Mark Fell – Manitutshu 8.7

                Mark Fell got into Acid Techno at an early age. You can hear it in some of his work. No matter how obtuse or difficult the material he puts out (and he’s well-known for putting out some challenging material) acid never seemed to be too far behind. Manitutshu is Mark Fell’s tribute to acid techno. 

                The album is the third one Mark’s released in the course of the past few months. Usually artists tend to space things out a bit more evenly. Considering the several year hiatus he took from SND and his own solo’s work previous small output, it is a bit of a maniac release schedule.

                Manitutshu is a bit maniac itself. Right from the beginning you’re treated to a hyper-active sonic landscape. The first track pings and splatters around the eardrums. All the glorious funkiness and processing you’ve associated with Mark’s previous efforts is here in full. Despite the supposed nature of the work (these were original samples for Native Instruments) they hold together quite well. It’s Native Instruments loss since they rejected these pristine sounds. 

                Actually, this may be Mark’s fastest work. Each piece blazes through its track length. For me the third track would probably be the most recognizable track. Others show a new path for Mark’s focus; particularly the fifth which evolves so startlingly fast. The ninth track even shows off a particularly aggressive approach unusual in Mark’s mellow world.

                Finally there’s the giant closer, a remix by Mat Steel. Some would consider this more “SND-like” in terms of its repetitive nature. I feel it may be more of a digital version of Zoviet France. The extremely slow and almost-industrial vibe the track gives off reminds me strongly of that seminal band.

                Overall, this may be one of my favorite things Mark has put out in some time. It is less abstract than “UL8” and more immediately graspable than “Multistability”. With Manitutshu, Mark shows us a little of where he may take his sound and SND project.

Hecker’s “Speculative Solution”

                Florian Hecker delves into perhaps the weirdest aspects of music. I call it ‘music’ because his work tends to elicit some extreme emotional reaction. Generally speaking that emotion is disgust accompanied by slight nausea. Roughly 0.0000000000001% of the world cares about what he does, with an even smaller percentage enjoying it. Even users of the infinitely nerdy music forum “WATMM (We are the Music Makers) find Hecker atrocious, and consider his release on Rephlex akin to Judas’s betrayal of Jesus.

                Anything this polarizing attracts me. Long ago, when I first began exploring the noisier aspects of sound, I remembered his epic release “Sun Pandemonium” on what then Mego. During that time, a lot of other noisy music caught my ear. Most of those groups I’ve since forgotten, but something stuck with me about Hecker’s work. It had to do with the sheer amount of detail. How does someone pack so much into a single song? When is there a determination of when the song should end? None of his compositions had any set limit, development, or even coherent structure. The clincher for me was the amount of humor, and a constant nagging feeling that I never really heard the whole thing. Whenever his songs ended, I’d go back to them, trying to decipher exactly what it was that interested me.

                Lately he’s been prolific. Hecker has been traveling around the world playing his obtuse music in rooms filled with people conditioned to tolerate great deals of visual and acoustic pain in the name of art. The releases have been pretty consistent in their flow and quality. Besides the usual art gallery he has been getting into the fashion world, with a sweet three tracker. Though it didn’t have much in the way of linear notes explaining the humor it was still funny. It was funny how people modeled to barely-comprehensible grooves.

                Now we’re given a full-feature length of weird. Hecker’s been working with a Continental philosopher named Quentin Meillassoux. The album “Speculative Solution” is based around Quentin’s concept of ‘hyperchaos’. Sometime long ago I dreamed of an album this potentially weird. Like his previous album, this one is recommended without headphones as the music works better in a large (speaker) environment. For those who feel it isn’t strange enough, how about a 160 page booklet accompanying the release in difficult Continental philosophical language. Oh, and five metal balls are included. Perhaps the booklet explains their purpose.

                 I’m glad this kind of work exists. Every time someone tries to tell me how pointless such music is, I point to a specific instance where my life ended up being demonstrably better. Here is that story:

                “After I had arrived on my multiple stopper plane from Denver to New York (I don’t have the money for direct flights) some children were making little children noise. You know the kind. Little pieces of singing in extremely off registers eventually filled up the toothpaste tube of a plane. Everyone on the plane grew angry at the lackluster parenting. I didn’t. Remembering Karlheinz Stockhausen’s song “Gesang Der Juenglinge” I thought ‘how cool’. The rest of my plane ride I thought about how great that piece was and how it allowed me to relax and embrace my environment.”

                That’s what Hecker’s music is for. Too often people hide themselves in headphones without really interacting with everything around them. Retreating into your own sonic universe isn’t the way to go. You miss a lot by closing yourself off. Hecker reminds you of the expansiveness of music. Headphone use is not advised.       

Evil Madness – Super Great Love 7.5

                 Evil Madness is a super-group of Scandinavian bands you’ve never heard of: Stilluppsteypa, BJ Nilsen, and Johann Johannsson. Despite most of these performers’ positions in the extreme avant-garde (even by their own label’s standards, Emego, they are obscure) this is a fun record with a good sense of humor. Those familiar with the tongue-in-cheek irony of Trans Am will need that attitude to get through these songs.

                 This music is extremely playful. Arpeggios are literally strewn all over the place. A more than passing resemblance to an updated Kraftwerk is unavoidable: Evil Madness holds an affinity for old equipment and certain skewed pop sensibilities.

                A surprisingly large of electronic genres gets close scrutiny. Trance is here in tracks like “Divine Sensual Love Fantasy” (yes, the song’s title is part of the joke). Some of the songs seem to share a lot in common with Soft Pink Truth’s approach to dance music, just enough kitschy humor to make it enjoyable. 

                Other songs appear to draw strength from hyper-active pop music. “Café Eindhoven” would be the smash hit if Evil Madness was interested in hits, which it clearly isn’t. It stomps, raves up, and generally goes insane. But the longest song “Maxim’s Goldfinger” which includes distorted vocals is the most fun on here. Towards the end it completely gets cut up mere inches away from death. 

                Basically, this is a group of normally experimental musicians having some fun within the confines of trashy pop techno. Due to their training and practice, it is a surprisingly enjoyable affair.

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.

Emeralds – Does it Look like I’m Here? 7.3

Emeralds specialize in a certain type of progressive rock gone amok. Think of endless synthesizers blazing a trail straight into the sky, and you’re halfway there. Obviously this works well as background music for whatever you might be doing, but there’s certain moments that remind you human hands are behind this.

Those bits are like the halfway mark at “Candy Shoppe”, the last fourth of “Genetic” and so on. Pieces of genuine emotion are thrown in there to bring you back from space, down to reality once again. Most of these songs are relatively short, and the mixing between each track is really enjoyable.

Mego continues down a different path this year. So far, there’s been considerably mellower stuff from Peter Rehberg’s label. Even the new Hecker material gives me the sense that perhaps this cosmic sound might be making a comeback. Hopefully Emeralds and their side projects continue to deluge us with material, though I still happen to enjoy Mark McGuire’s solo stuff over this.