- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
It has been a full decade since Drumm's last solo album on Mego (2002's massive and career-defining Sheer Hellish Miasma) and quite a bit has changed in the noise world since then.  While more modest in scope this time around (Relief is a 37-minute EP), Kevin's latest effort shows that an impressive evolution has occurred over those ten years, as he hits the perfect balance between his characteristic howling noise and his infrequently surfacing ambient side.  That comes as no surprise to me at all, but I was pleasantly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of Relief's noisy side.  Drumm is clearly not mellowing with age.
This EP has one extremely significant and immediately apparent characteristic that dwarfs all of its others, in that it is apologetically, spectacularly monolithic.  I can randomly skip to any one-second fragment of Relief and it will sound almost exactly the same any other fragment.  In fact, the only significant variance comes at the very end, and even that is pretty minor (the piece slowly fades out).  Otherwise, the piece is essentially a non-stop roar of roiling entropy from the second it starts until the very end.  That one-dimensionality only exists in a large-scale sense though, as Relief is far from dull: while the piece's bleak and floating synth motif remains a relatively static backbone, the underlying noise is apocalyptically explosive and immense.  There is a very good reason why Kevin is widely considered one of the world's greatest active noise artists, as his layers and layers of squalling static and white noise basically sound like the world is collapsing.
Drumm's ear-shredding avalanche sounds extremely clear and crisp and is both crushingly dense and bludgeoningly immediate.  If I had a grievance with this effort (which I do not), it would probably be that the melodic component does not evolve as the piece progresses, or maybe that the piece does not actually progress at all.  Instead, it more or less feels like being thrown into Drumm's scorching cacophony midstream and staying there until he feels like fading out.  However, the sheer enormity, violence, and microcosmic vibrancy of it all easily makes me forget about its compositional shortcomings and the forlorn melody is merely there to act as foil for that face-melting eruption, which it does beautifully.  Not so beautifully that Relief could be mistaken for anything other than a harsh noise album, of course, but the contrast it provides enhances the viciousness of the piece while simultaneously making it pretty listenable (by noise standards, anyway).  In lesser hands, such a sustained, unrelenting eruption would undoubtedly become quite wearisome at some point, but in Drumm's, it is a bracing, virtuosic tour de force.
(one caveat: It is not entirely rational that this is being released on vinyl, given that it is a single piece with no pauses or breaks of any kind.  I like vinyl as much as anyone, but sometimes that medium just does not make sense and this is definitely one of those times.)
 
Read More
- Scott Mckeating
- Albums and Singles
The constantly collapsing particles of 'Rats/Cats/Bats" sometimes cement to form loops that slowly melt and restructure. "An End to a Means" is a gritty crush of almost industrial noise and the result of the stress and strain of gears against gears. The crawling force of D/A A/D's immoveable object vs. unstoppable crawling force is an insistent punch and crumple. The grim bass of "Untitled" is ripped apart by sharp steel and then beaten to death by spades, the melodic stalled groove seeming in pain as it moves. There's a pretty heavy Wolf Eyes vibe across “(die) Hipster Scum," huge bass pulses that never launch into an assault but plough the song along. There are great sloughs of slow thrashing that leave the material rough and scavenged through maltreatment.
Read More
- Matthew Jeanes
- Albums and Singles
Included on Deadverse Massive Vol. 1 are a handful of remixes, selections from their work with other artists, a couple of previously unreleased pieces, and the entire Streets All Amped EP originally released on vinyl by Ad Noiseam. Known mostly for their heavy as lead hip hop that goes over well with metal crowds, Dälek spend a considerable amount of time on other weird projects where their approach to cutting up and layering sound can air itself out. Although I'm always most impressed when the beats are hard and the lyrics are cutting through, when I hear pieces like "Music for ASM" or "3:46," I get a better idea of how the Dälek sound actually comes to life. This disc finally brings some of Dälek's more challenging and esoteric work together with some underappreciated gems.
Although I don't care for the collaboration with Velma on "Rouge," there are moments when the Deadverse production takes over and the track shines despite the vocal. Their remix of Techno Animal's "Megaton," (the first Dälek work I remember hearing) elevates the original and is thankfully included here as the ancient 12" is getting hard to find. The disc closes out with the four songs from Streets All Amped, which are all classic Dälek, mixing straight ahead lyrics with dusty grooves and layers of grime. Dälek are easily one of the most pioneering acts to come out of the hip hop world in years. For those unfamiliar with the accolades that the band gets overseas for playing in the experimental/noise sandbox, this disc is a welcome primer.
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Yeh approached his source material with a desire to be transparent, even literal, and to avoid straightforward narrative. The literal is there in the deceptively matter-of-fact track titles — “Drone”,“Voice”, “Shrinkwrap from Solo Saxophone CD”, “Two Guitars” — but knowing which sound source is buried beneath these tones does little to remove 1975‘s sense of enveloping mystery. This is sensual abstract music with a light touch, a confident minimalism that only reveals its unsettling depth, sharp corners, and playful malevolence with repeat listens.
For fans of Eliane Radigue, Hecker, Pita, or Kevin Drumm.
Born in Taiwan, and now based in Brooklyn NY, C. Spencer Yeh is the one constant of the “band”Burning Star Core, whose other members have included Mike Shiflet and Trevor Tremaine & Robert Beatty of Hair Police. He has collaborated with a staggeringly diverse range of artists, including John Wiese, Tony Conrad, New Humans w/ Vito Aconcci, Aaron Dilloway, Okkyung Lee, Evan Parker, Yellow Swans, Greg Kelley, Paul Flaherty, Don Deitrich (of Borbetomagus), and Chris Corsano (to name just a few)."
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Unofficial, hand-made second volume of Marissa's favorite covers.
01 Winter Lady [Leonard Cohen cover]
02 Learning to Fly [Tom Petty cover]
03 Birds [Neil Young cover]
04 Farewell Angelina [Bob Dylan cover]
05 You Don't Miss Your Water [William Bell cover]
06 The River [Bruce Springsteen cover]
07 Motel Blues [Loudon Wainwright III cover]
08 Distortions [Clinic cover]
09 Sara [Bob Dylan cover]
10 The Book of Love [The Magnetic Fields cover]
11 Avalanche [Leonard Cohen cover]
12 All My Trials [Traditional]
13 I'll Be Here in the Morning [Townes Van Zandt cover]
More info here.
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The most striking feature of z.e.l.l.e.'s debut CD is not its exceedingly low volume (barely audible music has become its own genre, so we should all have gotten past that shock by now), but its magnificent use of stereo seperation.
Digital pings are placed very carefully in space, while crackling static, not unlike the runout grooves of records, swirls underneath. As one listens deep into the music, sharp digital percussion dances in skitish cyclic patterns from all sides and lilting melodic fragments overlap and fall away into silence. Despite the air of sterile distance suggested by the grey and white package, a sense of playfullness pervades the music, as if the artists are truly enjoying their sound materials and aiming to continually surprise the active listener. This is the most overtly musical Line release so far, with recognizable song-like structures and dub-like delay effects making it more approachable and accessible than, say, Immedia. I imagine that nth would be even better as a four or five speaker installation in an art gallery, so that a listener could sit in the middle of an isolated room and hear the clicks swirl around?
 
 
samples:
 
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
This full-length CD shares only a tiny amount from the 12" released earlier this year which bears the same name. (For my praise of those four songs from the first side, see issue 31 from this year.)This version opens with something so far beyond politically incorrectness but then breaks into a charming acoustic guitar bit. Of course it moves quickly on to of Cex's more well-developed electronic cut-up fuckery, with the occasional scatterings of kitchy sketch comedy (which Tigerbeat6 artists seemingly are becoming more known for), and only a subliminal hint of rap. Not what I was expecting from a guy whose live shows have had some fierce freestyle rapping lately. It's strange, that at first I was kinda set off by his rapping and comedy, but now I'm kinda wishing there was more of it on this disc. This is a truly fulfilling disc, however. Mr. Kidwell has got a keen mastery of mixing the elements just right for each song—low grooves, fun breaks, enough glitchery to make it interesting and not too much to make it laborious. A brilliant bit ends the disc on the theme of a high school crush shining through a mix tape. It may lead some to wonder "Is it real? Is it staged?" The pretentious European electronic music critics might not get all the jokes but Cex is surely more entertaining than nearly all of the critically acclaimed noodly drivel littering the shops.
 
samples:
- Destination: Sexy
- Eleven Million Dollars Worth of Bearer Bonds
- Florida [is shaped like a big droopy dick for some reason]
 
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Stichting Mixer is a 2-year-old foundation for minimal electronic/acoustic music, it's goal "to start and stimulate initiatives which encourage the encounter between sound and other media". Its recorded output, from knowns and unknowns alike, is released through the Mixer label. This disc is the first release on CD, limited to 500 copies.Battery Operated, apparently the duo of TomKz and Wade Walker, "chase" (i.e. DAT record) sound signals in 8 architectural non places, those modern structures of repetition such as airports, rail stations, hotels and shopping centers. Thus, they use the spaces themselves to construct soundtracks for them. The 8 tracks are roughly 5 to 6 minutes apiece and the digipack offers only the abstruse clue of a greyscale texture for each location. All sorts of unidentifiable sound tidbits are churned up and around, molded into quasi-rhythmic patterns and ambient-ish soundscapes. Tracks 3 and 8 are the real standouts though, simply because they're the most musically dynamic. The former in particular perfectly segues between cluttered and calm moments. Good stuff. Future Mixer releases I'll be keeping an ear out for include a split LP by Pimmon and K?n and a double 7" by Kaffe Matthews.
 
samples:
 
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
There's something undeniably irresistible about Maximilian Hecker's sugary sweet breathy falsetto and captivating pop melodies. The love for his music is a vice, like cigarette smoking or alcoholism: your first exposure feels rather disgusting but at some point, it becomes quite addictive. Soon, you're not allowed to be around your friends who don't indulge while you feel the need to indulge. It's embarrassing.
 
Kitty-yo
You begin only indulging in certain places like the car or at home alone, late at night. Luckily, Max Hecker won't rot your liver or give you lung cancer. You will inevitably feel guilty. Hecker was discovered as a street singer in Germany doing Brit pop covers, played every instrument on his 12-song debut, but makes the big bucks modeling, or so the legend goes. Many of the songs are lyrically repetitious but are endearing enough to be thoroughly enjoyed. The pretty piano, acoustic guitar, and vocally over-processed melodies are something pop radio needs more of. Don't bother playing this around your über-macho jock friends as they'll surely laugh at you. Fuck it, I'd rather be a sissy and enjoy fun music.
 
samples:
 
Read More