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Caretaker, The - Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia - 20-Jan-07 02:14 PM
This release might be the one, which along with the “vvmt24” finally nails V/Vm onto the hall of fame of influential moments in modern European music. To release a 6-double CD with one of the V/Vm aliases, the spearhead The Caretaker, is simply a way of saying, “no more messing around.” In a typical V/Vm give-and-take way this release was given away first for FREE on the internet, and then people was asked to donate money and in that way make this 6 cd box set possible. It seems quite a few people were into the idea and made it possible to press it up in a box set like this, even more interesting is the fact that the selling price for the release was nothing more than around 250 Norwegian Kroner all included.
And so, what do we get for our money? Well, 6 discs of moody Caretaker music as only he can make it with drifting hallucinating sounds, which doesn’t sound like any other so called ambient music around, and doesn’t seem to emerge from a fantasy world but from the real world in which we are living. This release is absolutely outstanding in the ever-growing V/Vm catalogue and therefore a great place to start for collectors of a visionary English act.

Various - Unattainable Text #1 - 02-Nov-06 05:08 AM
Hail Hail! A very beautiful, clear slab of thick thick vinyl without any names save the label info. The 12" is a compilation, because there are a few style changes. Although probably arriving on deaf ears, for the most part, Diskono throws subtlety to the wind, and opts for a straight attack on tendencies they find despicable in the sound world. Here we have the opportunity to do two things:
1. listen to the sounds, think about them, and then let them go.
2. listen to the sounds and play a guessing game of who could have made it ("oh, sounds like pimmon, or my cousin Ed, he knows Diskono maybe he did one too!")
Here Diskono produced thoughtful and technical electronic sounds, without fronting them with a "so now" name. This is not throwaway work, despite the lack of brands (however small these electronica brand names may be in the scope of things).

Side b begins with a quiet piano, crickets and filter waves piece, and moves into haunted appliances with jingle bells before finishing with a great drain and drone work of compelling suspense.

Side a opens with repeating electronic chirps, moves into harder bits of well timed cracks and squeals, then a so-so gabba track, and ends on a slower scrape scape of an elevator in the desert.

Klaus Oldanburg at the turntables on a rainy winter night in Stirling? A listening experience with subtle connections, funny cuts, rough mastering but quite riveting in its fullness and light despite its pessimism.

Else Marie Pade - Et Glasperlespil - 02-Nov-06 05:08 AM
Vey much of the music on this CD could be mistaken for fine work produced this year, its sound is fresh and complex. Of course, since it was made between 1958 and 1964, there are some tell signs of its age. But moments of equipment limitation and funny mastering such as these only increase my wonder at the years in which it was made. The liner notes describe Pade as gathering artistic momentum in Copenhagen, Paris, and Cologne, but soon dismissed by music critics and academics in Denmark. Between her gender, the type of music, and her geographical position on the outside of electronic music circles, she really had the odds stacked against her. What a terrible shame, because this music showed an incredible balance between form and content rivaling the best of the electronic pioneers. Denmark should be ashamed of itself for not having supported her properly.

Her soundtrack to the radio play of Faust is striking in its formal play of sinewaves, and conceptually deft by its assignment of electronic sound forms with characters in a manner similar to Peter and the Wolf. (Oboe is wolf, flute is Peter...) Her play of sinewaves puts a 50 year jump on the work of the Japanese Onkyo musicians, and avoids the deathlock of formal drudgery. When faced with the task of scoring for fairy tales, she found the electronic tonal palette well suited for imagination: Lauridsen switched on a tone generator, turned a few knobs and the room was filled with the sound of mermaids just as enticing as they should be. Her Graesstraet or "Blade of Grass" composition describes a ridiculous yet romantic story of a blade of grass dancing in a wedding gown waiting for her groom the moon, while mosquitoes become drunk and butterflies play. This image is accompanied by the concret recording of instruments later enhanced by electronics to create a cartoon atmosphere well ahead of Bugs Bunny. Sure there are some early electronic music cliché moments of plunking and blooping, but give me one early OR late work of Stockhausen that does not contain huge chunks of stinky cheese movements and over serious lounging in sad comedy. Although her work was the first Danish electronic music broadcast in Denmark, the responsibility to nurture should not have ended there. This CD at least is an attempt to rectify this situation, but since she is alive and well today, perhaps someone in Denmark should buy her a G5 and a few programs?

This is a fu*k*** pretty pretty great CD

Mainpal Inv. - Hitachi - 01-Nov-06 04:45 PM
Goodiepal, Kraen Bysted, Kaori Imajo and Valerio Faggioni plays medieval wedding music with a whammy bar. Mainpal Inv. is a madman, --not "crazy" or "messed up", but a man who is upset. The more he learns about how things work, the more he becomes upset, and the more he becomes upset, the more attention he tries to suck towards himself, not out of selfishness, but out of generosity. However, he doesnt realize that people dont want to fix it, they are happy with it the way it is. Using this music, and these labels, (this time mega electronics giants Hitachi), demonstrates an inside longing to fix what he thinks is broken. Actually, he wants to fix what is considered normal. Goodiepal said he can sense people who want to act "messed up", but who are normal on the inside vs. people who are actually "messed up". This sensitivity is going to get him in trouble, but it will also keep his conscious clear, for the ladies.

It is unclear who made the actual tracks on this 7", because the label, as usual, is marked with a system only known to the Goodiepal. The sound is good and bad at the same time. It is boring and interesting at once. It is dirty London and clean Copenhagen, and something from the airplane ride in between

Evader, The - No Hats Required EP - 09-Aug-06 12:15 AM
6 tracks of pure club-track minimalism.... Steve Bicknell produced, this EP has obvious references to Rob Hoods Minimal Nation, which, strictly speaking, is alright, as mister Hood frequently graces Bicknells lost-nights with his presence.

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