VeDaKR’s Pred Osli, released on the always adventurous Haze netlabel, is an album after my own heart — field recordings as drones. The tracks sound as though their might have the slightest of processing, but I would not be surprised if none of them were processed in any way. Some tracks end with the audible clicks of a recorder being turned off while others have a more structured aka normal ending. The artist is an enigma as everything about the musician could be one thing or the opposite. My googling skills return an extreme lack of information about VeDaKR who may or may not release albums under another alias and who may or may not be from Eastern Europe. All of this forces us to just pay attention to the music. Maybe that’s the point. And like the artist, Pred Osle seems to be composed of one thing or maybe not/thing. The tracks, courtesy of Google Translator, come from either the Slovenian or the Slovakian tongue. Come on people, I’m an American. Don’t you know that we don’t know the difference between the Czech Republic and Chechnya?

The opening track, “V Hladilniku”, translates as in the fridge sounds more like the rushing of a river and I can only be left scratching my head. The track “Komp Error” could be a contact mic hooked up to a dying computer, but then again not. Each sound(s) and their corresponding tracks present the mundane in monotony, but in turn make the sounds and the album absolutely intriguing.

Artist: VeDaKR
Title: Pred Osli
Netlabel: Haze
Released: 19 March 2013
CC BY-NC-SA

A few days ago, I wrote about the importance of album covers in netlabel releases.  Kritchev vs. Ban’s Working Title is not one of these. The cover is very 1980s fanzine, but given that this was another release from the ever interesting Belarusian netlabel Haze, I was going to be listening to it. Oh, and another quick note, this is not a split album, Kritchev vs. Ban is the name of the duo who pride themselves in being non musicians, “No Music No Instruments”.

Working Title is a big album in many ways, least of all it’s 80+ minutes of music, as Kritchev vs. Ban make us rethink what is acceptable. The artists push the listener’s tolerance by looping samples endlessly which successfully turn the tracks into an almost meditative exercise in noise and experimentation. Piecing together sounds from various sources as well as their own creations of noise, Working Title is not a collage album, it is more the destruction of collage music.

Artists: Kritchev vs. Ban
Title:  Working Title
Netlabel: Haze
Release Date: 20 January 2013
CC BY-NC-SA
Download mp3: zip

When C. Reider released his new album, Edge and Artifact, he wrote a blog post using only images to explain the process. In light of that, the following review will be all images as well. Click on the photograph to see Creative Commons photograph hosted in flickr.

Artist: C. Reider
Title: Edge and Artifact
Netlabel: Ilse
Release Date:  15 January 2013
CC BY-NC-SA
Download mp3: Bandcamp

The latest work by Carlos Edelmiro aka Otra Carpeta has the feeling of a 1980s EP, there is a natural split between the 5 tracks, 1 through 3 as Side A and tracks 4 and 5, Side B. The first and third tracks are vocal compositions (both of which are collaborations) while the second track features the wailing wind which aligns with the tracks the surround it. The B Side is instrumentals which tie in very well the first side. I especially enjoyed the last track, Para Wendi de Carlos” which reminds me a lot of  Jared C. Balogh’s recent work, albiet, slowed down.  Transparente has a quiet sonic sense that is flowing and gentle which is odd to say for an experimental release. As the liner notes state, Edelmiro was working on finding the balance between composition and improvisation. Transparente is rather beautiful record.

Artist: Otra Carpeta
Title: Transaparente
Netlabel: Audiotalia
Released: 02 January 2013
CC BY-NC-SA
Download mp3: zip

At the beginning of the year, I came across reviews Aboombong’s latest two album on Recent Music Heroes and Disquiet. But it wasn’t the reviews that caught my attention, rather it was the glorious artwork of the cover of his latest, Adumbral: Études dans le Contrôle Imprécis. Not only does it recall the stereophonic albums covers of the ’50s and ’60s, but the cubist/collage artwork is stunning. Click on the image below to see a large version of this album cover.

The use of a quality album album cover is important here. There are plenty of netlabel releases that go unnoticed by Creative Commons fans because of ugly covers. Whether it be that the cover is pornographic or just plain sloppy or maybe sloppily pornographic, the musician and their netlabel need to focus on image. Remember it is usually the image that captures the audience at first. Yeah, I know a few of you might be saying that the music is important — yeah, you’re right, but if no one listens to an album because of a cover, well, that’s just sad.

For more on album covers, Roland Graffé has a wonderful Tumblr site of beautiful netlabel covers appropriately entitled, Netlabelcovers. You could also check out my site, The Easy Pace, which is a listing of netlabel releases with good and bad covers alike.

But on to the music. JC Thorne aka Aboombong has put together seven strong tracks on Adumbral: Études dans le Contrôle Imprécis that straddle music genres from beats to ambient and noise. “K1″ starts out in an almost pop vein with a melodic loop of scratching and synthesizers. But what differentiates this from the pop music fair is that Amboombong doesn’t let go of the loop instead he continues it well past what would be considered normal and then the loop slowly disintegrates into ambience. Track after track, Aboombong creates these noisy ambient loops that vacillate ever so slightly from each other as the blend into other snippets of music that may or may not be beat or glitch oriented. Adumbral is engaging collection of music.

Artist: Aboombong
Title: Adumbral: Études dans le Contrôle Imprécis
Netlabel: Self-released
Release Date:  01 January 2013
CC BY-NC-SA

J. Siemasko aka Schemawound has joined the Dystimbria experiment. Run by experimental musician C. Reider Dystimbria asks artists to discard “the safe, pastoral qualities of ambient and the macho posturing of noise for a more open-ended and abstract electronic terrain.” And then a slight catch, musicians must mine previous releases on Dystimbria for samples to include in their new work.

Schemawound’s Beasts is the 14th release over three short years with some popular netlabel artists appearing as well as others I’ve never heard of. Using works by Philip Wilkerson, C. Reider, Alan Morse-Davies, and Cinchel,  Schemawound creates an interesting sound that adheres to the netlabel’s manifesto and, yet, with the subtlety of beats, he makes his own mark on the netlabel’s oeuvre. Beasts borders on industrial harshness throughout even when there is a pliability and yielding amongst the noise that softens the overall experience for the listener.

Beasts is a great way for Dystimbria to start off 2013 and a fantastic introduction to the work of Schemawound.

Geek alert: Beasts was written entirely in SuperCollider and the code is included in the download.

Artist: Schemawound
Title: Beasts
Netlabel: Dystimbria
Released: 15 January 2013
CC BY-NC-SA
Download mp3: zip

JD Zazie’s Naherholung Playtime (Absence of Wax) continues her redefinition of what a DJ is and how a DJ should sound. This short 15 minute release is an exploration of noise and field recordings through turntables rather than the standard DAW setup up. Zazie’s work combines two sonic worlds so that neither stands out on its own, each absorbing the other, yet maintaining their individuality. Naherholung Playtime is  noise recordings that are discriminating and suggestive of a deeper sound based on their aural dependencies and the artist’s technical discipline.

Italian by birth and currently living in Berlin, Zazie has been part of several compilations as well as solo work on Audition Records, an album with Anton Mobin on Earsheltering, and as part of the trio The Secretaries which was reviewed here back in August.

Artist: JD Zazie
Title: Naherholung Playtime
Netlabel: Absence of Wax
Release Date: 3 January 2013
CC BY-NC-ND
Download mp3: zip

A few days ago, David Bowie released a single which frankly is quite a horrible song. My twitter timeline was filled with giddy posts slobbering over Bowie and totally disregarding the pedantic music. As Mof Gimmers writes in their wonderful piece Fuck Bowie:

Bowie’s new song shows just how conservative music writing has become, with a collective whooping with glee that an old man has managed to release an album without telling anyone first! So what? Most records get released like that. It isn’t forward thinking – it’s frugal.

Amen.

Meanwhile, a small unknown band called Román Ramón released Nombradía Pt 1: En Disuse on Pan Y Rosas. Googling for information about this trio (Agnès Pe, Po Poy, and Lucía C. Pino) brings up basically nothing other than some incredibly interesting music and videos. Nombradía Pt 1: En Disuse is an album that reviewers should be crowing about — a short ten-song EP of collage music at its finest. Track after track, Román Ramón give us snippets of chaotic sound that become ear candy for the brain, a resonant construct of everything.

Artists: Román Ramón
Title:  Nombradía Pt 1: En Disuse
Netlabel: Pan Y Rosas
Released: 2 January 2013
CC BY-NC-ND
Download mp3: zip

What seems like ages ago, the world once once ruled by evil record companies whose executives were akin to leeches, parasites and moldy-old vampires. It was during this time of cocaine and speed that thousands of bands and musicians tried to sign a death certificate which was better known at the time as a record contract. These pieces of paper were the holy grail of indentured servitude and yet musicians plied any way they knew how to put their John Hancock down along side a line of coke. These were heady days.

Luckily the Time of Musician Slavery started dying off in the ’90s. And during this era of coke-addled screaming from Los Angeles, groups of young musicians started getting together and sharing their music with others for free. The reason for all of this was that these musicians wanted to get their music heard while at the same time holding on to their soul. And thus the world of netlabels was born.

The ability for a musician to experiment without fear of the capitalist bottom line is why netlabels continue to thrive. Some two hundred words to get to this point: Albums like Alan Morse Davies‘ Hum 3+9 Copies (At Sea Music) and many more would have never have been released in the free-basing world of big hair bands. But today music has changed — it’s no longer an industry and musicians like Davies and all the others reviewed in this blog get to thrive. Musicians might be more like poets than ever before. And that’s a good thing.

Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play. Davies’ Hum 3+9 Copies is a minimalistic combination of a 50 MHZ and 30Mhz drones on one track and then copied nine times. Yes, repeated nine times. Nothing new. Nothing changed. It just is. Just hit play.

Artist: Alan Morse Davies
Title: Hum 3+9 Copies
Netlabel: At Sea Music
Release Date:  01 January 2013
CC BY NC
Download mp3: zip

Every manifestation of our life is accompanied by noise. The noise, therefore, is familiar to our ear, and has the power to conjure up life itself.
- Lugi Russolo’s  L´Arte dei Rumori (The Art of Noises)

The Portuguese netlabel Enough Records begins 2013 with a terrific release, 100 Years of Noise. Not only is this part of the netlabel’s honor of Russolo’s Futurist manifesto, they (and the artists) graciously released the work under the Public Domain in celebration of Public Domain Day.

There is much in 100 Years of Noise, music from artists that we are quite familiar with and others who I’ve  never heard of. When I first sat down to listen to this 100+ minute album, I tried to make sure I was surrounded by silence. But as I listened and night wore on to the next day, I found the greatest enjoyment was while riding on the commuter train or walking on the streets of Philadelphia or at my desk while a rather loud meeting was taking place not ten feet away. It was with these other noises, these sounds of everyday, that the music came to joined life, became part of the surroundings. Some of these tracks aren’t noise in the usual sense, but are more the logical consequence of marvelous innovations to paraphrase Russolo.

The Futurist continues in his essay:

Noise, however, reaching us in a confused and irregular way from the irregular confusion of our life, never entirely reveals itself to us, and keeps innumerable surprises in reserve. We are therefore certain that by selecting, coordinating and dominating all noises we will enrich men with a new and unexpected sensual pleasure.

Artists: Various Artists
Title: 100 Years of Noise.
Netlabel: Enough Records
Release Date: 01 January 2013
Public Domain

The photograph above is of Russolo (left) and Ugo Piatti with their intonarumori (noise-maker) in Milan.