KOMMISSAR HJULER UND FRAU / I'D M THFFT ABLE split C47 (Faux Pas Recordings)

The German couple, performance art duo and general sonic terrorists, Kommissar Hjuler und Frau (sometimes "und Mama Bar" or "Mama Baer") have released over 200 recordings, many of them ultra-limited lathe cut vinyl on their own label, Der Schoene-Hjuler-Memorial-Fond. Recently there a have been a few "comparatively overground" releases (quoting David Keenan), a CD from Intransitive and an LP from Feeding Tube. Hjuler is an actual kommissar (i.e. cop) and his German barking can sometimes be quite authoritarian. Mama Baer often brings the beauty to the duo's music, but can sometimes get righteous shrieky. Both frequently devolve into muffled moaning. The recording on the A side of this beautiful looking tape sounds like it was recorded in the family's kitchen, with Papa Bear repeating and twisting a few phrases around and doing silly monster voices, making his wife and child laugh and cry. Most of it is in German, so I can't speak much to the content. This piece doesn't hit any particular low or high points, but is a pleasant listen. Like a very weird found tape.

On Id M Theft Able's side, all of a sudden the volume jumps up about six decibels with some heavy mouth on mic action. This artist (known to humans as Skot Spear) should be no stranger to readers of this blog. He does everything and anything, but mostly sticking to a set-up of glass and spring action with bow in hand accompanied by insane vocalizing sometimes forming words, sometimes forming intelligible thoughts, always astounding the senses! This was recorded alone in his car in a Maine snowstorm and includes him singing along to snatches of pop songs from his radio, some whisper quiet sections, and some real intese vocal pasages. A really enjoyable and well paced listen that has less vocal gibberish than some of his denser works. I'm pretty sure all of this is made with just his mouth, and it continues to make me believe that technology is complete useless crap that makes your music suck!!! Put a delay pedal on that!

http://www.faux-pas.tk/
http://www.asylum-lunaticum.de/
http://kraag.org/id/

ID M THEFTABLE "id m + jay z" (mangdisc)

I was told when given this that a friend of id m's was sicklyillin and wanted there to be an id m theft able & jay-z concert. It unfortunately could not be arranged so mr. id m provided the next best thing - set up some studio time with jay and made a tape.

best rapper alive, what's up, I told you. turn the music up. woo.
I'm in my zone.

a good 45 minutes (plus) straight of
tiny cuts of jay-z acapella spliced together into quick sputtering rhythms, layered with shout-outs chopped short. everything stuttering and skipping in avalanche form, a few pebbles start it off and then it quickly gathers more, collecting all of jay's syllables and turning them into a crushing rumbling. unrelenting. like Steve Reich's Come Out, after a bit, the words that are recognizable lose their meaning and become pure sound - parts of the rhythm. and/but also, like David Mahler's Hearing Voices , the tiny chopped speech lets us hear every part of a single sound, minuscule moments, isolated, and dissected to their basic parts.
It is also impossible for me to not mention Wobbly's Wild Why , which this tape is most akin to. (This is not a bad thing! I listened to that album with reckless abandon for a good month... mind blowing, if you haven't heard it - please, find a copy right away!) though while Wobbly is throwing fire crackers at your feet from his BMX, id m is in the woods, melting mirrors with a flamethrower.
entrancing and completely consuming.

http://kraag.org/
http://kraag.org/mangdisc/

(and now that I am done writing this very first review of mine, upon putting in the links above, it seems like maybe this isn't an available release! well, keep an eye out all the same...)

ID M THEFTABLE / CRANK STURGEON c46 (Basement Tapes)

A slap on the knuckles for me! It wasn't until I read the liner notes AFTER listening that i realized this was a split tape and not a collab. It's really not a gigantic deal and sort of explains what my main statement was going to be.

Id M and Crank are the two main dudes (at least to my knowledge) disrupting the Portland, ME music scene. At any given show you're likely to see them spray reconstituted milk on you while almost nude or play a ruler while conducting the audience to squeal out fake animal names.

This tape listens a lot more like "alone time" jams. No audience to interact with or distract the process (not that it is a bad thing when they do.) In fact, absent from both sides of this release is any prolonged exploration of voice trauma, usually a key component of their live sets. Instead a relatively fast paced carousel of tape cuts, toy instruments eeking out their last beep and sundry cheap tape decks being tossed about by the musicians in a manic attempt to freak themselves out while alone.

A nice addition to their catalog of releases and it's worth checking out to hear these guys step back from their focus on vocals, which it bears repeating, is nothing something i have a problem with at all!

Both awesome live acts, check em out if you ever get the chance.

Printed in an edition of 100, full color nice photo collage covers.
Still available from the label:
www.myspace.com/boilerroomemissions

RE S DUAL MANG "Book 1: An Obliterit No No" (Mangdisc)

I got this tape recently from Skot (aka Id M Theftable) when i was raiding his tape merch, didn't get any info from him, but from the liner notes of this tape we learn that this cassette is a collection of radio show (named Re S Dual Mang) excerpts from 2000-2005 aired on Portland, ME's WMPG. Evidently the show has been airing since 1997 but those first 3 years didn't make the cut for this release. Comes hand packaged and spraypainted, totally anonymous except for the insert, this tape looks kind of like a tape you'd find on the street. In a way it sounds like that. Well, depending on which street you lived.

The tape runs really seamlessly but is a massive collage of totally damaged mind scans from the Maine airwaves. It has a really playful nature that i appreciate, akin to the early Black Bean Placenta one sided 12"s that i heard years and years ago (which actually often featured Crank Sturgeon who is from Maine and has releases on the Mangdisc label). It's not afraid of overwhelming you with a wall of sound so long as a wall of sound include two guys battling it out with a nonsense rhythmic double monologue or a guy mimicking a talking toy, maybe a couple of real, unprank phone calls, one of a girl from the Midwest calling in her personal ad (she's just living in Maine for now, she's moving back, in case anyone out there is listening???). The cacophony continues with tons of clinking, toys, keyboard battles and marching songs fill out the absolute tornado torpedo that is this tape.

I remember being a kid and listening to all the Boston area college stations, WERS, WZBC, WMBR and feeling so excited by the world of unknown sound being revealed to me, Reggae, Punk, Hip Hop, College Rock, looking back i always thought i was so lucky to have that amount of exposure, I'm just glad my wide-eyed 10 year old self never made it up to Maine, (even though it wasn't on the air at the time) because i think i would have been forever disappointed by the offerings of Boston radio thereafter.

kraag.org