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06 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

cover image Recorded together using similar techniques, but vastly different source materials, these two releases feel like different parts of the same whole, with both of them emphasizing Mathieu's balancing of texture and melody, to excellent effect, through the use of processed, pre-recorded compositions.

12k, Line

Sourced from a mic‚Äôd gramophone playing 78rpm records from 1928 to 1932 with a cactus needle for a stylus, A Static Place has the more urgent, dynamic feeling to it.There is heavy use of hissing and layers of analog static to be heard on "Schwarzschild Radius", but it is used sparingly, burying processed choral arrangements and organ passages in its fuzzy warmth.

Vinyl surface noise is a bit played out in my opinion, which is why this disc excels in its measured approach to using it.There is far more overt use of the musical elements of the source material in the beautiful waves of sound, with the various forms of digital processing transforming, but not destroying, the music its created from.The two part title track clearly demonstrates this, with glistening, soaring melodies being teased out of the ancient vinyl, juxtaposing melody and texture, almost mimicking a journey through arid deserts and claustrophobic caves.The second part includes what must be piano tones and orchestra-like outbursts in its long journey.

"Dawn" seems to take even more of its source material to heart, intertwining jazzy melodies over what resembles rattling metal to create a slow piece that carries its beauty all the way to the final moments of the album.All five of the pieces display Mathieu's balanced hand in reshaping existing sound into beautiful new worlds.Probably due to their similar approach, I felt some parallels to Philip Jeck's work with turntables, but Mathieu is a singular artist that really sounds like no one else.

cover image

Remain, consisting of a single hour long track based upon Janek Schaefer's Extended Play, carries much of the same sensibilities of A Static Place, but instead projects it out into a long, sprawling work that has a slower, more deliberate pacing.Opening from quiet, open space, there are subtle vinyl clicks and pops that appear throughout, never being the focus but always adding to the album a slight sense of rhythm.

Early on there is a more pronounced leaning on the lower frequency spectrum, allowing bassy swells to appear abruptly, when they weren't as notable on A Static Place.There is an undercurrent of melody throughout the entire hour, but it doesn‚Äôt seem to be the focus; instead there is more texture and subtlety to be heard.There‚Äôs definitely "drone" elements, but I‚Äôm hesitant to say that since it has become almost a pejorative term, but here it applies in the most literal sense.

There is the same sense of comfort and warmth that carries over to here as well, with sustained notes that convey a familiar nostalgia that is universal.Throughout its full hour duration, the piece never seems to have a moment of filler, but slowly flows like a complex river of sound.It is haunting, with moments of sadness, darkness and triumph.

Both Remain and A Static Place share some definite qualities with one another, but each are their own album and focus on different compositional strategies by Mathieu.Remain is a slow building work, constantly evolving with a fluid sound to it, while A Static Place is more immediate, mostly due to the shorter pieces included.Both are gorgeous, evolving works of delicate melody and subtle texture, however, and I don't think I could pick a favorite between the two.

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06 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

cover image I don't understand how Erik Carlson has managed to stay so woefully underappreciated and low-profile for so long, as he has a very distinctive and appealing aesthetic. ¬†Also, he has recently been largely infallible quality-wise. That hot streak continues here: wisely sticking closely to the sound he intermittently perfected with 2009's excellent Charmed Birds Against Sorcery, Carlson has delivered yet another impressive album of spidery, shimmering beauty. ¬†It could benefit from a bit more bite though.

Preservation

The core of Carlson's artistry lies in repetition, but he brings a deftness and lightness of touch to it that makes his vision uniquely his own. ¬†Rather than sounding like a contemporary drone artist or a Reich-indebted minimalist, Erik manages to sound like a dream pop-damaged Oval: Map of Circular Thought is teaming with insistent glitchy-sounding loops that provide a rhythmic bed for warm organ drones and fragile, twinkling guitars. ¬†On the album's lesser songs, the music shimmers and glitters quite pleasantly, but the pieces that truly shine are those where Carlson works a dark undercurrent into his narcotic dreamscapes like "Felt, Not Seen." ¬†Around the ten-minute mark, the previously toothless reverie begins throbbing and quavering quite ominously and the remaining third of the song is spent in a disquieting nightmare. ¬†The transition from light to dark is a very unexpected and seamless one, which is one of the things that I love so much about Area C: the mood of a song can turn with absolutely no warning. ¬†It's a great trick‚Äì I wish Erik did it more often, but I guess I would start to expect it then (which, of course, he has probably already anticipated). ¬†I cannot hope to outwit him.

In general, it is the longer songs that work best here, such as "In Toward the Wires" or the slowly pulsing drone epic "Ebbs to a Steady Burn," as Carlson is at his most emotionally rich and dazzling when he gives himself a lot of time to work. ¬†Area C definitely requires some patience to fully appreciate, as Erik works very slowly and painstakingly: his intricate lattices of hazy drones and sparkling treated guitars are in no hurry at all to build to their full mesmerizing power. ¬†Many of the shorter pieces boast some striking passages too, but hypnotic repetition, attention to nuance, and layering tend to be most effective when I am fully immersed in a song. ¬†Area C is time-lapse photography for the ears.

As a progression from Charmed Birds, Map of Circular Thought is a bit of a lateral move. ¬†On the one hand, it is clear that Carlson has become still more adept at compositional tactics like artfully weaving together multiple tracks, creating a pulse, and transitioning from one mood to another. ¬†Also, I think his mood palette has expanded a bit. ¬†However, he seems to have taken a significant step backwards texturally, as the lack of occasional bursts of harshness makes the woozy, looping, dreaminess of the album drag a bit. ¬†Such touches do make some appearances, like the guitar noise and feedback in "In Toward the Wires," but they're often too submerged in the mix to make the needed impact. ¬†Charmed Birds' better pieces were enhanced quite a bit by the well-timed use of scrapes, static, and voice snippets and I think those elements provide a very necessary counterbalance to Area C's drifting warmth. ¬†I wouldn't be frustrated if I didn't have extremely high expectations though. ¬†This is definitely a fine album by a master of his craft, but it is a bit too perfect and grit-free to be his masterpiece.

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06 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

cover image This album is very deceptively packaged and presented, but in the best way possible: the tame cover art and the word "folk" did nothing at all to prepare me for the extremely fun and quirky pseudo-surf gems within. ¬†Of course, many of these pieces were originally folk songs, but they have been so jazzed-up with kitschy organs and twangy, tremelo-happy guitars as to make that term a wildly misleading understatement. Curator Stuart Ellis has assembled an improbable monster of a compilation.

Sublime Frequencies

Ellis unknowingly started working on this album in 2005, when he begun making mix CDs (and then box sets) of obscure world music for himself and his friends. ¬†Gradually, he became more and more interested in how rock music manifested itself in non-western cultures. ¬†Also, his record scavenging and trading began bringing him in contact with like-minded people scattered across the world. As a result, the project quickly blossomed into the excellent blog Radiodiffusion Internationaal and eventually led to the curation of 2008's Bollywood Steel Guitar compilation on Sublime Frequencies.Although Ellis's blog isn‚Äôt especially fixated on Pakistan (his tastes are pretty wide-ranging), the period covered here is pretty fascinating, largely undocumented, and quite short-lived: the Pakistani's embraced rock in a big way, but the recorded evidence of that phase does not sound much like any American or British rock that was happening (except for maybe the Ventures or The Shadows). ¬†It is easy to see why he chose it for a subject.

The handful of artists collected on this double album are an eclectic bunch, ranging from respected film composers to largely forgotten bands that only managed to release one single. ¬†Or sometimes even less, as The Bugs just got the B-side of the Do Raha soundtrack single and The Bluebirds' sole recorded output is just a few pieces on a film music compilation. ¬†The material itself is no less varied, as the only way to get a record released at the time was to either cover a traditional song with rock instrumentation (possibly with some electric sitar thrown in) or to contribute to a film soundtrack.

Within those unusual confines, however, these young musicians went in some unexpected and inspired directions. ¬†For example, The Panthers spice up the traditional "Bhairvi" with swooning, woozy guitars, while The Bugs pump up the thumping Do Raha theme with enthusiastic electric sitar and a catchy accordion motif. ¬†My favorite piece is probably the noir-ish/spy movie-sounding "Aay Jays Theme," but this is a surprisingly good album from start to finish. ¬†I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that this whole project has been organically unfolding for so long that throwing together two albums of killer Pakistani rock for a compilation was no problem at all for Ellis. ¬†As a whole, I prefer the more "garage rock" interpretations to the more psych-inspired ones or those that just sound like folk songs played on the wrong instruments, but I never find myself skipping anything when I put this album on‚ÄìStuart's judgment is unerring. ¬†In fact, I find that I like a lot of these pieces much more than I like the Western bands that influenced them.

Of course, the Pakistan captured here is quite a different place from Pakistan now, as long hair, rock music, wild nightlife, and drugs were pretty damn rampant during that country's brief cultural explosion. ¬†Unfortunately, all good things must end and that momentum came to an abrupt end when a 1977 coup resulted in the institution of a markedly less rockin' and hashish-friendly Islamic state, causing many of the key musicians in the scene to move to North America and the UK. ¬†Notably, Ellis has actually managed to contact some of them over the years and was often greeted with bewildered questions like "Why do you like this stuff?" or "Why do you care?" ¬†That, of course, is the hallmark of any truly great Sublime Frequencies compilation: finding great music so ephemeral and forgotten that even the musicians themselves are left baffled and surprised.

Samples:

The Aay Jays - "The Aay Jays Theme"
The Panthers - "Bhairvi"
The Bugs - "Theme from "Do Raha""

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06 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

Perhaps uniquely, Basil Kirchin‚Äôs appreciators include Broadcast, Coil, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Brian Eno, and Nurse With Wound. Included here is music from his first film score Primitive London (1965) and the gangland movie The Freelance (1971). Kirchin was a pioneering twentieth-century master of texture and mood. His inventive, multifaceted music still sounds light yet off-kilter, eerie yet peaceful, both futuristic and nostalgic.

Trunk

In the north London of December 1941, with the worst of The Blitz only just passed and rationing and nightly trips to the bomb shelter still in place, the teenage Basil Kirchin played drums in his dad‚Äôs jazz band. If that sounds gritty but humdrum, consider that The Kirchin Band evolved a highly percussive Latin-flavor which became so popular and respected that neither Sarah Vaughan nor Billy Eckstine would tour England without an assurance they would provide backing. Eckstine pronounced them the equal of the bands of Basie, Ellington, and Gillespie, and stated his disbelief that the group "aren‚Äôt American let alone that they are not coloured." Unusually, they had their own sound system which enabled Kirchin to record their performances. They were also recorded by George Martin, had movie star fans, and came near the top of several Melody Maker polls.

However, Basil Kirchin was not content to be, in his own words "a prisoner of rhythm." Born in Blackpool, he spent his last years in Hull. These towns in Northern England are on opposite (East/West) coasts yet only 111 miles apart. Kirchin, though, traveled much further, in both geographical and musical terms. Keen on exploring his own musical direction, he journeyed to India, Australia and the US. Upon returning to England, he embarked on various projects including writing music for imaginary and real films, and for the De Wolfe music library (with such excellent artists as Big Jim Sullivan, Tubby Hayes, Jimmy Page, and Kenny Wheeler). Kirchin also created his Worlds Within Worlds concept. This was an idea set in motion after a grant to purchase a cutting-edge Nagra tape recorder allowed him to slow down the sound of insects, birds, autistic children, gorillas, or whatever, to reveal sounds previously unheard. In this, he was miles ahead. (Years later, Eno would comment that slowing recorded sounds by more than fifty percent "does something to the timbre of sound...by bringing upper harmonics into hearing range".)* To these slowed sounds, Kirchin added cello, horns, and organ to produce two albums of pioneering musical soundscapes. Unfortunately, these have never heard been as intended: since Colombia and Island took turns to betray him and ruin his recordings.

The film Primitive London contains images as banal and sordid as those suggested by Kirchin‚Äôs weird, yet somehow "correct" mix of sounds, and a bizarre treat awaits its viewers. The score is by turns melancholy, melodic, repetitive, and sinister; tottering like a drunk in heels staggering home with the sun coming up on a beautiful day. Kirchin‚Äôs dreamlike atmospheres balance on the edge of oddness and optimism, without plunging headlong into either: a superb fit for the sense of tension which the film depicts, between the ordinary life of milk bottles and farms and that of wife-swapping and strip clubs. The recurring musical themes are simple and insistent yet Kitchin achieves contrast through varying pace and texture. Consequently, in the space of a few bars the mood can swing from sleazy to mundane and back again.

Kirchin‚Äôs film music is included in television productions and at least ten movies including Catch Us If You Can (a vehicle for the Dave Clark Five, 1965), I Start Counting (with Jenny Agutter, 1968), The Shuttered Room (Oliver Reed, 1967), and perhaps most famously The Abominable Doctor Phibes (starring Vincent Price, 1971). Also available on Trunk records by Basil Kirchin are Quantum, Charcoal Sketches/States of Mind, Abstractions of The Industrial North, and the slightly disappointing Particles. Also featured on Abstractions are selected cues from all the ten inch De Wolfe recordings from the same year (1966) including "Viva Tamla Motown" and "Pageing Sullivan" (named for the two featured guitarists).

The Primitive London release has the usual fine photographs and affectionate, enthusiastic and unpretentious sleeve notes we have come to expect from Trunk. Basil Kirchin deserves no less for if the histories of the genres of "library" and "ambient" music are ever set down, his name will be prominent in both. He was still working well into his 70s, hoping to leave signs to help younger people find their own ways to break out of creative constraints. "The challenge is to act before thinking," Kirchin remarked in 2003, just two years before his death.

* As quoted in Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound by Eric Tamm.

05 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

The first offering in four years from folk-rockjourneyman David Berman could easily have become a messy affair. Afteryears of booze, drugs, depression, and more booze, it seemed Berman waspoised to make the all important recovery record. It's a familiar one—it reeks of sorrow, redemption, and rehab—but Bermanknows he’s better than that, and as a result he’s peppered the newSilver Jews record with strange but brilliantly told tales of boozers,black Santa Clauses, and airport bartenders.
Drag City

Opener “Punks in theBeerlight” tears out of the gate with a ferocity rarely heard inBerman’s previous work, and its tale of puking into paper bags and“burnouts in love” ensures that this will not be your typical recoveryalbum. While past Silver Jews records expertly mined the “aw shucks”alt-country vein with often excellent results, Tanglewood Numbers seesthe band entering a much more rock direction, a move seen on songs like“Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed.”

Although much of the album isconsistently good, I have to confess that I find the new “rock” sound abit contrived and less appealing than the shambling country approachfound on previous efforts (American Water comes to mind). Berman ismost effective when he’s there sharing the bottle with you, not onstage playing his guitar. As a result it is a good album that suffersfrom a split personality. A rock album has to rock, and thoughTanglewood Numbers does carry more sneers than its predecessors, itcan’t shake the feeling that it’s misplaced. Even so, the album isbalanced out by several standout tracks.

“K-Hole” features some ofBerman’s most desperate vocals, with him intoning “I’d rather live in atrashcan/ than see you happy with another man.” And while it would seemthat the overall mood of the record is all dark clouds and stormydepression, Berman does us the favor of lightening the mood withrollicking numbers like “I’m Getting Back Into Getting Into You” and“How Can I Love You (If You Won’t Lie Down)”, which features the warmbacking vocals of his wife Cassie Marrett.

Though it featuressome questionable shifts in approach, Tanglewood Numbers highlightsensure that it will be a worthwhile entry to the Silver Jews canon.

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05 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

It's an attractive package on the most base level. The liner notes claim, "Desire is the root of all suffering," and the artwork depicts a woman, possibly a prostitute, in some form of bondage. Paired with the rather bleak photographs of nondescript locales, the entire album screams before it ever begins playing. This stuff is vile: the album is dirty, absolutely filthy, and exciting.

Load

Dominick Fernow is a formidable presence live. Typically shirtless, he requires only two microphones and some large amplifiers to extract the shriek and roar of victims who've succumbed to some violent act. His noise is visceral and muscular, masculine in a savage and homicidal sense, and the result live usually involves injury and complete absorption; there's absolutely no way anyone's attention could be anywhere but on him. On record he's fucking loud, the kind of loud that will get the cops called to your house because the neighbors think something is exploding and the house might burn into flames at any moment. The music is dense and my experience with Fernow's work is that there's never really a moment of silence or a space anywhere in the noise. It just keeps coming and coming until eventually it strips the paint off the walls and ejaculates it back in my face.

Black Vase is slightly different for a couple of reasons and those reasons make this a better album. First, drums and synthesizers make an appearance and provide fairly consistent rhythm to a few tracks whose sole instrument is Fernow's voice going completely off the edge and the mics shrieking their ear-shattering madness over and over again. A song like "Sorry Robin" benefits from these additions, sounding like a perverse new wave experiment in torturing small animals and children. The feedback rendered in the song takes an almost melodic role and the drums simply pound away in tribal fashion, eventually overloading the whole piece with Fernow shouting his strange lyrics. Those lyrics constitute the second aspect of his work that is either the most appealing or the most revolting aspect of Prurient. Undoubtedly sexual and almost certainly meant to emanate a violent attribute, Fernow's lyrics sound possessive and psychotic, the product of a child forced to live in a basement and meditate solely on what he can hear through the floorboards: his mother being beat or his father womanizing over the years.

The lyrics can sound a bit amateur at times, reaching from some erotic conclusion but not quite getting there because of the favor Fernow takes towards bluntness. A track like "Lord of Love," on the other hand, is perfect, ambiguously situated in some kind of cross-dressing fantasy created by an infatuation with a nameless woman. As excellent as Fernow is at forging harsh noise extravaganzas, he shines when he exhibits the ability to craft multi-layered songs that are as brooding as they are caustic. I get the feeling Black Vase could've been even more powerful if Fernow had decided to contain himself slightly more and fine-tune the record. Sometimes the silence is far scarier than the burst of anger of the explosion of hatred that accompanies death.

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04 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

THE NEW CURRENT 93 ALBUM and other C93/Coptic Cat news 4 February 2011

Crucifixion 1 Alpha

HONEYSUCKLE ÆONS

Crucifixion 7 Zeta

AMEN STAUROS

Crucifixion 10 Iota

The new Current 93 album

The new album by C93 is titled HoneySuckle Æons. It will be released at the Athens show on 24 March 2011 and will be available at the other subsequent C93 concerts on the tour. It will also be available from the Coptic Cat shop and will be sent out on 24 March. Coming soon... Amen Stauros.

Current 93: ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ to be played live simultaneously with David Tibet’s lyric book launch

“Bloody smoke, foggy smoke, beginnings and endings…”

We are delighted to announce that David Tibet, Michael Cashmore and Current 93 will be performing the entirety of their Hallucinatory Playtime Dream Cycle, THUNDER PERFECT MIND, in (almost definitely) London whilst simultaneously launching David Tibet’s long-awaited lyric book, SING OMEGA (previously titled Under the Rain and Teeth of Gods). Due to the nature of their rehearsals, and the availability of our chosen venue, this concert is likely to take place in July 2011—meaning a brief postponement from the previously-mentioned March publication date—but it is very important to Michael and David to bind together these two events and make each of them into as Hallucinatory a Playtime Dream as possible. It is likely C93 will be performing two nights. More details very soon.

Click here to buy Thunder Perfect Mind from Coptic Cat (2CD or download) or here to buy it from Jnana Records (2CD).

Current 93 cloth bags re-ordered

Thunder Perfect Mind cloth bag (bird colour) Dogs Blood Rising cloth bag

There have been a lot of emails asking about the Thunder Perfect Mind and Dogs Blood Rising/There’s No Hiding from the Blackbird cotton fairtrade bags which sold out very quickly. We have just re-ordered both of these—the Thunder Perfect Mind bag will be in the blue/green/jade we call ByrdColour, and the Dogs Blood Rising/There’s No Hiding from the Blackbird bag in the same red/black as before.

C93 German and (possibly) Danish dates added to March tour

C93 hope to play play their first-ever Scandinavian show in Denmark as part of their forthcoming tour, but this is not yet confirmed. More details as and when we have them. An extra German date has been added, at Cologne/Köln Stadtgarten on 29 March. We hope to see you there, as real as rainbows.

David Tibet ‘Baalstorm, Sing Omega’ original artwork for sale

David has added four pieces of his original artwork for Baalstorm, Sing Omega to the original artwork section of the Coptic Cat website. The first is ‘She is Naked Like the Water’, the painting used for the front cover of the CD and vinyl LP album; this piece is approximately (30 × 30 cm/12" × 12"), crayon and white ink on black paper.

The second and third are, respectively, ‘Anoükiem et Anok in Storm’ and ‘The Assault Against Christ and the Four Apostles by the False Moon and her Legions’ which were two more of the paintings David made whilst working on Baalstorm, Sing Omega for possible use in the album artwork. These pieces are both A4, crayon and white ink on black paper.

‘Anoükiem et Anok in Storm’ is presently in the hands of Devendra Banhart, who is including it along with two more pieces by David in a large group exhibition he is curating in Mexico City in February—more details of this exhibition follow below. The fourth and final piece, ‘ZOSer and Pavo Ascend as Egypt’, is now in the collection of Uwe Henneken and Katja Strunz and is being exhibited at the Berlin show mentioned elsewhere in this update.

All pieces can be found in the original artwork section of the website.

David Tibet ‘I Have Seen the Gnostic Awe and All’ original artwork for sale

David has also added images of the nine paintings in his I Have Seen the Gnostic Awe and All series which he did for the Fabio Quaranta T-shirt collection that will be released in the Autumn of 2011. ‘I Have Seen the Gnostic Glory 2’ is presently in the hands of Devendra Banhart, who is including it along with two more pieces by David in a large group exhibition he is curating in Mexico City in February—more details of this exhibition follow below.

All pieces can be found in the original artwork section of the website.

Test pressing of C93 7" available

Time of the Last Persecution sleeve Time of the Last Persecution handwritten label Black Flowers, Please handwritten label

There are eight copies available of the black vinyl 7" test pressing of the C93 single, ‘Time of the Last Persecution’/‘Black Flowers, Please’. It comes in the original sleeve, signed by David, and has white labels with the title and the group’s name written in black ink by David. They are £75 each plus postage and packing. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want one with 7" TEST PRESSING in the subject line. First come, first served.

Unique C93 test pressing box sets added to eBay

Two box sets have been added to eBay at the links below. There is only one copy of each.

One is the Like Swallowing Eclipses box set of Andrew Liles and C93’s reworking of early album material. This has all six albums as white label test pressings, with the titles handwritten by David. Also included is a piece of original artwork by David which was done for the box set but never used. The box set includes: the proper printed LP covers (into which the test pressings are inserted), the double-sided colour photographic insert and the printed box. So: this item is the same as the standard box set release, but with handwritten white label test pressings and the extra original artwork.

Click here to place a bid

The other is a test pressing of the German Vinyl on Demand Current 93 box set. This contains all eight white label 12" black vinyl test pressings, and the white label 7" black vinyl test pressing that was available to subscribers to VoD only. The records are housed in two black wooden silkscreened boxes which themselves come in a beautiful fine-linen silk-lined box with a Coptic text design by David on it. Each label has the titles handwritten by David. It contains all the original items from the original box set, which sold out on pre-order. So, this is identical to the subscribers’ edition of the box set except that the records are white label test pressings with handwritten labels; there was a small number of black card boxes, containing all the test pressings, with a drawing by David on the front of the box; these were sold privately. This box set is the only one in which the labels are handwritten. A list of what is in the two box-sets follows. Please notice this box set is very heavy, so be aware that the postage cost will reflect that.

1: CURRENT 93 4LP Unreleased Rarities, Out-takes, Rehearsals and Live 82–95 (VOD74)

Wooden box set, with embossed cover of blood-red C93 symbol, of David Tibet’s Current 93 project includes two LPs with unreleased rarities, out-takes, rehearsals and demos dating from 1983–1995 as well as another 2 LPs with four performances from Amsterdam (1984), Hamburg (1985) and Tokyo (1988) and an additional bonus 7“ with two songs from the 1988 Reykjavík performance and the complete London concert at the 100 Club from 1985. Also contained is a beautiful silkscreened poster made out of hand-made paper produced in Nepal. The box also contains a metal C93 badge and a 28-page booklet, with embossed cover, full of very personal photos personally selected by David Tibet from his archives. The booklet itself manifests a journey back in time to the first 15 years of Current 93’s existence.

2: CURRENT 93 4LP set including Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow, The Red Face of God, Emblems and As the World Disappears (VOD75)

Wooden box set, with embossed cover of blood-red C93 symbol different to that on Volume 1, of David Tibet's Current 93 project contains Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow plus The Red Face of God as a double LP; As the World Disappears, released for the first time ever on vinyl, and finally an official release of the legendary Emblems LP, which has until now only existed as a test pressing. Emblems was originally going to be a single LP of material that was initiially only released on the now-deleted 2CD Emblems, but it never progressed beyond a very limited run of white vinyl test pressings, which are now ferociously rare and expensive. The box also includes a metal C93 badge (a different badge to that in VOD74) and is accompanied by a beautiful booklet, with embossed cover, with very personal photos selected by David Tibet from his archives; this booklet is totally different to the one in VOD74. Members will also receive in addition a long-sleeve Current 93 T-shirt.

At David Tibet’s express request, the covers for all the LPs were supplied by the wonderful German, Berlin-based, artist Uwe Henneken, who has used C93 album, and song, titles for many of his extraordinary creations.

Click here to place a bid

Stapleton-Tibet album CD reissues

We are now working on the reissue of the two albums that David Tibet and Steven Stapleton recorded together. Both will be 2CD digipaks. The Sadness of Things will contain the two tracks from the original album, as well as ‘The Fire of the Mind’ from the Simply Being book by James Low and an alternate mix of ‘The Grave and Beautiful Name of Sadness’, whilst Musical Pumpkin Cottage will feature the two tracks from the CD album of the same name, the alternate mixes of those tracks that were released first on the vinyl album Musicalische Kürbs-Hütte and then later on the Octopus CD and the track ‘I Left Her for a Cartoon Octopus’, also released on the Octopus CD. More details as soon as they ready.

Don Bradshaw-Leather CD reissue

David is meeting Don Bradshaw-Leather’s sister once again when she returns to England in March/April to discuss the Coptic Cat reissue of her brother’s masterpiece Distance Between Us. This project is taking longer than we had both envisioned due to her recent relocation outside of the UK. She is very keen (as I am) to find extra material for the issue—photos, texts and perhaps even music. The release is still absolutely on and we are planning for it to be out later this year.

David Tibet painting in Berlin group exhibition

David has his painting ‘ZOSeR and Pavo ascend as Egypt’, which was used on the insert of the vinyl edition of Baalstorm, Sing Omega, on display at a group show called ‘La Vallée Patibulaire’ between 25–27 February at Caro Bittermann, Gustav Müller Str. 18, 10829 Berlin. Opening times: Friday 25 February: 6–10pm; Sat 26–Sun 27 February: 12–6pm. www.vallee-patibulaire.eu.

David Tibet paintings chosen by Devendra Banhart for Mexico exhibition

David is Over the Æon to have had three of his paintings chosen by the loveliest Devendra Banhart for a group exhibition entitled ‘La Migra!’ that Devendra is curating in Mexico City. The paintings are ‘Anoükiem et Anok in Storm’, ‘This Day You Will Be With Me in Paradise’ and ‘I Have Seen the Gnostic Glory 2’. The exhibition opens on 23 February. The exhibitors are as follows:

Zach Hill • Marc Bell • Eric Wareheim • Jerry Hsu • Beck • Melissa Shimkovitz • Kevin Long • Adam Green • David Tibet • Marilyn Manson • Fabrizio Moretti • Alia Shawkat • Nat Russell • Thomas Campbell • Travis Keller • Angeline Rivas • Keegan McHargue and Adam Tullie with one more person tba…

The show will be held at VICE GALLERY, Mérida 109, esq. Alvaro Obregón Col. Roma, Mexico City. www.viceland.com/mx

This update has been written by me, Anok Pe David Tibet, in

03 February 2011

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Albums and Singles

Autotehtaat Levyt

The future of indie rock mixed with electrorock funk is definitely indoubt. Black Audio are a Finnish pop outfit with a mission to be thebest club band ever, or so it seems listening to their slickproductions on this release. The sad thing is that their beats arederivative, and every track is ruined by the mispronunciation of aword, or a strange effect that throws everything out of balance. Thereis a lot of creativity in their music, no question there, but it hasvery little substance that can be called originality. This single,composed of one undisturbed track off their debut album and two remixedversions of album tracks, is enough to give a taste of the band andtheir flavor, but there is precious little here that would give me anycause to want to listen to their full-length at all. "Louisiana" iskeyboard funk with scratch guitar and a steady programmed beat, butit's crippled by the flatulent keyboard bassline, and the repeatedphrasing of "Yamaha" as "Ya-MAH-ha." "Rock 'N' Roll Egos" starts offfairly strong, with a labored rhythm and guitar bend, but it's thelyrics that ultimately do this one in, as well: "Yeah I hate therednecks, dislike hipsters even more/Getting along with mean morons forthe sake of business makes me a whore." It just shows that subjectmatter only gets you halfway there; next you have to carry the conceptto the masses on your words and feelings. Maybe something is lost inthe translation here, and that's part of the problem. "Mockba 1980" isa tribute to Finnish Olympic medal winners of the past, but the remixhere just plods at first, then annoys at the end with its blandkeyboard sounds and rapid-fire for no reason beat. It's a good attempt,and maybe there would be more on the full-length for me to enjoy. Withthis as an appetizer, though, I have very little stomach for the maincourse.

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03 February 2011

Administrator

Albums and Singles

V/VM Test

If brevity is the soul of wit, then the 99 remixes of Cock ESP on Hurts So Goodmust be the wittiest music ever produced. Close to none of these songsexceed the two-minute mark, most of them averaging about 30-45 seconds.It's an album tailor made for noise lovers with ADD. Cock ESP isanother one of those aggro-noise outfits with a wicked sense of humorand a predilection for transgressive fun. V/VM Test records iscertainly an appropriate label for this stuff, as much of their humorderives from brutal parodies of pop music and pun-filled song titles,poking fun at pop culture clichés and other easy targets. Thisadolescent satire has the potential to wear out its welcome quickly,but when it comes in such tiny little disposable half-minute packages,it's hard to resist. Just reading down the list of the 88 band namesand 99 song titles that make up the album is a fucking riot. A samplingof some of the more ridiculous band names: The Edible Scab Package, DJEnormous Genitals, U Can Unlearn Guitar, Obscuration/Albee Featuringthe Mellow Oaks First Grade Choir, Uncle Fatso, Kid666 and DJSmallcock. The song titles: "Don't Stop Bleedin'," "The Pursuit ofCrappiness," "Enjoy the Violence," and "Hologram of Balls." The musicruns the gamut — mutated voices, perversions of pop music, sampledmedia cut-ups, harsh blasts of industrial noise, aggressive drill n'bass techno, clarinet solos, a children's choir, field recordings anddrugged-up fucking about — some of it hilarious, all of it annoying,but certainly that was the intention. As an unexpected side effect,listening to this disc on random repeat mode all afternoon has given methe strange ability to read the minds of people's genitals. In fact,your dick just told me that it wants this CD. -

samples:

Madame Chao - Hologram of Balls (Horrorglam of Bars Mix)
DJ Enormous Genitals - Don't Stop Bleedin' (Enormous Cock Mix)
Arctic Universe - Too Good To Be Experimental (Ten Below Mix)

03 February 2011

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Transacoustic Research

Vienna's Vegetable Orchestra is one of only two vegetable musicprojects worldwide. They make music using only instruments crafted outof vegetables and various kitchen appliances. No sampling or looping isinvolved, and all songs are composed for live performance, the soundsgathered by what must be some of the best contact microphones in theworld. The group protests that this is no "just-for-fun project," andsuch a claim is easy to believe after listening to this, their secondfull-length release. Trying to decide just how this record, soundinglike a nice enough mix of spacious glitch-tronica and the windblown,percussive sound of early Kraftwerk, was rended from curiously alteredradishes, carrots, and eggplant, is at least a unique experience. Theorchestra's stated goal is "the interpretation and reconstruction ofelectronic music with organic means," the first part of which is anastounding achievement. With the aid of microphones alone, anincredible range of drone, crackle, and even straight noise travels theshort distance from vegetable to ear. They do house; they do dub; hell,they even cover Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" with an amazing amount ofclarity. The large number of sounds and reference points within Automatekeep the novelty cooking for far longer than one would expect. Thealbum falters, however, in accomplishing the "reconstruction" proposedin its concept. True, the element of surprise enters first as therealization sets in that these are all vegetable sounds, then againwhen it's clear that none of the sounds have been run through computersor looped. But the music, taken alone, is nothing shocking. Somestrange, noticeably unique sounds emerge every now and then throughout Automate,but no archly organic vibe is launched. In a time when computers canreconstruct and often augment any sound under the sun, vegetables thatmerely replicate computer noise, and do so somewhat derivatively, failto make a lasting impression. That said, the Vegetable Orchestra'sfirst album may not be directed at a reinterpretation of electronicmusic, and therefore may not find the same shortcomings as itssuccessor. Also, the orchestra's bimonthly performances are surelyspectacles to be reckoned with; at the end of the show, the group's ownchef cooks the instruments into a soup that is shared with theaudience!

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03 February 2011

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Quatermass

This is a mysterious piece of music. At times rising above nothing morethan a series of simplistic drum patterns and a possessed guitar, theeffect is radiates is eerie and strange. It's as if the wholearchitecture that the sound rested upon was made up of a liquid masssubject to change at anytime. Symphonic washes of melody that soundadrift on the sea are meshed with the sound of metal or wood beingground into a pulp and then recycled into a series of hypnotic rhythmsthat move each track along in a soft but drunken manner. On a tracklike "Random Hiver" the spectacular residue of this combination isnothing short of enchanting, but the hollow and vaccuous halls of soundsometimes become too plain and uninvolving. This is especially true forthe middle third of the album. Vocals samples are used early on in goodtaste to provide a sense of voyeurism within the music, but in themiddle portion of RI.Tit just serves to stretch out tracks that weren't meant to be stretchedout. "Aritec" and "We Watch Over You" are both far too alike to beenjoyable back to back. If it weren't for "Random Hiver," I might havebecome sick with the album too soon and missed the promisingconclusion. A series of sucking sounds (think snot) lead "We Watch OverYou" into "Cheyenne," a tune that creates an empty and strange embracebetween keyboards and drums. The drums never quite sync up witheachother nor with the self-destructing melodies fading and buzzing outof the sound spectrum. The end of the song is a mess of alien sound andinstellar noise that dissipates into thin air before the escapist"Enron State" topples into being and blows itself out on its own gustof wind. Yes, the song has a bit of a political tint to it, butnevermind such a distraction: the music is lovely. The end leaves mefeeling lonely and somehow depressed: the entire album just feels likea byzantine cathedral that echoes to the point discomfort. It'sgorgeous, without a doubt, but there's something about that void thatis unsettling; it's a space that's hard to look into without beingabsorbed by it.

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