(Bauke, Connexion Bizarre, 6/8/10)
Cassettes are back - yeah - and what a great revival it is. With the many kinds of media we can choose from, why would an artist choose for the cassette to release his, her or their work. Don't expect a difficult answer, because it can (and has been) discussed over and over. The simple answer is: Because the music either needed, wanted or chose it itself.
In the case of Comisario Hjuler & Madre Osa, Spanish for Kommissar Hjuler und Mama Bär, the music fits the medium very well. If it would be an MP3, you would probably skip throough the first track (about 25 minutes) because people have grown too lazy to invest in actually LISTENING to something. Same way you probably will scan through this review and didn't notice the word diaper being used two times.
With this short timespan people are nowadays listening with, you wouldn't have heard the beauty and tension in the 25 minute "Wegbeschreisbung Zum Kühlschrank" (Roadmap to the Refrigerator), a really nice dadaistic sound poem with concrete and fluxus influences.
The reverse side counts thirteen tracks by Mister Bear a.k.a Kommissar Hjuler. These tracks are a bit more for the die-hard, compositions for voice and piano based on the 4mm large embryo of their sun Cy, which was growing in Mama Bear's tummy. The pieces are between 55 seconds and 3 minutes and a bit and the lyrics are taken from Danish porn magazines, and no: the editors at CB offices didn't smell the diaper, nor did we check the porn magazines.
"Música Experimental" is packed into a babyblue casing, the cassette itself is also babyblue, the artwork is also kinda babyblue and Cy has all right to be proud at his parents. Even though their music isn't amongst the easiest of listenings.
-- Bauke [7.5/10]
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(Auxiliary Out, 4/24/10)
"First up is the gorgeous looking tape by Comisar Hjuler & Madre Osa a.k.a. Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer. Like their Feeding Tube LP from I reviewed a couple months ago, this tape pretty much defies all logic.
I tend to prefer Baer's work of the pair, maybe because I find her to be the less creepy of the two, and she delivers the stronger side with "Wegbeschreisbung zum Kühlschrank". The side starts out with distorted vowels and what sounds like Baer blowing up a balloon into a mic. There's child-like speech which I can't tell if it's coming from an actual child or a manipulation of Baer's voice. It's surprisingly listenable for unintelligible distorted speech. Apparently, throughout this track Baer is giving a detailed how-to on entering her house and finding the kitchen…There's a nice passage where Baer speaks rapidly over a mellow, stuttering loop of reversed keyboard or maybe just mic feedback or something. A second slower sing/speak vocal track accompanies the first until eventually one wins out. This section of the tape has a really nice feel. It just seems to be a touch forlorn, twisting in the wind. Baer takes a break from the vocals for a while and manipulates the various loops she's operating. For a brief couple seconds there is a fantastic melody that comes out of nowhere and recedes back into the feedback blips. I don't know if it was an accident or what but damn do I want more than five seconds of it! This instrumental passage is really nice and, from my limited experience with Baer's/Hjuler's works, very unexpected in its relative normalcy. Baer's voice returns briefly with descending coos until another shift into what sounds like a strummed guitar and keyboard played backwards. The dynamics fluctuate but the piece eventually peters out into silence.
The back story for Hjuler's side "Cy.4mm" is they are pieces for piano and voice made for his son, Cy, who was a 4 millimeter big embryo at the time. Apparently the lyrics come from Danish pornographic magazines, total lullaby material. I don't know if Mr. Hjuler actually sang these to his son after he was born, but if I was a kid and my dad was singing these songs to me I'd be creeped the fuck out. Anyhow, the side is divided into 13 songs featuring unconventional use of the piano and creepy sing-speak apparently of Danish dirty words. The first piece finds Hjuler picking inside the piano and singing while the second song, one of the stronger tracks, features a lot of percussion via knocking about inside the piano and strange atonal, fragmented melodies. All this while Hjuler drags his husky monotone over all the sonic bumps and snags. Each of the 13 tracks, ranging from 39 seconds at the shortest to 3 minutes at the longest, are all more or less cut from the same cloth. Certain tracks take on different feels such as the sixth track which flirts with late-period Birthday Party gloom. Or number ten which almost creates a walking bassline. Or the final piece which is seriously pretty in a hobbled sort of way.
Definitely for fans of eerie, atonal horror movie scores, slow burning percussive piano abuse and creepy German dudes."
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(Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 718)
"...Its nice to see that [Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer] have reached a cult status by now. True outsider music."
(CT03) Vlubä "Live at Erks" CD-R
"Live at Erks" is an hour long disc from Vlubä, who hail from Argentina. I've never really heard Vlubä before...Everyone's fond of talking about their transcendental/spiritual/what-have-you jams but Vlubä put their money where their mouth is...
Visions? Mantras? Psychophonies? Inside a cavern? Solar generator? Phosphorous?! Vlubä win points for complete dedication if nothing else.
"Wokytoky on Erks" is the first piece listed and it introduces the album with cymbals and effected guitars. There's a hard-to-read insert that lists the instruments but I can only make out things I've never heard of like Egyptian daff or SMK system. However, I can say with certainty there are drums and "shamanistic flute" on here. Anyway as far as the sounds go, the first piece is kind of minimal psych. It's not exactly rockin' but its continuously circular with, what I'm assuming is guitar, and the reliable clatter of cymbals.
There's a change-up, perhaps the next piece "Piedrasroxas Fluos" which continues with light cymbals and shakers and a friendly melody on synth or guitar and I think maybe some vocals. That's a rather short interlude though and the trio brings you deeper into the cavern with more muted clatter and heavily effected drones. There's a jazzy guitar figure that materializes for an instant before quickly retreating back into nothingness.
"Shine Gods UFO" is the next piece on the list and I think it refers to a detuned guitar-led interlude backed up by rattling percussion.
The subsequent track "Kosmic Mountain Spectralis" benefits from a steady drumbeat behind it. The drums jam by themselves for a while but a flute makes a few whispers here and there. The track while quite repetitive, is one of the most listenable portions of the album. Something about the drums pounding away in the natural reverb of the cave makes it a semi-hypnotic experience. Synth pulses color the outskirts of the track but the percussion remains the main attraction throughout.
"King Star Ceremonia" works more for atmosphere with a few spacey swells of sound and distant drums and what sounds like a theremin. The track drifts along in the darkness in a hazed stupor.
The disc wraps with its too longest tracks, "...y Sirio se Apagó" begins with percussion a little like "Kosmic Mountain Spectralis" though it isn't the sole focus. After around four minutes, the track begins to fill out with droning guitar, nearly trance-like drums and various incidental noises curling around the edges. It's hard to make out what the sounds are coming from, could be guitar or that "shamanistic" flute or something else entirely. Though they seem on the road to a climax, Vlubä flirts with whether they want to commit or not. Shifting back and forth from soft to loud dynamics, ultimately deciding against it.
The finale "Sirius Sarumah (Interstellar Chacarera Trunca)" starts with birdcalls, eerie drones and a jaunty but somehow sinister melody. The drums join up with the melody in ramshackle unison as slices of feedback and vocals swirl around in zoned out dementia. Vlubä seems a subscriber of saving the best (or at least strangest) for last.
I think, overall, Live at Erks is a little too formless for my taste, but anyone up for some smoldering, burned-out cave-psych by moonlight should check this out.
The Vlubä disc is an edition of 100, with a pro-printed CD-r, insert, and fold-out psychedelic alien landing artwork."
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Vlubä is composed of three members : Müriscia who performs vocals, uses machines and plays shamanistic flute and drums ; Aphra who plays daff (Egyptian percussions), gopichand (Indian one-string instrument) and manipulates stones, and Lou who also plays daff and manipulate various objects. For this record, they took up residence for one night in the Valle del Silencio, inside a cavern in the mountain ranges of Cordoba, Argentina, and drew their inspiration from the natural world, indigenous tribal chants, spiritualism and the distance from the modern world's madness, and used the music to throw themselves into a state of trance which lasted all night long. The few electric power they needed was supplied by a solar generator, in order to remain faithful to their concept of harmony with nature. Musically speaking, the result of this experience can be describe as psychedelic, ambient, experimental, non-music, and so on... The percussions usually sound like snaps and are quite discreet in the final mix, leaving the lion's share to the pads and the atmospheric sounds. The vocal parts call to mind some kind of litanies and accentuate the ritual dimension of the whole thing.
More than just a record, "Live at Erks" is a spiritual experience which deserves to be listened carefully and in a proper state of mind, in order to fully enjoy the journey it will take you to, a journey which no one can figure out the real destination..."
-- Olivier Noel [7/10]
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(CT02) Arnau Sala "La Joia d'agredir" C22
"...Arnau Sala's "La Joia d'Agredir"...could well have been released at the very acme of industrial tape culture: Distorted frequencies, high-pitched squeals, abrasive textures and long vocal samples possibly culled from radio plays or movies combine into cold, alien landscapes of bleak moods and subcutaneous tension – not at all surprising considering the title of the release translates to “the joy of attacking“. And yet, Sala nonetheless manages to integrate some vital vocabulary of his own into the mix. Some of the extended exchanges of clashing sinewaves take on an almost atmospheric character and on “Triple Morro“, a Drum Kit is battling it out with a swarm of aggressive killerbees. “La Força“ (not a Nelly Furtado-cover, mind you), meanwhile, is typical of Sala's talent of mashing up completely incoherent elements in an outwardly random way and still creating something darkly entrancing: In the distance, two Recorders are joyfully whistling far away from their tonal centre, a primitive robotic beat is digging through a narrow tunnel and cymbals are crashing incessantly. Mysteriously, it all sounds entirely natural..."
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(Auxiliary Out, 7/22/09)
"The second tape from brand new Barcelona label, Circuit Torçat, run by Juan Matos Capote. Arnau Sala, Barcelona’s main man in experimental music and operator of the Ozonokids label, made this tape and having been wanting to hear his stuff for a while now I was psyched to listen. I’m pleased to report that it’s good, it’s real good.
Four tracks comprise the first side. “Blasfèmia Primitive” begins with a strong electronic pulse that Sala modulates rhythmically creating an air of anticipation. The track teeters on combusting into total sonic fury but manages to hold itself together. “Triple Morro” is a quirky track of free drumming paired with a wigged out oscillator; some kind of futuristic jazz when people no longer use their lungs for music. The oscillator does a surprisingly agile job playing the role of a sax or cornet. I like the track more and more each time I listen. “Viure per Punxar (i no Punxar per Viure)” has a homemade techno vibe, little skittering circuitry beats and electronic creaks, grinds and pulsations. “Obstacles Coherents” changes things up again with a manipulated speech sample and loose improv on guitar (I think.) The focus on rhythm is deemphasized compared to the previous tracks. Instead of drums or loops at the forefront, rhythm is derived from the speech and fragments of guitar and oscillator that waft in and out of the composition. It’s a nice track to end the side on because the music just kind of floats away beyond reach and disappears.
The second side features my favorite piece on the tape, “Voluntad D'agressió Pura,” which is a collaboration with Juan Matos Capote. I hope these guys start playing with each other in a more permanent fashion cause they work really well together. The piece is heavy on the oscillations and there are some great, metallic rhythmic shards (maybe samples?) that get the piece moving in a really interesting, asymmetrical way. The sounds bounce off each other with little seeming purpose but all the movements in the piece are so self-assured that there has to be a grand scheme I’m just not tapping into. By the end of the piece Sala and Capote have probably crossed so many wires and scrambled so many circuits that things get blistering and noisy. The piece takes up a good chunk of the side but its energy never fails, it keeps clawing forth like some ravenous, wounded beast. Just an awesome track all around. The finale “La Força” is a bit more tempered. Acoustic instruments, wood flute and cymbal, are paired with a crunchy, minimal electronic beat and flakes of vocals. The piece trudges along in a relatively hypnotic manner but gets a tad unruly near the end.
I also have to say this is one the nicest looking tapes I’ve come across this year. Sala did the rad artwork and Capote decked the whole thing out in yellow; yellow tapes, yellow labels, yellow cases. It looks reeeeeally nice. Check it out.
Still available; limited to 50."
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(CTO1) Juan Matos Capote "Jabal" C18
(Tobias Fischer, Tokafi, 9/17/09)
"...Capote's own effort… is… a subtle and multilayered affair. Despite its inherent tendency towards discreet distortion and electric hums, “Jabal“ rather aspires to broken Electronica than fully-fledged, fetishised Noise. It is mainly through his set-up, involving an oscillator, a lot of customised devices, manipulated field recordings and contact microphones that the music attains a somewhat raw, direct and gritty live-quality despite its microtonal finesse on the level of sound design. Fragmented rhythm – rather than steady beats – play a minor part, with impulses joining into both regularly and irregularly repeated sequences without announcing themselves. But for most of the time, “Jabal“ revolves around an ambient interplay between chance and determination, between human intervention and machinal initiative, between strangely organic movement and alien timbres.
The real action is therefore, almost by default, taking place behind the outward emanations. It is in the way that structures carefully converge and then playfully bounce off each other, in the fleeting nature of pastoral melodies, in the gentle transformations taking place as pieces consistently travel to entirely different places from where they started. The devil is in the detail here, as there are plenty of references and associations waiting to be discovered: The title track has a tender sentimental touch to it, for example, while closing “Star Dust“ gradually and almost grudgingly distances itself from its Dark Ambient introduction. There are just four pieces on “Jabal,“ but they all seem to be related to each other, which suggests they might well work best when played as an endless loop. Content and packaging have struck a formidable deal here: Holding an Audio Cassette in your hands again certainly doesn't feel like a museumised act. With the releases of Circuit Torçat, this second encounter with tape culture rather feels like a promising new beginning."
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(Charlie Martineau, Connexion Bizarre, 9/14/09)
"Juan Matos Capote is a sound and visual artist who currently resides in Barcelona and whose impressive resume includes studying circuit-bending under Reed Ghazala. This is the first tape I have been given to review and, as a huge fan of the tape format (some of my favorite acts right now release almost exclusively in the tape format), I have to admit that this was the first one in the current stack I threw
Judging from the sounds in this release I'd have to assume these tracks were composed using various electronic devices and Mr. Capote knows how to make some interesting noise I must say. He has moments of extremity without being harsh and assaulting with subtle and gentle melodies amidst the high frequencies. The release is short, at only eighteen minutes, but it all flows together so nicely without anything feeling like filler material. Nevertheless, to be perfectly honest, I would have no complaints if the track "Tide" went on for a good ten minutes.
The tape itself comes with well done full color artwork which looks very professional. A limited edition of 50 copies, I suggest you get a copy for yourself while you still can! Furthermore, due to the exceptional quality of this release I look very forward to future releases from Circuit Torçat Records."
--Charlie Martineau [10/10]
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(Auxiliary Out, 5/11/09)
The other side contains two pieces as well. “Tide” features sine tones also but over a shuddering bed of lower pitches. Over that base, various other fragments of other sounds are structured. They are probably all of electronic origin but some sound quite percussive causing the piece to scrape along capably. The finale, and my favorite, “Star Dust” reminds me a bit of the lo-fi new age thing going on now a la Dolphins into the Future. Despite a rough patch of distortion in between, the beginning is mellow waves of synthesizer and later brings out a pieced together, seasick melody before getting noisy again with oscillators and metal objects.
Capote’s work isn’t exactly minimal but that influence is present. He focuses on constructing pieces from small fragments of sound. Though the two work from very different source material, Capote’s work might possibly sound like an isolated strand of Tomutonttu’s sound clutter. Sound placed into odd but clearly defined structures. A real pleasant jam.
Edition of 50 and packaged very cleanly, check it out."
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(Mangoon, Tiny Mix Tapes, May 2009)
Jabal is a contemplative work that sees Capote testing the limits of his centerpiece instrument, a four oscillator pink and grey tone box that buzzes, squeaks, and squeals sanctimoniously throughout. Juan’s expertise in hardware-hacking comes from studying under circuit-bending progenitor Reed Ghazala. Since then, Juan has become an expert in the field ripping through and rerouting consumer electronics much like a hungry bear would rip through pieces of wolf flesh. Jabal is a made-up word for Juan’s secret spot of solace, a mountaintop overlooking Barcelona’s booming metropolis that has for him become a sacred place where he communes with nature. There is a meditative aspect of this cassette that undoubtedly stems from those fleeting moments of peace experienced on the mountaintop. In addition to the oscillator, Jabal is peppered with Capote’s own personal field recordings (much taken from atop the mountain), weaving bits of his own personal auditory nostalgia with gently oscillating sine waves to converge in on some serious prospects of nirvana, though tinged with a sense of foreboding paranoia.
The tape comes in a miniscule edition of 50 and boasts full-color card stock and beautifully printed tape labels, all courtesy of Capote himself."
(Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly #670, 3/17/09)
"...Capote's love goes out to circuit bending, which he uses here on this eighteen minute cassette, most notably the 'pink oscillator', modified electronic gear, some field recordings, contact microphones and prerecorded software synth phrases. Four pieces in total.
"Goat Escape" is quite a noisy piece of waving electric circuits, being touched, whereas the title track is a bit more spacious, like cosmic dust or SETI like signals.
The best pieces are on the b-side, with the loop based "Tide" and the more complex noise based composition "Star Dust", which includes a lot of the things he credits himself for, and contact microphones play an important role.
Its a nice release, a bit short, but surely to the point."
