Saturday, 25 March 2017
Conclusion
As we grow older we realize time is a luxury we don' t have anymore. Things change. I don' t know when I'll have the time to post new things online. I don' t know if I'll post anything online anymore. I just don' t know, only time will tell, Farewell to all my readers out there if they are any it's been fun.
Various – living music 2001 – musique vivante 2001 (Double CD)
I found this double CD at Renaissance
Montréal. This compilation was still sealed and at 4.00 $ it`s a damned
good deal. This came out in 2001 on the Canadian music centre. The CMC,
since 1959 has been proudly supporting, preserving and promoting the work of
Canadian composers. This double compilation features mostly Canadians
and some composers from Germany (Eugene Martynec) and the United
Kingdom (Michael Finnissy). There`s a lot of listening material
on this double CD compilation 25 tracks by 25 composers = 139.25 minutes. They
offer a nice variety of sounds / styles; new classical, experimental jazz,
electroacoustic and sound art. A nice introduction for these types of music. On
the first CD there`s an amazing piece by Michael Bushnell (from British
Columbia) titled `on the night train` (9.05 minutes) = experimental
percussive soundscapes = strangely compelling meditative music. More
information here; http://www.musiccentre.ca/
Gydja – helchemy (CD)
Gydja (an old Norse dame for priestess) is the solo project of a
sound artist (Abby Helasdottir) living in New Zealand. Helchemy
which came out in 2008 on Afe Records (an Italian label run Andrea
Marutti) is his eight album. My first Gydja listening experience.
There`s two long tracks for a total running time of 50.51 minutes. Here`s a
brief rundown
1 – The spirit of the earth with
venom intoxicate (25.07 minutes) = ambient darkwave / noise + minimal
electronics + drone elements + found sounds + minimal piano = feels like
sitting naked on a mountaintop in Siberia while the wind proceeds to slowly
freeze your soul relentlessly.
2 – The black sea, the black lune,
the black soll (25.34 minutes) = minimal ambience + rhythmic noise
elements + some sonic experimentations + death ambience + more lo-fi rhythmic
noise = a subtle trip through the land of inner schizophrenia, impressive.
Check it out http://www.aferecords.com/
Air – virgin suicides (CD)
I`m not much of a Air music
fan but when I read a couple of years ago that they recorded a movie
soundtrack. Well curiosity got the better of me. I never saw the virgin
suicides movie before. This album (13 tracks = 40.31 minutes) came out in
1999 (it`s their second effort). I found this on a cold Sunday afternoon at Renaissance
Montréal, for their usual 2.00 $ fee. I wasn`t expecting much. After the
first listen, I`m hooked. What an amazing surprise, this is a mighty good
soundtrack. Air mixes various elements of rock, downtempo, trip hop,
lounge, jazz. Ambience, psychedelic rock, electronic, minimalism, and soft
rock. The end results a beautiful, fresh, deeply emotional, introspective,
atmospheric, sensuous soundtrack. A couple of tracks recalls Pink Floyd
circa dark side of the moon, nonetheless it sounds even better than old Floyd.
Standout tracks are
6 – The Word hurricane (2.33)
= old psychedelic rock + electronics = nice.
13 – Suicide underground
(5.56 minutes) = downtempo electronics meet old psychedelic / space rock.
Recommended.
Ministry – in case you didn`t feel like showing up (live) (CD)
I got this as a gift from someone who owed me. I own two Ministry albums, `the mind is a terrible to taste` and `psalm 69`. I`m not a Ministry fan. I love those two albums though. This is the band`s first live album, it came out in 1990, on Sire and Warner Bros. Records. A VHS video version of this concert (with a different cover & more songs) was available at the time. I`ve been hearing this non-stop all week long. It`s a short (5 tracks = 39.41 minutes) yet incredible live recording. You can feel da power, da intensity, da energy, da whole damned enchilada. They do a long (11.29 minutes) and amazing cover of `so what `with some nice double drums. Now I wanna find the video version of this concert. Ah the wonders of the internet. A little googling and away we go. Check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaz5V6OFQlo
DJ Le Monk – café del monko vol.2 – eclectic moods (CD)
I found this album stuck between two
April Lavigne full lengths. Another DJ album. At Renaissance Montréal,
they sell their CDs 2.00 $ each, so what the heck. DJ Le Monk is
specialized in lounge & deep house music. I`m not sure if I wrote this
before but I`m not really into house music. Once in a blue moon I find
something I like / enjoy/ can relate to. It took me some listening effort to
appreciate this, but I finally did. This album blends beautifully deep house,
trip hop, funky house, house tech and electro-jazz. The electro-jazz elements
really caught my attention. Feel free to check out http://djlemonk.com/
Isolée - we are monsters (CD)
A colleague gave me a bunch of CD`s
he wanted to throw away. I`m always up for freebies. It might be interesting,
or not. Isolée is the solo minimal house music project of Rajko
Muller (born in Frankfurt, Germany). We are monsters,
which came out in 2005 on Playhouse is his second album. This is my first
listening experience and to be perfectly honest I`m impressed here. The music
is electronically oriented with elements of micro house, old techno, retro
electro, deep house, eight-bit music, acid, lounge, downtempo and pop / pop
rock. I wanted to check out his gear because most of the tracks have that warm
old school analog sound. Are those VST`s or the real thing. Fortunately it`s
the real thing Isolée uses a Yamaha VSS-30 and a Roland
JX-3P. I like this album it has a retro futuristic sound i.e. mixing the
old and the new. Standout tracks of the moment are
8 – Jelly baby / fish (4.52
minutes) = song oriented retro electro / techno with a nice lounge feel.
9 – Today (4.33 minutes) =
downtempo + micro house + pop / pop rock is that an electric guitar in the
background or you`re just happy to see me?
Dieter Muh – black square (CD)
This CD came out in 1997, on Carnifex.
A limited edition of 500 copies, it`s definitely sold-out. The music was composed
by Stephan Cammack, David Uden and Tim Bayes. This album
was produced by Colin Potter (an engineer working with the likes of Nurse
With Wound, Current 93, Organum, Ora and many others).
I`m not sure where I got this CD, it was on my `to listen / review` pile of
stuff. My first listening experience (six tracks = 55.13 minutes). It is
definitely experimental electronic music. There`s some drones, minimal
ambience, found sounds of unknown origin, ambient noise, minimalism, rhythmic
noise, death / darkwave ambience, with lo-fi noises included. I never heard
anything like this before. It feels like a mix between Francisco Lopez`s
minimal moments, with elements of dark ambient / ambient noise (Brighter
Death Now and /or Yen Pox / Schloss Tegal perhaps) and some
drones & outer worldly soundscapes, you get the drill. Good
stuff.
Crawl.Unit VS Silence (CD)
Joe Colley is a visual artist and composer (born in Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida, USA). He used to run Povertech Industries (an experimental
label 1993-2000). He records under the name Crawl.Unit. He experiments
with audio mixing elements of electronics and field recordings. This is his
first album (five tracks = 69.21 minutes). To be honest this is a rather
difficult listening experience. There`s elements of noise, minimalism, ambient
noise, and dark electronics. The `music` moves softly, slowly, with some nice
subtle lo-fi moments included. It always surprises you with slow shifting dark
passages. I like this album, it took me a lot of listens to appreciate this. An
immersing, yet surprisingly relaxing recording. Recommended if you can find
it.
Various – 5 years of hyperdub (Double CD)
I like compilations. When I saw this
double CD (for 4.00 $) at Renaissance Montréal, I was curious. I don`t
know any artists / bands involved and I never heard the name Hyperdub
before. Hyperdub is a UK record label founded in 2004 by Kode9 (a
London-based DJ and electronic music artist). You will hear music from the
likes of King Midas Sound, Kode9, Darkstar, Samiyam,
Flying Lotus, Black Chow, Burial, Cooly G, Zomby,
Martyn, LV, Mala, LD, Quarta 330, Joker
& Ginz, Ikonika, The Bug and 200F. The music is
mostly dub / dubstep mixed with experimental, chiptune, 8-bit, and electronic
music elements. I discovered dubstep circa 2009 while listening to the electronic
explorations podcasts http://electronicexplorations.org/.
Get all your Hyperdub info /
goodies here; http://www.hyperdub.net/
Bill Laswell & Terre Thaemlitz – web (CD)
The first and only collaboration
between those two artists. This album came out in 1995 on Subharmonic.
There`s three pieces (50.47 minutes) on this album. Here`s a brief rundown.
1 – Open url (16.15 minutes)
= lo-fi rhythmic noise + ambient minimalism moving subtly back and forth =
excellent.
2 – Insectoidal regression
(17.07 minutes) = minimal ambient noise + lo-fi experimental noise burst + some
drones on the side.
3 – Transfer complete (17.25
minutes) = subtle minimal rhythmic noise slowly going into noise / ambient
noise territory. An interesting album of electronic abstract ambience.
Recommended if you can find it.
LTJ Bukem – producer 01 (CD)
LTJ Bukem (real name Daniel Williamson) is a well-known
drum & bass producer, DJ and head cheese of Good Looking records (a
jungle / drum & bass label). Producer 01 is his fifth compilation
album (after the famous Earth volume 1 to 4 series). This CD (9 pieces = 73.39
minutes) came out in 2000 (Good Looking Record). I`m chilling out,
listening to this album, it`s early February, it`s about minus 20 outside, a
really cold and humid weather. I feel so warm inside. The perfect soundtrack
for this time of the year. The album mixes elements of electronic, drum &
bass, jungle, downtempo, nu jazz, chill-out, future jazz, hip hop with some
nice breakbeats included. https://soundcloud.com/ltj-bukem
Stefan Christoff & Nick Schofield – rêves sonores à Montréal (CD)
I found this album in the cheapie bin
section at a local second hand record store. I think I paid something like 1.00
$. A limited edition of 200 copies, it came out on howls art collective
(a Montréal collective of cultural workers, artists, activists working
via artistic expression for social justice). A sonic collaboration featuring Stefan
Christoff on piano and Nick Schofield on electronics. I wonder what
type of electronics we`re talking here. It sounds like a mix between minimal
soundscapes, lo-fi electroacoustic or musique concrete perhaps. An interesting
release. It`s introspective, highly minimal in nature, ambient at times, and
deeply meditative sometimes (good background music for relaxing purposes).
Tonal soundscapes meets minimal electronic ambience. My standout track is
4 – Generation II (2.05
minutes) = minimal piano + lo-fi NES / SMS sound bytes. Some info here http://howlarts.net/
Atari Teenage Riot – burn, Berlin burn compilation (CD)
Life is strange sometimes. I
discovered digital hardcore i.e a mix of which hardore punk + industrial +
hardcore techno + drum & bass, and also breakcore. While surfing the web. I
was checking out some electronic music netlabels. That evening I found so much
legally free music it`s simply unreal. I remember this particular label named D-Trash
Records (http://www.lunaticfringe.org/~schizoid/dtrashrecords/)
they had a good quantity of free digital hardcore albums. That`s how I
discovered Schizoid, Knar, Cpuwar, DJ Rabies and Exist.
All this happened around 2001 or 2003 perhaps. That`s totally me. I find some
new type of electronic music (at least for me). I never hear the original
creators. Instead, I usually discover the more obscure version. It`s early
2017, I`m at Renaissance Montréal looking at piles and piles of second hand
CDs. When lo and behold, what is this? A compilation of the famous Atari
Teenage Riot (one of the founders of digital hardcore). I`m sitting down in
my comfort chair, relaxing, having a nice cold beer while hearing this. I`m
impressed. This compilation came out in 1997 (twenty years ago) and still
sounds fresh. There`s fourteen tracks of intense, in your face, savage,
blaring, digital hardcore. Man I need some Tylonol here. Some info: http://www.atari-teenage-riot.com/
Something for nothing # 73 (free zine + DVD-R)
I recently got in the mail the
latest Something for nothing zine. SFN is a half-size, black
& white, cut & paste, 40 pager (it`s also published irregularly, like
most zines). This issue is full of punk related goodies, like a profile on Bad
Brains, the records of HR (Bad Brains vocalist), the records
of Scaterd-Few, the records of Ras Michael (real name; Michael
George Henry), zine & beverages reviews, a small explanatory list of
symbols (interesting) and we end all of this with birthday materialism
(a story of going on a record shopping spree for your birthday, sounds good to
me. Thanks for the nice Mastock newsletter review Idy. My parcel came
with the `something for nothing radio show – collected episodes
2015 / 2016`a DVD-R with 31 mp3`s. there`s 16 episodes (almost 30 hours of
listening). Every show has a nice mix of punk, reggae, hardcore, dub,
alternative, indie, new wave, some progressive and novelty music. Send some
stamps, money, a trade to:
Idy
516 Third ST NE
Massillon
OH
44646
U$A 
Plastikman – sheet one (CD)
Plastikman is Richie Hawtin`s solo recording
project. Along Vromb (Hugo Girard, Montréal, Québec)
there`s Plastikman (Windsor, Ontario), two Canadian
electronic music entities which are basically unknown in their own province. I
got lucky and found `sheet one` (his first album). The music (11 tracks
= 60.39 minutes) is electronically oriented and mixes elements of minimal
techno (pre Consumed, that`s for sure), downtempo, acid, techno and acid
techno. A good first effort. I enjoyed all the songs. I found some standout
tracks, which are
2- Plasticity
(11.02 minutes) = a nice and long piece of evolving minimal acid techno.
5 – Helikopter
(6.32 minutes) = cool, repetitive, meditative minimal techno. Recommended if
can find
it. 
Photek – form & function (CD)
This is the second album from Rupert
Matthew Swain Parkes (Photek) a fixture on The UK jungle / drum
& bass scene. I`ve been hearing this album all week long and yet I don`t
know if I like this or hate this. One thing I can say after numerous listen it
growed on me. The music is a nice mix of electronic drum & bass, a little
jungle on the side and some nice sonic experimentations going on. I`m not much
of a jungle / drum & bass fan. This album is good though. Recommended. Some
info here: http://photek.fm/
Wagon Christ – musipal (CD)
I got this album at Renaissance
Montreal for 2.00$. Wagon Christ is the solo music project of Luke
Francis Vibert, a British electronic music composer born January 26th 1973 in Corwall,
United Kingdom. Musipal is his fourth studio album. I discovered Wagon
Christ`s music while surfing www.youtube.com. I saw `lovely` `receiver`
videos and I was hooked. The music on this CD (13 tracks = 62.58 minutes)
blends different styles electronic, leftfield, hip hop breaks, break beats,
jazz, funk, IDM and downtempo. I couldn`t find any standout tracks. The CD is a
standout listening experience. I have a soft spot in my heart for `the
premise`, `bend over`, `tomach `, and `receiver `. some
information; http://www.wagonchrist.com/
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