No matter how much they kick and scream, sometimes you just have to ripthat acoustic guitar out of the hands of the sissies. Maybe that's whatAstralwerks and Source were thinking when piecing together the 'remix'album of Norway's answer to black metal. I have to admit I'm a littlejaded about the concept of remix albums, and while it's rare I evenlike an entire remix disc, I can safely say I enjoy this one far morethan the originals. Nine songs (three of them twice) have been pluckedfrom the group's 'Quiet is the New Loud' album and have beentransformed by collaborations, remakes, rearrangements and remixes.Most of the time, the songs actually sound more 'complete', withadditional instruments added in cases like David Whittaker's stringarrangement enhanced version of "Toxic Girl", Riton's remix of "TheGirl Back Then" or Andy Votel's remix of "Winning a Battle, Losing theWar". Evil Tordievel does a punchy brass-heavy cover of "LeaningAgainst the Wall" while Alfie goes bass, percussion and distortedguitar overboard with their cover of "Failure." Ladytron skillfullyleave their muddy analogue synth sounds and chunky beats all over theirremix of "Little Kids". The most impressive contribution, hands down,would have to be the virtuoso sampling and playground antics of FourTet's "The Weight of My Words" (so good that an instrumental versionwas included). Fans shouldn't worry, however, as through all of thesealterations, however, the overall sense of sensitive new-age whiteguy-ness prevails. Thankfully this time around, the coupling musicisn't nearly as sappy.
samples:
- The Weight of My Words (Four Tet remix)
- Winning a Battle, Losing the War (Andy Votel remix)
- Little Kids (Ladytron remix)
They say timing is everything. Sometimes the timing is too eerie forwords. This is the debut album from explosions in the sky, if you don'tcount their self-released CD put out a few years ago (judging fromtheir comments about it on their website, they'd prefer not to countit, either). The album's full title is "those who tell the truth shalldie, those who tell the truth shall live forever," and the artwork isjust plain frightening. The cover has an angel emitting rays out of itshands towards a plane in the sky, while the heads and rifles ofsoldiers march underneath. Inside, a drawing of the plane isaccompanied by the caption "this plane will crash tomorrow." Another ofthe angel alone says "help us stay alive." It's funny how some eventswill make you question/believe in clairvoyance, or just examinesimilarities in a whole new light. Does any of this apply to the musicinside? A lot, apparently. explosions in the sky create epic guitarrock instrumentals much in the vein of Mogwai or the harder moments ofgybe!, and this release is like the soundtrack of foreboding doom. It'san amazing record, capable of destroying the will of even the strongestbeing. I am personally dumbfounded at how stirring it all is. Thismusic moves from moments of extreme quiet to moments of pureannihilating walls of guitar without warning. My pulse races justwriting about it now. The opening track, "greet death," breaks you withits crushing noise until the harmonic guitar line turns it intosomething much more beautiful and frightening. And there's a bit ofclairvoyance in the songs, too: on "have you passed through thisnight?" a man delivers a monologue where he says "Who's doing this?Who's killing us? Robbing us of life and light. Mocking us with thesight of what we might have known." It's horribly affecting. All inall, and eerie (now) qualities aside, this release is greatinstrumental rock music from four guys from Austin, TX. Music mattersagain. Buy this CD.
Like the last one this arrives as a double-CD and picks up where the last one left off. Once again, there's no rhyme nor reason to the order, as tracks are scattered rather randomly. While it's a good slice of what the group has been up to for the last ten years, and provides lots of pictures and bits and pieces on each song, I somehow feel this has way too much material readily available.
There's a coda to the last track on the first Eardrum disc 'Last Light'where the drums pick up speed and the sound shifts to a denser butrougher texture and although I enjoyed the album I was left wishingthey'd gone more in that direction. Now it seems they have. If you wantdeeply hypnotic heavy rhythm then the second Eardrum album is what youneed. Lou Ciccotelli might be best known as Laika's drummer, but hasalso played in God and Mass amongst others. In Eardrum he teams up withRichard Olatunde Baker to play African influenced drum patterns whichare then manipulated in the studio to make a finely wrought entrancingmusic that pushes beyond the limits of genre. Although they've beeninfluenced by such luminaries as Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Lee Perry andFela Kuti, I'm reminded more of Can's last great track 'Smoke', one ofHolger Czukay's 'ethnic forgeries'. This would have been a greatjumping off point for Can to head into the heart of darkness, butinstead they lightened up and got slicker and poppier as Czukay tookmore of a back seat. Eardrum play dark heartbeats all the way. Titleslike 'Sandblasted', 'Bone Room' and 'Darker Still' sum up these eerietwilight talking drum rumblings perfectly. Although 'Side Effects' iscertainly a multi-layered drum led album, Ciccotelli and Baker and theseven other musicians have employed a huge range of percussion anddrone instruments, and some atmospheric sax and whistles. It allcoalesces perfectly on the ominous 'Lightfell' as deep drones underpinthe shifting movement of the shadow flicker drums and snake charmingwhistles. 'Side Effects' would make a great soundtrack for a journey upa great river in a dense overgrown jungle to an unknown destination.This album is released by the Leaf label and if you go towww.posteverything.com where it's available by mail order, you canlisten to real audio excerpts.
Okay, first things first: I know there are going to be some folks sitting at home reading this and rolling their eyes at the idea of a 'Feminist band' and sighing, "Yeah, I'm all for womens' rights and everything but you know, their music is all the same... and well, it ain't always that great. And like, how many times do I have to listen to yet another bitchy band simulating Hole or Babes in Toyland?" so, for those people, I've got three words for you: fuck that shit.
Five films by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson have music featured on this compact collection. While over the last few weeks I have been listening to more soundtracks than ever, I've been finding that listening to them straight through (for many) can be quite repetitious. Themes frequently get repeated ad nauseam with jumbled up arrangements between instruments, scatterings of 1-minute tracks seem rather incomplete, and there's always a sense of something 'missing' — but that's just the nature of the beast. A collection like this, however provides a ton of well-developed music, carefully collected and organized, and sparks an interest in the works of both HÖH and Fridriksson.
Touch seems to be seeking out guitarists who manage to make the guitarsound like it hasn't sounded before. It seems odd that the red appled'Suspension' digipack cover wasn't one of large Mego style large cardenvelopes, like the recent Touch releases from Fennesz and RafaelToral, because Oren Ambarchi approaches the guitar with as unique anear as either of them. Like Toral and Fennesz, there is almost alwaysan underlying melodic base to what at first appears abstract, althoughAmbarchi's music probably requires more attentive listening to discernthis. About halfway through the intermittent speaker shaking drones andpulses of the title track, it sounds like his guitar morphs into anunderwater merry go round music box before it fades out in a shimmeringglow of glitch-like sparkles. A former drummer who switched to guitarbecause no one else in Sydney, Australia was willing to make music withthe kind of experimental edge he sought, Oren Ambarchi has made abeautiful record that moves onwards and upwards from nis previous Touchrelease 'Insulation'. The odd thing about 'Insulation' was thatalthough it was an improvised work, it reminded me of KarlheinzStockhausen's meticulously composed 'Kontakte' more than any of thenumerous comparisons that have been chucked Ambarchi's way. Theseinclude Keith Rowe, Tod Dokstader, Main, Dean Roberts, James Plotkin,Pimmon, Pan Sonic, Kevin Drumm, Jim O'Rourke, Pierre Schaefer and evenBrian Eno. That's not to say that these comparisons are unwarranted, asif you like many of the artists in that list, you may well also likeAmbarchi's deeply submerged six string soundscapes. He's moved on from'Insulation' in that he allows a little more repetition into thepicture, and this and the ultra low bass tones he coaxes from hisguitar give a warm glow to his spacious improvised pulses and rhythms.I'm not quite as amazed as many reviewers that Ambarchi creates suchunusual thrumming textures from just one little old guitar with nolaptop processing or other such trickery, as I've seen just what KeithRowe can do with an untuned guitar lying flat in a sea of springs andscrap. However that does nothing to detract from the fact that Ambarchihas made astonishing progress in relatively short time. From the widesonic range of feedback tones on 'This Evening So Soon' to the distantmemory loop simulations that open 'Wednesday' to the electron magnifieddeep bass textures and pulses of 'Gene', 'Suspension' is yet more proofthat Touch is putting out some of the best recordings around these days.
I don't think I've ever had my finger truly on the Pulse of ElectronicMusic. Sure, I've picked up some classic releases over the years and Istill get a small, guilty charge out of being "in touch" with theElectronic Literati.
To be honest, I thought this was downright ridiculous when I first listened. Here's some über-macho viking descendent looking dude singing songs where he repeats the same line over and over and over again. But eventually the words start making less of an impact and the music becomes the main focus, not entirely unlike those 3-D images that were popular in shopping malls in the mid-80s.
The recent work of forty something Swedish artist/composer CM Von Hausswolff fits in nicely with that of the modern minimalists (such as ?, Noto, Goem, Kim Cascone), all of whom have contributed to the Raster Music 'clear' series thus far. "Str?m" (German for "Flow") presents a constant, cyclic electric hum as a single 48 minute track. This band of energy inconspicuously wavers here and there and picks up fields of static debris and minor blips, but for the most part stays true to the course of a minimized power hum. So what are we to make of this? My personal responses to the piece have been polar opposite and of a more physiological than emotional nature. When I listen with head phones it makes me anxious while without is very calming. Something I noticed when using a disc man and head phones is that when you press 'pause' the sudden disappearance of the sound leaves a strange void in the ear drums that's simultaneously somewhat painful and somewhat pleasurable. The longer you listen to the hum before pausing, the more drastic the effect. That has become the primary focus of my time with this disc: experimenting with various ways of listening to find out the effects on my brain. I don't know if that's what Hausswolff intended but, well ... who cares? I just hope I haven't re-programmed my neurons too much ...
Skinny Puppy/Download founding member cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton)returns with his 2nd solo outing for Metropolis Records. It seemed tome that much of the first one, 1998's "Music for Cats", was unfinishedleftovers from other projects. This album may very well be the same butit also feels fully realized as a project unto its own. Key plays justabout everything - electronics, drums, guitar, bass, etc. - andcollaborates with many: Justin Bennett (guitar, Professional MurderMusic), K. Tokoi (saxophone), Omar Torres and Kent Clelland of NativeInstruments, Bill Van Rooy (bass), Phil Western (synths,Download/Plateau), Ken Marshall (electronics, Download), all of TheLegendary Pink Dots and recently reunited Puppy compatriot Ogre, amongothers. The shadowy influence of Jamaica is cast over parts of thealbum, from the artwork to the electro dub strains, most notably in theganja haze groove of "Horopter", to the radio banter in "Klora".Saxophone riffs add an unexpectedly welcome flair to "Tatayama". "15thShade" and "A Certain Stuuckey" are likely a precursor of things tocome from the Tear Garden (Key + LPD). Both feature Edward Ka-Spel'scalm and collected, detailed spoken story telling, the former over anaddictive bass line and guitar meandering and the latter over afragmented soup of bass, synth and beats. "Frozen Sky" gives one SPflashbacks - pretty synth sequences, "Process"-era heavy duty guitarchords, vocoded vocals - and, again, is probably a precursor of futurework. The remaining tracks are mostly jittery electronic jams of therecent Download/Plateau mindset. The more Key works with a variety ofothers, the more varied and interesting the results ... 
Does Glasgow have all of the best bands in the world? In recent years,that Scottish city has given us Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, ArabStrap, the delgados, and of course, the classic Del Amitri. Sorry, Ihad to. Most of the best bands come out of Glasgow, though, and here'sanother to add to your list. Aereogramme is a brilliant fuzz rock bandwho, gladly, sound nothing like any of theie Glaswegian counterparts.This is truly a unique sound, driven by a unique songwriter, Craig B,formerly of Ganger, another great Glaswegian band. Electronic hums,buzzes, hard drum hits, squelching guitars and angry sentiments giveway to rather lush passages with Hum-like glory and a very capablevoice on top, something I'm sure Craig didn't get a chance to showcasein Ganger. And there's a great sonic variety, too. Piano joins the mix,acoustic guitar, swelling keyboards and strings. And grounding it allis a profound sense of melodies that can rouse your soul from sleep orslap it senseless. This US release, on Matador, also features threetracks from their White Paw EP, released in the UK, but not here.Because the music is so good, you are willing to forgive some of theoff-kilter or awkward moments, like the death metal shrieking on"Zionist Timing." It's great fun, but wholly unnecessary. And we loveit anyway. That's the power of Aereogramme: they'll lead you to thewater, make you drink, tell you it's piss, you'll spit it out, andeveryone will laugh. It's a good time, and it's great music. Check itout.
Picking up from where we last heard from him, Jack Dangers has continued his analogue audio explorations through his latest release, a 10" released in cooperation with the Science and Education division of Tino Corp. For four tracks on the 10", Dangers avoids the usage of samplers, resorting to analogue tape manipulations, resulting in a very 50s horror film soundtrack/early Stockhausen-esque musique concrète type of sound.
A Silver Mount Zion are the band formed by Efrim, one of the threeguitarists in Godspeed You Black Emperor! although here he often playspiano. Bassist Thierry and classically trained violinist Sophie alsomoonlight from Godspeed, but A Silver Mount Zion has extended its namepresumably to denote the arrival in their midst of a further trio ofstring players on second violin, cello and guitar. Their friends Jonahand Eric also play trumpet/trombone and drums to further fill out thesound. The extra instuments bring a depth and climactic momentum thatsurpasses that record and the songs seem more fully realised than thesparse piano led songs from the first album. Whilst the sound mighthave moved closer dynamically to Godspeed, the most obvious differenceis that on some songs Efrim sings in a wavering voice similar toJonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev or Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips, butsaddened by far weightier lyrical concerns. A key track is 'Take TheseHands and Throw Them in the River', which rises in intensity as stringsswell in dark desperation until Efrim's voice almost cracks as he singsthe heartfelt tearful refrain. Melancholy and hope are the two wordsthat instantly spring to mind in describing this music. Most tracksstart quietly and slowly build up a beautiful layered emotionallyhotwired intensity. The standout track for me was the penultimateinstrumental 'C'mon Come On (Loose an Endless Longing)' which buildsslowly with drum and guitar led visions of the first rays breakingthrough after the storm clouds, then falls back, and then the stringsseem to reach for the sky and just won't stop there and the big bandunleashes its full Tra-La-La glory, godspeed to silver planets,climbing up above the hand chopping megalomaniacs and soaring above themisery and the starvation and the war and the superweeds and thedepleted uranium and the rotting corpses and babies too starved toscream and... 
I've got good news and bad news: the good news is that now you canfinally afford to buy a Mirror album! This German 2xLP set costs about$15 less than any of the single LP "limited" releases on the US labelsRobot or Anomalous. The bad news however is it'll be quite easy to gethooked on Mirror after buying this. Record #1 features an all newstudio album from the trio (Andrew Chalk, Christoph Heemann and AndreasMartin). The recording is like an aural painting of a journey in asmall boat as day turns to night. What appears to be recorded sounds ofoars gently hitting the water can be heard faintly as the ominousmusical sounds suggest the impending nightfall. While other ambientrecording artists recently have been recording the wind or theelements, Mirror have impressionistically created something original,both captivating and inviting. Through guitars and electronicprocessing, the trio's journey has a clear beginning, journey andreaches its destination as the rain begins to fall. The second recordfeatures a live performance from Austin recorded last year whichrevolves around the same concept. Like the studio recording, thejourney both starts and ends in a similar way but the nature of thebulk is a different improvisation with the same tools. If you're quickand lucky enough, the first copies ordered from Die Stadt come in bluevinyl with a bonus 7", unfortunately you won't get that in the stores.
One thing I think I've learned over the past couple years is to always trust something which shares members of the Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio, and Console collectives. Couple that with the fact that Morr Music has become an industry leader for superb electronic pop challengers.
An album great enough to play seven times in a row is quite a rarething and a compilation at least seven times rarer. But that's whathappened when I got this second sampler from Colin Newman and MalkaSpigel's Swim label into tbe machine. There are nineteen tracks and nota dud amongst them. Even the previously released tracks from Silo andSymptoms are edited versions, and there is some degree of rarity - theImmersion remix of Flying Saucer Attack is about five years old andappears here for the first time and is quite similar in feel toImmersion's Bowery Electric remix. Colin's sped up remix of Silo's'Prime Movers' appeared on the flipside of a 7" that you might havemissed and another short 'Low Impact' style Immersion track previouslyappeared only on a CD-R compilation 'genuine particle'. However most ofSwim Team 2 comprises brand new tracks. A couple of cuts show off theprogress Colin has made towards his follow up to 'Bastard', and thedriving infectious instrumental 'Tsunami' in particular suggests thathe might eclipse that fine album. However work on new Wire recordingsis taking priority at Swim studios, so it might be a while until thenext Colin Newman album. Maybe his son Ben will get his debut outfirst? Recording under the name Bumpy he also gets a couple of trackswhich display his upbeat inheritance of the Newman rhythm. 'Blokey' and'Bumpy on the Beach' are just as bouncy even catchier than his trackfrom 'Swim Team 1', but display a phenomenal progression. Bumpy'smother Malka Spigel makes a welcome return to singing in her nativeHebrew with one of the most joyous pop songs she's sung, although I saythat without understanding a word of it. She also collaborates on amore understated and haunting track with new artist Dictaphone underthe name of Host, which is the aegis under which collaborations betweenSwim artists will appear in future. Dictaphone's Oliver Doerell livesin Berlin, a city awash in atmospheric beat mongery and his 'esc.Meetings' doesn't disappoint. It's a squiggly little number that clicksaway melodically and prepares the way for the dark vortex of Symptomsin the middle of the disc. Poetess Leonie Heyes-Cercio of Beat Kittenis another new Swim artist who watches a man melting on the pavement ina way that recalls former Swimsters Pablo's Eye but is perhaps a littlelighter in mood than their cinematic 'All She Wants Grows Blue' album.Manchester based tunesmith Dave Scattergood aka Toucaen is another newSwim signing, and like the other newcomers his infectious and emotiveoffering leaves me eager to hear more. Toucaen and Lobe seem to sharequite a similar aesthetic, and a new Lobe track bodes well for the nextalbum, as does the exclusive 'Root' from Denmark's premier machine rocktrio Silo. The CD doesn't hit the shops until early November but youcan get it online now at www.posteverything.com, and for the price of a12" single you'd be silly to let it pass you by, unless of course youhate emotive insistent inventive melodic music that displays severalinteresting modes of forward propulsion.
Lingering around San Francisco with Jack Dangers can be found videoproduction guru Ben Stokes and multi-instrumentalist/instructorextrordinaire Mike Powell. Together, the trio form Tino Corp., butseparately Stokes' and Powell's musical projects are respectively DHSand Bo Square. DHS follows up his last 12" (the House of God 10thanniversary) with the spacey psychically suggestive 'Mind Control' ep.Side 1 features three variations: unseparated upbeat dance tracks whichare more of a nod to mid-90s techno crossed with vintage spoken wordrecord samples on hypnosis. The thumping beat is rather thin for mytastes but would probably be intense on a super powered DJ system. Side2 is noted as both 45 and 33 rpm and features only two tracks, alsounseparated - "Telephone Sounds" which hijacks many analogue beeps,clicks and voices from the receiver and "Subliminible" where Stokesenlists a small arsenal of sampled analogue drum beats over anartificial robotic bassline. 
The first Bo Square release came out last year but shouldn't gounmentioned any longer. 'Outer Space Suite' is available on 12" and iscomprised of two faster-than-average techno future classics. Fans ofthe jazzier Meat Beat sound would appreciate the feel brought into themix, as guests Jack Dangers (on vcs3) and Marshall Allen (on sax).Powell, whose guitar and theremin skills coupled with a whole jazzaffinity flavors the first side on a delicious 9+ minute long threepart beat suite. The speed makes it almost considerable to be drum andbass but the track really stands apart from the crowd. "Numbers" on theb-side is comfortably slower and in an almost Kraftwerkian tribute iscolored with various numbers spoken in foreign languages. Both tracksare on the full-length debut from Bo Square, 'Sizing Things Up' butthere's just something magical about having the tunes on vinyl. Lookfor a review of the full-length soon.
The debut solo release from Christian Kleine features eight amazinglypleasant electronic tunes. Kleine's work has been featured on Aerovanerecordings and in various performances around Europe last year as halfof Hermann & Kleine. The songs here are smooth with the grace ofsomething like a Boards of Canada release yet the excitement of anAerovane album. Kleine tries his hand at a variety of electronicflavors - the echo chamber of the album opener, "Guitar Interrupt",punchy repetitive beats of the title track and "Today's Mark," and arumbling beat-less 'ambient' tuine "Kritzel." While it's nice to hearsomebody making the attempt at pleasantness, this disc isn't reallysomething worth your undivided attention. 'Beyond Repair' could easilywin brownie points from Scrabble guests as it lies in your disc changerin between other relatively uninvolved classics, but at best this albumonly gets a minor amount head nods at the most exciting bits.
