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HymenRumours that Aaron Funk has four albums coming out on the same day in2003 are no more than rumours, but the Canadian's work-rate is soimpressive that the claim is actually plausible. After two superbfull-lengths this year on Planet Mu, and a third, 'Winter In The BellyOf A Snake,' held back despite being pressed and available in October(as if to save others embarrassment) it seems natural that he wouldsneak out another release somehow, and this time it's an elaborate boxset on Hymen. The red box contains a 3" CD with a single track, as wellas a small TV-shaped slide viewer, with 8 slides inside. Each slide hasthe title of the box PhotoShopped onto some object. Fans will revel inthis entirely reasonable claim being splattered all over road signs,vending machines, and other items. As for the music, as usual Funkexplores the limits of his self-discovered blend of breakcore andcut-up drum'n'bass. Here, he takes the opportunity to create anextended piece rather than move chaotically between different musicalparts, and develops a harsh break and distorted bassline over 16minutes, leading inevitably to a mental, blurred climax. No-one istaking intensely programmed breaks further.
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Intransitive RecordingsCDs like this make me smile because they have dual uses: 1) listeningenjoyment and 2) annoying the hell out of a captive audience. I imaginepopping this one on full blast for a car full of guests while zippingalong the freeway at 80 mph. No escape. Nerve Net Noise is a Japanesesynth duo that set their homemade synths to autopilot and record theunexpected results. This album's focus is on rhythmic percussionpercussive clicks and chirps, almost like a pared-down Pan Sonic sansthe Finnish Stoicism. Japanese culture is fascinated with all thingscute, and I imagine the wheezy squeaks on "#3" being a cheery cartoonbird laughing at your erratic heartbeat. "#5" sounds like someonerapidfire plugging/unplugging one of those chirping Christmasornaments. "Long Mail to Boston" is an overloaded car horn blast. Whilethis is a trying record for those with short attention spans, it's justthe trick for those of you who incessantly drum on anything and pick uprhythms from refrigerator buzzes and passing trains. NNN go a littlefar to claim that this is a "new kind of pop music," but some of itindeed is catchy. Not the kind of thing you could hum though—the heavyclicks are of the brain function interruption variety.
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Tigerbeat6Numbers might not be an electronic laptop band, but like nearlyeverything else on the TB6 label, it is fun, addictive, silly, andsickingly dancable. This trio of youngsters from the Bay Area consistof a Moog player, guitarist and a front-stage drummer who controls theworld. (All of which who sing.) While I'll be the first to admit Ididn't really get this band entirely on record, after seeing them liveI have been completely won over. Subsequently, the album sounds muchbetter now. Clocking in at just over 19 minutes, this ten-song recordhas got to be one of the most genuine releases of the year. The bandaddresses adult issues through the mind of a child, as the subjectmatter ranges from materialistic greed ("We Like Having Things") totechnology ("Intercom") and strained intrapersonal relations ("Too Coolto Say Hi"). The disjunct playing and off-tunings of the guitarseparate the group from the typical post-punk punks, almost as if threecomputer nerds were handed rock instruments and trained long and hardto play louder, faster, and more original than the bullies down thestreet. Training and practice payed off as the good kids did win thistime. Let's see how they do in the sequel.
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Tiger StyleThis reissue of Marc Bianchi's 1997 vinyl-only release documents avastly different Her Space Holiday from the warm, symphonic, electronicpop of last year's 'Manic Expressive'. The six tracks present thatappeared on the original (the reissue includes six unreleased bonustracks) evoke both the psychedelic, spacious atmospherics of FlyingSaucer Attack, the ethereal twang of Mojave 3, and the shy vocals andsimple, introspective guitar melodies of Trembling Blue Stars.Furthermore, "Gravity Fails Us" sounds downright Stereolab-esque in itsfirst 60 seconds. These songs have a relaxed expansiveness thatcontrasts with the tight, meticulously constructed material for whichHSH is presently known. The six bonus tracks, while in the same vein asthe aforementioned, are less noteworthy. Terse and underdeveloped, it'sclear why these songs, presumably recorded around the same time asthose which comprised the 'Audio Astronomy' in its LP version, wereinitially not included. In fact, for this reissue, they seem less likea "bonus" and more like tacked-on filler material. Nevertheless,Bianchi, who seems to hold the highest appreciation for his listeningaudience, no doubt added the previously unreleased songs for theirenjoyment rather than as a sales ploy.
Despite the drastic change in sound over the past 5 years, fans will nodoubt find 'Audio Astronomy' an interesting document in the evolutionof Her Spaace Holiday.
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Ninja TuneThe fourth release from Amon Tobin, under his own name, once againtends to lead more in the direction of last year's 'Supermodified' inthat the use of a lot of those "go cat, go!" drum licks and uprightbass samples have been eschewed in favour of some heavier groove-stylednumbers, with the odd drum 'n bass licks thrown in for good measure.The frenetic "Back From Space" kicks the disc into high gear with itsbusy rhythmic layers, compressed bass lines and monster low-end synthpatterns that leave fingerprints all over the scene. The solid "Verbal"has enough of a pop element to come close to getting airplay on majordance radio (if it hasn't already), thanks in part to it's strummyacoustic guitars, pumping bass and the cut 'n paste vocals provided byMC Decimal R. The stand out, "Hey Blondie," is a great, spacy bed ofsynths, subtle 70s bass lines and arpeggiated guitar held together witha deep pocket, down-tempo groove that's a mile wide. Who sayselectronic music has no feel? "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro" builds fromprocessed funk guitar squelches and fleeting melodic synth lines tosome heavy drum 'n bass-styled rhythms which blend perfectly with thebackdrop. "Triple Science" will have your ears doing pinwheels with itsuptempo barrage of bips and bleeps, held together by a half-time bassline that sounds like an upright being whacked with a stick. Theremainder of the disc's eleven tracks tends to be a lot more grooveoriented, making for some great space and choices of sounds in thecompositions.
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WonderA ski weekend in Vermont sounded like the perfect get-away for theweekend. All your friends packed up and headed north. You left in adifferent car because you had room for everybody's gear, but they leftat the same time and followed closely behind. Night fell and a blizzardcame in out of nowhere. You arrived safely at the remote cabin on thelake but the electricity is completely out and the other car hasn'tarrived yet. It's been hours. The snow outside has not eased up as itis visibly getting deeper and deeper. You light another candle and tryto keep warm but the firewood is running very, very low. In contrast tothe band's name, 'Black Earth' is an album of implicit tension andsuspense, much like a Hitchcock film, completly unlike slasher films,filled with explicit scenes of blood and gore. (You haven't found theirbloody, cold, dead bodies yet but you know to fear the worst!) Theatmosphere is so thick with tension that even if you're listening tothis album in the brightest moments of daytime, the slightest externalsound can make you jump a mile. Despite its painfully goth appearance,the sound is Twin Peaks-like Labradford-inspired jazz: instrumentalwith slow shuffling drums, heavy Rhodes keyboards, piano, double-bassand saxophone. It's a marvelous treat, thrilling enough that even longafter listening, I get lumps in my throat just thinking of it.
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KrankyAfter two impressive albums recorded with Alan and Mimi of Low, Jessicacomes home with her third album —recorded at home with Jesse Edwards,her bandmate in Red Morning Chorus and Northern Song Dynasty. Therecord has a much more intimate feel than any she's recorded, with aneye towards more acoustic arrangements and a bit more experimentation.Everything sounds sparse or barren, far more than other releases have,like there's a stark loneliness or quiet that is being explored on eachtrack. Often times it all sounds brittle, even, as it feels like ifthese songs are pushed like she has in the past, emitting any noisethat is too harsh, it will all come crashing down. Bailiff's voice isas assured and sultry as ever, and the treatments on a few tracks evenelevate it, making it sound firmly otherworldly. All these ingredientsmake for her most engaging release yet. "Swallowed" is classic Bailiff:steady rhythm with small flourishes and the desperate call of "If onlyyou'd hold me and say it's all right." "Hour of the Traces," with theviolin-uke melody and percussion that sounds like taps on an acousticguitar, is hauntingly pure and pained, even as a happy tin whistle,faded in the mix, plays along. Finally, on "Disappear," the roar comesin and the volume increases and the guitar distorts seemingly intooblivion with computer voice back-up to hold it all in. The albumcloses with the piano-based "The Thief," a lamenting chorus of voicessinging behind Bailiff as the song progresses. It's a gorgeous moment,where I felt Bailiff stepping out of herself.
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On their third full length album, the duo of AJ Cookson and Matthew Rozeik that somehow managed to merge the disparate worlds of black metal and hard-edged electronic dance music have put together another brilliant combination of the two, sounding like no one else in the process, in the best possible way.
If I had only heard the name of the band, I would have likely have written them off as yet another cliché black metal project with intentionally bad production and stupid garbled vocals.However, with a first album titled This Beat is Necrotronic, I was curious to hear more, and I am glad I did.That same defiance of expectations can be seen by the artwork alone:the "almost black on black" graphic design of so many metal albums is here, but rather than demons and blasphemy, there are pictures of astronauts.
There are of course moments where the duo sticks to more conventional metal territory:the digital guitar distortion and screamed vocals of "Led to the Water" and "Theme From Escape" are a bit more traditional, although the stiff drum machine rhythms and ambient synths do their part to mix up the archetype.Similarly, the distorted bass and pummeling riffs of "Arrows" keep things metal, but the synth textures and guest female vocals by Eliza Gregory are anything but the norm.
For me the best songs here are the ones that bounce between the two extremes."Imperial" begins with grimy guitar and a chintzy drum machine channeling "kvlt" metal before it throws itself into a synth heavy breakbeat collage, which is then broken up by guitar solos and bassy drone.It has the bleak heaviness of metal, catchy electronic rhythms, and memorable transitions to create a track that brilliantly sounds like no one (and nothing) else.
The aquatic bass thuds and filtered synths of "Endless Vertex" exemplify this as well.The slow, pounding heavy layers and heavily effected guitar are paired with lush keyboard passages to create this great juxtaposition of ugly and beauty.Even the heavily processed basement guitar drone of "Wretched Hag" is balanced out by electronics to create a bizarrely heavy take on ambient music.
The Colonial Script retains the joyful genre-bending of its predecessor Music of Bleak Origin, but adds an extra layer of polish and experience, feeling more focused and self-assured.As dark and as bleak as it may come across, there is a perverse sense of exploration and excitement to be found here, something that too many bands simply choose to ignore.
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An ambient side project from Dean Costello (Harpoon, Diatribes, Winters in Osaka), Cosmic Despair is a perfectly titled album: a long suite of guitar and organ bleakness, with just a hint of psychedelia to keep it different and unexpected.
Basses Frequences/Calls and Correspondence
"The Beginning" leads off with rich, funereal type organ drones that hit just that right level of creepy without becoming cliché, creating a distinctly dreary atmosphere.Guitars drop in noticeably, but do not upset the dark atmosphere that was already created.The result is chugging, resonating waves of indistinct noise that manage to be simultaneously dark and inviting."Abstraction" has a slightly more restrained dynamic, but a vintage-tinged, nostalgic hum and heavy waves of bass give it its own unique identity.
"Expanding Mental Universe" is where things begin to get spacey.Sci fi synth blurbs, slathered in reverb, pulse outward with understated drifting tones atop.Subtle variations on the same theme are the norm before overdriven bass and crunchy, earthy guitars come in to ground the otherwise cosmic vibe, with the two instruments eventually becoming equals in the mix.
Also channeling in the more celestial elements, "The Crossing" begins with shimmering electronic swells leading to an overall more restrained, pensive quality to it.While the electronics are a big piece of the equation, resonating guitar notes draw focus.Sparse, deliberate tones glide through the synthetic ambience.An almost hidden layer of percussion is there to be heard, pushed into the distance but panning around the entire track, giving a certain dynamic flow to it before ending on gloriously hallucinogenic organ tones.
Cosmic Despair does exactly what the title indicates, bringing in an astronomical take on dark, bleak atmospheres, but the use of identifiable guitars serve to keep things somewhat grounded.The bleakness is particularly well done, because it never slides into tired or overwrought territory.Like the best dark ambient, it knows exactly how dark to get before sliding into self-parody.
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With a notable recent string of high profile collaborations with Aidan Baker and Yellow6, guitarist Eric Quach has been continually refining his abstract take on ambient drone, and on this four track solo cassette, his ability at generating unique, alien noises from the stalwart instrument is clearly on display, as is his skill for composition as well.
The A side opener "Phantom Eye" immediately leads off with Quach's knack for shaping dissonance into beauty, with the shimmering, undulating guitar noise coming across as warm and engaging, rather than harsh and off-putting.Isolated, plucked guitar notes ring away as another layer of guitar eventually pushes things into louder territory with its driving, vacuum cleaner roar.Chugging, compressed riffs eventually supplant the spaciousness before the piece collapses onto itself into silence.
"Phantom Brain" keeps things sounding more like actual guitars, with the slow, melancholy notes reverberating away:a slow, bleak drift through almost completely blackened caverns.Stuttering, mid-ranged notes eventually shine through; all the while the track builds to a dark crescendo before retreating."Phantom Voltage" goes for a more electronic sound, with the heavily processed ebbs and flows of guitar noise acting as the foundation.On top, guitars that sound like synths soar, channeling a Vangelis-y vibe that leads into a soaring climax.
On the flip side of the tape is a single, sidelong track, "Phantom Pain," that pieces together the elements of the previous pieces into a single long-form work, with some new techniques.Opening slow, with heavily echoed and delayed guitar notes, there is more of a rhythmic throb that emerges, putting it in a different space than the other tracks’ largely textural sounds.Different layers of percussive rattles appear, with the slow addition of guitar sounds leading to a dramatic build in dynamics.About half way through it is almost as if the distortion on every track is cranked up, resulting in a dramatic, intense peak before the track goes back to a more ambient, though aggressive, territory.
TQA is often considered amongst the multitude of "guitar drone" projects, but like the best examples of that sub-genre, it is anything but repetitious or simplistic.Instead Phantom Limbs is a detailed and thorough meditation on a single instrument that does not become stagnant, but spends the perfect amount of time to develop and expand on a theme or sound.This is one of those works that really demand close attention to absorb all the nuance and complexity that lies within.
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Whenever asked about reissuing his old material, the standard line from Robert Haigh has always been that because the original masters had been lost there was no chance of a reissue. So it came as a bit of a shock when Vinyl On Demand announced that they were releasing a box set of Haigh’s work as Sema this year. Although there is no unreleased material included, the scarcity of all this music means that there is nothing to complain about. This is complete collection of some of the best and criminally unheard music of the 1980s.
 
The lost masters have not mysteriously resurfaced, instead an almost forensic digital remastering of the material was performed using multiple copies of the original LPs, removing pressing errors and allowing the full detail of the music to remain. The result is a stunning reproduction of all the Sema albums but with the addition of bonus tracks to fully flesh out each album. They sound beautiful (though that is not hard compared to the MP3 rips I have had to make do with) and it is hard to tell that these had been mastered from other records. Granted there is a little muffling to some of the mid-range piano notes but it is slight and barely noticeable even when it does happen.
Beginning, naturally, with Notes from Underground, this box set offers me a chance to experience Haigh’s early works again as if they were brand new. While Haigh has always been a deft hand at the piano, his work as Sema incorporated a lot more than just ivory tinkling. Tape loops, synthesizer, and unusual percussion are as much a part of Sema as the instrument for which Haigh is now best known. "Song of Solomon" incorporates a steady but discordant synth drone into the sparse but elegant piano lines; the two elements coming together to create a strange new space within the music. The sound of wordless breathing at the end of the piece remind me that this is not some alien transmission but the work of a fellow human.
"Concrete and the Klee" wears its influences on its sleeve with Haigh combining found sounds, electronic tones and piano to form a strange, surreal landscape much like some of Paul Klee’s paintings where easily identifiable figures are incorporated into colorful, blocks of abstraction (incidentally, Sema was the name of an artistic union formed by Klee in the early 1910s). This link with an artist indebted to Cubism and Expressionism makes total sense when Haigh’s own style is so heavily inspired by analogous composers like Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. The addition of musique concrète into such a mix, along with the angular guitar (?) of "Air Cage" prevents these recordings from being mere throwbacks to a bygone era as Haigh brings such "easy" music into a new era.
The set continues with Theme from Hunger, a brooding work which saw Haigh push his piano playing away from the previously mentioned influences and take on more of a distinct style of his own. Using the piano to punctuate the tense electronics of the title track, he creates a fascinating piece which stands out even amongst the many great pieces included throughout Time Will Say Nothing. Seguing into "S.S. Minor Ghosts," the electronic hum becomes stronger and stranger and dramatic percussion widens the scope of the music further. Hints of John Cage can be detected on the second side of Theme from Hunger, especially on "Song of Praise," which sounds like a prepared piano piece being played on an unprepared piano (though I imagine most pianos are unprepared for Cage!).
The ominous subterranean bass and chanting at the start of "Extract from Rosa Silber" demonstrate another side to Haigh’s work as Sema. This falls more in line with some of Current 93 or Coil’s experiments with loops and atmosphere than the rest of the Sema material. Haigh’s arabesque piano motif acts as an anchor for the unsettling dirge, an unlikely pairing much the situations described in the previous LPs described above. The surprise guitar arpeggio that jumps out suddenly sounds like Mike Oldfield walked into the wrong recording studio, played a lick before realising his error and leaving. I can see how this disjointed and illogical approach to composition would appeal to Steven Stapleton and Extract from Rosa Silber definitely fits with Nurse With Wound’s Spiral Insana, which Haigh would later contribute to.
"Anatomy of Aphrodite" on side B of Extract from Rosa Silber continues this unpredictable style with some fantastic piano melodies, church bells and is-it-human-or-is-it-a-ghost vocalisations. The chopping and changing is much more frequent here compared to the title track; Haigh seems to have been having a great time with putting together this piece. Extract from Rosa Silber has been bulked out with three short pieces from various compilations also included (though they come outside the time frame indicated by the box set’s title). These pieces are more varied than the rest of the Sema collection with pretty much all bases covered by these pieces. "Untitled" from Three Minute Sympony lies somewhere between Haigh’s modern piano works and the murder scene from Psycho whereas "The Pleasure of the Text" from Devastate to Liberate is warbly, gossamer ambience that spreads out of the speakers like a vapour. The metallic percussion and piano "The Over Yellow" from Ohrensausen threatens to turn into an Omni Trio-esque groove, occupying some strange middle ground between Sema and Haigh’s later electronic dance music phase.
Co-credited to both Haigh and Sema, the final LP to use the Sema name finished off Time Will Say Nothing. Three Seasons Only is the point where Haigh left the experimentation and avant garde nature of Sema behind and embraced the piano as the dominant (and usually only) instrument in his music, saving the electronics for his later work as Omni Trio. "Empire of Signs" largely revolves around the keys of his piano but Haigh also employs gorgeous acoustic guitar and glockenspiel that sound so warm and happy compared to the cooler electronics and percussion of his earlier works (though this happiness is shattered by the stabbing strings used in "Untitled" described in the last paragraph).
The title track could have come off one of Haigh’s recent albums; the three movements recalling Satie’s Gymnopédies though Haigh’s work is livelier to say the least. "Two Feats of Klee" continues in this vein but is embellished with strings (or possibly bowed guitar, it is hard to say). It astonishes me how he seems to be able to just throw these fabulous piano works into the world like the rest of us make a cup of tea or coffee. The album (and indeed the box set) is capped off with the addition of "Found Improvisation" which was originally issued on the Best of Robert Haigh tape on United Dairies. By its nature it is looser and more harmonically adventurous than the other pieces on Three Seasons Only and I am not sure it really fits in with them but it is nice to have it included for completeness sake.
With such a brilliant job being done on Time Will Say Nothing, I can only hope that other Haigh projects get similar treatment. The Truth Club and Fote material is quite hard to find, as are the four records under Haigh’s own name from the late 1980s; to see these remastered and reissued in a similar way would be incredible though maybe not as incredible as these Sema LPs. Short of a box set of complete La Monte Young recordings, nothing would have amazed me more than Time Will Say Nothing!
 
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