Mixtape Review #002 - Morphosis live @ Boilerroom

Ok it's been a long, long time since I wrote Mixtape Review #001. It was my intention to write two or so of these reviews a month, but sometimes it just so happens that life catches up with you while you are making all these plans. Anyway, now it's finally time for review #002 and this time I focus on one of my favourite dj/producers around: the infamous Morphosis. The setting of this particular set I am focusing on isn't all that spectular, since everybody and their grandma seems to be doing sets for Boiler Room these days, but the quality of the set itself is simply mindblowing and leaves us gasping for air, not sure whether or not we want more because the preceding hour just has been so fucking intense.

 

The Artist
Let me quickly introduce Morphosis to those who are unfamiliar with him and his work. Morphosis, real name Rabih Beaini, is a Lebanese electronic music artist and already active in the scene since the early 1990's. First in Lebanon, later in Italy, where he moved to to learn more about producing. In 2005 he started his own label, called Morphine Records. Mostly to release his own material, but also work by other artists like the amazing Hieroglyphic Being or Metasplice. One of the latest records released on the label is one by Morphosis himself: What Have We Learned (2011), which received heaps of praise by almost all reviewers and includes the track 'Too Far', that some of you might know in the form of one of the two Marcel Dettmann edits.

 
Back to Morphosis himself. What really draws me to both his own productions and his style of dj-ing is his love for deep and weird tunes in combination with a sense of freedom. His own tracks are heavily influenced by African music and jazz and he himself often cites Sun-Ra as one of his core influences. In my book, a dj citing Sun-Ra as an influence has my attention and I believe that Morphosis does a wonderful job in referencing to this legend and at the same time adding beautiful details originating in other musical genres. The result is something unmistakably Morphosis. The same goes for his dj-sets, in which he sometimes totally disrespects the rules of synchronizing or sequencing, in favour of the atmosphere and the quality of the songs. He can do a 5 hour live set that starts off with African freejazz and ends in smashing techno (Dekmantel party) or do a 3 hour liveset at Panorama Bar which includes the like of Sunn O))), as published by mnml ssgs. That set on mnml sggs by the way is how I got to know about Morphosis about a year ago. I can only hope that a blog post like the one I am writing here can do the same for some readers.

The Mix
Back to the mix at hand here. Let's open with a minor statement: this is one of the best mixes I have ever heard. Ever. I must have listened to this recording about seventeen times by now and I keep coming back to it. Although I must say it is not a mix that you put on play on just any occasion. It's certainly no happy-go-lucky cheerful background mix. It's intense. As fuck. When I listen to this mix, I am just not here anymore. I enter a true head trip that takes me through the history of music, of mankind and also through the multiverse of Being. 

There's a perfect amount and combination of vocals, kicks, beats and claps, snares and noises, highs and lows. Morphosis puts together a selection that encompasses the totality of Life Herself and at the same time manages to get Her to dance. Both physically and philosophically. Morphosis swings between jazz, new wave, techno, ambient, middle eastern, no wave, post punk, noise, chansons... it's equal parts Throbbing Gristle, the soundtrack to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Checkpoint 303. Morphosis offers us a vocal madness, a neuro-tribalism, a melting into an almost psychedelic experience.

More than just a regular dj, Morphosis is a sculptor of sounds. He erects a statue during his set, yet not one that is solid and stable, but rather one that is fluid, with ever changing appearances, always relocating the boundaries between the Real and the Imagined. Around the statue, but still within the music, there's a madness of people getting lost in hypnotic dances, becoming one with the dance itself, completely unaware of their surroundings. Fuck, they even become their surroundings.

It's hard to say what my favourite part of this set is. Perhaps even impossible, because there are so many elements that make me lose my mind. Let me point out one of them though: the finale. From 55 minutes onwards in the set, I as listener don't know what the fuck is going on anymore. The build up until that moment followed by those glorious final minutes? Those birdlike cackles, the loud overwhelming noise parts and eventually the Arabic chanting and tunes... it makes me collapse inside myself, turning my insides into a mist of vapour and my consciousness into a state of effervescence that alters the conditions of my psychic reality...

If you'd like to go on an adventure with some friends, just put on this mix, lie down on the floor, stare at the ceiling and within no time you are everywhere but here... And you don't even need any substance for that, the music itself will do the work. 

What a wonderful set.

'And what is an angel?'

Stumbled upon this in the wonderful Portuguese book Silencio a Silencio about the installation art of Moirika Reker Gilberto Reis (published by the Lisbon art/book publisher Assirio & Alvim). I really love the photo reproductions of stills of the work in the book, but also the (rather elaborate) text accompanying the images. This part about angels intrigued me especially (the book, luckily for me, is both in Portuguese and English).

Angels in Rainer Maria Rilke (first and fourth elegy of 'Duineser Elegien'):

Albumrecensie: Herrek - Waktu Dulu

Herrek is de Papoeaanse verbastering van de voornaam van Gerrit van der Scheer, die zijn jeugd mede doorbracht in Indonesië. De afgelopen jaren maakte hij furore in de Nederlandse muziekwereld met Bonne Aparte en Adept, waarbij vooral de laatste band indruk maakte met stevige muziek. Nu gaat Van der Scheer ook solo onder de naam Herrek en Waktu Dulu (wat zoveel betekent als ‘vroeger’) is zijn debuutplaat, die redelijk ver van zijn werk met Adept af lijkt te staan.

Tekstueel richt Herrek zich op zijn jeugdherinneringen aan zijn tijd in Indonesië en hoewel er aardig wat geluidsindicaties naar die locaties te horen zijn (vooral geluiden van de natuur), doet de muziek ons toch eerder afdwalen naar het Westen. Openingstrack ‘Rain’ is een klein liedje, met rustige gitaarslagen en dito percussie. Er zit een zekere kalmte in die doet denken aan shoegazing in de stijl van Catherine Wheel. Op ‘Down’ horen we de fijne harmonieuze samenzang die het afgelopen decennium zo populair is gemaakt door acts uit Brooklyn. Van der Scheer excelleert met zijn zang in dit nummer, vooral tegen het einde aan als de toon scheller wordt en zijn stem opeens naar voren knalt: “I heard the birds sing!” Mooie track!

De Brooklyn referentie komt nog een aantal keer naar boven bij het beluisteren van Waktu Dulu, bijvoorbeeld in ‘Tiger Eyes’, dat een vervreemdende kwaliteit heeft en neigt naar acts als Animal Collective of Yeasayer. De Rivella slogan borrelt in ons op: vreemd, maar wel lekker! Net als het zeer intrigerende ‘My People’, dat veel vragen oproept, zoals de regel ‘here comes the death’ die intens binnen komt. Duidt Van der Scheer hier op de komst van Nederland in Indonesië? Is de Westerse beschaving ‘the death’ waarover hij zingt? De teksten over het hele album zijn sowieso de moeite waard om goed te luisteren en zorgen ervoor dat Waktu Dulu naast muzikaal ook tekstueel interessant genoeg is om vaak naar terug te keren.

Eigenzinningheid bestaat gelukkig nog steeds en Herrek is daar een mooi voorbeeld van. Deze debuutplaat staat vol verrassende muziek en we mogen stiekem best een beetje trots zijn op het feit dat dit uit Nederland komt. Dit is voor de mensen die net wat meer moeite willen doen om bijzondere muziek te ontdekken.

(Geschreven voor Jimmy Alter)

Frangible Lifestyles

Frangible Lifestyles

in this line of sand

leading away from the truth

i can read our future

even though it's emptier

than the hand you're holding out to me...

the deserted fields of our youth

once so full of hope

form the perfect context

for the howling wind

echoing in our empty hearts

this time the sky will stay grey

devoid of any sense of light

this time the birds will fall down

like a plague we considered to be merely mythical

our eyes won't find a place to rest

the metal machinery won't fuel our movements

as the cogs have started failing, one by one

we find ourself stuck in this desolate world

without any hope for a saviour

still we burn all the wood we can find, 

to create a fire of despair
our call for help...

but now our only concern left

is who will die first

and how to bury yourself

when there is no light

to guide your soul

-NT 2005

the Self - Confronting the Shadow (A Techno Play in Three Acts)

i) Climbing the Mountain
After a long internal struggle, he has made the decision. To no longer be afraid to step forward. To face the shadow side of his unconscious head on. Adamant not to flinch, to take this journey to the end. Filled with a sense of ecstatic bliss he starts his ascent of the mountain. His odyssey takes him through hymns in the wind and he passes countless archetypes, those primordial images that pre-exist the Self. The trickster, the snake eating its tail, anima figures. He hums mantras and dances to percussion so the body and the mind can become one. The realisation: 'you can't fall off a mountain!' He reaches a calm near the top of the mountain. A cave near the center of the soul, close to the inner nucleus of the psyche. Chanting, a trance, a waking dream. It is here where the real inner journey towards the shadow side of the Self begins.

The Self - Confronting the Shadow (A Play in Three Acts) by The_Self on Mixcloud

ii) Tapping into the Dream
In the dream things start to intensify. Eternal sounds come from both high above and deep below and start to envelope his Being. Aspects from the ancient and everlasting collective unconscious try to tap into him, trying to defy his Ego. Pure fear dances around the fire together with pure joy and his feminine side devours his masculinity and vice versa. Time becomes an eternal becoming of past-present-future in a crystalized image of future memories. A tower of psychedelic understanding weighs heavy on his heart, arrows of longing pierce his soul. Yet no harm is done because he searches this dancing of the Ego and the Soul.

iii) Acceptance and Rebirth
At the most frightening of moments it dawns on him, the realisation of what is necessary. He looks around and despite the chills over his spine he knows. He takes a deep breath and with full responsibility he accepts. His glooms, his downfalls, his fears, his desires. The fringes of his unconscious start spinning, spiralling towards the inner nucleus, towards the Self. He realises the ultimate core might never be reached, but that Life Herself is an eternal becoming Whole. He hears his unconscious calling out: "Look at me!" And as he stares into the dark depths he realises his vision plunges deep into his own eyes. A circling, a spiralling, a dancing! In an ever returning rebirth, aimed towards the completion of rituals, the Becoming Whole of the Self.

Kalkbrenner kleurt keurig binnen de keta-lijnen

Paul Kalkbrenner
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, 9 maart 2013

Afgelopen weekend was het weer tijd voor 5 Days Off, het jaarlijks terugkerende dancefestijn in de hoofdstad van ons landje. Waar de shows over het algemeen in de Melkweg en de Paradiso plaatsvinden, stond er zaterdag ook nog een feestje in de Heineken Music Hall gepland: Paul Kalkbrenner. Namens Jimmy Alter ging ik eens poolshoogte nemen.

De voordelen van de Heineken Music Hall zijn er zeker. Zoals een goed geluid en vrijwel altijd genoeg bewegingsruimte, zelfs als het uitverkocht is zoals ook deze avond. Nadelen zijn er ook, zoals altijd pokkelang moeten wachten om je jas op te hangen, waardoor het vrijwel onmogelijk is om deze avond voorprogramma Michel de Hey mee te pakken. Maar och, daar malen we niet om, want we zijn hier om de sympathieke Paul Kalkbrenner te aanschouwen. De Duitser gaat al geruime tijd mee in de dance scene (in 2001 bracht hij reeds platen uit op het BPitch Control label van de schone koningin Ellen Allien), maar hij brak echt door met zijn plaatBerling Calling in 2008. Op dit album stond zijn wereldhit ‘Sky and Sand’ dat hij samen met broer Fritz Kalkbrenner (true story) maakte.

Zijn groeiende populariteit heeft ervoor gezorgd dat hij inmiddels dus in de HMH staat. We gunnen hem dat van harte, maar toch zou het fijner zijn geweest om hem in een wat kleinere zaal te mogen aanschouwen. De helft van de mensen vanavond lijkt hem vooral te kennen van zijn wereldhit en lijkt daar dan ook met smart op te wachten. Als Kalkbrenner ‘Sky and Sand’ als een van de allerlaatste nummers toch nog laat horen is dat voor velen een geschenk uit de hemel, maar het had echt niet gehoeven. Kalkbrenner laat namelijk horen een stuk meer in zijn mars te hebben dan dit en het spelen van zijn hitje lijkt een knieval naar de luisteraar. Maar ach, de mensen willen dansen van herkenning en dat doen ze dan ook met blijde gezichten.

Maar genoeg over de afsluiting van zijn set en even terug naar het begin. Het eerste half uur begint Kalkbrenner aarzelend, maar weet hij een licht lentegevoel neer te zetten (zeer welkom met de ellende buiten). Langzaam kabbelt dit gevoel echter weg richting een kale techno dat eigenlijk geen techno is. Kalkbrenner lijkt te aarzelen en het publiek aarzelt met hem mee. Het middenstuk, waarin hij zelfs drie keer doet alsof het feestje al voorbij is, voelt een beetje onwerkelijk en ongemakkelijk. Een gevoel van twijfel bekruipt ons -is dit het? We drinken nog maar eens een plastic pul pils leeg en geven hem nog even het voordeel van onze twijfel.

Dan! Lichtpuntjes! En niet alleen de redelijk toffe visuals (na de visuals van Skrillex en Kraftwerk te hebben gezien imponeert weinig meer op dit gebied), maar ook de muziek. Kalkbrenner lijkt zijn groove te hebben gevonden en begint zowaar te beuken. Zonder daarbij zijn kenmerkende warme geluid te verliezen overigens. Een veel te korte versie van de grandioze remix van 2Raumwohnung’s ‘Wir Werden Sehen’ (die had gewoon de volle negen minuten moeten duren en niet gevolgd moeten worden met een minuut stilte) is de prelude van een fantastisch uur, waarin vooral ‘Gebrünn Gebrünn’ opvalt, dat in een stevige en hypnotiserende variant wordt gedraaid. En dan heeft Kalkbrenner het toch nog voor elkaar: we willen niet naar huis. Neen, wij willen dansen! dansen! en koude pintjes drinken! Hij draait gelukkig een stuk langer door dan gepland, maar om middernacht neemt hij dan toch afscheid van ons.

Kalkbrenner is verre van een avontuurlijke producer of dj die dwars over alle keta-lijnen heen kleurt, maar hij weet toch wel iedere keer een verdomd fijne sfeer neer te zetten. Niet te moeilijk, zodat ook een deel van de minder geoefende muziekliefhebber het kan waarderen, maar toch: nice! En met een warm en goed gevoel verdwijnen we in de ijskoude nacht, waarin we hier en daar sneeuwkastelen in de lucht lijken te zien…

[Geschreven voor Jimmy Alter]

Mixtape review #001 - Prologue Special - Claudio PRC & Svart1 - 111 (live and unreleased)

From now on I will be doing a series of Mixtape reviews every now and then. They will include the regular mixtapes by artists, but also livesets or special collaborations, that function as inspiration for my work as the Self. The reviews will mostly be positive, because I aim to shed some light on the more interesting and intriguing sets out there. On the one hand because I think they deserve the attention (some gems are highly underlistened to!), but also because I think some of these sets will actually provide the listener that dares to put some effort in listening with wonderful journeys that will bring joy to the soul. Come to think of it, maybe a review isn't the right word, because I will try to describe what is happening to me when I listen to these sets. Perhaps it's better to see it more as a poetic description of the affects these sounds have on me.

The Artists

First one up in this series is a live recording by Claudio PRC and Svart1 together on a Prologue label night in 2012. Both Italian artists have a knack for delivering richly textured landscape techno that is both unsettling and uplifting. Indeed, that is possible. I first heard Claudio PRC through a friend (Syst_M -a great Dutch dj and also the mastermind behind Death Metal Disco Club). The sounds by Claudio PRC immediately struck a chord with me and ever since then I have been closely following his releases. His album Inner State (released on Prologue) is a very fine piece of work that explores the deeper world of techno. In an interview on the blog Subsekt he talks about what music is to him. His answer should give you enough insight in his work to make sure to check him out: 

"Music is everything and nothing. Music is an abstract mystery which attracts infinite things like every kind of emotion, music is art, science and sacredness, it is a universal language that makes an individual unique, music is social relations, a reason for aggregation, it is a refuge, a way to escape from reality, music is sound that fills our innermost being, its power is so big as to make it invisible, and because of this, I like to think that music is all in the absolute nothingness."

Svart1, who just like Claudio PRC hails from the isle of Sardinia, is less of a techno producer and more of a soundscape artist. His work varies from ambient to industrial, always with a dark undertone. However, he is also able to create lighter pieces of work in different collaborations (like his work with Shattered Hand). On Svart1's website his art is described as follows: 

"His sounds, nordic-style typically, are the result of a microcosm of dark and gloomy sound characterized by minimal movements between low evolutionary where used in a thunderous, metallic roar, shadowy presences that materialize sound, like the experience and the feeling of alienation between dark presence floating around the ears of the unconscious passenger." 

Apart from music, Svart1 is also active as a visual artist, creating images that feel like a logical companion to his sounds. His album Satanische Helden is supposed to be out soon on Industrial Culture and proves to be something that's definitely worth looking out for.

The Mixtape

Below you will find both the liveset and my review. I am not sure what's the best approach in this, if you could better listen to the set first and then read the accompanied text, or vice versa. Either way, let these sounds envelop you and enjoy.

The opening of this set is quiet and almost organic, fluid. There's found sound footage carefully wrapped in a form suited for intent listening. You start to feel and realise that your hearing is changing in the process of listening. You stroll through a by man deserted place, where you can only hear the sound of poems being recited by grass and water. There's the sound of litte insects dreaming about Edgar Allan Poe like worlds, beetles waking up into a Kafkaesque fantasy.

Around ten minutes into the mix, faint middle eastern sounds mark a change in pace and direction. Things get more unsettling, unheimisch, as if you're now wandering around lost in an underground cave, with no light, no hope. There's a tinge of despair, but at the same time you don't wish to be anywhere else. Slowly you start focusssing on the never ceasing lower sounds, as if they are marks for your footsteps. The agony becomes enveloped in a sense of euphoria, with wicked grins of pure bliss. This cannot ever end, this must continue, especially when tribalistic percussion elements come setting in, causing a hypnotic state.

After about half an hour, shamanistic tribal influences slowly enter the void, albeit a rather industrialized form of shamanism, as if machines start dancing ancient rituals, forming an assemblage of oppossites in which they unite themselves and the listener.

The final quarter feels like an escape. You're crawling out of the dark cave and you see the dark starry sky, feeling the fresh nightwind on your face. A profound acknowledgement of your existence comes settling in your mind. Listening intently to those final sounds, you feel great to be alive...

Additional info:

Prologue Special - Claudio PRC & Svart1 - 111

Sixty minutes of unreleased material between heavy and smooth atmospheres framed with slow and obstinate Techno grooves. Originally performed during the Prologue Label Night in Cagliari (Sardinia), May 2012.

Released by: Prologue Music.
Release date: Oct 1, 2012.

claudioprc.blogspot.it

svart1.altervista.org
www.prologue-booking.com