Mute
Suicide changed my life. This summer, New York City was treated to anexclusive one-off concert of the legendary duo of instrumentalistMartin Rev and vocalist Alan Vega at the Knitting Factory. Drenchedfrom the downpour outside, I shivered with my beer until they arrivedon stage and proceeded to show this jaded critic just how powerful aseemingly simple two man performance can be. Ripping through a set ofclassics ("Ghost Rider," "Cheree") and more recent material ("DeathMachine," "Misery Train," the unreleased "Friday Night Fever"), Suicideenergized the entire audience again and again, ultimately leaving touproarious hollers and applause. Immediately afterwards and still, Iconsidered this night to be one of the greatest musical experiences inrecent years, rivalling several notable shows including the return ofPsychic TV.
Suicide changed my life. This summer, New York City was treated to anexclusive one-off concert of the legendary duo of instrumentalistMartin Rev and vocalist Alan Vega at the Knitting Factory. Drenchedfrom the downpour outside, I shivered with my beer until they arrivedon stage and proceeded to show this jaded critic just how powerful aseemingly simple two man performance can be. Ripping through a set ofclassics ("Ghost Rider," "Cheree") and more recent material ("DeathMachine," "Misery Train," the unreleased "Friday Night Fever"), Suicideenergized the entire audience again and again, ultimately leaving touproarious hollers and applause. Immediately afterwards and still, Iconsidered this night to be one of the greatest musical experiences inrecent years, rivalling several notable shows including the return ofPsychic TV.
Greg Davis has illuminated the link between sound and light. Perhaps,when the universe was first unfolding, the explosions sounded like buzzsaws or pure white noise, but when the heavens came to be and from itsconvulsions the universe produced stars and angels, the sound generatedmust've been close to the music on Somnia.
It is unfortunate for Matt Waldron (Irr.App.[Ext.]) that his reworking of the Angry Eelectric Finger raw material was alotted Volume Three status, as he has used many of the same sounds as Jim O'Rourke used in his Volume One. Although both albums are excellent listens, perhaps owing to the strength of the source material, both artists have done little alteration and their volumes sound a bit too similar at times.
While O'Rourke presented an LP very much in a Nurse With Wound style,Cyclobe have obliterated most traces of Stapleton and Potter's rawmaterial and instead produced a freak out of frayed electronics thatsounds much closer to the work of their former colleagues in Coil.Although their "Part One" begins with sparse drones and eerie ambience,the stereo field soon becomes a battleground on which sharp bursts fromanalog synths whirr back and forth.
O'Rourke's version of Nurse With Wound's source material keeps veryclose to the spirit of a Nurse With Wound album. This is partly due tothe common reference points both artists share, but partly because itseems that he has used much of the raw material provided by Stapletonand Potter without changing it at all. Nurse With Wound and O'Rourkeare two of the few artists who can sustain interest while essentiallypresenting an entire LP side of creaking sounds set against doom ladenambient soundscapes.
It's frustrating that one of the best Nurse With Wound albums in recentyears will probably slip through the cracks of formatting politics.Available to purchase only as a bonus vinyl LP with a pre-order of allthree collaborative albums, Raw Material-Zero Mixmay not be heard by many people. Although it was merely meant toprovide source material to be reworked by Jim O'Rourke, Cyclobe andIrr.App.(Ext.), this album should have been released on its own.
Though Ned Oldham has never needed to live under the shadow of hisfamily name — like it would be a bad thing if he did — he has recordedmusic with his brothers in a number of projects over the years,including his own The Anomoanon. This has helped shape the style of hismusic, but on Jojihe steps out large in his own direction, creating one of those recordsthat many will point to for years to come as the sound that defined theband and others in the genre.
Soleilmoon's new DVD release of 1998's Live at La Luna
VHS adds absolutely nothing to the original release, sharing the same
set list and running time, and boasting absolutely zero extras. Most
disappointingly, the DVD does not even have chapter stops, making it
impossible to cue forward or back at anything more than double speed.
Would it have killed Soleilmoon to put some chapter stops between
songs?
