The Answer Is In The Beat

Günter Schickert: Überfällig (Sky Records, 1979/reissued Bureau B, 2012) + Samtvogel (self-released, 1974/reissued Important Records, 2013)

December 1, 2013 at 8:40 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

So one of my new year’s resolutions for 2013 was to buy more Krautrock vinyl, because there’s so many reissue labels putting out vintage Krautrock on vinyl and I just want to collect as much as I can because so much of it is incredible. Other than all the Neu! albums and a few other things, I didn’t get around to buying that much this year, but once I finally get around to listening to everything I got this year (and, uh, last year) that’s just been sitting around my room, I’ll try and get some more. But one of the main reasons I wanted to get really into this music was because I heard someone on WFMU play Günter Schickert’s “Puls” when this reissue of Überfällig came out, and I just had to hear more. Just a really stunning web of minimalist guitars and drums, which sounds precise and sequenced but it’s not electronic at all. Effortlessly hypnotic, doesn’t seem nearly as long as its 15 minute runtime. “In Der Zeit” is a much more down-to-earth slow acoustic folk song with rushing water sounds, but “Apricot Brandy II” and “Wanderer” return to the panned, precise guitar and drums of “Puls”, but not as fast and forward, more of a slow-burning rhythm, with lots of rim-clicking sounds. Both sound kind of lost and desperate in some ways, with “Apricot Brandy” possibly being in a drunken haze, and “Wanderer” lost and worried. The album ends as it begins with dripping and splashing water sounds.

Earlier this year, Important Records reissued Schickert’s 1974 debut Samtvogel on CD for the first time ever. The album was originally self-released, then issued by Brain a few times, reissued by Spanish label Wah Wah Supersonic Sounds in 2010, and is now finally available domestically on CD. The first version of “Apricot Brandy” seems like an embryonic version of its sequel, not really settling into a rhythm, just consisting of rippling guitar and vocals. The remaining two tracks on the album are expansive suites of guitar looping and vocals, creating furious clusters and patterns with mountains of echo and delay, and forging hypnotic rhythms without the use of any percussive instruments. This year a Russian label also released a private session Schickert did with Klaus Schulze in 1975, which already seems super limited and hard to find. Bureau B also just reissued his 1983 cassette Kinder In Der Wildnis on CD and vinyl, so I’m sure I’ll get around to buying that at some point. But Schickert seems like somewhat of an unheralded visionary, I’m glad a bunch of his recordings are getting out there and reissued.

Merzbow: Samidara (Placenta Recordings, 2013)

December 1, 2013 at 7:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

In honor of Jay Watson’s birthday, here is my attempt to review the Merzbow record he released this year. It’s on “piss yellow” vinyl, but there’s also a cassette release. I never get tired of Merzbow’s music, and this album is a pretty good example of why. Noisy and chaotic and unrelenting, but there’s so much going on. There’s squeaking rhythmic patterns suggesting decaying rhythms, there’s guitar noise feedback, there’s crushed distorted drums. The second side has some sort of mutated funk guitar and fast-forward blastbeat rhythms and tape manipulations. Seriously, the drums on side 2, oh my god.

Robert Alberg: Acoustically CDr (self-released, 2012)

December 1, 2013 at 1:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

For the past couple years, WCBN has occasionally received homemade CDr’s by this man, most of which don’t seem to actually play in our CD players. Sometimes they seem to have been burned as data discs, and most of the time the discs themselves are really scratchy and have pasted-on labels, and won’t play all the way. We’ve received 3 copies of this particular disc so far, only one of which we’ve been able to play, which we made a copy of for preservation. This copy that I’m reviewing seems to stop working after the first 3 tracks. It’s just as well, considering how similar the songs are. They’re all around 3 minutes, all features Alberg’s nasal vocals croaking in the right channel and distorted close-miked acoustic guitar plucking in the left. The songs all seem to be abstract narratives about nature (titles include “Echo Rock”, “Down River”, “Rainbow Falls”, “Rip Current”). Nothing much left to say other than that this is truly arresting outsider art. Not a whole lot of information about this album online, but his last album is on CD Baby, and seems to mine similar territory. Upon further research, he has somewhat of a cult hit song on Youtube and a disturbing, yet fascinating backstory.

Sidsel Endresen & Stian Westerhus: Didymoi Dreams (Rune Grammofon, 2012)

December 1, 2013 at 12:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Another disc that’s been staring me in the face from my desk for a year that I never got around to reviewing. I’m determined to get to the bottom of each and every pile of recorded media on my desk and floor before I start buying any more music, period. This album pits veteran Norwegian avant-jazz singer Endresen against relative newcomer Westerhus, who creates haunting soundscapes forming a backdrop for Endresen’s convulsing, stuttering improvised vocals. Endresen’s vocals mimic glitching and malfunctioning machines, while Westerhus’ guitars similarly swirl in the background and crash and splitter in the foreground. On “Wayward Ho”, Endresen almost sounds like a jungle MC speaking in tongues. Other tracks are super quiet and just seem to consist of minimal humming. The unexpected presence of applause at the end of a couple tracks reminds you that this is all being performed live, which makes everything all the more jarring.