A series of short reviews...
More stuff I've picked up in the last 3 months or so.

You can at least expect my reviews to be honest, because I actually pay for this stuff. I don't get it free, not that I would mind that. (If you wanna send me something to review, go for it!) Also, I don't download available releases. I don't care if people do that, but it ain't for me. Artists get fucked left and right by sleazy music business types (sometimes even indie record companies). It's almost impossible for anybody to do music full time as a result. That being said, I have no problem with somebody downloading huge mega-hits released on one of those evil multi-media conglomerate labels. Fuck them.



Colin Potter
It Was Like This... 2CD(r?)
(ICR)

Colin Potter is a sound artist who runs Integrated Circuit Records and Studio. Some of the most brilliant soundscape and drone works in the past 10 or so years have come out on ICR. Colin has collaborated with many of these artists, and has been involved in a few acts, notably Monos, Ora and Nurse With Wound. It was like this... was released at the time of the Nurse With Wound show which took place in San Francisco a few months back, and it consists of two disks of live material which span seven years. The music is an interesting mix of ambient drones, keyboard music, and, rare for Mr. Potter, some beats. The fact that there's more variety than normal for a Potter disk has its good and bad points. On the plus side, there's really nothing bad here, and it's nice to see that Potter is unafraid to experiment with different styles. On the other hand, the fact that the performances change direction from one to the next tends to detract from the continuity a bit. That's really a quibble though, especially since it seems that this material is intended to be archival. Considering that these recordings are board mixes from live shows, the sound is very good. Each of the performances are creative and well executed. The work also has an ominous atmosphere at times, which makes for some fun. This release comes with no artwork, and though the ICR website says this is a double CDR, it looks to me like they are standard pressed CD's. At the time it was released, there was some bogus information going around that this was limited to 100. It's not, so I expect it will be attainable for some time.

Nurse With Wound
Rat Tapes One CD
(ICR)

Rat Tapes One was released initially at the Nurse With Wound gig in San Francisco referenced in the Colin Potter review above. Aparently, there are 50 copies floating around with original "rusted" artwork by Jim Haynes. This release brings to mind an older Nurse With Wound release, A Sucked Orange, which was a collection of short pieces that Steve Stapleton released so that he wouldn't have to transport them on his move from England to Ireland. This release, billed as "An accumulation of discarded musical vermin 1983-2006", contains 18 un-named tracks. There are several instances where sounds from previous NWW albums are evident. Most evident are sounds from Rock and Roll Station and Thunder Perfect Mind, in the form of percussion tracks, bells, weird keyboards, etc. Some of these tracks work great on their own, but as a whole, the album doesn't hold together that well. There are a few short tracks which are fairly annoying little sketches, specifically the recurring sped up xylophone-sounding tracks. There are some suprises here that aren't normally expected for a NWW album. There's a weird Zappa cover, complete with vocals (by Steven Stapleton, I think) and a fairly straight ahead techno track. Sandwiched between are some trademark surrealist tracks that wouldn't sound out of place on a mid to late 80's NWW album, which is a good thing. The last track sounds like a remix of the extra track included on the Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table... reissue, which was a recitation by David Tibet of the bands on the famous Nurse With Wound list. The list of influential bands was included in the original Chance Meeting LP, and later expanded when reissued. It has since become a Holy Grail for record collector geeks. While this CD has many fine moments, I find it hard to listen to over and over because of its disjointed nature. I realise I may be missing the point, since a release like this is expected to be scrappy. Still, I can't help but be disappointed, since a little editing would have made this a great album, instead of an album that has some great stuff, but is weighed down by under-developed material.





Nurse With Wound
Soundpooling CD
(ICR)

Among the recent torrent of Nurse With Wound releases comes Soundpooling. Most of this album was recorded live in Vienna, with a line up comprised of Steven Stapleton, Diana Rogerson (Steven's wife), Colin Potter and Matt Waldron (Irr. app. ext.). The first track, a 66+ minute performance, is billed as "improvisations on Salt Marie Celeste and Echo: Poeme Sequence No.2". Indeed there are many identifiable sounds from each of those releases present here, as well as sounds that seem to show up from a couple other releases, namely the Angry Eelectric Finger series, and possibly Man With the Woman Face (although I'm not positive about the latter). Salt Marie Celeste's creaking, sinking boat seems to be the frame for this performance. It is overlaid with sounds which gradually build in volume and insanity up to about the three quarter point, then slowly dies down again. The improvisors add depth to this work which creates a soundfield that is creepy, mysterious and very surreal. The second track, In Swollen Silence, is a relatively short studio track. Although the mammoth opening track is a hard act to follow, this track makes for a fine, demented coda. It's certainly not as subtle, since there are big jumps in volume at times, but it gets the job done. All in all, certainly one of the finest and most wacked out of the recent NWW releases. A rare instance where a live performance equals, if not exceeds the artist's studio work.

Keiji Haino & Sitaar Tah!

Animamima 2CD

(Archive)

The Sitaar Tah! are a 20 peice sitar orchestra, joined on this live performance by multi-intstrumentalist Keiji Haino, who adds flute, hurdy gurdy, vocals and a couple other instruments. I'd imagine a lot of people would consider this a drone recording, and I guess in part that would be fair. There are moments that could be compared to the Taj Mahal Travellers type of drone (which means this is really loud for the most part!). However, I don't think it really fits all that comfortably into one category, because there is way too much activity here to simply consider this a drone. It's more like an intense jam session. The Sitaar Tah! really seem to dominate the proceedings with their cross cutting improvisations. Their ability to improvise on such a scale, and not sound like a mess is nothing short of amazing. Haino adds flourishes with other instruments, which helps to elevate this performance in subtle ways, because he adds layers of sound in appropriate measure. The vocals at the end of disc one are fairly typical of Haino in their brutality, but, other than that, he manages to blend tastefully with the Sitaar Tah! This is a split release on Important/aRCHIVE, and as expected for any recording released by aRCHIVE, the packaging is unique and classy. There's a gatefold sleeve with a die cut which exposes what looks like an actual photograph with Keiji Haino on the front. It's limited to 1000 copies, and well worth seeking out.

Tom Carter & Robert Horton

Steeljaguar Rocket CD

(Digitalis)

This release is a follow up to this duo's Lunar Eclipse, which came out last year on Important Records. Carter, of member of Charalambides, has also collobarated recently with Horton in the bands Kyrgyz and Mudsuckers. Obviously, a lot of time was put into the editing of this material. There is a restlessness to these tracks that warrant close listening. This is not to say that these recordings are over the top, only that there is almost always a dense layer of sounds from different sources. The first track "Steeljaguar for Rocket" is the centerpiece. It's over 30 minutes long, and keeps you guessing the whole way. It starts as a drone that seems to include ebow guitar, keyboards and distant feedback. At around the fifteen minute mark some wah wah guitar comes in, followed by a bass and drum backing track. Then all hell breaks loose as insane psych guitar comes in from all directions. I can't even guess how many guitar tracks were used, but like I said previously, it's somehow not over the top. As the freakout progresses, backwards guitar tracks are layered over the frontwards ones, then the backing bass/drum track begins to fade, and somehow morph into a horn track. The horns get manipulated, and continue until about the 21 minute mark. Then the drone reappears, and is overlaid with violin by Hal Hughes. The volin fits in perfectly with the drone, which is constantly shifting underneath. The second track, "Rocket #9", pulls the Basil Kirchin trick of blending natural sounds into music to keep you guessing which is which. It starts off with geese sounds that morph into saxes, which both squawk similarly, then it progresses into a kind of free jazz jam, with plenty of sounds underneath. The last track is by far the noisiest of the three tracks that make up this CD. A carpet of sounds are laid out, most of which are unidentifiable, with the exception of guitars and feedback, which are evident. It's a blown out track which makes for a nice head cleaner. Although it's clear that a lot of time and effort went into this CD, Horton and Carter have put together a release which avoids the overly serious attitude that is too often taken with improv music. It sounds like they had fun making this, and it's a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.

Robert Horton

Warmth 1987 CDR

(Foxglove)

Warmth 1987 is volume 4 of Robert Horton's "archive series". Three other volumes have been released on Sloow Tapes, Jyrk and 23 Productions. Robert Horton has been extraordinarily prolific recently, releasing scads of stuff on different labels, mostly in CD-R format. This recording was aparently made in the 80's (duh), but I'm not sure why the name of the track is "rh1983" and the name of the release is Warmth 1987. I'll just assume this was completed in 1987. The aforementioned track is about 46 minutes long, and it's a drone created on two reel to reel machines. It's impossible to tell what the source material for the loop is, and somehow a boot is credited, along with the telling "rileytronics." This is a gentle drone piece, which actually reminds me less of Terry Riley and actually a bit more of some of Andrew Chalk's recent work. The piece moves at a relatively glacial pace, but is not static. It gets a bit louder, and more active at the midpoint, and works its way back to a gentle tone similar to the beginning. While this release is not a life changer, it makes for nice listening, and is accomplished loop music. This is limited to 100 copies.

Imperfect Masters

Strike Out CDR

(Foxglove)

How to review this? This is a weird one. The Imperfect Masters are made up principally of Robert Horton and Dan Plonsey, with members of the latter's band Daniel Popsicle. The song titles on Strike Out are mostly baseball related, with titles like "Outa Here", "Warning Track" and "Coincidence Plonsey On Deck". The music could be described as Sun Ra meets Anthony Braxton jazz mixed with weirdo drones and general noisemaking. Of course, that's an over-simplification, but as I already alluded, this is hard to describe. There are a couple of drone pieces here, but rather than just straight overtones, they usually seem to have live instruments on top of them. There are also some free jazz moments, with Horton's dense layer of noises thrown into the mix. Daniel Plonsey and his band are such fine musicians it's amazing to me that they haven't achieved more exposure. Plonsey exhibits a rare playfullness, and sense of humor which is missing from the current field of contemporary jazz or improv acts. As usual for Robert Horton, he makes noises with anything that comes to hand. He uses a dozen or so fairly traditional instruments, then "vibrator", "boot", " sex machine", "broken cassette player", etc. There seems to be an homage to Sun Ra running through this release, the obvious being "the Mighty Sun Ra at the Bat", which is credited as "Sun Ra arranged by Horton/Plonsey." The drone tracks, particularly "the Age of the First Ash Tree", are very enjoyable, and wedge into the mix nicely. Imperfect Masters Strike Out is a release which ignores the lines between genres, making for a refreshing change of pace.

That's it for now. I'm still digesting some other stuff, but I'm not quite ready to write up reviews yet. I just got the Loren Connors 3 CD singles collection Night Through, and it's a lot to take in. I'll go out on a limb and say it's goddamn awesome.

Some random video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTQUQYDMGsw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmVCdPe2_Ao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9O2tsIbKD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPy2_tTHsB4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZlyUgXG1qQ