bantam rooster
- bantam rooster fuck all y'all cd (sympathy for the record industry)
the bantam rooster signatures are continued, the guitar licks & drums breaking out the rhythms & potter's patented shrieking at the neighbors o'er top. some very sweet guitar sounds are introduced like a pinch of spice, and it sounds like tom is finding some different things to do with his voice, actually opening up one song with ballad-y crooning before the fight resumes. the drums here are punchy, with the kicks strong in the mix. and as always happens with this band, it is not long after the record starts playing that i find myself twitching into the b.wildered dance of the honky beat blues.
- syd barrett the best of syd barrett wouldn't you miss me? cd (capitol/emi/harvest)
the only real reason to own this is "bob dylan's blues", the track recently "discovered" in david gilmour's private collection. poor guy once made a couple of fair-to-decent solo records, then reduced himself to prostituting the pink floyd b(r)and name (that is gilmour i am talking about). in stark contrast, barrett's solo records are essential listening, disconcertingly beautiful manifestations of the fragmentation of one of experimental/pop psychedelia's leading lights. this somewhat-exploitative comp gives just a taste of some of the damaged icon's gems, but i would point those who hear the call of this piper at the gates of dawn to the crazy diamond box set.
- taylor deupree occur cd (12k)
amazingly constructed piece of work. deep throbs of bass tones, slithering white-noise background sounds, digital pops, metallic rings... all present in a well composed deliberate litter. the sounds do _occur_... with an organic feeling that they belong right as presented. a highlight of minimalist, digital electronic composition that realizes the promise of the expansion of tools available thru synthesis of preceding genre. just go find it and listen. a thorough & complete triumph.
- aaron dilloway boggs vol.1 cassette (herbst)
scary solo stuff from this wolf eyes member. heavily-echoed synths, percussion, guitar & tape moans evoke feelings of being lost in a very dark woods late at night. lots of abused reverb inputs going on. the atmosphere about this makes me think of an unaccompanied syd barrett, in production & apparent externalization of an internal landscape. of course, this is just a wild reviewers guess, without aid of self-medication, but abetted by permanent damage. this one was recommended to me by the folks selling the goods at the wolf eyes gig at 3rd street saloon in detroit. they were right.
- jason kahn plurabelle cd (cut)
this cd is a long, slow boat ride on the barely-moving fog-enveloped waters of drone. sounds hover, and then float on by downstream. seems to be a superstructure of acoustic sounds (bells, clocks, instruments?) with digital processes, pops & electro-mechanical whines in the upper frequencies providing textural references. does a good job of drawing you in to consider the minimal compositions. it's a grower. i'm going to just drift here awhile...
- ghtofx ghtofx cdr (ghtofx)
this one arrived on my doorstep as a stowaway in with a euro-electronic art compilation i bought thru ebay. this project is a duo of rob nagy & ben hartman, of lakewood, ohio. so we get to hear what evil beats lurk in the hinterlands of the midwest. 5 pieces of heavily beat-oriented drum-maschine & synth 'mospherics. noticeable pops where the "track-at-once" recording feature was utilized, but otherwise the production is full and well-done. i would say this inhabits the turf a little less "out" than where i usually dwell, but certainly more well-informed than the casual mainstream. i dunno how often i will spin this, i won't be letting alexia dyslexia use it to make more broken cd art with. "inflect", in particular drums-up a nasty manipulated synth & beat-rockslide.
- steve klaper azamra! cd (ashira)
hailing from oak park, michigan (also hometown to the knack's doug fieger), steve klaper has produced a tightly-arranged and varied set of songs (mostly) in hebrew. which leaves me on the outside as far as the lyrics, tho there does seem to be a strong jewish religious content. the melodies are nice pop-folk, and this makes a very pleasant diversion from my usual rotation of difficult musics. makes me feel all multi-cultural and eclectic.
- the langley schools music project innocense and despair cd (bar/none)
reissue of privately pressed recordings by schoolkids from western canada doing mass vocal versions of 70s pop-rock songs. their music teacher was a musician who was successful in evoking the energies of the children in simple, yet effective arrangements. this is a cd that will catch the attention of listeners of all ages, and all persuasions of listening sophistication.
- nautical almanac transcriptedivisions lp (hanson)
- nautical almanac + meerk puffy tour 000 cdr/handcut record (no label)
i got to see these folk on october 3rd at the 3rd street saloon in detroit, and they were making good sounds and i was impressed. from carly ptak's betty rubble gone art-punk look to james harper's kicking a table, causing sweet breakage (which fit in the music so damn well), i was utterly theirs. transcriptedivisions is a confrontational outbreak of extravagantly creative circuit-bending, rhythm-breakage, violent charm & incorrigible mayhem. a document i find admirable & with a refreshingly irreverent spirit. ain't noise 'sposed to be fun like this?
the cdr-record is a good example of the contrary approach. a split cd with meerk puffy, proudly packaged in triangular vinyl and bearing the legend "it play on turntable, it play on cd player. it work both ways". yep, they have handcut the surface of the cd with grooves which make it the first hybrid cd/record i ever saw. whoever thought of this deserves an ignobel prize or sumpthin'. playing it was a trial... no start groove... nice to be put off-balance by this. the cdr sideis chock-full of raw and immediate stuffings. meerk puffy is a one-man (& his tools/toys/instruments?) affair. "cut in half" stands out as a ripping, metallic piece. the pieces included here are very complimentary, reminding me of the evident affection they had for each other on that night i saw them play at the 3rd. these beats may be broken, but they don't bend. whatever that means.
challenge this expectation, folks... the next stuff i be hearin' by youse should be even bettah...
- the no-neck blues band sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me cd (revenant/sound at one)
wherein nnck credit a "producer" and record in a "studio"... and is that vocals i hear? i musta pressed play on the wrong disk. the limited-edition handmade burned-wood & velcroed glass packaging is consistent with the idiosyncratic approach favored by this collectively semi-anonymous entity. i guess that the seasonal occasion outdoor jams became too much of a pattern, because this one is a complete departure from their outer orbit of the improv-psyche-folk-freejazz genre that nnck frequents (tho i hear this has actually been in the can awhile). i like.. a lot... could this be some sort of homage to (or channeling of) the late john fahey, since it is on his label and features prominent blurbs with the buy-line, "john fahey's favorite band".
- jim o'rourke insignificance cd (drag city)
well, pin a beret to my head and call me an art-fag, but i just cannot deal with david grubbs' stiff post-graduate stuff anymore... while jim o'rourke's investigations of popular stylistic threads sticks to me like that old resin stain. this one has a bit of a 'tude to it, with jim possibly addressing some cutting lyrix at somebuddies who have gotten under his skin. the music continues in the general direction of the past 3 solo releases, which began to emerge in the latter days of gastr del sol, with apparent simplicity & straitforward melodicism combined with arrangements that incorporate horns, pedal steel, vibes, keyboards & indiscernable stuff with changes in timbre and rhythm. it reminds me of the beach boys productions, especially when you can sense different sessions being combined. there are a lot of layers here, and i keep noticing things with each listen. the cd ends with a sound construction that seems to act as a nod to his electro-acoustic past work.
- raisins in the sun raisins in the sun cd (rounder)
strong recording that brings to mind the 70s green bullfrog sessions or even the 80s dusty & danny record for fun casual at-home feeling. featuring jim dickinson & chuck prophet, among others, this conglomeration of studio-band vets goes desert-bound to make this record. and a damned effective assemblage it is. gruff, melancholy vocals complimented by barbed-wire strings and spirited keys effectively pass on the vibe. a thoroughly enjoyable listen, and a fine addition to dickinson's legendary discography.
- rehberg & bauer passt cd (touch)
seems to me that very little that peter (pita) rehberg touches does not bowl me over. paired with ramon (general magic) bauer, they assault with a strong dose of powerful electronix which still seems as exceptional as it did when i first heard this type of laptop-oriented music. which is quite an accomplishment, in view of the ubiquity of the tools they use. i think it goes to show that in the right hands, used with feeling and the courage to plow their own way, serious damage can still be done. very much over the top and distorted, yet it seems to have a feel of direction that is fascinating to watch as it comes out of the speakers.
- sandoz lab technicians microverse wallpaper 7" (20 city)
new zealand trio of some repute for their cross-pollinations of ethnic folkiness, freenoise and whatever else has turned green in the refrigerator. this single is the first thing of theirs i have heard. some serendipitous tape manipulations & abruptly-interrupted acoustic rituals on side one move into a longer, more realized percussion-dominated piece on side two. interesting to try to get a handle on this kind of freeform work, which is usually prescribed in larger doses. this taste is interesting enuff that i am curious to hear a full-length such as synaptic acres.
- will soderberg vs. a higher power of our understanding cdr (rezo blan roz-la)
Do we accept what we hear or do we conform the sounds to the familiar? Listening to this soderberg CD I wondered if I am having sound problems with my system. I smile when I realize that may well be the intent of the artist.
~Aluda4
- stereo minus one the sound inside sound cdr (machine records)
from cardiff, wales, a kind of post-apocalyptic anti-dance electronic sound-germ warfare experiment. beating machines (or machining beats) are shattered and tensed against each other with the result being intriguing, intense & strongly evocative of debris-strewn ruins.
- strangulated beatoffs reverse child psychology cd (nihilist)
"mustn't entertain any negative thoughts" o.k., doc, it is true, i own more than a half-dozen releases by these yee-owww!...go light on that electro-shock button there, willya, doc? where was i? same place i was last release (1998's self-titled cd on skin graft, aka beating off all over the world). yikes! shit, doc, what was that one for? you're gonna give me "lightning bolt nightmares" again...9+ tracks of sampler/drone from the seitrich/noble axis. ow, oww, oww! dammit, i am not the one who stuck all the nazi references onto these tracks. look, either you think these guys are fucking around and dogging the music end so they can get back to their full-time perversions, or you think they are fucking brilliantly doing their own take on genre-spanning industrial-dance cultural satire. please, doc, can i get a pass to go to chicago and see them play live for only something like the 4th time ever? hellzapoppin', that hurts, ma-a-an!
- sun ra nuclear war cd (atavistic)
reissue of 1982 recordings as part of the "unheard music series". for the uninitiated, a good bio can be found here. with a band-leading and recording career extending from the 50's until his death in 1992, there are a plethora of releases to be found, and when i stumble across one in a used bin, i usually grab it. this cd is a relatively trad-jazz plus off-the-wall keyboards kinda sounding thing, with the exception of the anti-nuke rap ("it's a motherfucker") that leads off. it is no space is the place or heliocentric worlds, but it has bits here & there that stick to the wall. underwhelming, sadly.
- vas deferens organization and christopher suspension lp (beta-lactam ring)
production team who manifests several personalities in their acid-washed sound trips. somewhere, under all of the studio gimcrackery & foundsound weirdness is an abiding intelligence that wanders in & out of focus with consistent inconsistency. sometimes it congeals into an arresting melange of tribalisms that make sense of the kosmische-musique indulgence. they're from texas, so i would say that they're following in the footsteps of a long tradition of lunacy. i like to put these vdo ellpees on cassette and let them play in the car. after awhile, the sound-bits get familiar, but i am never sure where it is heading. one friend of alexia's got in the car while i was playing one of my vdo tapes & she asked why i would listen to this, calling it "scary circus music" & saying it frightened her. she had a good point. definitely an acquired taste.
- wolf eyes with spykes cd (hanson)
- wolf eyes dread lp (hanson)
- wolf eyes slicer cassette (hanson)
- wolf eyes not our laws vol. 2 live in nyc, chicago & providence cdr (american tapes)
with spykes & taylor deupree's occur are two cds that have caused one of my speakers to vibrate so wildly that it stage-dived into my record pile. with spykes has a heavy low-end sound that sinks well into these ears. serious marrow-gnawings begin to appear more frequently.
dread is the single most essential release here. the menace & promise of the earlier recordings is fully realized here. the drum machines thrust & kick while synths, feedback & horns hover like living things, as if readying to feed on the unwary. nate young's words & vox deliver much more incisively & clearer thru the mix than on prior releases.
slicer has more separated sonic elements, honed here into sharper, edgier, deeper, braver teeth. there is more space, allowing the sonic elements to stretch and separate.
the live cdr not our laws vol. 2 features low-fi tour documentations. these recordings illustrate aaron dilloway's insistence on pointing wolf eyes' listeners to the new stuff as the real clue of where they are going.
- (various artists) all tomorrow's parties 1.0 cd (atpr)
- (various artists) all tomorrow's parties 1.1 cd (atpr)
pair of compilations celebrating/promoting the all tomorrow's parties events, the 1st held in scotland, the second was originally scheduled to be held in october in l.a., (gnashing teeth sounds), now postponed until march 2oo2. 1.0 is kind of "electronica light". which kinda fits, considering the event was curated by tortoise, who's track is pretty much the standout one here. hmm, why no television? (who will replace derek bailey as the one to see for me in l.a.)
1.1's highlight for me was the kevin drumm piece, seemingly in his dj kevin drumm mode. a very cool extended beats & noise piece that is well worth revisiting (& it is the longest piece too, at over 10 minutes). cd also contains unreleased cuts by sonic youth (vocal-less instrumental in their syr mode), stereolab (an alternate version that sure sounds o'rourke-esque in arrangement/production, hmmm...), bardo pond & dead c well worth hearing. i believe this will be available at atp la.
- (various artists) bitstreams 2cd (whitney/jdk)
document of a whitney show featuring the digital works of a goodly spread of artists, including jim o'rourke, marina rosenfeld, john hudak, elliot sharp, ikue mori & andrea parkins. there is a lot to digest here, from drones and minimal acoustic treatments to irritating captured conversations. my only regret is that i did not get a chance to get to see the exhibition while it was there. a standout compilation - recommended.
- (various artists) the soft bigotry of low expectations cdr (rezo blan roz-la)
yeah, yeah, nepotism, incest, you-name-it, guilty as charged... this cdr collection of "outsider electronika" culls disparate (not desparate, as far as i know) artists mostly from around the earpeace world hq here near the vaunted area code 313. highlights include the cakewalk beats of calgary's be, the insouciant homespun intuit-electron-primitivo by courtney spivak, the xian/ganxst of e-die & the copyright violations of elektrikaye. some pieces sound like what syd barrett might have done with electronix, some simply gurgle with the enthusiasm of incorrigible kids let loose in a candy store. fun 4 the unpretentious. available in thrift stores from buffalo to sacramento.
~ b . w i l d e r e d (except where noted)
contact: b.wildered@white-rose.net
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