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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As Sub Rosa's venerable series of anthologies continues at a rapid pace they still continue to both cite important classic artists in the field as well as draw attention to those who may have been overlooked by the ravages of time. It takes a brave curator to put the likes of Claude Ballif and Charlemagne Palestine alongside Sutcliffe Jugend and Masonna, but the tradition of excellence continues.Sub Rosa Over the 87 year span that this disc covers, the artists and works here are as diverse as expected given the wide berth of the artform that is presented. However, the set seems more highly polarized into the earlier experimentations from the late 1950s into early 1960s (Francois-Bernard Mache, Richard Maxfield, Helmut Lachenmann, among others) and to artists within the past 10 or so years. (Personally, I would like to see more work from the '70s and '80s included, as I think there is a notable period of development then as well, but that's just me.) The earliest recordings are consistent with those early experimentations: prototype oscillator swoops, basic electronic tones and cut up/spliced magnetic tape collages. It is definitely noteworthy to hear such techniques that have been used for so long here in their nascent stages: the rhythmic cut up junk splices of Wolf Vostell's "Elektronicher de-collage. Happening Raum" are definite forbearers of Merzbow's early flirtations with junk loops and Dada collages. The long "Luminere (Part 1)" by Dub Taylor also demonstrates what is now labeled "noise" in its earliest forms: spliced up cuts of found sound, pure noise, and early synthesizer experimentation.
For the duration of most of the second disc, there is more of an overarching theme that shows the development of voice from pure experimentation into sheer noise, culminating with the harshest of modern day noise. The early poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Raoul Hausmann demonstrate a tradition from words into pure oral sound. This is expanded by Gil Joseph Wolman and Leo Kupper, the latter's "Electro-poeme" especially is a rhythmic piece of live improvisations from 12 young people, making pure noise with their mouths without the aid of studio structuring or treatments. With these tracks placed together in this context, it is easy to see it is almost noise a cappella: noise made using the oldest and most basic instrument around, the mouth.
The modern developments of this attention to voice come at first in a more restrained context, a live run through of Pere Ubu's "Sentimental Journey" from 1978 focusing on David Thomas's tortured vocals, and Dajuin Yao's "Satisfaction of Oscillation," which uses more modern sampling technology to build songs out of the shortest of Mandarin Chinese words. The noise explosion begins on the one minute turntable/jazz freak-out of Ground Zero's "Live 1992," in which Otomo Yoshihide turntable torture is met with some of Yamatsuka Eye's best vocal spasms this side of early Boredoms and Naked City. However, this is almost quaint once the noise gets revved up.
The pure harsh noise end of the spectrum is ably represented by Takushi Yamazaki, better known as Masonna, and a recent track by power electronics duo Sutcliffe Jugend. The Masonna work is an excerpt of three tracks from the 1997 album Spectrum Ripper that, for all intents and purposes, could be from any of his releases. Not in a bad way, but he perfected his "seizure with a contact mic'd candy tin" style by this point, so there is a certain similarity in sound between this and, say Ejaculation Generater or Hyper Chaotic. His style is very well represented in this three and a half minute passage that most will either love or hate. The Sutcliffe Jugend track, "Blind Ignorance," is from their most recent This is the Truth album, and is among that disc's most harsh and violent works. As a band who manages to work on both sides of the "noise" versus "electronic music" spectrum, I find it interesting that their noisier side is the one chosen.
Again, both of these tracks show the development of the voice as an instrument of noise, Masonna’s manic shrieks and Kevin Tomkins’ angry yells are the centerpiece of their respective tracks. This subsection of the compilation ends on a more restrained note, Club Moral’s “L’enfer est Intime” from 1985 straddling that line between proto-industrial and current power electronics with DDV’s experimental vocals.
As previous editions, there is a wonderful accompanying book of liner notes and biographical information that provides a great background for the artists that are lesser known, as well as giving a good perspective on the tracks selected, and the reasoning behind the choices. As in the previous volumes of the set, the liner notes supplement the compilation well. I suppose it is inevitable that the choices in these compilations are beginning to get somewhat more obscure as the series wears on, and I am perfectly ok with that, it provides the opportunity to hear artists working in this field that may have not received the attention of a Pierre Henry or Francisco Lopez, but they are no less interesting. It does, however, make tracking down more works extremely difficult!
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The clown prince of avant drone pays tribute to his namesake for the 1000 year celebration of the original historical Charlemagne in Germany. Consisting entirely of his minimalist piano work, and remixing and processing by Christoph Heemann, this hymn to the apocalypse is a compelling one.
Again, the artwork that adorns this disc is a metaphor for the music: the almost whimsical outer Photoshop work of Palestine riding some bizarre leopard/horse hybrid with a grimace on his face (though seeing him as all Four Horsemen of the apocalypse is a bit of a stretch), while the inside painting of a modernized Hieronymus Bosch, complete with destroyed modern military equipment and animated skeletons make for an amusing contrast, which carries over into the music.
With the exception of the short opening piece of urban field recording that, with its heavy reverb and siren make it sound like a precursor to violence, the disc consists of one 45 minute live performance by Palestine using only piano that is subtly, but powerfully, treated by Heemann into a slow developing piece of violence and madness, played with a sense of glee by Palestine. This joy comes across like Nero's fiddling while Rome burned, Palestine pounding away on the ivories with a massive grin on his face while the world falls apart around him.
As is expected by a composer who has ties to Philip Glass and Tony Conrad, the songs are built on a drone of simplicity, often consisting only of a few notes played in rapid, repeating succession. Palestine attacks the lower register keys with a force that transforms them into carillon bells chiming with dread, mixed with higher end plinking and patterns. The rapid pace in which it is all played makes it difficult to discern whether the piece grows more and more complex in its chaos or if it is simply the human mind losing track of the notes. What is for sure, however, is that the disorienting pace only adds to the sense of dread created.
Christoph Heemann's processing work to the track seems subtle, but its effect is very strong. As the track continues through its lengthy duration, he slowly increases the overdrive and the reverb until, eventually, the track no longer has the color of the piano, but the sound of notes is compressed into pure shards of tone, sound and noise until it shifts fully into a rattling sheet of metallic noise. And then the piano comes to a dead stop, allowing the nuclear fallout and radioactive ash of the end of the world to slowly settle down around the listener, bits of sound resonating throughout the air.
The sound of the apocalypse certainly does blossom on this disc, a realm of sound that is as beautiful as it is ugly. Let us all just hope if this world does come to a crashing end anytime soon, there will be Charlemagne and his piano full of stuffed animals to play humanity out.
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These 12 solo piano pieces have been infused from the core out with FX and reverb, expanding the sound of the ivory sounds into swollen tones of filament and filigree. It is unclear whether the title inspired the music or the music inspired the title, but it is the perfect metaphor for this collaborative release.
A treenail is a wooden peg used in shipbuilding, water causing the peg to swell and hold together timbers. These sweetly engorged notes diffuse into each other making the songs on Treenails seem like whole entities instead of collections of played parts.
The use of varying degrees of repetition and reverb make a grand and gracefully balanced show of both the untouched and the altered playing. Both hushed and unadorned sounds huddle together in Treenails, some with the briefest starry halo of drone and some heralding hazier incoming skies. The use of reverb gives a rolling gait to some of the multiples of notes, movement and brevity keeping Paine and Crosbie from getting anywhere near new age territory.
It is only the 12 minute "Firestopping" that sails a little far from shore, and as the lengthiest track by a good seven minutes, it feels like it is swallowed a little bit too much effects. With the majority of the tracks being under three and a half minutes, the relatively short durations are more like passing periods of reflection than atmospheric pieces. It is undoubtedly beautiful stuff, songs re-forming in slow cartwheels and snatches of music heard as sonatas sinking through quicksand. They're too broad and full for mere sketches and are more mini-watercolors of mood that are stepping stones far beyond the similar experimentation of other artists.
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Diamanda Galás much-anticipated compilation of tragic and homicidal love songs, Guilty Guilty Guilty, will be released worldwide by MUTE U.K. on March 31, 2008.
from the press release:
In her 17th album – the first since 2004 –the dark queen of extended vocal techniques turns standards from jazz, blues, and country music into her own musical genre. Using the full extent of her vocal arsenal and a virtuosic piano technique, Galás carves songs of doomed love into haunting works that promise to rip your heart out. Featured on the album are her much acclaimed reinterpretations of Ralph Stanley's reaper song, "O Death"; O. V. Wright's "8 Men and 4 Women"; "Long Black Veil" made popular by Johnny Cash; "Time (Interlude)" sung by Timi Yuro; Tracy Nelson's "Down So Low"; her signature rendition of "Autumn Leaves"; and the favorite "Heaven Have Mercy", made famous by Edith Piaf.
Guilty Guilty Guilty delves into the grief and outrage of those whose love has been shattered. Sophisticated vocal weaponry combines with a driving, sometimes jaw-dropping, percussive piano style to conjure up raw emotions ranging from fleeting happiness to the terror brought upon by the death of love. With this new album, the avant-garde diva reaches into the heart of blues to take it to new, unheard-of places of lonesomeness, occasionally breaking into Middle Eastern scales or the ululating wail of the Amanes (improvised lamentation from Asia Minor)."Horror is Galás's great subject and her performances are an attempt to dramatize it," writes Greg Kot in The Chicago Tribune (October 2007). "But her music is also defined by empathy, an embrace of the abused, the underdog."Guilty Guilty Guilty's tracks were recorded at "Diamanda's Valentines Day Massacre," the Knitting Factory, New York City, February 14, 2006 (7:30 pm & 10:30 pm), except for "Long Black Veil," recorded at Tonic, New York City, March 20, 2006, and "Interlude (Time)," recorded at Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand, October 25, 2005. Recording and mixing engineer is Blaise Dupuy.
The band played for five years before recording this album and their experience together shows in the tightness of their arrangements and their ability to change directions at whim. Unfortunately, the songwriting usually doesn't do enough to distinguish them from countless other groups of the period. They are at their best when there's an urgency to their playing, especially songs like "Ricochet" and "Free," which have the hardest-hitting riffs. Also of note is their cover of George Harrison's "If I Needed Someone," a loose but impassioned take on the original. A lot of the other songs, though, are fairly typical psych rock with few moments of genuine excitement. It doesn't help, either, that the vocals are serviceable at best.
In the accompanying liner notes, bassist Joachim Ussing writes that the recording sessions ended prematurely every night because the producer and technician became too stoned to continue. This might explain some of the unevenness of the mix, with the bass in particular all but fading into the background for stretches at a time. With a little more technical attention, some of these songs could have had more impact. As it stands, it is still not a bad album, merely an ordinary one.
Recorded in Sheffield near the end of a European tour, the pair sound relaxed and fill the hall with the autumnal swell of their acoustics. The pair's babbling brook of notes shape "Cold Rain" into a perfect balance of song and winter breath smoke. Their gentle dishevelled playing turning into extended guitar runs, the blues pulled loose. Their choices here take a route connecting Delta phantoms and a stony set of grooves, the threads of their playing toying with plummets into psych paths. The most beautiful trail they wander is through "Anthem of the Cocola Y&T," a free-ish stumble bumble that adds a little dissonance while keeping everything above the waterline.
The only issue to take with the album is their predisposition to lyrical cliché, the standard word fuel of folk and blues is regularly plundered here. There's little difference between some of Meet Snake Pass… and the lyric books of many other mimetic performers. Ending on the briefly sweet note of "Freight Train," MV & EE show their simple duo side is their strongest.
The melody may be a little odd, taking a while to generate earworms, but has a real lamenting intensification. Purposefully or not, Hardwick seems to have been on a real Eno-esque run lately. In the face of such competition Machinefabriek come off worse, the balance between ingredients seeming a little randomly strewn. Left floating for a little too long, the elements used bring to mind some of the botch attempts at soundscapes made by Hafler Trio.There are a few endearing rough edges (feedback and static), but repeated listens don't offer anything further.
Part of the problem is that the group uses the same basic blueprint for each song, with little variation. The tempo remains constant from track to track, the bass never quite hits an engaging groove like good dub should, and the guitar is more of an accent than a lead. With little of interest to latch on to, I found my mind wandering far more often than not. While song titles like "London 67" and "Syd's Psychedelic Adventure" raised my hopes for something wild and offbeat, the former is overly introspective and mellow while the latter relies too heavily on samples, is only loosely psychedelic and not adventurous at all. All but one of the eight songs are over five minutes in length, meandering all over the place but not going anywhere.
The album's mood is consistently relaxed but lethargic, inspiring little devotion. What little atmosphere it generates is mostly lifeless, and the production is dull and antiseptic. More than anything, it just didn’t take me anywhere I haven’t been before.
Canadian electronic musician Hugo Girard has taken an interest in the subject of hypnosis and created an album based around the idea of simulating or accompanying a session through the employment of analogue electronic drones, sequences, and rhythms.
Hypnosis is one of those things people are eternally fascinated by and about which many myths have been generated, not to mention also spawning a self-help industry in which the process is utilised to aid in quitting smoking, overcoming phobias, and similar. Plus, who hasn't come across the thrilling mystery story plot where the evil villain (with the use of the ubiquitous pocket-watch and a ridiculous moustache) hypnotises some unfortunate innocent victim into committing a dreadfully heinous crime in his stead.
Vromb's music is characterised by subtlety of composition, constructed from washes of wave-like drones, subtle tones, and quiet electronic sequenced rhythms that constantly change and metamorphose; and strange voices speaking in French add to the sense of experiencing an altered state. The music has a serpentine quality, undulating and deeply hypnotic (pun intended), insinuating itself into the deepest levels of the consciousness and crawling into the crevices of the subconscious where the darkest secrets hide. The beauty of it is that there is nothing overt about the music; instead just the merest hint of a suggestive influence at work. Put the headphones on, lie back and let it all wash over and seep in. That said however, I felt a slight uneasiness bubbling away like an undercurrent, as if to point out that hypnosis is not necessarily healthy or beneficent and that like most things it also has a dark side; for me though it is that merest suggestion of an edge of darkness that defines the music's attractiveness. This could, indeed should, be classified as an intelligent rendering of ambient dance, the sounds and rhythms evolving naturally and following on one from the other easily; this is definitely music for the head and not for the feet. As reluctant as I am to employ comparisons I will just this once reference early- to mid-'70s Tangerine Dream as a way of providing some musical co-ordinates, especially in terms of the sequencer rhythms.
Personally I have always been a tad suspicious about claims that such music can induce altered states of consciousness, principally because the claims made seem so fantastic and overblown. What surprised me about this release was the fact that I caught a tiny glimpse of the possibility that specific sounds and cyclic tones can indeed produce the desired effect in the brains of those so attuned. Even on a purely superficial level this is a thoroughly relaxing album but not in the vapid or insipid New Age sense; this has enough darkness and bite to make it engaging and satisfying on both a musical and intellectual level, plus you could actually shuffle and sway to it if you were so inclined.
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