tourette001 - tourette003 - tourette004 - tourette005 - tourette006
tourette007 - tourette008 - tourette009 - tourette010 - tourette011
OUT NOW on Tourette Records !
DAO+COH : DZERZHINSK-9
LP, ltd ed. 500
tourette011
(unreleased version of track 1)(prices include shipment)
Normal edition (black vinyl limited to 440 copies)
Art edition (60 red vinyl with signed art print by both artists & 4 different variations of prints)
Russia has had an incredibly interesting and mostly uncredited underground electronic scene for some time. One of its flag bearers has been Ivan Pavlov who has been a longtime contributor to Raster-Noton as well as running the obscure Wavetrap label. He has collaborated with Cosey Fanny Tutti and currently works with other Throbbing Gristle member Peter Christopherson as Soi Song. The LP I’m currently listening to is called DZERZHINSK-9 and is pulled from 1996 recordings which were made with DAO which is Andrej Dao Kolesov. DAO + CoH uses bass, guitars and custom ZX Spectrum and the results are pretty damn awesome. The beats are really energizing while the bass comes through like Jack Dangers in fine form. There is a distinct 90‘s flavour and yet it retains a freshness. ‘Propharadeia’ is a really driving track that makes me shake my body from finger to toe. ‘Oka’ is dark and sinister coming through like an Autechre/Muslimgauze hybrid, seething with eastern paranoia. ‘Sung In Sand' continues the eastern flavour with its building intricate yet subtle percussion and swooping synths. Out on Tourette records. Great stuff!
[Review by Normanrecords]
BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS & VAL DENHAM : Somewhere Between Desire And Despair
digipak cd
tourette010
Normal edition
Art edition (100 copies with exclusive postcard signed by the artists)
"After a couple of collaborations on tracks, Black Sun Productions finally get together with Val Denham for a full length release. Val Denham might be best known for her paintings that have appeared on releases by Marc and the Mambas, Psychic TV... but over the past few years she has been releasing short-run CD-Rs of her lo-fi sounds. Homosexual overtones inform much of Black Sun Productions material but with Val Denham, a transgendered figure, the focus moves on to a new form of sexuality.Somewhere Between Desire and Despair opens with the haunting atmospheric drone of 'A Tale of Two Cities' with Denham reciting lines from Charles Dickens. From then on much of the first half of Somewhere Between Desire and Despair flirts with various forms of electronic music. It's clear from 'Cobalt Blue' that Massimo and Pierce haven't forgotten their past association with Coil, as it picks up on the rhythmic shuddering Coil-like electronics with Denham's voice pitched deep and treated, alongside passages of sped-up processed vocals. Val Denham is something of a character and, at times, she sounds like a Northern housewife reared on a diet of glam records. 'Stars', a Denham collaboration with Testing Vault, goes all downbeat with dark electronics, featuring Denham's idiosyncratic take on a pop vocal. Denhams' voice is almost helium-fuelled on the disco-chug of 'We Are The Hydrogen'. 'Eat Us Mother!' foregoes the electronics for a surprisingly sparkly run through post-punk dynamics. Denham picks up on a rock persona teasing the listener with her shrieky and screechy vocal careering over booming bass and discordant guitar scrapes from her longtime collaborator Oli Novadniek.
Things slow down in the next half with a collection of evocative tracks, much in the vein of Black Sun Productions fantastic OperettAmoralle. The disorientating queasy electronics of 'Absinthe' has Denham relating a tale of alcohol abuse, evoking the Green fairy alongside some effective harmonium and harmonica drone. Many of the tracks here use mournful orchestration taken from a track called 'Morphium' - though the source isn't given. 'Andromeda' taps into the mind of the transgendered artist. It's almost poetic as Denham delivers a spoken vocal in her homely Northern tones. Much more poignant is 'Flowers In The Trenches' which tells of transgendered and transexual soldiers who fought in WWI. Amidst sombre strings and military snare drum rolls Denham speaks of those unnamed and forgotten soldiers who were, in fact, "women in their heads" fighting in another "man-made catastrophe" and "suffered for nothing". Enlightening stuff.
Val Denham really shines on the campy theatrics of 'I Try To Kill The Man' over the Weimar Berlin cabaret sounds of 'Das Lila Lied', an early 20th century homosexual anthem, here performed by the Ophelia Orchestra. Similarly 'Emerald Green' uses the score of Marlene Dietrich's 'Such Trying Times'. Denham is finely positioned to evoke the decadence, sexual transgression and dark wit with her sarcasm and style. Black Sun Productions have, of course, produced their own musical tribute on the works of Bertolt Brecht to tremendous effect and Denham's contributions don't disappoint.
Somewhere Between Desire and Despair is much more fun-filled than previous Black Sun Productions. It strikes a balance between electronic music and cabaret music, and a balance between poignancy and absurdity. It's not the most coherent release, partly due to the varied list of collaborators, but Val Denham manages to carry it all off with a verve and panache, informed by her strength of character, her honesty and humour. Somewhere Between Desire and Despair comes in a 6-panel digipak with wonderful representations of Val Denham's artwork."
[Review by Compulsion]
more info : myspace.com/blacksunproductions + www.myspace.com/valdenham
ANDREW ZEALLEY: THEMES & VARIATIONS
SELECT FILM, VIDEO, INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE MUSIC 2005-2009
black vinyl LP with insert, 31 x 31 cm, signed/numbered edition of 300
tourette009
ANDREW ZEALLEY: THEMES & VARIATIONS is the third installment in Zealley's "How To Explain Silence To A Dead Hare" series of vinyl project editions. The album showcases selected film, video, installation and performance music by Zealley, commissioned by visual artists - including Luis Jacob, Joey Medaglia, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, and Scott Treleaven. Produced by PSBEUYS, THEMES & VARIATIONS is released on Tourette Records (USA). This vinyl-only edition of 300 numbered LP's launches at Art Metropole on Saturday April 25, 1-3 PM.
On THEMES & VARIATIONS, Zealley intersects various aspects of his sound practise: field recordings, audio art, existential house, tonal mantra, and musical form/composition. At the center of THEMES & VARIATIONS are the scores for Scott Treleaven's trilogy of short films: GOLD, SILVER and LUSTRE. Composed and produced in 2005-2006, this group of instrumental compositions is punctuated, for the album, by four thematically-related works: APOTHEOSIS II, HABITAT THEME 2, SIGNAL, and ARENA.
TRACK NOTES:
The score to Treleaven's film on pandrogyny (starring Genesis P'Orridge and the late Lady Jaye Breyer), GOLD's cycling vortex of digital and acoustic sounds is followed by two variations on the same melodic and tonal themes: APOTHEOSIS II (an early audio sketch for GOLD), and HABITAT THEME 2 (developed for Luis Jacob's HABITAT installation at AGO). The plaintive love-pop electronics of SIGNAL, originally produced for Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay's CONSTELLATION performance piece, is newly remixed by PSBEUYS for the album. The swirling dream-scape of SILVER, the score to Treleaven's homage to John Dee (starring AA Bronson), is a seemingly endless sustain of electronics, violin and bell tones. ARENA, featuring the "beatbox" vocals of Luis Jacob, is the audio score to Joey Medaglia's video RE: FORM (BECOMING VISIBLE). An alternate version of ARENA's motifs can be heard on Zealley's exhibition soundtrack, AA Bronson School For Young Shamans. THEMES & VARIATIONS concludes with the 3-part score for LUSTRE, Treleaven's super8 tryptich starring Massimo & Pierce (Black Sun Productions). Here Zealley turns to a more classical interpretation of "themes and variations," literally voicing the score's tender melodic main theme (written for a local violin busker), through a series of pastoral string and oscillating electronic deconstructions.
ANDREW ZEALLEY: THEMES & VARIATIONS is mastered for vinyl at The E Room, by Peter J. Moore, and features performances by Luis Jacob, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, violinist Adm Shedden, and the PSBEUYS-directed Prospect Cottage Strings.
THEMES & VARIATIONS is released on Tourette Records (USA), catalogue number TOURETTE009, and is available online at www.artmetropole.com and directly from the artist's site.
more info : www.andrewzealley.com
ESCAMA SERRADA - LA REINA ESTA MALA
digipak cd (sold together with tourette007)
tourette008
The debut album of Sergio Méndez comes through Tourette Records as part of the pack “La Corte Del Rey Pescador/La Reina Está Mala”. Sergio and Demian from Ô Paradis have a friendship that has culminated in the release of this double work, in which they have actually worked together on some tracks. However, don’t be mistaken, Escama Serrada doesn’t sound like Ô Paradis except maybe with some ingredients of the music production. But, hey, bread and cake also share ingredients yet they taste quite differently. Samplers, parchments of songs, melodies� but especially noise, sometimes thick, sometimes hard, are present as well. Always undulating and pulsing, creating the main bases for each song. Escama Serrada basically presents a sort of dark ambient, adding some martial spice at times and a lot of dark punk attitude at others. Perhaps the music is similar to a modern day nihilistic version of Einstürzende Neubauten, or deconstructed rock stricken through a machinery surface. I love the way the songs are connected to each other, and it seems the hand of Demian is visible here, since his Tourette release is perhaps also the one in which the fluidity of the record is the best in his career. Also, both records have seven songs, mirroring each other. My personal favorite is track “IV” with its haunting guitar that is slowly shaded by the atmosphere around it. Promising ambient, with ample possibilities and, appreciatively, a distinct personality.
[Review by Side-Line]
more info : www.myspace.com/caballoamor
Ô PARADIS - LA CORTE DEL REY PESCADOR
digipak cd (sold together with tourette008)
tourette007
I have been a follower of Ô Paradis since I purchased “El Juego Negro” a couple of years ago. Demian has always managed to present groovy, Mediterranean neo folk, with a large assortment of samplers, noises and improvised instruments, and most always caressed by Demian’s voice. Frankly, “La Corte Del Rey Pescador” is, in my opinion, one if his best results yet. He seems to have polished the sometimes crude angles of his previous records. The fluidity of the record is astounding, and the music has become riper, settled, like a fruit fills with juice in the spring sunlight. “La Corte Del Rey Pescador” reminds me more than ever of Corcobado, with a darker, more experimental sound. Especially the use of the bass and the introduction of diverse experimental melodies take the music that step further. The lyrics seem to have also developed, into an intimate world, full of metaphors and sparkled with direct statements. The swing of “La Verdad De Los Peces” is transformed into the dark pop ballad of “El Paraiso Perdido”. The languid “Solo Un Desierto”, with a naïve piano melody, becomes a folk masterpiece that disintegrates into the violent dark tune “El Trono De La Razon” to then let the record close with the brilliant, moving, “Mi Dios”. Twenty minutes definitely come out as being too scarce. A must for true folk, experimental pop and simply great music lovers.
[review by Side-Line]
more info : www.myspace.com/oparadis
RETARDER - ENQUIRIES
digipak cd
tourette006
I’ve been waiting for this one to come for quite a while. The solo debut of Lloyd James, known for what he has done in NAEVUS for the last decade.
Rumors about this commitment found their way to me shortly after ”Silent Life” and I thought to myself that ”gotta sound like Clapton” but no no no. As RETARDER, Lloyd sets out on a very edgy and stormy voyage, full of obstacles to overcome. It’s very experimental, most of this material could possibly destroy a NAEVUS album and sometimes, it’s even more weird than that LARK BLAMES album he did together with Marc Blackie (SLEEPING PICTURES). Not two tracks sound the same but that’s just a statement I establish and, it’s neither positive nor negative, it’s just the way it is.
The intro is a long and exhausting piano improvisation with some horns hidden underneath. Could probably call it arty or something. It doesn’t sound too good, which is probably the whole idea, but it does something with you and you will feel like... Empty afterwards.
The second track has a slightly proto post-punk feeling, a simple, mechanic riff and a vocal loop is the core and I must say it sounds quite cool.
”Tongue in the Wind” takes the listener on a multi-layered ambient trip, where spacey sounds are mixed with something that resembles a theremin.
Track four is called ”Father Duncan” and it’s probably the least experimental one, actually, it could be a NAEVUS song with that strummed guitar and simple drum pattern. We’re also given some Lloyd-singing and pretty nice lyrics as usual when he’s the author. A nice track and a well deserved break between all the madness that went by and that awaits; ten seconds into the fifth track you’ll succumb to the feberish nightmare sounds, could probably go under the parole noise lite. ’Tis really lots of deranged and distorted sounds swirling around and around for about, what it feels like, half the day, and it’s a really scary track if you ask me.
”Superman’s Cave” is another ambient one and once again with lots of mysterious bleeps that sounds like something from my childhood, can’t tell what though, but it’s certainly has a nostalgic feeling.
”Modern Evening” is nice, maybe my favorite, and sounds very apocalyptic and atmospheric and we get some singing again, over slow and brooding electric guitar harmonies and strange effects, and then finally we have ”Chalk is Valuable, Keep it in Your Hand” that could as well be a tribute to CABARET VOLTAIRE and their mysterious ”Exhaust” with a deranged voice popping up at random going ”Chalk... Hand...”, after a while accompanied by some garage guitars and a monologue by Lloyd. The end.So, that was the album I’ve been waiting for? Did it fill my expectation? Sure did. It’s awesome to hear Lloyd in such a different context than what I’m getting used to. It feels fresh and the entire album is awfully well done. It may not be the first choice for everyone and just because you fancy NAEVUS, I can’t guarantee that this will work you you. Open up all your senses and prepare for a while. Give it a shot. And then another. Personally, I think this shows that mr. James is an artist capable of doing almost anything with success.
[review by The Shadows Commence]
more info : www.myspace.com/retarder
Ô PARADIS - PEQUENAS CANCIONES DE AMOR
digipak cd
tourette005
Ah, another little slice of velvety smoothness from the fine lad at Tourette Records. And from Ô Paradis, no less. I’ve always been very influenced by music and there’s something about listening to his CD’s that makes it impossible to be in a bad mood. There’s just something about Demian’s voice that always has a visual impact with me. It’s the sound of a life less complicated, the breeze blowing warm from the Mediterranean Sea and sultry Spanish women. And one would expect nothing less from an album entitled “Pequeñas Canciones De Amor”, or “Little Songs of Love” for we gringos.The album features quite a variety of instrumentation: keyboards, various percussion, accordion, acoustic guitar, lots of samples and on several tracks Demian is joined on vocals by what I’m assuming is his significant other, known only as Conny. Regardless, she has a beautiful voice and it works well with his smoky baritone pipes. Also making another appearance here after 2006’s “Las Nubes Que Mueren” is Oriol Saña on violin.
The musical styles are as varied as the instruments producing them, but I’d say they all fall somewhere in the traditional Neo-folk genre, but at times with some strange looping percussion, more than a passing nod towards more industrial sounds. If you’ve never been exposed to Ô Paradis, it’s tough to describe. I’m assuming a lot of the influences come from traditional Catalonian music as they are usually very proud of that heritage, but also straight 60’s EuroPop, flamenco and even jazzy moments. This release also includes a very original cover of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”.
If I had to reference other projects, Allerseelen immediately comes to mind and the man behind that group, Gerhard Petak, has also put out a couple of Ô Paradis on his own Aorta label. Spiritual Front is another band I’d compare to or maybe Novy Svet, whose Jürgen Weber wrote one of the tracks, “Como Una Nube”. And I balked when I first saw the 17 track listing, but most of the songs are short and varied enough to keep you from losing interest. The whole disc clocks in around 52 minutes. The 4 panel digipak comes with simple artwork and a great picture of the man himself and an attractive female in her underwear (Conny?). Definitely worth checking out a great disc for my (few & far between) sunny moods.
[review by plaguehaus]
more info : www.myspace.com/oparadis
[-HYPH-] – ALTER.TENACIO
digipak cd
tourette004
[-hyph-] is Nicolas Wiese (not related to John) who records under this banner. He is from Berlin where he composes his electro-acoustic music using instruments played by others. There is xylophone, double bass, alto saxophone, bass clarinet (which he plays himself, actually) as well as field recordings from Canada, police helicopter and human voices. Before I compared this with the 'never quiet' music of Brume. There is always something happening here. No second silence seems to be permitted. Wiese uses the computer to treat his sounds beyond belief, or rather : beyond recognition. It seems to me that he tries to tell us a story, as there is a multitude of voices to be detected in this work, but it's not easy to grasp that story. The titles seem to give a clue however: Pulverize Dreams, Reset Barriers, Upgrade Sirens and Suspend Values (the latter is called track 5 on the cover, meaning there is one track without a title). Maybe it has to do with idealism versus state control (or perhaps any sort of control really), I don't know. What I do know is that the music is very much along the lines of @C : very vibrant, very free in approach and result, composed from the original ideas of musique concrete, but with a strong touch of his own. Perhaps not entirely new (either), but it's all done with great care and style. Before I said good to see it released and not just a radio piece, now I can safely say : great to see this on CD.
[Review by FdW]
more info : www.myspace.com/nicolaswww
MUSLIMGAUZE VS SPECIES OF FISHES
digipak cd
tourette003
Bryn [Jones] took 2 different albums of Species of Fishes to create this album. Because this is a remix, we get some different sounds than usual for a Muslimgauze release, which is nice! There are still occasional Arabic voices, and overall this release has a pleasant sound to it overall, not as challenging as some Muslimgauze can be, but there are still spots that make you take hold, like, wow, what an ear piercing first song! This looped whistle gets into your head and makes the world a different place. Dubby sounds on track 2 with the trademark dropouts of Muslimgauze. There are other tracks with sharp sounds, but they arent distorted like on some other releases - just the sharp without the static. This is a cool release for Muslimgauze. Some are take it or leave it, but this one is worth hearing. [EAR/Rational] Previously released in 1999 on Species Of Fishes (FCD 01). The original tracks from Species Of Fishes albums "Songs Of A Dumb World" and "Trip Trap" were used for this remix project. All remixes, summer/autumn 1998.
[Review by help.me]
more info : www.libfl.ru/specifish
NO – MOONGOON
cdr, limited edition
tourette001
Tourette Records' first release is a collection of older material by Jan Iwers project No, co-released with No Rekords. Some of the tracks date as far back as the late 1990s and in parts the material has been previously released (on the 7" of the same name on Drone and the Schmoll compilation on Dhyana). No is all over the place here. There is a short piano improvisation, a reverie of quietly dancing notes. There are far stretched sub-bass drones, combined with airy high frequencies and hints of melodies. There are tracks built from contrasting blocks and fragments of sound, rumbling just above the threshold of audibility, spiraling upwards and downwards, moving like soft clouds in the sky. Some field recordings, both processed and unprocessed are to be spotted now and then, but mostly No moves in abstract terrains. He manages to keep a remarkable coherence in all these pieces, a sense of structure and tension and a sound that is all soft and gentle but keeps a certain jagged quality below the surface. So this CD-R presents a nice collection of tracks, making older, probably long gone material available again and serving as a good introduction as well as a highly welcome retrospective.
[Review by MSS]
more info : www.myspace.com/novsvasiasuperstar
![[-hyph-] – ALTER.TENACIO](004.jpeg)
