Includes Tapper CD: The Wire Tapper 27:
The latest volume in our series of experimental and underground music compilations featuring 20 new, rare or unreleased tracks from Blank Disco, Ekoplekz, Phog Masheen, Dalglish, The Astroboy, Mathon and more.
Tracklist & info
[Full info]
01
Blank Disco
“Where Are They Now?”
from From Zero
(Subexotic)
Blank Disco is the primary recording guise of UK electronica artist Dan Seville. Although his activities have their roots in mid-1990s experiments, Blank Disco took shape in 2009 in a combination of Techno, Ambient and field recordings, expressing a skewed vision of the contemporary landscape. This track is from his debut album, released in June 2011.
02
Palmer Eldritch
“Up With The Quark”
from Five Easy Pieces
(PAD)
Palmer Eldritch is an electronic music duo hailing from Braga, Portugal. Digital textures and idiosyncratic rhythms are overlaid by dreamy synth layers on this track, taken from their debut EP Five Easy Pieces, released this month on PAD.
03
Praed
“8 Gega”
from Made In Japan
(Annihaya)
Praed is the duo of Swiss artist Paed Conca and Lebanese Raed Yassin – unconventional bassists and multi-instrumentalists. Scavenging radio and TV transmissions, they create soundscapes where cut-up voices from Egyptian film soundtracks duel with gushing synths from Arabic popular music. Accompanying video projections form a crucial part of Praed’s live performances.
04
Gary Smith/Silvia Kastel/Ninni Morgia
“Magnetico”
from BRAND
(Ultramarine)
This visceral improvisation trio teams up guitarists Gary Smith and Ninni Morgia with synth/vocalist Silvia Kastel. London based Smith has been active since the late 1970s and has played with Bill Fay, Hugh Hopper, Rhys Chatham and is a member of Noise group Aufgehoben. Morgia is well known in the NYC Improv scene and has played with William Parker, Daniel Carter, Peter Evans and many more. Kastel studied singing with Joan La Barbara and holds a degree in electronic music.
05
Soema Montenegro
“Colibrí”
from Passionaria (Western Vinyl)
This Argentinian vocalist was raised in the province of Buenos Aires and practises a theatrical, impressionistic form of shamanic storytelling in song. Passionaria captures something of the perfectly controlled caterwaul that has helped establish her reputation as a powerful live performer.
06
Ekoplekz
“Stahlman Gas”
from Intrusive Incidentalz Vol 1
(Punch Drunk)
Ekoplekz shuns modern digital production techniques in favour of primitive analogue devices, lo-fi cassette recorders and a spontaneous, improvised approach to composition. The Bristol based artist takes inspiration from BBC Radiophonic soundtracks, early dub reggae, Krautrock and post-punk/Industrial pioneers like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Robert Rental. This track is taken from his debut album.
07
Artifact Shore
“Busted Up”
from Busted Up
(Artifact Shore)
Brooklyn’s Artifact Shore have been operating since 2005 with an ever changing line-up and a constantly evolving sound, their influences ranging from Industrial, post-punk and shoegaze. Taken from the EP of the same name, “Busted Up” is a reworked sonic experiment from the sessions for their 2009 album Instruments Of The Devil.
08
La La Vasquez
“Horror Stories”
from La La Vasquez/Neonates split 7" EP
(onec)
Hailing from the South East of England, La La Vasquez are Rachael Finney, Merida Richards and Freya Watson. The trio have worked together for two years and have released material on OneC and M’ladys Records. They have recently contributed to a compilation LP soon to be released on the Savoury Days label. Interested in the history of women and punk, the group are seeking to carve their own niche within this lineage.
09
Phog Masheeen
“Air Lock”
from 23 Duets
(Love Earth Music)
Sound art and video collective from Costa Mesa, California employing aerophones, idiophones and electronics for their performances and sound design projects. The core of the team – William Almas and Mark Soden Jr – build their dense sound with a combination of samples, trumpets, manipulated percussion, homemade instruments and household objects.
10
ROBERTS
“In A Field, Listening To The Light”
from A Problem On The Land
Distro Projects)
Robert Peterson and Robert Greenwood are the two ROBERTS. Louisiana sound artist Peterson explores pedestrian ritual, sound as medicine and education as performance. Greenwood is part of Distro Projects, a multimedia label and transient cooperative project space which hosts, documents and archives the activities of ‘miscreant artists’. He describes what he does as “informal aesthetic exercises in environment building and rethinking locality”.
11
The Drift
“Hello From Everywhere”
from Blue Hour
(Temporary Residence Ltd)
San Francisco’s The Drift are an out rock ensemble with an uncanny control over mood, melody and meditation. The group comprises Danny Grody (Tarentel, Moholy-Nagy), Trevor Montgomery (Lazarus, Moholy-Nagy, Tarentel) and Rich Douthit (Halifax Pier).
12
Dimitris Bakas
“Absolute Continuity” (edit)
from Migrosound
(Migro)
Dimitris Bakas is a composer who combines electroacoustic and instrumental sounds. His sonic language draws on sound objects and the late spectralist tradition, resulting in what he calls “absolute continuity”. Playing the music involves a strong element of gestural performativity, often close to the threshold of audible sound.
13
Dalglish
“3.9.2004”
from Benacah Drann Deachd
(Highpoint Lowlife/Record Label Records)
An early exponent of IDM before the fact, Detroit’s Chris Douglas (aka Rook Valard and Dalglish) released his futuristic debut, the Basilar EP, in 1992. As OST, he remixed San Francisco Ambient group Spacetime Continuum in the mid-90s and went on to produce a string of releases for the Phthalo, Emanate and Qlipothic imprints. More recently he has completed a collaborative DVD with art group Transforma called SYNKEN, and as Dalglish has also put out a free digital album, Otjohr. His new album will be out in January 2012.
14
Konntinent
“Creep Sxene”
from Kiruna
(Hibernate)
Antony Harrison is the London based musician behind Konntinent, as well as two other projects, Arev Konn and Paco Sala. Since 2009 he has released work on various labels including Home Normal, Digitalis, Sonic Piecers, Sweat Lodge Guru and Hibernate. His music typically blends analogue and digital instrumentation, offsetting drone against rhythm, invariably in C# minor.
15
Toddlers
“Old Hat”
from The Shriek Of Unused Capacities
(doubledotdash!?)
Reading based bass and drums duo Toddlers were formed in summer 2009 by two bored office workers who had run out of acts to book for their locally run Econo Band Nights. Inspired by Miles Davis’s “What I Say”, Black Flag’s “The Process Of Weeding Out” and hardcore Improv artists like Talibam! and That Fucking Tank, Toddlers have recently added a guitar to their arsenal.
16
Action Beat
“Hass Yr Idols”
Wire Tapper exclusive
(Fortissimo)
This instrumental Noise rock outfit from Bletchley, Buckinghamshire features a rotating line-up of three or more drummers, three guitars, a bassist and a baritone. They formed in 2004 and have played around 500 gigs throughout Europe, influenced by the strenuous touring ethic of hardcore heroes Black Flag. They plan to release their fifth studio album in 2012.
17
The Astroboy
“Cloud#2”
Wire Tapper exclusive
(PAD)
The Astroboy is the moniker of Luís Fernandes, a member of the PAD label/artist collective based in Braga, Portugal. Drone, timbral exploration and contemplative soundscapes built from analogue synthesis, digital manipulation and guitars were used on early releases A Derrota Da Engrenagem (2007) and 090309 (2009). On his latest record, The Chromium Fence, his meditational sketches have been updated with Kosmische elements.
18
Ektoise
“Caverns”
Wire Tapper exclusive
(777 Operations)
Brisbane’s Ektoise combine rock power with Dark Ambience, dripping electronica, unearthly drone and a myriad of other elements. They have already been remixed by Danny Hyde, The Black Dog and Bola, and are currently organising a remix companion to their album Kiyomizu.
19
Mathon
“Herizun”
Wire Tapper exclusive
(Everestrecords)
This sound collective takes its name from a picturesque location in the Swiss Alps, where members and invited guests have been gathering since 2003 to translate the impressive surroundings into music. Their latest album, Terrestre, was released in April 2011 with remixes by Steinbrüchel, Kenneth Kirschner, Digitalis and i8u among others. Their music has also been visualised into installations on etoy.com and ZKM.de, while a multitouch sound visualisation app for Mathon, GRID, has just been released by futura-epsis1.com via the iOS-AppStore.
20
ton
“No Need To Go So Far”
from No Need To Go So Far
(Granny)
ton is a project by Greeks Dimitis Damaskos (aka Damcase) and Haris Koutsokostas (aka Vokal Idiot). Analogue sound sources, field recordings and samples create a diverse audio environment in which you can distinguish the interaction of diverse musical influences.
Photograph by Jason Nocito
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