npr.org: "Battles looks like a normal quartet, but there are subtle differences. A drummer and bassist sometimes plays guitar, but then there are two guys who play both guitars and keyboards, often at the same time, with a technique that involves tapping the strings of their fretboards with one hand while fingering their keyboards with the other. Then the group uses digital looping devices, so a player can record a guitar phrase, loop it back, and then play a different line over it. So suddenly four musicians become five, or six, or seven." Read on + 2 ful tracks
wnyc.org: "The New York-based band Battles claims to be four guys with impressive indie-rock resumes and a mountain of electronic gear. But after hearing the chipmunk vocals and thumping grooves on their album Mirrored, you might get the impression they're actually bionic men sent from the future -- to rock. We talk with guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams and drummer John Stanier." Listen here
bbc.co.uk: "Mark Russell and Robert Sandall present a live improvised solo set by Norwegian singer Maja Ratkje, using electronic processing to extend her voice, recorded at the Bath International Music Festival." Listen here
allmusic.com: "Mike Kivits, the man behind Aardvarck, is but one of several respected artists on the Amsterdam-based Delsin label. The producer's material largely consists of lush, melodic broken beat with the warmth of Detroit techno firmly in mind. Four 12" releases spread across 2000 and 2001 (Non Spoken, Ludiek, Re Spoken, and Nozum) set the table for 2002's Find the Cow, a 23-track gem of a full-length that vacillates between minute-long interludes and extended mood pieces" More
Hotguitars are Jyrki Laiho and T-mu Korpipää from Finland. kevytnostalgia.org: "Most of the music—invented on the spot, then manipulated on a computer—features two loud electric or acoustic guitars, which are liable to explode into screaming, distorted miasmas or to blur together in an ethereal fog with the help of Korpipää's laptop and the pulse of old-school electro-beats."
alien8recordings.com: Shalabi Effect is the most difficult band to characterize in the Montreal’s vibrant music scene. Since their inception in the late 90’s, the band, consisting of Sam Shalabi, Alexandre St. Onge, Anthony Seck and Will Eizlini, has managed to keep their sound fresh and exciting. They rarely play previously released material and they never repeat themselves live, giving each performance an unpredictable edge.
This fourth and latest offering was recorded over three consecutive evenings during the band’s recent residency at the Montreal Arts Interculturels institute in Montreal, Quebec. The band practiced throughout the day and recorded each evening’s performance in front of a live audience. They then harvested a selection of the best material to create an album of unbelievable improv. The result is a record that truly represents the band’s appetite for experimentation and their desire to keep things interesting for their loyal following as well as for themselves. More info and MP3 downloads
forcedexposure.com: "The debut full-length from Coptic Light (NYC) is a massive piece of music. Consisting of three epic, dark, and moody instrumentals -- these musicians have been around the block and their expertise shows. They've created a truly unique album with atmosphere (which can't be said for everything that comes out these days). Sure, some of the riffs could be considered 'mathy' but the songs don't stay in that territory long before stretching out into vast, expansive, visceral meditations." More
Sam Davies / The Wire: "his voice - when it intermittently appears - is disembodied by distance, by distortion and by echo. Its reedy quaver sounds barely conscious of its own presence, let alone an audience. it recall ths lo-fi contrainess of Alastair Galbraith and even the inscrutable shadings of Mississippi John Hurt or Bascorn Lamer Lunsford on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music"
More info and "Rebound from the cliff" as a mp3 file
sirr-records.com: "This piece was recorded live at Phil Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New york in the spring of 2005 and is part of Andre's ongoing series focused on creating micro-environments, computer controlled hermetic spaces. Bringing together sound and space through sympathetic vibrations, sound is used as a medium to excite space in order to render audible its natural resonances – sound multiplying in and by space.
Six objects were suspended from the ceiling at different heights, each one made from a globe of white glass with one microphone, one speaker and one electrical lamp inside. Each speaker was connected individually to a computer, that triggered 6 different frequencies – one for each of the speakers. These frequencies were tuned to the objects' resonance frequencies causing them to resonate.
There was no amplification for the sound coming from the objects. Kenneth Kirschner was plugged into the room's sound system."
spectralhouse.com: "The Gates Ensemble is an electro-acoustic ensemble formed in September 2001 to realize the piece Gates, for which the ensemble was eventually named. The piece involved free improvisation within the context of strict entrance and exit times. Since its inception, Gates has had a somewhat fluid membership. As of the time of this recording, Gates consisted of Brent Fariss, Jacob Green, Holland Hopson, Bill Thompson, Josh Ronsen, and Travis Weller. Past members have included David Drew, Afshar Kharat, Clark Crawford, and others.
"...fluent and imaginative, sustained electronic drones and whines weaving among dramatic instrumental clusters." - The Wire"
Chris Cutler, The Wire : "Alcorn is a great player who has mastered and redefined an unlikely instrument (pedal steel guitar) . . . With an exquisite touch she invoked the history of her instrument, extended its emotional and ethereal strengths, and explored its microtonal possibilities, drawing it out of contexts that traditionally render it invisible -- or generic -- and placing it into its own mature discourse . . . reminding improvisors that "free" includes the right to be romantic, melodic, and eight to the bar."
The Wire: "Los Angeles based musician and film maker Hans Fjellestad may have earned more column inches recently for his film work (his 2004 documentary on the synth pioneer Robert Moog has been widely praised) than his composition of late, but let's not allow the volume of an off-Hollywood career drown out the quieter tones of a growing and consistently interesting musical opus. Kobe Live House, is, as its title suggests, a live album, recorded in one unedited take over two sets at the Big Apple jazz club in Kobe, Japan. Equipped with a grand piano, laptop, synth and some custom software, Fjellestad - a pianist who studied composition and improvisation - brings a spontaneity to the album's seven untitled pieces that is as risky as it is laudable."
mp3 downloads:
There are lots of mp3 files available via his homepage. Unfortunately there is no "MP3 Page" but here are the links to all the sub-pages providing mp3 files:IIIIIIIVVVI
highqualityrecordings.co.uk: "estron is the latest musical project to emerge from the fertile mind of producer geraint ffrancon. new album y crack cymraeg ('the welsh crack') is an attempt at updating a thousand years of traditional welsh folk music. looking beyond the stereotypical folky image of smelly beards, bad jumpers and crap real ale, welsh folk music contains a wealth of genuinely beautful and moving melodies, and it is these melodies that form the basis for estron's ecclectic meanderings. the music on the album was premiered at a gig supporting gruff rhys of the super furry animals, and the wire described it as "ultra cool, idyllic welsh electronica""
thedrones.com.au: "The drones formed in Melbourne as a four piece in early 2000. Their sound has been described as a car crash inside a washing machine. Sometimes chaotic and stern others melodic and joyfull."
brassland.org: "When Clogs formed they were an oddball classical ensemble in indie rock clothing. Today, however, they're at the forefront of a scene including friends in groups The Books, Rachel's, and Bell Orchestre. Clogs' fourth album, 'LANTERN' (2006) is their finest and most varied effort to date. They augment their unique sonic palette (acoustic guitar, strings, percussion, bassoon) with melodica, piano, ukulele, and mandola. Guitarist Bryce Dessner goes electric. Per usual, Newsome adds haunting vocals to one song, the title track: "Light me a lantern/in your lighthouse, my keeper/me a lantern" Consolidating and expanding on the sounds of their first three records, it also sees Clogs writing the best melodies of their career and incorporating more dub and rock influences." More
pangaearecordings.com: "The music is hard to describe in simple terms: on Capillary Action's 2004 debut Fragments (PAN001), Pfeffer dabbled in melodic death metal rave-ups, fractured no wave-inspired crescendos, Latin rhythms, video game music, lounge jazz, new wave synths, and mathy melodies-- sometimes all within the same song! Picture a Naked City without the bar-band leanings, a more eclectic version of Hella, or Fugazi, Boredoms, At The Gates, James Chance, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Godspeed You Black Emperor engaged in a vicious argument over a parking space and you might begin to scratch the surface of the sound being relayed on Fragments." More
Jim Haynes, The Wire 264: "The spirit of HP Lovecraft is alive and well in Danish horror/ambient project Wäldchengarten. Electrical Bonding captures the familiar post-Industrial atmosphere of abandoned factories left to their own decay, both physically and existentially. The nihilism that these Danes express in statements in the sleevenotes about "unhealthy habits of power-supplied tubeheads with nothing better to do than sticking forks into electrical outlets" is comparatively juvenile when set against the nightmarish abyss they sculpt in their recording" Read the whole review
INSIDE THE WIRE 264 (FEBRUARY 2006) (on sale NOW)
ON THE COVER: Edan: The Boston DJ/MC/producer trawls widely, from Old School hiphop to 60s freakbeat heroes. By Hua Hsu
SOUNDCHECK: Acustronic Ensemble, AGF.3 + SUE. C, Susan Alcorn, Alog, Laura Andel Electric Percussive Orchestra, Arkstar, Broken Hands + Lucky Rabbit, Susanne Brokesch, John Butcher & Eddie Prévost, Capillary Action, Andrew Chalk, Clogs, Coil, Anla Courtis/Kouhei Matsunaga, The Drones, Estron, Hans Fjellestad, Fursaxa, Lou Gare, The Gates Ensemble, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra/Maggie Nicols, André Gonalves & Kenneth Kirschner, Graduation Trio, Anthony Guerra, Anthony Guerra & Nishide Takehiro, Ignatz, Immolation, Kattoo, Joëlle Léandre, Natalie Rose Lebrecht, Lethe, Liars, Francisco López/Scott Arford, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Greg Malcolm, Minimum Chips, Ilya Monosov, Nash Kontroll, Nautical Almanac, The Nevermet Ensemble, No-Neck Blues Band, Lise-Lotte Norelius, NRA, KK Null/Chris Watson/Z'EV, Opsvik & Jennings, Prefuse 73, Razor X Productions, Secret Mommy, Solex + Mae, Sunroof!, Masayuki Takayanagi, Masayuki Takayanagi Angry Waves, Tangent/Jin Sang Tae/Choi Joon Yong, Thighpaulsandra, Thus, Town And Country, Various: Fonotone Recordings, Frederick, Maryland, The Village Orchestra, JD Walker, Matthew Welch, WWIII, James Wyness, Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra, Z'EV/John Duncan/Aidan Baker/Fear Falls Burning, Zu and more...
PRINT RUN: Interrogation Machine: Laibach And NSK, by Alexei Monroe; It's About That Time: Miles Davis On And Off Record, by Richard Cook; The Study Of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues And Concepts, by Bruno Nettl
CROSS PLATFORM: Miya Masaoka: Rewired kotos and bioacoustic barnstorming; Reviews: Brazilian Tropicália exhibited in London, plus Robert Ashley, Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer, Jim White and more on DVD, Plus, The Inner Sleeve: Wynne Greenwood (Tracy + The Plastics) on Team Dresch; and Go To: Our monthly Net trawl
ON LOCATION: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Huddersfield, UK; The Young Gods, London, UK; Broken Social Scene, London, UK; Dial-A-Diva, Glasgow, UK
PLUS: Epiphanies: Johny Brown on Russian dissident Sasha Baschlacho; Global Ear: Hull; Savage Pencil's Trip Or Squeek and more
ONLINE WWW.THEWIRE.CO.UK
Enter our competition to win one of three pairs of tickets to Kill Your Timid Notion, held at Dundee Contemporary Arts, 17-19 February. Hear two tracks specially provided for THE WIRE by this month's cover star Edan. Listen to music by this month's Invisible Jukebox contender Steve Reid in collaboration with Kieran Hebden. Read more tributes to the late Derek Bailey. Download an exclusive track donated by Philadelphia collective Bardo Pond. Read the transcript from Marc Masters's Bardo Pond interview. Hear a selection of music by trumpeter Birgit Ulher and colleagues. Listen to a track from Sleeparchive's forthcoming EP. Download some of the new music emanating from the Hull underground.
thewire.co.uk: "A full collection of tributes to the late musician, including a number of pieces which were not published in the magazine (The WIRE 264)
On Christmas Day 2005, Derek Bailey died, aged 75, from complications arising from motor neurone disease. David Toop charts his determinedly nonidiomatic approach to guitar playing through a career that spanned television showbands backing comedians like Morecambe & Wise, the birth of European free improvisation, and the founding of the pioneering independent record label Incus. Plus, artists, colleagues and friends offer their personal tributes to one of free music's most enduring, radical figures" Read the whole piece
allmusic.com: "Bardo Pond was the flagship band of Philly's "Psychedelphia" space rock movement, which also included the likes of Aspera, Asteroid No. 4, the Azusa Plane, and tangentially the Lilys. Explicitly drug-inspired -- their titles were filled with obscure references to psychedelics -- they favored lengthy, deliberate sound explorations filled with all the hallmarks of modern-day space rock: droning guitars, thick distortion, feedback, reverb, and washes of white noise. Hints of blues structure often cropped up, but Bardo Pond's earliest roots lay with avant-garde noisemakers from the realm of free jazz and from New York's no wave movement and downtown Knitting Factory scene." More
allmusic.com: "There was a small but vital hip-hop genesis in Boston at the tail-end of the 1990s led by a motley group of artists (Porn Theatre Ushers, Skitzofreniks, 7L & Esoteric, Mr. Lif, Insight) who shared a number of musical attributes -- a love of block-rockin' retro-beats and veneration for the hip-hop "new school" of the late '80s and early '90s, and a proclivity for irreverent, tongue-in-cheek lyrical styles, to name the most significant. Bedroom geek Edan (aka the Humble Magnificent) was the most block-rockin' and irreverent of all Boston's underground scientists. A triple threat on the microphone, as a producer, and behind the wheels of steel, his music -- a willfully oddball and eccentric blend of rap's past and future -- caught on first among the progressive cognoscenti of London, but had such exuberance and appeal that it was only a matter of time before it staked out territory on its home turf as well." More
The Wire: "Los Angeles based musician and film maker Hans Fjellestad may have earned more column inches recently for his film work (his 2004 documentary on the synth pioneer Robert Moog has been widely praised) than his composition of late, but let's not allow the volume of an off-Hollywood career drown out the quieter tones of a growing and consistently interesting musical opus. Kobe Live House, is, as its title suggests, a live album, recorded in one unedited take over two sets at the Big Apple jazz club in Kobe, Japan. Equipped with a grand piano, laptop, synth and some custom software, Fjellestad - a pianist who studied composition and improvisation - brings a spontaneity to the album's seven untitled pieces that is as risky as it is laudable." 
thedrones.com.au: "The drones formed in Melbourne as a four piece in early 2000. Their sound has been described as a car crash inside a washing machine. Sometimes chaotic and stern others melodic and joyfull."
