mudbirdshivers

Shit & Shine - Madame JoJo's, London, 27 December 2011

2011-12-29T11:12:00.003+01:00

“How many you drummers have you got?” Someone asks a member of Shit & Shine before their set.

This is always the most important question for a Shit & Shine gig. It can be anyway from none to fifteen. Tonight the answer is three. The same number again are on some combination of keyboards, samplers, and vocals.

Tonight’s set is built around what sounds like a two stroke guitar note and mechanised sample beat. The three drummers lock into a groove on top of that.

The beat is surprisingly danceable. For a Shit & Shine gig it’s a floor filler. The vocals are processed to hell. They’re more textural than anything else. Cutting through the live sonic mixing that those who aren’t manufacturing the heavy rhythms are engaged in.

It’s one long continuous piece. The electronic washes evolve sinuously. Subtly shifting through the course of the set.

Those drums though forge onwards. Always forwards, always onwards. The act of repetition becoming a powerfully creative force.

Your mind deadens. But at the same time that liberates it. Your thoughts drift away. Replaced with mental blankness.

Finally the piece collapses inwards. Slowly toppling in on itself. It’s a gentle reintroduction back to the normal world.

Bill Orcutt | Jessica Rylan | The Cian Nugent Band - Cafe Oto, London, 14 October 2011

2011-10-20T22:06:00.005+02:00

I feel like death warmed up. I've been struck down by a virus. But I head to the gig anyway.

The Cian Nugent Band open the night. Well I think they open it. I thought there was another band. If they played it must have been brutally early. Before they start to play Nugent makes a series of unconnected remarks to the audience. He can tell we're not engaged and he seems unsettled. If you're going to talk to the audience either make sense or do it after you've earnt some good will by playing something we like.

Anyway, the Cian Nugent Band are a three piece. Guitar, drums, and violin. It's built around Cian Nugent's complex guitar playing. The violin mostly adds texture while the drumming asserts itself into the pieces. The opening song is six or seven minutes long. The rest of the set is one extended instrumental folk raga. It begins very slowly with chasms of silence inbetween the solitary sounds of the different instruments. The piece slowly builds and Nugent's playing becomes more fluent. The violin lays down nice chordal blocks of sound while the drummer scrapes his kit with bric-a-brac coaxing a range of sounds from it.

Jessica Rylan starts her set by recounting a very dull tale about her last gig in London. I'm beginning to think I've come to a gig of the world's worst anecdote artists. But she gets down to tweaking her table of effects gear soon enough. There's a smooth ECG reading repeated beep with deep sub bass underneath it. The sounds and tones are delicate and the set is well constructed. Some of this type of music borders on random twiddling, but a strong authorial sounds comes through clearly in her set.

Bill Orcutt, assuming you know who Harry Pussy are, needs no introduction. He plays malfunctioning blues on an out of tune guitar. Dense clusters of notes fly from the simple wooden guitar. Imagine a spider scrabbling over the strings and frets and you might get an idea of the sound. It reminds me of Paste, an alias of Dennis Callaci who used to run the Shrimper label. Orcutt hums and moans seemingly in pain, punctuating his playing with random yelps. The twangs, rattles and unconventional tunings and repeated bursts of notes create an air of spontaneity which really sucks you in. It’s as if you’re hearing music created for the first time. It’s for moments like that which it make it worth dragging my virus riddled carcass out.

Preferred drink: Kernel's Porter

I'm Being Good | Bad Orb | Liberez - Power Lunches, London 24 September 2011

2011-09-25T20:34:00.003+02:00

Arrive. Buy beer. Wait. Grinding out the time. Flying solo. Nothing to do. Sit. Drink beer. Wait.

A man comes round. He says the first band are on. Downstairs. Rehearsal room doubling as a gig venue. Liberez at the front. A four piece. Violin, guitar, vocals, drums. There use samples too.

Thuddy rhythms, repetitive riff patterns, eerie bowing, and mumbled, haunted vocals. One tracks reminds me of early Pram. The rest are like I don’t know who. They’re unexpected. They’re good.

Back upstairs. Buy beer. Hit the merch table. Wait. Time grinds. Back downstairs. Bad Orb is a lone woman. Table of wires and gizmos. You know the drill. Droney bland soundscapes. Indecipherable murmur whisper. Adds nothing. Piano and accordion come into the mix. Yeah, definitely better. The rooms hot. The set ends. Upstairs. Cool off. Buy one last beer.

I’m Being Good. Saw their fourth ever gig in 1992. Maybe 1993. Oil Seed Rape also played. Think it was the Beachcomber. The pubs long gone. But I’m Being Good still play gigs. I still go to them.

Noisy, mathy, knotty, rock. Simultaneously primitive and complex. The sound they’ve had for awhile. Fan will love it. Antagonists will loathe it. Newcomers could go either way.

They finish. Upstairs. Out into the night.

Preferred drink: Budvar

Manuel Mota: Untitled & Dias Das Cinzas

2011-08-03T14:02:00.002+02:00

Last month, Portuguese guitarist Manuel Mota has released two LP's on his own Headlights label. The first one - "Dias Das Cinzas" - is pressed on 200 copies and the second one - which is untitled - is pressed on 150 copies. The untitled one comes with hand-made covers (see picture on your left)

On both LP's we hear a man with his guitar (on Dias it's the electric guitar, on the untitled one it's the acoustic guitar) playing a minimal, desolate and quiet piece of improvisation blues music that actually does have a warm feeling.

During a first listening one could argue that Mota isn't actually playing real songs and I can only confirm he doesn't. But that's not what music is about all the time as Albert Ayler once said "It's not about notes anymore, it's about feelings" and that's exactly what Manuel Mota achieves with these LP's. So don't expect actual riffs being played or anything that resembles a "classic" blues or rock song.

To my own surprise I enjoyed the LP with acoustic guitar playing better than the LP with electric guitar playing. Both LP's are similar in approach and texture, but the acoustic guitar playing has a more "note-based" approach while the electric guitar playing has a more "flow-based" approach ... or maybe I'm currently in an acoustic guitar mood, that might be the case as well.

Whatever you prefer, both LP's are excellent late night music.

Preferred Drink: Bunnahabhain

Shit & Shine - Madame JoJo's, London 26 July 2011

2011-07-29T19:01:00.003+02:00

I always expect a confrontational performance from Shit & Shine. My previous sightings of had seen them in percussion orchestra mode, albeit one you’d more likely find in a steel factory than a concert hall.

Tonight the line up features only two drummers. There’s three on effects, pedals, and gadgets. And someone wearing a black hood doing something I can’t see.

They start the set quiet. Funereal rhythms from the two drummers whose synchronised drumming is performed with ritualistically large motions. There’s haunted house door creak and methodical thud slow mo menace like a John Carpenter score.

The set builds. Sounds are added. There’s modem screech dysfunction. Someone repeatedly slams a car door. On and on the thud continues, relentless, unceasing. Until there is just the absolute darkness of the monotheistic pursuit of noise.

Preferred drink: San Miguel

Raw Power Festival - Corsica Studios, 10 July 2011

2011-07-13T23:14:00.008+02:00

I wasn’t looking forward to the Raw Power festival. Eleven hours of noisy bands in the concrete prison of Corsica Studios seemed like it would be a test of stamina.

Yes, I could have turned up halfway through, but I’m an all or nothing kind of person. So with heavy heart I found myself amongst the first people filing into the venue.

Opening the festival were The Cult of Dom Keller. And I was immediately glad of my decision to tough out the festival. The Cult cooked up a heady, thudding, woozy, 60s psych rock, reminding me a bit of Methadrone era Brian Jonestown Massacre. The acrid smell of the dry pumped into the venue only heightened the experience.

Domestic Blitz followed playing a routine kind of punk rock that I never particularly liked. The cover of George Harrison’s Got My Mind Set On You was a slightly surreal moment.

The special, semi-secret, guests for the festival were Clinic. One of those bands I’ve always known of but without ever hearing. I can’t say their seemingly bog standard indie rock converted me.

I decide to bail on Clinic and have a look at The Light Shines who have got the bum slot of the day by playing on the other stage opposite the special guests. Unfortunately they’re another band who owe a debt to the Brian Jonestown Massacre, however, they’re rather uninspired. They’re not bad, they’re just not good.

I held out quiet hopes for Snapped Ankles based solely on their name. They played a kind of punk funk with spacey electronic noises whilst dressed in bear suits. Something they probably regretted in the warm, unventilated confines of the venue.

As they’re not doing a lot for me I head next door to have a look at Race Horses. Something about Race Horses reminds me of a band I might have seen on Top of the Pops in 1985. The singer wears stone washed jeans which make me start thinking of Limahl.

I recharge physically and psychically by buying a burger and a Dom Keller EP. Next up are Hold Kiss Kill who rescue the festival from a half way slump. At first I worry that their set is going to be ruined by a murky sound, as the guitar and vocals are barely audible. Either someone adjusts the mix or I tune in as I really start to enjoy their set, even if they are massive My Bloody Valentine copyists.

It’s back to the main stage for The Koolaid Electric Company who I‘ve never come across before. Within a few minutes of their first song I realise they’re yet another Brian Jonestown Massacre sound-a-like. Was there a job lot going when they booked this festival? But hey, sometimes originality is overrated. And the Koolaid crew lay down some good hazey, spacey, psych-rock.

Prog revivalists Teeth of the Sea are next, blasting off into the deepest reaches of space rock.

Bo Ningen are a band I’ve always had a problem with. They’re hi-energy rock in Stooges, Acid Mothers Temple kind of way, but they always leave me feeling they should be better than they actually are. I’ve seen them four or five times, and they have their moments, but for me they never achieve lift off.

And then we come to Part Chimp who are currently on a valedictory lap of honour as they move towards their final disbandment. I am not sure that I’ve really got anything left to say about these guys. If you like noise, if you like rock, then you will like Part Chimp. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen them live and they are always, always, excellent.

Trans Am are due on in a little while. But the best part of half a day in the Corsica has taken a psychic toll on me. I can take no more of it’s barren, stark, concrete walls. The power of the rawness has beaten me. I leave.

Preferred drink: San Miguel

Part Chimp | Hey Colossus | Palehorse - The Lexington, London, 24 June 2011

2011-06-26T18:03:00.003+02:00

I never miss an opportunity to see Part Chimp. But the recent news that the Chimp were calling it a day after 10 years meant I was going make the most of what will be one of the last chances to see this unfailing excellent band.

As part of their valedictory lap of honour, Palehorse had been lined up to open the show with their grinding, down-tuned, rock thuggery. The twin bass guitar attack emit bowel disrupting frequencies whilst the dual scream vox provide an aural syringe. The crawling song tempos make listening to the band like taking a slow beating - in a good way naturally.

I’ve seen Hey Colossus a fair few times over the years, and one of two things has happened. Either they’ve got better or my tastes have changed. Actually maybe both things have happened. Anyway, you get the point. So for the first time I can unequivocally state that Hey Colossus were great.

Their set is like drowning in a molten sludge tar pit. The triple guitar attacks lays down a wall of noise, reinforced by bass and unidentifiable noise producing gear, plus drums of course. Despite the cacophony everything can be heard. They deliver a set of utter, bludgeoning pulverisation.

And so to Part Chimp. I did, stupidly, wonder if they were going to be able to follow two such heavy sets. Fortunately I make no claim to good judgement. The Chimp set about crushing the rest of the bill with imperious overkill. They’re a perfect balance of heavy rhythmic sludge, noise, and catchy riffage. They are once again triumphant.

Tarfala Trio: Syzygy

2011-06-20T20:03:00.001+02:00

I just received the news that NoBusiness Records has released a 2XLP by Tarfala Trio. This trio gave one of the most amazing concerts in 2009, I wrote a review about it some 2 years ago. You can read it here.

It's that live-performance that's released on this 2XLP (+ 7"). Needless to say this is a must-have - I hope it has the same impact on LP than it had live!

Edgar Wappenhalter, Urpf Lanze, Hellvete: Split EP

2011-05-19T23:44:00.003+02:00

Last weekend I was in New York - I stayed in a 3000$/night hotel room! - to have a meeting with the CEO of Morc Records. I could have sworn the young girl of housekeeping was seducing me ... at least, that's what I told the judge.

Anyway, Morc's chief-in-command gave me a couple of albums to listen to. If I would like something I promised him to write something about it on the blog ... and so here I am, writing something about this very nice compilation CD on this tiny little blog.

3 artists, 4 fairly different songs (although for "an outsider" they all would sound the same).

First one is a song by Urpf Lanze, the alter ego of Wouter Vanhaelemeesch. Wouter is one of the people behind the audioMER and Smeraldina-Rima labels and is a visual artist as well. As Urpf Lanze he recorded a very minimal, primitive, repetitive kind of folk music that somehow reminds me of Baudouin Oosterlynck (I really need to write something about his excellent 4XLP boxset on Metaphon, released in 2008).

Second and third song are by Edgar Wappenhalter, the alter ego of Steve Marreyt (one of the K-RAA-K³ boys). His first song reminds me a lot of Roy Montgomery (which is a good thing!). The same kind of desolate post-blues-shoegaze kind of music (man, in the 1980's, you had punk, new wave, metal, industrial and fucking disco! That was easy. Nowadays try to come up with a suitable genre-description for the music these pot-smoking artists release!). Very nice tune by mister Wappenhalter indeed. His second song is built around tape-expriments and cut-ups. Very nice as well.

Last one is Hellvete (known from his involvement in Funeral Folk, Silvester Anfang II, ...) , alter ego of ... this is a very well kept secret ... it's not Sarkozy nor is it Oprah, but that's not important.What is important is that this is the best song of this compilation.I haven't heard his solo-album (yet), but I've been reading very good things and very bad things about it. That can only mean you either love it or hate it. I really enjoy this song a lot. Think minimalism and drones. A long stretched-out tone that is occasionally accompanied by a squeak, an echo or a note. And about half way there's a violin that starts to play on top of this drone. Charlemagne anyone? Superb song!

So yes this is a very nice compilation - otherwise I wouldn't have wasted my time to write something about it.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to make a few phone calls to the Industrial Music Foundation to explain my whereabouts in NYC last weekend.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Skullflower | Werewolf Jerusalem | Helm | Hal Hutchinson - The Grosvenor, London, 15 April 2011

2011-04-22T15:40:00.007+02:00

The noise freaks are out in force for this gig. The Grosvenor isn’t quite packed, but it’s an impressive turn out for an entire evening of noise.

First to the stage is Hal Hutchinson. He sounds like he’s trying to tune a radio broadcasting only the sound of rusty hinges. The highlight of the set is the sound when he squashes his gear with a piece of foam.

Helm follow. He always brings a scientific precision to his oscillating drones. As his set evolves he shifts from drone to found-sound and then to noise howl. At one point he becomes distracted by a errant vibration. He springs from his chair and immediately zeroes in on a mic’d up snare drum behind him. A quick adjustment and it’s eliminated from the mix.

Werewolf Jerusalem rolls out some tidal ebbs of raw noise. The people in front of me are without ear plugs. They must be mental. Wolfy starts with a deceptively restrained howl. It’s the calm before the storm though as soon Werewolf Jerusalem is creating the sound of a blackhole ripping asunder the fabric of space.

During the set I start to wonder why people barge to the front of noise gigs. It’s only ever a man hunched over a table of effects pedals not moving very much. Invariably these same people barge back out to the bar five minutes later when they realise there isn’t that much to see.

But I digress. Skullflower take the stage and swiftly provide time stretched howls of torture. Over a steady beat Matthew Bower’s guitar careens all over the steady bedrock. The second of the two pieces they play is faster. The drums are locked at black metal speed with that flat, relentless, momentum.

At first the track doesn’t sound like it’s working. The rhythm seems completely disjointed from the guitars. Maybe that’s the point, but the fact is it isn’t working. Bower’s guitar is constantly questing for new ways of expressing itself, and somehow later in the piece rhythm section and leads coalesce.

There are calls for an encore. The moment teatters on the brink. Skullflower hesitate. The soundman hesitates. The audience hesitate. But then the moment is lost. The soundman puts a CD on and the evening is at an end.

Preferred drink: Young's Special

A Year Of No Light | Aluk Todolo - The Borderline, London, 13 April 2011

2011-04-22T15:27:00.004+02:00

Who runs the Borderline? It’s a question I ask myself as I arrive. I don’t consider myself late but I’ve completely missed Menace Ruine who apparently came onstage at 7:30. What time of night is that to start a gig?

Unfortunately, Aluk Todolo have already started their set. Irritating as I’ve waited a long-time for them to play a UK date. Maybe it’s that same anticipation which interferes with my enjoyment of their set.

My near obsessive listening to their Finsternis LP has moulded my preconceptions. It’s an unfair benchmark as it’s probably impossible to reproduce the balance and dynamics of that studio recording.

The drummer is laying down immense, intense slabs of rhythms while the guitarists open metronomic kraut meets black metal riffage.

A Year Of No Light are fully six people strong. Two drummers, keyboards, the rest on guitars and bass. They play an amalgam of metal styles - an alloy if you will - and meld them to post-rock dynamics. It’s good, but somehow never transcends its influences. It leaves me feeling under whelmed. It’s good but I can’t help feeling it’s a bit anaemic, neutered or restrained. For me they need to convey something more. An atmosphere or feeling. Music should soar, disorientate, entrance, excite, relax, hypnotise, or overwhelm you with it’s beauty. It should do more than just ‘exist’.

When they finish it’s only a few minutes after 10. Bizarre.

Preferred drink: Water

Dead Meadow - The Drop, London, 14 April 2011

2011-04-15T20:25:00.008+02:00

The Drop won’t allow you to take drinks from the main bar downstairs. I have to crash a pint of Harvey’s Sussex just to get to see the bands. The bar in the basement only serves Red Stripe.

I remain teetotal for the rest of the night. But apart from the abysmal bar arrangements The Drop is the perfect venue to see Dead Meadow. It’s a small shoebox of a basement and everyone’s crammed in.

Apparently Dead Meadow are playing with their original drummer on this tour and only playing material from their first two LPs. It kind of makes sense as I’m only familiar with their albums from Shivering King... onwards.

But the restriction is actually a blessing as their earlier records are definitely my favourites. Channelling more strongly that vibe of Sabbath obsessed Hells Angels who’ve just pulled off the highway to set up and blast out their cosmic rock to the stars.

Their set is unhurried, kick-backed and relaxed riffage where there’s always time for a lengthily warped blues solo. The low end riffing, hypnotises, inducing eyes shut, head-nodding reveries. Time seems to stand still whilst their playing. Partly it’s hypnotising low, repeating riffs, but also it’s the fact that Dead Meadow are fine exponents of a now ancient rock sub-genre. They are worthy of their forefathers, and will no doubt begat an inheritance which others will duly honour.

Preferred drink: Sussex Best Bitter

Keijo Haino - Cafe Oto, London, 9-10 April 2011

2011-04-14T09:16:00.008+02:00

Keijo Haino’s two-day residency at Cafe Oto kicks off with a set by Voltigeurs. Unfortunately, I’m delayed arriving and miss their set.

Before Haino comes on a bizarre pantomime takes place onstage. A roadie or assistant is unhappy with the chair that Haino’s been given to sit on. He tries a few which haven’t already been taken, but find’s them to be wobbly, or some other indeterminate fault. He then tries to swap Haino’s chair with various audience members who are already seated. Eventually a chair which meets his satisfaction is found. The gig is ready to start.

Haino enters. Dressed in black. A long mane of silver hair obscuring large, black, wrap-a-round shades. He takes one look at the chair and moves it to the side of the stage, swapping it with one that’s been tucked away at the back of the stage whilst this whole charade has been played out. I guess now we can begin.

Haino opens with some staccato guitar plinkery, his fingers moving about the frets and strings like a toy spider being jerked about by a child. His second piece consists of low, wordless moaning over a feint feedback buzz. The whole gig is unexpectedly restrained.

Unfortunately, I decide to take my ear plugs out at the very moment Haino creates a trash can tunnel of distortion rumble from a series of theremin style devices he’s got set up on a table.

They look like woofer’s which have been removed from speakers. Haino creates howls of noise by moving his hands closer or further away from them. He does this theatrically.

With his long mane of silver hair, black clothes and sunglasses he looks like a warlock incanting a spell as he paws over his theremin pads. The set then involves into rudimentary rock riffage punctuated by white noise digressions.

For the second night Haino is joined by Peter Brotzmann. Haino kicks off the evening with a solo set. Bending the strings with what looks like a stretchy hair band creating unusual notes and sounds, before launching off into scalding molten guitar scrabble.

He spends the last 10 minutes of his solo set looping his screaming and groaning, then screaming and groaning over the top of it. It’s the best piece that he plays over the two nights.

Peter Brotzmann then plays a typically monstrous solo set. As if someone has shoved a saxophone into the blowhole of a sperm whale. While it’s always raw and visceral there more restrained passages are the bedrock of the piece acting as launching pads before Brotzmann again blasts off into the outer reaches.

Haino and Brotzmann then play as a duo. It’s probably the part of the evening that I had the most problem with. I flipped frequently between enjoying it and finding it a bit disparate. Their set is divided up into shortish pieces. The third one see both of them rage against each other and this section definitely works. Otherwise I just can’t make up my mind.

Bridget Hayden: A Siren Blares In An Indifferent Ocean

2011-04-12T12:27:00.005+02:00

The two last LP's released by (K-RAA-K)³ are excellent. End of 2010 there was Ignatz with his LP "Selected Songs Fom Cassettes... 2005 - 2009" containing a fine selection of recordings and songs that appeared on various tapes and releases on various labels. It doesn't sound as crappy and lo-fi as his previous albums entitled I, II or III but his style of playing still makes him a unique blues-musician.

March 2011 saw the release of Vibracathedral Orchestra member Bridget Hayden with her LP entitled "A Siren Blares In An Indifferent Ocean". When I first played the LP (limited - off course - to 300 copies) I thought I was playing this on the wrong speed and/or the needle of my record player was either damaged or there was a gigantic bee stuck in between the needle and the vinyl. A close inspection learned me that none of the above was true. This LP is just amazing and will scare the shit out of anyone who likes his music pre-fabricated and easy to listen to. Hayden has released something that makes me believe that Ignatz is playing old Skullflower songs and the whole stuff is recorded in one go on a 4-track by Dead C. Lo-fi drones, noise escapades, improvisation, ... This album is highly recommended and proofs - once again - that the guys and girls at K-RAA-K headquarters have a fine nose for excellent music. Get yourself a copy of this one before it's sold out.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Adrian Anioł: Arrhythmia

2011-04-08T19:43:00.001+02:00

A soundtrack - written by Adrian Anioł - for a movie directed by James Hartley. Two names that are unfamiliar to me.

Anyway, I was contacted by mister Anioł to let me know his latest music was available for free on his website.

It's nothing spectacular or super fantastic but it isn't bad either. Some pieces are a bit dull while others are great and in the end I listened to this soundtrack all the way through and it didn't bothered me either so I thought to share this one.

Preferred Drink: Water

3 Seconds Of Air: We Are Dust Under The Dying Sun - Antwerp, 25 March 2011

2011-04-04T00:16:00.003+02:00

Nothing is meaningless. That - in a nutshell - was my perception of the new LP/CD presentation of 3 Seconds Of Air on the 25th of March in Antwerp.

That particular Friday started as a rather warm and calm day. I listened to some Steve Reich, Jon Hassell, Curia and Robert Johnson recordings.

Fast forward to Friday evening. There I was, sitting comfortable in my seat (in the beautiful theatre "De Lucthbal"), watching the stage. One big electric bass and two electric guitars, some electronic devices/equipment and 3 lamp amplifiers.

One of the amps was humming. The PA was playing Morton Feldman's "For Bunita Marcus", played by Markus Hinterhäuser. Minimal piano on top of this humming. "Shut up!". I didn't say it out loud but I was begging that the audience would be silent. I tried to listen to this beautiful piano playing and concentrate on the humming. A fascinating combination. The rest of the audience didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if some people unanimously agreed that the PA was sucking big time because one of the amps was humming.

They appeared: one graceful woman accompanied by two body guards, the "man in black". The audience - finally! - decided to turn into silent mode. I concentrated on what was about to come. But I didn't expect this. At all. The woman - Martina Verhoeven - made it clear from note one: the bass is the master. Dominant but respectful. Loud but not intimidating. Mixed all the way to the foreground, the sound of the bass controlled the music. It is the very deep centre of 3 Seconds Of Air. The heartbeat. To the left and the right of a heart there are two lungs, in 3 Seconds Of Air terminology these are guitars, operated by Dirk Serries and Paul Van den Berg. They play desolate, minimal post-blues improvisation music, swirling back and forth around the root, the bass. It's like two ships caught in a storm with the lighthouse used to show the path. The storm isn't violent but strong enough for the ships to not see the lighthouse for a short time period. No worries. Just concentrate on the ground tone and you know what direction to follow. Back and forth. Go away to improvise and return to rebalance. Think about what notes to play and let them escape. Go out to find them and bring them back home. I'm hypnotised and sucked into this gigantic instrument. My heartbeat has slowed down and is synchronized with it. I can see the guitar-notes.They are transparent. This is beautiful. This is timeless.

After 45 minutes, my heart stops beating. The two guitars lost their Sherpa. I heard them cry. They drift off into space. Lost for ever.

Preferred Drink: Westmalle Tripel

Listen to the deep ocean environment

2011-03-19T10:25:00.002+01:00

I just found this website where you can listen to the deep ocean environment. One of the things recorded was the sound of the Japan earthquake of March, 11 2011.

For those who - like myself - adore the work of Jacob Kirkegaard.

Preferred Drink: Water

Neil Campbell & Michael Flower | Morgen Und Nite - Cafe Oto, London, 25 February 2011

2011-02-28T22:03:00.009+01:00

It’s nearly two months since I’ve been to a gig. It falls to Morgen Und Nite to end the drought.

A duo, he plays guitar. She plays, I don’t know what you want to call it, a box - all leads and knobs. They play a slowly decaying psych guitar noodle. Embellished with electronic flutterings and tonal sustains.

The guitarist plays through a total of 13 effects pedals. Barefoot, he operates them with disturbingly prehensile toes. It’s like watching Christy Brown play guitar.

Morgen Und Nite then play a second piece of undulating oscillation and the open drone of traffic speeding through a tunnel. This piece doesn’t coalesce into a whole. It feels disjointed and uneven.

The evening climaxes with two legends - Neil Campbell and Michael Flower. Admittedly legends in a micro genre, but legends nevertheless. They launch straight into a force 9 psychedelic rock tumult, playing over cheap keyboard looped beats.

Deeper into the set Campbell moves to keyboards. They hit a trance inducing groove, playing within a blank primal raw Stooges like repetitive riff. The mothership had definitely achieved lift-off.

Preferred drink: Kernel's London Porter

Silvester Anfang, In Zaire, K-X-P: Magasin 4, Brussels, 17 January 2011

2011-01-19T23:43:00.004+01:00

A little after eight in the evening I phone Rosebud to ask where he is. He's already at the venue and Silvester Anfang already started ... I'm still in my car towards the venue. I'm a big fan of the Anfangs (check out excellent LP's like "Satanische Vrede", "Echte Vlaamse Geiten", "Sylvester Anfang II" and many more) ... but somehow their music works better for me on LP than live, so I'm not too worried.

By the time I arrive, In Zaire already started. In Zaire (listen to their single-sided self-titled LP on Brigadisco here) are a trio playing some sort of free improvisation space/kraut/post rock incorporating elements from the free-side of the musical rock-spectrum in combination with great percussion and some fuzzy electronics. In other words: I'm a fan! Before the show the only info I had about the band was this video:

... as you might expect from it I had very high expectations!

Well, the performance was OK, but it didn't had the same "groove" as the version on the youTube video ... although the second song was a full-blast in your face old-school outburst - building up the number, increasing the speed, incorporating screams and shouts, going completely berserk, going beyond that and than abruptly end the song.

Next band to play is K-X-P, which is becoming the next hype in music-land. I'm not going to spend too much writing about this band but this probably is going to be the worst live-show of this year (and we're only 3 weeks far into the new year).

What an unbelievable horrible crap this is. 3 guys who are supposed to play krautrock mixed together with electro ... There is one guy (the "frontman") who is trying his best to make his synth sound like the typical eighties minimal wave sound (and even fails in doing so) who is supported by a drummer - who know how to play a cymbal but that's about it - and a guitar player who probably didn't made it to become a death metal guitarist (he sure look like he wants to be one). The music is horrible! And so is the show ... by the time the "singer" starts to raise his arms in the air while shouting "theeee eieieieieieightieieieieieieies" I can only think "beer, I need beer ... NOW!".

Preferred Drink: beer

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex

2011-01-05T17:03:00.006+01:00

Apart from eulogies on a few metal blogs you can’t find much information about Koreisch on the internet.

They released their sole LP in 1999 on Screams of Salvation. And subsequently re-released on Calculated Risk Records in 2004. Neither pressing gained much attention.

Which is a criminal shame as This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex is as an inventive and extreme record that the metal world has yet vomited forth.

Grind, doom, samples and sounds capes are thrown together allowed to rot down and then sprayed at the listener like a sonic slurry.

Piercing guitar riffs, ominous rumbling bass, dirge crawl and grind spazz outs are interspersed with jarring, alienating sounds capes. Consistently painful and unpleasant, this is music as torture. And yet it is oddly compelling drawing you back into its dark, smothering, suffocating embrace.

I consider this one of the most extreme records I have ever heard. Bands have played faster and harder, but the continued dislocating shifts in tempo, pitch and tone mess with your expectations. And that is something very rare and precious.

Download

Preferred drink: Water

New Stuff on Metaphon

2010-12-20T11:56:00.019+01:00

3 highly recommended releases on Metaphon!

Arsène Souffriau: Experiences Bimes

Due to time and budget reasons, Arsène Souffriau created his own studio "BIMES" (Bureau d'Illustrations Musicales, Electroniques et Sonores) in 1959. From that moment on, all his recordings and experimentations were done in that studio.

This box set (released as triple LP or triple CD) contains a selection of concrete, electronic and experimental instrumental works spanning over a period of 40 years in that same studio, all previously unreleased.

If you're into early electronic experiments, this is a must-have!

Michael Ranta, Mike Lewis, Conny Plank: Mu

In 1974 a triple LP got released on Deutsche Grammophon entitled "Free Improvisation". That album has a sort of "mythical status" nowadays, because it is one of the best free improvisation albums ever released. One band that filled the entire last LP was a group that performed under the name Wired. The members were Michael Ranta, Mike Lewis, Conny Plank and Karl-Heinz Böttner. It was the only time this group got together and released something ... until today! Metaphon managed to release unreleased studio material (as double LP or double CD, housed in a box set) that was recorded only a few months after that legendary "Wired Session". Needless to say you need to hear this!

Catalogue: Brussel Live

Gilbert Artman is a busy man in the world of art- and progrock. Artman is best known for his involvement in Urban Sax, but he also joined Catalogue (a band formed by Jac Berrocal and Jean-François Pauvros). Catalogue released a great live album in 1979 entitled "Antwerpen Live 11 August 1979" in the pre-Artman period, this LP was released on the French Pot Records.

2010 finally sees a sequel to that album with this live-recording, recorded in 2007 and 2008 in Brussels. The first 200 copies have an extra single-sided 7", signed by all artists. Get it while you can!

Preferred Drink: coffee, Bunnahabhain, Westmalle Tripel

Concern | Pascal Nichols | Tuluum Shimmering - Cafe Oto, London, 14 December 2010

2010-12-16T20:05:00.005+01:00

I arrive just in time for the start of Tuluum Shimmering’s set.

One man and a table with the usual tangle of wires and leads, and assorted electronic gadgetry. He’s also got a chunky wooden flute and a tom tom. The set begins with heady, heavy kosmiche hymnals. We’re deep into the dreamy spiritualism of Popol Vuh or Ash-Ra Temple.

The melange of hare Krishna bell rattle, organ tone float and looped flute summon the atmosphere of spirit worship and ritual. Imagine whirling round in a tropical forest, sun light flickering through the tree canopy, colour, motion, blur, undefined, yet fully engaging your senses.

Pascal Nichols is a drummer who plays in lots of different groupings, but most commonly in Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides. Tonight he’s playing a solo set using drums and samples.

It starts well with Nichols darting round the sound samples. However, I lose my way with the set. Nichols seems to have a microphone strapped round his neck. This allows him to add low, throat yodelling satellite signals as sonar ping over drumming which sounds like rain on a tin roof. It’s more a set of moments than something that works as a whole.

Concern are the headliners. They’re Gordon Ashworth, one half of noise-nikers Oscillating Innards. In this guise he’s operating in drone mode. A micro sample of a violinist laments faintly in the background while the tonal sound waves quiver gently. But again I’m not engaged by the sounds. Suddenly the music stops. Ashworth waves choppily at the audience and departs. It’s almost as if he was as tired of it as I was.

Preferred drink: Kernel's IPA

Trumans Water | One Unique Signal | Die Munch Machine | Slushy Guts - Half Moon, London, 10 December 2010

2010-12-11T13:45:00.004+01:00

There are legends, legendary legends, and then there is Trumans Water.

Great bands can enter your life at any age. But somehow the bonds I formed with bands as a teenage are the strongest. They’re the ones which mean the most.

This is the Water’s only UK date on their current tour. It’s years since they last played in this country. I always count their occasional appearances on these shores as a minor miracle. There’s rarely been more than 100 people at any of their gigs that I’ve been to.

Trumans Water play with more energy then I ever previously seen, bouncing around like men half their age. The serrated guitar, the compositional angularity of their songs remains imperiously intact. Twisted, knotty, jerky, yet in ways which are synaptic-ly addictive.

Boredom is Trumans Water's enemy. Their songs are always creating or relieving tension. Everything else has been eliminated. It’s this that creates the odd jarring shifts of gear that take place within their songs. Why bother transitioning to the next section. Let’s just crash into it.

Old favourites are quickly aired. Rations is rapturously received. There are constant shouts for The Aroma of Gina Arnold. There might not be many of us here, but everyone’s a passionate fan of the band. It is a triumphant night for Trumans Water and for the audience for whom the band remain an article of faith.

Support on the night came from One Unique Signal who provide a psych guitar maelstrom of dizzying swirling wig outs.

Part Chimp alumni perform as Die Munch Machine a drums and keyboard duo. Their heavy synth and rhythm churn is like something created by Giorgio Moroder malevolent twin brother.

Slushy Guts bleeds, via the medium of guitar strummery, pit of the stomach emotional wrench over the floor of the Half Moon.

Preferred drink: Adnams

Rottrevore: Copulation of the Virtuous and Vicious EP

2010-12-05T16:38:00.004+01:00

Rottrevore were a minor name in the death metal underground of the early 90s. They recorded a clutch of 7”s and an album before disappearing.

Their Copulation of the Virtuous and Vicious EP is marked by a full throated raw brutality like having your ear pressed against a Harley Davidson exhaust pipe. High pitched guitar solos emerge like angry, castrated bumble bees from the murky, filthy, bludgeoning, chug.

An album called Iniquitous later emerged which collected together their EP’s and some live tracks. A proper LP of newly recorded material subsequently emerged a few years later. You can read a good interview with the band here where they tell their own story.

A lot of records I used to like from this era have fallen out of favour with me. But nearly 20 years on this is one that‘s never lost its appeal.

Download

Prefered drink: Chivas Regal

The Dead C - The Garage, London, 1 December 2010

2010-12-02T22:30:00.004+01:00

I can’t believe that I’m actually about to watch The Dead C.

If you’d asked me 15 years ago if they’d be playing The Garage I would have found the idea inconceivable. But here they are in a warm-up show for the coming ATP appearance.

The begin with Bruce Russell and Michael Morley manipulating squalls of noise from their guitars. After about 10 minutes Robbie Yeats joins them on stage, adding his breathtakingly simple drum beats.

Just as I’m expecting the performance to take off it falls flat. Whole sections meander, twisting aimlessly, into musical cul de sacs. They occasionally flicker, and I’m momentarily expectant, awaiting the dysfunctional magic they able to conjure. Only the spell is just as quickly broken. And, dare I say it, the tedium returns. The set sounds like a rehearsal where something isn’t working.

It’s too easy to suggest I’d built The Dead C up too much in my own mind. Set expectations they could never meet. If anything my critical judgement was temporarily suspended. I was ready to love them. They wouldn’t have had to offer me much.

I can feel a similar restlessness in the audience. The muted applause at the end of their set seems to convey the same message.

Preferred drink: Bishop's Finger

The Rita | Voltigeurs | Filthy Turd | Vomir - The Grosvenor, London, 19 November 2010

2010-11-23T21:23:00.005+01:00

As I come into the back room of The Grosvenor I’m handed a black bin bag. Vomir has just started. He stands perfectly still with his back to the audience. He’s got a bin bag over his head. An abrasive white noise blasts across the room.

I look about the room. Around a dozen or so people are standing with the bags over their heads. I’m not sure what the inspiration is. Perhaps the idea is to make it a sense deprivation experience. Forcing you to concentrate on what you’re listening to. It makes me think of interrogation techniques where people are hooded and exposed to white noise.

I prefer to go without my hood. I can’t drink my beer otherwise. However, with so many faceless people in the audience there is a peculiar, unsettling, ambience in the room.

Filthy Turd pushes a small, metal table out onto the floor. He lays two microphones on the table before scraping the table across the floor. The vibrations are picked up by the microphones and translated into low howls. Branches and stones are scattered across the table. The clash, clatter and thud are all become part of the sound.

Filthy removes his shoes and then his socks, theatrically smelling each one. He pulls the socks over the microphones, before beginning to beat the tables with them. He then wanders off and shoves some of the branches down the front of his trousers before thrusting his hips forward.

The sound cuts out. Filthy pulls a number of small tape recorders from this pockets smelling them as he does. Each has a different tape loop. They overlay on each other in a random way, but somehow it works. He takes off his shirt and picks up a mutilated guitar adding new layers of noise drone.

Filthy then returns to the table, under which is a small plastic tub. He removes the lid and pushes his hands into the thick brown fluid inside. With hands cupped full he smears the brown fluid over his face and chest. I finally come to understand why he’s called Filthy Turd.

A headily pungent incense fills the room and the lights are turned off. Voltigeurs are one of Matthew Bower’s gazillion different recording identities. This one is a duo with Samantha Davies who’s otherwise employed in Skullflower.

Voltigeurs unleash a guitar noise Gotterdammerung of psychedelic guitar noise. Once you’re over the volume you can tune into the subtleties of their sound. The playing is seriously intense.

They abort their set after 20 minutes. It’s like being suddenly woken up from a deep sleep. Unpleasant, dislocating, and with the same sense of frustration that something really enjoyable has been violently wrenched away from you.

The Rita are headlining. One man and some gear. I go to enough of these gigs. I really should know more about they’re using.

I will profess ignorance of The Rita. A confession which should disqualify me from writing for such an august website as this. The sandblasting wall of noise is all consuming. It’s like being a tiny microbe and suddenly finding yourself flying up the suction pipe of a vacuum.

People start moshing at the front of the audience. He finishes his set. The crowd demand an encore. I’ve never been to a noise gig before where that’s happened. Someone shouts, “Rip my face off.” The Rita does his best.

Preferred drink: Youngs Special

Wicked Messenger: The Haarlem Concert

2010-11-12T10:35:00.001+01:00

Performed at the Plague showcase organised by )toon) festival, October 11th 2009, Haarlem, Netherlands.
This exclusive set was accompanied by a video project by The Nothing (Canada), featuring Matthew McLaughlin (UK).

© 2009 Plague Recordings / Institute for Transcendental Research (ITR)
℗ 2009 Hotel Delta!

Free download. All rights reserved.

Monolithic | Kogumaza - Cafe Oto, London, 10 November 2010

2010-11-11T23:17:00.003+01:00

This is my third consecutive night at a gig. I feel tired. I look tired. I am tempted to skip the gig. But dedication makes me go.

Dirge rockers Kogumaza are support. I saw them play last month and they seemed worth keeping an eye on. The three piece play a sedate paced down tuned riffage. It sounds like a one-note Sonic Youth wig-out played in slow motion.

There is something really exciting about seeing a band who are totally unexpected. It’s like having electricity plugged straight into your soul. I know nothing about Monolithic. But within the first few moments of their set I know they’re special. My senses sharpen. I want to take in all the details.

The drums and guitar duo play a well honed math metal. They induce an almost ecstatic or euphoric reaction in me. The volume, the simplicity, the harshness of their sound, it’s almost transcendental.

Halfway through their set they mellow things out. They play a desolate tumble weed blues, with bowed guitar and brush scraped cymbals. Then it’s into down-tuned blues and back to the destructive riffage that’s been honed by hours muscularly axing down trees or smashing rocks in a disused quarry.

They finish their set. I make for their merch stand. I need to fill the new yawning chasm in my collection.

Preferred drink: Kernel's London Porter

Shit & Shine - ICA, London, 5 November 2010

2010-11-06T12:04:00.004+01:00

Shit & Shine are performing as part of the ICA’s Rhythm Section festival.

Shit & Shine begin quietly. Playing some wistful, Americana whimsy. The dreamy tone is counter-pointed by the singer who in an exaggerated English accent recounts an elaborately mundane tale.

I wonder if they’re playing a game of double bluff. I keep expecting them to crank up the tempo. But they maintain their genteel pace. When are they going to cut loose? Perhaps they’re not going to. Maybe they’ve tired of the drum thunder.

Shit & Shine finish teasing us. They shift up a couple of gears. The guitarists switch to keyboards adding electronic swooshes. The five drummers synchronise.

And I am underwhelmed.

It’s not a feeling you expect to have when you go to see such a finely honed rhythm assault unit. The beat feels pedestrian. It lacks the confrontational, clattering, edge when Shit & Shine are at their most visceral.

I find myself slowly numbed by their sound. Bored even.

But that is just a gateway through which I have to travel. I reach some kind of Zen state. The seemingly dull rhythm is now infecting my mind. My perceptions have been transformed. Conscious thoughts have fallen away. There is only the present and the relentless rhythm.

I notice that one of the band is having problems with his keyboard. Suddenly it appears above his head broken into pieces. Nothing it seems will be granted mercy.

Deprived of his instrument he switches back to guitar, riffing in time with the drummers. The singer is no longer pretending to be Noel Coward. His hectoring distorted vocals recall PiL. It’s exhilarating. Purifying. I have been pummelled into submission. Shit & Shine have defeated me again.

Preferred drink: Sussex Best Bitter

Death Strike: Fuckin' Death

2010-10-30T15:04:00.007+02:00

Death Strike was a short lived project helmed by death metal legend Paul Speckman. Despite being one of the scenes original movers and still active to this day, he has never really enjoyed any particular success.

In 1985 when death metal was still an underground scene, he recorded a 4 song demo called Fuckin’ Death. After getting a deal for his new project Abomination, Nuclear Blast issued the demo in 1991 as an album bulked out with some new tracks.

These new tracks are awful and for the purposes of this review we‘re going to ignore them. Because for pure visceral excitement there is little that can match those original demo recordings.

There’s a heavy thrash influence to the music, understandable given the time of the original recordings. But that thrash edge gives the filthy, dirty, fire snorting, death metal beast a relentless pummelling velocity.

Every time I listen to Fuckin’ Death it reminds me of the adrenaline rush I felt when I first heard death metal. There’s been better played, better produced death metal, however, just try and stop yourself head banging to Mangled Dehumanisation or Pay To Die. Go on, try.

Preferred drink: Water

Download

Zeni Geva | Ruins Alone | Nought - Corsica Studios, London, 26 October 2010

2010-10-27T19:10:00.003+02:00

Free ear plugs are being given away at the bar. That’s always a good ‘bad’ sign.

We don’t need them for Nought. They’re a Guapo side project specialising in unashamed prog rock. Complex, mathy, jazz and rock rhythms are entwined together into a Gordion knot. But it never becomes an intellectual exercise. Their music is run through with tunes and melodies.

Ruins Alone is Yoshida Tatsuya. Drums and a sampler. He plays an eclectic mix of schizophrenic, genre hopping. Jazz, prog, punk, rock are all chewed up and and spat out in tiny, constantly changing chunks. In that way it reminds me of Naked City.

Yoshida doesn’t have long to rest before he’s back behind the kit for Zeni Geva. The previously free ear plugs are now being sold, as someone behind the bar has written 50p on a bit of paper and stuck it to a glass. From the outset Zeni Geva are in sadistically mean noise rock form. They are punishingly heavy. Others bands do that same brutal, serrated, guitar riffage, but Zeni Geva do it with the malevolence of nobody else.

Preferred drink: Water

Master Musicians of Bukkake | Voice of the Seven Thunders | Barn Owl - Corsica Studios, London, 25 October 2010

2010-10-26T19:31:00.004+02:00

There was an unknown name to me on the bill. I’d not heard of Barn Owl before. A quick internet search took me to the website of some twee indie twiddlers. Who in the name of Hades, I wondered, booked this lot?

The answer lay in poor search engine skills. Not all my fault as there are six acts called Barn Owl on Myspace. Fortunately, somebody had booked the psychedelic drone two-piece. The two guitarists blast out cathedral sized drones. They explore different textures within their lengthy pieces. Sunn O))))) style heavy drones but also more psychedelic widdling and slow-motion Morricone style guitar picking.

Tonight was my first experience of Voice of the Seven Thunders. I’d been a fan of Voice of the Seven Woods from which this band morphed. But for some reason I’d never bothered to investigate them. It’s easy to hear the similarities. The psych-blues meanderings and the acid-fried tinged-rock are direct descendents. A couple of tracks lean a little too close leaden Clapton-esque blues, but it’s when guitar lines start questing they really engage.

The venue fills with smoke. Bells ring and the Master Musicians of Bukkake file towards the stage through the audience. They are dressed as Bedouins. Black cowls wrapped around their bodies. Their faces shrouded in blue kufiuya, their eyes hidden by sunglasses. I can smell incense.

A low drone starts up. The singer who is wearing an Inca like face mask throat yodels as he weaves intricate patterns in the air with his hands. Lasers cut through the smoke refracting off mirror balls on the ceiling and illuminated the smokes evolving patterns. Drone, electronics, psychedelic and Eastern influences are fused and cauterised. This is rock as occult ritual.

The guitarists switch to sitar and the violin adding Eastern flavours which are enhanced when they are joined by Khyam Allami who adds oud. He starts slowly repeating simple patterns over the low, metallic, rumbling of huge gong. The oud lines become more complex and duels with the violin. Then everyone falls in as the rhythms become heavier and a heady, murky, and epic. They close with a quieter, more meditative number before the Master Musicians then file in procession from the stage.

Preferred drink: Water

The Lowest Form of Music | Smegma | La Forte Four | Morphogenesis - Beaconsfield, London, 22 October 2010

2010-10-23T22:24:00.005+02:00

The Lowest Form Of Music seeks to celebrate the work of the Los Angeles Free Music Society. The 3-day festival includes performances by original artists and those inspired by the experimental ethos espoused by the movements key players.

Morphogenesis open the evening. They’re a UK configuration of four artists including Adam Bohman and Clive Graham. Instrumentation is predictably eclectic. Bohman has a table of rasps, files, assorted ephemera including a pine cone. It looks like someone's emptied the contents of a shed onto a table. Someone on the other side of the stage is amplifying a pump blowing bubbles through a jar filled with water. It’s not so much music as sound constructions. We get the chirps of cyber bird calls over the sound of tape rewind and modem whirl. Despite the disparate elements the sound is cohesive.

The same cannot be said for La Forte Four. Apparently this is their first UK performance for 28 years. Whilst the array of instruments and their invention is admirable their set doesn’t work. If I am honest it is frankly a racket. I appreciate the dedication to the unconventional. Blowing into metal piping, amplifying children’s toys and bowing polystyrene packaging is admirable in it’s quest for discovering new sounds. But if the resultant noise is an incoherent, ungainly, awkward, potpourri then the experiment fails on its own terms.

Smegma headline the night. I saw them some years back in 2006. It was my first encounter with them and I was blown away by their mastery of genre convention and avant-garde experimentalism. Tonight, though, I am utterly under whelmed by their performance. I am at a loss to interpret their set. It’s an indecipherable, uninspiring, turgid murk. They play for barely half an hour. They are reluctantly, and unaccountably, urged back for an encore by the audience. Against my better judgment I stay in the hope that I’ll hear some of the inspiration that I previously heard. I am unfortunately left disappointed.

Preferred drink: Fullers 1845

Demons | Sick Llama | Helm - The Grosvenor, London, 18.10.10

2010-10-19T18:12:00.003+02:00

Helm’s set starts with low oscillator hum. Then flicker and dog whistle twittering. Old computer game fx and the sound of someone crunching an apple. Someone’s left the stage lights turned up. I’m not used to watching artists brightly illuminated.

I like the orderly transitions between artists at noise gigs. They’re already set up and plugged in. All they need to do is carry their table of gear to the front of the stage. Sick Llama sounds like the unending climax to an Argento film. I wonder how he’s going to get out of this musical cul-de-sac. He picks up his mike and lets rip with a scream that ends the set.

Demons play as a three piece. They’ve got some trippy visuals, a line drawn man dissolves into three and then reforms. The sounds are kosmiche. They sound like a malfunctioning Simon Says game with thunder disintegrating thunder crashes.

Preferred drink: Leffe

Transient Constellations All-Dayer - The Windmill, London, 16 October 2010

2010-10-17T22:00:00.006+02:00

The Windmill looks as if it should be derelict. It’s days as a community pub have long gone. It is now a 7 day a week music venue. A characterless 60s building it’s windows have all been boarded over. Inside resides an all pervasive gloom. The walls are inexplicable painted in greens and oranges, as if it had some brief interlude as children’s playgroup. Ancient and current gig poster adorn the walls. It’s a grubby cave of a venue. I love it.

Today’s it’s hosting the Transient Constellation all-dayer. The bill promises noise, gabba, and grindcore.

Kicking things off are Cheapmachines. Standard static ear bleed. The highlight is the bit which sounds like a malfunctioning motorcycle revving.

Pollutive Static are the sound of waking up at 3am on the sofa to a static snowstorm on the TV because they’ve stopped broadcasting programmes.

Next there’s a wall of noise from Digitariat with screamo vocals. It doesn’t work for me.

Deepkiss 720 ups the confrontation ante with an ear wax shattering digital assault. A bright light flashes away at an epilepsy inducing speed. The sounds seem to be created on something that resembles a portable barbecue and a sound board.

There’s more wall of noise antics from Betty. However, again this set doesn’t engage me. Maybe it’s because it’s not loud enough as I don’t need to put my ear plugs.

BBBlood are the sound of amplified aircraft cabin noise. They even manage to get the crowd going. There’s sporadic head banging and several people throw their head back and gurn. I assume this to be in appreciation.

Gland’s set is aborted after 2 minutes due to crowd trouble as a few moshing audience members seem to damage the kit beyond repair.

Gymnastic Decomposition are legends in the invented genres of happy grindcore and haikore. They’re like listening to a cassette copy of ‘Scum’ on fast forward. It’s stupid, insane, and will never be popular. These are probably the very same thoughts which motivated these men to make this music. And for that we should be eternally grateful.

I didn’t watch Skat Injector. I was brutalised by them. Abused, used and discarded with callous disdain. The singer is dressed in a white dress and a blue wig. His face is wearing black plastic mask that looks like it’s been partially melted. The drummer is wearing a skin tight gold body that also obscures his face. He’s wearing a black dress and a top hat. The effects guru looks like a burns victim as something that looks like surgical gauze is pulled over the face. They play a filthy-dirty gabba grind, a scum-zoid sound of neo-bondage torture which they vomit forth for the audience to lap off the floor. Audience mosh insanity ensues.

The aural assault continues with Nwodtlem. Gabba, hardcore, and jungle mash-ups are spliced with surgical precision to video footage which is sometimes incongruous, sometimes harmonious.

Atomck then play a blistering set of grindcore. The sound is superb. Blasting drums, a superb down-tuned guitar sound and the obligatory screamed vocals. They are a possibly the only grindcore band to have recorded a tribute to Columbo.

There are more acts to come but I’ve an appointment elsewhere. I take away happy memories which I know will slowly fade. I hope the tinnitus does likewise.

Bong | Toe Hammer | Sunday Mourning - Buffalo Bar, London, 13 October 2010

2010-10-17T08:48:00.004+02:00

Serendipity. I am working late in the office. There are only a few people still here. I decide to listen to some music. A random urge takes me to Bong's Myspace page. As I listen to a couple of songs I notice their upcoming gig dates. They're playing tonight. About 20 minutes away. Work can wait.

I like a weak pun so I'm feeling well disposed towards Sunday Mourning before they even start playing. They're a depressive doom duo and as cheery as they sound. The guitarist is playing an acoustic guitar, but run through some effects pedals to produce a suitably Stygian black sound. The drummer beats a simple tattoo. Low guttural death moans rise and fall out of the mix. The acoustic guitar lends a different tone to their downtuned sound. I close my eyes and focus.

At first I'm underwhelmed by Toe Hammer. They seem to be proficient, uninspired, punk-tinged blues. Their drummer sweats in some unusual places. In two distinct spots I guess where his nipples are, and on the tops of his shoulders. However, as their set wears on they begin to thaw me. ZZ Top may have nailed this genre down 30 years ago, but Toe Hammer have got something about them.

And now I await the narcoleptic majesty of Bong. The congregation are hushed in reverent worship of the drone lords. There's no sitar player tonight, so this set is based on tar thick black guitar sounds. Solid obsidian masses of lava paced riff-age. The sound is like someone has plugged a ley line into an amplifier and the vocals are like the incantations of ancient Druids.

Thick white smoke begins to belch from the guitarists amp. It has expired in the face of the relentless drone. He abandons his guitar and walks off. The rest of Bong drone on to the end of the song and then follow.

Preferred drink: San Miguel

Peter Brotzmann | Full Blast Trio + Ken Vandermark - Cafe Oto, London, 29/30 September 2010

2010-10-01T18:50:00.004+02:00

Peter Brotzmann was, until recently, someone I only knew by reputation. I’d never heard any of his work. This two night residency at Café Oto seemed like a good opportunity for a crash course.

Playing as Full Blast with Marino Pliakas and Michael Wertmuller, they’re joined for these dates by special guest Ken Vandermark.

A few listens to magnus opus Machine Gun prepped me for the intense free jazz blitzkreig of the first night. From the outset Brotzmann and Vandermark are blasting away on their saxophones. They‘re underpinned by the rhythm section which like listening to rolling thunder.

The second night explores some quieter territory. However, they still find time for tidals waves of full blooded skronking squalls.

As a child I tried to play an instrument. However, my efforts were futile. It seems I have more talent for consuming music than creating it. Consequently, I have no understanding of music theory. So my appreciation of jazz, or any music, is always intuitive, visceral, emotional.

I appreciated the attack, aggression and questing. The conscious decision to experience discomfort and push past convention to some new undefined territory.

I just like it.

Listen to the second night of the Brotzmann's group here. (Courtesy of AJ Dehany)

Preferred drink: Kernel's London Porter.

Ducktails | Dolphins Into The Future - The Grosvenor, London, 23 September 2010

2010-09-24T21:35:00.005+02:00

The grind. It’s what I call all the time I spend standing or sitting around at gigs waiting for bands to play. And there was some hard grinding to do tonight. Somehow I managed to miss Jason Urick's set. That meant grinding it out till 10 to hear some music.

Opening the night, for me at least, were Dolphins Into The Future. It’s just one man. A Belgian ambient sound-sculpter. It’s like bathing in aquatic twinkle. Whilst listening to the sea wash the shore and the beams of erratically creak. The sounds of a forest birds swim from the warm organ drift. Vaguely familiar sounds of animals and everyday life faintly emerge from the mix. If I close my eyes I can feel my hands running through wispy clouds. You can feel something but it isn’t solid. It’s immersive, fleeting, vaporous. Making you concentrate on that ever evolving single moment of ‘now’.

Ducktails plays solo for the first half of his set. It carries on from the same enveloping sound world that Dolphins Into The Future created. This one is more like a fairground. The music of some half remembered carousel ride. For the second half he’s joined by members of Spectrals. The sound changes. It’s more song orientated. Like listening to songs from the 80s played through the floors of upstairs flat. For me the familiar tropes of genre are duller.

Preferred drink: Bishops Finger

Idiot Glee | Future Islands | Moon Unit | Slushy Guts - The Old Blue Last, London, 15 September 2010

2010-09-17T22:43:00.005+02:00

Slushy Guts are the sentimental alter ego of noiseniksters Bromancer. It’s a minimal set up. Guitar and an ancient keyboard that looks like it’s on the verge of expiring.

The first song begins with a simple drone created by sellotaping some keys down. Sketchy guitar lines are picked out over the monotonous hum. It reminds me of a lot of the stuff that came out on Shrimper. Or lo-fi guitar minimalists like Paste from way back.

I love the name Slushy Guts. It captures the exposed emotions. Like a scimitar slashed stomach. It’s all hanging out, messily, bloodily, steam slowly rising from the entrails of life’s experiences.

Moon Unit begin with some heavy kosmiche star bliss. Heady keyboard twinkling’s like vintage kraut psychonauts. The guitarist perpetually quests on the outer reaches of the cosmos. Like gazing into a continually morphing Orion’s belt.

Tethering or binding this all together are the drums which aren’t playing rhythm but patterns. Weaving rounds the guitar, keyboards and effects. It’s like Popol Vuh being blasted into deep space with Ashtray Navigations and Rangda as co-pilots.

Future Islands are a late addition to the bill. I coming at them cold. I don’t know what their style is or what they’re trying to do. I do know that having had a record out on Thrill Jockey though.

First take is that they’re trying to resuscitate the corpse of 80s keyboard pop. Only they seem embarrassed by playing an unashamed tune. So songs are always a bit wonky, woozy, and wrong. It’s all thudding beats and murky melodies. A lot of people seem to like it. I could say they’re rubbish. Instead, let’s just say they’re not my thing.

As is unfortunately normal with a gig promoted by Upset the Rhythm the show is running needlessly late. The venue has largely emptied by the time Idiot Glee starts playing.

Unfortunately, I am not a student or a gig promoter. So I have to do boring things like a paid job and get up at 6am. That’s why I tend to get a bit resentful at gigs that don’t finish until midnight. And if I was Idiot Glee playing to a half empty room because people are leaving to get a train home well I might just be a bit pissed off.

Enough griping. Idiot Glee start and it’s a bit like listening to Midnight Marauders and Pet Sounds being played simultaneously through next doors walls. Minimal keyboard and soft harmonious vocals over simple pre-programmed beats. It’s like listening to Women with all the frills removed. There’s a cover of Ain’t No Sunshine. It kind of makes sense and makes me wonder what a cover of Timmy Thomas’s Why Can’t We Live Together would sound like.

Preferred drink: Chivas Regal

Part Chimp | That Fucking Tank | Monnocle | Hired Geek All Dayer - The Victoria, London, 4 September 2010

2010-09-07T21:06:00.006+02:00

I oversleep and wrongly assume that nothing much will happen at the Hired Geek all-dayer before 4pm. That’s why I miss the first two acts and find that Marilyn Rambo are already playing.

The French guitar drums duo have set up in the middle of the pub. The handful of audience members crowd round. The floor is sticky, and the air hot and stuffy. I think I can smell the band sweating.

Marilyn Rambo’s meaty, muscular, math-rock slowly builds an audience. It’s not revolutionary but the guitarist shifts tones and riffs that stop your mind spiralling off. Mid-set the guitarist string breaks and the drummer freestyles while he waits for repairs to be completed. They end with their best song with a riff like a klaxon. As the band clear their gear away a barman sprays air freshener across the room.

I’m sure I’ve seen Please play before. I’ve only vague recollections though and if my memory is right I wasn’t too impressed. Maybe my recall and opinion are both unreliable because Please are mightily enjoyable. Jaunty, punk-y, riffery, like the chaotic, frenetic, musical accompaniment to a circus. Rhythms come in short, choppy, bursts, like clowns throwing themselves into another choreographed pratfall. After half an hour they pack up their tents and move to another town.

Kogumaza are as Japanese as a Matsui tv. They are instead a slow motion Black Sabbath trying to play acid rock. Longeurs, of dirge-y, down tuned, psych, snake, sinewy, unhurried paths into that bit of your brain where important thoughts escape to.

Change of pace. One Unique Signal don’t bother with the clutch and just crank things straight into fifth. We get one, long, unending, fuzzed-out, guitar solo. Vocals are minimal, probably because it gets in they way playing another distorted, effects drenched guitar lead. Imagine sitting with your old tape deck and filling a TDK 90 with all the white-outs and wig-outs of your favourite distorto-rock bands. Maybe you don’t need to imagine this. Maybe you used to do this.
What should you expect from three French men wearing dresses? The answer, I have learnt, is post-hardcore. Monnocle blaze through their set like watching a flame burn along a gunpowder trail. Only one that doesn’t end in a explosion. That would be far too easy. Far harder to make that trail go round and round circles and leave you wondering when.

On the merch table That Fucking Tank have boldly labelled one of their Cds with the question, “do you remember when Shellac were good?” I’m not sure they’re that good, but they don’t embarrass themselves with the claim. Tight, arid, jagged, riffs, utilising repetition, before jack knifing into a new groove.

Whilst the previous bands have been escalating hostilities it’s now time to bring out the heavy artillery. Part Chimp move onto the stage. In their hands rock becomes rubble. Like a tank crashing through brick wall they swiftly overwhelm their opponents with a frontal assault of massive overkill. Their amps deliver their payload of heavy, buried in the red, richter scale redefining, guitar. If I was General Kong, plummeting towards my target side astride a nuclear bomb, then Bringbackthesound would be my sound track to my happy death and global oblivion.

Prefered drink: Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Bong

2010-08-25T22:35:00.013+02:00

There comes a time when a man just needs to listen to heavy riffs played at heavy volumes. Those are the moments I reach for the Bong.

Bong specialise in acrid drone riffage, as if channelling ancient unknown energy sources. However, what transmogrifies their sound is the use of the sitar, which can both drone into cosmic infinity, but also cut through the sulphuric sludge of their down tuned monotony.

Bong’s seismic, slabs of stoner rock lava have been steadily rolling recordings down the side of the volcano since 2006. They first came to my attention last year when I happened by chance to see a mind dementing live performance.

The experience was enough to teach me that these were great druids and that I should be their acolyte. I hastened to the altar of the merch table and purchased Bethmoora and their self-titled LP, two particularly sulphurous emissions which clogged my ears like solidifying lava.

Since then I have devoted myself to their lore, and also that of the myriad of sects to which these Druids belong. Students wishing to become disciples should hasten to Lobster Priest, Master Slave, Basillica, and Obey.

Preferred drink: Fuller's 1845.

Download - Bong: Wizards of Krull

Bong: Black Bong of the Wizards

Stephen O'Malley + Steve Nobel | Marcio Mattos - Cafe Oto, London, 18 August 2010

2010-08-21T14:17:00.006+02:00

In a record shop I like to frequent they have a section labelled 'Pretentious Art Metal'. It's here that you'll find albums by Stephen O'Malley's Sunn O))) and other bands on the Southern Lord or Hydra Head roster.

Whilst record shop staff are notorious for their snobbery, the instructive part of this tale is that nothing fails as awkwardly as a project with delusions of grandeur. So the two night residency of O'Malley and jazz drummer Steve Nobel is either going to be a triumph or something a long way short of that.

Before I can pass verdict we are treated to a solo cello performance by Marcio Mattos. He swiftyly switches between bowing and plucking in the staccato, jerky, style I can only, for the lack of the correct musical terminology, describe as modern classical. It's spellbinding and within a few minutes Mattos has even silenced the crowd by the bar.

He's also rigged his cello so that he can manipulate the sounds he creates with some additional sonic effects. My distant position in the audience prevents me from seeing how he does this. This allows Mattos to introduce spacey noises like a 1970s computer before he drops in a heavy bass 'whoom', a completely unexpected noise from a cello.

Steve Nobel immediately launches in to a rapid fire, schizophrenic, drumming. He flits across his kit in a hyper kinetic way, all energy and blur. O'Malley meanwhile seems to be trying to work out a chord based puzzle on his guitar. Deploying sluggish riffs in a way which provides tonal colour.

I wait for the performance to coalesce, but it never does. Nobel works his kit furiously, the variety and dexterity of his playing is something to witness. However, O'Malley's sonor ping riffs come across for the most part as if he is trying to tune his guitar.

Fundamentally this pairing doesn't work. Which is a little odd given that they have both played together in Aethenor. But in this setting they simply don't mesh. Nobel's drumming requires a more active guitarist, someone more able to duel and spar, or take the lead. While O'Malley needs a less intrusive percussionist, someone who can give his guitar playing more space to unfold and expand.

Preferred drink: Kernel's London Porter.

Ikue Mori | Chris Cutler | John Butcher - Cafe Oto, London, 14 August 2010

2010-08-15T10:26:00.003+02:00

The last time I saw Ikue Mori playing Kim Gordon was wrapped in foil and writhing around at the front of the stage. I’d consider myself fortunate if I saw something half as memorable.

This is the last night of 3-day residency by Mori. Her collaborators have changed from night to night. This evening she is joined by percussionist Chris Cutler and saxophonist John Butcher.

The first set consists of three duos involving all the players.

Mori is uses a laptop. Triggering samples of science fiction inspired bleeps and whooshes. Butcher plays submerged sax squeals. Muting the power of the instrument and firing intermittent clusters of notes.

Cutler has customised his drum kit. Leads and wires run off to a table next to him. It’s covered in percussive ephemera and electrical gear, allowing Cutler to produce a simply extraordinary range of tones and textures.

For all these musicians skill, they sadly don’t play with enough volume for the venue to feel they can keep the bar open during sets. My failure to obtain a drink it the only low point.

The most effective performances are Mori’s duos. The interaction and responsiveness between the musicians seems particularly high.

In the second set they play as trio. Something about this grouping doesn’t quite work for me. It’s a set of moments. There will be a wonderful passage, but then whatever alchemy that had occurred will disappear.

At the end of the gig I too should disappear. Unfortunately, I have stock-piled beer a little too effectively, and as the venue empties I have to stay behind and finish my work.

Preferred drink: Kernel's London Porter.

Silver Apples - The Luminaire, London, 8 August 2010

2010-08-09T21:41:00.003+02:00

In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have gone. Watching Silver Apples left me feeling sad.

Their set began oddly. A short film about the band reminded us of their innovation, how they’d fallen through the cracks, only to be rediscovered 30 years later. And then, just as it’s meant to end happily, tragedy.

I’m not sure why we’re played the film. Maybe 30 years in the wilderness breeds insecurity. But it feels as if Simeon is trying to educate us or justify his status. He should remember we’ve chosen to be here. It’s preaching to the converted.

Simeon comes onstage to a warm welcome. The music, barring a few updates here and there, is close to the sound on their classic records, but not quite there. Injury limits Simeon’s playing ability and age has weakened his voice. It’s like a ghoulish karaoke.

The audience receive the songs with warmth. I don’t begrudge Simeon the applause or resent the crowds judgement. If they shared mine then this would have been a sour experience. However, for me no accumulated amount of goodwill can disguise the poverty of this gig. And it gives me no pleasure to report that.

Graham Lambkin | Call Back The Giants | Helm - Cafe Oto, London 6 August 2010

2010-08-07T13:58:00.006+02:00

There are a small number of artists who are very special to me. And when I go to their gigs, the performance is almost an irrelevance. It is enough simply to know that I am in the same room with them.

This performance is one of those opportunities. And in the case of Graham Lambkin a rare one. I have followed his singular body of work for a long time. Tonight he will be reading from his recent poetry collection. But first there are other artists performing on who it’s interesting to report.

Helm is a very neatly dressed young man. He starts his set with a lovely long open drone. Like the sound of electricity pylons nicely amplified. Resting on a small snare drum is an upturned cymbal. A small metal object rests on it. Possibly a contact microphone. Harsher metallic drilling noises are added. Presumably from the vibration of the cymbal. Then again, that stuff might just have been left there and is playing no part in the set. There is a claustrophobic feel to the sound. As if a submarine is crushed whilst an alarm clock rings unendingly. Or if a rusty door hinge screams as it is slowly tortured.

As if the presence of Graham Lambkin were not enough, the late addition of Call Back The Giants is an exciting bonus. They are the new project of Tim Goss who, like Lambkin, is an alumni of The Shadow Ring. The spectre of that band looms over his set. The distinctive primitivism keyboard sound harks back to their classic albums. Surreal dark tales are narrated in a blank deadpan. Goss is joined for the first half of his set by, I am guessing, his daughter. She helps weird out his keyboard sounds and her young voice counterpoints Goss’s bleak intonations. Like the greatest Shadow Ring moments it is uncomfortable, unsettling, unique.

Whilst Goss carries the Shadow Ring torch Graham Lambkin’s career has continued to move in the directions heralded by their later records. In Transmission and then in his own solo work he explored tonal soundscapes and musique concrete.

This evening though he is here to promote the publication of 'Dripping Junk' a book of his drawings. That’s not going to make a performance so he reads from his poetry collection ‘Dumb answer to miracles’, published in a tiny run last year.

The poems are very short. Providing Polaroids of Lambkin’s mind which seems phase shifted to a reality slightly out of sync with our own. The ordinary is made odd, the familiar, peculiar. Several poems cause the audience to laugh but never confidently. There is always a flicker of doubt. Is this a serious or humorous observation? Does my laughter betray a failure to engage intellectually? I embrace the ambiguity.

Lambkin downs four large whiskies during his set, observing: “It’s thirsty work.” The readings are punctuated with what sounds like a child’s recorder being played. The poor acoustics of the recordings distort the sound, adding to a uneasy, haunting, melancholy. As I make my way home through the night one line echoes in my mind: “We are all complex piss.” I do not understand it. But the pleasure of Lambkin’s work is in the attempt to decipher it.

Zs | Temperatures - Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1 August 2010

2010-08-03T07:50:00.003+02:00

The Whitechapel Gallery is a tiny space. Tucked away up an easy to miss alley. Gigs here have a secretive feel.

Temperatures are a duo. Bass guitar and drums. The drummer also has a massive block of electronics which looks like it last used by NASA in the 1960s. The two-piece have a hyper dense sound. Dense bass fiddling battles with percussive drum rumble. I struggle to work out what the electronics are adding. Definitely something. The bass work is murky, thick, intense. Meanwhile the drums clatter away like a box of pots and pans thrown downstairs. In a good way.

The lights are turned off for Zs set. Random patterns and colours are projected onto the band. The effect is like an epileptic lava lamp. Zs set begins with a guitar duet. Complex, math-y, playing. They stop. Then saxophone adds dry note runs and squiggles. The drummer, playing without cymbals, taps gently. The guitars come back in playing an angular riff. They all lock-in. Repeating the malfunctioning riff while the plays muted squeals. They break out of the groove for some flashy playing, but they always return.

They play a shorter second song. Beginning with a syncopated handclap. Over which the guitarists add a quiet metallic twanging. Then they erupt sax jizzle, hard drumming and guitar riffs.

It’s jazz, rock, and prog. It’s also none of these things. I am at least sure that it’s good.

Part Chimp | Sloath | Gum Takes Tooth - The Luminaire, London, 29 July 2010

2010-07-31T15:09:00.003+02:00

Gum Takes Tooth play to the small crowd who’ve arrived early enough to see their set. Their identities are obscured by plastic sheeting and a piece of fabric which sparkles dully in the dim light. They play drums and a table full of gadgets. These instruments play as if in a headlock, wrestling viciously with each other. The effect is a bit like digital grindcore. Or if you strapped a Commodore Amiga to John Bonham’s back. At it’s best the electronics sound evil and squelchy and the drum pummel adds a relentless forward motion. When they finish their set no one has emerged victorious.

The venue has filled up by the time Sloath take the stage. Low-end, down-tuned blues riffs. Some form of transcendence is sought in the repetition of those riffs. However, I find myself becoming bored. It all sounds so familiar. But there’s something which stops me dismissing them outright. Maybe this is not my night to fall in love with Sloath. I think there’s potential for a relationship. Perhaps we just need to see a bit more of each other.

I love Part Chimp. Nothing sums up the band more than their name. It encapsulates the un-evolved, Neanderthal, rock they play. I like a Don Cherry improvisation as much as the next jazz sophisticate, but sometimes you just need to listen to mean riffs played at deafening volumes. Part Chimp blast through their set with well practised precision. They never disappoint. Rusty corrugated iron riffs serrate your ears through the twin guitar attack. The drummer hammers his kit like a furious blacksmith. They close with a thunderous version of War Machine. They return to the stage for encore 30 Billion People. The audience nod their approval with synchronised head banging.

Necrofiele homo-eend en de verdwijning van het biotoop van de schaamluis

2010-07-29T18:19:00.001+02:00

Non-English post ... about a non-music something ... but this kicks ass!

Han Bennink, Brodie West, Terrie Ex: Let's Go.

2010-06-27T11:09:00.000+02:00

Released last month on Terp Records comes this LP filled with free improvisation music. The music is played by a trio, consisting of three well-talented musicians.

On drums we find free jazz giant Han Bennink who really should not need an introduction. This man can be heard on hundreds of free/improv/jazz albums and has played and still plays with all the big ones (Cecil Taylor, Peter Brötzmann, Globe Unity Orchestra, Derek Bailey, Misha Mengelberg, ...) and was the co-founder of the ICP Orchestra.

Brodie West is a Toronto-based saxophone player, a talented and respected free improvisation musician who has played on several records and in different line-ups.

Terrie Ex is the guitarist of this trio and he's the one who makes this record sound like a free improv rock album more than a free improv jazz album and surprisingly enough his input makes this album sound very consistent and less loose. Terrie Ex is - as you all will know - the guitarist of The Ex, Holland's best band, from the early days of being an anarcho-punk band until later becoming a band with literally an unbounded view of incorporating many different musical styles from noise to improv to jazz to world/ethnic music.

Preferred Drink: Orval

Yellow6 / Dirk Serries / High Wolf, 21 April 2010, Atelier Tibet, Gent

2010-04-21T15:18:00.005+02:00

Watching three (one man) bands live on a Tuesday evening ...it's either that or watching to a rerun of a CSI Miami episode on television. On both occasions a freshly cooled Duvel is a minimum requirement but I prefer to go to a concert, if you don't mind.

First band to play is Yellow 6. I see a man with a guitar playing some gentle and easy post rock. It serves nice as some background muzak, which is clearly what the audience is thinking about it as well because most people just continue their conversation after the concert started (which I find very annoying and not very respectful to the musician nor the audience who came to listen. Fuckers!). Between each number the audience applauded very polite but I don't think he sold a lot of CD's that evening. It was not bad but a bit too gentle and polished.

Next to play is Dirk Serries (who's currently on a Microphonics tour). When he starts, the audience stops talking in about 5 seconds. Serries took off with a dissonant drone chord and holds that texture for the rest of his performance. On top of it, layers of (gentle) looped guitar sounds are woven. He usually doesn't play this "hard" under the Microphonics banner but yesterday it resembled his work as Fear Falls Burning (make that a Fear Falls Burning light variant if you wish). As if he had a message to the audience to shut the fuck up. Well if that was his goal he succeeded with a glance. Very good show.

Due to the problems with International Ash, Manuel Mota's performance was cancelled yesterday evening. Bummer ...

Last one to play is High Wolf. It's rather strange to have this programmed after the two previous guitar-based sets. High Wolf uses a bunch of electronic devices, some folk instruments, a guitar and more musical garbage to create a hypnotic psychedelic form of twisted free drone disco ... you don't know how that sounds? Well, it's not easy to describe it, but I enjoyed the set. Friendly guy as well.

It was worth the trip to Gent yesterday.

Les Dix-Huites Secondes: Les Cahiers Des Improvisations

2010-03-30T10:01:00.002+02:00

I recently stumbled upon this Italian duo from Sicily called Les Dix-Huites Secondes. The duo consists of Lucia Urgese & Carlo Barbagallo and the music these two are creating is bundled in what they call "Les Cahiers Des Improvisations" of which already four volumes exists and are free downloadable from their website.

The music is a form of free improvisation live electronics combined with trumpets, guitars, xylophone and more of the same. Yes, these are conventional instruments but don't except to hear a ballad, a smooth jazzy tune or a complex composition. On the other hand, the instruments are very much recognizable (yes, that is a real trumpet you hear) and in that aspect they don't treat the output of their instruments like their peers do, so that the sound you hear barely resembles the "original" sound.

That makes that the music cannot be classified as electronics only but could also appeal to people who enjoy free improvisation jazz and/or avantgarde rock - heck, I even recognize a "blues tune" here and there!

Anyway, check it out for yourself.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Wicked Messenger: Officium Nocturnum

2010-03-26T14:36:00.006+01:00

Some important dates and facts ...

539 bc: Cyrus II The Great concurs Babylon.
June 11th 323 bc: Alexander The Great dies.
64: Saint Peter dies in Rome.
June 8th, 632: Mohammed dies in Medina.
April 2, 747: Charles The Great is born in Herstal
November 10th, 1483: Luther is born in Eisleben.
June 22nd, 1812: Napoleon declares war to Russia.
1913: Luigi Russollo introduces his "Intonorumori" to the world.
1959: Ornette Coleman releases The Shape Of Jazz To Come on Atlantic.
1986: Hellbastard releases their Ripper Crust demo.
March 2010: Wicked Messengers double CD Officium Nocturnum is released on Plague Recordings.
2013: The BBC broadcasts a documentary about undercover reporters that have filmed in dark rooms, watching 70 year old Catholic priests doing a bizarre occult ritual. Is it drugs? Is it a spiritual experience? Is it a religious experience? Questions that are not asked by the reporter but are asked by the music that accompanies this documentary. Music that makes you start to think about what is and what is not. The kindergarten-version of this documentary uses Sunn O)))'s Monoliths & Dimensions as soundtrack. The adult version of the documentary uses Officium Nocturnum as soundtrack.
2023: Vinyl-on-demand releases a Wicked Messenger 6XLP box.
3078: The human race is exterminated.

That's it folks.

Preferred Drink: does it matter?

ZA!: Macumba O Muerte

2010-02-09T12:35:00.001+01:00

When was the last time you were literally blown away by a new record? When was the last time you came across a record by a completely unknown band and from the moment the music starts to play you immediatly know that this is the real thing?

Well, that happened to me some weeks ago while I stumbled upon the latest ZA! album entitled "Macumba O Muerte" (I found it on the excellent VSGS blog) and just as the writer of that blog I also was totally blown away by this record.

The albums starts with the singing of Buggamaistah, Spazzfrica Ehd & Papa Dupau (the performers of the band - all Spanish) and from the very first moment I knew that I would love this album because it's like listening to a perfect mixture of The Ex, Zu, NoMeansNo, Spaceheads and X Legged Sally (what a great band this was), meaning you'll get a great mixture of punk, latin, jazz, avantgarde, exotic sounds and music you hear on a fair somewhere. From firm punk riffs to lazy latin trumpet playing to plain musical weirdness (as in "use anything you can get your hands on to create a sound") to folk/traditional/local Spanish tiny little musical sculptures.
Simply put: this is an amazing album and it should have gone into my 2009 top-10 list.

Macumba O Muerte was released in 2009 on CD by Acuarela Records and on white vinyl by Gandula Records.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Roger Winfield: Windsongs

2010-01-05T19:45:00.001+01:00

It wasn't until some months ago that I discovered this Roger Winfield album (thanks to a good friend ... you know who you are!), released in 1991 on Saydisc and it's all about drones and field recordings.

This album truly is amazing. The instruments are aeolian harps (wind harps) and the orchestra is ... wind! Winfield travelled through the UK and Spain to find the best places where he could setup his harps to have a maximum result when these harps are played by the wind. The result is a magnificent sound pallet dominated by drones created by mother nature.

Check the Roger Winfield website for more information about aeolian harps and the making of his music. He still has CD's for sale as well.

Preferred Drink: Ben Riach

2009 Highlights ...

2009-12-26T23:55:00.003+01:00

2009 was not an exceptional good musical year, but we did manage to find some really nice albums. So here goes ...

goeStajer 2009 highlights:

1. Barry Guy solo/duo with Mats Gustafsson: Sinners, Rather Than Saints (LP - NoBusiness Records) - brilliant, just brilliant ... intense, raw, intimate and explosive. This is easily one of the best free jazz albums in a long time!
2. Aluk Todolo: Finsternis (CD - Utech Records) - dark psych/krautrock, 45 minutes (almost) the same pattern ... mesmerizing. A true piece of art.
3. Wicked Messenger: Vision Rites And Techniques Of Ecstasy (CD - Plague Recordings) - this is deep, deep, deep, deep dark spiritual music to serve a higher (or lower?) cause. My deepest respect to this grand album.
4. Maninkari: Un Souffle de Voix (CD - Neuropa Records) - medieval alchemy played in a dark, contemporary context. A guide to an undiscovered religion.
5. Onde: Purple (LP - Ondemusic) - repetitive krautrock music, spiced with a variety of other musical influences. An amazing album that holds your attention every step of the way.
6. Oren Ambarchi and Lasse Marhaug: Devil Wolf Men (7" - Pica Disk) - the only thing in this list that can actually produce a smile on my face ... superb cut-up by two amazing musicians.
7. Theo Travis and Fear Falls Burning: The Tonefloat Sessions (LP - Tonefloat) - this album is the result when a minimal (guitar) drone musician starts to make music together with a flute player. It's something very dark, minimal and haunting, yet relaxing as well. Recommended!
8. Kaa Antilope: VPRO RadioNome - April 2 1982 (LP - Enfent Terrible) - remember the early eighties? The cold war? The Berlin wall? If you're into minimal eighties pop/wave and you love to get depressed, than all you need is this.
9. HeatdeatH: Un (LP - Conspiracy Records) - built by robots, played by machines. Nothing further to add.
10. Curia: Curia II (LP - Headlight Recordings) - imagine a story told by a rather lazy reader who only tells small portions of the story. For the rest, it's up to you to fill in the missing gaps with your own imagination. Non-difficult jazz/improv music for (non-)difficult people.

Rosebud 2009 highlights:

Sonore - Call Before You Dig (Okka Disk)
Wicked Messenger - Vision Rites And Techniques Of Ecstasy (Plague)
Flower-Corsano Duo - The Four Aims (VHF)
Master Musicians of Bukkake - Totem One (Conspiracy)
Alan Wilkinson / Steve Noble / John Edwards - Live at Café Oto (Bo'Weavil)
Greymachine - Disconnected (Hydrahead)
Harappian Night Enterprises - The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele (Bo'Weavil)
Rob Mazurek Quintet - Sound Is (Delmark) Aluk Todolo - Finsternis (Utech)
Colin McLean / Andy Moor - Everything But the Beginning (Unsounds)
Fear Falls Burning - The Carnival of Ourselves (Tonefloat)
Robert Witt - Midazolam (esc.rec.)

Maninkari: Un Souffle De Voix

2009-12-25T00:20:00.000+01:00

Earlier this week I received the latest Maninkari album, released on Neuropa Records. This album hasn't left my CD-player ever since. What an exceptional good album!

Last year, I already was blown away by "Art Des Poussieres" (on Conspiracy Records) and that album was present in my 2008 top-10 list, but this one is even better. I started to listen to it while doing something else in the meantime, but after a while I just sat down and really consumed this record .... it got my attention for the full 100%.

Maninkari is formed by Frédéric and Oliver Charlot, from France. They've created their own musical universe using a variety of instruments being synth, piano, santoor, cimbalom, viola, sampler, banjo, drums, ... The result is really difficult to describe. Imagine you put Univers Zero, Zoviet France, Paul Mercer, Biosphere and some bands that play krautrock, classical, (neo)folk, (dark) ambient, and medieval music together with field recordings and sheets of lyrics/texts in French and English in a blender. Well, the result would be something that vaguely represents what Maninkari is playing, but don't let this name/style dropping fool you because Maninkari's music is hardly comparable with anything else.

For what it's worth, the whole album reminds me of Wicked Messenger's "Vision Rites and Techniques of Ecstasy" - not because it's the same music (far from it), but because both albums have some sort of a deep and dark religious meaning.

Highly recommended and without a doubt in my 2009 top-10.

Preferred Drink: Orval, Laphroiag

Curia: Curia II

2009-11-28T00:11:00.003+01:00

Some weeks ago, we went to see Oren Ambarchi live (in Netwerk - Aalst). The gig took place on a Wednesday evening, the weather was awful and it was one of those evenings you were thinking "I'm driving all the way to this shithole in this lousy weather just to see some dude sitting behind a gigantic mixing desk". But the performance wasn't bad - from typical minimal "Ambarchi"-tones to Sunn O))) drones and all the way back. A couple of Orval beers ensured a relax atmosphere.

"Cut the crap! Tell us something about Curia you morron" ... hold on, just a sec, I'm getting there ... Before Ambarchi there was another act by Manuel Mota. A Portuguese guitarist who was completely unknown to me. He just sat on a chair with nothing else but his electric guitar that he plugged into a tiny little amplifier. That was it. It was rather funny seeing him sitting next to Ambarchi's setup with just his small amplifier. Anyway, I'm not sure a lot of people appreciated his gig but I actually quiet enjoyed it. It was not what he played that was interesting, but more what he wanted to tell his audience. It was like mister Mota had a story to tell but was afraid to do so. Instead he only gave us small amounts of information, little elements and it was up to us to complete the puzzle. A minimal set filled with improvisation.

Intriguied by his playing I bought this Curia album. Next to Manuel Mota on electric guitar we find Margarida Garcia on electric guitar, David Maranha on Hammond organ and Afonso Simões on drums. The music is related to what I just said about Mota's solo performance in such a way that the listener needs a good deal of fantasy to understand what the band is actually trying to tell during their loosely free improv set (that never goes into extreme difficult mode, but always stays on the "easy" side of the improv spectrum) but without a doubt you hear a bunch of musicians knowing what they are doing with their instruments.

Curia II was released in 2009 as a hand-numbered limited edition of 100 copies on Headlight Recordings.

Before I forget: on the merch table I also found a copy of "Devil Wolf Men", a 7" by Lasse Marhaug and Oren Ambarchi, released this year on Pica Disk (Marhaug's own label). Without a doubt this one wins the "Best 7" of the year" award. Forget minimal bleeps or overdrive noise but think how Ennio Morricone could sound if he was a teenager in 2009 ... recommended as hell!

Preferred Drink: Orval

Mats Gustafsson, Barry Guy and Raymond Strid, Zaal België (Hasselt), 14/09/09

2009-11-16T14:46:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday (14 November 2009), we went to a live performance of Barry Guy, Raymond Strid and Mats Gustafsson in Zaal België (Hasselt - Belgium). That was one of the most amazing, challenging and inspiring freejazz concerts of this year.

When we entered the venue, the concert just started - so we kind of missed the beginning which is a pitty since we missed the initial start of the set. But after some minutes (and enjoying our first Duvel) we immediately are "in the groove". The set is dark, raw, explosive, intimate and adventurous at the same time. The musicians are constantly challenging each other and each one is giving the other enough time to develop an idea, a route to go, a path to follow. The rest jumps onto that idea and so the set is not one single second a moment of hesitation, a moment you have the idea they are losing it. Not at all. But that would be a surprise when you know who's playing.

First thing that amazed me was the drumming skills of Raymond Strid. That man is a drumming genius! He can make up complete stories with his percussion set, he switches from firm "jazz drumming" to complete free noodling and uses a wide range of other things besides his drumming sticks (chains, bells, metal sheets, ...).

Than we have Barry Guy on double bass. First time I saw him live and ... oh my God ... I'm sorry, but I don't know enough English words to describe what that man is doing with his instrument. You need to see it with your own eyes or you won't believe it! From "classical" playing to going completely (and I do mean completely) insane, using his hands (off course), but also long iron needles (that he squeezed in between two snares to generate a sort of resonating sound) and drum sticks. I had no idea there is such a variety of sound hidden in this big instrument.

And finally, someone I've been addicted to since his 1999 release "The Education Of Lars Jerry" (released on CD and LP on Xeric), Mats Gustafsson on sax. What can I say that hasn't been said before? The man is a musical omnivore (anything from smooth jazz to punk rock to noise), an extremely talented musician and a beast on his sax in the best Peter Brötzmann tradition. The only problem I have is he releases too much in one year ... and almost all of his releases are superb!

This was easily one of the best freejazz live gigs of this year (it was even better than the Vandermark5 one, early this year in the same venue).

As usual, I couldn't resist to go to the merch table and picked up some goodies. One album I've listened to (already three times) is an album from Bary Guy and Mats Gustafsson "Sinners, rather than saints" - released this year on NoBusiness Records (great label, check what they already released!)

There's a great review about it on Freejazz Stef. I suggest you read it, that should convince you to get yourself a copy of this amazing album.

Absolutely recommended!

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Fear Falls Burning, The First Lustrum (2004 - 2009)

2009-09-29T01:03:00.019+02:00

Due to the fact Dirk Serries recorded his first new material as Fear Falls Burning five years ago and because I'm a huge fan of him, I've decided not to write about one particular album (which would be problematic to choose one, as I almost admire all of them) but instead, I want to give an overview of the man's musical output of the past five years.

Some information

I'm sure you'll be able to dig up enough information on the net about his two most known projects being Vidna Obmana and Fear Falls Burning. To summarize, you need to know that Serries started his musical career in the glorious tape area of the mid eighties. Being a big fan of Maurizio Bianchi, Vidna Obmana was all about industrial noise in the beginning. Later on, this shifted towards ambient with lots of influences coming from contemporary and tribal instruments like didgeridoo, djembe, shaker, rainsticks, Tibetan bells, windshells and so on and so on ... After twenty years, Dirk Serries decided to go back to the point where it all began, the core of the music, the stripped-down version of his loop-based music. He (re)discovered his love for noise and made not only a musical but also a mental change. A tabula rasa if you like. He left his electronic equipment untouched and got himself a famous Les Paul guitar, a bunch of pedals and guitar-sound-manipulating devices and started to produce guitar based drones. However, if you listen carefully you'll notice that fundamentally the music of both Vidna Obmana and Fear Falls Burning is constructed on the same foundation. That of endlessly repeated loops that are build on top of one another to construct a multi-layered sound spectrum in which the listener can escape from reality. OK, enough about that pseudo-intellectual socio-psychological study, let's dive into the discography of Fear Falls Burning.

Fear Falls Burning - the discography

The first release was the self-released "First by a whisper, than by a storm - tour CD", packaged in a slimline DVD case, that came out in early 2005. This was an enormous risk Serries took. After all, his Vidna Obmana project was relatively known in the industrial/ambient scene, but this first Fear Falls Burning release contained no link at all to this - at that time - better known project. He could have used the name TAFKAVO, but he didn't. This was a radically new beginning and as such, Dirk had to start all over again from scratch. Starting to play in small venues, for an audience of 20 to 30 people, of which 50% probably was part of the organization and the other half was more interested in the half naked chick behind the bar than that one-man band that was playing on an (improvised) stage. This CD act as some sort of promo material that showed what music Fear Falls Burning produced. It contains various excerpts of the first "official" album yet to come, and we hear an artist that is still searching what to do exactly, going for a minimal ambient approach or going the hard noise-drone based way.

The first official release came out in 2005 on Projekt (on which Vidna Obmana released some albums as well) and was entitled "He Spoke In Dead Tongues". This was - again - a risk (a commercial suicide if you ask me) due to the fact that it was immediately a double CD. I don't know about you, but I already find it difficult to listen to a full CD in one time (hence my love for vinyl - thank God for the pause between side A and side B), let alone two discs! At that time, Dirk was still releasing albums under his Vidna Obmana moniker. This double CD contains variations on minimalistic loop-based themes and as such can be classified under the ambient flag although one song is clearly reveling what FFB is about to become: a magnificent guitar-based drone band.

2005 brought the double 7" release on Die Stad by Z'EV, John duncan, Aiden Baker and Fear Falls Burning. Altough it's a nice release, it doesn't really add anything to the Fear Falls Burning discography if you take a look at it at the present time. At the time it was released it was the first time Fear Falls Burning really was determined to follow the path of guitar-based drones.

2006 is the year the Fear Falls Burning rocket really took off at full speed. First release was this amazing 12" entitled "The Carnival Of Ourselves" released on Tonefloat records. This is until today one of my two favorite FFB releases. This release is a pure and minimal piece of almost melancholic ambient music and it's created based on such a simple principle of loops of sounds ... needless to say this record is the one you should get your hands on if you're into infinite repeating minimal sounds and themes. It even vaguely reminds me a bit of the work of Phill Niblock. At some point, Dirk Serries will continue this style on his microphonics release - music he will release under his own name, I'll inform you about that later. Anyway, this 12" is released in 300 copies of which the first 100 were on black vinyl, the next 100 on clear vinyl and the last 100 are sold in a separate 5XLP box released on Tonefloat.

Together with (or maybe before, I really can't tell which one came first) "The Carnival Of Ourselves", Fear Falls Burning released another 12" on Tonefloat records entitled "The Drone Amplifier", pressed on white vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies. As the title suggests, this release is the complete opposite of the previous one as it goes entirely into the domain of noisy drones and slices of controlled feedback. It is - well for me it is - the first release that clearly indicates that path Fear Falls Burning will follow on the next releases: the path of guitar-based drones, built using loops on top of loops of long stretched out echo-sounding guitar drones. It is also - as far as I know - the album with the shortest tracks on it, meaning you have more than one song per side. On this release, Dirk gets help from Paul Van Den Berg (who is also part - together with Dirk Serries - of 3 Seconds Of Air).

This is the only record I can't tell anything about, for the very simple reason I don't own this one (the only one missing from my FFB collection ... so if anyone out there wants to get rid off it, gimme a yell!). Anyway, "We Have Departed The Circle Blissfully" is a a release Fear Falls Burning realized together with Nadja on Conspiracy Records. Later, Fear Falls Burning will release a second album together with Nadja on the same label. Now I have to be honest, I'm not a fan of Nadja (or Aidan Baker). For some reason their sound just doesn't do anything for me. So I'm not sure I will like this album but for the sake of completing my FFB collection I'm still looking for this one ... even it was released in a limited edition of 250 copies.

Between "We Have Departed The Circle Blissfully" and this one, Fear Falls Burning also released a DVD entitled "The Infinite Sea Of Sustain" (released on Soleilmoon Recordings). But since I'm not much of a DVD fan, I'm not going to talk about that one. Much more interesting is this "I'm One Of Those Numbers Numb With Grace" released on Equation records. Next to "The Carnival Of Ourselves" this is my other favorite FFB release. Released in a limited edition of 399 copies (the first 50 on gold vinyl, the rest on gray vinyl) this one is a truly amazing piece of hallucinating guitar-drones. The way Serries uses his guitar, loopback devices and other electronics on this album is astonishing! If you ever wanted to get yourself a record that sumarizes all you need to know about loop-based guitar-driven drone music that creates an almost psychedelic experience than this is the one you need to get. Highly recommended!

A 7" seems a format that's a bit awkward for the work of fear falls burning. After all, we're not talking music by The Ramones here. Instead, this music takes a rather long time before it's able to reach to the point where it wants to be, so one needs a format that's capable in offering a long duration, which is either a CD or a 12" record. Anyway, this 7" contains two excerpts of a concert Fear Falls Burning did at Extrapool, Nijmegen (The Netherlands) on October 7th, 2006. Although the music on this 7" is very great, this release on Tonefloat records doesn't really add anything to the Fear Falls Burning repertoire. It was released as a limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on clear vinyl.

Next one is this LP released on the German label Auf Abwegen (pressed on only 300 copies) and just like the previous 7", it contains a live-set, recorded at the Kulturbunker Mülheim in Köln (Germany). But unlike the previous 7", this LP can be considered as an album because it contains coherent numbers. Side B contains the most hallucinating piece of Fear Falls Burning guitar-driven drones until that moment. It starts as a relatively intimate loop-generated texture, but halfway the song some creepy echoing drone comes in and sets direction towards a dark and scary atmosphere. This way of working was first tested on "I'm One Of Those Numbers Numb With Grace" and is repeated on this album, but in a slightly different approach. Needless to say this is a great album.

The last release of 2006 is this amazing picture disc on the Italian A Silent Place. This 10" (the ultimate vinyl format if you ask me) shows us the most "metal" side of Fear Falls Burning. No longer stretched-out echoing sheets of loop-based drones but firm and massive almost-metal-like riffs. I say "almost" because you should not consider this release as a pure metal-album, but if I have to position it somewhere on the FFB matrix, it would go into the metal-section. Quiet different than the previous material but again something that adds to the overall fear falls burning sound which now covers a relatively vast territory from minimal ambient loops via guitar drones to almost metal-like riffs.

2007 is the year of the collaborations for Fear Falls Burning. The first one is this second collaboration with Nadja with a CD-release on the Belgian conspiracy records in a limited edition of 1000 copies. As said earlier in this post, I'm not a big fan of Nadja. I've no idea why, but the sound they produce just doesn't appeal to me. I only have Bodycage on double LP and although everyone seems to worship this album I only find it average. It's not bad, but it isn't exactly what I would classify as a brilliant album. Anyway, we're talking about Fear Falls Burning here and this release in particular. I've a bit mixed feelings about this one. I think in terms of a "commercial success" it will score relatively high. And I don't mean in sales figures or anything like it, but more in terms of making your artist name or project known to a broader audience. I think Fear Falls Burning achieved that goal with this album. The album itself certainly isn't bad. It contains some pretty sophisticated parts where the produced drones make a solid bridge to jump from one part of the album to another part. So as a starter I think it's a very good album. But for me personally it's no my favorite album.

The next Fear Falls Burning release is a real stunt, a challenge, a statement and a clear indication that in less than 2 years FFB evolved from a relatively obscure one-man band to a well-established name in the world of drone music. This five-double LP (released on Tonefloat records in a limited edition of 500 copies, all discs pressed on clear vinyl) contains 10 songs FFB created in collaboration with 10 different artists. The name of the contributing artists will speak for itself. In order of appearance they are Bass Communion (the drone-project of Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson), Final (Justin Broadrick's longest living ambient project), Freiband (Frans de Waard), Harvestman (Steve Von Till), Birchville Cat Motel (Campbell Kneale), Byla (side project of two Dysrhytmia members), Aidan Baker, Johannes Persson (Cult of Lana), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Tarentel) and Stefano Pilia (3/4HadBeenEliminated). Needless to say the result is very varied, from regular drones to rather abstract and minimal "electronics" to firm metal-based riffs. Everything is present on this prestigious release.

Next release again is a collaboration and again it's released on conspiracy records. This time, Serries partner in crime is Campell Kneale's most known project Birchville Cat Motel (or BCM in short). BCM is known for producing long stretched out free music drones that get pretty intense. If you don't know anything about this project, I can highly recommend the triple CD "Curved Surface Destroyer", released in 2006 on Last Visible Dog). As far as this release goes, this one probably is the most "difficult" one to listen to. There's only one track on this CD and it lasts almost 50 minutes. But it's quiet unbelievable what happens in those 50 minutes. This is pretty intense stuff and adds yet another aspect to the overall sound spectrum of Fear Falls Burning. If you're into intense free psych noise music than you're pretty save with this release. Personally I think the number on this CD is a bit too long. After all, 50 minutes is a long time to focus, but if you're willing to do an effort you will have a very pleasant journey ... it's just not going to be a relaxing one ...

So far for the collaboration releases in 2007. At the end of the year, Dirk found at FFB headquarters a stock of CD's from the very first self-released "First By A Storm, Than By A Storm - tour CD". 136 to be precisely. A new idea was born. This CD was repackaged again to be released on Tonefloat records (in a rather obvious limited edition of 136 copies). The beauty of this release, officially entitled "First By A Storm, Than By A Storm - Special Edition" is that it comes with an LP containing 4 songs Serries recorded in 2004, so at the very first beginning of his new project. It's unbelievable that we had to wait 3 years in order to hear this! On these 4 songs the drones are not yet omni-present, but instead I hear the echoes of good people such as Oren Ambarchi, Loren Mazzacane Conners and even some Roy Montgommery or Jim O'Rourke. Mind you, these 4 tracks already show Dirk's unique playing and these mentioned artists should not be taken too literally as I only mention them to have some sort of reference (not that this should be needed anway). It's amazing to hear how 4 simple, minimal and modest songs can lead to such a beauty.

The last album of 2007 was again released on Tonefloat records, limited on 500 copies. This release again has one song per side and after the 3 last feedback driven noise/drone releases (the Nadja and BCM collaborations, plus the 5XLP set), this time we find Fear Falls Burning at the other side of the drone spectrum: the side of minimal, almost ambient music. People who're familiar with the likes of Stars Of The Lid or Windy & Carl might try this "When Mystery Prevades The Well, Promise Sets Fire" out. It's an album where silence and space play a role in revealing the sound Fear Falls Burning produces this time. So it's just a matter of listening to this on the right time and in the most optimal conditions, meaning late night, dark room with nothing but a candle light, a good single malt, your ears buried deep in a decent Sennheiser and your mind set to an absolute minimum of working (I don't want you to stop breathing all of a sudden, some vital functions should keep on working). The only thing you should focus on is listening to the beauty of this minimal and quiet drone album.

In 2008, Fear Falls Burning uses his experience from his European tour on this album. While on the road with and playing together with other bands, Dirk Serries played together with some other musicians live on stage. They all were so satisfied with the result, that Serries invited them to help him out on his next record "Frenzy Of The Absolute" (released on conspiracy records as a double LP, limited edition of 500 copies of which 150 on clear white vinyl and 350 on black vinyl. Also released on CD). This album is probably his most "rock"-oriented album yet as it contains real drummers and all that. The people involved in helping to make this album were Johannes Persson and Magnus Lindberg (both from Cult Of Luna), Tim Bertilsson (Switchblade) and Dave Vanderplas (Llips and ex-Ontayso). Mind you that the best track is the last track which unfortunately doesn't appear on the CD version ... so get yourself a copy of this great album on vinyl.

In September 2008, Fear Falls Burning and Bass Communion (the drone-project of Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson) performed live on stage in Antwerp (Belgium). All visitors of that show received this fine 7" (released on Tonefloat records) that contains a song by each group. A nice little item that contains two nice songs by two nice bands. In fact, when listening to this the first time I was a bit surprised by the FFB track on this single, until I discovered later that I was listening to the Bass Communion side. And the fact you need to play this on 33RPM instead of 45RPM (as printed on the vinyl) certainly adds to appreciate these two songs as well ...

In 2009 we only saw one new Fear Falls Burning album showing up and it's again a collaboration. This time, Serries plays together with Theo Travis, who is currently employed by the über space/psych/mushroom-eating band Gong. I must say I'm very intrigued by this one and for me, it's one of FFB's best albums. It has a very strange and haunting atmosphere but it's so strict and minimal that you're afraid to breath while listening. You might have missed one single tone or note that was played at the moment you took a deep breath. For me this is FFB's best collaboration album yet. Both Travis and Serries control their instruments as perfectionists and are capable in creating an extraordinary sound that's based on both guitar-drones and flute-based loops. It has a tight texture and results in a rather dark and unearthly atmosphere. An amazing album this one and what's more, it's the only album that keeps secrets for me, that I'm sure of. Everytime I listen to these "Tonefloat Sessions" I find myself on another path in this mysterious world, shaped by Theo Travis on flute and Dirk Serries on guitar (and electronic devices). This album was released on Tonefloat records in a limited edition of 600 copies, of which 200 copies are pressed on blue vinyl.

Reissues

In 2009, Dirk has decided to reissue some (or all?) of his long out-of-print vinyl releases. To keep the vinyl legacy untouched, this is going to be a reissue on CD on Tonefloat records. So if you missed some releases, this is your change in discovering the unique music of Fear Falls Burning. For the die-hard fans amongst you, the reissues of the vinyl are all remastered for CD and contain a bonus track (which in some cases can be a track of 30 minutes if not longer!). And is it to do me a favor or is it just a coincidence that the first two reissues are my two favorite FFB albums, being "The Carnival Of Ourselves" and "I'm One Of Those Numbers Numb With Grace"?

Microphonics

Dirk Serries is busy man. Not only is he making music under the Fear Falls Burning moniker, he's also involved in remix projects, active as a (vinyl) mastering engineer and helps out fellow musicians by playing on (part of) their album. Next to Fear Falls Burning, Dirk Serries is also active in 3 Seconds Of Air (of which there were already two posts on this blog), released an album as The Eightfold Model (a collaboration with KPT.Michi.Gan) in 2008 on Tonefloat records and he just released an album entitled "Anthems" as The Black Fire (which is a project of Dirk Serries and Robert MacManus, known from Grey Datures) which was released on Heathen Skulls.

But I'd like to draw your attention to the albums Dirk started to release under his own name. As of 2008, Serries felt the time has came to start releasing music under his own name. After making music for more than 25 years and going through many musical shifts and changes (noise, industrial, ambient, tribal, drone, minimal, ...) it's about time that the world knows that there's someone with a real name behind all this beautiful music. His name is Dirk Serries and his work released under his own name is what he calls microphonics.

The first release is entitled "Microphonics I-V" and contains 4 songs (II, III, IV and V ... maybe song I will end up as bonus track someday, who knows). Anyway, microphonics is in a way less "angry" and "dark" than Fear Falls Burning. The music is built on a soft and warm texture and is the ideal platform for the minimal and almost ambient like gentle guitar drones. I told in the very beginning of this post that the music on "The Carnival Of Ourselves" would be continued on Dirk's microphonics project. A very enjoyable release, that's for sure. Released on Tonefloat records in a limited edition of 500 copies of which 150 copies are pressed on crystal white vinyl.

"Microphonics VI" (released in 2008) and "Microphonics VII" (released in 2009) both are a single-sided LP and contain a live recording. These live-recordings capture Dirk at his most intimate moments and could almost be seen as "Serries goes unplugged". All two of them were released on Tonefloatrecords in a limited edition of 300 copies, 100 pressed on white, 100 pressed on grey and 100 pressed on gold vinyl.

Preferred Drink: Duvel, Talisker

20 Years Kunstencentrum België: 19/09/09

2009-09-21T10:16:00.013+02:00

To celebrate it's 20th anniversary, Zaal Belgïe (Hasselt, Belgium) organized a small festival on the 19th of September 2009. I must say that the evening starts very well because I immediately found a parking space within 100 meters from the venue, which is like winning the lottery.

Anyway, as I enter the room the first act - Tropa Macaca - just started. Due to the fact I've been driving about one hour and because I'm a little thrilled by the evening to come, I first of all go to the bar to order myself a nice cooled Vedette. I immediately spot Stan (one of the deejays that evening) who's standing at the merch table. "How typical!" I say ... after I start to delve into the pile of records myself. After the mandatory meets and greets with other people I recognize, I start to concentrate on the performance. Lots of bleeps, noises, bleeps, noises, bleeps, noises and bleeps. But also some bleeps and noises, followed by bleeps and noises. The performance ends with some bleeps and noises. Wow that was great! (mind you, I'm being extremely sarcastic over here).

Time for my second beer me thinks. After a while a bunch of local drunks have decided to start their performance. They call themselves The Last Gifted and are formed by a drummer, a guitarist, a bass player, a sax player and someone on electronics/synthesizer. For some reason they have decided to dress up like drag queens in an embryonic stage. Whatever. Anyway, they play a decent set, something like a mixture between Hair Police and Bedtime For Bonzo (which is nothing less than a legendary band!). The drummer seems to come straight from a grindcore band, the guitarist clearly has no clue how to play but that's ok, as long as it makes a lot of noise it's good enough. The bass player and sax player (who also does some vocals) seems to be the only ones that have more or less an idea what music is. Luckily I stand almost next to the guy on electronics/synth, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed there were actually electronics involved. His contribution seems to be completely redundant. All in all, they played a nice set.

In the meantime, R.O.T. has set-up their equipment in the second room. I usually really enjoy their "loosely free improvisation music for big bands" (as I like to call it), but as it is with this type of music, I rather enjoy this listening at home (Their K-RAA-K LP L'écurie is highly recommended!) than during a live set. And I'm really not in the mood for this type of music, so I left the room after some 15 minutes, a bit undecided. It was a nice sound and probably a great set, but I was desperate for my first Duvel that evening.

While standing at the bar enjoying my beer and talking complete nonsense with some people I know, I realize the French band GOL already started, Lighthing Bolt style - meaning in the middle of the audience. I've never heard this band, but their latest album is a release in collaboration with Charlemagne Palestine ... which sounds very promising if you ask me! Anyway, I really like their performance a lot, they have some great ideas, a well thought way of playing and really can generate a hypnotizing effect with their own and unique interpretation of free music (think Volcano The Bear, Vibracathedral Orchestra and others). A new band on my "bands to check out" list!

After this set and standing not far from the bar, I realize the reason why GOL played in the middle of the audience. In the meantime, another band has setup their equipment on the main stage. Blues Control is their name and to be honest, I've never heard of them before. They are a duo from the US and their mySpace showed that they played a set at the Incubate festival in Tilburg the next day. Thank God they've decided to play in Hasselt as well. What a set! They start off very Kraftwerk/Faust inspired. Slowly but effectively, their sound shifts towards a mutated form of early Godflesh/Swans industrial/noise/rock (heavy and brutal riffs played on top of a massive electronic generated beat) to end with generating a hallucinating psychedelic wall of noise like Mouthus, Heavy Winged or Hototogisu. Without a doubt, the highlight of the evening so far. I literally ran towards the merch table and bought whatever they've for sale. I'm thrilled, I'm exited, I'm filled with hope that the Godflesh/Swans legacy is not lost!

Somehow I end up in a discussion with a guy who didn't like Blues Control at all. I feel the urge to start a debate with him. I even pay him a beer. We end up discussing music, festivals, concerts, buying vinyl or CD's. I find out he likes tapes. I don't. So plenty of things to talk about. And talking a lot makes you feel thirsty. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion you need to drink. A lot. At some point I kinda realized I completely missed the performance of Alexander Tucker, who played in the second room. Better luck next time I suppose.

In that second room, Cluster will play that evening as well. I'm sure they really don't need an introduction at all. If you don't know them (which would surprise me), you just need to know they came out of the same "school" as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, started their career as Kluster, are considered as one of the pioneers of electronic/ambient/techno/house/kraut music and formed - together with Michael Rother (early Kraftwerk, Neu!) - Harmonia which has been labeled by Brian Eno as "the world's most important rock group". That's it in a nutshell. On stage, I see two old man bent over some electronic equipment while behind them there's a film projected. A film that shows an old house and the only thing happening is someone walking on and off. Boring as hell. Surprisingly enough, the film suits the performance very well because that's boring as hell too. I'm sorry to say, but two elder guys producing some "old" seventies synth sound and trying to sound modern by mixing in some house/techno beats is not something I call a great performance. It's pathetic to see how the crowd is staring "amazed" to this duo just because they have some sort of divine status. I leave after ten minutes and realize it might be a good idea to switch to something non-alcoholic for the rest of the evening. I still need to drive back home and want to make it in one piece.

The last band to play that evening is Amolvacy, a trio consisting of Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band), Aaron Moore (Volcano The Bear) and Sheila Donovan (ex-Tall Boys). The two guys start with a very energetic percussion set while Sheila is almost standing in the middle of the audience while "singing", is it some self-invented language or is it me who's either too tired or too drunk (or both) to understand a word from what she says? After the first song - which was not bad - she switches to violin. I cannot concentrate anymore. I start to wonder if I need to water the plants in my garden and if I already payed my mobile telephone invoice.

I leave the place with a dozen new LP's and walk to my car ... which luckily enough is parked less than 100 meters from the door. Once entered in my car I'm welcomed by Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue that just started to play. A nice compagnon de route ...

Electric Wizard, JC De Klinker, 06/09/09

2009-09-10T14:42:00.007+02:00

The concerts start really on time and as we arrive around 20.30 it appears that we've missed the support act. We order some beers and are surprised by the attendance, I guess perhaps 200 people or something, not bad. I saw Electric Wizard some six years ago (i think) in a small club (Sojo, Leuven) and the turn-out wasn't spectacular. When they start their gig tonight, I get worried, certainly after the second track. The vocals are way too loud in the mix and the drummer is playing too 'rectangular', too 'tight'. Too 'festivaldrum', my brother says. And what's more, the vocals are not good, too melodic, too stereotypical for me. So the band kicks off like some average psychedelic metalband and the lazy bastard in me starts to wonder if I shouldn't have stayed home. Luckily, things gradually get better. The vocal parts just serve like a bridge between the real good parts: the rhythms, the guitarsolo's, the endless riffs. Things get like they're supposed to be: midtempo heavy mastodont rhythms, filthy guitarsolo's full with wahwah, delay and distortioneffects and in general completely lacking any subtlety . The sound of this four piece band (2 guitar/bass/drums) gets thicker, the noise-edge gets heavier and the drummer gets more 'into it'. Nevertheless I have the feeling that all is a bit more structured (intro/riffs/solo-part) than in the past, but I'm not the expert. All in all a descent show. A pity I was sober. My fault.

Preferred drinks: Beer, all sorts, but certainly the 'quick ones' and lots of it. In plastic cups.

Vandermark 5: Four Sides To The Story

2009-08-20T11:19:00.016+02:00

Ken Vandermark is a really nice guy, he really is. And he takes his work very seriously as well. That made that he found the time to answer Rosebud's questions for an interview he did with him last year.

The interview went via email and Rosebud sent him a whole list of questions. The way Vandermark answered those questions went via the following pattern: first he thought about what and how to answer, than he started to formulate his answer, which were well-founded and filled with many details and anecdotes, and when arriving at the end of his answer, you really understood what he just explained.

Vandermark uses that same pattern when composing music. Whether it's for his Vandermark 5 quintet or his Territory (big) Band or any of the more than 100 other groups or bands he works or has worked with, fact is that Ken Vandermark is a perfectionist and a great storyteller and he's one of todays most well respect Jazz-man that are walking on this planet.

Anyway, I can go on and on about this, but there is plenty of information to be found on the web about him. I just would like to end with drawing your attention to this beautiful double LP that comes in a deluxe box set and is limited to 1000 copies, released in 2006 on the excellent Polish Not Two label. The box set also contains a 14 page booklet containing a great interview with Vandermark. It learns us (amongst many other things) that Ken Vandermark is not only a great composer, but that he also has a special relationship with other forms of art and paintings in particular.

"Exactly!" is Vandermark's answer to the interviewer's question "Is composition like a painting and the improvisation like simulating different eye moves of a listener?".

Preferred Drink: Bruichladdich

The East Village Other

2009-08-14T13:47:00.014+02:00

Originally released in 1966 on ESP-Disk and in the meantime reissued on CD (2000) and single/sided LP (1998) via the Italian Get Back records, this album was originally recorded to raise funds for the East Village Other, the underground newspaper.

The record itself is build around a radio broadcast that talks about the wedding of Luci Johnson, at the time of recording the daughter of U.S. president Johnson.

In that radio broadcast, you hear the most stupid and silly questions asked and comments given by ordinary people. But on top of it, a group of musicians have found a way to upgrade this completely redundant information into something truly fascinating, using a wide range of different music styles (folk rock, garage rock, improvisation, avantgarde, ...).

Steve Weber, The Velvet Underground, Marion Brown, Allen Ginsberg, Gerard Malanga, Ronald Jackson and Andy Warhol (who ends the record with the last song called "silence") are probably the most known of this select group.

In any case, just try to get a copy of this nice record or have a listen to it on the ESP-disk website.

Preferred Drink: Ardbeg

Af Ursin: Aika

2009-08-10T10:56:00.009+02:00

Released on Timo Van Luijk's own La Scie Dorée in 2008, this is Af Ursin's third full length LP. Van Luijk is an autodidact who learned to make music in his own unique way. In the early 1990's he formed - together with Geert Feytons - Noise Maker's Fifes, a group that composed music for films, theater, installations and dance-performances. Most notably they composed their music with self made instruments, like trunks of dead trees.

That should already give you an idea where to position the music of Af Ursin but it's just a hint because I cannot compare the music of Af Ursin - and especially this third release - with something similar. Is it free improvisation? Yes it is. Is it modern classical? Yes it is. Is it Field Recordings? Yes it is. Is it Musique Concrète? Yes it is. Is it Avantgarde? Yes it is. Is it Jazz? Yes, in a way it is. And than again, it isn't any of these "genres" as it just is something unique. An nice thing to know is that Van Luijk recorded his music and made it sound "old" on purpose by adding an extra layer of vinyl crackles - so although the vinyl is new, it sounds as if it's 80 years old.

The only thing I can tell is to try to get a copy of this album, although I must warn you that it's rather expensive but that's due to the way this album has been conceived. Everything is hand-made, the sleeves are from recycled paper containing an old photo and an old stamp (yes, that means that every copy is "unique") and is numbered and signed by the artist.

There are only 150 numbered copies (from 1 to 150) available for the "commerical market", 26 numbered copies (from A to Z) were reserved for friends and collaborators and 1 copy numbered HC was "Hors Commerce".

Preferred Drink: Talisker

Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: Patriotic Act

2009-08-07T18:22:00.009+02:00

If you would see him in the flesh you'd think he's a poor old dude who lives on the street. But in fact, Arthur Doyle is nothing more than a true freejazz legend. He played with all the big ones in the world and in 1978, he released his debut LP "Alabama Feeling" - one of those few legendary freejazz albums that can easily compete with Peter Brötzmann's "Machine Gun" for instance. It would take him 15 years before he would release another record under his own name.

One of the truly amazing aspects of Arthur Doyle is that he's constantly seeking for new musical challenges like his involvement with the New York noise/rock combo The Blue Humans for instance.

With his Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, he already released a couple of records but this Patriotic Act is their best release so far. This single-sided colored 12", released in 2006 on QBico records, is the recording of the band's performance at the NYC No Fun Festival in 2004. It's the perfect meeting of modern youngsters on electronics and other instruments and an old geezer, blowing his guts out on his saxophone.

Preferred Drink: Bruichladdich

Kaa Antilope - VPRO RadioNome April 2 1982

2009-08-07T10:16:00.012+02:00

Anyone with an interest in minimal electronic new wave synthpop music as it was produced in the years 1980 - 1982, should have a listen to these Kaa Antilope recorded VPRO RadioNome sessions, released as a beautiful LP by Enfent Terrible in 2009.

Kaa Antilope were Frédéric Whaleer (nowadays one of the two Sub Rosa guys) and Bernard Vranckx. They only released one 7" containing a mixture of poetry and the specific electronics they produced. It reminds me a bit of Suicide's debut LP in combination with some early Tuxedomoon stuff.

Anyway, some background info and stuff to listen to can be found on the label's website.

Preferred Drink: Ardbeg

Skullflower: Vile Veil

2009-08-05T09:06:00.011+02:00

One of the (very) few bands I'm truly addicted to is Skullflower. Ever since I got my hands on a copy of Ruins (released on Shock records in 1990 and contains the debut LP Form Destroyer) almost 20 years ago, I was never disappointed by any of the albums.

That makes it so difficult to write something about Skullflower for the simple reason I like almost all albums: IIIrd Gatekeeper being my number one "old-period" Skullflower (followed by Xaman and Form Destroyer), Infinityland being my number one "medium-period" Skullflower (followed by Last Shot In Heaven and Obsidian Shaking Codex), Orange Canyon Mind being my number one "first new period" Skullflower (followed by Exquisite Fucking Boredom) and Desire For A Holy War being my number one "latest period" Skullflower (followed by Pure Imperial Reform and Taste The Blood Of The Deceiver). All of these different "periods" is just something I use to distinguish certain musical shifts, but that's for my own personal usage - there's no academical explanation for it.

And so I just write something about the latest release, Vile Veil, released in 2009 on Noiseville. Three songs on this limited edition of 300 copies LP but that's more than enough to prove that Matthew Bower is a genius, completely insane and deaf. This stuff reminds me about the above mentioned Xaman, Infinityland and Taste The Blood Of The Deceiver. As if Bower wanted to transform his old psychotic noise rock into a new and harder kind of music. As you may know or not know, older Skullflower releases did have a notion of a "song". You had the drums/bass rhythm section buried deep under the infinite noise/feedback/psych chaos generated by the guitar(s), later on Bower took his music further down the road of the free improvisation noise using a variety of instruments (Saxophone is an instrument that is used on a lot of albums) but with every step of the way, Bower went further away of what a song actually is supposed to be and in the end, he only kept the core of his sound which is noise. It's as simple as that. But for some reason, this LP is going back to the old way of playing and the notion of a "rhythm" (although buried very much under the tons of feedback layers) is carrying the songs. But noise it still is and so it should be.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Dukkha - Black Vomit: Be My Second

2009-08-03T18:23:00.011+02:00

Pretty intense stuff this split CD-R, released in 2006 on Frequency Thirteen. Three songs by Dukkha and two songs by Black Vomit. Dukkha is bringing a suffocating mixture of dark ambient, black/doom metal and slabs of noise and electronics. Black Vomit is more sludge/psych/doom metal oriented and influenced by drone metal, (old) kraut/psych rock and insanity in general.

Anyway, darkness and depression is the key word here - so if you're searching for a song to play while committing suicide at last than I suggest to goto the Freq 13 site, browse through what they have to offer and seek for that particular soundtrack that will accompany you on your last journey.

Preferred Drink: Poison

Don Cherry: Orient

2009-08-02T23:28:00.011+02:00

While thinking about writing something about this awesome album I was browsing a bit on the internet to come up with some useful information about it. And guess what, I found a very nice description of this album on the KickToKill blog (and although you can still find lots of copies of this album, it's available for download as well).

So that's done - I don't need to worry about writing something about this. Just get yourself a copy of this splendid free jazz album, open a bottle of wine, start a new crate of beer or grab for that 25 years old single malt that's been standing in your closet way too long and be free! Cheers.

Preferred Drink: Westmalle Tripel, Ardbeg

Dimension X: Dimension X

2009-07-30T11:39:00.011+02:00

This is a good album. First of all the line-up consists of Massimo Pupillo (Zu, Black Engine, Original Silence, ...) on bass, Chris Corsano (the excellent Flowers-Corsano Duo, Death Unit and he has played on about half of the free-music albums available) on drums and David Chalmin on guitar and electronics.

This album tells the story of a robot - called Junior - that is invented by some weird professor. The robot has incorporated a brain identical to a human brain and thus is able to think and feel like a human. Throughout the album, this story is told by people in the best B-movie tradition. The 3 musicians "support" this story with their loosely improvisation jazz/rock music.

The curiosity of the album is that speaking and synth parts were recorded in counter phase making that they will cancel each other out when you play this CD in mono. I've tried it out and it really works. If you play it in mono you only have the instrumental part of the album.

Dimension X was released by KML Recordings in 2007.

Preferred Drink: Westmalle Tripel

Master Musicians of Bukkake / Ignatz, Scheld'apen, 17/07/09

2009-07-20T15:07:00.001+02:00

I like the concert venue Scheld'Apen for different reasons. First, concerts start late, gives you time enough to get there on time without stress while you still can order a few drinks and have a talk before the shows start. It's a nice evening and we order some fine beers and enjoy the evening outside. A bit later, seated on the floor, Ignatz kicks off with his very personal 'broken' folk blues. His guitar & vocal work that is sometimes melancholic/nostalgic and often drenched in delay gets from the quiet & introspective to the rawer, distorted edge and back. A nice and ideal support act. After the break smoke fills the nicely filled concert place and 6 people, each dressed in a long red robe and with some sort of a bee-keeper's hood on enter the stage. Master Musicians of Bukkake open the set with a drone/atmospherical instrumental. After that, a hairy thing crawls up the stage. It looks like a Yeti or Bigfoot or perhaps it's the sort of monster that lives in swamps most of the time, feeding itself with water plants, frogs and toads. But look, it learned how to pick up a microphone and it actually knows how to sing (which can't be said of Madonna and Britney Spears, according to their very recent 'concert ' performances - thousands of people pay fortunes to see them playback, find the logic in that). Meanwhile the band gets in a rhythmic mood and with two drummers, two guitar players, a bass/guitar player, one guy on synths and that singing creature, Master Musicians Of Bukkake know how to build long multilayered psychedelic/krautrock-ish jams. The music strongly refers to the psychedelic & kraut stuff from the seventies, but they produce it in some sort of upgraded 21st century form. Perhabs they don't make anything really new or revolutionary but they sure recycle interesting music from the past and they don't confine themselves to simply reproducing the stuff. Combine that with their excellent craftmanship (some of the band members play in Asva, Earth or do production work), a good sound and a sense of putting things in the right perspective and you get a great show! I buy an Ignatz-cd (I already have the two MMOB-cd's, good ones btw) and have to convince the drunk guy from the merch that it actually costs 12 euro in stead of 5.

We drive home and get lost in Hoboken. While we try to find our way out of there Harappian Night Recordings is on. The fascinating, weird south-asian music influenced experimental pieces mix well with the night images of nearly empty streets. We conclude the evening at the bar and try out a Boskeun beer, quite a strong beer (with a ridiculous label on the bottle) but our verdict was unanimously that it didn't appeal to us very much. The La Chouffe (that's the one with the stupid gnome on the label - is it supposed to attract children or what?) afterwards tasted much much better.

Enjoyed the show with different sorts of beer, which is obviously the best sort of booze for this kind of music.

Various: The Portable Altamont

2009-07-11T22:57:00.001+02:00

Stefan Jaworzyn! Yep, the guy from Whitehouse and former member of one of my all-time favorite bands Skullflower (Kicking ass for the last 20 years and still going strong!). What about him? Well, in 1989 he started Shock - a record label specialized in noise, psych, industrial, experimental and any kind of musical madness.

The first 5 singles were bundled and released in 1991 on this excellent label compilation. And what's more, every participating band threw in an extra number. Isn't that a nice gesture?

All 5 bands present on this compilation did have an enormous impact on the "alternative" music scene in the 80's/90's. Their meaning and influence still counts today. What would we have done without the excellent records of Skullflower, Coil, Current 93, Nurse With Wound or Drunks With Guns? Get yourself a copy (there are still a lot of to find on the World Wide Wastebasket). Check it out for yourself!

Preferred Drink: Duvel, Orval, Westmalle Tripel

Laphroaig

2009-07-11T22:29:00.002+02:00

Drinking Laphroiag is money well spent. Why? Well, you don't need to drink a lot to ensure you'll taste this excellent Islay single malt until the next morning. This raw, primitive, harsh and very much in yer face whisky should be tried by anyone who loves a very strong alcohol flavor.

As you may have guessed by now, I don't know a fuck how to write a whisky review - which can also be said about writing a music review, isn't that supposed to be something for losers without a (social) life?

Well, whatever. All I can say is get yourself a bottle of this fine piece of art and enjoy every sip you take from it.

Cheers.

3 Seconds Of Air: The Flight Of Song

2009-07-08T15:48:00.002+02:00

After the 3 Seconds Of Air gig - of which you can find a review on our blog here - we couldn't resist in buying some merchandise. Rosebud went for the CD-only release and I went for the limited edition of 100 copies which is an all-in package containing the CD + LP pressed on clear vinyl + a 3 Seconds Of Air T-Shirt, all together in a custom printed shoulder bag that comes together with an authenticity certificate, signed by all 3 artists. There's also a limited edition of 400 copies release, which consists of the CD and the LP on black vinyl. All of this is released by Tonefloat.

Anyway, yesterday evening I had my very first real listening experience (consuming the music without doing something else simultaneously or being distracted by something annoying such as a babbling person or a playing television) and I had a great listening trip. In fact, the reason I'm posting this here is because I'd like to explain a few words about the LP. On that LP you'll find a song on side A that's not on the CD and side B offers you a 3 Seconds Of Air song that was reworked by Bass Communion (Steve Wilson).

Side A is in the same vein as the CD and sounds exactly the way Rosebud described in his live gig review: a meandering sound tapestry that floats through air. It's very clear that air and space are very important for the music of 3 Seconds Of Air. Both components are critical parameters in making this music to reveal itself to its surrounding area.

What is absolutely amazing is that on side B, Steve Wilson achieved the complete opposite. As if Wilson decided to put the total aspect of the music into a long tunnel in order to prevent the music from using air and space. Instead, the music cannot go into any direction it wants to, but it can choose to go back- or forward or it can choose to crash upon itself. Besides that, Wilson also added a threatening drone that slowly but effectively tries to strangle the music. Fortunately, 3 Seconds Of Air wins this fight by strongly believing in the power of its positive music.

All of this is done very delicate and very subtle so you really have to listen to hear it, but once you've entered into a transcendent state, you will very much enjoy this listening experience.

Preferred Drink: Bruichladdich

Mats Gustafsson / Paolo Angeli: PhonoMetak Series # 2

2009-07-06T15:45:00.001+02:00

The first release in the PhonoMetak series consisted of Zu (of which we both are big fans !) and Iceburn. That one was already great. But this second volume intrigues me more.

First of all, side A is filled by the known unusual tweaks, hisses, squeaks and screams by one of our all-time favorite Scandinavian free/improvisation artist Mats Gustafsson. Mats does what he's supposed to do and what he has shown/proven already so many times on his many solo albums like The Education Of Lars Jerry (© 1999 Xeric), It's all about ... (© 2006 Tyyfus) or the beautiful single sided LP Mats G Plays Duke D (© 2008 Qbico).

The reason I'm intrigued by this second release - released in 2007 - is due to side B where we find Paolo Angeli playing one song with nothing else than a prepared Sardinian guitar. I really enjoy his playing a lot and surprisingly enough, it gives a good counterbalance with the Gustafsson side. Where Mats chooses to go into an abstract/cold/improv mode, Paolo seeks for a more "mature", warm, organic and structured way of playing. The man's finger's seem to touch all the snares simultaneously but keeps the result rather minimal. And in the same way Mats uses his sax, Angeli uses all aspects of his instrument which is from the classical guitar playing to using his instrument as a percussion instrument. The result is relaxing, haunting, melancholic and tender. A very nice piece of music to listen to.

All of the PhonoMatek Series are released as limited editions of 500, pressed on 10" vinyl and released by Wallace Records and Phonemetak Laboratories. The Phonemetak Laboratories site offers you to listen to extracts from all of them, for number 2 you can listen to Paolo Angeli. Go check it out!

Preferred Drink: Westmalle Tripel, Ardbeg

Infidel?/Castro! and Friendly Bears: A Split Experience

2009-07-05T10:37:00.004+02:00

A split album released by two labels. How charming one could think. But still, this album is somehow bizarre because both bands have absolutely nothing in common.

On side A (and at 45 RPM) we find Infidel?/Castro! , a Philadelphia-based duo (Colin Marston and George Korein), making music that can be situated on the crossroad where metal, noise, drone and breakcore find each other.

On side B (and at 33 ⅓ RPM) we find Friendly Bears, a New York-based quartet (Tim Byrnes, Matt Filler, Rich Bennett, Andrew Greenwald), making music that can be situated on the crossroad where punk, avantgarde, jazz, modern classical and prog rock find each other.

I'm not that that excited by the Inifdel?/Castro! side (also wasn't impressed by their 2XCD "Bioentropic Damaga Fractal" on Crucial Blast, released in 2005), but for some reason I actually play side B rather often because I really dig the way how Friendly Bears built up their songs which is rather simple and joyful but it also holds a certain degree of complexity. Anyway, bands that mix up jazz, punk, avantgarde and a bit of modern classical influences can always find a potential fan in me (and Rosebud as well for that matter).

This album was released in 2003 as a limited edition of 350 copies on Epicene Sound Systems and Rice Control.

Preferred Drink: Bruichladdich

HeatdeatH: Un

2009-07-03T23:58:00.001+02:00

So far, 2009 was not an exceptional year when it comes down to exceptional records. Up til now, I only was completely overwhelmed by a handful of records. One of them is this third release by HeatdeatH on Conspiracy Records.

HeatdeatH is a duo consisting of Andrew Border and Tim Glenn. Together with Mark Erickson they form the indie/post/lo-fi/alternative rock band Fog. HeatdeatH's third release is anything but rock music.

This piece of musical madness brings you straight to hell via a dark, depressive, claustrophobic and nihilistic soundtrack that seems to be played by robots instead of human beings. It's really hard to believe that this type of doom-noise electronic schizophrenic sonic assault can be the result of someone who has emotions inside him. Or it has to be doctor death himself, helping yet another person to commit suicide.

Preferred Drink: Poison

K-Branding: Das Ding

2009-07-02T11:30:00.002+02:00

Drum (computer), guitar, saxophone, voice (screams) and some additional electronics. That's all it takes for Sébastien Schmitt, Gregory Duby and Vincent Stefanutti to create a noisy free rock trip based on a (heavy) free jazz structure.

The CD-R starts with a "typical" guitar improvisation set that is accompanied by sax screams and Vincent's throat after a while. Slowly but effectively we end up in a very uptempo set. A hard-pumping and repetitive percussion set is the core of what is actually a very danceable number that surely did set the place on fire. After that, we arrive at a more noisier/improvisation set that - in the last song - vaguely refers to Hint (the French band consisting of Arnoud Fornier and Hervé Thomas) due to the way how the saxophone is used in this number and the overall mood which tends more towards darkness.

All in all, this CD-R gives a good impression on how the bands sounds (Das Ding was recorded live in Magasin 4 (Brussels) and released as CD-R in a limited edition of 100 copies on the Belgian FF HHH label in 2006) but as it is with this type of music, a live-set is still much better to go to.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Razoul Üzlü: Lost And Found Adventures

2009-06-26T09:57:00.004+02:00

Before Timo Van Luijk (Noise-Maker's Fifes, Af Ursin, In Camera, Onde, Asra, ...) started his own private record label La Scie Dorée, he had another record label called Monolisa. The only record released on this label were these Lost And Found Adventures of Razoul Üzlü. The LP was released in 2000, as a limited edition of 500 copies. Originally it was released in 1992 on cassette as a private release.

Razoul Üzlü is an alter ego of Raymond Dijkstra. Dijkstra who - besides being a sculptor, painter and graphic designer - is known for his musique concrète and electro-acoustique compositions. As Razoul Üzlü he uses all sorts of instruments (synthesizer, guitar, organ, found objects, ...) and uses them to create a truly fascinating sound universe. At some points it's very organic and rather psychedelic, other parts of the album sound very minimal and build around one (organ) drone or you might think you've ended up in the soundtrack of an old fashioned science fiction movie dating from the 1950's. It even may appeal to young children at some point because parts of the album sound as if they come from these old kids toys that could produce sound, but only one or two tones at a time and the result was very fascinating for young children but rather annoying for adults.

In any case, this beautiful LP should not be missed by anyone who likes adventurous music.

Preferred Drink: Ardbeg

3 Seconds of Air, Theobaldus Chapel Brecht 20/06/09

2009-06-23T13:10:00.008+02:00

So goeStajer arranged us an invitation for the album presentation (The flight of Song, out on Tonefloat) of 3 seconds of air. 3 seconds of air is a side project of Dirk Serries, an ambient/drone musician who's been active since the eighties and has gained quite a reputation worldwide. First as Vidna Obmana and since a couple of years with Fear Falls Burning, switching from (mainly) synths and electronics to (seriously treated) guitar works. With 3 seconds of air he and his guitar team up with Paul Van Den Berg (guitar) and Martina Verhoeven (bass). The album was recorded in a small chapel on the countryside and it's the place where the concert is happening. When we arrive, we're greeted by Serries himself and we quickly order some Oxfam Beer. Goestajer chooses the blond stuff, I try the brown one. A bit sweet perhaps but very smooth and it goes down quite easily. Before the concert there's some sort of speech from a dude, explaining the history of Brecht and the chapel throughout the centuries. He makes a bit of a confusing impression and has some difficulties with structuring his story - maybe he had already a few drinks. Oh well, somebody should bootleg this & release it as some sort of satanic spoken word performance or something.

When the three musicians start their set, things get quiet except for the birds outside who, at this time of hour, are still making a lot of racket. Especially a blackbird is doing his best and manages to interfere nicely with the soft drifting guitar sounds. 3 seconds of air is all about ambient, the dreamy stuff. The two guitar players, each one of them using lots of effects/pedals, produce lovely sounds that whirl and float through the chapel. This nice tapestry of sound is sparsely but effectively supported by the dry bass that carries the soundscapes very slowly through time & space. The first track has some vague melancholic feeling. Some of the Kranky stuff comes to mind (Stars of the Lid, Windy & Carl). The second track is a bit more voluminous with moments but it certainly stays firmly on the ambient side. In the third and last track my mind starts to drift off, maybe it has something to do with the bloody church chairs that just are not comfy to sit in. In the finale I manage to pick up with the music again and when the sounds finally drift away the three musicians are thanked with a warm applause. GoeStajer and I continue our enthusiastic exploration of the Oxfam beer and after lots of silly nonsense talk and half-drunkish laughter we leave the place, piss in the bushes and drive home well saturated.

Preferred drinks for listening to the cd at home: White wine.

Field Recordings From India & Nepal

2009-06-23T10:21:00.002+02:00

Two weeks ago I received this sheer beauty in my mail box. A double CD-R, limited on 100 copies, re-released by the excellent Finish label Ikuisuus in 2008. Originally this was released as a 50 copies 2XCD-R edition in 2007 on Om Ha Sva Ha Ksha Ma La Va Ra Yam.
Anyway, all of these field recordings were made by Jani Hirvonen (the guy from Uton) while staying in India and Nepal from January 2007 until April 2007. During his stay he just taped whatever he thought was interesting enough and released it as is. No overdubs, no editing, no (post) mastering, no nothing. These are field recordings in their most pure and beautiful form.
The result is both amazing and funny. Amazing because it documents live as it is in India and Nepal. Funny because your imagination will build you an image or a picture based on what you hear and that can be quiet funny. I can imagine that the women who were singing were not very amused with the construction works that were going on at the other side of the street, but hey, that's live as it is in India.
The recordings from Nepal bring us to a temple where Buddhist monks are chanting. Chaotic, abrasive and very lo-fi but again, what you hear is what you get. Other recordings invite us to listen to the sound of a village while it's raining and birds are singing.
I have to admit that the sound quality of these recordings is not good, but that is more a positive thing than a negative one because it sure as hell makes you believe it's you who's standing in the middle of an overcrowded Indian city where the notion of silence is for ever banned from daily life.

Preferred Drink: White Wine

Chaos U.K: Short Sharp Shock

2009-05-30T10:05:00.002+02:00

In 1980 and 1981 Clay Records released four 7" records (Decontrol, Fight Back, Realities of War, Never Again) and one 12" record (Why) by Discharge. These records would have a major impact on punk music, as they would trigger the creation of what later would be known as crust. Their musical style (fast, brutal, short) was almost immediately picked up by the Scandinavian punk scene and via that route would reach the European main land. Later on this style would create other variations, with grindcore being one of the most extreme ones. Bands like Ripcord, Heresy, Lärm, Electro Hippies, Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass and many others would dominate the punk/hardcore/crust/grindcore scene in de mid eighties.

One of the albums that should be mentioned explicitly (as it never pops up in the list of "Records that had an impact on alternative rock music") is Chaos U.K's Short Sharp Shock (© Children Of The Revolution Records 1984). Although the songs are quiet lengthy (4 minutes is like for ever) and the tempo is not that fast, the overall style and atmosphere is loud, abrasive and violent on one hand and on the other hand quiet funny and humoristic! The overproduction of the record makes the sound threatening, the rhythm section (Chaos on Bass and Chuck on Drums) set a brutal and dominant tempo, Gabba's guitar screams on top of it and above all of that, Mower's throat is trying to tell us something, but his lyrics are lost in the omnipresent thick, loud and dense noise.

Preferred Drink: any beer will do ... as long as it is a lot!

Jaki Liebeziet & Burnt Friedman, A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Nijdrop 15/05/09

2009-05-26T10:19:00.001+02:00

A Hawk & A Hacksaw is a band from New Mexico. The poor dudes must have been confused arriving here in the middle of nowhere (of Flanders in fact) playing in an nearly empty old warehouse. Nevertheless, they have the right attitude and can't be bothered. 'We're here now anyway, so we play what we've got' is the attitude for this sort of occasions. With accordion, mandolin (or is that a bouzouki?), accordion (this guy also sings and has a sort of floor tom at his foot), violin, trumpet and tuba they play the sort of folk music that's heavily influenced by Balkan music with perhaps some hints of mariachi here and there. They manage to create a good atmosphere, automatically I think of some Kusturica movie scenes: weddings, drunk funerals, family parties etc... throw in a dog with three legs, cats eating from the table, a lost goat and you know what I mean. All in all, I liked the set and it made me thirsty. One advantage of a low turn-out at concerts is that you seem to own the place: no waiting at the bar, no endless trying to get the bartender/bastard's attention, no pushing your way through the audience and spilling beer etc...

Fortunately a bit more people have arrived when Jaki Liebezeit & Burnt Friedman kick of their set but the turn-out is still very disappointing. Where is everybody? Seeing Liebezeit drumming is some experience. Seated before (and a bit higher than) his four toms and three cymbals (and some well placed mics) - no footwork - he starts without hesitation hitting rhythms that he changes slowly, but never is there one hit out of place or out of rhythm. If you follow his hands and sticks it becomes mesmerising, he's like a human beat box. Sometimes in the beginning of each track you think that it mustn't be that difficult to follow him but his timing, attack and volume is perfect and damn, he subtly adds quite some variation. Liebezeit is in the music business since the middle of the sixties, starting in the German free jazz scene (see Manfred Schoof and even Brotzmann) before he played with Can and now, forty years later he's still going strong. Respect! Burnt Friedman is very complementary to what Liebezeit does. He contributes to the rhythms with lots of nice bleeping sounds (lots of lovely steel drum-like sounds) while at the same time weaving very beautiful sound blankets through the rhythmic patterns. Sometimes hints of melodies shine through, some dubby bas feelings show up and at one time he even used some acid house sounds in the mix. The duo works nicely towards some impressive climaxes to which the audience reacts very enthusiastic. They even come back to do an encore. I already saw them a couple of years ago (with a guitar player who wasn't that good) but this time I experienced it as much better. I must admit that at that time the beer flow had been going goddamn fast for a while, so maybe that element had something to do with it.

When experiencing the duo's high quality & highly recommendable chill out studio Cd's at home (first two Secret Rhythms volumes are wonderful, haven't heard third installment yet) I wouldn't recommend beer in plastic cups like I digested that night but I would suggest some nice dry white wine. And before the thousands of readers of this blog start to regard me as some sort of wine snob: I don't mean sipping on a glass like some sort of upper class idiot, while you most probably don't know anything about it but just swallow the stuff like a big boy and at least empty the goddamn bottle would ya?

Yes, Collapse: Final Diagnosis

2009-05-14T08:25:00.001+02:00

Yes, Collapse (best band name in years!) was a band consisting of people that were involved in the Ohio based Epicene Sounds Systems label, specialized in releasing material that operated in the field of lo-fi/noise/drone/free music. They were one of those bands that came into existence, released an amount of tapes and CD-R's and ceased to exist without ever being introduced to a "bigger" audience.

Probably they didn't gave a fuck about it, which would make sense since their music doesn't seem to give a fuck about anything either. This is the type of music you would make when waking up one morning with one of the biggest hangovers in years and all you can think about is finding a cure to get rid off this awful feeling. You would use any kind of instrument to produce a filthy, dirty, crappy, noisy, lousy, lo-fi kind of anti-music for the soul purpose of pissing anyone off that comes in your neighborhood.

That's exactly how Final Diagnosis sounds like. This - as the title suggests - final release was released in 2007 as a limited edition CD-R of 150 copies on Crucial Bliss.

Preferred Drink: Duvel, Orval

Twenty 7" records from Tonschacht

2009-05-13T13:34:00.001+02:00

Between 1999 and 2005, Köln based record label Tonschacht released 20 7" records by 20 different artist dealing more or less in 20 different aspects of the broad rock and electronic musical scene. From free improvisation to noise, from abstract electronics to musique concrète, from twisted disco to drone, from avantgarde to ambient. All of them where packaged in exactly the same black sleeve, using exactly the same font and they were all pressed on thick vinyl in a limited and numbered edition of 500 copies.

I'm not sure what the current status of the label is, but it seems to have gone into hiatus after the release of Dropp Ensemble. The 19 artists before them were Minit, The New Peculiars, A.F.R.I. Studios, Ashtray Navigations, Joseph Suchy, Gate, Hrvatski, Vote Robot, Rosy Parlane, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Jazzkammer, Fibo-Trespo/Anders Gjerde, Donna Summer, Janek Schaefer, Greg Davis, Raphael Smarzoch and Anla Courtis.

Every series has its ups and downs and here it's not different (Anla Courtis is my favorite one - one gigantic hallucinating guitar-based drone - while the Raphael Smarzoch's release actually is rather annoying), but all in all, these 20 7" records give a great overview for anyone who likes his/her music a bit more adventurous.

Preferred Drink: any single malt or a fresh Duvel or Orval

Wicked Messenger: Vision Rites And Techniques Of Ecstasy

2009-05-12T23:20:00.002+02:00

Lately I've been reading a book about ancient symbols, mystical occult rituals and long gone traditions amongst cultures that no longer exist. The common aspect in all of them was they all served a higher cause, a (primitive) form of dark and religious experience.

It's a cliche I know, but somehow I visualized abandon fields, covered in a thick and impenetrable darkness where priests are executing these rituals to satisfy their Gods. 5000 years ago, this third Wicked Messenger album (© Plague Recordings 2009) would have been the perfect soundtrack to accompany all of this.

Most people probably would call it "dark ambient", but I rather not use that term any more since after Lustmord's Heresy, all of a sudden anyone was producing "dark ambient". I would rather classify this amazing multi-layered masterpiece as a dark, isolationist, glacial, nihilistic guide to the depths of mankind's rotten soul to cure himself from the Devil inside him.

Preferred Drink: Laphroaig

No Neck Blues Band & Adam Egypt Mortimer, Bozar 05/05/2009

2009-05-12T12:56:00.001+02:00

We arrive at Bozar and join a select group of people waiting in the entrance hall. There are only perhaps 30 people for the gig/film, which is a real disappointing turnout. I can't remember seeing any publicity for this show on fora or concerts (knew about the gig via band's newsletter) but then, I'm not following up 'the scene' as close as I want to. First off we receive a short informal speech from Adam Egypt Mortimer, the man who's making the No Neck Blues Band movie 'At 6 AM We Become The Police', which is scheduled to be released at the end of this year. He tells us the movie is almost finished, but he regards it as a work that is still in progress and as he is still shooting material it could be that things will be added/deleted. He warns us that it wasn't his intention to make a story about the band, its members and how they think about the band, music, musicianship, neither is its aim to inform the viewer about how the music is built, thought out, conceptualised or whatever. Instead, he wanted to keep the sort of mystery about the band alive. Indeed, the band members, sitting relaxed in the audience during the screening, confirm that in the beginning they were not open about his filming but after a while (Adam Egypt Mortimer has been following the band since early/mid '90s) things started to work out nice.

The movie itself is - just like the band and its music - one strange affair. All sorts of concert and rehearsal fragments are presented (some of them from a long time ago). The focus is rather on details, the camera shifts follow each other quite fast and the band is shot from different angles. The aim is clearly not to present statically how the band plays (from a more technical point of view), but rather to try to give the viewer an idea about how the band deals with chaos, improvisation, unexpected things, unusual concert settings (in open air for instance). The music sounds more chaotic/improvised/more extreme than the No Neck stuff I have at home. The fragments are mixed with fictional elements, sort of video-clip-style. I remember seeing the beginning of the movie on you tube, a strange thing where two band members (swimming and walking) are confronted with some sort of mirror closet or box and a shining purple eggplant. If that doesn't make much sense to you, well nothing about this band and this movie does. You just have to go with the flow and enjoy the weird but fascinating trip. No questions are answered, but I would say, leave the questions behind and enjoy the images. All is well filmed, cut, pasted. O yeah, there is nudity in the movie ... a man in the nude fighting it out with some lobsters (only a few, not that much, for budget reasons Adam explains afterwards :-). Rock Lobster indeed!

After a short pause the band enters the stage one by one. At first we thought the sound check was still going on but it appeared to be the guy from Embryo (I think ...) sitting on a cheap keyboard, rubbing it, pressing his hands on it and doing some vocal improvisations. Afterwards, a huge flight case (looks almost like a coffin) is put on the stage. In it is Matt Heyner, who leaves the thing, covered with a black cloth and his addition to the rest of the show is him in a sort of slowed down fight with the flight case and the cloth. Meanwhile percussion, guitars and vocals enter the mix. The atmosphere of the music is loose, relaxed, a bit tumultuous and chaotic. A band member is standing in the audience, clapping, shouting and suddenly he enters the stage with white tissues he must have got from the toilet and soon he is dressing every band member with it, while dropping the pants of the percussionist before he picks up the bass and starts playing along. The last part of the set is more introspective, some slightly melancholic/melodic elements turn up (from the bass and guitar players). After perhaps three quarters of an hour they stop playing, leaving the people a bit in a surprise that the set is already finished. We hit town to drink a couple of beers and conclude that the show and the movie were good. Surely strange but good.

Digested the show with regular beer, experience could have been better with Chimay Blue

Mauro Antonio Pawlowski: Untertanz

2009-05-11T23:47:00.002+02:00

Mauro Antonio Pawlowski is best known for being a member of dEUS currently (the only guy in that band that knows what good music is - but that's another story). Anyway, Pawlowski played and plays in literally hundreds of different projects/bands/groups/collaborations (Club Moral, Evil Superstars, Othin Spake, The Love Substitutes, Bedtime For Bonzo, ... to name a few). One constant in his work is that he doesn't give a fuck about what other people think about him. Pawlowski is Pawlowski, it's gonna be his way or the highway.

That aspect is beautifully documented on this limited edition of 735 copies on 180 gr vinyl on audioMER (released in 2008). From dadaism to post punk, from avantgarde to blues rock, from lo-fi to chanson, from rock'n'roll to free improvisation, from poetry to noise. Everything is present on this record, making that almost every groove on this LP holds a different part of Pawlowski's personality. Yet, the quality of the complete record is absolutely stunning! No left overs, no quick and dirty songs to fill up some space on this record, none of this. This is a document delivered by someone who's not afraid to tell the commercial world out there to fuck off.

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Declino: 1982-'85: Come Una Promessa

2009-05-11T19:35:00.003+02:00

Declino were an Italian hardcore band from Torino, active between 1982 and 1987.

This record (released as a CD in 2004 by SOA Records and reissued as an LP in 2005 by Agipunk) compiles their complete discography being:

- E.P.: Controproduzioni, 1983
- Mucchio Selvaggio: split-LP Declino/Negazione, 1984.
- Eresia: Belfagor Records, 1985.

The sound is primitive and raw, the boys can only play a very primitive form of rock music, the singer is trying to sound tough with his Italian lyrics and everything is probably recorded on an old 4-track (tape) recorder. However, this type of hardcore was very wide spread in the eighties but for some reason, Declino were never as big as Negazione (that other Italian band from Torino). Probably it will not change a lot with this release, but as a nostalgic trip it sure as hell makes me want to put on my combat boots again and stage dive all night long!

Preferred Drink: Duvel

Lightbox Orchestra: Two Lightboxes

2009-05-11T19:04:00.003+02:00

Why don't I just note down the line-up of the Lightbox Orchestra that released this limited and hand numbered edition of 500 copies on 180gr vinyl in 2004 on Locust Music? That should be more than enough for you to realize this release is worth while checking out.

Here goes:

Bass: Kent Kessler, William Parker
Conductor: Fred Lonberg-Holm
Drums: Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang, Tim Mulvenna
Keyboards: Jim Baker
Reeds: Ken Vandermark, Mars Williams, Mats Gustafsson, Peter Brötzmann
Trombone: Jeb Bishop, Sebi Tramontana, Joe McPhee
Trumpet: Roy Campbell
Turntables, Tape, Cd, Microphone: Lou Mallozzi

Only other thing to know is that both sides were recorded live, side A is recorded as The Peter Brötzmann Tentet (+2) and side B is recorded as The Come Sunday Ensemble.

Oh yeah, this is free jazz for big jazz orchestra's, going from fierce Brö-screams till silent and abstract Mats squeaks and everything in between. And no, this is not some academical, boring, "look what tones I can produce on my instrument" kind of abstract weirdness ... this is real music played by real jazz giants. Best to be consumed at a relatively high volume to expand the full sound spectrum.

Preferred Drink: any single malt will do

Duvel

2009-05-11T18:22:00.001+02:00

Duvel is by far one of the best beers of the world. With its dry and fruity aroma and its balance between this aroma and a subtle bitterness, it is an excellent thirst-quencher.

To commemorate the end of the First World War, Albert Moortgat baptized his beer originally as “Victory Ale”. Later on, the blond nectar received its final name Duvel after a local shoemaker and friend of Albert Moortgat described the beer as “nen echten Duvel” or “a true Devil” during a tasting. And Duvel was born.
© Duvel - Moortgat

Hildur Gudnadóttir, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa: Second Childhood

2009-05-11T14:07:00.002+02:00

Sound architect Benny Jonas Nilsen (field recordings) teams up with Hildur Gudnadóttir (cello) and the electronic wizards Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (known as Stilluppsteypa) to create a mesmerizing journey in the field of desolate drone music.
"Second Childhood" (© Quicksilber 2007) is built around field recordings, abstract electronics and drone elements, all blended perfectly together to create a desolate but warm and almost lo-fi sound spectrum.

The album starts with a haunting cello drone to stop all of a sudden to let the underlying field recordings reveal themselves. Further down the road, minimal electronics, (organ) drones and the omnipresent subtle field recordings are used to create a truly fascinating trip. This late-night music gives you the opportunity to escape from reality for a little less than an hour and accompanies you on a journey in no man's land.

Preferred drink: Ardbeg

Swaks/Hey Colossus/Zu/Kong - Nijdrop 24/04/09

2009-04-27T13:08:00.000+02:00

Swaks, a local trio (guitar, bass, drums) opens the little festival. Swaks, the three fellows dressed in white (Modern Talking anyone? :-), play mainly instrumental guitarriff driven powerful rock music. Not that original but they play it with the right attitude. Especially the opener from their set and a few tracks towards the end hit the right spot. In between the set is a bit lame and i get a bit bored. I'm not convinced by the singing of the drummer. But as a starter, it's all right and the guitarplayer, armed with some effect pedals, does a good job. The visuals (movie collages) are ok too. A pity that most of the audience isn't arrived yet.

Hey Colossus is a British band and apparently six people are in it. During the short soundcheck, the bearded singer wakes the audience up with a short series of impressive screams. When they open the set, they surprise me not only with their energy and motivation, but also with their sound which is very good. The guitars, bass, drums, noise (keyboard/pedals) and screams/shouts all mix in equal portions to become one beast of a total sound. If you play this sort of music and you're with six on stage, it often happens that some technical errors or unequal mixing turns up, but not with this band. During the first tracks, the rhythm is fast and heavy, I urge to the bar to order a few beers and try not to miss a single piece of the set. The voices are very good and interact well, which clearly is an added value to their sound. Apart from the faster, kick-in-the-guts songs - think Todd, Unsane - they perform one long, slow and heavy track - bit more Neurosis, Melvins direction. The songs are well rehearsed (so it seems anyway) and fit very good. It's clearly not just about getting loud & berserk and don't caring where the noise ends. As they play music that isn't evident and unfortunately is not for the big masses, I hope they manage to get their act going and that the band stays together in this constellation and I hope to see them on a Belgian stage again. I stupidly forget to buy a cd from these friendly guys.

Zu is one of my favorite live bands. Together with The Ex, it's the band that I've witnessed live the most. Tonight they play well (the sax a bit too strong up in the mix) , and I see that most people react very enthusiastic on their music. I can imagine that someone who isn't that familiar with their work and with what Zu stands for, will surely be impressed. Nevertheless I get the feeling that they play on some sort of automatic pilot, i miss a bit of hungriness. A bit of a fatigue after thousand concerts? Or maybe it's me who has seen them too much... I ask around afterwards and those who've seen them already a few times have a bit of the same reaction: good but I've seen them doing better.

Kong is a Dutch band that has a long career behind them. Somewhere in the early nineties they have gathered some success with their original concept of performing filmic instrumental metalbased music while each of the four members of the band stands (or sit in the drummer's case) in a different corner of the place. Their debut album 'Mute Poet Vocalizer' and the second one 'Phlegm' are still listenable pieces of work. After a long hiatus, the bass player invited new members and they actually have a new cd out. The quadraphonic live approach still works, the public chooses where to stand, where to look at and you get some sort of dynamism, people moving through the concert room, that you normally miss at a concert. The new tracks don't do much to me. Not bad & well performed, a very professional sound but they don't add much to the earlier work. Kong impresses me the most with their older material.

Kjell Bjørgeengen & Keith Rowe / Fire & Ignorance / Activity Center, Netwerk 13/03/09

2009-03-17T12:24:00.000+01:00

We arrive at Netwerk art center, order quickly an Orval beer at the bar and go upstairs for the first set. The duo Michael Renkel and Burkhard Beins perform together as Activity Center. Each of the players have some electronic equipment before them as well as all sorts of small percussion elements, selfmade string instruments and other more or less 'readymade' garbage. The duo choose for abstract, minimalistic sound layers/waves that change slowly, while adding bowed & plucked string sounds, some hand percussion accents, but all in a arhythmical context. The live produced sounds are often instantly given an electronic treatment. The sound collages sound nice, sometimes i get interested but in a whole I never really get involved in the music they produce.

After that we refresh our drinks and head over to the other exposition room where close to the four walls several televisions produce fast flickering black/white screens with changing frequencies. Apparently that's the contribution of Kjell Bjørgeengen who is sitting with his control gear at a table in the middle of the room. Listeners sit, hang, stand or lay around him. Meanwhile at the other side of the table, legendary EAI-guitarplayer Keith Rowe is working on his prepared guitar. He produces high pitched sinus-like tones, sawing guitar sounds, twitches guitareffects and creates other rumble-like sounds. Strangely I can't enter into his soundspectrum. I only feel a sort of fatigue and boreness. As I expected more of his set I wonder if it's me who isn't open to it, who fails to grasp it. I try different approaches: stand still and concentrate, stop looking at the artists (not much to see anyway) wander around the room, try to get distracted by the TV-images so that the music can take me off-guard so to speak - but the TV's keep producing the same sort of black/white blocks, which are - fair is fair - not exactly spectacular to put it mildly. I get the feeling that the duo just isn't doing something new, spectacular or impressive. But with this sort of music/sound/visual art one never knows and aybe others are more positive about this set. After a while we just give up and head to the bar for another drink.

We put all our hopes on the two dudes of MoHa!. Last year I saw them performing a great massive set of ear-shattering drum/guitar/electronics mayhem at the Magasin4-club in Brussels. It sounded like a blend of Lightning Bolt power with Supersilent weirdness. Now they have teamed up with two visual artists and perform as Fire and Ignorance. And do the four of them deliver? Hell yes! We enter the room and the musicians are allready waiting for us. On both side of the musicians the artists stand behind their light control pannels. The light equipment (stroboscopes, black light, strong spots) are aimed not on the musicians but on the spectators. We are clearly the slaves, they are the masters & in full control. As everybody sits down, doors are closed and lights go out. We wait in anticipation. The silence is abruptly broken by the sound of (amplified?) breaking light tubes. That is the signal for of a series of very loud, intimidating & furious assault on as well ears as eyes. While the musicians go for the ear damage, the light artists attack (100% in phase with the music) our visual senses. The music is loud, atonal and simply put: brutal. Often there's a small pause between the drum/guitar/light/electronic thunder - they clearly choose for the unpredictable start/stop-tactics and play with contrasts between silence and noise; black and white - but the public doesn't aplaude or yell, maybe they don't dare. In fact, the few times I look beside or behind me (when lights are on) I see some people almost pressed against their chairs. One women leaves the room, poor lady. Sometimes the whole concept is so grotesque, so intimidating and perfect that I smile in almost disbelief. What impresses me also is the fact that not only the music is played with great skill but that also the sound - even at this volume - is just perfect. After a merciless (and understandable) short set, people finally relax and applaude. We leave the place delighted and as we walk to the car I feel in my jacket the bag with the protective ear plugs the organisation handed out before the concert ('we've heard the rehearsal this afternoon and it's very extreme'). Oh well, ear plugs are for pussies.