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MUSIC NEWS JUNE 1998Waiting Forever (Memories Remain) (1998 PO6W-2) is the fourth album from Runes Order - Claudio Dondo and Daniele Magarelli. Dark folk/goth-rock vocals, dark atmospheres, and Kraftworky synthpop electronics make this a dynamic and exciting album which squarely targets my personal musical taste. The album is released by Palace Of Worms Records. Rik - 19 June 1998
Ontario Blue - the solo project of Endura's Stephen Pennick - has now released Shine (1998 Dragon 04) on the Polish label, Fluttering Dragon (tsaroth@polbox.com). This album was originally issued on tape but has now been doubled in length with new material. More varied than the work of Endura, the CD features grand orchestral soundscapes, tribal drums, Dead Can Dance-style vocals and a Celto-Romantic piece in the Enya mould. Rik - 19 June 1998
Michael Bentley of The Foundry (more anon) wrote to us that he had discovered FluxEuropa through the Ambient mailing list (ambient@hyperreal.org) and recognised a degree of affinity between our coverage and the music on his label. So, apparently, did a number of others as we have been inundated with ambient titles. Some of this material does have an affinity with the more 'extreme' ambient music we normally cover. While there is no absolute dividing line, I have to say that much 'mainstream' ambient music tends towards the soporific Musak you hear in New Age candle-shops. I personally prefer ambient music with epic neo-classical, dark ritual or harsh industrial qualities, and this reflects, no doubt, my rather Nietzschean view of culture as ecstasy and tragedy. Of the material received Foundry's was amongst the best. It's a classy and professional, if small, ambient-industrial label and employs tasteful arty graphics. eM's Djinn (fou.01) is spacey with some harsher industrial rumbles and a hint of classical. Rhomb's Hidden Topographies (fou.04) is sufficiently experimental to lift it out of the candle-shop category. The Apiary's Descent (fou.03) has a strongly oriental opening reminiscent of a traditional Japanese play, developing into more general classical-ambient/filmic style, while Electronica (fou.02) presents a compilation. Rik - 19 June 1998 More suitable for candle-shops are a couple of releases from the Mirage imprint of Oasis Productions. Imaginarium (1998 MIR303) is a collaboration between Midwest ambient duo Ma Ja Le (Paul Vnuk and Chris Short) and Vir Unis. It's a smooth and thoroughly professional album with a 'rainforest feel', but it literally sent me to sleep. The Ambient Eclipse The Ambient Eclipse (MIR 302) features a number of artists including David Knight, (distributed until recently by the hissing vipers at World Serpent). Robert Scott Thompson's 'Frontier' and Stephen Bacchus' 'Subterrania' were sufficiently ominous to imbue them with some gravitas but much of the rest lacked impact or distinction. Rik - 19 June 1998 Jean-Pierre Bedoyan is a native of Toulouse now based in Los Angeles and is a composer and performer with the Diavolo Dance Theater. Perhaps the French connection is responsible for the Theater's postmodernist perspective which recognises that while technology advances, everyday survival seems fraught with danger and anxiety. The Theatre aims to investigate the latent absurdities of contemporary life and recontextualise them through the body. Bedoyan's Diavolo Dance Theater 1992-1996 is light industrial and highly suggestive of its dance associations. Rik - 19 June 1998 I received a pack of no less than four copies of Ambient Temple Of Imagination's Planetary House Nation (1997 MSP-0003-24). The title, graphics and profligacy were suggestive of some religious cult, but the music is actually quite good. Ambient-industrial with a strong ritual quality, it is nightmarish in parts but never loses its musical basis. The album is released on Mindspore Records. Rik - 19 June 1998 Dreams Like Mine (1998 DLM 100) by Mara's Torment is the work of Toronto-based Rik MacLean. The bleepy, gurgling bits on this electro-ambient album are redeemed by suggestions of Kraftwerk (track 3), dramatic classical piano (track 6) and dark soundscapes (track 7). Rik - 19 June 1998 The Spring (1998 Prophecy Productions) by Paragon Of Beauty is described as Atmospheric/Dark/Romantic Metal and features pleasant Goth-rock and folky elements with lyrics in German and English exploring Gothic themes. Rik - 19 June 1998
The End Records have issued two excellent Dark Metal albums: Goat Horns (1998 TE0003) by Nocturnal Mortum who are of Ukrainian origin and Embossed Dream In Four Acts (1998 TE005) by Odes of Ecstasy who hail from Athens. Goat Horns Goat Horns is characterised by Goth graphics, gruff vocals and grand classical themes, while Odes of Ecstasy combine neo-classical compositions, metal and soaring female soprano vocals. Rik - 19 June 1998
The Pleasures Of Death (1998 DEATH-981) by Slogun comes from the Death Factory imprint of Cold Meat Industry and is an appalling barrage of noise from a Whitehouse-derivative with an interest in serial killers. Groan. This territory is already well mapped by Neither/Neither World and many others. What would really shock me is some originality. Rik - 19 June 1998
Bob Zark is a beat poet inspired by 60s Underground icons Alan Ginsberg and William Burroughs. A social critic with a lot to say for himself, Bob was well known on the Punk scene in the late 80s and became a hero of resistance to censorship when he took on New York's Sanitation Squad - Kafkaesque "garbage men with guns" - who tried to fine him $22,000 for flyposting gig posters! His CD album Gargoyle Wings (1997 Bomb Sniffing Dog Records) is energetic and varied but something of an Underground leftover. I did, however, like the insistent screeching-violin effect on 'Office Drones' (track 15) Rik - 19 June 1998 Rik - 19 June 1998 |
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