Datashock : acidulle

datashock is a psychedelic noise folk
collective from Saarlouis, Germany,
they have a rotating group of performers
making up the group at any one time,
including Pascal Hector, marcel türkowsky, ulf schütte,
ronnie oliveras, jan werner, martina ripplinger
and ruth maria adam to name some,

here we have a nice little four song release
called Acidulle out on Chocolate Monk,

Track one "Fruhling im mumintal"
was recorded in fall of 2006, it begins quietly,
a small plucking is introduced and the sound
of wind or air escaping from some where is
slowly released, the sound of chimes
or some rustling noises culminate at the finish,


track two "orangina rouge and vodka" is very
camouflaged and open feeling, its bare and white washed,
docile tones and quiet flute sounds can be
made out from the melodically gaping canvas of sound,
it is a hushed but large and engaging song,
this one was recorded in the winter of 2007,

this is an enjoyable collection of recordings
all the tracks where recorded at different times
and seasons through out 2006-2007, but it
doesn't make it unorganized or jumbled,
it does kinda play like a teaser or sampler,
its short and not as expansive as
some of there other releases,


the drawings where created by musician/artist
and datashocker Ruth-Maria Adam,



You can download this album and others at
www.meudiademorte.de

Crest Fear Blur : Lutheran

track one Bouncy Tits stars us off with a
three second sample of what seems to be
a whimsical bluegrass bands plucking away,
it turns right into computer glitch noise,
that sounds like a busy office, like the
sound track too 9to5 if dolly parton was a robot,

the overall sound and direction of the album
has a focus on the harsh Merzbow influenced
music as terrorism ideal, at the same time
track two takes us in another direction and
has a much softer and engaging texture,
it features folk noise looping ambient
background sounds and more delicate layers,
track three takes us back into glitchy heaven,
but track four follows the softer theme and is a gentle
exploration of quiet blips and strings,

i find it hard to get fully involved with this release,
i just personally cant feel it as much as some other
computer noise outings, overall though its done well,
and i cant give any critical observations, nothing useful,
the art throws me off a bit though too, i got it as a zip file
and the art was a badly resized blurry picture of a trading card,
and the other insert was a traced computer drawing of shrek and donkey,
i feel uninspired and disconnected from the aesthetic,


this is out on a online label called proc records
www.proc-records.net


http://www.myspace.com/ontherimofthewheelanail

Wisdom tooth : Poco

John Andrews serves up a five song
ep he recorded alone in Mexico,
the Trenton New Jersey songwriter
blends ukulele tones and other instruments
to put together his wide open sound,

john's brew of styles encompasses
the innocence of 1930s and 20s cartoons,
and the moor modern sounds of the outsider
folk music of Peter Grudzien and jandek,

track one is a charming introduction,
that runs the length of its 12 seconds
and than begins again for another
12 seconds like an outro to the intro,
it sets up the kind of flippant and cheeky
nature of the album,

track two "girls will be girls"
with its repeating lines
"girls will be girls and get drunk on the ocean"
is probably my favorite,
it highlights his impeccable knack
for fragmentary melodies,
melodies that cant be called faultless,
but still you wouldn't have them any other way,
its pure pop, but yet its esoteric and
and creative,

track four "no beso" stars off with
some ambient sounds, it brings the game of
curling to mind, the sounds of clacking and sliding
it turns into a ukulele and vocal track
which only last for a minuet and a half,


the only thing wrong with this
album is that its too short,

it was a free download from
wisdom tooths myspace,
but you can also order his full lenght
cassette on Minneapolis label Room tapes,








it comes with a bunch of nice photos
from his travels in mexico that you can
check out with the download!

Aosuke : Monotone Spirits

Ulf Schütte is responsible for half the good
music that comes out of Hamburg Germany, along
side his friend and Datashock collaborator
Pascal Hector who runs Meudiademorte records,
releasing delicious sound explorations
on his tape label Tape Tektoniks,
putting out stuff ranging from Datashock, James Fella
Pulse Emitter and even Hamilton Ontario's Fossils,
he and pascal have been supporting
each other sense Ulf contacted Meudiademorte to put out
a project that would soon turn into Aosuke, leading to
the birth of Tape Tektoniks for more Aosuke and friends
releases,


while Ulf is not busy with his solo effort
Shivers, he and Tobert Knopp produce beautiful
guitar oriented ambient sound scapes,
the progression of sound is not unlike a gentle
Animal collective or Panda Bear release
but with out any mania or drums, in fact there are
no beats on this album at all, but with a rang of ticks
chirps and clacks covering the tracks,
you don't miss any kind of drum section,
on the contrary it would take the sound in a more
electronica direction, which i think would spoil
the kind of ambient folk aspects of the recording,


track one "at the shore" starts with little
electric chirrup's and a cymbal flourish,
a repeating guitar phrase dominates the track,
its clear and comforting like a string of words,
an agitated vocal of "oh oh ho ah ah ah" takes
attention away from the chirps and guitar
at the half point, its this kind of blending
and overlapping that makes the album stand out,
its is perfectly mixed with out any part or section
in particular getting the snub,

song three the title track "monotone spirits"
is a beautiful mix of bug songs and guitar tone,
plus a debilitated and haunting vocal,
coming off as almost a sample or guest spot,


the last song on the four track LP
"ant architecture" is more angled
toward noise like the quiet perspectives of
glitchy grindcore stuff, the lenient sounds right
before it gets chaotic,


this is the same fundamental ambient bliss
made popular by Black dice, heavy tapes,
animal collective projects and the like....

i highly recommend this release to anyone who
likes music basically, it was released on vinyl
on Meudiademorte and sub released on audiolith
on CD,



http://www.myspace.com/aosuke
http://www.myspace.com/meudiademorte
http://www.myspace.com/tapetektoniks


related projects to check out

http://www.myspace.com/urshivering
http://www.myspace.com/tobertknopp
http://www.myspace.com/conescones
http://www.myspace.com/datashock
http://www.myspace.com/turbostaat

Arrington De Dionyso : I See Beyond the Black Sun

this wasn't quite what i expected from the short
pants clad boisterous front man of RELIJUN,
its a vary calming and relaxing span of throaty nose rock
made with home made effects and instruments,


this seems like a kind of rough draft,
like an unfinished book, not that it doesn't
stand on its own or entertain, but it comes
off as less of a side project and more of a
meditation or wandering, and in so is more
self important than the including and anarchistic
nature of his other work,

track three features a snare drum being played
simple by the vibrations of the singer,
like a snake tamer enticing and playing with
danger, maybe this is a story as well,
some kind of pied piper tale of an oncoming disaster,
its an undirected tribal opus that plays out like
a silent film with out subtitles,

the whole album feels like sessions and the flow is very
natural, with background noises from the studio and such,
the force and vigor of the horn/throat singing style,
is one to be admired, many vocalist and artist like to
play around with these types of Indian and raga influenced
nose and throat chants, and the actual sound you get,
its hard to diversify with it being a specific sound,
but he some how rises above the trappings of the contrived,


the last track one the album (an 18 minuet meanderthal)
almost sound like a remix,
it features a chorus of night bugs and creatures,
singing softly, and the horn singing is less
in your face and more modulated,

the 10 tracks all feature the same horn/throat singing and
all follow the same themes directly or indirectly,
it is an enjoyable study, and perfectly atmospheric,
not a party album but something worth checking out,

its available now for pre-order and will
be released December 9th,

this is out on the legendary K records,
support em and get your pre-orders in now



the album features some of Arrington's original art,
an abstract expression of the female form,
like a gender version of the scatter brush in photoshop
scattering the simplistic yet capturing woman's form repeating
over the water colored canvas,

Boy+Girl : Cavity, Orbit, Sword!

Jacksonville Florida based Boy + Girl
is the sound formation of the man that is A G Davis,
it serves as a audio outlet for the overall mission and art of
all his work, his albums play out similarly
to his progressive writing style, his works read as
sporadic word association that remains coherent and exciting,
the music could work as a companion to his words, going
in and out on tangents and returning to the same manic themes,


when i examined the packaging for this and other
B+G releases, i was put off by the instrument list
(drum machine, synth, samplers etc) and i figured i had
yet another poor and unimaginative electronica release,
but i was mistaken, Davis builds such a gigantic
wall of unbridled sound textures, that its neither
here nor there what tools are used, the samples
add the same sarcastic and sardonic atmosphere
that Tlasila offer up, that same brief and repeating
blueprint like a cd being fast forwarded,

the album has 12 tracks which weave in and out of each other,
the whole album is best played as one continuing piece,
track one features a section of glitched drum machine destruction and
skipping vocal screams, this section is repeated
through out the cd and ties the whole album together,


the album sounds and looks fabulous,
it was released on Belgium label Smeraldina-Rima,
they do beautiful cd-r releases with
packaging made to look like vinyl 45s,

this is fucking grinding glitchy hardcore noise
that is still intuitive and melodic,
akin to Sissy Spacek and others,
a great release!





the packaging is like i said, a piece of
cardboard the size of a 45 sleeve,
it has a gorgeous drawing by wouter vanhaelemeesch,
http://www.myspace.com/utopianethiopian


S-R003
CDR (ltd 60)