Vuzh Music Blog

I have just released my new album on Vuzh Music:
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C. Reider – Owning Extinctions
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This collection of recordings was my response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the strong feelings of despair, anger and the shame of sharing some of the blame for a country that consumes a quarter of the world’s oil. Instead of physically assaulting people who pointlessly idle their SUVs for half an hour while waiting for someone to come out of the store, I made this album.
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http://www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/extinctions.html
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Underwater Plume by vuzhmusic
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So it’s been 25 years since Chernobyl, tomorrow’s the anniversary matter of fact. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it on the news. I remember feeling vaguely queezy about Three Mile Island, but I was really kind of beside myself for this disaster, which occurred behind what was still then the Iron Curtain, even if it was pretty rusty by then.
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In the intervening years, the disaster kind of took on a cult significance among industrial music fans & artists, to the point where music ‘inspired by’ the Chernobyl disaster is a trite cliché.
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Nevertheless, I myself recorded a piece of music in 2007 with the drone collective Drone Forest that was inspired by the Chernobyl disaster. It wasn’t really advertised as such. It was just put out there, and only a miniscule segment of the listeners let me know that they’d made the connection.
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So if you can forgive the cliché, I do recommend this, it was actually one of those ‘turning point’ recordings in my progress as a composer, and I’m quite proud of it still:
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Drone Forest – Wormwood

The large compilation on Vuzh Music called “The More Unknown C. Reider” has been a very revealing way for me to observe the processes of some of the composers and artists that I count among my peers and comrades in the musical underground. How does a composer approach and utilize a sound? This question is very interesting to me. Each of the artists who contributed their work to the compilation were tasked with selecting sounds that I had authored over the course of my creative life and assembling them into new shapes & forms. Since the original sounds were so familiar to me, I had a unique perspective for attempting to understand how each artist chose which sounds to use and how to use them. This kind of analysis is fascinating to me, and is part of the way I listen to music in general, aside from pure holistic enjoyment.
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A few of the contributing composers have made this analysis more accessible by having written some descriptions of their processes and thoughts about their own work. I’ve read each of these with consideration, and I recommend reading them!
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Steve Burnett of Subscape Annex talks about working with the entire Drone Forest album .Point, on his cleverly titled “Qutub” which appears on part 3 of the compilation. He includes a screenshot of his multitracker during his working process at his LiveJournal post.
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Perennial internet pal LokiLokust of Keziah Mason talks about how he forged that swirling electronic maelstrom that appears on part 3 of the compilation by extracting sounds from the run-in & run-out grooves and physical manipulation of my vinyl release “Amy’s Arms / metacollage” in his tumblr post.
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Dave Seidel of Mysterybear described his use of a tiny fragment of Noam Chomsky’s voice from my 2008 release “Linguism” at a CSound forum.
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John Ingram from Intelligent Machinery suggests that he secretly and pseudonymously contributed to the comp at his blog.
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Comrade & peer Robert Nunnally, a.k.a. Gurdonark provides a thoughtful and accurate analysis of my music before discussing his own music and his piece “Where” on his blog.
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A few quotes from that last one:

Perhaps the unifying thread of his varying music is that rather than being “music-as-sound” in the ambient formulation, it is “sound-as-music”. The sounds are interesting, and somehow, a bit improbably, they add up to music. His pieces rarely cause one to float away on a sea of melody, nor do they paste one against the wall in the way of noise. They happen in their own little created universe, aware of but not entombed in anyone else’s universe, and they are their own thing. I listen to C. Reider music for some of the same reasons I read science fiction–it offers me a kind of escape into different ideas, all served up with a kind of unpretentious earnest grace.

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From his vantage point as a listener, Robert has gleaned some of my own working processes and goals and summarized them very astutely in this paragraph.
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This kind of listening can be very rewarding. Are you listening?

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The More Unknown C. Reider
20 Years of Strange Sounds Reworked by the Netlabel Underground
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Twenty four respected sound artists from Germany, Japan, Greece, Saint Martin, Portugal, Ireland, Canada and USA took sounds from C. Reider’s body of work and transubstantiated them into new living tissues. Amazing compilation in three hour-long parts!
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http://www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/moreunknown.html

This summer I’m going to give a class in mushroom
identification at the New School for Social
Research. Actually, it’s five field trips, not
really a class at all. However, when I proposed it
to Dean Clara Mayer, though she was delighted with
the idea, she said, “I’ll have to let you know later
whether or not we’ll give it.” So she spoke to the
president who couldn’t see why there should be a
class in mushrooms at the New School. Next she spoke
to Professor MacIvor who lives in Piermont. She
said, “What do you think about our having a mushroom
class at the New School?” He said, “Fine idea.
Nothing more than mushroom identification develops
the powers of observation.” This remark was relayed
both to the president and to me. It served to get
the class into the catalogue and to verbalize for
me my present attitude toward music: it isn’t
useful, music isn’t, unless it develops our powers
of audition. But most musicians can’t hear a single
sound, they listen only to the relationship between
two or more sounds. Music for them has nothing to
do with their powers of audition, but only to do
with their powers of observing relationships. In
order to do this, they have to ignore all the crying
babies, fire engines, telephone bells, coughs, that
happen to occur during their auditions. Actually,
if you run into people who are really interested in
hearing sounds, you’re apt to find them fascinated
by the quiet ones. “Did you hear that?” they will
say.

— John Cage, from “Indeterminacy”, 1958

A brief break in my school-induced blog silence to point to a review of the new freely downloadable release of my 2000 cassette release Crook’d Finger vs. Harlan / Crook’d Finger vs. D. Rhythm:O. The review appears on the Acts of Silence blog, reviewing netlabel music (and hooray for that!).
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It reads:

Before dubstep, there was a C. Reider remix and all was well. In listening to the Crook’d Finger remixes of Harlan and D.Rhythm:O, Reider destroys the concept of labeling music from way back in 2000. These nine tracks were released as a limited edition cassette with the artists each taking a side as Reider’s alias Crook’d Finger puts his remarkable remixing chops to the test. Versus truly defies any label as the tracks easily span several genres of electronic music, for example the remix of Harlan’s “Hence” (mp3) and the remix of D.Rythm:O’s “Slow Flow / Volt Spur” (mp3). I realize that this review might not be of much help in discerning whether you should download or not — you should by the way —, but I’ll let C. Reider have the last word:
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“The Crook’d Finger stuff is, without a doubt, the most approachable music I have ever done, and I always thought it could reach a wider audience. Maybe now that it’s available in such a free and open format, it can.”

My post detailing my favorite netlabel releases of 2010 was quite popular, and led to a lot of people discovering some cool music, which is one of my main goals, aside from promoting my own music. It is my humble opinion that all netlabel artists ought to have the same goal: namely to promote the stuff in the netlabel underground that they think is really great at the same time as they promote their own stuff. That way ALL of us benefit, both listeners and producers. Right? Right.
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With this in mind, I am going to be focusing on each artist (hopefully-this will depend on if they want to participate or not) whom I reviewed in the best of 2010 post, re-running the review I originally wrote, but I’m ALSO going to ask each of the artists reviewed to recommend a few completely FREE netlabel albums that THEY have enjoyed recently.
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Previously we’ve had recommendations from:
1.) Mystified
2.) Marc Weidenbaum
3.) Christopher McFall
4.) Andreas Brandal
5.) Meteer
6.) Gurdonark
7.) Mark Stolk
8.) Miquel Parera Jaques
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I loved Christian Doil’s Eis release on the Just Not Normal netlabel… Here’s what I said about it:

Christian Doil – Eis
http://justnotnormal.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/jnn090-christian-doil-eis/
A chilly collection of pinging synth tones, plucky percussives and arctic belltones working through fluctuating musical themes while accompanied by icy, ghostly drones. The crystal cathedral, indeed.

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I asked him to provide some listening suggestions, and although he was worried about people’s reaction to his English, I assured him that is netlabel folks will be very accepting of anyone who gives us good links to stuff we can listen to! Here are his suggestions:
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I create music since 14 years (limited/underground). I began downloading ambient, drone, experimental,… – music in 2010. So I only studied the releases of the Earth Mantra netlabel, because this label my first contact. Now I study the Just Not Normal netlabel. In future I will check other labels and artists too.
That is the reason my recommendations are Earth Mantra releases.
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Alex Tiuniaev: “Ethereal Winter Ambience”
http://www.earthmantra.com/release-detail.php?id=85
– You can feel the cold wind. The structure of the album is like a symphony with different parts arranged like an one-shot-film.

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Altus: “Excursion One”, “Excursion Two”
http://www.altusmusic.ca/excursionone.html
http://www.earthmantra.com/release-detail.php?id=74
– You can dive in a world of shimmering lights.

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Jacob Newman “Buddha Machine”
http://www.earthmantra.com/release-detail.php?id=79
– Very-deep–meditative-longform-music.
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There we go… Thank you very much Christian Doil!

My post detailing my favorite netlabel releases of 2010 was quite popular, and led to a lot of people discovering some cool music, which is one of my main goals, aside from promoting my own music. It is my humble opinion that all netlabel artists ought to have the same goal: namely to promote the stuff in the netlabel underground that they think is really great at the same time as they promote their own stuff. That way ALL of us benefit, both listeners and producers. Right? Right.
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With this in mind, I am going to be focusing on each artist (hopefully-this will depend on if they want to participate or not) whom I reviewed in the best of 2010 post, re-running the review I originally wrote, but I’m ALSO going to ask each of the artists reviewed to recommend a few completely FREE netlabel albums that THEY have enjoyed recently.
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Previously we’ve had recommendations from:
1.) Mystified
2.) Marc Weidenbaum
3.) Christopher McFall
4.) Andreas Brandal
5.) Meteer
6.) Gurdonark
7.) Mark Stolk
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Spain’s Miquel Parera Jaques caught my ear this year, and became one of my favorite new discoveries in underground music. Here’s what I said about his 2010 release:

Miquel Parera Jaques – nx004_Automatic
http://www.archive.org/details/nx004_Automatic
Tinnitus drones moving along algorithmic flight paths. Computer music for hypnotizing organic life forms.

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I asked him to provide some listening suggestions, he sent an entire podcast as a reply (download it here: http://www.archive.org/details/nx2010-00)
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This year was the first I’ve heard consistently only creative commons experimental music. As you know I’ve been doing a selection of the twelve tracks of each month that I really liked. I did the same with the whole year so I have left a selection of thirteen tracks (the extra part of jnn100). Do not add comments for each release because English is not my native language and because I prefer to speak only the sound.
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Perhaps the small list will serve to your blog (plus):

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nx2010-00_01/ Scmute – [tn021] Kofiq – Eora
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nx2010-00_02/ Coeval – [cnv58] Distante 3 – Epilogo
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nx2010-00_03/ Jacob Newman – [earman119] Reflections and Diffusions – Music for Clouds
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nx2010-00_04/ Fescal – [bp056] Lethal Industry – Wayfaring Geography
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nx2010-00_05/ Nemeton – [nocti9] Liminal – Hypnagogic Dream
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nx2010-00_06/ Susperia-Electrica – [earman132] Turmoil – Close Your Eyes See The Stars
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nx2010-00_07/ Cezary Gapik – [amp066] Vol.49 – #0455
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nx2010-00_08-1/ Lucette Bourdin – [earman143] Horse Heaven – Dweller in the Infinite
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nx2010-00_08-2/ C.Reider – [jnn100] No-R-mal II – Will fall
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nx2010-00_09/ Fabio Keiner – [pc09010-02] Without Words Without Silence – Evening Evocations III
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nx2010-00_10/ Peregrino Р[rb089] El azul helado del alba РCientos de luces extra̱as iluminan la noche
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nx2010-00_11/ Rakombinacje – [wh136] Izolacje Sensu – (Shockley-Read-Hall)
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nx2010-00_12/ Ángel Faraldo – [modisti 18] Scelsi Remix: 7 Mantras – Aum
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Download the compilation: http://www.archive.org/details/nx2010-00
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More info: http://musicnumbers.wordpress.com/

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Thanks Miquel!

My post detailing my favorite netlabel releases of 2010 was quite popular, and led to a lot of people discovering some cool music, which is one of my main goals, aside from promoting my own music. It is my humble opinion that all netlabel artists ought to have the same goal: namely to promote the stuff in the netlabel underground that they think is really great at the same time as they promote their own stuff. That way ALL of us benefit, both listeners and producers. Right? Right.
–
With this in mind, I am going to be focusing on each artist (hopefully-this will depend on if they want to participate or not) whom I reviewed in the best of 2010 post, re-running the review I originally wrote, but I’m ALSO going to ask each of the artists reviewed to recommend a few completely FREE netlabel albums that THEY have enjoyed recently.
–
Previously we’ve had recommendations from:
1.) Mystified
2.) Marc Weidenbaum
3.) Christopher McFall
4.) Andreas Brandal
5.) Meteer
6.) Gurdonark
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This time we get the knowledgeable insight of one of our netlabel-underground saints, Mark Stolk. His overwhelming compilation No-R-Mal II got a best-of nod, and here’s how I described it:
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V/A – No-R-Mal II
http://justnotnormal.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/jnn100-various-artists-no-r-mal-ii/
The only person that can out-do Mark Stolk, it appears, is Mark Motherfucking Stolk! His five hour long compilation of netlabel artists from last year was followed up by a SEVEN hour long compilation this year… seven fucking hours of cool underground music, as good an overview of the netlabel underground as you can get, period.

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I asked Mark to give us a few recommendations, and here’s what he had to say:
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…and this an addition from the vaults of what can be called just not a normal selection.
As the weekly host of NTNS radio I come in touch with a motherload of experimental music from netlabels all over the globe.
Since I quite enjoy this ‘pay it forward’ that C. Reider has started I feel proud to now be an integral part of the thread.
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Since it is darn hard picking the best, I’ll just stick to what I think are some must hears that have been played on Not the Normal Shit Radio:
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Rumo Josuttis & Zatina Kessl – The Power of Something (Headphonica)
http://www.headphonica.com/?p=1179
Weirdest release I had heard in some time. Learn how to make music (with a big smile). Mad and fun collaging of spoken word with musings. Headphonica seems to have been lead astray on a path of mad and strange music. I certainly do not mind at all!
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Chiste – Infiltrados en la Montana (Pueblo Nuevo)
http://www.pueblonuevo.cl/pn_site/index_pn060.htm
Mika Martina and Daniel Jeffs team up in live improvisations drowned in analogic sounds and machines. Prepare to have your brain knocked out and given a good wash.
Pueblo Nuevo, sometimes a netlabel I lose track off, but every time I return there are some masterpieces from the South American continent. An amazing collection of the electronic experimentalists of the olden days (There are some albums that carry music from the 60’s!!!!) and some exquisite modern experimentalism.
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Install (Shinobu Nemeto) – Improvisation air1 (Moufu Rokuon)
http://installsound.bandcamp.com/album/improvisation-air-1
Since I’ve been ‘collecting’ netlabels on twitter I also come across free work which would have been on the commercial Moufu Rokuon label if Shinoby hadn’t decided to share for free. I certainly would recommend all netlabels out there to get connected on twitter. It is hard to find the hidden gems out there, but with twitter I manage (that and other sources ofcourse).
On this album; ermmmm the title says it all. Fantastic improvisation work with great intensity.
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Son Clair – Watermarks (Impulsive Habitat)
http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihab014.htm
2010 has certainly be the year that I fully embraced field recordings albums. NTNS radio plays one every week and even JNN releases field recordings albums these days. Impulsive Habitat have certainly brought together an amazing collective of artists of the ‘pure’. It is too hard to pick just one from their catalog, but if I must then this must be the one. Son Clair is high on my fave-list where it comes to the field recordists.
Consider this a recommendation of the entire catalog though, pick either. They all rock!
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Anton Mobin & Rinus van Alebeek – She was trapped (Nohmad)
http://www.nohmad.net/html/netlabel_nohmad009_SheWasTrapped.html
Perhaps its some kind of prejudice, but I is enormous fan of Anton and all he creates. Since his first release on Clinical Archives I carry a big admiration for the talent this guy holds. Inventive and original, and most of all pure energy and inspiration housed in one person. You have not heard of him before? Let google be your friend and check this guys work out. I is fan and have a hard time picking one album from 2010, but I did (and it wasn’t tales 4 tapes)
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Logreybeam – Rem.Rem (Camomille music)
http://www.camomillemusic.com/cml002.html
One of the best surprises of 2010 was the rebirthing of the quality Camomille netlabel. Only 6 releases yet under their renewed wings but boy, all of them just continue where they had left off. This album certainly rattled my inner emotions in a very pleasant way. Now if only Serein would resurface in 2011 and I’m a happy man.
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Ketsa – What’s without within (BFW recordings)
http://www.bfwrecordings.com/releases/Ketsa/WhatsWithoutsWithin/
Now here’s an album that is stuck in my folder for the longest time though hasn’t made the NTNS playlist somehow. Light poppy, folky music that appeases my ears quite a lot, but somehow not befits the not normal. Perhaps I’m not normal for liking this within the realm of experimentalism. Hrmmm, wait a second; I am not normal! The BFW crowd have certainly surprised this year with a lot of great releases.
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AAGSF – Solar System (RusZud)
http://www.archive.org/details/rz186
I’ve had the honor of releasing one album from this Russian artist fully named Aliens A Galactic Sound Flank. As the artist aclaims himself: ‘mysterious noise the project from Moscow’ the mystery of his sounds is one that dives deep into the ears and performs something rather spectacular. I cannot fathom the hows and whats of his musical endeavors, but each new release I love. The Russian label Ruszud itself is also something to keep an eye out on, thusfar it has brought me many joyous listening moments and it works very well within the NTNS realm.
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The netlabel world is a place of coming and going, but there are a few strongholds out there that will always light the way ahead.
Unfortunately the German Phlow division still has to jump back, Modisti has stopped pushing some of the greater experimentalics. Who knows who’ll we say goodbye or hello to in 2011. One thing is for sure. The netlabel scene is big and pulsating!
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Some of the great netlabels that deserve at least a mention here: Surrism Phonoethics, AudioTalaia, Stasisfield, Editoro do Porto, Petcord, AMP records, Resting Bell, Con-V, TestTube, Cronica, Off Bruma, Audio Gourmet, Webbed Hand, Passage…… oh man; I think I could go on and on. I best stop right here.
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Thanks Mark!

Some of you may be aware that I’m working on a collection of music by various composers using samples from any of my musical releases, in celebration of my 20th year of releasing music.
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The call-for-submissions post is here:
http://www.vuzhmusic.com/blog/2010/11/28/20-years-of-strange-sounds/
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I have so far received contributions from nine artists, some friends and some brand new acquaintances. The process has been really fun for me so far, and I’m looking forward to releasing the compilation.
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I am going to extend the deadline for a couple of weeks at least. This is due to a delay – on my part – with the artwork. There are quite a few artists who expressed interest in contributing, but haven’t yet submitted a track, so this should give those artists some more time to complete a work.
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The new deadline, then, is February 11.
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Please get in touch with any news on your end if you’re planning on participating in this project! Leave a comment here, or hit the ‘contact’ link at Vuzh Music, or tweet me.