A follow up to last year's successful "Masses" cd, on which UK electronica duo Spring Heel Jack edited and manipulated the raw improvisations of a host of Downtown NYC (and beyond) jazz musicians, in what was one of the the best and most original entries yet in Thirsty Ear's pretty great "Blue Series" of happenin' now jazz. Like that disc, this one also fortunately eschews the obvious "let's add some techno beats to this trumpet solo" kind of thing you might expect from an electronica remix project, and really approaches the music from within, SHJ using their computers carefully to meld disparate performances together into something that definitely remains jazz -- but with an undercurrent of glitchy crackle and drone. It's kind of like a free jazz version of Radian or Pluramon (to cite two computer-aided post-rock/electronica projects, both faves around here). The SHJ fellows are really listening and reacting, like improvisors do, and there are some great musicians on here for them (and us) to listen to. There's two returnees from the "Masses" line-up: legendary British saxophonist Evan Parker and Blue Series curator Matthew Shipp (on Fender Rhodes). And then there's also the likes of trombonist Paul Rutherford, drummer Han Bennink, violinist Ed Coxon, bassist George Trebar, trumpter Kenny Wheeler, bassist John Edwards, and, the oddball in the bunch, guitarist Jason Pierce of Spiritualized fame (who must be responsible for the distorted guitar noise found on "Maroc" and elsewhere).
With that kind of talent on hand, SHJ had a lot to work with, and they did a great job, creating layered compositions that retain the player's voices even as they are juxataposed into unimagined new situations. The results are moody, melodic but abstract, rarely (but sometimes) abrasive, nicely noir-ish...android jazz for some Blade Runner coctail bar. Dark, dense, lovely.
Jazz purists might scoff, but actually we'd rather listen to this than a lot of straight improv stuff done by the above musicians -- the combination of the instrumentalists' unfettered expression and SHJ's editing and structuring (and sonic additions) really works well here. Recommended.
Hefty Records has been one the most consistently underwhelming record labels that has emerged in the last five years or so; yet, money won't ever be an issue for proprietor John Hughes III as he is the son of the director John Hughes. So, there will always be a steady supply of Savath + Savalas, Slicker, and other generic post-rock / hip-hop hybrid albums residing in the bargain bins until all of the royalties dry up from "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty In Pink" (not a likely proposition). Thus it seemed odd that the US debut from Shitkatapult / Kompakt pseudo-superstar T. Raumschmiere would land on Hefty. Mostly known for generating an ironic electro-punk swagger culled from the '70s glam rock of Gary Glitter, T. Raumschmiere (aka Marco Haas) has garnered some incredible press including the media bite on salesticker of "Anti" stating, "If the new rock has no guitars, then this is its Elvis Presley." Well, such claims may be justified for albums such as their brazenly crunchy "The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle," but they are far from the truth in describing "Anti." This album finds Haas producing the spartan, swing techno-grooves that Wolfgang Voigt had been composing a couple of years back before going into hibernation after the Gas album "Pop." Sure, the beats have a lusty hip-sway reminiscent of the best libidinal rock 'n' roll, but the rest of the production isn't exactly over the top. Rather, Haas creates quiet, somewhat gritty atmospheres around those rhythms with minor-key drones and sputtering mechanizations. If you're looking for a follow-up to the Gas album "Konigsforst," this will do very well for you, but if you're looking for that electro-punk thing, you're better off with Electronicat or Gold Chains "Straight From Your Radio."
With that bouncing monotous march and those big dum-dum glam-rock riffs, T. Raumschmiere cranks through six tracks of shuffletime techno as heard in Electronicat and the last Gold Chain's EP. A couple of these tracks venture more into Love Parade rave territory, but still have enough of enough of an electro-strut in them that you have to wonder when some mash-up smart-ass is going make a shuffle mix with this stuff backing Gary Glitter, Sweet, and T-Rex. Four of the tracks had previously appeared on earlier 12" with the other 4 being new to this album.
Theoretical Girls (Jeffrey Lohn, Wharton Tiers, Margaret Dewys & Glenn Branca), fixtures of the New York no-wave scene, only released one single back in the day. The tunes Branca penned can be found on his 1977-79 Static/Theoretical Girls compilation; Jeffery Lohn's contributions are collected on this new 19 track disc. Lohn wanted to combine punk rock with avant-garde classical composition. Less sharply jagged and jarring than Branca's compositions, these very lo-fi recordings have a definite element of straight-up, Dead Boys-style, dirty, stripped-down RAWK. Some tracks bring on the full on noise destruction, while others display a punk anthemic-ness almost on the level of Wire's first album. One of the most striking things on first hearing this disc is the blatancy with which Theoretical Girls provided a blueprint for Sonic Youth, especially in the spoken vs. sung vocal interplay; Lohn's voice is even a bit reminiscent of Thurston Moore's (or is it the other way around?). The degree of classical rigor isn't exactly clear, if it's even really there at all, but what does shine through is some immensely influential, kick-ass New York noise rock. Keyword: Raw.
Over the next year, German electronic / new music composer Asmus Tietchens will be re-issuing many of the vinyl only albums that had been published during the last couple of decades. With a catalogue as massive as Tietchens' (rivalling both Muslimgauze and Merzbow in sheer volume of work), there are bound to be some duds. Fortunately, this 2CD reissue of two limited edition LPs originally released on Korm Plastics 'Ambient Series' is NOT one of those. While the press release describes "Eisgang / Dammerattacke" as "not your everyday ambient music," these two albums fall within the 'classic' definition of ambient as proposed by Brian Eno. Both of these albums use similar tonal palettes with vaguely chilly, but far from ominous electronic washes soaked in blurring reverb, and are slightly more dramatic than Eno's "On Land" or like those darkened Gas albums devoid of their skeletal rhythms.
Stalwart German electronic composer Asmus Tietchens presents the third in the 'teilmengen' series. It appears that this series features recordings of generative sound from a computer program called "Perpetuum Mobile", but then again, the broken English from the press-release has the tone of a poor internet translation. Regardless, this album sounds like the infinite variations which can be generated from a granular synthesis patch on Max / MSP.
This new Tipsy cd is so appropriately titled! The lively festivities feature some fabulous reworkings of their playful trip hop tracks by a bunch of AQ faves from around the globe: Matmos (SF), People Like Us (Kent), Bran Flakes (Seattle), and Optiganally Yours (San Diego), as well as World Standard (Tokyo), High Llamas (London), Curd Duca (Vienna) and nine others. With nutty collage cover art (guinea pigs! green slime! shag carpet!) that'd be just as suited on a cd by Stock, Hausen & Walkman or the aforementioned People Like Us. Very bubbly and fun, for people who don't take electronica without a dose of bubblegum.
Brand new, fifth full length album (including the one he did as Cujo) from Amon Tobin. I recently raved about the pre-release cd single Verbal (that fucking great song appears here too), so I'll papraphrase a bit: Tobin's music, as typified by his two most recent albums Supermodified and Permutations, which are deeply beloved by just about everyone who works here at AQ, not to mention many many AQ customers such as yourself, takes samples of the most wildly diverse material -- no programmed beats for this Brazilian-turned-Briton -- and recombines them into a style utterly his own. That might not sound like much of a feat, and yeah sure everyone's doing it, but like fellow vinyl sampler DJ Shadow, Tobin really does make irrelevant the fact that the source material is sampled, so seamlessly and proficiently does he distill his own style. In fact, when Cup heard this record, even though the *elements* of the "Verbal" track -- cartoonish speed rapping courtesy MC Decimal R, flamenco-ish guitar -- weren't typically Tobin fodder, she correctly pointed out that the *sound* of the music made it nonetheless totally recognizable as his own. There's film noir-ish tension, thundering big beats, tumbling tomtoms, itchy chatterings and menacing flutterings amidst the jungly energy. So interesting, never repetitive or predictable.
If you're already into him, you know you need to get this now, and if you're new to Amon Tobin, start right here. You won't be disappointed, promise!
Tracy + the Plastics is the low-fi electro-dance solo project of Wynne Greenwood, an Olympia, WA-based artist. She used to be in the video-band Meme America and now she has taken on the alter-ego of Tracy, and her own two sidekicks, Nikki Romanos and Cola. Live, Tracy performs while the other two accompany her as pre-programmed video-projections. Quite impressive with the split personality, schizo, tight, well-rehearsed performance art. Both recorded and live Tracy and The Plastics strongly draws comparison to Julie Ruin (another alter ego electronica/ dance band solo project) by both taking on the characteristics of Kathleen Hanna's voice and the mood of the casiotone, low-fi, drum machine madness.
This is her second release on Chainsaw Records and was recorded by Joe Preston (of the Thrones, the Need, and the Melvins), Donna Dresch, and Tracy herself.
99 artists given 45 seconds to do as they wish. It's best to think of this like an audio equivalent of an Exquisite Corpse, the Surrealist parlor game in which a drawing or a sentence would be created by a group of people, who had concealed the nature of the preceding drawings or words, and thus often resulting in absurd creations that characterized the "unconscious reality of the personality of the group." Artists include: Safety Scissors, Stars As Eyes, Lali Puna, D84 (aka Blevin Blectum), Hood, John Tejada, Phthalocyanine, Languis, Sutekh, Tarentel, Martin Rev, Kim Cascone, Jan Jelinek, DJ Spooky, and dozens more. In case anybody cares, the Coelacanth found on this compilation is not the same Coelacanth comprised of Loren Chasse and AQ's Jim Haynes. Oh well.
Originally released in 1983 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta, Volume II", as the companion volume to the release now known as "Savannah Rhythms". The music on this album, even more than most others in the African portion of the Nonesuch Explorer series, is dominated by percussion instruments: calabash, metal objects, hand clapping, and all manner of drums. Which isn't to say that there are no melodic instruments contained here. A jirkil (a one string lute) makes its appearance quite often, as do the occasional thumb pianos and, of course, voice.
Originally released in 1981 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta", the change to the more poetic "Burkina Faso" (meaning "Land of Upright Men") was bestowed upon the nation by its Marxist leader a year after this album was originally issued. Performed in ritual -- the editor stresses this music as being performed "'with' people, not 'for' them" -- from everyday activities such as harvesting in the fields to special events such as weddings, the music on this disc is as varied as the events it accompanies. The disc begins with a couple of great xylophone (or marimba) ensembles performing during a wedding celebration, but also featured on this disc are tracks including mouth harp and flute, fife and drums, chorus, one-stringed lute and calabash, gourd clarinet and rattles, and more xylophones. One little detail purchasers may note is that there apparently was a bit of a track listing screw up whereby four cuts don't match their corresponding descriptions, but determined buyers can easily figure out which tracks go with which descriptions (and who knows, this problem may be fixed in subsequent pressings.)
Originally released in 1979, Ancient Ceremonies is a collection of recordings from the country of Ghana. Unlike the High Life And Other Popular Music release which features music from the same country, the recordings on this disc focus on -- as the title suggests -- ancient music, which is completely devoid of any inflluence of Western music (of European or Afro-American.) That said, in the music of Adolphis Micah -- who accompanies himself with a one-stringed bowed lute called a gonje -- one can distinctly hear the roots of blues music. It's actually too bad that more music of Micah wasn't included on this disc, because it's definitely the highlight of the album. Also nice though are the tracks included here of music performed on the dzil and chohun, both xylophones (and ancestors of the marimba) which are played by two people facing one another. Unlike the Europeanized version of the aforementioned marimba, they include a thin membrane of spider web under their resonators which creates a buzzing tone when the keys are struck. The rest of the tracks consist primarily of drum and chant tracks with the occasional flute. Along with the standard liner notes, album editor Stephen Jay has included a glossary of musical instruments heard on the disc.
Faust's Hans Joachim Irmler compiled this collection of tracks from what might (might!) be termed modern-day krautrock bands -- even if they're not all strictly from Germany -- which includes not one but two tracks from Finnish AQ faves Circle, along with contributions from Faust, Irmler himself, Ole Lukkoye, Kangaroo Moon, Audiac, Nista Nije Nista, Adriano Lanzi & Omar Sodano, S/T, and (most bizarrely), indie hip-hoppers Dalek! Now, we have to confess that aside from a few obvious ones, we're not really familar with this line-up of artists. But of course, that's the whole point of the compilation, to introduce Faust's Klangbad label's roster. Most of which seems oriented towards the experimental, spacey, dark, droney, and repetitive. Even the Dalek track here fits in with that description. But you'll find some cuts are poppier, some are jazzier. Although we didn't care terribly much for the electronic trip-pop of Audiac, or the clubby lounge-electronica-rap-prog of Kangaroo Moon, this has the advantage of being a compilation, so those unfortunately cheesy cuts are soon superceded by more interesting ones, like the abstract jazzy soundscapes of Nista Niji Nista or Irmler's droning "Museum". Oye Lukkoye ends the album with the nine-minute "White Stone (Net Doma)", kind of an ethnic/beat epic in the mode of the Magic Carpathians. So, while not 100 percent great, this succeeds at being a diverse sampler, whetting our appetite for (at least some) further Klangbad releases. And Circle-fiends will of course be happy with the ten minutes of exclusive Circle music found here!
Here is a compilation of obscure British psych groups that, with the exception of a couple semi famous artists (the Flying Machine, the Status Quo), is comprised of a bunch of bands that never really were recognized here in the U.S.. There is quite a variety here, ranging from trancy, drugged out slow ones, to out and out goofiness with silly meaningless drabble, and then there's some great songs that illustrate what 60's psych / garage are all about. Some very Syd Barrettesqe moments. This is ideal for British psych fans that want to get their hands on some rare songs.
The third and final installment of the popular Select Cuts series of Blood & Fire remixes in which contemporary "leftfield" DJs and Producers pay homage to Jamaican music by remixing classic tracks from the island. This collection features remixes of Big Youth (Waterhouse Rock, Political Confusion & Chucky No Lucky), Horace Andy (Do You Love My Music, Ital Vital), Impact All Stars (Dubwise Situation), Gregory Isaacs (Get Ready) and more by the usual suspects: Black Star Liner, Smith & Mighty, Groove Corporation, as well as Pressure Drop, Walkner.Mostl, Dan Donovan / Don Letts Dub Cartel, Dreadzone, Henry & Louis, Different Drummer Soundsystem, Small Axe, Kaleidoscope and even a bonus "Blood & Fire Megamix" by Fila Brazillia. This one's definitely made for the euro dancefloor what with all those beautiful rhythmmic gaps now filled in like so much wood putty in much of these remixes by the endless chattering 32nd notes or pounding breakbeat rhythms. Those who enjoyed the last two volumes will appreciate this one as well.
"Star Switch On" is a collection of commisioned pieces which use Chris Watson's field recordings of wildlife from "Outside The Circle Of Fire" as their source materials. Watson's original has been one of the most celebrated field recording albums as an incredible anthology of cheetahs purring, tinkerbird songs, spider monkeys, deathwatch beetles, elephants, and many more. It's probably not wise to think of the recordings on "Star Switch On" as attempt to improve upon Watson's recordings, but perhaps as alternative viewpoints of the same material. Or maybe not. Regardless, this album does make for a nice introduction into the experimentalists and electron engineers who make their home at Touch Records. Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and many of the Sahko titles) opens the album with a transformation of a recording which initially appears as swarming bees into a very calm atomization of sound, with frigid gaspings and resonant sonar bleeps quietly moving across barren spaces. Hazard (a project that has used Chris Watson's recordings of weather phenomena on a number of occasions) offers a fractured drone of whirring vibrationa. Fennesz keeps the digital fuckery to a minimal with a sampled repetition of what could be the aforementiond tinkerbird song, quite subtle parametric filtering, and additional samples. AER (aka Jon Wozencroft), Biosphere, and Philip Jeck also offer their reinterpretations.
Possibly the most highly represented ethnic group in this collection -- at least in the African portion -- the music of the Shona account for three separate albums in the Explorer Series. I suppose that may not be so surprising as the mbira -- or as it's more commonly called the "thumb piano" -- has enjoyed a certain preferential treatment in the U.S. when it comes to exposure, due to its dulcet tones. And if there ever was a group who could lay claim to being masters of the mbira, I suppose it would be the Shona. And the backlash that follows is a lament that mbira music is the type of music you can give your grandma as a present without offending her. A built in nu-age predisposition. But, so fucking what. Yeah, sure, a lot of opportunistic world beat and nu-age artists have exploited the instrument's disposition, but that doesn't make it any less worthy an instrument for our ears. And hearing it played in a cultural context sans nefarious commercial interests ought to wipe out any negative associations. Shona Mbira Music was originally released in 1977.
Possibly the most highly represented ethnic group in this collection -- at least in the African portion -- the music of the Shona account for three separate albums in the Explorer Series. I suppose that may not be so surprising as the mbira -- or as it's more commonly called the "thumb piano" -- has enjoyed a certain preferential treatment in the U.S. when it comes to exposure, due to its dulcet tones. And if there ever was a group who could lay claim to being masters of the mbira, I suppose it would be the Shona. And the backlash that follows is a lament that mbira music is the type of music you can give your grandma as a present without offending her. A built in nu-age predisposition. But, so fucking what. Yeah, sure, a lot of opportunistic world beat and nu-age artists have exploited the instrument's disposition, but that doesn't make it any less worthy an instrument for our ears. And hearing it played in a cultural context sans nefarious commercial interests ought to wipe out any negative associations. The Soul of Mbira was originally released in 1973.
Voice Crack -- veteran Swiss improvisors Andy Guhl and Norbert Moslang -- team up (again) with fellow vet Gunter Muller, for these seven tracks of staticky drone and murky clank. Guhl and Moslang, of course, make use of their famous "cracked everyday electronics" (which must be pretty darn cracked by now, after all these years): radios, household appliances, and other "non-instruments" perversely put to noise-making use. Mueller, we're happy to report, continues to play only "selected percussion" as well as mini-discs and unidentified electronics. These tracks were recorded live in Budapest and Rome (hence the title), some of them later remixed by Mueller and Moslang. It's like listening in to some energized, humming, buzzing electronic eco-system, teeming with quiet but active life. Nice.
The Michigan noisejunk / scumart / ghettopunk antirockers Wolf Eyes have amassed an impressive arsenal of gear salvaged from planned obsolescence or from becoming landfill fodder; thus, their preferred medium (the cassette) is quite fitting. Fortunately, they have enough sense to realize that their music runs the risk of never being heard if they stuck to the cassette format, and have re-issued a couple of their albums as CDs and / or LPs. "Slicer" follows "Dread" as the second Wolf Eyes cassette to be reincarnated as a CD, and is just as punishing, gritty, and lo-tech as its predecessor. While vaguely associated with the aggro-rock of contemporaries like Lightning Bolt, Total Shutdown, Black Dice and the latest John Dwyer project, Wolf Eyes have much more in common with the electrocution tactics of the Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Lille Roger (the precursor to the Swedish death industrial project Brighter Death Now). No one will ever accuse Wolf Eyes of being funky, as their drum machine programming usually amounts to a deliberate pulse from an 8-bit thud acquiring the monotonous dis-ease of unknown panzer division systematically destroying the Eastern European countryside. Squiggles of equally primitive and equally agitated 8-bit noise from cheap synthesizers and abused samplers spiral throughout these skeletal rhythms. This isn't music that wants to be pleasant, harmonious, or enjoyable. Rather "Slicer" is a grim vision of what would happen if art-students scripted the apocalypse. Scary indeed!
Xeno Volcano and Elektra Sturmschnell are a Swiss dark ambient duo deadset on landing a record on World Serpent (the distribution center for Current 93, Sol Invictus, Coil, Moon Lay Hidden Beneath The Clouds, Chris & Cosey, and other post-industrial art projects). In all likelihood, they have a pretty good shot at it, with a cold, detached aesthetic that merges barren electronics with equally emotionless spoken word poetics. "Die Organik" does come across like the more electronic Current 93 pieces (especially "In A Foreign Land, In A Foreign Town") but with a dominatrix reciting her Nietzchian poetry in German rather than David Tibet and his pantheistic mythologies.
