Podcast Episodes 721 & 722 are live!
Mid-November midweek special
Two new episodes are now available.
Episode 721 features Throwing Muses, Eros, claire rousay, Moin, Zachary Paul, Voice Actor and Squu, Leya, Venediktos Tempelboom, Cybotron, Robin Rimbaud and Michael Wells, Man or Astro-Man?, and Aisha Vaughan.
Episode 722 has James Blackshaw, FACS, Laibach, La Securite, Good Sad Happy Bad, Eramus Hall, Nonconnah, The Rollies, Jabu, Freckle, Evan Chapman, diane barbe, Tuxedomoon, and Mark McGuire.
Wine in Paris photo by Mathieu.
Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
...And the winner for the WORST album covers of the year goes to,.... QUANGO! Who have also came close to winning for most pointless compilations but were beat out by Mille-Plateaux, whose Clicks + Cuts volume 746 is a 23-CD compilation of bald Europeans exchanging emails.There was a time, I'm guessing around ten years ago, when Quango was a little beat-oriented offshoot from Island's Mango imprint. At the time, the label was daring enough (or appeared as such) to have sought out some pretty fine unique international electronic dance music. Now with the label resurfaced under new management, the only things to pop up are dust-collectors like this, a disc which features insanely boring 4/4 beats, tacky samples and predictable repetitions ad nauseum. The guilty parties this time around include Bochum Welt, Pub (with an Arovane remix), Move D, John Beltram, Blueshift and others I've never heard of nor want to hear until they figure out their gear a little better. Honestly, sometimes I think music's just way too easy to produce and manufacture.
Origami Galaktika are the most active 'unit' of several dozen under theOrigami Republika umbrella, an "open cultural network with 170+ agentsoperating in 18 countries on 4 continents" with origins in Norway (seehttp://kunst.no/origami/ for further information). This double CDremasters and reissues 2 of their ambient/loop albums from 1994 and1996. Six vivid paintings in the insert by Cicille RisÎsen complete thepackage. "Stjernevandring" is 2 tracks at about half an hour apiece.The lapping ocean waves and cold, dark and dense droning undertow ofthe title track become fully immersive within a few minutes. I amliterally sitting on a sound in Norway in the dead of winter and middleof the night watching a relatively calm sea break upon the moorings.Nautical bells appear and by mid track the waves disappear - but theyalways remain subconsciously - then reappear during a simple but spooky8 note melody loop. None of the other tracks has such a distinctaudible tie to nature but each evokes a certain feeling (which is all Ihave to go on really since I'm unable to translate the Norwegian andEstonian titles). "MÎnedans" is next and the feeling is one ofascension and reflection. We steadily climb upwards through the clouds,a constant soft drone being the guiding light. By the 14th minuteelectronics swirl in then settle into their own respective glide path.A few lone notes near the very end seem to deliver a favorable finaljudgment. Beautiful. Disc 2 is "Eesti Lilled Silmad SÙda" and it has 4tracks in the 10 to 17 minute range. It's just as good if not betterwith another palette of relaxing sounds: graceful, emotive drones andfaint hums, scrapes and rattles, sample loops of what sounds like atrain over tracks, a woman reciting text in a foreign tongue, the quietpitter patter of hand drums, rain stick and some ritualistic vocalmoaning. There is no hurry to get anywhere and that's fine by me. Infact, every one of these tracks could be the length of an entire disc,no problem. These albums are quickly becoming some of my favoriterecent ambient works, along with Stars of the Lid "Gravitational Pullvs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life" and Zammuto "Solutiore of Stareau".
You've either got it or you've heard about it. Maybe you downloaded allthe tracks online, paid tons on an auction or found it kicking aroundused or some cut out bin. Any way you slice it, this album cannot beignored. Now, ten years to the month after its original release, one ofmy favorite albums of all time is back in print. (With a few minoradjustments of course,...) The cover is the first difference I see: thefront shows a little bit more of the legendary painting StevenStapleton did on his outhouse, including his signature down at thebottom right corner, never before seen. The back is amazingly morelegible than the original release — which simply blew up a bit of thecover and used gold text — black background, gold text and a previouslyunissued image. The back of the booklet is graced by the backphotograph of the LP edition, but open the booklet up and sadly, thereare no lyrics included this time around. 
Who better than Einstürzende Neubauten to do the soundtrack for a post-Wall Berlin documentary (by German director Hubertus Siegert, see berlinbabylon.de)? This 37 and 1/2 minute disc is the latest in their color coded, digipacked soundtrack series on Ego/Our Choice, this one lavender in a photographic slipcase. Borrowing from last year's "Silence is Sexy", three versions of "Die Befindlichkeit des Landes" (The Lay of the Land) serve as the anchors and centerpiece while "Beauty" appears in a differing instrumental form. The themes of status and transition within "Landes" likely match those of the film. The remainder are mostly brief, Sexy style tracks or sound pieces requisite of many a soundtrack: whirring helicopters paired with orchestral overture, industrial debris and percussion workouts, snatches of Beethoven symphony, a cacophony of broken glass, a woman reading a German text in a storm, a bit of piano, etc. "Architektur ist Geiselnahme" (Architecture is Hostage Taking) is the one exception with Blixa singing in German. A lengthier version will appear on the soon to be released "Strategies Against Architecture III 1991 - 2001" double disc collection. "Berlin Babylon" is essential only for the most completist of Neubauten fans. I'm not so sure a CD was even necessary, I'd rather just hear it within the context of the film. And be forewarned - this is the first disc I've come across that uses a padlock technology to make it uplayable on a CD-ROM.
Little Annie, aka Annie Anxiety Bandez, is best known to me for her neurotic stream of conscious performance on "Thing's Happen" from Coil's 1991 masterpiece Love's Secret Domain. But, her extended discography stretches back to the mid '80s with several solo singles and albums including collaborations with Penny Rimbaud of Crass, On-U Sound, The Wolfgang Press, Current 93 and COH. She also paints (see cover) and participates in poetry readings in the NYC area. This 3 track disc pairs her words and voice with Joseph Budenholzer of Backworld and one Larry 'Super Model' T.
So, V/Vm releases 2 CD singles of Aphex Twink remixes and all the nerdyRicky James worshippers go insane that this happens. People startposting to newsgroups saying how much of an "outrage" this is withoutknowing the truth behind everything. Now we've got this, the Twinkhimself remixing an 808 State classic, "Flow Coma" (from the 1988 album'Newbuild') and DJ Pierre's "Box Energy", yet neither are credited onthis coverless release, issued by Men Records, a sub division ofRicky's Rephlex label. Where's the outrage? The funny thing is, thiskicks ass over much [if not all] of his original output over the lastfew years. I do love the retro-style cut-up collagery of the 808 track,created entirely from analogue gear in perfectly square 4/4 beats, nowmimicing much of the broken beat stuff James excels in. His remix of"Box Energy" also relies on the original's analogue 303-saturated acidnoises. The last track, "Bonus High Frequency Sounds" is a ratherunnecessary 2-minute tag to the remixes, no doubt a toss-off from AFX'smuch anticipated, much downloaded forthcoming full-lengther. Overall,it's a great little package for those who like to have fun with theirelectronic. Aphex fans do need to come to grips with reality, however:Ricky's a hack, quite admittedly good at it, but his best stuff isn'tnearly original. I know I'll get tons of hate mail for this one, but Ihave faith those hero-worshippers will eventually come around tolearning more about original music.
Manchester-based sound designer Andrew Diey has already shed theForeign Terrain moniker in favor of Black Faction after just threeyears and a handful of discs. Last year's stunning FT debut "LP 1" wasa soothing global audio travelogue comprised of over two dozen piecesof mild electronic ambiance and beats. "Internal Dissident Part 1" ismuch the same but does so with a lesser number of longer tracks (mostin the 6 to 10 minute range, 70 total) as sound effects, atmospheresand melodies are applied to relatively simple, yet very effective,electro beat box grooves. The dissident's journey parallels that ofDante's epic passage through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, "The DivineComedy". We begin in Diey's hometown but time and distance soon becomeirrelevant as we smoothly shift into other mindsets and geographiclocations. "Manchestique Concr³te" is a respectful head nod to thethriving local electronica scene, past and present. An early '90s IDMmelodic sensibility provides a lulling warmth as a slightly unsettlingverbal tick is conjoined to the rhythm. With "Virgil's Bridge" Dieyputs his commercial sound design skills to work with a virtualenvironment of otherworldliness and demonic voices. Most of the latterhalf of the disc once again pays homage to fellow Mancunian and friendBryn Jones, suffusing some of the trademark Arabic and electronicovertones and politics of Muslimgauze into the mix. In particular,"Sepia Indate" wails with regional instrumentation and "Afghan Frontv1.1" features sound bites of President Carter's condemnation of theSoviet Union attack on Afghanistan. "Widow Maker" brings the journey toa heavenly end as beautifully understated string/key melodies and beatsgradually build and break upon a sizzling canvas of static. Nice. Verynice. A 12" for "Manchestique Concr³te" will be out soon via Dal Riadaand Part II will be a live version of the album released as a limitededition LP, also by Soleilmoon.
Aranos has been a very busy Bohemian bee the past few years havingreleased a 7" on Klanggalerie, a 10" on Beta-lactam Ring Records andseveral albums including art/music collaborations with Nurse WithWound. Here the Ireland based multi-instrumentalist mixes it up withMilwaukee's Jon Mueller and Chris Rosenau of Pele and Telecognac amongothers. Seven oddly titled tracks make up the 45 minutes on thisedition of 500 on Crouton Records (croutonmusic.com). "The Other is Bflat" sets into motion a hypnotic lullaby of small metallic objects,electronic swirl, delicately plucked guitars and long, bowed violinnotes. The next four tracks continue the flow with a background becomesthe foreground sort of mellow surrealism: orphaned snippets of ambientwash/drone, the clanking of clutter, mildly distorted scraped electricstrings, minor electronic discharge and brief piano flutter. Inparticular, "Thinking of Penis and Vagina" makes me think of a lightbreeze propelling a rusty swing in an empty park just barely withinearshot of a train yard. "Now Sparkling Ice" is apparently all Aranosand it sounds that way. It's a peculiar yet warm vocal and violin piecein which he accompanies himself both vocally and musically. The firsthalf of the final track "Boiled Pear" violently churns through binarygarbage over stray piano/banjo notes and a floating backgroundpresence, then quietly settles through the latter five minutes. Farfrom random and abrasive, "Bleeding.." is accomplished and verypleasant indeed. The sort of disc that demands to be played from startto finish and you lose yourself in. The packaging is a pretty fold-upwith equally surreal poetry upon the flaps. Get this while you stillcan.
Those of you looking for Thalia to continue in the sound set forth byher former band, Come, are either going to be pleasantly surprised ormiserably disappointed in her new direction. I'd lay my money onsurprised. Listening to this record there was one immediate thoughtthat repeatedly came to mind: it's a shame this release will notreceive the great fanfare and praise and record sales it deserves.Thalia Zedek has a voice all her own. Throw out your Patti Smithcomparisons, as they're neither creative nor warranted. Thalia has thevoice millions would kill or die for. It's there, in its gorgeousscratchy beauty, in full effect on this, her first solo collectionwhich contains eleven tracks, three of which are covers (includingLeonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" -- a wonderful choice andexecution). Where you think you've heard Thalia before, think again.This release, if nothing else, proves that no one really KNOWS Thalia,nor what she is capable of. Chris Brokaw is along for the ride, but heis not at all in that classic Come form. Very subdued is this music,and rightfully so. That voice demands it. But the best part of "BeenHere And Gone" is hearing Thalia the songwriter move to the forefront.By the time you reach "Back To School," the second track, mind you,you'll almost be haunted out of your skin by this music. Then you hearthe lyrics, and it breaks you. "Can you tell that sometimes I can'tforget that I'm alive?" Incredible. The arrangement is also fittinglyspooky, with viola and trumpet in the most amazing places in the sonicpalette. Sure, it's a far cry from Come, but it sort of had to be,didn't it? In bringing the sparser, quieter instrumentation to thesesongs, Thalia reveals herself for more than she ever has before, andthe listener is blessed for the experience. All in all a fine release,so listen for yourself, already.
It's simply amazing to me some bands can be solely instrumental — which, to a certain extent, limits them — but still sound original, and capture a beauty that few bands, instrumental or otherwise, can even approach. Pullman's last release, "Turnstiles and Junkpiles," was a beautiful pass at acoustic guitar arrangements for this quartet, with no other instrumentation like percussion or keyboards present. The songs were stunning in their beauty and collaboration: a real triumph for these four musicians from such diverse backgrounds. This time around, Tim Barnes joins the core group of Doug McCombs, Bundy K. Brown, Chris Brokaw, and Curtis Harvey, which means there are drums on a lot of tracks, and a general nod towards more atmospheric explorations.
This EP from Some Place Else, Finland is a pleasant surprise; thesamples are used in an entertaining way, voices are nearly hidden withsome decent percussion and the electronic soundscapes drift alongconstantly mutating.
