REVIEW: TRANSMISSION OK - THE SKY, THE STARS AND THE GREAT BEYOND

 

TRANSMISSION OK - THE SKY, THE STARS AND THE GREAT BEYOND... (BMG, 2000):

Technical data:

Mixed by Tom Weir at Tom Weir Recording Studio

Produced and Engineered by Blues Saraceno

Artwork by t42design.com.

Track List: 1- Swimming, 2- Rocketship, 3- That Kind of Girl, 4- Fiberglass, 5- The Reason Why, 6- Wishing For More, 7- Coward, 8- Superstar, 9- All Good, 10- Smokin´Jesus, 11- Supermodel, 12- Low

Transmission OK is the new band from ex Poison axeman Blues Saraceno. Obviously the music here is melodic rock with modern sound (there are a lot of seventies and nineties influences here, specially on the sound). The music is completely different from what Blues used to do on his previous band, here he has more controlo on the composition and he has laid completely on alternative rock using melodic hooks in a completely different way than he used to do. He has also space to play different type of solos (always in the context of the songs). The band that supports Blues here is really solid and makes a great surrounding for this good musician. Favorite tracks: " The Reason Why", "Superstar" and "Smokin´Jesus". Contact: www.transmissionok.com

REVIEW: TOTAL DEVASTATION - DIVINE-ECSTASY

 

TOTAL DEVASTATION - DIVINE - ECSTASY (Independent, 2001):

Technical data:

Recorded at Hellhole, January 2001.

Track List: 1- I am God, 2- Burn Yourself, 3- Let It Bleed, 4- Prepare To Die

Total Devastation make a death metal really modern with riffs that are not so typical of the style and some climatic parts (as an example you can check the one at 2:50 of "I am God"). The sound is really heavy and somewhat mechanical because of the use of a very well mixed drum machine that enhances the results. This is a trio consisting in a vocalist, a guitarist and bassist and the third member does the programming plus they have two guest musicians here, one in violin and the other one on vocals. And they have a lot of variations in their music, I would call their style something like death industrial (because of the combination of sounds between the heavy guitars and the drum machine, plus the death metal vocals). The best riffs are those with their own identity as the ones in "Burn Yourself". My favorite tracks is "Prepare To Die" with the violin playing a melodic line over the rhythmic base which plays with clean guitars before getting into a full power track with crushing riffs and vocals full of brutality. Favorite tracks: "Prepare To Die" and "Burn Yourself". Contact: www.saunalahti.fi/pikka/td

REVIEW: THE METAPHYSICIAN ´S HAMMER - BENJAMIN CHADABE / BENJAMIN HARTLAGE

 

THE METAPHYSICIAN ´S HAMMER - BENJAMIN CHADABE / BENJAMIN HARTLAGE (Electronic Music Foundation, 2000):

Technical data:

Produced by Benjamin Chadabe for J&B Media

Recorded by Nathaniel Reichman at Murmur Music.

Graphic Design by Dill Design

Track List: 1- Divine Water, 2- Solo 1 , 3- Hell and Humdrums, 4- Solo 2, 5- Nickel, 6- Solo 3, 7- Metallic Frenzy, 8- Solo 4, 9- Exodus of Sun, 10- Solo 5, 11- Remembering Past Glory, 12- Solo 6

The Metaphysician´s Hammer is a collection of musical pieces that showcases the habilities of Benjamin Chadabe and Benjamin Hartlage on improvisation and poetry respectively. It is also the vehicle to transmit the poetry done by Hartlage, creating music that fits very well with the words that he is speaking throughout the recording. Chadabe is a master of percussion and he knows how to improvise on his drumkit veing very different one solo from the other (in fact in the whole recording there are six solos). It is interesting the feeling that you get while listening to this musical pieces: you listen to Chadabe drums improvisation while listening to Hartlage poetry recitation and you have a weird feeling of an ethereal world created by the drums and the words. Thumbs up for Benjamin Chadabe because of his great technical skills on the drums that makes this album a lesson on how to play them. Favorite tracks: "Hell and Humdrums", "Exodus of Sun" and "Solo 5". Contact: www.emf.org

REVIEW: TENHI - KAUAN

 

TENHI- KAUAN (Prophecy Productions, 1999):

Technical data:

Recorded and Mixed at Babe Musik Studios

Recorded, Mixed by Pekka Jhalainen and Tenhi

Artwork by Tenhi

Track List: 1- Näkin Laula, 2- Huomen, 3- Revontulet, 4- Hallavedet, 5- Etïsyyksien taa, 6- Lauluni Sinulle, 7- Taival, 8- Souto

Here is Tenhi´s debut album called "Kauan". This is music that can be labeled as extremely dark acoustic music. The music here, whose lyrics are completely in finnish (which adds a more cryptic atmosphere to the songs), is completely full of acoustic passages, melodies conceived to wake up the feelings of sadness in the listener. If I had to associate the music of this band with a color I would have chosen grey....or maybe the color that the cover has with that trees and that nebel...How depressive and beautiful are this guys at the same time !! And how deep is their music!! Can be call it folk? Well, if finnish folk music is so dark then we can call it like that. But I think that the most apropriate way to describe their music is as atmospheric and with a stron emphasis on melodies and anguished vocals. Fully recommended. Favorite tracks: The whole album. Contact: www.prophecyproductions.de

REVIEW: TELESMATA - WOODCARVING

 

TELESMATA- WOODCARVING (Ubus Recs., 2001):

Technical data:

Created by R.Kasch using sounds made by The Official Bullshit Grinder

Best presented in a stereo system with wide speaker separation

Track List: 1- Intro, 2- Splinter Ballet, 3- Notch Politics

Robert Kasch, the mind behind Telesmata had the most weird idea this time. He sent this mini CD inside a sawdust bag...and I thought that this was to protect the other CD that came in the package and I almot throw it away. Luckily I read the ctatlog that spoke about a sawdust packaging and inside of it I found this three song mini CD. This time Kasch´s experimentation with Telesmata is done using sounds from The Bullshit Grinder, some kind of device that I don´t understand completely but that makes interesting sounds that are twisted by Kasch creating this insane tracks full of experimentation and trying to achieve the sounds that this man has in his heads. Surprising as always, Telesmata is this time the vehicle to extract all the posible sounds from this strange device of which I would like to know more. If you like new sounds and experimentation then check this one. Contact: http://homestead.com/ubus/main.html

REVIEW: SUNK LOTO - SOCIETY ANXIETY

 

SUNK LOTO - SOCIETY ANXIETY (Columbia Records, 2000):

Technical data:

Recorded at Festival Studios, Sydney

Produced and Engineered by Paul Mckercher

Artwork by Simon K.

Track List: 1- Vinegar Stroke, 2- Porcelain Buddah, 3- Lift, 4- Submission, 5- Blunt

 Here we have five tracks of modern new metal with a lot of power and some influence from hip hop or rap! This is not a very original band because it makes what nowadays is very common but they do it with conviction. Here the music has all the elements of the style: very fat guitar sound with very rhythmic riffs, hip hop and screaming vocals, a thin sounding snare drum and song structures that can be typical of bands of the style. At least, this guys use some acoustic guitar on "Submission" which I think is the best track here...the more original, even if it is not the heavier. Contact: www.sunkloto.com

REVIEW: STRUNG - STRUNG

 

STRUNG - STRUNG (Sublingual Records, 2001):

Technical data:

Recorded at the Hospital, Amsterdam.

Track List: 1- String, 2- Stroppy, 3- Strumble, 4- Straps, 5- Struth, 6- Stripes, 7- Strokes, 8- Strumpf, 9- Straddle, 10- Strip, 11- Straw, 12- Stretch, 13- Strongo, 14- Stromage, 15- Strangle´em, 16- Street, 17- Stress, 18- Stream, 19- Strain, 20- Strenuous, 21- Strndlfmp, 22 - Straggler, 23- Straight, 24 - Strum

This time Sublingual Records brings us this music made by immigrant musicians who live in Amsterdam and who have string instruments as their main instruments. The music here is completely improvisational and spontaneous. This are 24 tracks of pure experimentations with all this great musicians playing what they feel and what comes to their heads without losing coherence among them . Here you have strange combinations of string instruments doing some conventional and unconventional phrases and surprising on each track. All the tracks here have their own identity being all of them completely different one from another . It is like having different bricks (for example with different colours ) to construct a building (in this case the building would have been this album). This is an album recommended for you, the one who is not afraid of trying something new. Favorite tracks: "Strip", "Straps" and "Strangle´em". Contact: www.sublingual.com

REVIEW: STEVE VAI - ALIVE IN AN ULTRA WORLD

 

STEVE VAI - ALIVE IN AN ULTRA WORLD (Sony Music, 2001):

Produced by Steve Vai

Track List: Disc 1: 1- Giant Balls of Gold, 2- Burning Rain, 3- the Black Forest, 4- Alive in an Ultra World, 5- Devil´s Food, 6- Blood and Glory, 7- Whispering a Prayer, 8- Iberian jewel

Disc 2: 1- The power of Bombos, 2- Incantation, 3- Light of the Moon, 4- Babushka, 5- Being with you (in Paris), 6- Principessa, 7- Brandos Costumes (Gentle Ways

Mr. Steve Vai, surprising as always brings us his latest work. And this time it is a double CD with all brand new songs. Each of the songs here was composed with a country in mind and they were all recorded live during the "The Ultrazone Tour". As he is doing since his albums with Zappa or since his first solo album "Flexable" Steve has a myriad of weird sounds to do with his guitar. This time he is joined by great musuicians such as Mike Mangini on drums, Phillip Baynoe on bass and Mike Keneally on guitar and keyboards. The songs are as always an amazing show of his compositional skills and obviously of his guitar pirotecnics. A must for any Vai Fan. Also, there is one song recorded live in Argentina, when he came last year. Favorite tracks: "Whispering a Prayer", "Light of the Moon" and "Alive in an Ultra World". Contact: www.vai.com

REVIEW: SPONTANEOUS MUSIC ORCHESTRA - SME PLUS EQUALS SMO

 

SPONTANEOUS MUSIC ORCHESTRA - SME PLUS EQUALS SMO (Emanem Disc, 2001):

Technical data:

Recordings made in London by Martin Davidson on January 25, 1975 at St John´s Smith Square and Januay 24, 1974 at Little Theatre Club.

Editing, Mastering and Design by Martin Davidson

Artwork by Margaret Richards.

Track List: 1- Plus Equals, 2- SMO at LTC

In 1974-75, John Stevens had to present his compositional works at the St. John ´s Smith Square and at the Little Theatre Club concert and he decided to present it in a really radical format: with the Spontaneous Music Orchestra. This Orchestra was formed with the 10 musicians that were part od the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and adding to the eleven other great musicians. The first tracks here is almost 40 minutes long and is formed by three different pieces: "Search and Reflect", "Sustained Plus" (which is more than 23 minutes long) and "Free Improvisation". Here all and each of the musicians of the orchestra have the space that they need to showcase their habilities as solo improvisers and their skills in the orchestra interaction. In fact, the first part, "Search and Reflect" was design to see how the musicians listened to and reacted to each other before evolving into something else. I have the idea that if you put together two different people to improvise they will always achieve very different results without repeating themselves. Here, with 21 musicians at the top of their possibilities we have some spontaneous interaction at its maximum level!!. Favorite tracks: All the track "Plus Equals". Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

REVIEW: SOFA / NORCD - SAMPLER

 

SOFA / NORCD - Sampler (Sofa Recs. / NORCD, 2001):

Track List: 1- Løpsk (Veslefrekk), 2- Dog (Ingar Zach / Ivar Grydeland), 3- No Way Out (Paal Nilssen-Love), 4- Axel (Sten Sandell Trio), 4- Who grew too (what) (Close Erase, 5- Third Scan (Tony Oxley Project I), 6- Mir (No Spaghetti Edition), 7- Stryfro (Karl Seglem/Arve Henriksen/Terje Isungset), 8- Horizontal Rain (Derek Bailey/Ingar Zach), Tor med Hammaren( Terje Isungset)

This CD is a compilation of great norwegian artists from both labels NorCD and Sofa Records. Both labels are focused on artists who play what we call intuitive, spontaneous and improvisational music. Here we have excelent artists that we have reviewed before (and some of them interviewed), like Paal Nilssen-Love, Ingar Zach/Ivar Grydeland, Tony Oxley project 1 and No Spaghetti Edition. Plus we have other very interesting musicians that are from the NorCD catalog like Veslefrekk (very ambient music with some weird sounds), Close Erase, an interesting combination of improvisation in piano and drums (is excelent to listen the drums breaks while the piano does some beautiful and frenetic phrases), Karl Seglem/Arve Henriksen/Terje Isungset who make a total mad percussion piece combined with some vocal phrases that are fundamental here or Isglem with his track "Månedans" with a very unconventional sound of guitar, bass and drums. For improvisation fans. Contact: www.norcd.no or http://sofa.norcd.no