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title: Mezzotint
catalog #: krank101
formats available: CD
Release Date: September 18, 2006
Content: Mezzotint is a collection of digital, textured pieces assembled through the extensive manipulation of found sounds and environmental sources. A dedicated non-musician, Chris Herbert has a long-standing interest in intuitive composition and the elastic nature of sound as a resource, influenced by the collage ethic and the instantaneous capture of performance. Working with decidedly low-tech methods (Chris uses minidiscs, a battle-worn desktop PC and a badly-behaved delay pedal), many of the tracks came into being through guerrilla sessions during his day job. The pieces are essentially improvisations created by extended rehearsal and juxtaposition. Mezzotint is the consequence of a continual process of subtraction and composting, leaving just a trace of melody or the implication of rhythm. The result is a spontaneous, embracing the mystery of faraway broadcasts and the internal experience: a clouded, busy music of vertical activity and blended, indistinct color as opposed to narrative uni-direction. Chris' signature swampy, gaseous, and even dirty, crumpled sound is a welcome contrast to the clean, edgeless granular cloud aesthetic employed by an increasing number of artists.
Context: This is Chris Herbert's debut release. He lives and works in Birmingham, UK and has performed live at a series of one-off electronica events organized by the Modulate A/V collective (one of the city's key avant garde digital arts organizations.). He has also worked alongside local artists in creating sound installations reclaiming the city's post-industrial spaces. In addition to Mezzotint's sequel, Chris is currently at work on a sequence of pieces inspired by urban field recordings, to be broadcast on Resonance FM.
Track Listing:
1. Stab City 2. Elisa 3. Chlorophyll 4. Suashi 5. Horse Latitudes 6. Cassino 7. Let’s Get Boring!
Utterly quiet, with a pulse-soothing beat, it takes several listens to reveal itself, like a dark room slowly brought into focus. First come the contours: a crackle that suggests old vinyl, a warm blanket of earthly hush, and that unwavering but organic beat. Then come the details: little snaps in the sound bed, the vinyl crackle transforming into more of a door creak, thin layers of wisps as simultaneously compact and flaky as fine phyllo. And then there's that beat, so steady that over time, as the other sounds make themselves more apparent, it softens and recedes, becoming the equivalent of invisible. Marc Weidenbaum Disquiet August 11, 2005
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title: Electrice
catalog #: krank103
formats available: CD
CD UPC Code: 7 96441 81032 1
Release Date: September 18, 2006
Content:
Christina Carter approached her new solo album with the specific idea of recording all of the songs in the same key and using the same guitar tuning. While some artists would be hampered by such self-imposed constraints, Christina uses it to her advantage by exploring seemingly innumerable ways to twist and turn the same basic notes into new shapes, creating just as much a mood as a song cycle. When asked to give her thoughts regarding this new album, Christina Carter responded with fragments rather than linear composition: "continuing with subterranean song writing… eliminating excess elements, at the same time expansive because the 'mixing' of the record doesn't mimic the sound of a 'live' band… more cinematic or sculptural, feeling of being a human body... piano-like guitar... two personal songs, two universal songs… idealization and memory... songs created instantly, not knowing what i was going to sing about until i sang, but I have a few ideas that I carry around with me for extended periods until they find a place… natural and artificial are two sides of the same coin... often, it is best to do the opposite of what you think you should do... inspired by 60's album art and band photos of floating heads, slight physical 'defects' and skeletal uncoordination, anachronistic futurisms, the idea of 'drone' (4 different songs from the same basic musical elements), dance choreography, and living with chronic pain..."
With Electrice, Christina has created the most cohesive and fully realized version of her unique musical vision to date.
Context:
Electrice is the first widely available album from Christina Carter since the reissue of her Living Contact album by kranky in 2004. The album was recorded, mixed and edited entirely by her. One of the two core members of Charalambides, Christina Carter has been making her own path in both that ensemble as well as with her solo releases for almost 15 years.
Quote:
"She is a singular and important figure inside the context of our era's music, creating rich, mysterious and highly individual carpets for all of us to sail away on." Byron Coley - The Wire
Track Listing:
1. Second Death 2. Moving, Intercepted 3. Yellow Pine 4. Words Are Not My Words
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Paw Tracks
Unfortunately it takes this trio and roster of engineers a few songs before they actually take flight; their music is involving and sultry, piled high with beautiful guitars, hazy synthesizers, and seductive vocals, but they don't always take those assets to a satisfying level. I can practically feel the band struggling to keep this album subtle, a relaxed affair meant for cooling down, but there's a constant pressure etched into the record that leaves me wondering when they're going to let go of all that pent up power. As a result, the first few songs feel like awkward steps instead of powerful statements - this is not the way to open an album that has as much intrigue as this one.
There are three songs before "Monkey" begins, all three of them sound as if they are misplaced, like awkward children left to walk the streets of New York after knowing only the wilds of some primal continent. "Monkey," on the other hand, is a sure-footed, bluesy moan. It segues into the pounding, tribal, multi-layered "Omen." Kate Rosko's and Nina Mehta's high-pitched, striking vocal performances draw all the instruments in a circle and force them to work together. By the time the album is half way over, the band finally sounds comfortable with each other. All the open production and thumping drums begin to fall together in soothing and strange ways. Repetition begins to build the music into sprawling works of symmetry and foreign seduction.
Much like their contemporaries, First Nation seem to have problems keeping their work consistent for the duration of an entire album. Unlike their contemporaries, First Nation don't sound scattered. The album has problems taking off, but after the first few songs its all a rocket ship to smoky opium dens, psychedelic dreams, and erotic fantasies. "You Can Be" has a lovely bass line pumping through it and vocals of such an exciting nature that I can't help but think of far east countries and the people there huddled inside old buildings. Drinks are consumed, women are dancing, bar fights erupt in short fits, the snow outside is absolutely oppressive, but this little place has lights inside keeping everything warm and perhaps slightly misleading. It's a fantastic song that leads into the poppy, upward flight of the final couplet. Two songs that ricochet with a sunny disposition and a desire for unhindered, innocent beauty.
First Nation are the first band of their kind that enticese me enough to want to come back for more than just a couple songs. If only they'd left the first few songs out or perhaps used them elsewhere on the record; the results could've been impeccable. As it stands, this is an impressive debut.
samples:
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ICR / United Dairies
Soundpooling contains two tracks. The first, “Soundpooling #3,” is the performance from Vienna. The performance is described as an improvisation on Salt Marie Celeste and the Echo Poeme releases. There are also elements of Angry Eelectric Finger scattered throughout the performance. The combination (or pooling to use the language of the album) of these different compositions works extremely well; the whispered intonations from the Echo Poeme material sounds like they were made to accompany the creaky, creepy drones of Salt Marie Celeste. In fact, the vocals sound much better here than they do on the “proper” releases; the oceanic background makes them sound erotic and mysterious.
As the improvisation progresses, it moves into completely new territories with only odd bits of sound acting as points of familiarity. The music is far more active and engaging than I was expecting. Explosions of noises that sound like they were spliced from a number of old records and cultured on a dish in dark, damp basement rock the atmosphere. I can only imagine how uneasy the audience must have felt listening to this in the flesh considering the lab coat uniform of the performers and the fact that the venue was an anatomy museum.
The second track is a new studio recording named “In Swollen Silence.” It is an almost calming break after the tension of the live recording. Freida Abtan’s performance and text is evocative and for the most part very beautiful, there are moments where the beauty is shattered by the sentiments of the words: “your shadow ripped from you.” Stapleton throws a few curveballs during this piece that take me by surprise each time I listen to it (I won’t elaborate as they are best experienced first hand). Soundpooling would have been a fine release if it just contained the live performance but the inclusion of “In Swollen Silence” caps off the album nicely.
The bonus disc that came with initial copies of Soundpooling is a one track studio piece with the delicious title of A Handjob from the Laughing Policeman. It contains a lot of the material recorded by Stapleton and Potter in Utvaer for the Shipwrecked Radio albums. It opens with a busy array of electronic noises, processed voices and before a groovy drum beat fades in and slows the pace down. This drum beat disappears and is replaced with an exotic, tribal beat. All the while, typically Nurse With Woundish noises, ranging from sea gulls to indefinable tones, eddy and churn around the beats. It is a nice companion to the Shipwrecked Radio discs but not something I’d be kicking myself for missing.
samples:
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artist: Alasehir
title: Sharing The Sacred
catalog number: imprec101
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006
John Gibbons-Guitar, Tamboura
Michael Gibbons-Guitar, Sitar
Michael Zanghi-Drums, Percussion
Alasehir is the project of Bardo Pond brothers John and Michael Gibbons with drummer Michael Zangha. Unlike the Gibbons' project Alumbrados, also being released on Important at the same time, Alasehir is more rock oriented, establishing a heady, heavy groove and jamming on it throughout.
“The ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in every city which is different from that of another city. He hears in each street a new melody, and to him the sound of wind in the treetops of different forests gives a varying sound. In the Desire World, seemingly, SOUND PROCEEDS FROM FORM. But in the music of ALASEHIR it is different, for while each form occupies and obscures a certain space there, form is nonexistent when viewed from the standpoint of ALASEHIR. Where the form was, a transparent vacuous space is observable. FROM THAT EMPTY VOID COMES A SOUND which is the "keynote" that creates and maintains the form whence it APPEARS to come, as the almost invisible core of a gas-flame is the source of the light we perceive.” Michael Gibbons
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artist: Alumbrados
title: A Garden Of Vipers
catalog number: imprec102
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006
“Alumbrados investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public. Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened, they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their possessor to investigate, instanter, things beyond the veil of matter, but they are only developed by a patient application and continuance in well doing extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start upon the path to attainment to perseverance to go through with the ordeal. “ Michael Gibbons
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artist: Daniel Menche
title: Jugularis
catalog number: imprec103
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006
Imagine yourself riding on cells coasting through your body's veins. The sound of the heart grows stronger like a beating drum as you're pulled closer. Suddenly, you're embraced by this giant pulsating muscle and when you're finally released back into the veins you can hear it's sound fading slowly, but still growling with the same intensity that it has beat with for eternity. Jugularis is the soundtrack to this ride and like your heart it's packaged in blood: the ultimate symbol of life and intensity.
Recently Daniel Menche has embraced more percussion based sound to create music that manipulates the listeners blood flow and intensifies the listening experience. Jugularis still contains a distinctly Menche sound yet being that it's intensely rhythm and percussion based it's extremely different from anything that he has created prior.
Never before has Daniel Menche's mantra of "If Music is like blood then make
the speakers bleed" been so appropriate.
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artist: Mudsuckers
title: Mudsuckers
catalog number: imprec104
format: cd
release date: August 22, 2006
Swamp noise drone. Feedback is layered like mud on the carcass of song structure. Robert uses primitive cassette manipulation as well as digital processing to thicken the sound into a swamp. Think Credence Clearwater Revival without the one chord they knew. On three of the songs, Pete uses his analog reel-to-reel wall-of-sound processing apparatus. Longjaw Mudsuckers was inspired by a mid-eighties cassette where Merzbow mixed John Hudak’s nature sounds into a screaming mass of sonic debris. Robert recorded a stream after the huge New Year’s Day storm and Pete plugged it into his system, making it sound at times like a stream, an ocean, and robots whispering mechanical secrets.
This CD contains some of the first recordings of Tom Carter’s circuit bending. Individual attributes of Gabe Mindel’s guitar roar, Tom Carter’s ebow laptop whirl, and Horton’s clanky homemades merge into the mud stew. Driving the swirl are samples of boogie woogie piano, riffs from the session, and pounding drums of guests Michael Donnelly and Doug “Moonshine” Jin. The last number, SWEET, conjures the bar room sound of Kansas City, 1920, but recorded inside a thermonuclear reactor. The sounds created are so raw and tormented it’s hard to believe they were having a good time. Must have something to do with the times, the war and the general vacuity of that season’s holidays.
How did these recordings happen? During the torrential rains of December 2005, caused by global warming, Robert Horton invited Tom Carter, Gabe and Pete of the Yellow Swans, and Glenn Donaldson up the hill to his home in El Cerrito for food, drink, and music-making. As it turned out, Pete and Glenn couldn’t make it, so Gabe, Tom, and Robert vibrated the peaceful El Cerrito neighborhood to mud. We had beer, wine and much feedback. The turbulence of the sounds matched the late December weather. The following week when Pete came over to overdub his sounds, Robert had found an article on mudsuckers in the Berkeley Daily Planet. The headline was “Mudsuckers may be ugly, but they have value.” A band was born.
A mudsucker is a fish that’s mostly a mouth, which spends its whole life on one patch of mudflat. Scientists use these fish to monitor carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, and other toxic chemicals in coastal waters. The group’s name as well as some of the song titles were taken from this article. The second song, Here Come the Mud Dragons was a phrase spoken by three kids splashing in the mud in a local park. Another song Electric Sunflower, was named by Glenn Donaldson in an email explaining why he couldn’t be at the session.
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artist: Grails
title: Black Tar Prophecies Vol 1,2,3
catalog number: imprec105
format: cd
release date: August 22, 2006
Important is proud to release The Black Tar Prophecies in it's complete form including two tracks not available on the limited edition European vinyl only releases.
At the start of 2005 Grails returned to the US from a month long European tour. Stepping off the plane most of the band walked in one direction and the violinist strayed off in another. It ended up being the last time most anyone would see or talk to him. A bandmate of 3 records and 5 years had vanished only to exist in the form of vague rumors (violin hocked for petty cash, living on the streets, etc). As the varied reports of brief encounters and sightings grew stranger and darker, the band started a series of recordings called Black Tar Prophecies. The remaining members had particular dissatisfactions with how the band had been grouped into the innocuous contemporary 'post-rock' movement. This frustration, combined with newly liberated instrumental roles, introduced new possibilities for the band's sound. In this way the collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the groundfloor 60's and 70's experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become.
A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music.Grails third full length recording, and first full length since leaving Neurosis' label Neurot, is The Black Tar Prophecies. Seven of these nine tracks from this full length were released in small highly sought after pressings of 12” vinyl on two European labels.
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The Black Tar Prophecies is a massive evoltionary step in the established Grails sound and it is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style which has established them a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy and for lack of a better term “psychadelic.” We're not talking about the cliché co-opted psychadelic fashion, but psychadelia as a reckless embrace of new states of mind and possibilities. This sound has always existed within a Grails song but now it's been heavilly pushed to the foreground. Perhaps even more elloquently and simply stated, Black Tar Prophecies 1-3 is their best record yet.
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artist: Merzbow
title: Minazow Volume Two
catalog number: imprec107
format: LP
release date: August 22, 2006
Not to be confused with Merzbow's recent cd release on Important titled Minazow Vol 1, this is Minazow Volume 2 featuring new tracks dedicated to the memory of the mighty Minazow. This release is on vinyl only, housed in a deluxe heavy duty textured tip-on gatefold sleeve and pressed on green vinyl. Limited edition of 1000.
Minazow Vol 2 is Merzbow's tribute to the beloved male elephant seal who lived life in captivity at a Tokyo aquarium. Masami Akita often visited the seal at the aquarium and was allowed to access Minazo behind the scenes.
Minazo, an Elephant seal, died at 5:15 pm on October 4, 2005. He was 11
years old, still young for an elephant seal whose life expectancy is 20
years on average. Whatever the cause of death, I feel sad and angry
each time I hear about animals dying in captivity far away from their
natural habitat.
Minazo was raised at the Enoshima Aquarium in Kanagawa Prefecture. With a
strong build, 5 meters in height and 2 tons in weight, he was the only
male elephant seal in Japan.
Director Yukiko Hori said in her book "The Story of An Aquarium"
(published by Iwanami Shoten) that Minazo was brought to Japan from
Uruguay in 1995. His name, which consists of three kanji characters
meaning "beautiful", "male", and "elephant", was chosen from 1,500
public suggestions.
The aquarium had raised male and female elephant seals called Daikichi
and Omiya, who had been brought from the Antarctic island of South
Georgia in 1964. After they died in 1977 and 1979, specimens were made
using their skins, which are currently displayed at the aqarium. Hori
said that the previous experience with the two seals was of help in
raising Minazo.
Minazo became popular through TV appearances. He was once introduced on
a variety show as a look-alike for wrestler Bob Sapp, an insult to Minazo.
Elephant seals have far greater strength than humans, and can even crush a car
when they get really mad. Bob would have been beaten in a second.
Minazo was forced to perform various stunts before audience at each
mealtime, such as holding a bucket with one flipper, bending back like
a prawn, and standing still while a keeper jumped and clung on him. The
hard work made him exhausted and might have caused his early death.
Many of the aquariums in Japan have become mere amusement
establishments. If their mission includes breeding and
protecting endangered animals, they must continue feeding the
animals in captivity responsibly. I, however, believe that
they should eventually end the exhibition of animals in the name of
academic research, and instead start functioning as animal shelters only.
- Masami Akita, Tokyo 2006
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artist: Flaherty/Corsano/Yeh
title: A Rock In The Snow
catalog number: imprec095
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006
Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyric they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings.
When tales of C. Spencer Yeh's Burning Star Core project reached Corsano/Flaherty the duo were eager to see him jam. Fortunately, fate brought them together at the DeStijl/Freedom From festival where Corsano/Flaherty were playing in the Dream/Aktion Unit (with Thurston Moore) and Yeh was there with Burning Star Core. His performance caught the Corsano/Flaherty duo on fire and Yeh's temperature was raised (literally) when he suddenly came down with the flu following his show. Fortunately for Yeh, Flaherty packed him in ice down in the festival hall basement and a solid relationship was forged.
Lives were saved. Jams ensued. The power trio of Flaherty/Corsano/Yeh was formed.
Liner notes by John Olson aka Johnny Coors.
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