Morr Music
Phonem is Elliot Perkins, a man with a fine taste for melody at thesame time that he has an intense love for loud electronic noise. He isalso a man with a political cause to inform you about on this, hisfourth release overall and his third for Morr Music. "Ilisu" is themoniker of the release, so named after the dam the Turkish govermentplans to build upstream of the Syrian and Iraqi borders? And the dam'smission? Publically to provide power for a notoriously failing Turkishpower infrastructure. Privately, it will force the evacuation of some78,000 Kurds from the 313 square kilometers that will serve as thedam's reservoir - a relocation that continues the Turkish persecutionof the Kurds. Obviously, this will notbe a cheery release by any means. Phonem is angry in this music,releasing frustrations and educating through the song titles: 'Thirst','Displacement', 'Water Rights', and 'War By Any Means' to name a few.It really is a pwerful release, and pure punishment on your earsthrough headphones. But underlying all of that lashing out is a purelove of hopeful melody, as small, quiet bursts of keyboards and soundsmake their way to the surface. You can actually hear in the music -especially on 'Thirst' - the pain and other effects this dam projectwill have on the people of the Tigris River valley, effects compoundedby the fact that this dam will not help solve the power problems inTurkey. The only complaint I have is that the drum sounds are almostall the same on every track, which comes across as a limit in equipmentas well as creativity. But it is a strong release, probably thestrongest Phonem music yet. Check out the sound samples to be sure, asI haven't been able to put this one down yet.
Phonem is Elliot Perkins, a man with a fine taste for melody at thesame time that he has an intense love for loud electronic noise. He isalso a man with a political cause to inform you about on this, hisfourth release overall and his third for Morr Music. "Ilisu" is themoniker of the release, so named after the dam the Turkish govermentplans to build upstream of the Syrian and Iraqi borders? And the dam'smission? Publically to provide power for a notoriously failing Turkishpower infrastructure. Privately, it will force the evacuation of some78,000 Kurds from the 313 square kilometers that will serve as thedam's reservoir - a relocation that continues the Turkish persecutionof the Kurds. Obviously, this will notbe a cheery release by any means. Phonem is angry in this music,releasing frustrations and educating through the song titles: 'Thirst','Displacement', 'Water Rights', and 'War By Any Means' to name a few.It really is a pwerful release, and pure punishment on your earsthrough headphones. But underlying all of that lashing out is a purelove of hopeful melody, as small, quiet bursts of keyboards and soundsmake their way to the surface. You can actually hear in the music -especially on 'Thirst' - the pain and other effects this dam projectwill have on the people of the Tigris River valley, effects compoundedby the fact that this dam will not help solve the power problems inTurkey. The only complaint I have is that the drum sounds are almostall the same on every track, which comes across as a limit in equipmentas well as creativity. But it is a strong release, probably thestrongest Phonem music yet. Check out the sound samples to be sure, asI haven't been able to put this one down yet.
samples:
Entirely too raw for any glitzy fashion-conscious New Yorker to releasethem, this power-trio have found a home with the Providence-based Load(Lighning Bolt, Arab on Radar, Six Finger Satellite) for their debutfull (?) length release (at 11 songs, it clocks in at an almost exact26 minutes!) This aneurysm-inducing onslaught of atonality is rich inabrasion, heavy with distortion and loaded with more adorable hatedthan a pimply, overweight, horny teenaged nerd. But it's hardlymathematic, metallic, (or "ironic") however, as each song is a directslice into the guts of anybody in its aural path. The feverent energyis somewhat refreshing as it takes a much different path to get fromthe slaughterhouse to your table, stopping in the underworlds of withavant-garde social terrorists rather than concrete jungles of post-punkbrats from good homes with bedhead or leather jackets with DC bandlogos, all the while, remaining bleedingly truthful. (Eat your heartout, Thurston O'Rourke.) This disc is anything but clean, yetremarkably consistent, almost as if you can turn it up loud enough andfeel like you're actually there in front of the miked amplifier with anunavoidable strong stench of body odor festering in your face. Yeah,it's fucking harsh, but then again, when was rock and roll ever aboutpleasing your parents? In a year filled with a slim amount offavorites, I'm happy to now have this in my collection.
Trevor Wishart's legendary electroacoustic trip from the yawning YorkUniversity breakfast table into the off planet starmind vacuumoriginally span onto two bits of vinyl way back in 1973. Now Paradigmhave rescued it to aluminium bit-coded posterity, in all it's lo-ficollaged glory, with a slightly off putting sleeve note from thecomposer who seems embarrassed by the naivities he now finds in theexecution of his first release. Three years in the making, 'JourneyInto Space' mixes up free improvised junk toy fiddling, clocks ticking,rocket launch blasts, slamming doors, heartbeats and haunted chainrattling, with a hell of a lot of tubular bell bashing along the way.Wishart mixed and remixed field recordings and captures with improvisedand scored contributions from 48 musicians, including Steve Beresfordand Jonty Harrison. The opening thirteen minutes of deep bowed stringdrone, gurgling grey hospital limbo groans and creaks and jinglingbells might feel right at home on your favourite Nurse With Wound albumor sat alongside the admittedly more tidy and better recorded ThrobbingGristle masterpiece 'Journey Through a Body.' This is a perhaps agenuinely seminal work, which might have had as much if not moreinfluence on the outsider industrial scene as the academic corridorsfrom which it crept slowly. The "Birth" intro winds out with distantchoirs singing odd hymns to a crying new baby. The least successfulsequence is the man waking, yawning, belching and generally fartingabout that starts the almost fifty minute 'Journey,' which continueswith a car zooming off into the quaint honking city. Suddenly a fanfareheralds a rocket launch amongst the dwindling traffic noise and thescene shifts, planets dwindle, time slips. The rocket engine roar eatseverything until discordant anti-vacuum bells dissolve into the silenceof space. Strange new worlds open up in alien instrumention. Distantradio crackles in from homeworld. Chiming into the void new forms takeshape from hazy fluting, and an alien city emerges from the blue bellfog. Inside they're having a good ol' B-movie tentacle party, rituallysqueezing honk horns, until the nightmare giant babies google in fromthe black and white swamplands and the first word is spoken by chantingnose-monks. It's hard to hear this without being reminded of early1970s sci-fi classics 'Solaris' and '2001.' 2002: Lost in space theland that time forgot is remembered and reissued.
Once upon a time, the late '80s to be precise, My Life With The ThrillKill Kult fabricated some killer singles, EPs and albums for theseminal Chicago based label, Wax Trax! Records. Then began the downwardslide into major label "success", self parody and just plain bad ideasand music. Remember the god awful "Sex On Wheelz" song and video forthe "Cool World" movie? Yikes. I gave up on them after that and everytime I tried a new album I was disappointed. Fast forward to today andthis project finally sees the light of day. Recorded 1998-99, DarlingKandie paired TKK frontman Groovie Mann with venerable one man band,the late William Tucker, to whom it's dedicated. As the liner notesexplain this is some of Tucker's last work (demos in fact, though itsounds complete), his career having included recording and/or touringwith most of industrial rock's inner circles: Ministry, the RevoltingCocks, Pigface, Chris Connelly, Foetus, Thanatos, Chainsuck, etc., notto mention TKK's 'Sexplosion' tours as "Amber Guitarstar". I think it'ssafe to say that most if not all of the music here is Tucker's doing ashis unique guitar and programming imprint are instantly recognizableand Groovie's primary role in TKK is lyrics and vocals. Together theyrevisit the tongue-in-cheek evil of classic Kult, with a Tucker twist.His slinky grooves are solid backdrops for tons of silly samples andGroovie Mann's campy tales of naughty young girls, drugs, sex andsuicide. Horn-y hijinks ala Foetus spice up "Cobra Kiss" and "ClearfireFor The Fallen". "Secret Ceremony" conveys Tucker's sense of pop melodywhile "Randy Road" does the same for his skill at glam-hip hop rhythmamalgamation. And the title track and "Untitled End" best replicate thecreepy dark side of the Kult's back catalog. Frankie Nardiello's (akaGroovie Mann) insert photos of "Ultramodels" helps complete the mood.'People Next Door' is the best thing Thrill Kill Kult haven't done in adecade and a testament to the talent of the much missed E. WilliamTucker.
Here's a perfect example why strikingly original bands should neverup-and-move their ass out to the West Coast to "make it big."Multi-instrumentalist/producer/one-man-act Gary Wilson recorded thisremarkably entertaining debut album in 1977, and hand-packaged every LPwith autographed photos and other inserts for all the copies eithersent out to various college radio stations or sold at concerts in andaround NYC. After heading to San Diego, the band never signed a deal,despite gaining a bit of underground attention from experimental radiostations along the way. Don't believe the press about this record,however, he would have never been a superstar, but he could have easilycontinued to record underground anthems in the form of curious albumsyour cooler older brother might have kicking around. 'You Think YouReally Know Me' predates Prince's debut record by a year, but hasenough soulful make-out jams (like "6.4 Makeout" and "Chromium Bitch")to make you believe he was listening to the hairy purple midget andspending late nights in run-down Atlantic City casinos with second-ratelounge singers. Unfortunately, it's slightly too misogynistic foracceptance in the late 1970s as "irony" wasn't really in style. Wilsonplayed every instrument and produced the album entirely, and tossed ina healthy serving of tape splicing, sound effects, and cheesy synthsamidst the elogant organ, acceptable drums and phenomenal bass guitarwork. Picture HNAS meets Steely Dan in some of the trippierinstrumental bits. Thanks go out to the Dust Brothers for introducingWilson's music to Beck (he name drops Gary Wilson in "Where it's At"and somehow I don't think Mr. Hansen would have known of Wilson withoutthem), because that may have sparked the interest of the people atMotel for tracking this guy down. I could be wrong, entirely too jaded,but somebody needs to be thanked for making this peculiaralmost-masterpiece readily available.
Genre bending tribute albums tend to be lame unless the ideas are as amusing and well executed as Opium Jukebox's. Centered around Martin Atkins (Pigface, The Damage Manual, Invisible Records, Underground, Inc.) and Bobdog Catlin (ex-Evil Mothers, Pigface, Pseudo Buddha) plus Julian Beeston (ex-Nitzer Ebb, Shining) and Rahul Sharma, the group relocates well known Western ditties thousands of miles to the East via sitars and such.
First and foremost, credit must go to STROM.ec for being a wonderfullydynamic act who manage to change their style of music on each releaseenough to make a new album a pleasantly unexpected surprise. For thoseof you following these talented Finns, "Dogs of Total Order" doesn'tsound like "Neural Architect" which doesn't sound like the "Glass Cage"7" which certainly does not sound like "Arma Christi." On "ArmaChristi," STROM.ec and fellow Finns Irikarah go "classic German powerelectronics" - i.e. Genocide Organ soundalikes. Therein lies mycomplaint - originality is not this record's strong suit. Regardless,both bands know what they're going for, and they go for the throat.STROM.ec's four tracks are powerful examples of this genre done well -repetitive, hypnotic, noisy music coupled with brutal, pissed-offvocals (which are often the "make-or-break" factor, and in STROM.ec'scase, definitely make it). Irikarah takes a similar approach, but soundquite different. Whereas STROM.ec focuses on repetition and vocals,Irikarah's sound is a little bit more dynamic and less vocal-heavy. Thethird track in particular is almost rhythmic (imagine that)! Suffice itto say, if you're a fan of this sound, you could do no better than toimmediately purchase this record, and scream and shout right along withSTROM.ec (fans of "Neural Architect" be warned, this record is a lotless dynamic). Myself, I'm getting a little bit tired of therepetitiveness, but I need a good dose of it every now and then, and"Arma Christi" hits the spot like a sledgehammer.
Spider Monkey makes hard breakbeat moves on this 5 track CD-R whichfall somewhere between a less distorted, less hip-hop influenced 2ndGen and a lot of the Position Chrome label releases, but probably donewith more imagination and variation than the PC lot. "Drowning" hammersominously, but the following "H.L.S" drops down to a simple tickingwarped keyboard melody before the distorted driving beats pick upagain. "Isolation Chamber" pounds away in a linear bangin' technotunnel with manic sci-fi bleeps circling wildly around the perimeter.This track might seem a little dated to some perhaps, but it works justfine. "Feel Nothing After Dark" warps a vocal sample of the phrase "Theway I feel," which sounds great at unintelligible slow speed but edgestowards cheeseball territory sped up later on, however riding out on afeedbck drone is a smart way to finish the track. I don't listen to agreat deal of this stuff, so I'm not sure which kind of sub-genres itmight fit into or if that's even relevant anymore, but it's definitelymore fist-thru-monitor than headnod-shit. Spider Monkey definitelyseems like one to watch out for, and if the samples below appeal thencheck out the website for more.
Some times I really just don't get Sub Pop. They've made some greatsignings in recent years, the best of which being The Shins, butsometimes you have to wonder what they see in some bands. That'sexactly what I thought when I first heard Beachwood Sparks, and I thinkit even more now. Another fragile-voiced, country-tinged rock band withmediocre imagery as the major tenet to their songs. The harmonies arefine, but not enough to carry the songs to airy heights. In fact,there's not much about this EP that is particularly memorable or worthyof praise. It's pretty uninspiring. On "Make the Cowboy Robots Cry,"the Sparks stretch their legs a little bit, performing some of theirmost experimental music yet. And it's all over the damn place. Thecenter piece is, of course, the fragile vocals, but now there is agreater emphasis placed on the instrumentation, and on sampled momentsof rhythm and strings. There are moments of brilliance, but they'remostly due to the guests on the release, as much as I can tell. ChrisGunst was apparently quite inspired by his work with Jimmy Tamborelloon the DNTEL release, so he invited Tamborello to appear here as aproducer/side man, and Mia Doi Todd is along for the ride, as well. Hercontribution, on 'Ponce de Leon Blues' gives that song a hauntingbeauty, and when she and Gunst sing together, there is a bit ofpromise. Maybe for the next DNTEL release. But not for BeachwoodSparks, sadly. The last song, 'Ghost Dance 1492', is just plain awful.In spreading their wings and trying out some new elements and sounds,and tweaking their base sound in the process, Beachwood Sparks havetried to apply this same energy in their songwriting, and they'vemuddied the water. If they'd applied these elements to their usualstyle of songwriting, the results might have been more awe-inspiring.Instead, we're left with this hint of what is to come on futureBeachwood Sparks music. And what will that bring? Hopefully somethingmore coherent.
Turned on by a recommendation by Jason Bryant (of Riouxs, damn, he'snever wrong), this second release for the Russian label is the firstfull-length album by this Saint Petersburg-based duo. You won't findany bizarre experimentation with crazy rhythms, abrasive noises orharsh melodies within. Instead it's a delicate wash of gorgeouselectronic melodies and serene sounds. While it does wander thattrecherous border between early Orb and new age, I honestly find myselfpulling for this disc frequently when I simply want to tune out theincreasingly psychotic world and soak in some valuble personal "me"time. I reached track four, "At_First," in my car once late at night,driving on an urban highway at a relatively high speed through somewell-lit tunnels and that, coupled with the following beat-less auralmasterpiece, "Paintings," really solidified my love for this disc.Picture the blissful sounds of some of the first Tear Garden materialwithout abrasive cuts, vocals or samples, replaced by conjunct, languidtunes which would please anybody fond of musicians like UlrichSchnauss. If anything, looking forward, Edda and Vladislav might wantto look into updating their sounds when progressing onto their nextrecords, but in the meantime, this album works just perfectly. Sadly,only Riouxs seems to be carrying this label right now.
