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DAB.AY.AH ‘find the canyon’-suggestion records-purple 7”-Beautiful gatefold cover

/Let’s dive into psyche rock again. Amphetamine-driven rhythm loops, some bubbly bassline synths, far out voices processed through a kind of space delay with the ‘white noise’ knob tweaked to the right corner, hypnotic guitar riffs and the kind of solos I like: play three long notes and concentrate on the reverb settings. Think about Loop and that’s one more band you can add to the list above and look even smarter to your friends. Lyrics that go ‘I have a window I can see through’ and a shiny and nicey cover made this a pure moment of happiness when I put it on the turntable. Damn, happy to have this one on the shelf and I bet it won’t be gathering dust there.

/band: ruskoja 2 as 17-17200 Vääkey-Finland //label: cfischer_at_suggestion-records.de or P.O. Box 1403-58285 GEVELSBERG-GERMANY

Daisylusion / Enjoyable split-213-CDR-zebra vs. tiger cover!

/Daisylusion are sorta noiselectropop reminiscent of Big Black (more in the spirit than musically though) and Amanonn (more musically than in the spirit though), have a strong sense for song structure, overdriven guitars, xylophonic piano lines and catchy tunes and have a great name. Enjoyable is like old school electro-hiphop sung in some Eastern European language (can’t tell which one and the liner notes being in English they’re not helping the last bit) by a male/female posse with the welcome Uszme Doma (no idea if this is the correct spelling) free ethnic jazzocore touch for spice. Looks like this was planned for a double 3” release which I’d have been the ideal client for.

/www.213records.fr.st

Danny Boyle ’28 days later’-(whichever major it is)-DVmovie

/Question one: this is a movie, aren’t we supposed to write a music newsletter there? Question two: this proudly opens with the 20th Focks logo, aren’t we supposed to review stuff from the underground? Question three: how come people are eating junk-food-with-a-brand all day because there’s been some kind of apocalypse? Answer one, as you may read somewhere on the website or on the intros to paper EMPTYs, we’d gladly review something else but music if people actually sent us something else. Question two is a good question. I guess I should review underground movies, but that’s the point: independent cinema died in the eighties if it ever existed because making a movie used to cost so much and distributing it used to cost even more (I bet you’ve never heard of Wireless, an excellent and truly indie film and I’m quite sure Eraserhead or Epidemic eventually came to be seen by people i.e. released by majors because their authors became famous, not because they’re good movies –they are). Independent/underground cinema died because no one could see it. So here’s answer two: this movie was entirely shot on DV-cam, an object even you can get if you’re that kind of a little rich and lucky bastard and when you have the computer with the appropriate DVD burner to go with it and spread it around for almost nothing (when recordable DVDs are cheap enough which isn’t too far from now I hope), then the only thing you lack is talent to make a good movie people can share with you. This is the first film I see showing DIY cinema is going to become possible at last. And it’s released by one of those stinking cultural trusts, how funny. Answer three, are you absolutely positive about generic soda and generic candy bars all disappearing with the Fury and forcing people to drink pepsi and eat maltesers? Anyway, this is a great survival-horror movie, stuffed with references to Romero’s Zombie Trilogy (references, mind you, not copypasting), packed with action and lots of senseless violence (which is a rather sane thing since I don’t see how any violence could make any sense) including in-your-face gunfights and bloody fistfights, baseballbatfights and fightwithwhatyoufindfights, 52x speed zombies, a moral about how humans are the bloodiest virus around, a love story and a rather straightforward happy ending but I guess that’s the price to pay to be able to release 90 minutes of misanthropic brutality at a theatre near me. And the music ISN’T nudeathtrashtechnimetalloshit, it’s some kind of GSYBE-influenced melodic post rock and hats off for that choice mister Boyle.

DarkEmbraced-debut album-ProProductions-BlackCDR-homemade color package

/’Recorded winter’99, each track 1st take only, recorded live’, they say. Distorted screams and strange detuned vocals. Heavy guitars playing worn out riffs at 20 bpm. 4/4 equally slow, equally worn out and equally straightforward rhythms: my guess would be a beatbox, but If they found someone to play the guitar that way, there must be a drummer lying in the same toxic waste waiting for the magic formula to wake up and crawl on the stage. I was planning to listen to this playing some stupid videogame but I soon quit the game, enthralled in the ‘drug-crazed’ (that’s what they say, too) atmospheres. I listened to it over and over till I couldn’t stay awake. I’m still listening to it as I write this. I think I still will tomorrow, just as I listened to THE SWANS’ ‘cop’ till I knew it so well I could press ‘play’ in my own mind and listen to it (it’s still written on my portable hard drive, the one that’s supposed to help me finding my glasses when I wake up). Listen to track 10 and 11 in a row and feel this SWANS influence I’m talking about. HELL. Best dark metal record I heard in ages. And don’t ask me why: it’s brilliant, that’s it. And the end of the album’s brilliant, too so I won’t spoil the surprise. Yep something else: I had the CD version of INHALANT’s ‘Kill Yourself’ I reviewed some time ago. Mastering is fine, package is wonderful, music/noise is as good as I said it was. Drop Chad a line, buy his records, trade them for something (we got four copies of this one if you live in Europe, otherwise ask Chad).

/mailto:chadwicked_at_webtv.net-http://community.webtv.net/chadwicked // Pro Records-PO Box 22-VERNON TX 76385-USA

Das Torpedoes ‘the russian submarine’-the seagull-tape-b&w artwork

/Side A starts like you got Midwich’s vs. Midwich in split stereo (melodica-drone side on the left and 808-rhythm side on the right), really nice. Then comes melodic ambient (stereo interleaved), still not bad, a little too long. Side B starts up with split stereo as well (except rhythm is on the left and drone on the right this time), really nice again. Sine waves then, quite classical stuff, and closes with ambient (much too long this time). A good little tape, first track of each side would’ve made perfect A&B sides of a good little 7”.

/4910 california#3 Omaha NE 68132 USA

Dave Hanford (what we had were two promo tracks from Post Office Records in a nice black sleeve, and Mr. Hanford can be heard on the first Fitamin Un! compilation on vinyl)

/The latest hype among independent reviewers seems to compare everything to PanSonic works, so let’s have a try at being hype. ‘Mr Hanford’s works sound like a scratched PanSonic record (most often, the scratches are in ambient parts), passed through carefully-manipulated filters, the result being an extremely repetitive, hypnotic, very deep and pleasing music’. Isn’t that the most stupid review you ever read?

/Dave Hanford-Glannant, High Street-LLANDUDOCH-SA433EJ-WALES or mailto:davidhandford67_at_yahoo.co.uk

Dead Eye-autoprod-set of 4 credit card CDRs

/Is this an EP? 4 cdrs, less than 5 minutes each make it less than 18 minutes total so I guess I can call this an EP. I love the format. Do I love the music? Droney ambient, experimental, chopped up melodies and clicks, quite close to Köhn from what I can hear there. Not bad, ‘falling sleep’ is even good. This is intended as a trade only but I REALLY THINK could be sold, being such an original format. Keep it up & send some more!

/N. Davidson 16 Hall Royd-Shipley-West Yorkshire BD18 3ED-UK or mailto: helend1966_at_hotmail.com

Deny Life ‘soundtrack to a mass riot/from the ashes of hate ‘ demos-autoproduction-CDR-b&w picture sleeve and nice envelope

/Always glad to hear this kind of band exists in my beloved but somewhat uncivilized country. Death-metal influenced grind/hardcore or hardcore-influenced death metal (I bet they’ll dismiss such references) à la Napalm Death -harmony corruption era- meets Sick Of It All because we all know these bands don’t we + we don’t give a damn little heck about the new school of metalcore and we don’t know exactly what metalcore is do we. Btw, M 150’s ‘civil disobedience’ sounds a lot more like a ‘soundtrack to a mass riot’ than this.

/P.Guillot 10 rue Couperin 78590 Noisy le Roi-France or mailto:guillotpierre_at_hotmail.com

Dermatology Series-BW Xeroxed cover-3” CDR-Tabula Rasa

/Weren’t we just talking about power electronics? Well this is not a power electronics record, this is whole BUNCH of them. Tabula Rasa seems devoted to releasing very difficult records with wonderful packaging around what I would call concepts if I knew such words. This time is no exception. This is a series of 3’’ CDRs, theme seems to be skin diseases or am I wrong. All of them stars of the scene are here, from MSBR to Richard Ramirez (who’s got strange opinions on things or so I’m told), from Mourmansk 150 to Guilty Connector, I’m sure you already know all these names. Records are what you can expect: walls of every kind of extreme/excellent noise there can be (computer generated, voice generated, analogue instruments generated) and the format limits the records to what I think is exactly the good length. An absolute must have.

/Avenida Constitucion 8-28280-El Escorial-MADRID-SPAIN or mailto:tabularasabar_at_hotmail.com

DJ Komikon–CatchPenny Records–CDR and tape/Y Prefateerwy-‘Llong Danfor’-CDR-BW homemade packages

/Being a small structure doesn’t mean you only release small quality stuff and here’s another example. Lofi electronics, four-trackers recordings, tape releases, BW xeroxed packages all made at home. Catchpenny records seems to share our taste for truly independent labels. Music from DJ Komicon is a simple and neat-sounding all-rhythmic technoid thing, refreshing, pleasant, and sometimes a bit naive. Music from Y Prefateerwy is what you could describe as lofi pop, but not in the Sebadoh vein, more like an early record by Joy Division sung in Welch. I really enjoyed this EP and was a bit sad it was so short (for a change).

/PO Box 88, MOLD CH7 4ZQ, UK

/While we’re at it, this man issues a nice fanzine, too, called ‘Viva Sparky!’ (quite small for now, but getting better every issue), so maybe you should drop him a line at catchpennyrecords_at_hotmail.com

DJ Ordeal ‘odds & sods’-pushthebutton- CDR in a PVC envelope: my favourite
/DJ ordeal is someone apart: he obviously thinks you can grab a hundred LPs of easy listening elevator-jazz of the 40s, mix’em all with hiphop beats and d&b, throw in a few spoken words that sound like they just jumped out of one of those awful UsofAmerican TV-series (Samantha the witch or whatever it’s called pops up in my mind writing this) and it’ll all hold together without glue and make a nice record. And you know what? He’s obviously right.

/www.pushthebutton.tk

DJ Wank Chops ‘presents… volume 1’–Fencing Flatworm-CDR-Splendid colour sleeve

/I hear many an argument over the gear people use to make music. ‘I only use analogue beatboxes and synths’ says one. ‘Hey you madman, you mean you paid half a month wages to get a second-hand TR-XOX which thinks music is a part time job and works only after warming for an hour?’ says the other. ‘I won’t pay Korg THAT much money for a crappy digital emulation of the best mini-modular synth in history, even if they put two more zeros in its name’ says the third. I don’t really care about how people make music, except perhaps when they make it live cause I feel it’s a lot more entertaining to see people playing with hardware gear than fiddling around virtual studios on a laptop screen you can’t even see. What I do care about is the quality of the music people make and this record IS quality. Despite what the promo sheet says, it sounds as it could’ve all been made with Steinberg’s ReBirth as well as its analogue aliases but regardless of what was used, it was abused to satisfaction and gave birth to a refreshing mix of funny old school techno (acid/house branch), 1970’s space ambient, minimal dub and post-modern electronica, cause I know all those fancy names and I can make up lots of others in case I want to impress you lot. They say this release is ‘as much fun as a well-lubricated sex toy’ which I can’t tell for sure cause I never could lay a hand on the lubricant. I do think this record is the best release on FFR to date which is a most respectable performance.

/FFR closed doors so this release is no longer available

Drug-Crazed Hippies ‘no neuron technologies inc.’-smell the stench-tape-homemade b&w cover

/I still happen to be pleased and surprised quite often by stuff I get coming unexpected from the post. Usually, there’s some kind of short and nice and polite letter as well saying ‘this is what I make, let me know what you think’. I had this Smell the Stench tape release on CDR sent to me by its author (or should I say perpetrator) and I’m not quite sure it’ll sound the same on tape but as I heard it, it does the job. First of all it’s SHORT: you can bet I’ll review most noise records I get if they were 27 minutes long with no track lasting more than 3 minutes. Noise & rhythms that’s what it’s all about, raw, distorted, mean, sometimes abstract, never tedious. I would call this grindcore techno but to remain in the tone of this issue, they call it ‘psychedelic harsh noise’ (and, for whatever it’s worth, I think it’s got quite a lot in common with the PH vs. DDN split recently out on BE Inc.). May I suggest something, though, that’ll probably drive you, japanoise fans, a little crazy: at times, lowering the levels when you master the record makes music clearer and more aggressive. You see Namanax for instance showed us you could master everything at +2.0dB and still sound clear but I don’t think they said you HAD to do it in order to qualify for the hardest-loudest-powerest-noisiest-electro-industrial category oscar.

/band: darkarts_at_guay.com or NEVADO, miguel serrano 17F-5°3" 10005 CACERES-SPAIN // label: Smell the Stench, Leigh Julian, 2 clematis court, meadows heights, MELBOURNE Victoria-AUSTRALIA 3048