Kosmische @ The Garage, London 12 September 1998 A legend or two popped into The Garage, held an audience captive for a couple of hours, and it was just as might be expected – half a trip back in time, and half a slice of something timeless. Damo Suzuki nearly three decades on still has the stage presence of the Can days (at least that evident in Peter […]
Yearly archives: 1998
38 posts
Label: Warp Format: CDS, 12″ Plone have a nice ear for the uses of old technology, turning in three deceptively simple songs (which happens also to neatly provide the title for track two) , equal parts Pram and retro elevator music. “Plock” is a shimmery analogue bossanova featuring that most marvellous of processors, the Vocoder, while the aforementioned “Simple Song” recalls the naivete of early electronic music with […]
Label: Ochre Format: CD The first album from this psychedelic collective proves to be a cosmic affair of considerable depth and originality. Taking their cues from the space rock of Brainticket and Amon Düül II and the lo-fi acid folk of The Incredible String Band, this group kick out some truly noxious grooves with time for multiplex neo-pagan storytelling trips and obscure Electroacoustic klang worthy of a lost […]
Label: Kitty-Yo Format: CD Still led on a wayward course by the softly-spoken vocals of Roland Lippok, Tarwater continue their elegantly wastrel progress deeper into the realm of something which draws variously from Trip Hop, electronica and metaphysical poetry. The beats may be a mix of the live and sampled; the sundry noises, blips and snatches of conversation much in line with the times; what keeps it all […]
Label: Mute Format: CDS, 12″ How to make a remix EP, 1998-style: take a track from your last album (Control Data, in this case). Process in a variety of styles by Ultraviolence (Gabba, twice), No-U Turn (Drum & Bass) and, last but not least (apart from the original mix, naturally), current king of the version and the rewind, Alec Empire (er… JungleGabbaTechnoHipHop). Guaranteed to break the eardrums at […]
Label: Klangbad Format: VHS Recorded (oddly enough) during Faust‘s most recent visit to Japan, this video, despite its brevity at only two pieces with a total length of around eighteen minutes, also gives a good impression of the whole live experience of the band as it now exists. The hulking figure of Zappi Deirmaier, bashing away as the powerhouse of the group on his extensive range of percussion; […]
Label: Output Format: CDS, 2×12″ The first non-compilation solo release from Fridge’s Kieran Hebden is a one-track single (cunningly presented in DJ-friendly style as two one-sided 12-inches) whose title reflects its length – even if the CD does register various lengths on different players. Smoothly slipping from motorik breakbeats to fast beats, with a selection of instruments and samples flowing over the top of it all, ambient-style. Given […]
Label: Mute Format: CD As acerbic as their recent gigs together, the collaboration of Alan Vega with two-thirds of Pan Sonic shows that the loss of a vowel has not affected the latter’s ability to construct minimal sine-wave beats and blasts, nor the former’s anomic bile against The Man and his system. While the Finns lay down the tearing glitches, chundering basslines and hard stepping thuds of analogue […]
The Festival of Central European Culture Queen Elizabeth Hall,The South Bank Centre, London 10th July 1998 Across between political rally, religious service and Thrash Metal gig, tonight’s appearance in the centre of High Art’s temple of culture simultaneously enthralls and overpowers with meta-kitsch imagery and extreme volume. From the mechanistic coupling of video projections with the thunderous music, via the part-Rock, part- militaristic poses thrown by the band, […]
Irregular The Africa Centre, London 2nd July 1998 Having sat throught he absence of promised DJ Holger Hiller – and hence a repeated digi-dub tape instead – the appearance onstage of two-thirds of Pan Sonic presaged the arrival of Alan Vega. Strutting with his customary swagger, and dressed like a heavy-metal Guardian Angel in shades, Vega launched into his set while his collaborators manipulated the sliders, twiddled the […]
Label: Soleilmoon Format: CD When not making up a sizeable chunk of the musical bedrock of The Legendary Pink Dots, and surprisingly unprolific in his solo work by the standards of that group, Phil Knight has been known to settle down to produce some stunningly hypnotic recordings in his time. Following on from the hypnagogic Dreamcell of the early Nineties, Silvermandalas opens with an untitled track which shows a fascination for the watery sound of an electric […]
Label: Rocketgirl Format: CD,2LP Now that Spacemen 3 have joined the pantheon of those influential enough to have had a wide impact on a broad variety of other bands sufficient to inspire their collection into an album’s worth of covers, perhaps there’ll be a flood of homages to late Eighties groups to follow those of the Seventies. Despite the inherent tendency towards pot-luck assortments in such endeavours, at […]
Label: Mute Format: CD There’s no doubting Diamanda Galás’s intensity, integrity or innovation; more than anyone else, she not only bridged the underground-overground divide while such tactics were still relevant, but has created some truly spell-binding works of lasting impact on the subject of AIDS in Plague Mass. Malediction and Prayer is a record of her global performances in 1996-7, showcasing her dynamic range to full effect through […]
Kosmische/The Sausage Machine The Vibe Bar, London 11 June 1998 I was foned on Wednesday night by Iain, a friend who I hadn’t heard from for a little while. He asked if I liked Fridge. I asked whether he meant my fridge or whether I was merely well disposed towards refrigerators in general. He told me that they were playing Thursday night in Brick Lane and thought I […]
Label: Go Beat Format: CDS,12″ Having set up their own studio with all the creative freedom that allows, Fridge seem to be heading outwards further from their alleged post-Rock roots into the realms of cluttered Electronica, and as with Kieran Hebden‘s side project Four Tet their HipHop, jazz and even easy tendencies have more room to breathe. Kinoshita Teraska is split into two tracks, each having half the […]
Label: Mute Format: CD, 2CD There’s a problem I always have with “Best Of” albums. To me, at least, they always bring to mind images of motorway service stations, racks filled to overflowing with Greatest Hits, The Very Best Of, or, worse, The Best (insert allegedly zeitgeist-defining noun here) Album in the World, Ever!. They suggest something a little too posthumous, a little too much like an obituary- […]
Label: Soleilmoon Format: CD,Limited 2LP In his inimitable style, master mythologer and spinner of eerie Millenial tales for The Legendary Pink Dots here presents some further solo efforts. There’s the hissing, steaming clockwork music box of “Supper At J’s” with unsettling reflections on the state of virtual 1999, which rises and falls from song into semi- orchestral concrète-samplescapes as the lead-in for an album which includes the disturbingly […]
Label: Truckstop/Atavistic Format: CD, LP Coming across like Jesus Christ Superstar on (more) acid, Chicago’s favourite Judeo-Christian Edutainer Bobby Conn is out to save your soul and wallet from resisting temptation. Aided in his Millenialist assault on reason by sundry members of (among others) Brise-Glase, Flying Luttenbachers, Rome and the production efforts of Jim O’Rourke, Conn conjours a straight-faced vision of an alternate universe where Seventies meet Nineties. […]