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It's been nearly threeyears since the last full-length album from the Michigan-based Windy& Carl, but the duo have hardly been inactive in the meantime.Along with the album released in 1999 as 5 Way Mirror with GregGasiorowski and various performances including every year's Terrastock,the couple have also been operating their own Stormy Records musicstore full-time. Thankfully a new album manages to surface capturingtheir signature sound of drifting guitar effects, drones and occasionallow-volume mix vocalizations from Windy. I'm almost left wonderingwhere the missing album is as their evolution from 1998's 'Depths' isan incredible leap. 'Consciousness' begins simply with a beautifulswirling glistening guitar melody from the opener "The Sun." The albumcontinues on with a mesmerising "Balance," a sligthly altered versionof "Trembling" which appeared first on 'Brain in The Wire Disc A.'Here, the almost indescribable shaking hum combined with warmundertones conjures images in my mind of traveling on a train throughautumn foliage with the sun strongly blaring in my eyes. I'm nearlyfloored by the almost real string sounds both in that song and thealbum closer, "Resolution", that once again I regret not being intoillegal substances! The rest of the songs show an impressive display ofspace and composition, molding the sound into a serene daze, buildingthem up and then letting them fade at the perfect time. Songs like "TheLlama's Dream" are almost too gorgeous for words to even describe, withan intense wash of sound blanketing the warm bass tune driving the songforward. 'Consciousness' might be one of those albums which could beused as ambience for many low-intensity activities, but the duo'smastery of subtleties results in a blissful experience from listeningat loud volumes in dark rooms.
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The second release in V/Vm's highly limited color-coded distressed-audio series has arrived as an orange/black splattered platter. Stockport's finest has delivered a top-notch selection of intense beefy noise cuts based on rawkus dancefloor anthems, with all due respects paid to Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers. To quote the sleeve,
- "On the 7th of July in Shibuya, Tokyo, Noise/Girl was officially pronounced dead. Cause of death: an overdose of bald guys in black t-shirts 'experimenting' at laptops for hours, too much time at boring 'art' events when there was a dance club next door, too many lame Merzbow CDs released by uncritical foreign record companies, too many live gigs where the audience thought the disco tracks were 'ironic,' too many dumb articles about the difference between 'noise' and other music.
Noise/Girl was NEVER a 'noise' band, it was just a band.
They were the cutest,
They were the loudsest"
Aside from an intro like that I don't know what more to say except I find this one of the finest pieces of shit I've heard in the last few minutes. Seriously, the intensity of the first track alone is enough to send my booty shaking crazier than in my hornier college days. Cute and loud are perfect ways to describe these four songs screaming for attention to blast at the loudest volumes while stuck on the freeway, slaving away hard at the office late at night or getting ready for a Friday night romantic dinner evening. Banzai!
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Colin Potter works as astudio engineer at IC Studios in Preston, UK and is probably best knownfor his work with Nurse With Wound and Current 93. "And Then" is hisfirst solo CD with 5 tracks cleverly titled "before", "...", "next","and", "finally". The disc itself reveals the full message: "before itwas inside, ... but now it is outside, next will come examination, andall will be revealed, finally however nothing is certain, and then?"Drones and curious percussive sounds dominate and are panned across thestereo field. "before" and "next", 11 and 20 minutes long respectively,feature contemplative ambient/noise drone work on par with NWW's"Soliloquy for Lilith". The former opens with a wind swept barrage thenmoves into a deep surging presence while the latter remains relativelyquiet but churns with mechanical undercurrents. "..." begins with abouncy spring like sound which is soon overwhelmed with drab beats andlater dressed up a bit with twinkly bell tones and a preset effectswash I've heard far too many times prior to this. This track strikes meas brutish, amateur and just plain out of place. "and" is a clankymilitary march that slowly builds into a cacophonous climax andrelease. "finally" returns to ambiance with natural environment soundsand a constant surge underneath later giving way to strange metallicwire pings and pluckings. It's really a shame that the tedious 15minutes of "..." are a permanent fixture of this otherwise fine disc.Hooray for the skip button! Potter will likely be involved with theslew of upcoming NWW and c93 releases due out later this year.
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Ce groupe associé avecle collectif fameux québecois godspeed you black emperor! formula undisque des sons divers et rhythmes exotiques. Oh, to hell with a Frenchreview, as the sound on this release hits on a more global level. Thetitle, which translates as "Sedative in frequencies and grooves" prettyaptly describes the album's atmosphere. Although only a short thirtyminutes, the three songs on the album seem to coast effortlesslybetween cantering basslines and minimal electronic interludes. >Fromthe beginning of "De cercle en cercle..." you are bombarded with whatseems to be a simple jumping bassline and drum beat on which shards ofguitar feedback, electronic glitches, and metallic drones are laid. Itseems that these guys love their dichotomies, becuase they effortlesslyfly from this form of noise-pop to beatless ambient atmospheres andexperimental noise. They seem to take this formula and run with it,applying it to their second song, "éfférant/afférant" and then steppingback to view the album from a macroscopic level and ending it with"micro sillons," a four-minute noise work that slowly fades the albumout into sonic oblivion. While the formula can be a little boring attimes, the result is an album that shifts between various moods andatmospheres that produces cerebral visions of diverse grandeur.
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- DeCercle En Cercle, Ressasser Et Se Perdre Dans L'illusion Nee De LaProduction De Distractions Et Multiplier La Statique Environnante!
- Efferant/Afferant
- Micro Sillons
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Troum are a Bremen, Germany based duo formerly of the 'ambient-industrial' band Maeror Tri. Tjukurrpa is their third full length CD, follow-up to a Mort Aux Vaches and first on member Stefan Knappe's Transgredient Records. It is also the first in a trilogy under the name (meaning "dreamtime"), this one concentrating on 'harmonies' and the next two on 'drones' and 'pulsations'. And that is Troum's objective: to put the listener into a dream-like state of unconscious exploration.
The 7 pieces range from 6 to 16 minutes and are comprised entirely of guitar, bass, accordion and voices without the aid of computers or samplers. It's a big blurry drone in the same sort of vein as Stars of the Lid, James Plotkin and some Eyeless in Gaza/Martyn Bates (in fact, "Mirrored in You" is dedicated to Bates). The opening track "Wrota Sfer" is the lengthiest and offers the most obvious, yet gradual and heavily obscured chord changes. "Skaun[ei]s" draws back the heavy effects curtain enough to clearly decipher pretty guitar note patterns. "Mirrored in You" builds a tense wall of noise then finally releases near the end. Overall Troum's work is good and makes for a nice ambient background but it's not as emotionally engaging for me as the others I've listed above. Their sound is very 'same-y' considering the different instruments being used and the harmonies a bit unimaginative or too buried to hear. But, I am still interested enough to see how parts 2 and 3 turn out. The packaging is simple but intriguing with full color paper circle bookends for the disc. Troum will be contributing to the Beta Lactam Records "Lactamese" 10" subscription series later this year and briefly touring the U.S. later this month ... - Mark Weddle
 
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While the lightning andthunder originate at the same time, we see the flash first — it'sbright and immediately grabs our attention, from the intensity we canmake a good guess as to the thunder's magnitude. This EP preceeds alarge milestone in Matmos' musical career and the flash is indeed quiteintense. Following last year's tour with dates in Europe and shows inthe USA with the Rachel's, Matmos soon are forking over an incrediblealbum cleverly based on and constructed from uncountable sounds ofvarious surgical gear and practices. The "California Rhinoplasty" EPintroduces us to a stunning 10 minute 'cut' from the album in itsoriginal form and then follows it up with an honorable cover tune ofCoil's "Disco Hospital" and two remixes of the title cut. Not only willthe following full-lengther "A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure" betheir first release on Matador worldwide, but they're currently in NewYork finishing up the production on an album from a young relativelyunknown up-and-coming female singer from Iceland who goes by only onename (hint: her name almost rhymes with New Yörk). The original versionon this EP grooves pleasurably with a flawless, clean precision, whilethe remixes could almost be given completely different names due totheir bold retoolings of the original. Get this thing now before Matmosput everybody else out of business.
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- California Rhinoplasty
- Disco Hospital
- California Rhinoplasty - Dr. Rockit's surgery with complications
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- Diane Lewis
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The follow-up toL'altra's 1999 self-titled EP comes on strong with sweet and somberpop, chilling with an intensity that well exceeds its slow and simplearrangements. Whether or not you're looking for music to languish to,Music of a Sinking Occasion is itself good enough reason to let thestereo blare while you lie in bed all day. Opening track "Music of aSinking Occasion" is hardly ideal cocooning music, but once you getpast its jazz jangle, there's nearly an hour of solid tunes that aresimply to sigh for. "Little Chair" layers mellow strings and guitarover rolling bass and drums that evoke a duskier Sea & Cake. Shortand glowing "Slow as Cake" and "Handwashing for Good Health" featurelayers of keyboardist Lindsay Anderson's vocals, which on most tracksintertwine with those of guitarist Joseph Costra. Towards the middle ofthe album, "Lips Move On Top of Quiet" starts as a quiet sway thatswells into an icy swirl of piano and strings. Each song evokes adistinct shade of introspective longing that blends into the next for awhole set of uninterrupted atmosphere. The album also features RobMazurek (Isotope 217, Chicago Underground Trio) on trumpet and FredLonberg-Holm (Flying Luttenbachers, Pillow) on cello. L'altra'sEuropean tour, kicking off in April in Brussels with Tortoise and theSea & Cake, will finish up with a single stop in the States atChicago's Schubas, May 11th. In the meantime, it's hard not to resistlearning all of Music by heart, with plenty of blankets nearby. - Diane Lewis
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The first surprise comesbefore you've even played the second Silo album - Swim have launchedtheir first illuminated 'digipack'. I have well over half the CD'sColin Newman and Malka Spigel have released on their label since theyrealised back in the early 90's that they could do a better job ofgetting Malka's 'Rosh Ballata' album to the ears of those who wanted tolisten than anyone else, and this is the first 'digipack' I've seen. Imuch prefer them to brittle 'jewel cases' and the cover photo of rowsof glowing light bulbs resting on green grass is well served bycardboard.
The second surprise is the cover. Although it looks like a JonWozencroft design, the light bulbs were captured by the lens of MikkelTjellesen and layout is credited to Christine Cato. It looksquintessentially Swim though; at first glance I thought the lights weresunkenly illuminating a sea bed.
The image is so perfectly matched to these three Danes' slowlyunfurling beatscapes that one hardly needs the clue of the title - analloy being a mix of metals to create a new, more useful or resilientmetal. The musical adventures of Soren Dahlgaard, Frederik Ammitzbolland Mikel Bender are all mixed up into something which doesn't soundquite like anything else. The closest comparison I could field would beGerman avant-pop synth trio Kreidler, but Silo employ heavier beatswhich seem to slide almost imperceptibly across diagonally rather thanforward. Much has been said about the absence of 4/4 beats in this'Alloy'.
Once the CD was in the CD player, the first track wasn't such asurprise. 'Bulk' had already appeared as work in progress closing the'Swim Team 1' sampler and suggested that Silo might be pursuing theextended hypnotic elements of their debut 'In Star'. They've polishedup the 'Bulk' with some melodic additions, but maybe because the titleseems to suggest it, it seems to have the feel of a large ship cuttingslowly through calm waters. And the hypnotic elements are certainly onboard from fore to aft. There's an all-time great segue into the faster'Prime Movers'. A lot of thought appears to have gone into the tracksequence, so that the album flows in an addictive mesmeric stream ofoff-beats and techno informed slow rock. It's 'real head nod shit'according to Colin Newman. I couldn't guarantee any lasting laxativeeffect, but it may well move you!
The nine tracks often give the impression that they've been worked onconcurrently and elements from one seem to reappear as echoes inanother. Vocals are sparing and atmospheric and the only one wordsticks in my mind after repeated spins but is a lyric which seems oddlyapt and descriptive: 'Structure'.
The last couple of tracks break away from the rest of the albumsomewhat but still sound of a piece. 'Those adopted by people' is thefastest and probably most danceable track, sounding almost likeImmersion. 'Repose' closes 'Alloy' with a deep bass drone and revolvinghigher pitched (guitar?) sample, and proves that Silo don't need a beatto hypnotise. It'd be nice if its four minute lifespan was increasedthreefold.
Silo have surpassed themselves with an essentially unique beat-drivenmix that sounds at once organic and machine chrome tough. - Graeme Rowland
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- Alex Krieger
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Ae trainspotters aroundthe world are aware that it's been some time since new material hassurfaced from Sean Booth and Rob Brown. In mid-1999 they released thedifficult, confusing "EP7," which left quite a few people nonplused,others either irritated or delighted. Consequently, rabid Autechre fans(such as myself) are very curious about this new release: a second setof Peel Sessions to complement the first set recorded in 1995.Describing the way Autechre sounds hasn't been easy since theirmind-blowing 1995 release, "Tri Repetae." As far as anyone can figure,the closest Autechre get to occupying a genre is probably electro ordetroit techno. But Autechre have a seemingly bottomless bag of trickswhen it comes to sonic manipulation: blender-style waves of distortion,sliced-and-diced vocal gibberish, bursts of deafening static, too-fastspidery percussion, low-pitched hums and thumps — and occasionaldelicate, lucid-dreaming melodies made from synths or strings.
There's one of these right at the start of the 9-minute "Gelk," thefirst of four tracks on "Peel Sessions 2." Accompanied by a tentativetapping, it grips you by the hair and pulls you all the way down thescale into a pair of earth-shaking bass tones, then repeats itself, andafter a few seconds of this everything starts echoing in the mostinteresting way. It's classic Autechre, straight off of "ChiasticSlide" or "LP5" — but then, three minutes in, the song shifts without ahitch into what sounds like a lunatic plucking at a detuned grandpiano, those thick hums stuttering and twisting as the pace slows, doesa pirouette, and turns itself into a blunted breakbeat. At the sevenminute mark, the beat disappears, gongs ringing as a totally differentmelody is eked from the high strings.
Irritatingly, this masterpiece is followed up by "Bifil," a juddering,thumping juggernaut of a song improved only by the eventual inclusionof an alien whimpering and babbling behind all the noise. Hit fastforward and save yourself the mental effort of trying to make sense ofit. Next comes "Gaekwad," which demonstrates Autechre's unique abilityto fashion a groove out of the sound of a bag of marbles dumped outonto a glass tabletop. Synthetic chimes and bells ring in thebackground while the beats skitter all over the place, speeding up andslowing down, growing louder and softer at random. The track gets acreepy edge as warped samples of dogs barking and laughter filter intowards the end. Lastly there's "19 Headaches," another bit ofunfathomable, or perhaps improvisational ("Quick! We need another trackto round out the set!") Autechre jitteriness. Lots of finger-walking upand down keyboards and weird, shuffling percussion, completely bizarreand almost unlistenable.
For folks who already like the duo, this bargain-priced EP is worth itjust for "Gelk" — fanatics on the other hand would probably somethingmore from the other tracks as well. Those new to Autechre, "LP5" andthe insane masterpiece that is "Tri Repetae" are waiting for you — buyone of them instead and save yourself the trouble of sitting throughthe filler.
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Perhaps inspired bySpringsteen's "Nebraska," "Bring On The Snakes" finds Crooked Fingers(Eric Bachmann of Archers Of Loaf fame, who recorded a track for SubPop's "Nebraska" tribute "Badlands") recording a largely scaled downaffair. Quite a contrast from last year's self-titled debut, thisrelease features Bachmann on acoustic guitar and vocals on all tracks,accompanied by various atmospheric sounds and noises. This may causesome to call the release bland, or comment that all of its songs "soundthe same." If the same was said of "Nebraska" upon its release 20 yearsago, few say it now. The songs are more mature while sparse, and thelyrics complement Bachmann's half-Springsteen/half-Tom Waits growl. Thealbum reaches its apex on "Doctors Of Deliverance," where a poundingHouse-like electronic beat drives the track as Bachmann sings of losthopes and dreams and cheated/defeated love. Crooked Fingers may havechanged from the last release, but the song remains somewhat the same.Thank goodness. Bachmann is proving to be one of the great bards of ourtime, deserving of your ear. Listen: you won't be disappointed.samples:
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Robin Storey, a foundingand former member of Zoviet France, has endeavored for nearly a decadeas Rapoon. With "Cold War" he explores new means of expression whilereflecting upon the burgeoning war induced technology in the otherwise'beautifully stark' British countryside of his youth. The drum n bassportion of the title is somewhat misleading ... Storey has indeedembraced and implemented drums and bass as rhythmic elements but only afew tracks are as frantic as the d 'n b of, say, Squarepusher, Plug orold Photek. And judging from the few other Rapoon CDs (of which thereare dozens) I currently own, this is still very much signature Rapoon.21 tracks ranging from less than 1 to nearly 12 minutes are spread over2 discs. A thick and entrancing mix of ethereal/ghostly atmospheres,voices, samples and brief radio transmissions are melded well with thedrum loops. In most tracks the ambiance enshrouds the rhythm (ordispatches of it completely - always a plus for Rapoon) while in someothers the opposite is true. The results are positive save for 2particular tracks that sound too 'canned' and/or tedious for my liking.A copy of Sonic Foundry's ACID 2.0 for Windoze comes on disc 2 so youcan remix to your heart's delight. The next slated release from Rapoonis a re-issue of the 1997 album "Messianic Ghosts" on KlanggalerieRecords.samples:
