reactor

Pubcast - Episode #1

2008-04-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a podcast recorded in The Cheshire Midland last Friday. If you want to leave comments on how it could be improved please do as this is effectively a pilot episode. It's on Dundee indie rockers The View

Pubcast - Episode 1 (right click to download)

Feature - James Yuill

2008-01-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

James Yuill has got to be disappointing live. It's the same old routine that you get with the more -tronica than folk- of the folktronica lot. They shift into little venues with all their tech, the sound engineer can't for the life of himself understand why a folk artist would want to play loud; they set-up the monitors poorly so that come the end of the first song when the artist asks them to "turn it up", the engineer can't because of feedback and the gig is shit.

According to his myspace he is currently unsigned... tuff shit.

Fortunately, this song sounds good, here's the video

News - Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 - 2007)

2007-12-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

Some quite upsetting news today: Karlheinz Stockhausen has died. The composer of some if the most influential music of the 20th Century, received great acclaim from a cult following throughout his career. I am sure over the next month we will see many fitting tributes to the man. The Guardian, in all their preparation, have posted an obituary, here.

Feature - Sylvain Chauveau

2007-12-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Frittering electronics, as the drones expand like a child inflating a balloon, then snap, the sound bursts leaving nothing but the crackling of air and the churning vibrations that open the song.

Classical composition features heavily in the output of Sylvain Chauveau. Orchestrations are the blueprint for this renaissance of endeavours in the world of electronica.

Track A_ sees an inversion of medieval music, with two independent themes, or melodies, interspersed to create one entity. The purist out of his contemporaries, (who are here and here) Chauveau subtly implements minimalism through the texturing of sparse sound. One of the most distinguishable aspects of this music is that the distinct musical forms resemble film score. Every piece begs out for David Holmes, or whoever, to lean down from the heavenly clouds of Hollywood and grace them on some soundtrack.

Here’s the translation from an interview Chauveau did back in 2003 with popnews.com:

"I want a poetic aspect in my music. But as there aren’t any songs in my work, it tells me that the poetry must be in the titles. Like one-line poetry. As if these discs were collections of poetry and sound. That’s really what I’m looking for. From the end of the nineties to the beginning of the noughties, during 3 or 4 years I read Henri Michaux almost exclusively, that’s been an enormous source of inspiration for me. That left me to imagine so much musically. I read a list of titles in collections of Michaux and I say to myself that my pieces became closer to that."

So the new record released on Type is called 'S' and here is a song called A_. Got to love poetry.

Sylvain Chauveau - A

Monday Record Review - Great Dane?

2007-12-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Efterklang – Parades LP (The Leaf Label)

Causing much of a storm at the moment as some journalists frantically modify their best of 2007 lists to accommodate the album, Parades is - all in all - sickeningly sweet. (I am currently blaming this album for the cultivating mucus blocking-up my head.)

The facts: Efterklang (translation, Reverb, according to my flatmate – who actually had to enquire off a fellow Dane.) hail from Copenhagen and they’ve been going at it since 2001. They released an EP earlier this year, which topped the charts in their home country and are now on their second full length LP. There are five members in the band, who are joined by four others on stage.

Reading the beautifully packaged CD case, Parades features more than thirty guest musicians. Just consider it, thirty people who would attend rehearsals, require a briefing about the song they’re featured on, then musical direction / redirection / accommodation. What a monstrous undertaking! Subsequently, the band weren’t able to play any of the songs together prior to the record’s release.

Parades is practically indecipherable. Early listens feel like being dragged blindfolded into Charlotte Church’s home and being bombarded by sustained vocals (namely ‘aaaaaaa’) whilst a gaggle of Welsh girls shriek, “Oooh, lush, I like that, that’s lush that ‘ennet.”

Seriously though, whether the album is meant to be viewed as ambient / experimental / post-rock, or whatever the sound requires some aesthetic wealth. Theoretically, this may be the case, ‘rich textures and intricate sounds,’ but the result is undirected mush. The sound never looks forward nor is it at any point self-sufficient, that’s to say that this listener neither anticipates nor appreciates a moment.

Fuck Buttons – Bright Tomorrow 7" (ATP recordings)

Thud Thud Thud Thud, Dooooo Do Dooooo Do Do Dooooo, Durrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Opening with a pounding bass drum, which is then over-powered by a dazzling Hammond loop. Then whilst the listener gravitates away into their own world, devastating guitar overdrive soaks up the moment, climaxing with some scream-core gibberish.

This might not be everyone’s favored music, (I wouldn’t hold it against someone if it wasn’t,) but for this strain of sound, Fuck Buttons will please more than most. Potentially more simplistic -hence accessible- than other noise artists, Bright Tomorrow is a sterling tune.

Feature - Jason Molina

2007-11-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

“No! You listen! All my life, you have told me that the world is a dark, cruel place. But now I see that the only thing dark and cruel about it is people like you.”
- Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (©Disney, 1996)

Jason Molina is one ugly son of a bitch; resembling a member of a freaky circus more than a heartfelt – slightly effeminate - folk singer. On stage, he looks a bit pathetic, rocking slowly from side to side and often sporting a camp neckerchief. He stares vacantly into the stage lights, happy to block out the presence of his ever-expanding audience.

It’s quite necessary to be self absorbed at a Jason Molina gig, shut your eyes and drift off to the music, just don’t for the life of it look into his eyes. After trying to read his expression for just under half an hour, the only conclusion is, a) he experiences agonising pain whilst performing and b) not even Man Friday could solve his loneliness.

New album Black Ram, released as part a Magnolia Electric Co. box set, started being recorded in November ‘05. During the initial studio sessions, Molina’s mother suffered a serious heart attack and has since been comatose. The sessions were completed the following February at Sound Of Music in Richmond, Virginia. The record was initially a collaboration between Molina and David Lowery -of legendary alt. country rockers Camper Van Beethoven. Before too long, Andrew Bird of Andrew Bird fame and the embarrassingly talented Rick Alverson had also joined in, amongst others.

Black Ram is a great representation of the emotional swill that travels with Molina on his yearlong tours. Lyrically it is as honest as ever. There are few like him. A major pitfall however, is that he occasionally adopts a Quasimodo complex, for instance on The Dark Don't Hide It…

Magnolia Electric Co. - The Dark Don't Hide It

Buy into it: Jason Molina
1. What Comes After the Blues by The Magnolia Electric Co.
2. The Magnolia Electric Company by Songs: Ohio
3. The Lioness by Songs: Ohio
4. Sojourner Box Set by Magnolia Electric Co.
5. A gig ticket

For more information, including tour-dates, go here and here.

Monday Record Review - Better late than never

2007-11-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Magik Markers - Boss LP (ecstatic peace)
In 2005, hipper-than-hip Magik Markers, - just look how they spell their name, they must be coolest band in the world? - signed to Thurston Moore’s trendy underground label Ecstatic Peace. Since then the band have nonchalantly chartered a career path between The Dead C and Lydia Lunch without having to be reverent or dismissive of links with either of them.

Renowned for their explosive live performances and the highly coveted CD-R’s of their shows, it was understood that their sound is lost in a formal recording studios. Although Boss is more diverse than their popularised noise rock, it is as articulate as anything that they’ve laid down previously. What distinguishes them from their contemporaries however, is their lack of pretence.

Axis Mundi opens the album with a defiant block of shimmering guitar Noise which isn’t revisited until much later in the album on Pat Garrett. In Empty Bottles singer, Elisa Ambrogio meanders nonchalantly in and out of key, delivered with an icy coolness that resembles Lisa Milberg of The Concretes. Two standout moments on the record are the melancholic country-tinged ambience on Bad Dream/ Heartford’s Beat Suite and the woo-ing pop on Taste.

The fluidity of the record is interrupted by the inherent search for tension between the spectrum of genres achieved on this record. Although Boss avoids being abrasive in this sense, the strain on stylistic breadth is noticeable and whilst entertaining, it could be interpreted as naïve or patronising.

However, such languid criticism –I’m sure –will not be long lasting; Magik Markers seem to be made of stronger stuff these days. Gone are the flailing vocals found on (2005 studio album) 'I Trust My Guitar, etc' and the cavernous drums on the live records, in its place is the sound of a band fighting.

Scout Niblett - Kiss 7" (too pure)
Gonna keep this sweet…

Great little single from Nottingham based songsmith Emma Louise Niblett, featuring the vocals of Will Oldham. Niblett’s music sounds like she’s been sucking Everett ‘The Legend’ True’s toes all of her career and for some reason or other, it works. This record in particular could be taken from 'Summer In The South-West' if Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy was less egotistical. Speaking of which, although we laugh and joke about Mr. Oldham’s jaunts into the world of Hip-Hop (examples, here and here), his presence on this record isn’t a mile away from the ilk of a rapper’s cameo. Which make’s me think when is this obsession of his going to end?

Anyway, for your own amusement, here’s the Kanye video featuring the G himself:

Feature - Circuit Bending

2007-11-10T05:34:00.000-08:00

If you want an emotional and exaggerated account of circuit bending, it’s birth and development, describing how one man has been employed to make music by lots of rich people who are too lazy to write albums, please follow the corresponding links. However, this blog does not intend to resurrect the corpse of a dead man who used to play with machines, just so you can get off on the fact that you know more about circuit bending than Joe Bloggs.

Fortunately, hip circuit benders (is it acceptable to call them that?) Modified Toy Orchestra manage to make music from these crude machines without being dead or self-affirming. Whilst artists such as Kid Carpet exploit the lo-fi novelty of using children’s toys to –unsuccessfully- flog records and gig tickets, Modified Toy Orchestra obsess over their instruments. In using toys, the sound recreates childhood phenomena producing entertaining yet disturbing results. Onstage they resemble a pack of Humbert Humbert’s (no, not the DJ…well actually, maybe. But that’s not the point is it!) rather than the perhaps intended Kraftwerk.

What’s perplexing is that once they have bent enough circuits, destroyed enough toys and soldered the equivalent of a Henry Moore, how do they develop sound into song? For an interview with Pascal Wyse in the Guardian, bandleader Brian Duffy explains, "It all has to come from what the toy offers…but you bring compositional skills to the process." - Whilst not being very informative, it does explain the cause to the effect of a varied and surprisingly affecting output.

Modified toy Orchestra performing freeno and olaf. Live in Serville, March 2007

You can find out more here and here

Monday Record Review - a couple of roman candles

2007-11-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

Britney Spears – Blackout LP (sonybmg)

Ms. Spears has made some poor decisions in the past year, the drink/drugs, the fanny-flashing (American visitors, read ‘cunt on show’) the MTV Awards and now the album cover. Look at it, surely a contender for worst picture ever to grace record stores since Hall and Oates. A fortnight ago, this album was set to mark another milestone in the decent of the pop starlet. Still only 25 years old and presumable seeking more control than ever over her life/career/children/status, Spears, it seems, has relinquished said control to the relevant parties.

It was expected that this would be too little too late for Spears; after a series of ropey releases and misjudged public performances her backers have fled (To imagine the recording studio resembling the dusty corn fields of her birthplace might not be a million miles away). Previous studio supervisor and current industry in-joke R Kelly is nowhere to be seen, any suggestions…? Gone too is Moby. Undoubtedly, these fickle entourages have previously helped her career but seemingly not their own. Comparatively Nate 'Danja' Hills has made his name – away from his mentor Timberland – as the finest producer at the controls, whilst providing Spears’ languishing career with a sharp shot of adrenaline.

Danja has driven the focus back to the robot-pop sought circa the release of her greatest hits. The beats are sleazy affairs; the absence of ballads allows the record to drive home the debauched sound and avoids any cringe worthy attempts to portray Spears as a mature version of the chaste sweetheart she initially set out to be.

With the exception of Pieces of Me the album is surprisingly un-egotistical. There have been musings this year that pop music needs to become fun again; Blackout accomplishes this without sanitising the subject or diluting the content.

Slow Club – Me and You 7" (moshi moshi)

Sheffield based indie duo Slow Club play ditsy DIY to people who like knitwear. He is called Charles and she is called Rebecca, he plays thrift shop guitars whilst she stomps and whacks chairs and pots. Although they don’t date they are a perfect twee couple. This is their second single released by Moshi Moshi and they have an album due out in January. The sound is easy to digest and there aren’t many surprises. They’d be quite dull if it wasn’t for the novelty instruments, anyway they seem to do enough to keep the kids happy.

I’ve posted the video for the single, it was directed by a friend of mine, Nick Shaw - he is a nice man. My girlfriend wanted to be in this video as she was in the last one, unfortunately she can’t skate (or cycle for that matter), so she isn’t.

Monday Record Review - Swearing is a sign of…

2007-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Holy Fuck – Holy Fuck LP
Recently there has been, as is commonplace with many ‘experimental’ artists, endless attempts at categorising Holy Fuck. For what it’s worth, they’re not a million miles off Amon Düül II at their most electronic, albeit not being anywhere near as ground-breaking or ambitious -which kind of makes them not very experimental…alas.

Opening track, Super Inuit sounds like a fat kid on speed frothing at the mouth deliriously in public. Whiling and buzzing, it’s hard to recognise how natural the high is, with drums equally arhymic and sparse as Broadcast.

Jumping from the fluid to the choppy the album’s track-listing could be geared to unsettle the listener. This will never be that effective in a day and age, where the kids ain’t got time for such low fidelity Tom foolery. Anyway, how often does anyone actively listen to a whole album start to finish?

The beat is so heavily indulged in the production that it resembles more of a sweltering pop record than one of outer-limits Krautrock. The overbearing rhythm section grows repetitive and aurally straining resulting in the record being unnecessarily inaccessible. Lovely Allen is the only track that seems to have benefited from the production, but still leaves little to admire; whilst The Pulse provides a fresh alternative for avant-garde dancefloors.

Beneath the rattle and hum the record is worth your while.

Shocking Pinks – End of the World
There’s a lot to love and hate about this 7” by Shocking Pinks. Without going into too much detail:
Good points:
Lyrics, “I’ve got to find a way to make it all make sense again” sound like the band have come out of a shoegazing induced coma from the 80’s met James Murphy and are currently struggling to grasp reality. B-side is equally as strong, if not better, than the a-side.
Bad Points:
Sonically it is a flat line ambient scuzz. Like typical shoegazer it is self-absorbed and easy to dismiss as flaccid drivel. Depressingly simple.
Conclusion:
Occams Razor doesn’t apply to music. Would sound better if on Valium.

Start with the roots

2007-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview with Alan Light for the New York Times, Jack White explains, “Everything from your haircut to your clothes to the type of instrument you play to the melody of a song to the rhythm — they’re all tricks to get people to pay attention to the story.” So you’re thinking, ‘Oh, alright… So Jack, is that why you look like a bloated junkie?’

But for all his flaws - including his unrelenting patriotism for everything from by-gone blues artists to slave-labouring cola producers - his attitude towards the music industry is admirable.

After exploiting a press pass at one of the Summer’s festivals I enjoyed from backstage the showmanship of Mr. White. His shuffles, props and just his general aptitude at guitar along with the obsessive aesthetic content, provide his previous statement with conviction.

Revering roots blues and his adapting the stagecraft of 70’s stadium rockers - I couldn’t got the notion of early Sabbath out of my head - makes him, a pop star truly conscious of his contribution to the industry.

With this in mind, here is a song and a video to kick-start the blog.

The White Stripes – you don’t know what love is (video)

Although live it is hard to see from the crowd due to the stage monitors, Jack is quite a veteran at the guitar shuffle: as displayed in this video.

Son House – John the Revelator

This was an easy one to pick as it has been covered by Jack and Meg for obvious reasons… it is a brutal, harrowing display of how the most simplistic blues can become totally overwhelming.

All this talk of the White Stripes has got me thinking about a Toe Rag Studios entry, watch this space…

re*ac*tor