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ASM - Pure Electronics
Self-released CDR reissue of the Self Abuse cassette from 1996, with one bonus track.
Bas van Koolwijk & Christian Toonk - Colortron
Dutch artist Bas van Koolwijk transforms video feedback into audio using his own homemade hardware and software, perhaps similar to Gert-Jan Prins but more connected to the art world than than to music. "Colortron" is his second collaboration with Christian Toonk, from Utrecht, on Toonk's Umatic label.
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Kazunao Nagata - The World of Electronic Sound
The mysterious Kazunao Nagata runs the somewhat mainstream dance-music label Transonic and plays in the rather friendly drum'n'bass/techno/disco band Fantastic Explosion. But if that's all he did, his four solo albums would not be here at Bleak Bliss. For a short while in the late 1990's, Transonic had a small sub-label called Zero Gravity, which produced a handful of albums that are unlike any other music I can think of. All are adorned with impeccably-designed cover art that resembles a mid-1970's conception of what the future might look like, bold colors set on (mostly) white backgrounds, almost menacingly sterile. The music is maybe an outgrowth of ambient techno, but taken in a direction that no other travelers have followed.
Nagata himself only ever made four solo albums, all published on Zero Gravity and all titled The World of Electronic Sound. The first one is the most normal (relatively speaking, anyway), but the next three veer off into territory for which there are no adequate descriptive words. The sounds are as stark and brutally clinical as the graphic design, and yet... somehow... there's something else happening. I'm not sure what it is.
It's a shame Nagata didn't make any more albums like these... as far as I can tell, he only does the techno thing these days. But I suppose if you make four albums as fascinating and inscrutable as these, you've earned the right to sit back, take it easy and make disco for awhile.
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Kazunao Nagata - The World of Electronic Sound 2 (In Concert 1996 & 1997)
Here we go. Nagata stretches out with a document of two live extra-planetary explorations.
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Kazunao Nagata - The World of Electronic Sound 3
Shorter tracks on this installment, more song-like than volumes 2 and 4 but no less thrilling.
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Kazunao Nagata - The World of Electronic Sound 4
The furthest out of all Nagata's solo albums (all of which are further out than most), The World of Electronic Sound 4 contains one massive, brutally cosmic track called "History of Showa".
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Seiji Nagai & α - Electronic Noise Improvisation 1999
Solo noise from a former Taj Mahal Traveller, who shifted to India when the group disbanded in the mid-1970's. As far as I can tell, this is the only album he's produced since then. α is a pseudonym for Minoru Yonemoto, whose output seems to be limited to a 3"CDr (unheard by me) and a split lathe-cut 8" record with Eso Steel.
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Nerve Net Noise - 160/240
So you think you're tough, do ya? You like harsh noise? Yeah? No problem for you, is it toughie? Well, get ready to weep. You cannot make it through this album. It's not that the music is even particularly harsh. It is not aggressive. The sleeve is entirely white, no imagery for helpless listeners to grab onto. The sound is merciless: two synthesizers bleeping dispassionately, one synth on each half-hour track and zero human interaction. Indeed, no humanity at all. The only other sound you'll hear is the soft sobbing coming out of your defeated face after five minutes.
Oh, but I'm mistaken. There will be another sound, though you won't be able to make it out very well. Listen closely, and you might be able to discern the distant echo of derisive chuckling. Hear it? Good. That would be me, laughing at you. You said you were tough. Look at you now. Reduced to blubbering by a little album of music. Pathetic.
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Sonic Boom - The Art of Sound
A 2xCD compilation that came inside the catalogue for an exhibition at Hayward Gallery, London, called Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound, curated by David Toop in 2000. The catalogue itself is a well-designed hard-bound book full of photos and essays. If sound art and/or art-leaning music interests you, the book is well worth seeking out. The CDs by themselves, though, are interesting on their own, with tracks by Christian Marclay, Ken Ikeda, Scanner, Christina Kubisch, Lee Ranaldo, Ryoji Ikeda, Disinformation, Phillip Jeck, Rafael Toral, Max Eastley, John Oswald, Brian Eno, Angela Bulloch, Thomas Koner, Ian Walton & Russell Mills, Paul Schutze, Pan Sonic, Project DARK, Paul Burwell, and more.
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va - Electronic Music Festival
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Trio Rakant - Kokorosususu
As with all albums on Zero Gravity, "Kokorosusususu" is an hour of brain-expanding synth confusion. The artist behind this one-man "trio" is Akaiwa, who you also probably (don't) know as DJ Stone Free and Strange Garden.
Trio Rakant - Kokorosususu
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Yoshimitsu Ichiraku - The Music of Surround Panner
The in-demand jazz/improv drummer (Icharaku is the I in I/S/O) puts down his sticks and picks up what sounds like a roomful of synthesizers for a scorching set of eardrum-tickling madness. On Zero Gravity, the only appropriate home for a head-spinner as far out as this.
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va - Far East Experimental Sounds: Sounds of Fantasy
Wonderful 2xCD compilation of sub-sub-sub-underground noise/ambient weirdness from Far East Experimental Sounds, a label that was run by the late Takehito Nakezato. Features long tracks by Tagomago (half of the great Nerve Net Noise), drone bassist Tamaru, 8kg, Computer Soup, Bukatu, and Taka Sato.
disc 1
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Anemone Tube / Hunger - Split
C40 featuring Jörg Hochapfel, Christoph Rothmeier and Karsten Hochapfel alongside Anemone Tube on Stefan's Transfixional Entertainment label from 1997.
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Anemone Tube / Tender Love - Inflicted Domain / Blasting Secret Combinations
Apparently Tender Love was the work of M. Headache. This is a C56 split tape on his Inner Space Records label from 1998.
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Yggdrasil / Anemone Tube - Wald
C44 featuring Yggdrasil (aka Michael Krause) and Anemone Tube on Transfixional Entertainment from 1998.
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Tarkatak / Anemone Tube - Split
This features Tarkatak (aka Lutz Pruditsch) reworking Anemone Tube (aka Stefan Hanser) alongside original Anemone Tube work.
Split CDr jointly released on Lutz's Trümmer Kassetten and Stefan's Transfixional Entertainment labels.
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Last Rape / Pollutive Static - Split
Split CDr featuring Richard Ramirez and Sean E. Matzus' Last Rape project and Hal Hutchinson's Pollutive Static. Released on Love Earth Music in 2011.
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Mania / Hal Hutchinson - Split
C30 featuring Keith Brewer's Mania. Released on Hal's deceased Der Bünker Records in 2011.
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