Prefuse 73 is a project by Scott Herren, which can be considered hip hop, electronic (or IDM) and glitch. Truth is, it’s all of this and much more. I find his approach to glitch to be the strongest element of the project, as it comes to be used in manipulating and chopping up rap samples, which I find extremely interesting considering the historical importance placed on the prominence of lyrics and rapping in hip hop. Another project that also successfully inverts the sonic structure of hip hop is Dalek, who brings to the surface wash of desne textures reminiscent of shoegaze and sharing similarities with certain doom-drone metal bands (Jesu and Nadja, particularly). The latest Prefuse 73 records is essentially more of the same, albeit slightly more scattered and split into small vignettes. This is in no way a bad thing! It comes highly recommended and is definitely one of the stand-outs of 2009 music thus far.

Purchase from Bleep.

The judge ordered Spector to pay $16,811 in funeral expenses and other fees

US music producer Phil Spector has been jailed for at least 19 years for murdering an actress in 2003.

The producer, 69, famed for his Wall of Sound recording technique, was last month found guilty of shooting Lana Clarkson at his California home.

Spector had pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder during the five-month retrial in Los Angeles. His lawyers said he would appeal.

Ms Clarkson was best known for her role in 1985 cult film Barbarian Queen.

On Friday, Spector was given a sentence of 15 years to life for second-degree murder and an additional four years for personal use of a gun.

The presiding judge at the court in Los Angeles said Spector must serve at least 19 years before being eligible for parole – by which time he will be 88 years old.

Spector was given a retrial after the jury in his original trial failed to reach a unanimous decision in 2007.

Prolific career

Spector sat motionless in court in Los Angeles, his eyelids drooping slightly, as the sentence was read out, the BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani reports.

Lana Clarkson appeared in cult 1980s film Barbarian Queen
Lana Clarkson appeared in cult 1980s film Barbarian Queen

There were few surprises, our correspondent says. The crime of second-degree murder of which he was convicted carries a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, with a maximum of life.

He denied all along that he was responsible for the death of Lana Clarkson, whom he had met in a bar, but the jury decided he had shot her in the mouth at his mansion near Los Angeles.

Before sentencing, the victim’s mother, Donna, gave a statement to the court, saying: “My beautiful daughter, I miss you so.”

Phil Spector’s work as a music producer influenced millions.

He invented the Wall of Sound and created some of the most memorable pop hits of the 1960s for acts like Tina Turner, the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers.

But for all his musical genius, Spector had a dark side.

He was often described as being a bully in the studio, a man with a liking for guns and an eccentric personality.

During the five-month retrial, five female acquaintances testified that Spector had threatened them at gunpoint in incidents dating back to the 1970s.

The “Wall of Sound” technique was used by Spector in the 1960s at Gold Star Studios. According to Wikipedia, the technique aimed to reproduce the dense, layered, and reverberant sounds that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. The term later applied to bands in the so-called shoegazing sub-genre of alternative rock, such as My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Chapterhouse and Ride.

[Via BBC News]

In line with my post on the name Nadja, I found it interesting to read about the repercussions of Nabokov’s novel (and subsequent films) on the name Lolita.

Nabokov has said, “I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don’t seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings.”

Despite this, the disambiguation page for Lolita in Wikipedia far outstretches that of the name Nadja.

Lolita is also (unfortunately) a CDP in (appropriately) Texas. It is the name of a couple of pop singers. It is referenced in several albums and songs by different bands and musicians, including Agoraphobic Nosebleed in their song “Living Lolita Blowjob” on Altered States of America.

The book has also given birth to the name of several different Japanese-related things, including Lolita-styled fashion and Lolita Anime (the first ever hentai OVA).

Also, just as The Truman Show gave rise to the term The Truman Show Delusion (isn’t that essentially just an existentialist crisis?), Lolita has given rise to the term Lolicon (Lolita complex).

All because of a book (as it happens).

I’ve always taken a liking to the name Nadja. According to Andre Breton in his “novel” (if you could even call it that), Nadja, the name is the beginning of the Russian word hope and emphasises that it’s only the beginning.

Breton, a French surrealist who is generally signified as the creator of the movement, wrote Nadja in 1928, and it begins with a rhetorical question: “Who am I?” The “novel” consists of a series of observations that Breton uses as examples for different philosophical questions and issues that he addresses. I would call the “novel” non-linear in structure, though it does have an overarching autobiographical topic that is Breton’s relationship with Pierre Janet. The book is regarded as a highly influential work within the context of its time.

You may or may not know about one of the best doom metal bands making music since 2003 called Nadja. If not, I suggest going out immediately and finding something from their vast body of work, especially Desire in Uneasiness, which came out in 2008, or their latest covers album When I See the Sun Always Shines on T.V. (the concept of a drone metal band covering people like Elliot Smith is pretty mindblowing).

The duo, which consists of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, apparently got the name of their band from Breton’s novel, says Wikipedia. According to an interview in Rock-A-Rolla I read last month, this is not entirely accurate. Baker apparently got the name “Nadja” by spelling his first name, Aidan, backwards creating “Nadia” and replaced the “i” with a “j” as possibly a homage to Breton’s book. In line with Breton’s belief in the supernatural and coincidence, I find this coincidence highly interesting.

Also named after Breton’s Nadja is a 1994 film of the same name directed by Michael Almereyda and produced none other than David Lynch, the film also features music by My Bloody Valentine. Dreamlike indeed!

While I’m still on the topic of the name Nadja, I was reading Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers earlier this year and was surprised to find that Spiegelman named his daughter Nadja. After Breton’s book, perhaps? I believe not. It seems highly likely considering (in my opinion at least) Spiegelman is one of the most adventurous comic artist and graphic novelists of all time. Further evidence, I believe, also lies in the fact that Spiegelman named his son Dashiell (after Dashiell Hammett, I’m guessing) and their dog Houdini.

Just as a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about Tale of Tales’ exciting new game The Path, which was scored by Jarboe and Kris Force, it came to my attention this morning that there is a new game out made by the same people called The Graveyard. It’s a much shorter game, it costs US$5 and music is by Gerry De Mol, with sound effects by Kris Force, but the nature of the game and its unique concept of gameplay is similar. It was also nominated for an Indpendent Games Festival award last year. Make sure you check it out as well as the other Tale of Tales games out there.

There’s a new indie game out at the moment called The Path (by Tale of Tales). They call it “a short horror game” but in essence it’s much, much more than that. For starters, the game has a terrific style that is highly atmospheric and utterly creepy and earned the team an Independent Games Festival nomination for Excellence in Visual Arts. And what’s more is that it’s music has been composed by none other than Jarboe and Kris Force. Yes, I’m not lying. When I started playing this game yesterday my expectations were thus very high and so far the game has not caused me any disappointment.

The gameplay is nothing short of amazing. It starts off in an apartment and lets players choose the character they want to play as. Then you are given a very simple task (appropriated from Little Red Riding Hood): “Go to Grandmother’s house, and stay on the path.” And so I that’s exactly what I did with ease in 5 minutes. Apart from being creeped out a little bit I made it to the grandmother’s house and was subsequently given my score, which was “D”. Feeling a bit taken aback and not understanding what had just happened, I decided to play the game again. I chose a different character, started it up and I was yet again presented with the simple task of going to the girl’s grandmother’s house and (this is emphasised) not veering off the path.

Intuitively, I then felt that the key to the game must be to subvert the the task and to go off the path. So I did, and what I experienced was nothing short of breathtaking: entire worlds of narratives and areas to explore unrestrained by contrived and cliched gaming tasks (such as “defeat this monster, progress to the next level” etc).

As I began to explore the brooding world The Path is set in, it dawned on me that it would take AGES to fully explore everything, especially with the 8 different characters who apparently interact with the world, people and objects differently. Tale of Tales describe the game as a “slow game”. In such a technologically-driven medium there seems to be an emphasis on action, and as a result a majority of the games that are coming out are frantic and hectic (which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as the brilliant new Pop Cap game Plants versus Zombies proves quite well).

I’m yet to fully explore the game and give it the attention it deserves, but according to Wikipedia apparently your level and depth of interaction changes the final scene of the game in the girls’ grandmother’s house. This brings me to another point, which is that even if you are not interesting in gaming, this is a perfect example of an interactive, digital narrative, marked by non-linear chronology and subjectivity. For any of you interested in narrative and stories that are pushing boundaries, I’ve just talked about one of the best examples I’ve seen out today.

The Path is available for a measley US$9.99 from this location.

Locrian are an incredible new band that emerged in Chicago in 2005 that comprise of Andre Foisy and Terence Hannum. Balancing comfortably between genres such as noise, doom metal, black metal, dark ambient and power electronics, their sound is highly refreshing and unique. Their output has been considerable, consisting of many limited CDs, CDrs, cassettes and 7”. Their latest record, Drenched Lands, was released earlier this year on Small-Doses/At War With False Noise (in the next couple of weeks I will post a review of it here). More recently, Locrian have released a limited run (38 copies) VHS + 3” CD  which you can find out more about here.

I’m extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Andre and Terrence and thank them for giving up their time to put this together.

Adrian: With so many drone-based bands out there that sound like Sunn O))) rip-offs, it’s incredibly refreshing to come across Drenched Lands, which sounds very unique. Who would you say are your biggest musical influences, and what were you listening to at the time of making this record?

T:  Thank you.  I would say that my biggest influences are very broad.  Overall the groups that I still listen to from my formative years are like Black Sabbath, Yes, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Negative Approach, Earth and Obituary.  Though I was listening to the first Kluster & Eno record pretty much non-stop during recording “Drenched Lands” along with Tangerine Dream’s “Zeit” on cassette.

A: Yeah, my influences are all across the board so that I don’t even know them a lot of the time. I’m really into all the stuff that Terence mentioned. When we recorded that album, I was listening to the Mouthus “Saw a Halo” album a lot. That’s one of my favorite records as of late. I’m not sure it directly influenced us, but that’s definitely one of the big things I was digging at the time. More broadly, I grew up listening to a mix of prog-rock, punk, and metal.

I guess I’d rather talk about some of the stuff that I’m digging lately. I just got some great stuff from Burnt Hills, Century Plants, Andreas Brandal, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, and Persistence in Mourning. I’ve been way into this stuff lately.

Adrian: The artwork and some elements of the sound on this record seem to be referencing a black metal aesthetic. Was that intentional?

A: The artwork on the cover is shaped like a pentagon so there’s a pretty direct pentagram reference there. Some of our stuff has a black metal influence, so that’s no surprise to me that you picked up the black metal audio-aesthetic. I don’t think that we were striving to sound black metal on the recording, it just came out that way.

T:  We began Locrian to rethink the type of metal we wanted to hear.  I am a huge fan of black metal so it definitely bled in.  I just want it to never be this straight thing, we are not a black metal band.  So it was totally intentional, to give the nod, but we always try and decipher how to do something new.

Adrian:  What equipment and or software do you use on record and performing live?

T:  We use no software in generating our sounds.  I use a lot of analog tapes and players, a Moog Satellite synthesizer and a Korg Micro, I run my vocals through a bunch of delay and reverb.  When you get it all going through one amp it gets pretty thick.  On “DL” though I used a wonderful Hammond they had in the studio for the organ sound and a nice Fender Mustang through my Roland Jazz-Chorus for my guitar part on “Epicedium”.  We’re fairly frugal in what we use.

A: I use a Peavey 5150 amplifier with a 4×12 cabinet and a barrage of pedals. I usually use a delay, a distortion pedal, a Fuzz Factory, a loop pedal and sometimes a wah pedal. On “Drenched Lands” I used a semi-hollow body guitar into my setup. It allowed me to get some nice feedback on certain parts. Typically, I use my 7 string guitar, my bass, and sometimes an Ovation acoustic. I have plans to start incorporating my violin at some point.

Adrian: Is there an avant garde metal or experimental music scene in Chicago? I know that there are bands like Pelican an Lair of the Minotaur (both on Southern Lord Records) who are from that area. If there is one, what is it like, and if not how do you think your music relates to your personal environment?

T:  There is a great underground music scene in Chicago, mainly around metal, noise and experimental music.  Pelican and LoM are just the surface of a very deep and creative community.  The scene is very eclectic for example the power electronics scene with Bloodyminded or Koufar, the avant metal types such as Yakuza or Minsk, the black metallers like Velnias and Nachtmystium, to the straight up noise people like Kevin Drumm or Jason Soliday and a great scene just around drone with White/Light or the Golden Sores.  There are also complete enigmas such as Oakeater.  I think the thing is the sense of community once you get out of the realm of putrid indie-rock.

A: Chicago has a great spread of music. We’re often confused about what scene we fit into. I’m sure that our music relates to our personal environment, but I think that if anything we kind of take the varied sounds that we’re into and incorporate them into our own aesthetic.  Also, we get so many great musicians coming through Chicago so we feel really lucky.  If anything our music reflects some of the diversity of the stuff that we listen to.

T: Most of our music plays to me like a soundtrack of obsolescent architecture.  In Chicago you’re surrounded by the failure of Monderism, with the dilapidated housing projects turning into gentrified ghettos.  You see the utopic vision decay into a new type of waste.  Also once you get into the outskirts of the major areas the blocks of homes decrease and the brownfields increase.

Adrian: According to Wikipedia, the Locrians were an Ancient Greek tribe in Greece. Is this where you got your name from?

T:  Not really but it mainly came from the mode in music but that is a nice meaning too.

A: My wife suggested our name because she heard me talk about the Locrian mode before and it’s meaning, that is that it is a dissonant mode of the major scale and that it used to be associated with evil because of the dissonant notes.  Dissonance is a major aspect of our audio-aesthetic, so Locrian is an appropriate name.

Adrian: What are your views on drone as a genre? Do you consider drone a genre or a musical trait? Do you find the term limiting?

T:  I don’t really consider us drone in the sense of the genre, but we use a lot of drones.  Certainly Andre plays a lot of notes.  I play repetitive riffs.  I think that as a genre it can be incredibly stifling but as a trait in music it is as good a place to start as any and build, layer and transform.  It is in most sacred music from all over the world, so the drone itself is fairly ubiquitous.

A: I think that drone can be a genre and a musical trait actually. I think that there are some artists that I would categorize as drone, like a lot of Tony Conrad’s stuff I would categorize as drone because of his use of sustained sounds, whereas other types of music like old time American music might have drone-like traits, like a hammer dulcimer, but I wouldn’t categorize those types of music as drone. I don’t think of our music as drone, but I do think that drone might be a major aspect of our music.

I think the beauty of drone notes is that they kind of put you in a trance and I think that’s something that happens to us when we’re playing. I do think that there’s a lot of movement between notes when we’re playing so I think that it might be imprecise to label us as drone.

Adrian: And despite my previous question, who would you say are your top five favorite drone records?

T: 1) Earth “2″

2) Robert Fripp & Brian Eno “No Pussyfooting”

3) Jean Francois-LaPorte “Mantra”

4) Rhys Chatham “An Angel Moves to Fast to See”

5) Growing “The Soul Of The Rainbow And The Harmony Of Light”

A: I’m not sure if everyone would categorize these as drone, but I do:

1) Robert Fripp & Brian Eno “No Pussyfooting”

2) Number None: Urmerica

3) Tony Conrad w/ Faust “Outside the Dream Syndicate”

4) White Light: Black Acts

5) Neil Young: Dead Man Soundtrack

Adrian: You’ve been getting some really positive reception lately, from the likes of Brian Coley from The Wire and Scott McKeating from Rock-A-Rolla. How does it all feel?

T:   It is very nice, we really appreciate the positive recognition from people we respect and read.

A: Yeah, we’re happy about that. Byron and Scott are both really great writers and I generally like similar stuff to what they write about.

Adrian: What records are you looking forward to being released this year?

T:  The new records from Sunn O))) and Nachtmystium, Wolf Eyes “Always Wrong”.  Always interested in what is going on with Hospital and labels like Razors and Medicine & Arbor.

A: I’m looking forward to the new Bloodyminded album “Within The Walls;” the new Sonic Youth album. I’m generally looking forward to hearing what interesting small labels are putting out. I’m always looking to hear what Small Doses, At War With False Noise and Bloodlust! are going to put out next.

Adrian: What’s next for the Locrian?

T:  We’ve been part of planning the Matchitehew Assembly here in Chicago, a black metal and noise festival on June 5th and 6th with Bone Awl, Krieg, Rusted Shut, Marblebog, Ashdautas, Burial Hex, Bloodyminded, Oakeater, Velnias, Volahn and many more.  Plus a tour this July to the Northeast.  As far as releases BloodLust! will release “Drenched Lands” on LP w/ an extra 3″ CD and we’re self-releasing a VHS + 3″ CD called “Land of Decay”.

A: We’ve been on hiatus for a few months so we’re looking forward to playing again. In June, we’re going to record with Jeremy Lemos at Semaphore Studios. We essentially have a collaborative album finished that still needs to be mixed and released. We collaborated with Mark Solotroff from Bloodyminded, Black Judd from Nachtmystium, and Bruce Lamont from Yakuza.  After we finish the vinyl version of “Drenched Lands” we’re going to have to figure out what to do with that recording.

I think that our July tour is as far in advance as we can think at this point.

Selected Links:

MySpace

Last.FM

Small Doses

At War With False Noise

A Colour For Autumn is the second in a series of editions from Australian sound artist Lawrence English that trace the experience of seasonal transit. Following on from For Varying Degrees of Winter (published by Baskaru), A Colour For Autumn reflects on and explores the transitory nature of Autumn – counterpointing the uniformity of the ‘term’ with the varied qualities expressed by landscapes in different countries.

Like all environmental phenomena, seasonal variation is highly localised, and expressed not only visually through vegetation etc, but also sonically as insect life, leaves under foot and fauna all change in response to the climatic shifts. Northern and southern hemisphere experiences of Autumn are strikingly different and it’s also this contrast which rests at the very centre of A Colour For Autumn.

Recorded between 2007-2009, this series of pieces acts almost as small auditory portraits of given spaces in the often gentle throes of Autumn – ‘Droplet’ for example features field recordings gathered in Notre-Dame De La Garde in Marseilles, capturing the infamous ‘Mistral’ wind as it blows the first cooler breezes of Autumn into the city in 2007. By contrast ‘Watching It Unfold’ measures a more Australian experience of Autumn – a series of open static phrases, shifting ever so slightly – a reflection of the slow changes of the season around English’s home of Brisbane.

Working with a range of analog approaches, A Colour For Autumn is a tonally rich affair, sourcing much of it’s sounds from a mixture of instruments, field recordings and assorted electronics. A Colour For Autumn also features contributions from New Zealand’s Dean Roberts (whose vocals adorn the opening moments of the album) and Viennese musician Christian Fennesz, who offers intricate clusters of electronics in ‘The Surface Of Everything’.

This is an album of subtle variation, graded hues and tonal warmth, all of which act as an invitation for the listener to consider their own localised transition of Autumn.

[LINK]

The second release on 12K that I want to point out is Seaworthy’s 1897. Seaworthy is a group of Australian based soundscape artists, and is one of the best currently active at the moment. Here’s the description 12K have given their new record:

1897 is the second full length album on 12k from Australian soundscapists Seaworthy. Primarily the recording project of Cameron Webb, Seaworthy have continued to develop their sound over the last eight years with move towards a greater emphasis on minimalism in their improvisation and composition of guitar, electronics and field recordings.

In the winter of 2007, Webb commenced recording in and around a 100 year old decommissioned ammunitions bunker in Newington, Australia. Constructed in 1897 to store gunpowder, the bunkers were in use by the Australian navy until recently, including the Gulf War of the 1990s. In stark contrast to the cold dark interiors of the ammunitions bunkers, surrounding the building are extensive remnant wetland and forest environments that provide locally important habitats for a number of endangered and internationally protected wildlife. These areas are essentially off limits to the general public.

During a three month period as an ‘Artist in Residence’ with the Sydney Olympic Park Authoirity’s Arts Program, Webb undertook a series of improvisations, compositions and field recordings within the bunkers and surrounding natural environment. As well as pieces of looped guitar and electronics, installations of field recordings played back with the bunkers were also recorded, using the natural reverb of the large rooms as a way of processing the sounds of birds, insects and wind through trees. The large sandstone bunkers were infused with so much natural reverberation that even the gentlest footstep seemed to take on a life of its own.

Over 6 hours of 4-track cassette, minidisk and computer recordings resulted from the sessions and the processing, assemblage and mixing of the tracks that make up 1897 took most of 2008 to complete. The process was made more difficult with the recording and post-production sessions punctuated by the birth of Webb’s first child. As a result, most of the post-production was completed under the haze of sleep deprivation and was a long, drawn out process.

Unlike the warm pastoral sounds on Map in Hand (12k1040), 1897 is a starker, more melancholic album. Some tracks stripped back to a single guitar track while others feature a colder, abrasive approached to drone pieces. Generally more minimal compositions that reflect the emptiness of the bunkers and the eerie quiet that so often descends on the natural world within the depth of winter.

Since the release of Map in Hand, Seaworthy have increasingly stepped out to perform live with a diverse range of artists including Philip Jeck, Christopher Willits, Birchville Cat Motel, ii, Love of Diagrams, Papa M, Rand and Holland, Tujiko Noriko, Adrian Klumpes and Because of Ghosts.

A small, 64-page, book of photographs, shot by Webb, from the bunker and surrounding areas is available in a limited edition of 50 alongside the 1897 CD.

[LINK]