Various – RēR Records Quarterly Vol. 3 No. 3

RéR QUARTERLY, VOL. 3 NO. 3 (RéR Megacorp 0303) MAG+LP 49m
OK, it's taken me a while to write about this, because although the record in the 9th of this series is certainly intriguing, the magazine that accompanies it however has mostly become a vehicle for nonsense. The only article within its pages with any interest to me is Roger Sutherland's piece on "Intermedia" the meeting of music and art in performance. What of the other essays? Well, there's Alan Jenkins' (of Deep Freeze Mice) silly diatribe "How to be in a Pop Group" (eight pages), a totally irrelevant letter from Tom Djll titled Synthesizer+Improvisation=Impossible?", his track on the LP goes to prove why he's no idea what he's talking about. Then there's other pieces by Alan Ravenstein (of Pere Ubu), Tim Hodgkinson and Chris Cutler that I found too tedious to read, dull and uninteresting. I'd love to know why Chris continues to issue the record and magazine in tandem, as now they have very little in common.
So, onto the recorded media, which is all very varied as usual. Opening with the ever intriguing Steve Moore and Chiaroscuro, a superbly crafted piece for tape loops that conjures a very surreal atmosphere. Lars Pedersen (aka When) presents a typical dense and complex sound construction. Illegal Function's Microclimats is a sparse piece of computer music, stochastic, dissonant, yet accessible, very close in feel to much music from Eastern Europe in the early-80's. Dave Kerman's Caroussel of progress is very much in the Henry Cow inspired U Totem vein. And then there's also curios from Jocelyn Robert, Hail, Abdo Men and Erik Hug, all insights into the innovative world of music one has come to associate with RéR, be it offbeat angular rock or chamber music with an avant-garde twist.
I can only hope that when the Quarterly moves to the CD medium, that Chris decides to divorce the two media, as I'm sure that most people intrigued by the music are not necessarily into the "intellectual" musings of the magazine.
review by Alan Freeman (Audion #22. July 1992)