For all the talk of Sun City Girls’ genre-hopping, they never seemed to undergo any wholesale revision or escape their singular aesthetic, which is mostly to their credit. It’d be foolish to argue that they trapped themselves or failed to bridge disparate strains of psychedelia, punk, exotica and cartoon-splatter. The music is problematic, but that’s not due to a lack of subjective generosity or curiosity on the group’s behalf.
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On their last two albums, Parts and Labor haven’t eschewed their more experimental tendencies so much as incorporated them into an anthemic rock framework, with somewhat mixed results. The grit is still there, but, when buried underneath soaring vocals about great divides, it’s admittedly difficult to groove on the sounds alone. Basically, if frontman Dan Friel’s vocals aren’t your cup of tea, you’d be forgiven for entirely foregoing the operation.
To read the rest of the review, click here.
Back from LSAT time off. Clouds have passed, life is good. At least until I receive my score.
| Artist “Track” Release (Label) FORMAT
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Streaming audio and MP3 download of the show available here.
Since I had three weeks off, last night’s show was entirely new music, with the exception of two tracks that I had been meaning to play on the show for some time, and as such, there’s a bunch of stuff that I’d consider worthy of discussion. The new Gas reissue, specifically a review comparing his work to The Field’s, tipped off an e-mail conversation between myself and fellow enthusiast Momo Araki concerning Mr. Voigt’s place in the “techno” pantheon, and who, if anyone, is operating on the same terrain that he explored over a decade ago. Forgive me for the inherent nerdiness. A few excerpts from the convo:
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Brad: I think it’s sadder that there aren’t really ANY relevant modern reference points for this music – a small handful of folks are in the ballpark (like the Bine label folks, and definitely Dial more than The Field or the bulk of Kompakt nowadays, maybe shitty labels that miss the point like Type), but in general, no one’s even trying to do this sort of thing.
Momo: [I]s Gas really one of “techno’s towering achievements”? Or, to put things in a more sensible context, the towering achievement of an individual predominantly known for assuming the roles of Mike Ink. (techno), Freiland (techno), Studio 1 (techno), and arguably one of today’s most-relevant-to-the-indie-crowd dance music brands, Kompakt (techno par excellence), which may, to some, be quite “ironic” indeed (while to me, is more surprising than anything, and ultimately a testament to how musically energized this man was 15-20 years ago).
As he once said himself, Gas is pop music, and by extension, there’s probably a reason Kompakt calls it “Pop Ambient,” and I have a hunch it’s partly due to the image Kompakt has assumed and, perhaps to their consternation, been branded with by the likes of Pitchfork et al. It’s not always about the music now, is it?
To put bluntly, calling “Gas one of techno’s towering achievements” ignores the above bases and history, belying the whole foundation of why Gas is “Gas” and not “Wolfgang Voigt” and why it was released on Mille Plateaux as opposed to some other imprint. And frankly, I think I’ve decided that maybe I shouldn’t expect much better, though it should always be expected, especially when they’re reissuing a freaking 4CD boxset of this crap, which was up to a couple weeks a lost artifact of electronic yesteryear. Reintroducing Gas to the world through such a lens is an indication of how this whole minimal techno thing blew up some years ago and is currently coasting on fashion.
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Not sure if I am in complete agreement with the above (namely the Dial thing. I don’t think I could precisely raise so many reference points coming from the dance community – mayyyybe Deepchord label, whose output does “echo” (pun intended) a similar atmospheric sound, eschewing the melody, kept in line by pulsating bass drum – but again, their approach and “destination” as it were, are not necessarily aligned with Gas. The fact is, Dial does adopt a more melodic, soft, songlike approach to dance music, but do we really hear that in Gas in the first place? I think their commonalities are cosmetic ones, because I can’t think of many more on other levels.
Brad: I think this was my subtle point: beyond functional techno, I’d argue that pretty much all of Deepchord and Dial is entirely cosmetic, especially compared to someone with half a brain like Gas, and while I enjoy that music, I’m not too excited. The Studio 1 and Freiland stuff can be mindblowing, and also works as dance music to an extent – I guess Gas doesn’t and doesn’t try to, but for the sake of argument, if you’re going to consider it as “techno” (and it undeniably bears certain hallmarks), it sets an intellectual/textual standard that no one’s really reaching. And I don’t even think Gas is the tops, as far as the Mille Plateaux world goes – snd are much smarter and also more functional. In comparison, a dude like Rod Modell, who I actually like a decent amount, just isn’t trying very hard. But, he’s also a more apt reference than The Field.
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Also of note from last night’s show is the Rustie remix – dude absolutely kills it. As I noted in a Dusted write-up of his Jagz the Smack EP last year:
The Rustie EP is a straight-up banger, dropping all pretense of atmosphere and attitude by highlighting dubstep’s too-often-obscured maximal leanings. Rustie may sacrifice grit for IDM sheen, but at least he’s aware that risks need to be taken.
Dude kills it, and I’m glad to see him getting some attention by popping up on Warp and Hyperdub releases. Word is that he has a vault of unreleased material. Perhaps he would let me enter it and I could swim around like Scrooge McDuck.
Fuck yeah. June 20th at Knitting Factory.
I signed off the WNYU airwaves in January after 4.5 years of weekly shows and am back for the summer to help out while some of the students are out of town. As before, I’ll be on Wednesday nights from 9-10:30 (except for the next three weeks – clearing my schedule for LSAT prep), and I figured that I might as well post the playlists/archives from these shows. Listen live on wnyu.org or 89.1 FM in NYC, or check out the archives at wnyu.org. Mangez!
Artist “Track” Release (Label) FORMAT
| 1. | Chris Carter “Beat” The Space Between (The Grey Area) CD |
| 2. | dj scotch egg “Scotch Grind” Drumized (Load) CD [N] |
| 3. | Dick Raaijmakers “Pianoforte” The Complete Tape Music of Dick Raaijmakers (Basta) CD |
| 4. | BJ Nilsen “Live in Masthuggs Church, Goteborg” Spire Live – Fundamentalis (Autofact/Touch) LP [C] [N] |
| 5. | Ontayso “h15/02.36-12.46″ Selected work from the 24hour box part two (U-cover) CD [N] |
| 6. | Tied + Tickled Trio “db track” EA1 EA2 (Payola/Community) LP |
| 7. | Chris De Luca “4″ Unknown (Chocolate Industries) 12″ |
| 8. | Alan Licht & Aki Onda “Ship Shape” Everydays (Family Vineyard) CD [N] |
| 9. | eRikm & akosh S. “part 5″ Zufall (Ronda) CD [N] |
| 10. | Static (starring Justine Electra) “Sometimes I’m Sad for a Few Seconds (Robert Lippok remix)” Jennifer Cardini – Feeling Strange Mix (Kompakt) CD [N] |
| 11. | Robin Judge “Roulette” Good bye said the rain – Female electronic music (At-At) CD [C] [N] |
| 12. | Alva Noto “Post-Remo” Repostpostfabricated (DSP) CD |
| 13. | Chris Carter “Electrodub” The Space Between (The Grey Area) CD |
Streaming audio and MP3 download of the above show available here.
Highlight of this week’s show for me is the new Spire Live release. Spire is an ongoing series of concerts performed in medieval churches throughout Europe that focus on ”The Organ - The Emperor of Instruments.” Electronic artists like BJ Nilsen (featured on this week’s show), Fennesz, Philip Jeck, and Jacob Kirkegaard play either in conjunction with Charles Matthews, who plays the huge organs housed in the churches, or separately within the space. Specific positioning within and around the organs of specially designed microphones coupled with laptop processing is the general gist. Here’s a picture from a recent Spire performance – the sound within these old churches must be pretty incredible.
At its best (see Consumer Electronics’ Nobody’s Ugly or Pita’s A Bas la Culture Marchande), the No Fun label sheds the trappings of the DIY noise/tape scene and points out how limited in scope many of its releases are. There are only so many psych-walls of noise, and what doesn’t immediately strike the listener as indulgent can soon grow tedious. Innovative sound science will always have its place, but no one needs to see another shirtless twenty-something white boy angrily tweak his effects pedals unless there’s a real point to it.
Click here to read the rest of the review.
I’m a sucker for thinned-out loping repetetive hypnotic bassy guitar loops (see: Wooden Shjips, Chris Harwood) and was dang pleased when I came across a new 7″ from Oregon’s Them, Themselves or They. Their MySpace picture tips off the Lard Free influence, though TTT sound more like a less-proficient Lard Free that doesn’t give a shit, which is okay by me. 7″ courtesy of Sacramento’s Malt Duck Records, who, counting last year’s sweet Mattress single, are now 2 for 2.
MySpace for Them, Themselves or They here.
A listen to almost any Asmus Tietchens album reveals an unwavering devotion to finding extremes within limited parameters. I can’t claim to have heard all of the dozens of albums and collaborations, but even Litia, his 1983 Sky Records foray into industrial dance music, forewent typical dancefloor build and release to focus on the pure texture of that tension. It fails as a dance album, but for those with their ears to the speaker instead of the beat, it’s a remarkable deconstruction. The point being, even when operating within clear and necessary signposts, Tietchens finds ways to limit the scope further, or to at least make that scope feel limited by highlighting the resultant claustrophobia created by limitations.
Click here to read the rest of the review.
As it has expanded over the past few years, the Paw Tracks label has developed a deceptively precious aesthetic, wherein an artist’s more recessed, childish or awe-struck leanings are tilted towards something that, if not dangerous, is at least somewhat primal. It’s both appreciated and frustrating how clearly its artists foreground these not-quite-opposed instincts, and the label’s catalog has understandably been a bit of a mixed bag. For every Young Prayer and Debt Dept. that comfortably negotiates emotional concerns and formal tics, there’s an Ariel Pink or Person Pitch that overindulges melodic and structural ideas under the guise of adhering to the above aesthetic.
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Marc B
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