Saturday, September 23, 2006
jessica rylan
lush life c20
[2006, irfp]
boston's jessica rylan is arguably one of the most popular females in the world of noise music. probably known more for her project can't, which emphasizes jessica's vocal noise and singing
in addition to some dissonance. her works under her own name pretty much remove the vocal aspects, with the exception of rylan's 2004 private time release, also put out by irfp, which seemed to be a bit more can't-like than the other releases. in addition to collaborating and releasing splits with artists such as mike shiflet, ykeo, joshua hydeman, neptune, 2673 and spencer yeh, she works with donna parker in secret diary, bill nace and chris corsano in vampire can't (who've just released a cd on load), perpetual enemies with vanessa brewster and dirty dynamite gang with spencer yeh and john olson. jeez. jessica also finds the time to build her own synthesizers and other electronic equipment and run her own imprint, irfp.
lush life is a beautifully packaged cassette consisting of two ten minute tracks, and when you combine the tape's visual appeal with track titles like cf was taking a nap, you might form the conclusion that this is a bit more ambient, maybe prettier sounding, than other releases of hers. not quite the case. while it certainly steers clear of any full on noise, any prettiness associated with this tape stops with the cover art, but it's not a bad thing at all. the music on side a's cf was taking a nap takes a somewhat bare bones musical approach. the track uses only a few different focal sounds and it seems as though there's only minimal layering being used at once. the noises tend to come in waves with either silence or another layer of ambient sound serving as connectors, this is more the case during the latter part of the side though. despite only working with a few elements, as well as spacing it out, jessica does manage to hold my attention, and not only that, it's very good.
daylight wasting time starts off more abrasive than anything that was on the other side. after that quickly dies off we're left with some pretty interesting noise originating from jessica's own creation, the 'black magic console'. that particular device has amplifiers working in reverse "in a configuration that doesn't make sense so it feels like black magic". i had to ask jessica what this was herself since it does have a unique sound, i figured it was probably something she'd built. now back to the track, this one might be even more minimal than i was taking a nap, since after the first minute or so of a noisier beginning it seems like she's just playing that console the rest of the way, sans any layering.
as much as i'd like them to, my words can't really give the tape the justice it deserves. from a fairly minimal angle, jessica rylan manages to make the most out of what she chose to work with.
when i originally endeavored to review this cassette about a month ago, prior to moving and not having the internet, i couldn't find out any information on lush life whatsoever. it wasn't listed as a release on irfp's site so i emailed jessica and she told me that it wasn't actually an "official" release (at that time anyway), she made eighty copies and sent out some of them to friends and it kind of went from there. being a month later, i see a couple sites still have some copies, i'm not sure if jessica released more of them since she said she might, of if those are the last of the eighty.
CF Was Taking A Nap Excerpt (from 3:54 to 7:54)
(i'd incorrectly labeled cf was taking a nap as i was taking a nap because i'm dumb and can't read cursive writing)
[2006, irfp]
boston's jessica rylan is arguably one of the most popular females in the world of noise music. probably known more for her project can't, which emphasizes jessica's vocal noise and singing
in addition to some dissonance. her works under her own name pretty much remove the vocal aspects, with the exception of rylan's 2004 private time release, also put out by irfp, which seemed to be a bit more can't-like than the other releases. in addition to collaborating and releasing splits with artists such as mike shiflet, ykeo, joshua hydeman, neptune, 2673 and spencer yeh, she works with donna parker in secret diary, bill nace and chris corsano in vampire can't (who've just released a cd on load), perpetual enemies with vanessa brewster and dirty dynamite gang with spencer yeh and john olson. jeez. jessica also finds the time to build her own synthesizers and other electronic equipment and run her own imprint, irfp.lush life is a beautifully packaged cassette consisting of two ten minute tracks, and when you combine the tape's visual appeal with track titles like cf was taking a nap, you might form the conclusion that this is a bit more ambient, maybe prettier sounding, than other releases of hers. not quite the case. while it certainly steers clear of any full on noise, any prettiness associated with this tape stops with the cover art, but it's not a bad thing at all. the music on side a's cf was taking a nap takes a somewhat bare bones musical approach. the track uses only a few different focal sounds and it seems as though there's only minimal layering being used at once. the noises tend to come in waves with either silence or another layer of ambient sound serving as connectors, this is more the case during the latter part of the side though. despite only working with a few elements, as well as spacing it out, jessica does manage to hold my attention, and not only that, it's very good.
daylight wasting time starts off more abrasive than anything that was on the other side. after that quickly dies off we're left with some pretty interesting noise originating from jessica's own creation, the 'black magic console'. that particular device has amplifiers working in reverse "in a configuration that doesn't make sense so it feels like black magic". i had to ask jessica what this was herself since it does have a unique sound, i figured it was probably something she'd built. now back to the track, this one might be even more minimal than i was taking a nap, since after the first minute or so of a noisier beginning it seems like she's just playing that console the rest of the way, sans any layering.
as much as i'd like them to, my words can't really give the tape the justice it deserves. from a fairly minimal angle, jessica rylan manages to make the most out of what she chose to work with.
when i originally endeavored to review this cassette about a month ago, prior to moving and not having the internet, i couldn't find out any information on lush life whatsoever. it wasn't listed as a release on irfp's site so i emailed jessica and she told me that it wasn't actually an "official" release (at that time anyway), she made eighty copies and sent out some of them to friends and it kind of went from there. being a month later, i see a couple sites still have some copies, i'm not sure if jessica released more of them since she said she might, of if those are the last of the eighty.
CF Was Taking A Nap Excerpt (from 3:54 to 7:54)
(i'd incorrectly labeled cf was taking a nap as i was taking a nap because i'm dumb and can't read cursive writing)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
lockweld
8 cuts
[2006, ncc]
lockweld's comprised of cleveland ohio's karen (synth and vocals) and steve (machinery and vocals). they've been perfecting their brand of noise, in which steve will use industial machinery to create additional noise. their music ranges from minimal electronic pi
eces, to drones, more rhythmic works and, of course, harsh noise. from what i've seen in pictures and read about them, their live show is something to be seen with steve using a myriad of power tools (i'll abstain from making a power electronics reference here, oops).
8 cuts, put out by travis morgan's ncc label (who've released albums by navicon torture technologies, marax and steel hook protheses, among others), is, firstly, shaped like a effin' sawblade. i dig lockweld and everything, but i had to buy this one sheerly for its aesthetical value. secondly, has eight untitled tracks. track one starts things off rather noisily with a loud screeching noise that eases down into a rumbling static noise, one of the noisiest tracks on here. it's also got steve's vocal yelling, strangled, and buried down in the mix. according to lockweld's myspace, they actually have meaningful lyrics, but you'd never know that since they're usually distorted or underneath multiple layers of noise. next, is one of the more enjoyable tracks on the record. sure, it's a little noisy with that
persistent distortion sound, but karen's repetitious electronics make it a pleasant eight minute long head-nodder. the third track features more indiscernable vocals and sounds a bit more rock like. i don't think it's out of place to say that it sounds pretty similiar to some of what lambsbread is doing. it's a short track though, less than two minutes long. the fourth cut starts out with a loud whining noise in the same sort of vein as pedestrian deposit, but there's a vocal sample buried underneath all the harshness, as well as some manipulated vocals. an electric hum paired with some pretty severe pedal noise make this the harshest track. the sixth track's centered around what sounds like manipulated vocals along with a loud static. it's pretty catchy in it's own way. the seventh cut has that same manipulated vocal sound, but there's also a rhythmic element to the music itself making it another memorable piece. the record ends with a one minute long noise exercise that doesn't really have time to make much of an impression but serves as a fitting outro.
it seems like 8 cuts, more than any other lockweld release i've heard so far, has done the best job of combining more memorable elements to their noise, making it one of my favorite releases so far by them.
Cut 5
[2006, ncc]
lockweld's comprised of cleveland ohio's karen (synth and vocals) and steve (machinery and vocals). they've been perfecting their brand of noise, in which steve will use industial machinery to create additional noise. their music ranges from minimal electronic pi
eces, to drones, more rhythmic works and, of course, harsh noise. from what i've seen in pictures and read about them, their live show is something to be seen with steve using a myriad of power tools (i'll abstain from making a power electronics reference here, oops).8 cuts, put out by travis morgan's ncc label (who've released albums by navicon torture technologies, marax and steel hook protheses, among others), is, firstly, shaped like a effin' sawblade. i dig lockweld and everything, but i had to buy this one sheerly for its aesthetical value. secondly, has eight untitled tracks. track one starts things off rather noisily with a loud screeching noise that eases down into a rumbling static noise, one of the noisiest tracks on here. it's also got steve's vocal yelling, strangled, and buried down in the mix. according to lockweld's myspace, they actually have meaningful lyrics, but you'd never know that since they're usually distorted or underneath multiple layers of noise. next, is one of the more enjoyable tracks on the record. sure, it's a little noisy with that
persistent distortion sound, but karen's repetitious electronics make it a pleasant eight minute long head-nodder. the third track features more indiscernable vocals and sounds a bit more rock like. i don't think it's out of place to say that it sounds pretty similiar to some of what lambsbread is doing. it's a short track though, less than two minutes long. the fourth cut starts out with a loud whining noise in the same sort of vein as pedestrian deposit, but there's a vocal sample buried underneath all the harshness, as well as some manipulated vocals. an electric hum paired with some pretty severe pedal noise make this the harshest track. the sixth track's centered around what sounds like manipulated vocals along with a loud static. it's pretty catchy in it's own way. the seventh cut has that same manipulated vocal sound, but there's also a rhythmic element to the music itself making it another memorable piece. the record ends with a one minute long noise exercise that doesn't really have time to make much of an impression but serves as a fitting outro.it seems like 8 cuts, more than any other lockweld release i've heard so far, has done the best job of combining more memorable elements to their noise, making it one of my favorite releases so far by them.Cut 5
scanner and dessy
play along
[2005, sub rosa]
britain's robin rimbaud is the man at work behind scanner. his output under that name can fall under the category of experimental electronic (implementing a lot of found sound conversations), but at times it edges more into ambient techno territory. as far as that goes though, if you have any interest in that genre of music, his work would be appealing.
dessy is jean-paul dessy, a classically-trained celloist and conductor from belgium.
a pairing of two musicians with starkly contrasting musical backgrounds seems like it could be a recipe for utter garbage, or perhaps it could yield some rather interesting results. this time out, it's the latter. the titular track starts things off, and it's the most techno sounding of the three works on here. the techno that i'm talking about is of the downtempo variety, kind of along the lines of pan sonic. very minimal repeating beats, that fade out almost six minutes in, giving way to some slow cello playing by jean-paul, along with some nice sounding electronic accompaniment by scanner. as the track plays out you get a real sense of tension from dessy's cello. build-up and slow release seem to be the theme of this track, which sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album. play along is also the only track on the album that was co-composed. scanner sampled and reworked dessy's cello playing, and dessy arranged the electronic sequences and textures.
out of the trench and wading backwards is scanner's solo piece, which integrates string music made by dessy. the strings i didn't pick up on too much though, perhaps near the end when the piece shifts it's focus to a spacey drone. overall, it comes across as being more ambient electronic, trademark scanner, complete with vocal samples.
dessy's whaling wolves closes out the album, and it's my favorite of the two solo pieces. like it's title might indicate, it sounds like wolves and whales. it's very minimal, complimentary and beautiful...in a haunting kind of way, i like it like that though. from what i've read in the cd's liner notes, originally the piece had acoustic instrumentation as well, but the track was instead stripped down to its animalistic essence. wise choice. makes me think of spending a night outside in the midle of nowhere in new mexico...on peyote, at the very least.
electronic versus acoustic, the experimental as opposed to the more traditional. hey, it works. i have no idea how these two came together to put out this album, but here's hoping that there's more in store for us from these two.
additionally, this album was put out by sub rosa. it can be pretty dangerous to follow that label's output religiously as i've heard some great music, this record being a prime example, as well as some truly awful techno crap. so, be careful, unless you like techno unyieldingly. if that's the case, have fun!
Whaling Wolves Excerpt (from 3:11 to 8:13)
[2005, sub rosa]
britain's robin rimbaud is the man at work behind scanner. his output under that name can fall under the category of experimental electronic (implementing a lot of found sound conversations), but at times it edges more into ambient techno territory. as far as that goes though, if you have any interest in that genre of music, his work would be appealing.dessy is jean-paul dessy, a classically-trained celloist and conductor from belgium.
a pairing of two musicians with starkly contrasting musical backgrounds seems like it could be a recipe for utter garbage, or perhaps it could yield some rather interesting results. this time out, it's the latter. the titular track starts things off, and it's the most techno sounding of the three works on here. the techno that i'm talking about is of the downtempo variety, kind of along the lines of pan sonic. very minimal repeating beats, that fade out almost six minutes in, giving way to some slow cello playing by jean-paul, along with some nice sounding electronic accompaniment by scanner. as the track plays out you get a real sense of tension from dessy's cello. build-up and slow release seem to be the theme of this track, which sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album. play along is also the only track on the album that was co-composed. scanner sampled and reworked dessy's cello playing, and dessy arranged the electronic sequences and textures.out of the trench and wading backwards is scanner's solo piece, which integrates string music made by dessy. the strings i didn't pick up on too much though, perhaps near the end when the piece shifts it's focus to a spacey drone. overall, it comes across as being more ambient electronic, trademark scanner, complete with vocal samples.
dessy's whaling wolves closes out the album, and it's my favorite of the two solo pieces. like it's title might indicate, it sounds like wolves and whales. it's very minimal, complimentary and beautiful...in a haunting kind of way, i like it like that though. from what i've read in the cd's liner notes, originally the piece had acoustic instrumentation as well, but the track was instead stripped down to its animalistic essence. wise choice. makes me think of spending a night outside in the midle of nowhere in new mexico...on peyote, at the very least.
electronic versus acoustic, the experimental as opposed to the more traditional. hey, it works. i have no idea how these two came together to put out this album, but here's hoping that there's more in store for us from these two.
additionally, this album was put out by sub rosa. it can be pretty dangerous to follow that label's output religiously as i've heard some great music, this record being a prime example, as well as some truly awful techno crap. so, be careful, unless you like techno unyieldingly. if that's the case, have fun!
Whaling Wolves Excerpt (from 3:11 to 8:13)
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
leslie keffer & heart2heart
lover's quarrel c23
[2006, club fantasies]
leslie keffer is from ohio. she makes experimental electronic/noise music. she's a newer face in that scene (unless you're from ohio, i'd imagine), but with a few very nice releases (including one on mike shiflet's gameboy label), as well as her live performances (including this year's pilgrammage-worthy no fun fest), leslie's becoming better known.
heart2heart (i've sometimes seen it as heart 2 heart as well) are from rhode island. they're a duo made up of sasha and nicole, and they too haven't been involved in noise music for very long (as far as actual recordings are concerned), just since 2004. they've put out or are in the process of putting out splits with some well regarded noise musicians in impregnable and pedestrian deposit, that should easily pique some interest in their music.
leslie starts off the tape with the best track on the side. here, the focus is on repetitious tones over a singular synthesized drum beat, and marks the catchiest i've ever heard lk be. not too much later, things take a turn for the noisier, but then back come the beats. the last few minutes of the track do a good job of combining both the noise and the rhythm. definitely one of her finer recorded moments, in my opinion. her two remaining tracks are a bit more subdued. eschewing the rhythmic elements, leslie keeps the rest of her side on a more experimental noise theme with some drone and static-filled distortion, amongst other sound. while the rest of the a side may lack the immediacy of the first track, it's not without it's own appeal.
the b side raises the noise level, but just a little bit. it starts off with the oft-used rumbling static distortion noise, but h2h wisely throw in some other noise to focus on as well, which serves well to break up the monotony that that brand of noise can quickly bring. plus, they keep it under two minutes long, another smart decision. track two slows things down a bit. it's centered around long drawn-out tones, but switches up around two minutes in and then pretty much continues shifting in sound as the track plays out. this would be heart2heart's shining moment on the cassette. next up is another track that's both two minutes long and dynamic, and is also their noisiest contribution. nothing really stands out in particular about it, but it's a solid effort. closing track four uses the same foundation as their first piece and again shows them throwing in enough other sonic elements to keep you paying attention.
lover's quarrel was originally put out last year by i just live here, in an edition of fifty. it was obviously reissued this year, in a slightly larger edition, though, i'm not sure how many copies of this are left. if there are any tapes left, i'd suggest snagging one, this was a nice release by both parties.
Leslie Keffer A2
Heart2Heart B1
[2006, club fantasies]
leslie keffer is from ohio. she makes experimental electronic/noise music. she's a newer face in that scene (unless you're from ohio, i'd imagine), but with a few very nice releases (including one on mike shiflet's gameboy label), as well as her live performances (including this year's pilgrammage-worthy no fun fest), leslie's becoming better known.heart2heart (i've sometimes seen it as heart 2 heart as well) are from rhode island. they're a duo made up of sasha and nicole, and they too haven't been involved in noise music for very long (as far as actual recordings are concerned), just since 2004. they've put out or are in the process of putting out splits with some well regarded noise musicians in impregnable and pedestrian deposit, that should easily pique some interest in their music.
leslie starts off the tape with the best track on the side. here, the focus is on repetitious tones over a singular synthesized drum beat, and marks the catchiest i've ever heard lk be. not too much later, things take a turn for the noisier, but then back come the beats. the last few minutes of the track do a good job of combining both the noise and the rhythm. definitely one of her finer recorded moments, in my opinion. her two remaining tracks are a bit more subdued. eschewing the rhythmic elements, leslie keeps the rest of her side on a more experimental noise theme with some drone and static-filled distortion, amongst other sound. while the rest of the a side may lack the immediacy of the first track, it's not without it's own appeal.
the b side raises the noise level, but just a little bit. it starts off with the oft-used rumbling static distortion noise, but h2h wisely throw in some other noise to focus on as well, which serves well to break up the monotony that that brand of noise can quickly bring. plus, they keep it under two minutes long, another smart decision. track two slows things down a bit. it's centered around long drawn-out tones, but switches up around two minutes in and then pretty much continues shifting in sound as the track plays out. this would be heart2heart's shining moment on the cassette. next up is another track that's both two minutes long and dynamic, and is also their noisiest contribution. nothing really stands out in particular about it, but it's a solid effort. closing track four uses the same foundation as their first piece and again shows them throwing in enough other sonic elements to keep you paying attention.lover's quarrel was originally put out last year by i just live here, in an edition of fifty. it was obviously reissued this year, in a slightly larger edition, though, i'm not sure how many copies of this are left. if there are any tapes left, i'd suggest snagging one, this was a nice release by both parties.Leslie Keffer A2
Heart2Heart B1
hototogisu
sculpture built upon the graves
[2006, heavy blossom]
hototogisu is, i believe, the latest project to pop up featuring the seminal brit matthew bower. further, it seems to be the one that he's putting most his energy into. you may know him from skullflower (still alive), sunroof, total (not the r&b group that was on bad boy records in the 90s), and pure, not to mention his collaborations with richard youngs. nyc's marcia bassett is also at work here, and i'm sure it's not her latest venture. she keeps herself busy with double leopards, zaika (with tom carter), zaimph (solo), ghq (with magik marker pete nolan), shackamaxon (collaborating with son of earth), and perhaps lastly, un, who put out a seven-inch and a cassette in the late 90s and haven't been heard from since.
i picked up this disc at hototogisu's show with the skaters last month, and it was hands down my most listened to cd of august. granted, that's really because i left the cd in my truck without anything to replace it with. nevertheless, all those plays helped me gain more of an appreciation for hototogisu's layered music. that's not to say that it's not easy to get into, but rather, that i'd just not devoted a good deal of time to listening to their music before. i must say though, that i picked a pretty good time to pay attention as sculpture built upon the graves is a wonderful album of guitar noise. the disc kicks off with storm, and it sounds like loud insect-swarm-buzzing
drone with some additional guitar noise and feedback buried underneath it. the thirteen minute tropical malady centers around more buzzing guitar effects with various complimentary noises rounding it out. the next piece, paris, no harm, is my favorite of the album. it starts off slower and more spread out than it's predecessors. the main sound is a cold drone and there's some serious guitar noise pushed way back in the mix. after a few minutes multiple guitar layers take the track over, shortly giving way matthew bower's muted vocal wailing, then more guitar noise. towards the end, both the drone and noise pick up giving it a fitting conclusion. the last track is vanished beams, and it's a good track, along the same lines as as the cd opener. nice, but not really as memorable as the two middle works.
guitar drones + guitar noise = wonderful. while my list of favorite matthew bower-related projects reads something like this: skullflower, total, sunroof!, and then hototogisu; maybe, after absorbing sculpture built upon the graves (and seeing their terrific live performance), i'll go back through all those hototogisu albums i downloaded and be equally impressed with them as i was with this one.
Paris, No Harm (from 9:10 to 1343)
[2006, heavy blossom]
hototogisu is, i believe, the latest project to pop up featuring the seminal brit matthew bower. further, it seems to be the one that he's putting most his energy into. you may know him from skullflower (still alive), sunroof, total (not the r&b group that was on bad boy records in the 90s), and pure, not to mention his collaborations with richard youngs. nyc's marcia bassett is also at work here, and i'm sure it's not her latest venture. she keeps herself busy with double leopards, zaika (with tom carter), zaimph (solo), ghq (with magik marker pete nolan), shackamaxon (collaborating with son of earth), and perhaps lastly, un, who put out a seven-inch and a cassette in the late 90s and haven't been heard from since.i picked up this disc at hototogisu's show with the skaters last month, and it was hands down my most listened to cd of august. granted, that's really because i left the cd in my truck without anything to replace it with. nevertheless, all those plays helped me gain more of an appreciation for hototogisu's layered music. that's not to say that it's not easy to get into, but rather, that i'd just not devoted a good deal of time to listening to their music before. i must say though, that i picked a pretty good time to pay attention as sculpture built upon the graves is a wonderful album of guitar noise. the disc kicks off with storm, and it sounds like loud insect-swarm-buzzing
drone with some additional guitar noise and feedback buried underneath it. the thirteen minute tropical malady centers around more buzzing guitar effects with various complimentary noises rounding it out. the next piece, paris, no harm, is my favorite of the album. it starts off slower and more spread out than it's predecessors. the main sound is a cold drone and there's some serious guitar noise pushed way back in the mix. after a few minutes multiple guitar layers take the track over, shortly giving way matthew bower's muted vocal wailing, then more guitar noise. towards the end, both the drone and noise pick up giving it a fitting conclusion. the last track is vanished beams, and it's a good track, along the same lines as as the cd opener. nice, but not really as memorable as the two middle works.guitar drones + guitar noise = wonderful. while my list of favorite matthew bower-related projects reads something like this: skullflower, total, sunroof!, and then hototogisu; maybe, after absorbing sculpture built upon the graves (and seeing their terrific live performance), i'll go back through all those hototogisu albums i downloaded and be equally impressed with them as i was with this one.
Paris, No Harm (from 9:10 to 1343)