A couple of months ago there was a sale on whereby all vinyl at Low-Point - purveyors of the finest in drones and beyond - was half price. I duly contacted label boss and musician Gareth Hardwick and purchased everything that i didn't already have - which was one big bastard of an order and one that i have been working through ever since, amongst all the other things that i've bought since. And now it's high time that i got my arse into gear and wrote about each and every record.
Kogumaza - S/T
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Possibly the closest to rock music of all the records, though still a few hundred miles away, Kogumaza are 2 guitarists and a drummer playing meditative riffs and looped sounds with an occasional feeling of warped menace. Parts reminded me of Ramleh and parts reminded me of Caspar Brotzmann - it's that relentless playing as if lost in their own world, like they would be doing this regardless of whether anybody is listening or not. This is to such an extent that I imagine that, if you unplugged them, they would still continue playing as the sounds they hear in their heads far outweigh the sounds they produce with their fingers. Occasionally the tracks drop right down to a feedback and effects created ambience - into an almost dubwise World, these pieces are as welcome as the noisier parts and create an excellent contrast whilst retaining the atmosphere and air of expectation. Glorious stuff.
Ex-Easter Island Head - Mallet Guitars One
| A one sided 12" comprising 3 tracks played on 3 solid bodied guitars by two blokes wielding percussion mallets beating out interesting and evolving rhythms on said instruments. The Rhythm patterns and the resonances produced by the guitars make this utterly captivating and strangely compelling in a hypnotic way. The obvious comparison would be Steve Reich's 'Drumming' (no bad thing at all) but that would be doing the originality of this release a disservice. I await excitedly 'Mallet Guitars Two'.  |
Tim Catlin & Machinefabriek - Patina
Elegantly played drones, produced on guitars and electric sitar by Catlin and then reprocessed, reorganised and added to by Machinefabriek. The 2 side-long tracks give over a sense of time slowly unfolding and give me images of flowers opening and time lapsed recordings of the world moving at an almost unnoticeable pace. I have no idea why nature films have flooded my head but i really feel that this music would suit a 'Koyaanisqatsi' type of scenario, but a soundtrack to a World beginning rather than a World destroying itself. I love this record and wish it would go on forever, to soundtrack my life, i feel my life would be all the better and all the more peaceful for it.
Dag Rosenqvist & Simon Scott - Conformists
Apparently a soundtrack produced before the film was made, this is a darkly unsettling experiment into emotionally affecting dronescapes(does that word exist?) all submerged in a mud of sound to cause a claustrophobic feeling of fear and loss. At times completely devoid of light and at other times soothingly beautiful , these ten tracks ebb and flow their muddy way into the deepest reaches of your psyche. I know nothing about the film but i feel it could not be as affecting as this music alone and may even detract from the emotional state that this album causes you to inhabit. Which would be a shame, as i quite enjoy all these experiments in wrenching me out of my comfort zone - it keeps me interested in the future. 
Gareth Hardwick - Sunday Afternoon
Gareth Hardwick, the man whose impeccable taste (and keen pricing structure) brought all these wonderful pieces of music above to me, produced this 33 minute lilting harmonic experiment into other worldly drones on just one Lapsteel in one take. The subtle timbres and changes are often so subtle as to be almost unnoticeable until you become aware that they changed a short while ago - undulating softly as though affected by the air around you. There is much beauty here and astonishing restraint to produce something so subtly creative and slowly evolving. Music to drift away to in a dark void, uninterrupted by the idiosyncrasies, idioms and idiots of the World that surround you.
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