Being thankful for an earful.
Brand new music by Marie Davidson, Niecy Blues (feat. Joy Guidry), CEL, Marisa Anderson and Luke Schneider, Stina Stjern, Carmen Villain, Murcof, A Lily, and Far Golden Pavilions, with music from the vaults by Tomaga, Ozzobia, Jan Jelinek.
Sushi photo by Lindsay.
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Wasting little time, Diana Rogerson is back with another album of unhinged and gloomy psychedelica. Aided this time by Andrew Liles, this album shows a marked difference to her previous releases. While some of the pieces are surprisingly accessible and (dare I say it) musical, the harder edges of this album are made of a far different material than the scratchy creepiness of Chrystal Belle Scrodd. This impressive album sees Rogerson shed the soft cocoon of A Bad Diana and bear her claws for the first time in ages.
No Birds Do Sing is a much more raucous affair compared to 2007’s The Lights Are On But No-one’s Home. The music thumps hard and constantly sounds like it is going to implode under its own energy. Rogerson gives what is arguably the best vocal performance of her career. She completely lets loose, swinging between a sultry devil on “Can I Tempt You With All This?” and a screeching harpy on “Should the Prayer Wheel Turn.” This sometimes makes for a difficult listen as she give such a pained performance that, much like Diamanda Galás, even though the pieces are incredibly good, they are too draining to listen to as often as I would like. Referencing the title of her last album, when she utters “I’m so scared because I’m still not, I’m still not at home,” it gives me the chills.
Musically, Liles brings with him the eclecticism of his other collaborations (there are shades of Fini!, his album with Faust’s Jean-Hervé Peron on the rockier parts of this album). The almost funky drum beats and keyboards of “Can I Tempt You With All This?” and its later sister track stand out in contrast to the exotic rhythms and instrumentation of the other pieces. There seems to be a move away from the Nurse With Wound moods and sounds explored by Rogerson with her Chrystal Belle Scrodd and A Bad Diana albums (perhaps due to Steven Stapleton taking a backseat here, providing only “post production consultation” and artwork). This has resulted in a freakier sounding album than any other NWW-related release I have heard. The uneasy Middle Eastern “Ever Afflicted With” is haunting and hypnotic, creating an unsettling mood that is then exacerbated by the pulsing, tribal beat of “Ki Denga Pepo.” Rogerson’s cries are merged with those of a baby for a truly disturbing experience.
Rogerson and Liles have put together a remarkable album. No Birds Do Sing is difficult without being completely obtuse yet at times it is also conversely one of Rogerson’s and/or Liles’ most accessible albums. It pushes and pulls the listener around like a rag doll; just when I feel I am going to break the duo relent for a moment, allowing a breather to recover. It makes for an exciting listening experience.
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LUC FERRARI: Archives Génétiquement Modifiées / Société 2 CD (ROBOT 39)
Robot Records is honored and pleased to present two historic
compositions for the first time on CD by the late, great Luc Ferrari.
The programme opens with "Archives Génétiquement Modifiées"
(Genetically Modified Archives), a work for "memorized sounds"
from 2000. This composition (subtitled: Exploitation of the Concepts 3)
was the third in a series of later pieces in which Mr.Ferrari revisited
aspects of his early concepts and compositional strategies to create
wholly new works. The result here is a very bizarre, sensual, and
beautifully-paced electroacoustic work of aural memories and
(re)collections created by Mr. Ferrari utilizing sounds from his vast
archive of musical activities.
After a short "intermission", the programmecontinues with a true
highlight of Mr.Ferrari's early instrumental workentitled "Société 2"
from 1968. Subtitled "And if the piano were abody of a woman"
(for 4 soloists and 16 instruments), this composition appeared
opposite "Presque Rien" on the legendary Deutsche Grammaphon
LP. "Société 2" may be viewed as an erotically charged piece of
musicaltheatre where the soloists "compete" for the attention of a
woman (the piano).This concerto with its gestures and a fantastic
kaleidescope of styles and color shows the extravagant qualities
of the piano in its "harmony,imagination,and brutality".
Packaged in a full color digipak with 20 page bilingual booklet featuring
Mr. Ferrari's early artwork, notations, and programme notes along with
an extensive commentary by Jim O'Rourke and Jay Sanders.Remastered
sound with audio restoration by fellow INA GRM alumnus Jean Schwarz.
A wonderful glimpe into the world of one of the most legendary,
unique, and inspiring musical figures of the 20th Century.
Please visit www.robotrecords.com for more details and secure online
ordering.
Robot Records
P.O. Box 120004
San Antonio, Texas 78212
U.S.A.
www.robotrecords.com
Thanks to everyone who voted in this year's Readers Poll. Once again you, the Brainwashed readers, have voiced your opinion on the best and worst of the year and the Brainwashed staff and contributors have voiced our own—occasionally clashing—opinions. All the best wishes for 2009!
Album of the Year
(The winners of this category are calculated by the total number of points they received for all their entries in the poll.)
(The winners of this category are also calculated by the total number of points they received for all their entries in the poll.)
(As chosen by the Brainwashed Staff and Contributors.)
(Masami Akita)
"For many of us miscreants, the work of Masami Akita played some role in the development of our painstakingly esoteric musical tastes. Tint, a maxi-single from 1997 for the long-defunct Vinyl Communications imprint, was the first Merzbow release I ever purchased, essentially because of its low price. As a young college student hungry for new sounds, I initially found this jarring work to be, yes, unlistenable. Yet during this time I learned to appreciate and delight in the aural catharsis unlocked by Merzbow's wanton abrasiveness. Though his superhuman prolificacy often draws jeers and exasperated sighs from many, I have encountered many jewels (several practically at random) from his vast and growing discography, including his unparalleled Satanstornade collaboration with Russell Haswell. From the sadomasochistic themes of Music For Bondage Performance to the more recent animal rights sloganeering of Bloody Sea, Merzbow has always attempted to infuse some sort of message into his releases, clearly to reject any detractor's claims of the meaninglessness of noise. For almost thirty years, this nerdy looking Japanese guy has been smashing eardrums on his own terms, all the while cultivating a following of fanatical consumers and appreciative followers. As lovers of difficult music, we all are all Mr. Akita's debt for the doors he opened, the artists he inspired/inspires, and the creative path he continues along." - Gary Suarez
"Merzbow has his ups and downs, his good days and his truly awful days. Yet this is all part of his longevity. Those crap, throwaway albums on obscure and forgettable noise labels are as much part of Masami Akita's appeal as classic albums like Pulse Demon, 1930, and Venereology. His music is all about no control and no holding back so it is fitting that his release schedule operates in a similar manner. This is why I feel that he is worthy of this award. He is one of the most singular artists in any realm of music. In a world where credability is a meaningless term, Akita is a defiant slap in the face. That he is still making such intimidating noise after almost 30 years is remarkable, that we are still listening (and able to listen) after this long is incredible!" - John Kealy
"I will say that this has been a banner year for Merzbow. I've digested more than I think most sane people ever would this year but three of his releases this year, Eucalypse, Dolphin Sonar, and the Pinhas collab have easily been his best (and quite diverse within his body of work) since round about 2002, and easily filling up most of my top 5 merzbow albums." - Michael Barrett
These are indeed the losers, those who received the most negative votes from the poll entries.
Cat Power, "Jukebox" (Matador)
La Fever Lit is Larsen’s eighth album in 13 years of activity, it is also first studio album since 2006 Seies, after the double live Larsen & Friends CD/DVD set Abeceda. Also being released at the same time is a deluxe Larsen live LP titled LLL.
La Fever Lit features the legendary dubdiva/post-punk-cabaret icon, from Crass to On-u sound via NWW, Coil & C93, Little Annie aka Annie Anxiety Badnez.
Musically, La Fever Lit opens slowly, intentionally & deliberately. La Fever Lit could be considered the most focused Larsen record yet but at the same time it's also their most experimental and floating. Much of the material on La Fever Lit was composed for architecture, having been written to be played in Torino's landmark Mole Antonelliano which is now a national film museum. Performing from the elicoidal stair inside the huge dome of this futuristic building, Larsen spread out massive revererations of sound and bouncing lights upon the audience. Somehow, these bouncing lights are a big part of Larsen's new sound.
Cinematic pop, illuminating rhythms, musical weightlessness and the nocturnal noire narrative style of Annie Anxiety.
Larsen delivers one of their most unique musical offerings but it's ultimately Annie Anxiety who defines the album. Having seen Larsen live a few years back she offered to sing and La Fever Lit was the perfect record for her vocal companionship. Her lyrics, her moods and her delivery, especially on Lefrak City Limits, deliver the listener to an old and twisted reality, drowned in melancholy, where characters lives suddenly make sense if only for a few suspended seconds framed in frozen time. All of this happens while Julia Kent delivers her most beautiful offerings to the Larsen sound and Marco Milanesio's production is so in tune with Larsen's sound that he is able to extraxt the textures that their music is built on.
Every listen brings you a little closer to La Fever Lit.
Tu Ark
Lefrak City Limits
Partial
Ever since his breakthrough Endless Summer album, Christian Fennesz has been well regarded as an artist and composer in the world outside of the beard stroking listeners that labels like Touch and Mego cater to (myself included). On this album, it's not hard to see how this crossover happened: even with all of the odder and less decipherable digital elements, there is a core of melody that is beautiful and undeniable.
The opening title track is the centerpiece of the album, a 10-plus minute composition of squeaky, waxy textures, gentle organ tones, quiet noises and soft acoustic guitar. It is a long, but dynamic composition of varying textures of harshness and beauty that is really unmatched by most other things I've heard this year. It is nicely balanced by the closing "Saffron Rebellion", which is similar in structure and approach, but different in color and timbre.
"The Colour of Three," featuring guest musician Anthony Pateras on prepared piano, is of a similar structure, based upon raw digital flanged sounds and heavily effected guitar tones. The mix is heavy and lush, but also warm and inviting. Even through all the abstraction, the gentle musical elements are clear throughout, ending with subtlety and the more plaintive piano elements. This warmth is also notable in "Perfume for Winter", a shorter track of carefully controlled guitar feedback and crackling bits of static that are as warm and comforting as a fireplace in the winter.
There is a darker feeling to "Glide," which is a collaboration with Rosy Parlane: its static backing and reverbed clanks are rather desolate until thick organ tones swell up, giving a richer, more angelic coda to an otherwise bleak song. Less dark, but more mournful, is "Glass Ceiling," with its muted electronic tones and oddly treated electronic elements, with occasional bits of audible, clear guitar thrown in.
In some of the pieces, Fennesz is content to allow his guitar playing to go untreated or effected: acoustic guitar stays the focus on "Grey Scale," even with subtle electronic effects and elements around it. The electric guitar plucks on "Vacuum" are clear and pure enough, along with the crystalline electronic chimes that, even with the more abrasive ending, never strays away from calm and relaxing waters.
As an album, Black Sea is a captivating and engaging disc that not only has a strong, solid feel to it, but each of the individual tracks are their own separate entities as well. The sheer complexity and depth of the tracks are the album’s strongest suit, and the underlying sense of song and melody that are here makes it transcend from the world of just complex intellectual music into an immensely fascinating and inviting work that anyone with a sense of hearing should be able to appreciate.
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On his second full-length release, this young Greek composer continues refining his technique of meshing abrasive electronic noises, pure digital drones, and field recordings into small audio ethnographies that are more than happy to make jarring, unexpected transitions.
Consisting of two 20 minute pieces, the first half, “Komdu! Hvert?” is the more subtle and simple of the two tracks. Opening with quiet rushing water that gradually and gradually increases in intensity, it is met early on by a deep pulsing bass tone that can definitely cause pain at higher volumes.
This slowly transitions into a whistling track of white noise, the bass thump replaced with a droning low end tone, slowly being met with looping found sound elements and other indecipherable textures. Eventually sheets of shimmering tones and chirping birds become the focus of the track, a more ambient and lighter resolution to a dark beginning. The piece closes with a high-tension line like hum and the sound of crickets, a perfect metaphor for the combination of organic and synthetic presented here.
“Torched Estates” is, in comparison, simultaneously more complex and dissonant in comparison. It begins with sheets of rain that get louder and louder as a high frequency emergency tone cuts through the mix, which is painful enough before a swelling of digital noise becomes the focus, all culminating into a violent quick digital squelch before falling away, leaving an eardrum numbing bass note.
This constant rumbling eventually enshrouds a subtle bit of static and clicking that stays consistent, eventually allowing layers of analog lo-fi noise to come in and command attention. While it begins to resemble a harsh noise recording in intensity, dynamically it stays sparse enough to allow the subtleties to be heard, rather than just violently commanding attention. It ends with the emergency type tones that opened the track, the sound of a typewriter, and eventually a shrill, tinnitus inducing tone that would make Ryoji Ikeda proud.
While still a young composer, Thanasis Kaproulias is already establishing himself as a powerful and innovative artist in this field of experimental music. His attention to detail is especially noteworthy, as is his use of pure electronic as well as organic found sounds in unison. I foresee Novi_sad being regarded as among the top experimentalists in the very near future.
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While the debut album from Loop stuck with a traditional use of psychedelia, by their second disc they had refined their own take on the subgenre. Rather than using just the traditional wah and tremolo guitar effects, they created their own direction in space rock via brittle guitars, abstract studio effects and more avant garde instrumentation. However, through all of this they still managed to make powerful, speaker damaging rock that demands to be played loudly, and Fade Out is perhaps their most fully realized work.
Reactor
I will never understand why there was the feud between Loop and Spacemen 3. Other than they both mined their own approach to 1960s psychedelic rock, there was little resemblance in other ways: Spacemen 3 were more sparse and minimalist, with almost folk underpinnings, while Loop added a bit of Motorhead to their Hawkwind. The bass driven and angular noise guitar of opener "Black Sun" is much more aggressive and blistering than anything Jason Pierce & Sonic Boom ever put out.
While they still employ a lot of textural elements throughout, most of the songs are yet again driven by strong, melodic lead guitar work, with Hampson's vocals falling deeper and deeper into the mix. The exception is "A Vision Stain," which the lead melody is buried in wah compared to the rest of the album’s leads.
Loop’s greater focus to harder rock elements is most apparent on tracks like "This Is Where You End" and "Pulse," both of which appear in a more stripped down form on the second disc’s Peel Session tracks. The album closer "Got To Get It Over" is another example of this: reverb buried vocals under a steady beat and a repeating guitar sequence that never gets tiring, yet commands loud volumes.
It is only the long title track that is an overt antecedent to Heaven's End, with its slower pace and heavy tremolo on guitar and vocals that could almost be an outtake from those sessions. However, with its placement in the middle of the album, it makes for a more relaxed, pensive spot in an otherwise dense and dark album.
Again, the tracks added to the second disc here are mostly alternate mixes that do not differ too drastically from the album takes: the feedback version of "Black Sun" adds additional guitar feedback loops to the original track: the heavily reverbed stabs make a dark track even more aggressive. The original mixes of "Torched" and "Got To Get It Over" are also pretty similar to the album takes, just a bit rawer and less polished. As with Heaven's End, the Peel Session tracks here are just sparser, less layered recordings that actually benefit from the lack of treatment and effects.
Perhaps most interesting is the five tracks of guitar loops that were used as textural elements on the album, presented here in their original form. While simplistic, these mostly mournful sounding bits of repetitive guitar noise clearly show that Hampson was thinking more abstractly even with Loop, and experimenting with sounds that would eventually come to fruition as Main. Just like Heaven's End, the remastering job is excellent, bringing out details that were originally too muffled in the original issues, and the mini-gatefold LP sleeves are very well done.
My only real gripe with this release is a minor one: I miss the CD bonus tracks of Collision and their covers of "Thief of Fire" and "Mother Sky" that closed the first pressing of the disc. However, those are slated for inclusion on the upcoming three disc The World In Your Eyes singles collection, so I just have to be patient. I first tracked down this album around this time of year 10 years ago, and relistening to it after awhile was one of those warm and fuzzy nostalgic moments. In the 20 years since its release, it still is a timeless and fascinating listen.
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Criminally out of print for over a decade, Loop/Main leader Robert Hampson has finally spearheaded the reissues of the entire Loop backcatalogue, remastered and with the now requisite bonus tracks. The most obvious things these reissues show is just how much of a force Loop were, how they stood out from the era's so-called "shoegaze" bands, and how they laid a blueprint for New York's loudest bands today—moreso than numerous other citations.
Reactor
My first exposure to Loop was actually via Hampson's more esoteric experimentations as Main and his tenure in Godflesh, neither of which is similar to his early work with Loop. However, once tracking down their Wolf Flow Peel Sessions album, I was hooked. Originally issued in 1987, Loop’s first of three full-length albums channeled the 1960s psychedelia into a more conventional (and rock oriented) framework. The opening feedback and layered wah guitar of "Soundhead" begins the album with a blast that never really relents, a constant barrage of metronomic drums and fuzzed out guitar bliss. Interestingly enough, Robert Hampson’s vocals are the clearest and most up front they will ever be, as they slowly faded into the mix during the reset of Loop’s career and became near inaudible by the time Main was active.
The title track is perhaps the perfect encapsulation of the Loop ethos of the time: a wah and tremolo drenched field of guitar noise and hypnotic thumping drums wouldn’t have been out of place on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack, while the HAL 9000 samples from 2001 drop in to add a bit of futurism to the work.
One of the strongest elements of this layered and distorted din are the underlying melodies that make the songs much more memorable than other artists who worked in similar lands: the repetitive but catchy guitar melodies that underscore "Straight To Your Heart" and "Too Real to Feel" are some of the strongest assets. Even when the pace is slowed down for the more restrained "Forever" and "Carry Me," the latter sounding like a replaying of "Soundhead" on Quaaludes, the mix is thick and dense. While their songs may have a minimalist structure to them, the band had a maximalist approach to the dynamics and guitar sound.
The bonus material disc included here is nothing revelatory to Loop fans, but the more reverb drenched mix of "Soundhead" and the rawer run-through of "Head On" are interesting, as is their apocalyptic drum machine and two chords-only take on Suicide’s "Rocket USA."
More importantly to the neophytes, the disc also includes the first Peel Session the band recorded. Considering my first exposure to the band were the Peel Sessions, I tend to favor these versions personally, but the less polished and stripped down take of "Soundhead" puts the emphasis on the guitar melody, and the echoed, less processed take on "Rocket USA" is just as good. However, the real treat is the sprawling 10 minute performance "Straight To Your Heart" which, removed from the studio effects, loses none of its hypnotic power but grows in intensity.
As a first album, Heaven’s End was a more cohesive and fully realized work than most bands manage to put out. While it lacks clear diversity from track to track, it all adds into the hypnotic, repetitive vibe the band thrived on.
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Some CDs beg to be played over and over again. This is one of those times when the disc absolutely refuses to go back into its case and demands to go back in the player. Normally I cannot listen to an album more than once a day but Larkin Grimm's third album makes for a rare exception. It is perfectly performed and the recording itself is flawless, this is one of those rare albums that impresses from every conceivable angle.
Grimm’s music is as oddball (in a good way) as her description on the Young God Records website makes her out to be (brought up in a cult, tales of the Alaskan wastes, a shamaness and a vagabond lifestyle either make for a very interesting person or a highly contrived back story; Grimm seems genuine). There are no pretensions of weirdness here, just the feeling that she knows her own path but it does not necessarily cross with the main road. Label mates Fire On Fire play on the album, as do members of the Angels of Light, which makes for a familiar mood from the offset but that is not to say that Grimm’s music is overpowered by the distinctive styles of the many players here. Her personality and quirks shine through undiminished.
For an album full of energy and life, the opening song “They Were Wrong” paints a very different picture. It is a quiet and chilling song, Grimm intones “Who said to you you’re going to be all right/Well they were wrong, wrong, wrong/In my mind you’re already gone.” With this as my first exposure to Parplar, I was expecting a soul-wrenching descent into deeper and darker places. Yet almost immediately after “Ride That Cyclone” brings the album around full circle in mood (although lyrically it is still dark) and style. The lurching rhythm is like one of Michael Gira’s (who produces the album) but like a cyclone the music spins around the listener in a dizzying and breathtaking manner. Elsewhere on Parplar, cartoonish vocals and distinctly off-kilter lyrics make for a strange listening experience; songs like “Dominican Rum” and “Mina Minou” add a surreal vibe to the album and make Grimm’s musical persona as interesting as her biography sheet.
As refreshing as the odder moments on this album are, thankfully Grimm balances the weirdness with some exceptionally strong songs in a more “serious” style. “Anger in Your Liver” and “All the Pleasures” are a pair of brief but enjoyable songs in the middle of the album that show Grimm in a more traditional songwriting light. Both songs make it evident that Grimm does not have to hide behind some absurd mask, she has enough talent to let the songs speak for themselves when she wants them to.
It is hard to find any fault with Parplar. Granted, the freak folk scene has been flogged to death and whose corpse has been dragged through the streets in a macabre mockery of itself but like any style, there is always going to be someone who can pull something of worth from something that seems exhausted. Grimm fits this bill and I urge anyone with even a passing interest in good, honest music to go out and buy this.
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This duo of the classically and modern compositionally inclined Simon James Phillips and The Necks' less formal but equally brilliant Chris Abrahams have created quite an intriguing collection of improvisations. Every piece is a piano duet and the album crosses a wide spread of styles and quality; moving from cold, modernist works to pieces with a bit more swing and heat to them, Pedal are inconsistent in ways that both help and hinder their music. While there are a couple of less than stellar moments on this self-titled album, they are more than counterbalanced by the mesmerising and evocative pieces that make up the bulk of the music.
Things get off to a rough start with “Security,” which sounds a little like one of John Cage’s sonatas for prepared piano (minus the prepared bit) but is not as engaging by any stretch of the imagination. This fairly insipid opener does not reach out and grab me on the first encounter nor does it become any more appealing on returning. It nearly put me off pursuing this album fully as it does little justice to the pair’s talent and potential, especially when there are some gems peppered throughout the disc. Abrahams and Phillips can come together well to create beautifully haunting duets such as “The Afterwards” (which should have been moved forward by one track and opened the album). There are elements of Morton Feldman’s piano works seeping through and the music sounds like swirling water, the currents building up to create torrents before settling into a calm drift again.
Pedal never get as fired up as The Necks, the white heat that Abrahams can generate has been kept in check by Phillips’ more restrained approach to the ivories. That being said, the music never becomes so frigid as to put me off. There are times when the music does come close to being ignorable such as on “Herzog,” but for every dull moment on this album, there are at least another two which are fascinating. And for such a rocky start to an album, the final piece is as close to perfect as is humanly possible. “The Passenger” is only slightly less good than “The Afterwards” from earlier on in the album but these two pieces alone make the album worth trying.
It would be a shame if this was the only fruit stemming from this meeting of Phillips and Abrahams. Delicate and sombre, this album hints at the future of this project and how good Pedal can be.
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