Terje Paulsen - Septober
(Q-Tone qt01)
CDR
This inaugural release on Q-Tone features the caustic soundscapes conjured by one Terje Paulsen. His mix of acoustic instrumentation and dense atmospherics makes for nail-biting listening as he weaves a tapestry of trepidation and discomfort in which to enfold the listener. The instrumentation is amorphous and the sounds are warm, although warm in a deep, dank, dark cellar kind of way which can never be a bad thing.
I'm struggling to write about this album because it's power isn't in it's boldness or it's grandeur but in the ease in which Paulsen generates a mood and then holds you immersed in it for the duration. Heartily recommended.
Terje Paulsen - Landform
(self release)
3” CDR
Now unfortunately sold out is this micro-release micro-cdr album by Norwegian composer Paulsen but luckily for y’all the very kind Mr. Paulsen has made it available as an mp3 release via rainmusic.free.fr/. This really is something you should all be very happy about as it really is a damn fine slice of drone music. Paulsen has a good ear for a mix and Landform is soft and sensual without being cloying or over-produced. He has avoided the dark ambient pitfall and instead concerned himself with making amorphous music that is worth listening to repeatedly.
Paxit - Left Eye Twitch
(RZR vs Paxit 001)
CDR
Paxit (which translates as 'tin can') are an ensemble based in Israel who exist in the hinterlands of experimental music liberally splicing a huge variety of genres, instruments, found sounds, catcalls, jeers and monologues with their own unique and enthralling music. One of the main drawbacks of music of this 'type' (if you'll excuse the rather crass wording) can be that often individual tracks, particularly the shorter ones, can come off as being more like sketches than complete 'songs' (another crass description - I really do apologise). Paxit successfully avoid this pitfall rarely allowing their abstractions to overpower the cohesion of this fine and recommended album.
Perfect Blue / The Bordellos - A Gift of Sunshine
(Burning Emptiness BE#30 single series three)
3"CD-R
The Bordellos are whole-heartedly rooted in the tradition of quirky British pop a la Syd Barret or The Fall. There's tape hiss all over it, the vocals are in a tuning of their very own and the musicianship is...well...how can i put this...unique. It's the type of thing John Peel (RIP) would have gone ape over and what can I say...I really like it. Pop music as it ought to sound but generally doesn't.
Perfect Blue on the other hand create nimble soundscapes. Feedback loops play tag around my headphones whilst ambient washes are powered along relentlessly by metronomic drumlines. It's in absolute contrast to The Bordellos yet it works sublimely. Recommended for both bands.
Jean-Herve Peron & Andrew Liles - Fini!
(Dirter DPROMCD62)
CD
It doesn't take a genius to infer from the name of this zine that it's writer is something of a Faust fan (it's a line from the track Meadow Meal on the first Faust album). I'm besotted by the music these fellas make (in whatever incarnation) and Fini! is no exception.
Very much in the Faustian spirit this is a tangled morass of sounds and ideas that works really rather well. We even get to hear (on track 9) the side of Peron that is rarely seen these days, that of the acoustic troubadour as he slowly weaves his guitar and voice (and whistle) around a happy little ballad. Occasionally the album drifts into fully abstracted experimental territories but this is really to be expected of both participants and their wonderfully obtuse sensibilities but at all points you feel that they are working to a cohesive vision that they never once loose sight of. If only everything in life was this good.
Phantom West - Aleph Null
(Sistinas SIN005)
CD
Not really my cup of tea this but then again neither is tea - foul tasting concoction give me coffee any day. Phantom West's Timothy Clark produces music that exists in that grey area between (euro)industrial, synth-pop and rock populated by acts such as Depeche Mode and if you're a fan of that band then you'll probably love this. Personally I'm not - at all - but this is well made, well played and, like I said, if DM float your boat, well worth checking out.
Dave Phillips - The Hermeneutics of Fear of God
(Absurd Records)
CD
There was a time, back around '87 - '89, where the longest song I was listening to probably clocked in at around 1 minute in length and sounded like someone being loudly sick. The majority of my ear-space was taken up by bands such as Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, Heresy, Chaos UK, and Amebix amongst others. On this solo cut Dave Phillips of Fear of God has sent me spiralling back to those cider and weed fuelled days with this relentless, grinding cacophony of great old school grindcore. There are elements of all the above mentioned bands here (especially Amebix) but what this made me think of more was that this is what Godflesh would have sounded like if Justin Broadrick had retained his love of speed when he left Napalm Death. Fast, short, crusty, noisy, industrial, grind...something for everyone!
Procer Veneficus - Saltwater & Glassmoon
(New Age Dawn / Stellar Auditorium Productions AUD001)
CDR
Procer Veneficus is the improbable alter ego of one Derek Schultz. His music mixes sparse icy vista soundscapes with dark isolationist ambiences. Throughout the album he travels some interesting roads but never really seems to arrive at an equally interesting destination. The music is thick with portentous atmospheres and dense, nebulous instrumentation but the mix is often muddy and drowns the more interesting aspects in gloop - track 3 being the worst culprit. As noted earlier though Schultz does have a nifty way with conjuring the darkest and starkest of ambiences which at the right time and in the right mood really lock themselves onto your psyche especially on the second and fifth tracks which are absolute corkers.
Psychatrone Rhonedakk - Disturbs the air
(Black Plastic Sound Records)
CD
Psychatrone Rhonedakk & Cotton Casino - 'Baron Von Rhonedakk & The Crystal Sun'
(Black Plastic Sound Records)
CD
Two releases from the uniquely and rather wonderfully named Psychatrone Rhonedakk of spiralling, soaring, keyboard driven psychedelia.
'Disturbs The Air' is a mixed bag of covers and originals with the latter coming out on top. PR is strongest on the instrumental tracks where the music can envelop and caress. The slightly mundane vocals of the other tracks are like lead weights tied to the (otherwise splendid) music.
'Baron Von Rhonedakk & The Crystal Sun' (which features several contributions from ex-Acid Mothers Temple keyboard player Cotton Casino) is bookended by two versions of Pink Floyd's 'Set The Controls...' which neatly encompass both the mood and the mindset of the album. This album is an altogether freer affair each track (with the exception of the horrible (to these ears at least) 'Night Woman') pushing relentlessly ever-outward as the music dives, swoops and ricochets around your head.
Pablo Reche - Paredes
(Locus of Assemblage)
3" CDR
At one point, about 3 minutes into the first track (Pared Uno) of this Argentine noisemaker's CD my speakers started to pop and crackle alarmingly as the beautiful, booming bass Reche has constructed this track on seemed to finally signal the death of my much loved (and much abused) stereo. Fortunately my worries proved groundless as the speakers rallied and soldiered on. Track two (Pared Dos) is for me the less satisfying as the bass that so marks out Pared Uno is subsumed in a mass of hissing noise. It's certainly not a bad track, it simply lacks some of the 'punch' of the former. Overall an interesting and diverting but slightly too short introduction to an intriguing musician.
Qebo - Wroln
(Low Impedance Recordings LoZ10)
CD
I never really managed to get into the whole 'clicks and cut' and 'glitch' thing that was happening a few years back. It wasn't really that I didn't like it, it was more that I didn't really get it. Occasionally however something would cross my path that would catch my attention. As things have quietened down in that scene this has happened less and less. Qebo are a nice exception to this trend. He / she / them or it (I know not which it is) has produced an absorbing and intriguing set. Qebo avoids the obvious pitfall by keeping the rhythms as an important element of the actual piece and by not allowing them to disappear in a poly-rhythmical morass. The melodies are likewise simple and engaging.
It's still all a bit too abstracted and clinical to get me dancing round the campfire but it is, on the whole, rather good.
Quetev Meriri - Quetev Meriri
(Gush Punk A)
CD
There was an advert that ran on UK T.V. throughout the 70's and 80's for a sickly sweet chocolate bar based on (and called) Turkish Delight (it tastes nothing like it in case you're wondering). It carried the slogan 'Full of eastern promise.' which is the phrase that jumped into my head when I first played this album by Israeli trio Quetev Meriri. Their experimentalism is very much based in the folk music and instrumentation of their region and is, I think, the stronger for it.
This trio create a wonderfully atonal, clanging, driven (and driving) tumult of sound based around what for the most part sound like stringed instruments being used and abused in all manner of interesting and fun ways. Sitting on top of this aural soup are the chanted texts of various poets. For the most part these dirge like vocals are the low point of the album. Their pointlessness preventing me for fully submerging in the music. Regular readers will recognise though that I am rarely complimentary about vocals (particularly, as we have here, improvised vocalising) so my opinion is to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.
The music though is an interesting excursion through these musicians collective sensibilities and fans of outfits such as Volcano The Bear will find much to love here.
(almamusic AT gmail.com)
Rapoon / Relapxych-o - Split
(Droehnhaus / Psych.KG Drh#4.5 / Psych KG 035)
LP
Split LP from the German label Droehnhaus with individualised covers each painted by a child with a learning difficulty of one form or another. Mine says ‘I Love You’ in big cheery silver letters with a stickered arrow that says ‘Important’ pointing at the words. It’s probably the best sleeve design in my collection. The sleeves themselves, I can’t help noticing, are the same ones that the labels previous LP release (Mystified’s - Pulse Ringer Pieces) came in with the text on the spine blanked out.
Almost inevitably, and by that I mean no disrespect to Relapxych-o, my initial attention turns to Rapoon. Robin Storey has been producing tantalising and enthralling music both as part of various incarnations of Zoviet France and as Rapoon for a considerable number of years. Whilst I’m not really a collector or connoisseur of his music I do have a real admiration for much of what I’ve heard. This short little track, ‘Lost Terrain‘, is a tangled trip that morphs from a sad and broken piano melody into a jagged and hallucinogenic panic before ending with some of his trademark loops. It’s a good track but it’s far too short to really take hold.
Relapxych-o, who I must admit to having never heard of until this moment, is the alter-ego of Anders Peterson. His music is a deep languorous series of tone and drone. The 17 and a half minutes of his ‘Amplified Transparency Reflection’ is a richly textured and thoroughly absorbing journey.
Under another pseudonym (A.P / spatialXpansion) Petersen is also responsible for the remix of the Rapoon track on the reverse of the LP. His remix is a little too reverential of it’s source material and predominantly allows the broken piano progression to run through his composition though he does take the opportunity to add some droning turmoil to the middle of the piece.
In all the album is a thoroughly enjoyable listen but it is a little innocuous. Rapoon completists will want it for his track but for me it’s Relapxych-o who steal the honours.
Red Needled Sea - Signal Transmission
(Dirty Demos DirtyCDR 014)
3" CDR
I have no info on RNS but a quick look on Myspace tells me that it's the work of a chap called Panos Alexiades who deals in a form of processed guitar-scapes. This single track 17 minute mini-cd offers an intriguing insight into a soundworld of hissing, scraping, clanging drones. It's sedate, you might even say sedentary, and stately in it's pacing but sonically it is just a little one-dimensional until around the 14 minute point when Alexiades mixes things up a little. As is often the case with mini-cds there's not really enough music to make a fully informed decision but what is here is a diverting listen.
Red Needled Sea - Old River Blues
(Triple Bath TRB.005)
CDR
The last time I reviewed Red Needled Sea it was his 3" CDR on Dirty Demos. It was a nice little release but a little too brief to establish a firm opinion. This new release on Triple Bath rectifies that situation more than satisfactorily. Here Panos Alexiades allows his project a much wider scope accentuating his drones with guitar and piano flourishes that means the album as a whole feels less insular and more vibrant than it's predecessor (which was by no means a bad album). The drones are Mirror-esque in places although a far greater reliance on identifiable melodies and instrumentation allows Alexiades to explore his own path to a beautiful destination.
Re:dux tion - A Disordered Imagination
(net release)
MP3
Dark, dark, dark, dark, dark ambient ... with the lights off. This is music that benefits hugely from being played on headphones in a dark room. That's not to say it doesn't work on speakers in the sunshine because it does - I tried, it's my job and my joy - it's just that the ambience conjured here is one of the darkest, bleakest night. It's flickering shadows on a grey wall, it's malformed figures running through the trees, it's a slightly maniacal giggle in the night, it's a breath on your neck in an empty room, it's all these things and more. Music for the darkest of hearts and the brightest of souls. Recommended
The Residents - Petting Zoo
(Euro Ralph CD 026)
CD
For many people The Residents are the epitome of the 'love them or loathe them' equation. They have a tendency to polarise opinions in a way that many other bands would envy. Me, I'm the exception, I'm somewhere in the middle. This is only the third Residents album I've ever heard and of the other two I loved one and not the other. So, time to try again.
Petting Zoo is a compilation of the more 'ear friendly' (their phrase) compositions by this veteran band. Tracks are taken from Demon's Dance, Icky Flix, Meet The Residents, Duck Stab and others. It's intent is to entice new listeners into the fold so, as a, almost, new listener the question is, 'Has it worked?' The answer, 'Not particularly.'
It's not that it's bad as such, some of the songs are really good, but it all sounds so horrible. The production is really, really dated with an abundance of 'midi sound' that made me want to reach for the off button.
I'm glad I heard the album, a couple of the tracks I thoroughly enjoyed (particularly 'The Aging Musician') but I'm still not convinced. Equally though I'm still intrigued enough by the whole exercise to try again in the future.
Rez Epo - Phenomena
(Industrial Culture Records ICR020)
3"CDR
I hear a lot of noise albums each month. Most are so-so at best. Occasionally a really good one comes along but mostly they are much of a muchness. Rez Epo is unfortunately more the former than the latter. It's not bad as such. The intensity of the composition is maintained throughout, there are some real nice sounds in there and it's fast moving enough to keep things interesting and me listening for the 20 minutes runtime. It doesn't however do anything unexpected. It's working to a tried and tested formula, which is fine...it's a good formula....but, it's still a formula and that means it's a little unexciting.
Remember however that i only ever feature albums I like in Wonderful Wooden Reasons and this album is fundamentally likeable. It's just not very original.
Rhizomorph - Xenofilika
(Neurochemical Records NR-001)
CD
For the most part this album is so far out of my usual listening preferences that for a long time I wasn't really sure what to write about chunks of it. At first I wasn't even convinced that I liked it very much at all. I did however keep listening and the more I listened the more I liked. Rhizomorph describes itself as ethno-ambient which inspires in me a cold shudder as visions of middle-class white kids with dreadlocks dancing to Goa style trance-house in the late eighties and early nineties come flooding back. It's a fair description though as even the fractal sleeve art harks back to this era. The music is eastern tinged and very rhythmic (I hear bongos) and opens to an inauspicious start. As it progresses however the ambient elements become more prevalent and the album gets better and better. As it loosens up from its rhythmic straitjacket the moods conjured become more absorbing and the sounds used more interesting. For those of you who like a reference point in their reviews then to my admitedly uneducated ears this reminds me of a less euphoric version of Boredoms spin-off group Aoa or some of the better Mulsimgauze releases. I'm glad I got to hear this.
Rites of Dissonance - Ruins, not Monuments
(Tile Recordings)
CDR
Opening with a slowly swelling static hum Ruins, not Monuments transforms into a metronomic, glowering beast. Like Scorn but with the groove replaced with an unflinchingly relentless beat and some well placed shards of noise Rites of Dissonance have certainly created a beast worthy of the project name. It's industrial heart is surrounded by a mechanical, metallic body that they contort and manipulate into a variety of shapes, all individual and all worthwhile. They're unafraid of altering tempo or ambience and the album is stronger for it.
It's not the type of music that generally floats my boat but I'm always happy when something takes me pleasantly by surprise and this surely did.
RLW - The Pleasure of Burning Down Churches
(Black Rose Recordings BRCD 07-1009)
CD
You could be forgiven if, like me, on first glance of that particularly naff title you were to assume that this album was going to be Scandinavian death metal. You'd also be, like me, wrong. Very , very wrong. Ralf (rlw) Wehowsky is a founder member of P16.D4 and collaborator with Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke and Achim Wollscheid to name but a few. Even with this impressive resume I must confess ignorance to the man's music and upon hearing this album it is a situation I wish to rectify. Rlw mixes razor-like electronic shards with field recordings and spiralling tones. Nebulous sounds emerge seemingly at random yet always feel immaculately positioned. Carefully constructed ambiences are almost carelessly shattered only to be rebuilt with a subtlety that belies any notion of carelessness and the album as a whole is permeated with an otherworldliness that makes thoroughly compulsive listening.
(no website)
RMSonce - Reflections
(Medusa Music TSUCD27)
CD
A few years ago there were two CDs released documenting the collaboration between Autechre and The Hafler Trio. I had high hopes for these CDs as both acts were regular visitors to my seedee player. To cut a long story short they were awful. All the sparkle of Autechre's music was subsumed into morass of the worst of The Hafler Trio’s music. I was expecting fireflies of sound dancing over a morphing scenery of fire and ice. I didn’t get it then but I think I have it now in the shape of ‘Reflections’.
RMSonce is the working name of Barcelona born mathematician, musician and artist Francesc Marti and ‘Reflections’ is his third release. The album sees him playing amidst shoals of sound. His relentlessly unorthodox rhythms twisting through aggressive, yet controlled, droning noise. It is a little too electronic for me to be utterly ecstatic as it’s missing some acoustic warmth but it’s still a dynamic listen.
For me though the absolute high point of the album comes on the final track as Marti tosses various jazzy samples into his glitchy mix to create a wonderful stumbling slice of lunacy.
Vanessa Rossetto - Dogs In English Porcelain
(Music Appreciation mus004)
CDR
American electro-acoustic composer Rossetto has, on this album, created a thoroughly intriguing composition. Using electronics, field recordings, violin, viola, cello and acoustic turntable she has established a complex and turbulent soundworld.
For me it’s her use of field recordings (mostly, I suspect, sourced around her house) that provide the most interesting aspects of the piece and indeed they are often to be found underpinning and underlying the more ‘musical’ sections. These other sections have a welcome tendency towards primitivism that adds nicely to the ‘homemade’ ambience of the track. An effect strengthened by the choice of cover art.
It isn’t the most engaging of music. It seems deliberately cold and obtuse at times but then again so do I so I’m not going to lay too much negativity on there.
What it is though is a constantly morphing sonic diorama of Lynchian everyday life and is well worth a listen.
RST - Axes
(Last Visible Dog LVD114)
CD
New Zealander Andrew Moon has an impressive pedigree of releases on a variety of top notch labels (Ecstatic Peace amongst others), all of which I'd managed to successfully miss out on. So, my first listen came with expectations, all of which were exceeded. 10 tracks of guitar based drone pieces that are exercised with sublime control and finesse. Moon creates a set that can be felt as much as heard as it sets all your molecules vibrating to match the frequencies of it's own earth-levelling hum.
Mathieu Ruhlmann - Fourteen Worms For Victor Hugo
(Gears Of Sand gos46)
CD
Inspired by his readings on the visions of French author Victor Hugo Mathieu Ruhlmann has produced a set of 7 (The Shortest Path From Pebble To God - parts I - VII) compositions using an unlikely assortment of natural (various insects, stones & plants) and artificial sound sources (kettle, tin can, toys, prayer bowl & piano). His constructions are concise and fluid and wonderfully earthy. They grumble, mumble, rustle, rattle and humm and as individual textures reappear across several tracks it retains a sense of cohesion throughout.
It's a little too darkly intense for everyday listening (for me at least) but if that's how you like your music (and who doesn't like a bit of darkness now and again) then this'll sit nicely with you.
Samarkande - Douglas' Basement
(Samarkande Records SAM003)
CD
Samarkande are a Candian duo of Eric Fillion and Sylvain Lamirande who come armed with a battery of electronic instruments that they use to bewildering effect. Mixing a variety of samples, rhythms and melodies with the occasional jarring atonality or good old fashioned synth exploration Samarkande produce a timeless kraut-prog-psyche kinda-thing that could just as easily have been produced in the mid seventies as in the mid noughties (2006 to be precise). What I really like about this album is Fillion & Lamirande's willingness to embrace uncomfortable ambiences alongside their more cosmic excursions. They display an almost filmic approach to their constructions although the speed and dexterity with which each idea is presented and utilised displays a healthy acid-fried sensibility that makes each track on this fine album a joy to hear.
Samarkande & Oblivion Ensemble - Split
(Samarkande Records / Static Signals SS/S-01)
CDR
Gig CD from these two fellow travellers. Canadians (Samarkande) and New Yorkers (Oblivion Ensemble) produce music that makes for strange bedfellows yet, like the best of relationships. make this discrepancy the very basis for their symbiosis. Samarkande are by far the more cosmic of the two, firing synth runs and electronic pulses into the stratosphere in a beautifully cool 1960's space-opera. There's a great sense of melodrama at work here. The music swells and subdues, it hints at a story line, at plot-developments and at climactic finales. For Oblivion Ensemble it is the other direction that is of interested. They are as 'inner-space' as Samarkande are 'outer-space'. OE live in a queasy world of the bizarre, the outlandish and the downright creepy. It's like listening to a recording of a 19th century vaudeville show only slowed down to a snails pace. Love it.
Samarkande - 3 Synapses
(Les Disques Samarkande Records SAM 004)
CD
On this new cd Canadian astral-travellers Samarkande (aka Eric Fillion & Sylvain Lamirande have left the solar system that they explored so thoroughly on their previous releases and have headed for parts unknown. Last week I was listening to the incidental music written and recorded by The Grateful Dead for the Twilight Zone revival and I have to say that if it ever comes back again then in 3 Synapses they have the perfect soundtrack. This is cosmic in the most kosmiche way imaginable. Inherently restless, constantly questing and utterly, bewilderingly out-there, 3 Synapses is a stunning piece of psychedelic glory. Samarkande have taken the ideas, sounds and ambience that made their earlier releases so damn good and have molded them to create something that is simultaneously the sum of it's parts and so very much more. Fabulous and heartily recommended.
Hiroki Sasajima - renz
(Q-Tone qt04)
CD
A few months back I was the fortunate recipient of two rather fabulous albums (by Homework and by Terje Paulsen) from new label Q-Tone. Now they've followed these with a further pair of releases by Sascha Muhr and this one from Sasajima.
Characterised by soft tones and organic field recordings Sasajima has assembled a set of gently immersive soundworlds unified by a deep sense of textural isolationism. Whilst there is a definite unity between the tracks Sasajima has imbued each with enough individuality to retain both a sense of cohesion and one of progression.
There is a slight insubstantiality to Renz which did bug me a little. It has a tendency to fade a little too far into the background and as such you do tend to lose chunks of the music when your attention gets diverted elsewhere but on the whole it's a solidly constructed foray into experimental ambience.
Sci Fi Industries - Drafts and Crafts
(Thisco Thisk49)
CD
Every now and then I get sent something from a genre I'm not particularly a fan of but which I think is worth giving a shout out to. This is one of those. SFI do a sort of techno Coil kinda thing mixing the portentious keyboard lines with 'banging' dance beats.
I really have no frame of reference for this but mostly put me in mind of Coil, KMFDM, Frontline Assembly and Prodigy. If any of that sounds like it'd be your bag then it's definitely worth a listen.
Seconds in Formaldehyde - Inaudible
(Suggestion Records, Verato Project sug050)
CDR
I’ve been hearing this name a lot recently so it’s nice to finally be able to put some sounds to the words. Surprisingly for a Verato Project release this opens with a gentle and soothing set of tones to which added an insistent drone and pre-programmed drums. The overall effect is rather disjointed but I like it. The second track follows the pattern set by the first - synth tones over pre-programmed drums but the third and longest track takes a different route. This time the gentle tone and drone is a accompanied by sparse, almost country and western sounding guitar strums. As the track builds the inherent sense of trepidation grows as the piece becomes more discordant and disharmonious before it all falls away.
Probably my favourite of all the Verato releases but also just a damn fine album in it’s own right.
Seht - Dead Bees ((the (quiet) earth)) suite)
(Pseudo Arcana PACD097)
CD
I’m writing this with no access to a computer or the internet (bloody viruses) and so right of the bat I’m going to admit complete ignorance as to the who or what of Seht. The only name given on the disc is Stephen Clover so I’m going to assume it is he who is Seht.
I really can tell you nothing of that rather unwieldy title but the album consists of two long and pretty distinct tracks. Opener, ‘One Moment’ is a 36 minute drone piece that is beautifully realised but is, perhaps, a little too similar to Nurse With Wound’s Salt Marie Celeste for complete comfort.
Track two, ‘A Dance; four movements’, revolves around a strangely pulsating tone before morphing into a hissing noise drone and then finally slowing, fading away amidst billows of soft tones. This track is the cold to tracks one’s warm. They contrast each other utterly and I think would maybe have benefited from a transitional track in between to make the change less jarring and the album more cohesive.
An enjoyable listen - track one is particularly to my taste - but a little too disjointed to recommend unreservedly so consider it recommended reservedly.
7Seconds - Take It Back Take It On Take It Over
(Side One Dummy)
CD
I came up hardcore and I'll go down hardcore. I don't listen to a lot of the music anymore but the ideology is still firmly embedded in my psyche. It's not something that I could ever loose and it's not something that I would ever want to loose.
I love 7Seconds and while this isn't a particularly new album I've only just got hold of it so I'm giving it a shout. 28 minutes, 17 tracks and only 4 of them clocking in at over 2 minutes (and then only just) gives a concise and energetic view of a band 20 odd years on and still better than anyone else in the genre. Kevin Seconds' song writing, whether for this band or any of his solo or other projects, is clear, incisive and as catchy as a cold. This is the poppest of punk and the punkest of pop and should be in everyone's collection because it's amazing.
Sempervirens - Dirge of the Dying Year
(New Age Dawn / Stellar Auditorium Productions AUD001)
CDR
If, like me, the sight of the words 'new' and 'age' in cflose proximity to each other sends cold shivers down your spine then please rest assured that there are no crystals or tye-dyed wolf t-shirts to be found here, which is a relief. There is one worrisome moment towards the end of track one where things get a little synthy but that goes away quite quickly and doesn't come back, which is also a relief.
For the most part Sempervirens (Estonian artist Margus Mets) conjures quiet abstracted dreamworlds from found sound (both field recorded and sampled) and (I'm assuming) keyboards. Occasionally the mix errs a little too much in favour of one type of sound or another and the flow of the album is interrupted but predominantly Mets allows his composition to trickle along with each aspect washing past the others in a most pleasantly organic way. There's nothing new here that fans of deep and dark soundscaping will get overly excited about but equally what is here is a satisfyingly worthwhile addition to the genre.
Adrian Shenton - Houseworks
(Phonospheric one)
CDR
Cardiff, Wales based composer Adrian Shenton is a familiar entity here in WWR Heights as his previous release 'The Measuring of Moments' was released on my Quiet World label. That release was a set of warm almost Eno-esque ambient swathes, this one is different, very different.
Houseworks, as the name implies, is constructed almost (maybe even entirely) from sounds sourced around Adrian's home. The sounds are harsher and less forgiving which has directed the compositions into areas I've not previously heard him explore. Through the course of it's 7 tracks Houseworks touches on industrial rhythms, post-industrial drone, harsh noise, mesmeric loops, psychedelic swoosh and freeform abstraction, often at the same time. Occasionally there is a little too much reverb clouding the mix (Beating the Bounds) but on the whole Adrian is a skilled composer and producer and has created an album that is unreservedly recommended.
A.M. Shiner - Banarchy
(Stunned #19)
Cass
Static minimalist hissing noise with very little movement and sparse development either within or between tracks. Side two is live and follows much the same path as side one.
Not really my cup of tea this one but I spent an enjoyable couple of listens (in my kitchen because that's where the only cassette player in my house lives) and as an accompaniment to cooking it's a diverting enough experience.
Matt Shoemaker - The Sunken Plethora Consumes All
(Mystery Sea MS53)
CDR
The gentle nature sound opening to this release from American composer Shoemaker belies the turmoil of sound that soon unfolds from the speakers. A brutal watery cascade that eventually settles into the hesitant clank and drone of the second track, The Apneist. Here his field recordings have taken on a very different feel to those of the opener as they clatter, hiss and drone away below sheets of metallic sound. The purring trepidation that opens track 3, ‘Hallucination Pool’, soon evolves with a slow fanfare of vivid and cinematic tones before receding so as to allow the slow build gong and drone of the albums closing title track.
Shoemaker’s is a name I’ve been aware of for a little while now but this is my first opportunity to hear his music and it doesn’t disappoint. He makes music that is both introspective and demonstrative in equal measures which I foresee could become quite an addictive prospect.
Sil Muir - Sil Muir
(Diophantine Discs n=22)
CD
I've been the lucky recipient of several Diophantine releases over the last few months and on the whole they have been a sublime assortment of music and Sil Muir is definitely no exception. The four constituent pieces are a beautifully constructed fever-dream of sound that somehow manage to become the entirety of your consciousness for their duration. My one complaint (and it's a teeny weeny complaint) is that there are four separate tracks which meant that as each track reached it's conclusion the 'real-world' dragged me unwillingly back for the few seconds it took to once more immerse myself in Sil Muir soundpool. A single longform piece would have saved me from the horrors (ok, a slight exaggeration) of mundane reality. Seriously though, this is a sublime set of ambient drone pieces from a label who is fast becoming one of the best places to source music of this form.
Kenji Siratori - Bloody Brain
(R.o.N.F. Records RNF-023)
CDr
A stuttering noise fest from Siratori of sandpaper sonorities used to create two fairly sizeable noise-scapes. Track one is for me the least successful of the two, lacking in depth somewhat. Track 2 though is a complete riot. Sound attacking from every angle in a restless and cacophonous blast of sound. Good fun.
Sleep Sessions - Heatwaves & Snowdrifts
(Industrial Culture Records ICR008)
3"CDR
The Sleep Sessions is Polish musician Dawid A. Kowalski who deals in music that is the antithesis of melody and restraint. Kowalski's soundworld is one of hissing frequencies, scraping sonorities and crashing resonances. This isn't anything that the noise underground hasn't heard before but it is done with aplomb and it put a big smile on my face.
Slow Listener - Enthusiastic Pursuit of the Pointless
(Students of Decay SoD-40)
CDR
Following on from his release on Celebrate Psi-Phenomena comes a new array of gritty analogue squall from this Brighton based noise monger. Subtlety isn't the first word to come to mind when the music starts but that is indeed where this album is at it's best. Hidden amongst the grime waiting to be teased out of hiding through careful listening are slow moving half-melodies that peek and tantalise. Personally I would have liked to hear more made of these aspects but that doesn't detract from an eminently listenable album.
Steven R. Smith - Owl
(Digitalis Recordings ACE007)
CD
Steven R. Smith is a guitarist with, amongst others, the Jewelled Antler collective and here his distinct playing is augmented for the first time by his vocals. Smith is obviously well versed in the alternative underground of the last 20 or so years as his songs and sounds bring to mind people such as Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jnr, Songs Ohia, Palace Brothers and others but without ever sounding derivative or forced. His vocals are sparse and delicately placed and his layers of guitars create a slinky, tumbling river of melodies. At times the musicianship seems barely competent to carry the song at other times it is barely contained within the song, pushing, tearing and stretching the limits of it's confines desperate to explode in several new directions.
This is how I imagined the new Thurston Moore album (Trees Outside The Academy) was going to sound but didn't...this is much better.
Social Junk - Born Into It
(Digitalis Industries ACE018)
CD
Coming from a label that, to my mind at least, is more connected to the looser and distinctly introspective ends of the freaky music spectrum the atonal relentlessness of 'Born Into It' comes as quite a surprise.
US duo Heather Young and Noah Anthony have plundered the Throbbing Gristle toy-box of rhythmic discordance and shamanistic, unfettered vocalising to create something I've not heard done this well for quite some time.
This truer form of industrial music- shorn of the European synth pomposity or American pseudo-metal tedium of recent years is a welcome return. Social Junk, as the name implies, makes a wonderfully earthy and human cacophony that, much like modern culture, borrows liberally from the detritus of it's surroundings. 'Born Into It' alternatively sounds like the most soul-crushingly unpleasant of industrial labours whilst also bringing to mind a joyous spontaneous carnival - oh, and the opening of track 3 sounds like the start of an episode of the original Star Trek.
I liked this album a hell of a lot. It reminded me of how good industrial music used to be and how good it sometimes still is.
Soma & Torturing Nurse - Chilled
(Roil Noise RNOCDR085)
5" fan CDR
A single track pummelling drone-noise collaboration from Japan's Soma and China's Torturing Nurse. 20 minutes of coruscating, grinding beauty. It starts off huge and then stays there, continuously spinning like a rouge planet occasionally dragging various bits of ephemera into it's orbit before the force gets too much and they are hurled away.
Some Asian Female Bodybuilders / Evgeniy Gnoystrelev Project - K.A.B.F. / Hlyst
(Perineum Productions #10)
CD-R
One of the things I like most about Perineum Products is their fondnest for groups who are tackling noise in a slightly left of centre way. For S.A.F.B. (on this seedee at least) that involves the use of some really quite excruciatingly painful sinewaves. Now, I like sinewaves but the problem with them is that they only really become sonically interesting when they're approaching frequencies that only dogs should be able to hear. The first time I listened to this I really enjoyed it. The second time it gave me earache.
Evgeniy Gnoystrelev Project are an altogether more jittery affair producing sandpaper sharp, grinding electronic noise. This all feels like it's rubbing it's dry, rubber gimp suit wearing self against the surface of your eardrums and it's not bothered with any lubricant. It's that good!
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
(Matador OLE-829 )
CD
Since NYC Ghosts and Flowers (who's title track is still my favourite SY tune) back in 2000 I've found myself increasingly drawn more to the solo albums put out by the various Sonic Youth's more than the group efforts. I'd pop back now and again to check on what they were up to but generally it all left me feeling a bit cold (except Murray Street - I fucking hated Murray Street!). It just wasn't there for me anymore. So, 2009 and album 16 has just emerged and the band are back on an 'indie' label (if such a tag really applies to a label like Matador).
I certainly wouldn't say the band sound rejuvenated or re-invigorated or any of that jazz as this is very much a continuation of the direction they've been heading in recently but their recent excursion into their back-catalogue seems to have reconnected them with their essential Sonic Youth-ness. You can feel more than hear the old SY in the insistently rolling riffs, the noise jams which remain, for the most part, all wrapped up in the shorter 'punk' songs of recent years. It's the longer tracks (Antenna & Massage The History) alongside Lee's contributions (especially 'What We Know') that really drew me in but Thurston and Kim are as spikily pop-tastic as ever. Also worth mentioning, at least to my mind, is the arrival into the band of Pavement's Mark Ibold on bass allowing Kim to continue with her new love affair with the guitar. I've always had a real love for this guys playing and it's good to hear him again. Their last venture into adding a new member to the dynamic resulted in the SY album I like least of all but Ibold is a different animal to O'Rourke and I think will continue the pattern he set whilst in his previous band to provide a solid bedrock upon which others can build their castles. And besides can you think of a more perfect pairing than Mark Ibold and Steve Shelley.
I like this album more than I ever expected to like a SY album again and it really is well worth a listen.
srmeixner - The Dictatorship of the Viewer
(fin de siecle media)
CD
Unexpected parcels of CDs through the letterbox are always a treat as even if the music turns out to be not my thing it's still fun to hear. It is especially good when the CDs turn out to be something rather wonderful.
I confess to being a little confused by the authorship of this CD as the cover identifies it as being the work of SR (Stephen) Meixner but the inner panel also credits the music to Adrian Morris but I've gone with the cover info. Housed in a rather understated digi-pack bedecked with strings of numbers leads ones imagination to assume the contents to be a rather dry affair. Indeed, as I first placed the CD in the player I was steeling myself for an attack of Autechre style cold-hearted abstraction. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Whilst the majority of sounds on display here are electronic in nature the treatment they are given and the setting in which they are placed gives them a 'pseudo-organic' quality that is quite bewitching. M&M utilise their electronic tones in such a fluid and 'natural' way that they take on a life-force of their own. Continually expanding and evolving with each subsequent piece of music a new stage in it's evolutionary cycle.
Not all the album works as well as one would hope (tracks 8 and 13 are my noted exceptions as the formers jarring pulses and the latter's relentless synth pattern feel extraneous and outdated) but taken as a whole it is a captivating and rewarding body of work that rewards repeated listens.
S. Stapleton, M. Waldron, S. B. Sigmarsson, J. Haynes, R.K. Faulhaber - The Sleeping Moustache
(Helen Scarsdale Agency)
CD
You have to say that as line-ups go this one is a doozy. Waldron of Irr. App (Ext), Stapleton of Nurse With Wound and Sigmarsson of Stilluppsteypa alone make this an intriguing prospect. Add to this the presence of Jim Haynes (who has been residing on my imaginary 'must listen to' list for far too long) and R.K.Faulhaber, who is, to me at least, a completely unknown prospect (i like completely unknown prospects), makes this a must hear. It would take better ears than mine to be able to separate out individuals from the whole as there's is a unity (not uniformity) of sound and ideas on show here that gives the music an identity of its own instead of merely being the sum of it's constituent parts. It does however sound pretty much exactly as I expected it would and if you're familiar with any of these fellas then you also know what it sounds like. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing as it really is a damn fine album but equally I do like surprises and it would have been nice if they had stretched themselves and included a couple in here.
Stimulus - Untitled Landscapes One
(ICR 63)
CDR
Long standing ensemble Stimulus throw their collective hat into the drone ring with a tumultuous attack on the senses. This is no lullaby drone as Stimulus explore the more abrasive ends of the spectrum without ever allowing the music to degenerate into anything as crude as noise. They utilise a veritable battery of sound-making equipment (cello, accordion, trombone, drums, guitar, organ, effects, radio & field recordings) to create a series of static, minimalist and churning droneworks. This is minimalism at it's finest containing exactly the required amount of detail played with exactly the right amount of control. There is nothing extraneous here just clean and exacting craftsmanship producing mesmerising music.
Stormhat - Addicted to Disaster
(Diophantine Discs n=15)
CD
Stormhat is Danish artist Peter Bach Nicolaisen who has been a busy fella with releases on a variety of labels. His music is, at first sight, a chaotic soundclash of processed field-recordings and occasional instrumentation. Ambient music this is not but neither is it mindless noise, a fact that becomes readily apparent as the initial maelstrom abates and the quality of Nicolaisen's compositional skill is revealed. He uses a variety of mostly nebulous instrumentation, the notable exception being the prayer bowl, used most notably, on track three, but it is the field recordings that are the foundation of the music and it is these that Nicolaisen utilises to the greatest effect.
This isn’t everyday music. This isn’t even every other day music. This is occasional music as you won’t always be in the head space to appreciate the tumult of sound. The occasions when you are in the right space though and this album hits the player it’ll reward you every time.
Subinterior - Mesmerize
(AFE 108lcd)
CDR
Italian musician Andrea Freschi presents a set of manipulated field recordings that hum and drone their way through an innocuous 46 minutes. Mesmerize doesn't exactly live up to it's title and indeed played at, what I would think of as, a conscious volume it's easy to ignore. It does all the things and has all the elements that a dark(ish) drone album is meant to do and have and is diverting enough in it's way but it never truly hooks itself into your psyche. However, played quietly whilst otherwise occupied it integrates itself into that activity with surprising fluidity revealing it's presence only when the album ends and you notice that something is missing. More importantly, that something good is missing.
Sujo - Dora
(Inam Records 23)
CD
I have no information to give you on just who Sujo are (even the envelope it arrived in was enigmatic) but I do know that he / she / it creates a ferocious and intense experience. Not since the last Ghoul Detail album have I heard drones as colossal as these. Dense and foreboding, the music is a monolithic construction of indeterminate origin, it's the aural equivalent of the big black slabs in Kubrick's 2001. Having said that though there is a distinct lightness to the production that allows indistinct and malformed melodies to hover above the core of each track helping to create a depth and vibrancy to the album that is often missing in this genre. Hugely impressive and highly recommended.
Sujo - Pia
(Inam Records 22)
3" CDR
Sujo - Arak
(Inam Records 25)
3" CDR
Two 21 minute pieces on two mini-cds both operating at the more muscular end of the drone spectrum. Sujo produce a nicely abrasive, higher consciousness drone with the ability to grab a hold of your frontal node and tie the complete range of boy scout knots in it. They operate at the more muscular end of the drone spectrum - not so much soaring through space as blasting full-throttle into the ether, faces contorted by the g's and your mind epilleptic-ing from the strobing of the stars as you fly past.
I like these two ep's a lot but as they have arrived together, and are fairly similar, I think it's fair to consider them as one album and recommend you buy both cause to have one without the other would be silly and then you'd only be able to make half the journey.
(inamrecs (AT) yahoo.com)
Sujo - ep
(Inam Records 30)
3” CDR
I know nothing about who Sujo are but their magnificent post-psychedelic noise swirls are always welcome on my seedee player. Over the last while they’ve released a steady stream of music that has delighted these jaded old ears and this one is probably the best of the lot. Three tracks, ‘Clotted Wing’, ‘The Dawn Of Disease’ & ‘Dirt Cover’, of shoegazer-ish post-rock drenched with distortion - how could you possibly resist.
Philip Sulidae - Unknow
Philip Sulidae - The Blacken Solver
(dontcaresulidae)
3"CDR
Two mini sets of cosmic isolationist tone and drone from this Australian musician whose music links lonely tones with a subtly derelict post-industrial melancholy.
Unknow's 3 tracks are an absolute joy. They conjure images of loss and abandonment that leave one feeling distinctly uneasy.
The Blacken Solver contrary to what it's title would lead you to believe is the more open and psychedelic of the two. Here he has sacrificed much of the cloying atmospherics and replaced them with a more expansive and expressive palette that makes wider use of the sounds available to him.
Tracy Lee Summers - My Favourite Color
(More Mars mm04)
CDR
It has to be said that the opening drum line is an inauspicious start to what quickly opens up to reveal an intriguing album. Mixing industrial style rhythms with a decidedly krautrock sensibility and an abundance of noisy drones Summers has created something decidedly different here and I like it very much indeed. The music is free of any genre constraints (the ones listed above are just fleeting impressions) and it dances it's way through a bewildering array of sudden turns and jarring juxtapositions whilst retaining a deep sense of musicality and avoiding any self-indulgent navel-gazing. It doesn't all work, track 9 (Mythe) is a slightly pedestrian rock(ish) workout that could probably have been left off the album but this is a small flaw on a large tapestry. I adore music that confuses me and is impossible to second guess and that is exactly what we have here.
Sunburned Circle - The Blaze Game
(Conspiracy Records CORE054)
CD
American psyche-folksters Sunburned Hand of the Man meet Finnish psyche-rockers Circle in a free flowing, tripped-out, sprawling, crawling, very wiggy and slightly jiggy cut of pan-galactic freak-outs. This 11 man jam band produce a remarkably restrained and enchantingly swirly set of Faustian Krautrock that only looses it's way when the participants give in to their respective avant-tendencies and go briefly atonal and cacophonic. Very recommended.
Synchdub - Twilight Last Glance
CDR
I must admit the name of this project had me guessing as to the contents. The sleeve art doesn't give away much either. Usually you can get a feel for what's coming but this time... Synchdub is dub in the same way Mick Harris's Scorn project is dub; predominantly low and slow beats and drones that arrive in a haze of aromatic combustibles.
What's on offer is a cool collection of down-tempo atmospherics with a nicely sleazy vibe running through it. It's like bad sex done well. Even when it's trying to raise the tone (and spirits) it manages to keep things feeling vaguely low-rent and sordid. TLG is a long way from the sounds that dominate most of my, increasingly rare, free time but over the last couple of weeks it has made numerous visits and I suspect will continue to do so.
Nicholas Szczepanik - Iomcin
(Faraday's Discs FDS001)
CDR
Nicholas Szczepanik is a composer based in Washington DC who has produced a mini-album of gentle noise collage. Using a variety of sound sources, both traditional and non, he has produced a slowly evolving set of drone pieces. With the exclusion of opener, Aphasia (the album's highlight with it's pulsating, shimmering drone), the remaining three tracks are a little on the short side to be fully satisfying (I like my music long) but that's not to detract from the quality of the composition as each track has an individuality and a quality that is to be recommended.
An interesting new artist and an intriguing taste of things to come from this new label.
Nicholas Szczepanik - The Glass Ceiling
(200mg 012)
3"CDR
A deeply introspective drone offering from this New York musician that while suffering somewhat from a slightly muddy sounding mix shows just what a dab hand he is at conjuring up late night, dead city ambiences. His unsettling drones billow and echo as they twist and turn around, over and through each other. Rarely settling for longer than a couple of seconds this is an enervating but strangely invigorating listen that should be sought out and cherished by lovers of the darker side of life.
Nicholas Szczepanik - To The Moon & Back Again
(Ruralfaune 2008)
3" CDR
Another single track mini-cdr from the prolific Mr. Szczepanik and this one's even better than the last (The Glass Ceiling) and that one wasn't half bad. This time the music is built not so much on drone as on pulse and fluctuation. This is a tactic I like very much. I find the slow washes of sound they generate hugely hypnotic especially when they are used as skillfully as they are here. Easily my favourite release by Nicholas and as such massively recommended
Nicholas Szczepanik - Ecru Epithet
(Power Silence ps-six)
CDR
A deliriously oblique album from DC resident Szczepanik. The other releases I've heard by him have tended towards drone based compositions whereas here he has happily discarded all notions of conventional musicality in preference to clashing atonalities, immaculately positioned field recordings, slowly emerging harmonies, machine buzz and delicate clusters of half-formed instrumentation. I like this side of Nicks music a lot (I like the other side too) it shows an artist utterly committed to experimentation but who also has the compositional skills to back it up as the music on this fab seedee avoids degenerating into pointless avant-noodling by rigorously following it's own internal trajectory.
Nicholas Szczepanik - mi otra mitad
(basses frequencies)
3” CDR
This US musician is a familiar name here at WWR (and to you also if you’ve any sense). His musique concret sound works and in particular his drone pieces were one of our best finds of last year. He’s also the fella behind the great little SRA label but this new mini-cdr has been released on French label Basses Frequences who are new to mew.
That this little cd was created as an aid to relaxation should give you an insight into the type of piece Nicholas has created but don’t be thinking about naff ‘new age’ style relaxation music. Nicholas is far too accomplished a musician to produce such turgid nonsense. His version of meditative music has a distinct element of unease laced through the tones. His billowing clouds of sound hover tantalisingly at the periphery of comfortable listening. The higher frequencies he uses can be felt pressing on the ears. It’s rather nice in a wrong sort of way.
Not sure if it’s particularly good for meditation but it’s certainly good for listening.
Nicholas Szczepanik - The Chiasmus
(Basses Frequences & Sentient Recognition Archive BF16 / SRA021)
CD
Joint release from Nicholas' own SRA label and French label Basses Frequences, who released his 'mi otra mitad' ep earlier this year. Over the past little while we've been increasingly impressed by the noises he makes. His recordings alternate between abstracted soundscapades and immersive droneworks and it is this second style that he's chosen to explore further on his first fully-fledged cd release.
The 'mi otra mitad' release I mentioned earlier was a pseudo-meditational construction dedicated to relaxation and the great aural drift. The Chiasmus on the other hand is, for the most part, a soaring blast of psychedelic drones that loom and hover. Each track is a blaze of colour and light that are easy to become wonderfully lost in. The exception to all this fire is the ice of the final track which, while sonically similar, is an altogether more restrained affair that eases the listener back into the mundane comforts of their own minds. It must be said though, the last 5 seconds are pointlessly horrible and kinda spoil things.
A blissful and almost unreservedly recommended listen for all lovers of the cosmic (or kosmiche) drone.
