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Ampersand Etcetera - 2001_3
ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental & lowercase &
postclassical & minimal & techno & etcetera
This edition is surprisingly noisey - what with Nox and the Grob releases, and
the improvistaion of the Donkey. But some things to balance it - the miniatures
and ambience of Cascone, Hollydrift’s experiments and Reptillica’s pop.
And in the middle, a look at the latest expansion of .tiln, with the release of
non-virtual music.
jeremy@pretentious.net
&
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
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Kim Cascone
Parasites: anechoicmedia a001
cathodeFlower: Ritornell RIT06
http://www.anechoicmedia.com
http://www.riouxs.com
http://www.mille-plateaux.com
There seems to be something of a trend towards compositions formed of short (about
a minute) fragments, particularly on the web - many of the works on .tiln and
falsch fall into this category, and the InvalidObject MP3/cd series from Fallt
exemplifies it: 24 items each comprising 15 tracks in up to 20 minutes. Among
the artists common to all these sites is Kim Cascone - admittedly his .tiln and
falsch are the same piece ‘Pulsar studies’ - and this disk consists
of 20 parasites from 10 to 15 seconds through a minute to a minute and a half
to one three minutes long.
These are miniature explorations into the sounds and rhythms, the twists and sonics
which can be extracted from a computer. Apart from the first, extended ‘Parasite
1: for Deleuze’ none is worked in detail or undergoes significant development:
changes and shifts within individual pieces reflects the uncertain structure of
the whole. But in the manner of miniatures in any artform, these are fascinating
explorations. 2 slowly squeaks and shimmers, 3 (and the other pieces a few seconds
long) is a descending metallic melody, strange twitterings and drippings pass
in 4, 5 putters and squeaks, strange voices mutter through 6. And on we pass -
each shard captures your imagination briefly to pass on to the next minute of
sounds. The tone, timbre and construction suggest that the pieces and sounds are
computer-generated (some possibly from voice samples), and they run the through
a wide range of manipulations and application modules. Which suggests another
aspect to miniatures - they are often sketches for larger more worked pieces -
and that possiblility is here also, a feeling that these could be worked into
a more complex structure.
In the manner of this format, ‘Parasites’ whets your sonicappetites
- these are tasty little morsels which suggest larger meals - some end quite abruptly.
But then again, could you eat a two foot long California roll? Perhaps this is
the right length that is being explored for both what can be done with the form
and our attention span - I am finding a fondness for these small scale models
(especially when you think that many cds are the same length as those paragons
of pretension, the double album). You could shuffle the tracks, but Cascone seems
to have programmed in a structure (and I am averse to shuffling, except maybe
when playing background music) which sounds fine. And as this is another of those
fabulous square cds you have both visual and auditory aeshthetic reasons to buy
this.
At the same time I got ‘Parasites’ I also picked up a copy of an older
album, ‘cathodeFlower’, the second part of the Blue cube triptych. This
is almost the inverse of the single, composed of five longer tracks which run
into each other and explore a more settled computer-created ambience.
Underlying the first three tracks is a bed of swirling dense electronic winds
and burbles from which the various moods of the pieces emerge. ‘cathodeFlower’
opens with a slow high click, reminiscent of Ikeda, under which a rolling bubbling
radio signal builds into a voicelike wind which becomes the ground. Various clicks
and blips form a slow percussive procession over this, drifting in and out of
the forground, until a tonal melody that seeps into the background and a blerting
lead into ‘vortexShedding (simplex)’. Here the development is through
some warbling and tonal synths, many of them voiced, to create a very spacey ambience.
In ‘nb2e_vortex’ long single tones are draped over the bass, then stretched,
decayed, vibrattoed and otherwise manipulated seductively.
The ground falls away in ‘rationalBeacon’ which is a quieter, more contemplative
ambience as it gently builds some distant machines, coming in waves of semiabstract
sound with hints of mellow synth melody. There are some deep throbbing bass tones
through here as well as some sonar beeps, and towards the end a bubbling works
its way to the surface. This continues into ‘nullDrift’ with a very
high tone which develops into some squeeky scrabbly tone play before a return
to the opening with a simple beep.
A very enticing album of varying tones and ambience which holds together as a
single excellent piece. I also like the simple Ritornell packaging - a three fold
heavy-card cover with sleeve for the disk and a common cover art based on a grid
of dots (square) into which the information is inserted. Simple but effective.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Hollydrift
Hail the Frozen North
Cuba Club Media ccm002
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/hollydrift
Another in the line of self-released cd-rs, this ep/single comes from Mathias
Anderson who created it in the Maple Tree State Conservatory, Wisconsin (which
I thought at first meant he’d recorded it in a hot house, but it must be
a music conservatory) using ‘true analog’ format’. This is demonstrable
in the first track ‘Smile for me’ which rapidly segues through a variety
of samples and modes in its first half: a singer, sampled music (which I recognise
but can’t place), orchestral ‘Stranger in paradise’, glitches,
crackling, wowoo-synths and modulated and echoed narration. This all fades in
the second part where a whistling wind and distant crackling machinery grind to
a gentle restrained conclusion.
‘Lost in flight’ has a more traditional verse/chorus structure: there
is a steady rhythm loop through it, played around with at times, while the ‘chorus’
is some eastern-synth woobles and some big synth horn sounds which are slowed/sped
up (which could be voice gated) and the verse is an intoned/sung song accompanied
by more stable synth. Traditional but odd.
And finally, another cut&pasted electroacoustic piece - ‘Buried by the
briar’. This is a shifting soundpiece: a crackling feedback modulated and
intercut with an emergency ambulance scanned; a variety of bleeps (rapid, tones,
sonar); a metallic sounds like water and birds underneath a short sample, mournful
melodic tones; an unstable wobble which sounds like it could be a jittery record
with hollow clangs and then the Wisconsin computer weather report; joined by a
low ringing gong, leading to a fade of breathy voices and subtle clicking.
In 15 minutes Anderson travels quite some distance, all of it fascinating but
you have to focus on it to catch things before they pass. Worth seeking out, I
look forward to a more substantial (ie longer) Holydrift release.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Marc McNulty
Tuned Hollow Body
Clouds of Unknowing
Polter
.tiln 001, 002 and 003 respectively
http://www.tiln.org
In an interesting move, Marc McNulty the person behind the .tiln MPeG site (mentioned
in a number of dispatches and notable for the volume and breadth of quality material
which has been made available there in a very short space of time) has diversified
into cd-rs. The first .tiln releases are three of his albums (which are available
on the site as MP3s, so you can fully test drive them), and they are numbered
and signed, and come in slimline jewel cases with a minimal aesthetic cover, along
the lines of Meme, Sigma Editions or Trente Oiseaux (US$8 internally, $10 externally).
To my mind the three disks for something of a tryptych, possibly because I have
listened to them together, but they also work in the same general area - modulating
tonal play - but approach it with different levels of activity. To start with
‘Cloud of Unknowing’ the mood here is of slowly changing relationships
in five exended tracks. And like clouds they drift through seeming solid but with
a light core. The first cloud has a high, pulsing tonal foreground but with hints
of domething deeper, as the shifting tones and buzzes drift. There is more happening
in the second cloud, whooshing and shimmering, high tones and a drifting tune
with big tones entering near the end. A low buzzing whirl is at the heart of cloud
three, accompanied by ringinf, puttering and metallic tangs. Four is all wind
- a rushing metal one that causes buzzing and swirls while the final cloud is
slower, gently drifting and shimmering, with a horn-sound half way through. Lovely
ambience - not dark nor new age, but something tonal with a slight edge.
Things are more active in Polt, a nine-track mini album. The first three tracks
work with twittering and fluttering computer noises to create a shifting soundspace,
joined by other sounds - noises, echoes for ‘Tylst’, tones and a phone
noise in ‘Skelt’ and tones and burring in ‘Keer’. A deep rumble
underscores ‘Drin’ with some minimal chittering, providing a more melodic
mood after the shifting and edgy tones that have occured before. ‘Filiform’
(ha, a word I know) is the most varied piece moving from a very minimal opening
as thuds and shimmers emerge, then joined by a demented Bach-organ riff (with
bizzsaw note), a metallic echoe followed by a distorted voice and ending with
a drilling sound. Playful buzzing fireflies and tones build through ‘Minea’,
before a fast high pulsing in ‘Midden’ fades into some gentler tonal
play. A voice returns in ‘Tinim’, this time a cracked computer speeking
over some bleepy synth loops. The final track (’Gecko’) is a swirling
twittering of electronic birds.
And sitting somewhere between these is ‘Tuned Hollow Body’ - longer
tracks with more space about them but also with the activity of ‘Polter’,
they are unified by a strange blit that recurs at distant spaces within them.
The opening is a slow whistling tonal piece ‘Backscatter’ suggesting
some of the title sounds. ‘Heterodyning’ is more chittering with warbles
and waves of sound, while ‘Umbra’ is a longer, more complex movement
with voice-like sounds (modulated voices or burbles), somewhat atonal and fast.
A gentler mood overtakes ‘Split_stator’ which woobles and swirls, with
some high tones and more burble-voices. The voices return in the bubbling ‘Gas-filled
line’ before a long searching exploration through bubbling computer erruptions,
tones and shimmers in ‘Stray inductance’. I couldn’t preferentially
recommend any of these albums - they are all engrossing ventures into this edgy
metallic soundworld - they shimmr and bubble and scratch away sublimely, echoing
and feeding off each other. As I say, a sort of trilogy and very listenable.
A final question is why make/buy hard copies? The albums are available free so
who is likely to pay for them? Well, there are people who don’t have the
time or resources to decode and burn cds, for a start; then there is the better
sound quality of a direct-from-master rather than going through encoding/decoding;
and finally there is the opportunity to own a something made by the musician,
which adds that certain aura to an artifact (including being signed and numbered).
Plus you are getting some money back to the artist, which can’t be bad! Anyway,
I wish Marc good luck with the venture and recommend you go, have a listen, and
consider buying. Future releases are planned from Elastic lego and Andrew Duke
- represented on the site, but these will not be available for download.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Weasel Walter, Fred Longberg-Holm, Jim O’Rourke
Tribute to Masayuki Takayanagi
Keith Rowe
Harsh, guitar solo
GROB, Grob 208 and 209
grobcologne@hotmail.com
Masayuki Takayanagi and Rowe (separately) developed a flat guitar which has apparently
been popular with noise musicians, and is used here to great effect by a group
reflecting the structure of Takayanagi’s instrumentation and a solo album
from Rowe.
Walter plays drums (and occasional guitar), Lonberg-Holm is on cello and O’Rourke
guitar in this tribute-through-approach recording. The album comes with noises
almost obligatory (thanks Merzbow) bondage and evisceration (thanks to that crap
conceptual artist who slaughters cows) images which I must admit puts me right
off, and yet Walter says he is trying ‘to convey…human energy and movement,
not ham-fisted oppression and punishment’. It is a shame the cover doesn’t
speak the same language. He also says ‘there comes a time … where noise
making for noise sake becomes stultifying and ineffectual’ which suggests
that the group is aiming to go beyond that. The album opens with 30 minutes of
‘for jojo/freebasing styrofoam’ recorded live in 1996 (the rest of the
album came together in 2000).
Noise and its friends are not one of my main listening genres, but I found this
album surprisingly entrancing - it mixes the tones and densities very nicely.
‘For Jojo…’ is a grabby opener - Weasel’s percussion is a
strong driving force, while the guitar and cello trade screams and moans over
the top - in fact it is hard to differentiate the instruments as this is not your
classical cello. And while there are primarily periods of intensity, the groups
does strip back to almost ambient periods, where the instruments rest up and provide
a breather before charging off again. Two of the later pieces follow the same
format, though shorter: ‘Endless corridor of roasted babies’ and ‘Give
me head ’til you’re dead’ (meeting expectations of tastelessness
again). The latter recordings have been mixed, though, so the guitar and cello
come in different channels, allowing you to pick the instruments out which provides
some detail. Again we wander between frenetic wildness and some more restraint.
Sitting between these is ‘Slitted tit’ a guitar solo by Walter, which
is an impressive four minutes of modulated squally feedback with scratches and
crackles skittering over: and the album ends with the 12 minute ‘Triumph
of death’, Walter again, but this time as the ‘visigoth of binary codes’
creating a dense ambience from drones with buzz hujms and crackles providing a
very subdued yet entrancing conclusion. More down my alley, but the whole does
work well, due to the skill of the individuals. Not harsh, undigested noise, but
noised improvised and often abrasive - for those with a bent.
In contrast to ‘Tribute …’, ‘Harsh’ has a very mellow
cover, red and yellow Lichensteinian cartoons by Rowe of treatments - alligator
clips, hair dyryers, saws - ‘attacking’ the strings, with a faux interview
where he also seeks more for his music: ‘I wanted the cd to become more of
a statement about “harshness” rather than merely a “recording”
of a performance. A music that reflects something about the harshness of the lives
of the majority of the world’s people…a music that presents questions
about taste’. He contrasts the acceptable nature of cartoons with the music.
I can picture Rowe sitting at his flattop guitar during this concert, like some
scientist at his machine, trying different approaches to making sounds emerge
from it. At no point does he come anywhere near playing a melody, rather he creates
a sustained sound - a drone or a pulsation created perhaps by a fan or some other
device - and then implements one or more of his other treatments - scrapping,
sawing, plucking or stretching.
The first track is appropriately named ‘Quite’ and is 30 minutes of
restrained approaches - a few passages grate (this is a guitar after all) but
mainly they are gentle, if obscure, sounds extracted from the instrument. A repeating
motif is some quiet radio, sounding like talking or music played through a small
speaker some distance away, with the station (or tape) being changed. Despite
its name, I don’t think that ‘Very’ is very harsh - there are more
of the periods which sound like a nail on a blackboard (something sawing or bowing
the strings), but there are also quieter times when the drone or putter is running
solo. And the final 10 minutes of ‘Extremely’ like ‘Very’
is more active and opens with quite an assault, but it too passes into thoughtful
times.
This is, and sounds like, an improvisation as Rowe works away. There is little
obvious stucture, other than a constant ebb and flow as he works with a treatment
and then allows things to settle again before moving on. Either despite or because
of this, the album does work and provides fascinating if at times unsettling listening.
Ignore the philosophical appurtenances of these disks, what they seek to do is
make a lot of noise while holding your interest, which they tend to do. Rowe is
probably more broadly acceptable, but neither is for the faint hearted.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Gerome Nox
Blood-red Poppies
Moloko+ plus027
ralf_friel@ferrostal.com
This is a dark, very dark album from the French industrial/noise scene. The manner
and mood are indicated by the opening and closing tracks. ‘Monologue one’
places a speech from a movie (which I happened to catch while channel surfing,
where the actor (Willian Defoe?) is about to shoot someone in a grocery shop)
concerning how the first murder feels, then the second is even better, but now
he does it ‘just to watch their fucking expression change’. Underscoring
this is a slow, industrial soundscape, brooding tones and voicelike moans with
funereal drums. And the final 18 minutes is taken with ‘A tribute’ where
another minimal abstract industrial piece of slow beat and distorted hellish dounds
forming a backdrop to a variety of voices, slightly processed and shifting in
relation to each other and the space, listing the names of victims and killers.
This becomes hypnotic as the same killers are named over and over. But then the
possibility that this is a tribute to the victims becomes questionable when, along
with the Charles Manson family and Ted Bundy and many many more, we hear three
mentions of Dr Hannibal Lecter, who I had assumed was a fiction. Which suggests
that the serial killer as ‘hero’ is actually the focus of the tribute,
supported by the use of a screen killer in the opening.
Hell opens up ‘On the road’ - women screaming and muttering voices as
a heartbeat drums before a car takes off into a heavy anthem of driving rhythms
and harsh guitar with a sampled chopped and repeated over, more screams (real
and synth tones) around it - industrial heartland. The mood continues, though
less extreme in ‘Evil’ where the monologue about ‘my reality’
has a grinding tonal underlay before a guitar in the latter stages - a strong
dark ambience imbues it. ‘Mass destrucion’ is more pedestrianly industrial
- a heavymetal guitar riff leading to a solo, voices cut and pasted to ‘I’ve
got a satan in me’ and ‘mass…destruction’, growling laughter
and breaks for sounds of destruction.
The second monologue (’monologue two’!) is probably a real serial killer
talking about their childhood over another dark ambient piece. The title track
is probably the highlight of the album: it moves from a subtle site-based recording
of water, flies and snuffling noise - the field in which the ‘Blood-red poppies’
grow, gradually building to a song about ‘flies in my eyes’ which is
orchestrated with synth strings before fading back to the field. The structure,
development and instrumentation are very nicely balanced - the whole is undercut
by the samples at the beginning about crime scenes (hacked bodies, sex with corpses,
maggots and flies) which puts the sounds of the field in a macabre new light.
‘Hell’s kitchen’ takes a bolero form, building from quiet tones
and voices, through a section that sounds like torture, to the rising bass, precussives,
subtle guitar and breathing noises, before subsiding again at the end. The opening
to ‘Fire’ and all of ‘Cold blood’ are both restrained ambience
with a touch of menace, tones and washes, simple banging percussion and scrapping,
with samples over the top, which are more powerful than than the noisey tracks,
or the second half of ‘Fire’ which is more stock driving riffs, screaming
victims and growled vocals.
To be honest I don’t know how often I will listen to this album - the sounds
of desperation and pain on some tracks are a little too much to handle, and I
am ambivalent about the focus of the project. However, this sort of assault can
be quite cathartic at times, and there are some fascinating passages and compelling
instrumentations (especially in the more subdued tracks). (Hey I avoided using
the word noxious).
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Donkey
Show
Accretions LP020
http://www.accretions.com
Donkey are Damon Holzborn and Hans Fjellestad (who also has a solo album out -
see next issue) who work together as an improvisatory duo ‘exploring the
territory between open foorm and structured improvisation and noise art’
using keyboards, guitar and electronics. This album is culled from 4 shows, and
features guests on three tracks.
‘Dziggetai’ is a good opening track - it features mainly electronic
exploration, chittering, woobling, shimmering jitters and abstractions, but in
a playful wandering through some interesting sonic spaces. Thus it signals the
unstructured nature of the album while offering a more sympathetic sound. Which
is argued against in ‘Piso mojado’ where Donkey is (are?) joined by
Matt Ingalls on clarinet. This treads a more jazz free form mode, with Holzborn
focussing on some picked acoustic guitar working with the clarinet which swings
between Acker Bilk sweetness and some harsher, strident tones. A change is offered
by ‘Clementine’ where Marcus B joins in, and this short electronica
piece develops around quietly bubbling synth lines, some Theremin-like squeals,
modulated samples and computergenerated noises come to a grumbling conclusion.
Another long improvisation in ‘Salon’ starts as a duel between two sets
of electronics; a flittering sequence and some synthetic instruments - horns and
strings sounding like a Bernard Herrmann score. The sparring continues, but with
some long descending tones and percussion, becoming more contemplative and subdued,
flute- and oboe-like melodies stepping through a steady drone. These simple melodies
continue, accompanied by squeaking synths and guitar, before another shift into
a cloud of crackling feedback, atonal stepping synths and rapidly strummed guitar.
The chittering atonal guitar that starts off the ‘Single hitch pleasure ride’
is joined by matching keyboards, which continue at a frenetic pace for about half
the track before settling into a more searching mood, which accelerates slightly
towards the end through some warbly synth.
They are joined again by Ingalls on violin for ‘Barrel filler’ which
is subtle and brooding, created by a conjunction of the electronics with the violin’s
tone. The piece has the feel of some modern classical music. And finally an extract
from a performance for a dancework, ‘Oddities from the bridge’ which
is a more subdued, drone based ambience with squarls and woobles, reflecting the
need for more stability and predictability for the dancers, and provides an extended
reflective conclusion to the disk.
Any free improvisation can get lost at times - the vibes which the performers,
and even the audience on the night, were feeling can disappear - and the results
appear like a lot of pointless noodling. Donkey have selected well and largely
avoided the problem, making this a varied and engaging piece for those with a
penchant for the experimental & improvisational, as you would expect from
Accretions.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Reptilica
Nurse
Lens Records Lens0002
http://www.lensrecods.com
Here we have an album of retro psychedelic lofi garage pop infused music - yes
one of those hard to pin down disks. Based around drum, guitar and electronics
with semiprofessional vocals, enjoyment and pleasure in what they are doing infuses
the album.
There are 12 tracks providing 40 minutes of varied entertainment, and a sequence
in the centre demonstrate the variety here: ‘Ketamine’ starts out very
dirty with a big guitar and drum with shouted vocals which reminded me of Colin
Newman. This is followed by the instrumental ‘My sweet jukju’ which
has another swirling guitar entree before shifting into a sweet plucked acoustic
guitar melody with subtle rhythm support and some guitar sustains, and then straight
into the power poprock of ‘Pioneer’ with strong solo rhythm guitar and
more deep vocals, while ‘Luna meseta’ moves from acoustic guitar and
distorted vocals to a very sixties slightly distant hippy vocals over a tight
guitar, with a choppy percussive break.
The whole album moves through these changes offering a variety of styles and directions
within the genre. The folky style is present in ‘Empire builder’ and
‘Birdbuilder’ while a noisier sound comes through on the opening track
‘Smack in your ass through airports’ which is all siren like drums and
guitars with big chords, and quite pulls you in. The bass is strong in ‘Sexs
drug’ with a sixties vocal that carries through into the organ and distorted
vocal of ‘Love is our job’
A bass line redolent of ‘Love shack’ drives ‘V6 taurus’ with
television samples, and electronica which shifts into a pop song and then a drifting
soft percussive ambience, before the bass returns with a wahwah guitar and more
- a journey through a range of styles in one track (the longest on the album)
and is followed a couple of tracks later by ‘Wake-dress-undress-sleep’
an experimental collage with a simple melody over. Before ‘Filmstar’
is fuzzguitar and box percussion with driftingly distant vocals takes us out.
This is a fun album - unpretentious as far as I can tell, with no axes to grind
(other than their guitars - sorry) and no theortetical underpinings. E Cleagan
wrote the lot, and there are two people on the front cover - whoever they are,
they have created some very enjoyable retro-indie grunge pop etc.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
And of course, all past issues, with hundreds of reviews, on site.
Copyright for these reviews remains with me, Jeremy Keens. Artists and labels
are free to use and quote them as long as they acknowledge Ampersand and don’t
mess with my words! And if anyone else happens to mention one of these reviews,
do pass on the web address or my email address so new readers can find
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