Multiple Multimediformatia Toenail Reviews

[scrypt]

All of these morsels were filched within the past week.

CDs:

New

Mark Van Hoen - The Warmth inside You (Cargo Records FV010CD).
Yes, this is yet more tuneful analog-fetishizing music for your glutted electronic collection -- but Van Hoen, unlike most of the people in said collection, does it perfectly and without obnoxious whimsy. Nearly as good as Murcof's _Martes_, but in a Bizarro World Murcof (i.e., retro analog DIY non-software-driven) way. Comparable to last year's far more delicate _Meme Tunes_ and _evsc1:01_ (a/k/a, _The Condition of Muzak_). Tracked and mixed in an actual studio with hired professional engineers (which is rather rare in this age of engineer-artists and impoverished Reaktor/Boss Space Echo auteurs).

Used

Pan Sonic - Kesto (234.48:4)
(4-CD set, $15.00; Mute, BFFP 180BX)
Glacial abrasive analog/noise droning by stoic Fins, but with a few regrettable electro moments. If only it sounded like an ice-imprisoned Lucifer wannabe throughout.

Vinyl:

Bad Matter/Cyco /-/ Jazzthing/Rude (alphacut 003)
Anal German DnB on white vinyl, with eight mutually complimentary locked grooves. Bought it because the new Total Science CD isn't out yet.

110 lock grooves [sic] - V/A
(cut at D&M, Berlin; released by Nextdoor, Chicago: NTD000)
Haven't auditioned this yet, but phalanxes of colonic minimalists from Force, Inc. and Mille Plateau (R.I.P.) are on it: Tim Hecker, Akufen, Deadbeat, Jetone, Atom, Mathew Jonson, et al.

Concert/Music DVDs:

Hans Werner Henze: _Portrait of an Outsider_ (Arthaus; out of print)
A thrilling documentary on my favorite living composer and a decent performance of his Requiem. I hadn't known about Henze's life before seeing this, even though I've listened to him since childhood. I love his alchemist's Precious Metal Bisque of lush Bergian orchestration, retro-Stravinskian neoclassicism, violent dissonance, post-Brechtian theater cues and overwrought pastry shop kitsch -- all of which metamorphoses into a behemoth's tiara of breath-crippling eyelid-crinkling richness. I'm so pleased to have bought this DVD while I still could.

Penderecki: _Seven Gates of Jerusalem_ (Arthaus; out of print).
A minor work of major proportions. Sadly, the DVD tries to do everything (5.1, commentary, subtitled commentary to music, simultaneous notated score to accompany the music) but none of it really works: The silhouetted scores are unreadable and the commentary and music battle each other unpleasantly. In the end, you turn it all off and play the unadulterated concert, which is coupled with a worthwhile (but not terribly exciting) documentary: Speaking at length of his arboretum (since he now prefers gardening to composing), the older Penderecki comes off as a learned but slightly insipid man. One longs to meet the younger creator of _Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima_ and _The Devils of Loudin_.

Berg: _Lulu_, with Christine Schäfer (Kultur)
This is my second copy, since I gave the first to my dame-pal: this DVD is vociferously recommended. Schäfer is perfect, and the stage design is clever but mercifully unobtrusive.

For a different (utterly non-sonic) treatment of Lulu's plot, watch G.W. Pabst's/Louise Bogan's silent film, _Pandora's Box_, afterward.

(An aside to Daycart: This last bit was for you, Mr. Split.)
__________________

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Nice price on that Pan Sonic set! I am jealous.

I'm a little confused -- Meme Tunes and _evsc1:01_ (a/k/a, _The Condition of Muzak_) are both by Mark Van Hoen as well? I remember reading a review of an electronic recording that referenced a recording by Mark Van Hoen as electronica with the ability to convey feeling successfully, or something to that effect. Have you a recommendation on a starting point?

PS Good to see your posts again. One of the reasons I came back after an extended hiatus, was when I heard you were back.

 

[scrypt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk Nice price on that Pan Sonic set! I am jealous. I'm a little confused -- Meme Tunes and _evsc1:01_ (a/k/a, _The Condition of Muzak_) are both by Mark Van Hoen as well? I remember reading a review of an electronic recording that referenced a recording by Mark Van Hoen as electronica with the ability to convey feeling successfully, or something to that effect. Have you a recommendation on a starting point? PS Good to see your posts again. One of the reasons I came back after an extended hiatus, was when I heard you were back.

Meme Tunes is by Benge; evsc1:01 is a compilation on his label, Expanding Records. The comp includes work by Zorn, Stendec, Jan Jellinek and many others. A trip to that site will afford you the chance to audition snippets of all the material I've mentioned.

Benge's soundworld is far more delicate than Van Hoen's. I daresay Benge has grown tasteful in the last few years; I didn't like his earlier stuff. Whereas Van Hoen has been consistent; he's a soberer Eric Kowalski (which is good and bad) with a wider frequency range.

About the Pan Sonic: The asking price for a new copy isn't that bad, insofar as you're getting four full-length CDs. I'm listening to the first in the series right now on a pair of Alessandro MS-2, unamped, through an Arcam A85. I'm bypassing the amp because the MS-2 are rather bright for abrasive music like this, despite my penchant for analytical sound over warmth. At some point, I intend to write a piece in the Headphones forum on *part-specific listening* over *frequency range listening*, as I tend to prefer headphones that allow me to hear the highest number of parts whether those headphones are frequency-accurate or not. Amazing, how many people on Head-fi trash the Sony V6, AKG-501 and even the MS-2 for being too bright to be reference, without ever realizing that the brightness brings to the foreground the parts you must hear in order to arrange overdubs correctly.

But I ramble -- which is only logical, as I've been up since 10 p.m. yesterday.

Truthfully, I'm beginning to enjoy the abrasive-but-accessible cuts on the first two sides of Kesto, and find Pan Sonic amusingly grim. I'll be seeing my current girlfriend tomorrow; after listening to Pan Sonic, I'll nod off to a sleep-inducing film called _The Toolbox Murders_ (representations of sadistic murder sprees = the repose of failure = vicarious freedom for those who doubt their own competence).

And thanks for the kind words -- in certain areas, we seem to have mutually abrasive taste. I still love the chamber music of nightmares and empty attics.

Also: I intend not to return *full-time*, as I told Jude, but, rather, sporadically, episodically, since posting is comparable to drinking absinthe: it's a vice with a bitter tinge.

 

[minya]

Mark Van Hoen.... that name sounds very familiar. Didn't he used to go by "The Locust" (before today's grindcore band by that name existed)? Or was he part of Seefeel?

- Chris