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Va - Hoga Nord  [lp 2009 Segerhuva]

Segerhuva is a label from Sweden, that has a great backround. It exists for more than 10 years releasing realy good and adventurous music. This Lp is a compilation and a statement at the same time ... “Four lenghty tracks from four Swedish experimental groups in tribute to the god-forsaken land we call Sweden - or, Höga Nord if you wish”. Sounds interesting, but lets taste it! The cover of this release is black and white and as you can see it has a very folkish aesthetic! The artists that contribute to this compilation are Dusa, Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar, Bocksholm and Vårtgård. The first track comes from Bocksholm and is called bogamord. Looped recordings and an auger (?) create an industrial atmosphere. This is a recording that probably makes no use of any sound effects. In a while these sounds fade out and a reversed recording of a metal object comes to forth. Bocksholm use some eco effects. The track focuses on experimental electro-acoustics, using strange samples and as I have already mentioned, metallic objects. The second track is from Dusa, i hope that you remember him from the album blung (reviewed in random#2) that was released in 2005 by Aka records. “Markliga timmar: nattslut” could be the continue of his last album and this is more then great! Dusa likes to play with field recordings and give us a sence of concret music story. A distorted violin, sounding like the velvet underground, is introduces us a little bit violently to the track, when suddenly everything is going to stop for a lo-fi piano recording that gives rythm to the track accompanied by a violin. This track reminds me of Godspeed you black emperror’s early days, but i think that at last it is something really different, but both of them is still so unique! Side B, starts with Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar. This is a genuinely improvised track. In “Aprilkreisen” Drone meets ambient making this track one of the best. At last Vartgard give us a distorted world picture. “Finkhallen” is a drone noisy sample of music, composing an esoteric and at the same time introvert track. Listen to this compilation, another basic information is that this Lp is numbered, 300 copies only, so if you want to have it, be fast and believe me, you are not gonna regret it! [Marios M]

links
Segerhuva site

Outer space alliance – outer space alliance remastered [holy feather 2009]

This album was first released back in 1999. This is the remastered edition and as I can read in the booklet incudes changes in the tracklist plus a replacement of an originally  included song, “journey”, with “the dying sun made our hearts cold”. I did not have the chance to listen to the original album so I can’t really afford to discuss issues that concern remasters etc so I should better deal with what I am listening to.
The album is characterized by a constant shift in atmospheres that is also intended to be demonstrated in this short of arc in the cover, moving from sad songs to happier and back. The introducing track (anything I want it to be) pretty much tells part of the story. Elaborated ambient music with lots of atmospheric space rock references, enriched with disparate and promiscuous musical elements. It could easily be taken for a sci-fi movie soundtrack with all this retro-sound gone digital enthusiasm. Luckily the whole story is not told as organic sounding elements structure most of track 4 (“dishwasher deluge”) with bits of mysticism and recollections of far-out tablas accompanied with washes of space-keyboards.  A mellow guitar with reversed recordings and distant tropicalla slide make “comfortably numb” a catchy tune while following “dea alba” and “high tide” play with abstraction while they’ve got less or absent rhythmical elements mixed with reverbed like scratches of metal and unrecognizable objects.  My favourite track “loop 1” sounds like a straight reference to pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree sit-back jams without the annoying prog-rock posture.
This is an easy to listen record though kind of leaves you midways. There is a sense of heterochronism, this is a remaster of a 1999 album after all.. [Fervent]

links

Holy Feather site

Fiesta animal – gel de balistica [corps-morts]

You should probably know them already. Their first release was on our own anarthria series along with Muso Fantasma  [check releases section for reviews] and this is their second one via corps-morts. Edits of improvisations, short songs, musical snippets, freak out noise by any means, death disco (conflictos con daneses), these are some things that pop up every time I listen to these guys.  The impact of early 80s einstuerzende neubauten, sonic youth and birthday party (vestido terror, problemas para hablar, sexo con el teclado Nuevo) along with that of young Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch (eludiento scones, is evident. Bits of kraut rock (tormenta del desierto), stereolab vs free improvisation (mirando manipulaciones pervesas, comisaria de pasiones menores), they manage to melt all these and still keep a discreet identity. This is a miracle for a band. The last track of the cdr (ivernar) is one of the best that they have ever written, an austere almost stochastic voice, drums, keyboards driven slow piece, the vocals are beautifully expressive, this is the least I can say. This band is the past coming from the future. [Fervent]

Links
Fiesta Animal Myspace
corps-morts site
video sexo conel teclado nuevo

Sun of the seventh sister – farben raum [heard worse records 2007]

Sun of the seventh sister is a collective of artists-musicians from Australia and New Zealand ranging in number from 10-25 players. Their rack of instruments is pretty immense including multiple drummers, electrified chordophones, horns, vocals, oscillators, electric guitars and pretty much everything they can put their hands on.  This hord of nomad musicians reminds me of the nomadic artists of the middle-ages with everything that this brings to mind, the madness, the immersion into music, the ecstatic ceremonies. This is not just a free-jam as you might imagine or a free-folk cult (chic). This is a gigantic psychedelic beast that roars and screams and calms and bursts and back to the start featuring members of xNoBBQx, UnAustralians, Arse Lunch, Cock Up Shitting Whore, Rats With Wings, Stasis Duo (featured in our own deconstructive music triple cd compilation) and others.
This cd on heard worse records includes 3 long length nameless of course tracks and a total run time of almost 80 minutes of bodily absorbed orchestrated pray and prophecy or what you might imagine that it should sound like. Ranging from free form improvisation to ecstatic jazz and ecstatic folk this is not a record but an experience I wish I could have lived live. It worth every single second, especially the third track that is unbelievably intense! [Fervent]

Links
sun of the seventh sister Myspace

Expedition guide – home studies series vol 1: lamps for the wayward chain [cdr self released, 2008]

“A careless word…a needless sinking.”  Beautiful lyrics. Songs in their very essence. Recorded probably in a basement or a bedroom or something but these are some of this year’s nicest songs written.  It’s like pavement or fog have gone acoustic, threw some strange repetitive keyboard loops, add some banjo (in a track) and focus on the basics. This one man band (nothing else known) is too talented to be absorbed in the music industry. “chokes on stereo”, “show me the shipwreck” and “no needless sinking” should me selling millions. Words are not enough so I return to “lamps for the wayward chain”.. [Fervent]

Links
Expedition Guide myspace

Michael Vorfeld – lightbulb music [easy discs 2009]

This is no2 from the easy discs catalog and it is limited to 96 copies. Michael Vorfeld is an artist and musician who currently lives and works in Berlin. He has performed in ‘docementa 8’ Kassel , the 'Experimental Intermedia' in New York, the ‘melkweg’ Amsterdam and throught the world either as a musician or as a performer. The sound and visual properties of lightbulb music are difficult to fully be apprehended via an audio recording. The doric package and white label cdr, give us only the basic information and a photo of a number of lightbulbs that are interconnected via a spaghetti of wires. Then you press play and you listen to the pure sound of electricity reminiscent of the early works of Pan Sonic and Alva Noto. Minimalism is the name of the game while electronic and techno are names that pop up as well. Structures emerge and dissolve as fast as Vorfeld touches the wires and his bulbs. Static hiss, static electricity, the sound of glass and volts are mixed in a beautiful amalgam. The 5 pieces here range from 6 to 11 minutes and they are interesting for the whole duration of the cd. Too bad that this isn’t a dvd but what a great document of the shows. Pure, unedited, unmediated electricity. [Fervent]

Links
easy disc Site
Michael Vorfeld Site
Live Performance video

Adam Reese – water tape [easy discs 2009]

This is no1 in the catalog and it is limited to 71 copies.  It includes a 27 minute and 4 seconds running recording  that sounds both as a sound recording piece and as a weird installation. The thing that stroke me most in this release is the psychogeographical qualities of the approach.  Water flow and the movement of the recorder evolve constantly creating a real time environment. The naivety behind this simple tactic is radical in the manner that the listener is placed in a succession of implied haeccity events. This is one of those works that push you more to do something of your own than being a listener or viewer or anything.  If I had to compare this work to that of other artists, the name of Kaffe Matthews should be mentioned. [Fervent]

links
Adam Reese myspace

Numinous eye – it’s coming down / Time's stolen thoughts [2008 self released]

Numinous eye is a guitar-drums duo recording in San Francisco. They have released a couple more things than these presented here via little mafia records and archive records but this is their more recent self-released production.
Time’s stolen thoughts cdr includes 3 improvised tracks that are mostly I guess based on Mason Jones’ guitar.  They are slow evolving bringing to mind low-tempo space rock and Sub-arachnoid space in their more quiet. Mason uses his guitar in a straightforward manner, always accurate which makes everything sound easier than it is. Using a variety of effects he  accomplishes to draw attention to his style filling almost all gaps without being noisy without a reason.
It’s coming down cdr comes in a beautiful heavy white carton folded package with handmade prints on it. Things here are different than time’s stolen thoughts. There are 6 tracks much shorter in duration except for “silhouettes and the light that shines on secrets” which also is the less interesting track on the album. The other five tracks succeed in calibrating each contribution and get closer to what you might expect from a band to do, cooperate. The first track “a moment of reflection” has a beautiful off-beat quality bringing to mind the Chicago scene, while the second track “dreams of a continental shelf” leaves me with a distant bluesy flavor. In “sometimes this neighborhood gets me down” and “silhouettes and the light that blinds” Mike Shoun’s drums come to forth efficiently Doric bringing Mason’s abstract guitar into context by contrasting it. The last track “I wish they’d stop smiling like that” is the best track on this cd. The post-rockish structure with the silent and loud parts along improvisation bring to mind San Agustin.
If I had to choose I would definitely go for it’s coming down. [Fervent] 

links
Numinous Eye site

Another release by the Australian heard worse records. The elaborate packages continue on this one also as they use old vinyl jackets on which they apply their posters. Sun of the seventh contribute in this compilation the last track of the first side (as a full force 25 member big band) along with (in order of appearance) rlw (the Johannes Frisch and Ralf Wehowsky duo, on this track  they improvise on abstract structures using a sitar as a point of reference), castings (who have released in labels as chocolate monk και στις american tapes), rahdunes (they add elements of early 80s german industrial), cygnus (in a  lo-fi ambient track based on guitar accompanied with synths in the background), xNoBBQx (volumes of feedback combined to delay, wah sounds and low pitched frequencies) loachfillet (with the enigmatic  sample in the beginning of a female voice that repeats in greek “it is usually raining” while it is followed by a freakout improvisation of noise produced by electronics, guitar and drums that bring to mind the USA scene), Marco Fusinato (who takes the lead from loachfillet in almost the same manner, he has collaborated around 2000 with Thurston Moore on live performances in the centre of contemporary art in Australia). The second side of the vinyl starts with the British the vitamin b12 (vocals processed thru o sequencer or something), Mark Harwood (a member of the australian honch synaesthesia who presents a quietly evolving track based on processed field recordings), werewolf Jerusalem (electronic noise), misty lavender doughnuts of shame (a spectacular name), arse lunch (xNoBBQx’s side project, drone based on feedback and high pitched guitars recorded live around 2007), pigs in the ground και funally  William de Kooning (locked grooves). This release by heard worse is a high quality one. They manage to leave the labels mark while at the same time they succeed to bring to forth what connects them with the contributed artists without being boring due to the difficult music and sound aesthetics. This is an art object for sure.  [Fervent]


links
Head worse rec Myspace

This is the first release from drone records and the infant cycle that I am listening to and it is a happy surprise. I have to admit that drone music is not exactly my mug of coffee mostly because most of the times I find it different to concentrate to it due to the lack of information. This doesn’t apply here cause there is an interesting mix with electro-acoustic elements. Infant cycles is Jim DeJong active sinve 1992 in (from the infant cycle’s last fm page) “…exploring the relationship between sounds and their origins, as well as that which proceeds it”. Both sides of the 7” are very carefully structured. Side A has two tracks that could easily been understood as one, “secret hidden message” and “(and then the dog replied)”, both characterized by the persistence of DeJong in what I understand as detailed abstract linear narration, all sounds are collaged beautifully in medium durations that produce beautiful kind of loop effects though there is complete absence of repetition. As I read that some of these sounds come from a bird cage, wind chimes and cookery I can only suppose that they were time and pitch stretched. The second side is the most impressive though. “Trombone” is based on recordings of a trombone (obviously) that were manipulated and treated in a manner that brings to my mind of oval. There is a minimal techno element , at least in the first part, that is followed by an abrupt change in the composition. Despite of that the result is very cohesive. I have to admit that I have this feeling that I should know what the infant cycle do. This is very well-crafted, well thought and interesting 7”. Bull’s eye. [Fervent]

inks
Drone rec Site
Infant Cycle Lastfm Site