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!
While it's not my practice to review things nearly impossible to get, this CD deserves a mention. My first exposure to this Australian quintet was through their song on Fat-Cat's "No Watches.No Maps" collection of demo songs from bands they weren't going to pursue anything with at the time. What I heard can be described as somewhat derivative from an Aerial M/Tortoise/Fridge sound but their mastery of musicianship, songwriting and production skills are quite appealing. Inside the disc there was contact information listed, so I wrote to them and said I wanted to hear their album, with possible interest to send it to some friends at labels/distributors but I had no intention of writing about it.
Phil Western has at least a decade of experience in electronic musicand is currently a member of Download and platEAU. "Dark Features" isthe debut release from Vancouver based The Record Company and it picksup right where Western's 1998 solo album "The Escapist" (co-produced byTim Hill, who has also played with platEAU) left off. This is premiumtextured techno: a thick mesh of synth and sample ambiance andprogrammed beats with additional organic elements like voice andguitars. Phil's vocals appear on half a dozen tracks - they're moreunnecessary than they are annoying, ditto for many of the numerous,seemingly random spoken samples. "Fight No More", "Dirty" and "DMT"ride strong bass and guitar grooves, the latter one being as active asthe psychedelic substance it is named after with Western singing theword 'dimethyltryptamine' over a bright and bouncy pop riff. Gorgeousambient moments endure in several tracks, most notably the tail ends of"Embryo" and "Duke". "Bring That Home, Buffalo" is downright peculiarby throwing banjo playing into the mix. But the most surprising andstunning track of all, the one which will surely confound many alistener, is "Be the Fool". Here Western sings and plays acousticguitar solo for an emotional and atmospheric song that approaches thesound of late '80s American Music Club. Great stuff. I hope Westernfurther explores these heretofore unrevealed singer songwriter and popproclivities. Act now and three more techno oriented tracks areavailable on a bonus orange marble 10" with the first 300 orders directfrom the label at colourspeaks.com .
It's times like this I'm happy to be a turntable owner and cackle withglee at all the dumb sods who got rid of theirs. Yes, exciting thingscan still happen in the world of vinyl. Kid 606 and a tiny assortmentof fiends have all contributed to a series of four brand new seven-inchsingles on the Tigerbeat6 label. Of the eight sides represented here,606 appears on three, the rest filled by usual castmembers Cex andElectric Company along with some newcomers Com.A, Timeblind and JosephNothing. For each track, the said artist has taken large chunks of rapand hip hop tunes, (much like the now legendary "Attitude" release) andfucked them up beyond the point of commercial acceptance. The endresult is much to my liking and would be for anybody else who prefersthe comical dementia in which the tb6 crew and v/vm hacks excel in.There's a bonus however, and here's the magic of the vinyl medium: atthe end of each side, as the main track falls into silence the needlefalls into a locked groove — in order to hear the bonus bits, you needto get up and manually nudge the needle into one of two bonus lockedgrooves per side! These grooves ain't nothin like that noise stuff Nonwas doing over 20 years ago, as quite a large portion are carefully andmathematically precise beat loops. Charming, tasty andever-so-rewarding.
As Glasgow's Tramway building evolved from train station into arts space, Zoviet France were present recording the ambient sounds for use in their commissioned themes for the Scottish Arts Council. Though you'd hardly believe it from the mostly non industrial nature of these very comfortable soundscapes. Five tracks range between five and twelve minutes apiece and the remaining four serve as in-between filler. In "Something Spooked the Horses" a constant warm drone and panning scratchiness are overlaid with yearning strands of pedal steel guitar. "Electron Gate" gently pulsates a bass loop as microscopic bits click and fuzz. "Pyroclastic Flow" is noisier with some possible power tool abrasion honed into layered drones. "Spiiltek" is dancing plastic chips and electronic blips which relinquish to the deep bass waves beneath. "Light Abrasion" closes with a higher pitched wall of sound and occasional cricket like chirping. All in all "Decriminalisation.." is an engaging work of auditory art. And it's as suited for busy high brow art rooms as it is lonely late night bed rooms.
Did you get that last Múm release reviewed here a couple months ago? Ifnot, what's the hell's wrong with you? "Yesterday,..." was their debutfull-lengther, and without blinking or thinking twice, a new 45-minutedisc has surfaced. This time around, Morr Music in Germany brings usthe release, which consists of two band new Múm originals and sixremixes from various Morr musicians. The irresistable bliss begins withthe first moments as the group presents the opener: a delicate chiminglooped melody set against broken vocal maniplations and various otherrandom noises. While I hate to draw comparisons, the second track couldalmost be a tribute to an era which has long passed for Autechre, asthe pace picks up and the electronic glitchery becomes more prominent.From there, the remixes begin, at the hands of Styrofoam, ISAN, Phonem,Christian Kleine, Arovane and Bernhard Fleishmann. Tastefully andtactfully, the mixes on the whole expand on the original two songsenough to the point of distincion, but aren't so haphazardly assembledso the disc sounds like a various artists collection. The pace doesn'tstray and the prettiness only lends itself to the occasional creepy'Children of the Corn' child-like feel. Spooky yet attractive, like thelast disc: when it's playing in the car or in the house, friends willalways ask "oooh, what is this?" Sadly enough, that's often followed bya disappointing trip to a local shop which will come up empty-handed.It can be found, I've seen it advertised, it just takes a little moreeffort, and the rewards are worth the work.
This compilation of ancient out takes, b-sides, live versions andremixes leaves one amazed as it's still stunning material, nearby 20years later. There's somehow no logical progression in the runningorder; neither chronological nor from the developing mood whilelistening. Play it on shuffle (or random) mode and you'll get the samewild mixture of all which Shriekback once where famous for;Unconventional use of all styles and instruments, sound explorations,brilliant lyrics chanted or spoken in a nearly hypnotizing manner, awhite funkiness with punk attitude and transforming the song-writinginto a track shaping (alongside The Slits, This Heat, 23 Skidoo, ThePop Group and others).
It's the same story we've all heard countless times. Band has hitsingle on MTV Buzz Bin. Band's album does reasonably well in US,selling a couple hundred thousand copies. Label wants new record tocapitalize on success. Band goes into studio, records album farsuperior to first record, but artistically more challenging. Label saysthey don't hear a single. They want a song that sounds a lot like thebig hit single. Band balks, and asks to be let out of contract. Labelagrees, but holds on to rights to album, making it hard for band torelease it. It seems the label in this story always seems to beElektra, by the way, and it is in this case. The band this time is NadaSurf, and the album is the recently released "The Proximity Effect,"originally scheduled for release in 1998. The album was available onimport for a while, as, curiously, Elektra DIDrelease it in Australia. But now, the record gets it's domestic debut,with a few changes. It's missing their cover of "Why Are You So Mean ToMe?" that was on the import, but they add an original bonus track totake its place. It also features some multimedia content. But whatabout the songs? Nada Surf's big hit, the quirky and funny butotherwise totally forgettable high school anthem "Popular," gave noindication of where this band could go musically. "The ProximityEffect" is a tour-de-force record, showing off the strengths of theband members brilliantly. From the opening track, "Hyperspace," thelistener is introduced to the new Nada Surf. More high-energy thanslacker, more melodic than speakeasy, and better songwriting thanbefore, the band is musically light years beyond "high/low." andMatthew Caws' voice sounds great. They do it all here: high speedrockers, angry tell-offs with loud power chords, gorgeous slow powerpop, and mid-tempo rockers with a message. It's a fantastic album, andwell worth your hungry ears. Since the band released it on their ownlabel, it may be hard to find, but that just makes you appreciate itmore, doesn't it?
Coil fans may have been a bit taken aback when Thighpaulsandra's releases started to surface on Eskaton. The music was a mishmosh of genres from improv jazz to neo-clssical and glam rock, unpolarized over the course of an overwhelming 2½ hours. This compact extended-play single lifts the title track from its 30-something minute surroundings and extracts all overbearing drones into a comfortable well-focused 3½ minute ambiguous yet infectious pop tune which could easily be about An American Scenester in London, Miami DJ or Danny McKernan.
Here we have a digipacked pair of ~scape label related various artistsdiscs. Both feature many of the usual suspects (and several lesserknown ones) who labor in the labs where electronic, jazz and dub musicscollide and coagulate.
On the other hand, "Staedtizism 2" resonates with digital precision.And same as the first volume, this one has only a few artists actuallyfrom the label's roster - Jan Jelinek, Burnt Friedman & The Nu DubPlayers and Kit Clayton - along with System, John Tejada, Process,Nolte, Bus, Beige, Sad Rockets, Headset and Low Res. While there'sstill some glitch, it seems to no longer be as in vogue these days asthese tracks refer more to easy listening jazz and dub, electronicallyof course. Jelinek's "The Village Vanguard" churns through microscopicbits of old jazz records while Headset's "Dustmite" uses passages ofsquawking horn. The liquid keys of Nolte's "21st Century SchizoidMan.." remind me of the jazzy runs in Coil's "The Snow". Tejada's "AWorld So Wide" is bright and airy, coupling easy going bass and cleanguitar melodies. Bus' "Tamed Lion" and Friedman's "Xyz (Our Version)"dip furthest into the dub end of the spectrum while Clayton's "PaintingBetween Numbers" is probably the most experimental, looping andlayering electric piano notes into oblivion. Though all these artistsare of a similar mindset, they also remain on separate if not paralleltrajectories.
Any band that sets out to deconstruct rock on its releases isimmediately going to turn off some listeners. US Maple don'tnecessarily turn off listners, they lambast them with their loud guitarattack and, sometimes, annoyance, and yet dare them to listen more. Itstill turns some listeners off. I'm still on the fence. Don't get mewrong: this is the best US Maple release yet. If you were going to buyone, make it this one. Previous releases have seemed disjointed, tooimprovisational, even, with moments of brilliance. "Acre Thrills" islike the band's mission statement. They are here to break the rules ofrock. They are here to lead the way. And every moment is well executed.The start of the album with "Ma Digital" shows us the familiar twoguitar whine assault and what Spin magazine once called the "UnholyWheeze" -- Al Johnson's voice. It really is original in its completedisregard for a unifying structure, and the collective band members areproficient, even deadly with their respective instruments. And it'sheavy, menacing as all get out on some tracks. The Wheeze even soundssexy, if you can believe that, going from low growl to CraigWedren-like vocal magic. One song even features the most fascinating ofscientific myseteries: real cat purrs. And Brian Paulson, that indierock king of clean, loud sound, does a great job bringing the band'ssound out to play. It's just not all that thrilling to me. It's a goodthing that the lyrics are in the book, too, because I sure as hellcouldn't tell what was being said on some songs. But it works on manylevels, creating a soundscape that is worth listening to, even if itdoesn't grab you all that hard. US Maple succeed in deconstructingrock. But if it's deconstructed rock, what is it, exactly? And will youlike it? Give it a try, especially "Acre Thrills," their best effort todate.
"Augmented Lines" is Somatix's second CD album after more than thirtyvinyl releases on labels across the globe. Originally coming from thebreakcore/hardcore techno scene, their debut on Hymen, "Circumflex,"garnered them lots of new fans and a much more broadened knowledge oftheir sound. Therein lies the album's problem. "Their sound" is sospecific that one can recognize a Somatic Responses release easily,regardless of which it is, and to my ears, it ends up getting stalepretty quick. "Circumflex" was great because it was polished, evil, andit was the first Somatix I had heard; it filled the gap that had beenleft by the steadily-increasing-inanity albums Panacea was putting outafter "Low Profile Darkness." I gradually picked up a couple more 12"sand although they were good, I found them to be little different fromeach other. "Augmented Lines" plays out like, well, Somatic Responses.To their credit, it is more mellow and features some different moodsthan "Circumflex," but if anything, I'd have preferred them to goharsher and noisier. Though it's not a bad album, it is far from beinganything new, and this is Somatix's greatest downfall. If you're new tobrothers John & Paul Healy, purchase "Circumflex" and decide fromthere if your thirst is quenched: if yes, stop; if no, purchase some12"s and this second album and see how you feel.
