TJ Norris' Igloo Reviews Batch

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Cordell Klier :: Apparitions (CD by Ad Noiseam)

Ghostly slow-wave clicks filtered and smooth, like a mid summer campfire
with just the faint crackle of the elements, or snowflakes melting in
mid air. This is the new disc by Codell Klier. Complete with low
cadence cling-clang this recording represents the full-on richness of
what can be developed within the realm of microsound. Chilly, staged
observances of minute sounds amplified for to bracing effect. This
reminds me of a monitoring satellite, far beyond the solar reaches,
powered and static. This sounds like a field recording from some
interplanetary cosmos, absorbing your attention through atomic
discourse. Klier steeps your ears and ferments your mind.

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Stephan Mathieu :: Gigue, Live @ A-Musik (CD by Fällt)

Why did Muskrat Love pop into my head upon listening to this disc?
Maybe it is the north pole to its south? Who knows. Upon first listen
to this impeccably live recording I was a bit distracted by the huge
windstorm that blew a tree over in front of my studio, cracked from its
roots. The marriage between the live elements in my life and those on
this disc had a certain resonance. The crackly palette of whirring buzz
rounded the edges of my afternoon. Fällt, the year old Irish label has
made such a jump start in the world of curating the highest quality
electronic noise, I am ever mused by their take on the future of sound.
This disc, in particular, has big, wide definition, it clears your head
and opens new pathways by incorporating a genuinely beat free
contemporary whitewall symphony. At just about one half hour Gigue,
Live takes its listener into ominous crevices, lifts them higher and
channels a stream of unyielding din that releases you in its finality.
This two-track disc has a necessary silence in between the dissonance of
track one. Left with a low hum Variation the ears have a respite from
the spontaneous sound ride we had just gotten off. I still feel me skin
vibrating. Since these are all limited to 500 copies I recommend
making your inquiry early on.

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eM :: Outward (CDEP by Foundry/Hypnos)

The second in a new EP series by Foundry is a 3-track atmospheric gem by
label director eM (Michael Bentley). This exploratory disc has so much
compact conceptualism housed in its short 21 minute format. As it opens
a haunting “From The Earth” smirks back at Eno’s classic Music for
Airports, in its open range, free flight – or in this case its more
float. Harmonically based in sci-fi premise, the quietly engaging
“Across the Milky Way” guides its passengers on a galactic joy ride.
Though this ride is measured and gaged and monitored. I can’t help
getting the feeling of surveillance. Or having that physical experience
of knowing there is another human in your living space when the
television is on. There is something about breaking in and out of
electrical signal here. As the disc closes with “Beyond the Magellanic
Clouds” the miniscule pops seem amplified to 10000 times their size.
The piece draws to an end as these tiny spheres collect as a pool of
electrons, break free and vanish.

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Janek Schaefer :: His Master’s Voice (CD by audiOh!)

This is Schaefer’s first ever recording using the completely live
process of the Tri-Phonic Turntable dated back to 1997. I opened the
hand numbered, very limited edition, hand lathed vinyl which comes with
an additional CD-r to delight. Subtle sophistication, black on black
printing, the packaging is artfully subdued. The sound ranges from
electronic ocean waves and open static electricity to the title track
which is a Plunderphonic collage, Schaefer’s first in this style. We
hear T.S. Elliot reading from a mono-based extract of a mid 1940s poem
as Schaefer manipulates the tone arms, plays with speeds and other sound
differentials. The finished piece is stunningly open and warm, almost
like a scientific technician explaining his process to a class. It’s
hard to easily capture the larger sonicism on this recording, but it is
a perfect example in some real basic audio differences between vinyl and
CD. The warmth, the crackle, the hiss, all seem more cozied up in bed
with you here as the translucent grooves spin. We are treated to
sci-fi anthems and warped, “woodpeckery” perky percussion. Steamy,
filtered blasts of fine hosed air, billowing out and sucking in. It’s
so crisp and clean. Sounds like a lab at the edge of an island.
Schaefer himself has painstakingly put the package together and to
lustrous effect. Get ’em while there hot (off the press)!

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Various Artists :: Clicks & Cuts 3 (CDx2 by Mille Plateaux)

German label Mille Plateaux, the powerhouse of mimimal experimental
electronica, has unveiled its new Clicks & Cuts 3, becoming the latest
in a continuum of its series dedicated to all the smaller, finite, mini
sounds around. Included here is a veritable who’s who of the genre. No
called anything from click/cut to microsound to techno redux to my
preferred, beatless, this collection of buzz, hiss and static has a
delicious creamy center. Tracks are included by Alva Noto, Michel
Stavöstrand, Swayzak, Tim Hecker, Atom Heart’s Geeez N’ Gosh and many
others. From what is evidenced herein the sounds are expanding and
exploding. Funkier, deeper beats this time around. There is a
concentration on breath and voice in tracks from artists like SND to
Luomo. Claudia Bonarelli’s contribution “Disarm The Police” has a
pulse-pace, slow-slow-quick-quick-slow. This double disc has street
smarts and attitude, unlike its colder, sharper predecessors. But with
this new found freedom there may be a certain rejection of what was
previously built into differentiating this series from others. Or maybe
the dialogue has just opened up wide and said AHHHHH! A nice surprise
is a piece by Boris Polonski which just takes formula and screws around
with it. Having fun with a Mouse on Mars vs. Wurlitzer aesthetic, a
happy lil’ theme peeps up behind all the sporadicism. I find this
blending finely right into the always startling and fun sound-art work
of DAT Politics’ on ‘Bubble Queen’ with its compu-voices stretched and
tweaked ala Richard James and/or V/VM. Deru (Benjamin Wynn) re-enacts
what could seemingly be a full functioning lung in his big bellowing
“Migrade” which has a tender thematic approach. Frankfurt-based
composer and educator, Ekkehard Ehlers offers a nice surprise, an
abstract and droned-out wash of dulled pastel sounds, with a recycled
feel, an end of the day stressed out letting go, a Nyquil-infused hybrid
of sound noise. The theme, if there is one, is lighter-on-your-feet
fractured techno beats with well oiled heels planted firmly in a time
machine destined to strut somewhere in the future.

Clicks & Cuts 3 is a unique experiment in equivalents, making a universal association of artists based on several continents. It’s post-disco, post language
barrier. This recording seems to blend “old skool” clicks/cuts with a sultry beat of divine rhythms as clearly evidenced in the warm down tempo ‘Lovers Inn’ by Antonelli Electr. Tim Hecker’s “Brownwedding” weaves sonic sewing machines and a trail of suppressed voice with a peculiarly micro-hidden dance beat. Though many tracks paraphrase what Berlin producer Pole (Stefan Betke) has been doing for several years, the “sound of right now” is just all warm and fuzzy – perfect for these
winter months!

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Warmdesk :: The Pride of the South Side, Live @ WHPK (CD by Fällt)

Another marvel in the Fällt line (ltd ed 500 from Fällt Live Series).
Chicago’s Warmdesk (Bill Selman) addresses concerns on both sides of the
new millennium’s abstract dance floor. He resorts to keeping the themes
multi-tiered, with a few stylistic things going on simultaneously. You
are treated to the sensual warmth of low pulse beats while hearing
someone rummaging in your junk drawer, or toy chest. “Non-Profit, 100
Watts” imposes repetitive beats that are emphasized and invigorated by
playful liquids and what could be industrial staplers and other found
sounds. There seems to be no particular stipulation to the overt
freeform nature where aural meets textural on this disc. On “Non
Commercial, 88.5 FM” these various channels reflect our speed culture and
emphasize that people keep moving when we don’t, action occurs by way of
both improvisation and restraint. This is a perky, quirky river of
static play with many spectral streams.

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Bob Bellerue :: Threat Level Charlie (CD by Anarchymoon Recordings)

Out of nowhere comes a dramatically empowered recording by LA-based
sound artist and performer Bob Bellerue. Using glass, metal and other
electronics as the sound sources Bellerue is a physical performer with
no regrets. His work here is akin to other such experimenters as Aube,
Knurl and a touch of Brume. Sounds like an evil potion – but this is
far from evil. Its magic recipe is in its sporadic sense of
improvisation and drama. The composition is blindly organic and
freeform truly made of ingredients, formulated through its base
structure and all its singular elements coming together, clashing at
times. There are mind numbing screeches and quieting intervals of
solace. He has used broadband noise developed from speeches by George
Bush and Osama bin Laden and distorted them beyond recognition into the
overall final mix. Winning top honors at this year’s Centre de Cultura
Contemporànea de Barcelona Bellerue’s sound collage of homemade
instruments and noise have a big presence. The final piece is made of
four interlocking tracks, clocking in at about 45 minutes, that are raw
and capture a live sound. He calls it “poetic terrorism” and I call it
an aural mind bomb. For fans of Nocturnal Emissions and Illusion of
Safety.

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Various Artists :: Lowercase-Sound 2002 (CD by Bremsstrahlung Recordings)

A deluxe package these boys have boxed for us. Not only do you get a
2xCD set but you get a duplicate set (just like their 1st edition of
this series) to give away to the bud of your choice. This would
ordinarily be a good thing – but here it is pretty amazing. Why do I
say this? Because you would be exposing the unexposed to the sounds of
the moment with artists like Dan Abrams, Carl Stone, Francisco Lopez,
Tetsu Inoue, Taylor Deupree, Reynols, Kim Cascone and John Hudak
included here among others. The finished package comes in a nicely
designed box with delicate transparent sheets, each supplying
information and quips about the tracks. Like 12Ks intimate Line Series
disc one (subtitled 789 breaths) is a real headphone listen. The quiet
atmospheres from Gal and Josh Russell simply merge into one another
fluidly. It’s not until Dale Lloyd’s “Fleeting Recollections of the
Snow Plain” that a certain static is generated that, in barely audible
tonalities, nudges the dome of silence. Seattle’s Matt Shoemaker
contributes the super subtle “Charm”, with the resonance of the halo of
a sulfuric asteroid. In its low whistling drone its cinema is defined
through its mid-track emergence and fizz, weighted and searching. On
“m” Electric Company (Brad Laner) takes all that Los Angeles attitude
for granted in its subversion of the beat. This completely ambient
track has a vaguely organic and endless horizon line. Closing disc one
is Hudak’s “Radio Past” in which the source is an unknown wax cylinder
recording, maybe filtered, deliberately translucent – like a marching
band in a can! As disc two (194,415,960 samples) emerges from the
silence of Francisco Lopez and Otaku Yakuza we are instantaneously rapt
by Akira Rabelais’ “Disjectimembrapoetaeeatelich” a vernacular is built
from static electricity. Its mini rumblings are harmonized and
multiplied, dissected and set free. Saarbrücken-based Stephan Mathieu
serves the infectious and repetitive duplicative “Flake” made up of
millions of teeny tiny particles of sound. Diapason Gallery director
and New York-based composer Michael Schumacher’s “Still” is anything but
what the title infers. This quirky track sends numerous ecstatic sound
bubbles into the environment to implode, retract, multiply and move
rapidly about. The symphonic chamber of Japan-based Carl Stone rings on
the laptop created “Tefu”. The completely digital track has an organic
core and a shifting modality of happenstance. Taylor Deupree’s “Inharmil”
breathes by way of timed apparatus. In its construction there is the
low fidelity rumble of what cautiously sounds like a distant factory
with a flat bed engine and conveyor belt on auto-run. There are subtle
sharp flashes of fizzling sparks, and the rest is atmosphere. Kim
Cascone, the man who coined the term ‘microsound’ searches and finds the
convex and concave on “Edge Boundry #1”. What sounds like an electronic
jungle way past midnight seems to undress itself with an awkward
precision, a known conclusion. Sensuous glitch for the masses.

The
fullest track here is “Groundwater” by Sweden’s Jonas Lingren based on
the dramatic floods and breaking dams in Sundsvall 2001. Here he has
truly captured a live entity and embellished its roaring nature. This
set may scare some, and may induce others to sleep – but by far it is
one of the highest quality collections of the year, taking needed risks
with a developing genre.

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