18 March 2001

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Albums and Singles

The debut release fromJoon Hong and Varunee co-operator Chokdee Rutirasiri and hasmaterialized as the third release on the young Boston-based labelVarunee. Miro's first full-lengther was co-produced in Chicago withMatt Lux (of Isotope 217) and features contributions from Lux and a fewother area players. The disc opens up with an enjoyable Mouse OnMars-influenced instrumental bit, a moderate-paced melodic yet glitchypiece, from there the disc becomes somewhat sour and repetitious. Thefollowing eight tracks are good starts, but seemingly underdevelopedand homogenous. What works on here is the experimentation of sound: thecollective has found great uses for their gear, plays it well and hasmade the sound work for them in a great environment. The charming organsounds and analogue keyboards mixed with digital processing is somewhatof an accomplishment. Unfortunately the production is a bit muddy andrarely allows the instruments to really stand out with their ownidentity. What doesn't work on this disc is the overly dramatic yetflat vocals: this album should have been either entirely instrumentalor only had voice on two tracks. (Which ones I can't decide on becauseI'm not terribly fond of the singer or context.) On the up-side ofthings, I'll be interested to hear how this group progresses, as thisstart certainly has quite a bit of unrealized potential. Hint of advicefor new bands: start with singles, get experience, work your way up. Adebut album is an ambitious undertaking, both financially andpsychologically, rarely is somebody going to make a stellar debut. Evenif you do, chances are you'll always be compared to that debut or killyourselves trying to top it. Create a buzz and leave short but powerfulimpressions on the listeners.

• Besso
• Truck South
• Libertine

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18 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Thread is essentiallyJames Izzo and "Abnormal Love" is his debut for Middle Pillar.  Izzohas obviously put much effort over the past year into making this albumdynamic and diverse with a strong sense of continuity.  Each song flowsinto the next, several with the aid of brief segue tracks, to make onecohesive whole out of all the pieces.  We shift naturally throughpassages of sample collage, electro/ebm, orchestra, dub, pianoarrangement and ambient soundscape.  Three songs have vocals.  Izzo'sare a bit pallid on their own, as on part 2 of "The Horror of theUndeserved Gift", but more functional alongside those of former SWANSmember Jarboe.  "Biomechanical Intercourse / The Malformed Heart" getsthings pumping with a steady electro heartbeat rhythm.  "In SweetSorrow (Duet Version)" differs from the single version (see Thread "In Sweet Sorrow")in that it's shorter and adds Izzo's low pitched masculine voice ascounterpoint to Jarboe's light feminine vocals.  "Blue Darkness(Orchestral)" blurs unintelligible voices amongst foreboding orchestralsynth melodies.  "God's Morse Code" is a groove-y 9 and 1/2 minute livejam of  underwater alien dub featuring the help of two extra players. "Contours" is a bizarre and somewhat difficult mix of percussion andduet vocals, Jarboe especially taking on a more devilish persona. "Saudade" (Portuguese for 'homesickness') is a beautifully sparse solopiano piece.  And "Skyscrapers and Sand" and "New Horizons" bring thealbum to an optimistic close with over 8 minutes of mellow ambiance. Altogether "Abnormal Love" is Thread's most accomplished and impressivework to date.  This is not merely a haphazard collection of randomtracks, but instead a carefully thought out and arranged album.

samples:

• The Malformed Heart
• Contours
• Saudade

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11 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

20 years ago these songs began to surface on various compilation recordings. By the end of the 1980s, Senior Stapleton began collecting tracks together on 'Automating' collections volume one and two. Finally, the first volume is available on CD for the first time. The tracks here span the years from 1981 through 1984, a pivotal phase in the the NWW timeline as the music became less improvisational noise-based and more compositional in nature. All of the original tracks are here from the LP release plus one bonus, "Automating (Again)" from the 1984 French compilation 'Born Out of Dreams', which has never appeared on a NWW release. Listening with the LP and CD back to back, the differences are few but prominent: there's nearly one minute missing (a squealing intro) from the first track, "Duelling Banjos", plus the end of "I Was No Longer His Dominant" has a repeated loop of the last spoken phrase cross-fading into "Ciconia." One thing I can't decide on is whether all the sounds have actually been enhanced or if my vinyl version of this is just old with the grooves worn thin! That aside, the sound quality and mastering job are very pleasing to the ears. It also helps that are also some of my favorite NWW songs, with the downright silliness of "Duelling Banjos" (a different version than on 'The Ladies Home Tickler') through the spacious atmospheric "Fashioned to a Device Behind a Tree" and the severe annoyance of the looped girl singing "Na Na Na Na, Kiss Him Goodbye" in "Nana or a Thing of Uncommon Nonsense." Couple things to note: consult the website for a tracklisting as it's unlisted and excuse the catalogue number (as it shares the same number with Santoor Lena Bicycle!)

 

samples:

• Stick That Chick & Feel My Steel Through Your Last Meal
• Nana or a Thing of Uncommon Nonsense
• I was No Longer His Dominant

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11 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Alva Noto is digitalsound and visual artist Carsten Nicolai, aka Noto, head of the Notonhalf of Germany's Raster-Noton cooperative label now known simply asRaster Music. This disc is brought to us by fellow German electroniclabel Mille Plateaux and is referred to by them as being of the'digital processing' style. The 10 untitled tracks are a continuoussuite of minimalist compositions constructed of the familiar soundsthat seem to naturally emanate from everyone and everywhere in Germanythese days. For nearly 18 minutes Nicolai precisely codes structured,layered loops of clicks, pops, artifacts, 'beats', waves, tones,pulses, static, silence and noise into pleasant and listenablemini(mal) symphonies. The active evolution of each piece is both on amacro and micro level and the stereo field is fully explored ...attentive headphone listening ensures the full effect. And though thesounds are similar throughout, there's plenty of variation in how theyare presented within each track and from track to track, this alongwith sharp composition skills are the keys to maintaining my interest.Nicolai is simply one of the most talented in the field. The titleliterally means 'an original model on which something is patterned' soI can only assume that these prototypes will spawn more in the nearfuture.

samples:

• Prototype 2
• Prototype 6
• Prototype 8

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11 March 2001

Diane Lewis

Albums and Singles

Kilowatthours' debutalbum is a solid set that should please rock fans of all persuasions.Something like emo-pop that dabbles in post-rock, theirs is a stream ofsound with a gentle drift, deliberately channeled so that even at theirnoisiest, the songs are still melodic and sensitive. Tracks like"Kayla," "Run Home," and "Elipses" follow the tradition of dark pop ala Bob Mould: energetic rock with a sparkling sharp edge. Other songsvary in their inclination. Opening the album, "That You All Played"starts off with orchestral ambience soon brightened by a repeated lickand then a surge of warm guitars. Even when the song really starts tochurn, the grind is flavored by a mellow sweetness. "Strain of PositiveThinking" begins like a more hopeful Red House Painters with hushed,overlapping vocals, and bursts into a thundering wave of guitars andcymbals. A paradoxically playful and hopeless cover of "Candy Says"stays fairly faithful to the original version, though it turns theringing guitar arpeggios of the first into a twisting music box tinkle.Guitarist Chris Renn's dissonant off-key vocals are an affectionateparody of Doug Yule's ever sharpening pitch on the Velvet Undergroundrecording. Though the overall production is clear, it can sometimesseem a little flat, with vocals frequently buried in the background.Another complaint is that the Kilowatthours' carefully constructedsongs can sometimes seem a little restrained. Still, more intricaciesbecome audible with every listen, and it's hard not to admire theamount of conscious control with which Kilowatthours has apparentlyshaped its songs.

samples:

• Strain of Positive Thinking
• Kayla
• Candy Says

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11 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Emptylight and Hed Nod/Hushush gather 15 exclusive 'dark hop' cuts for this 75 minute compilation. Artists include several names I was already familiar with - Mick Harris, Ocosi, Su8m3rg3d, NOS, Dijislov and Not Breathing - and others that are new to me: The Dustmite, Zero ID, Shinitaika, Olivier Moreau, Silk Saw, I-drik, Montagnn, Larvae, Turn and Alien Radio Station. Most all of them do relatively the same thing, here at least, with beefy Scorn styled head nodders.No surprise there, but how do all these artists stack up against Mr. Hed Nod himself, Mick Harris? The shit doesn't really hit the fan (like I want it to) until the 10th track when Montagnn buries the preceding 9, including Harris' brief and squelch-y opener, with a more powerful and gritty attack. Larvae then ups the ante again with an even heavier duty, militant rhythm. Turn go ultra low and slow with seriously phat hip hop. Dijislov and Not Breathing thankfully go well out of their way to *not* sound like a Harris protege/tribute/rip-off with a wider and thus more interesting array of sounds. And that is exactly the issue I have with "Low End Recon" ... the 5 or so artists that aren't afraid to change it up some or get seriously low end really stand out amongst the others' lackluster to average tracks. There are no bad tracks per say, but certain ones you're really tempted to skip directly to and repeat. Harris' Hed Nod LP volume 4 and the final installment of the 'Threesome' series are due out later this year.

samples:

• Dijislov - Madness March
• Larvae - Red Line
• Not Breathing - Short Bus Blues

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11 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Two brand new CD-Rs arenow available from Terminal Kaleidescope in the EEC and Beta-LactamRings Records in the North America. First up is the third installmentof needles from Edward Ka-Spel. The disc includes more songs from oldvinyl releases "Dance China Doll" and "Perhaps We'll See Another ThinBlue Line" left off of 'Down in the City of Heartbreak and Needles'volumes one and two. Also included here are rare tracks like "TheColour Xhine" from 1993's 'Tape a Break' cassette-only release, "Fuse,"the B-side from 'The Man who Never Was' and some previously unreleasedcuts "Charlotte! Stop Climbing the Curtains" and "Mosquito Munch FullGlory" (an alternate mix of from 'The Blue Room'). While it's great tohave these classic songs available on CD finally, the various sourcestossed together in this CD-R makes for an unclear listening only arabid fan would really love. I'm also somewhat disturbed by the choiceof throwing transition music between a couple of the tracks on here, asa purist of sorts, I'd rather re-assemble the albums in their originalrunning orders. Due to destroyed masters and various other problemsthis wasn't possible however.
Nextup is a gathering of stuff hinted to for years, 'Kollabris' featuresten songs from friends and family of Legendary Pink Dots, including thegorgeous acoustic gem "Bring the Rain" from the 'Artwork' album, thehaunting "Pretty Something" from Lydia Tomkiw as well as a few TearGarden outtakes and unreleased LPD jams. Once again the die-hard fanswould find these songs excellent to have like the alternate versions ofTear Garden's "Bump" and "Georgie" as well as the amusingly titledshort but sweet album closer, "The Bomb Bomb Loopa Tribe Go to Swansea(and eat it)" or the 14+ minute extract from the Empathy session.Similar to the other collection, the artwork is simple and inexpensivewhile the price is rather steep. The rewards are high as a largepercentage of these songs have never been available to the public. Withthe help of BLRR in the USA, these two along with the first three TeKaCD-R releases are now much more easily available for those who don'thave access to Eurocheques and would rather not pay pricey shippingcosts. In the end, the cost works out rather even, so if you were gonnabuy them, you would have bought them anyhow.

 

samples:

• Edward Ka-Spel - Moments
• Edward Ka-Spel - Fuse
• Artwork - Bring the Rain
• Legendary Pink Dots - Super
• Tear Garden - extract from the Empathy session

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11 March 2001

Diane Lewis

Albums and Singles

The debut album of ex-Blue Airplanes member Hazel Winter is a blues-tinged, distortion-wracked set of ruminations on bad times and uncomfortable intentions. Winter's voice shifts from cracked whisper to murderous wail, evoking Portishead's Beth Gibbons and PJ Harvey. Coincidentally, perhaps, Put Away the Sharp Knives features the contributions of Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and Harvey producer and collaborator John Parish.

Despite the stellar line-up and absolutely vicious, fuzzed-out, and totally tasty mixes, song after song on fractured relationships and dangerous attractions can wear a little thin. That is, like the rantings of any perpetually angry and disturbed person, Winter's material comes on with seductive force, but gets a bit grating on the nerves. That criticism aside, several songs are standouts in this set. "Skin" seems to simmer with deadly quiet compared to the clamor of surrounding tunes. "It's hot as hell in here / You'll burn up on entry, burn up if you come near / It's hot as hell in here / Need a heat seeking missile to penetrate this atmosphere...Watching me undress / Can you see you're wearing one skin less?" Winter coos suggestively, though her voice is ice. "Running on Empty" opens with clawing guitars and reaches a rumbling howl with groaning guitar distortion. Simplicity wins again on "Slidedown," where subtle circling guitars are used to devastatingly desolate effect. The vocals seem their most intimate here: breathy, hushed, and breaking. The lyrics on "Dreamtime" are so exaggerated they're kitsch. "The lights are on and no one's home And there's breathing down my telephone / How did all that happen without me seeing/ How did all that blood get on my ceiling ... Dialing 999 I feel my face drain / The operator knows me by my first name." Overall, though the sound isn't completely fresh, the album occasionally has the power to drag you in-or under-with it.

samples:

• Dreamtime
• Slidedown
• Running on Empty

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11 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

It's been nearly threeyears since the last full-length album from the Michigan-based Windy& Carl, but the duo have hardly been inactive in the meantime.Along with the album released in 1999 as 5 Way Mirror with GregGasiorowski and various performances including every year's Terrastock,the couple have also been operating their own Stormy Records musicstore full-time. Thankfully a new album manages to surface capturingtheir signature sound of drifting guitar effects, drones and occasionallow-volume mix vocalizations from Windy. I'm almost left wonderingwhere the missing album is as their evolution from 1998's 'Depths' isan incredible leap. 'Consciousness' begins simply with a beautifulswirling glistening guitar melody from the opener "The Sun." The albumcontinues on with a mesmerising "Balance," a sligthly altered versionof "Trembling" which appeared first on 'Brain in The Wire Disc A.'Here, the almost indescribable shaking hum combined with warmundertones conjures images in my mind of traveling on a train throughautumn foliage with the sun strongly blaring in my eyes. I'm nearlyfloored by the almost real string sounds both in that song and thealbum closer, "Resolution", that once again I regret not being intoillegal substances! The rest of the songs show an impressive display ofspace and composition, molding the sound into a serene daze, buildingthem up and then letting them fade at the perfect time. Songs like "TheLlama's Dream" are almost too gorgeous for words to even describe, withan intense wash of sound blanketing the warm bass tune driving the songforward. 'Consciousness' might be one of those albums which could beused as ambience for many low-intensity activities, but the duo'smastery of subtleties results in a blissful experience from listeningat loud volumes in dark rooms.

samples:

• Balance
• Elevation
• Consciousness

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04 March 2001

Administrator

Albums and Singles

The second release in V/Vm's highly limited color-coded distressed-audio series has arrived as an orange/black splattered platter. Stockport's finest has delivered a top-notch selection of intense beefy noise cuts based on rawkus dancefloor anthems, with all due respects paid to Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers. To quote the sleeve,

"On the 7th of July in Shibuya, Tokyo, Noise/Girl was officially pronounced dead. Cause of death: an overdose of bald guys in black t-shirts 'experimenting' at laptops for hours, too much time at boring 'art' events when there was a dance club next door, too many lame Merzbow CDs released by uncritical foreign record companies, too many live gigs where the audience thought the disco tracks were 'ironic,' too many dumb articles about the difference between 'noise' and other music.
Noise/Girl was NEVER a 'noise' band, it was just a band.
They were the cutest,
They were the loudsest"

Aside from an intro like that I don't know what more to say except I find this one of the finest pieces of shit I've heard in the last few minutes. Seriously, the intensity of the first track alone is enough to send my booty shaking crazier than in my hornier college days. Cute and loud are perfect ways to describe these four songs screaming for attention to blast at the loudest volumes while stuck on the freeway, slaving away hard at the office late at night or getting ready for a Friday night romantic dinner evening. Banzai!

samples:

• Discopathology
• Alice in Boogie Wonderland
• Do You Remember Love?

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