Mist – House 7.9

                Mist starts out in the best way possible. You’re immediately treated to a spastic, electronic version of ‘the rubber band’ from early Bugs Bunny cartoons. Then you hear the giant swells you’d expect from a member of Emeralds (John Elliot) and fellow komische revivalist Sam Goldberg. Despite this being meditative music, it moves quickly, never lingering too long. 

                A rhythm, however slight, moves all six of these tracks forward. They work on a large scale and often repeat central themes. Slowly they expand the template and size of each song. Eventually you get to the excellent one-two punch of the finale pieces. “Dead Occasion/Ovary Stunts” works cyclically with the beginning of the album. You’re re-introduced to near-percussion just as things begin to feel unreasonably loud. “P.m.”, works with deeper sounds.  Here they work to create a sense of wonder before introducing the rhythm of the piece.

                Spectrum Spools has proven itself to be fairly reliable in their releases. Thankfully their North American counterpart has proven itself worthy of Editions Mego’s considerable help. Mist more than exceeds my expectations. Perhaps even more than the previous releases, this is an extremely easy release to enjoy. If you want to ease someone away from krautrock into ambient, this would be an ideal starting point.

Bee Mask - Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico 7.1

                 Here’s the first release from Edition Mego’s ‘Spectrum Spools’ division. If this is the kind of quality they’ll be having, I’m perfectly fine with it. Before I went to bed, I put this on and sort of drifted around for a while. That’s the kind of music you’re getting into.

                Side I starts off as if it was a irr.app.(ext.) track. Tension gradually builds through the light scraping sounds. Chris Madak teases this out as a loud drone is processed in the background. Eventually it just overwhelms you. Compared to Side II, this one is considerably louder.

                Almost as an exact opposite, Side II sounds much more melodic and calm. Sure, there are a few blasts of static noise. For the most part though, the Cleveland native touches upon the calmer aspects of drone music. The ending is pure gold.

                Overall, Bee Mask moves extremely quickly for a drone artist. During the course of 30 minutes, he introduces all sorts of strange themes. Some of these would not be out of place on a James Ferraro recording, while others feel more homages of Terry Riley’s early work. Either way, he does it well. It moves by quickly while still giving you plenty to ponder.

Marcus Schmickler – Palace of Marvels (Queered Pitch) 8.0

                Don’t operate heavy machinery while listening to this. I’m not kidding. Every time I tried to get up and move around I felt confused as to what was going on. Clearly this is an indication of exactly what sort of bizarre material you’re about to dive into. Marcus’s work usually seems pleasant to me, but this is the first release of his where I can really sink my teeth into the material. 

                Arpeggios are served up, cut up, and subjected to a “Shepard Tone”. This gives the illusion of a tone which is continually ascends or descends in pitch. That’s where the drunken feeling of the music comes from as you try to sort out if there’s a melody or any sort of movement. Maybe there is, but that’s never completely certain.

                Is this strange music? Oh yes, it most definitely challenges the listener. Oddly, despite the academic origins of the music, it is enjoyable on a casual level. Pieces of Hecker’s modus operandi are clearly on display, without any of the more psychotic elements his music usually employs.

                Using arpeggiated synthesizer tones allows the music to become considerably easier to access. Common themes run throughout the album, so if you like the first track, that should give you some indication of whether or not you can get through the rest of this. This is worth listening to, since it is such a unique take on sound.

CoH – IiRON 8.4

                 Ivan Pavlov outdid himself this time. Remember his album ‘Iron’ which tongue in cheek celebrated metal music? Well, he continues down that path yet again, coming up with even better results this time around.  Apparently some of this stuff has been sort of sitting around for a while (“War end War” was written in 1988) so I’m glad to see he got around to recording all of it.

                What makes this doubly nice is how he directly references metal in these songs. An actual electric guitar appears in all of the songs, often possessed and distorted beyond recognition in CoH’s trademark technique. If you’ve liked CoH’s rhythmic experiments before, you’ll really enjoy stuff like the opener “Red Square”. Beginning with acoustic guitar extracted from USSR tapes from 1988-1990, it bursts into action complete with chopped-up rearranged guitar.

                Songs have slow, steady builds. The guitar only makes what are already strong tracks even better. “Soii Noir” builds up into a frantic noise-riff. My favorite has to be the closer “Satsugaii” which turns into a bizarre hoe-down track. It is so excellent, aggressive, especially the mid-section when it gets at its thickest. 

                Most of CoH’s contemporaries (especially in the experimental scene CoH works in) lack the humor and range to tackle a project like this one. Employing KTL to do the artwork, Mark Fell working on the sounds and Andrej Kolesov for rescuing the guitar from tape was a wise decision. This works really well altogether, with each song bleeding into another effortlessly. Also, the names of the songs sometimes relate to various metal bands, so it works on that level as well. 

                Even in the notes, he manages to crack a smile.

                “Hail to World Peace and Death to False Metal”

                Amen.

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.

SND Week

Yeah, that looks pretty cool.

SND remain a true favorite. When other artists ‘jump the shark’ SND has stayed tried and true to its roots. If they felt that the scene they worked in had grown too overbearing, they simply dropped off the planet. In 2002 they did this and came back about six years later to basically start right back up.

This week I’ll be reviewing almost everything SND-related. Whether that is Mark Fell’s solo work or Mark Fell’s work with other musicians, they are all fair game. As I sorted through the various projects, I noticed how little information exists about what Mat Steel does in the duo. I know they specialize in minimalism, but he takes it to a new extreme. No actual side project or writing from him. Anytime there’s an interview, Mark handles it. Mat’s job might be the ‘weaker link’ of the duo.

Mat: Hey Mark, I added a single beat on that last track. You like it?

Mark: Yes, I mean, there’s about 597 different beats on there, but yours really sounded great in that particular section.

Mat: Anything else I can help with? Perhaps I might assist you with some of the programming?

Mark: While that does sound helpful, you could help me out in other ways. Remember art school? Man that was fun. How about you go downstairs and get me a beer and we’ll talk about it some more.

Mat: Sure thing!

                I’m assuming that their average recording sessions go something like this. But that’s all irrelevant who contributes the most to the music. What their music focuses on is as much what’s there as what isn’t.

                If anyone needed a light introduction into electronic minimalism, they could do worse than this. Containing the same muscle as Autechre without the ornate imagery, they incorporate influences of garage, techno, hip-hop and glitch. I don’t mean glitch in a “aw, how sweet” sense which a lot of musicians use. Rather, it is meant as an easier way to get into the chance rhythms offered up by the experimental musician Yasunao Tone (indeed, that’s what Mark Fell stated inspired his latest album ‘Multistability’).

                 SND in general appears to be in full swing after such a hiatus. Having released an album on the prestigious Raster Noton label last year, they released an EP this year. Solo work-wise, Mark has been busy. Not one, but two full lengths are expected, with the first one on Raster Noton just dropped about a week ago. Then, and hold onto your hats here, there’s another one in December on Editions Mego. Most likely that one will be the harsher, more abstract of the two, but lately Mego’s been harder to predict.

                Yes, I know how infinitely nerdy this duo is. But consider it a testament to the inner nerd that lives in us all.

Sister Iodine – Flame Desastre 8.3

Calling this “No Wave” won’t even prepare you for the discordant mess you’re about to encounter. Riffs, sorry there aren’t any. Beats or any semblance of rhythm are immediately obliterated as soon as they are detected. In a way this is more difficult than most noise recordings, in that the sound is very abrupt, there’s tons of random starts and stops out of nowhere.

“Trope” comes across as the most normal song on here. Its bizarre wormy attempt at coherence comes closest to early Black Dice recordings.  Here the drum works as a way to keep a beat. In most instances on this record the drummer’s purpose seems to be to painting the sound and ruining any attempts at a beat. Whenever you here the pounding of the drum you can be assured it won’t be kept in anything resembling a time signature.

Some might say that their work resembles that Brooklyn-based group Sightings. I’d say that’s partly right, but unlike that group no vocalist exists. Also, there isn’t anything to anchor these songs down, no drum machine and no attempt at stability. Structures here exist only for untimely destruction.

Despite the very abrasive textures found here, they are excellent. The amount of effort required to keep something this harsh and abstract engaging is high. Sister Iodine excels at this talent. Noises that would usually be edited out of the process are the main focus. Scraping feedback, random transmissions, drum smashes, and whatever else is going on is the focus. It moves very briskly through these sonic hellscapes. 

Editions Mego released this, so that should give you some indication of the record’s harshness. It is rare that a full-fledged rock band takes on this level of brutality, but Sister Iodine performs beautifully. Not exactly something you’d return to every day, but a wonderful feat nonetheless. Shame these guys don’t get more attention.

Their Website