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Ampersand Etcetera Volume 2 Number 4 (3.8.2000) written by Jeremy Keens
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html & jeremy@pretentious.net
I had some review notes underway when a package of disks arrived from Michael Bentley, so I planned to do this label overview a little later. But the music impressed me so much that I wanted to immerse myself in it straightaway. Other disks got put on the backburner, and The Foundry got into high rotation.
Whenever someone sends me disks I hope I am going to like them - any problems are just a disjunction of tastes: mine are no better than anyone elses, and I doubt someone is going to release an album they think is shit. But with The Foundry I got a good feel as soon as I opened the box and saw the care with which they had been designed and produced. This response carried through to the musical content, whose variety is quite amazing, and I hope the reviews convey some of that. So I feel safe in strongly recommending the label to those interested in challenging, exciting and satisfying new musics, and look forward to more releases from eM, Apiary, Rhomb and people witha similar aesthetic to Michael's.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
eM.............Djinn
Various..............Eclectronic
The Apiary.........Descent
Rhomb.............Hidden Topographies
eM..............Greater Than Zero, Less Than One
The Foundry............Mote
eM............Motor Sessions ep
Vanity publishing. In the print world it is something of a pariah - have a read of Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum' for a description of the typical you-pay-us and we'll-publish-your-book operation. Yet in the music industry, setting up your own label to publish your music (vanity on vanity) is seen as both normal and positive. Some examples - Robert Fripp with Discipline Global Mobile (which also has a subscription-only bootleg series), Bill Nelson on Cocteau, Colin Newman and Swim, Darrin Verhagen and Dorobo, John Wall and Utterpsalm , Staalplaat offering to market your disks - moving from the big to the smaller. There are lots of good reasons to start a label beyond getting your music across - the rapaciousness of major labels and their control over your destiny (see the many writings of Fripp), an aesthetic vision, or simply that it is possible through the network of small distributors aided by e-marketting. And many have broadened out to include an extensive artists roster.
Anyway, The Foundry is another example in that vein (excuse the pun). Initially a print publishing house for Michael Bentley, a graphic artist, a couple of years ago it moved into the music business. And like those labels, the releases in these early days all feature Bentley himself - under pseudonyms which reflect different artistic styles. Which would be by-the-by and ignorable in the great scheme of things, but the music coming from the Foundry is very good and very varied - and a case where the pseudonyms are indicative.
Before crossing the border of the music - something about the packaging - yep, I'm a packaging junkie. The first four disks come in blackcard sleeves - the type used for eps - with a sticker sealing over the top with a picture (front) and details (tracks, artist etc) on the back. Inside is a folded sheet with more details - liner notes, thank you's, etc. Up till now I had been averse to full length disks in this packaging - mainly because it can look a bit quick-and-cheap, and also because it doesn't sit well in a bookcase of with the jewelcases. However, these converted me - the stark simplicity and the unitary aesthetics are stunning, reminding me of Eno's Obscure series. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, The Foundry went jewel with number 5 (marketing I should think - people would balk at paying full price for something they think is a single; they are hard to pack; and they can be hard to differentiate
&& eM &&
Let's start with eM, which the label opened with. The 'thank you for inspiration' to Panasonic, Ikeda, Ash, Vanio and more gives us a sense of what may be on the disks - glitchy cd-jumpy electro - which is actually false, in that there is more to eM than that. Liner notes such as 'we live among spirits, the phantoms of electromagnetism' or the fact that >0 was constructed from raw data found on a computer also give lie to the broad range of sounds and moods on these disks.
The soundsources listed for tracks in 'Djinn' are also suggestive (and intriguing) - processed signal, static charge, television signal processing, computer driven signal percussion and bass etc - and there are program notes for each track 'in sunless seasons our sense are filled with music and voices', 'this world is haunted, as am I' or 'hidden away in a corner of the world that overlooks lost cities'. The sounds take us into that crackling world inside eM. A heartbeat opens the album, suggesting a humanity which will be overtaken by the aether. Feedback winds swirl and a tonal melody emerges, wild electro whirls around, sweeping in and out of the melody which ignores it and creates a 'Heartbeat world'. A dense rumbling builds through 'Sneaker squeak spirit breath' becoming more scratchy as the end approaches, all the while electronic whipping moves things along.
The 'Moorish heroes of the spanish main' are based in a rocking rolling feedback, which is phased, wild and plinky - the tension builds and the drum loop and simple heavy feedback signals take it to a gentle fade. In 'Go back to sleep' a rumbling wind, distant clattering and then a voice suggesting return to sleep - snoring microphone rumbles ensue with shimmering metallic accompaniment. Layers of sound become almost white noise as a distorted clicking tick watches over the sleep. A melody tries to emerge at the beginning of 'If on a winter's night' leading to a dreamlike world of sussurating wind, buzzing, slow squeals and voices hidden deep within the rumbling, ebbing and flowing.
'The haze in tropojopes cafe' sees eM playing with a Rhomb piece in the same manner as on The Foundry 'Mote': a Kraftwerk-like tune is overwhelmed by a clicking percussion, organs and drifting sounds which build a sonic wall. The static charge and grounded current which lead to 'Body drone' create a relentless didge-drone whose overtones develop, enveloped by glitches. eM get to work on someone else's music in 'Ravelero driver (on)' where a recording of a radio playing the Bolero fades in and out behind random clicking and softly squalling feedback which shifts in density, pace and tone in a parallel dance - a light touch which plays a centreing role on the album.
The brief 'Fanfare from another place' is a bloopy-synthed call which disintegrates and fades before the 'Temple ghost simoom' which haunts like the eponymous ghost as midpitch long notes slowly drift, given high tonal touches to create a spacey ambience. Overlayered percussive clicking (signal generated percussion) dance through and around each other in a 'Lost dance' - the clicks are echoed, overlapped and gently modulated as they pass. In 'The end of a thousand years' eM take another piece (this time a Bentley acoustic guitar track) and envelop it in pulses, hums and crackles which provide a subtly different observation. 'Joining prayers' sounds like a recording of a large empty space, the ambience echoing and humming from around you - there is a processed voice in there, but it is enfolded in emptiness.
And it ends with 'Find the human heart' mirror to the opening track. Swirling ambient tones precede the return of the heartbeat, and over the top a processed and distorted voice scratches into an electronic wind which carries out the album. The balance of machine and organic reflects the tone of the whole album - eM has compiled sounds drawn from racked machinery to create the individual pieces which have a surprising warmth, and a fascinating and repeat-explorable depth.
With 'Greater than ZeroS' Bentley take eM through the dark recesses of a powerbook, arcanely named Blabok, while in Norway. The tracks are compiled from information extracted from datafiles and converted into sounds, and are twisted electronica as you would expect. The opening track is silence for 10 seconds - 'zero' while the disk ends with a ten second tone - 'one'. Inbetween are simple, complex, fractured and fragmenting pieces, which Bentley has sequenced from simpler through to more densely complex. 'On' really provides the opening, a short piece with long scratchy pulses before the simple but intense 'interleaved' where a clickingpulse is placed in each speaker and the different qualities of speed, density and texture are played off against each other with some subtle modulations. The subtlety continues in 'Hollow' where distant whirrs and clicks play in some hollow computersoundscape. A buzzsaw and metal chimes drift in late in the piece, straining the border between analogue and digital.
'Twinned' returns to the simple presentation of 'Interleaved' with speaker distinct buzzings which jump and change, playing against each other. Visc(i)ous percussive whacks underline 'Shaker' as feedback and crackling skim the surface. Almost random sounding tones pick out the siren song of the powerbook on 'Encircled' supported by a heartbeatpulse - a plaintive cry from the heart of the machinebeast, played on bagpipes. A speakerbursting riff swings into 'Crossing' underscoring some shimmering insects and a growl of feedback which pulls back briefly before the insects return and the riff slips away, only to rush back for the last seconds.
Radio white noise and feedback whistles, a crackling loop and subterranean thrums are a 'Coarse' concoction, that leads into 'Firmament' which brings some interesting variety with another quieter, subdued piece as a gentle pulse, echoed and swapped from speaker to speaker provides a rhythmic accompaniment for deep organ-like tones. 'Cast' cycles between rhythmic electricity, squeals and dense chords, while 'Occasional' offers some beaty scratched electro which shifts through some dramatic variations in its display of some very interesting noises.
'Chasm' begins to suggest a relaxing winddown with very gentle stretched tones which develop and shift. However, 'Tangled' takes us back to the density of previous pieces with a furious compilation of hyperactive squarks (a voice?) squeals skwelches and crackles that shift into a puttering then pulsing climax. A short 'Coda' of a pulsing wave leads into 'One'.
What could at times sound like random noises extracted from machines under duress is managed by Bentley, so that the overarching pattern and control within each piece is obvious. And while not obviously music, to ears willing to listen it is a carefully constructed,and satisfying, soundpiece.
The 'Motor Sessions ep' is 14 minutes of lighterhearted musical mayhem: composed from analog sound sources - motors and their various components. 'Machine cognates'' engine whirrs and a strange vibrato grabs the limelight, a siren noise rises and falls to an almost melodic end ('Amazing Grace'!), accompanied by a squeaking drone. All the while a scanner plugs away. More machines are at work in 'Ratchet' - buzzing and bleeping squeaks, a machine gun percussion on top of a lowtone beat and a distant chug. 'Bee's house burning circuits' whips itself into an almost rock frenzy as electrosounds whirl and scrape, to be followed by the descending thrumming-chitters of 'Dreaming of nod' which whizzes static before some squirls enter near the end. Yep, indescribable and compelling, like the other two eM disks.
&& The Apiary &&
Bentley's other persona is The Apiary - a more relaxed ambient musician - who on 'Descent' presents 5 pieces - four of which were created for (or inspired by) an installation called 'What are you afraid of?' by Charles Browning, which gives them a thematic unity.
'The first darkness' introduces the general meditative mood with slowly moving drums, gongs and bamboo flute, with a dark shade added by an almost thunderous drum punctuating the stately opening. More percussion and droning synth lines gradually enter the field, followed by stringlike extended notes which develop a melodic line. Altogether they create a dramatic melodrama, bordering on Tangerine Dream and its offshoots while remaining densely harsh.
Two longer tripartite pieces follow - and while they are divided into named sections, they flow seamlessly into each other to unified wholes. 'Duot' (speaking in tongues/water garden/speaking again) continues the mood developed in 'The first darkness' as a simple drum taps out a native indian inspired rhythm, the flute picks out a slow tune and long slow low tones slide through, accompanied by metallic tinkling towards the end. The second part plays contemplative keyboard melodies over a water flow. The more tonal synths return for the final section, and the beat replaces the water after a couple of minutes, to be joined by sounds which could be treated voices or gongs sighing towards rising calls and muttering at the end.
'Recalling the other' (out/away/return) is a windswept tonal drift which rings and swirls in the first part, becomes a little more discursive and noisy in the second (with water and some angular synth effects) before returning to the descending tones with percussion in the final part, which has a clattering climax that leads to some brighter singing tones. The stretched notes and whispering wind are melancholy as music, attenuated by soft pebble falls and shakers, slowly shifting and modulating.
The main part ends with 'Dreams of ragnarok and sisyphus' which carries on directly from 'Recalling the other' in both mood and method: deep tonal progression over a crackling ground that sounds like someone walking through dry grass on a wooden stage. The winds of fear are breathing also, and in the latter part a whispering and processed voice asks 'what are you afraid of'.
After this tightly controlled suite the final piece 'Repeat' (instinct/intellect/the soul) comes as a bit of a surprise - it is much more aggressive and angular, with a very different feel. It should, perhaps, have been held over for a separate release as it breaks the atmosphere built up in the earlier tracks. However, it is also a strong piece, and well worth having. The first part lays high pitched, squally and dark feedbacks over a slow melodic progression, closer to eM. Strings (synthetic) pick out a melody as indistinct voices mutter and electronic equipment humms - the strings develop into bowed melody. After a disjointed noisy opening and jittery electronica the third section introduces long dark drones reminiscent of Bowie on 'Low' (warszawa and the rest of side 2) with bloops and squiggles playing over, which is closer to the earlier mood.
Very different on the whole to eM, this is a densely suggestive album that carries off the dark, melancholy, presenting music that is repays either background or mood listening or close attention as the drifting changes gather momentum. Melodic, beautiful and moving, it would probably appeal to more people than the abstract_electronic Foundry personae.
&& Rhomb &&
Rhomb is a collaboration between Bentley and Nathan Kreisberg, and 'Hidden Topographies' takes the music into a different realm, suggested by the title - spacious soundscapes that evoke geographic and topographic responses. 'Terminus' layers an irregular clicking beat, a deep thrumming thunder and descending synths tones that twist and turn as the pass to create a gentle moody opening. On 'Empty roads' a deep hollow drum provides a subterranean rhythm over which high (organ) tones glide and electrosquiggles and clicks play - and somehow conjure up desert/ed roads.
The emptiness continues in 'Vacant cities' in which distant machines are still pounding, someone walks far away, but gradual towards us as their steps transform into a tuned percussion, with electrolitter blowing about. Something clicks with 'Darkened' and an influence becomes clearer - the combination of echoed dropping, repeated organ notes, whistling and bloops in a semiautonomous sequence is reminiscent of Eno at his best: the short ambiences of Music for Films or Another Green World - spacious and organic. In 'Glockengasse' we shift between dark droning passages covered in glitches and resonant bells and dense percussive components.
'Ice fields' is simple, stark and stunning - a sweet melody played over a grumbling rolling (the ice shifting and melting) to produce a dramatic contrast. The following track 'Synchronistic if at all' is also icy, but combines its elements - an echoed tom, tones deep and sweeping, some hollow sketches - for a more mysterious, spooky mood. The minimalist opening of 'Transmit process zen', a dripping tictoc, is gradually joined by a vibratto ping, then woobles and squirls, as the density builds up, leading to the simpler 'Man knew' where a rapid and complex percussive click dances around a muted and phased melody. A different 'Terminus' ends the album - the deep percussion is still providing a solid base, but swirling synth washes and sparkles light the sky, as the music comes at us in waves. Following 4 minutes silence, a bonus track of growling metallic swirling ambience provides a dark termination to the album.
In Rhomb, Bentley and Kreisberg have developed a strong partnership which produces an angular ambience that offers you room to move into it, the spaces between the notes and the layers conjuring up geographies which were hidden but now exist in your mind. The combination is heady - the music is approachable but also complex and mysterious.
&& The Foundry &&
And finally there is the unusual compilation 'Mote', released under the label name. It originates from a mysterious phone message Bentley received, all electro crackles and blips. He used it in a number of pieces which grew to become this set (and there is a hint at a second). What is odd, is that the pieces are credited to various pseudonyms - eM and The Apiary - and to Rhomb either singly or together, so that eM did the wails on 'dark passage' while Rhomb provided chords. One piece divides the track between The Apiary and eM - or two parts of Michael Bentley's head!
The 'Mote' which opens it is less than a minute of bursting glitches, bleeps and crackling that is the supposed phone message - it is credited to eM. 'The bridge' which follows is one of the highlights of The Foundry label experience - a sublime coupling of eM's dark tonal ambience (with some sqwarls and beeps) forming a background for the violin (pure and processed) of Susan Worland playing a quite captivating melody. A marvelous juxtaposition.
Rhomb and eM trade aesthetics for most remaining tracks: in 'Subaqua' an organic interleaving of waves and shimmering electro with bloops and a submerged tune. 'Reverie' is pure eM as deep tones make directed progress through a cloud of shimmering notes that glide and dive in a glistening miasma. In 'Occluded forms' Rhomb supply the sounds - piano chords, haunting synth/guitar - behind which a drone creates a dark bed, the noise of eM blowing a chill wind. The chord progressions Rhomb create for 'Dark passage' make their short journey across a noisy landscape - wails by eM.
There is something of a swapping of styles between eM, who in 'Shoals of stars' presents a more drifting electro which steps and swirls with ringing tones through a dark space, and Rhomb whose short 'Rods and cones' is a scratchy echoed electropercussive figure over a slow melodic movement through the field of audiovision. eM process the music of Rhomb 'In the drift' where a simple organ melody is crossed by a whuwhu which swirls between the speakers, changing slowly and subtly, while electroscritches play quietly. Bentley's more ambient side, The Apiary, is at work in 'Filaments', where after eM's introduction electroswirls, possible guitar, Tuvan drones provide a fine filigree that supports a simple melody on an electric piano (?) creating a dreamy ambience.
This sweetness carries through the final tracks on the album. 'Twinkling' is a short tonal drift with synth notes cascading randomly down them - eM's final touch. In 'Islands of sleep' sustained tones overlap to form chords and movement, to be joined by a (slowly) driving percussion - a surprise as it is the first real sign of a beat - and a deeper slow rhythm formed by echoed phases in each channel. And finally the 'Epilogue (for those who came before)' a track reminiscent of 'Hidden Topographies' - a heavily echoed bass drum, developing synth sqwirls and washes, shimmering, all evolving shifting and developing infront of our ears. The album has come some distance from the mote-fragment and the darkness of 'The bridge', and yet it all coheres to create a strong and very listenable to (and into) musical journey.
&& Eclectronica &&
There is another compilation - 'Eclectronica'. When I was telling Darrin Verhagen about my new find, he told me he had tried to sell me Foundry disks before (and has some at Dorobo mailorder if locals are interested). He had obviously caught me on a poor day. Anyway, I took the opportunity to get a copy of 'Eclectronica' which for some reason Michael hadn't sent me. Created between 1995 and 1997 it has pieces by Bentley, Kreisberg (solo and together) and Melec (another Bentley pseudonym?); two tracks (eM's brief 'Fanfare from' and Apiary 'Dreams of ragnarok and sisyphus') are found on other releases.
Bentley and Kreisberg alternate on the first five pieces, which explore a more mainstream electronic music: 'Armand: a theme for the majestic' does indeed sound like a theme song - percussive base, rising staccato strings, synth drones and horn fanfares, joined by drum rolls in the later part. A moog-classic interpretation of Grieg's 'Alfedans' by Kreisberg is very switched-on and light. 'November' is an electro-harpsichord study by Bentley - one hand providing the rhythm in one speaker, the other exploring the melody on the other side -, and the classicalmood continues in 'Der leirmann' in which Kreisberg's string melody is submerged by pulsing waves of string-synths and voiced sparkles. 'Melancholia' is that, a slow, moody piano piece from Bentley with a stark simplicity and beauty, enhanced by some atmospheric electro-touches at the end, which segues very nicely into the dark 'Dreams of ragnarok and sisyphus'.
In their first of three improvisation, 'Autumn in her', Bentley and Kreisberg juxtapose an electric piano melody with synth strings and washes in a contemplative (autumnal) piece. 'We creep and we change' which follows is a more jagged work, with a complex slow percussive part, supporting a more sustained keyboard one. An acoustic guitar enters to carry the song briefly, then a duet between deep guitar and high piano ensues, followed by the introduction of an edgy harpsichord leading to a dramatic climax - all the while this piece is creeping and changing! Their final improv comes a little later - 'Above the earth' is perhaps a closer to the feel of Rhomb as more elements are layered - a clicking percussion, deep bass notes, whistle, flute synth tone - in a floating dream over a jungle.
Before that the 'Fanfare from' introduced Bentley's 'Port klang - first impression' where rapid and dense percussion provide a Glass-like enveloping storm which makes way for a brief melody. The mysterious Melec mix industrial and techno with a range of breezy keyboard flourishes skipping over a bed of machine-clanking loops and doom laden drones - it is a battle the techno eventually wins and dominates the second half.
Bentley produces the last four tracks: 'Flora' is an acoustic guitar piece with very rapid electronic percussion and synth-drenches; a semi-ethnic percussion bed underlies 'Ring, edge', over which a slow heavy melody competes with a high, bright one; in 'Wail and waft' deep tone shake the speakers as a theremin tone whistles (wails?) and a shimmering sequence loops; and finally 'Deep, listen' whose looping phasing electronic bleeps, suggestive of eM, shift in and out of some tonal drift, while squealing radio emissions errupt.
Living up to its name, this is a very eclectic compilation, shifting as it does from the neo-classical opening to the more edgy electronica of the second half. While it lacks the focus of the other Foundry releases, it is too complex and interesting to be dismissed as 'early works', and provides another dimension to this diverse label.
&& &&
What can I say - but that I am very impressed. [see also Jeremy's comments on our chapbooks here]