Rashim | Mosz

Founded 2003 by Stefan Nemeth, member of Radian, and Michaela Schwentner aka Jade, Mosz – Vienna-Berilin "non-conform musical strategies supporting" label, took off as formaly non-comformistic with Kapital Band 1 first release including a blank CD-R beside the one their album was burnt on. Further volumes by Martin Siewert, Lokai, Metalycée, Boris Hauf etc. were exploring rather inner "unconventionalism" then coresponding to the basic statement precisely.
11th release, November 2006. Rashim "suns.shadows" on Mosz. Gina Hell and Yasmina Haddad – a female duo. "Intitially we wanted to bring Xenakis and Techno together... well, in the end it sounded really different....", Gina says.
Well, in my humble opinion, the interbreeding experiment was a success... simply some part of the final material mutated as a result of the operation or just wasn't involved in. The symbiosis of Iannis Xenakis and Techno is an exact definition for this full-lenght montage scheme. Xenakis' stochastic mathematical techniques in compositions (Maxwell-Boltzmann kinetic theory of gases, aleatory distribution of points on a plane, Gaussian distribution, Boolean algebra, Brownian motion) and techno' square patterns. Sharply mapped piece. Medley of sampled acoustic guitar snippets, jazz drum kit unsophisticated passages intersecting the sharp drum-synth lines. "Our work process-really simple: Reason and Logic, but the sounds are produced by us, which might be the reason why it sounds so analogue - guitars and some instruments (kalimba, tambourin, keyboard, voices, bags, chairs..) and a minimalistic approach cause we're both in permanent war with technique and virtuosity", - Gina and Yasmina say.
More info: Florian Horwath (guitar), Martin Brandlmayr (drums, percussion, bass?) – member of Radian, Kapital Band 1, Trapist, Autistic Daughters and Howe Gelb (piano) collaborated Gina and Yasmina to fill this album with analogue warmth of the acoustic instruments.
NONCONVENTIONAL.

Well, here is a playlist by Rashim dated December 1:
• Arthur Russell, "011 june"
• Joseph Beuys, "Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee"
• Badawi, "Awakening"
• Billie Holiday, "Strange fruit"
• Charlemagne Palestine, "Piano drone"
• Jim O'Rourke, "Women of the world..."
• Iannis Xenakis, "Rebonds"
• Gustav Mahler, "Symphony Nr.5"
• Texas Gladden, "One morning in may"
• Art ensemble of Chicago, "Illustrum"
• Robert Wyatt, "Sea song"
• Guinea Kpelle, "Key Hin Bala"
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Gesang der Jünglinge"
• Theo Parrish, "Overyohead"
• Kate Bush, "Violin"
• Amina Claudine Myers, "The Blues"
• David Behrman, "On the other ocean"
• Peter Tchaikovsky, "To sleep"
• Joubert Singers, "Interlude"(Larry Levan Remix)

Beach House | Carpark

Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. Beach House on Carpark. Steady downpour.
Downloaded, been rotated for couple of days by now, had made me curious. I'd read near eight reviews before compiling this blog post to learn the subject (the modest revelation of the smatterer). Well, the debut now looks like a vintage traveler's suitcase totally pasted with the labels such as: Cocteau Twins, Young Marble Giants, Nico, Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500, Spiritualized, Slowdive.
"A penny dropping into a cup of oily water...sound of the ocean through an expensive cell phone... visions from the room of deaf... Beats are hand made from found sounds, xylophones, clanking bells, etc or taken from the heart of the organ when played live. There are no drum machines in Beach House, just simply recorded-onto-four track live drums or the pulse of the organs's heart." - an excerpt from Beach House' MySpace "Sounds Like" section.
Well, had spitted into the inadjustable identification scheme of the superior echelon critics.
"We don't consciously try to make it sound like anything else. These are just sounds that we like,"- Legrand says to Baltimore City Paper.
Pleasantly lulling to sleep homogeneity of the album, seemingly low for pop song rounds per minute, minimal amount of the tools... all forming a sharp mood piece. One mood writting=5 months in the basement studio, minimal number of over-dubbings, hyper speed. Components: opened refrens of vintage organ and delicate synths lazy oscillations paired with Alex' guitar muted slides and fingerings, Victoria's cooing and restrained dramatic vocals.
Three months of winter are yet to come...

x0xb0x | TB303 clone

The TB303 (Transistor Bass) was introduced by Roland in the early 1982's. Invented by Tadao Kikumoto, at that time the 303 was not expensive, only about £215. The small plastic-piece was intended to emulate a real bass player. Roland stopped producing them 18 months after releasing it. They'd produced about 20.000 copies alltogether (TB303+TR303 as these boxes was released and offered to the market at the same time). Nowdays, hardly several items on ebay, used equipment stocks sale some, and a safe price for the box in good condition is fluctuating around $700.

"Hello, my name is Limor & I'm an engineer."
Introducting the x0xb0x. It is not just another MIDI-controlled TB-303 clone. x0xb0x is a full reproduction of the original Roland synthesizer, with fully functional sequencer. These sick enthusiasts Deutsch engineers sourced all of the original components, even though "it took 6 months of harrassing people on the phone, but we tracked down all the original transistors. Just deciding on which potentiometers to go with took three solid weeks of searching through catalogs". Now, starting at $315.00 via Adafruit Industries. But of cource, this kit is in such high demand, you have to get on the waiting list to purchase it.

Vert | Sonig

3 "...years pass, Shibuya: "Oh hi, where do I know you from?
Wait, you're the guy I don't know", all enthusiasm gone
He said "It's kind of like a thriller that you saw & then forgot
Where you can't say who's the killer but you still know half the plot..."
- Vert, "Familiar girl"

Three years gone after "Small pieces loosely joined" was released on cologne Sonig. Still Michael Stipe look-a-like Adam Butler sits at the piano that he's used to play since 6 years old. He seems to change his wardrobe but forgot to burn his cap. And that' what is in the quote above. Well, "Some Beans and an Octopus". Shapes and shift, feedbacks, cuts junctions, samling controled errors, bitcrushes, gentely distorted drumlines supported by 8 bit sounds, notes failures and sustains - all the technical stuffing of the previous release, buched with unexpectable witty vocals. You can hardly call it as "vocals"(pardon), but you can easily call his words as "lyrics". Containg of the things you've been thinking of but couldn't give them a form, a literal shape. As for me, tricks like that have always been qualitative characteristics of the worthy reading (listening, in this case). Plus, "Some Beans and an Octopus" has been done in cahoots with musicians such as rapper Noah 23 ("definitely one of the best hip-hop albums of the year." (de:bug magazine)), turntablist DJ Elephant Power (cooking a new album on Sonig coming out in february) and a Serbian double bassist Fedor Ruskuc.

In awiting mode for the Adam's playlist, offer you the

Top 15 all-time albums for Spex magazine:
• Jelly Roll Morton, "The Library of Congress Recordings"
• Sly & the Family Stone, "There's a Riot Goin' On"
• Fun Boy Three, "Really Sayin' Something"
• Dizzee Rascal, "Showtime"
• Various, "American Primitives 2: Pre-war Revenants (1897-1939)"
• TV on the Radio, "Return to Cookie Mountain"
• Tom Waits, "Frank's Wild Years"
• Thelonious Monk, "Monk Alone"
• The Clash "London Calling"
• Roots Manuva, "Run Come Save Me"
• Prince, "Parade"
• Noah 23, "Jupiter Sajitarius"
• Mouse on Mars, "Radical Connector"
• Charles Mingus, "Blues & Roots"
• Captain Beefheart, "Trout Mask Replica"

Andrea Belfi | Häpna

Two weeks ago i found this man on Häpna, one of the few. 27 year old Italian artist Andrea Belfi’s. His LP “Between Neck and Stomach“. "He’s been playing drums since he was 14, that gives you enough time to get bored of playing it the conventional way." The drummer reinterprets the instrument as the slow amorphous synth, fills the space of the track with the soft unbalanced tapping (on "Sunglass"). "Extraevil" brings more usual but still charming and illogicaly broken beat. The next three tracks architecture is even more destorted. And the last one - "footprints" is the "song" in all the meanings. What's highly amusing – "the acoustic elements and the electronic ones mingle, intertwine and sometimes switch places: the acoustic sounds are treated as they were electronic, and the actual electronic ones are played at the very moment." Hapna has been publishing an amount of carefully selected artists, has a sharp policy, and belfi is the one to give you the clear vision of this policy. Go to, get some.

Andrea's Playlist:
• Miles Davis Nefertiti (Columbia)
• Burt Bacharach Portrait in music (A&M)
• C-Schultz e Hajsch S/t (Sonig)
• Kevin Drumm e Taku Sugimoto Den (Sonoris)
• Radiohead Kid A (Parlophone)
• S.Augustin Amokhali (Family Vineyard)
• Soft Machine Third (Columbia)
• Captain Beefheart Mirror Man (Budda)
• Ielasi-Radaele-Alati S/t (Sonoris)
• Tony Conrad e Faust Outside the Dream Syndicate (Table of the Elements)