Thursday, August 17, 2006
oks recordings of north america
this package comes from jonah goldstein and bill byrne's oks label, operating out of nyc. going into this, i had no prior knowledge of the label nor its artists, but bill sent me one hell of a press kit with all the information i'd ever need to know. i was definitely impressed with his thoroughness and appreciated the professionalism shown on oks's part. okay, firstly we have...
the painful leg injuries
backwards, broken and incorrectly
[2005, oksrna]
ok, yes, first things first, the project name. what's up with it? who knows. sure, it's not the greatest, but don't let that first impression be the lasting one. the painful leg injuries are a duo comprised of bill byrne and his wife suzanne. pli is mostly bill's doing, suzanne lends her cello talents, but all other instrumentation and electronics are handled by bill, and their music is mostly of the downtempto/ambient/electronic sort.
upon first listen, via the duo's myspace, just to get a feel for where the painful leg injuries were coming from, musically, i foolishly lumped pli into the drone/ambient realm, but after listening to them more closely, i realize that they are more than that, much more. the music is very layered. there may be quite a bit going on at once, but it all has a balance to it and nothing ever seems forced or like it's too much. also, there's a definite sense of melody to the music that i didn't pick up on at first, in my haste. one of my favorite things about the music here is how well bill can bring together colder, uglier (i mean that in a good way) sounds with prettier, more memorable ones. i can appreciate each of those on their own, but when brought
together, the results can be stunning. my eveinng strolls and can i always be the cosmos? are the main tracks that really bring this meshing to your attention. the latter has a background layer that is pretty sparse and cold sounding, but then there's also some prettier theremin (possibly) playing, and what sounds like the kind of chimes that you'd hear from an old music box. the former has a similiarly themed backdrop with some nicer sounding, memorable music. those two tracks pretty much constitute the nicer sounding portion of the album. the rest of it is a colder listen. while there's more going on to each track aside from that detached feeling, there's less of a melodic element than what was displayed during the first few tracks, but that's not to say that the rest is less sonically interesting. it's actually probably for the best that pli doesn't portray itself as a one-trick pony, it keeps the disc dynamic. so this whole marching idea didn't work out and found me in the dark are backwards, broken and incorrectly's noisier tracks. noisier in terms of the piece's main layer, the rest is either ambient electronics or instrumentation, but they're definitely louder than the rest of the pieces on the album. excluding songs that i've talked about, the remainder is a more subdued affair, but definitely enjoyable.
bill sent me the foxy digitalis review for this cd, along with everything else, and the reviewer noted that he was 'won over by the total lack of melody that permeates the entire album', and i'd have to disagree (overall i thought their review, while positive, wasn't very informative). it's not completely catchy, but there are moments on here that you can get into and that are pretty noteworthy. though the album does spend the majority of it's time in more austere territories, nevertheless, backwards, broken and incorrectly is an excellent listen, and a fine debut release for the duo. it's also a nicely packaged cd. when experimental can sometimes by synonymous with no frills, it's refreshing to have some people who care about the visual presentation as well as the music...and not have it cost twenty bucks.
Hum It Casually, Like You Mean It
various artists
men in white coats
[2006, oksrna]
typically, when you hear the phrase 'men in white coats', you think of the people who come and take folks away to nuthouses...those aren't the men in white coats that this compilation is appealing to, rather, what we have right here is a science-themed album. loosely, from my standpoint, taking their cues from biology, physics, graphology, psychiatry, cryptozoology and chemistry, we have an experimental compilation with quite a backstory behind it. from oks: 'crystalline atmospherics collide with dense cinematic behemoths across each one minute piece inspired by a different scientific concept, theorem, or phenomenon'. altogether, there's forty-five tracks by three different projects: el plan de aguavodka, the painful leg injuries and the unevenness of the moon's surface. this disc marks the first major release from el plan and the unevenness of the moon's surface. the compilation works wonderfully as a whole, with the artists taking alternating turns, but for reviewing purposes i'll break it down into individual efforts.
u/m/s is oks's other co-owner, jonah goldstein. prior to this project, jonah's big claim to fame was as a sound designer and movie editor. also worth mentioning, for the sheer absurdity factor, is that jonah collaborated with musical weirdo crispin glover, better known as george mcfly from the back to the future movie franchise. awesome. the fifteen one minute tracks that jonah offers us are all quite good and show off a nice range. if i had to stick to one predominant sound, it would be a somber experimental one. it's hard to really capture someone's overall sound when you're working with, roughly, one minute long songs, but while a majority of the pieces might not stick in your mind afterwards, they're good to listen to while they're there, and they're interesting enough that i'd want to check out more fully realized works by jonah's u/m/s endeavor. that's the most important part.
el plan de aguavodka is the result of ohio-based multimedia artist john ibarra's labor. perhaps, even moreso than jonah's offerings, el plan manages to cover a lot of ground with his sixteen compositions. sure, like the other two artists on here, john can whip up some cold, distant, sounds, but he'll also throw in some organic instrumentation, field recordings, noisier pieces and a few of his tracks are pretty memorable.
pli's works on the comp. drop the sense of melody shown on backwards and adopt a bit more of an experimental noise angle. i'd say that the noise aspect is much more of a factor than on his debut album. it's not harsh, not at all, but if you go into this cd expecting the ambient side of bill's music, you'd be in for a bit of a surprise. i definitely like the direction of these compositions. i won't say that i like them more than the toned-down works, each has its own identity, and all styles are pulled off nicely.
science was definitely not my favorite subject back in school, and i nearly failed physics in high school, but that doesn't stop me from liking this cd. i can't say that i pick up on the theme that these artists are trying to convey, but i was entertained by all the explanations of the tracks and their titles. to read what i'm reading go here. the album is a very nice experimental compilation, and while it was a pain in the ass to tag all of the mp3s from the cd, i liked the fact that compositions averaged around a minute in length, and each artist managed to express a lot in that given time. it's hard for me to choose a favorite artist on here, they all put their best foot forward and offer their own unique stylings. listen to it and judge for yourself.
The Unevenness of the Moon's Surface Rapture Of The Deep: L'ivresse Des Grandes Profondeurs
El Plan de Aguavodka Red Hot Symbiogenesis Jam
The Painful Leg Injuries The Timecube Cubed
the painful leg injuries
backwards, broken and incorrectly
[2005, oksrna]
ok, yes, first things first, the project name. what's up with it? who knows. sure, it's not the greatest, but don't let that first impression be the lasting one. the painful leg injuries are a duo comprised of bill byrne and his wife suzanne. pli is mostly bill's doing, suzanne lends her cello talents, but all other instrumentation and electronics are handled by bill, and their music is mostly of the downtempto/ambient/electronic sort.
upon first listen, via the duo's myspace, just to get a feel for where the painful leg injuries were coming from, musically, i foolishly lumped pli into the drone/ambient realm, but after listening to them more closely, i realize that they are more than that, much more. the music is very layered. there may be quite a bit going on at once, but it all has a balance to it and nothing ever seems forced or like it's too much. also, there's a definite sense of melody to the music that i didn't pick up on at first, in my haste. one of my favorite things about the music here is how well bill can bring together colder, uglier (i mean that in a good way) sounds with prettier, more memorable ones. i can appreciate each of those on their own, but when brought
together, the results can be stunning. my eveinng strolls and can i always be the cosmos? are the main tracks that really bring this meshing to your attention. the latter has a background layer that is pretty sparse and cold sounding, but then there's also some prettier theremin (possibly) playing, and what sounds like the kind of chimes that you'd hear from an old music box. the former has a similiarly themed backdrop with some nicer sounding, memorable music. those two tracks pretty much constitute the nicer sounding portion of the album. the rest of it is a colder listen. while there's more going on to each track aside from that detached feeling, there's less of a melodic element than what was displayed during the first few tracks, but that's not to say that the rest is less sonically interesting. it's actually probably for the best that pli doesn't portray itself as a one-trick pony, it keeps the disc dynamic. so this whole marching idea didn't work out and found me in the dark are backwards, broken and incorrectly's noisier tracks. noisier in terms of the piece's main layer, the rest is either ambient electronics or instrumentation, but they're definitely louder than the rest of the pieces on the album. excluding songs that i've talked about, the remainder is a more subdued affair, but definitely enjoyable.bill sent me the foxy digitalis review for this cd, along with everything else, and the reviewer noted that he was 'won over by the total lack of melody that permeates the entire album', and i'd have to disagree (overall i thought their review, while positive, wasn't very informative). it's not completely catchy, but there are moments on here that you can get into and that are pretty noteworthy. though the album does spend the majority of it's time in more austere territories, nevertheless, backwards, broken and incorrectly is an excellent listen, and a fine debut release for the duo. it's also a nicely packaged cd. when experimental can sometimes by synonymous with no frills, it's refreshing to have some people who care about the visual presentation as well as the music...and not have it cost twenty bucks.
Hum It Casually, Like You Mean It
men in white coats
[2006, oksrna]
typically, when you hear the phrase 'men in white coats', you think of the people who come and take folks away to nuthouses...those aren't the men in white coats that this compilation is appealing to, rather, what we have right here is a science-themed album. loosely, from my standpoint, taking their cues from biology, physics, graphology, psychiatry, cryptozoology and chemistry, we have an experimental compilation with quite a backstory behind it. from oks: 'crystalline atmospherics collide with dense cinematic behemoths across each one minute piece inspired by a different scientific concept, theorem, or phenomenon'. altogether, there's forty-five tracks by three different projects: el plan de aguavodka, the painful leg injuries and the unevenness of the moon's surface. this disc marks the first major release from el plan and the unevenness of the moon's surface. the compilation works wonderfully as a whole, with the artists taking alternating turns, but for reviewing purposes i'll break it down into individual efforts.
u/m/s is oks's other co-owner, jonah goldstein. prior to this project, jonah's big claim to fame was as a sound designer and movie editor. also worth mentioning, for the sheer absurdity factor, is that jonah collaborated with musical weirdo crispin glover, better known as george mcfly from the back to the future movie franchise. awesome. the fifteen one minute tracks that jonah offers us are all quite good and show off a nice range. if i had to stick to one predominant sound, it would be a somber experimental one. it's hard to really capture someone's overall sound when you're working with, roughly, one minute long songs, but while a majority of the pieces might not stick in your mind afterwards, they're good to listen to while they're there, and they're interesting enough that i'd want to check out more fully realized works by jonah's u/m/s endeavor. that's the most important part.
el plan de aguavodka is the result of ohio-based multimedia artist john ibarra's labor. perhaps, even moreso than jonah's offerings, el plan manages to cover a lot of ground with his sixteen compositions. sure, like the other two artists on here, john can whip up some cold, distant, sounds, but he'll also throw in some organic instrumentation, field recordings, noisier pieces and a few of his tracks are pretty memorable.
pli's works on the comp. drop the sense of melody shown on backwards and adopt a bit more of an experimental noise angle. i'd say that the noise aspect is much more of a factor than on his debut album. it's not harsh, not at all, but if you go into this cd expecting the ambient side of bill's music, you'd be in for a bit of a surprise. i definitely like the direction of these compositions. i won't say that i like them more than the toned-down works, each has its own identity, and all styles are pulled off nicely.
science was definitely not my favorite subject back in school, and i nearly failed physics in high school, but that doesn't stop me from liking this cd. i can't say that i pick up on the theme that these artists are trying to convey, but i was entertained by all the explanations of the tracks and their titles. to read what i'm reading go here. the album is a very nice experimental compilation, and while it was a pain in the ass to tag all of the mp3s from the cd, i liked the fact that compositions averaged around a minute in length, and each artist managed to express a lot in that given time. it's hard for me to choose a favorite artist on here, they all put their best foot forward and offer their own unique stylings. listen to it and judge for yourself.
The Unevenness of the Moon's Surface Rapture Of The Deep: L'ivresse Des Grandes Profondeurs
El Plan de Aguavodka Red Hot Symbiogenesis Jam
The Painful Leg Injuries The Timecube Cubed
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
zhong minjie
for those times without sound
[2005, stumble]
zhong minjie, aka justin zhong minjie, aka justin zhong (but never justin minjie. NEVER.), has been kicking around the fledgling chinese sound art scene since at least 2002, before he landed himself a spot on the china:sonic avant-garde showcase. priceless exposure, but i'll hold off on declaring his super-stardom for now (something fellow contributors fm3 managed to pull off through a combination of gimmickry and collectability). since then he's been releasing a clutch of works on stumble, his own label; a label that's becoming more and more interesting as it seems to be the distributor for the new 21floor visual/sound collective that minjie is a member of.
for those times without sound marks a transitional period for minjie, which sees him move away from the harsher tonal noise works which found their way onto the showcase, into a more layered field closer to musique concrete. the combinations of
field recording and electronic manipulations draw out a bleak inner-city industrialised counterpart to the humanity of fellow chinese concreteist daijun yao's excellent cinnabar red drizzle. minjie's explicit contribution is dominated by a low-end which runs the gamut from viscous rumbles to aquatic resonance, without interfering too heavy-handedly in the use of found sound layered on top. more subtle is the splicing together of the pre-recorded materials, which prevents the record sliding into the same basket as any number of homemade basement cdrs the world over. while none of the taped sound sources are particularly spectacular (even fairly mundane to experienced ears), given half a chance a fairly elaborate structure emerges; one which seems just as happy to adopt a bastardised cage-ian philosophy where sounds are liberally assembled into what feels right as opposed to revelling in the particular properties of any one source.
not immediately inviting, but given a little time it's extended passages of tightly-packed metropolitan space are as compelling as any of his emerging countrymen. anyone put off by the well-beaten path he's treading or the relatively muddy diy production values is missing out on a promising new talent. cleaner sound and a more extensive effort to build a distinct and localised statement in future (rather than just sound constructions) could produce a total killer. the potential for the new 21floor collective is mouthwatering.
For Those Times Without Sound 08
[2005, stumble]
zhong minjie, aka justin zhong minjie, aka justin zhong (but never justin minjie. NEVER.), has been kicking around the fledgling chinese sound art scene since at least 2002, before he landed himself a spot on the china:sonic avant-garde showcase. priceless exposure, but i'll hold off on declaring his super-stardom for now (something fellow contributors fm3 managed to pull off through a combination of gimmickry and collectability). since then he's been releasing a clutch of works on stumble, his own label; a label that's becoming more and more interesting as it seems to be the distributor for the new 21floor visual/sound collective that minjie is a member of.
for those times without sound marks a transitional period for minjie, which sees him move away from the harsher tonal noise works which found their way onto the showcase, into a more layered field closer to musique concrete. the combinations of
field recording and electronic manipulations draw out a bleak inner-city industrialised counterpart to the humanity of fellow chinese concreteist daijun yao's excellent cinnabar red drizzle. minjie's explicit contribution is dominated by a low-end which runs the gamut from viscous rumbles to aquatic resonance, without interfering too heavy-handedly in the use of found sound layered on top. more subtle is the splicing together of the pre-recorded materials, which prevents the record sliding into the same basket as any number of homemade basement cdrs the world over. while none of the taped sound sources are particularly spectacular (even fairly mundane to experienced ears), given half a chance a fairly elaborate structure emerges; one which seems just as happy to adopt a bastardised cage-ian philosophy where sounds are liberally assembled into what feels right as opposed to revelling in the particular properties of any one source.not immediately inviting, but given a little time it's extended passages of tightly-packed metropolitan space are as compelling as any of his emerging countrymen. anyone put off by the well-beaten path he's treading or the relatively muddy diy production values is missing out on a promising new talent. cleaner sound and a more extensive effort to build a distinct and localised statement in future (rather than just sound constructions) could produce a total killer. the potential for the new 21floor collective is mouthwatering.
For Those Times Without Sound 08
Monday, August 14, 2006
the futurians
robots in disguise
[2005, the seedy r]
murderous hate-fuelled rage swelling up in the breasts of detractors of "the dunedin sound" is a thing of the past. your average modern-day south islander, thanks to some nifty revisionism on my part, now cries out solely for the blind swagger of bands like the aesthetics and the futurians. some'd try to tell you the futurians are nobodies and the aesthetics are crippled by a line-up that leaks like a sieve, but i prefer the beautiful dream. in any case, said nobodies, led by clayton noone, have somehow managed to carve out a reputation for killer no-wave schtick, appreciated by all except those with a chance of seeing them live. far from letting that put them off, they've managed to do the decent thing and unleashed a huge slew of unattainable self-released cdrs, with the odd appearance under someone else's banner. fear not, though; antony milton (who, along with stefan "pumice" neville, has passed through the ranks in some capacity) hosts this time round on his seedy-r imprint, so i assume numbers are limited only by the number of blank cdrs he has lying around the house.
as for the record itself, the band serve up a double-whammy assault on good taste with a live covers album. the like of the stooges and hasil adkins all have a slot or two, alongside the obligitory ironic nod to billy joel and gary glitter, but you'd need to be on biblically familiar terms with any of these tracks to pick them up. instead you're more likely to hear mutant characteristics of the originals only barely cutting through the racket; adkin's she said is only really recognisable by hiccuping screams and grunts, standing in for the original's chorus. outside of the echoes of the former songs, the rest is shrouded in squally synth peaks, pounding drums, wailing chants and churning guitar feedback.
what you get is a record which abandons its own concept in order to throw itself head-first into no-wave excess. but unlike any number of puffed-up hipster darlings, they breeze past merely "fucked" and hit the same levels of excess that fuelled cromagnon's hippy-freakout classic, orgasm, bursting into some sort of new event horizon for the genre. there's a definite relationship between how much chaos you can take and what you'll get out of the futurians, but no-wave fanatics will love it.
Walked in Line (Joy Division)
[2005, the seedy r]
murderous hate-fuelled rage swelling up in the breasts of detractors of "the dunedin sound" is a thing of the past. your average modern-day south islander, thanks to some nifty revisionism on my part, now cries out solely for the blind swagger of bands like the aesthetics and the futurians. some'd try to tell you the futurians are nobodies and the aesthetics are crippled by a line-up that leaks like a sieve, but i prefer the beautiful dream. in any case, said nobodies, led by clayton noone, have somehow managed to carve out a reputation for killer no-wave schtick, appreciated by all except those with a chance of seeing them live. far from letting that put them off, they've managed to do the decent thing and unleashed a huge slew of unattainable self-released cdrs, with the odd appearance under someone else's banner. fear not, though; antony milton (who, along with stefan "pumice" neville, has passed through the ranks in some capacity) hosts this time round on his seedy-r imprint, so i assume numbers are limited only by the number of blank cdrs he has lying around the house.as for the record itself, the band serve up a double-whammy assault on good taste with a live covers album. the like of the stooges and hasil adkins all have a slot or two, alongside the obligitory ironic nod to billy joel and gary glitter, but you'd need to be on biblically familiar terms with any of these tracks to pick them up. instead you're more likely to hear mutant characteristics of the originals only barely cutting through the racket; adkin's she said is only really recognisable by hiccuping screams and grunts, standing in for the original's chorus. outside of the echoes of the former songs, the rest is shrouded in squally synth peaks, pounding drums, wailing chants and churning guitar feedback.
what you get is a record which abandons its own concept in order to throw itself head-first into no-wave excess. but unlike any number of puffed-up hipster darlings, they breeze past merely "fucked" and hit the same levels of excess that fuelled cromagnon's hippy-freakout classic, orgasm, bursting into some sort of new event horizon for the genre. there's a definite relationship between how much chaos you can take and what you'll get out of the futurians, but no-wave fanatics will love it.
Walked in Line (Joy Division)
Sunday, August 13, 2006
zum
alright, package number two submitted for review is a compilation from bay area siblings yvonne a
nd george chen and their zum label. george chen should be familiar to some of you from being in vholtz, 7 year rabbit cycle, kit and chen santa maria. yvonne was in the early incarnation of xiu xiu, but left in 2002. she currently co-owns a vegan boutique in san francsico, otsu, and has a publishing imprint, little otsu. the type of music that zum releases is typically more on the indie side of things, but they do cover quite a bit of ground. there's post rock (beans), slower indie sounds (p:ano), noise rock (boxleitner, total shutdown) and dance punk (!!!, outhud) and drone (growing), amongst others.
zum originally began as a fanzine back in 1990 and the origin of this compilation series began with said zine. volume 1 was put out with the zine's tenth issue. the following year, volume 2 was released by itself. the compilations have been pretty diverse (especially when you consider what they've released versus what they've put on these comps) and have evolved quite a bit in each version. prior volumes had way more of an obvious indie rock/math rock/post rock slant to them with artists like june of 44, aerial m, ativin, grandaddy, modest mouse, boyracer and songs:ohia. this one, however; combines artists that are more under the radar with some better known names in the noise and noise rock genres.
various artists
zum audio volume 3
[2006, zum]
for some reason, i'm not a real big fan of compilations. i like the idea behind them, grouping together a whole bunch of artists, it's a cheap and easy way to find out about many artists that you may not have been familiar with beforehand. the downside to them, and what i think really keeps me away, is that they're usually half full of people that you would've been better off not knowing about. luckily enough, for me anyways, zum has put together a nice little comp here.
out of all of the twenty-three tracks, there's really only one that i don't care for all that much, bromp treb (neil young from fat worm of error, though i do like fat worm of error..go figure.) and that's just because it's a bit too silly sounding. i'd say that's the only weak track, as far as i'm concerned, and it's not unbearable, just not as good as the music it's surrounded by. if this compilation has one target demographic, i'd say that it would be fans of the not not fun label. a good portion of it has that fun, spastic, catchy noise rock feel to it that nnf seems to have down pat. it even features a few bands who've released on the label such as the coughs and silver daggers, the latter lay down what's possibly the the best track on here with keep away. elsewhere, some of the artists have that quirky but cutesy deerhoof sound such as kit, antifamily, we quit and the aforementioned deerhoof, whose 2004 live version of c is a definite highlight as well. kind of makes me wish they'd put kindred spirits death sentence: panda! on here too. they would've fit in nicely. the submissions that are more firmly indie; my little red toe (sounding like something from darla records in their heyday), shoplifting (dropping the post-hardcore and picking up the..acoustic guitar?..it works, surprisingly...doesn't sound very shoplifiting-esque though), ghost to falco (the portland trio's the end is another one of my favorite's on here), stefan udell (very mellow solo guitar piece, nice sounding) and tg (similiar in sound to udell's song) all pitch in with some worthwhile tracks. the experimental/noise genres pretty much make up the remainder. aside from nice contributions by better knowns like john wiese, axolotl, yellow swans and can't, there's some nice tracks by some more unfamiliar acts. beak full of rubies' reading the leaves is a darker, near industrial sounding piece. huts' fairly low-key electronics and drums effort camp along young oxen, is a nice introduction into that project. micose and the mau maus should definitely be more popular than they currently are. i got their demo cd for free at electric heavyland in seattle maybe two years ago, and once i finally got around to listening to it, i was definitely impressed. excellent experimental music, but not that unaccessible. that could be said for this track too, there's some traditional instrumentation alongside not so traditional sounds. child abuse churn out the album's more singular-sounding track, well actually, with its catchy as hell keyboard sounds, it wouldn't be that odd, if it weren't for the growly metal vocals. normally, i'm not a fan of this type of singing but man, that's some catchy keyboard playing, so i can get into it.
all in all, this was a damn fine job done by george and yvonne chen. i like indie rock, noise, experimental music and noise rock, so it has a lot of appeal with me. it kind of reminds me of a mix tape that i'd give to a friend who liked noisier indie stuff but maybe not much beyond that. it would work well as a gateway to different kinds of music with artists like axolotl, yellow swans and john wiese and i'm sure it would have plenty of other artists in a similiar vein to what they'd like, but that they hadn't heard of before. the biggest compliment that i could bestow upon this cd is how well it flows. while there's plenty of individual highlights on here, there's a great sense of continuity to it, meaning that even the tracks that aren't as good, work well as part of the whole, even if it's just to keep the album moving along.
My Little Red Toe - Room
Axolotl - Legs, Shouts
nd george chen and their zum label. george chen should be familiar to some of you from being in vholtz, 7 year rabbit cycle, kit and chen santa maria. yvonne was in the early incarnation of xiu xiu, but left in 2002. she currently co-owns a vegan boutique in san francsico, otsu, and has a publishing imprint, little otsu. the type of music that zum releases is typically more on the indie side of things, but they do cover quite a bit of ground. there's post rock (beans), slower indie sounds (p:ano), noise rock (boxleitner, total shutdown) and dance punk (!!!, outhud) and drone (growing), amongst others.zum originally began as a fanzine back in 1990 and the origin of this compilation series began with said zine. volume 1 was put out with the zine's tenth issue. the following year, volume 2 was released by itself. the compilations have been pretty diverse (especially when you consider what they've released versus what they've put on these comps) and have evolved quite a bit in each version. prior volumes had way more of an obvious indie rock/math rock/post rock slant to them with artists like june of 44, aerial m, ativin, grandaddy, modest mouse, boyracer and songs:ohia. this one, however; combines artists that are more under the radar with some better known names in the noise and noise rock genres.
zum audio volume 3
[2006, zum]
for some reason, i'm not a real big fan of compilations. i like the idea behind them, grouping together a whole bunch of artists, it's a cheap and easy way to find out about many artists that you may not have been familiar with beforehand. the downside to them, and what i think really keeps me away, is that they're usually half full of people that you would've been better off not knowing about. luckily enough, for me anyways, zum has put together a nice little comp here.
out of all of the twenty-three tracks, there's really only one that i don't care for all that much, bromp treb (neil young from fat worm of error, though i do like fat worm of error..go figure.) and that's just because it's a bit too silly sounding. i'd say that's the only weak track, as far as i'm concerned, and it's not unbearable, just not as good as the music it's surrounded by. if this compilation has one target demographic, i'd say that it would be fans of the not not fun label. a good portion of it has that fun, spastic, catchy noise rock feel to it that nnf seems to have down pat. it even features a few bands who've released on the label such as the coughs and silver daggers, the latter lay down what's possibly the the best track on here with keep away. elsewhere, some of the artists have that quirky but cutesy deerhoof sound such as kit, antifamily, we quit and the aforementioned deerhoof, whose 2004 live version of c is a definite highlight as well. kind of makes me wish they'd put kindred spirits death sentence: panda! on here too. they would've fit in nicely. the submissions that are more firmly indie; my little red toe (sounding like something from darla records in their heyday), shoplifting (dropping the post-hardcore and picking up the..acoustic guitar?..it works, surprisingly...doesn't sound very shoplifiting-esque though), ghost to falco (the portland trio's the end is another one of my favorite's on here), stefan udell (very mellow solo guitar piece, nice sounding) and tg (similiar in sound to udell's song) all pitch in with some worthwhile tracks. the experimental/noise genres pretty much make up the remainder. aside from nice contributions by better knowns like john wiese, axolotl, yellow swans and can't, there's some nice tracks by some more unfamiliar acts. beak full of rubies' reading the leaves is a darker, near industrial sounding piece. huts' fairly low-key electronics and drums effort camp along young oxen, is a nice introduction into that project. micose and the mau maus should definitely be more popular than they currently are. i got their demo cd for free at electric heavyland in seattle maybe two years ago, and once i finally got around to listening to it, i was definitely impressed. excellent experimental music, but not that unaccessible. that could be said for this track too, there's some traditional instrumentation alongside not so traditional sounds. child abuse churn out the album's more singular-sounding track, well actually, with its catchy as hell keyboard sounds, it wouldn't be that odd, if it weren't for the growly metal vocals. normally, i'm not a fan of this type of singing but man, that's some catchy keyboard playing, so i can get into it.all in all, this was a damn fine job done by george and yvonne chen. i like indie rock, noise, experimental music and noise rock, so it has a lot of appeal with me. it kind of reminds me of a mix tape that i'd give to a friend who liked noisier indie stuff but maybe not much beyond that. it would work well as a gateway to different kinds of music with artists like axolotl, yellow swans and john wiese and i'm sure it would have plenty of other artists in a similiar vein to what they'd like, but that they hadn't heard of before. the biggest compliment that i could bestow upon this cd is how well it flows. while there's plenty of individual highlights on here, there's a great sense of continuity to it, meaning that even the tracks that aren't as good, work well as part of the whole, even if it's just to keep the album moving along.
My Little Red Toe - Room
Axolotl - Legs, Shouts