23 Skidoo have one of the most fascinating but neglected bodies of work in the annals of the early 80's post-punk/industrial diaspora, so why haven't you heard of them? Directly related to such luminaries as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, This Heat, Psychic TV, Current 93 and Coil, the Turnbull brothers have nonetheless been reduced to a footnote in most accounts of the genre, which has led to the total unavailability of their material for the last 20 years. The new schedule of CD re-issues of their entire back catalog by 23 Skidoo's own Ronin Records should rectify this situation; they definitely don't deserve their near total obscurity. With a name straight out of Aleister Crowley's "Book of Lies" and a pair of martial arts-trained brothers at the center of the band, 23 Skidoo seem ripe for a critical rediscovery and re-appraisal. Their classic albums and 12" dance singles presage so many of the developments in post-punk, avant-garde and electronic music throughout the 80's and 90's—sampling, tape manipulation, afrobeat fusion, ethnic percussion, drum n' bass, ambient. Their music has become sampling fodder for countless mainstream dance and hip-hop acts. Listening to these albums is like hearing a crate-digging beathead's secret stash of funky basslines and weird breakbeats, all wrapped up in a package of some of the most influential and idiosyncratic music to come out of the industrial era. Spurred on by the release of Soul Jazz's compilation 'In The Beginning, There Was Rhythm', and the renewed interest in the sound of Sheffield circa 1977-84, these re-issues come at a perfect time for listeners to educate themselves on the multifarious sounds of 23 Skidoo.

The fourth release from COH this year is the first all-new recording. Four paintings and four pieces represent the year's four seasons, recorded and painted from summer 2001 to spring 2002 by Ivan Pavlov and his wife, deliberately conceived and packed on a limited double 12" vinyl set in a glossy gatefold cover.

I don't think I will ever get tired of the novelty of locked-groove records. Originally released in 2000, this compilation is making its rounds again. What sets this pile of locked grooves apart from other similar releases like RRR 500 or Non's 'Pagan Muzak' is that a large number of these are actually based on beats.

Just when it seems that there's no such thing as any uplifting sounds in indie rock, a quiet voice is heard from the other shores from what could be a distant time. The Clientele are based in London, but could easily be a dead ringer for the Mersey sound of the late 1960s.

Not to be outdone by retro obsessiveness of analogue (and oddly enough days of the week), the latest Lali Puna song to surface comes perfectly equipped with crackly 78 rpm vinyl sounds. The song is a bit of a departure for the group as it is has beefier percussion and beat sounds, a slowed down tempo, and the spoken drone of Valerie with a minimal number of musical instrument sounds. It's almost as if this is the band's attempt at creating their impression of a surrealistic musicbox number to be used as the musical backrdop for a Brothers Quay short.

I think there's only so many ways you can describe four-minute pretty little melodies. There is something, however, in this Isan recording from 2002 which makes it somewhat sounding more like a strong A-side for this single than the B-side of the split with Lali Puna.

Much like Isan, Xian Hawkins has also built a strong career on a number of incredibly noteworthy electronics-laden 7" single releases. This one is no exception. Released shortly after his full-length 4AD debut, the A-side is a brand new song while the B-side, "The Fourth Way," is an alternate version of "The Fourth Day" from the 'Nonument' LP.

Rumah Sakit craft instrumental rock with fierce energy and a bizarre structure that achieves stunning results. After their debut album on Temporary Residence, the members took a hiatus to concentrate on their other projects. Then they recorded some more, and those tracks appear here, but now, they're on hiatus again. Only two albums in three years might make some wonder about their longevity, and, in fact, there are rumors that this album may be the band's swan song.

Temporary Residence
Few have suffered the changes and shifts Tarentel have and continued to make music. After at least six personnel changes (and at least as many releases, including two full-lengths), Tarentel collect their singles from 1999-2000 here on one CD. Tarentel have always created sprawling compositions, often with very simple beginnings that build to more orchestrated heights, and this release shows their evolution as a group well. It all begins with "The Waltz," with very pretty guitar and bass in—you guessed it—waltz time, which is a very solid instrumental track though not very original or grabbing at first listen. The experimentation with laptop noise begins on "Looking for Things," another gorgeous track with insular sounds jutting in for effect as well as what sounds like sampled radio at the end. Things really get going with the visceral double-shot of "Two Sides of Myself" parts One and Two (also the shortest tracks of the album), with a haunting structure and feel. These tracks were the most moving to me, as they do show two sides to Tarentel: the structured, planned side, and the morphing, amoebic side. Both are effective, but only because the band separates them so well here. Together, they don't work as well. Especially when they end up resulting in a twenty-five minute exploration like "Searching for Things." It probably started out as a great piece of music, but then it gets dragged out for no apparent reason with echoes of percussion and guitar in the background and seeming transmissions from space and guitar in the foreground. I like Tarentel, and this release works well to show their strengths and compile their ever-changing sound. I'd just like to hear more music in the huge span of time. As a whole, though, this is great music for aquariums, from the shark tank to the sardine bowl.

 

samples:

• The Waltz
• Looking For Things
• Searching For Things

As the title may suggest, the latest release from the once nomadic James Bradell (aka Funki Porcini) is a wonderous collection of musical dreamscapes and headnodding grooves to relax with. Assisted by the musical (and visual) talents of Team Alcohol (Rupert Small), the disc's fourteen compositions, comprised of droning synth and guitar layers, funky, jazzy rhythms and sampled dialogue that sounds right out of a sci-fi B-movie, vary from subtle to conspicuous.

When we left Loscil—aka Scott Morgan—last, he had released his debut 'Triple Point' to much acclaim, and was preparing to tour behind the release. That was scant a year ago, and now Loscil is back, having toured the earth and recorded a mother of a concept album. 'Submers' is very much a continuation of the same ideals Morgan has upheld before—singular artistic vision, music created on keyboards and computers—but he plumbs new territories this time around.

"Bang bang! That awful sound!" said Cher in a song of the same name, and like any critical listener in search of a cheap laugh I was primed to apply that reference here. After all, it's easy enough for an instrumental rock group to come off as either hideously discordant or sleep-inducingly masturbatory. But the problem is, even the most awful sounds on Oma Yang’s second full-length release are sublime, and theirs is the sort of masturbation you'd pay good money to see (though you might not want to volunteer for clean-up duty afterwards).

After numerous tours of rapping live, Cex has finally released his first album with rhymes. While those who only know his instrumental output might be put off by this, others, like I, who have been following his career a little more closely will be more than satisfied with the first true expression of the Baltimore boy wonder's talents.

Sit down, make yourself comfortable, this album is far from both the post-industrial noise nor the minimalistic drone stuff David Jackman is usually known for his releases as Organum. Recorded between 1990 and 1993 (originally released in 1994), the album opens with the stunning epic 16¬Ω-minute, "Aurora," which is probably the closest Organum got to Taj Mahal Tavelers. "Aurora" features fantastic guitar sounds, exotic wind instruments, and unidentifiable shining and piercing other sounds by Dinah Jane Rowe, Christoph Heemann and Jim O'Rourke.

Since early in his career, music historian and WFMU radio host Irwin Chusid has been defining and championing a peculiar genre of music that he has termed "outsider music". Outsider Music is loosely defined as music made by people who have little or no musical training or talent, and doubtful sanity, but continue to make and record music in spite of their severe limitations. Outsider music can result from mental derangement, drug burnout or total cluelessness, but the results are often worthwhile. People with little or no self-awareness are capable of producing some of the most beguiling and ambiguous sounds you'll ever hear. Outsider musicians are boundless experimenters and low-fi geniuses - but their total sincerity and passion make the results even more astounding. For jaded music aficionados who have grown tired of the endlessly self-referential intelligentsia of the modern avant-garde, outsider music offers a completely new universe of stunning musical insight, and all of it totally accidental!

So I'm playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City the other day, or, as I like to put it, my new "vice". Yes, I'm witty. [keep trying - ed.] Anyway, this game takes place in the eighties, and I noticed that they chose to get the rights to actual music this time instead of inventing their own, which probably put a lot of mediocre artists out of work. It's a better game for it (nothing like running over a street hustler while listening to "Broken Wings"), but after eight straight hours of gameplay, even that can get tiring, especially when you consider that each station only has about eight or ten songs.

The Welsh musical artist Dafydd Morgan has sought to musically document rugged, wind-swept landscapes over the course of his career as Stylus, and 'Archif:01,' a collection of various non-album tracks between 1997 and 2000, fits cleanly into that agenda.

The core of Sybarite's album 'Nonument' (yes, there are nine songs to accompany the pun) sounds like the dallying analog electronics of ISAN mixed with some guitar and live percussion. Horns and cellos also dot the landscape created by Sybarite's Xian Hawkins.

A stateside release is the crowning achievement for what has been a hard three years for Melbourne, Australia's Art of Fighting. 'Wires' was originally released last year on the excellent Trifekta label to much crtical acclaim and the Australian equivalent of a Grammy for Best Independent Release.

Five years ago, Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards seemed poised to take over the rock world as their band, Failure, was earning accolades for their recorded output as well as for their live presence. Shortly after "Stuck on You" from their 'Fantastic Planet' album became a minor hit on college radio, Edwards and Andrews parted company, and Failure was no more.