Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.
A bit of an
ambiguous title for this week’s Cabeza de Vaca show over at Scanner FM,
but its hard to know what to call this motley collection of tracks culled from
releases over the last 7 to 12 months with two classics thrown in for measure. Certainly
the aim was to go Low-fi, although the second track Kasm and SuhniSea’s clear
light/straight line remix of Skyscaper’s "Noctilucent Clouds" is an obvious
exception. “Pop” was a useful addition since there was an emphasis on looking
for vocal tracks too, thoughShifted almost strips away the human presence from “I
only see the lights” (and almost sounding like Regis in the process), whereas
James Holden and Zombie Zombie don’t really need vocals at all. While on the
later, I forgot to mention that the Arkestra, or what remains of it, will be
playing this week in Barcelona and is the subject of another show this week on Scanner FM. Certainly the influence of Sun Ra continues
to be felt across the board and especially in electronica where at surface
level you would anticipate less influence than rock, but that is before considering
his later excursions into electronic jazz.
The return of Cabaret Voltaire to vinyl is
also long overdue. There is a box set due later in the year and more next year. You never know, maybe a
reformation gig or two?
Suicide open the show with one of my
favourite tracks of theirs. It captures the really early, dirty druggy sound
and is frighteningly proto-techno. “Mr Ray” originally appears on the duos
second album and its subtitle dedicates it to “Howard T.” I cannot say who this
man is and whetehr it is Howard T. Ray who comes up first in Google searching
(check it), an ex-serviceman with a long record in Vietnam and more. The kind
of all-American guy that Suicide would love to interpret and unravel. Indeed,
it is hard to ignore how American and anti-American Suicide is at the same
time. “Ghost rider” famously intones “America, America is killing its youth”
just as the punk sun makes its first dawn in 1977. Then there is the album “American
Supreme” that came out just after 9/11 and in something of a homage/parody of
it and the notion of “heroes” that was dominant at the time. Then there is all
the “Jukebox baby” 50s doo-wop influence, that knife twisting in the heart of
the American dream.
The importance of Suicide to the idea of America
may only need two examples to prove its significance and both are covers. One
is none other than The Boss. No, not Tony Danza, but Bruce Springsteen who
covered “Dream Baby Dream”. Then there is REM (see also last post) who covered “Ghost
Rider”. The irony here is too “American idols” reconverting the electronics
back into the guitar, the good old meat and veg instrument of “old time rock n
roll” as Bob Seger would have it. That is, REM and The Boss tell us quite
clearly that Suicide is just another folk band with all-American roots. REM's "Orange crush" single in the end turns out to be one of the great American singles, much like The Beatles "Penny Lane/Strawberry fields" was all-English in its day. On the B-side you have "Ghost Rider" whereas the A-side mixes imagery from American capitalist imperialism (the Orange crush drink, complete with advertising slogan lyics) and pure American imperialism in the war in Vietnam and Agent Orange. One cannot forget that it arrived at the dawn of the first Gulf War and just as the pro-American "art" propaganda of Vietnam war films and psycohological studies was reaching its pea at the end of the ugly yuppie decade that was the 80s.
Finally, they don’t appear in the trailer
and no clear mention on the soundtrack listing, but presumably Suicide don’t appear
in the forthcoming movie about CBGBs that is not a documentary, but a film with
real actors.
“Mr Ray” also comes around the same time
that Suicide recorded a live version of the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray”
that would, like “Mr. Ray” go on to influence that famous Spacemen 3 track that
was also meant to feature Alan Vega on vocals, although according to legend he
never showed up at the studio to record with them.
And finally, apologies to The KVB as I
accidentally changed the speed to 45 RPM and completely made a Chipmunk version
without realising it. Will try to make it up to you!
New Cabeza de Vacashow on Scanner FM with a focus this
week on Shifted. Not much known about the UK-born, Berlin-based artist, by his own design, but
there is plenty of analysis to be made of the music. There are a number of interesting stylistic features that Shifted uses. The most obvious is the repetition and the shimmering, droney finish to the sounds that give them a more vital energy. The enveloping space is cloudy and stable and resists all the kinetic energy immersed within it. Small additions to the mix change the balance and focal point completely. One thing I forgot to mention
in the show is that quite a lot of Shifted’s tracks just plug in. There is no build up, no
warning, no subtlety. You arrive in the middle. It was interesting being a non-DJ and assembling them in the studio and just seeing their raw, blunt ends plugging one into the other, almost like Lego.
There was an interesting article on Resident Advisor about heavy UK techno this week too
if you need more information.
There is a great phrase in Spanish for when
your girlfriend/wife is away and you are left at home doing the cooking and
housework etc which is “Estoy de Rodriguez” which literally means "I am
like Rodriguez”(for a more detailed history click here ). One
of my traditional activities when “estoy de Rodriguez” is to stay up late on a
work night and listen only to dub techno until I really have to go to bed. Last
week I was doing exactly that while my girlfriend was on a work junket in Mozambique.
Anders Peterson and Atheus – Pillars of the
Earth and sky (Ghost Sounds)
One of the more impressive things I put on
was a recent “Pillars of the Earth and Sky” compilation lovingly packaged and
released on Sweden’s
Ghost Sounds label. The album collects together three Atheus tracks and several
from label head Anders Peterson under his various monikers, A.P., Relapxych.00
and Skyscraper, including one remix of the lengthy track "Garden
Therapy" also by Atheus. All tracks were previously released by the label
except for Atheus’s “Pillars of the earth” and Peterson’s “Atmospheric
stratification” under the Skyscraper alias which close the album.
Admittedly I was also doing something else
at the time while I listening, but the album kept snapping me out of my zone of
concentration in confusion and I had to ask myself again and again “What the
fuck did I just put on?” The album may unravel at a slow, glacial pace but when
this occurs at the edge of perception it is alarming and more so if it takes
you into unexpected territory. For example, Relapxych.00’s “Desert Nightfall”
winds its way into a slow and dreamy post punk climax reminiscent of Tropic of
Cancer, while “Landmark” and A.P.s epic “Garden Therapy” bring in clusters of
drum hits and rhythmic shards like Vladislav Delay, not to mention eastern instrumentation.
Running beneath Atheus’s remix and the darker, beatless “Pillars of the Earth”
are streams of choral voices that float and drown in the endless currents. To
finish, Peterson presents the most techno track of the set, yet one splattered
by dripping water and shimmering like a river in the sun. Despite being made by
two artists under a host of monikers at different times, there is a great sense
of homogeneity about the album and in particular a feeling of a transcendental
vortex lurking behind the face of the sound adding to it a sense of cinema and
drama not unlike Popol Vuh’s “Vuh” from “In den gärten pharaos”
Those familiar with Atheus are also
encouraged to head to his bandcamp page where
you can buy two unreleased tracks for US$1.00 each, apparently the last he will
make in a dub/minimal style.
Fluxion - Traces (Echocord)
Konstantinos Soublis aka Fluxion’s previous
outing for Echocord was something of a disappointment despite wanting it to be great
(disclaimer: the score is not my own and a little too low despite what the text
says – sorry Konstantinos).There was a
heaviness to the sound that prevented either the atmospheric side from emerging
or the Berghain-influenced dance floor muscle to have the agility to really cut
loose. Two years later Soublis returns with “Traces” a much more rounded and
multifaceted work than the predecessor. The key here is both the opening up of
space between the sounds to let the echoes and melodies range and the adoption
of different song styles that adds variation to what was “Perfused”’s
techno-heavy approach. The most obvious example is “No man is an island” which
is classic dub reggae with Dennis Brown on vocals, but sounds more like Lars
Fenin’s productions, particularly those with vocalist Gobi,
than Rhythm and Sound with any of the artists. “Butiama” is also a standout for
its light 4-4 rhythm that almost feels like two step except that the bass and
the drums do not give in to each other. “Desert nights”, “Motion 3”, “Memba” and the heavy chug
of “Eruption” all work the dance floor angle, but in a much less asphyxiating
way than “Perfused”. The rest of the tracks fall variously between dubbed out
ambient and dubstep woven into ambient sheets, especially “Migration” which
matches abstracted drum patterns with buried piano melodies and simple delay
effects. Apparently “Vibrant Forms III” may still be on the way, but
regardless, “Traces” is a great return to form for Fluxion.
For comparison:
Susumu Yokota – Dreamer (Lo Recordings)
Susumu Yokota’s album discography is now getting obscenely
large which makes the addition of “Dreamer” all the more surprising as it
doesn’t quite fit in anywhere amongst his previous works. Sure there are some
signature motifs, like the positive vibes, some familiar melodic patterns and
even the timbral range at times. “Dreamer” even harks back to Yokota’s dance
floor roots, particularly on tracks like breakbeat opener “Human memory” and
“Subconscious globe”, but “Dreamer” distinguishes itself by either adopting new
beat styles altogether, or by failing to adopt obvious patterns and
subsequently swirling sounds and different ambient influences together to make
a truly global music. In particular, classical Eastern instrumentation from
India to Japan come to the fore, like at the end of “Subconscious globe”, but
more so on the ambient pieces “Double spot image”, “Quiet room” and “A day at
the planet” which work traditional instruments like flutes, bells and sitars
into a formless collage almost like Japanese folk rockers Ghost. More
surprisingly tracks like “Inception” and the insanely good “Animiam of the
airy” dig out an almost classical dub techno sound, new for Yokota, but
coloured with overt melodic elements and samples that are foreign to the
traditions of the genre. While some of Yokota’s past club tracks have been
punchy and catchy, some have also been obvious and trite. Here on “Dreamer”
they are all the former, but more so, they are also driving and bristling with
an inherent excitement. But the overall mood is not one for a party, but one
for contemplation. The majority of tracks are beatless and traditional. The
sound and evoked mental imagery ripple outward like a genuine probing
meditation, one who’s tranquil core extends outwards to the chaotic and
contradictory world of the exterior looking for peace and meaning.
Textural Being – Oceanic (ZeECc)
Sage Taylor’s Textural Being project has
seen two EPs released lately, a more tech house orientated down beat EP called “Sky”
on Geneva’s MonoKraK label and a return to French label ZeECc for another dub techno
excursion. Of the five tracks here, two are new versions of tracks that came
out on his previous ZeECc release from last year, one being a grainier, and more driving rework of the
excellent “High Speed Travel”which I posted about previously
and the other is the second part of “Tides” which ties in nicely with the EPs
title. The remaining three tracks are essentially ambient dub pieces and also
invoke the sea and watery images, with title track “Oceanic” being the darkest
whereas “Seafoam” is suitably light and playful, evoking images of spume and
salty breezes.
Nadia Popoff – Seven Nights (Doma Musique)
Dub techno can at times be a very male
dominated genre which is why it such a nice surprise to find a new and
interesting female producer. Argentinian Nadia Popoff has so far only released
two digital singles, “Cristal Mountain” on Dewtone Recordings and the more
recent “Seven nights ep” with Spanish digital label and arts collective Doma
Musique. Regardless of her limited releases, a captivating feature of her sound
is her use of just the recognizable tip of the dub techno sound palette without
resorting to stereotype and her ability to embellish the music without
overcrowding it. Popoff’s take on dub techno also fuses it with the nervous
psychedelic anxiety of minimal and to centre it more on the dance floor rather
than a home listening bliss out experience.
For more on the Doma Musique label, you
can’t go passed their recent label compilation from December last year which is
available for free download here.
Various – Altering Illusions (5 years of
Echospace)(Echospace)
Sometimes it can seem that the two artists
most closely linked with Detroit’s Echospace label, Steven Hitchell and Rod
Modell, do it by numbers. So prolific are they and with so many monikers that
really don’t sound that different that you have to wonder if it is some kind of
set up. But for dub techno fans these kind of details don’t matter as long as you
have a fairly decent budget to keep up with them. More discerning consumers
will appreciate collections like this, however, which retain the fetish
instinct of many of their releases as well as serving up a generous chunk of
sound in terms of quantity and quality (and let’s face it, sometimes quantity
is quality with dub techno, especially when you are on a Rodriguez bender and
hell bent on staying up all night). Of the 13 tracks here, the last word is
essentially always Hitchell’s, with Modell making an appearance only via the
original source material from his Deepchord project, with one time musical partner
Mike Schommer, or Echospace made alongside Hitchell. Hitchell provides the
tunes or remixes everything himself using all his main names, CV313, Intrusion
and Variant. Everything here is pretty much as you’d expect, deep and echoey
and not often straying above 120bpm where there are beats, and often the best
material are just the gaseous ambient runs. Perhaps the two opening tracks, both
Cv313 reworks of now ancient Deepchord material dating from 2000 are the
clumsiest. If anything they show both how fragile dub techno can be at times,
depending absolutely on the balance of sounds, and how difficult it can be to
make it work on the dance floor. On these two tracks in particular the tight
and heavy kick drum sound overpowers the ambience while also lacking any real charm
to seduce. Elsewhere, Hitchell opts for a more sensible rounded and subaquatic kick
drum sound which is tried and tested, but it works for a reason.
Shifted – Crossed paths (Mote Evolver)
Not yet released, but fitting closely to
the dub techno ideology despite purveying a more Berghain/industrial sound is
the upcoming full length for mysterious producer Shifted on Mote Evolver.
Shifted only has released a handful of singles so far on various labels
including Mote Evolver, Avian and Syndrome Z. But here has been plenty of good
words said about shifted from the likes of Chris Liebing as well, but time will
reveal that “Crossed Paths” is indeed a significant release for 2012. More
emphasis on techno than dub means “Crossed paths” is more comfortable in a club
setting than a lot of dub techno, but Shifted’s sound nonetheless relies
heavily on atmosphere as well as mercurial production to seduce in more
intimate confines. Opener “Yearning” is a case in point, stretching ghostly and
metallic timbres to breaking point whereas closing track “Disconnected”
bleaches itself in a low blood pressure white out of echo and noise. The intervening
melee is a compelling a paranoid journey with touches of Planetary Assault
Systems and the more mechanical fringes of the CLR label and the Traversable
Wormhole series thrown in for good measure.
