Great new poster
March 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Smoking Hot Video
March 18, 2012 Leave a comment
In two weeks from now I’ll be sitting down with Scott Foust and Mike Popvich to rehearse our Smoking is Green ‘opera’, and to warm you all up, Scott did a great video of it:
Mutatis Mutandis
March 7, 2012 Leave a comment
from the forthcoming issue of Vital Weekly, kindly donated by its editor in chief:
Of course I am not the right person to say anything about Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf’s ‘Mutatis Mutandis’, since a little silly thing from me as Freiband was the basis of this. An one minute piece released on a cassette, which people could use to remix, preferably using a four track cassette. There is an unreleased piece by Z’EV, but only Mirko Uhlig has spend a lot of time with it. He’s back to using his old bandname, Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf, and there are three pieces here. One seems a straight remix of the original, followed by the title piece, which takes up thirty eight minutes. Here Uhlig takes the hiss of the original apart, adds sound effects, time stretches bits into long form drones, making an absolute great piece, ending a nice up in your face drone bit and even a short noise bit at the end – but hey of course I am not the right person to write such things. Close to the fire and such things. But to know such a short and hissy piece of loosely formed sounds can make such a great piece, I didn’t know. Excellent, but of course I am not etc. And, best coup about it, its also released on cassette. Now there is something to bring to your four track machine. I know I will!
get it here
Ultra start…
March 1, 2012 Leave a comment
I will head out in an hour or so to Amsterdam (yes I know) to pick up a copy of the 2012 issue of Vinyl. I contributed an article on the current state of cassettes and a bunch of reviews. Plus a copy of Harold Schellinx’ boek on Ultra. This will be the start of the Ultra 10 days – with five evenings of live music next week. I will play with Roel, as Wieman (our first concert as such after changing our name), doing a Minny Pops special. Wally is singing on ‘Dolphin’s Spurt’ if all goes well. Thursday march 8th at Extrapool, most likely we are the act to start at 21:00. So don’t be late. For now, the first thing is this, picture above…
Villa Fiasco
February 13, 2012 Leave a comment
I have no idea actually why this is called Villa Fiasco, but this is a limited CDR release, subtitled ‘The Act Of Sampling’. A small booklet with a text by Herman van den Muijsenberg, Jos de Mol and me (the only one in Dutch, but in my defense, I thought it was all in Dutch). The CDR contains works based on a sample from a Vietnamese record. I have three remixes and last week I melted all of my samples into a live set, which I played at the presentation. Since I decided it all quite last minute its not on the poster (above). Who cares anyway? Classic click and cut music! You can listen to it here
Smoking
February 9, 2012 Leave a comment
Alright, so it seems I am pretty ;azy, maybe even I am. But work is hard, life is hard, winter is cold blah blah. Just to fill you on what I have been doing. I am working very hard (besides all the other things I always do, like Vital Weekly) on gettting our Tobacconists tour together. So far we have this:
April 4th Extrapool, Nijmegen
April 5th Worm, Rotterdam
April 6th Tape, Arnhem
April 7th Melkweg, Amsterdam
April 8th
April 9th GUNTHER, oudaan 15, ruimte 33, antwerpen
April 10th Sonic Protest, France
with some more dates coming, most likely in the UK, whenever somebody over there wakes up. We’ll be performing our ‘Smoking Is Green’ radiophonic work as an onstage opera. More Robert Ashley than Richard Wagner. The Tobacconists will be Scott Foust and me, obviously, and Mike Popovich of The Pickle Factory.
I have been creating some new work for us, like a new track for Sonic Protests double CD and a CD compilation for WFMU benefit (to be released by Nihilist) and a short 1 minute noise track for a US cassette compilation. When the boys are in town we will also work on our second LP, for which I already laid down seven new sketches.
This saturday I bring my laptop down to Extrapool to present some of my samples for Villa Fiasco. I participated in that project of sampling. Maybe some of the kids are interested. You never know.
Magazine
January 15, 2012 Leave a comment
I know this must sound odd, but I very rarely read music magazines. I do always have books on music at hand when I am listening to music, and every year read all old copies of Vinyl magazine and other old stuff, I never go out and buy new magazines. One exception though: I always receive a free courtesy copy of Gonzo Circus, that great great Belgium/Dutch magazine, who have always been very kind to whatever I do. In the recent issue there is a very nice review of the new Beequeen CD. I was looking if its online, but their site is down. Well, do it yourself and look for it.
Last friday I was waiting in line for the post office with my parcels, always passing the magazine stand, the far end for kids and music. Easy to pick one out and read while waiting, but they always look so boring. But lo and behold, New Order is on the front of this months Mojo and there is no secret in the fact that I am big fan. Comes with a cover mounted CD (all for 9 euros) of bands playing all the tracks from ‘Power Corruption & Lies’, plus a bunch of boni (plural for bonus) inc a great Biosphere rendition of ‘Blue Monday’. So I’ve spend my hangover sunday afternoon reading an old fashioned music magazine, learning all about drummer boy Ringo, Bowie and Tim Hardin – even listening to bit of the latter. Time to move out of the house and see a concert at Extrapool.
That Was The Year That Was
December 31, 2011 Leave a comment
Ok, so never write the year report until the year is finally over. You may never know what happens in the last days. This is what happened. Today I received a package from Suitcase Recordings. Somewhere in 1991 Suitcase’s Erik Blevins (All Fours), Tom Cox (TAC) and me started to work on an extensive project of material exchange, music and visual. I did a track for a compilation which was basically a small sound installation, and did another one. In 1993 I played live with Eric in Atlanta, which was also be included in the LP as planned. But then things went quite and Eric and I lost contact. But a few years ago he returned, first releasing ‘Paper & Plastic’ on a double CD (instead of the original cassette) and then started working on our joint project. Sometimes I feared Eric got lost again, but then out of the blue this beautiful item arrived. A gatefold LP sleeve, with ‘material’ stashed into it, a CDR and cards explaining the work, all lovely designed by Abo of Yeast Culture in your usual Yeast Culture way. I have one for sale.
So, then I can write about the year that was… An odd year, with concentrated work in the first half, including touring Denmark with Wouter Jaspers, and a lecture tour with him in The Netherlands. Concerts by THU20, Zebra, Kapotte Muziek and solo in the first half. But then in the second half things went quite and the only concerts were the three by Beequeen and the three by Wander. Odd. I never got my 770 euros from Andrew from the Venlo disaster december 2010. I will seriously hurt him, when I bump into him.
Also in the second half year I didn’t create a lot of new pieces, just a Bad Sector remix and a remix for an upcoming project by Jolijn Ceelen. Also before that I didn’t do a lot of music, but I did the radioplay with Scott Foust for Dutch radio, which I am extremely proud of. Hopefully you’ll be there when we perform that in April 2012.
Releasewise I am very happy with all things that were released, especially Ezdanitoff’s ‘We Bring Light’, Beequeen’s ‘Portout Starboard Home’, Freiband’s ‘Stainless Steel’ and ‘The Many Names Of Frans’. Early 2012 another great piece will see the light of day: the LP and CD ‘Smoking Is Green’ by The Tobacconists. Of course I hope 2012 will see some more CD sales for Korm Plastics – maybe I will just give in and stop the label.
The best concert I saw was Main at Incubate. Peter Hook’s performance of ‘Closer’ was a shamble. He should stick to what he is good at: playing rock music. But all the reviews I saw where positive, so I must a miserable old sodd.
Happy new year!
End Of Year List Of Favorites
December 27, 2011 Leave a comment
because I was asked to… in no particular order:
Stephan Mathieu – A Static Place & Remain (Cds, 12k & Line)
Illusion Of Safety – Bridges Intact (Cd, Waystyx)
John Foxx & The Maths – Interplay (Cd, Metamatic)
Lionel Marchetti – Une Saison (2cd, Monotype Records)
Idea Fire Company – Music From The Impossible Salon (Lp, Kye Records)
Francisco Meirino – Recordings Of Voltage Errors, Magnetic Fields, On-Site Testimonies And Tape Tension (Cdr, Neus-318)
Fever (Lp + 7”, Ultra Eczema)
Antoine Chessex – Dust (Cd, Cave12)
Jim O’rourke – Old News #6 (2lp, Editions Mego)
Roel Meelkop & Takanobu Hoshino – Fukushima (Cd, Obs)
The Pickle Factory – Our Anthems (Lp, Twisted Knister)
Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma (Cd, Touch)
Re-Issues
Van Kaye & Ignit – Anthology 80-85 (5lp, Vinyl On Demand
Flue – Vista (Cd, Infrastition)
Dmdn – Agonistes (Lp, Supreme Tools Supplies)
Xx Committee – Steel Negro Music (Cd, Trash Ritual)
Moha! – Meiningslaust Oppgulp (Cd, Rune Grammofon)
De Brassers – 1979-1982 (2lp, Onderstroom Records)
best concert:
Main at Incubate
We Bring Light – indeed
December 5, 2011 4 Comments
I just received copies of the very first Ezdanitoff CD ‘We Bring Light’. In Seeptember 2010 Wouter visited Nijmegen a couple of days, preparing some things which I forgot, and we stayed a day of 2 (or 3, perhaps) in my studio at Extrapool recording with analogue synthesizers and sound effects. Wouter mixed a couple of tracks which we released as a 3″CDR to sell on the road in Denmark and Lithuania, and then early 2011 I mixed those four plus 3 more for the ‘complete’ version. So these are a bit different. I added some more synths, some more effects, field recordings and superimposed two pieces into one (‘Our Russia’) and think this is a great CD. Jos Smolders did the master, Rutger Zuydervelt created a fine cover, and Silentes from Italy released it. I have some copies to sell. Synthimental love songs!
Frans de Waard 