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The latest release in the Crouton catalog is perhaps there mostambitious to date. Jon Mueller has collected the works of threemusicians — Chris Rosenau (of Pele fame), Hal Rammel, and JohnKannenberg — and placed them on 3 3" CDs, packaging them in a beautifulquadruple gatefold sleeve complete with an exquisite corpse textwritten by the three artists and Mueller. The first piece is "Two IceFields of the Exact Same Size" by Chris Rosenau, a beautiful and starknineteen minute electroacoustic piece inspired by a trip to Iceland."Two Ice Fields" begins with the haunting wail of an acoustic guitarand a wine glass and slowly disintegrates into a juxtaposed collage ofacoustic guitar, heating vent, dry ice, and egg shells among otherinstruments. Ending abruptly in its 19th minute, the first cd of thiscollection leaves you stranded in a cold, but beautiful wilderness oforganic sound. The second disc, "Three Days from Anywhere" byimprovisor and composer Hal Rammel begins with the sound of whatappears to be a single fly recorded by a stereo microphone. Themicrotonal sound bounces from structure with faint electronics fadingin and out of the piece, the fly continuing until it encompasses you,only to disappear and give way to found sounds arranged by Rammel. Tofully appreciate the second disc, you have to listen to it onheadphones to experience the isolation and aural textures of the music.The final disc of the series is by John Kannenberg. "Lave" compilesbass and synth along with field recordings and shortwave frequencies.The loudest of the folktales, it's also the most dense, creating athick blanket of sound that surrounds the listener and washes over himor her in ambient fields. Interspersed with minimal electronics, "Lave"creates an alien landscape of shimmering minimalism. Created todocument specific moments captured during a particular time by theartists, Folktales succeeds in offering beautiful stories of sound thatoffer passage to distant emotions and captured moments.
samples:
- Chris Rosenau - Two Ice Fields,...
- Hal Rammel - Three Days from Anywhere
- John Kannenberg - Lave
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As multi-instrumentalist improvisational rock-based music becomes more popular with the emergence of groups like Volcano the Bear, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Pele, and others, Rollerball's music pursues a more structured, orchestrated environment on their current release from Roadcone. "Trail" sees this Portland, Oregon-based quintet adding more blocky beats, electronic processing and effective use of not playing to the mix. In addition, there's more focus instruments as various members often take the lead with horns, clarinet, vocals or stringed instruments.The band has certainly lost no ground with their increase of focus material; in fact there seems to be more colorful noisemakers added this time around including two members who listed 'painting' as an instrument and one including a letterpress. Fans of the improvisational sound of Ryan Moore and Neils Van Hoorn heavy LPD/Tear Garden would most likely find themselves bobbing their heads to the ten-minute "Butter Fairy". Even Meat Beat Manifesto fans would be charmed with the album's openers which almost organically mimic some of the experimentation going on with something like "The Thumb" from Actual Sounds + Voices. An unexpected vocal track, "Narcisse", alarmingly jumps out of nowhere with a refrain whose lyrics I'm struggling with, reminding me that it's always those songs we -almost- know that get stuck in our heads, as they circle around furiously until we figure out what in the world they're saying. Oh, Rollerball are damn good at that! Fans of the more improvisational noise will get a charge from some of the other offerings like "White Death" but for the most part this disc is a much more constructed, cohesive element than what has surfaced before from the band. This month sees the group embarking on a European tour including dates in Italy and the United Kingdom, with any luck shows across the USA will follow.
 
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"One Amazing Day" is the result of field recording trips to Greenwich's gargantuan (physically and financially) Millennium Dome structure, the official celebratory site of the new millennium. Prior to its closing a few hours before 1/1/00, visitors could come and trudge through 14 interactive zones of futuristic themed exhibits and view a sort of three dimensional, mid-air ballet live show.
 
For 32 minutes you walk around with the V/Vm lads to take in the truly ambient sounds: large crowds of people (complete with crying babies, clicking cameras, chatting, bitching, heckling, etc.), kiosk recorded voices and music, loud speakers, event music and, ultimately, site construction. And, surprisingly, it seems that all the source sounds are unadulterated. Of the 14 seamlessly meshed tracks most are a minute or less but 2 at near 9 minutes apiece offer an extended document of specific events with cheesy narrations and/or contrived soundtracks. There's an obvious contempt here for the lottery funded, pre-packaged 'experience' offered by the New Millennium Experience Company and the British government and, of course, an inherent silliness to the whole project, but it also makes for interesting listening. I enjoy these sort of audio travelogues that take me to some place I've never been. Your mileage may vary.
There is an accompanying, yet to be completed, Experience web site as well: http://www.theexperience.8k.com/. This disc is just one of many from the V/Vm camp as of late. Check the Brainwashed site for the slew of other 7" and 12" vinyl and 3" and 5" cd releases.
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In less than a year's time, the highly ambitious French-based Bip-Hop collective has launched a webzine and fairly hip label with 4 releases readily available and more on the way. Unafraid to flood the market, the first two releases, "Bip-Hop Generation" volumes 1 and 2 gather various tracks from some of their favorite electronic acts from all over the world. Luckily these folks have good taste and great connections. Marumari from the USA, Massimo from Italy, Phonem from the UK, Goem from Holland and Ultra Milkmaids from France and Schneider TM from Germany only contributes tunes for Volume 1. Here, the spectrum ranges from beat-organized cuts from Marumari to shrill sonic substructures and medical sounds from Massimo and Goem.
Volume 2 features 20 tracks of contributions from Bernhard Flaishmann, Arovane, Warmdesk, Köhn, Wang Inc., and Laurent Pernice. On this disc, the music explores more incidental melodies, letting the electric clicks sort of fall to the background. Standout tracks include the emotive pieces from Köhn and the twittery pulsing dissonant ambience of Wang Inc., allegedly due for a full-length release one of these years! Both volumes serve a multitude of purposes. First off, many people reading this could have heard of Scheider, Ultra Milkmaids, Arovane or Wang — people who have become listeners of these fine groups might find a collection featuring others interesting to pick up to experience some more music from a collective who obviously has similar tastes in music. Next up, each disc comes with a short bio, selected discography and website of each artist providing helpful reference points. Finally, it benefits the Bip-Hop fellas as they're already starting to roll out full-length albums from new and upcoming electronic acts. Unlike releases like Clicks and Cuts, these compilations aren't out to prove any point or lump a bunch of groups into one definable genre, they're simply sharing in some of the cooler future electronica names. My only issue is simply getting sick of seeing the word "bleep" in association with music.
 
samples:
- Marumari - A Girl I Met at the Rest Stop
- Massimo - Where's Your Heel
- Ultra Milkmaids - Mystic
- Arovane - Pleq
- Köhn - W. rem 3
- Wang Inc. - 3 Note Melody
 
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The sophomore release by Anja Garbarek, daughter of Norwegiansaxophonist Jan Garbarek, will be poorly compared by many anunimaginative writer to Björk. But, I guess it's easy to make that sortof leap when dealing with female artists who record outside themainstream - just like writers who compare every trumpeter to MilesDavis. Garbarek seems to have inherited the "less-is-more" aestheticher father used in helping to define the "ECM sound" by infusing sparsechamber-jazz with false electronic ambience, creating a personal warmthrarely captured in the studio. Of course, with help from such legendsas Robert Wyatt (providing incindental vocalisations on "The Diver"),ex-Japan-sters Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri, and Talk Talk's MarkHollis (who, along with collaborator Martin Ditcham, contributes bassand melodica, as well as some arrangements, like on the, uh, Björkishur-jungle fuzz of "Big Mouth"), capturing genius isn't hard. Garbarek'svoice floats gently over swelling strings and staticky glitch eruptionson "Her Room", like a lucid Beth Gibbons of Portishead, pouring sweetlullaby melodies in your ear. Garbarek's "Smiling & Waving"approaches the sublime beauty of the recent electro-acoustic jazz of"Bodily Functions" by Matthew Herbert, as well as latter day Talk Talkor the mellower aspects of Lamb, but still stakes a claim to a lushmusical landscape that is all her own.
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Kurt Ralske is a NYC-based artist, composer, producer and engineer akaCathars and former head of late '80s/early '90s indy popsters UltraVivid Scene. These days Ralske composes entirely upon a g3 Powerbookwith the Max/MSP language. "//amor. 0+01" is the debut under his ownname and it is very similar in sound to the Cathars album "", both ofwhich are from 1999. The title track, as the title seems to suggest,briefly expresses love with digital bits: a melodic loop, a tidal cloudof sound, intermittent glitches and bass swells. "new kyrie" does muchthe same for nearly 14 minutes, minus the glitches and loop and plus aconstant thump that sounds much like a steadily dribbled basketball.The final track "forgiven" takes up the better half of the disc at justunder 30 minutes and proves to be the most minimal and rewarding. Herethe only sound is long swathes of deep drone and drifting ambiance.Whereas the first two tracks leave me somewhat indifferent this one ispurely captivating, either as foreground or background soundtrack.There is also a ROM video for the title track, but unfortunately noneof the 4 computers I've tried were able to read the disc - audio ordata - so perhaps there's an error with the discs. I'll be e-mailingSub Rosa soon to find out.
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One of the most memorable nights in my adult life now has a soundtrackcompanion. The night on that summery evening at the Union Chapel in1997 is still fresh in my mind. I got to spend time with one of my bestfriends Andrew, as we met Coil for the first time in person on the wayin, and sat in a crowd pointing at various WSD-celebs like StevenStapleton and other supporting cast members like Mika from Panasonic,Ivan Pavlov of COH and John Everall of Sentrax. The concert opened withreadings from John Balance and a couple others (one of them lives in NYI think) and subsequently continued with the current cast of Current93: Rose McDowell and Michael Cashmore on guitar, Karl Blake on bass,Joolie Wood on violin and James Mannox on drums. Special other guestson hand that evening included Bill Breeze, Martin Stone and Big BucksBurnett, all joining in the big "Christ and the Pale Queens" closer.The unobtrusive audience gives me the impression it was recordedstraight from the sound board, but unlike many similiarly recordedshows, I don't feel there's any loss of depth here. Put the music on inyour livingroom and it feels like you're actually there. "Cats Drunk onCopper" was initially made available to the audience at the recentreturn to the Union Chapel, and now it's available through WorldSerpent. For a track listning, some photos and other specifics, checkout the Current 93 page special page on this particular show right here.
samples:
- The Death of the Corn
- The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon
- Since Yesterday (Rose McDowell singing)
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The downfall of the modern age is that any 19 year old with rich parents and an arsenal of computer software can record an album in their house. But what do these vicious young upstarts really know about melody, composition and structure yet?
Richard D. Vine's current 40-minute EP opens with one of the most overused cliches in the last few years of electronic albums - open with a boring, brooding dark ambient track. More excitement jumps in with the second track but it's entirely too thin and mimics an Aphex or Autechre track tossed to the Windows 98 Recycle Bin. Track three is another quick ambient interlude, big surprise! A 4/4 two-bar intro starts number four and boom — another 1996-era Autechre-influenced tuneless chopped up drum beat predictable as the 6:15 MARTA leaving from Candler Park. Honestly if this kid is the piano prodigy or computer science wizard as the press often describes, then I'm entirely missing the entire point of this record. Okay, so it'll please the 20-nothing girls and the NIN fans who recently discovered Aphex Twink, but I'm not fooled. This 40 minute offering isn't essential, noteworthy nor exciting, the limited sound palette of Devine comes about five years too late to the scene and just reminds me Warp needs to consider the future more so than the past.
 
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First of all I want to say how much of a thrill it was to see thatsomebody else from Slowdive is finally releasing music again. Slowdivewas possibly one of the best components of the shoegazing movement thattrickled out of the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, before the groupsplit, they released a departure from the blurry guitars and buriedvocals, 'Pygmalion', which despite being a fucking incredible release,was nowhere close to the charm and happiness experienced with 1993's'Souvlaki'. So the group called it quits and the singer went on topursue Mojave 3, which was decent in my opinion, but never something Iwould pull from the racks and listen to on a regular basis. Now thisshows up at my doorstep - a five-track EP from former Slowdiver SeanHewson with somebody I'm unfamiliar with, Christian Savill. From thefirst blurry guitar chords, it's refreshing to hear notes from a soulbehind a three of my favorite albums of the last decade. When thevocals start, however, it becomes painfully apparent that these chapsare neither good singers nor lyricists. To its defense, the EP hasgrown on me very very very slightly over the time that it's been in mypossession. Plus, these songs will probably be able to muster up somegood press and a decent amount of attention from college radio. At theend of the 20 minutes, however, I'm left unsatisfied, but all the whilewaiting to see if they can get their shit together for a decent debutalbum.
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Over the past few years bass maven Jah Wobble has collaborated with anumber of varied artists including his own Deep Space ensemble, MolamLao members, a brief stint in post-rock outfit the Damage Manual andhere virtuoso saxophonist Evan Parker. "Passage to Hades" consists offour 9 to 14 minute tracks combining trademark Wobble band hypnoticworld-dub groove with Parker's circular breathing, free jazz abstractsoundscaping. The title track settles into a smooth, lumbering bassline and sticks with it as Parker gently drones in tenor and Deep Spacemembers Clive Bell and Jean-Pierre Rasle add flirtations of Thai pi sawflute, harmonica and bagpipes. "Giving Up the Ghost" varies the tempomore by fading Wobble and drummer Mark Sanders out a few times and backin at a different pace. Parker flutters and squawks in soprano, takingon a shimmering quality as notes are swallowed up and fed back throughthe mix. "Full On" features the most aggressive bass workout but Bell'sstereo goathorns are a bit too overbearing thus, unfortunately,dominating the track. And on "Finally Cracked It", Sanders lays down amildly funky rock rhythm for Wobble's rigorous bass line to lock into.Parker is in exceptional form here layering tenor drones and darting inand out with pretty reverberated riffs. Altogether, "Passage to Hades"is another successful collaboration for Wobble with predictable butbeautiful results. It seems that most anything and everything workswell with Wobble's low end led liaisons. Jah Wobble and Deep Space willtour major U.S. cities in May
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Come on baby, let's rock baby. With all the different mega-buzzworthyamusing modern electronic artists collected on this one CD, all I canthink of after hearing 17 remixes of and tributes to "Come on baby,lets rock baby" is exactly that. The disc starts out with aninstrument-free spoken word track from Chicks on Speed and continueswith contributions from American, European and Japanese electronicistslike GD Luxxe, Console, Adult, Pita, Sylvester Boy and DMX Krew. It'sthe eighth release from Angelika Koehlermann, an Austrian label formedby people from the Cheap and Mego labels. I suppose it would make moresense to me if I actually owned the 1999 release from the fragile andfeministic Osakan singer Michiko Kusaki, whose album released by AKallegedly had 8 top ten singles from, of which the hit "Let's RockBaby" was born. Since everybody apparently missed all these hits fromMichiko Kusaki, Angelika Koehlermann felt it their duty to compile atribute to the record. Whether it's the blippy Adult, cute Japanesestyles of Shinto, the horn-stem-funk friendly Mixmup, noise onslaughtof Obscurum, children's tv show theme-esque Bodenständig 2000,Casiotone tunage of Yoko Tsuno or the New Order-worshipping GD Luxxe,these tracks never get tired or worn, old or uncool. Summer is on itsway and this disc provides a great soundtrack for a trip to the beach.I'm now itching to hear what the hell the hoopla is all about from theoriginal release from 1999.
samples:
- GD Luxxe feat. Steffi - Let's Rock Baby
- Pita - Let's Rock Maybe
- Sam & Valley - My Name is Michiko Kusaki
- Obscurum - How Are the Future Days
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