Hafler Trio

Hafler Trio (or H30, for short) is a project of Andrew McKenzie, who explores various sonic phenomena through his records. Another issue that the project explores is a blurred line between the fact and the faction and various ways of mass manipulation – initially the band claimed that Dr. Edward Moolenbeek was its founder, but he turned out to be a fictitious person. Initially, Hafler Trio included Moolenbeek, McKenzie and Chris Watson from Cabaret Voltaire, but eventually McKenzie became a center of the project.
Hafler Trio debuted in 1984 with “Bang! An Open Letter”, which was supposed to demonstrate that the band was a part of ROBOL, a research organization and worked on issues related to perception with Dr. Robert Spirgeon (all of which, of course, were also fictional).
All Music Guide pointed out that “Bang!” contains different types of material, including harsh ambient music, which H30 would explore in depth later, as well as looped and layered news and radio broadcasts. AMG concluded that “The album’s overall effect is a spectrum of recognition, from overt to subliminal, and the relative brevity of the tracks makes for an overall disorientation, requiring more active listening than the group’s later works.”
I bought this because this is the first project Chris Watson was engaged into after leaving Cabaret Voltaire. It is on the border where music ceases to exist in its original form. There is no melody just sound collages that sometimes have a rhythmic pattern because they are being constantly repeated. I would categorize this as "not quite music but not quite not music"
Latter day singles Wolf Sheep Cabbage - Episode 1 from 2004, Right Here Where You Are Sitting Now from 1996, are ambient, drone, cloudscape sound textures. I have ripped these off vinyl but it is perfect cd music. When put on a repeat it works better, because one listen is not enough.

kings of dub

My favourite dub albums here on display.

Dub combo is a compilation of dub tracks from several Israel Vibration albums. It is the most laid back and the most classical dub of all albums here. Trans-cending.

Drums of defiance is more of a modern album, sort of trip hop meets dub meets african music. The feeling of this album is just great.

Twilight Circus Sound System is the most out-there dub into-infinity album of the three here on display. Chrome of dub. Deep groovy and reverberating into-space album. An endless chain of dub. Did I also mention hand made cover? I did not? No, I did.

best of 2009

Well, it's Jarvis Cocker and his Further Complications. It's way more exciting a record than anything bearing name Pulp. Plus it has signature Albini sound and signature Cocker wit and humor.
Not surpassed by anyone last year. Let's complicate some more this year Jarvis. Don't you get soft on me!

Cabaret Voltaire - Outer Limits

The Outer Limits is another 1976 demo tape that came to the surface and made it to the Brainwashed CV discography.

Tracklist

A1		Capsules	7:29
A2		Is That Me (Finding Someone At The Door Again?)	4:48
A3		The Single	3:30
A4		Ooraseal	4:22
A5		Loves In Vein	4:30
A6		Dream Sequence 1	2:56
B1		Dream Sequence 2	3:42
B2		Do The Snake	5:59
B3		A Sunday Night In Biot	3:26
B4		She Loves You	8:44

My copy is two songs shorter than the one described on Brainvashed. It lacks Stolen from Spectra and Bedtime Stories.
Sound quality is... well this is a demo. Some of the songs appear on Methodology 1, and some on 1974-1976 album. Some versions do differ but only in length (they were edited because of the tape limitations, see they made these demos on c-60 cassette so they trimmed a song or two to fit on a cassette side.) Other versions seem to have different pitch. Again it is possible that the equipment they used to duplicate these tapes had different speed. But that only makes it all a bit more interesting does it not.
I like their early stuff. The sounds they produced back then show a great deal of creativity because it was not easy back then to create such sounds on equipment they had those days. I think highly of this period. Almost religious about it...

Companyia Electrica Dharma

Companyia Electrica Dharma is a long lived Catalan jazz ethnic rock combo. They have been around for more than 30 years with their first album dating as far as 1975. I've become acquainted with their work through two very different albums from 2000's. First one: Sonada! from 2000 and Llibre Vermell from 2002. Saw them play live 2003 promoting the latter. While Sonada is more upbeat and more Mediterranean and an overall cheerful album, Llibre Vermell is a medieval Mediterranean goth-like album. It's dark and it's all about creating a certain atmosphere, executed first rate . It only goes to prove that these are seasoned musicians each one a master of his own instrument. I was quite excited upon first hearing this record because I have never heard anything like it. The emphasis on their Catalan background is predominant but they also create a feel similar to some neo folk artists such as Death in June or later day Current 93 + The Ape of Naples era Coil.
The bottom line is, I really like this album.

Bill Laswell City of Light

I bought this mainly because it has some interesting names on the front cover, mainly Coil to be frank, but it apparently is not the track worth buying this cd for. Trilok Gurtu and Tetsu Inoue have done a finer job here. All in all this is a Bill Laswell record. It has his signature sound written all over it and I find it to be a pleasurable listen allthough it is not your every day music you know. It is much more in vein of an other Laswell record which I enjoy very much: Hashisheen : The End Of Law
it also has Hakim Bey on it but it features vocals of Sussan Deyhim, and I'm a big, no, I'm a huge fan of her work.

try city of light first

then buy