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Mego
It would be easy to dismiss Tujiko Noriko as a token female artist on amale-dominated record label and scene. But while neither her latestMego outing nor her previous full-length, 'Shojo Toshi' is likely toblow minds, this former waitress is certainly not without talent. Herwhimsical, airy electronic compositions have a warmth andexpressiveness that is unlike her label mates. Noriko's Japanese vocalswaft over slow and steady beats on nearly all of the tracks. Some ofthe most effective tools in her arsenal this time around includescratchy record atmospherics, otherworldly piano sounds, and flutteringdigital sounds, all of which are sophisticated and meticulouslyarranged. The songs, however, simply tiptoe all over the place, withouta clear direction, without going far from their starting point. There'sa better sense of togetherness of the songs that wasn't clear before.
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Ant-Zen
Synapscape have long represented the sound of Ant-Zen, the ratherprolific post-industrial German label that has achieved a remarkablelevel of popularity and respect worldwide since the late 90s. The firstproject to release a CD on the label, Synapscape managed to, (andcontinues to) contribute a great deal to the catalog with 5 full-lengthalbums, a handful of singles and EPs, and countless productions fromtheir many side-projects and related projects (Templegarden's, ArsMoriendi, Morgenstern). Here on their fifth release, the duo present acollection of unreleased and compilation-only tracks from 1994 through2001. As with any CD of this kind, there's quite a bit of material herebetter left for the home studio vaults or the obscurity of a limitededition CD-R packed in a clamshell with barbed-wire, spraypaintedsilver, and hand-numbered. Beat-less dark ambient noisescapes are theultimate cop-out for industrial acts everywhere, and I, for one,fast-forwarded through the ones on 'Raw'. I scanned for theclub-friendly (a rather loose term when discussing this type of music)tracks, and was rewarded with the unintelligible vocals and filthybeats of "My Distance" and "Stop Yield." Other heavy rhythmic cutsinclude "Once Again You Die," and "Peter The Repeater," a remix forformer Ars Moriendi bandmate Asche. While this mediocre collection willcertainly not entice too many new fans, 'Raw' will definately find aplace in the hearts of Synapscape fans still awaiting newer material(which, as it turns out, will include another collaboration with fellowpower noise kingpin Imminent). Considering how much I enjoyed theirlast album ('Positive Pop'), I expect nothing but high qualitylo-fidelity sounds to come.
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BlueSanct
I just can't get enough of Nathan Amundson's Rivulets. While Amundsonis a relatively new voice—with only one album and a handful of EPs,singles, and compilation appearances—healways sounds like he knows the deal. He's known it all his life andnow, finally, he's expressing his feelings on the matter. This EP onBlueSanct, recorded live on Icelandic National Radio (hence the title)features recordings of four songs from the Rivulets self-titled debutperformed by Amundson alone. Where the recordings on the debut werestronger for their arrangements and recording, this is the trueRivulets. The songs work best with just acoustic guitar and voice, aspleading and desperate as possible. It's funny, but they're moreexpressive this way, where Amundson can show off his most raw andemotional baggage. Where his solitary contributions on other releaseshave been sketchy, mainly due to weaknesses in the vocals department,he's more assured here, like he's finally protected by that blanketagain and no one can touch him now. The lyrics on "Four Weeks" are evenmore appropriate, with the "desperate" refrain, so much that it seemsAmundson is singing them out to anyone who will listen to join him,just so he won't feel so alone. The fragility of his voice on "How,Who?" and "Stead" is especially touching, even when he falters a bit.In fact, especially when he falters, showing us his weakness again.This EP works well for cold season, as it's clearly the mostappropriate time.
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- Jesse Niemenen
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Mandragora Records 
We are living in a golden age for mind-expanding, foundation-rumblingpsych chaos, as evidenced by this particular slice of aluminum. Inspite of coming from all corners of the globe, all 12 participants herehave obviously been huffing the same UFO vapors. Robot vs. Rabbitlumbers through a buzzing, Earth-like dirge. In perhaps the weirdestpiece on the disc, Interferents wring out some insane toy vocals over ahallucinatory jam. Pine Tree State Mind Control exhume the corpse ofearly Chrome and turn it into a conveyer belt. Escapade's loose,sprawling improv whips up a fresh black hole. Sure to make this comp abestseller, the ubiquitous Acid Mothers Temple crash land the mothership into heavy metal histrionics. Reynols' shamanic drone prayer makesearly Amon Duul seem coherent and tight (that's a compliment, by theway). Finnish band Circle finish things off by returning us to morefamiliar krautrockish territories, somewhat reminiscent of the live Canstuff released a few years back. What makes this comp so great is theheavy layer of outer space that all of this music travels throughbefore it reaches your ears. No duds to be found here. This music isunhitched, but not at all inept. They know where they are taking you.Like the liner notes say: "The path of pure psychedelic noise awaitsyou."
samples:
- Acid Mothers Temple - Spaced Out
- Reynols - Un Tiermo Exsina
- Interferents - Rosewood Frog with Serbian Eye
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Cold Spring
This is a reworked reissue of an early 90's tape which came out of acollaboration between The Grey Wolves and Shockcity as a comment on theGulf War. In these times, where a second one seems not very far away(depending on the daily news), it sounds astonishingly fresh andtimely. There is a certain bleakness in these two lengthy pieces.("Desert Storm" is slightly over 30 minutes long while "Gulf Breeze" isover 26 minutes.) There's a certain Rough Trade-era Cabaret Voltairequality about the songs, not particularly in the music itself, but inthe emotional landscape explored. The theme of war is clear, as is thebreakdown of communication. The Grey Wolves do this with delays,electronic distortion, distant ramblings, hypnotic loops, and echoes.Samples are clearly identifiable as vocals but only fragments areunderstandable.Absent are overused "aesthetic/artistic" shock tactics but the GreyWolves clearly point out with this atmospheric work that we are nothingmore than passive watchers from an armchair in (assumably) a safedistance. It's a subtly packaged critique which is an enjoyable listenat it's own terms. It both leaves me in thoughts and creates the spacefor it.
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Ernest Jenning Recording Co.
Drew Isleib is a singer-songwriter in the very traditional style whouses occasional untraditional (read: electronic) elements to bring hissound across. Recorded entirely by Isleib in his makeshift portablestudio, his debut is chock-full of good songs, from the downtroddenalbum opener to the fun-loving jangly pop of "Orion." Isleib plays allof the instruments on these songs, and it is the true mark of thetroubadour that he uses whatever he needs to get the song across.Programmed drums, guitar, electric piano, what have you; Isleib playsit with modest skill and intent. He's been billed as the guy who usedto show up at your high school and college parties with an acoustic andstart playing songs to anyone who would care, only better. I wish Icould have had Drew at my parties, because these songs are meant to beheard by that crowd. There is a slight preoccupation with alcohol onthis release (appropriate for high school and college parties), andenough variation that it would serve as a good mix. But I wasparticularly impressed with Isleib's voice and how expressive it is.Different songs feature a different voice, as his delivery changesappropriately to suit the song. It's a rare trait, as many vocalistsget stuck in the rut of writing music to match the voice. And even ifthe sound strays from the traditional sounds of acoustic guitar andmild percussion, the voice still fits. Isleib even tours the countryplaying at people's houses on their couches. It's ultimately the waymusic this familiar is meant to be heard. So kick back, check out thesamples, and relax. Cause Drew ain't goin' anywhere just yet.
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The idea behind the 'In the Fishtank' series sounds really good: get two (or more) bands touring the area (broadly, the Netherlands,) and get them to record a live album in the studio, spontaneously. Like most things that look great on paper, the execution fails gloriously, and on many levels. Maybe Sonic Youth was having a bad day, or possibly the I.C.P. or The Ex took over a whole lot of the sound on this album, but please, if you have anything else you'd rather do, don't hesitate to do that instead of listening to this album. It has all the annoying qualities of a pretentious John Zorn release (and none of the positive, like the amazing musicianship of some of the early John Zorn stuff.) The rush of recording constraints forced on the groups probably didn't help the creation of their numbered tracks. The seemingly random numbering of the tracks gives me the impression that these pieces were just made with no intent in mind, just to take up time. Weird atonal honking horns are ok, but not if they're boring you to death. If you like Sonic Youth (or any of the other bands,) at all, avoid this thing like the plague.
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23 Skidoo have one of the most fascinating but neglected bodies of work in the annals of the early 80's post-punk/industrial diaspora, so why haven't you heard of them? Directly related to such luminaries as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, This Heat, Psychic TV, Current 93 and Coil, the Turnbull brothers have nonetheless been reduced to a footnote in most accounts of the genre, which has led to the total unavailability of their material for the last 20 years. The new schedule of CD re-issues of their entire back catalog by 23 Skidoo's own Ronin Records should rectify this situation; they definitely don't deserve their near total obscurity. With a name straight out of Aleister Crowley's "Book of Lies" and a pair of martial arts-trained brothers at the center of the band, 23 Skidoo seem ripe for a critical rediscovery and re-appraisal. Their classic albums and 12" dance singles presage so many of the developments in post-punk, avant-garde and electronic music throughout the 80's and 90's—sampling, tape manipulation, afrobeat fusion, ethnic percussion, drum n' bass, ambient. Their music has become sampling fodder for countless mainstream dance and hip-hop acts. Listening to these albums is like hearing a crate-digging beathead's secret stash of funky basslines and weird breakbeats, all wrapped up in a package of some of the most influential and idiosyncratic music to come out of the industrial era. Spurred on by the release of Soul Jazz's compilation 'In The Beginning, There Was Rhythm', and the renewed interest in the sound of Sheffield circa 1977-84, these re-issues come at a perfect time for listeners to educate themselves on the multifarious sounds of 23 Skidoo.
It would be hard to imagine a better first album than 23 Skidoo's 'Seven Songs'. A viscerally exciting statement of purpose, and an infectiously listenable album, 'Seven Songs' is probably their most concentrated effort on record. Produced by Genesis P-Orridge and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of Coil renown, the album has a nervous, dark atmosphere punctuated by funky basslines, ethnic percussion, and a maze of samples and tape edits. The Turnbull brothers were martial arts experts, reflected in the music's pan-Pacific smorgasbord of influences, and in the "ninja stealth" of the sneakily violent headkicking beats. There is a certain aesthetic perfection here, an intuitive mix of perfectly executed punk-funk that has never really been repeated. Just listen to the opening track "Kundalini", with its phased-noise opening, which is quickly joined by a ring-modulated tribal drumbeat and some aggressive vocal outbursts. The song quickly becomes an intensely funky and nasty hyper-sexualized ecstasy of masculine violence. It's like the audio equivilent of a genocidal terroristic threat. Fans of This Heat, Savage Republic and Muslimgauze, take note. Things get slightly less menacing with the second track "Vegas El Bandito", a fantastic Fela Kuti-influenced afrobeat exploration, with a beautifully paranoid atmosphere and "wokka-ja-wokka" guitars. "Porno Bass" is a beatless soundscape, with windchimes, distorted bass hits, and odd dialogue samples. 'Seven Songs' is a wonderful piece of the industrial puzzle, and a great album in its own right.
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The songs on "Urban Gamelan" have one foot firmly planted in the ancient feudal Orient. When the brothers recorded their 1984 masterpiece Urban Gamelan, they were even more preoccupied with the cold, calculated perfection of the industrial-funk fusion they pioneered. (As a side note, David Tibet of Current 93 was a part of 23 Skidoo's live ensemble during the period leading up to these recordings, although he does not actually appear on the record.) 23 Skidoo's interest in improvised Indonesian percussion, found instruments, afro-beat and funk comes to the fore on this release. The first side builds a giant tower of funk exploration, the highlight being "Fire", in which a wandering bass melody, pounding beat, random echo and zealously screamed vocals meld to form an uneasy dub track which is a lot more creepy than it is rocksteady. This uneasy vibe on all of the tracks is enhanced by the remastering job, which exposes background whispers and electrical drones, lending an air of British esotericism to the ecstatic Zen proceedings. The second side opens with the tense, pressure-cooker trippiness of "Urban Gamelan Pt. 1", an exploratory work for traditional Indo-Pacific chimes and drums. The album's apex is the masterful "Language Dub", which utilizes traditional percussion, wall-of-sound reverb and samples from martial arts films to build a drama that is literally overwhelming. This track fades away into a crystal pool, and we are left with a hauntingly rhythmic swansong.
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'The Gospel Comes to New Guinea' collects 14 tracks originally issued on 12" singles, EPs and compilations. The material included here is truly some of 23 Skidoo's best, making this compilation essential. The title track opens the compilation brilliantly—an insistently dark and repetitive bassline, complex drums, distant horns, and strange human chanting buried way under the mix. This is a breathtaking 10-minute exploration of the depths of the tense rhythmic atmosphere that the band is able to evoke. Also on this compilation is 23 Skidoo's most commonly sampled track, the tightly wound, dance-oriented "Coup". Listeners will recognize the famous bassline later sampled on Chemical Brothers' "Block-Rockin' Beats" and Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines." This collection also includes a handful of actual "rock" songs with full vocal parts, quite rare in the Turnbull brothers' oevre. These fleshed out vocal tracks resemble Gang of Four meets This Heat, and point to a wholly different direction that sounds so tantalizingly great, it seems a shame the band never really explored this sound for a full album. Later in the compilation, there are some of 23 Skidoo's dance singles from the mid-80's. These are some very unique and exciting songs, merging early techno, acid house, record scratching and beat sampling with 23 Skidoo's usual array of congas, tablas and gamelan percussion. This material has held up amazingly well, in constrast to many of the more well known house-influenced material from the period. Psychic TV, I am looking in your direction,...
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23 Skidoo's second collection of singles, EPs and dance mixes, 'Just Like Everybody Part Two' is mostly drawn from their mid-80's output. This compilation is not as immediately likable as 'New Guinea,' as some of the more obviously hip-hop influenced tracks included have not aged very well. The horn trills on "Roninstep" sound a little cheesy, and the song unfolds in a rather predictable way. The production is still top-notch, but 23 Skidoo have picked up a little too much of the slick, faux-jazz sound of their less creative contemporaries, and pushed their ethno-funk fusion to the background. Looking back, some of the sampling and record scratching sounds a little clinical, as if the band was self-consciously pushing itself in a direction that may not have been completely in line with their natural evolution. That said, there are still some great moments here, several terrific songs with infectious beats and sample-ready breakbeats. The CD ends with an interesting retread of on of their greatest songs, "Coup." "Recoup" picks up the same tasty bassline, but adds some interesting horn fanfare, an occasional dub echo, and a complementary piano melody. An interesting, if unnecessary, update of their classic track.
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The fourth release from COH this year is the first all-new recording. Four paintings and four pieces represent the year's four seasons, recorded and painted from summer 2001 to spring 2002 by Ivan Pavlov and his wife, deliberately conceived and packed on a limited double 12" vinyl set in a glossy gatefold cover.
The concept itself has obvious parallels to Coil's Equinox / Solstice project: COH's approach is different, less magickal perhaps but not less impressive. "The Colour Of Beauty, Summer Is Red (A Forest Fire For Fèlix Lajk?" starts with a 'suffering' violin by Janesse Stewart set against Pavlov's computer-generated structure. His idea of summer is quite different from the obvious ones; there's no hint of beach life or good times outside but an instant pressure, like when the heat reaches its peak and people are about to turn crazy. The accompanying painting is the front cover and the listener follows the trees trough the year graphically and musically. "As Ripe As Autumn's Tears " is very sparse and melancholic. The autumn tree itself is overripe behind the pouring rain. A field recording by Peter Christopherson of November rain opens the piece before COH plays the Grand Piano in an abstract somewhat minimalistic way. Both the artwork and the music work well together as the overall mood is very calm and bordering on ritualistic. "Winter Broading Underneath," once again features J. Stewart, this time on cello, but only echoes of it are recognizable in the frosty and compact drone piece. This is the shortest and harshest of the four. Bleak trees in the dark accompany this one graphically. "Springs Come Shooting: Make Love, Make War" closes the circle and is the most accessible track. In the beginning, this is reminiscent of COH as he is known; a sparkling optimistic manipulated sequence by Tin-y dominates the first half until it crashes into an heavy drone guitar solo by Ivan Pavlov. Dedicated to the god Mars and the artist Russel Haswell (probably in reverse order), the trees on the back cover grow together in an act of love in front of a blue sky. 'Seasons' is probably his most sincere and ambitious work yet but also his most unconstrained in use of structures and instrumentation. It's a great and promising step sideways from his semi-laptop-pop stardom and may even be a glimpse of what the future might bring. As the edition is quite low (only 400 pressed), I recommend pestering Idea's distributors if there are difficulties finding it.
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I don't think I will ever get tired of the novelty of locked-groove records. Originally released in 2000, this compilation is making its rounds again. What sets this pile of locked grooves apart from other similar releases like RRR 500 or Non's 'Pagan Muzak' is that a large number of these are actually based on beats.
Sure, the usual "experimental" suspects come out to give a titter of noise like Merzbow, Janek Schaefer, Stilluppsteypa, and Oren Ambarchi, but it's the contributions from the heavy dub of Twilight Circus, the techno pop of Studio X, and a host of others who actually make the most out of the fractional seconds they're allowed to make a decent sounding loop. (I tried to figure out the amount of time in split seconds which has to elapse near the center of the record versus near the edge of the record but I gave up trying.) At some point I'm planning to try and find a second copy of this record and do some sort of turntablist day on the radio, playing nothing but locked grooves, winding in and out (including all of those tigerbeat6 7" single releases too), but the chances of finding another copy of this record grow slimmer and slimmer. As quickly as it re-appeared, it seems to be vanishing.
samples:
- Vox Barbara - I'm Christ's Fan
- Zion Train - Welsh Locked Groove
- Arno Peters -Retro
- Troum - Untitled
 
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Just when it seems that there's no such thing as any uplifting sounds in indie rock, a quiet voice is heard from the other shores from what could be a distant time. The Clientele are based in London, but could easily be a dead ringer for the Mersey sound of the late 1960s.
The band has kept to their guns and have still not yet released a full-length start-to-finish recorded album (only a number of 7" singles, EPs and compilation appearances, gathered on a full-length recording but that doesn't count). The latest pair of songs materializes on a cheap 7" from Merge, equipped with their staple of faintly delivered vocals over deceptively complex melodic structures recorded on high-hiss sound gear, probably far older than any member of the trio. The A-side clocks in at barely over two minutes, and while it's not as singable as some of their most famous refrains, like "I want you more than ever," it still is a tasty treat to savor as the weather is nippingly cold outdoors. The B-side, "Fear of Falling," is another uplifting-sounding gem, which, despite it's phobic title, sounds more like a yearning for the summertime and being outside. What all their lyrics mean together, I'll probably never know without first finding out what exactly is being said, but in the meantime, the songs are good enough for making tapes and taking long journeys to.
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