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Ampersand Etcetera – 2003_a
Ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental lowercase & postclassical
& minimal & techno & etcetera
A new year starts with a new numbering – for a change alphabetical: not sure
why. This year has started slowly, so can't make any promises as to how often
we will come out.
This issue sees three triple-release label reviews (Bip-hop, Public Eyesore, BSI)
separated by singles (Barrio, Kucharz).
Here for the next issue – some new releases from Absurd, two from Martin
Archer, Haugland vinyl, more Bip-Hop on the way, and expecting new X-zf and more.
Also the alphalist update has been delayed by too much work – sorry Mou,
Lips. Speaking of whom, their album (previously cd-r – see 2002_14) is now
available from List records (http://www.list.com), and there is still more on
site.
Jeremy
ampersand@pretentious.net
&
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ilpo Vaisanen & Dirk Dresselhaus: Angel (bleep16)
Tonne: Soundtoy (bleep17)
Scanner & Tonne: Sound Polaroids (bleep18)
Bip-Hop
http://www.bip-hop.com
To start of the new year with three new Bip-Hop releases – what a pleasure.
Angel is a 45 minute live interaction between Vaisanen (typewriter, cd-player
and effects) and Dresselhaus (guitar, amplification and more effects) recorded
in July 2000 in Berlin. This sees the label strike out in a new direction: this
could easily have originated from Grob as it is basically free-form improvisation.
There are shimmers tones squeaks guitar distortion buzzing and pulsing carrying
us through the concert. At times the speakers shake and there is visceral density.
Different parts have separate feels, though it has been cut loosely, as most sections
are exactly so many minutes long. The second is more mellow, three aggressive
and distorted pulsing; in five a lighter ditty mood with guitar scritching builds
to a noise before fading to buzz crackle; six is buzzy and blurty with high tones
while in 7 there are actually some rhythms – an initial loop then a second
that cycles and distorts. Eight (the longest part) builds to a big climax from
guitar shimmers before a long wind down. More scittering and noise in nine with
a guitar singing beneath segues into a big noisy climax and fade. As I say, not
your usual Bip-Hop, and while it has its moments, like much of this genre is one
for when the mood hits you (and it will hit you back).
&
Those who got Bip-Hop Generation v05 will have had a chance to play with Tonne's
Soundtoy – an intuitive and simple interface for making loop-music. Taking
the concept a step further, Tonne and 3 others have used the software with samples
of their own to create the music on the album. And, the latest version of Soundtoy,
with the sample sets used by the artists is given to you to play with too (can
you create a better mix?).
Constraint is a powerful stimulus to creativity – and the Soundtoy offers
a few. There is a limit of 12 samples: these are placed on a number of sound-strings.
A sample reader bounces back and forth along the lin, reading the sounds either
both ways or on one of the sweeps. The tempo can be changed, but for all readers
at once, though the length of the reader can be shortened, giving increased relative
tempos. Placing the sounds provides the relationship between them – if they
are on the same reader, they can only be read consecutively, while putting them
on different ones means they can occur simultaneously. The volume, texture, distortion
of the samples cannot be tampered with. I played with the generator before playing
the cd – which gave me an idea of how the different artists might vary –
the sound sets are quite distinct- and difficulty of selecting and placing samples
so that it's not too complex, crowded or stale.
Hakan Lidbo took the most liberties, using the Soundtoy output as the start of
pieces. His two works 'Bib dod' and 'Non xox' are perhaps the most conventional:
blippy sounds with some decay and echo, smudgy wow sounds in the first, drums
clicks and tinkle techno in the second. Using manipulated voice sounds, Scanner
creates more ambient intense pieces which are live mixes. In 'Guide me by surprise'
a continuous scrape-shimmer drone and mellow sounds form a base for skittering
shorter ones that build density and eases back, eschewing rhythm or beat. The
voice origin is more obvious in 'Loving, rapid, merciless' sounding ethereal,
pulsing keyboards that come to dominate the piece.
Great use of different channels is apparent in Si-cut-db, with 'Rosalind' as messed
symth samples ply the edge of melody over a strong tone bed or 'Small db machine'
which is cd-jumpy, pulsing and clicking. Tonne as the designer and the most familiar
with the software gets the longest and more complex tracks. 'Minesou' shifts from
an active almost dubby period into more ambience with a nice vinyl splatter over
while 'You will never know' is loungey and smooth.
You come away from this album not only enjoying the music, but with respect. Soundtoy
is not a toy, but a strong musical tool which allows for on-the-go editing to
move away from what could be mechanical. The difference between each artists output
underscores the flexibility of the program and also the singular importance of
selecting the 12 samples (the album title refers to each artist having 2 tracks,
each based on a set of 12 samples). Tonne refers to 'spen[ding] a lot of time
making the actual sample sets'. And finally respect for the musicians – nothing
I made with the program sounded anything like this – their appreciation of
how full or empty to make the palate, when to move things and how is probably
why they are making the music and I am listening.
(But I will keep playing with the toy!)
&
Scanner and Tonne turn up in a city, build a audio/video digital sample set that
becomes the basis of an installation piece, a live performance and now a cd-version
(with Mac-multimedia/interactive component too). We start in London – the
ICA installation mix) with the (cliched) sounds of Big Ben which soon move away
from the obvious and out into the streets. We hear soft tonal ambience with manipulated
squiggly sounds (filtered) shimmer and crackle that interweaves with sampled sounds,
the music ringing vibrating mysterious pulsing – is the slow movement a severely
treated sample, is music added? The drift climaxes in some famous church bells
and then various animals at the zoo. Without pause we segue into Milano which
is faster with a full base over which a washing pulsing chattering crackle builds
into a beaty almost techno before some final voices.
Stephen Vitellio gets to mix New York City (Scanner did all but one of the others)
which focuses on families and people but with a very strong rhythmic percussive
underlay which chops up halfway through but regains its structure later, with
tones plying through too. Futuristic Tokyo opens with sample-soundscape then into
melodic fast popping splintered sounds while Montreal is Francophone samples played
more directly with crackles and percussive tones sliding in.
Finally Tonne gets the final mix – and while the others name a city this
is just his, so I assume it combines aspects from across the installations. It
includes more focus on the samples as they burst through the ditty swirling tones,
a fuller more produced sound emerging including sitar like tones.
Often pieces divorced from installations can become vague as the sounds lose the
sights that they accompanied. These however, survive the transfer to create their
own auditory worlds – drifting and hypnotic visions of imagined cities they
go beyond the simple reality of a Polaroid and create a mood and a music that
is beyond the moment. Like O&A on Box30/70 (2002_09) they re-create an environment
that is unique and universal. A lovely work.
&&&&&&&&
Dan Barrio
This Physical World
AMB01
http://www.danbarrio.com
Dan apparently did some of the sounds on Blair Witch – a film I was not impressed
by (it tried to scream you into fear, rather than subtly direct you) and I must
say the music didn't make an impression (which could be good!). Anyway, this album
contains some ambiences which you could imagine being in films – subtle and
suggestive unlike TBW.
The album feels as if it is divided into three sections, based on the sounds and
moods. An almost early music feel to 'As things are' with a deep strong pulse
with a liquid melody over ebbs and flows with a billowing tone. In 'Virgin light'
long unstable notes for a percussive bed for more stable pulses. However, these
slowly mutate to a more blurred form before regaining their clarity – simplicity
breeding intensity. A simple piano piece forms 'Melodic interlude no.1' before
another subaquatic ambient piece where deep resonating tones underlie a slow weaving
middle register melody and later horns, the lithe and lovely 'Warmth and pause'.
The album then shifts into its second stage – where the first was tonal and
warm, the second is more complex and darker. 'Weakness and desire' – swelling
deep tones, a voiced susurrus, and a simple picked string melody that is joined
by long layered horns builds, before easing and seguing into 'Fading beauty' in
which long tones, pulsing modulated, flatten out to soft voices, over which a
higher melody and picked piano emerge. Billowing chords slowly mutate and fuzz,
echoed piano over in 'The lesser countenance'. Water, which seems to have been
playing around in earlier tracks, comes to the fore in 'Under'. A bubbling sample
with long tones over and a slow melody is joined about halfway through by rain
which becomes the dominant register as the melody becomes simple deep notes. 'Melodic
interlude no.2' is more complex, a drone with an echoed picking (harp, violin),
a horn melody and steppin electric piano.
The last two tracks create an interlocking of the first two parts. 'Passing through'
is perhaps the most complex track, deep tones with crackly stepping and wobbly
phasing, a cry, voices, radio samples flick through channels, then pulsing tones
that flow into 'A new beginning' which is back to the simpler ambience of melodic
tonal play with slow high tones that creates a release, slows and fades.
A well-constructed album which develops a narrative through the tracks which demonstrate
some finely handled ambience. The structure and variation means that there is
a lot to revisit. And any album that uses classical images of silver stained retinal
sections on its cover gets a strong recommendation – though they should have
been on the front cover not the inside!
&&&&&&&&
Muslimgauze, Systemwide, Sound Secretion: Classics Selection (BSI-029)
Systemwide: Live at the Festival International De Jazz De Montreal (BSI-030)
Raz Mesinai: The Unspeakable (BSI-016)
BSI
http://www.bsi-records.com
Way back in v1_03 we reviewed a pair of BSI 12" singles – one from Sound
Secretion Dub, the second a split Systemwide/Muslimgauze. Later, Muslimgauze put
out a 10" single on the label, which passed us by, and the cd Lo-Fi India
Abuse. Now BSI have compiled those three releases and added a previously unreleased
track from each artist, making it all more widely available.
Muslimgauze opens with 'Smooth prophet' where twoodles segue into a bassdrum from
Systemwide (all the pieces are Systemwide-based) with keyboards shimmers, dubby
voice loops and phasing. 'Nommos descending' is more Middle Eastern with drums
bells and occasional keyboards, squelching and some Systemwide filtering through.
Drums beats and dirty squelched synths in the 'Excerpt from by the west bank'.
Very fast percussions, voices and little melodic bits, with blippy dubby echoes
in the furious 'Nommos' ark', with trademark dropouts, while 'Nommos' ghosts'
is more relaxed, crackling vinyl. Melody loop, slow drums and twitters, lightly
dubbed with soft loops, more ambient though some fast loops intrude at the end.
His set ends with the bonus track 'Skip the sun' which combines a number of segments
– a slow-complex of backwards echoed tones, with rubbery bass and sample
loop, sorta weird but catchy; then fast, very MG drums; which loops and bubs,
develops some bass and into a remixed rhythmy piece – a nice combo, which
may reflect 'edits and additional production' by Sound Secretion.
Systemwide offer their take on dub-reggae, of which more below: 'Contrapositive'
where bass and drums set up a slow sinuous rhythm, scratching and echoed keyboards,
then thin/processed vocals, A long instrumental break brings in weird electronica
and aural catherine wheels. Deep bass under which brings it back at the end. Piano
and organ join the beat for 'Provisional dub', strong drums, a vocal sample grows,
and the whole is more electronic and driving. Then the extra track, 'Aswan dub'
which expands the electronic squiggles and squirls, adds bass, drums, claps and
long tones and a computerish melody, the sample and dervish calls adding to the
jollie lightness of the track – without being throwaway – before tones
and trumpets take the fade.
'Sound secretion in the city' takes harder high hats, street samples, stepper
bass, theremin and other synth for a forceful drive – more composed and compiled.
So that in 'Frequency seduction' we have tapping, a vocal fragment (vocoder?)
that winds up with sitar(?) to a strong melody over pulsing rhythm, winding down
and up again. Experimental in 'Beat trilogy' with irregular beats, squiggles,
spoken samples while '4am dub' has UB40ish horns plus the rhythm section with
lots of reverb. A violin and burbling loop lasciviously over a slow rhythm 'In
the eye of dub', and in 'Shifting dub' there are bells, reverse organ and dense
layers of sound to create another driving piece. And finally, 'Echoic memory dub'
adds another shade with its light shimmery mood, sinuous horns, allowing another
aspect of Sound Secretion to show.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in any of the artists featured –
these were recordings well worth bringing to a wider mass: and the extra tracks
are a definite boon, each adding to the artist's selection.
&
Systemwide play a luvverly dub– captured hear in live Montreal. The group
uses bass, melodica (a lovely sound that isn't used enough), percussion, turntables,
synths and samplers, keyboards and effects plus vocals to great results.
It is difficult to describe it all – the basic reggae/dub sound is there
with congas and rubbery bass creating a rhythm that makes you want to move, over
that are laid various keyboards, guitar, the melodica and voice (Ezra's or sampled)
and then the echo and phasing that is the key to the sound. Without reproducing
the original sounds or songs (there are two covers here) they have created a version
of the style which is strongly their own and very enjoyable.
As a live set this is beautifully paced and could set a party going on its own.
After the festival 'MC intro', 'The congo' and its segue 'Osmani stepper' set
the beat going and carry the looseness and exploration of the live work, playing
with the melody and placing electronic shimmers and twiddles over the beat. 'Snipers'
is slower with high strained vocals, contemplative organ but with some toasting
and scratch, wooshy synths that slide into the faster 'Dub plate' with reverbed
samples.
Slow and sensuous, 'B complex' gradually increases in density as it goes, while
'Reclame' is very keyboardy with a sampled vocal followed by Ezra in French before
another group workout. As is their version of 'Burning dub', and very dubby! More
percussive in 'Imitator', fast with echoed sample fragments and spacey keys, then
some piano that opens 'Ripe up' that reminded me (strangely) of ELP but switches
to a more house-y loop. The strange flash-backs continue in 'It's not broken'
where the long tones sound like a mellotron, and accompanies a choppy beat and
more samples. The night concludes with 'Gilgamesh', an elegiac piece opening with
more piano, melodica and beats in a simpler more structured feel, with a clear
vocal over recalling past glories. The mood and the instrumental breaks make this
a fitting climax to a wonderful concert.
A definite recommendation for lovers of dub beats or fine fun music.
&
An older (by the number, and copyright 2000) release came with the other two,
as BSI thought I might enjoy it, and I did. The cover images of dolls heads (called
baby and evil in the liner notes), the overlaid and repeated typed title/artist
on the cover are suggestive of innocence destroyed further conveyed by track titles.
This is a drama of demonic uprising and assault, carried through fine use of voices,
strings (violin, viola and contrabass) and Mesinai's percussion, keyboards, bass
and voice. It is not a joyful dub album but a dark ambient journey.
We enter via 'Intro/the chamber of souls stirs' where horn tones and clapping
give way to a brief percussive burst then long sustained tones, a purring and
susurrus that rises and falls, strings screaming at the end. The layered voices
saying their prayers in 'Child sleeps' are portentous, furthered by the slow music
box and tones that rise into a 'White room' of wavering strings and picked piano
that develops a melody accompanied by squeaky strings. A female scatting tick-tock
and popping percussion of 'The dream dance' succumbs to the 'The gate keeper…'
(spoken of in the prayers) a short wild violin ride.
Mad mutterings of edgy madness in 'Possesses' and then 'The beast (is unleashed)'
with demonic string-screams, rapid percussion and strings that ease to 'Concubines
of …' where there is more violin and voices. As always it is the voice part
which carries the most fright. Rising tones taking us into a bubbling cave of
goo which is 'The sub conscious' where various instruments portray the under-thoughts
– from a piano playing dreamily to percussive tapping. More female voices
and jumpy squeaky squawks are 'Possession (second stage)' after which a forceful
percussive and pizzicato string excitement as the 'Demonic uprise' occurs.
'The bitches of hell'? Blippy electronica slides into moaning manipulated voices
looped while a grovelling lascivious beast drools, a tone piece and muttering.
We (?) 'Celebrate the coming' with mad ascending violin, piano and percussion
before a tongue-in-cheek 'Monster mash' of harpsichord, skeleton strings, dotty
percussion and game-squiggles. As 'The dead rise…and run rampant' we get
whispered spooky choppiness and the dancey rhythms and clackers in the 'Skeleton
dub'. A 'Hallway' of layered distant whispers, cycling percussion, bells and scrapes
takes us through to 'Possession (final stage)' with more drooling, wild percussion,
voices before 'The beast (attacks)' in a wild rapid dance, propulsive with long
horn tones. And finally 'Metamorphosis' where an eased mood of slowly rising tones
(strings or voices) builds and then after a mutering child and some more slobbering
it eases and fades. The back cover says 'But god prevails', but I am not so sure.
This reminded me to some degree of Shinkuku Thief, though less orchestral, but
more so of When whose retrospective was reviewed 2001_10: there is a similar sense
of mood. Not one to listen to alone on a dark and stormy night!
&&&&&&&&
Larry Kucharz
Ambient Blue Washes
International Audiochrome IA35
intaudiocr@aol.com
Larry makes another of his regular appearances – his new albums are always
a pleasure to receive as you don't know what direction he will take (and they
are always a pleasure to listen and relisten to). After the techno of the last
one we return to a more sedate ambience, but extending into areas beyond the electrochoral.
Typically non-committal track titles – 'Blue wash no.X' – each is a
long exploration of varied ways with ambient. '1' is long layered string tones
with a hint of tuned percussion that is slow and minimal, building layers then
shedding them in a lighter middle section before rebuilding again. Subtle and
enveloping, the scene is set. Complexity comes in '2' where a pulsing of tones
(organ, harmonica) gradually accretes phone tones and other soft squiggly noises
with hidden tones, quite delicate. Then, in the space between the pulses different
sounds are added that compete, and then fade to leave the original packages.
Deep tones (woodwind, bass or perhaps voice) emerge in '3' with vibrating sustains,
that create a percussive effect, then there are some organ-like tones and higher
notes, the totality meditative and choral. A constant high string drone through
'4' is a pivot for developing units: tones play in and around it, building then
dropping back to a single note before rebuilding. These beads on the string of
the drone are complex, some voice in and also horns., while the string itself
is modulating.
In '5' long tones with lovely layering based on varied texture and timbre weave
around an organ drone, and finally the billowing clouds of tones create a very
stately ambience.
The diversification works wonderfully, and we are offered a satisfying and intriguing
set of ambient excursions to follow Larry on.
&&&&&&&&&
Falafel Avantgarde: He-pea #46 7" vinyl
Emergency String Quintet: On The Corner (Market and Sixth) #57 cdr
Monotract: Pagu #60 12" vinyl
Public Eyesore
http://www.sinkhole.net/pehome
The dangers of non-labelling disks for the CDr distributor last time I did a PE
update (2002_17) the ESQ cover held a second copy of one of the other disks. Anyway,
Bryan sent a new disk with some vinyl from this wonderfully eclectic label.
A factor in making a single effective can be diversity – which Falafel Avantgarde
provide. The A side 'Mousst tang (electric jahoon)' is an eccentric journey from
a female voice looping with voice tones and drums to which are added turntabling
tones, then echoed percussion, spooky reverbed tones, spirals, a possible Theremin
so that by the end it is a complex electronic. Slip it over to 'Landerian (eric
the half bee)' and improvised percussion and twangs gets some guitar, becomes
sorta loungey-groovy when violin is added and then shifts into driving 'kraut
rock' spacey with guitar and synths. The two sides have something in common, but
also strike different directions, and are both entertaining and listenable. A
good single.
&
The ESQ is two violins, viola, and double bass – directed by Bob Marsh on
cello. I assume the four pieces here are improvised, as they have that free-flowing
movement. But to my ears, an advantage string ensembles have is that the sort
of noises and notes that improv uses are not that dissimilar to modern quartet
and beyond written pieces which makes aural assimilation much easier as the language
is more familiar – compared to picked scraped prepared guitar or blurting
brass.
The opener (and title track) supports that feeling – from sliding string
notes it shifts into melody with plucking, there are some wild stirrings and skittish
high notes with deep sustains, but also extended melodies. 'Dancing in the 21C'
is similarly approachable as pizzicato and scrapes become melodic sustains with
some Glass-like rapid repeats through the track. It ebbs and flows with some delicate
moments, a little gypsy-feel and almost electronica, layered and billowing.
There is more of a improv touch to 'The quality of mercy' with percussive scraping
and sawing plus stranger sounds extracted – kazoo, buzz-drones and high electronics.
A buzzing chord with deeper melody, instruments loop, there is more of the combined
small gesture approach. A sliding dance into a wild crescendo, sliding sirens,
mellows then a playful violin to a final climax. An alluring and alluding opening
to 'Nocturne' as night-animal sounds are created – a howler monkey, rainsticks,
animals growl and purr, insects sing – building to a furious middle before
a quite delicat conclusion.
An excellent collection of string pieces.
&
Monotract (Nancy Garcia, Carlos Giffoni & Roger Rimada) pursue a confronting
and difficult course of computer glitchy randomish sampled noise presented on
vinyl which references the sampling and suggests the developing surface noise.
This is an uncompromising album created with layers and loops of sounds that seem
to eschew melody or rhythm in general. 'Con la cabeza en la escuela' is a mechanico-electrical
loop with rappy vocals over, squeaks, Bulgar women providing a break, followed
by varied electronica. In 'fuckin' Randolph' squeaky and scratchyelectro and rumbles
slide into computer-game shimmering, then 'Chancleppi' is a twingy twangy dancing
perpetual mobile. 'California' scratchy noisey randomness – phones, computers,
whatever – becomes a computer voice and a methodically pulsing scratch in
'Part 2: in the morning'. A high tone and the jumbling fades, talking, crackly
zipping and more distorted voices. Simpler degrading tones loop and fade through
'Skrantantula' and then faster layers of computer noise with distant crackling
in 'Birao de lao'.
While there doesn't have to be a side difference, vinyl lends itself to that division
(another structural feature lost in most CDs – the song v instrumental side,
pop v experimental, suite v short songs). In this case, the difference is a greater
appearance of the voice on the second side – musically the difference is
subtler but also possibly there. 'Mymagicsister' sounds a bit like the Residents
with strange sampled singing before more noisy clatter click. The phone message
that opens 'Ella's song' is appropriately distorted when she gives out her numbers,
but the whole piece is a log crackle-click of sampley rhythmic music. Squiggly
computer music with voices subsumed in it for 'DYNACORP, HADRON, PROMIS' then
as close as they come to a song/single – 'Hot shine (lechon mix)' has a strong
rhythm, a poem/lyric through, the backing sticks and loops then builds again with
a buzz. More rhythm loops in 'Matricula' various srum machines joined by tinny
keyboards, scratchy with organ through it before another random computer noise
layer ends the album with 'Nestron'.
Complex and harsh, with perhaps fewer lighter moments than I usually like, it
is nonetheless good to see music like this appearing on vinyl, and continues Public
Eyesore's willingness to provide a vehicle for an extraordinary range of new musics.
Worth a spin.
&
And I continue to be amazed at the energy and commitment Bryan Day has to the
label and the music – it must be just about the fastest growing label (independent
or otherwise). And quality is not being compromised – a label to support.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
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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