========================================== 319 Newsletter #010 ======================================== 001: The Lost Tapes (Minimal Wave). 002: The Lost Tapes review. 003: Dead Air by Mordant Music (Mordant Music). 004: Reviews for "Dead Air" by Mordant Music. 005: Join the 319 mailing list. 006: Contact. =========================================== 001: THE LOST TAPES =========================================== The Lost Tapes: Minimal Wave from Europe 81-86 (Minimal Wave) The NY-based Minimal Wave label has just put out The Lost Tapes compilation; a very limited, vinyl-only pressing which collects rare tracks from the early-to-mid-'80s. Portion Control have contributed with 'pressure is high' (same version as appears on simulate sensual) Minimal Wave: www.minimal-wave.org Portion Control: www.portion-control.net =========================================== 002: REVIEW FOR "THE LOST TAPES" =========================================== VARIOUS ARTISTS The Lost Tapes: Minimal Wave from Europe 81-86 (Minimal Wave) The NY-based Minimal Wave label has just put out The Lost Tapes compilation; a very limited, vinyl-only pressing which collects rare tracks from the early-to-mid-'80s. All the songs were taken from cassette-only releases and it features nothing but obscuro names like Stratis, ADN la Catastrophe, Undovidual, Linear Movement and Absolute Body Control. (If you already know all the artists on this comp., you need to get off of the Internet and out of the house more often you synth wave vampire!) The A-side has more of a synth wave/new romantic feel to it. Absolute Body Control sounds like a Berlin-based OMD while Linear Movement's "The Game" reminds me of a more primitive, cold wave Visage. Bene Gesserit's "Mickey Please" could be a cross between an Egypt-obsessed Chris & Cosey and Gudrun Gut's "Domina." The B-side, my personal favorite, has more of a raw, chunky NDW feel, among other things. The scrapey, German new wave guitars in Neon Judgement's "Schizophrenic..." will inspire a spirited art-pogo session. ADN la Catastrophe's "Sex Cinema" is reminiscent of a synth wave Chrome with its phaser gun guitar riffs over handclap drum machine and real drums. Unovidual's track has an industrial-synth-YMO feel worthy of a Metro Area/Danny Wang remix. "My Baby," from Ensemble Pittoresque, could have been an early precursor to Skinny Puppy! "Pressure is High," by the UK's Portion Control, is a GEM track, sounding like a poppier, yet no less cave-like Cabaret Voltaire with its Morse code melody and distorted, colliding vocals. And I can't wait to get a cold wave hickey while making out to Elisa Waut's "Russia"!! All the people who loved the Eskimo's Serie Noire new beat mix from a while back will love this one too. The Lost Tapes has everything you want in a new wave compilation: no hit-fodder, rare, high-quality tracks made available, playable cuts (DJ-wise) and listenability (album-wise), quality re-mastering, heavy vinyl and nice packaging. (Also included is a Zick Zack style insert on nice paperboard with band photos and credits!) Painstakingly put together and limited to only 500 copies. (For sound samples, go to the Minimal Wave Web site.) [SM] http://www.minimal-wave.org/site/modules.php?name=topMusic&op=album&idartist=202&idalbum=250 =========================================== 003: DEAD AIR BY MORDANT MUSIC =========================================== 'DEAD AIR' by MORDANT MUSIC (MORDANT MUSIC) CD ALBUM : 66.06 MINUTES CATALOGUE : MM013 RELEASED : 03.07.06 Mordant Music - Baron Mordant (ex-Portion Control member Ian Hicks) and Admiral Greyscale - release the debut album "Dead Air" in a stunning multi-foldout 'tear' shaped sleeve.This 20 track album mixes industrial and cadaverous electronica, like a lost episode of Dr. Who., into one long, dark transmission. The album also features the opulent tones and pathos of former cult Thames Television announcer Philip Elsmore. Fans of Portion Control's 'Wellcome' should look into this exercise in electronic couture. This is the amplified sound of 'Dead Air'. www.mordantmusic.com buy here (postage is free) www.myspace.com/mordantmusic listen to 'Dead Air' extracts. spore@mordantmusic.com enquiries. Mordant Music products are also available from : www.warprecords.com www.cargorecords.co.uk www.hotstuff.se www.musicnonstop.co.uk www.roughtrade.com www.piccadillyrecords.com www.boomkat.com www.juno.co.uk www.play.com www.jumborecords.co.uk www.lowlands.be www.warszawa.jp www.radiokiosk.ch www.musicstore.nl www.normanrecords.com www.hmv.co.uk www.hmv.co.jp www.virginmega.co.uk www.exlibris.ch www.reveal-records.com www.phonicarecords.co.uk www.smallfish.co.uk =========================================== 004: REVIEWS FOR 'DEAD AIR' BY MORDANT MUSIC =========================================== As the listening habits of a generation move ever-closer to collections based on file-extensions, one possible weapon with which to retain the physical size of music consumption is by getting clever with your packaging - something Mordant Music seem to have done with considerable aplomb... Never the easiest thing to make indispensable, the Mordant Music crew have nonetheless played a blinder with this CD - housing it in a gatefold type sleeve that extends off in all directions with some lovely wall-paper style decoration inside to keep your eyes happy. Oh, and it's a funny shape too... What more do you want?! Tearing ourselves away from the visual aesthetic, the lovingly wrapped music inside is hark back to simpler times; where electronic maneuvers could be straight-up and less reliant on sonic gymnastics to engage the listener. Sounding not unlike some lost Dr Who episode, the Mordant crew have employed the talents of ex-Thames TV continuity announcer Philip Elsmore on narration duties - bringing the electronics a sense of real pathos and crumbling despair. Alternating between styles, the likes of grime, industrial, electro, pop and music concrete are all fed through the Mordant machine to produce an oddly soothing affair that bursts into life sporadically for some Prefuse-style shenanigans, but overall retains its composure to threatening effect. Dark without becoming claustrophobic and instilled with enough bite to warrant the fancy packaging, 'Dead Air' proves that music can still be a tactile experience. Touch it! BOOMKAT June 2006 Baron Mordant and Admiral Greyscale (who are the duo behind Mordant Music) have, since 2001 been infiltrating electronic music through a number of mediums. Singles, EP:s, View-Master slides and mini albums presented in a petri dish have been some of the clever ways through which they have contacted the public. A small, tuned in public, that is. This is about to change irreversibly. This debut album from Ian Hicks of Portion Control and his comrade is best listened to with minimal background noise, or if absolutely necessary, an all-encompassing set of headphones so not one iota eludes you. The more surrealistic tendencies of Portion Control's latest album "Well-Come" come to mind and I could sum up what this album is to me with the following phrase: through the eye of the onion. This is a reference to the cinematic brilliance PC achieved with their "Onion-Jack" serial on "Well-Come". Beyond the outer regions of Portion Control's aural nebula, exist the Baron and the Admiral. This music is cerebrally contusing! Some tracks are placid, dreamlike affairs like "Plant Room" and others, yes well, others such as "Interdependent Authority" exude a technologically nightmarish bomb blast aftermath that is pure menace. No, that was not meant to be clever. Mordant Music are not aimed at a dance floor, they do not concern themselves with charts, populist notions of "the scene" nor are they wasted with publicity courting videos. Fans of PC (or even Solar Enemy as I am) would do well to look into this exercise in electro couture. The narrative, provided by Thames TV legend Philip Elsmore, is perfectly timed to follow this most unusual of audio broadcast. At times heartfelt (when discussing his own origins in the business of television) and indignantly throwing a spanner into the entire mechanism (such as the time he makes no apologies for the content of the program and suggests if one cannot handle it, they'd best look elsewhere). Veering wildly from synthesized nihilism into some otherworldly segues and off into clicks, beeps... the sounds of machinery collapsing under the strain of visionary excess, this is Mordant Music. Keep your nerve.........8/10.............Peter Marks Release Magazine June 2006 Mordant Music present their rather great new album, one again beautifully presented in incredible 'drip' shaped packaging, which folds out into a beautiful 'wallpapered Butterfly 'shape, this is Mordant Music's 2 years in the making album. It's an album of strange scope adn method, covering industrial, electro, concrete, pop and grime, basically a culmination of alot of their previous releases. As ever it comes from Mordant's deeply British eccentric perspective that ha attracted comedians such as Simon Munnery to work with them. This is bizarrely graced with the tones of former Thames Television Announcer Philip Elsmore, coming through the static, hence the name 'dead air ' we think, and it's rather ace, as are all the releases on this label. Warp Records Only the other week, I was bemoaning the current state of UK electronica in a review of the mighty Point B. Then this lavishly packaged cd landed on my desk, without so much as a press release, as if the god of electronica himself had sent it down via a rod of lightning. It's one of those cds which look fantastic, but you know it will be a nightmare to file in your cd rack. Which is altogether fine because if you are in any way a fan of inventive electronic music, then this will be sitting on top of your CD player for a while. Like folksteppers Various Production, little is known about Baron Mordant & Admiral Greyscale, other than they operate from somewhere in London. They've been slightly slipping out their transmissions since 2002 in highly limited runs: 'Dead Air' is their first full length release. Like the aforementioned Various Production, Mordant Music like to round off their intricately programmed click-y beats with bowel subsonic bass depth charges. 'Plant Room' is what dubstep would sound like if appropriated by ambient pioneer Brian Eno and is utterly superb. It is amongst the many tracks on 'Dead Air' that feature the spoken voice of Philip Elsmore. His opulent delivery will sound particularly familiar, if, like me, you grew up during the 70's, as he was the main announcer for Thames Television (what is now Carlton/ITV). The effect given by the inclusion of Elsmore gives the same sense of nostalgia amidst glacial electronics that permeates through Boards Of Canada's recordings. As many of the tracks run into each other and some are shorter than a minute in length, there's little point in me selecting noteworthy titles. And in any case, 'Dead Air' is best listened to as a whole: it's brilliant and unique from start to finish..7/7 ONE WEEK TO LIVE MAGAZINE June 2006 "take 1 part Logan's Run, add 2 parts THX 1138, and wrap in a Blade Runner pitta....genius" Iron Tom Vane =========================================== 005: 319 MAILING LIST =========================================== 319 @ Yahoo Groups: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/319/ Subscribe: 319-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Post message: 319@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: 319-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com =========================================== 006: CONTACT AND INFORMATION =========================================== info@portion-control.net www.portion-control.net www.mordantmusic.com www.319-online.net