LOWERCASE music

Matt Atkins  / Adam Kinsey

LOWERCASE

UK  Minimal Resource Manipulation   MRM033  CD-r / DL  (2019)

Obtained from Matt Atkins in person at a concert at Hundred Years Gallery in Shoreditch earlier this year where Atkins performed in a trio with Brigitte Hart and John Macedo.  Minimal Resource Manipulation is Atkins own imprint and is named succinctly after the situation most non-mainstream musicians find themselves in these days.  LOWERCASE is an ironic title given that most of the gathered material here is fairly maximal in nature and a far cry from the early 2000’s New London Silence, Berlin Reductionism and indeed lower case music championed by London’s Sound 323 record shop and others.  Perhaps this is simply a reference to a scene that Atkins and Kinsey love.  But here, the duo break down the ideas and techniques associated with so-called lower case music and reassemble them in relatively dynamic and “in-your-face” ways.

There are two pieces on the disc; “Part One” feature grubby tape record heads and  broken twigs while small motors molest crockery.  A vaguely gothic synth-drone loops for a while, the musicians shuffling about, rubbing various utensils against multiple surfaces.  Then, close mic’ed patterings emerge before someone begins turning the platter of a record deck backwards by hand so that the lp lurches drunkenly through the frequency spectrum.  “Part Two” plays around with the ticking of insects, transducer hums, filter sweeps, a stylus sticking in a run out groove.  Later, reverbed IRCAM homages swoop about like pitchshifted bamboo chimes or gaseous tubes vibrating.

It transpires that these are two live improvisations made utilising laptop and modular synth, the recordings mastered by Phil Julian.  Expert sound-making - which I very much enjoy listening to - of a stripe that many musicians are dabbling with these days.  But it seems to me that the real challenge  is to make something bigger than the sum with these components.  I include myself in that.  LOWERCASE is a great example of these two musicians’ work.  I’ll be keeping an eye on their future output.

https://mrmrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/lowercase

Deux Sowaris

Phil Durrant

Sowari Modular

UK  Linear Obsessional  LinOb  LOR097  CD/DL  (2019)

The highly respected improvisor Phil Durrant forks over fertile new ground with this release.  Whether it be composition, his involvement in New London Silence with Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell as a violinist; his solo or collaborative work with modular synthesisers or more recently exploratory mandolin in a duo with guitarist Martin Vishnick and others, Durrant has an enviable reputation.  Sowari Modular is Durrant solo and in inquisitive mood, perhaps due to Linear Obsessional head Richard Sanderson’s policy of open-mindedness and regard for his artists’ freedom to choose whatever they wish to submit to his imprint.  To my mind, Sanderson’s approach produces wildly varied - but always excellent - output.  Sowari Modular is no different.  Named in reference to Durrant’s trio with Burkhard Beins and Bertrand Denzler, Trio Sowari - or perhaps,  more literally, his role within it -

“ 'Sowari Modular' features tracks using either modular synth assemblages or tracks made with single semi-modular synthesisers. Ranging from enveloping drone pieces influenced by Eliane Radique through to more "gestural" pieces incorporating outside sounds such as electric motors and wine glasses, the album is a blueprint of singular patches and hairtrigger fluctuations - a very physical music from a very arcane source.”

according to the label’s marketing.

Opening track “Survey” is an exploration of imaginary terrain.  Terror and terroir.  Tramlines.  Moving tones. Motorways.  “Misty” bounces along like a monster-fied mutant Pong video-game.  

“Zero Coast” is thick with analogue synthesis and is more aggressive, you might say.  Analogue synths seem to be often in control of their owners rather than the other way around and I wonder if this might be the case here; Durrant locked in a battle of will with the angry filters and oscillators.  “Sweep” is longer at 11 minutes and more meditative and explores the less audible ends of the frequency spectrum before generating a tone reminiscent of Tuvan throat-singing with occasional crystalline pitch shifting effects.

“Radio Gag” gets staticky - kind of like what you might hear from a pocket short wave radio if you were Jeff Bridges in Tron.  “From Another” sounds like something I imagine you might hear drifting out of an open window as you stroll past the IRCAM building on a summer afternoon.  “Field” utilises a simple machine rhythm as a base on which to build seemingly random, autonomous sound events.  Erosion quickly sets in and like the sands from a south coast beach, the noises and little sequences find themselves drifting off and settling in places far away from where they started.  No electronic groynes have yet been  provided.  At fifteen minutes, “Still” is the longest piece on Sowari Modular.  Typical perhaps of Durrant’s occasional interest in a drone-based approach, it is made up of small, gentle modulations and developments; a well-chosen handful of shimmering fragments introduced slowly and then left to fend for themselves.

The portrait of Phil on the sleeve is by painter/bassist Kev Hopper, (he of Stump, Ticklish and Prescott), who also releases his own music on this excellent South London imprint.

https://linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/sowari-modular

Trio Sowari

Third Issue

AUSTRIA  Mikroton CD 67  CD/DL  (2018)

Following on from 2005’s Three Dances and 2008’s ShortCut both released by Potlatch, their third release - this time on Mikroton; one of my current favourite imprints - finds Phil Durrant on modular and software synthesisers, Burkhard Beins on percussion and objects and Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone.  On the back of the cover is a photograph of a neatly cut stack of firewood and kindling against a stone wall.  Someone’s ready for winter.  Within, you will find four pieces of music with great one-word titles; “Gravitation”, “Suspension”, “Exploration” and “Levitation”.  That last one probably not referencing Terry Bickers and Bic Hayes’ 90s prog-rock band, but hey, who knows?  Eclectic tastes never hurt nobody.  All three players are known for their considered approach to their relative instrumentation, so I was very excited to receive this disc.

“Gravitation”

A hum, initially seemingly simple, but opening up incrementally.  Swept metal; poise.  A gentle increase of intensity, like a slight but noticeable change in air pressure.

“Suspension”

Low drone to start; joined by a horn tone almost like a human voice, opening out into a recognisable sax.  Nice combinations of beat frequencies, overtones, harmonics and sine waves.  A distant drum?

“Exploration”

More percussion-led.   Bells, chimes, struck metal… There is some bass information, fleetingly.

“Levitation”

With the use of their fairly orthodox use of bowed cymbals, saxophone and  tone generation, we could almost be listening to a free jazz unit of which there are many youthful examples around at the moment.  Trio Sowari are not so predictable however, and things soon take a turn for the oblique.  The musicians carefully develop their material into a group dynamic so restrained and in harmony with itself, it could be the musician’s metabolisms we’re listening to.

What is unusual about this clutch of recordings however, is the way they seem to bend time.  “Gravitation” is nearly fifteen minutes long and “Suspension” is twelve, but they seem to pass by in an instant due to the density of the actions and the deep levels of unspoken communication between the players, I think.  These recordings were made over two days which suggests to me that the group were prepared in advance for a short and intensive burst of activity.

Recorded by Patrick Robalewski at Sudstern Studios, Berlin, July 2016.  Mixed and edited by Burkhard Beins.  Mastered by Werner Dafeldecker.  Seek it out.

http://mikroton.net/

bass is the place

Tigersonic

Blipcuts

UK  Linear Obsessional  LOR132  Cassette/DL  (2019)

An engaging, super-varied, set of twenty (count ‘em) tracks of dub-inflected electronica, none of which break the two and a half minute mark, which is great if you’re, like, you know, into the whole brevity thing.  Linear Obsessional describe the work as “…abstract noise, majestic cavernous dub and angular funk…” which puts you in the ballpark, but I would add that parts of Blipcuts manage to bridge the divide between bass music and “experimental”; a divide whose borders seem to shift in intriguing ways on a seemingly daily basis - see recent work from Hieronymus Dub Sounds, Diatribes, Al Breadwinner/Nat Birchall/Vin Gordon, Young Echo, Dhangsha (see below) as well as recent developments at the ever-reliable On-U stable.

Felix Tigersonic is a London-based producer/engineer and bassist who works provides creative mentoring and recording services from her studio SmartMix.  Felix uses her knowledge amd expertise to good effect on this tape; presenting a batch of great-sounding material.

As a whole, Blipcuts is massively enveloping, with nicely paced development, despite the shortness of the tracks.  In fact, I found the shortness of the pieces a refreshing approach.  “Incoming Blur” and “You May Be Late” show a distinct On-U Sound influence.  “Shadow Shimmer” features Mick Karn or Jaco Pastorius-like bass harmonics, while “Lava Lava Lamp” is more abstract.

Apparently, initial copies of this cassette come with a packet of her own Tigersonic branded popping candy, in an effort to highlight the dichotomy in the necessity of presenting artistic endeavour as commerciality, perhaps.  The cassette I obtained direct from the label included a “Happy Bassday” badge.  Nice.

 https://www.linearobsessional.org/

Dhangsha

Future Tense

UK  self-released  no number  Cassette/DL  (2019)

I’ve noticed that there has been a steady drip feed of new material from Aniruddha Das under the moniker Dhangsha mainly on Soundcloud over the last 18 months or so.  Dhangsha is probably better known as  Dr Das, erstwhile bass player of Asian Dub Foundation who continue to regularly release new material, but perhaps more interestingly have been developing a second revenue stream by means of their live rescoring of films La Haine and The Battle of Algiers.  On Future Tense, Das weaves a dense and paranoid web of sonic intrigue with his minimalist electronic set up. Das says “DHANGSHA (Bengali for ‘destruction’) produces dark, edgy soundscapes where cyclical noise and distorted synth motifs mutate over sparse but heavy beats. Using little more than an Elektron Digitakt and RAT distortion pedal, he attempts to emulate the sound of broken speakers / windows reverberating at a warehouse party / interrupted transmissions from outer space.”

The dub sensibility is still heavily in evidence as you might expect, but this work is looser, more organic than any of his work with ADF, certainly.  The material is broken up into a morass of arterial tendrils; the unrelenting low end rolling over the listener in waves.  Actually, this is music best heard over a large soundsystem; I suspect Das has designed it that way - recently he has been working in partnership with Bantu and Ramjac.  Dhangsha live outings saw him in underground club spaces like Grow Tottenham and with 50-50 Soundsystem.

It shares some of the attributes of dub techno, but the DNA is not the same.  Where even the best dub techno has the feeling of being tightly controlled, this is seemingly on the edge of collapse at all times.  Satisfyingly, tape delay effects are allowed to feedback freely; some of the electronic drums sound like tabla.

Das himself says of Future Tense:

“A documentation of my return after over 25 years, to using hardware to pursue my undiminished love of experimental rhythm and noise. The sound is a consequence of being a practising dub musician who happens to listen to Detroit techno, particularly Underground Resistance and Robert Hood, electronic noise music and the scorched soundscapes of 70s Miles Davis.  An exploration of minimalism, repetition and fragmentation in sound and the political potential of pure frequencies.”

Available on Bandcamp for those of a non-analogue persuasion.  Recommended.

https://dhangsha.bandcamp.com/

STOP PRESS
Aniruddha posted a response to this review on social media which goes some way to explain the exact nature of his project Dhangsha, so I include it here verbatim:

"This album marks my departure from the 'dub scene' - but not from a 'dub mentality' as you rightly point out. I still utilise dub's scientific principles but am not at all interested in deliberately re-producing the 'genre,' or any of its mannerisms. The most perverse thing I've done is that as a known dub bass player of 25 years, I've not written any bass lines! What you have instead, are tuned bass drums, which, combined with de-tuned congas and other low frequency synth fragments produce 'implied' or 'imagined' bass melodies in the mind of the listener. The kicks are also modulated with a low pass filter which bends the note and produces movement. Your observation of the music being "seemingly on the edge of collapse" (a great possible album title) is spot on. It's deliberate and facilitated by feeding the entire mix through a RAT distortion pedal and blending to different degrees with the clean signal. Aside from my finding these textures rather pleasing (very disconcerting though for sound engineers and traditional dub heads) it has various implications - it represents uncertainty, discontent, debate, discussion, possible violence, destruction of discredited ideas, personal struggle etc. It is meant to f**k with your mind - in a positive way - not to be a passive, unquestioning recipient of someone else's wisdom - and compel your body to move in different, freer ways. In relation to the latter point, I've dispensed with snares and the few understated claps appear in unusual places. The rhythmic framework has been bust open - you've got 'Beat one' heavily stated to orientate you- then you're free to dance how you want."

- Aniruddha Das, august 2019

Rapt... up... again...

RAPT

Within Thrall

UK  self-released  CD/DL  (2019)

Brighton-based Jacob Ware follows up his 2018 self-titled debut album with this EP; a collaboration with Demi Haynes of the US nu-shoegaze troupe Seashine, and with the addition of Nestor Middleton on piano.  Haynes and her lank-haired troupe have perfected the kind of The Scene That Celebrates Itself (TM Steve Sutherland) or “cathedrals of sound” – there, I said it – approach typified in the late 80s by Lush, Moose, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel, Curve, Kitchens Of Distinction, Chapterhouse and Ride, which seems to be on trend in the US recently.  Despite seeing most of those 80s bands the first time, it is a trend I have little first-hand knowledge of - I do have a soft spot for Ringo Deathstarr and Ulrika Spacek - but Seashine themselves keep a fairly low profile within it.  What evidence I have found of their work on YouTube demonstrates that their output is pretty interesting, although miles away from Ware’s previous work, stylistically at least, so at first glance I thought this might be a weird pairing.  Not so.  Yes, largely a complete departure from his first – self-titled - album, Within Thrall carries over the lush production techniques but presents material less electronic in nature, more within the genre occupied by Haynes’ musical activities; neo-folk, rock influences in other words, or gentle, US-style acoustic indie-rock.  An acoustic Galaxy 500? A more upbeat Mazzy Star?  You get the idea.

Ware states: “The starting point on the EP conceptually was WB Yeats’ poem The Song Of Wandering Aengus.  Hmmm…the poem that gave Silver Apples their name.  And gave Morton Subotnik a groovy title.  You may think this poetic reference suggests wistful, windswept pale youths pining away and/or contemplating the meaning of it all from the relative mystery of a windswept promontory, deserted jetty or distressed attic room at dusk.  And you may be correct, but those are fairly apt images, considering the faintly dark mood of the music here.  Case in point is the first song, “Girl In Black”.  A minimal arrangement of Demi Haynes’ vocals, acoustic guitar and a nice Mellotron-like flute way back in the mix.  Nestor Middleton’s pretty piano parts are treated to a smudge of delay.  The chorus of “killing me…killing me…” has a backwards pad of some sort.  “Wax And Rosewood” features Ware on vocals while Haynes contributes heavily reverbed backing “aaah”s.  “Torn” sounds to be like it should be a parallel universe My Bloody Valentine demo with its whispered harmony vocals and pseudo-MBV chord progression.  Closing track “Lighthouse” has suitably remote and weather-beaten lyrics.  Isolation, regret, letting go…

Ware imbues a similar atmosphere of vague intoxication into the music on Within Thrall as on Rapt.

But where Rapt was expansive, Within Thrall is intimate.  Only his second release under the name Rapt, this is a beautiful and well put together EP.

https://rapt.bandcamp.com/album/within-thrall

Matt Atkins & Peter Marsh

Matthew Atkins & Peter Marsh

Paper Wasps

UK  Invisible City Records  ICR40  Cassette  (2019)

Paper wasps gather fibres from dead wood and plants stems which they mix with saliva and use to construct water resistant nests.  From ICR, (not to be confused with Colin Potter’s ICR), comes scuds of therapeutic laptop hums and buzzes from London based musicians Matthew Atkins and Peter Marsh.  You may recognise Marsh’s name as the bassist from the consistently wonderful Woven Entity, but he also dabbles in live soundtracks with Fourth Page and general freeformery with others including Found Drowned; a trio with drummer Crystal Moth (also from Woven Entity) and guitarist James O’Sullivan.  Atkins has released previous work under the name Platform, which was “…about lo-fi computer based sound manipulation and rhythm, twisting and deconstructing found sounds and unlocking the patterns within.”, but currently seems to be operating under his own name.  I’ve also been listening to his recent Porous Inner Montage cassette/download.  I believe Atkins is a drummer, but there is little evidence of what you might ordinarily think of as percussion in those recordings, being made up mostly of a most agreeable type of diaphanous backwards things, and delay.

Here on the four pieces that make up Paper Wasps, a stringed instrument is plucked and struck.  There is a good amount of creaking in the background and noises made by sheet steel and rebar being dragged around a builders’ yard.  Marsh is credited with "electric bass and assorted machines", which is intriguing, while Atkins uses "computer, percussion, objects, contact mics and pedals".  The music feels constructed to me, (although I cannot back this assertion up with any hard evidence); the final arrangement could have been made via software or possibly a hardware sampler.  I could be completely wrong and it may be that Messrs Atkins and Marsh have simply set up a mic in the middle of the rehearsal room and got everything as you hear it straight down to tape in one pass.  Either way, it’s certainly worth your attention.

https://invisiblecityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/paper-wasps

The Necks in Brighton

photo by Al Hill

The Necks

St Lukes Church, Brighton

Sun 26^th May 2019

Presented by Dictionary Pudding and The Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival, who were responsible for bringing this Antipodean improvising trio of Lloyd Swanton, Chris Abrahams and Tony Buck to Brighton at the same venue in 2017.  Tonight, BAJF founder Daniel Spicer makes the mildly irreverent introductions:  “Make good use of the cushions; the pews are quite hard…” Spicer urges; “The Necks will be performing two sets this evening…so that’s one per cheek…”

The Necks’ first set finds them in an abstracted mood.  Gradual changes, locked-in interplay of the type usually displayed by groupings that have played together for over thirty years.  Chris Abrahams’ piano works through every conceivable extrapolation of the key in which they play; a trembling filigree from his right hand while his left holds down rhythmic chords for drummer Tony Buck to bolster with his simultaneous shakers and bells; tinkling artefacts, openly resonating bass drum skins, simultaneously playing in marching time and syncopation.  Over the top of all this, double bassist, Lloyd Swanton coaxes simple yet effective non-typical sounds from his strings, sometimes pushing little scraps of melody off toward the edge of his plate.  At one point, the piano sounds almost like an electronic organ; lending a kind of Popol Vuh flavour to the music.  All the while, the group are bathed in an unchanging blue and pink light; the height of the church ceiling producing a lovely airy acoustic.  Beautiful music, a superb example of what can be done by three musicians improvising together at a consistently high level.

After a half hour or so interval – I use the word “interval” deliberately; this concert’s presentation at the foot of the pulpit had more than a little theatricality about it, albeit most likely unintentionally – the trio reconvene.  This time, however – and perhaps this was discussed as a strategy during the break – the initial impression is of the deep communication and delicacy of the methodically drifting first set has been lost and replaced with what seems to me, an almost a deliberate attempt to disrupt unity.  Tony Buck seems to unseat the rhythmic propulsion of the first set with a much more tangential strategy.  In fact, unison playing only happens sporadically – yet beautifully – as the players seem to concentrate on themselves as individuals.  Perhaps they simply wanted to make it a little harder on themselves; I’m all for musicians pushing their ideas of what is possible, especially improvising musicians.  Swanton veers from percussive mark-making to melodic input and Abrahams produces more electronic-like tones until, finally, unexpectedly, they bring the whole thing to a precision close with a pretty resolution; hitting the final note together in crystal harmony.

The difference in approach to each piece clearly appeals to the audience who applaud generously with even some whooping and some members off to the right hand side trying to encourage a standing ovation.  This ain’t a concert hall, sunshine, but it is the best place to see a jazz trio, only partly because St Luke’s reportedly has the best grand piano of any venue in Brighton.  Their recent long player, Vertigo is now available on vinyl as well as cd I’m told.  Best get your hands on a copy.

Diatribes - Echoes and Sirens

Diatribes

Echoes and Sirens

SWITZERLAND  Aussenraum  AR-LP-011  LP/DL  (2018)

This duo of Laurent Peter - aka d’incise - and Cyril Bondi break new ground in their pursuit of an amalgam of improvisation and modern composition, or as the sleevenotes put it; “…a possible relation between dub and experimental music.”  Echoes and Sirens is their third approach to said amalgam given a release after Augustus and Great Stone/Blood Dunza.  The task Diatribes have given themselves is to dissolve a healthy enthusiasm for dub reggae in a solution of sound production techniques before passing through a filter of extended-technique electro-acoustic improvisation.  Echoes and Sirens is a substantial piece of work.  Where on the previous records they have worked as a duo, here they employ more firepower; as well as adding Raphael Ortis on electric bass, they exploit a real horn section; Pierre-Antoine Badaroux on alto saxophone, Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Louis Lourain on trumpet and Fidel Fourneyron on trombone to great effect.

Aussenraum choose to describe what lies within these grooves in negative; “…It’s definitely not dub music, nor a dub version of experimental music, it’s not remixes nor a figurative soundscape…”  More like a silhouette.  There are flashes of the source subject; reminders or reflections of the original genre.  The sleevenotes cite the “aura” of London-based sound system operator Jah Shaka in particular as the inspiration for these pieces.  Shaka makes his own productions, most notably his Commandments of Dub series from which The Ragga Twins famously pulled a sample for their pristine 18” Speaker in 1991.  Diatribes may have borrowed the title of the first piece on Echoes and Sirens from Hugh Mundell’s Jah Fire Will Be Burning; a track Shaka has versioned.  Furthermore, the music is described as “Highly detailed textures, repeated gestures, soft tones, febrile pulses and acoustic hyper-sensibility”.  The album is presented as “Four imaginary moments of a sound system night” with the addition of “…found field recordings of Shaka’s parties and interactions with the crowd…”

The first piece is “Dub Fire Will Be Burning”.  Stretched perception.  Long-held harmony tones from the horn section; circa 44 hertz sine tones for a bassline, lo-fi shouts and cheers from the recordings of the parties, reverb-spring hits reverbed in turn, live rim-shots sporadically placed; a deliberate chord progression.  This is followed by “Tell Me, What Do You See?”  The hi-hat is used as the spine of this piece.  Shaka’s trademark siren makes its first appearance.  The sound of a vintage keyboard – possibly a Phillicorda? – is employed, and long echoes.  The horn section play a slow suave chord progression, the bass guitar stays minimal.  A flip from hi-hat to rim-shot and tambourine changes the mood to urgent; the horns become more strident.

Flipping the record over, “Don’t Trouble I (oh no)”, - the title possibly a reference to Johnny Clarke’s Don’t Trouble Trouble; an artist who has also worked with Jah Shaka - has an air of Minimalism about it.  Relentless repetition.  Bass and drums distilled down deep; forget about finding the One – this ain’t One Drop – this is No Drop.  The final piece, “Continually”, features the instantly recognisable vocal melody by Aisha – “The First Lady of Dub” no less - on Fast Forward Into Dub by Mad Professor, which you will be familiar with from Blue Room by The Orb.  Through endless repetition, Diatribes wring every last morsel of meaning out of it; a simulated locked groove.

All four pieces hover between 10 and 11 minutes each, giving a nicely four-square feel to the album.

What is common with all of Diatribes’ work is the care with which they select their sounds; often complementing percussion sounds with electronic noises of similar timbre to great effect.  They select carefully with the skill and experience of a Michelin-starred chef choosing ingredients.  The idea in use here is a good one and produces four radically different pieces.  Could Diatribes be moving experimental music on a couple of steps here?  I like to think so.  Highly recommended.

http://www.aussenraumrecords.com/

Slow Listener Live at Fort Process

Slow Listener

Live At Fort Process

UK  Chocolate Monk  CHOC425  CD-R  (2019)

Banging and a-clanging like there’s no tomorrow in suitably mysterious demeanour comes Newhaven’s premier sound-mangler Slow Listener.  Noises of beaten metal - dropped, thrown, chimed, bowed and struck - are arranged in steadily more and more yogic contortions.  These sounds were made inside Newhaven Fort at last year’s Fort Process experimental music/sound-art hoe-down.  Whether they were pre-prepared or derived from objects or the environment at the Fort is not stated but it certainly results in a chewy great wad of sonic paan with which to easily disorient the unwary spectator.  Slow Listener masticates a cheek-load over the course of 26 minutes; the steel girder intimidation gradually gives way first to suitably eerie electronic chirps and whispers and finally to phantom Morse code, slowed vocals, the smallest hint of Carnival Of Souls-style Wurlitzer, and electronically processed breathing.  Periodically, a female voice intones eerily “a thousand and seven, a thousand and twelve; eight, a thousand and five , nine nine three, nine eight eight; five, nine eight one” and so on.  The phrase “A thousand and five falling slowly” is repeated and seems to have some significance to Slow Listener.  I wonder what this is.  A numbers station?

Suitably stimulated by his own actions, Slow Listener gobs a big red gout of sickly sonic-paan residue out at the feet of Chocolate Monk heads Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance, who quite sensibly immediately sensed its transcendent potential and put it out as this here cd-r.  Constance provides the artwork for the full-colour sleeve.  Edition of 60, and be warned, Chocolate Monk titles don’t tend to hang around, so show ‘em yr heels.

www.chocolatemonk.co.uk

Cristián Alvear on Pilgrim Talk

Cristián Alvear

Pieza para Guitarra Afinada

USA  Pilgrim Talk  PT37  cassette  (2019)

Following Sarah Hennies collaboration with Cristián Alvear from 2016; Orienting Response for guitar on Mappa Editions, and the 2015 Diatribes & Cristián Alvear 3” cd Roshambo (trio) on 1000füssler, which both landed on my desk for review, here is a new one hour 29 minute solo piece for guitar from Cristián Alvear recorded at Estudios Madre Selva, Santiago de Chile in April 2018.  The slightly mysterious Pilgrim Talk tape label is a good home for this particular piece of work as their recent release schedule features modern composition including Baroque Classics (for Electronic Oscillators) – Couperin, Telemann, Scarlatti et al – and Parvae Harmoniae by Nick Hoffman.

On Pieza para Guitarra Afinada, Alvear has worked out a way to influence one’s perceptions for mysterious purposes.  Time bends.  Listen in awe as glum murders of crows contemplate the dwindling woodland habitat.  Alvear’s classical guitar exerts an iron grip on the listener’s senses though his use of subtle modulation threaded within structural repetition.  It is as if the instrument itself is audibly succumbing to a depressive episode.  The piece begins forlornly and continues with pitiless efficacy.  Alvear is commenting on his surroundings; his world – our world - if you want my opinion.  He make the guitar chime like plague bells.  It some mental temerity on Alvear’s part not just to compose such an unflinching piece of music but to then relentlessly rehearse and perform it himself as well.  Lesser souls would easily give up after half an hour and gone to the pub.  I’m making it sound faintly dark and ominous and depressing – not which the music actually is - but actually, I think Alvear is attempting to push notions of the classical guitar recital to the very edges.

Theres no doubting Alvear’s commitment to his instrument.  He knows the thing inside out.  What is also remarkable, is his accomplishments as a composer.  A process of stripping back – ideologically as well as musically.  Like neighbours who remove mature planting to “get more light” but what they are actually doing is reminding us of how uneasily close we have been placed to each other.  Proximity.  Claustrophobia.  This music is a salve to those of us who are sick of having to deal with fellow inhabitants of this world who “don’t like trees”.

It’s nice to see this on cassette – the aforementioned tape with Sarah Hennies from Mappa was presented in a wooden box with handmade inserts and is a beautiful object.  Quite a lot of my non-music friends now express surprise when I start talking about new releases on cassette; mostly they are surprised the format is still being manufactured.  “My cassette deck broke ten years ago and I didn’t see the point in replacing it” is a common articulation.  But for those of us whose first exposure to pre-recorded music was courtesy of the cassette-tape format and, more importantly, whose minds were opened by the ability to easily use them to make one’s own recordings, it’s hard to let the format go.

Alvear is co-curator of Relincha Festival in Valdivia and, together with Santiago Astaburuaga, directs LOTE, an ensemble focused on the production of experimental scores.  In addition, he coordinates concerts and experimental music workshops in rural areas of the Los Lagos region of Chile.  For this, and other more prosaic bureaucratic reasons, Alvear rarely visits the UK, although at the time of writing, I believe he will be touring Europe and the UK in May.  Keep an eye out – that prospect is not to be missed.

The Lessons Of The Past...

Mattin

Songbook #7

Germany  Munster Records  ???  LP  (2019)

This morning as the grey clouds parted, out of the murk appeared a brand new, curious and unsolicited item from Mattin’s infamous anti-copyright operation.  At first glance, it appears to be a document of a theatre piece of sorts; a recording of a performance at Cologne’s Digging The Global South Festival from November 2017.  This lp functions as part theatre, part concert of improvisation, part history lesson.  As you might expect from Mattin, it is delivered, in places, with no small amount of outrage or vitriol.  Some of this vitriol is delivered in an overdriven punk-vocal style, but at other times, text is recited quietly and calmly, although the methods utilized for the recording of vocals remain resolutely low fidelity.  Sometimes a pitch effect is used.  Texts are recited sometimes in English, sometimes in German.  Sometimes, when the pitch effect is particularly thickly used, the meaning of the words becomes lost entirely.

Mattin pulls together an interesting group to help him realise this work (and claims the record was made “collectively”); artists Lucio Capece, Marcel Dickhage and Cathleen Schuster alongside experimental musicians Moor Mother, Colin Hacklander and Farahnaz Hatam.  Capece – he of the floating balloon/speakers soundwork EPOCHÉ - uses bass clarinet and sampler.  Berlin-based Schuster and Dickhage apparently “…engage with the contemporary environment, evolve in dialogues and [what] could be termed as critical shaping”.  Here, they are responsible for voice, sampler and texts in German.  Moor Mother is a “…self-described Afrofuturist, she uses spacetime-bending sound and lyricism to reformulate concepts of memory, history, and the future in an afrocentric or afrodiasporic tradition”.  On Songbook #7 she uses electronics.  Colin Hacklander and Farahnaz Hatam have a pre-existing duo; Hacklander plays drums while Hatam utilizes computer.  Hacklander is  fairly prolific and has worked with Mark Ernestus’ Jeri-Jeri and NU Unruh, while interestingly, Hatam co-founded N.K., Berlin’s “…space for the avant-garde and non-mainstream culture”.

In the included four-page libretto, texts from the piece are reproduced which give an introduction to the history of revolutionary politics of the early Twentieth Century, focussing in particular on the year 1917.  The texts are printed in English and German.  Also included are lighting notes for the stage production itself, the tracklisting – tracks are named after the first seven months of the year – and a quote from the activist Germaine Berton, whose visage adorns the sleeve.  Berton is infamous for having assassinated Marius Plateau, the Secretary of the Far-Right political organization Action Française in 1923, being unable to find her initial target, its leader Leon Daudet.  She was subsequently acquitted, but eventually died by her own hand four days after Daudet’s own death in 1942.

My first exposure to Mattin was the Sakada 3” cd document of his 2002 meeting with Eddie Prevost released on Confront.  This was recorded at a concert in the basement of Mark Wastell’s Sound 323 record shop in London and Mattin is credited with “computer feedback”.  As an aside, Mattin has also worked with Mark Wastell in Belaska, whose two releases, VAULT and Reductionism Is Dead may be hard to come by these days.  For me, this record exists more as a sign post for further research than a musical piece to listen to for entertainment, but I’m guessing that’s partly Mattin’s intention here.  So check it out yourself; do your own research.  Recommended.

Two From The ‘Hood

Tim Burness

Interconnected

UK  Expanding Consciousness  EXPAND16  CD/DL  (2018)

In which Tim Burness teams up with Monty Oxymoron (The Vitamin B12, The Damned) on keyboards, Keith Hastings on bass, drummer Fudge Smith (ex Pendragon), rhythm programming courtesy of Julian Tardo, who also co-produced, engineered and mastered the album and Paul Pascoe.  Tim sings, plays guitar and synth parts and wrote all the material.  He adds the following statement to the copyright information on the sleeve; “However, as we all know, a little bit of copying here and there never hurt anyone” which made me chuckle.  And quite right.

Tim Burness was part of the new wave of British progressive rock in the 1980s with his band Burnessence.  I first came across him accompanying himself on acoustic guitar at the Brighton Festival of Freedom back in 1995.  Eight albums later, he’s at the cutting edge of what he terms “progressive pop-rock”.  He’s not alone; see Galahad’s continued existence, or Mandragora’s recent reunion at Rumbellion.  There’s also the current upward trajectories of ex-Levitation guitarists Bic Hayes’ Zofff and Terry Bickers’ duo with Pete Fij to consider, and Lewes Psych Festival going strong.  I saw Kavus Torabi & Steve Davis spinning Prog in London last year and found myself at a Nik Turner gig the other weekend.  Burness, however, is interested in conveying ideas as much as drifting off to a bitchin’ synth pad or digging an unusual time signature.  Throughout Interconnected there’s a seam of commentary that shows Burness’ interests; the health of the planet, society, philosophy and astrology.

The album kicks off with the super-positive and upbeat “Electric Energy”.  Burness displays an endearingly British vocal delivery even when he’s feeling particularly hopeless and desperate as on “I Am Afraid (Saturn Conjunct Pluto)”.  Here is the first evidence of his preoccupation with our current situation as a species; “Can we turn it around?  We’ve reached our limits.”  He continues with the refrain “save us from idiots, save us from ourselves” on “Freedom”.  “Making It Up” is based around a beautiful piano and string synth arrangement, while the skewed, 60s-style jazz-rock riff of “Still Mumbling” could almost be the germ of a Stereolab track.

“Ants” is a paranoid waking dream propelled by a spooky backwards loop, where Burness presents himself as a newly self-aware drone; seeing for the first time the proverbial “glitch in the matrix”.  “Beautiful World” successfully evokes the mood of pre-Dark Side… -era Pink Floyd - lush Mellotron, rotary speaker effects on the guitar and vocal harmonies on the middle eight.  And appropriately wobbly, tape-saturated chords underpinning Julian Tardo’s guitar solo.  The disc finishes on a lighter note with the catchy sing-a-long “One More Time” showcasing saloon bar-style piano alongside Burness’ kooky lyrics about personal relations, or a quick smoke, or none of the above.

Burness asserts that the album is “Based on a concept of the interconnectedness of all things…”  This is a notion that also came to me one clement autumn afternoon in the early 90s while lying on the grass in rural parkland in Surrey…  An idea that resonates with a lot of people.  On the whole, a strong piece of work; strangely appealing.

www.timburness.com

The Emperors Of Ice Cream

Employees Of Ice Cream

UK  Self-released  no number  CD/DL  (2018)

Some superb Brighton-based slackness here, released at the cold end of 2018 from a group featuring Tim Cottrell, Joe Cutting, Sam Cutting, and Karl M V Waugh.  Mister Waugh has had his hand in a few other projects over recent years; DR:WR, Binnsclagg and the A Band for example.  While those projects are all of an experimental nature, the Emperors of Ice Cream are a traditional group of the vaguely “post-punk/rock” variety, pulling their moves partly from the US alt-rock bands we all loved so much.  These guys have been listening to their parents’ record collections and good thing too.  All hail Hanover and the paint-flecked flannel shirts within.  Previous output has included the Kickstarted Picture Pout/Small Time Hero  7”, and an ep, Second Names, from 2015, plus a cassette, This Thing, and a three-song limited cd less from 2016.

The superbly nihilistic “Nothing Belongs to You” sets the tone with its scratchy guitars, two note melody and repeated lyric, while “Oh!” is a cynical put-down of youthful selfishness; almost Pavement-y or Parquet Courts-ish in its initial moments.  There’s an almost early 70s pop sensibility about the doubled vocals and the barest hint of that elusive Tony Visconti-esque production sound.  Like a forgotten Malkmous ballad, “Ain’t Got The Money” says “we’re just gassin’ so it’s fine” and “you ain’t got the right lies” which resonates with me for reasons I’m not entirely sure about.

“Test Case” is like putting 1960s Venice Beach sociopaths Love in a stuck lift for four days without their medicine - all antagonistic guitars and cyclical white-out rhythm section.  Guitars are in their respective corners; panned hard left and right, all the better to absorb their demented counterpoint.

“The Sunshine Song” a cruelly distressed wah-wah pedal is deployed on this brutally short track.  Over way too soon.  The genius “Can I Lie Down In The Snow”  is probably the most entertaining song I’ve come across about mental distress, (if that is what its actually about).  Punkish buzzsaw guitars and a chant-a-long lyric.  “What You Did” is nine and a half minutes of epic-ness reminiscent of the unsettling vibe of Charlottefield’s Noisestar improvisation, only we’re in the modern digital recording era now and the track ends with the guitars producing remarkable digital feedback drones.  You can really hear the difference in how analogue and digital pedals sound, I think.

Employees of Ice Cream was recorded and mixed by Mark Roberts at Brighton Electric and a very high production was achieved with the material.  As much as I love the lo-fi, garagey-sounding approach to recording bands – “Give Me Less” on the Emperor’s Less is a good example - I love being able to discern the words just as much.  I believe these guys gig a fair bit so if you get the opportunity to see ‘em, take it.

https://theemperorsoficecream.bandcamp.com/

Puddling by The Static Memories

The Static Memories

Puddling

UK  Linear Obsessional  LOR107  CD  (2018)

Just squeezed into the very end of the 2018 Linear Obsessional release schedule is this stunning item from Brighton musicians Gus Garside and Dan Powell.  Before I go any further, there is probably a need for disclosure on my part in relation to this duo.  Firstly, the label I manage, TSOKL, released the Static Memories’ 2014 album The bloudy vision of John Farley and thus I was closely involved in the brokerage of that release.  Secondly, I occasionally record with Dan Powell under the name Brambling.  And lastly, I have recently begun developing a project with double bassist Gus Garside.  Okay.  So far, so incestuous.  You may quite reasonably assume – based on this information – that I might be far from neutral in my appraisal of Puddling.  It’s fair to say that I have a lot of admiration for these dudes’ musical output, yes, but I was sent a review copy, so my intention is to try my hardest to be impartial.

On Puddling, Garside plays double bass and electronics while Powell uses “electronic and acoustic objects”, “electronic…objects” being a fairly opaque way to describe software and various associated pieces of hardware.  But there’s nothing wrong with a little mystique. 

I particularly like the pieces that don’t immediately conform to what one might expect from electro-acoustic improvisation: “The Moon”, “Recedes at Daybreak” (an interesting noise at the beginning like hearing distant rock guitar out of doors), “The Homeless”, and “The Fifteenth Boulder” all share a searching quality; an attempt to break new ground.  On the other hand, after repeated listens, pieces like “Time and the Hunter” or “The Pilgrimage” could be viewed as a little over-wrought or conventional in comparison, perhaps.  One other interesting thing that I’ve not been aware of so much in their previous work, is the inclusion of unprocessed sounds of hand percussion: bellstrings, shakers and the like, drifting and evaporating like small clouds on a summer’s day.  It reminds me a little of Powell’s other project, Nil; an improvising duo who use acoustic objects exclusively.

On the whole, Puddling is good, considered, balanced improvisation.  The Static Memories refer to their work as “…music spontaneously composed…”. but let’s not split hairs.  The pieces appear to have been the result of more than one session, being recorded over winter and spring 2017-2018.  So, not your usual free improv, then, but testament to the good taste and discerning palette of Linear Obsessional boss, Richard Sanderson, who has been involved in myriad experimental projects himself and, therefore, knows his onions, as it were.

https://www.linearobsessional.org/

Two from Marginal Frequency

Sandy Ewen & Chase Gardiner

Transfusion

USA  Marginal Frequency  MFCD B  CD  (2018)

An interesting pairing here, from the consistently excellent Marginal Frequency imprint run by Laminal Audio’s A. F. Jones out of Kitsap County, Washington USA.  Sandy Ewen is described as “an experimental guitarist, artist and architect” whose playing is “centred around found objects and extended guitar techniques”, while Chase Gardner “is an artist with a focus on exploring the abstract elements of art in order to express his personality and ideas”.  The music they present here is extremely well-presented as you would expect from a Marginal Frequency release and has a close-up, surgical focus I particularly enjoy in material derived from prepared instruments.  These are very brutish - in a good way - and upfront guitar extrapolations featuring lots of interesting techniques not least of which is a process Gardiner describes as “divided pickup”.  Are we to assume a physically divided guitar pickup?  Divided how, I wonder?  Physically by splitting the output of said pickup or by making two movable pickups or theoretically - by way of separate EQ-ing, perhaps?  Intriguing, but no further explanation.  Perhaps none is needed.

Interestingly, Ewen spent much of 2017 performing solo sets and in collaboration with Steve Jansen (tapes and electronics) and Maria Chavez (turntables) around Europe – Chavez is performing in the UK in the early part of 2019 I believe – while in 2018, she performed at the Sant'anna Arresi Jazz Festival, Experimental Sound Studio Option Series and the High Zero Festival.  There is also evidence of a performance with Keith Rowe and Damon Smith from 2012 on YouTube.  Gardner is involved in a variety of different projects such as his experimental music duo with Adriana Valls, Cut Shutters and appears to be involved in various North Texas-based improvised music ensembles.

Transfusion is a compelling document of these two artists’ current practice.  Certainly the sounds they have developed for this album are very curious; there is an emphasis on a percussive approach as well as the generation of unusual timbres, particularly on “Molded”, for example.  There is a sense of urgency as well, which I like; the pace is set pretty quick from the outset but despite this, there are no lulls in the performances, no surfacing for air.  They take their feet off the gas briefly during “Sync” but even then, they demonstrate an intensity of action with even the slightest movements and adjustments.  Mastered by the afore-mentioned A.F. Jones at Laminal Audio.

  

Howard Stelzer

Across the Blazer

USA  Marginal Frequency  MFCD C  CD  (2018)

Howard Stelzer is an artist whose palette is almost entirely made up of domestic tape machines.  The way he employs those devices, for me, give an overall effect that is rather like the sound your ears make when you are underwater.  In other words, you are still hearing the world around you, going about its business as usual, coexisting blithely as it always does, but with a big, dense filter getting in between, clouding your perceptions.  It’s a comforting filter, almost imperceptible, momentarily cloaking and protecting you from your surroundings; hiding your existence in time and place, but with the unspoken threat of unintentional harm; the element of surprise – forget not to breath and you’ll be thrust back into the open in a violent and sudden explosion of panic…

You may also be familiar with the label Intransitive which Stelzer ran from 1997 through to 2012.  The Intransitive back catalogue features many big names in the “experimental” arena; Roel Meelkop, Richard Chartier, Jim Haynes, C. Spencer Yeh, Kapotte Musiek, and many others.  Stelzer himself has worked with Vic Rawlings, Jason Talbot, Frans de Waard, John Hegre, Jazzkammer and David Payne.  Stelzer’s pivotal solo release seems to be 2008’s Bond Inlets, which Stelzer himself refers to as “my first artistically successful proper album after numerous false starts.”

Here, the first piece, “Selective Memory (You Never Know Absolutely Quite Where You Are)” presents a broad range of tape detritus from channel-tuning television static to a distant thunderstorm heard through earplugs.  Relax, as all our changes are smoothly transitioning.  It could be that we are hearing sounds of tape itself, or the mechanisms of various machines, or sound recorded onto tape in certain and multifarious lo-fi ways.  Either way, a good way to unwind at the end of a stressful day.

The second of the two pieces is “Across the Blazer”.  What is this “blazer” I wonder?  Possibly complex distilled strings with a classic crescendo model in terms of dynamic, additive composition.  I found it less obviously relaxing than “Selective Memory…”; its dynamic alone ramps up the anxiety, even before the amplified distorted driven-into-the-red bell chimes make an appearance but composed as it is from the sharpened essence of brittle shards of orchestral strings, the overall sonic effect is harrowing.  My new favourite bedtime listening.

http://margfreq.laminalaudio.com/