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This disc opens with a thick strum on "Maybe Paris," a track title which alludes to the ambiguity about exactly where each of these sets occurred. Wherever it did, the 22 minute piece is an impressive improvisatory feat as it opens with a soupy psychedelic wailing whose metallic energy is distinctly opposed to Connors' usual approach. Soon the piece slips into Connors' realm though, with languid folk meanderings gently swaying about. O'Rourke slips right into the piece as each note is carefully considered, displaying whole worlds of mood in its near silent excursion.
"Or Possibly Köln" displays a less peaceful side of the duo's sound, with tense feedback control and a slowly chugging background. As it builds steam, the piece moves into near drone territory, one axe-man providing the thick background blanket while the other sets up a choppy groove on top. This eventually steamrolls into a frenzy of guitar tone more in line with Fushitsusha than John Fahey. Thunderous as it is the work retains all of the detail and richness of sound that the quieter moments of the disc have as well. When the clamour all but stops in its tracks, the work slinks into equally bleak but softer realms as the two make clear their intimate musical relationship.
"Most Definitely Not Köln" is a near split between eerie sonic buildup and gentle comedown. The dichotomy and ease with which the piece shifts between these two modes is astounding. Slowly evolving across barren terrain, the two guitars scrape and bend their way into a sheet of near static before opening up into a wash of tones. Not unlike some of the material off of Neil Young's "Dead Man" soundtrack, the set soon dissolves, drifting into a near silent melody that is rendered all the more fragile and eloquent by the onslaught preceding it.
The disc represents a beautiful collaborative effort between two closely tied musical experimentalists. Somehow these two, whose typical musical pursuits often differ widely in nature, have managed to form a musical relationship that allows each to expand their standard repertoire in a creative and enriching way. The results make for great listening.
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Fittingly comprised of eight tracks, Octuplex represents yet another example of Campbell's resilient musical talents. The album opens with the techno beat of "Caustic Roe," whose laser synth sounds open the disc to a club-like environment before turning the track toward a dizzying array of psyched out squelches and synthesized mayhem. "Mugik Churn" features John Clyde-Evans contributing beats as Campbell continues his restless smattering of sounds atop. Immense waves coalesce under skittering rhythms that bounce so thoroughly through the sonic space that they create a dense and insular environment of crazed kinetics. The result is a kind of maniacal pop music that combines sugar-coated glamour from throughout the globe until no individual style is decipherable.
The clicking rhythms of "Aggro Vault," also supplied by Evans, are all that Campbell requires in throwing off the song's near video game-worthy backing melody. Not unlike Muslimgauze, Campbell has a knack for finding a groove and sticking with it, changing what is essentially looped material just enough so as to maintain momentum. It is this tension between minimal tactical change and maximal sonic detail that keep these tracks afloat. As beams of sound slide their way over near breakbeat structures, the sheer overabundance of rhythmic and tonal resources calls for a patience on the part of the performer in order to maintain a sense of continuity. With little melodic material present, Campbell is moves the piece in more subtle (and thus less motivically significant) ways. Rather than slipping into all too conventional tactics of dance music, Campbell utilizes those same techniques with a different goal in mind. On "Pilgrim Sunburst" gentle new age melodies slide atop rising washes of warm drones and jet-fueled crescendos while Campbell's son Magnus speaks in the background. The result is a zoned out space that has little to do with "getting down;" and much to do with getting there, wherever that may be.
"Sweet Spraint," featuring both Richard Youngs and, if you can believe it, Pogues member Spider Stacy on reeds, murmurs about beneath a thick two-chord progression that grows in momentum until it has expanded itself into washes of warm white light. "Radial Hermaphordite", also featuring Stacy, mellows the epic conclusion of the previous track with a near raga-style workout, complete with drifting folk guitar behind meandering pipe moves. Its thick spectral backing gives it a feel unlike most pursuits of the aesthetic as it maintains an electronically overloaded sound that avoids the pitfalls of less fearless delvings into that arena.
The loose "Muscle Abductor" slips apart as it splays its buried melodies about before the closing "Hot Toxer" brings the beats back to the fore as it moves toward stadium scale euphoria. It is a fitting close to an album whose perfect pacing and distinctive style go far beyond the standard "experimental" expectations. Campbell's reconfiguration of the medium is refreshing in a time when the term "psychedelic" often references the same prescription again and again.
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Masami Akita is deeply troubled by the rampant, unchecked growth of the Tasmanian Blue Gum tree in India. It seems there is a eucalyptus apocalypse brewing. Nay, a Eucalypse, and he has written an album about it, insomuch as a Merzbow album can plausibly be topical, anyway.
Aside from the drolly-amusing portmanteau title, this release is noteworthy mainly for its elaborate and unusual packaging- a handcrafted wooden box. Admittedly, the box is pretty cool, although I had an embarrassingly tough time removing the CD and the liner notes from its clutches. However, I find it somewhat unnerving that the box conspicuously states that it was made in India, yet there is no mention of the type of wood used. It would be thematically appropriate to be made from the accursed Blue Gum tree, but it seems like it would have been mentioned somewhere if it had. Was some hapless, benign tree used for the packaging instead? This uncertainty fills me with low-level anxiety.
Much like an exotic plant that is introduced to a place where it has no natural enemies, Merzbow releases have proliferated out of control. While I greatly admire Akita's near-total abandonment of melody, conventional rhythm, and recognizable instrumentation, I only genuinely get excited about albums where he departs somewhat from "the Merzbow sound", such as Music For a Bondage Performance, Doors Open At 8 AM, or his collaborative projects. Eucalypse is not one of those albums yet it is a worthy and representative example of what Akita does.
Naturally, every track on the album is a roaring squall of white noise, feedback, cavernous clangings, and chirps. Occasionally, a murky guitar or organ sound will burble into the mix, then abruptly vanish or get buried beneath relentless static. None of the tracks really have any sort of cohesive development, but there is often a hypnotic ebb and flow and the texture is always shifting and incorporating or discarding components.
There is nothing mindblowing here for those already familiar with Merzbow's work, but the opening track stands apart from the others: the rhythmic foundation sounds like a giant subterranean piston and its insistent throbbing anchors the escalating storm of dissonance and laser noises quite nicely. Also, the fifth track has an exceptionally sinister sounding opening in which feedback coheres into actual identifiable notes before being enveloped in a slow-building roar. That said, Eucalypse may still only appeal to packaging fetishists and Merzbow completists.
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For those unfamiliar, Sam Taylor-Wood has collaborated with Elton John, made the world’s largest photographic installation, and is probably best known for being commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to make a film of David Beckham sleeping. However, she has also done some fairly intriguing work, such as a time-lapse video of an "impossibly beautiful" bowl of fruit rotting (called "Still Life"). Taylor-Wood is also directing a short film that prominently features the music of the Buzzcocks. Consequently, I assumed that her motivation for releasing this song tied into an accompanying video and I was (as usual) right, but it is only a mildly diverting one (an actress dressed like Marlene Dietrich remains (relatively) motionless, while a cigarette endlessly burns without getting smaller).
The original song by The Passions is pretty bitchin’. In theory, I should like Taylor-Wood’s cover too, as Sam’s vocals are quite similar to Barbara Gogan’s and the guitar parts have been inventively replaced with a wavering and submerged-sounding keyboard and occasional static-y washes of sound. The track feels very suave and urbane, which is what I expect from the Pet Shop Boys. Unfortunately, the "clubby" beat and the slick production create an emotional distance that strongly detracts from the song's inherent wistfulness.
The four remixes are pretty homogenous, but I was admittedly startled by the satanic-sounding pitch-shifted vocals and dissonant orchestral swells at the end of the Pet Shop Boys remix. The "Stuck In The Eighties" remix by German producer Mark Reeder is quite fun (sexy thumping beats, clapping, breathy telephone line vocals, a New Order-esque synth bassline), but unfortunately quite bloated (it is over nine minutes long). On a related note, extreme music nerds may remember Reeder as a former member of short-lived and extremely unprolific Factory Records synthpop band Shark Vegas. As for the rest of the tracks, well...there's not much to say: the Gui Boratto remix doesn't especially stand-out much and the instrumental version of the Pet Shop Boys remix is howlingly inessential. Releasing this song as a five song EP was probably not a good idea, as no one wildly diverges from the source material, resulting in a sense of frustrating sameness and maddening filler. That's a shame, as it's essentially a damn good song, but it definitely yields diminishing returns when listened to five times in rapid succession.
Though I cannot fathom why anyone would need to hear all five versions of this song, I'm sure it will find a lengthy and fruitful life wherever people congregate to dance. And in England, apparently, as it debuted at number one on the BBC dance chart. And, of course, it is always appreciated when people are given reason to revisit great postpunk songs. I am eager to see what this intrepid threesome tackles next.
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Organized as two distinct albums, Deathconsciousness is a sprawling record filled with suggestive lyrics about desperation, nihilism, failure, suffering, and the inescapable progress of time. The lyrics are not poetic nor are they sophisticated, but they aren't angst-ridden contrivances, either and they suit the macabre nature of the music very well. The music itself is filled with sizzling guitars, massive and repetitive rhythms, echoing synthesizer effects, and dramatic melodies, both vigilant and resigned, that give the album an epic scope. Yet, despite all these severe devices, the band's name is Have a Nice Life and they title their songs like they're jokes: "Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail" and "Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000" are perfect examples. In addition to these odd contrasts, the band has gone through the trouble of producing a 70 page accompanying book supposedly written by a professor of religious anthropology and history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Whether or not the book has anything to do with the album is questionable; while direct lines can be drawn between the text in the book and the lyrics to some of the songs, it isn't clear which of the two came first. I am suspicious that the book could be a ruse meant to cover up the fact that all of these songs are intensely personal, but the lengths to which this duo went to cover that fact up is fairly astonishing. A lot of work clearly went into putting this whole thing together, but figuring out how all the pieces fit is more difficult than it should be.
Despite the mixed messages the liner notes inspire, the music is varied, smart, and wonderfully dark. Have a Nice Life combine the brute force of thundering drums with hazy, fuzzed out guitar lines, lead melodies played out on the bass, and emotive, almost yearning vocals. They protract the basic rock template and add a healthy dose of atmospheric sound effects and synthesizer leads not unlike those you'd expect to hear from an anthemic 80s opus. Bits of staccato guitar meet with noise solos, buried vocal mumblings, persistent percussion, and lo-fi stereo confusion to produce everything from meditative non-songs ("Hunter") to feverish rock 'n' roll ("Waiting for Black Metal Records...") and acoustic balladry with cheap drum loops ("Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000"). The group will often focus on texture more than melody, but never at the expense of a strong melodic center. Their voices are often anxious and thirsty, maybe even overly emotive, but the intensity of their deliveries matches the music's fevered pitch perfectly. The production can be mildly aggravating, however, and sometimes it detracts from the strong melodies and lyrics more than it should. But on the whole the under-produced aesthetic works perfectly for the music.
There are several details that keep the album from being a complete success, however. Whoever wrote that 70 page document needs to be slapped for being too dull, too often. The book focuses on the history of a fictional religious sect centered around the person of Antiochus. This sect apparently left behind a number of oral and written fragments that tell the story of a horrifying prophet who praised nihilism and preached a philosophy of suicide and murder. At first the book is ponderous and seems completely unnecessary, but reading it while listening to the album proved to be exciting at times. Some of the stories in the book are genuinely frightening and left an impression on me, but the pseudo-academic posturing that makes up the majority of the book is absolutely unnecessary. Long foot-notes, poor poetry, and efforts to sound professional all end up making the book a trial more than a joy. Also, the aforementioned song titles may seem like a small thing to complain about, but if a group is going to go through the effort to create an illusion of mysticism and mystery, then they might as well follow through on even the smallest details. As it stands, I get the impression the band were unwilling to follow their idea all the way through to its conclusion. Nevertheless, the music keeps me coming back and the entirety of the project succeeds often enough to warrant attention and praise. I am ultimately picking apart something to which I am very drawn. I just want the band to keep falling down that rabbit hole instead of holding back.
Deathconsciousness is available online through Enemies List as an MP3 download only. All the physical copies have been sold, but the label charges a very low price for the download and have scanned the entire booklet into a nice PDF file, which is included with the purchase.
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I, like many people of my ilk, first got into Merzbow when Relapse was hyping Venerology as THE most extreme recording EVER. It was the gateway drug for me into the noise scene, but even then, it lost some of its luster once I heard some of the other artists doing similar work. Because of that, my connection to Akita's work became casual at best: I'd pick up the odd album here or there, and I drooled over the Merzbox, but that was about it. So I wasn't privy to his dabbling with percussion, samples and laptop experiments.
Oddly enough, Anicca is a step back to his tabletops full of pedals and home-made metal instrument, which is pictured in the liner notes. So the overall sound through these three tracks is pretty much classic mid 1990s Merzbow, for better or worse. Clashing waves of noise and static, modulated feedback, overdriven blasts, etc. There does seem to be a greater attention to mixing and layering, which is pleasant to hear: it's not just about blowing out audio equipment when being played at low volumes.
One of the faults with this album is a whole is that it is front loaded with its most interesting track. The chirping bird sounds bathed in reverb cutting into a flanged noise squeal is nothing out of the ordinary, but for the entire track, Akita drums over the noise, always staying prominent in the mix. Obviously a free style jam, the rapid fire patterns lie somewhere between Lightning Bolt and Free Jazz era Ornette Coleman. Full of rapid fire snare rolls and aggravated assaults of tom drums, it's like every prog rock drum solo from the 1970s spliced into one track over the usual electronic din.
The remaining two tracks, unfortunately, forego the drums in favor of a pure noise attack. The second track allows more high frequency psychedelic swirls of noise, akin to Akita’s contemporaries C.C.C.C. over extended passages of feedback, quick cuts, and some sort of buried rhythmic elements, before ending more stripped down, with harsh Morse code tones and passages of pink noise. Track three has an overall hollow, reverbed sound to it, ending with heavy low end pulse that one could headbang to slowly if so inclined, and what sounds like some buried musical samples and noise rhythms resembling a grindcore tape played at quarter speed after being left in the sun for a few months.
The biggest problem with this is, it’s just regular Merzbow. After Keio Line's more innovative sounds and textures, this feels like a step backwards. While it has some good element for nostalgia, the older sounding tracks aren't motivating me to grab more Merz albums I might have missed, and after the more interesting introductory track, it feels kind of flat afterwards.
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The opening of "Radiant" is all buzzing amplifier sustain, deep guitar tones, and a healthy mix of noise that—even though it is heavily in drone territory—feels more ambient than metallic. The longer "Constellation Drive," on the other hand, is steeped more in darkness and mystery, the harsher elements being more of a punctuation rather than a focus, with hints of chiming guitar that is consistent with modern day drone metal, but also has the influence of 1990s dark ambient and isolationist works that were the "next big thing" that never happened.
The other near-ten minute track, "When Fire Itself Came To Be Understood As A Process," feels similar with its bleakness built on digital distortion, menacing scrapes and cuts, and dive-bomb like guitar tones. It is lengthy, yet dynamic enough so it never becomes stale. The black metal influenced "Eternal City Ruins" and "Burnt Armour" are two of the more aggressive pieces, the latter EQ'd in such a way to max out the low and high frequencies, leaving little in the middle, and a lot of pain in the ears.
One of the high points of this disc for me is, though it definitely sounds murky and obscure, it's not a cliched "dark" album, but one that allows ambient and lighter sounds to shine through. The ending trilogy of tracks acts as the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel: the short "Planetfall" of simple guitar feedback has a warmth to it that the remaining tracks don't have, and to some extent feels like it could be a grimy piece of My Bloody Valentine style Jazzmaster abuse.
"Tin Sun II" is even brighter, the guitar noise channeled into angelic organ tones, with an overall warm and inviting feeling. The closing "Blue Smoke Sword" brings back some of the metallic elements, but in a softer mix, where it feels more misty than dark…its still somewhat ominous, but not in an evil way. No one will mistake it for Tangerine Dream, but it is a nice counterpoint to an otherwise monochromatic feeling.
Personally, I am very pleased at the fact that this disc is actually split up into individual tracks, rather than the traditional drone approach of 20+ minute pieces. In this context, it allows for much more diversity and variation from piece to piece, and that is one of the strengths of Tomorrow's Void: it manages to be simultaneously dark, but with lighter moments, with a nice balance of menace and inviting tones.
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Amid the familiar tones that Pavlov and Christopherson wrench from their machines, other less recognizable elements emerge through the mix. The opening piece, “Kabuki-Chop,” is the one piece where the music’s heritage is most obvious. There is a slow build up where echoes of Musick to Play in the Dark and Pavlov’s more recent releases combine to make a narcotic buzz before the music explodes in a throbbing beat ridden climax. As good as “Kabuki-Chop” is, it is from “Soijin No Hi” onwards that the EP demonstrates what SoiSong are capable of. Many of the tracks have a music box quality about them; delicate piano refrains and bell-like sounds prove to be fragile as they are ripped apart in glitchy explosions. Grit, grain and lurching beats are infrequent but welcome additions to pieces that sometimes veer a shade too close to being airy-fairy new age for comfort.
The title of this EP is only known to those who own the CD (or those who search about online) as the title is a password that gives access to a private section of the SoiSong website. Within the password protected part of the site are different edits of the pieces (shorter than the CD versions), the track titles and artwork for each track. The different artworks for the pieces are not my cup of tea (aside from a painting by Brion Gysin which is nice but not mindblowing) but the physical packaging of the EP and the disc itself are both worth mentioning. The CD is octagonal so will not play on car stereos, Macs or any non-standard tray player (despite Christopherson’s long interest in Apple products). It arrives in a white criss-cross paper sleeve that completely seals in the CD. To open it, the packaging must be damaged, which goes against every rabid collector’s instincts. There is a way of opening it without doing too much damage (use a sharp knife to break the glue seal on one of the tucked in strips) but even doing it this way lead to some unsightly rips on my copy. Needless to say, folding it back up is a challenge.
One thing that was a bit of a kicker with this release was the price tag: £20 for an EP in “disposable packaging” might be putting some people off but considering how the pound sterling is bottoming out and how good the music is, my one recommendation is to raise a middle finger to the recession and indulge in this. On less frivolous terms, this EP is a taster for the forthcoming SoiSong album and considering Christopherson’s comments at Brainwaves (see the speech at the end of this video), the album is going to be something special. In the meantime, this EP certainly has enough depth to keep me going until the album comes out. The four pieces are a solid introduction to this new collaborative project, the spark of a fresh working relationship is bright here and with any luck will only get brighter.
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The background tones hum and pulse, moving so slow as to be almost static (and thus nearly perfect drones). Above the drone foundation is a glassy electronic chittering that is reminiscent of the period in Coil’s career where they returned to playing live, Seal-Skin Satellite would sit proudly next to Time Machines or Queens of the Circulating Library. The drone creates a huge space in the music, forcing the other sounds to the front of the mix where they stand out against the slowly shifting backdrop like stars in the night sky. The end result is very natural sounding electronic music that encapsulates all the best cosmic feelings that good electronic music usually captures.
Overall, Seal-Skin Satellite is just the right length at 30 minutes. Any longer would have been too much. As is, Dawson’s pacing is perfect with its long build-up and substantial climax. At the speed Seal-Skin Satellite moves, it is easy to forget how empty the start of the piece is once it gets going. Although it must be said that Dawson never lets the music become cluttered, there is always enough going on to make it interesting but not too much as to be overly-complicated (I guess it is a Goldilocks moment: just right).
One problem that I do have with Seal-Skin Satellite is that it is one of those highly limited CD-R type releases and will probably not reach anywhere near the number of people that it should. Perhaps a digital release is in order as this is a fine piece of drone work that deserves a wider audience.
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That is certainly an odd strategy, in light of the fact that her previous album (2006’s The Grass is Always Greener) was probably her most popular and beloved and even featured something of a minor hit in "The Operator." However, her new material shows newfound depth and her sound is uniquely hers, so it is unlikely that she has become mentally unmoored or is acting on a contrarian impulse to alienate her fanbase.
BM attempts to thread together a number of seemingly conflicting and disparate influences—purportedly Brecht and Weil, definitely '80s rock, accidentally Tori Amos (presumably), and possibly Gong—and the result is a mixture of surprising successes, unevenness, and occasional forgettability that sounds like it came from an indeterminate previous decade.
Morgenstern has chosen some strong complementary collaborators for this new direction. Most obviously, Robert Wyatt, who wrote a song for the album, "Camouflage," and joins Barbara on a duet. However, it is the lesser-known musicians that provide many of the subtle touches that prevent the album from falling prey to flatness and sameness. Sven Janetzko’s guitar work provides some welcome adrenaline and propulsion to poppier moments like "Driving My Car," "Come to Berlin," and "Reich & Beruhmt," and his slide playing is invariably tasteful and well-placed. Julia Kent's cello work is also quite sympathetic and adds much color and depth to the sparse songs, especially when it is dissonant.
"Come to Berlin" is the album's single, which is appropriate, as it is much more muscular and immediate than anything else on the album. I am hesitant to say that it "rocks like a narcoleptic, Teutonic Pat Benatar," but that is exactly what it does and no other descriptive terms can really convey that very specific (and pleasing) characteristic.
"Meine Aufgabe" is also particularly striking (and probably my favorite track). It is built upon a charmingly lurching and simple organ pattern and is augmented by distant squealing and sliding strings. The chorus even (seamlessly) features a full choir. I would love to see her pursue this direction further. Despite its bold artistic departure, the bulk of the album feels very transitional: this is the only track that seems fully formed and unable to be improved upon. I am deeply curious to see where she goes from here.
My initial impression of the album was not entirely favorable, but subsequent listens have warmed me to it quite a bit. There is a lot to like—inspired and subtle touches loom in the background of nearly every song—however, I still find it to be frustratingly understated-. It seems like she will have a hard time luring new listeners into her wintry, elegant world. But I suspect that she doesn't care.
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The central premise of An Ear For Numbers is the juxtaposition of field recordings of large "outside" spaces (such as the ocean) with small "inside" spaces (like the inside of Roel's mouth). Furthermore, Meelkop has "translated these qualities into music, within a context of numerics, relating to the length of the individual tracks." The role of numbers is not at all immediately apparent, unfortunately, and I suspect that even a gifted cryptographer would be hard-pressed to explain the significance of why the five-second-long "Track Four" seems to consist entirely of one click.
The source material is largely non-musical: most tracks are dominated by whines, clatters, pops, scapes, and flutters. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it is rare for them to layer intriguingly or create a lasting texture. Sounds abruptly appear and disappear and a unifying context is frustratingly infrequent. Rhythm is also an atypical component, but Meelkop does have a knack for echoey subterranean throbs and drones: they characterize all of the album's most compelling tracks.
I found the album to be ungratifyingly bloodless and academic as a whole but there were moments of genuine inspiration buried within. Track #2 contains a striking and unexpected interlude that sounds like a mournful string ensemble playing underwater. Built on a deep, stuttering bass line, track #8 builds and evolves to a subtle crescendo as it gradually intertwines with feedback (which has an enormously heightened impact because as a listener I am quite starved for repetition and structure by this point).
The problem lies primarily with the medium itself. First of all, listening to An Ear For Numbers without headphones is nearly identical to sitting in a room with a refrigerator and an open window. Secondly, this is not compelling without a visual component of some sort. Meelkop himself should be well-aware of this, as his parent group (Kapotte Muziek) conspicuously avoids studio recordings altogether. Watching musicians improvise collages from rocks and debris is an entirely different experience than sitting in the living room listening to the inside of Roel Meelkop's mouth.
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