I cannot think of a single artist that is afflicted with such a relentless torrent of inspiration and amazing ideas that a triple album is warranted. Texas's Korperschwache have not changed my opinion on this issue, but they have made a surprising successful, varied (particularly for a noise band with a Holocaust-derived moniker that names songs after H.P. Lovecraft monsters), and listenable effort nonetheless; especially when considering that the band began in 1995 with the intention of producing "blown-out junk noise hell built on the maxim that you can never be too loud or too obnoxious."
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This release from eminent sound ecologist Francisco Lopez and Michael Gendreau—member of Crawling With Tarts (1983-1998)—is less a collaboration between the two than a pairing together of similar pieces culled from recordings they each made in the Far East. Lopez created his tracks from original recordings of machinery in Singapore, China, Taiwan, and Japan, whereas Gendreau's microphone captured sounds from inside the factories of Taiwan and Malaysia. Together as a two CD set, the musical pieces presented by each artist are quite complimentary of each other.
With well over 20 releases to its name, Anthony Mangicapra's Hoor-paar-Kraat project has taken on many guises over the years, containing no less than 14 different collaborators over the course of its varied discography. No matter the personnel though, the unit has consistently pushed at the boundaries between drone, noise and musique concrète to masterful effect. Here, Mangicapra teams up with four cohorts and comes up with a beautifully consistent and thematically realized piece. That it has been printed in a relatively large run (for this sort of release anyway...) of 200 is good news, but unfortunately not so good that anyone who wants one can afford to bide their time should they desire a copy. Such is the tape world I suppose; c'est la vie.
Having collaborated with the likes of Damo Suzuki and members of Zeni Geva and Acid Mother’s Temple, it’s not surprising at all that this is going to be a loud and “out there” sort of project. And it is, traipsing the line between free jazz and noise with reckless abandon. Never leaning fully onto one side or the other, it makes for an interesting dichotomy throughout both studio and live discs.
I’ve long been under the mindset that "post rock" is a euphemism for "prog rock." Just like "industrial" began to mean "synth pop with distortion" circa 1983. Not that there's anything wrong with prog rock, who doesn’t love a guy in a cape behind a battery of synths that look like they could have landed the Apollo. Apse are definitely in this genre and for the most part they do pretty well, though I wish this would have been an instrumental album.
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This collection featuring four artists from different countries is strung together by the conceits that all of the artists are relatively unknown and all of them are women. The disc is agreeably diverse, taking turns through lo-fi pop, fuzzy electronics, and odd singer-songwriter territory.
These two releases by the Norwegian artist are her first releases despite a long career focussed on sound installations (although she has released work on compilations and worked with Chris Watson and Sigur Rós on field recordings for their Heima movie). A short live CD and a 7” single, they are not exactly meaty but the material included is strong despite the brevity of most of the tracks. The recordings are crystal clear and manipulated beautifully; the two discs are truly remarkable.
Considering music videos seem to be only broadcast on YouTube, I wonder why bands go through the bother and expense of making them when they could be producing more music. Granted there are those times when picture and sound come together to make something powerful but this certainly is not one of those times. A crappy homage to the gorier side of '70s and '80s horror movies and a bunch of ropey live footage was never a good idea, how it got as far as being pressed on DVD is beyond me.
Not quite a lost classic and hardly considered a hit in its own time, this accomplished solo debut from an enduring talent is not some mere soul curio. Unlike records rereleased to satisfy some obsessive collectors' lust for digging up obscure R&B regardless of true quality, this album succeeds on its own merits and the potency of its performances.
