Jo Gabriel - The Amber Sessions
Jo Gabriel - The Last Drive In
Jo Gabriel - Fools and Orphans
(Ephemera / Dancing Goat Music)
CDR
I'm happily breaking one of my own rules here by doing a single review of several releases by the one artist. Jo Gabriel is a New York pianist (and singer) who creates (on the whole) really nice, slightly off-kilter, gentle instrumentals. The main focus of the music, as you'd imagine, is the piano and it's beautifully played with each track containing a distinct and rolling melody that is backed up nicely by the supporting role of the other instruments. Many of these backing sounds are synthesised which is a shame as their inherent 'midi-ness' detracts slightly from the overall feel of the music but then again full string accompaniment is expensive so that can be easily excused.
The two early albums are for me the most satisfying as the later album (Fools and Orphans) sees Jo embracing vocals to a greater degree. Regular readers to WWR will have spotted that very little of the music featured here has vocals. Why? I'm just not that keen on them. Jo does her vocal thing well (think Kate Bush and you'll be on the right track). She has an impressive voice and a good ear for a song but ultimately it's not my particular cup of tea. Musically the album is as accomplished as the other two and as such I really felt that all three deserved a mention.
If you're bored of waiting for the new Kate Bush album then Fools is the one to go for but personally it's her instrumentals that truly carried me away and for that I heartily recommend the earlier two.
Rita Galetti - Falter
(Contra Musik Produktion CMP23)
CD
I know very little about Rita Galetti. Actually, let me rephrase that. I know almost nothing about Rita Galetti but a quick interweb search tells me that she's a sound artist working out of Canada. Throughout the album she utilises a battery of equipment and techniques to create a continuously rolling set of compositions. There is a nicely melodic core to her work that is often missing in music with an experimental bent and the relaxed vibe that pervades much of the album is to be enjoyed. It is a little too restless at times, much of the album consists of short tracks, and some ideas could maybe have been worked out more fully and allowed to blossom in a more gradual and thorough manner. That said though the album at no point feels unfinished or rushed and is another in a list of fine releases coming via CMP.
Slava Ganelin & Vladimir Volkov - Ne Slyshno
(Auris Media aum012)
CD
Piano and double bass duo meet in a first time collaboration that melds elements of free jazz with those of contemporary avant garde composition. The early part of the album sets off at a daunting, break-neck pace where each player seems determined to display their own virtuosity simultaneously. Over time this compulsion dies away and by track 3 they are in perfect sync. How much is improvised along a theme and how much is truly free is a question for more knowledgeable reviewers than me but what I hear is the sound of two accomplished musicians fully aware of each other and utterly at home in the music.
Miguel A. Garcia - Armiarmak
(RMO Productions RMOAG)
CD
Some of you may already be familiar with M.A.G. under his Xedh alias which was certainly the more familiar to me. Here recording under his given name, Garcia has crafted an album almost entirely culled from sounds sourced solely from two microphones and a mixer. The nature of those two tools, to me at least, suggests a world of possible sounds but what is reproduced here sounds like an almost exclusively digital palette.
The sounds are harsh and cold but Garcia’s skill in collaging these sounds brings each piece to life. His compositional skills are beyond reproach but for me though, his source sounds are just too uninviting acting as a barrier, stopping me from engaging with the album. For 3 or so tracks I’m absorbed but slowly the sounds scrape away at my ears until I can stand no more. It’s a shame because Garcia is obviously an accomplished craftsman and in bite sized chunks this album is littered with quality moments but as a whole it was just too impenetrable.
Guy Gelem - Works
(Split Femur Recordings SFR008)
CD
Playing guitar, cello & laptop Guy Gelem is a one man post-rock band. 'Works' is a gently melodic album that brings to mind the melodic side of Explosions In The Sky, the less jazzy moments of Tortoise and also the work of (Amelie soundtrack composer) Yann Tiersen. It's beautifully played throughout and the mix is crisp and polished. Some of the beats are a little too artificial (or mechanical) for my tastes and I dearly would love to hear these tunes played live by a full band (including a live drummer) but this is a hugely impressive debut release and if post-rock is your bag then you really should give this a shot.
Pierre Gerard - Plateaux (for Gilles Deleuze)
(Koyuki yuki 007)
CDR
Over the last however many years I've been writing Wonderful Wooden Reasons the number of truly minimalist recordings I've been sent is extremely low yet this month I have two, Wechseljahre Einer Hyäne by Radu Malfatti and this newest release by Belgium composer Pierre Gerard.
This is the sparsest of music. It's barely audible pops, squeaks, hisses and rattles are easily destroyed by the clatter of everyday life but in a quiet and relaxed environment they sing beautifully.
I find music of this sort to be utterly entrancing but equally I find it incredibly difficult to review but hopefully I've said enough to intrigue you into buying.
Ghosts On Water - Senshu
(Faraway Press)
CD
Ghosts on Water is Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki and together the produce some of the finest quiet music around. On his solo recordings Andrew treats sound as a sort of misting or blurring of the senses. He blends the individual sounds into a multi-coloured expressionist colour-field. Daisuke's presence adds an extra dimension to the sound. There are sketches of melody in the slowly tumbling strings that, in places, give the work a vaguely eastern exoticism. Indeed it is the presence of what could, admittedly with a little stretching of the definition, be classed as melody that makes this album so impressive. It has an inherent lyricism that flows along and even across the broad, washing tones upon which everything is built.
As ever, heartily recommended.
Ghoul Detail - Strung Out In Skogar
(Roil Noise RNOCDR011)
CD-R
one of a pile of seedees I traded for with John Ghoul Detail. This being, for me, the finest of a very good bunch. Huge rolling drones crash against the speakers sending soft, shards of noise bursting into your ears. 'Strung out...', and indeed, lots of Ghoul Detail's output is performing a balancing act on the line between noise and drone. This is a master wire walker at work here though. Effortlessly incorporating the best of both camps into a beautiful seemless whole. If I have one complaint with this album it's with the superfluous voice samples that only serve to break up the flow.
Ghoul Detail - Until The Day I Die
CD-R
The last time I reviewed a Ghoul Detail cd I chose one of his more drone based releases. This one is more of a mixed bag. The harsh drones are still there and they're still sounding as good as ever. The middle section of the album (separate track-titles but it's all one long 60 minute piece - at least on my copy) is a series of overlapping and overdriven drones each bigger and more insistent than the one before. Interlaced with this we have a succession of beats, bleeps, throbs, squeals, crashes and pulses. Some parts work better than others, although this may well be down to my ambivalence towards beats, and the end is a bit abrupt but it's another damn fine release from the house of Ghoul.
Ghoul Detail - Beyond the 7 Doors
(Roil Noise RNOCDR069)
CDR
Release number 5342 for Jon (Ghoul Detail) Bayliss (and that's just this week) and like all the others I've heard it's an absolute corker. Huge, actually let me do that again, HUGE slabs of noise and monoliths of sound interspersed with samples from Lucio Fulci's flawed (that's especially for you Jon) masterpiece. I can think of no-one who does this sort of muscular drone and noise thing even half as well as Ghoul Detail and here he augments his sound with a more rhythmic and linear, almost song-based, structure.
This is a fantastic addition to the Ghoul Detail catalogue (I'll even go so far as to say it's one of his best) but what I would have liked even more would have been to hear him doing an actual re-soundtracking of the movie. In case you missed it, that was the sound of a gauntlet being thrown.
Ghoul Detail - Living on Borrowed Time
(Roil Noise RNOCDR058)
CDR
Over the years I've been doing WWR I've written more reviews for Ghoul Detail than pretty much anyone else. All are overwhelmingly positive because all have been deserving. He (Jon Bayliss) does the big, muscular, noise and drone thing better than anyone else I could name. So this time I'm not going to talk about what is, yet again, another damn fine release instead I'm going to talk about the weather.
The sky is grey today. Not the dull, heavy grey that signals rain but a light, off-white, grey. Occasionally patches of blue sky show through breaks in the cloud whilst gusts of wind are assaulting the tops of the trees in the woods behind my house. It's what I've decided to call a liminal day - it's almost sunny and yet also it's almost stormy. I like liminal days they are days filled with promise and trepidation. They are days of transition, of change and of surprises. One never really knows where one is with a liminal day. They are utterly wilful and gloriously unpredictable. I love them.
This album is a liminal day.
Ghoul Detail + GDR
(Roil Noise RNOCDR079)
CDR
A hit and miss release from these two artists. There is a glorious sub-tectonic roar that permeates throughout this recording and the extra noises swoop, dive, gong, blast, shudder, twitter, scrape, swoosh, slap, cough, quake and crash with aplomb but I'm just not connecting with it. The voice samples that appear periodically throughout don't help matters as they pull my focus away from the music and lend the whole a vaguely cartoony feel. I can't really put my finger on what it is that is making me keep this at arms length but something is. For me there are better GD releases out there and a visit to the GDR myspace page makes me believe that he also has more to his repertoire than what is on display here. It's recommended but with reservations.
Ghoul Detail - Smoke A Bowl Or Two
(Roil Noise RNOCDR048)
2x3" CDR
First off I'm really not sure why this is presented as two mini-CDrs when it could have been far better (and far less lumpily) presented as a single full sized CDR. It seems a strange choice to me but there you go - double disc it is.
Ghoul Detail have long been a favourite here at WWR and this release once again confirms his place in our hearts. Grimy, monolithic, leviathans (I've been waiting for an album to come along where I could link those two words) of noise roll ponderously forward like an encroaching ice-age of dirt. Occasionally shards of debris are pushed from the mass, the fleeting sounds and rhythms of their passing providing a last gasp of existence before they are swallowed by the relentless behemoth (that's another word I've been waiting to use) of sound as it rolls ever onward.
Ghoul Detail - Glory Hole
(Smell The Stench)
CDR
A set of guitar and effect pedal twisted and jagged post-industrial recordings from the Ghoul. Very much derived from the Skullflower school of sheet metal aural sculpture and a real step into the unknown for GD that deserves to be applauded both for the way he's balanced this new direction with his previous oeuvre and also because it's really, really good. Since my first listen I've known that GD is one of the most interesting and exciting artists in a noise scene that is becoming increasingly mundane and tiresome to me and here he proves that assertion once more. This is one glory hole that I suspect is a lot more fun to stick your ears into than your cock.
Ghoul Detail vs. Norss - The Endless Days of Loss
(Norss Plåten No004)
CDR
It's an uncharacteristically mellow Ghoul Detail that greats our ears on this new (and very limited) split album. In place of his usual apocalyptic roar there is an understated post-industrial dark ambient rumble that links his three contributions. I like this side of his music (I like the other sides too) and I think it's a shame that it doesn't come out to play as often as it probably should.
Norss are very much in the same mould with his / her / their / it's (delete as applicable) contribution being generally more of the same but with the addition of a more aggressively noisy stance. It's a good track that is marred slightly by a poor mix but has a real nice flow to it. A little more time and attention spent on the production would have made this something really worth to listening to.
There're only 22 copies of this in existence so I think you'll be lucky to grab a copy but as with all Ghoul Detail releases it's well worth the effort.
Good Noise Bad Noise - Joist Hounds
(Earth Monkey Productions 001)
3"CDR
Two laptoppers, a violinist and a visualist (I think I made that last word up but I kinda like it so it's staying) who operate under the Good Noise Bad Noise name which invites lazy reviewers (cough) into the temptation of making two lists of which bits of the ep should be filed under which half of the name. Well if I was to do such a thing (I'm not going to - I'll admit I was tempted - but I'm not going to) I'm happy to say that the second column would be the much shorter. They do occasionally fall into the screeching cacophony trap but they rarely stay there for very long and they often arrive and leave from a plausible and worthwhile position. The music is dynamic and has an easy momentum and flow that removes this from the noise for noise sake ghetto into one that is far, far more interesting and worth further investigation especially if the work of the aforementioned visualist (I'm going to trademark that word) is featured more strongly.
Gravanzia - Doom To The Doom Men
(no label)
CD
Wonderfully silly set of Gong-isms from this outfit of London based stoners. The standard psyche-rock band set-up of geetars, bass, drums, synths and vocals along with some riff-tastic cosmic song-craft make this CD shaped bundle of ridiculousness a damn fine way to spend three quarters of an hour. I suspect their collective record collections stop somewhere around the 1975 mark because musically there is very little reference to any music made after this point. I'm so pleased that there are still bands out there doing this still sort of over-blown psychedelia and doing it really well too. Their histrionic krautrock (Amon Duul II is a reference point that springs to mind) is something I thought I'd never hear again outside of an obscurities download site or a set of re-issues from a long forgotten German label. If any of the above mentioned acts or adjectives are your particular bag (of weed) then this is definitely worth tracking down.
Grave in the Sky - Cutlery Hits China- English for the Hearing Impaired
(Heart & Crossbone HCB - 015)
CD
Roaring like a snowbound steamtrain, this is industrial music from the heaviest of industries. Grave in the Sky take the metronomic riffing of Godflesh and add a healthy dose of Khanate and Boris style sludge before drenching everything in slop-buckets full of processed vocals and harsh digital noise. Straw Dogs shows a slight tendency to slip towards goth-pomp but essentially this is punishing and churning metal.
If this album was chewing-gum it would be tarmac flavour. If it was a razor it would be rusty. If it was the denouement of a who-dunnit it would be the butler, in the library, with a lead pipe, beating you over the head...again...and again...and again...and again.
The Green Chair - Occupied Estate
(Summersteps Records Handmade SUM-HM 005)
CDR
I have to admit I never thought I'd be reviewing a Fleetwood Mac song in WWR but I am and it's awful (by which I mean this version and not the original). I'm sorry but novelty, or 'ironic', cover versions make my skin crawl. It's a shame because positioned at track three this, for me, ruins the opening of what subsequently reveals itself to be a thoroughly enjoyable album of garage / psychedelic freakery. Over the rest of the album The Green Chair explore all manner of interesting places and instruments from the acoustic guitar and drone balladeering of 'Your Cheating Heart' to the spiky guitar shards of 'Wire Frame Devil' and the Throbbing Gristle synth-scape of 'Song for Byron'. I really hate that cover version but fortunately the rest are well worth checking out.
Gruuthaagy - Panonian Witchcraft
(Perineum)
CDR
It's taken me 5 listens to even begin to get a handle on what is on offer here. Built upon layers of ominous drones Panonian Witchcraft dispenses with niceties like melody in favour of an eerie and oppressive ambience evocative of dark nights and long shadows. The music has a weightless quality that renders it difficult to focus on for extended periods of time making it perfect (dark) ambient music but also robbing it of some of it's impact. As with all Perineum releases though this is most definitely worth a listen.
Haare / Gelsomina - split CD-R
(Musically Incorrect Records MIR#26)
CD-R
Titles tell you a lot about a record. The two bands contained within have each named their half of the record. Haare call their half ‘White Plague Nebula’ whilst Gelsomina opt for ‘Futurological Pessimism’. Both titles leave you in little doubt as to what you are going to be hearing. Gelsomina kick us off in very noisy fashion using Haare source sounds with the favour returned on the last track. Unfortunately on this and on their other two tracks Gelsomina never really manage to light my fire. It's very loud and very noisy but this type of full on noise assault rarely captures my attention for long. Haare offer a more subdued and measured take on the whole noise thing allowing both their sounds and the listener the opportunity to breathe and relax into the swirling soundworld they have created.
Halo Manash - Par-Antrai: Vir
(Aural Hypnox AH01)
CD
Halo Manash - Syoma
(Aural Hypnox AH03)
CD
I've never been to Finland but with the evidence at hand i'm guessing it's dark a lot. Also cold, quiet, monochrome and with lots of naked trees casting very long shadows through which tall, pale, bald men in ill-fitting evening suits walk, wringing their boney hands and tittering.
The 5 Aural Hypnox releases (3 groups) reviewed in this months ECReviews all share a common aesthetic of rumbling drones and discordant tones. I have very little information on the people involved in these projects but I wonder how much crossover there is between them.
Halo Manash produce epic soundscapes that evoke vast, rolling, snowy tundras. The sound of an encroaching ice-age where only the occasional addition of, usually, quiet, subtle and funereal drums show that there is still life somewhere in this vast emptiness. What is less successful is the chanting (on Vir) which does nothing for me except make me reach for the skip button but fortunately there is little of this. Two beautifully packaged and damn fine albums that are yet more reason to show your support for this excellent label.
Hapsburg Braganza - Hatchling
(Idiosyncratic Records idcd003)
CD
New Belgian label Idiosyncratic have launched themselves onto the world with a trio of recordings. This one, by UK composer Phil Begg is a slow build collage of aquatic field recordings that slowly yield to an insistent harmonium drone which in turn is absorbed into the whole.
Begg's music is layered to the sky with sounds and textures but I must admit to finding chunks of this album difficult to listen to. The sounds he uses are often harsh and arid which, while making an interesting contrast to the water derived sounds and the sumptuous and huge harmonium drones, that are for me the definite highlights, they aren't particularly very engaging.
That said though, these aspects are in the minority here and for the most part 'Hatchling' is a diverting listen that has been assembled with a keen ear for composition and a willingness to allow the music plenty of opportunities to evolve.
Haz-Mat / Ghoul Detail - Corroded Horizon Dawning
(Blast Periphery Fall-Out002)
CDR
You know that feeling you get when you've just taken that one swig too many at the end of a long day's drinking. That moment when the world starts to tilt and the slow dawning arrives that there's no way you're coming out of the other side of this unsullied. When the internal and the external are hell-bent on meeting. When up and down are concepts that are no longer understandable and are rapidly becoming redundant. When every fibre of your being hones in on that one undeniable fact! Well, that's what this album sounds like and you know you want it.
Hearts of Palm - Hearts of Palm
(Palmetto Records No 1)
CDR
Absolutely corking album of occasionally turbulent, occasionally tranquil improv from this US combo. Opening your album with a tumultuous cacophony of guitar, percussion, vocals and other miscellaneous debris is a brave statement of intent that leaves the listener in little doubt as to the ride they are embarking on. HoP seem to derive (and certainly convey) a great deal of pleasure out of create towering Faustian motorik constructs that collide and fuse with some bewildering forays into free-psychedelia. In turns HoP is difficult, obtuse, translucent and bedevilling but throughout it is never less than enthralling.
Hearts Of Palm - Trance Nipple Manifestation
(Palmetto Space Label)
CD
Hot new cut from US freeform trio of Dave Chamberlain, Mike Hancock & Jay Wilson. I was lucky enough to hear the music these guys make back last year (2008) when I got an earlier HOP release along with one by their French Crips alter-ego (which, if memory serves is a duo and much more industrial sounding). That earlier release was an intense Faustian exploration of guitar based improvisation and was enthusiastically praised. This new album continues where it’s predecessor left off and is about to be enthusiastically praised.
In the accompanying letter Jay mentions that TNM (not sure about that title) is a more cohesive and accurate representation of the HOP experience than album 1. I can’t comment on the latter but in regard to cohesion I can only agree. There is a flow to the tracks that makes perfect sense. Each is sonically different enough to warrant both their existence and their place on the album yet there is a unity of sound that means the album never feels forced or contrived.
Sonically, HOP operate at the industrial end of the free music spectrum. Their guitar, percussion and circuit bending tactics is an intense experience. Their sound evokes a battle-like chaos. There’s ebb and flow, confusion and distraction, cohesion & destruction all focused into the vice tight confines of short concise tracks. No rambling improv dialogues here. This is improv with a blissfully punk attitude that says ‘This is our music! Love it or leg it!’ Personally, I absolutely love it.
Hexathurz - Neptun Projection
CDR
First album from Norwegian photographer and musician Hexathurz. Neptun Projection is a glimpse into the darkest of universes lightened only by the briefest flashes of light. Hexathurz conjures and holds the ambience beautifully. Slow rhythms threaded through the music ensure that the flow of the drones tumble like water over rocks. It has an industrial quality to it yet it still feels very natural and organic. Imagine an industrial revolution built from wood instead of iron. A fine album.
Hexlove - Pija Z Bogiem
(Dreamsheep DS006)
2CD
As I was writing this review I noticed that it had the same catalogue number as the Ajilvsga album also released on Dreamsheep. Any notions of similarity between these two entities other than this apparent typo should be immediately escorted around the back of the building and quietly removed from the gene pool with a cattle bolt-gun - Thunk! - and then we can all forget about it.
Hexlove is Zac Nelson and it is the sound of his brain imploding. The sheer range of sounds, techniques, tools and just plain old fashioned ideas that are thrown around over these two discs is bewildering. From second to second it twists and turns between various rocks, hard-places, immovable objects and irresistible forces. It’s ugly, absurd, annoying and a little bit irresistible.
I can’t describe it as it would take too long. I’m not even going to try. In the wrong mood and at the wrong time it could possibly be the worst album I’ve ever heard. Conversely, in the right mood and at the right time…
Hinsidan - Shapeshifter Blues
(Suggestion Records, Verato Project sug051)
CDR
Danish duo of Atish Pare and Superjus have orchestrated a set of beautiful bombastic cosmic drones. It occasionally veers into noise territory but fortunately never stays there for too long as they have far more to say with their music than mere muscle can provide. The recording is crystal clear and the music resonates with colour, tone and content.
A stunning release that all lovers of quality drone music should track down immediately.
Hinsidan - Bleach Dye Yr Heart
(Gears of Sand GOS32)
CD
You'd think I'd have learned by now not to judge a CD by it's cover as it's often misleading but in this case the track titles didn't help - track one is called 'Slaughter of the Innocence, Slaughter of the Innocent' & track two is 'Vivisection of the Soul'. These two, and other, really quite appallingly naff titles helped my second exposure to Hinsidan find itself falling through the pile of albums awaiting review for which I must apologise cause it's actually pretty good.
The trio that make up the group employ a battery of mostly electronic instruments to produce a head stew of tone and drone ambience with occasional flurries of mellow Boards of Canada style electronica and even some singing - definitely not the albums high point.
On the whole though Hinsidan is a very listenable set of tunes. It's not the best thing I've heard recently (and it's certainly not the worst) as it never really managed to utterly absorb me into itself but it's found itself on my player several times in recent weeks and makes a very fine aural backdrop which after all is exactly the point of ambient music.
HL - Takuma / Fields That Speak
(No Ground-R ng-r10)
CD-R & DVD-R
I'm more familiar with HL (Dan Hopkins) through his Eno-esque ambient work that I've reviewed previously in ECReviews so this sparse, minimalist and beat filled addition to his catalogue came as a real shock. If you were to think of a chilled out Boards of Canada then you'd be close. It's derived from Dan's love of Formula One racing and in particular the, slightly rubbish, Formula One driver Takuma Sato. I like the irony of music this slow being inspired by a racing car driver but if he continues to inspire homages this good I hope he carries on driving for years.
Accompanying the album is a short (but nicely formed) DVD tribute to the Somerset Levels (in the South West of England) where Dan grew up. In the film he is paying homage to the minutiae of the Levels. Indeed the more successful parts are those where he gets up close and personal with his subject using long static shots that force the viewer to examine the image. It's at these points that the ambiguity of both the sounds and the images meld in the way that I suspect was HL's intention. The music is sparse, minimalist, keyboard driven ambient perfectly suited to the mood of the film. What is less successful are the longer shots which come across too much like holiday snaps, their duration on the screen isn't justified by their composition. Fortunately these are few and the rest is well worth this minor quibble.
Kasper van Hoek - Den Haag - Groningen - Froombosch
(Dirty Demos DirtyCDR 028)
CDR
6 pieces by Dutch sound manipulator van Hoek each named after the location the recordings were made between May 2007 and January 2008. Throughout the recordings you can clearly hear the source sounds which have either been subsequently or simultaneously processed and manipulated. There's much to like here as a tumult of sounds race past each tumbling over the other. Which however is also it's main weakness as the music never really allows itself to be listened to. Almost as soon as your attention is attracted by an intriguing sound or idea it's gone, lost amidst the torrent. I found it's restlessness to be contagious meaning each time I listened to it I soon found myself being distracted by the things around me rather than being fully absorbed by the music.
This is definitely worth a listen due to it's scope and it's execution (it's beautifully mixed) but is particularly recommended to those whose preference is for the noisy and the abstract.
Hollowing + Maor Appelbaum - Collaborating Torture
(Heart & Crossbone HCB-017 + Topheth Prophet TP-016)
CD
A darker than the darkest dark bit of a really dark night dark-ambient collaboration from Israeli musician Appelbaum and his US compatriot Matt (Hollowing) Gibney. Collaborating Torture is a monolithic glacier of sound slowly grinding everything in it's path to dust. There isn't the remotest iota of relief or release present in this music. It doesn't rest, veer or retreat in it's inexorable advance. Those with the darkest (of dark) appetites will love this.
Homework - Monopoly
(Q-Tone hw03)
2xCDR
Every now and again a cd turns up on my doormat that straddles the whole gamut of styles of music that float my boat. Homework's Monopoly accomplishes this and does so with ease and aplomb. I've no idea how many members there are or even the full range of instruments on display (piano, drums and bass seem to play the largest part) but one person or many it matters nothing as it's the music that counts and the music is wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
CD 1 is probably the most impressive piece of work being one long 60 minute meandering journey through the heart of Homework's music. Never once feeling lost or as though the participants are flailing for ideas or direction, it rolls through it's myriad changes playing games with ambience, melody and expectations.
CD 2 with it's three distinct tracks is the more open and inviting listen. Each brings something (often several somethings) different to the table but presented together the create a divine melange of aural delights. Track 1's opening of rolling and overlapping almost Feldman-esque piano lines that slowly transform into the warm embrace of the unhurried melodies of it's second half. The flickering, barely there noises of track 2 and it's emerging bowed bass and piano stabs that are almost washed away in the rainstorms of sound that occasionally burst through. Whereas track 3 arrives in a tangle of rhythm and a sub funk piano skronk with keyboard drone..
The one characteristic of the music that it is possible to pin down is it's willingness to change. It segues effortlessly between drone, jazz, lounge drum 'n' bass (and more) and between wilful experimentation and sumptuous tunesmithery. It really is a most fantastic album and one that'll be dominating my CD player for a long time to come.
Hourglass Drops vs. Norss - Stella
CDR
Nice, limited edition dark ambient release by these two artists. Hourglass Drops providing the first 5 tracks and Norss the sixth although time-wise that's about an equal split. Both outfits take a refreshingly varied approach to the noise they make. All 5 of HD's tracks make use of an individual palette of sounds many eschewing the usual overly processed sounds and generally keeping the tones clean, clear and direct. Some of the tracks are missing a little colour (track 3) and end up sounding a little dull but others are a psychedelic swirl of the stuff (track 4).
Norss takes the slowly evolving longform route and do it pretty well indeed. They are also operating at the more domineering end of the spectrum, this isn't the most ambient of ambient music. The piece does suffer a little from slightly muddy mix but that clears up a little over the course of the track with the sounds gradually becoming clearer as the composition moves along it's way.
If you're a fan of the genre then this is definitely worth checking out.
Hreda - Minnows
(Ingue Records)
7"
2 track 7" singkle from Oxford based trio of vaguely mathy post-rock instrumsntals. Previous reviews comparing them to the wonderful Explosions In The Sky are, I think, a little overly generous and also do a disservice to Hreda. Their sound is missing the majesty and grandeur of EITS but instead displays a technical expertise and a groove all their own. There is a much more metallic and, dare I say, prog heart to Hreda. The music is occasionally a little too busy for my tastes but with the changes coming thick and fast you only have to wait a couple of seconds before the tune is off in another direction.
Naturally, being a 7" single (or in my case a promo cdr) there is only 11 and a half minutes of music on here but it is 11 and a half minutes well spent that leaves you wanting more but until the album appears I recommend picking a copy of this up and listening to it on repeat.
Another quality release from Ingue Records.
H2S - 4th Mutation
(CREAMcropzine 2006O)
CDR
An anthology of tracks dating from 1994 to 2006 of keyboard driven industrial music by H2S 's Fabio Degiorgi. Only the first 4 tracks on this CD date from the 90's and they suffer greatly from the use of, what is now, a really dated drum machine sound. These early tracks feel more like sketches or segments of larger works than complete tracks in their own right. But the production is crisp and clean and if the more beat oriented end of the industrial spectrum is your bag then these are competently assembled.
The album doesn't truly begin to take shape until track 6 as 2003 saw a shift towards more drone oriented work. The beats are still there but are less overt allowing the music the freedom of not marching along to a metronome. Occasionally Degiorgi lapses into his old ways which does slightly sour the end of the album but generally the later tracks are an interesting excursion into the realms of noise drone.
Mat Hughes - Voyager: Audio Log
CDR
Occasionally I get albums that arrive with an accompanying sheet of A4 paper that outlines some half-baked concept that supposedly lies behind the music. Over time I've learned to sigh, scrumple up the bit of paper, toss it in the bin and let the music speak for itself.
Hughes makes music that floats and swirls. He balances complementary tones with needlepoint precision before throwing successive cascades of hissing and twitching noise at them making the whole thing swirl and swoop. Hughes is unafraid to alter and play with the ambience he is creating, manipulating the sounds to forge a creation that is, at times, nothing short of mesmerising.
Hurra Caine Landcrash - Moving
(No Ground-R ng-r06)
CD-R
Hurra Caine Landcrash, or Dan Hopkins as he's known to his mum, returns to my seedy player for the first time away from his guise as one third of, sadly departed, Welsh ambient wibblers Know Point. Subtle drones and vague beats writhe around bursts of guitar and half-formed melodies. As the title suggests this album is anything but static but don't expect to hear any of this on a drivetime compilation any time soon this is much more of a Sunday morning stroll through the woods. Slow is definitely the order of the day as Dan morphs Eno-esque keyboard lines with pulsating bass frequencies to create a custom landscape for moving through. On Moving HL has produced music that is both epic in scope and intimate in nature.
Hurra Caine Landcrash - Unanswered Questions
(Split Femur Recordings SFR007)
CD
I've been a fan of Dan Hopkins' music for a few years now. As part of Know Point, as Hurra Caine Landcrash and as HL, Dan works at the ambient end of the slow music spectrum. His music often puts me in mind of Boards of Canada just without those pesky beats getting in the way.
Guitar has always had a strong role in Dan's projects but on 'Unanswered Questions' it takes centre-stage. Early indications are not good as album opener 'Soul' suffers from a horrible mix that buries the music in a sea of gloop. Fortunately it's also the shortest track on what subsequently opens up into a sumptuous and absorbing recording characterised by the slow moving flow of the guitar's misshapen melodies and the fluttering micro-sounds that garnish each track. In parts this recording brings to mind Fennesz in others it is the work of melodic abstractionists like the above mentioned BoC. Throughout though (with the notable exception of track 1) this is a fine addition to the Hurra Caine Landcrash discography.
Iamblichi - All Worlds
(Dirty Demos DirtyCDR 022)
CDR
German outfit / person (I know not which) with their first actual CD release (following on from two net releases) sees them exploring the worlds (or perhaps that should be 'whorls') of rolling, bubbling, scritching electronica that doesn't really seem to have a destination in mind but has a lot of fun getting there. It's like taking a tour around Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, your ears slowly registering the sounds of the different, incomprehensible machines as they hum and throb through their tasks. I liked this. It’s the type of thing you don’t get to hear very often anymore which is a shame because it’s fun.
IDX1274, I Died, Rotted Brain - Qualite Superieure
(Roil Noise RNOCDR074)
Business Card CDR
Teeny-weeny business card shaped cdr that sounds like a bird and then a cat being fed into the worlds biggest food processor. It's packaged with a rolling paper but at 4 minutes 20 seconds doesn't last long enough for you to either roll or smoke a spliff never mind both. It is a laugh though.
The Infant Cycle - The Sand Rays
(Diophantine Discs n=20)
CD
A different sort of album from the predominantly drone loving crew at Diophantine as Jim DeJong's The Infant Cycle project is (at least in this instance) more interested in the endless vagaries of rhythm than in the infinite variations of tone yet he never loses site of the horizon-gazing timelessness of the best drone albums, which is no mean feat. His rhythmic oscillations are collected from a huge array of sources (as listed on the cd) such as vinyl run-out grooves, field recordings, skittering electronics and a host of others, over which DeJong has liberally scattered breathless, organic sounding instrumentation.
Much of the album sounds decayed and vaguely dilapidated. It's run-down griminess allowing it to achieve a sense of character that's often overlooked. It's lived-in homeliness is hugely addictive as is the verve and the dexterity with which the whole thing has been assembled into a massively compulsive whole.
Recommended.
The Infrared Experience - White
(Contra Musik Produktion 22)
CD
No info accompanies the two new releases from CMP and in the case of this on at least there are no clues to be gleaned from the sleeve either. What info is given however is to inform that the entirety of this album was created using electric guitar and assorted pedals.
The enigmatically named 'White' is a startlingly mobile set of gently psychedelic squalls. Layers of guitar meticulously overlaid to mostly good effect. Ironically it's when the guitars are at their most recognisable that this alum loses momentum. The switch between the more immersive longform drone pieces and the more 'traditionally' played guitar pieces is, especially early on in the album, quite jarring but becomes less so as the album continues, whether as a result of improved composition or as a result of acclimation by the listener I cannot say. What I can say though is that 'White' is absolutely worth investigating for fans of guitar-centric abstractions.
Inverz - Variations on Hold
(More Mars mm05)
CDR
Another quality release from this new Greek label. The one man band that makes up Inverz has compiled this release from recordings made over a two year period. This doesn't show which either shows a remarkable lack of progression on his part or a consistency of vision that is to be admired. I'm opting for the latter. The music here mixes the more plaintive end of post-rock with a nicely leftfield noise sensibility. For the most part Inverz creates blissful, otherworldly sunrise compositions perfect for listening to on bright days which makes a nice change from all the dark and doom-laden stuff I get sent. My favourite moments are those where he drapes his music in a shoegazery type fuzz. It's a nice idea that lifts the music which I think would probably be a little bland and over synthesised without it. There are a couple of tricks that are used slightly too often for comfort - the stumbling loop effect being the worst culprit - but on the whole this is a fine and enjoyable release.
Iri Li - Broken Summer
(ContraMusikProduktion CMP20)
CD
Iri Li is the recording name of one Irina Lindner who is also one of the people behind the intriguingly named ContraMusikProduktion (and no, I haven't forgotten the spaces). Contra...Music? What a bold assertion to make. I thoroughly approve but it's a hell of a title to live up to don't you think? My dictionary defines 'contra' as meaning 'opposite' or 'against' (it also defines it as a 'Nicaraguan counter revolutionary movement' but I think we can discount that one). So, 'opposite music productions' or 'against music productions'. Being a record label I would imagine the first of those two options is the more likely and after listening to this album I think it's also the most apropos. This is music with a decidedly 'opposite' mindset.
Broken Summer sees Iri Li taking a wide variety of 'traditional' instruments (voice, synth, violin, gong, theremin, piano and more), mixing these with some unidentified home-made instruments and then adding a variety of nicely sourced field-recordings to create a set of creepy and mind-bending compositions. It's obtuse, wilful, contrary, sad, whimsical, intense, wistful, bombastic and melancholic but what I like most about this album is it's all these things without ever forgetting that while it is great fun being 'contra-music' it is still the 'music ' aspect of that definition that drew us into this awkward little corner of the world in the first place and that keeps us searching (whether as musicians or listeners) for that elusive fix. 'Contra' is fine but without the 'music' part it can quickly degenerate into pointless navel-gazing or worthless flailing but that is never the case here. Iri Li has produced 12 separate pieces that combine to create one seamless whole.
Recommended.
Isolde - You're Alone in Red Riding Picture
(Penny Poppet pp002)
3"CD
2 track 3"cd from the duo of Andrew Chalk and Robin Barnes. If this, the shortest of cds - a mere 10 minutes, feels like a taster for the album then it's only because, like me, you bought this one second and it was on the strength of the album (see review). 2 short drone and noise pieces that wrap themselves, briefly, around your heart before leaving you all too soon.
Isolde - On Waving and Drowning
(Penny Poppet pp004)
CD
A duo featuring Andrew Chalk (who we love) and Robin Barnes (who we don't know but are now quite fond of) this, the third (i think) Isolde release, marries, in turn, abstract guitarscapes, noise and drones to create three very different but equally riveting pieces of music. The Isolde soundworld is one that is far noisier and more wilfully abstract than that of Chalk's solo albums (I've not heard any of his other collaborative releases so I cannot comment). It's episodic nature opens it up to a wider variety of emotional states than is maybe apparent otherwise. Opener, 'Junior and Infant at the Gate' is a fusion of guitar and other non-specific (or should that be non-specified) sounds that caress and scratch at your perceptions. Track 2, 'The Place Where I Left You', is an ear-popping exercise in building mountains out of noise but it's the drone masterclass of 'At Journey's End' that is the album's defining moment.
If I have a complaint with this album, and believe me I had to think long and hard to find one, then it's that I personally would have liked to hear the three differing soundscapes worked out over the course of an album each rather than as three facets of the one release. Am I being greedy? Am I nit-picking? Or, am I the eternal optimist? I'll let you decide but please do so while listening to this magnificent album.
