Ampersand Etcetera

Mike Olson: Incidental

2010-12-16T15:19:00.000+11:00

Another release from Henceforth, further undermining my characterisation of them as a jazz label: let's call it modern eclectic.

For this album by Mike Olson, I want to do something unusual in a music review - put in a spoiler alert. When I finally got round to listening to this, I hadn't read the liner notes or PR material. It struck me as a complex ensemble work - horns, woodwind, drums, guitars, vocals, keyboards, strings - which slithered and moved around. Then I read how it had been made, and it revealed a whole new perspective - what had already impressed now amazed. Because the whole work (45 minutes) is an assemblage. Each musician was recorded separately, playing a score (verbal and graphic gestures), and Olson cut, selected, manipulated, layered and combined these pieces to form the 6 Incidental tracks. The method reminded me of John Wall, but the outcome is quite different. rather than the minimal pieces Wall works with, Olson has taken full units and combined them. It is a seamless construction and the knowledge was a little like the reformatting of the your understanding the whole that comes at the end of a movie like Sixth Sense or The Others.

And while sometimes method trumps outcome, in this case the outcome is well ahead. Olson called the music as Incidental as it reminds him of that form - 'written to reinforce visual activity ... the music sounds like action to me'. You could also say it is composed from incidents which have been brought together.

The feel is of experimental freeform jazz - there are fluttering woodwinds and some squonking brass. But there are also lovely strings - creating a foreceful opening, or orchestrated beautifully in Incidental 3 - driving drum percussion, guitar. And voices - soft, processed, laughing. Some periods remind me of Zappa, others are tonal ambience, while the fragmented origin is also heard in some passages of super-human playing. The shift between active and at times aggressive playing (4 has some NINish elements) and ambient passages is handled dexterously, and the narrative of each track reinforces the filmic element that Notes in the liner (6, for example, starts quietly, builds a rocky fusion middle before easing into an ambient final section). And like a good filmscore separated from its visual home, this is music that makes you take notice and listen - to the skill of both players and composer.

An exciting release.

Little Fyodor - Peace is boring

2010-12-04T18:55:00.000+11:00

The resurrected &etc has, for the last few months, eschewed images. This has mainly been laziness, compendium reviews where there would be too many images, and a desire for a cleaner line. Little Fyodor demands a picture - he is a persona of Dave Lichtenberg, who has been making music for a while (thanks wikipedia), and the look is indicative of the music. This is the cover of Peace is Boring - on the website there are also many photos, and the the impression is of someone doing their best to look wacky/zany/nerdish. Anyway, this album from Public Eyesore (PE111) fits with their history of being a broad church which offers an outlet for 'outsider' art (not sure if Fyodor is, or is role playing, the outsider status)

Anyway, the music's the thing...

The album opens with a rewriting of Both sides now - Death sides now which is taken into dark places with subtle orchestration. The voice is strange - a strangled, twisted things that jumps around: perhaps Weird Al taken to another level? From here the voice is matched by the music, a hooky driving punkish rock drive, over which Fyodor's singing runs amok. The titles of songs suggests the lyrical direction: All my clothes are uncomfortable, Everybody's sick (which lists all the people/things that are sick), Cruising (bummer scene) (again with a darker tone to the music, but without obvious lyrical relationship to the title), Death wish (antiwar).

On a number of songs he is joined by Babushka (who also plays keyboards) - a cover of Open up your heart (and let the sunshine in), The god gripe song (which segues from Wonderful world to a list of things god's got wrong, such as why did you make the mosquito) and the canonical Boots. First time I listened I thought that the strangled female vocals was another Fyodor personality - but there are pictures of the Babushka on the web site and on the inner cover: but it still sounds like him to me.

The musicianship on the album is excellent - there are touches of synth and processing (in the closing sing-a-long, for example), and the band rocks out some very nice pop/rock. The songs have great hooks and it is quite a catchy album - all you have to do is accept the extreme melodramatic, strained vocals. Which can be worth it as it is really a fun album.

Scuff Mud: Eckhard Gerdes & Shelf Life

2010-11-30T14:31:00.004+11:00

OK - the last of the current Shelf Life/Bryan Day related releases. This one is out through JEF (the Journal of Experimental Fiction, edition 36) which is curated by Gerdes, a writer of a number of novels. On the album Gerdes reads 15 pieces to a Shelf Life background (who are Bryan Day, Joseph Jaros, Alex Boardman, Andrew Perdue, Jay Schleidt on this outing).

I haven't read any of Gerdes writing, but the selection here is excellent for this medium. There is variety between pieces which depend on rhythms and rhymes, extended stories and dislocating word play through substitution. For example, z. buzz is full of word mastications, woodwork uses construction terms in a salacious double entendre, uh hunh uses a blues tick at the line ends, blues for osiris is a rhymed retelling of the Egyptian myth. Lists and repetition occur, rhymes can be almost McGonagallian (a compliment). His voice is mellow and rounded, carrying the material with gravitas, particularly when at its most amusing silliest. Even if you don't listen to the words the timbre and cadences are musical. And the material is memorable - when I replayed it after some time when I got to the story new president I was sure I had read it somewhere. This is also the longest track (7 minutes) of a short (45 minute) 15 tracker. There is even a seeming structure to the set, from the opening description of a desert image in a couple of starts to the closing surreal dream in adam among the elephants in the Sonoran desert.

As to the music, this is my favourite Shelf Life to date - on a number of scores. The instrument range is the broadest - including flute, voice, guitar, twanging things, electronics, percussion, samples, trombone and probably more. And the constraint of short pieces (I am not sure if these were specifically recorded or are excerpts from longer works) provides a perfect platform for appreciating the SL-sound. The setting on new president is relatively restrained allowing the story to flow, while snark is noisy which suits the l=a=n=g=u=a=g=e abstraction of the poem. At times the music develops with the words: wouldn't you know builds from shimmering electronics into jittery guitar as what was a seeming narrative goes into abstraction and then a sequence of past tense extrapolations (band is the past tense of bane); or the growth of industrial tones around the nonsense of the title track. A few times (most obviously in woodwork, but also wouldn't you know) there are voice samples which, through their restraint, enhance the mood.

I am not a great one for spoken-word albums, but the words and music are equals here - and that indeed the music provides a way into the words which would be less accessible on the page - providing a very satisfying audio experience.

Roden iTunes

2010-11-23T14:42:00.000+11:00

Idly typed Roden into the iTunes search box the other week, and was surprised to find that some items came up: for some reason I hadn't put the two together in my mind. (Maybe he'll start ping!ing soon :))

A coupleof full albums:

Airforms: a 56 minute drifting piece with layers of ringing tones, soft crackles and vinylish jumps, humming that drift in and around the soundspace. Designed for an installation, it is like the accompaniment for a satellite as it slides off into space, for Major Tom after the song ends, playing into the eternity of darkness between the stars. This is one of the recordings where Roden asks us to listen at a low volume level to underscore that these were works designed to accompany an environment, and that your current environment would do just fine (I have just listened again on a walk with my dog through some of our country roads); and that the lack of narrative structure is part of the aesthetic aims of the piece. Play it loud, soft; dip in, out - understated beauty. (This is out of print so good to see here).

With Kahn, Roden took up one of the Brombron residences at Extrapool to create a collaborative disk (shimmer/flicker/waver/quiver). A recycled review - This is an album of contrasts: the first track has a hissy drone, bubbling, washes over which high sines and soft echoes ply, gradually increasing density before dropping to modulating white noise and tones with deep sounds within. Then the second has an intense rising/falling ringing sweeping from ear to ear, percussive bass taps and morse signals & ringling in, but it is the tone which dominates before dropping out for some percussion in the last minute. Track three reminded me of Harold Budd's broody desert pieces, low rumbling, clicks, hollow bells, soft whispering dust extended over some time. Then followed by another more intrusive piece, hissing and resonant gongs, chopped, phased and echoed, bleeps and scapes in, burring. Next, very minimal white vent noise, pulsing, squeaky tones in, developing a beat, swirling. Then finally a soft burring ring, high tone -a forest at night - distant tones, static. A collaboration that explores new and interesting (intense) ground.

And the Mem1 compilation from a few blogs ago, and then some other bits and pieces:

Cosmic Debris Vol2 is part of a series of split disks between My Cat Is An Alien and whoever. Roden offers 2 tracks: E-bows and Rainbows pairs skittery swirling radio signals with e-bow drone tones that pulse and grow, with a vibrato that develops over time. The guitar is also plucked, and the slow sequence of notes is like a frozen melody. Thirteen minutes of evolving Roden. My dog is a yufo reveals another new side - a gentle, picked melodic guitar over a sample of 'It's working' in a scratchy distant voice. The voice disintegrates away to a new solo, combining strums and picking, with white noise hisses of a sample. The guitar simplifies and the sample returns. The track ends, then returns with hissy quiet tune which could be thumb piano or guitar.

Sleppet is a fairly expensive compilation of soundworks which is best described in Mrac Behrens album of the same name Sleppet originated from a sound art project in 2007, when six renowned artists — Natasha Barrett, Bjarne Kvinnsland, Steve Roden, Chris Watson, Jana Winderen and Marc Behrens — recorded sounds on a 10-day trip through the Norwegian Westlandet region and used the nature experience for a couple of sound installations and music pieces. 9 of the tracks are available individually, so I bought Three Landscapes, Pt. II (A Waterfall for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson), a nine minute work. The natural origin is foregrounded with a distant buzzing (the waterfall?), clattering and scrapes, some quite watery. Into this an organ drone/tone intrudes, filling the middle section, then fading in the last minute leaving the nature samples. Some of the most upfront natural sounds in one of his works.

From what I can tell, Mika Sasaki creates short melodies using a mobile phone's 'musical' possibilities and Memories of Sasaki San contains some of these and remixes by a range of names. My Sea / Mice See is Roden's offering - a 3 minute gem. White noise cycles from ear to ear, chimes ring over it (the phone tones), a deep throb vibrates through, then halfway though his voice in chopped up phonemes singing and whispering (mice might be in there). A strange menacing air here.

These tracks see Roden stretching out, trying new developments and are fascinating addition to the oeuvre.

jeffrey roden: bridge to the other place

2010-11-21T17:47:00.003+11:00

I have reviewed some of Jeffrey Roden's previous works - here on the blog. He plays bass guitar, solo.

In the backlog pile is (was, now) his Bridge to the other place, a set of 25 tracks averaging just over 2 minutes each. In the liner text he says he wanted to reduce (his) own work to the elemental and essential text. The result is a simply beautiful work - with both meanings of simple. The work is meditative, ambient inducing a contemplative mood in the auditor, suggested by track titles such as vigil, steps in deliberation, the voice that carries, oh god, acquiesence and more.

The slow travel of the notes recorded live, are like musical steps taken by a pilgrim, which occasionally break into a short dance, or move in unexpected directions, not detracting from the objective but rather adding depth and light to the journey. The album is recorded to allow the resonance of the notes and guitar to glow, and suggests that the decay was one aspect feeding into the composition.

You can sample a couple of tracks at Big Tree Music, and purchase the album. I recommend having a listen because this is a gorgeous album: and like the trend in slow food and living, we should find time for slow music that grows and develops carefully and thought(provoking)ful(ly).

Preslav Literary School - 4 releases

2010-11-17T11:18:00.001+11:00

A couple of years ago I looked at 3 of Preslav Literary School's (Adam Thomas) releases (here) and now 4 more. A mix of downloads and a vinyl release.

Aura (amp046): Originally recorded for a dance performance it includes "a piano piece..., the words of Carlos Fuentes, odd environmental recordings, elements taken from decaying magnetic tape, and various other forgotten and untitled audio materials". The results is a delightful 3 act piece with an epilogue. The first (and third) partfeature the piano piece, possibly slowed and manipulated, loops from Fuentes (who has a high, almost feminine voice) and bursts of crackles which could be applause. The central section has metallic drones and minimal drones, with a developing percussive loop. The voice part returns with the piano before the scraping and twangclatter, tone fade out. Slightly melancholic, but more gentle relaxed, a lovely composition.

Beautiful was the time: is a layering of fragments from over 100 cassette tapes. John the Exarch starts with a noisy crackle then settles down to backward instruments and voices, a soft talking in the background, and seems to slowly wind down, becoming a drifting pulse. Crackling again, and a fast pulse, opens Ohrid must die - building with birds whistles, voices and breakfast crackling, shifting to pulsing layers of varying speeds, a dog barks, music loops within and clattering pans and voices intrude towards the end. Funereal music opens Cyrillic, singing voices and other music drifts around, and a more gentle mood, reminiscent of Aura, envelops. Voices chattering at the end dispel the mood and close the album, with a satisfying reflection of the sampled origin. These pieces contain a strong narrative and subtle use of the original material, rather than being simple cutandpastes.

In Fractals: is a more straightforward composition. There are three minimalist drone pieces: as the name suggests, there are subtle changes throughout which you don't notice until you realise the balance or beat has changed - plus there are some strategic changes. The title track has a drone, a pulsing white noise and a subtle minimal melody; Sierpinski Triangle starts with a distantsounding hurdygurdy tone (or orchestral sample or ...), phasing in and out, but becoming clearer, a tuvan-drone, all rising as a martial beat seems to develop, but sounding like an underwater masterpiece. And finally Last One Standing is a mellow ceremonial layering of drones and pulses that weave in and out, some backwards shimmery and ringing parts, and like the others slowly build/changes/develops. Classical minimal drone works.

Echolalia: this is the concert result of a tapeloop workshop held late last year on how to make and play cassette tape loops. 11 people were involved and the result reflects this diverse 'band' - each side consists of a series of moments where different loops take a solo, supported by background work, running for about 3 minutes before segueing into the next piece. The tapes range from snatches/slices of voices, songs, instruments, percussions, tones, backwards versions of all the previous; and while there may be 11 players, there seem to be about 4 or 5 layers maximum. A surprising and satisfying aspect is that it was mixed and mastered as it was played live, with no extra overdubs, by the cult Berlin dubstep producer Lord Cry Cry (Blunt Force Trauma): the two sides work so well, flowing seamlessly while maintaining a mood, which is very impressive - you might have expected a mess! And there is a difference between the two sides - Side B seems to have more vocal and musical elements to me - and they each end on a single sample: A on some ethnic-inflected rock and B on a worrying how-to-hunt-elk tape.

This is a fascinating body of work - the thought of tapeloops can sometimes be daunting, but PLS whether solo or with his collaborators on Echolalia, manage the layering editing and selection to produce sounds which are intriguing, seductive and musical. In addition, you don't have to buy before you try - all can be previewed/streamed as linked or on soundcloud, and all but Echolalia are available as free/paywhatyouthink downloads. A very generous gesture - I must admit to having reviewers soft-versions, but the real life releases look like they would be well worth getting.

(now, I have to get preslav sprout out of my mind)

Paul Kelly A-Z and more apps

2010-11-16T11:18:00.006+11:00

OK - a short geeky iPhone post while the music matures - there's a few reviews on the boil - promise.

Some years ago &etc readers were alerted to the fact that Paul Kelly, Australian singer/songwriter, was giving away an alphabet of live songs monthly (ie the first month's songs all had titles beginning with A, then B etc) from a stripped-down concert series. Not a fan, but I collected them to get to know the music - slightly older than him, his music has been around the airwaves (jj to jjj) and on Countdown etc. Well now the set has been released as a box of CDs The A to Z recordings (somewhat different to the downloads, there are variations between the 2 sets, and the management company tell me that songs are different versions or remastered). Also there is a book How To Make Gravy - for each song a short piece, which might be about the song, could be a memoir or just about music, or all of the above. And there is also an App: you get the text of the book, which is as expected, but also the program can survey your iTunes library and select versions of the song you are reading about and you can play them at the same time (there are also some chapters available as readings by Kelly, and you get the first six songs free). A nice integration of the formats. The music is great, the writing is engrossing and the flexibility is nice (the iPhone is a hell of a lot easier to carry round than the book!) As I said, I wasn't a Kelly fan, but the downloads have brought me to the book & I'll be adding some full group albums to my collection too as he is a fabulous wordsmith as well as being a great Aussie singer/musician.

Other Apps I use regularly

Music

The three from Brian Eno's Opal group: Bloom, Air and Trope - great as either ambient background or 'instruments' to play with, and they have a pleasant generative vision as well. Each has a different sound palette.

FutureAcoustic: I am not sure about the noise-cancelling impact of these, but FutureSound and SoundCurtain are more nice ambient aleatoric pieces. The first uses soundworks created by various artists (including Scanner) to create soundworlds, the second is more related to natural ambient sounds. (Scanner's Whisper is available as a free 'single')

Noises

I don't make music but sometimes amuse myself by making noises or playing musical instruments

Balls and Soundrop- two programs that use gravity to knock balls against walls to make sounds, Balls is more complex

Bebot - a touch pad synth that takes up to four fingers and has some great presets - theremin, powerPWM, looper, the eponymous Bebot (sounds like a robot) and more and programable

Ellatron - there are cut down versions of this but go for the full one. Has mellotron samples so you can do King Crimson and more

Beatwave - one of many versions of the sweeping-across-a-field-of-dots synths, this one has four layers plus a randomiser so can become another aleatoric ambient maker

Words

MyFry - Stephen Fry's latest memoir, bought for the iPhone mainly because of the cool interface (plus I wanted to read it anyway)

Instapaper - fantastic for getting those interesting on-line articles which you don't have time to read onto a format where yo can read them at your leisure. Have a website with suggested articles, and also try longform.org for more (you don't need the app to use the sites to find articles of course)

McSweeney's - a diversion. Everyday you get a selection of short pieces of humourous writing, but also some more serious columns (this is free). And then each week a longer piece such as an interview, short story, novel extract, longer piece. These can have related images (such as the article on Kristina in Copenhagen) or be songs, short films or spoken text. You could say aleatoric downloads.

I won't bore you with my few games or news apps (though I suggest getting the Guardian before they go subscription)

2 by shelf life

2010-10-30T22:06:00.000+11:00

Shelf Life, reviewed at various times by ampersand, is a protean improv group with Bryan Day and Joseph Jaros as something of a core (on one of the discs here) but expanding to 4: Luke Polipnick and Anderson Reinkordt (on t'other): Bryan is the constant who has been providing the material to me. Both discs were recorded in Lincoln, Nebraska: presumably live, though at times the density suggests production. Instruments are not named but feature guitars and percussion, and from the photos on Ember's blog it is obvious that Bryan is constructing instruments (like Boe's laptops) of things to strike, pluck and tap.

Courtesy is released by psychedelic oscillator - and there are three tracks: morning, afternoon and evening parlance. The first scrapes and clatters, an occasional plucked note and some feedback; a bit of drums, patters and squirls, becoming more dense before the end. The afternoon track has more space and is more spacey - with echoing processed guitar, voices in there, clattering and percussive, electronic swirls and tones: guitary guitar, throbs and a more gentle release. These two tracks are over 20 minutes each, while the final one is about 8 minutes. It skitters and clatters with woody percussion, quite a percussive track as it bangs and clatters, gongs and drums, cycling through before a gong announces the end.

There are two tracks on Protection (released by the counter submarine: thecountersubmarine@gmail.com) Pink A and B which are divided into sections. You can hear subtle changes at the index points. This is an ambient noise work: when you turn it back on after a break you realise the volume and density. It is in a constant flux between chaos and control, noise and focussed sound. Tones and thrums appear throughout, clattering and percussion, bells and hissing, guitars plucked and scraped. In Pink A there is a hint of a suggestion of voices that comes and goes - is it the brain picking out voices from uncertainty? It is deep in the mix and appears fading up and down. With Pink B it is more obvious that the samples or radio playing are part of the work as they are much closer to the surface and more consistent (there is some Conet in there too). Both parts move nicely between the densest attack into periods of quieter delivery, becoming ambient at times (both quieter ambient but also the dense ringing shimmering tonality that approaches that state from the other end).

Ok, both albums are undescribable in their details, but are intense working within the structure of the two group forms. I like the more open space of Courtesy, but then the dense attack of Protection is exciting. And then, to confirm my listening, i played them again today and it was the other way round and the electronics of Protection grabbed me!

Probably both are too intense to necessarily sit and listen all though, but they are well worth listening to, or as a busy ambience. I have formed the construction not(un)es to characterise them, for what it's worth!

We can be heroes - from the sublime to the ridiculous

2010-10-20T21:27:00.007+11:00

Releases from three of my musical heroes bring to my comments on the commodification of music.

For someone born in 1955 in the UK, the Beatles were a formative musical force. I preferred them to the Stones, my first single was Love me do/ps I love you; early albums were christmas presents. I remember other music from the time (yeah yeah) but they were indeed the titans. I didn't have a favourite but John was just there in the seventies and I can remember where I was when I heard he was dead. I didn't have all the albums - a tape of sometime in NYC was as much of that as I wanted! Ono's strategy of birthday remasters/rereleases seem somewhat mercenary to me, but meet the fans needs I suppose (though the citroen episode was out of order to my mind). Anyway, I was trolling bigpond music and found the box set of 11 disks for $16. Snapped it up: a week later it was properly priced at $180. I love the music (even NYC) but would never pay that much. Power to the people!

Then I heard that Brian Eno has a new album coming out (previews all over the web, such as here). A true musical hero, who together with Fripp and Bowie re/shaped my adult musical landscape. And tempting me is a $100 box which has the album (plus 4 additional tracks) on cd and vinyl plus a print in a lovely box (there is a 250 super-collectors edition). And what surprises and disturbs me is that I am thinking about it.

It's not that I am against music-objects: on my wall are the prints that came with Before and After Science (free with the LP) and some posters for Fripp-soundscapes signed. Among my prized possesions are a Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues original edition (once again, many thanks Terry). But I think even more special are the truly limited editions - my collection of Taming Power cassettes and vinyl; Steve Roden limited edition cds sent to me by him; disks that people have burned for me (IDX1274 for example); everything from Dorobo because I knew Darrin; my copies of The Humument (OK, books - include my complete set of Scripsi here too, or some art catalogues); and yes, those Eno prints. Then there are the albums that have personal connections - where i got them, who gave them to me (including free through reviewing such as eM, Soundician, Kucharz, Accretions etc), others 'cause I like the look of them (box sets, or special releases). And then, heavens to betsy, ones where I like the music!

And when it comes down to the line, the music is the thing.

So it is where I have some personal investment that the value is there - rather than buying something which has been produced primarily to create an objet which is a draw for investors. I'd get the print framed, but would never play the vinyl, and OK 4 extra tracks - no I don't think so. I understand the $$ imperative as the download culture grows, but it disturbs me. And if I did have money, actual objet d'art would be my desire: I would love to own a Roden or a page of the Humument or something by an artist I love.

I think this has been my way of talking myself out of thinking of buying it! Confused and confusing - my mind processes, writing out loud.

To end, Bowie has released the anniversary Station to Station - remastered and with a double live album from the time that has apparently been widely bootlegged. Only a small price premium, but an addition which is good for the music lover and collector.

(UPDATE: found out the price is about twice normal, plus there is a deluxe version with vinyl, surround sound mix, badges etc etc for $166..ah well

update 2: from the Pitchfork review my first thought was whether the relentless fetishization of the physical product does the content within any favors. )

(ps - if there is anyone from Warp reading this, I can send you my address for a review copy....

Mem1 +1

2010-10-15T21:32:00.006+11:00

Mem1 is Mark Cetilia on electronics and Laura Cetilia on cello and electronics (home site here with free downloads). They have an album on Interval which came to me by way of Steve Roden - it is a series of collaborations, one of which is with him.

Overall the album plays with variations of scritchy electronics/processing and cello (plucked, bowed, scratched) and also some dronetones from the instrument, which is also evident from the material on the website. The Cetilia's create delicate and intriguing soundscapes that are attractive and engaging in their own right. Each of the tracks on the album develops from this general mood into distinct pieces but it is the ones which moved in unexpected directions which really caught my attention: but I'll mention each to give you some idea of the collaborators.

Jan Jelinek has some deep long tones which form the bed for shimmering cello: the piece with Ido Govrin is beautiful as delicate long tones are introduced over more processing and microloops. The addition of some field recordings by AreaC is subtly moving.

There is a dark intensity to the brooding track with RS-232, with deep throbbing electronics. Frank Bretschneider adds beats and percussive effects to a ringing exciting piece. Edgy and then bubbly, Kadet Kuhne; long tones under clattery, scraping with Jen Boyd: neither of these two display a distinct personality.

Jeremy Drake has bird like calls in a mysterious work that is threatening and builds quite noisily. And finally a work by Roden which adds a tentative tone to the crackling scrape, a buzz which is quite moanlike and some percussive plucking: and then about half way through a pounding chanting sample which is looped and the whole thing is speeding before easing to a crackling and then a voice-loop that is like a vinyl run off: despite my bias, this struck me as the most interesting track.

When I first got this album I didn't really pay it much attention - but listening through it a few times now I am impressed and attracted to its subtlety and beauty. It is not a disk that throws itself in your face but one which offers a lot of pleasure and depth with repeat listening.

Dither: Dither

2010-10-11T10:31:00.004+11:00

"Dither is an electric guitar quartet based in New York City" says the cover of their selftitled album from Henceforth. Basically jazz label (well - to my mind jazz, which includes lots of improv stuff) so you expect a jazzy improv quartety stuff.

Tongue of thorns opens with some ambient drones then bursts into a noise-rock drone with layering of bowed guitar, string play and drumming which I assume is knocking on the body, then in the last 2 minutes one guitar screams then shifts into sliding. This is not what you expected. Have a look at the cover - these are pieces written for quartet, only one by one of the members. So we are looking at a 'classical' quartet, modern and varied. Which the rest of the album demonstrates.

Vectors shifts between twangy loose picking, where different guitars (based on the sound placement in the auditory field - this is a lovely produced album) create a melody alternate with strumming, the volume increases and decreases and there is a shift between stasis and excited variation. The in-house composition Pantagruel is closer to my expectations and reminded me of Guitar Craft albums in the picking/tuning, but there a interruptions of feedback swizzing, some frippery sounds, atonal but melodic.

There are four parts to Cross-sections: Entropion has picking moving melodies, rapid soft cycles that emphasise the players skills and provide solo opportunities; a more effects playing with crackling, pops, feedback, bending tones and drones in Aphonia; some gorgeous playing, frippertronic inserts and shifting density in Prolix and a simple buzzing and picked playing in Venial.

A rocking, noisey wall of sound eases to dense but identifiable notes before rebuilding in the exciting closer exPAT.

A stunning album - literally and figuratively. It completely avoided my expectations and offers a stunning insight into what can be done in a 'classical' quartet format with modern instruments. Another adjective - thrilling.

Ember Schrag

2010-09-28T17:48:00.009+10:00

Among the backlog I am clearing are a fair few releases from Brian Day (Public Eyesore, Eh?, shelf life). Ember Schrag is a singer songwriter from Nebraska and the Day connection is that: he designed her first 'official album' A Cruel Cruel Woman (on Lone Prarie Records); she now has an EP on Eh?; he has curated some shows at her Clawfoot House in Lincoln; and he is on a tour with her (nice blog with lots of pics here).

In common with most of the stuff I get from him, this is unpredictable - in this case a beautiful, intense, enjoyable album of songs.

Ember (vocals, guitar, glockenspiel) is supported by Gunter Voelker throughout on lead guitar, bass, drums and background vocals, and there is piano and cello on a couple of other tracks.

The sound is what I will call a type of country - acoustic guitar driven with the voice given primacy. Upbeat, opener Cupid's Bloom is a catchy toetapper, followed by a slower Two Suns. As you listen the poetry and word play of the lyrics shines, and the guitar solos are unobtrusively skillful. The cello on Nobody Can Tell adds its warm tone to sweet sad song (I feel like there's an ocean between us/ You're like a homeland for me, I'm like a refugee).

More cello and melancholy on Dark Lion Lover includes some variation in the vocal work (sort of yodeling but not) and quiet effects at the end - an interesting twist. There is a biblical theme to the strong narrative of The Philistine, and here I first noticed the subtle background vocals which add depth to the chorus - nicely understated. And again in the aptly named Sad, Sad Song with cello and piano and a sweet vocal solo.

In this short album (29 minutes - but see previous post) full of highlights, my favourite track is Iowa. It has minimal, concrete and abstracted lyrics that have a powerful mystery (I could sing about addiction/ I could sing about destructive love/ or I could sing about a red-winged blackbird in Iowa), it is the longest track (4'38"), has a rocking instrumental workout, and reminded me of Neil Young. The Course of Love has a good swing to it before another highlight - the spiritual inflected Carry Me Away driven by strong instrumentation and a hypnotic repetition of the carry-me link (Carry me away on the long soft, river/ carry me far, carry me safe).

The album closes with the title track, and moves away from the listed instrumentation with a skiffleboard and fiddle to end on a fittingly joyous climax

My touchstones for this is people such as Sarah Blasco, Missy Higgins, Dido and Norah Jones even - women who sing personal songs in a distinct voice. Ember reminds me of them but also has her own sound and approach. The 10 songs pass too quickly but hook into the mind. I can hear no reason here why this album or a successor shouldn't be a 'hit' in the mainstream (if that's what they want) and I wish them the best of luck.

Taming Power

2010-09-27T17:00:00.007+10:00

Over the last few years I have trumpeted the focussed talent and output of Askild Haugland, who is Taming Power, and whose recordings have been released in cassette and now vinyl through Early Morning Records. Facing the realities of economics and his commitment to a less common medium, Askild has settled on an annual release cycle.

His most recent offering Twenty-One Pieces (Early Morning Records 2x12 018) is that behemoth from the vinyl age, a double album. I remember when the 80minutes of a double album were used mainly for live releases, best ofs or the occasional (often reviewed as bloated) studio album. The reality of the now is evidenced by the rerelease of the excess of the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street - seen as sprawling then but now fitting onto a single cd, offering a length that recording artist now can, and often are expected to, fill (Robert Palmer's Clues was about 36 minutes and would probably be denounced as mean - there's 80 minutes available, fill it up). Someone said 'more is less' (it is disputed but Mies Van de Rohe gets the main credit).

So what is Askild offering? In some ways it is like a best of/sampler collection and is a great overview of his methods and musics. He has balanced the four sides nicely in terms of their content (a guitar side, gong side,) and balance between dense and simple pieces.

But first the aesthetics. The overall look of the EMR is maintained - like most of the albums the cover is primarily black with a framed photo on the front (this release is mountains) while the back has a smaller photo and the frame includes the detailed details of the instruments used and the recording dates of the tracks (the reduced production rate has allowed Askild to get the covers printed rather than hand assembling). Those familiar with Taming Power from the recordings or these reviews will know he uses tapes and cassettes to delay/overdub in simple recordings, but also to layer and manipulate previous solos. So some tracks have a single date and take number, while others have multiple and nested dates and takes as material is re-produced. The most dense one is the third track on side C which has 21 dates associated with it! On these albums we have recordings from 98 to 09. I also noticed under the copyright statement it says 'the voices of time' - looking back at past recording the apothegm started with 16 (light passes undetected through the darkness) and continued into 17 (silence reigns unnoticed within turmoil).

Side A is the most varied instrumentally, and also the simplest. The first piece is casiotone notes, looped and layered to form chords. The second is a long guitar work, moving between note bending, percussion, tonal melodies and long plucked notes - a shifting and engrossing solo. Then a field recording that is a stuttering cloud (wind?)with sounds within, before another short simple guitar piece ends the side. In the guitar and casiotone pieces notes are generally clear and simple, sometimes bent, sometimes melodic and others combining more atonally, and the pace is stately, relaxed.

That track is reflected in the guitar opener to side B - the drone side - which this time includes some tape work to create backwards sounds. Three multilayered pieces using drilbu, dingsha and singing bowl produce exciting rumbling layered almost-electro, some dense others simpler, but all rolling and building in a manner seen in the last few albums that introduced these instruments (and there is some choral voice work though I am not sure about the handsaw). A guitar and casio piece is echoed looping and pulsey, before a short percussive stutter guitar piece which gradually increases in speed before a short solo at the end to fade out the side.

Side C is the guitar side: opening with 2 shorter pieces, simple and the second more atonal, before a long slow building complex work which drones and builds, ringing and hissing, transmuting under your ears, dragging them in. Two more shorter works close the side - the first a looped echoey voice and guitar and then a sitar like piece.

The final side mixes it up again. Short works for guitar and then casiotone open the side, then two more dense pieces for the singing bowls: the first seems voicelike while the second more an organ. And again, balance and placement throughout the album to give variation and narrative: a simple guitar solo with some freeform strings and then a simple casiotone closer.

If you haven't heard any Taming Power, this would be a good place to start as it covers the moods and methods of the man. It isn't a new direction but more of a contemplation of EMR17 celebrated as 10 years of EMR and 20 years of Taming Power - and the fan will know what they are getting and will enjoy this varied edition to the oeuvre.

Contact Askild at earlymrecords@yahoo. No he doesn't have a website, myspace page or any of that stuff - this is old school self release vinyl.

(and so to my confession - I have ripped my Taming Power cassettes and vinyl so that I can play the pieces in all manner of venues, not limited by having a record or cassette player. sorry Askild: but I love the artifacts and the music)

Kannenberg's 4'33" variations

2010-09-15T12:29:00.003+10:00

Audio Tour: The 4'33" Museum

I have never seen/heard a performance of John Cage's 4'33" but have read about it. My understanding is that it involves a performance - the artist/s entering and undertaking the normal activities, sitting, lifting the piano lid etc - but that not creating music in the three parts of the piece, it is getting the audience to focus on the natural and unnatural sounds that fill a concert venue which is where the work is most likely to be performed.

The latest release from Stasisfield is by John Kannenberg (the label boss) and consists of 11 versions of the piece he has been 'performing' (his inverted commas) since 2005. His interpretation is to record the eponymous time in a museum or art gallery, but without the element of performance or having those present as the audience (as far as I can tell). We are the auditors hearing the variations of the different spaces - the Rock and Roll hall of Fame is a much louder place than the Rijksmuseum, the servers in Alexandria hum softly accompanied by soft voices, most are not surprisingly subdued.

A surprise is how quickly the time passes and how the venues drift into each other - not many have the Hall of Fames defining rock soundtrack, though voices and discussions vary from place to place. The selected site within the site for the performance would have a significant impact: a recording in the foyer, giftshop or cafe would be different to one in a gallery space. The piece becomes layered as you listen in your own environment - whether natural or with human additions.

And as Kannenberg suggests, the piece also comments on the relationship between gallery/museum and performance spaces.

But in the end what remains is a series of unedited audio snapshots that offer a glimpse of place and the pleasure that listening in provides.

Steve Roden Recent

2010-09-01T16:40:00.003+10:00

Yes, I am still around! Energy rising I am going to post - will it continue?

And where better to re-start that with Steve Roden. I am an unashamed, unabashed fan whose main regret in life is living too far away to see his shows or installations or installation-shows or concerts. I follow on his official site and the airform archives. At the moment he is treating us to some introspective retrospection on airform as we lead up to two spectacular shows (a retrospective and a new installation, hanging). Go there when you've finished here - I won't be long.

Last year - yes, sorry Steve - he sent me a host of cds and vinyl to complete my adored collection of Roden-works (many reviewed here). Some are out of print or sold out, so I won't go into details of them all. Though I would suggest you seek out the In Be Tween Noise cds (they are probably hideously expensive on eBay) as they are proto-types of his later works and also alleys he hasn't gone further down.

But to mention/describe some recent ones that I hope are available still relatively painlessly

ecstasy showered its petals with the full peal of its bells: label: ferns recordings: 3" cd
A 21 minute piece of manipulation of a single hand bell that rings in a non-bell way, scrapes and drones, layered and manipulated to create a typically engrossing soundworld. While the bell is a musical instrument, the way it is handled refers back to Roden's chair/lamp/splint trilogy where wonderful music emerged from beautifully designed non-musical instruments. Initially you are entranced by what the sounds were extracted from, but then the music itself takes over and keeps drawing you in.

a slow moving boat. label: new plastic music: 3" cd

As is often with a Roden work, the genesis is oblique. Here a recording of a ferry in Norway was used by Roden as a guide to his humming/singing. Remove the ferry, leave the voice, layered and add some bowed banjo. And you have a lilting 15 minutes of his ethereal voice combined with some subtle supporting metallic drones. It is hard to imagine it broadcast on the Staten Island Ferry - it would be lost in the environment - but we are lucky to have this beautiful piece.

stars of ice:CD, new plastic music, usa

This one might not be available (only 250), but is a longer form piece using an old 7" record of a Chinese carol, a song from a reader set and 'various other objects and instruments'. Over its 33 minutes it shifts more ground than the two 3" pieces. The first section is based around a drone, with birds singing (they carry on throughout, on the edge - I had to pause to check they weren't here). Slowly developing layers that start to include the voice (I was reminded of Gavin Bryars here - Sinking of the Titanic) sounds captured at the edge of the earspace. The vinyl clicks.In the final section Roden sings accompanied by the recorded music which becomes more guitar like - leading into a long slow dissolving fade, voices whispering to us. A finely balanced trajectory.

transmissions (voices of objects and skies): label: fresno metropolitan museum of art

Full length cd to accompany an exhibition - described on site and on disk. This work is unusual in the oeuvre in that Roden hasn't created the sounds - they are based on recordings of satellites made in the 60s-80s by amateur astronomers. Manipulated and transformed they are a distant fluttering, dolphin-like electronic fallings, sussuri and hints of sounds from elsewhere, an immersive environment from a forbidden place (they are currently baffling one of my dogs). Usually there is an organic/human component to Roden's work - either how the piece was developed, where it came from (source), or voice/instrumentation added. Here we are purely electronic, at one remove - and yet the ear extracts voices, animal calls, instruments, squeaking doors as we drift through a literal aether. This stereo workup from the multispeaker original shifts and slides around the room fabulously.

As I listen to these pieces - I have had a Roden afternoon after reading his latest blog post and once again ruing the distance to California - and look at the visual art work, the sculptures and installations I am amazed by the beauty in all the works and hope that the Armory retrospective raises his profile to the level it deserves.

Ach, enough of this gushing, you might say, but when I think about the artists I enjoy across these field there aren't really any I can think of who have achieved in such diverse areas.

Happy new year

2009-12-31T18:42:00.002+11:00

OK - I hope to get back into business

2009 was hectic with things spoken about before and I have a definite backlog of things to bring to you. Probably in the next few weeks.

Musically 09 was interesting for me - I got into Miles Davis: yes, at my age and so long after his heyday. But he was always someone who was in the musical background, a known major figure. My sister had some of his albums (enough to stop me listening) and I saw the wonderful capito sets and wondered who would buy them But curiosity was always there.

Anyway, good old big pond had some of the 'complete' recordings at single album prices so I thought - give them a go (with Coltrane, the quintet, Jack Johnson and Bitches Brew). And I got hooked - have bought downloads, actual disks in sales and at amazon, even some bootleg live shows and sessions. Most of you probably realised this already, but the range of stuff has amazed me - from the birth of the cool through the cookin'etc to almost blue and then the sixties quartet into bitches brew, agatha and beyond.

And it has made me re-conceptualise the jazz I have reviewed over the years: finally given it some degree of context. And not being monomaniacal (though close to) I have also bought some John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk.

Seems I'm back with things to say!

Mystified: pulse etc - vinyl memories

2009-07-09T16:51:00.000+10:00

As anyone who has read this will know, I have nothing against downloaded music and cds. Both are convenient and offer music which is almost indelible: it isn't impossible to lose a file or scratch a cd but it is hard to. But, there is a lot that has been lost with the move away from vinyl. The sheer pleasure of getting a 12" disk in a big cover has largely been lost. As cover design developed the pleasures increased - the gatefold, complex inserts - the book of drawings that came with Ringo's solo album, or with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy; Jethro Tull's Living in the Past, Thick as a Brick and Passion Play. Intricate and exciting cover images - I still look through my book of Roger Dean covers, and the releases from Hipgnosis. And I can't go past my favourite Talking Heads/ Rauschenberg cover - or the one that got away: PiL Metal Box!

OK cds can do nice box sets (Eno's 2 boxes, David Sylvian, Sakamoto, the Jethro Tull cigar box and more) but single cds don't go anywhere near the pleasure of the cover - too small. And that shiny disk can't beat a 7 or 12" vinyl - usually black but with a special frisson if the vinyl is coloured. Which gets us to Mystified's Pulse Ringer Pieces which is a blue 12" release via Dronehaus.

3 tracks per 15 minutes side, short but focussed and with the undeniable pleasure and richness that vinyl can provide. I am not a real audiophile and sometimes listen on old equipment (I got the amp for my 21st birthday) but mainly the computer or iPod - but vinyl has to pump out the old system and it did so very nicely thank you.

Side one (check out the out-groove inscription to tell which is which) opens with what could be the title track, though it is called Phantom ringer. A ringing pulse emerges through watery bubbling shimmering tectures, combined with some vinyl splatters (one thing that is hard to tell is the difference between spatters that have been added to the music and those cause by my aging equipment!). Floaty ghost is again watery under a tapping echo which reminds me of moored yachts (and a Quiet American piece). It bubbles and simmers before a developing hiss introduces a more active, choppery section. Then prayer bells and an electronic mummbled mass prayer witha heart beat: it pasues before a faster beat comes in and the ambience of Pulse beyond drifts for a lovely 6:33.

Getting out begins side 2 with a shimmering bout of beautiful ambience, hovering slightly; theninto more beats with the pumping Cool vapor where long layered tones are enmeshed in a clicking tapping fast beat, pulses moving in and out, and some nice shifts and drifts. Ending with Round shimmer where building shimmers are accompanied by a noise which could be a dolphin burping, and island of metallic highlights, another complex but gentle beat enters, drops out and then returns us into the drift, puntuated by soft drills

Obviosly Mystified is not someone who it is hard to get music by - there is a mass at Treetrunk and various other net sites where you can download it, plus the various cd-rs etc. And this is not a departure from previous releases but a very fine example of the combination of ambience and subtle beats that is part of Thomas Park's range. But if you want to have the feel of good solid vinyl in your hand, to experience the development of your own ambient crackleadditions, and drift into the cover as you listen to the music, then I hope there are some copies left.

Back in business (I think)

2009-07-09T14:48:00.002+10:00

Hi: If there is anyone still looking at the Blog (other than Marina Hardy's anonymous friends) you will be surprised by 2 posts in one day after a lengthy silence. The activities alluded to in an earlier post have continued (moving, work etc) but are settling down. And so I will turn to the smallish pile of releases awaiting review and over the next little while try and start whittling it down. Apologies to those awaiting a response - something will eventually come about.

Thanks for your patience

The Mysterious Marina Hardy

2009-03-11T17:51:00.002+11:00

The review that has gathered the most responses is my one of Marina Hardy's Pink Violin last January. There was talk that the album was 'constructed' but Marina was adamant in an email to me that she had played and created it all and was offended I had asked her about it.

Since then anonymous has posted about the material being 'stolen'. The most recent points to a continuing discussion which seems designed to attack Ms Hardy, and which includes a link to a youtube video of a ukelele player who seems to be able to play the same piece as on the Hardy cd.

I am willing to accept that the album is a complex construction - perhaps most if not all plundered from here and there - but I stand by my review that it is a fascinating and exciting album. Its full origin is just a little uncertain! Marina has reappeared on Facebook, so perhaps more will be clarified in the future.

Domenico Sciajno: Sequens

2009-03-11T10:44:00.005+11:00

OK - it's been a while and there is a bit to cover sometime over the next weeks: things have been hectic here (new semester, selling our house, buying 20 acres, moving horses..) Last week 4 disks arrived from Bowindo (last seen in 2006) and this one blew me away - a concept plunderphonics album taht works brilliantly. I looked up the score so can explain the basics. What surprises me is that it was constructed/recorded in 1999 and has only now been released.

Here goes: Luciano Berio wrote 15 Sequenzas - solos for a variety of instruments and one vocal. Sciajno got recordings of them (14 from DG and one from BIS) and a recording of a sequenza he wrote. After digitising them he divided them into four groups - a trio, two quartets and a quintet. He then cut the pieces up and interwove them to form group works: for example Parte 1 is a trio of flute, trombone and accordion. Here Sciajno shows his mastery of how to overlap, superimpose and separate the tracks in a counterpoint. The cuts from the tracks have to be played in sequence and all have to be used. What could have been a mishmash of sound becomes a strong modern chamber work through the combination of Berio's original composition and the skill of Sciajno.

However, there is more: he then combines similar instruments (strings, brass, wind) and creates sections which are placed under the groups to create additional depth and atmosphere - 'fragments with similar characteristics have been grouped and superimposed to generate strong sections recognisable from their rhythm and harmony'. Less obvious - once you listen closely you hear them down there.

The work also develops structurally - in each part the number of tracks on the mixer increases as the groups expand and the number of sections grows (2 in Parte 1, 10 in parte 4) [the score includes window-dumps of the structures of each Parte].

To describe the music would be hard - think of modernist solo pieces exploring the dynamics of the instrument in a classical format, rather than say the outerlimits of improv, with the lines coming in and out, forming solos, duets, trios, quartets, in a complex intense but not atonal or extreme, insightful way.

I don't know if anyone else has done similar work, but this collaboration between two composers is astounding - Sciajno has remained completely faithful to Berio's compositions by 'merely' cutting/pasting them (and his own sequence fits) and created a new Berio work which was always there but never drawn out. Perhaps it is the copyright issues that have kept this hidden, but it is a masterwork worth bringing to light.

Vale The Foundry

2009-01-28T17:47:00.002+11:00

One of the first label to support Ampersand when I first went solo was The Foundry. Label boss M Bentley created much of the early music (as eM, part of Apiary, Mollusk and himself) and also printed a fine line of chapbooks. Over the years the label expanded both its roster and its reach - and for a time was releasing material in conjunction with Hypnos. Satisfying both auditory and visual systems, The Foundry was a label you could rely on to give pleasure.

Things had been quiet at the website for a while, and on a visit today found the inevitable - a goodbye from Michael.

All I can say is that another great label has gone, and that if you can find any of the releases, including on the Archipelago sublabel, go for it.

Thanks for it all Michael - it will be fondly remembered.

Seeded Plain: Land tract

2009-01-22T18:16:00.003+11:00

The latest (and first of a new batch) from Bryan Day, this time as Seeded Plain, with jay kreimer, released on featherspines. They are both credited with objects and time on this release Land Tract.

Many years ago I reviewed an album by Anna Planeta recorded in an abandoned school, which this reminds me of (something of a gratuitous reference which few people will have heard - but it was on the lovely named label Betley welcomes careful drivers).

It sounds like a couple of guys have gone in to a room full of various bits of pieces and have spent a jolly time twanging on metal, singing a bit, banging around - contact mikes and perhaps a bit of processing - to create 70 minutes of formless noises, with odd titles (arise-d or berel-ed - but I note their label doesn't worry with the suffices). Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I am not sure it is something you want to listen to, although it is quite diverting as a background noise as the twangs wobble, metal things are rattled and banged, rattles and squeaks, density builds and diminishes, voices/vocals appear in the mix (and some coughing), whirring sounds, humms pass. All in all a noisey experience, which makes quite a diverting sort of background soundscape as it weaves in and out of the foreground, making you wonder what is being played with at various points. Impossible to describe in any detail, I have played it through 3 times already now and continue to be diverted by it.

2009

2009-01-20T19:11:00.002+11:00

I am back from a break in which my classical fascination has been satisfied by The rest is noise and a welter of cheap bigpond downloads, including: multiple disk sets of Stravinsky orchestral, Webern (the complete Boulez), Dvorjak string quartets, Nielsen symphonies, Miavokvsky complete orchestral, Bernstein conducts Bernstein, Lutoslawski, single disgs of Berg and Dutilleux, and just to spice it up, a couple of Miles Davis albums (each side a single track).

While still digesting this cornucopia I am also back in the reviewing seat, so I hope to get a few reviews up soon (though work in the new year is always busy, plus we are moving). Back soon

2008 - a review

2008-12-23T16:19:00.005+11:00

Hi - something of a traditional last post of the year - not a best of but a few things I have come across and been up to.

First, much of my recent listening has been to podcasts, and I have found a few, available via iTunes, which have filled my time or look like they will in the future

Guardian music weekly - a half hour or so of banter, a couple of interviews, a lost pleasures section (to be named) and a singles review. The music comes in snatches (a minute or so of the 3 reviewed singles, a minimontage of other releases, bits in the interviews) but it is a very enjoyable show.

WNYC soundcheck - about an hour a day of comment, live performances and interviews. A very wide remit from classical through hiphop to latin. Not always right up my alley, but nicely varied to give some good listening.

NPR All songs considered - like an expanded Soundcheck: mainly because it has an hour a week to go into depth. Have only recently found it, but their The Beatles 40th anniversary special was stronger than Soundchecks, for example, and they devoted 2 hours to 1000 recordings to hear... They also feature extensive music samples.

NPR Live concerts: now this is a find, concerts by Bjork, Nick Lowe, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Tom Waits, Fleet Foxes and many many more. Excellent.

I've been listening to a lot of classical music lately, partly due to the generosity of Bigpond here in Australia. It now has DRM-free MP3s and a generous pricing of classical multidisk sets: they charge standard album prices irrespective of the number of disks. Which can be a minor problem as, mentioned before, they don't include the disk number in their ID3 tags. Some recent pleasures are Bernstein's The Americans set (all 20th century), some Hindemith and a full set of Shostakovich symphonies. At the moment they have a 50% discount on gift vouchers, which means a set costs $8aus. I am looking forward to a voucher for Xmas and have planned to download the full symphonies of Nielsen and Miaskovsky, more Hindemith, some Lutoslawski, complete Dvorak quartets and maybe even some single albums!

Helping me decide is another present - Alex Ross's The rest is noise - an award winning survey of 2oth century classical music.

Anyway, have a great break and the blog will be back reviewing in the new year.

Croatan ensemble - Without

2008-12-18T18:20:00.000+11:00

The final disk in this trilogy of Eh? releases is number 44 - Croatan Ensemble's Without. They are bill k and jason p on strings, laptop, electronics, mics, pedals, synths, pipe instruments and generators.This is another longer album (60+) compiled from various improvised sessions. The album is tripartite, and the structure reflects the music.

The world ending in a festival of light and Concentration camps open the disk. These are dense combinations of tones, loops, hissing, buzzing with hidden components that reminded me to some extent of Fripp&Eno in structure and the guitar in Concentration. The World is full bodied, assaultive and slowly changing, while Concentration moves through more changes, pulsing and shimmering guitar dropping to long tones before rebuilding. At this stage I was also reminded of Eno's comments about improvisation also being about knowing when not to play.

But then came the three parts of The ideology of control. Here there is a sparser production with more control of elements moving in and out. Domestication has a bit of a beat, pulsing, encroaching deep tones with some accentuations but more minimal, distant metal tones somewhat edgy. It flows straight into Normalisation with rhythmic tapping, scrapes, gentle guitar and an overall brooding mood. Slides into Surveillance, a slow burning buzzy building dark ambient finale.

Defacement ends the album, another shift, again more minimal - opening with insistent pulses, voices enter, building to a density similar to the opening tracks, and ending with a siren.

Over the length of the whole album there is a good balance between the dense static ambience and the more subtler varied material - which makes the full listening experience an exciting journey. I think that this has been a good year for Eh? as they develop a diverse and diverting roster: satisfyingly unpredictable.

666 notes to hear before you go deaf

2008-11-26T11:32:00.006+11:00

Hot on the heels of 1000 recordings to hear before you die, Toby Cresswell's 1001 songs : The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them, Pitchfork's 500 greatest songs and Robert Dimery's 1001 al bums you must hear before you die comes 666 notes to hear before you go deaf from Anita McSusic.

Working from a severely limited sound palette - after all there are only so many notes available, even when you take the sharps and flats or just look at the black and white keys of the piano - McSusic finds an artistic diversity within this constraint. She has, for example, identified an A flat in The Rolling Stones Symphony for the Devil which is markedly different to the A flat in the third movement of Beethoven's fifth symphony. Or, taking another example, a shifting B in the middle of a Kronos quartet glissando and one in Nine Inch Nail's Ghost IV.

For each of the notes she has identified, McSusic weaves a fascinating text, exploring how the composer reached that particular note and why she has selected it: a C sharp in Brian Eno's Discreet Music, appearing briefly at 15:32 apparently is a response to a draft caused when Robert Fripp entered the studio while Eno was creating the piece, and the tape slowed marginally. Eno discusses how he debated whether to rerecord the whole section or let that note pass. As it was one of a number of Cs within the work, and following pulling out an Oblique Strategy card that read 'Do not pass: go', the note remained. As you listen to this note in the book, the pitch has a subtle tenderness that is not present in some of the other C sharps.

When talking about historical notes, where there is no composer to discuss the material with, interviews with current performers explore how they respond to the notes McSusic has identified, and how they decide to play them. Intriguing twists emerge from this - for example the different ways that the Emerson and the Duke quartets play an F flat in Shostakovitch's 7th string quartet.

Each note has been identified in a particular recording which is available on CD - this makes it possible to find all 666 notes precisely - they are often surrounded by similar notes and identifying the one in question can be difficult. There is some discussion of putting all 666 notes onto a single CD, but that would detract from the thrill of the hunt. And the notes need to be heard in their context.

The book is organised around a sorting principle based on the composers first name, the not as written in German and the difference in the year of recording and composition. Luckily both the table of contents and the index are comprehensive and assist in navigating through the book. Though ones like this are meant for dipping.

Yes - as with all lists there will be notes that you wonder why they aren't there, and countries who are under represented (very little from Australia for example, though the opening note of Rolf Harris' Sun arise gets a guernsey). But if you want to explore notes written by people as diverse as the Sex Pistols and Stravinsky, Steve Reich to Stevie Wright, Mellencamp to Miaskovsky look out for this book, and take part in the on-line debate about those missing notes on the official website..

Man's last great invention - none

2008-11-20T18:21:00.004+11:00

From Nebraska, Man's last great invention bring is None. (eh?43) - a departure from Eh/'s standard productions (as you would expect) with a striking cover which is a coloured copy onto transparent paper, stuck on to the white card with adhesive labels, and the information (title, band etc) appears to be typed (yes, there is a dent where the full stop is). Track titles are n, o, n, e, . and the untitled 6th track (why couldn't they think of a five letter title?). And musically, as hinted in the Beard review, this explores different territory again for the label.

The Myspace page lists a cast of thousands (well 16) across strings, vocals, percussion, keyboard, film projection and more. The music could best be described as psychedelic minimalism - washes of sounds, echoed instruments and chanted vocals for an extended 70 minutes.

The album opens in almost silence - just a tape hiss into which deep long synth lines and ringing guitar emerge. A sweet ethereal voice sweeps through (my thoughts are the Cocteaus, but slower, or Dead Can Dance) supported by bass, and sliding directly into the second track (o) continuing the pace and method, building into clouds of sometimes almost industrial sound. A held tone takes us into n, with looping percussive scrapes, and here singing takes the track into quite a dramatic, almost harsh, climax (with perhaps a little too much distortion) ending with a dying tone.

e (the fourth track) opens quietly, redolent tapes hiss again building some subtle tones and then focusing on echoed bass and possibly guitar with some percussive effects and a flt-flt distortion. Towards the end a vocal line comes in, more keening and at times sounding almost like a Middle Eastern horn, but sliding into . (5) where some guitar adds to the mix with more vocals.

The final track again emerges from the silence, strange distorted sad voices (sounds of coughing can be heard, suggesting live recording, other noises too - maybe a site recording - but the overall feel is liver than the others), percussion, water flowing and a darker sound. A full drum kit takes a solo, and involves us in a much more activity, with a bleaker mood - possibly the tone of the voices - and broader instrumentation (pumps of woodwind, scraping guitars, synth woobles).

This is a broad, expansive album, creating sweeping atmospheres with the title 'tracks' while the untitled final third of the album presents a more forceful side of the ensemble. This sounds improvised, suiting the eh? remit, but with an ambient edge. Engrossing

(final note: I have described the album in three parts as that seems to be how the sounds flow. The editing however is poor - 2 second breaks between tracks which are obviously designed to flow together, breaking the atmosphere)

Gamma goat - Beard of sound, beard of sand

2008-11-16T18:20:00.001+11:00

One of the pleasures of this 'job' is that you can follow a label if you are lucky enough to get linked in with one. Since the first large parcel of releases arrived from Bryan Day, the Public Eyesore and now Eh? journey has been nothing less than fascinating - there is very little predictable about what these labels put out: the three in the recent slim envelope are a case in point. Eh?39 Beard of Sound, Beard of Sand by Gamma Goat is the first up for show.

Apparently a three piece, this shows that Americans do understand irony. The low-fi approach is taken to new and unusual areas by this mutant rock band. There are 11 tracks in this 33 minute blast. Three, Precaution procedure, Outstanding citizen and Civil suit are short metallic, rubbish-bin style percussion pieces, with a little bit of processing thrown in (the legalistic titles must mean something to someone!) that act as bridges.

Mighty big boots is slow ponderous rock and roll, death metal vocals and sort of melodic (what is that cycling, slapping sound at the end - it recurs on another track) and is followed by another musical track, Goats on top with a swampy rhythm Beefheartish vocal accents, muddy recording, with wind out of tapping percussion, the electric guitar and whooping. Slurpy scrabbling introduces the slow bass and drums of Bowleater, electric guitar twangs and more distant vocals. Things descend further into lo-fi with Barren which sounds like it was recorded live in a club, the cheap cassette deck hidden under voluminous clothing resulting in a distorted thump rocker with shouted vocals which has got something to it, somewhere. Death metal growling returns with In the dessert - slow driving bluesy, buzz sliding guitar and drums.

The last three track take another track: Traps the golden light of being is a skillful rapid percussion piece with jangling guitar; the high short string guitar continues in Dealin' cards/ante up which introduces some processing - backwards sounds, echoey bass, strange highlights and drum riffs, which are taken even further in Killing ducks with nunchuks which has reversed sounds and strange squeals.

OK - a strange perverse rock album - you might not buy it as a stand-alone, but as part of the ever exciting and suggestive PE/Eh? magical mystery tour it actually grows on you.

Stasisfield update

2008-11-12T19:11:00.000+11:00

Nearly a year ago I noted the return of Stasisfield as a more active label. Since then there has been an ongoing flow from them during 2008 which has been great to see. The music has traversed the general remit of the label - some electronica (much of it), ambience, a bit of worldy manipulated music (Gregory Taylor's delightful gamelan pieces), improvy (Rammel, Mueller and Schoenecker), experiments (Wincek) lots of lowercased minimalist pleasures based around field recordings and even some 'karaoke' (I don't think). The latest release is Kalte's Lantahnide Series. This is a nicely layered drone album which balances metallic gong-like tones with other subtle sounds, that weave in and out - bells and light scraping, buzzes and hints of field recordings - creating a hypnotic ambience. Just after playing this I happened to play something by Marc McNulty in my .Tiln genre (that was a ground breaking net music source), and there were some interesting similarities. Anyway, well worth pursuing, and as with all the free music on the web - you can make up your own mind.

Bruckner of the Month

2008-11-12T18:22:00.001+11:00

John F Berky runs an excellent Bruckner website, one aspect of which is that each month he mines his archive for a symphony to make available as a free download. These can be from vinyl (or even acetate) though some occasionally from CD, and are interesting (eg Hindemith conducting no.7), unusual and of course out of print. Initially they were only available for a couple of months, but John has recently decided to keep 12 months worth up. The recordings are exemplary - no hint of vinyl noise - and provides you with multiple versions of the symphonies for those interested (2 versions of No's 1, 4 and 7, and singles No's 2, 3 and 6). The site is here - for 10 current downloads. There are some other shorter pieces also available elsewhere - follow the side bar.

Twilight Luggage

2008-10-31T09:16:00.000+11:00

Following the previous post on Andreas Brandal, available for free download from Twilight are two other Brandal albums:

The dead station is the first Twilight release and suggests some of the positions and directions heard in This is not for you. However it also contains some of the more angular edgy forms that appear on the next album.

Insects is a shorter more recent one (available as a download or a cd-r with extra track and individual print) and uses the burring chirping side of the music to bring a narrower palate that does suggest insects. Integrated with this, though, is a range of other sounds that provide additional depth to the layers of insect - whip tones, slowed voices, musical moments.

Both of these two albums are worth sampling to give you an idea about the eh? release, which to my mind is both broader and more coherent

Lupus Golem is Brandal plus Hans Kristian Senneseth and Bjørn Kåre Berntsen and there is an EP on Twilight - Minotaure. This is a noise trio piece - heavy percussion, dense guitar feedback and more, stomping bass plodding along. Then shifting into slightly quieter, restraints which are soon broken through. Heavy dramatic gothic but also nuanced, this is an intriguing and fun thundering 20 minutes.

The tenor of Twilight Luggage is perhaps suggested by their latest release - Jliat's So what do you think I should do? I haven't been following his Noise series - just noted the reviews - and remember fondly his drone period. This is 30+ minutes of constant harangue: deep jet engines, scratching noise, guitar feedback chords cutting through like laser pulses, occasional computer burble as a lighter sound, and weaving through a distorted crackling which could be speech if you listen really hard (but then the brain will make speech out of sound). A strong emetic which should be taken carefully in measured doses. Not something i would listen to on a regular basis, but once in a while...

Andreas Brandal - This is not for you

2008-10-30T17:30:00.001+11:00

Eh?40 is a departure from the improvisational mood of the label, but then you come to expect that from anything related to Public Eyesore. Brandal is a Norwegian who has been working on various projects since the 80s and releasing solo-work for about a decade. He runs a label - Twilight Luggage - which has one of his albums plus collaborations and some other groups. More on them in the next post. Is This is not for you for you? When I first put this on I had been listening to The Tone Generation podcasts (mentioned here) They immediately came to mind - but this then goes beyond that. So here are some thoughts.

The burning room with long slow tone melodies, crackles that move around, throbs and notes noises that slide in and out is a stately piece of concrete electronica. Ringing tones and gongs of the title track are lovely with muted crinkling and crunches. Soft tones form bookends to a rising ratchet and gentle voiceiness in The ghost opera. Acoustic guitar appears in Sleep miracle along with more tones soft and high gentle ones before a long scraping fade. A door opens at the start of Abreg ad habra taking us into an exploration of plucked notes (metal?wire?), a deep hum, billows that builds and releases, longer harmonica notes and strange crackles join in a fascinating extension.

Scifi tones, drifting restrained radiowaves all Shine. Then an aleatoric ambience of The mirror stage full of gentle stuttering, high and deep tones, wind, drifting simple warmth and guitary shimmers. Concluding with Julien torma where loose cable skitters, a deep hum, sweet tones and guitar strums contrast harsher tones and clicks which emerge, sliding into harp-like reverb tones and crackles as the track ends.

This is an excellent album - amongst the often improvised and lo-fi recordings of Eh? it provides another view of where music can go - and this one definitely is music and belies its title for the sort of people I imagine reading this blog. Some more has dropped in from the label in the last few days, so expect some more noisier stuff soon - and meanwhile get this.

(And it's nice the see Eh? website get the full catalogue/review structure of Public Eyesore)

10 free symphonies

2008-10-25T14:01:00.003+11:00

Thanks to K Krebs, via Facebook of all things (which I am exploring) a pointer to a set of Symphonies from Dutch Radio 4 celebrating 120 years of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. They are mainly romantic, and come as a single file (the Bruckner is 85 minutes) but with a pdf cover. You have to register which is not much to ask. A nice set anyway.

go to here

Dam Drm

2008-10-22T10:40:00.005+11:00

Within various personal constraints I don't think of myself as a music pirate. So first my confessions. When Napster first came out I had a try and downloaded a King Crimson album but left it at that and I don't bittorrent. While most of my MP3 collection is either purchased (iTunes, Classics online and Bigpond) or downloaded from label/individual sites freely available, I do have a fair chunk of MP3 recorded vinyl (iPod or similar hooked up to amp via the earphones, giving long, single disk side or tape recordings: no-one else would want!) or ripped cds (again, only personal use). And I did associate 'We7', 'adverts' and 'audacity' in the same sentence/s - but those tracks would be downloadable 28 days later ad-free, and at that time the ads were for We7. And I did let them know when I got a few downloads that were ad-free straight off.

So the only real impact of drm for me is that the iTunes tracks won't play on my eeepc as it runs linux, and I had to burn the wma tracks to cd and rip to get MP3s. So I was pleased when Bigpond started selling MP3s (with some great classical bargains - a 17 cd Chopin complete set for $16.50: though their tagging doesn't include disk number at the moment which is a nuisance and another matter).

Anyway, my computer recently died, but luckily all the music is on an external disk, and I decided to make a dvd of my Bigpond wmas for security. Did that, then tried to play them (to check the copy) to no avail. The originals wouldn't either. So I went back to the Bigpond site FAQs and found that the tracks will only play on the computer you bought them on - and if you want/need to play them on another you need to repurchase them. Now I understand the reason the rights management, and agree with most, but this is outrageous. When you bought a new stereo, turntable, cassette player you didn't need to rebuy all your various forms of music. It takes management to extreme levels. And explains why people do pirate the stuff.

Luckily for me I had MP3'd them all (legally?) and now will only buy their MP3s - which are totally drm free: what a turnabout! I wonder how many people have really read that fineprint? At least iTunes allows a reasonable number of registered computers.

OK, so this is probably not news to most, but I feel better getting it off my chest.

Ogogo - Linden

2008-10-20T06:00:00.000+11:00

I am not sure how this came to me - iii records are based in Japan, and Ogogo is Igor (guitars, though there seems to be other instruments) and the album is Linden. It is based around 12 paintings by Ron Linden that are reproduced in the quality booklet. The paintings are flat semiabstract images, painted with muted colours. Some feature curved diamond shapes, that the final image, USSUR, confirms are eyes. Some represent three-dimensional cubist still lives, others flat compositions or almost calligraphic or musical notations of the eyes and stave bars (some are among those on show at his web site). Anyway, on the whole non-figurative and a big ask to create a musical interpretation. While I can see some trends in the music, I am not sure my reading of the music/image relationship is the same as Ogogo's - but that is irrelevant as it is the music which counts. There are four 'styles' that I can identify on the album.

The first three tracks (Eye spring, Flygel and Pidgin) follow a pattern that seems common of putting the most confronting music first. These comprise extremely choppy D'n'B percussion with guitar pulses and sorties together with some found sounds, but also with patches of calm. Initially these are not inviting tracks, but repeated playing provides more access. The style crops up again later in the album - Murdrus dueluct is another that is fast and distorted.

OK, my second category is electronica: comes in both fast and restrained, and takes the guitar/percussion mix and adding other instruments and more samples. Sabbatarian is full on with water sounds, choppy organ and a skittering guitar and has voice samples in near the end, the crackles, wargame tones and abstract noises of Preplay actually reflect the images. Shem the Penman is fast distorted and chopped/cut, changing density (and neither image nor music recall Finnegans Wake to me), and more chopping eruptions on Ussur.

Strangely classified by me as musical, or perhaps simple would be better: Eroscope features a slightly distorted keyboard melody, which is varied and modified with subtle restraint, Ohfey is a guitar solo with some gentle electrobacking.

Finally more structured pieces: Obdura moves through a solid rhythm loop and burr, a voice and plane sample, peacock calling, a mower the rhythm returns, peacock returns then drum and voice and finally a crushing crackle in the last half minute. My favourite The K is a long piece featuring a goose, rhythm guitar and a baroque like melody which weave in and out through each other. A beautiful light touch in this almost 9 minutes (any track featuring a goose has my vote, and an album with peacock is furtehr ahead!).

Two additional tracks: Eroscope vs Eye spring (dance remix) puts the rhythm of the first under the musicality of the second, to good effect, while the TRS remix of Pidgin is a reasonable reinterpretation but not at all radical.

On the album these tracks, other than the last two and the bursting of the first three, are mixed and shuffled together. The sequence works pretty well, and the elements which flow through (sirens, bird sounds) give the whole some coherence. Definitely an album that gives you access to its complexity and pleasures after a few listenings have got you in tune with the aesthetic. Not one to relax to but rather stimulating.

We7 backs away

2008-10-19T18:02:00.003+11:00

Early on in the blog I recommended We7 as a place to look for free music. The model they used was free downloads with an advert at the beginning (about 10 seconds) and after 28 days you could download an add free version. At the time I suggested that the ad-model could easily be circumvented. They moved to include a streaming option a while ago.

However, in some recent 'Great news!' from the site. After commenting on more music being available and a new dsign, as a third point they indicate there will be no more ad-free downloads, and that downloading anyway will be limited to the UK. Streaming is still available - and they have expanded their roster (but they have also decreased it: the ELP bootlegs are no longer available, nor the Vidna Obmana). But there are other streaming sites, and a large population (eg me) who don't want to stream.

Anyway, it was a bold experiment and fun while it lasted.

Embarrased thanks and a welcome

2008-10-15T13:55:00.001+11:00

The thanks to Steve Roden for choosing us as his link of the day for The Wire magazine - and his kind words. Airform Archives is definitely my daily link. The Portal looks like an interesting place to hang out

And so welcome anyone who has come this way from there.

Mystified - Skywatchers

2008-10-13T08:11:00.001+11:00

Mystified again - this one from a label called small-doses which does some very nice packaging (here the disk forms an integral part of the heavens, and the torn card creates a horizon. Mystified describes this as a 'concept album of sorts', without explanation - and being Mystified this could be musical or concept - his recent collaboration with Saluki Regicide was split so that 'one is assigned all frequencies below 1kHz, and the other gets everything above' - and the outcomes were later mixed together. And it works! It's a Webbed Hands download.

Skywatchers is some beautiful minimal ambiences - the tracks seem to offer a balance between two levels - the higher ringing buzzing washing hissing shimmering elements and deeper pulsing throbbing rumbling multifaceted components underneath. As in the beautiful evolving high ringing tone in Dark shimmer with a multifaceted rumbling undertone, active hissing like rain with big pulsating throbs of Big and round, or Saturated sky's soft ringing washes and pulse. Hollow resonant tones stutter towards a melody in Tactile waves and overall a minimalism that teeters on the edge between the conscious and unconsciousness, between a focus and an indefinable thereness which slowly evolves and twists just beyond awareness. Lose yourself while watching the sky.

Vale ampersand at virtual avenue

2008-10-08T20:21:00.002+11:00

I have decided not to continue with my virtual avenue account for the old style emailed ampersand. If anyone needs a copy of their review let me know - sorry about the broken links. It just didn't seem worth continuing the outlay.

Note: this does not mean the blog is dead, just the archive of old reviews

Void of Ovals - Eftus Spectun, Oliver White, Goalkeeper Wanted

2008-10-07T11:42:00.000+11:00

For a long time Bristol was for me some rhyming slang often used in English comedies. Then recently it cropped up in some great TV - Teachers, Afterlife, Skins, and a 'reality' series on learning to drive - and the city has become somewhere we want to visit next time we are in the UK. Then there is the music - some significant bands have come from the region - Pigbag, Portishead, Massive Attack, The Pop Group, Flying saucer Attack: in reality most regions have some names to call their own.

Anyway, this little diversion has been prompted by a parcel that arrived last week from a Bristol cd-r label Void of Ovals (try the link - it doesn't always work) with 3 releases and minimal information. While they are all 5" cds, they are 20minutes or less, so count as minialbums.

Eftus Spectun has been here before - they have an album on Public Eyesore reviewed in &notes - favourably and commenting on the great variety of material. The Talons Snag Binary is just about the opposite, and something of a concept minialbum. For 15 minutes a guitarist and drummer seem to be having a jam. There is a constant swinging between periods of melodic picking and subtle drumming, even some almost silent short periods, and power chords with harder drumming that slips occasionally into noise. Sometimes the guitarist quietly mumbles. Early on there is a futtfutt sound that you think could be bad mastering of the cd, or perhaps some roto speakers, but as time goes on this magnifies and starts to sound like reverb on the guitar which gets bigger and bigger until the final minutes of the track are more like a fading electrobubbling in which the original instruments are lost and an essence extracted. The overlay of what is an interesting guitar/drum improv with the degrading filter adds an extra layer to this that makes it an intriguing 15 minutes.

Another short improv from Goalkeeper Wanted - Mouthful of Cherries is 15 minutes of drums, guitar, bass and keyboards (as far as I can tell) and the sound is meant to suggest it was 'written and recorded wearing boxing gloves'. Slow ponderous percussion with a high sustained casiotone vibrato, joined by chiming gong-like guitar. A cymbal solo with guitar, more drums and then some spooky electronics into a spacey ambient section with metallic percussion and shimmerings. Into some slow percussion with arrows of sound before a bass comes in, scrabbling. A slow and thoughtful section and a nice guitar solo, with percussion driving along throughout. A build up towards the end before easing off into a scrabbling slidey fade. A complex and appealing little workout as it rings through its changes.

The only seemingly composed album is Oliver White's The Orient, which is apparently a soundtrack to an unreleased film. It is also a little longer - a bit over 21 minutes. It shifts between concrete sections where short cut-up sounds (or manipulated in these modern ways) bounce around, to sections with sonography, like bird sounds or water, percussive echoed sections and a few snatches of melody. The moods change very quickly - it would actually be nice to have it as a longer album where the different sections had a chance to embed themselves or develop more. But this is what we have and while it is hard to imagine what sort of film it would support, it does provide an evocative electronic atmosphere, shifting almost randomly, but very satisfying. (another what-it-isn't would be a version where there were track breaks where the sound changed, allowing more random shuffling).

OK - these are all short, and anyone thinking of buying them should take that into account - but I have played each a number of times and enjoyed them: can't say fairer than that.

Andrea Ferraris - three releases

2008-09-18T20:57:00.003+10:00

Andrea Ferraris, who is a music journalist and musician sent me three releases that he appears on. These areelectronica and improvisation - Andrea plays guitar, phototheremin, kaoss pad, jack, pedals etc on the various albums.

In Ur he is joined by Mauro Sciaccaluga and Federico Esposito on a similar array of various instruments such as contact mikes,

samples, pedals, violin, vocals, bass; and Baptism and Birthday is a live recording from 2005 that was released privately (see the myspace link). Part I opens with a humming buzz, echoed metallic percussion and thereminliketones. There is a sense of possibility and potential energy as it builds with small bursts and a throbbing. A descending slide enters, and there is a feeling similar to that before a thunderstorm. The entrance of a sample 'There are a lot of hippies who need help' that loops through to the end. Screaming guitars,pulsing percussion and into a textured noise, dense, hard, swirling, pulsing. The sample returns, accompanied by high feedback. There are distorted voices in as a fade with clanging percussion ensues. The

second part is based around seeming restrained chaos - a base of looping layered chopped voices runs through most, often with a drone element. Over this various sounds (guitars, theremintones, feedback) make excursions, slowly industrial-type noises develop - a shouted vocal weaves through, and banging feedback guitar noises. The piece rolls forward with power and subtlety. Towards the end the voices fade out and rumbles, whooshes and stuttering crackly eruptions take the running, wind chimes and voices and a slow wind down. This is exciting and varied improvised electronica.

Ulna Pairs him Valerio Paul - the two playing laptops, Andrea instruments, Paul editing mixing on Karl records. Frcture is an immediately appealing album, based on rhythmic smooth ambient techno - which is a possibly sterile field, but these two have created an engaging warmth. Blck crss shde reminds me of Porter Ricks with an insistent bass loop building together with with a rapid pulse providing a bed for ambient tones and colours, a delicately balanced dichotomy before a strange scream ending. The next two tracks explore similar territory, mixing ambient and beated components, with expected breaks for short instrumentals before beats return. Both are very enjoyable with excellent sounds and mixing, but seemed a little formulaic. I was wondering where this would go when Smll prts recolleted came along and took a long time to introduce the rhythms, which were uncertain, and showed subtlety and restraint. Faster again for Lndn lvs n, but there is a lovely Middle-eastern feel that gives it a strength, reminding me of the aoundtrack to Exotica. The American west is suggested by the tones and spaces in Lce, slow beats, distant guitar and a quiet simplicity. A searchingly tenuous beginning for Hghfreqncy smb then a half-hea

rted abstract beat, becoming a bit more hearted and dirty, strings and wind before the break after which this samba gets it a bit more together, but a little madness invades the close. We close with an extended Cld sndyevenng which is spacey and spacious in its bobbly development. Empty and varied, a beat in after 5 minutes, awoobly mass squelches to a big tone, and then a playful outro which keeps changing proteanly. Some of the terms here may sound negative - but they aren't - this is polished effective intelligent dance music which appealsparticularly when it moves away from a straight beat and into something more exploratory, which it does for the majority - and the more straightforward beated tracks create a strong balance.

And then Airchamber 3 (on Amirani) with Andrea and luca Serrapiglio on a range of instruments - guitars, laptops, cello, sax, windcontroller and so on. This was compiled/extracted from improvisations. We open with two shorter tracks (about 3 minutes) - the first In a foreign land scrapes twangs, slide strings and blows with a noisy ambience which is barely controlled after whichThe jaw... is pulsing driving squonking musicality: the drive draws you along with it. Two long (15+ minute) tracks with a short intervention follow. These are subtler and evolving unfolding pieces, involving the cello and longer guitar notes, both are well balanced dark ambiences (Standing by the shell sea mitgiacinto and An unsafe ground to walk on). Ok, they are long extracts from slow sinuous improvisations, which almost test your patience but change and develop to keep focus. Silence makes a dangerous sound is a scrapping creaking piece, long guitar tones and chopped voices. To end the album another pair of shorter tracks - The heart is flat (etc) brings in Alessandro Buzzi on percussion to add a clatteringness to the sax and guitar. And then a brief reprise of Standing ... with more lovely cello. Interestingly, the album has a harsher noisier edge at greater volumes - some of these elements are subdued at quieter volumes, so you can easily control the mood. Very nice improvisations with a good range of sounds.

So - a diverse range here - nice to be able to hear the variety that people can be involved in. Something for everyone here!

Mystified - Baseline & Coldstream - c30

2008-09-13T18:40:00.001+10:00

Mystified sent me another couple of CDrs, one of which was from a new label Amp Tower, based on a blogspot. The first release was by Coldstream, and Mystified's is the second (a release of 50). Once sold out the releases are to be made available through archive.org (how I got the first release - follow links at the blog/site).

We listen to music through our musical history - so here is part of mine. I bought King Crimson, In the Court of, from a friend at school and sort of liked it. Then my sister bought me Larks' Tongues in Aspic which amazed me and won me over (that period KC is it for me - also note a connection with Tom Phillips). That same sister was a fan of Bowie, and then one day in the car and over the radio came Always crashing in the same car, from Low. Again, another epiphany about what music could be. Soon after someone played me Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy) and I bought a copy of Another Green World and a musical trinity was set up for me. Sometimes I play 6 degrees of separation to connect various artists in my record collection to that Eno/Bowie/Fripp heart. Hence the many references to Fripp and Eno here especially. So where does it fit here?

Well, this Mystified album reminded me of what is one of Eno's many atmospherically perfect songs - The Belldog
Most of the day/we were at the machinery/
in the dark sheds/that the seasons ignore
(words thanks to More Dark Than Shark). And the majority of this album Baseline could be a site recording from those machinery sheds. (OK - it's a long bow to draw, but my mind works in Mysterious was.) We start with some Man machine drones active ringing tones, some softly buzzing and some deeper vibrations: metal with softer undersides. Waves of whooshing from machines that a throbbing deeper underground in Hertz two oh, before rumbling hiss of Diesel powered equipment. We are moving with Uncertainty listening to soft winds through the tunnels and come across a buzzing, more active Baseline, high tonal-voices woven in. Strange winds simply as titled, rumbling of a distant train, and in some ways ends this phase of the album.

It becomes more active with Mystified's remix of Piskadear, pulsing rings and more variation and sounds in the drone, before a complete switch is thrown in Always beginning where we have beaty fast rhythm loops, guitar ambiences and a sense of activity. Back to drifting with the long, shifting ringing descents of Polar out, reminiscent of Eno's Apollo, some of which are ear-ringing. A reprise remixed by Coldstream ends the album with a rawer version, more edge and echo on the loops. Another excellent ambient outing from Mystified.

C-30 by Coldstream is a collection of varied ambience: Learn is composed of lovely long ringing tones, layered, with passing crackles, hints of distant events and gentle percussion. After that, Search is harsher, dark shimmering tones with a deep echoing throb that suggests piano. Taken builds slowly from soft industrial tones to a more active harsh and almost aggressive ambience of forward tones, pulsing, crackling and then gradually fading away before a short burst of reverbed guitar and heavy crackling interference in Fia that disappears as insects calling. There are plenty of ideas in here, with changes in tone and texture, to keep listening for the 30 minutes. A worthwhile download.

Ratchet Orchestra - Live at Sala Rosa November 28, 2007

2008-09-05T18:30:00.001+10:00

This came out of the blue - and I can't really point you to somewhere to get it from. Nicolas Caloia runs the Ratchet Orchestra, an apparently flexible jazz combo among other things. He was on one of the disks in the NoType Montreal Free set and is active in that scene.

There are 27 artists listed on the front of this - indicative of the big band sound - and the 6 tracks are by Caloia (3), Sun ra (1) and Lombardo (1 - not sure who this is!) There is so much going on here - September has a slow intro of bass, horns, piano and drums, with whistle and clarinet melodies. It loops and builds, somewhat raucous with a little free jazz over the top. But for a live recording it is very clear, you can pick out the instruments as it whirls and swirls to a climax before a short drum and piano solo that slides into Love on a faraway planet. OK - I've heard of Sun Ra and bits of his but not much, and the two tracks here suggest not enough. They are contemplative restrained and very attractive - parallel orchestrations and a subtly oblique melody draw you in. A short joyous lilting from Carmine, with an Eastern swing, before a scrabbly fiddle, bass and second violin on T(h)rust. The others join after about 3 minutes for a building, exciting ensemble, with some wild winds and the fiddle still going at the end.

Drum and bass support the winds on Tiny pyramids, sinuous and melodic, this has a lovely violin solo with clarinet, a band building section before a drum solo and a bird-whistle. In the final track, Unconditional, flute piano and percussion build slowly, horn lines enter creating tension, dropping back to bass piano and clattery percussion. The winds return before a gentle finale.

I have got to like the big band free jazz orchestral stuff - some of Nathan Hubbard, or Jeff Kaiser's albums (or, looking at an old australian 12", the Hot Half Hour). And this is another beauty to add to that roster. As I said, I have no idea how you can get this - I have kept Caloia's address if people want to ask me for it - I would rather not publish it. And if anyone has a better link, let me know. UPDATE: Nicolas got in touch and has provided the link to buy this album, so go here

TL0741 - Back to minus

2008-08-29T07:44:00.002+10:00

Pat Gillis is TL0741 who works with synths, effects and tape manipulation. Back To Minus is on HC3Music, and he has a myspace page which is probably the best place to follow this up through - and it is worth following up.

There are five tracks on this live recording, three over ten minutes and a couple half that length. Again, the recent Tone Generation podcast is something of a touch stone, as similar combinations of tone beds, noises and tape loops are subtly and excitingly combined. This is not generally melodic, but rather balances warm enveloping analogue tones with harsher, blipping burring sounds. It is worth playing loud, as there are some wonderful tweeter fodder tones.

Hard to describe but crackles, looped notes, burbles, grumbles, screeching all occur in the first two thirds of Orchrsutra before a sweetly ambient final part. Back to minus is somewhat more restrained pulsing burring pips warmth, while in Mirror faces mirror there is a collection of almost animal-calls through the sonarish beeping and high tones, pulsingly lovely, shimmering and chittering.

Shorter, and more singly focused, Simmervolts is stirring dense forceful drones with gravitas and Morphantasia is warm vocal like unfoldingness.

A fascinating release, spacey analogue but not cliched and with exciting variation

Gultskra Artikler/Lanterns split disk

2008-08-21T19:06:00.000+10:00

From the Other Electricities label comes a split 12" - the three track Berezka fom Gultskra Artikler together with Lanterns' Monkey Lament. I have a promo cd (so can't comment on the total pakage) and it will be available from download sites.

Gultskra is a Russian musician. Pervie gusli is is a piece of psychedelic ambience, spacey guitars, swirling atmospherics, clicks drifting through, a clattery percussion builds and it finishes with some slow slides. A world music feel to Figase layers a whisper-like electrocrackle, pops crackles and hiss with a Middle eastern horn and voice sample - slightly distant and distorted), and this swings in and out of focus finely balanced atmosphere. I Berezka take 2 a hint of acoustic guitar underscores electronic bloops and blips, bells, an organ pulse to create an eno-ish melodic ambience.

From Leeds and Glasgow Lanterns is currently a duo and present two very different tracks. Snake ice is a dense drone work - big organ pulsing drones, long guitar tones, complex subtley changing wall of sound that ends with a deconstruction. And then Dir tup is a more acoustic work: whistly shakhujachi, a clattering, strummed guitar and bird song throughout. The guitar cycles though and some harmonica joins and a bowed fiddle or guitar - a bucolic rural ambient piece which is gently relaxing.

A fairly short album - just under 26 minutes - but showcasing two quite different artists who themselves create varied music: the pros and cons of the format, effectively an opportunity to showcase which is more focussed than a compilation but not a single mind's music view. An enjoyable excursion.

Mystified - Forbidden Planet and Falling from Grace

2008-08-08T18:58:00.001+10:00

Mystified returns with another couple of real-world disks.

For those who have been listening to the Tone Generation podcasts - pointed to some time ago - his album on Roil Noise A Tribute to Forbidden Planet is a beauty. While I can't compare it to the original (having only seen the film once many years ago and have heard snatches of the soundtrack, including on the podcast) this seems to capture the spirit of the time with analog synth woobling and fibrillar pulsing, singing tones, crackling edgy generator-noises, humming and grainy tones. Recurring themes and changing moods - there are some contemplative moments - keep you focussed on the musical drama. In a further act of homage, it seems the tracks are the exact same length as the originals - when I ripped this into my iTunes library the tracklist database identified it as the soundtrack and lobbed up the titles. A lot of fun and a strangely modern blast from the past!

Meanwhile, from Sartgalgh records a 3" 20 minute drone piece Falling From Grace. This is a shifting work with quite separate movements that slide into each other - the first part is quite direct metal drones, which shifts to a gentler ringing before a more subtly beated section. Then a long soft fade that ties off this very nice little work.

And of course there has been plenty of activity on TreeTrunk and Webbed Hands in the interim - Mystified's Ocean of Vapour on Webbed hand, the two remix albums based onMystified's Particular Stream; more Constants; another in the Rain series on Webbed - the first from label boss McDill and a huge compilation of String ambient by familiar and less so names.

Ricardo Arias, Miguel Frasconi, Keiko Uenishi: Object

2008-07-02T08:38:00.006+10:00

Another from Eh?(41) - this time a live recording by the trio of Ricardo Arias, Miguel Frasconi, Keiko Uenishi from the NY Sculpture Centre in 2004. Object presents the concert/work by the unusual trio: Ricardo on balloons, Frasconi glass objects and Uenishi computer. The photo (a similar one is on the cover) is from Frasconi's blog/site well weathered music and I have made it larger than usual so that you get an idea of the set-up.

The balloon kit allows for soft and hard rubbing on the balloons, which would appear to be close miked, squeaking and groaning, stretching, more gentle sensitive sounds and percussive soft thuds. In his glass kit Frasconi rubs glasses, jangles them, strikes like a bell, blow over openings to resonate, chiming; and the laptop slowly reveals itself, sometimes subtle hums and buzzes, undertones and through tones and possibly some processing but not sure.

The structure of the album is terrific and allows you to understand the different components. The concert was divided into trio/solo/duo/solo/trio/duo/solo/duo/trio - which means each player gets a solo which explains the individual sounds, the three possible duos get an outing and the three trios explore the full extent - the final one is an extended conclusion to the album. You can imagine what it might sound like, the reality is even more impressive.

And so throughout the 50 minutes we hear a range of sound combinations and moods - there are loud passages, more restrained sections, subtlety and roars. The prime mood is of delicacy, introspection and exploration, but with periods of excitement and denser movement. Overall beautifully balanced and fascinating.

bullock, coleman, gross, roden: Untitled, or not yet

2008-07-01T21:01:00.003+10:00

Untitled, or not yet is an album of improvisation recorded in 2003 and now made available on (1.8)sec.records. Michael Bullock plays contrabass, James Coleman Theremin, David Gross alto sax and Steve Roden voice, objects and eletronics. Some well known names, though Steve Roden is less familiar in this context - his forte has been solo works (often site related), a few done as duos, but not a quartet of improvisers before. Track titles have what for me are very Roden names, and have echoes of some of his other releases, starting with low drifting. beneath beams of wind. Here the sax opens with long blowing tones, the bass adds gentle thumps, a strange hiccupy voice and then Theremin hum woobling. The sax is the focus but the other elements join it in a parallel movement towards the slow fade in an equal exchange.

The words which occur to me most frequently while listening to this album were delicate fragile and edge. The music seems likely to fall apart at any time: Gross' sax is mostly hovering on the edge between a breath and a note, the Theremin adds its poignant tones and Roden clatters things but also sings with his strangely naive wordlessness. You can sense the fine line that the individuals and the group were walking, the edge, between chaos and striking music, between noise and sound, between delicacy and hollowness. They come close at times to losing it, but recover and keep the mesmeric tension aloft.

The pieces are indescribable as they shift between sections: but some observations, comments. The four players are equal - the bass is important for tones, scratching, notes and percussive effects - while the sax, voice and Theremin exchange leads but also have wonderful periods where they are in parallel. The things that Roden plays seem varied, clattering noises, blowing bottles, some electronica, possibly radio. At first the Theremin seems underused, but as you listen more closely its part is there as part of the balance. Gross uses all of the quieter sounds that can be garnered from the sax across the album tones, blowing and more stable, popping, simple notes.

Resonant planes. hums and blisters is the longest track and the most varied as the group moves through various moods, while the later tracks such as Steam engines. lilting dances are more concentrated on a mood or movement.

This is another album that I have lived with for a time - and each listen reveals depths and subtleties of this album. It took a long time to get released, and a while for me to review it, but it is a delicate master work and a pleasure to listen to. And it is always exciting to hear one of your favourite musicians in a different context.

And speaking of that favourite musician - Steve Roden is also a fabulous painter, sculptor and possibly filmmaker (I say possibly because I have only seen the stills of his films on his website)so a PS - have a look at his art works at the Vielmetter Gallery - some lovely examples of his latest works (I am jealous of those in LA who can go and visit it!) There are even more on his web-site.

Shelf Life - Concerning the absence of floors

2008-06-29T18:18:00.002+10:00

Another communication from improv ensemble Shelf Life made up of some combinations of Brian Day, Joseph Jaros, Alex Boardman, Luke Polipninck, Jay Kreimer and reviewed a few times here (october & december 2007). Playing guitar, percussion, electronics and more (no thing is listed on this album, but the sound suggests the sources from the past are continuing) they create dense pieces that, to my mind/ear, aspire to be considered as ambient music. They seem to decide on a mood or method for each piece and work within these constraints - which leads to a manageable consistency within tracks while allowing expansion across the album. This leads you to focus on the developing sounds and developments rather than the constant change and surprise that often drives improv albums.

Concerning the Absence of Floors is released by a label called Friends and relatives Records (po box 23, Bloomington, IN, 47402) but looks and sounds like an Eh? release, so could try from there also. The individual tracks are titled obsolescence.<4lettercode>. 5flb is the first and 5flc the second - which is pretty meaningless, which is the general rule with Shelf Life (one albums tracks were anagrams) s I won't repeat them all.

This is an album that straddles ambience and noise - at high volume as you listen to extract the sounds, the noise is to the front, but when you lower the volume for more relaxed consideration it becomes gentler and more persuasive. Again, there seems to be a decided mood/method to each track which provides a unity and held mood. The first is perhaps more scrapey, clickey, some deep tones and percussiveness that loosens in the second half, while the second is more shooshing ambientish scrapes and tones. The fourth track has only 3 players on and has more space in it - fewer people to fill the void - and after a noise-laden first half a strange organ introduces a softer side which develops into an amorphous sound.

The final track is again gentle - a venting, tapping, soft squiggles: the vent erupts but falls away, a slow pulse, shimmering and then a building feedback of noise before backing down to the end. The third track is scrapes and drones, electro and twanging pick, sound pulses buzzing, a gate closing, high squeaking voice sounds, beeps and mumbles building.

Yeah - hard to describe! But as an improvised noise/ambient/wall-of-dense-sound adventure another satisfying release from Shelf Life.

Preslav Literary School - 3 releases

2008-06-27T16:43:00.001+10:00

Working under the arcane name of Preslav Literary School is Adam Thomas, and he has some releases available through Glosses fur die Masses - available as CD-R or download if you contact him via the MySpace page. So what do we we have here before us (in an MP3 sort of way)?

Autumn Bricolage (GFDM002) was the first release of his on the Glosses label. It is a beautiful 32 minute minimalist soundscape, broken into 5 parts. In the first a crowd scene fades into a synth landscape of deep throbs, drifting keyboard shimmers, long notes and a high beeping. This flows straight into the second part, which, after a couple of minutes, reveals its focus: rolling long tones and a flittering sound like a flock of birds flying. Again there is a continuation carrying into the third part during which, after some clicking and woobling, note sequences (which could be described as musical fragments!) develop. In the next section bird song becomes obvious as an adjunct to these tunes, creating a lovely mood that slowly dissolves in the final section as components drop out ending with a repeated high note and some of the birds. The throbbing parts of this work wonderfully through the speaker system, but there is also an intimacy that emerges through earphones. A relatively simple work that is quite captivating.

It was followed by Live At Tripswitches (GFMD003), which Adam described to me as 'not particularly interesting or representative and not the greatest quality'. However I badgered him for a copy of this, which was one of his early gigs! It is a brief 16 minutes characterised by samples over which rapid electro pulses dance, layered , with some slower deeper ones occasionally passing through (Good advice); slow stately synth passages, simple but very effective, morphing into some Middle Eastern orchestra (The third function of dialogue); and finally percussive tapes with more slow deep organ-synths plus some higher warbly ones (Daylight never seemed to appear) where the sample is looped and crackles fascinatingly. I find it interesting, simple and effective, and doesn't need to be 'buried' - and actually reminded me of the earlier Oblique-Graph Muslimgauze in terms of its electronics.

And then the current release Pretext/Context (GFMD010) recorded live for Resonance FM. And the medium and message interact here - PLS have created 2 extended parts, broken into 4 subsections on the basis of changes, which at times sound like a random search through a poor radio-reception area where things emerge from some white-noise pulsing electro to slide into periods of stability; voice recordings have extended periods (rather like tripswitches). Pretext is perhaps more abstract, opening with piano-notes that are distorted and joined by noises, a casiotone slide in, there is a voice-tape deep, a drone that moves into the second part which has piano in it, wavy drones, guitary thrugs and bird songs which will extend throughout now. In the third part there are water samples, birds moving from fore to back ground, indistinct samples and then pulses of birds and white noise. The final section takes an extended sample about bird songs and adds the other elements - casiotone, pulses noises, weaving in and out, ending with an ice-cream van casiotone tune. Context is more grounded in long samples and perhaps more distorted and sqwirlly. White noise and hum, a sample of Treaty Now fading in and out, whistling. A big band jazzy sample comes ion with the second part, with Fur Elise from a phone and the a cool definition of hip and a discussion of the hip Columbus - while string-drenched Satie wavers. The third part has some writing tips amid soft tones, casiotone, pulsing, and birdsong that drift into the final section and an extended period of 'radio search' as pulses, white noises, noise and birds dueting, snatches of music and an extended tone signals the end. Hopefully the description makes this sound interesting! Because it manages a fine balance between deconstructing itself and creating an audio-environmental soundscape that is fascinating and diverting. The ongoing clash between bird song, voices, electronica and simple melody makes these three releases cohere as individual works and demonstrating the development of PLS.

The label is run by Adam and two others who are all members of Kodiak, obviously have releases, and features various combinations solo or in groups. Haven't heard any of the other releases - but look out for these three, and they suggest that other releases would be worth considering.

A Tomato A Day - The moon is green

2008-06-23T17:59:00.000+10:00

Fresh from Public Eyesore comes Brian Poloncic recording as A Tomato A Day (helps keeps the tornado away) with The moon is green (PE106). Poloncic is an Omaha musician who falls into the outsider artist/musician category (Daniel Johnson is a close parallel) - as defined in Wikipedia it is 'music performed either by social outsiders, who have no or few associates in the mainstream music business, or by musicians who choose to live and work in seclusion, often due to compromising behavioral or psychological conditions'. Outsiders are not always outside - Syd Barrett is also cited - and their art (often visual) can be highly sought and collected. Poloncic has been in and out of hospitalis, diagnosed with schizophrenia, andwrote lo-fi music distributed by cassette in the 90s. He moved into more experimental music but has recently moved back to song writing, and this short album (possibly originally intended to be 10" vinyl based on some comments on the web) has emerged.

But the music should not be sought because of its source but should stand on its own as music. And here Tomato succeed admirably as it is a gentle, lo-fi, folkish gem. Poloncic plays guitar and percussion, in addition to singing; and is joined by David Downing on cello, Allen Hug synth and Dave Norodin bass to create a smooth engaging sound. The acoustic guitar is to the fore, supported by percussion and Poloncic's voice which is soft, mostly low in the mix and somewhat indistinct, but with an edge that at times reminded me of Neil Young or Roger McGuinn - it is fragile and vulnerable, but not weak or broken. The synth and bass add generally subtle hints, but it is the cello that draws this album to its heights: the warmth and depth of its note are a wonderful addition. Without the cello this would be just another folky guitar album, but the instrument is allowed to stretch through the songs and the timbre suits the softness of Poloncic's approach.

In terms of the seven songs, they are lyrical musically with well placed and mixed components - the percussion entering at the right time, finely balanced cello solos. Moonshine is a gentle opener, the pace builds into Silver fox, with more yearning to the voice and some nice little picks that sound almost electronic. Winter wind is bright; Halo has clearer lyrics sung more strongly and a captivating guitar melody. The highest kite is another strong clear vocal, while electric guitar features in In a book with a dense rhythm - and here is the first really clear reference in the lyrics to sanity. Finally, Build a town, that recalled early Cat Stevens, and the voice/guitar/cello play beautifully in parallel.

This is not a curio, but a very strong lofi/folk release that is just too short - but well worth spending some time with. Lets hope for a longer one next time.

Constant

2008-06-13T18:26:00.002+10:00

In the tradition of Webbed Hand's Rain series (see blog here) comes the Constant drone exploration. Originally a release on Webbed Hands by Mystified (back reference) it was taken up by Zen Potato Drone company (internet archive here) where a number of people, including mystified put together releases along the same trajectory: in short 'one extended drone sound, though full of interesting artifacts and harmonics'. After 6 releases on that net-label Thomas Park has taken the ball back and released 8 more pieces on his own TreeTrunk label (see link in sidebar) by himself and others including K.M.Krebs. As well he has created Constant Mix - a compilation of the first 10, which gradually dissolve into each other; and C Reider offers Inconstant - which removes the drones and leaves a minimal wonder.

And as a Mystified/Park by the way, there are two 'disks' of early techno from Park's Auto-Cad project available. Quite different but you can see some influences and suggestions of his current directions.

Marcelo Radulovich: Mercurio

2008-06-10T21:52:00.000+10:00

Marcelo Radulovich - part of Trummerflora, a phonographer, heard on Accretions and producer of solo material via Titicacamanbox: reviewed at &etc often - has produced another solo-distributed album of songs - Mercurio. The title suggests mercurial, mercury, a curio, a sub-anagram of his whole name. And the music meets that varied constellation of ideas, such that a track by track run through may be the best approach. But a note on his voice first - it is a gruff heartbreaking and emotive instrument, instantly recognisable in the same way that Tom Waits is - though not like or unlike him. His lyrics are poetic and intriguing, and are sung or recited often at the same time in multitracking, sometimes for harmony and others layering slightly out-of-phase in different styles

Turn on the phone - guitars, percussion, keyboards coalesce into the song and the album, then the voice enters, softer and perhaps sweeter (less husky) than earlier albums (more obviously sung), quieter layers behind, cluttering spoon percussion, a brief breakdown as a vocal-note jumps, then returning to the gentle song.
Purge it from the world - impressively the most hooky songs on the album are some of the most political - this jolly loungey number with hum-along doodoodoos has the chorus 'If we don't like it, we purge it from the world'
Paris ampheta - crackling electronica winds for about a minute continues as a slow melody of drums and keys as Radulovich chews out an echoed poem, allusive and intriguing.
For real - a more centralist song (for Radulovich) that deserves the radio tag - hooks, a more abstract echoed percussive opening, bass, twangy acoustic guitar then Marcelo's vocals, multitracked, yearning. A guitar solo over violin/guitar scrape-bowing ends a 'radio' song.
How it goes - relaxed, bucolic - electronic soundscape of watery crackles and birdsong builds throughout, simple acoustic guitar, harmonised vocals.
Evolution - tuned percussion, vocal as from a radio, then the lyrics sung, spoken and singing alternate/overlay, strangely a Prince-like scream/squeak pops up a few times
Trying to convince me - a lovely crystal ringing - almost a separate track - then a rocking heavy number reminiscent of the last album title track.
Swastikas - totally weird, possibly my favourite track, a cracked poem about banners with swastikas, blood spatter patterns, spoken/sung in different voices overlapping and repeating over a minimal atonal backing.
Keep the watch - hissing sample, layered miltitracked recitation of a short poem over an electronic soundscape
Tartamudo - longest on the album, vinyl crackles with bubbling bloops for a minute, then a distant ambient/frippy guitar slides under a Spanish sung/spoken lyric, percussion eruptions, shifting emotions in vocalisation and music - I wish I understood the language - what is that slurping near the end?
A territorial invasion - distant music as a squeaky voice asks 'let me out of here', the song is a bright and jolly musical number, underscored by the voice recurring,
Sate sane - a melodica, flowing Spanish, loose strung guitar, intimate and felt
Combra siembra - a cracking cracked soundscape, Spanish again, bass enters to stabilise and progress the music.
In case I forgot to mention - another overtly political piece to end the album - including samples of George Bush (some used before in the EP - The Evil One). The first part is a song of regret 'In case I forgot to mention, we voted for you, keep thinking about interventions, and how to get rid of you' -again a refrain whose music burns into your brain; it then morphs into a soundscape where the repeated phrase 'he's a torturer, he's a deceiver ...' seems to lose its initial target and turn back on George Bush. Drifting crackles, guitar and percussive shimmers overly distant speech snatches. A fine, unusual and fitting conclusion.

It is personal, political, melodic, abstract at each turn, often in the same song as he has musical ideas that he doesn't want to throw out: the opening of Trying to convince me, for instance, doesn't have much to do with the 'song' part, but is a lovely piece that adds to the contrasts of the album. Whether radio would actually play the tracks labelled (Radio) I am not sure. What I do know is that I will play it, that like his previous album there are songs that have hooked themselves into my brain and are still banging about in there, and that Marcelo is a talented and unique guy, with a unique voice (both literally, but also in terms of his lyrics and music). Seek this from him cause music like this needs to be heard.

Transvalue: Book III - The '58 retractable hardtop

2008-06-10T10:29:00.001+10:00

Another out of the blue - Transvalue are Chuck Britt (vocals) Michael Vlatkovich (trombone, composition) and David Crigger (drums, electronics) with an extensive cast of supporters on instruments and vocals. As the title implies, this is the third release, out on thank you records (disk site here).

And if you get this it is worth going to the site - because one centre of this album is the words: Britt is beat-influenced flamboyant wordsmith and reciter. These are complex dramatic amusing and evocative poems put to music, and delivered musically (not a spoken-word album). There are choruses and hooks to his lyrics, they are rich in detail metaphor and humanity, and drive the album forward. In many pieces, as a good performance poet, there are repeated elements of words (such as know in Not knowing, or Yes in For Alec from Pappy or structural elements such as the ten-year steps of The father or the memory returns of The new day) that offer pace and focus. Themes include relationships, politics, remembrance that are specific and universal.

But there is also the music created by Vlatkovich. This varies from relatively straightforward big-band jazz in Of dancers or The new day, a tango of Not knowing, or the nostalgic piano and alto of Frances' cheeks, in all of which there are extensive solos like the piano and then trumpet that plays while they dance to the flute and drum in The new day. In The father the music follows the lines of the song, while in Wars for the numb (02-21-91) there is a dense bed of percussive processing that suits the song and For Alec from Pappy has a similar but less dark soundscape. The music combines careful and sympathetic writing with the freedom to improvise.

There are two extended tracks - the ostensible title track is a lovely development of a father/son theme that traverses 50s doowop, faster group work, choruses and a final reflective coda: a wild ride in the hardtop indeed, Wedding song - which opens 'The horror/Only survivors made us/Eons of fear and voiceless estrangement/Eons of coercion, violation and destruction/No one knew' is the most complex lyrically - the poem appears to be an epithalmion which balances the despair and fear with the hope which is represented by love and family. The music reflects this complexity, a pastoral opening is undone by the lyrics and then includes operatic/chorale elements with additional voices and slipping through a variety of styles. I am not sure that it is 100% effective but it is absorbing.

And then, to end the album, comes a further surprise - pianist Hartman wrote the music for The kissing song, a gentle piece with a yearning cello line through that offers a final reflective passage, underscored by Britt's vocals - and I mean vocals. To this point he has been gruff spoken/recitative but here he sings with a mellow croonerish 50s tone that swings the album in a different direction, ending on a subtle note.

The three (old) geezers on the cover of this album, the cheesy colours and layout of it and the site, e lie an album of breadth, musicality and sophistication which is a surprise and delight.

Courtis, Yamamoto and Yoshimi: Live at Kanadian

2008-06-09T20:48:00.002+10:00

Live in Kanadian: Anla Courtis is known from the Reynols and solo albums while the two Japanese members are apparently from the Boredoms - and this release from Public Eyesore (#110) is a record of a live show in Osaka.

Unstructured and improvised, as always hard to describe, this album sucked me in and entertained me. I don't know anything about the instrumentation except Courtis plays guitar, there is electronics, processing and percussion. The first track is something of the noisiest and is centred around the guitar with some electronics, feedback and manipulation. We then move to a track that features the hook for this album - Yoshimi's voice - it ranges from screaming to singing, is looped echoed and stretched and adds that extra dimension an album like this needs to stand out.Here it slips in and out of some electronics guitar percussion, bubbling and sliding, screaming and appealing.

Then a piece that is more about electronics and guitar - there are some singing and some dirty solos in this one - the other elements are there also, vocal hisses and squeaks, organ, keyboards and it moves along into its various excursions. Something that is obvious is that these are accomplished musicians - they are playing their instruments, not playing with them, and their skill allows them to take them in exciting new places.

The first three tracks, shorter at 10 minutes each, seem like an opportunity for each member to shine, while the final piece - 26 - is where they all come together. It shifts in structure, instrumentation, speed and density, my page of notes impossible to reproduce (and boring to read). Enough to say it carries you along with its shifts and turns, while less focused than the earlier pieces. Improv albums are hard to listen to, hard to review: you have to pick the right time for both. This one impressed me greatly over a number of plays - hard work but the effort is repaid. You know what to expect and it delivers and more. I enjoyed it.

free music galore

2008-05-11T11:25:00.003+10:00

a couple of pointers.

Someone who is as eclectic as I am runs the Free Albums Galore blog. This ranges from classical through jazz to electro and electronic. Mystified is there, as are a number of recognised names. But a couple of surprises - Nine Inch Nails - their two most recent albums are free to download, and the Ghosts instrumental double disk set is still available from Internet Archives (pointed to from FaG); there are some various artists compilations of early electronica which are from the Earlabs LaboratoireClassique label that are hard to get to from the front page (some can be found if you search on 'lc'); the Piano Society has a great collection; there are some lesser know classical composers I have found and lots lots lots more - they try and do one a day.

And We7 continues to supply surprises - I am now playing Clara Rockmore's classoc album of piano and theremin versions of classics. And the latest downloads seem to be free of the advert - I am not sure what's going on as the site hasn't mentioned that. Perhaps a temporary glitch

Hess/Tilman: Departures

2008-05-04T17:25:00.003+10:00

Steven Hess (drums, vibraphone) and Miles Tilman (electronics) are part of Fessendon which was reviewed a couple of months ago (december). Here they work as a duo on Departures, a vinyl-only release on Other Electricities.

This is a stunning ambient album - while there are three tracks on either side they tend to flow into each other and separately identifying them is always hard: trying to see where the groove structure changes. But basically this is one that I have put on and then just allowed to wash over me until it sadly ends, trun it over and start again, or stay on the same side. Hess sets up rhythms and melodies which then get fractured looped smeared and rendered through Tilman's electronics. Sometimes you are there at the start of a sequence such as the opening asleep/awake where the percussion mutates into a hazy atmospheric wonder or the rumbling crackle, drum-kit and bells/gongs that is echoed and pattered to ambient heaven in arrivals with washes and a terminal flurry. Doppler has more beats in there amongst the electronic playfulness; percussion cascades into tonal pleasures. But within each developed and developing soundwork there are emergent percussive components, identifed elements from the analog origin. The final track, six by six, adds Michael Dahlman (no indication of what he does) for a final pulsing throbbing evolving rolling sound mystery that encompasses you.

This is the type of album that makes me pleased I have still got a player set up. It is engrossing but mysterious and mercurial, hypnotic and intense - but strangely not dark. Get a new needle for your turntable and flota away.

Lisle Ellis - Sucker Punch Requiem

2008-04-25T15:28:00.005+10:00

One of the advantages of the &etc slowdown is spending more time getting to know albums - less need for a quick turn around. Especially if the album suffers from first-track selection issues. It must be hard to pick the opener, and can be an issue - the Breketc album took a while to get past the two long improvs, and I remember when I went to hear PiL's Second Edition at the local record store they started with the second track as Albatross was thought to be not representative (Poptones on that album still gives me shivers, as does The Jam's Down in the tube station at midnight). Anyway, on to this release.

Created by Lesle Ellis, Sucker Punch Requiem (Henceforth 104) is 'An homage to Jean-Michael Basquiat' based around a group on voice/electronics, flutes, sax, trombone, piano, bass/electronics and drums/percussion. Planned by Lisle over an extended period, 2 days of recording, then editing/constructing finalising. Which brings us to the getting into. The first track is Summonings: this is a 3:40 minute musique concrete construction that reminded me of Wall or Doyle: voice, percussion and some of the instruments in a cut&paste collage calling on SAMO (a Basquiat tag). This continues in the opening of Incantation and ascent - bubbling electronica and manipulation. I listened a few times but wasn't in the mood for abstract expressionist music and so it sort of laid around, occasionally sampled when some other sides seemed to be striving for a hearing.

And then, during a full listening, I realised that there were two aspects to the album. A smaller part is the constructed stream, from the opening it appears in a number of 'interludes' - shorter pieces which are titled Perishable fig. 1a to 3. These create interesting contrasts to the longer parts, and carry the themes of the opening.
Most of the album, however, is more straightforward jazz from the group. In Incantation... a gentle piano comes in, modern romantic, sax and brush percussion and some electronica as background - all quite stately. Some of the shorter tracks feature sub-groups - X-ray gray has piano over a bed of bowed bass, Bas Relief bright piano/sax/percussion. When the whole group gets together for most of the other tracks there is a nice swing and groove to their playing, solos scattered throughout, shifting between subtle understatement, playfullness and some edgy improvs. The three tracks Colour bind (oracle)/Suicide study/colour bind (oracle) has the wind playing chordal progressions (which reminds me of Zappa I think) then the piano enters with bass and sax as the flute trills sliding into a flute/piano duet on the second track until a piano/bass/percussion trio takes the running and then returning to the chords for a running jumping group tilt at the oracle.

To conclude the album, Perishable Fig.3 invokes madness before Untitled (life stilled) is a gentle reflective group-based finale with haunting vocals. This album eventually unfolded its strengths to me - the balance between strong group pieces and the concrete elements eventually works once you get into the album. For some people there may be too much dissonance between the two components as the bulk of the album is accessible and fresh from an obviously talented ensemble. However, that accessibility should allow people to enjoy all aspects of this satisfying and complex work.

Electronic music podcast

2008-04-25T14:42:00.002+10:00

Thanks to K M Krebs for this pointer - to a 10 part series of podcasts described thus:

The 10 part series called ‘The Tone Generation’ is presented by electronic musician and film-maker Ian Helliwell. Starting in Europe and finishing in the Southern Hemisphere Ian will be playing vintage tracks - some celebrated, many obscure and overlooked, to give an overview of electronic music.

The first two, England and France, are available and fascinating - mainly musical excerpts with some voice explanations and connections. Based on his album collection these are little heard works. Well worth checking out
http://www.simonsound.co.uk/52/the-tone-generation-around-the-world-in-electronic-sound.htm

Bob and Ellen Weller

2008-04-22T19:03:00.006+10:00

mcartney
This recent Circumvention disk is a Weller family affair - Bob plays (prepared) piano, Ellen a variety of wind (flute, but also sax, clarinet, fife, recorders, ocarina, jaw harp), Charlie mastered it and Danny gave constructive appraisal. Point of Contact (052) is by Bob and Ellen Weller with Mark Dresser (who plays bass on 4 tracks, but in a lennon/mccartney-ish gesture it states 'all tracks are composed by Weller/Weller/Dresser).

The overall feel of the album is decidedly modern classical/experimental/avant-gardish (yes - hard to describe: modern classicalperhaps) in terms of the harmonies and rhythms, and less freeform 'jazz'. The prepared piano provides percussive aspects, at times solo but usually in conjunction with the winds - in an equal not supportive role. Ellen's playing traverses the flute possibilities without overuse of voicing, and is expressive and fluid - and nicely balanced/broadened by the other instrumentation. There are 15 tracks across the album, and I won't try and describe them all. The first 9 are a loose collection which include Coalescence - a lovely trio with a Middle Eastern line to it; Cassini-Huygens which is a contemplative bass/flute duo, flute solo (Mandelbrot), clarinet and some inside the piano playing in Concatenation and the extended exploration of Spiral galaxy whose ten minutes are used to great effect to explore the relationship in the duo. There is some lightness too, in the jaw harp and ocarina of Strange attractor. In the tracks with Dresser the bass adds a distinctive tone that underpins some of the more extravagant flights such as Collusion which gets quite frightening at times!

Point of contact is a suite of 4 short tracks (Point of ... contact, departure, no return, impact) which is where the modernist side emerges strongly as the balance between piano and wind changes. In the first the piano is more stable while the flute trills, things then become more punchy as sax replaces flute. In the third the wind is smooth, the piano more jagged while finally the sax is playful and the piano running with a big chord to close.

Finally there are Two marches: Fog of war and Aftermath. These are imagistic pieces - the first seems lighter with both flute and sax providing colour but becoming more edgy towards the end: the first flush of optimism in a war. In the aftermath the reality sets in -flute and clarinet play a military piece (whose name escapes me) which becomes mournful, while the piano is fractured behind it - a powerful metaphor, and a strong conclusion to a similarly strong and inventive album that asks a lot of the listener but which repays the investment.

miscellaneous news

2008-04-14T16:52:00.003+10:00

final post on the itunes/bruckner issue. the collection finally became active and able to be bought at $90 plus (from the advertised $17). To complete the album it was also that price. I emailed them again, they explained that DG had revised the pricing and that was it - but they sent me another 5 free track credits, so I ain't too unhappy (not sure i actually wanted the bruckner, but have been interested in hearing some and $17 was worth it!)

and today i had a brain scan. during the procedure the only music they had was some andreas botticeli (or however it is spelt) which was ok - but what was great was the industrial remix: great 4/5 5/5 thumps, a period of repetitve sirenlike wails, whirring and so forth. made the time pass very quickly - and wish i could have recorded it somehow!

eh? tu: diamondhead and brekekekexkoaxkoax

2008-04-13T20:51:00.001+10:00

A couple more from Eh?, with two more just arrived in the mail. These are quite distinct, but are (or seem) compilations.

Diamondhead, offering Dirty Realism (eh?34) provide no information on what the three members play - the grainy cover image shows guitars and drums - but the music includes keyboards. And the cover photo also indicates something about the music - it is murky and at times indistinct. The tracks here, apparently improvised, are relatively short, and the disk has the feel to me of being a compilation of some more 'experimental' bits of jams that have been taped over a while. They often come from nowhere and just end. Opening and closing are two ambient quiet pieces, keyboards providing drones as subtle guitar and drums are added, with some electronica and phonography in 12. In the second track a little piano loop and later a piano solo combines with feedbacky guitar, while drones and organ working together in 4, the piano returning for 6 and 7 (where there is a bit of continuity) which has an increasing tempo. the guitar was more forceful in 3, but still a restrained ambience, though the single repeated bass notes that open 5 leads into a more aggressive work from the guitar and drums (with some tape-jumps). Becky Lilly adds some flute to 8 which works well with the feedback and piano. 9, 10 and 11 are more straightforward drum and guitars pieces, including some nice wah-wah and a bit more of a rocking feel, but still within the more ambient side. The individual tracks here are enjoyable and offer interesting aspects of ambience, but I couldn't feel an overarching aesthetic drive, nor a resplendant diversity which could compensate. You get the feeling that Diamondhead could do more, but this album is not a failure but a definite stepping stone that provides its own pleasures.

Brekekekexkoaxkoax (Josh Rosen) have put together a definite compilation in I manage to get out by a secret door (eh?35) comprising 2 improvs withJason Pierce, 2 solo pieces and another 2 improvs (with Glen Nuckolls and Genevieve Walsh) recorded between 2002 and 2006. Taking them out of order: Shoham ( which is track 3) is a wonderful layering of electronics providing ambient vibrating feedback with ringing tones in it. The mood returns in the fifth track - Art brings a tiny gleam, swamped in garrulousness (yes, titles as long as the pseudonym!) where turntables and guitars are added - again vibrant, ringing, chimes drones a crackling and a lovely long fade. Between these two We ought to have but one single thought is the first piece with Nuckolls and Walsh (guitars, drums, flute). The two guitars work here to provide an almost rocking/bluegrass feel as they develop the piece, gathering pace, the electric guitar a tonal wahwahing base. In the last few minutes it becomes more edgy and the addition of flute provides new tones. Jacob Green (percussion, electronics, oboe: and the others are now on percussion, guitar, flute and oboe) for the closing These are mere words, powerless, useless whose first half is full percussion with guitar through, while the woodwinds offer a tonal ambient second half. These two pieces are less than 10 minutes each and work well. Where I had some difficulty with the album was the first two tracks - 35 minutes - which is just Ronsen on prepared guitar and Jason Pierce on drums. Banality may vanish and truth may appear is almost 20 minutes of plinky prepared guitar whose percussive effects are paralleled by the percussion. The full range of picking, some feedback, scraping, playing etc are worked through but for me this was an opener that didn't really go anywhere for the first 15 minutes but did find a focus near the end. I kept skipping the second track - I never saw the end of the fire - fearing 16 similar minutes. However, when I did get round to it I really enjoyed it - more active from both guitar and drums, gets almost beaty at times, but also struck through with ambient tones. This is a good album - the variety on it provides a welcome diversion. However I would program the album with this track first, then the others alternating as currently and ending with the current first track as a long farewell. And make it an even better album.