We have finally cleared out the backlog of great music and present some new episodes.
Episode 711 features music from The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zola Jesus, Duster, Sangre Nueva, Dialect, The Bug, Cleared, Mount Eerie, Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Hayden Pedigo, Bistro Boy, and Ibukun Sunday.
Episode 712 has tunes by Mazza Vision, Waveskania, Black Pus, Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans Kjorstad, Katharina Grosse, Carina Khorkhordina, Tintin Patrone, Billy Roisz, and Stefan Schneider, His Name Is Alive, artificial memory trace, mclusky, Justin Walter, mastroKristo, Başak Günak, and William Basinski.
Episode 713 brings you sounds from Mouse On Mars, Leavs, Lawrence English, Mo Dotti, Wendy Eisenberg, Envy, Ben Lukas Boysen, Cindytalk, Mercury Rev, White Poppy, Anadol & Marie Klock, and Galaxie 500.
Skolavordustigur Street in Reykjavík photo by Jon (your Podcast DJ).
Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
I really do hope that this officially sanctioned seven-inch remix is the start of an avalanche of Jandek reworkings. This inspired idea of placing someone (so wrongly) regarded as unlistenable in a more acceptable modern context is genius.
This idea would have been utterly preposterous even a couple of years ago. Putting his sometime unstructured playing and compelling, but disorientating, lyrics into diverse backings could be yet another rebirth for the man. Taking a fairly conventional (for Jandek) track from his Blue Corpse album, both sides of this seven inch are in the running for 2006’s best remix.
By taking Jandek out from behind his drawn curtains and giving him a comfortably low slung, but up-tempo, backing the Secret Frequency remix becomes a perfect rethink. Secret Frequency Crew stitch brief snatches of vocal and guitar together into something plugging the gaps between sixties psychedelia, funk and post hip-hop rock. Sounding nothing like the original cut, but still retaining the sound of Jandek’s world, this is almost guaranteed a re-release beyond this limited run.
Pheonecia’s mix has even less Jandek input than its flipside, using the original’s sounds as a sampling source rather than a base for structure. A backing track of vocal moans and whispering winds has glimpses of an oriental melody, this squashed and spread sound glides over a digital beat. Whether these amazing reinterpretations are just beginners luck remains to be seen, but there is definitely scope for further investigation.
When judged alongside both the artist's masterful debut and its formidable successor, this self-released album tragically underwhelms at just about every percievable opportunity.
Huume
I cannot claim that Paper Tigers was eagerly awaited, as it literally seems to have come from out of nowhere. The most popular nom de plume of the highly respected producer Sasu Ripatti, Luomo drops this new full-length practically under cover of darkness on his very own Huume imprint, whose back catalog boasts material from the Vladislav Delay and Uusitalo monikers as well as an equally unexpected reissue of the groundbreaking Vocalcity. While I'm certain this somewhat low-profile launch has much to do with the intricacies of promoting independent music to an information-saturated media, it inadvertantly implies an unintended lack of confidence. Take that with a grain of salt, if you choose, yet the truth remains that Luomo fans will be eager to purchase this sight unseen, or rather, sound unheard. To those devotees, I'd advise exercising some caution.
Admittedly, my expectations were sky high, as they should be when approaching the work of an artist one reveres. To be clear, I don't write of my disappointment with any joy nor the snarky glee of a pretentious elitist. Hardly a departure, Paper Tigers instead seems more like the product of a musician caught in a rut: a veritable poacher's trap stemming from reaching a point with a given artistic project and seeing no clear path for future progression. Such is the dilemma of the forward-thinking musician; he must trailblaze so that others can follow, ideally to forge their own paths. On tracks like "Really Don't Mind" and "Make Believe," however, Luomo dismayingly treads over ground he's already covered, though elsewhere he makes some attempt to change things up. "Let You Know" plays with a schaffel beat, while "The Tease Is Over" pours his now-standardized sound over a slower syncopated rhythm. Still, I can't help but wonder if he's just trying to cram square pegs into round holes, which makes for uncomfortable, and more often, unmemorable listening.
Still, two tracks emerge that could easily have been salvaged from the proverbial cutting room floor of his sophomore album. Taking extensive cues from the eerie yet aurally infectious The Present Lover, "Wanna Tell" and "Good To Be With" utilize collaborator Johanna Iivanainen's breathy voice as best as Luomo's cut-and-paste sample approach to vocal placement can. While both boast pop appeal and some glimmers of brilliance, neither come close to delivering the goods, particularly when compared to the epic breakdowns found on "Talk In A Danger" or "What Good."
None of these nine new tracks pack the poppy wallop of his previous recordings, though not for lack of trying. Unless he can find some new exciting avenue to take, it might just be best to retire the Luomo project altogether after this anticlimactic record.
Jason Molina will never be accused of holding back. Through the years as Songs: Ohia and The Magnolia Electric Co, he has proven himself over and over again to be both a prolific songwriter and tireless performer, churning out a stream of excellent albums and perpetually on the road for what seems like 13 months of the year. Secretly Canadian
Hard to Love a Man is the third release for The Magnolia Electric Co this year. The title track is in my tops for the year's songs, pulled from What Comes After the Blues, one of my tops for this year's albums. Its mystery is both in the chilling lyrics and matching instrumentation: "It was hard to love a man like you" is open to interpretation as it's never explicitly disclosed whether it's a lover, relative, or other, and combined with the eerie pedal steel lead makes it both uncomfortable and gorgeous. Completing the release are four unreleased songs: three originals and the Warren Zevon classic "Werewolves of London," and whether they could have been outtakes or afterthoughts to this year's masterpiece is almost irrelevant, as they're all fantastic recordings that any fan would warmly welcome.
If there's any underlying theme, it's that the heavy emotions, bluesy guitars, and Molina's golden voice are accented by keyboard instruments more prominently than ever: the gorgeous piano opening on "Bowery," the classic organ on "31 Seasons in the Minor Leagues," and the unforgettable piano riff on "Werewolves in London."
I'm used to Molina's songs stretching for long periods of time, so this EP, if anything, comes as a surprise as it's a lot of short pieces. However, the EP a sweet trinket for fans and is spearheaded by a song that's already a classic.
Black One does exactly what is expected from a Sunn O))) record, it drones and feedbacks like a reliable fiend. While it’s nothing groundbreaking in terms of an evolution of their sound, it does provide some subtle new twists on their trademarked detuned riffing.
Album number six from Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson and all is not well. Of course that's expected from Sunn O))): an intense feeling of being unwell. Black Onemanages to sound blacker and more disturbing than Sunn O)))’s previouswork—like they distilled the anti-soul of Burzum down to its darkestand then tuned the results down a couple of octaves. The guitars aremore in the background on this album,as the majority of the action ishappening with the layers and layers of electronic noise and noisyvocals.
“Cursed Realms (of the Winterdemons)” features one of the many (veryunderground) guest collaborators Wrest on vocals and it sounds likedredging up a body from a murky river, amplified properly.Southern Lord label mate Malefic provides vocals on “Bathory Erzsebet”from within a sealed casket in a hearse. The entire song is so drenchedin dread that I nearly forgot that it’s only a piece of music. What Iliked most about this track, apart from the intense atmosphere, wasthat they completely steer clear of the traditional Sunn O))) guitardrones for the first seven minutes of the song. When the guitars dofinally kick in it’s breathtaking. especially for Malefic as hisgasping is clearly audible and the closeness of his vocals is ofsomething beyond the grave. It is an incredibly arresting piece.
While I was afraid for a while that Sunn O))) were becoming verystuck in a rut, they have managed to break out a bit on this album.They have shaken off their Earth tribute band status with the additionof more instruments and varied vocals and being far heavier than Earthever were. This is a mighty step in a good direction and this will, nodoubt, be the soundtrack to a doomy doomy Hallowe’en for me.
This is the sound of a thrash band sent into the bush andforced to beat their way out with twigs. Everything here, from the warbled acoustic pickin’ to the LightningBolted two-note spasm ascensions, is worn with a genuine conviction, theprimacy of frayed roots, dirty levity and the private knowledge that endurance isgod in this new landscape.
The irresistible, metalheaded glee in its delivery may notmatch the stories Wohaw tells, but theexuberance turns the forcefulness others make up in speed or obscurity to agolden gallop across four album sides, a blissful infinity. The band’s politics, never as shouted astheir name and often focused on Native American tragedy as example, are betterphrased here than ever before, blending into the stream-of-consciousness vocalstyle, the theatrical séance calls, and all those screamed punker dreams inbrilliant cadence. Wohaw is primitive-core, not quite timeless because it exists inthe in-between places, but because of it messy and overblown and fragile andbeautiful like it doesn’t even know it.
Music jumps, ongnarled trajectories of perfect, over-stomped drums, guitars naked andeffected, through a chain of finely-filed rune shapes, blasts of thrash andSabbath bliss, elfin guitar heroics, shanty hoe-down raga shit, and theearthiest, smudgiest, non-math nerd rock I’ve witnessed.
USA Is A Monster have done what I’d hoped forthem, brought out a double album, their best record yet, expanding unreservedinto the unclaimed prairie sweep and caustic city spaces of their music,bursting with heroic gratitude and joy like one succeeding, sending one up tothe sky and watching as it’s accepted. Itwould be easy to describe the band in terms of the blatancy with which theyintegrate the urgency and idealism of punk with the progressive arrangements,happy absurdity, and zen resolve of psychedelia. But the genres, at least in these terms, areessentially the same, and neither can translate the truth coming through on Wohaw.
For the first time, all THEMES albums by PSYCHIC TV released together, in a sumptuous, embossed box set. The music itself was designed not only as soundtrack but also for subsequent use by Initiates of The Temple Ov Psychick Youth in their rituals as Functional music intended only to aid in the process of making things happen. It is a practical tool. Thee essential collection of rare, archive and modern PTV ritual / esoteric musick! Each CD is presented in it's own matt laminate, spot-varnished mini-LP sleeve. The box also includes a 28-page booklet of rare photos and essays.
"Themes" was originally released in 1982 as a limited bonus LP with the first 5000 copies of the legendary PSYCHIC TV album "Force The Hand Of Chance". Musicians: Stan Bingo, Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Soisong), Genesis P-Orridge, and David Tibet (Current 93).
Themes: 1. Part I | 2. Part II | 3. Part III | 4. Part IV | 5. Part V | 6. Part VI | 7. Part VII | 8. Part VIII
"Themes 2" was originally released on LP in 1985 by Temple Records and subsequently reissued as an extended CD version by Cold Spring in 1997. Musicians: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil, Mekon). `Themes 2` is presented here as a 2 CD set, including the full vinyl version - plus the original `Unclean` 12" and it`s two B side tracks that were recorded in the same sessions.
Themes 2: 1. Themes 2 Part One | 2. Themes 2 Part Two | 3. Themes 2 Part Three | 4. Unclean | 5. Mirrors | 6. Unclean Monks
Themes 2 - A Prayer For Derek Jarman: 1. The Loops Of Mystical Union | 2. Elipse Of Flowers | 3. Mylar Breeze (Parts 1 And 2) | 4. Mylar Breeze (Part 3) | 5. Prayer For Derek | 6. Rites Of Reversal
"Themes 3" was originally released on LP in 1986 by Temple Records and is presented here for the first time on CD, completely remastered. Musicians: Genesis P-Orridge, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil, Mekon), Mark Sangerman, Monte Cazazza. `Themes 3` is presented here as a 2 CD set, with an unheard version performed in Boston, US by Genesis P-Orridge and John Gosling. Themes 3: 1. Culture | 2. News | 3. Drama | 4. Nature | 5. Science | 6. Implant | 7. Analgesia | 8. Catalepsy | 9. Reverie | 10. Placebo | 11. Induction
"Themes 4" is a brand new Psychic TV album, recorded by the late partner of Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Jaye and Psychic TV. Compiled by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Ryan Martin and Bryin Dall. Musicians: Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Larry Thrasher, Bryin Dall.
Themes 4 Lady Jaye: 1. I'm Making A Mirror | 2. I Like The Holidays! (A Children's Story) | 3. Gobbledegook | 4. Mother Jack (A Children's Story) | 5. Candy Factory | 6. I Love You, I Know | 7. This Is The Final War
Get a free bonus CD 'Live In Basildon' 1986 - only when bought from Cold Spring!
Live In Basildon: 1. Thee Degenerate | 2. She Touched Me | 3. Unclean | 4. Riot In Thee Eye Ov Sky | 5. Southern Comfort | 6. Roman P. | 7. Retinal | 8. Ov Power | 9. Godstar
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | www.coldspring.co.uk
Quatermass Here is another electronic, beat-based album that plays the game of "Ilove it/I hate it." The atmosphere is mostly dark, the beats thick andchugging, and the melodies somehow buried inside walls of static noiseand time-warped samples. There's the first problem: sometimes themelodies never get a chance to come out and play. As a result, I'm leftlistening to a somewhat boring, somewhat repetitive drum track thatdoesn't have the power to carry the song by itself. Unfortunately, thealbum is produced in such a way that each song inevitably has someincredible sounds on it but they're completely attenuated by the waythey're thrown into the backgroud and lost beneath a plethora ofeffects. But then, amazingly, all that wishy-washy noise comes togetherfor a few brief moments and gives birth to an explosion that comesclose to relieving the tension and weariness of the first few minutesof the song. This is how "Flesh Wound" opens up the album and it seguesinto the infinitely more entertaining "Gargantuan." I imagine one ofthose dolls that has a slinky for a neck bopping around to this rubberyand dynamic wall of beats only to have a stick of dynamite send it intothe great beyond. "Gargantuan" has nearly the same production style as"Flesh Wound," but manages to pull it off by allowing the repeatingdrum and melody patterns to weave a bit more intricate and diverse bodyof sound. "Boiled In Blood" is a bit more low-key than anything else onthe album and it provides a nice break from the havoc of the first twotracks. It unfortunately gives way to more standard four-on-the-floordance music that sounds horribly distorted and only covers up whatseems to be the most interesting elements dying in the background. Andso this process continues throughout the duration of Don't Be Scared.I either love it or I hate it. Not much changes in terms of production:it's all pretty muddy and eventually this makes the entire album feelfar too homogenous. The formula either works for some of the songs orit doesn't. This up and down experience ends up making the whole albumfeel dull; it's just hard to sit down and listen to the whole thing allthe way through.
Fat Cat's reissue of the first two Animal Collective releases on one double-disc should not only come as a pleasant surprise to those who discovered the group with this year's excellent Here Comes The Indian, but should also raise the question why it took almost 4 years for the Brooklyn-based project to be courted by a large label. Created by and originally credited to only two Animal Collective members, Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished was self-released on Animal Records in 2000.
The record stands as an entirely cohesive and mature statement from an act with a truly unique sensibility. Avey Tare and Panda Bear, as the duo calls themselves, concoct a potent blend of yesterday-and-today pop, primitive avant-garde-isms and accomplished electronic trickery, with a range of influences almost as surprising as the fact that it all works. The disc begins with "Spirit They've Vanished," an early taste of the extremes to which the Collective travels. The track is organized around a loop of electronic squeal, glitch-laden and slowly modulated as the song progresses. Avey Tare's high, quasi-theatrical singing carves its way through the irregular backing, resulting in something like Bowie singing over a Fennesz track. The second song, "April and the Phantom," introduces the sound that will dominate the majority of Spirit in which the vocals' deceptively simple pop hooks (still sounding Bowie or Barrett) are augmented by viciously strummed acoustic lines, psychedelic synth bits, and tight, sometimes tribal snaring. The song also foregrounds a degree of unpredictability that will continue throughout the disc. Noise bursts frequently interrupt the melody and the seductive vocals often turn to piercing screams; the song's structure is also deceptive with established hooks or rhythms mutating swiftly into rich new song-forms without warning. While listening, I was often pleasantly surprised to find that the same six-minute song was still playing when I was sure two more had already passed.
A thoroughly psychedelic atmosphere exists throughout all Animal Collective music, however bound by a pop sensibility and the healthy abandon of noise-rock's influence. Comparisons could be made to the pastoral skronk of friends Black Dice, though the Collective's palpable pop conviction sets them apart. Spirit's closer, the epic "Alvin Row," provides ample evidence, as all screaming and noisy electronic tweaking is kept to drastic low, leaving gorgeous organ and piano lines to fill the spaces between Tare's vocals, at their best here. Still somewhat in the Bowie/Barrett vein, the singing begins to carve its own niche in these final seven minutes, to assert itself as a voice that is uniquely frightening, endearing, and melancholic, a bit like a forest creature. Sadly, Danse Manatee is not as cohesive or as instantly appealing as its predecessor, though it does show the Collective moving in new directions, later brought to maturity on Here Comes the Indian. Most songs feature a fragmented, increasingly electronic foundation, some sounding more like studio experiments than arranged pieces. Remnants of Spirit's psychedelic pop are present in the blissful "Essplode," and the droning "Ahhh Good Country," but most songs are obscured by experimental leanings that will be better integrated in later efforts. Regardless, this double-disc is a welcome introduction for new fans (if only for Spirit), and is a must-have for anyone indoctrinated by this prolific act's recent output.
G. Gonge The recordings made by Christoph Heeman and Achim Flaam as HirscheNichts Auf Sofa has an appealingly built-in obsolescence. The bulk ofthe original catalog was released in small cassette and vinyl editionson Germany's DOM records, and with the exception of the five LPsrecently re-released in deluxe CD editions, most of the music remainsextremely scarce, making it great fodder for obsessive collectors.Unfortunately, many HNAS-related satellite projects such as MiesesGegonge, Duka Bass Band and Speck Nusseck have remained unreleased andlargely ignored. Recently G. Gonge Produktionen released this series ofCD-Rs, issuing six of the rarest DOM cassettes. Be warned: these discsare unofficial bootlegs, the original recordings have not beendigitally remastered, there are no bonus tracks and the packagingconsists of xeroxes of the original tape sleeves. Despite theselimitations, it's great to be able to hear the music again for thefirst time. Listening to these recordings 20 years after makes menostalgic for a lost age when esoteric and experimental underground DIYcassette labels flourished, not yet having been rendered obsolete bythe digital revolution. Creeping into this world of throwaway musiqueconcrete, off-kilter improvisation and drug-addled musical in-jokes islike rummaging through the dusty attic of a 90-year-old schizophrenicwho obsessively saves everything; it's a series of clues with nosolution, flashes of momentary inspiration and frustratingly stillbornideas. In short, the stuff of life.
MIESES GEGONGE, "LIVE" Mieses Gegonge are something of a mystery, but they appear to be asister group to HNAS, having shared the credit for the first HNAS albumAbwassermusik. The material on this CD is culled from two liveperformances in 1985. The sound is very strange indeed: a twistedcombination of arrhythmic percussion together with horribly phased anddistorted vocals. The treated voices and drums are immediatelyreminiscent of the "psych-out" sections of classic Can constructionslike "Halleluwah" and "Aumgn." However, Mieses Gegonge is all psych-outwith no breaks for coherence. Bizarre chants and ululations quaver andripple across layers of randomly beaten skins and gongs, reverbed andwarped into oblivion. If anyone attending these performances wasn't onat least three hits of fine Dusseldorf acid, I feel sorry for them. Therecording is shitty and wracked with distortion, which adds interestingbursts of high-frequency noise that contribute to the lunacy. Imagine apost-lobotomy 23 Skidoo trying to cover The Master Musicians of Jajoukawith nothing but a saw and a zither and William Bennett playing oneroom over, and you might begin to approximate the experience of Live.It's a uniquely fucked sound that will appeal to jaded listenerslooking for a surreal thrill.
DUKA BASS BAND, "FRAULEIN CASANOVA" Duka Bass Band appears to be a trio consisting of Lasse Laudrup, Martin B. Klaeren and Sven Nykvist. On Fraulein Casanova,they are joined on a few tracks by Christoph Heeman and Achim P. LiKhan of HNAS, and Heeman also produced the album. The Duka Bass Band'ssound is a fuzzy, primitive clamor of clueless post-jazz improvisationsthat meander aimlessly and appear to fly in several differentdirections at once. It has a certain amateurish quality and a creepysubterranean feel that appeals to me, although I couldn't say exactlywhy. In the exclusively German liner notes, Heeman muses "Fraulein Casanovais for me a jerking step forward into the natural alreadyness ofmusic." Perhaps this dodgy AltaVista translation should not be trusted,but it's as good an explanation as any for the oddly surreal freeplaying on display here. The opening track is the seven-minute"Zauberformeln," which means 'magical formulas.' It's an aptdescription for the mysterious forces that transform the sound ofdeficiently played clarinet, organs and drums into a strange alchemicalgold that is more than the sum of its components. There are momentsthroughout Fraulein Casanova that touch on elements of firemusic improvs, belabored Shaggs-style guitar, and in the case of thelast track (whose title loosely translates to "For God, 1000 Years IsLike a Day"), a ramshackle psych-folk jam not dissimilar from therecent work of Sunburned Hand of the Man. This is my personal favoriteof the six bootlegs, and I look forward to further recordings by thismysterious post-industrial jazz trio materializing at some future point.
SPECK NUSSECK & DIE LEGENDAREN FETTBOYS, "DANCEMUSIC FUR DICKE BACKER" It's anyone's guess who the hell Speck Nusseck or The Legendary FatBoys are, or where they come from, or what masochistic weirdoencouraged them to record Dancemusic Fur Dicke Backer.The answers to these questions are not readily apparent, and they maynever become clear. The only thing we have to go on are the seven songscomprising Dancemusic, for which the word "annoying" seemswoefully inadequate. Plodding drum machine rhythms and randomly pluckedbass compete with vocals shouted into a megaphone backed by lamekeyboard effects which underscore the mess. I'm tempted to call thisoutsider music, but that would suggest that it is charmingly sincereand/or amateurish music that has worthwhile elements. Unfortunately,Speck Nusseck are neither charming nor sincere, and they are not worthanyone's time. They appear to be influenced by the edgy post-punk ofSection 25, the noisy effrontery of Throbbing Gristle and even themotorik beats of Neu!, but they are terribly unequal to the job ofpaying homage to their heroes. The best thing that can be said aboutthis album is that it is mercifully short, and would likely make anexcellent way to get rid of the last few people still hanging out inyour living room after the party is over.
HNAS, "ICH KANNTE EINEN GUMMIBAUM" HNAS are invariably compared to Nurse With Wound, and more often thannot to the detriment of Heeman and company. It seems that they areforever doomed, relegated to an obscure footnote in the NWW story bywriters and critics, who seem unable to realize that HNAS use their ownunique strategies to portray their particular brand of audiosurrealism. HNAS does not revel in the exaggerated psychedelicgrotesqueries of Steven Stapleton's work — their tactics are sloppier,less calculated, and in many cases even stranger. The seminal krautrockband Faust is a much more analogous comparison. Heeman and Khan's pathwas paved by Faust's willfully messy LPs that cycled through disparatehalf-formed musical ideas and random piss-takes. Ich Kannte Einen Gummibaumis a good demonstration of their distinct sound. The first trackcreates a creeping quasi-rhythmic industrial atmosphere, recalling theearly work of Laibach, but Heeman's deliberately muddy production andmuffled sounds of voices, distant guitar solos and graveyard organs adda nebulous mystery belonging to HNAS alone. The second track, "Kill DenAchim" is culled from a live performance, and finds the band in agloriously anarchic phase. A woman screams violent provocations backedby oblivious, repetitive electric guitar licks and sheets of live noiseand distortion. On "Ich bin ja besser," a disco record is obscured bylayers of cacophonous whalesong. Track five loosely translates to "AWinter Without Skin Problems," in which a disintegrating chamberorchestra fights against encroaching electronic squalls. The last trackis an extended 25-minute construction combining silly-cum-sinistervocal mutations alongside nonsense percussion. The lunacy segues into alengthy section of concrete tape edits, combining impressionistic pianopieces with field recordings and samples drawn from German televisionand radio.
HNAS, "THE UNCOLLECTED ULTRA RARE & UNRELEASED" Another in a trilogy of rare HNAS cassette titles issued by G. Gonge, The Uncollectedis an odds-and-sods anthology, collecting tracks from out-of-printcompilations and rare cassettes, as well as some previously unreleasedmaterial. As such it is an uneven and incoherent listen, but with aband as unorthodox as HNAS, that's hardly a problem. Most of the tracksare in the jagged cut-and-splice style recognizable from mid-80's HNASalbums. It feels a bit like an audio version of the absurdist photo andtext collages found in early punk zines. More than once these piecesdigress into the stoned chatter and laughter of a group of youngGermans, who I can only assume to be Christoph, Achim, and friends.Recording and including this unseemly screwing-about on their albumstakes the music out of the realm of the dryly conceptual oravant-garde, and into the "anything goes" realm of DIY homeexperimentalism. That said, there is also much that is musicallyimpressive among these songs, as in the noir queasiness of "DemPetermann zu Ehren," a dark piano dirge. "Was wir von Cassetten halten4" is a phased electronic piece with looped sing-song vocals recallsearly Current 93. "Wie ein Bock am Michekstag" is similar to the workPeople Like Us, juxtaposing dialogue samples from a "Learn to SpeakSwedish" tape with a kitschy exotica loop. The final song is a rare andlovely track by Duka Bass Band: more demented post-jazz with sinisterundertones.
HNAS, "DIE DREHORGEL ALS FEUERSPRITZE" The first track of Die Drehorgel Als Feuerspritzewas recorded live in 1984, the title roughly translating to "TheParadoxes and Secret Sciences of the World." It's one of the bestpieces I've heard HNAS' prolific oevre, a murky sound sculpturecomprising long-form synth drones and gothic organ swells. The sticky,shapeless drones and burbling moogs converge into caverns filled withfloating stone obelisks that chisel strange patterns into thelistener's consciousness. The piece develops using an interior logic, adreamlike coherence that slowly asserts itself over the course of halfan hour. "Barenklammer" was recorded for an as-yet-unreleased HNASvideo, and contains some of the same source material as the firsttrack, quite reminiscent of the synthesizer arpeggiations andavant-rock noise that characterized Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditationalbum. The third track pushes my PANIC buttons: a manipulative noisepiece that plays like Bernard Herrmann's string tribute to Whitehouse.The layered voices and random bass slaps of the last track evokes Crasscovering a Hildegaard von Bingen chant while tripping on mushrooms.This is a concentrated effort by HNAS, and its single-minded absurditymakes it the most consistent of the three HNAS CD-Rs reissued by G.Gonge. As more of these rare recordings come to light, perhaps HNAS canfinally crawl out of the long shadow cast by Nurse With Wound andreveal themselves to be every bit as unique, talented and vital.
DFA Black Dice is an entirely different proposition from the legions ofretro-disco and post-punk derivatives, and it is tempting to wonderjust what they're doing on a label like DFA. The easy answer is thatthey are excellent, and Murphy and Goldsworthy are able to recognizebrilliance, even when it comes in a package as noisy and uncommercialas Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons."Cone Toaster" is decidedly more rhythmic than much of the material onthat LP, but it still can't qualify as dance music, unless we'retalking about free-PCP night at the Mindfuck Discoteque. Black Dice'sheavy, psychedelic abrasiveness is informed by the krautrock of Can,the tribal Japanoise of The Boredoms and the punk-metal bombast of BigBlack. "Cone Toaster" is a mind-scraping gallery of atonal scrapings,polyrhythms, echo-chambered chanting and gloriously unhinged accidentsof improvisation. The b-side is a remix of the album track "EndlessHappiness" by Yamatsuka Eye (from The Boredoms) which remakes the songinto a hyperspeed hallucinogenic tribal-house track that wouldn't soundout of place of Eye's terrifically odd DJ Pica Pica Pica Planetary Love Gasmix CD. Eye takes the strange tactic of adding a more-or-less danceablebeat, sonically perverting the guitar and basslines into a cacophony ofshimmering protoplasm while adding the usual galaxy of chimes, whistlesand birdcalls that define his singularly whimsical and chaoticpunk-psych. This 12" is one of the most consistently enjoyable plattersof avant-garde lunacy released this year.
DFA DFA's newest release is a split 12" single. The Juan Maclean's track isa seamlessly realized disco-house anthem that sounds every bit as goodas one of the circa-1980 Larry Levan and Arthur Russell classic Paradise Garagebangers. "Give Me Every Little Thing" is perfect music for a crowdedBrooklyn nighspot on a hot summer night, with its sophisticateddowntown grooves and an r&b-inflected chorus. The Rapture's side isan energetic slab of raw punk-funk with the typically strained vocaldelivery, this time ring-modulated and covered up with a denseproduction that includes atmospheric keyboard swells and a tickingtime-bomb beat. "1, 2, 3, 4, Kick that fucker out the door!" screamsJenner, as the song kicks into electro-house gear. This track is takenfrom The Rapture's forthcoming full-length LP Echoes, and theirsound is gradually becoming more unique and tough to pin down; aconfoundingly addictive combination of post-punk, goth, disco and funkelements.