The Sound Projector

1. Pharaoh Overlord, ‘August’
   From II, USA NO QUARTER NOQ003 CD (2002)
2. Max Ochs, ‘Raga’
   From Contemporary Guitar Spring ‘67, USA TAKOMA C1006 LP (1967)
3. Gary Lucas, ‘Indian War Whoop’
   From Improve The Shining Hour, USA KNITTING FACTORY WORKS KFW-265 CD (2000)
4. Günter Schickert, ‘Kriegsmaschinen, Fahrt Zur Holle’ (extract)
   From Samtvogel, GERMANY BRAIN 1080 LP (1975)
5. Autechre remix of Earth, ‘Coda Maestoso in F (Flat) Major’
   From Legacy of Dissolution, USA NO QUARTER NOQ006 CD (2005)
6. Heldon, ‘In The Wake of King Fripp’ (1975)
   From Allez Teia, USA CUNEIFORM RECORDS RUNE 37 X CD (1992)
7. Wilburn Burchette, ‘Witch’s Will’
   From Wilburn Burchette’s Guitar Grimoire, USA BURCHETTE BROTHERS PRODUCTIONS #001 LP (1973)
8. Oren Ambarchi, ‘Suspension’
   From Suspension, UK TOUCH T33.16 CD (2001)
9. Bert Jansch, ‘Nicola’ (1967)
   From Nicola, UK CASTLE MUSIC CMRCD 333 CD (2002)
10. Earth, ‘Geometry of Murder’
    From Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars Live, USA NO QUARTER NQR001 CD (2001)
11. Wooden Spoon, ‘Dead Shrimp’
    From The Folk Blues Guitar of Wooden Spoon, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS weavil18 CD (2007)
12. Pharaoh Overlord, ‘Skyline’
    From II, op cit.
13. Frank Zappa (with James “Bird Legs” Youman), ‘Sleep Dirt’ (1979)
    From Sleep Dirt, UK ZAPPA RECORDS CDZAP43 CD (1991)
14. Lasse Marhaug, ‘It is my kind of top’ (fade)
    From The Shape of Rock to Come, NORWAY SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND STS084CD (2004)
15. Wilburn Burchette, ‘Regeneration’
    From Wilburn Burchette Opens the Seven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness, USA EBOS 6D-0001 LP (1972)
16. Gary Lucas, ‘Oat Hate’
    From Improve The Shining Hour, op cit.

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

The Sound Projector presents…
Krautrock Kompendium in Kolour

From the introduction: “This is a compilation of all written reviews of Krautrock records that have appeared in the pages of The Sound Projector Music Magazine to date. It includes music that has been variously labelled as Krautrock, Kosmische, German electronic music, or German progressive rock…The reason for doing the Krautrock Kompendium is simply to make available previously-published extracts from the magazine. We decided to do it as an ‘ebook’, an online publication which can be downloaded from the website for free. At the same time, digital technology has made it easier to deliver photography and reproduction of entire LP sleeves. The visual element is an exceptionally important part of Krautrock history; the sleeve art is beautiful, and packed with significance. For these reasons, we decided to render the KK in full colour. Thus, the layouts, cover art and pictures have been assembled especially for this digital edition…”

112pp, full colour, PDF available to download now

Rob Hart has sent his latest release from his CDR label State Sanctioned Recordings based in Brighton. OpenAir (SSRCD003) is by Tim Kirby (also of The Sonic Catering Band) in his Lessons Around Us guise, and arrives in a sumptuous landscape-format package (as indeed do all releases on this quirky label). There’s also a landscape depicted on the front - a fine 19th-century engraving with a waterfall, trees, house, figures and picturesque, geometric rock formations. Kirby’s work here uses lots of field recordings and home recordings, and experiments with instruments bleeding into household appliances (and vice versa) causing much magical pattern-making to ensue. With the emphasis on a ‘distinctly English vision’, I got a strong feeling this one can’t lose, and I can’t wait to unleash its powers within my four walls. The old-fashioned Postcard replica back cover (whereon the label’s emblem is printed in red as a postmark) is particularly nice - an old trick perhaps, but a good one.

Italian entrepreneur Andrea Marutti has sent a few examples from his art-edition CDR label AFE RECORDS in Milan. Much to my great excitement, he’s put in two records by Edward Ruchalski. We interviewed this modest NY State (Syracuse) genius in issue 13 of the magazine, and I personally can’t hear enough of his mystical-magical soundworks, some using home-made instruments, all of them using imagination and strange narrative drivers behind the deft tape-splices. On Territorial Objects (AFE089LCD) it seems we have one Michael Burton suspended up to his waist in the waters of Butternut Creek, playing cymbals, bells and other percussion. On Dark Night (AFE090LCD), a solo work, Ruchalski does his best to realise in sound the beauties and mysteries of a New England night with all the visionary powers of a Ray Bradbury. My inner warlock is just itching to get these colourful beauties (orange and black respectively) slotted into an appropriate technical niche! Also in the package, Mathieu Ruhlmann’s The Earth Grows in Each of Us (AFE097LCD), an electro-acoustic work to do with regenerative rites and based closely on Mathieu’s personal family situations. All three of these packaged in restrained, professionally-printed wallets that put a lot of CDR releases in the shade; the Ruhlmann sleeve resembles a Joseph Cornell artwork. 100 copies only of these gems…

From Japan, two more oddities on Koki Emura’s EM RECORDS label which tend to confirm his status as the most eclectic of record reissuers currently operating on the face of the earth. We got Wild Billy Childish and The Black Hands play Captain Calypso’s Hoodoo Party (EM1065CD), a 1988 escapade presumably retrieved from the artist’s own Hangman Records label; the sextet hereon apparently tackle cover versions of ‘Anarchy in the UK’ among other songs, all played in a rollicking Calpyso style. While I certainly remain a convert of the godlike Sexton Ming, I’ve yet to experience the delights of the patron saint of Medway himself, so will let you know how this one fares (and I must add that I feel doubly surreal having arrived at something so completely “English” via a Japanese label). The other item in the envelope is probably more in my line; Annea Lockwood’s Early Works 1967-82 (EM1064CD) got my attention immediately with the striking cover of the artiste herself standing in a junkyard in front of a burning piano, looking immaculate in her black slacks and black sweater and tied-back hair and the coolest horn-rim glasses and sandals this side of the red wine-guzzling beatnik chick of my dreams. I always assumed Lockwood was American, but she’s from New Zealand and has taught in NY since 1973. The burning piano (flames rendered with a flat overlay of process yellow on this CD, completing the pop-art effect) is from a performance piece series which may not be represented on this CD. What is on this CD is a start-to-finish reissue of The Glass World, her 1967-1970 LP, a rarity which causes unsightly saliva drippings among many collectors, plus 1970’s Tiger Balm. At time of writing I’m still fondling the sealed digipack of this release, but once played I’m expecting a physiological change to be wrought on my frame, something akin to a night of heartburn such that my own viscera will resemble that incandescent piano. Go Annea!

With thanks to contributor Jennifer Hor

1. Orthodox, ‘Solemne Triduo’
   From Within The Church of thee Overlords, USA SOUTHERN LORD sunn77.7 promo CD (2007)
2. Lair of the Minotaur, ‘Grisly Hound of the Pit’
   From Darkness Knows No Boundaries, USA SOUTHERN LORD sunn66 promo CD (2006)
3. With Throats as Fine as Needles, [Track 1]
   From With Throats as Fine as Needles, USA DIGITALIS digi022 / STUDENTS OF DECAY SoD-002 CDR (2006)
4. Kommando Peste Noire, ‘Le Mort Joyeux’
   From La Sanie des Siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence, FRANCE DE PROFUNDIS DE 01 CD (2006)
5. Zadik Zecharia, [Track 4] (1980)
   From Turkish Melodies Played on Zorna, JERUSALEM SOMETHING ON THE ROAD CDR (2006)
6. Burmese, ‘Thumbsucker’
   From Men, USA LOAD RECORDS LOAD 064 CD (2003)
7. Francis Plagne, ‘Laid Out Like a Corpse’
   From Idle Bones, AUSTRALIA SYNAESTHESIA RECORDS SYN#18 CD (2005)
8. Mazuraan, ‘Martian Dub’
   From Solid State, UK TRAquetO Records TQ#007 CD (2004)
9. Kemiälliset Ystävät, ‘Paha’
   From Terrastock Six, USA SECRET EYE AB-OC-26 CD (2006)
10. Amaka Hahina, ‘O Solitude, accueille-moi!’
    From Aheah Saergathan!, FRANCE DRAKKAR PRODUCTIONS DKCD 026 (2002)
11. 666Majik999, ‘Cry Under Teeth’
    From The Ice Dragon that Ate Bolivia, AUSTRALIA MUSICYOURMINDWILLLOVEYOU mymwly0047 CDR (2006)
12. Funeral, ‘A Strife…A Victory’ (1996)
    From The Black Legions, FRANCE BLACK CULT RECORDINGS BCR 001 CDR (ND)
13. Vomit Orchestra, ‘Suicide at the End of a Film’
    From Antecrux, AUTUMN WIND PRODUCTIONS AWP-012 CD (2006)
14. Âmes Sanglantes, ‘Réponse sans question’
    From Le Cri Du Pendu, AUSTRALIA CIPHER PRODUCTIONS SIC 21 CD (2005)
15. Kneale Kneale Kneale, ‘Winter Kneale 03′
    From The Silver Chair, NEW ZEALAND CELEBRATE PSI PHENOMENON CPSIP CDR (2004)
16. Elizabeth Clare Prophet, ‘Decree 10.05′
    From The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults, USA FAITHWAYS CDSOUNDVOL14 CD (2006)
17. Hototogisu, [Track 5]
    From Chimärendämmerung, USA DE STIJL 062 CD (2006)
18. Ea, ‘Mea Ta Souluola’
    From Ea Taesse, RUSSIA SOLITUDE PRODUCTIONS SP.010-06 CD (2006)

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

Points of Friction are veteran west-coast loons who formed up in 1981 after seeing Captain Beefheart play live. Which makes them welcome in my house. Here they be, hairy and wild-eyed, with a fascinating combo-bucket of sonic goop called Afterlife DNA Finger-Painting (MELON EXPANDER 003), a fiendish proposition dripping like so much alien gumbo from the skies over Los Angeles. The five-piece of extra-terrestrial genius wing-wangs made this in Reseda CA during 2004, unbeknownst to the eyes and ears of the secret anti-imagination police, who would have forcibly halted proceedings if they knew. I’m personally very delighted to hear from Damian Bisciglia, one of the Friction tribe, who operated as Agog in Seattle making astonishingly twisted recordings in a sculptive way, and equally tactile sculptures from metal and wax. Here he is with Tim Alexander, Mitchell Brown, Joseph Hammer and Kenny Ryman, all of whom are likely to prove gifted manglers of electronics, moogs, tapes, loops and more besides, glorping their beefy hearts out while Damian handles the birdcage and metal chores. With track titles like ‘Artichoke Tickle’ and ‘Spores of the Aquifer’, plus a closing long track telling a story about a Salamander laughing out loud, you know we’re in for some seriously intense peyote-induced surrealist visions here! Looking forward to suspending my frontal lobes in a bathtub of ether for one hour while I enjoy this warparoonie, with its nauseous sleeve art of superimposed photos - cell structures, teeth, probing hands, mystery robes, all locked together in a nightmarish overlay vision of green, orange and red. What a treat!

Spaceheads and Max Eastley descend from the astral planes with their latest team-up on the French Bip-Hop label, proposing to take us A Very Long Way From Anywhere Else (BLEEP35) - a timely update perhaps on The Stones’ ‘2000 Light years from Home’. Spaceheads is trumpeter-through-electronics Andy Diagram with his friend Richard Harrison on drums, while Max Eastley is of course a well-respected and important UK improviser who, as fate would have it, was also a multi-media tutor at my old art college in the 1980s. The previous effort by this combo came out in 2001, and sad to say I can’t recall that it impressed me much; let’s hope this new mix of moody electronics and live playing of ‘the arc’ (Max’s monochord made of wood and wire; half-sculpture, half-instrument) will fare better and repay a closer listening. Titles evoke wistful abstractions to do with loneliness, dreams, time, travel, statues…kind of a mini De Chirico painting catalogue, in sound. Eastley also contributed the cover art with its richly associative images.

Beautiful piece of packaging from France surrounding the new release by Les Klebs (PP0506); it’s an outsize wallet (they call it a ‘Phonographic Envelope’) packed with a nifty A5-sized mini-comic rendered by Le Dernier Cri graphiste BlexBolex telling the moving saga of one large dog in a sailor suit and his bone, and drawn muchly in the European style such that it resembles a lost portfolio of lithographs by the kinder, warmer brother of George Grosz. Meanwhile Les Klebs (a five-piece of French electro-acoustic players) contribute a warm mix of sensual improvised soup, using a fairly standard minimal jazz set-up (clarinet, double bass) alongside turntable, synth and live mixing. They cook up one flavoursome track in 37 mins. Among their ranks are Xavier Charles, Jean Pallandre and Laurent Sassi, and they’ve been at it since 2004. The record label, Ouïe/Dire Production, thank me in advance for forwarding a copy of the possible chronicle which I might write in connection with this disc; you see how the French are always so polite? That’s what we lack in this rotten country!

While we’re still singing the praises of France, Sylvain Chauveau sends four CDs from his Paris home, indicative perhaps of his many projects and collaborative actions…of these, the trio ON seem most appealing to me at this time. Joined by Steven Hess on perc and prepared piano, M. Chauveau plays the prepared guitar, and their buddy Pierre-Yves Macé does processing and mixing to produce the very low-key Second Souffle (BROCOLI 003). They eke some reasonably intense static sounds from their playing, evidently very tightly-focused on their work…same could be said for Ensemble 0, who released Music Of Wheel (CREATIVE SOURCES RECORDINGS CS 086) on this Portuguese label. Here, Chauveau joins a foursome with Joel Merah, Maitane Sebastian, and Stéphane Garin; they mostly play acoustic instruments, incl cello, piano, and a fine glockenspiel…this slow and quiet material may take some time to yield up its secrets, but it has accuracy and clarity…surface appearances bring to mind the work of Tilbury in AMM. The six ‘fragments’ on the CD came out a project based on generating different musical pieces all based on the same score by Merah. In the right mood, this exacting musical emptiness could actually yield dividends to the stress-free ear. In like manner, we have stretchandrelax who are Félicia Atkinson and Elise Ladoué, whose record title Instead Of Buying Shoes (NOWAKI NO NUMBER) simply sounds like a piece of sensible advice. Chauveau isn’t here, but is thanked. The record is 14 tracks of aural collage that are barely audible and barely extant; their experiments in unobtrusiveness include obscured breathy mumbling, quiet and tasteful background electronica, and simple delicate tape manipulation, all rendered in the service of non-shoe connected activity. The last CD in the packet is Arca’s On Ne Distinguait plus les Têtes (ICI D’AILLEURS ida038), where Chauveau is joined by Joan Cambon on a collection of lyrical songs, for which he handles the vocal parts himself. Certainly the ambiguous title poses a fine metaphysical conundrum we’ve all faced at one time or another, but these wistful, melancholic ballads and songs - and their rather portentous themes - throw up too many barriers for this listener.

1. Miminokoto, ‘Yumekara Ver. 2′
   From Orange Garage, USA LAST VISIBLE DOG LVD 093 CD (ND)
2. The Magic Carpathians Project, ‘2003′
   From Sonic Suicide Ethnoise #1, POLAND VIVO RECORDS VIVO 014 CD (2005)
3. P.D., ‘Progressive Disco I’ (1980)
   From Inweglos, GREECE ABSURD #40 CD
4. The Hat City Intuitive, ‘Gastric Aspects’
   From Narrow Miss on the Chamber Pot, USA HAT CITY SOUNDS HC1001 CD (2005)
5. Hans Grüsel’s Kränkenkabinet, ‘Unter Wasser Variation Two / Master Hands (Scene 3)’
   From Happy As Pitch, USA C.I.P. CIPCD017 CD (2006)
6. Dedo, ‘Luzerne est vraiment loin’
   From Avatar, SPAIN HRÖNIR / GLIPTOTEKA MAGDALAE GMHLOOK CD (2004)
7. The Inecto School, ‘Three Brick Razz’
   From Wrangthorn, NO NUMBER CDR (2004)
8. Dolores Dewberry, ‘Eerie sequins in cocaine’
   From Dolores Dewberry / Origami Genitalia, USA APOP RECORDS APOP001 / CARBON RECORDS CD109 / GOLD SOUNDZ GS#36 / LITTLE MAFIA LM043 / NIHILIST NIHIL26 / SUNSHIP RECORDS SUN53 CD (2005)
9. Liz Allbee, ‘Hey Judy G.’
   From Quarry Tones, USA RESIPISCENT RSPT001 CD (2005)
10. Hall / Ranaldo / Hooker, ‘Blue Seven’
    From Oasis of Whispers, CANADA ALIEN8 RECORDINGS ALIENCD59 (2005)
11. Hans-Joachim Irmler, ‘Elektroblitz’
    From Lifelike, GERMANY STAUBGOLD 44 CD (2003)
12. Tim Olive / Bunsho Nisikawa, ‘The Neon Cross’
    From Supernatural Hot Rug and Not Used, JAPAN EM RECORDS EM1055CD (2006)
13. Peter Wright, ‘5 minutes & 24 seconds’
    From Pariahs Sing Om, USA LAST VISIBLE DOG LVD 89-91 3 x CD (ND)
14. Door, [Track 1]
    From The Broken Beast’s (Golden) Jaw, USA KITTY PLAY RECORDS NO NUMBER CDR
15. Loren Chasse, ‘The Tree on the Sky’
    From The Air in the Sand, AUSTRALIA NATURESTRIP NS3004 CD (2005)
16. Noggin, ‘Untitled’
    From si’ke-del’ik volume one, USA PSYCHFORM RECORDS PFR01 CD (2004)
17. Due Process, ‘Combine XVIII’
    From Combine I-XVIII, USA RRRecords RRR-CD-20 (1995)
18. The Scientific Explanation of Despair, [Track 5]
    From Pilotram / The Scientific Explanation of Despair split CDR, USA KITTY PLAY RECORDS NO NUMBER CDR

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

More instrumental goodness dripping inwardly from the Danes, specifically Elektronavn who is Magnus Olsen Majmon, one of my personal favourite CDR-releasing, one-man band, geniuses of the drone, and a fellow who also has a convincing line in subtle electro-acoustic juxtapositions. While I’m still waiting to hear anything that delivers the depth and atmospheric richness of his 2004 CDR Rationale Mystique, this newie Songs of Impermanence (EMPTY SOUNDS REC ESR 008) promises a profound meditation on the great imponderables such as death, futility, loss and despair. Besides playing a ton and a half of reed instruments, strings, percussion and keyboards, Magnus also sings on this short half-hour record - a new side to his accomplishments with which I am yet to familiarise myself. Opening seconds alone were enough to persuade me he’s created a brace of gold-lined azure-enriched canvases in sound, fit to illuminate the darkest corners of these mighty abstractions of human misery that are his chosen themes. Hand-made cover has been produced using a raw, primitive version of the ‘decalcomania’ method, which in the hands of Max Ernst was used to create gigantic forests of post-war, angst-drenched doubt and lip-biting despair. In hands of Majmon, same technique produces little more than shapeless green blobs. No matter, because even if his painterly talents are slight, his musical gifts are beyond cavil.

Equally fit for accompanying and enhancing one’s oppressed mood on this rather drizzly June evening is a stern, slow-moving musical oddity by Jupiterdogs (PALIMPSEST RECORDINGS PR06). It’s a very short CDR, four tracks in 16 mins, with a note describing contents as ‘improv/time travel/death blues/garage’. Sonically, one hears a mournful electric guitar steeped in depressed, black feedback, and a piano that’s on the verge of yielding up the ghost, said combinations possibly spiced up with some low-key tape malarkey or post-processing work. Haven’t heard it top-to-tail yet, but I’m certain that pieces like ‘Aurorajaw’ and ‘Dogs Without Everything’ are going to convince me to enter feet first the strange world of this unknown duo, a gateway presaged by the huge praying mantis and moon image which looms forth from the front cover of the package. This ghastly lunar insect is a line drawing, likewise the images of their home planet Jupiter (though perhaps their music might also be described as somewhat Saturnine) and the skulls dotted around a flaming landscape which appear on the back of the large black card on which this CDR is carefully mounted. Press notes give no hard information, only florid descriptions and outlandish claims for the metaphysical powers of these sounds. Nonetheless a highly intriguing outing of low-key darkness from this Cambridge (UK) based label.

1. Marble Sheep and the Run-Down Sun’s Children, ‘Plays 22 February 1991′
   From Tokyo Flashback, JAPAN PSF RECORDS PSFD-12 CD (1991)
2. Yamantaka Eye and Shinro Ohtake, ‘19/Single (track 1)’
   From Juke/19, JAPAN TIME BOMB RECORDS BOMBCD-45 5 x CD BOX (1996)
3. Otomo Yoshihide, ‘Records II’
   From Multiple Otomo, USA ASPHODEL ASP 3007 CD + DVD (2007)
4. Optical*8, ‘Summer Slave’
   From Bug, FRANCE GOD MOUNTAIN EUROPE GOCD*11 CD (1994)
5. Puzzle Punks, ‘Best Brain’
   ‘Magic Poopers’
   From Budub, JAPAN TIME BOMB RECORDS BOMBCD 39 (1996)
6. HiPosi, ‘JinoJino’
   From The Lost Vow, JAPAN K-HIN BROS CO CD (1991)
7. Keiji Haino and Coa, ‘Questioning the Wisdom of your Standards in so wishing to be Brainwashed’
   From You should draw out the billion and first prayer, JAPAN HOREN MIMI-010 CD (2000)
8. Ruins, ‘Pig Brag Crack’
   From Hyderomastgroningem, USA TZADIK TZ 7202 CD (1995)
9. Magical Power Mako, ‘Silk Road’ (1975)
   From Super Record, UK RADIOACTIVE RECORDS RRCD 141 CD
10. Boredoms, ‘Go Come Uparks’
    ‘Magic Milk’
    ‘White Plastic See-Thru Finger’
    From Super Roots 2, JAPAN WEA 3CS-2011 3″ CD (1994)
11. Syzygys, ‘Eyes On Green’
    From The Lost Vow, op cit.
12. Masonna, ‘Shinsen Na Clitoris (Part I)’ (fade)
    From Shinsen Na Clitoris, JAPAN VANILLA RECORDS VANILLA-6 CD (1990)
13. Toho Sara, ‘Mei jou tan sho part 4′
    From Mei jou tan sho, JAPAN PSF RECORDS PSFD-109 CD (1999)
14. Magical Power Mako, extract from ‘Hapmoniym Part 4′
    From Hapmoniym 1972-1975, ISRAEL MIO RECORDS MIO 001-005 5 x CD BOX (2002)
15. Yamantaka Eye and Shinro Ohtake, ‘19/Single (track 1)’
    From Juke/19, op cit.
16. Yuragi, ‘Improvisation’
    From Tokyo Flashback 2, JAPAN PSF RECORDS PSFD-24 CD (1992)
17. Chouzu, [Track 9]
    From The Night Gallery, JAPAN ALCHEMY RECORDS ARCD-147 CD (2003)

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM