Reviews

Reviews

Masturbaatio - "Sotakoneet-98" tape

This is so pointless that it should be ignored. Yeah, fuck you too... blah blah blah. By the way this is redneck hc/punk/metal or something, who gives a shit. Thanks for the tape, I´ll record something better on it, like empty space. (jl)

Lefthandeddecision - "Lovelorn" tape

LHD´s tape begins in a promising way. They´ve used the method dozens of other noisers use: lay a track of continuous background rumble and then pile a few distorted sounds on this foundation. Well, the first 2 tracks manage to sound nice because they´re not really noise, more like musique concrete perhaps. After that they attempt to be noisy but it is a bit too middle of the road to make any significant impact on me. I think this group would be better and more original if they´d concentrate more on obscure/experimental soundscapes instead of being just another noise act.
contact: p.blank, 2124 parker st. apt.205, berkeley ca 94704, usa. (jl)

Atonal Death - "Plasma" tape

AD is noise from New Zealand (but not HermesCorp style...) and provide us with a tape of harsh and strong material. Although their name is ridiculous and the bits have been named in a cliched way (e.g. "Mutant Murder") this gives me some nice "vibes". The sound is not very original but it still is quality stuff, I think. AD doesn´t try to put too many elements on the pieces when they´re not necessary but avoid being just rumbling crap. At times I see some relation to Macronympha although AD is lighter if I may. Cool, wish they´d change their name...
contact: krkrkrk@ihug.co.nz

Dethfuk - "Monolith" tape

Oh dear. Good news: there´s a couple of good moments and I got this tape for free. Otherwise it´s like the worst death metal demo ever in the shape of utterly boring noise. The cover even has crosses turned upside down!!! Come on, man! It´s surprising that this sort of lack of imagination can even exist. And what is it with this "death" thing anyway?! Recommended to satan worshippers and other nose picking doomkillfuckshityeah-guys. What a waste of time...
contact: sevenhz@interlog.com (jl)

Sonic Youth - "A Thousand Leaves" cd

SY´s new Geffen album is like I expected. Natural transition from "Washing Machine". Quite pop and soft but in many parts oh so beautiful. Guitars aren´t circulating in a feedback ecstacy all the time, instead Lee and Thurston explore other sounds that can be produced with unorthodox methods. Steve´s drumming is what it´s always been and SY has again crossbreeded the prettiest or coolest riffs to more obscure improv stuff. I especially enjoyed "Sunday" (could´ve been on "WM"), "Hoarfrost" (emo-Lee, pretty...), "Hits Of Sunshine" (an 11-minute opus of beauty). Go buy it. (jl)

Yeoh Yin Pin - tape

Yin Pin is a Malaysian free guitarr(or)ist whose material has some influences from Sonic Youth as well as the NZ scene (can you even talk about free guitar with out mentioning NZ?!). It´s a C60 with improv and some singing and collage added. His equipment is quite low-key, maybe echo and/or chorus accompany the obvious distortion. Some pieces are strangely bluesy or something and on a song called "Murderous G-String Johnson 24" (love the title!) he sounds like Thurston at his best on "Please Just Leave Me". Works for me although the songs could´ve been shorter. Some parts are also quite "thin" due to the equipment but I have to say I also like Yin Pin cos he doesn´t try to be the guitar noise god we sometimes wish we were. Let´s leave that title to Diesel Guitar. Yin Pin is "in", ha... (jl)

Monoshock - "Walk to the fire" cd

This is a BlackJack release from ´95. Monoshock is what I call beer drinking music cos it´s quite regular "rock" with three chords. Would Stooges meets Vermonster be a horrible thing to say? Well, something like that. It´s lo-fi buzz and the guitar solos are psychedelic(?) screech. Some of the songs are a bore and don´t really have any effect but some (like "Tom Guido...") make me play the "air guitar" which is quite embarrassing to admit. (jl)

Flutter - tape

Flutter is a low profile group from the States. All the songs are untitled but does it matter? No! the tape is a trip to speed cut chaotic noise and the sound is so raw and screechy I can taste it. I was listening to this with headphones cranked up loud and it just peeled my ears into miscellaneous slices. Love it! A hell of electronics noise and some sounds are like the best parts of the TDB/Grunt split-collab tape (I´m an elitist, sorry) which means bubbling and screeching destroyed sound mopping the floor with yo´ ass! Maybe this is over reacting enthusiasm but Flutter has an edge and deserve a CD release, if they don´t already have one.
contact: spruceholl@aol.com (jl)

Sun City Girls - "Torch Of The Mystics" cd

I have had the opportunity to hear a fraction of SCG´s back catalogue in the recent months and I´m convinced they are one of the most unique and respectable bands ever. They´ve managed to avoid all categories and this record doesn´t make an exception to that either. It´s a "hi-fi" record which means it´s more produced than some other stuff I´ve heard by them. A mixture of progressive (pseudo)ethno psychedelia with experimental and jazz flavor with some real emotional intensity would be just another pigeonhole they don´t fit in but I´m trying to give you a hint of their genius. "Cafe Batik" is one of the most beautiful songs ever with cheap casio and singing which is like whining Diamanda Galas as a man in a flu. The bizarre laid back "surf" piece "Radar" is unbelievable and on "The Shining Path" they cover "Lambada" with weird acoustic guitar and a vocal performance out of this world. I think Sun City Girls is so excellent that everyone should listen to them until it makes their ears bleed and still keep listening. Yes! (jl)

Lewd - "Pincers" 3xC60 tape set

A collection of Lewd stuff from 89-93. They haven´t changed much and at their best they could be the hybrid of ZeniGeva and Fushitsusha, at their worst they sound like a bunch of teenagers playing monotonic no-fi metal. I see a conflict between Lewd´s brand of music and their sound policy. They are bashing "noise"rock in a rather powerful manner but their sound quality is no-no-no-fi. You really have to be alert to figure out the song structure from all thet middle hum and at the end you get so pissed off you just have to stop listening. I really like lo-fi but please use a 4-tracker or at least put the tape deck away from the bass amp!!! There are some really good songs on these tapes and it´s a shame that they get lost in this porridge recording. (jl)

PANASONIC - "Kulma" cd

I found out about Panasonic two years ago when I first heard their "Vakio" cd. Well, this is their second full-length released on the rather big Blast First label. Since their early recordings on the Finnish Sähkö label, Panasonic has moved a little from avant garde minimalism towards a more rhythmic approach. But still it´s that recognizable analog Panasonic sound. The good thing about Panasonic is their unique style that falls in between the gap of noise, ambient, minimalism, industrial and underground dance music. So it´s great entertainment for all non-purists. Also they´ve been remixing various artists ranging from Björk to Merzbow and to Einsturzende Neubauten. Check out also O, the side project of Mika Vainio (1/2 of Panasonic). It´s a bit like Panasonic but he also does dub and noise performances. Anyway, Kulma is a bit easier than Vakio was but it´s still not your everyday dance record. The fans of Sähkö catalogue will find this one great too. I guess this turned out to be a really lame review... (jl)

JOHN ZORN - "First Recordings 1973" cd

One to go from the Tzadik Archives Series, this features unreleased home recordings by the 19/20-year old Zorn.There are nice descriptions of every piece on the sleeve. Zorn sure knows how to make unplanned home recordings look cool on paper. The first piece is "Mikhail Zoetrope" which is 35 minutes of innovative(?) avant garde and/or stupidity inspired by among others Anthony Braxton, John Cage and Carl Stalling. Actually, it´s the young Zorn in his living room with tv sets, vacuum cleaner, toy percussion, soprano sax etc. and it sounds like a 70´s light version of Prick Decay or something. "Conquest Of Mexico" is up next and it´s Zorn´s try on musique concrete. It´s ended up sounding a bit like an unfinished noise recording with cool static feedback sounds. I just wonder why they don´t have any Edgar Varese records in my local library... "Wind Ko/la" is Zorn strumming an acoustic guitar with a non-melodic but aggressively rhythmic way. He mentions Bartok but probably just to assure us it´s something worth while, I haven´t decided on that yet.
Erm...then comes this piece called "Automata of Al-Jazari" which is an everyman´s rehearsal collage piece with short movie sound clips recorded in a row. Great? Yeah right... And last but not least it´s the nicely entitled "Variations On A Theme By Albert Ayler". There are elements of musique concrete, "sampling" or whatever it was in those days and Zorn playing some disturbed saxophone. It turns out sounding like a sound collage with all it´s speed and volume changes and even backwards recording (Ozzy anyone?). For some stupid reason it bares some resemblance to Sonic Youth´s "Beat On The Brat" collages in my mind. Anyway, if you´re a fan of Zorn´s more recent musical excursions there are no guarantees concerning this record. But if you´re just into sound trash with bad quality (like me) you´ll enjoy this. (jl)

MERZBOW - "Vibractance" cd

First of all, it´s the millionth release by Masami Akita, it has ugly artwork and the name of the record pisses me off (shouldn´t it be "Vibrastance"???). So I had a bit of a bad attitude towards this disc, and the first boring five minutes of low frequency hum (supposed to be cool minimalism?) didn´t help. Well, from then on it did get better although the first bit called "Vibrating Sand" wasn´t really good. The 2nd one, "Sonar" had cool manipulated feedback sound and fx that sounded really expensive. During the years I think Masami has moved towards a more mellow(?) approach and started exploring the nuances and combinations of sound he can create with his undeniably excessive gear. So it´s a bit less harsh which necessarily doesn´t please the hardhead power electronics fans. On the 42 minutes of sound on this record there is less than half an hour of so-called noise. There are cool bubbling, crickling and humming ambiences (don´t you just hate that word) and a sense of space. So it´s noisy electronics psychedelia with the highest of hi-fi. But don´t worry, the "God Of Noise" as some people call him, still has some violent rumbles and piercing feedback up his sleeve... I think it´s great that on a time when there are hundreds of noise projects out there, one of the pioneers is exploring something a little different yet still remaining a "noise artist". I just wish he´d make a little less records. Oh yeah, this cd is released by E(r)ostrate in France and you can email them at erostrate@wanadoo.fr (jl)

BILL FOREMAN - "The Duck Hunter" cd

Bill Foreman is a long-time d.i.y pop-meister from the U.S. of A. He does it all himself, from recording to artwork and copying the discs one by one. His music is cool "vintage" lo-fi rock´n´roll. If I told you it´s like a hybrid of Sun City Girls, Velvet Underground, the more country oriented Beck, early Beatles and something from the deep south recorded with a four track I wouldn´t come close to the melodic, laid back genius of Mr. Foreman. Bill sings with a lazy out of tune vocals and sounds like the dad of Steve Malkmus. The drums have fun cardboard sounds due to limited mic positioning I guess, maybe "real" rockers couldn´t accept them but it makes me like this record even more. Most of the songs are great and I´ll tell you about some of them to give you a glimpse of what it´s about. E.g. there is the instrumental called "The Sun Is A Mighty Lamp" with the Godfather meets bouzouki and polka guitar with a bridge that is like a psychedelic Urge Overkill. There is the cover of Jimmy Rodgers´ "I´m Sorry We Met" which is real Nashville-esque acoustic grass roots country blues or "The Animal Shelter" and my fave "A New Nameless Beach Town" which are real boogie and remind me of the soundtrack to the Backbeat movie...gone lo-fi. Also these fabulous organ riffs blow my mind away. Oh yeah, Bill rules though I think most people reading this zine aren´t very much into lazy lo-fi country rock... Bill is also a member of The House Carpenters and Bill&Pete Orhestra (w. Pete Giuliano). At least I´m intrigued, contact Bill and Pete and their General Ludd label via email in this address: generalludd@tripod.net (jl)

GOVERNMENT ALPHA - "Ephemeral Warmth"cd

This is a limited edition cd from Xerxes Records. Govt. Alpha is one of the best noise units I´ve come across lately. G.Alpha noise is simple fiercing screech with tons of painful feedback wall. On track 2 Astro makes an appearance. Oh man, despite Govt. Alpha´s simplistic approach to creating sound it´s just fuckin´ awesome and recommended to anyone. Check out the G.Alpha int. on this very issue! (jl)