BOVINE LIFE: Social Electrics
CD BipHop 2001
Chris Dooks is known for his film work with musicians, he has collaborated in that way with Scanner. But Chris became ill in 1999 and has to give up his film work. Happily for us that fact stimulated his other hobby: electronic music. The Internet became in that way his friend. Via the Internet he collaborated with people as Khön, the Alku label, the mego label, the Plug Research label, Matt Elliot (ex Third Eye Foundation). You can find still one video of Chris on this CD, which he finished before his illness.
In terms of music he is part of the new electronic movement of which also people as Khön, Verty or Scratch Pat Land are part of. They use electronic (digital) generated sounds but they differ with sound engineers as Autechre because of their use of concrete sound material. In that way their music lays nearer to electro-acoustics, but is not that pretentious, their music stays funny and sometimes even naive. A surreal sound bricolage, pasted at an associative manner. Analogue and digital are mixed together in an extreme mix. The result is exciting. It is a little bit wrong to say 'but I hope he will stay ill for long'. (In real: I wish him all the best).
FON: Headnlokbuzter
3"CD Werkzeug 2001
The music of Fon is untouchable, in understandable, incomparable. An aware-process of sound, texture and rhythm. A twenty minutes lasting stream of sounds, that doesn't bother parameters as 'song', story. Fon is a machine (Krafwerk) that proceeds, programmed, but not compose. A strange sound sculpture where you sometimes can recognise a rhythm, a sphere, but wherein consistence doesn't seems to be important. Modem-music. A post-modern stream of sound that doesn't start, or doesn't end, that just mark times and not isolates it. A stream, a continuity, without cause or aim.
SECRET AGENT GEL: P as in Peter, F as in Frank"><br>
CD Opiate Records 2000
Corey H Maas from New York, aka Secret Agent Gel fills his days with the designing of web-sites. Once the evening has fallen, he transforms to an electronic musician. We only could be glad for this transformation. Between the trillions of electronic releases he menaced to stand there with an own sound. Secret Agent Gel makes very hermetic soundscapes, and is because of this more part of the European group of sound triflers, than of the American. Aphex Twin, Plaid and Autechre are some clear influences. So you don't have to expect hovering soundscapes of which the American electronic avant-garde is so fond, but rather hermetic almost claustrophobic closed sound sculptures.
Still is 'P as in Peter, F as in Frank' a very rich record. Every sound sculpture slides into the other, every with his own sphere. 20 'songs' in 35 minutes. This makes the record so vivid, and interesting. A real pleasure to listen to.
Contact information on the L'entrepot site:
tom.wilks@skynet.be
Unconventional music site L'entrepot @:
http://users.skynet.be/entrepot/tmonth/main.html