============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 457 ------------ week 2 ------------ STEPHAN MATHIEU - THE SAD MAC (CD by Headz) SHUTTLE 358 - CHESSA (CD by 12K) JANEK SCHAEFER - COLD STORAGE (CD by DSP Recordings) MARK FELL - TEN TYPES OF ELSEWHERE (CD by Line) JON MUELLER - WHAT'S LOST IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT. WHAT'S FOUND IS SOMETHING NOT REVEALED (CD by Crouton) SETH CLUETT - MY OWN THOUSAND SHATTERINGS (CD by Sedimental) IOVAE - QUATERVOIS (CD by Zangi Music) ANDREA ERMKE - PIKE (miniCD by Zangi Music) TAKASHI WADA - MEGURO (CD by Onitor) HOP-FROG'S FATWA - THE SILK ROAD (CD by URCKam Recordings) LUSMORD - HERESY (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings) MUSLIMGAUZE - SYRINJIA (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings) LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - LIVE AT LA LUNA (DVD by Soleilmoon Recordings) DDAMAGE - PRESSURE (12" by Planet Mu) HUM - ETHER RIDER/CRUCIBLE (7" by Drone Records) OPION SOMNIUM - FALLING INTO THE GAPING HOLE, DARK ABYSS/FALLING ASLEEP ON THESE FEATHERS (7" by Drone Records) STABAT MORS - ICH BIN SO WILD NACH DEINEM ERDBEERMUND (7" by Drone Records) CIVYIU KKLIU - llllll (3"CDR by Banned Productions) SCOTT TAYLOR - CASTAWAY (CDR by Con.V) CHRISTÖPHILAX - GOLDENSMELL (CDR, self-released) Y-TON-G - VAGE RITUALE DER INDUSTRIE ROMANTIK (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions) Y-TON-G & G-RET-@ - ST(R)ANDGUT (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions) MACHINEFABRIEK - LIEF (3"CDR) TBC - EILEITHYIA (CDR by AIC Disc) STEPHAN MATHIEU - THE SAD MAC (CD by Headz) If you paid attention the last few years, you know that I am big fan of Stephan Mathieu. His soloworks usually end up in my top 10 and his collaborations with people like Ekkehard Ehlers, John Hudak, Douglas Benford and others are likewise great. But the mac is sad. Now that Mathieu has two children, a garden and a job, the computer is not used for sixteen hours a day anymore and hence the mac is sad. This latest solo CD sees a change in Mathieu's work: using the recordings of people playing real instruments, such as lute, bagpipes, voices, violins and harpischords (to name but a few), he goes away from the 'simple' computer treatments into a new world, but at the same time keeping the Mathieu signature in the music, he succeeds more than well to create yet another top 10 entry. There are eight full pieces here aswell as an intro, outro, coda and interludes - an almost classical approach that is also shown in using Händel's Violin Sonates or seperated voices of the work of Claudio Monteverdi. Microsound goes baroque. Gentle flowing in 'Theme For Oud Amerlisweerd' or the wind and field recordings of 'Nibbio'. The short interludes, like 'Portrait Of The Composer As Turbonegro' elude me a bit, as I can't see why they are enclosed, but especially that piece sort of breaks the flow of the album, but that's detail critique. The combination of real instruments, old computers, waxcilinders, field recordings and baroque music is truely daring one but one that wonderfull works well. The first highlight of 2005 is a fact. (FdW) Address: http://www.faderbyheadz.com SHUTTLE 358 - CHESSA (CD by 12K) This is the third release by Shuttle 358 for 12K, and continues where he left off with 'Frame'. Shuttle 358's Dan Abrams is also a photographer and for the eleven tracks he is inspired by his own photography of 'real life': stills of cars, stairs or parts of humans. Zooming in on a few aspects which is what he does for his photo's but also in his music. Each of the eleven tracks is carefully built around a few sound elements, say a strumming of a guitar, which are then carefully moved around via computer processing. A tiny bit of clicks and cuts start to appear, but for 95% Shuttle 358 stays on a very safe ambient side of things. The result is a very unified sound, within each seperate track aswell as tracks relating to eachother. This makes this into a very nice and elegant CD with a particular gentle flow. Maybe in it's genre not something that can be regarded as something very new, but nevertheless one of great beauty. (FdW) Address: http://www.12k.com JANEK SCHAEFER - COLD STORAGE (CD by DSP Recordings) Schaefer might be best known to the readers of Vital Weekly as a composer of sound and a conceptualist of sound art, but he is also an architect, and some of his work deals with spaces. 'Cold Storage' was made for a cold storage room in Rome, Italy, mixing in a dark large bricked vaulted cellar sounds that Schaefer recorded in Rome, Switzerland, Portugal and Australia. These sounds were recorded with the idea of 'cold' and 'storage' in mind. This CD is however not a registration of the concert by a studio reconstruction of the original source material, but without any additional manipulation. Of course it's mid-winter time, but my storage here is not very cold... Apart from the first piece with metal bangings and motor sounds, I didn't think much of the used sounds were very 'cold'. The forty-one minutes are filled with a wide blend of field recordings (trains, rain, some talk and other more obscure sources), mixed with great care and eye for detail. A fascinating journey, even when it's hard to relate this the place it was composed for. Unlike many others in the world of field recordings, Schaefer makes a vivid, almost dramatic composition, with rapid changing moods and atmopsheres. Again, a highly recommended work. (FdW) Address: http://www.dsprecs.com MARK FELL - TEN TYPES OF ELSEWHERE (CD by Line) The name Mark Fell may not ring a bell right away, but if you know that he's half of SND, and one half of Shirt Trax and that he released that excellent 'Reproduction' CD for Bottrop-boy as Secular Musics Of South Yorkshire, then you may know who we are talking of. As far as I know this is his first work under his own and it deals with topology: "Topology is a branch of mathematics concerning possible spaces and spatial objects - curves, surfaces, knots, manifolds, phase spaces, symmetrical groups, etc. The work explores a link between objects and alterity through spatial and temporal deformations, twistings, rotatings, reflections and stretchings. Here spaces and objects are not self-evident and singular, but multiple, irregular, anomalous." Sorry for the long quote, but it explains it quite well. Originally this CD was planned as a documentation of his installation work, but because that is not easy for whatever reason, the sounds material was reworked into the work on this CD. The ten tracks are divided over forty-five index points on the CD, and it's a highly strange work to say the least. Up until now most Line releases were the careful digital glitchy ambient, but this is a rather noisy work. It sounds most of the time of objects being rubbed against the microphone, but then fragmented into short, constant changing loops, each short loop seems to be treated differently from the previous or the next one. The sounds are quite dry, direct in your face, but have a strange captivating feel to it. 'Abjection' sounds like a big empty space being suddenly invaded by aliens, 'Storage' has a strange techno feel it and 'Incompleteness' is quite noisy with electro-acoustic treatments. It shifts into various places and is a truely innovative work, one that takes the whole microsound thing into a new direction. After Mathieu's 'The Sad Mac' the second entry in my top 10 for 2005. (FdW) Address: http://www.12k.com JON MUELLER - WHAT'S LOST IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT. WHAT'S FOUND IS SOMETHING NOT REVEALED (CD by Crouton) Let's suppose I didn't know who Jon Mueller is or what he does and I am playing this CD, two tracks, thirty-three minutes long. What would I think when it's done playing? Would I know he's a drummer by profession? I don't think so. Of course I recognized some percussive moments in there, but it might very well be the result of some extensive and elaborate sound processing of various electro-acoustic objects, including by accident a drumkit. But of course I knew already that Mueller is a drummer and that he has produced some excellent work inside the field of improvisation, but that studio treatments, or rather post-production plays an important role for his work. In the first piece, Mueller builts a drone piece out of sustained percussion, until breaking it up with drum fills that go out of phase and rhythm. Playing around with small crackling sound, this is an intense piece. The second, much shorter piece, is much more noisy, almost in a Merzbowian sense. Likewise intense but working on an entirely different level. Two particular strong pieces of highly imaginative percussion music. (FdW) Address: http://www.croutonmusic.com SETH CLUETT - MY OWN THOUSAND SHATTERINGS (CD by Sedimental) When I popped in Seth Cluett's latest CD 'My Own Thousand Shatterings' and sank deep inside his immersive drone pieces, that is the first two on this CD, I thought I was merely listening to the hum of some synthesizer with some slow changes throughout. The third piece sounded like a field recordings of rain. After thinking 'wow, that was a nice CD of drone music', I began reading the press text for it, and learned that the third piece is indeed a field recording, of rain to be precise, and that the second is a documentation of a performance and the first is a mono piece recorded at home, but that the first two are based on the field recordings of the third piece. How it works exactely we are not told (certainly not on the cover of the CD), but this is certainly a worthwhile thing for lovers of drone music. Up until now, Cluett worked mostly with densely layered small acoustic sounds, and this new CD sees him breaking away from that, going into an even more minimal and microscopic level of sound. Perhaps this is a much simpler approach, or maybe even more 'easy' to produce work, but I'd say that doesn't count. What counts is the result and that is beautiful. The two drone pieces can easily meet the best Niblock/Lucier works and the field recording piece is in all it's simpleness a great moving piece. (FdW) Address: http://www.sedimental.com IOVAE - QUATERVOIS (CD by Zangi Music) ANDREA ERMKE - PIKE (miniCD by Zangi Music) Apperentely the Iovae disc is a re-issue of a limited edition CDR on Drone Disco (not to be confused with Drone Records), recorded in 2001. Iovae is one Ron Orovitz from Cincinnati and has been playing around since 1988. First with turntables, later on tone generators aswell as 'procussion' instruments, being fire-works. He records, as the title implies on a four track machine, adding a harsh, lo-fi sound to it. The five rather short pieces on this CD are indeed quite raw but captivating. The sound is quite 'thick' and dense, but also carry a sort of industrial music feel to it, but one that sounds much more interesting than the usual industrial garbage. Raw but in all it's shortness an effective release. Likewise I never heard of Andrea Ermke, who is from Berlin. She works with field recordings and sampling of 'hand-made sounds'. Her improvisational work is different from the usual things coming out of Berlin, as she isn't exactely 'onkyo'. The piece 'Pike' lasts almost nineteen minutes and is very upfront, very present in your space. Taking field recordings and feeding them through the sampler this is also a raw work, even when it is made more refined than Iovae's release. Shifting through loud passages aswell as several softer spots, but at the same time it is also a bit unfocussed in what she wants with her music. It's nice enough but moves around too much to leave a fully satisfied impression. (FdW) Address: http://www.zangimusic.de TAKASHI WADA - MEGURO (CD by Onitor) This is the first album by young artist Takashi Wada on Onitor records. I thought that this release would be more rhythmical, probably from the fact that this Stuttgart based label releases more rhythm oriented music. But as it seems it is not like that. Not that this release is not rhythmic, it is, but very sophisticatedly produced with the rhythm in second plan. Meguro at first comes across as a very ambiental album. Gentle, calm and peaceful. Rhythm, if there is any, is pushed behind in the background in function of making a calm and soft sound structure. Takashi plays various instruments here, but of course in an electronic manner. Double bass, piano, drums. music above all. In that context you will hear weird jazzy moments that might remind you of melodic Nobukazu Takemura songs. But most of the tracks here are ambiental quiet tracks with a twinkling melody, slow beat and a really calm production. If you want to hear this album as it is supposed to be heard, you will have to be necessarily concentrated and just listen. Give up to the relaxing atmosphere and flow down stream. Extremely slow and sleepy atmosphere will carry you... somewhere... It depends on you. But in case you do something else while listening to it, you will definetly miss it 's point. (TD) Address: http://www.onitor.de HOP-FROG'S FATWA - THE SILK ROAD (CD by URCKam Recordings) If understood correctely Hop-frog's Fatwa is part of the Hop-frog Kollectiv, a mix of over twenty participants, who have played also with people like Not Breathing, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, David J and Dame Darcy. 'The Silk Road' is their first album and they play on a wide array of western instruments (clarinet, violin, guitar, drums) and eastern ones, but also toys and non instrumental instruments. Titles are reversed in a difficult font, so I didn't bother to read them. The first piece opens with tabla sounds and electronic processing but it takes too much time to develop anything nice out of it. This turns out to be the problem of this CD. Tracks are too long to hold ones attention for very long. The nine tracks, which all last between eight and ten minutes, have little ideas and simply revolve around a rhythm, that hardly seems to be changing throughout this release. It sounds like a long spacey jam in the studio, after which no extensive mixing took place. With twenty people at instruments, I expected a little more to happen. (FdW) Address: http://www.hop-frog.com LUSMORD - HERESY (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings) MUSLIMGAUZE - SYRINJIA (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings) A long long time ago, before Vital was a weekly, it was a small fanzine printed on paper and in number 18 (1991) I wrote the following lines: "an early 80s name which most people had forgotten by now. I never had a clear of their music. This new work is supposed to feature recordings made in caverns, crypts, mines, deep shelters and also takes advantage of of psycho-acoustic phenomena. "Reproduction will benefit if the playbacksystem had a low frequency response of 20hz", we are told. Also some professors are being thanked: it all sounds a bit like The Hafler Trio, except for the music! The sounds on this CD are much layered and reverberated: large spaces are suggested. As a background the music/noise stimulates the listener to work or sleep, but I fear that individually the compositions are a bit poor. There is not enough variation. But maybe the music is supposed to be utilitarian rather than entertaining?" Having re-read this review now, fourteen years, and playing the CD again, I must say I still agree to it, although I am slightly more positive right now. Lustmord's come-back album 'Heresy' is a fine blend of early nineties ambient-industrial music and is in that respect a true landmark and an example of many followers which came afterwards. Being out of print for a while, but now lucikly available again. Also on the re-issue front is 'Syrinjia' by Muslimgauze. Originally a LP with nine tracks in 1998 and in 2004 a limited edition double CD, but now getting a proper release. It may come as a surprise (or perhaps a shock) but I was never a really big Muslimgauze fan, more a mildly interested listener. I think Bryn Jones, who died this week six years ago, was a gifted musician, but not very critical as to what should be released, handing in new full length works every week with his recordlabels Staalplaat and Soleilmoon, who dully put out a whole lot. Muslimgauze didn't seem to keep an archive, just everything he did was good enough for release, he reasoned. I didn't agree. With a double pack like this we stumble on the usual Muslimgauze problem: a couple of tracks are awesome, some a good, some mediocre and some should just be erased. A reggae-dub track like 'Detrimental' is great, and could have been better when worked on a little bit more. The dance-side of the muslimgauze music prevails here, which is always a good thing, but the best tracks could have easily fitted on one CD. (FdW) Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - LIVE AT LA LUNA (DVD by Soleilmoon Recordings) This is a straight re-release of the 1998 video on the digital format, featuring 60 minutes of the Legendary Pink Dots live in Portland touring on the back of their 1997 Hallway Of The Gods album. The performance was captured from various angles by 3 cameramen and professionally mixed, making the audio (despite some minor sound glitches) and visual quality excellent. Since the show was taped in 1997 we get an older line-up of the band with Ryan Moore (now a respected solo artist in his own right) on bass/drums and Edwin van Trippenhof (now lost in the woods) on guitar. One of the major strengths of The Legendary Pink Dots is the magic of their live performance, which gives vocalist Edward Kaspel a platform for his theatrics and the band the opportunity to expand the music. Unfortunately, Hallway Of The Gods is not the Dots' strongest album and much of the music on this DVD appears to lack depth. The musicianship is fine throughout and band members and audience enjoy themselves, but some songs are expanded too long, exposing their weaker side. The sheer magic of the Dots returns with Love In A Plain Brown Envelope, where the band manages to capture the essence and the intensity of the music. Visual material of the Dots is rare and this release does obviously fill a gap. The DVD contains no extras nor does it feature a menu, so you cannot skip between songs, which is annoying. Fans will be delighted by its release, but you're probably better off catching the Dots on one of their tours to truly experience their essence. Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com DDAMAGE - PRESSURE (12" by Planet Mu) DDamage are two brothers from Paris and they like their 'ip-'op, also known as hip hop. But it's instrumental hip hop, sauced up with a lot of extra noises feeding through the mix, and making this into a very vibrant piece of music. The analogue synths sound mean, samples of what seems to be riot and this is quite an aggressive record. The up-tempo 'Uzi' is for sure a floor-killer. Nice one indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.planet-mu.com HUM - ETHER RIDER/CRUCIBLE (7" by Drone Records) OPION SOMNIUM - FALLING INTO THE GAPING HOLE, DARK ABYSS/FALLING ASLEEP ON THESE FEATHERS (7" by Drone Records) STABAT MORS - ICH BIN SO WILD NACH DEINEM ERDBEERMUND (7" by Drone Records) I was looking at these three new releases and thinking: wow, they are up to catalogue number 70, that is amazing. Drone Records have managed to release 70 7" singles and they are still going strong. Although I am pretty sure I don't have them all, it's by now a fairly extensive overview of what underground drone musicians have to offer. And the good thing is that Drone Records have such a strong reputation that they can afford to release people that at least I have never heard of, people like Hum. They/he/she comes from Russia and works with tapes, tapeloops and analogue synths. On 'Ether Rider' Hum provides a nice dark atmospheric drone cloud, maybe a bit lo-fi, but nevertheless quite nice. On 'Crucible' a low resolution sample provides the rhythm (a object falling to the floor), whilst the background builts a slow crescendo. Sounds pretty much like an orchestra heating up. Opion Somium are from the USA and have a couple of CDRs available on Zenapolae Records and Kolorform, but this is really my first encounter. 'Falling Into The Gaping Hole, Dark Abyss' on the a-side evolves around sustained violin, cello and bowed guitar sounds, played in a slow and peaceful way. 'Falling Asleep On These Feathers' is along similar lines, though maybe a bit more esoteric. I am so hungry for your strawberrymouth is the translation of the Stabat Mors 7", based on Klaus Kinski's autobiography. Although the name Stabat Mors is around for awhile, I never quite heard their music, and they are classified as 'gothic noise' in my book. Their 7", made with sampler, accordeon, feedback, metal and voice, is a rather un-drone like record, with forceful feedback on accordeon playing and some rather lo-fi electronical part. I wasn't too pleased with this as it sounded outdated and rather badly produced. But with a two out three score not a bad catch. (FdW) Address: http://www.dronerecords.de CIVYIU KKLIU - llllll (3"CDR by Banned Productions) This is the third release by Civyiu Kkliu, following his Bake Records release in 2001 and his double release with Toshiya Tsunoda (see Vital Weekly 393 for a review on the latter). For a CDR release this is simply a beautiful package: a silver plated box (like they use for jewels), with circled inserts (lithographic film and an essay) with engravings. If more CDRs would be packed like this, I am sure the market for them would be bigger. As noted before, the music by Civyiu Kkliu gets louder and louder. His first release on Bake Records was very soft, almost inaudible, but on this new work 'llllll' things are unmistakenly louder. It's hard to say what it is that Civyiu Kkliu is doing here, but I imagine this to be some sort of machine hum drone, that half way through gets even more warmed up and more bass-end sounds thumb in. I know I have to be careful with saying things about references, but if I was to compare this with something else, I'd say it comes close to Scott Konzelman's Chop Shop project (but I doubt wether many people could relate to that). The rough edged industrialized sound that nevertheless sounds warm. A highly minimal and conceptual composition of course, but it's one that is certainly fascinating. One that makes sense on this label too of course. In every aspect a great release. (FdW) Address: http://www.bannedproduction.com/ or SCOTT TAYLOR - CASTAWAY (CDR by Con.V) The name Scott Taylor is slowly getting around, through his various releases on Sijis Recordings and Con.V. They have just released a CDR by him. Taylor is a man running around, armed with a microphone... or rather standing still with his microphone. With great care recording the rain pouring down on a reverberating surface. Upon returning home he puts these recordings on his computer and starts to built a collage out of them. Adding a little bit of computer treatments, just a little bit time stretching on a few occassions or the addition of some extra echo and reverb, otherwise he likes to stick the pureness of his recordings. It's not always easy to identify what the sources are, but my best guess is that there are rain, cars passing, restaurant muzak and even an old record spinning somewhere. Just as before Taylor plays the ambient soundscape card, and he does that with great care. Inspired by people like Francisco Lopez (for his obscured soundsources) and Daniel Menche (for his processing), Scott Taylor finds his own little niche in the market. One thing I must get rid off: I hope the title of this CDR was not inspired by the horrible film of the same name. (FdW) Address: http://www.con-v.org CHRISTÖPHILAX - GOLDENSMELL (CDR, self-released) A visit to Christöphilax' site doesn't necessarily learn you more about who he is. It lists his releases and they have rather vague descriptions. 'Goldensmell' deals with the ability to smell, and apperentely Christöphilax has lost this ability. The eight tracks on this CDR deal with that. So far so good, I'd say. But how exactely this relation works, is a bit unclear for me. If I understood correctely, "goldensmell recreates, in the aural medium, the olfactory experience of some of the defining popular music events of the common era -- some originally attended by christöphilax, others imagined." - In other words, sampling the shit out of popular music. Not that it is easy to recognize any of it, since the stretched out fields of sounds, bare not much in common with anything easy to recognize, except for 'Goldensmellfour' which revolves around the intro of Throbbing Gristle's 'Hot On The Heels Of Love' (the smell of sweat on the disco floor I imagine). Especially strong I thought was the Stephan Mathieu alike opening 'Goldensmellone' - high end drones and small shifting layers, with a vague melody underpinning somewhere. The digital ambient notion is all around this release, except maybe in the somewhat more forceful 'Goldensmellone (second wind)', making this is into a very pleasent, if somewhat regular, microsound ambient glitch release. (FdW) Address: http://www.geocities.com/christophilax Y-TON-G - VAGE RITUALE DER INDUSTRIE ROMANTIK (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions) Y-TON-G & G-RET-@ - ST(R)ANDGUT (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions) The name Y-Ton-G (named a blend of concrete) may not float around Vital Weekly very often, but it's name that has been around for ages, maybe the late eighties or early nineties. His catalogue consists of several real CDs, 7"s and a whole bunch of cassettes and CDR releases. Although I didn't hear much of his music recentely, this new release, on his own Terminal Tape Productions, brings back good memories. Y-Ton-G (an one man enterprise) plays his strict linear compositions on a bunch of objects, such as metal plates, stones and such like, but he has added a bit more of electronic processing, like an analogue delay and some reverb. Plus a small number of electrical charges in the background. Each of the nine pieces start out in a similar way: without some fade in, multiple layers of sounds are started and in minimalist fashion, small changes are brought alive, bringing back to memory the work of Giancarlo Toniutti. One could wonder if nine tracks and a playing time of over an hour is not a bit much, but nevertheless a few tracks in a row sound certainly nice enough. The other new release is by Y-Ton-G and someone mysterious called G-Ret-@, the first credits 'loops and objects' and the latter 'loop-processing'. Three very very lenghty tracks, over seventy-two minutes, of loops being played. This is defintely a more electronic project. There are loops swirling in and out of the tracks, which do not seem to have a relation to eachother, just an endless swirl of sound. Such things as 'composition' is not well spend on them, things here seem to be dealing with just a bunch of nice sounds floating around. Rather put together by nature of improvisation and not carefull planning. Not bad for that, but here too some editing in the material would not have been a bad idea. (FdW) Address: http://www.y-ton-g.de MACHINEFABRIEK - LIEF (3"CDR) More Machinefabriek (see also last week) of really fresh material. This twenty-two minute was recorded between December 31st 2004 and January 5th 2005 and released right away. Here Machinefabriek uses laptop, guitar, effects, minidisc, radio, synth and someone playing a violin. As we noted last week, Machinefabriek's music is all over the place and here he goes into the world of drone music. Thickly layered, swirling masses of sound that slowly builts into a noisy crescendo, when the dream is over and the sound turns into a nightmare of sorts. After that there is no more sound - just silence. The noisy ending wasn't so my thing, but the rest was certainly nice enough indeed. (FdW) Address: TBC - EILEITHYIA (CDR by AIC Disc) Thomas Beck is the man behind TBC and he has a long standing reputation for producing music aswell as releases on his own Wachsender Prozess label. If I understand correctly his piece 'Eileithyia' was recorded at a performance on Trojan boat - safely assuming a replica here - and at home he worked some more on the recordings. In two more or less thirty minutes TBC offers the processed sound of water - at least that's what I think. In long washes of minimalist changes, TBC slowly transforms the water sounds into vastly droning sound clouds, especially in the second piece, which I found the best one. It's a tad bit more varied with various sounds swirling in and out. (FdW) Address: 1. From: Force Mental ------------------------ FORCE MENTAL 16 out now! ------------------------ In september 2003 we lifted a small tip of the veil: "For some months, a limited team of artists has produced relatively large quantities of antisade in the European Centre for Futuristic Art in Borgerhout. The breakthrough, of which the popular-artistic reference magazine Force Mental will make report, opens the way to exhaustive research of this enigmatic mirror picture of contemporary art." - today, 5 january 2005, it is here.... We love the smell of burning harddisks in the evening gloom. After 16 years of time for reflection we have decided to take up again the publishing FORCE MENTAL, Magazine For Excesses. Time is right to join with some infamous veteran servicemen to provide a sharpened platform to a fresh posse of hard thinkers. Just as we abruptly finished our last printed issue 15 in 1988 with page 578, we start our first digital issue 16 in 2005 with page 579. The new FORCE MENTAL is not just a random collection of web pages, it's a strict format in the continued tradition of earlier issues. 24 pages in an accurate reconstruction of the layout provisionally still as in older Club Moral publications and referring to the original use of simple techniques of design, editing and printing. We assume that new participants will experiment in new directions in future issues. FORCE MENTAL 16 with international contributions from: Ons Feuilleton/AMVK, Mauro Pawlowski, Ivan H. Sladek, DDV, Dennis Tyfus, Sickboy, agency-agence-agentschap, Erik Vloeberghs, Nini Cinotti, Heinrich Obst, Dirk Paesmans, Harry Heirmans, John Wantling, Agnes Geoffray, German Scalona, Claire Roudenko-Bertin, Frank Pinckers, Romain Slocombe, Dr. Mangelware, The Good Example, Stocklist, Bernaded Dexters. 2. From: "Zipo@AA" Sa. 19.02. 2005, 20.00 Uhr - - - aufabwegen präsentiert: Geräuschwelten XIX - - - ILIOS & XABIER ERKIZIA (beide Antifrost, Athen) cuba Achtermannstr. 12, 48143 Münster www.geraeuschwelten.de 3. From: jorge castro Cornucopia will tour Spain this month. Here are the dates so far (there should be two more dates though they're not confirmed): 01.15 Madrid @ Radio Carcoma 107.9 FM 01.16 Madrid @ Radar Bar c/ Amaniel 22 http://www.ccapitalia.net/radar/ 01.19 Madrid @ El Alivio http://www.justobagueste.com/ 01.21 Oviedo @ Laboratorio w/ .Tape. + many more. http://www.walden-dos.tk 01.22 GijÛn @ Lo.Fi Club w/ .Tape. + many more. http://www.walden-dos.tk 01.27 Bilbao @ Haceria Arte Hak c/ Ribera de Deusto 42 w/ Mattin http://www.haceria.com 4. From: douglas benford ================================ S P R A W L January 2005 bulletin ================================ HAPPY NEW YEAR SPRAWL at the Charterhouse Bar, London NINTH BIRTHDAY SPECIAL! yes, it's a bit of a celebration folks! DATE: Weds 12th January live sets by * PIRANDÈLO (mou-lips/List/italy) * KATZO (Countenance/japan) * J-LAB (uk) guest dj * o.acam (miso/deep burnt/scotland) plus resident djs + curators * si-cut.db (uk/bip hop/fallt/highpoint lowlife/tennis) * iris garrelfs (germany/bip hop) VENUE Upstairs at the Charterhouse bar 38 Charterhouse Street London EC1 tel: 020 7608 0858 email: info@charterhousebar.co.uk http://www.charterhousebar.co.uk ADMISSION 4 pounds, concs. 3 pounds 7.30pm - 11.30pm Next Sprawls this year: * INTERPLAY 3. Interplay is back, next month, & a hell of a line-up! Weds 9th Feb POLE (scape/mute) + DEADBEAT (scape/Intr_version) MARKUS SCHMICKLER (pluramon) + THOMAS LEHN (mimeo) MAX EASTLEY (obscure/bip hop) + FREEFORM (skam/sub rosa) Thurs 10th Feb STEPHAN MATHIEU (orthlorng/sirr) + SI-CUT.DB (fallt/bip-hop) LEAFCUTTER JOHN (planet mu) + JANEK SCHAEFER (audiOh!/sirr) SCANNER (sub rosa/bette) + IRIS GARRELFS (bip hop) plus graphic work by D-Fuse VENUE: The Spitz, Spitalfields Market, 109 Commercial Street, London E1 8BG http://www.spitz.co.uk/ 8pm - midnight PRICE: £8 / £6 concs, £12 for both nights BOX OFFICE: 020 7392 9032 ONLINE BOOKING: http://www.wegottickets.com This project is supported by the Goethe-Institut, London and the PRS Foundation * Sprawl March 9th: Tuner (Fr), The Bohman Brothers, Rashamon, e/n [no.signal] at http://www.charterhousebar.co.uk ================================ On the radio: Next Sprawl Small Pieces show: '9 years of sprawl - a retrospective with music and reminiscences' This Friday 7th January 12-1am. GMT Resonance FM 104.4 http://www.resonancefm.com [] some related artist activities ================================ si-cut.db, Iris Garrelfs - live sets ================================ JAN 14 SI-CUT.DB Bip_Hop night with DJ Philippe Petit Bern (Reset electronic), Switzerland JAN 15 SI-CUT.DB Bip_Hop night with DJ Philippe Petit Delemont (SAS), Switzerland JAN 25 SI-CUT.DB + Iris Garrelfs + Rashamon Freebutt, Brighton http://www.spiritofgravity.com FEB 10 SI-CUT.DB in collaboration with Stephan Mathieu IRIS GARRELFS in collaboration with Scanner INTERPLAY 2005, Spitz, London http://www.sprawl.org.uk -- Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome . Forward to your allies. 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