FULL PINK MOON (28 April 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

TABULA RASA


Original Issue: 1993 Mute (BETON 106 CD) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

"Blume" and "Wüste" still resonating and haunting me from 1993!

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1 Die Interimsliebenden
2 Zebulon
3 Blume
4 12305(te Nacht)
5 Sie
6 Wüste

Headcleaner
7.I Zentrifuge / Stabs / Rotlichtachse Propaganda / Aufmarsch
7.II Einhorn
7.III Marschlied /
8 Das Gleissen / Schlacht
8.IV Lyrischer Rückzug

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from http://www.sputnikmusic.com/:

Latin for clean slate, its an apt title it would be the last album with Mark Chung and Muffi. The album opens with Die Interimsliebenden, with a funky bass by Alexander Hacke. Immediately you are struck by the lack of metallic noise and how melody is beginning to move to the fore.

Zebulon is spare and gentle melody and vocal harmonies devoid of any percussion until it explodes in the last minute or so. Still the release is lacks the abrasion of previous works.
Fans may at this point begin to feel that neubauten have softened and they may be right but then they are missing the point.

Neubauten have began to expand their sound, use noise more sparingly and effective. Blume is a haunting melody, lead by female vocals with Bargelds whispers under pinning it, at times dreamy and other times filled with sadness.

12305 (Te Nacht) is electronic beeps and metal scrapings and droning, not the strongest track but by no means filler.

Sie sees the band swap metal pipes for plastic tubing, a technique that they will reuse throughout later albums, at least until the end of the track where it comes in sparingly. While not as harsh as their more metallic songs, it still has the same intensity.

Wuste is a stand out track, using strings for the first time in a Neubauten album, as well as sand and burning oil. It starts off largely instrumental sounding like a Philip Glass composition, before
Blixa's whispered vocals creep in, at times they are barely audible over weird sounds and strings. Then the song abruptly ends.

Headcleaner builds from a low to hum over 1.03 mins punctuated by metallic percussion then dies down only start up again, and does this over its 15 mins.
Every time explodes the band throw themselves full long into sound smashing metal against metal recalling the glorious collapse of their debut kollapse.

Hearing it now the tension of the track it sounds like percussionist Muffi trying to drown out Bargeld and the rest of the band, it becomes easy to use the song as a metaphor for the inner tensions of the band and how they would never record another song as chaotic or tense as this track.

tomwaits4noman

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (02 November 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

FROST BEN

THEORY OF MACHINES


Original Issue: 2006 Bedroom Community (HVALUR 2) (Buy it here!!!)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Theory Of Machines 9:30
2 Stomp 8:26
3 We Love You Michael Gira 7:49
4 ...Coda 1:42
5 Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water 11:13

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from Almostcool.org:

When readers of this site kept recommending Ben Frost, I knew that it was an artist I should seek out (as my readers most often know more than I do), and after hearing his album Theory Of Machines, I'm glad that I did. The second release on the fledgling Bedroom Community label, it's also the third release from Frost, and finds him pushing even further into powerful audio explorations that sounds something like Tim Hecker with occasionally punishing rhythms. He examines textures and timbres in lovely, and sometimes disturbing ways over the course of five tracks and just under forty minutes, mixing pastoral beauty with gut-churning blasts in other places.

The album-titled opener "Theory Of Machines" sets the tone with a super-slow build of filtered guitar that's almost crystalline in places. Eventually, slow-morphing sludgy bass enters the mix and the track builds to a powerful climax of screaming guitars and overdriven beats about two-thirds of the way through before melting into ambience again. "Stomp" follows, and takes a slightly different direction, with programmed beat thumps banging across a more barren landscape while distance waves of noise only creep into the foreground during a crunchy ending.

"We Love You Michael Gira" conveys a similar sense of dread as many tracks on the album, and this time Frost pulls it off by again barely keeping waves of feedback under control for the first half of the track before letting loose with a repeating high tone (that resembles a medical device warning sound) and some beats that are absolutely coated in feedback and on the verge of breaking down. A string coda at the end of the song does nothing to lighten the mood.

If the former track was barely-contained violence, then "Coda" is where things let loose with any pent up energy. The two-minute track is all scorching guitar noise, red-lined bass pulses, and hammering drums that finally blur out at the end. Given all that came before it, it seems only fitting that the closer of "Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water" takes things down a great deal to warm repeated tones, filtered drones, and some subtle strings that sound something like a more layered version of the minimal pulse-tone work that Oren Ambarchi has mastered. Even though it's a shorter album, Theory Of Machines is by no means a light listen. With several moments that will make your hair stand up on end (both for sheer beauty and dread), this is definitely worth seeking out.

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (14 October 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

VELVET UNDERGROUND (THE)

APRIL 1966, SCEPTER STUDIOS (NORMAN DOLPH ACETATE)


Original Issue: 1966

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Dedicated to all my dear male followers...from Margot, your "Venus in furs" ;-)

shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather

whiplash girlchild in the dark

comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart


downy sins of streetlight fancies

chase the costumes she shall wear

ermine furs adorn the imperious

severin, severin awaits you there


i am tired, i am weary

i could sleep for a thousand years

a thousand dreams that would awake me

different colors made of tears


kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather

shiny leather in the dark

tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart


severin, severin, speak so slightly

severin, down on your bended knee

taste the whip, in love not given lightly

taste the whip, now plead for me


i am tired, i am weary

i could sleep for a thousand years

a thousand dreams that would awake me

different colors made of tears


shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather

whiplash girlchild in the dark

severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

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1 European Son
2 The Black Angel's Death Song
3 All Tomorrow's Parties
4 I'll Be Your Mirror
5 Heroin
6 Femme Fatale
7 Venus In Furs
8 I'm Waiting For The Man
9 Run Run Run

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from the E-Bay auction:

This auction is for a unique 12" LP acetate whose unearthing has been storied in several underground/label international news features, periodicals and a documentary over the last several years including Rolling Stone Magazine (December 30, 2004), Mojo Magazine (May 2005), U.K. Record Collector Magazine (May 2005), Goldmine Magazine (December 8, 2006), The Globe & Mail (May 28, 2005 and January 14, 2006), and the 2006 Documentary "Velvet Underground Under Review (An Independent Critical Analysis)".

Following is excerpted and adapted (with the author's approval) from the article written by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland Oregon which is featured in the December 8, 2006 issue of Goldmine Magazine currently on news-stands through mid December:

THE MYSTERY OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "REAL FIRST RECORD" (AND HOW THE ONLY EXISTING COPY WAS BOUGHT FOR 75 CENTS)

In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10" on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.

As I have a small knowledge of records and am an old friend of Warren's, I got a call from him the next day in which he described the acetate. Because of the date and the unique type of pressing, we both agreed that it was probably an in-studio acetate made during the recording of the first Velvet Underground LP back in 1966 (I had heard that they occasionally would have a vinyl cutting lathe in the studio to cut records of the day's recordings for the artists and/or producers to take home for review). Warren didn't want to play the mysterious platter due to the fragile nature of acetates, and the cheap nature of his record needle, so we agreed that the next time he was visiting me in Portland we would check it out together. If it turned out to be what we thought it was, maybe we could sell it at Mississippi Records, the small neighbourhood record store in Portland that I work at. Sight unseen and sound unheard, I assumed that it was likely an acetate pressing of the recording which would be eventually be released as the group's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico".

It took awhile for Warren to visit, but when he did he brought along the acetate. We cued it up and were stunned -- the first song was not "Sunday Morning" as on the "Velvet Underground & Nico" Verve LP, but rather it was "European Son"- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us.

The next few days found us scrambling for clues and information about what to make of this find; calling every record collector/historian we knew and reading everything we could find concerning the early recordings of the VU. We pieced together that this was probably a surviving copy of the legendary Scepter studios recordings which had been regarded as lost (hence the epic moniker "the lost scepter studios recordings" applied to these unheard sessions over the years). The recording is comprised of the primitive first "finished" version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective "The Velvet Underground".

This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.

Though the same compositions and even a few of the same "takes" (albeit in different mixes) were used on the subsequent commercial release, that which was eventually issued as their debut album on Verve, "The Velvet Underground & Nico", was a significantly different creation. I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.

The truth about what we held was fuzzy until Warren managed to track down the N. Dolph referred to on the label for an interview.

Norman Dolph was a perennial in the New York art & music scene of the 1960's. He worked as a sales representative at Columbia Records through 1967, and was deeply involved with different facets of the independent music world on the side. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvets at the time, contacted Dolph & offered him a painting in exchange for services as "ghost" (uncredited) producer for the Velvet's first recording session. Warhol wanted to record a Velvets album before they had a record company behind them as this would tend to minimize meddling label executives' mobility in compromising the musical arrangement's distraught primal force, not to mention the unprecedented taboo lyrics which openly address sex, drugs, and depravity. Warhol's plan was to have Dolph record it and then shop it around to labels (first & foremost Columbia) as a finished recording.

...and so Dolph rented out Scepter studios, and with an engineer named John Licata by his side, they recorded the Velvets for four days. At the time Scepter studios was between reconstruction and demolition with walls falling over and holes in the floor. Velvets' bass & viola player John Cale would later recall the environment as "Post-Apocalyptic".

Dolph took the master tapes made during this session to the Columbia building, which still had an in-house pressing plant, and cut the acetate "after hours" with people he knew on the inside. Dolph then sent the acetate to Columbia to see if they were interested in releasing it. It was returned promptly with a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our f**king minds?" Dolph then gave the acetate to Andy Warhol or John Cale, he cannot remember which.

Six of the songs recorded during the Scepter session made it on to the "Velvet Underground & Nico" LP, albeit with radically different mixes. The other four songs were re-recorded in LA by Tom Wilson. As far as we know, the only listenable copy of the original versions of Heroin, Venus In Furs, I'm Waiting For The Man, and European Son exist on the acetate that Warren found. (A Japanese bootleg of the same material did appear, but in poor, arguably ‘unlistenable' sound quality. It is possible that the source tape for the Japanese bootleg was made from this very acetate decades ago when it was in different hands. Who knows?) We have since realized that we are in possession of a likely one of a kind artifact - the first recordings by one of the most influential rock bands of all time!

After establishing the authenticity of Warren's find we photographed the item and made a high quality digital back-up copy of the material. A media frenzy ensued, with articles appearing in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Record Collector, The Globe & Mail, and many other news sources. Calls started flooding in from people interested in buying the acetate, as well as record companies interested in releasing the songs on it. After much consideration, we decided that it would be best to release it to the highest bidder through an auction facilitated by our good friends at Saturn Records in Oakland, California (a store that has a well-established presence in the international vinyl collecting community, and an excellent reputation on the internet).

As to the most interesting mystery brought up by the appearance of this item - how did such an important artifact disappear for 37 years & end up at a Chelsea New York yard sale priced at 75 cents? ...We have no answer.

The track differences between the acetate versions and the commercial recordings on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" are detailed as follows:

1.European Son- completely different version,. Guitar solo is much bluesier. Less noisy and experimental. Longer by 2 minutes or so.

2.Black Angel's Death Song-Same take as released version. Different mix.

3.All Tomorrow's Parties- Same take as released version. Different mix.

4.I'll Be Your Mirror-Same take as released version. Radically different mix. No echo on Nico's vocals. Background vocals on end of song are more subdued.

5.Heroin-Completely different take than released version. Guitar line is different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. Drumming is more primitive & off kilter. There is a tambourine dragging throughout the song.

6.Femme Fatale- Same take as released version. Radically different mix. Percussion more prominent. Alternate take on background vocals. Much more "poppy".

7.Venus In Furs- Different take than released version. Vocal inflections completely different. Instrumentation more based around Cales' violin than the guitar as in the released version.

8.I'm Waiting For The Man- Different take than released version. Guitar line is completely different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. No drums, just tambourine. Bluesy guitar solo.

9.Run Run Run- Same take as released version. Different mix.

GHOST MOON (imaginary musick)

CARETAKER (THE)

SELECTED MEMORIES FROM THE HAUNTED BALLROOM

Original Issue: 1999 V/Vm Test Records (OFFAL02) (Buy it here!)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

The atmosphere created here is superb, taking old 78s and drowning them in mental distortion, going some way to what was going on inside Jack Nicholson's head in the film "The Shining" (inspiration for the project and one of Margot's favorite) - www.discogs.com

Here you can read an interesting article about Hauntology.

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1 The Haunted Ballroom (3:44)
2 By The Seaside (4:00)
3 One Thousand Memories (1:25)
4 Haunting Me (3:48)
5 A Summer Romance (3:05)
6 Den Of Iniquity (2:45)
7 Dream Waltz (3:29)
8 A Handful Of Stars (3:34)
9 Request Dance (5:09)
10 In The Dark (3:02)
11 Reckless Night (3:02)
12 Thronged With Ghosts (3:48)
13 From Out Of Nowhere (3:45)
14 Friends Past Reunited (2:00)
15 You And The Night (3:12)
16 Moonlight Seranade (2:34)
17 Disillusioned (2:41)
18 The Revolving Bandstand (0:47)
19 Garden Of Weeds (3:06)
20 "Excuse Me" For Ladies (0:59)
21 In Days Of Old (2:14)
22 September 1939 (1:57)
23 Thanks (3:25)
24 The Haunted Ballroom (3:20)
25 Untitled (3:29)

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from The Caretaker homepage:

Dusty and forgotten memories, echoes and vibrations from the past.
Using as source, recordings from the 1920's and 1930's era of Ballroom music.
Often painful and desolate memories, recalled and replayed from beyond the grave of our senses.
In amongst this darkness lies the solace of a semi-recognizable melody or phrase, a beacon of light in this often dark and distant ocean of haunted recalled audio.

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from Boomkat:

The Caretaker has always been the more thoughful alter-ego of V/VM - the Stockport based butchers have been grinding up sound for quite some time now, and this full length was originally released way back in 1999.

A nice diversion from the demonic plugin-fuelled insanity of their more well known work, Caretaker instead goes for industrial ambience. Think Skinny Puppy’s more cinematic moments and you’ll be somewhere in the right area – what I love most about this album though is the kind of reverberating fairground mood.

Seaside organs hiss and hum in the background and give the record a persistent menace, a thick nostalgic groan which reminds me of Jeunet and Caro’s shiver inducing ‘Cite Des Enfants Perdus’ or maybe even more fittingly David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’.

Vinyl crackle rings out across the album as if it’s being played as an instrument and before long you’ll be certain you don’t live in the real world anymore. Utterly unique and really quite scary, in the best possible sense.

REVOLUTION MOON (groundbreaking musick)

OVAL

94 DISCONT

Original Issue: 1995 Mille Plateux (MP CD 13)

Reissue: 1996 Thrill Jockey (thrill 036) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

1 Do While
2 Store Check
3 Line Extension
4 Cross Selling
5 Do While [Cmd]X

from Amazon:

94 Diskont arguably did for music what Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon did for art: contributed to artist evolution using the established traditions of the medium and smashing it all to pieces. In an era when most musicians reach decades back to rummage through the classics vaults for inspiration, 94 Diskont comes off as a refreshingly forward-thinking album that doesn't quite abandon the electronic music of yesteryear, but rather turns it on its head in previously unimaginable ways. Oval's method of making music involves manually marring compact discs (with paint, magic marker, nails...) and piecing the damaged sounds together so that the resultant outcome is a dizzying sonic stew of clicks, scratches, and fragmented melodies. His previous album, Systemisch, was a fine work of electronic minimalism, but on 94 Diskont those shards have coalesced into actual songs with increased depth and complexity.

What's so remarkable about 94 Diskont is that pure technical and theoretical innovation is here used to create something that's both intriguing and beautiful (as opposed to the pop culture-driven skipping frenzies of John Oswald). "Do While" is the album's centerpiece track: a thick, meditative piece that doesn't grow weary over its ambitious 24 minutes. Shimmering bells crackle over a hazy, four-note organ drone-the musical equivalent of sleepless exhaustion or swimming through tranquil water. Other standout tracks include the bottom-heavy, menacing "Commerce Server" and "Shop in Store," whose manic, stuttering wails bring to mind a warped superhero theme.

Uncompromising though it may be, 94 Diskont reveals itself to be more accessible with subsequent listens; the warm, gooey textures of "Do While" and "Cross Selling" effortlessly pull the listener in, and even the colder songs are stunningly provocative. If the album is difficult in its scope and methodology, it's also one that reveals no influences and takes many risks, augmented by a keen sense of melody and songcraft. If ever a case had to be made that an odd musical approach can be aesthetically enjoyable, or that an album can transform into something far greater than the sum of its parts, 94 Diskont may be all the proof you need.

Mike Newmark

STONED MOON (pscikadilik musick)

MY BLOODY VALENTINE
TREMOLO

Original Issue: 1991 Creation (CRESCD085)

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

1. To Here Knows When
2. Swallow
3. Honey Power
4. Moon Song

SIMPLY THE PERFECT MUSICK FOR MAKING LOVE...SENSUAL, DREAMY, STONED! ESSENTIAL LISTENING FROM AN ESSENTIAL BAND!

from Amazon:

On Tremolo My Bloody Valentine create a mini-album that would be played right after Loveless and sound like a continuation more than anything. Tremolo also is a great record all by itself, it grooves and moves in all the right places, and sounds like it was recorded through the same hazy druggy sensualness that graced Loveless. However at times the drums seem even lower in the mix than on Loveless, which adds to its' dreaminess, which I guess is the point, but really I think the drums should have been more prominent, but hey whatever, it still sounds great. All in all I highly suggest picking this up if you're a MBV fan and already have Loveless and Isn't Anything.

Karl Haikara

If you've just gotten in to My Bloody Valentine with "Isn't Anything" and their classic "Loveless", the Tremolo EP is absolutely one of the best places to look afterwards for new songs. Coming off like a series of lost songs that didn't make it onto "Loveless", Tremolo is slightly more accessible (albeit just as beautiful) than their albums, and contains the superior version of the song "To Here Knows When" (the outro to this version fits the song FAR better than the distorted heavy metal one on "Loveless").

"Swallow" is simply breathtaking. Far-Eastern sounding strings and percussion float gently across Bilinda Butcher's dreamy vocals to make this goosebump inducing collage of sound. I have no idea why this never made it onto any of their records.

"Honey Power" is more of a rock-oriented track, with it's catchy, driving grungy guitars, but around the 2/3 mark, it transforms into a sleepy acoustic section that also manages to give you goosebumps.

"Moon Song" is strange, even by MBV standards. It's cold, stark, and contains none of the other song's warmth, but is still stunning, nonetheless, with Kevin Shields melancholy singing that intertwines perfectly with the melody.

With their 3rd album expected shortly after this EP was released, one might expect a rush job. Instead, you get a miniature masterpiece from one of indie rock's most legendary bands. What an excellent surprise.

Kazuo

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

FENNESZ
LIVE IN JAPAN

Original Issue: 2003 Headz ( HEADZ 10)


Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

1. Live in Japan

from Drowned In Sound:

Christian Fennesz has been ploughing a lonely furrow for quite some time now. I say lonely only because of the stunning uniqueness of his work; while laptop musicians are now a dime a dozen, Fennesz' music transcends the usual pitfalls of such a genre, eschewing technical gimmickry in favor of a distinctly human approach to digital sound.

When Fennesz uses a laptop, he does so not to show off his no doubt impressive collection of hardware, nor to create sounds that are deliberately, self-consciously, difficult or abrasive. Instead, he uses the micro-editing possibilities of his technology to expand the emotional palette afforded him by more traditional instruments.

On Fennesz' last original solo release, 2001's Endless Summer, he combined dense, manipulated digital static with calm washes of broken guitar and the occasional stab of warm, breathy organ; it's a fantastic record, certainly one of the best of the recent slew of laptop-based releases, and it achieves its greatness with nary a regular rhythm in sight.

Live in Japan, however, goes some way to exceeding the emotionally sharp Endless Summer, protracting that records oscillations to a single, 45 minute ocean of sound. It's impossible to convey just how dense, how thick, this tangle of living, breathing sonic threads really is; in the space of a mere 20 seconds, Fennesz seems to reference Ambient, the radio music of John Cage, his contemporaries, while simultaneously creating a deep sense of space within the fizzes and the crackles. More than anything, Fennesz seems interested in the fallability of technology; his music explodes the innocuous digital sheen that micro-processing is often prone to, allowing error, disassembly, and the odd aural double take to permeate his set.

It's quite easy, of course, to forget that this was all conjured during the space of one 45 minute live set in Toyko at the beginning of this year; not one electronic shudder has been tampered with since. It's an incredible achievement, a genuine plethora of sound, fury and fragility, by turns haunting and exultant. Fennesz seems determined to show us the ghost in the machine, and in the process he may well alter our perception of what "experimental" and "popular" music can be.