Norwegian noise-meister Lasse Marhaug played a 40-minute set this past July at the Norberg Festival in Sweden. The event is preserved as a high-density (192 Kbps) if lo-fi MP3 at the Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre’s sound archive (teks.no/lasse_marhaug). What begins as light, bouncy reverberation (King Tubby’s idea of a Jew’s harp) expands into thick white noise, only to focus, long after the noise has been suggested as an end unto itself, on something downright glitchy before… well, part of what makes the piece so compelling are its occasional but abrupt shifts in tone. To provide a chart in advance would mean spoiling the journey. More info on the festival at norbergfestival.com, and on Marhaug at lassemarhaug.no.
Month: September 2005
Babelcast MP3s
The Babelcast, housed at the felexatone.net website, suggests a kind of android version of what Scanner’s often up to: scrounging for choice overheard verbiage in the airways, mixing it in with some digital noise and tonal material, and producing something wherein the words comment on themselves, the non-verbal sounds lend context to what is spoken, and the whole thing has the feel of some abstract radio drama. The difference here is that the Babelcast is at least semi-automated. As described on flexatone.net, “Sounds of U.S. and World leaders and commentators [are] fragmented and distorted into something more sensible and digestible.” The promotional text refers to Babelcast as an “algorithmic, computer-generated podcast,” though judging by the succinct sample choices, featuring such events as the nomination of John Roberts for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court and the approach of Hurricane Katrina, there’s likely some human involvement, at least in the soundbite-selection process. The site promises new MP3s, “built from sounds harvested within a period of days or weeks.” As with the Daily Show on Comedy Central, the Babelcast mediates world news into commentary disguised as entertainment, or perhaps vice versa. Download the August 29 (MP3) and September 1 (MP3) Babelcasts, or check out the site here. (Original link via makezine.com.)
Puzzle Piece MP3s
In advance of its recent release, the album May 23rd 2007 (that’s its title) by the Kallikak Family (aka skilled studio concocter Andrew Peterson) was represented by a single MP3, just under three minutes of eerie sound design titled “Second Phase” (MP3). It begins with a thick amalgam that suggests a subterranean train station, as it mixes slowly moving industrial noise, overheard human voices, and tones that could be some sort of background music; after a short while the noise retreats and the voices and tones meld into one sinuous whole, along the lines of early, elegant Mouse on Mars.
Subsequently, the label that released May 23rd 2007, Tell-All Records, posted a second full MP3, the title cut (MP3), with some advice: “it’s best listened to in conjunction with our other free download, ‘second phase.’ download them both and listen in order.” This new track employs what could be heard as an opposing tactic to “Second Phase,” moving from soft and inchoate to loud and rambunctious. It’s raspier, and considerably more chaotic, than “Second Phase,” with snatches of processed machine percussion and sung vocals, quoting familiar objects from dance music but only as elements in a flanging, abstract, forward-moving mosaic. The title cut precedes “Second Phase” on the album, and thus emphasizes the quietude of the latter.
Peterson’s Kallikak project takes its name, presumably, from the study by American psychologist Henry H. Goddard, whose research into inherited mental deficiencies is cited as an early American eugenics text. Kallikak’s previous album, Vineland Social Maturity Scale (States Rights), was named for another artifact of 20th-century social-science research. The name “Kallikak,” which Goddard made up to provide anonymity for the studied family, is probably a better choice for a moniker on Peterson’s part than another word reportedly coined by Goddard: “moron.” For more information, visit the label’s website, tellallrecords.com.
More NOLA-tronic MP3s
It’s the first of the month, which means, among other things, the automated mailbots of many email lists send out little reminders that you once upon a time submitted your email address to their discretionary use — such as the one from johnnyvidacovich.com, website of the great, lanky, Zen-focused New Orleans drummer. Email arrived this morning from another New Orleans act, the group Chef Menteur, named for a highway that leads east out of New Orleans. The email wasn’t automated; it brought welcome news that the band’s members were far from New Orleans themselves, beyond the reach of Hurricane Katrina, dispersed across the country.
I first saw Chef Menteur play when it was a duo, Jim Yonkus and Alec Vance, two gear-enabled noodlers making psychedelic noise. Chef Menteur has since expanded, and its first proper album, We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire, arrived earlier this year on the Backporch Revolution label. Now a quintet, including Bryan Killingsworth, Chris Sule and Mike Mayfield, they still make studio-enabled psychedelia, but its richer, thicker and more self-assured, as evidenced for the downloading public by four full MP3s on the band’s website, chefmenteur.org. There’s Fourth World folk music, laced with sitar, on “Paysans de la Mer” (MP3), and a slowly grooving retro-campy vamp, “Pointu” (MP3), that suggests the ghost of Ernie K-Doe was nearby during its recording. The longest of the batch, “Europa” (MP3), escalates suddenly toward its end, capping the extended opaque ambience with voluminous dissonance, before a final fade. Perhaps the best track, “W.A.S.T.E.” (MP3), maintains a slow, lo-fi beat and affixes to it all manner of sampled and performed material, hand claps, plucking, field recordings, yelps and more. Additional info at backporchrevolution.com. … And now go visit the Red Cross, and help clean up after Katrina: redcross.org.
Untitled Studies MP3s
“Poroes,” which closes Miyazaki Shintaro‘s three-piece Untitled Studies, sounds a bit like a string ensemble fiddling away the dark hours in some remote locale as a storm approaches. What else could explain the brief spells of mournful playing, the rough static of poor failing technology, and the occasional watery slurps. In one of the most concise liner notes ever, the releasing netlabel, adozen.org, describes the album, in full, as follows: “3 self-defined ‘pragmatic electroacoustica’ live improvisations (powerbook + gamepad).” The other two tracks are “Nikolaiviertel,” a swell of distant waves introduced and followed by extended silence, and “Fadheit,” a series of meticulous little ruptured effects. Released earlier this month, Untitled Studies is the fourth adozen recording, and it is available at two compression levels: 128Kbps and twice that. More on Shintaro at netzknoten.net.