Arvo Zylo's acclaimed "333" release re-envisioned, re-constructed,
re-animated, and so forth. 33 artists, including Dave Phillips, Sudden
Infant, Hans Grusel, Bran (...) Pos, Vertonen, Bull of Heaven, Bruce
Lamont, Bride, Skulsyr (TOMB, Dreadlords), Protman, Insect Deli, and
more. Features cover art* by Yasutoshi Yoshida (Government Alpha)
*inverted with permission.
DVD comes in a jewel case with professional full color art by Yasutoshi
Yoshida. Menu design by Jason Ogawa and Arvo Zylo, featuring reworkings
by 33 artists, as well as the original "333" album by Arvo Zylo.
Contributions include videos and a surround sound piece.
*At this time, it looks like there will be a version with less than 33 artists and a proper DVD menu, as well as an edition with all of the material that is a data DVD, due to an oversight in terms of how DVD menu design works.
The following releases are available now.
A collection of live recordings initially intended as a bonus for a special edition version of Blood Rhythms' 2015 LP "
Assembly" that never happened, these are reissued recordings from a scarce tape in 2009, remastered by Zach Adams.
Live group performances around this time featured Daniel Burke (Illusion
of Safety), Michael Krause (Death Factory), Michael Kendrick (Rope),
Travis (ONO), and several other appearances from friends and respected
stalwarts. There is a gradual evolution evident here, where the first
show (April Fool's Day, 2007) started with as many blaring horns as
could be mustered, and from there, group outings gradually morphed into a
sort of krautrock / industrial / scrap metal / synth damage ensemble.
All recordings here were captured direct from the soundboard (before
post production/meddling), except for Ronny's, and Elastic Arts, which
was mixed down from a room recording and a direct soundboard recording.
Architeuthis Dux is a noise unit from Austin, TX, perhaps best known for
their heavily engaging, blistering harsh noise performances. Active
since 2012, the duo of Kenny Brieger and Tony Duran have created an
impressive oeuvre of mostly limited CDR editions, some in quantities as
low as 15 copies.
Through over a dozen releases, there have, on many occasions, been
moments of what one can only call "blissed out abrasions"; Traversing
territory that comes off with an almost kraut-rock oriented synth
meltdown glaze, topped off with lo-fi metallic clang, shrieking
industrial grit, and just generally bleak and tortured, surgical steel
atmospheres.
NO PART OF IT proposed to hone in on these reflective moments, and
compiled a morass of penetrating, expertly organized cacophony that
serves to stand apart, or give way to, the rest of Architeuthis Dux's
more aggressive power electronics and heavy electronic work. The result
is just under an hour of crisp sampling, damaged percussion, and
simultaneously subdued, yet clearly pissed off pedal action that could
stand up to SPK's early live sets, or Nurse With Wound's darkest
moments.
Machine Listener began with such a name due to a project that is based
on exploring and exploiting inherent characteristics from machines, and
making compositions from them. In the beginning, it seems that
everything from home printers to huge factory generators were used as
sources. Their electromagnetic signals or the frequencies they emitted,
or simply the noises they make, were the basis of compositions by sound
artist Matthew Gallagher. Eventually, of course, Gallagher moved into
sourcing the potential of synthesizers, both as machines and as
instruments.
It can be assumed that Machine Listener's pure synth LP ("Endless
Coil"), now out on Tusco Embassy (where we can guess that machines were
used for their proper intention) came after "Sentient System", released
in extremely limited quantities by noise-filth veteran Wyatt Howland
(Skin Graft) on his own SK SK label in 2014. It is not up to us to say
how "Sentient System" was created, but it is safe to assume that a
little of both of these approaches were traversed, and as a result,
"Sentient System" could be considered the apex of Machine Listener's
adventures with mechanical, aleatoric components of industry.
Whatever the case may be, "Sentient System" is unlike any other
recording you'll ever hear. It is both excellent in terms of composition
and also permeated with a conceptually sound "hands off" approach, with
caterwauling animal behavior, screeching panic signals and pervasive
cicada hum. Some segments of these soundscapes could fit perfectly as
cerebral, revelatory moments in a particularly head-fucked horror film,
hewn with a certain feeling for a desolate science fiction future, or
simply in mindscapes where pure noise is the end and the means. The
release stands on its own, and apart from the rest, but at the same time
is extremely important in adding to the legacy of industrial noise.
Originally limited to a criminally low quantity of copies, we here at NO
PART OF IT are extremely excited to bring this release to a wider
audience.
Arvo did an article on Chicago theatre organist Dennis Scott for
NewCity. Copies will be around news stands until the 15th or so.
Arvo has prepared a guest podcast or two for Mid-Valley Mutations, a radio show in Montana on
KMUZ FM.
There will also be some select NO PART OF IT releases being offered as
part of their pledge drive. There is a podcast focused on
Halloween/Monster Music, and a podcast giving a little overview of some
select NO PART OF IT releases, past and present, that would fit autumn
night/ leaf-bluster criteria. It will be on October 14th, and archived
at the
Mid-Valley Mutations site.
Arvo did a floppy disk release limited to 13 copies, on
a label in France. The audio is just under 40 minutes long, of exclusive material. Comes enclosed in a handmade sleeve made of sandpaper.
The Architeuthis Dux / Arvo Zylo "The Unbegotten Source" collaboration is now available in the
K.R.E. TAPES store. This is a pro CD-R in a DVD case.
We have
a couple of copies of this marvelous release by
Contagious Orgasm on Polish industrial label
Impulsy Stetoskopu.
"Loop Liberation" is a single 45 minute long piece from 1997, from what
we'd consider, to some extent, Japan's one-man answer to COIL, since
1987. Pro CDs come in tin cases with professionally printed covers.
We don't know if there are any other places to get this release without
paying overseas shipping. $13 plus $3 shipping. paypal nopartofit at
gmail dot com.
Orders now come with a new sticker, of an image by
Christopher ILTH, initially used in the first NO PART OF IT release,
TRUNCULENCE, in 2008.
Arvo was on
WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM today. No talking at all.
Feel free to tune in retroactively.
Some choice morsels by
Black Sabbath,
Divine,
J. G. Thirlwell, Modelbau (
Frans de Waard),
Ilhan Mimaroglu,
Psychic TV,
Contagious Orgasm,
Adel Souto (156), World of Dreams (
Wm M Berger), Vertonen (
blake edwards), Death Factory (
Michael Krause),
Thirteen Hurts / 13Hz,
Pierrot Lunaire, Simony (featuring
Scott Scholz),
Karl J. Palouček,
Betty Davis psych soul produced by
Miles Davis circa 1968 (the "lost album"), and more!
Arvo Plays Ferrante & Teicher was aired on
WFMU's My Castle of Quiet with Wm. Berger's "Noise Bliss Out #5", alongside Incapacitants, Kakerlak, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Actuary, and others. Thanks Wm!
Arvo Plays Ferrante & Teicher was mentioned on the
tabs out website segment Look at These Tapes
WILT was reviewed by
Heathen Harvest. Thanks to Nicola V. of Turgid Animal for writing it, here is an excerpt:
When I finally managed to listen to the whole album consciously and in a decent setting, my impressions were confirmed: Nocturnal Requiem is a plunge in total decay, death, and quasi-melancholic occult soundscapes.
The now-classic pairing of
seventies/eighties cinematic ambient synthesizers and murky, dirty noise
works unusually well here. Much of the time when musicians try to do
this, one of two elements tends to overwhelm the other, or the mix just
ends up sounding like two records playing at the same time. Instead, in
Wilt’s case, the synths sound distant, cold, and otherworldly, while the
boiling, brooding, almost incessant noise filth is never invasive,
holding up perfectly well as counterpoint or sound carpet. I imagine
this is pretty close to what John Carpenter would be playing now if he got into early Mauthausen Orchestra thirty years ago.
The occasional metal junk bashing and
classic, slow industrial loops enrich the array of sounds and blend in
well with them. It perfectly conveys that bizarre impression of
listening to some imaginary, massive rusty factories working and rotting
in the distance that’s a staple of old-school industrial music.
I’d really have to recommend Nocturnal Requiem
to synth, dark ambient, and noise fanatics alike. There are many
details to discover with multiple listens, and the album doesn’t get old
easily.
Ataraxic Ataxia was reviewed by Frans de Waard at
Vital Weekly:
For one reason or another I thought I heard the heard Ataraxic Ataxia
before but it seems I am mistaken. I only found one release for this duo
of electronics and violin, as produced by Dominick Dufner and Nicole
Pizzato, who hail from Columbia, Missouri, and that release is 'Shadow
Sea'. According to Discogs previously available as a digital release, but
the cover also mentions a release in an edition of 23 copies by Side Of
The Sun Recordings (No Part Of it mentions they also had a bunch of
other, very limited releases). So you could easily believe there is some
interest in this material. I am not sure why, other perhaps than that this
is unavailable at the moment. There are six pieces of music on this
release, and all of them seem to me to be the result of improvisation.
One of the pieces is recorded in concert and that's the moment when
the music is really loud and noisy. I prefer the other five pieces, in which
we find the violin to be pleasantly played against a backdrop of more
noise oriented electronics, but whoever is responsible keeps it under
control; most of the time that is. In 'Shotguns, Phrenology And A Steady
Hand', the noise prevails and there is some serious string abuse, but it
followed by the great subdued tones of 'If It Happens Once, It May As
Well Have Never Happened'. Ataraxic Ataxia walks the fine line between
industrial noise patterns and improvised violin and they do a pretty
neat job. Sometimes a bit long as is to be expected, but pretty decent
noise anyway.
Blood Rhythms'
Cutting Teeth was reviewed by
Vital Weekly, as well as
Arvo Plays Ferrante & Teicher:
Recently, so it seemed, Arvo Zylo started a 'campaign' to release much of his music, some of
which was recorded several years ago, or music that has been out of print for a while. Much of
that deals with his group with fluctuating membership Blood Rhythms. The first time I heard
their music was the LP 'Assembly', which I enjoyed a lot (Vital Weekly 965) and if I understood
correctly, the original idea was to have 'Cutting Teeth' as part of a special of that record. The
minimalism of the LP, captured in lots and lots of loops, is not what we find on 'Cutting Teeth',
which is six long pieces of live improvisations. Blood Rhythms are about many things, you see.
Each of the six pieces has Arvo Zylo playing with other people, all recorded live in the period 2007
to 2009, and there are lots of people on this release of whom I never heard of, with the most
notable exception of Dan Burke, of Illusion Of Safety fame. The opening piece is a rather traditional
piece of improvised music, with a large group of people carefully playing their instruments. Not a
particular great piece. The second piece is by a smaller cast of players and more about the noise
edge, banging in scrap metal and detuned radios. The smallest line-up is to be found in the third
piece, only Zylo and Michael Krause in what is a pretty straightforward improvisation for pure noise
waves, not unlike Merzbow, but not as loud. Of more interest in my opinion are the next two pieces
in which Zylo and a group of people play wind instruments, such as French horn, trumpet, baritone
and electronics (although the latter only in the fourth piece), which have a great modern classical
ring to it, very Niblock like in a way, but then without the refinement, but which makes this I think
two great pieces; I wish these excerpts were a bit longer. The final piece is another pretty straight-
forward noise piece. I quite enjoyed the diversity of this particular release, even when
I didn't seem to enjoy each individual piece.
On the solo front Zylo releases 'Heavenly Sound In Lo-Fidelity: Arvo Plays Ferrante And
Teicher'. I never heard of them, but then I am also not fully emerged in the history of what "could
be called part of the "percussion craze" of the late 50s, or "proto exotica" as Zylo describes them.
Ferrante & Teicher played the grand piano and later on prepared pianos for more rhythmical sound.
Zylo has fifteen records by this duo along with other records of this kind of percussive music and
on these two cassettes he explores these records. One could use the word 'remixing', or 'recycling'
and perhaps 'plunderphonics' is a word that is hard to avoid in this context. Zylo composed
fourteen pieces; numbered 'One' to 'Fourteen' and style wise it ranges from the plunderphonics
side of things to spacious ambient textures. The first lot I have some problem with. It sounds too
easy to sample a bit of a record and loop/play that around set against a bunch of these samples.
That was perhaps not bad in the hands of John Oswald or The Tape-beatles, but it's by now a bit
worn out. When Zylo stretches out his sounds, make them into long form sound scapes I am very
pleased with the result, such as the string heavy 'Seven'. This is ambient industrial music at its
best, and luckily these pieces are in a majority here. The plunderphonics part effectively makes up
about a quarter from the total release, which at eighty minutes might also be a bit long I thought.
Zylo created some excellent pieces using the time stretched string and percussion sounds and
moves gentle around with these sounds, but could make the same perfect point in a somewhat
more limited time frame. (FdW)
––– Address:
http://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/
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http://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/
BLOOD RHYTHMS was aired on Little Fyodor's
"Under The Floorboards" radio show on KGNU. Here is the playlist.
- Reverand Leadpipe & His Pipe Wielding Swingers - Germglish - N/a
- Claudzilla - Mare Serentatis - Pocket Lizard
- Jay T. Yamamato - Ambient Study #4 - Soundtracks For The New Strange
- Inside/Outside - Territory Part 5 - Territory
- Ulrich Krieger - Desert Center - /raw:respace/
- Paisley Nightmare - Wreckage (Goodbye Sweetie) - Rest To Slaughter
- Ryan J. Boyd - Vector To Mind Control - The World And Its Parts Disc Two
- TENTATIVELY, A CONVENIENCE, - Lost In Translation Magic Square MiniDisc Shuffle Average #4 - Significantly Different From The Other One
- Disism - What Mere Words Can Never Say - Berlin Way
- Blood Rhythms - Maggots Drag (Notte Del Casu Marzu) - Heuristics
- Ekoplekz - Late Night - Me And My Rhythm Box
- Beisspony - Good Is The Devil's Definition Of Capitalism - Brush Your Teeth
- Charles Rice Goff III - Here We Go Round - The Nonfiction Of Glarmen Glamours
- Ryan J. Boyd - Mr. Happy Pants - The World And Its Parts Disc Two
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