ruò tán are China’s more organic answer to old post-Industrial/cassette-culture bands like Germany’s Cranioclast. The music is eerie, yet so utterly engaging. Probably the best reference to this music is for those of you who remember not only the aforementioned band but the early works of projects like O Yuki Conjugate out of Great Britain. Not at all music to meditate to, but it did make for engaging music to lay back to and simply absorb.
Our beloved friends at Russia’s finest indie music magazine, Meticulous Midgets, has released their annual compilation of weird experimental, lo-fi and avant-garde music. Featured artists include Russia’s own Assembly of Honey, the Italian ambient sound sculptor Marco Lucchi and Latvia’s Шумилов Бор (Shumilov Bor) among a host of talent worldwide.
Our dear friend Hubert Heathertoes collaborated with Roger Smith (he of some rather amazing experimental music projects like CHEFKIRK) as Lumber for a drony, well-sculpted collection of noise compositions. It’s such a pleasure to hear noise that is well-done, well-composed, rather than the boring vacuum-cleaner-like garbage that pollutes most of the so-called harsh noise scene.
Jettenbach were reviewed here once before, and as I quite enjoyed this noisy ambient drone work touched with elements of post-Industrial and Kosmische Kraut, I thought it good to share some new work by the project.
This work by Chinese composers Li Hongqi (violin) and Yang Haison (theremin) is a 52-minute piece of droning experimental music. The feeling of the recording reminds me of early Industrial music and it flows rather nicely. Thanks to storerecords out of Beijing for releasing this.
I receive a double blessing for this release. I have the privilege of pointing my readers to a wonderful boutique label out of Brazil called z0 who are producing quality experimental music, and I add to this the joy of introducing more music from Pete Swinton, whose work has really caught my attention (thanks, in part, to Jeff Gburek). There are two tracks on this album. The first, Blizzard In Antarctica, clocks in at 15 minutes, and is as cold and noisy as you would expect such a natural phenomenon to be. It’s noise in a sense, but sculpted and…
Heejin Jang is a sound designer and composer from Seoul, South Korea who makes noise unlike other composers in the genre. The sounds are more subdued, sculpted, and in many ways, engaging listening. It’s not anti-music, but something abrasive, yet pleasing, to listen to. From her Bandcamp site: “The Korean producer’s new album features the most intricate and brutal tracks of her career. Here, she presents mosaics of sound that endlessly mutate and rearrange themselves in elegant ways. Jang’s ability to position harsher sections against moments of unnerving calmness provokes the listener into a variety of mental states, including panic,…
I remember the Beijing lockups very well, as I lived in the city during the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Some residents in Beijing, including the trio of Li Jianhong, Wen Zhiyong and Deng Boyu, made incredibly good use of the time and recorded an album of music combining free improvisation, electronics and ancient instruments such as gudi (bone flute) and trumpet. A sonically stunning album. Respect to WV Sorcerer Productions (巫唱片), who continue to release quality Chinese new music.
With the passing of Richard H. Kirk last year and Stephen Mallinder keeping himself busy with his own projects, Cabaret Voltaire will be no more. This final album, basically with Kirk alone programming the music, is a fifty-minute track that has much more in common with it’s early Industrial past than it does with the techno-funk sound that made them so popular in the 1980s.
I haven’t heard anyone do an album in a plunderphonics style in some time now. Stanislav Aladev, who composes under the name Shopworn, is a Russian musician who has released one of the most charmingly weird albums I’ve heard this year. From Stanislav, regarding his work: “I thought for a long time how and from what to create this album. In 2015, I came across an article about the philosophical current Metamordenism, which was supposed to serve as the beginning of a new era and the end of the old postmodern pleasures. I have always looked at music and other…