Sindre Bjerga and Daniel Spicer - "Voice Studies" #9 & #10 (My Dance the Skull)

On Sindre Bjerga's site this text heads the page in the top right corner, "…cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia, sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes.. always aiming for that mind-altering head trip…" That statement of purpose pretty much sums up his "Voice Studies" tape as well. The tape features three live performances two in Norway (A side and half of B) and one in Russia (other half of B). Side A is called "The Demise of Personal Hygiene" and I laughed and laughed and laughed some more upon first reading that. How fun! The music is not exactly funny however. A series of gurgles, blonks, boings, and thuds, represent the demise I reckon. The second side has two performances, "Procrastination is the Square Root" and "A Possible Outbreak of Clinical Hysteria." Both continue the contact mic clashing crashing guttural rumble of the A side's piece (with "Outbreak" being an extremely short cut). This makes for a demanding listen. As pure sound, I love it, but for a stroll or vacation drive, I wouldn't listen to this particular experimental tape. The mood just has to strike YOU.

What we have here is a rare opportunity for the reviewer to be the reviewed. Daniel Spicer is a broadcaster, musician, and writer for Wire magazine, if not the best music mag (I think it probably is the best), then certainly the most consistently well-written. Spicer's entry in the "Voice Studies" series (put out by My Dance the Skull - see my previous reviews of Jaap Blonk's and Janek Schafer's contributions) is music for the adventurous listener, not just an adventurous listener. "Let the Body Attend (for Angus MacLise)" is the title of Side A and as you might expect from the dedication, it is a percussion rattling ode to original Velvet Underground member and musician/poet/crazy person Angus MacLise. Spicer yelps the title phrase along with other Gertrude Stein-esque circular verbiage while Evie Spicer (Daniel plays too) beats the hell out of some percussion instruments. This piece is about ten minutes long and quite entrancing. It's definitely an appropriate ode to one extremely idiosyncratic musician. Side B is called "The Diamond Life (for Henry Flynt)" and, like the A side, it is a specific tribute to a music maker who is as out there as they come, Henry Flynt. This piece consists solely of the title phrase, freakout Ornette violin crushing by Spicer and a gaggle of friends making assorted sounds in and around the furious bow & string action. This is wild energy music and something to be excited about. The piece on the A side was good, but "The Diamond Life" is great. CRAZY LISTENING. I would hunt this tape down just to listen to the B side. Daniel Spicer's knowledge of left field music obviously contributes to the success of this cassette. Musicians like MacLise and Flynt are not widely known names, but anyone familiar with the avant-garde would know them. Bravo!

Buy and Listen HERE.

Jaap Blonk "Voice Studies" (c20), Janek Schaefer "Asleep at the Wheel...Mixtape" (c40) [My Dance the Skull]

Get rid of notes and instruments! Who needs these tired tropes? Strip naked and express all that is life with only that of the sound which lives within. The crying of children and the preaching of the street corner evangelist exist as song as much as a commercial radio hit. All sound is music. All music needs to be recorded. The London based publishing house and tape label My Dance the Skull dives into difficult music with a series they call "Voice Studies." Their seventh study is a 20 minute tape by noted vocal improvisor - composer - poet Jaap Blonk. Side A is titled "Approximate Air" and is the sound of multi-tracked vocal air. Whispering, sighing, and breathing collide and rumble with one another producing some wonderful polyrhythms. The piece builds with grumble growls and shouts and before you know it, its all over. Side B is titled "Apostatic Aria" and features shouting and aggressive human vocalizing. At times the multiple voices almost seem to be filling the space of classic "loud-soft" guitar riff dynamics. This piece of vocal improv is less exciting to me than the first, but that is a very small complaint. This is adventurous listening and certainly not for everyone, but for those who want a diversion from conventional, Jaap Blonk's contribution to My Dance the Skull's series of vocal studies is worth the time. Great tape! The "Voice Studies" all come in clean white j-cards with simple black font - very serious and no nonsense. I would like to hear them all! (Thurston Moore contributed to the series, but his tape is sold out.)

Janek Schaefer is a London based sound architect, which is convenient because before he began creating musical art he actually studied architecture! This academic training didn't last as he discovered what amazing structures could be built with sonic walls. Since I'm from Austin, TX the phrase "Asleep at the Wheel" brings to mind country music made by a band also named Asleep at the Wheel, but Schaefer's album IS NOT country music. It is a collection of original music from an installation which took place at Milton Keynes International Festival 2010. Side A is labeled "Driving Through Dawn" and contains a variety of compositions that drift by like shadowy figures glimpsed from the peripheral vision of an insomniac driver. The crackling warp of far off melodies disappear then return and guitar lines rise out of half remembered songs before they too become paranoid reminders of dark secrets left behind in a town no one wants to recall. Schaefer's composition is the REAL soundtrack to the movie Drive. Side B is labeled "Wonderful" and is the slight ray of hope at the end of a dark film. Sustained drones are the glue that hold together this piece of ambient music and what a compliment to the first side's fractured half awake state of uncertainty. Very cool!


Buy HERE.