noiseblog

An incomprehensive achronology of things to come and things that have been...

15.11.2005
During the last couple of days I found the time to listen to a bunch of new records that I got, so here's something like a review. Anla Courtis Endless cassette research vol I released on Ultra, which is judged upon the emailaddress a label based in Russia. The CD comes in a slick black and white sleeve, very sober - I kinda like this style. The inner sleeve contains a bit more info, like the fact that Anla Courtis used for these recordings a Tascam 424 (a 4-track, rather good quality, have one myself) with an endless cassette and sound sources recorded in the States, Japan and Argentina. The CDr itself contains 3 tracks and is 45 minutes long - The music on the CDr is rather ambient-oriented, they're most of the time build around a deep drone with a layer of extra frequencies whizzling over it. Overall the music sounds as if made while sitting behind a desk fiddling with the 4-track and a chaospath-effect, the sounds being so much manipulated that you can't identify them as being found at those different locations. This might be a record that you have to listen to a few times to get the hang of it, but personnally I don't consider it the best record Anla made. Limited to 99 copies, of which I have number 4. There are better recordings of Anla, like the release on the German Scrotum records: Courtis "Live in Fukuoka" - a very nice release wrapped in a tinfoil sleeve, inside you'll find a copy of Japanese paperwork, most probably stuff that Anla collected while in Japan. The CD contains one track and lasts 38 minutes. Like the studio-album the track is mostly ambient oriented, but I like the mastering of this record better, for one thing there's not that psychedelic chaos-effect hovering over the drone. If you've seen Anla's recent shows some of the things will sound familiar, anyhow, there's a clear live side to it. Ends with Anla doing a mantra. From the two discs I got from Anla I consider the Scrotum-release the best. Schizoid: "Chronic Depression... Fuck it!" This is an awsome release, much in the style of his equally great Death Ally release on Audiobot. Contains one track and lasts 31 minutes, limited to 46 copies of which I have number 35, so be fast if you want to have one. What do you get if you put the CDr in your CDplayer? A guitarmayhem in stereo (left and right channel are different, not clear if this is a collab or Schizoïd doing both sided - I think it's the latter). This record is a heavy ride, right music for the right title! Mr. Natural "I cooked your eggs" - pro-made CD, recorded in 2003, but only recently released. One track, 52 minutes. Another awsome release. Mr. Natural doesn't leave you the choice of skipping to the next track as there's only one and it's a rather harsh one, but the sound stays fairly "natural": it's not a mayhem of randomly pressed effects, but a clever piece of heavy electropoweraccoustics that despite the length never gets boring, it's "in your face" from the very beginning. Get in touch with Mr. Natural and get a copy! On Genderless Kebab was also released the Watermann/Kouhei-split CD "Move Machine with Glass". I love the title of this one! Five tracks, 48 minutes long. What you get on this record is a nice blend of synthesised electronics and accoustics, cut-up bleeps and bips, not exactly harsh, my favourite is track 4 (from Kouhei) which sports a distant, yet pounding, beat - the other tracks are a bit too disoriented for my taste, but you might like that. Parktdolg - Spring Recordings - CDR, 7 tracks, released on Imvated, lasting 53 minutes. I like this one, and so will everyone that ever fooled around with cables, or with radioposts or broken electronics. Features some very subtle tracks, the ideal track for playing when you're looking out of the window while it's snowing outside! Made without chaospath! To conclude this review: if you're on a tight budget and can only afford 3 of the above, I'd say go for the Mr. Natural, the Parktdolg and the Schizoïde-release.
More soon, coming next will be a word or two on the two Mr. Natural-gigs I've seen in the previous days.
10.11.2005
Been to the Rotk(r)ot in Antwerp yesterday (09.11.2005 - see Jelle's site: www.jellecrama.tk) - I think this is the first time I go to see a gig or festival in Antwerp that actually starts on time, so I missed the first 3 bands - when I arrived Zwette Hoend (slang literally meaning Black or Dirty Dog, or Scumbag) was playing - feat Floris (Dirk Freenoise) on trumpet, Erwin (Schizoïde) on guitar + toysynth and an additional accordeon-player. Nice sloppy impronoise, Floris and the accordeonplayer shouting insults you would otherwise expect to come from the audience, it's interesting to hear a band scream out for more volume, a faster beat or just "Do you call this music?!", Mr. Natural (USA) was next - I've seen him perform quite a few times already (we once even recorded a collaboration-track) and there's a couple of things that are fixed in a Mr. Natural set, the self-build instruments to name one, and the very clever use of delaypedals to name another - with a minimum amount of effects (I counted 2 boss delaypedals of the 5.2 sec-type, 2 distortionpedals and a choruspedal) a handful of springs and a contactmike he manages to build an amazing layer of sounds, slowly moving to a crescendo, ending in another constant value: the "Mr. Natural!"-scream at the end of the show. Applaus. Sister Iodine (France) played next. Like someone said after the show: "Better than Trumans Water is doing now" (Trumans Water will be playing in 't Paenhuys on thursday btw). Yoot yoot. It's true that there is a simularity between both bands, except that Trumans Water has been around longer, and that Sister Iodine has slightly more trash-appeal. I only saw the last part of their show, which was quite energetic, and followed the first part while standing in the garden - soundvolume was so high that the show could be followed from the garden without problems (and so thought the police that showed up a few minutes after the end of the Sister Iodine show). Zatte Jos didn't play - Lieven (Imvated, Dirk Freenoise) who together with Olivier (Diskoster) is Zatte Jos had to work late and judged it impossible to get drunk enough in a meager 20 minutes (Zatte Jos means Drunken Jos) - instead Olivier teamed up with Erwin (see here above) and thus Tantrum Thorazin played instead of Zatte Jos (yes, we all play together here in Belgium, musical incest and inbreed a galore). The Tantrum Thorazin set had some technical difficulties at the start - Oli's amp was twice as big as that of Erwin, it took some time to find the right balance between the two guitars, and the sloppy cabels did the rest. Jelle had another bag of dumpster clothes backstage which ended up all over the stage, Erwin and Olivier. A simular thing, but with lot more clothes had occured at a Tantrum-show a week previous to this gig, they literally disappeared under the cloths back then (didn't see that show, hope to get a chance to see the DVD one time or another - Dennis Tyfus had plans for a release). Musicwise: excellent set, low guitars. PG six (usa) was next. Guy with an acoustic guitar. Very skilled, very technical. Folk, like in: "Watch me turn on girls with my guitar" - sure I wish I could play like that. Samara Lubelski (usa) played last, folk again, very fragile, quite beautiful, technical, tactical etcetera. I see I promised a word or two on Anla's sets in Antwerp (01.11.2005) and Brussels (04.11.2005) - as I already wrote yesterday I liked what anla did this year more than the show thet he did last year, in Antwerp I liked his set even more than in Tienen, though Anla himself aftwerwards had some complaints bout the soundinstallation, and in Brussels - Bozar, so excellent soundsystem - his set was a bit mixed: some parts were very very good, other partts maybe a tad too long. Anyway, I think in the Bozar he had more time to try some things out. The Looking for Reynols Documentary is a very funny document - sure lots of blahblah by people from whom you sometimes wonder how they ended up in a Reynols-documentary (like a photographer), but funny - might be released somewhere next year - check Anla's site from time to time.
09.11.2005
Seen another bunch of gigs since my last entry. Lets start with Live in de Living 18 (17.10.2005), featuring: Zürich Against Zürich (ita), Schizoïde (b), Krokodillenland (b) and onemannation (Singapore). Krokodillenland opened the evening - someone on Wrost called them "Freenoise Jr" - "Junior" they were: two teenagers, one not older than 15, actually pretty good, more soundscape-oriented than harsh, using guitars, effects, a trumpet - no pc for these kids! Though quite okay they did play a bit too long to keep my attention, I think it has something to do with age - both of me and them. Schizoïde - was talking with Erwin about a week ago, during edition 19 of the Living and he said he was getting more and more into the blues, as I posted the day after his gig in the Living: noiseblues a galore. Check out this guy. Zürich against Zürich: loud loud loud loud - they literally had a wall of amps with them - one even served to amplify the bass drum. What is it with Italians that they always carry a busload of material with them? It's something I already observed when Daniele (Brusaschetto) was in Belgium: big amps (good amps btw), 25 effects, 2 guitars (one can never now what happens). Cool guys - arf, guy and chick, pardon me, m'am - there's not much bands into noise in Italy she told me (and even less audience) - interestingly I won't call what they do on stage "noise", as underneath the huge soundvolume there lives something structured, a dormant song. Put a Hardcore record on and turn the soundvolume completlety to the right, then go and sit in the next room: that's the Zürich experiment, more or less, another way to get the same effect is putting your head on a railroadtrack and wait for a train to pass by - let it be clear that this is a compliment! I went to see them in the Magasin 4 the day after, actually I went to the Argos filmfestival and ended up in the Magasin 4, one motivation to go to the Magasin 4 was to see Zürich against Zürich in a bigger venue - I had thought that by standing a bit further away from the speakers I might hear more of their set, of course they adapted the soundvolume to the place, so the effect was quite the same. Also playing were Gura (from Ghent) and Lawrence Wasser (Brussels/Lyon) - Funny thing is that I actually didn't see that much from what was going on on stage, mmh. After the gig we stayed at the Magasin till 02:30, talking with Zûrich and Zürich. Very nice people, good memories. Heard they played even louder the day after in Ghent. And all that without earplugs: Respect. Oh, I forgot to mention Onemannation in my review of the 17th - here goes: not my kind of cake, it was interesting to see a band from Singapore in the Living, but etc. Next is Live in de Living 19 (31.10.2005), with Anla Courtis (ex-Reynols, Argentina), Jos Steen & Salami (B) and Thibault Delferiere (B). I had been looking forward seeing Anla again - unlike last year (we went to see KVK Tienen, can't remember if they won or lost the game, I think they lost) Anla was quite exhausted from all the touring - his tour schedule was indeed very complicated and exhausting. The evening was opened by Jos Steen (with Salami on bass + one extra guitar player) - blues, jazzy and snutty. The set Anla did, despite being so exhausted, was better than the one he did last year in the living (which I also liked btw): a rich, drony, well balanced and varied set. Thibault Delferiere: I saw his set on Death Petrol, and liked what he did back then - I had been looking forward for his set in the living room - I had seen some of the pictures of the performance that he planned to do and visited his site (with an overview of his past performances a few days earlier). I hope to get a videoclip of his set online as soon as possible - a Thibault performance sure is a must-see, and the tiny room that the Living is was an added bonus. There will be more reviews soon, so stay tuned, stay noisy while waiting for my entry on Anla Courtis'set in Antwerp (01.11.2005), Anla in Brussels (04.11.2005) (with film) and in the making: 09.11.2005, Rotkrot, if I survive the steep stairs at Crama's place. Blahblah.
10.10.2005
Tip to check out: Radikal Satan, band from Argentina, saw them on pleinair in Brussels, band with an unbelievable drive, urban folknoise? Also on pleinair a few weeks later: De Maskesmachine, audience standing at 10 meters from the stage, then the electricity went down, "Come a bit closer, otherwise you won't hear a thing" - 5 minutes unplugged improvisation, partytime when the current was switched on again.
07.10.2005
It�s been ages since my last entry on this page � lots of things have happened since then. Last things first: last Saturdays� (01.10.2005) Ni Musique Muzik Fest No! Festival was a direct hit [clik here for the list with bands], even with three other noise-events going on on the same evening - Idiolabo 4 in Liège, a noise-gig at the Freaks End Future in Antwerp and the Basurama Recup Festival in Brussels - quite some people showed up. Like [K-RAA-K]3 put it so rightly in their "Ruis"-magazine: "Tienen earns it to be marked with a big red spot on the noise-map of Belgium." Hellfiller opened the festival shortly after half past two in the afternoon � their instrument: a wired kicker-table that they brought with them all the way from Ghent � they started off slowly, but as the game progressed tension rose, and with it the soundvolume, shreeking, feedbacking, pulsating [watch the video]. Dirk Freenoise was next, it took them quite some time to get their stuff ready to go, but once started it was junknoise at its best. Marked moments were when Bram hit his contactmikes real hard with his forehead, the room slowly filling with smoke and Lieven and Floris returning from behind the stage dressed in bags (Lieven in a mailbag, Floris in a potatobag) [watch the video]. Norma X'd Out: I'm not well placed to write a review on my own set, but I must say I was quite pleased with the outcome: I rolled over the floor screaming, trashed a few chairs from one side of the room to the other side, finally cut them all up with a chainsaw, that was about what I had in mind, we'll see where all this shredding will lead us to in the long run, I'm as curious as you [watch the video]. (btw I blew up another stereo while preparing my set). Peter, we all love you here in Tienen � the set you did as Odal was probably the most painful of the entire evening: extremely loud, extremely sharp. A true Death Petrol Flashback, but so much more intense. [watch the video]. Each Diskoster-show holds another surprise, like that one time we arrived in Antwerp for a show, he hooks up his effects and suddenly realizes that he had forgotten to take his guitar with him � the show nevertheless turned out to be one of the best shows I�ve seen of him so far. The set he did at the Ni Musique fest started of quite minimal: a short pulse, screams, loads of smoke � I kinda liked that opening minute, Oli didn�t � guess that�s why we�re no longer in the same band. [watch the video]. I missed Electric Sonatas vs Saturn Dream and I also missed R.O.T. � Electric Sonatas vs Saturn Dream because I went out eating French fries just across the street and their set was going to be the same as the one I had seen in Ghent anyhow and during R.O.T I was with JMH Berckmans backstage � quite a remarkable guy! I especially liked the start of his set � him standing, Geert on guitar or violin, everything very minimal, not even a mike, singing something that resembles an Irish protest folksong. The spoken word-pieces were quite hard to follow � lots of the words got lost in mumbling, unless you concentrated yourself very hard � Bram even asked if they could turn down the fridge, as the humming was too loud to properly follow what went out "on stage". [watch the video]. Lawrence Wasser [click here for their site ] played last throwing us back in time, into the early eighties, when laptops weren�t common yet, and people still made real music � I�ve seen this band a few times already � I think this was the first time I saw them play with 4 � the other times it was with 3, personally I don�t think the extra guitar-player made a difference � no Gratschen on synth, quite a pitty as once again the entire evening was dominated by "male" acts. [watch the video]
The evening before I hopped by at the Basurama Recup Festival [ click here for the official Basurma site], a festival dealing with the social and cultural phenomenom of waste, dirt and garbage. The festival (= expo, concerts and seminars) took place at quite a cool location, an abondend kindergarten. Seen some very interesting installations that make use of found trash, like an installation build by Pi-Ring: a kind of humming device of which the sound changes depending on the amount of light or when it's touched. Couldn't stay for the entire seminar that took place, quite an interesting reading on Mary Douglas, an anthropologist that wrote quite a lot on garbage in the sixties and gave the topic quite some thought. One incident occured: during the reading a guy entered the room, stopped in the middle, took out a gun (could well be a replica) shouted something (I was told something in the lines of "If you are for Iraq I'm against" or the other way round - which way you turn it it stays bullshit) and left by the other door - There's a lot of frustration in that area, so people feel the urge to make a fool of themselves from time to time, oh well. It's a pitty the festival took place in the same weekend as Ni Musique, would have loved to go the next day as well (R.O.T performed on both occasions btw) - I heard things got a bit out of hand the next day, with locals trashing up the expo, but I don't have this info first-hand. As the speaker said the evening before: "Garbage or dirt is regarded as dangerous when you create something with it, because you give it back an identity." Trash the trash. Dirt to dirt.
10 days prior to the Ni Musique Muzik Fest No! Festival Live in de Living 17 took place in Oli's living room [ click here for more info on live in de Living]- watersports (usa), coarsebangor (b) and partkdolg (b) played that evening, rinus van alebeek (from holland) was also scheduled, but apparantly he was kicked out of the tourvan. Pure Rock! I must say I was not in the best of moods and I spent most of the time sitting in the adjoint room watching a video of Blakes 7, followed by Class of 1984, talking with some blokes about the SF series that were on telly when we were young (Tripod, Xenon, Blakes Seven, Het Veenmysterie, Dr. Who, Space 2000). From the sounds coming from the living room I'd say Coarsebangor and Parktdolg were junknoise, and when I went for a beer in the kitchen I briefly watched Watersports: very minimal, sublimal sounds, quietest so far in the living room, doesn't happen that much that I see a (noise)band that dares to explore the other side of the audible spectrum. Back to Class of 1984 it was.
I also went to see a concert of Charlemagne Palestine vs. Tony Konrad in the little theatre in Ixelles (Brussels) early september (Wednesday 07.09.05) � Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Konrad hadn't been on stage together for several years, but since Tony Konrad was touring Europe they decided to do one more show together, which was also recorded. The evening was opened by some guy behind a laptop who before starting tried to explain what he was going to do. The first 10 minutes sucked: layered samples of field recordings (a street, some pieces of wood crashing, a gong and some beats and blips), the next 20 minutes were a tad (but not that tad) better, maybe because the performer spent most of the time trying to get rid of some strange sounding clicks and let the rest of his sample-library run: that piece was more drone-oriented, he also used a guitar that you couldn't hear for a brief period. Most people agreed on it being quite bad.
Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Konrad seemed to need some time to get into it. Tony Konrad set off on violin with a shreeking, ripping sound: shreak shreak shrrrrrrrreaaak shreak shreak etc which he would continue to do for the rest of the one hour show � he definitely had a distortion pedal with him on stage. Charlemagne Palestine at first didn't do much, he had a synthesizer tone running and was sitting behind his grand piano, fiddling the keys and at one time just leaning back lost in thoughts while Tony Konrad was doing shreak shreak shrrrrrrrreaaak. Luckily enough for the audience Palestine later on during the show threw in some of his typical piano-bangings and during those moments the sound the two produced together had quite some volume and on two occasions Charlemagne Palestine started chanting � those were the best moments of their concert, that never really reached a crescendo. I must say that I left 5 minutes early to eat something. Overall I would rate the match 3-1 for Charlemagne Palestine, and as for me: I had better stayed at home, I haven't seen much exciting during the evening.
Speaking bout contemporary music, I'm ashamed to confess here that I've been to a show of Wim Mertens in the AB � I had gotten an entrance ticket for free, which once again proves that I'm a cheap person that would go to anything, as long as it is for free. This was one of the worst gigs I've ever been to � show was going on for 2 minutes when I cursed myself for not smuggling some beer into the venue, either for consumption or for throwing at the stage � I think I was tricked into going by someone who claimed that Wim Mertens was going to do something minimal (I like minimal because I'm an authistic sod and get confused when music gets too complicated) � at the beginning of the show a gentle radio-voice (the show was aired on Radio Clara) informed us that Wim Mertens was indeed going to play some of his earlier, minimal stuff (that's when I realised I had never heard anything strictly minimal of this guy) and that for this occasion he had brought with him a maximal line-up � 5 singers, a grand-piano, some violins and a cello. I haven't heard anything minimal that evening, I just wanted him to stop � what struck me was how his maximal line-up was plagued by amateurism (one of the leading violins actually stopped playing to turn a page at a crucial point), and the singers might be trained, skilled and professional, Wim Mertens as a singer isn't anything of the previous (as a piano-player and composer he's not much worth either). So at certain points during the show he bursted out in some kind of... jodeling, can't describe it any differently. Next time before I accept a free ticket I first look at who's going to play that evening.
Quite different was the Fuck you too! Festival I've been to in De Boogaerd in Geel (sunday 04.09.05), a grindnoise festival organised by Tony of Permanent Death. Of the bands playing I only knew LSD Mossel and Zatte Jos (a collab-project of Diskoster and "Chimuser" Lieven). The other bands didn't dissapoint either: Anal Penetration is the soloproject of drummer Roel of LSD Mossel: with a drumcomputer and one guitar he manages to produce quite a sound and the visual touch is him being handcuffed to an inflattable lovedoll which during his set escaped and was kicked around by the audience � in all Roel played that evening in three bands, Anal Penetration, LSD Mossel and a third one also guitar + drumcomputer. Another great band was Rotkop: closer to powerviolence than to grindmetal, with at one moment a long repetitive piece of drumming, that reminded me a bit of Branca. Permanent Death didn't play, but Tony did the vocals in another band, grindnoise, with two 16 year old chicks they apparantly asked to yell in the mike every one or two minutes, which they did throughout the entire set, if Permanent Death is blèh-noise, than this was ieh-noise. Zatte Jos was the first band that really kicked ass, by which I mean: "kicked - and - ass" - Lieven at one moment dropped his pants on his ankles, Diskoster did what he's good in: doomguitar and metalvocals with the right moves while Lieven basically kicked his equipment around and one moment trashing a 1 euro tapedeck which made quite an impact with the audience and spurred some aftershow-questions like: "Why do you do that?" and "Doesn't that cost you lots of money?"Iron Bitchface was another revalation: three guys from Canada, in black leather, bandanas, coloured hair and �eyelinered� eyes. The first half of the show the drummer sat on stage dressed as a monk (hello sunn-o)))?) moving back and forth on the sound of the pre-recored rhythms that they had with them on a CD. The singer came quite close to what I've seen Scorpio Scorpio do on stage, and the music, well, quite an interesting cross-over between disco, house, grind and metal. During the second half the drummer stood up, took off his monk-suit to reveal some kind of tuttu he was wearing underneath, he basically trashed his drumset in that second half of the show, and I mean it when I say "trashed": at one moment he sat down on the bass drum and just fell through it, he tried to trash the snare drum by hitting the bassdrums' pedal through it, crawled through the bassdrum, and finally managed to trash the snare drum by hitting it on his head. At one moment the singer sacked through the stage. Check these guys out, they have a Cdr out! LSD Mossel finally closed the evening: toydrum, guitar, masks, check out the mp3-section for a movie of some of their other gigs in Belgium.
Woeha that's lots of text, and I didn't even mention Death Petrol and Vage Dagen- yet!
02.08.2005
Koji Tano (MSBR) died on the 31th of july, 43 years old. According to a mail from Lasse Marhaug Koji Tano "was diagnosed with stomach cancer in may, but after surgery the doctors could only conclude it was too late, the cancer had spread too far, and he was given maximum a year left to live. It lasted only two months." Personally I've seen MSBR only one time and never spoke to him in person, but years ago we exchanged some mails - that one performance took place in De Vooruit in Ghent, a place with a "real" stage, a "real" soundsystem, and a "real" backstage (and - oh gruesome - chairs!). Anyhow, in a place so alien to me I didn't feel like forcing my way into the backstage to say something like "Hey Koji, I'm Wim - remember me? We traded a couple of things a few months ago." I later informed him by mail that I've seen his show, his spontanous reaction was: "Why didn't you come over?" I don't have a huge MSBR-collection, and I'm not going to claim that I love all the records that I have of him (unlike the stuff that I have from K2), but his "Holy Mountain Electronics" is my all-time favourite. Respect!
16.07.2005
Lasse Braun special (15.05.2005) - One of yesterday's moments: Tischk jumps in front of the projector, rips open his shirt, and gets a hairy guy projected on his chest.
25.06.2005
OddPop 2005 (or OddStock as it was revamped this year) - surprise when I saw the flyer this year: a good deal of the bands that were scheduled already passed the revue on previous editions of OddStock (Thuth, Jack The Rapper, The Skills, La Bomba, even John's Funky Shit as I later found out on the excellent OddPop-CD that was released last year). "A best of"-concept this year due to lack or time or is it getting hard finding new bands that are making odd popmusic? The latter seems hard to believe. OddPop this year took place outdoors, a change compared to other years, until about 21:00 - and that's where most of the "good" bands performed. I unfortunatley missed Masonic Youth, the new project of the people of De Hondenkoekjesfabriek (but I'll see them early august, on Death Petrol, in Antwerp - looking forward!). I think it was the third time that I saw Thuth, and I've never been dissapointed: technically very skilled musicians with a far-out frontman. The perfect anti-rock-hero: lazy, bored, just escaped from the asylum, but not yet entirely recovered from the administered drugs. Arf! John's Funky Shit: I apparantly missed them last year and was just in time to see them this year: they look scaring sincere on stage, especially John the singer-frontman. They even played one song twice - first time I see a band ask the audience if it's okay if they did an encore. "Open de poorten der Liefde" (Open the gates of Love): definetely a song with radio potential, one of those songs with a catchy refrain that'll haunt you for days, even when you don't want it. Great moment when during the encore and the phrase "Open the gates of Love" the singer suddenly seemed to realise that his fly was open and swiftly closed it. The Skills are definetly worth checking out as a band: rockchicks with an attitude bringing you simple catchy riffs and two-phrase songs ("Nee, ik doe hem niet uit. Nee, ik doe hem niet uit" - "No, I don't take him off. No, I don't take him off."). La Bomba was a surprise: last time I saw them they were more harsh drone oriented, but now they mixed down more guitars in the soup. Performed in a van. Great yummi. Also worth noting is a not-listed electro-act, by a very sweet girl in a cheesy pink dress - small casio-like-toysynth, guitars, and a fistfull of songs in often disarming English ("Get undressed yourself") about love, going to Mexico, and even a hate-song dedicated to her ex. Bought her CDr, but can't for the sake of it remember her name. A catchy act with a not so catchy name. That was about it for me, the rest of the bands couldn't convince me that much, or were just plain bad - not even odd. I had high expectations of Jack The Rapper, who I already seen three times (first time was btw on the 2004-edition of OddPop where he put down a blasting set and got the audience on his hand in no time). This year he had more props with him (but underneath all that his set was virtually unchanged), did an almost desperate attempt to please the audience, but was in general less convincing than the previous times I've seen him.
Btw it was birthday that day!
21.06.2005
A few weeks ago (actually on the same date as the kortfilmfestivaldecourtmétrage) I bought 5 reels of super8-movies but didn't have the chance to watch them till yesterday. When I was a kid I once saw a slide-show of a party that some neighbours of my parents threw - what struck me was that on one of those slides one of the older neighbours was trying to take of his pants, while his wife was trying to prevent him of doing so - even as an 8-year old this kind of behaviour struck me as being quite bizarre. As far as I can judge from the reels I bought these kind of things were in those days (early seventies) more widespread than I ever suspected. And more: on one of them they don't stop with their pants. It's a damn damn pitty I overlooked one reel when I bought these five - I would never forgive myself if the one I left at the fleamarket contained the second part of what was building up at that party. I can only give one advice after watching these movies: don't get drunk when there's a camera around, or don't take of your clothes, or destroy the tapes afterwards. You never know where they'll end up.
On the other hand: please ignore the previous advice. You're all wonderfull.
Bonus: I learned a new word yesterday: nincompoop. In the Rise and downfall of the Third Reich, of all places!
16.06.2005
Speaking of coïncidences - the morning after the filmfestival I was going through the papers and saw that there was going to be a documentary on Lasse Braun on television that evening - it happens that just about a week earlier I had bought 7 super8-reels filled with movies made by Lasse Braun and that I showed a few the evening before. For those that don't know Lasse Braun (like me till recently): he's making pornmovies since the sixties and is regarded as a culdirector (in that scene). Heavy shit with titles like "Piss and Orgasm", "Cake Orgy", "Deception", "Cream accident". The ones I have are quite funny within the limitations of the genre. I din't see the documentary but hope someone has videotaped it, could be a good subject for a next filmevening.
13.06.2005
The kortfilmfestivaldecourtmétrage was quite a success with an audience up to 60 attendants - not bad for an event organised in someone's living room. Not knowing what to expect from the particpants I was pleasantly surprised by the performances that took place. Koen Lauwers (Electric Sonatas), sitting in a candle lit circle produced a pounding dronescape opposing slides of children in a Holocaust-camp and children enjoying a paramilitary training in a Hitlerjugend-bootcamp. Likewise he confronted Thirdreich-propaganda with a video of "De Fabeltjeskrant" (= the fairytale-journal, a popular childrens programm in the eighties). Christophe Piette was next: he juxtaposed super 8-loops (single or double exposed, some found, some selfmade like one showing Reynols during their tour in 2003) and slides in a repetitive manner. R.O.T were at their best making an instant soundtrack to go with those images, littered with bells and whistles. Floris Vanhoof, who also participated in R.O.T. juxtaposed a super 8-movie he shot with a scratched 16 mm-film while giving the 16mm-projector an electrerotic massage. Fetish! Wilfried Pulinckx (Wif) showed what you could call a roadmovie into melancholy with super8-images shot during the trainride from Tienen to Brussels, video-images of feet hovering above the ground and waving trees almost fading into scratches. The music he made (with a fellow-drummer) reinforced this mood. Great set for sure. David Lamey had made a cut-up collage taken from the stack of super 8-movies I found a week earlier (see my previous entry) - leftovers from these super 8-movies were taken, glued together (in which coïncidence played a big role), rearranged and scratched, coloured and treated with chemicals resulting in a colourful collage in praise of everyday banality. Unfortunately the live soundtrack suffered from some problems with the sound and didn't quite go as planned, lots of feedback and general "wooooomp". Awesome movie. Myriam Saenen showed a pleasant shortmovie starring "Dolly the Sheep": depressed it goes out for walk in the woods, seeks refuge in alcohol, wants to commit suicide, meets a duck, flies through the air and rolls over. Really a very funny movie with a well chosen soundtrack. Meta and her German friend showed a three minute movie filmed in Brussels North, a nature documentary observing the goes and not goes of a prostitute walking up and down the frame. Wim Jammear showed some 1 minute movies he made in the past: Ruin of Rot was one of them. Also noted was "Ook Berlusconi drinkt Jupiler" ("Berlusconi too drinks Jupiler") showing JM Berckmans (the writer) drinking Jupiler and smoking cigarettes. A must see! Hans showed a one minute movie, originally filmed on super 8 and transferred to DVD with some further manipulations of a woman hovering and sliding through the city. Only one minute, but a pleasant one. Last was me myself basically showing two super 8-movies from the fifties one against the other and mixing some recordings I made as Norma X'd Out (among which "Tree for Laura D", "Havan", "152", "Circular Crackle" and others). The evening was closed with some seventies porn to get the audience out. Speaking of coïncidences: I didn't take my 16 mm-projector with me out of fear that it was going to break down during the evening - saturday morning I was talked into a walk to the fleamarket in Brussels, where I stumbled upon a fully working 16 mm-projector (a Bell & Howell from the sixties) - 30 Euros. Yihaa.
06.06.2005
I mixed down the recordings made at the last live in de living (Evil Moisture, Monopolka, Orphan Fairytales and Scorpio Scorpio) and the sound quality is very good. I'm planning a CDr-release of this show, so stay tuned - for the time being you can listen to some extracts of the show on the mp3-page. Plus I fooled around with Pineaccle's Studio 8 a bit and made a small movie with some super 8 footage I shot in Petrozavodsk (Russia), last summer. The soundtrack to this movie is an extract of the last recording session I did with Olivier, so it can be considered as the last ManGenerated-track to date. See the mp3-page for the movie. Friday was a good day btw. I acquired 70 (seventy) super 8-movies while strolling around at the fleamarket in Brussels. A good deal is from the late fifties - early sixties, the other part is some footage from the seventies. Come to the kortfilmfestivaldecourtmétrage to see a selection.
31.05.2005
Live in de living: Scorpio Scorpio Dancing Queen - Orphan Fairytales' set was very good, I had expected a bit more dancing and singing, but we're here to be surprised - Monopolka: Crank Sturgeon's Russian brother jump around noise clown wonderful! - Evil Moisture did a droney slow set making you move back and forth. Hard Core Acid House afterwards,japanese-wise dancing Hit-o-me. And oh: it's all on tape, so look out for some online samples (+pictures) soon - Monopolka was interested in releasing this particular show, so stay tuned on that as well. Praise Tascam: this is the second time in 2 weeks that beer was spilled over my four-track, but the thing still goes strong. Eat that Behringer: the mixing desk I have of them didn't survive the xmass-party with Kunt.
30.05.2005
While talking with Andy Bolus yesterday I discovered that he played with Smell & Quimm way back at the noisefest in Sint-Niklaas in 1997 or so, one of the best noise-sets I ever witnessed. Me: "And there also was this guy on stage whose pants kept falling on his ankles." Andy: "Well, that was me."
It's a small world.