements being subdivided in two parts. If you aks me what is 'classical' about his work then it surely is the symphonic nature of this piece. We hear Tim Brady on electric guitar accompanied by the 15-piece Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Besides there is an important role for live electronics and sampler played by Brady. Part 1 is a very driven - Louis Andriessen like - piece. The second movement is dense and at a much lower pace. The third movement is more or less completely electronic. Like in movement 1 we hear in the second part of the third movement the complete ensemble playing a very dynamic hammering intersection, that continues in movement 4. The first part of the 5th movement is a beautiful solo piece for Brady on guitar. In the second part the music becomes very complex and culminates in a climax fading out with quiet electronic sounds in the last few seconds. It's very rich and engaging work. At the core of this recording is the live recording a the piece in june 2003. In the process of mixing and editing guitar and sampler parts were added. The second compositions "Frame 1 - Resonance" is performed by his ensemble Bradyworks, consisting here only of two players: Pamela Reiner on piano and Tim Brady himself on guitar and treatments. For this composition Brady was inspired by a thought of a friend who imagined a piece for piano and guitar where "the guitar would act like a big, electronic resonator for the piano part, becoming a huge electroacustic sustain pedal". Again a more than interesting work by Brady. On 'Portrait Montréal' everything is in four: four compositions from four different composers, played by four musicians, the Quatuor Bozzini. We hear the following works: 'Pulau Dewata' (by Claude Vivier), 'Quator a cordes II' (Jean Lesage), 'Daydream Mechanics V' (Michael Oesterle) and 'A New Song of many facesfor in These Times' (Malcolm Goldstein). String quartet Quatuor Bozzini plays music from classical and romantic times, but have a great love for modern music. For their debut cd they concentrate on modern music from their hometown Montréal. What strikes me first listening to this cd is the enthousiastic and daring playing by this quartet. "Pulau Dewata" is played here in an arrangment by Michael Oesterle. It was Vivier's tribute to balinese music. The post-minimal composition "Daydream Mechanics V" by Oesterle also is inspired on folk music. Though not asiatic music this time. Now we hear echoes of eastern Europe. Jean Lesage on the other hand stays close to the western classical tradition. He plays with this idiom with great skill and dedication. Malcolm Goldstein is not only a composer but also a well-known improvisor on violin. So it should not wonder that his composition gives room for improvisation. As a result this is the most vivid piece on this cd. First of all this cd introduces us to a great and 'fresh' string quartet and secondly it offers a well-balanced portrait of modern composed music from Canada (DM). Address: http://www.actuellecd.com THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE - 1953 (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) KRAKEN - FÖRLISA (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) DEF - C (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) PROJECT ARCTIC - THIRD POLE (CD by Nautilus/Spectre Records) Nautilus is a sub-division of Spectre Records, a label specialized in the darker and rhythmic edges of music, whose releases I will leave for inspection by those who understand that better than I do (meaning: reviews soon). On Nautilus they offer some more ambient releases, which are more up my alley. The [Law-rah] Collective are from The Netherlands, consisting of Hiekelien van den Herik and Bauke van der Wal. Voice and electronics. The theme for this CD is one that is most actual these days: land being floaded by water. In 1953 a part of the Netherlands were flooded and some 1800 people were killed. Maybe a minor disaster compared by the current Asian events, but still a big tragedy for a small country. In seven pieces of ultra dark, almost static drone sounds, the two depict in word and sound, the disaster. It might be hard to understand if you can't understand the Dutch language, but it's a very sombre release. Based on diary fragments (it seems) the text is spoken rather in a neutral way and underneath the static tone rumbles, until in the fourth track the synths start to produce bubbling sound. This work should be seen as one long piece, developping as the piece progresses. Of course not a pleasent piece of music, but certainly one that sums up the results of a disaster quite well. Kraken have some releases on Spectre Records, all of which sadly were never heard by me. Unlike The [Law-rah] Collective, Kraken doesn't seem to have a theme for their release. The ambient aspect is certainly there, but Kraken moves over into rhythmical areas, but without sounding overtly rhythmical. There are only traces, hints of rhythms, through repetitive synth lines and repeating samples. Also there is a certainly rawness to the sound, that provides a certain discomfort, well at least for those who like the more lulling to sleep ambient. There was a time when this would be called 'ambient industrial' and that term should certainly be revived for this release by Kraken. Whoever is Def I don't know and why his debut is called 'C' (instead of, say, 'A'), I don't know either. I am told he is the soundman of bands like Mimetic and Von Magnet. Def uses field recordings of water alongside the processed hum of whatever is humming (might be electronics, synths or maybe electrical charges) and comes up with a deep atmospherical ambient work. Occassionally he bumps into some rhythm, but it's safe and remotely away. Nature meets machine here it seems. This is much more ambient than say the Kraken release, but there is a good sense of experimentalism over this release, such as the intense sounds of the fifth piece 'My Village Was Under The Lake Mix' - water dripping and processed guitars make a horror movie like soundtrack. Great release for those in favor of Thomas Köner going friday the 13th. Members of This Morn' Omina and Empusae (both known in the world of the darker than dark musics) team up for a joint work under the monikker of Project Arctic. Of course music which made me think of glaciers. Not that I am a lover of anysort of outdoor activity, let alone in the winter time, but the music covered on this disc reflects the winter state quite well. Far away sounds, almost inaudible, with an occassional, highly reverberating bang on something percussive, thus adding the cold and creepy element to the music. To stay on the references of Thomas Köner, this one can be compared to a more traditional, early Köner disc, like Teimo or Permafrost. Musicwise, this is the best release, with the best worked out ideas (even in all it sparseness) and comes closest to the true isolationist/ambient sound. (FdW) Address: http://www.spectre.be AUTODIGEST - A COMPRESSED HISTORY OF EVERYTHING EVER RECORDED, VOL. 2: UBIQUITOUS ETERNAL LIVE (CD by Cronica/Ash International) Just like the first volume, I really like the title of this work. In this first volume Autodigest delt the compression of music, the new volume is about 'all the audiences ever recorded and has them share one hour of hysterical, progressively apocalyptic applause'. And that's what you get: people clapping their hands, cheering, shouting. On end. It's probably an extensive loop being repeated. Or maybe not. Yes, this is minimal music indeed. If 'music' is a term to be applied to this. Is it good? I don't know. Is it bad? I don't know that either. Do I like it? I don't know. It's certainly a CD to impress your friends with, if you want to show off some of the weirdness of your record collection. The weirdest thing I have come across in 2004 for sure. (FdW) Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org BERNARD SCHREINER (CD by Reduktive Musiken) TOTSTELLEN - WORKING WRECK/WRECKING WORK (CDR by Reduktive Musiken) The name Bernard Schreiner rings no bell here, but he's probably German and the first six tracks of his CD are recorded at the excellent Hörbar in Hamburg, Germany. A small and intimate club with a good programming. Schreiner played there in Ausgust 2003 and the six pieces he played have a strong rhythmical background, even when it's not exactely techno music. Instead he offers a set of clicks and cuts pieces that sound alright but not great. The piece '11.33', which is a studio piece sound of more interest. The cut-up styled noise is perhaps also not the most original thing around, but the vivid changes in sound are quite nice sounding. Likewise nice is the last piece of the CD 'Low-Guitar-Code', probably processed guitar sound. Highly ambient sounding but with a touch of rhythm. So in all it's not a bad CD, but perhaps also not very original and with some nice moments. On the same label but as a limited CDR release is a release by Totstellen, which might mean 'to kill', which made me fear the worst kind of industrial noise. It's hard to read anything on the cover, but I think I read something about processed field recordings, made in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK. These processings took place on a four track machine and then digitally mastered. The music is a blend of ambient material with little and subtle changes. It's hard to decipher any of the original material used by Totstellen, but the partly ambient, partly industrialized fields of sound are in fact pleasent to hear. 'Work Wreck' is a bit industrial with vaguely metal sounds and the fifth (not mentioned on the cover) starts out in sheer silence. Nice one indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.reduktivemusiken.de KYO ICHINOSE - IONTANO (CD by Cubic Music) The for me unknown Kyo Ichinose presents his second album, following his 2002 album 'The Machineries Of Joy - Yorokobi No Kikai'. 'Iontano' is a term used in classical music, meaning 'from a distance', when something should sound like from a distance. To this end Ichinose has his music performed by people playing violins and vocals, which he processes by digital means. At times he sounds majestical and classical, and at other times it's a very typical ambient glitch work. Although both directions are executed with great care here, the combination is quite odd, I'd say and I am not sure if it works really well. It makes really an odd couple these two different combinations. I'd say I liked the ambient glitch pieces somewhat better than the orchestral pieces, with the nice minimal 'Iontano #3' as the highlight of the entire album. It's a nice album for sure, but limping too much on two entirely different directions. (FdW) Address: http://www.cubicmusic.com ROCCO DI PIETRO - MULTIPLES/THE LOST PROJECT (2CD by Di Pietro Editions) The work of Rocco di Pietro has been reviewed before (in Vital Weekly 370) from his group The Avant Collective and a solo work. Di Pietro (1949) studied composition and piano with Hans Hagen and Lukas Foss, wrote a book on Pierre Boulez and composed for the Kronos Quartet. Many of the works reviewed in Vital Weekly 370 are to be found on this double retrospective CD again. Di Pietro adds a lot of spoken word to his electronic and acoustic music, mainly about lost children, prisoners or the sounds of sexual activities in 'The Tears Of Eros'. On disc two there are more instrumental pieces, but they seem to have been made by using improvisation (or maybe it's all written down in scores, but it sounds rather improvised to me anyway), especially the 'Chamber Lost 2 For Christian Boltanski'. I found this the weaker part of the project. In 'Multiples' there is a lot of tension in the music, through the use of spoken word, but that seems to be gone in the second disc. The cell-phones used in "Mobile Phone Dreams B With Lost' are a mere gimmick, as far as I'm concerned. Disc one is for those who love the music and number two for the die-hard fans. (FdW) Address: http://www.dipietroeditions.com LAMBENT - THESE DAYS (CD by Expanding Records) MONOCEROS - WHEN I WAS A CHILD I WANTED TO BE AN ASTRONAUT (CD by Expanding Records) Two new releases on Expanding Records and both are new artists to me. Lambent is one Akira Inagawa from Japan, currentely in Berlin. Akira started to play music while in art college in London, meeting the people from 'Insine' label and after moving to Berlin playing electronic music and being a hip-hop DJ. As Lambent he doesn't use any computers, just samplers and synthesizers in a live approach. This is quite important to realize when you listen to this music, because once you know this, the music makes much more sense. He sets on a rhythm, some sequences and plays then the keyboards in a rather joyfull and sometimes even jazzy way. The eight tracks aren't particular short, but Lambent does manage to please my ears throughout each track, and throughout the entire album. It's kind of pleasure music to wake up album... As said, also new is Monoceros and this is one Joan Male from a small village above Barcelona and since 1996-97 he works on electronic music, under such names as Lumiere and Salad, before turning into Monoceros. He uses to quite an extend computers, samplers and keyboards and his music is more complex than that of Lambent, but I didn't think is was necessarily much better than the Lambent release. Much of the musics on the Monoceros CD sounded too much like other things (Morr Music, Static Caravan or Expanding Records themselves), without a real face of its own. The moody and somewhat direct melancholy of Lambent is more appealing, but if Monoceros' more direct in y'r face is played right afterwards, then you can be assured to be awake. (FdW) Address: http://www.expandingrecords.com KUNT - 1997 (CD by Rats Milk Records) Will something that was nice to see in live performance hold up on CD? Last week I saw the Australian performance duo Kunt do their show here locally and it was nice to see. Noisy, but also beatp-oriented stuff, including signing and grinding, all about kunt of course. It was nice to see, but how does it work on CD? "1997" contains material of jams, concerts and studio work of the last six years. Of course the performance element is sadly missed here, but especially the first eight tracks have something similar to the live performance: speed, energy and humor. After that things sort of go down a little bit and the more extended noise pieces there sound a bit dull. Otherwise this is quite a nice noise CD of a more traditional noise character. (FdW) Address: http://www.kuntnoise.com PROGRESS (CD compilation by Rx:tx) About a month ago there was a festival in Ljubljana called Progress, organized by the Slovenian label Rx:tx, and here's a compilation released at that time by the same label which includes some of the artists who played there. The subtitle of this release is: compilation of finest eastern european electronica. But it includes some artists from Russia and Ukraine too (that's Asia, right?). However, this is a good collection of diverse musics from the inovative scenes of Latvia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Hungary and before mentioned Russia and Ukraine. Of course here's Andrey Kiritchenko, already a star with two albums on the respected great label Ad Noiseam. He's track is taken from the new album 'Interplays in-between', a trademark sound of glitchy microclicks. Most of the other tracks are previously unreleased. Of other characteristic artists there are Volga, known from the label Sketis Music, with a track done in a specific world-music style. P.o.S. (piece-of-shit) is Goran Simonoski of BelgradeYard Sound System who organize the excellent festival Dis-Patch. His track is in a dubby ~Scape style, quite good. I'll mention 2 more as my favourites, those are Octex and Tigrics, and the others are: Evgeniy Droomoff & Sound Meccano, Klegmar, Karaoke Mouse, Territerrortorium (Felix Kubin & Wojtek Kucharczyk), Zvukbroda, Puna Syndicate, Echo Depth Finders, Molr Drammaz, Harlem Underground, Random Logic and Fedor Svolotch. Lots of artists, 16 altogether. Also a very informative booklet. (BR) Address: http://www.rx-tx.org RYOKO KUWAJIMA - KISE-TSU (CD by Melange Records) An interesting concept (if it is a concept?) of this album: all tracks except the last one are made by guest musicians on various instruments, like a trumpet, accordion, double bass, chello, tabla etc. and Ryoko Kuwajima herself plays on sitar and electric organ on two tracks, besides the electronics. So, all of these are combined with Ryoko's electronics and sometimes the instrument's sound is dominant, other times the electronics' or both are equally present. All of this gives plenty of variations in all tracks, of which from track 1 to 12 are titled with month-names, from January to December, and track 13 is 'Leap year'. Quite a diverse work, but with good sense for combining sounds. The style ranges from glitchy (and really extreme in track 10) cut-ups, piercing sounds, to atmospheric and improv of a more experimental kind, as in the tracks with trumpet and chello. But that's not a typical improv, just has that kind of sensibility, mainly because of the used instruments. Interesting release by Ryoko Kuwajima of who maybe you haven't heard, by she's also a part of the band Lappetites where other mebers are (and you sure know them) Kaffe Matthews, AGF and Eliane Radigue. (BR) Address: http://www.melangerecords.com MONIKA FORCE (CD compilation by Monika Enterprise) No doubt the Monika Enterprise label is a well-known one, founded by former Mania D and Malaria member Gudrun Gut, but not by me, unfortunally. She releases many female artists who work inside the electronic music, mostly pop oriented. They play either a simple keyboard, a rhythmbox and sign along. Maybe a guitar. On this compilation, nineteen tracks in total we can hear them all (including a couple of male artists, such as Robert Lippok). There are rare mixes, b-sides and are greatest hits, selected by Gudrun Gut. So, for those in the dark, like me, this is indeed a most fine introduction to artists like Barbara Morgenstern, Cobra Killer, Chica, Figurine and Manuela Krause and many more. But after a while, I had pretty much enough of the introspective playing and longed for some noise. Nice, in a smaller amount. (FdW) Address: http://www.monika-enterprise.de GUTEVOLK - TWINKLE (miniCD by Happy) For some reason I missed the first release on Happy, the side label for poptunes by 12K. Gutevolk is one Hirono Mishiyama, who had previous releases on Noble and Childisc, all of which I didn't hear. On 'Twinkle' she plays six songs, six uptempo popsongs. She sings, plays bossa nova rhythms and tinkles away on her keyboard. Apperentely the songs are about stars, moons and black holes, and lucikly the lyrics are enclosed, otherwise I would have had a hard time to understand what they are about. The six songs are nicely uptempo, mostly happy (even when they are a bit dark sounds in there, in say 'Little Girl, Little Star'), short and to the point. Gutevolk has everything right that I missed out in the later work of Tujiko Noriko. Very pleasent early morning coffee sipping music, trying to get rid of a hangover on a newyears day. (FdW) Address: http://www.12k.com/happy ROD - ALL MY LOVE (miniCD/12" by Underscan) Rod is Rod Morris from Dublin, Ireland, who studied piano, drums and music at an early age, before going electronic. His early electronic stuff was hard breakbeat but eventually he mellowed out. To date he has one track on a compilation by Neo Ouija, which is also on this mini CD, 'All My Love' (plus a remix by Spectac of the same piece). Rod's music is highly rhythmic, warm and melancholic. Downbeat rhythms, introspective melodies on the synths, this is music that is indeed released by such labels as Neo Ouija or in the past by Morr Music. The flute like sounds of 'Nova Scotia' is almost seventies King Crimson or Jethro Thull, but they sound well on this piece. Perfect wintertime music: sun comes in but it's cold outside and nicely warm, sitting next to the chimney. (FdW) Address: http://www.underscan.de INCITE/ - MINIMAL LISTENING (7") When I reviewed Incite/ before I spelled it as Incite, without the / at the end, so now it's time to spell things right. They have had a self-released CDR before (see Vital Weekly 422) and now, some 36 concerts later, it's time for the first real product, a 7". Incite/ play around with minimalist rhythms, but with loads of small variations within each new loop they seem to play. More than before they seem to be using laptops to create a highly rhythmical sound - however it's not music that is based on rhythmmachines or sound anywhere close to techno, but rather a raw version of anything clicks & cuts related. Both tracks are slow, under 100 bpm, but played at 33 RPM instead of the recommended 45 RPM, gives an even more alienated feel to the pieces. It's minimal listening music as opposed to minimal dancing music. (FdW) Address: http://www.incite.gradcom.org MEK OBAAM - GOODNIGHT, THANK YOU/JOHNNY & MARY (7" by Earsugar) HI LONESOME ELECTRIC - PIERRE AND JOHN HENRY/HOOLA (7" by Earsugar) THE SCHNEIDER TM EXPERIENCE- PSYCHEDELIC QUEEN/THE NEW COBWEB SUMMER (7" by Earsugar) SUPER REVERB - JACK POTATOE/HEY MR. RAMBLER (7" by Earsugar) JULIA HUMMER - BOXY, WHERE ARE THE SPANGLES/BOWLING IN WOODSTOCK (7" by Earsugar) These are the first five 7" on a new label from, I assume, Germany, seeing these are mostly German artists. Mek Obaam is someone who played with Schneider TM and Barbara Morgenstern playing acoustisc guitar, drums and bass and of course vocals. Quite a psychedelic sound although both songs are at the same time introspective enough. Not sure here wether 'Johnny & Mary' is ment to be a cover of Robert Palmer's song with the same title. I don't know who is Hi Lonesome Electric, but his sound is entirely electronic, but it's a cover of a folktale which has be done by anyone from Johnny Cash to Ellen Fullman. The b-side is a slide guitar and both sides have that nice laidback dubby Chain Reaction feel to it. The Schneider TM Experience features of course Schneider TM, but also Kptmichigan and Mek Obaam. Their 'Psychedelic Queen' is a tribute to Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now', but they manage to sound similar to Suicide, dirty rock 'n electro-roll. The b-side is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix and despite it's electro-start it never gets to be a heavy Hendrix feel, but rather stays close to nice popmusic. More Kptmichigan on Super Reverb, where he teams up with Köhn. Maybe this is much more Hendrix influenced material, with heavy guitars and Vega-esque vocals over pounding rhythmboxes. For the b-side they turn to fucked up country music. The most conventional 7" is by Julia Hummer, an actress from Germany. They plays two fairly normal rock songs, albeit in the alternative rock. Least appealling to me however. (FdW) Address: http://www.earsugar.com BERTIN - DIGITALLY DISTROTED MINIATURES (CDR by Ole Records) On my favourite local label, and I mean very local as Ole Records is around the corner, almost, comes this short CDR release by Bertin. Who, you may ask. Bertin plays around solo and in various bands such as The Hitmachine and he has also a 7" on Ole Records (to be reviewed somewhere soon). On this 'Digitally Distorted Miniatures' he has ten short tracks, somewhere between one and three or so minutes, of highly fucked up music. Remixes of reggae tunes, such as 'Button Up Remix' or ' Treveling emix' but just with likewise great easy he digitally deconstructs improv music or noise, in the heavy opening piece 'Immaculate Noise'. Given the speed of the tracks and the energy by which this floats by, this is certainly a well-done and well-varied release, taking the piss out of popmusic and replacing the common-grounds of verse, break and bridge (or what else have you in popmusic) by digital cuts and other mayhem. Very nice indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.ole-records.com MACHINEFABRIEK - BRICKS & PIECES (3"CDR) MACHINEFABRIEK - BIJ MIRJAM (3"CDR) MACHINEFABRIEK - PIEPSHOW (3"CDR) A while ago I introduced the name Machinefabriek via two pretty interesting 3"CDR releases (see Vital Weekly 446) and now it's time to present the next three. 'Bricks & Pieces' is what it says: small bricks and small pieces. Sometimes Machinefabriek (nom de plume de Rutger Zuydervelt from The Netherlands) plays introspective tunes on guitar and rhythmbox, but there is also noise from toys (real toys that is) or vaguely sounding atmospheric pieces of TV sounds and piano playing. With twenty-nine tracks over twenty-one minutes this is scattered all over the place. Also the cover seems to be a hasty job. 'Bij Mirjam' has a much nicer cover: a small enveloppe with three pictures and info's. The music here sort of continues from 'Bricks & Pieces' except that these pieces last much longer and are more worked out throughout. The introspective pieces are gone and there is much more unity throughout the pieces. For the last one I have good memories, as it concerns a thirteen minute live recording of a concert Machinefabriek did at the local squat cafe De Onderbroek. Playing around with five cassette tapes, a memorecorder, radio, one guitar effect and a 8mm film, he treated the audience, among which was me, of some fine noise treatments in the best Merzbow tradition. As a recording by itself it may sound a bit dull, but there is still enough power captured here to make it a pretty strong release. Of all the five works by Machinefabriek so far, this is probably the loudest and dirtiest one. (FdW) Address: CHEFKIRK - PYCHONTUS JOCOSUS (CDR by Organic Pipeline) A belated christmas release by Chefkirk, in a super limited edition of 24 copies only. I am not sure if there is a christmas theme to this release, but the three tracks, close to thirty minutes are all about heavy noise manipulations of samples and turntablism. Turntablecanibalism. Things are pretty heavy on this release and it sort of sets back time for Chefkirk to the earlier parts of his career and sadly doesn't appeal to me very much. Nice for the lovers of the digital Merzbow onslaughts, but I think I preferred the more recent Chefkirk music much better. I guess just for those twenty-four die-hards who can't get enough of Chefkirk. (FdW) Address: http://www.organicpipeline.com 1. From: grainofsound@netscape.net (grain of sound) Sonic Scope Quarterly for contemporary visual art Autumn / Winter . issue #2 [.pdf magazine] featuring: . Aforest-design . André Gonçalves . Andreia Oliveira . Isaque Andrade . Janek Schaefer . Jesse Paul Miller . João Ferreira . João Vicente . Miguel Carvalhais . Nuno Moita . Paulo Raposo . Paulo Romão Brás . Shinjiro Yamaguchi . Terre Thaemlitz The hidden link revealed on our #1 (May, 2004) just got stronger on this Autumn/Winter double issue: the Sonic Scope Quarterly presents visuals from multidisciplinary artists and mostly are also musicians and sound "hunters". Do the free download at: http://www.grainofsound.com 2. From: "rob forman" Olivia Block January 7 - 30, 2005 Olivia Block blends acoustic and electronic elements to create audio compositions that often evoke natural sounds. For this exhibition, Block designs a site-specific installation in the MCA stairwell. Incorporating a speaker and amplification system to create a linear path of subtle repetitive sounds, Block's installation allows the listener to hear the sound sources at various distances on each floor. At certain points the sound seems as if the listener is having a private aural experience in a public place. Questioning how we perceive space and sound simultaneously, Block turns the museum experience, which is typically visual, into an uncanny auditory event. Olivia Block leads a tour on Tuesday, January 11, at 6:30 pm. about 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work This series of exhibitions features the work of emerging Chicago-based artists opening each month at the MCA's First Fridays events. While the MCA regularly integrates the work of young artists into its exhibition program, this project will provide a forum for the many talented artists in Chicago who are at a crucial juncture in the development of their work. The fast-paced nature of the series is intended to open up the program- and the vision- of the MCA to provide a fresh, up-to-the-minute view of new and unfamiliar developments in the studios of Chicago. This series is organized by the Curatorial department of the MCA. http://www.mcachicago.org/ 3. From: geert-jan Sat 08 Januay LIVE at STAALPLAAT haunted, hypnotic electronics from christiaan virant's Beijing-based FM3 project. 20:00 Torstr. 72 10119 Berlin + zelda panda 4. From: gert-jan prins gert-jan prins -solo- january 13, 2005 @ centre pompidou, paris, france january 15 @ erlanger hörkunstfestival 2005, markgrafentheater, erlangen, germany january 21 @ live!iXem 2005 festival, centro candiani, venezia/ mestre, italy -- 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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