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17 March 2002

Rob Devlin

Albums and Singles

The recording acts that are part of the Elephant 6 collective all havetheir own idiosyncracies, their own elements that you either love orhate. I don't think I know anyone who loves all of these bands,including Beulah, Neutral Milk Hotel, and also the Olivia TremorControl. The Sunshine Fix is the solo project of the latter's BillDoss, and, included in the Elephant 6 collective or not, it's one ofthe recordings of that type of music I haven't really enjoyed.

True,it's more straightforward pop than the OTC, and I never really likedthem, either, but this release just seems like it's lacking somethingall the way through. From the opening title track, the vocal harmoniesand treated guitars greet you and prepare you for the journey. And youwould get the impression that this is what you can expect for most ofthe record, which would make it pretty boring. Unfortunately, thatisn't the case here: it's worse. There are moments of other soundsentering the picture, but they are few and far between, and they don'tlast long. Then it's right back to the same old shtick. Layers ofguitars and vocals that are treated with different effects, clearlyrecorded drums, and occasional bouts of handclaps. Ho hum, yawn. Andthe subject matter, mainly dealing with themes of light and the sun (afixation with sunshine = The Sunshine Fix. How clever.), is verysimplistic. It could be flushed out and explored more, but it's verysurface level. Towards the end of the release, I realized what wasmissing: the rest of the Olivia Tremor Control. Now that that group isdefunct, the members are revealing that their music was a great case ofthe whole being greater than the sum of its parts. There is a twinkleof hope on tracks like 'Everything is Waking,' and I can only hope theyuse that twinkle to greater effect and explore wider themes on futurerecordings. This got real stale real quick. -

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17 March 2002

Graeme Rowland

Albums and Singles

Sedimental released this collection of theremin-based explorations fromBoston improviser James Coleman last year. The theremin is not aninstrument that has been associated with improvised music all that muchin the past. Most often James plays alongside the finely focusedelegant percussion of Tatsuya Nakatani, but there are alsocontributions from other improvisers singing and playing cello, trumpetand saxophone.

James is curator of the lowercase sound email discussionforum, so it's not surprising that 'Zuihitsu' is a fairly quietcollection that works up to occasional skittering resolutions relyingon fast paced interaction but mostly squeaks and gurgles in a playfulbut subdued manner. One track is titled "Zwittering Maschines" andzwittering seems a good word to describe the sound of 'Zuihitsu.' It'sdifficult for me to hear this CD without being reminded of the voicesof classic cult BBC kids TV show The Clangers, the moon dwellingwoollen puppets with squeaky voices. Perhaps that's appropriateconsidering the influence of bird sounds on James Coleman's improvisingtechnique, and the image the theremin has as a kitsch sci-fi soundtracktool. "This Castle Keeps Me" opens with a low drone that eventuallyswoops off over sparse and slow atmospheric drum beats. "Burial of theCombs" is a more dissonant follow up with slow scraping cello from VicRawlings. On "Katydid" the theremin conspires with Bob Rainey's sax tosound like a dog whining in curiosity at odd percussive occurrences.Greg Kelley's trumpet brings a strangled gurgle to "Muddy Kemaris" forbird like twitters to flit around, before launching drawn out keeningsover drum rolls. "Lady of the Combs" adds some stuttering jerky vocalsfrom Liz Tonne which instantly lifts the music into a more tense mode,as she sounds quite distraught. Her vocals on a handful of later tracksare much more subdued and merge organically.
Although the album is made up of fifteen tracks with variouscombinations of improvisers, with only the theremin constantthroughout, the album merges seamlessly into a whole which could easilyhave been one long session. The final track "Released to the Stars"brings a low key resolution with Rawlings droning cello underpinningTonne's choking ululations which seem to suggest death and rebirth asthe sounds dissolve to silence.
The sleeve is a an imaginitively elegant affair which allows thelistener to choose one of three covers featuring different abstractoriental style art under tracing paper and quotes from William Blake,Kimo no Chomei or Elizabeth Millard. The quotes are spirituallysuggestive and compliment the intent of the music neatly. -
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17 March 2002

Mark Weddle

Albums and Singles

For the first ever two disc Mort Aux Vaches, Raster-Noton's foundingfathers - Carsten Nicolai as Alva Noto, Olaf Bender as Byetone, FrankBretschneider as Komet and the trio as Signal - provide over 136minutes of "live" digital minutiae for the ever-growing archive.Chances are, you've already decided what modern minimalism does ordoesn't do for you and if the answer is "not much", there's nothinghere out of the ordinary that's going to change your opinion.

17 March 2002

Rob Devlin

Albums and Singles

Certain General were a living contradiction of a band. They were bothahead of their time and perfect for the time they were a band. They hadpunk rock energy for a post-punk alternative sound. And, as thiscollection shows, they were at the top of their game even when itseemed like it was all falling apart.

"An Introduction To War,"available at the Sourmash Records USAwebsite, is a 2CD deluxe set featuring completely unreleased CertainGeneral material. The first CD, "Dead Rabbit Gang," would have been theband's second album, culled from recording sessions that took placeupon their return from a successful UK tour. This material wasprevented from release by internal band turmoil, as the liner notesstate, but you couldn't tell by listening to it. All fourteen trackspulse and crack with raw energy: the mark of a band at their absolutepeak. There's so much to hear in these tracks to prove what an affectCertain General had on the musical landscape of the time. You hearelements in these tracks that definitely reveal the Generals'influences, such as the Velvet Underground-esque melodies andbasslines, but there's so much more in what influence the Generals hadon bands of that timeframe. It's in the vocal delivery tried by justabout every 80s band, and the power in the drums, and the wailingguitar. These bands may not be trying to rip off Certain General, perse, but after hearing this collection in comparison to other bands,it's hard to deny that they at least heard the music and appreciatedit. It would have been a fine proper album at the time, and now it's atimeless classic heard finally. The second disc, "Savage YoungGenerals," captures the band live on tape at several shows at CBGB andCity Gardens over a 13 month period. If the raw energy present on thestudio material doesn't grab you, the live album will definitely blowyou away. The showmanship on display for these recordings is the kindmost bands would die to have. Sixteen of these songs have never beenreleased in any format, and it's good to hear them alongside the oddcover and the traditional but higher energy interpretations of thesongs off their releases. 77 minutes of pure sonic delight. Takentogether, these two discs represent a fine document of a, as theirwebsite puts it, "criminally overlooked" band. Try out the soundsamples if you don't believe the hype, but anyone would be impressed bywhat they'd find here. -

samples from Dead Rabbit Gang:

samples from Savage Young Generals:

17 March 2002

Graeme Rowland

Albums and Singles

Prior to hearing this it seemed that the idea of remixing the densejuggernaut of an album which was Faust's 'Ravvivando' would be at besta bit tricky, at worst utterly pointless. That album from 1999 saw the'krautrock' legends at the pinnacle of their powers and any remixer wasalways going to fail to equal the original's overwhelming apocalyticfreedom. Whatever their difference in approach the thirteen remixerscan't help but lighten the mood as they take turns in remodelling'Ravvivando' in various shades of toetapping dancefloor friendliness.

There's a definite tendency for chaos to be reigned in, as thesprawling goliath is chopped into neat digital byte sizes and spat outin a more ordered frenzy of a very different hue. It's appropriate thatthe cover is predominantly a becalmed green as opposed to the fieryorange glow of the original. However enough of the massive rollingmetal percussion and layered keyboards and guitars remains to give mosttracks a bit of edginess, even if some mixers such as MathiasSchaffhäuser and Sofa Surfers program happy stomps with the merest hintof a Faust shadow. Likewise the Kreidler and Funkstörung tracks don'tgive away many clues as to the original tapes and wouldn't sound out ofplace on albums by either artist, but there is a drone running throughmuch of the Kreidler track which rises in intensity, pushing up fromthe underworld. Perhaps it's this often subtle use of the originalFaust tapes that makes this such a surprisingly well rounded listen.The Gel mix of possibly my favourite Faust track ever, "Wir BrauchenDich #6," performs the bizarre feat of making it sound like Neu!covering Can's "Mother Sky" and is frighteningly addictive enough forthree versions to run together without tiring as they did on thesingle. The single also included the original, which showed just howthe rolling thunder had been fine honed to a robotic precision.
Surgeon builds a slow guttural whirlpool vortex of sound that cuts deadfor vocal sample snippets and is one of the few tracks that soundsunmistakably Faustian, being perhaps the only track that looks the darkapocalyptic heart of 'Ravvivando' right in the eye. Now that heart hasmany eyes all peering at different angles. Other remixers which spy themost sympathetic views of Faust's drum driven behemoth are the lastthree: the Residents, Dax and Pieper and Dead Voices On Air. It'stelling that there are three very different tracks assembled from thesolo organ spot "Carousel II." Adriano Lanzi and Omar Sodano seem tomix in chunks of noise from other parts of 'Ravvivando' and leave alarge part of the organ motif untouched, icing the cake as opposed tothe full scale retooling of most mixes. Trillian approaches the sametrack by homing in on one fragment of its fairground feel, whilstSunroof take it on a low key stuttering cut up ambient loop trip. HowieB also opens out the hidden ambient side of Faust, making "Four PlusSeven Means Eleven" sound like an out take from Immersion's 'LowImpact,' pinging harmonising close ups of electron drones off of atoms.This is perhaps the album's most beautiful mix, although Dead Voices OnAir give Howie some competition on that score. Dax and Pieper's take on"Four Plus Seven Means Eleven" is almost the opposite, stompinghyper-beats into focused spiralling mania. The Residents countdown toignition with a rocket lift off that brings the circus to town in awarped vaudeville machine chrome showtune that made me grab the sleeveto find out who it was the first time I played the disc. That rocketblast is really the closest anyone comes to the sheer power of Faust infull flight, but whether this arose from Residents knowing cheekycleverness or is just coincidence is moot. Dax and Pieper sound almostlike they've remixed the Residents, even though they take on anothertrack, as they follow the mood so perfectly. This is another strengthof "Freispiel" - these mixes haven't just been slung together but itsounds like Faust keyboard player Hans Joachim Irmler, who is creditedwith production, spent a while making sure the sequencing flowedperfectly as an album. Dead Voices On Air summon the perfect mood toclose 'Freispiel' accenting the intact hopefulness of "Du Weisst Schon"with slowed mammoth clomp drums. Don't let memories of all thedeadweight on the Can 'Sacrilege' remixes put you off - this isactually that rare thing, a remix project without duff tracks. Thenagain perhaps that isn't so surprising as the only album I can think ofto have a remix album made from it which is on a par with the colossalmajesty of 'Ravvivando' is Ground Zero's 'Consume Red.' -

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There are downloads of the Residents, Howie B, Kreidler and Mathias Schaffhäuser remixes at freispiel.com.

17 March 2002

Mark Weddle

Albums and Singles

Recorded at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria lastSeptember, Luukas Onnekas was one of the chosen to fill the OMVKlangpark near the Danube with live sound over six days. This disccompiles highlights into a single 42 minute track.

Onnekas is mostlikely using material from last year's 'Anima' as a starting point,restructuring it on the fly as the remixed title 'Naima' suggests. Addto this Onnekas' own words, lyrics from his house project Luomo and anart mission statement of sorts, recited in foreign accented English byhis girlfriend. Fascinated by femininity, who better to help himexpress this? But the most telling line, "I'm unable to address mysound, my voice with words", reveals Delay's dilemma and blessing:sound is his one true medium of expression. Like 'Anima', 'Naima' is alukewarm, gelatinous pool where innocuous sound bits buoy and sink,seemingly at random. There are passages where the music lies dormantand just her voice remains, unaffected or folded into the mix, or viceversa, the music by itself sometimes trailing off into silence.Everything fluctuates between linear and non-linear movement,subliminal melodies and rhythms arise then disappear, music and wordsbecome simply music. Beautiful, simply beautiful. And that is whyOnnekas remains my favorite contemporary electronic musician. -

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17 March 2002

Jessica Tibbits

Albums and Singles

I must admit that although I consider myself a big fan of Laub, I was a bit put off by the title of their latest release, which initially seemed like just another electronic artist's gratuitous nod to trendy internet jargon. Upon further investigation, however, I learned that Antye Greie-Fuchs and Jotka, who comprise Laub, actually created most of the album in separate locations, infrequently together. Taking this into consideration, 'Filesharing' makes more sense as a title.

Kitty-Yo

Musically, it is as impressive as Laub's two previous albums: Antye's smooth vocals at first seem a vivid contrast to the jagged, stripped-down beats. Interestingly, a clean starkness, almost to the point of sterility, pervades this release, which has heretofore not been present in their work. This quality is even reflected in the album artwork, which pictures severe, sanitized portraits of the duo dressed in white on a white background. It is without doubt that the vocal stylings of Antye are the centerpiece of 'Filesharing', and thanks to this antiseptic approach, their subtlety can be fully appreciated. She runs the gamut from balladry (on the lovely "Wortspur") to exhibiting a heavy rap influence (on "Getriebe" and "Morgen"). Something for which I have always greatly respected Laub is their insistence on using their native German tongue in their music; whether or not it is comprehensible to the listener becomes irrelevant on account of the way the rhythms inherent in the language compliment the band musically. As a bonus, 'Filesharing' contains a CD-rom track which includes photos, discography and English translations of the lyrics (for those who can't bear not knowing what they mean). The really exciting addition, however, is the inclusion of audio file samples of several individual loops from each of the songs. Laub notes that their intent in providing these is so each listener may engage in some filesharing of her own. -

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17 March 2002

Albums and Singles

This Chicago-based trio, comprised of Tatsu Aoki (Fred AndersonQuartet) on upright bass, guitarist Jeff Parker and the multi-faceteddrumming of David Pavkovic (Toe 2000) are exploring the improvisationalmeans of a small collective on this live six-track recording withpleasant results.