Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour

Dweem pawp

I'm really quite adverse to so-called dream pop, popgaze, shoepop, ethereal or whichever, but I was swayed into buying this because of its wonderful artwork and a sort of tug for some light indie in my life. I feel a bit dirty, as this is very Radio 2 (I think), very flash-in-the-pan and reminds me a little of groups such as School of Seven Bells and what I vaguely remember Tindersticks, Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil to sound like (and another band who I can't recall...). It makes me think of 4AD quite a lot, even though they're signed to Sub Pop.

I've always veered away from 4AD as a label as it appeared overly-Catholic about music that held no mystery for me at all -the whole roster (once) seemed very insubstantial, very misty and vapour-like. Dark, but not dark, murky, but not dungeon-murk. I just checked recently and they're releasing some of the best shit around and in genres/sub-genres that I like but consider otherwise unconnected: Spaceghostprrp, Zomby, Grimes, Ariel Pink and Joker (ferfuksake).

Still Corners are okay. The music is a kind of polite kosmische-rock with smoke machines, never gothic but not once silly and irreverent, Creates of an Hour has the heartbeat and heads-down jam feel of kosmische while Tessa Murray's voice, although thinly lovely, gleams like reflected light through the headfog. I'll update if I thaw to it, otherwise it's a perfectly inoffensive way to start the day, as I have done twice this week.

Front Line Assembly - Plasticity EP

This is part 29 (!) in your alltime classix collection!

Infacted Recordings are great. They've been reissuing all sorts of EBM/dark Techno dregs and tidbits for the last couple of years in a series that's as patchy as it is revelatory and wonderful. I picked up about half-a-dozen of these compilations in Stuttgart over Christmas as they're both cheap and temptingly limited (1000 copies of each).

Bill Leeb's FLA are by far the most high profile act to be receive the 'classix' treatment and these tracks were some of the first I ever heard from the group on their Hardwired album. I remember being a NIN fanatic and being in correspondence with some guy on the internet who agreed to sell me a CDr of the notorious Broken video (directed by sadly-missed Chris Christopherson of Coil and TG). He'd asked if I wanted anything else on the CDr as the video hardly took up much space. I remember asking him if he knew any other Industrial bands because, living in Tewkesbury, I didn't. He asked if I knew FLA and I drew a blank so he stuck Hardwired and some Skinny Puppy tracks (including most of The Process...yeuch) on there.

In Tewkesbury we had a small independent record store...I think it was called Hedgehog Records, or something equally glib and indie, and was run by a great guy called Adam whose Dad was a Drama teacher at my school. Anyway, Adam was an oracle of alternative music, selling me my 4th ever CD which was Ministry's Land of Rape and Honey not to mention hunting down loads of NIN odds n' sods for me. He was my Allmusic back then and I remember asking him what Front Line Assembly sounded like and he said "Well, the name sums it up pretty well" and then some comment about Skynet versus Robocop.

When Hardwired on CDr arrived (and after I'd barfed/laughed my way through Broken) I took the digestion of my 8th ever album very seriously: lights were off, PC speakers cranked up, door shut, Windows Media Player visuals primed. I remember sitting (not lying) on my bed, really trying to absorb this futuristic, densely layered and cinematic music. I loved the riffage -I was a Ministry/NIN head around this time, remember -dug the electronic noises, lapped up the samples (even the bleepy 'using a computer' ones from Sci-fi films) and was entirely converted to EBM there and then.

I wanted cyber-techno-robo-gothic-datawar-space-combat-body music with fat metal riffs, computer-voices, big dirty beats and sounds I couldn't place (Is that a keyboard? Computer? Sample? Voice? What?). FLA is the place.

This EP doesn't really offer anything new, although it is wonderful to hear (for me) fresh mixes of these great tracks, as well as some UK hardcore inspired versions of the title tracks that reflect Bill's immersion in the dance music coming out of England around the time.

Overall, I'll probably pop it on from time to time when I want 75 minutes of Hardwired style-dance remixes.

:Wumpscut: Women and Satan First

Extra points for being repulsive!

Yeeeeah, Rudy! Thanks for that one. Artwork so repulsive it outdoes the legions of Death/Gore Metal bands strenuously attempting to produce the ultimate 'most offensive artwork ever' and missing the point with their hand-drawn pictures of babies eating their own intestines (bored of that; more naked skanks needed).

I tried to buy this in Austria with my wife but attempted to do so on the sly, so that the Mother-in-law and, well, most of the Austrian family, didn't ask "What have you bought? Let's have a look at your CD" and then think I was some kind of pervert behind my back (my German is shaky at best).

No luck. In fact, my Uncle-in-law (in his 60s) is a fan of Amazon download store and, when it was revealed that I wanted to buy a CD but couldn't find it, bought a couple of MP3s to cheer me up. So, we sat round in Graz eating our breakfast with the Mother-in-law, the Auntie, wife and Bavarian visitors (also in their 60s, heavily conservative) listening to :Wumpscut:. Not an eyelid was batted -someone enquired as to why this man was saying 'Blutsturtz Baby' so much as it was odd, but that was it.

So we tried to get it at Saturn: fail. Tried Media Markt: fail. Eventually tried Amazon.au/.de and failed because of the hideous price. Eventually my wife ordered it so it arrived in England for when we got back: fail, back-ordered. I got it from Music Non Stop in the end and realised it was roughly 10 year since my first order there! (See previous post about FLA).

First Impression

Evil, mostly, in the vein of Fuckit (which I ended up loving despite heavily dissing it online...check the Amazon reviews) which is to say we're in Dark-Electro territory, not so much industrial or noise, but that's acceptable as I think Rudy's contemporary style of Gothic-techno, divorced of industrial, is fine. His lyrics are typically awkward but sincere with some vague WWII references ("Hitler would have melted you for soap" being my favourite lyric so far) as with Schrekk und Grauss. In my opinion the interesting, complex textures and one-off sounds/movements aren't as noticeable here as with S&G but, as it says above, this is only a first impression.

I'll listen to it on the way to work tomorrow and report back. Have been greedily eyeing up the Body Census, Bone Peeler and Siamese boxes on Discogs...thought of having complete :W: collection very exciting. Listened to Cannibal Anthem (an unloved part of Ratzinger's catalogue) on the way to gym earlier and decided it is great but understated; dramatic, brooding and introverted with a touch of the mystical as with Evoke but denser, less airy mixes and high-end synths. It is as if Cannibal Anthem is grislier, filmed on 8mm and grounded in reality where Evoke is pure fantasy, prone (and able) to take flights of whimsy and imagination. I like it because it has great instrumentals.

Second Impression

24/04/2012

Listened to this on the way to work and just now for a third time. Most of these tracks I like, none repulse me at all, but none stand out yet. I like Burial on Demand though, it has some very cool percussive thumps here and there and a sort of lo-fi, crunchy looped burp noise which is ok.

What I think I really like about :Wumpscut: and that makes Rudy a fucking G is that he manages to make music that is essentially pop music, i.e. catchy and with recognisable song structures but dark as fuck.

Interesting: Grobian includes a quotation from Hitler "Here I stand with my bayonets, there you stand with your Law. We'll see which prevails." and another from a Nazi who observed the behaviour of Jews in Babi Yar who co-operated with the Nazis and eventually sped up their own annihilation, remarking "The bastards are sub-human[my emphasis]."
    The song's lyric text recalls a confrontation with a person wearing "schwarze Stiefel" (black boots), being tall and a bully or slovenly person ('Grobian' is a coarse person, a rogue). It's ambiguous stuff, more typical of the neofolk provacateurs, that lends :Wumpscut: his edge and raises this above mere dancefloor fodder.  

Mastamind: The Mastapiece

Mastamind - The Mastapiece

One third of the legendary NATAS (Nation/Niggers Ahead in Time And Space -NOT Satan backwards...not Satan...y'hear?), Detroit's premier, original underground rap group, Mastamind has had a late start in the solo game but now, in his maturity, has burnished his skills, image and releases into a great, clear, dynamic update of the Acid Rap/Wickedshit template.

Acid Rap, so called because of both its corrosive and hallucinogenic content, was begun in the late 80s by Esham (East Side Hoes And Money) who, while still in High School, was recording and releasing a brutally graphic, scuzzy, pioneering form of lo-fi rap that melded the extreme, dark no-holds-barred unpleasant topics of other sick-genres like Black Metal and, to a less cartoonish extent, Industrial to the funk-boom-bap of early Hip-Hop.

It's full of illicit, nocturnal, morally defunct goings-on and OTT Satanic content (until Esham renounced that particular unholy subject, possibly from community pressure as well as personal reasons) set to distorted, trippy and harsh beats and, to be honest, it's all fantastic listening. Mastamind joined Esham and another rapper TNT to form the aforementioned NATAS, whose Doyoubelieveingod? LP is a great place to start with the genre, a group whose existence is in question now but produced some of the best heavy, fucked-up alternative rap of the 1990s. Mastamind has been absent from NATAS since he began striking out on his own and his own troubled relationship with Acid Rap brother/former mentor Esham.

I'll do a longer post on Mastamind (centre, front, Esham right and TNT back) later, because he's sickasfuck, but for now I'll stick to Mastapiece because, frankly, it lives up to its title.

So, Mastamind is hanging out with the Slaughtercore label crew recently (including the prolifically vile SCUM, who is determined to graphically out-revolt everyone else in the world) and their alumni feature heavily here. Whereas Acid Rap originally created an atmosphere of horror and evil through detailed, vivid report of the (hopefully) fictional activities of the group, Mastamind has slowly managed a careful move from this into a form of Horror-tinged, futuristic, death-obsessed, cinematic style whereby his beats (which have been of stupendous quality lately) reference horror's sonic cliches of Theremin sounds, doomy, rumbling bass synths and zombie-lurch rhythms without falling into anything as insipid or empty as, say, late period Universal Horror (Abbott and Costello vs Dracula vs Hitler vs the Werewolf, or something).
So, we're treated to tight, tidy Gothic hip-hop that of late has had a sort of cyberpunk leaning -see the cover art from last few releases below -which helps Mastamind carve his own niche and not be Esham II. The self-proclaimed Hellrazer has a distinct and purposeful style that's nothing but his own.

His bars are death and suicide focused here, with much talk of welcoming death and basically adopting the persona of the Pinhead of Hip-Hop (the cinematic incarnation of Barker's creation is heavily sampled throughout the album too). Mastamind doesn't have much of an audible sense of humour, nor is he able to tie his lyrics into the same metaphorical knots of meaning that Esham manages, BUT his dedication, consistency and personality more than make up for this. Look at the last few Esham albums which were sprawling and massive but varied and diluted to a fault -Mastamind knows what he's great at and works at making it better and better, constantly adding new tricks and bettering his old ones.

He's such a great presence on the beats, solid and practised with great imagery and sense of purpose that stands up beside the livelier performances of the other MCs. The aforementioned SCUM is a strange one as I find his flow brutish and unsophisticated but cannot deny that the way he bolts his lyrics together, i.e. the effortless (and endless) description of seriously unpleasant and violent images, is succinct, rapid and compact enough to make for enjoyable verses but exhausting at track and album length. The best contribution comes from Daniel Jordan, a young face in the scene, whose verse on Lay Handz (a standout track) plays with Mastamind's own history by referencing one of his older verses on an earlier album (I think it was Themindzi LP), giving Mastapiece the overall feeling of being a celebration of the history of the Acid Rap genre while simultaneously being packed with proteges, modernised beats and in cahoots with new labels that marks out fresh territory and a sense that this crew are onto something exciting and fresh, not just retrospective tribute.

An overall solid release, confident, polished and full of enthusiasm -my only complaint? Why make yer artwork so damn murky? Lighten up! We can't see the cool picture!

Although, it's good to see a right-on-time break from the (very cool) pattern of skulls/facemasks that was defining of Mastamind's new, freshly independent phase but had served its purpose by now.

I'm hoping that the Acid Rap template, far from falling into the depths of Gore-Hop (which is SCUM's grisly little niche), can actually emerge as a kind of mix of cinematic, Cyperpunk/horror aesthetics and use the breakthroughs made by recent underground rappers to newly stakeout previously lost territory, rather than pretend they're exploring it for the first time.

Record Store Day

Good times at Rise Bristol

Guided by Voices: Jon the Croc 7"

Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury: DROKK CD

Mark Stewart: Experiments Ltd 12"

I showed what, I think, was admirable restraint at Rise Bristol today for National Record Store Day. A superb idea that gets us all slavering over vinyl, writing wish lists and (most importantly) spending our money in real record shops.

My main target was the Babe, Terror 12" Knights but, alas, Rise didn't receive a copy (I doubt they're likely to, actually) and nor did the shabby Head Entertainment. It was only 200 copies nationwide so, hey hum, never mind.

The above, though, seem great. Although not really a Record Store Day exclusive, DROKK is amazing. A John Carpenter/Judge Dredd inspired work of future-sci-fi genius, referencing Tangerine Dream and sounding like an annoyed Zombie Zombie (slightly funkier variant on this style) on a bristling rampage.

Disgruntled sequencer pulses, chrome slabs synth and swinging mechanic-percussion make up most tracks, the emphasis being on Sci-fi dark rather than anything else. A solidly good release that has excellent packaging that really fits the music it encases.

Demdike Stare epiphany, or the first symptoms of.

Prejudice wearing off

I've explained below how I can't quite accept Demdike Stare and, after researching and adding some context and history to the duo, I still found myself feeling very neutral and unimpressed by them. There was something unconvincing about a minimal techno DJ and an indiscriminate crate digger joining forces and with Andy Votel hanging around too -I don't dislike any of this gang but I instantly imagined the zany, guffawing stickers that adorned most Finders Keepers' releases "20 hot slices of raw Romanian Horror Soundtrack Funk" being bandied around during the recording of these Demdike tracks. The music was dark as fuck, no problems there, but I had no feeling for the dude being the noise. Not like Cabaret Voltaire who, despite being wholly affable and reasonable chaps, seemed to be exorcising their sinister dark side on record or P-Orridge who is disarmingly charming and thus makes his recorded presence all the more uncomfortable and shirk-worthy.

No, these guys seemed like a pair of vinyl heads digging putting their zany discoveries together under a concept which, perhaps, seemed almost too cinematic. I've listened mostly to the first two parts of their Triptych the most and was left unphased (not to mention deflated after "Caged in Stanheim") and dissatisfied. So, I persevered and have been listening heavily.

Part 3 (2?) of the Triptych, Voices of Dust, is on the money. It's a great, dense, unfurling leakage of loop abuse and slow-motion disintegration. You know that scene at the beginning of Terminator 2 with Sarah Connor experiencing the playground apocalypse? Parts of this recall my imagined DJ Skrew remix of that scene.

It isn't noisy -as in flinchingly so- just a slow grinding morass of explosions happening in carefully plotted sequence and overlapping here and there.

So, Voices of Dust I like. My wife asked me to turn it off for being 'too challenging' (a good sign) and I also find this to be the release where the personalities of the DJs recede a bit, feeling less like two mates having a chummy muck about, more like an earnest bit of malevolent art.

I'll give Eternal a spin later in the hope it's in the same vein.

Wax pt 1

Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland: Black is Beautiful

The artists formerly known as Hype Williams have released another album of murky, contradictory bass music -though I'm loathe to call it 'bass' music as, despite being unerringly bassy, is doesn't fit in with that tag/sub-genre's dancefloor functionality so neatly.

*sigh* I could discuss Blunt and Copeland for hours, but I'll resist as you can ably visit Pitchfork, DiS or some other gatekeeper/tastemaker/mediator/validator and get the same intellectualised discussion of this fascinating band's music.

I like it because they sound like late 70s-early 80s Industrial without the grisly bits -just as Throbbing Gristle sounded like a poisonous cloud, all amorphous, billowing noise spores, Blunt&Copeland sound they're music has been infected or damaged by said emissions. You know how those early Industrial/electro records (like SPK and some Cabaret Voltaire) had a nasty, DIY hum (This Heat had it too...not distant from Hype) to everything that made it sound somewhere between brilliantly spontaneous and in-the-moment but was complex and pointed enough to reveal a degree of intention and preparation. Cabaret Voltaire's Red Mecca had a similar quality -I like Blunt&Copeland because they sound like a full on dub-hip-hop remix of Red Mecca...which is cool.

Can't help feeling that this record is a bit tidier, though fair play to them for pushing tentatively forward and not compromising on what they do. Despite the (slightly) trimmed edges, it is still a great unconventional record. People just doing what the fuck they want. In the zone and using it.