IDM Mailing Archive

Here is a review I wrote for a now defunct local paper: Microstoria Reprovisors Thrill Jockey From the onset you know this album is not about structured music. The overall feeling of the disc is of an unsettling quietness combined with a need to explore. The premise is simple. Microstoria (Markus Popp and Jan St. Werner) creates the premise of a song and then passes it off to their favorite improvisers. Sort of a remix of ideas. This is a CD about the investigation of sound and how those sounds interact with each other. With contributors like UI, Jim O Rourke, FX Randomiz, and Nicholas Collins the end results can only be an onslaught of sonic experimentation. This is the music of sound. Four reprovisors stand out on this release. That of UI with their dark acoustic interpetations, FX Randomiz with his sinister take on pop music, Stereolab with their foray into downtempo beats and that of Nicolas Collins assisted by a modified compact disc player. This is a CD meant to be listened to and discerned. It is not for everyone but if you have any interest in the innovative side of the electronic arts seek out this disc. After all, these techniques in a more subdued form will eventually show themselves in mainstream music. -daniel

On Thu, 22 Oct 1998 daniel@eliteware.com wrote:

quoted 5 lines Here is a review I wrote for a now defunct local paper:

> Here is a review I wrote for a now defunct local paper: > > Microstoria > Reprovisors > Thrill Jockey

[snip]

quoted 2 lines Four reprovisors stand out on this release. That of UI with their dark

> Four reprovisors stand out on this release. That of UI with their dark > acoustic interpetations,

okay...this i'll go along with.

quoted 1 line FX Randomiz with his sinister take on pop music

> FX Randomiz with his sinister take on pop music

ermm...i suppose...

quoted 1 line Stereolab with their foray into downtempo beats

> Stereolab with their foray into downtempo beats

...resulting in about the most boring track by anybody i've ever heard.

quoted 1 line that of Nicolas Collins assisted by a modified compact disc player.

> that of Nicolas Collins assisted by a modified compact disc player.

and what the hell ARE "trombone-propelled electronics"? * #### a disturbance in a system. #### laerm. @voicenet.com ##:# "People are ecstatic about getting into the mainstream. I think it's a little bit stupid, since the mainstream is pretty muddy..." Glenn Gould

quoted 2 lines microstoria "reprovisors" (with the 3 12'' feat. stereolab,MoM, Ui,

> microstoria "reprovisors" (with the 3 12'' feat. stereolab,MoM, Ui, > jim O'rourke, etc.

I only had the 3rd of these, with (I think) Jim O'R & Panasonic - had to return it to the shop the very next morning coz I found it unlistenable, but your appreciation may well differ. I'm sure the S/lab & MoM mixes would have been more palatable to me. On 22 Oct 98, martin burbridge wrote

quoted 1 line "einstein a go go"

> "einstein a go go"

Oh DEAR, a very catchy little ditty *that* was, and thanks to you, it's leapt straight into my head where it will now worm away all day. HELP I *

} From: martin burbridge } Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 2:51 PM } } > } > and what the hell ARE "trombone-propelled electronics"? } > } } aaaaggghhh, everyone too young to remember "einstein a go go" thank yer } lucky stars. what was it, landscape? ahh, landscape! i don't remember them being mentioned on idm before, but everyone here should track down their album _from the tea-rooms of mars to the hell-holes of uranus_ (check the used vinyl bins since it came out in '81). the track "einstein a go-go" is on there plus the track that got me to hunt the album down, "norman bates" (i'd love to hear that used in the new remake of the psycho film!). the album admittedly has some cheesey moments like most synth-pop of that era, but the gems in the lot make for the cheese. overall i'd describe the ablum as a kind of blancmange meets soft cell meets tangerine dream (80's) hybrid with that icey le car feel. good stuff! __________________________________________ E r i c F r a n s :: efrans@earthlink.net [cellular] http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans [so-cal idm] http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans/scidm [si-{cut}.db] http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans/benford on: the weakener - what do you know about it [wordsound]

On Sun, 8 Nov 1998, Eric Frans wrote:

quoted 20 lines } From: martin burbridge

> } From: martin burbridge > } Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 2:51 PM > } > } > > } > and what the hell ARE "trombone-propelled electronics"? > } > > } > } aaaaggghhh, everyone too young to remember "einstein a go go" thank yer > } lucky stars. what was it, landscape? > > ahh, landscape! i don't remember them being mentioned on idm before, but > everyone here should track down their album _from the tea-rooms of mars to > the hell-holes of uranus_ (check the used vinyl bins since it came out in > '81). the track "einstein a go-go" is on there plus the track that got me to > hunt the album down, "norman bates" (i'd love to hear that used in the new > remake of the psycho film!). the album admittedly has some cheesey moments > like most synth-pop of that era, but the gems in the lot make for the > cheese. overall i'd describe the ablum as a kind of blancmange meets soft > cell meets tangerine dream (80's) hybrid with that icey le car feel. good > stuff!

From awrc.com: " At long last we reach their one big hit, the apocalyptic paranoia of "Einstein A Go-Go". There's something rather disturbing and anarchic about this track, from the intro (which consists of the replies the band got when they tried to 'phone the US President, whoever was in the Kremlin at the time, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, amongst others), to the wheedling flute melody that winds its way over the paranoid lyrics. It's a pretty song but one with darker undercurrents that deserved to be more than the novelty hit that it was." I recommend the 12" version of Einstein-A-Go-Go, which is longer and extends Burgess' proto-simmons-drum groove a bit louder than the LP version. The Bside is a instrumental bore called "Japan". These guys never got too famous because, imho, their jazz and quirky influences were too strong to make them mysterious and arty enough for the serious nu-romantic types. The 12" definitely goes with the more "fun" instrumental bits of Elektroids LP, some LeCar (Einstein is similarly drum-minimalized, except for a quirky flute riff), some serotonin maybe. If "Einstein" seems like something you might mix, check out the casio-beat + vocoder-voice "Computer Person" from the lp "From the Tearooms of Mars ...to the Hell-holes of Uranus" from '81 or so. Other than the long (intelligent) instrumental passages of side two, the rest of this band's output wouldn't interest anyone who isn't hardcore about light synth-pop. "Einstein.." is built like the jerky "All Stood Still" (Ultravox) from the same time, but has completely the opposite mood, imho. Solenoid

On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, laerm wrote:

quoted 4 lines that of Nicolas Collins assisted by a modified compact disc player.

> > > that of Nicolas Collins assisted by a modified compact disc player. > > and what the hell ARE "trombone-propelled electronics"?

Nicolas Collins is the shizznitt -- He has a record out on Trace Elements that is one of my all time favorites. Trace Elements was run by Band of Susan's Robert Poss -- I don't know if he's still keeping it going. According to the liner notes for "It was a dark and stormy night": "The sounds are processed through my 'trombone-propelled electronics' -- a digital signal processor that is controlled from the movements of a trombone slide, and uses the brass instrument as an acoustically malleable loudspeaker." His 'modified' cd player basically does short loop skips that are somehow controlled. It sounds like kicking it into fast forward is an important part of what he does... Another interesting thing that Collins does is 'backwards guitar' -- he feeds audio signals into a guitar pickup, which causes the strings to vibrate. Then he picks up the sound of the vibrating strings with a second pickup and amplifies it. If anyone's interested, the CD facts are: IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT (Trace Elements TE-1019CD) "Broken Light" (A piece performed by the Soldier String Quartet, along with a modified CD player) "Tobabo Fonio" (A piece that samples a south american brass band, and he feeds the sound through the aforementioned trombone) "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" (spoken word and small ensemble, including backwards guitar) Ben Neill and Robert Poss play on this one.