Being somewhat disillusioned by his time in Australia, Ted Sulcowicz made the move back to Europe, working in Hamburg, Koln, Vienna and Bruglastrasse ( for now he wishes to keep his present location a secret ). It was during this period that his work took on a new form, drawing both on the "funkier" side of his past and on changes in music technology, allowing for a more abstract groove and "grainier" texture. Part of this was due to his time working together with Barry Quecker in the "Wok Eye Foundation". The material of this time was released on Ted's "Sweda" label between 1999 and late 2000.
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Barry Quecker |
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Mygoo -Live at the Mummy's Chamber |
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Ted Sulcowicz's "Ziffops" ep |
Crucial to understanding Sulcowicz's work at this time is the CDR compilation 'Fruits Of My Arc', ( on the Orcsik label ) featuring
'Eikäsetrouser mächtig' - Ham and Zwiger
'Choster' - SHINuski *
'untitled' - Clyde
'aktiv belgy - Sore Tsar
'father john' - Burg Nos Raio
'uwuw' - Dan Tipe
'inverse sine 6.2627' - Donnelly
'cm' - Lobo Da Casa
'untitled'( remix ) - Moose On Chythocks
"The contributing artists were each given the geometric location of a piece of fruit and were required to enact upon it's resonant frequencies.
A subsequent project of these contributors involved using an audio interpretation of semaphore and various other cloth gestures "
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Late 2000 saw the live CDR "Brona vs Blooter"
Not unlike his work with the Yonka Assembly, Brona here unleashes his bulging grip on the already brain-scuttling sounds of Blooter.
The Blooter lads had just flown in from an allnite performance at Dresden ( a part of their "MAGIC HAIRY" tour ) to find Big Brona setting up his gear, frothing at the mouth and itching to go. The gig was off to a sudden start, Brona not waiting for the boys to unpack their gear before unleashing his room shattering sounds. As you know, Brona's own songs don't follow normal procedures and in this taking on of Blooter's ( already ) insane idea of dub experimentation, he completely redesigns them into a weirdly spastic yet flowing proto-organism of raging tones and ratbag harmonies - making sure that by any means he makes it bloody impossible for the audience to decipher any resemblance to the original. The result is both manic and irresistible.
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The"Bladder's Full Decay" compilation |
In mid 2000, Ted's Sweda label released a compilation called "Bladder's Full Decay" a series of live recordings made with so called "known" artists playing under "secret" aliases :
the tracklisting is
_o'kallahank
_The Wron Lors octave generator
_u*¢i Aktive *9.54
_( Bl )OOkTecre
_Bab Doodg Ar vs El Wadi
_Lucky Lupin
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PLUM JAM O'RAWC - live at The MEakco Club
The wan and glittering digitalia we have come to expect from Plum Jam O'Rawc took a back seat during this psyche-crushing performance in Luxembourg. Looking hairy, brilliant, and perhaps even as though his thyroid might be a little overactive PJ arrived on stage driving an ice-cream van that hurtled out a sublime montage of wild camel sounds, whilst an un-named assistant alighted from the van and began singing old Mark E Smith songs. A tape loop featuring the sounds of horses throwing up was grinding away in the background. After about 12 mins someone resembling the bastard spawn of Harry Seacombe and Fennesz snuck up on stage, apparently in charge of drum programming for the evening. The first drums had finally kicked in, but they sounded unlike any drums I'd ever heard before - more like a steroid deranged boofhead banging his grannie's coffin with a mummified moose knuckle. The crowd loved it and so did I.
( review by Stephen Pruna )