Council Meeting Memo #092 — Five for Friday
venoztks: Live at KET- Athens (Self released, Single)
“Beautiful shortwave” is how The Tapeworm boss Philip Marshall describes this 18 minute live performance from venoztks (pronounced venoz T K S) at the start of this recording. Almost immediately you are put under. Comforting static runs redolent throughout, gently punctuated by glacial tones and bursts of clipped sub-bass. Unrestrained within its framework. Optimum playback environment: hot summer nights with the window wide open. SA 🇵🇸
Costin Miereanu: Poly-Art Recordings 1976–1982 (Auryfa, Re-issue box set)
Rich history here which I won’t repeat for the sake of brevity. But, if you ever fancied in indulging in 4 hours of Romanian proto-ambient music, then you’ve come to the right place. Without over selling it, this is pretty epic. Parallels to the early pioneers of the genre have been made. And one minute into the astonishing ‘Finis-terre’ from 1978 confirms why. Satisfyingly immersive, long-form pieces that playfully explore the entire spectrum of frequencies….he sings in synths. Highly recommended. SA 🇵🇸
DJ Trystero: Cantor’s Paradise (Felt, Album)
His previous debut album ‘Castillo’ was on heavy rotation here at the council offices. The same, sadly, won’t be said of this. Why? It’s like a collection of closing album tracks. The stylistic sign off / goodbye that should linger in the memory long after the record has stopped playing. Which can be appealing to a point, but left this reviewer cold. Moments like ‘Untitled 3’ and ‘Untitled 5’ totally triggered welcome memories of early glitch / clicks’n cuts. But nothing else here made an impression (except for maybe ‘Untitled 6’). SA 🇵🇸
Kevin Drumm: If Tomorrow Gets Here (iDEAL, Compilation)
Yeah OK so nothing is ever gonna be cool as his ‘Sheer Hellish Miasma’ album from 2002. The music, cover art and track titles all add up to being the one noise album everyone should really own. But this comes close, seriously close. 10 hours of the finest fucked up dark ambience. Sit through it one go (like I did) and it starts to do things to you. Some welcome, some not so welcome. But you’ll come out the other side: reborn but slightly broken. SA 🇵🇸
Bea Brennan: Trances People Live (Old Technology, Album)
Had a post delightful Chinatown dinner with Dan Bean — responsible for releasing this on his ‘Old Technology’ imprint (co-run with Surgeon). He said to me “Repeat listens of this will reveal greater detail.”, or something like that. But I’m a time starved individual, I’ve got other records piling up. I don’t have time for this ‘repeat listen’ concept. But he needn’t worry, this is brill. Satisfying melodic ambient synth vibes at play here. Strong sense of pacing and rhythm without succumbing to beats. ‘Chance’ is the killer cut for me with its gated / phased shimmer. So, if it sounds this confident first time around…. SA 🇵🇸
