"An arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds"

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Martyr paste


Hoping to get a review of post-krautrock powerhouse Groupshow's new The Martyrdom of Groupshow (due on ~scape next month) up shortly. In the meantime, hear all 12 sanctioned samples from Team Jelinek/Pekler/Leichtmann lovingly stitched together into a sad anorak's single file so you don't have to (not that you'd have considered it, anyway)...

& here's a still-blinding Berlin performance by the trio a few years back.  




Background (~scape has plenty more in this vein...): "GROUPSHOW is a project by three producers of electronic music based in Berlin: Jan Jelinek, Andrew Pekler and Hanno Leichtmann. The three artists, steeped in the formal language of minimalism, engage in a boundary-free collective improvisation that has its ancestors in both Fluxus and Krautrock. GROUPSHOW performances do not recreate previously rehearsed or recorded music. Instead, they attempt to make an open-ended aesthetic process both audible and tangible. 

The pursuit of these aims has several practical consequences. Wherever possible, GROUPSHOW position themselves and their equipment in the middle of the performance space, avoiding the use of a stage, risers or any kind of spatial separation between performer and audience. The lighting remains static and clinical throughout the performance while real-time video, filming from directly above the musicians and projected onto a wall or screen, shows the three members playing and manipulating their tangled pile of equipment. 
Whenever possible, GROUPSHOW begin playing before any audience members enter, thus deliberately avoiding the dramaturgical imperative of an opening from which the rest of the musical narrative is expected to unfold. As the intensity of the music and degree of the audience's attention are both subject to flux, GROUPSHOW set no time limit to their performances and members of the audience are free to come and go, engage and disengage with the music as they please.

Everyone loves Andrew Pekler, Hanno Leichtmann and Jan Jelinek and now you can have them in your home or office. The tracks collected here re-live the most memorable moments from approx. 200 Gigabytes of improvised jam sessions. An impressive arsenal of low quality effects pedals played by our three professional amateurs comprises the bedrock on which The Martyrdom of Groupshow was built. Pekler, Leichtmann and Jelinek may switch instruments on a regular basis yet every one of these collages features actual dirt fragments from Groushow HQ, for instance listen closely at 2:13 in ‘Incredibly Comfortable Slippers’."

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Friday 27 March 2009

Clunking & clattering



Something nicely clunking & clattering for the weekend - Nemeth > Transitions (from Film, Thrill Jockey)



Co-founder of mosz, Nemeth is also in Radian > the lovely, scratchy post-jazz of Shift & Nord (from Juxtaposition, Thrill Jockey; NB: extracts) & Etage 3/Flur (from rec.extern, Thrill Jockey). 


[That also reminds me to dig out the fine Radian remix of Kammerflimmer on Staubgold...]

Clearly incapable of a moment's inactivity, he's in the spacey lokai too...

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Thursday 26 March 2009

Ghost Frequencies


Ethereal/rumbling, soothing/menacing, mysterious/lucid - Erstlaub's intense, affecting drones are rich enough (&, yes, long enough) to make room for these kinds of oppositions, though they tend to a dark, windswept beauty. They also draw, as the man explains in a thoughtful, rewarding interview below, from a deeply Scottish well (bagpipes included, though not directly...).  

One of the glories of the fine Highpoint Lowlife label, Erstlaub is preparing new albums both for Moving Furniture & HPLL (the latter together with a cast of thousands, including the previously LMYE-featured TVO & Production Unit). 

Besides these & other future plans, the discussion takes in musical tradition, first steps & methods, the nature & fit of drone, & his notable commitment to performance. He also touches on collaborations, remixes & other listening (Steve Reich, Basic Channel, Kranky - an LMYE hall of fame). 

Sincere thanks to Dave for taking the time & participating so insightfully. 


A taste of Erstlaub:

Excerpt (from I Am The Line Drawn In The Sand Between The Living And The Dead, HPLL; self-review: "easily outdoes its predecessor in terms of title pomposity")

Sunken Machines ('sketch' for Broadcasting on Ghost Frequencies, forthcoming on Moving Furniture)


For Windy ('sketch' as above)

Longer self-releases here. Also check out On Becoming An Island & Daigoro's tracks - Sleepy Fish, Lumimotion & A Drop Of Rain Slowly Dissipates - on Some Paths Lead Back Again (both HPLL). 


Bonus: an experimental TVO/Marcia Blaine et al mix (Action is not a Verb) featuring The Village Orchestra with Daigoro


Do you see yourself as working in any kind of tradition?

I feel that my work tends to be unaffected by trends and fashion, I usually approach it either as a creative outlet for venting, or if I am of calmer mind, sometimes it's entirely zen and I just "feel" my way around a new piece, let it emerge from the ether or wherever it comes from. It interests me that the drone is inherent in traditional Scottish music and I sometimes wonder if there is some cultural fingerprint that lets it resonate throughout time (I'm not a huge fan of the bagpipes though - time and a place for them).

How has your music changed since you began?

Quite a lot, I got an acoustic guitar when i was about 11 or so and a chord book and just taught myself and played along with music I liked, it wasn't until I saw DJ Shadow supporting Radiohead that I really got into the electronic side of things (if you discount Kraftwerk's Computer World which I liberated on cassette from my dad at an early age). Soon after that I bought a crappy sampler and then built up a hardware setup and a few synths, totally railing against computer sequencing until I finally bit the bullet and decided to get intimate with Cubase.

In the early days I guess I made a lot of Autechre influenced tracks, back then I still used quite a lot of guitar on those tracks too along with bass and the odd bit of badly played trumpet or melodica or whatever i could get my hands on.

I started to get into more esoteric music and using less linear software and processes with programs like audiomulch and dabbling in Reaktor which, coupled with my love for synth programming led me to the Nord Modular platform which I've been a dedicated user of through both generations.

Why drone? Is drone something you just recognise when you hear it or does it have specific ingredients?

I just evolved into this place, I guess a lot of personal things colluded and I found an expressive medium that I felt I could really work within. My pieces are built specifically so that they can be performed in one continuous take. I grew really disillusioned with the levels of automation and with seeing artists turning up at gigs, hitting play and then pretending to tweak knobs while they check their email. I prepare "scenes" and decide a rough order which I then mix it all together.

I think there is something very personal about drone music (not all of it, but lots) where if the listener is in the right frame of mind, it can put them in a time/place other than the one they are in. With some of my favourite pieces of music, it's only once they finish and you notice the weight of the silence do you realise how much stimulus it was adding.

Do you use anything besides a laptop to make your music?

The laptop is incidental really, all my material is made entirely within the Nord Modular G2 Engine, the laptop is just so I can make sure I'm on the right patch for the job. I have a midi interface and use a couple of delay pedals for looping transitions as there is an audible drop when loading in a new patch. This can sometimes lead to some pretty unexpected variations and jumping off points in a set though. I'm very particular that every sound you hear has been built from the ground up, it's a purely personal artistic statement, I enjoy sample based music and field recordings, but to me there is a purity and satisfaction knowing that each sound is unique and purpose built for the space it fills.

Best thing anyone's said/written about your music? Worst?

All the feedback I've had so far has been really postive and respectful. There was one recent write up though where the author wrote this utterly nonsensical tirade of flowery crap only to give the album a decidedly average "score". I'm still not sure he actually listened to it, or got the point, but he was at least inspired by my titles.

At a live show in Dundee, despite me making a relatively solid wall of sound, I managed to really clearly hear one female who seemed to have managed to find an exact frequency I wasn't using and sat for most of the set being pretty rude about the musicality of my set. I can't get upset if people don't like what I do though, it is pretty niche and it's a deeply personal thing for me. If people get some value from it and enjoy it along the way then it's a bonus to me.

Do you make any non-Erstlaub music? Is Daigoro still active?

At the moment Daigoro sleeps with the fishes. I have been playing a lot more guitar again which is interesting, lots of long reverbs and delay loops, I'm not certain where it's going quite yet. Last year I did a little bit of soundtrack work for the Sugihara Museum in Kaunus, Lithuania which I credited to D.Fyans.

Do you make music with anyone else or always solo? Anyone you'd like to collaborate with? Or remix?

I tend to strike a relatively lonely figure but I have a really good network of friends and contemporaries, many of whom are also on HPLL. On a few occasions myself and The Village Orchestra have got together and created some pretty intense sound. I've been meaning to work with Keung Mandelbrot for a while now but we never seem to be in the right modes to get our heads together, it is somewhere on the cards. Orphax and Christohpher McFall are artists/friends whose work I really love and inspires me so I'm always up for working with them where the situation arises.

Remixes pose an interesting challenge given the way that I work but I'm always up for turning my hand to whatever comes along provided the project excites me in some way.

Who else do you listen to (for pleasure, for inspiration, for a change)?

I listen to all sorts or things, I adore 18 Musicians by Reich and had the pleasure of seeing the man himself perfom it a few years ago, I listen to a lot of the Kranky output - Stars of the Lid, Labradford, Windy and Carl, Pan american are on pretty constant rotation. I'm hugely impressed by nearly all of the Raster Noton output, I love my techno, especially the Basic Channel side of things. 

I also love hearing pretty much everything,natural or man made, sometimes I can just sit in the woods for a few hours listening to nothing in particular, just searching for that sound that starts the whole creative process flying again.

What's next for you/Erstlaub?

I'm getting myself ready to hit record on "Broadcasting on Ghost Frequencies" for Moving Furniture Records, which will hopefully drop May/June, there's an upcoming release on HPLL alongside TVO, Production Unit, Konx om Pax and Chris Dooks where we performed a live soundtrack to the first episode of Takeshi Miike's MPD Psycho which will be out (mumbles date incoherently). 

Other than that, I've just got word from some guys who are starting up a new label up the road in Dundee who are pretty interested in my schtick. In the meantime, I'm finishing up a college course and hoping to go on to do a degree after the summer in Time Based Art but I'm not certain yet. Otherwise business as usual, taking photos, making art and getting my drone on.




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Tuesday 24 March 2009

Amiable intricacy



Amiably intricate, treble-y clusters rattle unassumingly into unexpected splash & slash - Fridge > Astrozero (from Early Output 1996-1998, Temporary Residence



Bonus carnival, from Reichian loveliness to scratchy angularity: Cutup Piano & Xylophone (from Happiness, Temporary Residence); Kinoshita (from EPH Reissue, Temporary Residence); The Sun Eyelids (both from The Sun, Temporary Residence).

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be. 

Friday 20 March 2009

Shuffle & shimmer



Mesmerising shuffle & shimmer in a subtle, distinct take on dubstep (Japstep?): quarta330's ASUTATA50 (from MO'ZX EP, Maltine)


Thanks to the ultra-prolific & sharp-eared Sonic Router for the tip. 

Past quarta releases/remixes: this & this (both Hyperdub). 



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LMYE now Twittering...

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Vanity solution



Swelling filmic strings, measured piano delicacy, a little glitch & crackle (though not nearly enough for these ears, apart from the sublime A_), & amazing, lambent space around every note: Sylvain Chauveau

A_ (from S., Type)

Pauvre Simon (from Nuage, Type)



Untitled #1 (from Les Mains d'Andrea soundtrack, unreleased)





Never Let Me Down Again (from Down to the Bone, Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier)

Also, the Roman Anglais collaboration with Felicia Atkinson (Aberdeen is unforgettable...) 



Two footnotes: this & this

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Tuesday 17 March 2009

Torque recovery



Wispy washes, soft padding, crisp echoes: beguiling Julien Neto > From Cover to Cover (from Retork, Enough)



Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

LMYE now Twittering, by the way...

Saturday 14 March 2009

Delayed reaction


Fascinating, schizophrenic, fecund: in at least as many guises as Martin Juhl, Sasu Ripatti continues to scrape & click & blur & wash his way through an astounding, outstanding body of work - so rich & endlessly interesting his involvement even redeems AGF/Delay's post-pop... 

Ahead of the Moritz von Oswald Trio LP (Sasu on drums as Vladislav Delay) - now due in June, apparently, & a shoo-in for LMYE album of the year [er, if we had one] - a few tastes: 

Vladislav Delay > Lumi (from Whistleblower, Huume/Intelligent Toys 4, Sutemos)
                                > Ramaat (from Multila, Huume re-release)
                                > Ele (from Ele, Sigma Editions)
                                > The First Quarter (from The Four Quarters, Huume)
                                > I Saw a Polysexual (from Whistleblower, Huume)


                      > From Morning On (from Explode, AGF Producktion/Intelligent Toys 5, Sutemos) 

Top photo by Jan Albert Vroegop; bottom photo by Allert Aalders



Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Forestry equipment



Mystery, menace, enormity: Gas > Zauberberg V (from Zauberberg, Mille Plateaux & also the monumental Nah und Fern re-issue compilation, Kompakt). 

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

LMYE now Twittering, by the way...

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Dortmund delicacies


Marsen Jules...Krill.Minima...Wildach Sonnerkraut...Falter: the rarely-changing but often retextured & repaced moods (reflective, romantic, unhurried) of Martin Juhls - from the lush swell of Serenade & the gathering gloom of Brouillard to the beatless echo-chamber of Pfloez & the pretty crackle of Goldregen


       Brouillard (from Intelligent Toys 2, Sutemos)

KM > Pfloez (from Flow.ers, Sutemos)




Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.


Saturday 7 March 2009

Ludvika vibrations



Shimmeringly ambient, Basic Channel-fuzzy or austerely wintry - a taste of Anders Ilar's measured, almost stately techno > Sand Part 1 (from Sand 12", Narita); Geofissure (from Sad Electronics 3 (Part A), Site); & In Light We Trust (from Twilight Rainfalls, self-released). 


On Twilight Rainfalls: "Released on 23rd of December 2008 to celebrate the new solar year. The 8 new tracks on Twilight Rainfalls are based upon a meditative piano session recorded on October 19th 2008 in Ludvika. The recordings was later cut into parts and used as sourcematerial for the tracks. The initial idea was to make a very quiet ambient album with only some 808 rhythms to compliment the piano, however after the first track was finished (in light we trust) I realized that this would not be the case. The rest of the tracks was put together in the following weeks. The 9th track (althea) was produced some years ago using the sound of the very same piano.
As times are becoming rougher for many labels and distroes I realized it would be a long time waiting for a CD or vinyl deal for this material. And with things being as they are I believe the best way to spread these vibrations is in free digital format. So realizing this work might dissapoint a few of my listeners, atleast now you know the story behind the music and its intention is simply to be what it is (music), while hopefully inspire the listener to raise the frequency of love on this planet. Love and Light!
Anders Ilar"

Mixes, including Resident Advisor podcast, here



Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Friday 6 March 2009

Textured swirl


Lo-fi loveliness, lifted beyond incantatory, textured swirl (nothing wrong with that, of course...) by briskly revved-up ending: Animal Hospital > March And June (from Good or Plenty, Streets + Avenues, Mutable Sound). 

Memory (Barge) also just released. Older AH here



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Wednesday 4 March 2009

Unexpectedly warped



Following yesterday's earlier Dntel bonus: Balearic bliss-dub into, unexpectedly, Warped throbby riff-out > an LMYE hack of one of Lawrence's remixes of Dreams (giveaway from artist site; both versions here). 

Even with the vocal more or less purged, each half of this quite refreshing oddity seems far removed from Lawrence's subtle, textured spaciousness - most recently heard on the Divided EP (Ghostly Intl/Spectral Sound), Miles EP (Dial) & (as Sten) The Essence (also Dial). 

Hear the exquisite Divided below:

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LMYE now Twittering, by the way...

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Skiffle or ragtime



The name IDM now seems about as contemporary as skiffle or ragtime. But intelligence is always welcome, however you label it. Evidence: 

10-20 > Arcadeagle (from 10-20, forthcoming on Highpoint Lowlife)

Robert Logan > Pigs (from Accurate Spit Boy EP, forthcoming on Slowfoot)

Bonus: Dntel Loneliness is Having No One to Miss (from Early Works for Me if it Works for You, Phthalo re-release)


Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
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