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Kandis is the first of at least three monikers to date for electronic artist Jens Massel, his releases as Kandis, Senking and Fumble making up the bulk of Karaoke Kalk's 5 year deep back catalog. This digipacked disc collects 14 tracks from the four 12"s spanning 1996-1999, which seems to be the year Massel retired the project. Honestly, it doesn't much matter which name he uses as the differences among and quality of the music of each is negligible.There is an inherently sublime playfulness and charm to all of Massel's work - a sort of slow motion techno pop constructed of reverberated bass beats, melody and percussion blips and various other neat sounds like steam hiss and electric discharge. The German title "ruckenschwimmer" warrants mentioning as it means 'jerk floats', according to BabelFish. "Dilldop" is one of the most basic tracks but it comes in three drastically different versions. "Treasure Island" really takes its time to explore a sea of liquid pops and spacious bass. "Waiting" is bright and up beat and surprises, on first listen, by adding a male vocal low in the mix. "Set Tecker" breaks ranks somewhat with a beat less intro series of growls.. "Luna Corona" is in the same cheery, childish spirit as much Kraftwerk. "Moving" also has male vocals, more up front in the mix, and takes on a bit of a Tikiman/Rhythm & Sound, Chain Reaction styled dub feel. And "Outro" gracefully wraps things up with a gentle bass swell and poly rhythmic groove. All in all I'm duly impressed with Kandis, start to finish, more so than the Senking and Fumble discs which have a few boring/bad tracks. A new Massel album, moniker t.b.a, is due out soon ...
 
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"Did You See" is the third various artists compilation from Surrey, UKbased label deFocus. As the title implies, this disc collects tracksyou might have missed from already released deFocus albums and singles,as well as a few tracks from the two v/a 12"s "Do You See" and "Two YouSee". Six artists - Lackluster, Aphelion, CiM, +one, John Tejada andEsem - produce a dozen tracks interspersed with cute half minute'intervals' by CiM. Their work is very reminiscent of the more sublimemoments in Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' electronic mood musicseries of the early '90s. Lots of space-y pads, warm melodies andmellow beats. In fact, the aural aesthetic of these artists is sosimilar it almost sounds as if all the tracks could have come from asingle one of them and a single rack of gear. But that's more of anobservation than a complaint really. Aphelion's "Click" rolls with adriving, funky drummer rhythm. CiM bring in some scratching and mildfunk hop grooves. Lackluster's "Ix Pen" is the most, well, lacklusterof the lot while the 'brothomstates remix' of "Suntrap" steps up andout with rapidly sequenced synth notes and beats. And Jon Tejada's"Disappear" adds a bit of jazz and house flavor. All in all a niceselection. I still dig this sound nearly a decade after I firstdiscovered it. It's good to hear someone continuing to explore it ...
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- Cim - Computer Love
- John Tejada - Disappear
- Lackluster - Starcell UK
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Ulver continue to expand beyond and free themselves of their metalroots with this, their 5th full length album, the subtitle referencingan imaginary film that this music provides the soundtrack for. The pastfew releases ("Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven andHell" and the "Metamorphosis" EP, all on Oslo's Jester Records) havealready proven their music to be wide-ranging, elegantly produced andcinematic and epic in scope, but "Perdition City" concentrates evenfurther on subtle and dramatic intensity, atmosphere and decay. Strainsof John Zorn's "Naked City", Vangelis' "Blade Runner" and John Barrysoundtrack are present as emotive piano, strings, saxophones,electronics and the sounds of the city permeate much of the seamlesslyflowing 53 minutes. The first few tracks open the album with fluidjuxtapositions of all the elements, including big live drums andpassionate vocals (in English, a presence on about half the album)."Hallway of Always" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" couple distorted synthswirls with heavy, somewhat hip hop rhythms. "The Future Sound ofMusic" drastically switches from quiet piano motif to a full on bassand drums assault. "Dead City Centres" is the most outright jazzy witha smoky swing and climactic narrative. And "Nowhere/Catastrophe" closesthe album as the most structured 'song' with a crushing vocodedbass/synth chorus being the focal point. Superb. Ulver's music isgenuine regardless of what genre they're dipping into or what directionthey choose to tread. Also included on the disc is a near 4 minute mpgvideo clip for "Limbo Central (Theme from Perdition City)" (from thepreceding EP) full of Revelations quotes and treated car ride visuals.Ulver will begin recording their new EP "Silence Teaches You to Sing"soon ...
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David Jackman, the man behind Organum, has for the past several years made a nice name for himself by ripping off the people who might want to hear his music. Whether by charging $20 for new 7" singles, publishing obscenely limited releases, or releasing CDs at full price with no packaging (there were two or three CDs that arrived in shops for $12 + in intentionally empty jewelboxes), Jackman's gall has become the focus of conversations much more often than his music. This CD, the latest in a series of informationless reissues of older recordings, is a full-priced CD that contains 15 minutes of noodly New Age.
Apparantly, Jackman owns a delay pedal. He must be damn proud of it, because he's smothered all the wordless chanting (I'll bet he spells "magic" with a "k" at the end) and breathy woodwinds in reverb and delay. Perhaps this was intended to convey space, atmosphere, or dramatic weight. Sorry, but it just sounds like a flute and a delay pedal. I was stunned by the amateur-ness of the music, since Organum has produced many fine works before and since this recording. There have been plenty of New Age-like moments in the Organum oeuvre (much of "Veil of Tears", for instance), and his style of bowed-metal drone does have the tendency to induce sleepiness, but this is the lightest music I've heard from him. And I know that he isn't an amateur: he's played with Eddie Prevost of AMM, Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound, I believe he was involved in Cornelieus Cardew's Scratch Orchestra, plenty of heavy folks. But this may be strictly for the fans who didn't get the limited-edition cassette version of "Ikon" when it came out in 1987. If another EP was tacked onto this CD in the same manner as the two previous Organum reissue CDs, it would have justified the price and might have made the CD better by adding some darker or more challenging material after or before it. Remember the old joke: two men are on line at a cafeteria, and one says to the other "The food in this place is awful!". "I know," the second man responds, "and the portions are so small!"
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After two full-length albums, one of collaborations and loads ofremixes and other appearances, Mice Parade is no longer a 'sideproject' of Dylan Group member and Bubble Core founder, Adam Pierce.The man is musically a one-man powerhouse, multi-talentedmulti-instrumentalist, collecting influences like a world travellerpicking up intereting souvenirs wherever he finds them. On the businessside of things, his work with Bubble Core shows a seemingly undyinglove for music and desire to share and exchange others' music from allover the world. [note: Americans can thank him for making Sigur Ros andother Fat Cat releases available in this country along with a selectfew of other odd labels and artists.] Be jealous, be very jealous ofhis incredible amounts of talent, but respect his hard work and skill.Mice Parade's third full-length disc once again is another maximalisticgroove-ride: a joyful adventure down a bouncy instrumentalpost-tortoise-rock path with jazz, beatbox, South American and Asianinfluences bleeding into the mix. The disc opens up with two 'jams' ofAdam essentially playing with himself. On these songs (spread over sixtracks) Adam displays flawless mastery of drums, vibes, guitars, synthand cheng (chinese harp). His relentless skills are perfectlycomplimented by his talent of making great songs: to clearlydistinguish his music from a music performance college final project -to make it enjoyable. While the rest of the following tracks featurevarious ensembles, Pierce remains the centerpiece. The musicsurprisingly maintains a linear and sensical flow, evolving with guestplayers on strings, sax, drums and voices, keeping up the sameemotioanly charged groove and feel established from the start. Everysong on here is a new adventure in modern music. At the end I'mstunned, appreciative and wondering where he finds all the time towrite, practice and play.
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Former member of Flying Saucer Attack Rachel Brook has turned to alighter touch with her current project. Far from the murky feedbackdrenched, distortion driven soundscapes of FSA, Movietone barely peepswith the sounds of subdued Latin jazz, post-rock minimalism, and thewispy coo of Kate Wright. While the result succeeds in inclining theear, the album never really arrives. With a scant range of sparse andslow to deliberate and detached songs-and hardly an emotionalregister-the songs build an impassive tension that never releases. Thesustained mildness, the still and dreamy stroll of Movietone can besuprisingly...oppressive. When "The Blossom Filled Streets" finallyhits a gallop, it's as if the band has stopped holding its breath. Whathas been missing becomes startlingly present: change, direction,attitude. Though many critics have described Movietone as morose andeven "emotionally draining," it seems The Blossom Filled Streets hasmore to do with paralysis than emanation. If there's anythingdepressing about this album, it's the lack of expressiveness ratherthan the expression of lack. The core of most songs is a heavystillness pushed about by varied instrumentation (including clarinet,acoustic and electric guitar, piano, bass, drums, viola, and guicello).Often, the delicate colors added by each instrument seem to gesturetowards the many spaces and silences on the album rather thancommunicate in themselves. Some might enjoy this band's impressionism.Me, I'm not too impressed.
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Improvising cellist Daniel Weaver is best known as a former member ofthat rum bunch of plunderphonic organ transplanters Stock, Hausen andWalkman. 'Pulse' is a dance work for six women, performed by Echo EchoDance Theatre Company of Derry, Northern Ireland. The music Danielcomposed for it displays a more serious side, and unlike the frequentjump cuts of Stock, Hausen and Walkman is comprised of mostly fairlylong pieces which shift and evolve relatively slowly, running into eachother at walking pace for the seventy minute duration.His brief from the choreographer was simply to allow him to mark awalking beat throughout the piece so he had a pretty free hand toindulge his eclecticism and create a unique piece of art which, evendown to the bubble pack cover, bursts out of any generic bags.
The short 'Hangover' blasts off with Seamus Cater's happy harmonicaplaying drowned in traffic noise recorded during a walk. An easylistening jazzy piano loop looms up halfway through 'Polygamy' only toseep into elephantine wind howls and hoots. Cater's harmonica strollsback over the hill of string strangled tussles.
'Bendover' centres on a beautifully simple acoustic guitar riffreminiscent of the second instrumental from Colin Newman's'Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish' album, but Danielcounterpoints it with lazy tropical sundown melodies that soundHispanic to my ears. However this piece actually evolved from a Malian/ Senegalese model. There's a definite late summer atmosphereshimmering between the speakers.
Beats appear and disappear. The penultimate 'Pullover' begins with ajovial beat construction that initially wouldn't have sounded out ofplace on Stock, Hausen & Walkman's 'Oh My Bag!' but obliquely letsan eastern snake charmer out of the sample basket, before diving intochoppier waters.
'Pulse' ambles off over the horizon with an extended ascending 'SulphurBath' coda, underpinned by some gut rumbling cello groans and wails - achimingly steamy end to an charmingly dreamy stride.
Pulse is available from Pelicanneck in Manchester, who are distributing it. It is also available directly from Daniel Weaver
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- Cativo - Neither Neither
- Coh - Menuet Max
- Source Research - Dark Start
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Loren MazzaCane Connors has made a career of serene guitarwork:ambient, atmospheric, sparse, spacious, or whichever word you feelwould classify it best. The latest disc pulls together fourteen newguitar melodies for a collection just shy of 40 minutes. While there isa time and place for Connors' music: like having tea and reading a bookbefore going to bed, I personally am feeling rather unsatisfied, almostas if there needs to be something more this time around. I've heardthis entire formula before from Connors on previous releases. On top ofthat, I can't shake the thought that I feel I'm listening to a MarkKnopfler soundtrack the whole while. Connors knows all about making arich and beautiful sound out of one source, treated guitar, but it'sgrowing tired and the guy needs to start working with some people againto get some fresh ideas and external sounds going. Having one CD likethis in your collection is encouraged, having 20 is excessive.
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Also to be filed under the "just not enough" category this week is thelatest solo release from Pan Sonic member Ilpo Vaisanen. The disc alsoclocks in under 40 minutes with eight tracks which seem almostheartless/soul-less when listened to alongside Pan Sonic releases.While it started out rather promising, on the whole the disc feelsbland, thin, repetitive, thoughtless and unfinished. The disc is shortand rather sketchwork-esque in nature. The "songs" utilize the sametypes of electronic sounds and styles that can be heard commonly on PanSonic releases, yet comparitively speaking, the songs here are lackingin depth. While I'd like to be able to separate the different entities,it's hard to listen and not compare the them as the sound sources arepretty much the same. The low-end drone/low-tech pulse combo of"Vallitseva" for example sounds achingly familiar, almost as if it waspracticed live but discarded for album releases. The stereoscopicallyphased-out "Jaett" also echoes grounds covered in previous releases.I'm left somewhat confused, wondering if this was something Ilpo hadpromised to Mego or whether it was something old and kicking around,perhaps rejected by previously issuing record labels like Mute orRaster-Noton.
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