The Sound Projector Music Magazine #2

69 Pages·1997·78.3 MB·English

by  Ed Pinsent

The Sound Projector 2nd Issue
Original edition summer 1997
This digital edition published 2011
Made available under a Creative Commons License
Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector
BM Bemused, London WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom
The Soand Projeetor 2nd issue 1.997
Sound
YOUR EARS ARE MY PUNCHING BAG:
JapCore Tokyo underground
psych noise
Projector
Musica Transonic, p 51
Keiji Haino's heroic failures, p 45
Cosmic K urushi Monsters I Resonance Japan issue, pp
second
46-48
Ground Zero, Cinorama, Che Shizu, pp 49-50
issue
Contents
EDITORIAL: Better Listening thru Imagination, p 3
Letters, p 4
THE CRACKLING ETHER: Electronic
Shrieks and Ambient Undercurrents
Tricky and Techno Animal, pp 6-7
Isolationism and Ambient; Bruce Gilbert; Z'ev; Scanner;
Spectrum; Martin Archer, pp 8-ll
Musique Concrete, pp 36-39
AMERICAN MONSTERS: Titan
Geniuses from the States
Sun Ra, pp 12-14
Van Dyke Parks, pp 64-65
The Brood, p 63
THE DISCURATOR•s DEN - round up of
record reviews
lncludin~ Soft Machine, Big Stick, ZGA, Subway Sect,
Destroy All Monsters, MX-BO, pp 15-21
'. .. stern-lipped overlord Robert Fripp ... ' see page 62
MOSSBED OF IMPROVISATION:
German Kosmische musik
THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH
Sand, p 23; Embryo, Kluster, Between, Emtidi, Can Peel
A bonanza of Obscure 1970s UK Prog-Rock reissues
sessions, pp 28-30
incl Dark, Andromeda, Octopus, Steel Mill, Spiral Sky, The
An Unpublished Florian Fricke interview pp 24-27
Wicked Lady ... pp 52-54
Conrad Schnitzler also speaks, pp 34-35
Latin American Prog: Kris Kringle, Los Parajos,
Faust live, p 33
Aguaturbia ... , p 55-56
The Pyramid Label, pp 31-32
Who is reissuing these records, and why?, pp 57-58
MALADROIT RHYTHMS: Rock Music
THE LISTENING POST
derivatives
Digging Up Popular Prog by John Bagnall, pp 59-62
A Sudden Sway, pp 4344
This Heat, p 40 ... and Cindy War Arrow's Skipl oad of Tapes, p 66
We Be Echo, pp 41-42
1
The Sound Projeetor 2ud issue 1997
Folk MuJic Krautroclc El«tronix Kramer
Tlte
Ste""'lab Bobby Brown Amon Diiill
Souttd
Th~ Thuemin Family Foddu Julian Cepe
Projector
ffirry Partch Moondog Tony Conrad
Borrdoms
DestrOy All MonJten Kraftw'erlc
Advenisinu
Back Issues
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2
The Sonnd Projeetor 2nd isSJ~e 1997
Editorial
Editor's Note-in spite oft he 'Skipload of Tapes' column
and other reviews this issue, please note it is not current
Sound Projector policy to review cassette releases by
amateurs. Submissions are emphatically not welcome at the
editorial address, nor are reviews or mentions guaranteed
Better Listening through Imagination ... all I can do is for unsolicited material.
make Sound Projector a personal statement. The
extravagant claims and flights u£fantasy simply reflect the The Sound Projector 2nd issue is written and illustrated by
effects I believe music is having on me, but that's no reason Ed Pinsent, with contributions by these great fellows:
that you, gentle reader, should adopt them. But we hope to
Edwin Pouncey, John Bagnall, Cindy
show you other ways in which to exercise your own
imagination when selecting and listening to records, and aim War Arrow and Harley Richardson
to enhance the listening experience for all. We could
Also many thanks to Norbert Schilling
apologise once again for the scarcity of hard facts, but there
it is ... anyway there's enough factual information in the
world, surely there's a place for a little creative thinking on Back cover drawing by John God bert, as is the
the subject! If the mainstream music press are the High Starlit Mire drawing used on Discurator's Den page.
Priests of orthodoxy, then Sound Projector is a charismatic
John Bagnall provided his own line drawings for
evangelist.
his Prog Rock article, and also sketch of The Can p 30.
Naturally this is a tricky area, as we do not wish to descend
Other picture credits: 'Head of a Native Woman' 1948 by
to the level of the callow music journalists who to this day
Luis Arena!, p 55
consider their own personality to be more interesting than
Matt Fox (monster about to eat The Dark bassist), p 52
the music. Easy enough to pattern one's writing style after
Thomas Hart Benton and Andrew Wyeth (on Van Dyke
the great Lester Bangs, but for those writers who lack his
Parks collage) p 64
generous personality, the results can tend to resemble dull
diary entries. At The Sound Projector we still think the
All contents © 1997 by their respective creators
music is the most important thing, but maintain there must
be way to refract its light through the prism
of the soul, and not just the mind. If we can
do this, what kaleidoscopic delights might
ensue. Solo! [A Manifesto] by Conrad Schnitzler
Herein this issue are two self-indulgent
. Solo Tracks tndividual voice.
wallows in the illegal pleasures of
Solo Vo1ces .
progressive rock by John Bagnall and
Soloist tndividualist Egotist
myself, perhaps only to be expected from
thirty-somethings who grew up in Liverpool Voice Note Tone Colour .
-notice my reproduction of the Virgin
Pitch Volume Dynaml:s
Megastore (Liverpool branch) bag circa
1978, which turned up in my collection of Rhythm Variety Harmom~s
junk. The Japanese seem to adore UK Prog
Freedom Monochrome Expression.
also -bend an ear to Cinorama for a King
Crimson lyric-check, or Che Shizu for a Tonal Atonal Changeable
musical quote from Fripp and Co's first LP.
Static Mobile Cloudy
The Ruins live on stage in London April
1997 regaled the audience with a hilarious Clear Dark Light
and brilliant medley of 30 progressive rock Fast Complex Transparent
tunes played in 3 minutes flat; I almost
thought it was a joke until I caught a Fat Lean Abstract
fragment of a Tony Banks 'Firth of Fifth' lnformal Experimental Conventional
solo. 'Do you rike Progress Rock?' asked
Glassy Metallic Concrete
the drummer, 'I rove it!!!'
Electric Calm Agitated .
Yours eccentrically
·ng Reclining Percuss1ve
F'
The Editor OWl d Stow
Downward Upwar
Risk Tormenting Colourful
Thanks to kind reviewers in The Wire and Garrulous tndescribable.
Ptolemaic Terrascope, and to supportive
folk at Cargo, Real Time, Chris @
Compendium Books, Mick @ Helter
Skelter, Darryl@ Rough Trade, Peter
Pavement, These Records, Fisheye distro.
3
The Soulld. Pro~to.i' 2ud issue 1997
leners
From Chris Butler
.. .I'm enjoying it, though of course as I've not heard of90%
of the artists mentioned I have to approach the articles as
modernist short stories revealing, obliquely, the character
and alienation of the narrator. I enjoyed the interview with
From Chris Cutler Alig Pierce. He seemed very genuine. I also liked the spine
Hi Ed · happy to receive The Sound Projector -only the and the length of the magazine. I think not trying to be
Keiji article I found the tiniest bit OTT .. .I wonder 'current' is a smart move, shelf-life wise. I especially liked
sometimes what the writers would make of Keiji's reactions seeing your illustrations in this context. It suits them. And I
to their writings (I saw it ref. Biba Kopf's also OTT piece in, just get pleasure from your use of line. Good to see it
The Wire) -why Keiji is good, I think, is because he's an appearing somewhere.
artist -it means: it ain't real. But this is minor-the
enthusiasm is better than the usual cynicism, would be a FromKyranLynn
positive gloss. ...T he Sound Projector really is an excellent read. All the
articles were of interest and I found myself making a list of
From Andrea B (who sent me a copy ofh er published things to look out for as I went through it. . .I think a real
interview with Moondog) strength of its coverage is that it isn't limited to 'recent'
...S ound Projector is very very good. The style of writing is releases. Got to say your 'Record Shops in London' article
passionate and exciting, not too reverent or stuffed full of had me pretty wound up. Maybe that was the intention?
library paste! When my fmances improve I'll buy extras for Although I agree with a lot of what you say, your flat
my friends .. .I honestly felt your article on MOONIE was dismissal of DJ-ing as a 'meaningless race' is outrageous.
better · it expresses your personality and is not dry like Early Electro and Hip-Hop was the first music to really
mine ....A mazingly everything in SP was inspiring to me - interest me and I still consider it my biggest influence. So I
especially the sensibility of 'The Listening Post' -sort of guess you touched a nerve there! I must tape you some
coming across LPs by chance (£1 or less natch!). Recently I tracks to make you reconsider ...
got a Folkways Dutch Folk Songs LP (1956) and the man
sounds like Ivor Cutler. Unexpected forgotten non-trendy
stuff I guess! I can't even buy new releases due to
cost ... thanks again and already I'm rubbing my hands
together waiting for SP #2!
{Andrea is Azalia Snail. her new LP is
reviewed this issue. She is also
planning to release a record ofp oetry
hy Moondog}.
From Paul Gravett
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed Sound Projector.
It's an intense work of reference and enthusiasm. I don't
know much about hardly any of the artists, but you and
your fellow writers really put across their virtues and ideas.
Congratulations on a stirling piece of editing and publishing
· a UK Research on wondrous musics!
From Tf!nothy d'Arch Smith
Thank you very much for sending the excellent Sound
Projector and especial thanks for your very kind review of
Peepin. Nobody else has 'got' the book as you have 'got' it.
You've put your finger on exactly my plan of campaign and
I'm very grateful to you for the generous space you gave
it. . .I'm going to settle properly to the magazine and am most
relieved to find it includes a guide to Boredoms, a grey area
with me. Best ofluck to it. Will it be available in the shops?
I'm sure Helter Skelter will take copies. I know them quite
well there and they are pleasant folk.
I'm feeling a little embarrassed at a personal feeling of'not
un-niceness' (as Philip Larkin said about a jazz record rather
out of his line) about techno and its spin-offs. I have a
godson who has an unerring eye -let alone ear -for those
anonymous (how right you are about that) twelve-inchers. I
do think The Orb is vastly overrated though.
I found a quote in Joseph Conrad's Victory-quite apposite
Write to Sound Projector at my fab new PO Box Number
(although Conrad was being disparaging) about 'our' music:
BM Indefinite, London WC1 N 3XX
'There is an unholy fascination in systematic noise'.
4
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The Sound Projeetor 2nd issue 1997
world with hideous cyborg entities, among them a robot
baboon and a computer-generated dragonfly. No fluffy
theme-park comfort to be found here, rather a terrifying
rollercoaster ride through the possibilities of digital futures.
Techno Animal is two guys, Kevin Martin and J Broadrick,
joined here by other musicians, among them the great Jon
Hassell on trumpet fed through pedals, f.tlters and overall
studio technique, methods Hassell has been employing for
many years. I was intrigued enough by this to pick up a
vinyl copy of his Possible Musics, which is a nifty item (I
had been put off by many elements before, the Eno
connection, the pseudo-ethnography feel, the bland sleeve).
Re-Entry consists of two suites, 'Dream Machinery' is the
aggressive primary disc, exploring the scaffolded
superstructure of this alien world -check out titles like 'City
Heathen Dub' and 'Demodex Invasion'; where auxiliary disc
'Heavy Lids' drags us through the murky swamp of the city's
insecure foundations. The latter disc nods in the Ambient
direction but it's no less disturbing for being quieter and not
as sharply focused. This record was a revelation to me. It
apparently demonstrates all kinds of imaginative and
resourceful approaches to dub mixing, sampling and use of
electronics. Executed in a seamless manner that makes all
the edits disappear. But I can't emphasise enough that the
terror of the whole enterprise is what sweeps you along, a
vision of darkness inexorably proceeding like a monster
virus throughout our decomposing urban empires, at all
levels.
There's been a lot of water under the bridge since
Maxinquaye frrst appeared, and bits of mythology are
accruing -some of it self-made by the artist, some of it
pasted on by clueless media folk. Tricky has been in The
Techno Animal, Re-Entry, Virgin Guardian Weekend where the journali~t tried to portray
him as a mysterious demon figure. Also, Nearly God and
AMBT 8 I 7243 8 40404 20 (1995)
Pre Millennium Tension have been released -neither CD is
Tricky, Maxinquaye, Island BRCD yet on my shelf, but apparently these alone have been cause
for a Tricky backlash in some circles. Such is the over-riding
610/524 089-2 (1995)
imperative-the relentless thirst for novelty, and some
wayward concomitant perception of 'hipness' -that can
Two items, not really connected, and I probably wouldn't
sometimes prevent listeners from simply using their ears,
have bought them but for the fact that The Wire made them
making their own judgements. Maxinquaye is a fme record
sound kirld of interesting in 1995, so by now it's all old hat
in anyone's book and I understand it is deservedly popular,
to you hipsters I have no doubt. Techno Animal's offering is
bringing the best of a particular style of music to a wider
totally nightmarish, and sheer delight for the stereo, it
audience. The astonishing surface is what draws you in frrst
works on one level as just purely enjoyable explorations of
-quite honestly few things in life sound as interesting as this
textures. Right from the start I was overwhelmed by some
sense of gargantuan scale, and this not just the fact that it's a -dense, confusing, and filled with unexpected dynamics.
double CD (each disc over an hour long). I mean this The voices are fantastic: Martine's sad whimper to the fore,
wonderful illusion of experiencing more than you're plaintive and smitten with some secret pain, barely
controlled emotion, yet resigned. Tricky himself adopts the
hearing. They prove the drug of music really does work.
Tremendous use of subliminals -grunts shifts blips all voice of a murmuring dark magus, startlingly effective when
manner of things right on the edges of ~erception ' he mutters the same lyric out of step with Martine.
somewhere, hinting at much darker forces and huge
After this wears off, you're still left with an uncanny
physical shapes beneath. Of course to arrive at this point
you have to listen your way down through layers of barbed eccentricity which still seems to baffle some listeners, hence
wire mixed with tendrils and bracken. But when you arrive, perhaps these attempts to 'psychoanalyse' Tricky the artist
here is this fascinating bedrock, an undulating concrete via some superficial readings of Tricky the person. He
ocean, simultaneously liquid and rock solid. Beneath it remains however a shrewd figure, as protean as the Fool in
there lurk all manner of strange beasts. So this record the Tarot pack, moving freely within contexts and
succeeds in fashioning an entire separate planet, with its defmitions, guided by his artistic demons and perhaps with
own strata and volcanic rock formations, whose history is all one eye on the rear mirror to see if anyone's caught up with
there to be read by those equipped with aural geiger him yet. But, like his enormous vehicle here on the back
cover, Tricky can traverse all kinds of difficult terrain with
counters and geological hammers. The sleeve art of course
hints at another dimension, the populating of this strange apparent ease. An intriguing image is this truck. Its
~mouflage marking suggests a covert military operation
6
Tile SoUJHI Projeetol' 2•d issue 1997
(although he simultaneously blows his
cover, announcing his name in large
stencilled lettering), the long whip
aerial indicates secret message
broadcasts and connects to his sonic
mission. It is parked in a sandy area
difficult to reach, and tire tracks
leading both ways show he can move
whichever way he likes.
Each track is a different fantastic
voyage into harsh landscapes, dream
environments, obsessive nightmares
and visions. These are realised
through a prescient, magical mastery
of the sonic studio space. Anything
can be used in Tricky's palette of
sounds and textures, thus the familiar
mix of sampling and real-time
musicians playing. Tricky seems to
perceive the whole sound environment
in a perfect hyper-real 3-D, and is able
to insert his inspired, fleeting details
with extraordinary precision · it's like
glimpsing brightly coloured tropical
fish darting past your retinas for a
millisecond. This is surely the
Eisenstein 'montage' aesthetic given a
new twist and a new lease of life:
through his edits and juxtapositions,
Tricky unleashes dark emotions,
leaves odd traces and impressions and,
through the adding of yet another
element in the mix, accretes new layers
of double-bluff, contradictory
meanings. Is he not the Jean-Michel
Basquiat of music? Familiar popsong
concepts of'development' through the
traditional verse-chorus structure of a
song are refused, in favour of simply
repeating the same hooks, verses, riffs
·into an infmity of hysterical
self-refle~ting and self-parodying
echoes, a mirror ball picking up new
colours and shapes on each successive
spin. I fmd this particularly on the
tracks 'Ponderosa' and 'Black Steel',
which simply grow increasingly insane
and demented as they progress. In fact
this same pattern is echoed by the
linear sequence of tracks here · the
record becomes almost totally
incoherent by the end, with 'Strugglin'
menacing you every second with its
shotgun sound effect used as a
percussion track, and 'Feed Me' with
its glissandos of fucked-up, disintegrating robot voice.
Surely both these excellent records are examples of 100%
He plays clever games with your memory ·a song can linger studio-based approach to making records · in neither case
on in your mind long afterwards, even in the middle of the could tracks like these be pre-composed at a piano, nor
night an echo or phrase will return to haunt you, so it's best indeed notated in that way afterwards. They give us hope
to play it one track at a time to minimise brain damage. Yet, for the medium of music's potential as a tool for the
another listening of the exact same track will yield totally effective communication of ideas in ways that circumvent
different results. Presumably the snippet of Blade Runner logic and linear thinking.
dialogue here confirms this science fiction Philip K Dick-ish
element.
7
The Scnmd Projeetor 2nd issue 1997
Various Artists, defmition of its terms, so it includes but remember it came about by
contributions across a wide spectrum: accident. Martin here does namecheck
Isolationism, Virgin
from the avant-gardish zones we have the effete Brian, but also situates the
AMBT 4 (1994) AMM, the Japanese noisemeisters Isolationism 'scene' alongside a host of
Keiji Haino and KK Null, Jim other, more interesting antecedents
My unde~tanding is that this
O'Rourke, Paul Schtitze; from slightly and parallel developments, and
compilation coined the phrase
more familiar Ambient territories, spreads this shopping list before us in
'Isolationism' which for a time has
Techno Animal, Aphex Twin, Scorn, a dazzling storefront of delights.
gained some currency (amongst critics
Lull, Main. Each track overlaps into
and record stores) to describe. a certain
the next, so that each disc almost Sleeve art by The Pathological Puppy,
strain of Ambient music; a useful tool
describes a gigantic panoramic vista; in the same imagists responsible for
for those chroniclers who enjoy
a way to separate everything out Techno Animal; the inside pix are
splintering this work into
reduces the project back to its dazzlers, while the front cover is a
sub-categories. One could take
constituent ingredients -the segueing black murky blob resembling the
Isolationism to mean music which is
and track ordering are what help to mouth of a cave with a row of
by nature withdrawn and introverted,
produce this excellent mixture of stalactites; perhaps my guess at a
creating an artificial environment of
contrasts, light and shade. 'virtual womb' (or a vagina dentata?) is
great comfort to the listener; from this
not far off the mark.
follows accusations that this music is
K. Martin's sleeve note is filled with
not outgoing, is no fun whatsoever,
grandiose claims and I support him for Scanner, ASH 1.2
and appeals chiefly to the shy and
doing this -whether you agree with
socially inadequate in need of a 'virtual
him depends on what benefits you Robin Rimbaud is becoming
womb' to cushion themselves from the
manage to extract from these discs. somewhat ubiquitous these days both
harsh realities of life.
The view of many is that the term in terms oflive performances and
'Ambient' starts with Brian Eno, who appearances on his own and others'
That may be. I'm encouraged to see
had a defined vision of what it ought to CDs; he even turned up on Radio 4 in
such an interesting mixture of artists,
be-'as ignorable as it is interesting', July 1996, where he turned one of his
this compilation has a very catholic
sampling tricks on the dialogue fresh
8