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For the last ten years, Station 17 has been a musical therapy projectbased in Germany for a small group of financially-challenged mentallyhandicapped folks. The original concept was to pair up six members witha few professional musicians and see what happens. Since its inception,the group has released four albums and have played numerous shows,incorporating a variety of theatrics alongside the musicalperformances. According to the website, the group has progressed fromimprovisationally-based music and performances to a more constructed,loop-based sound. This year saw the first worldwide distributed releaseby Mute, a 17-track collection featuring some of Station 17'spreviously released songs with treatments by Kreidler, To Rococo Rot,FM Einheit, Pole and The Modernist. In all honesty, the concept is muchmore interesting than the output, which I find carries too manycharacteristics of the groups involved with the creation. Perhaps it'sthe necessary key to gain them more attention, but I think I've heardenough To Rococo Rot albums this year. Adding chopped up vocal samplesto clicky post-disco beats isn't a very progressive concept. If theoriginal albums are ever exported, I'll be enthusiastic to listen, butthis release honestly isn't doing a lot for me.
samples:
- Ich Und Ich (with Denyo 77)
- Bei Manni und Bine (with Andrewas Doreau & Justus Kohnke
- Losjez (with Thomas Fehlmann)
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When reading the press release for "those who tell the truth..." byexplosions in the sky earlier this year, I came across a description ofthem that works for many bands I've heard over the years: "Why can't Iwrite melodies like that?" The difference between explosions in the skyand broken social scene is simply volume and aggressive stance. BrendanCanning and Kevin Drew are the primary players in the scene, and theirsound is that of laying down a nice droning sampled base track, andthen throwing recorded odds and ends at it to see what fits. I don'tmean just random sounds; we are talking about music that is created byplaying instruments, here. A subtle bassline, gentle guitar chords,piano, and even horns join the mix at different times. But brokensocial scene are the best kind of musical alchemists: they don't pushthe music to go to a certain direction, and they don't force theirplaying to the point that it sounds like it. They just let the musicbe, and percolate on its own. And it gets there everytime. Even vocals,when they do appear, are heavily treated and sampled so that they, too,sound like another instrument in the mix. It's all very "primitive,"yes, as the liner notes indicate, but it comes off sounding planned andpolished. And those melodies that you'd kill to have written yourselfare always there. There are two simple phrases that work so well todescribe this release, and they're right in the liner notes: "sometimesit's o.k." and "love it all." Sometimes, too, it's very good, and withthis release, you won't have to try real hard to love it. A nicelycrafted first release.
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One of the most consistently innovative and influential of Britain'searly 80's experimental/industrial scene, 23 Skidoo always seem to meto have one foot planted firmly in the ancient feudal Orient. The songson the long-overdue reissue of the band's 1984 masterpiece UrbanGamelan are obsessed with the cold, calculated perfection of theindustrial-funk fusion they pioneered. This record is part of acomprehensive re-release of all of the band's early work by RoninRecords. 23 Skidoo's interest in improvised Indonesian percussion,found instruments, afro-beat and funk has always placed them in theirown cage, quite apart from contemporaries Throbbing Gristle and CabaretVoltaire, to whom they are often compared. The first side builds agiant tower of funk exploration, the highlight being Fire, in which awandering bass melody, pounding beat, random echo and zealouslyscreamed vocals meld to form an uneasy dub track which is a lot morecreepy than it is rocksteady. This uneasy vibe on all of the tracks isenhanced by the remastering job, which exposes background whispers andelectrical drones, lending an air of British esotericism to theecstatic Zen proceedings. The second side opens with the tense,pressure-cooker trippiness of Urban Gamelan Pt. 1, an exploratory workfor traditional Indo-Pacific chimes and drums. The album's apex is themasterful Language Dub, which utilizes traditional percussion,wall-of-sound reverb and samples from martial arts films to build adrama that is literally overwhelming. This track fades away into acrystal pool, and we are left with a hauntingly rhythmic swansong. Thisalbum is a breathtaking work of head-cracked-open inspiration and manicjoy.
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Maschinenschlosser (Machine Fitters) is the latest project of ChristianStefaner, aka Neat and a member of multimedia design team c2s2, and"Orange Noise" is his 4th audio release, first for Austria's Dbelltimelabel. Twenty tracks, eight of which are exactly 3 minutes and 2seconds apiece for whatever reason, add up to about 74 minutes ofunassuming electronica. The flow and variation of the disc is verypeculiar. An 11 minute opener of softly pitter pattered beats and mild,looped tones is followed by numerous, more experimental pieces based ondifferent, somewhat simple sound waves. I guess this is how Stefanerdefines 'orange' noise, with digital hums, buzzes, drones and such lefton repeat. "Vas 1" and "Reset (Plane)" offer the most turbulent, barelylistenable selection of sounds, sort of like a laptop devised ThrobbingGristle. Out of the blue, er, orange, comes "Funky Shark" at track 13with pseudo funky beats, followed by the incredibly grating and funkless bursts of "Funky Ericsson". Yes, I get the joke, but guess what,cell phones make really shitty (non)music. Then finally, mercifully,something truly interesting as "Rec6+jw2" and "Stompa" nicely blendtones and beats. "La Internacional" is an odd but welcome closer astender music box bells gradually wind down. What a strange album. Butall in all, there's very little of anything memorable and far too muchtedium and annoyance along the way.
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Yoshihiro Hanno has played jazz and drum'n'bass and composedsoundtracks for Chinese films but here he plays his experimentalglitchery hand. He originally released this material as two EP's on hisCirque label. "April" comprised his own compositions, and "Remixes"compiled other artists' mutations of those tracks. Sub Rosa havecombined the original "April" with three of the remixes, presumably themost sympathetic. Combining the two releases might seem an odd idea,but it works really well.The opening 'On/Off' rips some robotic syllables from what sounds likea hacked speak'n'spell toy then sends fractured piano notes ripplingprettily from speaker to speaker. 'Lab Suite' glitches a choir to soundlike an updated homage to early Steve Reich or Philip Glass repetitionmusic. Hanno stitches together brief looping fragments to form a brightmosaic of sound that will probably either entrance or irritate. Whilstthe first couple of tracks seem very serious, 'Compass' deploys similartactics to comedic effect. By this point things begin to get a bitformulaic so it's fortunate that Oval steps in with a magnificentlyfull bodied remix that has an overlapping density lacking in Hanno'srelatively linear originals. 'Trapezoid' is more like the Oval mix thanthe first three Hanno tracks, so was presumably the primary track onwhich Markus Popp based his remix, but whilst Hanno seems to stitchglitch horizontally, Oval piles on vertical strata. 'Trapezoid'squelches and whines more than Hanno's other tracks and latterly tailsoff into a soundcard swamp. Hidenobu Ito, whose eclectic 'Bedroom in aCage' CD was quite good fun, remixes 'Lab Suite' adding some acousticguitar and vibraphones and jingling bells to the finely stutteringvoices. Then he begins 'Aaahing' over the top and a second guitar picksa melody out as shakers shuffle. Like Oval, his slowly unfolding extralayers and melodic colouration highlight the minimal aspect of Hanno'ssoundworld. The reason to get this is Chistophe Charles' excellent epic'Verena/On Canvas' remix which opens up a mysterious electroacousticportal through which drones support vague memory noise; distant voiceslaughing, a train passing, a bicycle bell ringing, that perkyspeak'n'spell... eventually all is stripped of association and reducedto the processed munching and hissing of the computer. Then all thesounds rush back in, faster and desperate. Latterly eerie droneambience underpins shards of Hanno's sounds fading in an out, bothprocessed and untouched, until 14 minutes in when the glitch chorussings for its third meal. The final track, 'A Short Break' is actuallyHanno's longest original, and is quite different to the others. Anacoustic guitar picks out slow notes in the foreground, and more guitarmelody and string drone settles in beautifully. It sounds like it wasquite likely stitched together in a computer, and the guitars playaround each other in a way quite unlike any other I've heard, perhapsbecause he's using long loops that are going out of synch with eachother. Halfway through piano fills and rapid glitch drop in. Thisdefinitely seems the most interesting of Hanno's tracks and is a lovelyway to drift to the end of the album.
samples:
- Lab Suite (Hidenobu Ito)
- April (Oval)
- A Short Break (Yoshihiro Hanno)
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samples:
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Blimp are a four piece from Poland that practically hide guitar, bassand drums within analogue synths, loops, samples, effects and rhythmprogramming. The 40 minutes of music here is instrumental (save for amuddled recitation of a James Joyce poem in one track) with welltempered, basic bass/beats and very thick layers of back and foregroundtexture and micro mechanical sounds. It's more of a mellow electronicgroove thing than a post rock groove thing, though it's really bothwith a bit of spacey dub and krautrock mixed in, often reminding me ofMouse on Mars and the solo work of Thomas Fehlmann of The Orb. "17"offers up the most prominent bass guitar based groove, almost to thepoint of Jah Wobble prominence. Everything is perfectly pleasant andcomes to an end far too quickly. My only other minor complaint - a fewunintentional clicks pop up here and there, which may be a problem withthe disc itself and not the music or mix.
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Now is the time we go digging around some of the albums we neglected to talk about over the last twelve months. Adullt'sdebut full-lengher has placed this duo at the top of my list for mostthe overrated group of the year (sharing of course with White Stripesand The Strokes). I actually liked Le Car so I really, really wanted tolike Adult, but I'm left with a sour, sour taste in my mouth. If Ididn't like the 1980s analogue synth style of music they're attempting,I probably wouldn't still own my Gary Numan, OMD, Soft Cell or FadGadget records. If I was tired of the retro-analogue sound, I probablywould have no appreciation for Joy Electric, I Am Spoonbender, G.D.Luxxe, Ladytron, Fischerspooner, Gold Chains or a zillion others whorecently won analogue drum machines and synths on eBay auctions anddecided to form a band. Strip away the kitch and the irony from Adultand you're left with nothing but 14 very boring songs. The lyrics arefucking horrible, many repeated way beyond tolerable levels, whileuntrained monkeys very possibly could have programmed more interestingdrum machine patterns. At least other horrible groups like Freezepophave a certain charm about them which make them mildly tolerable. Naiveindie kids, however, claim Adult are "fun" but I actually find Chickson Speed and Peaches (ironically enough, based in Germany) hundreds oftimes more "fun" than a couple dull Americans acting out Germanprejudices popularized by Mike Meyers' "Sprockets" skits on SaturdayNight Live. Maybe it's a jaded view because the same people who hearof, buy and enjoy Adult are more than likely the same people whoprobably think Radiohead are "innovative," or Richard D. James is"original." There's much more entertaining, better crafted music we'vementioned all year long and you don't need to waste your money on thisshit.
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Prior to Windor For the Derby's forthcoming fourth album, Aestheticshave released this five-track remix EP. It's always strange to hear theremixes before the originals, but in this case, Windsor's previousunadulterated material — mostly mellow guitar-based tunes — struck meas rather bland. So I hoped that the remixers would make a little moreout of it. Carnival Wave certainly do, enveloping "The EmotionalRescue" in atmospheric swirls and some (presumably added) femalevocals. Pulseprogramming give "I Change.C?" a nice electro-dubtreatment while I-Sound go a little too over the top with gritty beatsand electronic blips in "Ice Age Blues". Calla, who share a member withWindsor, bring cymbal heavy rhythms, big bass booms, clean guitar loopsand shiny ambiance to "Awkwardness". And finally, Windsor themselvesjoin in the fun with a heavily effected "Now I Know the Sea" completewith computerized vocals. Carnival Wave and Calla tie for the blueribbon here. I wonder, will next year's "The Emotional Rescue" LPbetter these? I'll take a chance on it.
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At the front of this Montreal-based collective (pronounced "hursh-tah") is Mike Moya, founding memeber of godspeed, Molasses, and Set Fire to Flames. Other members of the group include godspeed/etc. members Bruce and Norsola as well as Molasses members Fluffy Erskine and Scott Chernoff. The 55+ minute collection of 13 tracks would more likely find better appreciation among Nick Cave, Boxhead Ensemble, Thalia Zedek and Leonard Cohen fans who appreciate a good score to a murder scene rather than godspeed fans seeking the next rock and roll messiah.The music somewhat follows a progression Molasses could have taken, with vocal — but not vocally drowned — pieces, blending the heavily emotional, bluesy guitar melodies delicately with strings, occasional loops, a frequent appearance of a skillfully played bowed-saw, droney effects, and the rare amount of percussion. Moya's vocals provide a perfect companion in an already appropriate soundtrack to a cold, bleak, wintery evening. With this album, I can honestly say that the collective has effectively harnessed their improvisational experiences into an elegant, carefully-constructed full-length concept studio album. If the Molasses releases can be perceived as taking snapshots of a band known for their live performances, Hrsta's album is the flipside, presenting the intricate feature-length production.
 
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Finally hereÍs the first solo outing of the On-U Sound mastermind andmixer supremo himself.I paid a horrible amount to purchase a copy of this single, limited to3000, which come in a dancehall-style plain standard soft-sleeve. "Zero Zero One" (co-written with C. Oglive) is a fine piece,remeniscent of early Tackhead, with added subtle rasta flair and"found" voices. If it was missing only one thing, it would be theprecise beats of Keith LeBlanc. "Pass The Rizzla," (co-written withSkip Mcdonald and Sunjay) dives into the realms of heavy bass lines andDub he's most famous for. On this, he features the golden voices ofboth Bim Sherman (R.I.P.) and Prince Far I (R.I.P.), two great singersSherwood both worked with extensively and started On-U Sound with.
Both tracks are of course technically excellent but I must admit Ihoped for something more challenging. On the other hand, the two sidesof this single nicely exhibit two styles he developed and cultivatedover the years. In addition, it's good to see him return from the moreroots-orientated stuff he seemed to draw all of his attention to lately.
samples:
- Zero Zero One
- Pass the Rizzla (raw version)
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