update on the Sublime Frequencies night last friday:
Neung Phak didn't play as most of the band were elswhere scattered over Euroland.
Although the night itself in OCCII wasn't busy, it proved a great opportunity to meet Alan Bishop and Mark Gergis and talk over some idea's for my project, plus you don't get many chances to share a cab with them Sun City Girls either, so why not? We kinda came up with a new blackspot for a possible future SF release: The Philippines! The street and media culture of this hidden pearl definitely has to get some attention, let's hope they will shine some light on it, perhaps bring back some forgotten artist...but seeing their enthousiast reaction, I reckon they will. Sweet!
That was one thing but the other idea that popped up from Alan's head was the recording of music in the Punjab area, which is the troubled borderstretch between India and Pakistan, surrounded by the Kashmir and Rajasthani states. Like, exactly where I am heading after the summer, plus matching my own musical documentation project. It's all too early to tell, but an idea is certainly brewing now, more and more clearly. Soon oh soon, more will be known.
The other night, I went to the OT301 to especially see the illustre Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M play moozak in their intricate Japanese ways. That is, if it's music what you can call it as I'd rather go with *making playfull sounds*, just to annoy the arty fartsies who all tried too hard to look interested without getting the context. I mean, audio art is for enjoying and feeling, yet one's outgoing enjoyment is the norm-non-grata somehow, bar the few people who go along ion it...... anybooooo they played together with Axel Dorner on heavily amplified trumpet and Martin Brandlmayer on drums. Imagine a steady hissle with sinetones, breathing and occasional drumstrokes....a nice recipy for meditational listening....if you're sitting that is. While standing up, closely surrounded by others...the meditational value loses itself rapidly. Pity, it was a good set. At least it was fun looking at the arty farty people trying too hard to understand the music instead of enjoying it. I especially digged Otomo's playfull sounds on empty decks, using tin wire, a tourist card and any other unusual pieces for in a concert. Kindergarten time for the artistic inept. After this lull, Morten J. Olsen (also part of improv outfit Moha!) did a slamming drum session with Nicolas Field taking up the other drum kit. Drumming in duality, the duel not being fought but celebrated into an orchestrated mess. 3rd person in this session was Bjoernar Habbestad, who had his brazen flute linked up to electronics for playing in a frantic manner, which he did. Amazing stuff, such a set-up not being the norm and all, but these walls of chaos and added jiggery sounds surely were a nice bonus....You do get to realise that if by the end of a monday nite you are still holding a beer in your hand, you'll get another monday morning feeling the day after. Post mortum morning mood that gave thought for food.
Did some live recordings on the nite, will put em up here soon enough -but don't I always say that?-
***
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Frizzle waves from tropic radio's, cult snippets from crooked television sets
has.....it....been...more....than......3....weeks?
*blogs do not respect time, same goes for me in my crummy lazy manner* How else are you supposed to deal with the dark dreadful winter days -warm and cold-? a supposedly low point indeed.
Tomorrow the worldthrawling Sublime Frequencies label of Alan Bishop & Mark Gergis is coming to town in the form of an audiovisual circus. Amsterdam that is. Place it into the context of a squat , the grand ole' O-C-C-I-I near the end of the Vondelpark. Yay, on the double!
21:30 sharp. Expect a super collaged documentary of the Indonesian Sumatra island, filled with super kitsch commercials, movies and soap snippets and ofcourse taking up a helluva lot of music too, either streetwise or staged. All of it conscious folk in it's own bizarre way, with a wink to the West.
I'm hoping the excellent Neung Phak band will be performing too as they did last week in Rotterdam, though hope seems slim for now. Neung Phak are not Asian, but a bunch of Americans who play retro South East Asian muzak in the footsteps of Isan, Molam and retro influenced psychedelica rock. All of it sung in Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodjian and so on!
The SF label has been releasing numerous albums (up to release 29 at the moment!) where the raw material is taken from exotic radio stations and sudden street performances on their travels, ranging from the Northern Africa's through mystical Arabia onto the psychedelic peripheries of South East Asia. The fieldrecordist's and etnomusicologist's dreams morphed into one idea, interfered by political bulletins and radio jingles on the go. The titles given to their collages all portray a nice knack of (in)sanity to the provided context, it's unsorted creativity.
One big pity though is that most of their albums do not list any artists references so that good tune snippets are too hard to track down in the shape of decent full-on recordings and opening it to a wider -and western- audience. Perhaps it could even lead to total output by an unknown artist being opened as a pandora yumyum goodie box. Giddy boys do thrive on discovering lost and unpolished gems, count me in.
buuuuuuuut, I'm wandering off as ever.
I got the recently released Radio Thailand -Transmissions from the exotic kingdom- album last week and haven't been able to stop listening to it at work -to keep me sane-. 2 discs of deepfried soundcollages that keep your ears filled with joy and amazement, recorded off the air between the era 1989 to 2004. The absurd side of the southern orient will be far away no more after this experience, Thai a go go.
here some clips from this release:
Rubber Of High Quality
(just hear that kid wither, sing and laugh in this fine song... and then the report on rubber that follows...owwwww!)
543 Years Ahead Of YOU
(psychedelic organ pop, muffled jazz and some Molam tunes thrown into a collage of warm wavelengths)
21st Century Perspiration
(madcap pop, quicky rockabilly and post 2000 Thai hiphop! Who cares about sense, it's great fun!)
Torrential Nostalgia
(pure Molam to enjoy, beware at the end... those zombie kids at 5:36 are freaky!)
** over
**** out
*blogs do not respect time, same goes for me in my crummy lazy manner* How else are you supposed to deal with the dark dreadful winter days -warm and cold-? a supposedly low point indeed.
Tomorrow the worldthrawling Sublime Frequencies label of Alan Bishop & Mark Gergis is coming to town in the form of an audiovisual circus. Amsterdam that is. Place it into the context of a squat , the grand ole' O-C-C-I-I near the end of the Vondelpark. Yay, on the double!
21:30 sharp. Expect a super collaged documentary of the Indonesian Sumatra island, filled with super kitsch commercials, movies and soap snippets and ofcourse taking up a helluva lot of music too, either streetwise or staged. All of it conscious folk in it's own bizarre way, with a wink to the West.
I'm hoping the excellent Neung Phak band will be performing too as they did last week in Rotterdam, though hope seems slim for now. Neung Phak are not Asian, but a bunch of Americans who play retro South East Asian muzak in the footsteps of Isan, Molam and retro influenced psychedelica rock. All of it sung in Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodjian and so on!
The SF label has been releasing numerous albums (up to release 29 at the moment!) where the raw material is taken from exotic radio stations and sudden street performances on their travels, ranging from the Northern Africa's through mystical Arabia onto the psychedelic peripheries of South East Asia. The fieldrecordist's and etnomusicologist's dreams morphed into one idea, interfered by political bulletins and radio jingles on the go. The titles given to their collages all portray a nice knack of (in)sanity to the provided context, it's unsorted creativity.
One big pity though is that most of their albums do not list any artists references so that good tune snippets are too hard to track down in the shape of decent full-on recordings and opening it to a wider -and western- audience. Perhaps it could even lead to total output by an unknown artist being opened as a pandora yumyum goodie box. Giddy boys do thrive on discovering lost and unpolished gems, count me in.
buuuuuuuut, I'm wandering off as ever.
I got the recently released Radio Thailand -Transmissions from the exotic kingdom- album last week and haven't been able to stop listening to it at work -to keep me sane-. 2 discs of deepfried soundcollages that keep your ears filled with joy and amazement, recorded off the air between the era 1989 to 2004. The absurd side of the southern orient will be far away no more after this experience, Thai a go go.
here some clips from this release:
Rubber Of High Quality
(just hear that kid wither, sing and laugh in this fine song... and then the report on rubber that follows...owwwww!)
543 Years Ahead Of YOU
(psychedelic organ pop, muffled jazz and some Molam tunes thrown into a collage of warm wavelengths)
21st Century Perspiration
(madcap pop, quicky rockabilly and post 2000 Thai hiphop! Who cares about sense, it's great fun!)
Torrential Nostalgia
(pure Molam to enjoy, beware at the end... those zombie kids at 5:36 are freaky!)
** over
**** out
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
2007, a new blaze into oblivion
and a slap-happy new year to all of ye!
been awhile, yessa.
my new year kicked off by losing my phone in the early morning glory...... and actually it's not being missed, at all. I've always kinda hated having a mobile in general, bar the emergency/last minute meet up calls, so what's bliss to miss?
My pet hate are text msgs, when folks do not take time to express themselves through their vocal chords or send a decent e-mail. Yeah indeed, we're living in the communication degradation era of disinformation. With all extorsed media available to us nowadays, our technological *western* advancement has been ironicly reduced to strings of unattached words and signs in shortened patterns, only understood by those who speak the dial button lingo. It's a mad world; the more communication methods a civlisation creates, the less sense they ultimately make.
So, odds on me getting a new mobile soon? Slim, what me worry? !syke!
Busy man Derek Holzer is still up and about world travelling with his artistic audio set up of splendid field recordings. Last year the awesome Soundtransit travel engine was set up by Derek, Sara Kolzer and Marc Boon set up, as in travelling through sound! It;'s kinda like booking a flight online except you get free sounds back and anyway you want it. It's the rabbit's bollocks.
I got some field recordings up there too as Sebcatlitter if anyone cares, ~and more to come, yes blatant self promo muck yadda yadda.. ~
Anyway, also Derek has been dragged into the depths of Bloggerhell by the evil gnomes and his writings can be found here. Good thoughts on the better music around, an improvised Rafael Toral interview and his own touring meanderings and international shenanigans, plus some moustached Texas pics. Score.
He and Sara will be playing Amsterdam on February 17th. See and check.
Musica.......
Me and some friends organised a concert last saturday for a first time, in an underground parking garage in an exposition centre . Under the influence from flu, stressed out for arranging everything and getting it all right just on time...we did pull it off.
The lineup consisted of locals Wouter Van Veldhoven and Jan Schellink, Soccer Committee, Machinefabriek, Orphan Fairytale (Bel) and Mudboy (USA). The music was dead awesome and was all we hoped for. We had expected about 40 guest, but to our amazement it doubled to 80! It was nice to get such support from friends, friends from friends and aquintances so we better continue this stretch. Sadly, the parking garage spot won't be possible anymore as the exposition centre will close down. Damn, no more melancholia and pysche folked noise with such a great garage echo we had..bah. Here's the spiffy promo video we had made for this occassion:
Hortus Chaoticus event
Just want to give a heartfelt shout out to Rikkert, Boudewijn, Jet, Iris, Niels, Maarten and many more folks for helping us out in any possible way.
Strange music rules, strange meaning exoticly foreign in this case, especially if it's world music meshed with a local culture law. Truth is all a matter of context. Here's the earnest Pymgy analogy to the set context, that poor man.
"I feed you so today you become big fat woman, very good woman for me"
How can one not dig that casio melody?
Francis Bebey - Pygmy Divorce
....
...
..
.
been awhile, yessa.
my new year kicked off by losing my phone in the early morning glory...... and actually it's not being missed, at all. I've always kinda hated having a mobile in general, bar the emergency/last minute meet up calls, so what's bliss to miss?
My pet hate are text msgs, when folks do not take time to express themselves through their vocal chords or send a decent e-mail. Yeah indeed, we're living in the communication degradation era of disinformation. With all extorsed media available to us nowadays, our technological *western* advancement has been ironicly reduced to strings of unattached words and signs in shortened patterns, only understood by those who speak the dial button lingo. It's a mad world; the more communication methods a civlisation creates, the less sense they ultimately make.
So, odds on me getting a new mobile soon? Slim, what me worry? !syke!
Busy man Derek Holzer is still up and about world travelling with his artistic audio set up of splendid field recordings. Last year the awesome Soundtransit travel engine was set up by Derek, Sara Kolzer and Marc Boon set up, as in travelling through sound! It;'s kinda like booking a flight online except you get free sounds back and anyway you want it. It's the rabbit's bollocks.
I got some field recordings up there too as Sebcatlitter if anyone cares, ~and more to come, yes blatant self promo muck yadda yadda.. ~
Anyway, also Derek has been dragged into the depths of Bloggerhell by the evil gnomes and his writings can be found here. Good thoughts on the better music around, an improvised Rafael Toral interview and his own touring meanderings and international shenanigans, plus some moustached Texas pics. Score.
He and Sara will be playing Amsterdam on February 17th. See and check.
Musica.......
Me and some friends organised a concert last saturday for a first time, in an underground parking garage in an exposition centre . Under the influence from flu, stressed out for arranging everything and getting it all right just on time...we did pull it off.
The lineup consisted of locals Wouter Van Veldhoven and Jan Schellink, Soccer Committee, Machinefabriek, Orphan Fairytale (Bel) and Mudboy (USA). The music was dead awesome and was all we hoped for. We had expected about 40 guest, but to our amazement it doubled to 80! It was nice to get such support from friends, friends from friends and aquintances so we better continue this stretch. Sadly, the parking garage spot won't be possible anymore as the exposition centre will close down. Damn, no more melancholia and pysche folked noise with such a great garage echo we had..bah. Here's the spiffy promo video we had made for this occassion:
Hortus Chaoticus event
Just want to give a heartfelt shout out to Rikkert, Boudewijn, Jet, Iris, Niels, Maarten and many more folks for helping us out in any possible way.
Strange music rules, strange meaning exoticly foreign in this case, especially if it's world music meshed with a local culture law. Truth is all a matter of context. Here's the earnest Pymgy analogy to the set context, that poor man.
"I feed you so today you become big fat woman, very good woman for me"
How can one not dig that casio melody?
Francis Bebey - Pygmy Divorce
....
...
..
.
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