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Leaving the rigid beats behind this time, Richard H. Kirk introduces anew alias through a new (for him) label. The first OrchestraTerrestrial release comes from Die Stadt and is packaged exquisitelywith a fold-out CD case and six prints of digital artwork representingsix of the eight songs here (three by Naked Art, three by DesignersRepublic). While Kirk has has contrasted his usual style by creating anatmospheric soundbath with lengthy delays heavily absent of drummachines and thumping beats, his signature style of long buildups,heavy repetition and lengthy songs is noticably present. For the firsttime in many releases, I can actually clearly hear distinct treatmentsfor each sound present. Each piece of the tapestry has its own life andidentity without getting wrapped up in a grey muddiness. In the blurbgoing around, Kirk is said to have created this disc after his recentrediscovery of classical composers like Wagner, Debussy and Mozart, butI'm honestly having a tough time finding the connection. Theprogression is amazingly linear: beginning with a whisper, slowly andpatiently adding beats and more layers with each track until the end,where "Uniform Spaces" breaks down, being chopped up into little bits,threaded and looped. (It's this ending that is the key that links bothreleases together for those RHK fans who weren't sure whether thefollowing item reviewed was RHK or not!) At the end of the disc, I'mfinding myself anxious to listen again before shelving it like many ofhis releases over the last ten years. The disc is limited to 1000numbered copies.
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Mysteriously enough, a 12" single surfaced on the same day as the Orchestral Terrestrial release, bearing no explicit indication that it's also a Richard H. Kirk project aside from the amazingly similar name and fonts used. There's no illusion in the music here, however, as 'Deconstructed Trance Anthem' parts 1 and 2 graces each side with none other than repetitious butchered remains of a generic trance anthem.
I question the usage of the term 'deconstructed' however, as to me, the record's really a series of looped and threaded excerpts, or as they claim, "a locked groove record without the locked grooves." In theory it's a great concept, but in actuality this would work best around the five minute mark on each side. Unfortunately, each side stretches over 19 minutes. Future plans are to revisit these themes using an orchestra in a Steve Reich sort of minimalism, which might be exponentially more interesting than this. Fans of looped-and-spliced repetition of techno sounds would probably eat this all up but at best I find the 12" rather mediocre.
 
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Four deviant love songs make up the latest EP by COH (Ivan Pavlov) with collaborators Peter Christopherson and John Balance of Coil, Steve Thrower of Cyclobe, Frankie Gothard, and Louise Weasel. The disc comes lovingly packaged in a clear slip case with amusing cardstock inserts, color illustrated and Spanish captioned, for each song. As with some of the previous EP "Vox Tinnitus", "Uncut" pairs the guests' vocals with Pavlov's precisely programmed, laptop generated chaos. "My Angel [Director's Cut]" and "Fffetish" are reinterpretations of mid '80s pop tunes, Soft Cell's "Meet Murder My Angel" and Vicious Pink's "Fetish", respectively.
On "Angel" Christopherson's (and possibly Gothard's) vocalized hums, sighs, moans, movements, watery slaps and thumps could be construed as sexual overtures more overt than anything suggested in the few lines of softly spoken/sung lyrics. "Fffetish" is as danceable as the original with driving electronic pops and hi-hat as Gothard vehemently insists "when you're near me my whole body aches" and "you are my fetish!" Thrower's "Prayer For Russell" (Moore, a gay porn actor) is more restrained and tone/drone based. His effected voice recites a barely decipherable, possibly double entendre series of lines such as "come into the waves of time" and "come beneath the waves of time". But it's Balance, unsurprisingly, who delivers the most vibrant and vigorous vocal of all. In "Health & Deficiency: Love's Septic Domain" he passionately decries the humiliation and horrors of "dirty hospitals" and daily medical methodologies: "I take 27 pills before 9 a.m. in the morning / another 35 by 9 in the evening / I have 3 intravenous injections a day / one in the thigh, two in the eye". Meanwhile, Weasel deadpans spoken lines here and there, perhaps summing it all up best with "I'm confused between sexual, murder, magick and medical ... is the difference metric or imperial? septic? fertile? furtive? or sterile?" The song reminds me of the themes explored in Coil's rendition of "Tainted Love" and the soundtrack to Derek Jarman's "Blue" and proves to be the most powerful of these cuatro canciones. Out next for COH will be a collaboration with visual artist D42 entitled "Netm√πrk" for Source Research Recordings.
 
 
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Greg Weeks is just plain weird. One look at the album cover for this,his second release, can tell you that. He's got that bloody knife lyingthere in the snow, and on the back of the release, he's lying in thesnow with a pool of blood by his head. Is he killer, or the killed, orboth? It's incredibly fitting, as "Awake Like Sleep" sounds like thesoundtrack to your favorite dream, worst nightmare, or a combination ofthe two. All songs feature synthesizer of some kind, usually mini-moogor omnichord, and half have no drums whatsoever. This gives the wholerelease a very eerie feel, that you cannot escape. Not that you'd wantto. It's very lush and beautiful, "Awake Like Sleep," even if a littlelanguid and depressing, but it's magnificently arranged. Weeks and hisprimary collaborator Jesse Sparhawk make wonderful music together,particularly on the tracks where it's just the two of them playing allof the instruments. It's a very simple release in terms of arrangementand style, but very affecting, as Weeks has immense talent as asongwriter and musician. A few of the tracks grew a bit monotonous onrepeatedly listens, but overall it's a gem, driven by the creepiness ofthe music and Weeks' voice, mixed with an interesting dash of altar boynuance due to the sound of the organ on several tracks. A challenginglisten, but overall worthwhile.
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Walking the line between the improvisational and the organizational,chaotic and orderly, the Portland-based collective known as Jackie-OMotherfucker has released the second full-length CD for Road Cone(their seventh full-lenther in the grand scheme of things). It's acollision of opposing forces, as cold-climate bluesy rock meets afreestyle electronic assemblance, and would appeal to the Volcano theBear, Molasses, Boxhead Ensemble and Shalabi Effect fans of thespectrum. The album starts off with a heavy dosage of disorder with theten+ minute opener, following through with a guitar-heavy 14 minutelong tune driven by an 808-imitating drum machine. Through thefollowing few numbers the collective display their ability to mesh allinstruments without making too much of a mass. However, by the time itreaches "Something On Your Mind," I'm thankful most of the tunes areinstrumental. It's not that the singer has a bad voice, it's just thatthe lyrics aren't as profound as the singer might be thinking andneedn't be repeated as laboriously over the course of three minutes. Bythe time it reaches the last two tracks: "The Pigeon" and "Pray", therthe vibes, strings, guitar and wind instrument interplay is executedwell enough to paint an aural landscape of both beauty and sickness.The first of the two tracks builds from a quieter opening into a boldroar while the second calms everything down into a serene and coolending.
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Why oh why was this only released in Japan?!? "Shopping" quicklyfollowed up, followed in and flattened out the footsteps of the 2000full length debut "Tragic Epilogue" on 75 Ark. Anti Pop's trio ofverbally proficient vocalists - Priest, Beans and M. Sayyid - areaugmented by co-producer E. Blaize. It seems as if they belong to a subgenre of hip hop entirely of their own devise. The production isclinically precise and somewhat minimal, the bass and beats crisp andclear with electronic overtones. The rhymes are often tongue tyingblurs of abstract dictionary data (the lyrics are thankfully included).The first stanza of the first vocalized track "Angular" is one of manyexamples: "unto itself it's incomplete / but made complete by myconnection / the effervescent vestige of decimation / the decimal pointseven thousandth of a percent / possession with intent to make bent / Ibreak bread with tack heads / in flight unflawed with sight unseen /strongly configured with wire inside of a womb the size of an entireplanet born of fire". That all flows by naturally in about 18 secondsflat. And there's another 46 minutes after that. Meticulous mind funk.Oddities along the way include the bizarre future drama of "Excerptfrom the forthcoming epic: Dogland", the android vocals of"Technocracy", a few brief instrumentals including the city noisecollage of APC's home base "New York" and the surprising guitar sampleand female MC enhanced "Lazarus Pit" and "Verses", respectively."Shopping" was well worth the $24 it took to bring it Stateside. AntiPop have since signed with Warp Records (!) and their new EP "The EndsAgainst the Middle" should be out this November.
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The most recent full-lengther from the English duo ISAN was released earlier this year on Morr Music in Germany. You might be familiar with their name from various remixes like the two on the Morr compilation, 'Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey' and their Seefeel remix on the Warp 10th anniversary remix disc or various other compilation appearances.
The sound is simple, blissful and serene, consisting almost entirely of analogue synth sounds and the occasional punchy Kraftwerkian percussive sounds. Many of these tunes actually remind me of those occasional songs which crept up on side B of an OMD or Depeche Mode 7" single from the 1980s. Perhaps it's an intentional tribute to those particular 3-6 minute gems that weren't the popular hits on the radio, but that personal gift those of us who were collectors got to enjoy over and over again. ISAN's not one of them deep-listening experiences that commands attention at all times, nor will you remember most of the song titles by the end of the day, however it's very effective for working on homework, reading or relaxing at the end of a hectic work day or orbiting the earth in a space station. I want a bowl of soup.
 
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After being in print for nearly two years, the soundtrack for Fri¦rikÿÑr Fri¦riksson's critically praised film of the same name ('EnglarAlheimsins') has had titles translated into English and is finallybeing issued worldwide from Fat-Cat. By now, however, the Icelandicpressing has circulated enough for the most die-hard Sigur Ros fans,plus their two tracks were already featured on the Ny Batteri CD EP.HÖH should be no strange name to brainwashed readers, as his pastincludes works with Current 93, Psychic TV and Hafler Trio but havingSigur Rós in the title of the album is a slight misnomer (and a hugeselling point), as they only contribute two tracks. The film has beenreferred to by many critics as the best Icelandic film ever made.Hilmarsson's entirely orchestral score is quite short and featuresquiet, simple recurring themes. Out of context, the music is simplyokay and doesn't do much for me. While it's truly emotional, therecurring themes are a bit too repetitious for my liking outside of thecontext of the film. I suppose if I ever get to see the film, myopinion will most likely change, but for now most people will be buyingthis for the Sigur Rós tracks which are currently no longer in printanywhere else. As for the two tracks, the first is an adaptation of anold Icelandic lullaby, "BÕum BÕum BambalÑ". Like much of the music ontheir last album, it's both delicate, soothing, but never dull, itbarrels right into the next track, the thunderous "Dànarfregnir ogJar¦afarir" (Death Announcements and Funerals). This tune is Sigur Rós'arrangement of an organ tune played on Icelandic radio duringobituaries. I personally wouldn't consider this disc essential, butthose mildly interested can now purchase it now for probably around $15whereas that Icelandic import was a bit steep, stretching to $30 inmany places.
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- HÖH - Schiller in China
- HÖH - Over the Bend
- Sigur Rós - BÕum BÕum BambalÑ
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The latest in the trend of Russian-released collections has taken the form of a new comp from the Tear Garden. While every album from the group is still in print, this collection is worth mentioning for a few reasons. The type is entirely in Cyrillic, so it should be noted that there are two previously unreleased songs included, "Good Evening Houston" and "Good Night Little Lights" (unlike the last Tear Garden compilation, A Bouquet of Black Orchids which came with nothing extra).
It's also limited to a numbered edition of 2000 for those who might be interested. As a compilation, however, it doesn't really pull together -my- favorite tunes nor do I feel it provides an accurate representation of the range of Tear Garden material. Congratulations to the collaborators for including "You and Me and Rainbows" which could easily be one of the greatest songs recorded in the 1980s, yet I'm always picky when it comes to comps, preferring that songs are assembled in some sort of chronology to show a nice progression, this one just seems haphazardly tossed together. New fans looking to experiment with Tear Garden stuff probably shouldn't bother with this collection. The two new songs are a bit of a departure, with the first being an upbeat heavily electronic number, while the second is is more of an experimental downtempo percussively chiming piece. If you can't live without every release, by all means pick it up. The artwork with all these pictures of moss is actually pretty interesting and it's always neat to have a CD in your collection with completely different writing. That plus collections always seems to get me more familiar with songs I might not have been keen on before, as they're taken completely out of context with the rest of the albums they were originally released with.
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For many years now I've gone without a Lustmord disc in my collectiondespite many people trying to convince me I should have some. Whatlittle I've heard of Brian Williams' 20 years to date project failed toimpress me and now that I have this disc in my possession, well, I'mstill unimpressed. The 64 minutes of "Metavoid" rely heavily upon thesound design skills Williams has put to use for dozens of films thepast 7 years, including "The Crow" and "Strange Days". Dark ambientcurrents and growls, padded with strings and angelic voices, areinterrupted by effected voices and often clumsy tribal/industrialpercussion and sound effects. Drab, clich? and predictable with equallydrab, clich? and predictable track titles. I feel as though I'mpartaking in some sort of pagan funeral dirge. Yuck. It's simply tryingtoo hard to be dark with little subtlety, always the key to superioratmospheric music as far as I'm concerned. That said, there are a fewredeeming qualities such as the climactic build of the nearly 12 minute"The Eliminating Angel" and the pure ambiance of "Oblivion". Butoverall, I think these sounds would be better relegated to cinematicbackdrop .
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