Further horrifying industrial techo-power-electro combat-crunch from Poland on the split Grey Zone (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 328-2). Both Larmo and Nothing Has Changed hail from Silesia and also share common ground in their mission to split the skull of the human race, using beat-boxes from Hell and bludgeoning dynamos made in Warsaw. The title of the split might be implying some statement about global politics, or conflict, or something; certainly the music of these two cheerless fellows is aiming at constructing a dehumanising environment, where all who enter are enslaved to an agency that renders mankind powerless and lethargic. I think I’ve heard more Larmo records than I want to now; Nothing Has Changed (Michał Kiełbasa) has a few monstrous records on the Old Temple label, and is evolving towards embracing specific forms of “illbient” in his music, a genre which apparently emanates from Birmingham UK, perhaps including such champions as Khost. We endured his Hissing Guilt album in 2022, and some of his tracks here share the same titles. (25/10/2024)

Today on Transit Tribe (4BIT-PRODUCTIONS 4BIT-P014) he’s revisiting the dub genre with which he’s been associated since 2012 if not earlier, mostly played by himself with his synths, samplers, drum machines and electronic bass, but he’s joined by a corncob of talented European improvisers and instrumentalists, which means that alongside the razor-sharp beats and crisp bass smashes, we have solo lines on trombone, zither, flute, clarinet, cello, vibraphone…in short adding dimensions of classical and free improv and a very European flavour to this West Indian genre. Where else will you get a track called ‘Brennerautobahn’, which splices a Ralf + Florian notion with the jaunty melodica playing of Taka Noda? Drummer Didi Kern adds percussion to almost every track, and even Susanna Gartmayer is here on ‘Europabrucke’. Fortunately Steve Barker, the famed radio presenter behind On The Wire, is on hand to contribute detailed sleeve notes to account for the contributions of all these genius players, adding useful context and depth to what he has – with maximum accuracy – termed “future dub”.

I also enjoy Ulrich Troyer’s jolly colour drawings that adorn cover and booklet, even if they tend to make the music here seem more “wacky” than it actually is. That said, he’s no Adrian Sherwood, nor Mark Stewart + Maffia; Troyer stresses the positive vibes and sunshine of dub, not the paranoid shadows or grim societal messages, and the whole album is massively entertaining start to finish. (23/09/2024)

Four contemporary field-recording types from Portugal on Lisboa Soa: Sounds within Sounds (CRÓNICA 207-2023). Lisboa Soa calls itself a Festival, but it seems to be a lot more than that – growing some sort of locus for like-minded fellows to gather and thrive, and propounding the notion of “acoustic ecology”, grounded in ethical ideas about our shared environment. They believe we can achieve a lot just through the simple act of listening. This particular release was a commission, delivering new works from João Castro Pinto, Sara Pinheiro, Mestre André and Ana Guedes. However, it seems none of them roamed the wilderness with their tape machines to collect new sounds, and instead all four pieces have been assembled using existing tapes stored in the Festival’s archives. Mixed results; I get the feeling everyone was a bit too respectful to the sources and didn’t feel inclined to try anything especially bold or daring, although moments of Mestre André’s ‘No Earlids’ serve up a few pebbles and twigs of dramatic noise, and Guedes does at least make the effort to transform the original tapes on her ‘Splicing_archives_’. Very few specific environmental sounds emerge from this processed and layered melange, and one starts to wonder what exactly we are hearing. I find this lack of contextual detail vaguely troubling; the notes supplied by each creator tell us more about their selection methods and their multi-channel spatialisations than they do about the earth’s environment. (Sep 2023)

Self-titled album (DRIP AUDIO DA02420) by Josh Zubot Strings – a small combo led by violinist Josh Zubot from Vancouver. He’s joined by other string players – Jesse Zubot, James Meger, Meredith Bates and Peggy Lee, and they offer us ten instrumentals of considerable variety. Just when I think it’s going down a semi-scored jazz route, it suddenly switches into lively free-form improvisation, then starts to assumes the form of dissonant, difficult, modernist composition on the next piece. Josh takes composer credit for everything, but it’s evident his talented group are given much free rein to interpret and improvise the clusters of black notes that flow from his fine pen. Plenty of dense, high-energy music on offer besides the slower more introspective moments – giving the lead violins a chance to exhibit superhuman fast runs, as well as stylistic flourishes that (for me) verge on the exhausting. It’s music that’s overly complex, without any real need for the complexity, other than being difficult for its own sake, or for the sake of giving the hyper-skilled players a vehicle for their quicksilver moves. When they do manage to slow down, the group are capable of some original sounds, and Josh Zubot’s composerly skills are considerable, even if he is one of these contemporary types who feel they have to prove their point by making wild combinations and mixing it up through cross-genre experiments. One of his works was inspired by farm machinery that does something interesting to grain, reflecting his pastoral upbringing. The group photo shows them wearing casual attire – denims, baseball caps, T-shirts, and projecting a rather utilitarian vibe, like hipster workers taking a break at a micro-brewery. Their jaunty informality is slightly at odds with the serious music. (25/09/2023)

I suppose if you were to pull out the files on U.S. experimentalist/Black Dice co-founder Eric Copeland, chances are the character assessment section might give a few bullet-pointed mentions of a serious work ethic and of also possessing a stoic attitude when facing a challenging artistic venture or two… Work ethic? well, his signature appears on a near score of recordings since 2007 and as for the steadfast outlook, let’s not forget Black Dice did share album space with one-time Sub Pop secret weapon, the chaosmatic Wolf Eyes.

Playing hopscotch with numerous and varied labels over time, this New York-based composer seems to jhave taken on a ‘Three Faces of Eve’/Sizemoreian working persona, where a single facet of his artistic multi-personality might just become a perfect fit for a particular label’s remit. Ear-friendly, chin-stroking’n’dancey for DFA/Paw Tracks and for say, the more experimental projects, an imprint such as Catsup Plate might be a more suitable home. On Spiral Stairs, the divisions between genres such as digidub, electrofunk and ambience have become even more diffuse since his previous outings. So much so in fact, that the sinuously funky “Restart the Body” and the rubberoid, loop-heavy footsteps of “Like It Is” and “Tools” can recall the post Cab. Volt. activity of Richard Kirk (1956-2021), whose many aliases, including Sandoz, XON, and the Curtis Mayfield-referenced Sweet Exorcist appear to share the same restless mindset as our man in question.

By the way… the appearance of this album has led to a very odd example of synchronicity in action. Idly skimming through Boooook – The Life & Work of Bob Cobbing (Occasional Papers 2015), I chanced upon a piece of artwork by Bob entitled, erm, “Untitled”, that originated from Computer Scores (London Writers Forum/1987). Well, strike me pink! It’s almost the dead spit of Spiral’s front sleeve!! To quote an oft repeated question from Private Eye‘s letters page… “I wonder if by any chance, they’re related?”

Modern classical music with a strong ecological theme on Mycorrhiza (DISCUS MUSIC DISCUS 111CD) by James Mainwaring. His small ensemble play strings, percussion, electronics and vocals, while the composer himself add saxophone, field recordings, synths, flute, and the Fender Rhodes piano. Mainwaring is well informed about natural ecosystems and forest wildlife, and the album title refers to a very specific phenomenon concerning fungi and the root systems of plants. He’s also very engaged with those areas of the Leeds countryside he knows so well, and in his press note he is quick to point out the damage currently being done to ancient woodlands by the UK government’s expensive and largely-unnecessary HS2 rail scheme. 13 pieces, interspersed with interludes, on which the players bring us a very pastoral and calming form of instrumental music, sometimes tinged with jazzy elements, and sometimes breaking into song. Full marks for the well-informed naturist themes, but I find Mainwaring’s sentimental approach to the subject rather cloying, his poetry and songs fluffy and silly. The music is largely banal and directionless, lacking in coherent form and bereft of memorable melody. (22/07/2021)

Rubber Bus playing “dub, space rock and ambient” on their Noh Yogah (RUBBER BUS RB09) album via The Slightly Off Kilter label, a label more often given to showcasing marginal UK improvisation and jazz and experimental music…Rubber Bus are more like a festival band playing a competent form of dub reggae spliced with electronics and exuding very stoned-out vibes. Considering the original band started in the 1990s, there’s a whole post-Hawkwind culture built on acid house and raves with a built-in audience, where I suspect they would have fitted in perfectly. At least one of their members, the synth player Andy Roid, has played with Planet Gong – a lineage which may give you another clue what to expect, although Rubber Bus don’t seem especially interested in the cosmic outer-space dimension as Daevid Allen (or even 1970s Hawkwind, for that matter). This particular release gives us a mix of all-new material plus some unreleased tracks recorded by the original line-up, though it’s not clear from the credits which are which, still less from listening. It’s fair to say the band haven’t really evolved much in 30 years, but they know their audience, and it’s not an unpleasant listen. (02/08/2021)

From Wolfgang Mitterrer, we have temp tracks (COL LEGNO CL3 1CD 15008) – a set of extremely short instrumentals, 37 in all, intended to function as “music that serves as the preliminary soundtrack to film sequences until the proper music arrives”. I’m not quite sure what he’s referring to here, unless it’s the industry practice of using a pro-tem piece of music such as a library record while working in the editing room, in anticipation of the actual film score being added at a later date. In service of his concept, Mitterer turns in brief episodes of music that sparkle for a second, then vanish, and he uses elements from electronica, sampling, and ambient. Wolfgang Mitterrer is a very serious and in-demand composer in Austria, has won many awards, and has worked in the cinema among other things. We last heard him in 2018 with his Nine In One record, comprised of meticulous samples from Beethoven records. There’s no denying his technical fluency in creating these miniatures, but there is no feeling in the cold, glib, music that results, and the entire exercise seems hollow. (05/08/2021)

From same label we have Magneto with their Requiem Pour Satana (GUSSTAFF RECORDS GRAM2104). If Kompozyt might be regarded as a studio-bound project, here’s a genuine band of players, an offbeat rock combo led by guitarist Bartek Tycinski with Hubert Zemler (drums) and Piotr Domagalski (bass). From Warsaw, the individual members are in fact all-rounders of improvisation, jazz, and contemporary experimental music in that part of the world, and before this their work may have shown up on various releases from the spicy Lado ABC label (Bart certainly played on the lively Wunderkamera record from 2015, by Slalom, which I rather care for.) Requiem Pour Satana appears to have been another lockdown-related project, but where this situation has inspired a lot of rather introverted and lonely records in other quarters, today’s album is warm, lively, friendly, and immensely entertaining. The trio are trying to reincarnate themselves as the perfect 1962 surf combo that never was, a dream meeting of Dick Dale and Jack Nitzsche on some eternal golden seashore. In delivering themselves of these tasty guitar instrumentals (with very sparing reverb and whammy bar twang), Magneto also draw in influences from Hawaiian, Turkish, South American and Thai music, plus they manifest a love of ultra-cool soundtrack music – Henry Mancini locking antlers with Les Baxter on a South Sea island. I realise I am now making this record sound like some ultra-kitsch slice of knowing retro pastiche, but it’s all very genuine, and the musicianly craft is just immaculate. I like the cover image, but whatever message it’s trying to communicate seems slightly at odds with this upbeat and vital music. Also recommended. This, and Spells above, are both available in CD form or as vinyl LPs from Don’t Sit On My Vinyl. (05/02/2021).

In my usual bumbling way, I was about half right with this remark, as it turns out Delay has a long-standing love of dub music which he’s been exploring with his work since he started in 1997; his successful mash-ups of dub and electronica elements have led to studio collaborations and remix work with Massive Attack and Black Dice, among others. He must have been in seventh heaven to meet up with Sly and Robbie, i.e. Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, the prolific Jamaican musicians whose drum and bass work constitutes the backbone of reggae music’s history; I see from Discogs that Dunbar has appeared on nearly 2000 records, and produced another 500; and it’s not all about statistics, but Robbie Shakespeare’s credit roster is equally substantial. First, there came the so-called “Nordub project” – trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer was invited to jam with the two Jamaicans, and he brought the guitarist Eivind Aarset with him, along with Vladislav Delay. The result of this was a double LP released by Okeh in 2018 – never heard it, but it was marketed as a kind of fusion jazz-meets-reggae thing, with the proclamation “Beyond All Boundaries!” printed on the hype sticker.

Well, the sparks of a professional friendship must have been kindled, as Vladislav Delay went back to Kingston in January 2019, recorded drum and bass tracks with the famed duo and also captured their vocal interjections, plus a bunch of “atmospheric field recordings”. This formed the basis of the music on today’s record, 500-Push-Up (SUB ROSA SR499); what we hear however is not the raw recordings, but a very polished reworked, mixed and overdubbed product, created by the Finn in his studio, adding his electronica and sample-based approach on top of the tight, punchy rhythms. Incidentally, the fact that the studio work took place in the Baltic Sea area is not lost on the publicity agent here, who calls attention to the significant shift in climates, as though Delay were “cooling down” the tropical climes of Kingston with the more sober Finnish temperament, noted for its solitude and silence. However, the results are smashing. One has reason perhaps to be a little doubtful of these self-conscious fusion style projects, but it’s clear that Vladislav Delay has a lot of love for the music, and he works hard to produce a convincing blend of stylistic approaches, rather than simply layering modern electronic sounds on top of traditional dub elements. The result is an exciting and hugely entertaining record of flawless rhythms and inventive digital additions.

Only the cover photograph puzzles and disappoints me with its soggy view of trees reflected in a pond, an image which somehow fails to convey the actual nature of the music within. However, that’s for the promo CD; assuming the vinyl release has been put on hold by COVID-19, Sub Rosa may have another cover idea up their sleeve. From 3rd April 2020.

Situated more or less in the area of techno and beats and related genres are Rubberbus, Kaleidophon, Best Left Alone, and Stray Transmission; Rubberbus from Brighton offer us two examples of their craft, ‘Tera’ and ‘Spaceman’, both agreeable sojourns in a home-made DIY studio environment, specialising in minimal sounds and simple tunes; both tracks draw influences from dub and reggae, though I kinda prefer the ‘Tera’ item (mixed by Saul Yarg) for its mysterious fug-like aura, drawing us into a slightly unfamiliar corner. Kaleidophon, also from Brighton, have a connection with the indie rock band Fujiya & Miyagi, one of many such combos who draw from the krautrock well – a fact which may have some bearing on the “cosmic” nature of their track, ‘Message From Another Star’. Liking the bold use of retro-styled electronic bloops here, along with the weird dynamics of the rhythm track; a gorgeous and puzzling miniature in 3:25 mins.

Best Left Alone comes to us via Hybrid Kid (nothing to do with the Morgan Fisher thing, presumably) and Imitation Electric Piano; their unreleased ‘BTW’ track again makes quite daring use of signature sounds and moves from across the board, including dub and drum and bass, although the disparate elements don’t quite coalesce into a meaningful whole as yet for this listener. Stray Transmission of London is the bass player in Inner City Unit and he appeared on a record of Kuroneko remixes called Waxworksss Remixessss on this label. The idea behind this “slacker sound art techno” (full marks for inventing a new micro-genre there) is to mix electronica with urban field recordings, such as traffic sound, very fitting for a tune called ‘Crossing’. Liking the vibe of urgency and paranoia from this one, but I also kept waiting for something interesting to happen in this 8:33 sprawl of beats, monotone electronic sounds, and documentary overlays, where instead it seems to be stuck in neutral.

Situated in the latterday psych and prog modes, we have DR:WR, MOTA, and Far Rainbow. DR:WR’s Sci-Fi Morality Play is one release we have already enjoyed, and welcome the opportunity to relisten to ‘Infred Deathray House Party’ in any context. May not be especially “psychedelic” in the conventional sense, but it does come across as something of a “bad acid” special with its claustrophobic, feverish sounds swirling in a sickly germ-infected lightshow. This is Karl M V Waugh from Brighton and we hope to hear more from him one day. MOTA’s ‘Death By Yoga’ is a rather ponderous drone piece which kinda outstays its welcome at 11:19, but there are plenty of textures and elements in its half-collaged, half-performed tapestry. MOTA is an acronym for Music Of The Andys, which may explain their flirtation with Peruvian throat singing for one part of this opus. There’s some nice Steve Hillage styled guitar licks later on, if you can wait for them, along with some rather heavy-handed bass playing. Another cut on this comp where I was hoping for more “eventfulness” than was actually delivered.

Lastly we have the lovely Far Rainbow duo, who work miracles with just electronic sound and a drumkit and are reckoned to be fabulous as a live act. To my mind their material works best when given ample space to stretch out, but unfortunately they only get 3:30 on the roster today. It’s an excerpt however from a longer performances of ‘The Power Of Degenerated Matter’, also released by TSOKL. “A new comp…with a bit of a different approach stylistically”, says label boss Paul Khimasia Morgan; perhaps he means he’s shooting for something with a tad more altruistic appeal than some of the bracing free improv records he has been known to release. From 24 May 2019.

Liquidarlo Celuloide has been the long-running experimental noise rock project of keyboardist / vocalist Juan Diego Capurro since he began the project back in 2003 as a solo act, initially to make lo-fi incidental music for imaginary horror movies. Over the years, the concept behind Liquidarlo Celuloide changed with Capurro taking the music into live performance with additional musicians and the music became more rock-oriented, then shifted to a more post-punk direction as members left and new musicians came on board to replace them. Currently Liquidarlo Celuloide is a five-piece band with Capurro the only original member to have stayed with the band through all its various incarnations.

In 2018, the band opened for UK act Killing Joke at the latter’s Lima concert and Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman offered to produce Liquidarlo Celuloide’s next album after hearing the band. The result is “Anamnesis”, the band’s eleventh, on which Coleman also played synthesisers and collaborated on writing and singing lyrics for one track “Perversion”. Each of the six songs shows a different mix of the various musical genres that have come to define LC’s style, ranging from noise, post-punk, improv and psychedelia to dance and dub. “Asfixia” and “Erupcion” are straight-out high-energy post-punk songs with a noisy guitar edge and a defiant attitude. “Saliva” is a little more sedate and features some very immersive, even overwhelming if rather brief noisy acid psych guitar music.

The second half of the album has more interesting and intense music and for me the best tracks are found here: “Lluvia Negra” has a heavy sound approaching noisy crusty doom and a near-cavernous background feel thanks to distant synth wash-out over deranged lead guitar loops and continuous acid rhythm guitar crumble. Most tracks on this album are very repetitive and I confess I keep wishing in vain that at some point in songs the band might break out into a crazed improv jam. “Bajo le rio de neon” is a pleasant and laid-back song mixing dub rhythms and beats with a hazy psych atmosphere and sound effects though near its end it seems to get darker and not a little bit unhinged, and with its position at the end of the album, the feeling I have of the song having an underlying bitter bite is hard to shake off. The album’s centrepiece track “Perversion” is intense with solid guitar work-outs in the middle of the song but it’s very repetitive and I would have liked less singing and shouting and more instrumental improv breakouts.

While personally I feel the album could have done with more loosely structured songs that emphasise the band’s eclectic and experimental musical approach and range, and less on presenting a collection of pop songs with a lot of repetition, I do recognise this album perhaps represents Liquidarlo Celuloide at their most alt-rock accessible and can persuade first-time listeners to explore the band’s back catalogue of albums, singles and other recordings.

Evidently indefatigable and as ageless as the mysterious Keiji Haino, Flowers has now formed a new combo where he sings and plays percussion; the other members of The Wax-Lip-Swamp-Dub are Eric Weddle (electronics, saxophone), Tyler Damon (drums), Will Staler (synths), and John Dawson (tapes and engineering). The LP we’re hearing today (FEEDING TUBE RECORDS FTR489) was originally recorded in 2016 and released as a cassette on Long Gone Sound System in 2019. Right from the opening bars of the first song, you’ll be sucked into the strange murky sound of this album as surely as a hot bed of quicksand…the production veneer is a compelling mix of dubbish effects, plenty of old-school studio echo, and a barely-controlled sense of mayhem. The music is actually pretty basic – straightforward non-stop drum rhythms (Damon is a chugging monster throughout) on top of which Flowers murmurs and chants his mean-sounding sneery vocals with an evident sardonic delight, resembling some old man of the woods about to share his secret potion with a wandering stranger. On top of this framework, the instrumental players throw in their strange electronic whoops and synthesized howls, to further the bizarrely charged and over-heated atmosphere. The bass pulsations are really something to savour, and I wonder if they’re being produced by by bass drums rather than a bass guitar. As you’re probably starting to figure out, very little in the way of digital sounds and ambient glitch here – it’s all old-fashioned analogue, greasy and dirty. It’s tempting to think that Lee Perry himself would approve, though that may be a stretch.

While I’m unable to decipher much of the lyrical content, titles like ‘Poke Salad Annie’ and ‘Texas Style’ should clue you in to the hipster lowdown rockabilly vibes which emanate from the gifted Mr Flowers like so much bacon grease…this timeless drawling sound could plausibly stretch as far back as Sam Phillips’ Sun Sound studios, and this voodoo street-poet attitude of Flowers is a rare commodity these days, given that we no longer have Cramps or The Divine Horsemen to regale us with their fevered visions. A good one. From 8th December 2019, scheduled for release Feb 2020.