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Vital Weekly 696

  Tobias

UNICAZÜRN - TEMPORAL BENDS (CD by Uzu Music)
Recently I was quite disappointed by Cherry Red's re-issue of some material by Five Or Six. Whereas the band's complete output might easily fit on two CDs, they were granted a single, forty minute CD. What a shame. That complaint has nothing to do with this CD by UnicaZürn, save for the fact that one half of UnicaZürn was once a member of Five Or Six, David Knight. Later on he was a member of Arkkon, Shockheaded Peters and played with Lydia Lunch. These days he is also a member of The Amal Gamal Ensemble, an improvisation group. There he meets Stephen Thrower, whom you surely know as a member of Cyclobe and Coil. Heavy weights from the world where alternative popmusic, rock music even, meet up with the more experimental edges of music - the world of Vital Weekly. Together they work as UnicaZürn, but hardly a day-time job. This material was recorded over a period of five years. Knight gets credit for synthesizer, organ and guitar and Thrower for keyboards, saxophone and clarinet. Danielle Dax appears on one piece with vocals. Perhaps that piece, 'Jack Sorrow' is the albums only hint towards 'pop' music, or perhaps just her vocals. Its a short piece, and hardly representing the album. The other three pieces span some forty minutes and finds itself in a highly abstract sound mode. It opens up with some drone like material, which unfolds itself over the course of the pieces into a fine work of electronics, which rely heavy on analogue synthesizer (cosmic at times) and heavily treated, spacious guitars and reed instruments, in what is a great album. An excellent production, with always something happening at every corner of the room. Quite 'loud' and 'present', this is music that grabs the listener and leaves him breathless: until Dax sings the final piece - almost like a lullaby. Great CD. (FdW) Address: http://www.unicazurnofficial

ABATTOIR (CD by Evil Rabbit Records)
Wow. What a mighty blast this is. Robert van Heumen we know from his previous work in the field of laptops and improvisations while Audrey Chen on cello and vocals is a new name to me. Chen screams, whispers, mumbles, talks and sometimes she does that with her voice, but perhaps more with her cello. Its not easy to say that, as it seems that the laptop of Van Heumen is the overall controller of the sound. He too screams, whispers, mumbles and talks with the input given by Chen, and not always at the same time. Two worlds that collide and communicate. Van Heumen takes everything apart, melts them into bricks and builds a new house with it. Heavy duty improvised music, but 'silence' is word that they hardly seem to know here. From the very first to the very last second things erupt like volcano. Sometimes we are on top of that volcano, watching the eruption, then we see hot lava running down, slow but hot and powerful. This CD lasts about an hour, which seems quite long to me. It has a lot energy, this music, but it also exhausts the listener quite a bit. To give this your full attention is great, but you should be prepared for it. This music is not entertainment, a lazy laid-back recording, but it requires full, 100% attention. Perhaps to be taken in a smaller doses then as a large 5inch pill it is now. Play half, take a nap and then the rest. Its rewarding however. (FdW)
Address: http://www.evilrabbitrecords.eu

VOICE OF EYE - SEVEN DIRECTIONS DIVERGENT (CD by Conundrum Unlimited)
Since some time Jim Wilson and Bonnie McNairn, together known as Voice Of Eye are back. In 1997 they stopped creating music to 'build an off-the-grid sustainable home and studio in Taos, New Mexico', which took them ten years to build. Since their return their have been a couple of releases, which saw them return to their fine of lengthy, warm ambient electronics with great emphasis on the psychedelic quality of the pieces. Maybe therefore the opening piece here on their twelfth CD 'Seven Directions Divergent' is quite a surprise: its almost popmusic, slow rhythm, e-bow on the guitar, and Bonnie McNairn on some heavenly voice trip, and sounding a bit like Cosey Fanni Tutti. Laid-back popmusic. Almost. This is continued in the following piece 'Where Are You?', which is, me think, even better. Voice Of Eye changed that radical? Hard to believe, and no, they didn't. At least not to that extent. Throughout it seems indeed that elements of popmusic have been brought in, without losing the original ambient sound. 'Transformational Birth', the piece that closes this CD is one of those typical lengthy Voice Of Eye ambient excursions. A bit without any sense of direction, sounds flowing about, like being in space. They drift in and out of the mix, without any synthesizers (according to the cover), like the real cosmic music thing. That makes this a great CD. Drifting, flowing in all pieces, bouncing back and forth towards the more 'pop' like tunes and lengthy, atmospheric excursions. A great album, I'd say, an excellent combination of both ends, making a very mature album. Great psychedelic music. (FdW) Address: http://www.voiceofeye.com

FLATLINE SKYLINE - ALL SOUND/NO VISION (CD by Mechanoise Labs)
Back in Vital Weekly 495 I reviewed Flatline Skyline's debut album 'Horizon Grid'. Flatline Skyline are R. Andrew Scott and Jacen Kemp and back then it seemed to me a cross-over between IDM, gothic and noise. Atmospheric songs in which vocals play a big role. The new album 'All Sound/No Vision' continues this. The mood is again dark, rhythm are loud, aggressive, demanding (whatever you may think is appropriate) and Kemp's voice sound like Marc Almond, although screaming in 'Sleep Tight, Silent Knight' reminding me of Last Few Days. It has also moments of contemplation and introspection, such as in 'Aperture', but those pieces are sparse, but provide that necessary counterpoint. In that sense this album is a much more varied than 'Horizon Grid' and this variety is what makes this album very good. Perhaps not the sort of music I'd play a lot I guess, but this one is really nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mechanoise-labs.com

MILLIPEDE - ALL MY BEST INTENTIONS (CD by Hymen Records)
American composer Don Hill has been exploring darker territories of ambient under the name Porteur De L'Image over the years. Now the Chicago-based artist has released a debut album under the alternative name Millipede. Compared to the explorations of aforementioned Porteur De L'Image, Don Hill as Millipede circulates in more beat-driven sound worlds with rhythm structures that spans from IDM-textures to more discreet pulses of clicking pulses. The overall style still points towards the ambient scene, yet the soundscapes isn't dark or threatening. The strength of Milipede is the artists ability of creating deep otherworldly ambience, that sometimes moves into harsher expressions not far away from IDM-legends Gridlock. Anyone interested in Gridlock or ambient-driven IDM should definitely check this work out. Music to dive deeply into. Mesmerizing! (Niels Mark)
Address: http://www.hymen-records.com/

THE RORSCHACH GARDEN - A PLACE FOR THE LOST (CD by Bazooka Joe)
German artist Phillipp Münch has to be one German electronic music scene's most active artists with a number of aliases and collaboration projects. Two of his most active projects are the hard-hitting powernoise-act Synapscape and the sharp contrast to Synapscape, being the minimal electropop-band The Rorschach Garden also starring Barbara Teichner and Natascha Pohlmann. The band started in the fall of the eighties operating in a decade before a few years up till 2001. From this year forward a great number of releases has seen the light of the day on labels like Fich Art, Bazooka Joe and Sub.ver.siv. Present album "A place for the lost" turns the memories back to the British technopop-scene of the early mid-80's. Especially New Order comes to my mind as I listen to the 14 tracks on the album, especially thanks to the vocal of Phillipp Münch that in expression reminds of Bernard Sumner. Despite its call to the heydays of 80's electropop the project has its very own approach with influences of the industrial-scene. The strength of the band is the powerful energy that is hidden under every single track, that in combination with the upbeat rhythm-textures makes a good choice for every DJ-set. Highly recommended. (Niels Mark)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/therorschachgarden

TIMO VAN LUIJK & FREDERIK CROENE - VOILE AU VENT (LP by La Scie Doree)
ONDE - PURPLE (LP by Ondemusic)
The work that involves Timo van Luijk is always presented in the best possible way. No pennies are saved to make sure the listener has something great (literally in the shape of a LP) in his hands. No cheap, easy CD, but a small piece of art. Not that these art pieces provide you with much information. 'Voile Au Vent' for instance just states the names of Van Luijk and Frederik Croene, when and where it was recorded and the name of the label, but nothing much else. Of Van Luijk we know he plays trumpet, electronics, toys and such like, and Croene, we learn somewhere else, is a piano player. Over the years Van Luijk has moved in his solo and collaborative work towards more traditional forms of improvised music. While he is responsible for the electronic part of it, always loose and free, waving just above the ground, the other player, a pianist in this case, places both of them on the ground with his playing. Although I must say that it seems to me here that Croene is also using electronics in his music. Four pieces are played here of which one '... Pour Le Vent...' has a regular rhythm of some kind, and is the most worked out, i.e. composed piece of music, it seems. But all four pieces are equally great I think. A remarkable outsider record, of someone who doesn't care about trends and such like.
The second album by Onde sees Van Luijk however doing something different. Onde's three members were all once part of Noise Maker's Fifes and consist of Van Luijk on trumpet, guitar and electronics, Greg Jacobs on violin, organ, electronics and Marc Wroblewski on strings, metal and accordion. They sort of play live in the studio and then further process/post produce the material a bit. This is, as said, far away from Van Luijk solo music or duo improvisation. The tides are the central thematic approach to both sides and the music sounds like. Flowing likes waves, breaking the shore, both sides have a great drive to them (does sound like a rhythm machine on 'Vloed' actually). Onde here sounds a bit like Troum: lots of regular instruments feeding through quite an amount of sound effects, but Onde sounds a bit more opened up than Troum (which seem to be hermetically closed at times). Onde seems to be going for that similar kind of trance like music. Drone with a drive. A fine record, topped in a great fold out sleeve. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lasciedoree.be
Address: http://www.ondemusic.be

ACL - BIG FAT ARSE (7" by Hag Records)
Of course it would be easy to say that whatever Hagshadow releases is born under sun of Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend of Sixth Comm - as they put up shows by them in London. One G. GiveTOgod is ACL (with the A wrapped in circle, like the anarchists do) and pressed on 7" vinyl are two pieces 'Big Fat Arse' and 'Shit Baby'. The vocals scream about - layered (the word fucking keeps popping up) like in the best Ramleh tradition (of which the early work is still favorite here), piercing electronics, fast oscillations like latter day Whitehouse sometimes has, which almost form some kind of rhythm. It borrows from all of that, but I must say ACL does quite a nice job. Nothing new, but a dedicated follower of a well-known style. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hagshadow.net

BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - THIRTY YEARS OF (CDR by Ubuibi)
Here's another celebration I haven't realized was coming up, just like last week's The Legendary Pink Dots, Big City Orchestra also exists for thirty years, but perhaps I just didn't realize it would be thirty years now. How time flies. Like the Dots, main character of in this story, Das, has delved the archives of his band and presents five never before released sessions (multiple tracks for three of them) from 1981, 1986 (two actually), 1991 and 2001 (recorded in Nijmegen 'in a camper' with Phil Knight - to make another Pink Dots connection). The oldest session is just Das on 'four shortwave radios'. Big City Orchestra, throughout its many years of existence, have been very consistent in what they do, musicwise. Long pieces of psychedelic electronics swirl about, mostly at the darker regions of sound color. Ambient and industrial are the two terms to spring to mind. This disc of material, spanning twenty years, may show little development, but then I don't think Big City Orchestra didn't set out to change the face of music, but rather is an urge to create music that they simply feel like creating. This disc is a long trip, seventy-seven minutes of signature Big City Orchestra music. And onto the next thirty years (and currently on tour in Europe). (FdW) Address: http://www.ubuibi.org

THE BLACK BOX (sound box by FSS)
When Staalplaat released FM3's 'Buddha Machine' I was quite surprised there wasn't much follow-up. No more releases, no remix album et al. Or that other labels would jump the idea. Until now. A Buddha Machine is a small box, with a built in speaker that has a few, in this case nine, loops of sounds. FSS doesn't use the word Buddha Machine, but here its a black box. It has short pieces by Annie Feldmeier, Haptic, Cristal and Wrmlrd (who contributed one piece, whereas the other did two). In total, perhaps twenty seconds of music. That's all. But since they are loops they can run forever. I am not sure if the text pieces by Feldmeier would be something I would want to hear forever, or perhaps Wrmlrd noise, but Haptic and Cristal's grainy sounds are great: it seems to move around, whereas it is obvious it doesn't, its static sound. There have been 2000 manufactured, and I recommend getting at least two (three is better) and have fun with playing various sounds at the same time, or try and get phase shifting music from the same loop. A lovely object, despite the fact that it looks like a small tombstone. Batteries not included. (FdW)
Address: http://www.flingcosound.com

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