- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
samples:
- Boredoms - Super Now
- Satan's Tornado - Amalgamated Computer Experience
- Unwound - Behold the Salt
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
samples:
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- Carsten S.
- Albums and Singles
Loads of track titles (i.e. "Fiat," "Microsound and glitch & cutscan only lick my mafia ass," "She Male 808") and the design show asense of humour which can't be wrong. It will be interesting to watchand listen to his further progressions. -
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
This release is many things: the soundtrack to MarkBorthwick's visually stunning art and photography, originally composedfor an exhibition at the Swiss Institute in New York in 1999; a bizarresound collage made up of acoustic guitar, spoken word, and electronics,all cut up for your pleasure/annoyance; an inspiration to Kim Gordon ofSonic Youth, which could be good or bad, depending how you look at it(a line from this release contains the words "a thousand leaves," whichis reportedly where the Sonic Youth album of the same name received itsmoniker); confusing and stunning at the same time. I listened to all 38minutes and 58 seconds in one listen, and I must say I wasimpressed/confused/stunned/annoyed/fascinated/dismayed. To tell thetruth I don't really quite know how to feel after the experience. It iscertainly an interesting listen, though, I feel, lacking without thevisual component. Although the packaging is well done and contains thecomplete text for the album with two Borthwick-taken photographsrandomly selected from four total, they are a poor substitute for thework that I feel this was inspired by or helped inspire. I wasreminded, strangely enough, of Tortoise's "Djed," and how the firsttime I listened to it I felt similar to how I felt about this project,a collaboration between Borthwick and TREVOR/hollAnd. So I listened toit again. And again. After several listens, I like it more, though I amjust as confused. And perhaps I should be. It's a lot to swallow, and Ifeel I may never fully understand it. But I dare you to try, and I hopeyou can. I just wish I could see the whole piece as it is intended tobe viewed. Then perhaps this release would have more meaning and wouldserver as a reminiscence for something incredibly moving. That's thesense I get from this. I'm missing too much. -
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
A vaguely medieval flavoured jazzy trio with horse hoof cloppingpercussionist Angus Maclise and saxophonist Terry Jennings is pleasant,but doesn't really seem to fit in too well with the rest of therelatively exploratory music here. There's a fantastically noisyassault on a piano fed through Tony Conrad's 'thunder machine' (Vox ampreverb) with the suitably ravaged title 'After the Locust' which mighthave sat better on the second CD with the other Conrad duets. It goesout on a humourous lack of notes as Cale's recording of dense layeredviola drones is interupted by a fireman ordering him to go play faraway out in the country somewhere. Of course since then the drone hasled him and his nose far away to several different countries. -
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
samples:
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- Jessica Tibbits
- Albums and Singles
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- Walter Kranke
- Albums and Singles
The first is a remix of "Glue of the World" by Hebden. It stretches the anticipation of the original and tosses a humorously dance-laden drum break into the mix. Think Madonna's "Music" without the shameful Credence rip-off. The second remix is from new-comer Koushik, who recently signed to Hebden's Text Records in the UK. It's a bright, playful number with Koushik's charming vocals propelling the song into genuine indie-pop territory. Manitoba's remix of the same song should come as no surprise if you're familiar with his brilliant Start Breaking My Heart album. He lightens the mood a little bit and keeps the groove as sturdy as the original. The final remix is Boom Bip's version of "No More Mosquitoes." It's much darker than the original, with a chiming interpretation of the vocal melody that bears a weird resemblance to the X-Files theme. Overall this EP is far superior to the "No More Mosquitoes" single from a few months back. The single had an obvious B-sides quality to it that this EP thankfully doesn't have. It stands on its own as a solid addition to the Four Tet catalog. -
samples:
- Glue of the Other World
- Hilarious Movie of the 90's (Koushik)
- No More Mosquitos (Boom Bip)
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
At live shows, I find that watching the musicians fiddle with buttonsand knobs is distracting. But with eyes closed, the noise may take mesomewhere in my imagination, using the sounds as cues to define a placeor a feeling. Many pieces on this CD achieve this effect. For example,while listening to track four (live in Stockholm), I feel like I'm in astrange old building, where the vacuum cleaner is running non-stop in anearby room, while in my immediate environment are dueling rhythmicclick-scrape noises and an odd chord twanging repeatedly. Then abackground machine din grows and overcomes the other sounds and Iwonder how I'll ever get out of this hellhole. I escape as track five(live at a radio station in Evanston, Illinois) begins with another dinfrom the machine room while a consistent rhythm is provided by a soundreminiscent of a slow drip from a leaky faucet, only each water dropseems to be hitting a drum surface rather than a sink. The densebackground din varies, with swirling pain sounds that sometimes couldbe a drawn-out AWWWWWW cry by some beast (human or other), but what Iimagine as wailing is actually just another electronic sound, not asampled cry. When the train finally comes, it's almost a relief: afamiliar blaring train whistle, one of the few recognizable samples onthis CD. Other pieces on the CD are lighter and sparser, like the pianocut-up that opens the CD. There are also some that feature a heavybuzzing sound, or a high-pitched drone.
I enjoy most of the selections here and feel that IOS fans will not be disappointed. -
- 4.26.01 live in Rostock, Germay @ M.S. Stubnitz
- 5.5.97 live in Stockholm, Sweden @ Fylkengen
- 5.15.97 live in Rennes, France @ Theatre de la Parch
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
The man who onceproclaimed "I am the messiah" and wanted balls as big as the swing ofTiger Woods has toned down his smart ass antics only slightly and hasaccomplished his most mature effort to date. Bern has also turned upthe backing band, making for a fiery and aggressive electric sound notheard quite to this level on previous releases. Mostly, Bern workedbest when it was just him and a guitar, playing magical songs of humanrelationships. This time, every arrangement shows a new strength, fromemotionally touching lyric writing on "God Said No" to fun hooting andhollering on "Alaska Highway." The title track is pure, perfect DanBern, as he has yet another conversation with someone who simply cannotaccept his position: "She said 'love, love, love is everything'/I said'ok, I guess, whatever'/She said 'what does that mean?'/I said 'nothin'it's just good to have a backup plan.'" And though not as blatantlyrandom as Wesley Willis, Bern does like to riff on popular icons, wherehere he name checks Rae Dawn Chong, Leo DiCaprio, Britney Spears andKeith Richards, all in the same song. Elsewhere, on "Tape," forinstance, his riffing hits real close to home, displaying tremendousgrowth in Bern's knack for social commentary. I miss the more quirkymoments, but if this is a hint of where Dan Bern is eventually going,I'll join him on the whole journey.
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
The laboratory bubbles with the multiple musical personae of itscurator Dave Clarkson, drummer for the now defunct White Cube who endthe CD-R with an oddball ode to sexual shenanigans, singer Su Lisounding off like Eve Libertine of Crass nursing a wound. Dave Clarksonis also behind the sci-fi babble of Gelatine, the sinister drone ofIlluminati, the backwards techno of Midget Gems, the dirty factorygrind of Valis 33 and the mournful serenade of Monte Christo.
The RSI label throws up three disparate chunks of audioexperimentation. Disco Operating System float off 'Just East of Lyra,Northwest of Pegasus' with a new track that signals a noisier directionpossibly influenced by Birmingham's cut up noisician Magic City,opening with what sounds like a distorted organ heralding rapidpulsebeat degenerating into abstract dissonance. Magic City starts outwith some random squeaks before erupting in a typically noisy squall.There's also a dose of emotive melodic electronica culled from JJHoward's RSI CD-R 'Human Commodity Recordings'.
Then there's the Welsh industrialists of Fflint Central, Pendro andOleum. A Pendro drone opens the lab for experimentation with theorgasmic sighs of Debbie doing Dusseldorf in a chunky synth loop,whilst Oleum lights a 'Corpse Candle' with warped squelching beats andengine rumble whilst the church organist worries about his tuning andtries to convince the vicar to update the hymn book with '20 Jazz FunkGreats'. aLECTRO_eCOUSTIC instigator Daniel Weaver delivers a mulched dose ofsolo cello mooching, with weird bowed and processed noises flying offat tangents to a jovial plucked chugging centre. He also appears on amore frazzled, jagged and abstract short collaboration with electrictoy molestor Alex Impey.Black Curtain play slow guitar and country banjo picking in a 'MelodicaPlaypen' which nods to the likes of Papa M and Pullman. Go Go Ghidorasound like they've caged some hellbeast and miked up its rumblingstomach full of lesser demons.
The CD-R can be bought direct from www.planetsounds.co.uk and a secondvolume with a completely different line up is imminent.
- Daniel Weaver and Alex Impey - Chump
- Illuminati - Pstblue1
- Magic City - Pinnochio
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