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"They bestride the Earth." John Peel said that once on his old BBC World Service show to introduce a Fall song and as a vague reference to how he would often stretch his own programming rules in their case. I feel the same way about Mika Vainio. Unfair preferential treatment is in order and a new release must be celebrated. Vainio's recorded works have been in the areas of techno (as √ò, Philus), installations (Onko), out electro-rock (Pan Sonic and Endless), and finally soundscapes, which is where In The Land belongs together with Kajo and Ydin. In this context and that of nineties and naughties electronica, In The Land is hardly radical but it is exceptional.
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Listening to Asa-Chang & Junray for the first time, I was immeditely and pleasantly reminded of the first time I heard Stereolab. This is not to say that the music is at all similar to Stereolab; but rather, their intuitive mix of disparate styles sounded wholly new and wonderful, as if a whole new genre was being created that held infinite possibilities. For a jaded listener, this is always a wonderful experience to have.
Asa-Chang & Junray embody the things that most adventurous music listeners are always looking for: something new, inspirational and eminently listenable. Their full-length album Song Chang, released last year, opens with "Hana," a musical statement of purpose if ever I've heard one. Beginning with a ravishing swell of orchestral strings, two electronically-treated voices are heard. Asa-Chang and Yoshimi P-We (from The Boredoms) recite Japanese phonetics "Ha...na...ha...na...da..." Suddenly, a deeply percussive tabla drum begins, with its round, thick beats beats fractured by clever laptop editing. The voices begin to be chopped and re-assembled, as they stutter and trip over the irregular beat. Shrill, supersonic sounds phase from left to right as the song plays like a brilliant collaboration between The Boredoms, Bill Laswell and Enoch Light. The experimental elements are balanced by the perfection and depth of the ethnic rhythms and the high-fidelity exotica-style production. It's playful ear candy, but with a cold, clean edge.
Asa Chang & Junray's music would be quite catchy if it were not so kaleidoscopically fractured and re-formed, like a brilliant work of Cubist art. In a similar respect to Cubism, it's never quite clear if all of the parts really fit perfectly together. However, the slightly "off" juxtapositions create a drama that illuminates portions of the music that would not normally be heard. The rest of the album continues with the formula set out by "Hana," with a set of sparer pieces each illuminating a different sound source. "Goo-Gung-Gung" is an insane two-minute bit that sounds like a traditional Japanese version of Musilmgauze's violent Middle East breaks. "Jippun" begins with traditional Japanese shakahuchi flute playing, which is quickly digitized and splattered all over the stereo channels, while an adrenalin-pumped tabla rhythm begins. It accelerates and eventually mutates into a something reminiscent of The Boredom's more recent tribal drum-circle sound. The album ends with "Kutsu," a simple short trumpet improvisation played over a randomly shaken taiko beat. Song Chang is a terrific first album by one the best new talents in Japanese experimental music.
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- GD Luxxe - Prison Life (Get Away mix)
- Stars As Eyes - I Have a Headache This Big
- Dymaxion - What is the Product?
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It seems Tom Sudall is haunted by the number three in all his endeavours. He was one third of the odd lo-fi indie rock trio B-Fab Uk and since they became dormant he's been promoting gigs in triads themed as The Brown Barrel. Each trio of gigs is prefaced by a tiny free Smuggler fanzine in which all the performers are interviewed with the same set of questions. The last trio of ragged eclectic artnoise explorations occured at Manchester's coolest haunt of recent times, the smart art gallery bar Tmesis. At the opening blast, headliners Kling Klang rocked up a synthesised krautpunk storm and answered all questions with the word 'Frazz.' Macrocosmica came down from Glasgow to riff heavy and murky, with former Telstar Ponies drummer Brendan O'Hare strapping on six strings that drew sludge. The vocals were quite weak and detracted from their onslaught but otherwise it was a greasy monkey of a gig. They like tickling children, or so they say. Local duo Our Beautiful Ridiculous Plan played sensitive meandering instrumental beauty cards that you couldn't put your arms around. They describe themselves as sounding akin to Bonnie Prince Billie without the vocals, but reminded me more of the post-Rodan Louisville continuum. Their prefered reading is The Squatter's Handbook and Alfredo Bonano's Riot to Insurrection.
Two weeks later an early start for electro-probers Robot Arm meant I missed them, but at the risk of Jon Whitney carrying out his threats to send hordes of rabid Coil fans round to smear my back door in blood and semen, I'm just going to have to compare Ampersound to Wire. There were some programmed rhythms they set off that definitely had an inadvertant likeness to one of the most illuminated bands of the eighties. One of them plays traditional Japanese string instruments which give them a fake devotional feel, but at times the other guy's guitar playing got a bit too noodly and brought me crashing down from the nice streets above. Sat behind a keyboard and drum machine, Illuminati headlined unobtrusively in appearance if not in sound, as high pitches had bartender Debbie clutching her ears in protest! Dave Clarkson confesses to a great love of Throbbing Gristle and treacle sponge, and the former shows in his primitivist hard soundscaping. He surprised everyone by whipping out an axe and adding some low key guitar noise to his petri dish of magnetizing microbial ambience.
The third gig a fortnight later opened with a Zoviet France homage from Russet and Brown who were at their best when they amped up a heavy distorted loop. They say this is like looking at a blank wall through a thousand eyes, but for me it was more a pleasant backdrop for boozey chatter. The Owl Project play laptops in wooden logs putting a treetop twist on the glitch-beat interface. They are trying to mimic the sound of electrical campfire at high magnification and use their stark yet slightly cute beats to try to communicate electronically with roosting owls. What the owls think of this is anyone's guess, but it's possible they took on human form and called themselves Black Curtain. The three black masked beings harrangued an arch psychedelic groove with definite Faust overtones. Maybe they'd work just as well as an instrumental combo, but the vocalist's exuberance couldn't be denied. However like Faust, often the drums carried it. One of them also plays guitar and keyboards for Twisted Nerve's Mum and Dad, but Black Curtain are certainly a stranger progbeast beaming in from the outer part, unleashing fragmented fictions from their soon come third album.
For links on all these bands and news on future Brown Barrel happenings, check out the B-Fab UK site.