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.
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It isn't until the fifth track of 'Hoshi No Koe' that you hear musicstrongly resembling the majority of Nobukazu Takemura's previous work.In and of itself, this isn't such a bad thing. To continue to rely onthe same reverb-laden, scratched, looped, and manipulated CD soundswhich have come to be so closely associated with Takemura (as well ashis "Child's View" alias) would have been redundant, if still quitepleasant to listen to. With the release of the "Sign" 12-inch a fewmonths back, Takemura signaled a shift away from the avant-gardeindulgence of 15-minute tracks of skipping digital beats, and towardsan almost danceable mix of vocoder-enhanced vocals, 4/4 rhythms, andcatchy melodies - and which kept his trademark sound as coolornamentation to what was his most single-y track yet.
The Angels of Light are the current song writing device of Michael Gira of Young God Records. How I Loved You, follow-up to 1999's superb debut New Mother, commits to tape many of the songs from the now legendary first tour and others written since. It is a collection of love songs of sorts with references to various women and Gira's parents, whom grace the front and back cover of the digipack.
The debut full-length from Belgium's Scratch Pet Land resembles what anaudio Rorscharch Test might sound like. Fans of the quirky Sonig soundfrom groups like Vert, Mouse On Mars and Wang Inc. should be warnedthat the proverbial happy blippy sounds don't really jump in until thefourth track and don't stay very long as this German duo seems to havean amazingly short span of attention. Given the chance however, thisfull-length debut is quite pleasing, with creative crack addict-likemelodies and noisy audio scribbles. There are spots where the soundsappear to be strange mutated samples of kids hiccuping in a playground,short tunes of randomized aural splotches, or a musicallyimpressionistic walk across a stained glass carpet crunching betweenyour feet. When the melodies do arrive they stand as shining moments ofan almost Kraftwerkian tributary nature. Forty-two minutes of randomtest tones, pots, pans, circus animals, babies and flying saucer soundslater I'm left somewhat confused, but rather satisfied. 
Thomas Brinkmann is a prolific producer of numerous minimal/experimental techno platters, both digital and analogue. His tools here are simple but unique: a knife, a pile of old records, 2 turntables, a mixer, an isolator and an effects unit. If I'm to understand the process correctly, Brinkmann literally cut the locked grooves into the records and then played and mixed them to create the 10 4-7 minute, binary titled tracks.A circular rhythmic shuffle of thuds, thumps, scratches, static pops and clicks is not only the foundation, it's the entirety of each track. The first and last tracks also contain minute vocal tidbits. Brinkmann seems intent on culling music from where there is no music to create a sort of 'techno'. "0011" becomes increasingly abrasive as the revolutions increase. "0100" playfully plasters high RPM skips. "0101" manages an almost dub resonance with reverberated pops and a gentle energy hum. "1010" simply declares "Berlin" a few times in a boisterous voice amidst the clutter ... perhaps an unnecessary reminder of the most likely place on Earth that such music would come from. Altogether "Klick" is rather clinical but surprisingly varied and enjoyable. There's plenty of groove to be found and enjoyed within the grooves.
Taking a break between albums, the Tied & Tickled Trio have released a brief 8-song collection of remixes from last year's "EA1 EA2" album. The disc is released through Morr Music in Germany and features remixes by Console, Kandis, Max.Ernst and others. For the most part the remixes basically go one of two ways. Some of the tracks are pumped up discotheque versions of the songs while others take a route accenting the more jazzy elements. The Max.Ernst cuts are quite watery with obnoxiously repetitious horn loops while the Console mix flows nicely with an element of technological mastery.
Console, a.k.a. Martin Gretchmann a.k.a. 'that guy in the Notwist who -isn't- in the Tied & Tickled Trio' has also released a disc of remixes, but this one's from the other side of the mixing board. 'Console Yourself' is eight tracks of other peoples songs remixed by Gretchmann, over the course of three years, including an overlap from the Tied & Tickled remix disc. Also featured on the disc are remixes of Isan, Barbara Morganstern, Ammer/Hage and even a Console song remixed by Console. Gretchmann's mixes stand out as he's got a keen ear for when to keep a loop going and when to kill it. While both of these discs are good to have for collectors, they're nowhere to start for people who aren't existing fans already. I personally recommend the most recent full-length albums from each of the three, Console's "Rocket in the Pocket", Tied & Tickled Trio's "EA1 EA2" and of course the Notwist's "Shrink." With any luck at least one of these entities will release something excellent later on this year.
Phill Niblock is a drone specialist. Everything he composes pursues the same drone idea but he varies the textures drastically by utilising different musical instruments. His pieces are supremely mind altering, and this release on the continually engaging and intriguing Touch art label is the most hallucinogenic dense and intense recording I've heard from him, or anyone else for that matter.
Ah, the obligatory 'best of' album! Chances are you've sampledsomething from, but perhaps not something from each era of, Pigface'sdecade deep oeuvre. The history of Pigface is inextricably tied todrummer / ringleader / Invisible Records head honcho Martin Atkins withsome 100+ members (as listed in the insert) having passed through therevolving door. The talent amassed on stage and in the studio isstaggering and includes most everyone in the rock and 'industrial' rockunderground. The musical result is varied and impossible to pigeonhole,taking in elements of punk, funk, noise, dance, etc. Disc 1 collects 20(!) re-edited, re-mastered tracks representing the 4 studio albums,emphasis on "Fook" and "Notes From the Underground", and a few of theremix/live EPs and albums. The editing merely tightens up everythingfor maximum disc capacity and the remastered sound is most clearlyevident on the most dated studio material, "Suck" and "Point Blank"from "Gub". It all sounds great and flows well through the years with afine track selection courtesy of fan submissions. Disc 2 is the realincentive for long time fans with 9 of the 15 tracks being previouslyunreleased nuggets: brief interviews (Atkins, Ogre, William Tucker),songs either aborted or in an infant form ("Dribble", parts of whichbecame "Empathy", "Taiko" which became "Asphole"), re-mixes (includingnew versions of "Chickasuarus" and "Hips, Tits, Lips, Power"), and anamusing radio ID. These include Dirk Flanigan, Astrid Welz, Jim Marcus,Andrew Weiss/Ween, Black Francis and Robert Santiago of The Pixies ...some accomplished pieces and others spontaneous, fun and loose jams."Preaching to the Perverted" does just that but does it with style. Anincarnation of Pigface will likely tour later this year. 
The second release in the over-priced under-packaged series of livediscs on Mute's Jenny Divers label is another concert from Panasonicrecorded in 1995. This recording however was from one show in London,(as opposed to the two-show in NY release reviewed a few weeks back).The sound is much different as the group knows how to cater to thedifferences in fans and concert goers in both cities. While the NY showwas full of meaty bass-heavy beats, this disc is littered with moreintrospective art-school class "A" electronica, with much aim to pleasethe stuffy London chin-scratchers searching for irony in an electronicconcert. The disc is considerably shorter, totalling only 53 minutesbut thankfully is indexed track-by-track. Once again, only the seriousfans need to worry about shelling out the stupid cash to pay for thisslab of black plastic accompanying the CD, each without artwork. 
Kid 606 wasn't far from the truth when he claimed that "Matmos are the A-Team of electronica" — the new full-length album is a triumph for this San Franciscan duo. Their fourth album follows along the progression taken with 'The West,' moving even further away from random technological fuckery on their first two to create a cohesive, conceptual, organized result.
The band that made aname for themselves by loudly invoking their own anonymity andobscurity since 1972 is not really about secrets anymore. Many of theirprojects from the late 1990s up until now have been very high-profile,with backing from large software companies, international tours, andtons of product ranging from the typical t-shirts to little statuettesand build-'em-yrself model kits. Even the faces and identities of theband members — once the carefully guarded secret around which theybased their marketing — are apparent enough to the fan who does alittle bit of research. 'The Residents' has become, quite deliberatelya brand that is applied to a range of product. That's why the groupwants to be sure that the product with their brand name on it is up totheir quality standards. When it isn't, as in the case of this CDreissue of the "Assorted Secrets" cassette of rehearsals from 1984,when they lose a bit of that control, is when the music gets the mostinteresting. 
Somewhere way up north,an Opera is coming together featuring Stockport's finest. V/Vm wasthere in secrecy at the scene of the crime: the Crown Inn, MD in hand,stealing the sounds coming from the stars. Little did they know thattheir secret revolutionary plans were to be documented, exposed,reproduced and distributed. Four contributions from five of the starshave fit on this slab of thick black wax, seven inches in diameter(where would the music community be if everybody turned to metric,huh?) Meatgrowth, Miss Bill Apauling, Mrs. Attitude, and a stunningduet between White Sox and Sandals have all made their appearances.Select audio transition periods have been carefully inserted withlittle intervention from the V/Vm Test Records label. Listening, Ithink I've heard Sandals before on the AuralOffalWaffle - recordingoriginally as CC White, this stellar singer is now performing duetsunder a sneaky new guise. I don't know what the full opera is going tosound like but it's destined to become one of the year's best of theworst.
