Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD3)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Of all the discs in this box set, CD3 has the highest ratio of artists I'm familiar with. That isn't an impressive stat, if I'm honest, as nearly everyone following this one is entirely new to my eyes. You'd think someone with a music collection nearing the four-digit mark should know a more than this. 'Tis not so, my knowledge but a mote of dust in the impossibly vast realm that is Pete Namlook's Influence. I'm not even sure whether these are all new names or scene veterans that have burbled in obscurity for all this time – guess I'll find out when I deal with their discs. Meanwhile, let's have a gander at the 'techno' CD of Die Welt Ist Klang.

First up is Thomas P. Heckmann. You might know him from such labels as Mille Plateaux, Wavescape, and the charming Acid Fuckers Unite. If you’re worth your techno salt at all though, you know him as Drax. For his offering to Namlook’s legacy, he gives us Ode To A Friend, sounding not a touch out of a 1974 krautrock album. Wait, what? Oh, right, talented producer makes music across tons of genres. That’s a running theme with a lot of these Namlook and Fax +49-69/450464 associates, isn’t it? Speaking of, second tune here is from Biosphere, though it’s one of his early demos sent to Mr. Kaulmann way back when, before they hooked up for Fires Of Ork. Holy cow, you guys, it’s Microgravity-era Biosphere! Robot voices! Bleepy techno! Rave-house groove! Long time fans have waited an age to hear something like this from Geir Jensenn again.

Following that, it’s Pascal F.E.O.S., most famous for being one-half of Resistance D., but having made plenty of music on his own too. His track is called Sax On Dub, and it’s... Balearic chill-out? Huh, are we getting any techno on this disc? Not if Oliver Lieb can help it, treating us to a tune that might have once been an Into Deep outtake. Man, the final run of tunes from CD2 was more techno than this. Where’s, like, Anthony Rother when you need him – he made music for Fax+, right? Right, so here’s Anthony Rother’s See Beyond, though more sinister EBM than robotic electro as you’d expect of the guy. It’s XJacks’ Acidbob that finally gives us a proper techno cut, all old-school acid weirdness with a little 808 cowbell for good measure.

A couple more names I recognize from recent digging is Gabriel Le Mar (a proggy breaks tune, plus an acid techno workout with Dr. Motte) and Mick Chillage (getting way-back FSOL vibes on this one). Both their tracks are the best on CD3, though a special mention must be made to Glitch’s Kick The Habit, a vintage hard trance track that’s got everything but a kick. Oh, you tease, we almost did get that which I thought not possible. Or maybe we still will later in the box set. Five more to go. Man, I’m earning this experience.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD2)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

No, of course ninety-one droning, calm ambient tracks would be ridiculous. Namlook made his namesake with the stuff, but he produced far more forms of electronic music than that. If you’re doing a tribute collection, you gotta’ show respect to his techno, jazz, orchestral, and even hard trance heritage. Okay, maybe not that last one, but wouldn’t that be something, hearing ancient German trance in a modern release? Come on, retroism, do your th’ang!

Wisely, Capre Sonum Records gave each disc of Die Welt Ist Klang its own genre showcase, gradually upping the tempo with each successive CD. All the beatless ambient now out of the way, CD2 provides us with some ambient techno chill and rhythms on the downbeat. Honestly, I’d have sprung for this collection almost entirely for this CD alone, what with two new tracks from Peter Benisch and The Higher Intelligence Agency on it! These aren’t previously unreleased pieces from their reserves either, each specifically made for this collection. Yeah, most of the music on all these discs is new material, but having already come across a couple cuts that were old, unused pieces from former collaborations with Namlook, I had to wonder whether that’d be the case with Benisch and Bird too. It’s not like they’re making anything new lately – and if they are, they sure aren’t making their efforts public. Oh hey, long tangent. As for their tunes, Benisch’s Farväl is utterly lush, while HIA’s Sky One works the bubbly, bleepy ambient dub groove with spacey synth drone, neither sounding like any time’s passed since their last albums. I love it!

I can’t say I know much about the remaining artists on CD2, but hot damn they make some lovely music. Autumn Of Communion (Lee Norris and Mick Chillage) offers eleven minutes of soothing keyboards, dubby synths and soft beats, Massimo Vivona provides a chipper piece of Balearic chill, Material Object shoots for the stars with another eleven minutes of pulsing pads and spacey drone, and even Namlook himself gets in, care of Lorenzo Montanà working with an unfinished piece they worked on. Then there’s Krystian Shek doing the widescreen chill-out thing I usually associate with Ultimae, Benjamin Wild & Daniel Esswein go for a low-key ambient techno groove, Fanger & Siebert get a little more electro sci-fi with their tune, and Future Research Technology (Simon Ellis, who gave Fax+ one of their earliest commercial successes as Houdini) goes for the alien electro-funk vibe. Kind of reminds me of Namlook and Johah Sharp’s Alien Communication project, though he already got his tribute in on CD1 as Spacetime Continuum. Oh, and Gaudi’s here too, doing his heavy ambient dub business, but I already know him and he’s still making music, so I don’t get quite all atwitter over his tune.

Yeah, that’s a major reason why I sprung for this box set. Seeing new music from old favorites is nice, but discovering a plethora of new artists in the process is pure cream.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD1)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Not to humble-brag too much, but oh yes, I gots me one of those proper box sets of Carpe Sonum Records’ epic tribute to Pete Namlook. Just barely too, with a mere three left of the project's second run when I took a look. Maybe the label will manufacture a third run if there's enough interest, but for now I'll bask in that smug glow of having such a wonderful package in my possession. Ahhh....

Hm, wait, what is this sinking feeling all of a sudden. Oh yeah, now that I have a physical copy of Die Welt Ist Klang, that means I have all eight CDs too. Which means I must now review each. Single. One. For the next week. Like, I'm kinda' obligated to, what with having done the same with Neil Young’s Archives last year. I hope y'all are strapped in for a Namlook Tribute extravaganza on this blog. Also, since I've eight of these things to get through, I'll detail most of the background information regarding this box set as we go along – no sense burning self-restricted world count all on the first CD.

With ninety-one tracks collected for this set, who could ever have the prestige to kick things off? Why, none other than one of the few men in the music industry that has a discography even larger than Namlook’s extensive catalogue: Bill Laswell. He teams up with keyboardist Bernie Worrell (member of tons of groups, most famously Funkadelic) for a track that’s rather typical of Laswell’s brand of ambient (bass tones, dubby atmosphere, jazzy improvisation). Hey, it’s not like we’re re-inventing the wheel with this tribute. The number two spot goes to David Moufang, also known as Move D. Why? He and Namlook released over twenty albums together in a fifteen year span. Holy cow, did they just put every jam session of theirs to CD? I’m guessing the answer to that is “most probably yes.” Oh, and his track is a piano ambient composition, with rainwater falling about on an open gazebo.

Another big name from the old school crops up with Dr. Atmo, who was instrumental in lending his hand to some of Namlook’s earliest ambient breakouts (can’t call them ‘hits’, can we), specifically the aliases Silence and Escape. Heck, it was his selections for the Stud!o K7 tape 3 Lux-3 that gave me a real crash course in Namlook’s work. His track here is also ambient.

Yeah, CD1 is pretty much all ambient straight through, nary a beat in earshot. Even the guys known for techno (Steve Stoll, F.U.S.E., Spacetime Continuum) stick to synthy drone and sequenced noodling. Mind, some of these are unreleased material sent to Namlook way back in the day too, not just former Fax+ alumni contributing fresh material. It’s all very calming, relaxing, and warm music here, though I hope it’s not the only genre explored across eight discs. As that Electro Compendium proved, too much of the same thing makes Sykonee coo-koo for Kaulmann cuts.

Scuba - Claustrophobia

Hotflush Recordings: 2015

Cry to the westward winds, o’ forlorn faithful of dubstep’s techno hybrids. Whatever hopes ye’ may have for one of your chosen few to return grows ever so slim with every new release. If Paul Rose, also known as The Scuba One, has committed so completely to techno, tech-house, and techy tech-ambient (?) as he has on this album, the odds of him going back to the broken beat bin are small indeed.

Fortunately for Mr. Rose, his transition’s been so perfectly gradual, an album like Claustrophobia still makes good sense within his discography. He may have left behind the genres that built his base, but he's retained a distinct, expansive aesthetic to his music; these tunes could work equally well in a slummy warehouse setting as a mainstage festival show. On the other hand, Scuba's lately suffered from 'Dubfire Syndrome', a rejection from some of techno's core followers, figuring him nothing more than a bandwagon jumper as his old scene's credibility waned. Frankly, that's a bunch of bull for a couple reasons. One, even if some of Scuba's recent tunes have peak-time rinse out squarely in sight, they're still stylistically less trendy than minimal ever was. Two, Mr. Rose makes far better music than Mr. Shirazinia did. You know it's true.

As the album’s title states, Claustrophobia is a darker outing compared to Personality, with charming track names like Why You Feel So Low, All I Think About Is Death, Black On Black, and Needle Phobia making up the bulk. Hell, even something seemingly benign like Family Entertainment is all sorts of fucked-up, two-plus minutes of static hiss (or shower water?) as wailing kids and stern adult voices echo off tile walls. Geez, I feel like I’m in a Silent Hill hospital. I guess poor ol’ Paul was having some difficulty coping with a bout of sickness that left him home-ridden for much of 2014. Or maybe he’d recently watched Jacob’s Ladder.

That’s about as unsettling as this album goes though. There’s still a menacing tone throughout, but Scuba finds room for melodic moments and tempo builders even in his sparsest tracks. And those rhythms, mang! He’s always had an ace ear for quality kicks, yet somehow he’s upped the ante here, unleashing beats so beefy it fucks up my colon. He doesn’t over-utilize them either, reserving them for his three main techno cuts in Why You Feel So Low (near the beginning), PCP (mid-track), and Black On Black (album climax), spacing them out with shorter, ambient techno constructs. Speaking of Black On Black, it’s got one of those big effects builds in it, but it actually has a payoff! My God, it’s glorious to have all that tension come with a proper release for once in contemporary techno. See, it’s not so hard to do.

I won’t deny the musical ideas Scuba presents on Claustrophobia aren’t terribly original, but he executes them with skill and finesse. Good for a casual throw-on - just mind your lighting.

The Beatles - Abbey Road

Capitol Records: 1969/2009

The only Beatles album you're supposed to have, even if you're not much of a Beatles fan. Sure, they're no longer at the crest of their creative powers, but it's arguable they indulged in their ideas a bit too much (not to mention the drugs). Concept albums? Studio experiments? Bunch of nonsense. You're a rock band, lads, why you no rock anymore? Even the Liverpool Four knew they weren’t firing on all cylinders, lacking the creative synergy that propelled them above and beyond all other bands of their era. Individually, they were doing fine for themselves (even Ringo!), but imagine if they combined their forces to their fullest potential as in the old days. Oh, the wonders they could create, a tight-knit band once more, with genre exploration learned and now with the wisdom to use it effectively.

At least that was the hope on Paul McCartney’s part. He somewhat succeeded too, Abbey Road officially the final studio album The Beatles recorded together as a band, though that wasn't the original intent. The creative conflicts that had led to the various gulfs between each member had simply grown too wide by '69 for any lasting truce, so it's all the more remarkable this album is as cohesive has it turned out. In the ultimate of compromises, side one features songs that, though not related to each other, at least fed off their rock and blues influences; side two would shoot for an album-orientated concept that Paul still wanted, in this case as a medley of short pieces.

I'll level with ya': for the longest time, I had no idea which Beatles songs were even on Abbey Road. Hell, some of the tunes that are on this record I didn't know were Beatles songs. I always thought Oh! Darling and You Never Give Me Your Money were Rolling Stone songs, while I Want You (She's So Heavy) sounds far more like something the progressive rock camps were churning out at the time, including a lengthy runtime for any rock tune of the day (nearly eight minutes!). I'd heard it plenty of times on the classic rock station, but never clued in this aggressive song was from the same group that once did Help! and Norwegian Wood. Plus, that Moog. When did The Beatles ever use a got'dang Moog when there was maybe a half-dozen in existence at the time? Oh Harrison, and your never-ending search for weird instruments. The big ones, however, are Come Together, Something, and Here Comes The Sun. I guess Carry That Weight’s memorable too as a sing-along anthem, and folksy Octopus’s Garden is so corny that it wins you right over.

Of course, the lasting impression everyone has with Abbey Road is that cover. It just might be the most famous photo shoot The Beatles ever did, inspiring many to replicate it themselves. Oh yes, along with all the other things the Liverpool Four innovated, you can include creating the first Rock Meme to that list. Probably.

ACE TRACKS: April 2015

Oh hey, look at that, “R” is all wrapped up now. Yep, in a bizarre turn of events, the alphabetical back-half of the letter had barely a week’s worth of albums for review, unlike the near 1.5 months of the front half. I honestly have no idea how this came to be. Maybe if I had more CDs in my collection from rock bands, where they sing about rocking and rolling in titular singles, but nay, most things are rave with this techno boy. Anyhow, I felt it best to finish the letter off before posting the playlist for ACE TRACKS: April 2015.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
µ-Ziq - Royal Astronomy
Seraphim Rytm - Aeterna
Various - Rising High Trance Injection

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Most of the Aphex Twin stuff, but only if you’re not used to his zaniness.

Whoa, that’s my second straight Playlist with nary a rock or hip-hop cut found. The August 2013 one is understandable, what with such a short collection of albums to cull from – I had plenty more to draw from for April 2015. On the other hand, a sizeable chunk was devoted to Altar Records compilations, not to mention a plethora of other alphabetical backlog.

Speaking of alphabetical, I tried something different for this Playlist, arranging tracks in alphabetical order. With so much psy dub, psy chill, and dark ambient (hi, Sabled Sun!), I figured doing so would randomize the sequence a little, engaging the listener with the unexpected rather than steady familiarity and flow. Will AstroPilot align with Amon Tobin? Might Moss Garden meld with Model 500? Could Cosmic Replicant conflict with Chronos? Find out within, plus Faithless too!

RZA as Bobby Digital - In Stereo

Gee Street: 1998

Within the intro of RZA's debut solo album, he makes a snarky comment about other hip-hop producers still relying on breaks samples for their beats. It's the new era after all, on the cusp of a fresh millennium - digital dominance was nigh. So, instead of relying on more funk and soul loops that defined his early production, Mr. Diggs set out to create a digital orchestra with around a dozen synths at his disposal. Laudable goals, daring even, but here's another theory: he lost a ton of sample-based beats in that studio flood of his, thus forced to redo everything from scratch. Okay, 'forced' is harsh – 'inspired' into a change of direction sound better?

As for the concept of Bobby Digital: In Stereo, the notion RZA would have another pseudonym to play with isn't surprising. By this point he'd already been Prince Rakeem (aborted pre-Wu solo career), RZArector (Gravediggaz), and Bobby Steels (mafioso alias for Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx...), so here’s Bobby Digital, something of a super-id identity reflective of his irresponsible days as a youth. Taking cues from blaxploitation flicks and superhero comics, Bobby is the ultimate male power fantasy, getting into all sorts of street shenanigans without any consequence for his actions. And oh yes, you bet he’s smooth with the ladies, casually fucking his queens while tossing them bitches to the curb.

If this all sounds just a bit on the sleazy, irredeemable side of things, that’s kind of the point. Even though, as Bobby Digital, it seems like RZA’s glamorizing this lifestyle, I get the sense he’s actually criticizing the narrow world view the alias operates from. He brags about being incredibly suave with women, yet his come-ons are blunt, immature, and pornographic. He boasts of his carefree ways in the slums, but surely there must be more in life than what he sees around the projects. Bobby Digital believes he has everything figured out, a king in his domain, when the truth of the matter is he knows shit. It paints him as a tragic figure that he cannot see the light. No surprise the relatively smooth My Lovin’ Is Digi is followed by the harrowing, wretched Domestic Violence (which also serves as the end of the album-concept proper, yikes!).

Truthfully, I’m far more interested in RZA’s beats than the lyrical content. Mr. Diggs’ rhymes have always been a little forced, worming complex vocabulary into phrases where they struggle to fit, and that’s no different here, even with an alias that isn’t so deep on the philosophical metaphors. That don’t matter though, as the music he’s created here is fascinating, abstract melancholic keyboards and weird discordant rhythms, all the while retaining his distinct grimy funk and soul. I could have done with a couple less of the Slow Grind intermissions though.

Bobby Digitial: In Stereo most definitely isn’t for casual fans of Wu-Tang Clan. If you’re down for RZA at his most unhinged though, give this album a shot.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps

Reprise Records: 1979/1990

The only Neil Young Comeback Album you're supposed to have, even if you're not a fan of Neil Young Comeback Albums. Yes, he's had enough of them to count as their own, distinct branch in the massive tree that is Rusty's discography. They're not so definitive as before, his career lately seeing more ebb and flow rather than peaks and valleys of decades pasts. For a brief while there in the '70s though, it looked as though Young would never recapture the creative spark that marked his early material.

Not that he was in a serious slump leading up to this album – certainly nothing that could rival the true dark times of the mid-‘80s. Unfortunately, following his critically lauded “Ditch Trilogy”, Young was in danger of succumbing to a terrible thing for any popular musician: irrelevancy. His album output had turned sketchy, failing to grab fresh audiences as new trends took hold of public discourse in the late ‘70s. Thus, like most rockers of the ‘60s, he was left with only two options. One: double-down on the music that earned him his dedicated following, and retain his loyal fans but risk creative stagnation. Two: attempt a bandwagon jump, keeping one’s name with the pace of cultural movements, but almost certainly make an ass of yourself in the process; a desperate bid at remaining relevant. Naturally, Neil F’n Young chose option number Three: cater to the faithful, and successfully tap into a new rock zeitgeist.

The inspiration came with a concept tour, one that would encompass two performances on stage. The first half would be primarily a solo outing of him playing acoustic folk material (with a duet thrown in here and there), then Crazy Horse would join him for some rock ‘n’ roll ruckus. He’d play some old standards, but mostly new material (from which this album’s track list was culled). The stage itself had giant-sized props of gear, handled by roadies dressed in Jawa costumes, and encourage audience interaction by donning faux 3D glasses, witnessing the band “decay before their very eyes”. It was the most theatrical set of concerts Young had ever put on, in some small part inspired by his wacky chums over at the Devo camp. In truth, they came up with the phrase “rust never sleeps” for a cleaner solution advertisement. Figures Young would take it as representing the dangers of artistic decay.

The folk numbers become some of Rustie’s enduring classics, a critical look back on his musical compatriots in Thrashers, and more stands for Native American tragedies in Pocahontas and Ride My Llama. Where he truly made a mark though, was Hey Hey, My My, a thunderous blast of distortion and noise that put his generation of rockers on notice: punk music was the real deal, a force that could not be ignored. Time to adapt, or unceremoniously fade as the old King Of Rock, Elvis Presley, had so recently. Some serious shots fired there, and pay attention the rock world did.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Capitol Records: 1965/2009

The only Beatles album you're supposed to have, even if you're not much of a Beatles fan. Because let's be honest: who really likes all the studio experimenting they did after Rubber Soul? There were plenty of good songs, but so much of it fell victim to weirdness like tape manipulations, overdubbing, orchestras, and Indian tonal scales. Whatever happened to the good ol' rock 'n' roll that made the lads from Liverpool super-huge megastars? Yeah, it's here and there, but almost in lip-service rather than their defining musical style. No, best stay away from latter-era Beatles, where they even let Ringo write songs.

That isn't to say Rubber Soul doesn't have its share of new ideas either. If anything, this album marked a major step away from the happy do-lucky mop top rock that created all sorts of screaming girl havoc. They’d just completed a second North American tour, and in that time had taken in plenty of local flavours that were gaining popularity in the USA alongside their own music. This included the impeccable vocal harmonization of The Beach Boys and authentic Motown soul, but most importantly the folk rock styling of Bob Dylan and The Byrds.

In the case of Dylan, their lyrics took a big step for Beatlekind, distancing themselves from easy couplets and simple phrases screaming girls could sing along to when they weren’t screaming for Paul or John or that emo George. Now their songs contained mature content for an aging audience and lovely imagery. Okay, it’s almost all still dealing with love and relationships, but there’s plenty of wiggle-room for exploration in these topics too, areas their early teeny-bop tunes couldn’t deal with. Like such intimacy with Norwegian Wood, or a melancholic Christian parable in Girl, or times long past in In My Life, or the nasty post-breakup threats of Run For Your Life. Whoa, where’d that come from? Meanwhile, the dour Harrison had about enough of love songs by that point, and wrote Think For Yourself, something of a governmental screed. He also co-wrote the reflective Nowhere Man, though that was mostly John’s song, apparently inspired by a bought of writer’s block. Damn marijuana.

Speaking of Harrison and drugs, another thing he learned from David Crosby of The Byrds was a kooky string instrument called a sitar. He learned to play the darned thing and even incorporated it into Norwegian Wood, though in keeping to a Western scale, it don’t sound as ethnic as his later uses of it – a perfect bit of spice to the tune’s charming folksiness. A few more new additions to The Beatles’ repertoire was fuzz box for McCartney in Think For Yourself, French lyrics in Michelle, and a sped-up piano intended to mimic a harpsichord for In My Life.

The biggest contribution Rubber Soul provided the rock world, however, was the notion an album could have end-to-end great songs rather than consisting of filler servicing the singles. Yep, the entire pseudo-genre of Album Orientated Rock was birthed here!

Various - RU Receiving

Mercury: 1997

I’m sure in the lands of the Old World, where electronic music wasn’t so mocked, they had all sorts of shows dedicated to ‘rave videos’. Out here in the New World, however, our options were scant, few, and almost entirely centered on club hits of the day. That wasn’t so bad in the early ‘90s when euro-dance had a little market penetration, but once R&B took over, good ol’ house and techno was practically jettisoned from music channel rotation. Save the occasional undeniable chart climber from Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, or, erm, Aqua, electronic music videos all but disappeared from North American TVs. Hey, at least it’s not as bad as today, where all music videos have disappeared. (hey-o!)

Still, even in those lean years of the mid-to-late ‘90s, one could find obscure shows in the wee hours dedicated to showcasing outlier acts of a broad culture. After all, the UK never stopped making music videos for their eager audiences, so why not offer up a 2am slot airing them. Gives a handy excuse to replay that Trainspotting hit or a semi-popular ‘electronica’ jam again, plus throw in a few homegrown acts like Moby and Richie Hawtin for good measure. On MTV, their show was called Amp, while in Canada, our own MuchMusic dubbed the hour RU Receiving, and holy cow was this ever the bomb late at night! Weird, esoteric music only underground ravers had much clue about, finally given visual representation, with videos equally weird and esoteric. With so few star frontmen to market around, most electronic music videos back in the day were artsy and abstract efforts, only adding to the American rave scene’s alt-culture allure.

Naturally a CD compilation hit the shelves promoting this fledgling show. As a 1997 ‘electronica’ collection, it features familiar acts, a few obscure tracks, and a couple “fucking why?” cuts. Okay, U2’s Mofo isn’t that surprising considering this was the year they got in on that hip, new big-beat sound the UK was all abuzz over. And honestly, with Steve Osborne (Grace, Virus, Paul Oakenfold) and Howie B behind the decks on this one, this is one of the best tunes that emerged from U2’s Pop experiment. The other “fucking why?” track is Orbital’s The Saint, because fuck you.

Pretty much all the very important acts and their biggest hits of 1997 are represented on this CD, including Roni Size/Reprazent’s Share The Fall. There’s Prodigy’s Firestarter, The Orb’s Toxygene, Goldie’s Inner City Life, and The Chemical Brothers’ Loops Of Fury. Wait, that last one’s unexpected, but I’m not complaining, far preferring their earlier thrashy acid breaks to the Dig Your Own Hole era. Also, as trip-hop was super hot too, we get Portisehead’s smoky Strangers, DJ Shadow’s blissed-out Midnight In A Perfect World, and Howie B’s crunchy acid-funk Butt Meat.

For me though, the one track that defines the whole RU Receiving legacy is Synaptic Response from Canadian duo Legion Of Green Men. Gander at the video, and understand.