kim cascone
- kim cascone dust theories 2 alchemical residue 3" cd (anechoic)
after all of the arguments about emotional intent & content are left behind, one is left with the query: "how does it sound" good? interesting? patience-testing? hypothetically valuable? conceptually valid? i don't know if i am qualified (or interested in becoming academically trained enuff) to judge the premise. i try to listen, taste-test for you few readers, and share some reaction... "when in doubt, consult your ears". cascone's work is certainly thoroughly crafted and has the audio physique to show for all of those hours in the digital weight room. i respect that very much. but i have yet to reach the point where a kim cascone cd makes me go "a-ha"... instead i think, "that took a lot of work" & "i am impressed", but do i think i will need to listen to this again soon? maybe later, after the ideas explored coalesce in my brain, and i can "get it".
- joseph d'angelo serf guitar '99 cdr (top shelf)
sometimes, every once in awhile, this internet writing thing pays off in dividends that make sense out of the effort for a moment or two. yesterday, this showed up in my mail, along with 3 older lps of material from joe d.'s archives. this was the one that made me catch my breath. a (relatively) new release by the man responsible for the departmentstore santas at the medieval castle nineteen 100-year lifetimes since, a 1984 masterpiece that has kept enquiring musicologists preoccupied for years. last spring, i wrote an article of the "where are they now?" variety. a month back, mr. d'angelo emailed me and in the ensuing weeks, i learned more about his work than i had in all of the time before. the best answer to all of my queries is right here, on this limited edition (50 copies) cdr of home-recorded double-tracked guitar (+?) instrumentals. there is a naked quality to the compositions compiled here, which were recorded from 1997 thru 1999. if you listen to "egypt" & "w", from the dss lp, you might detect some resemblance. at first listen, sounded like a pretty offhand work, but subsequent listens reveal a variety of textures and depths to the sounds employed. thanks to joe d. for sending this my way... i hope to hear more when it comes available.
- jandek worthless recluse cd (corwood)
relevant quotes: "there's nothing to get" (sterling smith)... "he's not pretentious, but only pretentious people like his music" (kurt cobain). 3rd in a series of instrument-less releases by jandek. this one is absent the background hiss/recording device noise that ran thru put my dream on this planet (see review), so the decarations are, well, bald. they could almost be seen as spoken-word, but there is a bit of sing-song jandek-ian "melody" that makes this consistent with the accompanied songs from the other 20-odd records except... the instruments are absent. the effect is one of deliberateness, of deliberation, of intent...
- kuwayama-kijima 00/10/17d 00/10/17e 7" (20 city)
duo of kuwayama kiyiharu and kijima rina, "recorded at construction field of the expressway", so the pair (on cello & violin) are interacting musically with the ambient sounds of the site and attendant machinery. side 2 is a bit more successful in responding to the setting, while side 1 comes off more as an exploration. i appreciate the direction they found on side 2. an interesting melding of the worlds of improv free jazz and industrial/environmental sounds.
- lightning bolt ride the skies cd (load)
bass/drums duo from providence, r.i., with a filled-out sound that makes it hard to believe the lineup. the bass is employed much as a fuzzed-up rhythm guitar might be expected to sound. the obvious comparison would be to the
ruins, so lets not. very aggressive, in fact, i found my copy filed under "hardcore" at reckless records in chicago, but i think there is at least as strong of a "progressive" dynamic in the ambitious instrumental forays. one of the most interesting younger american bands pursuing "out" sounds of intensity and vigor.- maenad a thousand petals cd (text)
intriguing cd that evokes the interests of the artist, which are documented on her website refinedclinicalresearch.com. the sounds are long-form and undulating sheets of drones and hard-to-define elements. there is a detachment evident, which emphasizes connections with the artists' clinical and cultural interests. this one kept slipping away from me, undulating like a feather falling down a stairwell, eluding as i reached out to grasp. it is hard not to admire this kind of inward-focused, puzzling work. but i also feel like i do not want to find myself awakening mid-exam on her table...
- mark4 sum-3(aa,r6)x4 3" cd (crank satori)
picked this one up at the strangulated beatoffs "show" in chi-go-go last month. 2 guys making highly rhythmik noizes wrung outta gameboyz with the help of a helluva lotta outboard stuff. i like this little item more than the live performance, due to the advantage of being able to cull/edit into extremely twisted forms. seems like i keep noticing that there are more ppl doing the gameboi thang, but this is my first exposure. i gotta acknowledge that there is an admirable aesthetic feel to this wee disk. and i get a kick whenever i see alexia dyslexia wearing her mark4 shirt. [ed> hey... how about getting around to a review of the myuzick?] oh. it's very crunchy/sawtoothy beeps n'lektronik sequences which change in speed, tune, texture, volume adroitly and are brief enuff to sustain interest.
- paully moonbeam free from cd (paully moonbeam)
first: cluelessly rips off yoko ono's "why" without giving any credit, despite the hopelessly inane nerdwords coating every possible nook of this package. second: is also the perpetrator of the "ticklemania" video, which contains scenes of underage girls as models plus paully in various dweebie scenes wearing startrek uniforms, a jason serial killer mask and other evidence of terminal aesthetic pop-culture stupidity. thirdly: does so without a hint of self-awareness of just how uncool he is. fourthly: dedicates a song to the romantics. the 18 tracks here come replete with descriptions such as "hyper ode to ska and oi", "nearly dancable" "manic blather"...i mean, this whole picture scares the shit out of me. for all i know, this guy might be the next daniel johnston or wally pleasant, but i am sure glad he doesn't live in my neighborhood. someone has way too much money, and way too little going on in the attic. the parts are here for an amazing idiot/smartass phenomenon, but without grasping the banality inherent & the ominous psycho indications, he succeeds only in meriting the nomination for "most-likely to become a registered sex offender". wait... he only lives 3 or 4 suburbs away... and he has my fucking home address...
- mutant press world of fuzz cd (500 lb weasel)
this cd project shows some evolutionary developments from the weasel king. he seems to be doing some production work with suburban rappers these days, and some of these are included here. the hip-hop beats are suited well for his predilection for precise mechanical drum machine applications. he even updates the old fave, "safe sex sucks" as a rap. there are a couple of old-timey roots rockers (look for the multi-generational super j music video for "waiting for the man"), tho i was puzzled by jimi hendrix' "voodoo child" being credited as a traditional blues. overall, i have to continue to respect the perseverance & persistence mutant press continues to demonstrate in making and releasing new recordings annually, and applaud the blending of newer influences in with the core styles. look for a complete departure electronic experimental track ("unstable") on the _you're all over the map...putting flesh on the bones of the dirty work_ compilation. [ed note: was that a plug or what?]
- seth nihil uva 3" cd (20 city)
a single 20+ minute piece here, starts out with clay pot sounds clanking (the same ones depicted all over the cover?) which gives way slowly to undulating constant/sustained sounds of very focused frequencies... higher at first, then into the mid ranges. the volume fades until i was compelled to turn it up, but still hard-to-discern juxtapositionings oscillations of microsonic events. about 3/4s thru, the colliding ceramics return, with water sounds all around, coming closer. file under experimental soundscapes. a rewarding, somehow intimate and subtly haunting listen.
- jim o'rourke i'm happy, and i'm singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4 cd (mego)
despite the inevitable o'rourke backlash (not helped by his often self-negating interviews) & also despite the glut of laptops cranking out electronik sounds, jim manages to release a work that is difficult yet pleasing. there are melodic sounds comprised of sample fragments, arranged with demonstrably apparent facility. this is simply one that makes the cut, exemplifying the "melancholy electronics" tag. this is abstract, and electronic, but there is a structure and rhythmic content that makes it flow well and make more sense as music, rather than a collection of soundwave experiments. portions of this are just beautiful as any kind of music you will ever hear.
- sukora two horses e.p. 7" (20 city)
enigmatic japanese sound project, with releases on meme & bulb, possibly featuring the work of one eriko sato. resembles room environment sounds as if recorded at a low level then gain-cranked up to form a bed of ambient/tape/hardware noise, over which a few noises interject themselves mysteriously, as if someone was bumping into things. sukora seems to get a reaction, not always positive, but that intrigues me, cuz it is somehow confronting what the listener expects to hear as "music". you know, it reminds me of the last couple of jandek records, but taken another step further, removing even the voice. this is the kind of "outsider" art-sound that makes most people go "what?", therefore not recommended for the un-curious. but, i will be looking for more to hear.
- tu m' 0.01 cd (cut)
another impressive cd from jason kahn's (see review of plurabelle) cut label out of france. .o1 consists of 6 pieces which blend the electronic with the organic into an evocative acoustic entree. the gently oscillating synthetic sounds bring to mind a night filled with insect sounds. patterns keep up a continuously changing set of inter-relationships, with the intermittent pop or digital chirp to let you know you are in a human-made audio environment. i continue to be impressed by this label's output, from the packaging to the contents. a very engrossing work.
- ralf wehowsky/kevin drumm cases cd (selektion)
a very challenging listen from these two highly regarded sound-artists. readers of past earpeace reviews will be familiar with my affinity for the work of kevin drumm (see reviews) and ralf wehowsky has done much well-regarded work as rlw & with p16.d4. their collaboration is a noisy affair, with elements of drumm exquisite tabletop-guitar-fragments colliding with various electronic processes. of the two pieces, i found the second to be stronger, with the sound events coalescing into an overflowing stream of rushing, moving, confronting developments.
- x27 product cdr ep (x27 labs)
primal rudely-recorded trio doing stripped down to the bones
no wave? making a science of brevity, delivering concise impact sounds. i cannot help but recall a rikkeh x netboard post about being unable to play guitar, but having it welded/grafted to his arm. drums thump in basic forms recalling 50s-80s rok primitivists. no direct recording for these antagonistas, strictly room sound mics & distorto vox. imagine an android clone of link wray raised on a diet of lead paint chips, sustaining the drive and retarding the flash. this makes me feel like i am looking/listening thru a retro-filter, but i like its direct authenticity.- larry young lawrence of newark cd (castle?)
long-awaited reissue of a 1973 release featuring a multitude of percussionists, early blood ulmer on guitar, (possibly as unidentified "mystery guest") pharoah sanders and larry young's unique keyboard sounds. my 1st experience of larry young was the jam excerpted on the long out-of-print nine to the universe jimi hendrix lp, where young more than held his own with one of the most amazing instrumentalists of any era. this record has been fetching prices in the $50 & up range for as long as i have been watching for it, so the reissue was most welcome around the financially-challenged earpeace music procurement department. not as transcendant as his work with the brutal tony williams lifetime, it nonetheless features a strong jazz structure with 3rd world percussion flavoring. after all this time, it holds up well, with young's spacey, evocative organ shimmering in the foreground of a roomfull of percussives. this is one of those obvious no-brainer recommendations.
- (various artists) galleries 4-6 cd (20 city)
featuring doe, eso steel & birchville cat motel from japan's experimentalist 20 city label, with each artist contributing over 20 minutes of sound. doe starts off with 2 tracks of drones containing internal elements such as backwards sounds, so that the effect is like watching a translucent vessel with slowly churning almost-recognizable forms moving within. eso steel works in more abrasion, in comparison, incorporating several movements (or at least pretty distinct parts) into each piece. birchville cat motel's contributions are guitar/percussion soundscapes, with electric tones sustained and allowing overtones to provide most of the dimension here. not unlike a more-compact no-neck blues band. overall, this cd is an intriguing document.
- (various artists) soothing sounds for raymond badaboom gramaphone #5 magazine with bonus cd (badaboom gramaphone)
a tribute of sorts to raymond scott's soothing sounds for baby series. as it is a bonus comp accompanying the badaboom gramaphone magazine, it comes off as a bit of a hodge-podge. it hardly seems fair to compare it to a more deliberately sequenced and compiled collection. there are some interesting things here, including work by marumari and bogdan raczinsky but a fair share of throwaways. well worth the price of admission, tho, since badaboom gramaphone is one of the more interesting magazines to read. sounds like the energy is lagging tho, so who knows if there will be a #6? i cast my vote in favor of putting together more of 'em, even if it is on a leisurely schedule. this did sound better to me when i left it alone for awhile, it just didn't bear up so well if i played it regularly. a nicely conceived idea for a comp, to try to evoke electronic sounds in homage to scott's work intended for infants.
- (various artists) the soft bigotry of low expectations cdr (rezo blan roz-la)
The thread that weaves this eclectic compilation of music together is the captivating rhythm. I found myself not only listening to the music, but also contracting the muscles throughout my body as I immersed myself in it. From the very beginning, the rhythm took my body on a trail of compliance to internal dance, and I continued throughout the various artists. I paused briefly to listen amusingly to the short, but inventive clips from master one, then continuing my marionette dance, unable to sit still while listening. This is definitely music I will listen to again.
~Aluda4
~ b . w i l d e r e d (except where noted)
