David Schombert, "Metropolis" (Jamendo)

Album cover photo: by Daniel Verson

In the netlabel movement we share experiences and ideas. Due to the nature of the medium, with its download-at-home shared experiences, the music often transports us to imaginary cities of our dreams.

David Schombert's electronica Jamendo release "Metropolis" features a solid set of songs which provide us a rail pass with which to our inward imaginary city. The title track envelops its synth line in chill percussion and robust melodic pads. The result is a smooth down-tempo bit of urban melody, like a walk past tall buildings and small parks at dawn.

"Cyclus' begins with field recordings of gentle noise into which percussion elements subtly intervene. An appealing minimal groove meets a wave of slow melodic pad. A bass line joins the action in an understated way. Mr. Schombert appreciates the power in doing less and implying more. Samples and melody interact. The effect is smooth and infectious.

"Lunapark" transports the listener to a different place, in which in my mind night sounds and urban cool meld into the the fog, to be transformed."Long Step" counterplays a cinematic synth line with a robotic synth line. The effect is vaguely dancefloor and vaguely krautrock.

Although the tracks in Metropolis fit squarely in the electronica camp, each features a human element which moves beyond the machines. A woman's laugh, a chill pad, percussive electro-beats--an intersection which we feel comfortable and at home, but not bored.

"The Beat" has a retro "beats and bass and synth hits" feel about it. The song could be the soundtrack to a sleek 1980 urban detective show set in northern California.

"Trance" mingles percussion and synth elements to achieve a smooth, subtle melodic attack, as if we dined in an Italian restaurant in which the sauce is minimal but full of subtle flavor.

"This way" points us down the one-lane street into a square of bohemian shops, in which one could imagine the sound of women intoning "bon jour!" as one walks in the door, and in which the goods are hand-crafted by local students from the nearby art school.

This collection of instrumental songs transports one to a place which is an imagined Paris or Lisbon or Winnipeg or Osaka--a place in which down-tempo calms overcome the stress and fears of population density. With an mp3 player and these songs, one can walk the streets with a bit more calm, and a jaunty step forward. Perhaps a few instrumental lanes here are familiar, but the feel is "well-beloved street" and not "tired old alley". This release is a good listen, and a soothing cityscape.

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8.0

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If There Is Something Put Your Jacket On (23 Seconds)

I love dance-vibed rock music. I think everyone who has involved in searching and listening of indie music in an obsessive way just can`t ignore it. Though all this stuff is surrounded by massive hype nowadays there are some acts quite symphatetic for me. The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and !!! are among others. Although I am probably one of the fewest who despise the biggest - The Klaxons – the music with cheap melodies and reminiscent of demo-like production in bad sense. However, most dance rock I adore comes from 80s and the beginning of 90s – A Certain Ratio, PIL, Happy Mondays, Flowered Up. There is nothing surprising at all – all these names are the widely known ones. At those times have been made rock music keen more or less on rave and acid house anyway. Beside madchester it was time reserved for exciting crossovers as well – The Heart Throbs (the aesthetic of blonde hair indie rock was blended with dance beats and the presence of David Lynch-ian esoterics), also The Orchids and Field Mice (twee-popsters went on a trip into baggy areas at times). We can`t be without The Fall as well though I don`t share Mark E Smith`s attitude as if The Fall were the only band worth giving a try to honour them as the supreme godfathers of all alternative rockers (including dance-rockers too). Moreover, in the sound of The Fall can be heard the obvious inluences of CAN. For example, Soon Over Babaluma (1974), one of the albums of Cologne quartet, was chronologically one of the first rock/dance hybrids in the first place. Besides it would also weird to think that in a case of recent bands and musicians their would be influenced by the examples of one-two bands only.

Duo Jesper Norda & Åbi Berglund has issued their debut album under the Gothenburgian netlabel 23 Seconds. The label site proclaims that Put Your Jacket On is a true revelation. The opening track Joy Of showcases its true potential – by dazzling through the light of glitterball a journey just began. The essence of this track is specifically hidden into overdriving synth violins in refrain part. The aim of this 33 minute set demonstrates chiefly one very certain tendency – the album is a blending of 80`s and 00`s – post-punkers` monotonic drum-machine sounds and New Order-alike acid bass sequences alongside with fortrightness and electro affinity of the neoravers. These examples are illustrated by the most hit potentiality owning track Danger. I wouldn´t really be wondered about that if some listeners who haven`t immersed into this album would ask on the basis of such tracks as We Sure Aint Got It Like That, and The Word Most Common In is that any of the newest unreleased tracks compilations by The Cure? A little nostalgic stroke is never bad at all, isn`t it. No doubts, the boys are full of potential and I wouldn´t really be surprised if they would be soon as the bigshots on the groove rock/pop music scene worldwide. One of the best albums on that nichè I have had honour to listen to.

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8.0

Oskar Hallbert 1123581321345589 (Zymogen)

Zymogen, the Italian-based netlabel, is very well known by its exclusiveness and high qualitative approach in describing electronic music. By offering electronic sound to people who prefer listening to the music with the headphones rather than to cover in rude beats someone`s dance floor.

1123581321345589 is the sophomore album under Zymogen in this year (the previous one was Nicola Ratti`s èsope). Oskar Hallbert (OH) is a musician who lives in the woods in the northern Sweden. His previous work Sids Apartment EP released under rain music sounded like the music played in finger-pick guitar style in the middle of the street or in a far corner of a crowded public house. This is a conceptual album on the Fibonacci numbers. He was inspired by the perspective that with the Fibonacci numbers it is possible to describe the nature, the proportion of human body and so on. In a word, the life is full of the combinations of numbers.

How could the sound be showcased in practise in reference to this theory? OH has described his initial approach as the improvisation on its own. His album seems to be consisted mainly of short 4-seconds snippets, and 89 tracks. Yet, this colossal schema is housed into 26 minutes. These very short tracks establish a thin ground where we can perceive minimal changes in the soundscape. The new album goes on a trip there where the previous one was finished. In fact, this folktronic sound will have been further developed from a placid frame of mind to overwhelming sadness. In the track 34 (not. ok) the listener will be engulfed by very funest sound sequences. Dolefulness of it will slowly spill over into your thoughts and change into depressive state of your mind. As we know as well good music can been accoutered with affinity to hurt the listeners sometimes. The longer tracks predicate mainly on mini-orchestrated and chamber music tunes. A smorgabord of modern (electronic) music is represented here - some experiments with hiss and noise, electroacoustic aspects, collage music/plunderphonics, field recordings/musique concrete, digital sound processing and spoken word. This conception and approach have beyond doubt some similarities with the works of Curd Duca nearly 10 years ago. Nevertheless, it is very intimately sounding work indeed.

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9.4

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Interview with Dean Birkett

KS: Dean, you are running the netlabel Rack & Ruin records. Why have you chosen such a name? What kind of aims hoped you to reach with this project initially?

DB: Rack & Ruin came about by accident. A music forum where I post had a number of users posting tracks, Eps and albums, as is with the nature of forums, it wasn’t long before these said posts had vanished from the front page and into obscurity. Upon listening to a number of these artists it became apparent that this was a real shame and so I decided to set up a website which was initially going to be a placeholder for these artists to host their music. The said artists contained the likes of Jason the Swamp, Andy’s Airport of Love, Moon Runners, Dublin Duck Dispensary, America Del Sur, Tyson Brinacombe, These are Words, Billy Say, and many many others.... we collectively put our minds together to try and come up with a suitable name which could encapsulate all artists. Initial suggestions involved ’Under the bed records’, and ’Pica Owl records’ (which was actually suggested by PWRFL PWR), but it was Kelly Filreis who came up with ’Rack & Ruin’, she is an artist who has since made a number of Rack & Ruin album covers, alongside working with the likes of Dylan Ettinger on his El Tule tape label. As for how she reached ’Rack & Ruin’, I don’t really know, and perhaps strangely I don’t feel I want to know – it seems to suit that the name is as big a mystery to myself as to any listener.


KS: The music coming out from Rack & Ruin records is ranging from weird electronica to psych folk and lo-fi. What are those connective elements between all of those artists? What is the most important aspect by a band to be recruited?

DB: I touched upon it earlier but the connection is purely another music forum – despite many of the artists sounds being very different, a fairly high percentage of artists all found each other via a music forum set up for a now defunct Canadian band, The Unicorns. As the label grew and started to reach out to more people, that is when I started to receive submissions from new artists and acts that had no connection with The Unicorns forum. I also actively persued some artists, the likes of starstarstar were found on a forum for Animal Collective – I heard a couple of tracks that they did, and felt that they definitely needed to be heard by more listeners. This has also happened recently with the likes of Frost Faire, and I have no doubt will continue to play a part in how I go about finding artists for the label.

There are many things that I look for when opting to put the music out, I do try to find acts that are either going to be very accessible or interesting and different enough, who fit into a niche market. I guess this is why Rack and Ruin really fits, as you can split the name into two seperate entities, Rack being accessible, Ruin being not so accessible. Recently I think the focus has been on the Rack side of things, as there are many many netlabels that are around that feature electronica, ambient, noise, whereas surprisingly in comparison the more accessible indie sounds are thinner on the ground.


KS: You have run your records just over a year while the discography reaches more than 130 albums. What is your success factor to find out all of those artists?

DB: The music forum naturally, along with submissions. It is not unusual for Rack & Ruin to receive 3-5 submissions a week, some really jump out, whereas others either do not fit in with the ’sound and feel’ of the label, or are perhaps better suited with other labels who specialise in particular sounds and genres. There are other places on the net that have helped introduce the label to new artists, the likes of the E6 Townhall, and Collected Animals, as well as of course Myspace.


KS: If to listen to Testicular Manslaughter, Ringo Star/starstarstar, The Macadamia Brothers or someone else I must admit it is really top music to be enjoyed. Maybe my logic is somehow debased but is it possible that Rack & Ruin records may be one of the sublabels of bigger (indie) labels once in the future? Has there been someone showing his/her interest toward your label?

DB: No, Rack & Ruin has evolved into a viable alternative to the more traditional indie labels, and long may this continue. The label is entirely not for profit, and in fact with hosting charges it has cost myself money to keep this project going, but I firmly believe that it is a worthwhile path to take – purely to see where it does actually lead.


KS: On the other hand, what do you think about the situation in the music business world nowadays? Regardless of many attempts to punish people who have illegally uploaded or downloaded music the situation has not been changed at all. In this vein the netlabels give people a legal chance to download files. For example, if to check out for it at archive.org some albums have showcased very high rate of downloading. Obviously it is the acting in a contrary way in reference to the logic of business. I don`t think it that CC-music will already undermine the ground under the feets of major labels while the artists under a CC-licence are very serious competitors for indie labels however. There are even a lot of cases that some netlabels offer CD`s (mostly CD-R`s) as well. What do you think will the logic of netmusic overtake the indie labels?

DB: I think that it is all about giving alternatives, and legal ones at that. Netlabels have been going on for a long time, and although I'm no expert, a lot of releases I remember listenening to years ago were fairly unprovocative electronica. Back then I may check out a track or two, and decide it wasn't for me and move on. Nowadays I find that with more labels, the niche markets are now there, so you can find netlabels who specialise (or at least have an affinity) in areas that may be of interest to the listener. This has meant that netlabels have managed to get a core group of listeners, and not just a band on the label. It is always nice to read someone posting, "Check out Rack & Ruin records", when asked for a suggestion, and not just "Check out Dublin Duck Dispensary, they're on Rack & Ruin records". I think because of this mentality the netlabels are managing to stand-up alongside a lot of the more traditional indie labels.

With regards to competing against indie labels, I don't think that is what netlabels are really about. I think that indie labels do have to concern themselves more with the business model, whereas netlabels aren't really about making money. For myself I see music as an idea that one person (or a group of people) actually have, they have the idea, they nurture it, and then this idea becomes a piece of music. With all ideas that come into fruition they are actually worthless unless you share the idea with others. Therefore music is nothing without people listening to it. I see the netlabels job as allowing people to share ideas legally, and not have to worry about punishment for listenening to someone elses ideas.


KS: You are the Englishman who is living in the Netherlands now. Most music released under Rack & Ruin records is actually coming from the New World. Are the America more enthusiastic in doings with music than Europe?

DB: Again I think The Unicorns are to blame for the most part! A lot of the core musicians are from the US, and Canada, and due to this we do seemingly get an awful lot of artists who contact us from these locations. Recently, and mainly due to the success of Dublin Duck Dispensary, we have had an influx of Irish artists putting out Eps and albums on the label, the likes of A Series of Dark Caves, Western Homes, porn.exe, and soon to be joined by Vincent Lillis.


KS: Maybe it sounds a little provocative but what are your favorite albums released under Rack & Ruin records?

DB: I'm a fan of the latest Various Hits collection, "Never mind the brollies", we wanted to put out a summer hits collection, and I really think that we managed to achieve this. I've already read on various messageboards, and I received some private messages telling me that they think the album is fantastic, some going as far as to suggest it is one of the albums of the year - which is always very nice to hear.

I also have to mention Neil Scrivin's, Twenty years on Ben Nevis. When I heard this, it was before Rack & Ruin came about, and I definitely had this in my mind when I started the label. I think it is a stunning display of 'hauntology', that wouldn't look amiss on a label such as Ghost Box. I still feel that it is criminal that I can't own a physical copy in its very own shiny dualcase.


KS: Besides you are the musician as well. As Almiqui (in collaboration with Steve Bromley aka Gnomefoam) and Sister Ruth (his own one-man-project). When will be released the first and proper LP by Sister Ruth?

DB: I don’t really have the time to work on Sister Ruth (or another Almiqui album), running Rack & Ruin takes up a considerable amount of time as it is – with site updates and promotion.

Rack & Ruin records official site
Sister Ruth on Myspace
Almiqui on Myspace

[Old but important] Paavoharju Tuote-akatemia/Unien Savonlinna (Miasmah)

Talking about a finnish folk music movement, so-called forest folk, it is impossible not to see the impact of the Fonal records in reference to it. The artists who fill the roster are Eleonoora Rosenholm, Islaja, Kiila, Kemialliset Ystävät and Paavoharju amongst others. If we add some other acts like Uton, Lau Nau, Keijo, Vierivä Viiksiportieeri, Hipsu Jänis, Thuoom, Kuupuu, Keijo we can already have a talk about the New Weird Finland movement. The influence of Fonal and New Weird Finland can`t be seen only inside the borders of Finland, but certainly in broader context of the world music scene. Juxtaposing New Weird Finland with its big brother New Weird America, there can see a common part in crossing modern streams of pop music such as indie, ambient, drone, electronic music and roots music with each other. Given that NWA demonstrated that enormous potential of such music filled with inspiring vitality in the first half of 00`s, especially through the albums of Six Organs Of Admittance, Animal Collective, and Phil Elverum`s acts, yet its bucking innovative sonic conceptions have inch by inch and inconspicuously been faden away. I think, it is time for finns to conquer the world and define avant-folk at your own now. If they haven`t done it yet, I would suppose.

Paavoharju seems probably to be the more known act from the finnish scene, first and foremost thanks to their latest release Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008). Maybe the lesser known fact is it that their second release Tuote-akatemia/Unien Savonlinna (2006) was released under Miasmah netlabel. At those time it was a quite unusual behaving act by the artist, whose first album Yhä Hämärää (2005) had been acclaimed by music critics and therefore drew a lot of attention (in fact, I can`t honestly understand why Wikipedia wouldn`t be accepting it as the finns´ second album).

Moreover, Tuote-akatemia/Unien Savonlinna could in a sense be considered as their first album because it had been composed and produced between 2002 and 2006. The opening track Nuo Maisemat is an esoteric mix of digital noises and swirls, expansive sonic layers, beatific female voices (Jenni Koivistoinen) and almost burked rhythm structures. Kuljin Kauas is the one and only track on the album performed at the stage of an open air festival in Finland somewhere. Tavataan 12-07-04 sounds like breathing from Intergalactic Space gently disturbed by overriding feedback effects. Its abstract patterns and playing with motion and speed will give the best possibility to the listeners to relax into your deepest natural meditation and surpass everyday routine. Noises coming out from nowhence over time just to get spilled over into your brain and imagination. The next track The Mitä Sinä Et Ole starts off sounding with dirky dink synth pads which throughout the track get accompanied with the voice effects of Soila Virtanen and digitally elaborated sound tricks swirling overhead. Pepe is a devout “folk pop” song, however, every solid folk group having it in their repertoire would be proud of it anyway. By the way, this album is “dedicated to the Holy of the Holiest”. Also, the two last tracks will continue chalking out the traces of God as well. The brothers Ainala and co are playing game as if they embodied into sonic alchemists sometimes. They as alchemists have been more successful in their doings than any of their predecessors in Middle Ages, having respect and fame rather than in comparison to be excoriated and burnt up to death at autodafe.

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