General Magic - Frantz

From Allmusic.com : "Although the electronica feeding frenzy was building to a frothing head when it appeared, General Magic's full-length debut, Frantz, contained the real soul and sense of the term; electronic music inspired by dance musics such as hip-hop, techno, and electro (as well as non-dance or sub-dance musics such as ambient and electroacoustic), but totally and completely uninterested in dance music per se. Frantz is 14 tracks of uninterrupted brilliance; a minimal, focused assault on convention carried out with low-key noise, distortion, a decent dose of funk, and enough humor to keep perspective. In terms of pushing electronica into still less derivative territories (no minor-key pad refrains here, kids), Frantz is one of the most important, accomplished albums released in years."

"Frantz" was released by Mego in 1997.

Get it here : General Magic - Frantz

Hecker - Sun Pandämonium

From Allmusic.com : "There is something of a trickster in Florian Hecker's personality, and it translates into a wicked sense of humor in his music. But even before you hit the play button, you'll notice a few odd details, like the 11 dark brown-colored but otherwise blank booklet pages or track titles like "bsf°tyk 5" and "Protog-Eepp-Forma-Quack." OK, so you press play and "bsf°tyk 5" starts. It sounds like an orchestra of cheap synthesizer chords, something to accompany your run of the mill B movie horror flick, except that something went horribly wrong (indeed). Then comes "Stocha Acid Zlook," a track that takes up 21 minutes of this 40-minute disc. Sine waves are arranged into a long, awfully noisy drone. It's loud, in your face, and relentless, but at the same time quite funny, at least for the first few minutes. As time goes by and the sounds are more and more digitally stretched out, the piece turns into something very similar to Koji Asano's marathon works (in the vein of Autumn Meadow). Everything stops at the 18-minute mark, but it starts again ten seconds later -- "Ha ha, fooled you!" Hecker must be saying. The next five tracks are short essays in contemporary computer sound art, but once again of a very noisy kind. Only in "Quantum Spark Reality" do things simmer down, revealing a talent for form. Sun Pandämonium gives quite a ride -- and not a comfortable one. It will make you sick to your stomach if you are not used to Mego's roster. Even then, it remains a difficult listen."

"Sun Pandämonium" was released by Mego in 2003.

Get it here : Hecker - Sun Pandämonium

Rob Mazurek - Sweet And Vicious Like Frankenstein

From Allmusic.com : "Sweet and Vicious Like Frankenstein represents a normal step in light of the evolution of Rob Mazurek's music over the last decade. Still, it is probably not what you are expecting, especially if you take his previous solo effort, Silver Spines, as a point of comparison. There is not a cornet in sight; this album is all electronics. Mazurek uses a computer, a mini-disc, and a tone generator -- that's it. The approach has nothing to do with jazz, rock, or even free improvisation. It could be seen as a tribute to early musique concrète and computer music. It stands somewhere between sound collage, kitsch electronics, and noise -- and, if you can (or are willing to) get over the initial shock, this album is actually quite strong. There are two extended pieces. "Body Parts (Spectral White)," 40 minutes long, is an intriguing work progressing by episodes of four or five minutes, roughly pieced together like the parts of Frankenstein's creation. Some sections are strongly reminiscent of early electronic music (Vladimir Ussachevsky, Hugh Le Caine, Pierre Henry, Arne Nordheim), while other ones range from microsonic computer treatments to harsh sound experiments and field recordings. The early electronics bits come back regularly, acting like a leitmotiv and reinforcing the analogy with Frankenstein (experimentation in the infancy of a technology) and, through the character, with old horror movies. "Electric Eels (In Half Light)" is neither as conceptually rich nor as striking. In contrast with the previous piece, it presents a uninterrupted 25-minute flow of sounds, mostly harsh and escalating. Reference points include Kevin Drumm and Merzbow (although the piece is slightly less brutal than the latter's usual output). Sweet and Vicious Like Frankenstein could have been an episode of self-indulgence from a man who obviously likes to dip his fingers into as many bowls as he sees fit. Instead, it came out as a very honest effort in sound art, the work of a man who knew what he was doing, not a dilettante. Nevertheless, approach with caution if you were hoping for some abstract cornet playing."

"Sweet And Vicious Like Frankenstein" was released by Mego in 2004.

Get it here : Rob Mazurek - Sweet And Vicious Like Frankenstein

Sky Flowers & Horse Eggs

From Discogs.com : "An unusual title for an unusual album. I haven't heard anything quite this strange since La Légende Des Voix released the much acclaimed (and rightly so) "Mouvements" compilation (unless you count Anckarstrom's CD collection). It is a challenging collection of audio montages, atmospheres and complementary music. The cover is bright and colourful with Asian mythological images, an almost Blake-like painting and various other strange images. Below is a brief description of each piece.

SPINAL MACHINE's "Inside" - an indistinct mass of churning sound - not unlike the Extreme Noise favoured in Japan, but an amorphous shifting of barely-perceived audio images - some short and percussive - others longer, more sustained. This is the language of gas, a whisper of ancient, terrible beings rising from unfathomable chasms beneath the Earth's mantle, out of lungs part fossilised, corrupted by water.

BLACKHOUSE give us "Halo Trance (Eternal Spirit Mix)" - a much muted piece as of busy railway yards heard from deep underground, where lighter tones reverberate through dirty tiled tunnels, arriving at different times to the bass. This continues for some time while the lost spirits of synth buskers echo strange noises which blend with the other more real sounds. A strange, dark, chilling atmosphere which offers little threat.

ETANT DONNES offer "S'Envole" which is more an intense ambient piece - an active waterfall, chopping of sticks and stones thrown into water while a voice whispers in your ear. A rumble builds up, as of a machine set to engulf the listener. Towards the end the stones are dug out with more gusto and strange, alien bird-like voices cry out in fear or warning as others gather overhead. This dies back, then grows again on a deeper rumble, as if the same scenario were heard from a greater distance while booted feet run through gravel and the voice whispers more frantically.

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS offer two pieces - "Adam Hickson/The War on Drugs". The first piece is taken from an answering machine - a young lad warning someone off. After this a high sequential rhythm, bright and repetitive cycles while a gang of girls discuss Adam Hickson. This decays away and in it's place rises a strangely angular piece - sequential but played on harmonica or accordion while synthetic sounds and distorted voices circle, gathering in bubbling pools of noise.

RANDY GREIF's track is "The Numbers Cage", a more passive, minimal thing which seems to consist mainly of looped tapes, with sound sources possibly being piano, organ, panpipes. This passive sound is destroyed by more abrasive sounds - harsh, almost metal bashes, scampering junk sculptures - scrap heap tin men in spastic marathon run, while a crowd of mad tape machines play minimal sounds in a textural cacophony. The race turns into a battle, with each participant using whatever weapon comes to hand.

PFN offer "Sarajevo", a more passive, calming mood piece which soothes the nerves. Keyboards swell up in almost static bodies - perhaps a Hollywood sound representation of sunrise, with a sense of events due to happen, just over the next horizon. It opens out into a sad instrumental, with saxophone making dour comment, hinting at a people whose encapsulated traditions are being ploughed asunder by pointless conflict.

JOHN WATERMANN's "The Golden Anger of Tearing" tells a tale in sound - a vignette of struggle in an inhuman environs. Imagine a jungle, full of life - birds, insects and small mammals all living out their noisy lives. Imagine a man, labouring over his broken-down vehicle, trying to get it's reluctant engine to run - his life under threat if he cannot drive out of such a place. This sounds quite literally what is happening here (although the engine sounds more like a generator). We leave him still struggling, unaware of any outcome.

S.F.O. give us "Raan" - fading in on deep amorphous sound with voices floating like muscae volitantes through the heavy soup. Something akin to a rhythm thumps it's other-worldly, machine-like way out of the speakers, a dark, edgeless dull booming sound with other, lighter pieces adding to it's almost structured shell.

ZOVIET FRANCE contribute "I Felt the Breath of My Assassin", built again on a deep machine-like foundation, various sounds fade in and out - some from the stranger realms of synthesis, others seemingly 'found' - perhaps samples, perhaps not. The overall feel is of a static mood, of events impending. Fragments of Ethnic instruments appear here and there. A more deliberate structure shows through, albeit muted and held way back, bound by coils of passive tension. It concludes on an almost vocal swell of digeridoo-like sound and passive machine synth.

G*PARK give us "Yack" which follows in a similar mood, opening with wooden percussion, then settling for non-structured deep metallic clanks and dark waves of sound which build up, disappear, return in an altered form, then restructure again in a well composed series of deep thunders, percussive booms, clanking, reverberated sound all making a strange, temple ceremony-like sound heard through the ears of, say, an uncomprehending bat !

SHABDA close the album with "Paramahamsa", a piece building on bubbling water with distant echoed voices heard below the bubbling sounds. The initial watery sound dies away and a series of sustained voices, in a dis-harmonic swell, rises up through the sound, to be once more usurped by the water. After this the voices rise, bringing with them an Oriental sound - not unlike looped koto or sarod. After this rises a piece set against ambient bird sound while voices chanting "Hare Krishna" and bright keyboards appear, in a piece with all the elements of New Age, yet anything but the mood.

All in all an intriguing album and recommended to those with a sense of adventure."

Tracklisting :
01. Spinal Machine - Inside
02. Blackhouse - Halo Trance (Eternal Spirit Mix)
03. Etant Donnés - S'envole
04. Nocturnal Emissions - Adam Hickson / The War On Drugs
05. Randy Greif - The Numbers Cage
06. PFN - Sarajevo
07. John Watermann - The Golden Anger Of Tearing
08. S.F.O. - Raan
09. Zoviet-France - I Felt The Breath Of My Assassin
10. G*Park - Yack
11. Shabda - Paramahamsa

"Sky Flowers & Horse Eggs" was released by Hypnagogia in 1992.

Get it here : Sky Flowers & Horse Eggs

Merzbow - Music For Bondage Performance

From Discogs.com : "Merzbow is an extreme experimental music project created in Tokyo in 1979 under the direction of musician Masami Akita and is recognized as being one of the earliest projects in what has become known as "Japanese noise". Highly prolific, Merzbow has released hundreds of recordings since 1979. The name is derived from Kurt Schwitters's "Merzbau", and is meant to be pronounced the same way."

Track 1 (1991) : For Asako.
Track 2 (1989) : Made for female prisoner in bondage & seppuku Japanese style. B&D performance by Ruka Mikami in Homo Fixas Studio, Yotsuya.
Track 3 (1990) : Made for bondage & pipe in western style. B&D performance by Santomi Fuji in Kannon Studio, Shinjuku.
Track 4 (1989) : Made for office girl in bondage in Yokohama. B&D performance by Youri Sunohara.
Track 6 (1989 & 1990).

"Music For Bondage Performance" was released by Extreme in 1991.

Get it here : Merzbow - Music For Bondage Performance

Blue Cubism : Transcoded Audio Structures

"Blue Cubism" is a remix project of Kim Cascone's Blue Cube.

Tracklisting :
01. Terre Thaemlitz - Blue Code
02. Koji Marutani & Toru Yamanaka (Dumb Type) - Rain
03. Pita - Bubwraout
04. *0 / Kim Cascone - territory2layer
05. Robert Henke - Bubblex Simplex
06. Kim Cascone - cubeQuadratische / Herniated Mix #1
07. V/Vm - 3 Studies Into The Relationship Of Air And Dust...
08. Tetsu Inoue - Ultra Brite
09. Taylor Deupree - bubblewarp13.66mB
10. Nobukazu Takemura - Child's View Mix
11. Quest - Blue(s) Cube
12. John Hudak - 4.6
13. Bochum Welt - chromeBlue

"Blue Cubism : Transcoded Audio Structures" was released by Digital Narcis in 1999.

Get it here : Blue Cubism : Transcoded Audio Structures

Vote Robot - In Meorm NA

From Allmusic.com : "An electronica duo from bucolic Kelowna, British Columbia, Vote Robot prided itself on using vintage equipment, creating experimental music with a palpable human warmth. Analog synths, doctored tapes, turntables, and mixing consoles were their favorite sound sources, to the conscious exclusion of computers, samplers, and other modern digital devices. The results were often compared to the pioneering glitch style of Oval, despite having taken a much different path to get there. Vote Robot members Kevin Rivard and Scott August first met when Rivard was August's babysitter. August developed a home-taping habit in his teens, and he and Rivard began collaborating in the mid-'90s, when August also released solo material under the name French Paddleboat. The first Vote Robot releases were cassette only, until Catsup Plate issued R.U.R. in LP format in 1995. Both of its pressings sold out completely, as did a more limited remix album, Versions, in 1998. Early the next year, August landed his first CD release as French Paddleboat with Conversions in Metric, and the resultant exposure helped draw more attention to Vote Robot as well. Their own debut CD release came in the form of 2001's In Meorm NA, issued by Vancouver indie Scratch. It was followed by another vinyl-only album, Five Score Six Bicycle."

"In Meorm NA" was released by Scratch Recordings in 2001.

Get it here : Vote Robot - In Meorm NA

The Hafler Trio - Whistling About Chickens [2 x CD]

From Allmusic.com : "Formed in Sheffield, England, in 1980 by Cabaret Voltaire alum Chris Watson and Andrew McKenzie, the Hafler Trio were never a three-piece in any actual sense -- in fact, the third member originally credited to the lineup, one Dr. Edward Moolenbeek, was (according to an interview with McKenzie in the March/April 1991 issue of Option magazine) reportedly an expert in psycho-acoustic research who edited the journal Science Review during the 1930s. Much of the Hafler Trio's mystique stems from the deliberate misinformation the group consistently set forth -- although their records regularly came packaged with deluxe graphs, diagrams, and essays detailing the purported effects of sound on the listener, the scientific authenticity of their "findings" is debatable; for example, their 1984 debut, Bang! An Open Letter, claims to be based on the studies of an acoustic researcher named Robert Spridgeon, complete with bibliography. Spridgeon later proved to be a complete fabrication, however, and over the course of subsequent efforts, including 1985's Alternation, Perception and Resistance -- A Comprehension Exercise EP, 1986's Three Ways of Saying Two -- The Netherlands Lectures, and Dislocation, the Hafler Trio continued baffling audiences with a deluge of propaganda, clouding perceptions to increase the visceral impact of their music."

"Whistling About Chickens" was released by Fire Inc. in 2003.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - Whistling About Chickens

The Hafler Trio & Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth - Brion Gysin's Dreamachine

From Discogs.com : "This is a unique setup - Psychic TV (I suspect GPO largely, but who knows? This was a period of experimentation for PTV as well as the perpetual one maintained by H3O) and McKenzie getting together for a project that, in the end, didn't have much to do with either of them? Interesting... I bought this originally with the cutout version of the Dreammachine and put it on an old Garrard turntable with lights shining through it. The effect was pretty much as advertised, but I still have a hard time putting it through my head that there was any musical coalescence between the two artists. Conceptual, maybe... Nevertheless, this stands as a milestone for H3O, if not for PTV. I can't see the influence of the latter, but who can say? If you get a chance to acquire this, jump on it! It's really rare, and evocative."



"Brion Gysin's Dreamachine" was released by KK Records in 1989.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio & Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth – Brion Gysin's Dreamachine

The Hafler Trio - One Dozen Ecomomical Stories By Peter Greenaway

From Allmusic.com : "During the period from 1989 through 1993, filmmaker and painter Peter Greenaway and Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie collaborated on this work, which consists of 12 of Greenaway's short texts, "corrupted, manipulated, and accompanied" by the Hafler Trio. The CD comes with a booklet containing all 12 stories with diagrams for tying knots on the opposite pages. Most of the music is very similar to other Hafler Trio albums, with drones, crackles, and loops featured most prominently. There are fewer field recordings than on other albums, with only tracks three and ten containing a few bird calls. Track two is a techno dance track, with spooky altered vocals hovering in the background. Tracks five and 12 are exclusively prerecorded material, an old scratchy guitar recording on five and a pop song from the 1950s on 12. The sixth track is very similar to Steve Reich's phase-shifting tape works, such as "Come Out" or "It's Gonna Rain."

"One Dozen Economical Stories By Peter Greenaway" was released by Sub Rosa in 1994.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - One Dozen Economical Stories By Peter Greenaway

The Hafler Trio - Mastery Of Money

From Allmusic.com : "Mastery of Money is the second part of a trilogy the Hafler Trio released in the early 1990s. Each release in the series (the others are Kill the King and How to Reform Mankind) has similar oversize packaging, including a booklet with texts and photos for each piece on the CD. Musically the trilogy explores similar territory as well, with less emphasis on recognizable voices and more on field recordings, layered loops, and drones. "Empty Rooms and Their Occupants," for example, is a long drone piece with active inner sounds, fading in and out, subtly changing pitch while maintaining a steady state. "Callibre" and "Eloise C" are both based on field recordings. The former contains sirens, church bells, car horns, sounds of walking, announcement voices, all surrounded by a gentle outdoor-like ambience. The latter is more abstract, with wind sounds combined with radio static and frequency manipulation. The group still plays with perceptions, but additionally they have now moved their attention to the CD itself. Although there are titles and credits for seven pieces, the album contains 34 tracks which bear no relation to the pieces at all, but instead comprise two very long tracks (46:34 and 27:50) which sandwich 34 tracks so short that they are under the standard for track length, all one to three seconds in duration. All of the short tracks are contained within Splitting the Stick. The album's closing moments are the laugh box, a toy from the late 1960s with a built-in belly laugh, an echoing and reverberating commentary from this mysterious group."



"Mastery Of Money" was released by Touch Records in 1992.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - Mastery Of Money

The Hafler Trio - Intoutof

From Allmusic.com : "The Hafler Trio album Intoutof (pronounced "into out of") was originally released in 1985 on vinyl. The master tapes were too long for the capabilities of the equipment, so the original solution was to run the tapes at a slightly faster rate to compensate. When the material was reissued on CD in 1990, the original tape speed was restored. Despite this modification, the release still has the feel of an LP, with the two long pieces representing each side of the album, not subdivided into tracks, even though each listed piece is clearly distinguishable from the others. This feeling becomes even stronger at the transition between the two sides, as the two parts of "Purgatory" sound very much cut from the same loud metallic drone cloth, and the sudden transitions reinforce this impression. "Ascent" is one of the most beautiful ambient pieces in the Hafler Trio oeuvre, composed of whistling sounds like the whirly tube children's toy, a blissful piece that takes up two thirds of the first side. Intoutof has many fewer voices than other Hafler Trio releases, almost exclusively layers of drone soundscapes drenched in reverberation, with electronic events occasionally appearing out of the mist. The only voices appear at the beginning of "Consecration," a combination of yelling, percussion, and loud turbine engines that marks the climax and conclusion of this ritualistic release."

"Intoutof" was released by KK Records in 1988.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - Intoutof

The Hafler Trio - Dislocation

From Discogs.com : "The Hafler Trio as it now exists is an organisation dedicated to the dissemination of information, principally in the recorded medium, but neccessarily involved in the intersections between the related disciplines and the furtherance of their effectiveness to provide an antidote to the tendencies prevalent in their use at the present time.

The releases of The Hafler Trio are primarily concerned with research and presentation of the findings that result, and as such are a coninually growing and evolving library - a source of stimulation to action - in direct opposition to the lethargic obsession with escapism provided by the means of entertainment currently available.

The Hafler Trio are interested in three essentials only; the body, the mind, and the spirit. Everything else follows directly from these points and is contained within them. In short, The Hafler Trio facilitates interaction in an organic manner that is not directly coerced, but unless effort on the part of the recipient is engaged, the circle cannot be completed.

Although The Hafler Trio was originally founded by Andrew McKenzie and Christopher Watson, the only member currently remaining is McKenzie. A third founding member, the scientist Dr. Edward Moolenbeck, turned out to be a fiction created by the other two."

"Dislocation" was released by Staalplaat in 1987.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - Dislocation

The Hafler Trio - Ignotum Per Ignotius

From Allmusic.com : "Prolific and enigmatic, the Hafler Trio masterminded some of the most challenging and innovative sonic experiments of their time -- defining music as simply organized sound, their unique synthesis of electronics, samples, and tape loops probed the psycho-acoustic power of noise, exploring not only its sensory effects but its physical ramifications as well."

"Ignotum Per Ignotius" was released by Touch Records in 1989.

Get it here : The Hafler Trio - Ignotum Per Ignotius

Lesser - LS-MP3CD-R_1990-2000 [CD-ROM]

From Allmusic.com : "J Lesser is an indie sampler terrorist stranded halfway between the heavily fraternal scenes organized around conventional drum'n'bass and unconventional noise. His formative career includes time spent playing with a Metallica cover band in San Diego, and with figures who later formed the indie bands Crash Worship and A Minor Forest. Lesser contributed the debut release for the San Diego indie-electronica label Vinyl Communications with 1996's Excommunicate the Cult of the Live Band. Gigolo Cop and Welcome to the American Experience followed in one-year intervals, while a split-compact-disc with Kid-606 was released in 1998. Mensa Dance Squad appeared three years later. Besides appearing with Matmos and Kid-606 as DISC, Lesser has also recorded as 157 and Backfire."

"LS-MP3CD-R_1990-2000" is a CD-ROM filled with tracks in mp3 format. It contains 12 hours of music, representing every pre-2001 Lesser release, as well as over 5 hours of unreleased, live or incredibly rare music.

The pack includes the 18 following folders :
01 - I_Hate_Me
02 - Ballad_for_Those_Lost_in_War
03 - Katie_Solo
04 - VC_39
05 - Young_Parts
06 - Negative
07 - Lesser_Rob Crow Split CD
08 - Powerlesser
09 - Excommunicate_the_Cult_of
10 - Gigolo_Cop
11 - Welcome_to_the_American_Exp
12 - Elements_of_Pessimism
13 - LSR_KID-606_Split_CD
14 - Acorn
15 - Freesound
16 - Compilations(thru_2001)
17 - Remixes(thru_2001)
18 - Unreleased(94-01)

"LS-MP3CD-R_1990-2000" was released by Tigerbeat6 in 2001.

Get it here : Lesser - LS-MP3CD-R_1990-2000

Pimmon - Assembler

From www.fallt.com : "Assembler n. 1 a person who assembles a machine or its parts. 2 Computing a a program for converting instructions written in low-level symbolic code into machine code. b the low-level symbolic code itself; an assembly language.

'Assembler' is Sydney based artist Pimmon's first release on Fällt. His past releases have included 12"s on both Fat Cat and ERS; solo CDs on (K-RAA-K)3 and Meme; a live recording on Ritornell (with Pita, Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi and Keith Rowe) and an MP3-only release on Mego sub-label Fals.ch.

Comprising four separate components, 'Assembler' was conceived from the outset to be an ongoing release which pushed beyond the confines of a standalone CD. In addition to the core CD component, MP3 files, SimpleTextAudio™ by Japanese Media Artist and Fällt contributing editor Otaku Yakuza, and Graphic Scores by Fällt designers Fehler (who also designed 'Assember's' packaging), are available at the 'Assembler' website for free download.

Twelve static-soaked compositions which work both independently and as a suite, 'Assembler' is cinematic in both scope and execution. The most exquisite melodies are buried under dense layers of static which, like diamonds hidden within silt, reward close listening. Veering from the trademark stuttering pulses of the opening '%macro.prologue' to the gently unravelling fanfare of 'xlat' it reaches a peak in the buried melodies of 'repeat', which Mego's Pita described simply as, "Fine stuff!"

'Assembler' is an ongoing release which features web-based mixes and audio patches by a variety of collaborators. Past additions to this have included Fehler vs. Pimmon's 'The Diazepam Suite', currently playing at rand()%."

"Assembler" was released by Fällt in 2000.

Get it here : Pimmon - Assembler

Fällt Directions 2002

From www.fallt.com : "The 'Directions' Series provides an overview of work by selected Fällt artists - both from forthcoming releases and works in progress. Each release consists of four artists contributing three tracks each and features artwork by Fällt designers Fehler printed on transparent offset-litho film.

Ian Andrews is a Sydney based independent film, video and sound artist who has been practicing since 1981. A forerunner of Australian artists Pimmon and Oren Ambarchi, he has released works under a variety of guises both in Australia and internationally. 'Ceremonial', his first release for Fällt, was the inaugural release on Fällt burn-to-order sub-label Ferric.

A series of gritty audio montages underpinned throughout by detailed rhythms and exquisite textures 'Ceremonial' is a beautiful suite of tracks which cover a wide range of styles and sounds. Without question some of the best music we've heard in some time.

San Francisco based Willits studyied at Mills College where his tutors included, among others, Pauline Oliveros and Fred Frith. 'Pollen', his first release for Fällt, was released in 2003.

A collection of unique folded guitar recordings 'Pollen' grew from software architectures that Willits designed and improvised with. A set of processes that fragment and fold smooth guitar lines on top of and into each other, generating patterns within patterns, the result is a music that unfolds within the spaces of melody while not being restrained by those spaces.

Warmdesk is Chicago based artist Bill Selman. Previous releases by Warmdesk include: 'Prole Drift' [Static Caravan]; 'invalidObject Series (function)' [Fällt]; a split lathe cut 8" with Pimmon [A Posteriori]; and 'BiP-HOp Generation Volume 2' [BiP-HOp].

As Warmdesk, Selman combines dense, noisy harmonics and dub-like bass with rhythmic patterns and samples from everyday life. The result is a multi-faceted 'spray' of sound grounded by a pulse of polyrhythmic beats.

Co-host and curator of London's Sprawl club/label Douglas Benford's alter-ego(s) si-cut.db/si-{cut}.db/sidecut>>db… have been featured on the Sprawl Imprint and, most recently, BiP-HOp. 'Offices at Night [Volume I - Originals]', his second release on Fällt was released in 2004.

Warm dub, soaked in static - points of reference might include: Vladislav Delay, Thomas Köner, Pole and King Tubby (in no particular order)."

Tracklisting :
01. Ian Andrews - Recursive Toupee
02. Ian Andrews - Jaffa
03. Ian Andrews - Andevorato
04. Christopher Willits - Limnanthes
05. Christopher Willits - Flora
06. Christopher Willits - Stomata
07. Warmdesk - Rhetorical Move
08. Warmdesk - Plaster Casts + Letter Stencils
09. Warmdesk - Site
10. si-{cut}.db - Slavic
11. si-{cut}.db - Constance
12. si-{cut}.db - Confit

"Directions 2002" was released by Fällt in 2002.

Get it here : Fällt Directions 2002

Fällt Directions 2001

From www.fallt.com : "The 'Directions' Series provides an overview of work by selected Fällt artists - both from forthcoming releases and works in progress. Each release consists of four artists contributing three tracks each and features artwork by Fällt designers Fehler printed on transparent offset-litho film.

In late 2000 the URL for a series of MP3s was forwarded to us via an anonymous remailer by an artist working under the name 'Ted Sulkowicz'. We could find no reference to Sulkowicz or his 'Hotel California'-sampled 'Kid_Newtown' (released on Fällt digital sub-label Fodder) anywhere.

Who is the mysterious Mr Sulkowicz? Rumours abound, including one: that it is none other than Australian prankster Pimmon. Whoever, whatever; responses to the first Fodder release have been overwhelmingly positive. You listen, you decide.

Since 1998 Mathieu’s work has focussed on the digital processing of acoustic events, a process he describes as: "extracting sounds from homoeopathic vibrations at their source." The results of these explorations have been nothing short of startling with incredibly focussed tracks which retain the essence of the works they sample while sounding nothing like them.

'Frequency Lib.' is the culmination of this process and includes digital extracts of work by, amongst others: Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Kiss, Fats Waller, Hot Chocolate, Queen, Kraftwerk, The BeeGees, Captain Beefheart, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley.

Warm analog dustscapes by former New Zealand based musician Aut. "All source material has been retrieved from the detritus of vinyl LPs and 7" singles collected over the years. The material itself ranges from discarded rock records and musical soundtracks to more 'serious' music including contemporary avant-garde improvisation and drone recordings."

Digital processing has rendered much of the original material unidentifiable, however due to the nature of these fragments, they may be recalled by some listeners. "Offcuts from surrendered vinyl."

'Directions 2001' closes with three sketches from Pimmon, the second of which 'Yemdatem' was subsequently featured on Pimmon's first release on Tigerbeat6 'Electronic Tax Return'."

Tracklisting :
01. Ted Sulkowicz - Kid_Newtown
02. Ted Sulkowicz - Kolc
03. Ted Sulkowicz - Black Dot
04. Stephan Mathieu - Clear Spot
05. Stephan Mathieu - Right Place
06. Stephan Mathieu - The Stomach Room
07. Aut - Soundtype
08. Aut - Home
09. Aut - Sero
10. Pimmon - Horizonalite
11. Pimmon - Yemdatem
12. Pimmon - Take The Piano Skin To Knowledge

"Directions 2001" was released by Fällt in 2001.

Get it here : Fällt Directions 2001

Das Dreidimensionale Möbiusband [2 x CD + CD-ROM]

"Das Dreidimensionale Möbiusband" is the first release from the Flying Swimming label which is headed by Kouhei Matsunaga.

CD 1 :
1-01   Achim Wollscheid - Radio Piece
1-02   Asmus Tietchens - Böszopfler (= An Evil Man With A Tress)
1-03   Conrad Schnitzler - 00/143 (1-15)
1-04   Das - Kreis Der Fünf
1-05   Darius Ciuta - Near By One
1-06   Es - Kukat Ovat Hyriä Kuuntelijoita
1-07   Felipe Caramelos - Que Su Cante Me Lastima
1-08   Frans de Waard - Klankschap #7
1-09   Ilpo Väisänen - Vihan Päivä
1-10   John Watermann - Unfaithful Moments

CD 2 :
2-1A   Trevor Wishart - Fanfare
2-1B   Trevor Wishart - Contrapuntus
2-02   The Animist Orschestra - Non Title
2-03   Spectre - Soaring To The Depth
2-04   RLW - Rappel Das - Or: Dealing With Indiscipline
2-05   Merzbow - Earth Nazareth
2-06   Liddikoatight - Ka-Cho-Fuh-Getsu
2-07   Leif Elggren - The Paving Stone Is The Weapon Of The Proletariat No. 5
2-08   Juozas Milasius - Tenderness
2-09   Kouhei Matsunaga - Star Point

The pack includes the audio part as well as the CD-ROM part, with photos and artists profiles.

"Das Dreidimensionale Möbiusband" was released by Flying Swimming in 2003.

Get it here : Das Dreidimensionale Möbiusband

Jeff Greinke & Rob Angus - Crossing Ngoli

From Discogs.com : "Jeff Greinke is a musician, composer, performer, sound sculptor, and visual artist who is known worldwide for his unique sound. Through a highly developed process of layering, Jeff composes and performs music rich in texture, depth, mood, and subtle detail. Using various acoustic and electronic instruments, found sounds, and extended studio techniques, Jeff sculpts sound worlds that conjure a strong sense of place, hovering somewhere between the exotic and the familiar.

Rob Angus is a Seattle based musician and sound engineer who was a big influence in the early 80's on local musicians in Pennsylvania when he and Jeff Greinke ordered the import records at a local music store. Rob got people enthusiastic about reel to reel tape loop systems (Frippertronics style stuff), and he got a few people access to Penn State's electronic music lab, which had one of the earliest Moog synthesizers.

Jeff Greinke and Rob Angus also produced and promoted some interesting concerts before they moved to Seattle in the early 1980s. They collaborated extensively for a while on early ambient industrial music until they moved on to solo work and other projects."

"Crossing Ngoli" was released by Ear-Rational (a division of Dossier Records) in 1992.

Get it here : Jeff Greinke & Rob Angus - Crossing Ngoli

As Yet Untitled

A noise and experimental compilation from Realization Recordings.

Tracklisting :
01. Architects Office - AO705.1
02. Randy Greif - The Wedding March
03. PBK - The Ducking Stool
04. Michael Chocholak - Owl-Famine Windigo
05. Hands To - Gigist
06. Wisconsin Conservatory Of Noise - 30 Samples For Orchestra
07. Thomas Dimuzio - Zosz
08. John Wiggins - Timbre Maps #5 + #4
09. AMK - Rail Blues
10. Dimthingshine - Regurgitate
11. Illusion Of Safety - Sirede
12. Static Effect - Circle Breaks The Line
13. Murray Reams - Guitar Mix
14. Arcane Device - Dead Birds Sigh A Prayer
15. The Haters - Fuchait 6

"As Yet Untitled" was released by Realization Recordings in 1991.

Get it here : As Yet Untitled

A Bead To A Small Mouth

This compilation brings together the works of Nurse With Wound, Graeme Revell & Anthony Mannix, Mother Tongue and Zoviet-France.

Tracklisting :
1. Nurse With Wound - A New Dress        
2. Graeme Revell & Anthony Mannix - A Concise History Of The Machine        
3. Graeme Revell & Anthony Mannix - The Skull (Excerpt)        
4. Mother Tongue - Chapter And Verse        
5. Mother Tongue - Words        
6. Mother Tongue - Shut Their Mouths        
7. Mother Tongue - Inside And Outside        
8. Zoviet-France - White Dusk

"A Bead To A Small Mouth" was released by Barooni in 1989.

Get it here : A Bead To A Small Mouth

Minima-List

From Allmusic.com : "The compilation CD Minima-List launched the small French label List, devoted to minimal music (i.e. microsound, lowercase, etc.), both electronic and acoustic. It introduces the work of a few French artists placed among tracks by better-known names like Komet (aka Frank Bretschneider), Otomo Yoshihide, Taylor Deupree, and Richard Chartier. The musical grounds covered are a lot less minimal than one would expect. There are worlds to discover between Chartier's see-through, silence-drenched tones and the textured noise of Fabriquedecouleurs (aka Emmanuel Allard). Each artist has enough time to make a statement (three to eight minutes) and the order of appearance makes sure there is enough contrast between tracks to let particularities shine. Highlights include the distilled beats and melody of Komet's "Zug," Speakerine's harsh feedback guitar-driven "Minim Ammo" (quite an ear cleanser), Matthieu Saladin's multi-tracked sopranino sax drone (or is it a double-reed instrument?), and Alan Licht's concluding "Retrograde," a dreamy guitar loop. What about Yoshihide, you may ask? The 12-minute "2 Guitars" features him playing two guitars at once -- actually he produces out of them single pure tones one just a bit out of tune with the other. Sine waves flap, the sonic landscape shifts as the listener turns his/her head or moves around in the room. Very minimal indeed. Minima-List should satisfy fans of the genre and can work as a good introduction to its major exponents and stylistic directions."

Tracklisting :
01. Sogar - Aiuto Mathausen
02. Charles Curtis - Acoustic Mass Interference Phase
03. Komet - Zug
04. Otomo Yoshihide - 2 Guitars
05. Fabriquedecouleurs - Ninjiski
06. Taylor Deupree - Occur.10
07. *0 - Cytomics
08. Sol - Vers#1
09. Speakerine - Minim Ammo
10. Richard Chartier - Composition 09.01
11. Matthieu Saladin - La Telhaie On Waking
12. 0/r - Untitled..
13. Alan Licht - Retrograde

"Minima-List" was released by List in 2001.

Get it here : Minima-List

Otomo Yoshihide - The Night Before The Death Of The Sampling Virus

From Allmusic.com : "This conceptual recording by the Tokyo avant-garde composer was a groundbreaking experiment in deconstruction released in 1993. The piece is based on a system that exploits the malfunction of the CD player, whereby the listener is instructed to play the CD in shuffle mode to achieve a random replay of very small fragments of sound and thus hear an entirely different piece of music with repeated listens. Much in the way that Oval worked with the destabilization of the CD medium, Otomo Yoshahide applies a similar rhetorical approach to this complex noise work. Listeners should be warned -- according to the liner notes, the CD can actually cause damage to the CD player before destroying nerves, one's concept of music, and ear drums all in one go, which, to say the least, is quite an achievement. A milestone work in abstract electronica and avant-garde that is essential to collectors of audio terrorism."

"The Night Before The Death Of The Sampling Virus" was released by Extreme in 1993.

Get it here : Otomo Yoshihide - The Night Before The Death Of The Sampling Virus

Randy Greif & Dan Burke - Fragment 56

From Allmusic.com : "While pop music masquerades as innovation ('modern'), Greif and Burke truly create. They use the studio as a thaumaturgic circle to conjure up new spirits. Current technology means reliance on merely instruments is a thing of the past and this team accepts that. Anything our ears may experience may return to us, transformed. Thus, the apotheosis of the ordinary and the inclusion of the sublime and unexpected. Fragment 56+ is a sonic arabesque."

"Fragment 56" was released by Complacency in 1994.

Get it here : Randy Greif & Dan Burke - Fragment 56

Pimmon - Kinetica

This is the fourth album from Australian artist Paul Gough, aka Pimmon.

"Kinetica" was released by (K-RAA-K)³ in 1999.

Get it here : Pimmon - Kinetica

Strafe Für Rebellion - Moor

Strafe Für Rebellion interview from Hyperreal.org : "For many listeners with an interest in unusual music, Germany has been an effective shangri-la. In the 50s and 60s, Karlheinz Stockhausen's movement from total serialism through improvisatory, process and electronic music represented the most obvious sign of German avant-gardism. In the seventies English-speaking listeners turned to Faust, Can, Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk as the more accessible representatives of an adventurous tradition that never achieved quite the same recognition in Britain or America. In the eighties the name of Einstürzende Neubauten became best known, combining "industrial" methods of music making (found scrap materials, noise elements, dominant percussion etc) with a flair for exciting live performances. Throughout this period, the big names have tended to disguise the existence of hundreds of other innovators, so that only the afficionadoes are likely to be familiar with Gunter Schickert or Narwal. Of all the lesser knowns, I consider Strafe für Rebellion to be one of the most consistently innovative, and undervalued.

A duo of Bernd Kastner and Siegfried M. Syniuga, Strafe FR have existed since 1979. Over the course of several albums since then, they have developed a style of abstract instrumental music that owes a lot to their use of home-made instruments, found objects and field recordings, but is never subservient to them.

1989's Vögel compilation is perhaps definitive, containing tracks from as far back as 1981. Take Boston, recorded in 1988, and utilising "a goods train passing by, birds, howling wolves, steel nails beaten inside a steel pipe, blow with a hammer on a steel case, squeaking spring on a wooden holder of a roll of toilet paper, e-guitar played with a violin bow, male voice, wrist watch, beats on a metal tube (using foam)". None of these are gimmicks; the music that results combines brief snatches of rhythm with low animal / mineral drones and a groansome male voice to produce music of real imaginative power. Unlike other Düsseldorf groups whose music suits the city's image perfectly or is striving to escape it, Strafe FR's music is timeless and placeless; it may create an effective imaginative space in your head but it transcends any connection with a real place.

Strafe FR explained their musical techniques to me as follows: "As you probably know we do not use any electronic music instruments. We do not condemn electronic music instruments at all, it is just not our approach. One central aspect of our work is the use of field recordings, either wild or domesticated animals, machines and all kinds of noises that we think are peculiar in some way. We go searching for sounds during trips, we occasionally find them or we consciously go looking for special sounds (visiting a zoo, for example). When we do field recordings already some compositional elements come into being - they go beyond the pure documentary sounds and beyond the quality of our normal archive. We also use 'normal' music instruments and 'prepare' them, there are also self-made music instruments or noise machines. But we never use anyone else's pre-recorded sounds; we have never used samplers nor rhythm machines." They are also careful to point out that all the instruments they use and recordings they make are only tools; however peculiar they may be, Strafe do not see the use of these as an end in itself.

I don't know if Strafe would want to identify themselves as post-Cageian, but John Cage's ideas are clearly relevant to their music. If Luigi Russolo legitimised the use of harsh, mechanical noise as part of music, then Cage legitimised all other sounds, including the environmental recordings that feature prominently in Strafe's music. Their use of amplification on small sounds (such as the squeaking toilet paper holder in Boston) seems reminiscent of Cage's Cartridge Music, which amplified musicians playing directly on a record-player's stylus with tiny brushes. Strafe's Rising Sun makes the connection more explicit, as it employs the "grinding noise of a thin wire on the rotating turntable of a record player (amplified by a tin can)".

Another Cage connection is Strafe's approach to the use of conventional instruments. "We are interested in each and every 'traditional' (ie non-electronic) musical instrument that we come to know and that we find. No matter if it is a lute from 100BC, a Bechstein grand piano that is out-of-tune or an electric guitar. First of all we are not interested in handling those instruments in a craftsman's way, we are ready to drape those instruments, we torment and harass them. What is decisive is the sound itself, and not the esteem in which the instrument is held. This is also valid for musical instruments or sound-producing mechanisms that we have developed and built by ourselves."

This is one area where Strafe FR are way ahead of most of their peers; an interest in all sounds, a willingness to accept unorthodox ingredients for their musical recipe, and most important of all, an ability to create powerful, evocative music out of these unconventional sources.

Another area that makes Strafe of particular interest is their interest in extra-musical ideas, both as inspiration and information for their recordings. The "concept album" is, of course, not a new idea (nor one that it's easy to mention nowadays without sniggering!) But Strafe are perhaps unusual in the way that non-musical concepts often dominate musical theory in the way that they think about and produce their own music.

"The main idea in our work is of course a musical one! But the starting point can well find its origin in non-musical fields. When we make music we might have in mind a concept from a research scientist or an explorer such as James Cook. We have no interest in the kind of scientist working at BASF to develop a new sort of tape material. He is a professional man and just a narrow specialist. On the other hand, there is a scientist doing research on bird language. He created a bird language machine to carry out analyses. He got over the documentary method and proceeded into the music of birds and was able to differentiate the character of each kind of birds. He composed a symphony of bird language. By doing so he left his research realm and enlarged his interest - now he was no longer a specialist, and became a searcher who we are interested in. Another example of a non-musical model could be Erasmus of Rotterdam, as he broke conventions as well. Yes, as a rule we are more closely tied to non-musical models than musical ones. A musical model might be John Tavener, John Cage, or John Lydon.

"There are historical or biological models that can inspire our music. An example is when creating a drum rhythm, not to think about the measure, but about a Roman slave galley. The musical inspiration is not Kraftwerk, but a sick lion, Faraday rather than Stockhausen, a film about animals rather than Monteverdi. The music theory is never decisive or authoritative. In this sense, we do not plan to create a mood in minor or major."

Strafe extend their interest in non-musical factors to the way in which they affect the listener as well as the music-maker.

"Music is more than an acoustic phenomenon. The perception of music is dependent on the ability (and capacity) of the human ear - how the ear functions technically and how the brain is able to work out those informations, knit them together with the information from the other senses, your thoughts and your individual experiences."

1991's Lufthunger succeeded in combining several concepts into a coherent whole. Ostensibly, it is a 10-part symphony stretching from the Cambrian period of 530 million years ago through to the most recent 2 million years of the Quaternary period, describing and mirroring geological and ecological evolution. On a more musical level, it explores themes of gradual and catastrophic change, the sleeve notes pointing both to how human perception of prehistory is affected to a great extent by our negative view of catastrophes, and also to how in the much briefer history of music, sudden new developments have also been viewed negatively. Strafe FR suggest a third important influence: "Lufthunger could only be created in the year 1990. That is why it does not only deal with the pre-history! At that time the Gulf War ('Desert Storm') took place, which certainly influenced us emotionally and in terms of general atmosphere."

Strafe's next release, Öchsle, was a more lyrical project, illustrative of Strafe's continuing interest in language. "In Öchsle we used words that we 'translated' from an original Hamar (Ethiopian) chant into German in an onomatopoeic way - but the choice of words was not incidental ... We have also developed our own peculiar Strafe language according to our own special way of working. There is also the natural human (vocal) language and the musical language. That is why we have created several radio plays using our music as a soundtrack." The lyrics, composed of these 'translated' words, are left as a chant, and form the major element in several tracks, but several others are solely instrumental, exploring Strafe's usual wide choice of instrumentation and textures.

The most recent album, Moor, represents something of a surprise, as it turns its attention to the rock and pop music worlds. Of course, Strafe's own unique use of rock sounds and patterns swiftly removes the familiar framework in favour of music that retains the energy, textures and devices without having to pay too much lip-service to the form itself. "Moor should offer different opportunities and a variety of different musical windows. Moor of course also has a lot to do with our personal interpretation, how we both perceived the music of the past three decades, which the two of us have consciously heard and listened to."

However much the critic might want to dwell on the way Strafe FR recontextualise the familiar rock elements, the group's own vision is much less prosaic.

"If you take Moor as a landscape, it offers a lot of possibilities; either to drown, or to get marshy, or to get bogged down, or to get blinded by beauty. You watch a rare animal or plant and the next step there is muddy soil. There is a good smell of heather, but also millions of summer-gnats and the black grouse. A moor also has its unique acoustic. In the musical Moor there are some contact mines to be found; there are sloughs, poison snakes and slow-worms to be found in the world of pop music. After a short time big parts of pop music disappear inside of mud holes where they rot and decay. Occasionally some of this rises again as a moor corpse - these revived corpses appear in pop museums but they have historical relevance only, they are spent and past. The contact mines in the pop music can cause destructive explosions which give birth to new possibilities, or just create new holes in the ground.

"You need all your senses, feelings and personal atmospheres to experience music. It is important to push away your blinkers, the way of perceiving that automatically has the tendency to fall back into its old narrow position."

These wide open spaces have to be taken as an allegory, since as soon as you hear the galloping beats and electric noise of Moor's opening track, Bog Bay the images that come to mind won't be those of the quiet countryside. The instruments employed are more conventional than those that Strafe usually adopt - Schoolmaster II even consists only of piano and electric guitar - but the musical possiblities are as uninhibited as ever. On Stradivarius, which mixes distorted riffs with pounding drums, and inappropriately classical singing, it requires a quick double-take before you recognise the presence of the violin. As ever, it is the total sound that determines everything else, and Strafe's juxtapositions of melodic and noise elements are as striking as ever. There's even a sense of humour present, and in places it's very obvious:

"We are neither the first to use noises in music nor have we invented a new kind of music - noises itself are not yet music but they become music if we put them in the order of a composition. We are very much interested in language ... We do have a special Strafe humour. However, humour can be understood or it can be misinterpreted. We cannot prescribe humour. Humour can be a variant that stimulates every work."

Where next? Strafe do not play live very often, and then only for special events, rather than as part of a tour, but the possibility of an appearance in Britain has been suggested, and may yet come to pass. Keep an ear out, because whatever happens, it should be good."

"Moor" was released by Staalplaat in 1993.

Get it here : Strafe Für Rebellion - Moor

Strafe Für Rebellion - Öchsle

From the liner notes : "Strafe F.R. is Bernd Kastner and Siegfried M. Syniug. All words, noises and instruments by Strafe F.R. All recordings (1989-1992) by Strafe F.R. No electronic instruments were used. Mixed with Michael Grund at Grundfunk Studio Düsseldorf in March 1992."

"Öchsle" was released by Staalplaat in 1992.

Get it here : Strafe Für Rebellion - Öchsle

Strafe Für Rebellion - Lufthunger

From the liner notes : "Lufthunger is a hunger for space, a hunger for a spacious environment, a longing to look at the stars and landscapes. It is also a hunger for history. But humans, who might live to be 80 years old, must make a big stretch of the imagination to conceive of a timespan of 5000 million. It makes us quiver, and actuality melts.

Music cannot be interpreted as being naked and detached from the history of culture, and neither can it be detached from the time before man first appeared on this planet. The noises of prehistoric animals and the screams of Cro-Magnon man are beyond bounds, for in this context, pop music is as brief as a second in a year. So Lufthunger involves a search for new fields to question the old and to descend consciously into chaos - to create a new order, and then to question that too. For human beings who are used to think in moral patterns, catastrophes means something fundamentally negative.

Each change first of all is a threat! At times, there have been catastrophes in music that caused a shock to the system - to the way we think and to the way we hear - a danger to harmony. Human harmony is unbearable to nature. Chaos is an essential antecedent to rebirth."

"Lufthunger" was released by Touch Records in 1991.

Get it here : Strafe Für Rebellion - Lufthunger

Strafe Für Rebellion - Vögel

From Discogs.com : "A duo of Bernd Kastner and Siegfried Michail Syniug, Strafe Für Rebellion ("Punishment For Rebellion" - later known as Strafe F.R.) started in 1979. Over the course of several albums, they developed a personal style of abstract instrumental music that owed a lot to their use of home-made instruments, found objects and field recordings. They dissolved quietly in the mid 90s, after releasing the "Pianoguitar" album."

"Vögel" was released by Touch Records in 1989.

Get it here : Strafe Für Rebellion - Vögel