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| Updated: 4/02/09 | © 1999 - 2009 Cool Bunny Media | Da Cool Bunny sez 'Spank that Plank, Baby!' | |
Neu Harmony |
InfoPoint Contact: Tel: 01427 890758 Email: For those who enjoy what is now termed 'Electronica', and the rest of us call 'synth music like what Tangerine Dream used to play [and arguably still do]', then Harmonized should be sheer pleasure for your ears. The seven tracks on this CD compilation brilliantly showcase many of the artists on Dave Law's Neu Harmony label. Asana and Airsculpture each have a brace of tracks: the X-Files conspiracy homage Re-Embodiment and the more ambient sounding Gold, and the very TD-like Pogofish and Translucent Edge respectively. Then there's the rhythmic sequencer beats of Under The Dome's Launch and the slow- burning Flussiger VierTakter [translation, anyone?], finally a single track by veteran synth maestro Paul Nagle, the extremely atmospheric Lore. Harmonized is that almost impossible concept, a compilation album with 100% quality music and no filler. If you've not explored the Neu Harmony catalogue, buy this first and prepare to be very pleasantly surprised. Lyle
Newton - Light At The Edge As with many of the names on the Neu Harmony label, Lyle Newton is unknown to me, but I think that he is the sole American artist on the label. As with Mark Shreeve's Embryo album the spread of instrumental 'voices' is limited but far more interesting and pleasing to the ear. With 19 tracks spread over 76 minutes, there are few epics on this album, and some tracks tend to just fade into nothingness. Opening track Moon Over Elmora is a good introduction, a gentle, rather spacious percussion track overlaid by some meandering synth lines. One Step At A Time is better, a rather more commercial sounding track with an actual melody one can hum. The Search has a pulsing sequencer riff overlaid by what sounds like a honky tonk synth line, and sounds a little like a tv theme. Overall, Light At The Edge Of Darkness is a little overlong, with some of the tracks sounding underdeveloped, but there is a lot of very listenable music here and Lyle Newton is a musician to watch out for in the future. In many ways Trikuti reminds me of those early Vangelis albums which featured techno babble voice-overs giving the music a pseudoscientific veneer. Indeed, Trikuti is one of the most rhythmic album reviewed here, at times veering closely towards techno and drums ‘n’ bass club music. Normally I don’t like that type of music as it is usually very monotonous, but this album is anything but that - instead it is one of the most infectious ‘play again’ albums I’ve heard in a long time. Just listen to Union of Knowledge or Signals to see hear what I mean. Asana is the pseudonym for composer Dave Barker, and once again it’s a case of a single person performing/sampling everything on the album. As with the Jim Kirwood CD Trikuti has a concept, one that should appeal to X Files fans as it deals with UFOs and alien kidnapping and invasion. Airsculpture - Thunderhead (NH009) Thunderhead is one of the best synth-driven albums I’ve heard in a long time, strongly influenced by 70’s period Tangerine Dream and favouring a Dream-like trio of keyboard players. This album has it all: space-evoking sounds, cosmic riffs, rumbling bass-line that weaves in and out of the melodies. Airsculpture are Adrian Beasley, John Christian and Peter Ruczynski, and the music on the album is based on spontaneous improvisation, with a few minor overdubs to clean up the sound afterwards. Highlight of the album is the title track, a thirty-one minute masterpiece of slow burning control, restraint, and atmosphere that is probably the nearest thing most of us will get to travelling in space. The rest of the album: Dark Design, Aerostatic, Polarvoid and Pogofish are of the same equally high standard. Quite bluntly this is one of the best albums Tangerine Dream never recorded but should have!) Airsculpture - Fjord Transit (NH012) Airsculpture take as their frame of reference the music of Tangerine Dream from circa 1975-79, a time when TD were renowned for their sequencer-led improvisation. TD's music may be more structured and formal now but Airsculpture are still the leaders when it comes to improvisation, and their new album Fjord Transit is a great example of this. Recorded live at the 1999 Eurosonic festival in Sweden, the album begins with the title track a thirty minute plus stunner of slow-burning ambience that shines under the midnight sun. Traditional Folk Music, the next track, is a little more high octane, not least 'cos it has a more industrial and spacey feel to it. Gloria Mundi returns to the feel of the first track, more slow burn but with a sequencer riff growing in intensity. Compared to previous albums, the use of sequencers is muted, and the overall feel here is of the ambient sound that you find on a Brian Eno album. Considering this was recorded at an outdoor venue, the sound is crystal clear, and the improvisations are of a high quality. This is a landmark album which deserves to be widely heard.
Paul Ellis - Appears To Vanish (NH016)
As well as their Neu Harmony label, SMD have also produced two compilation CDs which highlight the best in British electronic music. Some of the musicians listed above are featured, along with T-Bass, Redshift, Paul Ward, John Dyson, Andy Pickford and many more. Compilation Disc #1 and Is There Anybody Out There are available from SMD [and Music & Elsewhere], Three quid per CD should be enough to bring you some musical nirvana. SMD also publish a regular newsletter and catalogue and they operate a membership scheme offering discounts on purchases from their label and catalogue. |
Neu
Harmony is the record label offshoot of distribution/mail order company
Synth Music Direct, and is dedicated to the best in electronic music.
The following albums are representative of the Neu Harmony ‘sound’
and prime examples of what you can expect when ordering from SMD.
Jim Kirkwood - Tower Of Darkness (NH001)
Airsculpture - Impossible Geometries (NHCD 003)
Airsculpture - Attrition System (NH004)
Under
The Dome - The Demon
Arcane - Gather Darkness (NH010)
Weird - A Different Kind Of Normal (NH011)
Kubusschnitt - The Cube (NH013)
Mark Shreeve - Embryo
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This
was Neu Harmony’s debut album, and at the time (1993) must have
been an impressive introduction to the label. The music is a mixture
of short and lengthier tracks, most based on a strong rhythmic backing
with bright, irresistible melody lines interweaving above that. From
the cover illo and the track titles there appears to be gothic or dark
fantasy theme running through the album: The Mad God, Perilous Ground,
Time stream, Requiem For An Immortal, Legion of Dawn, Forgotten Realms,
The Dreaming Lord. Thankfully there are no sleevenotes offering
up a storyline, so you can make up your own screenplay to match the
epic style of the music. Jim Kirkwood is a very able composer and musician
and this is an impressive album mixing influences of TD, Hawkwind and
Kraftwerk together into something very new.
This
was Asana's [aka David Barker] debut album for Neu Harmony back in 1994,
and it is rather different to much of the music made by many of NH's other
artists. For a start Shrine wouldn't sound out of place in the
clubs, the music has a definite dance beat, and uses repetitive sound
voice samples and chants. Ideal for raves and the chill-out tents at Glastonbury.
Unlike Asana's later album Trikuti with its strong sci-fi alien
invasion conspiracy theme, Shrine is sci-fi lite, with track titles
such as Ascent, Jupiter, Scan F, Radiant, Dream, Saviour, Shrine
and Children of the Earth. This is a fine album if perhaps a little
anonymous in character, when compared to Trikuti, but it should
please those going through withdrawal symptoms from a lack of Kraftwerk
new material, and I did enjoy it a lot.
This
was Airsculpture's debut album and somehow I'm not surprised to hear all
the hallmarks of their later albums already in place. Airsculpture are
a trio, Adrian Beasley, John Christian and Peter Ruczynski, though when
you hear the group in action you'd be very hard pressed to know who is
playing what on each track - imagine a six-handed creature and perhaps
you're almost there. Anyway, back to Impossible Geometries, three
tracks, the first is called Floe and is a twenty-five minute tour
de force of ambience and sequencer programming. It's arctic ice for the
first ten minutes then wham! [no, not the group] a sequencer riff opens
up the soundscape and we're off. The following tracks, Impossible Geometries
and Stranger Tractors, both follow the same formula - slow gentle
beginnings and gradually kicking up a level some way in. Airsculpture
are something very special - they're original.
Europa
is another live recording, but this time one performed in front of an
audience in Holland. There are five tracks [though six show up on the
CD screen], all titleless, varying in length from six minutes to twenty-four
minutes, so a variety of soundscapes to immerse yourself into. Part
One starts with some swirling ambience that swishes between the speakers
for several minutes as various synths and sequencers start to mould the
sounds into something cohesive. It's all very dreamlike, and it isn't
until seven minutes in that a rhythmic sequencer riff appears lifting
the momentum of the music - from then it is freefall ride as the three
banks of synths interact lifting the music higher and higher. Part
Two again starts slow but a mid tempo sequencer riff quickly comes
in to push things along until the music is rocking. Part Three
again starts slow, building up atmosphere with a variety of ambient sounds,
allowing the melody lines to morph in slowly for the climax. Part Four
begins with a quasi-classical orchestral sound mixed with ambient swirls,
slowly resolving into an uptempo riffathon with sequencers rocking away,
only to die away again into what can only be described as the ambience
of an electronic jungle. Part Five begins with an eerie almost
choral intro that quickly evolves into a raging sequencer riff which grows
wilder by the second. The final part is, I think, the encore, and pretty
much summarises all the musical moods and soundscapes visited throughout
this outstanding album. This is live music warts and all [though very
few of them to my ears!] and is an excellent example of all that is good
about Airsculpture.
Under
The Dome consist of the duo Grant Middleton and Colin Anderson playing
an assortment of synths and guitars. The Demon Haunted World contains
four tracks, the opener Flüssiger Vier-Takter being most obviously
a homage to Tangerine Dream, with its beautifully layered cosmic 70's
sound - though I'm sure I heard a little tribute to Gary Numan's gothic
synth sounds as well. The Aeon's Day opens with some sumptuously
spacious [and swirling] ambient sounds, bringing to mind sounds rattling
around the cosmos. This continues for over four minutes until the sequencers
kick in with a pulsing cyclical rhythm and a crystal sounding lead line
begins a melody that takes over twenty minutes to complete. The Bridge
is another lengthy trip into spacious ambience, before diving into cosmic
winds and kicking into some rocking sequencer riffing. The final track
Hell opens with a touch of Hammer Horror gothic: choral synths
laying down huge slabs of Dantesque wailing sounds from which short melody
and rhythmic sequences start to appear, lifting the music back up into
space again. Overall, this is a very fine album which conjures a lot of
mind images and is getting played quite often.
The
opening minutes of Paul Nagle's Lore album reminded me [a little]
of the sort of ambient backdrops that Brian Eno created on those groundbreaking
EG albums back in the 1979's. But then Chill Factor broadens out
with washes of Spanish guitar, violin and synth loops, along with assorted
percussion and beeps and boops until it takes on the air of some Latin
electronica. Anachronist starts very cosmic, with a spaciousness
that is impressive, this morphs into a gentle sequencer loop fleshed out
with choral synths and some Floydian guitars, all rolling towards a grand
climax before gently slowing down again with some oriental sounding synths.
Title track Lore continues the oriental feel by opening with the
sounds of a gong and chimes, and then some four minutes in a lovely theme
on synths appears taking the listener on a flight of fancy. Final track
Cascade mixes the cosmic and oriental together into a section that
is both tender and reflective, then it kicks into a rocky pulsing sequence
before ending with some gentle cosmic vibes. This is certainly a very
distinctive and original album with much to recommend it, not least the
sympathetic accompaniment by fellow collaborators Tony Bateman, Andy Boland,
Rick Curran and Matthew Shepherd.
According
to the sleevenotes Arcane go back all the way to 1972 and hail from one
of electronic music's birthplaces, Dusseldorf, in Germany. Contemporaries
of Kraftwerk, Arcane struggled for success for five years, only to fold
when one of its three members died in 1977. The two survivors, Gerhard
Schreck and Hans-Ulrich Buchloh, reformed the band last year and Gather
Darkness is the result of their new collaboration. Opening track Dystopian
Fictions is a very melancholic slab of sequencer rhythms, and the
title track is even slower, harbouring a very gothic feel. Indeed the
whole album exudes an unyielding gothic atmosphere, with sections of the
music being eminently suitable for a modern day 'Hammer Horror' - this
is especially so on Requiem. Despite the low key style of the music
here, I rather like Gather Darkness, it should suit those who like
their music to brood a bit.
Weird
are listed as Baron De Weird and Count De Weird on various keyboards and
guitars - so I think it's safe to assume we've got a right pair of jokers
here. Opening track Klaus To The Edge is a bubbling sequencer riffer
[with a good pun in the title], quite poppy in a Magic Fly sort of way.
Schaltzeit Nachtweit is a guitar-led bit of ambience, 9VFE10M
carries on in the same vein, though with a much sparser feel to it. Tiefenfluss
is another upbeat sequencer rifferolla with some nice electric guitar
soloing on top. The title track slows things down to a simple echo-laden
guitar led slice of prime electronica. A Different Kind Of Normal
is a surprisingly jaunty sort of album, very uptempo but without the bass
heavy beats. Weird but wonderful.
It's
encouraging to see musicians still using the synthesiser to explore sound
and space, and not relegating it to the creation of moronic dance beats.
Hey, Rave On!?! No, Kubusschnitt are true sonic explorers - The Cube
should definitely please those who've not had enough Tangerine Dream,
as the Kubusschnitt sound closely follows the original TD template: synths,
synths and more synths - no guitars, saxes, etc. The album's title track
starts with some fine sequencer riffing that slowly dies away into quiet
spacey passages. Wormhole begins with Ronnie 'Raygun' Reagan spouting
forth about alien invasions and Star Wars [his version], easing into some
gentle melody lines and beats. Ra is more spatial meanderings,
very slow, very relaxing. Track 4 is the magnum opus, a 27 minute intergalactic
trip to Alpha Three - a bit like travelling on that Pan Am space
liner in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Finally, Hypercube is a return/remix
of track one, but more rocky. Kubusschnitt are Andy Bloyce, Tom Coppens,
Ruud Heij and Jens Peschke, and long may they explore space. By the way,
Star Trek fans will love the album sleeve with its space art, and the
Borg-like cube...
Arcane
hail from Germany, which in 'electronica' terms is the motherland for
sequencer-led electronic music. Future Wreck is one of those brooding,
almost gothic monster albums that creep up on you over the span of several
listens to proclaim its greatness. Arcane date back to the early 70's
but this new album by surviving members Gerhard Schreck and Hans-Ulrich
Buchloh and an unidentified new member is bang up to date with four lengthy
tracks of sequencer riffing and cosmic exploration. The title track opens
with some gentle choral flute lines that shift after a few minutes into
the first sequencer riff which then continually shift and mutate over
the next twenty minutes. The Plastic Eaters starts with pulsating
electronic heartbeat underlined by some eary bell sounds, this slowly
increases tempo, with new melody lines slowly adding to the mix, until
a fast sequencer riff and percussion kick in and take the track into flight.
Classic slow burn tactics that work beautifully. The final tracks, The
Visible Empty Man and Planet of the Blind, using a mixture
of the previous formulas are equally good. Future Wreck is Arcane's
most accessible album to date and I enjoyed it immensely.
This is the CD reissue of Mark Shreeve's
first album, dating back to 1980, and one has to admit that it shows.
The sound and music is very minimalist, the four tracks employ only a
few sonic voices to carry Shreeve's ideas, and one of these is a rather
irritating buzz-saw sound that takes a while to get used to. Opening track
The Keeper is a near thirty minute exploration of this soundscape,
rather chameleon-like, forever changing moods and sounds. Impressive if
you enjoy minimalism. Alive lives up to its name and is certainly
more lively, a simple sequencer piece that goes around in circles for
a couple of minutes. Embryo, another lengthy track, starts with
some very brooding synths, pulsing under a cyclical slow lead line that
eventually fades into something much more upbeat twelve minutes or so
in. Final track Iceflakes is another slow, almost ambient piece,
very reflective. Embryo is a very impressive album, though extremely
stark and not easily approachable for the occasional EM listener.