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27 January 2002

Jessica Tibbits

Albums and Singles

Keigo Oyamada, the boy genius better known as Cornelius, has finallyreturned from a three-year hiatus which followed the release of hiscritically acclaimed 'Fantasma'.

His newest offering, a meticulouslystylized ensemble of songs that run the gamut from pretty minimalism(in songs like "Tone Twilight Zone") to unabashed metal silliness (thetongue-in-cheek "I Hate Hate"), is as full of the sophistication andsense of humor as his previous efforts. Cornelius has fortunatelymanaged to maintain his ability for infusing experimental sensibilitiesinto catchy pop tunes, and 'Point' attests to the focus into which hehas brought it. The seamless production throughout the album is at itsstrongest on "Drop". "Another View Point" is a funky, psychedelic discotrack, "Bird Watching At Inner Forest" puts a Latin rhythmic twist onintrospective Japanese lyrics and the cover of "Brazil" with itsrobotic vocals is simply enchanting. His skillful use of acousticguitar in combination with electronics on many of the tracks isrefreshing. 'Point' finishes off with "Nowhere", which conjures imagesof relaxing on the deck a dreamy 1950s cruise ship, sipping mai taiswith paper umbrellas and drifting off into the sunset. Just before itall comes to an end, Cornelius announces, "Point. Stop the music," inwhat serves as a perfect example of the control he sustains over everysecond of the album. Every note seems perfectly calculated and nothingis allowed to run amok, despite the multiplicity of directions in whichthe listener is directed. Oyamada is clearly an audiophile who is morethan happy to share with his listeners the vast array of musical genresfrom which he takes his influence. Perhaps that's the point. -

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27 January 2002

Walter Kranke

Albums and Singles

Not to be confused with the album of a similar name, 'Paws' is a cleverly-titled four song EP of remixes from Kieran Hebden and friends.

Domino

The first is a remix of "Glue of the World" by Hebden. It stretches the anticipation of the original and tosses a humorously dance-laden drum break into the mix. Think Madonna's "Music" without the shameful Credence rip-off. The second remix is from new-comer Koushik, who recently signed to Hebden's Text Records in the UK. It's a bright, playful number with Koushik's charming vocals propelling the song into genuine indie-pop territory. Manitoba's remix of the same song should come as no surprise if you're familiar with his brilliant Start Breaking My Heart album. He lightens the mood a little bit and keeps the groove as sturdy as the original. The final remix is Boom Bip's version of "No More Mosquitoes." It's much darker than the original, with a chiming interpretation of the vocal melody that bears a weird resemblance to the X-Files theme. Overall this EP is far superior to the "No More Mosquitoes" single from a few months back. The single had an obvious B-sides quality to it that this EP thankfully doesn't have. It stands on its own as a solid addition to the Four Tet catalog. -

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27 January 2002

Administrator

Albums and Singles

The ambient/electronic/noise collage veterans' latest CD features eightunreleased improv pieces recorded live in Europe and the U.S., plus onestudio piece that also appears on the 'Wiretapper 7' CD compilation.

Sometimes IOS music can be jarring, such as on their 1998 CD 'BadKarma,' with little sound pranks that I found to be humorous. However,this new CD flows beautifully, without any abrupt changes. The darkambience is derived from electronics, noise, and occasionally musicalinstruments, as you may expect if familiar with theirwork.
At live shows, I find that watching the musicians fiddle with buttonsand knobs is distracting. But with eyes closed, the noise may take mesomewhere in my imagination, using the sounds as cues to define a placeor a feeling. Many pieces on this CD achieve this effect. For example,while listening to track four (live in Stockholm), I feel like I'm in astrange old building, where the vacuum cleaner is running non-stop in anearby room, while in my immediate environment are dueling rhythmicclick-scrape noises and an odd chord twanging repeatedly. Then abackground machine din grows and overcomes the other sounds and Iwonder how I'll ever get out of this hellhole. I escape as track five(live at a radio station in Evanston, Illinois) begins with another dinfrom the machine room while a consistent rhythm is provided by a soundreminiscent of a slow drip from a leaky faucet, only each water dropseems to be hitting a drum surface rather than a sink. The densebackground din varies, with swirling pain sounds that sometimes couldbe a drawn-out AWWWWWW cry by some beast (human or other), but what Iimagine as wailing is actually just another electronic sound, not asampled cry. When the train finally comes, it's almost a relief: afamiliar blaring train whistle, one of the few recognizable samples onthis CD. Other pieces on the CD are lighter and sparser, like the pianocut-up that opens the CD. There are also some that feature a heavybuzzing sound, or a high-pitched drone.
I enjoy most of the selections here and feel that IOS fans will not be disappointed. -

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20 January 2002

Rob Devlin

Albums and Singles

There are a few prerequisites to enjoying Dan Bern's music: you mustenjoy at least new folk music, great harmonies, and quirky lyrics.Fresh after his departure from Sony's Work label, Bern returns onMessenger Records with this, his fourth album.

The man who onceproclaimed "I am the messiah" and wanted balls as big as the swing ofTiger Woods has toned down his smart ass antics only slightly and hasaccomplished his most mature effort to date. Bern has also turned upthe backing band, making for a fiery and aggressive electric sound notheard quite to this level on previous releases. Mostly, Bern workedbest when it was just him and a guitar, playing magical songs of humanrelationships. This time, every arrangement shows a new strength, fromemotionally touching lyric writing on "God Said No" to fun hooting andhollering on "Alaska Highway." The title track is pure, perfect DanBern, as he has yet another conversation with someone who simply cannotaccept his position: "She said 'love, love, love is everything'/I said'ok, I guess, whatever'/She said 'what does that mean?'/I said 'nothin'it's just good to have a backup plan.'" And though not as blatantlyrandom as Wesley Willis, Bern does like to riff on popular icons, wherehere he name checks Rae Dawn Chong, Leo DiCaprio, Britney Spears andKeith Richards, all in the same song. Elsewhere, on "Tape," forinstance, his riffing hits real close to home, displaying tremendousgrowth in Bern's knack for social commentary. I miss the more quirkymoments, but if this is a hint of where Dan Bern is eventually going,I'll join him on the whole journey.

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20 January 2002

Graeme Rowland

Albums and Singles

Trawling in mostly sonic experimenters and improvisers from theManchester area, this CD-R compilation offers a partial window on thenoises being made at regular events such as Rotations andaLECTRO_eCOUSTIC throughout 2001.

The laboratory bubbles with the multiple musical personae of itscurator Dave Clarkson, drummer for the now defunct White Cube who endthe CD-R with an oddball ode to sexual shenanigans, singer Su Lisounding off like Eve Libertine of Crass nursing a wound. Dave Clarksonis also behind the sci-fi babble of Gelatine, the sinister drone ofIlluminati, the backwards techno of Midget Gems, the dirty factorygrind of Valis 33 and the mournful serenade of Monte Christo.
The RSI label throws up three disparate chunks of audioexperimentation. Disco Operating System float off 'Just East of Lyra,Northwest of Pegasus' with a new track that signals a noisier directionpossibly influenced by Birmingham's cut up noisician Magic City,opening with what sounds like a distorted organ heralding rapidpulsebeat degenerating into abstract dissonance. Magic City starts outwith some random squeaks before erupting in a typically noisy squall.There's also a dose of emotive melodic electronica culled from JJHoward's RSI CD-R 'Human Commodity Recordings'.
Then there's the Welsh industrialists of Fflint Central, Pendro andOleum. A Pendro drone opens the lab for experimentation with theorgasmic sighs of Debbie doing Dusseldorf in a chunky synth loop,whilst Oleum lights a 'Corpse Candle' with warped squelching beats andengine rumble whilst the church organist worries about his tuning andtries to convince the vicar to update the hymn book with '20 Jazz FunkGreats'. aLECTRO_eCOUSTIC instigator Daniel Weaver delivers a mulched dose ofsolo cello mooching, with weird bowed and processed noises flying offat tangents to a jovial plucked chugging centre. He also appears on amore frazzled, jagged and abstract short collaboration with electrictoy molestor Alex Impey.Black Curtain play slow guitar and country banjo picking in a 'MelodicaPlaypen' which nods to the likes of Papa M and Pullman. Go Go Ghidorasound like they've caged some hellbeast and miked up its rumblingstomach full of lesser demons.
The CD-R can be bought direct from www.planetsounds.co.uk and a secondvolume with a completely different line up is imminent.

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20 January 2002

Mark Weddle

Albums and Singles

Most modern dub just doesn't do it for me. Ditto most straightforwarddance floor music. Put the two together and it shouldn't fare too muchbetter, right? Well, strangely enough, I'm pleasantly surprised howmuch I've been nodding my head while this disc spins.

Germany's EchoBeach present the 7th chapter of their "King Size Dub" compilation with11 cuts, over half of which are remixes. Most of these tracks have thesame sort of digital sheen and rhythms that betray the analogue dub ofthe '70s, which I usually prefer, but I don't think that's what they'regoing for here. The subtitle advises 'file under logical dubgression'so they're obviously looking to push the parameters of dub. There's abalance of styles from classic to modern day dabblings in house andtechno. Submission and Pre Fade Listening both utilize Tikiman, myfavorite contemporary dub vocalist. The former, elegantly remixed bysometime Orb member Thomas Fehlman, features my man at the mostanimated I've ever heard him while in the latter he casually goes withthe flow of a thick, nine minute plus techno pulse. Sounds From TheGround work in the the warmth of reggae brass for hire Crispy Horns.Rockers Hifi, State of Emergency and Seeed rock more of a classic bassgroove, Seeed especially so with horns, organ, sonic vortex, 3 piecevocal and way down low end. The remaining tracks by Earl 16,Walkner.Möstl, Tosca, Dubblestandard, Waveform (a far too obviousBeastie Boys sample!) and G-Corp range from good to dull, none that Ihave to skip but none as snappy as the aforementioned. My generallydismissive attitude towards modern dub has been altered quite a bit.

samples:

Pre Fade Listening - Mr. Medicine Man
Seeed - Kings and Queens
Submission - Millenium

20 January 2002

Mark Weddle

Albums and Singles

Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Alan Trench (Orchis) return withtheir second album as Twelve Thousand Days.

Unlike their 2000 debut "Inthe Garden of Wild Stars" which featured some traditional arrangementsand excerpts of Alfred Lord Tennyson and W. B. Yates, "Devil" isentirely composed by Bates/Trench. But the poet laureate spirit remainsstrong in Bates precious words and delivery. I often find the music andmix of his projects, especially this one, an annoying obstacle betweenhis wondrous voice and myself. Here it's bothersome with headphones butwithout it works just fine. The ten songs are a pretty, sort ofmystical and medieval folk with acoustic guitars, unidentified drones,flute and tambourine, often drenched in reverb. "Glistening Praise" andthe title track are the lengthiest, the latter over 10 minutes, andthey veer off into valleys of instrumental atmospherics. Near the end"The Hand of Glory" disrupts everything, unfortunately, with a blast ofelectrified guitar noise. But the final track "Plea" placates my ownplea by showcasing only the vocal. At first I didn't think this albumcompared to my favorite Bates work, such as "Dance of Hours" and the"Murder Ballads" and "Chamber Music" series, but it continues to growon me.

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20 January 2002

Graeme Rowland

Albums and Singles

This Sub Rosa compilation brings together five artists working withelectroacoustic drone and is perhaps chiefly notable as the firstreappearance of the hibernating Main in quite some time, but all fivetracks will quite likely appeal to fans of Robert Hampson's laterrecordings such as the "Hertz" and "Firmament" series.

Hampson's soundsignature is unmistakable, although he's recently shifted the focus ofhis source material from guitar noise to environmental recordings anddeeper electroacoustic influences. 'Hysteresis' opens with a bigechoing clunk. Meticulously deployed gurgles, ringings and rustles allcompliment each other, looming violently, rising to crescendos andfading eerily. It's a much faster evolving track than his latter"Firmament" installments and makes the compilation essential!
Inventor of the tri-phonic turntable Janek Schaefer has recently beencollaborating with Robert in Comae, and his opening track shifts down agear from his dense "Above Buildings" album for Fat Cat. 'LithosphericShifts' slowly fades in with a rumble like muffled motors buried inconcrete, and soon the concrete starts to crack. Christophe Charles is a French sound artist living in Tokyo who helpedMarkus Popp make Oval's "Dok". His 'Undirected Float' seems very warmand womblike after the spikier soundscapes of the Londoners. Voices aremuffled by the protective blood and fat of dreamlike ambience. Similarsounds appear to those on his Yoshihiro Hanno remix, so maybe this is akind of companion piece? Former Ultra Vivid Scene lynchpin Kurt Ralske closes the disc withperhaps the easiest going track, a beautiful sunrise tide of smoothwaves of processed singing and guitar washing in and out that's a niceway to drift away. Nam June Paik collaborator Stephen Vitiello's 'Salty Lemonade forFalling Water' might be considered literally womblike, includingrecordings of his daughter's prenatal vital signs, but it's perhaps themost disorientating recording here. Oddly dislocated traffic noise andmachine clatter merge into a nightmarish grey drone sliced by bottletop twisting tones, but then again maybe that's what it sounds like insome wombs? These recordings were made at the Whitney Museum in the oldWorld Trade Center, which adds an unintended grim twist to the title ofthe compilation - a floating foundation on which the Imperial Hotelstood was given by it's architect as the reason it didn't topple in a1922 earthquake. The compiler's intention was to use this as a metaphorfor 'decompartmentalisation of genre' in music and sound art. Thisseems to be a slightly pretentious, but educational, way of saying thatthey made an effort to put together a compilation that hangs togetherwell!

samples:

Main - Hysterersis
Stephen Vitiello - Salty Lemonade for Falling Water

20 January 2002

Rob Devlin

Albums and Singles

There are some soundtracks that stand on their own.

Isaac Hayes'soundtrack for "Shaft," Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly," and, morerecently, even David Holmes' soundtracks for "Ocean's Eleven" and "OutOf Sight" were fairly independent from the film, even though thesoundtracks did contain snippets of dialogue from the film interspersedthroughout. A great soundtrack doesn't need the film in front of you tobe an enjoyable experience. Piero Piccioni, "Italian soundtrackmaestro" according to the back of the CD, scored many films in thesixties and seventies, many of which never had a soundtrack releaseduntil years later. "Puppet On A Chain" is such a soundtrack, seeing thelight of day finally in 2001. Having not seen the whole film—the boatchase is legendary, but the rest is utterly forgettable—I must saylistening to the soundtrack did nothing for me. Especially since themajority of the tracks have the same part played again and again: thesame bassline, Hammond organ chords, and phat drum beat, withoccasional augmentation with guitar, horns, or both. The man who playedwith Ennio Morricone on "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" has realscoring talent, mind you, but I have no real interest in seeing thisfilm after hearing the soundtrack, even though I'm quite certain thatit would work much better with the film than on its own. But, asseventies film soundtracks go, this fits the mold: most tracks areunder two and a half minutes, the track titles are named after whichscene in the movie they are used ("Night Club," "Chase," and"Mystery/The Discotheque," for example), and, as is pointed out in "I'mGonna Git You Sucka," the hero does have his theme music, as thisrelease plays out repeatedly. As I said, I don't think it stands on itsown, but it probably fits the film just fine.

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13 January 2002

Mark Weddle

Albums and Singles

Do you think Mick Harris, aka Scorn, ever regrets supporting all theguys that try to make music that sounds a hell of a lot like his? The'dark hop' category - beats, bass and deep ambient atmospheres - isfull of imitators and occasional innovators. Here's three more discs toadd to the pile.

Ocosi is Paul Molyneux with former member Simon Smerdon (aka Mothboy)also present on the title track of this limited edition of 100 CD-Rsfrom Manifold. Divided up into 7 tracks totaling 44 minutes, "Guided"is exactly how I like this sort of music: gritty, dark and aggressive.The beats are raw, the bass is booming, the drift is eerie, the pace isslow and everything just jells the way it should. Though the rhythmsare like locked grooves there are occasional staggers, change ups andbreaks to help keep it all interesting. Except maybe "Go Away" whichlanguishes in a cymbal like loop. The tense, near 15 minute finale "AtEnds" is perhaps the most intriguing, strangely enough considering it'ssimply a slowly revolving industrial soundscape devoid of beats.

For this 62-minute disc, Ocosi team up with 'dark ambient soundscape'artist Horchata (Mike Palace) and leave the production up to him for acleaner, more digital take on the sound. And, ultimately, a much morelaid back and boring sound. The 11 tracks are comprised of the usualbeats, bass and backing recipe, but are really lacking in grit and thusflavor. The sounds are pretty dull, the programming rather drab and theatmospheres more faint than they are dark. And 3 tracks are far toolong at 7 to 9 minutes apiece. In this batch "Transfiguration" is likethe cookie that somehow got all of the chocolate chips. It hasglimmering metallic bells, a funky groove, a pretty melody viaHorchata's own arp-01 midi file generating software and impressiveinterplay between bass/beats and backdrop. At least I can savor thatone. A second volume of Horchata / Ocosi is planned, also via Zero 1Media.

NOS is Swiss duo Giuseppe Di Benedetto and Jean-Claude Codoni and thisis their self titled debut for Economy Records, a sub division ofManifold. Nine tracks make up 53 minutes of murkiness. And I don't meanthat as a compliment. The mix is awful. Every sound is consumed by abass heavy, atmospheric gunk. That, combined with the wimpy anddownright dull rhythm programming, makes for music with very littleedge. "Unknown" starts off promising but doesn't know where to go fromthere. "Ultimatum" tries to get nasty but ends up being a big mess ofpercussion. Yuck. Forget this one. -

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Ocosi - Scrape
Horchata/Ocosi - Transfiguration
Nos - Unknown

13 January 2002

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Yes, more Anthony Rother. This one is not as good as Little Computer People, but it's still good.

It suffers, however, because it's only a single, and seven remixes of even the greatest song gets a little old. Biomechanik is taken from an earlier album by Rother, "Simulationszeitalter." Seven mixes are included on the disc as well as a pretty cool video, which I'll get into later. The music is standard Rother electro fare - which isn't a disparaging description - but a few of the tracks get pretty old. The Larry McCormick mix and Rother's own mix are the standouts in my opinion, but what makes this disc a "must buy" is the Biomechanik video included - a classy production that is sadly a bit short (less than three minutes) but what it lacks in length it makes up for in style. Mechanical imagery and two women lying naked on operating tables while white-clothed nurses/doctors (?) operate on them - bio-mechanics. That is what Rother is about. A worthy purchase, but look for something else if you're just starting out with Rother. -

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