Friday, June 16, 2006
henri chopin
les mirifiques tundras & compagnie 12"
[1997, alga marghen]
the daddy of all this treated vocal primitivist bullshit, chopin i think could probably be traced back to the late 40s, when home taping was pretty much born. dude's still around too; don't know how active he is, since he's now a hunched old man with a crazy gleam in his eye, but he had a slot at instal a year or two ago. this lp (a picture lp, complete with letterist pattern) draws about half/half from his mid to late work.
first side's a fairly raw home recording from '72; chopin's known for drawing out and electronically manipulating his voice to make it a little less (or more?) than human, and this reflects that more so than the b-side. there's a lo-fi vocal concrete theme here, rolling clattering noises and breath; from what i can gather is a more reliable gauge of his career. momentum never really slows as utterance and distortion piles all over itself, and it's easy to imagine him wielding proto-noise influence, if only someone'd paid attention. singular stuff. it's a way more eloquent display of his philosophy than his writing, i've gotta say, which is like the scribblings of a raving derelict. one thing i was suprised at, after the record was over, was how long it took for the superficial fast-forward to the skaters to pop up in my mind. even with the psychedelic throb, i can see enough common ground for a mail-collab. wildly unrealistic, and possibly mildly sacreligious, but hey...
side b starts with alga marghen prematurely burying chopin with "his last ever audiopoem", circa 1995. love the optimism. basically rather than go for a blow-by-blow account of side b, both
the pieces indulge in classic letterist sound poems, which run off a basic "sound vocabulary" made up of hundreds of refined clicks, grunts and vocal noises. they're both from the nineties, so theyre dependent to some extent on the lung capacity of a seventy year old, despite the fact he puts in a pretty killer effort for his age. i don't mean that in a dismissive way, but it limits any real aggressive edge to the works. there doesn't seem to be too much manipulation involved, so i have to assume he grew to prefer the purist approach.
all up, i can't say for sure where this fits into the chopin oeuvre, but i won't be selling it. he may have better records, but if you see this in a store and at reasonable price (two moons which admittedly rarely align under alga marghen) then you'd be a fool to miss out.
reviewed by blackandgold
[1997, alga marghen]
the daddy of all this treated vocal primitivist bullshit, chopin i think could probably be traced back to the late 40s, when home taping was pretty much born. dude's still around too; don't know how active he is, since he's now a hunched old man with a crazy gleam in his eye, but he had a slot at instal a year or two ago. this lp (a picture lp, complete with letterist pattern) draws about half/half from his mid to late work.first side's a fairly raw home recording from '72; chopin's known for drawing out and electronically manipulating his voice to make it a little less (or more?) than human, and this reflects that more so than the b-side. there's a lo-fi vocal concrete theme here, rolling clattering noises and breath; from what i can gather is a more reliable gauge of his career. momentum never really slows as utterance and distortion piles all over itself, and it's easy to imagine him wielding proto-noise influence, if only someone'd paid attention. singular stuff. it's a way more eloquent display of his philosophy than his writing, i've gotta say, which is like the scribblings of a raving derelict. one thing i was suprised at, after the record was over, was how long it took for the superficial fast-forward to the skaters to pop up in my mind. even with the psychedelic throb, i can see enough common ground for a mail-collab. wildly unrealistic, and possibly mildly sacreligious, but hey...
side b starts with alga marghen prematurely burying chopin with "his last ever audiopoem", circa 1995. love the optimism. basically rather than go for a blow-by-blow account of side b, both
the pieces indulge in classic letterist sound poems, which run off a basic "sound vocabulary" made up of hundreds of refined clicks, grunts and vocal noises. they're both from the nineties, so theyre dependent to some extent on the lung capacity of a seventy year old, despite the fact he puts in a pretty killer effort for his age. i don't mean that in a dismissive way, but it limits any real aggressive edge to the works. there doesn't seem to be too much manipulation involved, so i have to assume he grew to prefer the purist approach.all up, i can't say for sure where this fits into the chopin oeuvre, but i won't be selling it. he may have better records, but if you see this in a store and at reasonable price (two moons which admittedly rarely align under alga marghen) then you'd be a fool to miss out.
reviewed by blackandgold
hans grüsel's kränkenkabinet
happy as pitch
[2006, c.i.p.]
hans grüsel's kränkenkabinet are, i believe, a duo, consisting of hans, and, naturally, gretel (and a cuckoo clock!). they're a performance-based experimental group from san francisco, which has spawned like-minded artists rubber-o-cement and caroliner, both of which involve s.f. noise fixture grux.
happy as pitch is hgk's fifth release, including one live recording, and it's their first for blake edwards' (aka vertonen) c.i.p. label. it's the third album that i've heard from them and i'd say it's a bit different than the ones i'd previously listened to. das boot was more of a 'structured' affair, and had a bit more live instrumentation. ein haunted sommerplatz, which i really enjoyed, was definitely the noisier of the two.
the thirteen tracks presented here are broken down into three distinct movements, all of which having their own sound. they're conveniently titled; happy, as and pitch. each of tracks within the movements all blend seamlessly together, but at the same time are interesting enough to work as individual tracks as well as part of the whole.
while hans and gretel did have considerable help from guest musicians, most notably of which liz allbee, who lends her trumpeting skills here, the overall sound is dominated by a variety of synthesizers and other electronic gadgets i've never heard of, such as the cracklebox.
out of three movements, i'd have to say that pitch would be my favorite. there's considerably less of the electronic bleeps and blips that were prevalent on as, and it's a bit more noisy than the others. that's noisy as in having a lot of different things going on at once. pitch also happens to have the most actual instrumentation on it. double bass, percussion, clarinet, trumpet, violin, guitar and piano can all be heard here, in addition to the electronics (and tap shoes!), giving it great balance.
Unter Wasser Varriation Two/Master Hands (Scene 3) (from the Pitch movement)
[2006, c.i.p.]
hans grüsel's kränkenkabinet are, i believe, a duo, consisting of hans, and, naturally, gretel (and a cuckoo clock!). they're a performance-based experimental group from san francisco, which has spawned like-minded artists rubber-o-cement and caroliner, both of which involve s.f. noise fixture grux.
happy as pitch is hgk's fifth release, including one live recording, and it's their first for blake edwards' (aka vertonen) c.i.p. label. it's the third album that i've heard from them and i'd say it's a bit different than the ones i'd previously listened to. das boot was more of a 'structured' affair, and had a bit more live instrumentation. ein haunted sommerplatz, which i really enjoyed, was definitely the noisier of the two.the thirteen tracks presented here are broken down into three distinct movements, all of which having their own sound. they're conveniently titled; happy, as and pitch. each of tracks within the movements all blend seamlessly together, but at the same time are interesting enough to work as individual tracks as well as part of the whole.
while hans and gretel did have considerable help from guest musicians, most notably of which liz allbee, who lends her trumpeting skills here, the overall sound is dominated by a variety of synthesizers and other electronic gadgets i've never heard of, such as the cracklebox.out of three movements, i'd have to say that pitch would be my favorite. there's considerably less of the electronic bleeps and blips that were prevalent on as, and it's a bit more noisy than the others. that's noisy as in having a lot of different things going on at once. pitch also happens to have the most actual instrumentation on it. double bass, percussion, clarinet, trumpet, violin, guitar and piano can all be heard here, in addition to the electronics (and tap shoes!), giving it great balance.
Unter Wasser Varriation Two/Master Hands (Scene 3) (from the Pitch movement)