One seldom gets a chance to review an entire label from beginning to end unless there is some kind of concept behind it. 'Now DAT's What I Call Music' is a project that fits the project's description and label. On November 1st Frans de Waard - yes, that Frans - dropped 16 DAT tapes filled by seventeen different artists (one is a split), each in an edition of seventeen copies, of which two were taken (one for the artist, one for the archives), so fifteen for sale. Rutger Zuydervelt meticulously executed the artwork, and That's it.
All DATs are recycled and reused because that's what it's all about. You don't throw stuff out anymore. The carbon footprint these items generated in the past - when humanity probably didn't even know what the word meant - is quite firm compared to, for example, a CD. So instead of throwing things away, it's better to reuse them. Now THAT's what I call a brilliant idea. If the 15 DATs are sold, the tangible part of this project is over. Now don't be sad. There is always Bandcamp for us living in a digital reality where they will appear in full once a physical DAT sells out.
This review is different than others because sixteen individual ones being as elaborate as usual would mean an extra Vital. I'll keep all the reviews shorter then normal but yet still tell you enough about the artist and music to hopefully make you curious enough to check out this wonderful project and its content. This is the third part!
CRAIG STEWART JOHNSON - APORIA OF THE VEIL (90 minutes DAT)
Number nine of the sixteen releases is by visual and audio artist Craig Stewart Johnson, who we see more regularly in vital as the man behind Invisible City Records and as 50% of the duo Liminal Haze. As an artist, both visual and auditive, Craig focuses on textures, and this piece shows that. I might be completely wrong here, but it seems that the four parts of "Aporia of the Veil" are created with heavily manipulated field recordings (FX, granular synthesis, convolution reverbs). They're completed with less manipulated field recordings creating a living audio environment. And guess: I really, really like the result!
The ninety minutes of this release are pretty in your face when you play them on a high volume. The textures of the additional sounds are most effective in this case, but the rest are so loud that your mind starts blocking them because you want to hear the finesses. On the other hand, you can play this release on a very low volume - say in the background while you're working - and *bam* you've created a never dull, completely different sonic environment. High-quality ambient tapestry from another dimension. I'm gonna check out more of him these days.
RADBOUD MENS - PIECE FOR SIXTY OSCILLATORS & LONG STRING INSTRUMENT (60 minutes DAT)
We've all seen his name before, know a bit about him, and have recordings from him in our collection. Admit it. If it's not under his own name, it's as Hyware, Technoise or one of the many projects he is or was a member of.
"Piece for Sixty Oscillators & Long String Instrument" was played and recorded live in the studio and used a modular system and the "Long String Instrument". Both parts are mixed into a drone with a solid ground tone, but the composition is never without movement. There is a constant flow in and out of stasis through harmonics and waveforms—37 minutes of bliss.
And that's not all, because as an extra, the recording of a performance at Kernel Panic (a The Hague event) is added. Radboud performed on September 26th 2019, using a grand piano and E-Bow, a drone machine, modular, shortwave radio and various other electronics and here, too, the result is massive. F*ck How I wish I had been there. A live registration is always interesting to hear, but it sounds like you want to experience it in a room. Through deep listening, celebrating the moment. Massive.
THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUB - STROPHE AREA 3 & 4 (90 minutes DAT)
Mark Poysden is the Square Root of Sub, and I admit, my knowledge is limited on Mark. On who he is and what he does, but I KNOW I have seen his name more often. So to suddenly see a massive 90-minute release with this quality. That only happens once every so many years. "Strophe Area 3" is subtitled 'Unlost Tales of the Pseudosuchian Thecodonts' while #4 got the subtitle 'Gleefully Carousing in Morphospace'. This release will prove to be a mystical one.
The source material for these recordings is from the nineties, and it took Mark until now to finish them. Recorded bass parts from Dicky Nordholt (a.o. Raggende Manne) and percussive sounds by Z'EV, who are both not amongst us any longer. As I understood from the notes, Radboud Mens did a great job restoring the sounds, so I'm left to say something about the sounds now. It is a review, after all, but the thing is: I can't. I listen, and I listen again. And again. But sometimes music is so elusive or mind-bending that anything I would say about it would be just an interpretation of me. And would generate a setting you would approach the music with. These compositions should be listened to without expectation because this is music on a different level.
TIM OLIVE - STICKY SHED (15 minutes DAT)
I think the fifteen minute ones were the shortest they would sell DAT tapes. And they were lying around, so there had to be one in this catalogue. The honour to fill it was given to Tim Olive, who comes from Canada but now lives in Kobe. "Sticky Shed" is almost 15 minutes of sounds of tuning forks and spring reverbs. And you might now think the same as I was thinking: "how can that be interesting?" Well, it is!
First of all, tuning forks aren't "only" available in one frequency (we all know the 440Hz from music lessons) but come in all sizes and materials. Because of its purpose, the sound of tuning forks is pure, so it generates a great starting point. Tim's recordings are very well, and even though they touch the 'pain' point quite often, it never hurts. The combination with the raw edge of the spring emphasizes the purity of the forks. The digital version has an extra track which amazed me: way more subdued, lower frequencies, dronier and less experimental. So basically, don't worry when the DAT is sold out ... There's Bandcamp :-)
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