Reviews of Fourth Dimension Releases, Present and Past

ZSOLT SŐRÉS AHAD Ahad's Master's Garden III (2007-2009): The Harmonian Blues 2CD (2011)
An utterly compelling double set of sonic wonderment from a Budapest-based composer/ multi-instrumentalist whose bulging c.v. takes in numerous collaborative projects with Evan Parker, Phill Niblock and Mats Gustafsson at the front of an orderly queue. Zsolt also claims membership of The Paw Music Trio, The Sonic Catering Band and The Abstract Monarchy Trio, is a big wheel in avant garde zinery with 'Magyar Muhely' and is also Forbidden Radio's programme managing editor. Back in the day of more than one weekly music mag, 'Melody Maker' used to pepper certain reviews with terms like 'Oceanic' and 'Cathedrals of Sound' to describe some of the wider vistas of sonic grandeur blasted out by My Bloody Valentine and the now sadly forgotten A.R. Kane. More than twenty-five years (!) after the event, I'd like to think that those epithets could be re-employed in an equally fitting way for this beauty, which was surprisingly only ever visible before as a severely limited cdr (!) "Ahad's" (a joint release with Audio Tong - www.audiotong.net) comes as an amalgam of instrumental compositions from dance performances and segments of film and theatre soundtracks, fashioned from an exotic armoury which includes the electric tampura, modified sitar and springaphone. What immediately strikes the fortunate listener is that this is a particularly individual and intensely personal vision in which folk-derived psychedelia is embraced by electroacoustic supplementals and magnified field/stream ambience. Pieces like "On the Top of the Darwin Tillite" with its snaking Steven Wray Lobdell-like lines and the dilated pupil raga of "Potlatch on the Beach of the Dirty Little Hoare Pond" seem to have been beamed out of totally unfamiliar, yet welcoming terrain. Merely attaching an "east meets west" tag on this simply won't cut it. It is, simply..."of itself"... "a stand alone release" etc etc. '4D' really need to be heartily applauded for putting "Ahad's" on a more easily accessible platform and if you need further signposting - this is The Magic Carpathians, Tangle Edge, The Orchestra of the Eighth Day, Osian and perhaps even Between wrote large. Wrote immense even. After immersion, you'll wish all your dreams could tap into a wellspring as rich as this. (Steve Pescott,Terrascope Online, April 2011, http://www.terrascope.co.uk/)

TABATA MITSURU Mankind Spree CD [Fourth Dimension, 2010)
To reduce Tabata Mitsuru’s latest oeuvre to a freak-out session would be strife in misunderstanding. Mankind Spree is not just head-tripping music in as much as it is an exercise in exuding subtleties of Mitsuru’s musical universe. Former Acid Mothers Temple and Zeni Geva guitarist surprises the audience with an album that is ripe with melodies and psychedelic arrangements. Listen to the way Tatsuhisa Yamamoto spews out thick layers of power chimes and cymbals on the utterly haunting “I Miss You”. As Mitsuru joins the fold of melodic guitar lines, one realizes there’s a real connection being fostered among the players. “Soup” features a nearly symphonic, over-dubbed guitar fest that rambles on and on, while “Extraterrestrial Blues” proves to be a breeding ground of experimental goodness for the band. At this point, Mitsuru is joined by Yoshiyuki Ichiraku on rute drumsticks [subtle sounds colouring the landscape] and once again by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on power chimes and cymbals – both instruments add a fair counter-balance to the leader’s guitar-laced freak-out. The album ends on a high note with the ten minute long “Mutation on the Moon”. Here, the leader stews a warm soup of organs, synths and usual bluesy guitar permutations, while Tomo plays a mean, seductive and very persistent hurdy gurdy theme. The piece moves along slowly, nearly dragging in sections, which is fine, as some of Mitsuru’s better pieces develop in a slow and deliberate manner. Ending with a whimper instead of a bang proves to be the right choice for someone who likes to keep well under the radar. Here’s hoping Mankind Spree will be a new chapter for those who’ve not had contact with Mitsuru’s brand of whacked-out psychedelia. (Tom Sekowski, http://flashesoftimelessjoy.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/tabata-mitsuru-mankind-spree/)

THE FIELDS OF HAY Songs For Nine Ladies CD (2007)
Songs For Nine Ladies is the debut release from Stuart Carter a former member of UK guitar-noise outfit Splintered currently treading the boards as part of the experimental electronic outfit Theme. Songs For Nine Ladies is a particularly loose recording merging organic sounds sources with electronic instrumentation in a hazy reverie. The opener 'Morning In The Early' is a real pastoral effort, setting chirping bird song to guitar noodling and short bursts of keyboard drone. It segues into 'Welcome To Mantra' where skittering rhythms coexist with an electronic pulse derived from archaic keyboards, amidst shuddering dropped and cascading tones. Like the opening track the vintage synths here are played by Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) who adds a primitive warmth to the music. 'Welcome To Mantra' is akin to listening to TG in the open English countryside. It's by far the best track here. Bass guitar notes meander in an improvised manner on 'Miracles and Saints' wrapped in a shimmering drone drenched with spacey effects. Despite its psychedelic glow it's thoroughly disappointing, especially when compared to 'Solaar Afternoons' where florid acoustic guitar playing, which picks at the heels of the current folk vogue, is surrounded by washes of floating electronic patterns creating some of the most calm and relaxing sounds here. The final track, the beautifully titled 'Gabriels Golden Wing (Naked in the Clouds)' is a nice piece of twilight space-ambient music that swells from some nice stringed intro but the entire track is letdown due to the distracting bass soloing. Sure it picks up some electronic sounds, some found sounds, environmental sounds, a bit of folk, drone and ambient and comes across as a bit psychedelic, a bit pastoral and a bit medatitive but it's all quite innocuous. Actually it's the sort of release you'd expect from the Ochre label, and while I don't hate it it doesn't leave that much of an impression that I would return to it in a hurry. (Tony Dickie, Compulsion Online, http://www.compulsiononline.com/index2.htm)

MERZBOW F.I.D. 2CD (2006)
With F.I.D. (2006) the ridiculously prolific Masami Akita returns to reclaim his King of Noise title from all the young pretenders. F.I.D . appears to be a return to analogue noise, with each track on this double CD set complimenting its counterpart in terms of construction. 'Exteriorization?@No.1' is feedback laden outpourings over crunchy electronics and distant carousel music. It's by far the harshest Merzbow I've heard in long time, and closer to the power electronics of Consumer Electronics and Whitehouse. The other two tracks on disc 1 take in the rhythmic noise of 'Seitaka', a pounding distorted rhythm surrounded by controlled feedback howls, and 'Forest of Kelp', a veritable collection of sounds of noise fashioned as bird calls, Moroccan music and truly fried guitar amidst phaser like pulses. 'Exteriorization?@No.2' layers feedback and sonic woosh as it careers onward, over oscillating tones and stuttering electronics as it is sucked into a swirling vortex of sound. 'Transition' veers from stuttering and fluttering drones, through crunchy abrasive noise and oh so many textures and pitches. It's sheer lack of cohesion is irritating though. It all ends with 'Kongara' an incessant machine like rhythm laced with yet more feedback howls. It's repetitive nature redeemed by the ever changing tones, and some clever scratching going on where you can clearly see that there is a master craftsman at work here. F.I.D. recalls a much earlier period of Merzbow, when his noise excursions were produced on analogue equipment and before he co-opted digitial recording techniques for his noise composition. Don't bother with his frequent collaboration that appear with increasing regularity as F.I.D. is a furious piece of work and a thrilling reminder of his harsh noise output. And meat eaters can placate their conscience as the kindly Vegan noise musician is donating £1 from each copy of F.I.D . (Fur Is Dead) sold to P.E.T.A. (Tony Dickie, Compulsion Online, http://www.compulsiononline.com/index2.htm)

CIRCLE Arkades LP (2006)
About a year ago the resilient experimental rock band Circle began plastering the acronym NWOFHM – short for New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal, a tribute the bygone New Wave of British Heavy Metal (e.g. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc.) – across each of its ensuing releases. And not just their CDs; they're even etched into the runout groove of the vinyl-only U.K. import Arkades , which arrives packaged in handsome faux-Wild West graphics. Although this amusing catchphrase is a vaguely accurate, if rather tongue-in-cheek description of the hypno-headbanging-Kraut-crash that infests such landmark Circle albums as Tulikoira (Ektro, 2005) and Sunrise (Ektro, 2002; recently reissued on wax in the Netherlands), it's a fairly deceptive categorization of the combo's latest endeavors. Is the term a sly marketing move aimed at the indie scene's current irony-fueled infatuation with the spandex-and-codpiece era? Maybe. More likely it's just an absurd in-joke propagated by Jussi Lehtisalo, the burly and jovial bassist/vocalist/guitarist who founded Circle back in 1991. Documenting a September 2005 performance for the venerable New Jersey radio station WFMU, Arkades is quite Finnish and heavy, but not remotely metal. Imbued with foreboding synths, low-volume six-string buzzes and chants both giddy and demented, the record convincingly captures the dark, free-psych quirks of Circle's personality (cf. 2003's Guillotine , 2004's Forest , and various limited-edition live LPs). The quartet conducts a dread-filled aural séance over the course of two sidelong sci-fi-meets-satanic-raga improvisations. Demonic, downer motifs swirl around drummer Tomi Leppänen, who shelves his usual big-ass beats in favor of reserved, marvelously disciplined Indian-jazz percussion. Soundman and auxiliary member Tuomas Laurila integrates himself into the lineup, skillfully adding and subtracting disquieting tape loops and churning effects. The concluding "Ghost of the Highway" is notable for containing one of the most freakish and harrowing moments in Circle's entire canon: A mournful, snake-charmer riff ushers in an insane screaming match between keyboardist Mika Rättö and guitarist Janne Westerlund, whose converging, tormented moans evoke the asylum-bound babbling of troubled souls who have lost all touch with reality. (Jordan N. Namone, Dusted magazine, http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/2877)

18.05.2011. 17:53