Last week I was lucky enough to hear one of the most energetic, unique
and exciting rock bands on the planet perform what can be inadequately
described as experimental hardcore punk at the three best gigs I've
been to this year. Melt Banana of Tokyo are on tour in Europe and
making an exhilarating manic noise everywhere they go. Their surgically
masked guitarist Agata, sends all kinds of unlikely sounds roaring from
his six strings via his big rack of effects pedals; breaking glass,
machine gun fire and emergency sirens all augment his frantic slide
antics. Singer Yako sounds utterly unlike any other singer, yelping
like a small puppy or letting loose a helium barrage of unintelligible
invectice as she does a surf dance through the thick waves of Banana
mosh fodder. Tiny bassist Rika and American drummer Dave, formerly of
Discordance Axis and now of internet noisemongers Atomsmasher, keep up
the breathtakingly fast rhythm. The band have been playing and touring
long enough to perfect their art attack and show everyone else how rock
music can still blast ecstatically into the future. They played mostly
songs from their recent and best albums 'Charlie' and 'Teeny Shiny',
and as usual did one of their legendary cover songs, this time a
traditional Italian tune 'Tintarella di Luna'. The Liverpool gig was
especially sweaty and chaotic, with Agata grabbing a table a few songs
in to keep people from falling on his pedals.
In Leeds and Liverpool, support bands John Holmes, Narcosis and
Voorhees were of the angry hardcore variety. Dave likened John Holmes
to Prong although they seemed slower. Manchester supports were
experimental noisemongers Magic City and Triclops and the comedy laptop
processed shouting swearing racket of Speedranch^Jansky Noise.
Speedranch was gutted not to be able to hire a bouncy Castle for the
occasion, so made do with jumping off the PA into the crowd where
someone emptied a beer can over his head. If you're in France, Germany,
Austria, Switzerland or Italy over the next two months or so, you might
be able to catch Melt Banana before they go back to Japan. Check out
the tour dates at www.splatterpromotion.com.
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"The Cuckoo" is the full length debut from Jansky Noise, a solo projectof one of the V/Vm lads. The ziplocked LP is a gorgeous green/blacksplattered vinyl and is "part 3 of an ongoing series of colour codeddistressed audio" releases, the previous ones being Noise/Girl's"Discopathology" and V/Vm's "Masters of the Absurd". Side 1 begins witha few tracks worth of heavily processed loops that approach aMerzbow-ian level of noise assault. The remainder of the side calmsthings down considerably, but only after a passage of disruptive humansnoring paired with bird squawks. This eventually tapers down to an oddbut soothing sort of ambient experience that includes a soundreminiscent of a distant cruise ship horn and a bit of effected musicbox. Side 2 alternates between mercurial and mellow tracks. PatsyCline's classic rendition of the Willie Nelson penned "Crazy" is giventhe classic V/Vm treatment, pitch shifted and slowed down to a creepycrawl. "Roaming in the gloaming with SCOTTISH pie by my side" (yougotta love those whacky titles!) is an impressive example of pastoralmeets industrial ambiance just after sunset. "Rapid Racing" revs up andshifts through high pitched frequencies, coming to an abrupt stop forthe finale: a relatively untouched Andrews Sisters' "Money is the Rootof All Evil". "The Cuckoo" is another thoroughly fun and diverse 32minutes of lunacy from the V/Vm camp. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'llcringe, you'll smile. Be sure to check out the revamped V/Vm site atBrainwashed later this month for info on the neverending torrent of newreleases on the horizon.
Two new songs grace this CD single available now from Low on theirChair Kickers label. In addition, the disc comes with a very impressivemusic video for "Dinosaur Act" directed and edited by NY-basedindependent film enthusiast, sometime musician and fulltime fan MarcGartman. Ironically enough, "Last Night I Dreamt,..." is possibly the-last- great Smiths song, yet the overall font and style theme of thissingle mimics the -first- Smiths release. "Last Night" is by far myfavorite on their final album, strangely enough allegedly recorded-after- their split (without Johnny Marr and Morrissey even recordingtheir studio sessions on the same days). The trio have been performingthis live in the US to receptive audiences but reports tell the bandwas heckled in the Smiths' hometown of Manchester recently. While it'snoted that the recordings took place at the home studio in Duluth, theemotionally heavy reverb makes it sound like it was recorded in anempty concert hall. The second track, "Because You Stood Still" is aclimactic Low original which probably won't become one of my favoriteLow tunes, yet it has the most natural mix of strings I have heard in aLow song since "Condescend" from 1997. Maybe one day Low will finallygive in and release a nice compilation so I don't have all these greatsongs on individual singles,..
Every single track from Foetus' latest album "Flow" is given a "Blow"job for this companion remix album. Eleven hip remixers take their turnbut Thirlwell isn't quite willing to entirely let go of the controls ashe maintains the executive producer's chair. For me, remix albums areusually a hit and miss proposition and this one's pretty par for thecourse. I often can't help but think, 'yeah, this is alright, but Ilike the original much better'. First the ones I like. Franz Treichler(Young Gods) completely turns "The Need Machine" inside out fromraucous rocker with aggro vocals to frosty soundscape techno withwhispered vocals (which must have been re-recorded). Phylr (JF Coleman,ex-Cop Shoot Cop) does a nice job of transforming "Mandelay" into oneof his own moody, predominantly instrumental pseudo-industrial tracks.Sean Beaven (Kidney Thieves, longtime NIN mixer/engineer/producer)gives "Grace of God" some drum 'n bass fills, clever new samples andeventually a slower guitar fortified chorus. Ursula 1000 serves up"Someone Who Cares" with a whole new white trash race track influencedbacking reminiscent of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult circa"Sexplosion". And Thirlwell himself can't help but join in on the funby obliterating and extending "The Need Machine". And now the ones Idon't much like. Charlie Clouser (Team Nine Inch Nails) gives parts of"Quick Fix" an extra rock jolt but he also relies on far too manyNINnie-isms like vocoded and hacked up vocals. Pan Sonic and Kid 606essentially make new, annoying tracks of their own from pieces of"Kreibabe" and "Shun" respectively while Panacea buries "Heuldoch 7B"in distorted beats and synths. Yuck. And DJ Food tries to make"Suspect" creepier by pitch shifting down much of the vocals but themusic is such a mess it makes it intolerable. I'll say it again: hitand miss. I'd rather listen to "Flow", one of my favorite new albums ofthe year. Foetus.org states that a "Blow" related event is planned fornext January in Los Angeles.
The third collection to come out of Iceland's Kitchen Motors might aswell be parts three and four to the Motorlab (reviewed a couple monthsback). This 2xCD collection shares many of the Icelandic performers ason the other collections, recorded earlier however (1999) from avariety of improvisational performances in the Motorlab. The majordifference is that the first two compilations were rather rigid in thecollaborative respect — each performance was between at least twounlikely paired identities. On Nart Nibbles, collaborations occur, butthere are also performances by the individual groups. Seven tracks fromseven different entities make up the first disc, beginning with a fourorgan and one drummer ensemble, Apparat Organ Quintet, whoseperformance sets the stage for this rather clean, well assembledcollection. A contribution from Big Band Brutal is neither big norbrutal, but quite clearly establishes the fact that instrumentalimprovisation doesn't always have to be harsh or directionless. Discone ends with a fabulous 10+ minute rhythmic collaboration between Múmand Músíkvatur with organs, a toy drum kit, synths and dryer sounds.Disc two however features only two tracks. The first is an all-star13-guitarist ensemble which stretches nearly half an hour. "HelvitisSymphony I" is much less dissonant (and more enjoyable) than most avantgarde guitarist ensembles (like those led by Glen Branca) and featuresguitarists like Motorlab organizer Kristin Bjork, Jonsi from Sigur Rós,Hilmar Jensson and Hei¦a. Over the course of the piece, each guitaristintroduces their part, contributing a distinct sound and feel, fromdrones to melodies, carefully layering over what's already beenestablished, yet developing and mutating the feel and direction. Thecollection concludes with a beautiful electronic versus organiccollaboration between Biogen, Plastik and Hilmar Jensson, matchingpulses, low frequencies, and caterwauling guitars into a hypnotic audiosoup. Gosh I wish I were there.
Carsten Nicolai (aka Noto/Alva Noto) has been collaborating via e-mailwith several different but like-minded artists lately: with à for"Wohltemperiert", with Ryoji Ikeda for Cyclo, with Scanner for"Uniform" and here with Thomas Knak (aka Opiate) for the latest in the'static' bag series. Knak records solo under his own name as well asOpiate and Gloria Hirsch, is a member of Future 3 and worked with Bjùrkon her latest, "Vespertine". These tracks, referred to simply as optofiles 1 through 4, total a little over 33 minutes and fit right in withthe static aesthetic. Nicolai's digital glitches rhythmically singaccompaniment to Knak's simple, lazy melodies. Add bass swells, simmerand stir occasionally. It's a comfy balance between fireside warmth andgoose pimple chill. 1 and 3 are just the right length, the latteradding a tasty beat, while 2 is way too long and 4 is way too short,the latter being the most minimal of all. Nice ...
"Transform" is Nicolai solo as Alva Noto and it is his second disc assuch for Mille Plateaux, follow-up to last year's "Prototypes". Bothare all about minimalism deeply rooted in microscopic mathematicalcoding and structure. It's kinda funny now because I really enjoy(ed)the first disc and was looking forward to more in a similar vein at thetime, but now that I have it I'm not as satisfied as I should be.Unfortunately for me (and perhaps Nicolai) is that in the time that haspassed between the two albums his collaborations with others haveinjected new and different blood into the mix with varying and excitingresults. With "Transform" were back to just Nicolai's evolutionarycomposition techniques and standard set of audio building blocks - thefull range of waves, pulses and drones, glitches, metallic pops andclicks, etc. The quality of his solo work is just as good but myperception of it has changed some ... it seems exceedingly academic andsterile in comparison now. That said, there are still a number ofmildly funky (well, about as funky as a German with a laptop canpossibly be) grooves to be found among the 10 tracks or 'modules' asthey're referred to here. But here's hoping that more collaborativework is in store.
Peter Rehberg may be familiar as Pita and Ramon Bauer as General Magic,both of whom are usually at home on the Mego label. However, they'vebeen documenting noisy rhythms emanating from errors over the course ofa trilogy of CD's on Touch. Never ones to stick closely to a rulebook(except perhaps 'How to Rewire Your Fridge') the third CD is actuallyculled from Australian live performances by the Austrian duo. Once pastthe irritating over the top intro from a swearing local 'celebrity'it's over the top laptop noise all the way. Really this has as much incommon with Rehberg's Pita material as it does the earlier 'ballt' and'Fasst' installments. Maybe that's because the glitch is seen by thecogniscenti to have become a bit of a cliche in the five years since'Fasst' emerged twitching and humming into the twilight. The CD isindexed into 13 tracks over the course of four titles, so on randomplay cuts three of the noisescapes into 2 to 7 chunks which actuallywork off each other very well in any order. I suspect that Rehberg andBauer would actively encourage even greater listener interaction. Trydownloading the samples below and hacking, chopping and mulching themto your own requirements. I had a lot of fun doing just that withsamples from the last General Magic CD. Which is not to suggest that'passt' isn't a fine listen in itself. Its crackles and pops andmeasured descents into howling digital whirlwinds are fine exercises inreigning in and controlling chaos. From heartbeat pulses to emergencywhite noise whiteouts, Rehberg and Bauer keep things moving at a fingerclicking pace. Halfway through the longest closing excursion intomounting dissonance, 'Revolver', the influence of Bruce Gilbert'slatter day solo work is readily apparent, and recommendations don'tcome much higher than that. Like 'In Esse' or the Speedranch^JanskyNoise 'Live at the Scala' disc, these are noise works with so manylayers and masked shifts that repeated listening is essential to makeheads into tails. Piccadilly Records were impressed enough to remarkthat the album has a nice cover and These Records have described'passt' as the first comedy laptop record. So where does that leaveV/Vm and their horrible covers? 
When I think back to the early 1990s, three albums stick out in my mindas being timeless classics: The Las, The Stone Roses, and 'Loveless'from My Bloody Valentine. Unfortunately, these bands had recordingsbefore these records (and in one case after), which fail (miserably) toreach the stunning climax of their staple album, leaving their mark onthe world as an imperfect existence. To its credit, the recent MyBloody Valentine collection of older EPs is much better than both fromthe Las and Stone Roses 'Garage Flowers'. If you're looking for thenext best thing to a follow-up from 'Loveless', however, you will be infor a disappointment. While the airy open voice male and female vocalsand heavily distorted guitars are recognizable, it's a cross betweenjangly pop and the occasional dark distorted track, often giving aretrospective nod to more obscure 1960s rock stuff. My Bloody Valentinewere certainly not in their own element quite yet. There is a certainalmost indescribable charm to it however, despite the poor production,embarassing lyrics and crummy artwork. Perhaps they were trying toohard not to sound like The Smiths but couldn't escape the traps of thecontemporary music as these EPs most likely doubled as a demos backthen. It's worth the cheap price but if you see the disc going for ajacked-up import cost, there's no need to bother.
