extra sucky was the music portion of (what i'm assuming was) an art exhibition, extra (sic), that took place in antwerp during the 11th & 12th of november, 2006. it was put together by jelle crama and veglia records' laurent cartuyvels. for the event the pair created some band names, invited some musicians to come and jam and the rest is history. the names that they performed under were gangalai & gourapai, fikfust, quarter man, barnum, vest and laserquest. i have the fikfust, quarter man and laserquest cassettes to share with you.

laserquest

live at extra sucky 11/11/06 (one-sided) c54
[2007, puik]

conceptually, the extra sucky tapes stay the truest to jelle's bootleg aesthetic with puik. the laserquest tape recycles a cassette of franz schubert symphonies. blatant lack of respect for the classics. the youth of today, i tell ya. ha. actually, laserquest's portion of the tape only takes up around twenty-three minutes of the first side. so your money will net you a nice slab of psych sludge (i think i just inadvertently created the best tongue twister ever right there) as well as the works of a classical master. i approve. though, since the tapes are recycled, you could very well end up with a randy newman album, or worse. i lucked out.

the jammers on this one are laurent cartuyvels (r.o.t., toss...) [pictured], ignatz and koen vandenhoudt. i'd like to think that the main thing when dealing with a live recording is the sound quality, so let's get to that first. it's excellent. no crowd noise at all (except for right smack in the middle when they slow it down and there's a bit of preemptive applause), it's hard to tell that it's even being played live, save for the drums sounding a little distant. as for the music itself, like i not so nonchalantly hinted at, this is a jam session. i think that the word "jam" elicits negative response when it shouldn't. give me some repetitious chords, directionless strumming, effects-laden guitars, solid drumming and i'm a happy man, and no, i'm not a stoner, not that there's anything wrong with that. i just love it when the music takes over and just envelopes you. i should probably reinforce to you that i'm not on drugs right now. the first eight minutes are the loosest sounding, but then they pick up the pace and things are beautiful from there on out. despite being open-ended there's more than a couple of structured moments. i'd say that that's more the case during the last seven minutes when they hone in on a couple of nice grooves.

if twenty plus minute guitar workouts with excellent drumming equal good times for you, treat yourself to this cassette. you deserve it.

Live @ Extra Sucky Excerpt (from 4:42 to 9:02)

quarter man

live at extra sucky (one-sided) c60
[2007, puik]

ernesto gonzalez (aka bear bones, lay low) and krokodillenland (kiré, wtr and dennis krokodil [pictured]) came together to perform as quarter man.

it should be noted that the performances from all three artists are between sixteen and twenty-three minutes long, despite the cassettes' actual lengths.

the recording of this one is interesting. it starts off with everything panned to the left, then after a few minutes both channels get going, then it goes back to being predominately in the left channel again. the volume of it is really low, too. i had to amplify it with audacity just so i could actually tell what was going on. it's a shame, because i'm liking what i (barely) hear. heavy on the psychedelic vibe with lots of vocal noise (moans and hums) with guitar wankery and some synths. damn, i really wish the panning wasn't all wacky because when it switches to stereo, it's really good. the last half of the tape cuts out the additional noise that was the constant in the beginning and relies more on great minimal guitar playing and doesn't fail to make an impression, despite being relegated to one speaker. it's a really good collaboration, but a dodgy recording.

actually, after i wrote this up, i went back and screwed with the track some more on audacity and converted it from stereo to mono, then back to stereo, and it sounds perfect now. victory is mine! the audio sample below is after i edited it.

Live @ Extra Sucky Excerpt (from 8:38 to 13:04)


fikfust

live at extra sucky (one-sided) c34
[2007, puik]

fikfust is lieven martens, floris vanhoof and yobleart. lieven ran the awesome imvated tapes label, which is now done with. his new label is bread & animals, so be on the lookout for swag from that. vanhoof is a member of r.o.t. and is also a part of dirk freenoise, which i know absolutely nothing about, probably because they've never released anything despite being around since at least 2002. supposedly a split tape with fckn'bstrds is imminent.

this tape is the most minimal of the bunch. it centers around a main drone, there's some tape manipulations by floris along with some accompanying noises in the background, but that drone is what you'll fixate on. it sounds like someone vacuuming in the next room over, only less annoying. there's a nice serenity to what they're doing. i like it a lot. unfortunately, this tape also has an issue with sound quality. low volume plus the frequent recurrence of that tape click sound that you can get on old cassettes. it only pops up during the last half, but because of it i can't adjust the volume without making that click aggravatingly loud. i'll see if i can try some noise reduction on this later to try and fix it. i hope so. (update: nope, couldn't).

in his (greatly appreciated) notes to me, jelle did say that everything on the extra sucky cassettes were recorded and dubbed on the same night that the performances took place, so i'm sure that that is the x factor in the dubious quality. the laserquest tape came out really well though. all of the performances themselves are good, so at the very least the extra sucky experience has given me some new names to check out, and that's always a good thing. my dwindling cash flow tends to argue, but what does money know?

Live @ Extra Sucky Excerpt (from 0:00 to 4:11)

fueled by asteroids (one-sided) c40
[2007, puik]

there's some real nice things going on in belgium's experimental music scene, and these two artists; carlo steegen (audiobot) and eva van deuren (orphan fairytale) are knee-deep in them. unfortunately, if you're not in europe, you may not know too much about what's going on with these guys, especially with frozen corpse (or their other duo, hardline elephants). for one, the editions are super limited (one frozen corpse tape was put out in ten copies), obviously, that makes things harder. then there's the fact that there's not a whole lot of u.s. distro options. new york's fusetron is probably your stateside best bet. globally, volcanic tongue is the most viable source, but i think that most sane americans aren't going to shell out thirty bucks for a thirty minute cassette, even if the artwork / packaging is top-notch. thank communism for file sharing.this cassette is certainly not the tripped out mental spaceflight that the title hints at and i'm not complaining in the least. my experience with eva's orphan fairytale project was one that involved experimental music fused with the trappings of traditional structure, that is to say that there were rhythmic elements at times, but that never pops up here. the first part of fueled by asteroids brings together warmer tones with what appear to be xylophone chimes. this is as "musical" as things will get. from there, the middle stretch is devoid of any warmth whatsoever and in fact has a considerable surliness to it. the dominant noise is a blizzard-like wind that's threatening to bury the interesting bit that's going on in the background. part two makes me think more of a midnight aquatic expedition than any celestial pursuit. there's a pleasing ambiance supporting a boat rotorlike noise along with other sounds that remind me of water. i'm sure that your experiences my vary, but that's the vibe that i'm getting, and its a good vibe. multi-layered and perfect to lose yourself in.to sum it up, frozen corpse strike the ideal balance between sound experimentation and cohesion. the results being a nice tape that's not particularly noisy, sounds great and has enough of a focus to warrant repeated listens. absolutely wonderful artwork by jelle crama on this one and a hand sewn pouch to boot. thumbs up all around.

Fueled By Asteroids, Part One Excerpt (from 8:18 to 10:13)

egyptian conscription c47
[2007, zeikzak]

treetops is the solo experimental project from illinois' mike pollard who also runs the fine, if slightly misnomered, arbor cdr. he's serving up tapes and vinyl, too. speaking of which, i'll get around to reviewing a newish cassette from arbor sometime this weekend.

it should be noted that there's a rock band, i'm assuming, that also shares a fondness for the name treetops.

i chatted with mike a few times on slsk (he had an impressive collection of dys albums) when he was first starting up arbor and i hadn't really paid much attention to his project since those days, but this cassette serves as a mighty wake-up call.
the ten minute phorgotten pharaohs begins with great moaned and reverbed vocals as well as electronic squeals and screams. i think there's some lightly played guitar in the background. alright, i'm hooked so far. mummified maladies features more vocals, but those, along with drummed percussion, are pushed down in the mix. the focus is on a sustained synth drone. the synth will finally give out towards the end to finish on the drumming and vocal noise. you can certainly get a tomblike feeling from the music on this one. that's good and all, but things get even better with the two minute long sand tombs. more reverberated and pitch-adjusted moaned vocals from mike, paired with staccato drum hits. the warm and dreamy nile-ist calling out finishes out the side.

i liked what was going on with the a side, but mike kills it with side b. pyrmaridial seance features more vocal noise and drumming for the first half, but then in the second half it sounds like he took the recordings of the drumming from the beginning and then affected them, rather nicely, i'm digging this one a lot. on this cassette pollard's making me think of my favorite band with two hyphens in their name, raccoo-oo-oon, just switch out that band's propensity for rocking out with a higher appreciation for experimentation and/or manipulation. the twelve minute closer egyptian conscription is definitely one of the tape's best tracks. it begins with sputtering electronic noises which come to solidify into a drone. when you add to that some really catchy tone work and that louder bit at the end, i'm sold.

i'd have to say that this one falls more under the psyche category than the noise one. there's enough affecting going on, mainly with that reverb, to give off a trippier vibe, plus with the drumming you can envision a peyote-spawned drum circle, but i love it and i hate hippies. that's saying something, right? what i liked the most were the more electronically inclined pieces like phorgotten pharaohs, but the entire tape is quite enjoyable.

Nile-ist Calling Out

eqsi is the first tape from a wonderful package sent to me by jelle crama of the zeikzak and puik! labels. additionally, you may know of him from his artwork which has graced a ton of albums, without spending all night on google, i'll toss out some names: tan as fuck, julian bradley (vibracathedral orchestra), bongoleeros, loosers, the goslings, heteroskeleton... he used to have a rather large section detailing his work on one of his websites, but i can't find it anymore. what you really need to know is that jelle's an immensely talented guy whose work doesn't grace anything that isn't worthwhile.

save an absurdist, eat a rationalist c40
[2007, zeikzak]

new hampshire's brent field is the demented mind behind squash insurance as well as the nauscopy label. a quick perusal of their discography will affirm to you that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. it's home to such artists as: my penis is made of dogshit, one hootchie cootchie, blood sucking baby hookers, x-ray of a boiled sandwich, crappy scribbler, gang of pork... you can see where i'm going with this. if you've got a project name that makes no sense (hari kari vampire kitty, i'm looking at you), chances are you have a release on nauscopy, good job. except for hari kari vampire kitty, try harder. something from nauscopy that immediately struck me as interesting was the collection of older songs from asia, brings to mind sublime frequencies. seems worth checking out.

brent's released previously under the moniker of edith bunker's demonized vomit insurance. those were the days.

side a (there's actually track titles, but i can barely read half of them) starts off with a hillbilly folk song with the seemingly drunken ramblings of someone shitfaced off bathtub moonshine. beautiful. pass that jug over here. after a few minutes that turns into usa today page 1, which is a woman's (computerized) voice saying "i like to elbow fuck my face". it's only three seconds long. from there we go to the more spaced out acoustics of trollery mudd. this time the folk is paired with recordings of people talking. a clearly discernible "i'm gonna fucking stab you" can be heard...later on this theme is revisited as there's an additionally layered track of random acoustic folk underneath the main drugged out one...the cheerily sung "gonna stab you in the face, gonna stab you in the neck" is amusingly catchy. the absurdity is reaching an admirable level right about now, but brent never loses control of things. sure, it's pretty fucking out there, but it's entertaining and not without its redeeming qualities. for instance, the next track is a memorable synth work out propelled by some fine distortion and feedback. the closing number nicely stays within the field of electronics. the way the tape started off, i thought that it was just going to be thoroughly jokey, but there's serious music to be found, and even what comes off as silly is still fun to listen to.
mongolian beef begins the second side in rollicking noise filled fashion. there's some steady percussion and periodic singing as well as distorted synth. most of this side is filled with experimental noise, but the seven minute closer.. something about a mine shaft... is the gem of the whole shebang. a very penetrating piece of music. there's a loop of guitar and some brief buried vocals that i can't make out, and over the top of that are some whispered vocals that are played backwards. conceptually, it might come off as being rather simple, but oftentimes there's more to be said about the execution, this is absolutely one such occasion.

very impressive cassette. if you want to take a step away from the norm (in experimental / noise terms) towards something heavier on the experimentation, yet that still manages to capture your attention, in addition to merely sounding interesting, save an absurdist is certainly worth looking into. unfortunately, this poor tape did not make the journey from belgium very well, the case is all fucked to hell. postal employees are dicks, read bukowski, you'll know what's up.

Track Four, Side A
(perhaps of interest is this link to lost frog productions which has an mp3 download of edith bunker's reality is dead album.)

flesh of the moon
[2002, c.i.p.]

noise fun fact #2: brutum fulmen is latin for (essentially) an empty threat. impress your friends/get punched for being pretentious, choose your own adventure! now, the trite facts: brutum fulmen, operating out of connecticut, is mainly the outlet for jeff wrench's experimental work. it seems like the brutum fulmen live experience expands to accommodate tape manipulator ken pfeifer (pictured standing up). jeff's had a couple of discs released by shiflet's gameboy imprint, and bf also occupied a side on rrrecord's new england 5 lp box set, which i need to buy at some point.

i loved this little bit of information about jeff from brutum fulmen's bio: "i played the saxaphone (sic) for a few years in grade school, but i can no longer read the little bit of music i could at that time, could never keep a beat, can't sing on key, and am probably tone deaf. i have no more than the most rudimentary understanding of music theory. none of this has deterred me from wanting to and attempting to make music." gives a bit of hope to the rest of us, eh?

while the above passage may make it seem like brutum's approach to music has all the delicacy of a blind giant, clearly he's selling himself short. there is a deliberate calculation to what's going on with flesh of the moon. jeff (pictured kneeling) likens what he's doing to musique concrète, and i'm not going to argue with him, the disc is an amalgamation of field recordings, processed found sounds, object manipulation as well as source sounds provided by others.

the overall tone of flesh of the moon is oppressively dark. opener lake of sleep is full of eerie ambiance. now, i don't think that jeff's holed up somewhere muttering "i'm the prince of fucking darkness", but the result of his work comes through as xenakis as influenced by the necronomicon. spooky stuff. haunted space continues with the theme, though, this time as the title would indicate, there's more of a celestial coldness at its core. my favorite moment is the swell of noise which appears to be rising towards a grand crescendo until it abruptly cuts out and goes back to gravity-less ambiance. pickle mutation is full of outstanding, jarring, noises. the panning of the creaky door hinges is utter brilliance. pipe this one through your house on halloween and guarantee that no one rings your door bell.
flesh of the moon isn't all minimal, sinister sounding electronics. spore, which uses a severely scratched tore honoré bøe record as a sound source is one of the best pieces on here. great analog crackle amongst god knows what, but after a couple of minutes when the background music comes into focus, this is when the track really shines. for all the talk that jeff did about well, not being very musically-aware, in the traditional sense, this is his contradictory statement. despite the minimalism of it, it's actually quite musical and manages to be memorable. mourn is another keeper. it starts off with some good droning noise but soon there's some warmer tones poured over the top of that. not only are the sounds nicely juxtaposed, they also show wrench at his most optimistic sounding. it serves as a pleasing reprieve before the fog-filled lake of dreams brings us to our end. once again, with this track he adds a playful contrast to it, near the end. the placement of it is a bit curious, as it's not at the end, not during the middle, and it only sticks around for a minute or so before being subdued by the darker elements. perhaps jeff at his most pessimistic?

now this is something that i think is deserving of the word unsettling. sure, i can definitely find you plenty of albums that are darker and more disturbing than this one, but all i'm saying is that as far as concrète goes, i doubt that you'd throw this on as background music while you were reading a book or taking a nap. unless it's a dirt nap. great stuff, though.

Pickle Mutation