Groupshow - The Martyrdom of Groupshow

5/10

Groupshow. If for some reason you 'felt lucky' while googling this term, chances are great that you will be rather disappointed not to find some ideally shaped blond inviting you to come over and see her latest exploits with her friends. The Groupshow on your screen today is the joined effort of three German artists (Jan Jelinek, Hanno Leichtmann, and Andrew Pekler) who collaborated in crafting a release where their signature sounds meet. One must keep the stereotype of the efficient German in mind and assume that more effort went into selecting samples out of 200Gb of jam session data than choosing a name for this collaboration.

The sample palette of the album is one of the most exuberant I have heard in quite some time in the experimental and minimal electronic aesthetic. The digital cuts sound like they has been drenched in the same acid bath where DJ Food lay when crafting Kaleidoscope; the album's comparable off the wall quality and the difficult digestibility of this colorful sonic candy is striking at times. Rhythm is provided by the samples and their repetitiveness, as there is no snare or kick to be found in their respective recognizable form.

Most of the release's drive stems from the sometimes oscillating or stuttered, sometimes dreamy loops cascading over the always blunted variations of the twelve tracks that emerged from the artists improvised liaison. And although the exposition of the tight and copious audible scheme offers some tight constructions, the cohesion as an album suffers from the profound expertise of each individual artist. Each has his own background that influences the music, some have a more instrumental or electronic approach, but a failure to compromise sounds into a focused effort does the work in.

Making up the audible melting pot are the ambient jazz grooves of Leichtmann and Pekler submerged in a flattened out minimal chillout vibe sans kick courtesy of Jelinek. As such, it's a decent chillout album one might think, but it's there where the lack of cohesion and the LSD-colored plethora of influences make this a hard trip to ride out.


written for and published by The Silent Ballet
Groupshow website
Groupshow myspace
Scape Records

Svarte Greiner - Man Bird Dress / Svarte Greiner + Anduin - Black River

6.5/10

Svarte Greiner is no stranger here at The Silent Ballet - only recently he inspired my colleague Jermey Bye to advise us to listen to Kappe phenomenally loud. Not being an authority on Svarte Greiner's work, I choose to apply this advice to the job at hand, whether or not his latest three track effort - Man Bird Dress - and his live collaboration withAnduin are worthy additions to the back catalog of this upcoming Scandinavian doomscapologist and mastermind of the Miasmah label.

Man Bird Dress is one album title, three words, and also three track titles. Whether or not these words have any meaning or connection with the actual music is something that each listener will have to make out for him or herself, since there is more room for free interpretation than audible guidance on this release. Of greater importance, perhaps, is that the pieces have meaningful words for titles - where other drone or electronic artists often choose incomprehensible titles or plain numbering - which proves the aspiration to deliver three separate yet complete pieces rather than one sonic adventure, sliced for your convenience. Each piece has a different focus, bringing an attractive and refreshing breeze through the darkness of overdrive-accumulating ambient that is induced with horrific soundscapes. The base structure of "Man", "Bird", and "Dress" is fairly simple: start out with some creepy soundscapes, add doom, let it slowly swell to a sturdy whole and then ease the listener out. To top off the base-recipe, Svarte Greiner (Erik Skodvin) goes all-out from strange hypnotic chords on an acoustic guitar, to frenzied string movements and back to guitar with so much overdrive that it almost doesn't need to be played.

The result of this carefully-spread tapestry of haunting sound waves is rather stunning, intoxicating enough to claim your attention where most acts tend to depend on an audience with a long attention span. Although composed of heavyweight drone elements, the (easy) listening experience isn't negatively affected. A fluid structure and lack of sonic guidance make this album one of the most listenable in its niche. It is also because Svarte Greiner succeeds in breaking through the almost constant darkness of his own compositions with a ray of stunning, matte light every now and then that this album is more easily consumed than the average drone release.

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5/10

During Svarte Greiner's first US tour in 2008, he sometimes teamed up with Anduin (Souvenir’s Young America’s Jonathan Lee), and after having each done their individual set, they usually ended up on stage together, closing the night. Their collaborative effort was recorded and released as Black River and contains two parts that delve deep in the flattened-out, droning haze of pulsating darkness. Compared to the cinematic feeling of Man Bird Dress, this release uses more electronics than the layered and polished studio efforts.

The fact that this is a live performance works for and against the release. When recording live material, it's hard to mimic the full-on layered sound of studio work, but when it comes to live electronics it a matter of being on top of your equipment and sticking to a few self-set parameters to keep your set together. Black River follows these premises, and I'm sure this was a very rewarding piece to bring live, but the fact is that the work will appeal only to those blessed with a long attention span or those who are hardcore fans of the artists. Although the material tends more to Anduin's lighter ambient, the whiff of Svarte Greiner's moody darkness casts an undefinable aura over the work. The sloth of the bending pads covered in smog, a slow pulsating that phases in and out, characterizes the release - it's a winning combination for the average Machinefabriek listener, but it's not likely this release will dominate The Silent Ballet's end of the year charts. Instead, this little limited vinyl goody from SMTG will surely find an honorable spot in that hardcore fan's collection.



full review written for and published by The Silent Ballet
Svarte Greiner myspace
Anduin myspace