e a r p e a c e : audio reviews
bantam rooster
jeff beck
john cage & kenneth patchen
kevin drumm/pita
ryoji ikeda
jandek
mimeo
mutant press
burkhard stangl/oswald egger
will soderberg
taku sugimoto-kevin drumm
tom watson
white out
otomo yoshihide/voice crack
(various artists) harry smith's anthology of american folk music, volume four
(various artists) new forms
(various artists) ohm: the early gurus of electronic music
- bantam rooster "i, gemini"/"welcome to the carrousel" 7" (estrus!)
detroit's own thomas jackson potter spews forth another slab o'wax with his "big in croatia" custom brand of dervishly aggro punk r-n-b rok. the signature guitar licks are there along with some nice touches of effects here and there. mike alonzo on drums and jim diamond on analog production and synth continue their winning ways here. and tom's voice is now more powerful and manic than ever, conveying an essential spirit of abandon to the proceedings. see 'em if you get the chance, they put on a killer live show, enough to make even this immovable object try to dance (if you can call it that). i guess that makes bantam rooster the proverbial irresistable force.
- jeff beck you had it coming cd (epic)
this is a stunner. i rate this as good as the truth and beck-ola records from 1968 or thereabouts. on those records, jeff beck's economical, brutal sonic projectiles laid the groundwork later to be pissed on by jimmy page's lead zep. and for those who are unaware, the original led zep is on truth...keith moon, beck, john paul jones and page (see "beck's bolero"). anyways, this review is you had it coming, so...i should tell you how on target beck is here...how the techno/synth/midi accompanies and propells this record, which is as good as anything jeff has ever done. jennifer batten's name has to be mentioned, for her midi guitar stuff here. instrumental, for the most part, there are brit blues done hard, and utterly contemporary and devastating guitar mastery. just play it very loud and deal with it.
- john cage & kenneth patchen the city wears a slouch hat cd (cortical foundation)
limited edition issue featuring a 1942 radio broadcast of the title piece, a surrealistic journey thru the city with an eerie narrative voice. cage composed the score and directed the orchestra. written by kenneth patchen, this piece has never before been released commercially. suffice it to say this is an essential document to anyone interested in john cage. also includes credo in us (1942), featuring genevieve blons on shortwave radio and imaginary landscape (1939). another coup for the cortical foundation.
- kevin drumm/pita split 12" (boxmedia)
- taku sugimoto - kevin drumm den cd (sonoris)
not to rub it in, but i was lucky enough to get this one direct from boxmedia. dunno if there are any more of these available, and certainly not in a record store. the oddest thing about this is that on pita's side, it has two sections, which play at different speeds (45 & 33 rpm), separated by a locked groove at the end of each. kevin drumm's side begins with a fast-paced set of guitar-or-computer (i just can't tell) scrapings and whirrings and then moves into more contemplative and eerie acoustic sounds, with some percussion and keyboard sounds involved. he just seems to get more confident with each release, and may be one of the most interesting (as well as acclaimed in some circles) american sound artists around. pita's side was marred by some serious crackly surface noise on my copy, near the beginning of the first, 33 1/3 rpm piece. but hey, with this music, you might as well let it incorporate in a john cage sense. it did definitely distract from the quiet melodic and moody piece. the 45 rpm part was noisier (and ironically devoid of the earlier surface artifacts), intermixing suggested and transmuted melody with piercing tones and textural rhythms. overall, this split is a brief glimpse thru a very interesting window, one that i often find myself peering into, so as to see more.
(note: after listening & comparing with another copy, i now have decided that the "surface noise" was actually a deliberate compositional element.)
den is the third duo release by taku sugimoto and kevin drumm. while i have not (yet) heard the previous outings, this has been described as the best of the lot. what i hear, is one of the pair, usually drumm, providing a foundation of droning electronic or guitar sounds, while the other adds relatively sparse punctuating events on the guitar. these recordings are the result of improvisations, but they hold their own with the most "composed" of abstract/electro-acoustic sounds i have encountered. further evidence of the growing body of quality work of both of these players. that's a recommendation, folks. welcome to the 21st century.
- ryoji ikeda matrix 2cd (touch)
this one caused quite the ruckus on the microsound list, particularly the first disk. its tones, apparently intended to convey a different listening experience depending on where you locate yourself in the room you play it, caused dissenters to proclaim this a rather farcical exercise. since my ears perk up when i hear folks arguing about the merits of a recording, i had to hear this. after listening to a few mp3s (ty napstah), i went in search of. if i may presume to sum up the arguments, the issue was/is that this is merely a refinement (or pale shadow of) the impressive +/- cd. the basic ikeda approach being to distill sound down to fairly pure sine waves, and work with the interactive acoustic properties to achieve rhythm and melody. i found volume also caused quite a different sound, with the tones on matrix for rooms getting very noisy when turned up. hope that doesn't mean my new speakers suck. the second disk here is much more digestible, with song-length segments and construction being more evident.
- jandek put my dream on this planet cd (corwood)
"i don't need to be conventional" sings jandek. with a recording "career" dating back to 1978, jandek has confounded expectations of what should be done in recorded formats. he uses acoustic instruments, and there are some touches of blues, folk and even rock roots. but the way the compositions are constructed and played is wont to make most people shake their heads. jandek has been moving towards a quieter, often instrumental solo mode over the past several records. the surprise here, is that there are no instruments, only his voice. a capella, i suppose, but somehow the italian does not seem appropriate. what you get for your nine bucks are 3 long vocal series, seemingly recorded on a very lo-fi tape recorder. there is a lot of microphone noise, or tape noise, possibly wind noise. the effect is to provide an electro-acoustic backing for the voice. it builds at times, like a wind-storm heard from inside a building. the vocals are inflected with meaning, jandek is making a very direct statement. his voice croons, and groans, and gets louder and quieter...lots of meaning. an amazing thing is...no one knows who this person is. he does no interviews...does not tour...no promotion. for more background, consult a guide to jandek.
- mimeo electric chair + table 2cd (grob)
originally called the music in movement electronic orchestra, and assembled as a promoters "dream team" to play a series of festivals in europe, this ensemble combines the talents of some interesting names. master tabletop guitarist keith rowe (of amm, a band which predates even can in the barest deconstucted approach to the rock/jazz format), peter rehberg (aka pita), christian fennesz, drone guitar legend rafael toral, and eight others comprising a sound of epochal sonorities. one disk, electric table was edited from live performaces by marcus schmickler and the other disk, electric chair was edited by rafael toral. the result is a varied set of electro-acoustic, electronic and computer improvisations. there are so many things going on all thru this, that i have been benumbed into just taking it in. it is like a bombardment of tonalities and techniques, combined to achieve a density of interaction that is completely unique.
- mutant press strung out on you cd (500 pound weasel)
another cd from the rev. jerome youngman and his studio playmates. this one has a nice chunky bottom-emphasized sounds on the synthetic drums. i am not sure why we need the covers here (two old rolling stones songs?), but they are well done and consistent with the vibe on the record. the rhythm is set up quite succinctly, and the guitar and/or keyboard parts are well-executed. jerome then adds a frosting of heavily reverbed vox to the mix. i found "sacrafice (sic) of the young arabian virgins" to have a nicely woozy near-psychedelic digital-teknoid sound with nice guitar gunk and synth-ooze. by the way, he plays all of the parts himself, tho local blues singer mary thompson guests on vocals on two numbers. wins the award for the graphix i would want to hide from my mom (or my kids) for this issue. i think i would like to hear him indulge his futuristic techno-fetish impulses in the sound full-bore sometime.
- burkhard stangl/oswald egger venusmond cd (quell)
first two parts of five (i think), subtitled "oper als topos", "musik" is by burkhard stangl with "texte" by oswald eggers. i would describe this as avante-garde opera, and hope that does it justice. the first part includes kevin drumm and jim o'rourke playing at observatory deck 29 of the empire state building, and is my favorite part of this. the second section contains an electronic music bed that seems to interrelate with the vocals in a manner very much like abstract compositions. the intervals used in the voice parts are unconventional-sounding, to me, at least. sorry to say that i do not understand the german words, but i love the work. i would love to play this for my former neighbor, who sang opera, to get her reaction. makes an excellent addition to the listening environment. recommended, if you can find it. (thanx to burkhard stangl for the review copy.)
- tom watson country & watson cd (leiterwagen)
background: prime mover in 80's indie/undergound band slovenly, who i once saw and reviewed, noting a major television (as in tom verlaine's band) influence. later released two records as overpass, in trio format. as a member of the 90s incarnation of the red krayola, he has been described as their "ringer" for his adroit and textural guitar work. last sighted by yours truly as part of mike watt's pair of pliers band (see my review of that show). there is a track of his on the rearcar 2 compilation (also reviewed). this cd has been long anticipated, yet arrived in surprising fashion. released on albert oehlen's leiterwagen label, i found this cd available thru revolver/midheaven for under ten bucks, which is what cds should cost anyways, but i digress (stay tuned for that rant another time-- bet you can hardly wait). country & watson is a strange little unassumingly flavored animal of a recording. there are rustic touches of harmonica and even what sounds like pedal steel. but there is a more personal approach at work here, treatments of various guitar sounds, drum machines, acoustic drums, not overly-harmonized vocals double-tracked combine to make a recording that i seem to feel more immersed in as i keep listening. it is like a friend or member of your family that you enjoy seeing coming in the door, but don't quite always have a complete grasp on exactly what it is about them that makes you like them. there is nothing obvious about this cd. currently in heavy rotation at earpeace world hq and remote outposts too.
- white out with jim o'rourke drunken little mass cd (ecstatic peace)
lin culbertson and tom surgal are joined here on 4 of 6 pieces by jim o'rourke (david nuss of the no neck blues band did not join in on this recording). live recordings of improvised ensemble sounds. seems to lean towards free jazz tradition, more than some of the folk, psychedelic and rock tendencies of nnck. surgal's drums provide the structural framework for explorations of culbertson's synth, flute, autoharp and voice combined with o'rourke's guitar and powerbook. i guess the title "drunken little mass is apt, because this does have an air of ceremony about it.
- otomo yoshihide/voice crack bits, bots and signs cd (erstwhile)
japan's otomo yoshihide joins with the swiss duo of norbert moslang and andy guhl for an improvised interweaving of various electronics. voice crack specialize in "cracked everyday-electronics" while yoshihide uses more sine-wave tone oriented stuff. what you get here are a series of building settings of scraping and quietly grinding abstract sounds, that do seem to build up, only to start over again. they seemed to me to have a more industrial or organic sound, if you can imagine those adjectives as contrasted with the more digital and synthetic sounds of, for instance, the kevin drumm recordings reviewed this issue. an occasional sound source can be recognized, such as the hand-drier kicking on at one point. overall, a dense, involved work worthy of further scrutiny.
- (various artists) harry smith's anthology of american folk music, volume four 2cd set with book (revenant)
this set comes with handsome packaging, including a thick cover and book with essays by john fahey, griel marcus and others. if you aren't familiar with the original anthology of american folk music, it is a multi-volume set of recordings from the first part of the 20th century which provide an essential look into the musics leading up to folk, blues, jazz and rock. harry smith deserves a tale all his own, and the booklet goes into his story at some length. his musicological obsessions provided the original sources for volumes 1-3. volume 4 was planned, but never was released, and has been reconstructed, largely thru the efforts of john fahey. the sound contains some surface noise, due to the transfer from the original 78 rpm disks. among the artists included are robert johnson, lead belly, joe williams, monroe brothers, bukka white and the carter family, whose "hello stranger" is one that sticks to my head. i am also impressed by the jug bands, which strike me as the ultimate prototype for many modern musical combinations. when you reach into these recordings, you are dusting off the core rhythms, melodies and harmonic forms of the music you love, no matter what you call it.
- (various artists) new forms. contemporary electronic music in the context of art 2cd (gallerie fuer zeitgenoessische kunst leipzig/raster-noton)
the futuristic space food packaging contains a large folded sheet with the two cds attached. an interesting cross-section of the new electronic music, based on live performances at a german art gallery. includes scanner, thomas brinkmann, richie hawtin, ryoji ikeda, pan sonic, francisco lopez, general magic and others. here is an organized attempt to present the current state of the art as it relates to techno traditions, pop absorption and academics. i found it interesting that the (liner?) notes refer to the fact that most, if not all, of the musicians presented herein run their own labels, directly confronting the realisms of presenting these forms as commercial product. what to expect should you venture into this audible terrain? strati of sound, introducing with references to beat, then gliding past and beyond to the burbles, clicks and windings of considerable depth and distance. i am particularly attracted to the longer subterranean bass soundings. curator carsten nicolai has successfully assembled a coherent presentation of the nature of ideas and the context they can occupy at the turn of this century. this collection made sense to me, made the music make sense to me. it thoroughly lives up to the billing of the title. the ritornelle compilation, clicks & cuts, may have been on more lists, but i suspect this selection will endure far more prolifically.
- (various artists) ohm: the early gurus of electronic music 3cd set with book (ellipsis arts)
upon receiving this set, i found myself transported to the aether in theremin heaven. it was an interesting juxtaposition, ellipsis arts has done a great job of providing the electronic counterpart to the harry smith anthology of american folk music set. as a relatively recent newcomer to electronic music as an intensive area of listening, collecting and research, i found this irresistable. from clara rockmore to raymond scott to brian eno, this is obviously an outstanding resource for anyone interested in the currency of techno, idm, abstract or experimental musics. it gives me a real feeling of connection and rootedness to be able to hear the techniques of this branch-system of the river of audio-arts developing from the 40s to the 80s. essential.
b . w i l d e r e d
...let us know what you think...your opinions are invited...
email: b.wildered@white-rose.net
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