Lingering around San Francisco with Jack Dangers can be found videoproduction guru Ben Stokes and multi-instrumentalist/instructorextrordinaire Mike Powell. Together, the trio form Tino Corp., butseparately Stokes' and Powell's musical projects are respectively DHSand Bo Square. DHS follows up his last 12" (the House of God 10thanniversary) with the spacey psychically suggestive 'Mind Control' ep.Side 1 features three variations: unseparated upbeat dance tracks whichare more of a nod to mid-90s techno crossed with vintage spoken wordrecord samples on hypnosis. The thumping beat is rather thin for mytastes but would probably be intense on a super powered DJ system. Side2 is noted as both 45 and 33 rpm and features only two tracks, alsounseparated - "Telephone Sounds" which hijacks many analogue beeps,clicks and voices from the receiver and "Subliminible" where Stokesenlists a small arsenal of sampled analogue drum beats over anartificial robotic bassline. 
The first Bo Square release came out last year but shouldn't gounmentioned any longer. 'Outer Space Suite' is available on 12" and iscomprised of two faster-than-average techno future classics. Fans ofthe jazzier Meat Beat sound would appreciate the feel brought into themix, as guests Jack Dangers (on vcs3) and Marshall Allen (on sax).Powell, whose guitar and theremin skills coupled with a whole jazzaffinity flavors the first side on a delicious 9+ minute long threepart beat suite. The speed makes it almost considerable to be drum andbass but the track really stands apart from the crowd. "Numbers" on theb-side is comfortably slower and in an almost Kraftwerkian tribute iscolored with various numbers spoken in foreign languages. Both tracksare on the full-length debut from Bo Square, 'Sizing Things Up' butthere's just something magical about having the tunes on vinyl. Lookfor a review of the full-length soon.
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The debut solo release from Christian Kleine features eight amazinglypleasant electronic tunes. Kleine's work has been featured on Aerovanerecordings and in various performances around Europe last year as halfof Hermann & Kleine. The songs here are smooth with the grace ofsomething like a Boards of Canada release yet the excitement of anAerovane album. Kleine tries his hand at a variety of electronicflavors - the echo chamber of the album opener, "Guitar Interrupt",punchy repetitive beats of the title track and "Today's Mark," and arumbling beat-less 'ambient' tuine "Kritzel." While it's nice to hearsomebody making the attempt at pleasantness, this disc isn't reallysomething worth your undivided attention. 'Beyond Repair' could easilywin brownie points from Scrabble guests as it lies in your disc changerin between other relatively uninvolved classics, but at best this albumonly gets a minor amount head nods at the most exciting bits.
A disc with the potential to infuriate idiots before they've even heardit is a rare thing, and Lord Almighty, Father of Toads, here are two ofthe damn things! Having already made a recording of noises sourced fromthat famous old book full of bloodbaths and boils, the bible, prolificJapanese sound artist Aube has allowed the Elsie and Jack label toassemble a cast of thousands to hack and chop digital crosses on whichto hang the pages of the book.
"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.
