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Some mightremember the Live Human release on Fat Cat last year, this is thesecond full-lengther from San Franciscan trio who's music is somewhatof a mix between improvisational play and break beat scratching. It's aperfect release to bop and groove to on your walkman while walkingbetween classes, but it's not a terribly coherent concept. You can stopit and start it anywhere without missing any feeling. While I think thealbum's fairly good and they've got a load of talent with the hypnoticuse of double bass and fierce scratching, it might have been betterwith half the songs and twice the amount of development time for eachtrack. I'd love to find out where this band goes as they do have somegreat potential.samples:
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"Parasites" is, to borrow a few bits from the pressrelease, "a blurring of the line between atomic samples andcompositions ... for either listening or constructing new pieces with".Most of the 20 numbered parasites are in the 6 seconds to 1 and 1/2minute range for a total of about 16 and 1/2 minutes. Each is a merefragment of heavily processed, digital desktop minimalism. It's notreally 'glitch' or any other easily discernible genre, just quick wavesand buzzes of sound. Altogether they form a haphazard collection ofdreadfully similar and not too terribly exciting, almost offensivelydull, music. It's a shame that parasite12 is only 32 seconds longbecause it's the most intense, unique and interesting of the lot. I'mnot normally one to use the "I could do this myself" line but in thiscase I'd have much more fun making my own in an hour with Cool Editthan listening to these. But maybe that's the point? I honestly don'tknow what the point is. The disc itself is the most appealing featureas it's a new 3" square shaped cd format known as 'card discs'. Likemini cds you need a player, such as a Discman, with a spindle in orderto play it. Ultimately what I'm left with is a $10 piece of eye candyto show to my friends after asking "have you ever seen a square cd?" Mymom thinks it's cute. I didn't play it for her though ... Read More
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Through the years, you can hear the exit from the TG days - breaking free from the noise yet holding on to a charming primitivism. With this, they entered a period along with many other cold-war era electronic musicans who used the machines to paint bleak melodies, more eerie and haunting than anything new released in the last 10 years on Cleopatra or Metropolis. Through the 1980s, the techno-pop period holds a lot of fond memories for many of us who experienced these songs on Nettwerk Sound Samplers and WaxTrax! comps, but the sound is incredibly dated.
Entering the 90s, much of the thin pop wash was being slowly let go - grooves became deeper, heavier and more instrumental, all leading up to their current sound which is one of sheer brilliance, audio mastery and maturity. The more I listen to the "Union" concert CD from 1998, the sadder I feel not having been there. If you're near London on September 1st, they'll be spinning records at the old ICA, a favorite stomping ground for their Industrial days.
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- Heartbeat (from Heartbeat)
- Just Like You (from Heartbeat)
- Driving Blind (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Talk to Me (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Tantalize (from Songs of Love and Lust)
- Stolen Kisses (from Techno Primitiv)
- Cowboys in Cuba (from Trance)
- Re-Education Through Labor (from Trance)
- Morning (from Techno Primitiv)
- Misunderstandings (from Techno Primitiv)
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Some might recognize Sally from her membership in bothL'Orchestre Noir and Sol Invictus. On this, her first release, Sally'sgentle and gliding voice blankets a small ensemble consisting of doublebass, cello, violin, harp and most prominently, piano. While Ipersonally hate to drop others names or comparisons, this CD couldeasily be an comprehensable and vocally trained Elizabeth Fraserfronting The Johnsons. The music is soothing and the production isflawless. It's brief enough at under 45 minutes, but is full enoughwith 13 shining songs. I imagine Doherty certainly should be a hit withthe Serpent crowd, but with any luck it can most definitely cross somegenres.
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The disc opens with acollaborative effort, "Black," a 10 minute long piece with more silencethan noise. At this point I'm thinking "yippee, another minimalistic thing trying to be cool,..."—Ididn't get it. The second track is a 44 minute long piece withindividual sections of around 15 minutes from each artist, separately.Leif does "Red," souRce research does "Green," while Matmos does"Blue." Things are starting to make sense... The last track, can youguess? "White!" All artists' individual bits are combined together.Anybody who knows how the RGB spectrum might find that cute. Alsoincluded in the CD is three separate covers you can choose for thewindow of your jewel case, Red has Leif's name first, Blue has Matmos,etc,... It's definitely one of the more clever conceptual releases I'veseen in a while.Read More
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The firstCD recorded as this alias ended up being released as a Panacea recordby Caipirinha in the USA. The second CD recorded as such was the firstreleased, out by Ant-Zen in a highly limited quantity. This one's outfrom Mille-Plateaux in Germany and like the other two, exploresPanacea's fascination with a minimal amount of sources, playing withsound structures and pulses - completely turnaround from thein-your-face abrasive mentality of the conventional Panacea releases.It's remarkably un-minimalistic as the pulses and rhythms stem from amore beat centric perspective, it's enjoyable as deeper listeningsuncover stuff generally not floating around the top.
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If I was more fond (andfamiliar) with older Chris and Cosey material, I would be able toprovide a more insightful review perhaps of which songs had what doneto them. Only as a reference point, however, as I'm enjoying this CDalong with the other material to come from both Chris and Cosey overthe last few years far more that I have ever enjoyed their music in the80s and into the early 1990s. Not entirely unlike the oother dubprojects Chris Carter has been exploring, this CD has deep rhythms andgrooves, dark energy and a full and rich sound. Musically, it's not aschallenging perhaps as earlier works, but the feel is certainly there.My ears are aching now for more vibrations of further releases in thisseries.
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[Editor's note: thisCD isn't available yet through major stores, Izzo is shopping for alabel because he doesn't have the time and effort to press anddistribute and promote everything on his own again.]Read More
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Over a year ago, Kitty-Yo released this CD in Germany.
This week, Matador introduces the Couch long-player unchanged to the USA. While this CD added to my enjoyment of both the Kitty Yo roster and modern German music, there are many bands pulling off similar modern instrumental rock music pulling both melodic guitars and dub into their sound. I do honestly appreciate this disc, but by now, a year later I think I've heard all these sounds before (with the Notwist, Tied + Tickled Trio and Kammerflimmer Kollektiv). HEY MATADOR: HAVE YOU HEARD FRIDGE YET????! The Kraut is getting sour.
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