REVIEWS [m]

Medicine and Duty: Clouds Burn Slowly [Foolproof Projects]
Added 16.7.07

Clash, Faust, no-wave and tribalistic from the outset, a hint of London's anarchic 80's..chanted distorted vocals...in French? The drumming (esp on on track 4 'Full Automation Now Achieved') is a bit too spacious at times like not enough people joining in the drum jam at a hippy festival but the addition of terrifying punctuative electronics (guitar?) makes it seem like a piece of artistic statement. The album builds gradually in intensity and power and by track 6 'El Dragoon' feels as if they've loosened up and so do I. 'No, we have' is a slightly mellow experimental interlude, there's a maturity and confidence here which is difficult to put my finger on which, added with the overall yummy-weird, ragtaggle vibe means I will definitly be putting it on in 'the other room' (the family living room, which is the real acid test). Belief in themselves these guys definitly have and the excellent 'The Terrible Truth (Lock the Tank)'s slow-build from crazy, slow stoccato narrative to insane howling punk head-driller proves it. Moving on for a relatively melodic break in the image of a kid's thrown away broken music box whirring away under a heap of rubbish in 'Halfway to Opals' we are then kicked to extreme wall of noise land with the hyper speed and distortion advice of 'Sandblast Your Past' before a welcome return to the healthy atonal punk in 'Face Violence'. Right, the missis is back, let's turn it up from the start and see what happens.
Foolproof Projects

Lasse Marhaug: Spaghetti Westerns Rainbow (CD - Utech Records)
Frode Gkerstad & Lasse Marhaug: Red Edge. (CD - Sunship Records)

Scratching, grating underground genius. Frode accompanies on the extreme sax. Oh awesome Lasse, who I'm beginning to adore.
www.utechrecords.com
www.freenoise.org

MV & EE with the Bummer Road: Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace)

Fuck it I can't be arsed to describe this incredible album, seriously, it's just too good. I spent the whole weekend dreaming of American hippydom and how I was going to manage to achieve it, and I must've played the first track 'East Mountain Joint' 20 times in 3 days. I have also bought their previous one 'Mother of Thousands' which has the totally mind-blowing 25mins of 'Death has No Mercy'. Aaaaarrgghh! So here's the quote from er, shit I lost the link, I'm such a hippy.. Anyway, this is a great review, er, Adam.....
" On Green Blues, their debut disc for Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, the duo of Matt Valentine and Erica Elder take their freewheeling and liberated approach to folk forms to brilliant new heights, with swirling, echo-laden vocals, enveloping clouds of lush feedback, and the ability to stretch songs into elastic webs of endless magical tones. Matt and Erica have been kickin’ around the underground experimental/psychedelic-folk scene since the mid-1990s, when they were playing as Tower Recordings, a legendary group that mixed drug-hazed freakout psychedelia with the nuance of ‘60s folk and the awareness of free jazz’s liberation from time signatures. In the past few years, the two have released dozens of albums under various monikers and aliases and on countless fringe vinyl/cd-r labels across the globe. Their presence is only now being felt by wider audiences, and Green Blues features some of their most cohesive and well produced material to date. Referencing everything from the gentlest folk to the wildest acid rock, this album will be sure to please all fans of Espers, Devendra Banhart, Feathers, White Magic, Castanets, Akron/Family, and Wooden Wand, among others. (Adam)"
And Ben and Brett scored a great recording at their Sheffield gig last November and got it up on Wire's site, rumour has it a local independent label is bringing out on vinyl soon. Health Warning: seriously laid back freakyfolk.. ; )
MV & EE (Ecstatic Peace)

Masayo Asahara: 'Saint Catherine Torment' (Discus 19CD)

Hahaha. Yesterday I sat listening taking notes. Today I found out a little truth… Here's the notes..
Here's a recording that challenges description, ok let's have a go.
Ultra minimal to start beautifully like noises the empty Albert Hall might make on its own at night then soon the clonking disturbing piano string abuse begins with some very high and low electrical accompaniment. We are in real Wire mag territory and I'm not a yuppie but I like it, the building sounds are challenging and anarchic; extreme electronic noises now accompany an acid crazed ragtimer. The single track is split 'for convenience' into 32 2 min segments. After 15 mins or so I guess what I can hear are Archer's vioelctronics as I search intentively for familiarity. By 20 mins I'm relaxing into the sofa and the stress of the day is quickly leaving, the effect of these awesomely magical sounds is to bring me to the reflective present….until that naughty plonking starts again and now I appreciate it even more, in a cooky sort of way. By track 23-24 (approx 46mins) the album moves further into electronic territory and the piano has been gradually suffocated and thunks submissively. Odd sci-fi oscillations talk with the sounds of furniture moving upstairs or boats rocking in a midnight harbour…abstract yet visual. The final 2 or 3 mins seems like a celebration as all expands and relief comes prior to the silence gradually dominating once more.
There's a wonderful synergy arising from this project. Ask me what the title is and judging by the disc pic it's the name of a piece of S & M apparatus (a 6ft upright wheel; use your imagination). This reminds me of the Japanese tendency towards themes of human extreme pursuits. Once downloading a short film from a dodgy source with a soundtrack by Merzbow I was treated to a horrifyingly slow female Harakiri which messed me up until I realised (a little too late) was a highly graphical re-enactment (Merzbow's soundtrack wasn't too good). Art….yeah?
Whilst finding deep listening sometimes claustrophobic this album has enough daring quirkiness and zenny moments in its Japan-British energy clash to warrant attention.
The truth I discovered about this album?
" The 'Masayo Asahara' group is a Martin Archer re-imagining of the cultural landscapes of early 70's progressive music; he explores this elsewhere such as on his English Commonflowers CD & the results are sublime. This is Martin as nostalgic visionary entering mid-life cultural crisis; the context is therefore literary rather than bogus per se; the genuine yearnings of a man at odds with his time, but then again this is what his time (our time) is all about - somehow dealing with the accumulations of cultural history that threatens to collapse under its own mass; so think of the Masayo Asahara group as Martin's own virtual 'Tribute Band' or else an early music ensemble; historical re-enactment - authentic in every detail right down to the self-indulgent creativity (this last term from a review of a jazz album in a folk magazine in which the critic warned his readers to look out for 'lots of self-indulgent improv' - not sure what the record was; maybe John Coltrane live in Japan on which Coltrane & Pharoah play MFT on altos...)" - Siamang Gibbon

- Moodi
(3 Mar 06)

Martin Archer: Heritage & Ringtones (Discus 18CD)

Inspiring! Music like this is good for your ears. Seems like there's a newly born sound every few seconds. Very easy to be completely absorbed and drift off then feel silly as if you're really into this kind of thing! I keep playing the final track 'That Sheffield Sound' and he's got it, whatever it is, you have to listen to it, and maybe come from Sheffield to know what it is. Whether jazz, electro, industrial or folk, this city seems a microcosm of highly innovative musical standards and Archer projects it well, as we also saw live last week at the Free and noisy launch thing. Can't say much, too weird. Frickin genius. Got a few copies here should you desire one…or get one from his place:
www.discus-music.co.uk