The Sound Projector

French improviser David Papapostolou has just started his new record label, Adjacent Recordings, and Leaving Room (Adjacent001), his duo with Daniel Jones) is the debut release. “Working as a small structure allows me to take more risks than established labels and the idea is to document the activity of young and emergent musicians in the local improv scene,” reports the man they call ‘The Papster’ from his London home in E8, in between buckets of hot black coffee. “Since I moved to London I have started playing with many amazing people whose music is often under-documented,” he adds, like some latter-day Bernard Stollmann. The ultra-slow and extremely quiet music on this CD, created from a mix of very discreet sounds made with live electronics and acoustic guitar, has already attracted the ears of the presenters of the Audition radio show on Resonance FM. “Adjacent003 is being planned and only exists on paper so far,” David further informs us, “as the group it might document (a sextet this time) hasn’t played a sound yet.”

Leighton Craig is a Brisbane musician and has made a pleasant keyboard CD for Room 40. There are 13 short tracks on 11 Easy Pieces (RM424), all of them realised with cheap Casios and similar old-school devices, recorded at home on a four-track. While some pieces are simply inconsequential doodles, at least two tracks manage to compress the idea of Philip Glass into a three-minute ditty, while the ten-minute ‘Threnody’ summons a dark atmosphere in short order using minimal means and two HP4 batteries. The label has also released Sui-Gin (RM428), a solo CD of annoyingly bitty electronica by Japanese player Ueno who is a member of Tenniscoats. He did it by processing his 12-string guitar through a ring modulator.

Smiling Through my Teeth is a beautifully presented CD and book, with the musical side of the collection put together by Vicki Bennett, who’s a Sound Projector favourite in long standing for her work as People Like Us. It includes a few early ‘novelty’ records from Raymond Scott and Spike Jones, but the bulk of the CD is made up of contributions from assorted well-known (and some lesser-known) names in the world of extreme avant and experimental music, and the selections (if lined up in a row, as they are here) do indeed create an escapade of jet-black humour scaped from the laughing lips of the lunatic fringe: step forward Nihilist Spasm Band, Otomo and Eye, Christian Marclay, Lucas Abela, John Oswald, and Xper.Xr. Plus of course a couple of cuts by Nurse With Wound performing in his vaguely nutsoid cut-up mode. In fact most of Bennett’s selections reflect aspects of her own chosen way of working – layering, editing, turntabling, and the collaging of an eclectic selection of ‘funny’ vinyls. I’ve got mixed feelings about the deeply intellectual essay written by Kembrew McLeod (once read, the last thing you’ll feel like doing is smiling, let alone laughing), but the red skull cover graphic and anatomical engravings on the inside make this an attractive proposition from Sonic Arts Network. Few people can match Bennett’s skill for setting forth warped humour laced with a deep undercurrent of constant menace, to chilling effect. If played end to end, I think this 32-track CD can certainly guarantee an unsettling and mixed experience which will slowly turn your cheery smile into a rigor sardonicus.

Lastly, must maketh mention for this rich and grind-worthy compilation of Swedish avant noise’n'nuttery called Gothenburg 08 (FB006), from the Fang Bomb label. Anything with a pelican on the front cover demands your immediate attention, even if the musicians and the compilers may be trying to make some totally unrelated point as they utilise the image of this most noble creature from the avian kingdom. ‘None but we have feet like fins’, according to the song put in their beaks by Edward Lear, ‘and lovely leathery throats and chins!’ However, enter this 10-track dungeon of doom, and you’ll be shrouded in grim and threatening noises from Anders Dahl, The Skull Defekts, Sewer Election, Porn Sword Tobacco, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, and Tsukimono with his amazing ‘Moan Jar’. Packed with excellent surreal and modernistic updates on the old ‘industrial’ school of sound-assaultage, this CD promises you ‘the actual sounds of the city’.

With curator and co-presenter Clive Graham

1. Raccommandata Ricevuta Ritorno, ‘Il Mondo Cade (Su Di Me)’
   From Per… Un Mondo Di Cristallo, WARNER FONIT 3984 28186-2 (1972)
2. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, ‘La Città Sottile’
   From Io Sono Nato Libero, RICORDI SMRL 6123 (1973)
3. Delirium, ‘Dio Del Silenzio’
   From Delirium III: Viaggio Negli Arcipelaghi Del Tempo, WARNER FONIT 3984 27119-2 (1974)
4. Sensations’ Fix, ‘Fragments of Light’
   From Fragments of Light, POLYDOR 2448 023 A (1974)
5. Osanna, ‘Animale Senza Respiro’ (fade)
   From Palepoli, WARNER FONIT 3984 28279-2 (1972)
6. Le Orme, Ritratto Di Un Mattino (The Balance)
   From Felona e Sorona, PHILIPS 6323 023 (1973)
7. Picchio del Pozzo, ‘Napier’
   From Picchio del Pozzo, KICP 2822 (1976)
8. Rustchelli e Bordini, ‘Un Cana’
   From Opera Prima, RCA CR-10060-ERS-28010 (1973)
9. Flea, ‘Topi o Uomini’ (extract)
   From Topi o Uomini, FONIT LPQ 09070 (1972)
10. Il Volo, ‘Medio Oriente 249000 tutto compreso’
    From Essere o non Essere, NUMERO UNO DZSLN 55679 (1975)
11. Opus Avantra, ‘Rituale’
    From Introspezione – Donella Del Monaco, TRIDENT TRI 1006 (1974)
12. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, ‘Miserere Alla Storia’
    From Darwin!, DISCHI RL 8094 (1972)
13. Panna Freda, ‘Un re senza Reama’
    From Uno, VINYL MAGIC VM 001 (1971)

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

1. Virak, ‘Song of Everything’
   From Threads, SWEDEN MIRROR MIRROR MUSIC mimi 01 CD (2008)
2. Faust, ‘Thru’
   From Kleine Welt (Live), FINLAND EKTRO RECORDS EKTRO-046 CD (2008)
3. {{{Sunset}}}, ‘I Love my Job’
   From Bright Blue Dream, USA AUTOBUS RECORDS Auto007 CD (2008)
4. Phantom Dsic, ‘Photon’
   From Phantom Dsic, UK PHANTOMHEAD RECORDINGS / LF RECORDS split CDR (2008)
5. eRikm and Akosh S., ‘Part 4′
   From Zufall, FRANCE RONDA rnd10 CD (2008)
6. Xela, ‘Calling for Vanished Faces’ (extract)
   From split LP with MGR, USA BARGE RECORDINGS BRG004 LP (2008)
7. Gnaw Their Tongues, ‘Sawn asunder and left for the beasts’
   From An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood, USA CRUCIAL BLAST RECORDS CBR067-2 CD (2008)
8. The Mighty Acts of God, ‘The Slow Hardwood of a once thorough woman’
   From Sing With Me: Music for the Human Voice, FINLAND HARHA-ASKEL HA-4 CDR (2008)
9. Isengrind, Twinsistermoon, Natural Snow Buildings, ‘Nieve Sacra’
   From The Snowbringer Cult, USA STUDENTS OF DECAY SOD 60-61 2 x CD (2008)
10. Language of the Dards, ‘The Woman Eagle’ (extract)
    From Whispers for Wolves, ITALY BORING MACHINES BM006 CD (2008)
11. D&N, ‘New Neighbor’
    From D&N, USA MAYYRH RECORDS MYH03 3″ CDR (2008)
12. The Zanzibar Snails, (Track 3)
    From Brown Dwarf, USA MAYYRH RECORDS MYH05 CD (2008)
13. Maja S K Ratkje, ‘Essential Extensions’ (extract)
    From River Mouth Echoes, USA TZADIK TZ 8051 CD (2008)
14. Dsic, ‘Feverkick’
    From Love City, UK LF RECORDS LF 003 CDR (2007)
15. Talugung, ‘Apparition Comet’
    From Under Humid Light, FINLAND HARHA-ASKEL HA-5 CDR (2008)
16. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, ‘Facelessness Erases every trace of Humanity’
    From Gothenburg 08, SWEDEN FANG BOMB FB006 CD (2008)
17. Sujo, (Track 4)
    From Dora, USA INAM RECORDS NO NUMBER CDR (2008)

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

Here we see two LP records, Die Sonne and Die Wille. These two foreboding slabs of extreme electro-acoustic art were sent to me by Raymond Dijkstra, who calls himself Le Souffleur for his sound-art endeavours. At time of writing I must confess I have not managed to sit through any one of these four sides in their entirety, as I find the music incredibly bleak, tense, and angst-inducing. Both these records are filled with strangely non-musical scrapes and squeaks as of something produced by some badly-oiled machinery, all set against a recurring backdrop of extremely discordant chords played on the harmonium. Some delicate and judicious use of electronic echo enhances the scrapes every so often, spinning them off into abstracted realms of controlled gestural noise. These are not especially loud or obnoxious records; indeed, their quietness and restraint borders on the clinical. Rarely have I encountered something that fills me with such a sense of isolation and dread; impersonal, cold, almost terrifying, these records present bleak statements about the unknowable nature of a vacant and meaningless universe.

As you may have gathered, Le Souffleur’s records may not be exactly to my taste. However, I still think the man’s work deserves your time and investigation, and this for two reasons.

(1) He clearly believes whole-heartedly in what he is doing, to the extent that having crafted the work he funds it completely by himself, and for all I know he even runs the mail order business to sell the work through his website. His fierce dedication to creating a quality art-statement product is amply reflected in the sumptuous production values for these records. Just look at them. Casebound in black linen, embossed in gold and in blind, with elaborate cardboard mounts for the records which include rolled spines with gold lettering. Each artefact is individually numbered, and the paper sleeve is signed with a soft pencil by the artist. These are more like luxury edition art books than record albums. (See here for some intriguing pictures). There’s also his insistence on the utter superiority of vinyl as a representation format, which aligns him with American Scott Foust (another electronic loner whose name often appears alongside the word ‘uncompromising’).

(2) Le Souffleur, like all good dedicated artists, has created a hermetic universe all of his own. The fact that I can’t readily apprehend its dimensions is more to my detriment than to his. These two records are just two key statements from a larger cosmology, one ruled by a very particular choice of words (the titles are in a language called Middle Dutch, or old Dutch) and precise symbols as esoteric as anything you’ll find in an Alchemist’s engraved handbook. The mystery is simply deepened by the inexplicable and, in places, haunting sounds that can be heard should you purchase one of these limited-edition artefacts from another world.

As a footnote, I exhibit below the current incarnation of the parcel which houses the two discs. Its postal history probably tells its own story, one which I won’t bother to repeat here. I think it says something about the perilous journey which art must undertake on its path to find the right pair of ears. It’s often like sending a message in a bottle. Also we should note that a feature on the work of Raymond Dijkstra is forthcoming in Eric Lanzillotta’s Bixobal magazine.

[01] [02] Two new examples of the school of indiscernible music from US label Winds Measure Recordings. Richard Garet started composing l’avenir (WMR 12) when at an early stage he was struck by the aptness of a quote on “the future” by Jacques Derrida, and let the concept take him where it may. He wasn’t thinking about wheat futures, that’s for sure. 49 minutes of beautifully still and quiet humming on this CDR, whilst the great Lawrence English offers highly specialised field recordings from Queensland on Studies for Stradbroke (WMR 11). Rather than reveal anything about nature and landscape on this occasion, English’s hydrophonic recordings are claustrophobic and abstracted sonic experiences that fit the identity of this austere record label. Buy this and groove to the sound of “slipping grains”.

[03] Conceptual Swede Carl Michael von Hausswolff offers us his take on Music For Airports with Perhaps I Arrive (AUF ABWEGEN aatp25). A biennial arts festival in Istanbul commissioned a piece from him in 1997, and he ended up deriving huge buckets of sound-art by recording the ambient noises of Atatürk Airport. CD 1 contains the work that was rejected by his erstwhile patron, while CD 2 is four tracks of ‘accepted music’. As is often the case, Carl Michael performs / plays back his work in the very same place he captured the sounds from; jet-lagged travellers would thus have been immersed in these modified versions of the same environment they were passing through. Airports are among the most alienating sites in the world, and I suspect Carl realises this; with the release of this strange and sinister music, the alienating experience just got worse. von H would count this as a success.

[04] Our Swedish man prefers to take his sounds out into the world, sometimes to places where you would least expect sound art to thrive. American ultra-minimal conceptualist Michael J Schumacher has operated in similar-ish zones, as his work is often very site-specific, but he is more interested in pushing against the limits of interior space, summoning amazing and subtle work from the confines of four grey walls. I assume I will find an experience of this sort awaiting me on Five Sound Installations (XI RECORDS XI 133), once I manage to load the software on my PC. Yes, this DVD doesn’t simply plug and play, you gotta install the actual works onto your computer to hear them. And if I had a five-speaker Surround-sound set-up, I’d be quids in. Browsing through the booklet promises such endeavours as algorithmic composition, use of the computer to structure compositions, sampled musicians, processed field recordings, and the usual closely-argued essays I associate with a man of Schumacher’s rigour and intelligence. Minimum system requirements: 5GB. Minimum IQ requirements: 250!

[05] Also on Auf abwegen, Acht Stucke (AATP 20) on which the American percussionist Jon Mueller has his beats and scrapes reprocessed by Asmus Tietchens, the ever-prolific electronicist who pares everything down to the raw essence. Just when you thought Tietchens couldn’t get any more attenuated, you get something as ghostly as this; actually, if you listen closely you will be astonished by the level of detail there is concealed in each flat, grey canvas of sound.

[06] Guido Huebner is another European avant genius whose work I am only just beginning to acclimatise myself with. He is the main man behind Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, also called DSM. On this new release, which has been issued as a four-sided vinyl epic over one LP and one seven-inch, he performs his transformative magick on materials supplied by The New Blockaders. The Monosyllabic Bicycles Tri-Coloured Quadruples (EQUATION RECORDS E=mc18) is described as “a negotiation with each other’s mutual silence, insinuating personal strategies into one of the other”. Actually that is just one line from the very detailed and high-flown description which Mr Huebner generously provides for this work. So far, I hear little of the volume and roaring hideousness that I associate with TNB, yet enough traces remain to convey the familiar sensations of discomfort, dread, and claustrophobia. Luxury presentation in a ‘casebound’ sleeve, 305 numbered copies only.

Zanzibar Snails, noted in issue 16, are back again with a new CD in a hand-made screenprinted digipack. The delirious Brown Dwarf (MAYYRH RECORDS MYH05) features this Texan improvising collective as a four-piece incarnation, including Michael Chamy who works with live electronics and tape loops and also produced the record. Effectively one long piece divided for ease of handling into five named suites, Brown Dwarf delivers a mightily twisted and incredibly dense lump of sonic dough. Given the slightly suffocating atmosphere they brew, it’s impressive how some of the key instruments – the sharply-angsted viola of Josh McWhirter for example – manage to float to the surface of this rolling planet of rich electro-acoustic swampery. The Snails’ electric guitarist Nevada Hill also appears on the 3-incher D&N (MYH03) with David Lee Price, to forge a collection of eight introspective guitar-scapes that gradually suck you into mesmerising fields of ambiguity. Which isn’t a bad psychological sensation for this time of year, but if you want something guaranteed to make you feel decidedly ill (in a good way, I must stress), then it’s the Snails CD for you.

From Cincinnati in Ohio, the label Students Of Decay have winged three new releases. Skeletons Out perform In Remembrance of Me (SOD-49), a piece of sonic densery-constructo japery by the Boston-based musicians Howard Stelzer and Jay Sullivan; their sophisticated brand of layered noise is realised using turntables and cassette tapes, and for 36 minutes you can breathe into your lung-bags the very urban-polluted yet compelling atmosphere which they summon up. The Snowbringer Cult (SOD-60-61) is a double CD credited to the unlikely team of Isengrind, Twinsistermoon, Natural Snow Buildings, an elaborate naming scheme which conceals a French duo of studio experimenters working in various collaborative set-ups. This collection of their tunes appears to owe as much to contemporary Finnish folk-psych as to droning Ambient music of the 1990s; not unpleasant music, but as yet I can’t find enough content to engage my mind or ears here. The sleeve drawings and track titles suggest the pair wish to align themselves with aspects of Inuit or Eskimo life and mythology. The Nether Dawn is NZ-droner Antony Milton, and his Long Shadow of a Dream (SOD-48) is six tracks of very slow and heavily processed guitar music, intended to have a ‘narcotic’ effect on the listener.

Zufall (RND10) is a nifty and lively little CD of live improv recordings on the Ronda Label in France; eRikm applies his turntabling and sample-heavy mischief to accompany the puffing and percussive work of Akosh S. – with sexy results! On the opening track alone, Akosh plays as though his right foot is on fire as he gasps for help through the bells of his clarinets and saxes, whilst erik is lost in contemplation and creation of his obsessive loops and complex patterns. The whole picture suggests something about the general indifference of the modern world in the face of catastrophe and human suffering. While the two bendy lines on the cover don’t tell us much, the two penguins facing each other on the inside are quite another kettle of bones.

Couple of new Dans on the emd.pl/records label, both in their amazing fold-out packages which are more like mini-dioramas than conventional CD sleeves. The Australians Anthony Pateras, David Brown and Sean Baxter recorded Interference (emd.pl/records 008) in a Melbourne studio, using prepared piano, prepared guitar and drums to make a very percussive (and, I fear, extremely dull) record of rattling improvisations, and the use of ‘wacky’ titles such as ‘You Can Do it Pimp Lucius’ fail to inject any humour into these worthy sessions of ‘art’ music. Photographs of Greg Kingston’s rusted sculptures appear on the cover. The one by Zbigniew Karkowski and Lin Zhiying is somewhat more in my line; Switch (emd.pl/records 007) comprises two long tracks of relentless, perilous and harshly uncompromising electronic doom-hell, and the accompanying sleeve art includes collaged fragments from a colourful target that, along with the music, give the impression you’re sitting at the centre of a dartboard while an enormous (probably poison-tipped) steel dart is launched towards you at tremendous speed. Apparently derived from a jam session recorded in China, Switch is evidence of Karkowski’s ruthless precision in arranging and deploying his sounds like lethal assault weapons.

Curated by Harley Richardson

1. The Beach Boys, ‘Surfin’’
   From Surfin’ Safari (1962), reissued on Surfin’ Safari / Surfin’ U.S.A., USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7243 5 31517 2 CD (2001)
2. ‘Catch a Wave’
   From Surfer Girl (1963), reissued on Surfer Girl / Shut Down Volume 2, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 0777 7 93692 2 5 CD (1990)
3. ‘When I Grow Up To Be A Man’
   From Today! (1965), reissued on Today! / Summer Days and Summer Nights, USA CAPITOL RECORDS CDP 7 93694 2 CD (1990)
4. ‘Our Car Club’
   From Surfer Girl, op cit.
5. ‘Be True To Your School’
   From Little Deuce Coupe (1963), reissued on Little Deuce Coupe / All Summer Long, USA CAPITOL RECORDS CDP 7 93693 2 CD (1990)
6. ‘Boogie Woodie’
   From Surfer Girl, op cit.
7. ‘Moon Dawg’
   From Surfin’ Safari, op cit.
8. ‘The Rocking Surfer’
   From Surfer Girl, op cit.
9. ‘Let’s Go Trippin’’
   From Concert LP (1964), reissued on Concert / Live in London, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7243 5 31861 2 8 CD (2001)
10. ‘A Young Man Is Gone’
    From Little Deuce Coupe, op cit.
11. ‘In My Room’
    From Surfer Girl, op cit.
12. ‘Devoted to You’
    From Beach Boys’ Party!, reissued on Beach Boys’ Party! / Stack-o-Tracks, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7243 5 31641 2 6 CD (2001)
13. ‘Our Prayer’
    From 20-20 (1969), reissued on Friends / 20-20, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7 93697 2 CD (1990)
14. ‘Aren’t You Glad’
    From Wild Honey (1967), reissued on Smiley Smile / Wild Honey, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7 93696 2 CD (1990)
15. ‘Anna Lee, The Healer’
    From Friends, reissued on Friends / 20-20, op cit.
16. ‘I Was Made to Love Her’
    From Wild Honey, op cit.
17. ‘I Went to Sleep’
    From 20-20, op cit.
18. ‘Here Comes the Night’
    From Wild Honey, op cit.
19. ‘Celebrate the News’
    From Break Away 7″ (1969), reissued on Friends / 20-20, op cit.
20. ‘Darlin’’
    From Wild Honey, op cit.
21. ‘Feel Flows’
    From Surf’s Up (1971), reissued on Sunflower / Surf’s Up, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7243 5 25792 2 9 CD (2000)
22. ‘I Can Hear Music’
    From 20-20, op cit.
23. ‘Disney Girls’
    From Surf’s Up, op cit.
24. ‘Never Learn Not to Love’
    From 20-20, op cit.
25. ‘Lookin’ at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)’
    From Surf’s Up, op cit.
26. Dennis Wilson, ‘River Song’
    From Pacific Ocean Blue (1977) from reissue promo (2008)
27. The Honeys, ‘Tonight You Belong to Me’
    7″ single (1969), reissued on Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions, UK ACE RECORDS CDCHD 851 CD (2003)
28. Spring, ‘Sweet Mountain’
    From American Spring LP (1972) reissued on SEE FOR MILES RECORDS SEE269 LP (1989)
29. The Beach Boys, ‘The Trader’
    From Holland (1973), reissued on Carl & The Passions “So Tough” / Holland, USA CAPITOL RECORDS 7243 5 25694 2 7 CD (2000)
30. ‘Sail on Sailor’
    From Holland, op cit.

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

The Boring Machines label operates out of Treviso in Italy, a lovely small town I happen to have visited once in 1988 as a semi-accidental guest at a comics fair. Whispers For Wolves may have whiff of the ‘gothic’ in their name and mysterious dark cover art, but Language of the Dards (BM006) delivers an engaging mix of roaming free-form acoustic instruments and disembodied voices floating with spectral elegance across droney backdrops. Satan is My Brother with their eponymous record are a four-piece who almost look like a conventional jazz quartet set-up on first glance, until you hear their moody and introspective woodwinds combining with sinister electronic ambiences and snatches of sampled devil-worship rituals and incantations. Lastly, we have Marco Giotto with his solo CD under the name of Be Invisible Now!. Neutrino (BM002) is very low-key ambient electronic swirls made with analogue equipment and is intended as a homage to Klaus Schulze and The Cosmic Couriers, and its plain green cover conceals a bat-like image among the ink blots spread on a green cutting mat.

Also from Italy, the EAQuartett (GRIMEDIA RECORDS), who are a four-piece of academy musicians who combine brass instruments with electronics, free-form guitar, and rock drumming. The two core members started their Music Improvisation Research Group, or GRIM, in 2005. The cover art, which juxtaposes a classical art nude with a pared-down speaker set-up, may tell you something about the predilections of these players.

Yet more music from Italy, a CD by the estimable Andrea Belfi. Knots (DIE SCHACHTEL ZEIT 06) is an incredibly subdued suite of music in four indiscernible parts. Strangely muffled rhythms, resembling a drum kit played in a rehearsal studio four blocks away, leak out into a suffocating mass of atmospheric rumble producing an overall sensation which is not unlike being trapped inside a giant clam. The disc was mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, another maestro of the quiet mode, and it’s just perfect music for tottering about under the blank sky of an English May afternoon. I sometimes wonder what became of Bowindo Recordings. In a sumptuous gatefold digipack which is the hallmark of this highly artistic label.

Dr Markus Jones has sent an interesting document of his large-scale electro-acoustic experiments. Sympathetic Vibration (Prolongation of Sound by Reflection) started out by gathering ambient sounds from around the campus of York St John University (where Dr Jones has a residency). Such a method reflects Jones’ cross-media interests (he’s worked with dance, installations, cinema and noise) and can be usefully aligned with the site-specific experiments of Achim Wollschied. The four long pieces here sit midway between field recording and electronic music and are all strangely compelling. Not quite a ‘released’ record, as what I currently hold is a CDR, although the insert is professionally printed and tells us that the ‘results will be available for download early in 2008′. I’d suggest exploring the University website to seek what ye may.

A split LP of guitar music is available from Barge Recordings in Brooklyn NY. MGR VS XELA (BRG 004) has been sent as a CDR but you can buy the LP or get a digital download from the label website. MGR is Mike Gallagher, a guitarist from the redoubtable Isis, and on Shipping Gold he presents 16 minutes of extremely troubling post-post-avant metal guitar stylings played in a relentlessly slow mode. Anguish-inducing frown-music at its finest…XELA is John Twells from the UK, and his allotted 23 minutes are used to present Calling For Vanished Faces, a fascinating construct of detailed sound-collage. Choirs of eerie voices float around this quagmire of noise, competing for air with a mad jazz drummer and waves of guitar feedback. In its way no less suffocating than the MGR side, yet the angelic voices seem to offer some cause for hope. Boy, I’d certainly like to get a vinyl of this one…

Chop Shop is the New York sound-art veteran Scott Kunzelmann. His Oxide (23FIVE CDP 801673901225) is derived from tapes of his metallic sculptures, junkyard specialities which have featured heavily in his steely soundworks from over 20 years. Those fearing a brutal assault on the ears need not worry however, as this 49-minute CD is an intriguing assemblage of long-form abrasive drones, whose varying timbral qualities have been further distressed by moisture damage sustained by the original tapes. Cover imagery features a close-up photograph of a morass of unspooled cassette tape forming a worm-like jungle of disturbing proportions, and it arrives in an embossed slipcase bearing Chop Shop’s emblem. From same label, we have Boston-based Brendan Murray and his Commonwealth (23FIVE CDP 801673901324), a studio-based many-layered recording. He intends this mighty, monolithic sonic structure as a gesture of respect towards ‘classic [American] minimalism’. Again, 49 minutes in duration, this slow-moving epic is filled with many gradual changes, which I suspect will reveal fine-grained detail if played at excessive volumes. Golden-hued cover art could be a close-up of the fin of a fish or other marine life from the ocean floor. Very deep!

Thanks to guest co-presenter Tim Abbott

1. Os Mutantes, ‘Dom Quixote’ (1969)
   From Mutantes, USA OMPLATTEN FJORD 002 CD (1999)

2. Tom Zé, ‘Nao Buzine que Eu Estou Paquerando’
   From Grande Liquidação, original issue SONY BRAZIL 050010 LP (1968)
3. Caetano Veloso, ‘Annunciaçao’
   From Caetano Veloso, original issue PHILIPS R 765.026 LP (1967)
4. Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa, ‘Quem Me Dera’
   From Domingo, original issue PHILIPS P 785.007 P LP (1967)
5. Gilberto Gil, ‘Ele Falava nisso todo dia’
   From Gilberto Gil, original issue PHILIPS R 765.024 LP (1968)
6. Tom Zé, ‘Curso Intensivo de Boas Maneiras’
   From Grande Liquidação, op cit.
7. Ronnie Von, ‘Maquina Voadora’
   From A Maquina Voadora LP (1970)
8. Traffic Sound, ‘Survival’ (1971)
   From Yellow Sea Years, VAMPISOUL CD (2005)

9. Marconi Notaro, ‘Ah Vida Vida’
   From No Sub Reino dos Metazoários LP (1973)
10. Ruy Maurity and Trio, ‘O Rosário’
    From Em Busca do Ouro, original issue BRAZIL SOM LIVRE SSIG 1016 LP (1972)
11. Liverpool, ‘Marcelo’
    From Marcelo Zona Sul (1969)
12. Laghonia, ‘Glue’
    From Glue, original issue MAG LPN-2403 LP (1963)
13. Som Imaginario, ‘Voce Tem Que Saber’
    From Som Imaginario LP (1971)
14. Los Dug Dug’s, ‘Felicidad’
    From Cambia, Cambia LP (1974)
15. Tumulto, ‘No Soy de Nadie Soy Feliz’
    From Tumulto, original issue CHILE EMI ODEON LP (1973)
16. Persona, ‘Terra’
    From Persona, original issue PRIVATE PRESS LP (1975)
17. Walter Franco, ‘No Fundo de Poço’
    From Ou Não, original issue CONTINENTAL SLP 10.095 LP (1973)
18. Tobruk, ‘Theme from my mind’
    From Ad Lib, original issue BRAZIL CASH BOX CB 501 LP (1972)
19. O Bando, ‘Alegria Alegria’
    From O Bando LP (1969)
20. Flaviola, ‘Romance da Lua Lua’
    From Flaviola e O Bando de Sol, original issue BRAZIL SOLAR LP 100.002 (1974)
21. Bango, ‘Motor Maravisha’
    From Bango LP (1970)
22. Náhuatl, ‘El Hongo’
    From Náhuatl, original issue CISNE / RAFF LP (1974)
23. Perfume Azul do Sol, ‘Equilibrio Total’
    From Nascimento LP (1974)

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

Gnaw Their Tongues has been something of a revelation to TSP contributor Jennifer Hor (and myself) this year, certainly as one of the sickest and most extreme examples of nightmarish Black Metal to have assaulted our innocent ears. “You can see just from these track titles alone the CD is screaming for a review in the TSP, if only we could get our soiled little paws on it,” wrote Jen in February, quoting titles such as ‘Teeth that leer like Open Graves’. An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood (CBR067-2), originally on vinyl earlier this year on Burning World Records, will be out as a CD version later this month from Crucial Blast in the US. The Gnawsters are a couple of Netherlandish maniacs who are real masters at layering recordings – their horrific doom-laden thunderous guitar noise is combined with distorted orchestra recordings, found tapes, and spoken-word interludes describing all manner of unpleasant subjects which you don’t want to hear. The only recording that has induced similar sensations of imperilment and helplessness is Rehtaf Ruo, not a million miles away if you think of this work as an extreme form of electro-acoustic composition. About as far from formulaic BM as it’s possible to get, this is simply hideous noise fit for forcibly inducing the deepest and most insane brain-storms it is possible for human minds to endure. Shriek!

The label also sent Desire in Uneasiness (CBR065-2), the newie by Nadja. Ever since this Canadian duo became the hipster’s avant sludge-merchant of choice, plentiful releases have poured forth representing the overdubbed-guitar excesses of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, not to mention reissues and new versions of their older works, but this five-tracker enjoys the distinction of offering all new material. I would hesitate to say the Nadja bubble has already burst, but so far I don’t hear a tremendous amount going on in these meandering droney grooves that might further the reputation of this talented duo. Business as usual, in other words – in spite of their new live drummer. Also in the package, Trees with Lights Bane (CBR066-2), an incredibly ordinary set of quasi-malevolent doom metal from a Portland quartet. In their hands, noise and feedback become obstacles to the free expression of hate, where they should be used as weapons radiating death at the listener.

Still in the realms of misery and murk, we’ve got a fascinating disc of black-wreathed atmospheric doom from Autopsia. The Berlin Requiem (OLD EUROPA CAFE OECD 084) achieves its effects using the lower register of a grand piano, plus sparing use of synth strings and other instruments, at times sounding as professional and polished in its production as the soundtrack to a film. The Dämmerung Orchestra assisted with these recordings made in Prague during 2006; inside, a photo of old-style mountaineers who seem oppressed by the enormous granite mountain range behind them as they trudge to their doom in heavy boots. Maybe they’re mentally listening to ‘Sounds for Remembering Death’ on this CD.

Coh plays Cosey (RASTER NOTON R-N 091) is an interesting oddity, made by Ivan Pavlov reprocessing and cutting up voice recordings made by Cosey Fanni Tutti. Atomised fragments made from gasps of breath and micro-particles of vowel sounds is what we hear, sometimes resembling pocket-sized disco-beats when cut into patterns and loops. The subtext to this release is something to do with human vulnerability, a theme the duo first hit upon when they were corresponding by email. There’s little compassion or warmth on offer in this strange, artificial sound-world, though; just lots of alienation and fear.

Lastly, we’ve got this strange experimental electronics LP by Jamka. Z Okna Ucha is available as a 12-inch artefact pressed in carbon fossil fuel, but also in digital form as a download for those who do not care to house such artefacts in their abode. Jamka are a duo of Slovak youngsters named Monika and Daniel who use vintage synthesisers, mics, pedals and drum-boxes to produce a species of avant-techno instrumentals, all heavily-amplified, recorded live, and whacked straight onto the tape with no overdubs. The resultant energy and excitement lifts off palpably from the grooves of this little beastie…Jamka spurn polite and tasteful production values in favour of nasty, loud and unrestrained analogue yawps. While I’m too old to groove out to every milestone on this LP’s project path, I gotta ‘fess up that it works like juju when you sense that the voltage overload becomes a little too much for our plucky pair to handle, and things start to veer slightly out of control. I’ll also welcome any record which name-checks the legendary Golem on side two!