- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
samples:
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
samples:
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- Nate Smith
- Albums and Singles
The M. Behrens disc is less pretentious than Marchetti's, but stillvery self-absorbed. The pieces, which follow some sort of World War IIera technology battle theme, are comprised wholly of Behrens' olderworks that he's re-evaluated and re-processed for this project. Theextensive, personal liner notes by Behrens explain a good deal aboutthe processes used to create these pieces and the concepts which he'sintertwined within them - mostly coming from a book called "The SecretWar." But since most listeners haven't read this book, and a good dealof listeners don't know the early M. Behrens pieces that he's samplingfrom, the concepts and processes become much less important to thelistener than they are to the artist. The music itself is less annoyingto listen to than Marchetti's collage, but on its own it's not verygripping, and its unclear how it fits in with his elaborate concept. Alarge part of the disc is so quiet that it requires serious attentionand concentration for long stretches of time. When sounds finally dorise to a normal level, they're not interesting enough to be worth theeffort. Intransitive should be commended for releasing conceptual workslike these, and much of the rest of the Intransitive catalog is quiteinteresting, but these two discs are too entrenched in the artists'personal worlds to be very interesting, even to a listener who'swilling to give them a try. -
samples:
- M. Brehens - 1939
- M. Brehens - 1941
- M. Brehens - 1943
- Lionel Marchetti - Cinq
- Lionel Marchetti - Sept
- Lionel Marchetti - Un
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
samples:
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
Matthews sometimes just loops a two tone fragment,at others crushes the guitar into thin spidery high pitcheddigi-screech. Veering from rattling unwinding machine cog splintersthrough short patches of sparse plucking hum calm to loose freeformthunderous excavation textures, they stay just ahead of thrummingabstraction with some odd but simple rhythmic moves that skip merrilyaround complex dissonant edges, unfurling repetitive patterns,coalescing and fragmenting. They make a fine unfettered noise and knowhow to effectively build and release tension. Whilst "She Is Nice"charges forth in hectic flux, "Builder Bloomsberg" opens with arepeated dipping strum over click clack loops that slowly morph into afluctuating bipolar drone where the sound sources seem to merge. ThenMoor builds an ever more discordant fractious guitar onslaught overMatthews' pulsating loops. The track climaxes with the computer rippingthe strings from the guitar and strangling an unsuspecting studioengineer. So that didn't really happened but since this is a recordingimagination can color the events it portrays. Kaffe Matthews' last solorecording to reach these ears 'CD Cecile,' seemed to dispense with theviolin that she'd previously used as a sound source, at least in anyrecognisable form, so it's quite good to hear her take on the guitarhere. Mostly guitar remains recognisable as such, but occasionally, ason the low drone eerie ambience that concludes "Here Is Your Coat," thelaptop textures seem to hold sway. This would probably be much more funif you could see how Andy Moor's attacking the guitar as he's quite avisual performer if his days in Dogfaced Hermans are anything to go by.Something I find a little strange about recordings of improvisation isthat they often grow with repeated listenings. This might seem tocontradict the essence of improvisation, which is instantaneous actionand reaction, but perhaps makes sense of the point of actuallyreleasing improv recordings in the first place. At first this CD seemedto out stay its welcome at almost the full seventy minute mark, butafter a few plays seemed to be over in a flash. Maybe the machine cogswere the atonal sounds of time compacting and unravelling.Occasionally, as on the Instant Chavires gig segment of "Here Is YourCoat," it's almost like a lighter fleet footed cousin of the heavyrecord shop emptying storm of the FM Einheit / Caspar Brotzmannencounter preserved on 'Merry Christmas.' If you ever wanted to hearthe spikiness of the Ex in a much less anchored setting then this issomething you should hear and I'd also recommend that fans of SonicYouth's more wayward freakout tendencies check this out. -
samples:
- For sound samples go and have a look at unsounds.com as Graeme's feeling especially lazy this week.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The opener is probably my fave track on the disc, noted as "Polar Love," I think it's actually, "Sliding Down Your Rib Cage" as the girls graphically describe close, intimate experiences up against a distincly Kreidler low-cool moving tune. The third track, "Frequent Flyer Lounge Song" is perhaps the most irritating original song on here with the overrepetition of "dance music, dance music, dance music" completely ruining the track. The last song will surely make a number of people severely hate them, as both Kreidler and the Chicks horribly sing on a cover of Nick Cave's "Where the Wild Roses Grow." Their singing voices are so incredibly unbearable at this point, the 17+ minute disc can't end soon enough. While I'm a fan of both Kreidler and Chicks, their styles seem somewhat mismatched, almost like the Freddie Mercury/Monsterrat Caballie catastrophe. For me, the Chicks seem to sound most natural with thumpy bass, tacky keyboards and dancefloor parody, not necessarily introspective popcorn beats and timid sounds. Fear the video component as the included software "PROJEKTOR" will most certainly crash any non-German PC.
samples:
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
True,it's more straightforward pop than the OTC, and I never really likedthem, either, but this release just seems like it's lacking somethingall the way through. From the opening title track, the vocal harmoniesand treated guitars greet you and prepare you for the journey. And youwould get the impression that this is what you can expect for most ofthe record, which would make it pretty boring. Unfortunately, thatisn't the case here: it's worse. There are moments of other soundsentering the picture, but they are few and far between, and they don'tlast long. Then it's right back to the same old shtick. Layers ofguitars and vocals that are treated with different effects, clearlyrecorded drums, and occasional bouts of handclaps. Ho hum, yawn. Andthe subject matter, mainly dealing with themes of light and the sun (afixation with sunshine = The Sunshine Fix. How clever.), is verysimplistic. It could be flushed out and explored more, but it's verysurface level. Towards the end of the release, I realized what wasmissing: the rest of the Olivia Tremor Control. Now that that group isdefunct, the members are revealing that their music was a great case ofthe whole being greater than the sum of its parts. There is a twinkleof hope on tracks like 'Everything is Waking,' and I can only hope theyuse that twinkle to greater effect and explore wider themes on futurerecordings. This got real stale real quick. -
samples:
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
James is curator of the lowercase sound email discussionforum, so it's not surprising that 'Zuihitsu' is a fairly quietcollection that works up to occasional skittering resolutions relyingon fast paced interaction but mostly squeaks and gurgles in a playfulbut subdued manner. One track is titled "Zwittering Maschines" andzwittering seems a good word to describe the sound of 'Zuihitsu.' It'sdifficult for me to hear this CD without being reminded of the voicesof classic cult BBC kids TV show The Clangers, the moon dwellingwoollen puppets with squeaky voices. Perhaps that's appropriateconsidering the influence of bird sounds on James Coleman's improvisingtechnique, and the image the theremin has as a kitsch sci-fi soundtracktool. "This Castle Keeps Me" opens with a low drone that eventuallyswoops off over sparse and slow atmospheric drum beats. "Burial of theCombs" is a more dissonant follow up with slow scraping cello from VicRawlings. On "Katydid" the theremin conspires with Bob Rainey's sax tosound like a dog whining in curiosity at odd percussive occurrences.Greg Kelley's trumpet brings a strangled gurgle to "Muddy Kemaris" forbird like twitters to flit around, before launching drawn out keeningsover drum rolls. "Lady of the Combs" adds some stuttering jerky vocalsfrom Liz Tonne which instantly lifts the music into a more tense mode,as she sounds quite distraught. Her vocals on a handful of later tracksare much more subdued and merge organically.
Although the album is made up of fifteen tracks with variouscombinations of improvisers, with only the theremin constantthroughout, the album merges seamlessly into a whole which could easilyhave been one long session. The final track "Released to the Stars"brings a low key resolution with Rawlings droning cello underpinningTonne's choking ululations which seem to suggest death and rebirth asthe sounds dissolve to silence.
The sleeve is a an imaginitively elegant affair which allows thelistener to choose one of three covers featuring different abstractoriental style art under tracing paper and quotes from William Blake,Kimo no Chomei or Elizabeth Millard. The quotes are spirituallysuggestive and compliment the intent of the music neatly. -
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
samples:
- Alva Noto - Prototypes
- Byetone - 1 SQRT 2
- Komet - Mond
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