Just in time for the holidays is the reissue of V/Vm Test Records' veryfirst Christmas single! Included on the new 3" are all six tracks fromthe original 7" single plus a brand new Christmas treat for 2001: atimeless terrible Paul McCartney tune that time forgot, "Pipes ofPeace". Sure, we all know that the Stockport crew are a bunch of hacks,but there's something amazingly charming about the sounds of deformedclassics threadded through hosts of effects, banks and glitches alongwith creepy new takes on irritating joyous songs unavoidable like thatSalvation Army guy with the bell who won't stop. After a long day ofavoiding grouchy drivers, pushy shoppers and everything else that comesalong with the holiday season, it's nice to throw on something hauntinglike Animal's "Oil Come All Ye Industrial" or the chopped-up audiocollage of Prof. Broxburn's "Christmas Fractions and Brandy Snaps" atunbearingly loud volumes. I think that's even James and Andy singingkaraoke on the V/Vm live show 1997 track! And to think these guys claimto have never heard of Nurse With Wound!
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Solid State is, without a doubt, the best IDM album released in 2001.Now, them's fightin' words, I know - but let us consider thecontenders. Brothomstates' "Claro" was an excerise in derivativenesswhich went absolutely nowhere. "Drukqs"? No, thank you, 1996 was fiveyears ago. "Confield"? Very interesting and pushing experimentalboundaries, but not something you listen to often. "Double Figure"?Now, there's a contender, but.. anyway, Solid State rules. The twoDutch brothers known as Funckarma have singlehandedly tapped into thatamazing Tri Repetae-style of IDM, added some real instruments, and madean album that sounds brand new while feeling delightfully familiar.What I'm trying to say is that Solid State is clearly influenced by themasters, Autechre - but never so much that it sounds like a ripoff orsomething unoriginal (*cough* Funkstorung). What really sets it apart,though, is the beautiful (and real) instrumentation - upright bass in"Lolala," sighing violins in "Bace"... lush sounds that give it anorganic edge the likes of which you only find in something like, say,Plaid's latest album. But electronic-noodling fans, fear not, sinceSolid State delivers those goods too: just listen to "Nuncas" and feelthe way the synth squiggles between your ears.... it's classic. Trulyclassic. These guys clearly aren't getting the recognition they deserve.
You know those collaborations you read or hear about and you think toyourself 'now that's gonna be cool' but then you finally hear it andare completely underwhelmed? Ok then, lets file this one in that bin. 
Before you fill out that brainwashed poll's category of "bestcompilation," make sure you own this collection. If you are stillunconvinced the Chicago-based Hefty Records is one of the strongestmodern electornic music labels, then this compilation will surelychange your mind. 'Immediate Action' was first reported on The Brainabout a year ago, as a series of limited 12" singles which suddenlypopped up in record stores and clubs all over the world. The premisewas to manufacture and distribute all the records quick, sinking littleor no money into artwork and promotion. The result was an assortment offine singles from Tortoise's John Herndon's dub guise A Grape Dope, theorganic live jazz and post-production electronic manipulations ofSamadha Trio, the hypnotic electornic Retina from Italy, the deepechoes of Twine, and Savath + Savalas - the now legendary and muchsought after project from Prefuse 73/Delarosa and Asora mastermindScott Heren. Along with these came a bit of remix work of John Hughesfrom the 'Scarlet Diva' by people like the Scott Heren and theundisputable Telefon Tel Aviv as well as a Slicker collaboration withthe Aluminum Group. For the most part, all records were gone as quicklyas they came in. For the CD release, the song collection has beennoticably truncated, missing A Grape Dope's "Time Makes You Suffer";Retina's "No Escape from Paradise"; plus "Hour 36" and "Loki" fromSamadha Trio. Consequently, 'bonus' tracks are included like unusedremixes and tracks from Bogdan Raczynski, Beneath Autumn Sky, andRetina. The end result is a fine assortment totalling over two hours ofsome of my favorite depth-penetrating electronics which never getboring, predictable or mundane. Those music fans who have addictivecollector tendencies should act soon if they want the bonus 12" that'savailable to accompany the comp., I don't know what's on it yet butyears from now it'll be a fine, much sought-after prize in yourcollection.
Time travel the easy way: just follow the beat and dive into nostalgia.The early 80's are present just like Vicious Pink Phenomena (ViciousPink later on) or Ensemble Pittoresque never went away. As hommage, TheHacker (Michel Amato) incorporates parts of Memorabila (Soft Cell) andI Feel Love (D. Summer / G. Moroder), but that`s about it withwellknown reference points.
Doing a search for this band on the internet is frustrating for obviousreasons. But what I can gather is that the band is the brainchild ofTom Crossley of Appendix Out fame and Annabel Wright (Aggi from thePastels, of which Tom is a more recent member). It is also the work ofa rotating group of musicians working with Wright and Crossley at hishome, and mixed with nice studio help from John McEntire. Fitting,since the music has a very Tortoise-like vibe to it, but with morevocals by Crossley and Wright. It's loungey, it's relaxing, and it allhas a nice groove anyone can fix on for a time. About half of therecord is instrumental only, and it is on these tracks where most ofthe power of International Airport lies. The tracks with vocals arefine, but tend to be more of the basic pop song structure through theInternational Airport kaleidoscope. This tends to make them a bit morestructured, where this music works best without that sense ofdefinition. The exception to this being the second track, "movingwater," which is just plain beautiful. Wright has a section of the songall to her voice, then Crossley gets his counterpoint, singing partsall his own. The end of the song pares back down to instruments only:majestic, solitary, magic. As a whole, the album possesses a quietpassion that makes it a worthwhile listen. Is it the best record I'veheard this year? No. But there's plenty of potential here...
Jazzkammer are the Norwegian duo Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre. Aftertwo albums they've opted to make the third a collection of remixes forthe Smalltown Supersound label. This means they have more time forsnowball fights or whatever it is they do to keep themselves amusedwhen they're not creating collages of glitch, noise, pop, static andthose little pasta stars that are good in soup. Although this is acollection of remixes, it holds together pretty well as an album takingin candle flicker glitchscapes from relatively unknown Norwegians, bigloping looping international laptop noise eruptions from Pita, ZbigniewKarkowski and Merzbow and some deep haunting ambience from FranciscoLÑpez and Reynols. The biggest name amongst mixers is Thurston Moore(didn't he used to play kazoo for the Butthole Surfers or something?)and after I picked up a great little free jazz freak out Schneiderremix of his from a bargain bin, I was curious to hear what he'd get upto here. He basically hacks up a lot of noise skree with cackhandedscratch attacks on jazz and disco cheese and the effect is like quicklytuning a radio dial whilst all the stations are broadcastingcompetitions for the worst DJ on the most fucked up turntable. Somepeople in very popular rock bands obviously don't take themselves asseriously as Radiohead, for which I'm grateful! 
The "Anti NY" compilation gathers seven songs by bands from the early80s scene that centered around the New York City's Mudd Club (perhapsbest known these days for its invocation in the negative by TalkingHeads, i.e."This ain't no..."). The sound stems from the collision ofpunk, disco and electronic noise that coincided with No Wave (bandslike the Contortions or DNA) and the beginnings of rap. While the songsare certainly fantastic, I can only offer a qualified recommendationfor this comp due to the needless inclusion of five "remixes" at theend that do little more than take up space. 
Sorry, it's not a full-length album of all-new material, it's theirsecond collection of remixes bearing Funkstörung's name. This timearound, the range of inputs is varied beyond expectations and usualsuspects. The charmingly timid yet curiously infectious Jay JayJohanson imediately springs to mind, as most electronica purists rolltheir eyes or make motions with their fingers in their throats. Lookout, however because word on the street is that the Funkstörung duo ofMichael Fakesch and Chris de Luca are producing the Swedish crooner'snext album. The track on here, "I Want Some Fun" is as cheesy as thetitle suggests, but the production is undeniably top-notch. Beans fromthe Antipop Consortium joins the German duo for an exclusive track,"Salt" (which samples a classic laid back Jay Jay Johanson organ riff)while A Guy Called Gerald's track with Louise Rhodes gets astylistically d'n'b finishing touch which would make any Lamb fantremble. Other remixes include those from the post-post-kraut popstersThe Notwist (hey, when's that new fucking album coming?) and apreviously-released remix of Tocotronic. My personal friend and soulmate, Speedy J gets doused with annoying repetition on "Something ForYour Mind," however no-age decomposer Jean Michelle Jarre pleasantlygets more beef than he's ever used to hearing. The packaging's cool yetslightly irritating as it will certainly rip at some point. On top ofthat, it has graphics printed on the inside of the glued cardboard, butit sure as hell gives any Funkstörung fan the opportunity to avoidspending their money on things they probably normally wouldn't get.Indulge.
This unusual specimen of audio exotica is a collection of 21 ultra-rarelibrary and production tracks from some huge and bizarre culturalrepository in Southern England, chosen and sequenced by Barry 7 of AddN to (X). This compilation is drawn from the same musical repository asLuke Vibert's recent collection of "Nuggets", but the artistsrepresented here seem to have been chosen with an ear towards morelow-key, eerie synthscapes. Barry 7 provides us with a pleasurable andadventurous journey through science fiction soundtracks, Moog-heavy poptunes, Ennio Morricone-style exotica and pure experimental sonicplayfulness. The artists here run the gamut from pretty obscure toREALLY obscure. Standout tracks include Cecil Leuter's Stereolab-esqueheadphone odyssey "Electro Sounds No. 8" and the melancholy space-agegroove of Sven Libaek's "Solar Flares." Nurse With Wound fans willappreciate the insane whimsy of The Johanna Group's "Hors Phase" andAnthony King's demented pop stylings on "Maladjusted Moogie." Thisstuff is like crack to me. More, please!
This is not an album by the 60's "it" girl but is the debut full-lengthrelease from crafty Londoner Stephen Coates. His brand of audiopastiche includes a combination of polished beats, Coates' own whisperyvocals a'la Momus, and an array of melodies sampled from 1920s and 30srecordings that will unfailingly give you the urge to get up from yourchair and do the Charleston. Tracks like, "Am I In Love?," and theirrisistably catchy, "L'amour et la Morte," are both funny andcharmingly eerie — something on par with being pitched into the absurdvaudevillian silliness of an episode of The Muppet Show. AlthoughCoates seems perfectly at ease with this silliness, the twoinstrumental tracks, "At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid," and, "CloseYour Eyes When You Read This," which show the more serious side ofTuesday, are some of the standout pieces, seeming to draw heavily onfilm noir score. The overall cinematic quality of Coates' work is hardnot appreciate, even on a first listen. For the most part, however, hissense of humor and wit prevail, especially evident in the song title"Terminally Ambivalent Over You," but never lapses into an undesirablechildishness.
The Molten Salt Breeder Reactor has been noisily unleashing untamedharshness on the world for around a decade or so. It first reached myears via the excellent Ash International compilation "Chiky(u)u" in1997, and has collaborated on ludicrously limited split discs with anendless parade of noisesmiths, including Daniel Menche, Cock ESP, K2and Steve Roden and Brandon Labelle. Koji Tano is a Tokyo noisician whois perhaps predictably rather prolific and has made museuminstallations exploring the interface between art and trash heaps. Herehe blasts eardrums, courtesy of the 20 City label, with two long studiocuts of 'spherical electronics', and a recording of an assault on aprobably quite suspecting Chicago audience, which is a slightly morefrantic but less well defined affair. The first chaotic sphericalrumination opens with a looping skree shard which soon fractures intofeedback squeals and some low messy quakes. A stuttering synthlykeyboard seems to be rapidly losing it's tuning as occasional shadowsof lost keys flicker between the bright gulfs of distortion. MSBR seemsto be able to tweak endless vortices of well defined entropy from hisgadgets, and the noise shifts constantly and eddies endlessly,headlessly and leglessly. Patterns emerge but are quickly blown apart;MSBR kisses the noise as it flies. I find it all quite relaxing at lowvolume and at higher volume it's an ideal obliterative to obtrusivecommercial radio crap.
The idea of a play-it-in-your-home soundtrack to the massiverobot-destruction performances of Mark Pauline's Survival ResearchLaboratories is ultimately a ridiculous and excessive one. But that maybe the idea. As the uncredited writer of the liner notes explains, "Thewhole point behind the SRL soundtrack is not so much to accompany thesounds of the machines, but to fill in any lulls in the noise level asthe machines start breaking down and falling apart." The performancesare frequently deal with the idea of excess and violent extremes, withgiant mechanical robotic things sent shuddering toward each other andtoward various objects (houses, ugly metal structures of all sorts)with missile launchers, blades, various weapons, any damn thing. Theperformances, typically held in empty parking lots or any large areassome distance from people's homes, are chaotic and seemingly dangerous.The sound is part of the intended perception of a loss of control,though one must trust that the robots' operators know what they'redoing or else they wouldn't knowingly endanger the lives of theiraudience. Or perhaps they would. Who really can say. 
Anyone remember Girls Against Boys? Their funk-soul-sex-rock music onTouch & Go was tearin' up the college music charts in the mid 90s,and the major labels came running. After signing with Geffen, GirlsAgainst Boys -- GVSB -- released their major label debut "Freakonica."To mild acclaim and almost whole ambivalence. No one cared who theywere or what music they were making, it seemed, because the record didnot sell well. And when Geffen all but dissolved in the infamousUnigram merger, GVSB were done. No fear, however. Where some bandsdecided to call it quits or sell out to another major, GVSB stillrecord together and make some amazing music (look for a new album onJade Tree in early summer 2002), despite the band members' projects(New Wet Kojak, for one). This soundtrack to the critically acclaimedmovie "Series 7," a mockumentary-like spoof on reality television wherecontestants are given guns and made to kill to win, is a perfectexample of why this band is in it for the long haul. What a perfectsetting for GVSB. And they make the most of it. The music is asaggressive, sexy, and fresh as it ever was, perfectly conveying, Iwould think, the urgency of said television program. I will admit, nothaving seen the film, I cannot say how this music works for it. But onits own it stands up just fine. The song that reportedly plays over thecredits ("One Dose of Truth") is GVSB gone New Wave, and it isprecious. It's also the only part of the score that has lyrics, sobasically this is a chance for the band to make an instrumentalimpression. There are also a few other songs by other bands on thealbum, included for posterity due to their inclusion in the film, likethe Joy Division classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart." But this is GVSB'ssoundtrack, and a great hint at things to come.
A couple weeks ago, I had a lot of time on my hands on the highway toAustin for a Pigface show. I figured it would be a good time to take inthe entirety of this various artists collection handpicked by Pigfaceand Invisible Records head honcho Martin Atkins for Underground Inc.,an affiliation of 15 or so indy labels including Invisible. "Notes.."showcases 52 tracks over 3 discs by 28 artists, none of whom I'dpreviouslyheard of. I kept a simple 'thumbs up' vs. 'thumbs down' tallyas I listened and 20 tracks got the thumbs up. Not bad considering thesingle disc price tag. It's a diverse lot that represents both gendersand many facets of pop, punk, rock, industrial rock, dance, rap, etc.(but you won't find a single glitch) and, of course, the unavoidableSkinny Puppy/Orgy/Leatherstrip imitators. My bias lies more towards theoriginal and weird stuff rather than the cookie cutter refuse. Some ofthe highlights: Louie Fontaine's Foetus like swagger, Tub Ring's cutand paste carnival punk on acid, Kill Pop's explosive Big Black meetsMinor Threat sound and Livesexact's "You Must Get Down" amusing samplesand raps. And the cream of the crop: Mistlethrush's utterly delightfulmelodic rock gems "Heavy Set John" and "Jody Stone" ... they will behuge given proper exposure). Volume 2 was recently released with 2 morediscs packed with another set of artists. I have it on order.
The slipcase for this disc offers little info beyond 3 artist names,track titles and label url in a somewhat difficult to read font. Alittle online research reveals that the artists - Doe, Eso Steel andBirchville Cat Motel - are from New Zealand and the label, 20 City, isbased in Japan. They specialize in the "production and release ofmanipulated sound: experimental, soundscape, ambient, noise,improvisation, textural, drone" and these 3 offer differing butcomplementary examples over 72 minutes. Doe's "Maylar" (maybe theymeant "Mylar"?) and "Polymer" quickly achieve a quiet and compelling,nirvana like state of layered hum. Eso Steel's "A Scratch" ups thenoise ante a tad with more sound tidbits and "Ircania" goes one furtherwith stretches of mild noise and furnace hum. And finally, BirchvilleCat Motel's 3 tracks bet the whole pot with nearly unlistenable,feedback drenched guitar and clutter. "Crystal Freighters" inparticular would warm Caspar Brùtzmann's cockles. Doe receive the blueribbon here and 20 City have been added to the always growing mentallist of labels to keep track of.
Mac McCaughan writes pops songs. He writes them well, whether they befor Superchunk or for Portastatic. So, when he was invited to performas part of an 'original collaboration' with Ken Vandermark as part ofthe Noise Pop festival in Chicago, he was a bit worried. And I can seewhy. Writing pop songs doesn't usually lend itself well toimprovisation. While McCaughan writes music that is structured,melodic, and full of hooks, Ken Vandermark plays (not even writing it)music that is unstructured, improvised, and spontaneous. Fortunately,McCaughan realized that improvisation would be a bit of a stretch andhe and Vandermark decided that it would perhaps be best if they were todo a set which included a few Porstatic songs, a Caetano Veloso song, a're-working' of a Vandermark tuen, and an original composition writtenby McCaughan and then elaborated upon by Vandermark. To add sometexture to the tunes, Vandermark 5 percussionist Tim Mulvenna wasinvited to play with them. While the execution of each song isexcellent and the mastery of each musician's instrument is obvious, thesongs seem to lack the electricity that usually results fromcollaborations. Although each player is playing beautifully, theyaren't playing off of each other and a lack of interaction can beheard. It's almost as if Vandermark was playing along at home to arecording. You can definitely see why this is being called aPortastatic release. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's unfortunate tofind that a collaboration that had such great potential fails todeliver.
Bad Sector is becoming awfully prolific. Of his recent material, oneitem I've enjoyed greatly is the "Bad Box" - which isn't actually new -but rather a reissue of an older album, "Polonoid," and an extra CD-Rwith two great songs on it. (Sadly, the box is now sold out, butPolonoid is available by itself, so if you've never heard of Bad Sectorbefore, snag the un-boxed version.)
