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Ampersand Etcetera – 2002_03
Ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental lowercase & postclassical
& minimal & techno & etcetera
If there is a theme for this issue, and by saying that, suggests there is, it
is singular visions. I was looking at the pile that had suddenly grown due to
a sea-mail package, and somehow the CDs here separated themselves out. The other
pile was (at that time) eclectronica (to borrow a marvellous pun of M Bentley’s)
and will come together next time.
By singular vision, I don’t mean those not in this aren’t solo artists
or following their own aesthetic: but something about these labels and individuals
suggests a focus or an individuality. Yes – a very weak connection. Maybe
they are just a set of reviews – but on the way I’ll try and explain
myself.
On another matter – I assume that we all share a common interest in diverse
music. On that basis, I want to bring to your attention the UK publication Unknown
Public. This is a print/cd venture which releases compilations of themed cds (12
was Talking Drums [rhythm & percussion], 11 Beauty & Terror, 7 Netherlands)
which come intriguingly packaged in brown card boxes with inserts designed by
various top houses, with info on the tracks etc (sometimes hard to read but always
fascinating). The musical content is an eclectic mix of modern classical, jazz,
experimental and idiomatic: some otherwise unreleased. The most recent "issue"
is ‘Changing Platforms: 30 years of the Contemporary Music Network’
and comes in a different format – a tall hardcover book (2 and a bit CDs
high) with various essays on the CMN. This is an amazing government initiative
has organised tours of incredibly diverse musicians around England. Some of the
names include Tony Oxley, Steve Reich Band, London Sinfonietta, Meredith Monk,
Byron/Caine, Joh Tilbury, Carla Bley and many many more playing their own compositions,
Stockhausen, Xenakis, Birtwhistle, Tuur, Scelsi etcetera – 24 tracks in all.
Recently the CMN has supported the likes of Scanner, Jah Wobble and Labradford,
but the compilation veers away from them – possibly because a promo-comp
was put together for 2000-2001 and would have included them. Anyway, Unknown Public
has been an on-going pleasure for me: my only concern is that current exchange
rates are going to make re-subscribing a trial. But I highly recommend it to anyone
interested in diverse music in a vein closer to jazz/experimental/classical without
it being too harsh, delivered in innovative packaging (http://www.unknownpublic.com)
Still to come, many more individual visions all of whom could have been here,
including: Frog Pocket Berthling, TaaPet, W.I.T., Abstract Q, Si-cut.db, Cray,
Aldea, deep structure and more!
jeremy@pretentious.net
&
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Various Artists
The Freest Of Radicals
No Type/Diffusion I Media IMNT0201/02
http://www.notype.com
http://www.electrocd.com
Diffusion I Media, the Canadian electroacoustic hub (there are a few reviews lurking
in back issues around here), had an earlier intersection with a different cultural
axis with the final Asphodel sombient set ‘A Storm Of Drones’ which
included a disk of Emprentes Digitales excerpts. Now they have entered into an
agreement with No Type to release disks – this compilation begins an arrangement
that will see CDs and 12" singles from No Type.
And No Type should need no introduction – it is (to my mind) the best web
music label and a credit to the vision of David Turgeon. He has released, on a
regular basis, MP3 singles (which are really multitrack eps and minialbums, 65+
to date, following earlier excursions into longer albums) that offer an eclectic
range of surprising and satisfying musics. The diversity is astonishing from glitch
through ambient into beaty techno and various other forms of techno – you
may not like it all, but it is a wonderful musical resource and education. And
I am expecting the same from this 36 track double album (which when I read that
it was coming guessed it would be a ‘best of’ [not in itself a bad thing],
but it is all new).
The structure of the set reflects the two broad contexts of No Type: of the two
disks, Bait contains the glitchy ambient, while Switch has more rhythmic melodic
techno. But neither exclusively. Now, a 36 track compilation is a terror to review
– too much to try and describe each track, and unfair to pick favourites,
I’ll go for the impressionistic response as we move through them.
Running through Bait: droning fuzzy electro with deep slow, moody; more droning,
faster and active, building, buzzy, deep noises, talking; light bubbly driving
electro, good mood change; minimal tones, crackles that build and fade, sudden
eruptions; complex but musical collage – layering crackling with chimes,
clockwork sounds, metal tones build, fade; minimal modulated loop – old synth?,
jumpy echoed; music trying to get through a crackling bed, very separated cacklefuts
swaps with big tones; spacious collage of chimes (some looped to make a rhythm),
thumb piano, gong, clattering metal (Harpo Marx!) and scooped pebbles, opens the
cd out again; tones and unstable drum machines, builds, a break of crackles and
peeps, returns; loungey pulses of electricity rhythms with faint keyboard wisps,
gentle; electroacoustic machines click buzz dits, bursty; demented jazz, live
drums whistles and swirls, jumpy; a slow trip through blips, scratches and thuds;
building slow ambient pulsing like a breathing beast, simple piano later; noisy
crackling, harsh, balanced by a smooth beat; the numbers recordings trying to
emerge (eventually succeeding) from under static and through a groovy, edged techno;
off-key guitar with drums, slow and surprising, piano and strings; guitar processed
and looped a la Zammuto; chattering noises alternate with massed whooshes with
inner subtleties.
Now into Switch disc (or is it the other way around?): rising tones weave into
madness providing a disorienting opening; complex groovy techno; shifting between
slow sampley, computer game rhythms, slow rolling tones – nice variation;
electroacoustic playing with kitchen and other loops; processed voices, moving
between lighter and darker moods, varies a lot; looped dirty D’n’B,
horns later; rhythm and movement through crackles distortion noise, hidden voices;
another electroacoustic playful piece – walking, accordion, pulses, bells,
piano; nice breezy rapid clicks twops perky melody; choppy D’n’B; segues
into clicky surface with lovely stuff going on behind; into smooth loungey, slow
scrapey squiggles; mysterious and complex forward and backward tones, crackles,
grows; rapid clicky cd jumps, slow piano over; tonal and complex rhythms combined;
dirty noises and driving techno; edgy crackling with a distant melody to take
us out.
A well constructed and nicely balanced set – there are many ‘names’
from the No Type roster, but also other voices adding breadth and interest for
those familiar with the label. Generosity in positions means most tracks are short
– few get beyond 6 minutes – but with enough time to display their sounds.
Generous for the buyer too, as it is single-CD priced: go out and buy it.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Maenad
A Thousand Petals
Text txt801
http://www.refinedclinicalresearch.com
A couple of years ago I reviewed the first Maenad release – then a self produced
and released EP that shifted over to Staalplaat’s cd-r label. Dark ambience
and samples delicately and suggestively combined. And now a new cd, on a mysterious
label, developing more complex dense textures.
In ‘Consequence school’ long deep organ tones that resonate, pulse and
shift in a slow melody, form a base layer for a long sample of Arabic calling
– probably a Mullah. Allied with these is a piano layer, mainly single chords
or short sequences, well spaced, that build a little, and some sparse environmental
sounds: hints of clatter, chatter, cars and a truck at the end. The relationship
varies – so that at one stage to base drops out and the singing is more obvious
– and each layer is progressing, maintaining a focus.
Gulls and walking stretch from the end of the first track into ‘In within’,
again a layered piece: bamboo flute leads into water sounds (rain) and thunder
which rumbles through the piece, creating a natural rhythm. There is a light synth,
rising and falling, providing a subtle melody; a cloud of pops drifts through,
and again a simple piano line. Near the end muttering and operatic voices also
enter.
There are two integrated parts to ‘The one who is created’: after a
continuation of the thunder a rapid blippy synth develops and grows, suggestive
of processed speech. Behind it there is a suggestion of a deep, slowed voice and
other noises hidden, which comes gradually forwards after about 4 minutes: then
it explodes into noisy activity which is dampened to give you the impression you
are going deaf. Out of this some woozy notes grow into a tonal melody and muttering
distorted voice, quite different to the first part but suggestive of the tones
there. This darkly dense tonal piece continues gradually becoming cleaner and
simpler at the same time as the voice becomes more obvious, talking in clinical
detail about some genital surgery.
Somewhat simpler, the final track ‘Pigs my fly’ is based around a long
talk from a female evangelist about what amounts to a satanic epidemic with lighter
tonal playing about – notes as well as phone-tones and sine waves –
ending with a complex layering that includes flute like breaths, before the tones
fade.
Deceptively simple, this is a dark disturbing mysterious and absorbing work which
more than delivers on the promise of the EP. The time between them underlies the
care Maenad takes in creating these soundworks, but I hope it isn’t as long
till the next release – whenever, the wait will be worth it. (And is less
important than Maenad’s daytime work – check out the bio: there’s
many hope it comes good).
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Chris Dooks
To Look North
Isis Arts
http://www.isisarts.org.uk
Chris Dooks has passed this way as Bovine Life – originally the MP3 collaboration,
then a track and an album for Bip Hop (another album based on his collaborations
is on the way). Originally a video artist, here he returns to that aspect and
has released the results of an artist residency (though ISIS) with the Northern
Region Film and Television Archive. There he was, as he says ‘a kind of remix
artists for the archives’ and his personal ‘baggage’ led him to
show a North East that ‘gave a fuller, true and honest picture’ than
was in the minds of most English people. And we all bring our own appreciation
of the area to this document.
This inherently visual project comes with three components on the cd: a 40 minute
audio album; a 15 minute QuickTime screening of 11 films, some of whose soundtracks
stand alone on the audio section; expanded liner notes which describe the other
two elements in some detail. And then there is the website (http://www.tees.ac.uk/artist)
which includes Dook’s diary and more audio and video components.
The 25 audio pieces fall into 4 main categories. There are ones like ‘Three
tons of onions’, ‘05/09/58’, ‘An outsider from Finland speaks’
or the second half of ‘Being married I have no choice’ which contain
fairly straight, continuous ‘narrative’ here voices from (or related
to) the archive are allowed to speak fully. Related to them are ‘Little angels’
or ‘An outsider from Finland’ where text from the films is redelivered
by Macintosh voice. Shifting from here are works where the music of vocal delivery
that Dooks heard in the films is brought to the fore. Fragments are looped, repeated
stretched, cut, abstracted – the children saying ‘Things like that’
or ‘No men! (they’ve been banned)’ or the dancers of ‘One’s
own physical difficulties’. These pieces don’t stand on the voice and
processing alone – behind and around them is background ambience, abstract
electronica (even some grooves) created from the sounds on the films.
Then there are the very musical pieces. A couple are slowed down bands (‘War
requiem’, ‘Unity’) which sound to me (and Dooks) like Gavin Bryars;
others are quite ‘straight’ like the joke of ‘Anti socialism’
or the wurlitzer of ‘The runaway train’. The final category is the very
abstract – ‘Lazarus static’ or ‘Exhale’/’Inhale’
– getting right down to cuts and clicks. Typically, most tracks (including
those mentioned) don’t fall easily into these categories but shift around.
‘Jump jump jump jump jump’ for example includes the music of children
calling in the playground, serious mentions of ‘the mysteries of life and
death’ and electronica, or ‘The northumberland buddha’ where a
slow voice loops and layers on meditation, then people talk briefly of their experience,
a voice (the presenters mike check) counts rapidly to 10, and strangely disturbing
music-tones well. Considering the provenance of this audio collage from film,
it would have not been a surprise if it failed. However, to me the individual
pieces and the shifts as you move through the compilation make it a great success.
While coming from an English or English-speaking background probably adds to the
impact, the pure musicality that underpins it should mean that most people could
appreciate it.
Six of the films overlap with the music (plus one gets a couple of remixes) –
but the soundtracks chosen stand well on their own. Yet the images do add an extra
dimension to those pieces, and Dooks must have felt that the others worked best
as films only. His background and skill at editing – strange juxtapositions,
shimmers and frame slips, actual selection of material (in total or the moments)
– come to the fore. The notes say as much as I could ever do – and I
don’t want to repeat them. Merely state that the immediacy of the narratives
and their conjunction with the sounds has put this on my desktop, where I will
play it regularly (plus some others from the website).
I’m not sure how available this will be – and indeed the PR suggested
that the video was only for promotional purposes. I hope not, as it seems important
to me that you get the whole package. Hound the ISIS website and get yourselves
a copy.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
A.f.r.i. studios: Goodbye If You Call That Gone:
Aerospace Soundwise: MonologueWith Accompaniment
Alejandra and Aeron: The Tale Of Pip
Lucky Kitchen 012, 013 and 014
http://www.luckykitchen.com
Alejandra (Salinas) and Aeron (Bergman) run Lucky Kitchen, a small hand-made label,
and have popped up across &etc (Bergman solo, together on Fat Cat and Aesova).
The three disks here are from the Sparkling Composers Series – the two solo
disks in card envelopes with quality tracing paper inserts: more on the A&A
packaging anon.
A.f.r.i. Studios is Andres Krause and this is the third, and last, recording under
this name (I assume Andres will continue) and contains three ‘Starkstrom’
compositions – whatever they are – try & find out. A feature through-out
much of it is a deep tonal layer that rumbles and shakes your foundations. This
is particularly strong in ‘A1’ where the body of the piece is these
pulsating rolling densities, in which you start to hear melodies and changes,
and then realise that there is some form of more rapid change within, then about
a minute before the end there is a little kick up and a lighter tonal ending.
‘A2’ is overall lighter and more obviously active: a high tone becomes
beating pulses and then tonal changes, there is a light scraping which mutates
into a building shimmer twitter and there are breath-like washes, all shifting
to create a compound texture before fading to silence. There are two parts to
‘B2’ (the track names suggest a vinyl structure, but the CD is much
more appropriate for this sound). It opens with a buzzing which rises and falls,
getting longer and modulating (such as a shimmer in the middle) and overlapping,
under which is a shake-sound rather like ‘A1’ which swells. Halfway
through the base drops away followed by the buzz, to be replaced by a rapidly
repeated note which sticks and burr, a swirling tone and a wooz which is almost
like someone catching their breath. These dance around before fading to a shimmer
that cycles through the sound space. A very strongly constructed and fascinating
half hour.
An abstract little foam jigsaw puzzle comes with the Aerospace Soundwise album
– perhaps reflecting the interlocking pieced nature of the release. The sixteen
tracks combine sonographic recordings of insects, bird, people: the environment
– with electronica and looping. In ‘Tributo a Todo un Pionera’
a low rumble and insect noises is joined by a whipwhip, probably a looped bird,
and squeaks, door slams: and then transmutes in the subsequent ‘Free mathematics’
into buzzes and bips which cycle around, a little harshly, before softening into
a subtle sample and electronic beeps that then dominate ‘Lights out cue ‘85’
with random bursts over cooking noises. The kitchen seems to appear throughout
the first part – often quiet tracks with little eruptions. A change occurs
with ’Informant’ which is almost silent before a brief music box/thumb
piano piece that grows into ‘The first generation of men of the women’s
movement‘, the longest track, seven minutes of dense layered pulsing drones.
A short beaty samplefest aptly titled ‘Pushing it in many ways’ is followed
by a 15 second delay before track 10, suggesting a break. However the mixture
of site recordings and interruptions continues – a brief suggestion of outdoors
and people moving (with a long name), then ‘Silent boycott’ almost inaudible
distant sounds followed by jumpy-cd/recordings in ’Mama dressed me up like
a cowboy indian’ (very unsuggestive though poetic names to these tracks)
very active and exciting. A swelling organ, breathy child, distant talking and
keyboards are light and airy in ‘Bluest lullaby…’. This sequence
of shorter piece lead into a longer trio: ‘Dell’s kids in the sanitarium’
is driven by a loop that sounds like a machine, slightly changing, into which
a soft piano enters, then more nature noises, banging, speaker scraping, taken
out quietly by the birds. The ‘Journey to the Basque country’ is a minimal
piece for what sounds like fog horns – long mournful overlapping tones, shifting
pitch and relationships, and light clicks (quite common through the album). And
finally a complex tonal piece where soft shimmering deep tones has distant samples
over, other tones and putters build over, dominating and into a swirly wavering
fade. Obviously a complex album with many facets and shades, overall very subtle
and inviting; it offers more coherence with repeated listening, and has a lot
to reveal over time.
‘The Tale Of Pip’ follows the structure of Bergman’s ‘The
Tale of the Unhappy American’ (2001_02) presenting the story in snatches
at the start of each track, followed by musical colouring. The disk is presented
in a beautiful hand-made booklet (by the Extrapool people who have worked with
Staalplaat on the Brombron releases) with additional tales of Pip (who is not
he nicest person) constructed from cut-out words (like a ransom note) and with
small colour illustrations. But delightful packaging isn’t the be all and
end all – this is after all a music review. The story comes in smallish bits
throughout, read by the ‘Motherly Voice: Marie Annette Fox’ accompanied
by simple shimmers and effects, and is an oblique traverse through some of the
stories in the book. The longer musical components are independent, but allude
to the story. After Pip’s bath, there are dark tones that become more musical
and bubbling water noises, joined by an oboe; the rain storm is followed by a
loop that sounds like a storm and wavering, guitary music. Overall there is a
melancholy tone – something like a harmonica appears in a number of pieces,
such as the overture which shifts lightly between familiar piano, harmonica/metal
tones, harmonium and voices, or the pimpernel which also has a choral interlude
and more oboe – that becomes quite menacing. Other parts are more pingy electronica
(the slow worm) or slowly building rumbles and tones (that lead into bell flower).
After that there are bird noises and more rain – as with their other releases,
site recordings and ambient sounds play a significant role here. At the end comes
Elaine Ruth Pope singing a, unaccompanied and Pip’ed version of ‘Old
Familiar Way’ over raining and kitchen noises, closing a lovely album which
is aesthetically pleasing aurally and visually – A&A being masters at
creating musical moments.
I was going to end with some awfulness about being lucky to be in this kitchen
– but will merely say that these are three lovely, quite different and delightful
releases.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Eugene Chadbourne, featuring Joe Williamson & Uli Jenessen
Ayler Undead
Grob Grob321
http://www.churchofgrob.com
Jim O’Rourke
I’m Happy, and I’m Singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4
Mego 050
http://www.mego.at
Well known artists within the broader experimental scene, these two releases are
together because of the surprise in store, and the musical links between them.
Readers will know that in the last year or so, since I heard the Takayanagi tribute
as my first Grob release (with Jim O’Rourke) I have had a variable musical
journey into their new/improv jazz: some releases are attractive (easy?), others
have seemed less inviting, but all taking me in new directions. This one continues
the education - Chadbourne and Ayler are names I have been aware of, but not specifically
heard – and is the most simply enjoyable to date.
Primarily recorded at a Cologne festival, guitarist Chadbourne is joined by Williamson
on bass and Jenessen on drums: problems at the desk meant Chadbourne had to do
some overdubs, and there are a couple of solo pieces. He says that Ayler’s
music ‘was always these strange little themes, most importantly followed
by complete freaking out’, and this pattern is seen throughout the album.
Like the opener, ‘Omega is the alpha’ with its jolly folk/blues guitar
melody – which seems to be almost recognisable – shifting into a bass
solo, then some guitar theatrics, and finally refinding the melody, which was
never really lost. The studio/live aspect is obvious in ‘Prophecy’ where
the bass and drums are running along smoothly, but there are two guitar parts
– a bright twangy one in the foreground and some Fripp-ish effects somewhat
murkily behind. ‘Infinite spirit’ delivers a folk tune, again with a
sense of déjà vu, on the guitar with strong bass support that sounds
bowed at times; the more stately and measured ‘Witches and devils’ again
sees double guitar work; and ‘Light in the darkness’ swings from the
light restraint of its melody into a freak-out and back with supple skill and
grace.
‘La Marseillaise’ is presented as a ripping solo piece, evolving from
a straight entrance into a welter of extra notes, frills trills and spills that
never looses sight of the anthem, but takes us where Ayler (or Hendrix) would.
The other solo, ‘Ghosts’, concludes the set, starting from an uncertain
search for the melodic line, accompanied by string-scrapes, which evolves into
a virtuoso piece that gradually drifts into some very short high strings.
I think what I like about this album is that the instruments work as themselves,
and even though there are shifts into improv scatter, the group (primarily through
Chadbourne) never loses sight or consideration of the melody. Not necessarily
one for everybody, but one of Grob’s more broadly targeted albums. Weitenhagen’s
design takes Russian Constructivist themes and combines them with fractal-like
disruptions of a photo of Ayler to create a lively booklet (with notes by Chadbourne
and producer Klopotek) that rounds off a very satisfying release.
I’m not sure why O’Rourke is happy, but even the light switch on the
cover is smiling anthropomorphically. There are three tracks here, giving the
album its title, described as being ‘recorded 97-99 live in NY, Osaka and
Tokyo’ though I’m not sure in what sense –as they are obviously
looped and cut and pasted constructs: perhaps created live. What they are is lovely,
melodic minimalist pieces (which are very hard to describe: ain’t they all
but) that edge into classical territory.
The first title track, ‘I’m happy’ seems to be based on an accordion
or keyboard piece which has been processed, mainly through fragmentation and looping.
It changes density and speed throughout, and shifts from lyrical to blippy parts,
without losing touch with its base. With ‘And I’m singing’ there
is a change instrumentation – probably guitar but also some percussive tinkly
bits – and again there is a shifting focus, some parts a little demented,
others slower and more musical. On the whole it is denser.
And finally ‘And a 1, 2, 3, 4’ which takes half the album, a gentle
shimmering piece, that sounds like violin or viola (definitely bowed - and in
parts processed into harp-like tones with insects surrounding it), electronic
tones and washes flowing through, supple/subtle processing adding depth and colour.
Gorgeously slow, it caps a significant and individual album from this mercurial
artist.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ashera
"We Gaia"
Ashera CDAW-2001-9
http://www.ashera.com
Larry Gaab
The Sacred & The Profane
Morphosis Music MM5
http://www.windandwire.com
garbanzo@shocking.com
Two artists approaching the post-Eno and whoever ambient scene, nodding towards
some New Age gestures, but creating and self-releasing their singular collections.
"We Gaia" is, I think, Ashera’s fourth album, and follows on from
two which were listened to for &etc 2001_12. And as with those, the music
we have here is beautiful lush ambient music where tones shimmers voice-tones
and music join together to create delightful and melodic atmospheres. The overall
mood and feel are similar to his earlier releases – Ashera knows what he
does and he does it well. Along with Ashera (keyboards) and Valerie Williamson
and Caroline Wilson (voices), Gary Brown provides various guitars to the mix –
most obviously the bending guitar notes in ‘Welcome gaia’ or the colour
in ‘Expectations…’. The album drifts past, enveloping you in its
warm affirming ambience. Some highlight include the deeper tones underlying ‘Cities
to come’; the pastoral tone of ‘Mother…’ which seems to provide
a synaesthetic spring, supported by light environmental samples; shimmers in ‘Warmth’.
There are some darker moments such as ‘New places’ or the slow and mysterious
‘They are leaving’ with animal calls weaving through. As with my previous
review, I can’t recommend Ashera to everyone – if you like your ambience
purely dark atonal or edgy; or if ambience of tonal beauty annoys you, this is
not for you. But if you do want some beautiful release, Ashera is a talented member
of that growing association of musicians who create it.
Larry Gaab also made a multi-disk appearance last year – a triple retrospective
in 2001_16. This time we are keeping pace with him, just the one to look at. And
the design is more subtle, more unified than some of the others, the music exploring
semi-classical keyboard ambiences. Gaab works mainly in long tones whose texture
reveals their keyboard origin and manipulation: at times his sensibility threw
me back to some of the subtler aspects of Emerson (Nice or ELP), the tone without
the bombast. Tracks like ‘Furthest fantasy’ have a swirling mood and
melody that recalls romantic classical works, or early 20th century experiments
with ‘All things equal’. But Gaab is just as likely to undermine your
expectation, as with the sliding string tones at the end of that piece. There
are percussive affects at times, such as the prayer bells and chimes in ‘Shadows’
or the rhythmic eruptions in ‘The profane’. The tracks develop and shift
organically – in ‘Instinct’ for example from a swirly melody and
pulsing keyboard into higher tones that drop away, return and shift into guitar
and shimmery light, dropping away to wind and distant voices before rebuilding.
Or ‘Shadows’ which swings from long tones into a 3rd Encounter simple
melody and then back into tones and slides. Through atonal or angular variations
throw some abstract light onto the pieces, adding depth and interest, taken further
in the electroacoustic, experimental feel to ‘Essential illusions’.
The album consolidates Gaab’s development in complex orchestral ambience,
providing a more measured and consistent mood and method in his relatively unique
musical vision.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
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 me. Thanks.
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