It makes me want to run screaming in primitive joy, detonating nuclear
bombs, tearing down the city of Manchester and makes the perfect
soundtrack to watching the sun go down as I walk the fifty minute trek
through park, wastelands and dingy back streets, across the concrete
divide to Planet K. It's a tape of early Killing Joke demos and live
things and the wired conviction of that tribal drumming, barbarically
electrifying distorted synth and lyrical visions of armageddon are
still very potent, and show up much of the 'rock music' that has come
along since as the vapid piffle it is.
Amazingly in Planet K things were even more perfectly apocalyptic. The stage is bare, as if swept clean of life, but there's a massive headcleaning electric crackle resonating across the space as blue white rectangles flicker where performers are missing. The hum seems a logical stripping of Killing Joke to its essential wired core - Coleman's overloading synth. Occasional deep bass pulses shake the foundations at too slow a pace to register timing. Kevin Drumm is perched behind a laptop at the sound desk and is responsible for this overpowering purging noise.
This being Manchester, home of Buzzcocks, it could've been time to crack a bad Boredom pun about the Drumm hum but Mike Ladd wasn't allowing us any downtime. The band ambled on and launched as the Drumm fizzled out.
Was this the new dawn after the nuclear storm?
After Drumm's precise tones the sound was relatively muddy for the full on four piece with drums, raps, guitar/computer and turntables. Mike Ladd has a T-shirt emblazoned with the legend Afro Punk and gives us some spiel about his inspirations Bad Brains, Black Flag and Fishbone. Why do Americans in Europe eat at Pizza Hut? There are bigger questions but this between song joke exemplified the imperialist cloak of the 'free' market before Ladd scratched and funked his mark as an infesticon (opposed to majesticon).
It was a shame that Drumm didn't get another set before Tortoise did their thing. They did a professional set with much instrument swapping and it didn't really take off until the second half. I think they launched into what seemed like a freeform jam in the middle of TNT (or was it another track its hard to tell with all this lack of words) and Herndon was really giving it some at the drums. It was neat the way they almost seemed to lose control there...
The last trio of songs nailed it. A silence still at their instruments then BLAM! Senceca unleashed that dual guitar duel and the fire and fury was in their eyes and hearts. If only they could make a whole album like that first two minutes of free falling two turning pluck'n'strum'n'drum! Then the much requested Djed was an eye opener that faded like the setting sun as McEntire and Herndon decelerated their vibraphone runs.
Where Drumm had sparked off a cleansing fire and Ladd had the diatribes and plans and notions to free nations, Tortoise were embracing visions of post-apocalyptic utopianism - a new dawn after the flood that will wash away the masters and leave the servants what is left of the world. Ladd was back with a vision to take into the night as the final bars of the Tortoise European leg faded into the smoke.
The meek shall inherit the mirth.
Don't burn the flag, lets burn the Bush.
Amazingly in Planet K things were even more perfectly apocalyptic. The stage is bare, as if swept clean of life, but there's a massive headcleaning electric crackle resonating across the space as blue white rectangles flicker where performers are missing. The hum seems a logical stripping of Killing Joke to its essential wired core - Coleman's overloading synth. Occasional deep bass pulses shake the foundations at too slow a pace to register timing. Kevin Drumm is perched behind a laptop at the sound desk and is responsible for this overpowering purging noise.
This being Manchester, home of Buzzcocks, it could've been time to crack a bad Boredom pun about the Drumm hum but Mike Ladd wasn't allowing us any downtime. The band ambled on and launched as the Drumm fizzled out.
Was this the new dawn after the nuclear storm?
After Drumm's precise tones the sound was relatively muddy for the full on four piece with drums, raps, guitar/computer and turntables. Mike Ladd has a T-shirt emblazoned with the legend Afro Punk and gives us some spiel about his inspirations Bad Brains, Black Flag and Fishbone. Why do Americans in Europe eat at Pizza Hut? There are bigger questions but this between song joke exemplified the imperialist cloak of the 'free' market before Ladd scratched and funked his mark as an infesticon (opposed to majesticon).
It was a shame that Drumm didn't get another set before Tortoise did their thing. They did a professional set with much instrument swapping and it didn't really take off until the second half. I think they launched into what seemed like a freeform jam in the middle of TNT (or was it another track its hard to tell with all this lack of words) and Herndon was really giving it some at the drums. It was neat the way they almost seemed to lose control there...
The last trio of songs nailed it. A silence still at their instruments then BLAM! Senceca unleashed that dual guitar duel and the fire and fury was in their eyes and hearts. If only they could make a whole album like that first two minutes of free falling two turning pluck'n'strum'n'drum! Then the much requested Djed was an eye opener that faded like the setting sun as McEntire and Herndon decelerated their vibraphone runs.
Where Drumm had sparked off a cleansing fire and Ladd had the diatribes and plans and notions to free nations, Tortoise were embracing visions of post-apocalyptic utopianism - a new dawn after the flood that will wash away the masters and leave the servants what is left of the world. Ladd was back with a vision to take into the night as the final bars of the Tortoise European leg faded into the smoke.
The meek shall inherit the mirth.
Don't burn the flag, lets burn the Bush.
Generally speaking, a great organic musician has the potential to be agreat electronic musician. This is exactly what I think of whenlistening to music from Mr. Keith Fullerton Whitman, somebody mostpeople know from writings, remixes, compilation appearances and onealbum as Hrvatski. The second release from Lucky Kitchen side-labelApartment B is a 21+ minute CD from Whitman recorded a few years ago(yeah, it's actually listed as Keith Fullerton Whitman but I figuredwho'd read the review if they didn't know he was Hrvatski?). This discis the essence of what somebody can do with minimalism. Each 10+ minutetrack makes the most incredible usage of one source - acoustic guitar,processed in real-time through 4-track and other unlikely gear. I can'tfully explain everything used without quoting the entire cover, but Ican say with 100% confidence that Whitman has a lot to teach theEuropean and Japanese laptop clickers about composition, form andstructure. The first track starts off with a simple, searing,high-pitched melody, other octaves get added in, first lower then muchlower, then much much higher, yet remaining simple, subtle andcaptivating. More and more replicas are added to the blissfulprogression, resulting in a stellar cosmic mix. Track two is anotherten minute piece in which Whitman exploits tones and relative tonesmeshing with each other, this time most likely toying with guitarharmonics (if he is indeed using the guitar again). After the half-waymark, the overlapping tones are greeted with more energetic, melodic,shimmering, glistening notes, building up into an aural bird sanctuary,then quelling down with newer droning tones. Wow. Perhaps I'veexplained this all wrong, but boy does it sound tasty.
The latest release in the Crouton catalog is perhaps there mostambitious to date. Jon Mueller has collected the works of threemusicians — Chris Rosenau (of Pele fame), Hal Rammel, and JohnKannenberg — and placed them on 3 3" CDs, packaging them in a beautifulquadruple gatefold sleeve complete with an exquisite corpse textwritten by the three artists and Mueller. The first piece is "Two IceFields of the Exact Same Size" by Chris Rosenau, a beautiful and starknineteen minute electroacoustic piece inspired by a trip to Iceland."Two Ice Fields" begins with the haunting wail of an acoustic guitarand a wine glass and slowly disintegrates into a juxtaposed collage ofacoustic guitar, heating vent, dry ice, and egg shells among otherinstruments. Ending abruptly in its 19th minute, the first cd of thiscollection leaves you stranded in a cold, but beautiful wilderness oforganic sound. The second disc, "Three Days from Anywhere" byimprovisor and composer Hal Rammel begins with the sound of whatappears to be a single fly recorded by a stereo microphone. Themicrotonal sound bounces from structure with faint electronics fadingin and out of the piece, the fly continuing until it encompasses you,only to disappear and give way to found sounds arranged by Rammel. Tofully appreciate the second disc, you have to listen to it onheadphones to experience the isolation and aural textures of the music.The final disc of the series is by John Kannenberg. "Lave" compilesbass and synth along with field recordings and shortwave frequencies.The loudest of the folktales, it's also the most dense, creating athick blanket of sound that surrounds the listener and washes over himor her in ambient fields. Interspersed with minimal electronics, "Lave"creates an alien landscape of shimmering minimalism. Created todocument specific moments captured during a particular time by theartists, Folktales succeeds in offering beautiful stories of sound thatoffer passage to distant emotions and captured moments.
As multi-instrumentalist improvisational rock-based music becomes more popular with the emergence of groups like Volcano the Bear, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Pele, and others, Rollerball's music pursues a more structured, orchestrated environment on their current release from Roadcone. "Trail" sees this Portland, Oregon-based quintet adding more blocky beats, electronic processing and effective use of not playing to the mix. In addition, there's more focus instruments as various members often take the lead with horns, clarinet, vocals or stringed instruments.
"One Amazing Day" is the result of field recording trips to Greenwich's gargantuan (physically and financially) Millennium Dome structure, the official celebratory site of the new millennium. Prior to its closing a few hours before 1/1/00, visitors could come and trudge through 14 interactive zones of futuristic themed exhibits and view a sort of three dimensional, mid-air ballet live show.
In less than a year's time, the highly ambitious French-based Bip-Hop collective has launched a webzine and fairly hip label with 4 releases readily available and more on the way. Unafraid to flood the market, the first two releases, "Bip-Hop Generation" volumes 1 and 2 gather various tracks from some of their favorite electronic acts from all over the world. Luckily these folks have good taste and great connections. Marumari from the USA, Massimo from Italy, Phonem from the UK, Goem from Holland and Ultra Milkmaids from France and Schneider TM from Germany only contributes tunes for Volume 1. Here, the spectrum ranges from beat-organized cuts from Marumari to shrill sonic substructures and medical sounds from Massimo and Goem.
The sophomore release by Anja Garbarek, daughter of Norwegiansaxophonist Jan Garbarek, will be poorly compared by many anunimaginative writer to Björk. But, I guess it's easy to make that sortof leap when dealing with female artists who record outside themainstream - just like writers who compare every trumpeter to MilesDavis. Garbarek seems to have inherited the "less-is-more" aestheticher father used in helping to define the "ECM sound" by infusing sparsechamber-jazz with false electronic ambience, creating a personal warmthrarely captured in the studio. Of course, with help from such legendsas Robert Wyatt (providing incindental vocalisations on "The Diver"),ex-Japan-sters Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri, and Talk Talk's MarkHollis (who, along with collaborator Martin Ditcham, contributes bassand melodica, as well as some arrangements, like on the, uh, Björkishur-jungle fuzz of "Big Mouth"), capturing genius isn't hard. Garbarek'svoice floats gently over swelling strings and staticky glitch eruptionson "Her Room", like a lucid Beth Gibbons of Portishead, pouring sweetlullaby melodies in your ear. Garbarek's "Smiling & Waving"approaches the sublime beauty of the recent electro-acoustic jazz of"Bodily Functions" by Matthew Herbert, as well as latter day Talk Talkor the mellower aspects of Lamb, but still stakes a claim to a lushmusical landscape that is all her own.
Kurt Ralske is a NYC-based artist, composer, producer and engineer akaCathars and former head of late '80s/early '90s indy popsters UltraVivid Scene. These days Ralske composes entirely upon a g3 Powerbookwith the Max/MSP language. "//amor. 0+01" is the debut under his ownname and it is very similar in sound to the Cathars album "", both ofwhich are from 1999. The title track, as the title seems to suggest,briefly expresses love with digital bits: a melodic loop, a tidal cloudof sound, intermittent glitches and bass swells. "new kyrie" does muchthe same for nearly 14 minutes, minus the glitches and loop and plus aconstant thump that sounds much like a steadily dribbled basketball.The final track "forgiven" takes up the better half of the disc at justunder 30 minutes and proves to be the most minimal and rewarding. Herethe only sound is long swathes of deep drone and drifting ambiance.Whereas the first two tracks leave me somewhat indifferent this one ispurely captivating, either as foreground or background soundtrack.There is also a ROM video for the title track, but unfortunately noneof the 4 computers I've tried were able to read the disc - audio ordata - so perhaps there's an error with the discs. I'll be e-mailingSub Rosa soon to find out.
One of the most memorable nights in my adult life now has a soundtrackcompanion. The night on that summery evening at the Union Chapel in1997 is still fresh in my mind. I got to spend time with one of my bestfriends Andrew, as we met Coil for the first time in person on the wayin, and sat in a crowd pointing at various WSD-celebs like StevenStapleton and other supporting cast members like Mika from Panasonic,Ivan Pavlov of COH and John Everall of Sentrax. The concert opened withreadings from John Balance and a couple others (one of them lives in NYI think) and subsequently continued with the current cast of Current93: Rose McDowell and Michael Cashmore on guitar, Karl Blake on bass,Joolie Wood on violin and James Mannox on drums. Special other guestson hand that evening included Bill Breeze, Martin Stone and Big BucksBurnett, all joining in the big "Christ and the Pale Queens" closer.The unobtrusive audience gives me the impression it was recordedstraight from the sound board, but unlike many similiarly recordedshows, I don't feel there's any loss of depth here. Put the music on inyour livingroom and it feels like you're actually there. "Cats Drunk onCopper" was initially made available to the audience at the recentreturn to the Union Chapel, and now it's available through WorldSerpent. For a track listning, some photos and other specifics, checkout the Current 93 page special page on this particular show 
The downfall of the modern age is that any 19 year old with rich parents and an arsenal of computer software can record an album in their house. But what do these vicious young upstarts really know about melody, composition and structure yet?
