PROGRESSIVE ELECTRONIC

— First review of this album —

Unorthodox electronic industrial meditations.

I suppose, this is as close as Conrad Schnitzler, will get to the so visited "New Age" kind of electronic music. But this musician has always kept a safe distance, even from the average "space progressive/electronics", due to his preference for "raw" experimentation, rather than sweetly over-detailed and over-produced recordings. This "trademark" sound, has always distinguished him aside from ALL his Prog/Electronic peers.

In this particular 1981 "CONAL" release, he presents two long timed compositions (around 20 minutes each), in the true manner of TD or K. Schulze famous works. But the resembles stop there. Mr. Schnitzler well aquainted in those years with the ups and downs of technology, never ceased to explore the most "primitive' side of electronics, in the same spirit as the 1930's electronic music pioneers who did not wanted electronic "sounds" to resemble already existing instruments, but be seen and heard as "new" musical instruments. Inevitably, industry and technology developed simultaneously, and so their "sounds".

Conrad Schnitzler music, always stood close to that 1930's ideal. "CONAL" as such is a "minimalistic/epic" effort in this tenor and a perfect excuse to display his talents, merged into two single, long sized compositions, which he fills to the brim with non-musical "sequenced" noises and "atmospheric-like" sounds. The result is astounding as it is dynamic and inviting.... As it leaves you wanting for more. More of this kind of Conrad Schnitzler's electronic "meditations".

****4 PA stars. "Essential" for those who follow this Prog sub-genre!

I'm not sure how much input, if any, Eno himself had in this collection, beyond the artwork and layout (and obviously the music). The set was "researched and compiled" by his technical assistant Marlon Weyeneth, as the first in a promised series of "unreleased, unrealistic, and unfinished" scraps left on the floor of the Eno lab. But the album certainly meets his ideals of chance, hazard, and spontaneous design, the latter not an oxymoron in Brian Eno's musical universe.

And humor, too. You only have to look at the track names ("Slow Lump With Strings"; "Select a Bonk") to appreciate the very human, very quirky mind behind the recording equipment. Some of these samples must have prompted a lot of uncontrolled giggling in the engineer's booth, even a wistful tune like "My Lonely Organ", a sad title from an artist who once described himself as "an onanist" (it's actually an unaccompanied keyboard solo).

These aren't really compositions in the traditional sense, but more like stray thoughts and casual doodles: sounds or rhythms stumbled across in passing, quickly explored, and easily discarded. All of them are fairly short (only two break the five-minute mark), and most are instrumental, although a few contain weirdly processed vocals, almost like parodies of the ironic pop tunes from Eno's precocious, post-ROXY MUSIC adolescence. In songs like "War Fetish" and (in particular) "Draw One Animal", it sounds like Eno got his machines drunk on absinthe and recorded the dipsomaniacal results (after taking a few swigs himself).

Some of the pieces are purely atmospheric; others are more beat-driven; all of them offer fascinating glimpses into a unique creative intelligence. They may have been thrown away in the studio, but these aren't throwaway efforts: the pin-trumpet sustain of ROBERT FRIPP's guitar even appears, in the album finale "Manila Folder".

Expect a generous plate of ambient noodles, electro-funk appetizers, primordial soup, and assorted alien cocktails...but no main course, this being strictly a doggy bag of leftovers. The title of the series was chosen well. But if you think about it, Eno's entire career has been a curiosity.

Gunter Schickert is criminally unknown when it comes to the German underground scene. He truly is a pioneer when it comes to the echo guitar and is a multi-instrumentalist who in the 60's played Free Jazz before fronting many bands and also playing in concert with Klaus Schulze. His band GAM created one of my all time favourite Krautrock albums called "Eiszeit".

For this his first solo album he had only two tape recorders at his disposal so he would play one track and while listening to that he would add a second one, this he would do 4 times. When he mixed it he borrowed a third tape recorder and so added the last track to the master. I can't imagine how frustrating and stressful this must have been because if he wasn't mixing fast enough with changing the tape he had to start all over. He had a small mixer with 2 stereo and 1 mono but it was possible to pan tracks. No equalization though and it all came out of his G2000 Dynacord guitar amplifier. If he made a mistake on track one he had to start all over again. Three months later "Samtvogel" was born.

Up first is the six minute "Apricot Brandy" which has some pretty trippy English lyrics. Gunter never did drugs but he certainly had an imagination. This is a slow paced piece with the focus on the almost spoken lyrics. Things get freaky after 3 minutes. "Kriegsmaschinen Fahrt Zur Holle" is my favourite tune on here. At 17 minutes this song describes a wish that Gunter had since he was young. That all killing materials such as weapons etc. would take a journey to hell along with the thoughts that stand behind them. He talks in the liner notes about his home city of Berlin where the German army was not allowed to go after WWII(once Germany was allowed an army in 1954) and that a lot of artists and free-minded people came there to escape military duty. This song is very Electronic as it trips along with the odd outburst. Sounds echo and we get some German words around 4 1/2 minutes in. It all turns louder 5 minutes in and man this is good. More spoken German words are added here and there. Everything seems more focused after 9 minutes and the words that are added really sound cool here. 11 minutes in more sounds are added like earlier. This is catchy but very bizarre. It settles down 16 minutes in to the end.

"Wald" is the final track clocking in at over 21 1/2 minutes. There are no lyrics and Gunter says this song initially was a protest to the increase in vehicles in his city. When he was young growing up in the fifties he could play on the streets without worry of cars but that changed of course. Anyway he changed his idea of this song from describing a walk through peaceful landscapes when suddenly it is crossed by a huge noisy highway to just describing a walk through a dark forest with strange creatures crossing his path. Man this is almost as good as the previous track and sort of similar in sound. It's such a cool trip regardless as sounds echo seemingly forever as other sounds come and go.

I really enjoy this album and if you like the style of A.R. & THE MACHINES with all of those echoing sounds then you probably will love this one as well. A solid 4 stars. Thanks Gunter !

Whilst their contemporaries Kraftwerk were pioneering an icy-cool brand of synthpop suitable for robots and cyborgs, Yellow Magic Orchestra's second album finds them examining ways in which electronic music can have a human heart. The emphasis more on cutting-edge synthpop, with the primitive computer game jungles from the debut being scrapped, and the band even turn their hands to a Beatles cover in the form of a sedated-sounding take on Day Tripper. Got a good reason to listen? Oh, most certainly, because this release finds the Yellow Magic Orchestra graduating from the one-off Ryuichi Sakamoto-led lark of the debut album into a true band effort.

— First review of this album —

An interesting electronic experimental album that still maintains a lot of catchy melodies buried in the mix. TOM RECCHION was a leading member of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, which was a loose collective of experimental musicians from the area specializing in radicalism and playfulness and free improvisational noise music. The Society hosted other avant-garde artists such as Smegma and is actually one of the few such organizations still in existence to this very day.

This album falls firmly into the sub-genre of plunderphonics. The gist of the first several tracks and some strewn about are based on exotica samples. The types from the 50s or 60s and sound like Bossa Nova or other swanky nightclub type jingles from that era. Overlaying this template is a bunch of wild and experimental clicks, ticks and synth sounds and musical notes going in and out of tune and different experiments with tape music. As the album progresses the tracks become more spacey and highly experimental but even on these there tends to be some kind of blanketed melody that can be discerned. All tracks tend to be under 4 minutes so none wear out their welcome.

For me this is a very pleasant album that doesn't bore me to tears with seemingly random noises that have no connection to each other but totally work together to create a somewhat celebratory feel while at the same time often feeling spooky and alienating. This is admittedly not for everyone. Keep in mind that this is above all experimental music filled with totally unconventional sounds that may trigger strange reactions! Lovers of progressive electronic music will surely love this but those unfamiliar with this type of music should not expect something easily accessible.

Just on a personal note, this is an album I have actually owned for well over a decade and for some reason after one listen I threw it on the shelf only to collect dust. After revisiting neglected albums recently I put this on and to my surprise actually found it quite a good listen. I guess I wasn't ready for this bizarre electronic music the first time I heard it but it's always a wonderful feeling to know that there has been a good album on your shelf for years without even knowing it just awaiting the day when you would rediscover it and be psychologically of the mind to actually enjoy it :P

Rarely has a band name done a better job of providing a snapshot of a group's sound. On their first release for widespread consumption, Throbbing Gristle present pulsating, ugly industrial soundscapes in a live and studio context. It certainly isn't for everyone - as a terrifying audience confrontation at one point amply demonstrates - but at the same time this groundbreaking material is a lo-fi, grainy snapshot of the birth of industrial music and has few if any precedents. This birth of a new sound is a minimalistic thing and those who prize pristine recording conditions will find its low budget production difficult to engage with.

What a masterful art rocker Eno was back then. Even with all his more serious-minded ambient adventures and all my admiration for them in mind, nothing really beats the near-perfect balance of hooks, ambience and playful experimental edge he achieved on his vocal albums.

Twitchy, restless new wave-ish rhythms and flickering but precise instrumentation, with occasional throwbacks to the glam rock of yesteryear. A dominating rhythm section with cheeky, babbling bass crackles around a solid and effective (occasionally even stodgy) pop/rock structure. But that just leaves enough room for a depth of coming and going instruments and effects: essentially a whimsical pleasure in sound diversity and its transformational, enriching and chafing effects on the deceptive straightforwardness that often lies beneath the intense conversational style of the rest. Thanks to that things move, shake and fluctuate more than what seems possible. Groovy, sharply bass-laden joyrides with distinct snap, precise clarity and drive where ephemeral but clear sounds slide and shimmer by in the classy, if a bit blank, production.

It's idiosyncratic, quirkily and unstably melodic and more directly in-your-face, leaving Before And After Science less transcendent than Another Green World. It's more physical and movement-inducing, especially the majority of the songs on the album's first half.

But there's also the back-handed and leisurely form of ambience and atmosphere. Even so, it feels more focused than usual. Rarely open-ended and distilled into effective and evocative textures with a minimum of overlay, build-up, murky depths and imprecision. Despite of this it never comes across as insipid or quaint, but more as a linear and compressed form of the idea. Silken, colourful and ornamental keyboards, effects and the omnipresent bass sail by in smooth, pleasing and accurate concentrates of artsy atmospheric pop. A bit lighter, more grounded and personal, these looser tracks come across as pleasingly furnished, but non-obtuse musical hors d'oeuvre. It's like the gentle breeze of mildly scented but still refreshing evening air across your face. Equal parts fleeting and profound.

You kind of wish that this wasn't the last solely Eno-penned expedition into less nebulous and drifting musical adventures. He's got a knack for the gentle, melodious, sweetly naive and comfortably fuzzy pop-ambience as well as the more skeletal, sharp and playfully asymmetric new wave sounds. Hearing a bit more of that side wouldn't go amiss.

4 stars.

//LinusW

— First review of this album —

Michael Stearns' Planetary Unfolding consists of spacey, ambient electronic meanderings. In its slow pace and gradual buildups, I am reminded of a smoother, more purely electronic, substantially more ambient and somewhat more new age-leaning take on the sort of musical territory visited in Zeit by Tangerine Dream. Taken in the balance, though, I think Zeit is able to command a broader emotional range and suggests far more turmoil than these peaceful, tranquil compositions. Fans of progressive electronic music may find this one overly simplistic, but if you're really into ambient or need something to relax to it certainly does the job more than adequately.

— First review of this album —

Non suitable for diabetics and similar cases.

TOO MUCH, tinkling bells, over sweetened M Olfield like melodies, and layers of "merengue" (or whipped cream as you know it). Enough seems not enough!

When you dig in your finger through the layers and layers of "fattening sweets", you maybe will notice some of this Pepe Maina's "Birds of Passage" remarkable attributes and thrills. I could mention the "acoustic Led Zep-like guitar melodies", the endless details in the arrangements (for good and bad), the potential use of his electric guitar skills in a "Tinker-Bells" environment, the wise use of very "primitive" electronic gadgets (remember the casio-mini/keyboard sounds), what else? Well there is track 6, same name as the album, which is one of the "highlights" as a whole song, due to its multi-oriented direction in composition. It is "electronics/crossed with a Jazzy "latin" flavor" percussions ang guitar work, and it is quiet progressive. So, I can dissect the album to pieces, and find very nice ideas here and there, but the problem is still the same. Even when I started to think it could go "deep", there is always this wall of over-sweetening solutions to almost all melodic lines (even the percussions), which makes the whole "hide and seek" game, quiet a bore.

Now as for the rating goes, a lot of Prog audiophiles enjoy this kind of "up-beat, new-age, multi-instrumental, electronics", for them maybe this could become "essential" or at least worth the try. But in my case, I know myself, I will listen to it tops one more time, in favor of more "neutral" taste findings.

Alternative recommendation: Skip this one and listen to his 2013 "Snow", that one is worth aquiring.

***3 "inches away from 2", PA stars.

— First review of this album —

Stardrive was a short-lived project created by keyboardist Robert Mason in order to present his multi-voiced synthesizer.As stated on the LP ''...Robert Mason has built the worlds first multi- voiced synthesizer that can be played like a real keyboard instrument with full chords and tonal clusters.''.For that reason he composed the album ''Intergalactic trot'' back in 1973,released on Elektra,where he was helped by session musicians on bass,guitars,drums and saxes,among them famous sax player Michael Brecker is the most recognizable figure.

The all instrumental album opens with ''Rushes'',a complex keyboard journey with a fast tempo and many changes,followed by a weird cover of The Beatles' ''Strawberry Fields Forever'', fully-synth oriented with this light symphonic feeling.''Stardrive'', closing the first side of the LP, is quite remarkable.Sort of a complex TODD RUNDGREN'S UTOPIA with occasional GENESIS moog-styled loops in the vein of ''The cinema show'' with also a taste of Funk and jazzy guitars at the middle section.Many changes, dramatic passages and improvised keyboard solos complete a nice soundscape.

Side two will open with the pompous symphonic number ''Dr. Tandem'',again fast and furious music with nice synths but a bit cheesy at moments.With ''Want to Take You Higher'' Mr. Mason starts walking in the Jazz/Fusion territory,another rich composition with a Fusion-edge,while ''Everything at Once'' starts off like a romantic piece of Symphonic Rock,built around smooth guitar work and delicate synths to feature later jazzy guitars and free sax soloing.With the closing eponymous track,Stardrive step into Jazz-Rock/Fusion for good.And here Mr. Mason decided to leave some space to the rest of his team,though his synths are again dominant.Most notably to Michael Brecker,who's fiery sax follows Mason's synths almost throughout the whole track,while the rhythm section is again on a funky mood.

I do not know what happened to Robert Mason's unique instrument,which sounds a lot like a mix of moog,polymoog and clavinet,but this album was a good introduction to his sound to say the least with a very rich and adventurous sound,which will be greatly appreciated by the keyboard fanatics of prog music.Recommended.