IDM Mailing Archive

i'm such an idiot. i managed to scratch the beginning of my brand new mouse on mars 'instrumentals' 12". good record though. & 'glam' too. i'm impressed. they lack all the exaggerated bumpiness which annoyed me on 'autoditacker' while retaining (& even adding up to) mouse on mars' trademark abstract melody & atmosphere building. so much that the straightforward electroish beat by the end of 'glam' caught me totally by surprise. the cover of 'instrumentals' is fantastic. it makes me feel like it must have been to discover your first krautrock record in a shady record shop in koln after years of listening to commercial radio. it looks mysterious, offcenter... god knows. no, actually, what it most reminds me of in its mere obscurity is the cover to white noise's 'an electric storm', surely one of the most out there records i've ever heard. speaking of which, if any of you has that, i'd probably trade half of my records for it (okay, maybe not but it's worth a try). i also very much like the new record 'no sound no ________(?) no memories' on lux nigra with the arovane, no.9, pole & multipara remixes. they're all mixed together quite nicely & the disc navigates effortlessly between minimal thump, lovely subdued idm from arovane, & some noisier (but never all that noisy) mixes as well. the pole mix doesn't really sound like pole (which is great). this beats the hell out of quite a few minimal records i've heard this year. va-ri-e-ty, geddit? ah & also, funckarma 'part 2'. woohoo. now that's what i call messing up a beat right. buy it. it's a white vinyl too. & the fizzarum clear 7" on city center offices is quite nice - mellow, melodic, crunchy - although it fails to extricate itself from the current idm sound so you could probably play that & say funkstorung interchangeably without anyone noticing. not a bad thing per se (it still sounds nice) but considering my usual attention span... -- david

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, david turgeon wrote:

quoted 5 lines mysterious, offcenter... god knows. no, actually, what it most reminds

> mysterious, offcenter... god knows. no, actually, what it most reminds > me of in its mere obscurity is the cover to white noise's 'an electric > storm', surely one of the most out there records i've ever heard. > speaking of which, if any of you has that, i'd probably trade half of my > records for it (okay, maybe not but it's worth a try).

If you don't care about format, it was reissued on CD in Japan (I think by Sony). Despite the transience of availability in that country, it's probably still available. I don't recall the vinyl being a particularly big ticket item if you want to hold out for it. On another note, I recently added to my Koln holdings with two singles on the Erfolg label (thanks for the tip, Keef).- one by Blockwart (Marcus Schmickler and Georg Odijk) and another by Marc something or other. Unfortunately, they're both new wave/techno fusion in the vein of Schmickler's Pol and _Onea Gako_ CDs. Not that this should read as some sort of blanket condemnation, but I could never really get into NDW. On the other hand there is a fascinating LP compilation of tangentially NDW marginalia called _Asperando a Go Go_ that came out fairly recently. Despite the marquee attraction of the Permutative Distortions single (a pre-P16.D4 formation), it actually has much more potent double-take inducing jets of homebrew outsider hostility (electronic and otherwise). I certainly was surprised (and pleased by the KBD-style insert, what more can you ask for?). Comparatively, the singles compilation _Schau Hor (Main Herz ist Rhein)_ (feat actual P16.D4 single tracks plus a bunch of others) covers similar territory to lesser avail. But _Asperando_, whew. I wanna!!! I wanna!!! -rob

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Dave Segal wrote:

quoted 3 lines I think Island UK reissued this White Noise

> I think Island UK reissued this White Noise > album on CD in 98, and therefore it can be found > in North America for a somewhat reasonable price.

Yeah, forgot about that. I don't think there's any track differences between the two editions.

quoted 3 lines It is undoubtedly a psych-rock/electronic

> It is undoubtedly a psych-rock/electronic > classic, just as amazing--if not better--than anything their > contemporaries Silver Apples or the United States Of America did.

I think a more apropos comparison would be to the rather obscure Spoils of War record, birthed at the University of Illinois in scenic Champaign-Urbana in the late 60s/early 70s. It has a similar sense of using electronics in a rock setting to introduce a dramatic element. If anything, it's more theatrical than the White Noise (in fact, I think some of the material on the CD was taken from some sort of mini rock opera). It's fairly interesting, but the electronic studio freakouts feel grafted onto/btwn the proper songs for the most part. Even though I personally don't think the album is all that great, it's a pretty singular item and definitely worth hearing if you're into the White Noise (even though it doesn't sound similar per se). -rob

quoted 15 lines It is undoubtedly a psych-rock/electronic

>> It is undoubtedly a psych-rock/electronic >> classic, just as amazing--if not better--than anything their >> contemporaries Silver Apples or the United States Of America did. > >I think a more apropos comparison would be to the rather obscure Spoils of >War record, birthed at the University of Illinois in scenic >Champaign-Urbana in the late 60s/early 70s. It has a similar sense of >using electronics in a rock setting to introduce a dramatic element. If >anything, it's more theatrical than the White Noise (in fact, I think some >of the material on the CD was taken from some sort of mini rock opera). >It's fairly interesting, but the electronic studio freakouts feel grafted >onto/btwn the proper songs for the most part. Even though I personally >don't think the album is all that great, it's a pretty singular item and >definitely worth hearing if you're into the White Noise (even though it >doesn't sound similar per se).

Rob! I'm surprised at you. the Spoils of War record is sweet, no doubt, but how can you value ANYTHING on SOW over the final cut on 'Electric Storm' (10 odd minutes of Paul Lytton's free-scatter percussion (yes, he of Parker/Guy/Lytton fame) over (under?), some extra-hairy catwerwauling electronic treatments that beat 'Revolution No.9' into fair submission)? Not that Herbert Brun's renegade hippy armada are any less damaged (figured recently that James Cuomo of SOW & James Cuomo of Mormos are in fact one & the same, possibly worth pulling out those records again... 4 recent reissued of Brun's 60's-90's generator/tape/computer suites also whet the whistle...), just that that one track is INTENSE & far more makes up for the few weak bits. Ahh, the Wire would have us believe that Steppenwolf were the original electron-rockers, anyways. Why fight it... -Våt ____________________ Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge PO BOX 382864. Cambridge, MA 02238 http://www.tiac.net/users/sheket/index.html

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Hrvatski wrote:

quoted 5 lines Rob! I'm surprised at you. the Spoils of War record is sweet, no doubt,

> Rob! I'm surprised at you. the Spoils of War record is sweet, no doubt, > but how can you value ANYTHING on SOW over the final cut on 'Electric > Storm' (10 odd minutes of Paul Lytton's free-scatter percussion (yes, he of > Parker/Guy/Lytton fame) over (under?), some extra-hairy catwerwauling > electronic treatments that beat 'Revolution No.9' into fair submission)?

Just a cotton-pickin' moment here... I didn't make any valuation of the White Noise, I was just pointing out that its fans (which are, no doubt, legion) might care to check out the like-minded Spoils of War. I think I'm ultimately put off by the "oooh, evil" vibe of White Noise even though it's a much more cohesive record. You're right, though, that last bit manages to transcend the faux-pagan vibe to memorable effect. Spoils of War, in contrast, was more hippie-political (check out the cover, which might have been an inspiration to the controversial Robert Williams painting that was buried within the package for _Appetite For Destruction_). Even both records are not great, anybody who bothered loading punch cards into a mainframe day and night to get source material for eventual tape editing gets my hearty salute. Though ultimately, both get snuffed out by the grenade-blast apotheosis of Xenakis' _Legende d'Eer_. Oh well. -rob l[ast]p[laying]- David Hykes _Hearing Solar Wind_ (Ocora) sorta on my mind- Max V Mathews- "Bicycle Built For Two" (1961, Bell Labs)

[re: white noise 'an electric storm']

quoted 1 line I think Island UK reissued this White Noise

> I think Island UK reissued this White Noise

forced exposure carries both the uk & japanese pressings. the only difference i can see is that the japanese cover doesn't say '3d' on it. are there any other differences (bonus tracks, remixes, etc) that anybody know of? they're even the same price! (for the record, cheaper than cdnow who only carries the uk edition.) -- david