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* Randy Greif: Alice in Wonderland 5-CD set (Soleilmoon)
A reissued boxed set of five out-of-print discs that channel
Lewis Carroll's psycho-delic spirit for six hours of ecstatic
oddness. Voices chatter as lunatics cut spreading drones
with shards of glass and shrapnel; inhale it straight to
the brain while chewing on scraps of the original Alice
texts. Not for kids, unless you want the rugrats growing
up to be Mad Hatters.
* Holger Czukay: La Luna
(Tone Casualties)
The old Can man paints an astral halo of cloudy sound in
this one-song, 47-minute tribute to the moon. The quasar
bleeps and slow-floating ambient miasma start out promising,
but after a long while you may start muttering, "Yeah, and...?"
Then the goofy "goddess" poems come in, and you realize
the moon really is made of cheese. When performed
live at high volume, this was probably dense and hypnotic--but
you really had to be there.
* Various artists: Noise by Northwest (3rd
Pyramid self-release)
As 2000 comes to a close, 3rd Pyramid will wrap up its
fifth--and final--year of Hypnotica electronic showcases.
The local collective already put the kibosh on Aural Fixation,
its experimental noise series, but this lasting document
of live recordings (a follow-up to the Live at Aural
Fixation cassette) ensures it will not be forgotten.
Everything from the playful (munchkin vocal samples, merry-go-round
carnival sounds, springy metallic sproings) to the abrasive
(fingernail-on-chalkboard violin screeching, machine-hell
feedback attacks and desolate, scraping isolationism) is
on display. Pay your respects.
* David Coulter: Intervention
(Young God Records)
"Oooh, baby baby, it's a wild world...." "Ambient world-classical"
is one (rather ineffective) way of describing this disorientingly
varied set of songs, with mossy Irish laments juxtaposed
against sultry French poems and scratchy avant-jazz. Harmoniums,
saws, jaw harps, violins, vocals, double didgeridus, pots
and pianos merely begins to list the instrumentation. Coolly
original and out-of-phase, but only the most open-minded
will be continually amazed.
* Vidna Obmana: The Surreal Sanctuary (Hypnos)
* Vidna Obmana & Willem Tanke: Variations for
Organ, Keyboard and Processors (Multimood)
Vidna Obmana is the nom de musique of Belgian Dirk
Serries, who, along with Robert Rich and Steve Roach, is
one of the world's main practitioners of wind-drift ethereal-ambient
dronology. Surreal Sanctuary showcases his standard
operating procedure--spiraling out pensive, minimal sound
wisps like clouds swirling inside an icy cave--but also
frequently reveals his tendency toward New Age weightlessness.
In other words, the sky may look wintry, but the cold has
no bite. Variations taps into a fatter vein by pouring
the manipulated sounds of ancient European church organs
into a subtly haunting soundtrack for a vampiric Sunday
Mass. Call it Old World music for New World neckbiters and
Nosferatus.
* Lustmord: The Monstrous Soul (Soleilmoon)
Brian "Lustmord" Williams checks in as a Mr. Hyde to Vidna
Obmana's Dr. Jekyll: while Williams also releases windy
and minimal ambient records, he proffers a bloody pop in
the nose to anyone who dares call him New Age. Only a fool
would, though. Lustmord's post-industrial gloomscapes plumb
demonic depths--the oppressive, repetitive rumbles, echoes
and moans bury the listener in a place that's Hades-black,
and the wind that blows here is hot and uncomfortable. Monstrous
Soul is a reissue of an early '90s milestone that virtually
invented the dark ambient genre; buy it and pretend you've
been down all along.
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