Quiet Noise: Kevin Drumm

There is a subgenre of noise, and it is truly still noise versus being "ambient" or being "electronic".  This subgenre does not have a lot of subscribers to it, mainly because it is hard to master.  But the preliminary master is Kevin Drumm.  The music is what I'm going to call Quiet Noise.

No, it's not just noise music with the volume turned down low.

The essential part of quiet noise must be the darkness, the foreboding presence to be felt.  You might be saying, but then what is Dark Ambient?  Dark Ambient is different because it is more structured, more built around "creepiness".  Quiet Noise exists because like noise, it is structure-less, impulsive, and if it did get loud enough, it would qualify as noise music.  

Kevin Drumm has released many a noteable album.  He is one of the front-runners of the American noise music scene, and a very intriguing dude.  He started to release things via his blog website a few years ago, always limited, usually via CDr or cassette.  Many of these releases are ultra limited, so if you're interested in them act fast.  http://recreationalpanick.blogspot.com.ar/

Anyways, they really change up what the "theme" or "type of music" they are from release to release.  You might buy one and hear a droning, processed accordion (The Kitchen), you might hear fragments of electronic bustle (The Back Room), you might hear an intensely quiet "barely there" whine (Blast of Silence).  It is these later releases I'm focusing on now.

The real start for me was "Twinkle Toes"  which even Kevin described as "airy romantic bs".  It is just that, barely there, single blips of sound, and a throttling background of what sounds like a police siren slowed down about 200%.  It's music that I don't know how to understand, it escapes all rudimentary classification.

Following in its footsteps were "Moving", "UGH", "Quiet Nights", "Tannenbaum", and "Earrach".  I think "1983" is going to be the same, but I have yet to buy it (I know, just kill me now).  That's okay, I literally opened up a new tab and bought it just now.  So there.

I don't know how else to describe this music or to extend to you, my casual viewer, that is is very unique.  Especially if you get your hands on Moving.  I have only heard an excerpt (I don't buy cassettes, sorry!) and it's amazing.  And I would love for anyone with a copy of UGH, to just add a description of it, online, for the rest of us.

https://kevindrumm.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgCHrPdSUvg

Each man kills the thing he loves

I know, this is cheating.  I know, this is one line from one song.

The song:  Yukihiro Takahashi The Core of Eden, which is also on YMO records.  But I just love this track.  I love this track, I love Takahashi, and though I already did Yellow Magic Orchestra once, I just can't seem to stop listening to this track.  And oddly enough it's mostly because of that one line...

"Each man kills the thing he loves"

Takahashi's voice dips in pain at the end.  His voice carries a strength that emphasizes just how easily it can be defeated.  Its a wavering, undetermined, very weak and vulnerable voice.  It shows us all the reality of love.  Love is not a strong worldly power.  Love is a delicate, fragile, easily misplaced and overlooked thing.

Love can't change the world, love can't save a life.  Love is a porcelain vase standing on a towering pile of toothpicks standing end on end, the slightest breeze or sneeze sending them all catapulting toward the end of existence.

Each man kills the thing he loves.

Taken from Oscar Wilde's quote in A Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Oh, and I didn't even touch on the chorus, "This is the end of the Earth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFfH8n1rEAQ

Michael Morley: Gate and The Dead C

So recently I've really gotten into the sound of blurred guitars, vocals, drums, and noise that is New Zealand's Gate and The Dead C.  The man behind both is Michael Morley.  I'm going to go on a rant right now, which is at least a bit related.

If you are in the music industry, or any industry, or alive, USE THE FUCKING INTERNET!  I could've seen Michael Morley live!  Recently! Apparently he was literally just in San Francisco live at the Great American Music Hall.  What the fuck.  Unless the website I found was wrong.  But seriously, I don't research what is playing every single week in my area, because you've seen my blog.  99% of the shit that plays I don't care about.  So that means when an artist I care about comes, unless they have an online presence and mention it, I am likely to miss them.  Case in point:  I saw Fennesz when he came to SF because it was on his website.  I missed Michael Morley cause he has no web presence.

Anyway.  That aside.  I love static soaked, low-fi sounds that reverb the fuck outta the listener and crumble away just as they begin to make sense.  Michael Morley, apparently, is also a fan.  I got into the Dead C and Gate just recently, and it is a unique moment for me when I listen to something for the first time and alreayd know: yes, I'm going to love this band.  I am going to love The Dead C and Gate.

They are different in their styles and intensity.  let's start with Gate, cause that's where I started.  Gate: The Dew Line.  This is more drum-free, more noise soaked approach to music.  The droning groans and distorted instruments lull you into a trance like state as they simultaneously ease you down and build you up.  it's strong, somewhat undefinable harshness yet extremely calming and accessible.

I like the vocals in this a lot.  A mixture of shoegaze, and just pure "I don't fucking care" vocal approach, and the lyrics seem to be a bit out of nowhere.  Morley sings, "I needed all the words..." for no apparent reason, or at least none I'm aware of, on the track "Needed All Words".  All of the lyrics are similar, feeling disembodied, unreal, another part of the surreal dream that envelopes you as you listen to this music.

Dead C is like the Skullflower of Bower's projects.  Those of you who are like "wtf" this means that it's Morley's more typical band like approach to music.  With a drummer, and another guy, they create as normal music as you'd expect.  It too takes the low-fi, drenched in decay approach.  It is equally bizarre on different albums, the style changing from garage rock to extreme noise, to just plain strange (I'm looking at you, The White House).  To say that this music is easy to define is a huge mistake.  It is constantly changing, and it never does the same trick twice.

One this that it always is, unique.  Unique, interesting, diverse, and enlightening.  Here is a small weird selection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CId7PZ1Oobw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QVelULWPFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1yeukmSo4k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KhdrGJIasM  (same artist.  weird, right??)

Murmuüre

http://murmuure.blogspot.com/2013/07/update.html?showComment=1383689635228#c453741801684162481

I'm going to preface this entry by saying that in general, I really don't listen to black metal.  I don't care for the vocals:  the deep guttural men talking about whatever. And I don't care for the deep and repetitive bass lines, I just don't enjoy it.  Now technically Murmuüre may not be considered strictly metal, it is more industrial/black metal/experimental/whatever.  But you know what I can use the metal label as a generality.  And fuck you if you disagree.  Yeah.  In a good mood today.

Listening to Murmuüre the first time is an experience only similar in feel to those moments in life when you realize that you experiencing purity of emotion and thought.  I have only felt this way a few times, usually marked by a huge life event or by a musical experience that completely envelopes me.  Murmuüre has the enveloping, the purity down to a craft.

This one man band is the enigma of a man named Felix (or F.) and it is all based on a one hour improvised guitar session that is painstakingly recorded and mixed, added to and subtracted from.  I could go over the whole spiel, but why not just let him explain it:  click here http://murmuure.org/murmuure.html

In essence, this music transcends "metal"- it transcends everything really.  It is amazing, and being only 30 minutes long and six songs, that is really saying something.
The whole release (first it was cassette, reprinted as CD and vinyl) feels like a delicate poem almost, and although rigid, hurtful and unflinching, it is just as fine and intimate as a ballad.  It's a very personal work, one can tell immediately, one that must've felt like a weight lifted from the shoulders after Felix was done with it.
This music gives me hope for music.  I don't know how else to say it:  the fact that this exists is proof to me that I should keep searching, endlessly, for music.  Because sometimes you find something like this.

To go into specifics, the whole experience sounds very organic.  It's very raw and unrefined, at it's core a twisting and searing flame of emotional and existential void.  It creates and consumes not unlike fire, an uncontrollable and deadly fire that is respected as much as it is feared.  It has power, it entices you in and pulls you into it, and really it is just as powerful as love or sex.

The fine tuning, the "after effects" to the music, the drumming, the flute, the interesting whistle that starts the whole experience, the indiscernible yells that are heard sometimes, are just as important and just as instrumental as the guitar itself.  The whole thing is really built on those guitar improvs, taking something that is so raw in it's source and refining it down again and again, and then ending up with this as a whole.  The whole definitely exceeds it's parts in this case, although the parts are brilliant unto themselves.

The most remarkable thing about this record is that it's so entirely unique.  It truly sounds like nothing else.  In it's most basic level, it is a type of music, however in the details it's another, in it's performance another, and so on.  It could truly be loved by about anyone, I think.  Anyone with a good love of chaos that is.  Glowing reviews from everywhere online, being named heavy metal album of the month/week/year at different places by different people, shows I'm not the only one to think this, I can happily report.

The drumming is my personal favorite part of this.  The meticulous and very disturbed drumming, pounding away in a unconventional method, is beyond words.  The rot of the music, the distorted crumbling away of the archway upon which you balance, gives the drums a sick backdrop.  The timing of this release is impeccable.  Everything feels so exact, so balanced and thought out, and I suppose that makes sense for 30 minutes that took 3 years to make.  I admire and am astounded by that dedication.

I wish I could say that this is the first of many releases, or that it is not alone in its existence.  But so far I have yet to find anything that stands close to this in musical quality.  It is completely alone, and in all rights it should be.  It deserves it's own existence, it's own private musical universe wherein it reigns supreme as the only music and the only truth.

Maximum volume is necessary for full immersion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOWgOK7T8-s&list=PLvMmfPEKgNRiqOuYnOyzirITbpcwnrmW5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yi0jxET9U

please buy his music:

http://murmuure.bandcamp.com/

Black Sun Roof - 3012 & Feral

Given my most read post is about Skullflower's epic Fucked on a Pile of Corpses, I present to you another Matthew Bower project - the newest one, Black Sun Roof.

What discogs.com tells me is that Black Sun Roof is "A project of Samantha Davies and Matthew Bower of Skullflower and Voltigeurs, sometimes joined by Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk."  However neither of these two releases say anything about This Gordon Sharp character.  Samantha Davies and Bower seem to be constantly in collaboration, whether it's in Skullflower, Voltigeurs, or Valley of Fear.  So for them to team up again makes sense - and there does seem to be another element here, maybe that is Gordon, but again I can't say for sure.

Matthew Bower is probably one of my all-time favorite musicians.  You name what project, I'll like it most likely.  Given that the only project of his I haven't heard is the incredibly rare Sunlayer.  Now that Hototogisu is apparently over, and with Skullflower releases still coming sporadically, Bower clearly needs a new musical outlet.

Never one for slowing down or playing safe, Bower's Black Sun Roof project takes off immediately with the first release, Feral.  Feral is a grisly chunk of distorted noise, not as loud and aggressive as Skullflower's Fucked on a Pile of Corpses, but definitely in the same realm.

The noise here is a bit more harmonious, crafted, and musical.  The beginning track, Shit Slaughter has a theme of "skipping record" with a very short little snippet of a scream on repeat while chaos builds slowly around it.  Slowly the chaos overwhelms and destroys everything.
Lions and Peonies is my favorite track, calling back some of the works of Total, with a repetitive core sound, and layer after layer of distortion whirling around it.  It's truly an epic song.
Temple of Mithras, even sounds like some of the "shimmering" sounds of Sunroof! and Hototogisu, but with a howling background, and a bass line that those more happy-go-lucky releases never had.
Night Mare's Milk is an easy favorite as well.  Some distant bells and hazy noise infiltrate a repeating tune.  Good gradual build here.  Kind of sounds like a movie soundtrack
Son of the Blue Wolf introduces the only voices (I think) on the release, a clamor of voices in conversation whilst an actual melody builds and another repeating slice is also floating around in there.  Awesome.
Shadow of the Golden Fire is an almost ambient track, sounding like a repeating record caught in a groove of damnation and slowly falling apart before you.  It's eerie, slightly deeper than the rest of the release.
Feral was also released with a CD of some of Bower's older stuff, and 1 unreleased track.  The only songs that are rare on this CD is tracks 2, 3, and 7, depending on how hardcore a collector you are.  I would consider 8 also, but it is actually a reworking of "Ornamental Lake of Death" which is also on Wings Over America.

3012 is a completely different release.  When I heard Feral, I was glad it was the type of Bower project I like, and not another Sunroof! Temple Music.  The shimmery, Hototogisu approach is usually my least favorite of his musical styles, and unfortunately that is what the first couple tracks in 3012 sound like.  Granted, they are different enough, they have a static and some banging that would not be present in Temple Music, but all in all very little variation.
The last track, Glassy Penetralia darkens things up a bit with slices of what sounds like tortured machines presenting some very interesting sonic variances.  All in all, there is hope for Black Sun Roof (for me, anyway)
I have not heard 4 Black Suns & A Sinister Rainbow.  Please look for more reviews coming soon!


1/27/15 update:  rereading this, I realize I never actually reviewed all the songs on this release.  I still, in fact, have not added My Dark Angel, track 3, because well, I don't have it.  Someone send it to me!

Kaua'i

Yeah, I know, I didn't post anything last month.  Kill me.

I did however, go on vacation to the island of Kaua'i, so that's a good reason.

I wanted to find Hawaiian music to write about here, but couldn't really find any.  If you know of any good Hawaiian bands, send em my way.  I know of NONE.

So what else?  I've been listening to YMO still, and the three guys that did it are just great.  I love it a lot.  I wonder what else...  That's it.  I know, lame right?

More next week.

Adios, or should I say aloha

Akira Rabelais

Fragmentary seems like the perfect introduction word to Los Angeles based musician Akira Rabelais.  Either that or innovative.
His approach is not something that easily be pinned down, and there are multiple examples of this.  Perhaps the most telling part of this story is that this is a man that created his own computer program with which to filter and modify the music that he plays.
His creation of his musical program the Argeïphontes Lyre, was the beginning to his 7 releases, which span everything from field recording to glitch noise.  His approach is normally one of producing the sounds and then running them through his program which alters it via filtering, re-combinations, and morphologies.  It's a high tech way of adding a computer touch to everything, as usually the program will decide on its own what to do to the sound he made.
He tends to take an ambient, quiet approach as seen in much of his music.  Being a musician in almost the classical sense, he composes for piano and guitar, as well as cultivating ideas in the IDM/electronic genre.

 His first release, "Elongated Pentagonal Pyramid", was very much an electronic and abrasive approach, with a few slower and calming tracks to the release.  It was released by himself at first before picking up attention and being re-released.  "Eisoptrophobia" and "...Benediction, Draw" followed, being piano and guitar based albums, respectively.
"Spellewauerynsherde" was the first time it was truly clear exactly what his program was capable of.  Rabelais took Icelandic choir songs that he found, reworked them, and filtered them through his program.  What came out is a mutant, unexpected, and slightly haunted sounding release full of bizarre voices echoing and floating around, and soothing drones of voice tonality.
To compare it to anything else, one would have to draw a comparison to something that had been damaged, like the works of William Basinski, which were constantly in a state of flux despite being at its core, repetitive.
Rabelais took a foray into field recording with "AM Station" and "Hollywood", which I must admit I didn't enjoy, as I don't really listen to field recordings.  So, next!

"Caduceus" came in 2010 - and this is where shit got serious.  Immediately it hits that this is not the slower, ambient, and field recordings that had preceded it.  This took a turn back towards his first release, "Elongated", except that the noises in this were not computer produced, but guitar produced.  He played stuff on a guitar, filtered it through his many programs filters, and emerged out an loud and disturbing piece of music.  It is groundbreaking to say the least.

He has since vanished from the music scene, I cannot find any information about him since then, so I don't know if we can anticipate another release or not.  His website is another separate enigma, which you can find a lot of information on, if you're willing to dig through its many, many pages.

http://www.akirarabelais.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C4-K3L0gLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5bmX7UxIl0