============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 451 ------------ week 49 ------------ TILIA - VOUS RÊVES/ VOUS NE RÊVES PAS (CD by Cronica) SON OF CLAY - THE BIRD YOU NEVER WERE (CD by Komplott) JOHN HUDAK - ROOM WITH SKY (CD by Spekk) PAN/TONE - NEWFOUND URBAN CALM (2CD by Bip Hop) EVIL MOISTURE - KILLER NUTS (CD by Deco) CO - COMOC (CD by Mik Musik) MOLR DRAMMAZ - VERY VS VERY (MP3 by Mik Musik) ILIOS - VENTO ELEKTRA (CD by Antifrost) MATTIN & DION WORKMAN - VIA VESPUCCI (miniCD by Antifrost) MJANE - PRAYER FROM THE UNDERBELLY (CD by Pax Recordings) SOPHIE RIMHEDEN - MISS (CD by Svedjebruk) SUPERCILIOUS - NEXT TIME WE GO SUBLIME (CD by Monopsone) VERTONEN - RETURN OF THE INTERROBANG (CD by C.I.P.) PINEY GIR - PEAKAHOKABOO (CD by Greyday Productions) BOOKS ON TAPE - THE BUSINESS END (CD by Greyday Productions) MUSIC FOR BABY (CD compilation by Amorfon) HEMATIC SUNSETS AND OKKO BEKKER - WEIHNACHTEN IM AROMA CLUB (7" by Meeuw Muzak) JOS SMOLDERS - TEXTURES AND MOBILES (CDR by Con-V) K - SUPER PREIS (CDR by Phonoerotic) ZVUK BRODA - AEROBIK (CDr by Egoboo.bits) MUGEN - [/END] (CDR by Pachinko Studio) MING - VERSUS THE GREAT SATAN (CDR by Carbon Records) HAL MCGEE & RICK FRANECKI - MOON EGG RABBIT STAR (CDR by Hal Tapes) HAL MCGEE & RICK FRANECKI & BRIAN NORING & CHARLES RICE GOFF III - EXCURSIONS (CDR by Hal Tapes) DISSECTING DISASTRATOS (MP3 by Audiobulb Records) TILIA - VOUS RÊVES/ VOUS NE RÊVES PAS (CD by Cronica) Cronica, the fine Portugese label, always seems to find artists which are new to me. Tilia is one Alexander Peterhaensel, a composer from Cologne, who had various works on labels as 12Rec/Rotesonne, Subway Records and Rattay, which all have escaped this listener. Originally 'Vous Rêves/ Vous Ne Rêves Pas' (meaning 'you are dreaming/you are not dreaming') was a multi-channel piece for the "Who_Loves2dance.company". It's mainly built around piano loops, but also involves bass and voices. All of these ingredients are mingled through the use of computer processing, so scratches, clicks and cuts are all part of the dish. Analogue meets digital here in a rather nice way. It would be easy to see the minimal piano loops in the tradition of Steve Reich, but it lacks the overtones. It's rather more like Simeon Ten Holt meeting post-rock, especially when the bass drops in. The mumbled spoken word add an alien feel to it, and the electronics top things off nicely. Quite atmospheric music. On the same CD there is also the complete film that belongs to the music, and here I was quite surprised to see that it consists completely of abstract images, moving along the rhythms of the music. I expected something less abstract and more narrative I guess. So in all a nice surprise throughout this release. (FdW) Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org SON OF CLAY - THE BIRD YOU NEVER WERE (CD by Komplott) Much water has passed through the river since I reviewed the debut CD of Son Of Clay, aka Andreas Bertilsson (see Vital Weekly 355). I wasn't too blown away by the result, even when the concept sounded really nice: sampling sounds from the environment (windows, doors, balcony), but the result walked too much common ground. "The Bird You Never Were" however is a big step forward. Still using field recordings, such as squakey chairs, are argumented by the use of acoustic instruments, mainly guitar, clarinet and percussion. These instruments provide gliding textural tones, which add a nice brooding atmospheric sound to the music. Among his influences, Son Of Clay sites Talk Talk, and I see a reference to Talk Talk's 'Spirit Of Eden': similar melancholic sounds, that sustain all the way, until the end, but with Son Of Clay even more embedded in a modern classical approach. Small, miniature like but complex compositions that evoke, each, its own sense of beauty. On the fringes of sound art (execution of sound material), modern classical composed music (in it's complexity) and popmusic (it's shortness in music). This new CD blows the previous completely away. (FdW) Address: http://www.komplott.com JOHN HUDAK - ROOM WITH SKY (CD by Spekk) John Hudak slowly builts a very consistent body of work together, that by now dates back to the mid 80s and spans many cassette only releases (and most of them worth a re-issue on CDR, mind you), CDs and CDrs and some on vinyl - although that is something not happening a lot. 'Room With Sky' is his latest work, I think self-released on his Chaba Recordings label, a CDR in a small edition. The piece lasts about one hour, like so many other Hudak pieces. It's the perfect length for a Hudak release. Not that there is much development going on here, but it's the right length for the listener to forget time and place and simply to enjoy the sounds. Here it's unclear what kind of sounds Hudak has put into his machines (laptop with max/msp patches, I believe), maybe it's some natural sound, maybe it's a piano? With somebody like Hudak this is never really important - it's the result that matters. These simple sound processings move forward slowly, peacefully - like a mass of ice moving over the course of thousands years - slowly, without much change on the surface, but underneath is where the action takes place. To some it might seem that John Hudak produces ambient music on the fringe of new age, but this is not so at all. His sounds are too edgy for that. Hudak has crafted another fine work - another stone in his slow expanding universe. The previous lines are what I wrote in Vital Weekly 401, and oh joy, how nice it is to see re-issue on a real CD by Spekk, in a beautiful cover and lovingely remastered (going from digital to analogue and than back to digital for this much needed extra warmth) by Stephan Mathieu. Great re-release! (FdW) Address: http://www.spekk.net PAN/TONE - NEWFOUND URBAN CALM (2CD by Bip Hop) Despite his various releases on labels such as BacjGround, Onitor, Neuton, Revolver, SubStatic, the name Pan/Tone (aka Shelbono Del Monte, aka Sheldon Sidney LeRock) didn't a bell for me. LeRock started out playing techno in Windsor (that's where Plastikman is too from, so before you know there is a scene doing this), and he played at Mutek, North By Northwest aswell as in Europe and Japan. He now lives in Cologne, another mekka for techno. The twelve tracks on CD one are in a way all inspired by minimalist techno music, out of the house of Kompakt. Uptempo stuff, minimal yet full of subtle changes. Nice indeed, but to play all twelve pieces in one go for the full seventy-five minutes is a bit too much. And then dully move to CD two, the remixes? I did it... Here ten remixes by the likes of Frank Martiniq, Falko Brocksieper/mia, Rene Breitbarth, Repair, Losoul, Adam Marshall, Any Vaz, Jeff Milligan, Suplex 100 and Si-cut.db. I only recognized the last name - meaning I am probably not closely connected to this kind of music, or not as much as I would think. These ten remixes are more variations on a theme, then taking one or two elements from the original and built something radical new around it. Now maybe if I was a DJ I could probably spin the whole two CDs into one long set with a contant beat, but alas, me no DJ, but a home-spinner who thinks that too much of the same thing is not a healthy diet. (FdW) Address: http://www.bip-hop.com EVIL MOISTURE - KILLER NUTS (CD by Deco) Just like Smell & Quim a short while ago, Evil Moisture is a noise name from the early to mid nineties for me, a time when I started to play less and less noise oriented music. The man behind Evil Moisture is Any Bolus, who now lives in Paris, where he modifies electronic toys, rewiring circuits and builts his sound collages (aswell as playing with others such Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms and Andrew Sharpley (formerly of Stock, Hausen & Walkman). Apperentely 'Killer Nuts' is his first real album, and the twenty-four tracks run in just under twenty-seven minutes. It's one long plunderphonic collage - ignore the twenty-four track titles there - of popmusic sounds. Many italo disco and trance move by, along with some noisy intersections. It all happens in a high speed collage tempo. You may recognize some things ("Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" or Sabrina's "Boys"), but most of the times it's too weird to recognize anything for real. The whole combination of noise versus popmusic works in a funny and hilarious way, but at the same time much of this has been said before by other plunderphonica artists, perhaps in a less noisy setting. Spin this at your party and you definetly have a floor killer. (FdW) Address: http://www.w-deco.com CO - COMOC (CD by Mik Musik) MOLR DRAMMAZ - VERY VS VERY (MP3 by Mik Musik) This Co should not be confused with Co Caspar. Instead this is one Maciek Kujawski from Poland and he is a man of hiphop, instrumental hip-hop that is. And thank god it's instrumental, as I don't like rap at all. Not at all. Full Stop. But when it gets instrumental, there is room for much more music, extra noise and jampacked with samples. This is what Co does very nicely. Each track is built around hip-hop rhythms, that usually start out the track, and then samples are added, slowly building up the piece and bringing it to it's orgasmic end, and then start all over again. For some reasons which are not very clear, the fourteenth track is a silent one of two minutes, before the last six tracks start. Why this is done in this way I don't know. Maybe Co wanted to bring in some rest for the listener, because the full sixty minutes at once isn't that easy to swallow. The Mik Musik label stopped releasing CDRs in order to move towards real CDs, but at the same they also start releasing MP3s. The first one is by Molr Drammaz, the band of labelboss Wojtek Kucharczyk (electronics and production) and Macio Moretti (drums). On their 'Very Vs Very' MP3 release, they offer fourteen tracks that have been recorded over a period of two years, and mainly in a concert situation. The music is a rather wild festival of sampled sounds, wacked electronica and likewise wild drumming. Not every moment captured here is great, mainly because much of this was generated, I think, through improvisation. But it captures with style the spirit of elektro, punk and improvisation in a very nice. It's mostly up-tempo, a tad bit aggressive and sweet throughout. (FdW) Address: http://www.mikmusik.org ILIOS - VENTO ELEKTRA (CD by Antifrost) MATTIN & DION WORKMAN - VIA VESPUCCI (miniCD by Antifrost) Obviously I didn't recognize Vento Elektra to be esperanto for Electric Wind, but then that one afternoon of lessons was enough to leanr fluent esperanto. Illios is man whose biggest ambition is to have some sort of anti-career. It may therefore be no surprise that Ilios is not a man that tells us much about what he does, and that leaves, unfortunally, a great deal of guessing. So here's my ample guess: Ilios uses field recordings or maybe long wave radio recordings and stretches these around, attacking them with a truckload of plug ins and then smears it out over the course of forty-minutes. The way it's described here may sound like I think this is a dull release, but mind you: it's not. It takes a course that is slightly similar to that of a Francisco Lopez work: building a slow crescendo that keeps on building until maybe ten minutes before the end and then a recording of plane comes in at a rapid speed (rapid by these standards) but flies over until it is disappeared. CD finished. Microsound at it's very best going on here. Not really anticareer, but certainly belonging to a similar world of radical composers are Mattin and Dion Workman. Both have a strong love for extreme sounds in a minimal context, using their powerbooks to generate extreme frequencies. Mattin more than Workman is an improvisation guy, and he succeeded in taking Workman to the improvisation ideas. Over the course of nineteen minutes they start from a soft but high frequency and built it up (in a much faster way than Ilios does) by continuously adding layers of mid to low frequencies to the table. Hard to tell what it is, but I assume they are the processed sine waves found on test CDs. The result is a very varied and rich recording, with a lot of space for the captured ambience of the space this was recorded in. (FdW) Address: http://www.antifrost.gr MJANE - PRAYER FROM THE UNDERBELLY (CD by Pax Recordings) Another hard to classify CD by Pax Recordings. Some facts first: Mjane is an ensemble led by conductor, performer and composer Molly Sturgess, founded in 2003 in New Mexico. The ensemble has six musicians together combining an usual set of instruments: Molly Jane Sturges (conduction, composition, vocals, harmonium), CK Barlow (sampling/live sampling), DJ Ultraviolet (Shawn O'Neal)(turntables), Moustafa Stefan Dill (Oud) and Jefferson Voorhees (drums/percussion). Mjane offers a blen d that is typical for modern music: composition and improvisation are interwoven; acoustic and electronic/electro-acoustic instruments and soundsources are used. From time to time the music comes close to idiom taken from all kinds of ethnic music. Besides we hear traditional playing of the oud but also turntables and samplers. What is Mjane aiming at with the help of all these different means and influences? Liner notes give some explanation: "Prayer from the Underbelly is one long performance broken by conducted pauses. It is a piece which addresses the concept of duality and was inspired by by Sturges'near death experience during the birth of her daughter. Approaching voice as instrument, Sturges expresses herself through vocables with limited use of lyrics. Drawing from vocal resonance in the body, Sturges seeks to get beneath traditonal constructs of emotion into less interpretable areas of expression and communication." True, despite the fact that Mjane is a melting pot of all kinds of influences, the music is very personal and emotional and has great impact. Specially because of the singing by Molly Sturges and Julie West. Nice surprise from Pax! (DM) Address: http://www.paxrecordings.com SOPHIE RIMHEDEN - MISS (CD by Svedjebruk) Sophie Rimheden is one of the best female producers at the moment (together with Tujiko Norico, AGF, Miss Kittin.) and that's not because there are not a lot of female producers in the experimental music scene but because she is really good. Her last year's album, the first under her own name (before this she had released an album under the name Hayce on the label Memento Material, and had also worked as Ban Ham), on the Swedish label Mitek called HI-FI was one of my favorites for that year. And now, with her new album released on Swedish label Svedjebruk, the case is similar. This Swedish artist (and also a film student living and working in Stockholm) wants to be short and tell as much as she can with fewer words. The album names are short, the track names are short, the lyrics and all tracks. Among all this perfect minimalism, the cover design (by Mr Elg Himself) is also quite minimalistic, without giving much info. And everything functions perfectly. Her sound is also minimal. There are 20 tracks on this release of which one is short intro from around forty seconds and the next is the real, longer track not more than four minutes long. Her perfect female voice, subtly vocoded and glitched is implemented in glitchy variation of contemporary electro, eighties disco, funky basslines and melodies. which gives completely pop feeling formed into distorted glitchy disco pop. Male vocals (by Johan Sigerud) are also combined with her heavenly voice, which combines perfectly into a whole. Also there is another female guest singer here (Beki). The mastering is done by another Swedish legend Andreas Tilliander. Not so much different from HI-FI, Miss is maybe not a revolution (because she's already made one) but it's another perfect contemporary pop album, perfectly comfortable for listening and enjoying. At least it will be one of best albums for this year. (TD) Address: http://www.svedjebruk.se SUPERCILIOUS - NEXT TIME WE GO SUBLIME (CD by Monopsone) This is a new label to me. The label itself is not new because this is their tenth release but I haven't heard anything from them till now. They are from France and as it seems they release melodic electronics with a glitchy and contemporary production. And Alexandre Vaudin aka Supercilious is trying to deal with these sounds. His first track on this album is a melodic but dark track with hip hop like rhythm slightly reminding of Scorn but just with some singing on it. In second track the melodic aspect is more visible. There is some subtle ambient melody supported with more contemporary glitchy rhythm and some noisy parts implemented, all that covered with hypnotic female singing by Yucky Yummy. The next track is also dark with a hard rhythm but as we approach the end of the album, the dark perspective changes into more melodic and electronic pop oriented, reminding of City centre offices or Morr music stuff. Despite everything, the melancholic vibe is still present. Various textures are combined into one track. Field recordings like samples, vocals, basses, calm melodies, break or idm rhythm. make the complex structure. At moments disturbing at moments relaxed. On one hand hard and broken on the other hand, calm and poppy. Fine, interesting and listenable, yet nothing new and inventive. Currently waiting for the album of remixes that various artists are already working on. (TD) Address: http://www.monopsone.com VERTONEN - RETURN OF THE INTERROBANG (CD by C.I.P.) The name Vertonen, alter ego of Blake Edwards from C.I.P. label, might be a known character by now, I hope, at least by some. But of course it's possible that people don't know who he is or what Vertonen is about, and maybe for those there is this 'Return Of The Interrobang' CD. It's not a best-of, but rather a showcase of what Vertonen does. In 'Toroidal Ascension' he brings his drone-related music. Bass to mid-range tones collide and bring out a nice atmospheric piece of music. On the other hand, there is 'Burn The River', which is a much more rhythmic piece of music, of minimalist pulses which are attacked by piercing electronics and turntable variations. The final three tracks are much shorter than the first two and there are turntable variations. These are open, spacious tracks of rhythmic layers of similar sounds. Vertonen sees them as a hommage to Boyd Rice and Tom Recchion, and especially in 'Deplete To Ruination, The Wide Shift', the exotica of Recchion is brought back to memory Five altogether varying tracks, and indeed the perfect showcase for the great talents of Vertonen. (FdW) Address: http://www.cipsite.net PINEY GIR - PEAKAHOKABOO (CD by Greyday Productions) BOOKS ON TAPE - THE BUSINESS END (CD by Greyday Productions) Another new label, with two new releases, one of the for me unknown Piney Gir and one by Books On Tape. The one by Piney Gir is a great surprise. This woman moved to London from Kansas, armed with nothing than songs and her casio keyboard. There she wrote the thirteen songs on this CD, well in some cases she covers. Her 'Que Cera Cera' is hilarious and so is her rendition of 'My Generation' - never sounded better, the both of them. Styllistically she moves into various corners: from Peaches' like pieces (like 'Jezabel') to gentle romantic songs like 'Ruth Is Coming To America' or crooning with Simple Kid in 'Nightsong'. Despite the various styles she is working in, I think it's Peaches or the recentely Lesbians On Ecstacy that this can be best compared with. Some of these tunes are really nice sing-a-longs such as 'Jezabel', proving she is already fit to enter the charts. I'd say go for it. To play Books On Tape right after Piney Gir might not be a wise decision. Not because this is a bad CD, not at all, but it's definetly boys with toys music. 'The Business End' is the third official Books On Tape CD, apart from dozens of CDRs, remixes and EPs. Up tempo, punk inspired techno music going on here, but all instrumental. Unfortunally no sing-a-longs here. Music with a high energy drive here. One that leaves you breathless after you heard it - and probably even sounds better when you hear this live. Distorted rhythms and guitar samples thrown around with not a moment of tranquility insight. Maybe all the better. Forty minutes fully loaded here. Next time throw in a singer and hit charts are lurking around the same corner. (FdW) Address: http://www.greydayproductions.com MUSIC FOR BABY (CD compilation by Amorfon) When I had the chance to play music to my baby, I didn't it do it that much, other than some regular popmusic. Now that she is older she would probably like more of this 'Music For Baby' CD. Fact is that most CDs that contain music for babies contain usually soft music, in order to keep the baby all quiet and somehow I don't think that would happen if they would exposed to this CD. A up-tempo track by DAT Politics will probably disturb the little creature too much. Likewise something can be said of the track by Toshiya Tsunoda, whose feedback will maybe cause a small ear defect in the harmless little one. This may sound as if I don't like this CD. That's not the case. The softer pieces by Minamo, Alejandra & Aeron, Cinc or Fitz Ellarald (is that the first of the 'Trois Gymnopedies' sampled in there, or played on a guitar?) make up nice music anyway. Music that would not just please adults (as in the case of reviewing, it's an adult who takes on the experience) but would probably be enjoyed by babies and small children alike. For me the whole compilation consists of nice pieces, but some trained ears are required in this. Even by adults. (FdW) Address: http://www.amorfon.com HEMATIC SUNSETS AND OKKO BEKKER - WEIHNACHTEN IM AROMA CLUB (7" by Meeuw Muzak) "Remember that Christmas is not a problem-solving session. Deal with your family issues another time." --Dr. Phil. A better idea is to stay away from your family at all, lite a big cigar, pour yourself you're favourite brandy (vecchia romanga in my case) and surround yourself with some nice alternative christmas songs. Dutch radio programm 'De Avonden' commissions every year a whole bunch of them (sadly putting them on an all to small edition CDR, but they might be somewhere on the www.3voor12.nl site) or, and that's an even better idea, to take all the previous Meeuw Muzak christmas 7"s and spin them, to end with the best one to date: 'Leise Rieselt Der Schnee' von Hematic Sunsets. Sadly one side only, but with a gorgous little tune. Soft as the snow (I bet the Hematic Sunsets stay away from anything overtly religious). Soft as the snow that in these areas is quite rare. Maybe that makes christmas a little bit more bareable. For me it does at least. (FdW) Address: http://www.meeuw.net JOS SMOLDERS - TEXTURES AND MOBILES (CDR by Con-V) Jos Smolders might be more known these days as the driving force behind the Earlabs site, a true online goldmine for electronic music, both old and new, but many forget that he is also a composer in his own right and for a very long time. He earliest releases were released on cassettes on labels such as Midas Music (where are the CDR re-issues, please?) and Korm Plastics. Then he produced two more than excellent LPs in the early nineties, and some more conceptual works for CDs on Staalplaat. Those are more 'create your own thing with this'. Jos Smolders is also part of the never really ceasing to exist group THU20 (who are preparing for a new project next year). Since some time Jos Smolders is back at composing music himself, and for no other purpose than to create beautiful music. On 'textures And Mobiles', the first CDR release from Con-V, otherwise known as an online label, Smolders finds his inspiration in two visual artists. For the textures he is inspired by the paintings of Mark Rothko and the mobiles by the mobiles of Alexander Calder, using CCITT ringtones (mobiles getit?) as sound sources. Of the nine pieces, five are from the texture series, and here Smolders uses static tones that are similar but not the same to create a richly varied elegant tapestry of sound. The sounds glide and pass by, move gently through space. The connection to Rothko is indeed present, and musically it relates to the work of Alvin Lucier. The mobiles are shorter tracks of shorter sounds that sound unlike anything those annoying ringtones I hear on the street or in the train. Maybe bythemselves the 'Mobile' pieces aren't that convincing, but they form an interesting counterpoint to the longer 'Texture' pieces, which if only present on this release, would maybe a bit too much also. Now the balance is just perfect. Moving along the lines of his previous release 'Music For Kalx.com' (on ERS Records), this is a more than excellent release. For those who love Lucier, Asmus Tietchens and 12K, this is definetely a must have. (FdW) Address: http://www.con-v.org K - SUPER PREIS (CDR by Phonoerotic) Nice logo hacking here: K present themselves inside the C logo. But who are K anyway? They are Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies, both known from their work with the turntable band Project DARK. But they like doing other music, moving away from turntables and armed with two drummachines and effects they travelled Europe. Playing in six different places they made the recordings for this limited CDR release (housed inside a jewel case with a cutup of C adds). No less than sixteen tracks with a duration of some thirty-three minutes: that means short tracks and much to my surprise variation. The idea of using two drummachines and soundeffects seems maybe limited, but the first around when I played this I didn't have the idea of listening to 'just' two drummachines and soundeffects. Obviously there is a techno connection in 'Auch In Schwarz Und Weiss', but in general they move into all sorts of different places, techno, dub and industrial. Sketch like seems to be the right approach to present a live documentation like this. Nice one indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.phonoerotic.com ZVUK BRODA - AEROBIK (CDr by Egoboo.bits) I heard some releases of Zvuk Broda a couple of years ago but I didn't give them attention as much as I should have. So I didn't get a complete idea about their sound then. A couple of years after that, I played with them at Progress ex. 04 festival in Ljubljana so I had the chance to see them live. Before that I had read in the program in their biography that their music can be defined as deep house. They were formed in 2000 by Ivan Slipchevich and Tomislav Domes in Zagreb/Croatia as a studio for sound and image that would perform music supported with visuals. Zvuk Broda (which means the sound of a boat) are also resident artists of net.culture club Mama. They've already released a couple of album releases under GNU GPL (copyleft) licence for their label EGOBOO.bits and some vinyl on other labels. But they are more than that and more than deep house. I saw their performance in semi filled hall - an old electric plant completely renovated with a perfect sound system. The atmosphere was calm so it was possible to hear every single sound, the clean production and the simple basslines. I was really curious to hear this on a CD so I got this release called Aerobik. Similar like their live performance their music is really minimalistic, clean and completely bare, free of unnecessary sounds, but it is still dancey, deep and fresh. Production can be compared to something between early Scsi-9 danceable perspective and Snd's clearness and simplicity. Female vocals appear here and there just to sweep you off your feet for a second. The tracks are short, precise and simple, enough to tell you what they have. Their simplicity is their beauty. You just need to lie down, relax, listen, let your mind float down stream and surrender to the flow. One of my favorite listens for this week and maybe year. And it was a good thing to experience their music live first, before hearing the recording. I am looking forward to hear their other releases and see them live again. Really, really beautiful experience. (TD) Address: http://tamtam.mi2.hr/EgobooBits/EnZvukBroda MUGEN - [/END] (CDR by Pachinko Studio) Mugen is one Alessandro Canova, who releases his own Pachinko Studio label. To date he six releases on offer, of which '[/End]' is the latest. He works with a limited set of soundsources: sine waves and white noise. That may sound a bit too much like Ryoji Ikeda, and yes, Mugen seems inspired by especially the 'Matrix' release of Ikeda, but luckily enough he finds enough ways of his own to create something that may indeed not be top-new and innovative, but nevertheless he has a couple of interesting pieces to offer. Maybe eleven is a bit too much, even when the tracks are rather concise, but sometimes the pieces are a bit ambient, hoovering in various frequencies available in his sine-waves, but there are also pieces of rhythm, and here Mugen seems to expand his ears to the world of minimal techno, such as in '[/dub]', which seems to be a pastiche of Pan Sonic rhythms and Ikeda sine waves. Mugen's sound might be a bit too late, but a couple of years ago it would have fitted nicely along the microwave tag - which nobody uses anymore, so that might be a bit of a dead-end. However, he presents enough variation in his pieces to make '[/End]' a very nice CDR indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.pachinkostudio.com/ MING - VERSUS THE GREAT SATAN (CDR by Carbon Records) It might be a secret to some who Ming is, at least according to the Carbon Records website which states "the anonymous force of Ming, in the great battle for the hearts and minds of all beings everywhere, from the Great Satan. the battle rages on...." Who it is doesn't matter nearly as much as what does it sound like? Well, the instruments used on this release are; turntables, live loops, tapes, field recordings, ukelele, and ebowed strings. The ebowed strings are the most cognizant feature as this starts out as a windswept drone. Cold, lonely, desolate, but somehow beautiful. Some odd clanking (very distant) accompanies and the drone slowly evolves and takes on a more musical character with a sort of melody plucked out by the ukelele. A wordless vocal loop gives the track a bit of motion, as the tones grow louder. At the 2 minute mark (this is a 40 minute single track) some odd vocal loops enter, (someone speaking through a mega-phone, a crowd chanting) it isn't until after awhile that you realize the crowd is chanting "No blood for oil" or the person with the mega-phone is counting off in a sing song tone leading the crowd with new phrases, some of which i cant quite make out, but the crux of it sounds like a anti-war rally against the USA's unlawful invasion of Iraq (which time you ask?), but back to the music. The overall feel is tense, not angry but very tense. And there is a transient quality making you feel like this music is just a snapshot of a larger picture that is fading. Later there enters a marching band, which you realize has been pulsing all along, gently nudging the pace. And then as soon as you notice it, it disappears, but the pulse remains. There are a couple of more things added to the mix, some things fade out only to return later. Despite its length Ming never loses sight of the narrative of the song. Some percussive loops enter at the halfway mark, and the track unfolds and sounds like its winding down until bursts of feedback grab your attention again. This is real mind-bending stuff, built on some really simple elements all stitched together to create a release that is both delicate and ferocious. (CJ) Address: http://www.carbonrecords.com HAL MCGEE & RICK FRANECKI - MOON EGG RABBIT STAR (CDR by Hal Tapes) HAL MCGEE & RICK FRANECKI & BRIAN NORING & CHARLES RICE GOFF III - EXCURSIONS (CDR by Hal Tapes) This is the second time the name of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky pops up in Vital Weekly (see also Vital Weekly 408), and still have to not seen a film by this underground filmmaker of a more psyechedelic. But his films are inspiration enough for Hal McGee and Rick Franecki to compose fifteen pieces of music inspired by his films. McGee might be known by now (that is after his return to the music world after a long period of inactivity) but maybe the name of Rick Franecki is new to you. I believe he was once a member of F/i and then of Vocokesh, both rock bands to explore the psychedelic edges of music. Together they play a wide range of synthesizers, expensive and cheap, but also guitar, bass, piano and shortwave. In general the two guys set a sound going, sometimes a rhythm, and then start to improvise on top of that. This brings a full and spacey psychedelic sound alive that probably works even better with all the right substances (which of course lack here). Think of seventies krautrock, cosmic synth and the free improv meeting industrial: a hotchpotch of so many underground musics. The two boys return on 'Excursions', which they recorded together with Brian Noring and Charles Rice Goff III. Whereas on 'Moon Egg Rabbit Star' the tracks are short, here they are lenghty, five in total, ranging from nine to almost seventeen minutes. Another major difference is the extended use, or rather sole use of synthesizers. These make long patterns, usually in the darker side of things, setting black holes to music. All the obvious space references can be made here, but this space journey is rather an alienated (pun intended) one, a trip into the unknown, but an unknown evil kind. In that way this cosmic music is different than the usual cosmic doodlings, and makes it into something of far more interest for those who love the more experimental kind of music. (FdW) Address: http://hometown.aol.com/haltapes1/index.html DISSECTING DISASTRATOS (MP3 by Audiobulb Records) From the recentely established Audiobulb Records comes this EP to download with two tracks, one being a new track by Disastrato and one a remix of that project by Room. Not having heard any music by both before, it's a bit in the dark for me. But it seems that Disastrato uses beats, ambient sounds, found sound and traditional instruments. In the remix that Room did, this unfortunally leads to nothing. It's called 'How To Make Beats (Room's pot-pourri)', and that sums it up quite clearly. Taking samples ad infinitum from Disastrato's work, Room makes rhythms out of these, but never takes the song anywhere, which might be hard also seeing the length of almost thirteen minutes. The Disastrato track 'Desirez Rien (After A Rice Kick)' is much more interesting. About half the length, this moves from a heavy percussive intro towards the introspective and doomy sobbing of somebody. Quite an intense piece there. (FdW) Address: http://www.audiobulb.com Corrections: A lot of mistakes in the last issue! The Pita CD last week is called 'Get Off'. 'Get Out' was released by Mego in 1999. The band on 'Sin #06' is called 'o.m.s.-n.m.a.' and not O.M.S. In the En/Of review there are three mistakes: the Jazzkammer LP is called 'All Men Are Brothers', Andrew Zealley was part of Green Buck and the art edition to his record was made by AA Bronson. Smell & Quim's 'Cosmic Bondage' was not their first cassette. Sorry about all this! 1. From: Christof Migone Call For Submissions: Disquiet Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre is seeking works investigating the notion of silence as a disturbance. Silence, as charged rather than neutral. Silence in the context of peril, conflict, disquietude. The relationship between the silencer and the silenced-to shut, to mute, to muzzle, to censor. Silence is both a break, a caesura, and a constant, a continuity. Its volume can be louder than words, its infinitude can be both repressive and liberatory. It can be either a product of enforcement or a tactic of resistance. I would prefer not to. It can also be that momentary lull before an outbreak of laughter; the portentous seriousness of silence can be shifted to aspects of play. A quiet state can be both prelude and postscript to a panoply of events: farcical, absurd, traumatic, quotidian, mediatized, global, intimate, sensorial, political, etc. Disquiet is disturbed silence. Silence under tension. Disquiet marks silence as a palpable presence. Disquiet is initiated by Modern Fuel as part of an entire programming season dedicated to the theme of Silence. This theme enfolds multiple political subtexts-silence as systemic racism, unspoken power over another; conversely, silence conjures up more explicit interpretations such as one-minute-of-silence as remembrance or as speechlessness. Equally, silence speaks to, and of, its antithesis: voice, protest, resistance, song. Silence and speech cannot be catagorized as simply bad and good, respectively or vice-versa, but are located on a dimentional continuum where various degrees of communication are possible. Disquiet fits into and interacts with this contiuum. Disquiet is open to all disciplines. Guest curator: Christof Migone. Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre facilitates the presentation and interpretation of visual and time-based arts that explore wide-ranging aesthetics and a broad scope of formal and socio-cultural questions. We encourage submissions both from artists residing within the region and outside these boundaries, and program Modern Fuel Gallery according to a 50/50 split. (Our region spans an approximate radius of 100 km around Kingston.) Submission Deadline: February 1st, 2005 Submissions must include the following: 1. A cover letter introducing your proposal 2. 10 numbered slides of related work with a slide list OR a 5-min.video in VHS/DVD format OR a CD-ROM 3. An artist C.V. 4. A brief statement about your proposal and its relevance to the theme 5. A self-addressed, stamped envelope For additional information please contact Gjennifer Snider, Program Director at (613)548-4883 or modernfuel@bellnet.ca MODERN FUEL ARTIST-RUN CENTRE/ KINGSTON ARTISTS ' ASSOCIATION INC. 21A QUEEN STREET KINGSTON,ON K7K 1A1 modernfuel@bellnet.ca www.modernfuel.org 2. From: info@digitalkranky.de digital kranky & stars on cd-r present: like plankton for the elephant LIVE (plankton & the human elephant) the sighs LIVE (jayrope & slow learner) the mono kid dj set add extension to file name dj set Do, 09.12. Rostock: MS Stubnitz, 22.00h Fr, 10.12. Dresden: 7.Etage (Wilsdruffer Strasse 3, Ecke Pirnaischer Platz), 21.00h So, 12.12. Berlin: Bar in der Karl-Marx-Allee 36, 22.00h 3. From: Club Moral On Thursday 2 december 2004 at 20.00hrs there will be a conversation (in dutch) between AMVK and professor Hilde Van Gelder in the framework of the exhibition 'Footnotes and Context' in the University Library / Campusbibliotheek Arenberg, de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee. The exhibition is open to the public until 18 december 2004, monday till friday 8.30 till 22.00hrs, saturday 9.00 till 13.00hrs. Entrance free. ------------------ Truth Has No Style ------------------ 'Truth has no style' is a computerprint mounted in diasec, in an edition of 30, produced by Objectif Exhibitions. "'Truth has no style' shows a scene from the film 'Rorty, The HeadRoom'. The film is the final outcome and culminating point of 9 years work on the HeadNurse project. We see Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, the HeadNurse, sitting in a modernist setting, bathing in a world of saturated color surrounded by materialisations of 'thought'. The black square, obstacle, projection screen and synthesis at the same time, a cosmic presence, stands amidst emanations of technology and becoming, the animalistic and mystery." Presentation of the multiple will take place on thursday 9 december 2004 from 18.00 till 21.00hrs at Objectif Exhibitions, Coquilhatstraat 14, 2000 Antwerp. ------------------ Winter HomeConcert ------------------ In the way of our Living(stone)concert of 23 december 2003 Club Moral will play a Winter HomeConcert on tuesday 28 december 2004 in Antwerp. No known Club Moral tracks will be played. The tracks will never be played again after this night. Admittance strictly by invitation for just 50 lucky men and women. To reserve your seat you can call as of 15 december onwards to 03/236 82 59, on weekdays between 20.00 and 21.00hrs. -- Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome . Forward to your allies. Snail mail: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521 NE Nijmegen - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP ), Dolf Mulder (DM), Meelkop Roel (MR), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH), Jeff Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW), Toni Dimitrov (TD ), Chris Jeely (CJ) and others on a less regular basis. This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it. Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send any attachments/jpeg's, we will trash them without viewing. There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. Any MP3 release to be reviewed should be burned as an audio CDR and send to the address above. the complete archive of Vital Weekly (1995 onwards) can be found at: http://staalplaat.com/vital/