Vuzh Music Blog

John Gore’s ‘kirchenkampf’ project has long been known and admired by me for producing consistent, high-quality conceptual electronic space music. The characteristic ‘kirchenkampf’ release draws on influences from early electronic pioneers such as Subotnik, Parmegiani, the Barrons and Tangerine Dream, composing vast experimental sound-paintings with a strong central theme. His releases often follow a story structure hinted by the song titles and fleshed out with abstract, yet evocative electronic sounds. He is in top form on the new ‘kirchenkampf’ release “Dark Planet”
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The CD opens quietly with a long drifting drone titled “In Transit”, suggesting an awakening ship coasting through open space, and by the second track “Homesick”, a human element is introduced suggesting a deep melancholy in the crew after a long, cold voyage.
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The mood changes considerably on the title track. It seems that they’ve drifted into the orbit of an extraordinary planet, one that demands to be explored. The remainder of the CD explores the planet’s mysterious and frightening geography, its hungry caverns, its hissing fumaroles, its monoliths and volcanoes, “Terrorform” finally suggesting that they are not alone in this world. Serpentine figures lash out of the fog, etching curlicues in the air. As the story resolves, Gore describes, “The moon rises and bathes the planet with reflected light. Now they sit and wait for the first sunrise.”
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Another accomplished release from this venerable artist. I highly recommend it.
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It is available through Cohort Records as a physical CD, or a download.

One of my favorite releases of the year has been put out by Mystified on the Clinical Archives netlabel.
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Mystified’s “Collusion” collects the work of three of my friends and peers into one densely packed work of abstract quietnoise. I could be subjected to criticism for being biased in this recommendation, because my much admired friends and collaborators Phillip from PBK and Anthony from the Implicit Order, and Patrick from Kwalijk (also known as Desohll, with whom I collaborated on a recent release of darkambient) have contributed some remixes of music by my equally admired friend Thomas from Mystified for this release. Given the participants, one could almost expect nothing but the finest of challenging soundwork that exists on the quiet and calming edge of noise, that weird hybrid area that has been described elsewhere as “noiseambient”. Perhaps I am biased, or perhaps I have managed to make the acquaintances of several extremely talented composers on the outskirts of musical exploration. I tend to think the latter is more the case.
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On “Collusion” you will find an admirably cohesive set of gritty, yet calming collection of music that treads the border between ambient music, with its calming background qualities, and noise music with it’s upfront challenging qualities.
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Also contributing some remixes to this collection is KR-Ohm whom I don’t know personally, but who holds their own in very respectable company. For that she/he gains my respect.
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It’s nearly a perfect music, this.
I could not recommend it more.
http://www.archive.org/details/ca308_m

3/29 r TR-606 by vuzhmusic

Zondagmorgen’s “La Fin du Monde” is a free netlabel release from Just Not Normal. It is perfect music for, indeed, a Sunday morning, especially a chilly Autumn Sunday morning.
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Its stretched out repeating, shoegazer-inflected musical theme sets a melancholy tone offset by chilly blurred percussion noises that hint at a ‘groove’ but never quite get into one. Later there is further dissolution into a long, refrigerated drone, worthy of comparison to Drone Forest, if I do say so myself.
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Good stuff!

I’ve just found a few recordings by an interesting underground artist named Tiago Morgado. He runs the netlabel XS Records from his homebase in Portugal.
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His release 363 features some long avant-garde flavoured improvisations, with spacey analogue synth treatments burbling and subdued percussive elements in the background.
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The far more frantic Algorithmic Chaos EP, released under the alias DNP X-Citer, features angular compositions of viola phrases paired with with abstract skittering percussion and electronic noises pointing to a clear lineage with Autechre’s more complex work. It’s worth a listen.
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The milestone 4 CD-length compilation of music from netlabel underground artists put together by the Just Not Normal netlabel is now available for free download. It’s HUGE in every way. It promises to be an extremely useful introduction to a large amount of unknown artists.
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I appear on CD#3 with an exclusive track called “Captcha upgrade stickyglands“, which samples from various captcha scripts found around the internet.
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Also on CD#3 are a few friends and colleagues, such as Gurdonark and Mystified, who both appear on Long Defeat Variations
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I encourage you to download No-R-Mal, the fiftieth release on the Just Not Normal netlabel.

a.k.a. reviews.
Here’s some experimental sound stuff I’ve found around the internet that I enjoyed, and you can too.
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Dexp Lab – Sectors LP … Retro-futurist ambiance that frequently veers into dissonant noise-ambient sound clusters and occasionally settles into a groove that hints at head nod territory. For me, the best music merely ‘hints’ rather than ‘says’. Like this a lot.
Free. 320 / VBR / OGG. Rus Zud netlabel.
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Pavonine – Pavonine … Soft industrial drone work, reminiscent, to me, of the Hafler Trio’s quieter music, but more explicitly ‘ambient’. Very atmospheric and admirably restrained. “Rassamblement des choses qui portent malheur” has a subdued musical theme that is so understated and melancholy that it could be heartbreaking under the right circumstances. Completely lovely.
Free. 320 kbps mp3. Webbed Hand Records
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Hannah M.G. Shapero (Altocumulus) – My Name is Marietta Cashman … consisting of recordings from the late 1960s of a teenage girl experimenting with the Buchla 100 modular synthesizer. From the descriptive text: “The sounds on this recording, unheard for 40 years, are a compilation of assorted electronic effects which were thrown together without much planning, rather as a storehouse than as a finished piece. They date from 1968 and 1969. The modern aesthetic of patchwork and accidental meaning, which was only at its beginning in 1968, has made this into “listenable” material.” I doubt I could make a better description than that, you will either like that or not. For me it’s pretty great.
Free. 320kbps mp3. Just Not Normal netlabel.

I thought I’d pass along a recommendation of an underground recording I’ve just enjoyed. Olifaunt‘s newest album “Three Crows Become Four” (love that title!) is an autumnal set of churning bass drones, reminiscent of Crib (wow, Crib is important enough that it has a Wikipedia entry! If only I were so important! Alas I’m just not “notable”)… also recalling prime Maeror Tri.
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I reckon this project will find its way onto a label like Kranky or Infraction sooner than later, (definitely sooner than Drone Forest) so go check them out now and you can say you were there before the poseurs!
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Olifaunt has given this album to the world for free, at the Internet Archive (link), and/or at Last.FM (link).

Mini review:
Mental Health Consumer – Ambia
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A collection of fuzzy drones, frayed and fluttering rhythms and often lovely, hazy melodies. A fair amount more colorful than its drab cover art implies. Score yet another one for the the DIY team. If I’d had this on tape during the nineties, it might have been one of my favorites. I’d probably have written MHC’s founder Brian Ruskin a fan letter. You heard it here first: obscurity is a virtue.
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Links:
http://www.archive.org/details/ca247_mhc
http://believeinbillyrecords.googlepages.com/

A track from the Electret Quintet II appears on the Winter version of NNTS06… a collection of the ‘best of’ Not The Normal Shit Radio as selected by the show’s host Mark Stolk. The show is broadcast on Stillstream.
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I’m grateful for the inclusion, my track sits alongside such talents as Celer, Die Minimalistin, AAGSF and others.
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These comps are a great way to discover new artists.