soundscape – Enfant Terrible

Elektrovolt

Elektrovolt is a Dutch electronic project by Jimi Hellinga who is also part of the Trapper Drone Orchestra. Not a lot of music is getting released… which is strange considering the quality of his work…

As the name suggests it is mostly elektro which you get served… but the new digital album “Dune Magnetic” has quite a lot of variation when it comes to sounds and moods… from classic elektro beats to spacey and trippy krautrock inspired tracks… and the combination of the two… which works very well for me…

Still I like the ambient / soundscape tracks the best… ‘Seqvens A’ for example… a playful and laid-back ambient track… and ‘Duin-Magnetisch Experiment’… which is reminiscent of Klaus Schulze… perfect to trip away on…

Here is promotional video featuring images of Elektrovolt live on stage with knob handling and all that… and you can get the digital release here…

Europ Europ taped

eewaaahawad Recently two tapes found its way to my cassette player… one a split tape from one of my favourite labels out there… Etch Wear… run by one of the Europ Europ musicians… the other one a tape by Den Nya Borgen on the label from blog Repartiseraren blog…

The split tape on Etch Wear features Europ Europ and We Are All Alone Here And We Are Dead (WAAAHAWAD) and is all kinds of awesome… Europ Europ delivers primitive electronic rhythms and lo-fi noises and sounds which all built up in trippy way… truly trance indulging…

WAAAHAWAD on the B-side serves two long tracks of improvised electronics… they have created soundscapes which are at times haunting but at other times are playful… rather psychedelic but not in a way you will often come across…

The other tape by Den Nya Borgen came to me as two remixes are featured on the tape by Enfant Terrible bands… Europ Europ and Neugeborene Nachtmusik… Den Nya Borgen is a new band and this tape is their debut… it is a thematic piece centred around Jeanne d’Arc… three variations on the same theme are delivered but done in a very different way… from a post-punk influenced noise track to a more sci-fi noisy soundscape and finishing with a bit more melodic piece…

The B-side consists of remixes of which the Europ Europ and Neugeborene Nachtmusik are standing out… but also the Michael Idehall and the Ascetic: remixes are superb… but to be honest all six remixes are… the B-side is my absolute favourite of this tape… it is more diverse as the A-side and has more depth in sounds and is more melodic orientated without forgetting to pay tribute the minimal noise side of the original pieces on the A-side…

Below is the Europ Europ remix and below that is a Europ Europ track from the split tape with WAAAHAWAD…

Baldruin

Two weeks ago at the Diamantener Oberhof concert I got the latest Baldruin release. Baldruin is the solo project by one of the musicians from Diamantener Oberhof. Until now several releases are out on tape and the first vinyl is also in production…

The latest release is the tape release Miniaturen on A Giant Fern. As the title might suggest this tape is filled with little pieces of music… the longest being just about two and a half minute and the shortest being just under forty five seconds…

These pieces are playful dreamy ambient music composed with electronics and all kinds of acoustic instruments… just like they are used in the Diamantener Oberhof context… only Baldruin does not have the folklore touch…

I could imagine these short little pieces of music would fit perfectly as soundtrack for film and theatre scenes for example… but on their own they are as enjoyable as well… and that is an understatement!

Dirty Beaches

Ever since I came across Dirty Beaches I have been listening to his records a lot… late last year the latest record “Stateless” was released… and on his website the musician announced this will also be the last ever record under this alias…

With “Stateless” one could argue Dirty Beaches has come full circle so to speak… the musician himself says he has developed into a different direction and thus it is time for something new… still in a way “Stateless” is not very different from the first cd-r album “Old Blood” (2008)…

“Old Blood” features lo-fi ambient music but all moulded into songs more or less… after this Dirty Beaches gradually evolved his music into something more pulsating and rocking… resulting in his first major album “Badlands” (2011)… this records is like Elvis doing his thing together with Suicide…

Absolute highlight in his oeuvre is the double LP “Drifters / Love Is The Devil”… while “Drifters” continues a bit in the style of “Badlands” but a bit more synth driven at times it also has another side to it… the music reminds me of the adventurous and wild side of Novy Svet… it is more the attitude towards music and the energy floating in it as anything else… but in a strange way it does feel like that…

“Love Is The Devil” is more of an ambient record with minimal music and jazz touches to it… totally different from “Drifters” in style… maybe… maybe not… depends on how you listen to the music I guess…

“Stateless” is a logical next step after this with it is long ambient pieces… beautiful moody soundscapes to dream away on… the saxophone gives it a sort of (cool) jazz feeling at times… but it also is reminiscent of these first lo-fi ambient pieces from “Old Blood” but stretched and produced and recorded in a different way so it does not sounds anymore like home recordings as the early stuff did…

I am sure I will enjoy the music by Dirty Beaches for a long time to come and I am very curious to hear what will be next by this musician… here is the last piece from “Stateless”…