autismenschen
[2005, c.i.p.]

alu were an early 1980s electronic duo from germany. they consisted of ludwig papenberg (guitar, keyboard and drumbox) and johannes vester (vocals and keyboards). autismenchschen is actually a recently issued disc from a previously unreleased vinyl. it came into being when blake edwards asked the group if he could put out a reissue of licht, but they said that they had their first studio produced album that was still waiting to see the light of day, and now here we are.. or i should say, here i am, two years after the fact.

based simply on appearances, if there was one album out of the lot that i was having reservations about, it was this one. whereas the artwork for the other cds featured either stream-lined minimalism or pictures of machinery (the imagery definitely reflects in the music as well), the cover for this one screams 1.99 used bin at your local record store. painfully 80's hot pink ALU on the cover, with a picture of johannes and ludwig striking fey poses whilst looking at themselves in a mirror. the 80s, we hardly miss ye. my reservations were aided by david tibet's (current 93) liner notes: harsh, uncomfortable, remarkably unsettling... you may say, "but wait, i would imagine that you'd think that was a good thing!" right right you are. but! combine that with the fact that the group is a duo with a guitar and keyboards, and there's comparisons to suicide... it all had me thinking of a sinister sounding liquid liquid. i never liked liquid liquid, i don't care what you say, and many of their peers are also way over-hyped and/or crap. public image's second edition is a very big exception.clearly, what we have here is one of those cases where the press notes, or in this case, liner notes, suffer from being a bit too clinical in their approach and fail to legitimately portray the music. this is a far better album that i would've imagined if i just read all the shit that other people had to say about it (and here i am being one of those people, funny). the only thing resembling harsh on here would be johannes', occasionally, shouted vocals. yes, it's a common stereotype to non-deutsch speakers that the language has a very angry tone to it. any language can sound harsh if it's delivered in such a manner, so drop it. we should take into consideration that i barely know any german, so the lyrics very well could be about snorting coke off of a dead baby. now that would be harsh.

funkturm opens up with what sounds like a purely synthetic update of joy division's she's lost control (two years later?? seems a bit preemptive). swap out ian's monotone delivery with some animated shouts, and now you're on the level. it's an excellent start, but sadly nothing else on the album will facilitate the need to bring up joy division again. halt dich fest brings us into second edition territory with terrifically layered keyboard loops and sparse guitar playing. the lyrics only consist of the title being muttered throughout, though not constantly. the driving distorted synth of bitte warten sie! comes across as being more than slightly influenced by suicide's awesome ghost rider. the only song that i don't really care for would have to be alu's most blatant stab at a pop song, liebe machen. it's the shortest song on autismenschen, the singing style rings with familiarity, repetitious as to be catchy vocals, and there's even a shouted "woo" at the song's conclusion. it's not even a bad song, it's just a bit flawed in its design, made more evident via the context of this particular album. liebe machen is followed by one of the strongest cuts, schachcomputer. once again, outstanding synth and guitar playing. it's really the chemistry between the two instruments on schachcomputer that wins me over. this'll be the track that i'm uploading... too fucking good. sie kriegt alles was sie will seems to borrow a vocal melody from... i want to say black sabbath's paranoid. the chugging electronics steal the show on der zirkus ist in der stadt. how anyone could think that this album is cold and dark when it has aludome on it, which is full of fragile beauty, is beyond me. they do a good job of inserting the human spirit into a predominately inorganic sounding piece of music. this song could've birthed the entire indietronica genre. this is alu's moment of tenderness. after the initial confusion wears off, you'll find it to be pleasant, even if it does seem wholly out of character. the album closes with camarillo boogie. alright, so there's two forays into what i'd consider to be accessibility. both explorations are alright, but i prefer the less intentionally catchy moments, for which there are a wealth of on autismenschen.

there would be zero fucking possibility of me listening to this album if blake hadn't sent it to me, and i consider myself fortunate that he did. while i'm sure that the fan base for this kind of music, synth-driven post-punk from germany circa 1981, is fairly limited, there should be, without a doubt in my mind, more people who are aware of this disc.

Schachcomputer

not too long ago, blake edwards of c.i.p. asked me if there was anything that i'd be interested in reviewing for sa and i put out the names of a few projects that i'd never heard, or heard of, before, and was very pleasantly surprised when he sent me all three that i'd mentioned. here's the first of that package.

self-titled
[2000, c.i.p.]

nuisance beacon is marcelo cavallari, out of oakland. in addition to releasing music under both his name and as nuisance beacon (the first of which is this very album), marcelo also heads up the metamorphmuses production company, which encapsulates aspects of art beyond just the audio one.

rare is the occasion that i put a cd in my computer to rip and it rips with all of the id3 tags already done for me. truly, this is a remarkable sign. i can only hope that the music doesn't fail me.we start off with first cycle which begins slow moving enough, but with some noisy overtones to it. it's not a harsh kind of noise, there's just an ever present higher frequency sound above all else. the rest of the track is quite toned down. after a few minutes, there's a repetitive whirling noise that donna parker would be envious of. that fades off after a short bit, but then other repetitive sounds resurface towards the dronier/feedbackier final minutes. donna fans would certainly appreciate what marcelo's doing here. the second cycle is a meeting of the minds with blake edwards, as vertonen. it starts off beating down the same path that the first cycle ended on, namely repetitious noises, buried ambiance along with a noisier foreground. most of the track will eventually drop off into oblivion as we're left with a sirenesque wailing off in some distant alley with a fantastic combination of a colder atmosphere and excellent noise. once that section's done, there's a discordant segue that will eventually take us to the memorable closing minutes. cycle three takes the word repetitious and squeezes every last loop out of it. this is pretty much industrial strength hammering percussion, through and through. to marcelo's credit, he changes up the sound just enough (with shifts in the pitch, additions of feedback and effects) making the track's thirteen minutes listenable. though, i'm sure some would argue that point. i think it's terrific. it reminds of...ahh, i hate that when i can think of exactly what piece of music i'm reminded of, but can't summon either the artist nor the title...damn...ah ha! i'm thinking of leslie keffer's opener on the split with heart2heart, but where leslie was a bit more rhythm-aware, nuisance beacon opts for uniformity, giving the track a very factory-like sound that i'm really digging on. the final two cycles, which combine to clock in at nearly thirty-four minutes, are fine pieces of experimental noise. overall, they're less noisy than the other tracks, but it's not to a fault.

despite registering zero plays on last.fm (other than mine right now), nuisance beacon impressed the hell out of me and, given the audience, i'm sure he could impress the hell out of you as well.

First Cycle

red dust
[2006, crouton]

- it's very modern, you know.
- yes, i know, i (such) love modern things.

that's, at the risk of getting way ahead of ourselves, marchetti's sardonic assessment midway through the set (affirmed in turn by a nameless admirer). but first, the who: marchetti, who's been involved in the ins and outs of the GRM, studying under pierre schaeffer and sucking out the creative marrow from the oeuvre of the likes of chion and ferrari, is one of the few left who follow and define that institution's legacy. sure, you can probably name a bunch who still grind out parmegiani knock-offs or adopt it into their chosen path, but marchetti's somehow still preserved the unquantifiable "GRM-ness" of days gone by. the premeditated unravelling narrative quality of his work? i don't know.

well, in any case, red dust's box of three 3" cds defy you not to dabble with some kind of literal interpretation, as pointless as that may ultimately be. right from the kick off, red dust's prime quality is its ability to sort readily recognisable sound events into an arrangement that's at once precise and ordered while still being able to evade any kind of objective interpretation. any attempt to reduce it to composite elements (untreated music, found sound, the like) just leaves you with what's already immediately apparent (elegantly mundane, as it may be); in practice you can immediately understand why this review's neither here nor there. i suppose the closest approximation you can get to the emotional wash of each of these fields of detritus is just to attempt to transpose its form into the written word, in some sort of collage, but i already implicitly agreed not to get all pretentious about it. read the fine print in the blog copy.

so what can i tell you about it? well, the sound quality and production are crystal-clear, he draws not only from recorded sound, but from the ever-widening palette of the electro-acoustic community at large, and it shows all 15 years or so of his expertise. i can say for sure that the off-handed humour and casuality of the three discs belies the ingenuity of their construction (solid enough to withstand an array of fleeting musical cameos, from dub to cabaret). but ultimately, after a year to sit on it, i'm only more confident in saying that it's the best composed electroacoustic outing of the last few years.

as for availability: at this point don't bother going to the source; they sold out almost immediately, given marchetti's clout and crouton's willingness to indulge the packaging fetishists, so either fritter your cash away on ebay or download without guilt.

final (livre magnetiques)

courtesy run rampant one-sided 12"
[2006, not not fun]

los angelean jean-paul garnier is a tough dude to pin down, and with courtesy run rampant, that task becomes even harder. i've heard four or so of loopool's albums and it seems to me that he puts together his best material when not not fun's putting it out. the first thing that i'd heard from him was the blood trance split tape with robedoor a few years back and i liked that a lot. then, recently, i'd checked out a bunch of his albums on (seattle's) sycophanticide and was kinda left scratching my head. at first, i didn't even think that it was the same guy (there is another loopool, in turkey, who makes ambient techno), but after some research, i was assured that all of it was the efforts of the same person. those albums contained either piano-based or chilly minimal electronic experiments. his stop the revolution disc is depths of outerspace frosty, but worth the time if you're down with that kind of music.the first track, outright rejection, is loopool exercising his billy joel demons with a good, albeit fairly brief, piano piece. then, without any kind of segue, we're catapulted into the tumultuous nowadays. over distortion and much welcomed noise we're privy to jean-paul's anguished ranting. no idea what he's so pissed about, probably the government. oh wait, here's the lyrics, lemme see...nope, not about the government this time. this is the noisiest that i've heard loopool ever get and it's a fine exhibition. more plz. the final track, the preliminary work, clocks in at twelve and a half minutes and it's a beaut. slow and plodding musical arrangements, ambient noise in the background as well as repetitious manipulated vocals from garnier. at about three minutes into it there's new vocals (as the original loop keeps on looping) which are delivered in a kind of moaned, haunting, manner (accentuated by the overall feel of the track), still, they're really not the attention grabber, that belongs to the music itself. i think this was the most that jean-paul's vocals have been on display. if this is a new musical direction for him, it'll be an interesting one to keep an ear, or two, out for.while the shortness of courtesy's running time might stir hesitancy in some people, it is packed with other goodies. when i pulled the lp out of its sleeve, at first i was bummed by the color that i saw: black. black?! a not not fun twelve inch that doesn't have a cool color?..then i flipped it around and holy crap...the etching on it is fucking amazing. click on the picture to get a bigger size so that you can see the detail. it's quite nice. plus, there's an hour long bonus cd-r entitled looks to feudalism. it's a minimal droner, but the fact that you're getting two albums for one has to make you feel a little better.

Nowadays

abasement tapes
[2007, not not fun]

currently, barrabarracuda consists of not not fun proprietors manda (knit witch) and britt brown (robedoor, knit witch, the insaniacs and quintana roo) and roy. i can't find his last name on the interweb... some invasion of privacy the 'net turned out to be... but, i'm wondering if it's tatum, since roy tatum's also in quintana roo with britt and has a ton of other projects, including changeling, which also released on nnf. the beginning stages of bbc included busybody grace lee of foot village, a++, rainbow blanket, grace's amazing kitty cat band, rose for bohdan, extreme double bubble... presumably, this list does not have an end.
abasement tapes, probably more of a wink and a nudge to the bob dylan album than one to the harsh noise label, is still a mighty fine pun, but beyond that it's a culling of barrabarracuda's material ranging from october 2005 to november of 2006.
obvious points of comparison for this los angeles group would have to be the magi(c)k markers, if that band toned down the acerbity level quite a bit. for starters, the two share a fondness for ten minute plus free-dirges. also, there's a no-fi quality that, ahem, marks both of these projects. the vocals, female in both instances, sound like they were recorded live, outside of the venue, in someone's car with the windows rolled up and the engine idling. they're also kindred spirits when it comes to stream of consciousness ranting/lyricism, though seemingly more light hearted in nature with barrabarracuda. manda's repeated singing of "stop. hey, what's that sound? everybody look what's going down" on for what its worthless is a far cry from elisa's foreboding "it's summer, and i'm gonna get shot" on mm's road pussy. (dope disc, by the way). while the markers' sloppy style, more so in their beginning, either alienated or attracted listeners, i can safely say that barrabarracuda are far less polarizing.

alright, let's remove the similarities and focus strictly on bbc's music. they have a psych-tinged take on noise rock and aren't afraid of breaking out into a jam. that jam comes by way of the monstrously distorted, ten minute, koresh crush. such lovely distortion. at one point, about midway through, they manage to make the drums sound like someone trouncing about a hardwood floor that's covered in corn flakes. don't even ask me where i got the mental imagery from..it's just there..in my head. no explanation. britt's memorable overdriven guitar playing in addition to the simple drum beats/crunches propel this vocal-less wonder. that's really the fastest that bbc will get on abasement tapes. the majority of the five songs (in fifty-one minutes) feature slower guitar playing, up-tempo drumming and vocals that you really can't make out, but that still manage to be an interesting dynamic in the music. the real prize of the disc would have to be what's coming from that guitar. whether it's faster distorted riffs or the slow wails and moans, it's what's really providing the bulk of memorability on abasement tapes.

if you're familiarity level with barrabarracuda stems from their ridiculously good john milton at the beverly hilton, from the tapeworms eat bookworms tape compilation, don't expect the same band. that track was a lot cleaner and the vocals were clear and more attention grabbing, whereas abasement takes a firmly more experimental stance and while the results are night and day, the band's just as entertaining.

Texarkanarchist

overheard songs
[2006, innova]

raven is originally from fort defiance, arizona, but now finds himself (north) hollywood swingin'. is north hollywood less swinging than hollywood itself? not sure. he has the distinction of being one of precious few american indian classical composers (he's worked with/studied under james tenney and wadada leo smith) and most likely, he's one of one when it comes to making noise music. in regards to that particular genre, raven keeps himself involved in a few groups: kilt (with bob bellerue (redglaer, halfnormal, anarchymoon recordings), dog shit taco (like ruins? you'd probably dig this group, which features far too many people) and cobra//group. according to the latter's myspace page they were influenced by ellipses and they sound like a million of these: "/". that last one, i could see, since it's harsh noise / experimental / avant-garde / marching band jazz slash slash slash ad infinitum. once again, waaay too many people i've never heard of before involved in this one. go to their profile and find out for yourself, lazies.

my prior knowledge of raven chacon's music exists in memory form, that of an impressive turntable orgy with bob bellerue, lob (instagon) and amk, as well as in physical form, by way of the split that he did with shanghai's torturing nurse. for those who are familiar with the incredible 17000 km split, there's certainly some common ground between that cd and this album. that's most true of the incredible's bandolero, a definite touchstone for a few tracks on overheard songs. i think that it's also worth mentioning that neezná (with mask) makes an appearance on both discs.

overheard songs is for fans of noise who like the experimental value in it just as much as they enjoy the violent aspects. the closest that raven gets to virulence this time out would be with naakits'áadah, which features some subdued noise in the back and then there's some high pitched squeals over the top of that. there are times during that piece where it can induce ringing ears, but it's really the only instance where you need to worry about the future of your hearing. there's actually a less harsh loud whine, compare it to a tea kettle left unattended for about twenty minutes, that appears as a recurring noise theme throughout the album. raven also adds some live instrumentation on a few songs, too, most notably in the field of percussion. tracks like rattle game, americana and my baby's seen an evil being add unique native american flavor along with great noise and provide excellent changes of pace. the wind instrumentation which closes out rattle game was one of my favorite moments on overheard songs.

raven's got an outstanding thing going with this fine piece of work. it's unique, noisy, extremely interesting and happens to be an all around rewarding listen. plain and simple.

Overheard Song

anklyosaur generator
[2007, debacle]

this shoreline, washington, trio is comprised of gordon greenwood, dustin kochel and tim nelson.
alright, it looks like we're back in business with physical demon. anklyosaur generator, (the koopa's from the super mario brothers kinda resemble anklyosaurs) is a one track, forty-one minute excursion in extremely interesting noise. you can push the track length off to the side though, since there's so many distinct segments being incorporated. all of which are given a sufficient amount of room to breathe and become fully realized before they bring in something new. this is really fucking good. to the ear, it may sound cold and unwelcoming, but if you're willing to brave the elements, you're in for a treat. generator is nicely layered with an equal measure of icy ambiance as well as engaging noise. for the most part that noise isn't harsh, but there are times when the volume level is raised considerably, but, naturally, those are the best parts! the highlight for me was the feedback interplay from around twenty-five minutes in until a few minutes later. then, once everything else just drops off and it's practically a feedback solo, now that's just outstanding. it also happens to be kinda catchy. i'm definitely impressed with this release and i'm sure that once the right people find out about physical demon, we'll be hearing a lot more from them.

all in all, debacle's batting .666 with a home run, a triple and a ground out. i hate baseball, what the hell's wrong with me...

Anklyosaur Generator Excerpt (from to 7:41 to 11:41)

feeding friendsy
[2007, debacle]

ivory lid is seattle's demetrius carlson who also goes by birds. not sure if there's a solid distinction between the two projects or not. he's joined on this split by wesley borden, whom i cannot find any info about whatsoever.
the three discs that i got from debacle are a part of the yearlong emerald city debacle, volume one series. the cds are available either individually or as part of a subscription. the series appears to be an attempt to cull local underground artists from varying genres and give them some exposure. that's a good thing. though, i'd imagine if your tastes are not completely open-minded, subscribing to this could present some problems. one such problem could be with this installment as ivory lid is coming from an electronic/techno field while wesley borden is based around drone. needless to say ivory lid isn't my thing at all. at his best, demetrius manages to give us an alright impression of four tet...other than that, i pretty much skimmed through all of ivory lid's songs quickly and chose to listen to wesley's. his warm, inoffensive, atmospheric drones are pleasing enough to the ear, but they don't really do much for me beyond that. i'm sure that anyone who's pretty into yellow6 wouldn't have qualms with what borden's doing. as for ivory lid, just think of a third-rate four tet with club aspirations and you wouldn't be too far off the mark. though, i haven't listened to anything from four tet since rounds, so maybe kieran has already degenerated to that since then.

Ivory Lid - English Never Felt So Good
Wesley Borden - Lazy Not In Love

this is the first of three cds that sam from the fledgling debacle records up in seattle sent to me. in case you couldn't tell, smooth assailing is becoming the blog ambassador to the emerald city, and i couldn't be happier.

the rose; prickliest of thorns
[2007, debacle]

...wind swept planes... is chad allen and his numerous toys, including, but not limited to actual toys. he also uses the guitar, violin, thumb piano, samples, junk and anything else that he finds lying around.

judging by the kaleidoscopic artwork for the cd and the picture of chad, big beard and long hair, sitting down cross-legged style, surrounded by flower petals, with a smirk that suggests that he knows something you don't know, i was mentally preparing myself for something along the lines of psych/hippie-folk. undoubtedly, it's incorrect assumptions like this which birthed the adage about not judging books by etc. fine then. the rose is a head trip, to be sure, but it's far less of a straight-forward one than i would've expected. it screams bedroom experimentation, and that's a positive critique. i thoroughly enjoy the recorded quality of it.

poppies suffocating roses is the closest thing to a conventional sounding psych-folk song and it's also chad's most memorable one. it's very bare, mostly there's just a simple, and catchy, rhythm on the acoustic guitar coupled with some jangly percussion and later on some foot stomping. his singing starts off in kind of a whisper, but as poppies builds, he turns it into a nice falsetto. the nine minute long (the album itself is only thirty-one minutes) thorn of salt is really the only gripe that i have with the rose. i probably wouldn't have minded it if it were at least half that length, because there's a good and eerily noisy background, but the purposely kooky singing, channeling early nick cave it seems, grows tiresome after awhile. then there's playful songs like the album opening twining twixt, as well as sweet red, which come closer in sound to the woefully under appreciated micose & the mau maus. the rose; prickliest of thorns has far more enjoyable moments than anything else. so far so good.

Aphids & Blood

quite surprisingly, this was sent to me by michele poulos from tanakh. it's a surprise because this is definitely not the type of music that we normally cover here. i can be objective though, so here goes.

saunders hollow
[2007, camera obscura]

tanakh's anchor is jesse poe, principal singer/songwriter and guitarist. outside of that tanakh seems to be a fairly sprawling collective of musicians. oddly enough, their myspace page doesn't list anyone that contributed on this cd, other than jesse, as actually being fixed members of the band. they're all mentioned under extended family. okay. amongst the seventeen total participants listed on the liner notes are alex neilson (scatter, directing hand, volcanic tongue, richard youngs collaborator as well as jandek's drummer), isobel campbell..yep, that same isobel campbell, formerly of belle & sebastian and gentle waves, handling backing vocals, and then there's michele poulos who takes on the lead vocal duties. from what i've gathered, their members are spread out between richmond, virginia and italy.

it's been so long since i've listened to anything like this that i'm struggling to form relevant reference points. my mind's blank. tanakh have put out a few previous albums, none of which i've heard, but saunders hollow has the band in an indie rock/alt. country mode. heavier on the ac side of things, in instrumentation, mainly. michele's vocals aren't annoying, like most with alternative country can be, no offense to neko case.
ladybird gets us off to a falsely depressive start. over somber string arrangements we're given some of these life affirming lyrics, "i'm so bored of waking up". thankfully, michele's down-trodden vocal melodies are a highlight. the following marcel proust would be my favorite track, if it weren't for poe's vocals making their lone entry to play the gainsbourg to michele's airy bardot. or maybe the hazlewood to her nancy sinatra. lee's voice is great though, so that i could go for. honestly, it's not enough to sink this song's ship, i just think it would've benefited more by sticking with the feminine vocals. it's a far less severe sounding song with some catchier guitar playing, solid drumming by alex and another strong melodic performance, particularly on the hook. it's really the singing on saunders hollow that makes it a worthwhile album. more often than not, when you're dealing with this kind of music, it's the vocals that are going to make it good or not. if the melodies are flat or non-existent, it would be boring as hell to listen to. thankfully, that's not the case. the instrumentation is solid, too, and on a few occasions, it finds itself being the center of attention. the most noteworthy of those moments being the latter half of kept when the vocals are done and the band breaks into jam mode complete with a nice little saxophone action from darius jones, the only occurrence of the instrument that i spotted. it makes for a very nice, unexpected passage of music.

the liner notes feature some musings about tanakh by former 90's emo darling chris "feed me bread" leo (native nod, the van pelt...a bunch of others...). interesting. i didn't really get any of it, but i'm sure someone else will.

Where Our Gardens Grow