Mama Dada 1919 – Slits, Quick 3.5

               For all those people who state bad music began proliferating after the advent of CDs and MP3s, I present to them, Mama Dada 1919. Released in 1979, it dedicated itself to Comrade Lol. I don’t have any idea what the point of this sort of release is, to show that you had enough gumption to bother having it released.

                Most of the songs on here are extremely brief and possess a tossed-off feeling. The theme in the first song reappears at the end, and there do appear to be some unifying factors despite the mostly improvised nature of the recordings. It feels so random that is near-impossible to enjoy. Sure, I enjoy improvisers like AMM, but they have training and knowledge of what they’re doing. 

                None of the sounds they explore are things that should be mind-blowing to anyone with an even passing knowledge of music. Faust did this, some 60s band did that. It goes on that way for roughly 14 minutes. Even their name, which instantly drew me to them, implied a goofy nature or at least an energetic record. Sadly, neither one of those things is the case. Instead, this comes across very heavily as indulgent music or an inside joke whose answer I’m not privy to. Music like this gives the avant-garde a bad name.

Spectrum Spools: A New Label

                Editions Mego may be one of my all-time favorite labels. Originally they started out as plain-old Mego. Due to various circumstances I have yet to be privy to, they became a Phoenix, burning out and rebirthing as a new label which does essentially the same thing.

                Lately they’ve been changing that format a little bit. For one, they’ve been releasing a lot more ambient-based sort of stuff like Mark McGuire and Emeralds. Sure, the noise hasn’t ended; they have the wonderful Robin Fox and Hecker. But its gradual shift towards more mellow soundscapes is hard to ignore. Plus, some of their releases have begun to get greater attention: Oneohtrix Point Never got a positive write up in none other than Pitchfork, alongside a few others from the Editions Mego roster. Usually it is just Boomkat covering them, so having a review site that more people read has definitely helped them out.

                Keeping this in mind, they created a sub-label: Spectrum Spools. Spectrum Spools will serve as their North American comrade. According to their blurb on their website, they claim it will be: “showing yet more talent shining up out of the North American synth underground”. Hopefully they’ll be right. It is about time the wonderful American experimental underground got some credit. 

                I look forward to these guys making good on their promise. Their diversity often means that I don’t always like what they put out, but more often than not, they release quality, something many labels forget when trying to jump on the bandwagon. Keeping tabs on experimental classical, digital, noise, metal and even folk (see Bill Orcutt’s unstable material) they make sure to try accept the weirdest of the weird.

                Right now I’m eagerly awaiting Fabric and Bee Mask’s material. We’ll see whether or not this proves to be a prudent move by Peter Rehberg, or if it will show he’s losing his mind. Be aware this is the same guy who thought participating in race car competitions would be a good idea for an Avant-Garde record label. Not sure why he thought that, seems kind of insane thinking about turning the masses onto obtuse noise and ambience with race car drivers. Plus, I think it ended up costing them a ton of money they probably didn’t have, though record label owners have to be somewhat crazy I figure.

                March I’ll start having these two artists reviewed and seeing what they really have to offer, or if it’ll turn out being phoned-in ambient garbage like what I’ve been hearing more and more of lately. Here’s hoping for success.

Nurse With Wound List: The Project

I’m a tremendous music snob. Some see this as a never-ending problem of mine, my need to endlessly criticize popular music. But that’s not all I do. Another one of my goals is to help others understand that simply because something is obscure or abstract does not necessarily mean it is good or a high-quality product.

                Thus I come to the holy grail of music snobbery/avid drooling record collectors: The Nurse With Wound List. Packaged with Nurse with Wound’s first album “Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and Umbrella” and expanded on their second album, it served as a tribute to the artists who helped influence the Nurse with Wound project. Some of these artists are certainly worth hearing; I doubt you’ll hear much that sounds like AMM or Cromagnon. On the other hand, there’s also some serious filler or showing off at hand. Some of these artists’ inclusion seems like a precursor to James Murphy’s ode to the pissing contest “I’m losing my edge” with pointless name-dropping.

                Both opinions are equally valid. Steve Stapleton suffers from ideas in both camps. On one hand, he does produce an excellent product on occasion. However, as is the case with so many industrial/avant-garde artists, he suffers from being a poor editor of his work. Instead of being obsessed with creating a great product, a great deal of his releases take advantage of the rabid fan base that he’s accumulated over the years with his releases. In other words, he shouldn’t release limited edition runs of pure garbage for the sake of raising money to live in Ireland.

                What I hope to do as I go through this list is to point out the good, the bad, the indulgent, the repetitive, the unnecessary, and the sublime. Already I’ve done about two artists off this list (Red Krayola and Cromagnon). Hopefully this project of mine will produce some great fruits. I have no promise that this will be finished in a year or two. Rather, think of this as something going on in the background, as I try to sort through what’s worth searching out. Besides, I do try to give each recording I review multiple listens, to see if there’s something I might have missed the first time around. Any recording or artist from the list will be specifically tagged as “Nurse with Wound list” to allow you to better sort through the countless artists (well, 294 artists isn’t countless, but it is a lot). 

                People ought to enjoy music for its quality, not some perceived indie or street cred. One should be able to appreciate it on something besides its exclusivity or rarity. And some of the artists on this list are near impossible to find in print or even on the internet. Most are from an era of pure weird, when hippies roamed the Earth as actual hippies rather than whatever it is you’d call them now (sorry, the world isn’t as kind to idealism as it once was). So that means a great deal of creativity was unleashed, along with excessive amounts of indulgence.

                Hopefully you’ll be able to better sort through this so-called “shopping list” with a better idea of what to purchase/get rather than simply standing with jaw agape.

Gavin Bryars – The Sinking of the Titanic 9.0

Bittersweet would be the best way to describe what’s going on here. There are only two sides to this, “The Sinking of the Titanic” on side A and “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” on side B. Both sides are pretty good late night winter listening. Each has its own specific take on various hopes or failings. Neither side is particularly troublesome or tricky, there’s no difficult serialism or extreme avant-garde tendencies to overcome here. Probably the hardest thing to get through is the emotional content.

“The Sinking of the Titanic” comes first and is the bleaker of the two. First composed in 1969, it is sort of a sad piece. Nothing rises out of the sadness associated with the event, and there are some additionally nice drones and other goings-on underneath all the violins. It gives the piece the feeling that slowly the orchestra is about to go down with the ship.

My personal preference is for the B side, “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. A homeless man sings a stanza. Slowly harmonies come in, embellishing the emotional content of the singer. It is a beautiful, optimistic piece. Gavin does it justice by refusing to instantly satisfy the listener, allowing the stanza to be repeated for over 3 minutes before other elements are introduced. The stanza gives the piece rhythm and is its emotional heart. How the words work in the song remind me of Alvin Lucier’s “I am in a room” in that the words give the piece meaning and flow. Unlike that work, this is far more moving, working on an emotional rather than intellectual level.  And while most composers would be okay with increasing the volume of everything, Gavin still makes sure that even at the loudest you can still clearly hear the singer.

I feel really happy that both these pieces exist. Each one adds a little something to my life and helps give me hope.

Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor 9.2

Hecker occupies a realm of experimental electronics that very few ever venture. Acid in the Style of David Tudor represents sort of a completion of various projects and ideas that he has been exploring through various one-off releases and art gallery presentations.

Nothing that would be considered “natural” noises is used here. Usually an artist will try to reference some sort of environmental phenomena in their work, either through snares, organ, drone, etc. This is the most pure computer music you will find and it is taken to some heady extremes.

The warning on the CD states that “Headphone use is not recommended”. Headphones are alright for listening to it, but due to the extreme three dimensional qualities of the pieces, it is much better to let the sounds roam around the room. 

“Recordings for Rephlex”, Hecker’s release for the Rephlex label, gave you some inkling of what sounds were interesting to him. “Precedence” and later the entire album of “Hecker, Holler Tracks” began his obsession with spatiotemporal confusion. With this release though, he basically saw those ideas through to their logical conclusion.

Jarring effects introduce you to the album. The “ASA” tracks serve as a way to sort of clear your head for the next onslaught. “Acid in the Style of David Tudor” tracks are the opposite; they brim with life and flirt with groove and tempo, though rarely comfortably settling with either. And the closer “Ten” pretty much mixes it all together to have a mono, bi-aural and stereo sound. That means that the sound digs deep into your ears, mine tickled upon hearing this very odd piece.

Ultimately, it is reassuring that there are artists still exploring the furthest reaches of what digital music can do. And although some may claim that Hecker’s music is self-consciously off-putting, there remains a current humor that makes the proceedings surprisingly playful.